#High-dimension Data

[copper-ice-cube]

Main D20 Seasons Ultimate Ranking: part 7

(Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI)

[fightinggamegirlfriend]

SMT 4 has been installed to my 3ds. Time to jump in the deep end and give this demon collecting post-apocalypse game a go. Wish me luck because I am fully aware SMT can and will kick one's ass.

[nasa]

What We Learned from Flying a Helicopter on Mars

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made history – not only as the first aircraft to perform powered, controlled flight on another world – but also for exceeding expectations, pushing the limits, and setting the stage for future NASA aerial exploration of other worlds.

Built as a technology demonstration designed to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, Ingenuity performed flight operations from the Martian surface for almost three years. The helicopter ended its mission on Jan. 25, 2024, after sustaining damage to its rotor blades during its 72nd flight.

So, what did we learn from this small but mighty helicopter?

We can fly rotorcraft in the thin atmosphere of other planets.

Ingenuity proved that powered, controlled flight is possible on other worlds when it took to the Martian skies for the first time on April 19, 2021.

Flying on planets like Mars is no easy feat: The Red Planet has a significantly lower gravity – one-third that of Earth’s – and an extremely thin atmosphere, with only 1% the pressure at the surface compared to our planet. This means there are relatively few air molecules with which Ingenuity’s two 4-foot-wide (1.2-meter-wide) rotor blades can interact to achieve flight.

Ingenuity performed several flights dedicated to understanding key aerodynamic effects and how they interact with the structure and control system of the helicopter, providing us with a treasure-trove of data on how aircraft fly in the Martian atmosphere.

Now, we can use this knowledge to directly improve performance and reduce risk on future planetary aerial vehicles.

Creative solutions and “ingenuity” kept the helicopter flying longer than expected.

Over an extended mission that lasted for almost 1,000 Martian days (more than 33 times longer than originally planned), Ingenuity was upgraded with the ability to autonomously choose landing sites in treacherous terrain, dealt with a dead sensor, dusted itself off after dust storms, operated from 48 different airfields, performed three emergency landings, and survived a frigid Martian winter.

Fun fact: To keep costs low, the helicopter contained many off-the-shelf-commercial parts from the smartphone industry - parts that had never been tested in deep space. Those parts also surpassed expectations, proving durable throughout Ingenuity’s extended mission, and can inform future budget-conscious hardware solutions.

There is value in adding an aerial dimension to interplanetary surface missions.

Ingenuity traveled to Mars on the belly of the Perseverance rover, which served as the communications relay for Ingenuity and, therefore, was its constant companion. The helicopter also proved itself a helpful scout to the rover.

After its initial five flights in 2021, Ingenuity transitioned to an “operations demonstration,” serving as Perseverance’s eyes in the sky as it scouted science targets, potential rover routes, and inaccessible features, while also capturing stereo images for digital elevation maps.

Airborne assets like Ingenuity unlock a new dimension of exploration on Mars that we did not yet have – providing more pixels per meter of resolution for imaging than an orbiter and exploring locations a rover cannot reach.

Tech demos can pay off big time.

Ingenuity was flown as a technology demonstration payload on the Mars 2020 mission, and was a high risk, high reward, low-cost endeavor that paid off big. The data collected by the helicopter will be analyzed for years to come and will benefit future Mars and other planetary missions.

Just as the Sojourner rover led to the MER-class (Spirit and Opportunity) rovers, and the MSL-class (Curiosity and Perseverance) rovers, the team believes Ingenuity’s success will lead to future fleets of aircraft at Mars.

In general, NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions test and advance new technologies, and then transition those capabilities to NASA missions, industry, and other government agencies. Chosen technologies are thoroughly ground- and flight-tested in relevant operating environments — reducing risks to future flight missions, gaining operational heritage and continuing NASA’s long history as a technological leader.

You can fall in love with robots on another planet.

Following in the tracks of beloved Martian rovers, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter built up a worldwide fanbase. The Ingenuity team and public awaited every single flight with anticipation, awe, humor, and hope.

Check out #ThanksIngenuity on social media to see what’s been said about the helicopter’s accomplishments.

Learn more about Ingenuity’s accomplishments here. And make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[eileen-crys]

AI DISTURBANCE "OVERLAYS" DO NOT WORK!

To all the artists and folks who want to protect their art against AI mimicry: all the "AI disturbance" overlays that are circulating online lately DON'T WORK!

Glaze's disturbance (and now the Ibis Paint premium feature, apparently. Not sure.) modifies the image on a code-level, it's not just an overlayed effect but it actually affects the image's data so AI can't really detect and interpret the code within the image. From the Glaze website:

Can't you just apply some filter, compression, blurring, or add some noise to the image to destroy image cloaks? As counterintuitive as this may be, the high level answer is that no simple tools work to destroy the perturbation of these image cloaks. To make sense of this, it helps to first understand that cloaking does not use high-intensity pixels, or rely on bright patterns to distort the image. It is a precisely computed combination of a number of pixels that do not easily stand out to the human eye, but can produce distortion in the AI's “eye.” In our work, we have performed extensive tests showing how robust cloaking is to things like image compression and distortion/noise/masking injection. Another way to think about this is that the cloak is not some brittle watermark that is either seen or not seen. It is a transformation of the image in a dimension that humans do not perceive, but very much in the dimensions that the deep learning model perceive these images. So transformations that rotate, blur, change resolution, crop, etc, do not affect the cloak, just like the same way those operations would not change your perception of what makes a Van Gogh painting "Van Gogh."

Anyone can request a WebGlaze account for FREE, just send an Email or a DM to the official Glaze Project accounts on X and Instagram, they reply within a few days. Be sure to provide a link to your art acc (anywhere) so they know you're an artist.

Please don't be fooled by those colorful and bright overlays to just download and put on your art: it won't work against AI training. Protect your art with REAL Glaze please 🙏🏻 WebGlaze is SUPER FAST, you upload the artwork and they send it back to you within five minutes, and the effect is barely visible!

Official Glaze Project website | Glaze FAQs | about WebGlaze

[charliemwrites]

Uhhh this is sort of to get me back in the swing of writing since some people may have noticed I haven’t done much this week. It’s… it’s been a week, but that’s fine, those happen.

Anyway, concept comes from @ceilidho’s concept/drabble of “military asset Soap” and heavily inspired also by @391780’s Nikto version. Please go check out theirs because they’re brilliantly written.

(There will be a part 2 because this got longer than expected.)

Content: Verbal Threats, Dirty Talk, Objectification, Dub-Con, Name-calling. Please stay safe! 💕

You thought you were done with this.

Got out by making the best of a bad situation. Honorable discharge following an injury after your last base was infiltrated. “Data analysts” (hackers) can’t have unpredictable hand spasms in the middle of time-sensitive decryptions. So, you got out.

And now you’re all but being dragged back.

You don’t recognize the two stone-faced men flanking you, but you recognize the woman they sit you in front of.

“Laswell.”

She doesn’t look older, but she looks more tired. Like she hasn’t slept since she informed you of your discharge.

“It’s good to see you again,” she says without smiling. It’s good to see you; it’s not good that you’re seeing her. “I wish it was… I wish this wasn’t the situation.”

You arch your eyebrows. Have never known her to speak without measuring the exact dimensions of her words first. She always slides them into spaces perfectly designed for them, builds towers and forts out of syllables.

There’s a treacherous unintentional volume to the word “this” that prickles across your neurons.

“And what’s ‘this’ exactly?” you ask.

“A recently recovered asset,” she explains. You expect a dossier of some kind to be set in front of you. She links her fingers together on top of her desk and looks you in the eye. “He’s asking for you.”

You blink. Never was any good at staring contests with anything but a screen.

“And who,” you speak slowly, poking at the edges of whatever she’s hedging around, “is he?”

A pause, heavy enough to slowly start pressing the air from your lungs.

“Do you remember John MacTavish?” she asks.

You frown, rifling through mental files.

John MacTavish of Task Force 141. Soap. You remember liking him, even though he made a shy, anti-social part of you uneasy. He had a starting problem, and a smiling problem. Or maybe you were the one with the problem - with the way he would often stare and sometimes smile.

You taught him how to find files out in the field. How to take from the enemy and corrupt entire systems. He was good at it. A digital pyromaniac. Used to hand-deliver drives and disks to you, sometimes still bloody and bruised from getting them.

You heard through the gossip vine that he was MIA (or maybe went AWOL?) at some point. Was shipped out to your final assignment soon after.

“Is he the… asset?” you ask.

Her eyes do this funny flicker thing then, and the corner of her mouth tenses. You press your thumb into your palm as your fingers twitch.

“He’s asking for you,” she explains, “and he has information we need.”

Between the lines: we need you to get the information from him. The error code flashing in your mind demands to know why.

“Why?” you wonder.

Maybe you’ve been out too long; forgot that “why” is blasphemy to the government. The answer will always be “because we said so.”

You already miss being out.

“You’ll have to ask him yourself,” she answers and stands.

—

Laswell takes the lead, the same blank-faced guards bring up the rear. This doesn’t feel like you’ve been volun-told to do them a favor. It feels like you’ve been sentenced without a trial.

You’re led down silent, nondescript halls, through heavy gray doors, and into shiny metal elevators. Everything needs a keycard you’ve not been given. The quiet gets heavier, meaner the deeper you go.

There’s the vague sense that you’re underground when Laswell finally stops at a heavily guarded door. She pauses, steals a glance at you that starts a high-pitched alarm in your head.

“He’s different now,” she says finally, “I’m sorry in advance.”

A guard unlatches the door. She nods you ahead to enter first. You hesitate, don’t like the change in light beyond. Behind you, one of the guards shifts. Don’t like that either.

On tingling legs, you slink through the cracked door. It shuts with a gavel’s finality behind you. Alone.

The room you’ve been tricked into barely deserves the word. It’s more a tiny patch of sequestered floor, little bigger than an office cubicle. Clean linoleum and unmarked walls. In the corner, a camera blinks.

But in front of you are bars; a wall of them. A door interrupting the grid-pattern. Beyond, it’s pitch black. You almost make the mistake of stepping forward.

“Stay there,” Laswell’s voice commands. Staticky. An intercom.

From the shadows, a growl. Low, rough. Just this side of human. You plaster yourself to the door you came through, hair standing on end.

The lights come on. It’s only because you’ve frozen that you don’t scream, all of it trapped up in a constricted throat.

The man in front of you is not Soap. It’s not even John MacTavish. It’s a very convincing beast wearing his face. Sort of.

More scars than you remember. A thicker beard too. His signature Mohawk is just a suggestion in the dark brown mess of his hair - like he’s been running his hands through it and ripping out any tangles along the way.

He’s not moving now though. Not except the deep heave of his broad chest. Could be a statue save for that. He’s staring; his eyes are bluer than you remember. Bluer and blanker. Nothing in them except a flicker of something vicious, something covetous. Something that’s peering out from this man.

“We brought her, just like you asked.” Laswell’s voice again, wary and expectant.

Soap doesn’t respond. He inhales deep, gaze still locked with yours. It’s loud, purposeful. Your stomach twists.

“Just as sweet as I remember.” His voice is gravel on ice, resonates in his barrel chest. Fills up the room like a rockslide. You curl your fingers against the door behind you. “You remember me, bonnie?”

It takes your brain a second to realize he’s talking to you. As if he could be speaking to anyone else. Your shadow maybe; she’s always been braver than you.

His eyes twitch, narrowing ever so slightly. His patience winding down, tick, tick, tick.

You jerk your head in a nod. His eyes burn.

“Good.” He cracks his neck. It feels entirely inorganic that he can move just that part of his body. “Would have to punish you if you didn’t.”

You swallow, dig up your voice from the crevice it slunk into.

“Laswell.” Your voice is too high, too nervous. Soap bares his teeth, slams his fist against the all-too-bendable barrier between you two. It shocks you, frightens you. How he could be so still and then so alive all at once.

“John, we brought her. That was the deal.”

You feel sick with something unspoken as he shakes his head.

“No, the deal was you give her to me. Do you see my fuckin’ hands on ‘er? My teeth?”

“The information first.”

You feel sick with rage. Like you’re going to throw up with the disgust that poisons your blood. Your legs nearly give out as you slide to the ground, pressing a hand over your mouth, filling with saliva. Stomach rolling.

Force yourself to breathe through your nose. Would work better if you could close your eyes but prey instinct won’t let you, survival too strong to dare look away from the predator now pacing at the bars. He’s agitated, devolving quickly into anger. You’d tell Laswell to stop pissing him off if that didn’t mean tossing you to him. More than she has, anyway.

“We will take her back if you don’t deliver your end of the deal.”

Like you’re some reward to be given and taken at someone else’s will. An incentive for good behavior.

The military used to make you feel like a dog - sit, stay, bark on command. But you’d take that over being the training treat any day.

Soap snarls. He sounds feral. Spits out a set of numbers, eyes pinned to you. When he’s done, he crouches down. Knees against the wall of bars.

“S’alright, little bird. C’mere and I’ll make it all better,” he coos, beckoning you with two fingers.

You press your lips together against a whimper. His expression twitches. You suck in a breath—

“We’ll need to verify those coordinates first,” Laswell says.

The noise that rips out of Soap makes you shake. You didn’t know people could make sounds like that; like something with teeth and claws and blood matted in its fur. He stands, huge and terrifying.

He curses and threatens (awful, cruel) but Laswell doesn’t respond again. You doubt she’s even listening. And you just stay still and quiet, hoping to avoid his attention altogether, pancaked to the wall.

As is the pattern today, your reasonable hope is eventually dashed. Can almost feel the exact moment Soap’s attention refocuses on you. Like a the click of switch.

And he’s down again, crooning at you so sweetly. Like you didn’t just watch him come within a breath of destroying his cell.

“You know it’s not fair, don’t you,” he murmurs. “You know that I’m owed you. C’mere.”

“I’m not a thing,” you snip, still too high. Almost petulant if not for the frightened crack in the middle. He flashes teeth.

“‘Course you are, hen,” he says, almost laughing. You realize with a jolt that you’ve amused him. “You’re my sweet, pretty thing with the sweet, pretty cunt that I’m gonna fuck and breed.”

Your voice slithers back into the abyss, snatched away by the smoke and shadow promises in his own.

“And you know that’s what you’re for, don’ you?” he continues, voice dripping lower and lower. “You know that you’re mine.”

You shake your head, want to explain that you didn’t have a choice. Government goons have been shuffling you about from place to place, only the illusion of free will, like horse blinders. Keeping you docile and complacent.

You don’t think Soap cares about things like logic or personhood right now though. Or at all.

“Come. Here.”

Hard metal between you, and every atom in your body screams not to comply. So you don’t.

When you shake your head, he snarls and slams his fist into the barrier again. You squeak this time, can’t help it, and try to become one with the wall.

He rages for a few minutes. Demands you, your compliance. At some point you just have to draw your knees up to your chest and lean your head against them. If he could get through, he would have by now. Let his anger become a terrifying background noise, a soundtrack for fear.

It’s when he goes quiet again that the fear returns. Your head snaps up. He’s staring again, still. Just like before. His arms are crossed - biceps huge, straining. There’s a sizable bulge pressed against the bars. Obscene.

“Best get your rest now, little girl,” he rumbles. Even and deceptively calm. “Because when that door opens, I’m not gonna be nice about it.”

You squeeze your eyes shut. “Stop it.”

A puff of air. You can’t tell if it’s amused or annoyed. “Say it while you can, ‘cause it won’t make a difference later.”

You shudder through your next inhale, heart pounding. Try to wrestle yourself under control, convince yourself that Laswell won’t actually give you up to him. Not when she’s already gotten what she wanted from him.

A sound breaks you from your frantic meditation, slick and wet. You look up without thinking. Soap is fucking viciously into his fist, eyes trained on you. The head of his cock is flushed an angry red, dripping with precum, shiny and needy.

“Regret being a little bitch now?” he growls. “Now that you see what’s going in that prissy little cunt?”

You clench and cramp at the very thought. He’s massive, not just long but thick. You wouldn’t be shocked if your fingers didn’t touch wrapped around him — not that you should be considering those logistics. It’ll just freak you out more.

“Can smell your wet pussy from here, hen. Bet I’ll knock you up on the first try.” He squeezes almost cruelly, knuckles banging against the bars as his hips jerk.

You press your thighs together, trying not to think about it. Not to think about all that bulk pinning you down and using you. Big, rough hands and sharp, mean teeth while he—

“Stop,” you grit out, to yourself this time.

His breath shudders, a rough noise dragging up his throat. You twitch back as cum splatters the floor, coats the metal in milky drops. You stare at the mess, mortified.

“Well?” he rasps and your eyes snap back to his. “Going to lick it up like the bitch you are?”

You swallow and curl up tighter. He takes that for the denial it is.

“S’alright,” he says, “you’ll get a taste soon enough.”

Next

Masterlist

[wormnamedwax]

personally one of my favorite gags on star trek is when something insane happens and it’s literally never mentioned in future episodes. my running list (of what i’ve seen)

-the sulu shirtless fencing incident

-mirror dimension episode.

-wesley indirectly creates a society of sentient nanites

-main antagonist turns out to be a child and is taken home by their parents. i think this actually happens at least twice in TOS

-the episode that revels kirk is one of the nine people who survived a genocidal dictator. said dictator has become an actor in a shakespeare troupe that hosts a show on the ship while his daughter (also an actor) has progressively been killing the remaining survivors

-alien parasite species that has been slowly infiltrating the federation by mind controlling high ranking members and acting out murder ploys. also making a man’s head and torso blow up (they used raw meat for this)

-cartoonish irish dude whose bullying scarred kirk so bad that it’s still on his mind. kirk spends like a solid minute trying to beat him up on camera too

-any sort of alien sex drive episode

-counselor troi being psychologically tormented by a music box (sort of)

-“dig it in there mr spock” this literally haunts me but the trouble with edward tribble thing is even worse that actually traumatized me as the first piece of star trek media i was shown

-transporters being able to make value judgements

-threshold episode where they were turned into salamanders, had salamander babies, AND THEN ABANDONED THEM

-Riker 2: The Rikening

-The Game (funny on title alone)

-oh and worf hunting picard and data in another evolution themed episode

[thisisnotthenerd]

we've officially cracked 600 hours of dimension 20 with the final episode of titan takedown! 25 days (+ 46 minutes + 53 seconds) across 26 seasons (including oneshots & live shows).

over all those episodes (278 to be exact), we have some fluctuating averages:

the overall average comes to 2:09:40, with the highest full season average coming from fantasy high sophomore year at 2:36:41*, and the lowest coming from fantasy high, with 1:39:43. titan takedown runs close to average with 2:06:18.

it's also interesting to look at our overall runtimes; the main cast seasons count for over half of the run time**: 341:23:22, or 14 days, 5 hours, 23 minutes, and 22 seconds.

i'm excited to see where we go from here! see you on june 4th for cloudward, ho! check out the spreadsheet for raw data!

*the official highest is the MisMag oneshots, but given that they are oneshots, i'm counting them separate from the full seasons.

**including the oneshots and time quangle liveshows that have been released on dropout. 320:37:46 without.

[deconstructthesoup]

Personal Ranking of the Fantasy High Dads, From Worst to Best:

Angwyn Penguin Abernant: -100000/10. He's somehow both controlling and neglectful, elitist beyond belief, power-hungry and cruel, and doesn't see his daughters as anything other than tools and means to an end. Adaine killing him in one hit was one of the most satisfying moments in Dimension 20 history.

Mac Applebees: 0/10. He and Donna did clearly care about Kristen, but that was clearly conditional and all of those points are subtracted on account of him being racist and members of a conservative religious cult. And if Bucky is any indication, those parenting skills have not improved.

Bill Seacaster: 4.5/10. Absolute madlad? Yes. Chaotic king? Yes. A joy to witness whenever he appears? Yes. But despite the fact that he clearly loves Fabian, he piled on a lot of unreasonable expectations and didn't fully prepare him for the world... and he clearly had several bastard children who we know absolutely nothing about. He does get points for being totally cool with Fabian being a bard, though.

Arthur Aguefort: 5/10. Again, in the same realm as Bill---a chaotic madlad who's a joy to watch, but his parenting skills do leave something to be desired. He does get points for clearly caring deeply about his students and Ayda, as well as attempting to reconnect with her again, but he's got some ways to go.

Gorbag Last-Name-Unknown: 6/10. We don't know enough about him for me to give him a fair ranking, and he did become a dad at, like, fifteen. But it does mean a lot that he found Gorgug again and is clearly an active presence in his life.

Gorthalax The Insatiable: 7/10. Clearly a good dad to Fig, loves her like crazy, the chillest and nicest devil you'll ever meet. Does have a bad habit of getting trapped in rubies, but still. Great guy all around.

Pok Gukgak: 7.3/10. If he hadn't died before the show started, and if he'd gotten to be present in Riz's life, he'd get ranked higher due to us having more data. As it stands, though, he's a badass secret agent angel who supports and loves his son, and he even accepts Riz's sexuality, which is a win in my book.

Gilear Faeth: 7.9/10. Being a dad is literally the only thing he's actually good at, and it shows. Does get a point taken off for getting engaged and going on a cruise without telling Fig, but we'll find out more about that in a few days. There's probably an explanation.

Digby Thistlespring: 9/10. Loving, sweet, supportive, sex-positive---what's not to love about him, he's a great dad! Sure, he does do the parent thing of embarrassing Gorgug at times, and he and Wilma both clearly still need to work on understanding that their son needs to express his anger, but he does a great job.

Jawbone O'Shaugnessy: 11/10. My guy. He went from being a random NPC that Brennan named on the spot to being a central character in the whole damn narrative, and he shines. The fact that he's been through the ringer means that he gives out the best advice, and the man is one of the most supportive and caring dads in existence.

[argumate]

oh this is what I was looking for, the bit about 20 minutes into this video where it discusses how in high dimensional spaces you can fit a lot of vectors that are almost orthogonal, obviously not exactly ninety degrees but say between 89-91 degrees to each other, apparently an implication of the Johnson–Lindenstrauss lemma:

that suggests one reason why big LLMs might work so well, in that by representing concepts by vectors with ten thousand dimensions, they may be able to represent hundreds of millions of approximately distinct concepts, far more than would be at first apparent, which is essential for combining concepts and factoring out their component parts and relating them to other concepts.

so much of the research on deep learning seems like it can be summarised by surprise that high dimensional structured data is much easier to navigate than you might expect, and so training big networks paradoxically works out even better than training small networks, despite seeming much less practical in theory.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Beyond East & West Differences of Personality

The work by Markus and Kitayama (1991) has had a major effect on social, personality and developmental psychology and raised awareness for cultural considerations in psychology.

Despite the positive impact, there has been limited empirical support for independent and interdependent self-construals (Matsumoto, 1999) with some studies reporting contradictory findings.

Vignoles' & Colleagues Study

Recent research conducted by 71 researchers, across 33 countries and encompassing 55 cultural groups challenged the dichotomous view first proposed by Markus and Kitayama.

The researchers conducted a series of studies (Vignoles et al., 2016) that examined a single dimension of Independent/Interdependent, Western cultures as wholly independent, the relationship between individualist and collectivist cultures and Independent/Interdependent self-construals, as well as the role of religious heritage and socioeconomic development of cultures. 

Using data from over 7,000 adults, the authors identified:

7 dimensions that encompass both independent and interdependent self-construals

Difference

Connection

Self-Direction

Self-Reliance

Consistency

Self-Expression

Self-Interest

At the level of the individual, these 7 dimensions represent the different ways that we see ourselves (perception) and our relationships with other people.

The dimensions can also represent cultural norms about self that are reinforced and maintained by cultural practices and social structures.

Result & Implications

When the researchers tested the 7-dimension model, their results contradicted many long-held beliefs about independent, individualistic, interdependent and collectivist cultures.

First, Western cultures scored above average on five of the dimensions but were below average on the dimensions self-reliance and consistency.

Thus, the common view that Western cultures are wholly independent was not supported.

Latin American cultures had scores very similar to Western cultures on the difference and self-expression dimensions but scored higher on consistency and self-interest which also challenged the common view of Latin America as wholly interdependent.

The economically poorest samples in the study scored highest on self-interest and were negatively associated with individualism, whereas Western cultures scored high on commitment to others which challenges the view that rich Western cultures are selfish.

Religious heritage was also an important variable in the study. Muslim and Catholic samples had very distinct dimension profiles that showed high scores for consistency. This may be related to the tenets of both faiths that salvation is related to behaviors so behaving consistently – across different situations and settings would be important.

The results of Vignoles and colleagues demonstrated that self, whether measured at the individual level or cultural level, is NOT binary.

Note

Independence and interdependence is a complex interaction of heritage, socioeconomic development, settlement patterns, and ecological contexts.

By moving away from a dichotomous view of self, psychologists have an opportunity to expand our understanding of self and its relationship to culture.

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[tatortart]

Sonic got my ass, y’all.

Anyway, meet Emmy, a Sonadow fan kid for the Sonic Prime canon. Technically, she’s a piece left behind by Sonic (unintentionally? intentionally?) in the Grim, raised by Nine in a big sibling/li’l sibling fashion.

He named her Remnant, but Emmy ends up being much easier for a li’l hoglet to say, so her name sticks…until she gets into something she’s not supposed to. As far as he can tell, she shares enough matches to the data he has on both Sonic and Shadow, making her theirs on some level. And girly is filled to the brim with prism energy. Once she starts harnessing it as an older hedgehog, it allows her to blip in and out of dimensions. As a younger hedgehog, it just allows her to blip in and out as she pleases within the confines of the Grim.

She holds her big brother in high regard, going so far as to try to style her quills like his. (Alas, they’re a bit too heavy, so they tend to droop…a bit like his prime counterpart.) As far as she knows, Nine is her only family. As far as Sonic and Shadow know, Emmy doesn’t even exist.

But y’know how that usually works out! Totally doesn’t come out later, not at all. c;

[percyaugod]

Unnamed Rise AU Part 2: Eternal Prison

Edit: It has now been named The Prisoner and the Pretender AU. : D

Leo was bored asking how long has he been stuck there anyway. The technodrome says forty-three seconds. Leo is unamused and gives a flat "Ha Ha. No really."

The technodrome doesn't say anything and Leo is left reeling. "What, how!?"

"Time dilation. Time moves faster here than back in your dimension. If it makes you feel any better you aren't aging. This place was designed to be an eternal prison. Not very eternal if the Krang die of old age."

Leo crossed his arms muttering bitterly about how well that worked out.

The technodrome holds Donnie above all others, and it is partially because of being connected, but it's mostly because Donnie is just Donnie. Donnie is the first to look at the technodrome and see something truly amazing. It holds him in such high regard because he holds it so high. Which is why it doesn't want to disappoint him and lose that.

Not to mention how much of himself he was willing to give to it so it could think for itself for the first time. No more just sitting around waiting for commands. Being used like a tool by those that don't appreciate it, don't deserve it.

Leo keeps the technodrome talking so he can hear his brother's voice, though he'd never admit it to even himself. He's just gathering data, nothing else. Yet he's probably just doing stuff to aggravate the technodrome like messing with the stuff it uses to make nutrients so Leo doesn't wither away.

It tastes awful, he's just trying to make it pizza-flavoured. Or preferably anything other than what he imagines Dad's chair tastes like. He knows chemistry, he can do this!

The technodrome begs to differ. He knows Earth chemistry. These chemicals are literally alien to him.

The technodrome keeps moving so it's harder for Krang One to find them. Which is extra difficult while trying to look like just a piece of nonfunctional rubble floating there.

Leo would definitely try to sneak outside. If nothing else he's bored and wouldn't completely trust the Krang spaceship. He still hasn't decided whether it sounding and acting like Donnie is worse or better. At least it'll be harder to forget the egghead.

The technodrome only lets him out to get supplies because even broken it's still far too big to enter. Supplies are hard to come by though, and who knows how long Leo will be in here until his brothers can save him. It keeps watch of all exits in case he tries something.

Leo is definitely curious about the technodrome, especially its connection to Donnie. How exactly did it get a copy of his brother on its systems, and what is it going to do to the original?

He wouldn't just ask it directly though. Donnie can't lie, but who knows about the technodrome. He asked in roundabout ways about other tech and functions to gather more info before making his way slowly to how piloting it works.

Leo tells stories to the technodrome who listens since at least he isn't trying anything. It's when he tries to exaggerate something and the technodrome corrects him that he realizes the technodrome remembers this stuff too because Donnie remembered it. So now Leo has the technodrome tell him stories to help him remember. It's odd hearing some of the same events but from Donnie's point of view.

Leo has a lot of trouble sleeping, especially in a prison dimension. He says something completely wrong and falls asleep to a "Donnie" rant.

Leo asks the technodrome what it knows about neuroscience since it could help him take care of his brothers in the future as team medic (you can rip medic Leo out of my cold dead hands) and he's pretty sure the ship mentioned tapping into someone's brain or nerves to receive instructions.

He's really going to have to look Donnie over when he gets back because that can't be good.

The technodrome constantly brings up Leo having the portal closed on it. Is this what Draxum feels like dealing with him? Good.

[marreddream]

TAS Raising Project: Reskin Summary: Seven unlucky Tokyoites are warped into a video game world. Things go poorly. They also have new powers and stuff.

Content: Isekai, Crack Treated Seriously, Character Death

This is basically a one-to-one recreation of MGRP: Restart, with Housamo characters. Avoid if you don’t want spoilers. Shinya gets to be the cover art because I like him but everyone gets a POV in the fic.

Roster: Housamo MC, Horkeu Kamui, Hippolytus, Tezcatlipoca, Yule, Kurogane, Shinya Tennoji 

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prologue (skip to get to Housamo stuff)

Keek

Deus Ex Programma - A magical string of code written on a parchment that resolves any coding issues in a project, but sends a corrupted version of that project to a different dimension.

Magicaloid 44, whose magical power was to procure one random magical object from the future that lasted for 24 hours before breaking down, had summoned this item. She unsurprisingly failed to sell it to any of the other magical girls of N-City and could do nothing but watch it expire. Yet unconventionally enough, it wasn’t the code that was time sensitive but the existence of the parchment itself, which had long since crumbled away into nothingness. 

No record or impact of this object would have been made had Magicaloid 44 not taken a picture of it with her magical phone. That phone and photo gallery had been wiped upon her death, but data recovery was no issue for somebody like Keek. Thus, she was able to stumble upon this holy grail for a magical programmer such as herself. 

She was not even remotely close to reaching the end of her biggest and most ambitious project to date, and yet she was encountering the biggest and most vicious issues she had ever come across in her entire life. Continuous all nighters weren’t impossible, but they weren’t ideal. Neither were way-too-close deadlines. She steeled her resolve and opened up the saved PNG of the code to input into her work. 

“So over this…”, she grumbled.

She typed down one line of assorted characters in a random location and watched all of her code buzzle around before settling down into a considerably more clarified state. Anybody who programmed knew that was not how coding worked, but anybody who knew magic knew that was how it did, and Keek was both of those people. The magical code refined the project, but did not complete it for her, so she got back to work.

“It ‘sends a bugged version of that project to a different dimension’. What does that even mean…? Well, it’s not my problem.”

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

ERROR

<Operating Capacity> Damaged

>[66%] Reduction

ERROR

<Team Forming> Not Found <Quests> Not Found <R Item> Not Found

>Omit

ERROR

<Memory Restoration Device Item> Not Found <Referential Callbacks> Not Found

>Substitutions Found

ERROR

<Cranberry’s Children> Not Found

>Generate @ Random >Targets Located

0%...

4%...

16%...

44%...

PROGRAM START

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Love Me Ten-Ten

Shinya Tennoji found himself in an apocalyptic-like wasteland. Bizarre, considering he had been standing in his perfectly fine cafe just a moment ago. Nothing but cracked dry earth and crumbling buildings surrounded him. The sun beat mercilessly from above.

“Is this… a world collision?” 

The concept wasn’t foreign to him, but there was something queer about the current situation that an explanation of it as a world collision didn’t fully cover.

Shinya looked down at himself, and then tugged at his outfit. It was not the garb he had put on this morning but instead a bold interpretation of a Greek style chiton. His right arm was gilded with a latex glove so thin it was as if it was painted on. The knee high boots he wore on his legs were of the same material.

He heard the flapping of wings and instinctively looked around for Cupid, only to realize the wing-shaped shadows being cast belonged to the six avian wings affixed to his back. The silhouette of bull ears, horns and tail in his now quite expansive shadow guided his hands to his head and sacral region to unsurprisingly find bull ears, horns, and a tail growing out of where one would expect those parts to sprout from.

“What in the world is going on?”

There was nobody around to hear his words. The absence of Cupid unnerved him. In his left hand, he found himself clutching a glossy pastel compact instead of the phone that he had been holding before he wound up in this place. It slid open into a heart shape, revealing a digital screen and a user profile. Gone were the Roles and Rules and Sacred Artifacts of the Summoner app he was used to. In its place was:

Love Me Ten-Ten

Magic: Anyone he shoots with his magic bow will fall head over heels in love in a chain. 

My power has changed?

Although incredibly similar-sounding, it wasn’t a match. It was Cupid who had a magic bow, and dispelled the energy Shinya accumulated in the form of light arrows that infatuated those who were stuck. The memory of Cupid’s cute and white bow contrasted heavily with the dark and menacing crossbow he found by his side. It was adorned with heart accessories, and embedded with thorns as well. Loaded in was a red-tipped steel arrow, as if pre-used.

A tool suitable for a demonic angel, Shinya thought. 

He recalled being called that once. Not a ‘demonic angel’, but a ‘suitable tool’, by a fallen angel named Rosier that Shinya’s new look reminded him of. He was a pretty cool guy, all things considered, but now really wasn’t the right time to be strolling down memory lane. He navigated through his new device and tapped on Messages. A text from a "[kE3k]" was found, and he opened it up.

What is [9zLA] Raising Project?

[1cuF] feels just like real life!

[RsLQ] items [Px9D] mobile game [lvEj] face powerful enemies with your abilities [26MP] surviving [3JK2] progress through the world [LjdQ] training simulator [vvIy] Objective: to defeat the Evil King.

That’s right. Earlier before, he had heard a message notification from his phone, pulled it out to check, and was then enveloped by a glowing light from his screen and teleported here. From what he could read, this was some sort of video game simulation where he’d have to traverse through locations to defeat the Evil King boss at the end. 

VR simulations had been getting pretty popular in recent times. Was that really what this was though? He tred to reply to this "[kE3k]", and got an "ERROR: Message Could Not be Sent" right away. He tried texting his co-workers' numbers to no avail. He visited the other tabs in the bottom menu. Asides from an empty Items tab and an empty Map tab that marked this area as the Wastelands, the others were bugged out. He felt he had seen everything the phone had to offer, so he stepped forward to traverse through the bizarre world.

As he did so, patches of dirt became disrupted as five human skeletal remains began to rise up from the earth to menacingly approach him.

Shinya watched the bizarre sight unfold before him, and then sighed.

What kind of mess have I gotten into now?

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magicolytus

After recovering from the initial surprise, Hippolytus lunged at the skeleton in the center with a straight punch. His fist crunched through its rib cage, and it crumbled to the floor. Hippolytus kicked to the side to crush another skeleton’s leg, and grabbed the arm of an attacker on the left to flip onto an attacker on the right.

He was already strong to begin with, but he had the feeling his body had changed somehow, alongside his outfit and Rule. His practical gardening gear had been swapped out for a not-so-practical frilly-frill daisy-themed ensemble. His Sacred Artifact that let him turn any plant-based wreath into pure barriers was no longer available to him.

The Profile tab on the compact that had replaced his phone read:

Magicolytus

Magic: Can shoot lethal Daisy Beams.

Hippolytus spread out his palms, and a four foot wide laser beam instantly emerged from them to burn the upper half of the last remaining skeleton into nothingness. For an ability he’d never once had before, it felt rather natural to do.

The fight had taken less than a minute, yet Hippolytus’ heart raced. Practicing… no, unleashing all of his pankration skills without reserve on monsters he felt no moral need to hold back on was refreshing. If this was some sort of VR game he had been dragged into, he’d ask for a copy after giving whoever forced him in here without his consent a good scolding.

The fact there wasn’t a logout button or anything that would get him out of here straight away was pretty concerning.

All he really had to work with was the semi-coherent mail in his Messages. Progress through the world and defeat the Evil King. If he walked forward, he was likely to get somewhere. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Horkeu Winterkamui

Horkeu Kamui zoomed through the plains. The distance he was covering and the speed he was covering it at was ludicrously impossible, and yet he managed so without even breaking a sweat, in a heavy coat and scarf, and heels. This situation was truly abnormal.

He found himself in a dry and dusty wasteland when he had been in Ikebukuro’s colosseum locker rooms only a moment ago. His outfit and rule had been altered, and then the undead rose out of the earth to attack, which he made quick work of.

Horkeu Winterkamui

Magic: Can create walls anywhere.

Gone were his ice powers, and in its stead, the ability to raise walls from pre-existing material within sight. He experimented with it briefly after defeating the skeletons manually. The walls were fixed to the size and shape of a typical door, and a foot in thickness. They were more durable than the material summoned from, attached to the material summoned from, could be summoned at slight angles, and could be stacked upon. 

Nothing else of event occurred after the skeleton attack, aside from his currency rising from 0 to 5. Waiting around wasn’t going to get him anywhere, so he began to walk, and then run. He already knew his body had changed the moment he first moved his arm when he had arrived, but this was really something else. The best he could reason was that this was some sort of video game simulation he was controlling some sort of avatar in. 

He could see the shadow of a town in the distance, and began to route himself towards it when he heard the patter of footsteps from behind. A brown haired teen in a french maid outfit was hurrying away from pursuing skeletons, which were following at a speed that belied their tottering appearances. With nonchalance, he rushed in the maid’s opposite direction and wiped them all out with a few good kicks.

“Wha~ Thanks for the help.”

“You really couldn’t beat these on your own?”

The maid frowned and averted his gaze. Horkeu Kamui then realized his mistake. His words that had been mistaken as chastisement came out of a genuine confusion and casualness. Horkeu Kamui was a trained warrior whose daily surroundings mainly consisted of other fellow fighters. It sometimes slipped his mind that the average person was generally not. It hadn’t even all too long ago, but the heroes he had trained in Kamui Kotan hadn’t always been strong when they started either. This boy in front of him...

“It’s not like I’m weak, but they looked slow at first, so I thought I could outrun them. And I don’t have my sword that I normally use either.” 

“I apologize. It’s quite the situation that we’ve found ourselves in, it seems. My name is Horkeu Kamui.”

His Profile had written his name as Horkeu Winterkamui for reasons unbeknownst to him, but he saw no real reason to go by it when his actual name was already quite serviceable.

“I’m Mocco. I ended up here after checking my phone messages. You as well?”

“Me as well. I saw a town up ahead. Shall we discuss our circumstances while we head there together?”

Mocco nodded. “Yes, that sounds like a good idea.”

Horkeu Kamui started off with a walk as they conversed, then gradually increased his pace, up to the speed he had been running at earlier. Although lagging a bit behind, Mocco seemed able to keep up enough, and the two quickly approached the town.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Love Me Ten-Ten

“Shinya Tennoji, reserve representative of Zeus?”

“Tezcatlipoca? Is that you?”

After using his crossbow to melee bash down the skeletons that had sprouted up, he spotted a town from a high up vantage point and quickly flew over. There he encountered Tezcatlipoca, in a getup Shinya could describe as “probably uncharacteristic for him”. Reflective gemstones and equally reflective cherry decorations were scattered all throughout his holographic clubbing style outfit.

“In the flesh, and quite literally. This new body of mine is quite extraordinary. I see you’ve gotten quite the update as well.”

“Yeah, being able to fly sure is something else. You and Cupid sure are lucky.”

“Flight is pretty awesome, huh? Space rockets are more my style though.” 

A man wearing an open coat and a black bodycon jumpsuit underneath joined the conversation. Safety goggles rested on his head alongside a nurse cap. Ribbons connected to high heels wrapped around his calves.

“The name’s Kurogane.”

“Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Shinya.”

“This guy named Yule gave me a ride here on this flying broomstick. That thing was seriously crazy! I wanted to give it a real thorough look over, but he got me here and then zoomed off super quick to search for others. Told me to stay put to greet anybody else who arrived, so that’s Tezcatlipoca and you.”

Kurogane spotted the crossbow Shinya held by his side.

“Oh! First off. That’s a tool that you arrived here with, right? Like my tools, and Tezcatlipoca’s mirror. If you hadn’t already figured it out, you can summon and de-summon it with will.”

Kurogane summoned an enormous pair of scissors and wrench from out of nowhere, and then vanished them just as quickly. 

“Second, can you see if you and Tezcatlipoca can exchange contact information in Messages? My phone... broke."

Shinya internally raised an eyebrow at Kurogane's almost perplexed tone. Perhaps he encountered some skeletons like he had and broke it while fighting.

Shinya opened up Messages to show Tezcatlipoca his contact information. Tezcatlipoca added him, and a new contact appeared. Poca Cherry. Seems like they all got weird nicknames.

"Kurogane, how did your phone break? Did it get smashed during a fight?"

Kurogane scratched his head.

“Ah, well, my new power is to modify machines. I used it to successfully upgrade my shoes and tools, so I tried using it on the phone to see if I could make it able to call for help. But then an ERROR message appeared and now it refuses to turn back on. Looks like the phones are the one thing that are off limits to tinker on." Kurogane grimaced. "It feels a bit unfair to not have been warned beforehand. But seeing as how me and Tezcatlipoca, and you too, probably? Were dragged in without so much as a warning, fairness's likely the last thing on... whoever's mind."

Shinya was about to respond when the sound of people approaching came from behind him. A wolf dressed for winter and a young maid were approaching, with two figures on a broomstick in the sky a bit further behind quickly closing the distance. Seemed like a lot of introductions were about to be made.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magicolytus

The fey reindeer Therian named Yule said he wanted to do a few more flights to ensure he’d found everybody he could, so they all decided to wait at the town until his return.

The crumbling buildings scattered throughout the wastelands were not only devoid of people, but objects inside as well. All but one of the town buildings were no different. The sole exception was a Shop, which harbored a menu where weapons, shields, food rations, and recovery potions could be purchased. Hunger pangs were beginning to arise, and rations were the only item they could afford with what they currently had anyways, so some were purchased to consume. Kurogane, whose phone was broken, had no access to his currency nor inventory space. The others were able to hand the rations over to him after summoning them from their inventory. The stomach filling properties of the food blocks were average, but the same could not be said about the taste, which was below average. 

They regathered by the sand-filled fountain in the open town square. With nothing else to do, they introduced themselves and their prior circumstances.

All of them had checked their phones before suddenly being enveloped in light and finding themselves in the Wastelands, with new outfits and abilities that they did not have before. 

Aside from some people knowing one another, such as Kurogane and Tezcatlipoca, Shinya and Tezcatlipoca, and Tezcatlipoca recognizing Mocco but not the other way around, nobody seemed to share any particular relationship or commonality with one another. Some changes in powers or costume seemed thematically apropos, and some did not, so no real pattern could be determined in that regard as well.

They had all gotten a bugged out message from a "[kE3k]" in Messages. Their assigned mission seemed to be to traverse the worlds to get to and defeat the Evil King boss. There was no written guarantee they’d be able to return back to their Tokyo once they had done so, but all they could do was hope that would be the case.

After covering everything they felt they could cover as a group, the six inevitably fractured into smaller cliques; an inevitable phenomenon in most gatherings of people. Tezcatlipoca had gone over to Mocco to ramble at about… brotherhood, something or another, while Horkeu Kamui stood protectively beside them. Kurogane was bashing his wrench on Shinya’s crossbow while the owner watched with a bemused expression on his face.

That left Hippolytus as an odd one out. Of course, there was still Yule who Hippolytus had gotten along with fine on the brief broomstick ride he had given him, but he hadn’t yet returned. Hippolytus went to sit down by the defunct fountain and sighed. Without a single piece of greenery to even rest his eyes, the place severely bummed him out. He toyed with the flowers on his outfit. They were ultra realistic, even in touch, but an experienced gardener like him could tell they were artificial.

Kurogane came up to approach him.

“Hey, Hippolytus, want me to upgrade your shoes?”

“Huh? They feel pretty okay, actually.”

Unlike the others who all had on heels, Hippolytus was the only one who got a practical pair of brown boots. They were quite similar, if not superior in quality, to the boots he normally had. Looking down at them gave him a weird sense of reassurance; a singular piece of normalcy in a beyond normal situation.

“Trust me, you’ll feel the difference. Magic sure is crazy.”

“Well… okay, go for it.”

He pulled off his boots and handed them to Kurogane, who pulled his wrench and scissors out of their holsters and began to whack and hack away without a perceptible sense of purpose. Kurogane handed them back unharmed and not noticeably different. He slipped them back on and gasped in surprise.

“Wow!”

“Told ya’ so!”

“You said your magic was to upgrade machines, didn't you?” 

“The term ‘machine’ encompasses a lot more than you might think. Simple machines are machines too. It’s not like there’s anything that could replace my Sacred Artifact, but this power is so interesting to use it makes me wish I could bring it back with me to Tokyo.”

“So you're already an engineer-type, huh...? Hey, what are your thoughts on this whole thing? We’ve seriously been dragged into some video game world?”

Kurogane’s easy going expression shifted into something a bit more tense.

“... I’ll be straight with you. This is probably a pretty serious situation. We were forcibly dragged into a world where we’ve lost our Rules, Roles, and Sacred Artifacts, and have been given these strange outfits and different powers instead. I can’t even imagine what sort of force could be capable of creating a scenario like this.

...well! You know, nothing to do but press on! And you know, your magic sounds pretty awesome too! All of us seem pretty strong. Nothing will get in our way!”

Kurogane flexed his biceps and grinned. Hippolytus smiled back at him. 

“Let’s do our best.”

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yule Speed

Yule had covered the entirety of the wastelands on his motorcycle-like flying broom. As he flew, crowds of skeletons spawned from the ground below him in select areas. They didn’t appear to have any projectiles and could only watch as he soared past them above in the air.

Although the wastelands seemed to go on forever, there were invisible boundaries forming a perimeter and ceiling that could not physically be passed. Yule had come very close to meeting the same fate a bird that flies into a window usually meets had he not somehow reacted in time. 

At one end of a boundary was an ancient wooden gate. Upon flying through, his surroundings instantaneously changed from a wasteland to a grassy area. Going back through returned him to the wastelands.

This must be the entrance to the next area.

Yule decided to return to the town to inform everybody of the things he had learned. 

It felt rather strange to be clad in a Halloween themed outfit on a day that wasn’t Halloween. As one would expect of a floating broom rider, he wore a witch costume with a cape and pointed hat. His profile read:

Yule Speed

Magic: Uses a broomstick to fly at high speeds.

When one thought about it, witches were like the Santas of Halloween, in regards to being the most representative mascots of their respective holidays. Also, they both flew around on things that weren’t meant to fly, and their hats were cone-like. That was where most of their similarities ended though. If Santas and Dark Santas existed on polar ends of each other, witches were somewhere closer to where the Dark Santas would be.

A change in pace could be novel, but Yule would always be the most comfortable in his Santa gear as an aspiring- no, as any official Santa would be. Yule would beat this weird game with everybody here, return to Tokyo, and have a funny story to tell everyone back at Santa School.

He hadn’t been flying at the fullest speed his broom could go, to more carefully scan the surroundings, but with the area already covered, kicked it up a notch to return to the town.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magicolytus

Everyone went over what they had covered with Yule, and Yule filled everybody in with what he had discovered. He pointed them towards the gate he had found, and while he stayed behind with Kurogane, who wanted to work on his broomstick, the rest could make some progress and the two would catch up in no time.

There wasn’t any apparent deadline or timer in place, but a more concrete marker of progress to be achieved gave some motivation for the five to hurry along the pointed direction. Shinya, who didn't particularly care for fighting, flew ahead of the group to trigger the skeleton horde spawns, Hippolytus would thin, if not wipe them out with his beam attacks, and the remainders would be cleaned up by Tezcatlipoca, Horkeu Kamui, and Mocco. The group arrived at the gate in no time and were transported to a breezier, greener world.

Hippolytus kneeled down to sift through the knee high meadow. 

“Nothing but grass. Don’t think we need to worry about bugs or ticks, thankfully. But really, not a single flower in sight…”

“I think, perhaps, there will be another town with a shop like in the Wastelands”, suggested Shinya. “Should we search as a group, or should we split up to search?

“It wouldn’t hurt for it to be found faster,” said Horkeu Kamui. “You and Tezcatlipoca can fly, even faster than we can run, so you two can go off on your own, or even together if you'd like.

Mocco, Hippolytus and I should stick together as a group. The first group to find the town should text a picture of a landmark nearby and wait for everyone to head over. Is that okay with everyone?"

Everybody agreed. Tezcatlipoca and Shinya briefly conversed before apparently agreeing to go it solo. Hippolytus texted Yule the plan before the three of them headed off.

As they explored, Hippolytus began to perk up little, perhaps in part due to the change in scenery. Horkeu Kamui seemed as stoic as usual, but if he asked he bet Mocco would agree with him, if the change in his body language was anything to go by. In spite of the unfussy maidservant theme and the sopping-wet-puppy-in-a-cardboard-box vibes he gave off at the start, he had cheered up since and was surprisingly zealous regarding battle, perhaps in part due to Horkeu Kamui and Tezcatlipoca’s encouragements and combat instruction. Hippolytus wouldn't say it unprompted, but he was quite enjoying the fighting as well.

It seemed like monsters wouldn’t show up so near the gate, as it took a good amount of distance for some to finally appear. Skeletons spawned around the group in a circle. This time around, red skeletons appeared, intermingling amongst the white.

Horkeu Kamui went towards the left and Mocco headed towards the right, so that left Hippolytus to charge straight forward.  Even if the others were positioned by his sides, he kept from using his beam attack straight away out of concern for friendly fire. He wasn’t embarrassed to admit he had grown quite attached to this new power of his, but he wasn’t going to let it get to his head and fire all willy-nilly. After all, it wasn’t as if his beam was the only skill he had and enjoyed putting into practice.

“Hyah!”

The red skeletons didn’t appear to be all too different from the white version aside from appearance, but it wasn’t as if Hippolytus was letting himself get hit by them to learn whether they actually were stronger or not.

Hippolytus looked from side to side to see Mocco and Horkeu Kamui a fair enough distance away. He had just told himself he would have some restraint, but on the other hand, it wasn’t like he had a limited amount of beams he could use before he ran out. He ought to be putting them into practice to better his aim, if anything.

He would compromise with a pointer finger beam instead of his larger palm beam, and shout out he was doing a beam attack beforehand to let the others know for good measure. He interlocked his hands and made a finger gun. What had his profile called the name of the beam?

“Daisy Beam!”

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yule Speed

“You spent way less time on my boots than the broomstick,” Yule remarked. Yule and Kurogane were heading to the next area to look for its town.

“Well of course! Had a lot more to work with on the broomstick. Would have spent even longer on it, actually, but don't want to keep the others waiting for too long.”

That was a stupid question for Yule to ask, in hindsight. The broomstick with a mechanically complex motorcycle head attachment would of course have more to work with than a pair of simple suede boots. He didn't want to admit it, but he had gotten more and more nervous the longer Kurogane tinkered away at it, especially due to his phone having been broken because of his power.

"Hey Kurogane, please don't take this the wrong way, but how did you know your magic would work fine on the broomstick? With your phone breaking and all..."

"It's not like I knew for certain, but I was decently confident what happened to my phone wouldn't to your broom. Shinya had let me work on his crossbow beforehand, since he said he didn't care if it broke or not, and it went fine. If it's any reassurance, I was extra careful working on the broomstick."

Appearances said otherwise. From Yule's point of view, Kurogane had been smashing his tools against it the same way a miner hacks away at bedrock in a quarry.

“When you’re using your magic, does what you’re doing… make sense to you? From my point of view, it looks like…” 

“I’m playing with a plastic toy tool kit for kids?” Kurogane grinned. “It really does feel that way too. But I just kinda… think about what kind of improvements I’d like to be made, and bam! Most of my suggestions, just like that! Not everything, but more than what really should be possible.

So, how about you? What’s piloting a flying broom like?”

“I dunno... it’s like you imagine how you want it to move and it does. Pulling along a sleigh in the sky is sort of similar, actually, but different. This is way easier in terms of physical exertion, but I have more experience with sleigh pulling, so in terms of control they're about the same really.”

“How curious… could I try riding your broomstick on my own later on? It just occurred to me that it might be possible for other people to fly it.”

“Sure. You did upgrade it for me after all. Um, thanks again for that."

“Heheh, th-Oh!”

Yule screeched to a halt above the scene of Mocco, Horkeu Kamui, and Hippolytus beginning to brawl with a skeleton horde, now with some red-colored skeletons amongst the crowd. Before Yule could react, Kurogane dropped from his broom to touch ground and join the fray. In their new enhanced bodies, it wasn’t a lethal or even harmful height for Kurogane, but the two had been high enough in the air for Yule not to have expected him to do so. 

“Daisy Beam!”

Yule’s eyes went from Kurogane to the shouting Hippolytus, then to the red skeleton Hippolytus had aimed at to fire a beam attack. 

It was a direct hit, and yet the skeleton remained standing.

His eyes returned back to Hippolytus, who had fallen forward, onto the grass. There was a large hole in his body that hadn’t been there before. A pool of red was expanding in a sea of grass green.

Kurogane, who had been directly behind Hippolytus, had fallen as well. He also had a large hole in his body that hadn’t been there moments before.

What?

Everything happened in a flash. Yule could not process what had just occurred. 

“...What?”

TBC

[miyamiwu]

Essential Elements of an Unlimited/Infinite Flow Story

As someone attempting to write my own Unli Flow, I thought I’d take note of the different elements so I can have a guide I can always refer back to.

I’ve explained what Unli Flow means many times before, but in case you missed it: Unlimited/Infinite Flow is a genre in Chinese web novels that feature characters entering multiple “instances” where they have to complete a challenge and/or solve a mystery. Failure in doing so would lead to consequences, most often death.

There’s also this definition by AshuraYami from the NovelUpdates Forum:

Unlimited Flow/Infinite Flow is a genre originating from the CN novel Terror Infinity. The genre mainly revolves on world hopping involving fictional works (anime, comics, movies, games and novels) and/or original worlds created by the author. Infinite Flow, as it’s ‘infinite’ namesake suggests, can accommodate all other genres, be it fantasy, sci-fi, horror, romance, etc. Representative works are Terror Infinity (origin of genre), Reincarnation Paradise (most chapters and word count), The Ultimate Evolution (promoter of data flow, an infinite flow derivative that is more game-like litRPG) and Thriller Paradise (most famous horror infinite flow).

With the definition out of the way, let’s goooo

[This post will also serve as a rec list of sorts, since I’ll be giving examples of each element from different danmei novels.]

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1. The Authority

The entity/system in charge of the Unlimited Flow system as a whole. Most stories just chalk it up to the Unli Flow being some kind of otherworldly being/extremely advanced AI that just likes to mess with people.

Examples of The Authority

(based on what I remember, at least… Also, beware of spoilers)

The Earth is Online: The Universe

Mist: I forgot what it’s called, but that high tech system in charge of all the Time Traveling stuff...

High Energy QR Code: That black and white cube thing

Surprise! The Supposed Talent Show was Actually—?!: … The TV station...

From left to right: Tang Mo from The Earth is Online and Wu Jin and Wei Shi from Surprise! The Supposed Talent Show was Actually—?!

[Spoilers End]

From having read numerous Unli Flow stories, I conclude that crucial to a great, not just good, Unli Flow story is a well-defined Authority. The explanation behind the Authority’s existence and motives is the foundation to the entire story.

You can have a very fancy building (cool instances, well-developed characters, an exciting enemies to lovers couple, etc.), but if the foundation is flimsy, the building’s value would plummet in your eyes. You can still appreciate the building, of course, but you will never be content with it.

Examples of some novels that are good in almost everything else except The Authority (in my opinion): [spoilery]

Supernatural Movie Actor App: It was too profound with not enough groundwork laid for it, resulting in The Authority feeling detached from the main story.

I Upended Yet Another Campus Urban Legend: The Authority was not exactly bad; it was just inadequate. The justification of the Unli Flow existing became unconvincing because of this.

Escape the Infinite Chamber: THE AUTHORITY IS SO FUCKING RIDICULOUS THAT IT’S ABYSMAL. And the entire thing was explained in just one scene and from one extra??? SO MUCH PAIN AND SUFFERING AND THAT’S THE ONLY EXPLANATION WE GET??? HORRENDOUS!

[Spoilers End]

From left to right: Book covers of I Upended Yet Another Campus Urban Legend and Supernatural Movie Actor App

2. Instances

Also known as “copy.” The other world/dimension where players have to face the different challenges.

The Authority may be the foundation, but the Instances are the defining aspect of the Unlimited Flow.

A lot of novels, however, are quite perfunctory when it comes to instances, just using it to further the main couple or as a mere stepping stone to the overarching plot. Or, if they’re not being perfunctory, then the Instances are just plain boring.

The first instance, especially, tend to be the most boring. Authors often use this to dump all the information about how their unli flow works. This usually gets better by the time the 2nd or 3rd instance comes around....

Upon successful completion of an Instance, players will then be rewarded with either points, special abilities, magic items, etc.

Examples of novels with GREAT instances (based on logic, thrill, horror, etc. Again, all in my own opinion):

I Became a God in a Horror Game: The horror is present all throughout. I can still remember the fear I felt while reading about the statues in the first Instance. Each instance/arc also emotionally impacts you, an effect that most Unli Flow writers don’t really aim for or just generally tend to fail at. (This is also my favorite unli flow novel at the moment~)

The Earth is Online: (same author as Fourth Perspective, which I’ve posted a lot about before) What I love about Mo Chen Huan, the author, is how they write intelligent MC’s but without making them seem too OP. And this is because she actually shows us the MC’s thought process, inviting us to think along with them and figure out how to solve the challenge, and not just make her characters say “aha!” This is what makes the Instances in TEIO great and memorable.

High Energy QR Code: The story could make use of more showing than telling, but I actually love the Instances in this novel. You know how good stories are often described as a well-made tapestry in that every little thread contributes to the big beautiful picture? That’s how each Instance reads in this novel. (Absolutely love the Instance about the town where everybody lies.)

Fu Wendou, the male lead of The Earth is Online

3. NPCs

A gaming term which stands for “Non-Player Character.” Refers to characters who live within Instances and act in such ways that further the plot or challenge presented by the Instance. They may go against players or assist them. May or may not have a will of their own.

Examples of NPCs:

Xu Beijin, the protagonist of Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

Lu Chu, the protagonist of Insider.

The iconic Mosaic from The Earth is Online

The male leads from Escape the Infinite Chamber, I Became a God in a Horror Game, Killing God with Junk Cards, etc. (Most danmei ML are special!NPCs 😩)

From left to right: Book covers of Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game and Killing God with Junk Cards

4. Player Hall

A space outside of instances where different players can gather and exchange information. Most of the time, this is in a space still separate from the real world. Players are often prohibited from using their powers in this space.

In some novels, Players have no choice but to live here, completely cutting them off from the real world. In this case, accommodation quality will depend on the Player’s level or points.

5. Personal System

The Personal System issues challenges to the player and keeps track of their current attributes, physical and mental states, etc.. It also calculates rewards and punishments for the player. First and foremost in service to The Authority. (If they aren’t, then they’re most likely the Love Interest in disguise. If not, the Player had somehow swayed it to their side).

6. System Store

The points earned from the different Instances serve as the Players’ currency, and they can use it to buy things from the System Store. The Store may sell weapons, medicine, magical items, or even special abilities. Basically, any item that can help the Player during Instances. Of course, it may also sell non-magical items, like food and everyday items, at a much lower price than special items.

7. Player’s Goal/Wish

In some novels, the Goal is simply to clear all the Instances and leave the Unli Flow for good. But in others, the Unli Flow allows Players to exchange their points for a Wish. The more difficult the Wish, the more points are needed, and the more Instances are needed to be cleared.

Examples of a Goal/Wish:

Supernatural Movie Actor App: Xie Chi wants to give his second personality a body of his own.

I Became a God in a Horror Game: If I’m remembering it correctly… Bai Liu just wants to have lots of money.

I Upended Yet Another Campus Urban Legend: Lin Yi wants to learn the truth about his parents.

Thriller Tour Group: Wei Xun wants to find the truth about his family’s disappearance… and his Wish is to uhh… feel pain?

After the Little Crybaby Enters the Nightmare Cycle: Chi Nan’s Wish is to regain his vision, stop crying and get his memories back.

Death Spiral: To uhh… figure out what the voice in the Elevator is trying to tell them? To regain their memories? [The actual Wish is a big spoiler, so I won’t mention it here.]

From left to right: Book covers of After the Little Crybaby Enters the Nightmare Cycle, Thriller Tour Group, and Death Spiral

Aaaand there you have it! I was hoping to list 10 elements, but I can only think up to 7 😔

Although I said this post is a rec list of sorts, the quality of the novels I mentioned actually varies. I’m just listing whatever novel would be good as an example (and also what I can remember and have more or less completed, since many of the Unli Flow novels I’m reading are currently on-hold).

[mysticstronomy]

HOW MANY DIMENSIONS EXIST??

Blog#347

Wednesday, November 8th, 2023

Welcome back,

The world as we know it has three dimensions of space—length, width and depth���and one dimension of time. But there’s the mind-bending possibility that many more dimensions exist out there. According to string theory, one of the leading physics model of the last half century, the universe operates with 10 dimensions.

But that raises a big question: If there are 10 dimensions, then why don’t we experience all of them or haven’t detected them? Lisa Grossman at ScienceNews reports that a new paper suggests an answer, showing that those dimensions are so tiny and so fleeting that we currently can’t detect them.

It’s difficult to completely explain the mathematics behind string theory without putting on a graduate seminar or two, but in essence dimensions five through ten have to do with possibility and include all possible futures and all possible pasts including realities with a totally different physics than those in our universe.

If two protons smash together at high enough speeds, they have the ability to create a tiny black hole that would exist for just a fraction of a second before disappearing, according to a new study, which hasn't been peer-reviewed, on the preprint server arXiv.org. The collision would open up a little bubble of interdimensional space where the laws of physics are different than ours, leading to an event known as vacuum decay. In quantum physics, vacuum decay implies that if the interdimensional space was large enough, we’d be toast.

With enough gravity to interact with our world, the newly formed “Cosmic Death Bubble” would grow at the speed of light, rapidly change the physics of our universe, render it uninhabitable and effectively zap us out of existence.

“If you’re standing nearby when the bubble starts to expand, you don’t see it coming,” the study’s co-author, physicist Katie Mack of North Carolina State University, tells Grossman. “If it’s coming at you from below, your feet stop existing before your mind realizes that.”

Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are bashing into each other all the time with enough energy to start this process. If extra dimensions were large enough to allow the death bubble to form, the researchers found, it would have happened thousands of times already. The fact that we still exist is one circumstantial piece of evidence that other dimensions are ultra-tiny. The team calculated that they must be smaller than 16 nanometers, too small for their gravity to influence much in our world and hundreds of times smaller than previous calculations, Grossman reports.

The new study comes on the tail of another study about extra dimensions published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics published in July. Mara Johnson-Groh at LiveScience reports that one of the big questions in physics is why the expansion of the universe is accelerating. One theory is that gravity is leaking out of our universe into other dimensions. To test this idea, researchers looked at data from recently discovered gravitational waves.

our universe was leaking gravity through these other dimensions, the researchers reasoned, then the gravitational waves would be weaker than expected after traveling across the universe.

But the researchers found they didn’t lose any energy on their long journey, meaning other dimensions either don’t exist or are so tiny they don’t affect gravity very much, if at all.

“General relativity says gravity should be working in three dimensions, and [the results] show that that’s what we see,” physicist Kris Pardo of Princeton, lead author of the July study, tells Johnson-Groh. The latest study also concludes that the size of extra dimensions is so small that it precludes many theories about gravity leaking out of our universe.

Originally published on www.smithsonianmag.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, November 11th, 2023)

"WHAT IS THE FURTHEST THING WE CAN SEE IN SPACE??"