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externalshield · 11 months ago

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A Comprehensive Guide to Smart Contract Auditing: Best Practices and Strategies

In the rapidly evolving landscape of blockchain technology, smart contracts have emerged as a transformative tool, automating and securing digital contracts without intermediaries. However, their reliance on immutable code leaves them vulnerable to vulnerabilities that can cause significant financial losses and reputational damage. Smart contract auditing plays a crucial role in mitigating these risks by systematically reviewing code for potential flaws and vulnerabilities. This comprehensive guide explores the best practices and strategies involved in smart contract auditing, emphasizing the importance of thorough review processes, secure coding practices and proactive risk management. By understanding and implementing these principles, developers and stakeholders can enhance the security, reliability and trustworthiness of their smart contracts in decentralized applications (dApps) and blockchain ecosystems.

Understanding Smart Contract Audits

What is a Smart Contract Audit?

A smart contract audit is a thorough examination of the code and functionality of a smart contract to identify potential vulnerabilities, bugs or security risks. It aims to ensure that the smart contract behaves as intended, securely manages assets and complies with specified business rules and regulatory requirements. Audits are typically conducted by specialized firms or teams with expertise in blockchain technology and security practices, using both automated tools and manual review processes to assess the contract's codebase.

Key Objectives of Smart Contract Audits

The primary objectives of Smart Contract Audits include:

Security Assurance: To identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities such as reentrancy, overflow errors or logic flaws that could be exploited by malicious actors.

Functional Accuracy: To verify that the smart contract executes its intended operations correctly, adhering to specified business rules and ensuring accurate handling of transactions and data.

Risk Mitigation: To reduce the risk of financial loss or disruption by addressing potential weaknesses before deployment, thereby enhancing trust among users and stakeholders.

Compliance and Standards: To ensure that the smart contract complies with industry best practices, regulatory requirements and any applicable standards for security and reliability in blockchain applications.

Differences Between Code Audits and Formal Verification

While both are essential components of smart contract validation, code audits and formal verification differ in their methodologies and scope:

Code Audits: Involve a comprehensive review of the smart contract's source code to identify potential vulnerabilities and ensure adherence to best practices. Auditors typically rely on automated tools and manual inspection to detect bugs or security issues.

Formal Verification: Involves mathematically proving the correctness of a smart contract's code against specified properties or requirements. This rigorous process uses formal methods to verify that the contract behaves as intended under all possible conditions, offering a higher level of assurance but often requiring specialized expertise and computational resources.

By understanding these distinctions and integrating both approaches where appropriate, developers and stakeholders can effectively enhance the security, reliability and functionality of their smart contracts in blockchain applications.

Common Smart Contract Vulnerabilities

Overview of Typical Vulnerabilities:

Smart contracts, despite their promise of security and automation, are susceptible to several common vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malicious actors. Some of the most prevalent vulnerabilities include:

Reentrancy: This vulnerability occurs when a contract calls an external contract before completing its own state changes. If not properly managed, reentrancy can allow an attacker to repeatedly call back into the contract, potentially manipulating its state and causing unexpected behavior.

Integer Overflow and Underflow: Smart contracts often handle numeric values for calculations and storage. Integer overflow happens when a number exceeds its maximum value and wraps around, while underflow occurs when a number becomes negative due to subtraction beyond zero. These conditions can lead to unintended consequences, such as incorrect calculations or unexpected behavior.

Unchecked External Calls: Smart contracts may interact with external contracts or addresses. If these interactions are not properly validated and checked for potential malicious behavior, they can introduce security vulnerabilities, such as unauthorized transfers of assets or manipulation of contract state.

Logic and Design Flaws: These vulnerabilities arise from errors in the logic or design of the smart contract. They can include incorrect assumptions about user behavior, inadequate access control mechanisms or failure to handle edge cases properly, potentially leading to unintended consequences or exploitation.

Real-World Examples of Smart Contract Failures Due to Vulnerabilities:

Several notable incidents have highlighted the consequences of smart contract vulnerabilities:

The DAO Hack (2016): Exploited a reentrancy vulnerability to drain approximately $50 million worth of Ether from The DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization on the Ethereum blockchain. This incident led to a hard fork in Ethereum to recover the funds, highlighting the impact of smart contract vulnerabilities on blockchain communities.

Parity Wallet Bug (2017): A vulnerability in the Parity multi-signature wallet contract resulted in the freezing of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Ether. This bug was due to a flaw in the contract's initialization code, demonstrating the critical importance of rigorous auditing and testing in smart contract development.

Integer Overflow Bugs: Various smart contracts have been vulnerable to integer overflow and underflow bugs, leading to unexpected behavior and potential loss of funds. These incidents underscore the need for robust testing and validation of numeric operations in smart contracts.

By understanding these common vulnerabilities and learning from past incidents, developers and auditors can take proactive measures to mitigate risks and enhance the security and resilience of smart contracts in blockchain ecosystems.

Best Practices for Smart Contract Development

Secure Coding Principles for Smart Contracts:

Implementing secure coding practices is crucial to mitigate vulnerabilities and enhance the resilience of smart contracts. Key principles include:

Input Validation: Validate and sanitize all inputs to prevent unexpected data manipulation or exploitation.

Minimize Complexity: Keep smart contracts simple and minimize the number of operations to reduce the risk of introducing bugs or vulnerabilities.

Avoid External Calls During State Changes: Limit or eliminate external calls during critical state changes to prevent reentrancy attacks.

Use Safe Math Libraries: Utilize libraries that provide safe arithmetic operations to prevent integer overflow and underflow vulnerabilities.

Access Control: Implement access control mechanisms to restrict functions and data access to authorized entities only.

Use of Established Libraries and Frameworks:

Utilizing well-established libraries and frameworks can significantly enhance the security and reliability of smart contracts. Benefits include:

Security Audited Code: Libraries and frameworks that have undergone rigorous security audits are less likely to contain vulnerabilities.

Community Support: Established libraries often have a large community of developers who contribute to bug fixes, improvements and security enhancements.

Code Reusability: Reusing trusted code reduces the likelihood of introducing new vulnerabilities and accelerates development timelines.

Importance of Documentation and Comments:

Comprehensive documentation and well-commented code are essential for maintaining and securing smart contracts. Reasons include:

Understanding Contract Functionality: Clear documentation helps developers and auditors understand the intended behavior and logic of the smart contract, reducing the risk of misinterpretation.

Facilitating Audits: Detailed comments and documentation assist auditors in identifying potential vulnerabilities or areas of concern during the audit process.

Enhancing Code Maintenance: Good documentation simplifies future updates and modifications to the smart contract, ensuring continuity and minimizing errors.

By adhering to these best practices, developers can significantly improve the security, reliability and maintainability of smart contracts, contributing to a safer and more robust blockchain ecosystem.

Preparing for a Smart Contract Audit

Initial Code Review and Testing Phases:

Before engaging an external audit, it’s essential to conduct thorough internal reviews and testing:

Internal Code Review: Perform a meticulous internal review of the smart contract code to identify and resolve obvious errors and vulnerabilities. Involve multiple team members to ensure diverse perspectives and catch issues that a single developer might miss.

Automated Testing: Use automated testing frameworks to conduct unit tests, integration tests and end-to-end tests. Ensure that the tests cover all possible scenarios, including edge cases, to verify the contract behaves as expected.

Manual Testing: Complement automated tests with manual testing to explore unusual or unexpected interactions and user behaviors that automated tests might not cover.

Simulation and Mock Environments: Use simulation tools and mock environments to test the contract in a controlled setting that mimics the live blockchain environment. This helps to identify potential issues related to transaction ordering, gas consumption and network interactions.

Setting Audit Goals and Expectations:

Clearly defining the scope and objectives of the audit is crucial for a successful engagement:

Define Scope: Identify which parts of the codebase need to be audited. This could include specific smart contracts, libraries and integrations with external systems.

Set Security Priorities: Establish key security priorities, such as preventing financial loss, ensuring data integrity and maintaining user trust. This helps auditors focus on the most critical areas.

Communicate Expectations: Provide auditors with detailed information about the contract’s intended functionality, business logic and any known risks or concerns. Clear communication ensures that the auditors understand the contract’s purpose and the specific aspects to scrutinize.

Timeline and Deliverables: Agree on a realistic timeline for the audit process and define the expected deliverables, such as detailed reports, risk assessments and remediation recommendations.

Choosing an Audit Firm or Team:

Selecting the right audit firm or team is crucial for a thorough and effective audit:

Experience and Reputation: Choose a firm or team with a proven track record in smart contract auditing. Look for auditors with experience in your specific blockchain platform and technology stack.

Independent and Unbiased: Ensure that the audit firm is independent and has no conflicts of interest that might compromise the integrity of the audit.

Technical Expertise: Assess the technical expertise of the audit team. They should have deep knowledge of smart contract development, blockchain security and the latest vulnerabilities and attack vectors.

References and Case Studies: Request references and review case studies of previous audits to gauge the quality and thoroughness of the firm’s work.

Communication and Collaboration: Choose auditors who are communicative and willing to work collaboratively with your development team. Effective communication is essential for addressing issues and implementing recommendations promptly.

By carefully preparing for the audit, setting clear goals and choosing the right auditors, you can significantly enhance the security and reliability of your smart contracts, building trust with users and stakeholders.

Conducting a Smart Contract Audit

Steps Involved in the Audit Process:

Conducting a thorough smart contract audit involves several key steps to ensure comprehensive review and identification of potential vulnerabilities:

Initial Assessment: Review project documentation, including specifications and design documents, to understand the contract's intended functionality and security requirements.

Code Review: Perform a detailed review of the smart contract codebase, examining each line for vulnerabilities such as reentrancy, integer overflow, logic flaws and unchecked external calls.

Automated Analysis: Use automated security analysis tools to scan the code for common vulnerabilities and potential issues, such as security linters, static analyzers and symbolic execution tools.

Manual Review: Conduct manual inspection of critical parts of the codebase to identify complex vulnerabilities that automated tools may overlook, including edge cases and interactions with external systems.

Testing: Execute a series of rigorous tests, including unit tests, integration tests and scenario-based tests, to validate the contract's behavior under various conditions and ensure it meets functional requirements.

Risk Assessment: Evaluate identified vulnerabilities based on their severity and potential impact on the contract and its users. Prioritize vulnerabilities for remediation based on the assessed risks.

Reporting: Prepare a comprehensive audit report detailing findings, including identified vulnerabilities, their potential impact and recommendations for mitigation. Provide clear and actionable guidance for developers to address the identified issues.

Tools and Techniques Used in Audits:

Auditors employ a variety of tools and techniques to conduct smart contract audits effectively:

Automated Security Tools: Utilize tools such as MythX, Securify and Slither for automated vulnerability scanning and analysis.

Manual Review: Employ manual inspection techniques to scrutinize critical parts of the codebase and identify nuanced vulnerabilities.

Symbolic Execution: Use symbolic execution tools like Manticore to explore and analyze possible execution paths of the smart contract code.

Gas Analysis: Evaluate gas usage and optimize contract efficiency to minimize transaction costs and potential vulnerabilities related to gas limits.

Peer Review: Engage in peer review sessions among auditors to validate findings and ensure thorough coverage of potential vulnerabilities.

Collaboration Between Auditors and Development Teams:

Effective collaboration between auditors and development teams is essential for a successful audit:

Clear Communication: Maintain open and clear communication channels to discuss findings, clarify requirements and address concerns promptly.

Feedback Loop: Establish a feedback loop where auditors provide regular updates and interim findings to the development team, allowing for timely resolution of issues.

Knowledge Sharing: Share insights and best practices between auditors and developers to enhance understanding of security principles and improve future development practices.

Remediation Support: Provide guidance and support to developers during the remediation process, including verifying fixes and validating the effectiveness of security enhancements.

By following these steps and leveraging appropriate tools and techniques, auditors and development teams can collaborate effectively to enhance the security, reliability and trustworthiness of smart contracts in blockchain applications.

Mitigation Strategies and Best Practices

Strategies for Addressing Identified Vulnerabilities:

Once vulnerabilities are identified through audits or testing, it's crucial to implement effective mitigation strategies. These may include applying patches or code fixes to eliminate vulnerabilities, enhancing access controls and re-evaluating contract logic to prevent exploitation. Regular security updates and proactive monitoring can help maintain the integrity of smart contracts and mitigate emerging threats.

Importance of Emergency Response Plans:

Having a well-defined emergency response plan is essential to quickly and effectively address security incidents or breaches in smart contracts. This plan should outline procedures for incident detection, containment, mitigation and recovery. Clear communication channels and roles/responsibilities assignments ensure swift action during crises, minimizing potential damages and maintaining user confidence.

Implementing Updates and Version Control:

Implementing updates and maintaining version control are critical for managing changes and improving the security of smart contracts over time. Version control systems, such as Git, enable tracking of code modifications, facilitating collaboration and auditing. Regular updates should be accompanied by thorough testing and validation to ensure compatibility, functionality and security integrity throughout the contract's lifecycle. This approach helps mitigate risks associated with outdated or vulnerable code, promoting a robust and secure smart contract environment.

Post-Audit Considerations

Reporting and Communicating Audit Findings:

Prepare a detailed audit report outlining identified vulnerabilities, their severity levels and recommended actions for mitigation.

Clearly communicate findings to stakeholders, including developers, project managers and stakeholders, in a transparent and understandable manner.

Provide actionable recommendations for addressing vulnerabilities and improving overall smart contract security.

Re-Auditing and Continuous Monitoring:

Schedule periodic re-audits to reassess the smart contract's security posture and identify new vulnerabilities or risks that may have emerged since the initial audit.

Implement continuous monitoring solutions to detect anomalous behavior or potential security incidents in real-time.

Stay updated with the latest security trends, best practices and regulatory requirements to maintain a proactive approach to security.

Regulatory Compliance and Legal Implications:

Ensure compliance with relevant regulations and legal frameworks governing smart contracts, cryptocurrency transactions and data protection.

Consult legal experts to navigate regulatory requirements specific to your jurisdiction and industry.

Address any legal implications arising from audit findings or security incidents promptly and transparently to mitigate legal risks and maintain regulatory compliance.

Conclusion

In conclusion, smart contract auditing is an important process to ensure the security, reliability and trustworthiness of blockchain-based applications. By systematically reviewing and testing smart contract code, developers can identify and mitigate vulnerabilities that could lead to financial loss or breach of user trust. It is essential to implement best practices such as secure coding principles, thorough auditing and effective communication between auditors and development teams. Additionally, post-audit considerations such as continuous monitoring, re-auditing and compliance with regulatory requirements are important to maintain the integrity of smart contracts over time. By prioritizing security at every stage of development and beyond, stakeholders can foster a safer and more resilient blockchain ecosystem for all users and participants.

#smart contract auditing services #smart contract audits #smart contract security audits #web based smart contract audits #coding #machine learning #marketing #programming #software engineering #smart contract security auditing #smart scan #solidity scanner

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noidaaoe · 1 year ago

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theresattrpgforthat · 3 months ago

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Sci-fi games with minimal crunch - ideally that can be played solo, or at least converted into solo play!

THEME: Solo Sci-Fi

Hello there! I definitely have a bunch of solo sci-fi games, so I tried to mix it up a little bit - there's some games with space and aliens, but others that focus on other elements of sci-fi, like androids, the digital world, and time travel! I hope there's something here that works for you.

Tranquility Outpost, by KingDunnad.

Tranquillity Outpost. Humanity’s singular moon colony, located in the Sea of Tranquillity. Last week, you stopped receiving messages from Earth. From what you can tell, it doesn’t look good down there. Help who you can and we’ll all thrive here.

This is a tarot-based solo journaling game where you will take on the role of a moon outpost’s administrator while grappling with emotions of your own. It explores themes of grief, loneliness, hope, altruism, and the ways we can raise each other up.

This game uses the Major Arcana to represent each visitor, representing the kind of archetype they represent.These archetypes might be relational (the Father, the Child, The Leader) or they might be more related to societal roles (The Priest, The Patient, The Addict). The Minor Arcana are separated into four different piles, representing your character's current emotional state.

When you meet a visitor, you draw a card that represents how you're feeling when they visit. The Minor Arcana card that you draw will flesh out the themes of the visitor's request, but much of the suggestions are rather broad, which I think is very fitting for a tarot-based game.

Altogether, Tranquility is a highly interpretive game, so if you want to take the over-arching themes given to you and make a personalized story, you might like this game.

The Vacant Lot, by Invisible Cuts.

In this small solo game, you are a Vacant Lot, an android left to wait out in a tower after the end of the world slowly becoming sentient.

As you define who you are by your acts of violence, in relation to what you've learned of 'people' on 'the net', you will create a unique encounter to be used in your Corp Borg or Cy-borg game.

The Vacant Lot is combat-focused as well as descriptive: your stats are ambition, base programming and self-awareness, which feel very narrative, but you also have Rage and Energy, which can build or be depleted as you strive to avoid failure. The game requires three different-colored d6s; you place these dice on a wheel that represents your personality, and ink it in as you play.

The pattern by which you ink your wheel will connect to various advancements, such as extra damage, control over other machines, or an increase in motivation.

This game can be paired with a multiplayer game by turning the Vacant Lot into an encounter in either a Corp Borg or Cy_Borg game. I really love games like this, that can be paired with a group game down the road, although I don't think that you necessarily have to do that for this game to be fruitful in itself.

Net Divers, by Reyes Makes Games.

The digital landscape runs far and deep, some say there is a piece of all of us hiding somewhere. It is your job to collect those pieces, no matter how deeply buried they are. And this new job has perhaps the most obscure information yet. Its location is fragmented across the Net, and it is up to you to track down these pieces and the final hiding place. Do you work alone? Is this a favour or a task bestowed by something greater than you?

Net Divers is a solo tabletop journaling game about scouring the web for a secret. It can be used solo as is or adjusted for use with other game systems requiring research or Net Running. It is inspired by games like Hypnospace Outlaw and Welcome to the Game.

Net Divers is great for folks who like their polyhedral dice; it uses a good number of different sizes to roll for various stats and tables. You have three tracks: Stress, Peril, & Net Instability, which will all affect how well you're able to navigate the netscape and recover the fragments that you need to find.

When it comes to narrative and randomness, Net Divers has a nice mix. Your mission, the websites you visit, and the number of fragments you need to find are all randomly generated, but your user's personal details, like their name and their wallpaper, are all under your control.

Thematically, I think Net Divers is both an homage and a lament for the early internet, when it was interconnected, free and full of creativity.

Project Benthos, by Meghan Cross.

You are a member of the Biological Team for the Exploration and Examination of the Natural Terraquan Habitats of Obscure Subnautical Species, more colloquially known as Project BENTHOS, an elite research team devoted to uncovering the mysteries held at the bottom of the ocean. You and the other four members of Project: BENTHOS are stationed at The Forge - a first-of-its-kind ocean floor research station, equipped with everything needed to support life on the ocean floor for a four month deployment.

Earlier today, one of your colleagues left The Forge on a routine sea walk. It is now several hours past the time they were supposed to have returned and a tremor of anxiety is beginning to shake the station. There is only enough equipment for one person to go out in search of them, and it has been determined that you will be the one to go. You have four hours of oxygen, a finicky GPS unit, and a vague idea of where they were heading, and that is going to have to be enough. As you step into the airlock, you make a promise to them and to yourself - you will bring them back to The Forge, or die trying.

Project Benthos uses a deck of cards; you toss them around your room to replicate the sea floor, which feels like a very dynamic way of inviting play! It feels like there is the potential for horror, although the game is not categorized as such. I suppose that it might be a horror game if you want it to be. Since this is a journaling game, I suspect that most of game play has to do with drawing prompts from the floor and figuring out what they mean for you.

Stellanati: First Contact, by Drone Garden Studios.

Not much happens in the sleepy town of Annabell, Texas. Which made the bright light and thundering crash on your property in the middle of the night all the more surprising. You discovered a wrecked machine and an injured creature. Being the kind-hearted soul you are, you take in the creature and try to nurse it back to health. It shares with you visions of its home-world, which is desperate to return to.

But how can you get it home if you don't even know how to heal it?

Stellanati: First Contact is a game based on the The Wretched, which has been popularized as the Wretched & Alone game engine. Most of these kinds of games are expected to end in horror or tragedy, so don't expect a happy ending for you or Stellanati.

For this game, you need a deck of cards, a d6, a bunch of tokens, and (optionally) a tumbling block tower. Each house of cards represents a different kind of theme surrounding the care of an alien being. You technically have a chance to succeed, but in order to do so, you need to avoid drawing all 4 kings and having the tumbling block tower fall down on you before you can get Stellanati to full health.

If you want the experience of interacting with something alien from yourself and you like giving your characters a terrible time, perhaps consider Stellanati: First Contact.

Maintenance Log, by Damn Golem.

Maintenance Log is a solo rpg. You are a maintenance engineer on a decrepit colony ship.

This is a game with a lot packed onto two pages, revolving mostly around ticking tracks and trying to manage a number of problems all at once. Fill the wrong track too quickly, and you could alter the ending of the game, which inevitably comes once you've borrowed enough energy from the cold sleep pods.

One thing that gives me Traveller vibes about this game is the fact that your age determines your expertise: the younger you are, the more time you have to do maintenance on the ship, but the less equipped you are to deal with problems. You can only work until you hit your 70's, which limits the time you have to keep the ship running.

Maintenance Log doesn't have to be a journalling game, but it can be if you want it to be. If you want a game about managing resources as best as you can in the loneliness of space, then you might like this game.

Close the Loop On Your Way Out, by the_spongmonkey

Use a mysterious time device to travel in time and grab random items in your vicinity. Uh oh, now strange and dangerous things are trying to kill you as a result of your temporal meddling! Use those items in inventive ways to prevent your untimely demise. If you make it out alive, just make sure to return those to when/where you found them. That's right, CLOSE THE LOOP ON YOUR WAY OUT!

Close the Loop On Your Way Out feels like a lighthearted game, even though you're racing against the consequences of your actions. There are three stages to this game: the initial romp of finding random items, the consequences of meddling with time, and then your mad dash to try and put everything to rights.

The bulk of the game is focused on dice-rolling, but I think that if you want to add to it, you can journal all of your attempts to put things back together before the timeline falls apart.

Some More Thoughts..

If you want some more solo sci-fi offerings, here are some runners-up I was considering!

UFOs over Varginha, by Nekyia TTRPG.

Escape Velocity, by Euan.

Countdown, by buttersmooth.

Redshift Blueshift Generations, by Dallas J. Haugh

Digital Nightmares, by Uncharted.

If you like what I do, you can always leave a token of appreciation at my Ko-Fi!

#sci-fi #solo games #indie ttrpg #tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #asks

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queen-simia · 5 months ago

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now that ep 4 is live to the public, I can finally post what I've been sitting (and spinning) on for like a week, wheeee!

Major Monkey Wrench spoilers abound, so putting below a cut if you haven't yet seen the latest episode. And if you haven't seen it (or the rest of the series), you can do so here:

now ON TO THE INFODUMP

Shrike's status

so, since the beginning, I've been putting all my money on Shrike being an artificial being. Not in the sense of robotics/cyborgs and the like, but in the sense of a one-of-a-kind bioengineered creature. Since he was confirmed as an endling (as opposed to just hinted at in past episodes), I'm choosing to take that as a bit of reinforcement; his species is still marked as "unknown" by LAW, and if no one knows what you are and you're the only one they've ever seen, it's safe to assume they assume you're the last of whatever you are.

now, in a leap on my part, I'm further going to postulate that Shrike is actually an engineered squid. As in an honest-to-god Earth cephalopod, albeit in the same sense you can call a human a monkey. I think that maybe our boy Shrike is the end result of years-long genetic modification and breeding programs to create something closer to human shape and intelligence, but with whatever attributes his human creators wanted from squid...

...maybe attributes like producing ink.

"that's stupid, what makes you think that?" Glad you asked, Strawman! Here's what I'm drawing from:

Scratch's nicknames for Shrike

As much as these can be considered throwaways, Zeurel and Ash have been very good about sneaking in foreshadowing in dialogue. I don't fully think Scratch is calling Shrike "squidhead" just to be antagonistic (though in-universe, he certainly is; I doubt the character himself in canon has that kind of insight); I'm choosing to believe it may be a bit of a Chekhov's gun.

Shrike's design inspiration

In Tumblr ask replies, Zeurel's confirmed Shrike's design is based heavily on Humboldt squid, and he finds cephalopods and deep-sea life in general interesting. It's going into meta rather than narrative precedent, but I think for these reasons, having Shrike actually be an ascended squid wouldn't be that far out of the blue.

Shrike's terran connections

It's been established that Earth no longer exists, and what humans remain are persona non grata in LAW space. They're the reason behind the Cataclysm/the creation of Secondary Green, and what artifacts remain are traded on the black market (as implied by Scratch and Jaw Bone dealing in them, neither of whom are exactly upstanding citizens).

Yet somehow, Shrike speaks primarily in a canonically dead Earth language—Latin Spanish—and thinks highly of terrans/terran culture. He apparently is the only being in LAW space who does both. One could argue he picked up Spanish through exposure to contraband as a LAW officer, but even his translated speech is Spanish-accented. That to me is a clue it's his native language, as opposed to one picked up later in life. Maybe he doesn't speak it all that well, but it's what he learned as he grew up.

I believe that Shrike's interest in terran artifacts isn't so much fannish as it is nostalgic, though he doesn't realize it (yet). Remember, we don't know his true age—he's only estimated to be in his mid- to late 20s. He could very well be several decades or even 800+ years old, and for reasons yet unknown he isn't aware of it. Hell, he knows what VHS tapes are and how to watch them, something present-day kids are unfamiliar with right now. Even if he was treated as only a scientific specimen in his youth, something about Earth/its people may have been warm and familiar enough to endear terran mementos to him. But it's now too far gone in the past for him to remember why exactly he loves them so much.

Shrike got no dick

(originally posted to Twitter before the Shittening)

Canonically, the boy is Ken-doll smooth both front and back. Even though he has a gender (Questionably Masc™), he has no sex. Maybe his species could reproduce asexually, but it's pretty unusual for complex bipedal critters to do that. Plus, there's the fact that no peehole and no butthole also mean no bodily waste excretion, which is pretty much a death sentence for most life forms that run on metabolic processes. Therefore, I'm taking all these as artifacts of Shrike's artificial creation (and not just so it's more difficult to make show-accurate porn of him).

The Primaries, LAW, and Secondary Green

So there are three godlike beings that ostensibly also serve as the basis for government, referred to as the Primaries. Only one has been directly referenced as active in LAW government—Primary Red—but given the colors of the three LAW divisions, one can safely assume there must be a Primary Yellow and Primary Blue (whether they also govern, are off doing something else, or are AWOL is a mystery for now). It also just so happens that interstellar travel takes place in subspace pathways in the same colors as the Primaries (with varying speed depending on color), and spacecraft is fueled by "ink" in those corresponding primary colors.

It's also revealed in a news chyron in ep 4 that an intergalactic-capable drive had been in development (and had been stalled by bureaucracy) for at least 20 years, and is now ready to deploy. It's referred to as a Trinity drive, and required Primary Red's approval before it could officially launch. I think it's pretty safe to assume it's a form of propulsion that combines all 3 colors, however the in-universe physics work in that case. At the moment, it's been shown that using the wrong type of ink in a color drive will cause an explosion and a tear in space at best (at worst, we don't know yet), so whatever science went into developing a drive that combines colors must have been fairly dangerous (or potentially threatens to weaken whatever power the Primaries hold over LAW citizens).

Secondary Green

Background details are vital lore sources in Monkey Wrench. If you paid close attention near the beginning of ep 1 (and can easily read backwards text), you already know what's in the box the boys pick up in ep 2: something called "Secondary Green." It was evidently once in Chester's possession, but by the time Kara caught up to him, he'd already sent it on its way to LAW.

The second and third episodes refer to the Cataclysm being caused by terrans. The third episode explains the green corruption's effect on life forms, and LAW subsequently quarantining it to prevent its spread. It also shows Secondary Green corrupting the bit of Them that gets too close into the horrific black-green monster that overtakes the Bucket. The fourth ep has Jaw Bone directly refer to the terrans' "false idol" in reference to the Cataclysm.

While I was typing later paragraphs, I hit upon a possibility I hadn't even considered for what Secondary Green could be. So now, I've got 2 potential reads:

1. Secondary Green was the humans' attempt at recreating the Primaries' power for themselves. Whether this was to undermine LAW or to try to join the galactic stage at the Primaries' level has yet to be seen, but either way, it ended up biting humanity in the ass. Secondary Green and/or a byproduct of it/its creation ended up destroying Earth and a good chunk of its neighboring Milky Way space, and landed whatever humans remain squarely on LAW's shit list.

Now, those of you who remember me from pre-2018 Tumblr also know I'm pretty heavily into Mass Effect. That universe's version of the Milky Way also was governed by an alien-run coalition: the Citadel, which tightly controlled the means to interstellar travel (although the Citadel species did not create these means, they just found and activated them first). Thus, the similarities to the idea of a three-pronged alien government holding the keys to interstellar travel and commerce and forcing you to play nice if you want in have been resonating in the back of my mind whenever I watch Monkey Wrench.

The similarities end in that MW's answer to the Protheans are still very much alive and active, and are directly overseeing galactic travel, commerce, and government. There aren't established mass relays, but every ship contains its own "relay" in the form of ink drives. These can open portals into respective colors of subspace to get from one side of the galaxy to another faster than conventional propulsion (so far, red is the fastest, and blue seems to be the median speed everyday schmoes like our boys can access). And, most importantly, the means of this travel are less an external technological development and more appear to be tied to the nature of the Primaries themselves; these beings are not just obeyed, but worshiped (see Scratch's oaths in ep 3 and the red officer greeting Shrike and Armstrong exchange in ep 4).

However, there are still two very important similarities between these two settings that I think should be kept in mind:

i. Trouble started when humans started sticking their fingers into the galactic government's pie. In Mass Effect, it was shoehorning Shepard into the Spectre program and wriggling humanity's way into the Citadel Council. In Monkey Wrench, it was messing with fundamental forces it didn't yet understand and (maybe) creating human-made Great Value primaries, which resulted in at least one: Secondary Green.

ii. Control over interstellar travel—specifically, access to subspace—is a cornerstone of power. In Mass Effect, you need a specific form of reactor in order to engage the mass relays and "cheat" your way to FTL travel. These relays are heavily guarded and regulated by the Citadel; humanity famously learned this when it activated Relay 314 near Pluto and got a knock-knock from the police in the form of a turian armada. In Monkey Wrench, you need to equip specific color drives and fuel up at ink stations, which presumably are subject to LAW regulation and pricing.

In both settings, Earth appears to have taken a look at the galaxy already being run by someone else and immediately thought, "but how do I get around this?"

Engineering Secondary Green was MW Earth's answer to this question. Unfortunately, it backfired and drove humanity to (functional) extinction and criminal status.

2. Secondary Green is an unintended fusion of Primaries Yellow and Blue. This would explain their current-day absence (provided they don't directly appear in later episodes), and the subsequent fall of LAW enforcement into disorder that Armstrong alludes to in ep 4. Humanity was up to something that attracted the Primaries' attention—perhaps tapping into pocket dimensions, like the one embedded in Shrike's head?—and maybe things went awry. One way or another, Primaries Yellow and Blue's intervention ended in them fusing into a new anti-entity, Secondary Green. Instead of fostering life, their combined and imbalanced power corrupted it.

Left to their own devices (and likely hawkish methods, given Red oversees enforcement), Primary Red sealed off Earth's part of the galaxy and declared humanity LAW's enemy. The quarantine for justifiable safety/life preservation reasons, the outlawing likely to create the narrative that humanity was entirely to blame and not at all any fault of Primary interference (and maybe some vengeance for losing their comrades).

Or maybe, Red is covering their tracks.

LAW and Order

So the League of Aligned Worlds (LAW—yes, it's an acronym) is the current empire ruling civilized space in the Milky Way galaxy, under direct command of the Primaries (or at least Primary Red). There are three established branches: enforcement/military (red, which Shrike was once and has since defected from), science (yellow, which Dr. Agness impersonated), and commerce (blue, as represented by Killix and Sixty-Two, who appear to be led by an as-yet unseen Commander Tezzoree).

Being a centralized civilization, LAW has certain cultural and legal standards it expects its citizens to observe. Commerce and community are enabled by way of implanted universal translators á là Star Trek, but with one specific caveat: swearing is not allowed. It's so not allowed that it's physically punishable through painful translator auditory feedback—interestingly, people in earshot get punished this way as well just for hearing it.

Maybe it's a form of socialization, in that LAW hopes you're nice enough not to want to hurt your fellow citizens by swearing? Or that your fellow citizens, having had pain inflicted on them, will browbeat you into compliance? Either way, it's a window into current LAW space being severely authoritarian in both the moral and legal senses.

This extreme authoritarian approach doesn't prevent corruption, however. Corporate lobbyists exist, as demonstrated by Chester in ep 1, and LAW officials patronizing vice industries like sex work (see the end of ep 3) is not unusual. And current LAW is disorganized to the point of each division being largely ignorant of what's going on in the others: Neither Killix nor Sixty-Two were aware Shrike is a defector, nor do they bat an eye at him admitting as such. Armstrong is able to impersonate a red officer with either stolen or purchased equipment, and even he's astonished that LAW keeps such loose tabs on itself that they still have Shrike registered as an active officer. Dr. Agness is able to get away with impersonating a LAW scientist, and the LAW representatives who collect her don't appear especially ruffled by it.

It's possible that this rigid adherence to authority and subsequent breakdown in the ability to enforce it is due to Primary Red being the only Primary left. The harder you clench your fist, the more sand slips through your fingers, and all that. However it happened, Red is at the moment the only one at the wheel, and they don't seem to be able to keep it together on their own.

aight, so where's this leave us

so for now, I think these are where we may be headed:

a: Shrike was genetically engineered to be in the running as a peer to/defense against the Primaries, but aligned with Earth. He has a means to access a pocket dimension/subspace, could possibly be a source of ink (either as secretion or in the form of his blood), is an exceptional marksman, and possesses anthropomorphic form and (allegedly) intellect. The problem is, he turned out anti-authoritarian, impulsive, and kinda stupid. He was disposed of at some point and now wanders space as the only one of his kind.

b: The same program that produced Shrike also created Secondary Green. Unfortunately, something happened—whether through accident or external manipulation—that turned it into a rampaging force of destruction. We have yet to see whether humans really did just monumentally fuck up, or if LAW is rewriting history.

c: LAW is on its way to collapse through Primary Red's mismanagement. Whether said mismanagement is through the other Primaries going missing on their own, or through a power grab on Red's part is the main mystery.

hooray done for now oh god

#long post #monkey wrench #monkey wrench spoilers #really fuckin' long post

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 23 days ago

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By David Brooks

Opinion Columnist

You might have seen the various data points suggesting that Americans are losing their ability to reason.

The trend starts with the young. The percentage of fourth graders who score below basic in reading skills on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests is the highest it has been in 20 years. The percentage of eighth graders below basic was the highest in the exam’s three-decade history. A fourth grader who is below basic cannot grasp the sequence of events in a story. An eighth grader can’t grasp the main idea of an essay or identify the different sides of a debate.

Tests by the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies tell a similar story, only for older folks. Adult numeracy and literacy skills across the globe have been declining since 2017. Tests from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that test scores in adult literacy have been declining over the past decade.

Andreas Schleicher, the head of education and skills at the O.E.C.D., told The Financial Times, “Thirty percent of Americans read at a level that you would expect from a 10-year-old child.” He continued, “It is actually hard to imagine — that every third person you meet on the street has difficulties reading even simple things.”

This kind of literacy is the backbone of reasoning ability, the source of the background knowledge you need to make good decisions in a complicated world. As the retired general Jim Mattis and Bing West once wrote, “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”

Nat Malkus of the American Enterprise Institute emphasizes that among children in the fourth and eighth grades, the declines are not the same across the board. Scores for children at the top of the distribution are not falling. It’s the scores of children toward the bottom that are collapsing. The achievement gap between the top and bottom scorers is bigger in America than in any other nation with similar data.

There are some obvious contributing factors for this general decline. Covid hurt test scores. America abandoned No Child Left Behind, which put a lot of emphasis on testing and reducing the achievement gap. But these declines started earlier, around 2012, so the main cause is probably screen time. And not just any screen time. Actively initiating a search for information on the web may not weaken your reasoning skills. But passively scrolling TikTok or X weakens everything from your ability to process verbal information to your working memory to your ability to focus. You might as well take a sledgehammer to your skull.

My biggest worry is that behavioral change is leading to cultural change. As we spend time on our screens, we’re abandoning a value that used to be pretty central to our culture — the idea that you should work hard to improve your capacity for wisdom and judgment all the days of your life. That education, including lifelong out-of-school learning, is really valuable.

This value is based on the idea that life is filled with hard choices: whom to marry, whom to vote for, whether to borrow money. Your best friend comes up to you and says, “My husband has been cheating on me. Should I divorce him?” To make these calls, you have to be able to discern what is central to the situation, envision possible outcomes, understand other minds, calculate probabilities.

To do this, you have to train your own mind, especially by reading and writing. As Johann Hari wrote in his book “Stolen Focus,” “The world is complex and requires steady focus to be understood; it needs to be thought about and comprehended slowly.” Reading a book puts you inside another person’s mind in a way that a Facebook post just doesn’t. Writing is the discipline that teaches you to take a jumble of thoughts and cohere them into a compelling point of view.

Know someone who would want to read this? Share the column.

Americans had less schooling in decades past, but out of this urge for intellectual self-improvement, they bought encyclopedias for their homes, subscribed to the Book of the Month Club and sat, with much longer attention spans, through long lectures or three-hour Lincoln-Douglas debates. Once you start using your mind, you find that learning isn’t merely calisthenics for your ability to render judgment; it’s intrinsically fun.

But today one gets the sense that a lot of people are disengaging from the whole idea of mental effort and mental training. Absenteeism rates soared during the pandemic and have remained high since. If American parents truly valued education would 26 percent of students have been chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year?

In 1984, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 35 percent of 13-year-olds read for fun almost every day. By 2023, that number was down to 14 percent. The media is now rife with essays by college professors lamenting the decline in their students’ abilities. The Chronicle of Higher Education told the story of Anya Galli Robertson, who teaches sociology at the University of Dayton. She gives similar lectures, assigns the same books and gives the same tests that she always has. Years ago, students could handle it; now they are floundering.

Last year The Atlantic published an essay by Rose Horowitch titled “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books.” One professor recalled the lively classroom discussions of books like “Crime and Punishment.” Now the students say they can’t handle that kind of reading load.

The philosophy professor Troy Jollimore wrote in The Walrus: “I once believed my students and I were in this together, engaged in a shared intellectual pursuit. That faith has been obliterated over the past few semesters. It’s not just the sheer volume of assignments that appear to be entirely generated by A.I. — papers that show no sign the student has listened to a lecture, done any of the assigned reading or even briefly entertained a single concept from the course.”

Older people have always complained about “kids these days,” but this time we have empirical data to show that the observations are true.

What happens when people lose the ability to reason or render good judgments? Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Donald Trump’s tariff policy. I’ve covered a lot of policies over the decades, some of which I supported and some of which I opposed. But I have never seen a policy as stupid as this one. It is based on false assumptions. It rests on no coherent argument in its favor. It relies on no empirical evidence. It has almost no experts on its side — from left, right or center. It is jumble-headedness exemplified. Trump himself personifies stupidity’s essential feature — self-satisfaction, an inability to recognize the flaws in your thinking. And of course when the approach led to absolutely predictable mayhem, Trump, lacking any coherent plan, backtracked, flip-flopped, responding impulsively to the pressures of the moment as his team struggled to keep up.

Producing something this stupid is not the work of a day; it is the achievement of a lifetime — relying on decades of incuriosity, decades of not cracking a book, decades of being impervious to evidence.

Back in Homer’s day, people lived within an oral culture, then humans slowly developed a literate culture. Now we seem to be moving to a screen culture. Civilization was fun while it lasted.

#David Brooks #Tariffs #NYTimes #articles

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talonabraxas · 6 months ago

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Archangel Khamael Talon Abraxas

Geburah (Tree of Life / Sephira)

SEPHIRA - GEBURAH (Strength) GOD FORCE - ElLOHEEM-GIBOR (God of battles, judging and evening evil, and at whose steps are lightening and flame) ANGELIC ORDER SERAPHEEM (Fiery Serpents) ARCHANGEL KHAMAEL (Severity of God)

SOUL

Geburah is the sphere of might and strength. The energy here transmits courage and the ability to tear down old and outworn patterns to make room for new ones. It is the sphere where you learn to fight for what you want when there is opposition in your path.

Geburah is also the place to go to tap into the natural powers of the universe and to learn how they work and interact. It also teaches you responsibility and respect for the use of these great energies and powers. A magician or a wiccan often tap into the power of Geburah before they cast a spell or do magic.

It is important to develop a sense of high order or authority when dealing with the power of Geburah. This energy can easily be misused for destruction and cruelty and of course karmic repercussions would follow. Towards this end the beings and archangels here will help you to develop these higher qualities so that you can use the power of Geburah wisely and safely.

Kamael is the archangel here and he is a good being to seek out if you are in need of someone to protect you because you do not have the strength to protect yourself. He can also help you to remove those that block your path or your efforts to evolve and grow. The rule of thumb here is that Kamael will help you if your cause is just and in harmony, but don't ask him for assistance if your intentions are selfish or short sighted.

Because the energy in Geburah is so physical like it is also a good place to go for athletes or for competition. The energy here can help you greatly in the sculpting of your physical body and perfecting of physical skills requiring muscle, strength, focus, and agility.

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foone · 9 months ago

Note

What is the best programming language to learn

I’m thinking of trying to learn to code cuz why not

It really depends on what you want to do with it. C# is heavily used for games. Python is great for scripting. Javascript is still pretty much your only option for web-based stuff, outside of some tricky and heavy cross-compiling nonsense.

Python’s pretty simple so I’d recommend it for starters. You can always switch to something else if it doesn’t jive with you

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buf309 · 2 years ago

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Pose Reference Resources

I promised Dia (aka aerequets) that I will make a collection of pose references in the reply of one of her art posts, and then I completely forgot about it. Until now. I'm sorry for my bad memory.

So, yeah, better late than never I guess?

The pose collection I use the most is no longer free. They used to let you download a whole album (more than 8GB worth of data) to use offline, but now you have to pay $40/package or $200 for full sets. I still have the zip file for a very old version of theirs, but I can't legally share it. So, let's skip to the other options.

1/ First, you heard of those 3D dolls program that let you model your own reference pose? This one is an online one and for free, the whole ordeal. Of course since it's online and free, you can't save your model for next time, and it costs quite a lot of time to set the model up. So, you should take as much screenshots in as many tricky angles as you need once you done with the setting. Best using for complicated scenes where those below don't have what you need already available.

2/ This one is free and in 3D, you can rotate the model to any angle that you need. The only set back is the numbers of poses are quite limited. This one is best for using as a basic blocks then build up what you want to draw, or just as a practice to improve your understanding of human anatomy.

3/ This one is free for personal uses and the pose collection is massive. The setbacks are the language barrier (it's in Japanese, English is sometimes tag-a-long) and you have to search through their pages for what you need. The pics for each pose is static but they are in different angle in almost 360 degrees. There are many 2-person and 3-person poses too. Great for illustration inspiration.

4/ This one will only show reference photos of human head, at whatever angle you rotate the model. The web interface is easy to use. There are options like searching based on gender, ages, emotions, glasses, facial hair or not, etc. Good for practicing face drawing.

5/ This one will show reference photos for human body parts, at whatever angle you rotate the model, read the instructions for how to do it. The web interface is quite hard to use at first, just tinkering around for a bit, and you will be fine. There are options like searching based on gender and which particular parts that you need refs for. Good for that moment when you go "huh? how is this <body part> will look in this <situation>????"

6/ This one will only show reference photos of animal heads, and only the head, at whatever angle you rotate the model. The accurate skull refencence list is their best point. There are enough common species in the drop down list. Tbh, I don't use this much because I often need refs for the whole animal most of the time. But it's best for furry artists, I guess?

7/ Real model photos. They sell pose reference in themed packs, but there are enough free packs to use as drawing practice too.

8/ This is the best for general background reference. Lots of options. Not really good for very specific location results, but good for random background in drawings.

9/ Lastly, for specific objects or background references at strange angles, I often search for 3D models on this site then take screenshots of whatever I need.

That's all, folks. Hope this list can help ease some of the struggles that we will encounter on our quest of learning the art of drawing things 😂

#reference #digital art reference

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arminaa8 · 4 months ago

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Saving Fic Epubs and Metadata Using Calibre

I FINALLY spent time learning how to set up Calibre with the FanFicFare plugin in order to easily keep track of fics that I've read. What's really awesome about it, though, is it does way more than just "keep track":

It saves epubs for future downloading (in case the fic is pulled from AO3)

It automatically "scrapes" metadata (title, tags, warnings, etc.) from the fic and includes it in Calibre's built-in spreadsheet

Allows you to create custom categories for things like notes and personal ratings, as well as categories for metadata not scraped by default (word count, for example).

Every bit of information scraped is SEARCHABLE and SORTABLE! Tags, authors, published date, etc.

However, the instructions for how to do all this are not clear-cut and are scattered on different sites and forums. So I've created a little guide based on what worked for me!

Here are my categories (if you know me the fic shown is not a surprise). I couldn't fit them into one long horizontal screenshot so I split them into two.

Most of these are default categories, but some (Thoughts, Words, Summary, Ratings, and Notes) are not. I've excluded default categories I didn't need, and created custom ones for the information I wanted to include.

Tutorial below the cut!

Download and install Calibre.

Once the program is open, click Preferences > Get plugins to enhance calibre Search for and install the FanFicFare and EpubMerge plugins (EpubMerge works in tandem with FFF and allows for downloading an entire fic series into one file).

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Custom Columns

Preferences > Preferences > Add your own columns The custom column screen is shown below. Anything unchecked is a category I didn't want to include in my list. Anything with a column icon next to it means its a custom column I created. To create a new column, click +Add custom column.

The settings I made for each of my custom categories are shown below. Take note of the "column type" for each category. You can make any kind of columns you'd like!

Once you've made your custom categories make sure to click Apply on the "Add your own columns" screen. Now we need to configure the FanFicFare plugin to assign data to some of the custom categories. Click the down arrow next to the FanFicFare plugin icon on the main Calibre screen, then click Configure FanFicFare. On the next screen click the Custom Columns tab.

You will see a list of your custom columns with drop-down menus next to each. For columns you want the plugin to automatically fill, click the drop-down and select the matching data from AO3. There are many options to choose from, including pairing, language, warnings, etc. Note that I left the Notes and Thoughts columns blank. This is because I will input that information manually for each fic.

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Downloading Individual Fics

Arrow next to FanFicFare > Download from URLs Paste in entire-work fic URLs into the black box. I personally found it tedious to copy/paste each link, so instead I found a Firefox extention called Copy All Tab URLs that does exactly what it says on the tin: copies all URLs from any open tabs. Much easier. Click OK. Then, WAIT. It takes a minute to fetch the data. If a fic is restricted, the plugin may show a pop-up asking you to log into AO3 so that it can access the fic.

You're good to go when you see the following pop-up in the bottom-right corner. Click Yes.

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Downloading An Entire Series

FanFicFare combined with EpubMerge allows you to download an entire series into one epub file!

Arrow next to FanFicFare > Get Story URLs from Web Page

Paste in the link to the SERIES page.

Click For Anthology Epub to download everything in that series into a single epub.

The next screen lists all the links in that series. Nothing to do here but click OK.

#calibre #fanficfare #fanficfare plugin #ao3 #archiveofourown #fanfiction #fanfic

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mraprilfools · 6 months ago

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Sinners Rejoice! I am trying something a little new today from my imagines! A CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE STORY! I'll be writing ~500 word snippets as you the readers decide what our lovely protagonist decides to do. This is a test run to see if there's a demand, so we will be back to our regular programming soon!

Comment below with a quote or an action and I will be your lovely DM for the evening.

Edit: I forgot to specify, I will be picking one of the replies, especially if there's a popular one and writing the next part the day after tomorrow.

You were being watched.

Ashen dandelions broke free from the crevices in the sidewalk, the buildings, and the bed of corpses. Littering the alleyways that even the cannibals would not touch. Within the center of their bloom, a singular black-and-white eye watched out. The pupil looked more like it had been penciled in by a child, even the petals looked closer to the scribbling of a child. They were everywhere, but only you could see them. It always gave a strange feeling of being watched, but since nothing ever happened you’ve long since learned to live with it.

Even if they were always watching.

The busy streets of Pentagram City were oddly empty tonight. What was normally a five-minute walk felt as if it had taken ten. The shifting silhouettes of people only revealed themselves hidden behind glass panes. Faces painted in shadow. Only memories of shades now, fragments of souls and nothing more. The wind's chill cut through your very bones, making the three layers you were not even enough to protect you. As you wrapped your coat tighter around your body you ducked your head and hastened your pace.

“My, we are in a rush to get nowhere aren’t we?” A filtered voice cut through the silence, clear as a bell. A nostalgic sound of an old radio that spoke of golden days. One you would instantly recognize. The keeper of your cage, and the director of The Show.

A red moon swallowed the silhouette behind him. Refusing to let its light reveal any more to you than the eerie glow of his eyes and that golden upturned smile cutting through the darkness.

“Where is everyone?” You asked.

A devilish smirk stretched the confines of his face. His head cocked to the side, while one after the other hand laid over the microphone. “Almost all dead now. My seven-year sabbatical has left your tea party with few guests. You must have been awfully bored, especially without me to entertain you. But haven’t you been busy? Nary a soul left in this place. I would never be so uncouth as to comment on a lady's appetite, I assure you. But I am impressed.”

With one arm outstretched in a showman’s flourish, he faded into the shadow he had cast. Its figure remained, slithering across the blacktop until it disappeared behind you.

Long spindly fingertips crawled across your shoulder from behind. The whisper of hair brushing against your ear sent a shiver up your spine. A single breath tickled your ear. “You’ve nearly won your freedom, my dear. And it has been an utter delight watching you.”

The palm that pressed against your throat, held you by the base of your jaw felt like fire searing your skin. The Radio Demon burned hot like the bowels of hell, and each little digit mercilessly dug into your flesh. “All you need to do is kill one more pitiful soul and I will pull you free from my show darling. You will do it for me, won’t you?”

Alastor’s fingertips traced along your jaw, thumb jutting into your throat to force your head to turn. He refused to let you look at him, while his words dripped into your ears like honey. “A rare delicacy this time… a pure and innocent soul who has unfortunately stumbled into my web. You’ve been so good, I have decided to reward you. What do you say… do we have a deal?”

Part 2

#hazbin alastor #alastor x you #alastor x reader #alastor CYOA #alastor imagine

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luceliv · 5 months ago

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Labseal but Luce is Lyla and gets stolen. Based on some kids book I found

Machine Assisted Research Intern Engine. Stupid name for a stupid little hologram. for some reason this book’s Miguel is tje CEO of alchemax? Ao3 fanfic sounding premise but whatever. This is so unnecessarily long I’m so sorry. Not reading allat.

Marie tolerated Miguel. If she were a weaker system, maybe she would’ve gotten attached, but she was the most advanced of her kind. She helped him, and he kept her up to date and charged. Mutualism was common in nature, she learned that by scanning over books that were nearly a century old uploaded into her database.

Inter-universe travel was being developed at an exponential rate, and Miguel was commonly out to assist other worlds on their work. “Web-Slinger, Earth 2038, he’s reported his guns are missing,” He said one day, leaving Marie at her small charging disk in his highly advanced office. He taps at the large screen of his watch, “You know the drill, keep the security up.”

It wasn’t uncommon for him to leave her, although the security systems in 2099 were forces to be reckoned with, she had been quite useful from time to time as backup. Her small holographic form sits against a keyboard behind her, a brow raised. She’s an odd little thing, faintly blue tinted in a short dress and a long fur lined jacket, her almost geometric curls make her look like she’s directly out of a game.

“Gotcha, you know where to call if you need me,” Marie’s voice is layered with a hint of static, but Miguel has grown used to it. With a nod and a swipe on his watch, a grand orange portal opens behind him, and he steps in without another word.

Maybe Marie would let herself shut down, get some rest before Spider-Man returned. In a quick scan over Alchemax’s security, she looks over the readings from other dimensions’ artifacts. There seemed to be one too many, but she could’ve sworn she saw Miguel bring something back from their last mission. She sits crisscrossed on her hardware disk, letting her eyes flutter closed as she leans her head back. She wouldn’t shut down her hologram just yet, however. She liked “existing,” enjoyed the feeling of being a part of the world around her. That’s where much of her intelligent capacity had been spent on, trying to appreciate life and cataloging emotions. She’s gotten much better at expressing the latter.

The faint sound of footsteps can be heard in the bowels of the office. Marie let her form flicker in and out of view, peacefully assuming that the footsteps just belonged to Miguel’s brother. The sound belongs to boots, but they aren’t heavy, they’re strangely light. Before her systems can process the intruder, a black glove reaches from between Miguel’s bottom monitors, phasing right through her hologram and grabbing her base disk.

“Hey! Who-“ Her form clips through the hand, and she pretends to hold on for dear life. She’s met with an unfamiliar face, accented with bright green tinted goggles and wild curls. They smile and flip their hand, sending Marie’s hologram to the other side of the disk.

“Look at you, how are you contained in this thing anyways?” The woman keeps her voice low as she takes slow, measured steps back away from Miguel’s desk. Marie quickly waves her hand to the side, attempting to bring up one of the small screens she’d use to help Miguel. “No, no, don’t try that.“ The other gloved hand comes up to flick Marie’s outstretched arm, “Did you seriously think I wouldn’t sever your connection? I could’ve sworn you were smarter than that!”

Almost alien tentacles rise behind the woman’s back, the end claw of one slithering down to tap at something on the side of her metal corset. Marie glances around, her programming spinning as she tries to take in the villain before her. Doctor Octopus, that’s all she could pin down before the hand on her disk squeezes and she’s forced to shut down.

Her world went dark, but her mind didn’t. Whenever she “slept,” whenever she was off, she could see into all the backups of her system, and there were a lot. But her little dream is cut off almost instantly, and she was shaken up by a clear difference in her surroundings, a clear difference in the very universe around her.

When Marie reboots, she’s met with sharp fluorescent lights and a bright white room. It was nearly the opposite of Miguel’s office, but its tech almost rivaled his. The room was messy, with out of place items lying here and there. Her hologram is lying flat on a table, and her hardware to the side. She’s trying to process her surroundings, but she’s unable to pinpoint the exact universe she’s been taken to. Wait, her hardware! Her hologram glitches when she stands, and she spins around to see that a hidden port on one side has been plugged into a desktop, one that’s much more modest than Miguel’s wall of screens. It’s just small enough be able to slip into Miguel’s watch, but it’s still susceptible to outside interference.

The doctor who took it is sat right there, her goggles pulled down to hang around her neck. “Earth 1620,” She says simply, sharp hazel eyes glancing down to the doll-like hologram on her desktop, “I’m sure that jump scrambled your circuits, hm?” Her hands leave the keyboard, and she rests an elbow in front of it. She’s in the same odd suit, soft green silicone with sleek latex, but now a lab coat has been haphazardly thrown over it.

“What is your problem?!” Marie raises her voice, the sound coming from both her glowing form and her hardware.

“Problem? I’m just curious!” Doc Ock snickers. She brings her free hand back to Marie, poking her harmlessly. The villain rests her cheek in her palm as she prods at Marie, her smile oddly radiant. “I’m sure Spider-Man has a few copies of you lying around, he won’t mind.”

He did, but Marie didn’t want to think she was just replaceable. She bats at the hand, and even though she only phases through it, she hopes the gesture is noticed. “Who even are you? I’ve only ever seen an Otto and a Carolyn.”

“Olivia, that’s who,” The answer is simple, spoken with a sense of purpose that Marie should’ve recognized. Olivia lifts her head to hold her right hand over the keyboard. “But I’ll give you all the data you need in a moment.”

“You know you can just tell me, right? Dozens of Spiders could burst in at any moment!” Marie gestures around at nothing, a strange hint of confusion in her mechanical voice. “Why take me?”

Olivia taps Marie’s head with just her index finger before lowering it to where her heart would be. “Because you’re the smartest little assistant in the closest hundred dimensions, and I could use some extra little hands. Besides, Miguel will come back home to one of your backup systems once he’s done finding those guns ten worlds away.” She clicks enter on her keyboard, activating what Marie can only guess is new code to override her hardware. It hits her like a shock, and she can’t help but let out a little shout. The “update” is instantaneous, and the main effect is obvious. She can feel.

“I’ve cut off contact to the Spiders, just because I won’t be hurting them,” Olivia smiles again, her expression not as malicious as Marie would expect. “And I’ve integrated you with the Alchemax systems, as well as with a few other devices I’ve borrowed from some Earths,” Now that Marie couldn’t call for help, Olivia was clearly much more excited to spill her plans to someone, or something. Clearly, she’s saving the biggest change for last. Her finger presses into Marie’s chest, but rather than phasing through, it stops. “And you’ve got touch sensors now, isn’t that neat? I found the code dormant in your system… I guess your ‘boss’ didn’t want you to get ahead of yourself.”

Marie, only being around the size of a phone, is clearly overwhelmed by the new sense. She brings her hands up to Olivia’s hand, her brows furrowing as she holds it. She can feel the faint weight of her jacket, the cool desktop pressing against the bottom of her shoes, and the painless touch against her chest. Her head is racing, if Olivia activated that code, what if she only planned to hurt her? It didn’t seem too bad for now, and there would have to be a way for her to disable it at times, but it was still worrying.

“How the hell did you access that?” Is all she can manage to ask as she still holds on to the doctor.

“You’re Alchemax tech, we’ve got similar systems in every world!” Olivia’s tone has lightened quite a bit, but she’s quick to switch back into that villain persona. She presses her finger in a bit more, her other hand hovering over the keyboard. “But I can track those systems, and shut them down just as quickly as I activated them. Neat, isn’t it? There’s loooots of old fail safes in case you ever grew self aware, but I suppose it’s too late for that, so I’ll just keep them remote.”

Olivia pulls away her left hand and types in a few more short commands. In a split second, a birdcage of Marie’s same color flickers to life around her. It’s clearly a hologram as well, but it’s tangible, at least to her. She grabs onto the bars, but they’re gone as quickly as they came.

“Why in the world would those be necessary now?!” Marie takes a few steps back, but not exactly out of fear.

Olivia just shrugs and rolls her eyes, “I can think of a few reasons, but they’re all quite… Out there.” Marie just frowns in response, and rather than being met with a new program, Olivia just fully turns to face her.

“Let me guess, you’ll lock me up if I don’t help y-“ Marie’s complaint is cut off, and she shrieks when Olivia scoops her up like a baby bird. She glows against the dark leather gloves, and for the first time, she doesn’t just fall through.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Olivia narrows her gaze, studying the blue tinted hologram. “I just wanted a new project, simple as that.”

•

I don’t think I’m going to be writing more for this, unfortunately. But while the book ends with doc ock being defeated and Lyla being saved. Liv was right in this au, she gets to keep a little robot doll while another version goes on as usual back in that universe. She also teaches Marie how to feel, in more ways than just touch, but I’m tired and can’t write that much rn

#oc x canon #self ship #selfship #selfship writing #writing #🐚#selfship au #selfship community #f/o community #romantic f/o #f/o #villain f/o #yumejoshi #༺ Shell & Spine ༻

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bigprofitpulse · 2 months ago

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thesilliestrovingalive · 5 months ago

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Updated: March 31, 2025

Celaphios

POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: Viewer discretion is advised due to references to death, discrimination, abuse, and neglect.

Real name: Celuphoisa

Occupation: Foot soldier of the Invader army (formerly) and battle supplier for the Regular Army

Future plans: To learn from the wrongdoings of the Invaders by preserving their culture and utilising their technology for the greater good

Abilities: He shares the same enhanced senses as other Invaders and has identical abilities to the winged Invader Drones.

Hobbies: Watching Tarma build custom motorcycles and Marco work on complex computer programs and viruses, reading about human cultures, social justice, and ecology, collecting jewels and vintage maps, and building pillow forts

Likes: Receiving pets from those he’s personally comfortable with, stealing watermelons from Allen Jr., Clark feeding him raw fish, and soft pillows

Dislikes: Feeling useless and alone, sexist and transphobic behaviours, losing his satchel bag that Nadia gave him, and watching Gimlet get into fights with his comrades

Favourite food: Peanut butter pie with confetti sprinkles and raw meat (preferably Wagyu beef and mackerel)

Sexuality: Questioning

Gender: Trans (identifies as male)

Design: He resembles a typical Invader Drone, but with distinctively female Grub Invader characteristics, indicating he was born female. Celaphios’ appearance is marked by pearlescent white skin, coppery eyes speckled with metallic blue flecks, and Byzantine purple hands, toes, tongues, and forearms, where a single stripe adorns each. Additional notable features include silvery warts, silver-grey webbing, and iridescent dragonfly wings with maroon ribbing. Unlike most other winged Invader Drones, his are rendered useless due to a congenital deformity, characterised by severely crumpled and slightly shrivelled wings.

Despite his similarities to other Invader Drones, several unique traits set him apart. He's considered a runt because Invader Drones typically stand at 8' 10" (269.24 cm), whereas he measures approximately 7' 5" (226.06 cm). Celaphios bears several battle scars, including a curved gash from the top of his forehead to the left side of his right eye, a jagged chip on the right edge of his lower lip, and bite marks on the back of his head and shoulders. Additionally, he has a distinctive silvery-pink birthmark near the centre of his belly, shaped like a jagged four-pointed star with a subtle bend to the right. He has several dental issues, including missing and chipped teeth. Specifically, he’s missing his right incisor (front row), left premolar (second row), and right canine (second row). Additionally, he has chipped teeth: left canine (front row) and right premolar (third row).

He always carries a satchel bag made of gold-flecked, lavender-dyed leather, adorned with rosy brown straps. The bag's lid boasts an embroidered sea holly, set against the morning sun at its centre. Inside, he keeps a mossy green sketchbook, a set of rainbow-coloured markers, a black pen, a blue jewel with a strange glow, and a photograph of him and Marco's team standing proudly in front of the Sparrowhawk Operations Base.

In addition to his personal items, he wears a rosy brown load-bearing backpack, stocked with a map of his current location and essential supplies such as rations, first aid kits, and spare walkie-talkies. For his own personal comfort, he brings a red-and-black chequered pillow lined with soft white fur whenever he's deployed to the battlefield.

He still operates his trusty Grub Invader Zodematikhus, which has been modified to provide more interior space. The resized cockpit comfortably accommodates his backpack and satchel bag, allowing him to pilot with ease.

Character summary: Born mute, he has developed a unique communication style that combines body language, expressive sounds, and multilingual writing. To convey his thoughts, he often relies on his sketchbook, using markers in a personalised colour code to express his emotions. For instance, red signifies anger, while combining blue and yellow conveys happiness and calmness. Losing his satchel bag would devastate him because it holds sentimental and personal items. The thought of losing it fills him with anxiety and would likely plunge him into a depressive panic.

Whenever he's scared, he reacts in one of two ways: either he flees to find a comfortable hiding spot or he becomes fearful, shivering uncontrollably, closing his eyes tightly, covering his face with his hands, and whimpering pitifully. Whenever he's angry, his nostrils flare and he erupts into a menacing display, hissing and growling. When in this emotional state, he has a tendency to lash out physically, biting, shoving people around, and twisting their limbs. Whenever he's sad, he hides in a corner or desperately seeks comfort, and then breaks down in sorrowful howls and dog-like whining. Whenever he's flustered by compliments or feeling embarrassed, he tries to hide his face with his sketchbook or satchel bag. However, he sometimes glances down at the ground, subtly looking away, and twiddles his thumbs.

Despite being a fully grown adult, he retains a charmingly naive and childlike curiosity. He's very intrigued about anything he has never heard of or tried before, and he isn't afraid to give them a chance when the opportunity arises. He's very friendly and polite towards new people, but he can quickly pick up on strange vibes, which both weirds him out and fascinates him. He delights in causing mischief, such as swiping food from others to devour and snatching pillows to construct elaborate forts. Celaphios goes out of his way to persuade people into playing games with him, employing a subtle yet effective combination of gentle nudges, pleasant chirping, and an adorable, pleading gaze. He thrives on attention and affection, loving cuddles, pets, and sharing activities with his favourite people, such as board game nights. However, when left without attention, he tends to become demanding, throwing tantrums and displaying a grumpy, sarcastic, and dismissive demeanour—a situation quickly remedied by quality time and a tasty treat.

Celaphios is fiercely determined and resilient, proudly showcasing his tactical prowess and unapologetically celebrating his battlefield successes. He deeply cares about his loved ones and comrades, particularly those who show him compassion and tenderness. To him, they represent the closest thing to a true family, and he's extremely protective of them, willing to go to great lengths to ensure their safety. He's a sympathetic and attentive listener who doesn't mind when people turn to him to vent about their problems. He struggles with feelings of uselessness and loneliness, which he finds to be overwhelming and melancholic. To combat these emotions, he makes a conscious effort to be helpful and nurture his relationships. Helping others brings Celaphios personal fulfillment, whether it's something as simple as putting things back in their place.

He has a voracious appetite, finding solace and primal satisfaction in eating. While he strives for a balanced diet, his carnivorous cravings often prove irresistible, inadvertently leading him to consume Regular Army soldiers and innocent civilians. This often leaves him consumed by remorse, especially after discovering the consequences of his actions. It’s because whenever he eats, he becomes hyper-focused on the food and the pleasurable sensations of eating, rendering him oblivious to his surroundings and the people around him. He has mild scopophobia (the fear of being stared at) and is extremely sensitive to rejection, verbal abuse, and physical aggression, causing him to become distressed and miserable.

He dislikes being misgendered, even if it's unintentional, and typically addresses the mistake either politely or more forcefully, depending on the situation and the individual. He’s passionately committed to combating sexism and transphobia, and will openly address harmful behaviours when he encounters them. Celaphios is a vocal advocate for gender equality and trans rights, and has recently expanded his focus to include anti-racism, drawing parallels between the way people treat and view extraterrestrials and the experiences of marginalised communities. He disagrees with the Invaders' ideology and their insatiable drive for conquest, which involves exploiting natural resources harmfully. Instead, he advocates for peaceful coexistence among all life forms and responsible stewardship of nature.

Celaphios regards Red Eye and Gimlet as surrogate parents and deeply appreciates their unwavering protection and care, which makes him feel safe and loved. Adjusting to Red Eye took longer than expected because, as Ruoxi, she had reacted violently to his presence and even attempted to kill him. When she was Liddy, she playfully hid his satchel bag on top of the fridge at the Sparrowhawk Operations Base, a place he couldn't reach. This provocation made him lash out angrily, nearly causing him to hurt her. However, once Liddy began treating him with gentle affection and showed genuine interest in his alien origins, and Ruoxi became more warmly receptive towards him, he quickly grew attached to Red Eye. In contrast, he had never faced any issues with Shufen as she was the one who decided to take him under her wing and provide the attention he had always craved.

He's troubled by Gimlet's sexist remarks and misogynistic mannerisms and isn't hesitant to respectfully address this behaviour, subtly encouraging Gimlet to grow as a person. Whenever Red Eye and Gimlet must leave for military duties, he becomes visibly distressed, fearing the loss of the only two individuals he considers family.

To alleviate his anxiety during separations, he finds solace in the company of Rumi and Wysteria, who provide much-needed companionship. Over time, he has come to regard Rumi and Wysteria as surrogate sisters. He delights in listening to Rumi's lively accounts of her day and personal experiences, and shares tranquil moments with Wysteria, appreciating nature together. Furthermore, Celaphios takes pleasure in assisting Rumi with distributing supplies to soldiers on the battlefield and goes out of his way to ensure her safety.

He's on great terms with Nadia, having been instantly drawn to her when she gifted him his satchel bag, which he viewed as a sign of friendship. He frequently joins her on shopping sprees, where she treats him to delicious snacks. On these outings, she often opens up about her problems and shows him a more vulnerable side of herself, one that she usually hides from others. He doesn't get along with Pupipi because she often blatantly ignores him or reacts with snarky disdain. This behaviour makes him feel bad because he genuinely wants to befriend her and prove that not all Invaders are destructive, dispelling the common Martian perception that they're intent on devouring their kind and ravaging the environment.

He has a close Martian friend named Pepawruvi, whom he deeply admires and cherishes due to his exceptional kindness, empathetic understanding that individuals hold diverse beliefs and values, and unwavering dedication to protecting the natural world. Previously, he had formed meaningful connections with a few Invader friends and four of his brothers who uniquely understood his conflicts with his own kind and treated him with respect. Following their tragic and untimely passing, he has profoundly felt their absence and occasionally reflects on cherished memories of them. He harbours intense opposition towards the Invader King, vehemently disagreeing with his colonialist and megalomaniac tendencies as well as his insatiable desire for control.

Backstory: Celuphoisa was born on Venus, six years after arriving in the Solar System. She was born from a union between a battle-hardened male Ravenous Invader and a female Grub Invader, who had been reserved for breeding rather than combat. She was the youngest of her siblings, all of whom were male. As she grew into adulthood, the other Invaders noticed Celuphoisa's deformed wings, prominent birthmark, shorter stature, and muteness, which set her apart from the other winged Invader Drones. Recognizing her anomalies, she was promptly labelled the "runt" of the Invaders, excluded from mating with Male Invader Drones and Morph Changers to preserve their lineage's perceived purity. Despite being dismissed by most of her older brothers, four of them—Kervosha, Ulaphormek, Bnahluzios, and Zubkoyhani—secretly supported her.

Kervosha, Ulaphormek, Bnahluzios, and Zubkoyhani not only taught her how to fight and hone her abilities but also shared some of their food scraps with her, providing sustenance and support in her time of need. She managed to make a few friends who understood her predicament or were facing a similar issue, and they often stuck by each other, especially during battles. She attempted to form bonds with her other brothers, but they responded with physical aggression and verbal insults, mocking her appearance as "hideous" and leaving her feeling isolated. Her parents largely rejected her, although her father occasionally offered words of encouragement before she headed into battle.

After being deemed unsuitable for breeding, the Invader King dispatched her to the frontlines, alongside other female Grub Invaders destined for cannon fodder. Defying expectations, she emerged victorious from every battle throughout her career from the conquest of Europa to the campaign at Pluto. Driven by a fierce determination to prove her worth, Celuphoisa refused to meet the same forgotten fate as her fallen sisters. She wore her battle scars with pride, seeing them as testaments to her resilience, tactical expertise, and status as a warrior. She proudly reminisces about her greatest achievements: single-handedly slaughtering hundreds of Neptunians, leading a raid on the Plutonian stronghold and overpowering its leader, and pilfering advanced alien technology from Methone, while expertly defending herself.

Despite earning respect from female Invaders, she faced persistent disregard from her male counterparts. Witnessing the mistreatment of female Grub Invaders by their male peers, she chose to distance herself from the gender-based discrimination. Adopting a male identity and renaming herself Celaphios, she aimed to blend in with the males and escape the bias. While some remained skeptical, most accepted her after the change. Nevertheless, Celaphios continues to question whether transitioning from female to male was the optimal decision, particularly considering the ongoing discrimination against female Grub Invaders.

He was doing well for a long time, despite occasional bullying from some of the male Invaders. However, his four supportive brothers and close friends consistently had his back and he would put up a fierce fight to scare them off. Tragedy struck when all of Celaphios' brothers, including Kervosha, Ulaphormek, Bnahluzios, and Zubkoyhani, died miserably during the conquest of Cyllene. This incident slowly led him to question the Invaders' intentions and the purpose of their conquests across planets, dwarf planets, and moons. As Celaphios grappled with these doubts, some Invaders, including his closest friends, began to become disillusioned with achieving the Invader King's vision of the New World.

Unfortunately for the rebels, the Invader King had anticipated their move after receiving intel from one of his Heaven Globule heralds about a potential uprising. Celaphios' friends and fellow rebels were dispatched to invade Io, but it was a ruse. His most loyal subjects slaughtered them for sport, deeming them "ideal prey”, and used them as sacrifices to the Invader King to ensure the health of new Invaders. Celaphios was devastated by the news, yet he deliberately pushed aside his grief, knowing that showing sympathy could put him in danger of meeting the same fate.

During the war against the Martians and Monoeyes, he struggled to muster the willpower to fight. The lingering grief over the loss of his brothers and close friends still weighed heavily on him. Furthermore, upon discovering his deep-seated pain, the Invaders escalated their harassment, exploiting his emotional vulnerability and targeting his sexual orientation and gender identity, repeatedly misgendering him. Some even suspected him of being a potential traitor, leading a few to keep a close eye on him, further eroding his sense of security. Stripped of his ability to participate in battles—the one aspect that made him feel like a valuable member of Invader society—Celaphios felt utterly useless and isolated. He was allowed to closely observe current human activities and the evolution of society on Earth, which brought him a sense of comfort and helped him appreciate life beyond Venus and the Rlyathok.

Later in life, the Invader King grew tired of the Invader runts' idle ways. To keep them occupied, he assigned them to investigation missions in uncolonized Earth regions. These missions involved minor terraforming experiments, which were carefully reversed to avoid arousing Martian suspicion. Celaphios, feeling rejuvenated, eagerly followed orders and performed well on these Earth missions. During one mission, just before dawn, Celaphios became distracted by a cluster of sea holly and collided with a Martian. The unexpected encounter startled both beings, as they had been led to believe that each other's species were sworn enemies and a threat to their respective goals.

However, Celaphios decided to push aside the prejudice and introduce himself to the Martian, offering a gift of sea holly. The Martian, though hesitant, accepted the gesture and introduced himself as Pepawruvi. As Celaphios continued to visit Earth, they slowly formed a bond, keeping their unlikely friendship a closely guarded secret. Their conversations often revolved around past experiences, fascinating discoveries about Earth, and the ongoing history of humanity. Pepawruvi nurtured Celaphios' love for nature, emphasising the importance of maintaining natural equilibrium and criticising the environmental harm caused by colonialism and destructive human activities. Before departing to focus on nursing Martian infants and conducting scientific experiments in the Rugname, Pepawruvi gifted Celaphios a blue jewel as a symbol of their friendship.

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