#Computing Techniques Online Help

[luulapants]

25 ways to be a little more punk in 2025

Cut fast fashion - buy used, learn to mend and/or make your own clothes, buy fewer clothes less often so you can save up for ethically made quality

Cancel subscriptions - relearn how to pirate media, spend $10/month buying a digital album from a small artist instead of on Spotify, stream on free services since the paid ones make you watch ads anyway

Green your community - there's lots of ways to do this, like seedbombing or joining a community garden or organizing neighborhood trash pickups

Be kind - stop to give directions, check on stopped cars, smile at kids, let people cut you in line, offer to get stuff off the high shelf, hold the door, ask people if they're okay

Intervene - learn bystander intervention techniques and be prepared to use them, even if it feels awkward

Get closer to your food - grow it yourself, can and preserve it, buy from a farmstand, learn where it's from, go fishing, make it from scratch, learn a new ingredient

Use opensource software - try LibreOffice, try Reaper, learn Linux, use a free Photoshop clone. The next time an app tries to force you to pay, look to see if there's an opensource alternative

Make less trash - start a compost, be mindful of packaging, find another use for that plastic, make it a challenge for yourself!

Get involved in local politics - show up at meetings for city council, the zoning commission, the park district, school boards; fight the NIMBYs that always show up and force them to focus on the things impacting the most vulnerable folks in your community

DIY > fashion - shake off the obsession with pristine presentation that you've been taught! Cut your own hair, use homemade cosmetics, exchange mani/pedis with friends, make your own jewelry, duct tape those broken headphones!

Ditch Google - Chromium browsers (which is almost all of them) are now bloated spyware, and Google search sucks now, so why not finally make the jump to Firefox and another search like DuckDuckGo? Or put the Wikipedia app on your phone and look things up there?

Forage - learn about local edible plants and how to safely and sustainably harvest them or go find fruit trees and such accessible to the public.

Volunteer - every week tutoring at the library or once a month at the humane society or twice a year serving food at the soup kitchen, you can find something that matches your availability

Help your neighbors - which means you have to meet them first and find out how you can help (including your unhoused neighbors), like elderly or disabled folks that might need help with yardwork or who that escape artist dog belongs to or whether the police have been hassling people sleeping rough

Fix stuff - the next time something breaks (a small appliance, an electronic, a piece of furniture, etc.), see if you can figure out what's wrong with it, if there are tutorials on fixing it, or if you can order a replacement part from the manufacturer instead of trashing the whole thing

Mix up your transit - find out what's walkable, try biking instead of driving, try public transit and complain to the city if it sucks, take a train instead of a plane, start a carpool at work

Engage in the arts - go see a local play, check out an art gallery or a small museum, buy art from the farmer's market

Go to the library - to check out a book or a movie or a CD, to use the computers or the printer, to find out if they have other weird rentals like a seed library or luggage, to use meeting space, to file your taxes, to take a class, to ask question

Listen local - see what's happening at local music venues or other events where local musicians will be performing, stop for buskers, find a favorite artist, and support them

Buy local - it's less convenient than online shopping or going to a big box store that sells everything, but try buying what you can from small local shops in your area

Become unmarketable - there are a lot of ways you can disrupt your online marketing surveillance, including buying less, using decoy emails, deleting or removing permissions from apps that spy on you, checking your privacy settings, not clicking advertising links, and...

Use cash - go to the bank and take out cash instead of using your credit card or e-payment for everything! It's better on small businesses and it's untraceable

Give what you can - as capitalism churns on, normal shmucks have less and less, so think about what you can give (time, money, skills, space, stuff) and how it will make the most impact

Talk about wages - with your coworkers, with your friends, while unionizing! Stop thinking about wages as a measure of your worth and talk about whether or not the bosses are paying fairly for the labor they receive

Think about wealthflow - there are a thousand little mechanisms that corporations and billionaires use to capture wealth from the lower class: fees for transactions, interest, vendor platforms, subscriptions, and more. Start thinking about where your money goes, how and where it's getting captured and removed from our class, and where you have the ability to cut off the flow and pass cash directly to your fellow working class people

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hey,

I don't know if you're the right person to ask, but I wanted to try.

I've just been broken up with for the first time after two years together. We live together.

Right now I feel as if I'm dying. The emotional highs and lows are exhausting, and while I know I will probably be alright and I also have exams next week. I don't know how to focus on studying while my life feels like it's falling apart. I wish I could just take a week and surround myself with people to get away from this horribly empty, desperate feeling.

Oh, mate, I'm so sorry. Break ups actually launch you into a grieving process, so it's no surprise it's throwing you for a loop. Terrible timing before exams, too.

This is all going to be fairly broad advice, because I don't know your exact situation, but:

Given these timings, I would say that right now, you're kind of entering emergency mode. You're going to need to find time to process the break up, but until next week is over, you don't have time yet. So, first of all, is staying elsewhere for a week an option? Do you have friends you can stay with for that time, for example? Can you negotiate with your ex so you stay elsewhere for a couple of days, then they do, just to get exams out of the way? If this is an option, it's worth taking - it'll be a lot easier to handle both pressures if you can.

If not, I'd advise being a bit canny about how you structure your time. I'm assuming you're in university atm, and unis (over here, anyway) have late night/24 hour computer/study rooms. You can't stay in one, sure, but make use of it. You'll be able to focus far better on revision for exams in an academic space where you aren't surrounded by memories of your ex, and right now, you need to give yourself the best possible chance.

You know when you personally focus best, but studies suggest it's an hour or so after we wake up, whenever that is for you. If this is true for you, make a routine - in the morning you get up, get yourself ready, go to uni and study. Use whatever system you like for this (more in a bit). Plan one fun activity to go and do later, though - this could be a movie, dinner with friends, a nice walk, a few hours video gaming, whatever. Take the time to do it. Make sure you plan it in the morning, so you have something fun to look forward to later. This is an important step not to miss. Your brain needs the nice endorphins right now.

Study tips:

Rally friends and classmates. We're a social species - we learn better together. Test each other with flash cards, teach each other sections of material, just be next to each other while you both study.

Learning styles are a myth in the sense that people don't just fit into one style, but they are true in the sense that there are different ones and your brain will like some and not others. Find out your favoured blend, and then use the study techniques recommended for them.

Use Pomodoro! Study for 25 minutes, break for five minutes. In that break, physically get up and walk around. After four Pomodoros in a row, take half an hour break and do something fun. This is a good online timer to help you stick to it.

All of those are about engaging your brain as much as studying. But the other two pieces of advice:

Firstly, if you don't already know how and you're able to do it safely (i.e. you don't suffer from disassociation), try mindfulness/meditation. If you're finding the grief is intruding into your brain and you need to focus, do a five minute mindfulness session, then carry on.

And secondly: tell your student services. Tell them that you're mid-break up, still living with your partner, and you're worried about exams next week. Ask them what systems are available to help in case you do badly as a result. Tell your lecturers (or at least , whichever lecturers are relevant) the same.

The reason for this is to establish a safety net for yourself. When we have exam boards as lecturers, if a student's profile comes up and it's full of low marks or fails, the first question I get asked by the Academic Office is "Did they engage with us about the issue?" And if I can say yes, that student gets far more leniency.

Hopefully some of that is helpful. If you want to chat in a bit more detail, feel free to DM me. Good luck! And I hope you find peace soon.

[asarajaa]

Hiiiii Sarah, I'm one of your new followers and I just wanted to say that, I LOVED the Wally West x Reader angst fic (it had me screaming into a pillow) you wrote a while back !!!

I do have request tho , would you maybe be willing to write a part 2 of that fic? It was just sooo good and I couldn't get it out of my head

Tysm my love!! I wasn't very sure about how it turned out but your comment really hyped me up 💗. Of course! ty for following me and I hope this reach your expectations!!

Warnings: fem!reader, angst romance, forbidden love, reincarnation (?) Words: 2338 Disclaimer: English isn't my first language so I apologise for any mistakes or misunderstandings!

You always liked cats.

They were cute and fluffy, but what you liked the most was the myth that cats were able to live 9 lives.

Of course, your logical and trained superhero mind knew that such a thing as reincarnation had very little chance of happening and much less with cats, but you liked to fantasize about it anyways.

You would catch yourself constantly thinking about it, 9 lives. 9 different whole lives, what would you do with those? The answer, for you, was obvious.

You would plan your 9 lives, thinking about what you would do and with who. Maybe you weren’t a superhero in one, maybe you were just a normal civilian, maybe you liked to do snorkeling and once and for all stopped fearing the ocean.

Yeah, that would be what you’d do in your first life. 

You would spend your first life snorkeling, feeling all the different textures of sea animals and organisms. Maybe you would get bitten or harmed by one and needed medical attention and as you would be lying in the hospital’s bed, sedated with medication, you would no longer fear the sea and lived near to it for the rest of your first life. 

And then, after your accident, maybe you could even have a date with the cute doctor that laughed but thanked you when you said— high as a comet— that his eyes were the most beautiful jewels you’ve ever seen, they reminded you of emeralds. 

In your second life you would be born in a word without any type of powers or superheroes, you would decline your mothers wish of being model and choose a peaceful and quiet life, studying mechanical engineering because your dream job  would be to be a F1 driver— but you would settle for being the person who designs the cars they’d drive, if being a driver didn’t work out.

At night, when the world was supposed to be asleep, you would sneak into the underworld and spend your nights racing illegally, a big smile on your face— because you never knew why or how, but going super fast without any other feelings besides adrenaline made you feel happy and free.

You would laugh while you drove at full speed, the tires would squeal and the car would give off a toxic smell of CO₂ that would seep into your lungs. You would love the feeling of the adrenaline running through your veins and your heart racing as much as your car, the air brushing your hair because you’d like to leave the car windows open while you’d drive.

Then, one night, for the first time, you would be defeated by a new guy that just moved into your town. He would be the new Drift King that would make you eat the ground for the first time in a long time. The thought of your next race would make your face lighten up because since that day, you wouldn't stop thinking about new techniques to defeat and take your place as the Drift Queen back from that damned new guy who’s hair looked like a forest in the autumn season.

In your third life you would be an absolute fan of superheroes. You would help your twin brother, Dick Grayson, to fight at night being his computer specialist. You would also help your father figure, Batman, and whoever he asked you to help to.

You loved superheroes, but you could never be one, never. The job was too risky, you needed to be the one who would take care of them from the comfort of your house, being a type of online vigilante that even though it technically could train and fight goons, would never try to. 

You would help Alfred with the cooking and assist your brother and father figure when they would train, handing them towels and bottles of water when necessary. You even learned medical assistance under the wing of Alfred, being too afraid to lose your new family member like you did a time ago in a circus.

You would help your family and some years later, when the death of your younger brother and the moving of your twin one would be too much to handle, you would find yourself moving too.

You would escape far away, leaving all the things you’ve known behind and trying to create a normal life with normal acquaintances. 

But it couldn’t be that easy, could it? What was the saying? Once a vigilante, always a vigilante. It seemed like troublesome things would be attracted to you like magnets.

So, taking that into account, you weren’t very surprised when a robbery attempt happened in your local bank.

You would act calm—the teachings of Bruce sunk in your mind like roots—as you followed the criminals orders, all the time tricking them into perceiving you as submissive as you would subtly protect the rest of the civilians. Technically you were a civilian too, but it wasn’t the same, you had more than basic training that Batman taught you that you followed since a kid.

But before anyone could get hurt, The Flash entered the building, saving all of them in a flash. You would observe him, Wally West, the new Flash and your twin brother's best friend save all of you.

Wally and you have never been that close, the only reason you guys got along was because of Dick but when he moved to Bludheaven and you moved to Central, at some point, the calls and the messages stopped. 

You tried to brush it off but the truth was that you missed your twin brother, you missed your father father figure, you missed Alfred and you were secretly excited to meet the new young boy—Tim, if you recall—that entered the family.

You sometimes envied Wally, since your brother always hung out with him and for some years, Wally West has known most things about your brother than you, even know, he probably still talked and meet him while you would only stare at your shared chat—one that has been silent for some time—in silent, waiting for a magical text to appear.

The Flash came into your way, not even looking at you as he moved his hands to untie your hands, your heart raced as you thought if he would remember you.

“You okay, ma’am?” he would ask calmly in a i’m-comforting-a-civilian voice.

“Yeah, thanks” you would answer, your heart skipping a beat when his head raised quickly, eyes wide open as he looked at you. His eyes comparing you to the version of you that he remembered, surprised written all over his face like if he didn’t expect to see you.

You would thought that he reacted like that because he didn’t knew you moved here, which made you ask yourself why Dick didn’t tell him. Maybe he stopped caring for you after all?

He stumbled over his words but the only thing you had in your mind was—

Oh, he still got a constellation drawn in his face.

Months passed and after encountering him a lot of times because of superhero type of problems, he finally would ask you to grab a coffee with him to "catch up". 

In your fourth life you probably would run away.

You would travel the word and meet places you never thought they would exist until you landed on them. You would block all of the persons you once knew, breaking the expectations your family had for you—maybe you would listen to them in another life, who knows.

In your fourth life you would be in every city for a while but you never stayed long enough to make stable friends, you would be surrounded by different people from different cultures, cities and personalities but you would be completely and utterly alone cause none of them would be a person you would trust your life with.

In your loneliness you would adopt a big and fluffy dog and raise it by yourself, making it travel the world with you and stay by your side to the point where it would watch you take your last breath on this earth. 

In your fourth life you would never be able to find him, to find the right person and who was meant for you. You weren’t ready and since being ready is a decision, you would decide that you’d never be. You wouldn’t even give anyone the chance to approach you in the fear of disappointing them so you always left before they could get the chance to do it.

In your fifth life you listened to your family’s advice.

You would  take your family out of poverty, you’d retire your parents after you studied a career you didn’t like at all, fulfilling the dream they asked your older brother to do before he runned away .

You would get a job that would make you work from 8 to 6, you would make a stable income and settle down with a man you’re not very sure you’re in love with but he would be a good father to your children.

You would buy a house near the beach, where you would take your children to do snorkel under your teaching while your husband would reading a book as he laid down in the sand after he took your children to collect ‘sea treasures’, as they liked to called them, before you took them to do snorkel.

You would forgive some infidelities for the sake of your family and would kill yourself yourking to make sure your children had everything they needed, unlike you did when you were their age.

You weren’t completely happy and you were sure your younger self would feel a little disappointed of you, but you didn’t have a bad life and some women had worse family issues.

Sometimes, when your kids were swimming in the seashore and your husband went for a walk when his phone began to ring, you would stare into the little golden sea star necklace your childhood best friend gave you for your birthday right before you moved from Central City to Star City.

You would smile at the memories of that little boy who always was up to a race with the other kids, remembering how you promised to marry each other at 30 if none of you had a couple for that time and how you exchanged gifts, he’d gave you a golden sea star necklace and you would gave him a  golden thunderbolt bracelet because he always said something like—“I’m as fast as a flash!”

You’d wonder who that little boy was nowadays, what his job was and what happened to his life.

In your next 2 lifes you would be lost.

You wouldn’t know what to do with your life or with whom. You would have a nostalgic, beautiful but painful feeling everytime you walked into nature because the color green meant something to you, reminded you of someone you just couldn't make yourself remember to who.

You would have the same feeling everytime the sun would express itself through sunrise and sunset, because the mix of those warm colours would remind you of a love you weren’t capable of remembering having felt before.

It would happen everytime you would see a ginger, no matter if it was a boy or girl. Your heart would begin to race for no known reason as you would wait for them to turn around, feeling disappointed when they weren’t who you expected them to be—but it wasn’t like you knew who you were expecting either.

You would feel empty because you desire something with all of your heart but you never knew what it was.

In one life, you would find it. 

In the another one, you wouldn’t.

Then you would reach your eighth life— the one you prayed you were living.

In your eighth life, you and Wally would find a cure to the reaction of your abilities combined.

You would cry tears of joy when time passed and none of you could feel any difference from the first minute you guys started to be near each other.

Wally would kiss you all the time he could, a smile on his face because no matter how many minutes he would be by your side, his body didn’t slow down.

You would make your relationship public, receiving blessings from all the people you’ve known and approving smiles from both of your mentors.

In your eighth life you two would marry each other properly, a big ceremonie for all your known ones and then a little dinner for the closest ones. You would wear your ring proudly in your finger instead of hiding it in a necklace under your shirt.

You would travel the world together for a year after your marriage before settling down on the outskirts of  Central City, leaving behind the apartment on the second floor you guys shared before in the centre of the city.

You would have children, two twin boys that were as handsome as their daddy  and a little girl that was as beautiful as her mommy. 

In your eighth life, your self being wouldn’t be a threat to the other one. You know your eighth life is like this because sometimes you dream about it, and it feels so real that you almost start to think "this is the bad dream" but that is your reality.

But you don’t have 9 lives, you only have one.

This one.

So I guess you will pass it sneaking around, always close but never close enough, always fearing the consequences of being loved by someone who isn’t supposed to love you back,

You only had one life, this one, but you like to think that the universe couldn’t be cruel enough to not allow you and Wally a happy ending in at least one.

You only had one life and you would spend it praying for another one.

Hope you liked it 💗 If you prefer to be a happy ending, you could just imagine like the 8th life was the current life 😽alte

Remeber that if you wanna get tagged everytime I post something, go to my pinned post>taglist>chose the fandom you want to get tagged in!

© asarajaa — Please, do not copy, translate or reuse my work without my permission.

[eightglass]

hi, I was wondering if you could elaborate more on the Libby ripping technique? I’m not super experienced with computers, so it’s kind of hard for me to understand. Can you explain it like I’m five?

Yeah, yeah!

So. Go and borrow a book on libbyapp.com.

Next, go to the "Read With..." menu

Then to "Other Options" and then press "EPUB"

This'll download a .acsm file, which is basically an encrypted .epub.

Now is the hard part: going through the trouble of setting up Calibre and the necessary plugins.

I'm not going to be able to explain it all here, it's wayyy too much for a tumblr post, and there are a lot of online guides, but once you have calibre all set up, make sure you have BOTH the DeACSM plugin and the DeDRM plugin installed. The DeACSM is what will convert the .acsm file into a .epub, and the DeDRM will make it so that the .epub can actually be read.

The DeACSM plugin is available on the Get New Plugins feature from within calibre, but since removing DRM is technically messing with the law, you have to manually download and install the DeDRM plugin.

Here is one guide, here is another for setting up the DeACSM plugin, you can search google to find more help, idk. It's been a while since I set it up, so I don't remember all the details. The MobileRead forums are AMAZING for this sort of thing.

Once it's all set up though, you should be able to select the .acsm file from the Add Books menu on Calibre, and it'll go through all the conversion automatically, so the book will end up on Calibre as a plain epub.

Yeah it's quite the process! I'm sorry I don't know enough to go into all the detail, but I hope this can get you on the right path! Calibre is an amazing program if you want to organise hundreds of ebooks and manage all the conversions and metadata, but for casual use like this? Yeah, it can be quite intimidating.

[strayheartless]

genesis has eye bags because he always stays up late and he’s insecure about them

Hi! I am extremely sorry this took sooooooo long to answer. I have no excuse, i genuinly forgot it was in my drafts for so long🫠. Apologies, I am a useless worm!

***

If you ask Angeal and Sephiroth - hell even Zack!- They will tell you that Genesis always looks annoyingly good. In all the time Angeal has known Genesis he can't ever think of a time where Genesis didn't look completely perfect from top to bottom, and Angeal has known Genesis for a long time. There is no point is asking Cloud because he's always of the opinion he's dating literal celestial beings, and therefore cannot be trusted to give an accurate observation of how his fireiest partner looks. At least not one thats grounded in reality at any rate.

The reason being is that Genesis would rather be burned at the stake than admit he was self concious about the dark circles that perpetually sat heavy around his eyes. He would quite literally sooner be squewered by Sephiroths sword ( no he doesn't mean that in the fun way.). The problem is, it's not always easy to hide them. He's tried every technique in the book and While his lovers may be easily hoodwinked, Genesis knows they are there.

And he hates them.

The simple answer would be to go to bed earlier, get more sleep, maybe look at his computer screen less instead of typing out whole thesis worth analysis of LOVELESS at two o'clock in the morning. Alas as much as Genesis has every intention of doing those things... he never does. Instead he leaves his paper work to the last minute, gets pulled into a paralysing state of doom scrolling, or simply stares at the cieling as the world passes him by while he listens to music and detatches himself from reality for a little bit.

If he didn't have to work this wouldn't be a problem. if he could convince his brain that the day wasn't ruined for any other kind of productivity when Lazard dismissed them, then maybe (just maybe) he could do things in a reasonable way.

instead he's stuck in the endless cycle of thinking staying up late will keep tomorrow far away from him...

Goddess he's fucking tired.

Gen Reaches for his make up box by the sink. He hasn't slept again of course. He was too busy arguing with some idiot online who thought Act three of LOVELESS was a puritanical critisim of sex before marriage, when it very clearly wasn't. By the time four o'clock had rolled around it had felt like a waste of time to go to bed. So instead, Genesis had made some coffee and kept on scrolling in search of another argument.

Now, as he realised he had no foundation or concealer left, he was regreting his decision.

"Fuck," he muttered, feeling the panic rise into his throat and choke him. "Fuck Fuck Fuck, no no no no, this can't be right." He drags everything out of the bag in seach of some magical new bottle, but there isn't one. He can't hide the circles under his eyes without them, and he doesn't want to deal with the lecture he knows he'll get when 'Geal see's them.

he starts crashing around the bathroom, desperatly looking for something, anything to help cover them. He Checks Sephiroths make up supplies, but its just eyeliner and some dark eyeshadows.

Cloud had a Cover stick in his bag but when Gen opens it, it is A.) three shades too pale, and B.) literally worn down to the dreggs and possibly out of date. Fuck.

The crashing around seems to be heard from the next room, as Gen hears footsteps aproach the ajared bathroom door.

"Gena?" comes the croaky croon of their resident puppy.

Genesis has to pull back from the urge to lunge for the door and slam it closed.

Zack stands in the entry way, blinking tiredly and looking concerned. his hair is endearingly messy. Maybe a year ago that would have grated on Genesis, but now it was one of the things he loved most about mornings with Zack.

"Babe, what are you doing up?" he asks, clearly only half awake.

Genesis doesn't look up, nor answer. If he does he knows Zack will see his eye bags. If he does he knows he will likely start crying. neither option is preferable, so he continues to stare at the floor.

The footsteps come a little closer. Zacks slightly scarred feet come into his field of vision. Genesis vaguely notes he's still wearing the nail polish Genesis put on his toenails a week ago for fun. Zack had never ben one for self conciousness. He could be annoyingly upbeat about everthing; his looks included. If someone complained about his fashion choice, he would grin and wear the clothing anyway. If his hair was a mess, he'd brush it off by saying he wouldn't die from it.

It was terribly annoying, and made Genesis seeth with envy sometimes. He wished he could be that Blazé about his looks.

"Gen, you okay?" Zack touched his shoulder. He became a little more concerned when Genesis flinched at the touch.

"Hey its okay," he said kneeling by his partner. "Whatever it is we can solve it together,"

Genesis tilts his head away as Zack ducks to try and catch his eye. He was hoping his hair was casting enough of a shadow to hide the offending bruises.

Zack reaches out however, turning his face towards him so he can get a clear look and check theres no tears. There isn't but its a close call. Maybe it was just better if Genesis admit defeat. This wasn't some deluded fan after all, it was Zack.

He lets his chin be led to meet Zack's gaze, wincing as he waits for the judgement to be cast.

"There's that pretty face," Zack coo's obnoxiously. He's obviously trying to make Genesis laugh but it falls flat, so again he asks, "Gena what's wrong?"

"I-" Gen's throat feels sticky. "I could not rest..."

"Okay, but why are you crashing round the bathroom? did you have a nightmare or something?"

Genesis tried to turn away again but Zacks hand was still on his chin. he looked down instead.

"I was... looking for my concealor,"

"At four in the morning?" Zack puzzles. "What for?"

"Can't you see the dark circles that have marred my face?"

Zack tilts his own head a little. The resemblance to a confused Alsatian puppy are truly startling as his mused spikes flop with the movement. Genesis feels a surge of unreasonable irritation at the sight.

"Oh for goddess sake Zachery," he snaps and jabs at the bruises under his eyes. "There! are you blind?! They are entirely impossible to miss!"

"I see them dude," Genesis grits his teeth at the casual nickname but Zack either doesn't notice or doesn't care He persists. "I guess I'm just wondering why its an issue?"

Genesis Rolls his eyes. Of course! Of course Zack would be so blindly uncaring about these things. After all, if it were his own face he wouldn't care. But Genesis cares, which is why he shoves at the younger man growling:

"As foreign a concept as it may be to you my love, some of us have insecurities!"

Zacks expression shutters a little as his own annoyance flares. He had always found Gen's outbursts difficult to handle the most out of all of them. Despite loving him fiercly, it was simply the mark of inexperience that meant Zack reacted more to Gen than the others did. Angeal had known him long enough to know how to handle his temper, while Sephiroth and Cloud were used to handling people who's ire was easily triggered. Zack, by comparrison, was the odd one out.

That being said, he most be learning, because he did not rise to the bate as he normally would.

"I have insecurities Gen," he speaks calmly and evenly, taking purposeful breaths to sooth the irritation. "I get that your upset, but I'm just trying to help,"

Genesis deflates a little at that. Goddess he really was exhausted.

"I'm sorry," he mutters, "Just go back to bed its fine. I will be fine."

"I'm not leaving you to stew on the bathroom floor birdie,"

"I'll be fine,"

Zack lets out an aggravated sigh.

"Look," He shifts a little so that Genesis is facing him properly. "I get that you feel self concious, and I'm not saying its stupid cause its not. God's know I know what kind of lecture Angeal will probably give you about staying up late, but Gen I'm on your side okay?"

It was Genesis' turn to look confused.

"I get not sleeping." Zack elaborates. "you're looking at the king of late night thumb twiddling here sweetheart. I don't sleep most nights, I know I have dark circles and yeah, Gen, I feel self concious about them a lot of the time,"

Genesis blanched a little in suprise.

"You do?"

"Yup," Zack nods. "But I'm not the only one either. Angeal may be all high and mighty about sleep schedules but he'd have conniptions if he knew that none of the rest of us sleep properly. Cloud's usually awake until three most nights; Seph's only asleep right now because he's been awake for the past week and finally crashed, and me? I'm admittedly awake because you are but I'm usually lying in bed trying not to fidget so much because my brain's still wide awake,"

He sighs and rubs at his eye's like he's the one thats been up until four.

"I haven't had a proper night of REM sleep in weeks dude." he grumbles, and Genesis can see them now, the rings that sit heavy around Zack's own eyes like he's been punched. They mirror Gen's own, and its almost... comforting to know he's not alone.

"I apologise puppy," he reaches out and rubs a thumb under Zacks eyes. "I believe I have some eye masks that can help reduce them if you like?"

Zack snorts and catches the hand to kiss it. Genesis softens considerably at the move.

"Tomorrow, right now you're coming to bed,"

as they pick themselves up and return to the bed, Genesis thinks about the how he has been handling this insecurity of his. He feels a little lighter knowing that its something he'd not alone in, but there is also a little shame in realising he has been hiding it from the people who are supposed to love him in spite of his flaws.

He wanted to think this was a turning point in his feeling's of inadaquacy surrounding his appearence. Maybe it was, but he also knew that tomorrow he would go out to buy more Concealer before his press conferance on tuesday. He wasn't quite ready for the world to know that he was a mess underneath his fair facade.

But maybe a baby step was all he needed to stumble down the right path.

Sighing he turned over to cuddle into Zack's side as the other man moved to get comfortable. He craned to lay a kis on Zacks neck and got a forehead kiss in return.

[boreal-sea]

We were talking about "kids these days", but not in a "fuck them" kind of way, in a "jfc they desperately need help and I guess that's gotta be me" kind of way.

This fall was the first group of incoming college freshman who'd spent most of their highschool years in COVID lockdown, and y'all. You struggled. And I'm sad you struggled. I didn't have a lot of control over the class I taught this semester, it was all online and the content was pre-made.

But I'm getting hired (I hope) as a full professor next fall, and I have many ideas.

Week 1, we're going to learn how to use the online learning tools, even if it's an in-person class. A lot of students this semester missed 10% of their grade because they couldn't find some of the content. So you guys need help learning how to use these systems, and that's definitely my job.

Also Week 1, I'm going to introduce note-taking tools, methods, and techniques. A lot of kids have no idea how to take notes. It's a skill you have to be taught.

Week 2, I'm going to start them on how to find real sources online, and how to vet the sources they're reading. Someone I talked to today said "the problem isn't that they can't find information, it's that there's too much information, and most of it isn't true". So that's going to be a theme for the whole semester.

Some time before the first test I'm going to teach studying techniques. Again - a lot of kids just don't know how to study. How can I expect them to do well on a test if they can't study for it??

And then, throughout the semester, I'm going to teach a mix of computer skills, including file structure and navigating the system, saving files as PDFs, using Acrobat, Word, Excel, PPT, and programs like that. I'm going to introduce them to Zotero and how to integrate it into Word because the sooner you learn how to do that the happier you will be when you're writing big term papers in your 400 level courses.

Anyway. Those are my starting ideas.

Did anyone else struggle this semester? What do you wish someone had taught you how to do?

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

The Internet Is Forever: Part Two

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~1.9k

Summary: A man is going around killing women in their homes and filming it for all to see. It's heartbreaking to watch but you're determined to catch him before he can hurt anyone else.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

x

Penelope logs out of video chat to continue doing her work. You have the video now so you go over it with a fine tooth comb. The unsub walks up the stairs and briefly looks into the camera. Only his eyes are shown.

"Look at that. He's acknowledging the camera. He knows his audience is watching. We know the MO, so the question is how. What kind of job gives him access to the victims' houses?"

"It has to be a network job like an IT guy. You know, someone to hook up your internet. It gets them inside their house and into their computers."

"I went through all the women's internet service providers with a fine-tooth comb. They all used different companies and had no overlap with sales reps," Detective Fordham says.

"What about the onsite tech support?"

"Clean as a whistle. They all had alibis with no criminal records."

"What I don't understand is why he takes the bodies with him after they're dead. It'd be one thing if he took them while they were still alive, but he's accomplished his task. He murders them and he completes the performance. Why risk carrying a corpse to his car?"

"There must be some postmortem behavior or signature or something we're not seeing."

"Let's think about that for a second. He's sharing this murder with a crowd of onlookers. What could he be doing to these bodies just for himself?"

"Hey, guy." Derek walks into the room while on the phone. "Garcia's got something for us." He puts her on speakerphone. "Go ahead, baby girl."

"I have some good news. First, here is the thing that sucks. I located the network the unsub is using in Boise, and it is the victims' own wireless network."

"Does he hack in before he starts the murder?"

"I don't think so. Hacking is obscenely time-consuming. I just make it look easy because I'm a genius, and he's not me. My guess is that he's got to lurk around their network for at least a couple of days to a week before he kills them."

"That's brilliant on his part," John says.

"Yeah, he knows when we follow his online paper trail. It'll lead us right back to the murder site."

"What's the good news?" you ask.

"Hackers are very loyal to their spoofing techniques, and if they think no one's watching, they'll use the same roads over and over. If he goes through Russia, China, and North Korea again, I will catch him so fast he won't know what hit him.

"That's only going to help us if he commits another murder."

"Yes, that's also true."

"Garcia, if he does stream this again, how much time will you need to find the network?"

"I'm just guessing here but seven minutes?"

"That's not fast enough. He's in and out of the house in five."

"Shoot. I'm going to have to trim my time down, then."

"Garcia, get it done. JJ, we need to call a press conference. Now that we know how he's killing these women, we need to get it out there," Hotch says.

"Okay," she nods.

Spencer walks into the conference room with the picture of Dorris he took from the fridge.

"I know what connects the victims. I was staring at pictures of the victims and I knew there was a pattern connecting them, but I couldn't tell what it was until I broke it down mathematically. Why are we so drawn to celebrity faces? Because there's a symmetry to their beauty--the eyes, the ears, and the ratio of the forehead to the chin. The more balanced they are, the more appealing they are to our eyes."

"These women aren't celebrities," John says.

"No, but there are similarities between them, and it wasn't until I scanned their pictures and got it to the guys at Quantico that I had a full breakdown." He pulls up a picture of all three female victims. "Strip away eye color, hair color, and skin tone." He does so and reveals their geometric faces. "What are we left with geometrically?"

"They're all slightly dystopic. The left eye is slightly lower than the right eye on all the victims. All the noses are narrow. The forehead has the same ridge."

"He might not even be aware that he sees it in them. There have been studies that suggest that we pick our spouses subconsciously based on facial symmetry that we recognize. Consciously or unconsciously, when he recognizes it, he has to destroy it which means he only has interest in the bodies as they relate back to him."

"What if they are a reflection of him?" you ask. "Remember what he did at the end of the video with Dorris? He wiped a tear away. It's another act of compassion he's not capable of. His narcissism prevents him from that. In the Greek myth, Narcissus was so self-absorbed that he fell in love with his own reflection in the water."

"Exactly," Spencer backs you up. "He finds women with the same face, he strangles them, and then stares at them after they've died. Whose image does he really see? His own."

You now have a profile to give to the Boise police department. John gathers his men and women to hear what your team has to say.

"Most of us take the internet for granted. We forget about texts that we share or updates we put on social networks, but the internet never forgets. Once it's out there, it's out there forever. We all know about the horrific deaths that get shown on the web--the murder of a journalist or the stoning of an Iranian dissident. Those murders are immortal. This unsub craves that same immortality."

"He recognizes his face in theirs, and he kills them as a way of saying, 'This is what I look like.' We think this also informs his compulsion to take the bodies with him. He takes them to a secondary location where we believe he preserves them so that every time he looks at them, he sees his own ego reflected," Spencer explains.

"Fortunately for us, this means we have a good idea of what he looks like. Based on the shape of the victims' faces, we have a rough composite sketch." JJ passes the sketch around. "This unsub is an expert with computers and home networks. Look into criminal records of men with extensive computer training."

"We know you've already looked into the victims' computer IT settings, so we'd like to expand the search. Look into electronic stores, computer distributors, and IT departments where the women worked," Spencer says.

"We overuse the term narcissistic in our culture, but we're going back to the psychological definition," you say. "Every aspect of this man's life has been constructed around an inflated sense of self. Unsubs like this are particularly vulnerable to what's called narcissistic injury. If his self-worth is attacked or damaged, he will lash out."

"If you find this unsub, do not challenge him publicly. Say you just want to talk to him to see if he knows anything about the brilliant mastermind who's stalking these women. Under no circumstances should you denigrate him. As difficult as it is, we need to talk up his exploits as if we respect him," Hotch says, concluding the profile briefing.

JJ is able to get a last-minute press conference with the local press. She shows a picture of the sketch she passed around. He's a white male, roughly five-foot-ten, and highly skilled with computers and networks. She encourages everyone to monitor the information people post about themselves on social media. When she opened up for questions, she didn't realize the backlash she might get.

"How did the FBI generate this sketch if there were no eyewitnesses?"

"Can you comment on the rumor he has some sort of facial symmetry with his victims? Does he look like them?"

"Why would he target women who look like him?"

"What should people do to protect themselves? Change their face?"

Who the hell told them about the profile before the FBI was ready to release it? JJ handled it like a pro but she waltzed back into the station with a look of annoyance and frustration.

"Hotch. Somebody leaked our profile. The press started asking questions about facial symmetry."

"It must have been one of your officers," Hotch says to John.

"Look, my guys were checking their cell phones but that's just habit now."

"I talked to the press independently, and I can get this off the 10:00 PM news but this went out live."

"What are the chances he didn't see it?"

"Not good," Hotch sighs. He takes out his phone and dials Penelope. "How are you doing with pinning down the network?"

"I was just about to call you. Remember how I said he was spoofing his signal off different servers? Well, it turns out some of those are a decoy meant to waste my time."

"Does that mean you can find him faster?"

"Yes. I can write a program that filters out the decoy--" Alarms start ringing on her computer. "Oh crap."

"Is that him?"

"Yeah, okay, I'm going to have to filter this one on the fly."

"Can you send us the feed?"

"Yes. I think I can intercept it in Ukraine."

Hotch pulls the phone away from his ear and looks at everyone.

"He's going live."

Penelope sends the live feed through and you take a seat because you know you're going to be overwhelmed. The video starts and the unsub is practically running toward a house.

"Look at the way he's moving. He's not slow and deliberate. This guy's pissed."

"He saw the press conference," you sigh.

"Alright, what do we see? Any determining markers?"

"It's a one-story cottage."

"It could be anywhere."

"Is there a number on the house?"

"No, he's already at the door."

"Garcia?" Hotch asks and places her on speakerphone.

"He's using twice as many proxy servers."

There is a small white box behind the live footage of words coming through like a comment section on a Youtube video.

"This window here on the bottom, is that the chat room?" Emily asks.

The video switches to a camera inside the house, inside the kitchen. You're so anxious that you're bouncing your leg rapidly to try and give you something else to focus on. A woman is by her fridge looking in while the unsub enters her back door.

"There she is."

"He's in the house, guys."

"He's completely changed his MO. It is way too early. There's too much light. What happened?" Derek asks.

"Someone asked the wrong question at the press conference," JJ answers.

"Turn around," you whimper. "Please just turn around."

The man gets closer to her. The camera keeps switching angles from inside the kitchen, inside the dining room looking into the kitchen, and the POV camera on him.

"Maybe she can fend him off."

"She has new kitchen appliances. Can we track them through work orders?" Spencer asks.

"He'll be gone by then."

"Garcia, give us something," Hotch urges.

"I'm stateside now. I'm almost to Idaho. I just need more time."

"You're not gonna have it."

"Yes, I will. I will," Pen panics.

The unsub reaches the woman and begins strangling her on live video. You put your thumbnail in your mouth and begin biting it while still bouncing your leg. You can't seem to look away.

"Forget the unsub. Can you run a trace on everybody in the chat room?" Hotch asks.

"I can't do both, sir. Let me do this."

"Garcia, tag the viewers. That's an order."

It's too late. She's already dying. Tears are rolling down your cheeks but you don't make a sound. She gasps for breath but stops fighting him off. She's losing. She's dying... She's dead. Penelope quietly gasps and you wipe your tears.

"Penelope, don't do that to yourself. I know what you're thinking. It's not your fault."

She appreciates your comfort but she doesn't believe you.

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[spiralfucker]

where should i look to learn the basic of ableton? it overwhelms me so much but there's nothing more i want to do than making music or at least trying to and I'm terrible depressed bc of that

Hi anon. I’ve been in the same position as you and I know what it feels like to have all this creative energy and emotions pent up that you can’t express in the way you’d like to. This is a long one but I’m really passionate about this so here:

Basically I learnt the basics of logic at my uni and I got lessons/mentoring from my bandmate who encouraged me to switch over to ableton (I much prefer it now).

I know it looks overwhelming at first but I promise with some practice it’s really not too bad (it’s def easier than pro tools lol) Music production is one skill that is really easy to self teach because there’s just so many free resources online. I’d really recommend finding an in depth introduction to ableton video on YouTube and kind of just following along. Start trying to learn the keyboard commands early on if you can because they’ll make your workflow so much faster in the long run.

Izotope has some really great articles that go into the basics of production techniques in really easy to understand terms. Sound on sound has some great articles too. Making a big google doc with every you learn can be a great resource to have so you can go back and reference it.

Alongside that I’d recommend trying to learn some basic music theory because I honestly think it essential to know for production (many people would disagree lol). If you haven’t already, try to get your head around the circle of fifths and the harmonic series.

As well as this, I think it’s important to understand the basics of synthesis because that terminology will keep coming up in VSTs and it’ll help to have some context of where these terms came from. Look into the basics anatomy of a subtractive synthesiser to start. From there id recommend looking into FM, additive and wavetable synthesis. This book was written in the 80s but I found it really helpful for grasping these concepts: https://archive.org/details/SynthesizerBasicsDeanFriedman600dpi_201608/page/n70/mode/1up

I’d also recommend grasping the basics of EQ and compression because it’s something you’ll probably use on every single track you ever make. Also learn what phase cancellation is because that’s an issue that come up a lot when you’re a beginner.

If you’re able to, I’d recommend making it a goal to try to a learn new thing about music or production every day. Even if that’s just something as simple as what synth was used on a song you like or what a particular mic is good for or a neat trick you do with a stock plugin, all that knowledge adds up and complements each other.

I’ve found that trying to listen to your favourite music with an analytical frame of mind and even trying to get a hold of the multitracks can be a great learning tool. Find out what kind of hardware they used, what plugins they used, what mics etc. There’s no shame in copying your favourite producers until you find your own voice.

In terms of gear, I’d recommend picking up a midi keyboard and an interface if you don’t have one already. If you’re finding you keep running into CPU issues with your computer (ableton isn’t great for this) you can try resampling your midi track and turning off the plugins then freezing the track (I wish I started doing this sooner). Otherwise you’ll just get frustrated and stuck and not want to keep working on your tracks.

If money is an issue, ableton comes with a lot of great stock instruments and effects + samples and drum racks but expensive plugins are always going on sale so maybe have a look on plugin boutique and see if anything that looks cool is within your budget.

Keep in mind that I’m saying this as someone who still considers themself a beginner/intermediate in this area and I still have a heap to learn too. Good luck and make cool stuff.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Does the universe behave the same way everywhere? Gravitational lenses could help us find out

A JCAP study proposes a test for the Cosmological Principle using weak gravitational lensing

“The cosmological principle is like an ultimate kind of statement of humility,” explains James Adam, astrophysicist at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa, and lead author of the new paper. According to the Cosmological Principle, not only are we not at the center of the Universe, but a true center does not exist. A further assumption, similar to but distinct and independent from homogeneity, is that the Universe is also isotropic, meaning it has no preferred directions. These assumptions underlie the Standard Model of Cosmology, the theoretical framework used to explain the origin, evolution, and current state of the Universe. It is currently the most robust and consistent model, verified by numerous scientific observations, though not yet perfect.

In fact, some recent cosmological observations suggest that, on extremely large scales, there may be anisotropies—variations in the Universe’s structure that challenge the assumption of isotropy. These anomalies have been identified using different methods and include conflicting measurements of the Universe’s expansion rate, studies of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and various inconsistencies in cosmological data. However, these observations are not yet conclusive. To rule out measurement errors, more data must be collected using independent methodologies. If multiple techniques confirm the same anomalies, their existence would become much harder to dismiss.

The new study published in JCAP by Adam and colleagues developed a new methodology to test the Universe’s isotropy using observations from instruments like Euclid. Euclid is an ESA space telescope launched in 2023, which has just begun producing images of the cosmos with unprecedented power, precision, and resolution.

“We investigated a different method of constraining anisotropy which involved so-called weak gravitational lensing,” says Adam. Weak lensing occurs because matter between us and a distant galaxy slightly bends the galaxy’s light, altering its apparent shape. This specific type of distortion can reveal whether anisotropies exist in the Universe. In fact, the analysis of weak lensing data allows scientists to separate the signal into two components: E-mode shear, which is generated by the distribution of matter in an isotropic and homogeneous Universe, and B-mode shear, which is typically very weak and should not appear on large scales in an isotropic Universe.

Simply observing B-modes on large scales would not be enough to confirm anisotropies, as these signals are very weak and could result from measurement errors or secondary effects. If an anisotropy is real, it would affect both E-modes and B-modes in a non-independent way, generating a correlation between the two signals. Only if Euclid’s data reveal a significant correlation between E- and B-modes would it suggest an anisotropic expansion of the Universe.

Next Steps and Possible Implications

In their study, Adam and colleagues simulated the effects of an anisotropic universe expansion on a computer and developed a model describing how deviations from isotropy would modify the weak lensing signal. They then calculated the E-B cross-correlation to demonstrate that an anisotropic universe would produce a correlation between the two signals, and applied their model to future Euclid data, showing that these observations will be precise enough to detect potential anisotropies.

Euclid is already beginning to provide useful data for these analyses, and new observatories will soon come online. Now that they have developed the proper methodology, Adam and his colleagues intend to apply it to real data. “Once you’ve kind of quadruple-checked your work, then you have to seriously consider whether this fundamental assumption is actually true or not, particularly in the late Universe. Or perhaps it just was never true”, explains Adam.

If these anomalies are confirmed, they would open a new chapter in cosmology. It won’t be easy, though: there are already alternative theoretical models that predict anisotropies, but none are as solid or widely accepted as the Standard Model. However, any theoretical revision would also depend on the extent of the anisotropy that could be detected, which remains uncertain.“It could be a serious revision,” concludes Adam, "or just adding a little term here or there. Who knows?”

If you want to learn more…

The Cosmological Principle

We know that the Universe is expanding, and this might lead us to mistakenly imagine that there is a center (where the Big Bang occurred) from which this expansion originated. Instead, we should think of our Universe as if it were the surface of the Earth: we can move in any direction without ever reaching an edge, but there is no center on the surface. If Earth behaved like a balloon being inflated, we would see that the space on its surface expands, but there would be no specific point on it that could be considered the center of the expansion.

According to the Cosmological Principle, not only is there no center or privileged location in cosmic space, but space itself has homogeneous properties everywhere, at least on sufficiently large scales. We know that there are voids and dense regions, such as galaxies and the space between them, but if we zoom out—just like we zoom out on a smartphone with two fingers—these inhomogeneities disappear. This principle forms the foundation of the theoretical model we use today to explain the origin, evolution, and current state of the Universe. It is also very convenient because it implies that the laws of physics apply everywhere in the same way, significantly simplifying our understanding of the cosmos.

Weak Lensing

Weak lensing is based on the principle, described by general relativity, that gravity can bend the path of light. The greater the mass of a celestial body, the stronger the distortion of light passing near it. Galaxies and other objects located behind a massive gravitational field appear subtly distorted, with their shapes and orientations slightly altered.

This effect is similar to looking at an object through a magnifying glass. Just as the curved surface of the lens bends and distorts light, changing the apparent shape and position of objects behind it, the gravitational field of a massive cosmic structure bends and distorts the light from distant galaxies. As a result, an elliptical galaxy may appear slightly squished or rotated.

By carefully analyzing these distortions across billions of galaxies, surveys like Euclid and LSST can detect weak lensing, revealing the presence and distribution of unseen matter, including dark matter.

IMAGE: Examples of how E and B modes deform imeges of distant galaxies Credit SISSA Medialab

[xyymath]

Math Myths Busted! 🚨 Debunking Common Misconceptions

1. "Trigonometry is pointless in real life."

Want to design a bridge, map the stars, or even create 3D models? Welcome to the world of trigonometry. Engineers use sine and cosine to calculate forces, angles, and stress on structures. Naval navigation? That’s spherical trigonometry. And let’s not forget medical imaging (MRI and CT scans)—trigonometric algorithms are essential for reconstructing images from cross-sectional slices of the body.

2. "Pi is just 3.14."

Pi is irrational, meaning it goes on forever without repeating. It’s used in everything from signal processing to quantum physics. In general relativity, gravitational waves are calculated using Pi to map the curvature of spacetime. Even fractals, the infinitely complex geometric shapes that mirror nature’s patterns, rely on Pi for accurate dimension calculations. Simplifying Pi to 3.14 is like calling a complex painting “just a bunch of colors.” It’s a universe in itself.

3. "Math is for nerds, not for normal people."

Mathematics is fundamental to the universe. The Fibonacci sequence is embedded in everything from flower petals to galaxies. Whether it’s understanding the Golden Ratio in art or applying optimization techniques to improve energy use in smart cities, math is the tool that drives technology, medicine, and economics. Cryptography keeps your bank account safe and ensures secure communication online—it’s all built on abstract algebra and number theory. So, is math for “nerds”? It’s for civilization.

4. "I’ll never be good at math."

Growth mindset matters. The very concept of calculus—which studies the rate of change—starts from understanding infinitesimally small changes. Once you grasp limits, derivatives, and integration, you unlock the power to model everything from population growth to financial markets. Complex equations that once seemed impenetrable are just tools for breaking down the world. Perseverance is the key, not an innate ability. You learn, you grow, you become a mathematical thinker.

5. "Math is boring."

If math’s boring, then understanding gravity and black holes is boring. Einstein’s general theory of relativity wasn’t just an academic concept—it was formulated using highly sophisticated tensor calculus. Fractals, which appear in clouds, mountains, and even coastlines, are beautiful examples of math in nature. When you solve differential equations, you’re predicting everything from weather patterns to market crashes. Math is not static, it’s the language of everything, from the universe’s creation to your daily commute.

6. "I don’t need math in my everyday life."

You calculate interest rates, optimize your workout routine, and even estimate cooking times using math without realizing it. Statistics helps you make informed decisions in the stock market, and probability theory is the reason you can accurately predict outcomes in games, risk-taking, and even weather forecasting. Linear algebra is involved in everything from computational biology to machine learning. And when was the last time you built a website without using algorithms? Exactly.

7. "Calculators do all the work, so why learn math?"

Calculators are tools. Algorithms—the underlying mathematical processes that make your calculator or smartphone function—are the result of years of mathematical study. Machine learning algorithms, the backbone of AI, rely heavily on linear algebra and calculus. Building a calculator that can compute anything from simple arithmetic to complex number operations requires advanced math, often involving abstract algebra and number theory. It’s not the tool; it’s the thinking behind it that counts.

Math is the DNA of the universe.

[kotoryba]

#I have an idea but no time: TGCF as online game (inspired by The King's Avatar, but it matches with any similar)

World, where you can realise your dreams. Where two powerful leagues - Heavens and Ghosts - divide the believers between themselves and fight fiercely in numerous battles. Magnificent graphics, millions of quests, powerful artifacts and skills, creative world-building system, expensive rewards in tournamens for the best of the bestes - the TGCF really is the top online strategy of all time!

And meet Xie Lian - once a prominent top fighter in national Heaven league (nickname - The Martial god in the flower crown) with his rich father as a sponsor; however, he tried to help some minor players with a quest and as turned out it was the fatal ambush🫣. He died, lost some levels, XPs and precious artifacts and was kicked from the dominant clan, Heaven Capital, because he couldn't keep the pace in the important tournaments. At the same time Xie Lian left online gaming for several years, because his father became bankrupt and died, took any jobs (because he didn't finish university due to constant cybersport tournaments), and lived in shelters - he didn't even have a smartphone!

Finally he found a more than less permanent place in the small internet cafe as an office manager (administrator and cleaner all-in-one). He curiously looks at beginning gamers and tries to give advice, however mostly are outdated in the modern versions of the games. His colleague (Ling Wen) encourages him to create an account there using one of the communal computers if he wants to enjoy the game in his free time. XL tried, but he messed up the stats (zero luck maybe), which is very dumb and hard for beginners single players. But luckily he receives a minor quest from Heaven league (The ghost groom) and the story begins again.

Meanwhile Hua Cheng, who is the mysterious informal ruler of the Ghost league (he uses clones and changes skins very often, so no one knows what his avatar really looks like), desperately searches XL in both online and offline worlds. During the years (he was that minor player, whom XL helped in the ambush), he mastered unique skills - Silver Butterfly Storm, Dice Teleportation and some other perks (self-made legendary-leveled artefact E-ming of course) in the hidden and nightmare level quests. But all those years he loved XL deeply, kept all his game posters and photos from the media in his mansion (HC became a very rich guy, he's lucky in gambling), and humbly expected to see his beloved again.

Meet Jun Wu, the righteous and mighty ruler leader of Heaven league, who is also the head game administrator… that's how he cheated and created Bai Wuxian, the powerful Ghost King, and played dirty on both sides, keeping a self-imagined balance of good and evil.

Meet Mu Qing and Feng Xin, the excellent fighters of the Heaven league, ex-university friends of XL. They are colleagues (and rivals) in the real life, and… if both of them want someday to invite their rival in his home on cup of coffee, that's impossible because of the huge posters and merch collections (General Nang Yang in MQ's home, general Xuan Zheng - in FX’s). Yes, they adore each other's avatars (and not only avatars😏). Yes, they think that the other doesn't know who the other is (not true🙄). Both blame himself for XL falling.

And the others: 

brothers Shi (older collaborate with JW in the grace of his brother place in League; younger is a popular game blogger); 

He Xuan, a powerful summoner of Ghost league and HC ally; once was kicked out from Heaven league. Learned the clone technique from HC and began to spy in Heaven league as a middle level player. For that, he befriends Shi Qixuan (but now he's not so sure that it was a good idea🤔).

Heaven league commander Pei Ming, who loves fighting and flirting (on-line mostly, but baby, if you is so pretty in real life, I'm all yours 😘)

Mei Nianqing, ex-game administrator (knows all JW deeds, but still in love with his ex-husband🙄); works as a hidden agent of cybercrime and tries to gather ANOTHER evidences (not his own, he just can't betray his love) of JW’s crimes.

Challenging tournaments, powerful monsters and level-bosses, intrigues on the both sides of screen - are you in the game? 😜

(please 🥺)

[6rookie-writer0110]

Sandhill Thrill

MJ x Male Reader

Request - Being MJ’s (MCU) brother who is a superhero she doesn’t know about, and MJ realising when he comes home really injured and she patches him up and tries to help him with the superhero gig?

You are in your bedroom on your laptop. You searched on YouTube for how to fight like Bruce Lee. You start to watch his techniques then you search for how to box. You stand up and you start to copy their moves, you keep repeating the same moves. Then you started to do shadowboxing, you messed up a few times but you kept trying to get it right. Now, you search for another fighting style on YouTube. You stand up again you try to do a punching combo then your sister MJ opens the door.

“What are you doing?” MJ asked.

“Don’t you know how to knock?” You asked.

“You don't knock when you come into my room, Y/n” MJ said.

She doesn't know that you are a hero and that's why you are learning how to fight.

“Well, what do you want?” You asked.

“Mom said breakfast is ready. You are acting strange” MJ said.

“You are strange, get out,” You said.

“Whatever,” MJ said.

She left the door open and went downstairs. You turned off your computer, grabbed your stuff, and went downstairs. MJ’s boyfriend Peter came to walk her to school. You don't hardly talk to Peter but you know that she is happy with him. MJ left with Peter then you headed to the bus stop. While on the bus, you start to think of hero names but you find out it's hard to come up with a name.

“Why it's hard to come up with a name” You sighed.

While in school, you didn't focus in math class. You start to draw what kind of suit you want to wear then you label each part and what color it will have.

——-

After school, you went to the thrift shop. You are looking for items to make your hero suit, but so far you haven't found anything good to use. You did find a cool hoodie for the suit and you bought it. You go home and start to think about what you need for your suit. Then you search online for different materials to design the suit, but you are having a hard time what to pick.

✯ ✯ ✯ ✯

You keep training in your bedroom on how to box. But you would go to the park and time yourself running and you are not doing good, but you don't give up. You searched online on how to run faster and you found a few tips. You are in your room and you can't stop smiling. You are looking in the mirror and you are feeling hyped. You have on your homemade superhero suit, now you want to fight bad guys. You open the window and you sneak out of your bedroom.

It's getting dark and you didn't take long to find a bad guy. A thug was trying to steal a woman’s purse but she won't let go.

“I’m ready,” You said in your mind.

You ran up to the thief and punched him in the face. Then he punched you in the stomach and that felt like you got hit by a rock, the first time getting punched in the stomach. Then he punched you in the face then you kicked him in the nuts then he fell down.

“Lady, are you okay!?” You yelled.

“Get away from me!” She yelled.

She thought that you were a thief and she hit you with her purse. Then she ran away, the guy up and he started to fight you again. But you start to fight back, you kicked him in the stomach and pushed him against the car. You hear a cop car approaching then you start to run away fast.

“Fuck” You mumbled.

You are feeling sore and your body is in pain. You managed to stop a bad guy and you are happy about that. You start to limp your way back home.

MJ goes to your bedroom and she opens the door. You are injured and you are trying to clean the wound on your bottom lip.

“What the hell happened to you!?” MJ yelled.

“You need to learn how to knock, Michelle Jones!” You said.

“I’m serious Y/n, what happened to you,” MJ said.

“I was out fighting bad guys and I got into my first fight,” You said.

She laughed and you have a serious face.

“Oh… you are serious about that. Why would you do something like that!? You could have got yourself killed!” MJ yelled.

“You can stop yelling now. And i know what I'm doing. I want to be a hero and help people” You said.

“But you don't have a suit, you don't know how to fight and I don't want you to die. Don't be stupid” MJ said.

“I’m not stupid. I’m learning how to fight and I run fast. I know what I'm doing. It's not like we know a hero personally that I can go ask for a suit” You said.

She knows that Peter is Spiderman but you don't know. She grabbed the rubbing alcohol and started to clean the wounds on your knuckles.

“Y/n, you are my brother and I know you want to do the right thing. But I don't want to lose you. You are stubborn and I know you won't stop” MJ said.

MJ cleans the cut on your left eyebrow.

“Are you going to tell mom and dad?” You asked.

“No, I won't tell them. But I would help you” MJ said.

“Help me how?” You asked.

“Design a better suit” MJ teased

“Shut up” You laughed.

———

MJ did tell Peter what you are doing, but she didn't tell you that she told him. You bought a punching bag, and MJ encourages you to fight better. You still don't have a hero name, it's still hard to come up with one. MJ did tell you who to call when you get caught by the cops.

“Why Matt and how do you know him?” You asked.

“Don’t worry about that, just trust me. Next, you need a quick way to run away from the cops. If you don't see an exit or it's blocked distract them then escape” MJ said.

“Good idea,” You said.

Your sister did tag along to help you fight bad guys. You didn't want her to go because she would get hurt, but she did tag along. This time there were two bad guys to fight against while fighting, MJ grabbed a pole and started to hit the bad guys. Then you started to win the fight and cops arrived then you and MJ started to run away.

“Next time…”

You didn't finish your sentence, because you are breathing too hard.

“Good talk,” MJ said.

“Shut up,” You said.

You and MJ went home. She starts to tell you what you did wrong from the start to end.

[mariacallous]

Christopher Ren does a solid Elon Musk impression.

Ren is a product manager at Reality Defender, a company that makes tools to combat AI disinformation. During a video call last week, I watched him use some viral GitHub code and a single photo to generate a simplistic deepfake of Elon Musk that maps onto his own face. This digital impersonation was to demonstrate how the startup’s new AI detection tool could work. As Ren masqueraded as Musk on our video chat, still frames from the call were actively sent over to Reality Defender’s custom model for analysis, and the company’s widget on the screen alerted me to the fact that I was likely looking at an AI-generated deepfake and not the real Elon.

Sure, I never really thought we were on a video call with Musk, and the demonstration was built specifically to make Reality Defender's early-stage tech look impressive, but the problem is entirely genuine. Real-time video deepfakes are a growing threat for governments, businesses, and individuals. Recently, the chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations mistakenly took a video call with someone pretending to be a Ukrainian official. An international engineering company lost millions of dollars earlier in 2024 when one employee was tricked by a deepfake video call. Also, romance scams targeting everyday individuals have employed similar techniques.

“It's probably only a matter of months before we're going to start seeing an explosion of deepfake video, face-to-face fraud,” says Ben Colman, CEO and cofounder at Reality Defender. When it comes to video calls, especially in high-stakes situations, seeing should not be believing.

The startup is laser-focused on partnering with business and government clients to help thwart AI-powered deepfakes. Even with this core mission, Colman doesn’t want his company to be seen as more broadly standing against artificial intelligence developments. “We're very pro-AI,” he says. “We think that 99.999 percent of use cases are transformational—for medicine, for productivity, for creativity—but in these kinds of very, very small edge cases the risks are disproportionately bad.”

Reality Defender’s plan for the real-time detector is to start with a plug-in for Zoom that can make active predictions about whether others on a video call are real or AI-powered impersonations. The company is currently working on benchmarking the tool to determine how accurately it discerns real video participants from fake ones. Unfortunately, it’s not something you’ll likely be able to try out soon. The new software feature will only be available in beta for some of the startup’s clients.

This announcement is not the first time a tech company has shared plans to help spot real-time deepfakes. In 2022, Intel debuted its FakeCatcher tool for deepfake detection. The FakeCatcher is designed to analyze changes in a face’s blood flow to determine whether a video participant is real. Intel’s tool is also not publicly available.

Academic researchers are also looking into different approaches to address this specific kind of deepfake threat. “These systems are becoming so sophisticated to create deepfakes. We need even less data now,” says Govind Mittal, a computer science PhD candidate at New York University. “If I have 10 pictures of me on Instagram, somebody can take that. They can target normal people.”

Real-time deepfakes are no longer limited to billionaires, public figures, or those who have extensive online presences. Mittal’s research at NYU, with professors Chinmay Hegde and Nasir Memon, proposes a potential challenge-based approach to blocking AI-bots from video calls, where participants would have to pass a kind of video CAPTCHA test before joining.

As Reality Defender works to improve the detection accuracy of its models, Colman says that access to more data is a critical challenge to overcome—a common refrain from the current batch of AI-focused startups. He’s hopeful more partnerships will fill in these gaps, and without specifics, hints at multiple new deals likely coming next year. After ElevenLabs was tied to a deepfake voice call of US president Joe Biden, the AI-audio startup struck a deal with Reality Defender to mitigate potential misuse.

What can you do right now to protect yourself from video call scams? Just like WIRED’s core advice about avoiding fraud from AI voice calls, not getting cocky about whether you can spot video deepfakes is critical to avoid being scammed. The technology in this space continues to evolve rapidly, and any telltale signs you rely on now to spot AI deepfakes may not be as dependable with the next upgrades to underlying models.

“We don't ask my 80-year-old mother to flag ransomware in an email,” says Colman. “Because she's not a computer science expert.” In the future, it’s possible real-time video authentication, if AI detection continues to improve and shows to be reliably accurate, will be as taken for granted as that malware scanner quietly humming along in the background of your email inbox.

[sarkariresultdude]

"Study Smarter: Expert-Recommended Tools and Materials for Students"

 Whether you're a excessive faculty student, university undergraduate, or lifelong learner, having the proper have a look at substances can extensively enhance how efficaciously you analyze and retain know-how. Below is a curated list of encouraged resources labeled by means of topics, getting to know styles, and desires, overlaying each traditional and virtual codecs.

Study Materials For Students 

1. 📖 General Study Materials

Books

A have to-study for all rookies, this book explores proof-based mastering techniques and helps you increase greater effective study behavior.

"How to Read a Book" by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

Teaches analytical reading strategies and how to approach distinct genres of texts seriously.

Stationery & Tools

Highlighters, sticky notes, flashcards, notebooks (ideally sectioned or dot-grid)

Apps like Notion, Obsidian, or Evernote for virtual be aware-taking

Use Pomodoro timers like Focus Keeper or TomatoTimer for time management

2. 🧠 Cognitive and Memory Aids

Flashcards

Anki – Spaced repetition software program first-rate for memorizing anything from scientific terms to vocabulary

Quizlet – User-friendly with heaps of pre-made sets for almost each challenge

Mind Mapping Tools

XMind or MindMeister – Great for visual rookies and organizing complex ideas

3. 📘 Subject-Specific Recommendations

🌍 Humanities and Social Sciences

History

"A People's History of america" by way of Howard Zinn – A fresh, alternative perspective

CrashCourse History on YouTube – Fun, speedy-paced, and informative

Oxford History Series – Detailed but on hand instructional sources

Literature

The Norton Anthology of English Literature��– Comprehensive and properly-commented

SparkNotes and CliffsNotes – Great for summaries, subject matters, and quick evaluations

Poetry Foundation – Great for knowledge poems and their analyses

Philosophy

"Sophie's World" with the aid of Jostein Gaarder – Fictional introduction to philosophical standards

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) – Free, instructional-stage articles

🔬 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)

Mathematics

Khan Academy – Free tutorials from basic mathematics to multivariable calculus

Paul’s Online Math Notes – College-degree notes and worked examples

Brilliant.Org – Interactive math problems and puzzles

Physics

"Fundamentals of Physics" via Halliday, Resnick & Walker – A staple for undergraduates

MinutePhysics and Physics Girl on YouTube – Bite-sized physics defined

HyperPhysics – Visual-based on-line physics concept map

Chemistry

ChemCollective – Virtual labs and trouble units

Organic Chemistry as a Second Language with the aid of David Klein – Excellent for understanding difficult standards

Periodic Videos (YouTube) – Fun deep dives into the periodic table

Biology

Campbell Biology – Comprehensive and general for maximum university-degree courses

Bozeman Science – Great video content for AP and university biology

BioInteractive (HHMI) – Interactive resources and animations

Computer Science

CS50 by way of Harvard (edX) – Free, newbie-pleasant intro to CS

freeCodeCamp – Free interactive studying in coding and net development

Cracking the Coding Interview by using Gayle Laakmann McDowell – For technical interview prep

Languages and Communication

English (and ESL)

Grammarly – Writing help and grammar checking

The Elements of Style via Strunk and White – Classic writing guide

BBC Learning English – Free resources for vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar

Foreign Languages

Duolingo – Great for beginners

LingQ and Pimsleur – For immersive language studying

HelloTalk / Tandem – Connect with local audio system for actual conversations

four. 🎓 Test Prep Materials

ACT Prep Black Book by means of Mike Barrett

Khan Academy’s free SAT prep – In partnership with College Board

GRE/GMAT

Manhattan Prep Series – Strong for both GRE and GMAT

Magoosh – Affordable, digital-first gaining knowledge of platform

Official ETS GRE Guide – Direct from the check makers

Medical (MCAT, USMLE)

Kaplan Series / Princeton Review – Comprehensive applications

Anki Decks (like MilesDown for MCAT) – Top-rated for memorization

SketchyMedical – Visual mnemonics for microbiology and pharmacology

5. 🧘 Mental Health and Study Techniques

Wellness Apps

Headspace / Calm – Meditation and mindfulness apps to enhance attention

Forest – Encourages you to stay off your cellphone while you look at

Study Bunny – A cute gamified productivity app

Study Methods

Pomodoro Technique – 25 minutes paintings, 5-minute smash

Feynman Technique – Teach the idea in easy phrases to yourself

Active Recall + Spaced Repetition – Proven satisfactory for lengthy-time period retention

6. 🖥️ Digital Platforms and Online Learning

Coursera – Offers publications from top universities in really all fields

EdX – Similar to Coursera; first rate for incomes certificate

Udemy – Huge library of affordable ability-primarily based guides

YouTube Channels – CrashCourse, Veritasium, CGP Grey, Kurzgesagt, and extra

7. 📅 Organizing Your Studies

Planning Tools

Google Calendar – For scheduling classes, study classes, and reminders

Trello or Todoist – For handling responsibilities and assignments

[wanderingthroughsands]

II. Long I stood there wondering, fearing

You was the glue that would keep me together Now that you broke the seal I'm finna glow for real Holding the people that was broken together I know we both not healed Never been home I feel

– "Dreamlord" by kenji

The sluggish computer on my desk had never frustrated me as much as it did today. Long minutes passed before I could open the browser, and even longer before Hector fixed the internet connection issue I had reported. Standing over him, impatiently digging my nails into my arms, I listened to Veronica recount yet another nightmare she’d had that night. This time, it was less intense, but still terrifying enough to make her wake up drenched in cold sweat. Not paying any real attention to what she was saying, I repeated the advice I had given her yesterday, to which she merely waved her hand dismissively and muttered that no amount of rationalization had helped her wake from the dream.

"Maybe this job is just too stressful for me?" Veronica pondered aloud, staring at the tiny cracks in the ceiling.

"This job?" I muttered incredulously, unable to hold back my thoughts. Hearing my derisive tone, Veronica froze for a moment, then burst into short laughter.

"You may be right, I can't think of a single thing here that could stress me out. So maybe it's because of Luke? Maybe my body is sending me signals that he's not the right man?"

"I don't think it's Luke's fault. Thanks, Hector," I said, nodding to our IT specialist as he left, and immediately pounced on the keyboard. Veronica's resigned expression stopped me from diving into the tasks I had planned to search for. With a soft sigh, I caught her eye with my gaze. "Have you ever tried meditating? Or any relaxation techniques? Try disconnecting from the internet before bed, listen to some soothing music, take a long, warm bath, have a glass of good wine."

"Good wine is actually quite a solid piece of advice," she said, smiling at me. "I could also finally listen to those philharmonic concert CDs that Luke keeps bringing to my place."

"And maybe then you'll stop wondering if the man who brings you pleasant music is the right one or not," I winked at her but quickly hid behind my screen to avoid further discussion.

Throughout the night, I replayed my encounter with the dark-haired man in my mind. In my imagination, I could still see his face, his sharp features, and his gaze, which seemed vast enough to contain the whole universe. I felt the energy emanating from his body as he stood mere centimeters from me. I remembered the threat in his words about danger and irreparable harm. There was a depth and emptiness in him simultaneously, and I couldn't understand why he had instilled fear in me from the very first moment I saw him before the accident several years ago.

The Dream Lord. This phrase was the first thing I typed into the search engine, only to be immediately flooded with countless descriptions of that one character* from a popular TV series. I had to skip several tabs before something new caught my eye. The article was titled: "From Piaskun to Sandman – Figures of Dream across the Ages."

The term "Dreamlord" appeared several times, along with others like "Dream," "Oneiros," "Morpheus," and "Sandman." The latter yielded significantly more results. As I read, I learned that the Sandman was a character inspired by European mythology, a being who put children to sleep by sprinkling sand in their eyes. However, this name was also associated with rulers, gods, and guardians of sleep from various mythologies around the world. The Dream Lord I encountered must have been a creature existing for millennia, perhaps since the very creation of the universe.

And now, this creature wanted me dead.

Having perused most of the available online sources, I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes for a few moments. Dreamlord had found me in Fiddler’s Green, where I usually rested between nightmares. He sought me out because I was traveling through other people's nightmares, rescuing them from their terrors, although it seemed no one from my world should be doing this. If he had forbidden me, I would likely have agreed to stop… despite the fact that, for the past few years, it had been my sole, genuine purpose. Yet, in my desire to help, I had no idea I could cause anyone harm. That I could inflict "irreparable damage"…

But it wasn’t only my wanderings through nightmares that made the King of Dreams want to destroy me. It was the power that enabled these journeys — a power that had manifested the first time I saw him in that park.

Suddenly, a surprised gasp from Sophie, the head of the marketing department, broke my reverie. She stood in the doorway to my left, staring at something behind me.

“Oh my, girls, look at that enormous bird!”

Frowning, I turned toward the window to see a large, black raven clawing at the outer windowsill.

"Disgusting," Veronica muttered, grimacing at the sight. "I wonder how long it's been sitting there. It doesn't seem afraid of us at all."

"I'm a bit afraid of it, to be honest. Kind of reminds me of Hitchcock's movies," Sophie said, then moved towards Veronica, and in a moment, they were engrossed in a conversation about the cover of the latest book we were publishing.

Taking advantage of their distraction, I moved my chair a bit closer to the window and carefully examined the raven, which hadn't flown away despite our movements and gestures. I looked into its eyes, and it met my gaze with surprising awareness—it didn’t turn its head, not even a twitch. For several long seconds, we just stared at each other, and only when it finally flew away did I realize I had been holding my breath the entire time.

Under the influence of that familiar mix of fear and anticipation, I typed into the search engine: The Dream Lord’s Raven. An image appeared—a dark, faceless figure dressed in black with an enormous raven perched calmly on his shoulder. The picture led to a link where I found the portfolio of an illustrator employed at some agency in California. Beside the graphic were the title and caption: Lord Morpheus, King of the Dreaming. Illustration for the book "The History of Dream" by Rose Walker. Release date: November 18, 2022.

The Dreaming. That was precisely the word Dreamlord had used to describe his realm when speaking with me.

A quick glance at the calendar revealed that there was just over a month until the book's release. I bookmarked the image, also noting Rose Walker's name. Such similar terminology could only be a coincidence, but the image, which so faithfully depicted the statuesque man from my dream, suggested otherwise. Perhaps someone else, besides me, had encountered the Dream Lord. And perhaps that person could help me free myself from him.

That day, I saw the black raven several more times. When I left work, it was perched on a lamppost, staring at me motionlessly. During lunch with my mother, it pecked at the restaurant window several times, and later, as we walked home, it flew over our heads so low that its claws nearly grazed her hair. It also appeared in my bedroom window as I was getting ready for bed, wrapped in a robe after a long shower.

It took me only a moment to decide what to do. I shouted "Goodnight" to my mother through the ajar door, then closed it and walked towards the window. I opened it abruptly, but even that didn’t scare away the raven. It merely shook its wings slightly and cawed, its piercing yellow eyes still fixed intently on me.

The chill of the night air swept into my room, but that wasn’t what occupied my thoughts—I had a message to convey.

"Tell your master, the Dream Lord," I said through clenched teeth, weighing each word carefully, "that I will stop my journeys through nightmares if he stops threatening me and sending his spies after me. Like him, I don't want anyone to get hurt, but I will not allow myself to be killed for a skill I never asked for. So be kind enough to tell him to leave me alone."

"Technically, he cannot leave you alone, Rebecca," to my astonishment, the raven responded in a human voice, firm yet tinged with compassion. "You are the child of his Nightmare."

"I am..." the shock left me unable to decide what was more absurd to me: the talking raven or the words it had spoken. "…what?"

"You are a threat to the Dreaming," the bird's voice was that of a man, and suddenly I saw something human in its eyes, a hint of pleading. "As long as you can freely wander his realm, you will continue to wreak havoc in it… just as you have done so far."

"But... I don't understand any of this. I haven't destroyed anything in any of the nightmares; I only helped people wake up, which would have happened sooner or later anyway. How am I a threat to the Dream Lord if I stop interfering in others' nightmares now?"

"It’s not just your wanderings that are dangerous to him, and us all. Your power to travel through the Dreaming comes from a Nightmare that once defied Morpheus. You are the last remnant of that Nightmare, lingering here in the waking world."

"I'm not a nightmare!" I raised my voice, drawing the attention of people walking on the sidewalk beneath my building. "I help people; I don't torment them with horrific visions of pain, suffering, and death. If anyone here is a nightmare, it's Dreamlord, because he's the one terrorizing dreamers, bringing forth their deepest fears!"

"Shit, I don;t think he’d like that..." the bird shook its head nervously and quickly looked around, as if expecting someone to emerge from the shadows at any moment.

"You know what, raven?"

"My name is Matthew," it mumbled, clearly growing more uneasy.

"Alright then, Matthew," I said, leaning closer to its beak and speaking very quietly, mustering all my strength to suppress the mixture of fear and anger rising within me. "I won’t let the Dream Lord capture me or kill me. Tell him that if he wants to catch me, he will have to chase me to my death, through all the nightmares of this world. Either that, or he finds a way to take away the power that terrifies him so much. If I am a mistake of your Lord Morpheus and his Nightmare, then let Lord Morpheus correct his mistake... but I did nothing to deserve to die for it."

I slammed the window shut before the bird could say anything more. In a surge of raw, bubbling emotions, I sat on the bed, burying my head in my arms, my fingers tangling in my hair.

I seems that from now on, every night would be a flight into nightmares. Dreamlord would never forgive, never forget the defiance I had shown him, and he would undoubtedly defend his realm at all costs.

Defend... against me... a child of his Nightmare...

The memory of his infinite eyes came back to me unexpectedly, stirring the familiar feelings that always heralded a nocturnal journey. I hoped that in my own world, I was safe, far from him. And in the Dreaming... there, I had always known quite well how to hide.

*The Dream Lord – one of the main antagonists in the TV series "Doctor Who".

[rubykgrant]

(found some old notes I had for the RVB story-line where they have normal people shenanigans on Earth, so I'm sharing it again~)

-Everybody tries to “retire” again, but this time on Earth so they aren’t just alone with themselves on a moon. Whatever clown organization that calls itself the government has decided to basically just let them live rent-free in some big building in some city (some wacky made-up place that can be in Texas, because that's funny).

-Most of them find new ways to chill, and they don’t really get recognized by civilians since literally nobody has seen their faces before, and they go by first names in public. They all find hobbies to try. At some point, Dr Grey gave Wash the advice to keep a video journal to help him remember various events. Andrews suggest this could help the others record their thoughts for any future interviews, so they join in

-Donut gets a job at an a pet shop/animal rescue center (he eventually brings back two kittens for Wash). He doesn’t really need the money, he just enjoys it and needed to find something to do (sometimes he helps with more serious animal injuries and emergencies for large creatures, because he was a farm kid)

-Donut also becomes BFFs with Kai; they just have lots of fun together, he helps her pick out clothes (since she’s colorblind and he’s color-coordinated), she’s really supportive of his "mean streak", and he’s also a great wing-man when she goes out to flirt (Tucker tries to tag along, but he still needs to... refine his flirting technique. he's trying, he really is!)

-Caboose also wants to get a job, because otherwise he’s just home all day waiting for everybody else to come back. He starts working at a mall... and he constantly gets shuffled around from one place to another (did you ever see that show 6teen? OK, that, but it is all just Caboose). The manager of the mall knows who “Michael” really is, and is trying to be respectful by helping out a space hero... but also, this guy is VERY accident-prone. Eventually, Caboose finds a niche as a costume character who entertains people for special events

-Sarge is trying to find new ways to deal with boredom without declaring war on gravity, so he decides to write a book about his life... this leads him to seek advice on the internet (once Simmons shows him how to use a computer). The result is, Sarge discovers thousands of ways to argue with every single troll online (jokes on them, he’s even more annoying than all of them put together)

-There is an on-going problem of Sarge trying to tell his boys from Red Team that he actually cares about them, but he keeps on backing out from it at the last minute. He really WANTS to be nice, but he’s been gruff and grumpy for so long, and it is hard to change the behavior everybody expects from you (this is actually a WHOLE THEME for a few characters)

-Doc FINALLY decides to try and an ACTUAL degree in medicine (he also makes a few new friends this way, and it becomes important that he’s doing this later. one character at the med school is like 19 and got pushed into this by over-achieving parents, so Doc basically adopts them as a younger sib)

-Lopez gets to make friends with the neighbors they have, and not only does this give him a chance to have a life outside the group of danger-magnets, it also makes everybody kinda miss having him around, so they take more of an interest in him (they even get him a motorcycle)

-Grif and Simmons are roommates again, but Grif is making a legit effort to be less annoying, which Simmons appreciates (Kai keeps nudging her bro to try and have another talk with the dude he’s been interested in for more than a decade, but any attempt Grif makes to get Simmons to understand how he feels goes unnoticed. Grif finally gives up and insists that he’s more comfortable with their relationship being the way it always has been... but his sister still catches him YEARNING)

-Tucker kinda feels lonely... everybody else is figuring out ways to enjoy their time/keep busy, but he hasn’t found his groove (he can't fall back into old habits because the Character Growth definitely happened, as much as it bothers him). He tries to go and contact some of kids he thought he had on Chorus... which is when he discovers there was a mistake. Turns out a lot of files got accidentally deleted, and thanks to a glitch, Tucker's info got auto-filled in as the father in ALL the DNA tests. He in fact does not have any biological kids on Chorus, and he’s a little disappointed by this (he's not even mad about paying child support) He tries to find the one kid he KNOWS is his, because he misses Junior so MUCH, but isn’t able to get in touch...

-Carolina is BORED. She doesn’t know what the heck to do with herself. When the others finally notice she seems kinda down, they start inviting her out to do stuff. At first she’s not even sure how to just have “fun”, but she finally gives in. Eventually, they take her to a karaoke bar, sing a very bad group-performance of “Sweet Caroline” to her, and she about dies laughing. This becomes a favorite thing for her, so they all go back and sing something there maybe once or twice a week (this also becomes a fun activity for her and Tucker, who she didn’t think she’d really bond with, but he’s chilled-out on being a perv, they’ve both been sort of lost... and they both share Church stories with each other)