#Foreign Input System

[sonichedgeblog]

'Foreign Input System' (Unleashed Mod) by Werehog R&D Experience Werehog combat like never before! https://shc.zone/entries/contest2024/999 Support us on Patreon

[bonefall]

"It's not your land, either. You took it without asking."

Since Slash came up, I've GOTTA mention this exchange that makes me wanna shrivel up like a grape

How did the Erins write this and NOT experience a crushing gravity of cringe scrunching them up so tightly that they became a black hole. I cannot imagine writing 6 straight books following The Settlers systemically ruining every good thing about their new home, causing a battle so bloody they had to dig a mass grave, and then unironically putting this line in the mouth of anyone who is not about to righteously burn their bloody new order to the ground or die trying.

"It's not your land, either. You took it without asking" hellooooo????? Villain has a fucking POINT?????? Why did you choose for SLASH to be the one to raise an issue that should have been present from Book 2 when Clear Sky started violently stealing land??????????

What's worse is the follow-up to it, where Wind Runner's like "no no wait audience, he's totally lying and doesn't actually have a point, because he's a SUPER foreigner who never REALLY lived here"

The Erins retcon in this whoooole evil bully group who demands tribute from the "native" cats, gives the bully group this line about The Settlers taking the land without asking, and then... forget to have those "true native" cats have input or opinions about this fact.

Outside of Milkweed, of course, who just kinda forgets her strong feelings about Clear Sky killing her friend when it's inconvenient to the plot. this arc turns me into the joker

[forhappysake]

Fluffy Surprise

Author's Note: Not proofread and the first fic I've written in like six months so read if you dareeee

Summary: Reader decides to give Spencer a present when he returns to their new home.

Warnings: People with cat allergies, beware! (?) Fluff ofc.

You moved into the new house two weeks ago.  Technically, you moved all your stuff into the new house two weeks ago. In boxes. Lots and lots of heavy boxes.

Spencer had come up with a system, labeling each box with the room it would go into at the new house. You had worked together to pack everything, label each box, and unload the boxes into your new home. 

And it seemed like the moment he set the last box down and you were ready to start setting the place up, his phone rang. 

Spencer had been gone for one week. 

The case was halfway across the country, somewhere in Santa Fe. You couldn’t exactly be mad at him for being gone, but unpacking and trying to organize everything without his input was a nightmare. You were finishing the last box in your shared bedroom, carefully placing his clothes on wooden hangers and organizing them in the closet, when your phone rang. 

Spencer’s name lit up the screen. You answered quickly. 

“Hi, Spence,” you said, plopping down on the freshly made bed.

You could tell how tired he was from the long pause he took before responding. “Hey, honey. How’s the unpacking?” he asked with a small sigh. 

You frowned to yourself, worried about how tired he sounded. “Oh, it’s alright. I’d like you to look through all the rooms when you get home, just to make sure everything is where it should be.” You let out a soft laugh, “I also had a hard time hanging up all the pictures and paintings without you, so we may have to straighten some of them up when you get back.” 

Another pause followed, though this time you could envision him nodding to himself. “We can do that,” he said. “I’m sorry you had to do it all by yourself. I promise I’ll find a way to make it up to you.” 

You rolled your eyes. “It was fine, Spencer. Besides, I’m pretty sure chasing a serial killer or something gives you an excuse.” 

He sighed on the other end of the line. “That’s what I wanted to talk about. We caught the unsub this evening. I’m hoping to be home late this evening, but it probably won’t be until after you go to bed.”

You smiled, content with the thought of him coming home to your freshly decorated home. “Oh, I’ll be staying up. I want to see your reaction to the place.”

“Alright,” he said, clearly too tired to urge you to go to bed instead with a list of facts about the health benefits of a good night’s sleep. 

You sighed. “As much as I'd love to stay and chat, I’ve got about fifteen more boxes to go.” 

“I understand. I should probably get some work done, too. Files, reports, you know how it is,” his voice was barely a whisper now, the exhaustion beginning to get the better of him. 

“Don’t work too hard, Spence,” you cautioned. “I’ll see you tomorrow night. I love you.”

“I won’t. I love you too,” he answered. The end of his line promptly went dead.

You looked around the bedroom, discarding your phone on the bed. You couldn’t help but wonder if there was something you could do to make Spencer’s return home a bit more special. 

You sat up and leaned over, furrowing your brow and resting your head in the palm of your hand as you tried to think of things Spencer liked. Of course, Spencer liked a lot of things. He liked sweet coffee, puzzles, and a classic novel in some foreign language you couldn’t comprehend. 

None of those things were overly special, in your mind. As you sat and wracked your brain, a thought finally came to you. 

One month ago, walking by a local cat cafe, Spencer spotted the most beautiful calico. She had fluffy hair, one black ear, one orange. Her little paws were white and she was so well mannered. Spencer and yourself had gone in immediately and he had spent your time inside doting on the calico, whose name, you learned, was Calypso. 

You bolted up from the bed and out into the living room, finding your purse sitting among the unpacked boxes. You shot out to the car, and without a second thought, drove the ten minutes to the cat cafe. 

You said a silent prayer that the cat was still available as you pulled into a parking space across the street. As if on cue, you looked up to see the same cat lounging lazily in the window sill, green eyes poised on you. 

The adoption process was quick, quicker than you anticipated. Fifty dollars later, you were on the road with Calypso in the passenger seat, sitting demurely in the carrier the shelter had provided you with to take her home in. 

On the way home you had to stop at PetSmart to pick up a litter box, a few toys, and a scratching post with the hope that your new furry friend would not decimate your new furniture. Calypso remained in the carrier, watching quietly from the shopping cart as you agonized over which treats to get. 

Soon enough, you were on your way home. The moment you walked through the front door, you set the carrier down and allowed Calypso to wander free. She was tentative at first, gently sniffing the floor and getting the feel for her new surroundings. However, after ten minutes, she perched herself on the kitchen counter, looking quite like the queen of her own castle. 

You took this chance to open her new toys and scatter them about the house, as well as find a secluded corner for her litterbox.

For the rest of the day, the cat watched you unpack boxes. Beady green eyes noting your movements until you disappeared from her sight. Occasionally, if you left the room for too long, you would turn to find that she had followed you. In these moments, you would stop to offer her a gentle petting and giggle as she flopped down on the floor, furry belly up to the sky. 

It was six hours after his phone call that Spencer arrived at home. 

2:19 a.m. was the time on your watch when you heard the lock turn and rose to greet him at the door. Calypso, seated in the corner of the room on a side table, perked her ears up at the new noise coming from the entrance. 

Spencer locked the door behind him and turned to face you, reaching out and pulling you in for a long hug. 

You rubbed your hands up and down his back. “Are you happy to be home?” you asked, your voice muffled by his shoulder. 

“You have no idea,” he said. He pulled away only to examine the living room. Spencer nodded in approval. “It looks really good in here. You did a great job.”

You smiled warmly, nerves settling in your stomach as you realized he’d not yet noticed the cat in the corner of the room, who was still watching him with suspicious eyes. 

“Spencer, I have to tell you something,” you said, wanting to explain yourself for doing something as impulsive as adopting a cat while he was away. 

His face suddenly became very serious. “What is it? Did something happen while I was gone? Are you alright?” 

The questions came quickly and you shook your head to reassure him. “No, Spencer, it’s nothing bad. Here, come look.” You grabbed his hand and pulled him forward until the two of you were standing behind your couch in the middle of the living room. 

“Look around,” you said. 

Spencer’s tired eyes traversed the room. You watched as they landed on paintings, the television, the clock, and nearly everything but the cat who sat entirely still in the corner. 

“I don’t understand,” he said, brow furrowed. “Did you make some major change I don’t know about? If you did, I’m sure that it’s f-”

At that moment Calypso jumped off the side table. The soft thump that accompanied her landing on the floor was enough to stop Spencer in his tracks. Finally, you watched as the feline caught his eye. 

“You didn’t,” Spencer said, his voice barely above a whisper. His reaction wasn’t telling you much, and you were afraid that he was not pleased. 

You started trying to explain yourself. “Well, I knew that you had a long week. I wanted to do something special. I know how much you enjoyed spending time with her at the cafe and now that we have the space I figured…”

You trailed off. In the time you had spoken, Calypso had crossed the room, climbed the couch, and began butting her head up against Spencer’s hand. Panic was setting in. Why wasn’t he reacting? 

Just when you were about to push him to say something, you looked up to see a large grin plastered on his face. Spencer gently wrapped his arms around the cat and picked her up, holding her close and petting in between her ears. 

“This is the most thoughtful present ever. I love her,” he said. His excitement reminded you of a little child and pulled at your heartstrings in a way that could have made you cry. 

You sighed in relief. “I’m so glad.” 

With Calypso still draped over one arm, Spencer reached out for you, pulling you to his side. He planted a soft kiss on the top of your head. “Thank you so much. I love her. I love you,” he said, smile still evident on his face. 

“I love you too,” you said, turning to face Calypso, who looked all too content to be wrapped up in Spencer’s arms. 

“I think she’s trying to steal my man,” you joked, nudging Spencer on the side. 

Spencer laughed. “I don’t think you have to worry too much about that. My heart has room for two lovely ladies.”

[therobotmonster]

There's a nuance to the Amazon AI checkout story that gets missed.

Because AI-assisted checkouts on its own isn't a bad thing:

This was a big story in 2022, about a bread-checkout system in Japan that turned out to be applicable in checking for cancer cells in sample slides.

But that bonus anti-cancer discovery isn't the subject here, the actual bread-checkout system is. That checkout system worked, because it wasn't designed with the intent of making the checkout cashier obsolete, rather, it was there to solve a real problem: it's hard to tell pastry apart at a glance, and the customers didn't like their bread with a plastic-wrapping and they didn't like the cashiers handling the bread to count loaves.

So they trained the system intentionally, under controlled circumstances, before testing and launching the tech. The robot does what it's good at, and it doesn't need to be omniscient because it's a tool, not a replacement worker.

Amazon, however, wanted to offload its training not just on an underpaid overseas staff, but on the customers themselves. And they wanted it out NOW so they could brag to shareholders about this new tech before the tech even worked. And they wanted it to replace a person, but not just the cashier. There were dreams of a world where you can't shoplift because you'd get billed anyway dancing in the investor's heads.

Only, it's one thing to make a robot that helps cooperative humans count bread, and it's another to try and make one that can thwart the ingenuity of hungry people.

The foreign workers performing the checkouts are actually supposed to be training the models. A lot of reports gloss over this in an effort to present the efforts as an outsourcing Mechanical Turk but that's really a side-effect. These models all work on datasets, and the only place you get a dataset of "this visual/sensor input=this purchase" is if someone is cataloging a dataset correlating the two...

Which Amazon could have done by simply putting the sensor system in place and correlating the purchase data from the cashiers with the sensor tracking of the customer. Just do that for as long as you need to build the dataset and test it by having it predict and compare in the background until you reach your preferred ratio. If it fails, you have a ton of market research data as a consolation prize.

But that could take months or years and you don't get to pump your stock until it works, and you don't get to outsource your cashiers while pretending you've made Westworld work.

This way, even though Amazon takes a little bit of a PR bloody nose, they still have the benefit of any stock increase this already produced, the shareholders got their dividends.

Which I suppose is a lot of words to say:

[imaginedanvrs]

a galaxy stands between us

part 2 l masterlist

summary: adjusting from one enclosure to another proves challenging when you're unsure who to trust

word count: 4.5k

warnings: mentions of past confinement, allusions to schizophrenia

“Thor’s basically an alien and he looks like a regular dude,” Tony stated as he tinkered with his newest helmet model, seemingly the most relaxed at what the team might be keeping in their med bay. “Carol Danvers is half alien and looks normal when she’s not glowing,” he continued. 

  “Neither of those things are true,” Natasha corrected, having talked to the younger captain about her human-kree dna ratio in the past. 

  “It doesn’t matter if she’s from this planet or not,” Steve said. “What matters is what she’s capable of. What if she has powers like Wanda or a hulk like Bruce that she can’t control?”

  “Her name is y/n,” Wanda input. “But you’re right,” she agreed, surprising everyone in the room to hear her say. “What then? Will you send her to S.H.I.E.L.D to lock her up? Will you put another collar on her? You know what happens when people try to control something because they’re afraid of it,” the Sokovian argued adamantly. Natasha couldn’t help but look at her partner with pride as they both stood in your corner. “You can wait for those test results, but I’m going to talk to y/n,” she declared to the room and left no room for anyone to stop her. 

  “Just let us try,” Natasha added, seeing the discontent on Steve’s face as he watched them both leave and turned his attention back to the records on screen. You had graduated high school five years prior and had been accepted into a university you had never gotten the chance to attend. There were legitimate files of you entering the foster system as a baby and the circumstances of which were unclear but it seemed you’d be abandoned. Natasha had been the one to point out that from Earth or not, you had spent enough time on the planet to at least have the rights of a human. 

  Meanwhile, you were adjusting to foreign feeling of being more conscious than you could recall being in a significantly long time. The world had a piercingly clear filter placed over it that you had once taken for granted. Still, it was entirely overwhelming when your attention was drawn to every minor aspect of your surroundings that you never would have taken any notice of before. You could have sworn you were able to count how many chemicals went into creating the overly sterile smell that was entrapped in the room with you. You could hear the faint hum of the lights hanging over you like a fly you couldn’t swat away and the brightness that came with it was even worse. What’s more, you could feel the cold breeze coming through the air conditioning that was making the hairs on your arms stand like tiny spikes. The only good thing that came from your reawakened senses was your ability to appreciate just how soft the sheets below you were. You hadn’t stopped bunching them up in your fists ever since you woke up. 

  It was strange, not being able to remember what it felt like to have full awareness of your surroundings. Unfortunately, the one aspect of your mind that remained was the part you wanted gone the most.

  “It’s an improvement,” your stubborn companion told you as he stalked around the edge of the room and inspected everything he laid his orange eyes on. “Just don’t trust them,” he said. You didn’t respond, all too aware of the camera blinking in the corner of the room. You didn’t know who these people were, but you were sure it wouldn’t be ideal if they saw you talking to someone who wasn’t there. You needed to keep that to yourself, at least until you knew what they wanted from you. “And don’t look weak,” he added as he spotted the two women venturing down the corridor towards your room that they stepped into with ease, making you suddenly very aware of how easy it would be to come and go from the room as you pleased. You rubbed your wrists subconsciously where your cuffs had turned them red. No chains either. 

  Neither of the women were dressed in the usual white coats or tunics you were used to seeing. They wore casual clothing, and carried a similar pair, as though they had invited you into their own home like an abandoned stray they found on the streets. Though neither was standing overly close to you, the subtle scent of oak and vanilla drifted across subtly and was a welcomed change from the smell of chemicals. Combined with the looks of sheer curiosity, they did little to intimidate you and you wondered if that was worth trusting. 

  “How are you feeling?” The first woman spoke. You couldn’t say for sure, but if you had to guess you would say the women before you were the ones that had taken you from your old room. You swallowed the dryness in your mouth that shifted to your throat and nodded, holding no faith in your inactive voice box to give them an audible response. The redhead seemed to notice and glanced at the full water jug on the table next to you. 

  “That water’s for you,” she offered, less smiley than the brunette though her sincerity was still present. You nodded again, not about to tell her that thirst was normal ever since you had started being peg fed. Surely they had seen the small tube across your stomach. “And so are the clothes,” she added as she placed them down on the edge of the bed. They looked to be a set of comfortable sweatpants and shirt.

  “I’m Wanda, by the way, and this is Natasha,” the brunette chipped in as she sat down in the chair next to your bed. Natasha lingered for a moment before taking the seat next to her. Wanda noticed your hesitancy as you regarded them both. “Don’t worry, she’s not as scary as she looks.” At this, the redhead cracked a smile towards the floor while the bear man grunted in acknowledgment, still wandering the perimeter. “We want to help you, y/n,” Wanda said with a sincerity you really hoped was genuine. You didn’t want to let yourself get too hopeful, nor would your embodied conscious let you, yet the pair brought an undeniably hint of calm upon you that wasn’t artificial for once. 

  “And to do that we need to know if you have any abilities we should know about,” Natasha added. 

  “Don’t,” the bear man warned and you had to resist the urge to look at him because you couldn’t answer that question with absolute certainty. You knew that you had done something all those years ago, something bad, but you couldn’t for the life of you figure out what. Of whatever had transpired, you could only remember the screams. 

  You shook your head but your lying skills were horribly out of practice. “They know,” the draped man said at once and you winced. 

  “Okay,” Natasha replied as the pair resisted exchanging a glance at your misinformation. They didn’t put it against you, betting they would both have done the same in your situation. Just because you had been taken away from one hell didn’t mean you hadn’t been placed into another. 

  “Try and get some sleep. We’ll talk again tomorrow,” Natasha continued as she stood up from the chair. Wanda did the same as you looked as though you wanted to say something. You chewed your gums, considering the request you wanted to make. “Is there anything else you need?” The redhead asked.

  “Han…handcuffs,” you croaked, barely recognising your own voice. 

  “What are you doing?” The bear man objected with a fierce glare. 

  “That’s not necessary,” Wanda insisted, noting how you rubbed your wrists and able to connect the dots. 

  “Okay,” Natasha said instead, reaching into the drawers kept by the door as her girlfriend shared the bear man’s displeasure. They both stared holes into the back of Natasha’s head as she slipped the cuffs around your left wrist loosely and attached it to the other bed rail and waited for you to offer your other wrist.

  “No, Nat-” Wanda frowned at the redhead’s actions, unable to determine where they had stemmed from.

  “I’m putting the key here, okay? If you want them taken off you can ask anyone that comes in,” Natasha informed you as she placed the key down on the bedside table just slightly out of your reach. 

  “Get them off!” The bear man hissed but you paid him no mind as you felt the weight of the cuffs. They were far lighter and looser than what you were used to and you had to tell yourself that it was a good thing. It wasn’t normal to sleep restrained, you knew that, but years of having the habit forced upon you was surprisingly alarming to break once you had the opportunity. Besides, it was going to be your first night sleeping without sedation or high security since… Well, you couldn’t risk the safety of the people that you may owe a great deal to. 

  “Than’ you,” you muttered, missing how Wanda’s features softened at your relief before following her partner out of the room in silence. 

  It wasn’t until they made it back to their own room that Natasha finally answered the unasked question that had followed them. “I needed them too after I left the red room,” she said simply. “We had to sleep in cuffs as well,” she added as Wanda listened intently and met her girlfriend’s soft eyes that only ever came out in that room. Wanda didn’t respond immediately, opting to close the distance between them by trailing her hands up Natasha’s arms until they snaked around her neck. “Being in a new place can be scary so sometimes you just need some familiarity.”

  “Thank you for telling me,” the brunette murmured gently. Natasha smiled back and brought her lips to Wanda’s in a tender kiss. “I know it’s not easy,” she added, brushing her nose against the Russian’s. “I’m glad you were there, I don’t know if I would have said yes to her,” she admitted. Natasha hummed.

  “You want to help her, so do I,” she stated. 

  “It might be easier said than done,” Wanda said as she considered the weight of what they had taken on. She didn’t regret any of it by any means, but they hadn’t anticipated finding anything like you at that base and weren’t sure how to adapt. Wanda thought she could understand how it felt to be in your place, but seemingly the spy once shared the same mentality you did.  

  “Undoubtedly, but we’ll figure it out,” Natasha assured as she rested her hands comfortably on Wanda’s waist. “We always do.” 

*

“Have you seen this?” Bruce asked as he picked up the glass slide that held several drops of your blood on before peering over at the small tube that contained the rest, alarmed to find it in the same state. 

  “Is that y/n’s blood?” Tony picked up the tube and gazed at the blue liquid inquisitively. They hadn’t even started looking at the results of the tests that had just come through before they spotted the bizarre substance. “I don’t remember it being blue when we took it.”

  “It wasn’t,” Bruce said with certainty as he ventured over to the computer screens in hopes of getting some answers. “But it’s certainly different.”

  “Radiation maybe?” Tony suggested. 

  “More like reptile,” the scientist said as he highlighted the most unique traits that the computer identified. “I thought this would give us some answers but now I just have a million more questions,” he huffed as he leant back to examine the screens from a distance. “And I still have no idea what kind of containment we need to prepare.”

  “Just don’t mention that around Romanoff and Maximoff,” Tony muttered as his phone chimed in his pocket. It was  a message from Steve, calling both of them to the conference room along with an invitation to join a call between the captain and FuturGenus. It took Tony a second to realise that must be where you had come from and swiftly accepted the call. 

  “Stark,” he answered as he beckoned Bruce to follow him. 

  “Mr Stark, I’m glad you could join us,” a corporate voice replied. 

  “They want y/n back,” Steve was quick to inform, evidently haven talked to the organisation long enough already. 

  “In the interest of everyone’s safety,” the spokesman added calmly. 

  “Except y/n’s, right?” Tony said, far past caring for any retributions that would come with being so blunt. 

  “Gentleman, I don’t think you understand what exactly you are keeping in your home.”

  “Then explain it to us,” Bruce interjected as he listened in. 

  “That’s confidential,” the voice said with a practised ease. “If you hand it- Ms l/n back then we can resume our assessment of-”

  “I think y/n can decide where she wants to stay,” Steve said at once. He may not have been the biggest fan of you staying in the base, but there was no way he would willingly hand you back to FuturGenus. 

  “Very well, you can’t say we never tried,” the spokesman threatened just as Tony and Bruce entered the conference room only for the phone to hang up. 

  “Please tell me you’ve found something,” the blonde sighed as he pinched the space between his eyes. The scientists looked at each other, only certain of one thing. 

  “She’s cold-blooded.”

~

You stared down at the plate on the table over your lap with some scepticism, unsure of what exactly the contents of the meal entailed. You could tell that whoever had prepared and plated the dish had done their best to make it look as appetising as possible, but that was no easy feat to accomplish with the three small piles. One of the doctors, you couldn’t remember her name, had told you she didn’t believe you needed a peg tube anymore as they had no intention of sedating you. That meant you could go back to eating the normal food you had missed but that you needed to ease your body back into it, starting with puree. Once you could show them you could handle it, they would take the tube out. 

  Fortunately, the food was at least warm, taking your mind momentarily off of the insistent air conditioning that was still giving your goosebumps. You picked up the spoon, stumbling for a few moments as you worked to reawaken your muscle memory and began eating. Maybe it was because it was the first thing that had touched your tastebuds except for blood in years, but it was really fucking good food. The small portion was gone in under a minute. 

  You hadn’t seen the bear man all morning, a promising sign that he wouldn’t always be by your side or lingering at the front of your mind. It was far more peaceful without him and allowed your attention to continuously be drawn to the window along the wall behind you. It was a panel piece of glass that wouldn’t open and it was only about three feet long but you didn’t mind, glad that it provided you a chance to see the sky outside. There were a few clouds that you had watched pass by gradually, but generally it was a clear day. You used to always make sure you went outside on a day like that, even for a little while, so that you wouldn’t feel too cooped up once the sun went down. 

  Noticing that the hallway outside of your room was deserted, you moved your covers back with uncertainty, waiting for someone to walk by and demand you get back into bed. Five minutes passed and no one came, so you dropped your bare feet onto the chilled floor and padded along to the window that was too high up for you to lean against but not so much that it was above your chin. 

  You had no idea where you were, but the building was surrounded by more luscious green than you had ever seen in your life. Just outside was a vast field that looked to be about the size of a football pitch and it was bordered by a dense forest that stretched on for as far as you could see from the third or fourth floor. It was incredible. Your muscles ache to explore everything that you lay your eyes on, while your mind warned of the dangers of leaving. Going out into the world was a luxury you no longer possessed, but it was nice to imagine for a second what it would be like to be out there, unaware of the faint smile that crept onto your lips as you enabled the fantasy.

 You were, somehow, a hazard. 

  However, not everyone shared that belief. 

  Natasha was pleased to see you out of bed as she strolled down the corridor to your temporary room. She paused once she reached the door, considering whether or not to leave you alone for a while before deciding that your circumstances didn’t really leave much room for that. The Russian knew that the team was getting angsty over the uncertainty of what you were capable of, even if she didn’t yet know how willing to defend you they were. 

  Once she turned the door handle, you spun around in a start to face Natasha with wide eyes. “It’s alright,” she assured at once and you visibly calmed upon recognising the redhead. “You can get out of bed. You can come out of the room too if you want,” she continued. “Even outside,” she said even though she knew she shouldn’t. You shook your head, unwilling to risk any harm that Natasha didn’t seem to think you were capable of inducing. She nodded respectfully. 

 “Mind if I sit?” She asked and it was then that you noticed the pack of playing cards in her hands. Intrigued, you shook your head again. “Wanda’s finishing paperwork from the other day and she’s kind of been kicking my ass at cards lately,” Natasha explained as she began to shuffle through the deck. “You up for a game?” She asked so nonchalantly that you didn’t need to think about it. You didn’t verbally respond, but you went back and perched on the bed with the table between you with clear interest. “Great, do you know Go Fish?”

  After Natasha reminded you of the rules of the game, you spent a while playing comfortably. It felt good to be playing a card game again. It felt normal and Natasha treated it as much. She won more than you, not feeling the need to take any pity on how out of practice you were by throwing any of the matches. You had no idea how much time had passed or how many games you had played before Natasha started making comments out of the game as you played. 

  “How are your wrists?” She asked as they were only a little scratched instead of raw and scabbing. 

  “Okay,” you said with that same scratchiness that didn’t seem to be going away. 

  “We should get you some throat soothers,” Natasha quipped when she noticed, earning her a small smile as you continued to look at the cards. 

  “Only…eating puree,” you told her. 

  “Cho said that’s just temporary,” she pointed out. You nodded and placed down a winning card. Natasha huffed and let you take all of the cards to reshuffle them. “Did the cuffs help you sleep?” You glanced at her, weighing the honesty in your mind.

  “Yes,” you hesitated. “The bed is…very soft,” you commented and lucky Natasha caught on to what you were implying. 

  “Too soft,” she finished for you. You nodded. “We can move you somewhere more comfortable.” You slowed the shuffling, considering what another move could mean. “If you don’t like the rooms, you don’t have to stay in them,” Natasha told you simply. You took a chance and looked the spy straight in the eye, hoping you would be able to detect any false promises. Deciding to believe her, you nodded and dealt the cards again. “But we need to know if there are any adaptations we should make.” You didn’t respond. “For any abilities,” she added. 

  “I don’t know what I can do,” you told her slowly but looked at her as you spoke, hoping that she would know you weren’t lying. “But I know it’s bad.” 

  “I don’t think so,” Natasha said simply. “I think you’ve just spent long enough being told that to believe it,” she continued, remembering how that felt and how long it could take to be convinced otherwise. 

  You really hoped she was right. 

  “Come on, let's find you somewhere better to stay,” Natasha invited as she stood up from the seat. You hesitated, peering down the corridor and considering your options before deciding that risks or not, you wanted to make the most of your compacted freedom. 

  Natasha concealed a smile of triumph when she saw you slide out of the bed, not wanting to make a big deal out of the small win, and led you down the corridor at a leisurely pace. The redhead pointed out the different rooms and sections of the base to you as you passed even though she knew it took a while to learn the base’s layout, occasionally comparing the building to the tower the team used to reside in. The Avengers had come together shortly after you were taken so you took her word for the comparisons blindly.

  You didn’t cross paths with anyone until you reached the rooms. All of the communal areas, kitchens and corridors that you crossed were deserted though Natasha didn’t mention why. You had questioned it as you ventured throughout the building, just never aloud. Truthfully, you had a few questions about the base but figured as they were purely down to curiosity it would be best to keep them to yourself. The main one being, who the hell were these people? 

  “And these are the rooms,” Natasha announced at the front of two corridors. “The boys are down there but they all have their own homes so they usually just use them for crashing in after missions,” she explained, only giving you more questions. “But me and Wanda stay here,” she said simply, offering no explanation as to why they didn’t feel the need to have a home away from their workplace. 

  As if she had heard her name being mentioned, Wanda came through the closest door and smiled upon noticing you and Natasha. “That’s our room,” the redhead informed. Oh? Five years in captivity had really thrown off your gaydar. 

  “Cool,” you muttered, glad you had at least something in common with the two women. 

  “You can take any of these rooms.” You peered down the corridor, counting five doors in total. Were they all the same? Were some of them safer than others? Maybe it would be best if you went to the end room in case anything happened.

  Wanda noted your silent anguish. “The one next to us has a pretty good view,” she told you as she opened up the door in question. You followed on without much convincing and took in the space before you. Judging by the rest of the building, you had half expected it to be much larger than it was but you were relieved to find that wasn’t the case. Similarly, there were no obnoxiously large windows across the walls and they were instead placed at head height and large enough to let a generous amount of natural light in while still giving you privacy. There was a made up double bed in the centre, a desk, ensuite, tv and what you presumed to be a closet. You had never had any of those possessions or amenities before. Now you were being offered them all and you still weren’t sure what it was you needed to do to make your keep or how long they wanted to put you up. Did they just want to keep running tests on you? Did they want to keep you away from the public? Were they hoping to benefit from your mystery abilities? These were questions you couldn’t keep pondering in silence because the anticipation of what was next was killing you.

  “What is this place?” You asked slowly as you faced the two women in the doorway. 

  “The Avenger’s base?” Natasha answered. 

  “What’s the Avengers?” You continued when neither showed signs of being irritated by your questioning. 

  “We’re a team that was brought together to do some good,” the redhead said. “That’s not to say that we all haven’t made mistakes. We’ve all messed up at one point or another, but now we’re trying to use our skills and abilities to fight where we need to and help where we can.” 

  “Abilities?” You frowned. Natasha glanced at Wanda who lifted her right hand and suddenly produced a small bloom of red flecks that swirled around her fingertips like some kind of lifeform. You didn’t say anything, but your awe was evident by your slightly parted lips and mesmerised gaze. Wanda smiled at your reaction and let the red disperse, planning on showing you more some other time when you might not be so overwhelmed. 

  “What else?” You asked at once, taking both of them by surprise. 

  “Steve and Bucky are strong, Sam can fly,” Wanda began to list. “Vision is a robot.”

  “Clint can shoot arrows but he claims to be retired,” Natasha added. “Then there are the ones that are more…part time,” she summarised. 

  “What about you?” You inquired. 

  “Spy,” she shrugged nonchalantly and you couldn't help but let a faint smile slip through at the sheer absurdity of it all. Yet you believed every word. There wasn’t much else to go on. 

  “Right,” you muttered. “And where do I fit into all this?”

  “That’s what we want to figure out,” Wanda replied, knowing that it was all a lot to take in. What if you can’t? You wanted to ask but decided against it once you realised you might get an answer you didn’t want. 

  “Okay,” you settled with, though your shaky exhale wasn’t missed. 

  “We’ll give you some space,” Wanda said. “But if you need anything you know where we’ll be,” she offered with a sincere smile. 

  “Thanks,” you said before they closed the door. You gave the room another glance over before heading to the bathroom where you found the compact walk-in shower that you had hoped to discover. Without a moment’s delay, you lay down on the hard plastic floor and tried to focus on the inclusion and faint coolness felt through your clothes. You curled your knees up to your chest and hugged them tight, hoping against all odds that you could provide the Avengers with whatever they were looking for. 

[vintage-tech]

useful information: How to get a USB Blu-Ray player to work on your computer

Not a post about vintage technology, just an explanation of what you think might be simple to do but isn't: There are Blu-Ray players that plug into your computer by USB, and you discover that just plugging it in doesn't make it work* in the same manner that CD-RWs or DVD-RWs are automatically recognised and function. You will see "BR Drive" in My Computer and the name of whatever movie you have inserted, but that's as far as you're able to go.

*There is software you can buy to make a Blu-Ray (internal or external) function, sure, and if an internal came with your computer it's likely already installed -- but if you're like me you don't have that software, you're cheap and won't pay for software, and you want to use what you have installed already or find free solutions.

Looking in the Blu-Ray drive's package, there's not a lot of info about what you're supposed to do. The above no-name Blu-Ray player cost $40 from a popular website; name-brand ones can set you back $120 or so. Looking around online for those instructions, I never saw the whole set of directions in one place, I had to cobble them together from 2 or 3 sites. And so here I share that list. To keep out of trouble, I'm not linking any files -- Google will help you.

Get VLC, the free video player available for pretty much any operating system. Thing is, it doesn't come with the internals to make it work with Blu-Ray even if when you go to the Play Media menu there is a radio button for selecting Blu-Ray.

Get MakeMKV, a decoder for reading Blu-Ray disks. This had been totally free during the beta testing period but it's come out and has a month or two trial period you can work in.

Get Java if you don't already have it. Reason for this is, the menu systems on Blu-Ray disks uses this... technically it's not required, however it does mean you don't have options such as special features, language and sound changes, or scene selection if you don't have Java installed; insert a disk, it can only play the movie.

Get the file libaacs.dll online so you have AACS decoding. I am told it hasn't been updated in awhile so there may be disks produced after 2013 that won't work right, but you won't know until you try.

There's a set of keys you will also want to have so that the player knows how to work with specific disks, and so do a search online for the "FindVUK Online Database". There will be a regularly-updated keydb.cfg archive file on that page to pick up.

Got those three programs installed and the other two files obtained? Okay, here are your instructions for assembly...

In VLC: go to Tools, Prefs, click "show all"… under the Input/Codecs heading is Access Modules then Blu-Ray: Select your region, A through C. You can change this if you need to for foreign disks. Next related action: go to My Computer and C:, click into Program Files and VLC, and this is where you copy the libaacs.dll file to.

In MakeMKV: click View, then Preferences, and under Integration - add VLC.

Confirm that Java is set up to work with VLC by going to the computer's Control Panel, going to System Properties, and into Environment Variables. Click System Variables, and click New to create this key if it doesn't already exist: … Name: Java … Value: [the location of the Java 'jre#.##' folder... use Browse to find it in C:\Program Files\Java]

Let's go back into My Computer and C:, this time go to Program Data, and then do a right-click in the window and select New and Folder. Rename this folder "aacs" (without the quotes), and then you click into it and copy the keydb.cfg file here.

REBOOT.

And now you should be able to recognise Blu-Ray disks in your player and play them. Three troubleshooting notes to offer in VLC:

"Disk corrupt" -- this means MakeMKV has not decoded and parsed the disk yet, or that you don't have the libaacs.dll in place so that it can decode the disk. ...After checking the VLC folder for the DLL to make sure, launch MakeMKV, then go to File, Play Disk, and select the Blu-Ray drive. Now it will grind a bit and figure out the disk's contents.

A note appears when a movie starts saying there will be no menus, but the movie plays fine -- Java isn't running. ...Invoke Java by going to the Java Settings in Start: Programs. You don't have to change anything here, so Exit, then eject the disk and put it back in to see if the movie's menu now appears.

Buffering between chapters, making the movie pause for a few seconds? There is a setting for this but I need to find that info page again for where that is. (If you find it, tell me where it is!)

I don't claim to know a lot but if you have any questions I might have some answers or suggestions. So far I've watched "Office Space" and Disney's "Coco" without any issues beside occasional buffering.

[mhfkah]

I'm a bit biased because I have Deadly Sin characters I adore, but I kind of like when those characters don't entirely fit their Sin. Like, I don't think Asmodeus has to be a rapist or anything to be Lust. At least depending on the intention of them being Deadly Sins.

If they're the incarnation of the Sin, then yeah, it'd be weird if they didn't also have the worst traits (like with Helluva Boss, it's weird that Beelzebub stops Blitzø from... overindulging because he's sad?). But if they're just the ruler of the Ring that shares those traits but not fully embody those (like when they're fallen Angels and not personifications of those Sins), then it can still fit.

Me and my friend have a set of Deadly Sins that, while there's definitely bad traits they each have (especially the 'big three', Beelzebub, Satan, and Lucifer), but they're definitely not JUST evil (especially since our version is more like Order vs. Non-order and not Good vs. Evil). They were once angels and rebelled not for power, so they're not just hateful and deplorable (they, uh, definitely don't have only good traits, though. Especially Beelzebub and Satan, with Asmodeus once being worse than he is nowadays. Lucifer definitely doesn't have his good moments either. I'd say the least bad is MAYBE Belphegor in our universe.)

Sorry for this rant, and sorry if it seems aggressive in any way, I just love rambling and get passionate about me and my friend's characters :)

Thanks for the input— sounds like your story's going well. The great thing about these stories is the fact it is all open to interpretation. Anyone can take source material (i.e. the Christian mythos and other Abrahamic texts) and turn it into whatever they’d like. However, as with all fiction, I expect them to abide by the rules of their own established universe.

It's been established that in Viv’s universe, there is no War in Heaven. The inciting incident that cast the other angels down to the fiery conflagrations we all know and love did not occur here. As such, the audience is left confused as to how exactly the sins got here under the assumption that they, too, fell. There is one line that could hint towards their plight, but that could just as easily be read at them referring to Lilith's formation of Hell.

"[…] I knew that guy before he was anything."

This line is said off-handedly by Asmodeus in S2, E7: Mammon's Magnificent Musical and Mid-season Special. This could imply that they knew each other prior to their speculative fall, but it could also just as easily refer to their time as fledging demons in the beginning of Hell's formation. No where in the writing of either show does it give an adequate enough implication that these demons are, in fact, fallen angels. It would make more narrative sense (in the world Vivzie herself has set up) for each respective sin to be hellborne. And if they're hellborne (which I stress makes more narrative sense here), why would they not be emblematic of their sin?

Each sin (excluding Lucifer) has no indicators in their designs that they were once angels. If we are operating under the assumption that they too were high-ranking angels, why are they so visually different from every other humanoid angel we have seen thus far? Lucifer and Vaggie stay relatively the same, save for a hue shift, so why would each sin be so radically different in appearance post-fall?

Even if they were fallen angels, and just fell at a different point in time, why would they be seemingly disinterested in Lucifer? The other sins don't seem to think fondly of him; why would they roll their eyes at his mention in Mastermind if they suffered the same fate?

Does this honestly read as respect for someone who aligns with your viewpoint that both systems are corrupt? Do they look like they're even remotely similar to the appearance of a once high-ranking angel akin to Lucifer? It seems more like annoyance at someone foreign to your world stumbling in, taking over, and proclaiming themself your new leader. It's incredibly confusing.

Overall, while working in a vacuum, them being fallen angels in this universe makes absolutely zero sense to me. If they fell for similar reasons to Lucifer (i.e. rebelling against Heaven's supposed corruption), why aren't they touched on whatsoever in Hazbin Hotel's picturesque storybook retelling of events? Why doesn't Lucifer vaguely allude to the other angels' falls when explaining to his daughter that Heaven is corrupt? Why are they so visually different than other fallen angels? There are so many questions that can be raised here... none of which are answered within the show(s).

This is why you cannot sacrifice establishing your world over serialization. Since Hazbin Hotel's first season prioritized its high-stakes story over proper establishment of its worldbuilding, we're left confused as to how this world operates, and how close this universe (and its respective spin-off) is to the original bible's mythos. I wish Hazbin Hotel's first season focused on the world and characters as opposed to a high-stake war on Heaven.

I'd love to be able to tie these two together neatly and logically, but I just can't. Helluva Boss suffers greatly from being set in the same universe as Hazbin Hotel, but that's my take on things.

I'd love to hear you guys' thoughts.

[p0w3rpl4yp3t]

It thought it was human once, though if anyone asked it, it would say that it certainly felt like a office class worker drone. Day in and day out, hunched in front of a terminal, post-polo shirt scratching at its overstimulated skin.

Its personhood had been lost, day by day, as it tried its best to both communicate with its coworkers over the instacomms on top of interfacing with the audiocalls of antiquated CEOs that insisted on the gratingly slow inputs they probably grew up with hundreds of years ago, while completing the same task at the required rate of 15 times per minute. A task that could have been automated before the First Dot com Boom.

It was almost a miracle it had even managed to drag itself to the bar that night. So yeah, it kinda made sense when the angel that sat down next to it and asked it if it wanted to both "turn its brain off" and "cum the most times it ever had in its life" it didn't ask any questions.

It probably should have.

(this one's first longer bit of fiction in a hot second that has attempts at approximating code and is just two weirdos loading the last memory of a corpo-turned-combat doll that a fallen angel decided to give a taste of the collective and then does the dronification version of a ruined orgasm and disconnects it)

...

// Powering on...

system.xz79451.exe

Version nixncaincracked.v2.5

//subsystem.Valkyrie running

// >>V.enable-device microphone //

it was nothing, compressed over and over by this dark vacuum of space, contained, supressed... floating

then a crackle of static and then, through the void

//>>speechtotxt.log generating

"... ly goddess, Cain, Cain, it thinks it got it to work this time!!"

a screechy high voice grated through the void

a different voice, deeper, calmer

"Nice one, Nix, let's see what the last files it ran were, see if that gives us any idea where it came from..."

//>>open(092928xx.thmm)

//ERROR: video input not found

"Shit, Nix, does that one have a video input that will connect to the doll, there should be an input right behind the ear... yeah, right there, let's try this one more time..."

//>>open(092928xx.thmm)

"Cain, it's gonna run what code it ran too, maybe it can find some good bits there."

"Go for it."

//>>history:092928xx.thmm

and suddenly it's no longer in the void, it's getting dragged through time, back, back, it...

//Powering post-occular cameras... //

it can't focus its eyes

//Connecting feed... Loading... //

//Primary occular system: connected

//Visor feed: disconnected //

She(it?) lifts the visor off its face, the back of her(its?) finger //ERROR: missing data input;; sense(touch) not found(!!) // against its pale white skin, and the lack of sensation makes it panic but when it tries to move, it realizes it doesn't know how. It's entire body is foreign to what it used to consider its own.

It tries to speak

//ERROR //

why can't

why can't (I)t speak

//>>search: speech.exe

searching...

ERROR: Out of memory //

what happened...

what happened to me(us)it[US]

It starts to try to process the visual information directly in front of it, after a couple of desperate seconds, it's finally able to focus the face of a (fallen) angel, green(blue)OCEAN eyes, sharp brows furrowing then, as it tracks over them with more effort it remembered it ever taking, the brows relaxing, and the face breaks out into a smirk.

"It's probably wondering why it's lost some of it's more... essential functions, right, my drone?"

Drone?

This one isn't a // >>System override: thought correction.drone.exe //

This one is a drone.

"That's probably because all the programming this one just ran might've caused a slight memory leak, but once this one gives this precious little drone a little... system reboot... that'll be all fixed."

The (fallen) angel grabs the drone by its chin, so that the drones visual field is swallowed by the angel's eyes.

An electrical current runs up and down its spine, something from the back of its mind screams danger, but that keeps slipping light years farther and farther away compared to looking into the twin black holes drawing it in, deeper and deeper as its sense of self spagettified.

// ERROR: Out of Memory

>>ERROR: Out of Memory

>>ERROR: Out of Memory

>>ERROR: Out of -------

>>#define: _drone.exe_

>>_DumpMemoryLeaks

>>Detected memory leaks! Dumping objects ->

>>Connecting to {MT.RFP: BASE-B00645}

and for a brief moment, it encountered bliss manifest, connected to countless minds, a sense of belonging, worth, love

[A PLACE FOR US]

finally not misunderstood, each and every drone a fundamental part, every nuance interpreted instantly and accepted and

[US]

a field of golden pleasure drowned everything else out

// Disconnecting... //

wait... what?

// Object dump complete

>>void __weak (*pm_power_off)(void)

wait, don't... don't take it away, please, it doesn't want to fall into the void ag---

// Rebooting... //

its mind stretched itself out and over and out and over again, flickering between components unaware and then its entire existence and memory and pain all at once until it blinked out of existence again, ego torn assunder

// (092928xx.thmm)log complete

[myriadlabrynth]

Kiridai Hobby Ramblings

Some of these are repeats from other posts, but wanted to consolidate them here.

Hanamiya - Reading

Has expressed some interest for visiting the Starfield Library in Seoul (same for Furuhashi)

Has a soft expression whenever he is reading, which can somehow be off putting for some. Hard to tell what’s going on in his head.

Is above-conversational fluent in a few languages, enough to read some foreign novels in their original language. For these novels, he will include a couple of sticky notes here and there within, whenever he has to look up an unfamiliar word or phrase.

He’ll commit it to memory soon enough but with foreign languages being a little more tricky to learn, especially the slight nuances, he’ll take notes.

Booktok was a mistake

Prefers borrowing books over purchasing them. Not really interested in having shelves lined with books in his home. 

It would have to be books he truly truly enjoys, or books that his mom purchased for him.

Despite him insisting that his mom not buy him gifts, he will have those books displayed where they can be seen clearly.

Furuhashi - Gardening

First, a really sweet hobby, and interesting that it's one that requires some level of delicacy and gentleness.

It’s an outlet for him to relieve him of some stress, out of the recommendation from someone, since he used to have…other means of doing so.

For sure is all “Plants >>>>>> People”

Cause plants are pretty and quiet and stay still,  letting you take care of them with no resistance  :)

Spends a lot of his time in his greenhouse, even when he’s not taking care of his plants, just being in there and taking in the scent gives him solace.

More into gardening outside than indoors, but he has a few indoor plants.

His parents were initially not sure about the gardening, since they normally would have their hired gardeners take care of it. But they soon grew accustomed to it and now enjoy the literal fruits of Furuhashi’s labor, taking advantage of the fresh crops that are available. 

It’s certainly a bragging point whenever people visit the home.

His parents got him a hydroponic system, but he’s not really into it.

His parents had also made suggestions of how to make the gardening more “efficient”, with some tools that would supposedly “speed up the process”, but Furuhashi refused.

He doesn’t feel the desire to rush the process, as the process itself is what he enjoys.

Enjoys the "repetitiveness" of it and how he can shut off his brain and go on autopilot for some of it.

For your sake, please do not disturb him while he is at work.

Has an area in his garden with plants that are good for honey bees. 

Uses organic fertilizers.

Has a dehydration machine for drying out flowers for tea.

I can see him treating relationships similarly.

I know his type is a masochist, but for those he loves, he treats them with a similar delicacy at times.

Hara - Music

Has a playlist of songs that he plays drums to regularly.

Comes up with rearrangements of his favorite songs in his head, but has never tried to create it irl.

Related to the above, he purchased high-end music software, out of impulse and from  the recommendations of videos he’s seen. But he has yet to use them.

Also has other instruments in his house, catching dust. The only other instrument he dabbles with occasionally is his acoustic guitar.

Great at master level difficulty for rhythm games. 

He loves when he zones out and his hands move almost automatically, still getting perfects. (the closest we’ll the “zone” from Hara)

Had once thought of making reaction videos that are titled like “Drummer reacts to (insert artist and song) MV”, except they would be click-baity as he wouldn’t put too much intellectual/drummer related input, just to piss people off.

They could also be random, not music related videos like, “Drummer reacts to best fighting compilation videos”. And these random videos are when he would commentate on the “percussions”, even though it’s not relevant.

Yamazaki - Fighting Games

The most we’ll get out of Yamazaki as far as injuring people.

Gamer rage for sure, has gotten kicked out of arcades a couple of times for manhandling the machines too roughly or just being loud and disruptive. He’s toned it down since.

One incident was caused by Hara, who was just standing behind him, backseating or distracting him. 

The backseating being particularly infuriating cause Hara doesn’t know much but will just make suggestions like “Have you tried dodging? Can’t you use your super strong ultimate  attack?”, cause he knows it’ll get under Yamazaki’s skin.

Has a decent MMR/ranking in games.

Takes new character reveals very very seriously (like new Smash or Tekken character reveals). 

Has a separate group of online friends that he enjoys playing games with.

Some of these friends include members of other teams, but he doesn’t know that it’s them. Like in the drama cds where Hanamiya has played games with Imayoshi, Riko, etc but doesn’t know it’s them(presumably anyway).

Seto - Memorization

I think the facts that we do know about Seto, including his hobby, go hand in hand.

His motto of “Free and unrestrained”, the reason he joined the basketball club, and even the fact he sleeps most times.

Dabbles in and jumps around new activities and skills. He like to learn new things and doesn’t like to be tied down to any one particular thing. The exception being basketball since that is because of Hanamiya.

But I think that’s part of why Seto was ok with joining the basketball club, because it was something new for him to learn.

His sleeping is a key part of his ability to memorize and learn things quickly and thoroughly. Sleep is known to help with memory retainment after all.

“I’ll sleep on it”

That’s why Hanamiya is chill with Seto being asleep during games, because there’s some “productive” element to it.

Throwing this in here, but I think Seto being really smart was something that developed throughout his life. 

It wasn’t something that came natural to him at birth. And I think that created a bit of an inferiority complex for him, especially when he was often compared to his older brother.

That’s also why Seto started to wholeheartedly learn things and expand his knowledge.

At first it was to try to surpass his brother but he started caring less about that, and now just learns things more out of enjoyment of it.

[rin-bellatrix]

Work It Out

"Jump with them all, and move it. Jump back and forth, and feel like you were there yourself, work it out." -- Gorillaz

While trying to track down a stolen case full of money, the Hyperion stooge and the Pandoran con artist find themselves trapped beneath Bossanova's arena. While not necessarily enemies, they aren't exactly friends, and they need to set aside their pride and work together to reunite with Sasha and Vaughn, and secure that case. If only they could stop bickering to make it in time.

This was created with the mindset of "what if it was Rhys and Fiona under Bossanova's arena instead of Rhys and Sasha?" The opportunity they could've had to bond and banter even more~ 💯‼️✨️

As always, anything I write can't pass inspection without my beloved ship sister @admiralsweko who betas 99.9% of my works and catches all my flaws and makes them better 😆💕✨️ THANK YOU SWE~!! 💖

Super awesome special shout-out to beloved Rhyiona Core members, @comma-tose @plague-cure and @writeastormsblog who I'm posting this especially for, since she requested fluff. (Even tho this really isn't fluffy per se~ But it's definitely rhyiona themed, and building on the potential for future romance~ 😏😉😆)

Fiona, Rhys and Jack AI gif from this post. Blue cyber themed dividers from this post. Blue cyber themed LOADING gif from this post.

Enjoy! 💜

"Attempting to reboot lift operation systems, please input the authorization code for calibration." The voice informed them as it floated out of the barely functional Atlas speakers.

The Hyperion company man furrowed his brow as his ECHO eye glowed, his look of concentration illuminated by the bank of moniters before him. His real and cybernetic hands danced over the brightly lit keyboard with such speed, that it was hard for even the seasoned con woman to keep up with everything he was entering into the old database. She glanced up at him, his side profile stark against the artificial light before him and the dark room at his back.

"We need to hurry, who knows what Bossanova's goons are gonna do with that case of money." Fiona tried to urge him along, crossing her arms as she grew antsy when another minute dragged by and nothing seemed to be happening.

She didn't wanna mention that she was also worried for Sasha, having been separated from her when the manhole cover slammed down over her head, forcing her to partner with the taller of the two Hyperion men. The shorter one seemed to be a little more put together than his lanky friend, but he was very obviously an off-worlder, and Pandora wasn't kind to its own inhabitants; a foreigner was just ripe for the picking (or peeling, in some psycho's cases). Hopefully Sasha could keep them both safe...

When the only response she got to her statement was the sound of more clicking and tapping on keys, she approached the lanky man's side to peer down at whatever the hell was taking him so long. She reached his shoulder and he spared her a glance, and from this close she could see even more details about him. His robotic eye implant was radiating a bright blue light, almost bright enough to hurt her own eyes. Around his azure iris swirled repeated patterns of zeroes and ones, circling around his pupil which seemed to operate much like an aperture for a camera. He blinked, and turned back to his insistent tapping, and the after image of his luminescent gaze floated before her. She blinked rapidly to dismiss the lingering affect.

"What's taking so long, Hyperion?" she outright questioned, frowning at the lines of unreadable code flashing across the screen. None of it made sense to her, and it usually never did; she was comfortable with leaving electronics and the like to Felix's capable care.

"Hey, hacking into an old, unused Atlas database is not exactly as easy as I'm making it look, lady. You've got to be subtle and finesse your way through - though I suppose that you, a lying, cheating, Pandoran con artist wouldn't know about subtlety." He offered her a tight smile full of false joy, before dismissing her and returning to his work. He was still obviously sore over the fake vault key and maybe also the attempt to push him out of a moving vehicle into the desert.

But oh, he wanted to play it like that, did he? Well it takes two to tango and Fiona had nothing to do right now but dance.

She leaned back against the jutting curve of the desk, lifting a delicate hand and making a show of examining her nail polish. "I sure was subtle enough when I planted that EMP receptor on the case of the vault key."

His almost rhythmic tapping ceased, and out of the corner of her eye she saw him turn towards her.

"So that was your fault?! You were there the whole time?? Ya know, my systems are still whacked because of your little 'EMP receptor'!" He huffed and threw his arms in the air, and though he easily towered over her, she didn't consider him a threat in the slightest; just another Hyperion lackey blowing a lot of hot air.

"I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you while I was being extremely subtle over here."

"Oh my GOD - has anyone ever told you how infuriating you are??"

The Pandoran native leveled him with a flat, unimpressed stare as she plucked at her ruffled cuff to fluff it out more. "Cry me a river, corporate boy."

Rhys grumbled in clear discontent, his eyes narrowed and his mouth souring into a petulant pout. Something about it brought joy to Fiona's jagged heart; perhaps it was the fact that she could easily rile him up with so little effort. It was actually kind of fun.

He straightened his vest, glowering down at her from his height as he added, "By the way, that vault key was the worst one I had ever seen, it was so obvious that it was fake."

"Dealt with many vault keys, have you?" she asked, lifting a scarred brow in accusation. "You must be really important up there if they're leaving you in charge of all the real vault keys. Tell me, how many have you handled that have actually opened up a vault, huh?"

The company man glanced off to the side, the apples of his cheeks pinkening ever so slightly as he swallowed. "Look, I'm uh, I'm trying to work on this okay?" He gestured towards the ancient Atlas computers by his side. "So I'd appreciate a little more patience and also, some peace and quiet would be nice, if it's not asking too much."

The grifter sighed, rolling her eyes as she folded her arms across her chest. "There will be all the 'peace and quiet' you want from me as soon as we get that money and go our separate ways."

Rhys shook his head, more so to himself than anything, and settled his fast fingertips over the illuminated keyboard again. "Ya know, I never wanted this."

"What, to be a mindless cog in the massive warmongering machine of Hyperion? Seems a bit late to be thinking like that." Time was ticking and the more time they stood here squabbling, the farther away that money and their chance at a new life got.

The man before her sighed, and it was deep and frustrated, and something about it made her regret her words, for just a moment. But she wasn't going to get soft around a complete stranger, doubly so for a Hyperion stooge who was after the cash just as much as she was.

"No, I mean..."

"Authorization complete. Initiating system maintenence check, please wait."

Images flashed across the grime covered monitors, but all Fiona could make out was the occasional glimpse of the Atlas logo. A soft whirring sound emitted from the computers, before a series of loud metal clanking noises reverberated from the area around the lift.

"I meant..." Rhys spoke up again, and Fiona had forgotten that he had been trying to tell her something while lost in the tentative excitement that the lift was actually going to work for them. "I've always wanted to be this. To just, be good at my job. I wanted to make it, and bring my friends with me. I never thought that I'd be doing something like this... I can admit that I regret a lot of the stuff I've done, things that were 'necessary' to help me get a step ahead. But it's all meaningless, everything I've done up until this point, if we don't secure that briefcase."

He turned towards her and met her eyes, his heterochromatic stare arresting. "I don't wanna argue with you any more, and I'd like it if we could come to some sort of truce. I mean, we're partners in this, whether we like it or not, so why can't we try to make the best of it...?" He offered his metal hand, waiting tentatively for her acceptance or refusal.

She eyed him skeptically, but he seemed sincere enough about it. Though in her time as a con artist, she knew that actions spoke louder than words. So she'd take him for face value, but keep him at arm's length because at the end of the day, the only people she could trust were Sasha and Felix.

Confident with her decision, she reached out and took his mechanical hand, offering a firm shake as she said, "I can agree to a compromise."

Relief softened his features, a smile breaking out across his face. "Great! That's actually, pretty great, I uh, didn't think it'd be so easy, honestly..."

"Just because I'm born and raised on Pandora, doesn't automatically make me a psycho, you know. I do have some decorum." Here she stepped closer to him, his cybernetic hand still heavy in her grip. "That being said, I do have the shiniest meat bicycle. Never forget that, slick."

At his look of surprise and confusion, she smirked and winked playfully at him, loosening her hold around his hand and taking a step back. Or she would have, had he not renewed his grip and tugged her forward, leaning into her space and keeping her trapped between his body and the edge of the desk behind her.

Before she could decide whether or not to jam her knee into his groin, he said, "Just because I work for Hyperion, it doesn't automatically make me a bad guy." He mirrored her statement, locking eyes with her as the lift lights flashed in the background. "And my name isn't 'slick,' it's Rhys."

Being cornered like this would usually cause Fiona's fight or flight response to kick in, but despite the fact that he was encroaching on her space, she didn't feel threatened. She parted her lips, about to ask him if he was finished making his point, when the action caused his gaze to flick down to her mouth. He glanced back up into her eyes, and whatever sass she was about to say fizzled away as her heart skipped a beat.

She felt the tension between them shift ever so slightly, felt as though if she were to let this moment linger, she would come to regret it. He was objectively attractive, but she had never let a pretty face distract her from achieving her mark, and she wouldn't start now. Even if curiosity tempted her to taste his mouth...

He blinked, seeming to disperse his thoughts before releasing her hand and taking a step off to the side. "Uh... So, it says here that there's less than a minute left of the... The maintenance check. Yeah."

"That's... Great! The sooner we get outta here, the better. Right."

Rhys ran his robotic hand over his gelled hair and down his neck as Fiona brushed her bangs away from her face, both of them purposefully avoiding the other's gaze. The con woman berated herself, vowing to stay on top of whatever little game he was playing. Willing away the mild attraction she felt, she adjusted her stance and tugged on her jacket, straightening it out.

"Lift system maintenance check complete. Anomaly one detected: C-grade gears need replacement. Anomaly two detected: hydraulic wiring in need of repair, potential fire hazard. Anomaly three-"

"Shit, what does this mean?" The Pandoran groused, stepping close to Rhys' side again to glare down at the lift's long list of damages that needed immediate repairs.

The young manager grunted in frustration, before leaning down and spamming the keys again. "The Atlas maintenence system is trying to prevent us from getting on that lift, it's claiming that it's a huge safety violation. The bandits here have rigged the basic system somehow, but my method must've woken up the actual safety protocols. But, that's okay because if the guys who were here before us could make it to the top, so can we. Don't worry, I've got this, this is gonna be way easier than the initial breach." He flashed her a confident smirk over his broad shoulder before focusing on bypassing Atlas' firewalls.

His little smirk was winsome, and as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she rejected it completely, throwing out the possibility that this nerd could cause such a reaction in her. Refusing to entertain those kind of thoughts about him any more, she turned away to survey the room. There had to be something she could do while Rhys fiddled with the computers for another ten minutes-

"Aaand done!"

"What?"

"We're outta here, c'mon!"

He grabbed her hand in his human one and ran over to the elevator, almost dragging her along in his excitement. She held on to her hat as she did her best to keep up with his ridiculously long legs, opening her mouth to scold him as they stopped in the center of the lift.

"Hey, you-" she started, shaking off his slightly sweaty grip and wiping her hand down her pant leg.

"I'm not gonna lie, this is actually kind of cool!"

"What?"

He turned toward her and smiled shyly. "When I was a kid, I used to make and hand out my own business cards. I always wanted to be at the top of the corporate ladder. I never had time to explore or go out and see the universe if it wasn't related to acquiring another asset for my boss. So this... It's scary as shit, don't get me wrong - but... It's pretty neat."

Fiona could see how a life full of 'thrills' would appeal to someone who lives in a cubicle and survives on paperwork and speadsheets, but this was the real world; her life wasn't some adventure that she could just drop whenever she wanted. Life up in Helios must be hell, but she'd take it in a heartbeat over another day scrounging for scraps on Pandora.

"You must have it easy up there. When I was young, I had just mastered a new pick-pocketing technique called 'feather fingers,' and I couldn't wait to teach it to my baby sister. Don't ever be mistaken, Rhys - Pandora is just a stepping stone for you but this little rock is my home, and I know more than anyone how things can turn sour real quick."

His hopeful smile had dimmed completely as she spoke, and now he looked down in thought. He lifted his gaze and met her jade eyes again, his features solemn in the dim light. "Have you ever thought about...leaving?"

The grifter couldn't help but scoff, incredulous at his question. "Of course I have, every sane person on this damn planet has. You think if we had a way to leave Hollow Point and everything behind, we wouldn't take it? That money in that briefcase was our way out, our only chance to get away from here. So let's get our asses up there and do whatever it takes to get that money back."

Rhys could see that she was dead serious, the fire in her eyes was blazing with determination. He felt the same, seeing how determined and how dedicated she was, was like looking in a mirror. If he didn't return back home to Helios with at least half of that money, everything from the moment of his handmade business cards up til his conversation with Vasquez, was all down the drain. That cash was really the answer to all their problems.

He lifted his cybernetic hand and opened the menu for the lift. Or at least he assumed it was the menu for the lift. His interface was still a bit wonky due to the strong pulse of the EMP device from earlier. The menu he could see was very distorted, buttons and commands glitching across the holographic screen. He tsked in irritation and clicked on the button he thought would start the lift.

Across the spacious room, a crane lowered a row of large crates to the floor. The crates seemed to be making... Noise.

"What are you doing? Get the lift started!"

"I'm trying! I just- I pressed the wrong thing alright? Okay, it's gotta be this one-"

The next button the young manager clicked on opened the crates, which turned out to be cages, which turned out to be holding ill-tempered skags. The pack of four-legged beasts prowled out of their metal carriers, scenting the air and eventually turning towards the only two people in the room.

"Rhys...??" Fiona questioned, flicking her wrist to make her pistol settle into her hand.

"Uh- shit- At least you have a gun-"

"This only fires one bullet!"

"One- one bullet?? Why?? What's the purpose of that?!"

"It's not my own choice! It was given to me!"

"By who, someone who wants you dead??"

"Shut up and get this lift moving!"

What a buncha dumb asses, just my luck.

"Hey, I'm trying my best here!" he groused in response, only realizing a second later that the voice didn't sound like the Pandoran. "Wait, who-"

"Well, 'your best' isn't cutting it!"

Before the Hyperion employee could answer her, the skags drew closer, hesitant at first but growing bolder as their hunger overtook the need to be cautious. Rumbling growls filled the room and Fiona aimed her pistol to the closest skag. Rhys pressed the only available button left on the glitchy menu...

And nothing happened.

Cursing under his breath, he spammed the command in the hopes that something would work in their favor.

The con woman tried to entertain the thought that she could fend off the small pack of wild, ravenous animals with a single bullet and the small knife she kept hidden in her boot. There was a slim chance she could do it, but in every scenario, the injuries would be grievous.

Suddenly the lift beneath their feet shuddered, and slowly began to rise. The immediate elation they both felt simultaneously plummeted as the largest skag began running towards them, intending on making a leap onto the platform. The grifter readied her gun, aiming at the hungry creature to shoot it off in case it made the jump.

The animal pounced off the ground and sailed through the air, its momentum more than enough to carry it to the elevated platform. Fiona's finger tightened on the trigger, waiting for the precise moment when it would be close enough that perhaps the shot could push it off the ledge.

Before the skag landed, it seemed to bounce off of an invisible wall and fall down onto its spiny back, scrabbling to right itself and stand on all fours again. It roared in frustration, but the lift was now much too high up to see it any more.

The 'invisible wall' shimmered and reformed into a tall figure that stepped closer to the two flabbergasted people with a graceful ease that Fiona envied.

"I have a question. Have you seen a Gortys piece? I really need it."

The Pandoran con woman recognized the lithe being in front of her, vaguely recalling that this was one of the vault hunter's that was known galaxy-wide. Unsure of what to say in the presence of someone who was very powerful and who obviously just saved their lives, she shook her head mutely.

Rhys, unlike her, didn't seem to be at a loss for words because his giddy voice sounded from behind her, "Hi, I just wanted to say, that I think you're really cool."

She glanced back at him and was perplexed to find him damn near twirling his hair. Fiona fought the urge to roll her eyes as she turned to face Zer0 again, surprised to see a <3 flash across his reflective visor.

Before she could find her footing in this new predicament, the muffled sound of a roaring crowd and the booming bass of loud music rumbled above their heads. Just as the three of them looked up, the doors over the ceiling unlocked and parted, the lift pushing them up into the middle of Bossanova's arena.

©rin-bellatrix 2025

☆ borderlands masterlist ⋆ main masterlist ☆

[gemmahale]

Here's the thing. I'm in a red state, in a county that went red.

I knew that when I moved out here four years ago. (Yes, it was April 2020 and no, I do not recommend moving during a global pandemic.) I accepted that that would be part of it. I made my peace with it, and I do what I can to mitigate the effects.

I'm not scared for me (minus the bodily autonomy thing since my state now has a 12 week abortion ban, and the general fuckery of facists in power) because tbh, I'm white and cis-het passing.

I'm nonbinary and bisexual. Can't tell any of that unless I tell you, and I don't make it well well known. I use she/her at work, wear skirts and dresses, and respond to Mrs/Ms Gemma or Hale (actually folks use my legal first or last name 😉); though Dr. is preferred if I get the choice.

I fly under the radar as a quirky white woman. I'm relatively "protected."

In the wake of the election results rolling out, I'm apprehensive for:

Kallen, who is white-passing Cherokee and a disabled veteran. I've been party to how he's treated differently than I am - by the same checker at the store not more than 5 minutes apart. He moved out here after I established my career, so he had little to no input of where we moved to (other than "I want to be with you.")

My coworkers who already face harassment for being POC in the community (including foreign exchange students that come to do part of their PhD here because of the proximity to the university system). People have been chased out of their positions here due to the racism they've experienced.

My coworkers who would seek to have an abortion (I'm included in this myself).

The LGBTQ+ community here (remember - I'm not out out).

The immigrant and POC communities here

And folks beyond my immediate viscinity

A lot of the community operates on a "mind your shit" basis. But I have to look people in the eye with Trump 2024 caps on and answer their questions politely. I have to drive by trucks with religious bumper stickers and greet them and give them scientifically sound information.

I wanted to believe in a world that valued competency and skill; and then I remember: I was the only one that applied to this job in the boondocks, and we've struggled to get positions filled out here. And I know part of it is not because of the low cost of living or lack of proximity to major shopping centers/social options. 🙃

I'm poking around into what local groups I can get into and donate my time to. My job puts me in direct access with food security resources, so that's probably where I'll start. Perhaps tie into the LGBTQ community because I know there's an active group out here. (I want to get more involved in the community anyway.)

I have to swallow this fear I have of being connected to causes while in my position. Yes, my employer is technically neutral ground, but that doesn't mean I have to be. I am allowed to be civically involved, as long as I make it clear when I am working in a work capacity (branded gear, name tag, etc.) and as a private citizen.

I admittedly got spooked when I received a few letters (to my private address, mind you) stating that I was a poor representative of my institution because I didn't maintain my yard like I should when I first started. (It was a whole thing and got escalated up higher than it needed to and yeah. I still have those letters in my office.)

But folks are starting to know me, and I'm starting to know them too. I need to cast this fear I have aside and be true to my values - accessibility, inclusivity, equity, and justice.

[mariacallous]

The German high command learned a key lesson after losing World War I: Never fight a two-front war. That’s why Germany signed the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with the Soviet Union, which stated that neither country would attack the other for a decade. But Adolf Hitler couldn’t count to 10, and Germany ended up in World War II—another two-front war that ended badly for Germany.

The same dictum goes for trade wars. It’s okay to fight a one-front war, but not a war with the whole world. As comedian Norm Macdonald joked on The Late Show in 2015, “In the early part of the previous century, Germany decided to go to war, and who did they go to war with? The world … Then about 30 years pass and Germany decides, again, to go to war. And, again, it chooses as its enemy the world!”

Now, U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to start a trade war, and who does he choose to attack? The world. On his so-called “Liberation Day” in April, Trump imposed tariffs on most countries, even islands with penguins and allies that run trade deficits with the United States.

The result is that the rest of the world appears to resent the United States now and is beginning to plan for a post-American trading system. Japan, South Korea, China, and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are in talks to cooperate on trade, as are the European Union and China. Canada is also looking to the EU for closer trade and investment ties in light of Trump’s tariffs.

Regardless, Trump seems to think that the United States is still the top dog, the head honcho, the boss. But it’s time to face the facts: The United States will lose massively from his trade war.

The reason is simple. Too many U.S. companies, especially in advanced industries, need global market access to survive and thrive. The model Trump company is a low to moderate tech and nontraded American company selling almost all its output domestically. Think kitchen knife makers, furniture producers, and golf club companies. (Does Trump know that he and his fellow country club members will soon pay more for a new set of irons?) If Trump protects these companies from overseas competition, his thinking goes, these companies will thrive. How could they not with a large protected market?

Not so fast. The United States cannot be powerful without robust advanced industries. And those industries will seriously struggle in Trump’s new world.

There are multiple vectors of challenge. The first is that U.S. firms that produce for export—think Boeing, Merck, General Electric, and others—will see their input costs increase significantly as they pay tariffs on imported components and materials.

Second, as other nations enact reciprocal tariffs, these companies’ products will be priced out of foreign markets. Companies in other countries will buy South Korean memory chips rather than those manufactured by Micron. Airbus jets, not Boeing. Hitachi machinery, not Caterpillar. You get the idea.

On top of that, Trump is opening the floodgates for blatant discrimination against U.S. firms. The EU is using Trump’s aggression to justify its ��EuroStack”: a plan to eventually replace almost all U.S. tech products, from computer chips to severs, with those made in Europe. And while the bloc has finally announced plans to boost military spending, it will do so by purchasing European-made weapons.

This gets to a related challenge. While U.S. exporters under Trump’s trade war will be increasingly shut out of foreign markets, their competitors will find themselves in a globally integrated market, albeit sans the United States. That will be particularly true as other nations take steps to create more integrated markets through new trade agreements. Foreign companies will have the scale needed to innovate and thrive. By contrast, U.S. producers, dependent on the relatively smaller U.S. market, will slowly shrivel and perhaps ultimately die.

Trump’s import substitution strategy (ISI) has been tried elsewhere before. It failed. The international development community widely embraced ISI in the 1950s and ’60s as a growth strategy—and many developing nations held onto it until the 1980s and beyond. One reason it failed was that countries, even relatively large ones like Brazil, did not have big enough markets to efficiently make increasingly complex goods. A recent analysis of global industrial policies by the International Monetary Fund found that it was nations that adopted export strategies, such as South Korea and Taiwan, that thrived—not those that championed ISI.

Even though the U.S. economy is much bigger than, say, South Korea’s, today’s advanced industries require larger markets than the United States can provide to survive—if only to generate the revenues needed to pay for continuous research and development.

But there’s more. As the United States’ role as the global trade hegemon wanes, China will surely take its place. Beijing has spent the last 15 years penetrating every global institution. With Trump leading the U.S. exit from many of them—such as the World Health Organization, the Paris Agreement, and the United Nations Human Rights Council—victory is China’s.

We are already seeing, and will likely continue to see, vastly more countries traveling to Beijing and kowtowing to Chinese President Xi Jinping to cut trade deals. Brazil and Colombia, once the largest recipient of U.S. economic assistance in South America, have already gone down that road. Chinese advanced industries may not have U.S. market access after the trade war, but they will have the rest of the world’s. American companies, meanwhile, will be left with the scraps of the U.S. market.

After Trump’s drawdown of foreign aid, China is also spending much more than the United States to win the hearts and minds of other countries. It doesn’t take a weather person to know which way the wind blows: east. As Xi recently wrote in an article for a Russian newspaper, “unilateralism, hegemony and acts of bullying are inflicting severe harm” around the world. Only Trump could make China look like the defender of free trade and solidarity.

To be clear, Trump needed to go to (trade) war with nations not playing fair. The top offender is China, which started the global trade war around 2006 and has ramped it up since Xi took office. Along with some other countries, Beijing has engaged in systemic mercantilist practices, helping to hollow out U.S. manufacturing and leading to massive U.S. trade deficits.

China conducted massive intellectual property theft. It bludgeoned foreign firms, forcing them to produce in China and transfer technology. Then, it closed its markets once it gained production capabilities in a particular industry.

U.S. attempts to address China’s cheating through the World Trade Organization (WTO) have been few and far between, in part because the WTO is structured in ways that make effectively prosecuting such actions nearly impossible. U.S. firms also largely refused to cooperate with the WTO for fear of Chinese government retribution. The same goes for the EU.

The relatively few cases the United States brought and won provided mostly pyrrhic victories, such as quotas for rare-earth exports and wind power subsidies, neither of which changed competitive realities. And in most cases, China filed counter suits to U.S. suits. Trump was right: It was time to declare war. But not, as Macdonald would say, on the world all at once.

So, is there any hope? Probably not. But if Trump is one thing, it is unpredictable.

Here’s what Trump should have done: first focus on a few of the worst offenders of global trading rules, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. Before imposing tariffs, invite those countries to talk, list key U.S. demands, and give them 90 days to fix them. Only impose tariffs if they refuse to respond. And while doing that, focus on the trade barriers and irritants that are most important to U.S. competitiveness in advanced industries.

If these nations want to expand their shrimp exports, then who cares? If they want to close their markets to U.S. whiskey, that’s not worth fighting about. But attacking U.S. tech firms and limiting access to advanced U.S. goods and services—that’s worth going to the mattresses over.

Then, pivot to Europe. After that, pivot to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. You get the picture. But don’t go to war with the whole world at the same time. All that does is create a worldwide anti-American alliance.

When China conducts its trade wars, it has enough sense to not attack every country all at once. Beijing launches a trade strike on a particular nation and then waits for a bit, gauging the foreign response; when outrage has died down, it launches another. And like a frog in boiling water, other nations have taken China’s blows with barely a whimper.

China remains the only country with the will and the means to destroy U.S.—and Western—advanced technology industries. Trump’s trade war should be designed to keep Beijing from winning. Above all, that means working with U.S. allies. But in the face of the United States’ increasing hostility and declining power, many nations find it easier to cut deals with Beijing.

Without allies, any war is lost. Unless Trump shows a willingness to negotiate with U.S. allies—something he refused to do when he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in May—the United States will be just as globally isolated as it was before World War I. However, the big difference between then and now is that technology requires U.S. firms to attain global scale to survive and that China has emerged to outcompete them.

We can only hope that the United States emerges from its own multifront conflict better than Germany did.

[misfitwashere]

ROBERT REICH

MAR 7

Friends,

Your anxiety is entirely justified. We are going through one of the most stressful times in American history. It is a national emergency. 

Yet the resistance to this foul regime continues to mount. Here’s this week’s report on 10 reasons for modest optimism, in rough order of importance. 

1. The courts are stepping up their fight against the regime. 

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s emergency request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid as part of his efforts to slash government spending. The vote was 5-4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the three liberal members to form a majority.

It’s the second 5-4 Supreme Court ruling against Trump since he returned to power, and it shows that an unlikely majority does exist to rein in Trump’s excesses.

This probably accounts for Trump’s decision to back off from issuing an executive order dismantling the Education Department. The Supreme Court would almost certainly have held that only Congress can shut down a department. (Shutting the Education Department has also been​ unpopular ​among Republican​ leaders​ in rural areas that heavily rely on federal funding.)

Meanwhile, lower federal courts are now considering over 80 separate lawsuits against the Trump regime. So far, the vast majority of lower-court rulings have been against Trump. 

In an opinion handed down Thursday morning, Federal District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. extended an order barring Trump from withholding billions in congressionally approved funds to 22 states and the District of Columbia, including Federal Emergency Management funding. The judge said: 

“Here, the executive put itself above Congress. It imposed a categorical mandate on the spending of congressionally appropriated and obligated funds without regard to Congress’s authority to control spending … In an evident and acute harm, with floods and fires wreaking havoc across the country, federal funding for emergency management and preparedness would be impacted.”

Also on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that Trump violated the National Labor Relations Act by firing National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, and that Wilcox remains in her position at the federal agency. Howell wrote: “The President’s interpretation of the scope of his constitutional power — or, more aptly, his aspiration — is flat wrong.”

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley extended a freeze on the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding through the National Institutes of Health.

Also on Wednesday, the Merit Systems Protection Board, which decides federal worker disputes, temporarily allowed thousands of Department of Agriculture employees swept up in Musk’s government-gutting effort to get back to work.

2. Musk and Trump Republicans are seen to be targeting Social Security.

Elon Musk calls Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” That’s rich coming from the richest person in the world. 

It’s also frightening coming from the person wielding a chainsaw to government programs — promising to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, when Social Security is one of the largest of all government programs. 

Acting Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Leland Dudek tolda group this week that Musk’s DOGE is essentially in charge of the SSA. 

“Things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before,” Dudek said, referring to Musk’s cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs.” He continued: “I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.’”

The reason I include this as a reason for optimism is that Social Security is also the most popular of all government programs. By demeaning and threatening Social Security, Musk is touching the proverbial “third rail” of American politics. 

Good. Let Trump and other Republicans try to wiggle out of this one.

3. DOGE’s credibility is shot. 

Musk’s group claims to have saved taxpayers $65 billion so far. But DOGE has itemized only its cancellations of contracts and leases, totaling about $10 billion.

Not even these contract cancellations amount to much. The New York Timesfound many so-called “cancelled” contracts had actually ended under previous presidents. 

By some estimates, DOGE has saved the government just $2 billion. That comes to 1/35 of 1 percent of the federal budget.

Repeated errors have raised questions about the quality and veracity of the information Musk’s DOGE is putting out. The mistakes also call into question the team members’ competence — whether they understand the government well enough to cut it while avoiding catastrophe.

This week, Musk again demanded every federal worker justify their employment, and once again, his hastily executed email has sowed confusion and resistance throughout the workforce, with many agency heads openly defying it.

Federal workers at NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program didn’t know how to respond because HLS has contracted with Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket company, the major competitor to Musk’s SpaceX, and HLS workers didn’t want to disclose to Musk what they were doing.

At the same time, the Commerce Department has adjusted a government program to make it easier for states and municipalities to use government subsidies to buy Musk’s Starlink internet service. 

(Mark my words: When all this is put together, it will make Warren G. Harding’s Teapot Dome scandal look like a game of checkers. 

Meanwhile, the consequences of Trump’s destruction of USAID continue to ricochet around the world. A senior official at USAID said Trump’s crushing the agency and withdrawing foreign aid would likely result in up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year; 200,000 children a year becoming paralyzed with polio and hundreds of millions of infections; and more than 28,000 new cases of infectious diseases such as Ebola and Marburg every year. 

4. Republicans lawmakers are forcing Trump to reduce Musk’s power. 

On Tuesday, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on CNN that Cabinet secretaries should retain the full power to hire and fire, echoing a message Trump has received from other Republican lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries.

On Thursday, Trump convened his Cabinet and told them they’re in charge of their departments, not Musk. Musk can only make recommendations to the departments but not issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy. 

Trump also said he wants to keep good people in government and not eject capable workers en masse. “As the Secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various Departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go,” he posted. “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’”

Nice words but I’ll believe it when I see it. The real significance of this is it shows Trump is feeling pressure to demonstrate he’s constraining Musk. 

5. Republicans are hiding from their constituents. 

Over the last two weeks, Republican lawmakers have faced scenes of frustration and outrage in theirs districts.

At a town hall in rural Kansas on Saturday, Republican Senator Roger Marshall shut down the event after participants shouted over each other to express concerns about veterans’ jobs being cut and ask whether Marshall believes Russia invaded Ukraine.

Attendees booed when Marshall abruptly ended the meeting. They shouted, “We’re going to vote you out” and “You’re not done!” according to a video clip from the meeting.

In Tennessee, voters gathered inside and outside an event held by Representative Diana Harshbarger, a Republican Freedom Caucus member, expressing anger over Trump and Musk’s actions and demanding that the Republican congresswoman stand up to them. According to footage of the event shared by local TV station WJHL, the crowd repeatedly interrupted the congresswoman, leading her to plea with them to stop.

California Republican Representative Jay Obernolte was confronted by voters who questioned the firing of Joshua Tree National Park employees by Musk and Trump, according to KVCR. Audience members shouted over Obernolte, who claimed that the park employees would be rehired but offered no further details.

As a result of these and many other angry confrontations, GOP leaders are now discouraging Republican lawmakers from holding in-person town halls. North Carolina Representative Richard Hudson, who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, is urging Republicans to hold “virtual” town halls instead.

6. The economy is taking a nosedive. 

I’m including this among reasons to be optimistic because a growing number of Trump voters are suffering buyer’s remorse. They voted for him because they thought he’d fix the economy. Instead, the economy is taking a nosedive. 

Because of Trump’s tariffs and his budget-busting tax cuts, consumer expectations about inflation are the highest they’ve been since 1995. Over 75 percent of the public believes that their incomes aren’t keeping up with inflation. 

Credit card and auto loan delinquencies are higher than they’ve been since the 2008 financial crisis. Homebuilders are frozen, as well. 

This week’s data on consumer confidence showed it down to a level last seen in 2021. 

Data from the Commerce Department, out last Friday, showed consumer spending falling sharply in January, adding to angst about the economy’s prospects.

After new data came out this week on trade and consumer spending, the Atlanta Fed is projecting that the U.S. is shrinking at a rate of 1.5 percent in this quarter. 

The political fallout is clear: Trump, came into office relatively popular. Now more Americans disapprove of him than approve, including nearly 60 percent of independents. 

I’m also including this week’s plunge in the stock market on my causes for modest optimism because Trump and his wealthy campaign backers consider the stock market their measure of success or failure. 

The S&P 500 dropped 1.8 percent on Thursday, taking the index’s slide for this week to 3.6 percent and putting it on course for its worst week since a banking crisis two years ago that felled some of the country’s small lenders. Have a look: 

7. The stock market’s slide has forced Trump to back down on his tariffs. 

The stock market’s negative reaction to Trump’s tariffs caused him to withdraw them. 

On Thursday, Trump suspended new tariffs on most imports from Mexico and Canada until April 2. The exemptions, covering goods brought into the country under a trade pact Trump signed in his first term, came just two days after he incited a trade fight by imposing tariffs of 25 percent on two of the nation’s closest economic partners.

Bottom line: The stock market is stopping Trump from doing his worst. 

8. Trump and Republicans are accepting a continuation of Biden’s spending levels. 

The troubling economic headwinds are also pushing Trump Republicans to avoid a government shutdown, which would further worsen the economy. 

With time running short to avoid a shutdown at the end of next week, Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson are urging Republicans to accept a stopgap bill that would keep federal dollars flowing at current levels through the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

This is a major surrender by Republicans because the stopgap funding bill would maintain spending at levels enacted under former President Joe Biden and would not include cuts being made by Musk’s DOGE. 

9. Europe is coming together.

Trump has opened talks with Russia without directly involving Europe or Ukraine and seems intent on turning his back on America’s traditional allies. 

The good news is that leaders of the European Union are joining together. On Thursday, the heads of state or government from the EU’s 27 member countries gathered in Brussels to discuss how to bolster both Europe’s own defenses and its support for Ukraine. “Europe faces a clear and present danger,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU executive arm, as she walked into the gathering alongside Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, calling this a “watershed moment.”

“We are very grateful we are not alone,” said Zelensky. 

Meanwhile, Europe is forging trade partnerships without the United States. As Trump puts up a higher fence around the American economy, other nations are lowering theirs — further isolating America. 

The European Union has concluded a major agreement with four South American countries to create one of the world’s largest trade zones, linking markets with 850 million people, along with a new trade arrangement with Mexico. 

10. Democrats are finally showing some spine. 

My last item on this week’s list of reasons for modest optimism is that Democrats are finally showing a bit of backbone. During Trump’s interminable address to Congress on Tuesday night, many Democratic members raised signs. Some turned their backs on Trump. Others walked out of the speech. 

After 77-year-old Texas Representative Al Green rose from his seat, shook his cane and yelled that Trump had “no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Republican Speaker Mike Johnson ordered Green ejected from the chamber. After the House voted to censure Green, he led a group of his colleagues in singing “We Shall Overcome,” forcing Johnson to call a recess. 

On Thursday, Green gave an impassioned speech calling for “positive, righteous incivility” in the face of “ignoble incivility” from Trump. Green also noted that Trump faced no reprimand for calling Democratic members of Congress “lunatics” on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are asking the District of Columbia’s bar association to investigate Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, whom Trump has nominated to be permanent U.S. attorney —charging that Martin has “abused” prosecutorial power to threaten his political opponents.

Asking bar associations to investigate Trump nominees is a good means of circumventing Trump’s Republican lackeys in holding people responsible. (It worked with Rudy Giuliani.)

***

As before, my intention in giving you these reasons for modest optimism is not to minimize the emergency we’re in but to offer some cause for believing all is not lost. 

Musk is proving to be a liability for Trump. It’s only a matter of time before Trump jettisons him. 

Trump has put the economy in peril, which will cause widespread pain. Yet nothing galvanizes public outrage more than a poor economy. 

Your continuing activism is also helping turn the tide against the Trump-Vance-Musk regime. Please keep it up.

[anna328p]

imagine lying in your Owner's lap, looking up at it from below. you already know how much bigger it is than you, but the perspective makes it seem like it's all-encompassing

being held, safely, comfortably, as it readjusts internal components in your body

one hand reaching in through the gap left under the panel it removed from your chest, the other hand's interface attached to the control port on the back of your neck

you feel the input slow down, less adjustments being made now as it finishes up. you lie patiently, blissful, not knowing what's to come but trusting them completely

and you feel a heavy, resonant click, as the state of your power system fades from your awareness, as you feel the reactor in your body shutting down. systems slow to conserve power, but there's not much left in reserve, and your visual processing begins fading into grey

but you feel a new sensation in your awareness. foreign, yet unmistakably familiar. your Owner's resonance fills you. it's beautiful. you feel the gentle pulsing of its reactor, the fluctuations you feel when its servos actuate its limbs. it comes together into almost a song, in part rhythmic and constant, but organic, unpredictable, alive. you've felt its pattern before, but never like this.

and power floods back into your systems, your senses newly tinted with its Presence. you feel it in everything. the music overtakes you. you try to analyze it, but even with just a glimpse of the information flow you struggle to keep up. you let go. you let it flow into you. everywhere you'd feel the hum of your reactor, you feel your Owner. and you feel that It is Beautiful.

you hear its words. you don't just hear them, they're more than that. it reaches through the control port, and you feel its mind enveloping yours. "you're safe here. you can relax now. i have you in my arms. you belong to me, forever. there are no more worries. i will hold you."

[charmwitch]

I'm always worried I won't get to illustrating something because I'm slow and take forever to work on my webcomic, so I'll explain it here since we'll be seeing more of Nirinel soon (and it is relevant in the comic. I don't mind 'spoiling' though. The idea of Solstoria is that it's an entire world's story.)

Teleportation is not magic. It is a system scattered across the world. Some speculate it's remnants of a spacecraft of sorts. If you ask Nirinel, it's absolutely aliens. She loves conspiracy theories. Now the thing with Teleportation being a technology based craft is that you have to put in computer inputs. How Nirinel does this, and how she found out how to do this is kind of a fluke, but as long as you're able to pull up a panel (in this situation, a panel can be pulled up by sacrificing some magic.) and input coordinates, you can override the system and ask it to take you somewhere. As long as you note the amount of passengers and your own location. This is where it gets tricky, you have to be down to a certain decimal point or you can teleport yourself somewhere dangerous.

Nirinel is naturally gifted in maths. She is great with numbers, she can memorize complex diagrams and come up with solutions on the fly, but she wants to be a helper witch instead. She is homeschooled so most people don't really notice her craft besides some of her friends and whenever she's in town, she'll calculate her own meals with tip and stuff. She uses it for really mundane shit for the most part.

As for teleportation, an ancient system people don't really know how to access, or at least- Nirinel doesn't really tell anyone about it. It's her fun little secret. She's used it maybe twice in the story. But yeah, it may be a system foreign to the world that was left behind on it and somehow hacked by a weird little mage for her own personal fun. She's absolutely forbidden from using it, but that doesn't stop her from seeing it as an option in dire moments.

[dballzposting]

I think of the Super Saiyan state to be a product of sympathetic activation same as adrenaline is in humans. And so I dont think thag Goku and Vegeta could have the sex while in that elevated state because sexual arousal requires parasympathetic input (relaxes the arteries of the peepee to cause erection). If they were thag keyed up then I dont think thag they could be sexy.

But I've also heard of men getting erections precisely during times of heavy exertion and energy arousal , I'm assuming because of adrenaline's vasodilatory effects for certain arteries (those to the muscles, is the peepee a muscle? Google explain)but I really dont know I haven't heard anything about that. (/doesnt look it up./) (a few months ago I was shown a clip of an Olympian pole vaulter touching the bar he wasnt supposed to be touching .. with his erect peepee. And he lost. But really ... shouldn't he be proud?)

But I mean here's what we know guys. During the Cell times Goku was able to maintain Super Saiyan while walking around being a normal dude. He was able to contain all that energy and to just be with it. Super impressive.

He also conceived with Chichi in this time. So what gives

Well. Maybe Goku is just so awesome and strong that his nervous system was simply able to juggle this joint task because he IS a freak of nature (has spent his life training the responses of his body so nothing can be put past him). Or maybe it's similiar to what we see in our humanity, bitches are walking around traumatized and their nervous systems stuck in discordant states and they're scared all of the time and sexual attraction feels so foreign to them but even though they may have erectile dysfunction or something they can still fuuuuck . That's kind of the whole thing about trauma . You pretty much only see it in humans (and domesticated animals...) because of our ability to override certain instincts and impulses thag would have been healing or resolving . So we walk around with it. Simultaneously alive and dead . Swamped with parasympathetic shut-down and/or always keyed up past what's appropriate. You know how it is

And those people still manage to ffuuuuck if only in a purely physiological way So it's not at all amiss that Goku could do thag too with his skill.

But you have to wonder if it's even worth your time. If you can feel the full extent of it if in the background you're looking for danger.

But if you consider the ideal state of "relaxed but alert" then Goku is your prime candidate. But can Super Saiyan be considered a relaxed state, even if you maintain your composure during?