#One tiny little search and the algorithm-

[dorenarox]

Good thumbnail, but this time, I'm going to kill you for the pun. Because I see what you did there.

[leashybebes]

♡: Accidentally falling asleep together for BuckTommy?

it's late, i know. but on the plus (?) side, it got away from me a bit so have 1k plus of mostly just...them being cute.

"I wanted to take you before," Buck says, casual, because they're trying to get better at talking about before, at not just pretending that Tommy kissed him and they got together and everything was fine. "But the viewing conditions were bad all last year."

"Yeah? There a reason for that, or just bad luck?"

It means keep talking, and Buck smiles. Tommy really - he makes Buck feel smart. Makes him feel interesting.

"Just luck, I think," Buck says, and frowns. "I don't know if there's some kinda…pattern to it, maybe? I bet Karen could build an algorithm. Did anyone at Harbor lose their minds over that treasure hunt a few years back or were you guys all too busy being cool?"

"I may have been roped into planning a search grid or two," Tommy says with a grin. "Are we taking food with us?"

"Just snacks," Buck says. "I figured we'd swing by a 24 hour diner on our way home."

"Burgers and milkshakes at 3a.m. honestly sounds perfect," Tommy says. He doesn't take his eyes off the road, but he reaches out for Buck, brings his hand up to kiss his knuckles. "We talking gas station snacks or Trader Joe's?"

"I could do some serious damage to an overpriced salad right now."

"Gotcha."

Once they're loaded up with Buck's overpriced salad and Tommy's over seasoned chips they're able to make the drive out towards Malibu a fairly leisurely one. Once they get to the beach, Buck decides it was worth the tradeoff to head out of the city rather than to one of the ticketed events - it's going to be cold, but it's fairly quiet, just a few clusters of other people dotted around. 

Tommy spreads their blanket on the sand and Buck settles against him. The sound of the waves is a lovely background soundscape and Buck lets it wipe the long, long week away for a few moments.

"Hey," he says when Tommy hands him his salad. "Did you know this is one of my favorite beaches?"

"I don't think I did," Tommy says. "How come?"

"The tide pools," Buck says eagerly. "I brought Jee a few times and we saw so many good critters."

"Yeah? We'll have to come back in daylight and you can show me…all the gross water bugs your heart desires."

Buck snorts with laughter and presses his face into Tommy's shoulder. "You are under no obligation to look at fascinating water bugs with me, you big baby."

"Okay, but I would," Tommy says.

"I know you would. It's fine. I'll just carry on bringing the tiny children who won't have to feign interest through gritted teeth."

"I will happily wait in the car," Tommy says, kissing the top of Buck's head. "Fetch ice creams. Make interested sounds from a safe distance."

"Big baby," Buck says again, fonder than he can possibly express.

"Alright, alright. C'mon, tell me about this meteor shower."

"Okay," Buck says, and pulls Tommy down so they're side by side on the blanket. "We're looking…here," he says, tracing a circle in the sky above them. 

"Gotcha," Tommy says, and inches a little closer, looking up along the line of Buck's arm.

"Did - " Buck breaks off to yawn. "DId you know the Geminids are really unusual?"

"How so?"

"So they come from an asteroid, not a comet. There's only one other shower like that, I think, and it's not as regular."

"Yeah?"

"Mm-hm. It's called 3200 Phaethon, and it gets closer to the sun than any other named asteroid."

"Huh."

"Did you know it's a PHA - potentially hazardous asteroid?"

"I did not know that."

Buck nods and turns his head to look at Tommy, his profile as eye catching as ever, even when it's in darkness.

"Just because of its size though. It actually has a really predictable orbit, so we're not in danger, or anything."

"I'll tell Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck to stand down."

"Huh?"

"Movie," Tommy says. "We'll watch it sometime. I'm sure the science would annoy you, but both Affleck and Liv Tyler are at their prettiest."

Buck laughs and turns onto his side to get closer to Tommy, wrapping an arm around his waist.

"Careful," Tommy says. "Don't wanna miss the show." But he cranes his neck to kiss Buck anyway.

"We're not gonna miss it," Buck promises, stealing another kiss. "It was named after the son of the Greek sun god," he says between kisses. "The asteroid."

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh. Because it - it gets so close."

"The power of Wikipedia right at my fingertips," Tommy says, dancing his fingers up and down the back of Buck's neck for emphasis.

Buck laughs and shivers, shoves his hand inside Tommy's hoodie for warmth and revenge. Tommy half-swallows a yelp and kisses him again. Buck settles closer, craning his neck a little so he can keep an eye on the sky. It is cold, but he's so comfortable, always so comfortable when they settle together like this. 

"The Greek sun god is called Helios, by the way," Tommy says.

"Yeah?"

"Mm-hm."

"How'd you know that?"

"Oh, I've got useless facts of my own, Buckley. Bit of a myths and legends phase as a kid. For a minute, anyway. Needless to say, the old man didn't approve."

"Asshole," Buck mumbles.

"Ancient Greeks were - " Tommy breaks off to yawn. "Were kinda fruity, you know?"

"I'll fight him."

"My hero," Tommy says. "My Heracles."

"Like the movie?"

Buck can feel Tommy's surprise.

"That's the Roman version, but yeah."

"Watched it w' Jee," he says.

"Evan. Don't fall asleep."

"'m not. Tell me - tell me about Hercules. Heracles. Keep me awake."

"Okay," Tommy says softly. "He was…hm. He was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman. I can't remember her name. Al-something, I think. He was strong, and brave, and clever…"

Buck can feel his eyes closing, can feel Tommy drifting too, but it's okay. A little power nap and they'll still have plenty of time before the moon rises.

"Baby," he hears, Tommy's voice rough with sleep, and he feels a gentle nudge. "Baby, wake up."

"Wha - " the moon is bright, and Buck is abruptly aware that every part of him that isn't touching Tommy is freezing cold. "Shit, we missed it? Oh my god. I can't believe we fell asleep!"

"I know," Tommy says. "I'm sorry. Long week, huh?"

"Yeah. Goddamnit. We could try again tomorrow? Tonight was the peak though, and I think there's gonna be cloud cover tomorrow. Shit."

"Hey, it's okay."

"No, but I really wanted to do this with you."

Tommy squeezes his hand and Buck manages not to shiver at the cold touch of his fingers. Shit, they really have to get out of here.

"There's always next year," Tommy says, and the casual way he says it makes Buck's disappointment fizzle and die in his stomach, replaced by that swooping feeling of love and want and ever so slightly disbelieving gratitude at how far they've come.

"Yeah," Buck agrees. "There's always next year."

[bethelctpride]

How to find the local queer people when there don't appear to be any queer events nearby

are you sure there are no events?

Because they're a lot more common than you think, but you have to look in the right place! The social media algorithm sadly will not feed them to you. You will generally have to go through at least one layer of introduction before you meet folks directly.

Yes, this is a bit of a secret social club. Because many of these people lived through being too public might get you raided by cops or get you dead. They're rightfully cautious. They want to make sure people showing up aren't there to do harm. And the more rural the area, the tougher it will be to find people, but they're definitely THERE and likely having the same thoughts that nobody else is there.

Queer social activities are overwhelmingly run by middle aged folks (who have time, money, skills, and energy to do so) and they tend to use different social media because that's where they originally built communities!

The advice here for hunting down groups assumes you are an adult who can figure out logistics and safety of contacting other adults and getting yourself somewhere safely.

For social media, check Facebook and Meetup. These are most likely to have large local-ish groups putting on events. Join some groups. Many may be private and require approval before you see content. Even if there's not one immediately nearby, join the closest one, whatever "close" is. Even if it's not a perfect fit, they generally know the other even smaller groups nearby and may give you an invite to closer group or even direct contact info for The Local Guy where you text him.

Next up, Instagram. You'll pick up some folks a little younger and more business and pop up events this way. Sometimes you may not see an event until after it happened! Message the person and ask when next one is. Good odds there's a repeat.

Still no luck? Check out specific types of businesses/orgs in your area that tend to have an overlap. Maybe the local bar or coffee shop has a gay night once a month. Check their posts for last month, or if you can filter by date, look specifically in June. If they had one, message and ask about if they have an upcoming one. Even if they don't, they may put you in contact with organizer from past one.

For organizations, check for groups serving HIV+ populations and the neurospicy. Even if you fall into neither category, because of the overlap, there's good odds they offer specific services FOR queer folk. Contact them and they'll know who in the area is putting on events.

Check furry groups. Generally they do most organization via Telegram, which will require an invite. Find the nearest furry convention, check to see if they have a message board. Search for telegram. there's likely one attached to the convention and asking there of "hey, is there a furry telegram group that covers X area?" there will be one. I hope you like bowling, because this is by far the most common non-convention furry event.

(and if your reaction is EW Furries, you need to kill the little Puritan living in your head that hates people having fun doing stuff in a way you think is Cringe. Bowling is not that uncool.)

Still no luck? Now you're going to have to go search for individual queers in the wild! Your best luck is going to be with three other types of groups: 1. SOME Church activities 2. activities that attract the neurospicy (train groups, collecting groups, etc)

3. Tiny specialty groups where everyone is old and its in danger of dying out

If you're really rural sometimes the ONLY group doing any activities is the local church. If they're listed as "open and affirming" that's what you want. Unitarians and Congregationalists are most likely to fit that definition. But you should be able to run web search for that exact phase of "open and affirming church" + "your town" and it'll show you SOMETHING nearby. You may still come up with nothing, but the ones that are doing that tend to be really dedicated, so they will have info about what local groups are friendly to queers, if not open about that. They will also have non-religious activities like knitting or potluck even if you don't want to go to a service.

Neurospicy activities- check your surrounding libraries for activities as well. Even if you're not that brand of spicy, the overlap is high. Find an activity you are reasonably interested in and go meet locals. You'll find out which ones are queer after a few meetings. Often it will turn out everyone is and nobody said anything until one person does. (like our local hackerspace. secret trans hangout)

Endangered skills- do you really want to learn some weird, specialty skill that's dying out? Ask around. call the senior center and have them post a note. Post at the library. stick a thing on a bulletin board at the grocery store. Pick something you are GENUINELY interested in learning like flint knapping, or how to cook a regional dish, local history, how to spin llama wool. Weirder and more endangered the better. Post several! Give them a way to contact you by phone. Unless they are horrendously bigoted up front, you are about to learn a skill and once you disclose "hey I'm gay", you are about to be introduced to every solitary queer in the area that is a friend of a friends' granddaughter's classmate. Often your mentor won't quite GET it, but you're their favorite person now so they're trying. And as you get introduced, suddenly the local flint knapping group is also the queer flint knapping group! and you should post on social media about your cool new activity and SURPRISE, you found them all! Also they now all have cool knives. win-win!

[copperfirebird]

Okay I couldn’t pick one cause so many! But the ones I’m most curious about are 26 Imogen and Garrick go back in time and 27 Insta reel Imrrick 👀

Insta reel Imrrick is easier so I'll do that first. It's a second chance modern AU for them.

At the time I wrote:

It was past midnight, and Imogen had work in the morning. She should go to sleep. She should have already been asleep, she'd laid down when Dain went to bed, given him a flirty snuggle and then begged off doing anything else. It wasn't like he seemed disappointed, either, so she didn't feel too bad about it.

Instead she kept clicking through one reel after another on her Instagram feed. It had started last summer when she tried to get Dain to go camping with her like they used to do in college, except that sleeping on the ground wasn't very appealing anymore so she'd started looking at renting an RV. The trip had never happened- either Dain couldn't get the time off work or he'd never bothered to ask, she wasn't sure which- but the damage was done.

Suddenly her search results had been full of cute camper vans and tiny houses and the people who lived in them- traveling all over the place, being creative. And yeah, she knew how the internet worked. She knew there was editing and camera angles and all the shitty, annoying days got cut out.

But she kept watching them, thinking about a cute little van modded for camping. Thinking about what she'd bring if she was doing it. What she'd leave behind. She didn't really think about the fact that Dain wasn't in any of those fantasies, any more than she thought about leaving her martial arts trophies or her wedding dress.

It wasn't really a secret, not intentionally. She mentioned a few things offhand to Dain, even, when it was new to her, but he'd never been interested and so she'd stopped bringing it up.

And then one day the algorithm brought her a face she thought she'd never see again, eyes that seemed a different color depending on whether he was standing in front of open sky or deep forest or bright lakes.

She hasn't thought about him since high school. The day after prom he'd tried to give her his class ring, said after she did all the things she wanted to do, he wanted to marry her. Imogen had laughed at him.

Well, not at him. At the idea of marriage; it had seemed so abstract then. At the idea that they'd still be in love then. She wasn't a baby, she knew how high school relationships worked. People promised forever, and then they went to college. Forever lasted until fall break.

But she'd laughed, and his eyes had gone dull, and a week later he'd left town, telling her he was going to go hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.

She'd laughed, and he'd left, and she hadn't understood what was happening until the first time she wanted to tell him about something and realized she couldn't.

[deadwooddross]

The charms you make and sell occasionally are quite delightful, would you be willing to speak in more detail about your materials/methods? They've instilled in me the urge to make my own charms but I have no idea where to go looking for ingredients.

Sure! But first, a word of warning: Beware the Beadlust....it is far too easy to end up like that dril tweet with the candles but its beads. As for ingredients, I mostly peruse etsy! Not the best place for many reasons, but it's kind of like foraging to me, sifting through pages and pages of garbage to find the little grandmas doing lampwork and the bigger stores that seem to actually have a physical location somewhere (and sometimes sites off of etsy). And of course the occasional weird one off/vintage thing that pops up you gotta kinda know what material/style you want to look for though and willing to scrooooolll awhile, due to search algorithms being barely worth spit in a bucket these days. Otherwise I look around irl, i like Trading Posts as far as the US goes, which are basically just craft stores that tend to have a fun range and depending where you are may have some neat stuff from local native artists, which is cool. My current one I mostly go to for seed beads if I can, bc etsy sellers tend to charge you out the nose for a tiny baggy Oh, and thread, pay attention to thread and hole sizes, some beads have TINYYYY holes that are meant for TINYY strings or wires. I like waxed cotton, but for the finer stuff I have some uhhh some kind of nylon thread. I haven't figured out beading wire yet because i dont have anywhere to keep all the shit i'd need for crimping. But I do know how to Tie String! ALSO, THANKS! I will probably make more, i'm just excruciatingly picky about arrangement so it takes a second to settle on putting anything together

[hasaniwalker]

Announcement/Trying to get ahead (Or just stable)

I just finished up on The Tiny Chef Show last month in May. Which means I'm back to looking for a job while trying to find insurance and unemployment until I find a new job (still trying to talk to unemployment and the job search can go for months, sometimes a year.)

While listening to the 100th busy signal on a call for insurance, I got the same thought everyone in animation gets. "How long can I keep this up?" It's a struggle. once you're on the job, it's good, but once production is done, you're essentially put aside until you're needed again. Worse when a studio head decides they want to go on vacation or do something else and they shut down for a year.

But, I'm dependent on these places. On network shows, studio decisions and people who trust an algorithm to tell them when we should be making things. This is not something I want to stay in.

I'm not saying I don't want to be creative. I love being creative, but if you've seen any entertainment news, you know how difficult it is and how worse it may become. What I want to the dream of every artist I think. To reverse the cycle.

To be dependent on my own work and stories and then the studio jobs become the side gigs (and hopefully my stories become the only job I do in time).

I've been trying to get to this point for a while, but now a lot of this is driven by social media, likes, reposts, going viral. I'm not great at social apps and my following, though greatly appreciated (seriously, I'm amazed when people really like my work and very flattered) is still very small by comparison to others.

And still, I'm going to keep trying to reach that point. I think I may be trying for the rest of my life.

Anyway TLDR

I'm going to start bringing out ideas in forms of books and shorts. Things like Doris Doodle, My bedroom door, and others in hopes of getting to a place where these stories have an audience and I can support myself with my work instead of struggling to find a way to make things and pay rent and other bills.

One idea is done and will have a crowd fund up soon.

I rewrote my Hundred Acre Kingdom story into a fantasy novel with up to 100 illustrated images.

I don't expect this to reach viral levels like Winnie the pooh blood and honey. But hopefully it'll get a little notice (and maybe sell enough pay for good insurance and rent! That's a top hope).

Follow to see more updates on the campaign and more! And please let others know! The only reach I have is word of mouth.

Hasani

And consider becoming a patron!

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

'Ghost towns' of the universe: Ultra-faint, rare dwarf galaxies offer clues to the early cosmos

Three ultra-faint dwarf galaxies residing in an isolated region of space were found to contain only very old stars, supporting the theory that events in the early universe cut star formation short in the smallest galaxies.

A team of astronomers led by David Sand, a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory, has uncovered three faint and ultra-faint dwarf galaxies in the vicinity of NGC 300, a galaxy approximately 6.5 million light-years from Earth. These rare discoveries – named Sculptor A, B and C – offer an unprecedented opportunity to study the smallest galaxies in the universe and the cosmic forces that halted their star formation billions of years ago. 

Sand presented the findings, which are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, during a press briefing at the 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland, on Wednesday.

Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies are the faintest type of galaxy in the universe. Typically containing just a few hundred to thousands of stars – compared to the hundreds of billions that make up the Milky Way – these small diffuse structures usually hide inconspicuously among the many brighter residents of the sky. For this reason, astronomers have previously had the most luck finding them nearby, in the vicinity of the Milky Way.

But this presents a problem for understanding them; the Milky Way's gravitational forces and hot gases in its outermost reaches strip away the dwarf galaxies' gas and interfere with their natural evolution. Additionally, further beyond the Milky Way, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies increasingly become too diffuse and unresolvable for astronomers and traditional computer algorithms to detect.

"Small galaxies like these are remnants from the early universe," Sand said. "They help us understand what conditions were like when the first stars and galaxies formed, and why some galaxies stopped creating new stars entirely."

A manual search by eye was needed to discover three faint and ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. Sand saw them when reviewing images taken for the DECam Legacy Survey, or DECaLS, one of three public surveys known as the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, which jointly imaged about a third of the sky to provide targets for the ongoing Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, Survey. 

"It was during the pandemic," Sand recalled. "I was watching TV and scrolling through the DESI Legacy Survey viewer, focusing on areas of sky that I knew hadn't been searched before. It took a few hours of casual searching – and then boom! They just popped out."

The Sculptor galaxies are among the first ultra-faint dwarf galaxies found in a pristine, isolated environment free from the influence of the Milky Way or other large structures. To investigate these galaxies further, Sand and his team used the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the NSF and operated by NSF NOIRLab..

Gemini South's Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph captured all three galaxies in exquisite detail. An analysis of the data showed that they appear to be empty of gas and contain only very old stars, suggesting that their star formation was stifled long ago. This bolsters existing theories that ultra-faint dwarf galaxies are stellar "ghost towns" where star formation was cut off in the early universe.

"This is exactly what we would expect for such tiny objects," Sand said. "Gas is the crucial raw material required to coalesce and ignite the fusion of a new star. But ultra-faint dwarf galaxies just have too little gravity to hold on to this all-important ingredient, and it is easily lost when they are affected by nearby, massive galaxies."

Because the Sculptor galaxies are far from any larger galaxies, their gas could not have been removed by giant neighbors. An alternative explanation is what astronomers call the Epoch of Reionization – a period not long after the Big Bang when high-energy ultraviolet photons filled the cosmos, potentially boiling away the gas in the smallest galaxies. Another possibility is that some of the earliest stars in the dwarf galaxies underwent energetic supernova explosions, emitting ejecta at up to 35 million kilometers (about 20 million miles) per hour and pushing the gas out of their own hosts from within.

Dwarf galaxies could open a window into studying the very early universe, according to the research team, because the Epoch of Reionization potentially connects the current-day structure of all galaxies with the earliest formation of structure on a cosmological scale. 

"We don't know how strong or uniform this reionization effect was," Sand explained. "It could be that reionization is patchy, not occurring everywhere all at once."

To answer that question, astronomers need to find more objects like the Sculptor galaxies. By enlisting machine learning tools, Sand and his team hope to automate and accelerate discoveries, in hopes that astronomers can draw stronger conclusions.

IMAGE: The three ultra-faint dwarf galaxies reside in a region of space isolated from the environmental influence of larger objects. Containing only very old stars, they support the theory that star formation was cut short in the early universe. Credit DECaLS/DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

[agolaaa]

2025 Digital Marketing Trends: What You Should Really Pay Attention To

If you’ve been paying even a little attention to digital marketing lately, you’ll know things are moving faster than ever. Platforms change, algorithms shift, and customer behavior keeps evolving. What worked last year might not work today—and what’s working today might be gone by next quarter.

It can feel a bit overwhelming, sure. But here’s the good news: if you stay curious and pay attention to the right trends, there’s huge opportunity to stand out. Whether you're already in the field or just starting your journey through the best digital marketing training institute in Calicut, understanding the pulse of 2025 gives you a major edge.

1. Welcome to the Age of Real-Time Experiences

Marketing is no longer just about putting content out there and hoping people see it. In 2025, it’s about responding while it’s happening—right in the moment.

Think live streams, interactive polls, flash deals during events, or even AI-powered chat assistants that talk to customers at midnight. Real-time engagement is now a core part of strategy, especially in e-commerce and service-based industries.

2. Storytelling > Hard Selling

Let’s be honest: people don’t like being sold to. At least, not directly. What they do love is a good story.

Brands that can wrap their message into a narrative—about a mission, a journey, a personal experience—are finding it much easier to connect with audiences. It’s not about pushing a product. It’s about pulling people in with emotion, relevance, and relatability.

3. AI Is Helping, But Human Creativity Still Wins

Everyone’s talking about artificial intelligence, and yes, it’s a big deal. It helps with automating repetitive tasks, generating ideas, and even scheduling campaigns. But here’s the kicker—it doesn’t replace creative thinking.

In fact, the best marketers right now are the ones who use AI as a tool, not a crutch. They let it handle the backend, while they focus on crafting bold ideas, unique angles, and messages that sound like they came from a real person.

4. The Death of the Third-Party Cookie is Real

Browser cookies—those tiny data files that track your every move online—are fading out. Privacy laws and consumer pushback have forced platforms to rethink how data is collected.

As a result, marketers are shifting focus to first-party data—info gathered directly from your audience via sign-ups, feedback forms, or gated content. This makes email marketing and CRM systems more important than ever.

5. Search Isn’t Just Google Anymore

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t just about ranking on Google. People are now “searching” on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, and even LinkedIn.

Each platform has its own rules and algorithms. That means your content has to be optimized for where your audience hangs out, not just for traditional search engines. Understanding platform-specific search behaviors is a critical new skill.

6. Digital Marketing Is Becoming More Localized

While the internet connects the world, customers still care about what’s happening in their area. Hyperlocal marketing is on the rise, using geotargeting, local SEO, and community-focused campaigns.

If you're promoting a business or service, tailoring your strategy to a specific city, language, or even neighborhood can drastically improve engagement.

And yes, that includes people looking for the best digital marketing training institute in Calicut—they’re searching locally too.

7. Email Is Making a Comeback—With a Twist

It might surprise some, but email marketing is still one of the highest ROI channels around. The difference now is how emails are being written.

Gone are the boring newsletters. In their place? Story-style formats, curated content digests, and personalized emails that talk like a friend, not a corporation. A strong email list is a goldmine—if used right.

8. Your Personal Brand Matters More Than Ever

People trust people more than companies. Whether you’re a freelancer, job-seeker, or business owner, your personal brand is a major asset.

Being active on LinkedIn, sharing behind-the-scenes on Instagram, or even starting a blog can build credibility and open doors. Clients and employers now Google you before they hire or buy. Make sure they find something worth their time.

9. Short Learning Cycles Are Replacing Traditional Degrees

Here’s something that’s become crystal clear in 2025: you don’t need a 3-year degree to start working in digital marketing. What you need is skills, hands-on practice, and the ability to adapt quickly.

That’s why so many learners are choosing the best digital marketing training institute in Calicut instead of traditional routes. Institutes that focus on live projects, real tools, and actual industry challenges are the ones producing job-ready professionals.

10. Platforms Come and Go—But Strategy Stays

It’s easy to get caught up in whatever platform is trending this month. Threads today, TikTok tomorrow, something new next week. But if you know how to build a good campaign—identify an audience, craft a message, and choose the right timing—you can adapt to any platform.

The fundamentals are what set you apart. And that’s what solid training focuses on—not just learning tools, but understanding strategy.

Final Thoughts

Digital marketing in 2025 isn’t just about being online—it’s about being intentional, creative, and quick to adapt. The landscape will keep changing, but those who stay curious, keep practicing, and learn from the right sources will always stay ahead.

If you're someone thinking about breaking into this space, consider your options wisely. The best digital marketing training institute in Calicut won’t just give you certificates—they’ll give you confidence, clarity, and real-world skills that matter.

You don’t need to be a genius. You just need to start. And there’s never been a better time than now.

[remastered-feedback]

Photoshop and AI: An unintentional masterclass in cynicism

(You can also read this post on my blog/personal site!)

My feelings are very mixed on the topic of AI, mostly because I believe it is being grossly misused right now. It has incredible power to improve our ability to utilize large amounts of data, whether by allowing more effective, intuitive command processing, by utilizing that data to generate more reliable statistical predictions, or countless other legitimate uses that can actually make people's lives and interactions with technology easier and better. This isn't blockchain or web3 or the metaverse or any of the other digital snake oil that's been peddled in the last few years, there are real, powerful use-cases for AI to make the world better.

And instead of using it for any that, because the technology is primarily in the hands of out-of-touch executives at massive conglomerates, we're using it to try and eliminate jobs, gut creative work, and invent self-driving cars that totally don't commit automated hit-and-runs.

What I want to talk about today is a commercial that Adobe, one of these out-of-touch corporations trying to push AI into places nobody asked for it, has been pushing the last couple months, because I feel like it has no idea how depressing and soulless a depiction of AI's utility it has wound up presenting.

The premise for the video is pretty simple. Now you and your child - because let's be honest most small children will need an adult's help to use photoshop - can use generative AI to create your own fantastical images! On its face, this seems like a perfectly reasonable sales pitch to make.

And yet I find it an extremely depressing premise, because the AI isn't being used to accomplish some impossible task the child could have never done before. It is being used as a substitute for the child drawing the art in-question themselves.

The pitch Adobe is making is that the world is better if your child's drawing were automated and done by a machine, and that is...just so, so depressing.

I loved drawing as a kid. This sort of "Me in a magical garden with bears and cats and a castle" idea is the kind of thing I would've spent an entire afternoon having a blast coming up with. All the cats would've had names and personalities, as would the pegasus!

And all of that is just handled by a click of a button and an algorithm, and that's...sad to me. Sure it probably looks much "better" than the small child's handiwork. The kid would probably draw a bunch of stick figures and blob cats around a rectangle with triangles on top for a castle. In terms of looking "professional" it's not even a contest.

But basing the merit of the child's drawing on that completely misses the point to me. A child's drawing isn't supposed to be a masterpiece, or a professional quality work you can publish. It's an opportunity for a child to be a child, to have fun and enjoy the act of creating. Foster and learn a creative pursuit that could become a lifelong passion. None of that happens with a couple keyword searches and a click of a button.

More than anything though, there's no excitement. No joy. A child's drawing may not look impressive, but there is love and passion in it, an excitement and earnest joy that shines through even absent any fine detail. The drawings my parents saved from when I was a little kid aren't impressive visually, but they were truly labors of love. I loved making them, and I had a ton of fun doing so. That was the real value. Not something that looks like the dust jacket of a grocery store paperback's, but a kid getting to make something they loved, bringing their idea to life, and crafting every bit of it with a passion and glee a lot of us lose as adults. They didn't save those drawings because I was Rembrandt at seven, they saved them because every one of them had every ounce of care and focus my tiny hands could muster, and that meant the world to both them and me. Far more than any spit-shined generation.

That enthusiasm and wonder are truly, genuinely magical. This whole ad posits that we're better off replacing them with an AI generated amalgamation, because Dall-E's interpretation of "A pegasus on a castle" looks more "professional" than the drawing your kid spent an hour on. It fundamentally misunderstands the purpose and beauty of children creating art, and that is just...sad for what is ostensibly an art company.

I can tolerate marketing your AI features to professional adults. I mean shit, when I used to be a photographer, I'd occasionally use tools that amounted to primitive AI to fix red-eye and similar issues. There's some valid sales pitches to make there. But marketing it based on its ability to replace a child's drawings is just so unbelievably cynical, divorced from the whole point.

Every time I see it, I don't think to myself "Wow, what a cool feature," I think to myself "Wow, how jaded and out of touch was the marketing team to think that this was anything other than depressing?" It reeks of people who're so concerned with making every single thing have a neon shine and a mirror polish that they're completely oblivious to the human element that makes art worth making and consuming in the first place.

Which, thinking about it, makes a lot of sense given the features they're touting here.

[fatherbearfreddy]

...ah, so this is what Freddy has been looking at. Tumblr huh? Interesting. This place is massive! I'll have to be slow going... this isn't a little website it's millions of tiny user created ones! Now that is impressive! This new world is incredible! And no algorithm? Much better I don't need waves crashing into me while I search. This must be some social media Bunny refuses to use. I'll have to see about those other ones. That forum place was so small compared to this!

Oh! The text is appearing on here? Hm. This is much more in tune with me. I'll just...ah make this a draft and leave it like that forever.

...

Ah alright I've got it under control. Maybe I should make my own little sub-blog to use as a home base. This seems like a very interesting place to explore.

Freddy is hard to talk to, he doesn't trust us like Bonnie did.

But here as one of his "children"? That might work.

[aquilegiaformosa]

reblogging again to say that, Back In My Day, we didn’t have the same kind of curated, bottleneck algorithms driving us towards fascist content and ElsaGate videos.

Back In My Day, if i looked up pictures for My Little Pony or SpongeBob, i wasn’t bombarded with weird fetish porn on the first page of search results.

Back In My Day, the worst thing that could happen was yeah, i’d stumble on some vanilla porn, or maybe get a virus and we’d have to call my uncle to fix it. nowadays, step wrong and you’ll get your personal info stolen, your mom’s personal info stolen, her credit card info stolen, and the computer locked with ransomware. or all of that plus seeing some really weird ElsaGate-level fetish content.

on too of all of that, the predators on the internet are more enabled than ever. there are so many private chatrooms and private chat apps and so much info and content everywhere that the censors on any but the tiniest, most curated sites won’t be able to catch everything. and not only that, but it’s no longer “the internet”. there’s plenty of walled garden apps - kik, snapchat, whatsapp - that don’t even require a browser to access, just an easily-hidden device with a tiny screen.

i don’t believe in shadowing children’s every move. i believe kids need autonomy and freedom to explore. but the internet has changed drastically in the fifteen years since i was set loose upon it. i grew up finding the new pitfalls one at a time, marking them off as i found them; gen z was tossed into a room full of Saw traps and told “good luck and also any mistakes you make are 100% your fault”

No, kids should not have unsupervised acess to the internet.   Yes, I got that and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.    Its a paradox.

[spacenutspod]

Gas is the stuff of star formation, and most galaxies have enough gas in their budget to form some stars. However, the picture is a little different for dwarf galaxies. They lack the mass required to hold onto their gas when more massive neighbouring galaxies are siphoning it off. New research shows that even isolated dwarf galaxies with no overbearing galactic neighbours struggle to form stars. What’s going on? The research is centred on ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies. These tiny galaxies are the faintest galaxies in the Universe and contain only a few hundred stars, up to about one thousand. UFDs also contain ample amounts of dark matter. They’re different from globular clusters because globulars contain tens of thousands up to millions of stars and have very little dark matter, maybe none at all. Because they’re so faint, astronomers struggle to locate them. The ones that have been found are close to the Milky Way. However, that makes them difficult to study because their massive neighbour dominates them. The Milky Way’s gravity and hot corona can siphon the UFDs’ gas away, making it challenging to understand their natural evolution. Astronomers working with the DECam and the Gemini South Telescope have successfully located three UFDs well beyond the Milky Way’s gravitational influence. Although they weren’t easy to find, astronomers have made significant discoveries about UFDs from them. The results are in new research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. It’s titled “Three Quenched, Faint Dwarf Galaxies in the Direction of NGC 300: New Probes of Reionization and Internal Feedback.” The lead author is David Sand, an astronomer from the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona. Sand found the three UFDs during a painstaking manual search. The UFDs are so faint that algorithmic searches couldn’t detect them. “It was during the pandemic,” recalled Sand. “I was watching TV and scrolling through the DESI Legacy Survey viewer, focusing on areas of sky that I knew hadn’t been searched before. It took a few hours of casual searching, and then boom! They just popped out.” The three UFDs are in the direction of the spiral galaxy NGC 300 and the Sculptor constellation. They’re called Sculptor A, Sculptor B, and Sculptor C. Sculptor A is about 1.35 Mpc away and is likely at the edge of the Local Group, similar to Tucana B. It’s not a direct satellite of NGC 300. Sculptor B is about 2.48 Mpc away and is likely behind NGC 300. Sculptor C is about 2.04 Mpc away and is a satellite of NGC 300. All three UFDs share some characteristics. They contain mostly old, metal-poor stars, are quenched and do not form any new stars, contain no neutral atomic hydrogen (H i), and emit no UV. “None of the three dwarfs are detected in H i line emission in the H i Parkes All Sky Survey, suggesting that they are not gas rich,” Sand and his co-researchers explain in their paper. The lack of H I and UV both indicate that the galaxies are quenched and star formation has ceased. “Any younger blue stellar population either has few stars associated with it or is below our detection limit,” the authors write. The discovery of the Sculptor galaxies, as they’re called, supports theories that say UFDs are dead galaxies that ceased star formation a long time ago in the early Universe. So, finding these faint quenched galaxies is entirely expected. The jarring thing about their discovery is that they’re isolated. They’re not in proximity to any other larger galaxies that could’ve stripped away their gas and quenched their star formation. “The three dwarf galaxies in this work are among the faintest quenched dwarfs discovered outside the Local Group,” the authors write. “Many of the recently discovered faint dwarf galaxies beyond the Local Group show distinct signs of recent star formation, although a growing subset also appears to be quenched, with little to no recent star formation,” the authors explain. “The mix of stellar populations of faint dwarf galaxies in the “field” is a critical ingredient for understanding the role of reionization, stellar feedback, and ram pressure from the cosmic web in driving the evolution of the smallest galaxies.” Finding these three UFDs is significant because of their isolation. Only one of them, Sculptor C, is clearly associated with the nearby NGC 300. Sculptors A and B are isolated. Studying them is an opportunity to learn more about how star formation is affected by internal feedback mechanisms in low-mass galaxies. It’s also an opportunity to learn more about ram-pressure stripping, which is when gas is removed from a galaxy through interactions with the surrounding medium and even cosmic reionization. During cosmic reionization, also known as the Epoch of Reionization, light from the first stars and galaxies reionized the neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium. The high-energy UV photons from the stars and galaxies could’ve effectively boiled away the gas in dwarf galaxies, ending their star formation. An alternative explanation for UFDs losing their gas is supernova explosions. If some of the first stars in UFDs exploded, they could have expelled the gas and ended star formation. Ram-pressure stripping could also have been responsible. Astronomers still need to learn more about reionization and if it’s responsible, and the Sculptor galaxies can help them. “We don’t know how strong or uniform this reionization effect is,” explained Sand. “It could be that reionization is patchy, not occurring everywhere all at once. We’ve found three of these galaxies, but that isn’t enough. It would be nice if we had hundreds of them. If we knew what fraction was affected by reionization, that would tell us something about the early Universe that is very difficult to probe otherwise.” “The Epoch of Reionization potentially connects the current day structure of all galaxies with the earliest formation of structure on a cosmological scale,” said Martin Still, NSF program director for the International Gemini Observatory. “The DESI Legacy Surveys and detailed follow-up observations by Gemini allow scientists to perform forensic archeology to understand the nature of the Universe and how it evolved to its current state.” Ultimately, astronomers need to find more of these isolated UFDs to constrain their findings. “Many more faint and ultrafaint dwarf galaxies are predicted at the edges of the Local Group and in nearby, low-density environments, but initial efforts to find them have not always been successful,” the authors write in their conclusion. That only emphasizes the importance of this discovery. “Several upcoming programs such as Euclid, the Roman Space Telescope, and the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time are sure to find many more examples in the years ahead, which will provide demographic properties across environments,” the authors conclude. Sand presented these results at the recent 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Find them at the 32:00 mark of this video. The post The Star-Forming Party Ended Early in Isolated Dwarf Galaxies appeared first on Universe Today.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New algorithms could enhance autonomous spacecraft safety

For humans throughout history, the sky has evoked thoughts of a vast emptiness, of a great vacant dome punctuated during the day by the sun, and at night by numerous tiny spots of light (and periodically by the moon). As we have ventured into space, both physically, with spacecraft, and optically, with a range of telescopic technologies, we now know that there is quite a lot of stuff up there.

This discovery has profound implications for the aerospace industry. Imagine, for example, a multibillion-dollar autonomous spacecraft that has been carefully designed and engineered for years is launched into space with precision calculations only to lose one of its thrusters and go sailing into an asteroid.

Historically, engineers have dealt with the possibility of equipment failure on board spacecraft in two main ways: First, by having a "safe mode" in which the spacecraft can do the least amount of damage to itself while scientists on the ground look at the data, make a diagnosis, and develop a solution; and second, by equipping autonomous vehicles with redundant systems. These allow a spacecraft, for example, to shut off a malfunctioning thruster and start using backup thrusters.

However, dangerous situations may crop up in space with little warning and insufficient time for space-to-ground communications. And though redundant systems have been quite effective, they add to the expense and heft of autonomous spacecraft.

This is why experiments are being conducted in the laboratory of Soon-Jo Chung, Bren Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, to streamline emergency features on autonomous vehicles such that they can diagnose and safely respond to encounters with other objects in real time. With new algorithms on board, spacecraft can test their own equipment and predict which future actions are most likely to keep them operating safely.

As one of the supervisors for this project, Fred Hadaegh, research professor in aerospace at Caltech and former JPL chief technologist, explains, "Having redundant systems is not always practical. It means the spacecraft has to be bigger, heavier, and more expensive than it would be otherwise. So, the idea here is that when a spacecraft encounters a problem, it can figure out what's not working and correct or adapt to that specific fault."

Chung's lab houses, among other things, an advanced multispacecraft dynamics simulator facility.

"The simulator occupies a large room with a really flat floor," explains James Ragan, a Ph.D. student in the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) and lead author of a new paper on this topic. "The model spacecraft uses air bearings so that it moves across the floor with near zero friction. At rest, it seems to be floating, and if you push it in one direction, it will keep going until it hits something, which is what space dynamics are like."

Ragan has programmed the robotic spacecraft simulator with what he and his co-authors call s-FEAST: Safe Fault Estimation via Active Sensing Tree Search. "Our s-FEAST algorithm rapidly 'dreams' about numerous possible futures that could result from actions it takes now," Ragan says.

"Because the system is noisy, these futures are uncertain. There are multiple possible outcomes, which leads to a tree of possible branching futures. Each branch represents one possible way the future might happen, based on things the spacecraft controls—the test actions it selects—and also things it doesn't, such as observations coming from faulty sensors."

Chung adds, "What is innovative about our s-FEAST method is that we systematically solve the chicken and egg problem of estimating vehicle states, such as positions and velocities, and inferring failures or degradations, which are intrinsically coupled to one another."

When the spacecraft detects unexpected data, it turns to the s-FEAST algorithm, which runs test actions "similar to how you might carefully test your muscles when you feel an unexpected pain, and you want to figure out just what hurts and how to avoid actions that might further injure you," Ragan explains.

s-FEAST simultaneously spins out a range of possible futures and from those selects the course of action that appears most likely to diagnose what went wrong and also to avoid danger. In the case of this model, danger amounts to a collision course with an asteroid.

"The key idea here is that s-FEAST isn't replacing all spacecraft operations. It's your emergency response," Ragan says. "The spacecraft receives an internal signal that something is wrong, so s-FEAST takes over all the spacecraft's computing power to quickly assess what's going on and take remedial action. Once the danger is pinpointed and addressed, s-FEAST hands control back to the spacecraft's ordinary computing environment."

s-FEAST can also be used proactively. Say an autonomous spacecraft is about to take on a particularly risky or mission-critical action; s-FEAST can run a testing cycle to ensure that all systems are working properly before this action.

Chung and his co-authors envision that the proposed method will establish a new way of making expensive space exploration safer and more cost effective. "Space systems make autonomous operations necessary since we cannot grab and fix spacecraft and Mars helicopters operating in a world far away from us," Chung says. "Space is our ultimate 'proving ground' for any autonomy research we do for Earth-based vehicle systems."

Not surprisingly, the s-FEAST algorithm that worked on the spacecraft simulator was adapted by the team to work on a ground track vehicle as well. Both experiments were successful, so s-FEAST technology holds great promise for autonomous vehicles on Earth as well as in space.

The research is published in the journal Science Robotics. Co-authors are Ragan, Caltech postdoc Benjamin Rivière, Hadaegh, and Chung.

IMAGE: A close approach to a model comet in the Caltech Autonomous Robotics and Control Lab. This robotic spacecraft simulator mimics a space environment by floating on a low friction cushion of air and using air thrusters to maneuver. In newly published research, this robot is used by researchers at Caltech to demonstrate new capability for safe, real-time, autonomous fault estimation. Credit: Joshua Cho, Sorina Lupu, and James Ragan

[cazort]

These algorithms also all have the same negative effects:

They concentrate attention, views, traffic, or plays, on a tiny portion of users that already have the most attention.

They make it even harder than it was already for smaller, newer, or unusual people or artists to get any visibility for their work at all.

They segregate people into echo chambers where people are surrounded by people who hold nearly the exact same views as themselves, and there is little interaction across group boundaries.

In the case where there is cross-group interaction, they amplify and encourage/reward negative interactions, whether flame wars, nasty one-line "zingers" like dominates much of Twitter, people commenting unsolicited and somewhat off-topic negative comments on posts, reward "ragebait" posts and reporting, cancel culture and "mob rule" or "vigilante justice", and lots of similarly awful stuff.

Attention is similarly concentrated on a small portion of already-popular issues, topics, or organizations, and ones that are already less-well-known get even more marginalized. This is true of many environmental and human rights issues, along with many political issues of practical consequence. This feeds into the political system being dominated by a small number of "hot button" issues while 99%+ of issues get ignored and policy action on them thus becomes sloppy or neglected.

The change in attention and power leads to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poor, and it leads to people rising to power in power structures who feed off of and encourage group ideology, ragebait, social shaming, cancel culture, and mob rule. People like Trump. Yeah, I know the right-wing says they oppose "cancel culture" but look how people just cancelled Bud Light, they totally buy into it just as much as the left does or worse.

Yeah, this stuff needs to end. And the only way to do it is by avoiding social media that has algorithmic feeds. This is why I don't browse feeds on FB any more, why I don't use Twitter at all, and why I'm not signing up for Threads and discourage anyone from doing so (Threads, from what I've read, is even worse, no chronological feeds are even available. Instagram has also recently gone down the tube, eliminating chronological tag searches and making only curated feeds available everywhere.)

Something just occurred to me.

You know how back in the pre-Internet days, it was nearly impossible to watch a TV series in its entirety because the local affiliate stations would deliberately air the episodes all out of order, then do some sort of statistical sorcery to figure out which particular episodes gave the advertisers the best return for their dollar and just run those ten or twelve specific episodes in an endless semi-randomised rotation, and that was why every time you channel-surfed across a particular show it always seemed to be the same damn episode?

Twitter’s algorithm is literally the social media equivalent of that.

[chantsdemarins]

Updated Masterlist (3/29/24)

Loki Fanfics 💚

🏰Breath of the Æsir (Loki X Fem.Reader) 18+readers only A Medieval Loki AU Fan Fic

Frost Secrets From the Other Son (Loki X OFC) 18+ readers only

A mid-career journalist from Midgard becomes intertwined with Loki, inadvertently revealing his true heritage through their risky affair. This story re-imagines how Loki discovers he is Jötunn.

Last Christmas on Midgard (Loki X Reader) 18+ readers only, explicit content

It's the 1980's and Loki, Thor, and the whole gang are trapped on Midgard in a shabby chic ski lodge due to their own negligence. Loki heads to town to find guests for an impromptu Christmas party and unintentionally meets a very important person from the brother's long and possibly forgotten history...

The Mischief of a Familiar Legend (Loki X Reader) 18+ readers only

Loki makes his return to Asgard after a long absence. He has a particular problem, every winter solstice, it seems he becomes Jötunn against his will. Can you help him break the curse? 😉

High Moon Series 🌙 This series takes place possibly thousands of years in the future when most civilizations and even Norse gods are now animated by artificial intelligence.

The Good Deeds of Replicant Harbinger 8970 (Loki X Reader) 18+ readers only, explicit content

Loki has become an AI against his will. He is desperate to earn his entrance to Valhalla and return to his family, but as an augmented being, there is no "off switch." This is Loki's search for his AI creator and his hope to finally go home.

Where does Heartbreak get Stored if Not in your Quantum Drive? (Loki X Reader) 18+ readers only, explicit content

Loki is searching for your algorithm, the person who created the AI program that has kept him in suspended animation. He finds you in a rural part of Big Sur, California, will he leave this world behind or fall in love along the way?

The Pitfalls of Obligatory Haptics

(Loki x Reader) (Loki x OFC) 18+ readers only, explicit content

Loki’s story as an AI continues in three new parts.

This Year’s Enigmatic Plus One 🪅🎉 Part 1 “So Much for Talking”

(Loki x Reader) 18+ readers only, explicit content

Words: 2,574

Summary: Loki returns to your life after a 10-year absence. The moral of the story, some Loki’s turn into trees, and others drive Porsches and escape from the 10th century just to torment you.

Smut rating: Yes 🔥🔥🔥

Plot rating: There is a plot hidden in the weeds of ⭐️ smut.

Loki Fandom Art!

Loki Art Series 1

Loki Art Series 2

Loki Art Series 3

Loki Art Series 4

Loki Art Series 5

Tom Hiddleston Fanfics

Customer Service Kink Part 1 18+ readers only, explicit content

An innocent white elephant Christmas gift lands you at a secret Hollywood sex party only to meet a British actor with a very particular kink and a guilty conscience. What in the world does fate have in store for you?

Customer Service Kink Part 2 18+ readers only, explicit content

You and Tom can't seem to forget one another. It's confusing, but Tom follows his heart to your workplace, even though he thoroughly detests LA. You find solace at your apartment, a strange connection has been made, but will it last?

Find Tom Part 1 18+ readers only, explicit content

An after-party along the foggy northern California coast turns intimate when you follow Tom back to his rented Sea Ranch estate. It's just that he is having a tiny mid-life crisis. Will that thwart your clandestine meeting, or will you and Tom find a connection beyond the basic hook-up?

Find Tom Part 2 18+ readers only, explicit content

An after-party hookup turns into a bittersweet weeklong romance for Tom and the reader.

Real Villain Training 18+reader only, explicit content

Tom is hanging out with some real jerks for a new role, and he runs into you, literally. Your depression has caused your life to turn a little black and white, could this handsome stranger possibly add some color back? (at least to your cheeks🥵)

[marvelmusing]

Search and Rescue

Part of the Delos & Austen AU

Pairing: Logan Delos x Fem!Reader

Summary: Logan takes his future brother-in-law on a visit to Westworld, and you get concerned when he doesn’t return.

Warnings: canon level violence and injury.

My Masterlist

“Hi, Elsie isn’t it?” You say to a young woman. You’ve been wandering the halls of the Programming Division, hoping you’ll find some who’ll help you. She smiles at you, with a little confusion in her eyes,

“Yeah, you’re from Narrative right?” You return her smile rather distractedly,

“Yeah that’s me. Sorry for bothering you, I was just wondering whether you had access to our guest tracking system?” She nods lightly, her hands tightening on the data pad in her arms.

“Is there someone you’re looking for?” You nod, hesitating as you attempt to word what you’re about to say.

“Mr Delos went on a trip to Westworld. He was supposed to return last night.”

“Knowing Mr Delos he probably got distracted by some of the park’s activities.” You laugh, but it feels hollow in your chest.

“You’re probably right.” Your smile falters as you add, “It’s just that he was visiting with his future brother-in-law, and I’m sure his sister will be concerned about them.”

You don’t know if Juliet has even noticed, but it’s not like she would ask you about it. Whilst plenty of your colleagues have their theories, you and Logan have never publicly addressed your relationship. Some people think it’s obvious that you’re dating, some think you’ve been married for five years, some think you hate each other.

Logan’s father has been estranged for the last few years. Whilst you’re certain Juliet cares about Logan, you know she’ll probably wave off any concerns until around a couple of days of them being missing. You’re the only one who will check up on Logan.

Elsie nods in agreement, looking down at her open data pad as she brings up the tracking system.

“Huh.” She says, and you frown, trying to decipher what she’s reading on her data pad.

“What is it?”

“The tracking signal is jumping all over the place, but it looks like he’s at the edge of the park.”

“Is William with him?”

“Um,” she presses a few buttons, and waits for the signal to load. “Yeah, it looks like it.” You chew on your lower lip as you think.

“Is there any way you can narrow down their location?” Her brow crinkles, before she suggests,

“I can run facial tracking. It’ll show us when they were last seen by a host.” You nod eagerly.

She finds photos of Logan and William from the company database and loads it into the facial tracking algorithm. She stares intently at the screen, watching the tiny rectangles of footage covering the data pad like a mosaic.

“Jesus Christ.” She mutters, her eyes widening.

“What’s wrong?”

“A bunch of massacred hosts have just been brought in. Someone practically butchered them to pieces.” She looks up at you, before turning the screen towards you. “Looks like we know who’s responsible.”

You watch the screen as the footage plays. It’s from the point of view of a host, and there’s screams and cries emitting from the data pad at a low volume. They’re not real people, but they sound like them. The video shakes, you see dry dirt, splattered with blood. Then a familiar figure comes into view. William.

His eyes are wide, almost manic as he throws question after question at the host - demanding to know where a girl is.

Then you spot Logan. He’s on the floor, next to a pile of dead hosts. His hands are bound in front of him, and there’s a line of blood across his cheek. He’s looking warily up at William, and you can tell he’s frightened. You’ve never seen Logan frightened before.

William goads the host your footage is streaming from, and the host reaches frantically for a gun near his feet. Before his fingers can even close around the metal, there’s a bang from William’s gun and the host falls. The footage is still recording, so the host must still be alive. William steps into view, pulling out his knife, and you can hear Logan’s protests in the background as William plunged his knife into the host’s throat. The screen goes dark.

You and Elsie share a look.

“Have you seen Stubbs around?” You ask her, referring to the Head of Security. She nods,

“Come with me.”

You follow her through the maze of corridors, your mind racing. You had been a little apprehensive about Logan’s trip. But at the time your worst fear had been that Logan and William would have a disagreement that would make the wedding even more awkward. Never in your wildest dreams had you thought William would do something like this.

You knew that William didn’t like Logan. He wasn’t obvious about it like some of your meaner colleagues were. But you saw the amusement in his eyes when one of them made a comment that he clearly agreed with.

Elsie explains the situation to Stubbs, and he’s more than eager to help you. He grabs his tact gear and gun, before leading you both to the access corridor. You walk for what feels like miles before you reach the access lift for the area of Westworld that Elsie thinks they’re closest to. You don’t speak much as you make your way up into Westworld. Your thoughts are on Logan.

That footage was from several hours ago. Who knows what William might have done to Logan during that time, and however long it would take for you to find them both.

Bright, hot sunlight shines down on you, as three of you walk through the dry dirt and grass. Occasionally one of you will share an idea on what route to take, prompting a small discussion.

Elsie lifts her data pad up into the air, hoping for a better signal.

“The connection is awful out here.” She remarks in frustration. Stubbs hands you a flask of water, and you thank him before drinking some.

Frustration is clawing at your skin as well, there’s a desperation growing in your chest, that you feel that can only be fixed by continuing your search until you collapse from exhaustion, screaming Logan’s name into the dry earth.

“There should be a cell tower close by.” Elsie muses, looking around. You nod, knowing which one she’s talking about.

“That hill, I think.” You say, nodding towards a large set of rocks welded into the sand. You walk towards it before suggesting, “I’ll give you a boost?”

Elsie nods, following you. She folds up her data pad, slotting it into the inside pocket of her jacket. You reach the rocks, leaning your back against them as you fold your hands together. Stubbs stands beside Elsie, ready in case she falls backwards.

You help push her up the side of the rocks, and she manages to drag herself up to the top. There’s a few tense moments of quiet as she loads up her data pad, and you’re bouncing your leg with nerves. Anxiety presses over your throat, making the already hot air so much harder to breathe in. Then Elsie’s voice calls out from above,

“I’ve found them.”

Air floods your lungs, and you feel dizzy with relief. Stubbs helps Elsie climb down the last chunks of rock, despite her insistence. Once she’s down on solid ground, she shows you the location. It’s not too far away. As your little group sets off in the correct direction, you feel the urge to run to Logan.

It’s far too long for your liking, but soon enough the two of them are in sight. William must have stopped for a rest, and Logan remains bound with the end of the rope tied to the saddle of William’s horse.

“How are we going to do this?” Stubbs asks you.

“We’ll just walk up to them?” Elsie answers with a frown, and you shake your head,

“We don’t know how William will react. You saw what he did to those hosts.” Stubbs nods in agreement, and Elsie’s face grows distant as she remembers the footage you had watched.

“We should move in slowly.” Stubbs suggests, and you agree. “Each take a side, and you take the back.” He instructs you, to which you nod.

The three of you separate, heading in your designated directions.

You make your way quietly towards the two of them. The benefit of having a host horse is that it doesn’t startle when you approach. You can hear William and Logan talking, and a small flood of relief courses through you at the sound of Logan’s voice. You recognise Logan’s drawl, most likely making a smartass comment. Then you hear the sound of a punch, and you tense, a surge of anger prompting you into action. Seizing a large chunk of broken log, you round the side of the horse.

“Hey Billy.” You call out, using the nickname you know he hates. He turns, his eyes wide, hand on his pistol. But you’re faster. The log swings, colliding with his face. He lands on the floor with a groan. You cast the log aside, kicking him in the face. There’s a crack as his nose breaks, and he’s caught so unaware he can’t stop you from landing another two kicks to his stomach. He cries out when your foot strays lower, kicking him where it hurts the most. His face presses against the dirt, as he rocks from side to side in pain. You reach forward, grasping at the knife on his belt. His eyes meet yours for a moment, hard and angry, but there’s a flicker of fear as you hold the knife over him.

Then you turn to Logan. He gives you a small smile, lifting his bound hands towards you, wiggling one hand in a tiny wave. A relieved smile tugs at your lips as you approach him, breathing out a tiny laugh at how bashful he looks. Despite the humour in your interaction, both of yours and Logan’s eyes are filled with emotion.

His throat bobs as you begin to cut the ropes that bind his hands together. If he wasn’t so dehydrated, he thinks he would be crying by now. Your hands feel shaky as you work the sharp metal against the rope, and you can’t look at Logan. If you do, you’ll end up crying. He’s sunburnt, and bruised, and the skin around his wrists is raw. It hurts you to see your cocky, self-assured Logan like this.

“I thought I told you not to get into any trouble?” You say, attempting a joke though it fails when your voice cracks. Logan gives you a wobbly smile, as you pull the rope away from his wrists, discarding it.

“M’afraid trouble’s my middle name.”

The laugh gets caught in your throat, and the fear that’s been lingering in your heart for the last several hours gives way. Tears slide down your cheeks, but you don’t reach for Logan. You’re frozen still, afraid of hurting him despite every cell in your body screaming out for him.

Logan wraps his arms tight around you, crushing your body against his chest. His ribs ache from the bruising caused by the falls he took as William’s horse dragged him over the terran. Every muscle in his body is sore and tender, but he holds you with every ounce of strength he has left.

He buries his face against your neck, wincing when his sunburnt skin catches against your clothing. You cling onto the arms of his jacket, and it feels as though you’re the only thing holding the two of you up.

You both turn at the sound of someone approaching. A frown creases your brow when you hear a small crackle of electricity. Then William cries out in pain.

Elsie has a taser in her hand, and is pointing it at William. You meet her eyes, and she gives you a wide grin. Stubbs shakes his head at her with a small sigh, but doesn’t attempt to stop her.

Logan tightens his grip on you, as his eyes dart between Elsie and Stubbs. Then he looks down at you.

“You came for me.” He says softly, his voice hoarse and dry. Your eyes widen as you see the surprise in his gaze.

“Of course I did. Wherever you are, I’ll always come for you.”

He presses his face hard against your neck, ignoring the pain of his raw skin as he chokes on a small sob. Your fingers card through his hair, careful of the matted tangles from the grime and sweat of the last few days.

“That’s a good line Austen, should include it in that new romance narrative.” He teases, but his words are shaky and filled with emotion now that he knows for certain that he’s safe. He feels your shake your head, before insisting in a soft voice,

“Those words are just for you.”