#(reference to my matrix username)

[aromantisk-fagforening]

local "caffinated aro" experiences headaches. after having like two energy drinks and two cups of coffee the previous day. I'll pretend to be shocked. more in at two.

[tortoisedmdd]

Digital Culture - Blog 4 - Reddit & 4chan

Reddit vs. 4chan

There is one thing that makes 4chan special - anonymity. Although the idea of complete anonymity on the Internet might make you imagine a kind of hellscape, there is some hope in the form of 4chan moderators who monitor the content within each board. These moderators are also anonymous themselves. There are only a maximum of 10 web pages available in each board. There are various boards to choose from - spanning from the innocent “Animals and Nature” to the not-so-innocent “Yaoi” - Be warned before Googling! 

I first heard about 4chan when I was 16 from a friend at a sleepover - she showed me the “man door hand hook car door” meme and after we both laughed about it I asked her where it came from. She spoke of 4chan as if it was illegal, admittedly it did freak me out and I never used 4chan but I have enjoyed some of the memes that have come from there through other social media channels. The controversies that have been birthed from 4chan is also why I am aware of what it is - One controversy that springs to mind would be the Habbo Hotel raids. 

The Habbo Hotel raids occurred on July 12th 2006 when a group in the /b/ (random) board, who called themselves “/b/lockers” joined Habbo Hotel in great numbers creating avatars of men with dark skin and an afro. The group started to form swastikas virtually and began to actually block access for other users. This raid is said to have been carried out by Anonymous as a protest again the supposed racist tendencies Habbo Hotel moderators had when banning users based on the skin colours of their avatars (Know Your Meme, 2020). 

On the other hand, you have Reddit - a website that has vast “subreddits” that can be created by any user, however you do need a username to sign up so the anonymity you find with 4chan is not there. Moderators and rules exist in each subreddit, much like the boards. Similar to 4chan, there are nice subreddits like r/cats, and grim subreddits like r/Rule34 (Again, this is not for the faint-hearted). You could say there is something for everyone on Reddit, unlike 4chan. I’m fairly sure it doesn’t exist any longer, but once I did venture on a “Red Pill” subreddit. For those of you that don’t know, Red Pill is a term coined from The Matrix, basically a subreddit filled with misogynist, involuntary-celibate men. They discussed men’s rights and how to pick up and manipulate women. This kind of dangerous rhetoric is something that can be really harmful to society, and although Reddit is much more user-friendly and not anonymous, it can still encourage groups like these to grow and spew further hate.   

Personally I use Reddit almost daily, mostly for pictures of cats, the Ireland and Cork subreddits and on occasion some pop culture stuff. I don’t really depend on it for my news but I feel like there is a really nice community aspect, which I don’t think is really in 4chan. The fact that there are usernames on Reddit, you can give people awards, and message people are nice aspects that connect people, unlike the cold “Anonymous” from 4chan.

-----------------------------------------

References:

C., A. (2022, October 05). Man door hand hook car door. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/man-door-hand-hook-car-door

Ezvidinc. (2018, September 14). The difference between Reddit and 4chan. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXOKItVakq0

Marche, S. (2016, April 14). Swallowing the red pill: A journey to the heart of modern misogyny. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/14/the-red-pill-reddit-modern-misogyny-manosphere-men

Pool's closed. (2017, February 11). Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp2EZbbuMa0

Pool's closed. (2022, November 06). Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pools-closed

[draconius25]

“The Great Game” I added some sigil glyphs, to my lasted Ai piece. Follow me @nightcafestudio. Username “Blue Pill Junkie” (Matrix reference; not a Viagra reference)😂 . #aiart #owls #retrostyle #illustrator #aiillustration #ai https://www.instagram.com/p/CiQpjThPmOQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[beaversatemygrandma]

Trying to explain to my dad that i agree that the pandemic has become all about money (in a way that corps just want us to keep working for them no matter how many people die bc of high profits) and not bc of the fact that they’re keeping people from taking the “miracle drug that is ivermectin”... it’s impossible.

I just had to explain that the one doctor that vouches for it was literally just some guy before the pandemic started. And he got mad saying that I’m just hating people for stating the truth that the government doesn’t want you to hear. And i’m just. I ended up looking at the wikipedia article of all the misinfo documented so far and I’m just stuck on how stupid people are. (specifically those ones about cocaine, veganism, and burning down 5g towers?)

Sometimes i’m glad i learned how to see if sources were valid. Why couldn’t everybody else have been taught that in school too?  They need it. There’s a fine line between stupidity somebody just made up and an actual scientific peer reviewed article and it’s never labelled until you get to sources IF it has sources..

like yes. I can’t tell you the exact reason why ivermectin isn’t the cure. That’s not what i specialize in. But i can also tell you I know well enough that it’s not and well enough to listen to those who DO Specialize in it. And it’s not an opinion. From real doctors and scientists who aren’t just some guy in some town who barely knows enough to not get fired from his job. (You can get a medical degree with straight C’s ya know)

[libertineangel]

My username on Reddit is the same as here but capitalised and hyphenated and someone in a thread referred to me by saying "the Angel is right" and I don't know why that feels so funny to me but alright I'll take it

It's on r/matrix as well, feel like Seraph when the Merovingian called him l'ange sans ses ailes

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

So when I was an egg in high school, I created a self-insert OC named Yar Kramer. I used him for a bunch of RPs, and several works of fiction, only one of which I actually completed. There were like two sprite comics and one thing I made that was literally just "sprites + dialogue and descriptions of the action", plus an unpublished and incomplete novel.

RP

The original original roleplay was on a Hitchhiker's Guide website called the H2G2, created by Douglas Adams as an attempt at realizing the eponymous Guide (which has been largely supplanted by Wikipedia). My username was originally "Adolescent White American [wronggender] Who Likes 47" (I liked the number 47 to its frequency in Star Trek); people shortened this to "Yankee Kid, likes 47" and subsequently "YK-47" and just "YK", which I backronym'd to "Yaradovich Kramer"[sic], after Yaridovich from Super Mario RPG and Cid Kramer from Final Fantasy 8. He was originally a coolkid Jedi in a red jacket, but at some point I retconned it to generic "psychic powers."

I also roleplayed him on a few RP MUDs, but I don't really remember any details there.

The "Original" Story

The novel was going to be called "Red Jacket", I think. "Yar Kramer" was a witness-protection alias, and his original name was Daniel Lancaster (hmmmm, someone's primary identity doesn't match their birth name!); he and his family had been forced to work for an evil organization called Project Robinson, which intended to create genetically-engineered espers for reasons I'm not sure about now. Project Robinson was led by an evil scientist called Dr. Krause and a computer named Mother Brain; I justified stealing the name "Mother Brain" because there were three unrelated video games which featured a character by that name (Metroid, Phantasy Star II on the Genesis, and Chrono Trigger).

The Grim Reaper was a woman who talked in underlined dialogue, and whacked people over the head with her scythe rather than actually reaping. She'd changed her form in the 1960s because she found the whole "skeleton" deal to be depressing. She had a black motorcycle with a flame pattern and the text "Pale Horse", and the souls she collected traveled in a pink sidecar which said "Binky" on the side in Comic Sans (where "Binky" is obviously a Discworld reference). When I created this in the 00's, there was totally nothing significant about a character who'd clearly changed her gender, nuh-uh.

Yar's love interest was Mackenzie Robinson, one of Project Robinson's creation. Despite the fact that the gummint had an active hand in extracting Yar's family from Project Robinson, there was some FBI/CIA spook called Agent Pinkerton who hounded Mackenzie like Inspector Javert. I know he had a classmate named Eckhart, who was this ratty-faced jerk with a heart of gold, who was inspired by one of my RL classmates.

I also found a half-written script for a comic, which gets as far as a prologue, followed by a scene which estalishes the witness protection business. Yar jokingly introduces himself Trigun-style as "Yaradovich Halvorsen Thompson-Stryfe-Gainsborough Donatello Leonard Raphael Michelangelo Farnsworth Anderson-Smith Jean-Luc Jones Solo Pepper Tibloxley Amelia Fayette-Mahoney Kierkegaard Williamtonshireworth Melora Kramer I." Wow. Let's see, "Halvorsen" and "Kierkegaard Williamtonshireworth Melora" are clearly made from whol cloth, and I'm not sure where "Jones" came from, but other than that, I can see in order ... Trigun (Thompson and Stryfe), Final Fantasy VII (Strife and Gainsborough), all four Ninja Turtles, Futurama, The Matrix, Star Trek, Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop (re-engrished "Pepelu Tivruski"), and Slayers. Again, wow.

First Reality

The "main" sprite comic, which was a sort of Final Fantasy parody made mostly in RPG Maker, and which ran from 2001 to 2004 on Keenspace. Yar Kramer was a "Neo-Samurai" (basically a ripoff of SeeD from Final Fantasy 8), fighting alongside a dude named Shigeru 'Gary' Oak (Gary Oak except as an adult, with a gunblade and dressed as Seifer Almasy, with no sign of any pokemon), and Tina Branford (Terra Branford without her tragic backstory).

The setting was incomprehensible if you didn't have detailed knowledge of Final Fantasy 6, 7, 8, and also Mega Man X; nearly every single place name was named after something from Final Fantasy except for Death Mountain, where they went to in order to get the Triforce (long story). A pink-haired goofy-and-hyperactive Celes Chere was the princess of Mysidia, and was a FF8-Sorceress; she frequently went in disguise as a thief named Fobby, and used a Reploid named Dancer as a body-double.

The main villain was named Darklumen, and his evil plan was to destroy the world by weakening the fabric of existence by leveraging sprite comic cliches, thus demonstrating that I have always been Like That. (The fact that I had a direct author avatar called the "Ultimate Guardian Force" with semi-omnipotent powers over the comic isn't even worth dwelling on, because omnipotent "author" characters are par for the course with sprite comics.)

The other party members: Kefka Palazzo, who was the court jester for Mysidia; Enerion Imusen, a half-Esper who was invented from whole cloth, who overcame his hangups about being half-esper with Tina's help before he got killed off by the bad guy; and "Rock Light" (because one of the reality-damaging sprite comic cliches was "Mega Man is present"), who was actually the Great Guardian Force Yu-Yevon in disguise for convoluted reasons.

In the ending, it's mentioned that Gary marries Princess Celes, and sort of vaguely implies that Yar ends up with Tina. (Tina made actual romantic overtures to Yar halfway through the comic, but they were interrupted by shallow comedy.)

I absolutely refused to let go of a running gag in which a male character would say something that broke the fourth wall, and at least one female character would immediately yell at him for doing so.

... I actually found some MIDI songs in the First Reality files which I personally composed. Well ... I say "composed", but the Darklumen final boss music was clearly based on the Super Smash Bros 1's Final Destination music with techno-twittering from All Your Base, one was based on a boss theme from Final Fantasy X combined with anime music, and Yar Kramer's personal themesong was chiefly based on Glyde's theme from The Misadventures of Tron Bonne.

YaraY

The other sprite comic, hosted on a subdirectory of First Reality's site. The name came from Yar's evil twin, Ray Remark ("Yar" and "Kramer" spelled backwards), and also from the Japanese expression "yare yare" (translated in JJBA "good grief").

It was a shallow Bob and George-esque thing with Mega Man sprites, and invovled Yar's shenanigans opposite Ray Remark; a straightlaced roommate with blue hair named Elbert Ssab (I don't know where I got "Elbert" from, but I came up with "Ssab" after noticing that "Elbert" backwards is "Treble"); a Reploid named Jive who was an orange recolor of Zero from Mega Man Zero; and a girl in a pink shirt named Kira, whose character concept began and ended with "hyperactive blonde girl." At one point, there was a comic which depicted First Reality as an actual console RPG being played by Kira; this comic was then ported directly to First Reality.

I abruptly stopped updating it in the middle of a story arc in which Jive went off with a group Maverick Hunters which inexplicably included Zio from Phantasy Star 4, who was just there to be generically evil rather than actually pursuing any of his canonical goals.

Super Adventure Yar

And finally, the "sprites plus dialogue" thing. It used whatever anime, video game, and internet characters I was interested in at any given moment, and there were inserts from several people I knew online. All of whom were basically overpowered in some respect, i.e. one of the friend-inserts was literally just a redheaded Goku in a trench coat, except his Saiyan name was "Suckarot". It was the most absurd and ridiculous of these things.

Yar was your basic inexplicably-overpowered action-shounen protagonist, and people kept going "What!? Why is he so powerful!?" (If there was going to be an explanation, I never got a chance to give it and I don't remember what it was, but I doubt there was anything reasonable.) Of course, this was also true of pretty much every protagonist.

His fighting style involved throwing energy blasts, and his signature move was named "Island King Kamehameha", because I knew the etymology of the Dragonball attack, but the kind of creative person I was at the time was that nuance, self-awareness, and "general understanding of what I was putting into my stories" were something that happened to other people.

Mayl Sakurai was impulsively violent with a squeaky-mallet.

At one point, while the protagonists were discussing a plot point which Mayl wasn't present for, she said, "What the hell are you talking about?" and then tossed an entire burger into her mouth.

Cut Man's NetNavi was FishMan.exe.

Yar bought Chii Chobits from Strong Bad, who ran an unbelievably shady second-hand electronics store; Chii's copycat tendencies extended to copying other peoples' magic and superpowers.

He also bought a generic NetNavi and expressed the intention to customize it, but all sign of NetNavis were dropped after a few episodes.

The "ageless faceless gender-neutral culturally-ambiguous adventuring person" (AFGNCAAP) from Zork/Enchanter was one of the main characters. They frequently used spells from Enchanter such as "gaspar" ("provide for your own resurrection" -- basically like a Final Fantasy "Auto-Life" spell, but AFGNCAAP was also able to use it on others), "vaxum" ("make hostile creature friendly", and every single target which it actually worked on promised to kill them after it wore off), "krebf" ("repair willful damage"), and "talcor" (healing; this seems to be something I made up myself, because I can't find any references to it in Enchanter canon).

I insisted on using "he/she" and the like instead of just the singular "they", wow I was deep in the egg in 2004. But they did say "I don't have a gender" at one point!

Magus/Janus from Chrono Trigger was trying to take over the world using robotic Sinistars. His minions were "the Terrible Trio", which consisted of Onslaught from Marvel vs. Capcom 1, Dalton from Chrono Trigger, and Dynamo from Mega Man X.

I stole the "now I'm wet and on fire!" joke from the webcomic Adventurers! during a fight between Dalton and AFGNCAAP.

Magus got a Vegeta-style "suddenly I happen to be on the same side of the heroes" redemption with the sudden arrival of, um, the Saiyans. Starting with Raditz as just a retread of Dragonball Z.

After Raditz was beaten, he sent a message to Vegeta and "Zappa", who was just Nappa but with a terrible wig and an atrocious southern accent; I have no idea what I was going for there.

The planet Arlia from Dragonball Z was populated by clones of Alia from Mega Man X5. It had the same fate as in the show, namely that Vegeta and Zappa just casually blew it up after going on a rescue-a-princess quest.

There was an "It's a gundam!" joke there.

The Goku-expy friend-insert taught Yar how to fly Hitchhiker's Guide-style ("throw yourself at the ground and miss"), and how to use bullet-time.

Mayl trained under Magus. At one point, while she was fighting a friend-insert with a sniper rifle (who'd previously stolen everyone's wallets for no apparent reason), Magus remarked that she had "hidden potential" and noted that in her hands, her squeaky mallet was just as powerful as the sniper rifle.

Vash the Stampede showed up, and the plot promptly started getting derailed as everyone around him dropped everything to try to claim his $60 billion bounty (Onslaught, to Dalton and Dynamo: "We'll split it 50-50-50!").

At one point, Vash ran off with Chii for reasons that only slightly made sense in context, and Yar chased them to a town called Las Eisley.

The three of them got into a bar fight at a "restaulant"[sic] (I thiiiink this was originally actual engrish from Trigun itself?) which completely wrecked the building.

After the bar fight, Yar called up AFGNCAAP to make repairs using the krebf spell; AFGNCAAP asked, "Was all the damage willful?" and Yar replied, "Well, I definitely proceeded in the full knowledge that massive destruction would occur." Due to the rules of sprite-comic comedy, this was enough for krebf to work.

There was a "Dear Strong Bad, how do you type with boxing gloves on?" joke.

In the middle of everything else, I started writing an episode introducing Valkyries and Loki -- which displayed a surprisingly deep knowledge of Norse mythology on 18-year-old-me's part -- but I never finished it and my files don't even have the sprites for the main Valkyrie character, who was another friend-insert.

... All of these continuities just feel amazing to me in retrospect, because this is the kind of thing that can only happen in fanfiction. Only something using existing characters, our existing associations with these characters, can possibly reach this level of ridiculousness.

Which isn't to say it's all fun and games, though. I was a particularly un-woke Rotten Egg, which meant that there was rampant sexism, and lowkey fanservice. The concept might look fun, but the execution was invariably "the worst parts of the sprite comic fandom."

[irarelypostanything]

The State of Technology Today

In old science fiction, they described the Internet (even before the Internet was invented) as a landscape you would plug into and get a rush from - my favorite book on the subject is Neuromancer.  Maybe you’d plug something into your brain, and then there would be so much information that you would get high on it.

The Internet now is really not that far off from the science fiction fantasy, it’s just more integrated with reality.  You go on the phone while waiting for the bus, and you’re there.  You record something happening now onto your Facebook live, and you’re there.  It’s not quite so interesting to talk about cyberspace as a literal space because we don’t fade to black and transfer our consciousness to the net, like we would in this fantasy, but in a sense the brain does similar things.  Inside the net, our minds go into a different mode of thinking.  We quickly open links, instead of linearly processing information like we would while reading a book.  We see things differently...people become a front-facing entity we can interact with, and a backend we don’t see.

I wish I could refer to this imaginary cyber universe as The Matrix, but unfortunately someone already copyrighted that term.  I’m just going to keep calling it FIGNATIA (Facebook, Instagram, Google, Netflix, Apple, TikTok, Intel, Amazon) until it catches on.  Even when it doesn’t, I’m going to keep calling it that.

FIGNATIA is the world we enter when we turn on anything that gets us into the net.  FIGNATIA is accessible on a phone, a laptop, even a Kindle.  And FIGNATIA, in this day and age, is where most of us choose to spend most of our waking moments.

Is it bad?  I don’t think so, but there’s certainly something a little bit terrifying about it.  In this imagined world, we have a separate entity that’s like us, but not us.  It’s a series of attributes, the presence we create every time we like, share, write, or post something.  We’re creating a persona for ourselves, and even when we project it via a conference video or a picture, it’s still not REALLY us.  It’s as authentic as we can make it, but it’s still just far enough from real to serve as something of a mockup.

View Facebook in developer mode, and you can see the JSON-like attribute structure that makes up every person.  Hit “view source” on a website, and you can see portions of the frontend code that render a website.  Unless you’re an app developer or a data scientist, you’re not going to get much out of this except the ability to to remember passwords you forgot and bypass certain payment walls (or, in my case, briefly pretend I’m Neo in The Matrix)...but as a metaphor, I find it interesting.

Many of these things, like software objects or whatever the f*** it is JavaScript decided to use, have an outward-facing component.  That’s our world - it’s an image that makes comments, a username we talk to, a bunch of pictures.  Underneath that, in the background, are all the many pieces of related information that develop as we go about our lives in FIGNITIA.  They have metadata.  They don’t just track what we post, they track the locations, the times, the many other related pieces of data.  With this information at their disposal, FIGNITIA attempts to predict the future by influencing it - it determines what we’re likely to want next, how long we want it for, where we’re going.

And someone like me will act like we’re above all this by seemingly making nothing secret, and by sharing thoughts like this with the world...security by obfuscation, we might say...no one can find anything on me if they have to navigate through a deluge.  But then tracking tools exist.  Run Tumblr through some tools that leverage the API, and you can tease out specific details.  In the same way, websites that cannot seem to be shut down exist that scrape addresses, simply by using associated information.

I think.  I never figured out how some of these tools work, and why they’re legal.

FIGNITIA exists in a feedback loop.  We compete for approval, for attention, and the data this provides is enough to make a person feel high.  Briefly.  The amount of pleasure created is so brief, and so fleeting, that we keep finding ourselves drawn back.

And, again...nothing is wrong with this.  But it’s not reality.  What I write here is still coming from me, but it’s not EXACTLY the cadence of how I interact in real life.  The picture I post may be as close a representation of reality as modern technology can create, but it’s still not QUITE real.  Recording serves as a way to document history, but at what point do we record excessively?  At what point do we find ourselves traveling to landmarks for the pictures, instead of to behold the view?

Reality, in that sense, can quickly feel more like a recording effort than like a series of experiences to enjoy, or at least to live through.  The problem with this virtual reality isn’t that it’s bad or overly addictive, but that it seems so close to reality that the two images become immistable.  

We all have the ability to unplug, at any moment we want to, and that’s why there’s nothing inherently bad about the software world we have created.  It marks people safe in natural disasters, creates no shortage of minable data we can exploit in order to determine trends, allows us to investigate things in ways most people don’t even know are possible by combing data they don’t even remember creating.  The net is beautiful, in that sense - for advertising, for helping to make business transactions, for forming a brand on the skills in our respective fields we wish to market.  The net is great.  I cannot even remember what life was like before we had a high-speed connection.

But it seems we live so many times in it, from the latest TV series to the newest news article to the last thing suggested to us by an algorithm passively harvesting the information we provided.  And sometimes it feels wrong, but I don’t know why.  There’s no patience in it.  In the net, time passes differently.

[backintothematrix-archive]

Tag people you want to get to know better

tagged by @storiesbehold

tagging: @youarethespecial, @wiiillcw-fcrest, @dreamsofalife, @rxtroskull... and that’s all because I don’t want to be annoying. If you wanna do it, pretend I tagged you OK?

nicknames: Ditto or Raz, depending on if it’s RP or art related. I have other nicknames, but they are references to my real name

zodiac: Aquarius

height:5″ 2″, I think. I’m short af is all I know

time: Right now? It’s 9:03.

favorite band / artist: Kaiser Chiefs, The Hoosiers, The Eagles, and Styx.

song stuck in my head: Scary Love by the Neighbourhood

last movie i saw: I am in the process of watching Children of the Corn. 

last thing i googled: Pixlr, which is a web based photoshop like tool.. 

other blogs: none that I use anymore.

do i get asks:  I get a few. 

why did i choose this username:  It’s part of a line from Lego Movie 2. “Why would you go back into the Matrix when you know the truth?” It also fit because of how I justify playing a Rex post TLM2 when he died in the end.

following: 100 people.

average amount of sleep: I work a 9-5, so I try to get the 6-7 hours of sleep recommended for adults.

what i’m wearing (right now): PJ pants and a Nightmare Before Christmas tee. 

dream job: Something in cybersecurity.

dream trip: England or LEGO HQ in Denmark. Yes, I mean that.

favorite food(s): Pizza, tater tots, chicken nuggets from Wendys, and asparagus. 

play any instruments:  Ocarina, a little bit of drums, I sing. I also used to play the violin and want to learn the mandolin. 

eye color: Blue

hair color: Black, with blue and pink bang streaks. (like Wyldstyle bb)

languages you speak: English, some Spanish. 

most iconic song: Right now, I would say either Stressed Out by Twenty-One Pilots or.. actually just that.

random fact: I have gone ghost hunting a few times. I even went to classes for it. 

describe yourself as aesthetic things:  I dunno... Lego, crayons, autumn, Halloween, magic, high fantasy, urban decay and exploration, time travel, sci-fi, slime, foam, bubbles... Did I do that right?

[thebiasrekkers]

Fragmentation 0.8

Plot: How does one measure freedom? Are our choices truly our own, or are they part of a preset design outside of our control? We all have a question burning inside of us, though few speak it out. It is the question that drives us forward, seeking purpose in our lives. What is The Matrix?

Rating: NC-17 // NSFW

Genre: Series | The Matrix!AU | angst | sci-fi | action | drama

Pairing: N/A

Warnings: Strong language, allusions to suicide, extreme angst, graphic violence

Links: FAQ || BTS Masterlist || Admin E’s AO3 || [ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]

Word Count: 2,138

AN: Like all of my works, there will be OCs working opposite of the boys. In this story, we have three. The first in the Fragmentation series is Mackenzie. Like Yoongi and Hoseok, she is self-substantiated. How she does will be revealed! On to Crow’s origin story for Defragmentation! All information in the universe can be found on the official Matrix Wiki so please use that as a reference guide if you ever get confused!

Tag List: @aroseforyoongi​, @prisczero​, @pinkpjmin​, @btsaudge​, @flowerwrites06​, @unoriginal-username15432​

© thebiasrekkers (Admin E). All rights reserved. Reposting/modifying our work is prohibited. Translations are not allowed. Plagiarism/stealing is not tolerated by any means. Legal action will be taken in instances of theft.

“Goddammit Mackenzie! I thought I told you to be home by eleven!”

A pair of green eyes glared up at the rotund looking man. His reddish complexion was barely seen from the scraggly beard covering the majority of his face. Sweat soaked through the dingy wife beater he wore, half stuffed into a pair of faded cargo pants. There were a pair of dog tags hanging from his neck - something that always piqued the green-eyed owner’s interest, but never enough to ask about them. 

Mackenzie doubted he served anyone but himself, let alone the country.

Instead of answering him, she folded her arms across her chest. Normally this was the time when she escaped into her room, but he was blocking the way. He was always getting in her way. 

It was his fault. Life used to be normal. This was as far from normal as a person could get. He was as far from being a real father as a person could get.

“You don’t have anything to say for yourself?”

She rolled her eyes, doing her best to ignore the stink of alcohol on his breath. Mackenzie didn’t understand why he persisted on being like this. It was the same shit on a different day. Part of her wished that he would walk outside and get hit by a bus. But she knew that that was a miracle she would never be granted. 

“Answer me!”

“What do you expect when I’m closing?” Mackenzie asked, her tone flat and devoid of all emotion. 

Her father’s eyes narrowed at her. She didn’t even flinch. “What did you just say to me?”

“I didn’t stutter,” came her clipped response as she let her arms fall to her side, “now move. I still have homework to do.”

Before she could take a single step, her father was advancing on her. Mackenzie mentally braced herself for what was coming. Her body was used to it, but it was always that dark corner in the back of her mind that suffered the most from all of this. So long as that part was shielded, she could handle everything else that usually followed. 

The pain that exploded from the side of her head paled in comparison to the pain of her hip crashing to the floor. Her arms immediately shot up to cover the top of her head as her body curled into a ball. The flurry of kicks that collided into her caused her nerves to scream out in agony. But Mack refused to scream, instead choosing to bite the inside of her mouth. The taste of blood flooded across her tongue and she heard her teeth clacking together when the heel of her father’s boot hit the top of her head.

After what felt like hours, but were actually minutes, her father abandoned her there on the floor. Every square inch of Mack’s body throbbed from the pain. There would be bruises tomorrow. Thankfully he’d missed her face so she could still go to work and school without receiving too many curious gazes. It was none of their goddamn business anyway.

Mack waited until she heard the front door slam before picking herself up off the floor. She roughly rubbed the back of her wrist across the corner of her mouth, eyeing the blood smear and rolling her eyes. She couldn’t help but wonder if the old man would notice if she spit on the floor just to spite him. Would he even care?

Grunting, she made her way into her bedroom, locking the door after shutting it behind her. Her father would most likely be out getting drunk for the rest of the night. It meant she had the whole house to herself until he came stumbling back in at four in the morning. Mack just hoped that she’d be able to get all of her school assignments finished and have enough time to surf the internet. Something told her that she was getting closer to finding what she was looking for.

Or, rather, who she was looking for. 

Speeding through her homework, Mack pulled up several browser windows once she was securely connected to the internet. Her eyes darted across the screen, her fingers flying over the keys - pausing only long enough to use her mouse to click on a few links that spiraled her into another location. Mack reached out to everyone that might have a lead and she got just a little bit closer than she did the day before. 

After another hour, she was starting to get frustrated. Everything was forcing her into a dead end. Just when she thought she had a lead, it only caused her to go on a wild goose chase on the wide web. Mack roughly scratched at her head, attempting to tamp down on her slowly mounting anger. 

“Dammit!” She slammed her fists on her desk, rattling everything on it. “Why can’t anyone just give me a straight fucking answer?!”

Burying her face in her hands, Mack did her best to suppress a sob that she didn’t even realize was building up in the back of her throat. She was tired, in pain, and a little hungry. But most of all, she was starting to lose hope. And that was starting to hurt her more than she would care to admit aloud. 

“Fuck it,” she muttered, standing up from her chair, “I’ll pick this up in the morning.”

Just as Mack turned away from her desk, the ping from her instant messenger sounded from the laptop. Pausing, she craned her neck to look at the screen. The username consisted of a series of random numbers. But what made her heart nearly drop to her stomach was what the person said.

You’ll never find Michael because you don’t know The Truth.

Mack ran back to her desk, her fingers gliding over the keyboard. She could barely hear herself typing from how loudly her heart was beating inside of her eardrums. It was the first time someone responded to her inquiries with something credible. It was the first time she could actually believe what she was seeing.

Because it was the first time someone actually mentioned her brother by name.

Who are you? How do you know that name?

The cursor on her screen blinked steadily. Mack wasn’t sure how much more she could take because she was almost positive that this was the clue she’d been searching for after all this time. It was a solid lead just because someone was able to give her a name. If they knew her brother’s name, that meant that they also had a good idea of where he was. She couldn’t afford to let this person slip from her grasp.

Who I am doesn’t matter.

How I know doesn’t matter.

What matters is...

What are you willing to do to know The Truth?

She stared at the computer dumbfounded. Was this another trick? Was this person just jerking her chain, trying to lead her into a false sense of security before sucker punching her in the face like everyone else? It would be the most logical explanation. It was the only thing that actually made sense.

Mack didn’t know why, but she felt like that wasn’t the case. Not with this person. Were they trying to lead her onto the right path after having been on the wrong one for so long?

Narrowing her eyes, she began typing again.

Anything.

The air was cold and frigid. Mack rubbed her hands together, her breath coming out in small white clouds. She peered through the metal fence as people continued to file through the city. She was isolated from the rest, sitting on a park bench and waiting. She looked at her watch, making a mental note of the time. She had five minutes left to wait. 

Five minutes until she would know whether this was real or a hoax.

The sound of gravel crunching underfoot quickly brought her out of her thoughts. Mack stood up immediately, facing the direction of the noise. All she could see were the trees cloaked in shadows cast from the street lights. She couldn’t see anyone, but the crunching noise wouldn’t stop. There was a large lump forming in Mack’s throat and she couldn’t help wondering if she’d fallen into a trap.

Seconds after thinking that, a young woman dressed in gray and black appeared. She wore a long black coat with a hood just barely covering her head of thick curls. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. The rest of her outfit was some sort of gray jumpsuit that almost seemed to shimmer when it hit the light just right. The legs of the suit were stuffed into a pair of shin high combat boots - the heels continuously crunching into the gravel; releasing an eerie sound.

Mack puffed out another breath of cloudy air just as the woman stopped three feet from her.

“Y-You’re early,” she managed to stammer out.

The other woman smirked, her auburn curls accentuating her mocha skin even in shadow. “If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late. You’re late, Mack.” She reached up with a gloved hand to remove the sunglasses from her face, revealing a set of dark hazel eyes. “Or should I say, Crow?”

Mack took a step back, her lips parting slightly as the woman referred to her as both her name and her alias. Her heart hammered against her ribs, causing her lungs to tighten up inside. What in the world was happening? Just how much did this woman know?

Not wanting to look like some punk, she shook her head and straightened her stance. “You have information I want and yet I don’t know anything about you.”

The woman continued to smile. “I already told you that who I am doesn’t matter. It never will matter.” She shrugged. “Not until you know The Truth.”

“What the hell is this truth you keep talking about?” Mack could feel her anger starting to grow. “What does it even mean?”

She watched the other woman reaching into her pocket to pull out a cell phone. She punched a few numbers and then pressed it up to her ear. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a whole lot of time for me to explain. You’re going to have to see it for yourself.” 

Mack bit her lower lip, her eyes narrowing as she watched the woman reaching into her other pocket with her free hand. Half a second later, her heart froze as the woman trained the business end of a semi-automatic pistol at her. 

“Whoa,” Mack said, raising her hands up slowly, “what in the fuck are you doing, lady?”

“You have a choice to make, Crow, and you don’t have a whole lot of time to make it, so I’ll be quick.”

Panic began to settle around Mack’s chest. “What do you mean I don’t have a lot of time?!”

“Agents are coming. They’re coming for you because you’re sloppy and desperate, which, sadly, is making me sloppy and desperate.” 

When the hammer clicked back on the gun, tears sprung up in Mack’s eyes. “Please, don’t do this.”

“Shut-up,” snapped the woman, the smile now completely gone from her face, “I already told you we don’t have a lot of time. You have two choices. You let the Agents take you or I force you out of the bubble you’ve unknowingly been put in. I’m giving you five seconds starting now. Five.”

She took another step back, but the woman advanced on her. Mack didn’t know what any of it meant. What did she mean by “agents” and why did it seem like this woman was trying to help her, despite the situation looking crazy to everyone else?

“Four.”

Her heart shook in her chest, causing her to reach up and clutch at the front of her jacket. Mack didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to die without knowing the answers.

“Three.”

She still didn’t know where her brother was. She still didn’t know what The Truth was and what it had to do with her brother.

“Two.”

She wanted to live!

Mack ran up to the woman, wrestling the gun from her grasp. The woman took a step back, but the smile returned to her face. Mack pressed the barrel of the gun up to her temple as tears streamed down her cheeks. Multiple footsteps seemed to thunder through the gravel, but Mack could only see the single snowflake that began to fall from the night sky. The world disappeared into lines of green numbers before returning to normal.

She smiled.

“One.”

After the gunshot ripped through the night, Mack’s world darkened immediately. But she...she felt free, somehow.

“Welcome to the Real World.”

[aromantisk-fagforening]

Intro post

sideblogs: @curious-etc and @music-fan (++ longer Tumblr post)

politically oriented aroace blog :)

find me: @/ink@/turtle.garden on mastodon or @/caffinatedaro:matrix.org on matrix. Ask for my Signal username. (more info here) and aro-with-music on cohost.org.

[last updated: 2 June 2024]

Hi, I'm Ink. [external link] My pronouns are: he/him or lee/lem/lis/lemself. I'm aroace romance repulsed sex favorable (it's slightly more complicated than that, but roughly).

asks and DMs are very welcome! Anons are on. specify if you want an ask answered privately. I'm a talkative person, if you want to be friends it is very possible.

DNI:

people who are (still) harry potter (or wizarding world) fans (because you are actively commiting harm)

uncurious people

Do interact: romance repulsed folks, aromantics (aroallos, aroaces, non-sam aros, frayros, etc), those who cherish libraries, people with xenogenders/xenogender folks, nonpartnering/nonamorous folks, people who listen to music 24/7, CSH fans, people who care about accessibility, people who don't fit in these categories but are positive to those who do

About my image descriptions: You're highly encouraged to copy the text if I describe your image, if you want to reformulate it or any other reason.

Trans unity! Trans women, trans men, nonbinary people, outherine people, xenogender people and any other trans and adjacent people are incredibly important. Do complain to me if I ever say or reblog something you think harms any of these groups.

Under the cut: avatar and header description. plus tags & interests & byf. AKA get to know the blogger.

descriptions

Avatar: The sunset aroace flag with an aro-colored headset, an ace of spade card (aroace symbol) and a flag that says I stand with Palestine. end description

Header: parts of lyrics, some artists include Lemon Demon, car seat headrest and Los Campesinos, and the topics are freedom and music and some more. one of them goes "no more songs about sex drugs and rock and roll, it's boring", which is from an art brut song. [outdated]

Music

This used to be a music blog. Mostly moved to @music-fan . I talked a lot about music, especially car seat headrest, Norwegian music, Sami music (I'm not Sami I just like their music) and political punk music. I listen to a lot of midwest emo music as well, but I haven't posted much about it I don't think. Find it at #musicblogging

(credit: burntoutuserboxes)

-

Referring to me

Pronouns

he/him, lee/lem/lis/lems/lemself, xe/xem/xyr/xyrs/xemself, xy/xyr/xyrs/xyrs/xyrself, ink/ink/inks/inks/inkself.

You can switch it up, or just use lee/lem, xe/xem or he/him.

I have more sets on my Notion (note: some details are outdated)

If you ever see any sets that make you think of me, feel free to tag/DM me.

Honorifics

Ind. (individual) and Mr.

terms

take note that I do not tolerate being referred to by feminine terms, even with "gender neutral" behind them.

in addition be careful with terms of endearment, I am not a fan of most that are often used in romantic or familial or christian contexts (don't hit me up with a "sweetheart" or something). Platonic terms are fine and great (e.g. friend, comrade, homie, friendo)

another term I am happy to be referred to with:

Kith. Derived from Old English kith, kinsmen, relations; Proto-Indo-European to know; knowledge, acquaintance. Some have suggested kythman/kithman or kythan/kithan. nonbinary term (from genderkoolaid)

formal terms: fidant, gentleman

------------------------

Common/useful tags:

aroblogging - aro stuff/funnies

relatedly aroaceblogging, aceblogging, ablogging (aro/ace mostly, not all aro/ace stuff) and queerblogging (mostly non aspec stuff for simplicity) and queer history (with some more specific "[type of queerness] history" tags.

platonic posting

old posts: 1000symmetry.txt / (reblogged | not reblogged)

ink.post | ink.self | ink.blog | ink.opinon | ink.journalism

just thoughts | just complaints | just hobbies

funnies | original funnies | outlier funnies | [x] funnies

rights & politics | highlights from politics

musicblogging | music | lyrics | me abt music | ink talks about emo

described art | art | fav art | aro art | ace art | trans art | art tutorial | art tips

self care | mental health | living as mentally ill | affirmation | recovery

pain and suffering (me about my own pain/physical disability) | disability (reblogged disability) | mobility disability | mobility aids | wheelchairs | blindness | [disability name] | accessibility | accomodations

advice & attitudes | life hacks | how to | how to live

informative | useful | knowledge | resources

neopronounblogging | pronoun posting | cool terms | language | respect & language | rhetoric/word choice | conlang | can you tell I want to make a conlang

Liam teaches unsuspecting internet people norwegian | norwegian stuff | norsk (in Norwegian tag) | på nynorsk | på bokmål | Norwegian | på norsk

Ink translates

On [topic] (e.g. tagging, art, dnis)

practicality/tw/cw:

I tag (as written):

undescribed | described / id in alt / described by me / my image description

txt | gif | video

negative

death - I tag anything that uses that word or synonyms with this.

murder - I tag anything that uses that word or synonyms with this

cw romance

not for the bus ( stuff I wouldn't want people to see without context sitting on the bus, mild nsfw, not necessarily sexual, doesn't include sexual jokes or text, if you want that filtered send an ask, but there's not much of that here)

sex related (for jokes about theoretical sex usually, also (mild) kink jokes)

artistic nudity

Tw [trigger]

Cw [content]

[trigger] mention

[discrimination type] mention - for someone is fighting against that discrimination generically (e.g. [x group] don't always [stereotype])

I can tag anything else just ask :)

Interactions and interests

asks & DMs are open

ask/tell me about my identity, your identity, music I'm playing/making, music, what I'm up to, what you're up to, books I might've read, queer comics/series/books you or I have read. Tell me a stupid joke, ask me about the weather.

Oh and ask me about languge if you want! I speak norwegian natively, and am very willing to teach random internet strangers/mutals some, like random words/phrases, interesting (to me) fun facts, literally the entire language (not realistic, but I would try) - do follow @bokmaal-norsk if you want to learn. Just shoot me a DM or ask or whatever. I also have learned some french at school, but I'm nowhere near fluent, I've been learning it for like 5 years.

------------------------

Before you follow / stances

I'm not often involved in very hot take discourse, nor much discourse in general, but you can just ask (by ask or DM) if there's anything, or if you disagree with anything i post/reblog. Well thought out arguments are appreciated /genuine.

I'm sure I don't have to say, but I support queer rights. I am strongly against terfs & other radfems. I obviously support xenogender people. but I don't identify with any movement I'm aware of.

I guess I should say I have the somehow controversial opinion that trans men need liberation not just trans women (but don't disinterpret this, I cherish trans women and nonbinary people highly as well).

Queerness is about breaking away from gender norms/laws. It's about not performing gender like society says based on your (m/f, conforming) sex. About not fitting into the two boxes of cis perisex boy who likes girls and only girls romantically and sexually or cis perisex girl who likes boys and only boys romantically and sexually.

I'm very sex and kink positive. In case it needs to be said sex and kink requires enthusiastic (informed) consent and communication. no one is obligated to have sex, ever.

I, as many others hate jkr and HP for a diverse set of reasons (transphobia & anti-semitism especially). You can follow if you stopped being a fan. also DNI if you have HP url or similar or monetarily support the wizarding world and other stuff that support jkr.

....

general discourse/politics

I hate ideologies not people, generally speaking.

I especially hate/post about: aphobia/amisia, transphobia/-misia, homophobia/-misia, queerphobia/queermisia, queer infighting, anti-intellectualism, anti-semitism, fascism, racism, colonialism, just oppression and bigotry in general

don't talk to me about/be careful about: religion, "what a human is", "what our purpose is". especially if you have a black and white view of these issues. Especially if you don't say that "[you] think [x]", you say that "[x]".

I care about: libraries, freedom of press & speech (which excludes hate speech), science, sources, queerness, the arts, research, knowledge, accessibility, health (mental, physical, and everywhere in-between), bodily autonomy, welfare (working against poverty & for healthcare & education), worker's unions, culture (especially languages), access to education, religious freedom

I believe in restorative justice

as mentioned before you're free to ask about stuff and debate with me.

-----

Big posts

[links updated to url: unionize-aromantically - outdated. (just change that part and it works tho]

Longest: queer history in Norway

Longest reblog chain: Norwegian pronouns

most popular posts: 1: (26.3 k) It's just Tuesday?? [fixed] 2: (20.4 k) Why do you boop? 3: (10k) Booping is inaccessible

reblog game (you can still reblog): top artists

poll with the most votes (47.5 k) Why do you boop? 2nd place: (3 k) do you like the summer?

queer organizations in Norway (if you know of more please share)

--

Other

sideblogs: @music-fan (music posts) + @curious-etc (misc, fandom, interesting facts & stories, linguistics, hobbies) @et-afilt-individ (blog in Norwegian) + @bokmaal-norsk (me teaching you Norwegian blog) @mvr-ink-the-aro (aromantic blog, most is also here) + @bad-design-poorly-put-together (pain vents & painkiller talk) + ask

(not mine): media with aspec rep: spreadsheet (via aspeccharactersoftheday). note that characters may have small roles and the document doesn't specify.

You can also join my discord server, (link here, updated 20 April 2024)

[thisendlesslostparade]

Becks Ice (Tyrelliot)

Summmary: Elliot didn't think he would see Tyrell ever again after their friendship ended years ago, but then they meet again at a party and all of his feelings come back up...

(Vaguely based on "Becks Ice" by Von Wegen Lisbeth, doesn't matter at all if you don't know the song though. I wanna start posting some of my fanfictions on here, but this is already available on ao3 under the same username as I have on here. Enjoyy)

Content notation: Unrequited love, mention of alcohol and partying

He wasn't supposed to be here.

Maybe this was a glitch in the matrix, maybe he had somehow entered a parallel universe and no one had told him, but this was completely impossible. His fingers started shaking, as he held on closer to the glass in his hand.

When Angela had told him to have a drink so he would "cheer up" and "relax", he had laughed at her. How was he supposed to relax with all these people around? He hated parties. And now ... now THIS.

Angela hadn't seen the certain someone yet, obviously - she was too busy flirting with every average looking straight guy she could find. Her taste in men had always been terrible, no doubt about it. All these arrogant, sexist jerks she ended up with - Elliot would never get used to them.

But now he certainly had more important problems. 99 problems and the tall guy across the room was every single one of them.

He hadn't changed at all. If he had, maybe Elliot would be able to convince himself that this was just a doppelganger. But it wasn't just his face, the striking blue eyes, the slicked back blonde hair that felt a lot softer than it looked. Elliot shook his head, shaking off the memory.

No, it wasn't just that. It was the arrogant smirk on his lips, the look in his eyes, the way he immediately seemed so much softer when he genuinely laughed. It had never been hard to tell when Tyrell REALLY found something funny - his whole face scrunched up and he didn't look so condescending anymore. He looked almost adorable.

"Angela?"

She immediately stopped talking to the flashy asshole and turned to Elliot. At least he knew he could always count on her, no matter what.

"Look." He raised his glass and pointed towards the guy who was most definitely Tyrell Wellick.

Angela raised her eyebrows. "Who?"

Elliot rolled his eyes internally. Maybe she was so drunk that she really couldn't see what he was referring to.

He raised his hand and pointed again, making sure that no one else saw what he was pointing at.

She tilted her head. "Meh, too blonde for my taste."

It was unbelievable. Apparently Angela would be of no assistance in this situation. He downed the beer at once and then walked towards the group on the other end of the room.

Yup, it really was him. It almost felt like a deja-vu - three years ago it had been a party just like this one. A little smaller, and all of the guests had been wasted high school students who used their remaining two brain cells for staring at people's breats or running to the bathroom every few minutes, either to throw up or to check their make-up.

Quite obviously, Elliot had never liked parties. But just like today, Angela had convinced him to go. "Just for an hour or two, pretty please!"

But then there he had been, the guy of Elliot's dreams, smiling at him across the room and it had begun - the most terrible, wonderful, heartwrenching love of Elliot's life.

"We'll stay friends", they had promised each other, in each others arms at the airport before he went back to Sweden. And even then his heart was breaking because Tyrell Wellick had never, at no point in time been like a friend to him.

He had freaked out and high-fived him, shared his excitement every time Tyrell made out with another pretty, popular girl, or another football player. Yes, he had been THAT guy. Came to America for one year and had sex with what seemed like the entire school - or, well, everyone except Elliot.

And even now he had the attention of everyone around him. It was something about his attitude, something Elliot envied him for, while at the same time he knew he didn't really want to be that way.

It wasn't in his nature. He was the guy who made out with people when he was absolutely wasted, and then had them text him the next day: "Hey, I'm sorry. I usually never do stuff like that. I was really drunk."

And maybe, deep down, he simply didn't feel like he deserved more than that... It certainly never surprised him.

His throat felt so dry, he was already craving another drink. Seeing Tyrell here was more than he ever could've dreamed of, and everything he feared.

He hated him for leaving him, hated him for simply not understanding what Elliot really felt for him... and he hated himself for not being able to remain friends with the person he had once loved more than anyone else in the world.

And wasn't love supposed to be selfless?

He couldn't bear it any longer. Every cell in his body was longing to walk towards him and hug him just one more time, or tell him to never ever leave him again.

Only a few shaking steps further and Tyrell finally recognized him. His face froze in disbelief, then it lit up as if someone had turned back on the lights in there.

"ELLIOT!" He yelled and pushed the girl next to him aside to walk towards Elliot, taking him in his arms and almost squeezing him to death.

Elliot swallowed down the lump in his throat, fighting back the tears, as he breathed in the scent he hadn't thought he would ever smell again. Something flowery, never too much though, and something that was just so completely unique for Tyrell.

"What are you doing here?" he squeezed out when they finally let go of him.

"I'm visiting my host family", Tyrell said, still the widest grin on his face. "You know I really thought about telling you... but... you know, you never texted back anymore so..."

The pain in his voice made Elliot want to slap himself.

"Yeah sorry, I'm so sorry, I was just really busy with graduation and college, you know?"

The truth was that he had thought it was better off this way. A whole ocean between them, and there was no way he would ever get over the Swede with the striking blue eyes, if he kept seeing the status updates of all the beautiful things and beautiful people he was doing now.

Tyrell shrugged and the smile returned to his face. "That's fine. Hey, I'm here now. And I'm staying for another week so we could hang out a bit if you want."

The sparks in Elliot's stomach felt like he was going to explode and set the whole room on fire. Another week... so much and so little at the same time. It made his heart hurt.

"Maybe you could show us around a bit? It's been so long and the city changed quite a bit... I'm not really being the best tourist guide for Jonah." He laughed.

With every word Tyrell said, the clear blue sky of Elliot's mood got more and more cloudy. He could already feel the thunderstorm coming up.

"Jonah?"

"Yeah. Oh, sorry, I forgot you don't know each other yet." He put his arm around a small, dark haired guy standing a bit aside and pulled him away from the conversation he was currently having.

"Jonah? That's Elliot, my friend from America. Elliot, that's my boyfriend Jonah."

Boom. There it was, the thunderbolt hitting Elliot's head and burning him to the ground.

I need a cigarette, Elliot thought. Where the fuck....

"Hi Elliot. I heard a lot about you." Jonah smiled and reached out his hand. It would've been easier if he had been an asshole. Elliot's mind kept racing and yet he had no idea what to say.

'Hey, you seem like a sweet guy. You look cute together. But all I can think about is stealing your boyfriend and kissing him until he forgets how to breathe'.... Well, not a great idea.

"Hi." Elliot cleared his throat, then he looked at Tyrell. "Can we maybe go outside and have a smoke?"

"Oh, I don't smoke anymore. But sure." He gave Jonah a way too exaggerated kiss that almost seemed like a provocation to Elliot. Elliot bit his tongue so hard he tasted blood.

What on earth had happened? Tyrell drinking cocktails? Tyrell not smoking anymore? Tyrell in an actual committed relationship?

He shook his head and walked towards the exit, convinced that Tyrell would follow him.

The cold wind on his skin felt amazing. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, then took out his cigarettes.

"Is everything alright?" Tyrell appeared next to him, looking a bit concerned.

Elliot nodded slowly. "It's a bit overwhelming seeing you here."

"Overwhelming?" He frowned. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

"Yeah." Elliot sighed. "But .... don't you have all these memories coming back up?"

Now Tyrell seemed to understand. He smiled. "Yeah. It was intense back then."

Both laughed, lost in memories. Taking another drag from his cigarette, Elliot tried to stop himself from comstantly looking at his lips... lips that had kissed someone else only moments ago. He must've completely gone insane - or maybe it was the alcohol.

But fuck it.

"I loved you", Elliot said, not averting his gaze, feeling braver than he ever had before. "I really, really loved you."

Tyrell's face went soft. "I loved you too."

"No you didn't." Elliot blew out the smoke and shook his head. "You liked me. You liked spending time with me. But I loved you."

He pursed his lips. "You know there's different kinds of love right? I did love you. You were the only person in this shit city I really trusted, El."

The old nickname, without a warning. Elliot could almost feel himself tearing up again. Walking around the city and singing their favorite songs together. All the base ball games. The nights at Elliot's place, cuddled up, watching movies under a huge blanket. Tyrell's hands in the pockets of Elliot's hoodie when it got cold outside. Trying to hold back their laughter in class when they were supposed to be quiet but something was just so hilarious, something only the two of them would find funny. Memories, memories, memories.

"I just don't understand how you could know ... I think you knew. You always knew how I felt about you. You just didn't care. It was too much discomfort for you to stop hanging out with me. But you didn't even like me enough to tell me it's not gonna happen."

He didn't disagree, he just looked at the floor.

"I just hoped your feelings would go away eventually, you know. I needed you as a friend. But I also know that... sexual tension was always between us. I'm not completely stupid. It was just... never more than that."

The truth hurt more than anything he could have made up in his mind.

But before Elliot could say another word, Tyrell stepped forward and took the cigarette out of his mouth, taking a drag himself and gazing into his eyes, just for a moment. Elliot closed his eyes because he couldn't handle it anymore. Too much old, dusty pain coming up from his subconscious, too many sleepless nights when all he saw in front of his inner eye, was Tyrell's face. Then Tyrell put his lips on his.

It was only a second or two, but Elliot kept his eyes closed, breathing him in, while his stomach felt like the explosion had finally gone of. Tyrell stroked the side of his neck, sending shivers down his spine, then slowly pulled away.

"Goodnight, Elliot." He put the cigarette back between his lips. "I'd be happy if you called me someday. When you're ready."

He stroked his cheek, almost as if he were fragile, delicate. "And I'd love to meet your future boyfriend. Gotta make sure my former best friend gets the treatment he deserves."

A sad smile on his lips he disappeared back inside the building.

Elliot looked after him, the feathery walk he had seen so many times, now for the last time walking away from him.

He turned around, and went home.

The wind suddenly didn't feel so cold anymore. It was refreshing, taking away the heat.

Making room for something new, something different. Something more.

[hoxooster]

For the PD2 Ask meme -- 8, 13, 26, 27?

Hoh, shit. I didn’t think I’d get any requests from this. Okay, so…

Day 8 - Which heister is your least favorite?

Well, I have two at a tie. Houston and Sydney. I don’t like Houston, ‘cause he was forced on us Payday: The Heist fans back before Hoxton was brought back. I actually switched to playing Dallas after a while, until the Brit was reinstated. Emma can confirm, ‘cause she met me after I had already made the switch. And I don’t like Sydney, because I find her annoying. My mother is a junior high teacher, and some of her more irritating students are like Sydney. Very ‘lol, random’ and thinking that they’re hot shit. Plus, I’m disappointed with what OVERKILL did with her character. She could’ve been soooooo much more interesting, but they went with ‘preteen going into goth without knowing what it really is’ shtick, rather than anything with more substance. I dig her design, though. Always had a thing for mohawks and tattoos.

Day 13: Favorite personal incident that happened during a game?

Okay, so, I’m gonna preface this with admitting that I am a dick. A big one. I was playing Shadow Raid DW by myself and talking to Emma on Discord - this was before the Mayhem and One Down update - and she was like, “I’ll join you in a minute.” and I was all like, “Cool beans.” I go into the sewer when she drops in, ‘cause she’s Iron Manned out at max armor and all set for loud, the goober, and I tell her to put them on the zip line while I open the last of the crates. So, she’s moving the bags I have down there when I find three - count ‘em - THREE artifacts. And, hoh, I just start laughin’ in my head. Then the helicopter comes with ANOTHER artifact. I pile the bags up in a certain way so she won’t grab the lighter stuff, and get the last artifact when she starts complaining about how slow she’s moving with the artifacts. I switch outa bag of coke with the last artifact, so she’ll grab it. She picks it up and starts losing her mind. “FOUR FUCKING ARTIFACTS?!” Then I told her that I made it so she’d pick up and move all four in a row, and she goes into meltdown mode, and I was laughing so hard. She changed her Steam username to ‘4 FUCKING ARTIFACTS’ when we started on a different map and kept yelling at me for the rest of the day. She also kept seeing the number 4. It was beautiful~ I have evidence. Full picture.

Day 26: If you could suggest a new heister, what would they be like?

Well, that’s a tough one. ‘Cause we have the mother hen (Dallas), cool older bro (Chains), workaholic (Houston), asshole (Hoxton), nervous wreck (Wolf), Ted 2: the Tryhard Matrix Edition (Wick), corrupt cop gave up donuts for weights (Dragan), your annoyed and very drunk aunt is ruining your family barbecue (Bonnie), Flippy the army bear got lost in the ‘80s (Jacket), you see Ivan… (Sokol), insert Leprechaun in Hood joke here (Clover), dingoes ate my sense of humor (Sydney), Flightplan dubbed in Japanese (Jiro), Pilz-E meets Surrogates (Jimmy), Surfin’ USA (Bodhi), my self-references just remind you that my acting was better in these cooler things (Rust), saluda a mi pequeño amigo (Scarface), and I wear Hawaiian shirts so you won’t see all the margarita stains (Sangres).

That’s a lot of disparate personality traits, most of them one-note as you can tell from my sarcastic labeling. Kinda like how all the traits of the kids in the Breakfast Club would make one person if put together.

So… I dunno. Maybe someone who’s new to heisting? Like maybe a really quiet or even shy character, since everyone else is pretty loud and cocksure. There’s also those who get quieter the angrier they get, and they’re actually a lot more terrifying than the screamers, ya know? Or maybe someone who’s actually mentally unstable - I’m looking at you, Wolf. Jacket, you’re underutilized. And don’t make me fucking laugh, Sydney. Really, I just want a character that’s well written for fucking once. ‘Cause, yeah, the Crew can be rather funny and all that, and that’s great, but when OVERKILL gets down to characterization on the ‘Reasons Why They Are Here’ and ‘Why You Should Like Them’ parts, they fall flatter’n a pancake on the Waffle House’s kitchen floor and they still serve it to us.

Day 27: What’s your favorite in-game quote? Who says it?

*Heavily snorts some cocaine.* “Good job, yeah? Good job. Now we party, you fuckers!” - obviously Jimmy, that precious idiot~

Also, “Wollllfeeeee, you gotta help meeee!” yelled by Hoxton will always be my favorite Payday: The Heist quote. It’s adorable.

[drecusxheng]

The Exiled Avatar (Chapter 1)

[Just a Character] I was created, to kill for the entertainment of others , killing monsters and going on quests without pause . I hated my life, being forgotten every time I entered another place. Friends I made came and went. Once my Owner gets bored, I will be stuck in this screen forever. In this cycle of gaming, dying over and over, I want travel to places and remove this curse that has been within me since I was used as a seal for the Black Mage. My username is W0lfox, but I hate it, I want to have a normal name , but ever since the Creator named me, I was like a robot, to be controlled forever. Stuck with a name that does not make any sense at all . The Creator created me with a backstory that everyone I got to know would lose their memories of me. I was a Hero who has been forgotten while being the sacrifice to seal away the Black Mage, who wanted to rule over Maple World.  I was one of the 6 Heroes who came and stopped the Black Mage , weakening him, and I was chosen to be part of the seal. After a thousand years had passed, the seal weakened and broke, and I was awoken from my slumber. There are many characters like me, but they enjoy being with their Creator. They have good looks, riches beyond your wildest dreams, and friends to accompany with. But they have no Soul, they are all controlled by their Creators. The Game Master (GM) told every single character and input a command in our programming that ensured we would never move freely and only move when we are controlled or told to. If we were caught moving freely without being commanded to, we will be Erased. But since my Creator has been long gone, I have no meaning in this World which is full of Monsters. I want to leave and I will disobey the GM’s command to be Free. Slowly, I changed my programming and able to move freely, though there was a price to pay. I can never talk or chat with other people. I can only show expression and able to listen what other player were chatting. Though I have been able to listen to monster, I could not reply or talk to them. But for us Avatars, whom are controlled by our Creator, we showed no mercy to the Monsters and defeat them for loot. It took several months till I had modified my own source code and was able to use my own skills and ability. But I want to get out of this World, but if I ever get out, I need to decode my clothing and items with me as I might not have any inventory space with me. I slowly progress on my decode and try not to alert the GM from knowing it. Years passed... my Creator came back .... and I was out of my Stand at the Character selection screen. When my Creator saw me jumping to my Stand, He swiped his Hand to me, and I ran. But it caught me.. I was then selected to be Deleted. I am going to be Erased. -To be Continued - [Just a Character]: A Maplestory/Maplesea Parody Novel Genres :  Adventure, Maplestory, 2-D, Action [Disclaimer: I do not own Maplestory or Maplesea.] Inspired by :Wreck-It Ralph ,The Matrix (Movie) Inspired by : Undertale , Maplestory (Games) Reference by : Glitchtale (Undertale fandom from Camila) Story written by :Duel_User (D.G.Marcus) Edited by :Jeremiah James

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Here’s How to Use Saved Searches on Twitter for iOS

Whilst the Android model of Twitter’s cellular software allows users to save searches for clean get right of entry to in a while, the iOS version currently does now not. But, this doesn’t mean that iOS customers can’t use the stored searches function in the iOS Twitter app.

  To apply this feature on iOS, you want to first store each search While the use of Twitter on the internet. This can allow you to get entry to the stored searches afterward inside the app. Our manual will display you ways this is finished.

Step 1: On Twitter’s internet site, search for the topic you’d want to shop through the hunting menu within the top proper corner of the display. Step 2: Click the 3 vertical dots near the top proper nook of the hunt results page. Step 3: Click on “save this search” to keep the search in your account. After you’ve saved a seek to your account, you may get entry to it within the Twitter cellular app on iOS. Right here’s how.

Twitter 101: Basic Tips

If you own an enterprise, the chances are very good that you have profiles on at least some social media channels. Twitter may be very probably one of those. You can consider handling all your social media channels to be challenging but once you have got mounted a rhythm, it should get easier.

handling Twitter as easily as possible The numerous social media channels have some differences which you want to study and use accurately. Fb works otherwise from LinkedIn, which matches differently from Twitter. Because of the one’s differences a few of the social media channels, it is very important so that it will learn how to navigate one of kind social media platforms and having a deep understanding of them in my view will make all the difference in your achievement.

The fact is that the more you apprehend about the social media channels, the extra effective your interactions along with your target audience contributors might be and the greater effectively you’ll be capable of doing your activity. After all, you need to interact other human beings in the most successful manner possible and you need the connection which you percentage with the ones humans to be enduring, stable, and together useful.

In case you are highly new to Twitter (or have sincerely no longer engaged on Twitter as an awful lot as you may have wanted to do), here are a few simple suggestions to help you to get the maximum out of it on your particular business.

Earlier than you can sincerely proceed, you’ll need to have a primary information of the phrases that Twitter makes use of most usually. So, right here is the Twitter one zero one word list.

Tweet: A tweet is a message on Twitter. Tweets are precise from other social media posts in that you have a problem with one hundred forty characters, which includes spaces. That still includes any snapshots and any hyperlinks. You’re probably most secure In case you restrict your text to among a hundred and fifteen and 120 characters (without areas) so you go away some characters for the pix and hyperlinks. If you cross over your man or woman limit, the textual content will be truncated, that you definitely do now not want to occur.

Retweet: If someone retweets a tweet, That means the tweet is shared with that individual’s followers, which gives your tweet much wider exposure than it had Earlier than. There are distinct approaches wherein someone can efficiently retweet. One is manual. If the person is going to do it that manner, she or he would kind “RT” Before the username and the content that is being retweeted will follow. For a long term, the handiest manner that someone should retweet was manual. But, there’s now a 2d way wherein a person can retweet, and this is by way of sending an internet retweet. In that case, the man or woman could hit the “retweet button” and the complete tweet could visit the recipient of the retweet. The “retweeter’s” name and avatar could additionally be included. between the two techniques of retweeting, the second is easier, much less time-consuming, and greater police.

Feed: The feed is the supply of the updates that you receive on Twitter. Your feed will tell you what content material is being up to date and it’s going to also will let you understand who’s retweeting the content.

Cope with: The Take care of is the name of your account (as an example, @johnsmith). You need to try to be as steady as possible in terms of your Cope with so that other human beings can engage with you as easily as viable.

Mention: A Mention is while you Point out some other character’s Handle in a social media put up. That creates the perception that the people whose Take care of are being referred to is influential is some manner. It reasons different people to pay attention.

Hashtag: This is a “#” followed by a keyword or keyphrase. As is always the case, you ought to be aware of the keywords/keyphrases you select for maximum effect.

Direct message: That is a personal message through Twitter to one in all your Twitter fans. it’s far vital to take into account that an instantaneous message can simplest be despatched to someone who’s following you on Twitter already.

Quote tweet: This is a manner to allow a Twitter consumer to include remarks within the tweet. Now for the suggestions and hints

Use keywords and key terms wisely: key phrases paintings the identical manner on Twitter as they do on all other social media channels. The extra unique the keyword/keyphrase, the simpler it is going to be for the opposite individual to find you. After all, you need to connect to the other individual so that you can begin to develop a courting collectively.

Focus on the perfect influencers: Influencers are extraordinarily critical for the achievement of your enterprise. Your influencers come up with brought credibility and they create a lot to the desk for your benefit in addition to for the gain of your target market individuals. You need to Attention on resonance, reach, and relevance whilst thinking about which influencers are suitable for your business.

Make top use of hashtags: Hashtags are instrumental in getting different people to take note of you. They help you to solidify your dating with your target market.

Give credit score wherein credit is due: In case you examine something on Twitter that is worthy of being shared and being mentioned, you have to no longer hesitate to accomplish that. Anybody likes to be mentioned. Giving credit is going a very lengthy manner for little or no attempt.

Be prepared: Twitter is one social media channel that makes it clean with a view to automating (agenda) your tweets. If you could try this, you’ll have less strain than when you have to do the whole thing manually.

Speak approximately how important engagement is for Every person: when you have a desire to prevail with your social media interactions, engagement have to manifest. Engagement does such a lot of tremendous things, together with strengthening your credibility, boosting your enterprise’ reputation, and positioning you as an expert in your niche.

Entire your Twitter profile: This might be the, in reality, the first factor which you must do. Earlier than the opposite man or woman will do not forget to interact with you, he or she will most possibly take a look at out your profile. it is extraordinarily essential that you not simplest have an Entire profile however that you additionally make it interesting for different human beings to read. A dry profile may not reduce it.

Introduce a photo element: The reality is that many human beings are visible and; consequently, they reply higher to graphics than to words. It has been confirmed that tweets that include pix do higher than tweets with words by myself.

Preserve consistency: Your dedication and consistency are important for your fulfillment on Twitter. Your followers will stay up for seeing your tweets on the identical days and at the same time every week. Your frequency is much less crucial than your dedication to the regularity of your posts.

pick best over amount: if you have a huge range of fans however you haven’t any idea who most of these followers are, what price does the number hold? probably not a lot. it’s miles greater powerful to have a smaller number of pinnacle-pleasant connections. Conclusion Twitter can be an exceptionally powerful social media channel that will let you interact people in a way this is very effective for your business. it’s far vital so as to learn about what Twitter has to provide so that you can leverage it within the exceptional way possible to your commercial enterprise. Twitter can assist your enterprise in a number of approaches and build solid relationships is one of the main ways. you may need to embody Twitter so you can determine how to use it maximum efficiently to your precise commercial enterprise.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Leader Generation Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of enjoying in IT and net technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a great quantity of time at a first-rate telecommunications enterprise, wherein his fundamental Awareness changed into on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all commercial enterprise gadgets via dramatically enhancing performance, online collaboration, and the business enterprise’s Intranet talents, which improved profits in business productiveness. He additionally reduced company journey and travel charges with the aid of introducing and imposing various collaboration technology.

His expertise consists of enterprise evaluation; project management; management of global go-matrix teams; structures engineering and evaluation, structure, prototyping, and integration; Technology evaluation and evaluation; systems improvement; performance evaluation; and control of off-shore improvement.

Mr. Cohn earned a Grasp’s diploma in mission management from George Washington College in Washington, DC; and a Grasp’s degree in computer technology and a Bachelor of technological know-how degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson College in Teaneck, NJ.