#Team Foundation Server

[nitor-infotech]

Understanding the Basics of Team Foundation Server (TFS)

In software engineering, a streamlined system for project management is vital. Team Foundation Server (TFS) provides a full suite of tools for the entire software development lifecycle. 

TFS is now part of Azure DevOps Services. It is a Microsoft tool supporting the entire software development lifecycle. It centralizes collaboration, version control, build automation, testing, and release management. TFS (Talend Open Studio) is the foundation for efficient teamwork and the delivery of top-notch software.  

Key Components of TFS  

The key components of team foundation server include- 

Azure DevOps Services (formerly TFS): It is the cloud-based version of TFS. It offers a set of integrated tools and services for DevOps practices.  

Version Control: TFS provides version control features for managing source code. It includes centralized version control and distributed version control.  

Work Item Tracking: It allows teams to track and manage tasks, requirements, bugs, and other development-related activities.  

Build Automation: TFS enables the automation of the build process. It allows developers to create and manage build definitions to compile and deploy applications.  

Test Management: TFS includes test management tools for planning, tracking, and managing testing efforts. It supports manual and automated testing processes.  

Release Management: Release Management automates the deployment of applications across various environments. It ensures consistency and reliability in the release process.  

Reporting and Analytics: TFS provides reporting tools that allow teams to analyze their development processes. Custom reports and dashboards can be created to gain insights into project progress.  

Authentication and Authorization: TFS and Azure DevOps manage user access, permissions, and security settings. It helps to protect source code and project data. 

Package Management: Azure DevOps features a package management system for teams to handle and distribute software packages and dependencies. 

Code Search: Azure DevOps provides powerful code search capabilities to help developers find and explore code efficiently. 

Importance of TFS  

Here are some aspects of TFS that highlight its importance-  

Collaboration and Communication: It centralizes collaboration by integrating work items, version control, and building processes for seamless teamwork. 

Data-Driven Decision Making: It provides reporting and analytics tools. It allows teams to generate custom reports and dashboards. These insights empower data-driven decision-making. It helps the team evaluate progress and identify areas for improvement.  

Customization and Extensibility: It allows customization to adapt to specific team workflows. Its rich set of APIs enables integration with third-party tools. It enhances flexibility and extensibility based on team needs.  

Auditing and Compliance: It provides auditing capabilities. It helps organizations track changes and ensure compliance with industry regulations and standards.  

Team Foundation Server plays a pivotal role in modern software development. It provides an integrated and efficient platform for collaboration, automation, and project management.  

Learn more about us at Nitor Infotech. 

[mcytegg]

ngl watching this one vod has permanently altered my brain chemistry. like i didnt realize ro and planet had trust like That throughout s5. its esp obvious during the void arc when it was "WE dont trust you", and not I dont trust you or He does not trust you. no wonder planet kept defending ro even after everyone else had given up on her bc her betraying seemed inevitable..........

[secondsotries]

recruitment.

it would be REALLY AWESOME if we got some new people :))

unfortunately we are MINORS ONLY (under 18!)

[reality-detective]

BREAKING: Navy Intercepts Deep State Submarines Carrying Kids, Gold & Bioweapons — Military Locks Down Oceans Under Trump’s Orders

As of April 14, 2025, the U.S. Navy has locked down the Atlantic and Pacific in a massive military sting targeting elite-run trafficking, bioweapon transport, and deep-sea blackmail ops. This isn’t routine patrol — this is war.

Trafficking victims. Mobile CIA servers. Gold bars. Bioweapons.

All being extracted from vessels linked to billionaires, ex-agency operatives, and foreign “diplomats.”

These aren’t pirates. These are floating Deep State hideouts — and they’re being wiped off the map.

Trump is back. This operation is under direct military command — not civilian leadership.

GITMO is active. EBS is locked and loaded. Tribunals are not coming — they’ve begun.

On the East Coast, naval strike teams seized ships disguised as luxury liners. Below deck: surgical rooms, soundproof chambers, biometric systems, and unregistered children with no records. DNA matches tie them to CPS abductions across U.S. states.

One server retrieved mapped over 600 trafficking routes since 2012 — running through Italy, the Netherlands, Israel, and U.K. ports. Funded by “charities” tied to Clinton donors. The Epstein network didn’t die — it went mobile. Now it’s caught.

On the West Coast, it's even darker.

A submersible tied to a “research foundation” was captured leaving San Diego — carrying precursor agents for aerosolized behavioral control, encrypted tablets, and night-vision tech meant for offshore “medical” camps.

Crew included former CIA, UN peacekeepers, and a WEF consultant — all under fake identities.

Some vessels carried gold stamped with central bank seals, believed stolen during the 2008 collapse and laundered through IMF fronts. Others had sealed crates of bio-compounds traced back to DARPA and WHO partners.

Nine vessels silenced in 48 hours.

No GPS. No distress calls. Just vanished.

Naval divers are pulling up deep-sea data vaults dumped overboard — containing:

Blackmail dossiers on European leaders

Human trafficking-finance links with Big Pharma

Files on Antarctic underground cities marked for “climate relocation” by elite surnames

This is military justice, not courtroom theater.

No arrests. No media coverage. Just elimination.

No escape. No more oceans to hide behind.

If you're tied to child trafficking, gold laundering, stolen intel, or elite escape ops — you will be hunted. You will be erased.

There are no more safe harbors. The storm is here.

- Julian Assange

[astronomodome]

I think it’s kind of crazy how Skizz’s arc in the life series is so integrally defined by his being a loyal soldier of the Red Army in third life, a position in which he felt comfortable and confident in his value to the server. The archetype he sees as the ideal team, one that not only protects each other but works for the wellbeing of the server, that template that he follows is the Red Army. Every season since, he falls into a leadership role whether he intends to or not, and every time he tries to recreate that formula with the team he leads. And here’s the thing: it never works.

In Last Life, team BEST’s first objective is to not only secure the enchanting table, but to make it free to use for everyone. Their goal here is to become the “heroes of the server” through this, and Skizz openly says that. However, any victories they achieve are plagued by the fact that… well… there never really was a team BEST. There’s a team BE and a team ST and they work together in theory, but as soon as there’s cracks in the foundation- a boogeyman here, an accidental death there, it falls apart (never all the way while Skizz is alive, but still). Skizz dies a lonely failure of a red life, wearing the initials of his team on his head and haunting them after he dies.

In Limited Life, he gets a chance to try again. Bdubs was the most obvious point of failure for BEST, so why not replace him with sweet and reliable Impulse? And yes, as a group, TIES works much better. Unfortunately, this season doesn’t go well for Skizz, and he’s in the weeds so to speak pretty much the whole time. But one of their crowning achievements- blowing up Bread Bridge- is rationalized by Skizz to his team as a heroic and charitable act. Another set of heroes. But not the strongest players out there. Skizz dies to keep it going just a little longer.

In Secret Life, he has the Heart Foundation, which differs a lot from what Skizz claimed it to be. On paper it’s three people, but in practice it’s just him and Tango (I love BigB but he really was not the most engaged with the group here). On paper Tango’s the leader, but Skizz can’t really keep from taking charge. Again, we get a charitable motive: using the heart-giving system for good (and profit, of course). And Skizz even has plans for when it goes south: they turn the heart’s smile upside-down and start killing. But even this plan fails; as in Last Life, people take advantage of the team’s kindness, and then the heart itself burns down before they get a chance to change it. Skizz dies trying and failing to right this wrong, even by proxy.

What makes this so so interesting is how formulaic it is. I don’t even mean that in a bad way. It’s fascinating how Skizz always, always falls into this pattern. Icarus reaches for the sun and, for his hubris, falls the same way every time. And Tango is there

[komsomolka]

In July 2016, Wikileaks published emails from Clinton campaign manager, John Podesta, and the Democratic National Convention (DNC), which sparked the Russiagate conspiracy theory about collusion between Trump and Russia. The emails revealed Hillary Clinton’s intimate connections to Wall Street, the Clinton Global Initiative business model selling political influence, and that the Clinton campaign colluded with the media and the DNC to undermine Bernie Sanders in the primary of the presidential elections. The Clinton campaign received special treatment from the media and the DNC. For example, questions for a CNN town hall meeting were leaked to the Clinton campaign, favourable stories were planting of in the media, and the DNC rigged the Democratic primary in favour of Clinton (Sainato, 2016). The email leaks also revealed that the Clinton campaign had also worked towards getting Trump to win the Republican primaries as he was deemed to be an easy opponent to defeat. Even before the primary, the Clinton team had considered linking Trump to Russia as being a winning strategy (Macleod, 2018).

When Wikileaks released the damning emails, the Clinton campaign shifted the narrative immediately by accusing Russia of “hacking” the email servers of the DNC to make Trump win. Suddenly, it was not Clinton that had undermined democracy, rather it was the political opposition in a conspiracy with a hostile foreign power. [...]

The Steele Dossier became the foundational document alleging a conspiracy between Trump and the Kremlin, which laid the foundation for the so-called Russiagate investigations. The document presented unverified accusations, although it claimed credibility as it had been compiled by a former British intelligence official, MI6 agent Christopher Steele. However, it was later revealed that Steele was working for the Clinton campaign. The presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton had hired a private research firm, Fusion GPS, which had been contracted to dig up dirt on her political rival, Donald Trump. Fusion GPS gave Steele the contract to investigate and write the report.

It was revealed that the FBI and the Justice Department were aware that Steele was working for the Clinton campaign, personally resented Trump, and had expressed hope that the dossier would be published in the media ahead of the election to prevent him from winning (McCarthy, 2019). [...]

The intelligence agencies provided credibility to the report, which enabled the media and the Democratic Party to run with the narrative without referring to evidence. Throughout the presidential campaign, major media outlets had been hesitant to print the report by Steele as it consisted of anonymous and unsubstantiated accusations. However, after the election victory of Trump, the intelligence agencies decided that the Steele Dossier was credible. [...] Feedback loops for circular verification developed between the Democratic Party, the intelligence agencies and the media. The media would cite other media outlets, anonymous sources in the intelligence community, and polemic comments by politicians. The intelligence community could similarly refer to media reports and concerns by political leaders. And lastly, politicians would cite credible reporting by the media and reports from the intelligence community. Dubious rumours were thus sold as a fact. The hyperbolic language suggested alleged Russian interference was tantamount to a declaration of war as Hillary Clinton referred to a “cyber 9/11” and Thomas Friedman described it as a “Pearl Harbor–scale event” (MacLeod, 2018). [...]

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (2018), appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show to similarly keep the narrative going by arguing “some of it we did corroborate in the ICA [intelligence community assessment]. And of course, it appears that more of it has been corroborated with ensuing developments and what we`ve learned”. According to the Horowitz report, a Justice Department investigation, the FBI under James Comey had continued to cite the Steele Dossier even after they had determined the report was fake (US Department of Justice, 2019: 188).

When it was revealed in October 2017 that the Steele Dossier had been paid for by the DNC and the Clinton campaign, the political-media class had already invested their professional reputation in the narrative and entire incentive systems had been put in place to reward “resistance reporting”. The distrust and investigations against Trump were instrumental to limit his political agenda and the continuation of the conspiracy theory became an end in itself. Similarly, the US and its European allies had placed extensive sanctions on Russia based on these allegations. The revelations about Steele being hired by the democrat and the failure to disclose this information did therefore not impact the dominant narrative of the American president being beholden to Moscow or the policies it produced.

However, when the credibility of the dossier could not be defended anymore, its main proponents in the intelligence community began to distance themselves from the reports. James Clapper (2018) referred to the “pseudo-intelligence” of the reports in his memoir. Former CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey also distanced themselves from the report. In his Congressional testimony in December 2018, Comey claimed he “can’t remember”, “can’t recall”, and “doesn’t know” 245 times as he was asked about how the Steele Dossier could have been considered credible (Cohen, 2018). Even Christopher Steele walked back his claims once he was sued for libel and argued it was intended as “unverified” parts of “raw intelligence” that “warranted further investigation”. [...]

The admission by Henry at CrowdStrike that there was also no evidence of Russia hacking the DNC was supported by former National Security Agency Technical Director, Bill Binney, a whistleblower who argued the DNC servers were never hacked but rather a leak had occurred from inside. Binney explains that the speed in which the emails were extracted demonstrates that they were downloaded from the computers and not hacked.

Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics by Glenn Diesen.

[vasito-de-leche]

;R1999 Vertin's Wheel, Unilogs, Fate and Summoning Analysis

Analysis and theories regarding the suitcase's wheel, unilogs, fate and the process of summoning characters as of the 2.8 patch.

It's been a while since I've written an analysis in this blog, but yesterday I had a sudden realization and after discussing it with the R99 RP server, I decided to properly expand on these ideas in case someone else is interested or can offer more insight!

Just as a heads up, this post will tackle big spoilers from the upcoming CN 2.8 patch!

As usual, the majority transcripts were taken from the R99 Transcript Neocities and the transcript project!

First of all, we must discuss Vertin's suitcase.

By now, everyone probably knows about the way Bluepoch integrates in-game mechanics, items and such as diegetic aspects of the world building--the most known example being Picrasma Candy, an item used by players to recover energy and keep playing, but also a real medicine within the universe of Reverse: 1999 created by Medicine Pocket to enhance an arcanist's own arcanum for a while.

Vertin's suitcase and everything related to it is no different; in the prologue, we see Vertin save Regulus from the "Storm" by taking her into the suitcase, which acts as some sort of pocket dimension with a living space for her team; the Wilderness is also confirmed to be a real space that people can explore, as we see many times throughout the main story and anecdotes; Ms. NewBabel's critter business within the suitcase is also real, being mentioned on advertisements in one of 2.5 Showdown in Chinatown's trails.

In Stage 6 "The Living Past" of the game's prologue, we get introduced to the suitcase proper. This is the only instance we have of Vertin using an incantation to lead Regulus inside the living quarters and Wilderness proper.

Vertin: … Relax, Regulus. I will tell you, but not here. Say this with me … Neirü milde en tiün bonan nokton. Take my hand. Let me take you into the suitcase.

We also get some descriptions of what's inside these living quarters--the majority are various things that Vertin has rescued from previous eras, the most important being the photos and documents about the people she's met across time. She confirms that her suitcase and anything she puts inside can brave the "Storm," and avoid being reversed--we now know that arcanists of all sorts can also do this, a loading screen from the game added during 1.5 "Revival! The Uluru Games" clarifies by stating that humans can enter, but they need to find a "Storm" immune place outside to avoid being reversed. The suitcase is also affected to a degree by external forces--if one were to shake it, the people inside might feel an earthquake. But this also happens on reverse--the seeds Druvis III plants drops inside grow outside of the suitcase and take over the St. Pavlov Foundation's courtyard.

Then we have the spinning wheel and the lake. These two things are introduced immediately after the prologue, in the chapter "In Our Time," Stage 1 "Wretched Brats." We know that Vertin has never been to this part of the Wilderness that holds the lake and the spinning wheel.

The outside scenery keeps changing and changing … What has remained unchanged for ages is the lake and an old spinning wheel. Regulus: *sobs* ... The records ... Don’t nick my records ... Vertin: ...! Her voice doesn’t sound right. I should go and take a look. This is where Vertin has never been.

The lake is said to be surrounded by a mist that causes everyone except Vertin to slowly fall unconscious, and the water of the lake is explicitly rainwater from the "Storm." The spinning wheel has "strange threads" that Vertin describes as two-dimensional and by following this thread, she summons Sonetto into the suitcase.

The line in her hand, technically the line-like thing in her hand which cannot be felt in any way, has gradually formed a path in her sight. And someone is going to be invited over. Spin it as you've done so many times. It's someone familiar. Sonetto: The lake is overflowing. It's cold, just like a flowing line … Wait, where am I?

During the early months of the game, a lot of us assumed that this scene was simply a way to introduce the gacha mechanic in a diegetic way, without truly having an actual impact on the story. And there is also the issue of explaining how could Vertin acquire members from eras outside of the 20th century, such as Charlie, The Fool, Dikke and Nick Bottom, when the main story never take us to their respective eras.

I want to argue that the former statement is not true; the summoning aspect is real within the universe, and that it explains the latter statement, giving a reason for these people to exist within the suitcase. There is already so much that explains game mechanic as diegetic, in-universe aspects that exist, so I don't see why this would be any different!

In 2.8 "Paradise Regained," we get a lot of information that ties in a lot of loose ends and plots set up by previous chapters; this is the patch that confirms Urd is indeed Vertin's mother.

The scene where they find each other is meant to point out the similarities between the two--the cave Urd is in, where the Manus ritual is taking place, also has the same exact mist as both Vertin's suitcase and Apeiron's cave, and it urges Vertin to remember her childhood in SPDM, namely moments in which she interacted with Urd or somehow remembered her but was never able to recognize her as her own mother. A glowing, golden thread, identical to the one that was used to summon Sonetto in the suitcase, leads Vertin to Urd, who has her very own spinning wheel.

The reveal here and all the references in Urd's own character point to the fact that she is, to some extent, fate itself or a weaver of fate. Her namesake comes from Norse Mythology, referencing one of the Norns, one of the three deities that weave the thread of fate and dictate the lives of mortals--Urðr.

Urd explains that, just like Vertin, only she seems to be able to see and sense these golden threads. And she also explains her purpose and calling. Here is my transcript of the spoken dialogue they have, and you can see it here in Merui's stream.

Urd: I will go with you, but not just yet. There is something I must finish, these threads I'm spinning. Vertin: Threads? Urd: Yes. Others don't seem to see them, but I do. It's strange, I don't know what they are but I know how to spin them. Does that sound ridiculous to you? Vertin: Not at all. In fact, I can see them too. But perhaps we should do it together, later when the danger has subsided. Urd: There may not be a later. I must finish this now. Vertin: Why? Is this worth more than your life? Urd: I believe it is. These threads must be spun so the all ruling law may be woven in. That is my purpose, my calling. That is why I was led here. That's why you're here too, is it not? To answer your calling?

Urd's role as the weaver of fate or existence as fate itself was foreshadowed by 6 at the end of Vereinsamt as well, when he talks to one of her many iterations, Ms. Marta.

Marta: I find myself uncertain of which way to go. Would you kindly give me some guidance? 6: The guidance I can offer you is limited, Ms. Marta. I think fate knows its own fate better than anyone.

Urd is aware of her purpose and calling to uphold the concept of fate itself, even if she may not understand it fully. And thus, we can understand that the golden threads being woven in her spinning wheel are the threads of fate--they led Vertin here, after all.

This patch also confirms that Urd was the reason Manus Vindictae's plans failed back in 1999, during the first "Storm," and how they're now using her as a catalyst to fulfill their plan by sabotaging her process of weaving--her spinning wheel above can be seen tainted with the characteristic Manus Vindictae black goo, and they force it to spin, taking the threads of fate into the well where Arcana's heart rests. Compare it to Vertin's own wheel in the suitcase.

This leads us to the following point: Urd guides upholds order through these golden threads, which represent people's fates and lives. Vertin, as her daughter, has a similar ability in relation to the summoning mechanic in-game, which explains why the banners are presented as the spinning of their threads. For example, the Golden Thread banners.

To follow this, I want to point out the other items involved in summoning! For example, the Unilog rabbits--they can come in Decalogs, which is a set of 10 Unilogs, and they can have different variations for the other unique types of banners (Boon of the Water, Promise of the Water, every Limited character banner, etc). But if you pay close attention, you may see that these rabbits contain a golden thread inside.

[UNILOG] The golden rabbit is a well known myth. It spies on people, steals their time, and sometimes even changes their fates. Though it's old, decrepit, and stale, it is unique and indispensable. [DECALOG] The storyteller never thought that golden rabbits could travel in packs. Nobody knows what this might entails, but no one chooses one single rabbit over more of it. [DECATONE] Now you see them, many, many rabbits. They change their appearance, whispering secrets. And you―you know what to do now, don't you?

The fact that they're seemingly made from the same thread of fate discussed before, along with these descriptions talking about stealing time, changing fates and the implication that the one using them--Vertin--knows what to do now, works to explain the gacha aspect as a diegetic feature.

Then, you have drops as a different type of currency--there are two types, Clear and Crystal. These items are explained as the "Storm" raindrops that didn't fully make it upwards before the "Storm" ended, Clear being the raindrops closer to the ground and Crystal being the ones closest to the clouds, hence why the latter are more valuable.

You may turn Crystal drops into Clear drops, and Clear drops into Unilogs, which draws a parallel between the threads of fate and "Storm" rainwater, leading to my next point: If these threads represent an organized and linear fate, "Storm" rainwater is chaotic fate in disarray.

Throughout the game, there is a lot of emphasis on the importance of water. It holds memories and information, the entirety of people's lives and entire eras, both metaphorically and literally. In 2.5, the one thing that remains of Pei City from 1.6 "Notes on Shuori" is one of Yenisei's vials from the river, which is highly coveted by Laplace to study and understand what could've transpired there. Yenisei's own arcanum revolves around the idea that water holds information, and can serve to return home. As mentioned previously, the mist in the Wilderness lake, Aperion's cave and the heart of Antarctica is special--we've seen it urge Vertin to remember, and in 1.4 "Prisoner of the Cave" that very same mist contains the same elements that are immune to the "Storm," Asymmetrical Nuclide R. And, above all, we know that the "Storm" itself takes entire eras away from the linear path of time.

In 2.8, Ulrich concludes that the "Storm" has always meant to be a flood--in 1999, Urd stopped this ritual somehow, and ever since then, every "Storm" has been a failed attempt at flooding the world through this water that will reverse everything to the past.

During Arcana's revival, she summons this very same flood across the entire globe, raising the water level of the entire planet. And the water has the same or even worse effects to the rainwater from the "Storm," as it causes those who touch it to disappear.

Thus, we understand that water is an important aspect of the story, and that this special water from the "Storm"/Flood holds the totality of history and chaos, being related to concepts such as time and space due to the way the "Storm" functions--it absorbs eras and people into it, taking them out of the linear thread of fate.

Hence why a second important aspect of the summoning batters is water. The First Drop of Rain, Abundance of the Water, Invitation from the Water, etc etc. These pictures were taken from the GL Fandom Wiki!

The way Vertin summons people is by weaving the golden thread and throwing Unilogs into the water, as explained by the in-game mail reminding players to use their Decatones before they expire.

All shall return to the waters, to tranquility. Before leaving, don't forget those special little rabbits of yours. Although they may not be able to embark on the next stage of your journey with you, they're more than prepared to jump into the lake.

So you could equate this to Vertin throwing a literal lifeline info the lake of the Wilderness to save and take people from the chaos of history, stealing their time and altering their fate--and because it's "Storm"/Flood water, it's possible to bypass linear timelines, thus reaching characters from beyond the 20th century like Dikke, Nick Bottom, Charlie and The Fool.

There are other details to support this entire theory that I had no idea where to fit in, so they're going here as an extra round!

The Crystal Drops, canonically a much more valuable currency than Crystal Drops, are the currency used to buy different garments--some of these garments are diegetic, meaning that they do exist within the canon of the world (think of Sonetto's free garments that show up throughout the main story, Regulus pilot garment which makes a cameo in 37's anecdote) but some of them are not (6's detective garment from 2.0, we know he doesn't ever leave the island, Voyager's 1.9 garment, or any of the garments from 1.6 as it's physically impossible for any character from Vertin's team to have visited Pei City)

If we remember that drops are "Storm" rainwater and that Crystal drops were closest to the cloud, therefore stronger in their effect, we could explain these non-diegetic garments as Vertin acquiring a glimpse into different or alternate timelines in which these situations are possible. Which would also explain Diggers as a whole, since he's portrayed as his 1.1 "Theft of the Rimet Cup" self as a playable character while his 1.4 garment is actually the canonical fate he suffers in the main story, having joined Manus Vindictae. The only caveat to this is the Grandfather Clock Paradox explained by X and Regulus, which states that it's impossible for two versions of one person to exist at the same time.

Moving on. Unilogs are represented by rabbits, and I'm pretty sure there is no myth regarding golden rabbits that steal time--but Vertin as a character has been officially related to rabbits, like the latest offline masquerade event, or her themes as the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, solidifying her role as the Timekeeper but also someone who also guides others and alters their fate.

Also, Urd, Vertin and Arcana seem to also represent the three Norns of Norse Mythology--as usual, I only had a very surface research reading Wikipedia articles, so if you have more insight on this feel free to correct me. As far as I know, the Norns are tied to three springs or wells scattered in different places, which coincidentally match the three locations in Reverse 1999 that carry the same mist--Vertin's suitcase, Apeiron's cave and the heart of Antarctica, furthering the parallels between these three characters and the concept of fate.

I think that's pretty much everything I wanted to talk about! Thanks to the R99 RP server for hearing me out and fueling my deranged ideas!

[stevetonydatingsim]

Steve/Tony dating sim announcement & writer casting call!

The best part about a multiverse is all the different Steves and Tonys we get—and imagining them meeting. And kissing. And flirting. And maybe doing something a little spicier.

But why stick with imagining that when we can make it a reality? When we can make a Steve/Tony multiverse dating game? 

That’s right, we’re making a game and it'll be free to play! What exactly does that entail? The Steve/Tony dating sim (name TBD. We’re all ears for any ideas you have) will be a visual novel-style game that’s mostly dialogue with some simple minigames thrown in. You get to play as a Steve or Tony from one of the many universes that exist who’s thrown into a rift in reality with a bunch of other Steves and Tonys. You’ll get to decide whom to work with to invent, fight, flirt, and date your way back home. 

We’ll be sharing updates on the game development and launch on this Tumblr so make sure to follow us!

Who we are

The Steve/Tony dating sim team is made up of passionate Steve/Tony fans who have come together to write and illustrate the dating game of our dreams, coded by the wonderfully talented @v-thinks-on. You can read more about us here.

How this works

In order to make the game, we need writers for the player and love interest characters, artists for the visuals, and more. At this point, we’re looking specifically for love interest writers, but make sure to follow us as we’ll be looking for volunteers for other roles in the coming months!

Love interest writers can either work on their own or with a partner(s) to plot out and write a simple narrative arc and series of dates for a potential love interest character (a character that the player can choose to interact with and date). They construct the foundational beats for the story and dialogue for the love interest character, and they provide choices for player responses (you can indicate that the player can respond angrily, morosely, or happily to a certain line, but you’re not writing the player dialogue yourself). Later, player writers will insert responses to the existing love interest’s dialogue you wrote. It’s kind of like roleplay! 

For example, your script may look something like this:

Tony616 “So, you’re a Steve, huh” If <angry response>: Tony616 “Sorry I asked” If <happy response>: Tony616 “You’re a cheerful one, eh?” [the player gets closer to Tony616]

To get a more detailed understanding of how this works, see this guide here. We’re also happy to answer any questions, and we have a Discord server where we brainstorm and talk as a group.

Existing love interest storylines (more to come later!)

The following characters have arcs that are outlined already, and their writers are looking for a partner to collaborate with. Here are short pitches to give you a sense of each character’s emotional journey through the game.

616 Tony 

Iron Man V.1 128 Tony is newly sober for the first time and still hiding that he’s Iron Man. The player can either help Tony open up or drive him to drinking again. 

1872 Tony

Pre-canon Tony has lost faith in humanity and himself. Will the player convince him to get back on his feet? Or will he think everyone's better off with him at the bottom of a bottle?

616 Steve 

Avengers V4 Steve has just returned from the dead after his fight with his Tony about the Superhero Registration Act. He wants to trust Player, but can he?

MCU Steve

Post-2012 Avengers Steve is lost and doesn't know his place in the new century. Through his interactions with the player, he finds his home and purpose.

Don’t see a character you want to write for on this list? 

You can volunteer to write any Steve or Tony you want! In fact, we actively want more Steves and Tonys. This is a multiverse dating sim, after all, so the more the merrier. To help you choose, here is a list of universes we have writers for and available universes (if you want a universe not on this list, that means it's available)! Just contact us with the canon character you’re interested in writing for and whether you’d like to work solo or with a partner(s).

The only exceptions we have are a Steve or Tony who doesn't exist in the universe you picked (e.g., we won't accept Noir Steve as he doesn't exist in Noir) as well as Hydra Cap and Steves and Tonys who are canonically under 18 due to the nature of the game, the type of game people want to make/play, and how the game-making process works.

We don't foresee issues with other universes, particularly as we're in the "you do you"/"YKINMKATO" (your kink is not my kink and that's okay) camp when it comes to fandom. However, we'll be considering other universes on a case-by-case basis as we may not know or remember all the universes that exist. Because of this, we recommend giving more than one character option in your application if possible!

How to apply

Please email stevetonydatingsim@gmail.com with the following information:

Confirmation that you’re over 18 (just let us know you’re 18+; we’re not asking you to share personal info)

The best way(s) to contact you

What character you’d like to write for (universe and name). If you have multiple, please order by preference

Do you want to write alone or with a partner(s)?

A writing sample focusing on Steve and Tony (link or attachment), ideally with a good amount of dialogue. This doesn’t have to be a complete piece with a beginning, middle, and end; it's more to get a sense of your style and understanding of characterization, so all we ask is that it’s easy to follow. This can be something you’ve already written or you can write something new for this application. We don't have a minimum word requirement; if we need more from you, we'll let you know.

Contact us

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. You can reach us by email, Tumblr Messenger, askbox, Twitter DM, or Bluesky DM. Thank you!

[astronomical-bagel]

also, scar's ploy for this episode? Not new at all. So often he tries to make allies by saying 'you see everyone else? I hate them, they probably hate you too, we should team up bc that makes sense. I will also give you nice things in order to be your ally.'

sometimes it kinda works, but then he so often ruins this by doing this to every single team on the server, and so everyone knows that he's conning them and they don't trust him and he ends up with very many enemies!! this happens in basically every season to varying degrees-- with last life obviously being the most severe.

but today.... holy shit today... he gives Joel a kill and therefore ten hearts, he gave Bdubs that creeper spawner a little bit ago, he agrees to burn down the globe with the Heart Foundation and then tells on them, cementing him as trustworthy in everyone's minds. Near the end both the mounders and gem & the scotts are trying to convince scar to be on their team.

Despite being the designated 'villain of the server', being alone and pathetic made everyone less wary of him and contributed a lot to him winning the game. I'm so in awe that this plot of his finally worked, and I'm so fucking proud of him bc he so deserves this win so much. Everyone give it up for the one and only goodtimeswithscar <33

[cdroloisms]

always absolutely fucking hilarious when sbiers in their self-righteous need to assert themselves as better than everyone else in the same way they've done since 2020 even when they're apparently 'out of the fandom' and consider the whole thing cringe and dead (skill issue, methinks) go all um acktually no one cared abt any of the lore except for c!sbi. like well for one thing i don't know of a c!sbi personally speaking i'd like for you to point out to me where character sleepy boys inc ever like, existed, because it certainly wasn't in any dream smp i watched like is there even a single moment where the four of them interact together alone??? and secondly, it's always reeeeeeally obvious when they mean this as a diss on The Other Side Of The Fandom (read, dream team and co) when two-thirds of the dream team just did nawt have any interest in being part of the 'main characters' in the first place and would much rather do their own thing and roleplay in ways that wouldn't get picked apart for ages on twitter dot com, and the other member of the dream team played a character so integral to the lore that even c!inniters will often name him before they name their own goddamn guy because they cannot keep his name out of their mouths (see, the meme i saw like literally just yesterday that boiled down to me, after learning the dream smp lore: i need to kill c!dream). like bro yall are c!inniters you're not fooling anyone you think that the entire story revolves around this one teenager being abused and then completely ignore the months of abuse that was shown on screen for us before exile. "c!sbi" like cmon now guys the ao3 pages are like, right there, we all know who ends up being the villain for ur sbi fanfic that has its foundations in a dynamic that literally never existed in canon.

like "no one cared about anyone's lore except for wilbur and tommy--" well yes they were in fact some of the main fucking characters. imagine someone going up to you and going "well no one cared about the lore in the star wars original trilogy except for luke and leia" like damn really?? (now imagine this same person trying to convince you that darth vader's role was unimportant, actually.) like yeah the dream smp involved a lot of separate storylines and each of those storylines might've had their own "main cast" of characters but i'm also not blind bro, the story that started at the start of the fucking server and the start of the fucking lore was ABSOLUTELY the "wilbur-dream-tommy" triangle that is, in fact, the story that the l'manburg revolution was built on and the story that remains the throughline literally until tommy and dream have their confrontation with a nuke coming down over their heads, something that the characters themselves acknowledge with the repetition of the idea of tommy and tubbo against dream. LIKE ALKJSDFKJSADF yeah bro there were main characters in the tommy-dream-wilbur story an that's also the story that people tended to be invested in in the beginning, to the point where even other self-contained stories in the dream smp absolutely referenced and emulated it (cough cough, las nevadas). like, why are we acting like it's at all groundbreaking for people to be invested in THEEE fucking story the one that first started to exist because at the time basically no one else was part of The Roleplaying Trio and then slowly got padded out and developed as the server developed more and more into the lore server?

and it's the fact that none of these people, too, would deny that they care about ex. c!schlatt in manberg, right, or c!quackity in relation to c!wilbur's deal, etc etc whatever. like breaking news you gaf about The Story as a dream smp fan wow am i supposed to be like, surprised. do you want a medal. LIKE LKJASDJF

[mcytegg]

Ash: I genuinely don't understand why you left Lala, and then left the Foundation like immediately. It can't just be because Minute killed you, that makes no sense.

Ro: I wasn't wanted.

posting the clip bc it genuinely makes me feel unwell but i also want to yap abt how insane ash and ro's entire convo makes me feel. like in this clip alone, the silence from them BOTH after ro says he wasn't wanted was so loud.

cause like earlier in the vod ro tells zam that although ash was one of his day 1 teammates, it was more against his will then not. like he felt like it was forced and more like ash's underling then his teammate. so him not actually feeling like he was part of the lala legion was obviously an issue that had roots from the very start, and these feelings only worsened and grew until eventually he ended up leaving the team AND the foundation (who only made his feelings of being unwanted and unvalued as Himself worse) to join the players, who actually seemed to genuinely want him on their side.

even AFTER he fucks up massively and ends up accidentally killing bacon w the arrow cannon instead of literally any of their enemies, they still want him there. despite their frustration and anger at him, he is still someone they want by their side. they don't kick him from the team or kill him like the foundation did the moment he fucked up, they accepted that he made a dumbass mistake as Their teammate and they dealt w the consequences of it and figured things out together.

bc he was more than just another person fighting by their side!! hes an idiot but he is THEIR idiot teammate roshambogames who they wanted to fight alongside them and thats what mattered most to him. feeling accepted and cared for by the people intent on ending the server in spite of his flaws and mistakes meant so much more to him then being w the people trying to protect it who only rly saw him as what he could Provide for them as a spare loyal member of the team.

and ro's convo w ash rly only confirmed to him that he was never valued as anything more than another teammate in the lala legion or the foundation bc ash Immediately disregards ro's words and calls it bs. and whats crazy is that ro was incredibly confident and sure of himself during their convo until ash started digging into him— calling him selfish and nothing but a violent person looking for an excuse to kill people and cause chaos. ash never seems to actually Listen to what ro has to say, he hears what he wants to hear, he berates ro yet begs for him to come back in the same breath. it was only after ash began doing this that ro began ro falter and lose some of his confidence, and its after ro begins to sound more uncertain that zam immediately gets clown to message ro to get out of there.

i assume it was zam bc clown was too busy hunting jumper to pay attention to ro's yaps w ash, and bacon nd zam were both watching it go down. and after rejoining the call, ro almost immediately gets his confidence back and all of the uncertainty he began to show bc of ash's words went away. they found jumper very shortly after ro rejoins which is also when zam and bacon start encouraging ro and boosting his confidence as well, making sure that he feels just as valued as clown is in this fight.

which is very 🥹🥹🥹 bc i'm growing attached to the players in general but it also feeds into my love for drastics too bc it rly does confirm to me that zam is probably the person (behind mapicc ofc) who makes ro feel most confident and comfortable w himself bc he understands ro better than most, and makes the effort to support him in the ways he needs to be supported so he feels seen and cared for.

[derww]

have you ever read a fanfic where authors self-insert travels into some story and fixes the life of a sad and pathetic wet cat character? | some thoughts about several new members being lifesteal watchers before joining.

one thing ive been thinking alot lately. before s5 we didn't really have a moment of "oh, this new member has been watching lifesteal before joining". and even in s5, its almost like this is not that important because here we have, to a much greater extent, people whose metagame-luggage is in the fact that they knew lifestealers. as 4c having his friendship and silly feuds with mid, and jumper being really close vi's friend, and pentar being jumper's friend, and squiddo knowing ash for ages, and wemmbu being friends with zam&minute for like an eternity. even jepexx with all his ive literally founded this server, hes an irl friends with mapicc and poafa, I literally remember one time when he came in the middle of the lore and mapicc had to bribe poafa to distract him. and it is a really cool and interesting theme as its own, a great foundation for the different headcanons and aus and using it as a part of the dynamics, but nothing of what we've been searching, yeah?

wrong. minutetech. minutetech who was clowns fan and literally created a team clown would want to be – his actual character's basis has watching lifesteal in it, and his weird attitude towards clown drags on throughout the season, ending with his death. but hey, it's been more than that, not just watching videos, he was watching streams, he was a visitor in the zams chat. and watching streams, even in fragments, is a completely different level in regard to just watching videos. and it is obvious by how he speaks about zam and how he is inspired by past him, and how he remembers some specific parts. minutetech is the fanboy on the server, im sorry, and i love him for it. he wasnt a frequent visitor, but he was able to open the curtain and be impressed, and that's cool.

moving away from the relatively linear rookie roster of the season 5, the season 6 one if a fucking rolecoaster. okay, okay, lets start with something easier. hannah defo didnt get the memo, zero idea about sb but i think he watched atleast clown, e doesnt seem to really care, his thing is the reverse, his connection to bliss and how they showed themselves as both touching and deadly family, threatening pentar with knives in case he did not protect their boy, and chief does it s5-style, being friends with minute. its really hard to consider flame, he defo watched atleast part of the things, and he is friends with pentajumper, and he refers to the past seasons but misses out a lot and doesnt seem to have a consistent understanding of a context. 

okay. manepear. his case is kinda close with minute's in a part that he actually was a big lifesteal and esp clown's fan. never saw that one fanart he drew for zam but really would like to. lifesteal was an important thing for him much before he actually joined, and i can see him having good ground knowledge of video-part of the server, albeit easily missing something really important. hes also friends with pentajumper and had his clown rivalry story on bizzare just before lifesteal, giving him an interesting starting point and explaining why he did betray his idol of the past so easily. making him vodwatch s4 eclipse would make him better in lifestealing i promise. he just needs to find a balance.

to the main course. lets speak about kab first. this is a part where shit gets actually interesting since. you know...

("Powerless", 03/29/23)

oh, hi, Derapchu.

(literally the betrayal stream 03/28/23)

wait, lets make a pause. look, its Fl4pp0!

(also the betrayal stream)

the one who made new lifesteal stickers! wow! absolutely nothing interesting about them aside from thi-

okay. let's digress from the topic for a bit – it will make sense later, I promise. you know showtime smp? its fine if you dont.

the important part you should know is that showtime aknowledges stream viewers as an important part of a plot. they are called the audience, and how interested they are in a particular character is directly responsible for their well-being. most of the characters know that they are being watched, and some even hear the voices of the audience, and sometimes they are even asked questions, the answers to which can have a real impact on what is happening. and here is mika flappo. yes, this flappo, from the chat. (fun fact, there was also atleast two other showtime members lol)

firstly he is just a really cool fanarter in the showtime fandom, and she enjoys the streams and the plot as we all do, and then it... then they are just HERE.

just imagine. you live your very fucking hard and terrible life, having to deal with all sorts of shit and somehow not lose your head, and you hide so, so fucking much from everyone, because they can't know, because it's so scary and dangerous. and then you meet someone for the first time, and the first fucking thing they say to you is "oh, its YOU". and they do know what you did.

they were a part of the audience because mika has been literally watching the streams all this time. and yeah, she doesnt know everything, only the parts gods chose to show to the viewers, and they actually watched live, but its still sooo fucking much. and now an absolute stranger is walking around the server, and they know your worst secrets and impute you for your sins. luckily, mika can't spoil things, so its not like he can actually tell anyone, but her existence by itself is still pretty fucking terrifying.

luckily, both kab and derap are not just some strangers, but also they don't have to keep their mouths shut. they know what only the audience knows, and for them it becomes an important part of their understanding of the world and zam, something that they can use to their advantage. and they do.

kab heavily relies on a feeling of understanding and knowing better, and sometimes for me it feels like shes trying to do it even speaking about zam's feelings. at some point shes been heavily relying on pitying him as a way to show that she understands, and she's sorry, and she knows what exactly zam has to change to be better. its like... being the chatter who always backseats, but now you are actually here. absolutely no neg to kab, obviously.

its actually interesting how kab simultaneously sees and knows (or thinks she knows) so many zams weak spots and problems and traumas and calls him broken and harming himself and almost as if unable to make the right decisions for himself, and at the same time she puts him on a pedestal, perceiving him as a hero, as someone who should adhere to the correct perception and reflect her idea of a good person and teammate. and... it makes sense as a way of wanting to help your favorite anime character to become better without actually understanding either them or their beliefs and wishes and just trying to recreate the picture from my head of how things have to be, depriving a character of personality and autonomy in the process. even her expecting him to help her with the karmas law – she thinks that this idea is objectively right, so obviously white knight (lol) princezam has to get it.

people really liked her asking if she reminds him of someone he once was. i really do not. because sure, shes right at the ground lvl, but she doesnt get it. shes not s5, shes s4. she is vi and zam at the same time, and it makes my head hurt. "not everything is about you, zam", but she does make everything about him, really. i wonder if he was her favorite character.

i like that sometimes she acknowledges that she doesnt actually know better than anyone else. that she is just scared because her methods doesnt work anymore. but she speaks the opposite so often that sometimes i just dont know what she really thinks. with her strange division into lore and non-lore, with how much kab lies to people and lies to herself, she remains frustrating. sometimes I have a feeling that she plays a completely different character than the one she ends up being, and hey, that's part of the server.

some of it can be said about derapchu, and its easy to say that hes better than kab, but i dont really think so. hes less pushy about it, surely, but he also thinks he knows how itd be better for zam and intends to make him change in a way he deems correct. sure, he doesnt idolize or pity him, but he still wants to fix zam.

its not that easy as just dividing things on yours and servers because zam has a connection to it, and the server's well-being is directly connected to his. with enough mental gymnastics, even the desire to repair the spawn can be called at least partially selfish since zam does it for himself too, since he loves things being pretty and cool. speaking of the server as a whole, it is difficult to draw a line between where he does something for himself and where he does something only for others with just how conditional the common good is and how important the server itself is to him, just alive, just working, just being played. he wanted to make everyone give a shit and never fully left this modus.

and in a sense, derapchu fails. as gapples being for the fights against mane, or considering that zam perceives the hearts in a similar way as he does (and he really isnt, our guy was giving out the hearts left and right, really, and he knows derap enough to be sure he wouldnt do anything malicious), or seemingly never noticing that zam, despite being mostly truthful during the whole dialogue, never actually opened up to him. maybe his common experience and zam trusting him makes him feel like it is enough, but its barely a half. he said sorry for being too pushy today tho. and helped zam just because. it was good. sadly its not enough to understand that he cant just choose whats better for the other person.

you know, i really like to think about having all this background of being a lifesteal watcher from the point of the full-blown lore, without pulling out the card that the characters are also streamers or youtubers. this is a part that requires an individual approach: for example, i have drafts where boomie and kab, as centrals, contact their lifesteal friends directly through hacked communicators. or, for example, clown is known because the coolness of his conquests spread into legends, caught everyone's eye, and became worldwide news. in general, you can just come up with a connection between the worlds, like fidonet, or even a more modern Internet, and this will make everything much better. or you can follow the showtime trail and give each character an audience – similar to just making them streamers, but that's the twist that makes just enough of a difference. and, in the end, people can just be friends, meet in their free time, and tell stories. both derapchu and kab were zams friends long before joining the server, and this is something that should not be forgotten either. they, unlike the rest of us, have a real context. and, like, wow.

overall: these aussies gotta understand that zam is not their pet project and that he doesnt need to be fixed. some help here and there wouldnt be bad, sure, but they cant just choose whats right for him and whats not. he is, in this context, his own person and not just a book character and he needs a friend, but not saviour nor doctor nor manipulator nor mechanic. just a friend.

[deepdreamnights]

Hey, you know how I said there was nothing ethical about Adobe's approach to AI? Well whaddya know?

Adobe wants your team lead to contact their customer service to not have your private documents scraped!

This isn't the first of Adobe's always-online subscription-based products (which should not have been allowed in the first place) to have sneaky little scraping permissions auto-set to on and hidden away, but this is the first one (I'm aware of) where you have to contact customer service to turn it off for a whole team.

Now, I'm on record for saying I see scraping as fair use, and it is. But there's an aspect of that that is very essential to it being fair use: The material must be A) public facing and B) fixed published work.

All public facing published work is subject to transformative work and academic study, the use of mechanical apparatus to improve/accelerate that process does not change that principle. Its the difference between looking through someone's public instagram posts and reading through their drafts folder and DMs.

But that's not the kind of work that Adobe's interested in. See, they already have access to that work just like everyone else. But the in-progress work that Creative Cloud gives them access to, and the private work that's never published that's stored there isn't in LIAON. They want that advantage.

And that's valuable data. For an example: having a ton of snapshots of images in the process of being completed would be very handy for making an AI that takes incomplete work/sketches and 'finishes' it. That's on top of just being general dataset grist.

But that work is, definitionally, not published. There's no avenue to a fair use argument for scraping it, so they have to ask. And because they know it will be an unpopular ask, they make it a quiet op-out.

This was sinister enough when it was Photoshop, but PDF is mainly used for official documents and forms. That's tax documents, medical records, college applications, insurance documents, business records, legal documents. And because this is a server-side scrape, even if you opt-out, you have no guarantee that anyone you're sending those documents to has done so.

So, in case you weren't keeping score, corps like Adobe, Disney, Universal, Nintendo, etc all have the resources to make generative AI systems entirely with work they 'own' or can otherwise claim rights to, and no copyright argument can stop them because they own the copyrights.

They just don't want you to have access to it as a small creator to compete with them, and if they can expand copyright to cover styles and destroy fanworks they will. Here's a pic Adobe trying to do just that:

If you want to know more about fair use and why it applies in this circumstance, I recommend the Electronic Frontier Foundation over the Copyright Alliance.

[bed-of-ashes]

sooo I made a whole post about SL cletho and I've just watched all of Cleo’s LL and I'm having Thoughts so you're all gonna suffer for it

They've got this "you're good with me and I'm good with you" thing going on. Every season as I can recall they're never actively hostile toward each other beyond teasing jokes. They default to allying with each other when their main alliances fall apart, and they both just sorta know they won't be hurt by the other. They never discuss this on camera, but it's always true. Cleos always welcome in the white castle and they go there just to chat with Etho sometimes, she didn't want to let him get boogey'd by Pearl, he helped them on red life.

"I know you enjoy that kinda thing" "what, I enjoy rudeness?" "Don't you?" "I mean, don't *you?*"

Also just him betting on their life is so funny 💀

They are The last nonred alliance in the server, despite not being allies the entire season

He tells them AND other people that he's scared of her. Like?? Etho the minecraft man himself genuinely does not want to get on their bad side, to the extent he makes deals with her that are just "here I'll give you potions if you don't go after me for just this episode"

Etho’s panicked "BACK AWAY EVERYBODY IM DANGEROUS- oh, Cleo. Cleo, come with me." Man calms down IMMEDIATELY realizing it's them.

When they're ghosts, Cleo goes "oh Etho! I didn't see you die!" and he says "I got killed Cleo, I didn't survive :(" stuck out to me for some reason

He is the only one she takes compliments from. They don't even accept compliments from Scott or Pearl, but Etho keeps going "ooh that was good Cleo!" and "nice job with that one Cleo!"

bouncing off that he goes so far out of his way to make Cleo feel like a useful member of the team I'm. crying

"I thought I ran into lava but it was Cleo’s hair" I laughed so hard

Theyre just such good friends, like. In general they're very similar people in that they click really easily, they tend to gravitate toward each other in these Life series because they just generally trust each other. they have such a good foundation that you can put them in any situation and they'll still be rock solid. Cleo & Etho, man.

[anotherscreed]

SORRY I FORGOT ABOUT THE MULTIVERSE THING. anyway this is like my fourth time trying to get this damn link to show up on this site so hopefully the fourth time'll be the charm or whatever since the third wasn't-

[A link is attached to a news website, apparently for the digital version of the Castelia Times. Upon clicking on it, the first thing that comes up—unless there is an adblocker involved—is a pop-up informing the website visitor that this is one of their five free articles for this month, and that they should consider subscribing to support journalism.

Once they've dealt with the pop-up as they will, though, the title of the article becomes clear: Anonymous Leaker Reveals Aether Foundation Involvement in 2017 Alolan Ultra Beast Crisis.

It becomes immediately clear after a handful of paragraphs that the reporter is not fond of Aether's recent expansion into other regions from Sinnoh to Unova and therefore is absolutely delighted that an anonymous hacker found and leaked security footage stored on Aether's own servers.

Previous leaks/data dumps provided by this particular hacker have ranged from revealing that a professor at Blueberry Academy was far more concerned with her ancestor's conspiracy theories than the well-being of her own students to leaking emails making it clear that the upper management of Silph Co. was not only aware of Team Rocket's plans to take over their Saffron City building but thought it would ultimately increase profits in the long run to allow the team to do what they wanted.

This, however, is something a little bigger. There are two main videos that have been shared with the wider internet, seemingly taken from security camera footage in the Alolan branch of the Aether Foundation.

According to the reporter, viewer discretion is advised, and they have provided warnings for Pokémon abuse, child abuse, and—for some reason—a woman named Lusamine Aether, who is apparently the current president of the Aether Foundation.

In the first video attached, Lusamine is shown verbally berating a young girl, referred to as Lillie, who looks very similar to her. She refers to the girl as disappointing in comparison to her companion—a girl of similar age referred to by Lusamine as Selene—before claiming that she doesn't have any children who would "reject her love" and that maybe if Lillie had been better, she could have saved Cosmog, something that seems from context to be a Pokémon that Lusamine will be forcing to "use its power."

The second video attached seems to pick up close to where the last one left off, albeit in a different room, and in one where there are numerous Pokémon implied from what Lusamine says about them to have been frozen solid and "preserved" while they were still alive. The girls from earlier are horrified before a boy in black who bears significant resemblance to both Lillie and Lusamine rushes in with another friend in tow.

The exact words "All I ever did was give you two all the love I had, and all you did was betray me! You have no right to ask for my attention now!" are uttered by Lusamine, before she declares in response to the other boy (who is apparently named Hau) that they once were family, perhaps, before her former children (who she describes as wretches) left her.

She then forces the Cosmog inside a container to use its power at the expense of its own wellbeing, opening Ultra Wormholes all over Alola in addition to one right there, before ordering someone working for her to "quiet those children for me" as she doesn't "want to hear from them again," which is a wild thing to say about a group of preteens (and one kid who looks like a young, particularly edgy teenager).

The reporter's article concludes with stating that neither the Aether Foundation's main branch nor their Unova branch have responded to a request for comment, and they're frankly unsure of how to get in touch with the hacker Sedici, but that the Alolan government is taking clear evidence of Lusamine Aether's involvement in the Ulra Beast Crisis very seriously and there are rumors of the International Police getting involved.]

[necrotic-nephilim]

bro come back we need your commentary more than ever. Jayhelena canon event

AHAHAHA I'VE BEEN LOSING MY MIND FOR DAYS ANON HOW'D YOU KNOW. perfect moment to show off the shitty meme i made based off a random message i sent in a discord server a couple of weeks ago.

jokes aside: i do have a LOT of thoughts on all of this, and even more thoughts on the reaction to it so ty for giving me the chance to rant.

as far as the comic itself goes: i am? cautiously optimistic, personally? hopes are high but expectations are grounded. Gretchen Felker-Martin is a *fantastic* trans horror writer (i highly rec her novel, Manhunt) but she's pretty new to the comics scene. she's written a single issue with Jason, a Beast World story that's pretty polarizing. most fans i know dislike it, my personal opinions on it are... it's a bit lackluster? i think some parts of it miss the mark on Jason's psyche, but the overall theme it's trying to convey about cycles of violence enacted on victims like Jason and police brutality are interesting. while it's not a great start for GFM with Jason, the Beast World event was so shit overall, and the whole concept of all these characters being "not themselves" mentally, i'm willing to overlook it. (idk if there are any good BW stories but all the ones i've read are shite... Helena's BW story has her literally being beaten by Cass using a laser pointer on her so... i will take *anything* over that personally lmao at least GFM seems genuinely interested in exploring Jason's inner workings, yk) it could go really well, or really poorly. i don't think we have enough info on GFM's writing to know how she'll handle an ongoing with these two, but my fingers are desperately crossed.

the main concerns i have about the comic are firstly the plot itself: which is described as Jason tracking down a cop-killer, and how that could so easily become copaganda. however, the Beast World issue GFM wrote was incredibly anti-cop. (and she even said on her bluesky that ppl shouldn't be worried about this run being pro-cop) so, i do think there's hope there. my other worry is the history of these characters GFM can't control- this story is happening right after H2SH which is frankly, a fucking disaster for Jason. and Helena's biggest Rebirth feature was Batgirl & the Birds of Prey, which was an even bigger disaster for her mythos. neither of these characters are standing on great foundations, and i haven't cared for either of their current characterizations for the past decade or so. it's an uphill battle for even a fantastic writer to try to meld good characterization with the current state of these two, and i could see it screwing GFM over, which rlly sucks she's not getting as fair of a shot as she could be.

all that said, the aesthetics look fantastic (tho, i'm not personally the biggest fan of either suit redesign) and i do love getting Helena and Jason out of Gotham, bc it means we won't have the everlooming Bat presence hanging over their actions. and as for the romance? i'm CACKLING. i've *always* suspected that if we ever were lucky enough for a Jason/Helena team-up, they were bound to end up fucking, and i'm DELIGHTED to be vindicated. this ship is one i do adore in concept (mostly as a hatefuck sort of thing) but could see go horribly. i trust GFM to write women, so i don't think Helena's going to get sidelined as a one-dimensional love interest, which is the biggest fear i've seen expressed. it's not *entirely* unlikely she'll be OOC (i don't think we know enough to comment either way atp, given GFM has never written her) but i do think she's going to be dynamic in this run. and honestly? with the shit content Jason has been getting recently (Robin Lives, the current fuckass Jaybin comic) and Helena having her backstory mutiliated and getting sidelined to hell as current comics don't seem to know what to do with her, i want this to go well *so* badly. i'm rlly hoping it will! and i do think the romance can absolutely work in a fun and interesting way. wouldn't be my top canon pick for either character, but i love the intrigue of it and how these two could (and hopefully are going to) challenge each other and find solidarity in their respective victimhoods.

that said, i certainly don't begrudge Helena fans for being pessimistic about this comic, or disliking the concept in principle. i'd far prefer Helena be getting a solo than be a supporting cast/love interest for a man's run. that said, i think calling this run a "power fantasy" and "wank content" (takes i have seen) is absolutely asinine. we don't have it in our hands yet, we literally can't say until it's out. (and tbfh- these takes are transphobic against GFM, even if unintentionally.) but at this point, i think anything is something for Helena, and i am not going to insult the concept until i've seen the story. if Helena fans don't want to read this bc they don't like Jason or just don't want to see her sidelined, i get that entirely.

beyond that, the take i am *not* a fan of is that this is bad bc Helena has been Dick's love interest. anyone who says *that* loses all validity to their argument for me. Helena has been a dynamic character long before she met Dick and to *only* view her as an extension of Dick and thus define every future relationship she has through Dick is the most ass backwards misogyny i've seen. also. it's comics, man. everyone's going to team up with everyone and fuck everyone. it's just the nature of these characters getting used over and over and over. it's so wildly degrading to Helena to pretend you're protecting her dignity and honor by not wanting her around Jason, or by treating her as just "Dick's love interest". (when she and Dick never properly even *dated* and have never been right for each other. that was sort of the whole point. but i digress.) i also think some takes from Helena stans about Jason are made in incredibly bad faith, just because some Helena stans find some sort of superiority complex in liking her and hating him. it has always read incredibly performative to me.

in summary: i have been deserpate for *years* for these two to interact, and i'm genuinely looking forward to reading this comic. i have reasons to be a little doubtful of some issues that *might* come up, but GFM is a great novelist and i hope that translates to her ability to write a great ongoing. did i ever *actually* want this ship to go canon? no, but under a queer woman whose pretty solid at exploring intersectionality and leftist politics in her works, i'm willing to hear it out.

and just so we're clear: the *second* this comic is out i'm putting the Robles variant cover where Jason and Helena are almost kissing straight on my wall. even if the comic is shit. i'm forever immortalizing it as a giant win for me personally, one of the few ppl capable of liking Jason Todd and Helena Bertinelli at the same time and being cool with the idea of them kissing, lol.