#Python else statement

[trendingnow3-blog]

Day-3: Mastering Control Flow and Logical Operators in Python

Python Boot Camp - 2023

Python is a versatile and widely used programming language known for its simplicity and readability. One of the fundamental aspects of programming is controlling the flow of execution based on certain conditions. Python provides various control flow statements and logical operators that allow programmers to make decisions and perform actions accordingly. 1. Introduction to Control Flow in…

[bittutech]

Conditional Construct In Python

[anheliotrope]

Rambling About C# Being Alright

I think C# is an alright language. This is one of the highest distinctions I can give to a language.

Warning: This post is verbose and rambly and probably only good at telling you why someone might like C# and not much else.

~~~

There's something I hate about every other language. Worst, there's things I hate about other languages that I know will never get better. Even worse, some of those things ALSO feel like unforced errors.

With C# there's a few things I dislike or that are missing. C#'s feature set does not obviously excel at anything, but it avoids making any huge misstep in things I care about. Nothing in C# makes me feel like the language designer has personally harmed me.

C# is a very tolerable language.

C# is multi-paradigm.

C# is the Full Middle Malcomist language.

C# will try to not hurt you.

A good way to describe C# is "what if Java sucked less". This, of course, already sounds unappealing to many, but that's alright. I'm not trying to gas it up too much here.

C# has sins, but let's try to put them into some context here and perhaps the reason why I'm posting will become more obvious:

C# didn't try to avoid generics and then implement them in a way that is very limiting (cough Go).

C# doesn't hamstring your ability to have statement lambdas because the language designer dislikes them and also because the language designer decided to have semantic whitespace making statement lambdas harder to deal with (cough Python).

C# doesn't require you to explicitly wrap value types into reference types so you can put value types into collections (cough Java).

C# doesn't ruin your ability to interact with memory efficiently because it forbids you from creating custom value types, ergo everything goes to the heap (cough cough Java, Minecraft).

C# doesn't have insane implicit type coercions that have become the subject of language design comedy (cough JavaScript).

C# doesn't keep privacy accessors as a suggestion and has the developers pinkie swear about it instead of actually enforcing it (cough cough Python).

Plainly put, a lot of the time I find C# to be alright by process of elimination. I'm not trying to shit on your favorite language. Everyone has different things they find tolerable. I have the Buddha nature so I wish for all things to find their tolerable language.

I do also think that C# is notable for being a mainstream language (aka not Haskell) that has a smaller amount of egregious mistakes, quirks and Faustian bargains.

The Typerrrrr

C# is statically typed, but the typing is largely effortless to navigate unlike something like Rust, and the GC gives a greater degree of safety than something like C++.

Of course, the typing being easy to work it also makes it less safe than Rust. But this is an appropriate trade-off for certain kinds of applications, especially considering that C# is memory safe by virtue of running on a VM. Don't come at me, I'm a Rust respecter!!

You know how some people talk about Python being amazing for prototyping? That's how I feel about C#. No matter how much time I would dedicate to Python, C# would still be a more productive language for me. The type system would genuinely make me faster for the vast majority of cases. Of course Python has gradual typing now, so any comparison gets more difficult when you consider that. But what I'm trying to say is that I never understood the idea that doing away entirely with static typing is good for fast iteration.

Also yes, C# can be used as a repl. Leave me alone with your repls. Also, while the debugger is active you can also evaluate arbitrary code within the current scope.

I think that going full dynamic typing is a mistake in almost every situation. The fact that C# doesn't do that already puts it above other languages for me. This stance on typing is controversial, but it's my opinion that is really shouldn't be. And the wind has constantly been blowing towards adding gradual typing to dynamic languages.

The modest typing capabilities C# coupled with OOP and inheritance lets you create pretty awful OOP slop. But that's whatever. At work we use inheritance in very few places where it results in neat code reuse, and then it's just mostly interfaces getting implemented.

C#'s typing and generic system is powerful enough to offer you a plethora of super-ergonomic collection transformation methods via the LINQ library. There's a lot of functional-style programming you can do with that. You know, map, filter, reduce, that stuff?

Even if you make a completely new collection type, if it implements IEnumerable<T> it will benefit from LINQ automatically. Every language these days has something like this, but it's so ridiculously easy to use in C#. Coupled with how C# lets you (1) easily define immutable data types, (2) explicitly control access to struct or class members, (3) do pattern matching, you can end up with code that flows really well.

A Friendly Kitchen Sink

Some people have described C#'s feature set as bloated. It is getting some syntactic diversity which makes it a bit harder to read someone else's code. But it doesn't make C# harder to learn, since it takes roughly the same amount of effort to get to a point where you can be effective in it.

Most of the more specific features can be effortlessly ignored. The ones that can't be effortlessly ignored tend to bring something genuinely useful to the language -- such as tuples and destructuring. Tuples have their own syntax, the syntax is pretty intuitive, but the first time you run into it, you will have to do a bit of learning.

C# has an immense amount of small features meant to make the language more ergonomic. They're too numerous to mention and they just keep getting added.

I'd like to draw attention to some features not because they're the most important but rather because it feels like they communicate the "personality" of C#. Not sure what level of detail was appropriate, so feel free to skim.

Stricter Null Handling. If you think not having to explicitly deal with null is the billion dollar mistake, then C# tries to fix a bit of the problem by allowing you to enable a strict context where you have to explicitly tell it that something can be null, otherwise it will assume that the possibility of a reference type being null is an error. It's a bit more complicated than that, but it definitely helps with safety around nullability.

Default Interface Implementation. A problem in C# which drives usage of inheritance is that with just interfaces there is no way to reuse code outside of passing function pointers. A lot of people don't get this and think that inheritance is just used because other people are stupid or something. If you have a couple of methods that would be implemented exactly the same for classes 1 through 99, but somewhat differently for classes 100 through 110, then without inheritance you're fucked. A much better way would be Rust's trait system, but for that to work you need really powerful generics, so it's too different of a path for C# to trod it. Instead what C# did was make it so that you can write an implementation for methods declared in an interface, as long as that implementation only uses members defined in the interface (this makes sense, why would it have access to anything else?). So now you can have a default implementation for the 1 through 99 case and save some of your sanity. Of course, it's not a panacea, if the implementation of the method requires access to the internal state of the 1 through 99 case, default interface implementation won't save you. But it can still make it easier via some techniques I won't get into. The important part is that default interface implementation allows code reuse and reduces reasons to use inheritance.

Performance Optimization. C# has a plethora of features regarding that. Most of which will never be encountered by the average programmer. Examples: (1) stackalloc - forcibly allocate reference types to the stack if you know they won't outlive the current scope. (2) Specialized APIs for avoiding memory allocations in happy paths. (3) Lazy initialization APIs. (4) APIs for dealing with memory more directly that allow high performance when interoping with C/C++ while still keeping a degree of safety.

Fine Control Over Async Runtime. C# lets you write your own... async builder and scheduler? It's a bit esoteric and hard to describe. But basically all the functionality of async/await that does magic under the hood? You can override that magic to do some very specific things that you'll rarely need. Unity3D takes advantage of this in order to allow async/await to work on WASM even though it is a single-threaded environment. It implements a cooperative scheduler so the program doesn't immediately freeze the moment you do await in a single-threaded environment. Most people don't know this capability exists and it doesn't affect them.

Tremendous Amount Of Synchronization Primitives and API. This ones does actually make multithreaded code harder to deal with, but basically C# erred a lot in favor of having many different ways to do multithreading because they wanted to suit different usecases. Most people just deal with idiomatic async/await code, but a very small minority of C# coders deal with locks, atomics, semaphores, mutex, monitors, interlocked, spin waiting etc. They knew they couldn't make this shit safe, so they tried to at least let you have ready-made options for your specific use case, even if it causes some balkanization.

Shortly Begging For Tagged Unions

What I miss from C# is more powerful generic bounds/constraints and tagged unions (or sum types or discriminated unions or type unions or any of the other 5 names this concept has).

The generic constraints you can use in C# are anemic and combined with the lack of tagged unions this is rather painful at times.

I remember seeing Microsoft devs saying they don't see enough of a usecase for tagged unions. I've at times wanted to strangle certain people. These two facts are related to one another.

My stance is that if you think your language doesn't need or benefit from tagged unions, either your language is very weird, or, more likely you're out of your goddamn mind. You are making me do really stupid things every time I need to represent a structure that can EITHER have a value of type A or a value of type B.

But I think C# will eventually get tagged unions. There's a proposal for it here. I would be overjoyed if it got implemented. It seems like it's been getting traction.

Also there was an entire section on unchecked exceptions that I removed because it wasn't interesting enough. Yes, C# could probably have checked exceptions and it didn't and it's a mistake. But ultimately it doesn't seem to have caused any make-or-break in a comparison with Java, which has them. They'd all be better off with returning an Error<T>. Short story is that the consequences of unchecked exceptions have been highly tolerable in practice.

Ecosystem State & FOSSness

C# is better than ever and the tooling ecosystem is better than ever. This is true of almost every language, but I think C# receives a rather high amount of improvements per version. Additionally the FOSS story is at its peak.

Roslyn, the bedrock of the toolchain, the compiler and analysis provider, is under MIT license. The fact that it does analysis as well is important, because this means you can use the wealth of Roslyn analyzers to do linting.

If your FOSS tooling lets you compile but you don't get any checking as you type, then your development experience is wildly substandard.

A lot of stupid crap with cross-platform compilation that used to be confusing or difficult is now rather easy to deal with. It's basically as easy as (1) use NET Core, (2) tell dotnet to build for Linux. These steps take no extra effort and the first step is the default way to write C# these days.

Dotnet is part of the SDK and contains functionality to create NET Core projects and to use other tools to build said projects. Dotnet is published under MIT, because the whole SDK and runtime are published under MIT.

Yes, the debugger situation is still bad -- there's no FOSS option for it, but this is more because nobody cares enough to go and solve it. Jetbrains proved anyone can do it if they have enough development time, since they wrote a debugger from scratch for their proprietary C# IDE Rider.

Where C# falls flat on its face is the "userspace" ecosystem. Plainly put, because C# is a Microsoft product, people with FOSS inclinations have steered clear of it to such a degree that the packages you have available are not even 10% of what packages a Python user has available, for example. People with FOSS inclinations are generally the people who write packages for your language!!

I guess if you really really hate leftpad, you might think this is a small bonus though.

Where-in I talk about Cross-Platform

The biggest thing the ecosystem has been lacking for me is a package, preferably FOSS, for developing cross-platform applications. Even if it's just cross-platform desktop applications.

Like yes, you can build C# to many platforms, no sweat. The same way you can build Rust to many platforms, some sweat. But if you can't show a good GUI on Linux, then it's not practically-speaking cross-platform for that purpose.

Microsoft has repeatedly done GUI stuff that, predictably, only works on Windows. And yes, Linux desktop is like 4%, but that 4% contains >50% of the people who create packages for your language's ecosystem, almost the exact point I made earlier. If a developer runs Linux and they can't have their app run on Linux, they are not going to touch your language with a ten foot pole for that purpose. I think this largely explains why C#'s ecosystem feels stunted.

The thing is, I'm not actually sure how bad or good the situation is, since most people just don't even try using C# for this usecase. There's a general... ecosystem malaise where few care to use the language for this, chiefly because of the tone that Microsoft set a decade ago. It's sad.

HOWEVER.

Avalonia, A New Hope?

Today we have Avalonia. Avalonia is an open-source framework that lets you build cross-platform applications in C#. It's MIT licensed. It will work on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and also somehow in the browser. It seems to this by actually drawing pixels via SkiaSharp (or optionally Direct2D on Windows).

They make money by offering migration services from WPF app to Avalonia. Plus general support.

I can't say how good Avalonia is yet. I've researched a bit and it's not obviously bad, which is distinct from being good. But if it's actually good, this would be a holy grail for the ecosystem:

You could use a statically typed language that is productive for this type of software development to create cross-platform applications that have higher performance than the Electron slop. That's valuable!

This possibility warrants a much higher level of enthusiasm than I've seen, especially within the ecosystem itself. This is an ecosystem that was, for a while, entirely landlocked, only able to make Windows desktop applications.

I cannot overstate how important it is for a language's ecosystem to have a package like this and have it be good. Rust is still missing a good option. Gnome is unpleasant to use and buggy. Falling back to using Electron while writing Rust just seems like a bad joke. A lot of the Rust crates that are neither Electron nor Gnome tend to be really really undercooked.

And now I've actually talked myself into checking out Avalonia... I mean after writing all of that I feel like a charlatan for not having investigated it already.

[fated-normal-767]

No, she didn’t.

No, wait, if you’re playing coy …

How did he spread news of his *own* death, is perhaps a better starting point ?

Killed himself on a livestream that hijacked pretty much every live new broadcast in the city. Python is. Certainly the type to go all in on something

[srbachchan]

DAY 5946

Jalsa, Mumbai May 29/30, 2024 Wed/Thu 1:53 AM

🪔 ,

May 30 .. birthday greetings to Ef Mahmud Chowdhury from London 🇬🇧 .. and Ef Heena Bhambhani .. 🙏🏻🚩❤️

work done for the cause of the general .. for the hopeful understanding of why it is being done .. of the desire to be assured that it may make some sense in the execution of some of the pointers spelt out ..

and then some more .. more ideas that have not been covered and not been drawn in the creative ..

I work for the campaign on Road Safety .. to be able to personally share some of my experiences on how this should be designed and brought to the people in general that have the right and privilege to use roadways , vehicles and the discipline and understanding that road safety in its execution may bring about a better discipline ..

It can never be a statement .. it must contain the psychological temperament of the viewer and the listener .. when you command for understanding it is often taken in the wrong spirit .. a lot needs to be put into the reason for the Campaign and the essential pointers that all motorists and pedestrians must believe and understand for a better temperament and safety on our roads ..

it shall be a long drawn battle .. but like all else, when the cause is understandable .. when the cause is right , then all else falls into place ..

It needs a continuous rendering ..

Talking about it in a formality and then forgetting it as 'job done' is the worst status of its bearing .. you have to persist , persevere , and determine a will that eventually shall work for the benefit of the reason it was done ..

So yes .. I commit myself to the fruition of the campaign .. and shall persist to the best for its victory ..

hand on heart to set the nature for the purity of the mission ..

salutations for them that support and volunteer to assist in the need ..

.. and have the great pleasure of my cute sweet colleague in front of the camera .. tresses and all .. 🤣

yes the moments in pictures are repeated .. for little girls be the sweetest of all ..

and the thoughts go back to that masterpiece of a film GIGI .. and the song

'Thank Heaven for little girls'

the song sung in its most inimitable rendition, by the great Maurice Chevalier .. and starring the most handsome man of the times Louis Jourdan !!

Ah .. those were the days my friends .. sadly lost in the speedometer of modernity and time ..

and my gratitude to the enviable Avinash Gowarikar for his photographic senses and the ability to capture you and make you look grand .. despite the flaws of age !!

I leave my liege

liege

"Since modern populations often ignore aristocracy (except in the case of tabloid coverage), many words once used for royalty are now unusual and obscure. Such is the case with liege. If you refer to someone as "my liege" you are probably playing a game.

Ah, the Medieval era, where we find the word liege as we know it, a term used by underlings for the lord of their land. The word was probably of Germanic origin, derived from the Medieval Latin laeticus. In an interesting etymological twist, the word at one time meant a leader of a band of free men — pretty much the opposite of its eventual meaning as a feudal lord. The word is not used much today, except in jest (see Python, Monty)."

Amitabh Bachchan

[hayleythecannibal]

Twisted Minds: Act II- Chapter Nineteen Futamono

TW: Crime scenes, Gore, Implied Death, Death, Talks of Attempted Murder/Assassination, Cannibalism, SMUT!!!, PnV, Oral(Fem recieve), Cheating

Warning this is Fem!reader. You can also find this on Wattpad and A03 under the name @HayleyMarieOfficial. Comment if you want to be added to the taglist.

Taglist: @punkin-time @miaowkitty @gabriella-aesthetic @urlocalfanficwriter @dilfdemolisher

Twisted Minds Masterlist

“You're moving smoothly and slowly, Jack, carrying your concentration like a brimming cup.” Will says as Jack approaches his cell. "Hannibal Lecter, And Y/N were almost murdered by an employee of this hospital. An attendant we believe killed the bailiff and judge in your trial." Jack says with a cold tone. "He killed the bailiff. He didn't kill the judge. That was the Chesapeake Ripper." Will says standing when jack comes into view. "You know this?"

"He told me."

"And then you told him to kill Hannibal Lecter and Y/N. "

“Wait did you just say Y/N? Nothing I said made that happen, Jack. It just happened. Is Y/N okay? Please tell me she's okay Jack.” Will says panicked about his Girlfriend. Does she think he had her killed? Are her Injuries life changing?

“Y/N is okay. Few deep cuts and lacerations. Some blunt force trauma. But overall she’s out of the hospital and stable. But you dont seem as broken up about Hannibal as you do for Y/N.” Jack says as he watches the curly haired man panic. 

“There is a common emotion we all recognize and have not yet named. The happy anticipation of being able to feel contempt. I love Y/N. I would never. Wish her harm.” Will says seriously. “You have contempt for Hannibal.” Jack says, its no a question its a statement. “I have contempt for the Ripper. I have contempt for what he does.” Will says as he starts to pace. 

“What does he do, Will?” Jack asks, curious to what the man will say. “What does he do? What is the first and principal thing he does? What need does he serve by killing?” Will says with a chuckle, not a funny chuckle, but one of irony.

“He harvests organs.” Jack says confused. 

“No. That's only the action of what he does. Why does he need to do? The Ripper kills in sounders of three or four, in quick order.  Do you know why? I know why. Y/N certainly knows as well.” Will is confident in his thinking because it's the only option. 

“Tell me.” “Because if he waits too long, then the meat spoils.” Will says as he steps closer to the bars. “He's eating them? Hannibal Lecter is Garret Jacob Hobbs? A cannibal?” Jack says, its almost humorous. Comparing Hannibal to Garret Jacob Hobbs. Its comical. Its like comparing a Lion to a leopard. One hunts for fun while the other Hunts to eat. And the eating is just the dessert for Hannibal. The main course was the hunt.

“Not like Garret Jacob Hobbs. Hobbs ate his victims to honor them. The Ripper eats his victims because they're no better to him than pigs.” Will says, oh how he wished to be at home with His dogs and Y/N. Hannibal would most likely try to turn her against him. But Will knows that would never happen. Y/N is a lot smarter than she looks, she always has a plan. Always thinking. “With the exception of Beverly Katz, there's no connection between Hannibal and any Ripper victims.” Jack says, “No immediate connection. He likely identifies his meals years in advance, earmarks them, then waits with the patience of a python.” Jack looks at Will in frustration.

“Hannibal Lecter is not the Chesapeake Ripper.”

“Who else do you know with unusual culinary tastes? If the Ripper's killing, you can bet Hannibal Lecter's planning a dinner party. You and I probably sipped wine while swallowing the people we were trying to give justice, Jack. Who does he have to kill before you'll open your eyes?” Will says, but we all know who. 

HANNIBAL LECTER'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT-

Y/N watches Hannibal cut the heart into morsels for the skewers. We can see the bandages on his arms as he cuts. He scrapes pieces of meat into a bowl of marinade, one by one.

“Funny how we revere and romanticize a simple pump. Merely a muscle. Yet such a potent symbol of life and the things that make us human, good and bad. Love and ache.” Hannibal says as I take the pieces of heart meat from the marinade and skewers them with pieces of vegetables between each morsel. The bandages around our arms bind us together in our experience. “All of them skewered.”  I say, the irony honestly.

“It's a thematic dish. My heart certainly feels skewered.” Hannibal says as he turns to me.

“You have the scars to prove it.” I say as I touch the marks on Hannibal's neck where he was hanged. As he grips my Forearm softly, careful not to hurt me. He admires the bandages that cover my sutured arms. “So do you, I feel as though that noose were still around my neck. It's strange to have nightmares. Never used to.” He says as he grazes my hand with his thumb. The nightmares. Mine are different from his. I killed a man. Yes, he wouldve killed me and Hannibal but its different. Its been so long since i shot someone. Almost 12 years since I Killed, Took my first life.

“Don't make the mistake I've made.” I say softly, “Which is?”

“Being your own psychiatrist. I'm always psychoanaylzing myself. Its always one step forward and three steps back.” I say as i stare at our matching wrappings. “It's the safest course. I'm metabolizing the experience by composing a new piece of music.” He says as he sighs. 

“Harpsichord or theremin?” I ask politely,  “Harpsichord. Stravinsky said, "A true composer thinks about his unfinished work the whole time; he's not always conscious of this, but he's aware of it when he suddenly knows what to do." Hannibal says fondly, “Do you know what to do?”

“I need to get my appetite back.” He smiles at her and raises his glass. Sips red wine.

PARKING LOT - DAY-

the man-tree on the horizon, asphalt stretching toward. a PD CRUISER, then another, an AMBULANCE and then an FBI CRIME SCENE VAN. An ever-increasing cordon of flashing lights and POLICE OFFICERS. Finally, a BLACK SUV rolls in.

Jack takes in the scene. Looks at the tortured figure built into the tree, his frozen scream. JIMMY PRICE and BRIAN ZELLER are starting to assess the tableau. They talk. Jack just stares. “He's been literally grafted in place -- these are living roots.” Jimmy says in awe of the Rippers artistry. “He's got varicose vines. Threaded through from his heels, under his legs, his back, through his torso and out his fingertips. Followed some pretty tricky endoscopic surgical paths.” Zeller points out. 

“Chesapeake Ripper usually cherry- picks his organs. He took every last one. Except for the lungs.” Jimmy says as he hears a car pull up, A black SUV.  “Stocking his shelves.” Zeller says turning his head to look at the car.

“There'll be something about the lungs. Why else leave them?” Jack says as he  steps forward and looks at the corpse. The artfully-arranged flowers. It offends him. “The time he devotes to what he does. He takes real pride. Belladonna for the heart, a chain of white oleander for the intestines, ragwort for the liver.”

“The flowers are all poisonous.” I say stepping on scene. The looks i get are ones of surprise. “This is judgment. Ripper believes his victim was toxic. A poisonous man. Who is he to moralize?” I continue, It feels weird to be back so soon but I have lives to save. I watch as Jack stares at the body like it speaks just to him.

“He's the eye of a storm. Working in a place of calm while the winds blow us all over. He's so damn certain, it makes me sick.” Jack says as he turns to me, I give him a soft smile. I know hes been through a lot lately.

BAU - MORGUE - DAY-

Standing on a foot ladder, Brian Zeller runs a small CHAINSAW through the branches rising out of the Tree Man's head.  Y/N L/N, Jack Crawford, and Jimmy Price  All wearing PROTECTIVE EYEWEAR, speaking over the chainsaw BUZZ. “His name is Sheldon Isley. Baltimore city councilman.” Jimmy says as Zeller ceases chainsawing to add: “Ripper's a politician now.”

“At least a conservationist. Five, six years ago, Isley brokered a woodlands development deal despite the disapproval of the EPA.” Jimmy says, he himself is a conservationist. “Councilman Isley paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” Jack shrugs. “What he paved was an important nesting habitat for endangered songbirds. The son of a bitch.” Jimmy says as we watch  Zeller reach into the branches and pulls out a nest.

“Autopsy gave us what you'd expect from the Chesapeake Ripper. Pre-mortem surgical dissection, latex glove impressions, body posed before rigor set in.” Zeller says, and I nod, the veins in the legs clearly well- at least to me. Point out the cause of death. Drowning. “What have those lungs coughed up?”

“Water. Councilman drowned. Lungs are filled with aspirated water.” Zeller points out the Tree Man's legs. I smirk internally, still got it. Today I’m alone on this case, well besides jack. “He was standing in water up to his thighs for forty-eight to seventy-two hours prior to his death.”

“To feed the tree?”

“It's possible.” Zeller says as Price guides Jack to a microscope with a video feed. “Here's the exciting part. Tree Man actually bears fruit.” A PLASMA SCREEN: Curious, geometric single-cell creatures flick back and forth. “Diatoms. Unicellular colonies. Good as fingerprints. No two water sources have the same diatom population.”

“The water in his lungs gives us a location of death. Show me.” A map of Virginia. “Fifty-mile radius -- here.” He traces a circle in the Virginia woods. Jack stares at it, contemplating his next move.

BSHCI - WILL GRAHAM'S CELL - DAY-

“You understand the reality of Beverly Katz's death. You understand your role in that.” Hannibal asks the emotionless Will. “What was my role?” Will tilts his head in question. “Beverly died at your behest. You're as angry with yourself as you are with whoever murdered her.” Hannibal claims.

“Actually, I'm not. I'm singularly angry at whoever murdered her.” Will says confidently.  “You tried to kill me, Will. It's hard not to take that personally. However, if I were Beverly's murderer, I'd applaud your effort.” Hannibal says, He knows how to hurt Will. He wont hurt someone per say but it will Anger Will. “I'm no more guilty of what you've accused me of than you are of what I have accused you of.” Will says Defiantly.

“Jack Crawford believes you were responsible.” Hannibal says almost in a reasoning sense. “Where does responsibility begin and end, Dr. Lecter? With a final act or the events that led to it?” Will asks with a raised brow. “I don't expect you to feel self-loathing or regret or shame. You knew what you were doing and you made your own decisions. Decisions that were under your control. And they got someone you love Hurt. “ Hannibal says in a darker tone. 

“You think I'm in control? I would never Hurt Y/N. Not Intentionally.”

“I think you're more in control now than you've ever been. You found a way to hurt me, Will. I wonder how many more people are going to be hurt by what you do.”

“I'll give Y/N your best.” It's a veiled threat and they both know it. “Good-bye, Will” He turns his Back to Will, not amused...

BAU - MORGUE - DAY-

TECHNICIANS wheel a sheet-covered body into the morgue where Tree Man now lies on a gurney.

Another gurney is wheeled into the swiftly-filling space. Zeller and Price waiting to receive it.

Jack Crawford watching this escalation of bodies through the glass.

HANNIBAL LECTER'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT-

The STRING QUARTET plays Mozart's "Dissonance" as a party is in full swing with well-heeled GUESTS. Four SERVERS emerge from the dining room, one then the other coming INTO FOCUS as they pass through FRAME, like dancers in a chorus line, and head into the room. The servers spread through the crowd with platters thatguests turn to take food from, creating a swirl of movement through the room.

 amidst the crowd and through them. As servers move on and two guests turn to chat, they

reveal Jack Crawford, newly arrived. Jack surveys the room.Hands take morsels of food from the servers' trays and pop them into their mouths. Teeth bite and gnash. Jack watches as they chew and swallow -- going SLO-MO as they chew and then back to NORMAL SPEED for the swallow.

He can see Hannibal talking to two guests. Y/N is nearby. She’s talking to Alana.  Alana takes an hors d'oeuvre from a passing tray, a morsel of meat on a pick, and eats it.

Dr. Chilton approaches and saddles up alongside Jack, eyeing the hors d'oeuvres as they move through the room. “Prosciutto roses. Heart tartare. Beef roulade. Needless to say, I won't be eating the food.” Chilton says uneased with the dishes. “Dr. Chilton.”

“Hannibal the Cannibal. That's what they'll call him, you know.” Chilton says amused. 

“Not according to Abel Gideon.” Jack says weery. “Gideon's caused me enough trouble today. The fact that he lied to you makes me even more certain he was telling Will Graham the truth.” Chilton eyes the roast pig's head on the buffet table. “Why did you come here tonight if you're so convinced?” Jack says 

“Darwinism. I don't want him to think I suspect anything. Keeping my mouth shut on the whole affair.” Chilton says as Jack watches Hannibal. The server returns with a Tupperware

with a lid. Jack takes it in his hands. “Help yourself.” Jack takes a latex glove from his pocket and uses it to place food into the Tupperware. Hannibal glances across the room to see Dr. Chilton watching the exchange curiously. As Jack seals the container, Hannibal smiles sadly.

“Eat it soon or it'll spoil.”

BAU - CORRIDOR - NIGHT-

Jack holds the food container as he greets Brian Zeller and Jimmy Price who are emerging from evidence processing. “Test this.” A DISTINCTIVE NOTE of a harpsichord punctuates the exchange.

HANNIBAL LECTER'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT-

The room has been tidied, but evidence of the party remains. Y/N sits at Hannibal's harpsichord, doubling the KEYS she's playing until it becomes clear she's performing a slow, dreamy version of "The Swan." Hannibal slides next to her. She smiles and he watches her for a moment, then starts playing his composition at the opposite end of the keyboard.

“The ending to my composition has been alluding me. You may have solved my problem with "The Swan."” They smile as they play, hands crossing over the keys, pushing their shoulders together.

“If only all problems could be solved with a simple waltz. Jack's treating you like a suspect.

He's pointing fingers in the dark.” I say, I wish i was scared of what i knew Hannibal was capable of. I know what he is and who he is. “I've walked away from Will, but I'm still trailing his accusations.” Hannibal says.

“I cant walk away. No matter how much I wish I wanted to. He’s my partner.” I say softly as my fingers grace the keys. “What does walking away leave us?” 

“Each other.” Hannibal looks at Y/N, admiring her, appreciating her. Y/N turns to face Hannibal. He feels her gaze and turns to her, their hands stilled on the keys. His hand reaches up and grazes her cheek softly, she leans into his touch. He kisses her softly, leaving her room to pull away. And pull away she did.

“This- This is wrong.” I say softly, though my body says otherwise. My hands rest on his chest. “What is so wrong about ones affection for another.” Hannibal says as he cups my face in his hands. “I’m with Will…” I say as I close my eyes. “Will needs to learn how to share.” He smirks. And Kisses me. One of his hands trail down to hold my waist. As my hands slide up to his hair. 

HANNIBAL LECTER'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT- We stumble into the Bedroom, Hands clawing at each others clothing. Desperate to be relieved of them. He kicks the door behind us closed. I smile into our lustful bliss, He leads us to the bed without his lips ever leaving my skin. His touch scourches my soul, leaving handprints that shall never leave my being.

He pushes me down onto the bed. He’s in control. He possesses my body, mind, and soul in this very moment. I'm afraid he'll never release me. I sit up, my hands going to the buttons on his dress shirt. His lips leave a trail of bruising marks on my neck. His hands unzip my backless dress. I kick off my heels that should've been discarded earlier. The straps of my dress fall down my shoulders.

Hannibal’s dress shirt, suit jacket, and vest have been discarded to the floor by now, leaving him in his belt, pants, and what's underneath. He pulls the straps of my dress to reveal the skin beneath. I quickly go to cover myself, but he grabs my wrists gently but tight enough to stop me.

Hannibal gazes down upon my body, my dress now joining my heels on the floor. I advert his burning Gaze. “Perfect, you are a masterpiece dear. A Living piece of Art” He says as he takes both of my wrists into one of his hands, the other lifts my chin to meet his Gaze. I flush red, feeling the heat in my cheeks and the pooling in my panties. Glad i'm wearing lace. He unpins my hair from its style, my curls fall framing my face. I bite my lip, he pulls it free with his thumb and kisses me hungrily. I moan into the kiss, Hannibal takes the opportunity to bite my lip drawing Blood from it. I gasp and look up at the much older man, He smirks and strokes my cheek. My hands go to his belt, my eyes never leave his. One of Hannibal’s hands trails down my body, coaxing shivers from my body. His fingers dip into my panties, my Breathing hitches. “So wet. Does Will ever make you this wet?” He asks darkly, I nod softly. There had been a few occasions where Will had Aroused me to this extent. 

He looks at me like I'm Prey. Like he could eat me alive. And let's be honest, He probably could. He pushes me down, and Tears my panties off me swiftly. I gasp as he spreads my legs and kneels before me. The sight of it makes me somehow wetter.

Its like the Devil kneeling before an Angel. I lean onto my elbows to watch as he kisses up my legs, my head falls back as he softly blows on my heat. I softly Whimper. He litters my inner thighs with kisses and hickeys. Then finally he brings his mouth to where i need it most.

Hannibal's tongue licks a stripe up my pussy. He groans at the taste; “You taste Divine.” He smirks and then attaches his mouth to my cunt, drinking me in. My hand tangles in his hair as the other grips the comforter tightly.  “Fuck…” I moan out the profanity, I feel him smirk against my heat. He grips my thigh with one hand as the other trails its fingers along my entrance. He pushes two long fingers into me, causing me to buck and moan out other unintelligible profanities and words of praise. 

He hikes my leg over his shoulder, my hand tangled in his hair softly tugs him closer. Im a moaning mess, He sets the pace with his fingers and curls them, expertly hittling my g-spot as he attaches his lips to my clit. 

“Oh Fuck! Hannibal.” I moan loudly, Alerting him that he found it.  If he had neighbors they'd surely hear me. I quickly feel the familiar burn of an oncoming orgasm, my pussy clenches around his fingers and he pulls way causing me to let out a pathetic whimper.

“Not yet Butterfly.” He says softly as he removes my leg from his shoulder. He leans over me and Kisses me softly, I moan softly at the taste of myself on his lips and tongue. I Kiss along his jaw and down his neck. Politely not leaving any marks. My hands unbutton his pants and i bite my lip. I knew it wasn't right. I Love Will. But there's just something about Hannibal that coaxes the dark and dangerous part of me out. 

I flip us over and straddle his thighs as he watches me with a dark smile. I kiss up his stomach, abs and chest, until I reached his lips. He grips my waist and kept me pressed to him in our passionate kiss. Until i pulled away. I tugged at his pants and he allowed me to take them off. I hear him chuckle darkly.

“What?” i ask innocently, I look up at him softly. He cups my cheek and his thumb strokes my cheek bone. “Such a good Girl.” He praises, I whimper at said praise. I focus on my task at hand. I look back up at him silently asking permission. My hands needy, grasping at his boxers. He shakes his head with a smile as he strokes my cheek. My eyebrows furrow confused. “Not tonight Butterfly.” He flips us back over. Hannibal chuckles. He strokes my hair and kisses me. I relax and sigh into the kiss. His hands explore my body, mapping out the soft skin. My arms wrap around his neck, and pull him closer. He kisses along my neck, his tongue tasting the salt on my skin. He pulls back and admires the work he has done on my neck. I reach up and brush the hair from his face. Hannibal looks back up at me and kisses me passionately. I wrap my legs around his waist, grinding up on his bulge, desperate for friction.

Hannibal moans at the action and pulls back to look at me. My face flushed. I bite my lip as he strokes my hair and tucks it behind my ear. I grind up again and he kisses me roughly.

His hands pin mine above my head, he grips them both with one hand. He lines himself up with my entrance. I moan and whimper, wanting nothing more than for him to be inside me. His other hand holds my hip, his thumb strokes the skin there. I feel his tip tease my entrance, I let out a pathetic whine. He looks into my eyes and then slides into me. We both moan, and he lets out a low growl. He bottoms out inside of me and I gasp. My back arches and my eyes roll back.

My hands grip the pillow, Hannibal releases his grip on them. He leans down and kisses me softly as he pulls back and slowly thrusts back in. I moan into the kiss and my nails drag across his scalp, making him growl into the kiss. His hands hold onto my hips tightly, I know they'll leave a mark. He thrusts into me at a slow pace, letting me feel every inch of him. He groans and moans, I love the sounds he makes.

His thrusts start getting rougher, more animalistic. My legs wrap around his waist and my heels dig into his lower back, pushing him further into me. The sound of our skin slapping is music to my ears, and i know that I can't hold back anymore.

I gasp and moan. I claw at his back, and he buries his face in the crook of my neck. His breath is hot against my skin, his teeth scrape my skin and I whimper. Hannibal thrusts harder and faster, hitting deeper with every thrust. I cry out as the all too familiar burn starts to form, my toes curl. Hannibal groans, his cock twitches inside me. I can tell he's getting close, too. His pace gets more erratic and less rhythmic.

He bites my shoulder, marking me. Claiming me as his. I scream out, the pain and pleasure overwhelming my senses. I feel him cum inside me, hot and sticky. The sensation of it sends me over the edge, my orgasm hits and i cum on his cock. We ride out our orgasms together, he slows his pace and kisses along my neck. He releases the skin of my shoulder from his teeth. He licks the blood and cleans the wound.

HANNIBAL LECTER'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT-

Her skin is in stark contrast to the crimson bedding. Hannibal sleeps soundly next to Y/N. After a moment, he opens his eyes. He watches Y/N. He finally stands. He takes Y/N's wineglass from the bedside table. With a white cloth, he wipes the rim, then sets the glass back down. He snaps his fingers close to her ears; she doesn't stir. He looks again at Y/N’s sleeping, then leaves.

HOSPITAL - DR. GIDEON'S ROOM - NIGHT-

l he lies propped up in a hospital bed, curtains drawn all around on an oval frame. His face is bruised. IV drips and monitoring are hooked up to his body. A THICK BANDAGE around his TORSO. We HEAR the door to the room open and then slowly close. Gideon's eyes open as FOOTSTEPS squeak on the floor. He sees a tall SHADOW behind the CURTAINS as it approaches.He watches as the shadow moves toward the foot of the bed. SLOW and TENSE. The curtains are drawn back and a tall figure in surgical scrubs, gloves and a MASK stands before him. He pulls down his mask to reveal Hannibal Lecter. “Hello, Dr. Gideon.”

“I knew you'd come.” Hannibal smiles at Gideon.

HOSPITAL - DR. GIDEON'S ROOM - DAWN-

Early morning light begins to creep through the windows.the curtains surrounding Gideon's bed, a GHOULISH SILHOUETTE hangs beyond them. A FLASH ignites behind the curtain, the silhouettes of TWO MEN examining the body. Jack Crawford as he approaches. He opens

the curtains to find Brian Zeller taking forensic photos of the body as Jimmy Price dusts for fingerprints.

THE BODY It seems to be floating on his belly, horizontally suspended two feet above the bed. His skin is pinched/stretched/pulled many different directions by WIRE FISHING LEADERS. Each line ends in a handcrafted HOOK -- the barb pushed through the skin of the dead man's back, arms and legs. But that dead man is not Abel Gideon. Instead, it is a BALTIMORE POLICE OFFICER, his gun belt still around the waist of his uniform pants. His torso is BARE and opened, the skin held back in flaps attached by fishhooks. The contents of his abdomen on the bed below, his badge sits on top. The finger clip from the MONITORS is attached to his hand. “Put a heart monitor on the guard so no one'd know Gideon was missing, least for as long as it took the guard to die, which wasn't long.” Zeller says.

“Long enough.” Jimmy indicates the dead police officer. “Fishhooks. Hand-tied flies. Like the ones Will Graham used to make. This one has human hair. A tooth.” Jimmy says as he indicates the parts in the flybaits. “There's no way Gideon could have done any of this with his injuries, much less get out of bed.” Zeller clarifies.

“Last time Gideon escaped custody, he was trying to find the Chesapeake Ripper. Found him all right. And tonight, the Ripper found Gideon.”

HANNIBAL LECTER'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING-

Y/N asleep in Hannibal's bed. She stirs slightly and slowly opens her eyes. Hannibal sleeps quietly next to me. I stare peacefully at the ceiling, the morning after sleeping with a friend. What the Hell have I done?  As I begin to think too much, I realize Hannibal has opened his eyes and is watching me.

“You're awake.” I say with a soft sigh and a smile. “So are you.”

“Was thinking about What we did. How I betrayed Will. My heart is torn. And I don't know why.” I say softly as my smile starts to drop. He Caresses my cheek and brushes away a stray hair in my face.  “Of course your heart is torn. You love Will. But you also care for me as well.” 

“But I feel that is unfair. Not to me but to the both of you.” I say softly  “It isn't unfair, I know how to share. And I'm certain Will does too.” He kisses me, then stops and looks at me reassuringly: I kiss him back. BING-BONG. The doorbell rings. BING-BONG.  “Last time someone rang my doorbell this early, it was a census taker.” He goes in to kiss me again before BING-BONG and begrudgingly Hannibal rises from the bed, shrugs on a robe. Hannibal goes to the curtains and draws them -- revealing the morning sun and allowing it to spill into the room.

“I'll see who it is.”

HANNIBAL LECTER'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER-

three loud RAPS on a heavy oak door. The peephole goes dark, then -- Hannibal opens the door to find Jack Crawford standing outside.

“Hello, Jack.” Hannibal says as he  leads Jack into the living room. “What can I do for you?”

“Gideon took a fall down a stairwell last night. Was hospitalized. Security guard standing watch was killed in what looks to be another Chesapeake Ripper murder. Now Gideon is nowhere to be found.” Jack explains and looks at him expectantly.

“He escaped?”

“We know he didn't walk out of the hospital. His back was broken. Someone took him. Someone he knew. Where were you last night?”

Hannibal Hesitates “I was Here.”

“All night?”

“Yes.”

“Anyone besides you can verify that?” Hannibal's quiet a moment. Then, from behind Jack: “I can.” I say wrapped in one of Hannibal's Button-ups, it goes down to my mid-thigh. Jack turns. He flashes surprise, but tamps it quickly.

“I was here with Hannibal all night, Jack. What are you accusing him of?” I ask as Hannibal reads Jack's frustration and perhaps relief. But there's a chance he woke up. Why the Hell am i not upset that i most likely Fucked the Chesapeake Ripper. “I'm not accusing him of anything. Only asking his whereabouts.”

“That's not all you were asking.” Jack looks evenly at them, nods, forced to accept that

Hannibal isn't the Chesapeake Ripper...

BAU - EVIDENCE PROCESSING - DAY-

Brian Zeller stands in front of a monitor. Jimmy Price and Jack Crawford look on. “Not cows. Wagyu beef. I'd say, a hundred dollars worth right there.”

“Sure it wasn't Kobe?” Zeller asks his fellow tech. Jimmy rolls his eyes: “All Kobe is Wagyu, but not all Wagyu is Kobe. Least we know Dr. Lecter wasn't serving up people.”

“Want people? The Chesapeake Ripper was tying flies with them. Just like Will Graham allegedly did.”

BAU - MORGUE - MOMENTS LATER-

Brian Zeller, Jimmy Price and Jack standing over a row of FISHING LURES taken from the security guard's back.

“Hair woven into the monofilament is Beverly's. Bone fragments from Miriam Lass. Veining from Sheldon Isley. Optic nerves and arteries from Judge Davies. A toenail from James Gray, our Muralist.” Zeller points to the DNA matches. A fly hook. Cleverly crafted, with bits of dark, organic material woven into the monofilament. A bone fragment. Veining coiled around hook and feather. An optic nerve entwined with bark.

“All Chesapeake Ripper victims.” Zeller says as Jimmy indicates four lures, in partial stages of

deconstruction, in individual grids. “These four lures here are almost identical to the ones we found at Will's house, made with materials from the exact same human remains. Abigail Hobbs, Marissa Schuur, Donald Sutcliffe, Georgia Madchen.” Jimmy points out.

“Will didn't kill any of them. There was no Copycat. It was always the Ripper. He's finally taking credit for those murders.” Jack realizes Will never killed anyone other than Garret Jacob Hobbs.

“May be taking too much credit. We found something else in the lures.” With tweezers, Jimmy plucks a curled, wispy wood shaving from one of the deconstructed fly grids.

“Madrona bark. It's a tree almost nonexistent on the East Coast. But this bark was peeled recently.”

Zeller gestures to the map of the area. “There's a small stand of madrona in Virginia.”

“Inside your diatom search area.” Zeller zooms in with his hand, à la an iPad. “Here.”

VIRGINIA BARN - NIGHT-

Moonlight on crisp white snow. The hulking black shadow of a heavily-built wooden barn stands stark against the white. we hear the low rumble of a car engine, to find a black sedan pulling up on the opposite side of the barn. JACK CRAWFORD and  DR. Y/N L/N Exit the car. Takes in the barn; the two heavy gate doors barred on the outside. Jack pulls out his gun and a Maglite and walks toward it, his feet crunching on the snow. Their breath frosts the air. Jack walks up the wooden ramp to the heavy doors.

Blackness, except for slivers of faint moonlight shining through the wooden beams. We hear the sound of the heavy bar eing thrown. And then the door opens and a piercing FLASHLIGHT BEAM.. Jack and Y/N silhouetted behind it as he enters the barn slowly. He plays the flashlight around the space, cautious. Tense.

.

Cobwebs and old wood. Heavy old machinery and hand tools. Dust in the air. A SKITTERING SOUND and Jack swings the light and gun -- catching a RAT scurrying for cover... Jack  and Y/N move on. Something shines in the beam and Jack moves toward it. A new steel padlock on an old door. Incongruous. Y/N looks around to be cautious of her surroundings.

A rending sound of wood and metal. A door opens to reveal a flight of wooden stairs, looking up

at Jack and Y/N.

 Y/N throws down the iron bar she used to force the lock. Jack Shines his light right at the bottom as they start down the stairs -- Jack moves down the wooden stairs, gun and flashlight before him. Y/N shines her own light to reveal a dark, low cellar space, the concrete floor dominated by the tops of two circular WATER CISTERNS.

Jack and Y/N scan the room, Their flashlight beams our only light source, casting harsh shadows and movements. Jack checks the room for danger -- light reflecting off dirt-smeared windows in the far wall; blackness reflecting back from the other side.

MOVEMENT Y/N stills as she hears it. Heart thumping. A scraping sound. BELOW HER…She moves to the cisterns, the old stone topped with much newer METAL LIDS. she pulls the first one off -- flashes the light into it – dark water rises a third of the way up the steep slick sides.

SCRITCH – The sound again. Y/N moves to the other cistern. Can definitely hear something inside... (AN: BTW i wrote the SMUT scene while listening to "I am not afraid anymore" by Halsey, and whew it really goes with the scene)

[destinationtoast]

hi! research question I'd love your input on:

do you know how to generate size-of-fandom stats? I'm researching the Ghost fandom and while I know from the This Week in Tumblr posts about what their size is *now,* I'd like to try to compare it to past years, and be able to make statements like "x% of the fandom is reblogging explicit content."

I'm also looking for deeper info on how tumblr works if someone deactivates - do their notes vanish too?

It sounds like you want to gather Tumblr information only -- is that right? I don't have a lot of expertise with Tumblr data (I think I last gathered some over a decade ago), but it looks like their API still lets you retrieve posts with a certain tag and specify a timestamp, if you're willing to do a bit of programming. So you could, e.g., retrieve the last N posts of each month that use a particular fandom tag. And then you can compare those samples of posts to see how the content has changed over time. If you want to do that, there are libraries in Python and probably other languages that can make it easier to work with the Tumblr API.

I believe the posts retrieved this way don't include reblogs, so you'd also have to look at the post notes to get info about how many reblogs different types of posts are getting. As to your question of deactivated accounts within those notes, I'm not certain of the answer. I frequently see reblog chains where some accounts in the chain have deactivated, so those notes are not entirely gone. But I don't know if the replies/likes from deactivated accounts disappear from post notes. Anyone else know?

[good-beanswrites]

Fe Aspec Week Day 1: Coming Out

WOO It's aspec week time!! 💜💚 To no one's surprise I'm starting off with Lukas :3 I know we have the wonderful support convo when he and Python sort of come out to each other, but I was always curious about the loose ends that it brings up -- how he comes out to/is treated by his family, the woman he's left behind, his fellow nobles, etc. This drabble doesn't really answer any of those questions sadfsadf but it's coming from that thought 😂

Father,

I am writing to you now, so soon after my previous letter, as there is something I have yet to confess. It may be difficult for you to hear, but

The sentence stops abruptly, a small dab of ink at the corner of the ‘t’ where the pen had rested a moment in contemplation.

A man sits back at his at a desk. His candle illuminates the page, displaying a few brief lines at the top. He dips his pen in ink time and time again, but the page remains mostly empty. 

At first, the man believes his problem to be a lack of words. No title exists for men like him. He’s well-educated and well-connected in the army; he has an extensive vocabulary for how the upper and lower class categorizes its people. Whether it’s a scholar’s dull terminology, vulgar common language insults, or the carefully chosen phrasing of a gossiper, none of the usual descriptors fit him. All he has are the distantly connected criticisms he’d heard his whole life: “heartless,” “cold,” “detached.” 

When the candle burns lower, however, he realizes the real issue. He has far too many words.

Where would he even start? Should he describe his contentment with his life here? How not one of his fellows ever brought up the lack of a woman at his arm, or how dinners with the King and Queen themselves were filled with pleasantries that never touched on his romantic endeavors? Whatever his father had been preparing for, it had never come.

Or should he begin earlier, when he was first accepted by this group of people? He wasn’t sure if he could properly convey all that he experienced on that fateful night, speaking softly with the unit’s archer – a man he’d come to call one of his truest friends. The man had heard for the first time in his life that there were others like him. He heard that they were content. They were whole.

He could go back further and describe the moment that the realization first hit him. How his father had been right in a sense. Just as he said, one day when the man was grown, he would be in the arms of another, and everything about himself would suddenly make sense. There was only one difference. He’d been forced to bury that clarity, since it wasn’t the same kind that everyone else came to.

Or should he start even further back? He could recount all little hints that haunted him across his youth. His dreams for the future never quite aligned with those of his peers. Nothing ever seemed to align. His choice of stories to read, of games to play, of jokes to make. He wouldn’t ever claim he was mistreated as a child, but everyone would agree that the signs had appeared even then.

The man sighs. Where is the beginning, when one has always been this way? 

The clock strikes on the hour. It is late, and he will need to be at his sharpest tomorrow for drills and meetings. He has no more time to fret over words about his past. 

The man tries a new method, and wonders what his friends may write about him. He can’t resist a dry smile. He knows that he can never, under any circumstance, allow them to exchange any correspondence with his family. 

But the exercise gives him an idea.

He writes out a single statement. Then he blows out the candle and heads to his bed. 

there is nothing broken about me.

Cordially,

Lukas

[ourloveiselectrifying]

Hello hello! It's me DFP

I'm wondering where you learned/are you learning to Code? I find the structure of your game quite entertaining and I like to take a little inspiration from it (If I'm allowed)

And I tried to make images that are options but apparently I'm still a long way from leaving the beta of my projects So I wanted to seek advice from you

(Also, if this is not the correct account to ask this I apologize, but if you have some very good advice that can help me please feel free to go to my DMs)

Hello DFP! :3 (I'm not exactly sure what you mean by structure sorry, but probably yes haha) 

I didn't learn coding. In fact, the scariest part of my game is the code itself! I would like to take classes in art and coding someday! It's just not a great time in my country to be spending money atm ahahahaha- (cries in national housing and inflation crisis)

If you're using Renpy to make a VN, smart people would recommend giving the Renpy and Python's offcal guides a good look and watching Renpy tutorials on youtube.

For me, I'm the kinda person that only takes in information by dissecting and breaking things, then learning from the mistakes. I looked at the front page of the Python pdf, and it made my ADHD repossess my body despite being on the max dose of ritalin. I immediately closed it then skimmed through the Renpy quickstart, not really taking in any of the information, jumped right into designing the main menu, minced up the code, caught a bunch of errors, and had to check out fourms for fixes.

Have some random tips that may or may not be helpful since I don't know your skill level and I, am infact, not skilled in Renpy, I have no idea what I'm doing half the time! :3

Make new files for everything, don't just put it all in the script or it's going to get ridiculous.

Scripts get LONG use # and add notes, so you can CTRL + F and find stuff easily.

If you're like me, check out renpy's reddit/lemma soft fourms, if you're not getting good goog search results, it might be the words you're using, I had this issue a lot, try changing up words in your question (options/preferences/choices/decisions)

When you're learning copy and paste the code/answer, once you know the the code and can type it out fast, then starting manually typing it out.

Always check the dates on posts, there's a bunch of old renpy guides/fourms that don't work anymore.

There is more than one way to skin a dingo (sorry kevin), if you've found a fix that seems ridiculous but it's working, keep it!

If you have anger problems prepare to get fuckin' pissed off! Before you start coding have a coffee/bottle of water/energy drink beside you, so you have to walk away to take angry piss breaks and can clear your head.

If you absolutely cannot figure something out, make a copy, put it aside and work on something else until you're a little more skilled.

I have three copies of olie, the one that works, the one that I'm experimenting on, and the one on a USB I copy when I get drunk and forget which is my "fuck around" code and which is my "don't touch it, it works" code and I annihilate my game. Make regular backups to your USB for any emergencies, houses burn down. Limit your drinking while coding.

Compare code to the game base if you're coming up with errors. Goog the exact error that pops up when the game crashes. (renpy expected statement)

Click the blue text and it'll take you to it. Sometimes it's not very accurate and you need to look a little above or below the line the error happened. 70% of the time your error is a missing space or "," or an extra space!

I also recommend checking out all the shortcuts on your code editing software (I'm using visual studio code!) I was manually adding indents to each line, which was wasting an insane amount of time LMAO ;w; 

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by images that are options, but I'm guessing an imagebutton? If you search "renpy imagebutton" there's a few forums and tutorials that will guide you but it's like this.

You need a screen for your buttons, an image, if you're feeling funky add transforms to the button, else just use a different image for idle/hover!

Add the anchor before you do xpos/ypos because it messes around with the positions and you'll have to re-adjust the xpos/ypos again. You need anchor for the transitions to work properly.

If you want the button to make a sound on click add activate_sound or remove it if you don't want one, it's optional.

This is how you make the transform, you can do a TON of different transforms. This is a simple idle/hover transform. ease is the animation type/speed, alpha is transparency, 1.0 is fully visible, 0.0 is transparent, at 0.5 on idle, it has a dimmed effect. the zoom makes it bigger. Make a new file for this one!

Buttons have a TON of actions to choose from, this is a time I actually would checkout renpy's offical guides. This one does the same as a jump at the end of a label or choice.

If you want your game to not pause when your buttons are visible, just use "show screen nameofthescreenhere zorder 20" (zorder is the layers, 20 is like usually the top, you can go higher though)

If you want your game to pause while the screen is up, use call screen instead of show!

I probably won't do too many of these coding/renpy support things on my tumblr but, OLIE'S discord server has a few game dev channels for coding support if you'd want to join there! :3

I wish you well and goodluck on your game!!! 💖🫡🍀

[snailmailmp3]

why is python so goddamn illegible. too many periods and parentheses and brackets what happened to a good old fashioned for loop. the humble if else statement

[usoud-tournament]

Welcome To The Tournament!

This blog is exclusively to run the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny Tournament based on Lemon Demon's song sharing the same name! This post is to straighten out the rules and details to hopefully avoid too many questions.

How the bracket order was picked out:

I did my best to do the pairings based on the order which the character first appears in the song. All of the characters in the song are fighting against each other in the first round with the exception of Monty Python's Black Knight, as we're having a mini-round with him in order to let the two Gandalfs duke it while still keeping the number of brackets enough to make sure everyone has a match. The other exception is Mr. Rogers, as he won in the original song, and I am putting him in the third round to give some other fighters a chance to fight without his interference with the polls.

How the character versions were picked out:

I knew that there would be fights and questions with many of these characters if I left what version was fighting ambiguous, so I looked around for the most well-known versions of these characters, favoring the versions which are most popular in their respective fandoms. Believe it or not, I'm not in every fandom ever, so I apologize if you don't agree with my picks. Similarly, the strengths and weaknesses are gotten from the specific version's character Fandom Wikipedia page. I apologize if I got any strengths and weaknesses wrong. The exception to this 'only one version of the characters' rule is the Power Rangers, as the song specifies "Every Single Power Ranger" Therefore I did not want to exclude any versions. I got the help of a friend to understand the Power Rangers MO and try to balance their strengths and weaknesses to make sure they didn't roll over everyone else in this tournament.

What age are they?

Some of these characters are still living or quite old, and some characters' ages fluctuate throughout their media. Because of this, I am making a blanket statement that all of these characters are fighting during the prime of their careers.

Where are they?

Based on the opening line of the song, all of the characters will be fighting in Tokyo City Earth, they are allowed to leave this starting location as much as they are able.

Motivation?

There is no specific motivation for all of these characters, other than they were placed in Tokyo and have sufficient incentive to fight each other. For example, Superman could think that his opponent is a threat to Earth, Terminator could think his opponent is trying to stop his mission to kill Sarah, etc. However, characters with moral backbones will still follow their moral codes, and a character wins a fight if either A. They kill the other character or B. They convince the other character to not fight.

Poll Logistics

I know it will be impossible to make these fights truly unbiased, but I want for as many people as possible, for them to vote based on who they think would win in a fight, not who they like most. Otherwise, the final results will be based on who has the biggest fandom. What I want from this tournament is silly arguments about how these characters would fight each other, not a survey on who people like more. Every poll will last a day and each round will happen with every pairing going up against each other in the same day. However, the next round may not happen immediately after the last one. I'll try my best to be on top of it, communicate if and when the next round will be, etc. But I'm just a humble college student and I don't want to make this tournament a part-time job

Bias

I am not in all of these fandoms, but I am in some, and I also want to engage with people in the comments. However, I do not want to skew results. So I am not going to reblog posts encouraging people to vote for one character or the other, but if any cool fanart comes out I will be reblogging that. I will also be chatting with people in the notes, but not reblogging anyone to chat so it doesn't show up on the blog page.

Finally, every poll will be tagged with the characters in them, which means this poll will be showing up in a lot of different fandoms. It is not my intention to annoy people by popping up in their feeds when they just want to look at fanart or fan posts. Therefore I'm tagging every post of mine #USOUD Tournament and #Ultimate Showdown of ultimate destiny. If you don't want to see me ever again, block those tags.

Happy fighting!

[tourmaline-forge]

grad school is so wild bc I'm in two classes this semester and in one of them, we're using python to create learning algorithms for data science applications. in the other were currently using code.org to learn how "if/then/else" statements work. and the code.org one is a higher level class

[digitaldetoxworld]

Python Programming Language: A Comprehensive Guide

 Python is one of the maximum widely used and hastily growing programming languages within the world. Known for its simplicity, versatility, and great ecosystem, Python has become the cross-to desire for beginners, professionals, and organizations across industries.

What is Python used for

🐍 What is Python?

Python is a excessive-stage, interpreted, fashionable-purpose programming language.  The language emphasizes clarity, concise syntax, and code simplicity, making it an excellent device for the whole lot from web development to synthetic intelligence.

Its syntax is designed to be readable and easy, regularly described as being near the English language. This ease of information has led Python to be adopted no longer simplest through programmers but also by way of scientists, mathematicians, and analysts who may not have a formal heritage in software engineering.

📜 Brief History of Python

Late Nineteen Eighties: Guido van Rossum starts work on Python as a hobby task.

1991: Python zero.9.0 is released, presenting classes, functions, and exception managing.

2000: Python 2.Zero is launched, introducing capabilities like list comprehensions and rubbish collection.

2008: Python 3.Zero is launched with considerable upgrades but breaks backward compatibility.

2024: Python three.12 is the modern day strong model, enhancing performance and typing support.

⭐ Key Features of Python

Easy to Learn and Use:

Python's syntax is simple and similar to English, making it a high-quality first programming language.

Interpreted Language:

Python isn't always compiled into device code; it's far done line by using line the usage of an interpreter, which makes debugging less complicated.

Cross-Platform:

Python code runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and even cell devices and embedded structures.

Dynamic Typing:

Variables don’t require explicit type declarations; types are decided at runtime.

Object-Oriented and Functional:

Python helps each item-orientated programming (OOP) and practical programming paradigms.

Extensive Standard Library:

Python includes a rich set of built-in modules for string operations, report I/O, databases, networking, and more.

Huge Ecosystem of Libraries:

From data technological know-how to net development, Python's atmosphere consists of thousands of programs like NumPy, pandas, TensorFlow, Flask, Django, and many greater.

📌 Basic Python Syntax

Here's an instance of a easy Python program:

python

Copy

Edit

def greet(call):

    print(f"Hello, call!")

greet("Alice")

Output:

Copy

Edit

Hello, Alice!

Key Syntax Elements:

Indentation is used to define blocks (no curly braces  like in different languages).

Variables are declared via task: x = 5

Comments use #:

# This is a remark

Print Function:

print("Hello")

📊 Python Data Types

Python has several built-in data kinds:

Numeric: int, go with the flow, complicated

Text: str

Boolean: bool (True, False)

Sequence: listing, tuple, range

Mapping: dict

Set Types: set, frozenset

Example:

python

Copy

Edit

age = 25             # int

name = "John"        # str

top = 5.Nine         # drift

is_student = True    # bool

colors = ["red", "green", "blue"]  # listing

🔁 Control Structures

Conditional Statements:

python

Copy

Edit

if age > 18:

    print("Adult")

elif age == 18:

    print("Just became an person")

else:

    print("Minor")

Loops:

python

Copy

Edit

for color in hues:

    print(coloration)

while age < 30:

    age += 1

🔧 Functions and Modules

Defining a Function:

python

Copy

Edit

def upload(a, b):

    return a + b

Importing a Module:

python

Copy

Edit

import math

print(math.Sqrt(sixteen))  # Output: four.0

🗂️ Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)

Python supports OOP functions such as lessons, inheritance, and encapsulation.

Python

Copy

Edit

elegance Animal:

    def __init__(self, call):

        self.Call = name

def communicate(self):

        print(f"self.Call makes a valid")

dog = Animal("Dog")

dog.Speak()  # Output: Dog makes a legitimate

🧠 Applications of Python

Python is used in nearly each area of era:

1. Web Development

Frameworks like Django, Flask, and FastAPI make Python fantastic for building scalable web programs.

2. Data Science & Analytics

Libraries like pandas, NumPy, and Matplotlib permit for data manipulation, evaluation, and visualization.

Three. Machine Learning & AI

Python is the dominant language for AI, way to TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-research, and Keras.

4. Automation & Scripting

Python is extensively used for automating tasks like file managing, device tracking, and data scraping.

Five. Game Development

Frameworks like Pygame allow builders to build simple 2D games.

6. Desktop Applications

With libraries like Tkinter and PyQt, Python may be used to create cross-platform computing device apps.

7. Cybersecurity

Python is often used to write security equipment, penetration trying out scripts, and make the most development.

📚 Popular Python Libraries

NumPy: Numerical computing

pandas: Data analysis

Matplotlib / Seaborn: Visualization

scikit-study: Machine mastering

BeautifulSoup / Scrapy: Web scraping

Flask / Django: Web frameworks

OpenCV: Image processing

PyTorch / TensorFlow: Deep mastering

SQLAlchemy: Database ORM

💻 Python Tools and IDEs

Popular environments and tools for writing Python code encompass:

PyCharm: Full-featured Python IDE.

VS Code: Lightweight and extensible editor.

Jupyter Notebook: Interactive environment for statistics technological know-how and studies.

IDLE: Python’s default editor.

🔐 Strengths of Python

Easy to study and write

Large community and wealthy documentation

Extensive 0.33-birthday celebration libraries

Strong support for clinical computing and AI

Cross-platform compatibility

⚠️ Limitations of Python

Slower than compiled languages like C/C++

Not perfect for mobile app improvement

High memory usage in massive-scale packages

GIL (Global Interpreter Lock) restricts genuine multithreading in CPython

🧭 Learning Path for Python Beginners

Learn variables, facts types, and control glide.

Practice features and loops.

Understand modules and report coping with.

Explore OOP concepts.

Work on small initiatives (e.G., calculator, to-do app).

Dive into unique areas like statistics technological know-how, automation, or web development.

[pinheadlarryexe]

There is no need for the 'elif' keyword

I've been working on my parser for a little bit now, and I'm stealing following along this amazing article to implement a Pratt Parser. I've written a grammar for my own little language as well, inspired by Python's own grammar.

Inspired by Rust, if-statements are considered expressions. So you can use them like

foo = 1 + if 1 > 0 {1} else {0};

and it would have no problem handling that. However, like in Python, my if-statements use the 'elif' keyword to differentiate between else-if and else-statements.

However, as I'm writing my Pratt Parser, I've come to realize that there is no need for the 'elif' keyword to exist. If you write your grammar something like

expression:

| ...

| if_stmt

if_stmt:

| 'if' expression block else_stmt

| 'if' expression block

else_stmt:

| 'else' expression

it will have no problem handling else-if statements since if-statements are also expressions.

Else-statements do not have to enforce blocks since they do not have a condition body, unlike if-statements. If-statements must enforce blocks since if they didn't, the parser wouldn't know when the condition body ends and the main body started.

For a language like Python however, it uses the 'elif' keyword because it does not treat if-statements as expressions. However, they do have ternaries

A if condition else B

which look very similar to if-statements. These are treated as expressions. Because they're treated as expressions, you don't see the 'elif' keyword. Instead, nested ternaries look like

A if condition else B if condition else C

You might notice that it looks similar to

if condition {

A

} else if condition {

B

}

but just rearranged. You can also notice the 'else if'. The 'elif' keyword has been eliminated.

I didn't put much planning into this post so it probably sounds a little rambly but whatever. cheers.

[snowcodes]

hi. i had a very similar experince to trying to look through the code camp scams and everything online and not living near anything useful. if you can find an online real college thats what i did, granted its a community college and an associates but. other than that, don't sleep on utilizing chatgpt to teach you. thats how i learn all of my material. you can ask it questions or say "can you teach me about x", and if you dont like its response you can say things like "make that more simple" or "make that interactive". but helpful tip, all programming languages basically do the same things and work in very, very similar ways. if you just learn the fundamentals of programming you can just translate that to any language. in my opinion, the basics to learn are: the structures of programming (sequential, conditional, iterative), variables, datatypes (integer, string, float, etc)(in python those are it), conditional statements(these are those if-else things you see), iterative aka loops(do..while, for x in list, do until, etc), functions(keep em one purpose), passing data. i would say these are the fundamentals. every language does it (besides html bc thats not a programming language but just a mark up language), so once you know about the conditonal structure for example, just find out "how do i use this in x language". if you are learning python now, its a great language to learn about programming and you've probably realized by now that people most often use it in an object oriented way, but you don't have to and don't have to learn about classes or objects if you don't have the fundamentals down yet. i hope this helps and if you have any questions feel free to ask me

Oh I 100% agree with this advice. After looking for a long, long time, I realised the most legitimate courses were from 'real' colleges and education suppliers that offered 'brick n mortar' schooling as well as e-learning.

I'm definitely going to utilise the free resources online and then work towards building a profile and generally seeing what the jobs online look for and work towards that alongside the usual path of learning :)

Also, I love how supportive folk generally are in this area of learning. I knew it would be competitive, especially when it comes to getting a job in a year or so...but seeing folk lift each other up instead of put each other down is heart-warming on so many levels. It makes me think I've found my correct career path :)

[twoidiotwriters1]

Almighty (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: You get fluff, as a treat -Danny Words: 3,057 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: 'It's Time' -by Imagine Dragons

XIX: Serendipity

Ara and Rachel walk out together from the Big House. "Nothing yet?"

"Completely constipated," Rachel pushes her bushy hair back in frustration. "And you? No funny dreams?"

Ara had no dreams at all because she didn't sleep. "None."

Percy joins them and then points at the hill. "What's he doing up there?"

"Probably feeling sorry for himself," Ara sighs. "Let's get him before Peleus eats him."

The three walk uphill to meet Apollo. Rachel talks first. "I know what you're thinking. Don't do it."

"Can you read my mind, Miss Dare?" The boy asks sarcastically.

"I don't need to. I know you, Lord Apollo."

"Don't call me Lord," he makes a face. "I am just a mortal teen. I do not belong at this camp."

Percy sits next to him. "Yeah, I used to think I didn't belong here either."

"It's not the same. You humans change and grow and mature. Gods do not."

"You sure about that? You seem pretty different."

"You look sadder," Ara crosses her arms and examines him playfully. "But if you don't want to be addressed as a lord, that's fine. So what now, Lester?"

"The other Oracles must be found and secured," he hugs his knees. "I cannot do that unless I leave Camp Half-Blood. And I cannot risk anyone else's life."

"Yeah well, luckily for you I'm legally obliged to do what I think necessary, and considering you're a sorry excuse of a demigod, I can't turn my back on you. You got a prophecy, right?"

Rachel sits next to Lester. "Ara said you were talking to an arrow yesterday. I'm guessing it's wood from Dodona?"

Percy tilts his head. "You found a talking arrow that gave you a prophecy?"

"Don't be silly," Apollo rolls his eyes. "The arrow talks, but I got the prophecy from the grove itself. The Arrow of Dodona just gives random advice. He's quite annoying."

"Right, and Percy's statement made no sense," Ara teases him.

"I must leave the camp," Apollo ignores her. "The Triumvirate means to possess all the ancient Oracles. I have to stop them. Once I have defeated the former emperors... only then will I be able to face my old enemy Python and free the Oracle of Delphi. After that... if I survive... perhaps Zeus will restore me to Olympus."

"We've got a good head-start," Ara shrugs. "We can do it."

"Are you sure you wish to come?" Apollo raises a brow. "Nero said they want you as much as they want the oracles. You have a whole life going on."

"As if you care," Ara snorts. "Like it or not, Lester, we're a team now, so you better embrace it."

"Ara is the closest you'll get to the gods helping you," Percy agrees. "She's got nine blessings, and one is from your dad. You need her and Ara needs you to get this right so she can have an easier time looking after us."

"Besides," Ara adds carefully. "Nero wanted me to kill Meg, she's not safe with him. I think I almost got to her, she just needs to feel like she's standing on solid ground with us. She needs us, Lester."

"Meg doesn't want to be found," he keeps his gaze down. "She's under the influence of her stepfather."

Percy fidgets with his pen. "I've lost too many people to bad influence: Ethan Nakamura, Luke Castellan... We almost lost Nico, too... No. No more. Listen to Ara, you can't give up on Meg. You guys are bound together. Besides, she's one of the good guys."

"I've known many of the good guys. Most of them got turned into beasts, or statues, or— or trees..."

"She's just like I was at her age," Ara places a hand on his shoulder and absorbs some of his anguish. "And look at me now, I have a great sense of humor and I'm so pretty."

"I hate you," Apollo says weakly.

Rachel chuckles. "Things can turn out differently, Apollo. That's the nice thing about being human. We only have one life, but we can choose what kind of story it's going to be."

"It's all about who's there with you," Ara nods. "And I've been exceeding expectations since I was ten."

"I hope you're right," he sighs.

"Well, for starters, I need a prophecy," Ara straightens her posture. "So let's hear it."

Lester wrinkles his nose, but he replies.

There once was a god named Apollo

Who plunged in a cave blue and hollow

Upon a three-seater 

The bronze fire-eater

Was forced death and madness to swallow

Rachel covers her mouth. "A limerick?"

"I know! I'm doomed!"

"Why? What does that mean?" Ara frowns.

"Birdy," Percy speaks suddenly in alert. "Those lines... Do they mean what I think they mean?"

"Well," Apollo looks at him, "I believe the blue cave refers to the Oracle of Trophonius. It was a... a very dangerous ancient Oracle."

"No. The other lines. Three-seater, bronze fire-eater, yadda yadda." Ara feels something swelling in her chest the more her brother says, something tightly bound and almost impossible to contain, but she tries to, because she hates disappointment. "Harley's beacon." Percy stands and looks around. "He said you gave it a tuning adjustment? I guess that did the trick."

Ara's pulse is racing. "But we never got a response, we thought—" her throat closes up suddenly, tight with emotion.

"Were there any other lines?" Percy demands, staring at Apollo. "Like, except for the limerick?"

"Several," Apollo starts to catch up, his eyes set on Ara. "Just bits and pieces I didn't understand. The fall of the sun; the final verse. Um, Indiana, banana. Happiness approaches. Something about pages burning."

Percy squeezes Ara's shoulders, and it's great that he does that because otherwise Ara would've doubled over and fainted. "There you go! Happiness approaches. Happy is a name—well, the English version, anyway." 

"Oh gods," Ara knows exactly where to look, spotting a tiny shape in the distance. "Oh, gods!"

"Apollo," Percy says with a huge smile. "Your escort is on the way."

Festus is spiraling down to the beach. Ara bolts downhill without saying anything, her voice is gone, her entire body buzzes with excitement and all she's thinking is a three-lettered name with huge exclamation points at the end of it. She can't remember ever being angry at Leo for leaving, can't remember being angry about the magic scroll having no messages for her. All she wants is to see him, to make sure he's alive, and most importantly, free of curses.

People call after her as she passes them running, but she doesn't stop, her soul light is glowing brighter than it's done in months, and everything around her is a blur of color and noises. She has a single goal in mind, and she reaches it the moment Festus crashes by the shore, a mix of sand and mud jumping everywhere, a large cloud of dust and smoke elevating from the collision obscuring her vision. Ara stumbles to a stop and surveys the cloud, eyes wide and lightheaded. Lily, Connor, and Nico are the first to reach her. 

"No way..." Connor whispers.

"The crazy elf did it," Lily mumbles in Italian. "Lucky bastard!"

Someone grunts as they make their way out of the cloud, and suddenly, there he is. "Holy crap!" Leo coughs. "I'm so tired of crashlanding everywhere..."

It feels like she's been holding her breath for longer than a few seconds, Calypso comes out of the mess right after the boy, but Ara doesn't notice her at first. The campers gather around them, throwing nervous glances at their General, waiting to see what her reaction will be after months apart.

Leo locks eyes with her, blinks, and so abruptly it knocks the air right out of her lungs again, he smiles. That amazing, crooked grin she's begged the gods to see for six full months. "Leo..." she speaks hoarsely, but her joke dies without even starting. 

"I know," he smirks, knowing what she's trying to say. "It's been three years and you're married to a fireman who looks like Apollo?"

Ara rushes forward and crashes against him, tightly wrapping her arms around his neck while crying. "You're here..." 

Leo holds her with the same amount of emotion, he's shaking. "Gods, I missed you." He breathes, sounding just like her.

"Ara, c'mon you have the power to stop this!"

"I really don't," she mumbles against Leo's neck. "They're doing it for me, because they know I can't do it."

"They're not my girlfriend so I don't see why they get to punch me!"

"The line starts to the left! Orderly queue, guys!" Nico walks past handing out tickets. Ara's pretty sure he's given at least three to Lily.

"You scared my best friend and she cried for months, so man up and take the punishment," Lily punches his arm, doing little to hold back the impact.

"Ouch!"

"For what is worth, I don't think you deserve to be punished," Ara tilts her head so she can look at him, pressing her cheek on his shoulder.

Percy's eyes widen in disbelief. "You wanted to sink his head down the toilet for not leaving any sappy messages on the scroll!"

Leo snorts. "That scroll was for camp, though. I sent one just for you!" He looks at her. "You didn't get it?"

"What? I never got a scroll!" 

"Ah, bummer, I was really proud of it, there were some Mr. Darcy-level bars in it," Leo shakes his head. "I'm sorry."

"I didn't know you sent one for me," she softens. "I'm sorry."

"That's—ow!"

"You're a jerk, and we all hate you," Miranda Gardner briefly kisses his cheek and pats his head. "If you ever disappear like that again, we'll line up to kill you."

"Okay, okay!" Leo huffs, leaning closer to Ara. "I'm not sure I'm happy to be back." But Ara's clinging to him and can feel his emotions. He's delighted with the attention, even if they're all punching him.

Percy shakes his head. "Six months, dude, you had my sister all worried. We're friends and everything, but I was seriously considering to go out there and hunt you down myself—"

"Do you think I wanted to leave Ara?" Leo scoffs, tightening his grip around her. "We tried sending more holographic scrolls. We tried Iris messages, dream visions, phone calls. Nothing worked. Ow! Hey, Alice, how you doing?" He smiles, rolling his shoulder to ease the pain. "Anyway, we ran into one crisis after another."

Calypso sighs. "Albania was particularly difficult."

"Please do not mention Albania!" Nico raises his voice. "Okay, who's next, folks? One line."

Ara scowls. "That only makes me wanna go there even more..."

"Typical." Leo kisses her forehead, then winces when another camper punches him. "Hey, Saggio, why are you holding five tickets? Girl, count your freaking days!" He goes back to the conversation. "So, like I was saying, if Festus hadn't picked up on that homing beacon yesterday, we'd still be flying around, looking for a way out of the Sea of Monsters."

"Oh, I hate that place," Percy makes a face. "There's this big Cyclops, Polyphemus—"

"I know, right?" Leo gawks. "What is up with that guy's breath?"

"Boys," Calypso speaks quietly, "perhaps we should focus on the present?"

Since the landing, Calypso has had trouble meeting Ara's eye, but the girl can tell she's no longer immortal, mostly because the moment she saw Percy there was a brief flash of bright pink coming out of her. Talking about awkward.

Ara doesn't hate the goddess, but it does make her slightly uncomfortable that she won't speak to her. Leo told her once that Calypso wanted to meet her, so she'd sort of, perhaps vainly, assumed that the goddess would rush up to her rambling out questions, but instead there she is, sitting stiffly next to Rachel Dare.

It could also have to do with the fact that Percy is here and she very much threw a curse at Annabeth without thinking and Percy totally knows of it since he spent time in Tartarus. Talking about awkward.

"So the communication issues..." Percy continues. "Rachel Dare thinks it's got something to do with this company, Triumvirate."

"Man, why does it not surprise me that modern corporations are run by zombie Roman emperors?"

"They are not zombies," Lester replies, eyeing the way Leo's holding Ara almost like a disapproving father. "And I'm not sure they run all corporations—"

Leo dismisses his comment. Apollo being here doesn't sit well with him, especially after hearing Ara spent the last two days alone with him in the woods. "But they're trying to take over the Oracles."

"Yes."

"And that's bad."

"Very."

"So you need our help. Ow! Hey, Sherman. Where'd you get the new scar, dude?"

While Sherman talks, Ara untangles herself from Leo, trying to lock eyes with Calypso, she glances at Lester, noticing he's doing the same. He's probably thinking the same she's thinking. Another immortal stripped down from her powers, that's gotta do something to the status quo, right?

Calypso does an odd movement on the table and her face falls when nothing happens, then she realizes Ara and Apollo are looking and blushes, fixing her eyes on Ara as she explains. "Since leaving Ogygia, I have no powers. I am fully mortal. I keep hoping, but—" 

"You want a drink?" Percy offers offhandedly.

"I got it." Leo reaches across the table and pours the lemonade promptly. Ara scowls, no girl is ever amused when her boyfriend goes out of his way to serve another girl so earnestly. "Here you go."

"Thank you, Leo."

"No problem," he smiles sympathetically, then sits down and wraps his arm around Ara's shoulders and she feels the guilt coming out of him.

Ara observes him intently, Leo is looking slightly down at her and not up like six months ago, the rough environment and the physician's cure granted him seven or eight additional inches of height. Now he's taller than Nico and Ara, but not tall enough to reach Percy's—or Lester's—nose. Still, he came back to a lot, and Calypso is out here with nothing to her name, he's probably stressing about doing right by her.

They may not be doomed by a curse anymore, but Ara suspects that they'll never grow out of this awfully inconvenient habit they both have of helping people no matter what. They've changed entirely, but most of their hearts remain.

Harley gets to the front and punches Leo, then squeezes him in a tight hug. "Hey, brother." Leo says affectionately, patting the boy's head. "You brought me home with that beacon of yours, H-Meister. You're a hero! You know I never would've left you hanging like that on purpose, don't you?"

"Birdy helped me," Harley points out. "I love her."

Leo turns to look at her, delighted to see her flushed. "That makes two of us, buddy."

"So," Calypso continues, looking uncomfortable, "these problems with the Roman emperors—how can we help?"

"You will help me, then?" Lester blushes. "Despite... ah, well, I always knew you were kindhearted and forgiving, Calypso. I meant to visit you at Ogygia more often—"

"Spare me." Calypso wrinkles her nose. "I'll help you if Leo and Ara decide to help you, and they seem to have some affection for you. Why, I can't imagine."

"He's okay," Ara says, "if you look past the whining."

"I'm grateful," Lester decides to focus on Leo. "Leo Valdez, you have always been a gentleman and a genius. After all, you created the Valdezinator."

The boy beams. "I did, didn't I? I suppose that was pretty awesome. So where is this next Oracle you— Ow!"

Nyssa completely runs over Leo both verbally and physically in quick angry Spanish, something about his butt and Jesus. Ara is still in the early stages of learning the language and she hasn't reached the angry-mom-scolding level of fluency.

 "Yeah, okay, okay." Leo raises his hands in surrender. "Dang, hermana, I love you, too!"

"Don't leave him out of your sight, Birdy," Nyssa points at her.

Ara smiles, snuggling against him and kissing his cheek. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Leo presses his cheek on her hair, hugging her tightly. "So this next Oracle, you said it was where?"

Percy taps the table to call for attention. "Chiron and I were talking about this. He figures this triumvirate thingie... they probably divided America into three parts, with one emperor in charge of each. We know Nero is holed up in New York, so we're guessing this next Oracle is in the second dude's territory, maybe in the middle third of the U.S."

"Oh, the middle third of the U.S.!" Leo exaggerates his joy. "Piece of torta, then. We'll just search the entire middle of the country!"

"Still with the sarcasm," Percy smiles a bit.

"Hey, man, I've sailed with the most sarcastic scalawags on the high seas."

"He's talking about you," Percy looks at her, then high-fives Leo.

Ara ignores that particular nightmare and thinks about Lester's prophetic lines. "Didn't the grove say something about Indiana?"

"I was just thinking that," Lester agrees. "Good place to start, isn't it? Relatively close when you have a flying dragon."

"My boy, I am so pleased to have you back," Chiron arrives in his wheelchair, pushed by Lily. Everything about that image screams danger. "And you freed Calypso, I see. Well done, and welcome, both of you!" He offers to hug Leo, which is extremely rare.

"Uh, thanks, Chiron." Leo hesitates before leaning into it.

In a flash, Chiron's hoove kicks Leo's belly making him grunt. "Mr. Valdez," he continues quietly, "if you ever pull a stunt like that again—"

"I got it, I got it!" Leo coughs, holding his stomach. "Dang, for a teacher, you got a heck of a high kick. Also, why am I getting kicked when Ara has done a lot more crazy things than I have?"

"I've never died," Ara disputes. "You did. Also, Chiron can't touch the gods's valuables."

"She's right, though that doesn't mean I don't know my way around the rules," he looks at her gravely. "General, if you do something foolish during the quest, I will have you repaint the Big House." Chiron gets taken away by Rachel, and Lily gets back to the front of the line. 

Leo sighs in defeat. "Do it quick, ghost-face."

Lily punches him right on the spot she knows will numb his entire arm. Leo curses loudly in Spanish. "Yo, Nico!" He groans. "Please tell me that's it for the physical abuse!"

"For now." Nico comes to stand next to Lily. "We're still trying to get in touch with the West Coast. You'll have a few dozen people out there who will definitely want to hit you."

Leo scoffs. "Yeah, that's something to look forward to." He leans to whisper in Ara's ear. "Too late to run away and build a life in México?"

Ara chuckles and kisses his cheek. "Too soon."

Next Chapter –>

Taglist.

@siriuslysirius1107 @ask-giggles1303 @im-planning-something-look @bandshirts-andbooks @coolninjapaper @thewaterlily @whenisthefall @1randomcomic @you-bloody-shank @sunflowergraves @owlalex44 @taylordaughter @typicalsolangelolover @writingmia @espressopatronum454 @slytherinnqueen @orbitingpolaris @obxstiles @ellipsisspelled @thepixiechicksh @ebony-reine-vibes