#Component Cleanup

[kirantech]

AEM Component and Template Auditor

The "Component and Template Auditor" allows you to analyze your project, identifying components and templates with zero references. This knowledge empowers you to make informed decisions regarding whether to keep or remove them.

Problem Statement: How can we effectively assess whether the components and templates within our project structure are actively used on web pages? This knowledge is crucial for making informed decisions regarding component and template maintenance. Introduction: When organizations undertake AEM upgrades or migrations, they often introduce new components and templates following revised project…

[theothersideofthesolver]

Obscure Murderdrones Facts #10

Source: Murderdrones Ep 5 “Home”

Timestamp: 0:29

At the very beginning of episode 5, “Home,” we are given a look at the the Zombie Drones tape, which details the procedure of decommission for Workerdrones.

The Hardware Cleanup graphic displays the machine responsible for disassembling cores. While important to the lore of the absolute solver, there’s something else overlooked.

The mechanism’s ‘arm’ looks strikingly familiar.

Source: Ep 3 “The Promening”

Timestamp: 9:18

In The Promening, we can see for the first time what Dissasembly Drone arms actually look like in their entirety. V’s prom dress exposes her arms, and using her as reference, a resemblance to the core-dismantling machine becomes evidence.

From the broadened forearm, to the tapering of the upper arm towards the elbow, all the way to the balljoint in the shoulder.

It’s an exact match.

This entails that when upgrading the fleshy prototypes to their final versions, Cyn deliberately chose to incorporate the device responsible for destroying the most important component of Workerdrones. Right before sicking them on all of humanity.

Perhaps it’s poetic justice, perhaps it’s some other intention. But if wearing Tessa’s corpse proved anything, it was that Cyn loves irony.

[theinsideofablackhole]

(More) Rain World Pearl Writings

Now with some hit-or-miss doodles I made to visualize the pearls. They might be incredibly compressed idk...

Bicker

Interesting… It is a debate forum on the punitive ruling of a homicide. To thrust an enlightened individual across the cycle was considered abominable.

However, the presiding Just Order decided that the perpetrator embodied “The Remorsive Luminance Within”, and recommended her for temporary exile to a temple.

The discourse over the sentencing is… vulgar, to say the least. Many of my citizens did little else but talk, and thus the political landscape mutated into a frenzy of dozens of quarreling factions.

Most systems were commanded by the dynastic Concepts, so the remaining scraps of governance were subject to vicious competition by these factions. Power changed hands constantly.

The perpetrator was lucky. Had it been any other cycle, the ruling Order would throw her in a sensory deprivation tank or wipe her memory. Or perhaps she would be declared unsalvageable and turned into fodder for ritual combat.

It’s a bit baffling that they rarely just transcended their criminals in a Void Fluid bath instead. Probably because it would defeat the point of their bickering…

Mast

Oh? This contains a very old intellectual offering to the 52nd Great Mind, or the Aetherial Mast west of here. It consists of a very flattering, complex riddle.

Since you’ve been to Five Pebbles, I imagine that you’ve seen those grand towers piercing into the sky. They once formed a communication network between iterators, but a few of them - such as this particular one - are actually older than iterators like me.

After the Void Fluid Revolution, people quickly discovered that if any construct got complex enough, it would gain sapience.

So they threw as much computational power as they could into these towers, and waited. They expected the Aetherial Masts to quickly discover a method to implode the cosmos into the earth, achieving global transcension.

It inevitably failed. The 52nd Great Mind was later connected to a larger, more deliberate construct, and underwent apotheosis to become Looks to the Moon. Which is me!

The first of us iterators were reborn from these Great Minds. Afterward, most Masts were created with an iterator already in control.

Thank you, little creature, for this memento from my distant past.

Brain Tree

It's a treatise on memorykeeping. There’s a crypt nearby here, under Five Pebbles - piles and piles of cabinets, holding the legacies of my departed creators.

Through a complex bombardment procedure, the storage components of a person's mind would grow a twin lump, which contained cherished memories. The "memory fruit" was then removed and placed in a cabinet.

When the crypts began to acquire a hefty pile of cabinets, my creators discovered that all the fruits had united via a network of roots. The formation bulged outward endlessly, breaking into a factory far, far away. The cleanup effort was monumental.

Now, a microbe system continually expels the fruits' boundless energy, and kills them if the defenses fail to keep the fruits from getting too large.

Rare as they are, mass fractal neural emissions are a worrying phenomenon. Please keep your distance if you see a fruit that has grown into a tree.

Don't touch it - I don't know what might happen to you.

[lockheed-martin-unofficial]

Starscream is given a bath, Part 4:

Bet y’all thought I was done with this. I’m not done, I was just stuck on this part for a really long time. It wasn’t going the way I wanted it to, but then again, I always have doubts when it comes to Starscream’s characterization.

Anyway, it ended up being pretty long. 1298 words. I’m not all too satisfied with it, but I gotta just post it and move on.

Part 3: here

Part 5: here

——————————————————————————

“Starscream.”

He opened his optics once more, taking a few seconds to recalibrate. It appeared that he had actually fallen into a recharge without noticing. He looked down at himself, seeing that his arms and chest were looking…shinier than usual. He flexed his digits, touching the tip of every talon to his thumb. She’d done a good job, for a human. Collecting himself but still feeling a little drowsy, Starscream looked down at her.

“Yes? What is it?”

“I need to clean your vents.”

He bristled at that statement, his expression quickly turning sour. “You don’t need to do that.” He waved a servo, wings flattening behind his back.

“Come on, would you rather be breathing dirty air for the rest of your life?”

“My cooling system cleans itself.” He huffed. “I thought you knew that by now.”

“Your air filtration and internal components do. The vents don’t. They’re external.” Damnit, why did she have to know so much about cybertronian biology? The human reached up, her hands grabbing onto the vents on both sides of his face and tugging on them. He grumbled at that, still wanting to avoid this wretched fate. Nevertheless, he allowed her to pull him down. He knew by now that arguing would be pointless.

“I won’t get any water in, I’m just gonna run a towel over them.” She let go of him, stepping out of the bathtub. She quietly walked to a cabinet, opening it and grabbing a soft little towel. The human ran some warm water over it, before squeezing out the excess and returning to him.

“Lean on the side of the tub, please?”

He didn’t say anything, but did as told. His wings were hanging low, as flat as they possibly could be. Seriously? Did he hate vent cleaning that much?

“This won’t hurt a bit, I promise.”

He only grumbled in response.

The human brought the towel up to him, first rubbing it over his faceplate to wipe off anything that wasn’t cleaned by the initial run of water. She cleaned him with the soft cloth using one hand, the other holding onto the side of his vent intake to keep him still. Starscream had shut his optics as tightly as possible, not moving an inch during this part of the cleanup.

“That’s nice, isn’t it?” She asked, her voice gentle as if talking to a child. “Doesn’t that warmth feel so soothing, Starscream?”

“Don’t patronize me.” He replied, his voice muffled from the towel she kept rubbing on his face. The human just chuckled at the sight.

“Now if you just tilt your head back, I can move on to the vents.”

He did as instructed, but she could easily see how tense he was. Starscream’s servos gripped the sides of the bathtub, holding himself still. She tilted his chin up ever so slightly, noting that the seeker still refused to open his optics. Slowly and being as gentle as possible, she pressed the towel into his vents, using her fingers to assist in cleaning any grime off the grilles. The process went smoothly for the most part, Starscream obviously uncomfortable but managing to keep himself still. All the way until-

He yelled and kicked up the water when she touched a bad spot, his servos finding and gripping her wrists as he pulled her away from himself.

“That’s enough touching, thank you very much.” Starscream scrambled away to the other corner of the tub, a flash of irritation on his faceplate and a defensiveness to his mannerisms.

“Hang on, I think I saw something in there.”

The seeker wrapped his arms around his frame, pulling his knees all the way up to his chest. The human let out a soft sigh, sitting on the side of the tub and trying to sound as gentle as possible.

“Do you want me to get it?”

He met her gaze and the look on his faceplate momentarily shifted as though she’d just offered to rip his spark out. Then, his expression changed again to one of contemplation. He knew this was going to hurt. But he also knew that he was going to feel much worse over the long run if she didn’t get it out. Could she really, though? Get it out?

Starscream could tolerate pain, best to just get it over with. Better her than asking the Autobots for help. Fine, he’d trust her to get it out.

“Fine. Just… be quick about it?” He asked, a hint of vulnerability creeping into his voice.

The human nodded, and Starscream shuffled back to his previous spot, unusually timid. He was partially acting, pretending to be more scared than he actually was with the hope that it’d earn him a gentler touch.

“Try not to make any sudden moves, alright? I won’t lose a finger if you flinch, not there, but please… be mindful of your strength.”

“Right. The usual.” He replied with a tiny chuckle and a subtle crack of his voice.

Evidently, it had worked. She held his faceplate between her hands, positioning it just right so she could see inside the grilles- which he had feathered to a 90-degree angle for better access.

“Thank you.”

She leaned forward, peering inside. Once she had a good look at the piece of debris, she spoke up.

“Okay, I’m gonna start now. Don’t panic.”

Starscream didn’t resist, just kept his optics shut hoping that this would all be done soon. Carefully, the human reached her fingers inside- this felt weird. This felt so weird. Cooling vents were not supposed to have anything solid entering them. Not so deep. Even though he knew the human’s hand was there to help him, that she was not a threat, he had to clench his servos in order to ignore every coded instinct telling him to keep his vents clear, to remove the obstruction that was her hand immediately.

He was so focused on keeping still that he didn’t even realised she was done until his temperature regulation system suddenly stopped yelling at him. Hesitantly opening his optics once more, he was met with the sight of the human looking down at him, a shard of metal in her hand covered in dried energon.

The first thing he felt was relief, as he took in a strong intake of air and a slight smile found its way to his faceplate.

That hadn’t hurt all that much.

“See? Got it out. didn’t hurt too much, I hope.”

Seeing as he didn’t reply, she continued.

“But I think it left behind a cut, do you need me t-“

Oh no. He knew exactly what she was going to ask, and he wouldn’t allow it.

“No, no need!” he suddenly cut her off, and grabbed the piece of shrapnel from her hand, examining it. “If this is all that was in there… my frame will be able to repair any leftover damage on its own now.”

He turned his gaze back down to her.

“As helpful as you have been, I’d rather not have you rooting through my internals any longer than you absolutely have to. Especially there.” he explained, an aversion of his optics accompanying that last word. He didn’t want to seem rude, especially after all this human had done.

“Hmm, that’s fair. I guess I see why it’d be uncomfortable if our roles were reversed.”

He was relieved at her understanding. Well, his problem was solved. He should probably thank her for that. Starscream scoffed. He was doing too much thanking today.

“I’m…grateful. For the help.”

She smiled. Huh. There she went again. He could really get used to that.

“Don’t mention it. Must’ve been painful. And besides, it’s not time to thank me yet. We’ve still gotta do your wings.”

[carionto]

Humans laugh

But what is this thing they call humor?

Why do they find things to be funny?

It is a deeply personal matter as far as we can tell, for what one individual may smirk at, another may be horrified or disgusted by.

One time a fleet beacon malfunctioned and translated our fleet into a desynchronized orientation. Most of the human crew laughed, saying things like "You guys are from down under eh" and "Looks like our frigate is giving a sideways glance to that carrier".

However, a few of them became worried, dismissing the comments, and got to work figuring out why this error occured. "There was no damage, sure. This time. Had one of the other parameters been off, the cleanup crews would need weeks clearing out the debris a fleet of this size would leave."

Still, incidental occurences are one thing, but many Humans go out of their way to create this humor. Most often it is attempted through the spoken word, mainly between Humans though.

While universal translators are exceptionally adept at converting the most complex and culturally specific phrases and even verbal tone and inflections, "jokes" don't seem to function for most others.

The other less frequent method are these "practical jokes". Most result in confusion, some in irritation, and a rare few in hostility.

A Netrethian who does not see in the same spectrum will be befuddled when they accidentally knock over an invisible to them cup made of a very peculiar type of plastic and startled by the obstruction and noise.

But for an Oht'Heivol some of the components of a "mild" stink bomb would be akin to a war crime. The list of controlled items and substances Humans can bring to many places grows each day.

Relaxing and being entertained by soothing colors and rythms, or artificially stimulated is one thing, but laughter in and of itself appears to be an extreme rarity among the species of the cosmos.

What is that near universal Human physical reaction to these near infinitely variable mental catalysts?

One thing that does translate fairly well, however, is intent. Even if we cannot understand why a Human is laughing about something, we can tell if, as they put it, are laughing with us or at us.

[krahk]

Blood for Ruin

(Or, Alastor and That One Time He Got Drunk and Forgot He Tried To Make a Black Magic Agreement With a Radio Only For It to Come Back to Him in the Worst Way)

Masterlist

Pairings: Alastor x Reader (She/Her/OFC) as reluctant semi-soulmates via non-consensual deal (on both ends). No use of Y/N.

I understand he is aroace, but I couldn’t stop thinking about this idea so here it is.

Eventual smutty smut happening, but be kind dear god am I rusty.

_________________________________________

Exhausted was simply not what you were - you were so past that, your brain so fried out that you didn’t even know what word you were.

Because if you were seeing smiling figure-like shadows on the walls with long dark tendrils wrapping around your surroundings, and radio static from nowhere, then yea. You were fried.

But hey, it had been a crazy long weekend. You’d just spent the last 4 days cleaning up your hoarder of a great aunts shack in the Bon Temps bayou with the other scattered remainder of her family, rooting through about 4 unidentifiable rooms with confirmed animal carcasses and straight up trash-garbage piled to the ceilings. But since your mother died, any family connection at this point was appreciated, right?

‘Couldn’t be more wrong, but it’s too late now’, you think. It was way too late to back out now, you had something to prove. Your Great Aunt’s remaining son had called you ‘slicker’ because you lived in a town with more than one lighted intersection for Christ's sake. And because you used ‘whom’ in a sentence, that opened up an entirely new thrush of nicknames from your distant cousins. You wouldn’t be beaten down, you guys were almost all done with the cleanup anyway, the only remaining items being that of actual use or salvageable material. A couple family members had taken a few items home already, and since you weren’t particularly close with these relatives you weren’t about to ask for anything until-

Well until the little radio was brought out.

For some reason, the craftsmanship of this radio caught your eye. It was a beautiful dark wood, with intricate swirls carved around the speakers - the entire thing was shaped like a miniature church cathedral window. It was clearly vintage, basically a historical piece, you thought - and you did ask quietly if you could keep it. Your uncle fiddled with it to make it work but it needed some attention. It looked virtually untouched otherwise. It was a gorgeous piece, and it looked like it was a new acquisition to the deceased woman’s collection - there wasn’t a spec of dust visible on it. Your uncle figured it wouldn’t be able to pick up football (and also “why would I listen to football when I can WATCH it?”) he let you take it with you.

So you brought it back to your temporary home, the little motel at the outskirts of town (the only motel even close to the town) and set it on the little desk. And there it sat for 2 days before you finally dove in, trying to figure out what was going on with it. You had deduced it was likely the wiring, and after watching 5 or 6 videos on wiring repair on YouTube (good old YouTube) you were fairly confident a simple repair would take no time at all.

But things made in the 20s were a lot sharper, and more metal based, compared to the newer plastic models of recent years. So when you undid the back panel and attempted to unscrew a fastener around the side of the main component, you had successfully sliced your palm open on an errant piece of metal. And holy crow did it hurt AND gush blood immediately. Even though you had whipped your hand close to your chest almost as soon as you realised what had happened it was too late, there was a fair amount of blood that got on the inside of the machine.

Uttering curses, you’d rushed to the bathroom to grab a couple threadbare cloths and sop up some of the larger drops on the desk. Moving around the radio to the light, you had a clearer idea of where your blood landed. Palming one cloth in your wounded hand, your other one attempted to clean up the mess within the radio. Which is where you noticed the funny little symbols written on the inside of the back panel of the radio, which had lain facedown on the desk as soon as you had removed it. These little symbols looked like runes of some sort, unidentifiable to you. They almost looked like they were written out of blood themselves. It was clearly dried now, but the jagged nature of the strokes and brownish un-ink like material that was used to leave the symbols certainly looked like dried blood might look like on old wood.

You wiped your blood off the radio, and ran the cloth right over one of the runes, making it glow briefly with a green light. Maybe.

Well, that was what you thought you saw. But it was so brief you would have missed it with a well timed blink. The sun was setting, light streaming through the window in hazy little streaks, maybe you saw some prismatic effect? Or maybe, maybe you needed a shower and bed. Clearly if you sliced your hand open on a little radio you were tired. Sloppy coordination indeed. You reattached the back panel to the radio and decided to ignore it until you were in a better headspace.

Radio abandoned, you went and started to clean yourself up and get ready for sleep. But when the lights in the bathroom started to flicker, only to stay on slightly duller than before, paired with a strange static that scratched the inside of your eardrums, you decided to end your shower quicker than ever. Exiting the bathroom, you were chilled to realise that the main room had the same ambient experience waiting for you. And if you focused on the moving shadows from what you hoped were passing cars (electric, judging by the lack of engine noise) there was a solid larger mass lingering on the wall with the dresser and broken TV. One that looked like it had a smile, and glowing red eyes (from a car's tail lights, duh!). Yes, yes. Tired. SO tired.

Calling the front did not help, since the static was so loud when you lifted up the receiver you slammed it back down. Your own cell phone was still charging on the side table, flashing the little dead battery symbol to let you know you needed to be more responsible with your charging habits in the future. It could be another 15 minutes before it was ready to turn on.

So, obviously tired, it was time to attempt to sleep. Hopefully. If you were lucky. It wasn’t enough that the bayou was creepy all on its own, the evening took a sharp turn into scary-town after you started messing with the little radio.

Pyjama-clad and ready to sleep you decided that the hallucinations were exactly what you thought they were - hallucinations and nothing more. Nothing spooky, or supernatural, or dangerous.

But you had been wrong before.

It was the initial crashing sound of the motel room door hitting the wall that woke you up first, screaming male voices really kicking your brain into high alert as you scrambled out of bed. Ending up in the corner facing the opposite corner where the door was, you took in what was happening. 2 men, yelling at you for whatever you had - but you were screaming louder than they were, scrambling for anything in your grasp - just that stupid, fucking radio - but judging by the hot impact of a projectile hitting your chest they were not thrilled you weren’t immediately cooperating. Hand clenching around the radio’s cord you hit the corner and slumped down to the floor, lungs burning and immense pain taking over your consciousness. As your mind faded, you could hear the two men bickering, freaking out over the turn their burglary took. Oh, you being shot was an accident? Stellar. Your vision became hazy, it even looked like shadows were overtaking the men as their arguing turned into painful screaming. Whoever came to your aid was simply too late, though you could appreciate the gesture as you died.

You always thought that you would end up looking down at your dying body when the time came, but from the forceful pull downwards your soul felt, it was clear the afterlife had different plans for you.

Now you weren’t really sure what the hell, like actual, literal, hell, was going on. The impact you felt from your sharp tug into the afterlife, landing on a very detailed rug at what looked like the lobby of a hotel was one thing. The tiny radio following your fall shortly after, merely denting a corner of the wood with a loud thunk was another, cord still clenched in your hand. Oh good!

Dazed, you were immediately hoisted up and hugged - yes hugged - by probably the tallest women you had ever met, and the fastest talking one as well. Rambling about “welcome”, “hell rehab”, something or other about redemption - honestly the look of relief you gave the shorter woman who approached and reined in the other made her smirk as she introduced them in a much clearer manner.

Vaggie and Charlie. Vaggie was a resident of the hotel with her girlfriend, the owner and operator of this ‘Hazbin Hotel’, Charlie, both working at redeeming the souls of sinners and getting them into heaven. There were 2 residents, Angel & Sir Pentious, who were not present, a Janitor Nifty (currently wiping your landing spot with a cloth) the bartender, an angry bird-cat man Husk, and the host (also missing) Alastor. Your open mouthed confusion clearly made Charlie snap into attention (finally) because she finally morphed into a being that was capable of conversation.

“So, new to hell?” She inquired.

Well. Duh. “Um yes. I think I was just shot? Am I actually dead?” You asked, hopeful this was a very vivid nightmare.

“As a doornail!” She exclaimed, chipper with positive energy, “Not that doornails are dead, they don’t have souls like you or Angel but really-”

“Yes. You’re dead. And a sinner, which is why you’re here.” Vaggie cut in, patting Charlie on the back. Charlie smiled brightly and nodded at you.

“Yes, and here you can redeem yourself and hopefully make it to heaven! I have faith in our program.”

Oh god this was too much. The sound of a door opening and closing was faintly heard in the background, but that didn’t stop you from being a speedy spiral into mania.

“So. One, I’m dead. Two, why am I in hell I am pretty sure I was a decent human? I didn’t go to church, sure, but I had very little control over my working schedule. Three, is it supposed to be so freaking loud down here? I’m-“

Intense breathing interrupted - yes, breathing. It was the janitor, her one eye staring at you while she lifted the little radio. ”This is diiiirty” she semi-sang. A horrific giggle was lingering under her breath. You grimaced at her behaviour and dropped the cord immediately, avoiding any contact by proxy with this creature. What a creepy little -

“Did that come with you?” Charlie asked, looking confused as you answered with a nod. “Strange, usually possessions don’t follow a soul into the afterlife…” She trailed off, finger tapping her chin with a frown. Everyone turned to look at the manic janitor essentially vibrating with the radio in her hands.

“Interesting! What has inspired us all to gather this fine evening?”

”Alastor!” Charlie greeted an individual behind you. ”This might be our newest resident…she’s just arrived!” Her hands wildly gestured from you to whoever was behind you. You could see the shadow of the person on the floor, stretching into a long figure that looked vaguely familiar. You were certain your eyes were burning a hole into the carpet beneath the shadow. If the shadow was this frightening what exactly was behind you? The shadow appeared to smile wider as you stared at it.

“Hmm!” Alastor, you supposed, responded. “What an exciting new development why - Oh!” Something had caught his attention. He walked towards the janitor, and you glanced at the back of his figure as he walked past you towards the tiny creature. He was tall, very tall, and slender. There was an ominous presence around him, even the nature of his clothing was fashioned in a way that seemed off. It was unnerving. Broad shoulders tapered into a very slim waistline, his jacket flared out behind him in a style reminiscent of a different time. Head to toe red and black, which was also just…something else. But the other patrons also had an interesting approach to their wardrobes as well, save the 2 women. Maybe that was just…how it was here.

“Now where did you find this delightful little item, Nifty?” He said, his profile coming slightly into your view. Dear god, terrifying. You couldn’t even begin to describe his appearance. Chills ran down your back, and suddenly you remembered you were still in very thin pajamas.

“Eh-hehe a dirty radio sir!” She answered, thrilled with herself. “it came with our new guessst” her eye switching from the tallest, creepiest creature you had ever set your eyes upon to your gaze. You swear you could hear the bones crack in the man's neck as he fired his gaze to yours. You were trapped.

“Is that so?” He began to slowly walk towards you, the room filling with a static hum similar to what you felt in the motel room, your skin tingling as he got closer. It was getting harder to hear the others try and talk to the approaching figure, the hum was getting louder.

“And what,” he started, “are you doing with my Radio, my dear?” His eyes were radio dials at this point, sharp jagged teeth glowing alongside them as his head tilted in an inhuman manner, the cracking from before louder than before.

What? Oh for fucks sake. Fuck your backwater, bayou-residing, rude, nasty, hoarder family-

As your eyes rolled back into your head, your body went limp and you hit the foyer carpet. Hard. For the second time that night

**

Part One : Part Two : Part Three : Part Four

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

But what happens to these decommissioned movie dispensers? Rather than simply scrapping the machines, The Junkluggers has implemented a methodical process to maximize recycling and reuse. “Sustainable junk removal” is the ethos of the company, and that’s guided what happens to the Redbox hardware. “For the Redbox units being handled by The Junkluggers, we help to recycle the metal components and return them to the production supply chain,” explains Waltz. “There are multiple types of Redbox units out there and each must be handled differently… for each unit that comes into our possession, we carefully evaluate its components to identify what parts can be recycled or donated.” Media enthusiasts will be most keen to know what’s happening to the discs inside these machines. Redbox vending machines are capable of holding up to 630 DVDs each. If we imagine the fleet is around half full, at an average of 300 discs per unit, that would have left over 10,000,000 DVDs to be disposed of. Some might think it a shame for all these to end up in landfill. Thankfully, that’s not the case, as the company has found creative ways to give the DVD libraries within these machines a second life. “The majority of the DVDs we’ve collected from removals are being rehomed,” says Waltz. “We’ve donated DVDs to local artists, assisted living facilities, homeless shelters, veterans’ clinics, and other community organizations nationwide.” The goal is to see as many discs as possible go to new homes.

[lazyneonrabbitt]

Rabbitt's TWD Halloween '24

Witches and Woos

🐺 Daryl Dixon x reader 🌿

What happens when a witch and a werewolf decide they need the same clearing in the forest where the moon shines brightest.

The community you joined two days ago was a nice one. Or at least it seemed to be, as long as you didn't ask about leaving the gates during the night.

No matter who you asked if it was okay to go out that night the answer was no. And on top of that no one could give you a straightforward reason as to why they weren't letting you go out.

But that didn't stop you from sneaking out over the wall like you saw that kid do the day before.

Once your feet hit the ground you set out to the clearing you passed once before, it was the perfect place to work your magic.

You wanted to return the kindness of allowing you into the community with a blessing of crops, but you needed privacy and moonlight for it so your only option was to go outside the walls on the night of the full moon for the best results.

Your items in your bag made noise as you walked, already a hand against the outside to dampen it and a knife in your hand in case a stray walker came across your path.

You made it to the clearing without any unpleasantries and laid out all of the spell's components. Things were looking like it was going to be a quick and easy job, until a growl startled you.

"Leave." A deep snarling voice sounded as a large beast stepped into the moonlight.

"Shut it, I need to focus." You had spared it only a fraction of a glance before you went back to mixing herbs and taking a knife to your palm.

"These woods are protected. Leave." The beast stepped closer, heavy footfalls on the dirt ground. "I will tear you open."

You looked up at him, barely lifting your head. "You kill me and you'll curse your precious community's crops for the next couple of generations so you better sit your ass down, mutt."

A huff left him as he moved even closer, inspecting your works. "You cast blessings?" He tilted his head, hovering over your carefully arranged items.

"Yes I do, now get out of my goddamn light." With your now bloodied hand you shoved his snout out of reach, leaving a handprint on his nose.

"You are on my lands." He scoffed as he laid down, eyeing your work with great focus.

"Yeah yeah, boo hoo. Doggy wants his field back so he can run around in ghe moonlight. I'll be gone before you know it." You rolled your eyes at him and continued doing your thing, mixing all the spell's ingredients and speaking the needed words in a hushed tone. In the corner of your eye you noticed your canine companion walking off and lay down off to the edge of the clearing.

You moved on with the last bits of your spell and started cleanup when you heard a low grumble from the other end of the clearing where your lycantrophic companion had laid down. Taking him in for a moment you noticed his sleep was restless, panicked energy oozing off him.

With a sigh you sat back down and rummaged through your bag and took out various items, putting together a quick sleeping remedy from herbs. A lavender base with a few other ingredients made a mixture that should help him sleep more calm, so you put it in a small pouch and carefully nestled it between his forearm and cheek.

The next days were quiet ones for you. You had no job yet so all you did was get to know the layout of your new home and get aquainted with the residents.

Here and there you picked up talk of the full moon, and the creature you met but you kept to yourself in fear of letting it slip that you snuck out.

You also spotted someone new walking around a couple days later. He looked scruffy, tired and oddly familiar.

Just familiar until he came up to you and held out a pouch to you. "Guess I owe ya thanks."

You looked the man up and down, now easily recognising his features that matched your werewolf visitor.

"Keep it." You kindly declined the return of your product. "As long as you keep the strings tied it'll stay effective."

"Hmhm, thanks" with a nod a silence fell between the two of you, both unsure how to continue the conversation.

"Well, I guess I'll be heading home." You gave your basket of rations a pat and bid him farewell.

"Yeah, me too." Again he nodded and turned to walk off. In the same direction as you, so you fell into step with him jn silence again.

It wasn't that you hadn't met werewolves before, but this one was different. He wasn't begging you for cures or herbs, hell he even tried to return the pouch you offered him.

"So eh," you needed to break this awkward silence. "How long have you been like that?" You gestured at the pouch he had pocketed and got a long sigh in response as he blew out the smoke from deep in his lungs.

"Forty years, give or take. Was a teen." He gave you a look then. "N'you? When did ya learn?"

You thought back to way before, and your mother. Oh how you missed her. "I was always told to keep nature and its creatures as friends. So my mom taught me from the second I could properly read." You laughed yo yourself. "Man, she would be smiling ear to ear if she learned I made a friend like you."

"Next time ya wanna go outside the walls, jus' ask me." With a short wave he turned up the path that led to his home where a bike sat in an open garage. "Name's Daryl, by the way."

With a wave of your own you gave him your name as well as you confinued on to your place down the street.

Tonight you'd have to light a candle and thank the moon for this meeting.

[aris-has-a-paracosm]

ArisArisArisAris Aris Aris please I'm begging you canwe see wips for Deepfrost drawing

please please please can we be permitted a tiny glance inside the brain of tumblr artist aris-has-a-paracosm?

Yes can do! <3 Here’s a little bit about my art process for the Deepfrost art :)

So here’s a screenshot from the sketch. (It wasn’t completely done at the time, but it’s the only screenshot I still have of that part.)

I sketch in any color other than black so I can more easily see my lineart later, and red is often what I default to. I also had two-point perspective grid lines set up, but I didn’t really adhere to them. As you can see, DF’s face did undergo a little bit of editing before the lineart happened. I opted to go for a toothy grin rather than the open-mouthed smile he originally had here.

Speaking of lineart:

Regardless of what brush I use, I always make sure that my lineart connects neatly to itself for each part of every drawing (separate lineart layers for each component.) There’s no gaps anywhere, so it makes it to where I can easily use an inverse selection to put a base color layer directly beneath. My base layers are always in gray going from lighter in the background to darker in the foreground.

Next up was rendering the background:

This is- … this is definitely a “rest of the heckin’ owl” kinda thing XD. The buildings were in three layers with the windows drawn in vertical lines and then erased in horizontal lines.

Here’s a gif to show that? Please excuse my atrocious Timelapse quality :’)

Once the windows were all on there, I used alpha lock on the layer and then just randomly recolored windows based on reference photos of cities at night. Once the windows were done, I used some airbrushing for ambiance.

Next up was the base colors for the foreground:

Here, I was mainly focused on the outfit and ice detail. All of this was important to get the way I wanted pre-render, and absolutely nothing about lighting was considered here.

Afterwards was DF’s rendering:

I had two separate shadow layers and one light layer, keeping my light source and his three-dimensionality in mind the whole time. Here was where I also did lineart recoloring and cleanup.

And then all I had left was to render the ice, the rooftop, and add the snow! I don’t fully know how to explain this part either, but I primarily used a soft airbrush and a medium nozzle spray paint brush as well as an eraser in both of those settings as well.

So yeah! That’s the basics of my art process! I like to joke that when I draw, my brain lives in my hands so I don’t think too much about the process while drawing. I had a lot of fun with this and hope you liked seeing the process :D

[yuk-tepat]

Completing the Writing System

Well, sort of. But it’s good enough!

One of my goals for Lexember was to finally finish fleshing out the writing system. I did, although the cleanup and tweaking and stitching together loose ends extended a month into the New Year. I finished.

Until now, there were (possible) words in Yuk Tepat that couldn’t be spelled, but now it is possible to write anything by combining semantic and phonetic signs.

Above is a bunch of glyphs that can be used for phonetic value.

The whole chart depicts a range of onsets, codas, and combinations encompassing the range of syllable types in Yuk Tepat. I originally intended to fill all the squares like a bingo card. I didn’t fill it out completely. While not every syllable type has its own representation, each of them is only one degree of separation from another syllable that DOES have a sign.

By this I mean that any syllable without its own sign could be changed into a syllable with a symbol by a change of one phonetic feature.

For example, there is no sign representing /lʌj/, but /lɯj/ does have a sign. There is only one different phoneme, and /ɯ/ differs from /ʌ/ only in being high instead of low, so /lɯj/ is ‘close enough’ to work for /lʌj/.

This is very reasonable, and not too different from the ambiguity in many real writing systems. How many different sounds can English <e> make? Since Tepatic glyphs are logographic, semantic determiners can disambiguate the near-homophones.

Of course, this took years and years, and looking back I see now how I could have finished this years earlier, but whatever. I didn’t really understand how this worked when I started.

There could be, and will, be more glyphs created in the future. Most will be compound glyphs. As for ‘basic’ glyphs, the component parts, no more need be created. I may still make more if some good ones arise. But I don’t need to make anymore.There’s always more work to be done in the realm of “possible.” But also joy in fulfilling crucial criteria for a language and passing a milestone. I’m happy to say “I made” the writing system.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joyce Vance at Civil Discourse:

On March 12, there was reporting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was preparing to lay off more than 1,000 workers as part of the Trump administration's "reductions in force" directive to federal agencies. Cuts like that call into question whether NOAA will continue to provide the early warnings and predictive modeling that help people prepare for weather emergencies in advance. People who live in hurricane and tornado country keep their “NOAA weather radios” handy, and they are especially important for events that occur, as they frequently do, when most of us are asleep. In theory, it sounds like one more bad thing to worry about. In practice, it’s much worse. We’ve just had a demonstration of precisely how effective NOAA is and what we stand to lose without it. Beginning on Friday, violent, long-track tornadoes with damaging winds of up to 80 mph and large hail materialized across the Midwest and South. This was the news Friday night. NOAA’s early warning system, transmitted on social media, radio, television, and by word of mouth, kept it from being much worse. Saturday was even worse. Here in Birmingham, the alerts started midday. At 12:27 pm, I got the first alert through the UA campus system, telling me that in light of what was expected, I should seek shelter now instead of waiting for an actual tornado warning. The system sends alerts after the National Weather Service makes the call about what to expect. The National Weather Service (NWS) is a component of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). [...] How much worse would it have been without the accurate forecasting that let our local news people and local emergency systems warn folks in the storms’ paths sufficiently in advance to get to their safe places? As much as I don’t like to think about it, if Trump and DOGE stay on their current path, we are going to be forced to. Mother Nature doesn’t care who you voted for. If there’s a tornado headed your direction, you need access to early warning systems. Gutting NOAA means you won’t have that. [...] We were fortunate last night. Everyone in our house (chickens included) is okay, we just have a little cleanup to do. But so many people weren’t that lucky. They lost houses and lives. They will need support from FEMA and other federal services. If DOGE continues its romp through essential federal work that we, as taxpayers, fund and rely on, it’s only going to get worse.

DOGE’s cuts to NOAA and the NWS are not about “cutting fraud and waste”, but about crippling the ability to accurately detect severe weather events like parts of the nation witnessed this weekend.

[darkforestfae-tea]

Engaging with Water: A Practice of Magic

-As an elemental practitioner, my interactions with water are infrequent. Water happens to be one of the elements I struggle to work with or have limited ability in. Dealing with thalassophobia makes it challenging to work with the water element, particularly when gathering water from specific locations.

This insight is derived from my practice, experience, and research. Rather than simply accepting it as is, I encourage you to explore and experience it firsthand.

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What is the Water Element

Water, as a natural element, holds myriad lessons that can enrich our lives in profound ways. One of the most significant teachings of water is the importance of being calm and collected. Much like a serene lake or a gentle stream, maintaining inner peace allows us to navigate the complexities of life with clarity and poise. This calmness isn't just about passivity; it also involves the ability to respond thoughtfully to various situations, ensuring that our actions are measured and deliberate.

However, water also emphasizes the importance of fluidity and adaptability. Just as water can take the shape of any container it is poured into, being adaptable allows us to respond to life's challenges with resilience and creativity. This flexibility also means knowing when to assert ourselves. Water, while often gentle, can also be powerful and unstoppable, as seen in floods. Learning when to unleash this strength is crucial—it teaches us that there are moments in life when we must stand firm and assert our boundaries or pursue our goals with unwavering determination.

Furthermore, water teaches the virtues of persistence and humility. Over time, even the softest water can wear down the hardest rock, symbolizing the power of persistence in achieving our goals. Yet, water's ability to humbly flow around obstacles rather than forcefully confronting them reminds us of the importance of humility. This balance of persistence and humility helps us understand our strengths and limitations, fostering personal growth and self-awareness. In essence, water's lessons encourage us to be adaptable, resilient, and self-aware, enriching our journey through life.

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Ways to pay tribute to the water spirit

Honoring teachings that emphasize connection with nature and self-awareness can be a deeply enriching experience. One profound way to do this is through emotion-based meditations. These meditations focus on acknowledging and understanding your emotions without judgment, allowing you to develop a deeper connection with your inner self. By regularly practicing emotion-based meditations, you can cultivate emotional intelligence and resilience, which are crucial components of personal growth and well-being.

Shadow work is another powerful method for honoring such teachings. This practice involves exploring the unconscious aspects of your personality—those parts of yourself that you may have repressed or denied. By bringing these shadows into the light, you can confront and integrate them, leading to profound self-awareness and healing. Shadow work encourages a holistic understanding of oneself, fostering a sense of acceptance and balance that aligns with the teachings of self-discovery and personal growth.

Engaging with nature through activities like swimming, boating, fishing, and exploring waterways can also serve as a meaningful tribute to these teachings. These activities not only provide physical benefits but also offer a spiritual connection to the natural world. Participating in beach cleanups is another excellent way to honor these teachings, as it demonstrates a commitment to preserving and respecting the environment. By actively participating in the care and restoration of natural spaces, you embody the principles of stewardship and mindfulness, creating a harmonious relationship with the world around you.

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Types of Divination

Various forms of divination involving water include water scrying, observing waves, interpreting rainfall, tracking storms, and analyzing mist or dew.Water has long been associated with mysticism and spiritual practices in many cultures around the world. Beyond the simple act of drinking or cleansing, water holds a deeper significance in divination and the supernatural. Here are some more forms of water-related divination:

Hydromancy: This method involves interpreting patterns or movements in bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, or ponds. Practitioners believe that messages or insights can be gleaned from the way objects or light reflect on the water's surface.

Aquatic Symbolism: Some diviners look at the behavior of aquatic creatures like fish, turtles, or even water-dwelling birds to derive meaning or omens. The way these animals move or interact with their environment is thought to hold clues about the future.

Water Crystal Readings: This modern form of divination involves studying the shapes and patterns of frozen water crystals. Believers in this practice suggest that the unique formations can reveal information about a person's emotional or spiritual state.

Tasseography with Water: While traditionally done with tea leaves, tasseography can also be performed using water in a cup. The patterns created by drops of water can be interpreted to provide insights into a person's life, similar to reading tea leaves.

Water-based Rituals: In various spiritual traditions, water is used in rituals for cleansing, purification, and connecting with the divine. Whether it's through baptism, water blessings, or ritual baths, water plays a central role in many sacred practices.

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How can you deepen your connection with the spirit of water?

I wash my hands and face with cold water when I wake up and allow them to air dry as much as I can.

Brushing out my hair and braiding it, picturing my hair flowing like a river with every movement of my fingers.

Starting the day by purposefully drinking a glass of water, taking a moment to savor and acknowledge its benefits for the body. Cold water is preferred as it's more refreshing and you can feel it flowing through you, especially when charged beforehand.

Explore numerous water sources during this time. You can choose to sit by a public pool, take a bath, stand in the rain, or enjoy your lunch by a river.

When you're near water, engage with it. Share stories, sing songs, pose questions – water is alive and craves a connection.

Keep track of your monthly progress by documenting it through written journal entries, scrapbooking, or digital trackers. Make sure you have a method to reflect on the changes you've experienced during this time.

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Magic that Includes Water

Magic involving water can encompass a variety of practices, such as using magical or blessed waters, working with water-related folk traditions, casting release or banishing spells, incorporating water plants, engaging in elemental spirit magic, conducting death rituals, utilizing charged sprays, practicing travel magic, exploring weather and storm-related magic, engaging in meditation, performing hydromancy and carromancy, incorporating magical baths and showers, practicing glamour magic, and much more.

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What are the advantages of working with water?

No matter where you come from or what path you are on, our common bond is our reliance on water. It serves as not only a link between people but also connects us to the natural world. Water covers three-quarters of our planet and makes up 60% of our bodies. By recognizing the fundamental importance of water as a life force, you can gain deeper insights into yourself. This element is known for its introspective nature, with many spirits embodying or being linked to it. When you welcome water into your home, you are also welcoming that connection and energy.

Water sustains life without bias, much like how it nurtures life. Embracing this concept instills a sense of assurance and, from my own encounters, inner harmony. If you sense life's challenges are overwhelming you, like a ship navigating a turbulent sea, perhaps it's time to cease resisting and begin adapting. If you can influence the waves to respond to your direction, then what obstacle can hinder your progress.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Hydromancy

hy·dro·man·cy /ˈhīdrəˌmansē/

Noun. divination by means of signs derived from the appearance of water and its movement.

Some argue that hydromancy is the earliest form of scrying and a highly beneficial practice. It involves using natural bodies of water, as well as containers like tubs, cups, and bowls. Starting out can be challenging, so here's how I would recommend beginning:

(It functions more effectively when there is an established connection to water.)

1. Find a peaceful and calm setting, such as outdoors at night if it feels safe and comfortable for you.

2. Prepare your environment and yourself as you typically would for a divination session. Some people opt for a blessing prayer, a divination tea, or anointing with a specific salve or oil. I usually ritually prepare myself before starting (let me know if you want more details on this).

3. In a shallow, dark bowl (or a scrying bowl), pour your chosen water, like waning moon water.

Relax and gaze into the water, allowing yourself to be receptive to any messages that may come through. It could be images, shapes, or even words.

4. Jot down any insights you receive for interpretation later.

5. If you find it challenging, try the ritual with candlelight or moonlight to interpret the shapes. Alternatively, meditate with the bowl, pour the water onto the ground, and scry the shape it creates.

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Magic Associations

Associations with Magic:

Death and life

Duality

Change

Rage

Grief

Peace

Creation

The moon

Ice

Emotions

Mental health

Cleansing

Purification

Storms

Disaster

Dreams

Cancer

Scorpio

Pisces

Psychic abilities

Shape shifters

Travel

Corrosion

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A few correspondents for types of water:

(This is not all of them by far)

Rain: purifying, blessing, scrying

Moon: bathing, cleansing, blessing

River: charging, focusing, warding

Sun: protecting, healing, creating

Sea: cleansing, healing, meditating, banishing

Swamp: cursing, hexing, jinxing

Rose water: self love & love spells

Forest: grounding, stabilizing, balancing

Storm water: strength, courage, confidence, charging

Snow: balance, transformation, divination

Dew: healing, beauty, fae work

Lake: self discovery, peace, relaxation

Well: healing, intuition, manifestation

Waterfall: power, energy, success

Tears: spells for happiness, protection from sadness, warding

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Sources: Pictures: off Pinterest Correspondences: Pinterest/google Content: This is taken from notes from a few different blogs & writings on water magic & elemental magic, and re-written into my own words.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ Thank you for Reading! I absolutely love sharing my knowledge & learnings with others. I try to make posts a few times a week! & they are all organized on my profile.

Until we cross paths once more! Best wishes to all you wonderful witches! Warm regards, Tea.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

For Support on my Blogs: Facebook: The Black Dahlia Emporium Tumblr: @ darkforestfae-tea Pagans & Witches Amino @ darkforestfae

[masonic-leafbug]

x - Double Toasted Interview Pre-Helluva Boss Prouction

Seeing vivzie flub her numbers and mouth over her """team""" within this video is very telling.

"40 or 50 people or so I think i would have to check and make sure on discord--we have sorta 10-ish people in my core team with my animators. I'm a main compositor with my friend while my background artist and cleanup team of 15 or so is just so-big it's so Huge its so large! We have so many people working on this project and just handling with so many key components over backgrounds and key framing the lip syncs, my background artists doing so much work. I feel like and hope people will really stay on"

Interviewee Joke: 'Oh how many animators do I have [again], no-oh god no!!!'

It's insane to think Helluva Boss has over 80+ animation credits which is definitely not a good thing. It's one thing in industry to have a large studio but it's another thing of collaborating artists coming and going to work on an ongoing series is not a good thing to flaunt. Even if your show has won two independent animation awards you should take pride over producing to actually make something good instead of flaunting the fact that you acknowledge the bare minimum of abuse, rape, misogyny, supremacy, classism, sexism, or gender critical writing fails face first in every episode.

Her favorite movies being Cat's Don't Dance/Who Framed Roger Rabbit and referencing BoJack Horseman even referencing that they anthropomorphize their themes being prejudice and STORYTELLING DEVICES, so what story is Helluva Boss even telling right now???? She claimed to even want to write about dark themes and mature adult topics about prejudice and yet has nothing to show for it after 6 years of nothing burger that is Helluva Boss and Hazbin Production :/

She fully admits that patreon and merch hauls fund hazbin/helluva production and that she fully handles the patreon money herself she budgets to push towards 'Hazbin' to 'Pay her small team'. She wanted to try to promote a Kickstarter over the pilot pre-A24 pickup before she made it big-time which is weird to hear when she didn't even have hazbin finished while boarding out 4 episodes of helluva bosses' first season. Even if it was supposed to allegedly be a 1 season show only. It's weird to try to discern which show she's trying to elaborate/talk about which one.

X - Evidence of the promotional videos for Helluva Boss/Hazbin. Strangely enough it has always been together instead of separated meaning she was attempting to garner hype for her series through Helluva Boss Merchandising and attempting to cyphen even more money over small Hazbin merchandising.

X - Here is Vivs' patreon promo earlier before the Hazbin pilot. Discussing how much she wanted to have a bigger budget at the time to fund her animation. Talks about Zoophobia Reboot and there has never been discussion since. Originally charged 10$ for private qna's. 50$ for discord access calls, unsure if this is still a Patreon feature. Also unsure over the 100$/500$ speeddraw commissions she promo'd... There is another production patreon she teases that holds nothing beside the Vivziepop name.

The show being placed upon rehabilitation and redemption despite the focus only being towards 'A Disney/Tim Burton Princess in Hell' goes to show that she had no direction of where she wanted to take Angel or Charlie. Charlie always being based on a porcelain doll? Greek/Religious Context/Egyptian mythology where???

"The best animation in it, is not done by me"

Within full admission of her nervous attitude without naming anyone within her team and just referred to everyone as 'My team/Crew' is very telling of how humbling she really even is.

Thr 'Yotta' she refers to is in reference to Studio Yotta, Helluva Boss is funded and produced alongside Horseless Cowboy with Horvitz towards the Casting Direction, meaning she's been funded with a major video game industry since day 1 of Helluva Bosses' production ergo, Vivziepop/Spindlehorse/Vivienne Medranno has never been independent in her entire production malpractice. She stated to be aware and know of wanting to work under SAG is very intriguing given that since Moxxie has been absent for half of season 2 its probably due to Richard striking as my best guess to the messy writing of broken railroad tracks that was supposed to be Helluva Boss production.

While it is one thing to have connections in industry to connect and come together and credit within your artists and studios, Vivzie does not have a studio. The merch sales/Patreon/YouTube QnA's directly go towards paying her animators, voice actors, and production management but not at all a 'Studio' she promotes herself as. All animation work and shots are handled through Discord and emails online this has been proven time and time again.

The fact that the pilot has been pushed aside so much over Helluva Boss and not a genuine interest to have redemption or care and love within the disguised nightmare that is Helluva Bosses' writing. She loves to flaunt demonology and love towards hell of aesthetics with demons/monsters she fails to actually represent the actual Demons of folklore/hell world building in HB leaves me to be worried... That she discredits actual Demon culture by stating

'I don't know have you seen one? They don't exist its just been human mysticism, Demons can be anything. Have you been to Hell?' Without realizinf she will fail to depict the Lord of the Flies as Gluttony....

"--It might not ever happen to work together with [Ke$ha] professionally would be a dream honestly. --The next Ke$ha song I want to animate is either is going to be official or is something that she wrote for one of MY projects or something"

She did and she made her state 'There's like, a rainbow inside my vagina.' Wooow so professional, "Cotton Candy" so originally produced to be so professionally Disney-Grade. The fact that she halted and couldn't release season 1's full finale due to having Ke$ha break her contract with legal battles and corporate music industry bindings during the Dr. Luke 2016 trial, waiting until 2020 to finally release it within this year and have Lukewarm perception because Rose cannot even sing within the episode its a replacement actor to sing for her! She just wrote the bare minimum draft of a song to submit for you to animate! Time and time again viv just flaunts herself to throw herself out there over 'Look at my projects aren't they neat!" And then be a monster during production of hoarding artists to herself and trash talking/harboring a group of bullies within her 'Core Crew'.

"Zoophobia is my Childhood project, it had everything and it was a mess. It was the magic of a childhood story told by an adult because I was in college while working on it at the time. It's the incubation chamber for all of my projects now. When I go back to it, it will be a complete reboot but for now it's on the shelf.... I lost all passion for it but I love my characters in it."

... And yet she hasn't talked about the comic since Bad-Luck Jacks' animation release nearly 4 years ago? All merchandising she promotes is about Helluva Boss and barely anything towards Hazbin or Zoophobia which is supposedly 'In-Production' while these merchandising of stickers, pins, skateboards, switch cases, posters, sketchbooks covers of Demonic stickers, sexualized hornybait, racist and transphobic enamel pins that can't keep character skin colors correct, and puzzles because of course! All of which, is merchandising of HELLUVA BOSS!

Vivziepop only views her characters as dollar signs. She still features her old Zoophobia designs within her Redbubble account goes to show how much profit she loves to make with other peoples' character designs.

X X Evidence of the Above Statement with the character KiKi/Christine [Cherry Bomb] originally being from Zoophobia before redesigned into Hazbin

X

Zoophobia concepts of what we lost rambling from Viv herself....

X

An interview of 7 years I didn't get to discuss over

X - A Season 1 Helluva Boss poor promotional trailer trying to garner hype for the series acting as if it was telling a cohesive story with actual plot happening with little Stolas screen time. It makes me wonder if season 1 was an entirely different drive of writing thoughts and artist drafts compared to season 2's production.

X - Helluva Boss Season 2 promotional storyboard conception, Two years ahead of time and finally all the boards make sense for season 2 and there still is no eventual plot besides setting up Fizz and Ozzy over Belzebub and Tex or any returning season 1 villain akin to D.H.O.R.K. or Cherub/Verrosika and especially no sight of Moxxie and Millie development besides fight scenes.

It makes me think of however much season 3 will suffer to spiral into production.

[noodyl-blasstal]

Cool, Calm, and Collegiate - Chapter 3

Day 3 of @blupjeansweek and the prompt is Strings!

Read below or on Ao3. Missed yesterday? Catch up here!

-

Lup shuffles the cup carrier to the same hand as the muffin bag and knocks on Barry’s door.

“Yes?” Barry asks.

“Good morning, Dr Barold.” Lup pokes her head round the door.

“Lup!” No matter how many times he’s seen her in the last two weeks he’s always seemed pleased about it. Which is the right answer, of course, Lup’s incredible, she knows this, but not everyone else does. “I mean, er, Dr Tacco, come on in!”

“I come bearing gifts.” Lup brandishes the carrier and bag and sets them down on the desk.

“Gifts or bribery?” Barry levels her with his best attempt at a serious face, which she’s learning fast is flimsy at best. It’s wonderful discovering all the little him-nesses which don’t come across in emails. Sure, she knows Sildar’s coffee order, but now she also knows how Barry scrunches his mouth when he’s thinking hard.

“Gifts!” Lup says as she flops into the visitor chair and attempts to kick her feet up on the edge of the desk, only for Barry to catch them and deposit them back over the side.

Barry raises an eyebrow.

“Gifts to bribe you.” She smiles as big as she can possibly smile.

“Uh huh.” Barry looks wary. Which is probably reasonable after the shaving cream incident, but she maintains that they both learned stuff and had fun, plus she was the one who did cleanup. Lucretia didn’t even really seem that angry honestly.

“We’re learning about force next.” Lup says mildly.

“Uh huh.” There’s a smile nagging at the corner of his mouth. She knew this topic would get him.

“...and I thought it would be good to do a practical example, you know, to help the visual and active learners, because as a teacher it’s important to focus on a variety of different learning styles and engage the whole class.” She nods solemnly, the weight of young minds on her shoulders alone.

“... and so you would like…?” Barry asks, still struggling with the smile.

“String.”

“String?” Barry’s brow knits, perplexed by the concept of woven threads, and definitely not the trap at hand, this was flawless, seamless. Then he gets it. Shit. She knew he was smart, she should have had an extra plan for this. “How much string, Lup?”

“Uh.”

“You’re going to need to know before you ask Lucretia.”

“Much.”

“Many of string, would you say?” Barry asks. “Shall I put that on the forms?”

“How many balls do you think it takes to support the average teenager?” Lup asks.

There’s a long pause. Long enough that she worries she might finally have found Barry’s limit.

He pulls a sheet of note paper from the stack of scrap on his desk and grabs a pen. “How long is the string and what are the anchor points?”

–

Lucretia can’t argue with the numbers. They’re flawless.

She did argue with the health and safety element, but thankfully Barry agreed to be on hand to cast Fly as needed and she relented. Afterall, Lup’s weekly student reviews were flawless (because she was made to do this), and string was cheap. Lucretia couldn’t argue with the fact her resources cost nothing close to what the twins had already requested from the budget - not that she should officially know that, but the students couldn’t stop talking about the flashy (definitely unnecessary) components in necromancy 101.

–

“Barry.”

“Yeah?” Says Barry, somewhere to her left.

“This is so much string.”

“I believe that was what you wanted, much string.”

“Do you think we overestimated?”

“Maybe a touch.” Barry says, emerging from the boxes. “But you got a ridiculous bargain.”

“Garfield’s fine at haggling, but cha’girl’s better.”

“We do, uh, need room for the students in here. Hard to learn if you’re, er, smashed against a box.”

“Pocket dimension?” Lup asks.

“Genius.” Barry’s casting before she finishes talking. “There.” He dusts his hands off.

She loves how enthusiastic he is. Not that she’d really thought there would be too many limits in a school which aims for fun, but there’s always an element of caution needed when it comes to tenured staff. In Lup’s experience they’re more inclined to quash anything which sits outside their prescriptive idea of what should be happening. That or they’ll steal your research. She’s still mad about it, she’ll die mad about it. He didn’t even put her down as an author on the fucking paper. But it’s fine. It’s fine. It’s not like that here. Lucretia’s letting her do spider class. Barry’s helping her make her stupid ideas happen. They’re not here to steal anything from her. She needs to leave the past in the past.

The students filter their way in and look around the suspiciously empty room. It’s heartening to see how quickly they’ve gotten used to her.

“Heeeeeeeelllllllo and welcome everyone to….” Lup spreads her arms to reveal her spider legs. “...spider class!”

There’s at least two whoops.

“Dr Lup!” A hand shoots up.

“Yes Angus?” Lup says, fighting hard not to smile. It was great to have him in her class - especially because he’d originally been in Lydia and Edwards and asked to be moved.

“I thought we were supposed to be doing force today.” Lup learned quickly that these questions weren’t impertinence, he just wanted to know.

“Ding ding ding! Right answer, Ango! And who knows force better than spiders?”

“You?” Angus asks hopefully.

“Well, it’s a half me, half spider hybrid teaching you today. So class, today we’re going to be metaphorically punching gravity in its metaphorical face, but first we’ve gotta learn the theory so we can do it real good. Grab your notebooks, you’re gonna need ‘em!” She’s heartened by the immediate scramble that begins for notebooks and pens.

–

“I can’t believe how many kids you stuck to the ceiling. I mean, I can, I know the maths of it, but seeing it.” Barry’s genuine delight is wonderful to see.

Lup shrugs nonchalantly, as if she spends every day making child catching webs. “Oh, you know.”

“No, Lup. You… they loved it.”

“I mean…”

“They couldn’t stop laughing. They did maths,# and they had fun! You’re a genius”

Lup preens a little, she’s allowed. “Did you have fun too?”

Barry doesn’t even think about it. “Yeah, I really did.”

He gives her a look so soft, so full of admiration, that she can’t bear it. There’s only a certain amount of praise she can accept before she feels itchy about it, she’s never quite mastered Taako’s full bluster mode.

“Right, I think today is macaroni day, would you care to accompany me to the canteen? Maybe afterwards we can go have another look at the equations and see if we can figure out the too many solutions solution?” There’s no way Barry can resist the allure of mac and cheese and research.

He looks right into her soul. “Fine, but I’m going to tell you how good at teaching you are at least four more times.”

Lup rolls her eyes and flounces in the direction of the canteen (so that Barry can’t see the smile on her face).

–

They solve it.

They drink coffee.

They talk.

They talk.

They talk.

They even sit in companionable silence, which, honest, Lup still finds tricky - there’s always the impulse to fill the gaps with a lot of people. She trusts Barry with silence though, he’ll be careful with it.

“Are you going to the social tonight?” Barry asks her.

“Are you?” Lup replies.

Barry looks at her as if he’s trying to figure out a puzzle. “Uh… yes.” He says without any confidence.

“Really?”

He clears his throat.

“Yeah… yes. Yeah.” He says.

“Wow, real keen there, Barold.” Lup smiles.

“Are you, er, will you be there?”

“Yeah, cha’girl’s going. I guess we’d better get ready soon…”

“10 more minutes?” Barry asks, like Lup hoped he would.

–

“Oh, how artfully rumpled, darling! You really managed to make it look like you’ve been wearing that all day.” Lydia says almost as soon as Lup makes it through the door.

“Have you and your boyfriend been hiding in the labs again?” Edward wrinkles his nose as he says boyfriend.

How dare he? Lup and Barry aren’t dating, obviously, but if they were she’d be proud of it! There’s nothing distasteful about Barry.

“Barry’s great.” Lup says quickly.

“Of course, no one said he wasn’t…” Lydia pauses “…great.” She purses her mouth and makes it abundantly clear that she’s an idiot who doesn’t know a good thing when it’s walking down the hall towards them.

Lup resists the impulse to hiss at them, settles for raising her eyebrows and breaks away to meet Barry at the door.

“I like your shirt.” Lup says in greeting.

Barry definitely seems to get slightly pinker than he was before, maybe he walked over too fast. “Thank you. You look nice too… I mean, you look nice… I mean… drinks? Shall we get a drink?”

“Sweet music to my ears, Barry. Lead on!”

He peers round the room, then zeroes in on a table at the back. “Come on then.”

“Oh, hang on. Sorry.” Barry deviates off course slightly. “Hello!” Barry greets Lucretia and a man Lup doesn’t recognise on the way over. “Lup, have you met Captain Davenport? Davenport, this is Dr Tacco.”

“Hello Dr Tacco, I heard about the shaving foam.” Davenport looks worryingly serious, his moustache is so neat she swears he must have used a ruler, and his shirt and jacket are perfectly tailored.

“Hello Captain Davenport. Reports of the explosion have been greatly exaggerated.” Lup hopes her tone is demure enough to hide the pride.

“How about the photographs?”

“Er…” Lup looks to Barry for help.

He shrugs. “Lucretia put them in the group chat.”

“Yeah… it was pretty bad. They learned a lesson though.”

“Honestly, Lup.” Davenport leans in conspiratorially. “I wish I had been there.”

She warms up to him after that.

The drinks selection is fairly paltry, but Lup figures there’s no rules against mixing them into something more interesting.

Ren, from the chemistry teaching team, joins her. “I think the elderflower fizzy thing would go well with the orange and pineapple juices.”

“Excellent choice, would you like that as it comes or on the rocks?” Lup asks, grabbing a spare cup.

Ren thinks about it very seriously. “I think iced will suit the profile best.”

Lup salutes and begins concocting. “Your wish is my command.”

By the time Barry drifts back towards her, they’ve experimented extensively and settled on two menu additions.

“Can I interest you in Lup’s Strawberry Dream or Ren’s Elderflower Orange Pine(bl)a(st)pple?” Lup asks.

“Ren’s what, sorry?”

“Like, pineapple, but also it’s a blast. Also there’s elderflower and orange.” Says Ren, like it’s there’s no possible way for someone to misunderstand. “It’s going down well.”

“It is.” Lup affirms. “I’ve had two.”

Barry looks wary.

“Here, you can try both.” Lup pushes two cups towards him. “Never say I’m not generous when it comes to free drinks.”

“I won’t.” He says solemnly.

–

She’s chatting with Sloane and Hurley and some more of the summer staff when Cyrus nudges her arm. “So how long have you and Sildar been dating?”

“He prefers Barry.” Says Lup quickly, then adds. “And we’re not.”

“Lydia and Edward said that…”

“I’m sure they’ve said a lot of things.” Lup cuts him off before he can even think of finishing that sentence.

“Woah, okay. Touchy! Nevermind.” He steps away from her and joins another group.

–

“We should go sing.” Carey says suddenly. Mid conversation, in fact, but Lup’s not going to get in the way of conversation. “There’s a karaoke bar like, two streets that way.” She points with worrying deftness.

There’s muttered assent in the scutch of people she’s stood in.

Lup looks round for Barry, sees him, looking like a rabbit in the headlights as the plan forms round him. She tries to smile reassuringly. Maybe he won’t come? She hopes he will though. It’d be nice to hear him sing properly, she’d heard him humming a few times and she liked the rumble of it.

“I’m in.” She says.

–

Hey Ko,

You telling me how stupid these are is only giving me more encouragement to write them. They should be getting there daily now, a barrage of out-of-date-news, just for you! (Obviously I expect you’ll be putting them in a scrapbook or something because you love them really, I’m on to you.)

I stuck some students to the ceiling in class today. Barry helped. Well. He didn’t help stick the children, that was all me, baby (via the medium of teaching them how to do it), but he helped me pass the health and safety check. No one got splattered. Everyone learned the most important physics rule “what goes up must come down unless you use a fucktonne of string to stop that from happening.”

All the academic staff are doing a social later, team bonding stuff, but it’s free. The others are pretty nice too, there’s someone called Ren I think you’d like a lot. She’s really into using science in baking (sound familiar?). Hopefully Edward and Lydia decide they aren’t coming, although, honestly, it’d be interesting to see them interacting outside of here. Maybe they’d be more normal? Signs point to highly fucking unlikely though.

Anyway, love you always,

Lup xxxxxxx

-

Thank you for reading! I hope you had a good time. Find the next installment here.

[devastator1775]

Hope, Love and V - Chapter 2: the decision to move forward

Chapter summary: V has to deal with visitors, revelations and important decisions.

It took V a while before she managed to return fully back to the here-and-now after her realization that her legs weren’t functioning. Her doctor had been rambling off possible directions they could undertake, but she had a hard time registering to any of them. Even after he realized that V wasn’t listening to him and decided to leave her alone to ‘process this change’, as he had put it, all V could do was stare at her legs – or the useless pieces of metal that they now were.

She didn’t cry.

She didn’t shout.

She didn’t throw blame towards anyone …except maybe the Sentinels that used her spine and legs for chewing toys.

She couldn’t feel anger, sadness, fear or anything else.

She just felt numb.

Like her legs.

Once V finally managed to snap herself out of her gloomy dissonance, she figured that she feeling sorry for herself wouldn’t do anything for her right now. She needed to make sense of things and get a grip on her situation. she began by just trying to get everything sorted out mentally. She went over what happened to her and what she could remember the doctor told her. There were still things that didn’t make sense to the story. Gaps and coincidences too convenient to sound true. Things she hoped that Uzi and N could shed some light on.

But until then, all she could do was rest and wait.

The day after her awakening felt so surreal to V. Nurses came in to check up on her, checking the levels of her coolant IV bag and feed her lithium flavoured jell-oil cups. It was weird, feeling hunger like ‘a normal Drone’ – if she even could call herself that now. She had been so used to that ever-present thirst and hunger for worker Drone oil and now …she was enjoying the gelatinous treat provided by those she used to hunt.

Really, though, she was on her tenth cup. Why was she enjoying this so much? Maybe something about small comforts during troubling times or some mushy feel-good nonsense like that. She hated how the mushy feel-good nonsense seemed to help her a little, tough.

After she scooped out the last bit of the wiggly, black substance and popped it in her mouth, she finally set her tray aside. She looked down at her legs, trying to ignore that cold feeling that was setting in her stomach. She took a deep breath and tried to focus on the components in her legs. “C’mon…. just wiggle” She whispered at herself.

Nothing happened.

She gritted her teeth so hard, she felt that her jaw might pop out of its socket.

Nothing.

She tried again.

Nothing. Nothing.

Again.

Nothing. Nothing! NOTHING!

With a frustrated growl, she flopped backwards on her pillow. She really wanted to kick her feet in anger, but oh wait: she couldn’t! She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. The whole situation with her legs was bad enough, but she was getting so fed up with being alone in this room, bored out of her mind. While she was keeping herself busy switching out her hand for her various tools – just to check if they still work, as she told herself – a knock on the door roused her from her ‘maintenance’. “What!?” No idea why she felt like she just got caught doing something naughty.

The door opened and a familiar voice sounded. “Well, here I was hoping that the coma would have improved your attitude a bit, but alas…” Uzi commented with a grin as she walked in. V was surprised how cheery she seemed to be, despite one of her arms being in some contraption and resting on a sling.

“Purple thing, you still live!” V exclaimed, trying her best to sound casual, but unable to keep the genuine smile to flash across her face. “Where the goofball?”

“He wanted to come, but he promised dad that he would help him and the WDF with the cleanup today. He’ll be by later.” Uzi walked over to V and threw her good arm around her to hug her, which V, after a few moments of deciding between ‘acting like a bad bitch’ or ‘just go with it’, returned. “I’m so glad you’re awake. We – me and N - wanted to come over yesterday when we heard, but the nurses didn’t let us.”

“I thought I heard your annoying voice in the hallway, but I figured the night terrors were back again.” She could practically feel Uzi rolling her eyes, but they both chuckled. She brought her voice down to a whisper. “So, seeing Copper-9, the Colony and all of us are still alive and around …I take it that the Solver is…?”

Uzi nodded in V’s shoulder. “The Absolute Solver is destroyed. Gone. From me. You. N. No thirst or need to hunt. We won.”

“I’ll admit, having no desire to hunt down Worker Drones and drain them for their oil to sustain myself …is kinda nice. Still kinda weird not seeing Drones nearly soil themselves at the sight of me, though.” She patted Uzi’s back and gently pushed her off. “Okay, okay, get off. Don’t want people think we’re friends or anything.” She didn’t mean that, obviously. The road that their friendship had taken was rough – understatement of the year – , but she couldn’t deny that there was a bond between them and she wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. She’d never say it out loud, off course.

Uzi snorted in amusement. “Please, with N and I visiting you pretty much every day since they brought you in, I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in the Colony assumes that we’re besties.”

“Ugh, you really aren’t the type to use peppy slang like that, Doorman.” V teased back. “Leave that to the professionals, like Lizzie.”  

“Speaking of her ….” Uzi rested her good hand on V’s bed and leaned in close, grinning slyly. “She’s been visiting you pretty regularly as well. Almost more than me and N.”

“O-oh, really?” V asked, really wishing that the sub-routine that defined the intensity of her blushing wasn’t at 100% effectiveness right now. “I mean, cool. Didn’t know she cared.”

“Oh, I believe she cares more than you give her credit for.” Uzi teased, but keeping her voice gentle. No need to rattle the hornets’ nest too much. “She even skipped class a few times to spend the day here.”

V felt her visor heat up as she blushed. “Like that’s new. She would do that every other week, like it was the latest trend.” V countered, still blushing. Though, she did start skipping class more often after the whole prom thing and they started to hang out more. Luckily, Lizzy can afford missing a few classes, since she’s smarter than people would assume of her. She’s actually quite intelligent and pretty and funny and - Nope, not ready to deal with those emotions. Time to change the topic. V nodded towards the sling around Uzi’s arm. “Speaking of fashion: what’s with the accessory?”

Uzi, deciding to give V a little respite from the teasing, glanced at her sling and shrugged. “Let’s say that no-one got out of that last confrontation with the Solver unscathed.  Like, it really messed it us up. N and I still have regular repairs, as you can see.”

“Yeah, the doc mentioned it was pretty touch-and-go when they brought you two in.” V crossed her arms and looked away with a scowl. “At least you can get repaired.” She realized that she had muttered that a bit too noticeably and looked back at her visitor, grimacing when she saw Uzi’s regretful expression. “Sorry, I …ever since I woke up, things have been ….” She let out a heavy sigh. “Well, it’s been an ordeal.”

“I …I heard.” Uzi said as she took a chair and sat down, trying her best not to start staring at V’s legs. She cautiously reached out to V’s legs and placed her hand on them, glancing over to the former Disassembly Drone as if waiting for her to tell her not too. “Can the doctors do something about it?”

V rubbed her face, letting out a frustrated groan. “Yeah, a few, with chances of success of me walking again ranging from ‘a sliver’ to ‘cautiously optimistic’. My favourite treatment that they suggested to replace my legs completely with new ones.” She scoffed. “As my doc put it: ‘it has the greatest chance of restoring some of your mobility to the point you can be proficiently self-reliable.’.”

“That’s …good, right?” Uzi cautiously asked.

“I guess…”

“I’m …almost afraid to ask, but what about your wings? Couldn’t you…?”

V looked away, biting her lower lip. She hadn’t had the chance to really check up on her wing situation. She could still feel them, but she had a pretty good idea they weren’t in a great state either. At one point during her battle with the Sentinels, she had tried to fly up and get some higher ground, but the mechanical raptors had pulled her down, their metal teeth sinking in the metallic blades that made up her ‘feathers’. Even if the metallurgy surgeons could fix up her wings, she doubted that she would be able to use them without triggering seizures.

V stared in front of her as the conversation died down, leaving them sitting in silence. She looked up when she heard Uzi take a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, V.” Uzi said, a digital tear forming under her eye.

“For what?” V asked, genuinely confused. “You’re not the one who did this to me?”

“Same thing.” The young Drone stated. She fidgeted nervously with the hem of her hoodie. “If I hadn’t- “

V’s hand shot out and grabbed Uzi’s wrist, pulling her close. “Let me make one thing clear, Uzi Doorman.” She stated sternly, holding a tight grip around the latter’s arm. “I made the choice to stay behind. The Sentinels would have gotten to you if I hadn’t and then Cyn, The Solver: they would have won.” She released Uzi’s arm and leaned back into her pillow. “And seeing that we’re all still around to feel sorry for ourselves, it was a good choice, no matter what has happened to me. So, stop feeling sorry for yourself, because I am not blaming you for anything. And you shouldn’t too.”

“But- “

“No buts, Purple Thing.” V interrupted. “I mean what I said. Yeah, this sucks. Yes, I’m sad. Yes, I’m angry. I am dealing with a lot of emotions while dealing with this whole situation, but …” She took a deep breath, and eventually produced a smile. “Do you really think I am going to let something like this hold me back? At all? I am going to conquer this. I am going to show my doctors, our friends, you, N and myself that I am strong enough to overcome this …however long it’s going to take.”

Uzi, after leaving her mouth agape for a few moments, wrapped her good arm around V and hugged her again. “Thank you, V.”

“You’re welcome, idiot.” She pushed Uzi off her with a grin.

Uzi leaned in close, bringing her voice to a whisper. “You know …Cyn mentioned a few times that she had backups of you guys. J got a new body after I killed her. Maybe Tessa- “

“No.”

“But- “

“No!” V repeated curtly.

“It would- “

“Uzi, listen.” V took a deep breath, folding her hands on her lap. “Don’t you think I’ve considered that possibility? It was probably the first things I’ve thought off. Call Tessa and let her put my brain in a new body, but …”

“But?”

“I’m scared, Uzi.” V confessed. “What if you put me in a new body and it’s not …’me’? What if I’ll reboot and it’s just a new psychotic murder Drone with the name ‘V’? I’m not taking that risk if it means that I’ll lose any sort of personal growth I made since coming here.”

“J got a new body, and she seemed like her annoyingly, holier-than-thou self.”

V scoffed. “That’s not saying much. I think ‘workaholic company worshipper’ is just her default personality.” She took a deep breath. “No, I’m done being a Disassembly Drone. Done being a constant reminder about having been a plaything for eldritch being that tells me who I am and what I need to do. I …I just want to be V, even if ‘being V’ means I’ll need to somehow live with this broken body.”

“Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Dead serious.” V answered with a steely gaze. She gave Uzi a sly grin. “However, if you ever see signs I actually regret, just repeat all that crap I said about ‘being strong’ and ‘plaything’.”

Uzi chuckled. “I can do that.”

“Attagirl.” V folded her hands behind her back and tried to relax into her pillow. She felt lucky her little rant hadn’t caused her to seize up, despite having felt her servos twitch a few times. She didn’t want to let Uzi see that. Uzi felt bad enough without having to witness that. When she was certain that Uzi wouldn’t bring up the topic again, she allowed herself to relax again and leaned back on her pillow. “I’ll tell you what, I’m going to miss flying, though.”

“Yeah, me too.” When V gave her a quizzical look, she shrugged. “No more Solver means that my mutations have vanished as well. Still, with N still having them, he’s been doing the flying for the both of us during our da-aaaaaah nothing!”

“No, no, I heard it!” V pointed out with a massive grin. “You were gonna say ‘dates’, weren’t you?”

Uzi blushed so hard that her visor almost become a floodlight, but she nodded with a giddy smile. “Okay, fine, yes: me and N are dating. Quite happily so.”

“Well, …about time. Honestly, seeing you guys fumble around each other like that was getting tiresome. I didn’t need a season 2 of that show.” V commented, relishing that she had found a new thing to tease Uzi with. “So, I take it that you finally got over your teenage angst and confessed first?”

“Uh, actually …N confessed first …technically.” Uzi corrected, blushing slightly.

“Technically?”

“Well, I’m sure it counts, but the moment sucked considering If was taken over by the Absolute Solver and it was fighting N and my mom.”

V froze. Did her audio receptors glitch or… “Did you say ‘mom’? As in: ‘your dead mom’?” She asked. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You know what, I’m done with the whole happy small talk. Can you please fill me in on what happened after I heroically sacrificed myself and ended up a Sentinel Tug-o’-war toy?” 

“Yeah, I guess I owe you that….” Uzi rubbed the back of her head, pondering on what to tell first. “There’s a lot, so …get ready.”

V listened as Uzi told what happened after she and the rest of the group had ‘separated’, and each new revelation was another kick in the face. Uzi told about how she had left Tessa and N behind after she started to get scared of what they might do to her. How she had found the video logs of the morally ambiguous and borderline cruel experiments JCJENSON had performed on the Drones infected with the Solver. How it showed Uzi and Doll’s mother being the last survivors of those experiments and that they both had a hand – no pun intended – in the core collapse that brought an end to the human civilization. About a critically injured Doll and how Tessa tried to kill her. About N trying to stop her and how their fight ended up in N stabbing Tessa through the chest.

She told V about how she had blacked out as the Absolute Solver finally took complete possession of her. How Nori stepped in to stop the Solver from killing N and their subsequent fight. The details of said fight were later told to the latter by N afterwards. How the Solver almost ate her mother’s core, but N’s confession of him and Uzi ‘hanging out’ brought her back.

V had to admit, the mental image of Uzi punting her mother into the Evil Pit™ and being so flustered by N that she only could screech was hilarious to her. Less hilarious was the revelation that Tessa not only had survived her stabbing, but everything she told afterwards. How she had survived the massacre in her childhood, how she had started working for the Humanity Remnant Government and her infiltration in JCJENSON. How they had found Cyn and everything that happened to her when she had confronted the possessed Drone. How the human ended up a flesh suit for Cyn’s core, changing her from the inside out, until she ended up half-Drone, half-human. She knew she had a bad feeling about Tessa from the moment she appeared on Copper-9, but after what Uzi had told the horrors the former had gone through, she only felt regret and sadness for the little girl that once took in broken Drones because she didn’t have any other friends.

She felt a sense of pride in her prey-turned-friend when Uzi told her how she sacrificed herself to the flesh pit and how she put her faith in N, just like V had once put in her. The rest of the story was pretty straightforward. N met up with J, who somehow had been fighting with Khan, Lizzy and Thad and how they managed to convince J to work together. From there, Uzi finished her story by recalling everything she went through to bring the fight to the Absolute Solver. A series of events so intricate, scary and a little wholesome that V almost had no time to understand it all. Somehow the group had found out that the JCJ scientists not only had made a patch to sever the Solver’s connection to a Drone, but they had also managed to produce a kill switch, but they never had been able to test it. After a lengthy ordeal, they had managed to reunite and get their hands on the Kill Patch. After that …

“And then …. everything happened so fast.” Uzi took a deep breath, wiping away a digital tear. “My mom went in to use the Kill Patch on the Solver, by stabbing it into its core. It just …screamed and thrashed around, like a feral animal trying to survive. Just explosions and rubble falling around us everywhere. I had lost my arm – again. N was on the brink of going offline. My mom …was nowhere to be found. We …we almost wouldn’t have made it out of there, if Tessa and J hadn’t picked us up in their pod.”

“J to the rescue …small miracles …” V muttered. “Jeez, seems I missed out on a lot when I was out. Then what happened?”

“Once we were in the pod, all of us – minus Tessa – started …changing. Me, N and J’s mutations just …painfully removing themselves from us. It nearly killed N. We thought he had gone permanently offline. I begged. I screamed.” Uzi blushed. “I told him I loved him. He woke up. We kissed.”

V jokingly made a gagging noise, with Uzi sticking her tongue out at her. “Anyway, Tessa and J dropped us off in the Colony for repairs, while Tessa covertly checked our code for traces of the Solver Code. A few days later, the WDF sent out people to find, uh …”

“My remains?” V asked with a smirk.

“Hey, we all assumed you were gone.” Uzi admitted sheepishly. “We were so happy when we got the message that you miraculously survived.”

“Yeah, I got a sneaking suspicion on who that miracle was …” She glanced over at Uzi, her expression dark. “What happened to Doll?”

Uzi shook her head, letting out a saddened sigh. “No idea. We haven’t seen her since that day in Cabin Fever Labs.” She admitted. “She vanished during the fight between the Solver, N and my mom. We first assumed that she went back to the surface to kill you, but …”

“Instead, she actually rescued me – most of me - from the Sentinels.” V crossed her arms. “I suppose I should be grateful that she had a change of H.E.A.R.T. and saved me from being robo-chew. And she hasn’t resurfaced?”

“Search parties have been looking for weeks.” Uzi explained. “From what we can see on security cameras, we know she came back to the Colony once to collect some of her things. But ever since that …nothing. Gone. Vanished from the face of the planet, it seems.”

“I guess after everything that has happened, she must have her own reasons.” V sighed, conflicted about her feelings regarding the Russian speaking Drone. Despite their animosity, she had risked her own life to save V from those Sentinels. Why save someone she hated? Why did she disappear? Maybe there would come a time that she would be able to ask Doll herself, but until then …there were other questions anyway. “What happened to Cyn and your mom? Is she …?”

“We haven’t seen Cyn’s core since it jumped into the flesh pit. We assume that the Solver assimilated her completely and …destroyed her. N has been looking for her, trying to find some trace of her, dead or alive.” Uzi clenched her eyes shut, but there was a hint of a hopeful smile on her lips. “As for my mom … We …we haven’t found her core yet. She might still be out there. In all the chaos when the Solver perished, we lost sight of her. There is a lot of rubble to sift through and the work is going slowly because those tunnels seem to stretch out across the entire planet. Maybe …” Uzi sighed and let her head hang.

V couldn’t imagine what Uzi was going through. She had wanted to know about her mom her entire life, and suddenly she was there and gone before she could spend time with her. V was a realist but she hoped there was a chance. Uzi deserved as much. She let out a breath, her mind still processing everything that Uzi had told her. “Man …it’s a lot.”

“Yeah …”

“One thing, though.” V commented as she sat up again. “From what my doc told me, I got the feeling you didn’t tell anyone else what you just told me. There were a lot of gaps and ‘fortunate coincidences’ in his story.”

“Yeah, we …we decided that it would be best if everyone was told a-“ Uzi bit her lower lip as she mulled over the right expression. “Better digestible story. Evil eldritch AI, cruel experimentation on Drones, borderline magic powers, possession, …it’s a lot to take in, and I lived through that.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Not only the colony, but Tessa had to tell the human Government she works for something as well. We feared that people would react …badly if they knew the full truth. So, we told them an abridged version, something that sounded more realistic.” Uzi wrung her hands together. “Knowing what the internet has told me about human history, they’d rather nuke the entire planet into space dust than risk happening something like this again. Tessa has enough evidence to put most of the blame on JCJENSON and divert any suspicion away from us.”

“Serves them right, from what I heard.” V scoffed. “They did experiment on a malevolent AI that already had destroyed their home planet, so I figure they get what’s coming to them.”

“I’m just happy that everything worked out and things are going back to n-“ Uzi stopped herself from finishing her sentence, guilt flooding on her visor.

V just rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to do this every time, aren’t you?” She asked, punching Uzi softly on her good shoulder. “Despite everything, it all worked out, right? Time to work to ‘the new normal’, right?”

Uzi giggled. “You sound like N.”

“Must be my medication.” V joked, making them both chuckle.

In the time that followed they fell into a relaxed conversation and if she was being honest with herself, she was grateful for the distraction. Despite all her talk about wanting to proof she was strong and that she would find a way to find closure on her situation …she’d been feeling miserable. She used to be such an independent Drone and now there was the possibility she’d never be able to do anything anymore without assistance. But she also didn’t want to just submit to these negative thoughts and feelings, because that wouldn’t do her any good. She was still processing everything and she had a feeling that would take a while. So she, for now, she gladly accepted the distraction and let Uzi drone on – no pun intended – about the changes that were happening in the Colony the last few weeks.

Once people finally started to believe that it was safe to venture outside, the first thing they did collect the fallen Drones that made up the corpse spires and give their processors a funeral. The rest of the bodies were either repurposed, recycled or scrapped for parts, which would sound weird for organic being, but for Drones was a traditional and sacred act. In the end, it would ensure that new Drone frames could be built for an eventual expansion of the Colony, now that the threat of the Disassembly Drones was over.

There was talk about reclaiming the Ruined City as their own and build something completely new. Something that wasn’t as cramped and packed as the Colony, but still provided the protection from the harsh climate of Copper-9.

People also seemed to warm up to N’s presence a lot easier than Uzi feared it would. N’s lovable goofball nature probably helped a lot, plus the fact that he was eager to help repair the damages that the latest near-end-times had caused. Uzi’s dad, much to her chagrin, had taken quite a liking to N, which meant he liked to barge in during the young couple’s alone time. It wouldn’t be so frustrating if N didn’t went along with it. She loved him, but jeez, he could be oblivious. Luckily, he was learning.

Uzi’s situation had improved. While Uzi and the rest of the ‘inner circle who knew’ decided that downplaying the situation would be better for the long run, it did have some rather unforeseen, yet positive consequences. Uzi was being heralded as the Drone that had made see the Disassembly Drones ‘see the error of their ways and turn against their genocidal masters’, and had a helped stop this threat despite the danger to her own life. Suddenly, people were lining up to thank her, invite her to parties and try to be friends with her.

“Wow, suddenly Miss Popular, huh?” V stated, grinning at Uzi’s embarrassed blush.

“Thing is, there used to be a time that I wouldn’t have liked anything else than that, but now….” Uzi chuckled sheepishly. “It’s not that I don’t like it, but it’s a bit much. It feels, like, …forced, or some jazz like that. Am I making sense?”

“Never.”

“Bite me.” Uzi stuck out her tongue, which V copied, making them both burst out in laughter. “Anyway, the only people who is actually feels genuine are Thad and-“

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Something in V’s chest buzzed when Lizzy peeked inside the room and smiled brightly as the latter noticed the former.

“It’s true…you’re finally awake.” Lizzy stated with a smile as she walked in. She gave Uzi a quick greeting. “Hi, Uzi. I, eh, left your homework at your place.”

“Thanks, Lizzy.” Uzi stood up from her chair and went over to give V a hug. “I’ll better get going.”

Lizzy suddenly looked flustered. “You don’t need to-“

“Nah, the two of you have some catching up to do, too.” Uzi said as she walked over to the door. She paused when she reached Lizzy and leaned over to whisper something in her ears. Lizzy, suddenly blushing, gave Uzi a playful push and whispered something back, which made the two girls giggle. With a final goodbye, Uzi made her way out of the room and let the two Drones alone in silence.

A few moments of silence passes, during which neither Drone seemed to know how to get the conversation started. Eventually, V started by clearing her throat. “So, uh …since when are you and Uzi so chummy?”

“Well, a lot happened. A lot changed.” Lizzy stated as she shuffled over to V’s bed, the latter noticing how meek and fidgety she seemed to act. “Let’s say that over the last few weeks, me and Uzi have gotten to know each other pretty well during our mutual visits here.”

V watched as Lizzy slowly made her way to the chair Uzi had occupied only seconds earlier, eventually slowly sitting down. Lizzie looked nervous, V noticed, the way her eyes darted around like she trying to figure out what she wanted to say first.

“Lizzy, are y-“

“I thought you were dead.”

V blinked a few times, staring at Lizzy, who had her eyes clenched shut while digital tear ran down her visor. “Liz, I-“

“When Uzi and N told me how you sacrificed yourself, I didn’t know what to think. How to feel.” Lizzy continued, not letting V get a word in. “I was …angry, proud, scared, sad and-and-and…and then suddenly, we get news that you were found, alive but non-responsive and I just felt so hopeless and mad, and I-”

V reached out and grabbed Lizzy’s hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “Lizzy, calm down, you’re going to blow your voice box.”

Lizzy’s gaze dropped to her and V’s hands, fixated on them for a few moments. She looked up, tears still staining her visor. “It’s just …finding out your bestie might be …gone, it ….it hurt, V. It really hurt.”

“What do you want me to say?” V asked softly, rubbing her thumb over the back of Lizzy’s hand. “That I’m sorry?”

Lizzy shook her head. “No, Uzi and N told me why you did it. You saved them. You’re a hero. Just …don’t do that again. Ever.”

She took a deep breath and brought V’s hand to her cheek, leaning into the latter’s palm, smiling as V’s thumb caressed her cheek. “I’ve spend so many days on this very chair, just …talking to you about my day, asking you to wake up and trying to come up with what I would say once you woke up.” She let out a soft scoff. “I actually prepared a speech. I made a list of what I wanted to say. I practiced in front of the mirror. I was ready. And here I am …and I can’t come up with any of the things I wanted to say to you.”

V rubbed her thumb over Lizzy’s cheek, smirking. “This is why I prefer actions over words, so there can be no mistakes about my intentions.”

“You know what…” Lizzy stated as a playful smirk formed on her lips. “You’re absolutely right!”

Lizzy threw her arms around V and embraced her so tightly, the latter thought she was gonna snap in half. “Ugh, easy, Lizzy.” She laughed as she returned the hug. “I’m still healing. If you’re not careful, I- “

A kiss on her cheek made her stop dead in their tracks.

“I missed you so much, V.”

A kiss on the other cheek.

“And I am so happy that you’re awake, I feel like I’m gonna blow a fuse.”

Gentle hands take hold of trembling ones. A kiss on the palm of V’s hand makes her gasp softly as something tickles down her spine.

“And I know you are hurting, but I am here.” The other hand gets a kiss. “So are Uzi and N.” A giggle. “But mostly, me.”

Lizzy seems to have crawled almost on top of V without her noticing. V feels her core work overtime as two hands tenderly hold the sides of her head, her vision filled with Lizzy’s pink eyes gazing warmly and lovingly at her. V swallows down a lump as a trembling hand reaches up to Lizzy’s cheek.

“I thought you didn’t know what to say?” V asked, not really knowing what to say herself as she feels her mind numb down.

Lizzy leaned in closer to V’s face, the distance between their lips slowly growing smaller with every passing second. A soft giggle escapes her lips. “I improvised.”

Feeling suddenly emboldened, V started to lean in as well pulling herself and Lizzy closer to one another, until-

KNOCK, KNOCK!

Both girls squeaked in surprise when a knock on the door interrupted their moment, with Lizzy, her visor blushing brightly, quickly jumping from the bed and straightening out her clothes and fixed her hair. V cleared her throat – her blush rivaling the one that Lizzy was sporting. She quickly glanced over at Lizzy, who just nodded and tried to keep her voice as even as possible. “C-c’mon in!”

The door opened and Doctor Steen walked in, his eyes glued to a clipboard. “Miss V, I hope you’re feeling-“ His eyebrows raised in surprise when he saw Lizzy standing there. “Ah, Miss Casio, I thought that we would see you here today. How is our patient doing today?”

“A bit grumpy, like usual.” Lizzy stated nonchalantly. V was impressed with how casually Lizzy was acting, like their little tender moment didn’t happen – or wasn’t unfortunately interrupted.

“That checks out….” Steen muttered. “I’m sorry to ask this but could you leave the room, Miss Casio? I need to discuss some things with my patient.”

“But Lizzy just got here.” V stated, hoping that she didn’t sound too desperate to keep her …friend here. “Can’t you wait a –“

Lizzy grabbed V’s hand and gave it a soft squeeze. “It’s okay, V” She assured with a smile and a wink. “I’ll be back later and we …can pick up where we left up then, okay?”

V really hoped her blush lines weren’t that visible. “Okay.” When Lizzy planted a quick peck on her cheek, she really had to muster up all of her remaining willpower not to giggle. She couldn’t help but smile as Lizzy joyfully skipped out of the room, giving V a last look before she closed the door behind her.

“Well, someone is happy that her friend is awake.” Steen stated, a hint of amusement in his voice. “I swear, she must have been visiting more and longer than your two other friends. You’re lucky to have them.”

“I certainly am.” V mumbled, before shaking her head to bring herself back to reality. “So …what do you wanna discuss, doc?”

“Well, I was wondering if you had given some thought about the options going forward?” He stated.

V looked down at her legs; still unmoving, still unresponsive. She had given it some thought, but the uncertainty of it all scared her. Just the possibility that her only options could just not work made her uneasy. But …she realized that she couldn’t just wait for a miracle. Lizzy was right, her friends were there for her and they would lend a shoulder if things got rough. And she had a feeling that things would get very rough, very quickly.

V took a deep breath and looked her doctor in the eyes. “I have and …I have made a decision.” She gripped her bedsheets as a tingle ran down her spine. “I want to have the surgery.”

“Are you certain?” The doc asked. “It’s fine if you want some more time to-“

“No, I’m certain.” V stated, her eyes beaming with renewed steely determination. “I’ll do the surgery. I want you to replace my legs.”

[swimmingbelieverstudent]

RestoPros Success Stories: Transforming Flood-Damaged Homes in Knoxville

Introduction

Flooding can wreak havoc on homes, leaving families feeling hopeless as they face the daunting task of restoration. In Knoxville, countless residents have battled water damage, often feeling overwhelmed by the recovery process. Fortunately, expert restoration services like RestoPros have emerged as a beacon of hope for those affected. With a commitment to excellence and https://www.restopros.co/tn-knoxville/about/ a track record of success, RestoPros has transformed flood-damaged homes into safe havens once again. This article will explore the inspiring success stories behind RestoPros’ work in Knoxville, showcasing their expertise in flood damage restoration and water damage cleanup.

The Importance of Water Damage Cleanup

Water damage cleanup is more than just removing standing water; it's about restoring lives. Understanding the nuances of this process is crucial for anyone facing the aftermath of flooding.

What Is Water Damage Cleanup?

Water damage cleanup involves multiple steps:

Assessment: Professionals evaluate the extent of the damage. Water Extraction: Standing water must be removed quickly to mitigate further damage. Drying and Dehumidification: Moisture trapped in walls and floors needs to be eliminated. Sanitation: Cleaning affected areas to prevent mold growth. Restoration: Repairing or replacing damaged structures. Why Is It Critical?

Ignoring water damage can lead to severe consequences, including structural weakening, mold growth, and health risks from contaminated water. Quick and effective cleanup is essential for returning to normalcy.

RestoPros Success Stories: Transforming Flood-Damaged Homes in Knoxville

RestoPros has made a significant impact in Knoxville by specializing in flood damage restoration. Their dedicated team has turned numerous disaster-stricken homes into beautiful living spaces again.

Case Study 1: The Johnson Family’s Experience

When heavy rains flooded the Johnsons' home, they felt defeated as they watched their memories drown in murky waters. Within hours of contacting RestoPros:

A team arrived for an immediate assessment. Water extraction began swiftly. Drying equipment was set up within a day. Outcome

Within weeks, RestoPros returned the Johnson family to their home—completely restored—and brought peace back into their lives.

Understanding Flood Damage Restoration Knoxville

Flood damage restoration is a specialized service focusing on rebuilding and restoring homes affected by floods.

Key Components of Flood Damage Restoration Structural Assessment Evaluating foundational integrity. Mold Prevention Implementing anti-microbial treatments. Interior Restoration Replacing drywall and flooring if necessary. Content Restoration Salvaging personal belongings when possible. Why Choose