#and so now I started to use this one and apparently it had a software update and in hindsight maybe I shouldn’t’ve tried to update bc like

[why-the-heck-not]

21.09.23, thursday

!! today bad !! woke up to a sleep paralysis and it just kept going downhill from there; tried to update my laptop’s software and it got stuck, so now that’s the 2nd laptop that has stopped working for me this week. Literally fuck this week, I’m so done ughhh. How is that even like possible

things done today:

fucked up my laptop

sat around, full of rage & defeat

stress-watched Succession (for the emotional support of seeing kendall sit around in defeat 24/7 bc that’s me right there)

[no-144444]

꩜summary: his sports car doesn't impress you, but he hopes he can still make it work

꩜pairing: andrea kimi antonelli x fem! reader

꩜a/n: slight smut (18+) Bella= beautiful in italian :)

Your dad was clear; ‘Don’t mess with Kimi’. 

How was it your fault if he messed with you first? 

“One more minute, Bella,” he whispered against your lips, his hands roaming up your shirt. He had quali in less than an hour, and he needed to be in the car already, but no. He was here, with you, kissing you silly. You chuckled against him, then pushed him away, getting up and off his lap. He groaned in frustration as he adjusted his trousers. 

“I have to get out of here before my dad personally comes to find me,” you announced, fixing your hair and makeup in the mirror. He watched from behind you, his eyes captivated by the way you moved, spoke, and smiled. He was falling fast, and you didn’t even seem to notice. It was impressive. “And you need to deal with your hard-on,” you turned back to him, a practically sadistic smirk on your lips. 

His cheeks heated and he blushed, but he didn’t shy away from your gaze as he did before. He started you right in the eyes and smirked, taking your hand again. “Maybe you could take care of it, huh?” he smirked, a cocked eyebrow to match. You laughed and kissed his cheek, leaving a mark you knew he’d rub off if he was halfway smart, and shook your head. 

“Good luck in quali Kimi, don’t crash the damn thing,” you saluted and closed the door behind you, leaving Kimi pent up, and yourself giddy. Kimi was a nice guy. He was young, he was new, he was it apparently. Your dad adored him and so did your mom. He got on with George and all the other drivers. He was funny and sweet, and totally not yours. You liked him, sure. He was the kind of boyfriend every girl would want, but you weren’t the right kind of girl for him. You were messy and mean, and you knew the novelty of the ‘cool girl’ would wear off eventually, so you didn’t really mind messing around with him, because it was always going to be temporary. It always was. 

The team were out celebrating George’s engagement when the attention turned to Kimi. He might have been the new kid on the block, but he was sure he’d never get used to all the prying questions. Not that he was a closed book, he just didn’t exactly enjoy questions about his personal life every few seconds. 

“What about you Kimi, any girlfriends?” Toto mused and Kimi stilled for a split-second. 

Then he laughed and shook his head, all too aware of the fact that he was speaking to his boss, yes, but also to the father of the girl he was trying to pin down and make his girlfriend, for real. He cleared his throat. “No, not right now-” there was meant to be a ‘but’ there, but Toto cut him off before he could finish. 

“See, that’s what I like to see!” he announced to the table of various sponsors. They chuckled around him as Kimi’s cheek heated, then the cheering came. “No distractions, no messing around, just pure racing.” 

Toto had that fatherly look in his eye, the one Kimi saw more than he probably should’ve. More than you probably saw it. It wasn’t lost on him, the strained relationship you two had. It was pretty obvious, and you didn’t care to talk about it, so he didn’t ask. But Toto talked. He talked about how disappointed he was with you quitting racing despite being brilliant. He talked about how he disapproved of your current career (software engineer student), because he saw your potential. 

“But,” Kimi continued, the cheers quelling. “I do have my eye on someone,” he shrugged as Toto’s face dropped, and the rest of the table cheered louder. 

“Well, you could get anyone you wanted mate,” George chuckled, swinging an arm over his shoulder. “You’re a racing driver.”

Kimi chuckled. “I don’t think she’d be impressed by that. She’s not into sports cars.” 

And it was too late to realise the damage he’d done. Toto’s face hardened, and it took him about 5 minutes before he got up and dialled your number, Kimi none the wiser. 

The next two races were pretty lonely. You weren’t there, weren’t accepting his calls or texts, and Toto was being weird. 

“Kimi,” Toto’s voice rang out like his teachers when he fell asleep in class. “My office.”

He gulped but followed him suit, practically shitting himself. What had he done? What was going to happen? Totos' office was bland, but there were pictures of Susie, Jack, you, and your two older siblings. He cared about it, that much as clear. He just didn’t know how to channel it. Toto sat across from him, his tall frame imposing and intimidating. “Do you know what this is about?”

Kimi shrugged, then realised he should probably be a bit more professional. He cleared his throat. “Umm… no. Not really.”

“You won’t be bothered by Y/n anymore,” Toto nodded. “I’m sorry about her behaviour, it was entirely inappropriate and she knows what she’s meant to be here for, and it’s not that.”

“Oh… um, I asked her out,” Kimi admitted, his leg bouncing wildly, knowing what this confession might cause. “I really like her, and I’d treat her really well- promise! I think she’s awesome. She’s super smart and funny, and she’s a super positive person. Not to mention the fact that she’s beautiful and-” he cleared his throat again, realising that he was rambling about you to your father. “Yeah,” he played with his necklace, trying desperately to calm himself down as he felt another drip of sweat drop down his back. 

Toto was bewildered by the sight in front of him. “You… asked her out?” 

Kimi cocked an eyebrow. “Yes…?”

“Huh,” Toto hummed, looking down. Kimi’s confusion only grew. He looked up again. “Well… I guess I can’t stop you from having a relationship, but I still need your full focus on the races, yes?”

“Of course,” Kimi nodded. “Full attention.”

Toto smiled. “Good, you’re free to go.”

Walking out of his office, Kimi felt a weird sense of confession. He had told Toto before he’d told you that he wanted you. 

He sent you another text. 

After another week of no replies, he decided it was time to get creative, and get creative he did. He somehow weaselled his way out of school for a few days to go and hunt you down in Monté-Carlo, so that you would finally respond to him. 

“That’s it,” George explained over the phone. “That’s her place. It’s their old house but Toto, Susie, and Jack moved out a few months ago to a new place, closer to the airport, and she stayed there to start college on her own.”

“So she should be at home by now?” he questioned, pulling into your driveway, the cosy house ahead of him making him think of you immediately. 

“Yeah, she does online classes and works at a cafe nearby, she should be done, so Susie says,” he nodded. “Alright mate, good luck.”

“Thanks mate,” Kimi huffed as he got out of his car, ending the call. 

Your doorbell was loud, like, annoyingly loud. Therefore Kimi ringing it until you came out was loud. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” you demanded as you swung open the door, a look of surprise on Kimi’s face. That melted into a soft, boyish, perfectly Kimi smile. You rolled your eyes. 

“I wanted to see you,” he shrugged. “Want to go for a drive?” he offered, keys in hand. Behind him stood his new Mercedes AMG GT 63 S, and again, you rolled your eyes. 

“I don’t care about cars-”

“I know you don’t,” he chuckled. “But you do care about me.” 

You stared back at him. He had a lot of nerve coming up to you after getting you banned from the paddock and a 4 hour long lecture about sleeping around with your dads drivers- which you didn’t do with Kimi. You didn’t sleep with anyone, you were just flirtatious by nature, and he hated it. You got on with people, you had interpersonal skills and he didn’t and it pissed him off. “You’re very presumptuous.”

“You know I’m right,” he took another step forward and snaked a hand around your waist. “Come on Bella, I miss you,” he admitted, pressing a soft kiss to your cheek. He wasn’t his regular flirty and funny self, this was real. He cared. 

“Your car still doesn’t impress me,” you shook your head, brushing his hands off and grabbing your house keys before following him to his car. “And I need to be back soon, I have some homework to get done.” 

“You’re so smart,” he stated, a hand running through your hair mindlessly as he drove the streets of Monaco, as the sun set. You had a favourite route, the one you’d taken him on last summer when whatever this was started. He remembered it. He started that way and you smiled despite yourself, and then focused your eyes on the scenery around you. The blue ocean to your left, the rocky mountains to your right. It was truly stunning. 

He pulled into a little look-out and you both sat in silence for a moment, soaking in the view of the sea in front of you, then you turned to him, and kissed him. 

Of course you did, even though you promised yourself you wouldn’t. You needed to break this off, and just leave him to go racing with your dad, and fade into obscurity in his mind. But something kept you running back. He reached over and grabbed a handful of your ass, spurring you on to climb over the centre console and sit yourself in his lap. Quickly, his kisses grew hungrier, grabbing more of you, holding you closer. He wanted more, needed it. 

“More,” he begged against your lips. A split-second decision meant your top was off and his hands were all over your tits. Fading into obscurity was going really well, clearly. “So beautiful,” he whispered, trailing his kisses down your neck and eventually down to your tits. Next, his hand made its way down your trousers, his fingers lightly brushing against the place you wanted him most. If you could get a fuck out of the last time you’d be together, maybe the heartbreak was worth it? You’d realised in recent times that no, you didn’t dislike Kimi, not at all in fact. You very much liked him. Well, as they say ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’.

“Fuck, Kimi,” you moaned as he finally quit teasing and finally started pumping his fingers in and out. You grinded against him, sending a shiver down his own spine. 

“Fuck,” he grunted, lost in the pleasure. “Ti amo,” he whimpered as you grinded down on his cock. You stopped all your movements for a moment and looked at him. You both went wide-eyed at what he’d said, and quickly, your top was back on and you were in the passenger seat, waiting for one of you to say something. He licked his fingers clean in the mean-time (gross), and you tried to fix your hair.

“What’s this about then?” you asked. 

“What do you mean?” he asked, shrugging. “I missed you. You weren’t replying to me, so I came to you.” 

You huffed. “Why did you miss me?”

“Because I love you?” he chuckled. 

“You like making out with me before a race, that doesn’t mean you love me,” you argued. “All we do is physical, we never talk about anything which means we don’t even know anything about each other-” 

“I know a lot about you,” he shook his head. “And I want to know more. You know a lot about me too.” “You won’t like me soon,” you murmured. He whipped his head around to look at you, his mouth open to speak. You stopped him. “Don’t, Kimi. I know, it’s fun to fuck the ‘cool girl’ until you actually get into a relationship with me and realise that I’m just a regular person-”

“I want you to be a regular person,” he interrupted, taking your hand tentatively. “And I want you to know I’m not in this for the sex.” 

You turned your head to look at him. “You don’t.” 

“I do,” his voice was soft and light, as if he wasn’t saying something deeply profound. “I think you’re cool, sure. But I also think you're smart, and funny, and a really positive person. You fucking light up the garage when you’re there, and when you’re not, people ask about you all the time. I don’t know what idiot put these ideas into your head, but you need to forget them. I want you, and I want you to be you. I don’t want some polished, less version of yourself. I want the real you.” 

You didn’t know what to say. You just sat there for a moment collecting your thoughts. “Ok,” you breathed out. “We should give this a try.”

He smiled and pressed a gentle kiss to your hand. “This car is pretty great,” he added after a moment’s silence. You shook your head, laughing. 

“Shut up Kimi.” 

navigation for my blog :)

mercedes & williams masterlist

so close to what masterlist

pop queens mixtape

[yoonjae20]

Ric(hard) Fenton; Part 2

Read on ao3.

Masterpost. Previous. Next.

Bruce is many things — a son, an orphan, Gotham’s prince, a vigilante — but he knows that he isn’t a good father. He wants to be — he loves his children fiercely but there are too many unspoken words between them for Bruce to be a truly good father to them. But never more did Bruce believe that than when Dick stormed out of the Manor calling someone else his family. 

He and Dick argued often — always had butted heads — to be honest ever since Dick stopped being his Robin. It had only been many, many years later that Bruce realized that ever since leaving his shadow Dick had blossomed — that he had just been a dead weight holding the young man down. 

After Jason died due to his mistakes, he had been hellbent on never having another Robin again. When Alfred had put up the memorial, claiming he wouldn’t let Bruce forget, he had gritted his teeth but persisted through his anger, trying to not let his guilt drown him. But when Alfred sent Tim after him with a costume that would always be stained with blood in his mind — he had been furious. He hadn’t been fair with the boy, lashing out at him, being harsh in hopes that he would give up. But Tim had been stubborn — probably even more than Bruce himself. It’s only now that Bruce can admit to himself that the boy saved him from himself. 

“Well that went well,” Tim says sarcastically once they updated Alfred on the situation. He leans back in his seat in front of the Batcomputer. 

Bruce lets out a grunt as he looks over his shoulder as they try to find out who Danny is. So far no luck. They are running facial recognition software but Bruce has a feeling they won’t get any results there either. 

“He must have met him during the year he went missing,” Tim concludes. “That’s the only explanation.”

Bruce can’t argue against that logic, although he doesn’t like what it implies. (Bruce had hoped that despite their disagreements, there would always be trust between them. That no matter what, they would be on the same side. Nothing burns more than the knowledge that he failed.)

He stares at the map pinging Dick’s location every so often — he is moving west, about to cross the border into Pennsylvania. The only thing they can do now is wait and see where the man is going. Bruce sits in the chair next to Tim and settles in for a long day. 

Tim makes a breakthrough almost 12 hours later. It has been two hours since Dick’s signal dropped after he reached the border of Illinois and 6 hours since they realized Jason apparently followed him wherever the hell is going. 

Tim drums his fingers next to the keyboard, impatient as the software runs. At this point the intention to find out more about Danny isn’t about concern for Dick anymore, it’s about pure spite — and the need to know. Everybody has a digital footprint no matter how small. It shouldn’t be so hard to find a single kid. 

When the software pings with a result he almost topples his chair with how fast he stands up. There’s a match with the key words ‘GIW, Danny and Ric’ and Tim’s stomach drops as he scans the information. He taps his earpiece, interrupting Oracle as she briefs B and Robin who are about to start their patrol.

“I found him,” Tim says, voice shaking. “You’ll wanna see this.”

They need to go help Dick and that fast. 

It feels too quiet as they traverse through Amity Park on foot — and Jason can’t help but be on edge. He’s too used to the night in Gotham and its rowdy streets. The distant sound of bullets raining and the howling of police cars. Drugs deals around the corner, while the working girls wait on the sides of the streets in groups for drunken stragglers. Gotham is alive at night — but Amity Park? It feels like a Ghost Town in more ways than one. Even Smallville, despite being in the rural parts of Kansas, had held more life when Dick had convinced Jason to visit the Kent Farm one time.

Jason feels baffled that all the events Dick had told him about flew under the radar. Shouldn’t an entire town disappearing get noticed by someone other than its residents — or at least the Justice League? If the town vanished into nothingness once more, would anyone remember it? He doesn’t like that the answer seems to be no. 

Jason forms the rear as Dick and Danny chat in front, voices barely above a whisper as they discuss something. Jason knows he probably should listen as Danny updates Dick on the intricacies of what he missed since he was gone — voice serious, but he can’t help but keep an eye out, gaze trailing the rooftops — old habits die hard after all. 

It doesn’t take long for Jason to notice that they are being followed. The only reason Jason hasn’t warned Danny and Dick yet is because it’s nothing more than a small blob shaped green ball. Jason trails it in the corner of his eyes as it stays far enough to be barely seen but close enough to not lose them. 

Dick and Danny had briefed him on most Ghost Types — and Jason still has to blink away the green when he remembers that Danny admitted that he had his own roster of “rogues” to deal with. Jason has to admit that there were a lot more than he imagined — other than the stereotypical ones from movies — and he’d seen himself in the description of a Revenant. That’s why he knows this must be a Blob Ghost — which according to Danny and Dick — were pretty harmless and kind of dumb most of the time, acting on instincts and emotions rather than conscious thought. But that still doesn’t explain why it would follow them.

It darts in and out of view and Jason has to admit it’s kind of adorable. Dick and Danny must have noticed that he is distracted because they stop and Jason almost walks into them.

Jason instantly notices something is wrong when there isn’t a quip from either of them about his inattention — instead they both look horrified. Jason doesn’t understand why until the blob ghost is suddenly next to them and its emotions almost overwhelm Jason. 

Scared. Not safe. Hide. Danger. Danger!

It’s only Danny’s quick reaction as he tackles Jason out of the way that prevents him from being a splat on the ground as a blast hits the position where he had been standing, leaving a smoking crater.

“Well, well, well. Look who crawled back?” a cruel voice taunts and Jason sees Dick stiffening as they get surrounded by agents in white suits. “And it even brought us a present! And here I thought we would need to find ourselves a new shiny plaything.” 

“Operative O,” Danny’s hisses, an almost animalistic growl escaping his throat. 

“Already showing your real nature, I see,” Operative O’s voice is mocking. 

“Operative O, don’t aggravate it further before we have it safely captured,” another agent reprimands, holding some kind of blaster and Jason sees green, only Danny’s warning hand on his shoulder keeping him from retaliating. 

“It’s just — here I was worried it wouldn’t fall in our trap without dear old Ricky in our grasp, but it seems I worried for nothing,” Operative O laughs but the only thing Jason hears is Joker’s laugh as the man beats him to half to death with the crowbar.  

Jason grits his teeth, shaking his head to force the memory away.  He’s not in Ethiopia. These are not his demons — he has no right losing himself here. And like hell he is gonna let Danny and Dick face them alone. 

Jason notices he must have missed something because suddenly the two agents who had spoken up are way too close and Danny and Dick both are frozen next to him — neither even saying a word or doing anything despite it. 

“Imagine my surprise when we turned up at the Fentons and you weren’t there.” Operative O slides an arm around Dick’s shoulders forcing him to bend a little as he murmurs the next words into his ear — Dick trembles in his hold and Jason’s vision flashes green. “Made it super easy for us.” 

“Get your paws off my brother!” Danny snarls, lashing out but stopping short when the agent uses Dick as a meat child. 

“Now let’s not be unreasonable, shall we?” Operative O says, releasing Dick and holding up his hands in the air. He circles them, grin sharp. “I’m not cruel after all. Let's say Phantom and the other feisty one, I saw those green eyes — in exchange for the rest — a fair deal, is it not? What do you say Ricky?”

Jason can hear Dick’s jaw crack from how hard the man grits his teeth. 

“After all the Fenton’s got you to replace Phantom now. A lot better than a corpse if you ask me.” 

Dick growls and decks the man hard in the face as he leans into his space once again. Operative O just laughs maniacally as he stumbles at the force of it, spitting blood on the ground and wiping his nose with the sleeve of his suit, staining it red.

“There it is,” he says gleefully. “That’s what I wanted to see.”

Dick is panting and to Jason’s shock his eyes are a burning, pulsing green as he glares at the agent.

“I’ll wonder how long it’ll take you to scream, hm Ricky boy,” Operative O ponders sadistically. “I hope you’ll hold out longer than Phantom at least. Makes it more fun to break them.” 

“Are you done, Operative O?” the other agent interrupts, impatient. “Other people have places to be.”

“What’s the rush, Operative K?” Operative O muses, flicking the blood dripping from his face off his hand. “It’s not like there’s anyone to interrupt us.” 

Operative K narrows his eyes at his partner.

“The higher-ups wanted us to be done with this 2 months ago,” he reminds. “The sooner we get done here, the sooner we can get the hell out of this cursed town.”

“As if Gotham will be better,” Operative O scoffs and it takes all of Jason’s willpower to not react at the name drop. “Overflowing with all those pests — starting with that infuriating Bat and its birds.” 

He hums, clearly deep in thought.

“Although I always wanted to clip a bird’s wings and see if they can still fly.”

Operative K rolls his eyes, clearly fed up with his partner’s behavior.

“I should have switched with Operative L when I had the chance.” 

“Hey, I still get the job done, don’t I?” Operative O pouts and Jason wants to claw the expression of the man’s face. “They have to die sooner or later anyway.” 

Operative K sighs but just shakes his head before he directs his attention back to the agents still surrounding them.

“Capture them.”

Jason stands up, not about to let them do whatever they want and for once gladly letting the Pit Rage consume him, but before he can even do one step, Danny writhes on the ground next to him, screaming as electricity continues to shock him. Drool drips from the corner of his mouth as he seizes and his screaming gets hoarse. And Jason — Jason just stands there. It's like his muscles have turned into lead and he can’t move his limbs one inch as he stares at Danny convulsing. 

Fuck, he knew this was gonna be bad when Danny had showed him his scars. But he hadn’t thought of the chance that they would fail before they even tried. Jason feels helpless and it’s like Ethiopia all over again. Only this time he wishes the screams he hears would come from him. 

“Enough!” Dick roars as Danny starts foaming at his mouth and tearing Jason out of his daze. “What the hell do you want from us?”

Danny’s eyes roll back in his skull as the shocks stop and Operative O uses a blaster to lift Dick’s chin, forcing him to look at him as he smirks.

“Beg.” His smirk stretches into a blood lusty smile as Dick gulps, his hands spasming at his sides. “Maybe you’ll convince me.”

At the same time as Dick throws down a smoke bomb, Jason grabs his gun in one smooth moment from the holster hidden above his foot and shoots the man point blank between the eyes. The space fills with smoke as Operative O drops to the ground — hopefully dead — and Jason quickly helps Dick with carrying Danny between them as they duck underneath countless stray blasts as the agents shout over each other.  

“That signal was atrocious,” Jason complains as Dick leads them into an alleyway, probably orienting himself on nothing more than pure instincts. They take several complicated turns until they can’t hear the sound of battle anymore. “Cass would have had your head.”

“Well it worked, didn’t it?” Dick fires back and uses his shoulder to open a door, as they drag Danny in it, the boy still out cold. 

The door falls close behind them and Dick stills as he feels the boy’s pulse, lips pressed into a thin line.

“This is bad, we need an Ecto-Dejecto as fast as possible.” Dick gnaws at his lips. “Neither of us has enough ectoplasm to heal this.”

Jason’s eyes grow wide as he sees Dick’s eyes and veins glow green, his brother’s face getting paler by the second. Jason rips away Dick’s grasp on Danny and the man lets out a gasp, breathing shakily and looking incredibly drained

“What the hell did you do?”

“Transferred the little ectoplasm I have to Danny,” Dick wheezes out. “We can’t use yours, the corruption would overpower his ectoplasm with how little reserves he has left.”

“There’s no reason you had to do this if it hurts you!”

Dick leans against a wall for support, his limbs shaking.

“You- You don’t get it,” Dick still sounds breathless. “Electricity-” He coughs. “It’s his one weakness. Destabilizes his core. It’s- It’s how he died. If we don’t get him the Ecto-Dejecto he’ll-”

Dick grimaces as if he doesn’t want to finish the sentence, but it’s far too late that Jason notices it’s actually because he’s in pain. He barely steps forward and catches the man as he suddenly faints. Staggering underneath the weight of his brother — and the responsibility that his new brother might die if he makes the wrong decision, Jason says the only word he can think of.

“FUCK!”

[leftistfeminista]

Trolls Used Her Face to Make Fake Porn. There Was Nothing She Could Do.

Sabrina Javellana was a rising star in local politics — until deepfakes derailed her life.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/31/magazine/sabrina-javellana-florida-politics-ai-porn.html

Most mornings, before walking into City Hall in Hallandale Beach, Fla., a small city north of Miami, Sabrina Javellana would sit in the parking lot and monitor her Twitter and Instagram accounts. After winning a seat on the Hallandale Beach city commission in 2018, at age 21, she became one of the youngest elected officials in Florida’s history. Her progressive political positions had sometimes earned her enemies: After proposing a name change for a state thoroughfare called Dixie Highway in late 2019, she regularly received vitriolic and violent threats on social media; her condemnation of police brutality and calls for criminal-justice reform prompted aggressive rhetoric from members of local law enforcement. Disturbing messages were nothing new to her.

The morning of Feb. 5, 2021, though, she noticed an unusual one. “Hi, just wanted to let you know that somebody is sharing pictures of you online and discussing you in quite a grotesque manner,” it began. “He claims that he’s one of your ‘guy friends.’”

Javellana froze. Who could have sent this message? She asked for evidence, and the sender responded with pixelated screenshots of a forum thread that included photos of her. There were comments that mentioned her political career. Had her work drawn these people’s ire? Eventually, with a friend’s help, she found a set of archived pages from the notorious forum site 4chan. Most of the images were pulled from her social media and annotated with obscene, misogynistic remarks: “not thicc enough”; “I would breed her”; “no sane person would date such a stupid creature.” But one image further down the thread stopped her short. She was standing in front of a full-length mirror with her head tilted to the side, smiling playfully. She had posted an almost identical selfie, in which she wore a brown crew-neck top and matching skirt, to her Instagram account back in 2015. “It was the exact same picture,” Javellana said of the doctored image. “But I wasn’t wearing any clothes.”

There were several more. These were deepfakes: A.I.-generated images that manipulate a person’s likeness, fusing it with others to create a false picture or video, sometimes pornographic, in a way that looks authentic. Although fake explicit material has existed for decades thanks to image-editing software, deepfakes stand out for their striking believability. Even Javellana was shaken by their apparent authenticity.

“I didn’t know that this was something that happened to everyday people,” Javellana told me when I visited her earlier this year in Florida. She wondered if anyone else had seen the photos or the abusive comments online. Several of the threads even implied that people on the forum knew her. “I live in Broward County,” one comment read. “She just graduated from FIU.” Other users threatened sexual violence. In the days that followed, Javellana became increasingly fearful and paranoid. She stopped walking alone at night and started triple-checking that her doors and windows were locked before she slept. In an effort to protect her personal life, she made her Instagram private and removed photographs of herself in a bathing suit.

Discovering the images changed how Javellana operated professionally. Attending press events was part of her job, but now she felt anxious every time someone lifted their camera. She worried that public images of her would be turned into pornography, so she covered as much of her body as she could, favoring high-cut blouses and blazers. She knew she wasn’t acting rationally — people could create new deepfakes regardless of how much skin she showed in the real world — but changing her style made her feel a sense of control. If the deepfakes went viral, no one could look at how she dressed and think that she had invited this harassment.

[katanablue]

I originally had a totally different idea for this but I think I may just do a part 2 hehehe. ALSO IF ANYONE GOT ANY GOOD 07 DONNIE FICS ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Warnings: NONE JUST DONNIE BEING A CUTE GRUMPY DORK.

Another day another long boring shift full of talking to idiotic people who don’t know the difference between hardware and software and explaining to one too many elderly people that ‘No, you cannot print out the Internet.’

He’s just finished a call, rubbing the space between his eyes as he feels his daily headache come on. He’s impressed that he’s managed to nearly finish his workday without it appearing until now. He groans low in his throat, debating on getting up to grab a glass of water so he can take a pill or just sucking it up these last 30 minutes.

He gets his answer when an incoming call rings through his headset, making Donnie roll his eyes hard and into the back of his skull. He inhales deeply through his nose to prepare himself, letting it out when he clicks on a key to answer the phone.

“Thank you for calling tech support, this is Donatello speaking, how can I help you today.” He doesn’t bother putting on his customer service voice, his headache dully throbbing now as he waits for the other person on the line to start rambling about their dumb issue.

“Hi, how are you today?” You say, giving the standard pleasantries before delving into your computer issue.

Typical, of course his last call would try to make small talk.

“I’m fine ma’am, thank you. How can I help you today?” He repeats it, resisting the urge to roll his eyes again and leans back in his chair, swaying gently side to side. He thinks about what he should eat after, his eyes trailing to the clock in the Lair that signifies in big red letters that it’s nearly 2 a.m. Not the latest he’s stayed up but today’s shift was particularly exhausting. Maybe it’s the full moon or something, ‘Mercury in Gatorade’ as Mikey would sometimes call it.

“Hello?”

Shit. He totally just fucking zoned out on you.

“Apologies ma’am, I didn’t quite catch that. Would you mind repeating it?” Great, he just extended this call by about 2 minutes.

“Oh, that’s alright! I’m dealing with an issue with my laptop’s ability to open programs fast. It’s taking forever just to open something and I’m not quite sure why.” You repeat your issue, quietly sighing as you aimlessly move your mouse around your screen, hoping that the guy on the other side will be able to help with you.

Donnie immediately knows what the problem could be; slow processing speeds a fairly common issue for him but thankfully an easy fix.

So he starts by asking the standard questions: do you have any programs that take a lot of space? Any tabs open that you aren’t using? Anything running in the background?

When you tell him ‘no, no and no’, that’s when he sits up from his chair and squints his eyes. If those aren’t the cause of your laptops slow speed then what could it be?

“Well,”

Ah, there it is.

“I do play a few games but those have never caused me problems before. Could that be it?”

Normally Donatello’s irritation would increase when the customer would ‘suddenly remember’ something that could be pausing their problem. You, however? Didn’t spark that within him for some reason. In fact, besides your calm demeanor, it’s the way you spoke so kindly to him combined with the fact that you also game apparently that has Donnie not wanting to snap at you.

“Like what?” He asks, being sure to keep it professional.

And when you list his all time favorite game among some others that he’s obsessed with, he has to practically force himself to not totally geek out. Sure he’s played some of the popular games nowadays like League or Valorant, but hearing you say that you modded some old PS1 games to play on your laptop practically skyrockets his excitement.

Which in turn makes his headache pound harder.

He’s unable to keep himself from hissing when a pang shoots right through his skull, knowing you heard it when you trail off your sentence.

“Are you alright?”

Maybe it’s because he’s had a long day or maybe it’s because this seems to be shifting into a migraine, but the concern and sincerity in your voice makes an odd feeling bubble in Donnie’s chest. Surely no one would ever be genuinely worried over an I.T guy, not when you have more pressing matters on your hands.

“My apologies miss, I’m just uh, dealing with a bit of a headache right now. Although I think it’s turning into a migraine.” He grunts through his clenched jaw, swinging carefully around in his chair as he searches for his bottle of Advil only to suck his teeth when he shakes the container and hears absolutely nothing rattling around.

“Oh no, I’m sorry! Do you want to go grab some medicine? I don’t mind waiting.”

The corner of Donnie’s lip twitches upward. He brings his hands to massage at his temples, the motions doing something to relieve the tension in his head but not nearly enough.

“I unfortunately just discovered that I’m out of medicine. But that’s alright, I’ll pick some up after this call.” He doesn’t bother hiding his sigh, settling back in his seat as he prepares to ask you more questions to help you out.

“What about any oils? Got any of those? Usually lavender or peppermint do the trick.” You put him on speaker and go to your Safari on your phone to begin looking up other remedies, wanting to assist this poor I.T man.

Donnie’s not quite sure why you’re trying to be helpful but at this point he doesn’t exactly care, the throbbing getting worse by the second.

“It could also be too much pressure, literally, around your head. Do you wear headbands or anything like that? Could also be your headphones.”

“No, no headbands. And my headphones have cushioning all around so not those either.” He responds, debating on texting Mikey to bring him the peppermint oil that April bought for Splinter last Christmas.

“Ah, a man of comfort.” You laugh, fingers quickly typing in your question into the search engine.

Donnie finds himself smiling faintly at the sound, a fleeting thought of ‘Wow, I want to hear that again’ passing through his brain.

“Well, I can’t use regular headphones for gaming. I’m also a fan of those games that you play.”

You blink in surprise, your scrolling faltering for half a second before continuing on.

“No way, really?”

And so you talk for the next 20 minutes about said games; reliving memories, talking about specific moments you wish you could experience again, the soundtracks, the characters. Everything.

For the first 10 minutes, Donnie kept reminding himself that he was just prolonging his work call, that he should drive the focus back onto your issue so he can hang up and clock out. But the more he talked to you, the more he said ‘fuck it’ and allowed himself this one rare moment of normalcy.

He also nearly forgot about his raging migraine, until it pleasantly reminded him that it was still present with a sharp stabbing pain behind his eyes.

It’s what snaps him back to reality, his face grimacing from the white hot torment happening in his skull.

“I’m so sorry, we should really get back to your computers issues.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

God, why did he feel so awful saying that? And why did it make his stomach twist when hearing just how disappointed you sounded? It’s something he’ll have to dissect later, not when he’s already 30 minutes past the standard call time for support.

“Let’s see what we’re working with here.”

This is one of the rare times Donnie wishes he wasn’t so smart with technology because in less than 5 minutes he solves your problem. He wishes he could just be a little average to talk to you more even if it’s computer stuff.

“Alright, you shouldn’t have a problem anymore. Anything else I can help you with?”

Please say yes please say yes please say yes.

“No, I’m all good. Thank so much Donatello!”

“Donnie! You can call me Donnie.”

Fuck.

“Just your friendly I.T tech support here to help you 24 hours a day.”

Double fuck.

Why did he say that? It’s standard spiel protocol but still, how utterly lame…

You can’t help but giggle at him, your cheeks hurting from smiling so much from this total stranger.

“Alright then, Donnie. I’ll know who to ask for if I ever need help again.”

He smiles and asks for your name, just so he’ll know who he’s talking to if you ever do call again. He repeats it back to you once you tell him, the word rolling off his tongue in such a way that makes you feel giddy and grinning like a kid in a candy store.

“Have a good night, please don’t hesitate to call back if you’re still experiencing technical difficulties.”

And by Darwin he hopes you do.

[coraniaid]

In addition to the fact that Buffy having to get a job is a pretty core part of Season 6's wider themes of growing up and having to live in the world and realize life isn't always as romantic and heroic and simple as you'd imagined as a child, I think the show is actually pretty consistent when it comes to Joyce not being all that well off financially.

Sometimes people talk about Tara and Willow staying in Buffy's house over the summer she was dead as if Joyce had left Buffy some vast inheritance which they'd selfishly blown through without thinking, but I don't think that's supported by the text at all.

We know that Joyce started her own business when she moved to Sunnydale (I've seen some people suggest Joyce might be working for an existing gallery that was already present in Sunnydale, but in Welcome To The Hellmouth she tells Buffy "we may have found a space" for it and in Witch the gallery has its "first major show", which all seems to suggest that it didn't exist until Joyce arrived). We know Joyce spends a lot of time and effort trying to make the business work (Buffy says she must be tired when her mom gets home late one evening in Season 1's Angel and Joyce agrees that she is: "we're a little gallery, you have no idea how much..."). We know she doesn't have much of a staff: maybe just one assistant (the never-seen Carol; who might be the person Joyce is thinking of when she tells Buffy she can try to find somebody to cover for her at the gallery for her birthday when he dad cancels). We know that Joyce is bringing inventory home as early as Witch and that she soon starts using Buffy's room for storage after she leaves for college, which suggests that she doesn't have much free space at the gallery or many people to help her. We know the gallery is open on weekends (as per Prophecy Girl), that Joyce has to travel out of town to look for new art to purchase (which is why she's absent in What's My Line?). We know Joyce doesn't have much of a social life outside of work (she met Ted because was selling software she bought for the gallery, and she met I Was Made To Love You's Brian on her first day back at work there).

Obviously there are other, less mundane reasons why Buffy never gets to go on that trip to Disneyland she daydreams about in What's My Line?, but it feels noticeable that -- while her shadow self Cordelia talks about trips to Tuscany and St Croix and Aspen -- the closest thing Buffy ever gets to a holiday is ... visiting her dad in LA over the summer once? The nearest thing to a holiday Joyce ever seems to get is the one year she visits her sister for Thanksgiving. And, honestly, maybe this is part of the reason Joyce makes such a big deal of Christmas despite not seeming to be all that religious otherwise: this is the closest thing to the sort of holiday Buffy used to enjoy that she's capable of offering her now after the divorce.

We know that Joyce is "dreaming of bills" when Buffy wakes her up in Season 1's The Puppet Show, and when she buys Buffy a new dress in Prophecy Girl Buffy protests that "we can't afford this". (Obviously on the actual show Buffy wears an impossibly huge range of different outfits every single day which isn't particularly consistent with this reading, but I think we have to treat that the same way we treat the fact she apparently regularly goes to sleep wearing a full face of makeup: the actual teenage Buffy, as opposed to the version played by SMG we see on screen, probably does not own nearly so many clothes). When Joyce is encouraging Buffy to go to Northwestern in Season 3's Choices she admits it's "not cheap" but says they can make it work "if your father pitches in". When Buffy buys textbooks for college in The Freshman she jokingly worries the cost might give her mother an aneurysm. In School Hard Buffy talks about having a lot of pressure on her and Joyce tells her to "wait til you have job", and while obviously the reason for that line is primarily so that Buffy can look at her Slayer supplies and tell her reflection quietly that she already has a job, it's still a fact that Joyce has a job and implicitly considers it to be a source of a lot of pressure (despite Witch, for example, making it clear that Joyce remembers being a teenager was itself pretty stressful).

So I think it's actually pretty unsurprising that Buffy doesn't have much money after coming back to life. Even ignoring the fact that Flooded tells us Joyce's hospital bills ate up most her life insurance, I just don't think Joyce would have much to give her. I doubt Joyce owned the building the gallery was in, so she's probably renting that for a start (on top of the mortgage on the house), plus whatever she was paying Carol, the cost of acquiring and returning exhibits, the cost of any shows they had to cancel after Joyce's death when the gallery presumably shut down for good... Joyce was a self-employed middle-aged woman who probably hadn't really thought about her health much because she started getting headaches. She probably didn't have much in the way of untapped savings to fallback on: why else would she be so quick to rush back to work after she seemed to recover from her tumour? (She admits to Buffy when talking about Brian that she hadn't had time to get back up to speed on what her assistant had been doing while she was away.)

The Summers family were always certainly middle-class coded (unlike, say, Xander or Faith) and they had a comfortable lifestyle and a surprisingly large house (although, again, as with Buffy's many outfits, I think we can perhaps imagine that the "real" house isn't quite so spacious), but the idea that things were actually somewhat precarious was always there, bubbling under the surface. It just wasn't Buffy's problem when her mom was around.

[ignitesthestxrs]

this is not a post that is a life lesson exactly, but it is like. an update on my life and how glad i am to have had options in this situation, and it can also be a metaphor if that metaphor is helpful to you

anyway, in mid february my boss was like 'hey do you have time for a catch up in at 11.30', and i had to do my regular self talk down of 'you're not getting fired lol clam down' except

(okay i didn't get fired, but i did get laid off.)

(read more because i've never told a short story in my life)

which. positive news, i got laid off in aotearoa nz and not america, but it is still the worst job market my case worker at the ministry of social development has seen in 20 years, so i wasn't feeling like. hype. about this situation.

the specifics of my career are that it's not really a career so much as it is a place i started working at when i was 17, and then didn't leave. it had nothing to do with my degree and wasn't doing anything i was especially interested in, but it was a job, and i was comfortable there, and it paid for half a surgery i needed and dealt with a solid decade of my unmedicated panic attacks, so like. solid work. a job that did essentially what i needed it to when i needed it.

that being said this left me in the position of: not having done a job search, ever! not having a CV! not having comprehensive knowledge of my own skillset because i learnt half a programming language on the job and only knew how to use it with my company's bespoke software! i was not feeling confident!

the huge caveat to this is that i DID receive 38 weeks severance. and when i say huge, i mean that was the safety net/prize that allowed me to do literally anything after the point of being laid off. like. had i not had that financial cushion, i had enough of a governmental safety net to fall back on if necessary, but it would have been high tension misery and panic the whole way through. at no point would i have dealt with any of it with grace (and frankly, no one should have to).

but because i did have that safety net, i had options, and i also just had the ability to...start dealing? my main concern was like, okay, given that this is happening, am i going to be able to continue living pretty normally for the next few months? yes? okay then, the only thing to do is to start doing.

(there are many things to do in this situation, but it did help me to picture having one path, and that path was Forward).

so idk i used my ten years of reading ask a manager on breaks and started writing cover letters and applying for jobs and now i have one. this is a simplification of a process that was at times miserable, and always deeply fucking boring, but i also think that the nature of just getting a rolling application process started helps with the overall brain-work of not taking rejections personally. like, if you're applying to everything that your skillset vaguely fits, your feelings can't be too hurt if a company comes back with 'skillset too vague bitch, nice try'.

anyway the job i ended up landing - and it was One Job, but You Only Need One - has ended up being something in the public sector that in the process of learning it existed, i became weirdly enthusiastic about. it also has a week more holiday than my last job, pays 10k more, and is in the same suburb i live in. it has more opportunity for career growth, and apparently i can also get free eye tests? that sounds nice. and i landed it quickly enough that i still have a stack of that severance money left for savings and also purchasing a celebratory build your own wooden pinball machine set.

all this to say, getting laid off was weirdly the best thing to happen to me this year. perhaps in many years.

which. that's LUCK, so much of this is luck, and location, and random happenstance. but also, you know, some of it was mindset and work also. some of it was due to decisions i made about my job and my mental health over a decade ago. i am a person who was able to deal with this situation pretty okay today because of decisions i made as a much less stable and unmedicated young adult.

this is what i mean about this being a useful metaphor if you want it to be. on account of the luck and the happenstance etc, i would never want to say 'this bad thing that happened to you is secretly a chance for a good thing to come!' because: i genuinely don't believe that.

but i know i have been a person in the past who fucked up in ways i had to trust my future self would be able to deal with and built on. i have had difficult and bad situations in my life that had very little to do with any power i had over those situations, and i had to pick a direction and start walking, because the other option was to lie down and not move.

and that process has been habit forming. allowing myself to take breaks when i could afford to, even if it meant not keeping up, meant that i could built up my tolerance to risk and disaster at my own speed, befitting my own capacity.

i am haunted by the version of myself that i believe could exist if i wasn't weighed down by everything that i am. a hannah who is less tired, more focused, less mentally ill, more supported by generational wealth and opportunity. she sits just out of reach, and occasionally she looks back and says, a little concerned, 'aren't you worried you're just making excuses, though? don't you think if you were a little more disciplined, you could be me? are you going to be so kind to yourself that you forget you even wanted to be me in the first place?'

i am: always worried about these things. but i am the person who is here, and i am moving forward at the pace i am able. for the most part, it's working out.

[cleolinda]

Weekend links, April 13, 2025

This week has been a hundred years long. Apparently I posted the fourth Silent Hill 2 commentary only 5 days ago, and I am already—well, rewind. The fourth video and its recaps are up, plus an extra video and a sidebar post. It's our first foray into the Otherworld and it ends with me managing to get past Pyramid Head (one does not "defeat" Pyramid Head) in two tries. Also, a beautifully staged scene with Angela, kingfisher mythology, and moth math. 

Unfortunately: OBS has decided to hate me personally and it currently records my gameplay like we're in an earthquake—not the cinematics, mind you! The cinematics look fine!—and I don't know why and I don't know how to make it stop. I have a list of potential fixes I am basically at the end of, and I will now be looking into Free Easy Recording Software That Isn't OBS in hopes of moving on with my life. As such, I don't think there's any way I can get my own commentary recorded in time to stay in step with Ian's stream this week, so I'm just gonna do a writeup of a recording that only exists in my own head. I've wanted SO BAD to get to this part of the game (please refer to picture here), I have a lot to say about it, and I do have screenshots. I'm just gonna TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENS, I GUESS.  

ANYWAY HERE'S SOME LINKSPAM

Reblogs of interest

Tumblr may or may not go down for real this time:

"If Tumblr dies, where will you go?"

How to download a backup of your Tumblr

"dreamwidth makes me feel like a baby. did you guys use to blog like this" I'm still there, Gandalf. (I need to resume crossposting there, though.)

"Tumblr yes a place for investors money put money in Tumblr can trust Tumblr user for giveing good legiticmatecy."

-

To all who celebrate:

Happy Leland Melvin Day!

Happy National Unicorn Day!

Happy [Next] Bandcamp Friday is on May 2nd, 2025, on which the money you spend goes 100% to the artist.

-

No, for real, "Madison" as a girl's name basically does come from the movie Splash.

"there aren’t enough posts going around about the swedish cryptid known as the skvader which is a rabbit with pheasant wings and also a very good boy."

On believing (or not) in fairies, duendes, trolls, and ghosts

An unexpected amount of Gritty this week

"No copypasta has ever ruined my life as comprehensively as Hell Fuck Castle."

Pretty sure I've reblogged this before, and I'll probably reblog it again: "One thing most people don’t realize about Gazebos is how bloodthirsty they used to be until the 1930s or so."

"As a scribe I see fit to write down all my troubles"

"Introducing Margie! A cat-goose dragon based on this little fella from this medieval manuscript"

"May I gift you: pineapple dragon?"

For all the Animorphs fans

Stories of seeing Muppets as people

"the lichen knowledge iceberg i have constructed on request"

Wait... people don't have "an intact chronological memory of life prior to age 12"?

David Lynch sure had one.

"i like to call this fate Death 2. Death 2 is the scariest thing that can happen to a person."

"poob is gonna call you. now poob is just gonna call you."

This week, it was fuckenwimdy.

Two posts that start off deep and sad and end up deep and wholesome. 

Video

Babysitting but literal (it's cats, they'll be fine)

Irish Tesco worker nails church acoustics in work stairwell

“Binary Sunset” from Star Wars, also in a stairwell

"Truly, the world is a better place for having skilled people who are willing to use their skills in the pursuit of incredible silliness."

The sacred texts

I deem this post about celebrities getting all their clothes tailored to be a Sacred Text because it has stuck with me for a very long time.

An old favorite: a compilation of "[band] sounds like [hilarity]" posts.

"Roses are red, April is grey. But in a few weeks, it's gonna be..." 

Personal tag of the week

Videos my dog did not like, a tag I've never used before but two nickels, etc. 

[musetoo]

dog update. it has been a long couple of weeks. quite suddenly, Luke developed gastrointestinal issues. both ends! I haven't mopped this much since he was a puppy, and I am now best friends with my carpet shampooer. the old one happened to go and I had the sense to replace it immediately, which was a godsend, otherwise I'd be going insane. and I had some floor pads from when he had surgery, which he wouldn't use, and have been placing them in the spot he hits. so at least he uses those now & I mop less! success!

yesterday he stopped eating. he doesn't want to eat again today -- not even his favorites -- but the vet tech told me to try, so I'm going to buy him chicken again today. gross. I hate chicken but it's for the dog and I'll buy myself a frozen lasagna or something at the Aldi for dinner.

after two vet visits, blood work, labs, and some prodding and poking, our very kind new vet has Luke trying thyroid meds. if he has hypothyroidism, it would explain the whole symptom set, including his recent hair thinning and weight loss, which I had attributed to age.

after 10 unsuccessful minutes, I smashed the pill in some cheddar and he finally ate it. he has kept it down for 20 minutes, so I'm hopeful it'll absorb. I read after the fact that I'm supposed to wear gloves touching levothyroxine ahahaha so I'll do that tomorrow. apparently it can take a few weeks for thyroid levels to even out, but if this is the culprit, I hope he'll start to feel a little better by the weekend. (unfortunately, he had eaten grass, which I got on my skin and am now having a fun itchy allergic reaction, but idc as long as the dog keeps that pill down)

but I really like the new vet! he sent a text (it must be via the vet software) over the weekend while he wasn't working with thorough updates on the blood work. I've had vets call with brief updates, but they are always in such a hurry. this one even asked how Luke was doing, although I didn't hear back, but I replied hours after the fact. idk it just seemed so kind because i'm sure he's got a family and still checked up on my dog.

[tbhimnoteasyonmyself]

Who is White?

If it is not I, your friendly neighbourhood non-binary deranged literature major, once again to tell you about stuff that the voices™︎ have prompted me.

This time, let's talk about the elephant in the room, the odd one out: Mr. White, a.k.a the fandom's babyboy.

(me as Fluke in this GIF, walking in ready to dissect this bitch)

So, what do we factually know about this man?

From what we're directly told in the show:

He's Tee's boyfriend, at least, since 12th grade, meaning they have been together for about 3 years, maybe 4 (depending on when exactly we are in terms of time in the present and when exactly during 12th grade they started dating).

He's younger than the rest of them, according to Por and Top in episode 1.

He studied at a different school from the main gang AND from Phee (yes, despite the embroidery having a similar colour, the writings where the institution's name should be are nothing alike, thus, not from the same place)

He cares a lot about his appearance (he does skincare when Por is literally dying downstairs and he sees a rash on his body while under the effect of New's absynthe - idk if it's absynthe or not but my friends and I have been calling it that since we saw them drink the green drinks so it's absynthe for me and there's that).

He's generally a very respectful person (he always speaks formally and nicely to everyone, even when people are hostile to him, like Tee or Fluke).

His fear doesn't seem to paralyze him in high-pressure situations (he strikes people with a tripod twice to save himself and others when he thinks they're in danger).

Another source could be the Yearbook, which, now, we have to be a bit more skeptical about because, as seen in New's case, it's not 100% accurate. One can argue that it is accurate because the yearbook would have Tan's info, since that's who he's living as and no one knows any better than that, including the institutions and, sure, yeah, fair. But while we don't know that White is hiding anything from us as well, we can't be sure of it. So, take the following with a grain of salt:

(translated with Google Translate)

His legal name is Watcharin Siriphan

He was born on the 25th of February 2005 (which confirms what Por and Top say)

His blood type is A (which according to the Blood Type Personality Theory means he is shy, stubborn, a perfectionist, polite and hard-working, apparently. tbh this thing is super shifty, no source seems to agree on the meaning of each type and, of course, it's a pseudoscience and all, so... yeah. take it as you will)

He's studying Software Engineering

He likes cakes

He dislikes cockroaches

He plays games and programs in his free time

So... We don't know much. He's the most generic person ever. Like... I too, and half the world's population, like cake, dislike cockroaches and like to play games. It's not exactly very special. Which is exactly why he is so intriguing. After all, we had 5 whole episodes so far, which were just the backstory of the people we see together in the mansion in the present. We've seen their personalities, their qualities and flaws, what they did and what they didn't do. We've been given a reason as to why they're here. Not just in the more direct sense of "they agreed to come here for Jin's goodbye party" but of why exactly they needed to be put all together in these conditions for this story. All except White. White is just... Barely an afterthought. We're shown when he comes into this story for the group (when he becomes Tee's boyfriend), but we're not given a reason so far as to why the narrative wants him there.

Because, sure, IRL people sometimes end up in random places and things can be pretty meaningless but this is a work of fiction. One that, evidently, has been greatly focused on details (Non's framed apple picture and Phee eating an apple alone, for example, or the correlation between the group and the colour blue). So why would it just throw us a character that is, seemingly, irrelevant to the story?

And to this, there are 2 possibilities my friends: either White is a narrative tool to get to the audience or White is not who we think he is. So let's explore it, shall we?

White = Narrative Tool

Let's start by assuming, possibly the most likely outcome, that White is exactly just a guy who ended up there due to his connection to Tee. Why would this narrative need that character?

Glad you asked. Because he's the only person who's 100% innocent. If he's just some guy who, as we've seen, keeps being respectful and nice and trying to always do the right thing, then he's got nothing to do with the others who, in different degrees are all guilty of something. He's the odd one out.

Because, yes, this is not a show of villains (at least, not in which concerns the main characters). They're all morally grey. But they have some drop of black that makes them grey.

Por is arrogant and a liar and selfish.

Tee is aggressive and manipulative and a control freak.

Top is an overall asshole and a coward.

These 3 actively bully Non. Por steals his work. Tee and Top blame him for shit he didn't do which puts him in the situation where he owns Por and they spy on him. Tee manipulates him into mafia money laundry and threatens him.

Fluke is selfish and refuses to take action even when he knows it's the right thing to do.

Jin doesn't have the capability to realize that the peaceful passive way with which he normally carries himself with won't solve the issue. Plus he's overly emotional. And a bit selfish too.

They didn't help Non when it was their moral obligation to do so. And Jin records him being abused by their teacher and possibly posts it online (though that's still up for debate).

Phee is too stubborn and also overly emotional and even overly empathic.

New is obsessive and vengeful.

Phee never really helps Non because all the ways he offers Non help are the wrong ones. He almost tries to control him. And he fails. And then he tells him awful things and breaks up with him in a terribly vulnerable moment for Non. And even when he regrets it and tries to bring justice to him, he fucks Jin because he wanted to and tries to cover it up as if it was part of the plan. Sure, they were broken up, technically, but Phee himself seems to have had "take-backies" over that breaking up. So, in his mind, at least, it's fair to say he cheats on him, which is very hypocritical after how he reacts to Non being abused. And New... He tries to help sincerely because he feels guilty but he only makes things worse. Nothing is solved and their father curses them both before committing public suicide at their mom's funeral.

Non (which may be even more relevant if he's still alive) is overly independent and uncommunicative.

He doesn't tell Jin he has a boyfriend when it's clear Jin's trying to make a move on him, event though Non's not interested. He hides very important things from Phee. He commits fraud (understandably, but yeah). And yeah, he's justified in his rage and attack but... Does he ever think of how his actions affect other such as Jin, for example, who, in his eyes, is innocent? Not really.

So, amidst a sea of grey characters, White is, funnily enough: white. He's just good. He's done nothing wrong. And the narrative needs him because, when the others die, we'll feel (to different degrees, sure, but still, we will) that there's a reason. Even if we like the characters, those deaths will make sense. But what happens when an innocent man dies? What happens when you kill the man who wasn't even supposed to be there (he joined the trip at the last minute)?

"Oh but White won't die!", I hear you say. "The innocent people never die in slashers!! Only the people who did the killer wrong do!" And that's exactly where I have to disagree.

As @syrena-del-mar says in this post: "DFF is more than just a 90s slasher film imitation". It "sits at a novel intersection of genre: horror slasher on the one hand and BL on the other hand" as @brifrischu puts it here and, for that, it bends expectations and rules and subverts what are natural tropes and events of the slasher archetype. White dying is the sort of thing this narrative, and our inventive genius Sammon, would do. Because... Do you really think they're giving us grey characters instead of black ones because we're supposed not to question this revenge? Because we're supposed to be happy about this? No. Of course not. That would be dumb. If we're meant to 100% side with the killer, then why give us likeable characters as the targets? Because, and this is as much speculation as it is reading the room, we're not.

This story, I don't know how it will end, but regardless I'm pretty confident it's supposed to tell us something important about cycles of violence: that they're neverending until someone chooses peace instead. That aggression and bloodshed and revenge... They won't bring time back, they won't undo the mistakes we make, they won't restore that which is lost, they won't make the grief go away... That they won't make us feel better. More even: that they will only hurt more people, create more injustice and prompt more revenge. And, thus, perpetuate the cycle.

So what's White's role? Being the final drop into our collective cup of realization (and perhaps the characters' as well) that this revenge mission is pointless and won't solve anything. White's role is to die.

"Oh, but uncle Dang was also innocent! Is his death not enough??", I hear you ask. And well... Maybe, maybe not. I think, honestly, his death is too impersonal for us to feel too deeply about it. Like, sure, yes, it is the death of an innocent, but it's a distant innocent. It doesn't make our blood boil because we don't know shit about that man. But, for all we don't know of White's past, we've seen him cry, we've seen him scared, we've seen him fight for his life, we've seen him be a good boyfriend and a good friend. He might just be some dude but we like him. He's the fandom's babyboy, as I said. It is more impactful and it tells the story better.

But this is just a hypothesis. And it might not convince you. And that's fair. So, because I'm a persistent obnoxious fucker with a little too much free time, I'm bringing you a second theory. For this one, though... You might need a little tinfoil hat... Be prepared.

White ≠ Who He Says He Is

So, if you think just having a character be hollow and pure good in a show of very fleshed-out and grey characters is weird, even if he might be narratively relevant, then we can only assume there's something important to White's character we don't know about yet. (I'm adding this in retrospective because I forgot but this idea came to me partially from @yellingaboutkp and their great analysis of horns in the show that you can find here)

But what could that be? We've seemingly seen all the flashbacks we needed from everyone, White doesn't seem very relevant to anyone's storyline but Tee's but... We'd assume if there was something directly connected to Tee's actions and White that we needed to see, we would've. Admittedly, the next episode seems to be on its way to tell us what Tee knows about what happened to Non and Keng while they were captured by the mafia and he could be there but I think, honestly, that it goes deeper than that. And here's why: because there's a person who's even more of an odd one out then White: whoever Perth's character is.

Now, he would've been completely unsuspicious if it wasn't for one thing: Perth's presence in the promotion of this series. He's just... Always there, somehow? Like, his character has only really appeared last episode massaging Tee's uncle but he's constantly talking about this series. Plus, his name is very well credited. AND, the absolute cherry on top, his character appears in THIS poster:

Now, yeah, I understand Marketing and Publicity (it's part of my Master's, you don't have to explain it to me). So, I know this could very well just be a strategy to sell the series. After all, Perth did get a lot of attention after The Hidden Character, I know, I know. It's also a way to put his name out there for other future roles, kinda like a soft launch. Plus, this is the show that killed Us's character first when he was one of the most popular actors in the cast. HOWEVER, I'd argue that, considering the previously mentioned attention to detail, they would not have given one of their rising stars a role in this series if it wasn't important. Like... No other background character without lines (so far) was given an important actor to play it. So pardon me, but I don't buy it. Perth's character's gotta matter somehow. And, back to what I was saying, I think the next episode will be exactly where.

See, I made a poll here on the hellsite asking what y'all think happened to Non. It's this one. And it shows that, overwhelmingly, we all think Non is alive BECAUSE he was helped by the man himself:

Now, if we're assuming Perth's character's the one that's gonna help Non (and possibly Keng or maybe not, idk and it really doesn't matter for now), we've gotta assume he's a possible suspect for the murderer. And even more so under this optic that Non is alive. Who more than a person whose whole reality seemed to be the mafia and who might've escaped it would be okay with murdering people? Right? Or, on the contrary, that he took a liking to Non and is trying to prevent him from further digging himself a hole in life and is trying to save him from himself.

"Okay, Dante, but, even if that's true, where does White fit in all this?" Glad. You. Asked.

You see, I didn't watch The Hidden Character (and those who did apparently recommend it stays that way). I didn't know any of these people before except those who were in Kinnporsche. And you know what that led me to? Curiously enough, dear reader: confusing Fuaiz with Perth. So, yeah, you know where this is going... White and Perth's character might be related. Brothers, probably.

"All because you think they look alike?" Well, if you ignore the way I just explained how it would tie some very loose ends... Yeah, kinda. BUT, in my defence, it makes a lot of genetic sense.

See, no other characters in the show really look this much alike. Believe me, I tested it.

For this purpose, I tried many different sites but the one that seemed to give me the most reliable results was FaceShape. Most characters got no more than 10%, some even got 0% (e.g. New and Perth's Character). And you wanna know how much White and Perth's character got? Nearly 50%.

For comparison reasons, New and Non who are CANONICALLY brothers, got about 30%.

BUT, if this is not convincing enough, my sister and I (who share EXACTLY the same 2 parents) got lower than them.

(pls ignore the picture, I was trynna make it as accurate as possible so I took a front pic with a neutral expression. also, my sister is censored for privacy reasons)

Now... Will I claim this is irrefutable proof? No. Not at all, but think about it: if White and Perth are related that might maybe explain how Tee and White met. It might also explain that really weird scene in the pre-release trailer (albeit all scenes in that are rather odd) where White-

Yes, thank you, Obi-Wan. And Anakin Tee is looking up at him, as if White has more power than Tee does. Because then, it could probably mean that White knows something and is probably there to do something. What exactly? Idk, man. He could be there to ensure the group remains clueless/confused or that they remain where they need to be for things to work... Or he could be there to try and prevent stuff from happening much to the likeness of what I stated for Perth's character's case.

"Oh, but if he knows something, wouldn't he know what happened to Non? Why would he be curious to watch the recording??"

Well, not necessarily. We know Non is not communicative and that he doesn't typically share his problems with anyone (the exception being Keng, obviously, but then again, the exception confirms the rule). And sure, Keng might be more talkative but idk if he would say something if Non asked him not to. I have a feeling he probably wouldn't (since he has that weird thing JJ mentioned about how he "loves Non" and, therefore, even if he's an abuser, he doesn't perceive himself that way and wouldn't do something he actively thinks would hurt Non). So, while Perth's character would know what happened to Non while he was being held by Tee's uncle and even some things about why he is there, he probably wouldn't know the rest.

But then why would he date Tee? Well, this is a narrative so... Foils are something that can happen. Having White and his relationship with Tee be a parallel to that of Phee and Jin is not weird and, in fact, has happened in the very first episode when both couples arrive at the room where the singles are, in pairs. Therefore, it wouldn't be weird to think of White as someone who maybe also fell in love with the guy that was supposed to be a means to an end or, alternatively, and perhaps more interestingly, have White NOT be in love with him and actually succeed, unlike Phee. Thus, drawing the comparison that, while Tee and White are in a relationship, White didn't fall in love and, inversely, while Phee and Jin aren't in a relationship, Phee did fall in love.

And this would mean that all we've seen of White's fear might, in fact, be an act to throw suspicion off of him. Or even more justified because he knows exactly what's lurking in the woods... After all, why would he suddenly join Jin's goodbye party if he's not a friend of Jin's? What reason better than to tag along your boyfriend's getaway with his friends if not to protect him from the terrible consequences of his actions?

But I get it. It's an extremely convoluted theory and, in all honesty, maybe makes the show more dull and boring if it's true because... Why would they repeat this "secret brother" twist? Or the dating with second intentions trope? It could be a narrative parallel, yes, but I can also definitely see how people could point that out as uncreative or lazy writing.

Either way: these thoughts were circling around my head and, before the next episode confirms or destroys them, I wanted to get them out into the world for y'all to, maybe, hopefully, join in on the hype for it, as it's less than 24h 'till it airs. Hope in that I was successful, at the very least.

Anyway... As usual feel free to (politely) argue with me, tell me I'm wrong, tell me I missed this and that, add to it, etc... Because if there's one thing I currently love more than DFF itself, it's definitely the fandom and I want us to make the most of it!!

I'll see y'all tomorrow when we're freaking out about episode 10!!!

All the love! 💜💜💜

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

what do you like about cars?

I think you knew, upon asking this, that I could only ever have answered with either an ironic one-liner or a dozen-part novel. And unfortunately, this is already the second line, so novel it is. So then, without any further ado than the literal half year that’s gone by since this was asked, let's go.

1. Engineering matters

At the end of last year (aka when I started writing this, yikes) my dear old iPhone 6S moved on to a new home because it simply wasn't keeping up with me anymore. (And again, I was using an iPhone 6S in 2023. If I say a phone is too slow, it's too slow.) I had plenty of criteria for the replacement: a smallish screen not overboard on resolution, ideally a physical media control button and/or vibration toggle, repairability, a FUCKING AUX JACK... Something like the Sony Xperia 10, whose only real issue is marketing so trash you've only just now learned Sony never stopped making phones.

And yet...

This fancy wallpapers-sporting foldable is a Motorola RAZR 5G, a phone whose too-big screen already broke (though at the edge due to adhesive issues) and those who dared try warn repairing it will be as hard as phone repairs get. Why the fuck did I buy this? Well, because it has something more important than the aux jack, proper sizing, and good cameras: it made me go “That’s so cool!”, and when’s the last time a phone made you say that? It's the cusp of a new technology, and whether it becomes the future of phones, a future of phones, or just a weird footnote, it is an island of interesting in a sea of boring. And sadly, even this island is rapidly sinking. The drive for new form factors has already boiled down to the same two phones and their evolution is sinking into the usual millimetric proportion tweaking, camera rearranging, touchscreen expanding, case material switching, fingerprint sensor moving, and spec improvements not even manufacturers can come up with use cases for. I mean, seriously, how does the iPhone 15 differ from a software-updated iPhone X (which is apparently not pronounced "x", so I guess the iPhone Twitter)? Nothing is new. Nothing is tackled differently. The user experience does not differ. And why should it, when iPhone users will get a new one out of habit anyway and many are so tech illiterate moving a button could hospitalize them? Five generation newer and 150% faster are numbers you basically have to trust, because they don't make a difference that matters.

But in cars? 150% faster will matter alright. Even just looking at it. Cars are a visceral experience to even witness, let alone ride in or drive, and the frantic engineering pursuits for performance and overall capability actually have impactful real world implications beyond "some pockets will bulge 1mm less". And their engineering involves so many fields that there’s always a breakthrough going on somewhere - which leads to another reason their engineering is so interesting: there’s simply so much of it that anyone interested in engineering will find something for them, no matter their level or sector of expertise! Interested in mechanics? Well, obviously you’ll have a field day! Aerodynamics? Don't even get me started! Electronics? You're getting more goods by the year! It spread from engine management to safety assists to infotainment to ergonomic adjustments to even suspension and aerodynamics! Sound design? Even just working on the way engines sound is a profession of its own, let alone making these barrels of metal and glass propelling themselves at triple digit speeds through hundreds of explosions a second things you can comfortably have a conversation in - and that's not even mentioning horns and chimes! Hi-Fi? We’ve spent most of a century trying to get concert hall sound from a tiny tin can where everyone sits off-center and everything bumps and shakes around and you have maybe room for two components* a third the normal size and speakers can only be in a handful of places you wouldn’t want them which may well be the next room over**!

And this is just engineering.

*Like everything in the car world, there are exceptions to that

**For those unfamiliar, subwoofers, the speakers dedicated to, indeed, sub-bass, due to their frequent humongousness are often installed in the trunk.

[cozyenigma]

Maintenance

HULLO

Word Count- 1263

Request?- Yes!

Summary- Life goes on, even out here. Unfortunately that also meant all the more inconvenient aspects.

Warnings- None

"Hand me that socket wrench?"

You weren't entirely sure why he asked for your help on this. Mark was more than capable of the usual maintenance a ship this size demanded by himself. Aside from his… quirks his work was impeccable. Hell, you could probably find half a dozen other things that needed your attention more than handing him tools. You didn't mention it.

"This one?" You held one out to him, low enough that he could see it with the mass of machinery he was under.

"That'll work."

As he reaches out to grab it, his fingers skim along your palm. It's just for a second, hardly any contact at all. Still you startle, accidentally jerking the wrench back a bit.

"Sorry," you hurried to push it back into his hand, feeling ridiculous.

Your only response is a quick thanks, Mark quickly going back to his work. Mentally you slapped yourself. It was ridiculous to be this jumpy around one of your crew. You were their captain for crying out loud, this wasn't even appropriate. Why did you even say yes to this?

Apparently, Mark had been banned from using the power tools. For what reason you couldn't actually get out of him but the padlock on the storage cabinet they were kept in was enough of an answer. So, much to Mark's annoyance, he was forced to use exclusively manual tools. He'd grabbed you on your way to the bridge, pushing the old toolbox into your hands. The head engineer wouldn't hear any arguments. True, it wasn't technically your shift on the bridge but still.

Mark called your name, insistent. With a start you realized he had been for a while now.

"Sorry what?"

"I said this one's too big, can you hand me the half inch?" Then after a beat, "Are you okay? You seem… distracted."

"I'm fine," you focus on finding the tool he needs, ignoring how the man has his head at such an awkward angle to try and look your way. "Just thinking."

"About?"

"… everything," you said, keeping it vague. Unhelpful.

There were way too many ways that he could interpret that. The journey, the colony you were supposed to be leading, the loops. Plenty of actual, real world issues that could be occupying your mind. Certainly not your childish crush on the man. Really, it wasn't out of the blue that you found yourself getting closer to him. The adventure, the tears, the whole thing lead to an easy camaraderie you treasured. Or at least you'd thought it was just that. This, now? This didn't feel easy.

As you dig around in the tool box there's a dull thud, a muttered curse, and then the sound of fabric against metal as Mark worked his way out from under the machinery. You felt your face burn. While you were handy enough to fix some basic software issues you weren't familiar with the hardware. At all.

"Sorry," you apologize, scowling at the tool box like it was at fault, "can't find the right-"

"Tell me what's really wrong."

Your head shoots up and suddenly Mark was much closer than you realized. Were you that obvious? He was crouched down right next to you, brows furrowed and tapping his fingers against his knee.

"Nothing is-"

"Cut the shit, captain, I can read you like a book. Hell, you're a picture book." He ignores your insulted scoff. "You're distracted, you're fidgety as hell, and you're avoiding me like the plague."

"What?" You couldn't keep the surprise out of your voice and Mark's expression sours. "I haven't been avoiding you, I have a whole ship to run, Mark."

"Uh huh," the engineer seemed less than convinced. "And I'm sure you've got a good reason for assigning completely opposite shifts for us? I'm a night owl but this is a little ridiculous."

"The ship's been through it!" You said. Even you were able to pick up how defensive you sounded but it wasn't like that! "Just the small stuff will take a week or so not to mention trying to get the Invincible ready for planet fall-"

"Captain you haven't even been eating lunch with everyone," Mark cuts in, words quick and snappy, "and I remember coming in for breakfast and seeing you running right out. At the same time."

"Mark it isn't like that-"

"Well what is it like?" He throws his hands up. "Just tell me! This whole thing is just because you," he pokes you, none too gently at that, "haven't said anything and you clearly have a problem with me. So spill it."

On some level, you knew he was just frustrated. Probably due in part to the odd shifts you'd been putting him on and the resulting lack of sleep. But still something inside you wrankled at his words. It tugged at things that shouldn't be. Or maybe it was just the fact that the last time he blamed you for something…

"My only problem with you right now is that you're being an asshole, Mark. Just drop it!"

Blinded by the dizzying sting of what was going through your head, you don't pay attention as you stand up. Your foot lands on the wrench, that wrong sized one you hadn't put back into the box. It slipped with a rough clatter. Suddenly your feet weren't underneath you. You see Mark's eyes go wide, trying to catch you. From his half crouched position, he doesn't have the leverage to actually pull you up. So he goes down with you.

The two of you crash into the floor. Hard. You can feel the pattern in the middle digging into your back. Your elbows stung, you knew you were gonna bruise where your shin caught the machinery. The weight on top of you was solid and heavy for a moment, just a moment, before Mark was scrambling up and off of you. You're left on the floor, staring up at him. The view was one you'd experienced only one other time.

But this time he offered you a hand. It was a quick thing, almost like he'd forgotten in the midst of the embarrassment. Probably embarrassment right? His face did seem a little red.

"You okay?" He asks, louder than he intended apparently as he follows with a quieter, "Sorry. For- yeah…"

All you could muster was a shake of the head. Not only was that whole thing almost straight out of a rom-com, you were uncomfortably reminded of what happened in the warp core. Your brain hadn't decided how you felt about all that still.

"Right, well…" Mark said, slowly letting go of your hand. You hadn't realized he was still holding it. "Sure you have something better to do than acting as assistant."

You open your mouth to deny it on reflex but Mark was already turning back to his work. Whatever it was, it had passed. Another beat of hesitation. You could tell him. The warp core and afterwards, how you hadn't meant to avoid him, how you were just trying to figure things out.

But you didn't.

Swallowing those poisonous apologies, you bid him a quick and stilted goodbye before retreating. The what ifs were too many. It could go over well but on the other hand… You tried to ignore how loudly your footsteps echoed off the metal floor. They beat at your ears in condemnation as you decided to leave things where they were.

The next shift you actually worked on, you made sure the power tools were ready and available for him.

[tgrailwar-zero]

Not really? Our physical body got wrecked a long time ago. We’re actually just voices given a humanoid shape by the Freyr. After we lost the Origin War we got sent into an endless repeating loop of holy grail wars and mindwiped over 6 billion times. Not to mention, I’m not even sure how much of The Interlopers was actually us and not just pre-programmed gunk considering our robotic nature back then.

Think of it like a computer where you replaced all the hardware after smashing it with a hammer, wiped the hard drive and software until it was dust and you had to buy a new one, and started it up again in an entirely different spot then last time. We got glimpse of memories in a dream, we were the ones trapped in their tomb, and we do feel responsible for their actions. So legally and morally, yeah, we’re The Interlopers.

Though we go by Patchwork Gestalt now.

DURYODHANA: "Alright then."

DURYODHANA: "Nope, he's dead. But that's part of why I called you here... alright, I'll only say this once, so listen up."

He cleared his throat, beginning to pace a bit, clearly preparing himself to be speaking for quite some time.

'I was summoned near the back end of the Origin War. Not by any official systems, but in the aftermath of where my Karna and that Arjuna had fought and ravaged the land. It was apparently one of the most grand battles of the Origin War, the two Archers putting everything they had against one another. Nobody knew who the 'victor' was. Some called it a stalemate with them destroying each other.'

'Anyways, I suppose the concept of a 'deadly clash between Pandava and Kaurava' and the dense magic in the land was a suitable catalyst. Maybe it was something else. Luck? Fate? Who knows. My Karna was already gone, but I figured I had to have been called for some purpose, so I began wandering.'

'When I found him... when I found Arjuna, he was already beginning to fade away. Whatever skill he had been surviving off of wasn't enough, he was starving himself of mana. Self-inflicted penance, if I know Arjuna at all. As soon as I arrived, he started talking. I didn't even have to ask. Frankly, I wasn't going to, but I guess he had something to say and he'd be damned if he vanished without saying it.'

'He spilled everything. How his mind had been taken by a dark curse, and the same had happened for his allies. How he had said and done unforgivable things in the name of a monster that his divine father had put his all into challenging. How his heart would never know peace, that sort of thing. Apparently, Karna had struck him with such a destructive blow that it served to temporarily shake whatever curse was on his mind and body, and he returned to reason. With that, he had tricked his Masters into using all three Command Spells on him in order to finish off Karna, and then- now that they had no formal power over him, he went into hiding. And, once he told me everything, he stated that he'd simply let himself fade away as penance. So I'd guessed right, because if there's one thing about the Pandava, they're predictable.'

'…With that lore dump dropped on me, I started to leave. Clearly he was dealing with his own stuff and it wasn't my problem. But he stopped me before I could leave his little pity cave to ask a favor.'

'He had discarded something important. That, if his Masters proved themselves worthy, could collect and assist them on their journey of redemption, if that's the path they chose to take. If they didn't, then it'd simply remain in stasis. Simple as that. He wanted me to guide them to that item. That if they ever broke free from 'his' curse and could enact justice, then it was rightfully theirs. He wanted me to lead you to it, since he wouldn't be able to.'

'I very reasonably asked, 'Why would I ever help you?' which I think is a fair question. We weren't exactly friends after all. I didn't owe him squat.'

'He responded, 'You don't have to do it for me, but you're a Heroic Spirit, and that monster is still out there. So please, I implore you, help me leave at least one legacy in this world that isn't darkened by violence. Be the hope for them that I couldn't be. Be the hero I was unworthy of being.''

'…'And if that's not enough, Karna gave his everything to protect this place for the sake of ending that monster. So if not for me, then for him.''

DURYODHANA: "Talk about a cheap shot. Though considering this is Arjuna we're talking about, 'cheap shots involving Karna' are his trademark."

'Still... At that point, I knew he was desperate. Entrusting his hopes and dreams to me? His legacy, to me? Me, his enemy? The man was so damn earnest that I didn't have much of a response to that one, so I agreed to his terms. He laid out everything, I committed it to memory, and then I left him to whatever fate he decided for himself.'

DURYODHANA: "...That's the long and short of it. I figured if I used one of Arjuna's epithets, it'd eventually lead you to me. Plus, it didn't hurt to hear a bunch of people singing my praises like that. But I still don't know if you're 'worthy', and I figured this was a good enough chance. If you can't win this tournament, then what hope do you have to beating that freak in the Moon Cell?"

MUSASHI: "Oh, Archer..."

[jujumin-translates]

★ Main Story | Act 13 - Budding Spring | Chapter 19 - First-Year Office Worker

Company Employee A: Those intern kids are coming in today, right? Apparently, one of them is the son of the company’s president.

Company Employee B: What’s he like?

Company Employee C: I heard he’s an actor at a theater company.

Company Employee A: Well, if he’s interning, does that mean he’s looking for an actual job?

Company Employee B: Maybe he’s an unsuccessful actor.

Company Employee C: Yeah, well, he’s just a nepobaby, so we probably shouldn’t expect much from him.

*Knock on door and door opens*

Masumi: Good morning.

Company Employee A: --G-Good morning.

Masumi: I’m Masumi Usui, I’ll be a new intern starting today.

Masumi: I may be a bit of an inconvenience at times, but I will appreciate any guidance and encouragement you may have for me. I look forward to working with you.

Company Employee B: L-Likewise.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

*Flashback*

Masumi: A suit? Too stiff, not wearing one.

Itaru: It’s better if you do this sorta thing right on your first day. You don’t wanna self-debuff by wearing the wrong armor to your first encounter.

Chikage: If you don’t have a suit, I can buy you one from the place I usually get mine.

Masumi: I have one, but…

Izumi: A suit, huh~. They really do make a person look more mature in an instant.

Masumi: I’ll wear one every day. And I’ll have breakfast at the dorms before I go.

Tsuzuru: I thought we literally all just agreed that it’d be a quicker commute to the office if you stayed in the company dorms.

Izumi: There’s no point in you coming back to MANKAI’s dorms every single morning.

Chikage: You’ll have to get some dress shirts and ties too.

Itaru: I think I’ll leave this sorta thing to our veteran office worker.

Masumi: …Whatever.

*Flashback end*

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Company Employee D: That’s all for the explanation of both the industry and our company. From here, we’ll move on to group work--.

Company Employee D: To give you a basic understanding of what promotion is, we’ll have you experience everything from planning to presenting.

Company Employee D: Here we have created a fictitious company with a specific problem.

Company Employee D: Using this as a reference, each team will come up with a plan to solve the company’s problem and then propose said plan in a presentation.

Company Employee E: If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask questions.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Masumi: …And that’s why these data results suggest that this could be an effective way of solving the company’s issues.

Masumi: Finally, does anyone have any questions for me?

Masumi: If not, I would like to conclude here. I hope you’ll consider my proposal.

Masumi: I thank you all very much for your time today.

Company Employee F: W-Whoa… he’s one hell of an actor… He’s so dignified. And really persuasive too.

Company Employee E: He cleans up nicely wearing that suit and he’s got a different kind of mindset than your typical “I’m-going-to-one-day-take-over-the-company” kind of guy.

Company Employee D: He’s the kind of guy I wish I had coming with me to my presentation this afternoon…

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Masumi: I’m finished.

Company Employee E: Huh, already? Did you read through them all?

Masumi: I’ve also compiled everything into a rough report.

Company Employee E: …Well then, are you able to use this software? Next, you can put that in a document using that.

Company Employee E: You can take your lunch break once you’re done with that.

Masumi: Understood.

Masumi: …

*Typing*

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Masumi: …Phew.

Masumi: (Now to confirm with… Oh, they’re in a meeting now. I’ll do it later. I should be allowed to take a break now that I’m done, right?)

Masumi: (I guess while I’m at it, I’ll put together a list of promotional methods that could be used for the troupe and ask whatever questions I can.)

Masumi: (It’s interesting to study promotion like this again. I get why Director and Sakyo do it.)

Masumi: (I wonder if all the other theater companies are thinking of different ways to spread the word about the stuff they’re doing.)

Masumi: (It’s like I knew all of this existed, but I never really was aware of it. It’s the exact same world of theater, but I feel like I’m seeing it in an entirely new way.)

Masumi: (Ah, right…)

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Curry has entered the chat.

Masumi: (No one’s here… I kind of hate having to be the first one, but whatever…)

Curry: thanks for the suit

[ ⇠ Previous Part ] • [ Next Part ⇢ ]

[randomthefox]

I'm sorry that you had to deal with people sending you (at least what they apparently believe to be) spoilers.

I swear the Sonic fandom is one of the most spoilers/leak-happy fandoms I've seen

Setting aside the fact that the "leaks" they're sending me are obviously fake... seriously, what recent gaming event is even happening that this supposed Crossworlds gameplay could even be accessed? Are people fucking stupid? The beta is fucking over, nobody can just play the game willy nilly right now. The only place this gameplay COULD come from is a press event, and there AREN'T ANY press events happening right now. And even if there were, why on earth would they be including DLC characters into the gameplay that the press is allowed to play without an official announcement? How is whoever was playing it getting a DIRECT FEED footage to share like this, as if they were using built in recording software to capture the gameplay? Either they HAVE the game themselves, which is obviously impossible. Or they're recording off of the TV at a press event, which is ALSO fucking impossible. Fucking USE YOUR BRAINS people, jesus christ the media illiteracy on display. "Someone on twitter posted gameplay footage of Crossworlds showing New Character" FROM WHERE? WHERE IS THIS GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE COMING FROM? ARE YOU COMPLETELY INCAPABLE OF EVEN THE SLIGHTEST DEGREE OF SCRUTINY WHATSOEVER?

But putting aside the fact that it's OBVIOUSLY FAKE. That doesn't change the fact that they're sending it to me THINKING that it ISN'T fake. So let's pretend that it's real, as they assume it is: they're just fucking sending me "leaks" of UNANNOUNCED characters being part of the roster in the game. As if that ISN'T A FUCKING SPOILER. As if it's fucking OKAY to just SEND unprompted fucking spoilers to people, unmarked, no warning. "Hey there's a leak, soandso character is gonna be in Crossworlds =B " WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT? Did I fucking ASK?

What the fuck is WRONG with these people? Legitimately. What fucking PARASITE crawled into your ear and started eating your brain that you think it's FUCKING OKAY to just casually share spoilers like that? Just because it's Sonic? You think that Sonic is so stupid and dumb that nobody could possibly care about spoilers? I don't know how else I'm supposed to interpret this. Anyone who sends spoilers about Sonic, like it ain't no thang: I'm forced to conclude that they just hate Sonic. Since it obviously didn't occur to them WHATSOEVER that anybody could, you know. Wanna NOT GET SPOILED? Maybe SOME OF US want to wait until the game actually RELEASES? Maybe SOME OF US want to wait for an official SEGA approved announcement?

I don't have anything against anyone who doesn't care about spoilers and willfully engages with and consumes leaked information. But why. Are you SHARING it? UNMARKED? WITHOUT WARNING? Why would you ASSUME that I WANT to be spoiled? Again, I can only come to one conclusion. You think Sonic is stupid, and wanting to be unspoiled and get the INTENDED EXPERIENCE of the story and character reveals from the official source is so far beyond your outlook that you cannot even COMPREHEND it that someone else could feel that way. It SINCERELY did not OCCUR to these people that I DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED. They're NOT doing it maliciously, going "haha, eat spoilers shithead." They SINCERELY AND HONESTLY didn't think I would care.

I'm going to keep repeating myself. Why would someone think that I would be okay with being sent spoilers unless they just think Sonic is too stupid for anyone to care about being spoiled on? I HONESTLY cannot FATHOM any other reason why they would be sending me these "leaks" aside from that. Cuz I SURE AS FUCK DIDN'T ASK TO BE SENT SPOILERS. So considering I DID NOT ASK FOR SPOILERS, what other explanation for WHY people are SENDING ME SPOILERS could there be? "Ah whatever, it's JUST SONIC. Who gives a shit. Let's ask the cringe furry guy about what he thinks about the new character leaks."

Like just, god damnit dude. What the fuck is WRONG with these people? I don't wanna have to turn off my ask box AGAIN over a fucking racing game of all things, but I will if I fucking have to. Jeesus.

[wolfliving]

Pebble the wearable back from a long death

I started working on Pebble in 2008 to create the product of my dreams. Smartwatches didn’t exist, so I set out to build one. I’m extraordinarily happy I was able to help bring Pebble to life, alongside the core team and community. The company behind it failed but millions of Pebbles in the world kept going, many of them still to this day.

I wear my Pebble every day. It's been great (and I'm astounded it’s lasted 10 years!), but the time has come for new hardware.

You’d imagine that smartwatches have evolved considerably since 2012. I've tried every single smart watch out there, but none do it for me. No one makes a smartwatch with the core set of features I want:

Always-on e-paper screen (it’s reflective rather than emissive. Sunlight readable. Glanceable. Not distracting to others like a bright wrist)

Long battery life (one less thing to charge. It’s annoying to need extra cables when traveling)

Simple and beautiful user experience around a core set of features I use regularly (telling time, notifications, music control, alarms, weather, calendar, sleep/step tracking)

Buttons! (to play/pause/skip music on my phone without looking at the screen)

Hackable (apparently you can’t even write your own watchfaces for Apple Watch? That is wild. There were >16k watchfaces on the Pebble appstore!)

Over the years, we’ve thought about making a new smartwatch. Manufacturing hardware for a product like Pebble is infinitely easier now than 10 years ago. There are plenty of capable factories and Bluetooth chips are cheaper, more powerful and energy efficient.

The challenge has always been, at its heart, software. It’s the beautifully designed, fun, quirky operating system (OS) that makes Pebble a Pebble.

Today’s big news - Google has open sourced PebbleOS!

PebbleOS took dozens of engineers working over 4 years to build, alongside our fantastic product and QA teams. Reproducing that for new hardware would take a long time. 

Instead, we took a more direct route - I asked friends at Google (which bought Fitbit, which had bought Pebble’s IP) if they could open source PebbleOS. They said yes! Over the last year, a team inside Google (including some amazing ex-Pebblers turned Googlers) has been working on this. And today is the day - the source code for PebbleOS is now available at github.com/google/pebble (see their blog post).

Thank you, Google and Rebble! I can't stress how thankful I am to Rebble and Google, in general and to a few Googlers specifically, for putting in tremendous effort over the last year to make this happen. You've helped keep the dream alive by making it possible for anyone to use, fork and improve PebbleOS. The Rebble team has also done a ton of work over the years to continue supporting Pebble software, appstore and community. Thank you!

In addition to PebbleOS, we’ve been supporting development of Cobble, an open source Pebble-compatible app for iOS (soon) and Android (works great today, it’s my daily driver).

We’re bringing Pebble back!

I had really, really, really hoped that someone else would come along and build a Pebble replacement. But no one has. So… a small team and I are diving back into the world of hardware to bring Pebble back!

This time round, we’re keeping things simple. Lessons were learned last time! I’m building a small, narrowly focused company to make these watches. I don’t envision raising money from investors, or hiring a big team. The emphasis is on sustainability. I want to keep making cool gadgets and keep Pebble going long into the future.

The new watch we’re building basically has the same specs and features as Pebble, though with some fun new stuff as well 😉 It runs open source PebbleOS, and it’s compatible with all Pebble apps and watchfaces. If you had a Pebble and loved it…this is the smartwatch for you.

More info to come soon! Follow the fun with @ericmigi and @pebble.

Are you like me?

Do you have a hole in your heart (and on your wrist) that hasn't been filled by any other smartwatch? 

Sign up to be the first to get one at rePebble.com. 

Eric Migicovsky

Pebble Founder

FAQ

When can I buy one?

As soon as we nail down the product specifications and get a firm idea of the production timeline, we'll share it with everyone on the list and invite people to order.

Will it be exactly like Pebble?

Yes. In almost every way. 

Aren’t you the guy who screwed this up last time?

Yes, the one and only. I think I’ve learned some valuable lessons.