#literally a machine which plays the same notes over and over again not because of damage sustained but because of some defect in

[projectiondepartment]

ok and we need to talk about this. Last week i listened to it so much i almost threw up

[ssahotchnerr]

so this is kind of heartbreaking but it's so 🥺🥺 at the same time, here it goes:

As a kid - and even now tbh - i used to have nightmares 24/7 for no apparent reason and I can't stop thinking like what if ellie had that? Like she sleeps in her little bed but always wakes up crying because of her nightmares 🥺🥺

At first you and Aaron have no idea what to do but comfort her and let her sleep in your bed for as long as she wants, saying it's a small phase and it'll pass (since maybe you or Jack or even Aaron had it when you were kids) but it just doesn't

He'd be so worried 🥺 taking his baby girl to every doctor he could find, asking Reid all about it and taking notes (literal notes, pen paper notes 😭) and trying everything

But the only thing that helps is holding her until she stops crying 🥺

My heart is broken but the thought is out 😃

omg 🥺

at first, you and aaron think it's just one of her famous excuses to sleep in your bed - due to her past history - but very soon it becomes very clear that's not the case 🥺 like ellie will already be sleeping in your bed, a nightmare wakes her up, and she's nearly inconsolable. she scrambles on top of aaron and clings onto him for dear life, and it then takes her ages to fall back asleep afterwards 😭

but yeah, you both think it'll run it's course and be over soon; jack had bad nightmares for a while - after foyet :( but those dreams at least had a clear reason as to why they were occurring. but for ellie?? you can't seem to figure out the reasoning at all. even asking her about them makes her super upset :(

and she's just soo exhausted some days due to the lack of sleep she's getting. she's more grumpy throughout the day - which is soo unlike her since she's the happiest little girl there ever was 🥺 has meltdowns over the tiniest things, falls asleep amidst playing with her toys. you peer into the playroom one day, and ellie's zonked out on the carpet in front of her dollhouse :( <3 plus she's so much more clinger than usual - she's either glued to aaron's or your side, and wants to do everything with you.

and aaron 🥺 worried is an understatement. he stays awake at night anticipating her waking up in terror, and he feels sooo incredibly guilty when he's away. he barely gets sleep those nights; knowing back home, ellie is going to be waking up all afraid and there's quite literally nothing he can do about it. and the fact he's the one who gets her to calm down when he's home too :( he fully knows you can manage without him of course, but he still feels like he's letting her down :( just the fact that the nightmares are simply continuing make him feel as if he's letting her down :( he wishes more than anything he could just take them away from her, resolve them, so his ellie bellie can be her happy, rested self again 🥺

the two of you are seeking out all the advice/help possible. you talk to numerous doctors, specialists, the team (more so reid), and try alternating ellie's daily routine. she doesn't watch the same shows, read the same books, maybe switch up her diet, in attempt to find what the trigger may be. in addition, you really try to relax her before bed: a warm bath, warm milk, cuddles, a nightlight, putting on soft music/a sound machine to fall asleep to. 🥺 just trying anything in order for her nightmares to stop :(

[midnight-mourning]

DCA Promptober Day 5: Artistic License

Uh-oh, look's who back in the fever dream (it's you, you're back in the fever dream)

Sorry it's late, please enjoy ^-^

Word count: 820

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

You draw another line, at this point practically waiting for an objection. 

There isn't one. 

Surprised, you caution to draw another. Again, nothing. 

You start to draw one more-

The Attendant clears his throat. Or at least, mimics the sound. 

You practically deflate, sighing, "What's wrong with it this time?"

"You're not putting any passion behind it, art is all about passion, freedom of expression, grandiosity," He puts a hand to his chest, head held high, before turning back down to you, "It's full of life. Something you seem to know nothing about."

"Bold words for a machine," You grumble.

You suddenly find yourself face to faceplate with the animatronic. 

"What was that?"

Your eyes narrow, not backing down for now, "You can't expect me to have 'life' in my drawings when you can't even let me get past the first few steps."

"The first steps are the most important!" He strands upright, raising his finger, "If you can't grasp the fundamentals how do you expect to make a masterpiece."

You hold up the page, "This is a cartoon drawing of a horse."

"Pony."

"Same thing," You scoff.

Sun clasps his hands together, "And this, friend, is why you've made absolutely no progress. Can't even tell the difference between a pony and a horse, unbelievable."

You sit back in your chair, pinching your brow. You almost wish you were making paper pals. At least then you could be making some progress. Still, why you're here as opposed to doing say, literally anything useful in the place, you can't recall. Honestly maybe you should just reach out over your walkie-talkie and see if someone else can come entertain the Attendant-

What were you looking for again?

You furrow your brow; the thought is long gone. 

Just like all the others before it.

The Attendant picks up on your quietness, "Friend, I know I may seem, harsh, but I'm just trying to get the best from you! You understand, right?"

You frown, is he, nervous?

Why on earth would that be-

"Tell you what, if you can impress me with this next piece, I'll bestow upon you the highest of honors I can give!"

Back to the usual, "Yeah, sure. Impressing you. You make it sound so simple."

"That's because it is," His eyes lift into crescents, "You just need to try."

You're skeptical. Mainly because you've been at this, you don't know how long you've been at this but you know it's been awhile.

"Fine." 

You set to work, deciding to not wait on a prompt this time. You intend to ignore any noises or protests he makes, though it's not necessary. Mainly, because he's dead silent as you work away. 

You can feel his stare on you though, laser focused as you are on the page. You do your best to ignore it, but god if it isn't unnerving. The only sounds in the space are the click of his rays and the scratching of your pencil on the page. 

It's odd that the Daycare theme isn't playing, though this entire set-up is also pretty weird, why is there even a craft station like this? And it's only intended for one person, in the middle of the space-

"Time's up!" Sun suddenly announces.

You jump, "Wait, you didn't say anything about a time limit!"

"Did I not?" He snatches the paper from you, "Oh well, let's see how you did!"

You watch as he scrutinizes your drawing, which was mostly finished, mind you. You'd just needed to add the final touches to the naptime attendant's hat and could call it good.

You realize that Sun hasn't said anything about your drawing, usually he would by now. You take note that he's gone completely still. You hear the smallest of noises and glancing at his hands see that he's gripping the paper so tightly you're surprised it hasn't torn. 

You take the risk of speaking up, "Well?"

"It's..." There's an infliction in his tone you can't decipher, but then, "Fine. I suppose. Though personally I would have used charcoal for the shading."

"You literally only gave me a pencil and a couple broken crayons-Wha-Hey!" You watch as he shreds your artwork without a second thought.

He ignores you, instead presenting you with a new piece of paper, "Congratulations! You have earned your artistic license!"

You take it, reading it over once, then squinting, "Is that how you spell artistic-"

"Now! Onto the next project!"

"Another one? Dude, how long do you plan on keeping me here?" You groan, setting your 'license' down. 

You once more find Sun taking up your entire field of vision. You're almost getting used to it at this point. Though that unwavering gaze of his doesn't help. 

His head tilts to the side, "As long as I need to, friend. I hope you keep that in mind."

Something tells you that you don't have much a choice.

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

Ah, Sunhinged my beloved... Sorry again for being late, hope to have the art for the other promptober done ASAP and then you'll be seeing that, thanks for reading!

You can find my other promptober responses here

[covenofagatha]

Not you grinding out THREE chapters in a row oh my god you're a fucking machine it's really true tha the devil works hard but lesbians work harder lmao!!

Soooo this is gonna get long cause I basically live commented while I was reading SOOOOO I'm sorry (kinda not)

~~~~

Not us basically.eye fucking in that bathroom

NOT US BASICALLY MASTURBATING AT THE SAME TIME I COUNT THAT AS SEXTING

Also I would be fucking jumping around the class when as Agatha says the test is just 30 multiple choice and two short answers we only get mostly oral exams and it's fuckkng exhausting I hate it so much

OJ FUCK YES US REALITY FUCKING IMAGNING BEING BASICALLY HER ROSE TOY WITH SUNCTION THINGY BUT ALIVE AND SO PLIANT AND SO WHOREABLE LIKE YES AGATHA I WILL DROP ON MY KNEES AND LAP AT YOUR CUNT 24/7 UNDER THE DESK ON TJE BAD AGAINST THE WALL FUCK IT EVEN IN THE CAR AND THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THAT FILTHY ALFIE BAR WE WENT THAT ONE TIME I MOANED YOUR NAME TO MORGAN'S FACE AS SHE WAS FUCKING ME

NOT AGATHA GOING THROUGH THE SLIDES LIKE TICKING OFF POINTS OFF AN IMAGINARY LIST

SHE REALLY WENT 'let me press next slide as she squirms right there and probably ruins another chair with her arousal because of me'

ANOTHER ONE THANK YOU

"MORE FOLDS" come FUCKING on dkkfdks

Everyone else just fucking clueless lmaoo if Agatha had known we was there in that class she'd have had the class for just one (1) person and that would have been us and she'd have DEFINITELY strapped us down bending us over her classroom desk, presentation open on the 'delayed gratification' lessons as she made us squirt all over the papers she was graduating

NOT TJE FINGERS OF TJE PICTURE SHE IS A MINX

All of her words go in one ear and out the other. All thoughts of falling earlier are gone. The only thing you can focus on is Agatha. 

What a fuckin mood

Oh my god MY OFFICE YES dadd- I mean momm-- I mean professor

[trying your hardest not to glance down at the way her skirt hugs her ass perfectly.]

I mean... Kathryn looked gorgeous how could I not stare??

NOOOOOOOO WE ALMOST KISSED FUCK AGATHA WHY MUST YOU BE THE VOICE OF REASON

I just KNOW Rio knows something about us and either wants to warn us or maybe say we're just delusional lmao with her you can never tell

At least she was apologetic dnfndns

Wear something nice for me again tomorrow night, won’t you?  Sngndnfnd WHORE

OF COURSE WE'LL WEAR SOMETHING NICE

Oh yea fuck that boundary (literally)

Oh dfndnsns the slow burn is burning alright I need it to just SPREAD ALL OVER THAT CAMPUS I need reader and Agatha to fuck everywhere at any moment we deem important and necessary (all of them)

I fucking love you and also hate you cause snfjsjsjsj PLEASE FAST THE SLOW BURN 😔 love you boo 💜

- ✒

The devil works hard but lesbians work harder 💀 the realest thing I've ever read

ALSO I love this? I am living for the play-by-play reactions lmao

Oral exams?? That is foul what the fuck (how does that even work? I would genuinely crash out)

I literally had "more folds" written in my notes from this class and I was like 😳 I had to

Um being strapped down over Agatha's papers sounds like a REALLY good idea (especially them being about the delay of gratification study which we're pretty much failing at this point)

Ugh come on Agatha, why do you suddenly now care about rules!

More on Rio next chapter hehe

FUCK that boundary!

Love you too 💜 hope you're doing well and more coming soon!

[spark-hearts2]

QUESTION TWO:

SWITCH BOXES. you said that’s what monitors the connections between systems in the computer cluster, right? I assume it has software of its own but we don’t need to get into that, anyway, I am so curious about this— in really really large buildings full of servers, (like multiplayer game hosting servers, Google basically) how big would that switch box have to be? Do they even need one? Would taking out the switch box on a large system like that just completely crash it all?? While I’m on that note, when it’s really large professional server systems like that, how do THEY connect everything to power sources? Do they string it all together like fairy lights with one big cable, or??? …..the voices……..THE VOICES GRR

I’m acending (autism)

ALRIGHT! I'm starting with this one because the first question that should be answered is what the hell is a server rack?

Once again, long post under cut.

So! The first thing I should get out of the way is what is the difference between a computer and a server. Which, is like asking the difference between a gaming console and a computer. Or better yet, the difference between a gaming computer and a regular everyday PC. Which is... that they are pretty much the same thing! But if you game on a gaming computer, you'll get much better performance than on a standard PC. This is (mostly) because a gaming computer has a whole separate processor dedicated to processing graphics (GPU). A server is different from a PC in the same way, it's just a computer that is specifically built to handle the loads of running an online service. That's why you can run a server off a random PC in your closet, the core components are the same! (So good news about your other question. Short answer, yes! It would be possible to connect the hodgepodge of computers to the sexy server racks upstairs, but I'll get more into that in the next long post)

But if you want to cater to hundreds or thousands of customers, you need the professional stuff. So let's break down what's (most commonly) in a rack setup, starting with the individual units (sometimes referred to just as 'U').

Short version of someone setting one up!

18 fucking hard drives. 2 CPUs. How many sticks of ram???

Holy shit, that's a lot. Now depending on your priorities, the next question is, can we play video games on it? Not directly! This thing doesn't have a GPU so using it to render a video game works, but you won't have sparkly graphics with high frame rate. I'll put some video links at the bottom that goes more into the anatomy of the individual units themselves.

I pulled this screenshot from this video rewiring a server rack! As you can see, there are two switch boxes in this server rack! Each rack gets their own switch box to manage which unit in the rack gets what. So it's not like everything is connected to one massive switch box. You can add more capacity by making it bigger or you can just add another one! And if you take it out then shit is fucked. Communication has been broken, 404 website not found (<- not actually sure if this error will show).

So how do servers talk to one another? Again, I'll get more into that in my next essay response to your questions. But basically, they can talk over the internet the same way that your machine does (each server has their own address known as an IP and routers shoot you at one).

POWER SUPPLY FOR A SERVER RACK (finally back to shit I've learned in class) YOU ARE ASKING IF THEY ARE WIRED TOGETHER IN SERIES OR PARALLEL! The answer is parallel. Look back up at the image above, I've called out the power cables. In fact, watch the video of that guy wiring that rack back together very fast. Everything on the right is power. How are they able to plug everything together like that? Oh god I know too much about this topic do not talk to me about transformers (<- both the electrical type and the giant robots). BASICALLY, in a data center (place with WAY to many servers) the building is literally built with that kind of draw in mind (oh god the power demands of computing, I will write a long essay about that in your other question). Worrying about popping a fuse is only really a thing when plugging in a server into a plug in your house.

Links to useful youtube videos

How does a server work? (great guide in under 20 min)

Rackmount Server Anatomy 101 | A Beginner's Guide (more comprehensive breakdown but an hour long)

DATA CENTRE 101 | DISSECTING a SERVER and its COMPONENTS! (the guy is surrounded by screaming server racks and is close to incomprehensible)

What is a patch panel? (More stuff about switch boxes- HOLY SHIT there's more hardware just for managing the connection???)

Data Center Terminologies (basic breakdown of entire data center)

Networking Equipment Racks - How Do They Work? (very informative)

Funny

[deathnguts]

This is random but here’s my interpretation of rosebones or whatever it’s called (Edgar Bones x Evan Rosier) because I’ve straight up never seen anyone interpret it the same way I do and I think my way is silly

Ok so it can go one of two ways to me, but both hark on the same idea: Evan is a Casanova and he has plenty of fun being one. He’s exceptionally charming and very beautiful, and he uses these facts to his advantage because he’s a manipulative little bastard that finds toying with people’s emotions to get what he wants (whether that be an actual prize or just winning the game of flirtation) to be the most exhilarating game around. He doesn’t really respect people, nor understand them on an empathetic level, but he does understand them the way one understands a machine from its blue prints. And he loves exercising that knowledge in a way he finds amusing. His entire status from birth was built on preconceived notions of himself pertaining to power and wealth and he found out early on that playing into both with a cherry on top layer of cunning seduction he rarely actually planned on following through with put people into a very easily maneuverable state he didn’t usually find them in. In simpler terms, he doesn’t understand people when they act freely so he’d rather be in control of them without them knowing by wooing them.

So all this being said, the ship dynamic starts with Evan doing his routine on Edgar. It splits into two based on Edgar’s reaction. Either A) he falls for Evan immediately like everyone else does, or B) he doesn’t. Both are super interesting to me and I’ll walk you through them now!

A) This is one is silly because it’s pretty much Evan experiencing consequences for his actions (which doesn’t usually happen) in a way he has no control over. Edgar fell in line just like everyone else and Evan had his little moment of pride for winning yet again and then he dropped Edgar like the useless bag of doe eyed flesh he is. Problem came when Edgar didn’t actually go away. Edgar consistently doesn’t get the hint that Evan only wanted him for fun and just once and keeps talking to Evan like he cares or something. It’s annoying and practically ear grating but Evan keeps up the facade of an unmoved flirt to shoo him away and keep his reputation in place but it just keeps egging Edgar on and Evan is practically tearing his hair out over all the completely innocent and sweet acts of courting Edgar keeps throwing his way. So he eventually bursts and tells Edgar to fuck off because Evan doesn’t care and he never will and it’s all just a game to him and he thinks Edgar is repulsive for trying to make it anything else and Edgar’s just like ‘yeah I know ☺️.’ Evan’s completely dumbfounded and reiterates that he’s not actually the complimentary debonair man he portrays himself as and that he truly believes Edgar to be scum under his boot and Edgar’s still like ‘of course I know that ☺️.’ Evan is practically on the verge of screaming when he flounders to try and pound it into this idiots skull that he’s a literal sociopath who views people as toys for his amusement and Edgar as a prime example of the slimy imbeciles he despises in society and Edgar’s still like ‘whatever you say beautiful ☺️.’ Just… the overthinking manipulative mastermind trying to death note style crack the mind and intentions of a literal airheaded simp who thinks he’s pretty and doesn’t mind being stepped on.

B) and then this one is even sillier because it’s Evan being faced with rejection instead of consequences, which is arguably worse. Evan is absolutely not used to being told no in any sense and is affronted and offended that this simple minded, low shelved, worm of a man thinks he even has the right to deny him anything. So, Evan being the narcissistic sociopath with too much free time he is, jumps head first into trying to change Edgar’s mind and win at his game. But Edgar makes it so hard because he simply doesn’t see how much this matters to Evan, and even simpler, doesn’t fucking like him. Edgar is your average, just hufflepuff, he’s not super into flushing and giggling over a pompous pure blood who thinks he owns everything. He also probably doesn’t really put together he’s even being flirted with for a while because boys can’t flirt with other boys, that’s crazy. So you can either view this one as Edgar disliking Evan on a moral level and saying no, or having the most obliviously internalized homophobia and not even noticing Evan’s advances for what they are, or both! I like them both together and separate, because the first makes this into like an enemies to at least hooking up once in a fit of hatred and passion deal while the other is just Evan losing his mind over an idiot again.

Yeah I dunno I just love viewing Evan as like a bunch of newspaper clippings of manipulative men glued together into a person because that’s how he created his own image in response to his distrust and lack of understanding for his fellow man, which makes shipping him a blast for angst and harrowing analysis but like super funny for fluff because he overthinks eveyrthing too much for like a simple picnic dinner to take place. He quite literally needs to be in control to feel even somewhat sane and he can’t get Edgar’s head out of the clouds and I think that’s funny.

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Crush (1993)

The Crush makes a bad movie out of a worse premise. Granted, writer/director Alan Shapiro did base this story on an incident he experienced but I doubt anyone alive could be as stupid as this film’s protagonist unless they were some kind of creep. Speaking of which, this film threatens to turn you into one with its loving shots of Alicia Silverstone playing a 14-year-old.

Twenty-eight-year-old writer Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes) moves into the guest house of Cliff and Liv Forrester (Gwynyth Walsh and Kurtwood Smith) and meets their daughter, Darian* (Silverstone). The girl soon becomes obsessed with Nick and when he rebukes her advances, she won’t take “no” for an answer.

*Please note that in some versions of the film, Darian’s name has been changed to Adrian. I watched the film on VHS where the original spoken language remains.

This is a pretty standard thriller cut from the same cloth as Fatal Attraction. The “twist” is that there is no affair. Nick has done nothing wrong but Darian still becomes obsessed with him. At least in theory. To anyone watching, it’s clear that although the film wants to paint Nick as someone who definitely didn’t ask for this, he might’ve been asking for this… at least a little. Maybe times have just changed that much (I wouldn’t be surprised) but Nick's behavior is uncomfortable way too often. First, he tells her “if you were ten years older…”. Then, he looks at her lovingly when she’s sunbathing. Finally, he agrees to drive her out to a remote location in the middle of the night - without her parent’s permission - and when she kisses him, he says nothing about the inappropriate behavior to anyone. I say three strikes, you’re out.

Then again, it might not be that Nick is secretly attracted to Darian - which is too bad because that might’ve made the film more morally ambiguous and interesting - it could be that he’s just a moron. When he submits his first assignment to his new boss, he doesn’t realize Darian has snuck into his computer and edited it - improving the article significantly in the process - until Michael (Matthew Walker) compliments him on his writing. Damn. I knew she was smart but this fourteen-year-old is good enough to write for a magazine? Really? Anyway, after one of his prized photos goes missing, you’d think Nick might… I dunno, lock his door? Change his computer password? Tell someone? Even after Darian literally leaves 99 messages on his answering machine and builds him a secret shrine (complete with those magical candles that never go out and emit no heat), he doesn’t say anything to anyone. Come on, man. At that point, this has gone beyond a simple crush. I know you could take out a teenager with just one punch no matter how manipulative she may be, but there’s still cause for concern, particularly since…

Then, the film gets REALLY creepy. Darian beats herself up, grabs a used condom from Nick’s trash can and puts the sperm inside her body so she can convincingly accuse him of rape. If I may quote Promising Young Woman: “It's every man's worst nightmare, getting accused of something like that.” ”Can you guess what every woman's worst nightmare is?” I don’t want to throw this film’s premise into the fireplace completely. I’ve seen all sorts of wild concepts work with the proper execution. The problem with this “he said, she said” thriller is that the camera shoots Alicia Silverstone, who was 26 at the time but is playing a minor, with all of these shots that tell us we should be attracted to her. We see her undress while Nick is hiding in her closet and see her in several bikinis. At one point, she’s on a swing and her crotch keeps coming towards us over and over. If Nick isn’t attracted to her, why is the camera? I’m not accusing anyone involved in the making of this film of being a predator. What I am saying is that it’s completely tone-deaf and pretty obvious that no woman was ever consulted during the filmmaking process.

With all this out of the way, let me praise Alicia Silverstone in this role. She does this thing where in one scene, she is completely believable as an innocent teenager whose parents would never believe is insane. In the next, she’s demented and disturbingly flirty. The movie is bad. She is not.

If someone had the guts to push the envelope, The Crush might have been provocative and memorable instead of generic. It’s not worth seeing for multiple reasons and I certainly wouldn’t call it “Scary, stylish and very sexy. A top-notch thriller.” unlike Jim Svejda, whose quote is featured on the back of the VHS cover. Yuck! (On VHS, August 11, 2022)

[alacants]

in the space of 12 months jannik sinner happened. but i can't get into that or this post will REALLY get out of control. <- wait im new to tennisblr/this gen of tennis players (tho not to tennis, dormant fan ig) and i'd love to hear your take if u feel like elaborating!

oh hey welcome back to tennis!! idk how much exploration you've done so bear with me if i'm just telling you stuff you know. (and jannikblr sorry in advance for the abbreviated summary, i can't do 1200 words every time.) (edit: you'll never guess what happened next.)

the very brief recap is that jannik's tennis trajectory started out relatively normally compared to where he is now—he grabbed everyone's attention winning the 2019 nextgen finals, got a lot of hype, but then had ups and downs for the next few years. won some titles but got a reputation for flopping in big tournaments, for example the wimbledon 2022 qf where he was up two sets to love over novak and still lost. meanwhile carlos alcaraz, who apparently burst onto the scene fully formed, won the us open at 19 and wimbledon at 20. (and all the while was talking up jannik as his major rival. ok.) so the early narrative was that sinner was yet another victim of expectations who was failing to live up to the hype.

then in early 2022 he split with his long-time coach. took a while to adjust to his new team (his current coaches, cahill & vagnozzi) but by the end of 2023 he started to get results. and kept getting them, and kept getting them, until he won his first slam (ao 24), his second slam (uso 24), and went 73-6 for the entirety of 2024. he is now arguably the best player on tour, and inarguably the best player on hard court. and everyone compares him to novak.

(this is not necessarily a compliment.)

actual novak has lost three matches to jannik on the bounce, all on hard court. once again: end of 2023 was the turning point. jannik lost to novak 6-3 6-3 in the tour finals final—then literally the next week they met in the davis cup sf. jannik saved three third set match points, took the match (on the way to italy's first davis cup in 47 years), and has not lost to novak since. that includes the 2024 australian open, where jannik beat novak in four sets and handed him his first ao semifinal defeat ever. ever. 

this run of matches culminated with the shanghai 2024 final, where jannik beat novak in straight sets without breaking a sweat while roger and carlos watched from the box. like. ok we get it! thanks for the symbolism!

(as a side note, that match had me convinced novak was on the verge of retirement because he just did not seem to care, like, at all. sure, another final. whatever. well he certainly figured out how to solve that problem!)

so all of this—the 12 month meteoric rise—is going on in the background while carlos and novak are facing off at wimbledon, at the olympics, and finally at ao again. the very same australian open where jannik says he thinks djokovic/alcaraz is the best rivalry in tennis right now.

so the question is, why IS djokovic/alcaraz a rivalry in a way that djokovic/sinner is not, and why has novak embraced carlos with so much more enthusiasm than jannik. is it because right now the rivalry is so one-sided. (yikes but true.) is it because the comparisons rub novak the wrong way and he does not think he plays tennis like that actually. is it because he just likes other people persons more. (the historical record does not seem to bear this out.) is it because it's intensely frustrating to see someone who plays like you, who like you didn't come up through the ranks with a silver tennis spoon in his mouth,  get the validation you didn't at that age and then not respond to it. like if roger : carlos :: novak : jannik then this is incredible reverse fedole, where the charismatic genius is like LET'S BE FRIENDS and the self-made machine responds with, tennis isn't about friends.

(aka MEANWHILE, THE SINCARAZ OF IT ALL, which i TRULY cannot even begin to recap. i assume you've picked this up elsewhere. if not. god. idek where to begin man.)

i don't have an answer for this lol. jannik is going to stay harder to beat for novak, at age 37, than carlos because more of novak's game is going to hinge on finding exploitable weaknesses and jannik has so few. especially psychologically. novak and jannik both have terrifying levels of mental control; that makes jannik pretty immune to a lot of the strategies novak (or anyone else) might use to try and get inside an opponent's head. ...at least on hard court. novak and jannik haven't played each other on clay since roland garros 2023 sf monte carlos 2021 wtf was i writing earlier or on grass since wimbledon 2022 qf, so. i think that might be fun. :)

addendum #1: there is more than one hallway in the big 4 house of mirrors. as if i would get through this whole post without bringing up novandy, please! there is something in carlos' eagerness to put himself and jannik on a special level together, and jannik's hesitance to accept, versus how novak did start out with a peer who was supposed to be his rival-partner in overthrowing the established order at the top, and who now tries to remove himself from that discussion entirely. carlos singling out jannik as his special rival and novak talking up the big four while jannik is like, i love djokoraz! and andy captions photos "the big 3 + some clown."

addendum #2: WAIT late-breaking addition to this post, user @virtual-particle just described novak getting close to carlos as potentially a low-key power play on not just carlos himself but also jannik, a "steal your boyfriend special rival's attention" vibe. and i would like 6000 words of fanfiction about this on my desk by monday ok thanks!

[draiy-x]

I was working out in my gym apartment one morning when this greek god-looking man entered the room. I was hogging the smith machine doing hip thrusts when we caught each other's eye. of course I had to play it cool and pretend I wasn't staring at his abs poking through his tank. stupidly enough, just a cloud away by pharell started playing when he was walking towards me.

he asked how many sets i had left. i said i have 2 more workouts to do so maybe 30 minutes. he said, "damn ok." tf you mean damn.

i saw him a few more times by the entrance, he was leaving the building as i was heading there. we do exchange a smiles and waves, that's mostly it.

this one friday night, i was out with the girls and got back around 1:30am. i was borderline blackout drunk but managed to get to the elevator. i was leaning on the mirrored walls of the elevator trying my best to keep my eyes opened, praying that it leads me straight to my floor because dude i can't pass out here. that's just embarassing. i was telling myself, "imagine i pass out here in the elevator and greek god guy walks in at 5 am in the morning and sees me laying on the elevator floor. that's def negative aura basically saying bye bye to my chances with him."

funny enough, the elevator opened on the 4th floor, where the gym is. guess who walks in... greek god. yes. greek god guy with the defined as fuck abs.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. I mean I am conscious and standing up (barely). that's better than me being on the floor right????? I tried to stand up straight, i really did. but my head was spinning and i wanted to sit down on the floor. i can't do that though because I am wearing a tiny AS FUCK skirt. covering my upper things. I'm telling you right now, if i even tried to bend down, the girlies would be out.

"hey" he says. "fun night eh?"

"mhmm ahaha"

then the elevator door shut. i didn't see what floor he pressed down. all i know is i was fighing for my life in that elevator holding in my puke.

5th floor.

6th floor.

can't this shit go any faster??????????

i lived in the 11th floor so we're basically halfway there. i guess i was leaning too much on the wall that my kitten heels broke??????!!!! my head slipped and i almost fell, but guess what... greek god guy caught meeeee 🤪

him: "hey are you good?"

me: "i don't know. am i??" mumbling my words. i guess i was still falling because he then said,

him: "don't worry. i got you. here..." as he put my arm over his TALL asf shoulders i can barely reach the other side.

I guess time flies by when you're enjoying where you're at because next thing I know, we're both on my floor.

"we live in the same floor. sweet." i hear him mutter. "do you know what number you live in????"

i pointed the corner of the floor. i was trying to open my eyes but i literally couldn't. he was kind enough to walk me there though.

"can i leave you here?" he says. i nodded. yes dude im fine. then he left me leaning on my door. he stared walking away, but i was trying to see what apartment he lives in while digging for my keys. i found them but i fucking dropped them... he looked at me and started walking my direction again.

"hey hey you're fine. which key opens your door?" i pointed out which one. im rly boutta get robbed by the shit i've been doing bro im telling you... my door opened and bammmmmm i laid on the floor like a bitch.

next thing i knew, i was floating. mr greek god is carrying me to my couch. "hey, feel better okay?" he said.

i woke up the next day with a throw covering my legs. there's an advil on the table with a note beside it. "i live in the apartment across yours. give me back my blanket any time. feel better pretty girl!"

holy fuck yall. new lore spawning in.

[racingtoaredlight]

More non-oboe stuff after the jump...

This guy starts this video of going "if you put 10 musicians in a room, and asked them who the greatest living musician, more than one would say Keith Jarrett."

And if you're an occasional peruser of this noble blog, you'll know that I am one of those. I've said it many times over, to the point where I've had numerous "Keith Jarrett spells" over the lifetime of this place.

This is another great example of just how brilliant of a musician Jarrett was in a prime that lasted about five decades. The clip he's alluding to is below, and while it might not seem incredible on the surface, let me tell you...as a musician?...it reveals a depth of knowledge and skill that has few peers.

What we have here is another of Jarrett's many improvised performances. Completely off the cuff, no preparation.

But what's special about this one is his left hand. The technical term is "ostinato," but most musicians call them "vamps." He's changing the dynamics in his left hand, but aside from that, he's using the same repeating riff the entire time to improvize off of. Without ever dropping it, missing a note, missing a beat, lagging, pushing...

Half of his brain is as perfect as any machine. The other half is improvising. Do you have any fucking idea how hard it is to control two parts of your brain distinctly, yet harmoniously, like this?

Then there's the speed at which he's playing all this. If you watch the first vid, you'll notice the host saying he's going to TRY to play a simplified style of his...and does successfully...at about half speed.

This technicaly brilliance never once overshadows the beauty of the piece or obscure any melodies the audience can latch onto. Which is the point of all technique...to make the music better, not the process.

I didn't even intend to write about this either...I got diverted when looking for the other Keith Jarrett brilliant clips I wanted initially. But it was a good diversion...

And since I've got two videos left in my limit, so lets to a quick breakdown of a couple licks of his that are just jawdropping...

***

1:19-3:20 or so

The incredible lick I want to focus on occurs at 1:48...but you gotta hear how he gets there, and then where he goes from that. The melody comes in at 2:16, sneaking its way into the overall piece...almost an afterthought after what Jarrett did as an intro here. Just insanity.

But listen to that incredible lick at 1:48 again a few times. Listen to it as a whole, then try to focus on each hand individually and try to pick up the different patterns each one is executing. Combined, it's a cascading staircase of beauty...but when you look in more detail, you see that each hand is working independently, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

***

2:19-2:40

First off, this clip gives you a great example of "Keith Jarrett, vocals." Yes, he moans and screeches and grunts really loudly while playing...after awhile, you tune it out because the piano is so brilliant. It's just...one of those...things. Listen, I don't like it any more than you do, ok?

But that lick at 2:30...whoooboy...that's why you're tuning in. Well, I should say, that's why you stick around.

When Jarrett does his funky grunting, it's really a sign of him desparately trying to find something in the music. He's searching, probing, trying to find that spark...

And then you hear him find it at about 2:27. The rest of the band is following his lead, plodding along with him...you can literally feel this shit change at 2:27. That one little grasp of something undefineable...and when he kicks into full gear, the band follows suit immediately.

Listen to how this little "footing finding" at 2:27 springboards into that absolute buttfucking monster of a lick at 2:30...these things don't happen in a vacuum, improvisation has context. After this? The rest of the song is absolutely cooking...but they had to find their way through a little darkness first.

Here's a good link breaking this lick down. It's a real mindfuck of a lick, man. Like, I've learned it on guitar, and my brain is telling me there's a distinct pattern here...but I can't find it when I break it down. I have no idea where he pulled this from, no idea how he logically came to put it together...and that right there is a sign of a great lick.

***

That's it for today.

[suffarustuffaru]

hello im reblogging this once again because i took the time to reorder both of these playlists so now they are both Very Specifically curated with a narrative. so please listen in order if youre curious bc i took a lot of time to try and match up every song HAH. here are some notes bc i put way too much thought into this.

both playlists are roughly in order starting from the beginning of their main route stories - ottos goes from around arc 3/4 to arc 8, emilias starts a little differently but is Mainly pre-arc 1 to arc 4+.

the first four songs in emilias playlist are kind of like an intro to her character overall - the first three especially with dream girl evil by florence and the machine (addresses how emilia is perceived in general), who are you really by mikky ekko (adds onto dream girl evil by asking who emilia really is and addresses emilia's lack of control), and then sweet hibiscus tea and persephone are the responses to "who are you really?"

the only heartbreaker by mitski and love like you by rebecca sugar are both in the otto and emilia playlist for different reasons and they show up at different points in their playlists to match their specific narratives. a pattern in how i choose emilia songs is that there are Many songs about her guilt complex and her fear of hurting others. meanwhile otto has the only heartbreaker to show that hes accepted playing the "bad guy" for subaru (which is why the song do it for her appears right after only heartbreaker in the otto playlist) - and love like you shows otto accepting that he cant be as good as subaru. love like you in ottos playlist marks him taking a Darker turn with his relationship with subaru bc the song right after it is literally called "my love is sick". with its own Fitting lyrics. meanwhile emilia's love like you is her trying to be better and shes trying to strive to be more like subaru bc she admires him. it also shows that shes still struggling with her own faults and insecurities but shes Trying her best.

for the first time in forever in emilias playlist marks the start of arc 1, styx helix marks rbd kicking in and the continuation into arc 2+. theres a lot of "marker" songs in both playlists - other examples include journey to the past marking emilia entering the trials for the last time, i want you by mitski marks otto reuniting with subaru in arc 8, etc.

you could read for the first time in forever as emilias contrasting feelings on the matter or as subaru having annas part and emilia having elsas. also yes theres a lot of frozen songs in emilias playlist in my defense frozen elsa has almost the exact same themes that emilias character does aldjsflsjdfl

ALSO THERES A LOT OF MITSKI SONGS YEAH but i promise that i choose them carefully okay. i look at those lyrics.

the archer marks the end of emilias major character development for now and a continuation of her deepest Fears and Insecurities still lasting (and also i genuinely think emilia would love taylor swift aljsldfjsd). are you hurting the one you love? by florence and the machine is commentary on how a lot of events in rz's main route have happened bc subaru keeps sacrificing himself for emilia and emilia is an Unwitting Target to many many antagonists. all the songs after that are also more commentary on her lack of control, her struggle with growing up, how others perceive her, how a lot of other people tend to control her and speak over her, etc etc. you could also read these songs as references to emilia in other routes too.

the basic trajectory of the otto playlist can basically be summarized with: he falls in love with subaru and is chill with dying for him but struggles with the fact that he is in Love > realizes he wont ever be subarus favorite and struggles with this a bit but ultimately accepts it > realizes emilia is the favorite and keeps quiet about his own feelings bc he cares about emisuba and wants them to be happy together > realizes a lot of other people love subaru and otto is a little miserable about it for a bit > emisuba leave otto to go do arc 6 things which leaves otto to Think A Lot while hes stuck in his bed > otto takes a turn for the worse bc subaru comes back and he gets mad at subaru > otto realizes hes maybe not normal about subaru but continues to not be normal > feels bad but doubles down anyway > realizes his relationship with subaru will probs end bc of what hes doing but doubles down anyway

ALSO YEAH theres like three songs in ottos playlist that reference green and both playlists reference the sun. sometimes subaru is the sun okay.

aight thats all i wanted to say ty for reading this if u got this far <3333

do any of you want my otto pov of ottosuba spotify playlist. or my emilia spotify playlist.

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

J.R.R. Tolkien reads from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, 1952

This is J.R.R. Tolkien reading—and singing!—excerpts from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and it is exactly as amazing as it sounds. George Sayer, a friend of Tolkien’s, helped make the recordings while Tolkien was visiting him in August 1952, two years before The Lord of the Rings was published. (It doesn’t have that information under the youtube videos, but I was able to find out the context from Tolkien Gateway and the Tolkien Library.) These are so wonderful and I’m so glad they exist! It’s absolutely delightful to hear the Professor reading his own stories. You have not lived until you have heard Tolkien’s Gollum impression, or his Treebeard voice, or him speaking in Elvish...not to mention reading The Ride of the Rohirrim! Yes, he actually recorded that and it is literally the best thing ever. It’s amazing to listen to him reciting the Song of Beren and Lúthien (just like Strider told it to the hobbits!), and everything else, and I’m so, so, so glad that these recordings were made. This is a treasure trove! I want more people to know about this! 

Excerpt from Riddles in the Dark  The Road Goes Ever On Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red  Snow-white! Snow-white! O Lady Clear! The Bath Song Farewell We Call to Hearth and Hall! Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late The Fall of Gil-galad The Song Of Beren And Lúthien The Stone Troll A Elbereth Gilthoniel The Song of Durin The Song of Nimrodel When evening in the Shire was grey Gandalf's Song of Lórien Lament for Boromir The Long List of the Ents Treebeard’s Song The Ent and the Entwife Bregalad’s Song The Ents’ Marching Song Where now the horse and the rider? Gollum’s fish song Oliphaunt Excerpt from Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit Lament for Théoden Excerpt from The Ride of the Rohirrim Song of the Mounds of Mundburg Excerpt from Mount Doom Sing now, ye people of the Tower of Anor Namárië

Finally, this is George Sayer’s note on the recordings, which I transcribed from this radio broadcast because I thought others would like to read it. 

George Sayer writes: “This record is based on a tape recording that Tolkien made when he was staying in my house in northern Worcestershire. It was in August 1952. For the whole of that summer he had been depressed because The Lord of the Rings, the book on which he had worked for fourteen years, had been refused by publishers, so that he had almost given up hope of ever seeing it in print. But the fact that they had returned it made it possible for my wife Moira and I to borrow the only complete typescript and become, with our friend C.S. Lewis, about the first of passionately enthusiastic Tolkien fans. There arose the question of how to return it to its author. Since it could not, of course, be trusted to the post, I wrote to ask when he would be at home in Oxford for me to deliver it. His reply indicated that he would be quite on his own in the second half of August, and perhaps even rather lonely, and we therefore invited him to come to more than to pick up the typescript, and to stay for a few days. “It was easy to entertain him by day. He and I tramped the Malvern Hills, which he had often seen during his boyhood in Birmingham, or from his brother’s house on the other side of the Seven River Valley. He lived the book as we walked, sometimes comparing parts of the hills with, for instance, the White Mountains of Gondor. We drove to the Black Mountains on the borders of Wales, picked billberries, and climbed through the heather there. We picnicked on bread and cheese and apples, and washed them down with perry, beer or cider. When we saw signs of industrial pollution, he talked of orcs and orcery. At home, he helped me to garden. Characteristically, what he liked most was to cultivate a very small area—say a square yard—extremely well. “To entertain him in the evening I produced a tape recorder, a solid early Ferrograph that is still going strong. He had never seen one before, and said whimsically that he ought to cast out any devil that might be in it by recording a prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, in Gothic—one of the extinct languages of which he was a master. He was delighted when I played it back to him, and asked if he might record some of the poems in The Lord of the Rings to find out how they sounded to other people. The more he recorded, the more he enjoyed recording, and the more his literary self-confidence grew. When he had finished the poems, one of us said, ‘Record for us the riddle scene from The Hobbit!’ and we sat spellbound for almost half an hour while he did. I then asked him to record what he thought one of the best pieces of prose in The Lord of the Rings, and he recorded part of The Ride of the Rohirrim. 

“‘Surely you know that’s really good?’ I asked, after playing it back. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It’s good. This machine has made me believe in it again. But how am I to get it published?’ I thought of what I myself might do in the same difficulty. ‘Haven’t you an old pupil in publishing who might like it for its own sake, and therefore be willing to take the risk?’ ‘There’s only Rayner Unwin,’ he replied, after a pause. ‘Then send it to Rayner Unwin personally!’ And he did. And the result was that even during his lifetime, over 3 million copies were sold. When he got back to Oxford, Tolkien wrote to thank us for having him—a letter in Elvish that is one of my most valued posessions.”

[tagedeszorns]

You've already very correctly noted that, unlike you, I have an absolute Fabius-Atheist-attitude to the old GW lore. I don't believe in an intelligent design, but in a bunch of guys who just turned completely whacky ideas that came up in their drunken heads late at night into a game. Who then later, surprised by their success, just bullshitted explanations all over the place. So that it would fit together somewhere. So that the machine doesn't squeak too much.

I base this on the fact that I used to stand around the tables at cons in the nineties and watch the big boys play tabletop games. And Warhammer was always the wacky, colourful, fun game (Orks with trucks!!!!). If you wanted a serious background, you played Battletech. Warhammer was fun and madness. In the best sense!

In my perception, it only really got serious when they tried to sort the Heresy together.

And this is the moment when I want to come around the corner with a Star Wars analogy! Because Star Wars also has the idolised (not by me) origin trilogy. The founding myth. But it only holds up if you keep making the craziest twists and turns to explain away every piece of bullshit. The most prominent example here is surely the Kessel Run. The amount of mental gymnastics fans made to explain why parsecs are a unit of time not space is phantastic! If you read through what George Lucas had actually planned, you will feel horrible.

I definitely only became a fan when what is now the Extended Universe came along. Cool books, great comics, tabletop RPGs. That had consistency, that was thought out. I can live with retcons (even though I really, really miss the old Boba Fett!), but when it fits, it fits!

And it's the same with Warhammer: I don't want all that Oldhammer stuff at all. Give me the Heresy books as a solid foundation and as a point at which I can start taking even newer 40k lore seriously.

Give me carefully inserted "unreliable narrators" that still tell a complete story! Of course, an Imperial scribe might describe Fabius as a child-eating monster with five heads and twenty arms - but then that's obvious from the start. That everything is coloured. That the madness has a propagandistic background. That doesn't have to be patched in afterwards as a lame explanation for a sudden change of direction. Madness comes straight out of the box, so to speak, with method!

We will always disagree on this - and that's fantastic! Because it can't get much more in the spirit of the guys who created a completely crazy universe just for fun! Everyone can find something that excites them. Even completely contrary things. And that's what we're doing.

And another volte-face in the direction of Fabius: whether he was just a name at the beginning and the whole Frankenstein-Mengele superstructure only came gradually doesn't matter for that. What he always retained was the noble lineage. For that is precisely the literal translation of his name: The Noble. Perhaps only intended as irony at the beginning, this can be found in many of the Emperor's Children - even if Lucius (the radiant/luminous) is not exactly the brightest candle on the cake. Eidolon was possibly the first to really go in the Slaaneshi direction with his name. If, indeed, they had anything in mind at all! And there we have come full circle and we are once again happily running around past and future!

Let's have fun with the current version of our terrible guys!

Also, Fabio is an icon! Not only the reference-guy for roughly 99% of all "shirtless guy holds woman in period dress"-romance novel-covers, but also playing the part of the pope in Sharknado 5 and that's some damn impressive achievement-list!

I can't sleep because I found out that Fabius Bile is like one of the oldest named characters both in lore and in real life, he is in Slaves to Darkness from 1988.

He is from an age when Leman Russ was a space marine. He is older than Abaddon.

He is from an age when Horus wasn't the emperor's son, but only his most trusted general.

I don't have enough free RAM in my brain to process this. Reading this book was a mistake. I feel like a poor neophyte librarian stumbling over forbidden lore, and now chaos has taken a hold in me.

[luffyisanickname]

Chase Brody theory

TLDR: Anti probably doesn't have malicious intent towards Chase directly because he needs him to survive in a world made of matter, and Anti probbaly entered the world because of iris using anti-matter for power.

THIS WASN'T MEANT TO BE THIS LONG I SWEAR

p.s if you do read all of this i apologise for any spelling mistakes and/or anything that doesn't make sense because i have literally not slept and won't be getting any sleep any time soon and i don't feel like editing and proof reading rn.

also feel free to ask me to explain shit, this is very half-assed lol

--

Okay so i've only seen the gt live reaction to the new mini film that Sean put out on the alter lore, so I don't know probably as much as some people but an interesting point that they made that i'm sure they'll expand on when making their own theory was the idea of iris using anti-matter to power their camera's and systems. As well something else that caught my attention was the idea that Chase is important to Anti in some way or is different from other people hence why he was contained instead of the facility removing Anti without alarming Chase. i wanted to build on that with this little 6am rambling.

So. from what my understanding of the lore is, is that iris discovered a town of people being affected in a negative way by a stone tablet and interveined to protect those people by containing the tablet. That immediately raises a red flag in my brain that Chase is now in the facility being contained and observed. I would hedge a bet that he is right at the epicentre of all that's going wrong in his life up until that point. A vessal, if you will, for the negativity that is directly influencing all of the events around him.

I noted that iris (the interviewer specifically who is likely trying to build a good rapport with Chase so he will trust him with information) mentioned how they were trying to put the blame for what is happening on Anti (and likely that is their understanding of it). However, i would like to point out that Anti as far as we know is not something found anywhere outside of Chase, which would make Chase someone worth being concerned about because what if he is the thing that is causing the problems but is actually unaware of it and has therefore created this character to push all of the blame onto?

Or it could be possible that since again Chase is meant to be the centre of all the things going wrong he could be some kind of entity that unknowingly creates these alters which would explain why for the most part he is the only one who seems to be able to not be fully possessed by them (unlike Sean who is frequently getting his body taken over by alters for shenanigans). This would mean that while the facility may be trying to capture Anti as he is the only alter that is truly a malevolent being (the other's being fairly lighthearted and fun moreso than a danger to others) it could also be that the facility hasn't realised the role in which Chase plays as the creator of these alters yet.

-

Alternatively, a different theory to mull on is the reference to anti-matter which i mentioned before. Maybe iris had first been a research facility into the usage of anti-matter to power objects made with matter. It could be plausable (although i have no basis for this theory beyond the obvious time and spacial warping that happens to Chase) that anti-matter is not simply the opposite of matter but instead a place beyond the known universe where the places beyond reality are made of anti-matter instead of regular matter. This could mean that when iris harnessed the powers of anti-matter to control and power their machines they unknowingly released entities from that place and allowed them into this universe, and in order to cover it all up they are going around and trying to collect the items and creatures that have leaked through and contain them away from the rest of society until they can figure out a way to send them back.

This would explain the usage of the same prefix of 'anti' for both anti-matter and anti-septiceye as they both could originate from the place. This could mean that Anti would be able to affect the technology (as seen happening in both the short clips in Sean's videos as well as during the mini film) around him much more easily as it is powered by the same stuff that he is made from. This would also explain why he is able to live almost between realities because the general rule of matter and anti-matter is that they can't co-exist in the same place at the same time, meaning he would only be able to hold a corporial form for a short amount of time before being sent back to what is likely a space between realities (like that dark place in the Darkiplier v Antisepticeye video (i'm not dragging darkiplier into this i'm just using that as an example)). This could also explain his connection to Chase in some capacity as he would likely need something to tether him into this reality through means of possession, or just taking over a body entirely as he has likely done before.

However, I again circle back around to the point of Chase being special in some capacity because if the facility knows about Anti in any way then they must have encountered him before, although those encounters are not yet explained or may never be explained. If that is the case, then Anti must be aware of how whatever tactics he was using to get into this reality before would no longer be good enough at keeping iris away from him and had to set out to find a new way of hiding essentially in plain sight. This would be where Chase would come in as likely Anti discovered him and possibly the other alters surrounding him (again no basis for this, the origins of this being a possibility have no canon in the lore as of what is known so far) and realised that there is probably something different about Chase that means that Anti can hide and use Chase to bring himself into reality whenever he pleases while not directly possessing Chase (as we know by the fact that Anti is able to walk around the facility separate from Chase and leaving bloody bare footprints while Chase is wearing shoes).

Likely, Anti didn't anticipate Chase being so negatively affected by his presence in what is probably his subconscious and when Chase (possibly) killed his wife and child, then got taken into the facility, he realised he would need to get Chase out of there and therefore raised enough trouble to have the people make a move to transfer Chase somewhere else, which would give Anti an opportunity to kill all of the facility members present and escape with Chase.

Again, this is entirely just a little theory I came up with after having no sleep and barely any knowledge of the ins and outs of the lore so it is probably mostly false. However, I think the idea that Chase is important to Anti in some way would make sense, as in the previous iterations of Anti he is constantly talking about Sean being weak and already gone, never coming back, and how we didn't do anything to help him. That could play into Anti's relationship with Chase as him having found someone strong enough to host him, someone strong enough to not die when Anti fully takes over. And i would say that when Anti approaches Chase in the hallway, he doesn't seem particularly malicious, despite appearances, towards Chase at that moment. If we ignore how terrified Chase is of Anti (because in that position who wouldn't be given how Anti looks) it almost seems like Anti saves Chase when he is distressed and wanting to get away from the people trying to detain him.

In conclusion I need sleep and to wait for a game theory/film theory episode dedicated to proving all of my theory bullshit.

[yutanology]

Kids (Prologue)| NCT Dream × Fem!Reader

Warning : cliche, a few cusses, little fluff, possessiveness, NCT Dream being bratty and stubborn. No proofread :(

Synopsis : Y/n somehow ended up helping Mark babysit his stepbrothers for the weekend. That two days of babysitting soon turned into frequent days of her visiting them as they would throw a fit if she wouldn't. When she thought everything would be fine soon, it only became worse as time passed by.

Take note that Mark and Y/n are at the same age(15). 00 line are 7 while Chenle is 6 and Jisung is 5.

"Vroom! Vroom! Vrooom!" Jisung said loudly through his pouted lips. He was sitting on his big toy car, imitating the roaring machine of an actual car.

Behind him was Chenle pushing him on all sides of the wide nursery room to make Jisung feel like he's really driving the car. The younger kid raised both his hands up, enjoying the ride and the room was filled with their cute giggles.

"Hey, slow down. You might get hurt—" Mark immediately cut his own words, replacing it with a loud yelp when the wheels of the car they were riding ran on his toes. "Ahhh!" he instinctively crouched down to hold his toes that were now throbbing in pain.

The duo didn't even bother to look back at him and ask if he's okay cuz they're too entertained to even notice his suffering.

"Y/n, help!" he called out for the female who just entered the room carrying a very hyper Haechan on her arms that she chased around the house for almost half an hour so she could get him to wear his pants.

She had such a great time giving him a bath. Haechan splashed water on her clothes, saying that he wanted her to join him on his bubble bath. Ending him getting her hoodie soaked wet (she took it off and let it dry), thankfully, her shirt was safe.

He wanted to play with her all the time. He doesn't want her to take a break even for a damn minute and he never ran out of some things he'd like to say. Either he makes sense or not, he doesn't care.

She wasn't supposed to be here. She was supposed to be enjoying her time alone at home while it's still weekend but here she is, babysitting her friend's stepbrothers. It just so happened that she met Mark's parents when both of them walked home together yesterday from school.

They had a little chitchat and eventually got along. Then that's when they asked her a favor to help Mark take care of his stepbrothers during the weekend as they won't be able to keep an eye on them because of their busy schedules.

She was about to decline until she heard that they're going to pay her a fair price. Yup, she needed money that's why she agreed with them. Her family is not as rich as the Lees so she can't always get the things she wanted to buy. So in order to be able to, she had to work for it. She got her parent's permission that night, letting her do what she wanted.

"Why? What happened?" she asked Mark, trying to keep Haechan still or he'll fall down but she decided to put his feet on the floor. "Nooo! Carry me! Carry me!" Haechan whined, holding his arms up to her.

She tiredly sighed, picking him up again. She knew the last thing to do to him is to make him upset. He'd cry nonstop and would totally be mad at everyone. She didn't want that. Things would be harder to handle than it already is right now.

"My toes freaking hurt! I don't think I'll be able to stand up." He over exaggerated.

Y/n approached him to check if he's alright then found his toes flamming red. "Oh god, uhm, I'll go get some ice or something. I don't know how to treat that but I hope it would help." she rushed to the kitchen with Haechan still on her arms.

Opening the top of the fridge, she saw an ice pack. She grabbed it and was about to close the fridge when Haechan spotted the fruit popsicles. "I want that." he pointed at the sweet treats that caught his attention.

She reached the first popsicle, "I don't like that. I want the strawberry." then she gave him one. He better not have cavities for eating too much sweets or else she'd be blamed for it.

She helped him get rid of the plastic wrapper, throwing it on the trash bin before letting him eat the fruit popsicle. His eyes almost literally twinkled once the cold strawberry treat touched his tongue. At least, he's happy now.

They both went back to the room, handing Mark the ice pack to help it ease the pain on his poor toes. "Thanks." Mark sighed and she nodded, sitting beside him on the sofa but their eyes are still on the kids just to make sure they're okay.

"Where are your maids? Aren't they supposed to be helping us here?"

"They all went home to their families. Only our cook and our driver are the only workers left here." That explains why she didn't bump into someone else in this house.

Renjun was not so far from them. He's quietly sitting on the carpeted floor attaching puzzle pieces together, focusing on completing the picture into whole. Despite the whole chaos going on around him, he somehow found peace on the corner of the room.

Well, not until he found out that Jeno was chewing on the other puzzle pieces. He's been trying to look at the missing items on his puzzle only to find out that they're with Jeno all the time.

The two kids fought. Renjun was huffing mad while Jeno was crying. Even though he already said sorry, Renjun doesn't seem to forgive him anytime soon for ruining his puzzle that he worked on for hours since this morning.

Mark limped his way to Jeno to calm him down and Y/n took care of Renjun (and Haechan, of course). She was in the middle of a conversation with Renjun when she felt a tug on her shirt.

Looking down, she saw a sleepy Jaemin rubbing his eyes. "I'm sleepy." he said. He must've been worn out from joining Haechan at every trouble he initiated.

"Oh, wait a second." she told him, he silently nodded.

"Haechan, can you please sit here with Renjun for a while?" she carefully put him beside the said boy.

"Huh? But why? Where are you going?" he asked her after he took out the popsicle out of his mouth.

She lifted Jaemin on her arms this time which Haechan frowned at. "I'll just go take him to his room. I'll be back, I promise." She waited him to say something but he stayed silent, glaring at the boy playing her hair, completely unaware of the piercing gaze of his stepbrother.

"Uhm, we'll go now..." she awkwardly informed him before making her way out of the room for the nth time of the day. This time, she's the one unaware of Jaemin sticking his tongue at Haechan to tease him. Before he could stomp his way to him, Y/n was already out of the room with Jaemin, leaving both Renjun and Haechan angry of different reasons.

Throughout the whole time she carried Jaemin to his room, he continued to play with her hair. Twirling silky strands of her hair on his small fingers, droopy eyes slowly closing and his head weighed on her shoulder.

Assuming that he fell asleep, Y/n could only sigh in relief that one of the most chaotic step brothers finally took his rest. After climbing a few more flight of stairs, she reached his room at last. The whole mansion is too big for her liking but she's not the one living here so she can't have something to say to it.

She pushed the door open, laying Jaemin on his queen sized bed then she covered half of his body with his comforters. "Sleep well, Jaemin." she kissed his forehead before she left him and he slept with a smile adorning his lips.

"What took you so long?" Haechan immediately asked her, arms crossed on his chest and his brows still furrowed together. "Haechan, you know how far Jaemin's room is from here. Come on, stop being sulky. I'm already here."

She glanced at Mark reading a book for Jisung, Chenle and Jeno on the table. "Why don't you join them?" Haechan shook his head. "Because I don't want to."

"Aren't you going to take your afternoon nap too?"

"No."

"What about—" he didn't let her finish her words as he stood up and stomped away out of the nursery room. He left her there confused. Renjun who had finally cooled off his anger approached her.

"He's mad at you."

Y/n looked down at him. "I just tucked Jaemin to sleep. Why'd he gotta make a big deal about it?" she asked as if she's talking to herself. Renjun knew the answer but didn't blurt out anything about it instead he held her hand.

"Can we go pick flowers on the garden?" she smiled at him with a nod. "Yeah, sure. Let's go."

[superhero--imagines]

Etsy Store Here l Ko-Fi l Commission Info

Part 2 Here!/ Part 3 Here! / Playlist Here!

* Sorry guys but this mans been living in my head rent free

* So the first time you see Satoru it’s with those black specs he likes to wear and you get a glance at those GORGEOUS eyes

* He meets your eyes for a second before looking away, it’s the briefest of interactions

* But your heart is racing and you can feel the familiar heat of attraction starting to lap at your face

* ‘He looks just like a prince’ you think

* You find out pretty fast the ‘prince’ similarities stop at appearance

* “Ah it’s not my fault you’re so weak~” You hear him say with the princely smile as he teases Utahime

* It looks like he’s held something so high she can’t reach it

* “Try your best, if you drink plenty of milk I’m sure you’ll be tall enough one day~” he says before laughing with that same princely face

* “You shouldn’t pick on those that are weaker than you” Geto intervenes, somehow making the entire situation worse

* You watch as Gojo laughs

* You’re starting to think he might be the real curse you need to exorcise

* You continue watching him as Utahime tries to kick him in the crotch

* “You silly girl, did you forget there’s an infinity between us?” Cue Gojo’s “A-hahahahaha” laugh

* Yeah, he’s definitely a demon

* You keep your distance, Gojo’s beautiful and all, but you’re not dumb, you’ve heard about the Satoru clan.

* “Hey Geto-Kun, who do you think would win in a fight me or a lion?”

* Besides that guy is way too reckless, you’d rather not get all mixed up in that if you can help it

* You watch as Satoru takes his shirt off, his well defined chest glistening

* Still, you’re grateful for the show

* Little do you know the famous Gojo Satoru has taken note of you as well

* Naturally given his ability he notices everyone, but he especially takes note of you

* It’s not because you stand out, quite the opposite

* You blend into the background easily, supporting others when needed

* But not to the degree where you unable to defend yourself, or you’re sacrificing your own life for someone else

* He grins

* Looks like he found something interesting

* You’re at the vending machine eyes racking over the drink selection

* But there’s another thirst quenching sight right next to you, their hand resting on the vending machine, that princely smile aimed right at you-

* “So what do you say?” Satoru asks, and you start to wonder if that princely smile seems just a bit wolfish “Do you want to be my lover?”

* You’re kind of annoyed

* What an impetuous question, you can count on one hand how many times you’ve spoken to each other, and you only need both hands to count the words said in each of those encounters

* “No”

* You turn your attention back to your drink choices, it’s pleasant weather so you don’t want anything hot.

* Anything carbonated is out of the-

* Gojo moves closer, peering into your face with that grin

* Ugh does he have to stand so close

* “Why ‘no’? I know you think I’m attractive”

* “I also think you’re a womanizer with a god complex”

* And really why shouldn’t he be?

* He’s probably the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen in your life, not to add the sheer power he contains in that body of his

* But just as he has the right to be a womanizer with a god complex, you have the right not to take part in that narrative

* He backs away, leaning back against the wall

* So he’s not going to deny it

* Well, at least he’s somewhat self aware

* Those clear blue eyes catch yours again, and you have to fight against every human instinct from showing any human reaction

* You turn back to the vending machine making your selection when a smile lilts onto his mouth

* “Friends then”

* “Just colleagues” you reply, grabbing your drink

* But as you walk by you push a canned beverage into his chest.

* It’s a can of green tea

* It’s his favorite drink

* He looks to you seeing a bottle glinting in your hand

* So you didn’t sacrifice your own thirst, but you also didn’t ignore his needs

* He feels that same wolffish grin curl onto his mouth

* “What an entertaining person”

* After that if you’re anywhere within a 50 feet radius of him he’ll go out of his way to get your attention

* “Oh wow, looking especially radiant this morning (Y/N/N)” he’ll say with a playful seductive wink

* When you don’t respond he tries annoying you instead

* “Ah you can’t reach that? Here let me-” and then he’ll proceed to hold it even further out of your reach

* He’s expecting you to jump up and down, or at least give some sort of response but you just walk away

* Well that wasn’t what he expected

* He feels that grin spread across his face again

* Very interesting

* His attraction to you is pretty shallow

* He’s interested you because you’re entertaining

* And you’re entertaining because you aren’t interested

* Which only makes him that much more interested in you

* Its a paradox

* You watch him flounder around, annoying Utahime for a giggle

* Well it doesn’t matter anyway, you know how he is, he’ll get bored soon enough and lose all interest in you

* He’s not the strongest {f*ckboy} for nothing

* You see him turn to meet your gaze, offering a boyish smile and a wink

* You make sure not to give any reaction, turning to listen to something Shoko is telling you

* You hope he can’t sense the twinge of heat you feel on your face

* You’d be lying if you said you didn’t find the attention a little flattering

* I think for the most part you’re right, Satoru is mostly playing around-

* At least at first.

* You’re just something new and fun no one knows about, and wildly entertaining since you never respond the way he thinks you will

* You’re kind, but not at the expense of yourself, and he likes that

* Besides you’ve got this quite sort of consideration for others-

* It’s not flashy, it’s so subtle most people hardly notice

* It’s in the way you bring an extra snack for Utahime when she’s running herself ragged training

* “They were having a two for one special”

* Or the way you’ll get your teacher a plushie you saw at a shop at the station because you know he needs more

* “I just thought it was cute, but I haven’t got any room for another one”

* You’re quiet, someone who hears things and she’s things, but never says anything about them

* A wallflower

* But you’re not weak

* There’s something about those two things put together in the same person that entertains him to no end. Like a paradox or a puzzle he can’t seem to solve no matter how hard he tries

* Satoru’s had at least a hundred lovers, and a great many of them had provided him with their own brand of kindness and consideration

* But he’s never felt something as warm as when he see’s a lunch box in his dorm after he hobbles back from a mission that lasted a little longer than expected

* He peers at the note attached, it’s not even signed but he knows it’s from you

* “I know you think you’re god or whatever, but even gods have to eat”

* He doesn’t know why, but he’s overcome with the urge to cry

* He gulps hard- it’s not like this a lunch you made by hand or anything, it’s just something from the convenience store

* And it’s not like this note is particularly affectionate or special either, he’s gotten entire love letters from his previous lovers

* So he’s not sure why he saves your note, placing it behind a picture frame where only he’ll know it is , or why he thinks that convenience store lunchbox is the most delicious thing he’s ever had

* Even though he knows he cares about you, and that he’s grown quite fond of you -

* I don’t think it clicks for him

* And part of that is because well, he’s Gojo Satoru

* He collects lovers like some people collect photographs or memories

* They serve their purpose, and he lets himself be entertained by pretending all the feelings are real, and then he moves on to the next one

* It’s just what he’s used to

* And this whole paradox you two have going on could go on for a few years until something finally shifts

* He went a little too far with one his half-flirting-half-tormenting pranks

* And for the first time you give him a reaction, it’s only for a second, but annoyance and anger mar you face

* And then just like that, it’s gone and you turn and walk off in the other direction

* Sh*t.

* He went too far didn’t he?

* It should be fine right? You’re not too mad at him right? You’ll get over it-

* Right?

* But for the next few days you don’t speak to him, and you don’t make eye contact

* It bothers him more than it should

* Normally he would be annoyed that his toy would have the gall to blatantly ignore him like this-

* But this is different than that.

* He’s-

* He’s feeling regret

* He shouldn’t have acted that way to you, maybe if he had just done something differently, or said something differently-

* It’s not like the way things were between you two was ideal or anything,

* But at least then you would at least speak to him

* ... and every once in while he would get to see you smile

* It’s never at him, it’s mostly when you’re with Shoko or Utahime

* Occasionally when you’re with Nanami or Geto, who you’ve been talking to more recently

* He’s pretty sure you three are talking about him, just one day away from forming a “down with Gojo Satoru” club

* Still that smile when you laugh-

* The way you look so carefree and young and so full of life is worth all the slander in the world to him

* He needs to see that smile, to know something that wholesome and kind exists somewhere in this cruel world

* Satoru’s thinking about how to go about apologizing to you

* He’s caught between buying you a Lamborghini or buying you a special grade tool when he ends up running into you

* “Ah, could you help me with something?”

* He would quite literally give you the clothes on his back right now if you asked

* You stand up on a a chair holding a glass of water

* “Apparently this is supposed to help with concentration or something” You say pressing the glass full of water to the ceiling

* “Can you hold this broom?” You ask and Satoru nods, holding the broom handle steady as you make sure it’s pushed against the glass holding it steady

* You nod approvingly down at him

* The rest happens pretty fast, you’re off the chair, carrying it away

* “The broom is actually a special grade tool, so cursed energy won’t work on it”

* You grin

* “Have fun figuring how to get out of that Baka Prince!” You say with a laugh

* And Satoru is dumbfounded

* But not because you just pranked him into a holding up a glass of water with a broom

* But because as you were rushing away, you showed him your teasing grin

* It’s the first time you smiled at him

* And as he looks up at the glass of water, a smile slowly spreads across his face

* It’s not the wolffish smile he usually has when he’s around you, or the princely smile he uses when he’s trying to get something

* It’s a genuine smile

* Ah, so that’s it

* He’s fallen in love with you

* If you’re not the one entertaining him, then he’s just not interested

* Ah geez

* He was so focused on trying to get you to fall in love with him that he really didn’t see this coming

* Well he’ll have to start being serious about pursuing you now-

* Though for you to pull off something like this on him tells him you’re his ideal match without a doubt

* A wallflower with a mischievous streak, he likes that.

* He scratches his head with his free hand

* “I wonder how I’m supposed to get out of this?” He muses looking up at the glass full of water