#and most of the time they're just a random string of letters and numbers

[leserattevirginie]

Youtube automatically dubbing originally english ads is unintentionally hilarious. You get the most monotone, soulless, depressed robotic voice you could possibly dream up telling you how nice it is to be on holiday 🤣

[pastorfutureletthembe]

Was just working on some meta when I noticed something and decided to investigate.

And I thought that it would be fun to share what's going on in my mind when I notice things with my tetris brain lmao Just so you guys understand how obsessed I am.

Here: this ">24A" mention.

Disclamer: I'm not into photography so I'm leaving the technical specificities to the pro (you're welcome to comment and share your science).

Apparently, 24A is the frame on the roll of film. It might refer to the 24th photo or frame on a 35mm film roll. The letter "A" could signify a specific format or marker related to a continuous sequence.

Now, looking deeper, I found out something interesting about film length:

The 24 on the box is a estimate of how many photos you will be able to take, depending on your camera and how you load the film. It's not unusual for the strip to provide you witha few more exposures than expected. At one time some film brands began marketing their "24 exposure" rolls as "24+3" or "27" rolls. In Japan some still label them as "27 exposures". The only difference between a 24 shot roll of 135 film and a 27 shot roll of 135 is the labeling. They're actually the same length. Between the 24 exposures promised on the box and the 27 exposures you were able to take is the difference between how much of the roll was pulled out of the film cannister and exposed to light during loading.

I feel like, even though Cheng Xiaoshi is the one in DIVE BACK IN TIME wrapped in films, it is more relevant to Lu Guang's power, who uses frames to see the past.

OVERTHINK also states "REPLAY REPLAY Gift me three chances to start over." I always thought 3 was a random number but it might actually be about the chance to get three more shots. It's a tight and narrow window of possibility though.

The whole thing sent me on a tangent and I just kept going with these:

16.49.439 16.49.159 16.49.799

These could belong to a standardized classification system in a specific domain.

My guess was MUSIC (Time is like Music, right?) because of the last digits. Like, R439 could be linked to Flute Concerto No. 2 in G minor, RV 439 La Notte, which-

Many LC lyrics refer to the moonlight so I thought it was fitting haha

For your information, the second movement is Fantasmi (ghosts), and the fourth is Il Sonno (sleep). Vivaldi published "La Notte" with five other pieces as the second of his six Op. 10 concertos for transverse flute and string orchestra.

This was a fun coincidence but not relevant to the other numbers tough, sadly.

Obviously, this sort of classification is meant to put our three favorite characters in the same category. If tied to photography, 16.49 might designate a thematic collection. Lu Guang is the one with the bigger last number, which could either mean he went through the most alterations or he's the latest to be updated, for example.

Note: I just like the ominous color on the last one to be honest. It indicates surexposition. Also, Lu Guang's smile in the background is chilling. Just like in the recent Yingdu Chapter teaser, the filter keeps us from seeing Lu Guang's eyecolor. Could be blue, red, gray, yellow, it's impossible to be sure.

Anyhow, that's how most of my meta start haha. Thank you for reading my nonsense!

[mariabtsos]

One That I Want - Chapter 7: Helpless

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Description: It is summer of 1956, and leader of the T-Birds Yoongi is working at a food joint at the beach to make extra money over the summer, when he meets a pretty girl. They start a summer fling that unfortunately had to come to end, but an unexpected turn of events will bring them back together.

Genre: 1950s au, angst, fluff, some smut, Greaser!Yoongi x Square/Goody-Two-Shoes!OC.

TW: underage drinking and smoking, sexual content, violence, misogyny (it’s the 1950s so peak macho man era).

Word Count: 1.2k+

"Men are rats!" Nayeon said to Lottie after she walked up to her, making the latter chuckle, "worse, they are fleas on rats, they're amoebas on fleas on rats!" She continued, Lottie was now laughing, maybe not as loud or full as Nayeon would hope, but this was a start. "They are too low for even dogs to bite."

Lottie nodded, she looked down to the floor, she still had Yoongi's words stuck in her head, 'try the yellow pages' who did he think he was? To humiliate her like that, in front of everyone, and to lie about what they did during the summer, for what? Some dumb reputation? Who's going to care after high school? The reality is, most times, you wouldn't see your peers again unless you were one to go to reunions.

"Come on, we'll drive to yours and get you a change of clothes and head to my place," Nayeon gave her a sweet smile, Lottie nodded and gave back the gesture.

After the confrontation the guys retreated back to Namjoon's car, under the excuse of having to pee, Yoongi walked off to try and find Lottie, he had to explain himself, he had to make things right, seeing her heartbroken was not worth this silly reputation of his.

After a while of pushing through people, and looking at random heads, he finally spotted her, her arms were linked with Nayeon's as they walked to her car, Lottie saw him, and he just stood there, looking at her longingly, hoping to express how sorry he was through his eyes. But she just rolled her pretty brown eyes at him after a bit, giving her attention back to her friends. At that moment, Yoongi felt he had lost everything.

Nayeon was doing Lottie's nails, as the girls spoke about tonight's events. "You've had a rough day," Jiyoon stated after turning on the TV, she placed her hand on Lottie's shoulder as a way of reassurance before getting back on the bed.

"Min's got some nerve, I told you, all deadbeats, so terribly immature" Miyeon added, checking herself out on Nayeon's vanity mirror.

Lottie brushed her hair, a heavy sigh leaving her lips, "he was just so different this summer."

"That's why I prefer a more worldly type of guy," Miyeon stated, getting up from the vanity to get something from her bag, "excuse me, I'm feeling a bit chilly," she took a beautiful, long, pink silk robe out of it, and put it on.

"Where'd ya get that?" Kim asked her, touching the soft fabric.

"Kibum sent it to me," she answered nonchalantly. "Didn’t he move to the U.S.?" Jiyoon asked.

"For University, yes," Miyeon added calmly, "who says I can't exploit my summer flings for pretty things?" She continued.

“Flings? Plural?” Nayeon asked.

“Well I can't put all my eggs in Kibum's basket,” she explained. "You wanna see him?" The question was directed at Lottie who nodded right away, which prompted Miyeon to pull out her wallet from her purse. Once she opened it, a long string of pictures unfolded in front of the group.

"Jeez Miyeonie!" Jiyoon and Nayeon said in unison, their jaws dropping at the number of pictures.

"You really weren't kidding!" Lottie said, grabbing one of the many sleeves with a picture in it, "How do you keep them all entertained?" Kim asked.

"Well, I am a terrific pen pal," Miyeon answered with a flirtatious tone, "I write a letter, they send a present," she smirked.

The girls giggled, Lottie was enjoying herself a whole lot, and the girls were actually quite fun and nice! It helped her get her mind off tonight, what it didn't get her mind off of, however, was the horrible sting on her toes.

"Hey Nayeonie, I'm not sure what nail polish you used, but it sure stings," she giggled nervously while fanning her toes with her hand.

The aforementioned's expression quickly dropped, looking at both bottles next to the bed, "oh my goodness, that wasn't nail polish remover, that was Nair!" Nayeon wanted the ground to swallow her whole, immediately running to the bathroom to wet an extra handkerchief she had and coming back to rub it on Lottie's toe nails.

"Unnie no offense, but you'd make a terrible pharmacist," Jiyoon stated as she looked at the scene unfolding in front of her. Nayeon gives her a dirty look.

"I'm sorry Lottie, I just have a lot going on in my mind," she admitted.

All the girls looked at their usually cheerful friend with concern. "Well, what's been eating at ya?" Kim finally asked.

"I just feel like Seoul Central is a dead end for me, I don't want my life to be school projects," she stated.

"You're dropping out?!" Jiyoon asked with concern, "it's not dropping out, it's a strategic move, I'll be a future graduate of JYP Beauty School," she stated proudly. The girls decided to cheer their friend on. Kim brought out a bottle of wine from her bag, a shocked Jiyoon grabbing it and reading the label. "We could have twinkies with this!" She said excitedly.

"Gosh Jiyoonie you're so immature," Miyeon rolled her eyes.

"It says so on the bottle unnie, it's not my fault your glasses are only for show and that you can't read it," the younger retorted, making Kim and Nayeon giggle. They all took turns, taking more than a sip and giggling afterwards.

"Well, we can't have all the fun, Lottie, why don't you have a swig?" Kim was overly sweet, and Lottie didn't know her well so she didn't pick up on her sarcasm.

"No thank you," Lottie stated.

"I bet you've never had a drink before, or smoked?" She shook her head at the leader's question, "I did have some sparkling cider at my cousin's wedding!"

"Well ring-a-ding-ding!" Kim exclaimed, this time though she definitely felt like Kim was trying to embarrass her.

So, she decided to go to the bathroom to wash off the Nair from her toes before she had a worse reaction to it, she closed the bathroom door so she could have some privacy. The girls on the other side were discussing her, and whether or not she'd be good enough to be indicted into the Pink Ladies.

"I don't know girls, she looks too pure to be pink," Kim sighed heavily. "I mean have you seen her, she strikes me as those squares that won't get laid until they are legally married," she rolled her eyes. "She probably has never ratted her hair, I mean have you seen how flat it is?! And she's never smoked?! Even the surgeon General said it's good for you!"

The other 3 girls looked distraught, when Kim turned around to see a shocked Lottie staring at her, "you making fun o' me Kim?" She asked, to which the aforementioned rolled her eyes one more time. "Some people are so touchy," she replied.

Nayeon went up to Lottie to comfort her, she didn't know why Kim was acting this way, then again, she knew she had been keen of Yoongi last year, so perhaps she was jealous that his newest acquaintance got so much out of him in such little time.

All the girls were startled at the sudden honking, it was close to 11pm, who in their sane mind was awake at this hour?!

[stormblessed358]

I'd reblog this just plain but begging for asks doesn't work on the internet and I know I'd never get responses anyway, so I'm just going to fill it out for one of my newest OCs by way of introduction and you are all going to have to deal with it.

This is Alexei, and I'm going to need to be very careful answering these because their story is rife with spoilers if ever I actually get around to making it.

what would their halloween costume be?

They'd match costumes with their two friends, Miriam and Ethan, because those two have undoubtedly been matching far longer than they've known Alexei.

what would their password be?

A very long, random string of numbers, letters, and symbols because they're really good at memorization and really paranoid about security. Think something like AlkjJ58&5a;gjk54Chth(ab*l;);kjh658&6%89)*7. Each one is unique.

if they met their first design, how would they react?

They'd probably be jealous because their first design had far fewer distinctive traits and, as mentioned, they're really paranoid and would prefer to blend into the background.

what would their birthday party be like? where? with who? what kind of food?

Miriam and Ethan would have to plan their party because they hate having attention on them. It would be the three of them plus Miriam's kid and Ethan's mentor. It would most likely be a pizza party where they watch Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure after learning Alexei has never seen it (the horror.)

what's their way of showing affection? whats their love language?

They are 110% a service kind of person. They're reserved and struggle with showing affection in an obvious way, so Miriam and Ethan have learned that when they find something randomly repaired or cleaned, that was Alexei saying "I love you."

if you and ur oc switched places (your oc went to the real world, and you went to the story) what would you both do first?

They'd be pretty devastated at losing the life they'd worked for, but this wouldn't be their first time with a major relocation. I'd be pretty jazzed about all the superheroes flying around but distinctly not too happy about the high levels of organized crime going on.

if your oc were to make a podcast, what would it be about? would you listen to it?

She doesn't talk much, so she'd more likely get roped into a podcast Miriam would start about the superheroes around the city because Miriam's a big fan. I'd listen if I had the time.

whats their most controversial opinion?

They hate ice cream because it's too sticky. Ethan and Miriam don't understand why Alexei would ever think this.

where would they sit in class?

If there's someone they know, they're sticking to that person like a barnacle. If not, the seat with the clearest shot to the exit.

what would they write about in the AITA reddit?

If they weren't concerned about the huge security risk social media presents, they'd write about very small events that they've overthought about - for instance, they accidentally gave one extra ketchup packet to a customer when working at the register at their job and their boss walked by and offhandedly remarked, "Pay attention, Alexei." Did they do something wrong? What should they have done instead? Have they permanently lost their boss's trust?

what do they smell like? what do they look like they smell like?

They smell like absolutely nothing. This is actually brought up in-story at some point. They look like they'd smell like the fast-food place they work at because most of their clothes are stained.

how would they describe themselves? how would their friend/love interest and how would you?

Alexei would describe themself as "efficient." Miriam would launch into a whole paragraph of praise that concluded with "I mean, there's a lot they're hiding, but they're still just the best person ever, okay?" My elevator pitch for Alexei, leaving out the spoilers, is that they're always on edge, scared out of their mind that the life they've built for themself is going to collapse out from under them, but they decide that doing good things for the people around them is worth the risk.

how would they do the “how many aura points did I lose when…” trend?

I have no idea what this is so I'm going to skip it.

how would you think they’d die if you didnt know already?

I have two, and they're both spoilers. Alexei's an enigma in the story for a very long time. However, they sarcastically proclaim that Ethan's rowdiness is going to be the death of them eventually.

whats the first thing you would notice about them if you saw them walking in a street?

I'd notice how weirdly they move - completely smooth, even steps, no unintentional movement. If the street is quiet enough, I'd note how they don't make any sound.

whats in their fridge?

Almost nothing. It gets more full when they're going to have people over, but otherwise they just have the essentials.

how well do they remember their childhood?

Perfectly. Their memory is really, really good (mentioned under the password question) and that extends to the events before they became who they are at the start of the story.

whats their best childhood memory?

[Redacted]. As mentioned, they're an enigma in the story and answering this question here will be far less interesting than when it gets answered in the actual story.

do they like answering questions?

Absolutely not.

are they left handed or right handed?

They're ambidextrous, but paranoid enough that they pretend to be right-handed in order to blend in. Miriam and Ethan know, and reassure them that ambidexterity is a perfectly normal thing that happens sometimes and that nobody would take notice, but they're needlessly worried.

whats in their google search bar right now?

"What is deodorant?" Long story.

whats on their wishlist?

Christmas presents for Miriam and Ethan. For themself, new pairs of sturdy jeans.

whats their most used emoji?

They don't use emoji because that's not the way they're used to typing. They have, however, started using :) after being exposed to Miriam.

would their fans assume they were written by a woman or a man?

Probably a woman? I don't make assumptions like this when I look at characters so I've got a bit of myopia when it comes to my own.

what would their reposts be about?

They are frankly scared of social media because of the massive security risk, but when they're looking over Miriam's shoulder they tend to have strong feelings about people being kind to each other.

what would their dating profile look like?

Again, dating apps are a security risk they would be unwilling to take, but in a world where circumstances were better, it would be so terse and clean that whoever looked at it wouldn't find anything interesting.

what is their "RIP (character) you would've loved (thing)"?

"RIP Alexei you would've loved The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells." (Did I do this right? I'm unfamiliar with this concept.)

do they give good advice?

Absolutely. They're observant enough that they can give specific solutions to specific problems whenever needed, but they're so blunt they run the risk of hurting feelings sometimes.

what do their hands look like? bracelets? rings? nails? veins? tattoos? scars? dirty/clean?

Their hands are usually at least a little bit dirty even though they wash them more than any other person Miriam knows. They're smooth and even, with no visible veins, marks, jewelry, or moles.

can they fight?

Yes. They're terrifying if pushed to that point.

would they kill a spider or let it outside?

They let it outside. They're always the one other people call to deal with spiders because they're utterly unfazed, no matter how big and/or venomous they are.

if they had to make wish that will surely come true, what would it be?

They'd wish that all the organized crime targeting people in their neighborhood would stop.

how would you spend a day with your oc?

I'd get them a library card and let them go for it. Alexei's in desperate need of some relaxation and the library would be much more comfortable for them than anything else.

how would your oc describe themselves in 3 words?

Efficient. They would not be able to come up with two more in a reasonable amount of time.

how do they define love?

When Alexei would sacrifice their own security for another person's, they consider it love.

if they had a mlp cutie mark what would it be?

A pair of roller blades.

how do they text/write?

Perfect capitalization, grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but very terse and to-the-point. They're really fast and never make typos.

what would be the worst crime theyd commit?

Depends on the context. At worst? Homicide.

what could they talk about for hours?

Something that Ethan or Miriam likes. They'd almost never start conversations about themself or be able to keep one going, but they share an interest in many things Ethan and Miriam do and know that the two of them like talking.

describe them as "he/she is a 10 but..”

They are a 10, but good luck getting them to open up to you.

do they believe in a higher power?

No. They're supportive of their religious friends, but can't share those beliefs.

what kind of first impression do they typically give? are they likeable from the get go?

It depends on the impression that the person approaching them gives. They're utterly neutral and cold if approached casually, such as by a customer at their workplace, but can come across as somewhat hostile if approached with questions.

what emotion is hardest for them to express?

Pain. Whether physical, mental, or emotional, they won't express it even to their friends. They value efficiency, and expressing pain detracts from that, in their mind.

are they a good liar? how often do they lie?

They are an extremely good liar, and if the rest of the answers didn't give a clue, they lie by omission almost constantly.

how quickly would they fall in love?

Alexei would like to think that they wouldn't fall in love easily whatsoever, but the opposite is actually true. They started to love the people in their community almost as soon as they arrived. In terms of romantic love, though, they'd take quite a while to even realize that's what they're feeling.

what kinds of dreams would they see?

They would dream about their past, from which they'd wake up with a cold sweat.

what was the darkest time of their life like?

It was right before they escaped and arrived in the community they are in at the start of the story. They didn't realize exactly how bad it was until they had the benefit of hindsight, and now a lot of the worry they hold is about never returning to that time.

𓏵QUESTIONS FOR DEVELOPING OCS

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

what would their halloween costume be?

what would their password be?

if they met their first design, how would they react?

what would their birthday party be like? where? with who? what kind of food?

what's their way of showing affection? whats their love language?

if you and ur oc switched places (your oc went to the real world, and you went to the story) what would you both do first?

if your oc were to make a podcast, what would it be about? would you listen to it?

whats their most contriversial opinion?

where would they sit in class?

what would they write about in the AITA reddit?

what do they smell like? what do they look like they smell like?

how would they describe themselves? how would their friend/love interest and how would you?

how would they do the “how many aura points did I lose when…” trend?

how would you think they’d die if you didnt know already?

whats the first thing you would notice about them if you saw them walking in a street?

whats in their fridge?

how well do they remember their childhood?

whats their best childhood memory?

do they like answering questions?

are they left handed or right handed?

whats in their google search bar right now?

whats on their wishlist?

whats their most used emoji?

would their fans assume they were written by a woman or a man?

what would their reposts be about?

what would their dating profile look like?

what is their "RIP (character) you would've loved (thing)"?

do they give good advice?

what do their hands look like? bracelets? rings? nails? veins? tattoos? scars? dirty/clean?

can they fight?

would they kill a spider or let it outside?

if they had to make wish that will surely come true, what would it be?

how would you spend a day with your oc?

how would your oc describe themselves in 3 words?

how do they define love?

if they had a mlp cutie mark what would it be?

how do they text/write?

what would be the worst crime theyd commit?

what could they talk about for hours?

describe them as "he/she is a 10 but..”

do they believe in a higher power?

what kind of first impression do they typically give? are they likeable from the get go?

what emotion is hardest for them to express?

are they a good liar? how often do they lie?

how quickly would they fall in love?

what kinds of dreams would they see?

what was the darkest time of their life like?

[thepixelelf]

im too lazy to take a screencap pls- here's the prompt: "y/n trying to mooch of changmin's wifi and jokingly putting their own name in as the password, then being shocked that it actually works and they're now connected to changmin's wifi"

Send me a prompt for a drabble

[make a connection] "This is ridiculous," you say from Changmin's countertop, not looking up from your phone and the string of messages from Chanhee. "He says he knows your wifi password, but he refuses to tell me!"

Taking a pause from cutting up potatoes, Changmin sighs. "Look, I can connect you to the wifi if you just give me your phone."

"No, see, that's not what I need." You set down your phone and meet his eyes. "You've told me your phone password, the one for your computer — hell, I knew the code for your last apartment even though your landlord hated you for it. So what's special about this one specifically? My detective mind is going nuts over this."

"Detective mind? You're an english major."

"Pedantics. Besides, I think you're hiding something more than just a random set of letters and numbers." You pick up your phone again and stare at the blank space where the password for Changmin's wifi should go. "I bet it's something embarrassing, like your childhood crush or something. What was that one kid's name again?"

Changmin's eyes widen.

"Ooh, did I strike a chord? Let's see, previous crushes..."

Memories from your shared childhood with Changmin flit through your mind, but even though it's been years, you can't remember anyone that Changmin might've liked enough to elicit this kind of reaction.

That being him pouncing for you and your phone.

"Oh my god!" You let out a surprised yelp when he reaches for your phone, but thankfully you dance out of range fast enough to run away. He chases you in circles around his new apartment. "It's no use, Changmin! I'm hot on your metaphorical trail just as much as you are on— whoa!"

He tackles you to the couch. Using one arm (and most of his body weight) to keep you still, Changmin reaches with the other arm for your phone, but you keep it as far away as possible. Just as you're about to make a teasing jab at him for it, a quiet ping makes you both turn your heads towards your phone.

It's a notification from Instagram. You're connected to the wifi.

In the few seconds of chaos, you'd scrambled to put in a name, any name, and of course the first one you thought of was your own. You didn't think it would actually work.

Slowly, you look at Changmin, who stares at your phone like it just told him he's going to die in seven days, and the dots connect in your head.

You said it was a childhood crush. He reacted. You put in your name. It worked.

Almost as if he can sense your cheeky smile, Changmin turns his head to look at you again. "I swear, it's not—"

He cuts himself off when he realizes how close his face is to yours.

"Oh really, Changmin?" You're having way too much fun with this.

He lets out a long, defeated groan and collapses on top of you, eliciting a quiet oof from your lips. Instinctively, you wrap your arms around him, your phone mostly forgotten.

This isn't the first time you've cuddled with Changmin, and you're sure it won't be the last, but... something about this feels like more. You smile.

"I'm never going to live this down, am I?" Changmin murmurs into the skin of your neck. You can feel the words on his lips, warmth spreading from there through your blood.

Bringing one hand up to run through his hair, you smile even wider when he leans into your touch.

"No, no you're not."

[young-dumb-and-vaccinated]

With Sweet Understanding (Handsome Jack x Female!Reader) pt. 11

Reader reader/you tore your dress/reader reader/your life is a mess

Reader and Jack plot their boss’s demise and it accidentally turns romantic oops. 

Trigger warnings: brief mention of SA

You stabbed your fork into a pot sticker and shoved it into your cheek. Jack's shirt smelled like cigarette smoke, but it was more comfortable than your robe and you frankly couldn't be bothered to get dressed again. 

"We have a whole-ass voice modulator and you still want to hack into his email?" Jack asked, taking a drag from a newly lit cigarette.

"I can't just approach him with a bluff." You shook your head. "We need to make him think I actually uncovered some incriminating phone record. And that takes details. Luckily, the dude's sketchier than an art student's homework, so finding them should take about ten minutes, tops."

"Damn, remind me not to get on your bad side." Jack muttered, watching you boot up whatever ancient email program Tassiter still used. "How do you know all this?" 

"Tassiter is a fucking idiot." You said, pushing your hair out of your eyes. "Keeps forgetting his passwords so he has me keep track of them."

Jack's face lit up. "So you've been sitting on a wealth of potential blackmail this whole time?" 

“Oh trust me, I’ve seen some of his shit. Sometimes I go into his personal stuff just to see what he’s up to. Y’know he ordered a hooker from Pandora?”

"Everything is legal on Pandora." He groaned. "Scandalous, but hardly blackmail material."

"She refunded him." You bit back a snort. "I don't know if it was his incessant complaining or his ugly face, but you have to be a special type of repugnant to get turned down by a Pandora hooker." 

He nearly choked on his breath, looking up at you in disbelief. “She refunded one of the richest and most powerful people in the goddamn galaxy—?!”

"Rich, powerful and fucking insufferable." You corrected, aggressively typing the password into the input box. When it turned red, you furrowed your brow in confusion. Frowning, you retyped the password, only to be met with the same response. 

"I swear to shit I put it in right." You mumbled under your breath. Panic shot through you, and you pulled up another website to try a new password in. 

"Having trouble?" He asked, peering over your shoulder just in time to see the new website reject your attempt. 

"Son of a bitch." You sighed in defeat. "He must have changed his password recently."

"Oh, that's no problem at all, sweet-cheeks." He sat cross-legged on the bed and snatched the computer from your lap. "Looks like it's time for a Jack hack attack!"

You rolled your eyes, but couldn't not notice how he lit up at the notion of getting to hack something. It was probably the happiest you'd seen him-- well, truthfully, it was probably the second happiest you’d seen him in the last hour or so. 

"I wouldn't get too excited." You clutched your forearms and crossed your legs, watching him poke around on your computer. "None of his passwords are ever words. They're just random strings of numbers and letters the computer spits out." 

A small smile tugged at the sides of his mouth. His eyes darted from side to side as he scrolled through the lines of code that made up the website. "Even better."

"Mind telling me what you're doing?" You crossed your arms, slightly annoyed that you were now the one looking over his shoulder. 

"I am looking for the program that generates alphanumeric default passwords." He answered, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Random number generators aren't truly random. They can only approximate randomness. Meaning there's a pattern to the numbers that are generated, even if it's imperceptible to the human interpreter." 

"Is that right?" You asked, hoping your confidence would convince him you understood a single word of that explanation. 

"Hell yeah it is." You saw the smile overtake his face. He briefly turned to you, just long enough to wink. "Computers don't lie, cupcake." 

"Anyway," He continued. "It's somewhere in the history of the program. His new password. Not knowing when he reset his password is, well, not ideal, but I could just write a quick little code to cycle through the history, then import that program-" 

He put your laptop to the side and opened his own. He began to punch out lines of code like his life depended on it. 

"Alright, entering a date range for the last, eh--" He mumbled to himself. "Let's say, twelve hours."

He clicked the enter key and ran the code. It spit out a handful of strings of random characters. He chuckled, clearly satisfied with himself. He entered the strings into the password text one by one until the fifth or sixth attempt proved successful. 

"I'm in." He said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Heh, I've always wanted to say that." 

Your gaze switched between your lover's face and the newly unlocked email account on your computer. "That was the sexiest goddamn thing I've ever seen." 

He caught his lower lip between his teeth and looked down to hide his little smile. "Blackmail away, sweet-cheeks." 

You returned to your spot on the bed with your computer resting against your bare legs. You knew you didn't have much time before your boss got a security alert and booted you from the account, so you had to work fast. Anything that could possibly be a little incriminating, you made a copy and emailed to your partner-in-crime, who sat directly beneath you on the floor. 

"Shit." Jack mumbled to himself as he scrolled through the endless sea of potential blackmail. 

"Oh, no." You responded, looking up from your screen. His expression was entirely unreadable. And for someone as expressive as Jack, that was a bad sign. "What? Is there nothing?" 

He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "'Is there nothing?' That's a stupid question."

"Can I get a stupid answer?" You snipped, knowing you were running out of time. 

"No. There's not nothing. There's actually something. Plenty of something." He admitted. "Embezzlement, insider trading, sex abuse cover-ups. He's really filling up the white-collar felony bingo board."

You quickly logged out from the email and tossed the computer aside like it was about to explode. "Thank goodness." 

"Like, I knew he was a freakin' sleazeball, but this-" He leaned back on his palms. 

"Yes?" 

What you thought was a straight line of resignation turned into the beginnings of a smile. Then the smile turned into a laugh. "This is fantastic." 

You swung your legs over the side of the bed and leaned forward to peek at his computer. Every PDF file you sent had been renamed and redirected to an encrypted folder.

"Wait, you don't need to save them-" you said, putting your hand out as if it would somehow make the documents stop downloading. 

"Oh, I know." He nodded, as if you'd just told him the wifi was slowing down or something equally as mundane. 

You tried not to assume the worst. "I don't think the company is going to like finding intercepted emails on your hard drive." You said, gently. 

He threw his head back. "Ha! Trust me, pumpkin. They won't find anything."

It was starting to look like the worst. You'd seen him drunk on power before, so you recognized the look in his mismatched eyes as he saved megabyte after megabyte to his hard drive. 

You began to assume the worst. You'd just become an accessory to fraud. "We really only needed the one email. Let's not get confident." 

"When Tassiter deletes everything the day after tomorrow, you will thank me." He said, one hundred percent sure of himself. "Never hurts to have some insurance." 

A pang of anxiety ripped through you like an explosive bullet lodged in a human ribcage. It was as if the prospect of getting caught never crossed his mind. He was far too comfortable for your comfort. 

"Let's just start with one." You said, grabbing his wrist before he could select 'download' on the dropdown menu. "We shouldn't push it."

"Relax, peach puff. I know what I'm doing." He smirked, nonchalantly bringing your hand to his lips. He simply continued the download with a click from his other hand. 

Your expression must have been a dead giveaway to your inner monologue. One look was all he needed to read your mind. "Oh, don't tell me you're scared." 

You snatched your hand back. "Yeah, of getting caught."

"You want Tassiter to pay for how he treated you, right?" He asked, pulling his attention off the laptop entirely and looking at you. 

"Of course." You answered, looking down.

He gestured to the computer. "Well, this is the only leverage we're gonna get, sunshine. Might as well take as much of it as we can." 

He was right. Tassiter had money, connections and resources. All you had was information, so the more of it you could get your hands on, the better. You let out a sharp breath of concession. "If someone uncovers it, we're both fucked." 

"Nah. I'm fucked." He waved his hand above his head dismissively. "Not gonna let you take the fall for this. You're too pretty for jail." 

"Shut up." You mumbled. "That's not how this works." 

"I'm serious." His voice sharpened as he turned away from his laptop and towards you. "Anyone finds out about this, you don't know me. You're gonna bat those pretty little eyes and give 'em that empty-headed girl look you use to manipulate Amos."

"I don't-" 

"Then you're gonna finger me." He said, pausing for a second to think about how that came out. "Not- well, yeah, definitely in that way sometime. But not now."

You sighed. "I couldn't do that to you." 

"Well, shit, cupcake." He smirked. "You can peg a guy but you draw the line at getting your hands dirty? I mean, I don't blame you-" 

"I'm not selling you out." You cut him off, crossing your arms. "That's not what friends do." 

"Well, friends generally don't put things inside of each other, either." He shrugged. "Rules of polite society went out the window when you took off my pants-"

"--Jack!" You interjected, shutting your eyes and clutching your fists. "If you think I'm going to throw away the first good thing to happen to me in years, you're more delusional than Tassiter.”

It was as if the real emotion in your voice startled him. Hell, it startled you. It was raw and aggressive and real. Like a long-dormant volcano erupting after centuries, filling the air with ash. 

The edges of his sardonic persona softened before your eyes. For the first time since meeting him, he couldn't keep his eyes on you. He glanced down, running his hand nervously through his hair. "Well, um. Okay." 

You buried your face in your hands. "Oh my God— I'm sorry."

He bit down on his lower lip to steady whatever emotion was simmering beneath the surface. You thought you saw the beginnings of a smile, but maybe it was wishful thinking. "I didn't think you cared.”

Your head snapped back up, your eyes full of shock. “You— you didn’t think I cared?” The question left as only a whisper.

"All this time I just thought you were using me to get back at Amos." He admitted, leaning back on his palms. "And I was cool with it, obviously. Like, I hate the guy, you hate the guy-" the normally unperturbed programmer was grasping at straws, desperately trying to explain his insecurities. It was one of the few times you’d seen him genuinely flustered— outside of a sexual context, that is.

You sat down beside him and took one of his hands in yours. “Jack… as much fun as it is to fuck with Amos, I— you’re one of the few people that actually show genuine care and respect for me. I love— being around you! I mean, you’re definitely entertaining as hell.”

Your tongue almost slipped, and you surprised yourself for the umpteenth time today. Jack noticed, of course. He always does.

"Did you just say the L word?" He raised an eyebrow. 

"It was a slip of the tongue." You mumbled, unable to control the heat spreading across your cheeks. You barely even convinced yourself it was a simple ‘slip’.

"Yeah, you know a little thing about a slip of the tongue, don't you, cupcake?" He said, effortlessly sliding back into his usual, nonchalant demeanor. You could tell the window for emotional transparency was closing.

"What if I export the files to an external drive? May be a little safer, and keep me around longer?” Jack added the last part with a wink and a playful smile. 

"You're a dick." You said, though by the way you practically draped yourself over him like a silk scarf, it was hard to believe you meant it. "You're not gonna let me live this down, are you?" 

"Oh, absolutely not." He shook his head. A huge, blissful smile overtook his face. "The hottest woman in Hyperion said she loves me!" 

The blush you had just begun to chase away returned with a vengeance, spreading to your ears as you felt your heart do a flip. “I— those weren’t my exact words!” You stuttered, barely trying to sound convincing as you buried your face in his shoulder. “But… fuck— yes, I do.”

"Hail to the king, baby!" He launched his fists into the air and shouted triumphantly.

[byulsgrease]

duly noted

you've never been one to obsess about your soulmate, assuming you'll figure it out when the time is right. but seriously, what kind of nonsense has yours been writing about recently?

(eventual moonbyul / wheein x gender neutral reader, soulmate!au, trainee/idol!au, ~1.2k words)

a/n: wheein bias wrecker anon! I might've had too much fun with your req and so this is gonna be my first soulmate au 🤠 while byul and wheein don't actually appear in this part (does that make this a prologue? idk), I promise they'll make their appearance soon enough :)

cw: struggles of being a trainee (weight + food talk)

The claps from your dance instructor ring out in the mirrored studio, calling everyone to attention before they send you off for the day. Everyone stands around listening to whatever niceties they're talking about, asking the rhetorical questions of whether all of you want this, how everyone needs to work harder, etc. How many years has it been now, almost three? Evaluations went pretty well recently and you've certainly demonstrated signs of growth since you started, but debut? Who knows. Does anyone, really?

But right now it's late and you're hungry, hoping that your growling stomach isn't loud enough to pierce through the lecture. You're respectfully tuned out anyway, since it's all old news. Nothing you haven't heard before. They clap again once their spiel ends and everyone disperses. Your eyes catch Hyejin's on your way out of the studio, sharing a funny face and an eyeroll before disappearing into the herd of trainees shuffling to the lockers.

Your locker opens with a routine spin of the dial, taking care to slow down and line up the numbers properly so you're not stuck having to do it over again. The inside's pretty cute for a metallic rectangle— it's really the only space of your own besides your notebook. Pictures of your family, old school friends, and fellow trainee friends line the sides beneath a tiny string of battery-powered fairy lights. It's not much, but always a humbling reminder of why you're here.

Unzipping your bag, you take out a pair of slides and drop them on the floor while stepping out of your sneakers. There's not much else in your bag, just a change of clothes and your notebook, of course. Everyone has one. Anything inside could be drawn, written, scribbled, painted. It’s your personal creative space and no one else's, but with two conditions:

You can't write your name in it, not even your initials. Of course everyone tried to as kids against their parents commands, but letters simply sink into the page, disappearing as if they'd never been written at all.

You can only mark up one side. Pages on the right side are for you, and the left side pages fill themselves. Fill themselves with what? you asked your parents. They gave you a non-answer, saying you'd figure it out someday. Great. Only other thing they bothered to tell you was that your right-hand pages were someone's left-hand ones. So someone can see what I put here? Their confirmation sounded rather casual, which you found weird. Someone out there was watching what you put in? But you got used to it, especially since every person owns one. It's a novelty for children anyway. Mark up a page however you want, knowing that someone out in the would will see, and sit back to watch whatever randomness shows up on the left side.

Your left side pages were actually empty for quite a while, save for the occasional "UGGHHH" followed by a typical childish annoyance scrawled messily across the entirety of the page in marker. Not that notebook use was mandatory, but parents usually encouraged it because it kept their kids occupied. There wasn't much you could do about empty pages, nor did you care most of the time, but it did leave you a little jealous of other kids at school who'd sometimes open theirs and be greeted with cute watercolor paintings, mini murals, or skillfully written poetry.

For you, the notebook's served many uses. As a kid it was random doodles and poorly-drawn fantasy scenarios— escapism, perhaps. In middle school it was angsty poems and random journal entries about the random happenings of your life. For the first half of high school it became your to-do list, keeping track of school assignments. And on the rarest occasion, song lyrics. Visual art was never your medium of choice, music came more easily. But drawing staff lines for music notation in the notebook usually ended up being too tedious, so your original stuff was mostly relegated to voice memos on your phone. And now? Who knows. Trainee life may as well be a blur. Sing, dance, talk, eat if you can afford to, sleep, repeat. It's hard to find the energy to write anything most days. Whenever you feel like checking, the left side has random jottings, nearly illegible most of the time.

It wasn't until you got older that you realized that whoever read your entries on the was the same person generating content on the left. And supposedly the person you're supposed to be with for the rest of time? What kind of system is that? I'm just supposed to trust blindly? having asked your parents in exasperation after figuring it out. Again with more non-answers— it had worked for them, didn't it? There's also the obvious question of why people don't just write directly to each other, but whatever. You're still young, no need to obsess over "the one" unlike some of your classmates. If it's meant to be, it'll happen, you figure. And it obviously is, you've got a notebook with (semi-)filled left side pages. What more could you ask for?

The cacophony of clanging lockers opening and closing starts to die down as people leave. Hyejin's head pops out from behind the locker door, laughing in your face when you flinch.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah, one sec. Man, I'm starving,” you remark while slipping the bag straps on your back and closing the locker door. You don't even want to know how strapped for cash you are, probably in for another night of boiled eggs and canned kimchi.

“Wanna go out for food?” she immediately asks, eyes alight at the prospect of getting to eat something besides convenience store food.

"I wish. Actually, you wish," you smirk with longing in your eyes. The "no" doesn't even have to be said, weigh-ins are way too soon to risk it. She hangs her head, jokingly dejected as you swing an arm around her shoulder to walk out of the company building together.

~~~~

After scrounging up whatever food you call dinner, taking a shower, and flopping into bed, you open up your notebook and grab the random pen laying on your dresser, unsure of what you'll write about tonight. There's chicken scratch on the left page already, ballpoint pen. It's actually legible today, though: In my room every day I see your smile.

What the hell does that mean? Whose smile, yours? You haven't even met yet.

Call me everyday every night, hug me everywhere every time

Utter nonsense. Maybe meeting soulmates is just a huge game of catch-up once everything's finally revealed, surely yours will be. There’s just so many questions. Moving to the right side, you jot down a list of cheat meal ideas along with some assorted notes and pointers from practice that you want to work on tomorrow, drawing little characters next to each list item for fun. After accidentally drawing a random squiggle from jolting yourself awake and feeling the heaviness in your eyelids, you cap your pen and shut your notebook, placing it back in your bag. With the lights out, the last thought you have before sleep consumes you is why haven't you ever tried writing directly to each other after all this time?

[next]

[neo-punks]

(Edit: I was a little wrong in my explanation of a blockchain, but I don't feel like editing this post, so here is a link to a better explanation! https://hackernoon.com/databases-and-blockchains-the-difference-is-in-their-purpose-and-design-56ba6335778b)

OKAY ACTUALLY. So I read this article and it doesn't work exactly how I thought it did, so one server going down isn't a problem, and the explanation linked only covers Proof of Work and not Proof of Stake (the thing that the Neopets NFTs use) but the explanation of PoW DEFINITELY sounds environmentally unfriendly. and also my statement about NFTs being stupid still stands.

https://decrypt.co/resources/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake

Here is a decent explanation for Proof of Stake, it does sound a heck of a lot less damaging than PoW, energywise. I could see how someone could argue storing like.. actually important shit on a system like this, but it's still dumb and unnecessary to me when an actual Neopet is just a (more customisable but also more stealable) version of the same thing. This has been my argument the whole time, though, I don't even care if NFTs are hurting the planet I honestly just think they're stupid ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I want to add just a little bit more technicality to it. Not sure if this will be helpful or more confusing but I feel like a lot of the language surrounding NFTs and cryptocurrency is more cryptic than it needs to be and the NFTbros just keep regurgitating the same vague explanations ("Blockchains!" "PoS! PoW!") without explaining what PHYSICALLY is happening. (I'm gonna get annoyingly wordy just to make sure all concepts are clear!) Disclaimer: I am a programmer, but this is my interpretation of how this shit works based on the information that I could find, and most of it does not go into great detail about the technicalities because everybody wants a "dumb-down" explanation, but that only makes it harder for me to understand, so I'm filling in some gaps with assumptions based on that way that.. well basically all fucking technology works.

So an NFT on the most basic level, is not that much different from a Neopet, like Blumalou explained. It's just a unique collection of data attributes that identifies a digital piece of media. For a Neopet, it's attributes are things like Name, Species, Color, etc. All of the data for a Neopet has to be stored somewhere, which is a database. A database, is just like a big spreadsheet table with rows and columns of data. Most tables in a database have a unique identifier that cannot be changed. For Neopets, this is their name. This is field that all other tables can use to identify a specific entity in the database. (Which is why it's very difficult to add the option to let users change names because the system of data relies heavily on the name field and it would require rebuilding the entire database, but I digress)

An NFT is really no different. NFTbros want you to believe that it's some crazy magical technology that is like self-contained or something. But all of this information has to be stored somewhere. It has to be, otherwise it would be lost if the servers running everything were to shut off. Buyers need to know that if a server has a hiccup, their data won't be completely lost. So it's permanently stored somewhere. The difference between an NFT and a Neopet, though, is that the NFT's "Name" is a random string of letters and numbers that is, and this is the important part, SCRAMBLED by another random string of numbers and letters (this is called "hashing").

This is the same way most passwords are stored, so that even if someone hacks a database, they can't get your password because it isn't actually stored as your password, it's a random hash. When you type your password, it's "hashed" and converted to a random string, and whatever system you're logging into has some sort of system built in to decode that string, locate a match in the database, and confirm that it's the correct password. This is the same with NFTs. So unlike a Neopet, even if someone DOES happen to know the random string that represents your NFT, it doesn't mean much, they can't easily steal it from you because it has to be decoded who knows how many times before it actually matches the database entry that it represents. And furthermore, they're difficult to steal because of the "blockchain" that everyone keeps talking about.

A blockchain is a "digital ledger", meaning it's a record of who owns what and how much they spent on it. (In the early days of Bitcoin, this was actually manually recorded believe it or not!) And the "blockchain" for NFTs is the actual information that is stored in the database. So like Neopets have their Name, Species, etc, the blockchain database will contain the "key" (hash string) for the NFT itself, who bought it from who, when, how much they paid, etc. The NFT itself is not the data. It's like a roadmap to the data. The explanation a lot of people use is that the NFT is like a deed to a house, but not the actual house.

They call this blockchain "immutable" because it cannot be changed. This is just human design. There's nothing actually physically preventing someone with enough knowledge from changing information in a database unless they have made it SO locked out that even the highest level administrators cannot undo the locks that have been put on it. Which is more than likely the case, I don't actually know, but I would assume so because they want that shit to be safe. But any database can be "immutable" if I open the database management software and go into the properties of a table and set it not allow updates, inserts, or deletes. It's not like it's hard is what I'm getting at. But cryptobros act like it's some huge technological leap and I just don't believe that honestly.

Anyway, all of this explanation is to say that actually, NFTs are not as indestructible as cryptophiles want you to believe. If those databases storing that data are wiped out? No more NFT. It's actually not that much more special than a Neopet. And the dumbest part is that you have to have a digital wallet to store it. So if the digital wallet servers go down? No more NFT. And you have to use cryptocurrency to buy them. And the value of the NFT is pretty much dependent on the value of the cryptocurrency. So if the crypto crashes? Cool now you not only own a pile of random characters, it's a worthless pile of random characters.

Buying an NFT is literally no different from buying a Neopet honestly. Except that Neopets are way easier to steal and the trading chain of who owned that Neopet is not public. I could keep going but I feel like this post is long enough.

anyway, I'll say one last thing, and this is coming from someone who thinks NFTs are stupid. The environmental impact of the NFTs themselves is not actually that much more than any normal website that has server farms just holding data. NFTs alone are, again, just like storing the data for a Neopet. The part that makes it not environmentally friendly, is 1. the processes running that decode the giant string of data (the "roadmap") in order to store and retrieve data from those servers is probably very computational expensive (as in uses a lot of power, ergo generates a lot of heat), and 2. you have to buy NFTs with crypto, and crypto mining is the thing that is actually harming the planet and raising the temperature that everyone is mad about, because the machines doing the "mining" are running such intensive processes that they just get super fucking hot. And it is technically true that the cryptocurrency that the Neopets NFTs are running on is not as bad as bigger cryptos like Bitcoin, but it doesn't mean that it couldn't get as bad, or that it isn't still using untold amounts of resources just to do something fundamentally stupid. People are making all kinds of arguments for NFTs being good replacements for legal documents and shit, and fine whatever, I still think it's dumb, but sure MAYBE you can make a case for that. But a picture of a Neopet? an UGLY Neopet at that? It's not necessary. It's stupid. It's literally just a waste of money and energy when an ACTUAL ON-SITE NEOPET IS VIRTUALLY THE SAME GODDAMN THING AND YOU ACTUALLY GET TO CHOOSE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE.

I once again want to reiterate that I may be wrong about a thing or two in here, but this is the best way I've found to explain it to myself without using all the dumb jargon that doesn't make any sense to me. I hope this helps someone else too!

What does fungible even mean