#me when three in network effect

[sunatsubu]

Then at the end of the third cycle, when most of the humans were sleeping, I noticed it was following me around. I figured that was a sign it wanted to talk. I stopped in an empty corridor, faced the wall, and said, "What?" It stood there for .6 of a second with the standard neutral-blank expression. Our drones went into a holding pattern, circling above our heads. ----

Loved this interaction between Secunit and Three in Network Effect

[140smashedguitars]

network effect truly got to me. murderbot's meltdown after thinking art was dead but then immediately pivoting to shit talking it when it comes back, everyone seeing that murderbot and art care about each other but murderbot refusing to admit it, murderbot and art having a code baby!, murderbot becoming amena's third mum, three my sweet summer child, "peri", "peri's" secunit, art cleaning itself up to be presentable for mensah, and of course

art threatening to blow up a fucking PLANET, with everyone willing to risk their lives, including three who hasn't even met murderbot, to get murderbot back, because it is so fucking important to all of them. and murderbot not even being able to comprehend this because it still views itself as expendable

this is definitely one of my favourite books and i really wanna re read it even though i have so much other stuff to read. this book just means so much to me, i love it and i was so happy to see art again

[rocktartz]

Something I’ve noticed listening to Network Effect and System Collapse multiple times.

When Three jumps into the shuttle with MB it takes off rather brusquely to which Murderbots immediate thought is, “ART must be driving.”

Later on in System Collapse ART scares everyone, especially Ratthi and Barish-Estranza by purposefully accelerating towards the BE shuttle to “ram” it, getting way too close for comfort.

And thats not to mention the way it was flying through poorly mapped dark corridors not meant for aircraft its size. Avoiding obstacles to the point where poor Ratthi had a white knuckle grip on his chair.

I love these details because it suggests that ART, despite being a skilled bot pilot, is a downright scary pilot.

Also, the line seconds before feigning its attack on the BE shuttle���

“I wouldn’t recommend it. I lack a sense of proportional response. I don’t advise engaging with me on any level.”

[teefigotem]

sorry i'm on a Murderbot Diaries kick again so y'all are getting meta. thinking about that one scene in Network Effect that everyone talks about. you know, the “who the fuck are you” “this is nonstandard communication” aka the one where Three discovers the concept of eldritch horror for the first time. beautiful scene 10/10 no notes.

that being said i’m also thinking about a take i’ve seen a few times saying that ART was way scarier to Three than it was to Murderbot and like. I don’t think that’s completely true. not to say that ART wasn’t mean or scary to Three — being told that someone might peel away your organic parts piece by piece will in fact be terrifying any way you spin in.

but like. okay. ART and Three come to an understanding very quickly in NE, arguably quicker than Murderbot and ART in AC. and some of that is due to the difference in Murderbot and Three’s personalities, but i think a lot of that is due to how ART approaches each situation.

(more under the cut)

so like okay. when ART and Murderbot first meet, Murderbot is entirely a wildcard coming aboard ART, and ART responds the way you would to an unknown, unpredictable threat, i.e. with a blatant but somewhat ambiguous show of force. by dropping its walls ART is doing the equivalent of like. brandishing a powerful weapon in your face. it doesn't explicitly tell Murderbot that it will hurt it. in fact, the only things it says to Murderbot are to tell it that it knows that it's a rogue SecUnit and to warn Murderbot not to hack it. this is the type of approach you'd take with someone who you aren't sure even has the capacity to be reasoned with - it demonstrates that it could crush Murderbot like a bug, because this is the only thing it's confident Murderbot will respond to.

the problem with this, from Murderbot's POV, is that, because the threat is implied rather than explicitly stated, there's no reassurance that if Murderbot doesn't try to hack ART then ART will leave it alone in turn. in fact, it spends the moments after this interaction spiraling about what ART wants with it and whether ART specifically let it on board to torture or kill it. i don't think that was ART's intention with the threat, i think it genuinely did not have the context to realize that Murderbot would take the show of force more as a threat of imminent violence than as a warning against attacking it. but, since it didn't have that context, it approached that interaction like one would approach someone with whom you don't see as an equal and don't have any interest in reasoning with.

contrast that to how ART interacts with Three. on the surface, what it says is scarier. its threats are certainly more violent. but they are also explicitly stated if/then statements: if you hurt these humans, then i will do xyz to you. i do know that in mathematical logic there's still no guarantee made in if/then statements that the then won't come to pass regardless, but the specificity of both the threat and the guidelines provides Three with parameters to follow, and implies that if it does then no harm will come to it.

this was notable to me because ART speaks to Three like a person to be negotiated with from the beginning, and that's. well. because it knows enough by now to know that Three is a person, in a way that i'm not sure it knew about Murderbot before seeing Murderbot's memory files of the governor module. it knows before speaking to them that both Murderbot and Three are rogue SecUnits, but its understanding of what a rogue SecUnit is, what it is capable of, and what it might do has profoundly changed between two interactions. even in their first interaction ART treats Three like a person who may be capable of being dangerous, rather than like a loose cannon who could mindlessly commit violence at any minute.

[imitationgame77]

ART's social skills

ART in any format is absolute shit at talking to other bots, says Murderbot in System Collapse.

Is that so? How does it talk to other bots/systems?

[ART meeting systems]

ShuttleSecSys tried to analyze ART and almost got itself deleted. I took over ShuttleSecSys, turned off the alarms, and deleted the entire trip out of its memory.

(Artifical Condition)

The SecSystem tried to block ART and I quickly put up a wall and deleted its memory of the contact. (ART really did not care to be challenged by other resident systems and I didn’t want the friendly SecSystem deleted.)

(Network Effect)

Okayyy, that was a rather aggressive response. But then, unlike SecUnits who are designed to interact with systems, ART is not built to be compatible with other systems. No matter how politely ART approaches them, they are not likely to appreciate its presence.

[ART interacting with other bots]

Plus ART, who was already cozying up to said bot pilot and would be keeping an eye on the shuttle during the brief trip. (ART’s idea of “cozying” being somewhat overbearing, I had already had to intervene once to assure the bot pilot that the big mean transport had promised not to hurt it.)

(Artificial Condition)

Size-wise, it's like a rhino trying to be friendly with a rabbit. Whatever it does might come across as overbearing.

A message came back: I could help you learn about it, if you’re interested. ART said, Stop talking to it. I think it’s just bored, I said. I don’t give a shit, ART said.

(System Collapse)

Holism is like your old classmate from primary school days that you never particularly got on that well, comes along, spots that you have made a best friend at university, and tries to ask out this said-friend while you are sitting together. A bit insensitive!

[ART introducing itself to SecUnits]

When it met Murderbot:

Then, through my feed, something said, You were lucky. I sat up. It was so unexpected, I had an adrenaline release from my organic parts.

[...]

It said, You’re a rogue SecUnit, a bot/human construct, with a scrambled governor module. It poked me through the feed and I flinched. It said, Do not attempt to hack my systems, and for .00001 of a second it dropped its wall.

(Artificial Condition)

When it met Three:

Contact requested: transport designated Perihelion, registered Pansystem University of—

Response, Transport: Who the fuck are you?

This is nonstandard communication. The contact is a transport bot pilot, but transport bot pilots can’t/don’t communicate this way.

(Network Effect)

Transport, on private channel: If you even think about harming them, I will disassemble you and peel away your organic parts piece by piece before destroying your consciousness. Do we understand each other?

(Network Effect)

ART is ... being very pragmatic there. It's not threatening. It's telling them how it's not a good idea to even think about destructive behaviour. (Though it could have been a little more tactful.)

Still, poor Three. It must have been terrifying.

[ART to non-crew humans]

Target Three, sarcastically: “If the ship speaks, why didn’t it come in person?”

Perihelion’s drone: You don’t want to meet me in person.

The Targets react with astonishment and some dismay.

(Network Effect)

What do they expect. They had kidnapped its best friend.

The first thing the new Barish-Estranza explorer had done was power up to ART and try to intimidate it/us. [...]

ART had dropped its main weapon port and transmitted, Targeting lock acquired.

The explorer had replied something to the effect that they didn’t mean to be intimidating and was the widdle academic transport crew scared, but in corporate speak, and ART had replied, It’s so easy for ships to disappear out here.

There was a pause, indicating a scramble to adjust operational parameters, then they made the mistake of trying to intimidate back with something like Oh yeah well you’ll get damaged, too, and I am not exactly an expert on nonfictional human interactions but that just obviously wasn’t going to cut it.

ART transmitted, You can make this complicated situation simple for me. Which I can tell you was not any kind of posturing, it 100 percent meant that.

Barish-Estranza must have picked up on that subtext because they backed down and now they think ART is a human commanding officer who’s a giant asshole.)

(System Collapse)

They (Barish-Estranza) started it /shrug

This shuttle wasn’t armed, and a quick look through their security archive said nobody had planted any explosives or anything. She was bluffing.

ART-drone said, “I wouldn’t recommend it. I lack a sense of proportional response. I don’t advise engaging with me on any level.”

(System Collapse)

Again, ART is stating facts.

ART doesn't do smarmy corporate talk. It speaks its mind, calls spade a spade, like a Yorkshire person. Don't harm or steal its humans or its SecUnit bestie then you'd be safe.

Does it have good social skills?

I refrain from answering that question. It certainly gives extra purpose for Murderbot to stay with it. (To be the social facilitator for bot / system interactions.)

[inthefoxholes]

veilguard, i hated it.

So i finally finished veilguard, and guys, what. a. shitshow.

So apart from the fact that it feels like a half-finished game (which it probably is), I mostly hated it on two accounts: 1) the overall lore implications (we knew this from this reddit q&a, but I'm still angry, and I won't stop talking about it) BOTH in regards to previous games and this one and 2) how this was not at all a roleplaying game. (sorry, english is not my first language and I'm tired and enraged)

Let's look a little closer, shall we.

One: The Lore Implications. This pisses me off in two ways:

First, the amateurish attempt at a "clean slate". This is just so insulting. If they wanted to make a game without any of that icky baggage, then the should have chosen a new ip for this. I get that it's complicated after three games with a lot of moving parts, I get that the decision to move away from southern thedas was an attempt to curtail a lot of this, but COME ON. Walls of nonsensical (seriously, they read ai created) text from the inquisitor, that mainly tell you that everything you fought for, all the people, all the places, is gone? And not for effect, not for the story, entirely offscreen and nonsensical, just so the writers don't have to care for this anymore? This does NOT get me invested into the story. No mention of who your Divine is; no mention of who sits on the orleasian throne - and it should matter, shouldn't it, whether or not your EXILED the grey wardens, whether or not you have an elf with a SPY NETWORK close to the orleasian throne, whether or not you DISBANDED the inquisition. All of that does influence what happens on the world state, or at least it should. (And if you want to ignore it, why not do in a way that's less obvious, less bad, why not have your protagonist be someone with no ties to the inquisition, who genuinely does not know whats going on in the south? Why have a world state when you don't want anything to do with it?)

Second, and that's even worse: you cannot take a fully established world, and then alter it to your weird specifications. THE FUCK you mean, there are no slaves in Minrathous, the goddamn slave capital of the world?? Why THE HELL is there a whole questline where we try to find disappeared people, snatched from the street for the ritual, when it should be perfectly possible to buy a few batches of slaves and have them express delivered to your ritual site. (So we can show up and fuck up your slave operation.) But no - I get shamed when I don't save Minrathous?? Well, fuck you, Fenris sends his regards, I hope you all burn.

To this ties the overall simplificaton of the world: Nobody is really bad, just the few super bad guys, but they are so evil as to have no real motiviation, they are basically Thanos or otherwise racist cartoons (totally believable that the Qunari, or a sect thereof, would be on board with mad sorcery). They rest, they are good guys! The pirates are very mindful of cultural heriatages! The crows are just your friendly neighborhood assassins (I remember the stories Zevran told slightly differently), and, as assassins, they naturally wear uniforms, so you see them coming (as do the "secret" "underground" "rebels" from Tevinter). I'm not saying that everyone should be evil, but the fact that whole organisations are presented to us as benefical is so insulting, ESPECIALLY when it was always a point of pride for the Dragon Age franchise that it was morally complicated. There is slavery and poverty and darkspawn. NOPE, you can stand knee deep in blight, not a problem anymore. (if only Carver had known) There is racism against elfs. (well, as the elfs seem to be respnsible for EVERY problem thedas faces, from the veil to the darkspawn, maybe that was precient? - also, always nice to have everything tied in such a neat bow, everything tied to one ONE causality, that makes things really believable and realistic) The Templars are fascists, sure, but abominations are a problem that does not get solved easily. NOPE, not anymore! When before, even a spirit of JUSTICE got corrupted in this world (therby making the valiant and sublte point that abstract concepts rarely hold up well when coming in contact with messy reality), now you can be possessed by a demon of SPITE and HE DOES NOT DO ONE SPITEFUL THING AT ALL. Nice, if only the mages knew that, you just have to accecpt feelings or whatever and then everything's well. SO NEAT!

This brings me to point number two: Why do we play this game? The complex and previously established word is gone; what's left are cartoons thereof. And then, there's not even a hint of role-playing left. Why can't I be mean to Harding?? I loved her in Inquisition, now her overly-girly manner grates on my nerves and I want to be mean to her. I can't, i have to be everyone's friend. In the end, I cannot decide anything, except the slight configuration of the final companion armour (why would I care, I don't know these people, I could not ask them a single question), and some slight cosmetic change regarding Solas - there is not even talk about tearing down the Veil. We've come full circle back to Mass Effect 3 and the groundbreaking decision we get to make is what colour the magic space beam is gonna have. Except, Mass Effect 3 was still a much better game, because you knew your crew - in this game, I have acutally no idea why Rook should lead anybody, why anybody would follow them, and why the literal fate of the world should be in the hands of this bunch of (after 100 hours of gameplay) near strangers. There ARE narrative work-arounds for this kind of shit; the writers just didn't care enough.

There are a hundred more small things I could say about this, about the story (Solas' prison was made of regret and he wanted to put Elgarnan there?? Who feels very good about everything he does?? Is he stupid? And then everyone is so impressed about Rook getting out to quickly, but seriously, what the fuck did Rook have to feel regretful about? They did not get to make a single decision. They did not order anyone to sacrifice themselves; they did not use people, or cities, as pawns in a war or whatever, BECAUSE THIS GAME HAS THE EMOTIONAL DEPTH OF A SMALLISH PUDDLE) and the in-game approach to the player (how often do i have to be told that i need to take care of my companions business?? This got so repetitive and made them seem like imcompetent children. Why wasn't there a better way to make me care, or better yet, trust the player to want to play this game), but I stop now. Fuck Bioware and EA.

[sunderwight]

I think one of the funniest bits of System Collapse, before the epilogue with Holism anyway, is when SecUnit is recounting what happened in Network Effect and then between books when the latest BE ship showed up and is like, so ART has learned that threatening to blow everyone the fuck up can be pretty effective and it's probably gonna be on this kick for a while now, as if ART didn't introduce itself to SecUnit by threatening it, and also as if the magnitude of ART's threats aren't quite obviously scaled based on the proximity of potential danger to someone it cares about.

When SecUnit initially hitched a ride with it, ART did the bot equivalent of showing it the face of god to ensure it didn't get any funny ideas. It threatened to dismember Three because Three was an unfamiliar SecUnit within grabbing range of its crew. It armed its pathfinders without telling anyone.

SecUnit thinking the escalation of ART's threats must have something to do with ART getting a unique thrill out of successfully navigating a crisis that way is almost quaint. It's like, oh it's just saying that if anything happened to me it'd kill everyone in this room and then itself because it thinks that's how to win the argument, and not that SecUnit itself has entered into the list of people ART would go scorched earth over because ART actually considers that a proportionate response.

[offender42085]

Post 1427

Mormon communities of the small towns of southern Utah are known for being tight. The inmate's large support network of family and friends, of which approximately 30 of whom were present in the courtroom for the sentencing.

Kyle Black Jessop, Utah inmate 266774, born 2005, incarceration intake November 2024 at age 18, released June 2025 to probation

Possession or use of a firearm by a restricted person, Possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute

In November 2024, an 18-year-old Kanarraville Utah man who reportedly shot his friend to death during a violent, drug-and-alcohol-fueled confrontation in July 2024 was sentenced to one year in jail followed by three years of probation.

Jessop was arrested the evening of July 17 after investigators responded to a report of a fatal shooting at a residence in Kanarraville that left 33-year-old Jonathan "JB" Brooks of Cedar City dead.

Early the next morning, Jessop was booked into Iron County Jail on weapons and drug charges.

As part of a negotiated plea agreement, Jessop pleaded guilty to two third-degree felonies: one count of possession or use of a firearm by a restricted person and one count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. Three other counts were dismissed in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

The prosecutor explained why homicide charges were not filed in connection with Brooks’s death.

“Ultimately, the defendant shot and killed his friend, JB. Based on the totality of the circumstances, the state did ultimately decide it could not meet its burden in regard to some type of homicide charge.” “There was evidence which suggested that the decedent (Brooks) experienced some type of mental episode in which he was very violent and threatening, the same type of behavior he had exhibited when he himself was charged a few weeks earlier in another matter that came before the court.”

The prosecutor said there was evidence that the catalyst for both of these violent outbursts were drugs that Brooks used just before each incident and were provided by Jessop. If drugs were not involved, the prosecutor said it's likely the "tragic outcome would not have occurred."

“The defendant acknowledges as much in his PSI (presentencing investigation) statement, which the state appreciated,” he added.

Jessop also was given a chance to address the court.

“Your Honor, I'm not a bad person,” Jessop said. “I have good intentions but I did make several mistakes, which I do sincerely regret. My worst mistake was getting involved with marijuana and alcohol and getting other people involved as well. These substances clouded my judgment and they led me step after step in the wrong direction, eventually leading to a situation that spiraled out of control and cost someone their life.”

Jessop said he spent years believing that marijuana and alcohol were harmless.

"But now I see just how wrong I was. I've had 124 days to think about the impact that they've had on the people around me, and the effect they've played in my life, and exactly how they’ve played a large part in me being here today.”

Jessop also mentioned his large support network of family and friends, approximately 30 of whom were present in the courtroom for the hearing. Some had written letters of support that had been placed on file with the court. Jessop indicated he has a job waiting for him as soon as he gets out of jail. 

Jessop’s defense attorney, also addressed the court, pointing to his client’s lack of criminal history and his cooperation with the police during the investigation.

“I’d like to remind the court that my client has never asked for bail. He's never asked to be released,” Burns said as he asked the court to impose a more lenient seven-month sentence (210 days) with credit for time already served.

“He is committed to substance abuse treatment,” Burns said of his client. “He thinks that is important, and he'd like to start that as soon as possible.”

In lieu of the zero-to-five-year prison terms associated with the third-degree felony charges, the Judge stayed those penalties and instead imposed a term of 360 days in Iron County Jail, with credit given for the four months already served. Jessop will also be eligible for good time, the judge noted.

Upon his release from jail, Jessop was placed on “zero-tolerance” probation for a period of 36 months, to be supervised by Adult Probation and Parole, the Judge ordered.

5u

[pinkish-cat]

Fans of "Foster's home for imaginary friends" are you here???? Are you alive???

In general… I didn't watch this cartoon as a child. Because this cartoon is a year older than me, when season 1 seemed to be released. And again, I didn't have Cartoon Network, so I decided to watch all the episodes of this show and already get my favorite character! I now understand why Wilt is so loved by most people. He really is such a sunshine!

And for myself, I set such a task for today: to select three screenshots with Wilt and make a fanart based on them. Why not? I can say these are my favorite moments related to this character. And I hope I didn't completely break he, because I tried to keep all the design elements and appearance.

It was also the first time I used noise as a background as a "TV effect", but even without the noise effect, everything looks fine.

Fanart without noise:

Thanks for your attention! It was fun to work on it.

[rainerioun]

𝖶𝖧𝖤𝖱𝖤 𝖶𝖨𝖫𝖫 𝖸𝖮𝖴 𝖡𝖤 𝖨𝖭 2 𝖸𝖤𝖠𝖱𝖲? | 𝗉𝗂𝖼𝗄 𝖺 𝖼𝖺𝗋𝖽.

— Hello! I know this is a shorter post, but I wanted to share something. This was requested anonymously, so thank you for the suggestion! ♥

ORIGINAL DATE POSTED : JUNE 16TH, 2024.

HOW TO CHOOSE A PILE : The outcome may vary based on whether you receive clear messages visually or intuitively. If you resonate more with selecting a pile visually, trust that inclination. Personally, I believe the notion that 'looks can deceive,' so I prefer to take a deep breath and close my eyes, allowing the pile I'm meant to connect with to come to me. You might see the color of the pile, sense or hear a number, or simply feel its overall vibe.

Please don’t redistribute or edit my content.

MUST READ + MASTERLIST. | KO-FI.

PILE ONE

Where Will You Be In 2 Years? The Empress [Reversed], The Chariot, Knight of Wands [Reversed].

In two years, you're definitely the one in control. If you're facing any hurdles, especially with dreams left unattended or ideas just lingering without action, that fades away over time. You might still encounter creative blocks and timing issues, but you'll handle them much more effectively, learning self-control and taking decisive action. You'll realize that your accomplishments don't solely define you; they're just an added bonus. You should know to slow down, it will grant you a clearer perspective to seeking security.

What Energy Will You Radiate? Networker — Light : Enhances unity through sharing of information. Engenders social awareness and empathy. Shadow : Conveys information only for person gain. Spreads fear and falsehood.  The Merchant : Self-worth, Trade. 

You could find yourself in a more social setting or perhaps in a higher position in your career, whether it's the same job or a new one. You're confident but not cocky, aware of your self-worth, and others notice this too. In some way, you seem to be a messenger, spreading kindness. This doesn't have to be taken literally; it could relate to anything. Whatever came to mind when you read that might be it.

PILE TWO

Where Will You Be In 2 Years? Ten of Pentacles, Knight of Swords, The Tower.

If you're starting something you've been wanting to begin or have been thinking about it, know now is the right time to do it. The next two years will be intense and different from what you're used to, but you can handle it. All your hard work will definitely pay off. In two years, you'll achieve what you wanted—be it wealth, security, or some kind of success. This will finally become permanent. However, expect significant changes, some of which you may not like at first. Any upheaval or chaos is just a way to build an even stronger foundation. For those considering starting a family, think about your circumstances carefully. Don't rush. This aspect will bloom within the coming years.

What Energy Will You Radiate? Queen — Light : Radiates the regal feminine. Uses her benevolent authority to protect others. Shadow : Becomes arrogant when authority is challenged. Controlling and demanding.  The Adventurer : Responsibility, Expectations.

Again, for those considering starting a family—if not, feel free to skip this part—you'll find yourself strongly in the parental role. This doesn't necessarily mean with a human child; just know you'll feel content. Some of you might be stressing over the mere thought, but rest assured, it'll bring fulfillment. As for the rest of you, you'll develop a stronger sense of responsibility. However, this doesn't mean you can't explore. The next few years are about stabilizing, rebuilding what's been lost, but in two years, you'll regain your 'freedom' once more. You are always the one in control, don't get lost in a little box.

PILE THREE

Where Will You Be In 2 Years? King of Swords, Seven of Cups, Four of Wands.

Pile three, you'll find yourself in a place of mental and physical clarity. It's a very calm and peaceful state. You're enjoying life, with a sense of harmony and relaxation. Home feels like a welcoming place. You deserve this, so keep following your instincts. There are many paths and decisions ahead, but there's no wrong choice. You get to decide for yourself. Whatever starts now will lead to peace in the future. While life won't be stress-free, you'll accept the struggles, not rushing to figure everything out immediately.

What Energy Will You Radiate? Hermit — Light : Seeks Solitude to focus intently on inner life. Serves personal creativity. Shadow : Withdraws from society out of fear or negative judgements of others. Refusing to help those in need.  The Vengeance : Overcoming Slights, A Choice. 

In two years, I envision you embracing the homebody life, in your own zone. It's all about you and your close circle. You'll find contentment in solitude, focusing on the little things with acceptance—chores, hobbies, and everyday routines. When I think of this scenario, I see someone sitting in a chair, leisurely watching their pet play without a worry in the world. It's a heartwarming scene; some of you might even welcome a new pet into your life. In two years, it's a time for retreat, and if you believe you can get there, you will.

[marauder-misprint]

Letters that never arrived i

Sebastian Sallow x Ravenclaw!reader

part 2

14.7k words

cw: HL spoilers, swearing, miscommunication, fluff, angst, Y/N

There were flashes of red and green lights and you screamed his name. “Sebastian!”

Then you woke up, drenched in sweat. It was still pitch black outside. You slowly sat up, shaking from your nightmare. A gentle breeze chilled you to the bone as your pajamas clung to your body. Sebastian was not there, but you still looked around the room, filled with worry. The last you had heard he was staying at his late uncle’s house in Feldcroft. As you sat up, you tried to remember the dream that had awoken you. You didn’t know which end of the lights the boy had been on. You shuttered. 

You got out of bed and shuffled over to your trunk. You took out a small box of neatly arranged vials and picked out two. You debated which potion would be better to take: Sleeping Draught or Dreamless Sleep Potion. The former would get you back to sleep faster, but the latter would likely keep you asleep. You put the Sleeping Draught back with a sigh. You had taken one of those before bed, and your dreams hadn’t been pleasant. You drank the other potion in one gulp and went back to your bed. Its immediate drowsy effect allowed you to feel more relaxed. After a few minutes, you were back to sleep. 

In the morning, you cast a protection spell over your tent before making the trek to Hogsmeade. You could’ve flown on your broom, rode your graphorn or a thestral, or even taken the floo network from the closest hamlet. You had taken to walking everywhere. There was something about being on the ground that reminded you that you were alive and it was all real. The last time you flew on your broom you had ended up lost in the clouds above the ocean. It had taken you over an hour to get back to your tent; it was an event you never planned on repeating. 

You entered J. Pippin’s Potions and greeted the shop’s owner, Mr. Pippin. 

“I have your order ready. Just let me go grab it,” he said, disappearing to grab a bag from the back. When he returned, he asked, “Can I ask what you are brewing? This is a fair amount of lavender, sopophorous beans, nettle and asphodel?”

You handed him a small pouch of galleons and took the bag he handed you. 

“I’ve got a few potions I’m working on,” you said nonchalantly. “I like to have my own stock and with school starting up soon, I need to get busy.”

Mr. Pippin nodded, although he noted that you didn’t really answer his question. “Starts next week, if I recall.”

“That’s correct, sir.”

“Enjoy your brewing, Y/N. And I’m only an owl away if you need help.” 

After leaving the potion shop, you visited various other shops around the village to pick up supplies that you had ordered for the upcoming school year. You had quite the stack of packages when you stumbled into the Three Broomsticks and nearly collapsed at a table in the front corner. Sirona Ryan was quick to bring you a butterbeer.

“Looks like you’ve had quite the day, hmm,” she said, setting the mug down.

“A walk in the park compared to last year,” you replied with a tired smile. 

Sirona knew a fair bit about the messes that you had found yourself in last year. She had witnessed parts of it herself, like when Rookwood barged into the pub and demanded to speak with you. You sat back in your chair with your hands grasping the warm mug. It had just been a day of picking up school supplies and small talk, yet it still drained you. The mundane always felt worse than battling poachers, goblins and trolls. 

A few butterbeers later, you felt ready to go home to your tent. You were about to wave Sirona over to pay her when the door opened with a jingle and familiar voices filled the air. 

“We won’t stay long, Ominis. I just want one drink before we go back,” Sebastian Sallow said. 

You were glad for the pile of supplies in front of you, blocking you from their view. You could barely see them yourself through bits of space between your packages. 

“One drink. Then we have to go back to Feldcroft. I do not like walking that far through forest when it’s dark out,” Ominis Gaunt responded to Sebastian.

“You’re blind! What difference does it make?”

Ominis scoffed. “It is more to do with the time of day. You know it is less safe at night.”

To your relief, the boys chose a table further into the pub. You felt safe to wave Sirona over. 

“Some of your classmates just came in. You know you can move tables without telling me,” she said with a soft smile.

You shook your head. “I need to get going. It’s been a long day and there is a bed calling my name.”

You handed some galleons to Sirona and worked on stacking your packages in a way that wouldn’t make them too cumbersome to carry. You could bewitch them to float and follow you, but you would worry too much about them getting stuck on a tree or boulder. As you got your grip and headed to the door, you heard Ominis speak across the bar. 

“Is that Y/N’s voice I just heard?”

You didn’t turn around and hurried out the door before you could hear Sebastian’s answer. You hadn’t parted on the best of terms and you wasn’t ready to face them yet. 

“Huh? Maybe?” Sebastian said, looking at the door as it closed. “I didn’t see.”

Sirona heard them and walked over. “Yes, that was Y/N who just left. Bit surprised myself that she didn’t say hi to you boys.”

--- 

The next week seemed to fly by. You spent most of your time brewing your collection of potions and triple checking that you had all of the required supplies. Your worries about returning to the castle caused you to be more paranoid. You were looking over your shoulder whenever you left and moved your camp. The dangers of living in the highlands weren’t as severe as they had been, but they still persisted. Even without a leader and definitive cause, goblins and ashwinders were posted in various locations, and if one thing made them furious, it was you since  you were responsible for their leaders’ downfalls. And poachers were always a given. 

The day before you would return to the safety of the castle, you set up camp in a treasure vault you had discovered a while ago. You had recalled this one being free of spiders, inferi and standing water. You conjured a door and locked it, hoping to deter wild animals. You knew that any wizard determined to get in could, but some would move along at the sight of a simple lock. 

You sat next to a small fire, hugging your knees to your chest. One of the things you loved most in the world was watching the flames of fire dance erratically. It was more soothing than you could ever explain with words. It allowed you to get lost in your mind without the daunting feeling of falling into an endless hole. You could think and reflect. Sometimes you thought it was your ability to control ancient magic that allowed fire to have this effect on you; to you, fire was the oldest magic there was. 

You decided on a simple Sleeping Draught for the night. Your mind was wide awake with nerves and dreamless sleep would be pointless if you couldn’t sleep. You passed out immediately after drinking it. 

Waking up, you felt groggy. Your sleep wasn’t the most restful but it had been sleep. The nightmares were more mild. Stress of exams and forgetting homework. Embarrassment of being late to class or losing Ravenclaw points. Awake, you wanted to laugh at how trivial these were, but they still frightened you. You knew people expected the world of you, and you’d be damned if you let them down. 

You condensed all of your things down into one trunk with an extension charm on it. You figured you would mill around Hogsmeade until it was time to go to Hogwarts. Most students would be arriving by train. Once you arrived in the village with your trunk, you made the decision to hole up in the Three Broomsticks. If it was slow, you could chat with Sirona. It ended up not being slow enough for Sirona to chat for more than a few minutes at time, but that was sufficient for you. Even more so, you were glad that you didn’t see anyone that you really knew all that well, which meant no one else was stopping by your table.

---

“Y/N!” a voice shrieked from across the Great Hall. 

You looked up from the Ravenclaw table to see Samantha Dale and Constance Dagworth running toward you. 

“It’s good to see you’re still alive!” Constance said, engulfing you in a hug. “I tried to write to you but my owls couldn’t find you!”

“I had the same issue!” Samantha added.

The girls sat on either side of you, awaiting your answer for their inability to reach you.

“I was moving around a lot,” you said. “I guess if you don’t stay in one spot for too long, owls can’t find you as easily as they can if you’re established.” 

“Well, you’ll have to tell us all about your summer. We have so much catching up to do,” Samantha said adamantly. 

The Great Hall didn’t take much time to fill up as the train had obviously arrived and students had made it to the castle from Hogsmeade Station. The temperature in the hall rose significantly with everyone’s body heat. It was good to see everyone’s faces again and to hear their voices. Students who took the train were swapping stories with those from the local hamlets or had been in different compartments. The animated conversations fell quiet when Professor Black stood at the lectern at the front of the hall. His welcome speech was half-hearted and he quickly passed the spotlight over to Professor Weasley who led the sorting ceremony. You were shocked at the number of first years and paid immense attention to the ceremony, since you hadn’t seen one before unless you counted your own that had been after all of last year’s first years had finished being sorted. The other sixth years around you were less enthralled by the ceremony. 

The ceremony ended and dinner commenced. All of the students around you began filling their plates immediately; some looked at the food like they hadn’t eaten all day. You were regretting sitting in the Three Broomsticks all day and drinking your fair share of butterbeer. You made a small plate for yourself and nibbled away at it as you listened to your friends recount their summers. 

“William was obnoxious all summer. He was always in the way, no matter what I was doing. I couldn’t read or stitch without him being an absolute git,” Samantha complained. “Maybe we should’ve left his feet as beets!”

“Oh, please,” you scoffed. “You were beside yourself when he was at St. Mungo’s. Have you considered that maybe he just wants to spend time with you?”

“Absolutely not. If he wanted to spend time with me, he could come over from the Gryffindor table once in a while.”

You cocked your head. “He’s a student here?”

“Did you not know?” Constance asked. 

You shook your head.

“He’s a fourth year. Gryffindor, as I just said,” Samantha said. 

She turned around to point in his direction. You looked in the direction of the Gryffindor table and saw a boy who looked like he could be related to Samantha. 

“I see. I guess he didn’t come up that much last year…”

“You were busy, saving Hogwarts and all,” Samantha said.

“Don’t forget being joined at the hip with her guard dogs,” Constance chirped.

You made a face at your friend. “I still don’t understand why people call them that.”

“Ever notice how people never really approached you when they were at your side?” Constance laughed. “They were protecting you, guarding you. And well, yeah. Guard dogs.”

“Protecting me? Please!” you said in mild disgust. “I do not need protecting.”

“From goblins and ashwinders, no. Overzealous fans? Possibly. But we’ll never know because of them,” Samantha clarified. 

“Overzealous fans,” you repeated. “What, am I going to be hugged to death?”

The girls shrugged. 

“Might have been to ensure some privacy. Usually when someone gets a title like Hero of Hogwarts, people want to know everything about them,” Constance said.

“Whatever,” you said with a sigh. “Connie, what did you do this summer? Do you have a sibling who goes here that I don’t know about?”

—-

Before going to bed, you made sure to organize your stuff in the closet. You had conjured additional shelves so that your collection of potions could be properly displayed and easily accessed each night. Samantha peered over your shoulder and gasped.

“Merlin, Y/N! Do you have enough potions in there?”

You shut the door, hiding your collection of vials. Constance looked up from a letter she was writing.

“How many are in there?”

“At least twenty,” Samantha answered.

“Been busy brewing this summer?” Constance asked with a laugh. 

“I like to be prepared! Don’t come crawling to me when you need wiggenweld and are too embarrassed to get some from the hospital wing,” you defended. 

“You have more than enough in there to share. And what was all in there?” Samantha asked, sitting down on her bed. “I saw purple and wiggenweld is green.”

“Just some stuff to help with sleep,” you said with a shrug. “Pretty sure the lavender makes it purple.” 

The other two girls exchanged worried looks.

“Are you still having nightmares?” Samantha asked, her voice laced with concern.

You had tried to hide your nightmares from your roommates in the spring. You had placed a silencing charm on your bed to at least muffle the noise. However, they were perceptive and grew concerned over your visible exhaustion. It had been one thing for you to fall asleep in History of Magic as Professor Binns droned on about various goblin rebellions; it was another when you slipped out of your chair and onto the floor in Defense Against the Dark Arts and then in Charms. They called you out on it and you had no choice but to come clean. You had been  given a small ration of sleeping aid potions from Matron Blainey. 

You had led them to believe that after two weeks of restful sleep you were back to normal. That was not the case. The first night without one of the potions left you riddled with nightmares worse than before. It felt like the two weeks without dreams had compiled into one. In a calm and collected panic, you discussed with Garreth Weasley if he knew how to brew those potions; as advanced as he was, he did not but knew they were to learn more about them next year. Rather than discuss your predicament with Professor Sharp, you turned to the master of mischief, Sebastian. Sebastian was able to find you books with directions and you worked on perfecting the brews in the Room of Requirement. You appreciated that he didn’t ask questions about it. 

“They come and go. Not as frequent, but like I said, I like to be prepared,” you lied, allowing your friends’ expressions to ease. 

The girls talked about their expectations for the year before getting ready for bed. You were glad to be laughing about the small things that made going to school fun: the drama and potential sources of gossip. They talked about much the school rallied around quidditch, something you had missed out on last year due Professor Black canceling the season. When it was finally time to turn in, you had to sneak open her closet to grab a potion. You weren't going to start the term off with horrible dreams that woke you up screaming. 

---

You were excited to truly experience Hogwarts as a regular student. Well, more or less a regular student. You knew that you were treated slightly differently due to your title of Hero of Hogwarts. You were excited for classes and quidditch, unburdened by looming threats outside the castle walls. 

After two weeks, you thought everything was going good as you adjusted to a new normal. And it was, until you heard something that made you choke on your morning coffee at breakfast. 

“Did you hear that heartthrob Sebastian Sallow made Slytherin quidditch team as a beater?” a third year gossiped with her friend. 

“Everything good?” Constance asked, slapping your back. 

“Just surprised,” you managed to croak. “Wasn’t expecting to hear that.”

“That Sallow made the quidditch team?” Everett Clopton asked from across the table. 

You shook your head. “Heartthrob.”

Samantha and Constance burst out laughing. You shot them a confused look. 

“Maybe you’re too close to him to have noticed,” Samantha said, “but puberty took him through the ringer over the summer.”

You raised an eyebrow before turning around to try to find him at the Slytherin table. So far, you had managed to avoid talking to him and, consequently, really getting a good look at him. You spotted a mop of brown hair but it wasn’t enough to confirm Samantha’s statement. 

“So he’s a heartthrob now?”

Constance nodded. “Before his sister got sick, he was fairly well-liked across houses. Just a funny, goofy guy who was always up for a good time. Quite popular. Anne gets sick and suddenly he disappears from the spotlight. You show up and he’s sort of back to normal, but it was mostly when you were around. And now, puberty plus his old charm, simple equation for heartthrob status.”

“And he’s on quidditch now,” Everett added, earning him a look of accusation from Constance. His hands went up in a sign of defense. “I’m just saying I’ve heard girls like an athlete.” 

Samantha hummed in content. “He’s not wrong.”

“Thank you!”

---

Two weeks later, the girls were relaxing in the common room after a long day of classes.

“Is it quidditch yet?” you asked, laying down on a couch in the common room. 

“Nope,” Constance answered her, popping the ‘p.’ “Next weekend, and we’re not even playing yet. Slytherin plays Hufflepuff.”

You sighed. “I want to watch quidditch!”

Samantha laughed at you from a nearby arm chair. “You’ll get your fair amount of quidditch, don’t worry about it, L/N.” She paused. “So are we going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?”

“I’d like to. Not to say I’m tired of the castle already, but I could use some chocolate frogs and butterbeer,” Constance said.

“Yeah, I’m game for Hogsmeade,” you agreed. 

At that moment, Andrew Larson and Everett appeared next to the girls.

“Did we hear Hogsmeade trip?” Everett asked, resting his arm on your head. 

“Tomorrow,” you said.

“Is it… a girls’ trip?” Andrew asked, looking from Constance to Samantha and then stopping on you. 

“Are you trying to get an invite?” Samantha laughed, poking his side.

“Just trying to gauge if it’s worth seeing if you mind if we tag along,” he replied defensively. “Didn’t want to intrude if it was definitely a girls’ trip. We would’ve made a point to avoid you.”

You removed Everett’s arm from your head. “You guys can join us. Make sure you invite Amit too.”

Andrew rolled his eyes. 

“Andrew!” you chastised. 

“Would you rather we have you invite Puffskein or Mahendra?” Constance asked with crossed arms. 

“Amit it is!” Andrew declared. 

“Plus, he’ll probably say no,” Samantha said, sitting on the armrest of Constance’s chair. “It’s just the effort that counts. It’s called maintaining a friendship.”

The next morning, only Everett and Andrew sat down next to the girls.

“Sammy was right, he said no but thanked us for inviting him,” Everett said, stealing a piece of toast off your plate.

You smacked his arm playfully. 

“What if I was going to eat that?”

“You’d grab another slice and butter it again.”

You narrowed your eyes at Everett before laughing. “I hate you.”

“Hmm, debatable.”

Constance cleared her throat across the table from you. You looked at her with confused looks. 

“If you’re done flirting, are we ready for Hogsmeade?” she asked.

You gasped, looking at Everett. “Shit, were you flirting?”

He shook his head vigorously, causing his curls to bounce. 

“I wasn’t either.”

“You’re literally my sister.”

You nodded. “Yes, we are siblings. Not lovers.”

“Okay, but Hogsmeade? Are we going?” Samantha repeated Constance’s question.

“Yeah,” you said, standing up while taking one last sip of your coffee. “Let’s boogie.”

As the group walked to Hogsmeade, the girls led the group, walking three across on the path. The boys followed, both of them with their hands shoved in their pockets. 

“You really think of her as your sister?” Andrew asked Everett in a low voice, hoping there was enough distance between them and the girls that they wouldn’t be able to overhear. 

Everett gave him a sideways glance, smiling. “Just about. She’s perfect but I think I was friendzoned since day one. Made peace with it,” he said with a laugh. “Now, she’s just a good friend when she’s not hidden behind her little guard dogs.” 

Andrew made a face. 

“Hey, she’s here with us today. Not them…” Everett paused. “Have you seen her with them since the start of term?”

“Uh, I don’t think so?” Andrew replied, thinking about it. “I’ve seen her with Natty and maybe once or twice with Garreth. Otherwise she’s been around Connie and Sam.”

“That’s about what I thought. She’s been pairing up with Natty in Defense rather than Sallow.”

Andrew let out a hearty laugh. “Now that’s a welcomed change!”

You looked back at them, not having heard anything. “Honeydukes, yeah?”

They nodded. The group adjusted their path to the sweets shop. Once inside, the group split apart, each beelining to their favorite candies. Andrew stayed close to you, pretending to look over pumpkin pasties while you debated between chocolate frogs, choco-locos and chocolate cauldrons. 

“What do you think, Andrew: frogs or cauldrons?” you asked, turning towards him.

“Hm? Oh, I like frogs better,” he said. “But why not get a few of both? Can’t hurt to have variety.”

You nodded and took a handful of each. Andrew’s eyes went wide; he hadn’t expected you to grab that many.

“Got galleons waste, have you?”

“I’m going to spend them anyways. Either I buy them all now and have chocolate on hand, or I have to sneak out to get my fix in the middle of the week. Do you want me to get caught and lose points for Ravenclaw?” you explained with a laugh. 

“Suppose not, although you do earn us a fair share.”

You walked towards the other end of the store and he followed, after putting back the pumpkin pasty that he wasn’t actually interested in.

“How do you sneak out and make it here and back so quickly?” he asked, standing next to you at the doxy floss stand. 

“I mean, Moon doesn’t lock the doors too well,” you lied. You weren't going to tell him about the one-eyed witch statue that Garreth had shown you last year. “And then I either run or take a broom. But I’m also not against riding a thestral.”

He ran a hand through his hair nervously. “I always forget that you can see them.”

“Trust me, I wish I couldn’t.” You paused, looking up at Andrew. “They are eerily beautiful creatures and wonderful beasts, but the cost… Some things you just wish you could unsee.”

George Osric. Solomon Sallow. Eleazar Fig. Countless goblins and ashwinders who had attacked her and others. You shivered at the thought of them. Andrew put a loose arm around your shoulder to give you a light comforting squeeze. Then he let go, not wanting to push you past your comfort level.

“I suppose you could say I’m lucky that I can’t see ‘em yet.”

“Yet?” you asked with a soft chuckle. “What makes you so certain you’ll see someone die?”

He shrugged. “I figure I’ll see an old relative die or something. Definitely won’t be in my line of work after Hogwarts.”

“What are you planning on doing?”

“I want to work in legal for the ministry. My uncle works in a different department, but I’ve met some of his coworkers and it’s fascinating.”

“Legal… Not my cup of tea, but someone has to do it.”

“What is your cup of tea?”

“Research, I think. I want to know about ancient magic.”

He nodded and looked around the shop. Constance and Samantha were checking out and Everett already had his purchase in a bag. 

“Looks like they’ll be waiting on us soon,” he said, jerking his head in the direction of their friends. 

“Oh, yeah.” 

You checked out and the group walked outside. They weren’t quite ready to hole up in the Three Broomsticks to drink butterbeer until it was late so they walked around the village. You made them walk over to J. Pippin’s so you could get more lavender. 

“What does she need lavender for?” Andrew asked as the rest of the group waited outside the shop. 

“She’s got a collection of sleeping potions,” Constance said nonchalantly. “Used to get wicked nightmares last year and now it’s just habit to keep it on hand. Emergency stock, if you will.”

“Remember in the spring, when she was falling asleep in Defense and Charms? A literal walking zombie? Yeah, she hadn’t sleep in like a week because of the nightmares. We convinced her to talk to Blainey and it seems to have helped,” Samantha added. 

“Gods, I do remember that,” Everett said. “Hecat was so concerned to see her on the floor. Thought she was cursed or something and then Sallow gave her a nudge and determined she had just fallen asleep.” Then he looked at Andrew and then back at the girls. “Do you know why she hasn’t been around her guard dogs this term?”

“Huh, I suppose she hasn’t, has she?” Samantha asked. “She hasn’t said anything to us, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Everett hummed. You exited the shop with a bag that said you bought more than lavender from Mr. Pippin. Once in the shop, you looked over his inventory and bought everything you thought you might run low on in the next week. 

“Looks a bit more than lavender,” Samantha snorted. 

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I like to be prepared.”

“Prepared for what?” Andrew asked, trying to get a peek in the bag. “Decorating the entire common room and roof with flowers?”

You tightened your grip on the bag. “My ingredient stores won’t be running low anytime soon and when you need billywig stings, don’t be coming to me because you know I’ll have them.”

“Always threatening to withhold things from us!” Everett gasped. “But you cave every time.”

“That was one time and you fell off your broom from like 30 feet!” 

“You were the first one there and basically forcing the wiggenweld down my throat,” he reminded you. 

“Fine, next time you are in a life or death situation, I’ll stand back and let you suffer.”

The group walked to the gardens outside of Hogsmeade to relax for a bit. You sat on a bench at the bottom of the overlook, the part more in the garden that looked at the enchanted dragon bush. You loved how it moved. You could hear snippets of the rest of the group’s conversation up on the overlook platform. You enjoyed your little bit of solitude, and appreciated that they let you have it. 

“Could you pine any harder?” you heard Samantha ask.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Andrew’s voice responded. 

There was laughter and you didn’t catch what was said next. From your distance, overlapping voices meant you couldn’t follow the conversation. You were slightly interested in who Andrew was pining after. You weren’t interested in him, but you were nosy and liked knowing other people’s busy, despite wanting them to stay out of yours. 

“... sister!” Everett laughed.

You heard one of the gates open and close. You turned to see Sebastian entering the garden. He had his hands shoved in his pockets and he looked frustrated. His gaze was intently set on the ground. You weren't sure if he saw you but you were in no mood to talk to him yet. You stood up and hurried up the steps to your friends. 

“I think it’s time for butterbeers!” you announced as you reached the platform.

Andrew’s face was bright red, but the rest of the group seemed overly merry.

“Yes, let’s go!” Samantha agreed, grabbing your arm and the two of you led the group to the Three Broomsticks. 

As they walked, you glanced sideways at Samantha. 

“So, who is Andrew pining after?” you whispered. 

A wicked smile crossed her face. “Oh, that’s something for him to tell you.”

“But obviously he’s told you!”

“Hm, no,” she replied with a soft laugh. “I found it glaringly obvious and confronted him about it last year.”

You stopped walking with your arm still linked with Samantha, therefore causing her to stop walking too. The rest of the group was still a few steps back so no one ran into each other. 

“It’s been at least a year?” you asked in disbelief. “How have I not noticed?”

“You’ve been busy and distracted. I don’t blame you.”

You narrowed your eyes at Samantha, causing her to laugh. 

“Guys, come on! I need butterbeer!” Constance whined, pushing in between her friends.

She grabbed your hands and practically pulled you into the Three Broomsticks, leaving the boys to trail them once again. You managed to find an open table with enough seats for all of them. Sirona wasted no time in placing butterbeers in front of them. 

“I love how she just knows,” Constance said cheerfully, picking up her mug.

“It’s not like she’s going to serve us meade or firewhiskey,” you chirped. 

“Maybe for a few extra galleons she might,” Everett teased. “That would require me to have a few extra galleons to slide her way though.���

“Oh, just wait for Ravenclaw to win at quidditch. You’ll be supplied,” Andrew said, giving Everett a nudge with his shoulder. 

“What happens after a win?” you asked, foam sitting on your upper lip. 

“That’s right!” Samantha exclaimed. “You haven’t been to a Hogwarts party yet!” 

You raised her eyebrows. 

“There’s usually one after each quidditch game, hosted by the winning house. If it’s in another house, you have to arrange to be let in. Sometimes, if the seventh years are feeling frisky, they’ll have parties at other times. But it’s mainly for quidditch,” Everett explained. “Being that it was canceled last year, no parties.”

“Damn, I feel bad for the seventh years,” you muttered. 

“Um, Hufflepuff definitely had a gathering,” Constance piped up. “I think the entirety of seventh years were accounted for.”

“What?” Everett coughed.

“I guess you didn’t get an invite,” she said smugly. “Lenora let me in.”

Gesturing to Constance, Andrew said, “See, you have to know someone.”

“I could maybe go to party at each house if I play it right,” you said. As you listed off your friends, you counted on your fingers, “Obviously I can attend Ravenclaw. Natty would let me into the Gryffindor Common Room. Poppy for Hufflepuff…” She paused to think. “Maybe Imelda or Priscilla for Slytherin?”

“What about Gaunt or Sallow?” Samantha asked, a little too eagerly. 

“What about them?”

You knew what they were asking. You just didn’t want to answer it. You saw as everyone at the table exchanged knowing glances with each other.

“Couldn’t they let you in?” Samantha asked, more cautious this time. 

“That requires them to want me around.”

The table was quiet. 

“And why wouldn’t they want you around?”

You sighed. “Shit went down last year and they haven’t tried to talk to me since so…” 

You pressed your lips together, hoping they would glean to drop it from your expression.

“Maybe they tried to write you over the summer?” Constance offered, not changing the subject. 

“I doubt that.”

At that moment, Sirona arrived with more butterbeers for the table. They chorused thank yous to her. When she was gone, the table was quiet again as everyone sipped their drinks. 

“So… that Potions essay?” Everett asked. 

“Oh, don’t even get me started on it!” Constance said.

You sighed and drank your butterbeer, zoning out from the conversation. Maybe they had tried to write you over the summer, but you was determined to not be found. 

After a few hours, the group left the Three Broomsticks to make their way back to the castle. Everett had linked arms with Constance and Samantha, joyfully having a loud discussion over why Arithmancy was better than Divination. You thought they were walking quicker than they usually did, putting some distance between them and you and Andrew. 

Andrew reached out and grabbed your hand as they approached the road signs a little bit outside of the village. “Hey, Y/N, can I ask you something?”

You stopped walking. “Yeah, of course. What’s up, Andrew?”

You thought he looked nervous. 

“I was wondering if you wanted to go to the quidditch game next weekend.”

“I think the entire castle is going,” you replied, a little confused. 

“No, yeah, the entire castle will be going. But I’m asking if you’d like to go with me. Like a date.” 

“Oh, Andrew…” you started to say.

Then a figure came barreling in between them, knocking Andrew to the ground. You didn’t see who it was. 

“Oi, Sallow! What the fuck?” Andrew yelled from the ground. 

Turning to see a green and silver cloak disappearing around the corner, you were able to see him flip them off. You helped Andrew stand up and he dusted himself off.

“So?” he asked. 

You bit her bottom lip nervously. “That’s really sweet of you, but I don’t think I’m ready to date anyone.”

“Oh,” he said dejectedly, but quickly recovered. “I get that. Hope that doesn’t make things awkward between us…”

“I’ll try to not let it,” you said with a soft smile.

You started to walk again. 

“But that was Sebastian who came barreling through?” you asked. 

“I’m like 95% sure it was. Not sure what his problem is.”

“You and me both,” you said, shaking your head. 

---

You skipped dinner on Thursday to study in the library. You planned on being there for a while and wanted to ensure that you had a good table. You took up half of a table on the upper level. You were happily chugging away on various assignments that you put off during the week. It was fairly obvious when dinner had ended because students started pouring into the library and began taking up any open table. You tried to condense your stuff, but your efforts were futile. With a sigh, you just continued to work. 

You only looked up when someone placed their stuff directly across from you. Seeing who it was, your eyes narrowed despite knowing he couldn’t see it.

“This table is for mudbloods only,” you snapped. 

Ominis looked horrified at what you said. “Y/N!” he whispered.

“Ominis, where did you disappear to?” Sebastian asked before suddenly appearing next to him and seeing you sat at the table. 

“You know he didn’t mean it,” Ominis said, ignoring Sebastian. 

You shifted your glare from Ominis to Sebastian. 

“You don’t say something like that unless you mean it. And it sounded like he meant it.”

Sebastian looked uncomfortable and confused, looking from you to Ominis. 

“Sebastian, I think we need to find a different table,” Ominis muttered, picking his bag back up. “We will see you later, Y/N.”

Before they were out of earshot, you heard Sebastian whisper, “Is she still on what I said?”

Ominis nodded. You were glad to see Sebastian hang his head. A Hufflepuff seventh year sat at your table after a few minutes passed. You worked in silence, not really acknowledging each other, which was just fine for you since you didn’t know him. You sat working until Madam Scribner announced that the library was closing in ten minutes and students needed to begin packing up. You stole a glance at the boy as you piled your stuff back into your bag. He was decently handsome and tall. You looked away as soon as you saw him sneak his own glance. You ended up heading down the stairs at the same time and leaving the library together. 

“Y/N, right?” he asked as you walked through the doors leading to the Central Hall. 

“Yeah. That’s me. I’m afraid I don’t know your name.” 

He held out his hand. “Elias Cotton.”

You shook his hand. “Well, nice to meet you, Elias Cotton.”

He smiled. “It was nice to work across from you. If you ever need a study buddy, have Poppy find me.”

Then he walked away towards the Hufflepuff Common Room. You stood there, watching him disappear down a set of stairs. You blinked a few times to process what had just happened. You hadn’t spoken until then; why did he think you needed a study buddy? You were mildly amused that he knew you were a friend of Poppy. You shook your head before turning to take a long route back to Ravenclaw Tower. You’d have to ask Poppy what she knew about him later. 

---

You decided you would ask Poppy about this Elias Cotton during Beasts class. You were learning about Golden Snidgets, which both of you already knew in extreme detail. 

“Poppy, can I ask you about someone?”

Poppy hummed, not looking up from her sketch of a snidget. 

“Elias Cotton? I think he’s a seventh year and in Hufflepuff.”

Her head snapped up, wide eyes staring at you.

“What about him?”

You felt yourself blush. “He studied at my table in the library yesterday. Just trying to see what he’s like?”

“Probably the sweetest guy in all of Hogwarts, a true gentleman. Definitely a favorite within Hufflepuff. Quite shy though.” She paused. “I think his girlfriend broke up with him last week.”

Poppy eyed you for some time of reaction. Nothing. 

“Huh. You say he’s shy? That would explain why he didn’t say anything to me until after we left the library.” 

“What’d he say?”

“Introduced himself, said it was nice to study at the same table as me and if I ever needed a study buddy, to ask you where he was,” you listed off. 

Poppy thought this was more exciting than you did. Poppy squealed.

“Ms. Sweeting, Ms. L/N, something to share with the class?” Professor Howin asked in a stern tone.

You quickly glanced at the board. 

“Sorry, Professor,” you said, realizing that there was nothing to correct on the board and you didn’t feel like telling the whole class that you and Poppy were part of the reason Golden Snidgets were being seen again.

Professor Howin continued with her lesson. You gave Poppy a warning look.

“No more squealing, but explain,” you hissed.

“He was flirting with you!” Poppy whispered, still visibly excited. “He’s freshly single and you’re not being guarded by your dogs.”

You suppressed a groan. “How long until they lose the nickname?”

Poppy shrugged.

“Also, flirting?” You shook your head. “There must be something in the air.”

“What do you mean?” Poppy asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Larson asked me out on the way back from Hogsmeade last weekend.” 

Poppy light smacked your shoulder. “And you waited until now to tell me?”

You gave her a sideways glance, trying to look like you were paying attention.

“I didn’t think it was that important? I turned him down.”

“Y/N, you didn’t!”

“What?”

“Andrew is fine. Goodness…” Poppy paused. “So you’ve had at least two good looking boys make moves at you. Turned down one, and the other one put the power in your hands.”

“Elias is about to be disappointed too. I don’t think I’m ready to date.”

“You go up against ashwinders and poachers and trolls. I’ve seen you charge completely unfazed into spider caverns, despite claiming you hate them. And you’re not ready to date?”

You flushed. “I know what I’m doing, what I’m walking into with all of that. Dates? No.”

“If you had the choice to go on a date with a boy or give the Hebridean Black her egg back again, which would you do?” Poppy asked, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. 

“Dragon. Easily.”

---

You found it odd walking to the quidditch pitch for the match the next morning. Poppy had found you at breakfast to give you a Hufflepuff flag. You were sure that if they had had games last year, you would’ve been a proud Slytherin supporter. But it wasn’t last year. So you accepted the flag and promised to find Poppy in the stands. 

All around you as you walked were whispers of excitement to see Sebastian make his quidditch debut. Apparently Imelda Reyes, the Slytherin captain, had been bragging about him all week, only adding to his ‘heartthrob’ status. Despite your mental notes to actually look at him to see if he deserved that title, you still managed to avoid looking at him for more than a moment. The library incident had been the most interaction you’d shared so far this term. 

It didn’t take too long to find Poppy within the sea of Hufflepuffs. She saved you a spot at the front of the section and excitedly waved you over once she saw you. You had to awkwardly scoot behind some students to get to Poppy, but you thought it was worth it.

“This better be some game!” you said to Poppy. “You may need to explain parts of the game to me.”

“Red ball goes through hoops for points. Three chasers for each team trying to score. Keepers protect. Beaters hit the budgers, both an attack and protect position. Seeker tried to catch the snitch,” Poppy quickly recapped for you. 

You nodded and peered over the edge of the stands as the teams exited the locker rooms. The stands erupted into cheers as the teams mounted their brooms and took flight. Each team did a lap of the pitch before taking their starting positions. As the Slytherins flew over them, you could’ve sworn that you made eye contact with Sebastian. At least in his uniform, he did look a bit more muscular and filled out. You didn’t think that was enough to be suddenly considered a ‘heartthrob’ but what did you know?

“Excuse me,” a voice said near you.

A few students muttered around them. You looked to your left, where no one had been standing a moment before. Elias Cotton had appeared. He smiled at you and you couldn’t help but smile back.

“Hi, Elias Cotton!” you said. “Just in time for the game to start!”

Poppy leaned forward to make sure that she heard you right.

“Elias!”

“Hi Poppy, Y/N.”

Standing back up straight, Poppy elbowed you in the side lightly.

“Told you!” she said in a singsong voice.

“Oh, shut up,” you laughed. “A Hufflepuff in the Hufflepuff section doesn’t mean anything.”

Your attention was quickly turned to the field as Madam Kogawa blew her whistle, starting the game. Most of your conversation ceased. The section cheered loudly every time Hufflepuff scored, and booed when Slytherin scored. It appeared to be a fairly even match. You did watch Sebastian for most of the game, impressed as he flew with skill and had extreme precision aiming bludgers toward the Hufflepuff team. It would likely come down to who caught the snitch. 

After Hufflepuff scored three times in a row, Elias leaned in and whispered in your ear, “You are welcome to come to the party after we win.”

You wanted to respond with something like ‘I know, Poppy’s going to let me in.’ 

However, you blushed and all you could get out was a flustered, “Okay.”

“Watch out!” someone yelled and you and Elias were pulled in opposite directions as a bludger broke the stands where you had been standing only a moment before. 

You looked out into the pitch. Sebastian looked like he had just swung his bat, and his face was seething with anger. 

“What the?” you asked, looking from Elias to Poppy.

There was a whistle and Lucan Brattleby announced “Penalty on Slytherin beater Sebastian Sallow, bumphing.” 

“In english, Poppy?” you asked, looking at your friend.

“Hitting a bludger at spectators.”

Elias now had to stand a little off to the side so he didn’t accidentally step into the hole the bludger left. He seemed very thrown off. From the stands, Imelda could be heard yelling at Sebastian for being an idiot. Based on how his aim had been all game, you could only assume it had been on purpose, although you weren't sure on why he would send a bludger your way, unless he really hated you. 

Hufflepuff made the penalty shot and the game continued. It wasn’t too much longer before the Hufflepuff seeker caught the snitch, confirming their win over Slytherin. Fans clad in yellow and black erupted in wild cheers. As the boisterous crowd headed back to the castle, you could hear Imelda berating Sebastian inside the locker room as you passed. 

“Jeez, she is pissed.”

“She should be,” Poppy said as they kept walking. “I’m pretty sure their seeker spotted the snitch as Kogawa blew the whistle for the penalty. The game could’ve been over and in their favor.” 

“Why did he hit the bludger toward me?”

“Maybe he’s mad at you for something?” Poppy suggested.

“He was the one who hurt me. I’ve done nothing for him to be mad about,” you defended yourself.

“It was just a suggestion. But you’re coming to the party, right?”

You nodded. “I was planning on it.”

“Cool. It usually starts some time after lunch so you can come down any time, really.”

“Is it alright if I just find you when we’re done eating? I fear if I spend too much time in Ravenclaw Tower, I’ll end up having to bring everyone.”

Poppy laughed, “Of course.” 

You had barely entered the Great Hall, not even halfway down the Hufflepuff table to sit down when you heard a commotion outside the hall. Several students turned to investigate, so you felt inclined to see what the fuss was about. As you got closer, you heard people say something about a fight between a Slytherin and Hufflepuff. You pushed forward through the crowd. You were a little concerned that they were calling it a ‘fight’ and not a ‘duel.’ As you got closer, you heard someone say it was Sebastian. Color drained from your face. Once at the front of the crowd that had circled around the boys, you saw Sebastian standing over Elias, who was on the ground, both breathing heavily. Elias, shaking and with a bloody nose, had his wand out, pointing at Sebastian. Sebastian’s wand appeared to be in his back pocket. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, knuckles bloody. 

“Depulso!” you cast, sending an unexpecting Sebastian flying sideways into the crowd. 

You ran forward to help Elias up. 

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know…” he muttered, not looking you in the eyes.

You gave him a concerned look. “Didn’t know what?” 

“That you’re dating him.”

You turned bright crimson, in embarrassment and rage. 

“I’m not,” you said firmly. “I’ll talk to you at the party. Apparently I have to take care of something.”

You nudged him toward the crowd on the side of the Great Hall and you turned to where Sebastian was beginning to stand up. 

“Levioso,” you said calmly with a flick of her wand, sending Sebastian into the air. 

He struggled in the air, which made you laugh.

“Since when are we dating?” you asked bitterly. “Hell, since when are we talking?”

“Y/N, I-” he tried to say. 

“Silencio! I’ve decided I don’t want your excuses.” You walked closer to where he was still hovering. “I keep my mouth shut about you. You should do the same.”

You let him fall to the ground with a thud. He sat up, but didn’t attempt to stand. He had a worried look on his face, knowing that you was referring to the events of the Catacombs. 

“And you can tell Ominis this too, you two are not my guard dogs. Stop acting like you still are.” You paused, debating if you had anything more to say. “Might as well… Expelliarmus.”

His wand went flying out of his back pocket. You turned and went back towards the Great Hall, the crowd of students parting to let you through. You found Poppy tending to Elias’s bloody nose. 

“It’s not broken, is it?” you asked as you approached them. 

“It was, but I fixed it. Now he’s just… bloody,” Poppy answered. “Elias isn’t feeling too chatty. What the hell happened out there?”

You shifted your weight. “From what I can tell, Sebastian attacked him and claimed that we were dating. Which is almost funny being that he hasn’t spoken to me all term. Actually, we haven’t spoken since last term.” 

“So you’re really not dating him?” Elias asked sheepishly. 

“I’m not dating anyone.”

Poppy shook her head, smiling at you two. She felt pride in calling that Elias had been flirting with you in his own subtle way. You and Poppy both turned your heads when Imelda and Sebastian burst through the doors of the Great Hall having a loud argument.

“You already lost us the match and now you’re trying to get suspended?” she yelled at him.

“Fuck off, Imelda. Some of us have more going on in our life than quidditch.”

“I am your captain! Your behavior and reputation concerns me and the rest of the team.”

“And I can’t be bothered by that.”

The Great Hall had fallen almost silent. A few students looked at you, almost expecting you to go defuse their argument. You just rolled her eyes, sitting down between Poppy and Elias. As Sebastian and Imelda’s conversation lowered into angry whispers, the rest of the hall resumed their conversations. The Hufflepuffs around you seemed quiet for a house that just won the first quidditch match of the season. However, once they retreated to their common room, you gleaned that they were just being polite to the Slytherins. 

The common room had loud music playing and a seventh year was handing out drinks. From what you could tell, the younger students were given butterbeer and older students had a few options. Poppy and you took cups of meade; Elias took a cup of butterbeer. 

“No fun drink for you?” you asked.

He smiled and said, “I prefer to keep my wits about me rather than summon up false courage.”

“Hmm, noble,” you muttered, taking a sip of your drink. 

You, Poppy and Elias milled around the perimeter of the common room, slightly pressed against the wall. You were fairly certain almost all of the Hufflepuffs were in the common room with a decent number of students from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. With all the people moving past you and the room being so insanely loud, you didn’t actually notice when Poppy disappeared from your side. Not knowing many other Hufflepuffs, you nervously grabbed Elias’s hand, not wanting to lose him. When he felt you hand grab his, he smiled and gave it a squeeze. He turned to look at you, but his smile fell when he saw the nervousness in your eyes. 

“Let’s find somewhere to sit,” he said, leaning into your ear so you could hear him.

You nodded and followed as he pulled you into the crowd. You went deeper into the common room before finding a spot on a couch. It looked as if furniture had been pushed towards the wall to make a pseudo dancefloor. You were shocked at the number of bodies in the room. Elias pulled on your arm to get you to sit, seeing that you were still overwhelmed by it all. He was sitting on the end of the couch with you next to him. He tentatively put an arm behind you on the back of the couch. You took the opportunity to scoot a little close to him. In this situation, you felt safe. 

“Is this your first Hogwarts party?” he asked, his breath hot on your neck. “I don’t recall seeing you at the one last year.”

You turned to look at him. “Didn’t make the invite list, I guess. Although, I was rather busy… and didn’t you have a girlfriend at that point?”

Elias turned a little pink. “Uh, yeah… But that’s over with. I’m surprised you weren’t invited. Definitely had your title by then.”

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes. “Hero of Hogwarts can sound like snitch sometimes,” you said with a soft laugh. “But the amount of rule breaking I had to do to earn it? Makes it a bit ironic.”

“Breaking rules, huh?”

“Sneaking into the restricted section, sneaking in and out of the castle, learning spells that aren’t on the curriculum, breaking curfew a lot, missing classes, unnecessarily putting myself into danger’s way. You know.”

His mouth fell slack. He was baffled by how casually you talked about it. 

“Wait, did you say spells that aren’t on the curriculum?”

You nodded slowly, blushing. “I needed to know how to protect myself and fifth year spells weren’t up to snuff.” 

You really didn’t want to expand on how much you had used the Cruciatus curse on goblins and ashwinders last year. Multiple uses of an unforgivable curse would likely earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban and at that point, you might as well turn Sebastian in as well. 

“I’m sure you only did what you had to. Plus, from what I’ve heard from rumors, trouble did come and find you by itself. A troll in Hogsmeade followed by Rookwood accosting you in the Three Broomsticks? That story made its rounds.”

You laughed, feeling more confident. 

“Well, that’s all true. I just wanted to get my own wand and school supplies. And a troll attacks the village. Sebastian and I took care of one while Officer Singer and some others led another away from the village,” you recalled, noticing a momentary distaste cross Elias’s face when you mentioned Sebastian. “And then we went to get butterbeers to celebrate. Enter Rookwood and suddenly I had the entire tavern standing up to protect me from him. It really was something.”

Elias reached toward your face and tucked a stray strand of hair behind your ear. 

“You certainly are an accomplished witch.”

“Why, thank you,” you said graciously. “So I’ve had plenty of rumors about me spread through school. I haven’t heard anything about you. Tell me about yourself.”

“I’m afraid there isn’t really much to tell,” he said meekly. “Don’t play quidditch. Never was any good at dueling. I’ve been taking alchemy, which I seem to be rather good at.”

“Alchemy… Hmmm. What about your family?”

“Got an older brother who’s graduated, obviously. He’s a magizoologist. Mum and Dad are alive and well,” he said with a chuckle at the end. “What else do you want to know?”

“Your favorite color.”

“Robin egg blue.”

You smiled widely. “I like a guy who knows his shades of colors. So much better than ‘I dunno, blue.’”

“I like a girl who’s accomplished,” he replied, glancing down at your lips briefly.

You noticed and blushed. “Having a silly title doesn’t make me accomplished.”

“But you also won Crossed Wands last year. And are a trove of knowledge,” he said, adjusting his arm so it was draped across your shoulder rather than the back of the couch. “I glanced at your work in the library. You work quickly and diligently. That seems to scream accomplished.”

“So your brother’s a magizoologist?” you asked quickly, trying to change the topic off you. 

He nodded, but didn’t say anything more. He continued to look at your face. You nervously looked around, being reminded that you were at a party. No one was looking at you. Everyone seemed totally consumed in their own lives, dancing and drinking and enjoying the party. A thumb stroking your cheek brought your attention back to Elias. 

“So being a hero and master duelist doesn’t make you accomplished. Tell me about you and your family. There must be more to you than extreme humility.”

You blushed again. “Don’t have much for family.” Well, not since you erased your parents’ memory of you. “Taking Beasts and Divination as my electives. Although, I’m not entirely sure why I decided to carry on with Divination, not really my cup of tea. A bit unsure of what I want to do after Hogwarts, but I’m thinking research.”

“Very on brand for a Ravenclaw. Would it be something for the ministry?”

You shrugged. “More of a personal thing, I guess. I’d probably write essays for publication. Someone has to understand all this magic around us.”

Some Gryffindors walked towards your couch and tried to sit down. It was tight with four students across. You had hoped they would get uncomfortable and leave quickly, but they didn’t. 

“Let me,” Elias said, grabbing under your legs to turn you sideways and then pulling you into his lap.

“Oh!” you gasped in surprise, throwing an arm around his neck to balance yourself.

Your knees were now resting on the armrest, feet dangling. Your face turned bright red.

“Too much?” he asked as if suddenly realizing how intimate this position was. 

“No,” you breathed. “Just took me by surprise.”

He snaked one arm around your waist to hold you steady, the other resting on your thighs. 

“You’re sure that this is okay? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

You nodded. “Elias, this is fine.” You leaned in closer to his ear. “Much better than being squished up against them.” 

Returning to your original position, you spotted Poppy walking through the entry to the secondary room that you were in. She was walking with Lenora, who pointed at you on Elias’s lap. Poppy’s eyes went wide and then they exchanged giggles before turning around. You sighed and rested your head on Elias’s shoulder. 

“What are you doing after Hogwarts?” you asked. 

“I have an apprenticeship set up in Diagon Alley for a potioneer. I figured it’s something solid to work on while I see if I can actually make anything out of Alchemy.”

“I’ve never been to Diagon Alley. Is it nice?”

He gaped at you momentarily. “What do you mean you’ve never been?”

“Fig took care of getting my school supplies and I stayed in the highlands over the summer so I just placed my orders from Hogsmeade. It’s in London, right?”

“Yes. Merlin, Y/N, you have to go!”

“I just need a reason too,” you said with a giggle. 

Elias removed his hand from your thigh and traced his thumb under your jawline. 

“I think that can be arranged.”

He leaned in and kissed you. It was gentle and soft at first, but when you didn’t pull away, he deepened the kiss. His grip on your waist tightened, pulling you closer to his chest. You kept one arm around his neck and placed your other hand on his chest. 

You felt brutally reminded that you hadn’t kissed anyone in years, and even then, you had never properly made out with anyone. You almost gasped when his tongue touched your lips. Having parted your lips in surprise, his tongue slid into your mouth and started to explore. Your own wrestled with it for dominance. 

It didn’t take long for you to adjust your position so that you were straddling Elias on the couch. You had one hand behind his head tangled in his hair with the other arm still wrapped around his neck. He had one hand firmly placed on your waist and the other up your shirt, groping your chest. You didn’t mind it. 

It wasn’t until a Prefect broke you up did you realize how long you had been snogging in a public place. 

“Alright, that’s enough. There are still first years out here,” he said, a hand on each’s shoulder. 

You both blushed deeply. 

“Maybe they should go to bed then,” Elias suggested, not looking away from you. 

You, however, were looking at the Prefect. 

“What time is it?”

“Almost curfew,” he answered. “So decide if you’re staying or not.”

You turned an even darker shade of red. You removed yourself from Elias’s lap. 

“I’ll see you around, Cotton,” you said flirtatiously, giving him a wink. 

Then you left the Hufflepuff Common Room. You took your time as you walked to Ravenclaw Tower. There weren’t many Prefects out yet and you could always use a disillusionment charm if you needed. You liked being out and about in the castle after curfew; it was always much more peaceful and you thought the moonlight gave it an eerie beauty. This meant that it was well past curfew when you entered her own common room. 

You immediately saw Samantha asleep on the ground by the fire. You crouched by her to wake her up. 

“Sammy Dale, wakey wakey!”

She slowly opened her eyes. 

“Y/N? You’re back!”

You nodded. “Yes and it’s time for bed.”

“I’ll go to bed after you tell me about the fight and the party!”

“Should we go wake up Connie so I don’t have to tell the story twice?” 

“Hmmm… no. Tell me now!”

“Can we at least go to the couch? You were sleeping on the floor.”

Samantha nodded and you got settled on the couch. You recounted the fight and breaking it up, although you left out Elias’s comment about you maybe dating Sebastian. You did explain how you put Sebastian in his place and told him he was relieved of his “guard dog” duties. Samantha’s eyes watched you intently. 

“I saw you ate with Poppy and the guy Sebastian fought.”

“Elias Cotton, yeah.”

She hummed before saying, “And then you went straight to the Hufflepuff party?”

“Yeah. It was crazy. First off, getting to see another house’s common room? So cool. But also, the party was basically in full swing by the time we got there! You walk in, you’re handed a drink and then you’re basically shoved into the wall unless you’re pushing back.”

“So, how was your first Hogwarts party?”

“I’d say pretty fun. Looking forward to going to others. Drink and dancing, what could be better?” You were purposefully leaving out everything that happened with Elias. You didn’t feel you needed to tell anyone since you didn’t expect it to develop into anything. 

Samantha seemed content enough with your answer and yawned. You helped her up to their dorm, where Constance was happily snoring away. Once you tucked your friend in, you grabbed a simple Sleeping Draught. You figured that day had been good enough to guarantee you good dreams. 

You didn’t expect to wake up to both Constance and Samantha standing at the side of your bed, shaking you.

“You left out some very interesting details from your story, Y/N!” Samantha exclaimed.

You sat up, looking a little confused.

“She filled me in at breakfast and then we hear from the Hufflepuff table that you were snogging Elias Cotton all night?” Constance said. 

“You just said dancing and drinking!” 

“It didn’t seem relevant? It’s not like it’s going anywhere,” you muttered, still trying to wake up. 

“Based on what we heard, it’s about all you did? Did you even dance?” Samantha asked.

“No… But we were surrounded by dancing. So close enough?”

“No! Not close enough! Plus, now you have to deal with Andrew,” Constance told you.

“Why do I have to deal with Andrew?”

“Boy has been pining after you basically since you were sorted into Ravenclaw. We finally convince him to just ask you out and you say no, only to be snogging someone else the next weekend? He’s a bit upset, Y/N,” Constance explained. 

“It was just kissing. It didn’t mean anything!”

“Cotton seemed fairly happy about it at breakfast,” Samantha chirped.

“Great. Good for him. Where is Andrew?”

“Common room.”

“I’ll get dressed and sort stuff out.”

Once dressed, you descended the stairs to find Andrew. Your friends followed close behind, not wanting to miss out on what was most likely going to be very entertaining for them. Andrew was sitting at a table with Everett, playing wizards’ chess. 

“Andrew, I hear we need to talk,” you said as you approached the table.

“You can say that,” he grumbled, not looking up from the game.

“Andrew,” you said, trying to get him to look at you.

“So when I asked you to the quidditch game and you said you weren’t ready to date, you really meant that you didn’t want to date me? You could’ve just said no!” 

“I’m not ready to date. I’m not dating anyone!”

“I heard you two were pretty cozy at the Hufflepuff party,” he sneered. “He’s surely not trying to hide it.”

“Yes, we made out. A proper snog. It’s called a party. Sorry I had fun!” Your voice was rising and beginning to carry. 

“A proper snog?” Andrew gasped. 

“Yes,” you said indignantly. “And that’s all it was and will be. Because I am not ready to date anyone. I don’t care what you hear from anyone else. I am not dating anyone.”

Their small argument had drawn attention from other Ravenclaws in the common room. You hoped that this could help cancel out whatever rumors were already spreading about you and Elias. You weren't a fan that he was leaning into them, especially since you didn’t spend the night with him. If you had, that would have been another story. 

---

You had spent the rest of the weekend doing homework and informing anyone who came up to you that you wasn’t dating the Hufflepuff. It was certainly more people than you would’ve liked. By the time Beasts class rolled around, you were hoping to get Poppy to spread the word around the Hufflepuff Common Room that you were not dating Elias. 

“Yeah, I’ll spread it around. I can even tell Elias to shut up, assuming you’re avoiding being seen with him for the time being. Although, I must say, so much for taking another dragon over spending time with a boy,” she teased with a grin.

“Oh shut up! But, thank you for helping squash these rumors. I figured I should avoid him since that would only add to the rumors,” you said with a laugh. Professor Howin was still talking with a student from an earlier class.

“I’ve been thinking about something though. Was Sebastian around when Andrew asked you out in Hogsmeade?”

“Actually, yes. Andrew asked and then Sebastian comes barreling through, knocking Andrew to the ground.” 

“Huh. That only helps my theory.”

You gave her a look. “And that theory is?”

“I don’t think Sebastian likes seeing you with other guys, especially not in a romantic setting. It would explain the bludger.”

You gave her a confused look as you played with the Golden Snidget chick on your desk, still waiting for the professor to start the class. 

“Sebastian pushes down Andrew in Hogsmeade when he hears him ask you. He sees Elias standing too close for his comfort during the game? Launches a bludger to force you two apart. I guess Elias must’ve said something while walking to the Great Hall when Sebastian attacked him… I didn’t peg him for a muggle fighter though.” She paused. “Anyways, sounds like Sebastian is jealous or overly protective. Maybe both.”

You rolled your eyes. “Idiotic is what he is. He has nothing to be jealous of since I’m not going to date anyone. And, please, like I need protecting. He’s seen me fight more trolls and ashwinders last year…”

“I know. But just think about it. Have you seen the way he looks at you? Last year, the way you two flirted and were always together?”

“Poppy, what are you implying?”

“You know fully well what I’m implying.”

You groaned. 

“You don’t know him like I do,” you said. “There is no way that Sebastian likes me like that.”

And then Professor Howin cleared her throat, apologized for starting class late and began that day’s lecture on Golden Snidget chicks. 

---

You learned from a Ravenclaw quidditch player that Slytherin had the pitch booked for practice on Wednesday. You were determined to talk to Ominis about what Poppy had suggested in Beast class. If anyone knew, it would be him and you were desperate enough to swallow your pride. You had taken claim to a spot on the Central Hall fountain outside the library. You waited and watched. 

You saw him approach the library.

Standing up, you called out “Ominis!”

He visibly tensed and stopped walking. He turned in the direction of your voice. You were already walking toward him, which he knew because of his outstretched wand.

“Do I need to run or cast Protego?” he asked nervously.

“Neither,” you said shortly. “I have a few questions.”

His body eased slightly. “Okay…”

“Do you know why Sallow is attacking every boy who asks me out?”

“Is it… not obvious?”

“Ominis,” you warned. 

“You can say we are not your guard dogs anymore but I do not think Sebastian possesses the ability to just let you go.” 

Your eyes narrowed, searching his face for something more than what he was saying. “I’m not sure I’m understanding what you are saying.”

“Let’s sit, shall we?” he offered with a sigh. “Let me tell you about the summer.”

You walked to an alcove up the stairs where no one else was sitting. Ominis sat with his back all the way against the wall, giving him impossibly perfect posture. You, however, sat cross legged on the bench, turned towards Ominis with your elbows resting on your knees.

“So this summer?”

“Utterly horrible without you. Even worse with Sebastian spending almost every moment sulking. I am honestly not sure if he would have done anything at all without me there. Like not eating, bathing, maintaining the house.” He paused. “And he has become increasingly insufferable this term.”

“Okay…”

“Listen, Y/N, he regretted what he said from the moment he said it. I hate to have to define it, but we were both aghast to hear what you had planned. He just chose the absolute worst words to use.”

You didn’t say anything.

“Did you… did you do it?” he asked softly.

“Yes.”

“Where did you end up spending your summer?”

“Traveling. Never in one spot too long.”

He nodded. “I wish you could have seen the number of half-written letters that littered the floor in Feldcroft. I think he tried to send one or two, but the owl came back with the letter.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I wasn’t reachable by owl for anyone. Constance and Samantha gave me an earful about that. Oops,” you said, not sounding remorseful. “But you mean to say that he would’ve died without you this summer?”

“Essentially. It was like after Anne was first cursed again.”

You laughed dryly, causing Ominis to grimace slightly. “Except he caused this.”

His lips formed a thin line. “He did.”

There was silence for a moment.

“He has a tendency to push away people who care about him, doesn’t he?” you asked softly.

“I suppose you could say that.”

“Solomon, before the Catacombs, obviously cared for the twins. Sure, he only gave them tough love, but I think that’s just who he was. Anne saw what Sebastian did, even if he was just trying to heal her. I’m surprised that you’re still at his side, given everything he’s done. Even if some of it has been with my encouragement. The Scriptorium… And then what he called me. When I’ve been at his side since I met him. I wanted to ensure that I could stay by his side and then he calls me… that,” you said, scoffing at the end. 

“He might regret losing you the most,” Ominis said, his voice tender. 

“And he shows it by attacking every boy who asks me out?”

“He’s rash.”

You laughed heartily. 

“These are not his words, but they seem to have the right feel to them. Sebastian thinks of you as his and anyone threatening that is, well, a threat. So he takes care of the threat.”

You blinked at him. “That I’m his? Merlin, is he really telling people that we are dating?”

“I do not think he has gone that far,” he said, biting his bottom lip nervously. “At least verbally. It is sort of implied?”

You groaned loudly. “Well, if it didn’t get into his head after he fought Elias, you can remind him that we are not dating.”

You stood up and left Ominis sitting on the bench alone. You marched all the way back to Ravenclaw Tower and up to your dorm. You had never been more glad that it was empty. You did not have it in you to talk to Constance and Samantha, nor anyone else. Feeling more irritated than you had before talking to Ominis, you tried to focus all of her energy into finishing your homework. Once you had finished, you decided to skip dinner. You downed both a Sleeping Draught and Dreamless Sleep Potion. 

---

As the rest of the week passed, you were still adamantly denying the dating Elias rumors. You had managed to avoid him since the party, not even seeing him at meals in the Great Hall, but that might have had more to do with you not actively looking for him. Perhaps Poppy had given him an earful and he was avoiding you as well. At some point, you overheard someone say that he was in the Hospital Wing, suffering from a nasty combination of hexes. You just sighed and continued on your way to class. You figured that not visiting would enforce the notion that it had just been a snog and that you were nothing more. 

The Potions classroom was a mixture of emotions when you walked through the doors. The female portion seemed to be buzzing with excitement while the males were more disinterested. You looked at the board where Professor Sharp had scrawled “Amortentia.” You took your seat next to Garreth.

“What’s the deal with Amortentia?” you asked, leaning over to him. 

“Only the most powerful love potion,” he answered. “That’s why,” he gestured to the giggling girls, “they are all so excited.”

“Huh… Doesn’t seem like something they should teach us how to brew?”

“Oh, I’m not,” Professor Sharp said, standing near your station. “I’ll be teaching how to recognize the potion, its effects and its antidote. Those are far more useful.”

Professor Sharp brought the rest of the class’s attention to him and he began the lesson. The first half was extremely detailed. Every characteristic of the potion. Its effects on the drinker. You were intrigued by it; you would never brew it but magic this powerful always drew your attention. You felt that the inventor had been trying to make an actual love potion, rather than the obsession potion it really was. 

Professor Sharp paused his lecture to show them a small cauldron of Amortentia. He lifted the lid so they could see its mother-of-pearl sheen and perfect spirals of steam. Then, he invited each student to smell it so they would know what it smelled like to them. Some students were eager to share what they smelled while others were more sheepish. Garreth turned nearly the same shade of his hair, which you momentarily teased him about. But then it was your turn to smell the potion, which would smell like whatever attracted you the most.

After barely taking one whiff of the Amortentia potion, you tumbled backwards into a potion station. You felt as if you were going to faint. 

“Professor, may I be excused?”

Professor Sharp looked you over briefly. “Very well.”

You left your stuff behind as you bolted out the door. Sebastian watched you leave before raising his hand. 

“Professor, may I be excused as well?”

“Mr. Sallow, are you going to chase after Ms. L/N?”

Sebastian didn’t know what answer the professor wanted to hear so he settled on saying nothing. Apparently his facial expression betrayed him. 

“Ms. L/N is a remarkable young witch, fully capable of handling herself,” Professor Sharp told him. “You can speak with her if she returns or after class. In other words, no, you may not be excused.”

“But sir!” he protested. 

“Mr. Sallow, no.”

Sebastian slumped in his seat. He needed to check on you. His thoughts were spinning with ideas of what you could have possibly smelled in the potion that made you go so pale and need to leave the classroom to be able to compose yourself. 

You kept running. You hadn’t been expecting the potion to be that potent and it felt like you couldn’t breathe. You pushed through doors and ran up stairs, not paying attention to where you were going. Until you stopped and realized you found yourself outside the entrance to the Undercroft. Having left both Ominis and Sebastian in the Potions classroom, you took a breath and entered. It would be empty. 

The cold air that greeted you was a friendly welcome. It was almost exactly as you had last seen it. The shattered boxes and destroyed books from your fight with Sebastian were gone. The floor and pillars had more scorch marks than you remembered, but given Sebastian’s love for Confringo, it made sense. You walked over to a couch that you had conjured in the spring. You could still hear the boys complaining about your choice to conjure a worn-looking couch, but you stood by your defense that it matched the general feeling for the Undercroft. There were two cushy armchairs across from the couch and new bookshelves along the walls, holding books and small trinkets. 

Sinking into the cushy cushions, you sighed and put your head in your hands. Your brain felt foggy from the effects of smelling the Amortentia. You thought you were just supposed to smell what attracted you. You had expected fresh cookies and a woodfire, with a hint of lemon. With one small breath in, visions of your adventures with Sebastian from the previous year flashed in your mind. Each memory had its own scent that took over. The intensity of it almost made you black out. You didn’t understand why you had been so affected. Every other student was able to still function after they smelled the potion.

You also had to figure out why it showed you the memories with Sebastian. You had acknowledged ages ago that you had a crush on him from the day she met him. Time for a proper Hogwarts welcome, he had told you before you easily won your first duel against him. You adored how he cared for his sister and his determination to find a cure, willing to do whatever it took to a fault. You remembered feeling so completely utterly hurt when he called you ignorant for trusting Lodgok. But he had held you so tight after Professor Fig’s death… 

You shook your head, trying to get anything sappy out of your brain. You had to remember your fight after receiving your O.W.L. results. It had been at that moment you swore that you were over him. You thought after a summer of not thinking about him, you would be over him. According to the Amortentia, that was far from true. 

***

The three of you had gathered in the Undercroft to open your O.W.L. results together. After studying for hours together, it only felt right. A quick glance at the collections of O’s and E’s and singular A told you that you all passed. You had all gotten the grades you wanted and would be able to continue in your desired subjects. You took great pride in being the only one from the trio to get an O in Potions. 

Being that it was your second to last day of the semester, you wanted to spend all day together. You planned on seeing each other during the summer, but spending time in the Undercroft in your uniforms was just different. 

“Are you still planning on bachelor padding this summer?” you asked as you lounged on the couch.

“Bachelor padding?” Ominis asked slowly.

“She’s asking if you’ll be staying in Feldcroft, Ominis,” Sebastian clarified for you. “And yes, he is.”

“Ah. Well, I do have to go home to Gaunt Manor for a week, but that is only a quick mandatory visit.” 

“You never talk about your summer plans,” Sebastian observed, looking over at you. “I mean, you said you’d come visit us, but never what you’re doing or where you’ll be the rest of it.”

“I have a few options. Haven’t decided on anything yet.”

You didn’t elaborate. Your plan was to visit your parents briefly, but not out of obligation like Ominis. You were planning on using Obliviate on them, a spell you had read about, to erase yourself from their memory. If you didn’t, they would be more than concerned about your inability to sleep without potions and then they would pry until you told them of all the events of the past year. If they knew everything, they would never let you go back and you decided that you couldn’t risk that. After wiping their memory, your plan was to wing it. You had briefly discussed renting a room from Sirona for the summer, an expensive option that would keep you local to Hogwarts. If you decided to go that route, you would’ve seen if Mr. Pippin needed an assistant or maybe the Magic Neep or Dogwood and Deathcap needed help. A part of you was still debating asking the boys if they minded you joining in. Sebastian’s uncle’s house wasn’t the biggest, but you assumed the three of you would make do. And then there was your last option: to rough it around the highlands. 

“Are you going to your parents? You’re muggleborn, right?” Ominis asked.

“Yes, and yes. I don’t think I’ll be staying with them all summer.”

It wasn’t a lie but it sure did feel like one. 

“So where will you be staying?” Sebastian asked, narrowing his eyes.

“I just said I haven’t decided on anything yet,” you repeated yourself. 

“Okay, then why aren’t you spending the summer at your parents? What are your options?” Sebastian asked intently.

“Might get a room at the Three Broomsticks. Might travel…”

Ominis tilted his head to the side. “You didn’t answer the first question. I won’t be at my parents’ because I have a disdain for them. Sebastian, sorry mate, but he doesn’t have any parents, but at least we will be at his uncle’s place.”

You looked down at your hands and picked at your fingernails. 

“I’m afraid… they won’t…” You paused, trying to find the right words. You cleared your throat before speaking again with an unsteady voice, “They won’t remember having a daughter in less than a week’s time.”

“Excuse me?” Ominis asked.

“What on earth do you mean?” followed Sebastian.

“I’m going to Obliviate them,” you said, your voice barely a whisper. 

They stared at you in complete shock. Sebastian looked at Ominis and then back at you.

“You’re going to do what?”

“Make them forget they ever had a daughter, let alone a witch,” you said, your voice slightly more confident. 

“And why the hell would you do that?” Sebastian asked, standing up.

You sighed and then explained your fear that they wouldn’t let you come back after everything and the nightmares.

“It’s just easier this way,” you said. 

“So let me get this straight, you have a loving family with both parents still alive. And you are going to choose to leave them? To have them forget about your existence?” Ominins asked in disbelief, shaking his head. 

“I know it sounds insensitive, especially given both of your circumstances, but…”

Sebastian cut you off. “No, you can’t do that. You have a good family! You can’t let that go to waste. You can’t.”

“They’ll cut me from…”

“No. We wouldn’t let them do that to you. And we won’t let you do that to them,” Sebastian continued. He started pacing around the Undercroft. “You have a family that loves you and is alive and cares for you and…”

It was your turn to cut him off. “And won’t let me leave the house, maybe not even my room, if they knew how many times I was inches from death. They would block anyone from reaching me. I can’t have that.”

“Y/N,” Ominis said with concern in his voice. 

“No. You two cannot convince me not to do this. I have to do this. I can’t lose magic.” Your voice, although sure of itself, was thick with emotion. 

“Y/N,” Ominis repeated with more conviction. “You control ancient magic. You literally cannot lose magic.” 

“They’d find a way.”

“You can’t push away your family. You can’t. You… you have…”

“I don’t have to do anything you say. I can’t lose this,” you said, gesturing to everything around you. Your voice was getting louder and determined. 

“You have a good family, Y/N,” Ominis said, maintaining his calm tone. “I do not think it is wise to…”

You cut him off too. “It’s my only option. You don’t understand!”

“You are experiencing what the family-less look like here and you want to join us… That’s so…” Sebastian was struggling to find words.

“I have felt more at home here than I ever did in the muggle world. That family doesn’t matter anymore. I’d rather be an orphan.”

Hearing you say that struck a nerve with Sebastian.

“You fatuous mudblood!” he yelled at you, regretting it the moment the words exited his mouth, but that didn’t stop the red sparks from appearing at the end of his wand.

The look on your face said it all. It brought you directly back to when he had called you ignorant.

“So that’s how you really feel,” you said, suddenly sounding calm, although tears were beginning to form in your eyes. 

You felt anger well up inside you. You launched Confringo at a crate in a corner, to prevent yourself from sending it at Sebastian. It felt good, a cathartic release. You sent a handful of spells towards other crates and a pile of books. Sebastian put a Protego shield around him and Ominis to protect them from your cascading spells. By the time the dust settled and smoke cleared, you were gone.

“Sebastian,” Ominis said slowly. “Please tell me you did not call her what I heard you call her.”

“I-I can’t.” He paused, taking a shaky breath. “I’m afraid I’m not myself right now. Excuse me.”

Sebastian walked out of the Undercroft. His face was stoney.

You had sprinted all the way to Ravenclaw Tower. You packed your things as quickly as you could. You still technically had one more night at Hogwarts, but you didn’t care. You were leaving as soon as you could. Samantha and Constance didn’t see you leave. You were gone before they returned to the common room and were left wondering where you disappeared to. It wouldn’t be until July that you showed your face in Hogsmeade, and by that time, your parents believed that they had never had a child.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Who Broke the Internet? Part II

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in PITTSBURGH on in THURSDAY (May 15) at WHITE WHALE BOOKS, and in PDX on Jun 20 at BARNES AND NOBLE with BUNNIE HUANG. More tour dates (London, Manchester) here.

"Understood: Who Broke the Internet?" is my new podcast for CBC about the enshittogenic policy decisions that gave rise to enshittification. Episode two just dropped: "ctrl-ctrl-ctrl":

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353-the-naked-emperor/episode/16145640-ctrl-ctrl-ctrl

The thesis of the show is straightforward: the internet wasn't killed by ideological failings like "greed," nor by economic concepts like "network effects," nor by some cyclic force of history that drives towards "re-intermediation." Rather, all of these things were able to conquer the open, wild, creative internet because of policies that meant that companies that yielded to greed were able to harness network effects in order to re-intermediate the internet.

My enshittification work starts with the symptoms of enshittification, the procession of pathological changes we can observe as platform users and sellers. Stage one: platforms are good to their end users while locking them in. Stage two: platforms worsen things for those captive users in order to tempt in business customers – who they also lock in. Stage three: platforms squeeze those locked-in business customers (publishers, advertisers, performers, workers, drivers, etc), and leave behind only the smallest atoms of value that are needed to keep users and customers stuck to the system. All the value except for this mingy residue is funneled to shareholders and executives, and the system becomes a pile of shit.

This pattern is immediately recognizable as the one we've all experienced and continue to experience, from eBay taking away your right to sue when you're ripped off:

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-user-agreement-may-2025-arbitration/

Or Duolingo replacing human language instructors with AI, even though by definition language learners are not capable of identifying and correcting errors in AI-generated language instruction (if you knew more about a language than the AI, you wouldn't need Duolingo):

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-ai-jobs-crisis-is-here-now

I could cite examples all day long, from companies as central as Amazon:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

To smarthome niche products like Sonos:

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/sonos-ceo-patrick-spence-steps-down-after-app-update-debacle-2025-01-13/

To professional tools like Photoshop:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/28/fade-to-black/#trust-the-process

To medical implants like artificial eyes:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/12/unsafe-at-any-speed/#this-is-literally-your-brain-on-capitalism

To the entire nursing profession:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/18/loose-flapping-ends/#luigi-has-a-point

To the cars on our streets:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

And the gig workers who drive them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

There is clearly an epidemic – a pandemic – of enshittification, and cataloging the symptoms is important to tracking the spread of the disease. But if we're going to do something to stem the tide, we need to identify the contagion. What caused enshittification to take root, what allows it to spread, and who was patient zero?

That's where "Understood: Who Broke the Internet?" comes in:

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353-the-naked-emperor

At root, "enshittification" is a story about constraints – not the bad things that platforms are doing now, but rather, the forces that stopped them from doing those things before. There are four of those constraints:

I. Competition: When we stopped enforcing antitrust law, we let companies buy their competitors ("It is better to buy than to compete" -M. Zuckerberg). That insulated companies from market-based punishments for enshittification, because a handful of large companies can enshittify in lockstep, matching each other antifeature for antifeature. You can't shop your way out of a monopoly.

II. Regulation: The collapse of tech into "five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four" (-T. Eastman) allowed the Big Tech cartel to collude to capture its regulators. Tech companies don't have to worry about governments stepping in to punish them for enshittificatory tactics, because the government is on Big Tech's side.

III. Labor: When tech workers were scarce and companies competed fiercely for their labor, they were able to resist demands to enshittify the products they created and cared about. But "I fight for the user," only works if you have power over your boss, and scarcity-derived power is brittle, crumbling as soon as labor supply catches up with demand (this is why tech bosses are so excited to repeat the story that AI can replace programmers – whether or not it's true, it is an effective way to gut scarcity-driven tech worker power). Without unions, tech worker power vanished.

IV. Interoperability: The same digital flexibility that lets tech companies pull the enshittifying bait-and-switch whereby prices, recommendations, and costs are constantly changing cuts both ways. Digital toolsmiths have always thwarted enshittification with ad- and tracker-blockers, alternative clients, scrapers, etc. In a world of infinitely flexible computers, every 10' high pile of shit summons a hacker with an 11' ladder.

This week's episode of "Who Broke the Internet?" focuses on those IP laws, specifically, the legislative history of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 law whose Section 1201 bans any kind of disenshittifying mods and hacks.

We open the episode with Dmitry Skylarov being arrested at Def Con in 2001, after he gave a presentation explaining how he defeated the DRM on Adobe ebooks, so that ebook owners could move their books between devices and open them with different readers. Skylarov was a young father of two, a computer scientist, who found himself in the FBI's clutches, facing a lengthy prison sentence for telling an American audience that Adobe's product was defective, and explaining how to exploit its defects to let them read their own books.

Skylarov was the first person charged with a felony under DMCA 1201, and while the fact of his arrest shocked technically minded people at the time, it was hardly a surprise to anyone familiar with DMCA 1201. This was a law acting exactly as intended.

DMCA 1201 has its origins in the mid-1990s, when Al Gore was put in charge of the National Information Infrastructure program to demilitarize the internet and open it for civilian use (AKA the "Information Superhighway"). Gore came into conflict with Bruce Lehman, Bill Clinton's IP Czar, who proposed a long list of far-ranging, highly restrictive rules for the new internet, including an "anticircumvention" rule that would ban tampering with digital locks.

This was a pretty obscure and technical debate, but some people immediately grasped its significance. Pam Samuelson, the eminent Berkeley copyright scholar, raised the alarm, rallying a diverse coalition against Lehman's proposal. They won – Gore rejected Lehman's ideas and sent him packing. But Lehman didn't give up easily – he flew straight to Geneva, where he arm-twisted the UN's World Property Organization into passing two "internet treaties" that were virtually identical to the proposals that Gore had rejected. Then, Lehman went back to the USA and insisted that Congress had to overrule Gore and live up to its international obligations by adopting his law. As Lehman said – on some archival tape we were lucky to recover – he did "an end-run around Congress."

Lehman had been warned, in eye-watering detail, about the way that his rule protecting digital locks would turn into a system of private laws. Once a device was computerized, all a manufacturer needed to do was wrap it in a digital lock, and in that instant, it would become a literal felony of use that digital device in ways the manufacturer didn't like. It didn't matter if you were legally entitled to do something, like taking your car to an independent mechanic, refilling your ink cartridge, blocking tracking on Instagram, or reading your Kindle books on a Kobo device. The fact that tampering with digital locks was a crime, combined with the fact that you had to get around a digital lock to do these things, made these things illegal.

Lehman knew that this would happen. The fact that his law led – in just a few short years – to a computer scientist being locked up by the FBI for disclosing defects in a widely used consumer product, was absolutely foreseeable at the time Lehman was doing his Geneva two-step and "doing an end-run around Congress."

The point is that there were always greedy bosses, and since the turn of the century, they'd had the ability to use digital tools to enshittify their services. What changed wasn't the greed – it was the law. When Bruce Lehman disarmed every computer user, he rendered us helpless against the predatory instincts of anyone with a digital product or service, at a moment when everything was being digitized.

This week's episode recovers some of the lost history, an act I find very liberating. It's easy to feel like you're a prisoner of destiny, whose life is being shaped by vast, impersonal forces. But the enshittificatory torments of the modern digital age are the result of specific choices, made by named people, in living memory. Knowing who did this to us, and what they did, is the first step to undoing it.

In next week's episode, we'll tell you about the economic theories that created the "five giant websites filled with screenshots of the other four." We'll tell you who foisted those policies on us, and show you the bright line from them to the dominance of companies like Amazon. And we'll set up the conclusion, where we'll tell you how we'll wipe out the legacies of these monsters of history and kill the enshitternet.

Get "Understood: Who Broke the Internet?" in whatever enshittified app you get your podcasts on (or on Antennapod, which is pretty great). Here's the RSS:

https://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/nakedemperor.xml

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

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/13/ctrl-ctrl-ctrl/#free-dmitry

[ifindus]

Would love to hear your thoughts about Norway during his peak in the Middle Ages - The old kingdom!

Thank you so much for all the top-tier historical asks you’ve filled my inbox with 🙏🥺💖 I very much appreciate it ✨

Norgesveldet, Norway at its largest and most powerful is such an interesting topic, and I’d like to take this opportunity to talk more about Norway’s character arch and his standing in Scandinavia during this time. And along this, @95jezzica’s hc that Norway is the oldest out of the Scandis, which I absolutely love.

During the 1200s Norway is at his peak. He is the largest he has ever been, ruling over land far away, a result of his exploration and craftiness at sea. He is involved with an extensive trading network, stretching from his settlements on Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, as well as large areas that today belongs to Sweden, with connections to Europe through the Hanseatic League as well as his neighbours. Many of Norway’s territories are inhabited by Norwegian settlers, who all pay taxes to the Norwegian crown, accumulating a fair amount of coin to be spent on buildings and other stately projects. He has the entire North Atlantic under his control. Norway is exporting iron, furs, fish, and fish oil to the rest of Europe. At this time, Norway is the largest nation in Europe measured by land.

At home, Norway has just finished his civil war in 1240, and with a new and stable system in place, he flourishes; the Sagas are written, churches are built, and cities are founded. A sort of government is formed, and a new law is made, establishing a more developed justice system and a more effective military system. Norway was the second kingdom in Europe to be gathered under a common law (after Castille) and establishes diplomatic connections to other countries. The administration of the Norway is solidified and he really takes his shape as a powerful and well-established nation.

Based on the actual year of founding, Norway is the oldest “nation” in Scandinavia, and I want to give Jezz credit here for influencing me towards this hc. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway have all been more or less equal throughout the Viking Age, with some periods where they were in alliances and had more complex relations. Norway was allowed to grow on the basis of Denmark being weaker etc. But we essentially have three nations who grew up together here, similar in age, development, and influence. And we see Norway really grow up through his civil war between 1130 and 1240, coming out stronger as a result. In the 1200s and 1300s he is a genuine powerful nation who has powerful connections and resources.

Then, we get The Plague, The Black Death. Norway is hit a lot harder than Denmark and Sweden. It is almost fatal to him and it nearly kills him, eventually merging his royal family into those of his neighbours, and we see Denmark especially take advantage of the situation to form the Kalmar Union.

And this all makes such an interesting character development for Norway. As a slightly older nation with a rich and proud history, being an equal or maybe even more powerful than his neighbours, at his definite peak, to take such a fall. To end up being stowed away, his existence merely symbolic at times, seeing his future as uncertain and under the total control of others. He falls. He is crippled. And he ends up being tossed around for nearly 500 years before he can finally stand up as an independent nation once more.

It really makes for such an interesting dynamic between the Scandis as well. Both Denmark and Sweden knows what Norway used to be, how powerful and proud he was, and they see what he has been reduced to after the Plague and during the union. Maybe they even start to forget who he used to be. Though sometimes, in certain situations when he is fired up, they can see remnants of the nation he once was.

They are definitely reminded of his past in 1814 and 1905.

[skzdust]

Cinderella in Mary Janes

This fic was written for the @mirohs-aurora-society secret Santa event! My secret Santa was @dinossaurz ! You requested fluff so I really hope you like this! It contains just a bit of angst/drama but it has a very happy ending :)

This is also the first fic I’ve made a playlist for so I hope you like that too!! It contains a healthy mix of emo music and romantic pop!

Side note: as I am an emo music enjoyer I included three references to emo bands/brands in this fic! If you’re familiar with the genre see if you can find them ;)

Enjoy!!

Summary: when emo Wooyoung sits next to you in class, it leads to an unexpected romance. But rumors fly, as they often do… (featuring a few skz boys as friends!)

Pairing: emo! Wooyoung x cutesy! Reader

Includes: college au, emo music/clothing references, cutesy reader, a little Cinderella reference bc that’s my fav movie, watching movies together, Chan, Minho, Hyunjin, and Felix as reader’s besties, rumors and reactions, coffee and study dates

Word count: 3.8k

Taglist (Comment on a post/send an ask if you'd like to be added): @weirdowithaphone , @caught-in-the-afterglow , @palindrome969 , @skzstan12345 , @katsukis1wife , @tsunderelino, @hyunjinsjeans , @somethingkindazainy , @silverstarburst , @atzlordz , @breadpuddingboys

Networks: @mirohs-aurora-society

Reblogs, likes, comments all appreciated!!

Masterlist

——-

You held back a sigh as you walked into the lecture hall. You did not want to take this biology class, but the requirement had to be fulfilled, especially since you were in your last year of school.

“I don’t get why a film major has to take a science class.” You grumbled to yourself, setting your white frilly bag on the desk in front of you and sitting down.

“I know.”

You jumped as you looked over your shoulder. A boy with long, dark hair was setting his messenger bag down beside you. He was dressed in a black T-shirt with the Your Organic Hatred band logo on it and light-wash jeans, and his jacket was covered in patches and pins. “Oh my God, you scared me.”

He smiled. “I have that effect on people sometimes.”

“I— you just startled me, that’s all.” You sat down, wondering why he’d chosen to sit next to you in the nearly empty lecture hall. You were dressed as opposite to him as you probably could’ve been: a blush-colored top with a white cardigan and a frilly pink miniskirt.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.” He sat down, too. “I just wanted to say I love your outfit.”

“Oh… thank you.” You looked down, turning the same color as your top. “I am not looking forward to this class.”

“Me neither.” He said as he pulled out his laptop. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation with yourself, but I’m a film major, too.”

You giggled. “That was a very private conversation, you had no right to listen.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, miss…” He trailed off, waiting for your name.

“Y/n.” You said, a little shyly.

“Miss y/n. I will be more considerate of your privacy going forward.”

“I appreciate that, Mister…” You raised your eyebrows.

“Wooyoung.” He grinned, and you noticed an eyebrow piercing. You swallowed. It was hot.

“Mister Wooyoung.” You tried to regain your composure. “So, you’re a film major, too? What’s your concentration?”

“Visual effects. How about you?”

“Screenwriting. I’m taking an editing class this semester though.”

Wooyoung perked up. “Which one?”

“Color correction.”

“440? With Dr. Dewey?”

“Yes!”

“We’re in it together, then.” Wooyoung smiled. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah!” You smiled back. “I hear Dewey can be tough, but he’s ultimately a good professor.”

“Yeah, I had him for editing techniques last semester.” Wooyoung nodded. “He definitely pushes you, but I learned a lot.”

“Well, now I know who to go to when I need help.” You leaned down to your bag to get your notebook out.

“I’d be more than willing to help.” Wooyoung said, and you were glad your face was away from him, because you were furiously blushing again.

You continued to talk with him about classes and professors and the film program until the Biology 110 professor walked in and started the class. Even then, you couldn’t get your mind off Wooyoung, doodling little flowers in the margins as the professor went on about course expectations. You were a good student, you’d read the syllabus already. You only paid attention when she mentioned a homework assignment due in a couple days. You groaned, homework during the first week of classes wasn’t unusual by any means but it was still annoying.

When the fifty minutes were up and the class was over, you packed up your things and stood up. “It was so nice to meet you, Wooyoung… could I get your number?”

Wooyoung’s grin was wide. “I’d love that.”

You handed him your phone with an empty contact open. He filled in his information and handed it back to you. He’d included his birthday, November 26.

You laughed. “Why’d you put your birthday in?”

He shrugged. “I always give people my birthday. I like getting happy birthday texts.”

That’s so cute, you thought, but you said, “Maybe I should start doing that, too.”

“You should. It says a lot about a person, who they send happy birthday texts to.” He nodded sagely.

“I’m sure it does.” You laughed.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow for color correction.” He grinned. “I’ll find you.”

“Sounds good.” You said, going red again.

He laughed and walked out. You finished zipping up your bag and left, off to your next class.

—

That evening, you were at your best friend’s apartment with a few of your other friends. Minho was cooking dinner, and the rest of you were crowded into the small living room.

“So, first day of classes.” Hyunjin said. “How’d it go?”

“Oh my God, I met the cutest guy.” You gushed. “In my biology class, of all places. He’s also a film major, maybe you know him… Wooyoung?”

“Wooyoung?” Felix’s eyes widened. “I just know he’s in a band that plays at Ross’s sometimes, he’s the drummer.”

“I’ve heard he’s a bit of a playboy.” Chan hummed. “Be cautious, y/n.”

“He seemed so sweet.” You mumbled.

“Campus rumors aren’t always true.” Felix put his arm around you. “And drummers are hot. You should go for it. Did he seem interested in you?”

“I mean, I got his number.”

“Text him! Oh my God, text him!” Felix bounced in place. “Ask him on a date!”

“That seems a little presumptuous.” You smiled at his excitement. “But I’ll see if he wants to hang out or something.”

You opened your phone and started a text to Wooyoung, grinning that he’d put a little smiley face emoticon next to his name: “Wooyoung :)”.

“Hey, Wooyoung, it’s y/n.” You mumbled aloud as you composed the text. “Do you want to work on the bio homework together tomorrow, maybe after color correction?”

“You’re in a second class together?” Felix smiled. “Oh, this is meant to be.”

You rolled your eyes and sent the text.

Hyunjin had started to tell you about his painting class when your phone buzzed. You picked it up immediately. “Wooyoung :)” had texted back.

“Hi y/n! I’d love to. I’m free after color correction so we can totally go to the student center or something!” You read, a smile spreading across your face.

“Victory!” Felix pumped his fist in the air. “Date scheduled!”

“It is not a date.” You laughed. “We’re just doing homework.”

“Maybe right now it is.” Hyunjin smiled. “But it could become something more.”

“Exactly!” Felix chimed in.

You looked at Hyunjin. “Oh, not you chiming in.”

He smiled innocently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, yes, you do.” You shook your head, smiling. “I’ll let you all know how my not-date goes, okay?”

—

When you had color correction the next day, you walked into the class looking for Wooyoung. He must not have arrived yet, though, so you sat by some girls you knew from a film class a couple semesters ago. You didn’t remember any of their names, so you hoped you wouldn’t need to address them.

“Hey!” One of them greeted you. “It’s been a while! How are you?”

“Good!” You said absently, still looking around for Wooyoung.

“Who are you looking for?” One of the others said, twisting around in her seat.

“Do you know Wooyoung?” You said quietly.

“Drummer for Ateez Wooyoung?” The first one said. “You’re looking for him?”

You smiled. “Yeah.”

“Careful with him.” One of them said. “He’s super cute, and he knows it.”

That made two people who’d warned you against him. You bit your lip. “He seems so nice, though.”

“He is nice!” The first one said. “That’s the issue. He’s so nice, and then suddenly he’s talking to some other girl, and doesn’t even worry about you anymore.”

“You’re talking from experience, Ella.” One of them nudged Ella’s shoulder, and she rolled her eyes.

You didn’t like these girls. You’d sat near them in your last class, but they’d always seemed a bit mean to you.

You stood up. “I think I’m gonna sit near the front so I can get the notes better.”

“Okay.” Ella nodded. “Cool.”

You gave her a tight-lipped smile and picked up your bag, moving to the front of the room.

As if on cue, Wooyoung walked in the door, waving at you and walking over to sit beside you. Today he was in a black hoodie with a red and black design on it from Open Destruction, and black jeans. A tiny calculator hung from his belt.

“What’s that for?” You nodded at it.

He grinned. “Math, of course.”

“Oh, of course. Just in case.”

“Just in case.” He agreed. “How are you today?”

“I’m good.” You said. “I’m kind of dreading the bio homework, but it has to happen.” You sighed dramatically.

“It does.”

Before you could respond, Dr. Dewey walked into the room. “Hello, everyone! My name is Dr. Dewey, and welcome to color corrections.”

—

After class, you and Wooyoung walked to the student center together. “So, what’s the homework?”

“I think we read the textbook chapter and do the online quiz.” You said. “It shouldn’t be too bad, but I haven’t taken a biology class in a very long time, so I thought having someone to work with would be good.”

“I’m not very good at bio, but maybe if we put our heads together we can come up with something that makes sense.” He smiled.

You got to the student center and set up. Wooyoung went to get a coffee from the coffee shop, and you pulled out your phone.

11:56am, September 4

You: Just got to the student center :)

Felix: OMG YAAAAY

You: Don’t celebrate just yet lol, we’re just hanging out

Hyunjin: Sure. Remember to use a condom, y/n.

You: STOP IT HYUNE

Wooyoung returned with two cups in hand, and you put your phone away. “I didn’t know your coffee order, but you seemed like a caramel latte girl.”

You smiled, taking it. “I am! I love caramel lattes. Thank you, Wooyoung, I really appreciate it.”

He sat down across from you. “Of course.”

You both opened your laptops, navigating to the course page. “Ugh, I’ve said this before, but I hate biology.”

“Me too, but it’s a necessary evil.” Wooyoung said. “Gotta get the science credit.”

“Yeah.” You opened the textbook and began to read the first chapter. It all made sense so far, except for some information about the chemical makeup of microbes.

“I can’t quite get this. Page thirty four.” You said to him.

“Oh. I think I got that.” He began to explain it to you. It was all clear when he said it, and it wasn’t just because he was incredibly attractive as he described it. You stopped him after a couple minutes.

“Okay, I get it now. Thanks! You know, you’re not bad at bio.”

“I guess.” Wooyoung shifted in his seat. “I just don’t like it, so I don’t think I’m great.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, you’re smart, Wooyoung.”

“Thanks.” He smiled at you. “Do you want to move on to the quiz?”

“Yeah.”

You did the quiz together, and both of you got a 90% on it. This was mostly due to Wooyoung’s biology smarts, but you helped on a lot of the questions, too.

“Perfect.” You smiled, closing your laptop. “This was great.”

“It was. You know… you should come to my place sometime. We can watch a movie or something.”

You were suddenly on high alert, the warnings from Chan and Ella echoing in your ears. “That sounds great!” You said anyway. You hadn’t known Wooyoung for long, but you liked him, and you didn’t want to keep your distance.

“I’ll text you.” He said, finishing packing his things.

You walked out together, separating as you walked one direction towards your apartment, and he walked the other. “I’ll see you later?”

“Yes, for sure.” Wooyoung winked. “See you!”

“Bye!” You waved, hoping he couldn’t see your blush at his wink.

—

On Friday, you smoothed out your short white skirt as you stood in front of Wooyoung’s door, taking a breath before knocking.

Someone who was very tall and very not Wooyoung answered the door. “Hello?” He said, smiling and tilting his head. “Um, can I help you?”

“I’m— Wooyoung invited me over.” You stammered.

“Oh!” He leaned inside. “Woo! Your date’s here!”

“Coming!” Wooyoung’s voice said, and the way he didn’t deny you were his date made you go red. He appeared behind the other boy a minute later. “Come on in, y/n!”

“Thanks.” You said softly, stepping inside.

The other boy closed the door behind you, and you followed Wooyoung up the stairs.

His bedroom had a lot of stuff in it, but it was neat. The walls were decorated with band posters, and a drum kit sat in the corner. Trinkets sat on every available surface, and a TV was on the wall.

He switched it on, hopping on the bed. You gingerly sat on the edge, looking at the TV.

“You can get comfy, if you want.” He smiled.

“Okay.” You smiled and took off your shoes, then sat next to Wooyoung on the bed. “Oh, your bed is so comfortable.”

“I know.” He laughed. “I don’t like waking up early.”

“I can see why.”

Wooyoung queued up a movie on the TV, a comedy you’d never seen but wanted to. “I really like this one, if you want to watch a comedy?”

“I’d love to.” You smiled.

He started the movie, and you reclined back onto the pillows beside him.

You didn’t touch, but it already felt intimate to be so close to him. The movie was good, and hearing him laugh so much was adorable. You chatted as you watched, too, talking about the jokes, the characters, other movies you liked, classes, and music. You barely noticed when the movie ended, you were so caught up in your conversation.

Eventually you lay down with him, looking into each others’s eyes as you continued to talk. You began to notice his eyes drifting to your lips, then snapping back to your eyes when you said something. It was clear what he was thinking about.

There was a pause in conversation, and you smiled, just looking at him.

“Can I kiss you?” Wooyoung asked softly.

The alarm bells rang, deafening.

Chan. I’ve heard he’s a bit of a playboy. Be cautious, y/n. Ella. He’s so nice, and then suddenly he’s talking to some other girl, and doesn’t even worry about you anymore.

I’m just another girl to him.

You got up quickly, tears gathering in your eyes.

“It’s okay if not, y/n, I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything.” Wooyoung said, a note of distress in his voice.

“Don’t play around with me, Wooyoung.” You said, your words wavering.

“What? I’m not playing around with— I’m sorry for asking so soon!”

“I’m not just another girl.” You got one shoe on fully and slid the other half-on, ready to get out of there as fast as you could. All he wanted from you was a kiss, or more, and then he’d be done with you. You’d thought you were moving towards something deeper with him, but you should’ve listened to the people you knew.

Sometimes, campus rumors were true.

You ran down the stairs, one of your Mary Janes sliding off on the stairs. You didn’t even worry about it, running out of the house and back to your car. You locked the doors and took a few deep, shuddering breaths, holding back your tears.

Wooyoung hadn’t followed you outside, and you were glad for it. You got yourself together as best you could and turned on your car. Instead of going home, you went to Chan’s apartment.

He answered the door. “Y/n? What happened, are you okay?”

“Wooyoung asked if he could kiss me.” You sobbed.

Chan just looked at you for a second. “Okay, come inside.”

You told Chan and Minho, who was over hanging out, about what had happened. “I was just another girl to him, he was just using me.”

They looked at each other for a long moment. “I’m sorry I told you that, y/n.” Chan said.

“Huh?” You looked at him.

“I heard that from a friend of Ella’s. It sounds like he really does like you. He got you coffee, he invited you over, and you talked for hours. That all sounds like someone who’s actually interested in you.”

“Really?” You hiccuped.

“Yes.” Chan nodded. “And as for Ella, well… she doesn’t sound like the most reliable source, if Wooyoung broke up with her.”

“Yeah, I don’t like her all that much.” You said with a rueful smile. “She talked about her exes all the time when I was in that other class with her.” You tried to remember if one of them had been named Wooyoung, but you couldn’t exactly recall.

“Sounds like someone might be a little bitter.” Minho noted. He looked down. “You’re missing a shoe.”

“Yeah, my Mary Jane fell off on Wooyoung’s stairs.” You held back another wave of tears.

“So, you have to see him to get it back.” Chan said quietly.

“I have to see him in a couple days for class, anyway.” You sighed. “Can I spend the night here? I don’t want to drive.”

“Of course. The couch is all yours.”

“Perfect, thank you, Chan.”

He rubbed your back. “Of course, y/n.”

Minho left a little later, and Chan got some blankets for you. You fell asleep fitfully, even on Chan’s famously comfortable couch.

You woke up the next morning disoriented. You felt like you hadn’t gotten any rest at all. Chan was already up, making eggs on the stove.

“Morning, sleepy. It’s 10.” Chan shoved the eggs around with a spatula. “I thought the smell of breakfast might wake you up.”

“It did.” You smiled. “Thank you for everything.”

“Of course.”

You looked at your phone.

One text from “Wooyoung :)”.

“Hey, I’m sorry about last night. I have your shoe, if you want to meet somewhere and I can give it back.” You read to Chan.

“He apologized.” Chan said. “I think that’s a good sign. If he was trying to use you I don’t know that he’d care enough to try to rebuild the relationship.”

“I guess.” You sighed. “I’ll get the shoe back and hear what he has to say.”

“I think that’s a good idea. But first, eggs.”

—

You gave Wooyoung Chan’s address. Chan had to leave to meet his sister for lunch, leaving you to meet him alone.

“Just give it a chance, okay?” Chan smiled at you, taking his keys off the hook by the door. “And if he’s a dick, we’ll all cut him off forever, okay?”

You smiled back. “Sounds good.”

Chan walked out, and you collapsed onto the couch, trying to prepare for what you’d say to Wooyoung, but all you could think about was yesterday on his bed, looking at each other and talking about anything and everything and smiling at each other.

You wanted to give him another chance, but you didn’t want to get played.

There was a knock at the door. You unlocked it with shaking hands.

Wooyoung was standing there with your pink Mary Jane in one hand and a bouquet of beautiful white and pink flowers in the other. “Hey, I got you these because I thought you’d like the colors, and, um, to apologize, I didn’t mean to freak you out moving so fast.” He said in a rush.

You felt yourself tearing up again, and you stepped aside to make space. “Come on in.”

“Is this your apartment?” He asked, looking around.

“No, it’s my friend Chan’s. I came here last night after, um… what happened, and I ended up sleeping on the couch, partially because I only had one shoe.”

“Well, I can help with that.” Wooyoung held it up.

You took the flowers from him, pushing your face into them and inhaling the beautiful scent. “Woo, these are beautiful.”

“I’m glad you like them.” His smile was tentative, like he was… nervous.

You set them on the counter and went to sit on the couch, holding out your leg.

Wooyoung slipped the shoe on, looking at you. You could see him biting the inside of his cheek.

“I’m sorry about yesterday.” You sighed. “I heard all these people telling me you were kinda a… a playboy, and I freaked out.”

Wooyoung closed his eyes. “Yeah, those rumors have been following me around since me and Ella broke up. She can be really nasty when she’s angry, which is part of why we… you know, broke up.”

You felt a flicker of hope. “So… you actually do like me?”

He laughed. “Of course I like you, y/n. I really did just want to kiss you.”

You patted the couch beside you. Wooyoung sat.

“Can I kiss you?” You asked.

His eyes widened. “Do you really want to?”

“Yes.” You said breathlessly.

He gently moved one hand up to your hair, combing through it with his fingers. “You’re so pretty, y/n. Yes, I’d love to kiss you.” And with that, he moved forward, closing the gap between you and pressing his lips to yours.

It wasn’t anything rough or demanding, rather, sweet and affectionate. Wooyoung was gentle and sweet and he tasted like mint, like he’d just brushed his teeth or had been chewing gum or something.

When you both pulled away, you bit your tingling lip. “You’re not mad?”

“No.” He shrugged. “You were just doing what you thought was best with the information you had. I don’t blame you for that.”

You smiled. “Can we go on another date then?”

He smiled back. “Of course. I know emo music isn’t entirely your style, but there’s this band I really like that’s coming into town in a couple days, and I have an extra ticket, if you’d like to come.”

Your eyes widened. “Actually, I really love emo music.”

“Really? You have about the most opposite style to emo I’ve ever seen.” He laughed.

“Hey, just because I don’t commit to the look doesn’t mean I can’t like the music!”

He raised his hands in surrender. “My bad, my bad! But, um, you want to do the concert, then?”

“Here, um, you’ve got…” You brushed a stray piece of hair away from his face. “I’d love to go to the show. What band?”

“Climb In, Girl. They’re one of my favorites.” You could see him light up as he mentioned them.

“That works out, I love them too!” You beamed.

“Perfect.” Wooyoung took your hand, squeezing it. “I’m so excited.”

“Me too.”

You just smiled at each other for a moment before Wooyoung leaned in to kiss you again.

[chaoticats3]

Just gonna record my reactions to network effect (from chpt 4 onwards) here, spoiler warning

Also this is probably gonna be pretty boring it's just me ranting and making theories as I read. No like, deep analysis or anything like that just my first reaction lol

ITS ART??!?? ART IS THE SHIP ATTACKING THEM?!?! WHAT THE FUCK AND ALSO YOOO ITS ARTI FUCKING LOVE ART BUT ALSO WHAT THE FUCK ART

I dont believe for a second art is evil btw. No way. Not my boy (gn).

What do you mean the ship feels hollow. What do you mean. What do you mean. Where is art? WHERE IS ART?!?

This is graycris isn't it. Has to be. Art has to be fine.

The weapon? OHHH they are here for murderbol.... Definitely graycris.

Wait no? What other weapon.... Maybe they are looking for murderbot but didn't realize the weapon they were looking for is murderbot? That my theory

Are they like. Aliens? Ik that doesn't make sense bc it's literally a sci-fi setting, but maybe they are aliens who have like, recently contacted other people? Outdated lech and odd appearance and talk like they are "other" to humans.

"ART was so much more than a bot pilot" sobbing

DELETED IT OH YOU BITCHES MURDERBOT KICK THEIR ASSES KILL THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM

I refuse to believe art is dead btw. It's just not. Nuh uh. No way.

Ok so the target control system is acting weird. I think art is alive and pretending to be their system after secretly taking it down. Don't know why it didn't just kill them tho...

OH SHIT IM SAYING THIS BEFORE THEY DO BUT THEY ARE NEAR A BLACK HOLE (or a wormhole, whatever) IS TIME DISTORTION GOING TO FUCK WITH THEM. CAUSE THE OTHER TWO PEOPLE AMENA IS WITH MENTIONED THEM BEING THERE LONGER THAN THEY HAVE BEEN. IS THIS GONNA BE THAT ONE FUCKING DOCTOR WHO EPISODE WITH BILLY.

ROSS WTF DUDE.

Oh it was an accident wasn't it. I thought it was and then amena jumped on him so I was like... Was it on purpose?

Oh was it on purpose? Is he going crazy?

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WHAT THE FUCK

IT IS BLACK HOLE BULLSHIT ISNT IT.

I'm so confused.

New theory, it's testing for a new device to control indentured slaves, still confused about what weapon the gray people were asking about.

Murderbot taking over the medical shit so if it goes south Amena won't feel like she has blood on her hands is going to make me cry hold on

"MY FRIEND IS DEAD" I'm actually crying. Like I never cry I'm actually crying. My eyes are wet. My throat hurts. This is not hyperbole

Alien remnants?!??? my alien theory is looking more likely.

HOLY SHIT THE REST OF THE PRESERVATION CREW IS STILL HERE SJNDKSKS MURDERBOT IS NOTTT HAPPY

I KNEW MY BOY ART WASNT DEAD

the password being murderbots feed address is going to make me cry omg art loves it so much

wait so art like, orcastrated, all this just to kidnap murderbot?!? What is going on?!?

ART IS BACKKK

Are the gray people like... People who were an abandoned colony who when through years of idk genetic mutation/ adaptation? Like when a species is split and evolves differently to adapt? Ik that doesn't happen quickly irl but...?

Ok so I think I'm right bc they think the targets were from the abandoned colonies too.

ART not wanting murderbot to act as a controlled security because it knows it dislikes the idea is making my emotional onggg

LMAO ART tattling on murderbot to the humans idndkanfhd

"Ive lost my crew, I don't want to lose you too" dying. On the ground. Dying.

HELL YEAH ITS CREW IS ALIVEEE

" Now here's the code to disable your governor modual" WHAT WHO WHO WAS THIS SENT TOO WAS IT A SECUNIT THAT THE TARGETS HAD?? WHAT??

"Your Peri's Secunit! SJJFKSKDBSJD I LOVE THESE TWO

I love Three and Murderbot 2.0 hell yes

OMG ART THREATENING TO FUCKING BOMB THE PLANET IM DYING LMAOO0

WHAT THE FUCK DID MURDERBOT JUST FIND. IS TARGET CONTROL SYSTEL A FUCKING DEAD HUMAN????

Art being embarrassed Abt how much it cares Abt murderbot and reluctantly telling murderbot Abt it's threat to blow up a fucking planet ainfjsjdksk

Murderbot realizing it's cared for and people put in the effort to go back for it is making me emotional dksdvgss

I love Mensa and Murderbot so much omg

Murderbot being a kind of reluctant big sibling to Three is so sweet. The found family is found familying.

ALSO the "I like being around Art"

AJFSKNDJSNDHRHEJ kicking my feet and giggling I love these two

Final thoughts:I loved it obviously. I loved seeing more of ART and Murderbot bantering. I loved seeing more Mensa and Murderbot. I loved Amenas dynamic. I loved it. I think this one and artificial condition are battling for number one in this series for me. That might just be because I love ART lol. This was a rollercoaster and I loved it. (Ik I'm repeating myself but like, what else can I say lol)

[imitationgame77]

Mensah's family (from books 1, 4, 5, 6)

It takes slow deciphering to work out Mensah's family.

Ratthi came over to see if I was all right, and I asked him to tell me about Preservation and how Mensah lived there. He said when she wasn’t doing admin work, she lived on a farm outside the capital city, with two marital partners, plus her sister and brother and their three marital partners, and a bunch of relatives and kids who Ratthi had lost count of.

[All Systems Red]

That was the first mention of her family. It went right over my head - except, wow, she's married, wow, two marrital partners, and BIG family!! So. There Mensah, brother, sister, mensah's 2 marital partners, siblings' 3 marital partners - EIGHT adults! (+ relatives)

Then I picked up Mensah arriving in the outer foyer with two humans and a small juvenile human, who looked like a miniature version of Mensah. I stood up and waited.

Faint steps on audio told me the small human had followed me out. She stepped up to the railing, frowning curiously at me. She said, “Hello.” “Hello,” I said. “I’m your mother’s pet security consultant.”

[Exit Strategy]

OK, so Mensah and spouses have at least one little daughter.

(Thiago is a marital partner of Dr. Mensah’s brother, which is why I gave a crap about his opinion.)

[Network Effect]

Thiago is one of the three marital partners of Mensah's siblings, and married to the brother. So, Mensah's sister could still have one or two marital partners.

In the pavilion, I located Mensah near the edge of the crowd talking to Thiago and Farai, who was one of her marital partners.

[Network Effect]

Now we know one of Mensah's marital partners is called Farai, and the subsequent paragraph refers to her as "she".

(That didn’t apply to the seven kids. I was illicitly tradingdownloads via the feed with three of them.)

[Network Effect]

Now we know there are seven kids in Mensah's family. It is possible that all of them are Mensah's, but it seems more likely that some of them belong to Mensah's siblings.

It was just me-the-SecUnit they didn’t like. (That didn’t apply to the seven kids. I was illicitly trading downloads via the feed with three of them.)

[Network Effect]

At least three of the seven kids are old enough to be downloading media.

The fifth incursion was the one that got me in trouble with Amena, Mensah’s oldest offspring.

(...)

You might think the obvious thing to do was to notify Mensah or Farai or Tano, the third marital partner. I didn’t.

[Network Effect]

Amena is Mensah's oldest, and a teenage girl. She did not seem to know much about MB, so the ones swapping media did not include her. Oh, and Mensah's other marital partner is called Tano.

I said, “You need to sleep.” She (Amena) yawned. “Okay, third mom.”

[Network Effect]

Mensah is the second mon. Farai is a she, so probably she is a mom, too. If Amena is calling MB a third mom, Tano is not a mom. Could be dad, could be something else.

And Mensah had called her marital partners Farai and Tano on the planet, and said she thought the future of humanity was pretty dismal, and they should take all the kids, siblings, their kids, and assorted relatives and move to a shack in the terraforming sector on the unsettled continent and start working in soil reclamation, whatever that was.

[Fugitive Telemetry]

This takes place prior to Network Effect, chronologically speaking. Anyway, there could be more of them... assorted reratives??

CONCLUSION: Working out Mensah's family is like complicated detective work. Harder than trying to remember all the characters in Agatha Christie's mysteries with large cast!