#And 2) i have no friends that do not live in my computer and thus millions of miles away

[love-fireflysong]

Well just got a call this morning letting me know that my application was approved, so you're girl is officially moving (again 😒) into her new apartment in three weeks!

Now to do all the other moving shit. Like hiring movers and buying boxes so I can pack all my shit up. Again.

God I hate moving so much 😭

[merveiilles]

// Just a PSA. I've been using Kit.boga's Seraph.Secure for the last couple weeks. and on the Christmas Tree meme link- where it takes you to the tree you can decorate for friends- and Seraph gives you alerts when potential scammers are trying to get a hold of your computer. I've been fine for 2 weeks, but the only time thus far I've got an alert from Seraph (it pops up in the corner, it makes a noise and it emails me.) and told me to get off the site because it can be potential fraud? Not sure if it is or not... Nonetheless, please be careful if you do choose to use the "Decorate my Christmas Tree" site.

Also, 10/10 would recommend Kit's program. Info video on the said program: [link] Kit works with authorities to shut down call centres, recover stolen accounts, and give people sources to get their lives back. Seraph.Secure is only $2/mo with a 2 week free trial. It will alert you if scammers are on your computer and or stops scams before they start. -edit no.1- *I had a friend reach out and tell me that their anti-virus blocked the site when they tried to access it. SO PLEASE BE CAREFUL AND OR DO NOT USE THE DECORATE MY TREE SITE!!!! -edit no.2- I would advise that you change your password for your email and make your you have 2-factor authenticator turned on! I have also been advised since i personally didn't make a tree, that you can't delete your account after signing up to make a said tree. That you have to be sent a code to delete the account- which, never comes. That is very suspicious.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA (30f) for losing my cool/snapping at my roommate and friend (30m, who I will call Kyle) because he was too loud playing games online with his friends?

For context, in case it's needed: this happened a couple months ago, but it's been on my mind. We are both autistic and thus got a late start in our adult lives, in several ways. We have been friends for 10 years and have lived together for roughly 7 of them, on and off (we adopted 2 cats together many years ago, its just easier like this so we dont have to separate them or force one of us to be away from the cats. we love them very much. kind of a coparenting situation lol). Kyle has a salaried tech job that's remote for 70% of the time, and I've recently become a full-time online college student after failing to "make it" without a degree.

We live in a tiny 2-bedroom house that Kyle's family owns. We're only charged for utilities, which is why neither of us are leaving anytime soon (contrary to what you might assume, Kyle does not make a lot of money), especially since it's giving me the opportunity to go to school full-time and not worry about rent. Kyle helps me a lot with groceries and other necessities and I do most of the chores.

So we are always basically on top of each other, and sometimes we get on each other's nerves. We try to be respectful of each others' space, but it's hard because there is not much space in the first place.

I had a really busy day studying and doing homework, which is basically every day for me, since I'm taking 6 classes, 4 of which are STEM classes. So I tend to fall asleep early if I'm not unintentionally pulling all-nighters. I was trying to sleep when this happened around 9pm.

He usually closes his door because he knows he can be very loud, but it doesn't help much. I ended up having to close my own door to try and drown out some of his yelling and laughing, which I understand is going to happen and I try not to hold it against him.

But then he opened his door and left it wide open, so I could hear everything, like he was in the same room. Something really funny must have happened because he started scream-laughing.

Despite this being a semi-regular weekly occurrence, I was really startled. I figured, it probably wasn't intentional and he'll try to quiet down and close his door. I tried to relax and as soon as I started to fall asleep, he did it again, except louder.

This time he didn't stop, he was full-on screaming and yelling at the top of his lungs. Kinda like those game streamers/youtubers where literally all they do is scream the whole time? Very similar. My cat, who was asleep under the blanket on top of me, got startled awake and scratched the shit out of my leg.

I think this all triggered a "fight" response because I was suddenly just so incredibly pissed at Kyle, which I tried to get under control, but he would not stop screaming and I literally could not hear myself think.

(I cannot wear earplugs or have anything in/covering my ears for huge sensory reasons.)

Then my cat wanted to leave the room to see what the commotion was, so I had to open the door, which gave me a direct line of sight to to Kyle at his computer.

I walked over to his doorway. Tried to knock and call his name, but he didnt notice with his noise cancelling headphones on. So I slammed my hand against his door to get his attention & yelled "Hey! Shut the fuck up, Kyle!"

He looked surprised to see me and laughed and kinds waved it off and said "sorry, it got a little intense" and he started to explain what they were doing.

I cut him off and said "I don't care. Shut the hell up." He said he could close his door again, and I said "No, you need to stop. Just stop! You're freaking the cats out too!" and I pointed to my leg with huge bloody scratch marks, shut his door, went back to my room, shut my own door. And of course after that I had adrenaline coursing through my body and I couldn't fall asleep anyway.

After that, I didnt hear a single sound from his room apart from an occasional quiet laugh. I started to feel guilty. I think I overreacted and ruined his fun. I know this is his way of blowing off steam halfway through the work week.

I also felt embarrassed because his friends probably heard me throwing a fit. We have lived with them before, and they're exactly that loud every single night. I have had to ask them to quiet down multiple times, and Kyle told me later on that gave them the impression that I'm. Well, "neurotic, controlling bitch" was heavily implied. Kyle is usually a lot more chill, but being around these guys influences him to act more like them.

But, I guess being loud while having fun isn't a crime, especially when it's not even 10pm yet. I feel like I proved his friends right, maybe.

The next morning I apologized, he apologized too, and everything seems to be good between us, but it's been a while and he's a lot quieter during game night now. He's such a reserved and stressed out person, he hardly ever laughs except when he's playing games, so I feel like I destroyed an important outlet.

I told another friend what happened and she said I didn't overreact at all and she would have flipped out way sooner if her husband did that. (Not sure it's comparable I mean we aren't married lol) And for the record, this friend and her husband were once part of a now-fractured friend group including Kyle and his game night friends, but grew apart, for a lot of reasons, but I think mainly because the Loud Gamer Friends never really grew up while everyone else matured and moved on to different phases in life.

Basically my friends current impression of Kyle is that he is a decent person but incredibly emotionally stunted and feels like he may unintentionally cope in ways that often hurt me without caring as much as she thinks he should. Which....feels partially accurate, I guess. But isn't that placing too much responsibility on him for my wellbeing? He does a lot for me, so it felt like an unfair thing to say.

My mom on the other hand, seems to fully think I am an asshole fun-ruiner. She thinks I should have tried harder to calm down. Maybe I should have approached him sooner - nicely.

And I agree. He probably would have tried his best to oblige even if he couldn't fully succeed. But that's the reason I didn't bother - in the past he has only been able to honor that kind of request for maybe 10-15 minutes, then forgets, and it's exhausting to keep reminding him.

Anyway... what does everyone here think?

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - lots, just LOTS

I thought I would be pretty lean reporting for Oct 2023 but then (for reasons relayed here) the weeklies got saved by a drunk avenging hacker in a hotel room.

Oct 2023 Wk 1

Except I still can't watch IFYLITA, because I use my other computer for it.

Gotta say though, watching tese mostly all in one day (for travel reasons) is beyond even my BL superpowers. I did my best tho.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 8 of 12 - Sailom, sweetie, Kang is never sleeping alone again. It wasn't really translated, but Kang's way of speaking in that opening stinger was VERY cutsie. Also the gay sheets have made another appearance. I do have to say that "rich kid problems" is not my favorite story arc, but I still think this is a great Thai BL.

Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 6 of 8 - I love that they are finally talking to each other but Yi’s whole personality is shifting. Honestly, this pair is great at kissing and casual touches, but the friendships are the best thing about this franchise. Also Mr Chenne remains my fav character. But where did Diao's baby superhero team come from? And why? This show is very confusing... It’s also not very good.

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) You Are My Soulmate ep 7 - This was the one of the series I was looking forward to the most, because silly, pretty, and v BL. It is, in fact all those things and nothing more. So I'm enjoying it, of course.

Absolute Zero (Thai Weds iQIYI) ep 2 of 12 - I like it, but it feels like it's gonna be so sad. I'm having Promise and Dew the movie flashbacks. Plus 12 eps seems too long for this narrative thread. I am worried.

Venus in the Sky (Tues iQIYI) 6 of 10 eps - This show is so slow it's hardly worth the bandwidth, but we attained "baby is a floppy drunk" and thus a finger bite frustration scene, which was nice.

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 9 of 10 (not a BL but I'm watching it anyway) - Ray is so mean to Sand. The not-a-thing with Sand & Nick was cute. I’ve had several experiences like that. All my queer friendship groups tend to be incestuous, but sometimes they're just too much of a sibling and trying to sleep with them is the most unsexy thing in the universe. To be fair, I’ve also been in Ton’s position (this ep). Jojo sure makes queer shizz. But also, Ton must have a magic rod with everyone wanting a repeat. (I'm so glad they put Neo in this role, no one else at GMMTV could play him as complex or sympathetic.)

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

You Are Mine (Taiwan Fri Viki) eps 5 of 10 - now officially known by me as "I'm too sunshine for this seme" where our boss is being hella obvious but our cinnamon roll is just too ooey-gooey to notice. Al.though, baby boy, he takes you home, sleeps on top of you, feeds you cookies (IN HIS BED) and keeps you in his space? Surely even this sunshine is catching a few rays of truth?

Gaga's *unintelligible gay murmuring* is my favorite caption EVER.

Also the name of my new ASMR YT channel.

Bon Appetit (Korea Weds iQIYI) 3-4 of 8 - ah gay panic, also what is Korea's obsession with 7 year separations? Is it only true love if you wait 7 years? Dohoon is SUCH a flirt, it's kinda great! Also, since it's Korea, we got us a bit of a love triangle with 2 hyung romances, so I (of course) am torn. Either way Dohoon is going down. I do love how much time we are spending with the food in this drama, finally one that lives up to its name. On an entirely different note, Korean camping is the most bizare thing to me. It's SO damn civilized. There will be NO DIRT. They pack blow torches. And full dinner sets. Every time I see it in a drama, I'm amused.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 7 of 8 - OMG these 2 are so in love with each other, and so ridiculous about it. They're tiny idiots but I love them.

If It’s With You AKA Even If I Fall In Love With You AKA Kimi to nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo’ (Japan Gaga) ep 1 of 5 - from MBS a live action adaptation of Kubota Maru’s manga ‘君となら恋をしてみても. Amane has stopped loving people due to trauma until he meets Ryuji. At first Amane just wants to play with Ryuji but… feelings.

I like the odd Japanese mature-childishness in this one. Plus a broken sunshine who is out in a kind of aggresive way and an instinctive caring seme. What's not to love? Well, it's Japan I'm sure it will surprise me one way or another.

Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 3 of ? - the cray cray step brother quazi incest is a bit much for me. Why does VBL just suddenly get so unhinged like this?

Kiseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) ep 9 of 13(?) - resumes next week

It's Airing But...

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Fri grey) ep 8 of 12 - I will try to watch 8-12 and do a series review when I get back in November but... not sure I will be able to. Fingers crossed.

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 8fin - I will complete and drop a review in Nov.

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 1 of 10 - 4th installment in this series (1st series, 1 special, 1 movie prior) about a lawyer who lives with his boyfriend, a hairdresser, and cooks for him. I find thie series more fun to binge, som I'm waiting until it completes its run.

I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan Tues Netflix-Japan & ????) - in classic JBL fashion, I Cannot Reach You could not be reached. 

Can I Buy Your Love From A Vending Machine? AKA Sono Koi, Jihanki de Kaemasu ka? (Japan cinema release in-country only) - This one is a movie from Japan so in customary fashion who tf knows when (or if) it will get international distribution. Salaryman Ayumu Koiwai just can't tear his eyes away from the strong, muscular man as he checks on the stocks of the vending machine in his office.

In case you missed it?

Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) Apparently ended its run I DNFed this at ep 3. So no review from me.

My Beautiful Man: Eternal AKA Utsukushii Kare Eternal (Japan movie Viki & Gaga) - Play it again Sam, only I'm kinda tired of this song. I was v dramatic tho. And it's always nice to be reminded JBL can kiss when it puts its mind to it. 8/10

Next Week Looks Like This

Upcoming October BL

10/31 SHADOW (Thai VIU ????) - this is a horror BL featuring ghosts and other paranormal elements in a high school setting. I'm not wild about Thai horror (or horror at all, but if it must be done in BL let Japan do it). It features Singto (who did paranormal BL He's Coming to Me) opposite Fluke N (who's done a couple horror's before). Also Fiat. Dan suffers from sleep paralysis, and in his dreams he sees a shadow that suffocates him. It gets worse when he transfers schools.

10/? Bump Up Project AKA Bump Up Business (Korea ????) - BL staring OnlyOneOf that released(??) as a movie in July but is now being recut and reissued as a series. Stars NineMill and from Idol Romance bulled as a love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency (based on a webtoon). OnlyOneOf have been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV work in this post. Idol Romance will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You) but I don't think we will get any in this. After that OmegaX Shoulder bullshizz buisness I am very wary of this show.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I've seen this Chinese drama like... no wait... okay it's like EVERY Chinese drama ever.

(both Mr Cinderella 2)

I only got to watch this scene and the bath, but bot were pretty darn good! I Feel You Linger in the Air

There's only one bed but they slept together on the floor anyway. One of BL's oddest tropes.

I do love a finger bite. (both Venus in the Sky)

Good advice

(Naughty Babe)

(Last week) 

[picnokinesis]

My friend is running a text-based rpg campaign, and I'm absolutely in love with it, so I decided to draw a 'cover' for each day in the story. We'll see if I can do one for each day, but I'm SO proud of how these turned out so far - all of them are inked in my notebook first, and then coloured digitally. If anyone's interested in the story, I've explained more about it all under the cut!

OKAY. So the game is called City of Mists, and basically it's...kinda hard to explain, but I'd call it 'cyberpunk noir', but with a 90s technological aesthetic. Kinda like when you read Issac Asimov's books and they're using computers but it's all cassettes and film-based technology. Anyway, it's awesome. Every character has a normal life in the city - their 'logos' - but there are some characters who are called Rifts, who have something mythological manifest within them - their 'mythos'. Now, the mythos can kinda be anything, but the point is that it's a legend or story that manifests within the character, and thus gives them new abilities. And every Rift has to balance their logos and their mythos - because to delve too much into your mythos means you forget your normal life and become entirely consumed by the mythos...but to focus too much on your logos means to lose, and forget, your mythos entirely. The 'mist' of the city obscures mythological and supernatural things from those who haven't 'awakened' yet - but Rifts can see through the mist.

So, my little guy is - sighs. Okay. Y'all are gonna laugh. Please be aware that I know, okay? I know. It's fine. This is a choice I've made. But he's called Nakis Sandhu, and he's an investigative journalist (NOT with amnesia) who, when he was a kid, was involved in a train accident that killed his parents, but him and his twin sister miraculously survived. He's trans, and he has a van - he doesn't live in it, thank goodness, but it is important because his mythos is Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas (this is why he looks like Sacha Dhawan, because like....Sacha Dhawan should play Captain Nemo and I'll die on that hill). And so Nakis, when his mythos awakened, turned his van into the Nautilus - Captain Nemo's submarine - and so it now works underwater too, and can travel undetected. He also becomes like, a technological genius and can invent stuff on the fly, but he never studied engineering or anything - it just comes to him in flashes of inspiration.

Nakis' main thing is that he's trying to figure out what happened in the train crash when he was a kid. He saw something different to everyone else, because he saw through the mist - what everyone else thought was an accident was actually two Rifts duking it out (I think). One of these Rifts was a blue bull that is apparently called 'the Bull of Thunder', and the other was a man with fire based abilities - called 'The Burning Man'. On Day 2, Nakis discovered a metal case that had belonged to the Burning Man, that had been hidden for twenty years - since the day of the accident - and was full of clues, including some photographic film that needed developing. Unfortunately, seems that there's a strange filter on the photos, so it's impossible to tell what's on them...luckily, my guy made friends with a photographer on Day 1 (who I believe is another player character) whilst investigating something else, and as a result he's now passed the film on to him, in the hopes that he'll be able to clear them up.

One funny thing: Day 0 was supposed to be a 'chill' day to figure out how the game mechanics worked, and figure out what your character would do on a normal day. Nakis immediately went to investigate something and then nearly ended up drowning RIP. On Day 1, when continuing to investigate the thing from Day 0, he...got shot in the shoulder HAHAHAH but he's fine, he's doing great, he didn't bleed out in his apartment which is always a win. He also bumped into another player character by doing this - so yay!

[fatummortem]

Hey Friends, hope ya'll are doing well. c:

I've been insanely busy while my daughter gets settled here. With the limited internet we currently have, it's been hit or miss for her comfort things. So I've been giving her the use of my laptop for the time. We also have this neighbor, who is a nice guy, except for the fact he blasts his tv at volume 20 at 2am (imagine that with a subwoffer((sp?)) & 2 more attached speakers). So I'm also working on sound dampening her room.

Things are going well! She's an adult now (19 next month) so we've pumped heads with the occasional grumpiness of either side, LOL. But it's nothing we haven't been able to adjust to thus far.

There's a great deal of laughter in the house, which is amazing. Not to mention... well she made me laugh when she went "I love living with you but this place is a shithole."

But with how things are, having the computer for long periods of time for me or just me time is hard to come by. She thought herself antisocial but now that she knows I know how to talk to her in a healthy manner she says it's gone away. Which I love. She's only asked for 2 hours out of the month she's been here!

Which means I am highly sporatic right now. I'm trying to get the last of her money from my mother, who seems to be gripping onto it for the last bits of unheathy control. It might have to do with the fact that once we get it, there's an unsaid thing that we won't communicate with her. Along with my kiddo wanting a lot of attention, i can be fairly slow on discord. Most of which is mobile, so please be patient with me if something comes out weird. Lemme know & I'll try to rephrase or explain what the message means if it comes out garbled.

I'm hoping it'll just be another month but i'm working on getting a few things in place so getting me time will be more comfortable for her. ^_^

[namusthetic]

The Weird Relatives at the Family Reunion

Half the rumors at the dining table involve them, but they attend family reunions just to cause drama. Their alliance still stands, and gets stronger each gathering.

No.1 - The Chaotic

Is made 70% out of anger issues and 30% out of spite

Does not care about people's opinions and judgement

Has no patience

Mom friend, scolds you first and then takes care of you anyway

Has their life organized, knows what they want

Only listens to a few selected people whom they trust

Devours sexists for breakfast

Their resistance to caffeine is the same as that of a 5-year-old to sugar

"Bold of you to assume I've reached my peak of dumbass"

Avoids physical touch

Their love language is food giving / cooking

A public danger when driving (and in general)

Eats cereals from the box

Falls completely silent when angry

Probably made a deal with the devil for clear skin

Hates the government with a passion

Listens to hard rock, metal and techno, not necessarily in this order

Helps children with mischievous plans

Ready to throw hands and chew people out if someone is getting bullied

Slapstick humor

Plots new, fun ways of causing mayhem

Catchphrase: "Improvise, attack, overcome."

Playlist:

Don't Stop Me Now by Queen

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants

all the good girls go to hell by Billie Eilish

Cigarette Ahegao by Penelope Scott

LA ESPADA by Eternal Raijin

Scopin by Kordhell

Besos I by Bo Burnham

Supermassive Black Hole by Muse

My Ordinary Life by The Living Tombstone

Maneater by Nelly Furtado

spy? by WHOKILLEDXIX

Let's Groove by Earth, Wind & Fire

No.2 - The Neutral

Always looks half asleep or annoyed or both

Sarcasm and dark humor

Done with everyone's shit

"save the bees, punch a racist"

comes off as kind and easy-going, but would watch the world burn and not bat an eye

Is inclined to tollerate you better if you offer them coffee or cookies or if you start talking about books

Will cover for you if they like you, tell on you if they don't, you'll never know which one it is until the last second

They'll sit down in a spot away from the family chaos to either ignore or judge everyone

Has a keen eye for body language and nonverbal communication

Bad at managing anxiety and stress

"binarism is for computers, do I look like a fuckin MacBook to you?"

Says they don't like kids but carries candy in their pockets for their nephews

Commitment and trust issues

Starts yelling when they get really mad

Their love languages are acts of service and quality time

Not easy to impress, unless you start the conversation quoting Shakespeare or Dante

Passive aggressive

Listens to literally anything except country music

Hates parents who don't take their children seriously, so they're always ready to lend a ear and give advice

Helps no. 1 plotting by giving technical details and suggestions

Catchphrase: "Oh, I haven't told them good morning simply because I don't think they deserve one"

Playlist:

These Times by Far Caspian

Treehouse by Alex G, Emily Yacina

Tired by beabadoobee

Summer Child by Conan Gray

Young by Vacations

Fourth of July by Sufjan Stevens

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now by The Smiths

The Adults Are Talking by The Strokes

O Children by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Sex, Drugs, Etc. by Beach Weather

Bitter Taste by Billy Idol

Obstacles by Syd Matters

No.3 - The Lawful

Sensitive, must protect

Love languages are words of affirmation and physical touch

Cannot cook for the life of them

Made of sunshine and rainbows

"Please, assume I have dignity"

Sweet but awkward

Wears sunglasses to hide the eye bags

Always rushing somewhere

Loves children

Takes things personally and thus gets hurt too often

Quotes cringy positivity lines

Hard working

Always brings something to eat

Is actually the most insecure about themselves and their body

No.1 and no.2 are ready to physically fight anyone who is mean to them

Cheers you up and has your back

Ready to forgive and forget, rarely blames people for stuff

Too willing to give second chances

Gives stern scoldings if they're mad

When something goes wrong they take it badly and get really sad

A cinnamon roll inside and outside

Knows how to play several instrument so they sing and play for children

Tries to keep no.1 and no.2 from achieving world domination

Catchphrase: "Even if the world is big, you're enough for it"

Playlist:

El Mismo Sol by Alvaro Soler

Brazil by Declan McKenna

OUR SUMMER by TXT

Baby I'm Yours by Arctic Monkeys

Hey Lover! by Wabie

Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles

NIGHT DANCER by imase

HOME by BTS

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse

Bossa No Sé by Cuco ft. Jean Carter

Swing Lynn by Harmless

Promise by Jimin

[tacticalhimbo]

hi i have too much time on my hands, i created a more detailed and evidence-supported timeline for the welcome to the game/reflect studios franchise!

obvs disclaimer: i played games on the easiest modes i could, bc i'm bad with cue-based things so i relied pretty heavily on the fan-wiki and the information there. i cross-verified where i could.

WELCOME TO THE GAME 1 - Unknown, 2016

Based on establishment dates of the Doctor Murder website (est. 2012, noted as running up to/until 2016).

Hot Burners uses a quote from an alleged customer from 2015; would assume to use a somewhat older quote to establish one's business as reputable (regardless of review being legitimate/real or otherwise).

Passports Are Us uses an image of the current Latvian passport, which the design for was established on or around Jan. 28, 2015; the game therefore has to take place after this date.

WAITING ROOM - Late 2017; Assumption

Considering the risk that comes with hosting Red Room streams, as well as the surrounding hype, it is unlikely that the streams are a common occurrence.

The reason I assume it is late 2017 is because of the existence and references made in Welcome to the Game 2.

== These two take place within close vicinity; Victim from WR calls Amalea to tell her they were burned / that Adam knows of their snooping into The Prey; It's not unfair to assume, given Adam's demeanor and general history across the games, risks would want to be taken care of as soon as possible to preserve his business ==

WELCOME TO THE GAME 2 - Early 2018; Assumption

Many sites that were present in the first game are either redone entirely or have become dead links. A bit of a stretch because expertise is varied, but it would take a while to do that while maintaining consistent clientele.

The player can find Clint's resident dossier on the lobby computer. He's 29, lives in 803, and is described as a "Very quiet individual, sticks to himself, pays rent on time. No issues." Not really relevant, but this would mean Clint was born between 1988 and 1989. He was a 90s kid, and that's so cute to me.

SCRUTINIZED - Middle of June 2020

Computer states that the date is June 14th on the starting night, and report dates are formated as 06/xx.

Social media posts are dated with 2020 (e.g., Jeniffer Connally, aka BloodAngel123). And yes, her name is spelled like that in the game.

DEAD SIGNAL - 2022

Confirmed by environmental details, such as a newspaper(?) clipping within Ronald's apartment. I don't own this title in the series, but have been watching a close friend play it and we both noticed this.

Clint contacts the player and says he has had run-ins with Adam in the past (re: WTTG 2). For him to phrase it this way shows a decent time has passed between the games, as not only is that just how US Americans tend to phrase it, but he's also telling this to a stranger (albeit, he owes The Shade a favor, and thus it's equally likely Shade told him to give Ronald any information he had to keep his employee alive)

[furby-science]

The Sterling Saga: The Hardest Part is Getting Started...

I'm what the kids call a Scorpio/Sagittarius cusp. It gives me the worst qualities of both, but the Sagittarian ones are especially irritating. I can handle living a life of hermitude and psychological trauma (I'm missing out on a fireworks show as I type this). What I can't handle is constantly being haunted by the ghosts of my own dumbassery.

I know they're there. I anticipate them. I do everything I can to keep their rattling chains out of my halls.

...so you would think that, even with my tendency to get an idea in my head and then haul off and relentlessly pursue, I would at least have had enough sense to back up my talking furby on fucking Google Drives or something.

...I did not. Thus begins our next great adventure!

Let me give you a little breakdown of how Sterling works. His main computing system is a Raspberry Pi Zero W attached to a speaker and motor controller. His programming is stored entirely on a microSD card. This is the primary copy of his data. His old backups were stored on an old computer of mine which I no longer have, though the hard drive is still in my possession. I hope. I haven't gone through my moving boxes yet.

So, I can take two routes when it comes to retrieving Sterling's data: I can either go through a million boxes, find that hard drive, get an adapter, plug it into my wimpy-ass Lenovo Yoga and get to the data that way, or, I could pop Sterling open, pull out that MicroSD card, pop it in a card reader and back up the primary copy onto the Yoga and the cloud for safekeeping.

Both options are time consuming, but one of them is the fun kind of time consuming and the other is the boring kind of time consuming. So, I'm going with option 2. If option 2 ends in tragedy, I can still hopefully buy a new rig and do an emergency recovery of the data that exists on that hard drive. Hopefully it won't come to that - if I was smart enough to put him together, I should be smart enough to take him apart, right...?

"How in the hell did I do this...?"

After unceremoniously cutting open the zip tie and pulling off his fur, I was met with a sight I vaguely remember: the non-electrical wire that holds the bottom of his carapace in place, covered by insulating tape, and above that, the wires leading to his touch sensors.

One interesting thing of note is that the wire actually goes into his shell, rather than being wrapped around the outside of it. I have no idea why I did this. Surely, there must've been a reason. To keep the battery hatch in place when the hardware wouldn't fit, maybe? I'm not entirely certain, but why else would I take such an approach? Running that metal wire so close to the hardware is just asking to short circuit something otherwise, unless it was positioned just right.

I undid the wire with some pliers, and this is the part where I chickened out. I don't have a screwdriver well suited for unscrewing him, or needle and thread for his ears for that matter. Not to mention a MicroSD card reader (besides my phone that is). After suitably defiling him, I put the old man back together the best I could and made a shopping list of supplies for tomorrow.

The current plan is to get the necessary supplies and very carefully extract that card, ideally without harming Sterling's hardware. Though if I do, it's not a huge loss: I can easily replace aluminum tape or a speaker. I can't easily replace three months' worth of nonstop, agonized coding - or a friend, for that matter.

And so he sits, like a sleeping Buddha unfazed by the ever-shifting cycle of samsara while I scramble to purchase an appropriately sized screwdriver.

If only I could be so enlightened...

[notebooknonbinary]

Byler Week, Day 5: Secret Identities

This is outsider POV, i have invented a daughter and she's now My daughter (even though she's 15 in 2013 which means she'd be My Age). Also, based on This post I made a trillion, billion years ago—in November lol.

Emma is avoiding her homework. 

She’s got a mountain of an essay due on Monday, but writing has never come easy to her (not like Dad, amazing writer that he is, or her younger foster sister Alex, who is most definitely going to be a singer-songwriter). Both her foster dads are pretty cool about helping with stuff their children don’t understand. But Pops is the only one home with her right now, and he’s in his studio painting a commission. Even though she knows he wouldn’t care, she doesn’t want to bother him when he’s in the zone. She’ll ask Dad for help once he and her sisters are back from the store.

For now, she turns on the Xbox to play Mass Effect 2.

In the middle of recruiting Archangel, she gets a ping on her computer. Her friend Corgi has messaged her. It’s a row of question marks and a link to an article.

Identities of Award-Winning Artist-Author YA duo, Bloomfield and Blackmore, revealed in Tell-All Leak by reliable anonymous source. 

gengaratemycorgi Emmy, isn’t this your foster dads?

Shit.

“Pops!” Emma calls. 

There’s a distant clatter and splash, and then Will runs into the room. He’s got red paint splattered down the front of his shirt, making him look a little bit like he’s been stabbed. “What’s wrong Emmy? Are you okay?”

Normally she would tease him about the paint spill. Instead, she silently shows him the article and watches his face drop. He plops down beside her.

“Well, shit,” he says, reaching up to brush his hair from his face and inadvertently getting paint in it.

She's too worried about him to even giggle over it. “Are you and Dad gonna be okay?”

Will huffs a tired laugh. “We’ll be fine. The Lab’s NDA has expired. I’m honestly surprised we lasted this long under the radar.”

Emma can’t help but agree—her dads having so many different pseudonyms was bound to bite them in the butt someday.

“I’m gonna go call Mike, and then see about sorting this mess out.”

She’s not entirely certain if he’s referring to the mess of the leak, or the mess of paint all over him.

-

When everyone is back, she and her sisters sit in the living room—watching Mike and Will walk around, on the phone with their agents and the publicists of their book series’. Emmy feels a little bit useless, leaning her head on Rachel’s shoulder. Beside them, Alex has her earphones in and is journaling—conflict makes her anxious.

Eventually, her dads get off the phone and instead sit at the table on their laptops, typing out statements for the press and their social medias’. (And with all their names, there’s a lot of social medias to go through.)

Still feeling useless, and for lack of anything else to do, Emmy opens tumblr and scrolls to the new post made by her Dads’ official account.

-

BloomfieldAndBlackmore When we originally created ‘Elliot and the Other World’, we were required (legally) to publish under pen names. Thus, Bloomfield and Blackmore were born. We weren’t expecting Elliot and his friends to be as well loved as they’ve ended up being, though we are forever grateful for that. It’s thanks to fans like all of you that Elliot and the Other World is still going strong today!

Then, four years later, when we wanted to publish ‘Smalltown Boys’, we knew that our publisher would never allow us to publish a Gay romance under the same names as E&tOW, especially not back then. But Smalltown was too close to our hearts to set aside, so we created Lewis and Xavier Wakeham. (We flipped a coin on who got to be Xavier, and Mike is still the tiniest bit bitter that I won.). It was still a struggle to get it published, but we’re forever grateful that we were able to. 

Around that same time, we were beginning to foster. Our youngest at the time suffered from terrible nightmares (a plight we know well), so Mike and I would tell stories to help him back to sleep. Our oldest thought they were good enough stories to be published. We could have probably published those under Bloomfield and Blackmore, but that would have meant editing out that Prince Adam has two dads, and neither of our children would have ever forgiven us for that. So Oak and Rose joined the scene, publishing stories for kids like our foster children. It’s something that’s brought a lot of joy to our family.

Things began to get complicated after a colleague and friend, Ed Munson, wanted our input on a Dungeons and Dragons anthology he was creating. While he likely would have been fine with us using our pen names (as Elliot and the Other World is largely based on D&D), that would have required him to keep secrets about his own project. So out of respect for him, we used our own names.

We don’t know if that’s what led to this leak. The investigation into who tipped our names to the press is still on-going. To whoever it was, we’re not mad, we’re just disappointed.

To our fans, we send our love. -Will and Mike

-

She scrolls through the reblogs.

-

BananananaAmanda “Required legally???????? Sirs ????? Were you in some kind of witness protection??????

DNDNotebook Amanda don’t be stupid, they probably had some kind of job that would have fired them for writing DnD books--it was like the 80s and people thought DnD was demonic.

BloomfieldAndBlackmore Well, actually, you’re both a little bit correct (though Amanda is slightly more correct, please don’t call them stupid). - Mike

BananananaAmanda My favorite author used the correct pronoun for me and also defended my honor im in tears rn.Also though, my witness protection theory has weight what????? Were parts of E&tOW Real??? ?????

BloomfieldAndBlackmore ..¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-

AllBimy5elf ‘we’re not mad, we’re just disappointed.’ pffffft. Honestly iconic.

-

Lovepeace23 are we ignoring the fact that they’re gay ?? and yet they’re writing children’s books?? Keep that shit away from kids pervs

DNDNotebook hey asshat, the 80s called, they want their bigotry back

tydieandying i’m thinking about the fac that since they’re gay,  maybe my headcanon that Elliot is gay for Dave is true

Dendy7ever even if they -are- gay (which isn’t confirmed) doesn’t mean you have to push that agenda on to their characters. Dave is in love with Elliot’s twin sister Wendy. And Elliot is just growing slower than the rest of the Club because of his trauma. You’ll see when book ten comes out.

AllBimy5elf ‘isn’t confirmed’ after they talked about fostering?? They’re literally dads together?? Now who’s pushing sexuality onto people?

DNDNotebook lmao also the ‘in love’. bro goes out of his way to hold his bestie’s hand, but doesn’t like holding hands w Em when they kiss? Fishy.

-

BananananaAmanda ok but,,, since the main reasons Elliot & Other Worlds has never gotten a tv show is because the series was still on going, and the creators weren’t in the public eye…show?? Maybe???

AllBimy5elf ok yes I 1000000% want an Other Worlds show, but Smalltown Boys movie when???? I want to see my gay childhood friends to lovers happy ending On Screen

-

DNDNotebook said

Can we ask about your foster kids? You must really care about them if you wrote them childrens books. How are they doing in all this?

BloomfieldAndBlackmore Thank you for asking. Our two boys are grown now, but we’ve called them and they’re doing fine--no one has harassed them about it, if they’ve even made the connection. Our three foster daughters are doing as well as can be in the circumstances. Our middle daughter was the one who alerted us to the article (Hey Pumpkin, we love you!!). We’ll continue to try and keep them out of the public eye—they didn’t ask for any of this hubbub. -Will

LostimtheOtherWorld hey is your daughter @/DemigodEmmi98?

A jolt of anxiety has her shutting her laptop. She looks up to where her dads are still working and considers saying something. She gnaws at her nails.

“You okay, Em?” Rachel murmurs, shutting her phone and throwing an arm around Emmy’s shoulder. 

Emma leans into the hug. “I’m being stupid.”

“I doubt it, this whole this is fucking scary. Plus you’re like a baby. I’m eighteen and I’m terrified.”

Emmy scowls. “I’m fifteen, not a baby. And you won’t be eighteen ‘til March.”

Rachel laughs, which makes Emma feel a little less anxious.

She looks to Alex, who has moved on from journaling to just listening to music and staring out the window.

“I think Alex needs your worry more than I do, she’s barely ten.” She’s probably freaking out right now.

Rachel gives her one more squeeze. “You’re a good big sister, Em.” Rachel moves over to quietly talk with their sister. Leaving Emmy alone on the couch. 

She sighs and forces herself to open her computer back up, and scroll through her notifications. As she suspected, her followers have somehow made the connection of her talking about her author and artist foster dads, and somehow it’s escaped containment to Other Worlds fandom. She’s got a hundred and eighty-six asks and two hundred new followers.

Most of the messages are nice ones, asking if she’s okay, or ones congratulating her on her cool dads; but there are a few—maybe from the same person—that say that they’ll pray for her immortal soul for having two dads? What? It’s 2013, not the Middle Ages! 

She deletes those, and the ones asking for inside scoops on future books, then debates attempting to answer the ones left.

The thought makes her exhausted so instead she makes her own post.

-

DemigodEmmi98 regarding the influx of asks from anons and followers wondering if Mike and Will are the foster dads I’ve been talking about… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tydieandying Emmy is that a yes??

gengaratemycorgi lmaooo

-

Unfortunately that seems to immediately feed the fire, as she gets three more asks in the span of a minute. She opens up the message box from earlier today. 

-

Emmy: haha Immediate Regret(:

Corgi: u gonna be ok?

Emmy: ye, just. tired of tumblr right now lol, gonna jump offline for the next couple days til this all dies down. i’ll message u on snap. 

-

“Sorry about all this, Pumpkin,” Mike murmurs, when she tells him what’s happened. Emmy burrows into his hug. He’s been good at hugs as long as she’s known him—he and Pops make her feel so safe. 

“‘S not your fault, Dad.” She pulls back to grin at him. “Plus, missing school on Monday means I don’t have to turn in that bullshit essay I haven’t done yet.”

Mike snorts, scrubs his knuckles over her hair. “You are your fathers’ daughter.”

“Well, we all got doxxed, so I figure it’s our prerogative, right?”

Mike grimaced. “Maybe we should call your aunts in for a bit.”

“El and everyone are already on their way,” Will reports, entering the room again. He stoops to press a kiss to each other his daughters heads, before pressing one to Mike’s mouth. Then they’re both silent for a long moment. But it’s not a bad, scary silent.

They do this sometimes, Mike and Will--this thing where it seems like they’re speaking to each other with their minds. It could simply be that thing In-Love parents seem to be able to do, where they just know each other's minds (something her birth parents weren’t capable of). But, considering what she knows about their fucked-up childhood in Hawkins, she wouldn’t be surprised if it were powers. She could ask them, and they’d likely tell her the truth.

But Emmy thinks they’ve had enough secrets revealed for today, so she keeps her mouth shut and continues leaning against her parents.

[funkymbtifiction]

Hey! I'm the one from Reddit I unfortunately couldn't get your book but your blog has been of great help

I'm pretty sure I'm istj however I never seem to understand fe

Especially when it comes to it's positions

1)It's more "known " that tert fe is manipulative while true because it's users use it to scrape by why is it the default? Because as far as I know fe doms and aux aren't saints either as a matter of fact they have the capability to be more in grasp with manipulation techniques...

Because especially in my experience my estp friend is friendly when she's with others as opposed to when she's with me and she teases only those in her group friend she also uses her fe in an I'mml do you a favour if you do this to me

While fe doms/aux in my life use teasing/friendlier techniques to get others to like them instanly and for longer periods of times

2)From my understanding fe aux /dom want a connection with others and seeks it

Fe tert/fe inf doubt that connection between people or would make it later on in life (or don't understand fe as it is but through a ti lens )

Fe/Ti sees the world through the lens of human connections -- how we all impact each other, what we share in common, what could unify us, how our lives intersect -- and this trains them to have a humanitarian perspective (we should look after each other and adapt to each other for our own survival as a society). A component of this is being attentive to and respectful of emotional dynamics -- my feelings, your feelings, our feelings, where we stand, how to make you like me or be appropriate to this situation and show the acceptable emotions. Fe/Ti will put aside its own feelings and desires to accommodate their loved ones ("I am tired tonight, but this ballet recital means a lot to my daughter, so I will put on a smile").

Ti/Fe is an analytical mind, like a human computer seeking to comprehend and deconstruct everything into individual components, which means it sees humans as yet another thing that can be broken down, analyzed, understood, and "hacked." Thus emotional dynamics are seen as part of that emerging pattern -- there is less emotional engagement and true understanding of feelings, and less awareness of one's deeper emotional impact, and more a tendency to adapt to survive and to get others to like them by tapping into communal values, beliefs, opinions, etc. The lower the Fe, the more awkward this is within them and the less they care.

[runwayrunway]

Hello my fellow resident of the world! How did you get into planes, if you don't mind my asking? I've just started my interest in aviation (thank you Admiral Cloudberg) and would love to know how you went about learning what you know. (Also, converted all my friends to PSA lovers this afternoon. I am still a JetBlue stan for the airplane names.)

Joke answer 1: I generally board planes through the aerobridge just like everyone else.

Joke answer 2: When they give you your autism diagnosis they tell you to pick a vehicle.

Real answer: is going to be under a cut, for length (seriously, it's long) and for rambling (seriously, it's incoherent) and also for being my life story rather than blog content proper (seriously, I talk about my grandparents) and also for discussing morbid things like plane crashes, so be advised.

I'm not totally sure. I mean, I moved across an ocean as a young child, my grandfather was a microelectronics engineer who worked in aerospace, I've spent most of my life living directly nearby an airport, but I don't think any of that is it?

I think it's a combination of factors. A major one was my first flight in a propeller plane and realizing that I really enjoyed it. Also major was an interest in air disasters. I'm a huge enjoyer of the Admiral's work as well, I think she has among the best coverage of air disasters out there (definitely in terms of narrative content, at least) and I find her writing style in general very inspirational, but I didn't discover air disasters through any specific media. Rather, I actually was very struck by certain crashes in the news (particularly the 2011 Lokomotiv crash, which I heard a lot about because my family are Russian expats).

I was a morbid kid. I've just sort of always been like that. I'm a second-generation goth who lives across the street from a cemetery with immediate family members who've survived some pretty awful things and aren't shy about it, it might be weirder if I wasn't kind of curious about mass casualty events. Like, one of the earliest things I remember is the Columbia disaster. For a long time I thought I had a weirdly specific and irrational fear of tsunami, nightmares and all, and then I remembered that I lived in Japan until the tail end of 2004. Also, my grandfather thought war stories were appropriate for three-year-olds. So I heard 'awful plane crash' and went 'oh cool. Let's look up what happened'. And then my family got talked to because I didn't own a computer and thus had no choice but to frantically search "Air France 447 CVR" in my school computer lab.

And then I got older than my nebulous age at the time of "child" and became a far different type of person and learned about politics and human people and the like. Frankly, if I were more of an active member of general avgeek communities I would probably spend literally all of my time yelling at people because of my very strong feelings about the callous ways people discuss these crashes, the uselessness of the concept of "pilot error", and pop coverage and 'memeification' of air disasters (again, another reason I enjoy the Admiral's work is that she does not do this). Discussion of air disasters is frequently done by a type of person I will describe, bluntly, as smug racists too afraid to admit that human nature is fucking up and that means they might have crashed the plane too if they were put in that situation.

While I consumed the normal air crash media (Macarthur Job's books, Air Crash Investigations (very hit or miss depending on the episode), Mentour Pilot (recommend) and the like) I'm actually a history student with a focus in archival science, so I like to do these dramatic dives into researching specific things and a lot of the most formative media to me is individual documentaries and books about specific crashes that probably isn't worth listing out unless someone wants a source about something specific, and the same sort of thing about specific models of planes and airlines. My point is that I kind of started just getting wrapped up in it, and it's been an on-and-off fixation ever since.

Like I said, though, I'm a history student, so I wasn't going to limit myself to one area of aviation. Like I mentioned, air disasters are a focus of mine, as are, obviously, liveries and branding, but neither of those are enough on their own to understand aviation as a field, the way it evolved - all of these things, wake-up calls to industries, changes in regulation, the evolution of airline marketing and structure over time, shifts in technology, they're all part of the same broader story. So while I have things I know more about than other aspects, I like to understand at least a little about everything. I like pulling these threads out of the cloud of information I don't know until I've unravelled it as much as possible.

At this point I have a solid working understanding of the physics of flight (though I'm also very interested in astrophysics so I expect that played a part), the history of airlines, the way they developed in the US and in Europe and also in other places that didn't start out with the same infrastructure, the role they play in society and propaganda and the avenues they open. I have a lot of blind spots. I don't really know how engines work and I think it's unlikely I ever will. But I'm always learning and I like that about aviation. It's just a gigantic field. You never run out of reading material. And that's even despite the fact that I simply do not care for military aviation (unless it's really strange/niche things like the SR-71, but I just don't really care about how many missiles you can strap to the Boeing Foreignguyblaster 9000 or the like).

I also sort of have an advantage over most people in that Soviet aviation is an entirely separate and deeply interesting subject that often gets reduced to jokes or 'well isn't that weird' and I have a secret weapon for researching it called "my first language is Russian" and a second secret weapon called "I can ask my grandmother and she'll just tell me about how she remembers the Miracle on the Neva happening and walking past the plane before they got it out of the river because she lived right nearby".

I also just like planes. I think they're pretty. I think it's incredible that they're real machines that humans invented. I don't know anything about computers and I never will so this is sort of the main avenue I have to be awed by the scale of human engineering. We put a giant metal thing in the air and then we painted a smiley face on her nose.

I not only am not a pilot, but cannot be a pilot. I have a seizure disorder and also the potential to get very lightheaded very suddenly, so I cannot fly and that's fine. A lot of people hear this and try to argue with me about how I could get an exemption or find a loophole and I get the idea but it's very misguided. Some people shouldn't be pilots. Causing plane crashes is bad and the reason aviation is so safe is because it refuses to take risks. The thing about being disabled is that you aren't able to do things. And that's fine, I have no choice but to be fine with it. But it gives me a lot more incentive to research and to planespot and to discuss aviation with other people, and I think paradoxically I would probably not know or care as much about the history of airlines if I were spending all this time out there doing figure-eights in a Cessna Whatever.

And I just sort of don't have the capacity to like something a little. I either don't care or I've looked into it enough that I could run some sort of blog about it. Aviation is important to me even though I can't directly participate in it. And I wanted to write about it. And, to be honest, not only is this a niche that's not often covered, but the backstory to this blog is exactly what my intro post is. I was at the airport with a friend and we had this conversation:

Me: oh my gosh, look at that Lufthansa plane. It's basically white. Him: yeah Me: why are all airlines painting their planes such boring things nowadays. This sucks. They're bereft of both whimsy and character Him: yeah Me: I feel like I could complain about this for years Him: yeah Me: has anyone written a blog about this Him: probably not Me: would you like someone to?

Is it the most elegant genesis out there? No. And I'm sorry I don't have a more coherent explanation for how I got super into planes than "I have access to a large library and also an autism diagnosis", but I'm sort of an earnest person and I like thoroughly answering questions.

If you want general recommendations for informative civil aviation content I recommend the youtube channels Mentour Pilot and 74gear, which are both run by actual pilots, and also just digging around at any libraries near you and seeing what you can find. You might be surprised by the depth of the research people have done into very specific topics, and also because you can find some good overviews written by very passionate people. If you want specific recommendations about any defunct airlines or old planes or major historical events, shoot me a DM. Also, if you know any pilots, ask them, because pilots are the only people worse at shutting up about planes than me.

Sorry this got so long. Much like my inability to hold a tepid interest in a subject, I am very bad at answering questions in a way that's not perhaps too forthcoming and thorough. I hope at least some of this feels like a satisfactory answer to some of your questions, though. Thank you as always for reading my silly little blog about airplane outfits.

[rickybowensfever]

Dance the Sickness Away (Campus Crud) - Sicktember 2024: Day 3

Welcome to Sicktember 2024, Day 3: Campus/Con Crud!

You can find out more info @sicktember.

About this story: Days after "Dancing for A Cause", a charity event put on by Kylie and her sorority sisters, everyone starts to fall ill and Zach is first.

CW: very brief mention of childhood cancer since that's the cause they were raising money for

NOTE: I love all of my oc's equally but I can't help but have a strong connection to Zach and Kylie. I just *love* them. Short bio: College AU, Zach and Kylie are living with each other during their junior year of college at Lakewood University (All of my college oc’s go here!). Zach went to community college but transferred to Lakewood once he completed his associates degree. . Zach and Kylie started dating senior year of high school. The two have known each other since kindergarten. They're childhood friends to lovers. Now, they live in an off-campus apartment together. If you think they're as cute as I do, I have a couple of other fics with them. See this fic for their origin story & you can also search #zachandkylie on my Tumblr for more fics of them or any of my oc's. about my ocs! Zach Perez loves Spiderman and is a hopeless romantic. He studies computer science. He comes from a single mother, Angela who is an RN and he has an older sister, Emily who is 2-years older than him. She is a pediatrician. Kylie Daniels is a girls-girl, she loves event planning & is the Community Service chair of her sorority. Kylie studies Media & Communications. She is the eldest daughter. She has a younger brother, Blake who is a trans boy. He is a year younger and on the road touring with his band.

(SET DURING MID-OCTOBER 2024) 

Zach felt like he was hit by a truck. 

It had been three days since he pulled an all-nighter for Kylie’s 24-hour dance-a-thon for charity. Kylie had been planning the charity event for months with her sorority sisters. Like many other universities that held these types of events, Dancing for a Cause helped to spread awareness about childhood cancer and raise money for the charity they collectively chose. Plus it was also a great way to bond with other students on campus. For twenty-four-hours, they raised money for every hour that each participant danced. 

Thus, Zach’s sleep schedule was totally off. But now, it felt like it was finally coming back to normal. However, when he woke up that morning, something felt off. Of course, the morning after the dance-a-thon where they both slept for over 7 hours, his body was sore, and his muscles ached; that was normal after dancing for a long period of time. 

But this time felt different. Aside from the body aches, his head pounded, his throat felt like he had swallowed shards of glass, and chills coursed through his body, making it impossible to move from his bed. Plus, he had been coughing all night, sporadically which definitely didn’t help with his throat pain. He slowly patted the mattress to find his phone. He grabbed the cold phone from beside his pillow, lying on the white sheets on the bed. He used his thumb to unlock the phone and spoke for the first time that morning. 

“Siri, can you text Kylie and tell her I’m sick?” he croaked, wincing at the pain in his throat as he spoke. 

Certainly. To Kylie (heart emoji), “I’m sick” Send it? 

In the midst of a coughing fit, Zach croaked out a weak yes as he curled up under a mountain of covers hoping that would ease the chills. 

Sent. 

Moments later, Kylie was hovering over their bed and pulling the blankets off of her boyfriend who groaned in response. She frowned as she got close enough to see his condition. Glassy eyes, pink cheeks, and a pale complexion. 

She sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over to feel his warm forehead.  “Awe, you poor thing. You were coughing all night. Everyone’s been texting me saying they’re sick too. I asked Krista to send me the symptoms she and Natalie are having too” she said, running a hand through his matted dark brown hair. 

“I feel so sick” he croaked, holding his throat as if that would ease the pain and pulled the comforter up to his chin as his teeth chattered and a train of coughs followed. 

Kylie grimaced as she heard the painful coughs escape his lungs, “You’ve been out for a while. It’s already noon” she told him. Despite being in college, Zach was usually awake before 11am on his good days. Thus, her boyfriend looked at her with pure shock on his face as if she were pranking him. She chuckled and showed him her phone’s lockscreen with an image of them hugging with Zach kissing her on the cheek at a college football game. Her phone’s time read 12:15 PM. 

Zach blinked at her. His energy was on E. She smiled softly as she revealed two pink tablets of pain reliever showing them off in her palm like a hand model. Zach cracked a half smile and slowly picked his body up. Kylie turned toward his night stand and grabbed his reusable water bottle, as she shook it she made a mental note to refill it on her way out.  There was enough to suffice for now. 

“Take these. It’ll help the little fever you’re running and relieve some discomfort for a bit” she said with a smile, passing the water bottle off to him and holding her palm open toward him. Zach slightly nodded and grabbed the two items from her, taking the medicine and chasing them down with the cold water. He winced as he swallowed, the pain in his throat making him clench his fist in pain. 

Kylie pulled out her phone, her face lit up as it dinged. She tapped the phone’s screen and read her newest text message. Zach groaned as every little sound started to bother him and melted back under the covers, pulling them up to his chin. 

She recited the text listing off the symptoms the rest of the group were experiencing: runny/stuffy nose, low-grade fever, chills, cough, headache, sore throat, fatigue. Zach gave a short nod if he was experiencing the same. He happened to check off half of the list. 

Kylie kept her phone in her hand and looked down, swiping until she landed on the DoorDash app. “Alright, I’m going to order some things on DoorDash so we’re prepared. I’m sure to catch  it soon. So I’d rather be safe and quarantine for a few days. Thank goodness for Fall Break,” she said as she tapped the screen, adding things to her cart. 

As Zach dozed off to sleep, Kylie  quietly tip-toed out of the room and closed over the door waiting for the notification that her order had been delivered. 

### 

Zach woke up in a daze to a cold hand gently shaking him. “Hey babe, you’ve been out for a while. Why don’t we get some medicine in you?” she said, holding a bottle of cough medicine in her hand. 

He groaned, attempting to pull himself up with any ounce of energy he had. Kylie set the cough medicine on the nightstand and grabbed the warm pillows her boyfriend had been sleeping on, fluffing them up. She placed the two pillows by the headboard and put a hand around his waist helping him sit up, her cold hand touched against his warm skin. 

Kylie smiled softly at the boy; his hair messy and his cheeks bright pink, lips chapped. Kylie leaned over the nightstand filled with supplies: tissues, digital thermometer, a bottle of red sports drink and a bottle of cough medicine with a small plastic medicine cup beside it. She twisted the lid to the bottle and poured the required dosage of purple liquid into the medicine cup and handed it to her boyfriend. 

Zach took the medicine cup from her hand and drank, wincing at the awful taste. Kylie frowned, holding in a laugh. “I’m not trying to poison you. I swear this will make you feel so much better” she explained. Her boyfriend looked at her giving a glare then a thin-lipped smile to show he was joking. 

With his right hand, he signed “thank you.” His hand near his lips, he moved his hand forward and slightly down toward her direction, giving a thin-lipped smile. 

“You’re welcome” she whispered, grabbing the red sports drink from the table and passing it off to him. “Want to watch a movie or something?” she asked, turning her head toward the flat screen TV on top of the TV stand in their room.  

Zach took a long sip of the drink before responding with a nod. “Sounds good! Be right back” she said, jogging out of the room. Zach was starting to feel slightly better even if it did still feel like complete garbage. He grabbed the TV remote from the night stand on his side, leaning his body slightly to grab it as it sat next to the lamp in the center of the table. He pointed the black remote at the TV and selected Hulu, starting up Freaky Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. 

Kylie quickly returned with a mug of chicken noodle soup, her reusable water bottle, and a pack of saltines. Zach turned to look at her and smiled as he melted into the covers. Kylie set everything on the nightstand next to her side of the bed (on the right) and joined him. 

Zach lay his head on her shoulder as the movie played. 

[ariibees]

*climbs into your askbox like an old friend* I just wanted to come and say I vibe so hard with your feelings about Outer Wilds! Unfortunately for stupid reasons of physical impediment I'm unable to play games with a controller and it is, as it turns out, pretty impossible to play on mouse and keyboard, so i had to experience it through other people's playthroughs which was a huge shame. but nevertheless, I absolutely agree with "rewrote my brain"!!

Interestingly enough, I had the exact opposite experience with the control schemes -- I played the game using keyboard & mouse pretty comfortably, and absolutely would have suffered with controller. In the early game the controls do take some getting used to (particularly the delayed jump and zero-gravity maneuvering) and I was using a pretty awful button mapping setup earlier on, but with the exception of [THAT SECTION] that controller can arguably-slightly-cheese I preferred the ease of looking around and aiming my scout that kb&m provided. Though I'll admit I'm biased in that regard, as I've gone to pretty comical lengths to avoid having to use a controller for anything (looking at you, Sonic Adventure 2) and thus never really learned how to hold/use them.

That aside, even though you didn't get to play the game on your own, I'm glad you were able to enjoy other folks' playthroughs -- there are some seriously awesome ones out there. Since it's impossible to replay Outer Wilds for obvious reasons I always try to push people towards experiencing it on their own first, but in a situation where you can't I'm glad you still got to see it through one way or another.

As for the actual point of the ask hahaha, yeah, gosh, this game just fundamentally dug into me in a way others haven't. I legitimately went through the five stages of grief over the game's ending.

The game is also just great at putting you in the shoes of the Hatchling. With the exception of like, continuing a save after getting the kazoo meme ending which technically "doesn't happen," you explore the world and learn everything entirely in-character, which made it all hit much harder for me. It didn't feel like I was observing a story, it felt like I was the one making it and uncovering the mystery and having all of this happen to me. That and the fact that I had some personal things going on in my life around when I played Outer Wilds that aligned with the game's themes, leading to it kinda taking me out on a very personal level.

Outer Wilds also just seemed perfectly engineered to suck me in, haha. It's got computer simulations! Black holes! Quantum mechanics! I was the kinda kid who lived for space documentaries so getting to fly around and explore everything was amazing. Going through environmental puzzles, reading adorable exchanges with the nomai, getting to see the most incredible sights (the door falling away at the [SPOILER] and having to make a leap of faith to get across the gap was amazing), and putting it all together in a wild red-string conspiracy board...I completed the entire game over the course of like, 2-3 days as I recall? Just entirely immersed for that time.

It's inspired me so much in my stories and how I think about mysteries. It's the best time-loop game out there, and the presentation of the sandbox mystery is just unparalleled in any other game. Hence why everyone who's played it is left looking up Youtube playthroughs and chasing that high again -- personally I think going into the original Subnautica game blind touches some of the same feelings, but you're never really gonna get the Outer Wilds Experience again.

The mechanics are great, the mystery is presented wonderfully; I fell in love with the environments and the characters and the dialogue. The themes were tied into the story very naturally and hit me right in my core. Obviously I can't really replay it, but I do sometimes boot it up just to reread some sections or go hang out on Giant's Deep for the ambiance; it's comforting and nostalgic in a weird sort of way.

Sorry that this response isn't anywhere near coherent. I'm very, very tired right now, and I love Outer Wilds a lot and won't pass up a chance to ramble about how great it is. It's a very special game to my heart and dug into me in a way other games often can't do. It's not for everyone, but if it is for you it's REALLY for you. Clearly I like it and clearly you like it. So thanks for climbing into my askbox and setting me off, haha.

[conceptofjoy]

part 1: preface/things that arent affected by gender

gendah fluid. it/its for referring to it as a whole, he/him or she/her when you know what its gender is atm (and boy you Will know). idrk the terminology but it switches about once a month

quadrants: kismesis/moirail vacillating with karkat, matesprit of jade, friend with benefits of june and jane, unknown situation happening with terezi. tried to start something with sollux but it kinda fell flat

tyler the creator (who exists on earth c) superfan. tells people its favorite album is cherry bomb to be contrarian but in reality its fav is call me if you get lost

uses time powers to recover stuff from un-sburb'd earth a. current favorite thing that it has recovered is the 2016 pink drink recipe

Vibrant red eyes. you know that meme of the most gorgeous brown eyes you've ever seen vs staring into your soul. its on the staring into your soul side of the spectrum

part 2: dave

stereotypical early 2010s gamer boy. worked with jake to bring the xbox 360 servers back up so that he and his friends could play bo2 zombies

avid hate-reader of homestuck beyond canon (in my post-canon au caliborn wrote hs:bc as some kinda weird escapist fanfic about his friends lives. he's setting up a huge twist ending where it turns out that ult dirk (and thus everyone else) is secretly being controlled by ult caliborn)

had a ttrpg phase once. tried to homebrew a black ops 2 campaign in 5e, realized that 5e sucks, then found an indie rpg that accomplished what he wanted perfectly

part 3: dana

ping pongs between "motorcycle butch" and "preppy white girl with polaroid camera, heart shaped glasses, and a bucket hat w plastic strawberries on it"

part 3a: motorcycle butch

this. all of this. apologies if the link doesnt work i had to manually copy it from my computer screen to my phone

would KILL INDISCRIMINATELY to live in a cyberpunk au. she doesnt care about the living situation or how corps have practically taken over the world, she just wants to have cybernetic implants and call her friends her choombas

raves about d&b and techno acts you've never heard of

part 3b: preppy white girl with polaroid camera, heart shaped glasses, and a bucket hat w plastic strawberries on it

pretends to be a taylor swift fan. it is all a ruse, do not fall for it

avid birdwatcher, descending from her love of crows as a 13 y/o. has a binder full of polaroids of various birds

dainty little herb and fruit garden on the roof of her apartment building. gifted by jade

shed sooo have a motorcycle bc its just the coolest thing in the world to have. has to shoo dirk off with a bat to keep him from adding some “extra features” on the house. theyd be adorable as shit bonding over vehicles. i absolutely see the cyberpunk thing. does not know how to deal with electronics regardless LMFAO.

trying her absolute best to keep that garden ALIVE. she would also have a ton of fun fucking with people based on how shes dressed true. picks up and drops various hobbies, true. the time powers anthropology ✅✅. jadedavekat lets fucking go. i fuck w ur hcs o7

[beerose-blog]

So, hello. I'm Bee. If you're one of my friends, you may recognize the title "Bee's Gradual Guide To Success". If you don't, it was actually the title of one of my personal "article series"/blogs that I made last November. I started it off with a lot of excitement, but I eventually got discouraged about myself and moved on, feeling so mortified about it that I wished I had never written it, even though my friends said it was really good. Here it is:

I think the funniest thing about this blog series is that it was all about being "real". You know, we live in a world where everything is completely over-saturated with success, and it's hard to find someone who will speak the truth about their experiences and failures. In the blog, I said and I quote:

"That’s actually the purpose of this blog/guide. First of all, I want to let the world know it’s OKAY to not know what you’re doing. Everyone, even the most successful people started from the very beginning. We live in a world that’s filled to the brim with the success stories of others- it can be overwhelming and make our own goals seem vast, intimidating, and unachievable."

Through my blog, I wanted to let everyone know that it was okay to have setbacks, that it was okay to fail at things; that all these obstacles would help us eventually succeed at whatever we wanted to do. And many people liked it. And then, do you know what happened?

I stopped writing it because I felt like a failure.

Now, let me tell you a little something about myself: I am the QUEEN of trying, failing, and giving up. I have had countless, countless career aspirations and dreams. I've wanted to be a business woman, running my own coffeeshop/bookstore called the CoZe Café. I've also wanted to be an artist who would sell commissions. For a very long time I also wanted to be an animator. I've had aspirations to run my own online shop with knitted and crocheted goods, I've wanted to be a seamstress, an accountant, the list goes on and on and on. It doesn't help, either, that I've got a cocktail of mental health diagnoses including bipolar 2 hypomania, which effectively makes me feel like a god that can achieve absolutely anything. But two times, so far, I've settled on novelist/editor.

Novelist/editor. What would it truly be like to live that dream? To work in some big publishing house, editing what could be the next famous author's story - making their dreams a reality, validating them. It sounds great! Right?

Well, I'm not quite at this point yet. In fact, about an hour ago, I was completely at my wit's end, even considering dropping my classes. You see, I'm an English major, working to get my Associate's degree at a Community College. The plan, currently, is to eventually get a PhD in English from Harvard. However that plan definitely seems far away considering this is my first semester and I'm already many, many assignments behind. It's week two, by the way.

Thus, once again, things become stagnant. I ask myself, "What do I do? How am I ever going to succeed? Am I just a failure like they all said I was?". And am I? It certainly seems so so far. But yet, someone told me I'm not.

This particular person told me exactly this:

"so i say, its not too late for you."

The "so i say" is in reference to the other part of the story he told me. He had spent his life working on various projects, writing and others, only to lose them all with the loss of his computer. So, he gave up. He worked, worked, and worked. He even said he was "Just a tired adult without hobbies". Until finally, he found a certain community, the same one where I met him. And through that community, he found friends and his love for writing once again. And he didn't give up. In fact, I'd even boldly claim to say he never gave up, as writing eventually DID come back to him.

So what about me? What should I do? Writing itself has been a theme all throughout my childhood, starting way back with my first attempted novel titled "Billy & Mandy" that I scrawled in a black composition notebook at age 8. It's always been present, coming back to me in bursts and staying longer each time. So what do I do now? Do I simply just "give up" on that dream?

And now, as you read, you may be wondering things. "What is the purpose of this? Isn't her blog called 'Bee's Gradual Guide To Success?' Where does success come in? What's happening? All she's talked about is her failures."

Or perhaps, you are just scrolling along, and clicked this by mistake. Or maybe your phone is in your pocket, and you've mistakenly buttdialed my tumblr account. Who knows! The world is full of endless possibilities!

However, if you are wondering what my purpose is by writing this, it's very simple:

There isn't any.

The only real purpose I have is personal; I am just trying to document my life, just in a public format.. Maybe, by sharing my story of success and failure, it will help you. Maybe you will continue to scroll. Either way, I will be here, posting. It makes me happy to do this, to document my story in vivid, painted detail. The idea excites me. And maybe someone out there will connect with my struggles, and find the courage to keep moving forward in the darkness, knowing there's someone out there just like them.

So I guess in that case I lied in a way, there is sort of a purpose. I mean, what did you expect? It is called "Bee's Gradual Guide To Success". And the main fact is, I have no idea what I'm doing.

So I wish you luck in your own journey, if you do end up seeing this - and maybe you'll find some of yourself in mine.