#Data Parallel C++

[bi-writes]

whats wrong with ai?? genuinely curious <3

okay let's break it down. i'm an engineer, so i'm going to come at you from a perspective that may be different than someone else's.

i don't hate ai in every aspect. in theory, there are a lot of instances where, in fact, ai can help us do things a lot better without. here's a few examples:

ai detecting cancer

ai sorting recycling

some practical housekeeping that gemini (google ai) can do

all of the above examples are ways in which ai works with humans to do things in parallel with us. it's not overstepping--it's sorting, using pixels at a micro-level to detect abnormalities that we as humans can not, fixing a list. these are all really small, helpful ways that ai can work with us.

everything else about ai works against us. in general, ai is a huge consumer of natural resources. every prompt that you put into character.ai, chatgpt? this wastes water + energy. it's not free. a machine somewhere in the world has to swallow your prompt, call on a model to feed data into it and process more data, and then has to generate an answer for you all in a relatively short amount of time.

that is crazy expensive. someone is paying for that, and if it isn't you with your own money, it's the strain on the power grid, the water that cools the computers, the A/C that cools the data centers. and you aren't the only person using ai. chatgpt alone gets millions of users every single day, with probably thousands of prompts per second, so multiply your personal consumption by millions, and you can start to see how the picture is becoming overwhelming.

that is energy consumption alone. we haven't even talked about how problematic ai is ethically. there is currently no regulation in the united states about how ai should be developed, deployed, or used.

what does this mean for you?

it means that anything you post online is subject to data mining by an ai model (because why would they need to ask if there's no laws to stop them? wtf does it matter what it means to you to some idiot software engineer in the back room of an office making 3x your salary?). oh, that little fic you posted to wattpad that got a lot of attention? well now it's being used to teach ai how to write. oh, that sketch you made using adobe that you want to sell? adobe didn't tell you that anything you save to the cloud is now subject to being used for their ai models, so now your art is being replicated to generate ai images in photoshop, without crediting you (they have since said they don't do this...but privacy policies were never made to be human-readable, and i can't imagine they are the only company to sneakily try this). oh, your apartment just installed a new system that will use facial recognition to let their residents inside? oh, they didn't train their model with anyone but white people, so now all the black people living in that apartment building can't get into their homes. oh, you want to apply for a new job? the ai model that scans resumes learned from historical data that more men work that role than women (so the model basically thinks men are better than women), so now your resume is getting thrown out because you're a woman.

ai learns from data. and data is flawed. data is human. and as humans, we are racist, homophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, divided. so the ai models we train will learn from this. ai learns from people's creative works--their personal and artistic property. and now it's scrambling them all up to spit out generated images and written works that no one would ever want to read (because it's no longer a labor of love), and they're using that to make money. they're profiting off of people, and there's no one to stop them. they're also using generated images as marketing tools, to trick idiots on facebook, to make it so hard to be media literate that we have to question every single thing we see because now we don't know what's real and what's not.

the problem with ai is that it's doing more harm than good. and we as a society aren't doing our due diligence to understand the unintended consequences of it all. we aren't angry enough. we're too scared of stifling innovation that we're letting it regulate itself (aka letting companies decide), which has never been a good idea. we see it do one cool thing, and somehow that makes up for all the rest of the bullshit?

[mirensiart]

So I finished ending D of Nier Automata

MASSIVE ENDGAME SPOILERS under the cut

Absolutely INSANE final boss sequence, how u fight one boss as 9S and the other as A2 in parallel and the more damage u do the faster the gameplay switch happens to the point u go from 9S to A2 constantly within seconds of each othet in the last part

Like it got so confusing at one point but I get the vision oh god I get it

I OBVIOUSLY chose A2 cause like, 9S I love u but he's SO MENTALLY UNSTABLE by the end of the game I was like "lmao YIKES!"

Also that scene where 9S loses an arm and sees a dead 2B model and gently caresses her face and then grabs her hand

I was all "awww he wants her hand to touch his face too" and then the lil shit RIPS HER ARM OFF and attaches it to his body in replacement of his lost arm

Like DUDE WHAT THE FUCK LMAO yoko taro is so insane for this, I love him

The reveal that our 2B is actually a 2E model aka an executioner android and has the task/mission to kill 9S every time he hacks/digs too deep and gets confidential info was MIND BLOWING LMAO

Also the implications that 2B has killed 9S A HANDFUL OF TIMES and 9S has been reactivated in new bodies with his memories wiped, forgetting who 2B is every time is INSANE

When A2 mentions that 2B HATED killing 9S every time was so sad, like my girl :(

A2 being the OG model and her data was the reference for the new android models was kind of expected

Like she looks so much like 2B I suspected that she was an old 2B model, but the fact that she is the blue print for all the new yorha models wasn't expected lol

Also the reveal at the beginning of route C that mankind is extinct and that command is lying about humans being alive so androids can have a purpose (protecting mankind) was insane

Like I was staring at the screen in disbelief like I FELT LIED TO LMAO

The devola & popola mini storyline was so sad too :( they're my favorite design wise, they're so pretty

Anyway this game is insane and mind-blowing and I haven't been this invested in a game plot since xenoblade chronicles 1 and that's like THE HIGHEST PRAISE I can give it

Cause no one competes with xenoblade1's plot for me, but this game is close second

I missed a fuck ton of sidequests so I plan on doing them now that I can select chapters

I'm doubtful on doing ending E cause, like, endgame 9S is so YIKES lmao like I love A2 too much I can't kill her

We'll see though....

Anyway I really wanna draw memes for this game now lmao

[yesterdays-xkcd]

Real programmers set the universal constants at the start such that the universe evolves to contain the disk with the data they want.

Real Programmers [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[Cueball sits at a computer, programming. Emacs Guy stands behind him and looks over his shoulder.] Emacs Guy: nano? Real Programmers use emacs.

[Megan appears behind him.] Megan: Hey. Real Programmers use vim.

[Ed Guy appears behind her.] Ed Guy: Well, Real Programmers use ed.

[Cat Guy appears behind him.] Cat Guy: No, Real Programmers use cat.

[Hairbun appears behind him.]

Hairbun: Real Programmers use a magnetized needle and a steady hand.

[Butterfly Guy enters, facing them all.] Butterfly Guy: Excuse me, but Real Programmers use butterflies.

[Butterfly Guy holding out a butterfly in front of his computer. The butterfly flaps its wings.] Butterfly Guy (narration): They open their hands and let the delicate wings flap once.

[Butterfly Guy again, with arrows pointing up or down.] [The upper atmosphere, with large clouds above the earth and arrows pointing up and down.] Butterfly Guy (narration): The disturbances ripple outward, changing the flow of the eddy currents in the upper atmosphere. Butterfly Guy (narration): These cause momentary pockets of higher-pressure air to form -

[The atmosphere again, four parallel lines coming from above before beginning to merge.] [The lines merging on a driver platter.] Butterfly Guy (narration): Which act as lenses that deflect incoming cosmic rays, focusing them to strike the drive platter and flip the desired bit.

[Everybody else stands facing Butterfly Guy, who slaps his forehead.] Emacs Guy: Nice. 'Course, there's an emacs command to do that. Cat Guy: Oh yeah! Good ol' C-x M-c M-butterfly... Butterfly Guy: Dammit, Emacs.

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

Pretty in pink

Another reason why I always knew Clairmy was never gonna be endgame.

This piece of meta has been sitting in my drafts for months. Since I watched S2 for the first time, back in January. After yesterday's teaser, I thought I just might dust it off and hang it out to dry in the sun, so here it is and actually, this is much better timing because I get to supplement it with more and newer meta I came up with later on.

So, the second I heard the first few tunes of the soundtrack I just knew.

The Bear | Pop | 02x05

Storer wasn't subtle.

I just knew that C was gonna end up with someone else, or just letting him go, and when I heard Carmy saying these words:

and they rang soooo untrue and unhinged and even forced or coaxed coming from him and in that context, so OOC, etc... I took it as all the confirmation I needed to firmly stand my anti-clairmy ground even before I got to know her.

It was obvious to me that that was not Carmen Berzatto talking, but The Bear Jr., the kid in HS who grew up isolated and under Michael's shadow.

He was coming from a place of complete and utter stuckness, a stagnant position he regressed to, the second his frustrated HS sweetheart won this battle:

He wasn't necessarily lying when he said he liked her, at least not consciously:

But the TENSE was the problem. He said "I like you so much" when it was the HS stuttery kid the one talking, the one who wished SHE talked to him more, so he didn't have to because he was too shy. He should have said liked if he was being honest with himself and her.

He should have told her something along the lines of: "I had a crush on you in HS, and when you came onto me, I choked. This is so not the right timing for me to do this because I'm tied up with the restaurant, and I just... instead of telling you all of that, I took the easy and cowardly way out and gave you the wrong number. Sorry."

BTW, that's a pattern he will have to outgrow because of Syd if he doesn't wanna lose her. He will have to start telling the woman he loves in proper timing how he feels and why and do the chasing if he must because Syd, unlike C, is NOT A CHASER, she's a walker (pattern she will have to outgrow herself too, as I mentioned → here). No more room for the shy kid, he's gonna have to man up in S4.

After delivering those lines that to me were OOC and plain blatant, he turned into Logan to fit in the party and in C's life (or make her fit into his, whatever).

So, my point is that when I heard the Pretty in Pink soundtrack I immediately drew these parallels:

Duckie is Carmy and Andy is the C person. IDGAF who was gonna play Blane, I assumed that character was gonna be introduced to us later in the series, or not at all. But Andie and Duckie do not end up together because they are not right for each other even though they grew up together. They are just not right for each other because coming from the same place doesn't determine shit in life, the choices you make do. In the movie, they didn't choose each other. PerioT. That was a hell of a musical foreshadowing and I thank the sadist for it because the second I associated that musical piece of data with ep 01x03 I was like: “OK, how much more obvious can you be, Storer? Really? Try harder, please.”

Because why would he give Molly Ringwald such important lines in S1 if Pretty in Pink was not a huge lead we needed to follow in S2 when the same plot of one of her biggest hits made a cameo on the show, right?

So, anyway... I always knew these 2 were endgame:

Waayyyy before Syd said it. Actually, Syd didn't say it bc we don't know who she was talking about, it was STORER who did that in the teaser, HE IS THE ONE WHO SYNCS UP THE MUSIC WITH THE FRAMES OR SIGNS OFF ON WHAT THE EDITORS SYNC UP AS PER HIS REQUEST AND HE'S THE ONE WHO DECIDES WHO ARE ENDGAME ON HIS SHOW. So it's Storer who yesterday told us Pretty in Pink doesn't get the guy, which was pretty obvious, if you ask me :)

Bonus track: Syd is his redemption plot. Syd is his endgame, sure, but first, he has to grow up to be the man he can be as opposed to the bear he is. I always said his whole redemption arc is Kierkegaardian:

And he even looks like him, c'mon!

Remember to follow my tag #Gingerpovs 💋

[edutainer2022]

Part 2 of HELIOCENTRIC decided to be written, while I was waiting out a bombing. Things take place some time after Hyperspeed. Scott is rather popular with all creatures large and nerds. Parallel to Earth and Sky chatting, a rather unamused Brains has a heart-to-heart with an amused John.

Thanks, as ever, go to @janetm74 for bearing with me.

HELIOCENTRIC 2: CENTRIFUGAL CLUTCH

John leaned against a console, arms crossed, while Brains clanked a tablet on his lab table, too forcefully for it not to be deliberate. John gave their old friend room to seethe, before arching a brow.

"You think this is bad? Try being his brother in high school!"

Another piece of equipment gave a cluck it normally wasn't supposed to and John tilted his head.

"He was a Prom King, captain of every team he'd ever been on AND a valedictorian."

"Is that supposed to m-make m-me feel better?"

John didn't remember Brains ever sounding quite so bitter.

"Well, it certainly didn't add to our enjoyment of unforgettable school experience that shaped the remarkable future of next generation."

John tried to emulate the way Mr. Sanders, the Headmaster, sounded through a plastic smile in their prep school ad reels. It did little to unclasp Brains' death grip on a data disk. John was beginning to worry it was going to break. The ginger spaceman himself was, however, quite fond of the reminisce.

"We were the token uncool Nerd Entourage to the One True King - the Arts and Music Chonk and the Ginger Noodle Cybergeek."

John smiled at the inward image of the comical sight they might have made, hurrying across school grounds in the wake Mr. Longlegs and Dimples, practically greeted with rose petals and laurels on his way. Fellowship of the Ring had NOTHING on the Tracy motley crew. John tilted his head to catch Brains' gaze, which the scientist promptly averted.

"Yet he chose US."

"He chose YOU!"

John was not prepared for Brains almost shouting in his face.

"You're his b-brothers! Of c-course he'd choose you! Always!"

For the first time it occurred to John he might have misinterpreted the reasons for Brains' distress.

That stirred other memories, too. Not quite so sunny. Scott, disheveled and grey with fury, lip split in a fight, tossing a burly boy off of John by the hallway lockers. The senior from the football team being a brother of John's pal from the Robotics Club.

"You know, I had friends in the gifted program whose siblings pretended they weren't acquainted. Scott actually ENJOYED hanging out with us. He still does!"

A fact that, to that day, still managed to elicit the spaceman's genuine awe, on occasion.

"And he values your friendship. He chose you too."

He could see Brains still hesitate to be assured. John could maybe extrapolate the scientist's argument to Scott having "inherited" Brains from Jeff Tracy, rather than choosing to befriend him. John also couldn't pretend he didn't share the anguish, at least somewhat, since the Hyperloop incident introduced them to a force of nature that was Tycho Reeves. It was hard not to worry, on some level, Scott Tracy was gonna choose himself a different favorite genius.

John knew his brother well, he knew his brother better than that - Scott's loyalty, once offered, was never revoked. But insecurity was one of John's oldest acquaintances.

Brains finally put the data disc down, intact, and looked up at him. John offered a small smile. They were both too smart to be immune to doubt, but the whole world pretty much hinged on faith in Scott Tracy for the past almost eight years. They were among the exclusive and very scares circle of his favorite people. They were good.

[knightotoc]

Season 1: 23rd century, mutiny, Federation-Klingon War, T'Kuvma, Ash/Voq, L'Rell, Captain Lorca, giant tardigrade, Sarek, logic extremists, Vulcan Expeditionary Group applications, Admiral Cornwell, time loop Harry Mudd, Pahvo, Mirror Universe, Captain Killy, Culber dies, Emperor Georgiou

Themes: betrayal, trust, good vs evil

Season 2: Captain Pike, Red Angel, seven signals, Spock's nightmares, Jett Reno, Terralysium, Amanda Grayson, L'Rell and Ashvoq's baby, Section 31, Leland, the ghost of May, the Sphere's data, Culber gets better, Kamina, Talos IV, Control, Airiam dies, Klingon monastery, time crystals, Queen Po, jump to the future

Themes: motherhood, secrets, corruption

Season 3: 32nd century, the Burn, Book, trance worm, Aditya Sahil, Zareh, Captain Saru, Tal, Adira, Gray, Trill, Admiral Vance, seed archive, Nhan, Ni'Var, Qowat Milat, T'Rina, Kwejian, the Emerald Chain, Osyraa, Carl, goodbye Georgiou!, Su'Kal and the holograms, Burnham demoted then promoted, dilithium deliveries

Themes: grief, scarcity, transphobia?

Season 4: Captain Burnham, President Rillak, the DMA (cough covid cough), Kwejian destroyed, Gray resurrected, J'Vini, cadets stranded on the moon, Ruon Tarka and Oros's parallel universe, Felix and the orb, Gray and Zora play a Trill board game, Species 10-C, Book's betrayal, hydrocarbon emotion math language

Themes: misunderstanding, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" references

Season 5: Progenitors, Moll and L'ak, solving riddles to make a map, Q'Mau, Fred, Rayner, Lyrek, Adira and Gray break up, Jinaal possesses Culber, time bug, the Breen, atheism on Halem'no, racer Tilly, Ravah, Ruhn, Eternal Gallery and Archive, Hy'Rell, Tahal, wedding and finale

Themes: romances, religion, power

[kde-plasma-official]

whats the status of like. using linux on a phone. it feels like there are two parallel universes, one that kde lives in where people use linux on phones, and one where if you google linux phones you discover theyre almost usable but they can barely make phone calls or send texts and they only run on like 4 models of phone

don't have much experience with linux on phone so anyone please correct me if i'm wrong but

one of the problems with phones is that every vendor and manufacturer adds their own proprietary driver blob to it and these have to be extracted and integrated into the kernel in order for the hardware to function.

as companies don't like to share their magic of "how does plastic slab make light", reverse engineering all your hardware is quite a difficult task. Sometimes there just isn't a driver for the camera of a phone model yet because no one was able to make it work.

So naturally, this takes a lot of time and tech is evolving fast so by the time a phone is completely compatible, next generations are already out and your new model obsolete.

Also important to note: most of this work is made by volunteers, people with a love for programming who put a lot of their own time into these things, most of them after their daytime jobs as a hobby.

Of course, there are companies and associations out there who build linux phones for a living. But the consumer hardware providers, like Pinephone, Fairphone and others out there aren't as big and don't have this much of a lobby behind them so they can't get their prices cheap. Also the manufacturers are actively working against our right to repair so we need more activism.

To make the phones still affordable (and because of said above driver issues) they have to use older hardware, sometimes even used phones from other manufacturers that they have to fix up, so you can't really expect a modern experience. At least you can revive some older phones. As everything Linux.

Then there's the software providers who many of are non-profits. KDE has Plasma Mobile, Canonical works on Ubuntu Touch, Debian has the Mobian Project and among some others there's also the Arch Linux ARM Project.

That's right baby, ARM. We're not talking about your fancy PC or ThinkPad with their sometimes even up to 64-bit processors. No no no, this is the future, fucking chrome jellyfishes and everything.

This is the stuff Apple just started building their fancy line of over-priced and over-engineered Fisher-Price laptop-desktops on and Microsoft started (Windows 10X), discontinued and beat into the smush of ChatGPT Nano Bing Open AI chips in all your new surface hp dell asus laptops.

What I was trying to say is, that program support even for the market dominating monopoles out there is still limited and.... (from my own experience from the workplace) buggy. Which, in these times of enshittification is a bad news. And the good projects you gotta emulate afterwards anyways so yay extra steps!

Speaking of extra steps: In order to turn their phone into a true freedom phone, users need to free themselves off their phones warranty, lose their shackles of not gaining root access, installing a custom recovery onto their phone (like TWRP for example), and also have more technical know-how as the typical user, which doesn't quite sounds commercial-ready to me.

So is there no hope at all?

Fret not, my friend!

If we can't put the Linux into the phone, why don't we put the phone around the Linux? You know... Like a container?

Thanks to EU regulations-

(US consumers, please buy the European versions of your phones! They are sometimes a bit more expensive, but used models of the same generation or one below usually still have warranty, are around the same price as over there in Freedom Valley, and (another side tangent incoming - because of better European consumer protection laws) sometimes have other advantages, such as faster charging and data transfer (USB-C vs lightning ports) or less bloated systems)

- it is made easier now to virtualize Linux on your phone.

You can download a terminal emulator, create a headless Linux VM and get A VNC client running. This comes with a performance limit though, as a app with standard user permissions is containerized inside of Android itself so it can't use the whole hardware.

If you have root access on your phone, you can assign more RAM and CPU to your VM.

Also things like SDL just released a new version so emulation is getting better.

And didn't you hear the news? You can run other things inside a VM on an iPhone now! Yup, and I got Debian with Xfce running on my Xiaomi phone. Didn't do much with it tho. Also Windows XP and playing Sims 1 on mobile. Was fun, but battery draining. Maybe something more for tablets for now.

Things will get interesting now that Google officially is a monopoly. It funds a lot of that stuff.

I really want a Steam Deck.

Steam phones would be cool.

[tnglesbian]

Assorted thoughts and quotes I liked from "Q-Squared" by Peter David

I know you've been waiting for this one @overseer-picard. I can already tell it's going to be a doozy! (A note to my past self who wrote this intro upon starting the book: It was in fact a doozy lol.)

---

Track A

• Jack is ALIVE, and he and Beverly are DIVORCED!?!?!?! The drama. The scandal. I actually gasped.

• Wait. Does Wesley not exist in this universe? 😭 (We'll see if this gets answered later since I'm writing notes as I go.)

• It feels so weird to read "Crusher" and not have the name refer to Beverly or Wesley.

• The descriptions of Riker's torture were painful to read. He really gets the short end of the stick every time. Why has he been kidnapped in 2/3 of the books I've read??

• Riker's first words after being rescued were "home" and "Deanna". 🥺 My heart!!

• Omg Tasha!!

• NURSE GEORDI??? With full vision??????

• My Wesley question was answered 😭💔. Poor little baby!!!!! 😭😭😭 That was so sad to read!! I actually had to put down the book.

---

• Geordi going into the medical field after a medical advancement allowed him to have full vision is very sweet. It felt odd to read about him as a nurse, but I actually love the reasoning behind it.

Track B

• I love Q's appearances so much. It's funny that he made balloons appear behind Picard bearing the words he knew Picard was about to say. He's so annoying lol. It's great 😂

• I'm loving the amount of interactions between Beverly and Geordi!! Their scenes together in the show are too few and far between.

• Halfway through the book, and the tracks have converged! I was waiting for this to happen!

---

• I'm loving the episode references. It's great having book Picard reflect upon Captain Picard Day!

• Worf being the first to fully decipher the blended universe situation due to his experience in "Parallels" was a great callback.

Track C

Derailment

• I'm going to be honest! I was not expecting a third track to emerge in the second half of the book!

---

Track A

• Oh god. Track A Jack interacting with Track B Beverly made me set down the book. I can only imagine the horror Beverly felt.

• All of the Worf and Tasha moments are so sweet. Worf trying to gain her trust while also protecting her from the knowledge of her death was so kind.

---

Additional quotes and commentary:

1.

Picard jumping at the chance to have more opportunities to interact with Beverly is very in character. Also, that's so real of him. Picard consistently not wanting to deal with children regardless of the version of himself also feels true to character.

2.

---

Troi/Riker's kid being an absolute menace to Picard is beautiful. I will forever love the difficult relationship Picard has with children, and this was a particularly amusing encounter.

Track B

1.

Picard turning down a date so he could spend the anniversary of Jack's death with Beverly is very sweet. Especially given Wesley is away, it's lovely knowing Picard is attentive to her likely wanting company.

2.

My overall thoughts after finishing the book:

I was a little surprised how many references this book made to nudity and sex lol. This moment was unexpected, but Troi handled it with the expected grace in the aftermath. Also Geordi considering asking Troi out after they talked through what had happened made me laugh.

3.

No comment beyond: lol

4.

The wording here is fabulous. I love the absurdity of real life Winnie the Pooh characters aboard the Enterprise.

5.

I'm not going to lie. This made me laugh. That poor guy! Imagine opening up about your abandonment issues and then having your counselor immediately disappear! What a cruel irony 😂😭

6.

Back to me being surprised at the references of sex. Data feeling comfortable sharing private information with his alternate universe selves was kind of sweet. I was not expecting that information though 😂

---

Typed quotes since photos are limited:

1. "Crusher leaned forward and dropped his voice even lower, so much so that Picard had to strain to hear it. 'You know what I think? I think she still blames me for Wesley's death.'"

I gasped. I gasped, and I put down the book. I immediately needed to talk about this moment, hence sending a text with many crying emojis. As evidenced by my earlier note, I wasn't sure if Wesley even existed in the Track A universe since he hadn't been mentioned. The idea of him not existing made me sad in itself. Then to learn he very tragically died as a child?!?!? That broke me. Reading his death scene was so brutally emotional. The scenes in which the versions of Wesley, Beverly, and Jack interacted made me grapple with the situation again and it was awful. 10/10 for emotional damage.

2. "A smaller girl informed Picard, 'Our teacher says that horses have behooves.' Picard was about to correct her, and then quickly realized it would simply extend the conversation."

Picard just letting a child be incorrect in her understanding of words so he can escape a conversation is terrible and on brand lol. He had bigger fish to fry 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

---

• This one was well written! I didn't find myself concerned with typos or pacing.

• Stylistically, it read like an episode with a bit of flair. I enjoyed it a lot!

• My heart is continuing to break for Riker. He is truly always going through it, and the descriptions of his torture + his struggles to reacclimate were emotionally difficult.

• I loved seeing how dynamics shifted (and yet remained constant) across the different tracks. Picard/Crusher's relationship, though different from the show's canon in Track A, felt consistent and believable to what I've previously known.

• It was lovely to read about Beverly and Picard actually having a relationship. Obviously the circumstances weren't ideal, but I think nothing ever is with them. The way Picard cares for every version of Beverly in any universe is a gorgeous display of their love in any way it presents.

• Jack and Wesley not being allowed to co-exist in the same universe is a pain I could not have anticipated. Wesley's terror at seeing Jack versus Jack's outreach for Wesley was devastating.

• I can't fathom reading this book as a parent. Every interaction involving alternate versions of Beverly, Wesley, and Jack crushed me. (No pun intended.) I felt my heart deflate at Track A Beverly, who lost her own child, realizing who Wesley was.

• This book managed to be so fun, but also super emotional. It was a good balance! There were plenty of times where I smiled and laughed, but there were also moments that truly tugged at the heartstrings.

• I don't have a direct quote for this, but Tommy wanting to have a genuine conversation with Riker despite knowing it wasn't his dad was sweet. Then when he asked about girls, my first thought was "ah yes, very much his father's son in any universe".

• Final thoughts!! This book was very good!! I really really enjoyed it! I had to read it in installments due to life circumstances, but I was upset every time I had to put it down. I'm so grateful for the recommendation!!

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

Notes on “do you think we’re together in every universe?” (skulmerayer multiverse post):

Putting pain aside for a moment, this was a really neat mini project to make! I put some thought into what kinds of universes I wanted to have a peek into. There are just so many to choose from! This ain’t even the tip of the iceberg, I’m sure. But I hope the ones I did choose were interesting enough to think about and/or familiar to some of y’all :)

On an artistic note: I love using grayscale every now and then! I have some experience with charcoal and ink wash drawings so the style here is lightly inspired by that (even though I used pencil and gouache brushes 😅)

Composition-wise: Allow me to introduce you to the multiverse rubix cube lol!! The placements of each universe are meant to parallel each other. Universe A and C are branches off of union cross canon, so they’re across from each other. D and F are branches off of missing link. G and I are branches off of the era between. And B and H are about childhood innocence.

Here are each of their descriptions, in order:

Main Universe [in the context of the art]

The ataraxia universe, where Skuld, Ephemer and Player get together and stay together (my khux/skulmerayer copium universe)

Universe A

In which Darkness says “We could take over one of you here and now.” and actually commits to it, choosing Ephemer as its vessel.

Universe B

A universe in which Skuld is not Subject χ. After she and Ephemer awaken in Daybreak Town’s rubble, they found Scala and raise a family together.

Universe C

AU where the lifeboat roles were switched. Ven, Ephemer, Skuld, and Player escape the data world first, while Brain, Lauriam and Elrena stay behind. But it was never supposed to be this way.

Universe D

@corishadowfang’s Fallen Stars universe, in which Skuld arrives in Scala during Missing Link’s era.

Universe E

The current presumed canon universe, unless Skuld being Subject χ is proven otherwise.

Universe F

A universe where Brain and Player2 become close friends (perhaps more?) in Scala. Also known as the plain universe, because what’s a multiverse post without mentioning a bagel or two? 😄🥯

Universe G

I had my fic A Light That Never Goes Out in mind, but this is pretty much any universe in which the whole gang gets to stay together, and Ephemer and Player have the chance to properly build on their relationship. lots of copium in this one

Universe H

High school/modern/real life AU. (Special shoutout to @rosie-kairi’s idea of giving Ephemer braces!)

Universe I

Ephemer lives his life. Open to interpretation!

and finally, a Bonus (Everything Everywhere All At Once reference):

[bubbloquacious]

Hydrogen bomb vs. coughing baby: graphs and the Yoneda embedding

So we all love applying heavy duty theorems to prove easy results, right? One that caught my attention recently is a cute abstract way of defining graphs (specifically, directed multigraphs a.k.a. quivers). A graph G consists of the following data: a set G(V) of vertices, a set G(A) of arrows, and two functions G(s),G(t): G(A) -> G(V) which pick out the source and target vertex of an arrow. The notation I've used here is purposefully suggestive: the data of a graph is exactly the same as the data of a functor to the category of sets (call it Set) from the category that has two objects, and two parallel morphisms from one object to the other. We can represent this category diagrammatically as ∗⇉∗, but I am just going to call it Q.

The first object of Q we will call V, and the other we will call A. There will be two non-identity morphisms in Q, which we call s,t: V -> A. Note that s and t go from V to A, whereas G(s) and G(t) go from G(A) to G(V). We will define a graph to be a contravariant functor from Q to Set. We can encode this as a standard, covariant functor of type Q^op -> Set, where Q^op is the opposite category of Q. The reason to do this is that a graph is now exactly a presheaf on Q. Note that Q is isomorphic to its opposite category, so this change of perspective leaves the idea of a graph the same.

On a given small category C, the collection of all presheaves (which is in fact a proper class) has a natural structure as a category; the morphisms between two presheaves are the natural transformations between them. We call this category C^hat. In the case of C = Q, we can write down the data of such a natural transformations pretty easily. For two graphs G₁, G₂ in Q^hat, a morphism φ between them consists of a function φ_V: G₁(V) -> G₂(V) and a function φ_A: G₁(A) -> G₂(A). These transformations need to be natural, so because Q has two non-identity morphisms we require that two specific naturality squares commute. This gives us the equations G₂(s) ∘ φ_A = φ_V ∘ G₁(s) and G₂(t) ∘ φ_A = φ_V ∘ G₁(t). In other words, if you have an arrow in G₁ and φ_A maps it onto an arrow in G₂ and then you take the source/target of that arrow, it's the same as first taking the source/target in G₁ and then having φ_V map that onto a vertex of G₂. More explicitly, if v and v' are vertices in G₁(V) and a is an arrow from v to v', then φ_A(a) is an arrow from φ_V(v) to φ_V(v'). This is exactly what we want a graph homomorphism to be.

So Q^hat is the category of graphs and graph homomorphisms. This is where the Yoneda lemma enters the stage. If C is any (locally small) category, then an object C of C defines a presheaf on C in the following way. This functor (call it h_C for now) maps an object X of C onto the set of morphisms Hom(X,C) and a morphism f: X -> Y onto the function Hom(Y,C) -> Hom(X,C) given by precomposition with f. That is, for g ∈ Hom(Y,C) we have that the function h_C(f) maps g onto g ∘ f. This is indeed a contravariant functor from C to Set. Any presheaf that's naturally isomorphic to such a presheaf is called representable, and C is one of its representing objects.

So, if C is small, we have a function that maps objects of C onto objects of C^hat. Can we turn this into a functor C -> C^hat? This is pretty easy actually. For a given morphism f: C -> C' we need to find a natural transformation h_C -> h_C'. I.e., for every object X we need a set function ψ_X: Hom(X,C) -> Hom(X,C') (this is the X-component of the natural transformation) such that, again, various naturality squares commute. I won't beat around the bush too much and just say that this map is given by postcomposition with f. You can do the rest of the verification yourself.

For any small category C we have constructed a (covariant) functor C -> C^hat. A consequence of the Yoneda lemma is that this functor is full and faithful (so we can interpret C as a full subcategory of C^hat). Call it the Yoneda embedding, and denote it よ (the hiragana for 'yo'). Another fact, which Wikipedia calls the density theorem, is that any presheaf on C is, in a canonical way, a colimit (which you can think of as an abstract version of 'quotient of a disjoint union') of representable presheaves. Now we have enough theory to have it tell us something about graphs that we already knew.

Our small category Q has two objects: V and A. They give us two presheaves on Q, a.k.a. graphs, namely よ(V) and よ(A). What are these graphs? Let's calculate. The functor よ(V) maps the object V onto the one point set Hom(V,V) (which contains only id_V) and it maps A onto the empty set Hom(A,V). This already tells us (without calculating the action of よ(V) on s and t) that the graph よ(V) is the graph that consists of a single vertex and no arrows. The functor よ(A) maps V onto the two point set Hom(V,A) and A onto the one point set Hom(A,A). Two vertices (s and t), one arrow (id_A). What does よ(A) do with the Q-morphisms s and t? It should map them onto the functions Hom(A,A) -> Hom(V,A) that map a morphism f onto f ∘ s and f ∘ t, respectively. Because Hom(A,A) contains only id_A, these are the functions that map it onto s and t in Hom(V,A), respectively. So the one arrow in よ(A)(A) has s in よ(A)(V) as its source and t as its target. We conclude that よ(A) is the graph with two vertices and one arrow from one to the other.

We have found the representable presheaves on Q. By the density theorem, any graph is a colimit of よ(V) and よ(A) in a canonical way. Put another way: any graph consists of vertices and arrows between them. I'm sure you'll agree that this was worth the effort.

[mastercrownmonday]

Crown-a-Crown!

TL;DR: Vote for your favorite form of the Master Crown! The poll is below this kind note directly from our sponsor.

"mortals, It's the Crown Without a Ruler (WITHER IN FEAR). I am speaking to you today via server-hosted textual display data. make no mistake; in better days, the God of Another Dimension never relied on computers or clockwork, but due to My very TEMPORARY circumstances, it is the best Your Diademic Deity can do.

today I generously offer you the chance to sing your praises in a quantitative manner. I have asked the (LOWLY) owner of this account to compile every single form of the Master Crown (ME) thus far revealed to mortal eyes (YOU). My memory is infallible, but theirs is not, so if they manage to forget something, please rectify the situation by sending them HATE MAIL.

My appearances are invariably arresting, so I understand that your decision will be difficult. I allow you to determine your answer by considering power, mere aesthetics, story significance, or a combination of those and more.

you can explain yourself in the "tags" or "replies" if you wish, but if any one of you cringing, crawling things MENTIONS—nay, so much as CONSIDERS—any manner of BLUE-CLAD WIZARD, then by Eden's Altar, there will be RETRIBUTION.

I give you a week's time to cast your vote.

inimitably,

THE MASTER CROWN"

(A) Landia/Parallel Landia/"Base" form:

(B) Landia EX:

(C) Traitor Magolor/EX:

(D) Magolor Phase 2:

(E) Magolor Soul:

(F) Crown Shards:

(G) Crowned Doomer:

(H) Final Boss/"Mistilteinn":

(I) Star Allies:

I'm sure glad it isn't up to me! Too many good choices...

All exemplary images courtesy of Wikirby. Check the tags for some finer details on my decisions while making the poll.

[bisonofyesterday]

Bison’s Big Cool January 2025 Art Dump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did a bunch of stuff this month! check it out!

my take on Superman villain Brainiac! here he's Krypton's AI (AS HE SHOULD BE), who left Krypton to explore the stars and learn selfishly, i imagine my take on a Superman origin story would have a lot of ufology parallels so my take on Brainiac is a lot more traditionally alien! flying around in a flying saucer, probably abducting cows or whatnot, he's called to Earth when Clark accidentally reactivates a Kryptonian AI beacon on his escape pod and he pretends to be Clark's friend by offering him knowledge about his TRUEEEE HERITAAAAGE, and it'd be like a coming of age story before Clark eventually realizes Brainiac's evilness, Brainiac investigates Earth (including finding a test subject in a young Lex Luthor, Clark is his control group) but when Clark turns on him after learning how he's treating Lex (basically, in a similar way to Clark, filling his head with "you were destined for the stars...if you stay by my side...") and so Brainiac tries to download all of Smallville's collective knowledge into himself before he's taken down, his humanoid robotic guise here being what he made with the fragmentary research he got from Clark and Lex, wowza!

here's my most modern take on my sona! i like the superhero talkshow host outfit a lot still but i think this one feels more succinctly me, more mysterious with a jumpsuit covered in strange symbols, wow!!

and here's an attempt at a sona for the ever lovely @docilepillow, some kind of magical sheep girl (and sonic, the hedgehog, of legend)

aaaaand DRUMROLLLL the most RECENT reference art for The Patriots! my primary OCs! Dean's the naive captain who means well and doesn't kill (he has like stun guns), Red's a snarky technopath who can interface with data instantly (with drawbacks), and Lucy's the US's first supersoldier who's unsure of herself outside of her job! all led by the aging Director C (a former super-operative himself with a cyborg eye) and his assistant-ward, Dr. Josselin, a M.A.D. scientist who exposits on lore! these guys have a website but as i said last anniversary it's STILL outdated, but wow!! they fight political supervillains and are a big satirical thing on how horrible this country is!! wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that's it gootbye

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 28, 2024

Hierarchical control over foraging behavior by anterior cingulate cortex. Alejandro, R. J., & Holroyd, C. B. (2024). Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 160, 105623.

Dissociable encoding of motivated behavior by parallel thalamo-striatal projections. Beas, S., Khan, I., Gao, C., Loewinger, G., Macdonald, E., Bashford, A., … Penzo, M. A. (2024). Current Biology, 34(7), 1549-1560.e3.

Active reinforcement learning versus action bias and hysteresis: control with a mixture of experts and nonexperts. Colas, J. T., O’Doherty, J. P., & Grafton, S. T. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(3), e1011950.

Alignment of brain embeddings and artificial contextual embeddings in natural language points to common geometric patterns. Goldstein, A., Grinstein-Dabush, A., Schain, M., Wang, H., Hong, Z., Aubrey, B., … Hasson, U. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 2768.

Optimal reaching subject to computational and physical constraints reveals structure of the sensorimotor control system. Greene, P., Bastian, A. J., Schieber, M. H., & Sarma, S. V. (2024). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(14), e2319313121.

Maturation of cortical input to dorsal raphe nucleus increases behavioral persistence in mice. Gutierrez-Castellanos, N., Sarra, D., Godinho, B. S., & Mainen, Z. F. (2024). eLife, 13, e93485.

Antipsychotic drugs selectively decorrelate long-range interactions in deep cortical layers. Heindorf, M., & Keller, G. B. (2024). eLife, 12, e86805.4.

Perceptual learning changes the amplitude not the shape of the temporal window of visual processing. Lin, L., Ruan, X., Liu, R., Zhu, J., Zhang, W., Lu, Z.-L., … Hou, F. (2024). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 50(4), 523–534.

Learning leaves a memory trace in motor cortex. Losey, D. M., Hennig, J. A., Oby, E. R., Golub, M. D., Sadtler, P. T., Quick, K. M., … Chase, S. M. (2024). Current Biology, 34(7), 1519-1531.e4.

A role of frontal association cortex in long‐term object recognition memory of objects with complex features in rats. Masmudi‐Martín, M., López‐Aranda, M. F., Navarro‐Lobato, I., & Khan, Z. U. (2024). European Journal of Neuroscience, 59(7), 1743–1752.

Predictive coding networks for temporal prediction. Millidge, B., Tang, M., Osanlouy, M., Harper, N. S., & Bogacz, R. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(4), e1011183.

Unravelling the multisensory learning advantage: Different patterns of within and across frequency-specific interactions drive uni- and multisensory neuroplasticity. Paraskevopoulos, E., Anagnostopoulou, A., Chalas, N., Karagianni, M., & Bamidis, P. (2024). NeuroImage, 291, 120582.

Collective sensing in electric fish. Pedraja, F., & Sawtell, N. B. (2024). Nature, 628(8006), 139–144.

Stochastic attractor models of visual working memory. Penny, W. (2024). PLOS ONE, 19(4), e0301039.

Brain mechanism of foraging: Reward-dependent synaptic plasticity versus neural integration of values. Pereira-Obilinovic, U., Hou, H., Svoboda, K., & Wang, X.-J. (2024). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(14), e2318521121.

Space as a scaffold for rotational generalisation of abstract concepts. Pesnot Lerousseau, J., & Summerfield, C. (2024). eLife, 13, e93636.3.

A midbrain GABAergic circuit constrains wakefulness in a mouse model of stress. Ren, S., Zhang, C., Yue, F., Tang, J., Zhang, W., Zheng, Y., … Hu, Z. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 2722.

A machine‐learning tool to identify bistable states from calcium imaging data. Varma, A., Udupa, S., Sengupta, M., Ghosh, P. K., & Thirumalai, V. (2024). Journal of Physiology, 602(7), 1243–1271.

Ocular surface information seen from the somatosensory thalamus and cortex. Velasco, E., Zaforas, M., Acosta, M. C., Gallar, J., & Aguilar, J. (2024). Journal of Physiology, 602(7), 1405–1426.

Causal functional maps of brain rhythms in working memory. Wischnewski, M., Berger, T. A., Opitz, A., & Alekseichuk, I. (2024). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(14), e2318528121.

[yupuffin]

Old art! The Way to Parallel illustrations featuring Data and Tiktaalik, c. 2017~2020

I cannot remember where I was going with that last WIP. 😆

[sngl-led-auto-lights]

Why are LED headlights more visible than classic headlights under sunlight?

LED headlights are more conspicuous in sunlight than traditional halogen or xenon headlights, mainly due to the following scientific principles and design advantages:

High color temperature matches the sunlight spectrum

Color temperature characteristics:

The color temperature of LEDs is usually 5000K-6500K (cold white light), close to midday sunlight (5500K), and has a high overlap with the natural light spectrum. Traditional halogen lamps have a lower color temperature (3000K-3500K, yellowish), and are easily drowned out by ambient light in sunlight.

Human eye sensitivity:

The human eye is most sensitive to 555nm wavelength (yellow-green light), but in sunlight, high color temperature blue-white light (450-500nm) is more easily perceived because it forms a higher contrast with the sky background (Weber-Fechner law).

Ultra-high brightness and luminous efficiency

Luminous flux density:

The brightness of a single LED lamp bead can reach 200-300 lumens/watt (halogen lamps are only 20-30 lumens/watt), and the light intensity per unit area (candela/square meter) is 3-5 times higher. For example, the total luminous flux of a certain LED headlight is about 4000 lumens, while the halogen lamp is only 1500 lumens.

Light saturation resistance:

The ground illumination under direct sunlight is about 100,000 lux. Through the focusing design, the local light intensity of LED can reach 20,000 candela (cd), while the halogen lamp is only about 8000cd. The former is easier to break through the interference of ambient light.

Precise beam control technology

Microlens array (MLA):

The LED chip integrates thousands of micron-level lenses to focus the light into a parallel beam with a divergence angle of 0.1°, reducing scattering losses.

Active matrix control:

For example, Audi's Matrix LED system dynamically enhances the brightness of specific areas (such as road sign reflection areas) under strong light by independently controlling 64 LED units.

Spectrum optimization and penetration

Blue light excitation phosphor:

LED excites YAG phosphor with 450nm blue light to emit broad-spectrum white light. Its short-wavelength component (blue-violet light) is easier to penetrate haze under Rayleigh scattering, improving long-distance recognition rate under sunlight.

Color rendering index (CRI):

LED's CRI>80 (halogen lamp CRI≈100). Although the color rendering is slightly inferior, the high CRI reduces the contrast under strong light. The "unnatural light" characteristics of LED unexpectedly enhance recognition.

Dynamic response and flicker suppression

Nanosecond response:

LED turn-on time <100ns, when the vehicle is bumpy or the sun is flickering, it can maintain stable light output. Traditional filament bulbs have a thermal inertia of 100-200ms, which is prone to residual visual blur.

PWM dimming technology:

Through 1000Hz high-frequency pulse width modulation, while maintaining brightness, the human eye can avoid stroboscopic perception and enhance dynamic visual capture capabilities.

Thermal management advantages

Low temperature operation:

The LED junction temperature is controlled below 85°C (halogen filament reaches 2500°C) to avoid light decay caused by high temperature. Under the scorching sun, the LED brightness decays by only 3%/1000 hours, while the halogen lamp decays by 15%/1000 hours under the same conditions.

Empirical data

Contrast test (ISO 16505 standard):

Under 100,000 lux simulated daylight, the recognition rate of LED headlights at 100 meters is 92%, while that of halogen lamps is only 68%.

Accident rate statistics (NHTSA report):

Vehicles equipped with LED daytime running lights have a 24% reduction in the rate of multi-vehicle collision accidents during the day, while traditional lighting groups only reduce it by 8%.

Conclusion LEDs break through the background noise of sunlight through high color temperature spectrum matching, ultra-high light efficiency, precise optical design and dynamic response, achieving an "optical breakthrough". This advantage not only improves safety, but also promotes the evolution of automotive lighting towards intelligent light field control.

[ofsilentthings]

'The Vampire Ascendant's Wife', a Postmortem

Just some writer thoughts about finishing my longest fanfiction to date!

Thank you for reading and commenting/leaving kudos.

Data and Commentary below~

I started it October 13, 2023 and finished it May 27, 2024.

With 138,915 words it is the longest fic I have ever written.

Each chapter averaged 6945 words. (Though the largest was like 13000 words.) This is unusual for me and I think going forward I'll try to keep each chapter shorter.

Inspiration:

I was inspired mainly by Dracula - mainly by wanting Jonathan Harker and Dracula kiss. Why a two hundred year gap? An arbitrary number but not really - it's how long Astarion was under Cazador's control (give or take a few decades). Besides providing a nice parallel, it was a funny reference to this line from the game:

Astarion: I'll make you pay for everything you've ever done to me! Cazador: I've known you for two hundred years! Haven't I suffered enough?

Planning:

For such a long fic as this, I do a lot of planning. I like to do a vague outline of where I want the fic to go (or even the themes I want to touch upon). When I get to specific chapters I break them down by scenes or even beats. I also did a lot of background planning. I had to know how Rickard could believably raise the performance of three businesses and quickly. I had to know how Astarion was going to become Archduke. And I had to figure out how to make Rickard fall in love with Taviana AND Astarion. Manipulating all these plots was difficult and part of the fun challenge but I think I did okay. Funny enough Henrik's death was not meant to be such a plot point; it was only supposed to be a way to force Rickard into the spotlight. I never intended Henrik to show up himself.

Successes:

I really love Rickard. I love his journey from nervous uncertain man meeting Astarion to the first time, to the last encounter when he tells him the truth and slaps him. I liked my Taviana who balanced over the line of loving and hating Astarion. I liked Astarion, since it was in a slightly different filter than most fics I've seen: one that is not new to power, but complacent. Realities of life (becoming poor) forced him to reach out to new opportunities, mainly Rickard. Whether he was ultimately changed by his time with his chamberlain is dependent upon the ending you prefer.

I think the multiple plots worked for the most part. The financials and social climbing reflected the intimacy of the three main characters, and vice versa. Also I managed to use an auction as a main plot device so that's fun to me.

Failures:

Vaida and her crew did not get a satisfactory ending. I toyed with having Astarion kill her in the final plot chapter but I worried that if Rickard saw that he would be much more antagonistic towards Astarion and not even try to talk to him.

I wish I had given a bit more attention to the businesses towards the end; however the focus on the story had obviously shifted to the three of them so I think its okay. A part of me thinks Astarion's megolomania should have been toned down a little bit, at least to show that he was listening to Rickard, even when he was angry. But I think that's a very minor point that I'd fuss over no matter what.

'Extra features':

Taviana was going to ask Rickard to kill Astarion. But Rickard does not have D&D player levels (A level 0 commoner), so he wouldn't have a chance.

I considered going a power route and having Ilmater himself get involved, making Rickard a Chosen, perhaps a super-powered monk, but again that was a bit more action-oriented than I wanted to go. It also seemed to take away from the personal strength of Rickard. Why should he stand up to Astarion when he can get the power of a god and punch the Ascendant into the sun?

Rickard was going to be kidnapped by undead inside the Ancunin estate during a grand party; that didn't work because I needed Astarion's house to be '''safe''' so that's why it was out in the streets. Part of Rickard's contract was going to include a clause that, at the end of a year (or some other time), Taviana would have the choice to leave Astarion or stay. I decided to omit that simply for simplicity sake. She's a Consort, she never could leave, even if she wanted to.

I had planned on Astarion creating a crisis of undead attacking the undead in waves. He would then 'bring them down' and be seen as a hero. But then I remembered Mystic Carrion probably still would exist and so he had a natural enemy. Taviana Lovers: Loghain, Nicollus, Marius, Elliot, Imogen. Astarion Lovers: Ellyndia, Millicent, Vero, Mathias, Morgan, Andromeda, Irenica, Miriam, Henrik (most of these are video game characters or D&D/original characters) In a similar vein: Absoleth, Sylene, and Lady Murasaki are some of my D&D characters. Jack Jekyllsby Hamstead is one of my husband's characters. Yes, even the boots. Garu is one of my friend's D&D characters.

What's next?

Who knows? I need a mental break. I am busy with a family, a job, and a life and writing so much takes time from that. I want to enjoy the up coming Elden Ring DLC as well as FF14's Dawntrail. I want to read a bunch of books and be inspired. I want to do some painting. I'm even going to start up a Curse of Strahd D&D game (someone has to DM...) But I'll always come back to writing. I love it too much not to. So expect some one-shots, maybe? I am looking at some crossovers as well (Astarion and Micolash WILL BE A THING, there's too much about blood and ascension between them to ignore). Thank you, thank you, thank you lovely readers, each one of you.