#also I survived maths today as well!

[darkeyedghost]

I survived my ancient Greek language exam 🎉

[icypenguin]

Can I also request a poly sbg x reader who likes cooking for them? (Specifically Korean and Taiwanese food) and they also like calling her mom?

⋆˚ 𝜗𝜚 Mom of the Group! ᥫ᭡. ˚⋆

cw: drooling over food, being called ‘mom’, that’s all i guess?

a/n: HII THANKYOU FOR REQUESTING AGAINNN! sorry this one took much longer than the previous one T-T but either way, i hope you’ll like this! and sorry if the foods are not what you expected and really sorry if it’s spelled wrong!

note: reader doesn’t really have any pronounce or gender but is called mom!

divider credits: @drifting-moon @chachachannah

in every kind of way you are, adding your careful personality, you’re always known as a person or a friend who likes to take care of eachother. the fact that you’re a sociable person, not mentioning how you’re a pretty good cooker, makes it even better. since (almost) all of the person in the gang are stubborn and only focuses on the phantom realm, barely taking care of themselves, you, who ARE LOWKEY DONE OF THEIR DEPRESSING ATTITUDE decided to.. try and take things more careful.

“ah, i tried making some meatball dumplings as the starter. for the main i made jjajangmyeon with the side of kimchi and mozzarella corn! aaand- logan helped me while making this ice mango and sago. please dig in everyone!” foods were laid on the table with a glam presentation. anyone who sees it could immediately drool as their appetite will boost.

aiden and taylor were practically drooling as they stared into the food with shining eyes. while ashlyn, tyler, ben and logan tried to hold their drool and act from being so hungry. i mean, who could you blame when you’ve all been stuck in a phantom realm for days and haven’t got any… gorgeous food (other than that delicious sandwich that ashlyn’s parents made).

“thankyou y/n!” “mmm looks delicious..” “best day of my life for real!” “smells amazing..” all whispers of appreciations were heard until.. “thankyou for making these mom!” the word mom came out of nowhere as aiden blurted it out unconsciously. “oops-“ he soon realised what he just said as the table went quiet, but the sound of your laugh came trailing. “no worries, it’s fine totally! i guess i do act like your mom sometimes..” everyone got some jjajangmyeon with either kimchi or corn with mozzarella and meatball dumplings.

everytime you all succeed a mission, whether in the phantom realm or real world, you always make them special food, mostly taiwanese and korean, for a feast.

though, sometimes, when everyone’s having a rough day at school, you’d make them some treats.

“ughh.. have you guys done that 50 math questions? it’s literally due by tomorrow…” aiden slumped on the cafeteria table, following ashlyn who’s already burried her face in her crossed arms. “literally forgot ‘bout those..” tyler rested his head on his hand while ben wrote something on his notebook, “i haven’t touched my math book since monday”. seeing what ben has written, taylor answered, “relatable” as she faceslaped herself. while logan, “i don’t think i’ll survive if i do all of them today..” he continued eating his lunch.

“i don’t even understand or know what’s it about…” you looked at them, trying to remember what you’ve learned. “i know right… ughh..” taylor closed her eyes as she tried to calm her mind down. but the busy background noise made it seem impossible.

the others were groaning or sighing about how complicated all of these were when you pulled out a fancy container. hearing the zip from your bag and somehting being placed on the table made aiden perked up to see what is it.

“ooh, what’s that y/n?” he looked closely while the others started to gain their focus on it. “well.. since it’s been bad lately.. i decided to make us some tteok and songpyeom.. my mom used to make these for me when i was younger. and it instantly lit up my day” you smiled, remembering the memories you’ve made.

“oooh! sounds yummy” everyone looked into the container as you opened it. “here, have some! i made sure all of us would get atleast 3” you passed the container to everyone as they chose which one they’d like.

“mmmm! i think the songpyeom fits my taste more” taylor hummed as she ate the snack. “same here” answered ashlyn, sounding grateful that you’ve made this for all of them. “i’m more to the savoury so tteok is better for me” logan pulled his opinion out as ben nodded, agreeing logan. “well- i think i’d have to agree with logan” tyler continued eating his tteok peacefully.

you were grateful that they all loved the foods you made. aiden shot a playful grin before saying, “well.. i think it’s understandable if we call you mom now! ehhe” hearing that made you laugh “well.. i don’t really mind either-“ “it totally suits you y/n!” taylor continued eating the snacks you made as aiden spammed “mom mom mom mom mom” in the background noise, earning a shhh from the group after a while.

you don’t always make them food, you’ve made them tea when you all were training too.

you all were panting from the rough and tiring practice you’ve had with ashlyn’s parents. all of you definitely needed something to boost your energy. you scrambled through your bag to find a thermos and small plastic cups (omg your efforts bruh) for all of you to take atleast a sip.

“look at what i brought, everyone!” you called for their attention as they all perked up at your direction. “what’s for today, mom?” taylor joked before chuckling. “well.. i made us some alishan tea who could accelerate metabolism” you smiled while pouring some in each cup. “oooh! that’s cool!” aiden stared at you pouring in the tea. “i think i’ve heard of it before somewhere..” ashlyn mumbled, secretly excited to taste it.

soon, you handed each cups for everyone to take. “thankyou y/n!” all of them answered. each of them took a sip of the tea and clearly most of them liked it. you let out a relieved breath as soon as you see their expression turned into happy and not disgust. “sooo.. how is it?” you asked in curiosity. “it’s naturally sweet, cool!” “yummy, mom” “just like my taste” they all answered differently but none of them answered negatively. you were happy how they all liked them.

“it’s amazing, thanks mom” ashlyn answered too. but when she did, her mom was walking towards your direction and was a bit shocked when she heard it. soon, ashlyn noticed her mom coming by and realised what she just said. “w-wait it’s not like that-! she’s just acting like our mom in the group but that doesn’t mean i’m replacing you-“ she explained, hurriedly. scared that her mom will think of something else.

but her mom only chuckled as she calmed ashlyn down. “i get it don’t worry.. i was just messing around!” she hugged ashlyn to reassure her.

you’re glad that this ‘mom’ thing doesn’t make any trouble. you’re actually happy of it. i guess being the mom of the group isn’t so bad after all, huh?

♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ. thankyou for supporting! ୨♡୧

[romancefranaticstay]

TᑌTOᖇ ᗰE

Category: ♥ Fluff, smut ♥

Teacher!Seungmin x fem!reade!student

Another day, another time, it sucked. You were a student at the university of Seoul. You were doing great at almost every subject you choosed, exspect... math.

You didn't even know why math was one of your subjects. You never choosed it. You even sended a mail, but you couldn't change now. So you had to survive it this year. Your worst nightmare, you worst fear, *math*.

Your teacher didn't had time to tutor you, so he asked another math-teacher to help you. Today was the day to meet him, after school.

The entire day went very slowly, but atleast your friends were comique so it wasn't to boring. Your teachers were always gossiping about every student. And then they dare to say that we are horrible?! How?

After school you had to stay in your classroom. You were waiting and playing with your pencils. When he wasn't here yet for the past 5 minutes, you decided to walk around the classroom. Just walking and staring at the walls.

Suddenly the door opened and you saw an interesting man walking inside.

'Miss... I/N Y/N?" his eyes widened when he saw you. You were very beautifull, he could not deny.

'Yes, that is me, i am here for you tutoring lessons.'

'You can seat yourself next to me.'

You walked over and seated yourself. The chair hurted your butt, but that does every chair in this university.

'Could you tell me what you don't understand?'

'Everything.'

'Everything is much.'

'Yeah i don't know much about math.'

He started with chapter six, because thats the most important chapter. His voice was very soft and it made you relaxed. You could quit understand a bit, but it was very difficult, because maybe this would sound weird... he was extremely hot. You could call him 'smexy'.

You were staring a bit to him. Not really focusing on this theorie of this chapter. His lips were cute, his nose also, but his eyes. You just could stare in them forever.

He saw you watching his face. He actually didn't mind it. You snapped out of you deep-stare.

'I am sorry, i was just wandering into my thoughts, mine apologies.'

'It is okay, this part is not very important.'

He was actually only supposed to teach you for 1 hour, but he taught you for 2 hours. You didn't watch the clock, you loved each other's presence. He could explain everything so well, his voice was so beautiful. For him, 2 hours feels like 10 minutes. Its beautiful; hands turned the page.

Suddenly your alarm went off, and everything was a little disrupted. Seungmin looked at his watch.

'Oops, it's already 8pm, my apologies. I'll give you some papers to work on at home. You have lessons from me every day, so finish these papers by tomorrow if possible.'

'That's probably possible, depending on what tasks I still have to complete from my other teachers. Thank you for this lesson.'

you stood up and started packing everything up.

'I'll see you again tomorrow. Have a nice day!'

He watched you leave the classroom. He never noticed what a beautiful figure you have. He had already seen you walking around, but of course he had never spoken to you. Of course he had never spoken to you before, you are a student and he is a teacher. It is not forbidden, but it is frowned upon. Still, some girls flirted with him, sometimes tried to touch him themselves, but always avoided them. If you flirted with him, he wouldn't avoid it. But you weren't really that romantic, you read a lot of novels, but even when you were little you realized that not everything in the books could be fulfilled.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You and your teacher started to grow a little closer together. You could say that you two formed a friendly bond. Sometimes you got jealous when some girls tried to twist Seungmin around their fingers. But yes, Seungmin also got jealous when boys came to you. You were very beautiful and intelligent, so boys took their chance, even sometimes girls tried to take their chance with you. You didn't always notice that. Your eyes were actually only focused on Seungmin.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You sat in your class and you followed the reading. You sometimes overheard some conversations that were happening in front of you. You were learning about Korean Culture when you suddenly heard Seungmin's name in front of you.

"He's so handsome, could he be that good in bed?" two girls giggled.

You straightened your back and started to lean a little closer.

"He could play with me."

You looked at them as if they were crazy. Seungmin isn't that type of guy. What are they thinking, talking about him like that, aren't they ashamed? Your brow furrowed as you heard their multiple conversations. Deep inside you were burning with jealousy, so many girls wanted to have him. So many girls, some were so beautiful in your eyes. You started to focus on your classes again, but what if... what if Seungmin enjoys all that attention? What if he likes one of those many girls? What if he's... a spicy teacher... if you know what I mean? No, that's not possible, no, Seungmin a spicy teacher? Maybe...

You were walking around the square with one of your friends, just chatting about boys and also the new Arcade. You went through the main hall when you saw a group of girls surrounding Seungmin. They all asked him questions and if he could tutor them. They gave him cookies and so much attention. It made you angry, even though there is absolutely nothing between you and Seungmin. He saw you looking from a distance, he saw anger in your eyes. He turned away from all the girls and came towards you. Why is he coming towards me, you thought. You panicked a bit, he looked so good today. His sleeves were rolled up, his blouse was very tight, his buttons could pop off at any moment. You looked in all directions, your girlfriend looked at you strangely, as if you were a mad dog. You dragged her with you to the girls' toilets.

Seungmin tried to speak to you but it was already too late. Of course he wasn't allowed in the girls' toilets.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lately you started to distance yourself from him. He didn't understand why. He tried to have a conversation with you outside of school, but you avoided him every time. The tutoring sessions were also filled with a kind of tension and not good tension. Sometimes he tried to sit close to you, just to give you some comfort.

He wanted to ask you about it, but he didn't want to bother you with all those questions. At some point he had enough, because he cared about you a lot. He wanted to love you and he would do anything to fix it.

Tutoring was over, and you started packing your things. You wanted to go to the door, but suddenly he blocked you.

“I can't take it anymore Y/N. What did I do wrong? Did I hurt your feelings? Did I accidentally hurt you?'

'What are you talking about?'

"Lately I feel like you're trying to avoid me, have I done something?"

You were quiet. You looked at the ground.

'No nothing.'

He lifted your chin with his index finger.

'Do not lie to me. You can tell me.' '

No, I can't do that.'

'Why not?'

“It's not your fault, it's just…”

you took a deep breath

“all the girls are hanging around you. Flirting with you and for some strange reason it makes me jealous and an-'

he interrupted you by kissing you on the lips. His tongue slid through your mouth. He placed his hand on the back of your head. You opened your mouth wide, giving him all the access. He slid his tongue out of your mouth.

"Does that answer?"

'Don't know.' you teased.

"Maybe you should be a little more clear?"

"Of course princess."

He brought you in for another kiss. This time he held your cheeks with both hands. He stroked it with his thumbs. He made you step back until you bumped into his desk. He opened your legs with his knee. From your mouth his tongue went to your neck. He started licking it like a puppy. You whined softly. You heard him laugh against your neck. His fingers slid into your underwear. He slid between your folds, which were very wet. 'Wet for me? I love that.' He began to gently caress your clit while still sucking on your neck.

You started to position yourself on his desk. He pulled your panties down so he could get a good view. You could see through his pants that he was already hard. You took off his belt and pulled his pants down enough so you could take out his member. He groaned when you started to gently pump his dick. Just to make sure it was hard enough. He positioned himself at your entrance, he began to quietly nestle himself into you.

He held you tight as he slowly started pumping into you. You felt safe with him, his warmth. You heard his heart beat faster. He whispered soft words into your ears, which actually made you more excited. The fact that he was only your tutor two months ago.

His rhythm quickened, so did his breath, his hands felt every part of your body, his hair got wet, his body sweaty, and this all happened in a boring classroom. Your legs were shaking with excitement. Your arms clung to his neck. Everything was perfect, even if you did it on his desk.

"I *kiss* love you so *kiss much, baby."

You brought your two heads closer together.

'You are my soulmate. You are my soul, ohh *kiss* Seungmin, *kiss* what would I do without *kiss* you?'

He kissed you with passion, he kissed you like it was the end, he made sure you knew how much he loved you.

When you both came, he still held you tightly. He looked at you and caressed your cheek.

'That I could love you, as I did just now, is what you call happiness.' 'I feel happy with you.'

Your lips met again, and you devoured each other. You couldn't keep your hands off each other. Everything was perfect at this moment, the atmosphere, the sounds and the one person who could make it all happen: Seungmin.

[causenessus]

new grounds

part 0.05. intros.

❥ TODAY’S SPECIALS: THE FREELOADERS

kageyama tobio ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

first year majoring in communications !! bro is not bright. he chose the easiest major he could so he could focus on playing volleyball. but he’s also so overconfident he’s on a grind hence he’s also trying to get elective credits out of the way and picked psychology. HE’S ALSO WORKING because he needs money to afford his countless trips to the vending machines. started working at new grounds coffee in the summer where he was really on the grind before school started. he doesn’t have an afternoon class on tuesdays and thursdays so he works afternoons and usually closes on the weekends unless he has a game. played with hinata, tsukki, and yams in high school and has been close to them ever since.

hinata shoyo, tsukishima kei, & yamaguchi tadashi ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

hinata

first year majoring in health science and middle blocker for his team!! once again climbing the ranks of his volleyball team to become their ace. also known for his killer receives bc he’s an amazing boy all around <3 always the one making sure his friends are still alive and are getting some sunlight. he was interested in health science and thought it’d be easy </3 but it’s harder than he though so tsukki is singlehandedly carrying his grade.

tsukishima

well accustomed to hinata whether that’s a good thing or not. he would never admit it but he’s glad he’s stayed close to his friend group, especially hinata since yams went into engineering. he’s thankful to still have someone he knows in his classes even if it comes at the cost of “tsukishima i don’t get this. or this. or this. or this. or—” and it just keeps going. but he wouldn’t trade it for anything. when hinata, kageyama, and him all showed up for the first day of volleyball practice and blew away the rest of the team (which was quite small) he couldn’t hide the snarky grin that spread across his face bc he knows that his group is literally overpowered (tldr; tsukki will not admit he is actually a caring and loving mother of his kids)

yamaguchi

drowning. suffering. dying. a second-year fighting for his life in engineering. but he’s somewhat having fun. stress cooks in his free time which is mercifully saving all of his friend’s lives. yes their dorm is a mess because it’s shared between four boys (he literally manipulated the administration to give him group two two-person dorms that were side-by-side, so in reality hinata and kageyama are roommates and yams and tsukki are roommates but if they could break down the wall between their dorms they would). but at least all of them are surviving on the massive amount of food yamaguchi cooks instead of doing whatever math equations he has due that night. even tsukishima gave up after trying to help him once.

prev. | m.list | next

[birdiesaves]

THE MARTIAN ( novel by andy weir ) change as necessary !

mankind reaching out to send people to another planet for the very first time and expand the horizons of humanity blah, blah, blah. 

i’m pretty much fucked. 

they got the parades and fame and love of the world, i got a firm handshake and a hot cup of coffee when i got home.

i would only be “in command” of the mission if i were the only remaining person.

what do you know? i’m in command.

it wasn’t your fault. you did what you had to do. 

in your position i would have done the same thing. 

it was a ridiculous sequence of events that led to me almost dying.

everyone thinks i’m dead. 

ok, i’ve had a good night’s sleep, and things don’t seem as hopeless as they did yesterday.

i won’t be able to whip something up with tinfoil and gum.

fear my botany powers!

but hey, time is the one thing i’ve got.

i wonder if they'll ever find out what really happened.

i’ll spare you the math. the answer is _________

bleh. i’m going to bed

my life depends on you

i played a lot of dungeons and dragons.

i have an idiotically dangerous plan 

i suppose i’ll think of something. or die.

the answer is: i don’t know.

all i accomplished today was thinking up a plan that’ll kill me

also, i have duct tape. 

after a search of everyone’s personal items i found my answer.

that was sarcasm, by the way.

this all sounds like a great idea with no chance of catastrophic failure.

do you have any idea the magnitude of shitstorm this is gonna be?

how come aquaman can control whales? they’re mammals! 

i expected it to be cold, but jesus christ!

now, on to my next task: sitting around with nothing to do for 12 hours.

i ask for a picture and i get the fonz?

the whole world’s been rooting for you. 

really looking forward to not dying. 

please watch your language.

sorry we left you behind, but we don't like you.

you're sort of a smart-ass.

your request for “anything, oh god anything but disco” is denied.

no. you’ll fuck it up and die.

i took it apart, found the problem, and fixed it.

i don’t see anything... i can hear it, but... it’s down here somewhere, but i don’t know where.

the subtle and refined “hurl my body at the wall” technique had some flaws. 

named after the greek goddess who traveled the heavens with the speed of wind. she's also the goddess of rainbows.

i'm not giving up. just planning for every outcome. it's what i do.

your poster outsold the rest of ours combined.

why are you such a nerd?

you should try to be more cool. wear dark glasses and a leather jacket. carry a switchblade.

you started my training by buying me a beer.

so now i have to do boring-ass experiments with test tubes and zzzzzzzzzz....

frankly, i suspect you're a super villain.

just once i'd like something to go to plan, ya know?

no? ok... what was that!? oh, nothing? ok...

for now i just want to go home.

there's always hope

are we just watching a tragedy play out?

you’ll survive this. i don't know how, but you will. 

i've defiled enough historical sites for now.

tomorrow night, i'll sink to an all new low!

tomorrow night, i'll be at rock bottom!

be a smart-ass to a guy seven levels above you. see how that works out.

i remember when you were shy

the attitude comes with the job

and by “enjoying” i mean “hating so much i want to kill people.”

there aren't many people who can say they've vandalized a three billion dollar spacecraft. but i'm one of them.

what's our role in all this? if something goes wrong, what can we do?

how do you come up with this shit?

i admit it's fatally dangerous, but consider this: i'd get to fly around like iron man.

i need you to come back in and make a bomb.

i knew that guy was a mad scientist!

i think we should just go with my iron man idea.

well if you won't let us then- wait... wait a minute... i'm looking at my shoulder patch and it turns out i'm the commander. 

give me a minute. you're the first person i've seen in ______.

i think about the sheer number of people who pulled together just to save my sorry ass, and i can barely comprehend it.

i represent progress, science, and the interplanetary future we’ve dreamed of for centuries. 

they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. it might not seem that way sometimes, but it’s true.

yes, there are assholes who just don’t care, but they’re massively outnumbered by the people who do. 

[revengeghoulette]

Ghoul School

I don’t know what this is. It’s not a story? But it's not not a story. Is it a headcanon?? Words. Enjoy words.

Co-written with @gottagho-st 

Rating: Gen

Pairing: Rain x Dewdrop, they’re just being domestic

TW/CW: School. Homework.

A/N: Started this last year when I was balls deep in uni and struggling, and I needed soft thoughts I guess? Enjoy. This is turning into a sort of Ghoul School AU kind of. I have another fic in the works that ties into this one

Tagging: @jazz-bazz because educatiiooonnnn haha @obsidianghoul @totallynotmystuff

Cirrus was a young ghoul when she helped open up one of the first schools in the abbey. She was born with higher knowledge, and is a master of all subjects. Cirrus rose amongst the educational ranks pretty quickly and became headmaster at one point. She left it all behind to follow her passion, music. Now, as part of the Ghost Project, it’s her responsibility to make sure that all touring ghouls pass Ghoul School, a special school where they’re taught how to glamor, behave like humans, and money management/money math, along with other subjects necessary to survive the human world for long periods of time.

New summons Aurora and Phantom have to attend Ghoul School prior to being allowed to go on the road with the Ghost Project. Not only does she help Aurora and Phantom, but she also secretly helps Dew with his college classes. Dew attends study lessons under the pretense that he’s there to help Cirrus teach. 

Having so much experience under her belt, Cirrus is very patient with them. Aurora and Phantom are a handful, and love to make things unnecessarily difficult. Dew’s in the room with them when they both break down, exhausted and confused by humans. 

"What do you mean they don't have tails?" Phantom complains

“What do you mean they don’t just bite people when they don’t like something?” Aurora chimes in. 

"Humans are SO weird." They complain in unison. 

Dew looks at Cirrus who looks close to throwing a book at them. Sure, she’s patient, but she has a limit. Laughing, Dew takes over the lesson and helps the young ghouls understand certain things, and also threatens them by saying they’re never gonna see the topside unless they start paying attention.

After this little breakdown, he starts studying elsewhere. 

Dew’s favorite place to study or read class material is the greenhouse. His little spot is up in the tree. Mountain comes and goes, but doesn’t interrupt him. Mountain assumes he’s just hanging out or hiding from one of the ghouls. 

It’s his favorite spot to read for his English literature classes. Nature helps him focus, and while they have a nice courtyard and what not, it's too exposed. The greenhouse allows him to be protected from the elements. His favorite time to go and read is when it's raining outside. The pitter patter of the rain on the glass relaxes him and allows him to focus on the material. Dew loves to romanticize school work whenever possible. 

Dew’s secret is well kept. 

That is, until one day, Rain is out looking for him

Dew’s been missing for the entire day. Rain’s looked for him in the greenhouse, in a practice room, at the chapel even. He’s nowhere, and no one has seen him either. 

Where the fuck is he? It’s almost curfew. Rain thinks. Well, ‘curfew.’ It’s Wednesday, their weekly movie night, and they’re usually snuggled in bed by 8pm ready to watch whatever the next movie was. He’ll just have to wait for him in his room and see if he shows. 

It’s past 11pm when Dew enters his room. 

“Rain, what are you doing here?” surprise in Dew’s voice. 

“I was waiting for you. It’s Wednesday…” Rain leads on, concern lacing his voice noticing Dew’s dark circles and slumped shoulders. 

Dew doesn’t answer right away, he just removes his clothes and crawls into bed, pressing his face against Rain’s chest, “mmsry’ 

They snuggle under the sheets as Rain combs Dew hair. “Where were you today?” 

“Uhh, well”

“C’mon baby, talk to me. Where do you keep disappearing to? You think I don’t notice, but you’ve been going somewhere for the last few days and it’s starting to worry me,” Rain basically begs. 

Dew sits up on the bed and looks at Rain. He chuckles unsure of how Rain might receive the news. “I.. I’m taking online classes. I've got a few exams coming up, so I've been studying. Pinky promise not to tell?”

Rain looks at Dew for a moment before giggling. He knows Dew’s a nerd. No matter how much he tries to hide it, there’s a little sparkle in his eyes when he's learning something new. He’s inquisitive and will keep asking questions until he’s satisfied. He talks about random subjects he spent all night googling, just because he was a little curious. Rain knows how much Dew loves to learn, the others do too, but not to the same degree. 

He snuggles Dew and tells him he’ll keep his secret. He pulls him back into his arms, and whispers how proud of him he is. Rain is beyond proud of his mate for taking initiative and getting a degree. He’s there to support him no matter what. 

“Let me help you study next time, my little nerd. I have a feeling you don’t take enough breaks." 

"Next time Rainy, we sleeps right now. My brain is fried, and we have practice tomorrow.”

And with that, they went to sleep, embracing each other.

- 

The days go on, and Dew keeps sneaking out to go study. Rain has started placing snacks into his bag, and cute notes to remind him to take breaks and stay hydrated. Dew asks Rain to help him study, but it has to be in a secluded location so they hide in the room, in the greenhouse tree, or meet in the abandoned chapel for study sessions. Cirrus takes them through hidden passages to a little nook in the library where Dew can focus and study. Rain brings him tea or water every couple of hours. He’ll sit and chat with him to give him a bit of a break so he doesn’t burn himself out. 

Rain can sense that there’s something stressing Dew out. He’s been fidgeting since he woke up, which in turn woke him up. Grabbing hold of his hands, Rain asks Dew what’s bothering him. 

“Oh, it's nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. Something’s obviously bothering you.” 

“I have my final project due in like two days and I haven’t had time to start it because of chores, rehearsal, and helping the dumb-dumbs pass school. Did you know they’re actually kinda really not smart?”

“Babe, they’re gonna be okay. We need to focus on getting you through your own classes. Is there anything I can do?” Rain offers. 

Shaking his head, Dew declines the help. He gets up and gets ready for the long day ahead of him. 

Rain didn't have chores to do, so after saying goodbye to Dew, he hacked Dew's laptop. He found the project guidelines and got to work. Only taking a break for lunch, Rain created an outline and started collecting information and sources. 

Dew doesn’t return to his room until a little after 7pm. He’s drained, but he brightens up a little when he sees Rain on his bed cross legged with a laptop in front of him typing intensely. 

"Rain what are you doing?" 

"Oh hi babe, welcome home! I'm helping you with your project!” Dew tilts his head in confusion, “Take a shower, rest for a little and I'll prep some food for us. I have a feeling you haven't had dinner," On cue, Dews stomach groans. "I thought so. We're doing this together. It's on marine life and I think we both have some knowledge on that," Dew just looks at him in admiration, and he’s positive Rain took one of his energy drinks because there’s no way he's this excited to work on a project. Dew mockingly salutes him as he pivots and makes his way into the showers. 

After the shower, he lays in bed for a bit, letting the exhaustion of the day roll off his body.  Rain comes back into the room holding a tray with spaghetti and a piece of meat from the recent hunt. He also brought a cheese board and bagged snacks for later. 

How can he be his mate? He's so generous and loving and he's helping him with homework. He’s going above and beyond.

They spend the rest of the night working on Dew's project. They fall asleep with textbooks littered all over the bed, laptop still playing lo-fi music.

[geneeste]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/10/us-publics-trust-in-scientists-reverts-to-pre-pandemic-levels/?comments=1&post=41332618

It’s wild how on the nose this comment is:

Comment text in image:

“I really wish reporters would do a better job on this topic. Republicans don't 'distrust science'. Republicans, as they are made up today, are primarily concerned they will fall out of the dominant culture (white christians) in the US and that other cultures will continue to get acknowledgement and respect in policy decisions. Understand that almost all policy decisions - and this is true pretty much everywhere - have a cultural element to them. France's headscarf ban isn't based on science, but on armchair sociology which is part of their culture. Same for tax rates which feel too high or low, but aren't based on some hard math economic model, and so on. 18 as an age of consent is a number pulled out of the air (should be higher for some people, maybe it could be lower for others), as is a 40 hour work week, 21 to drink, 65 to retire, etc. and what we consider 'good' or 'bad' are largely cultural. Eating dogs and horses is 'bad' but pigs are as smart as dogs.

Republicans don't distrust science. But because Republicans are losing the culture war pretty profoundly (I know recent court decisions would suggest otherwise, but the public is increasingly accepting of the things they think should be illegal) the thing they *really* fear is losing cultural authority - the ability to veto other cultures. They lost the ability to veto the LGBTQ community as Americans are increasingly accepting of gay and trans people. Black media increasingly stands alongside white media. Latino and asian media are making gains as well. Disability communities are also making headway. All of these other cultural groups are gaining influence in how the broader community see them, and as a result they get more of a seat at the policy table. To Republicans, all of these gains represent a loss of cultural veto power, which is why the overt racism and antisemitism are ramping up - they are pushing harder against a trend that isn't going their way. They say they are being replaced, but they aren't. They just have to survive a multicultural space like everyone else for the first time in 400 years. This is why they get pissed off when the green M&M isn't sexy any more - *they didn't get a say*. It's a bit of culture that changed which they didn't get a say in, and that's both terrifying and infuriating to them. They're *supposed* to have cultural authority.

Science is a difficult category in this environment because sometimes is favors your cultural instincts and sometimes it doesn't. But when your cultural foundation for lawmaking (white christian culture) is being eroded any scientific view that undermines your cultural instincts feels like a threat. But the real threat is when that scientific view arrives when you are out of power. See, there's nothing that prevented Trump from leaning into the science when Covid broke out, and Republicans would have lined up behind it, because it wasn't the science they opposed, but *who was setting the policy based on that science*. If Trump put his weight behind it, they'd be on board, because it preserves their authority by branding it as a Republican policy - and that really what they want. Because Fauci (not a Republican) was pushing against Trump, because Trump instinctually opposes vaccines and decided that Covid was bad for his polling, that's what made the science toxic to Republicans. Fauci and Democratic officials in states, and then Biden, setting the policies was what mattered. There was a hot minute there where Mike DeWine in Ohio was pulling in the right direction but Trump got in front of the whole thing.

This is also the dynamic behind the election denialism. They don't believe the election was stolen because of evidence. They believe the election was stolen because if it wasn't, than a loss by 7 million votes by the president that has fought harder for that white christian culture (I mean, opening fire on a Black Lives Matter protest in order to hold up a bible at a photo op is pretty fucking on the nose there) and presumably had that culture most strongly aligned behind him would be evidence that they have fallen into the minority permanently. If white christian culture was dominant numerically, they should have won that easily. It's the inability to accept their minority status that *requires* the election be stolen, because the alternative means that the whole game is up - 400 years of slavery and genocide and a civil war to preserve that cultural dominance is finally lost. Maybe just barely, but lost all the same.

My point is that Republicans aren't anti science, but science will be sacrificed as just another pawn in the culture war if that's what is required. If you aren't explaining *why* this is happening, then you are somewhat insinuating that it's the fault of the scientists and leaving the readers to wonder why some scientific views are embraced and others aren't, and the answer has nothing to do with science or scientists. It has everything to do with the messenger and what the science says about their message. I know that seems to over-politicize the topic, but you put 'partisan' in the headline, so you were willing to open the door, just not walk all the way through.”

[tracybirds]

Been sitting on this bit of fic for a couple of months :) Think I'm ready to put it out in the world

Hunger Games!AU - initially inspired by @tanushakyrano who I believe is knee deep in their own hg au <3 and also thanks to @gumnut-logic whom I inflicted this on when I first wrote it and played cheerleader :D

Hopefully more to come (I have ideas.....)

---

The clang of metal on metal pulled Gordon from his sleep, the grey light of a new day greeting him. For a moment, he didn’t move. If he stayed still, curled between Alan and Virgil, he could stave off the day and ignore the jolt of fear that clamoured for attention in his belly.

Another clanging pulled Scott upright, muttering as he rubbed a hand across his eyes. He reached out and placed a hand on Virgil’s shoulder and shook him roughly.

“C’mon Virg, dawn bell’s ringing.”

Virgil groaned, mumbling for five more minutes, but the day had begun and no-one in the district cared if one of their citizens would rather have a lie in.

Scott glanced across at Gordon as he hauled Virgil upright. “Don’t you have chores waiting? Harvest doesn’t stop just because it’s Reaping Day. You and John better get gone.”

Gordon didn’t say anything, the sick feeling in his stomach intensifying at the word. John was up already, pulling on a threadbare shirt. He didn’t look at any of them.

Alan yawned. “What am I doing today?”

Scott crouched down, smile fixed firmly in place. “You’re going to help Grandma with the meals – try barter with the Jones-es down the way for some grain – and we’ll see you in the afternoon.”

“Can’t I help with harvest? Pol’s been helping since his birthday.”

Scott swallowed thickly. “No, Allie. Not ‘til your first reaping’s done, you remember what Dad said. We’ll talk next summer.”

Alan nodded. “Okay,” he said easily. “Next year then.”

He scurried away without further protest, and Scott slumped forward with a sigh.

“It’ll be over soon,” said John quietly.

No-one said anything, not wanting to speak their fears aloud and invite them into reality.

“I want to apply for extra,” said Gordon, suddenly. “It’s John’s last year, and we need the tesserae.”

 “No.”

All three older brothers spoke as one.

Gordon met their horrified gaze steadily, his jaw set and face grim.

“You know I’m right. We nearly didn’t make this year without Virgil’s share. If we lose John’s too and there’s no way to make up the shortfall, what do you think will happen come winter?”

“It’s not worth the risk,” spat Scott, his fists shaking.

Gordon snorted. “It’s no less than what you did for us, or Virgil, or John. I’m fifteen now. John’s put his name in, what, eighteen times this year?”

“Twenty-four,” corrected John. He shrank back from Scott and Virgil’s twin looks of horror.

“I knew it,” said Gordon triumphantly. “Every year since he was fourteen, I’m older than that.”

“This isn’t a game, Gordon,” snapped Virgil. “You don’t win for getting your name in the most times, you just get dead.”

“We need that tesserae,” argued Gordon. “Look, I get it, we’ve been that low before, I can do the math as well as you, but last time that happened we had Dad.”

At once, the light diminished, as though the mere mention of the man who’d towered over their family extinguished all oxygen from the room, taking the candle flame with it.

Scott looked like he wanted to hit something, fists clenching and unclenching at his side.

“We can manage,” said Virgil. “There’ll be three of us working for the adult wage next year, we won’t need the extras.”

“Yes, we will,” interjected John.

The admission fell from gritted teeth. Living was a numbers game in the districts, and no-one kept track of the numbers better than John. Gordon exhaled slowly, hope and dread flickering internally with equal measure.

“He’s right,” said John, his voice louder. “Maybe we’ll survive without it, but that’s no guarantee if the crops fail like they did in ’56. Or if a new craze sweeps the Capitol and they need more grain than usual to make whatever extravagant waste-of-space meal is the hot menu item of the season. There’s too many uncertainties, and we can’t base our food supply on a best-case scenario.”

Virgil chewed at his bottom lip, still staring at Scott worriedly. “We might need to trade for medicine or fuel come winter, too,” he admitted reluctantly. “It was only luck we didn’t lose Gordon right alongside Dad that year. And Coney, she says this winter’s going to be a hard one.”

“What does Coney know?” scoffed Scott. “You’d risk Gordon’s life on a maybe?”

“It’s my choice,” snapped Gordon. “Besides, I’d be six slips out of what, a thousand? We need those supplies and you know it.”

Scott opened his mouth to argue, but a second clanging toll rung out and interrupted him.

“That’s the assembly bell,” said Virgil, eyes darting between Scott and the door. “We need to go.”

Scott hesitated, lips pursed as he levelled Gordon with a solemn look in his eyes. “Your choice. You’re right, I can’t stop you. But please, Gordon, think it through. You don’t know what it’s like to watch your little brothers…” His breath heaved in his chest, and he turned away. “Let’s go,” he said to Virgil, leaving John and Gordon behind.

The tension remained, shooting sizzling static through the air as Gordon tried to catch his thoughts and reorder them.

“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?” said John quietly.

“Next year we’ll need more than seven allotments.”

There wasn’t much else to say. Unless they brought in a fourth wage next year, by manner of marriage which only meant another mouth to feed, they wouldn’t last the winter.

The wages in District 11 were just enough to keep the population meagrely fed when the weather was fair and the farming a success. But there was no margin for error. Consequently, the poorest members of the district were reliant on the reaping for extra resources.

Gordon wasn’t stupid.

The least valuable were always more likely to be selected.

It was simple math.

[halfagone]

Hi Halfa! What's 3 DC fics you'd think would be interesting to include DP characters/tropes into?

And what's 3 DP fics do you think'd be interesting to include DC characters/tropes into?

(This isn't a ploy to fish fic recs, psshhhhhhh, noooooooooo)

Hello Anon! :D Don't take this the wrong way but I am giddy with excitement right now because I've been talking about this with friends and I am just squealing now that I get to ramble about it.

Now just to clarify, I'll probably use tropes more so than specific fics, because for one, I don't want to step on any author's toes. And two, I like those fics as they are and do not want to dirty them with my grubby hands. However! I can still give fic recs so you can get an idea of the kind of AU I'm talking about here. lol Not that you're fishing for them ofc, no not at all

(Added a Read More because apparently I have a lot of fic recs. :D Total: 17 (if I mathed right, that is))

DC Fics, Now With a Splash of ectoplasm DP

Stray Tim AU

He's technically also known as Catlad, but like- I prefer Stray (as if that isn't obvious by my Stray!Danny AU XD), but that's neither here nor there. In this AU, if the name didn't explain enough, he apprentices underneath Selina as her apprentice. Depending on the author's choice, it's either as a young child or after he leaves the Batfamily for one reason or another.

An example of this AU: timcat by drakefeathers. This fic actually got recommended to me earlier today (you know who you are) and it is so cute. He is so baby and I love him.

2. Reverse Robins AU

Now this is an AU I've talked about frequently, but for good reason. There are so many ways you can write this idea- Hell, can you imagine a Demon Twins AU with Reverse Robins- Hold on a sec, let me add a WIP to my spreadsheet...

Okay, back. Anyways, where was I? Oh right, REVERSE ROBINS! In this AU, Damian is actually the oldest Batkid, and Dick is the youngest. Depending on the AU, Dick can even be an ex-Talon, so just keep that in mind~ Almost unanimously, Tim is the Batkid that died instead of Jason, and becomes the Red Hood (sometimes he was Joker Junior in this AU as well which is... uh. If you look into those fics, make sure you read the tags religiously.)

An example for this AU: and oh, my heart (how can i face you now?) by weareallstardustfallen. And this fic is *chef's kiss* It's in Damian's POV, it's a gloriously long one-shot. I cannot recommend this enough.

3. Jason Todd Goes Home

There are multiple interpretations you can do with this AU. Sometimes he doesn't become Red Hood, sometimes he doesn't get dipped in the Lazarus Pit, it all really depends on what you want to do with it. I've technically written a fic with this idea, where Danny actually finds Jason and helps him claw out of his grave, subsequently returning him home. That fic is what was lost, found again. Five chapters, completed.

There are fics where Tim actually finds Jason first! Here's one called best laid plans by Valkirin. Highly recommend. Tim finds Jason first but then the League of Assassins find them too. >:3

On a different, yet similar note, we have a fic where Talia is actually a decent person and brings Jason back??? After dunking him in a Pit??? You love to see it. This one is Verdant by Cerusee.

DP Fics Now With DC Packing

Field Trip to the Ghost Zone

There are a decent number of these fics out there if you know where to find them. I feel like this one is self-explanatory, but basically- Danny's class takes either a planned or impromptu trip to the Ghost Zone. Very rarely does his secret identity survive the fallout. Now imagine if we put Damian's class on the school bus.

Some Gothamite kid, probably: "I don't remember The Magic School Bus going like this."

Marsalias' (in)famous Mortified is definitely one of them up there. They actually wrote a second field trip fic not long after completing Mortified, which is called School Bus in the Ghost Zone. So if you're in the process of reading Mortified, or maybe you can't commit to a long-form fic right now, this one might be for you.

Deathcomes4u also has two field trip fics you can read. One of them was for this year's Phic Phight called The Gloves Are Off. He-larious fic, cannot get enough of it. Also includes some very fun DP headcanons! The second is called The Trip. You're gonna want to read the tags before you explore this one, but what's up so far a very thrilling read.

There is also Stranded With My Class, but this one is on FF.net so you might want to turn on ALL your adblockers before you venture into that site.

2. Death Day :3

I've written a chapter about this in lex luthor's ascent but it's part of a larger plot so I hope no one feels pressured to read it. But in general this fic idea can be very heavy, BE CAREFUL if you explore it. You can have DC characters react to Danny's death day, you can give Jason or Damian or Cass- or pretty much any resurrected DC character you like- a death day. Spread the whump and angst, that's how we show our love.

Here is an example, also from Deathcomes4u: Anniversary. I really enjoy how this author writes the background characters as well. It's got a splash of humor and the Everlasting Trio makes me all soft. :')

Death Day Evolution by gamma_radio has some great worldbuilding and lore added to the concept. I love how they tied Danny gets new powers in this fic, and you gotta love the Cryptid Danny Fenton energy. XD

3. Partial Identity Reveals

Now this one is more self-indulgent for me, but I'm allowed to do that. XD I would've put simply Cryptid Danny, but it encompasses a little more than that in most cases, which is why I kept this title for it instead.

These are fics where Danny is revealed or shown to be Off™ somewhat, but in most cases they don't know the full extent of his secret identity. Most of the time it's just his powers or that he's not fully human, what have you. I love a good bombastic identity reveal, you know, but something about the subtler ones are more inspirational, if you will. lol

I think this is the type of AU that would suit a Batman detective story much more, and allows the DC characters more time and interaction into this new world- if you will- rather than throwing them straight in it. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense.

Shots Fired by RedGhost1010 is an exceptional fic (I believe this author is also the person who writes Stranded with My Class, mentioned earlier, just uses a different pen name on Ao3). However, please read the tags for it before you do. This fic can be triggering for some people. They also write what is probably my favorite Bad Parent Jack and Maddie fic, which is called Humans and Ghosts. Another one you probably should read the tags for. But please check out their other fics; I enjoy so many of them, but unfortunately not all of them fit this fic rec description. :\

Finally we have It's Like Time Stops by anthrop. I cannot tell you how many times I reread this fic way back when. It's a very tasty Outsider POV fic that gives a view into how things changed after the Accident, and it's a good study into how his classmates would have perceived it.

Whooo... that's a lot of fic recs. I hope you got some new things to read out of it at least! Have some fun, but make sure to take care of yourself and avoid the fics that just aren't for you. No one will blame you for it. <3

[secretgamergirl]

How a Computer Works- Part 4 (Binary Math)

This is the 4th part in a series of posts explaining how computers work such that you can build your own from just wires and spare electronics (or hell, Minecraft redstone signals, a carefully balanced water fountain, anything you can build logic from really). The series starts in this post, the most recent entry before this was part 3, but the only REALLY required reading for this one should be part 2. Get that knowledge in your brain so this next bit can make sense to you.

Also, I'm basically teaching a pretty in-depth computer science class here for free out of the goodness of my heart, so if you have the cash to spare, maybe consider throwing a little money my way so I can keep surviving and doing stuff like this?

Our focus for today's lesson is going to be actually designing one of these modules we have hooked up to the bus to actually do stuff with any data we pass into it. As I've mentioned a few times, all of this stuff we're passing along can be thought of in a lot of different ways. Completing a circuit when one tracing wires out connects to a positive charge and another a negative means the same thing as a gate saying true, will turn a light tied in there on, we can call it a 1 in our abstract computery talk, or several other things, but we're dong math today so let's think about numbers.

Let's think in Binary

So I think I've referenced binary numbers a few times in a really hand-wavey sort of way, but it's good to stop and make sure we all get the concept thoroughly. Normally, when we think about numbers, we're using our good pals the Arabic numerals- 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. We just decided to make unique little squiggles to represent these first ten numbers if we include 0, and then if we add together 9+1, we're out of symbols, so we start a new column, put a 1 in it, and reset to 0 in the one we're in. So, 9+1=10. We call this "base ten math" because ten is where we have to start that new column... but really, we kinda just picked ten out of a hat for this? Presumably it's because most of us have ten fingers.

Maybe if we all had hands like typical American cartoon characters, we'd only have made eight unique symbols. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7. Add 1 to 7 and we start a new column there instead of after coming up with symbols for those fingers we don't have. In base eight math, 7+1=10. It's a smaller group we're dedicating that next numeral over to, but you can see how that works, right?

Or hey, what if the first person to start counting stuff on their fingers just thought about it differently. You can totally hold up 0 fingers. So really on just one hand you can easily go 0 1 2 3 4 5. Well, what if we just use our other hand past there? Every time we run out of fingers on our right hand, we reset it to zero and add one on our left. It's base six math in this example but hey with just our hands we can display any number from 0 to a base six 55! Which in base ten would be, let's see, 5x6+5, so, yeah, any number from 0 to 35, but that's still pretty good. Converting it into base six is kind of a pain since you've gotta stop and do the multiplication, but if we all just kinda thought in base six we wouldn't need to convert at all.

And hey, what if we really thought big here? Instead of using one hand for the next column of numbers, we could just treat every finger as a column on its own. Holding some of the required groupings of fingers up can kinda give you a hand cramp, but hey we've got ten columns that can hold a 0 or a 1, so we can count all the way up from 0 to 1111111111! Or uh, in base ten, 1023. Still a really impressive number though! Just explaining this to you I've upped how how you can count on your fingers by more than a hundred times. You're welcome! Sorry about the hand cramps. We're not looking into binary math for the sake of saving fingers though, we're doing it because we're designing logic circuits and doing math on the assumption that the only symbols we have to count with are 0 and 1. Anyway, just so we're on the same page, let's count up from 0 in binary for a while here:

0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 1010, 1011, 1100, 1101, 1111, 10000.

You can follow along with the pattern right? And if you're curious what that'd be all standard base 10 style, let's count through that same number of... numbers that way.

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. I made some of these bold to make it a little easier to count along. It's the ones where we're adding a new column in binary, and hey look, it's all the powers of 2. If you have to convert in your head, that makes it easier.

Binary Addition

So let's try thinking in JUST binary now and do some basic math. Before we get into the double-digits- Wait no, if we're pedantic, di- is the prefix for ten things so we shouldn't be saying "digits," we're in base two, so, bi- so... the double bits, I guess), we're just got:

0+0=0. 1+0=1. 0+1=1. 1+1=10

Hey, wait. does that pattern look familiar to you? Like we had to go to a second bit for 1+1, but just ignore that for a moment and look at the lowest one. Humor me. We saw this same pattern in part 2!

0 xor 0 outputs 0. 1 xor 0 outputs 1. 0 xor 1 outputs 1. 1 xor 1 outputs 0.

Oh damn. So if we want to add two bits of data, we just XOR them. All we have to worry about is the spill-over into the next column. Well.. hell, let's see what this looks like if we're looking at two columns here.

00+00=00. 01+00=01. 00+01=01. 01+01=10.

If we just look at the "1s column" digit, yeah, XOR works. And is there a pattern for the "10s column?" Well, it's a 0 for everything except when we go 1+1... we had a logic circuit for that too though, right? Yeah, good ol' AND. Only outputs 1 if both value A and value B it's looking at are both 1.

So OK. We rig up a circuit that has a XOR gate and an AND gate. We feed the first number we want to add into both of these gates, and we can display our answer as a two bit number, with what the AND spits out on the left, and the one the XOR spits out on the right. BAM. We are masters of addition... so long as the highest numbers we want to add together are 1+1. We uh... we should probably try to improve upon that. Also we've got this whole structure to the whole computer where we've got these registers feeding in and out of a bus with a fixed number of data bits on it, kinda would be nice if the number of bits going back out to our bus was the same as the number coming in to our addition circuit... and like, yeah, that's kind of an impossible goal since it's always possible when adding two numbers the same length that you need an extra column to display the answer, but you know, if the first bit of at least one of the numbers we're adding is a 0 it'll fit, so let's get to that point at least.

So OK. Let's expand things out. We're adding any 2 bit numbers now, and let's pretend we've got like a calculator with a 3 bit display.

000+000=000. 001+000=001. 000+001=001. 001+001=010.

010+000=010. 011+000=011. 010+001=011. 011+001=100.

000+010=010. 001+010=011. 000+011=011. 001+011=100.

010+010=100. 011+010=101. 010+011=101. 011+011=110.

I'm being kinda redundant with showing 0+1 and 1+0 and such. Let's narrow these down to just the ones we need a new bit of logic to make happen though. The 1s bit is groovy. We feed the 1s bits of ANY two numbers into a XOR gate, we get the correct 1s bit for our answer. And if the next bits over are 0s, we can pop what's coming out of our AND gate in there out to there and that's fine too. We're also good if we just look at the 10s column, everywhere we don't need to worry about the 1s column affecting it. The places where we need to do more with our logic are just where we're doing the whole "carry the 1 thing." I already set up the grid of all these so that's just the stuff in the far right column, but hey, let me bold those up too.

And let me just kinda blank out these other bits so we're really focused in on the part where there's a problem...

_0_+_0_=_1_. _1_+_0_=_0_. _0_+_1_=_0_. _1_+_1_=_1_.

Well huh. If we're just looking at a bit in the middle of our big long number, and we're carrying a 1 to that position, we sure seem to be getting the exact opposite of what we get when we aren't carrying anything in here. So OK, let's redesign our logic circuit here. We've got our bit A wire and our bit B wire coming in like we did before, going into that XOR for this output bit, but we need to add a wire for whether we're carrying a 1 in from the next circuit over, and if so, flip that result. Do we have a way to do that easily? Well OK, logic chart time. If we have a 0 and no carry, we want 0. I'm lazy, so, 0 bla 0=0, 1 bla 0=1, 0 bla 1= 1, 1 bla 1 = 0. Oh, that's another XOR gate. We XOR A and B like before, and then just XOR that result with our carry bit, and we are definitely displaying the right thing in this part of our answer. Now we just need to double check if our corner case of handling a carry messes with the next carry anywhere and... oh damn yeah.

011+001=100, and 001+011=100. These are the cases where the 1s column carrying a 1 to the 10s column means we have to do something different with that carry bit. So, we're still making our carry-the-1 result a 1 if A and B are 1... but we also need to make sure it's a 1 if we are both carrying something in, AND our original XOR gate is spitting a 1 out. Well we can throw that AND in there, and we can throw in an OR to check either of these two conditions, and there's our new and improved carry-the-1? result.

So let's put it all together now!

For a given bit, we have value A, value B, and Carry. We have a XOR gate that takes A and B in. We feed the result of that and Carry into another XOR gate. That spits out the sum for this bit. Then we AND the result of that first XOR and our Carry feed that result into one side of an OR gate. We feed A and B into a second AND gate, the result of that is the other input for our OR. That OR now spits out a fresh Carry bit. We can plug that into the next adder circuit down the line, for the next column to the left in our result. BAM, there we go. Just clone this whole weird set of 5 logic gates for as many bits as you want to deal with, daisy chain those carry values into each other, and congratulations. You have somehow rigged together something where electricity goes in, electricity goes out, and the weird path it has to take along the way has this weird side effect where you can work out what two binary numbers add up to. Please note again that we didn't at any point make some sort of magical computer person and teach it how to do math, we just found patterns in how electricity flows and where the pure math concept of logic gates and binary math happen to work the same way and exploited that for a result that's convenient to us. Shame that was such a pain wiring up, but hey, every time you add another copy of this onto the end, you double the range of numbers you're able to work with. Eventually that hits a point where it's worth the effort.

Well addition is all well and good, what about subtraction?

OK, so just to take stock, so far we have a big addressed block of memory somewhere we keep our numbers in. We have, for example, 8 bit lines on our bus, and when we want to do addition, we set stuff that turns on "hey, place with our first number, put it on the bus" then "hey register A, read the bus for a moment," then the same to get a number to slap in register B, and we've got this sum register sitting between registers A and B with a bunch of these adder circuits hooked in between all the bits. We might have some leftover carry line with a 1 on it and nowhere to plug it in, but ignoring that spill-over, every bit on our bus is to go good for addition. When we're setting up command codes, we can make more to do some other math with A and B and that's all well and good, but we have a real big problem when it comes to subtraction, because out of what's going into A, going into B, and coming out of sum, at least somewhere we're going to need to deal with the concept of negative numbers. So when we're doing subtraction, one line on our bus needs to be reserved for whether it's positive or negative. If you program, you're maybe familiar with the concept of unsigned integers vs. signed integers? This is that. With only positive numbers, if we've got say, 8 bits to work with, we've got a range of 00000000 to 11111111 to work with, or 0-255 in decimal, but if one of those is getting swiped for negative or positive, now we're talking like, -127-127.

But wait, that's not quite right, is it? Like if we arbitrarily say that leftmost digit is 1 if we're negative, we get things like, 1 being 00000001, 0 being 00000000, -2 being 10000010 etc. but... what's 10000000? -0? That's the same thing is 0. That's redundant and also gonna really screw the count up if we're like, adding 5 to -2! Or really, any other math we're doing.

Oh and we also need to remember when we're stuffing a negative number into a memory register, it's not like that register knows what concept the bits we're shoving into it represent, so like, you personally have to be responsible for remembering that that 1 on the leftmost line, for that particular value, is noting that it's negative, and not that the 10000000s place or whatever has a 1 for some number, or the first of 8 switch variables you're stashing in this address to save on space is on, or whatever else. We here at the memory address hotel are just trapping electron wiggles in a weird little latch or we aren't. No labels, no judgements.

So OK no matter how we're storing negative numbers we need to just actually remember or take notes some way on what the hell convention we're using to represent negative numbers, and where we're applying it. But we also need a convention where like, the math works, at all. Just having a bit be the is it negative bit works real bad because aside from having -0 in there, we're trying to count backwards from 0 and our math module has no conception of back. Or of counting for that matter. Or 0. It's just a circuit we made.

OK, so, let's maybe store our negative numbers in a different way. You know how a car has an odometer? Rolling numbers counting up how many miles you've gone? And there's a point where you run out of digits and it rolls back around to 0? Well funny thing about our addition thing is if you add a 1 to a display of all 1s, that also rolls back around to 0 (and has that carry value just hanging out in space unless we have a better idea of what to plug it into). So if we like, have all the numbers we can display printed out on paper, and we represent that rolling over by just rolling the paper up and taping it, so we have a bit where the count is going like: ..11111101, 11111110, 11111111, 00000000, 0000001... well we can just arbitrarily declare that all 0s is really 0, and the all 1s before it is -1, etc. Try to make that work maybe. And still remember that 10000000 or whatever is where we abruptly loop back between the highest positive/lowest negative numbers we're handling.

Here's a funny thing though. If we start counting backwards, we totally get this inverted version of what we get counting forwards. Just going to show this with 3 bits for convenience but going up from 000 you go:

000, 001, 010, 100, 101, 110... and going back from 111, you go

111, 110, 101, 100, 011, 010, 001... and yeah, look at that with a fixed with font, and it's all just flipped. And huh, you know what else is cool? If we go back to saying the first bit is 1 for negative numbers and a 0 for positive, you can just add these and it almost works. You want to subtract 1 from 1, that's the same as adding 1 and -1. Invert the negative, that's 001+110=111... 1 shy of the 000 we want. Huh.

What about 2-2? 010+101=111. 3-3? 011+100=111. Everything that should be 0 is 111, which is 1 less than 0 when we roll over. What about stuff that should be positive? 3-1? 011+110=(1)001. 2-1? 010+110=(1)000. 3-2? 011+101=000. Still all 1 off if we just ignore that carry going out of range.

-1-1? 110+110=(1)100, which translates back to -3... and that's kinda the only example I can give that's in range with this, but throw in more bits and follow this convention and it'll all keep working out that you get exactly 1 less than what you want, turns out. So, if we're in subtract mode, we just... invert something we're bringing in then add 1 to it and it should all work out?

So OK. We have a wire coming into math land from what mode are we in, it's a 1 if we're doing subtraction. We XOR that subtract line bit with every bit of what's coming into B, that does nothing if we're in addition mode, but if we're in subtraction mode, we're flipping every bit, and tada, the subtraction works without any other changes. We just need to conditionally add 1 if we're in subtract mode now but... wait, we already have literally that. We just take this same "we are in subtract mode" wire and run it in as a carry-in to the rightmost bit of our adder chain. Again, if we're doing addition, that just carries in a 0 and does nothing, but if we're in subtraction, it carries in a 1, and... we're done. The explanation was a long walk, but yeah, when subtracting, just add those extra XORs, plug in that carry, and remember your negative numbers are all weird in storage. Done.

Let's do multiplication and division next!

No. We can't do that.

Well seriously, that's not a thing we can just layer on top of this relatively simple thing we have wired up. We've got this lean mean math machine will give you whatever result you need basically the instant you load values into A and B. Definitely by the time you, being conscientious about not leaving the doors to the bus open all the time, officially flag things to write out from sum and into whatever destination. Multiplying and dividing though, we need more steps, and we need scratch spaces for temporary values. I suppose if you're careful you can multiply by like, loading 0 into B, load the first number you want to multiply into A, just feed sum directly into B, and pulse the clock however many times you want to multiply, but... you probably don't want to just constantly be reading and writing like that, it's tying the whole bus up, unless you have an alternate pathway just for this, and you have to keep count. Still, I'm assuming that's how people do it when they build a dedicated function in. I'm still looking at older systems which assume you're going to do most of your multiplication one step at a time, running through some code.

There's one big exception though. If you multiply any number by 10, you just add a 0 onto the end of the number... and guess what? I'm not using "10" specifically to mean "ten" here. Whatever base you're doing your math in, that still works. So in binary, if you just want to specifically multiply by 2, it is super easy to just shift every bit to the left. Like, have some sort of "shift left/multiply by 2" wire come in, set up logical conditions so that when its set, all we do is have the bit that we are feed into the carry flag, then for the sum ignore everything but the carry flag. 00011001 turns right into 00110010. I picked that out of a hat, but that's binary for 25 getting doubled to 50 as I eyeball it here. Dead simple to do as a single operation. Shifting everything to the right, AKA dividing by 2 is similarly simple... and hey, you might notice that in say... very old games, there's a whole lot of numbers doubling. Like ghosts in Pacman? Each is worth twice the points as the last? Yeah that's because that's easy to do fast.

Other math though takes more steps, and tends to involve extra hardware design to make it work. Like if you're doing division where you aren't guaranteed to have a whole number at the end, so, most division? Suddenly you need to have decimal points in all of this, and work out where they go, and this is why you hear people talk about "floating point processors" as this whole special thing that we just did not have for decades. For now at least, that's beyond the scope of what I'm teaching. Might get there eventually.

A final bit about bits...

So hey, we need to pick some arbitrary bit count for how wide we make our bus and our registers, and also some number for memory registers, command codes, maybe other stuff. And you just kinda want to pick a nice round number. You can't pick ten though, because ten isn't a round number in binary. It's 1010. So usually, we round down to 8, nice and simple, or we round up to 16. And then if we're like filling out charts of values, it's easier to count in those bases. Counting in base 8 is easy enough. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10. With base 16 though, we need 6 more symbols in there, so we go with 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10. And sometimes people make a point of making the B and D lowercase, because if you want to display those on the sort of 7-segment display you still see on cheap clocks or things going for an 80s look, B and 8 are too similar, and D and 0. Base 16 is also called hexidecimal. People will shorten that to "hex" and you see it a ton when people are looking at raw data and don't want to get thrown by long binary numbers, and it particularly gets out to the general public when we're talking about like, 8-bit color values. 8 bits gives you a number from 0-63, hey that's just 2 digits in base 16, so like, for HTML color codes, you can use 2 digits each for red green and blue values, and technical artists just kinda memorize stuff like "right so FFFFFF is white, 700080 is a pretty bright, slightly blue-ish purple, etc."

We tend to go with 8 bits in most places though, or some multiple of 8 anyway, and someone randomly decided to call 8 bits a byte, and that's kind of just our standardized unit for measuring data now. Well mostly standardize. Because people will say, like, 1 kilobyte is 1000 bytes, but in practice people actually round things off to binary values and they're going to actually be off a little.

Anyway, linguistic trivia! Whatever number of bits it is we store in a register/load to the bus is called a "word" and we talk about how many bits long our words are, because once you design the architecture, you're stuck with it and all. And sometimes you want to be space efficient and not use a whole word, so you do some logic gate trickier to chop off whatever portion you don't need when reading it and not change what parts you aren't trying to when writing it and just kinda store multiple variables in a single value. One common thing that happens as a result of this is that you'll break up an 8-bit value because you just want like two values from 0-15 instead of one from 0-255. And when we're working with one of those half-bytes, because puns, the actually term for that is "a nibble." No really. And if we're using a single bit for a variable a lot of the time we call that a flag. Common to see a byte used to hold 8 flags.

I have no clue what I'm going to cover in part 5 if/when I get to it. Input/output stuff? Better program counter design than what I've taught you enough to guess at? Maybe I should just wait and see if people have questions?

For now let me just point anyone following along with this at this first post of me talking about the game console I'm designing. That's a pretty similar topic to this one.

Let me also point you again at my patreon, too.

[sabraeal]

Desert & Reward, Chapter 17

[Read on AO3]

“Now, now, Mister, no need for roughness,” Obi laughs as Sir shoves him out the closest door, the night sky unfurling above them. “I promise, I’m quite tame. Look, I haven’t even bit any hands tonight.”

If he leaves off just how many tempting morsels fluttered right in front of him, well— it’s nothing Sir hasn’t already guessed. By the hunted expression clinging to that chiseled jaw, it seems His Highness’s loyal hound has had more than a few temptations of his own.

Air hisses through Sir’s teeth, more a relief of pressure than a warning, the harsh line of his shoulders deflating from forbidding to fatigued. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever asked. What did you do to get on Kihal’s bad side?”

Truth be told, Obi’s never quite sliced that knot himself. He’d been wallpaper when she’d come that first time, a shadow that clung to Miss’s heels, and she’s been kind enough to tender him a few perfunctory ‘hellos,’ when their paths had crossed. But they’d gone to Yuris— twice, by his count; once to chase down the source of that perfume, and another just after she’d landed her title as countess— and each time she’d gotten her hackles up.

Not by any fault of his own, of course. Sure, he’d poked around a few places that not even Miss’s smiles could grant them entry, and he’d been more than a little popular with some of the local girls who didn’t mind a man with a little mystery and more than his fair share of scars— but that’d all been winks and words that went down as easy as the swill her father’s men had in their stills. No, what really seemed to get her goat was that despite her determination to dislike him, she never quite manage it.

Which is a bit more complicated an answer than Sir’s probably expecting to hear, so instead just he shrugs. “Today, or in general?”

Sir’s mouth thins— shame that Miss Kiki isn’t here to appreciate the way that sternness sharpens the lines of his face— hands hooking on his hips. Obi settles in; whatever lecture annoying the future Lady Laxdo has inspired, it’s sure to be a doozy. "You’re bearing up all right, aren’t you?”

It’s not until his mouth clicks shut that he realizes his jaw dropped at all. “C-come again, Mister?”

Sir grunts, agitated but— miraculously— not at him. “It’s all right if you aren’t, Obi. I know this isn’t what you’re used to when it comes to parties.”

The number of titles on his guest list could fill a library large enough to keep Miss entertained, but that’s hardly new. Between rubbing elbows with the royal family and her newfound position as the North’s darling, they’ve been invited to and ducked out early from all the Clarines’ most exclusive soirées. But that’s not what Sir is driving at.

“It’s a bit bigger than the stag night.” Twice as big at least, but the last thing Obi needs is Mister bringing math into the equation. “And that thing was already huge. Gotta say, sir, your little fireside chat and tipple didn’t set me up with the right sort of expectations.”

A wayward muscle in that impressive jaw twitches. “It wasn’t supposed to.”

“Maybe I should have gone to Miss Kiki’s,” he sighs wistfully. “That might have prepared me for being a lord. You know, since between the two of you, you’re really sort of the lady of the—”

“You could just say ‘I’m fine,’ you know,” Sir manages, strangled. “No need for…”

His hand waves, helpless, somehow managing to encompassing all of Obi at once, while also implying that his personality’s part of the problem.

“I appreciate the thought, Mister.” He digs his finger into the knot that’s been bugging him since they shoved him into this monkey suit, turning his smirk into a grimace. “But this isn’t my first fancy shindig, and something tells me it won’t be the last. I’ll survive.”

“I didn’t say you wouldn’t,” he grunts, leaning a hip— well, thigh really— against the balustrade. “It’s just…it’s one thing to be at one of these parties and just be part of the…er…ambiance, I guess. And it’s a whole other thing altogether when what everyone’s looking at is you.”

His fingers clench a little tighter. “It’s not so bad.”

Sir’s gaze hardly wavers as he asks, “Is it?”

“Y-yeah.” The lie drags bile up after it, washing his mouth in its sour taste. “You know me, Mister, I live for attention.”

His arms fold, testing the limits of his coat seams. “That is what you like everyone to think.”

Haah, he should have known better than to try to pull one over on Sir. The men might have called him an honest fool when he’d still been just one of the Royal Circle’s knights— hell, Obi’d called him all that and worse during that whole fiasco after Sereg— but Mister had a way of seeing right to the quick of a man.

“I didn’t like it much either,” Mister admits. “Still don’t, really. But I’m more used to it now than I was back then. It was terrible when we got married— I thought a look might real and truly kill me if they got me at the right angle.”

“Unlike you, I didn’t run off and ruin His Majesty’s engagement party,” Obi drawls, giving his eyebrows a good waggle. “Really, Mister, how’s a man supposed to recover when a knight rides in to rescue a lady right in front of—”

“T-that’s not what I’m talking about,” Sir blusters, the tips of his ears a painful pink. “You’re just trying to change the subject.”

Obi’s mouth thins, an easy thing to twist up in a smile. “I appreciate the concern, I do, but you don’t have to worry about me, Big Guy. I know how to put on a show when I got to.”

“If you say so.” Sir claps him on the shoulder; a few years ago it might have made his teeth rattle, but after almost half a decade walking Wilant’s walls and being fortified by their hearty stews, he barely stumbles. “Just bear it for a little while longer. I’m sure Zen will find a way to get you out of this before…”

Sir’s mouth works, not to find a word but a grimace. Which is fine, really. Obi doesn’t need them, not when he’s been thinking it all this time— before she finds out.

“Right.” Even he can tells his smile doesn’t hang right on his mouth, but that’s not important, not when Mister’s the only one around to see. “Hate to have the young miss exposed to anything so…disagreeable. Not when she’s already having to put up with all this nonsense.”

“Obi.” Sir straightens, brows knitted up with concern. “That’s not what I—”

“Don’t worry, I know what you were trying to say, Mister.” Even if he was too kind to actually say it. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I might go—”

“Why, is that—?” Earl Seiran waves from the garden path below, smile as large as Miss Kiki’s isn’t. “It is! My dear son and the man of the hour! Just who I wanted to see.”

“My l— sir,” Mister manages, flustered. “I didn’t see—? I mean, I didn’t know you had left the ballroom. Just a moment, I’ll—”

“No, no, dear boy. Just give me a moment!” His walking stick taps on the marble, casual rather than crucial. “We’ll come up to you.”

“We?” Sir echoes, and that’s when Obi sees it— the messy tangle of black that had faded into the garden’s shadows.

“Oh,” he mutters, mouth already tugging into a sneer. “Just who I wanted to see.”

*

“What a lovely party,” Seiran gushes as he draws near, delight evident in every click of his heels. “Truly, the wedding of the season, for all that it isn’t supposed to have happened. Or, I suppose, should have happened earlier. Ha!”

If a duke does not lower his head to a count, it only follows that a marquis won’t either, but Obi’s far too practiced at keeping his to risk any less than a nod. A deep one, almost deferential. The man who survived raising Miss Kiki doesn’t deserve any less. “You’re too kind, milord.”

“Nonsense!” The earl waves his hand, and for a moment, the similarity staggers him. He’s only met Kiki’s dad a handful of times, but each time it’s like that— brief flashes of a movement so familiar he could draw the angles of it with his eyes closed, but that smile instead of a scowl makes them as different as night and day. “If only we had such an excuse to celebrate more often.”

“Maybe you will soon enough, my lord.” The earl might brighten every balcony onto which he walks, but his companion casts a pall over the company keeps. And by the way Lugis’s mouth twists, wry and annoyed all at once, he knows. “You’ve already gained a son. Maybe he will be kind enough to oblige you with a few grandchildren to name.”

That snake ends the sentence too early, but his flash of teeth finishes it: if he can locate his dick well enough to use it.

Sir stiffens behind him, hand hovering just above his sword’s hilt. “Hisame…”

“An excellent point!” Seiran laughs, one well-manicured hand reaching to clap Big Guy on the shoulder. He withers noticeably. “Though I suppose my good-son would wish us to speak of this where he might not hear.”

Sir’s neck flushes so red Obi could swear he sees steam. “Or not at all.”

“Oh, come now. You may be too modest to suffer us speculating, but surely you cannot protest the process.” There’s times where Obi has wondered how a man as easy-going as the earl had could had a hand in honing a girl more to a dagger than a daughter. But right now, as the Mister’s eyes roll heavenward like losing consciousness might be a mercy, and all the man does is grin— well, he can see the shape of it.

“Just think of it.” That snake looks pretty amused for a guy who framed a man for murder and nearly toppled a whole country just to play fake fiancé. “If His Highness’s courtship proceeds as promised, then perhaps his own joyful occasions will not be much behind yours, Sir Mitsuhide.”

Sir doesn’t get wistful the way he used to— or at least, Obi hasn’t caught him going around hanging himself over balconies and heaving those world weary sighs. But something in him catches on joyful occasions and—

And it’s just Sir and him who know that’s not likely to happen. Seiran’s lord and lady might get up to whatever they like behind closed doors— and if he knows Kiki, she will— but there’s not likely to be any royal issue, not any time soon. Not from Zen, at least. He’ll find some way to put off his wedding, same way he used to put off popping the question, and in a few years and some creative paperwork, they’ll get their happy ending, just the way they were meant to.

Seiran might smile as he puts a hand on Obi’s shoulder, giving him a squeeze that makes this night almost feel real, that he is the man Miss wanted to see at the altar— but one glance at Sir’s grimace is enough to remind him that he’s just here to keep Master’s seat warm. A placeholder, until something better can be arranged.

“You boys should take more care with His Highness’s stag night, however,” Seiran instructs, suddenly stern. “All these little fêtes are fine and good— and I’m sure His Majesty will see to it that his brother has one becoming of his station— but it is all quite…sanitary is it not? For such an occasion, a man wishes to be out with his comrades, celebrating his nuptials with all the happy abandon—”

“I must thank you for traveling all this way, my lord,” Obi blurts out, receiving Sir’s grateful look with all the graciousness a knight taking a rescued maiden’s kiss. For all that he’d love to lord the knowledge of her father’s sowing of wild oats or what not, he doesn’t actually want to hear the details. At least right now, when the Big Guy’s two shades of red away from spontaneous combustion. “Can’t have been easy on such short notice.”

“No niceties for me, my lord?” that snake hums, so smug his forked tongue might well flicker through his lips. “Have I not traveled far enough?”

Obi’s smile bears more teeth than good will when he says, “I wasn’t aware it was that far from His Highness’s coattails to here.”

Sir snorts, loud enough Seiran spares him a curious glance before adding, “Not at all, dear boy. I had plenty of time to settle my business before starting my trek to the palace. Though I suppose were I north enough to get those early autumn squalls, three weeks might have been a far narrower window than I would have liked.”

“T-three?” Obi blinks, fingers numb at his side. “Three weeks?”

Three weeks. He’d known about this for three days. And by the way Sir starts to fidget under his stare, he might be the only one.

“I must say, it was quite the surprise to see Forzeno step up as your guardian.” Seiran laughs, shaking his head. “I was of the impression that man didn’t leave his lab for anything more than an opportunity to fund it. How did you even manage to meet?”

“Ah, well…” His fingers dig into the meat of his shoulder, the familiar flash of pain grounding him. “It’s  not much of a story. Turns out some of his rock collection showed some promise in cracking open a little conundrum they’d all been working on, and Miss convinced” — coerced, really, but who’s counting— “him to come give them a hand.”

The snake huffs out a laugh, one of his narrow eyebrows hitching a ride to his hairline. “And he adopted you for simply standing around?”

Lata probably would have, if it meant dodging a dukedom. Good thing the geezer didn’t think of it sooner. “That’s because His Majesty thought ‘messenger’ wasn’t a good enough title for one of his brother’s buddies. Slapped me with a ‘sir’ and let me loose up in the North. By the time Lata got his hands on me, I was biting the ankles of my betters.”

Seiran’s mouth slides into a sly curve. “I can see why that might have endeared you to a man like him.”

“Don’t know if I’d say endeared so much as enraged.” Or embarrassed, more likely, but that’s not something he’s going to admit to when Hisame Lugis is standing around, grinning like his knighthood is the funniest joke he’s ever told. “I thought I was doing just fine, but apparently I was ‘the Royal Circle’s greatest shame’ and I ‘can’t serve His Highness with that sort of sloppy dress.’ So then he decided he was my knightly mentor, and…”

He lifts a shoulder. That’s that, it says, or maybe, it is what it is.

It doesn’t seem like Earl Seiran hears it, though. “If you had needed for someone to vouch for you name, my boy, you might have told me!” His mouth pinches, the same way his daughter’s does when he calls her name. “I would have been happy to call you son.”

“Oh, er…” Obi coughs, searching for the politest way to say, I don’t think that sentiment would have been unanimous, sir. “That’s a…uh…generous offer, my lord, but, er…”

“You already have an heir,” Kiki deadpans, appearing from just behind her father’s shoulder. “Don’t get greedy.”

“Kiki, my dear,” he laughs, holding out his arm— one she summarily ignores, brushing past him stand next to Sir. “I always thought you would make a wonderful older sister.”

“Hear that, my lady,” Obi hums, leaning close enough for their elbows to nudge. Naturally, of course, not because she’d caught him aiming at her side. “I could have been your little brother.”

“You’re a year older than me,” she reminds him, right before latching onto him with her iron grip. “I hope you can forgive me, Father, for stealing him away.”

“Darling,” he sighs, “must you call me that? Surely ‘Daddy’ would be—?”

“No.”

“Papa?” he tries, undaunted. Kiki only sighs.

“What, no apologies for me, Lady Kiki?” The snake slithers closer, smirking when Sir stiffens— but he doesn’t dare slink a step further. “I was talking to the marquis as well.”

“When it comes to sorry behavior, you are so far in debt that an apology from me could only dig you deeper,” she warns him, not even a hint of humor. “I thought I might save you the inches.”

Had that advice fallen from Obi lips, no doubt they would have heard that snake’s rattle. But from Kiki, it only tilts his smile to a more rueful pitch. “How…considerate of you.”

“Why, I do believe I see your brother, Sir Hisame!” Seiran remarks, just too loud to be casual. “Shall I go pay my respects? I haven’t seen him since…”

Since Sir so publicly scuttled their engagement— and, almost as a side note, revealed that the snake himself had taken part in Touka Bergatt’s attempted coup. That even as he hobnobbed with His Majesty’s guests, he was still in that bastard’s pocket.

Lugis’s mouth widens, smile all teeth. “I’m sure he bears you no ill will, my lord. He knows a thing or two about having willful heirs of his own.”

“Quite,” Seiran chuckles. “Still, you’ll come with me, won’t you? Perhaps ease over this small bump in our relationship.”

Funny. If he committed treason, Obi hardly thinks they’d all wave it over as a small bump.

“Ah…” The snake’s on his back foot now, sly eyes rounding as the earl advances on him, seizing his arm. “I appreciate the invitation, my lord, but I’ve hardly spoken to Lord Obi—”

“As my daughter says, Lord Obi is being stolen away.” Lugis winces under the strength of Seiran’s grip. “Let us leave them to it.”

“But—”

“Come.” The earl doesn’t quite take the snake out for a drag across the veranda, but it’s close. “I am so looking forward to renewing your brother’s acquaintance, after all.”

*

Obi blinks, watching as they disappear into the ballroom, arm-in-arm. Or rather hand-on-arm, by the way Lugis is trying to dig in his heels.

“Huh,” he murmurs, casting a look the long way up to Mister’s stern mug. “I didn’t know your dad was so buddy-buddy with Sir Hiss-a-lot.”

“Earl Seiran is being circumspect,” Sir replies pointedly. “He may not like Sir Hisame, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be nice.”

“Hey, I’m nice to people all day long.” Obi presses a hand to his chest, scandalized. “And I don’t like half of them!”

Kiki snorts. “Doubtful.”

“I am!” Where he came from, being nice meant no one drew blood. A low bar, but after every day he’s stuck in this madhouse having to play lord, he’s starting to see the wisdom in it. “Anyway, thanks for the rescue, Miss Kiki. I guess I’ll just—”

A hand grips his shoulder, as strong as any shackle. It’s not Sir’s. “I wasn’t kidding about you being needed.”

“Me?” He turns to her, wide-eyed. “Really?”

“Of course. It’s dinner time, and you’re the groom.” She glares back at him like he’s stupid. “Don’t tell me you didn’t write a toast.”

His jaw drops. “Ah…”

“You.” She fixes him with a meaningful stare. “Are going to owe me.”

[disfrutalakia]

Can I pick yor brain to theorize a bit? So Blue won today which means they're leading. If we do a bit of math we can conclude that purgatory will end on the 18th (otherwise they could tie or it will last until the 20th which would be a bit more than 2 weeks). That would mean that if Blue wins two more times they win no matter what. The same way, if Red wins 3 more times they win no matter what.

The problem here is: no one has any concrete evidence for which is the cursed team yet. Some theorize is one, some want to be the other. But no one knows.

The Eye said guess or find out or something like it. But we don't know in what to base it. Should we base our guess in lore, in strength, in suffering, in meta?

The closest anyone got to the real truth was ElQuackity being offered to know in exchange for killing someone that day or he would die. Well, he didn't die so there's that. And he talked to the Eye again after that and didn't mention anything about it. So, did they just ignore that plot point or does ElQuackity know now which team is cursed but the audience doesn't?

You could argue that he wanted Blue and Green to tie BECAUSE he knew which team is cursed. He could either want Blue to lose so the cursed wins OR because he wanted the cursed to lose (since that would doom the eggs too).

ElQuackity has not logged since going to Blue so we can't test this theory well yet.

Or maybe the Eye is lying about the whole thing, which wouldn't be a surprise, and no one is cursed.

If by any God forsaken chance Green was the cursed team... F in chat to our eggs, you will be missed. The Gay Ninjas tried their best. There's no coming back from this one.

One of the tweets also said "May the best egg die". How does that work? What is "best" here based on?

The more I hear the Eye talk the less I fear him. Can't he threaten people better? He showed a video of the eggs running away like two months ago. Show them now you half-baked villain, we've known they ran away since the end of the happy pills arc. Do you actually even have them? Forever could do a stone Richarlyson at his home, you're not impressing anyone with this. Just cause your is bigger and has Pomme's beret it doesn't mean anything. (I hope. F Pomchas.)

Also, once again it begs the never answered question: What WOULD happen if they tied? What will Eye do if they don't do anything all day? Like, sure, if cursed loses is bad but if it's before the last day they didn't lose yet. Just that day (technically).

If we go meta, I think they didn't choose the cursed team yet and may do so only based on the results from the event. But that's boring so let's talk about lore and real fun things like that.

For me, the cursed team being whoever had ElQuackity on them is something that has some kinda of proofs, but at the same time wouldn't make that much sense. Like did the eye know from the beginning who would be the teams? And why would everything fall on ElQuackity? And would that mean that cursed team changed from green to blue? If the curse truly is on the person I mean.

And can I be real? The eye guy SUCKS as a villain, sure he is ominous and can see everything but guess what? So could the feds, and the eye plans are a lot worse than theirs which mean they are horrible cause like, the feds are the guy who sent a single worker on a boat to purgatory!! The eye is not what strikes fear really, it's the islanders minds that do, the ones that keep thinking of the what if, what if they lose? What if they are cursed? What if they never go back? I get what they were trying to do with the eye but it didn't really work, he isn't around enough to really strike fear on us. And like, not that we know a lot about the reasons of why the feds do their stuff, but why the egg hates sinners and eggs so much? Is he god? What is he?

Okay got a bit distracted sorry, the whole "may the best egg die" thing sounded more like just a play on words really, but what if the best one is the one who survives? What if the statues really were connected to the eggs and the ones who weren't killed will be considered the best? Doesn't make a lot of sense but honestly cannot think about other possibilities for that choice of words.

The tie also makes me confuses, when it was said they would all die, did they mean everyone including red? Or if not, would everyone just be sent to red and they would win by default?

I'm a believer that there isn't a cursed team really, that it's mostly a mind game from the egg part to see how low the islander can go, to see them running around like rats trying to survive while also hunting each other like wolves, because there are no clues for the players really, like we as an audience can have our theories based on millions of povs, but what about the islanders? they can't do that.

I would like there to be clue drops over the next days since we are so close to the end but, I don't think it will be the case really. I think the curse team doesn't exist and this will be revealed at the end.

[bomberqueen17]

surviving march

well so. here we are. well into march. surviving.

i had no real symptoms of covid and i still don't, except that i'm just so tired. i could sleep ten hours a day. of course i can't sleep that long in bed, i still wake at my normal time without an alarm but with cat help, i just get out of bed and i'm just dizzy with exhaustion. (Usually metaphorically. today, literally.) but i wake up, i get myself together, i go about my business. and then, if i have a moment, at late morning, or early afternoon, or late afternoon, i will lie down for a moment, and if i don't do something to prevent it i will sleep two hours. and then come evening, an hour earlier than usual, i will go to bed, and i will sleep until my usual time. endlessly. normally i can get by on 6-7 hours in a night, with a good 8 hour lie in on weekends, but no more.

anyway. i don't have time for that, unless i give up everything but work. i have been leaving work slightly early, and not going in any earlier. i'm paid hourly, who gives a shit. i'm tired.

but, other than that, i do feel fine. the pokey mans has helped me remember to get up from my desk and walk around sometimes at least.

the pokey mans remains... mostly fun. i occasionally hit snags. i finally posted in frustration in the local Discord asking for tips on beating the one boss I just couldn't manage (Giovanni, if you're familiar), and the collective wisdom was, get better guys, which i was like i'm trying, and they were like no really, friend all of us, and whoever makes ultra with you first, we'll meet up at the weekly raid nite and we'll trade you a better guy, and I said i don't have anything cool to trade back? and three different people were like i don't need anything back i have extra guys, please take one. so that was actually a really nice interaction.

Every Wednesday is Raid Night, which is apparently universal-- from 6-7pm, wherever you are, there are simultaneous raids and mega raids and whatnot. Our local group is smaller than it once was, and so has condensed: one guy coordinates a "raid train" that goes down Hertel Ave, which is a dense urban street with a ton of gyms, and so he opens the remote lobbies of successive gyms at like. seven-minute intervals? somebody did the math at some point. And that's enough time to get from one to the next on foot for a fair distance, but it's also of course very easy for remote raiders to dial in.

It doesn't cost them anything if I tag along-- you can only send so many invites, but if you're in person you can just physically bop into the lobby. So there I was, with my tiny little guys, and a half-dozen level 45+ veterans with huge leveled-up mega pokemons dialed in, and I would gamely swing at the raid boss a couple of times and meanwhile the other half-dozen people would pummel the thing into the ground in a matter of seconds.

I've tagged along twice now, and I can manage like. Three gyms before I'm frozen. This time I brought Dude along, and he sat in a bar and drank a beer and ate some cheese sticks, and after about half an hour I came puffing back along the street and hopped onto the barstool next to him and got some chicken fingers and chattered about the great pokey mans I just caught. He's having a stressful time at work so it was good to get him out of the house.

I'm trying to find it all fun and funny, and mostly I'm succeeding, but I'm just so tired.

I did clear out a bunch of old drafts so my queue should be interesting for a bit.

I'm writing, it's just not getting finished. But I'm writing. I'll get there.

[thelediz]

Sonic Underground 05: Mobodoon

I’m watching Sonic Underground in search of inspiration to finish a fic I’ve been writing forever. It’s a sad state of affairs. See the recap of the first three episodes here, if you're interested!

This is episode 5: Mobodoon, which is supposedly telling you about how wonderful Mobius used to be, but is actually showcasing Manic’s emotional centre and how he Longs For A Home.

…Grown up LeDiz has so little patience for this episode, especially in a series that otherwise does a goddamn amazing display of a well thought-out post-monarchy dictatorship. It’s going to show you a perfect little commune and tell you this is how Aleena’s whole kingdom was and IT’S NONSENSE.

The plot (for want of a better word): On the search for their mother, the royal triplets uncover a magical portal that takes them to their birthplace: Mobodoon! In a peaceful sanctuary where everything is free and everyone is equal, Manic finally feels at home for the first time in his life. Will he abandon the fight against Robotnik—and his family—to stay where he feels he truly belongs?

Of course he won’t, that would require continuity. And I’m running out of wine.

Aleena… it’s episode five. Of forty. Don’t threaten me with the end of the Sonic Underground. Honestly.

Manic said something very quickly, too quickly for me to follow, but “second day of the third month” is their birthday, COMPLETELY OVERRIDING established Sonic canon on his birthday being in June. Yes I make too much of this.

Also, side note, there’s some actually not terrible animation in this opening sequence. Props where due.

Never mind, we’re at the two minute mark, the animators gave up again.

So, Mobodoon. It’s a little hidden portal to city/town/thing that connects to the normal world once every four years, where the royal children are all born. All greenery everywhere, no money, it’s a proper communist dream. Not bad world building for a magical monarchy’s private retreat, I’ll grant you.

And again, everyone knows and recognises the triplets, who I remind you, were removed from public life before they were one. (The world builder in me assumes this is because hedgehogs with their specific colouring went quickly extinct after Aleena put them into hiding. Sonia only survived because of Windemere’s protection and/or lies)(I am such a problem)

(Also, I’m doing the maths. The portal only opens once every four years. Say they were born and immediately left, because no way they were four when they were running from Robotnik. Power to Aleena for being able to make that trip right after giving birth to triplets. Anyway. Four, eight, twelve… they’re either thirteen or sixteen today and either way I’m not… asking any questions, why would I ask questions?)

Seriously, though, if you don’t just accept what she says because of the magic of Mobodoon, Mayor Winniham is creepy as hell.

Ah haha… the town is possible due to a chaos emerald Power Stone, which gives them power and life. Yes I absolutely make too much of that, too.

SERIOUSLY. If you don’t take her at her world, the MENTAL CONDITIONING THIS MAYOR IS PULLING ON MANIC.

Sonic “and his mondo world” (in his wooooooorld where one is all, in his world never fear the fall!). Not a reference, but appreciated as if it is one.

…Dingo, you’re supposed to be in love with Sonia, don’t give me this “I hate Hedgehogs” line. That’s your boss’s line. No stealing.

Seriously, this plays so much like Winniham is trying to take advantage of Manic. Animation errors even make her look super sinister in some shots. She’s not, though, she’s just creepy to an adult.

The SONG: I found my home. A rare Manic lead song. When I was a kid, I thought this was the best sound… amazing how your opinion changes, huh?

Ah, evil tax collector Sleet. As distinct from queen hunting Sleet or bounty hunter Sleet. As long as he’s Short Sighted Sleet.

Y’know Manic, in a better series, this whole realisation you have about “I finally found a place to call home and now it’s […] doomed” would lead you to realise you have to keep up the fight to protect it. Funny how you’re not actually going to come to that realisation.

Also, in a better series (though this is still sadly uncommon even in good shows), the fact this is a Manic-centred episode would allow him to take charge with how to protect the town. But no, of course Sonia has to do that, because Sonia is present.

And it’s ultimately Sonic’s plan to recharge the medallions and play roadrunner that saves the day. He's the hero and the drawcard for the Trashfire, so it's ALLOWED, but it's still frustrating. Why have the OC if you're not going to actually give them room to be used???

JEEZ, Sonia, what has Manic ever done to imply he would pawn off the magical medallions that give you all music and power? I know I give you a hard time, but that was so uncalled for! And yeah, he plays along, but jeez!

…and ultimately, Manic decides his home is with his siblings. Two seconds after he says goodbye to them. UGH. I know it’s a pacing thing, and it was common in 90s cartoons, but that does not stop it from being annoying.

Though I will say his point about how the Sonic Underground needs a drummer is legit. It’s actually a thing: rock bands need a drum to keep time and without one will need to find a different way to remain in rhythm. I make too much of this. I really wish the show did too.

Look. LOOK.

This episode is…

I mean, look, the series as a whole is bad, but as I mention when doing the plot synopses, the ideas behind the episodes themselves are pretty sound. You can see how they got through a writing pitch. But what always frustrates me when I watch these bad shows that I love is how good they COULD be with just… minor changes. Like Manic coming up with the idea to save the day, or having a change of heart because of the danger, not his siblings. Also Winniham… you’re still creepy. There’s no getting away from how much you creep me out, I’m sorry.

The counters:

Sonic implying less than 100% American heterosexuality: 2

Sonia's super-strength: 1

Sonia's in love with Bartleby: 1/37

Come back tomorrow if you want to know more!

[prestonmonterey]

TLT UPDATE!! BEFORE I GO TO BED

(gods im so tired...)

@vincentaureliuslin @tatsumisheep3

no photos today so heres my cat :P

OPENING NIGHT!!! it went super well!!!!! (i think)

it was PA night so the understudys were percy and annabeth and they killed it!!!!!! :DDDD

also my director gave me a compliment today so im in a good mood (it was somethin along the lines of "you finally did a good job as cerberus" but ill take what i can get...) (i still have beef with him but.. whatever....)

its crazy how fast this show is going and that itll all be over after sunday,, but also i am SO tired bc we literally spend more time at school than at home this week :(

also getting a lotta acne bc im not used to wearing this much make up every day :P

but hey at least ill get to rest a teeny bit on the weekend (just in the morning TwT bc we have matinees)

also my parents and some of my friends are comin tomorrow so they BETTER FUCKIN BUY ME CANDY (i really really really want candygrams... one of the stage managers got like 4 boxes of candy i am so jealous...)

also also also we did the legacy robe last night before preview night and my friend (and mother /ij) got it :DDDD very happy for her

um um um i felt like i had more to say but idk this is already a lot and i cant remember things im kinda tired :P

oh i finally got my camper necklace!!! the beads were missing for like a week but they were just on the table in the costuming room... anyway my friend made it for me during tech class bc shes so so sooo sweet <3 (while i was in math trying to force my friend to study... *stares at neeks* /aff) i got four beads that kinda almost make the ace flag!! (black for tech, silver for the fall play, light blue for this show, and purple for my grade)

idk if i explained it before but all of our necklaces represent how much theater we've done,,, bc its kinda like how long we've been at camp. theres a bead for each grade based on our class colors, and the tlt bead, so everyone gets at least 2. theres also beads for each of the past musicals and plays at school, and a black bead if youve done tech, and a white bead if youve done leadership :D some of the seniors have like most of their necklace filled because of how many shows theyve done

heres another cat pic to keep you engaged and reading this /hj

also also also many many thanks to my wonderful actor and tech friends i would not survive without them (especially thanks to tech bc they have to put up with us actors... /hj) its poseidon's actors first show i think and they have a LOT of quick changes so their section of the rack is,,, kind of a mess. also the lamp for the oracle scene has broken multiple times i think already... and i already left my make up bag out yesterday and my watch in the cubbies today TwT we are a hot mess

my graphic design teacher was acting today :D (the farmer in drive is a teacher role, and they switch out every night) and i love him being so absolutely perplexed by the energy circle before show :333

also i remembered to put setting powder on for the first time,,, and... i forgot that my mom is SO much paler than me TwT (i was very washed out...) so ill probably stick to spray for the rest of the week :P

sorry i really am rambling tonight...

ok i will probably hopefully do at least one more update after strike on sunday!! (depending on how tired i am,, i might just curl up on the floor and sleep after the sunday show actually...) unless something goes horribly wrong,,, then ill probably post about it too

good night!! i need to collapse in bed and try to save up enough energy for tomorrows show :3

have a wonderful day/night and remember to hydrate! (or you'll die straight...)

[billybennet]

A Little Less Sixteen Candles and a Little More "Touch Me"

Chapter 1

Demetri Alexopoulos x reader

Summary: a very self-indulgent fic of what it would be like to date Demetri as Robby's sibling/Johnny's kid.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

Masterlist

You sigh as you walk through the front door, finally, you think, home. You slam your textbooks down on the kitchen counter, today was a long day and not a necessarily good one either.

“You know…” your brother starts from the couch, “there are better ways for you to deal with your anger besides taking it out on your math book.”

You roll your eyes at him, knowing where this is going, “I’m not doing karate with you and Mr. Larusso, Robby.”

He raises his hands in surrender, “it's not just me and him now, his daughter Sam-”

“yeah, I know her” you scoff.

“Yeah, well, she's doing it too, and you should join. It’d make it a lot less awkward between me and her,” he pleads.

“Yeah whatev-” you're cut off by the power in your apartment abruptly shutting off. “You've got to be kidding me.”

Robby stands up, “I'll deal with it,” and he leaves the apartment to find your shitty landlord.

Turns out your mom's new boyfriend didn't pay for this month's rent like he said he would.

“I've got to go to the dojo, do you think you could stay with a friend?” Robby asks, grabbing his bag.

Your mind flashes to your best friend, Demetri, and how he looked at you the first time you talked to him. Shocked that anyone, let alone the cool-looking new kid, spoke to him.

“Hello?” you waved a hand in front of the dark-haired boy's face, looking to his friend in support, but he gave you the same wide-eyed expression as his counterpart.

“I-uh-what was that?” Demetri snapped out of it.

“What did you get for question 8?” you repeated.

“Oh u-uh,” he looked down at his paper, “24!” he smiled nervously.

“Cool, thanks,” you returned the smile before turning back to your work.

That had become a regular occurrence, you asking them for help or confirming your answers during work periods. Until one day you sat with them at lunch, and you'd been friends ever since.

You knew Demetri wouldn't mind hanging out with you, but you also had a bit of a crush on him and didn't want to make things awkward.

“I think I’ll survive here by myself thanks,” you say sarcastically to your brother. He shakes his head and turns to leave, “Okay, whatever, bye.”

“Bye!” you yell after him. And then you’re left alone, in the dark.

.:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:.:.:..:

“Y/N!” a voice yells behind you, You turn your head, closing your locker in the process.

“Hey Demetri, what's up?” you beam at the taller boy.

“You're never gonna guess what happened! So I went to Cobra Kai…” oh here we go, more karate, you think tuning him out for a minute, “...but then I went to Miyagi-do and Mr. Larusso-”

“Wait, what? You went to Miyagi-do? Why?” you ask. Demetri didn't know your brother, but if he was at Miyagi-do it wouldn't be long until he found out who you really were.

“Weren't you listening? Because that Kresse guy fucking punched me in the face! look!” he said pointing to his under eye, where you could see a faint bruise. you frown and reach your hand out slightly, before thinking better of it. “Anyways, you should totally join, I haven't actually done any karate yet but-”

“Hey! Y/N!” someone else calls out to you. you turn your head to see Sam walking your way. Great.

“Hey,” you say with a tight-lipped smile.

“You um left this morning before my mom could give you this,” she holds out a brown paper bag. “and I uh grabbed you this because I saw you didn't eat anything this morning,” she holds out an apple.

“Thanks,” you reply awkwardly, grabbing the items from her.

“Yeah no problem,” she smiles, glancing from you to Demetri, before leaving.

“Um. What was that about?”

“Nothing.” You turn on your heel and start walking to class, biting into the apple Sam had given you.

“It's not nothing, since when are you friends with Sam Larusso? And since when have you ever stayed at her house?” Demetri asks, hot on your heels.

“I’m not friends with her. And I’m only staying with them until my mom gets back or until we can get enough money for rent,” you say with a huff.

“We?”

“Not me and Sam, me and my brother.”

“Wait you have a brother- why- why have you never told me this?!” he almost yells

“It never came up,” you shrug, taking another bite of the apple and entering your classroom.

“Never came up!” he scurried after you, “you talk about your mom all the time! and you never once mentioned a brother!”

“Yeah well he's never been worth mentioning,” you look at him, finishing the apple and tossing it in the garbage can behind him.

Demetri looks at you exasperatedly as the teacher begins the class.