#the hacker arc

[duckapus]

So I figured out the Hacker Arc's first three episodes

You Wouldn't Download a Meta Runner

It's a seemingly normal day in the Mushroom Kingdom, with the crew up to their usual bullshit...or at least, it would be, if something wasn't going on with Tari. She's acting a bit distant and distracted, and occasionally glitches slightly when no-one's looking. It progressively gets worse, and her friends do notice pretty quickly and try to figure out what's going on, but eventually she fades away, begging for them to find her.

Throughout the episode we also get clips of the Glitch Productions crew noticing there's something weird going on with Luke's computer, and just after the scene where Tari disappears, so does a file with her name on it...which then reappears on a different computer in an unfamiliar room.

The Tari Parable

Tari wakes up in an empty office building with no memory of how she got there, and meets a man named Stanley and a disembodied voice called The Narrator, who inform her that she's in their game, and as far as they no there's no way out. Then again, there shouldn't be a way in either, so the three of them explore every nook and cranny to figure out how she got there and see if her outside-context abilities can make them an exit. All the while, Tari is glitching in a similar way to how Theo did throughout the Meta Runner series, since she wasn't properly implemented due to her captor's experience.

Speaking of which, towards the end of the episode we see said captor, who is on the phone with someone talking about how he managed to get Tari and asking them to come over and see for themselves.

Mario's Grand Internet Adventure!

Back at Glitch Productions, everyone's freaking out about Tari's disappearance. They eventually manage to get ahold of themselves thanks to some forceful prompting from Meggy and Mario, who are extremely determined to get their best friend back. SMG4 gets in contact with the AvA crew (who they met during the Goomba arc if you remember) since they have more experience interacting with the Real World than the Super Mario 64 characters. Eventually, Melony, Yellow, Sage and the Admins manage to trace the hack, and determine that the best way to get there is to send a team through the Internet. The crew (full extended version, Shroomy, the Guards and the kids included) is obviously going, with Belle and Bowser joining them on the grounds that Tari is their friend too. While they're gone, SMG1 and 2 will be handling 3 and 4's duties, and Kaizo, Steve, the remaining Anti-cast and other side characters will do their best to keep the Kingdom safe.

Thankfully that won't be too hard, since currently Mr. L is their greatest immediate threat and he's found out about the situation and decided to follow the away team and cause problems for the hell of it.

With preparations made, it's time for a new adventure!

[monmouthmintleaves]

Vinnie Hacker voices Uzuki……..

[oraclememehacker]

Acceptance (Accidental Shadow Possession Arc)

This was the light realm, a place of overwhelming beauty and serenity, a heavenly glow that enveloped everything that it touched. In this world however, this was seen as unsettling and unnerving, a sign that they were out of their depth and in a world full of mystery and intrigue. Why did this world exist? Why was there a world in the subconscious that hid what people were wanting to become ideally?

So many questions with so few answers, at least for this world anyways. And this world's Phantom Thieves were getting to the bottom of it, whilst also reforming society, just like hers did, albeit in a slightly different manner. But this wasn't about the Futaba we all know, this was about this world's Futaba, who was about to do the thing she had been putting off for a while now.

Accepting her light self.

The anxiety that she was feeling was palpable, and whilst she knew that she had to get this done, the fact of the matter was that all she wanted to do was scream, throw up and curl up into a ball. What if this went wrong? What if her friends got attacked in the process? God she hated all of this and just wanted to cry.

But she had to persevere. For her sake, and the her that she had accidentally possessed. She had to admit though, there was another reason why she was going to cry. And it was the fact that she most likely was never going to see a version of her mom ever again. It almost felt like she was seeing her die in front of her again.

She hated this, she hated all of this. She didn't want to lose her mom again and it was also ripping her to shreds. But she kept on a brave face and persevered. That was what she had to do and kept on doing regardless. It was time to face her light realm self, who had been waiting for her for some time.

Within the tower to the sky, there was a section within it with light Futaba. It was where all shadows reside before they got their own palace if their ideals were distorted enough. And there was her light self, with crossed arms and looking all the unamused. "Finally you show up." The light Futaba exclaims, seeing the others around her. "Thought you wouldn't show up."

"Don't worry Futaba, we're here for you." Ren assured the shadow Futaba as he put a hand on her shoulder. "Just don't let what she says get to you."

"Yeah, exactly! You know what to do." Morgana and the others gave her encouragement as well since they had seen this before. Though not in this exact circumstances.

"Have you come to shed yourself of your guilt? Your anxiety and fear? Or have you come to deny your ideal self--" That's when the light Futaba noted Wakaba there and breathed heavily through her nose. Plus Futaba was different than normal. Interesting.

"Ahem, anyways, as I was saying, or have you come to deny that I am your ideal self? Those there is no denying that you have yourself in an interesting scenario here. Us, from another world, who you currently inhabit. Plus their version of our mother, seemingly alive. Fascinating."

She walked up to shadow Futaba and shook her head. "I get it now. You end up in that world by accident, and erroneously started the acceptance process, and because of that, you are stuck in a body that isn't yours, possessing them. Just to add to the things that you feel bad about."

None of it was wrong and was hitting Shadow Futaba right in the heart. "Y-You aren't wrong, I mean, of course you aren't you are me but--"

"But what? Is this where you tell me why I'm wrong? Predictable really. I figured that's what you would do."

"NO." Shadow Futaba took a deep breath and was composing herself. "I was going to say but I know I can get better. I must get better."

"Good. Though just remember, you are in this situation because you couldn't accept me fast enough. This is your fault, but are you ready to truly move on? Because if not..." Light Futaba glowed with radiant energy and adorned her egptian pharaoh outfit, and was still glowing with said radiant energy. "I'll have to take this in my own hands."

The tension could be cut with a knife and shadow Futaba stood there, shaking and quaking but she calmed herself down and was able to talk again. "I will accept you, because I want to get better, and because I know I can get better. I...have my short comings, I know that."

"I'm like an rpg character with lots of low stats, but I want to grind my way back up to being good. And I know my friends will help me...I know it's going to hurt when she leaves, I know all of that. But I'm...I'm determined, so I accept you, my ideal self!"

Her body glowed and light Futaba glowed differently. The two were about to start the acceptance thing. However, due to the fact that she was possessing a body, the process was going to be a lot more painful than usual. So, she screamed out in pain as she was starting to be forced out of the body.

Futaba's body continued to glowed and there was definitely a cause for concern as it seemed that it was resisting the whole process. But Shadow Futaba was drawn out slowly but surely, screaming out in agony the whole time, gripping her head before the body went a little bit limp as she lost control over it.

Soon, she was forced out completely and she was starting to merge with her light self, her persona coming into form. It was Necronomicon, the same as always, albeit a slightly different design. Once the two had merged, she gained her light realm outfit and then fell to her knees, exhausted.

"Futaba!" Ren yelled and they all rushed to her. "Are you alright? Are both of you alright?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm alright..." Shadow Futaba exclaimed as she was catching her breath but was otherwise in good shape. "Is my other self doing alright?" They turned to look at her and she seemed to be doing well...hopefully alright anyways.

Futaba would come to her senses and wake up, being held by her mom, but it was clear the process had taken a little bit of a toll on her body and it was acting up a bit. "Futaba dear, are you alright?"

"Who's Futab---" She then shook her head. "I'm fine, yeah, I'm fine." She was stiff and still in pain, but she was doing alright overall. At least, it seemed like she was doing alright, though her body was still acting up a little bit. "I'm at least in...control of my body again...this chronic pain is flaring up as well...ow..."

"I don't think the acceptance process is supposed to be that intensive, so I imagine you are hurting because of it. But I'm glad you have your body back." Wakaba gave her daughter a hug and was relieved this whole saga was over.

But what they didn't know was this was just the beginning of something even more strange. For now though, they all went back to the cafe, celebrating Shadow Futaba gaining a persona, whilst Futaba was going in and out of memory lapses and temporarily forgetting about herself.

Meanwhile, back in their world...Necro was feeling the effects of Futaba's body being messed up, and with the little bit of corruption from when they were escaping the scientists palace, was going to start to change a bit. But, that was for another time...

[nova2cosmos]

Redraw of his comic for his Bdaay!🥳💥🎂

Heeh happy birthday to this lil anti-heroXDD

Hacker!error 505 belongs to @au-mashup-party Art by me My commissions are open! / MASTERPOST

[askthehacker]

That's it. I'm clearing the fridge of anything that looks like milk.

I am NOT taking any chances.

[likeamosquitobutworse]

They really trying to doxx ao3 huh

[theramblingsofadork]

Myeheheheh not me thinking about Starline helping the Resistance post Restoration Arc completely mess Eggman’s whole network up since he would know all the broadcast frequencies and backdoors to the Eggnet.

[wonkybuckle]

How do you make your artfight profile not break for people on mobile??

[duckapus]

So this one might be a little too meta but...

The Hacker Arc. One of the Viewers noticed that the "Yiga Clan takes over Glitch Productions" segments of the IRL Arc were a little too well animated and acted, and realizes that the SMG4 characters, and possibly all characters, really are alive. They try for months to make the rest of the world see the truth, but without any tangible evidence they're written off as a crazy conspiracy theorist. So, desperate for proof, they hack into Luke's computer to "borrow" one of his characters.

They end up getting Tari, and put her into a copy of The Stanley Parable to wait for an interested party who are pretty much the only ones who've heard them out, and were the ones to provide them with the resources to codenap Tari in the first place. Unfortunately for both of them, said party is a shady organization who already knows about digital beings, and is far more interested in researching a live specimen for their own ends than revealing anything to anyone.

Meanwhile, everyone back in the Mushroom Kingdom and Glitch Productions is freaking out and desperately trying to figure out where Tari is and how to reach her.

[barrackbvnny]

"I beg your pardon, babies? There's more of it?"

They whip around to stare at the captain. " Babies . . . ? OH ! " They question and then exclaim as they realize the nature of his question. They pull their goggles off their face, " Yes, there are more. But Scuttle is my little en'kin'at. " They say as the small droid on their shoulder rubs against their neck. " There's only four that are hardware, the rest of them are little ticking timebombs of data-eating parasites I install into the software. " They explain a little further so the Captain isn't paranoid or concerned that they'd have them around the city.

[polaris-posting]

BALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLSBALLS

Every day.

We stray further from God.

[oraclememehacker]

The Light Realm (Accidental Shadow Possession Arc Drabble)

Futaba, still possessed by this other version of herself, was currently stuck in their world after the portal went on to wherever it had decided to go to next. It was annoying but she knew that she could eventually get back to her own world eventually. Though with her mother here now thanks to help from someone else, they were going to be able to get back pretty easily.

With that said though, the main goal was to finally get this shadow version of herself out of her so that she could get back to living her own life. The idea was that she was going to finally do what she was avoiding the entire time: Accepting her light realm self. It wasn't going to be easy but it had to be done.

It was still bizarre to her and Wakaba looking around, the sky looking exactly like it did in the cognitive realm in their world. And according to the locals here, this was completely normal and in fact a fairly nice day out. It was as normal to them as a bright blue and clear sky was. Just something to get used to for however long they were going to be here.

Though it was time to go over the plan and to learn more about this light realm in particular. Sitting in Leblanc Cafe, Futaba and Wakaba were talking to this world's Ren and Morgana who were more than willing to share how this so called light realm worked. Wakaba theorized that it was probably similar in concept to the metaverse, or a part of the overall cognitive realm. The light realm was just what they called the metaverse here. Made sense really.

"Well, we weren't exactly expecting this whole "multiverse" thing, and it's especially weird to see well...a Futaba I suppose to be like this. No offense, taba." This world's Ren apologized since it came off as a bit rude. Futaba of course took no offense to it, more than used to it at this point.

"Let's just get straight to the point. Is this sort of accidental possession a common occurrence here in this world?" Wakaba asked, jumping straight ahead since she wanted nothing more than her daughter to have full control.

"Nope." Ren responded, shaking his head. "Never seen anything like this before. Mona has an idea though."

"That I do. Buuuuut we have to get some info out there, just so you all are up to speed." Firstly, it was getting them up to speed on how their world worked and how the light world worked. Like the metaverse, it was the realm of the subconscious, the world opposite of the real world.

The reason why it was called the light realm though was, unlike the metaverse that came off as dark and grungy, this was heaven like. Strong white light permeated around, and especially at the sky tower, it was like they were constantly getting bombarded with heavenly light. A means to go up to somewhere. The destination unknown.

Unlike shadows, the other selves in this realm represented what people aspired to be, whether they realized it or not. And most of the time it was what their deep down desires were to be, what they secretly aspired to be. And like shadows, if those got too distorted they ended up having palaces.

Wakaba noted that it was similar in a lot of ways but different at the same time. The multiverse was truly something that was fascinating. A truly infinite amount of knowledge, within an infinite amount of infinities. It boggled the mind to say the least.

They had to accept their light selves in order to gain their personas and to be able to truly explore the world. Whilst this sort of possession was unprecedented, it was theorized that the process basically happened erroneously. By accident, and the way to fix this for good was for their Futaba to accept her real light self.

And if this didn't work well...they were going to be stuck forever. As far as they knew. Not an ideal scenario.

"The good news though is, she will be able to go to her easily enough. We've let her take her time with it and never did chastise her or anything. It's a hard thing to accept, and we understand." Ren spoke up as Morgana was wrapping up his explanation of everything.

"Well, according to her, she's felt like she's let you all down for not doing something so simple." Wakaba responded, remembering some conversations they had. "It was just her anxiety that really got to her, fears about things going wrong."

"It is true that if it goes wrong things could go badly. Buuuut, it should be fine. Especially now. We'll have everyone there to help her out. Then you all can go back to your world, at least hopefully anyways." Thankfully they had an out for that now which was good.

So, that was the plan. When Futaba fell asleep, the other Futaba would awaken and they would go through the plan, and then go into the light realm. With all of them helping her out, surely everything would go just fine, and this whole accidental possession thing would be resolved once and for all...

[teamgamble]

Tree of Knowledge Today at 4:54 PM hey Sunglasses Dragonite Today at 4:56 PM Yo.

Tree of Knowledge Today at 4:56 PM you know anything about blueberry academy cybersecurity

Sunglasses Dragonite Today at 4:57 PM No, that's not my forte. @On/Off Spell?

On/Off Spell Today at 5:02 PM it's decently hard to crack at first but IMO it's not government level difficult to crack. why are you asking?

Tree of Knowledge Today at 5:03 PM some teacher from there trying to pressure students from that trip my school sponsored to put in """""""a good word""""""" briar or something and she's starting to email a friend of mine about her pokemon idk bad vibes lmao

On/Off Spell Today at 5:07 PM oh that fucking bitch lol. yeah hop on the other place and i'll toss you some passwords to get started.

Tree of Knowledge Today at 5:07 PM thanks

[askthehacker]

Good idea, amig(o/a)

Don't patronize me.

[perhaps-it-is-me]

Why the HECK is my these purple and blue and my little message at the top a SWEAR WORD

[whathorselegs]

Doing my usual "lets go back and read random BSD chapters" and I can't help but notice how different Fyodor is now to when he was first introduced.

I've made a few posts pointing out how Fyodor and Dazai have similar panels, but I'm starting to think he's actually mimicking Dazai's mannerisms on purpose now.

I don't have a lot of canon proof other than, ~a feeling~, I get looking at him, so consider this a headcanon rather than a theory.

Warning Manga spoilers under the cut!

Like, Fyodor, why does this keep happening??? Fyodor's versions of these poses also all happen later in the manga than Dazai's versions.

Now, there's the argument that Fyodor wasn't there for half of these, but we do know he's a hacker and he was obsessed with Dazai for a time. I do believe he would just sit there watching Dazai's movements on cameras to learn his patterns and habits in the name of defeating him.

Compare how he holds himself now, to how he did when he was first introduced.

He's a shut in who bites his nails, doesn't take care of his posture or appearance. He's so used to being behind the curtains he's off putting to be directly around.

Whereas Dazai is a chameleon, he blends in anywhere he goes. If I was an immortal so out of touch with my own humanity and basic identity, I probably pick someone to mimic their behaviours too.

Ironic that he choose the man who doesn't consider himself human to learn from.

I'm also drawn to this panel specifically.

(Very suspicious choice of words there, considering the current manga arc, but I digress)

Typically when we think of vampires, we think of blood sucking immortals, but the vampire we have in BSD is based of Dracula. Dracula specifically poses the question of "What if vampires stole who you are as well?". The idea that you can't consume someone's very life without having their soul linger on with you.

The Count learns to blend in with modern society through Johnathan, from learning from him and by feeding off him. Mina, Renfield and Lucy all slowly lose who they are the more influence the Count has over them.

This panel says he's soulless, he's 'empty', he's a vampire waiting to steal someone else's soul to fill him up. Now, that could be a hint at what his ability turned out to be, but it could also mean how he's mimicking Dazai.

But why mimic Dazai?

Well, simply put, he was the only one Fyodor saw as an equal and we know he wanted a companion who he considered to be his equal. So why not make himself more like the man he wants at his side. To obtain Dazai, he became Dazai.

Problem is Dazai hates himself, he also seems to dislike any character that's convinced they are the same. (Note: Not characters Dazai sees himself in, like Atsushi, but characters who insist to him that they are the same, like Mori and Fyodor)

It was a doomed plot from the start.

However, Dazai is no longer his goal. Atsushi is. Fyodor knows Atsushi greatly admires Dazai, so continuing to mimic Dazai's mannerisms to connect them together in Atsushi's mind could be part of his plan now.