#like typing commands into a terminal.

[neverendingford]

.

[girl-lostconnection]

Little angst to sprinkle, but Helldiver!Reader who are tired.

God, you are so fucking tired. None of this matters, none of this makes any fucking sense at this point.

You climbed the ranks and you did your due and you paid in blood and flesh and chips of your own sanity. You gave and you gave and you gave.

You trained new cadets, explaining the terminals and heavy nests and fortresses. You have been everywhere command allows space jumps to.

Your ship a big menacing thing, a blade forever suspended in the vast cosmic nothing. Weightless and creaking whenever you have to engage orbital thrusters, chief engineer muttering something under their breath. You never ask what. Engineers can have their superstitions.

You can’t afford to have any.

You can’t afford much at all nowadays, prices biting harder than they ever did, missions deadlier.

You have less and less divers with each year — numbers of your branch diminishing quickly. Frankly, you don’t blame them.

Average age of Helldivers is 18 to 22 years old.

Average survival time out in the field — less than half a minute.

Even with all the propaganda and enlistment perks command simply cannot supply new meat to the frontlines. There is simply no more new meat.

Conditions get worse for rookies, their chances of survival dropping through the crust of the earth. At least when you were starting out you still had a med bay.

At least you managed to scramble some manuals for proper ammunition assembling.

You drag yourself onto the ship, steps heavy and tired — there are black spots in your vision, your head is swimming and you are pretty sure you no longer have anything in your stomach.

Bloody stims devour any available energy source to power your body through the life-threatening injuries.

No wonder you are still limping. Your mind doesn’t understand why the leg that got torn off is in place again.

You don’t really notice Price chatting up your chief administrator when you drag yourself in — bloody and tired, limbs so heavy it’s a miracle you are still standing.

But you can’t call it a day, there are three more missions. Then you can rest.

There are black spots swimming in your vision, you are lightheaded and nauseous, stomach aching — it clenches around nothing, trying to dissolve the food that isn’t there anymore.

You whip out the stim you didn’t dispose after the last mission, needle sliding in your thigh with practiced ease. Your body filling with energy, your vision brighter.

You can finally fucking think again.

There is a heavy silence you don’t notice immediately, too high on the endorphins stims bring. Pain free for the next two minutes or so.

“Captain?”, Price is hovering just behind your shoulder, your fingers twitching around the base of your secondary weapon — you are jumpy straight out of the mission. Automatons start looking like people after too long.

Down on Chort-Bay is hell likes of which you haven’t seen before.

You are not looking forward to jumping down there again. But duty calls, right? No one else would do that. No one is on the orbit right now but you.

“Captain”, you hum, eyes flickering to him for a moment. You have to wipe the visor of your helmet to properly see him — one of the diver’s got blown up on a landmine, his blood is still on your armour.

You don’t have time to wash it off. Not if you want to finish mission before you will need to be up for the next order.

“I noticed…the syringe.”, Price starts after prolonged silence, brows furrowing as he watches you. Eyes the softest blue you ever saw. The summer sky.

You remember the one you saw back at home. The time before helldiving now feels like a feeble attempt of your imagination to cushion the fall from the height of your exhaustion. The time before helldiving feels nowadays like a fairytale.

“Didn’t know you were sick”, he continues and you chuckle, typing in your coordinates. It’s cute that he worries about your health, though understandable. You are still alive and therefore a valuable asset to the command.

“Not sick. Just fucking tired out of my mind. We get a shit ton of stims with every resupply. Probably the only thing we get for free”, your laugh is a dry static-y thing, distorted from helmet, coming out of dynamics in your helmet feeling wrong and twisted.

But Price looks at you now like you have three heads and you try to explain. Perhaps SAS don’t get any of these. Though not like they need the thing, they got actual medics ready to stitch them up as needed.

They got off days and luxuries you cannot afford.

God, you might consider marrying on one of these days. Purely for tax benefits.

“Stims are used to patch us up on the go. Don’t have a whole lotta time to waste. We use them sometimes as energisers as well. A tired soldier is a sloppy soldier and a sloppy soldier is a dead one”, you say, brain fog finally lifting, god, this is good.

“Wouldn’t that constitute addiction with how often soldiers use it?”, John is a heavy stare and deep frown in the line of his mouth, his eyes the prettiest summer sky. “Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”

You shrug, checking your gear before getting yourself in the pod and locking your ankles in place.

“Command told us they had scientists test drive the things and they aren’t addictive. Honestly I don’t know much, Captain. You might wanna ask someone with actual degree about the stuff”

You salute him for the road and then the pod slides you down, all ready to go.

Down there hell awaits. Down there torn off limb is the least that could happen.

Down there you could use any help you can get.

Price watches you getting launched down the orbit and turns away, tension coiling in his shoulders.

Price whisks away one of the stim vials, hiding the thing in the pocket and walking away. He will need to have someone check the bloody thing.

There is no way godsend ambrosia that cures torn off limbs and massive bleeding is not addictive.

John remembers the way your whole body buzzed with energy from the moment you pushed it in. Like there was no more pain, no more exhaustion, no more fear.

Like you were high.

And that’s for sure that sloppy soldier is a dead one. But so is the drugged out one. So is you, if his suspension is right.

[starry-crossing-zone]

Love Finds a Way - Hunter

Summary: Hunter thought that he lost you in the Jedi Purge. But then he sees a familiar face. Length: 2.6k Warnings: Mentions of Jedi Purge; Mentions of Death; Amnesia; Scars; Hunter's Undefined Heightened Senses; Hunter is Bad with Emotion; Angst; Female Jedi Reader

“Don’t tell me you spared the padawan because of her,” Crosshair rasped.

The temperature in the Batch Batch’s barracks instantly dropped several degrees. Hunter continued to stand by the window, not dignifying him with a response. But the sharpshooter wasn’t going to just drop it. Crosshair walked forward, not unlike a predator about to leap on its prey.

“She’s a part of it, isn’t she?”

“Crosshair, stop it,” Echo warned him, but Crosshair was not deterred.

“Are you willing to throw everything away for her? Turn your back on the Empire, on your brothers, on your purpose for her? A traitor?”

“She’s not a traitor,” Hunter interjected, finally turning around. “She fought for the Republic, just as we did. Side by side with us, with other clones, and there was never a word against her.”

“But you were always her favorite pet, weren’t you, Hunter?”

Crosshair squared up against his older brother, relishing in the hidden rage that he could see boiling beneath Hunter’s surface. The button was right there and Crosshair was going to press it over and over again. Until Hunter finally snapped.

“If she was so popular, maybe the clones were kind enough to aim for her head.”

Hunter’s fist swung around and slammed into Crosshair’s gut, causing the sniper to fold over, clutching his stomach. But when Wrecker moved forward to break them up, Crosshair dared to grin at Hunter. Ready to deliver a second blow, Hunter silently glared at Crosshair. But then Wrecker grabbed and set Crosshair on his bed like a petulant child.

“Take it back, Crosshair,” Wrecker warned, pointing a finger at him. “She was your friend too.”

Crosshair glared up at Wrecker before turning to look over at Hunter. But Hunter was too busy staring forlornly out the window at the Kaminoan storm. Probably wallowing in thoughts of her.

“Pathetic,” Crosshair muttered under his breath, knowing that Hunter could hear him.

*~*~*~*

It was late, at least on a standard rotation cycle, and it was Hunter’s turn to be on watch. Sitting in front of the computer, he started to slowly type. Tech had hacked into the Imperial system earlier and gave Hunter instructions on how to navigate through the database. And now that Hunter was alone, he needed to do some investigating on his own.

Finding the list of Jedi, Hunter scrolled down it with a heavy heart, wincing when he saw familiar names. Continuing on, he paused when he found the name that he was looking for. Your name. And then his eyes landed on the big, bold, red word beside it.

TERMINATED

Hunter closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, the fight leaving his body. He sat there, wallowing in pain, before sitting up again. And even though he knew that it wasn’t healthy, he clicked on the report.

The clones under your command had attacked you while you were pursuing Separatist stragglers who crash landed on an Outer Rim planet. You managed to get away from them and stole a speeder, which they then shot down. You crashed into a lake and your body was never recovered.

Hunter stared at the hologram image of you that accompanied the report. You looked stoic, cold, and calculating. Completely unlike the woman that Hunter knew. But he supposed that erasing the Jedi’s compassion and humanity was just another part of the Empire’s propaganda.  

“Who’s that?” Omega called from her perch, causing Hunter to look up at her.

“Just a Jedi that we used to serve under,” Hunter explained softly, looking back at the hologram. “I thought that there was a chance that she was still out there.” Hunter powered off the computer and turned back to Omega. “What are you doing up? Did you have a nightmare?”

“Not really,” Omega stated with a shrug of her shoulders. “Is your friend still out there?”

“No, it doesn’t look like it,” Hunter replied quietly.

“I’m sorry, Hunter.”

He nodded curtly, forcing a smile to urge Omega back to sleep. But when Tech awoke to take over watch, he found his brother staring at your hologram again.

*~*~*~*

“It is unlikely that we would run into any Imperial entanglements out here,” Tech stated, leading the way down the stairs of the Marauder. “This planet is mostly farmers and not ones that provide any product of high value. Mostly standard grains.”

“Does that mean that they have food?” Wrecker sighed, rubbing his stomach.

“I would assume so, yes,” Tech replied, typing away at his datapad.

“Let’s go explore then!” Omega exclaimed, running down the gangplank. “You said that the largest city is right there, Tech?”

“The term ‘city’ might be inaccurate given the low population density, number of buildings, and other indicators of a traditional urban center,” Tech stated, not looking up from his typing. “But, yes, the closest organization to a city is in that standard direction.”

Echo and Hunter pulled up the rear of the group as they headed into town. Echo glanced worriedly at Hunter. He had been quiet ever since Tech mentioned this planet and even Omega hadn’t been able to pull him out of his brooding. And a quick check of the Imperial database clarified why. At least, if one knew where to look.

“Are you alright?” Echo asked Hunter as they walked towards the city.

“I’ll be fine.”

“You should try to learn to be convincing before Omega asks you that,” Echo replied quietly.

Hunter sighed and looked down at the dirt path. They walked in silence for a few more moments, both keeping a close eye on Omega, before Hunter finally let some of the load off of his shoulders.

“I have the coordinates. For where it happened.”

“How far is it from here?”

“Two hours by speeder.”

“Whenever you feel that you’re ready to go,” Echo stated gently, keeping his voice low, “just give me a signal. I’ll distract the others.”

“Thank you, Echo.”

They reached town and looked around at the various stalls and short buildings scattered around. There were a few supplies that they needed and so the Bad Batch split up. Hunter walked off on his own, searching for some part that Tech knew that this small planet would not have. But it allowed him some time to think, or brood, so he didn’t mind.

Hunter walked around the small mechanic market in the village, at least trying to look like he was putting in effort to find the part. He was in the middle of inspecting a part for sale, which wasn’t the one that he had been sent for, when a voice broke through the mist and clutched his heart.

“Can I get you anything?”

With his advanced hearing, Hunter was accustomed to tuning out the useless background noise and focusing on only what he needed or wanted to hear. And normally, he tried to block out the useless background conversations.

But yet that voice stuck out. Its familiarity haunted him and Hunter found his legs moving on their own, following that voice like it was a siren song.

“Byn, Table 3 is asking for more of the soup.”

“Did you want another napkin?”

“Can I get you a refill?”

“Thanks for coming!”

Following the voice, Hunter paused when he turned the corner and found an open-aired restaurant. There were a cluster of tables spread out in front of a white tent. There were some customers milling around, but it was mostly quiet.

And then there you were, appearing with the sun glowing behind you. It was you. He knew it was you. It had to be you.

Even though you wore civilian clothes now, he knew that it was you. Even though your hair was shorter now, he knew that it was you. Even though there was now a jagged scar across your cheek, he knew that it was you. And when you turned your head and he finally caught a glimpse of your eyes, his knees nearly buckled under him.

It was you. You were here. You were alive.

“Hunter?” Tech’s voice cut in, jolting Hunter out of his thoughts. “Hunter, do you copy?”

“I can hear you,” Hunter finally responded, pressing the button on his commlink.

“Are you alright? It took three tries for you to respond,” Echo pointed out, causing Hunter to look over at you again.

“Meet me at my coordinates. I’ll explain when you get here.”

Soon the Bad Batch took their seats at a table in the open-aired restaurant. Hunter’s legs bounced nervously as he waited for you to walk over, earning worried looks from Echo and Omega at his unusually anxious fiddling. Omega had only been given a brief overview of your history with the Bad Batch, as she was never there to witness it in person, but it was easy to see how important you were from Hunter’s reaction. She had never seen him like this before.

You walked over to their table with a polite customer service smile. Hunter held his breath, waiting for you to recognize him—how many men had half of a skull tattooed on their face? Or of Wrecker’s size? But as you passed out menus and treated them like any other patrons, Hunter felt his hope quickly dash.

“Welcome. I’ll be your waitress. Here are some menus. If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them for you. Otherwise, I’ll give you a minute to look it over.”

You gave them another kind smile before walking off without even a small trace of recognition for any of them. Hunter stared after you with a broken expression.

“She didn’t recognize us?” Wrecker asked softly.

“There is still a statistical possibility that our waitress is not her,” Tech pointed out calmly.

“It’s her. She smells just like her. I know it. I know that’s her,” Hunter insisted, causing Tech and Echo to share a concerned look.

“Then why didn’t she recognize you?” Omega asked quietly, voice barely above a whisper.

“I don’t know.”

*~*~*~*

“You ever seen those patrons before?” Byn, the head chef of the restaurant, asked you as you loaded up another order onto your serving tray.

“No, why?”

“They seem to have a staring problem. Especially dark and broody.”

You glanced back at the table in question. The Bad Batch, once they realized that you were staring at them, quickly turned back to their meals, trying to appear normal. Save for Hunter, that is, whose gaze lingered, until Echo elbowed him stiffly in the side. Turning back to Byn, the man who had taken you in after your accident, you shrugged your shoulders.

“They’re probably just staring at my scar,” you mumbled, adjusting the plates on your tray.

“You let me know if they say anything to you.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m a big girl. I can handle them.”

Walking over to their table again, you placed down some of their plates, before turning around to grab the rest. But feeling Hunter’s gaze on you again, you turned around briefly, holding your serving tray to your chest. Echo once again elbowed Hunter in the side, causing the sergeant to turn to him with a sour expression.

“You’re going to scare her away if you keep staring at her like that,” Echo reminded Hunter quietly.

“I can’t help it.”

“Well, try to, before she calls the authorities on a man who looks like he wants to eat her.”

When you returned a second time, you placed a plate down in front of Tech and then Hunter. He thanked you quietly, causing you to nod and smile. Placing Omega’s plate down last, you turned to conduct your rounds of the tables.

“What do we do?” Omega asked Hunter, who was still staring after you. “She doesn’t recognize you. How do we get her to do that?”

“Based on the report of her supposed demise, it would not be out of the question that she likely suffered severe injuries as a result of the crash,” Tech began to infodump. “If that woman actually is her, then she clearly sustained trauma to her face, as demonstrated by the large scar on her cheek. It would therefore follow logically that she may have sustained head trauma in the crash as well, which would explain why she does not appear to recognize us.”

“So, there’s still a chance that she could get her memories back,” Omega suggested, but Tech did not look convinced.

“I am not certain. Head injuries are not simple to treat. And if that woman is in fact her, she would have been without her memories for several months now. And I would assume that given the simplistic nature of life on this planet that she was never properly treated at a professional medical facility for her injuries, which would likely exacerbate her memory loss and other symptoms.”

“Get to the point, Tech,” Wrecker grunted out.

“It is a possibility, perhaps even a high one, that she might never recover her memories. In part or in full.”

“But we have to try,” Omega insisted, slowly turning back to Hunter. “Don’t we?”

“I would raise an ethical concern about doing so,” Tech stated, adjusting his goggles.

“And what would that be?” Echo asked gruffly.

“If we are able to restore her memories, that will include the ones where clone troopers attacked and nearly killed her. And we will also have to inform her that her entire culture and civilization were destroyed along with most of the people she considered her family and that she will never again be safe in the galaxy as a Force wielder.”

Hunter stared down at his plate as Tech continued on with his explanation.

“While restoring her memories may provide us with a satisfactory outcome, she does not appear to be in distress here. As far as we can see, her other symptoms are not affecting her quality of life. And as the Empire has her listed as deceased in their database and she is seemingly unaware of her abilities, she is safe here. On the other hand, if she comes with us, there is a very high statistical probability that she will not be.”

“Maybe so, but is that our decision to make?” Echo pointed out, causing everyone to turn to him. “Because speaking as the only person here who’s actually forgotten who they were, and not by choice, I wouldn’t choose peaceful ignorance over the truth.”

“Well, what would she want?” Omega inquired, looking up at Hunter. He turned his head to meet her gaze, but couldn’t find the words.

“How is everything over here?” you asked kindly, walking over to the table.

“Can I ask you something?” Omega questioned suddenly, causing you to turn to her.

“Sure.”

“If you have the choice between remembering everything from your life—even all of the bad stuff—or not remembering anything but being happy, which would you pick?”

You froze at her question, tensing up as the scar on your face burned. Sensing your unease, and after working through his own shock at her question, Hunter scolded Omega.

“She didn’t mean any harm by it,” Hunter tried to assure you.

“Oh, no, it’s fine,” you laughed off, waving your hand. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

You walked away and carried on with your work. But you couldn’t help but raise your hand to your scar as it continued to pulsate and burn after Omega’s question. Glancing over your shoulder at the Bad Batch, you found your eyes landing on the dark and brooding figure who looked exhausted and dejected. You looked down at the dirt, feeling responsible somehow. But then Byn called your name and you had to go back to work.

*~*~*~*

Night had fallen on the quaint planet and Hunter sat outside of the Marauder, mindlessly whittling at a piece of wood with his vibro knife to pass the time. He tried sleeping, but after tossing and turning a thousand times, he decided for a change of scene. Hunter studied the design that he carved when he heard a speeder in the distance. Standing up from his seat, Hunter stared out at the night landscape with narrowed eyes.

A speeder came to a stop a few meters from the Marauder and Hunter crept forward, moving to intercept the figure. But when he smelled your familiar scent, he paused. Stowing his vibro knife away, Hunter stepped into the light emitted from your speeder. You set your helmet and goggles on the seat of the speeder bike before turning to meet his gaze.

“Can I help you with something?” he asked quietly.

“You tell me.” You stared at him with a familiar fire in your eyes. “You know who I am, don’t you?”

“Yes,” he confirmed softly after a moment.

“Good,” you stated, resting your hands on your lap. “Because I don’t.”

Part 2

[writingwisterias]

Can you do Different eras of Leons being subby? (With GN Gentle Dom Reader) DI Leon’s expression when Maria put her boot on his face did something to me!!! I know that man has a submissive side!!! (Has been infected with wanting to motorboat RE6 Leon and slap his ass to make him moan disease, its terminal 😔)

Hi Anon!

I actually love you for this and 100% agree, like make him whimper and beg until he passes out! Send any more of these thoughts my way honestly!

Anyway I hope you enjoy!

Warnings: Smut, MDNI, Sub Leon, Soft Dom Leon, Overstimulation, Orgasm Denial, motorboating 😘, Oral, Restraints,

GN!Reader (No mentions of Readers body parts)

RE2, RE4R, Infinite Darkness, Damnation, RE6, Vendetta, Death Island

RE2:

Okay so, I think Leon would leave college and start the force inexperienced in anything like this so he would assume he's dom

Like that's just how his brain is wired to think, it's not really spoken about around this time - kinks etc are more taboo

So when he meets you it's almost funny at his attempts, he's uncoordinated. Sloppy. Thrusts are like borderline pathetic

But only because he's seeking your praise, he's asking if he's doing it right. If he's in the right place, if he's going at the right pace, if it feels good

It's almost off putting with the amount of questions so you take matters in your own hands.

I'm saying like making him stop and pulling yourself away from him, only for you to push him over and take control

It's almost overwhelming for him the change in pace. He's blushing because of your sudden change in command.

It doesn't actually take long for him to become a whimpering mess, pleading you, begging you for a release.

It's like a switch has changed in his head and he just becomes this puddle

He's so aroused that as soon as he cums he's thinking about it and his dick just rises again.

By the end of it, just just covered in cum with a stupid giddy smile before falling asleep.

RE4R:

At this point he's been to a literal boot camp 👀 so he's seen some shit and heard some shit.

I'd say that he's like listening to their conversations about being a sub and whisky they are saying how much they hate it. He's eager to try it.

Again it's slightly more spoken about but it's 2005 so there's not much conversation. So he wouldn't know how to approach the subject.

Until he meets you.

When it gets around the time you both consider being intimate he's blushing as you ask him what he expects. He's questioning himself like "do I say it?"

When he does he's actually shocked to see a smile grow on your face.

It's all a blur from then, his body is slick with sweat, his cheeks are so ready from either your constant praise or degrading comments.

He's whimpering, bratty and just loving it

I'd say it's a bit weird at the point for him to be subby, he's finally got a chance to hold onto something to take control for once.

Yet he passes it to someone else

I think he's just not quite ready to actually control what happens. So when you have him covered in his own cum, commanding him to cover you in it as well.

He's putty

Infinite Darkness:

My guy is cocky...a little too cocky.

I think the relationship is a switch situation. You both have your moments.

Yours just somehow happens to be more often.

He's not arguing though.

Laying back with flushed cheeks, tears in his eyes as he watched you play around with his flushed tip. Sucking him completely dry until he's shooting blanks

Should teach him for running his mouth I suppose

I think he's more inclined for slightly freakier stuff, I'm talking restraints etc

The idea of being at your complete mercy and not being able to do anything about it because of those damn handcuffs.

Because you do it so often it seeps into his brain and he finds himself still seeking your guidance even when he's meant to be Dom that night

Asking you what you want and where you want him to touch you, waiting for your approval to do so type of thing

Damnation:

So he's still cocky but this is where his personality starts to harden and he loses his spark.

I think he would try very hard to stay dominant, he thinks that's what is right. It's a role that suits his newer personality, until he meets you.

When he meets you, all these walls he's built up are crumbling down. He starts to loosen up and you sorta just slide into his life

He respects you for it, so I don't think he would be bratty towards you in anyway despite his off tone to everyone else

It would be like a "I hate everyone else but you" or He'll be shouting at someone in one moment you appear and he stops

In bed I think he would be demanding from what he wants from you, like where you should touch him, what he needs, how close he is

I would say it's more of just a need to have some control over what he wants to do. Not full control just a slither

It's more like he just wants to be respected and actually given a choice. I think the conversations would be like "so you want this today or this?" Giving him two options for how the night should go.

RE6:

Now hear me out, he's the bratty era of them all.

I'm saying that you actually have to lean more into a rough Dom instead of a soft Dom because of how much he pushes your buttons.

Open to anything, he's just needy and desperate for a fuck

Prefers blow jobs, he would rather cum in your mouth with you glaring up at him because you didn't give him permission than anything else

After China though I think he would come back different.

He's just experienced an event like what just started it all so he's going to be very shaken up. It's almost weird to you when he returns like this

Then he would be so quiet, just silently getting lost into the pleasure and intimacy of you both.

You would have to check with him a lot more during this, reassuring him you are there and all that.

Hand holding!

He's extra sensitive so I would say you could probably milk multiple orgasms from him in one night.

Vendetta:

Okay so he's a mess, like his head is everywhere but the what he's doing. Not focusing on anything, constantly drunk. Like he's just a mess

So beat him into shape (not literally)

I'm saying like he is actually just incoherent after what you have done with his.

he's covered in his own cum.

Literally thrusting towards a single finger of yours if you touch his cock.

He's also slightly pudgier after losing himself to drink and not working out as often so grab them tits.

Nipple play is randomly a huge turn on for him suddenly.

After the events of vendetta as well I'd say he's got a new look on life so when he comes home there's a slight spring in his step.

Leading you both trying out new things in the bedroom, your sex life having a new spark.

He's still big on passionate love. Wanting you to be as close as you can to him at all times, cuddle sex is a new norm.

Death Island:

At this point in time he's chilled out, happy and at peace.

I think he takes on smaller missions, meaning he's home more often

Would like to surprise you when you get home, I'm talking like being patient in bed waiting for you to get back if he wakes up with morning wood.

Would literally spend all day with a boner until you get back

But yes you mentioned Maria fighting him and he smiled so therefore he's big into manhandling. I don't make the rules

Hes agile, you could move him any way you wanted and he just accepts

Probably part of the reason he is still so agile because you are constantly stretching him out. Don't worry about not being strong enough to move him, just tell/guide him and he'll do it himself

He can also take a beating so don't be afraid to be rough with him.

Loves seeing all of your marks all over his skin, even more so if they are over the top of old scars.

[bare1ythere]

How to back up your tumblr blog with Tumblr-Utils FOR MAC USERS

I've seen a few guides floating around on how to use some more complex options for backing up your tumblr blog, but most are extremely PC focused. Here is a guide for fellow (unfortunate) mac users!

Note: I am not a tech savvy person at all. My brother walked me through this, and I'm just sharing what he told me. Unfortunately I won't be able to help much if you need trouble shooting or advice ;; sorry! This is also based off of this guide (link) by @/magz.

- - - - GUIDE - - - -

First, open terminal. You can command+space to search through your applications, and search for "terminal". It should look like this.

You should see something like this within the window:

[COMPUTER NAME]:~ [USER NAME]$ []

First, create a virtual environment for tumblr back up. This will limit any conflicts with other python programs. Type and enter this into terminal:

python3 -m venv .tumblr_backup

Then, Activate the virtual environment by entering this:

source .tumblr_backup/bin/activate

The next line should now show something like this:

(.tumblr_backup) [COMPUTER NAME]:~ [USER NAME]$ []

As a side note, you can exit this virtual environment by typing and entering "deactivate". You can re-enter it through the previous line we used to activate it to begin with.

Next, install the base package with this line:

python3 -m pip install tumblr-backup

The linked guide details various options for tumblr back up packages that you can install. Copied from the guide for convenience:

"tumblr-backup : default tumblr-backup[video] : adds option to download videos tumblr-backup[exif] : adds option to download EXIF information of fotos (photography metadata information) tumblr-backup[notes] : adds option to download notes of posts (huge) tumblr-backup[jq] : adds option to filter which posts to backup  tumblr-backup[all] : adds all options (personally doesn't work for us at the moment of writing this)"

I chose the video option, but you can pick which you'd like. Download that specific package with this line. Note that unlike the previous lines Ive shown, the square brackets here are actually part of it and must be used:

python3 -m pip install tumblr-backup[OPTION]

Next, you need to create an app linked to your tumblr account to get an OAuth consumer key (aka API key). Go to this link: [https://www.tumblr.com/oauth/apps] and click the [+Register application] button. Here, you will have to input a bunch of info. What you put doesn't really matter. This is how the original guide filled it out, and I did pretty much the exact same thing:

(The github link for your convenience: https://github.com/Cebtenzzre/tumblr-utils)

For the next step, You'll take the OAuth consumer key (NOT the secret key) and set it as the API key in tumblr-utils to give it the ability to download your blog. Input this line. Note that in this case, the square brackets are NOT to be included- just copy and paste the key:

tumblr-backup --set-api-key [YOUR OAUTH CONSUMER KEY]

This will set you up to start your back up! Type this to see all the different customization options you can pick from for your backup:

tumblr-backup --help

To begin your back up, pick which options you want to choose from and select which of your blogs you want to back up. It should look like this:

tumblr-backup [OPTIONS] [BLOG NAME]

For example, I am currently backing up this blog and I wanted to save videos as well as reversing the post order in the monthly archives. This is what my command looked like:

tumblr-backup -r --save-video bare1ythere

And there you have it! Your backup will be saved into a file titled after your blog. You can search through finder for it from there. There is also an option to specify where you want to save your blog, but I'm not sure how it works. I hope this was useful!!

[til-all-are-loved]

{This Charming Man Part 8}

MTMTE Megatron x Reader | SFW

Word Count 2.3k ao3

You exhale. Then again, slower.

It was nothing. Just a pleasant exchange. Nothing more.

Except, the satisfaction of knowing you entertained him, pleased him, earned that rare reaction—should have ended at that. A small, private victory. 

But it doesn’t. It lingers in the way your skin feels too warm, the way your mind replays that half-smile, the way he said goodnight.

Like a glass of water and oil that had been shaken violently, the satisfaction curdled like tiny bubbles of oil reconstituting themselves. 

“I can’t believe I was able to pay attention to the whole movie!” Tailgate interjected, reminding you that you weren’t alone. 

On a night like this back home you would be driving home purely alone, with nothing but the open road and mixtape in the CD player. A blink of silence with Tailgate was enough to make you forget that the vehicle you were currently a passenger of was a whole other person. Secretly you mourned the peace of driving alone.

“I’m glad you stuck around,” you murmured quietly “next time I’ll pick something animated. Promise.”

Tailgate dropped you off at your door, dithered about wanting to see Cyclonus, and sped off.

You would end the day in satisfying solitude. 

---

The bridge was quiet at this hour, save for the occasional murmur of a passing officer. You had decided to head there early to do some writing. You sat tucked away at one of the terminals, fingers poised over the keys, your “report” already well underway. It was, at this point, a self-indulgent habit rather than a duty. Two weeks had passed since the last movie night, in that time there was absolutely zero correspondence from Earth Command. 

You had debated rescinding your resignation. Even if something was done about it, it's not like you could even go back to Earth. The Lost Light wasn’t scheduled to return to your solar system for another year, not even your human handlers could force them to drain the quantum engines to turn back. 

And if Earth didn’t know that you had become compromised, then there really wasn't any reason to let the command of the Lost Light know either. You’d keep your secrets in the pages of your own digital diary.

Typing away at a surprising pace, your thoughts flowed effortlessly onto the document. Unburdened by the need to uphold professionalism.

Cycle 631, 04: Megatron called me to the docks. I went, no hesitation. I’m beginning to think that’s a problem. He took me beyond the ship. Just a short flight, for the first time I saw the Lost Light from the outside. I don’t know if he meant to give me that sight, or if he simply wanted to see what I would say if we were alone. He spoke of history like it was a wound still splitting open. And then he listened, I believe he listened—as I told him I believed he was trying to mend it. The way he looked at me then… No, I won’t write that down. Cycle 631, 06: I invited him to movie night. I don’t know what I expected, but then he showed up anyway. Honestly I don’t think I really payed the movie much attention. And when it was over, he said— He liked it. That alone would have been enough to send my heart skittering, but then, as he looked at me he smiled. Not a smug asshole smirk, an honest-to-god, genuine attempt at a smile. It wasn’t practiced. It wasn’t perfect. It was just real. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I don’t think I want to.

You paused before diving into the entry for the present day

Cycle 631, 30: No messages from Earth. No word, no acknowledgment. I should feel lost, unmoored, but instead I feel like my mind has been refocused on being part of the Lost Light. I write these records like they matter, like they’re for someone. But they’re not. They’re just for me.  Megatron has sought me out on occasion lately, for instance the other day. Not on the bridge, not under the guise of duty, but me. He said he was checking on my “health and wellbeing”. And the way he spoke—made me feel like the tepid water between us was finally starting to feel warm. Or at least that's what I think.  I caught myself smiling when he left. Ridiculous. This is getting out of hand. I can’t write his name without my fingers hesitating over the keys. I can’t replay conversations in my head without feeling light. This is nothing. It has to be. At least I can believe my feelings are completely one-sided and at least that feels safe. 

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. 

You hit send abruptly.

---

The early hours passed you by as you kept busy. You hoped that you appeared studious while bouncing around the web. Your search queries included academic topics like: Poetry Analysis Techniques, Literature To Impress Your Crush, and Top Rated Alien Romance Novels. Very critical and work-related research. 

Bots filtered in and out, submitting reports, and conducting their work. Their mechanical workings created a unique atmosphere of busyness. Until, the typical ambience was interrupted by heavy pedes pounding into the room.

From your place near the secondary console, you could see the tension unfolding—a verbal storm brewing between mechs, their voices rising and falling in clipped, controlled bursts. It wasn’t your business.

Rodimus stood his ground against a senior officer, an Autobot lieutenant. His name didn’t matter—his presence did. He was stationed on the Lost Light from launch, before Megatron’s co-captaincy, and he wore that history like armor.

“You’ve been operating this ship like an experiment,” the mech’s voice edged with frustration. “This was meant to be an expedition, not a political stage. The crew grows restless. And you—” he jabbed a finger in Rodimus’s direction, “—allow too much slack. What is this ship if not a rogue element at this point?”

Rodimus, to his credit, looked exasperated rather than riled. “Sounds like you’re saying I’m the problem,” he quipped, arms crossed. “Which, hey, fair. But unless you’re gunning for my job, I suggest you get to your actual point.”

“My point,” the commander snapped, “is that too many compromises have been made. Too many allowances for distractions, for—” his helm wrenched sideways—directly at you.

You stiffened.

“—for irrelevant personnel.”

The words landed firmly. A clean dismissal.

You weren’t the focus of this discussion, yet suddenly, you were.

Another mech, emboldened by the sentiment, cut in.

“She doesn’t belong here.”

It was said so simply, so carelessly, like you were just another logistical issue to be sorted out.

“Ambassadors don’t have clearance to oversee command-level disputes, like schedules,” the officer continued. “She is not a ranking crew member, nor does she hold authority in any sector of ship operations. At best, she’s a guest. And at worst—” the implication hung there.

Your fingers curled against the edge of the console. Rodimus straightened, clearly about to step in, but he wasn’t fast enough.

The temperature in the room dropped.

“She remains exactly where she is.”

The conversation stopped. The tension in the room froze. Pin drop silence.

Every optic turned toward him.

He was still seated, still composed, but something in his expression was razor-sharp. Megatron’s optics burned like embers beneath the focus of his glare, locking onto the mech who had dared to speak out.

“She is not here by your permission,” Megatron continued, voice dangerously close to a snarl. “And she will not be removed at your whim.”

A beat of silence.

Then, the bot ex-vented sharply, clearly not one to back down. “Megatron, this is a command space. If nothing else, protocol dictates—”

He moved.

It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t violent. But in a single, fluid motion, Megatron stood.

Pedes scraped against the metal floor as he rose to his full height, shoulders squared, every inch of his frame settling into an overwhelming posture.

It was rare for Megatron to throw the weight of his presence into a room like this. He didn’t need to. His authority was written into every part of this ship’s hierarchy. But this—this—was different. He wasn’t asserting command.

He was asserting something else entirely.

Most of the uninvolved mechs resumed their duties, the air of efficiency resumed. The lieutenant shifted uncomfortably but was not ready to back down yet..

“You would bend rules for an organic?” the second mech scoffed. “I thought you, of all people, understood the cost of—”

Megatron moved again.

Faster than you could process, he turned—and in a single, controlled motion, he reached for you.

You barely had a moment to realize he closed the distance towards you.  Before his massive hand closed around you, lifting you with frightening ease. His servos pressed around you with a restraint so deliberate, you could almost mistake it for gentleness.

His claim over you unmistakable as he placed you at his side near the central command console.

Standing beside him, disoriented and heart hammering, you barely registered the way his fingers briefly curled against your frame before pulling away. You swiftly tidied your clothing and appearance before quickly standing at attention with your hands behind your back. It took everything to peel your eyes away from your feet. 

Then, his voice—steadier now, but no less sharp:

“You seem confused.”

He turned his optics onto the mechs.

“She is not optional.”

The lieutenant  looked as if he wanted to argue. But there was no space left for it. He exited the bridge. 

Megatron had spoken.

And the matter was closed.

The murmurs resumed gradually, like the tide rolling back after a storm. No one addressed what had just happened. Optics darted toward you before quickly returning to their stations. No one wanted to be the one to dwell on it. 

You waited. Not immediately, not foolishly, but long enough for their attention to fully drift elsewhere. Then you turned your gaze upward.

Megatron was already watching.

It wasn’t a piercing stare, nor was it the unreadable scrutiny he so often wielded. It was something settled. A silent knowing passed between you, neither of you smiling, it was unmistakable. A look exchanged between allies. Between friends.

You inhaled softly before speaking. “Thank you, Captain.”

His expression didn’t change.

“Am I dismissed?” you asked, voice measured, professional.

A pause. Then, with the same gesture as before, Megatron lifted you once more, lowering you carefully back to the ground. As soon as your feet touched the floor, his hand withdrew, as if the act had never happened at all.

You nodded once, adjusting your stance, ignoring the way your knees wobbled. Then, without another word, you turned and left.

—-

You weren’t sure how you ended up here, tucked away in one of the ship’s quieter observation decks with Megatron standing just a few feet away. Maybe you had wandered. Maybe he had led you here. Either way, the bridge was long behind you, and the lingering weight of all those staring optics had finally peeled off your shoulders.

The silence between you wasn’t strained. Your hands felt a bit too clammy, your body still buzzing with the leftover adrenaline of being claimed so publicly.

“You didn’t have to do that,” you finally said, keeping your voice steady.

Megatron didn’t turn right away. He stood near the massive viewport, arms crossed, watching the endless stretch of space. “Would you rather I had let them dismiss you?”

You huffed, shaking your head. “No, but... Megatron, that wasn’t just asserting authority. That was…” You gestured vaguely, because how the hell were you supposed to put that into words? That was something I don’t know how to name.

He finally looked at you, unreadable as ever, but his optics weren’t hard—not like they had been on the bridge. Whatever fire had been in them earlier had cooled.

“If you do not yet understand,” he said slowly, voice firm, “then let me make it clear.”

His gaze didn’t waver.

“You are not insignificant to me.”

The way he said it—so simple, so matter-of-fact, like it wasn’t even up for debate.

You swallowed, blinking up at him.  Your fingers curled at your sides before you hesitated and—

“…Can you pick me up?”

Megatron blinked. Then, after a moment he ex-vented, bent down on one knee and lowered his hand.

You stepped into his palm, feeling the way his servos adjusted around you as he lifted you effortlessly. His other hand came up, shielding you from the open space, like he was instinctively keeping you protected. It made your stomach do something weird, but you ignored it.

“Closer,” you beckoned.

If he was surprised by the request, he didn’t show it. He brought you to his chest, and you shifted forward, pressing against the broad, solid plating of his frame. Your arms didn’t reach far—couldn’t, really—but you still held him, as much as you were able.

He went very still.

His plating felt warmer here than his servos. Embracing it felt like leaning against a steel door that had been facing the sun– or, well, like a hot car. Soft clicks and hissing tubes could be heard beneath his armor, undercut by a very low thrum.

For a second, you thought maybe you’d overstepped, maybe this was too much, but then his fingers curled ever so slightly around you, holding you in place.

You shut your eyes, exhaling softly. “Thank you.”

Megatron didn’t respond right away. But eventually, you felt something—a shift in the way he held you, the weight of his presence easing just a fraction.

“…You are welcome,” he murmured.

You stayed like that for a little while longer. Just long enough to let it mean something.

---

[vibratingskull]

Hello, I had an idea for fic but it's a bit different to what you typically write so I understand if you wouldn't want to write it.

Imagine some rebels...maybe members of ghost crew intercepts some of Thrawns correspondence thinking that it's really important intel only to find it's some sweet back and forth between him and his SO.

They would be so surprised to find the big bad Grand Admiral being all cute in his messages. 👀

Interesting idea, let's see what it looks like!

⁺ 　 . ✦ Thrawn x F!reader ✦ . 　⁺

Tags: Kallus POV, pregnancy mention, Thrawn and reader are secretly married

Kallus types on the keys, eyes fixed on the screen. 

Everyone is asleep in the Ghost but Kallus cannot sleep. They have been hunted mercilessly and now they are exhausted, Hera found a hideout and everyone fell face first in their pillows. 

But Kallus is obsessed with a thought, something he did not have time to investigate while he was still a mole in the Empire. 

He still needs to prove himself to his new rebel companions and he hopes that lead could be his ticket! Back when he was under the Empire he noticed ghost communications emanating from Grand Admiral Thrawn’s personal comms and terminals and while he found them suspicious they were not coded as orders that he needed to dig for the rebellion. 

But now those communications shine in a very suspect light and he wants to get to the bottom of it. 

He is no master hacker and Thrawn evidently changed all the codes of his ship to prevent Kallus from recovering them now that he is a rebel, but Thrawn cannot decide how to modify such encryptions, it obeys a very specific bureaucratic imperial logic. 

Logic Kallus grew accostumed to. 

For 4 weeks he tried to break the code, spending sleepless nights on this forsaken screen destroying his eyes in the dark and tonight he finally got it! 

This is a one-time thing, knowing Thrawn as he does he will realize someone broke his security and stole his secrets.  

And considering the encryptions on those communications, he will be absolutely furious and the hunt will get worse. 

Kallus knows it 

He enters, gathers a maximum of information, eliminates as many proofs of his presence, and runs to wake up Hera to change hideouts immediately! 

He thought he would discover a one-way channel through which Thrawn transferred his plans to the Imperial palace to the Navy’s siege or even Lord Vader or the Emperor...  

But he noticed those data left the Chimaera to return straight back to it... 

Internal ship discussions do not use the triads to be sent and use an intranet and a computer to communicate informations. But Thrawn decided to muddy his trail by sending the data to a triad that recodes it again before sending the data back to the Chimaera. 

With whom was he communicating and about what!? 

He finishes typing his command and a new window pops up before his eye 

A Discussion 

To a certain “Ch’acah” 

He never encountered that word. Is that a title? Nobody on the Chimaera is named Ch’acah. 

... 

What the hell...? 

Ch’acah: ”How was your day, Thrawn?” 

Thrawn: “Uneventful. My planning brought us to victory again and we are gaining in the rebels. Only Konstantine remains a wild card.” 

Ch’acah: “Again? When will he learn that we need his cooperation for the plans to work as intended? He can’t allow himself to do what he wants like that!” 

Thrawn: “I agree.” 

Ch’acah: “I will try to have a word with him.” 

Thrawn: “Thank you for your concern Ch’acah, but I would prefer you refrain. It will only had to your stress, and you do not need stress right now.” 

Ch’acah: “I am pregnant, not dying, silly.” 

Thrawn: “I prefer to be safe than sorry.” 

... 

Kallus blinks and reread all of that. 

Pregnancy? Daring to call Thranw ‘silly’? 

What did he stumble across? 

He keeps reading 

Thrawn: “I would never forgive myself if something happened to our baby.” 

Ch’acah: “Nothing is going to happen to me or the baby, especially when I am with you on the Chimaera. I know you will do your best to protect us.” 

Thrawn: “I am doing my best. Nothing will ever reach you two while I am alive, I swear it Ch’acah.” 

Ch’acah: “Hihi, I know my love, I know.” 

Thrawn: “I miss you daily even though we see each other every day. Hiding ourselves from the world tear my heart to pieces.” 

Ch’acah: “You can reenact your marriage proposal on the bridge before everyone else if you want! <3” 

Thrawn: “ (Y/n)... You know I cannot.” 

Kallus almost spat out his caff 

YOU? 

You and... Thrawn are together? A couple? And you are pregnant?! 

He remembers chatting with you from time to time and honestly praising your performance when he was still loyal to the Empire, when he turned to the rebellion he started avoiding you, judging you as a danger to his cover. 

He always found you competent and intelligent, and visibly Thrawn thought the same and got seduced. 

He would have never guessed Thrawn would get his heart stolen! And by you? 

You were more dangerous than he first judged! 

Thrawn: “If we are revealed you would become a target. The rebels and the Empire will try to get to you, to the baby, to reach me.” 

Ch’acah: “I know... I was joking. Me too I would prefer to be free to hug you whenever I want...” 

Thrawn: “Soon, Ch’acah, soon... When my true plans will succeed, when I know everyone in the galaxy is safe from that exterior threat, we will be together and free. I love you, ch’eo Ch’acah, more than anything.” 

Ch’acah: “Me too, my love, more than anything.” 

Kallus takes a minute 

This is not what he expected 

Not at all even 

He feels like he walked in on something he should have never seen... 

He never suspected that... softer... side of the Grand Admiral Thrawn. 

He doesn’t know if that humanizes him in his eyes or gives him the creeps. 

Thrawn is deadly and Kallus doesn’t really want to discover how he is when someone were to stand between him and you... 

Between him and his baby... 

Kallus thinks, does he even have it in himself to target a pregnant woman? 

Would it not be what an Imperial would do? A rebel would probably have more morals than that... 

Kallus contemplates the messages, the love that was hidden even to his eyes. He remembers you as a diligent and loyal officer to Thrawn and the Chiss showed respect to your person and gave a lot of consideration to your opinions on his tactics and plans in retrospect. 

Now that Kallus has those informations, a lot of things click in his mind, about you and Thrawn’s behaviors in the presence of the other. 

A secret couple 

A hidden pregnancy 

Thrawn is right about one thing, the Emperor will certainly try to get that baby, the offspring of his most prized tactician 

This is literally a death sentence for you, it is only a matter of time. No rebel will even need to intervene: if Thrawn does nothing, the Emperor will get to him himself. 

Kallus decides to exit the conversation 

Destroys as much proof of his visit as he can 

And stand up to wake up Hera and flee somewhere safe. 

Thrawn will never allow such secret to spread and will do his best to hunt the intruder until he slits his throat 

But somehow 

For some reason 

Kallus sympathizes with his new enemy, he would not want to be in his position 

Never. 

@bluechiss @justanothersadperson93 @thrawnspetgoose @thrawnalani @twilekchiss @dance-like-russia-isnt-watching @obbicrystaleo @elise2174@davesrightshoe @holylonelyponyeatingmacaroni @princesslunamoon19 @janjtje @helrose8

[cozy-sims]

Linux update! (And a few Nvidia tips)

After a dreadful day of trying to make this work, I'm reporting that The Sims 2 finally works on my new Linux system! 😭❤️ Admittedly I have made my own life harder setting this up, but the most important thing I've learned from this experience and thought it might worth sharing:

Before you try to install TS2 on your Linux, make sure that you have your graphics card's driver updated!

When I first installed The Sims 2 on Linux it was incredibly laggy and choppy, because the default Nouveau driver didn't work well enough with my Nvidia card. After I installed the Nvidia driver from the built in driver manager, the game just straightup crashed.

Then I had to find out that Mint's driver manager couldn't install the newest driver for my card (RTX 3070), and even when installed, it didn't work. 😂

So if you have an Nvidia card and struggling or planning to install Linux in the future, below the cut are a few useful tips that I've discovered in the depths of the Internet:

Check what driver the official Nvidia site recommends for your GPU. - I did this and it showed driver version 570.

2. I think this is optional, but open your terminal and type the cmd: sudo apt update - this will trigger Linux to update its driver list.

3. Open Driver Manager, and see if the recommended driver (570 in my case is available). For me it was not available, only the 550, this was my issue.

3.1. If you can see your required driver, awesome, install it from the driver manager and skip to step 5. 3.2. If not, you have to use this PPA. -> Meaning you have to open your terminal and enter the following commands (when I list multiple commands to run, first type the first one, press enter, then type the next one, press enter etc.): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ ppa sudo apt update You can also find installation guide on the link above, but it's basically this. 4. Now you have to restart your system, and repeat Step 3. of this list. The newest driver should show up in your Driver Manager now, install it.

5. After installing, open your terminal and type the following command: inxi -G -> this will allow us to check if the driver works properly. Shock, it did not for me :D When working properly, it should look like this:

Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1:1920x1080~60Hz 2: 1920x1080~60Hz When not working, it looks like this: Example 1: Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa failed: nvidia

6. This is the thread that helped me fix this problem. You have to scroll down to the Nvidia Graphics troubleshooting tips.

7. I had to add this "kernel boot parameter": nvidia_drm.fbdev=1 into the system. On this link you can see how to add it either temporarily or "permanently" (meaning you don't have to add it every time you start your system, but it is removable).

To add it permanently, you have to type the following commands into your terminal:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nvidia_drm.fbdev=1" sudo update-grub

8. After you added it, reboot your system, and when it starts again, check if the parameter is there with the command: cat /proc/cmdline

9. If it's there, run the inxi -G command again, and see if it looks like it should.

10. If not, you might have to update the Kernel version of your Linux, which you can do in the Update Manager/View/Linux Kernels menu. I had to update mine from 6.8 to 6.11.

After all this you should be good to install the game, I made my life so much harder than it was necessarily so I hope my research on how to deal with an Nvidia Graphics card with Sims 2 on Linux is helpful to some of you. 😂

[ferronickel]

Y'all wanna hear about some inter-office drama?

So when we're not on set, the company I work for is based out of an office building that is also home to a number of other businesses. For the most part these other companies seem pretty nice, and our hallway is just us and a non-profit so it's quiet.

Cut to about six months ago when a marketing company moved in across the hall from us. They have been the biggest source of disruption/entertainment these past few months.

They play music so loud the entire building can hear it, at all hours of the day

From the glimpses I've seen of the interior of their office, the only decorations are a framed photo of the word "hustle" and a single large canvas print of a lion.

For a long time their website was just various stock photos and generic information, except for a long blog post they'd made advocating for using AI to data mine customers in order to better target ads.

They are constantly hiring. Like, I see people going in to interview at least once a week. And they only hire young people, just out of college, who dress like they're auditioning to play a part in Wolf of Wall Street or something. I suspect they are somehow an mlm (of the pyramid scheme variety, not the gay kind), or maybe they're sacrificing these hires to some sort of business demon.

I'm supported on this second theory by the fact that at least once a day they gather and shout these semi-unintelligable chants (again, so loud the whole building can hear). There are multiple, but I caught one of these chants once and they were saying "Last one in the field is the last to make money". As I'm typing this they've been chanting/shouting for the last five minutes straight.

Only a few of them have keys to unlock their doors, so frequently there will be small gaggles of wall-street-wannabes in the hallway waiting to be let in. Unfortunately their attempts to knock of the door go unanswered due to the aforementioned loud music.

As far as I can tell, their actual job is selling 5g internet door-to-door. This involves some sort of mass migration around noon, where they all have to change out of their slim fit suits into polo shirts and slacks, before piling into cars and driving off. They commandeer the only bathrooms on the floor so they can change, making them inaccessible to the rest of the building.

Okay, so, all that to give you a sense of who these guys are. Now, our poor neighbors, the non-profit across the hall, has had to share a wall with them this whole time and has filed a lot of complaints with the building managers. A month ago, the building told the business bros that they had to stop shouting and turn down their music, or they'd revoke the marketing company's lease. The business bros have apparently failed to do that, as I just saw a notice of lease termination on their door and now they have 5 days to move out. However, so far, there has distinct lack of motion towards moving out, and they're making even more noise than usual. So I'm just sitting here with popcorn waiting to see how all this shakes out.

[spliqi]

spliqiii hi!! i remember seeing you talk about a theory regarding higuchi's ability and i was thinking about that now. with innocent purposes. so i wanted to ask if you can redirect me to the posts you made about it? (and/or elaborate when you answer this ask!) no pressure of course <3

aaaa hello!!! here are the main posts i made about it. but i can absolutely just explain everything again because i love to yap and i have even more thoughts on this now than i did back then

it's difficult to say for certain what her ability could be since we know literally nothing except that she has/will have one (thanks to asagiri's vagueposting on twitter). in my opinion it would be pretty strange for her to be the one exception to the 'all authors have cool abilities based on their works' rule when she's such a recognized figure in japanese modern lit. so. here's where i fell down a rabbit hole of trying to figure it out with nothing but crumbs and a dream.

for starters there's a lot of unanswered questions around higuchi. the problems she faces with belonging in the mafia seem normal on the surface but when you look into how highly she's ranked it gets ?????. she leads the command unit with akutagawa, a unit that sits directly below the executives and above the black lizard + the majority of the organization. if she doesn’t bring much to the table as mori and tachihara imply in chapter 14, how did she get so high up? she’s also one of the few characters that report directly to mori himself:

not to mention how she must have joined the mafia fairly recently and reached this position super fast, as her and dazai didn’t recognize each other in chapters 3-4:

she’s presented as a totally ordinary character with "relatable problems", and yet her rank doesn’t match this at all. i could see it if she were on the lower rungs of the mafia, maybe the level of a grunt like oda was, but since she isn’t, all i can think is she must have something that the mafia wants, something valuable enough to make mori look past her poor suitability and give her such a high position working as a bodyguard (bodyguard??????) for one of the strongest characters in the series. and of course the most logical conclusion to draw is that it’s related to her mysterious ability.

i’m assuming it’s not an ultra-powerful fighting skill (as cool as that would be), since that would kind of defeat the purpose of her struggle in chapter 14, and it would be odd in that case for her subordinates to look down on her so much:

plus asagiri denies it outright in this 2019 interview:

after digging around, examining each of her scenes down to the atom and bouncing ideas off of mutuals, i think it would make the most sense for her to have a life support or healing-type ability, especially one that comes with some kind of cost to her own wellbeing. it fits the caring and self-sacrificial nature of her character, and her acting as a "nurse" figure would explain both her connection to mori, a doctor, and also her being assigned to work with the terminally ill akutagawa, despite the seemingly massive gap in their capabilities as mafiosi. if her ability is directly linked to treating his illness it could also give us an explanation as to why it’s been a secret for such a long time, as asgr would have to reach the point in the story where akutagawa's illness is revealed first, and timeline-wise the cruise ship scene where that happened was like. a few days ago lol

we only see her around injured people that she could potentially heal a couple of times, but both of these scenes are interesting. the first is with akutagawa after the cargo ship battle in the first arc:

she reaches out to touch his hand with a little glowy effect, but hesitates when she remembers he doesn’t want her to help him. possibly a touch-activated ability? possibly because she’s conflicted about putting herself at risk when she knows he won’t even appreciate it? this takes place immediately after mori berates her about her worth to the mafia/in comparison to akutagawa, so if she does have a healing ability i imagine it's one she has to use sparingly, to the point that her usefulness is being called into question.

at the end of the chapter he apologizes to her and takes her hand, she starts crying and holds his hand back, and a few chapters later he reappears unscathed and stabbing nathaniel. despite having *checks notes* a broken jaw, a fractured spine and skull, first degree burns from head to toe and being in a coma 😭. which could just be animanga logic. but maybe… just maybe…

the second scene is with mori in cannibalism arc, and this one always gets me bc the direct parallel of higuchi at mori’s side and yosano at fukuzawa’s is wild !?!?!

higuchi and yosano are also both conveniently written out of the plot during the annihilation sequence in 55 minutes, when everybody gets hurt:

so. yeag. it makes sense to me. the healerguchi theory is probably the strongest i've seen for her ability by far lsjdjskjrkrj

i also think this theory links well into the irl author’s work - many of ichiyo's protagonists were "overlooked women" like maids, prostitutes, waitresses etc. if her job does involve her being a nurse to akutagawa you can see the clear nod to ichiyo's stories about vulnerable girls in roles of servitude. plus the concept of her ability physically draining her... dying as a result of caring for someone... (<- guy who's trying so hard not to mention flowers at dusk. and failing):

if higuchi has the ability to transfer her lifespan/life force/whatever based on one of her own characters who died slowly due to her unrequited love for a man with the same name as akutagawa… i fear asagiri’s pen game may have been fire all long

[nixcraft]

Instead of typing a clear command, just press Ctrl+L to clear your terminal or shell screen on macOS, Linux, or Unix-like systems.

[glavilio]

do you know any good guides to get into furry muck?? ive wanted to try it for ages but find it confusing

so long as you have some familiarity with command line/terminal and the basic CLI procedures, i found the starting guide on the official site quite adequate. otherwise, first familiarize yourself with the command line interface of your computer. it takes a little getting used to, but this is how the entire MUCK will be, plus knowing how to use a CLI is a good skill to have.

you will need telnet installed on your computer. telnet is the protocol that will allow you to access furrymuck through your CLI (telnet is not secure, so don't type anything into furryMUCK you wouldn't want anyone to be able to see! this is the risk of using a legacy system, assume it has already been compromised and act accordingly). on windows telnet is preinstalled but you will need to enable it as described in this guide. on linux and macOS you can install it with a package manager. i use homebrew on mac.

once you have telnet, the official guides for connecting are here. character registration is done via email. mine took around a week and a half to come back. because your passwords are sent in plaintext over email and unsecured over telnet do not reuse another password. here in the registration guide.

once you access the MUCK, the area just outside the bandstand where you start has guides for new players and the people around there are generally willing to help new and clueless players (like me). it takes a little trial and error and exploring. i found this guide for interacting with the enviornment helpful.

furryMUCK is a very magical place when you're able to meet it at its own terms. part of the fantasy is the clunkiness of the ancient internet its idiosyncrasies. have so much fun!

[areyoufuckingcrazy]

askbox said requests open so in would you be open to doing like Corrie guard x teen reader (platonic/familial obv) where reader is just a troublemaker? Any Corrie is fine

“Of Course It’s You Again”

Corrie Guard x Reader

“You’re banned from five speeder shops, two undercity hover clubs, and a noodle stall, all in the same week. Impressive.”

Fox didn’t even look up from the datapad as he listed the offenses.

“I can explain the noodle stall,” you offered weakly from the holding bench.

“No need.” Thorn leaned in from the doorway, smirking. “The surveillance footage already went viral in the barracks. Who knew you could do a somersault over a steaming vat of soup?”

“It was more of a dive, really,” you muttered.

Fox sighed and finally looked up, helmet tucked under one arm, expression unreadable except for the twitch at his temple. The twitch meant you were pushing it — again.

“You’re fourteen. You should not be on Coruscant’s lower levels alone, let alone swinging from fire escapes with a stolen repulsorboard.”

“I didn’t steal it! I borrowed it. Temporarily. From a rich kid who told me I couldn’t land a trick over an alley gap.” You crossed your arms and tilted your chin. “Joke’s on him. I nailed it.”

“Then crashed through a skylight,” Thorn added helpfully.

“Into a meditation class,” Stone chimed in from the hallway, holding up your scratched-up backpack like it was evidence. “Disturbed twelve people’s inner peace.”

“They weren’t meditating that hard if my landing broke it.”

Fox pinched the bridge of his nose.

You didn’t mean to be trouble. Trouble just seemed to… find you. Or maybe you found it, like some kind of chaos-seeking missile disguised as a scrappy teenager.

Your parents? Gone. Some Senate program dumped you in the Core with a half-decent stipend and no real oversight. Which meant you ran wild. And after the third or fourth brush with disaster — usually involving unauthorized tech or questionable shortcuts through restricted zones — the Coruscant Guard had become a permanent fixture in your life.

Oddly enough, most of them knew you by name now.

And, you had to admit, you kinda liked it.

“Alright, let’s recap. You: jumped a restricted gate, repulsorboarded through a construction site, outran local security, crashed a meditation session, and then somehow ended up hiding inside Commander Thire’s speeder. Which you locked. From the inside.”

“You guys leave the keys in the ignition,” you said with a shrug.

“You hotwired it.”

“…I was trying to turn on the radio.”

Despite it all, they didn’t throw you in juvie. Or hand you off to CSF. Or abandon you to the undercity. No. Fox made you sit in his office with a data slate full of regulations and a mug of caf you weren’t allowed to drink because it was “stunt fuel” for someone like you.

Thorn let you mess with his blaster (unloaded, obviously) while telling you war stories with just enough exaggeration to keep you fascinated. Stone taught you how to rewire a security panel without frying it. And Thire?

Thire let you ride on the back of his speeder once — one time — and immediately regretted it when you whooped like a feral Tooka and tried to stand up mid-traffic.

⸻

It became a routine.

You got into trouble. They found you. Gave you a lecture. Sometimes scolded. Sometimes laughed. Always made sure you got home — or somewhere safe — in one piece.

And somehow, you started sticking around. More than you had to.

Helping Fox sort inventory (“Don’t touch the detonators.”)

Racing Thorn to the mess hall for late-night caf (“You cheat, kid — I saw that shortcut!”)

Even shadowing Stone during his rounds like some kind of half-official, half-feral cadet in training.

⸻

One night, after a quieter-than-usual stunt involving zero arrests but one unauthorized rooftop laser tag game, you found yourself in Fox’s office again.

Only this time, he wasn’t reading you the riot act.

He was quiet, typing something on his terminal, before sliding a small holochip across the desk.

“It’s a training access code,” he said. “To the sim rooms. Restricted hours. You want to waste all that adrenaline, might as well learn to use it properly.”

You blinked. “You want me to train? Like… seriously?”

“You’ve got good instincts. And you keep not dying, which is impressive. Might as well teach you how to not die more efficiently.”

You stared at him, for once, speechless.

“…Don’t make me regret it,” he added gruffly.

“No promises,” you grinned.

⸻

Months Later

You were still a menace. Still pulled dumb stunts. But now?

Now you had a Coruscant Guard ID badge clipped to your belt.

Now you ran errands for the boys during shift change.

Now you helped calibrate stun batons for practice.

Now they called you cadet half-joking, half-proud.

And when one of the shinies asked, “Who the hell is that gremlin in the mechanics bay?”

Stone just shrugged and said, “Ours.”

⸻

It started, like most of your bad decisions, with a dare.

It was supposed to be harmless. A quick dash across a speeder platform mid-rush hour. In and out. Show off a bit. Prove you still had it.

Only… the timing was wrong.

A repulsor malfunctioned. A speeder clipped another, and before you knew it, the skyway snarled into chaos. Shrieking brakes. Flashing lights. Civilians ducking for cover. Someone got clipped trying to pull their kid back.

All because you thought a five-second stunt would be funny.

⸻

“You could’ve killed someone.”

Fox’s voice was low. Worse than yelling. Worse than angry.

His helmet sat untouched on the desk as he paced in front of you, gloved hands clenched into fists.

You sat on the bench in the guard precinct like always — except this time, your hands were shaking.

“I know,” you whispered.

“Do you?” Thorn snapped from the doorway, arms folded tight across his chest. “Do you really? Because we pulled a woman out of a pile of durasteel who wouldn’t have even been there if you hadn’t been playing reckless little kriffing hero on a skyway meant for high-speed traffic—!”

“Thorn,” Fox said sharply. But he didn’t look at you. He couldn’t, yet.

Your throat closed up.

You weren’t crying. You weren’t. You never cried.

But the pressure behind your eyes burned like hell, and your lip wouldn’t stop trembling no matter how hard you bit it.

You’d messed up before — lots of times — but not like this.

Not with people hurt.

Not with Fox looking like he didn’t even know what to do with you.

“I didn’t mean—” your voice cracked. “I didn’t think it’d go that wrong.”

“You never think,” Thorn bit out. His voice had the sharp edge of fear tucked behind the anger. “That’s the problem.”

“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt!” You stood up suddenly, voice rising in raw panic. “I swear I didn’t—I just—I just—!”

Fox turned. His face was hard, but his voice came softer this time.

“You wanted to prove something.”

You froze.

“You wanted to remind them — remind us — you could still pull a trick. Still cause a stir. Still be ‘that kid’ everyone talks about.”

“I just didn’t want to fade out,” you muttered, eyes on the floor. “All the regs coming back from the war, all the shinies taking over, people forget me. I didn’t mean—”

“People could’ve died,” Fox said again, voice tight. “You’re lucky they didn’t.”

The silence that followed felt heavier than armor.

Then Fox exhaled, long and tired.

He knelt slightly so he could look you in the eye.

“And you’re lucky that woman only broke her arm. That her kid’s okay. That we were close enough to help.” He tapped your chest gently with a gloved finger — not harsh, just firm. “You’ve got too much heart and not enough sense sometimes, kid.”

Thorn walked closer too, rubbing the back of his neck like he hated what he was about to say.

“We like you, di’kut,” he muttered. “But karking stars, you scared the hell outta us today.”

“I’m sorry,” you whispered, voice barely audible. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare us for you,” Thorn said. “You scared us for everyone else. That’s what being responsible means — it ain’t about staying out of trouble. It’s about knowing your actions don’t just hit you. They hit everyone around you.”

You wiped your eyes before tears could actually fall, but Fox saw it anyway.

He stood and sighed again, this time with less weight.

“C’mere.”

You hesitated. Then stepped forward. He pulled you into a quick, solid hug — armor and all — and Thorn gave your back a solid thump.

“Doesn’t mean you’re off the hook,” Fox said into your hair.

“I figured.”

“You’ll be doing sim-room drills at 0500 for a week,” he added. “And writing apology letters to the civilians caught in the crash.”

You winced. “Even the one who called me a goblin?”

“Especially that one.”

“Ugh.”

“Welcome to consequences,” Thorn said dryly. “They suck. But you’ll live.”

⸻

Later, as you sat in the barracks with a steaming mug of stimcaf and an ice pack for your bruised ego, Thorn plopped down next to you.

He didn’t say anything for a minute. Just nudged your shoulder.

“Y’know… some people would’ve run.”

You glanced at him, confused.

“After something like that? You didn’t. You stayed. Took it on the chin. Faced it.”

“…Didn’t feel like I had a choice.”

“You did. And you made the right one.”

“…Does this mean you’ll let me ride the speeder again someday?”

“Don’t push your luck, menace.”

[the-nox-syndicate]

SysNotes devlog 1

Hiya! We're a web developer by trade and we wanted to build ourselves a web-app to manage our system and to get to know each other better. We thought it would be fun to make a sort of a devlog on this blog to show off the development! The working title of this project is SysNotes (but better ideas are welcome!)

What SysNotes is✅:

A place to store profiles of all of our parts

A tool to figure out who is in front

A way to explore our inner world

A private chat similar to PluralKit

A way to combine info about our system with info about our OCs etc as an all-encompassing "brain-world" management system

A personal and tailor-made tool made for our needs

What SysNotes is not❌:

A fronting tracker (we see no need for it in our system)

A social media where users can interact (but we're open to make it so if people are interested)

A public platform that can be used by others (we don't have much experience actually hosting web-apps, but will consider it if there is enough interest!)

An offline app

So if this sounds interesting to you, you can find the first devlog below the cut (it's a long one!):

(I have used word highlighting and emojis as it helps me read large chunks of text, I hope it's alright with y'all!)

Tech stack & setup (feel free to skip if you don't care!)

The project is set up using:

Database: MySQL 8.4.3

Language: PHP 8.3

Framework: Laravel 10 with Breeze (authentication and user accounts) and Livewire 3 (front end integration)

Styling: Tailwind v4

I tried to set up Laragon to easily run the backend, but I ran into issues so I'm just running "php artisan serve" for now and using Laragon to run the DB. Also I'm compiling styles in real time with "npm run dev". Speaking of the DB, I just migrated the default auth tables for now. I will be making app-related DB tables in the next devlog. The awesome thing about Laravel is its Breeze starter kit, which gives you fully functioning authentication and basic account management out of the box, as well as optional Livewire to integrate server-side processing into HTML in the sexiest way. This means that I could get all the boring stuff out of the way with one terminal command. Win!

Styling and layout (for the UI nerds - you can skip this too!)

I changed the default accent color from purple to orange (personal preference) and used an emoji as a placeholder for the logo. I actually kinda like the emoji AS a logo so I might keep it.

Laravel Breeze came with a basic dashboard page, which I expanded with a few containers for the different sections of the page. I made use of the components that come with Breeze to reuse code for buttons etc throughout the code, and made new components as the need arose. Man, I love clean code 😌

I liked the dotted default Laravel page background, so I added it to the dashboard to create the look of a bullet journal. I like the journal-type visuals for this project as it goes with the theme of a notebook/file. I found the code for it here.

I also added some placeholder menu items for the pages that I would like to have in the app - Profile, (Inner) World, Front Decider, and Chat.

i ran into an issue dynamically building Tailwind classes such as class="bg-{{$activeStatus['color']}}-400" - turns out dynamically-created classes aren't supported, even if they're constructed in the component rather than the blade file. You learn something new every day huh…

Also, coming from Tailwind v3, "ps-*" and "pe-*" were confusing to get used to since my muscle memory is "pl-*" and "pr-*" 😂

Feature 1: Profiles page - proof of concept

This is a page where each alter's profiles will be displayed. You can switch between the profiles by clicking on each person's name. The current profile is highlighted in the list using a pale orange colour.

The logic for the profiles functionality uses a Livewire component called Profiles, which loads profile data and passes it into the blade view to be displayed. It also handles logic such as switching between the profiles and formatting data. Currently, the data is hardcoded into the component using an associative array, but I will be converting it to use the database in the next devlog.

New profile (TBC)

You will be able to create new profiles on the same page (this is yet to be implemented). My vision is that the New Alter form will unfold under the button, and fold back up again once the form has been submitted.

Alter name, pronouns, status

The most interesting component here is the status, which is currently set to a hardcoded list of "active", "dormant", and "unknown". However, I envision this to be a customisable list where I can add new statuses to the list from a settings menu (yet to be implemented).

Alter image

I wanted the folder that contained alter images and other assets to be outside of my Laravel project, in the Pictures folder of my operating system. I wanted to do this so that I can back up the assets folder whenever I back up my Pictures folder lol (not for adding/deleting the files - this all happens through the app to maintain data integrity!). However, I learned that Laravel does not support that and it will not be able to see my files because they are external. I found a workaround by using symbolic links (symlinks) 🔗. Basically, they allow to have one folder of identical contents in more than one place. I ran "mklink /D [external path] [internal path]" to create the symlink between my Pictures folder and Laravel's internal assets folder, so that any files that I add to my Pictures folder automatically copy over to Laravel's folder. I changed a couple lines in filesystems.php to point to the symlinked folder:

And I was also getting a "404 file not found" error - I think the issue was because the port wasn't originally specified. I changed the base app URL to the localhost IP address in .env:

…And after all this messing around, it works!

(My Pictures folder)

(My Laravel storage)

(And here is Alice's photo displayed - dw I DO know Ibuki's actual name)

Alter description and history

The description and history fields support HTML, so I can format these fields however I like, and add custom features like tables and bullet point lists.

This is done by using blade's HTML preservation tags "{!! !!}" as opposed to the plain text tags "{{ }}".

(Here I define Alice's description contents)

(And here I insert them into the template)

Traits, likes, dislikes, front triggers

These are saved as separate lists and rendered as fun badges. These will be used in the Front Decider (anyone has a better name for it?? 🤔) tool to help me identify which alter "I" am as it's a big struggle for us. Front Decider will work similar to FlowCharty.

What next?

There's lots more things I want to do with SysNotes! But I will take it one step at a time - here is the plan for the next devlog:

Setting up database tables for the profile data

Adding the "New Profile" form so I can create alters from within the app

Adding ability to edit each field on the profile

I tried my best to explain my work process in a way that wold somewhat make sense to non-coders - if you have any feedback for the future format of these devlogs, let me know!

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

Disclaimers:

I have not used AI in the making of this app and I do NOT support the Vibe Coding mind virus that is currently on the loose. Programming is a form of art, and I will defend manual coding until the day I die.

Any alter data found in the screenshots is dummy data that does not represent our actual system.

I will not be making the code publicly available until it is a bit more fleshed out, this so far is just a trial for a concept I had bouncing around my head over the weekend.

We are SYSCOURSE NEUTRAL! Please don't start fights under this post

[techav]

On Major Milestones

I left off previously with init immediately crashing when trying to run NetBSD on Wrap030, my 68030 homebrew computer. I was completely lost and didn't know where to start looking. The error code it gave, 11, didn't tell me much.

Until now, most error codes I've gotten have been defined in kernel errno.h, which has 11 defined as:

EDEADLK 11 /* Resource deadlock avoided */

That … also isn't helpful. I'm still not entirely sure what that means, but since this is process 1 we're dealing with, I didn't think it was relevant.

Finally, I was able to find someone who had encountered the same error six years ago. Helpful soul [Martin] explained the exact cause of the error, how to fix it, and why the kernel errno didn't line up:

I'm running a NetBSD live disk on a laptop as a test host, so I mounted my disk on it and spent some time with mknod adding the essential device nodes, referencing the "majors" file for my arch. Sure enough, on next boot it skipped right past the point it had been panicking. It worked for a bit then finally printed on the console:

Enter pathname o

Enter pathname of what? The machine appeared frozen. Nothing further printed, and it responded to no input.

I was afraid this would happen. That string is 16 characters. The 16C55x UART chips I'm using have a 16-byte buffer. The system is hung up waiting for the UART to interrupt to indicate it has finished transmitting everything in its buffer.

There's just one problem — I don't have any serial interrupts wired.

I have a confession to make. Until a few weeks ago when I got my timer working, I hadn't really worked with hardware interrupts before. So between a limited understanding of how to use them effectively and limited board space, I had omitted the interrupt signals from my 8-port serial card. This was now a Problem, and I was going to have to find a solution.

I had a few options:

Force the com driver to 8250 mode so it doesn't try to use the buffers

Use my timer interrupt to check status bits on the UARTs and fake the interrupts

Deadbug an interrupt handler onto my serial card

Respin the serial card

Option 4 would've been expensive and risked passing my deadline. I wasn't sure option 1 would even help. And option 3 would have been difficult and error-prone. I decided option 2 would be the way to go so I set about researching how to accomplish it

I spent a few hours digging through the com driver. In the process I found softintr(9), a native NetBSD software interrupt process that looked like just the thing I needed. Digging in a little deeper, I realized that the com driver was already using softintr. And then I realized all it needed to do polled mode serial ports instead of interrupt-driven was to set a single variable, sc_poll_ticks, before initializing the driver. It's such a simple thing, but it's not really documented anywhere I could find, so the only way to know it was even an option was to spend hours studying the code.

With that in place, I recompiled my kernel and tried again.

It was asking for a shell. This is promising. I accepted the default shell, /bin/sh, and waited a moment. It printed a single #.

I had a shell prompt.

I typed in the first thing that came to mind, echo "hellorld" (thanks, [Usagi]). It responded:

hellorld

and printed another # prompt.

I had a working shell.

This is a major milestone. I have a modern operating system kernel loaded and running on my homebrew computer, and I have a functional root shell. I can navigate disk directories and run commands and programs.

But only as root, and only on this one console. I have seven other serial ports I want terminals on, and I certainly don't want them all running as root.

What it's running here is single-user mode. It is just the kernel and a few core services, somewhat analogous to Safe Mode in Windows. It's a fall-back for setting up or repairing a system. It's not quite the full operating system just yet.

Getting the rest of the operating system up and running is going to be a significant task, on par with getting just the kernel running. Setting up a working Unix system from scratch is not easy. It requires a lot of detailed knowledge of the various programs and libraries and config files scattered across the disk. For a sense of scale, the AT&T Unix System V manual was over 1100 pages, plus an 800 page programmer's guide and a handful of other manuals … and that was 40 years ago. That's a lot of specialized knowledge that I don't really have.

But still, this is something I've wanted to do for years and after countless hours of work, I finally have a glimpse of what it can look like. I have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do yet, but I'm certain I can figure it out.

I'm still hoping I can get this running multi-user on all those terminals in time for VCF Southwest in June. The show is just a few weeks away and I have a lot of work to do.

[aj-jesterdude]

deltritus worldbuilding theorypost...^2!!!

so!! homestuck beyond canon has ended it's first act and according to the reddit q&a that happened right after, it seems Act 2 will finally, *finally* show us those beautiful beautiful deltritans. i made a post a while back attempting to theorize about what the worldbuilding of Deltritus could look like. but after some recent conversations i have realized i could've gone much more in depth...tackled not just the societal implications but also the biology...so...ahaha...here we go

So let's start off with the species. We know that Dirk has created the Satyrs. Satyrs are, according to Greek myth, essentially horse/goat/human hybrids of sorts. And this makes sense for Dirk, he's a horse fan. I theorize that the Satyrs will be only slightly horse-like. Maybe horse legs, but still bipedal...horse tails, ears. I've heard various suggestions of them having puppet-like features but that is...while not impossible, I think it would complicate them significantly. How does death work for them if they are puppets? How does that interact with SBURB's systems? It's a little too messy for my liking, though odds are there is some other complication to them as if they're just half-horse-half-man, that is just a little too simple. I do suspect that they're going to be male-exclusive, and Rose's species will be similarly female-exclusive. For one, Satyrs in Greek myth *were* entirely male, and secondly, Ult!Dirk's whole...masculinity thing he's got going on. This does raise the question of reproduction, and I would humbly suggest mpreg, but if they were puppet-y I could see them just quite literally making new ones. What I do stand by though is that puppets are at least a huge part of their culture. Let's entertain that within the Satyr lands there's a giant golden Lil' Cal statue, yes? I also presume that, like Dirk, they will be makers of machines and whatnot. Creative types. But something I realized I failed to explore with my last theorypost was the influence of two other forces on the Satyrs: Terezi...and *Jake*. Terezi's running the command terminal to shape the societies, and has automated it much to Dirk's displeasure. And what's more, she's been fiddling with it even though she claimed to be done with it. Obviously she is trying to meddle with the deltritans to do something to sabatoge this new session...but what? This I am still unsure about. Perhaps she's stripped out any Time or Space aspects, to try and doom the session? Now as for what that means for the societies, odds are Terezi's made them not as hostile to each other as Dirk was hoping for. I believe the original plan was to have both species compete, and one would lose and be barred from playing the game. However, I think Terezi's managed to work it so both species are still thriving to play at the same time. Perhaps that will cause messy friction between the two different species that will hinder the session's progress? And let's tackle that little juicy implication I put back up there a little while ago. I think while yes, a lot of Dirk's personal traits and flaws have sunken into the Satyrs...I think a little bit of Jake probably got into them too. Maybe this enhances the manly machismo angle of it all? Will they enjoy making movies? Will firearms be their weapons of choice? It’s something to think about, at least. Now let’s shut up about Dirk and talk about the far more mysterious half of the deltritan population, Rose’s species. We have no name for them, but in the circles I’m in, we’ve taken to assuming Nymphs. Yet again another Greek mythological creature, Nymphs were taken as nature spirits of sorts. And this is interesting, Satyrs would often try to chase after Nymphs. So that feels about right. But what would they be like? I highly suspect we’ve already…sort of seen a Nymph already. Odds are that gavageCunctation is one of them. You see, they mention having “buccal mass”, which is an aquatic feature…and we know at the very least that Rose’s species is aquatic, that’s why they moved to the cliffside there. And Nymphs could be water-dwelling and based too. Now, if Dirk’s basing his off of his particular animal of choice, the Horse, then surely Rose’s aquatic species must be based around squiddles/horrorterrors.

But looking at GC’s hands in the only panel we have them in right now…they don’t look or feel too horrorterror-y, do they? They’re gray, and seemingly have some sort of talon or claw on their fingers. You see, I suspect that Rose has gone two-fold. Sure, work in some of that eldritch horror aquatic beast stuff, but Rose Lalonde has always been, in my mind first and foremost…a cat person. I think the Nymphs are some sort of aquatic cat-like race. In my speculative design for GC, I assumed we’d have tentacle hair and cat-like mouths, go check the drawing to see me go a little more in depth there since I’m really rambling too much already on this post. But what about the society? Well, last post I speculated they’d be a more magically-inclined race to further match Rose’s interests, and act as a further opposite of Dirk’s more mechanical/tangible Satyrs. 

But once again I have to ask how another person worked their way into their design…and if Dirk’s was Jake…then surely Rose’s must be Kanaya. Are they more into fashion than the Satyrs? Are they more inclined to meddle? Will one of the Nymphs act quite similarly to her? It’s just so interesting to entertain. Now before I let you go, I wanna put out just a few more quick thoughts. I do hope that we’ll see Vriska guide the Omega kids, and Terezi guide the Deltritans, as that would create an interesting parallel to their little game they had between John and Dave, right? And wouldn’t it be similarly interesting if Dirk himself decided to get in touch with one his Satyrs, and end up recreating a dynamic similar to Bro and Dave’s? Augh. Anyways.

Thank you so much for reading all of this insane rambling. If you have any thoughts or opinions on this as well, please comment them!!! I wanna talk about this so much more!!! See what other people think. Anyways um. idk how to end this so go read homestuck beyond canon if you haven’t yet okay? <3