#personally I think it should be allowed to work

[butilovemymirror]

Well, most of those things are meant to be taught in K-12 as well (if your state has a reasonably well funded public school system), but much like math or science; skills like art appreciation and critical thinking and teamwork build on themselves. Teamwork, for instance, started out with “sharing is caring” and “apologize when you hurt people” (and I work at a college, believe me when I tell you MANY freshman need a refresher in that), but by high school you should be able to balance conflicting ideas and goals in a group trying to complete and assignment.

In art appreciation, we start by teaching about making art for other people to appreciate. The macaroni necklaces and handmade birthday cards and what not show small children that they have the ability to create something that incites joy in other people, but by high school we want people to be able to point at a particular kind of art (theater, photography, music, etc. all count btw) and express what they like about it, some of its history, and how it reflects broader society, and ideally we want them to feel empowered to be an amateur at it. (Yes a significant part of art at the early level is also about motor skills development and keeping kids busy without making them be classroom learning at all times.)

Critical thinking in history is a real failing of the K-12 system. Most, if not all, K-12 history classes focus on memorization of dates, names, and locations. If a student takes an AP history class then you at least know they’ve been required to learn how to make connections and draw conclusions, but most students in AP classes take them to prepare for college (according to collegeboard, who facilitates the classes and testing). Honestly history classes are one of the things that need the most reform at the K-12 level, but with the current US Administration we’re going to have to wait quite a bit on that.

So now, your question is probably “if it’s taught in K-12, why do college students need it?” (I’m not going to talk about the history one since K-12 history is a cesspit the majority of the time and everyone in college admin knows it). Another name for postsecondary education is “continuing education.” If a person is in a robust school system (which is a big if), the average high school graduate should have sufficient skills at team work and art appreciation for their day to day life, the majority of jobs, and to facilitate their own mental health and stable family environment. (These are often some of the listed goals on public high schools charters if you look at them.)

So why do we include it in continuing education?

Again there are multiple reasons:

1. Standardized education is not actually standard, and in many places it’s poorly administered. On top of that, the presence of international students in many institutions means colleges like to touch on those standardized points to compensate for students who may not have received them in their K-12 experience. This is why most institutions allow you to test out of some, if not all, gen-ed courses, for instance by applying an AP test you passed in high school, or taking a placement test. Often, any non-departmental gen-eds can be achieved in the course of your degree (eg most degree tracks have sufficient writing intensive or research intensive classes to meet those requirements without having to take a different class.)

2. Colleges offer continuing education, which means continuing with those less tangible, or “soft” skills you started developing in your K-12 experience. Also, and this is purely from my observation, a great deal of the conflict in high schools group projects is conflicting IDEAS, where a great deal of conflict in college group projects is conflicting EXPERIENCES, which I’ve found to be more common in everyday life, but that mostly applies outside of your degree path. It’s a bit like the difference between being a software engineer in a meeting filled with software engineers vs being a software engineer in a meeting with Dana from marketing who wants you to make a TikTok. Sometimes you have a group mate with experiences and expertise so alien to you that their suggestions never would have occurred to you, and that’s an EXTREMELY valuable experience that, quite frankly, is one of the few class related things that doesn’t loose value if you don’t complete your degree.

As far as the attendance thing, I’m not sure what school you’re at or how they do gen eds, but typically there’s a catalog of classes that fulfill them. Like there are regular ones (you know, “American history” or “WW1 and 2”) that are taught every year or semester, but there are also “special offers” listed randomly (For example “Great shakers of the Harlem renaissance” or “decolonial perspective on colonization”) that are projected to have lower enrollment and have thus been opened up outside the degree path. I often find the “special offers” to be more interesting (both the ones I listed are actual classes that have been offered as gen eds). So the school isn’t requiring a specific class that they’re using you to fill seats in, but quite frankly they’re often more fun than the usual ones. Some schools might even require a placement test before allowing you to take those because they’re typically upper level classes.

One of the things you have to take into account is that many colleges are not only selling a degree, they’re selling an experience. Colleges are directly competing for students and while some have a reputation that speaks for them, many are attempting to draw students by offering the most comprehensive program with the most degree of freedom (or as I like to say, everyone wants to be a liberal arts school.) Community colleges often have programs where you don’t have to take gen eds, usually aimed at people who received a GED or are only taking classes for their interest rather than a degree, but most American colleges are compensating for a poor public education system, and that means gen-eds.

Also it sounds like you go somewhere that charges per class, which quite frankly is absurd to me. Where I work, there’s a flat rate tuition that covers up to 20 credits per semester, with an 11 credit minimum. Students aren’t paying extra for gen eds because there’s simply no way they’d be able to take that many classes in their major every semester, so they’re left with extra credits space to fill with things they find interesting after selecting the 2 or 3 that support their major or minor each semester.

[cipheress-to-k-pop]

walk him like a dog (s.o.b.)

Pairing: Sirius Orion Black x Reader

Word Count: 3.1k

Summary: Sirius Black has always been a dog—but the thing about dogs? They're loyal to only one person: Their owner

A/N: um this whole fic is just me calling sirius a dog so be prepared for that

credits to @cursed-carmine for the divider

The locker room buzzed with low voices and nervous energy. Players paced, adjusted gloves, tightened goggles, cracked knuckles. The scent of polish, sweat, and adrenaline filled the air. Green and silver glinted off every surface, and somewhere above, the distant roar of the crowd was beginning to rise.

You stood in front of your team, arms crossed over your chest, chin held high, calm as ever.

And when you spoke, the room snapped to attention.

"Alright. Listen up."

Voices cut off immediately. All eyes turned to you.

“You hit hard. You fly clean. No stunts unless I call them. You’ve worked your asses off for weeks—rain, snow, bruises, broken brooms—and today, it pays off.”

You paced slowly, gaze locking with your Beaters, your Chasers, your Keeper. One by one. Like loading a weapon.

“We’re going to show them—without a single inch of doubt—who’s taking the Quidditch Cup home this year.”

You let that hang, the tension curling in your teammates’ shoulders like springs wound tight.

Then your voice dropped, sharp and cutting:

"We're going to send those bleeding badgers crying back to their mummies."

That broke the tension. Laughter and jeers rippled through the room, players bumping shoulders, fists meeting palms with dull thuds of anticipation.

You smirked.

Held out your hand.

“Let’s turn those badgers black and blue.”

One by one, gloves slammed down over yours.

“Slytherin!”

You were carried into the infirmary without protest by Mulciber, allowing him to gently lower you onto the bed. Without saying much else, you interlaced your fingers neatly over your lap, settling in as you waited for Madam Pomfrey to arrive.

She seemed preoccupied with the other beds, where four more occupants were already receiving care.

“Nasty fall, (L/N)?” Potter’s voice broke through the quiet, a teasing edge to it, “Would hate for you to miss out on Quidditch for the rest of the season.”

You smirked, “You’d love that, wouldn’t you, Potter? But sadly, no—just caught a nasty Bludger to the side when I grabbed the Snitch. So, I guess you Lions have no choice but to lose to us eventually.”

Your eyes flicked past him to the bed beside where Remus Lupin lay, looking far worse off than the rest of the Marauders—pale and sweaty, with Madam Pomfrey fussing over him. Without realizing, your lips pouted, curiosity flickering as you wondered what had gone wrong to land all four of them in the hospital wing.

Before you could study his wounds more closely, your line of sight was blocked by another presence.

Black.

Compared to the others, he looked almost unharmed, hands on his hips as he stared down at you with a cocky smirk.

“You haven’t given me an ounce of your attention, princess,” He said, voice dripping with amusement, “Only bantering with my best mate and mooning at Moony. Should I be offended?”

“Wasn’t aware I owed you my attention, Black.”

His grin widened. Typical.

It wasn’t the first time your sharp tongue had reeled him in like this, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Sirius Black didn’t know how to leave well enough alone—and you had no intention of making it easy for him.

Merlin, he lived for it.

Before he could come up with something clever in return, Madam Pomfrey appeared at your side with a soft cluck of her tongue and a no-nonsense look in her eyes.

“Caught a Bludger, did you?” She muttered, her tone clipped as she summoned a vial and some bandages from a nearby shelf, “You lot play like it’s war.”

“I think anyone can admire the dedication to the game, Madam Pomfrey.” You replied mildly.

“Not when it might break your ribs, Miss (L/N).” She snapped.

Then, more gently, “Lift your shirt. Let’s see the damage.”

You didn’t hesitate—casually unbuttoning the lower half of your Quidditch jersey and lifting your shirt just enough to reveal the mottled bruise blooming along your side. It was ugly—deep and dark with angry purple edges, already beginning to swell.

His eyes darted instinctively toward the injury, then immediately away—head turning sharply to the side, jaw tight. His entire body went rigid, as if even the suggestion of your bare skin had turned his brain to static.

You smirked, voice syrup-sweet, “What’s the matter, Black? Shy?”

“I’m many things,” He muttered, ears tinged faintly red, “but I am trying to be respectful. For once.”

Your eyes flicked to him just once. He was still looking away—but his jaw was tight, his shoulders tense, and you could feel the heat of his focus even if it wasn’t on your bare skin anymore.

When Pomfrey finally stepped back, she wiped her hands briskly on her apron and nodded, “You’ll bruise badly, but the swelling will ease by morning. Try not to exacerbate it for the time being."

"Understood. Thank you." You replied, voice even.

You slid off the edge of the bed with fluid grace, smoothing your jersey back into place with a flick of your fingers.

You nodded once toward her retreating form in quiet thanks, then turned to go.

You were hardly surprised when Sirius followed you out.

After weeks of this little push and pull—this dangerous game you’d both been playing—you weren’t even remotely surprised that he’d finally snapped the leash you’d had so delicately wrapped around his neck.

So now, here you were. Back pressed to the cold, rough stone of a quiet Hogwarts corridor, Sirius’s arms caging you in like he was the predator in this scenario.

But the truth was clear.

You were the one in control.

You didn’t flinch. Didn’t gasp. You just blinked at him—slow, deliberate, almost lazy. And though your expression was frustratingly unreadable, there was something ghosting over your lips that drove him mad. A smirk that wasn’t a smirk. A glimmer of smugness that you refused to make obvious. It was maddening. Intoxicating.

Had it been anyone else he’d backed into a wall like this, they’d have giggled, blushed, reached up to tangle their fingers in his hair with wide eyes and parted lips.

But not you.

Your hands were tucked neatly behind your back like you were entertaining a child’s tantrum, waiting for him to exhaust himself. Always poised. Always untouchable. Always in control.

And God, it was driving him insane.

What he wouldn’t give to be caught in the eye of your storm—while the world bent and broke around you, you’d remain untouched, divine. He wanted to be yours. Completely. Worshipfully. Pathetically.

“What do you say we stop pussyfooting around and go on a date, (L/N)?” He asked, his voice low and rough with the effort it took to sound casual.

At that, you smiled—finally, a real smile, sly and slow like honey sliding down a knife.

“Sorry, Black,” You said, tone sweet as poison, “I don’t think I’d be interested.”

His brow twitched. “That’s not what you’ve been signalling these past few weeks.” He muttered, leaning in—just enough to try and catch your lips with his. Only to feel your finger press firmly to his mouth, stopping him dead.

He stared at you, lips brushing your fingertip, pupils blown. His breath caught, chest rising sharply. His eyes dropped to your mouth again and he clenched his jaw tight enough to ache—because if he didn’t, he might actually whine. Might beg.

“Why not?” He asked, voice hoarse and low, barely more than a whisper now.

You tilted your head, your smile that of a cat watching a bird flutter too close to the ground.

“I’m a very jealous woman, Sirius,” You said, voice light, playful—deadly, “And I have a reputation to uphold. Can’t have you embarrassing me with all your… side chicks.”

He swallowed hard. The words hit like a slap and a caress. His brain fogged. The rush of blood thundered in his ears, and the air between you crackled.

You pouted suddenly, lips pursed in a way that made his knees threaten to buckle. And then—casually, cruelly—you reached up and gave his cheek a light pat.

“Sorry, puppy.”

And with that, you slipped out from under his arm like water through fingers, walking away without looking back.

Sirius stood frozen, throat dry, staring as your hips swayed down the corridor.

Utterly wrecked.

Something changed after that night in the corridor.

Well—he did.

Not immediately, of course. First, he sulked. Dramatically. Unproductively. For a good day and a half.

He spent most of it brooding in the Gryffindor common room, staring into the fireplace like it had personally betrayed him, ignoring three different girls who tried to sidle up beside him and ask what was wrong. (The fourth didn’t bother asking—just sat herself on his lap. That earned her a single-word dismissal and a truly withering look.)

But after that?

He changed.

The flirting stopped. The lingering touches in alcoves, the smug little smirks in the corridors, the midnight broom closet rendezvous—all gone. He stopped accepting folded notes spritzed with cheap perfume and sealed with lipstick kisses. Stopped tossing winks like knuts. Stopped acting like every hallway was a catwalk and every girl in Hogwarts his audience.

The last girl he even entertained—a sweet, overeager Hufflepuff fifth-year who tried to earn his attention by helping him with Transfiguration homework—had burst into tears when someone joked that she must have “turned him gay.”

He just wasn’t interested anymore.

Because for once in his life, Sirius Black didn’t want meaningless sex.

He wanted you.

And the castle knew it.

Even though you hadn’t spared him so much as a glance since that night in the corridor. Even though you walked past him in the Great Hall like he was furniture.

Everyone still knew.

Which meant, of course, all eyes had turned to you.

Wondering when you’d notice.

Wondering when you’d give in.

Or whether, as Sirius feared most of all…

You never would.

You loved partying.

Loved the bass so loud it rattled your ribs, the way lights flickered like spells mid-duel, the sway of bodies pressed close on the dance floor. You loved shaking ass with your friends, loved the wild screams and clinks of raised glasses. Loved the moments where you stepped back, drink in hand, watching it all unfold—cataloguing the gossip in real time. Who was kissing who. Who shouldn't be. Who’d be crying in the bathroom by midnight.

But there was a distinct difference when the party was thrown in your honor.

The moment you stepped into the Slytherin common room, the room erupted. Cheers ricocheted off the walls, your little black dress catching the green and silver lights just right, and your open jersey—your surname stitched in bold—billowed like a cape.

You’d never been prouder of that name.

Not until Remus’s voice boomed over the speakers earlier that day, full of awe:

“(L/N) has made the miraculous catch of the Snitch—Slytherin wins!”

The memory played over and over in your head as your teammates lifted you onto their shoulders, parading you through the room like the queen you were. You laughed, kissed the golden Snitch in your hand, and smudged your lipstick across it with zero shame.

The party moved on around you, wild and electric, and you eventually found yourself perched on a velvet ottoman, nursing a drink and watching the chaos unfold with your usual sharpened gaze—until the Marauders appeared.

“Good game, (L/N),” James grinned, raising his cup, “That was some mighty flying. Looking forward to beating you in the finals.”

You scoffed, but smiled, “Thanks, Potter. Though I can’t see you being this cordial when Slytherin mops the floor with you.”

Then your gaze slid to Sirius, who hadn’t spoken yet.

“I’m surprised this is the first time you’ve come over tonight, Black,” You purred, circling your finger around the rim of your glass lazily.

He grinned, wolfish and easy, “Didn’t want to be just another forgettable face in a crowd of nobodies.”

You chuckled, “Sure you didn’t just forget about me? Busy fending off your admirers, I’m sure.”

He leaned in slightly, voice dropping to that gravelly register that drove you mad, “Sweetheart, everyone here knows there’s only one person I have eyes for.”

You were about to volley something back—something sharp and slick and just flirtatious enough to make him twitch—when the atmosphere cracked with a loud crash and an even louder voice.

“IT WAS A FLOP!”

Across the room, Ravenclaw’s captain, Muccullen—clearly drunk and still stinging from his loss today—was making an embarrassing scene.

“I would’ve caught that damn Snitch if the snakes didn’t play dirty!” He barked, sloshing firewhisky onto the carpet.

You barely blinked. Just raised a brow, unimpressed, letting his tantrum unfold like a child kicking their legs in a supermarket.

“(L/N) thinks she’s all that,” He continued, voice rising, “but that stupid bitch just got lucky!”

Now that made your brow twitch.

You weren’t planning to dignify it with a response. But then Sirius was suddenly in front of you, jaw tight, a quiet fury radiating off him like a pulse.

“Watch your mouth.”

Muccullen blinked slowly, swaying. “If it isn’t her mangy mutt,” He slurred, sneering, “You’re just as pathetic, Black. Chasing after her like a dog when she doesn’t even want you. Face it—the only reason she gets anywhere in life or on that bloody broom is ’cause that slag keeps guys like you wrapped around her finger.”

That much was true. Sirius was so tightly wrapped around your finger you could flick it and he’d bark.

Which is why Muccullen shouldn’t have been surprised when Sirius grabbed him by the collar.

You stepped forward then, calm and unbothered, resting a single hand on Sirius’s arm.

“Down, boy.”

His grip loosened—just barely. But it was enough.

You turned your gaze on Muccullen, voice cool and dangerous.

“You really know how to ruin a party, don’t you, Muccullen?” You said smoothly, “I won today because I was faster. Simple as that. You don’t want to get pummeled by Bludgers while chasing the Snitch? That’s a conversation to have with your Beaters. Go sober up. Losing on the Quidditch pitch is one thing. This? This is just pathetic.”

Sirius shoved him back as he let go, and Muccullen stumbled off with the grace of a wounded troll.

You exhaled, turning to Sirius.

And yeah… he looked hot.

Leather jacket clinging to broad shoulders. Hair a bit mussed. Breathing heavy like he wanted someone to give him an excuse to finish the fight. All for you.

He looked good defending your honor. Too good.

You sipped your drink with finality, “Well. On that note, I’m gonna turn in for the night.”

Sirius visibly deflated, like a puppy who’d been told no to a treat.

“Yeah, my roommates are gonna be partying all night,” You added, giving a theatrical sigh, “Figured I might enjoy the empty dorm for once.”

You nodded to Remus and James—who were both looking equally exhausted and wildly entertained—and started walking toward the staircase.

But you didn’t make it far before glancing over your shoulder.

Sure enough, Sirius was already staring.

You smirked. Winked. And then you lifted your hand, curled a single finger.

Come.

His face lit up. Like Christmas and fireworks and every wish he’d never said out loud just came true.

Behind him, James cackled. Remus shook his head, amused.

“Go on, lover boy!” James shouted, slapping him on the back.

And Sirius? He sprinted.

By the time he caught up, you were outside your dorm, and his arms were already curling around your waist as you let out a soft giggle.

He buried his face in your neck, breath hot, lips brushing your skin.

“You better take me out on a date tomorrow.” You murmured.

He smiled against your throat, “Anywhere. Anytime. Just say the word.”

Bonus:

If anyone had ever been afraid of the Marauders—afraid of Sirius Black, the uncollared dog of Gryffindor House, heir to the House of Black, all sharp teeth and dangerous smirks—all they had to do was witness how he behaved with his girlfriend.

The only girl who’d ever managed to train him.

It was almost comical, the way Sirius’s entire face lit up the second he spotted you in the Gryffindor common room. His smirk melted into a wide, boyish grin, wild grey eyes softening like morning light breaking through fog.

“Baby!” He practically shouted, immediately abandoning James mid-sentence and sprinting across the room like a man possessed.

Without hesitation, he dropped to his knees before your armchair, wrapping his arms around your waist and burying his head in your lap like it was the safest place in the world.

You giggled—an uncharacteristic sound, at least to everyone else. But for Sirius, it was as familiar as his own heartbeat. You ran your fingers through his thick dark hair, nails scratching gently along his scalp, and Sirius all but purred, sighing into the space between your thighs like the tension had been holding him hostage all day.

“What are you doing here?” He mumbled, voice muffled against your legs.

“Class ended early,” You replied smoothly, a smile tugging at your lips, “and I wanted to see my favourite boy.”

Sirius groaned dramatically, turning his head to press soft, reverent kisses to the inside of your wrist, right against your fluttering pulse. Like he was grounding himself with the feel of your blood beneath his lips.

Across from you, James flopped onto the couch with a snort, “Merlin, (L/N), you’ve got him trained better than a show dog.”

You didn’t even look up from Sirius as you smiled, sharp and slow.

“Oh, she knows.” Remus added from his spot by the fireplace, flipping a page in his book with a smirk.

Sirius hummed, clinging tighter to your waist like he couldn’t stand to be even a millimeter away.

You leaned back in the armchair, letting him sprawl across your lap like a pampered prince, fingers carding through his hair as if you had all the time in the world.

“You’re clingy today.” You murmured, not unkindly.

“Missed you.” Sirius said simply, lifting his head just enough to look at you—like you hung the bloody moon.

You raised an eyebrow, tapping your nails against his jaw, “Did something happen?”

He pulled one of your hands to his mouth again, pressing a kiss to each knuckle like it was sacred ritual, “Nah. Just tired of pretending not to be obsessed with you.”

“Well, you’re doing a shit job of hiding it.” James snarked.

“I know.” He replied, unapologetic.

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI's pogo-stick grift

Hey, German-speakers! Through a very weird set of circumstances, I ended up owning the rights to the German audiobook of my bestselling 2022 cryptocurrency heist technothriller Red Team Blues and now I'm selling DRM-free audio and ebooks, along with the paperback (all in German and English) on a Kickstarter that runs until August 11.

Not only is agentic AI bullshit, but it's a specific kind of bullshit that AI hucksters have busted out in the past, and will bust out in the future, so it's worth spending a minute to unpack this bullshit and catalog its traits so that we don't fall for it. As GW Bush says, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, we don't get fooled again."

Automation can be transformative, relieving us of danger and drudgery by getting a machine to pick up some of the heavy work. Ideally automation seamlessly swaps a human for a machine at some stage in a process (ideally, the boring, dangerous and/or difficult phase). Like, whipping egg-whites for a meringue is hard on your wrist. But swap your whisk for a hand blender, and suddenly that tiresom process becomes fast and easy. If the blender is cordless, you can use it anywhere in your kitchen, including wherever you would have stood over a bowl with a whisk.

A mixer, by contrast, requires more labor on your part: you have to decant the contents of your mixing bowl into the mixer, run its motor, and then scrape the whipped whites back into your bowl for the next phase. It's worse automation.

But the worst automation would be a mixer that requires a special electrical outlet, a different fridge, and a special egg-carton. You would have to redesign your whole kitchen to use that thing. Sure, it might produce perfect meringues, and sure, if you had a meringue factory it might be a great solution. But for everyday use, it's a solution that creates more problems than it solves.

AI pitchmen promise that seamless swapping of a human tethered to some choresome drudgery for software. That's the whole point of self-driving cars: each of us can swap a standard car for one with an autopilot and use the same roads, with the same road-users, to get to all the same places. We don't have to tear up all the roads and lay tracks, or fill the roadside environment with sensors and beacons to help the "self-driving" cars navigate the system. A self-driving car can share the road with human-piloted vehicles, even when those other vehicles are driven by humans who don't see why they should allow a robot to merge into their lane or have the right of way, even if the human is turning left into oncoming robo-traffic.

Self-driving cars are not very good at this stuff, as it turns out. When that became apparent, self-driving car hucksters announced that it was only reasonable for their products to require something of the rest of us. As Andrew Ng put it:

“I think many AV teams could handle a pogo stick user in pedestrian crosswalk,” Ng told me. “Having said that, bouncing on a pogo stick in the middle of a highway would be really dangerous.”

“Rather than building AI to solve the pogo stick problem, we should partner with the government to ask people to be lawful and considerate,” he said. “Safety isn’t just about the quality of the AI technology.”

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/3/17530232/self-driving-ai-winter-full-autonomy-waymo-tesla-uber

This is an incredible act of shameless bait-and-switchery. In just a few short sentences, Ng's cars go from being the kind of automation that is purely the concern of the person who uses it – the owner of a self-driving car – to the kind of automation that everyone in the world has to adjust to, lest we become part of the "pogo stick problem."

Making a car that can navigate a well-behaved, non-adversarial world is relatively straightforward. But demanding that the entire world behave itself? Well, that's the hard problem of 100,000 years of civilization and ethics. A product that only works in an ideal world isn't a viable product.

Self-driving car boosters didn't invent this wheeze, either. The entire concept of "pedestrian" (and later, "jaywalker") was invented by the auto industry to shift blame for the death and destruction the wealthy owners of their products inflicted on everyday people to the victims:

https://marker.medium.com/the-invention-of-jaywalking-afd48f994c05

The latest peddlers of pogo-stick demands are the agentic AI people. They have raised (hundreds of) billions of dollars by promising that they will make AIs that can autopilot your browser to accomplish tedious, time-consuming tasks, visiting the same websites you would visit, locating and processing the information needed to perform the task you've set for it. This will supposedly make all kinds of human workers obsolete (which is where the hundreds of billions of dollars come in – the whole AI investor pitch is "We are developing technology that will let bosses fire their workers").

But agentic AI sucks. Asking a chatbot to take a screenshot of a website, then make guesses about which parts of it are links and what those links do, choose one link to fire a click at, and then start again is a recipe for incredible dysfunction. That's even before we get into "hallucinations" (this is AI jargon for "errors").

A more mature agentic AI apologetics admits that while no one knows how to make an AI that can navigate the whole internet, we can make specialist agents that can perform one kind of task, then hand off the output from that task to the next agent, and the next. This also sucks: you're created a whole menagerie of AIs, each of which is prone to its own failure modes, and then combining them, multiplying all those error potentials together, sending erroneous findings careening through a cascade of downstream AIs. This is broken-telephone-as-a-service. Give it your credit card, ask it to order a bag of jucing oranges, and six months later someone's gonna back a 16 wheeler up to your front door with $40,000 worth of frozen OJ and a receipt for a futures contract you're on the hook for.

The latest agentic AI pitch "solves" this problem by asserting that the whole internet will simply have to accommodate itself to AI agents. Every website will have to adopt robust, accurate semantics that describe its navigation and offerings, standardized across every domain of human activity. This would be great. The semantic web people have been trying to make it happen since 1999, with no success to speak of, for reasons I identified more than 20 years ago:

https://people.well.com/user/doctorow/metacrap.htm

The reason websites don't make their results easy to scrape and compare is that they want to cheat you. They want you to buy something more expensive and/or inferior than the best match for your desire. There is no way for an AI agent to know when a website is lying to it, and the websites that lie the most are incentivized to have the best, highest-grade automation hooks for an AI agent to connect to (just as spammers have the best, most pristine anti-spam incidia, from DKIM to SPF to DMARC records).

And these cheaters aren't fringe players – they're the biggest companies out there. Amazon knows that Prime members don't shop around, so it presents them with higher prices than non-Prime users. Airlines use AI and surveillance data to estimate your desperation and price their tickets accordingly:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/30/efficiency-washing/#medallion-clubbed

What's more, these companies sue people who try to collect and analyze their prices:

https://simpleflying.com/ryanair-wins-case-booking-screen-scraping-reselling-tickets/

The hard part of comparison-shopping for an airline isn't sorting a database of all the prices offered to all customers under all circumstances: it's compiling such a database. We don't need complex AI-based techniques to perform a simple sort – we need AI to solve the problem of knowing what prices every airline is charging at this instant to every flier for every itinerary.

When agentic AI grifters insist that the entire internet has to adopt and faithfully use standard APIs so their bots can accurately analyze the internet's contents, they are re-inventing the pogo-stick problem. Yes, if you could get the entire world to arrange its affairs to your benefit, you could surely do some incredible things, and if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a rollerskate.

Even if you could get everyone to adopt a standard set of APIs and use them well, this is a titanic engineering challenge, at least as big as anything the agentic AI people are promising to do.

There's an unassailable response to the assertion that you could do amazing things as soon as everyone else upends their life to make things more convenient for you, the sacred principle of "wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which will be full first":

https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/oqiic7/studying_the_origins_of_the_phrase_wish_in_one/

Support me this summer in the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop! This summer, I'm writing The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI, a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux that explains how to be an effective AI critic.

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/2025/08/02/inventing-the-pedestrian/#three-apis-in-a-trenchcoat

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[loverboyfelidae]

“Not Shy of a Spark” [4/4]

> Summary: Giving and receiving head with Ignihyde and Diasomnia

> Part [4/4]

> Wc: 2.2k

> cw: Reader is assumed to have a vagina

> Characters: Idia; Malleus; Lilia; Sebek; Silver

A/N: I've finished writing all the dorms, yet I’m already wondering if I should do an extra piece for the faculty and/or side characters? Rhetorically for now, but if any of you have thoughts on that let me know 🙂‍↕️

Idia

This man is driving me up a fucking wall I just wrote five paragraphs so unrelated to what I’m supposed to be writing it was devastating to delete. Anyway.

Idia has potential to be fully submissive or dominant and the latter is ten times more annoying, to warn you. For some reason I find it hard to see him in a mixed role? In my minds eye he’s either full stonetop or subbot and anything else just isn’t clicking. I’m sure he could, I’m just uninterested in exploring those avenues. We’re talking about sub Idia first because I <3 humiliating men

In general a lot of the play Idia enjoys is less penetration/heteronormative focused and taken from pieces and functions of BDSM dynamics without the explicit titles of it. Petplay… I shouldn’t think too hard on developing that thought for my health actually. I picture him as very into grinding/humping/frotting – stripped down to his underwear and an oversized hoodie as he grinds down on the denim of your jeans, hissing in pained pleasure at the roughness. Likewise, “commanding” him to get off in front of you in any way (I.e. jerk off, fingering himself, toys, humping the mattress/pillow) awakens his third-eye it happens practically every other time you guys have sex. A scenario I specifically have in mind is him down on the floor, straddling your boot, as he sucks on your cunt, telling him he’s not allowed to get off till he makes you cum. Lord.

When he goes down on you it’s really interesting because his tongue is cool, but not cold – a middle point, like person tongue after they had an ice cube in their mouth. Touches your heat and you jolt from the temperature difference. I don’t think there’s a specific way Idia eats box that makes him individual, but the circumstances in which he does it do. Receiving head he’s…?? He’s so oddly sensitive that he cums fast and hides from you the rest of the day, a deep set frown cut into his lips as he broods at his “deficiencies”. It takes him awhile to let it happen again and by god is he seeing stars. He tells you to edge him on purpose so he doesn’t look like a total loser again, but as soon as that first orgasm is swept from him he’s grumbling as this gut-drawn annoyance sets in, scowling down at you. Then you make him cum fast again and he slumps back against his gaming chair boneless, halfway to passing out, legs twitching and the whole shabang. it’s really funny. Literally no stamina he lasts maybe two rounds if he had his vitamins that day. Speaking of, I didn’t want to say it but his diet is so fucked his cum must take like pure morphine.

Malleus

Crazy tongue-work first of all, tracing Celtic knots on your clit. Malleus, though not an overly lustful partner, is affectionate. He expresses this a few ways: Service, touch, words and time most importantly. Time may in fact be the best explanation to why he is the way he is as a partner – an overbearing awareness as most of us have come to witness in the games latest official chapters. While I won’t be going into any of that, the context of its presence in how his affections play out are important.

He enjoys the acts of love in their raw forms, fairytale-esque almost in their purity and awkwardness when it comes to real-world enactment. He wants to have picnics during sunset and braid your hair (even if it isn’t very long) and sit with you at night, murmuring sensual promises that can only express fractions of his feelings. All this to say that his sexual drives, rather, are a distinctly overwhelming sensation separate from the core concept itself. I don’t think Malleus likes to take things so intimate lightly, though he’s happy to chuckle if something silly happens during that can’t be helped, to ease the tension. Making your first time with him singular is important to him and he’s hoping you’ll let him express that properly. The way he romances in general can be corny in a lot of senses and may be off putting or embarrassing especially if you’re not used to such overbearing, upfront actions or words of praise. Malleus is overwhelming point blank.

It’s intimate, Light low in that easy orange-ish hue way that candles usually produce while he has his palms rested feather-like on your thighs to keep them open. A forked tongue with an usual length does make a person question their sanity but you must endure! As much as Malleus tries to remain serious and mysterious he has a proclivity for teasing and you’ll catch his lips curling up in an amused smile if you start making lots of comments and noises. He’ll quip back a bit pettishly which has you mouth open in shock and him humming to himself, satisfied. He likes affecting you, I suppose.

I’m having a mental block thing to describe how he reacts to getting head. He gets handsy, petting you to keep his nails distracted from the urge to file down to a point and scratch up your neck. Not particularly loud but he grunts and gets very breathy almost-moans. I think the core issue to why this concept with him is so hard for me to picture is that I can’t imagine him asking for it? Of all things Malleus doesn’t strike me as someone who’s enough into receiving head that he’d request it. In fact I’d put up to offer that he often dissuades you from it so he can suggest something else in its stead. I feel like he’s like Vil in the sense that head itself isn’t appealing but, but as a part of you loving on his body as a whole, pressing kisses on his skin, it feels more intimate to him than just the act by itself. If you’re caressing down his skin, focusing all of your attention on him and him alone and he’s just surrounded by you and that’s nirvana for him.

Lilia

Oh my lord ladies brace yourselves. You’re about to receive some old man wisdom but the language he’s speaking he hasn’t practiced in a hot century or two. He’s so fucking funny sorry I just needed to mention that at least once when he’s eating box he’s not even fully paying attention when he accidentally makes some stupidly dumb grandpa joke about his “prime” and you’re looking down at him blankly and he has to process in his head that he just told you he once ate out a nice young lady while he was hanging upside down from the ceiling (without a harness mind you) and was holding her up by her waist as he did it. It’s such a crazy thing to mention he even apologizes with a small laugh and then smooths a finger over your clit to see if you’ll still continue. He doesn’t care obviously but he’s amused at his own proclivity to his accidental “outside thoughts that should be inside thoughts”.

But the important message of that statement is that Lilia is above all things: old. Centuries, nearly a millennium. His ability to just know what to do with you is astounding and becomes more of a amazement the longer he’s able to familiarize himself with your body. At the end of the day he doesn’t think of it this way, but much of his skill isn’t really from experience but an ease in trying new things. You don’t realize how much bullshit he’s making up as he goes until he hits your g-spot one day and says “I Nearly Forgot humans Had Those!” with a joyful little hum of affirmation And your eyes bulge out and he’s tilting his head with that titular innocent until proven otherwise smile. You question on it and he reminds you that he hasn’t been intimate for quite some time. He doesn’t divulge exactly, but you can guess based on just how much he’s forgetting that it’s at least from when Silver was in his care, if not before the war.

The time between is meaningless because it does nothing to his performance in sex. He’s a conundrum and a problem to your pride as a young person because he outlasts you. You shouldn’t be surprised because he looks younger than you and a fae AND a veteran, but you’ve been deceived so long by his old man whinings, lamentations and “back in my day..!” Ramblings that you forget he, at his core, is very youthful. I must introduce the concept of squirting with him because he incites it in you so fucking fast it has you seeing God for a quick discussion of why you should be spared. His fingers instinctively know how to curl against you and with the press of his palm onto your clit and it gets too much too fast and then just. Happens lmao

He’s so amused it really does have him genuinely get a titillated crinkle of his eyes. If you think it’s embarrassing he reassures you he has no idea what that word means and tells you it would take much more than you can ever do to make him feel such a way towards you. It’s comforting but also what happened?? Lilia is incredibly emotionally aware as a person because he knows he wasn’t in his past, so he’s especially effective at aftercare, praise and feeling like a safe person to bring up weird/unconventional/heavy sexual fantasies with because albeit perhaps not being into what you bring up, he still engages with you without belittling you for thinking of that stuff.

Silver

Hehehehe. Imagining him between your thighs, biceps strung underneath your thighs as his arms wrap around to have them slung over his shoulders as he’s lain flat on his stomach with his face in your cunt. Unsurprisingly this has him lethargic, with the constant heat of your bodies and the surrounding warmth from your thighs as well as the repetitive, suckling motions on your folds just comatose him. The issue lies in that he’s a strong boy and those arms that were wrapped around your legs? They’re locked the fuck in, you’re not up till he’s up.

God he’s so pretty with his eyes glazed from eating you out and his lips shiny with your arousal. God. I’m going to eat him alive. Silver isn’t loud in bed at any capacity, sounds or speaking, but the noises he does make are these quiet spiked sighs and breathy moans that makes your head go foggy. He could fall asleep getting head too, but the best part is that he’s twitching and still moaning in his sleep. I think in the relationship especially as Silver recognizes you stopping all the time before you even get to finish is impeding on things, he has a conversation with you about still using him while he’s asleep. I think the idea at first doesn’t make him feel anything but content that he solved the problem, but then he starts waking up to his cum splattered on his stomach as you grind down on him or a particularly memorable time when you even puppeteer’d his own hand to finger you.

And he just goes wide-eyed Everytime with surprise that 1) you even bothered to make him feel good too even though he was asleep and he didn’t ask and 2) he’s a touch flustered. Mumbles out if you feel good and as soon as he’s done savouring the moment I half-asleep bliss, he gets up to start doing the work for you. Silver is someone who constantly feels indebted to people, inconsequential or not. So when he sees you accommodating him so patiently he gets this abundant urge to make you lay back and let him take care of you instead. What a man <3

Sebek

Okay. Hi, hello. I think Sebek is perhaps one of the biggest munch’s of NRC and he’s plagued by his desires Everyday. Ooohhh my god he gets down on his knees, brows knit as his lips quiver from uncertainty and intense arousal as he gets eye to eye with your cunt. You notice his back talk has died down significantly and his calloused hands grip on your hips are a touch uncontrolled in their firmness. I think Sebek is someone who blushes like the sun when he’s in high emotion and especially when he’s turned on. Ears tipped pink and even his shoulders a touch red and it’s all very endearing.

First minutes he’s slow and hesitant because he’s trying to understand what’s happening that’s making his heart beat so illogical and his pupils blown out, but then you push him further into you by his hair and suddenly it all clicks. He gets a taste of your slick now that he’s actually in it and you can observe in real time as his brows raise, then drag down as his eyes narrow in on just you. By the way, be prepared to be eaten raw. One time you’re up against a wall, one leg hooked over his shoulder as his frame keeps you steady while he’s been at your folds for so long you’re starting to dry-orgasm. This is probably the point where Sebek pulls back for a moment and has his moment of lucidity in that he can feel the slick dripping down the curve of his neck and the swollen state of your pussy and his own lips. Surprises himself to a point that he tries to stand up abruptly, jostles you, tries to save you and then you’re both stumbling.

Sebek is a romantic through and through so promiscuity, while getting him flustered, I think is something he wants to reserve solely for moments alone with you. Of course, still do it while he’s patrolling next to Malleus, graze your fingers along the back of his neck and watch his entire frame jump and then square off tensely, shooting you the most “don’t you dare” look you’ve ever seen. Motherly in its intensity even. I think he likes topping but can be persuaded into subbing or domming in their due respects. Service top obviously fits him well but subtop is speaking to me indulgently I can’t lie.

[from-the-notebooks]

As for financial support, unless your partner agrees to it, or you have a child he should be supporting, he should not have to pay you money after you divorce him

I think alimony is a reasonable solution to housewives getting back on their feet after a divorce. Throwing someone into the workforce after years of being out of it is really hard. The person that they were doing a shit ton of domestic labor for, should help out. This is also helpful as it means that an abused housewife has a lot more freedom to leave without having to prove abuse.

And in the case of a child, if they're paying you money, partial custody should be a given

You should not be able to buy access to your child. Family courts (at least in America) are so favored towards men that unless they are actually abusive, if they want to be a part of the child's life they generally allowed to be. Forcing someone by economic coercion to be allowed to see their child is really fucked. The child's rights to be with a good parent are vastly more important than the parent' right to buy the right to be in their life.

In the case of abuse, I personally feel there should be a government fund much like unemployment that gives money to abused spouses who divorce their abusive partners. You are the one who went on about how proving it is an issue. What you are doing with this is making it so that many many abused spouses who lack hard evidence are not helped at all. And what happens if someone's case is rejected but they are being abused. They have to go back to the abuser out of financial desperation with the abuser now knowing they tried to report them? No, the money should be given to a divorcee in need without question. If you truly object to alimony and child support in cases of sole custody, then have the government take over those responsibilities as well. Economic support is needed to allow people to leave abuse. If you will not take it from the other spouse even when they are not an abuser, then the system will not work.

feminism shouldn’t be about patting housewives on the back for making that decision but it should be about making sure that if that housewife’s husband starts cheating or slapping her around that she can be taken seriously, get a divorce, not have everyone in her life turn against her, not force her to send the children back to his house every other weekend where he starves them just to send her a message, and not be left in financial ruin

[gatheringbones]

[“Allow me to be perfectly clear about this: one of the cruelest things you can do is to tell someone that they are ineligible for love because of mental illness. Yet this is something that happens all the time. In a discussion about this idea, upon hearing that I believed people who were dealing with mental illness should not face constant messaging that they aren’t allowed to pursue relationships, an acquaintance launched into a vehement argument for the right of communities to exclude people who may be “toxic.” Simply hearing the idea that mentally ill people should get love too made this person feel like he had to protect his community from the invading mentally ill masses. As he argued this point, all I could think was how people in this man’s community must feel like they could not step out of line, have problems, or be less than fun.

The upshot is that the circumstances the folks living with mental illness navigate in order to feel worthy of love often require them to act “as if.” As if they were healthy, as if their needs were being met, as if they were okay with things that they may not be okay with. There is a pressure to lessen the impact of your disorder on others, to shrink it down, and by extension to shrink yourself down. The less you that shows up, the less voice you have, and the less control you have over your circumstances. To the outside world you may look like a consenting partner, but when you only feel safe voicing one-quarter of your feelings, what is filling in that other three-quarters? Whose voice is that? Are you really giving your own consent, or are you simply giving the answer you know someone else wants to hear? The answer that causes the least trouble?

Going with the flow is not consent. Trying to be unobtrusive is not consent. Being afraid to bother anyone with your problems is not consent. Not wanting to cause drama is not consent. Not wanting to be a buzzkill is not consent. Not wanting your luck to run out with the awesome partner who is with you in spite of your mental illness is not consent. Not wanting the hot partner you’ve just met to think you’re high maintenance is not consent. Hiding yourself to make someone else’s life easier is not consent.

Yet we, in ways both implicit and explicit, ask the mentally ill to do these things all the time. The message is sent that certain people—cool, easygoing, fun people who don’t cause trouble—are lovable, and that not fitting those criteria is inherently problematic, so those who don’t should do something about it. Cover up that illness, don’t let it show, and if it’s too late, if we’ve seen it, have the good grace to be sufficiently grateful for any bones tossed your way, and then remember that you are on notice, on borrowed time, because you are lucky, and luck runs out, luck can be pressed, and you probably shouldn’t press yours.

If we want to say “yes means yes” and make it mean more than “no means no,” we need to go beyond the words to the lives that are shaping them. Someone who feels indebted to their partner, lucky to have them, in danger of losing them is not delivering the same yes they would to an equal. Someone who feels like it’s not safe to show their true self, that they need to repress, hide, or stifle themselves lest they be cast out for being dramatic, may not say yes for the same reasons they would were they living out loud.

We can start to change this dynamic by changing the way we look at mental illness and the mentally ill. First off, understand that given the choice most mentally ill people would not be living with a mental illness. Working from that understanding, decouple people from their illness—your partner and their illness are not one; they are more like an ongoing wrestling match. Two entities locked together but separate. This new understanding allows you to see how you can enter the right to join your partner’s team rather than stand off against your partner and their depression. Now you are working together. Rather than becoming your partner’s adversary whom they have to protect themselves from or caretaker whom they are indebted to, you are their equal with whom they can negotiate. We need to stop infantilizing and desexualizing the mentally ill and start relating to them as competent people capable of making their own choices. This allows everyone to be open, honest, and communicative. People dealing with illness can enter relationships being truthful about it, and partners can join them as allies.”]

joellen notte, from sex and love when you hate yourself and don’t have your shit together, from ask: building consent culture, edited by kitty stryker, 2017

[batboyblog]

I hate the internet, really social media's warping effect on what people think is important.

So take trans rights for a moment. The position right now of every Republican in elected office anywhere in America is "I want to personally feed all trans people into a wood chipper"

like even the most moderate, blue state, Republicans, your Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski are at best open to adults (which they'd define as over 21 or over 25) being allowed to (pay out of pocket) transition medically and legally (maybe) but certainly not to be protected from discrimination under the law no no no. Thats the liberal moderate Republican stand

the mainstream norm is in favor of banning all gender affirming medical care, banning legal changes of gender, they haven't figured out how to ban changing your name but they're working on it, and banning cross dressing. Thats what I'd say 90% of Republicans feel rn, 100% of them want to ban transition for minors, you're not gonna find a Republican who isn't in favor of that.

And all that gets 1/10000000th the attention of whenever a Democrat says something about sports.

like the former Sec of Transportation who is unemployed and has no power to do anything said something about fairness in sports before saying that really it should be left up to local communities and schools to figure out not a federal issue. That same week New Hampshire a state I used to live in and now live about an hour from passed a ban on trans minors getting medical care, This marks the first and only New England state to pass such a ban.

guess which thing was ALL! over social media? as the end of fucking days in the discourse.

it just feels like Republicans are gleefully rubbing their hands together supervillain laughing about how they're gonna destroy all trans people and everyone is like "meh, boring" and then we have a total melt down if some random Democrat who's out of office, about to be out of office or is a random red district Congressman says "this sports thing, idk, we do need to talk about it" like do I wish they'd shut the fuck up? yeah sure, but its like you sprayed your thumb and also got shot in the gut, you'd pay attention to the gun shot and not really notice your sprayed finger.

besides which like I can count every Democrat who's said something stupid on one hand. Which again reference what I said about how ALL Republicans all of them support radical trans suppression. So like idk if you like trans rights you should want more Democrats because even the most shitty one on trans rights is better than the most liberal Republican? And 99% of them are totally supportive of all the trans rights vs Republicans where 0% of them support all the trans rights.

[drkstars-art]

Processing brain just wants to keep asking "Why?"

If they are doing it for personal reading, why post it? If they dont even like it, why share it?

They don't get paid for engagement and they know its only going to result in a slew of hate comments. Which AO3 wont push most commented to the top unless you filter it that way. They aren't getting paid like Youtube, TT, Insta etc for content farming. So why are they even there? An archive is for human works.

But also, why engage? Fully block ALL AI tags. If you feel the desire to comment just comment "Since you took zero effort to write this i'm taking zero effort to read it, get fucked." And report it. AO3 should not be allowing anything AI on there anyways. It should be a violation because it's plagiarism.

Its mind rot that brought people here, its the need for engagement because these people have no interest in the hobby, the craft or the social aspect of it. They feed off comments regardless because they are being built with zero values or critical thinking.

I know it's not tiktok, its the algorithm. People are struggling financially but have consumer addictions that have turned luxury goods into "essential content".

AI is strictly an easy "Get rich quick" scheme that uses what's already there to make "particle board" content that isn't built for quality or longevity. The person doesn't care about the story that they didn't work for because it was made cheaply. The more we engage with it the more they know that all feedback is money.

It's content farming, spam and a waste of bandwidth for the site. Given there are already THOUSANDS of AI works existing, its already a problem.

I know it's not my right or privileged to say so, but AO3 needs to put a stop and a ban to AI generated works. And a permanent ban to the user for even trying to bypass it. I know it will be hard to police but the more we allow to be posted, the more they will clog up the archive with slop because they think eventually they'll get paid.

Hey. I think I hate you.

[darkbluekies]

Do you think the darlings one shots have personalities that match each of your OCs? For example Dr. kry and a Naive darling, or mafia boy and a rude one. If so, how would you describe them? I like it, but if not, it's still good being neutral! 😸

yes they do actually!!! i'm happy you noticed that detail! Their personalities answer quite much to how the yandere's personality is!

I'll let you know what I keep in mind when I write the different darlings! (I see them as different people, not one and the same!)

Disclaimer: this is not 100% correct, i haven't really been putting their personalities on aspect like this, so it might be a little off! They don' really have "fixed" personalities, more like what has been dveloped while I've been writing them? i don't know how to explain, i didn't decide this from the start1

The guys: (these darlings have less autonomy)

Silas's darling:

Silas has a quite dominant personality and is a very dangerous man. His darling KNOWS how dangerous he is, and IS wary of him. They're often on the more silent side, almost leaning bitter sometimes. This darling is almost torn between if they should give in or resist, torn between emotions ... because even if darling would start to like him, what he does can never be forgotten. And darling HATES that work. Hates how he's taken them into this dark world and that makes them angry towards him.

Dr Kry's darling:

Dr Kry is SO in control and darling naturally falls in submission, dependance, trusting him, because he's a person with a degree and IS a skillfull foctor. He's so good at lying and manipulating that it feels exhausting NOT listening. Darling knows that they're drugged and is exhausted. They do as Dr Kry wants because that's the only thing they can do. When they do fight back, it's almost with a desperate uncertainty, as if hesitating their own mind, because of the poison and isolation.

King Edmund's darling:

Edmund's instable and selfish and his darling is emotionally intelligent. Almost ... gentle parenting Edmund every now and then. She KNOWS how instable Edmund is and plays off of him to keep him stable. But it can be exhausting and leaves her sensitive and vulnerable. This darling is "smarter" than Edmund in the sense that she knows the outside world better and its people, but Edmund's the final say. But, intrestingly enough, darling COULD influence him, because darling is the only one Edmund listens to and takes into account. So, sometimes you can see her try to change his mind.

The girls: this is where we take a turn

Jerry's darling:

Jerry is HIGHLY emotionally intelligent. Darling knows that Jerry can be rough and messy, but apart from the others, she NEVER lies, diminishes or hides things. That helps darling know exactly where they have her and, somehow, feel more secure being normal with her. They can be themself. They also know that Jerry wouldn't judge them for anything, and that helps with darling allowing themselves to be more critique of her. This darling is quite "laid back", since Jerry decides everything and darling "trusts" her to keep them safe in her world. knows that it's no use trying to do anything themselevs because they don't know the crime world as good as Jerry, so they try to compromise.

Hedwig's darling:

This is the darling with most say. Hedwig's "submissive" and indecisive, leaving darling to choose things. Hedwig wants to do what makes darling happy. Intrests herself in what darling likes etc. This darling can almost control her. They also have a different dynamic than the others: they're in the same high school class and have to go outside together, whereas most of them keep darling hidden away and isolated. This gives them more of a "equal" standpoint. With the others, the yandere has position of power, but Hedwig and darling are almost on the same page when they're in school.

[branwinged]

do you think that making sansa and lyanna similar in personality and have many narrative parallels was intentional on george’s part?

yes. lyanna x rhaegar functions as an embedded narrative that reinforces the themes of asoiaf and there's a nice detail in the chapter of the knight of the laughing tree where bran thinks it was a good story but "[instead of the dragon prince] the mystery knight should win the tourney, defeating every challenger, and name the wolf maid the queen of love and beauty" and meera says, "she was, but that's a sadder story," bran is of course missing much of the context here and incorrectly assumes howland was the knight, but i think there's a certain allusion here, that it would've been a better story if the mystery knight—who we know is lyanna—had both won the tourney and crowned the wolf-maid, i.e. if lyanna had been allowed an existence as both knight and maiden, allowed to live a life in pursuit of both love and gender nonconformity. once rhaegar as the champion crowns her, she'll never a be a knight again, she'll be a dead girl. robert will take offense because lyanna's identity is as his bride and even as she evades that fate she'll die a gendered death in childbirth, rhaegar's the one who dies a knight.

it's something grrm's in conversation with in both arya and sansa's storylines. arya's arc is about gender nonconformity excluding her from a life in westeros but the threat of marriage as a surrender of autonomy is not a cloying presence in her chapters the way it is in sansa's. the sequence of events in asos where she believes dontos will help her out of her arranged match only for him to deliver her to littlefinger, who is not a protector and seeks to exploit her in his own way, is deliberately meant to evoke robert - lyanna - rhaegar. i'm not comparing rhaegar to dontos/littlefinger, but sansa's belief of life being a song where true knights prevail and girls like her aren't exploited and get to be happy is what's being betrayed here. just as rhaegar was meant to represent a means of an escape for lyanna and is even somewhat synonymous with song—he was a bard prince who invokes the title of the series. rhaegar is the kind of a traditional hero in a song that sansa or lyanna would've dreamed of, that the readers would've expected to set things right, instead he fails. he's jon and dany's narrative precursor who fails and then lyanna bleeds out on a bed of roses. no alternate ending is presented to her.

and that's asoiaf's one great pre-occupation: the telling of stories and how people's individual lives are distorted to fit specific cultural myths and expectations. tyrion says "it all goes back and back to our mothers and fathers [...] we are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us" what he means is that individuality is subsumed by the social forces these characters are up against—it's a series about intergenerational cycles of trauma and the repetition of violence. and this sits in tension with the possibility of change through jaime's "he could write whatever he chose, henceforth. whatever he chose..."

so grrm threatens both arya and sansa with their dead aunt's fate and on a larger scale he's repeating the events of the rebellion—king's landing will go up in flames this time. it's asking how do you break free from that temporal repetition of violence and doom and i think bran offers the answer there. he didn't do anything, just thought of a story with a different ending. that's conceit here i think, that as long as you can dream of a better world there is a possibility for an alternate ending—the final installment is a dream of spring. it's why he calls all his protagonists dreamers, and why characters have a transformative dream under a weirwood (which are connected to this theme of history as one big story) the rebellion is the inciting incident and much of the story is about picking up that thread, about finishing rhaegar's work through dany and jon and it's about putting lyanna's ghost to rest—by allowing ned's daughters to live the life lyanna couldn't.

[rationalisms]

sorry for the tl;dr.

the online safety act in the UK and the content purge of 18+ games of all genres on both itch.io and steam happening at the same time is so, so, so scary. the online safety act might result in UK users being unable to access wikipedia (!!!???) since the site is unable to comply with the data collection regulations imposed on it by the law without putting people at significant risk and going against its stated mission and ethos.

being required to provide so much personal information (up to and including biometrics) to companies is an absolute privacy nightmare as well. we have a new catastrophic dataleak basically every month, and now they're going to be including passport data and face scans as a rule and not an exception? not to mention that no social media site should have the right to collect any of that information on its users in the first place.

also extremely cool and great that this coincides with the massive cuts to the welfare budget, which means that people who are particularly in need of these online services for various reasons like disabled, sick, or elderly people will be the ones who particularly won't be able to afford e.g. a dedicated VPN to get around this.

itch.io was meant to be a space for games and creative works which cannot find mainstream distribution or a mainstream audience. which has always disproportionally affected adult content, whether that's horror, ero content, or both. that was the site's purpose. it's absolutely heartbreaking to see the site be purged of the kinds of works that are one of the big reasons for its very existence because U.S. payment providers can dictate what people globally are allowed to do with their money and time.

and steam, let's be honest with ourselves, basically has a monopoly on PC gaming. sure, there's GoG, Epic, some publisher specific storefronts like the EA one, but they are comparatively insignificant. if your game isn't allowed to be sold on steam, you're losing the vast majority of your audience.

both steam and itch.io already had the ability to hide adult content and warnings if you were about to encounter it, with users needing to explicitly opt in. it's absolutely insane to enforce that adults must not be allowed to engage with any adult content because somewhere a child might be able to access it when they shouldn't.

the continuous de-anonymizing of the internet, the pearl clutching "think of the children" rhetoric gaining landslide traction everywhere, it's genuinely terrifying to me.

i see a lot of arguments along the lines of "you should be concerned about this because ero or horror games are just the start, soon they'll come after sfw gay content" or whatever. and it's not that i disagree that this is one of the slippery slopes which is actually real, and which we've been able to observe in the past. but you should care about this even if that doesn't happen. you should care about this even if you have zero interest in adult content, if you think it's gross, if you never want to see it.

yes, there's no such thing as "just a little bit of censorship". once the precedent is set that art can be banned, or made financially unviable, or quietly buried, it never stops where you think it will. the line always moves. but more importantly, even if i agreed that "harmful art" should be censored, which i do not, you can't build a rule that says "only bad or harmful art should be censored" without handing power to someone else to decide what counts as "bad" or "harmful". and the people who get to make those decisions do not have anyone's best interests at heart. they care about money, and liability, and advertisers. nothing else. people need art that's weird. messy. explicit. personal. people need to talk about trauma, desire, identity, grief, rage. fiction is how we metabolize those things. the targeted genres in particular are where people actually explore socially taboo and liminal experiences, where lgbt people can tell stories that don't follow the mainstream script, where disabled creators can represent bodies and experiences that aren't sanitized or made palatable. if you're scared of people engaging with "dangerous" ideas, then the answer is more expression, not less. the more people engage with art and fiction that challenges them and their thinking, the more they'll be able to refine their literacy and their ability to reason through their own positions and beliefs. the end goal should be an endless amount of perspectives to engage with, rather than U.S. tech conglomerates being able to universally decide what counts as appropriate content and what doesn't. and even if you are 100% convinced that game XYZ or book ABC doesn't do that, that it's not created for "legitimate enough reasons", that there's a difference between it and games/books/whatever which engage with a topic more tastefully or critically or appropriately... so what! even apart from the fact that i firmly believe these things still have just as much of a right to exist as anything else, i still don't think that anyone gets to make the decision on whether this is the case or not on behalf of another grown-ass adult who can make their own mind up about it.

the bottom line is, it's deeply naive to think you or the art you enjoy are immune. the same mechanisms that silence them can be used to silence you, if your work becomes inconvenient. if you only defend free expression when it aligns with your own personal beliefs, it's a preference, not a principle. and we need stringent anti-censorship principles more than ever.

[thetardigrape]

There are really 2 different arguments being made in this chain.

AO3 hosts anything without judgment, therefore genai content must be included. No. Absolute garbage. AO3 manifestly does not host anything at all. There are many kinds of things explicitly not allowed. The thing AO3 is exceptionally permissive about is the content of a fic, but, as has been pointed out, there are many sorts of things you cannot post, including plagiarized works. We do not have to allow genai to take over every single space on the internet.

It is effectively impossible to police genai content, and therefore a rule banning it will do more harm than good. Yes, most likely. With our current tools and landscape, banning genai content is likely to take up too much volunteer time, miss many infractions, and punish many human creators. Maybe in the future this will be less of a problem, but there currently just isn't a reliable way to tell if something has been created using genai if the person posting it doesn't cop to it.

Personally, I loathe genai, but I don't think AO3 should ban it simply because I don't think the volunteers can properly police it. The second it's possible to detect genai content reliably, I'm all for a ban, including retroactively.

you guys aren't gonna like this but if you want ao3 to be a neutral archive that will host anything that includes shit made with ai no matter how objectionable you find that

[not-quite-normal]

Hiya! been following your art since all the Wheatley stuff, and just want to say you're a huge inspiration <3

You probably get asked stuff like this a lot... but do you have any tips for an aspiring story artist looking to break into the industry? (For context, I'm a college senior majoring in art... fine art, though, so I've been teaching myself animation and character design and whatnot on the side because my uni doesn't offer any animation classes... long story). Also, do you have a sense of how employers (like Sony) feel about getting portfolios with fanart in them? Or have you ever put fanart in your own portfolio or reel, and if so, how has that been received? If you don't mind sharing, that is... I only ask because most of the story-focused art I've done so far is fanart, and I want to know if that's okay or if I should shift my focus more to original stuff for the future. Thanks!

Take care, and keep up the amazing work! love what you did on kpop!!!

hi, thanks so much!

I'm afraid this is a little hard to answer because hiring for animation is pretty different from hiring for story and I don't want to steer you in the wrong direction ^^; particularly for sony, story is done down in the LA studio and I work up in Vancouver so it's very separated from the production work that I'm familiar with.

I think I saw some advice one time saying that it's better to work with pre-existing characters for your story portfolio work because it shows that you know how to efficiently shorthand a char, and also it allows you to focus on story and not worry about character design. No matter the area you want to get into, the people hiring you always want to know that you can work within the style of the thing you'll be working on so I personally feel like fanart is a good way to display that you can work with different styles. I'm sure not everybody sees it this way though, so I would still aim to include some original work too.

I know I have some story folks following me so please feel free to reply or reblog if I'm off base with this!

[atomicrebelfire]

"but it is a deliberate choice to follow everyone in the cast except the one person you had a major on-screen arc with for two seasons, even if they were a guest star."

I agree with everything you said. When I keep mentioning that it bothers me that OS never once posted about LFJ or BuckTommy, I get told that it's fine because it could be that it's because they both made that decision to not put more hate on Lou. But OS proved that he can be stubborn and that he posts whatever he wants, so I rather think it was just a decision he made himself to not put the anger from Bvddie fans on himself. He could have had so much fan interacting with the BuckTommy fandom, like Lou, but he chose not me, and yeah, it still bothers me, even though it's not my business as to why.

I hear you and you’re absolutely allowed to be bothered by it. I’ve seen that excuse too: that OS didn’t post about Lou or BuckTommy to “protect” Lou from hate. But that only works if it was mutual and publicly addressed...and it never was.

Lou posted BTS with other cast members of 911 and from his and OS interview or SWAT. Are we supposed to believe he wouldn’t want to be in OS’s BTS dump? That excuse doesn’t hold up. OS has done the same with Megan and Annelise. He just posted a whole season 8 BTS Book—not one photo with Lou.

Let’s be real: Lou (and every other LI) gets hate anyway. Excluding them doesn’t protect anyone....it just feels like a quiet nod to Buddie fans.

And like you said, OS should posts what he wants.....its his social handle. He’s still curating 9-1-1 fandom energy, so why not show basic courtesy to your co-star?

It could’ve been so easy to throw a little love to BuckTommy Fans. Lou did. We showed up. But that door stayed shut on one side—and people noticed.

Sending warmth your way xoxo 💛

[borderlinereminders]

hey im pretty sure that anon about “shoving dbt down our throats” is trying to bait you into drama. i dont follow you but the blog lifeafterpsychiatry got a really inflammatory ask about “finally unfollowing” you for having differing opinions on dbt.

anon basically got told to mind their own business over there but seeing how you got an inflammatory ask too makes me think someone is specifically trying to cause drama for you.

Ah, well that’s not surprising then honestly. I don’t know why people are like this lol. I’ve also had asks telling me to unfollow her in the past and overall trying to cause issues. I ignore them. Her blog is one of my favourite on this website and I think she’s pretty cool honestly! It’s always kind of funny to me when people try to cause issues. Like why? What’s the fun in this? What is with the focus on our two blogs specifically?

And let’s be honest, if I learned DBT in a clinical setting, I’d probably hate it. If I’d searched it up on my own, I’d hate it. I self taught myself a lot of coping things then later discovered they fit under some DBT skills. There are a lot of issues that can be found with it and I think the information Kat is sharing is important. I call the skills DBT because they technically are but I honestly don’t like a lot of DBT stuff as a whole. I left a lot of the information I found online out of my own posts because they are very focused on making the person trying DBT the entire problem without considering what to do if they’re reacting to someone else. And also, often very focused on invalidating emotions in general. I’m a big fan of ‘hey your actions might not be valid but your feelings are! Let’s try and work on that while honouring your feelings.’

I’m also a big fan of different people need different things and that’s okay. I’ve never seen her be critical of things helping a specific individual but usually the system and way things can be pushed on people and I think that’s really important to acknowledge honestly. I’ve never seen her say ‘you’re wrong because dbt helped you’. I’ve seen her say ‘hey these issues exist and we should talk about them’ and those are really different things.

I think we both agree on the main thing and that is that people are different and they’re allowed to find different things helpful. There’s no one ‘fix all’.

My long point being that I don’t think our ‘differing’ opinions are a real problem and I think we both have different experiences and things to share and it’s up to people reading it to take what’s helpful for them and ignore the rest.

That said, hey the stuff she shares is important to consider so I do recommend checking out her blog!

[lavender--ghost]

DIAVOLO UR+ - A PRINCELY ESCORT

PART ONE

(Assembly Room)

(Diavolo) Now that the exchange students have officially started their prep work for the upcoming Three Worlds Festival, I have to ask... Is there anything I can assist you with? Anything at all. Budgeting, scheduling, you name it. If there's something you think I could do to make things easier, just say the word!

(MC) Thanks, but we'll be fine.

(Diavolo) No, I mean it. You know that you can ask me for anything, right? I want you to be able to rely on me.

(Barbatos) My Lord, you mustn't burden others with your good intentions.

(Diavolo) While the event is being headed up by the exchange students, as the head of RAD, I'm not entirely unrelated to the project. I hope you'll permit me to assist in that respect, at least.

(MC) We appreciate the thought, but...

(Diavolo) ...No, you're right. I need to respect your desire for independence. But, can you at least promise to come to me at the first sigh of trouble?

(Barbatos) My Lord, it's almost time for your next appointment. We must be on our way.

(Diavolo) Ah, right. Good luck, everyone.

(Solomon) ...I thought he'd never leave. Well, he does tend to get overly concerned whenever MC is involved.

(Simeon) ...

(Change to Purgatory Hall)

(Solomon) There, that should be the last of the duties that needed to be assigned. I think we're all sorted now.

(Simeon) Thinking back on that earlier conversation with Lord Diavolo though... Maybe we should just keep the specifics to ourselves, after all.

(Solomon) You know, I was just thinking the same thing. It's already common knowledge that the festival's going showcase our accomplishments as exchange students. So, it would look bad if we weren't doing everything to the best of our unassisted abilities. I'm all for his show of support, and I can understand his wanting to fuss over MC, but...

(Simeon) Mn, it would be better for everyone involved if he took a step back. That would allow us more opportunity to convey our own feelings of gratitude. I think it might be prudent of us to impress upon him our desire to handle this event on our own.

(Luke) I feel kind of bad for Lord Diavolo, but that sounds like a good idea.

(Raphael) Agreed. Or, if he absolutely has to help, then we give him the most minor job possible.

(Solomon) MC, would you mind sitting down and having another chat with Lord Diavolo about that?

PART TWO

(Demon Lord's Castle)

(Diavolo) All right. I hear you loud and clear. Thank you for being so candid with me, MC. Quite frankly, I couldn't be more moved by their level of consideration! True harmony between the three worlds isn't just a vague sense of camaraderie... In my opinion, it's having genuine respect for the other races and seeing them as equals. Which is exactly what the exchange students have requested! I think that's marvelous!

As the future Demon King, I'm perfectly happy to oversee your endeavors from afar... But on a more personal level, it does feel a little lonely to not be needed. I know that I shouldn't meddle, but... I really would like to do something. Is there anything I can do for you, MC? That isn't necessarily related to the event.

(MC) I'll be waiting for you to ask me out to the party.

(Diavolo) You really mean it?... Well, then. I'll have to put my free time to good use by coming up with something memorable. It's not every day that you make a request like that, after all.

(Change to RAD)

(Solomon) Right, we should really nail down how things are going to go on the day of. Let's see, starting wi-

(Mephistopheles) Ugh, finally! I've been looking for you bunch!

(Solomon) What brings you here, Mephisto?

(Mephistopheles) I want to help with the TTWF! You must be swamped at this point, right? Seriously, I'm ready and willing for anything!

(Raphael) ...Since when did you become a font of altruism?

(Solomon) ...Let me guess. You want to ride the coattails of our success to get in Lord Diavolo's good graces.

(Mephistopheles) A-A likely story! I'm here purely out of the goodness of my hear-

(Lucifer) I've heard enough from you. You know full well that only the exchange students and those they have requested assistance from have any business here, and you fit neither description.

(Mephistopheles) Tch! You stay out of this, Lucifer!

(Barbatos) Goodness, what would the Young Master say if he learned of this scheme?

(Mephistopheles) Not you too, Barbatos... Fine. I'll withdraw for today.

(Solomon) ...Well, that's one crisis averted. Thank you both.

(Lucifer) Our intervention is what Diavolo would have wanted. He was adamant that your work wasn't to be interrupted.

(Barbatos) Indeed. I must say, it's rather fortunate that we arrived when we did.

(Lucifer) Of course, we're equally invested in the outcome of your event.

(Barbatos) I hope you'll make it a success, for everyone's sake.

(MC) We're going to knock it out of the park!

(Lucifer) I would expect nothing less.

(Solomon) Don't worry, we won't let you down.

PART THREE

(Banquet Room)

(Luke) I just need to finish putting up decorations for the stage... And, there! That's the last one!

(Raphael) Which marks the end of our preparations. The day before the event itself too.

(MC) All that's left is the real thing!

(Luke) I'm sure it's going to be ridiculously busy, so we'd better be ready for it!

(Diavolo) Congratulations! I see that you've completed all your tasks! You've all put in a lot of work to reach this point. Being able to watch as your plans developed from start to finish has been an honor. I couldn't be more proud of you all. Given that TTWF is happening tomorrow, why don't all of you call it a day and get some rest?

(Solomon) That's some pretty sensible advice. Alright, that's it for today!

(Diavolo) Oh, MC. There's something I'd like to talk to you about. Would you mind staying behind for a little while?

(Time passes)

(Diavolo) I'm sorry, you must be tired. I'll try not to keep you long. Truly, I can't thank you enough for all the effort you've put into the event. You've gone above and beyond. On that note, would you mind waiting for me at the house of Lamentation tomorrow, instead of going to RAD on your own?

(MC) You're going to come pick me up?

(Diavolo) There's no harm in heading to campus together every once in a while, is there? I'd like to make up for all the time I haven't gotten to spend with you. I'm really looking forwards to tomorrow. So, I'll see you then.

(Change to House of Lamentation Living Room)

(Mammon) Huh? MC, shouldn't you've left by now?

(Asmodeus) You're running TTWF, right? is it okay for you to still be twiddling your thumbs here?

(MC) I'm waiting for someone.

(Asmodeus) Ooooh, don't tell me! Is it your date for the TTWF?!

(Mammon) Huh?! Who's goin' around our backs and snatching up MC like that? I'm gonna give 'em a piece of my mind!

(CAR REEVING)

(Mammon) Huh? Did you guys just hear some obnoxiously loud engine rev?

(Asmodeus) I'm heading out to take a peek!

(Change to Front Door)

(Diavolo) Thank you for waiting, MC.

(Mammon) Lord Diavolo?!

(Asmodeus) Gosh, that's such a swanky ride!

(Diavolo) Well, if it isn't Mammon and Asmodeus! Perfect timing. You won't mind if MC grants me the pleasure of their company for the entire day, would you?

(Mammon) ...Gah! How're we supposed to turn down a request from Lord Diavolo, of all people?!

(Asmodeus) Hon, you already know we're outclassed. Besides, what really matters is what MC wants to do.

(Diavolo) Precisely. Still, I thought it would be best to make my intentions known to their family.

(Asmodeus) Oooh, so traditional! You're such a sweetheart!

(Mammon) Dammit! I can't say anythin' bad about that either...!

(Diavolo) So, if you'll allow me... MC, would you accompany me to the TTWF?

(MC) I'd love to!

(Diavolo) Thank you, MC! Hearing that from you is like a dream come true. I reserved the day especially for you. Come on, hop in.

(Change to Banquet Room)

(Diavolo) While all good things must come to an end, that really was over in a flash. It might not have been a very long ride, but it certainly was an enjoyable one. And there's still the entire event to experience together. Really, the day's only just begun! There's so much to look forward to!

(Simeon) Good morning, MC. Ah, I see that you came with Lord Diavolo today.

(Luke) I was starting to worry that you'd overslept because you hadn't gotten here yet!

(Solomon) Leave it to the stars of the show to make a fashionably late entrance.

(Diavolo) MC's delayed arrival is entirely my fault. I'm so sorry for keeping you waiting.

(Solomon) Speaking of leading roles, this might be a little sudden, but... What would you all say to having Lord Diavolo give the opening speech?

(DIavolo) Who, me?!

PART FOUR

(Diavolo) I'm not the host of this event, you all are. If I gave the opening speech, wouldn't that undermine your accomplishments?

(Solomon) If anything, I think it would do more for inter-world relations to have you kick things off.

(Simeon) I agree. We need someone to represent the Devildom, after all.

(Luke) I second that!

(Raphael) I have no objections.

(Diavolo) ...If you're all in agreement, then how can I refuse? I'll be sure to deliver a rousing address, as befitting the occasion.

(Time passes)

(Diavolo) The aim of the Three Worlds Festival has always been to foster peace and understanding with those who hail from outside the Devildom. Rather fittingly, today's event would not have been possible without the hard work of our dedicated exchange students. Please join me in a round of applause, in honor of our extraordinary hosts.

(Solomon) That's Lord Diavolo for you. The crowd's still cheering.

(Simeon) We'd better not let them down.

(Change to Demon Lord's Castle Gardens)

(Diavolo) I'm so pleased that the event finished without any issues. Of course, that was the result of all your hard work! You mush be rather tired. Go ahead, take the time to sit and unwind.

(MC) Freedooooooom!

(Diavolo) Haha! I imagine that you were under quite a lot of pressure. Thank you for sticking with it. Oh, right! I have something fun with me.

See? They're sparklers. I brought them especially for you. I thought you would be in need of a pleasant distraction after all the stress of the event. I've always found them refreshing. Well, why don't we light a couple?

(MC) They're really pretty.

(Diavolo) I'm glad you're enjoying them! Here, these are for you. They change color as time elapses.

You have ones like them in the human world, right? They remind me of you actually. With your ever-changing range of expressions... I would love to learn more about you. As both a human and an individual.

I hope our connection will continue to burn brighter than any flame. Ah, that's it for the sparklers. That's a tad disappointing. It almost feels like it's signalling the end of our moment alone together, too... MC, I don't want you to go just yet.

(MC) Kiss him.

(Diavolo) Ah... I love it when you take the initiative. But, please. Allow me... mn. I adore you too much to ever want to let you go, and it's only getting worse...

Would you spend the rest of the night with me? It's rare I'm afforded the opportunity to watch you fall asleep. Between the event itself and the review meeting, I suppose we've finally exhausted the the topic of TTWF.

All in all, I hope that this wonderful day will remain in your memories for years to come. I know that I won't ever forget it.