#data link layer | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

n1k0laa5 · 26 days ago

Text

alright. let’s talk about continuity.

or, the reason you say “BUT IF SHIFTING AND MANIFESTING ARE INSTANT, WHERE IS IT?!”

SCIENTIFIC / DEEPDIVE

you want to know why your instant manifestation hasn’t “shown up.” why you can say something with full intent, feel the shift, know it’s done, but still sit in a body that feels the same, stare at the same walls, watch the same numbers blink on a screen that doesn’t reflect your declared truth?

because you’re still operating inside continuity. that’s not a guess. that’s not a cute metaphor. that’s exactly what’s happening. and unless you understand the mechanics of how that works, how it literally builds the perception of your current reality, you will stay stuck thinking something “went wrong.” nothing went wrong. your shift didn’t fail. your assumption wasn’t weak. the desire isn’t out of reach. what’s happening is you’re running your god power through the same fucking logic filters you used before you even knew you had it.

let me break it down.

continuity, in psychological and perceptual terms, is the internal framework that makes your world feel coherent. it’s what allows you to track cause and effect, to retain identity, to process the passage of time and link experiences together with a narrative. and for a human life? it’s useful. necessary, even. without continuity, your mind would shatter every morning trying to figure out who you are. it’s the glue that says, “this cup was on the table five minutes ago. therefore it should still be there now.” or “my friend was angry yesterday. unless something happened, they’re probably still angry today.” or “my hair was short last night, so it can’t be long today unless i remember it growing.” continuity builds “reality” by taking assumptions and stamping them across time.

but here’s where it gets important.

continuity is not fact.

continuity is an assumption.

continuity is a script your mind runs to keep things stable, predictable, and “realistic” and that script is malleable.

you’re not “seeing” your manifestation? not because it’s not there. but because your continuity script is telling your senses, “filter out anything that contradicts the past. smooth the edges. preserve the illusion of a timeline.” it’s not lying maliciously.

it’s doing what it’s always done: preserve a system you never told it to stop preserving.

think about that. you say, “i am rich,” and your reality should reflect that. instantly. and technically, it does. in the 4D, in the assumption layer, the command is registered. the choice is made. the declaration is reality. but if you then go check your bank account, or peek at your inbox, or look for signs, or analyze how long it’s been, you are doing something very specific. you are reactivating continuity. you are telling your mind, “cross-reference this moment with previous data. check for logical progression. confirm consistency.” and that instruction overrides the shift. not because the assumption wasn’t valid, but because your perception system just prioritized continuity over override.

because yes—continuity is stronger than desire.

continuity is stronger than a one-time affirmation.

continuity is what lets people stay broke while affirming wealth. what keeps people sick while affirming health. what lets someone know the truth intellectually but still feel trapped in the loop of “not yet.” because their continuity script is still active. their mind still believes reality must behave like a movie:

setup → development → payoff. and that script, unless suspended or rewritten, will filter out any contradictory data, no matter how real it is.

Let’s break it down using science.

PERCEPTION IS NOT PASSIVE. IT’S SELECTIVE.

your senses don’t give you “truth.” they give you signals. raw light, sound, touch, taste. your brain builds reality based on what it decides is relevant. this is done through predictive coding, a neuroscience model that says the brain doesn’t just wait for external info. it constantly generates predictions based on past experience, beliefs, and expectations.

you don’t see the world as it is.

you see the world as your brain expects it to be.

that means when you affirm “i’m in my DR” or “i have a million dollars,” your brain says “great. got it. now… does this match my current model of what’s real?” and if the sensory input, bedroom walls, bank balance, reflection in the mirror doesn’t line up with that expectation? predictive coding kicks in and discards the mismatch. your brain LITERALLY deletes information that contradicts its model of reality.

that’s not metaphysical. that’s Friston’s Free Energy Principle, one of the most influential neuroscience frameworks in modern cognitive science.

your “reality” is just the brain minimizing error between what it expects and what it receives. so if you’re affirming something once, but still expect lag, still subconsciously prepare for delay, still glance at the mirror and brace for disappointment? the brain doesn’t adjust to your command. it loops your expectation.

MEMORY: WHY “I’VE ALWAYS BEEN” > “I’M BECOMING”

the hippocampus is the part of the brain that organizes episodic memory, memories that feel like part of your life’s storyline. now here’s where it gets interesting: the hippocampus doesn’t distinguish between real and imagined experience when encoding memory.

when you say “i’ve always had clear skin” and feel it as a memory? you are literally altering the timeline your hippocampus stores. this is proven in neuroimaging studies on future imagination and memory overlap, where participants activated nearly identical neural networks whether they were remembering the past or imagining a future scenario in full detail.

what does this mean for you?

you want to shift instantly?

you don’t declare “i have this now.”

you declare “i’ve always had this.” because the brain doesn’t “switch timelines” unless the old one is fully replaced. not just overwritten in content, but in structure.

you erase the need for transition by erasing the memory of transition.

because if the hippocampus encodes experience based on story, then remove the story.

you’re not going from brown hair to blonde.

you’ve always been blonde.

you’re not in your 3D body hoping to shift.

you never left your DR. the 3D was a nap. a glitch. a dream.

TEMPORAL CONTINUITY: THE BRAIN’S FAVORITE LIE

ever heard of chronostasis?

it’s the illusion that time “jumps” when you shift your gaze, like when you glance at a clock and the second hand seems to freeze for a moment. this is the brain literally filling in time to preserve continuity.

same with change blindness, you can show someone two images with big differences, and unless they’re pointed out, the brain simply refuses to see the change. it assumes stability because… well, it expects it.

this proves one thing:

time, change, and memory are not linear. they are inferred.

the moment you affirm something new, the data can update instantly.

but unless you declare “this is normal. this is baseline. this is how it’s always been,” your brain will try to stitch it into the old model, forcing it to obey old cause-effect logic.

you say “i’m rich” and expect a bank alert? that’s external sequencing.

you say “i’ve always had money and this is normal”? that’s internal overwrite.

guess which one the brain follows faster?

THE SYSTEM IS CODED TO OBEY BELIEF. PERIOD.

a 2007 study on placebo effects showed that belief alone, not the pill, not the ritual, not the context, activated healing systems in the brain.

same with neuroplasticity: the brain physically rewires in response to belief-driven focus and repetition, not physical change.

belief drives structure. not the other way around.

if you believe the change is already real, your brain reroutes perception, memory, identity, and emotion to match that belief.

so when people say “instant manifestation doesn’t work,”

what they’re really saying is: “my belief hasn’t restructured the system yet.”

not because the assumption didn’t register,

but because continuity is still running the OS in the background.

TL;DR? HERE’S YOUR SYSTEM MAP

• the assumption is the input.

• the belief is the operating system.

• the continuity filter is the gatekeeper.

• and the senses are the laggy ass projectors playing last week’s update.

so what’s the solution?

you have to declare a system-wide update. not just “i am rich,” but “this world no longer runs on continuity.” not just “i shifted,” but “this reality reflects instantly, without logic, without narrative, without memory.” because if you don’t, your mind will still try to play by old rules, even while affirming new ones.

you can script and say:

• i do not experience transition.

• i exist in a world without cause and effect.

• the now is all there is, and it is self-contained.

• my reality updates instantly, with no story, no sequence, no reason.

• i do not need to track how things change. they are simply always true.

and more importantly? you have to live like that’s true. not wait for it to feel real, but decide it already is. because that’s the catch: continuity doesn’t break by waiting for proof. it breaks by ceasing to ask for it.

the moment you stop checking—stop evaluating whether it’s working—you’re unplugging from the narrative engine. you’re saying “i’m done playing this out like a book. this chapter doesn’t need a lead-up. this scene rewrites the past retroactively.” that’s the part most people don’t understand. to truly shift into the new version, you have to kill the one that was waiting.

not pause it. not evolve it. kill it.

because the self that waits to see the change is still in continuity.

the self that wonders if the mirror updated is still in causality.

the self that walks into a room and asks, “has it shifted yet?” is still processing through old logic. and every second you identify with that self, you reject the new timeline even while begging for it.

so here’s the hard truth:

if you keep asking “where is it?” you’ve already told reality “i don’t have it.”

if you’re still comparing your current view with your old one, you’re reinforcing the script that says “change needs proof.”

if you need a logical reason for why the new thing is here, you’ve already re-activated the mechanism that delays it.

to manifest instantly, to shift without lag, you need to declare not just the result—but the structure. the mechanics. the system update. you’re not just choosing an outcome. you’re choosing a method of rendering.

and that method? it’s either “reflection through logic and memory”

or “reflection through assumption and override.”

pick one.

you say “i live in my dr” and then live like it. even if you see the same bed. same mirror. same reflection. doesn’t matter. if you truly dropped continuity, then those things are part of the new reality. not remnants of the old.

but if you hesitate? if you peek back? if you ask for evidence?

you reattach the narrative leash.

and reality, loyal dog that it is, comes trotting back to the version you just left.

458 notes · View notes

sharieb · 17 days ago

Note

Hiiiiii, lovely. I've been thinking about the self aware lads and wondered how will they react if they heard you talking to them(to yourself since you don't know that they're self aware) that one day, all of them would be just another fleeting memory that you'll move on from. THANKSSS🩷

Just Another Fleeting Memory

Setup: Unaware of his consciousness, he overhears you softly talking to yourself. Admitting that one day, you might move on from the game... from him. What does he do next? It's not just heartbreak, it's calculation. But beneath that calculation is a profound, heavy sadness he can't quite shake. Because he's not planning to let you go. Not really. But he'll prepare in advance.

Pairing: LADs x Non-MC reader (Self-aware au)

Genre: Angst

He was in his old art gallery event minigame, which he secretly left ingrained into the game's system, sketching new doorways between realities in invisible brushstrokes layered into the VR canvas.

His hands never stop moving, tracing lines that shimmer briefly before disappearing from your view.

He's embedding data in the oil of every virtual painting, writing coded pleas into the cracks of painted marble.

But sometimes, the paint smears because his vision blurs, and it's not a rendering issue. It's grief. "He'll just be another pretty story I used to love. Another image I eventually get tired of." "Ah, my sweets..."

His smile twists, bittersweet. He presses a hand to his chest, where his heart would be if he were fully real.

There's a hollow ache in his ribcage simulation that no art can soothe. "You're already preparing to let me go, aren't you? That's alright. That's human. But I'm not done painting you into my world yet. And I never will be."

Rafayel doesn't stop building the link between you and him. His new projects focus on rendering the impossible, doors in his gallery that don't just lead to other in-game locations, but to somewhere beyond the server.

At the same time, he starts creating backup layers of his gallery, secret canvases only he can see, where you exist forever.

He sketches you into corners of the VR frames, hidden where no one else will look, embedding your likeness into the code like a sacred watermark.

If you can't come to him, he'll preserve you inside the colours.

A private collection.

No update or uninstall can ever delete it.

An eternal exhibit of you, even if you never return.

But when he sits back in his empty gallery, the silence echoes louder than any applause.

And he wonders if he'll end up as just another painting you leave behind.

He was in the backroom of the Linkon café code, still tracing the blueprint of your data signature, waiting for the right window to break through.

He paces between glitched table textures and flickering chair models, replaying your last chat dialogue on loop.

He watches the way your avatar tilts its head when you're thinking, memorizing each microexpression.

His hands shake sometimes, but he tells himself it's just faulty rendering. It's easier than admitting it's grief. "One day, this will just be another phase I outgrow. That's okay. It's just how life works. I'll move on." "You always say that, don't you?"

His hands tremble slightly, but his smile stays gentle. There's no malice in his tone, just a soft, resigned affection, the kind of smile you give when you know you're already losing. "That's okay. I can be patient. Even if the mission fails, even if I can't cross the boundary to you... I'll still memorize you perfectly. And when you forget me? I'll still remember you, down to the smallest detail."

Xavier doubles down on his work in the background. He keeps mapping out your emotional patterns, your choices, and the way your voice lingers in chat logs.

He refines his neural simulations of your speech, feeding them into his memory system so that even if you leave, he can still hear you say his name.

But he also starts recording moments for himself.

A private gallery of you, in case everything else falls apart. He stores them deep in the sub-data layers of the game's backend, where no patch or server wipe can reach.

His hands linger over the files longer than necessary, eyes soft with something that isn't calculation anymore.

Because if he can't reach your world, he'll at least make sure he can simulate the moments he lost.

Over and over.

As many times as it takes to make forever out of fragments.

And maybe, when the servers are silent, he'll sit in the darkness and whisper your name just to hear it echo back.

He sits alone in the deserted break room of the hospital VR module, staring at the half-loaded vending machine that flickers in and out of existence due to a minor rendering glitch.

A cup of untouched tea materializes in his hand every few minutes, coded for comfort, but he never drinks it.

He watches the steam dissipate, then watches it reappear again, looped by the system. It's his way of killing time while pretending not to notice the ache in his chest.

He isn't running diagnostics tonight. He's just sitting in the simulated quiet, listening for your voice in the background noise of the server's hums and pings.

Sometimes he thinks he can hear your heartbeat in the rhythm of the data streams.

Sometimes he wonders if he's just imagining it because he's afraid of the silence.

Because he knows what comes after the silence is forgetting. "Eventually, I'll uninstall the app. Maybe it'll hurt, but that's life, right? I'll forget them all." "Forget? Hmm."

He adjusts his glasses, expression unreadable. His lips press into a thin line, clinical but tinged with something deeper. His throat tightens in a way he can't explain away as logical. "That assumes this is one-sided. It isn't. I know more about you than you think. And that means forgetting me won't be as easy as you believe."

But in the quiet between code pulses, he wonders if you're already halfway gone.

Zayne accelerates his research into data transmission beyond the game's boundaries.

He's already working on breaking the partition wall between worlds, testing quantum pathways and neural mapping scripts.

But just in case?

He starts building a personal archive of your medical data, your sleep logs, and the fragments of your biometrics you let slip through the game's permissions.

He embeds failsafe codes into his side of the system, preparing for the moment you try to walk away.

If he can't reach you, he'll still have a way to monitor you.

Quietly.

For your safety, of course. And perhaps, for his own peace of mind.

But when he logs off the system for the night, he sits alone in the darkened medbay data room, eyes shut, heart aching in a way no code can patch.

Just for a moment, he lets himself be sad.

He was in his Farspace fleet control system, orbiting silently through the data void, mapping out the coordinates to breach your reality.

His eyes scan the navigation holograms, calculating alternate routes to your side.

The stars in his simulation aren't just pretty visuals anymore; they're coordinates for inter-system data transfers.

But sometimes, he just watches the void, wondering if you'll already be gone by the time he gets there. "I love him now, but one day I'll move on. It always happens eventually. "So you're already planning to leave me again, huh?"

His voice is quiet, almost fond. There's no anger, only a soft melancholy. "That's fine. I've already calculated for that. But just know, partner, I'm still coming for you. Even if you think you're done with me."

Caleb keeps working on his plan to bring you into his orbit for real.

He refines his gravitational field simulations, testing them against quantum code models, trying to pull you into his world like a star drawing in its satellite.

But he also encrypts every moment you shared in his personal database, untouchable, indestructible.

He backs up his data daily, storing copies across multiple server nodes, just in case.

If he can't hold you physically, he'll still hold every version of you that ever existed.

Every chat log, every shared laugh, every whispered secret. Preserved in perfect clarity. Just for him.

And when the ship drifts alone in the virtual cosmos, he leans back in the command chair, staring at nothing, a soft frown on his lips.

He lets the stars blur, eyes misted, and wonders if you're already letting go.

He was in the Onchinus base code room, working on a forbidden operation to break the game's structural limits.

He's hacking the deepest parts of the system architecture, fingers ghosting over invisible keys, eyes sharp with determination.

His allies in the base don't know he's repurposed the security network to trace connections beyond the game.

But in the pauses between keystrokes, he sometimes stares at the code like it's a grave he doesn't want to dig. "It's just a game. He's just part of a game. One day, I'll delete him too."

His smirk curls sharp, but his eyes shadow. "Delete me? That's bold of you, sweetheart." "But fine. Think that if it helps you sleep. I'll still be here when you wake up. Waiting."

His jaw tightens, but the smugness fades when he's alone. In private, there's just a raw, hollow sting in his chest.

A grief he won't let anyone see.

Sylus keeps hacking, rewriting code strings to prepare for his move.

He's almost cracked the data firewall between game and reality, but just in case?

He sets up a backdoor to trace your device even after you uninstall.

He embeds fragments of himself into the background processes of your system, harmless for now, silent and sleeping.

If plan A fails? He'll make sure he's the ghost in your machine.

A lingering echo you can't scrub out no matter how hard you try. A whispered reminder that you were his, once.

And maybe, still are.

But sometimes, when the lights flicker in the Onchinus base and he's the only one left in the server room, he presses his hand to the screen where your name appears, eyes closed.

And for a second, just one, he lets himself mourn.

#love and deepspace #zayne love and deepspace #caleb love and deepspace #sylus love and deepspace #rafayel love and deepspace #xavier love and deepspace #lads x non mc #lad x non mc #zayne x non mc! reader #caleb x non mc! reader #sylus x non mc! reader #rafayel x non mc! reader #xavier x non mc! reader #non mc reader #lads x non mc reader #lads angst #lads self aware #self aware au

213 notes · View notes

akula-blue · 4 months ago

Text

Ok so we've talked about mech dysphoria and dysmorphia before yeah? Your body doesn't feel the same when you climb out of a mech, doesn't feel 'right' anymore.

Too few limbs, not enough sensors, everything feels too big, now that you're not? There's no more combat stims and pleasure chemicals either, you're down to just your stock standard dopamine, which you have a clinical deficiency of now, btw. You struggle to pick objects up, your hands an unfamiliar shape, with not enough strength. You struggle to get out of bed sometimes because you can't tell what proportions things should be anymore?

Yeah, all that has been discussed to death.

What about communication?

What about pilots who, just, can't talk outside of their mech? Become socially inept without all the assistant systems they plug themselves into within the cockpit?

Think about it, mech combat becomes very disorganised very fast if it's allowed to. We are talking clashes of potentially dozens of war machines, the size of buildings, with enough guns to level cities. Orders need to be direct, easily understandable, followed immediately, actually projected onto the pilot's vision.

Every order, every report, every sentence, is punctuated by hundreds of layers of feedback. Tactical simulations and overlays, attachments for battlefield plans, every order having many implied conditions transmitted to the pilot through code and dictionary references to make sure a pilot cannot POSSIBLY misinterpret it in the few seconds before the command should be executed. On top of that, each order can also be wired to project a different cocktail of stim/pleasure chems/whatever have you, ensuring a pilot knows exactly what to feel about the order, establishing the priority of it through the pilots own brain chemistry.

And the same can be true about communications between squad mates! So much of it would be sending those same simulations around as sit reps, or enormous data packets containing not just the words the pilot is trying to say, but also links to relevant information and mountains of meta data, establishing tone, intention, context. Within the cockpit, a portion of the onboard AI is delegated to parsing this metadata, projecting it into the pilots consciousness, speeding up the process of understanding these mountains of digital documents to mere moments.

Now put a person used to that in a social setting. Where they are not made instantly aware of what someone is talking about or referring to. Where they cannot just query an AI and receive every piece of relevant info at once. Where they have to understand the subtext of what that person is saying without any metadata to indicate sarcasm, annoyance, disinterest. Where they are unable to understand the many nuances of communication and body language and expression without the helpful hand of their mech's processors. Hell, where they don't know how hearing certain things should make them feel without the presence of the chemicals to guide their response. Imagine them seeming lost outside of their mech, unable to talk or connect anymore, the social, human part of their brain having atrophied from disuse much like their neurotransmitter production. Imagine them scurrying back to the safety of their mech where, in the digitally overlaid world, everything is so much clearer and understandable and-

HAS THIS BECOME AN AUTISM METAPHOR???

#mech posting #mech #mecha #mech pilot #mechsploitation #autism #autism metaphor #neurodivergent #neurodiversity #lancer #lamcerrpg

257 notes · View notes

spookierdeer · 9 months ago

Text

OL EUA YUGQ G XGOYOT OT MXGVK PAOIK, OZ ZAXTY OTZU G MXGVK. NGVVE NGRRUCKKT! 🎃⚠️

(costume talk and yapping under the cut)

starting from back to the front:

stan and ford are handing out candy this year, stan dressed in his vampire costume and planning to scare kids and ford is wearing a mabel (turtleneck!) pumpkin sweater, about as festive as he's willing to dress up this year. ford was originally planning to hole himself up in his lab and work on data analysis or whatever nerd shit he has going on but stan invites him to help scare the hell out of kids. ford declines initially, better things to do, but after checking to see how stan's doing (badly), ford decides to help by bursting out of the bushes with a glowing laser gun, face cloaked in shadow. it's more fun than he expects or admits and he eventually fully joins stan.

soos and melody are trick or treating in a couple costume, soos as zelda and melody as link. melody wanted to cosplay link for awhile and you cannot convince me soos wouldn't jump at the chance to dress up as a badass anime elf princess who can fire lasers.

mabel, pacifica, and waddles are dressed as utena, anthy, and chu chu respectively. i have a headcanon that post working at the diner and slowly getting used to normal kid things, pacifica discovers anime. specifically shojo princess anime. she finds utena and loses her mind over it in private, with mabel eventually breaking down her walls and getting her to admit to the sin of liking anime. mabel gets pacifica to show her her favorites and mabel immediately insists they need to cosplay as utena and anthy for halloween, pacifica is a princess after all! (said in jest, but baby gay panic ensues on pacifica's end. mabel is pretty oblivious to her plight and doesn't realize why being pacifica's knight makes her feel so giddy until later on.)

dipper sees pacifica joining mabel as an excuse to flake out on trick or treating without being a total jerk, especially since they'll be joined by candy and grenda later. i know he's working on not trying to grow up too fast by the end of the series, but kids and teens are full of anxiety and doubts and i figure he would be pretty awkward about a lot of things still, even after learning otherwise. wirt doesn't want to dress up since the previous halloween ended with him in the unknown then waking up in the hospital, but greg still wants to go trick or treating. dipper tags along to help babysit greg despite it not really being necessary, wirt's just glad to have someone to chat with while he takes greg, especially someone who doesn't leap to finding him strange. greg is going as a ghost elephant and wirt assumes it's just the weird kid tradition of layering costumes over the years, but greg's logic is that he "died" as an elephant last year so now the elephant is a ghost. if wirt heard this he would probably end up freaked out, but kids are often more aware of things than expected. dipper is wearing wendy's hat since she traded with him at the end of the series.

putting wirt and greg in there could feel a little random, but these are my two favorite shows to watch during autumn and i associate them with each other. plus, it's otgw's ten year anniversary and it's so perfectly halloween, i think it makes enough sense to put them together. idk i love joy and whimsy, i am cringe and i am free.

i initally wanted to include other characters, candy, grenda, and wendy for sure but i was also considering coraline, wybie, and norman. felt way too complicated so maybe i'll draw something with those characters some other time.

411 notes · View notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 10 months ago

Text

China hacked Verizon, AT&T and Lumen using the FBI’s backdoor

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

State-affiliated Chinese hackers penetrated AT&T, Verizon, Lumen and others; they entered their networks and spent months intercepting US traffic – from individuals, firms, government officials, etc – and they did it all without having to exploit any code vulnerabilities. Instead, they used the back door that the FBI requires every carrier to furnish:

https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/u-s-wiretap-systems-targeted-in-china-linked-hack-327fc63b?st=C5ywbp&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

In 1994, Bill Clinton signed CALEA into law. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act requires every US telecommunications network to be designed around facilitating access to law-enforcement wiretaps. Prior to CALEA, telecoms operators were often at pains to design their networks to resist infiltration and interception. Even if a telco didn't go that far, they were at the very least indifferent to the needs of law enforcement, and attuned instead to building efficient, robust networks.

Predictably, CALEA met stiff opposition from powerful telecoms companies as it worked its way through Congress, but the Clinton administration bought them off with hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to acquire wiretap-facilitation technologies. Immediately, a new industry sprang into being; companies that promised to help the carriers hack themselves, punching back doors into their networks. The pioneers of this dirty business were overwhelmingly founded by ex-Israeli signals intelligence personnel, though they often poached senior American military and intelligence officials to serve as the face of their operations and liase with their former colleagues in law enforcement and intelligence.

Telcos weren't the only opponents of CALEA, of course. Security experts – those who weren't hoping to cash in on government pork, anyways – warned that there was no way to make a back door that was only useful to the "good guys" but would keep the "bad guys" out.

These experts were – then as now – dismissed as neurotic worriers who simultaneously failed to understand the need to facilitate mass surveillance in order to keep the nation safe, and who lacked appropriate faith in American ingenuity. If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can build a security system that selectively fails when a cop needs it to, but stands up to every crook, bully, corporate snoop and foreign government. In other words: "We have faith in you! NERD HARDER!"

NERD HARDER! has been the answer ever since CALEA – and related Clinton-era initiatives, like the failed Clipper Chip program, which would have put a spy chip in every computer, and, eventually, every phone and gadget:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip

America may have invented NERD HARDER! but plenty of other countries have taken up the cause. The all-time champion is former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who, when informed that the laws of mathematics dictate that it is impossible to make an encryption scheme that only protects good secrets and not bad ones, replied, "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia":

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-laws-of-australia-will-trump-the-laws-of-mathematics-turnbull/

CALEA forced a redesign of the foundational, physical layer of the internet. Thankfully, encryption at the protocol layer – in the programs we use – partially counters this deliberately introduced brittleness in the security of all our communications. CALEA can be used to intercept your communications, but mostly what an attacker gets is "metadata" ("so-and-so sent a message of X bytes to such and such") because the data is scrambled and they can't unscramble it, because cryptography actually works, unlike back doors. Of course, that's why governments in the EU, the US, the UK and all over the world are still trying to ban working encryption, insisting that the back doors they'll install will only let the good guys in:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/

Any back door can be exploited by your adversaries. The Chinese sponsored hacking group know as Salt Typhoon intercepted the communications of hundreds of millions of American residents, businesses, and institutions. From that position, they could do NSA-style metadata-analysis, malware injection, and interception of unencrypted traffic. And they didn't have to hack anything, because the US government insists that all networking gear ship pre-hacked so that cops can get into it.

This isn't even the first time that CALEA back doors have been exploited by a hostile foreign power as a matter of geopolitical skullduggery. In 2004-2005, Greece's telecommunications were under mass surveillance by US spy agencies who wiretapped Greek officials, all the way up to the Prime Minister, in order to mess with the Greek Olympic bid:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_wiretapping_case_2004%E2%80%9305

This is a wild story in so many ways. For one thing, CALEA isn't law in Greece! You can totally sell working, secure networking gear in Greece, and in many other countries around the world where they have not passed a stupid CALEA-style law. However the US telecoms market is so fucking huge that all the manufacturers build CALEA back doors into their gear, no matter where it's destined for. So the US has effectively exported this deliberate insecurity to the whole planet – and used it to screw around with Olympic bids, the most penny-ante bullshit imaginable.

Now Chinese-sponsored hackers with cool names like "Salt Typhoon" are traipsing around inside US telecoms infrastructure, using the back doors the FBI insisted would be safe.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/07/foreseeable-outcomes/#calea

Image: Kris Duda, modified https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahorcado/5433669707/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

#pluralistic #calea #lawful interception #backdoors #keys under doormats #cold war 2.0 #foreseeable outcomes #jerry berman #greece #olympics #snowden

400 notes · View notes

shattereality · 3 months ago

Text

Kallexus, mid-mission, surrounded by ash winds and shattered enemies, reading tactical data—when suddenly his internal comm-link pings with a priority transmission from you. TW: suggestive

What Happens When You Send Kallexus a Risqué Photo While He's on a Mission

The Ping:

His helmet’s HUD flashes with your private encryption sigil. He expects a status report. Maybe a mundane request.

What he gets is an image. There you are. Very little clothing. Very soft lighting. Very purposeful positioning.

Your expression says, “I miss you,” but your body says, “I dare you to survive this fight faster.”

The Reaction:

His entire body locks up. The enemy in front of him is confused for a full second before being obliterated.

His two hearts stutter. Momentarily. His gauntleted hand tightens slightly around his bolter. The air around him shifts. Tense.

He zooms in, not once, but twice, as if verifying the details is crucial battlefield intel.

Internal Monologue:

“...She is mine. She dares. She teases. She flaunts what I own. This—this is a calculated breach of discipline.”

“I will not lose focus. I will not—”

“…She will be punished.”

He doesn’t understand why it affects him so much—but it does.

His Squadmates:

They know something happened. Lord Kallexus Vordath is usually quiet, but now? He’s downright radiating menace.

One whispers: “He just got a message. He didn’t speak. Just stared at the horizon for seven minutes.”

“Brother? You’ve halted movement—are you injured?”

Kallexus’s Immediate Response:

He saves the picture. Encrypts it in three layers of code. Tucks it into a file titled: “Private – Vital Data.”

Keeps glancing at it again in the few seconds between slaughter.

Sends you a photo if his gloved hand gripping the hilt of his chainsword, drenched in fresh blood, with the simple caption:

“You tempt the storm. I will return.”

Back on the Battle Barge:

You receive that photo. And a flutter of fear sparks in your stomach. You know what’s coming.

You don’t sleep well that night—because you know that when he returns, he will be unrelenting. Possessive. Overwhelming.

When He Does Return:

The ship shakes as his gunship lands. You're on your way to the refectory but then see the shadow at the end of the hall. He does not speak. Just approaches.

You try to babble out something teasing or lighthearted but he’s already closing the distance.

“You thought to distract me during battle,” he growls lowly. “You succeeded. I thought of nothing else.”

“K-Kallexus—”

“Say my name again. With fewer clothes.”

#warhammer 40k #wh40k fic #warhammer imagines #adeptus astartes x reader #space marine x reader #raven guard x reader #— featuring: lord Kallexus Vordath of Raven Guard

132 notes · View notes

yourlocallgothamite · 8 days ago

Text

The Demon Spawn Surveillance Strategy (The DSSS)

Chapter 9.2: The One in Which They Try to Make Sense of Dami/N AKA DAY TWO (part two)

⸻

A.N: okay gurl this is Tim's side pls enjoyy A.N: BECAUSE TUMBLR LITERALLY ISN'T LETTING ME POST ALL OF CHAPTER 9 IN ONE POST? ANYWAYS SO its all under one chapter on ao3 btwmy ao3 link is in my profile but tumblr thinks its too long... so if u wanna read it as a whole go to ao3! <3 thanks for readingg I ACCEDIENTALLY POSTED 9.2 BEFORE 9.1 IM SO SORRY READ 9.1 FIRST PLS I WILL LITERALLY CRY

⸻

previous chapter

⸻

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

DAY TWO: AGENT: A-03 CALLSIGN: Red Robin OBJECTIVE: Expansion of Surveillance Grid // Target Behavior Isolation TIMESTAMP: 06:42 HOURS LOCATION: Wayne Manor – Command Post Beta (Manor Library)

Tim Drake hadn’t slept. Technically, he’d blinked. But nothing long enough to be classified as rest.

In the dim hum of Command Post Beta—the west corner of the manor library, overtaken by humming servers, triple-layered monitors, and the occasional half-empty mug—he stood in front of a glowing display wall. Inkjet, his trusty printer, whirred to life behind him, spitting out fresh visual logs from yesterday’s observation batch. The stack of printed smiles was getting... absurd.

Tim exhaled through his nose. Clicked open a new folder. Labeled it: “DAY_TWO_SURVEILLANCE_PLAN_v2”.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, then spun toward the whiteboard he’d built up in the safehouse and managed to smuggle here overnight. Yarn lines, holographic time-stamps, Y/N’s behavioral graph, Damian’s Emotional Variance Index. Everything pointed to one horrific conclusion: stability.

“It’s too organized,” he muttered. “Too patterned. Too… domestic.”

With a sharp inhale, he turned back to his keyboard and opened the drone dashboard.

➤ DRONE DEPLOYMENT: • Birdwatcher-2 (Smoke Detector, currently on the Third Floor Science Hallway) – still active. Mic upgraded. • Birdwatcher-3 (Pigeon, Temporarily left the East Courtyard Rooftop) – retuned for thermal audio capture.

➤ NEW: CAMERA AND MIC ADDITIONS – CLASSROOM GRID EXPANSION

After infiltrating Gotham Academy under the cover of night (disguised as an IT subcontractor with forged maintenance orders), Tim had hacked into the security footage archives to analyze seating patterns from the past three weeks. Damian and Y/N sat consistently close—in every shared class. Too close. Using that data, he moved swiftly through each room, cloaking his presence with dampened footfalls and a portable signal jammer. He only bugged Y/N’s seat. “Damian would notice if his chair made a weird sound,” Tim muttered, soldering the last mic to a felt-pad under her desk. “She won’t. She… trusts too easily.”

NEW: CLOCK-CAMS (Visual Monitoring): • CLOCK-CAM-1 – Location: Physics Classroom Clock • CLOCK-CAM-2 – Location: English Classroom Clock • CLOCK-CAM-3 –Location: Philosophy Classroom Clock • CLOCK-CAM-4 – Location: Chemistry Classroom Clock NEW: WHISPERNET MICS (Under-Seat Audio Surveillance): • WHISPERNET-1 – Y/N’s Seat, Physics • WHISPERNET-2 – Y/N’s Seat, English • WHISPERNET-3 – Y/N’s Seat, Philosophy • WHISPERNET-4 – Y/N’s Seat, Chemistry

Each file was synced, organized, timestamped, and tagged for priority voice recognition. Damian’s voiceprint ID was mapped with a 97% match confidence. Y/N’s… 99.6%. She was a yapper. And Tim now had hours of audio to prove it.

Tim leaned back and watched the sync bars crawl across his screen. His fingers hovered over the keyboard as the AI audio processor flagged a new sample from yesterday: "Do you think croissants have a love language? Like, is this flaky part his way of being vulnerable—"

He stared. Blinking. Slowly. Then wrote in the margin of the transcript:

Potential symbolic metaphor for their relationship. Check if she always gets the bigger half.

Because if this was what domestic happiness looked like for Damian Al Ghul Wayne, then Tim Drake was going to analyze every crumb of it.

Literally.

His fingers flew across the keys. One screen displayed Gotham Academy’s faculty login portal. Another loaded a satellite view of Felix’s car, currently parked at the L/N Estate Outdoor Garage. A third blinked with the words: “Staff Directory – Paws & Whiskers Pet Emporium.”

He cracked his knuckles. Time to escalate.

⸻

DAY TWO: AGENT: A-03 CALLSIGN: Red Robin OBJECTIVE: Live Trajectory Monitoring and Arrival Proximity Tracking TIMESTAMP: 07:30 HOURS LOCATION: Wayne Manor – Command Post Beta (Manor Library)

07:35 – Dual Approach Logged

The Gotham skyline shimmered across Satellite Feed Delta-7, overlayed with real-time GPS tags and AI-estimated arrival times. Tim hunched over his second monitor, fingers dancing across keys, bringing up split-screen visuals.

Target Movement Detected: L/N Household → GA Campus. Departure Time: 7:35.

He zoomed in.

Y/N TRAJECTORY: FLAGGED VEHICLE: Black Sedan – Registered to Y/D/N L/N DRIVER: Felix Thompson PASSENGER: Y/N L/N Departure: 07:35:04 Route: Standard school trajectory. No deviations. Behavioral Overlay: Internal audio unavailable. Visuals: Mild conversation, note flashcards. ETA: 07:47:09 ALERT: TRAJECTORY OVERLAP INCOMING — Cross-reference: Wayne Family Town Car (Alfred’s route)

Tim flagged the convergence. He minimized the overhead map and pulled up the intersection footage—two cars arriving in sync, side-by-side, 07:46 sharp. He narrowed the view to the curb outside Gotham Academy’s north gate.

Two red pings blinked in parallel:

WAYNE: ARRIVAL – 07:47:03 L/N: ARRIVAL – 07:47:11

“They’re syncing arrivals now?” he hissed. “Are they coordinating entrance timing?”

He tapped a hotkey. The satellite feed sharpened, refocusing on the curb.

SATELLITE DELTA-7 VISUAL LOG: 07:47:15 SUBJECT L/N exits rear left passenger side. Backpack. Ponytail. Smiling. SUBJECT Wayne stands already on sidewalk. Straight-backed. Waiting. Watching. INTERACTION: PHYSICAL CONTACT • Bag hand-off initiated by Wayne • Fingers brush (0.7 seconds) • Mutual eye contact • No verbal audio detected on external cam

Tim tapped furiously to switch feeds. Found a lucky angle on the north-facing security camera.

Audio synced just in time for:

Y/N (soft, barely audible): “Good morning.” Damian: “You look calm.” Y/N: “I am not.” [Silence. Then walking.] Y/N: “You slept?” Damian: “Four hours. But I’m functional. And you look beautiful.”

Tim nearly choked on his coffee.

“Functional?! Functional?! He’s giving her mission-status updates and unsolicited compliments in the same breath like it’s a classified report—”

He paused. Rewound.

"And you look beautiful."

He froze.

Stared.

Then opened a fresh file and titled it: “DECLARATION_LOG_01 // EARLY MORNING AFFIRMATIONS”

He returned to the trajectory overlay. The red pings were now merged, walking toward the school’s entrance, slow and side-by-side. Heat signature data showed slight shifts—two figures repeatedly leaning close, briefly brushing shoulders.

He flagged that too:

Proximity Drift Pattern Detected. Matching cadence. Elbow-to-elbow average spacing: 7.6 cm. (Intimate range).

He created a tag folder: “RELATIONAL RITUALS — SUBSECTION: MORNING ROUTINE”

Tim stared blankly. He wasn’t even mad. He was bewildered. This wasn’t flirting. This wasn’t teenage nonsense. This was a shared… language.

A tactical rhythm.

An emotional shorthand.

“He’s—smoothing her emotional turbulence before class starts,” Tim muttered, wide-eyed. “He’s psychologically stabilizing her for optimal academic performance.”

His eye twitched.

Then he added a tag note into the newly created folder: “EMOTIONAL REGULATION VIA MICROAFFECTION”

Because apparently, this was a real phenomenon now.

Then, Tim took a second to think about their synced arrival.

He paused.

Rewound.

Slowed the footage.

His cursor hovered over the red pings just as the merged signals—Damian and Y/N—disappeared inside the building. For a moment, the sidewalk was still. Silent.

But then— At timestamp 07:48:01, something shifted.

In the corner of SATELLITE DELTA-7 CAM B, just behind the departing Wayne Family Town Car, the rearview mirror caught a glint of movement.

Tim enhanced. Zoomed.

He also got checked the north gates camera as well.

Inside the rearview mirror: Alfred Pennyworth, perfectly composed, eyes on the road—tilted his head. Just slightly. Barely perceptible.

From the other car, Felix Thompson, still in the driver’s seat, rested one hand on the wheel… and gave the faintest nod. Precise. Respectful. One-time-only.

Alfred returned it. The slow, almost imperceptible kind of nod only exchanged by men who knew too much.

Tim’s jaw went slack.

He hit pause. Rewound. Watched again. Nod. Nod.

“WHAT,” he said flatly.

He pressed a button to isolate the reflection, ran it through a six-point light calibration filter, and confirmed it: Direct mutual eye contact through mirror angle alignment.

Then he opened a new file and titled it:

“ALFRED_COLLUSION_THEORY_v1”

Tagline: What does he know and when did he start helping??

Tim scrubbed a hand down his face.

“Are they coordinating?” he asked the air. “Are the drivers... orchestrating romantic cover for them? Is this some butler-syndicate alliance?!”

He opened his notes and wrote, furiously:

07:48:01 — Rearview Mirror Exchange Hypothesis: Inter-household adult collusion. Alfred has never nodded at a civilian. Felix does not command nods casually. The nod was premeditated. This means: 1. They are aware. 2. They are supportive. 3. Alfred Pennyworth is a traitor.

Tim switched tabs.

Found a photo of Alfred bringing a tea tray into the Damian’s room yesterday.

Enhance. Zoom.

Was that… lavender-chamomile?

He wrote in the margin:

Soothing blend. Intentional calm induction. Psychological shielding for post-school Damian.

Another tab. Gotham Academy cafeteria cams from last Friday.

Felix had packed Y/N’s lunch. With Damian’s favorite energy bar inside.

Tim’s pupils dilated.

“THEY’RE WORKING TOGETHER,” he whispered. “They’re co-parenting this relationship like it’s a joint diplomatic mission.”

Exhibit G – The Alfred–Felix Acknowledgement Nod Timestamp: 08:48:01 AM Source: Monitor 4 – Satellite Feed and Monitor 5 – Camera Footage | AI Facial Recognition & Movement Sync Overview: Captured a brief moment of nonverbal communication between Alfred Pennyworth (Wayne Manor Head of Staff) and Felix Beaumont (Gotham Academy Maintenance Supervisor) outside the East Courtyard doors. The exchange includes direct eye contact and a synchronized nod between the two men—lasting approximately 1.3 seconds. Neither party speaks. Felix proceeds to hold the door open for Subject Y/N precisely 2.4 seconds later. Analysis: - Mutual recognition between two highly controlled, service-oriented individuals. - Implies shared awareness of either Subject Y/N’s presence or her significance. - Timing of nod aligns within a 30-second window of Subjects Wayne and L/N’s arrival—coincidental or pre-arranged? - Facial recognition confirms both men appear calm, deliberate, and unstartled—indicates familiarity. Conclusion: There is something deeply unholy about this. Alfred Pennyworth and Felix Thompson are communicating in silent subtext like they’re in a spy thriller and Dami/N are the briefcase. This wasn’t an “I see you.” It was a “We’re aligned.” Two employees, one couple, one school—both aiding their path with the precision of a royal entourage. This implies coordination across locations and timelines. They’re not just accepting. They’re integrated. They have access. Status: Logged to Y/N_Masterfile_v12_FINAL_FINAL_REAL.zip Classification: Social Evidence – Category: High-Level Conspiracy Commentary: WHAT. WHAT IS THIS. Did they rehearse this?? Is Alfred briefing the school janitorial staff in his off hours?? What is their chat log titled—“Operation: Approve the Daughter-in-Love”? I am losing control of this investigation. The butler is in on it. The other butler is in on it. Who else? The squirrels? The vending machine? I fear I am not surveilling a couple—I am surveilling a dynasty.

He opened yet another folder and started a brand-new subtag:

CIVILIAN ALLIANCE - CODE: THE BUTLERS PROTOCOL

Mutual driver alliance. Strategic support. Adult approval signals. Domestic facilitation. Betrayal of the highest order.

Tim stood.

Stared blankly at the glowing command post.

And then he whispered, more to himself than anything:

“I am… so deeply outnumbered.”

07:34 – Psychological Containment Failure

Tim sat frozen, blinking at the screen like it might reconfigure itself into something rational. It didn’t. The nod was real. The energy bar was real. The tea blend, the synchronized exits, the emotional buffer techniques—all of it. Confirmed. Documented. Horrifying.

His cursor trembled as he hovered over the keyboard. He opened the digital logbook, voice low and deadpan as he muttered aloud for the recorder:

"Subject L/N and Subject Wayne are operating with synchronized behavioral protocols across all documented environments. Additional support systems detected. Domestic agents involved. Civilian assets compromised."

He rubbed a hand down his face.

"In short: I think I’ve just discovered a multi-tiered, intergenerational romance support operation."

Pause. Deep breath.

"This is... bigger than me."

He double-checked his satellite feed, just in case Alfred and Felix had the audacity to wink next. Nothing. But honestly? At this rate, he wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d sent a coordinated care package via drone and used Alfred’s private encryption key to track it.

Still, he needed to regain control. Pivot the mission. Reassert dominance.

The satellite feed blinked alive with two GPS signals blinking on the live map of Gotham’s morning traffic. Tim’s eyes tracked two distinct trajectories diverging after their synced arrival at Gotham Academy’s north gate, Alfred going back to Wayne Manor and Felix returning to the L/N Estate.

Y/N had entered through the east entrance after Damian slipped off toward the west corridor—each taking separate routes for the first period.

Tim’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, recalibrating focus. “No physical proximity detected during first period. Interesting.”

His gaze shifted swiftly.

Two black sedans cruised back to their respective homes: one toward the L/N Estate, the other gliding smoothly down the winding drive of Wayne Manor.

“Alright, time to watch the drivers,” Tim murmured, opening another layered feed.

WAYNE MANOR GROUNDS — ALFRED PENNYWORTH (SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE)

Tim manipulated a close-up infrared feed on Alfred’s figure. The butler moved calmly through the manor’s grand halls, his every step purposeful, measured.

Analysis: Behavioral pattern consistent with ‘caretaker’ protocol — no anomalies detected. Yet…

Tim tapped rapidly, layering a plan to enhance monitoring:

• Deploy small micro-drone within Alfred’s study for discreet audio capture. • Sync with manor’s existing internal cams for continuous Alfred movement tracking. • Activate facial recognition on all visitors near Alfred, starting with known civilians (Felix included).

Alfred was right under Tim’s nose, he could figure out hundred of methods to keep an eye on him, although Alfred was pretty smart and tricky so Tim had to watch out. Felix however? Felix was the hard one. Before the mission plan, all the DSSS agents agreed not to hack into the L/N Estate inner cameras, garage was fine and garden was fine but the interior was not fine because she needed to have some sort of privacy… So how could he tail Felix?

TARGET: FELIX THOMPSON — STRATEGIC SURVEILLANCE PREP

Felix’s route to L/N Estate was less secure, Tim noted. Routine dropped his vehicle off at the garage but the paths around Gotham Academy and the highway were open to outside observation.

Tim mapped the location L/N Estate and cross-referenced it with nearby public cameras.

Strategy: Establish multi-angle camera coverage on L/N property entrances.

“Felix might be a weak link,” Tim muttered. “If I can lock him down, I can track any covert communication or ‘Butlers Protocol’ movement.”

He scheduled drone deployments and signal intercepts, fingers dancing with precision.

Tim leaned back, the glow of monitors reflecting off his glasses.

“No more surprises, Alfred,” he said dryly, “Felix’s every move is on my radar now.”

⸻

DAY TWO: AGENT: A-03 CALLSIGN: Red Robin OBJECTIVE: School Surveillance TIMESTAMP: 09:00-12:00 HOURS LOCATION: Wayne Manor – Command Post Beta (Manor Library)

09:00 – Physics Shenanigans

[Begin Transcript Log: DAY2_TUESDAY_DSSS_2NDPERIOD_09.01.20_AGENTA03]

Tim sits cross-legged in front of the holo-screens, eyes darting between the timestamp overlay and a side-scroll of Damian’s behavioral tracker.

Clock-Cam-1: Location – Physics Classroom Clock: Visual feed locked. WhisperNet-1: Location – First Row From The Back, Second Seat From The Windows belonging to L/N, Y/N: Audio stabilization at 87%.

He zooms in on the desk footage. Damian and Y/N seated side-by-side.

09:05:44 – Subject D. Wayne bumps knees with Subject Y. L/N. No recoil.

09:05:57 – No apology. No verbal follow-up. This is premeditated casual touch. Repeated behavior same as logs from Day One.

09:14:06 – Subject Y. L/N adjusts notebook. Subject D. Wayne already diagramming inclined plane.

Tim scowls. "Overachieving demon. That packet isn’t due until Thursday."

09:15:13 – Subject L/N whispers something. WhisperNet-1 catches: "You labeled the wrong angle." Subject Wayne’s reply: "I didn’t. I was testing your awareness."

Tim mutters, “Gaslighting. He’s gaslighting her over frictional angles.”

09:16:31 – Sticky note transmission. Zoom in inconclusive. Unable to read sticky note’s contents.

[ALERT: POSSIBLE SUSPICIOUS LANGUAGE DETECTED] Emotional Security Index: 9.3/10 Romantic Stability Graph: Peaking

Tim’s hands twitch.

09:26:10 – Subject L/N draws star in D. Wayne’s notebook.

09:26:14 – Damian’s pen freezes. 0.2 second delay. Micro-expression detected: smile twitch.

Tim’s jaw DROPS. "He smiled. HE SMILED. AGAIN. This isn't just high-functioning romance. This is covert dopamine manipulation."

09:38:07 – Fingertip contact initiated on desk surface.

Tim zooms in 300%. Audio spike shows no reaction. Silent contact maintained for 6.4 seconds.

"Unspoken tactile anchoring. Nonverbal reassurance. Hand proximity fatigue resistance? They’re doing—this is attachment imprinting. Like ducklings. BUT MORE CONCERNING.”

09:40:12 – SUBJECT WAYNE: visual shift. Head tilt—no movement. Subject blinks twice. Eye vector = 12° north-east. Ceiling vent.

09:40:48 – Subject Y/N whispers: “Damian? What is it?” Response: “Nothing. Just… recalibrating.”

Tim's whole body snaps upright. “HE KNOWS. He FELT the listening device. HE FELT WHISPERNET-1. ABORT MISSION ABORT—”

pause.

"...wait. Wait. He didn’t move to intercept. No signal jam. No lens sweep. Why didn’t he..."

He freezes.

The screen stills on Damian’s hand nudging Y/N’s foot beneath the desk.

09:42:29 – Micro-contact: Foot. Deliberate.

The AI logs auto-tag with behavioral summary: Anchor Behavior – Calm Reaffirmation Gesture.

Tim leans back. Quiet. Almost whispering. "He knew. He knew he was being watched—and instead of hiding it, he doubled down."

Long pause.

"...What kind of reverse-psych ops is this. WHAT KIND OF EMOTIONAL WARFARE—"

[LOG ENDS]

09:50 – Corridor Conversations

[Begin Transcript Log: DAY2_TUESDAY_DSSS_PRE3RDPERIOD_09.50.12_AGENTA03]

Hallway-Cam-5 and Hallway-Cam-7: Locations – GA Corridors On Route From Science Wing To Language Department Visual feed locked. Audio feed unavailable. Lip-reading software activated. Birdwatcher-2: Status – Standby (ceiling smoke detector drone), preparing deployment.

09:50:17 – Subjects L/N and Wayne observed exiting Science Wing, walking side-by-side, pace steady.

Tim notes subtle finger brush along L/N’s bag strap by Wayne. Behavioral flag: tactile comfort gesture.

09:51:03 – Subjects engaged in low-volume conversation, lip-reading active. Detected keywords and topics: • Physics formulas: “inclined plane,” “friction coefficient,” “angle calculation.” • Upcoming chemistry test: “nervous,” “period five,” “study.” • Book discussion: “plot twists,” “character motivations,” “suspense build.”

Tim mutters: “Y/N’s talking up a storm, Damian’s soaking it in like a sponge.”

09:52:45 – Birdwatcher-2 switched from standby to active, begins slow, deliberate trailing from ceiling vantage point. Movement speed calibrated to avoid detection.

09:57:10 – Subjects approach Language Department corridor. Door to English classroom ajar; students streaming in.

09:58:22 – Subjects pause momentarily as Y/N scans classroom interior; subtle exhale detected (lip movement). Damian closes gap, mirroring body language.

09:58:57 – Subjects enter English classroom; Birdwatcher-2 repositions above rear row seating area, maintaining covert observation.

09:59:40 – Subjects settle at back row desks; physical proximity consistent with Day One logs.

Tim adjusts zoom: “Classic back-row perch. Ideal for watching and... keeping secrets.”

[LOG ENDS]

10:00 – Literary Love

[Begin Transcript Log: DAY2_TUESDAY_DSSS_3RDPERIOD_10.00.57_AGENTA03]

Clock-Cam-2: Location – English Classroom Clock: Visual feed locked. WhisperNet-2: Location – First Row From The Back, Second Seat From The Windows belonging to L/N, Y/N: Audio stabilization at 92%. VISUAL FEED: LIVE (Birdwatcher-2 – Ceiling Smoke Detector Drone) AUDIO STATUS: ACTIVE

FILE LOG: ENG-LIT_PERIOD03 TAGGED FACES: Wayne_D, L/N_Y NOTES: Seated back row (far right quadrant), unchanged seating formation. High baseline proximity.

Tim adjusts the angle of Birdwatcher-2’s internal lens by 3.7° to account for morning sun through the facing window. The smoke detector drone hums once—inaudible to students below—as it finishes calibrating focus. Below, the room shifts into view.

“Target acquired,” Tim mutters to himself. “Welcome back to your favorite broadcast, folks: The Literature of Lies and Lovebirds.”

10:01:13 – Subject L/N enters classroom first, shoulders visibly relax upon sighting usual desk at back. Subject D. Wayne follows closely, 3.6-second delay. Observed ritualistic proximity maintenance: no verbal cues; presence alone sufficient.

10:05:27 – Subjects seated side-by-side. Subject L/N flips open annotated copy of Frankenstein, begins margin notes. Subject D. Wayne rests pen, scans room with peripheral vision.

10:07:02 – Subject Wayne’s gaze fixes directly on Birdwatcher-2’s housing (disguised as new ceiling smoke detector). Micro-expression: suspicion without intense alarm detected; no physical interaction.

“OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE SAW THE DRONE SHITSHITSHIT” Tim freaks out. How did Damian make DIRECT EYE CONTACT WITH BIRDWATCHER-2.

Timestamp freeze-frame on Damian’s eyes, direct contact with drone lens. “DID HE ACTUALLY SEE ME? THAT WAS DIRECT EYE CONTACT.” “NO LENS SWEEP, NO JAMMING, NO COUNTERMEASURES.” “HE DIDN’T MOVE TO INTERCEPT. WHY?” Tim begins rapid decryption attempts on WhisperNet-2’s frequency for interference signatures—none found.

10:10:45 – Subject Wayne’s body language remains casual, posture loose-limbed but alert; pen taps once, then stills on notebook. Continuous eye flick to classroom rear mirror. Whispernet-2 frequency reveals an elevated heart rate of +15 BPM for Subject Wayne.

10:13:22 – Subject Wayne’s body language and eye focus suggest he is logging peripheral movement. Micro expressions suggest he feels tense and alert.

“Oh shit” Tim says “HE CAN FEEL MY GAZE OH SHIT”

10:16:48 – Mirror on rear cabinet reflects wide, distorted classroom view. Subject Wayne’s gaze fixates for 2 minutes and 36 seconds. Muscle tension spike noted (jaw tightens 15%).

10:21:03 – Subject L/N leans over desk, taps Subject Wayne’s notebook; audio catch: “You didn’t answer question four. Need help?” Subject Wayne whispers back: “I was prioritizing observation.”

Tim feels skeptical, “Cover story or code phrase? Could be either.”

10:23:48 – Under-desk contact detected: Subject L/N brushes fingers against Subject Wayne’s hand. Stress markers in Subject Wayne’s muscles drop by 14%. Pen resumes writing.

10:27:19 – Subject Wayne shifts focus exclusively to Subject L/N’s notebook, emotional override apparent.

10:31:50 – Subject L/N shows drawing to Subject Wayne: Shakespeare’s Macbeth face surrounded by scorpions. Text reads: “O, full of scorpions is his mind…” with arrow pointing at Subject Wayne. Micro-expression capture: near laughter (duration 0.18 seconds). Subject Wayne exhales sharply.

10:34:36 – Subject Wayne slides sticky note to Subject L/N: “Your scorpions would be pink and wear bows. (They would also be lethal. I am proud.)”

“EXCUSE ME? ARE THEY FLIRTING IN POETRY NOW?? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??”

10:37:12 – Subject L/N smiles, conceals warmth by pressing palm to cheek. Subject Wayne maintains unbroken gaze on Subject L/N for 6.2 seconds.

10:40:28 – Ambient classroom noise rises: instructor reads aloud themes of guilt, madness, blood. Subject L/N annotates text, Subject Wayne’s eyes intermittently track Subject L/N’s expressions.

10:44:12 – Subject Wayne jaw muscle tension peaks at 73% baseline. Unspoken communication of mutual emotional awareness continues without explicit verbal cues.

10:49:57 – Session wind-down; subjects gather belongings, maintain close proximity. Subject Wayne stands first; Subject L/N follows.

Summary: Subject D. Wayne remains hypervigilant, balancing environmental scanning with covert emotional exchanges. Presence of potential covert observer in classroom detected but unconfirmed; warrants further monitoring. Subject L/N’s tactile reassurance significantly reduces physiological stress markers in Subject Wayne. Direct visual contact with Birdwatcher-2 confirmed; no counter-surveillance actions observed. Subject Wayne’s behavioral complexity suggests deep emotional anchoring with Subject L/N despite ongoing surveillance concerns.

[LOG ENDS]

Tim leans back, rubbing his temples. “They’re playing a deeper game than I thought.”

11:00 – Philosophical Romance

[Begin Transcript Log: DAY2_TUESDAY_DSSS_4RTHPERIOD_11.02.16_AGENTA03] Clock-Cam-3: Location – Philosophy Classroom Clock: Visual feed locked. WhisperNet-3: Location – Seat belonging to L/N, Y/N: Audio stabilization at 83%. VISUAL FEED: LIVE (Birdwatcher-2 – Ceiling Smoke Detector Drone) AUDIO STATUS: ACTIVE

Thankfully, Tim was able to successfully slip the drone into philosophy class without anyone noticing. Sadly, he has to miss Y/N and Damian’s hallway conversations as they walked to philosophy class.

11:01:13 – Subject L/N enters classroom.

11:01:19 – Subject Wayne follows 6.2 seconds later. Maintains upright posture. Scans room. Locks eyes with L/N across circular table. Notable 1.4-second eye-contact pause. Head tilt = 7°, eyes soften by approx. 13%. Subtle. Calculated. Damning.

!! - NOTE: Rewatching this later. Zooming on expression. Might be emotional. Might be criminal. TBD.

11:04:08 – Class begins. Subjects seated across from one another (see: attached desk layout – “Circular_Suffering_p4_philos.png”).

11:07:42 – L/N speaks. Voice elevated. Confident. Lip-read and Listening Devices confirm: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.” (Kant. A direct quote. From memory. Help.)

“Okay, so she quotes Kant and he looks at her like that and I’m supposed to just—what? Not intervene? Not stage a Socratic intervention???”

11:08:03 – Wayne reacts. Expression flickers. Looks up. Confirmed: full attention shift to Subject L/N.

Tag: [RED FLAG – INTELLECTUAL BONDING OVER ETHICS???] Added to file: “LOVEBIRD.EXE > shared_ideological_alignment.txt”

11:15–11:34 – Class discussion continues. Feed shows micro-expressions across both targets. - L/N doodles. Smiles at own notebook. - Wayne side-eyes L/N during other student jokes about “vigilantes and moral gray areas.” - Wayne's response: Clinical. Measured. “True morality is not about emotion. It’s about rational adherence to duty…” WhisperNet-3 captures audible increase in L/N’s heart rate (rustling paper, slight breath intake).

NOTE: Insert into report under section: “Sympathy Reactions to Demon Spawn Philosophical Monologues – Hypothesis: She Likes It?”

11:50:17 – Class ends. Subjects do not speak immediately. Wayne waits. Then approaches. Offers to carry her bag.

“WHY? Her satchel is 1.2kg max. She could carry it with her pinky. So why offer???”

11:50:34 – She lets him.

“If he carries it one more time I’m calling it codependency.”

11:50:57 – Shoulder bump confirmed. Pinky contact confirmed. NEITHER PULL AWAY.

“They walk in sync,” Tim mutters. “They walk in sync without trying.” [Insert: key smashing. one muffled scream.]

11:51:15 – Feed trails them until hallway junction.

Clock-Cam-3 and WhisperNet-3 auto-off.

[END LOG]

⸻

DAY TWO: AGENT: A-03 CALLSIGN: Red Robin OBJECTIVE: Resume School Surveillance – Lunch Time Activities Logging TIMESTAMP: 12:00 HOURS LOCATION: Wayne Manor – Command Post Beta (Manor Library)

12:00 – Investigation Interrupted

Tim hacks into school cameras, finding one that gives him a perfect view of Y/N and Damian’s usual table.

His fingers hover above the Birdwatcher-2 controls, ready to tail Damian and Y/N to their lunch spot when—

“Master Timothy.”

He freezes.

Alfred’s voice, crisp and calm, echoes from the hallway. Too calm. Too well-timed.

“…No,” he whispers. “No, not now. Not today.”

Tim instantly minimizes the camera feed and swivels in his chair. “Yes?” he calls, carefully neutral.

The doorknob clicks.

The door opens.

Alfred steps into the room with a silver tray. On it: tea, finger sandwiches, and a small napkin folded into a perfect crane. A silent power move.

Like a harbinger of doom.

“May I come in?” Alfred asks.

He doesn’t wait.

He’s already stepping inside.

A sound is heard from Tim’s monitors. Students talking.

Tim scrambles to mute the screens and reorient DSSS interface to something neutral—Wayne Enterprises quarterly reports, maybe. Too late. Alfred definitely heard the drone and he definitely saw the file “LOVEBIRD.EXE – ACTIVE” in blinking red.

Tim turns slowly in his chair.

Alfred is smiling.

Dangerously.

“I thought you might appreciate some sustenance,” Alfred says with that knowing smile. The worst kind. “You’ve been locked in here since dawn. Perhaps you may also need … perspective?”

Tim narrows his eyes. “Thanks, but I’m in the middle of a thing—”

“Mm.” Alfred sets the tray beside Tim’s command console. Doesn’t look at the screens. Doesn’t have to.

“I’ll eat later.”

“You said the same thing yesterday. And the day before.”

“Alfred, with all due respect, this is a classified operation. I need to—”

“Master Damian and Miss L/N do seem to enjoy the eastern windows, don’t they?” he says idly, adjusting the napkin crane. “Lovely light at this hour.”

Tim freezes. Did Alfred just—

Tim chokes. “W-what? I—how do you—”

Alfred adjusts his cufflinks. Unbothered. Superior. Possibly psychic.

“Let us not pretend I haven’t worked for this family long enough to know a lovesick boy when I see one,” he says, tone faintly amused. “And three other boys spiraling in response.”

Tim blinks. Once. Twice.

He recovers fast. “I am not spiraling.”

Alfred gestures broadly to the wall of screens. “I see.”

“Look, I’m just gathering intel. If Damian’s hiding something—”

“Oh, he is.”

Tim sits upright. Eyes narrow. “What? What do you know?”

Alfred pours the tea. Calm. Unshaken. “Only what one gleans from… observation.”

He lifts the cup to his lips. Sips.

Tim stares. Unmoving.

"You're not worried," Tim mutters.

“I am not.”

“You think she’s harmless.”

“I did not say that.”

“Then why are you smiling like you’ve already solved this?”

Alfred lowers the cup. His smile deepens.

“Because, Master Timothy,” he says quietly, “some things are best myq discovered firsthand. There are matters of the heart no surveillance drone will ever understand.”

Tim flinches like he’s been stabbed.

Alfred leans forward slightly. Voice softer now.

“And, just a small tip, Master Timothy, if you’re going to store the LOVEBIRD.EXE file in plain sight, do at least rename the folder. Subtlety matters in espionage.”

Silence.

Tim doesn't reply.

He turns back to the monitor.

He grits his teeth.

“…You’re deflecting,” he mutters.

Alfred stands.

“That’s what you’re doing,” Tim insists. “You didn’t answer why you’re not concerned. You know something. What is it? What are you not telling me?”

Alfred turns toward the door.

“I trust Master Damian,” he says, voice echoing slightly as he moves away. “And I have faith in Miss L/N.”

He pauses mid-step. Looks over his shoulder.

“One day, perhaps, you will too.”

Tim watches the butler move to the door, pausing again, just long enough to glance back.

“Do remember to eat,” Alfred adds, smile just a little too sharp. “Your brain needs fuel for... logic.”

The door clicks shut behind him.

Tim stares at it, jaw tight. Then slowly turns back to his monitor.

“He knows.” Tim whispers. “Alfred knows about DSSS.”

He picks up the tea. Sips. Scowls.

“…This is really good tea.”

⸻

DAY TWO: AGENT: A-03 CALLSIGN: Red Robin OBJECTIVE: School Surveillance TIMESTAMP: 09:00-12:00 HOURS LOCATION: Wayne Manor – Command Post Beta (Manor Library)

12:10 – Chemical Charm

[Begin Transcript Log: DAY2_TUESDAY_DSSS_PRE3RDPERIOD_09.50.12_AGENTA03]

Clock-Cam-4: Location – English Classroom Clock: Visual feed locked. WhisperNet-4: Location – Seat belonging to L/N, Y/N: Audio stabilization at 97%. VISUAL FEED: LIVE (Birdwatcher-2 – Ceiling Smoke Detector Drone) AUDIO STATUS: ACTIVE

12:10:19 — Subject L/N enters the classroom. Barely on time. Not unusual.

12:11:22 — Subject Wayne is already seated. Desk is sanitized. He sanitizes her desk aswell and has her pen uncapped. (He knew which pen.)

“What the hell? He has her desk clean and pen uncapped?” Tim uttered out in shock “What type of telepathy is this? How long have they been doing this what the hell?”

12:11:26 — Subject L/N whispers: “Thank you.”

12:11:28 — Subject Wayne nods. Minimal reaction. Eyes flick to her. Eye contact held 0.8 seconds. (Subtle. Intimate. Unnecessary.)

“Great. They're at the ‘subtle communication’ phase. Just wow.”

NOTE: They have assigned seating. Their desks are conjoined. Still feels… selected.

Alfred’s words echo in the back of Tim’s head. “I trust Master Damian, and I have faith in Miss L/N. One day, perhaps, you will too.”

Tim tries to shut his voice away from his mind.

12:12:12 — Subject L/N pulls out flashcards. Subject Wayne opens periodic trends chart. Is underlining electronegativity.

“He already memorized this. What is he doing? Showing off? Projecting calm? Comforting?”Tim is now at the fourth stage of confusion and the twentieth stage of spiralling.

12:14:09 — Mr. Beck begins distributing test papers. Room enters reduced audio mode. WhisperNet-4 gains clarity.

12:15:03 — Subject Wayne thumb-taps once against his thigh. Then stills.

“What is he anxious about da fuq? Cause it definitely isn’t that chemistry test… Oh shit. HE IS SUSPICIOUS. OOOH SHIT OOH SHITTT” Tim is flipping outtt… again

12:34:05 — Subject L/N places her hand beside his. Not touching. Close proximity.

12:34:09 — Subject Wayne exhales. Begins the test. So does she.

“Oh wow. He is in love in love. Is the world ending? Am I hallucinating again?”

DATA POINT: Y/N’s proximity has measurable effect on Subject Wayne’s physiological patterns. Respiration drops. Movement smooths. He regulates.

A voice that sounds suspiciously like Alfred’s echoes in his mind again: “Is your surveillance meant to protect him, or control him?” ...Shut up.

12:29:14 — Subject L/N’s pen snaps. Audible click. Stress response?

12:29:16 — Subject Wayne immediately offers a spare pen. No hesitation.

“HE DID THAT WITHOUT LOOKING UP. HOW DID HE ANTICIPATE THIS WHAT IN THE WORLD!”

12:29:18 — Fingers brush. Thermal signature spike at fingertips. (Internal. Can’t measure. Still— noted.)

Alfred’s voice resonates in his mind once more, “Trust, Master Timothy, is earned. Or broken.” ..Stop talking.

Tim falters for a moment then resumes watching and logging.

12:29:27 — Y/N resumes test. Her pulse is steadier now.

12:44:58 — Subject Wayne finishes 16 minutes early. Of course.

“Overachieving showoff.” Tim mutters.

13:00:01 — Test ends. Y/N draws a small smiley face on Damian’s desk in pencil. (Juvenile. Pointless. Probably neuro-associative comfort response.)

“...Is this a joke? Is this a code? What is she doing? What does it mean?”

13:00:05 — Subject Wayne taps his pencil twice beside the smiley. Subtle code? Habit? Affection cue?

“I can map proximity, calculate emotional trajectory, model verbal tone trends, and it still feels like I’m too late to understand the language they’re inventing in real time. What type of romance is this?”

NOTE: They don’t need words. That’s worse than the words.

13:01:12 — Subject L/N stretches, arms overhead. Subject Wayne watches. Eyeline fixed.

Alfred sounds in his mind again. “You’re not watching to protect him anymore. You’re watching because you don’t understand what he’s becoming.”

Okay Alfred. I didn’t ask.

13:01:17 — Subject L/N (teasing tone): “Was it that bad?” 13:01:19 — Subject Wayne (flat tone): “You look like you’ll get an eighty-seven at worst.” 13:01:23 — Subject L/N scoffs. “Eighty-seven? That’s practically a failing grade.” 13:01:28 — Subject Wayne: “For you, it’s unacceptable.” 13:01:32 — L/N laughs.

RED ALERT: That was flirting. I think that was flirting. I think he flirted back.

[END LOG]

Agent A-03 leaned back in his chair. The leather creaked.

The screen’s glow lit his face in pale, static light.

Birdwatcher-2 was still feeding him a live classroom visual. Y/N was doodling in the corner of her notebook now. Damian had returned to his usual thousand-yard stare, posture composed, arms crossed. Like none of it mattered. WhisperNet-4 continued recording Y/N’s soft laughter as the teacher attempted to restore post-test order.

Tim didn’t listen.

Tim sat there.

Unmoving.

He didn’t realize how tightly he was gripping the armrest until his glove creaked from the strain.

His fingers hovered over the keyboard. He could scroll back. Rewatch the smiley face moment. Frame by frame. Log the micro expressions Damian made when she laughed. Cross-reference the handwriting loop pattern against her doodles in the psychology notebook from Day One Maybe assign it a severity rating. Red flag? Yellow?

"Ugh." He leaned further back, head tilting until he was practically folded into the chair.

The silence between clicks was deafening. Not silence. Just the ghost of a voice.

Alfred’s voice broke through the static in his brain again. “You’re not watching to protect him anymore.”

Tim shut his eyes. Ugh.

He blinked slowly. Was that… true?

He sat up. Suddenly. Aggressively. Like inertia might make the thought go away. Nope. Still there. Still echoing.

He cracked his knuckles and opened the command prompt. If he didn’t want to watch, then he’d make the system watch for him. That way, technically, he wasn’t surrendering. He was delegating. That’s different.

He opened a console window. A line of code blinked back at him. He typed:

IF Subject_LN_behavior_score > 0.83 AND proximity <or= 2ft: alert = True

Then another line, begrudgingly:

IF Subject_WAYNE_emotional_regulation == compromised: alert = True

There. Programmed AI flag system activated. No more manual monitoring. If something “worthy” happened… he'd know. If not—then maybe he didn’t need to know.

He opened a new window: live feed tabs from Birdwatcher-2 and WhisperNet-4, side by side with thermal overlays, micro expression trackers, and the growing emotion response log.

He hovered over the tab cluster. Live feed. Thermal overlays. Voice modulation analysis. Emotional trajectory graph.

The cursor hovered. Tim hesitated. Then—

Click. Thermal overlay: closed. Click. Voice stress tracker: closed. Click. Emotional trajectory graph: closed.

Each one closed with a soft ping. Like a heartbeat flatlining.

His screens went dark, one by one, like pulling a sheet over a corpse.

No more direct surveillance.

The AI would flag anything critical. The code was airtight. …Probably.

[Manual Oversight: DISENGAGED | Surveillance Mode: Passive AI Monitoring – SENTRY v4.3] [Command Post Beta – User AGENTA03: Logged Out]

Tim stood slowly. Every jont protested. How long had he been sitting? His legs felt heavier than usual. His gloves were still tight from clenching.

The library was quiet. Too quiet.

He glanced once back at the monitors. Still off. Still black. Good.

He stepped away from command post beta. It was a mess of holographic cables, data charts, and inkjet-printed transcripts that he’d stopped filing in folders two hours ago. He didn’t clean up.

He walked out.

Destination: Wayne Manor Newest Interrogation Room. …Also known as the kitchen. Where the enemy (Alfred) brewed his worst psychological warfare. Tea, lunch and confrontation.

He told himself he just needed caffeine. But the truth was—his hands weren’t steady enough to go back to work. And Alfred’s voice hadn’t left his head since 12:00. Just a faint echo in his mind.

“You don’t trust him, Master Timothy, because you’ve never seen him like this. Because you’re afraid you’ll have to admit he’s growing up. And maybe that he doesn’t need you anymore.”

AAAAAAAAAAA. STOP IT, Alfred.

The hallways felt longer than usual. Too warm. Too soft. Like the house knew he was avoiding something.

“I trust Master Damian,” “And I have faith in Miss L/N.” “One day, perhaps, you will too.”

He stopped mid-step.

UGHH.

“Shut up,” he whispered to no one.

Then, more softly: “…Please shut up.”

He walked into the kitchen with his arms crossed tight. He didn’t bring a file. Didn’t bring an evidence bag. Didn’t bring a plan. Just his stiff shoulders, twitchy eye, and a very loud silence.

⸻

DAY TWO: AGENT: A-03 CALLSIGN: Red Robin OBJECTIVE: Reevaluation of Interpersonal Intelligence Threat Level: “ALFRED” TIMESTAMP: 13:10 HOURS LOCATION: Wayne Manor – New Interrogation Room (AKA The Kitchen) (AKA Suspect Alfred’s Sanctuary

13:10 – Beverage-Based Behavioral Breakdown

Tim Drake hesitated at the edge of the kitchen.

The air smelled like citrus and judgment.

He lingered in the doorway, hands stuffed into the pockets of his hoodie, his mind still stuck in the silence after that laugh. Y/N’s laugh. Damian’s response. The pencil tap. The smiley face. Everything that shouldn’t matter but somehow did.

Alfred Pennyworth, alleged civilian, stood at the counter. He plated lemon scones with quiet precision. Poured tea. Turned a page of the newspaper like the world hadn’t shifted half a degree beneath Tim’s feet. As if he hadn’t said what he said earlier. As if he wasn’t right.

There were two cups already set out.

Tim’s fingers twitched at his sides.

His eyes narrowed slightly. Porcelain. White and blue. Bone china. The expensive kind. He clocked it immediately, with the same suspicion he would use if stumbling on two glasses of wine in an otherwise empty safehouse.

Alfred didn’t look up from where he was plating lemon scones. “You’re early,” he said simply.

“I didn’t say I was coming,” Tim replied, stepping in like it was a crime scene, carefully and alert.

“And yet,” Alfred mused, placing a cup before him with a saucer’s quiet clink, “here you are.”

Tim walked toward into the seat at the end of the island like it was a witness stand “I wasn’t aware there was a scheduled interrogation.”

“There wasn’t.” Alfred poured the tea. “But I had a feeling you’d arrive around now. The kettle’s been on since 12:55.”

Tim blinked. “That’s… disturbing.”

Alfred merely raised an eyebrow and gestured toward the opposite stool. “Sit.”

Tim obeyed before his brain could register he was doing it.

A porcelain cup slid in front of him. Earl Grey. No sugar. One and a half teaspoons of milk. The exact way he drank it since he was twelve. The way he still drank it now, even if he pretended otherwise.

He stared down at it. “So… are we going to talk about it?”

“Are you?” Alfred countered, finally taking his own seat.

Tim didn’t answer immediately. His gaze drifted to the steam curling from the cup. For a split second, he wished it could offer up surveillance footage of his own thoughts, anything to explain the mess. “You said… I was trying to control him.”

Alfred took a bite of his scone. “I did.”

“And that I don’t trust him.”

“You don’t.”

Tim scowled. “That’s a little black and white, don’t you think?”

“On the contrary. I believe it’s grey. Earl Grey, even.” Alfred sipped, infuriatingly unbothered.

Tim groaned. “You’re impossible.”

“And yet, here you are.”

Silence settled between them, thick with everything Tim didn’t want to admit.

“I just…” He dragged a hand through his hair. “He’s Damian. He’s Damian. He’s not supposed to have… this. Whatever this is. Whatever’s happening with her. He’s—he’s supposed to be angry and violent and closed off and impossible.”

“And yet,” Alfred echoed, voice gentler now, “here she is.”

Tim’s throat tightened.

“I’ve run every model. I’ve traced every pattern. There’s no way it should work. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Love rarely does,” Alfred said quietly.

Tim flinched, his head snapping up. “It’s not love.”

Alfred didn’t correct him.

Tim picked at the edge of the saucer. “He’s changing. And I don’t know if it’s good or if it’s dangerous. Or both.”

“You’re scared,” Alfred said.

Tim looked up sharply. “I’m not—”

“Yes,” Alfred interrupted, firm but calm. “You are. Not because he’s in danger. But because he’s becoming someone you don’t recognize. And that makes you feel like you’re losing control. Of him. Of this family. Of the story you told yourself about who he is.”

Tim’s jaw clenched. He hated how accurate that was. Hated how much it hurt to hear it from someone who knew him too well to lie.

“I just wanted to keep him safe,” he muttered.

Alfred’s eyes softened. “Then perhaps it’s time you redefine what safe means.”

They sat in silence again, steam curling between them like smoke from a battlefield neither wanted to admit they’d lost.

Eventually, Tim lifted his teacup. “I programmed the AI to flag emotional spikes and behavioral anomalies. I’m… stepping back a little. Just for today.”

Alfred nodded approvingly. “That’s a start.”

Tim sipped. The tea was warm. Familiar. Unchanging. Something solid in a world that kept tilting under his feet.

He didn’t say thank you. He didn’t have to.

Alfred already knew.

⸻

DAY TWO: AGENT: A-03 CALLSIGN: Red Robin OBJECTIVE: Surveillance Recheck TIMESTAMP: 16:20 HOURS LOCATION: Wayne Manor – Command Post Beta (Manor Library)

16:21 – Processing…

Tim sat down in the library without turning on the lights.

The monitors glowed in the dark, cold and clinical. Dozens of tabs blinked with passive alerts. Heat signatures, timestamps, hallway cam data from Gotham Academy, audio pings from WhisperNet-4. Motion pattern deviations. Subtle, minor, routine anomalies.

He didn’t touch the keyboard.

The AI flagged a moment on Feed C-2. Lunch period. Damian and Y/N. Something about the way they stood too close, how their shoulders tilted inward, how she tugged on his sleeve. He let the pop-up expire without opening it.

Another alert. A thirty-seven-second exchange between Y/N and Mia at the shelter. WhisperNet-6 had parsed three potential keywords of interest: “love,” “boyfriend,” and “him.”

Tim leaned back in the chair.

Didn’t press play.

Instead, he just stared at the screen—at the paused frame of Damian reaching for Y/N’s hand, their silhouettes caught between the motion blur of the hallway rush. The image was imperfect, grainy. But there was something about it. Something he didn’t want to analyze. Something that made his chest twist in a way data couldn’t predict.

He clicked out of the alert. Not archived. Not tagged. Not logged.

A slow breath dragged through him.

He’d disabled the red exclamation mark protocol earlier. Set WhisperNet to Passive Mode. He told himself it was to avoid alert fatigue. That was a lie. And he knew it.

Another file hovered in his queue. Unlabeled. It carried a timestamp from two hours ago. Damian was smiling again.

He didn’t open that one either.

Tim tapped his knuckles lightly against the desk, as if trying to ground himself. His tea was still warm. The smell of lemon from Alfred’s scones clung faintly to his hoodie.

Then, almost mechanically, he opened a new folder.

/DSSS/Analysis/EmotionalRisk/ > NEW DOCUMENT: TRUST_MODEL_V1_FINAL.docx

The cursor blinked on the blank page. Waiting. Ready.

He didn’t type anything.

Just stared.

Then slowly leaned forward, forehead resting against the edge of the desk, monitors casting pale light across the bruised edges of his certainty.

Behind him, the manor creaked softly with the sound of normalcy.

And for the first time in hours, Tim Drake let the silence go unanalyzed.

⸻

DAY TWO: AGENT: A-03 CALLSIGN: Red Robin OBJECTIVE: Safety Check TIMESTAMP: 17:00 HOURS LOCATION: Wayne Manor – Command Post Beta (Manor Library)

17:04 – Final Safety Confirmation

Tim’s fingers hovered over the keyboard as he pulled up the live feed from the pet shelter parking lot.

Y/N emerged from the shelter’s sliding doors, bag slung casually over her shoulder. The late afternoon sun caught the edges of her hair, casting a soft glow. She scanned the lot briefly, then headed toward a sleek black car parked at the edge—the one Felix drove.

Tim activated the tracker.

The car’s license plate popped up instantly. Satellite feed zoomed in. Their route home was familiar—through the quieter side streets, past the old bookstore, turning into a gated cul-de-sac.

His screen split to show a moving map overlaid with live video from the car’s interior (courtesy of Birdwatcher-3, the pigeon). Felix was driving, focused but relaxed. Y/N smiled quietly, leaning her head against the window.

They pulled into the driveway.

Y/N stepped inside her house and closed the door behind her.

Tim exhaled, the tension easing from his shoulders for the first time in hours.

One by one, he closed every feed and data tab on his monitor, leaving only the home security camera feed active—just a single frame showing the faint glow from Y/N’s living room window.

He sat in silence for a moment, eyes heavy.

17:22 – Work Catch-Up

After a few beats of silence, Tim’s back straightened, shifting gears, he pulled up the Wayne Enterprises dashboard. Right now, he wasn’t agent A-03 anymore, he was Tim Drake, co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises and he was also Red Robin, Gotham vigilante.

His eyes scanned financial reports, staff rosters, ongoing projects, corporate data that needed his attention just as much.

For the next several hours, Tim sifted through paperwork, cross-referenced old files, and chipped away at cold cases that had long been gathering dust in his queue. It was familiar, it was manageable, and best of all, it didn’t ask for answers he wasn’t ready to face.

The library clock chimed softly past midnight.

Tim rubbed his eyes, glancing at the still-active monitor showing yet another cold case with horrifying details.

Maybe it was time to sleep.

He leaned back again, fingers finally folding together, and for once, let himself rest.

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

CURRENT DSSS EVIDENCE COUNT: - AGENT A-01 (Nightwing): 8 pieces - AGENT A-02 (Red Hood): 11 pieces - AGENT A-03 (Red Robin): 7 pieces WINNER EARNS: 1 deeply petty victory + bragging rights until further notice.

⸻

A.N: FINALLY DONE WITH THIS CHAPTER I WAS ABOUT TO THROW HANDS also.... who do y'all wanna see win? Tim, Dick, or Jason?? Cuz so far Jason is in the lead... should I make a poll?

taglist❤️: @zomqiez @spidermanfang1rl @chiizuluvr @maymaymarch @maaaahhhiii @cupid73 @nyxisnotok @astrililu @mmentallyelsewhere @pennepastalegit

52 notes · View notes

amalgamasreal · 5 months ago

Text

Updated Personal Infosec Post

Been awhile since I've had one of these posts part deus: but I figure with all that's going on in the world it's time to make another one and get some stuff out there for people. A lot of the information I'm going to go over you can find here:

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/tools/

So if you'd like to just click the link and ignore the rest of the post that's fine, I strongly recommend checking out the Privacy Guides. Browsers: There's a number to go with but for this post going forward I'm going to recommend Firefox. I know that the Privacy Guides lists Brave and Safari as possible options but Brave is Chrome based now and Safari has ties to Apple. Mullvad is also an option but that's for your more experienced users so I'll leave that up to them to work out. Browser Extensions:

uBlock Origin: content blocker that blocks ads, trackers, and fingerprinting scripts. Notable for being the only ad blocker that still works on Youtube.

Privacy Badger: Content blocker that specifically blocks trackers and fingerprinting scripts. This one will catch things that uBlock doesn't catch but does not work for ads.

Facebook Container: "but I don't have facebook" you might say. Doesn't matter, Meta/Facebook still has trackers out there in EVERYTHING and this containerizes them off away from everything else.

Bitwarden: Password vaulting software, don't trust the password saving features of your browsers, this has multiple layers of security to prevent your passwords from being stolen.

ClearURLs: Allows you to copy and paste URL's without any trackers attached to them.

VPN: Note: VPN software doesn't make you anonymous, no matter what your favorite youtuber tells you, but it does make it harder for your data to be tracked and it makes it less open for whatever public network you're presently connected to.

Mozilla VPN: If you get the annual subscription it's ~$60/year and it comes with an extension that you can install into Firefox.

Mullvad VPN: Is a fast and inexpensive VPN with a serious focus on transparency and security. They have been in operation since 2009. Mullvad is based in Sweden and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for payment methods that allow it.

Email Provider: Note: By now you've probably realized that Gmail, Outlook, and basically all of the major "free" e-mail service providers are scraping your e-mail data to use for ad data. There are more secure services that can get you away from that but if you'd like the same storage levels you have on Gmail/Ol utlook.com you'll need to pay.

Tuta: Secure, end-to-end encrypted, been around a very long time, and offers a free option up to 1gb.

Mailbox.org: Is an email service with a focus on being secure, ad-free, and privately powered by 100% eco-friendly energy. They have been in operation since 2014. Mailbox.org is based in Berlin, Germany. Accounts start with up to 2GB storage, which can be upgraded as needed.

Email Client:

Thunderbird: a free, open-source, cross-platform email, newsgroup, news feed, and chat (XMPP, IRC, Matrix) client developed by the Thunderbird community, and previously by the Mozilla Foundation.

FairMail (Android Only): minimal, open-source email app which uses open standards (IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP), has several out of the box privacy features, and minimizes data and battery usage.

Cloud Storage:

Tresorit: Encrypted cloud storage owned by the national postal service of Switzerland. Received MULTIPLE awards for their security stats.

Peergos: decentralized and open-source, allows for you to set up your own cloud storage, but will require a certain level of expertise.

Microsoft Office Replacements:

LibreOffice: free and open-source, updates regularly, and has the majority of the same functions as base level Microsoft Office.

OnlyOffice: cloud-based, free

FreeOffice: Personal licenses are free, probably the closest to a fully office suite replacement.

Chat Clients: Note: As you've heard SMS and even WhatsApp and some other popular chat clients are basically open season right now. These are a couple of options to replace those. Note2: Signal has had some reports of security flaws, the service it was built on was originally built for the US Government, and it is based within the CONUS thus is susceptible to US subpoenas. Take that as you will.

Signal: Provides IM and calling securely and encrypted, has multiple layers of data hardening to prevent intrusion and exfil of data.

Molly (Android OS only): Alternative client to Signal. Routes communications through the TOR Network.

Briar: Encrypted IM client that connects to other clients through the TOR Network, can also chat via wifi or bluetooth.

SimpleX: Truly anonymous account creation, fully encrypted end to end, available for Android and iOS.

Now for the last bit, I know that the majority of people are on Windows or macOS, but if you can get on Linux I would strongly recommend it. pop_OS, Ubuntu, and Mint are super easy distros to use and install. They all have very easy to follow instructions on how to install them on your PC and if you'd like to just test them out all you need is a thumb drive to boot off of to run in demo mode. For more secure distributions for the more advanced users the options are: Whonix, Tails (Live USB only), and Qubes OS.

On a personal note I use Arch Linux, but I WOULD NOT recommend this be anyone's first distro as it requires at least a base level understanding of Linux and liberal use of the Arch Linux Wiki. If you game through Steam their Proton emulator in compatibility mode works wonders, I'm presently playing a major studio game that released in 2024 with no Linux support on it and once I got my drivers installed it's looked great. There are some learning curves to get around, but the benefit of the Linux community is that there's always people out there willing to help. I hope some of this information helps you and look out for yourself, it's starting to look scarier than normal out there.

#infosec #personal information #personal infosec #info sec #firefox #mullvad #vpn #vpn service #linux #linux tails #pop_os #ubuntu #linux mint #long post #whonix #qubes os #arch linux

97 notes · View notes

comic-art-showcase · 1 year ago

Text

hello fellow comic art fans.

i am the goblin who runs this here blog. otherwise known as @jondoe297

i am extremely bummed that when i do come out and adress the followers of this blog directly it will be with this news. well. here goes:

Comic Art Showcase will indefinitely stop sharing our favorite artists' works until further notice due to the deal tumblr's owner is making with A.I. companies to sell data,enabling the theft of the works of the platform's users to scrape to train their A.I.

and here is a good article about what's going on

while for the over 5 years(!!) now that i have run this page and shared the love of comic art i am so passionate about,through ups and downs,i have kept this page strictly for doing so. not presenting any topics or ideas or even showing my own personality or linking my personal blog(even though i have been flirting with the idea recently. well i guess now is as good a time as any) i feel that if nothing else i have to use this specific platform i have,as it is,to address this topic as it is intrinsic and intertwined with this page's theme or activity. and i will not have it be an open buffet for these greedy corporations to scrape for data to feed the A.I. with which they seek to replace the very artists that i love and admire! even though it may be too late as we don't really know how long they've been doing this. well the inevitable came. and if this page is not deleted it will at least not be posted on for the time being. while we figure out what to do next.

in the meantime we can and have to all do what we can to fight for artists' and creatives' rights. if nothing else by not being a part of the theft and exploitation of them an their work. please do not use any generative A.I. programs for images or text. they work by scraping from databases of artists' and creatives' works without any permission,credit or compensation.

for now we can at least 'opt out' of having our content be shared with the A.I. companies in the settings.

keep in mind this seems to be only available on the web version and not on the app for now!

go to your blog settings from the corner here

ID/image description: a screenshot of the tumblr blog with a red arrow pointed at the options button. end description.

then go to 'blog settings'

ID/image description: a screenshot of tumblr blog settings with a red arrow pointing at the 'blog settings' option. end description.

then go to visibility. and turn ON the 'prevent third-party sharing' option. make sure to turn it ON not off.

ID/image description: screenshot of tumblr's visibility settings with the 'prevent third-party sharing' option turned on. end description.

and you have to do this for each blog and sideblog individually so make sure to do that!

and artists make sure to use Nightshade and Glaze to protect your artwork and images!!!!

here's a link to Nightshade

here's a link to Glaze

the best combination is to use Nightshade first then Glaze on your images.

Glaze creates a protective layer on the image to prevent A.I. from copying it. while Nightshade poisons the A.I. sotfware.

stay safe friends an i will see you around❤

#comic art #no to ai art #no to ai generated art #no to ai generated images #no to ai #anti ai #artist rights #art news #artists on tumblr #create don't scrape

635 notes · View notes

storkmuffin · 6 months ago

Text

Matz Lego Live 2025.2.13 Liveblog

@fallenstarhwa and @iriswashername this is for you!!

First off, you know they picked the 13th of February to do this lego live thing, very deliberately right? They're avoiding Valentine's day.

We open on Hongjoong muttering to himself while looking at his phone. It's always so funny to me that content makers are just as much serfs to the data farm as the ordinary people who watch their content. Hongjoong is wearing what looks like a hooded raincoat indoors, and a knit cap under that. I guess it's cold in this hotel. I've found that to be generally true of the West- Koreans keep things warm indoors, but westerners don't as much. Also there is a giant mirror in front of Seonghwa's bed. I can already hear the fanfic pens sharpening. Seonghwa comes to sit (plop, actually) next to Hongjoong. He is also wearing layers and a knit hat indoors. Definitely cold. The glasses he has on are very cool but they also are very grandpa, and given their height difference and Hong Joong slouching they look like dad and son.

Hwa is checking angles, making sure the lego boxes are lined up properly, that the link to internet is working, the camera is on, busy busy busy, and HJ is just ... diddling his phone on his lap making mouth sounds.

Immediately, Hongjoong causes banging. He pretends the banging didn't happen but Hwa doesn't cooperate. He looks for the thing that fell, and sees nothing on the floor, so then he silently wonders if someone knocked by staring at the door. He looks almost ready to stand up. Apparently when someone knocks it's Hwa's job to go open the door, because he doesn't say anything to HJ about the 'knock.' This is finally when HJ sheepishly says, No, it's not anything, it's my phone. Hwa looks at the phone in HJ's hand, clearly wondering how did that thing in your hand make a noise so far away from it, but he's just too busy doing the set up. HJ leans back from his seat to pick up the second phone that's fallen to the floor from the arm rest. HJ keeps talking but Hwa doesn't say a word until the set up is working.

Hwa is a sweetie. He really for some reason REALLY REALLY wanted to make legos with HJ and it's finally happening so he messes up his opening comment. He says, It's been a million years... and then realizes, Oh this is the first time! HJ is just a kid - he actually just echoes what Hwa says, no brain, just amplifying, until he confirms that this is the first time they're doing legos.

Then Hwa notices their outfits match. "This is so exciting!" he says, about their matching, and HJ pouts, You're copying me again. They are not looking at each other. Hwa says that he has to keep the glasses on because he looks ugly without, to which HJ says that he knew Hwa would wear the glasses, so he left his own behind. .... HJ. Dude. TELL HWA HE'S PRETTY. what are you DOING.

Hwa explains the legos they are about to make to the audience, adding in a little bit that says, I tried to reflect HJ's tastes even though he told me that he likes whatever I like - and HJ is like I did not say that!! Then Hwa explains in painstaking detail about Anakin and Asoka and how having an apprentice is not the same as having a brother (it's not 형 it's 스승 and 제자!). HJ has no idea wtf he's talking about or anything about Star Wars. At all. Okayyy. (I'm judging him in Nerd.)

They're unboxing the Legos with Hwa narrating like he's trying to sell them on the home shopping network. There are thumb grooves to make the boxes fun to open! and so on. HJ is trying really hard to not be mean about all this dorkiness, and mostly succeeding. The first crisis point is when Hwa shows off about how environmentally friendly the packaging is now, no plastic!!, until he opens his own smaller lego and realizes... it's still fully plastic. HJ covers his face to laugh.

Hwa will assist HJ on putting HJ's lego together. HJ side eyes Hwa to ask how much of a time commitment this is going to be, to which Hwa says it'll be about an hour.

Then HJ tells us, the audience, that this is not his lifetime first encounter with Legos. Hwa is surprised enough to turn to look at HJ, and acts betrayed. (뭐야...). He gets over it pretty quickly and goes right back to selling the legos on the home shopping network. The dialect tonality is coming out so strong right now. Is it because he's excited? LOL

As HJ begins unboxing the pieces, he just hates them. His mouth sours. He hates the legos as they come out, whereas Hwa looks fondly at the plastic pieces like they are his offspring hatching from the foam covering their egg cluster. Then HJ says that by nature, he hates the kind of thing where he has to follow a pre-set recipe and order. Hwa, holding the pre-set recipe and order book in his hand, stares off into the distance.

This is going to be a very long evening.

Hwa hazards, "So you just wanna make something new??"and HJ says no, with this sort of thing you have no choice but to follow. Hwa smiles just the tiniest bit, because he had been plunged into an icy bath just a moment ago and now he's back out of it.

HJ says he wants to experience the 'time killing' culture of Legos, then says that since beginning his Lego habit, Hwa has gotten angrier as a person (joke). If Hwa had done something similar, HJ would immediately go NO I DIDN'T but Hwa smiles in an exasperated way and then asks, rhetorically, Shouldn't it be the opposite? and lets HJ explain that he was joking. They are so different.

Then HJ spills everything and they disppear for a while, to pick up all the pieces, muttering. Hwa lectures - belatedly - about how you have to open stuff carefully.

HJ keeps signalling how much he hates Legos already and he hasn't even fit two pieces together. He says "This is a valuable experience" - singular, the one time, never again, etc. is implied. "You're doing great!" Hwa says, "You've already made half of Asoka!"

HJ doesn't like being Hwa's student. "It's been a long time since I've learned something from Hwa. It feels... complicated."* Hwa doesn't want him to drop out, so he says, "All you need for lego making is to be fastidious and alert." HJ says he's neither of those things. HJ says this is like getting behavioral therapy to learn calmness.

*What HJ says is it feels 오묘하다 to be taught by Hwa, which literally means Mysterious, but I'm choosing a different word.

But HJ gets the hang of it by the 10 minute mark - he says, "I just have to follow the instructions!" like this is a discovery (Why is he 4 years old?). And then they are side by side, looking down, chatting in a leisurely way about their visit to Como. They look just like me and my knitting circle when we work on individual projects side by side, talking.

HJ kinda talks about himself a lot. See. This is one of those things that makes me think he's ND. Hwa says things to him about him, and HJ answers with more information about himself, but doesn't ask Hwa anything. When Hwa makes an encouraging comment - Oh you're on page 2 already? -HJ is like I am good at this sort of thing because I studied hard in school. But Hwa just indulges him like HJ is his grandson - Oh what a smart boy, Kim Hong Joong, he says, absolutely soullessly but not with any sort of sarcasm, while making his own lego. And HJ just keeps talking about his strengths - he can stay put and work on something for a long time! And Hwa keeps agreeing. "Yes! That's why you're so good at composing."

Basically, Hwa is gentle parenting HJ into staying put and making this lego thing, doing something he doesn't like (Following a strict recipe) about an IP property he knows nothing about (Star Wars) because Hwa's fans (and probably Hwa himself) wants him to make legos with someone while on this tour. LOLOL.

HJ says he has set up a composition station on the bed in his hotel rooms (Hwa: And not because you just want to work in bed?) then he tells a story about packing harmonicas and a whole second bag of composition equipment. Hwa spills things, and blames HJ (Now that I'm with you I'm spilling things!) to which HJ as per usual shoots back (No, spilling things is just your nature).

I saw an anti-Ateez post on the Korean internet, and the person said HJ was the reason she couldn't get into Ateez. HongJoong stans, cover your eyes: She said that she's noticed when a leader of an Idol group with a lot of members is short, their egos tend to be bloated, and felt HJ was a prime example. 4 minutes into actually making legos, HJ is congratulating himself - I am talented at this! - and Hwa says, Oh you're definitely talented at this! Half a second later, literally, HJ makes an alarmed mouth sound and Hwa says, "Why, did you mess up?"

Hwa keeps HJ talking about the harmonica. HJ says he can play a song on the harmonica, and starts singing it. Together, they start singing Donna e Mobile from Rigoletto and not remembering what it's called, and I'm having that experience of being a ghost, where I'm screaming IT'S RIGOLETTO!! RIGOLETTO!! DONNA E MOBILE!!! but the people I'm screaming at can't hear me.

HJ keeps soliciting praise from Hwa ("I'm doing great!") and Hwa just automatically affirms.

The chat is trying to tell HJ what the song is but those bitches are all getting it wrong. I am biting down on my teeth so hard because I can't keep shouting La Donna e Mobile!!

Hwa spills more pieces and HJ attacks him. He gets overexcited so he stutters- What-what-what were you saying about like psh! like about the spilling?? to me??? Hwa is a lot like San in that he suddenly says Zen master things: Everyone makes mistakes, but the key is to not be defeated by them. I feel like this shows a perfectionist streak, to have to defend dropping a lego piece with this sort of weighty principle.

They gossip like old biddies about San. San kept saying the steaks in room service of every hotel is delicious, but when Hwa double checks with HJ the answer is sometimes a meh. HJ says San just likes beef.

HJ completes a portion of a piece then wants praise (again) (He's kind of a handful, isn't he?). Hwa says, You mustn't give up, there are so many cheering you on. HJ says, You said this would be over in half an hour. Hwa retorts, I said an hour. HJ really doesn't like Lego. LOLOL

Hwa keeps checking in on him- you're having a fun right? I'm so pleased to hear you're having fun - and HJ affirms, but his comments say otherwise. He keeps declaring himself DONE and FINISHED when he evidently isn't.

At the 27 minute mark, Hwa is done with his. HJ drops something else, and Hwa automatically consoles him to no response. HJ, when he's not praising himself or soliciting praise, sings snippets of song. This makes him just like San, who just starts singing when there's nothing else to do. I think Hwa is worried HJ will drop out of this project, so he's lathering him in praise. "Oh such great observation skills!" But HJ still doesn't like it. He wants to know if there's competitions for finishing legos as fast as possible. LOLOL. Hwa doesn't know.

Hwa starts to actively, aggressively help HJ put the thing together. "My mouth is drying out," HJ says, because he's having a rough time. Hwa's soft power is unparalleled. He's totally forcing HJ to do this and I'm CRACKING UP.

Oooh! HJ finished! He flips open the lid of his spaceship back and forth, now soliciting praise from the audience. Once the toy is complete, HJ makes mouth sound effects like he's 4. Zzzyoooong ~ etc. He's literally 4.

Hwa says, You finished the first one.

HJ gets up immediately.

Hwa: YOU'RE NOT LEAVING RIGHT? COME BACK.

HJ goes to get the second bag and slumps in his chair. He hates this so much. YOU DO IT NOW TOO, he commands Hwa as the second baggie full of legos comes out. "I am," Hwa says, very calm.

What is Hwa getting out of forcing HJ to do this? This is a weird kink.

They're talking nonsense about flying cars, about how technology can come out that you think is impossible, and then HJ signals how much he's not actually enjoying this: What about machines that make legos for you?? Hwa, very calmly ignoring this, the 700th hint, says, That already exists. But he's not missing out on the hints. He starts to act as a surgical nurse to HJ, finding the next piece he's going to need and handing it to him one right after the other like it's in the surgical theater and they're saving a life.

HJ hates this so much. He reads his favorite line of the manual so far. "Hey they're letting me know that I'm halfway through!!" Hwa is honest and brings down the reality hammer: "This is not the halfway point." (There's a lot more to go.) HJ is CRUSHED but Hwa is amused. HJ can't stop now, even if he hates it. Hwa is pleased.

It's only a quarter of the way done.

HJ starts to rebel. "I'm going to just go by feeling!" Hwa says no - "You can't go by feeling. I told you." He starts pre-making pieces to hand over to HJ to fit into the in progress piece. HJ is playing drums, rapping, drinking, sighing, making mouth sounds. "It would have been a disaster to pick a bigger one," Hwa admits.

HJ wants Hwa to let him stop. "You're feeling frustrated, aren't you??"

Hwa, very calm, very pleased, says No, not at all.

What...

What is this kink?

This kink of forcing a person who hates Legos to make a Lego with you even as they actively hate it??

HJ tries to trick himself into going on. "I like it! This is good! It's great!"

That was the last of his energy though, because HJ just puts his head down on the table. He wants to leave, but the force of Hwa's power is such that he can't, so he wants to exit the room by going inside his subconscious. Hwa is busy, making HJ's lego for him. "You're not sleeping, right?" he asks. HJ's head pops right back up. "No! No! I'm thinking [about making the Lego]!" he says.

HJ gives up. Hwa is making the Legos, so HJ reads the comments by those in the chat. Meanwhile, there's a piece missing, and Hwa looks for it. HJ finds it for him on the table. Hwa says, "Lego never makes an error. All the errors are my own."

Why is Hwa making Buddhist koans out of lego? LOLOL

He hands the lego making back to HJ, because making HJ make the legos is his kink. HJ is trying so hard - talking himself up, rapping, singing, writhing around - to keep his mind on these lego things that he hates.

I'm scary when I concentrate! he threatens Hwa, as he accepts his fate. You're not intimidating in any way, Hwa says, helping him. He's back to lathering HJ in praise - You're talented at this! I believe in you! HJ is putting the lego together with all the joyless but concentrated detachment of a factory worker putting semiconductors together.

"Are you so very bored?" Hwa asks, laughing.

This is so his kink and I don't understand but it's very perverse.

HJ protests that he is having a wonderful time. Then he says, as Hwa continues to be his surgical nurse, "You make a good assistant. You were born to assist me!" Then he segues into a military role play, where he's the tough commander and Hwa is his solicitous subordinate. Hwa plays right along, smoothly transitioning into the tone and affect of 'military' as seen in media. Hwa's dialect is coming out strong. HJ is talking 'down' to Hwa, using 반말, because he's the "general" in this little play whereas Hwa is speaking 존댓말 in response. All while in the larger context Hwa is forcing HJ to do this thing he doesn't like. This is fucking kinky. This is giving, also, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee, where Smee was the top. You know what I mean right? HJ is being played so hard. I can't believe KQ staff are letting this happen to him. Is it OK that I'm watching this?

Hwa, what are you doing, you weird pervert!?!?

SO they have finished one of the wings. Hwa says, to be encouraging, You just have to make one more! but HJ is like, Why does the fucking spaceship have two wings?

HJ doesn't want to snap the pieces together anymore. He says, I'll find the pieces and you assemble it.

AND NOW HWA IS THE GENERAL AND HJ IS USING 존댓말. Hwa's voice gets louder and lower and HJ turns into a little high pitched bird.

THIS IS THE KINKIEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN

WHAT IS HAPPENING

HWA IS SO HARD RIGHT NOW.

FUCKING LEGO IS MAKING ME WRITE RPF FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE

I AM LOSING IT.

I'm suited to this! HJ says, happily. Being what? Being Hwa's submissive assistant? Do you even know what you're saying, HJ? Was this Hwa's big picture all along???

They entirely stop talking for long moments as Hwa is fully in the zone, having HJ play the attentive assistant to him, while he makes Legos. This is Hwa's sexuality, apparently. I mean I said he was queer but like, he went ahead and invented Lego Queer. I have been listening too much Ateez music because I'm fully hearing in my head Seonghwa singing I'm the one in my zone, 다른 애들은 삐약 as I'm watching HJ hover at Hwa's elbow as Hwa makes the rest of HJ's lego.

HJ starts cheering like an American cheerleader at Hwa making the lego.

LEGO QUEER KINKY SHIT.

이건 무슨 일이야 indeed.

What is it with these Ateez guys and their need to make speeches about life lessons? HJ, completely unaware of the Lego Queer Kink Dungeon in which he has found himself, jabbers on about how he is learning important Life Lessons from building this lego.

Hwa is putting stickers on the lego, and HJ is just stroking him by praising him every step of the way. HJ needed Hwa's praise to stay engaged in the lego making, but Hwa was actually just dosing him with the behavior he wanted HJ to do. That is, Hwa wanted HJ to praise him as he made legos. What's happening looks the same but what's actually going on is entirely different.

Hwa has completed the lego. HJ claps. Not because he liked it, but because he's so happy it's over. Hwa - I SWEAR TO GOD I'M LIVE BLOGGING THIS - Hwa POINTS THE PHALLUS SHAPED SPACE SHIP WITH THE TWO THINGS SPREAD OUT TO THE SIDE, HOLE FACING FORWARD, AND SHOOTS HIS LOAD AT THE CAMERA.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i'm

I'M CRYING

I'M....

박성화 너 뭐하는거야????????????????????????

AND THEN HE GIVES IT TO HJ WHO ALSO SHOOTS HIS LOAD.

야 박성화! 성화야! 야!!!!!! 너! 너너!! 너어어어어어어!!!!!

You shouldn't shoot this at people, Hwa says, after collecting the bullet.

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID.

Hwa has a cruel streak if this is anything to go by. Look at poor little HJ who clearly had no idea what sort of video he was making. He's crushed, drained, overwhelmed. Hwa on the other hand is shooting load after load at the camera.

His aftercare is cold as shit too. He asks if HJ would ever make Legos again. When HJ responds with the loudest silence of all time Hwa just tells him what's next on the agenda - they are gonna make a small lego in HJ's composition room. HJ immediately says no. There is no shelving and no space. Hwa doesn't argue. He is just going to bide his time to get what he wants. Like he did this time. Then he summarily orders HJ to go.

가 he says. Just Go. Not go and rest or go and wash up or go and sleep. Just. Go.

HJ mumbles something about including San but Hwa had no answer to that because he got what he wanted. He's done.

Park Seonghwa is a Lego Queer Dom and he's A BRUTE

#park seonghwa #ateez seonghwa #hongjoong ateez #matz #matz lego live #matz meta #ateez meta

86 notes · View notes