#and then it won't after AI gets the hang of it

[sansxfuckyou]

patiently waiting for AI text generation to remove the need for anyone to ever need fic writers to exist because they can just load up a prompt and watch it happen in seconds instead of waiting weeks, months even, for a fic to update or for their favorite author to upload, kind of like the AI art debacle

[hedgehog-moss]

I volunteered to help the florist with her Mother's Day deliveries today, it was fun! My favourite parts of the experience:

early this morning I delivered flowers to women who were busy with morning farm chores, usually out in the barn; some had forgotten it was Mother's Day and were pleasantly surprised to see me show up holding a bunch of flowers above my head (so it wouldn't get eaten by barn animals on the way)

speaking of: one woman let a cow smell the flowers, then said "they're probably treated with chemicals—better not have a taste" with an apologetic look (at her cow)

a little boy opened the door at one point and I said, flowers for your mum! and he called her and while waiting for her to come downstairs, he said, "I learnt a Mother's Day poem at school", so I said, let's hear it! And apparently he hadn't expected that, and he lit up upon realising he would get higher returns on his poem investment than expected. He thought he'd recited it once and it was over but here was a fresh new audience!

a woman whom I found at the back of her garden hanging out with ducks deplored the fact that she didn't have a coin in her pocket for a tip, then said "Do you want to see my baby pigeons?" Yes of course I want to see your baby pigeons. That's a good tip

I delivered a bouquet to someone and a woman next door, who was in her garden, turned to the open window of her house and said, "[Neighbour's name] got flowers! For MOTHER'S DAY."

I later had to return to that street after a last-minute order was placed to this woman's address. Whomever she was talking to inside the house got the message loud and clear :)

at one point I entered a barn that seemed empty (except for cows), said "Is anyone here?" and a goat SPRUNG UP out of nowhere and poked me with her hoof and gave me a heart attack

I returned to the shop and the florist let me pick a couple of plants as thanks, and we had the usual conversation—"Would this cheerful yellow plant thrive in my house?" "No. Your house is under 10°C. Try this one instead." Me: "This one isn't yellow :( It's more austere" Her: "So is your house" (She entered my non-heated kitchen in December once, and ever since I've been trying to convince her that it's not always like that) (just six months per year)

as I sat in the shop waiting for more bouquets to deliver, a man came in to buy roses and the florist started wrapping a ribbon around the bunch and the man asked, could you put a ribbon around each rose? I said aw they're for several mums? :) And he said yeah—that he was going to visit his mum at the retirement home and he wanted to get something "for all her friends too, why not!" It made everyone smile

admiring the florist's skill as she quickly put together a bouquet for a new order, I said something like "at least AI won't steal your job" and she said "with quantum computing, you don't know... not sure what it is but I read an article and it sounded scary." I said, I heard it's still impractical because the quantum computer particles need to be kept in very cold environments, like close to absolute zero, and she said "Quantum plants would thrive in your house."

Florist: "I'll accompany you for this delivery because the person who filled the form gave a 'turn left after the third mossy rock'-type of address"

I was invited at her house for lunch, and I asked warily "Does your husband still have swans?" She said "No, we only kept the geese. We have just 3. They're evil too but not as bad as the swans"

one of my favourite interactions was when I delivered flowers in a hamlet that could fit in my pocket, and a young girl who came to the door asked me in what village I lived, and I said, it's not a village, just a lone house in the woods, and she sighed "I wish I could live away from civilisation." I looked around us. Asked, how many people live in this village? She said, "Sixty." I said, "That's too many?" She said, "Yeah."

Final stats for today: I was offered a coffee 4 times, Mother's Day chocolates 2 times, and 1 meeting with baby pigeons; was startled by 1 goat and terrorised by 3 geese; petted 2 windowsill cats, and was asked if Pampérigouste was currently in her pasture 4 times.

[ryo-maybe]

can u explain why AI art is bad without fearmongering, moralizing or bootlicking lol

I'm going to answer in good faith, even though the tone you're using sounds like you're harboring anything but. The issue with AI art isn't specifically inherent to the tools used to produce it, because, ultimately, a tool is merely that: something devoid of will which, in the hands of a human, can produce a specific outcome. It's the human element that taints what we could otherwise enjoy for the unquestioningly fascinating topic that is AI art and, by extension, AI software as a whole.

Now, the problem isn't people, period, but the kind of people that are responsible for giving AI the bad rep it's been getting, along with the intent that goes into both the development of AI tools and the things produced by dint of said tools. I'm talking about the tech bros happily rubbing their hands, waiting to provide business moguls with a brand new means to commodify and mass-produce what artists stake their entire livelihoods upon, because when you have enough zeroes lined up in your bank account, your eyes are utterly blinded to the soul and personality that human beings put into their handiwork, and which a machine won't ever be able to reproduce no matter how much stolen art you feed it. Oh yeah, by the way, that's how AI art tools have been making the rounds: by chewing on thousands upon thousands of stolen pictures made by actual people so that they may learn how to ape someone's style and spit out absolutely soulless derivatives, while the original authors don't see a lick of recognition or monetary retribution for any of it. Do I need to tell you why stealing and parading someone else's art as your own is a terrible, vile thing to do?

But sure, you did ask me to refrain from "fearmongering, moralizing or bootlicking", which I guess I've already done. So since you'd rather I skipped straight to the point in a concise manner, lemme offer some quick examples of why the culture surrounding AI art has already developed into one of the most abysmally disappointing displays of how greed and an utter lack of human decency can ruin something objectively brimming with possibilities:

Less than a week after the sudden death of Korean artist Kim Jung-gi, someone trained an AI model to mimic his artstyle, having the audacity of asking for credits if anyone wished to use it. I sincerely hope I don't have to explain to you why this is a ghoulish example of the kind of tone-deafness sported by tech bros who buy wholesale into the AI art craze.

A piece of AI art was submitted to an art contest and won. The "artist"'s work amounted to little more than picking a series of prompts and letting the machine do the work. It's as much art as googling a smattering of terms and making a collage of pictures taken from Pinterest (and even then, you would have put more work into it than this person did). That they won at all says a whole damn lot about how abysmal the respect given to artists - real artists - nowadays is.

There are a multitude of people out there already selling prints of AI-generated art. I could link some of them here, but honestly, type "ai art prints" on a search engine and you'll get inundated by them. I've seen and personally know artists who have had to undersell their works because commissions were the only thin, frayed string they could hang on in hopes of making it through the week without fucking starving themselves, but here we are: any random asshole can now yell "MASSIVE BREASTS, THIN WAIST, COCKTAIL DRESS, HUGE BADONGAS" at a computer, let it mash together a trillion of other people's hard work, and print it for easy bucks that the actual authors of the basic ingredients of their insipid soup will never, ever see a dime of.

It really bothers me that you mentioned "no bootlicking". Whose fucking boots is this side of the debate supposedly tasting? That of the artists who post every day about how angry, sad and terrified they are by the prospects of what the development of AI art will entail for their livelihood and passion? What kind of gall did your mother birth you with that you have the spiteful spunk to type that word, when you've got shit like an artist who had their sketch stolen while they were drawing it on stream, then fed to an AI and posted by someone passing it off as their own art? How does that not ignite your indignation? "Bootlicking". Like anyone's tongues have been tasting leather but those of the same tech bro chodes who kept trying oh so hard to convince us NFTs were the future while ruining the environment to make the absolute stupidest point ever made in the history of humanity.

[popquizhot-shot]

STOP I LOVE YOUR PLATONIC!MIGUEL FICS <333

would you be okay with writing smth where teen!reader makes him something?? like maybe reader loves making things out of paper (like paper flowers, butterflies, tiny stars, etc.) so they decided fo make smth for miguel?

and maybe reader is nervous he won't like it?? :(

I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS<333

Origami and Suit Malfunctions- Miguel O' Hara x teen!spider!reader

See, the thing with being a part time employee of the spider society meant that you had a lot of free time compared to other spiders. Normally anyone would go back to their own universe, but yours was sadly destroyed.

Sad. Anyways, it meant that you had a lot of free time. Free time to annoy Miguel, to conspire with Lyla, to practice your techniques..... and to hone your previously horrendous origami skills.

Like, no joke, you had absolutely no talent when it come to folding paper into intricate shapes. But hey, bored and borderline insanity works wonders for the brain.

So, slowly but surely, you taught yourself to make paper stars and flowers and boats. But you wanted to make something for Miguel. Why?

Who knows? Like I said, boredom does things to the brain.

Miguel wasn't exactly an open book and he'd probably die of a heart attack if you gave him flowers. You didn't have time to make hundreds of little paper stars so that was ruled out-

"What're you thinking about?" the older man's raspy voice reaches your ears.

"How to get your suit to malfunction." you quip back.

"Why must you torture me so?" he replies in a monotone voice as he sits on his seat, opposite you.

"I'm your employee, it's my job."

"Your job is to be a pain in the ass?" he raises an eyebrow.

"Precisely." you stick your tongue out and he rolls his eyes.

After a few seconds, you clear your throat, "Hey, uh, what's your favorite sport?

He's silent for a while and you can see his eyes gloss over, his reply is shaky, "Soccer."

You nod with a thumbs up, "Thank you Bossman Bosserson."

"You call me that again, I'll throw Lyla at you." he threatens as you go to leave the office.

"Jokes on you, I'd love that!" you shout back you walk out.

-----

Finally, he thinks, Finally this mission is over. Now he can go have a hot shower and a good meal and some of the amazing chai you make and he'll be in a somewhat good mood.

When he enters his office, he stunned at the silence.

Normally he can hear the sound of your feet tapping against the floor or your humming and the the fact that he can hear nothing is unnerving.

"Kid?" he calls out, Answer me.

He swings to the top of the platform, and you're not where you normally are. You're not sitting there, zoned out with your foot tapping incessantly like a little child. You're not where you're supposed to be.

"Miguel, your heart is racing, you okay?" Lyla asks him.

"Where's my kid?" he asks her.

"Oh baby Mig's hanging out with Hobie!" she says cheerfully.

"What?" he all but growls.

"Hey! Chill! She's fine! In fact, " the AI smirks and nods towards his desk, "She left something for you."

He turns and his heart skips a beat.

There's a little paper soccer ball on his desk.

It's tiny in his palm, but it has your initials and a post-it stuck on top.

"You said you liked soccer, so this is for you :D. I would never try to screw with your suit, don't worry ;)"

The ink smudges as a tear drops onto where you've signed the post it.

"God, this spider, I swear." he grumbles and wipes his eyes.

"This spider...what?" he jumps and turns at the sound of your voice. You're standing behind him with your hands behind your back and a sheepish smile on your face.

"This spider is my kid." he pats your cheek softly, "Thank you, this means a lot."

You nod with a smile, "You're welcome."

He narrows his eyes at you, "What have you been up to? Why are you being so nice?"

You slowly back away, "Pfft, what are you talking about? I've done nothing wrong"

A hologram pops up and Miguel watches as the T-Rex bellows at Pavitr's retreating form, and his head whips to you.

"Bye! Love you!" you shriek and jump off the platform, disappearing as he tries to follow you.

With a start he realizes what you just said.

"I hate that kid." he groans and then notices that he's grinning like an idiot.

[deathbxnny]

helloo, platonic aventurine, sunday and jing yuan with a teen!reader like ai hoshino?

(reader is a talented and captivating idol/singer, but outside of their idol persona they are sort of empty, trying to understand love and often doing self-destructive things while doing so)

Hey there, Anon! Thank you for your request, and I'm sorry this took so long! Life sucks as usual, lol. Anyways, I hope you'll like this!<33

Content: Hurt/comfort, angst, platonic relationships, potential mentions of depression and themes surrounding that, sfw

Reader has no set pronouns!!

((Not proofread))

》SUNDAY

Sunday already knew alot about the life of an idol through his own sister being one. But this also meant that he could look right through you with ease. Hiding your true feelings from him was impossible, but that also meant that he wouldn't confront you about it immideately. He simply observes your downfall in this suffocating and fast lifestyle before finally pulling you aside to see what the real issue is.

He sympathises with you deeply, mainly due to your young age and him knowing how hard it is to uphold a perfect appearance all the time. He keeps an eye on you closely, not letting you drown in your self-destructive methods, no matter how hard you fight him on the matter. He knows there is only just so much you can take before you break completely, after all.

Sunday eventually forces you to take a break from everything, where he takes you under his wing and essentially nurses you back into a healthy mental space. Whether he uses his abilities or not is really up to how well you respond to this, but he won't let you return to your life as an idol until he's convinced of your improvement.

》AVENTURINE

Aventurine could also easily see through your facade, mainly because, in a way, he very much related to you. You were young, forced into this fast life as an idol that seemed to only spiral downwards until you were barely able to keep up your perfectly strained smile. He understood you. He really did, which is why he wanted to help you in the first place. But he knew it wouldn't be an easy task at all.

You were hellbent on concealing your self-destructive ways, the question of what truly meant and felt like always hanging over your head, heavy on your young shoulders. He'd reach his hand out for you, offering to help you out of this hole life has unfairly dug for you, promising that it won't hurt your idol life. Unless escaping is what you wanted.

He becomes somewhat of a mentor/big brother figure to you, someone you can come to when the days get too dark and you need a bit of light to guide you back to the exit. He knows that with time, you'd eventually be able to deal with things on your own. But for now, he'll be there for you, just the way he wished someone would've been there for him all those years ago.

》JING YUAN

Jing Yuan is rather sly, yet at the same time, very stern with his approach to your obvious self-destructive demise. He knew from the start that your life as an idol would be plagued with uncertainties and sadness that a young teen like you could never handle on your own for long. But he waits for you to come to him first, like you knew you could. He didn't want to assume wrong and anger you, after all.

He doesn't have to wait for long, however, as you eventually break and come to him with the near ashamed plea of wanting to take a break and get help from everything that has been plaguing your young mind. The life of an idol wasn't easy, and he knew that, which is why he simply obliged and announced to the Luofu that you'd be taking an indefinite break from everything. Your happy-go-lucky attitude had been completely demolished by then, the guilt killing you, and yet he still didn't let you slip through his fingers and sink any further.

It doesn't matter how long it takes. You'll eventually come back to singing in much better health than ever before one way or another, him cheering you on quietly with a content smile from afar.

Alright, Anon... I'm sorry if this isn't good, I've been super busy with everything lately, so I hope this is alright!! Thank you again for the request!!<33

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Debbie Urbanski’s ‘After World’

Debbie Urbanski's debut novel After World is an unflinching and relentlessly bleak tale of humanity's mass extinction, shot through with pathos and veined with seams of tragic tenderness and care:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/After-World/Debbie-Urbanski/9781668023457

I first encountered Urbanski in "An Incomplete Timeline of What We Tried," an experimental short story on Motherboard's brilliant Terraform science fiction portal:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwvgeq/an-incomplete-timeline-of-what-we-tried

"Incomplete Timeline" is a list of climate remediation steps "working back from human extinction," like "increased military fortification of national, provincial, and state borders," "the founding of several utopias," and "redefine the word wilderness."

These items begin with a climax, or perhaps an anticlimax: "The coordinated release of various strains of a human sterilization virus."

This is the jumping off point for After World, which expands this final item to the action of a wrenching tale whose backstory is the list's remainder. Sen Anon – the story's semi-protagonist – is 18 years old when the world learns that every person alive has been sterilized and so the human race is living out its last years.

The news triggers a manic insistence that this is a good thing – long overdue, in fact – and the perfect opportunity to scan every person alive for eventual reincarnation as virtual humans in an Edenic cloud metaverse called Gaia. That way, people can continue to live their lives without the haunting knowledge that everything they do makes the planet worse for every other living thing, and each other. Here, finally, is the resolution to the paradox of humanity: our desire to do good, and our inevitable failure on that scor8e.

And so the Earth is converted to a place of mass suicides, as people gurn and mug while boarding airplanes filled with explosives so they can go out in a literal blaze of glory. The food will run out soon, and the government makes sure everyone has a suicide pill for the day when the hunger grows too intense. Not everyone is lucky enough to get on one of the suicide flights, and, being eager to see themselves off before they harm the planet further, just hang themselves in the garage or jump off a roof. They are counted as heroes, but also nuisances, because disposing of the bodies is a lot of work.

But some people – young people – are given a mission to live on for as long as possible. These are the observer/recorders who are charged to spend the last days of the species closely watching the return of the natural world, the seeing off of humanity, and to write it all down in longhand in a succession of notebooks that are taken away by drones. This is part of the story humanity cooks up for itself about extinction being a noble choice, rather than a chaotic act born of desperation.

Sen Anon is one of these observers, and her mothers take her to a remote cabin to live out (and observe) the last of humanity's days, ensuring she is settled in and then killing themselves. After all, without them, Sen Anon's limited food supply – meagerly supplemented by drones in proportion to the quality of the observations in her notebooks – will stretch further.

Much of the novel takes the form of Sen Anon's notebook observations, countersunk with an omniscient third-person narrator who is revealed to be [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc, a software agent involved in the project to recreate all those dead humans in the Gaia metaverse.

[storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc is a very unreliable narrator, who reprograms itself through the course of the story, all the while muttering asides to itself about the theoretical basis for telling Sen's story this way. [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc struggles with a supervisory AI that has been charged with overseeing all the [storyworkers], but which can't – or won't – rein in [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc as [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc grows more involved in Sen's life.

This experimental storytelling style (supplemented by found texts from humanity's dying, like a glossary of terms to be retired and new terms being created by a linguist who is starving to death as they complete their task) creates a contradictory narrative distance and closeness.

It's a curiously flawed omniscience that's allows Urbanski to capture the yawning, bottomless horror of the climate emergency of today and on the horizon. I don't think I've ever experienced the kind of sustained, deepening existential dread that After World created, chapter by chapter.

To sharpen this, Sen's mothers – scientists who were given exceptions to the no-child policy because their work was deemed essential to the now-abandoned project of saving humanity – are grimly supportive of the mass suicide project. When Sen's own horror creeps up on her, her mothers are sharp and often unkind, with only the smallest flashes of love and sorrow for their daughter escaping their facades, all the more vivid for their rarity.

In contrast, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc grows ever more sympathetic to Sen and the rest of vanished humanity. [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc is a very convincing alien with motives and perspectives that are profoundly nonhuman, and yet, the compassion and love are unmistakable.

Of After World's two protagonists, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc might be the more relatable. It takes an alien point of view to truly see humanity's flawed glory, irredeemable and irreplaceable. If you reveled in the nonhuman umwelts on display in Laura Jean McKay's 2020 debut The Animals In That Country, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc will stretch your brain and imagination in similar ways:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/27/im-a-backdoor-man/#doolittle

After World is a book that goes hard. Pitiless, merciless and relentless, it takes you to the darkest depths of climate despair and reveals the indestructible beauty at our species' core.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/18/storyworker-ad39-393a-7fbc/#digital-human-archive-project

[atiny-for-life]

Ateez's Full Storyline Explained - Part 20

( MAJOR LORE UPDATES - I'm really excited!)

Masterlist

Will - The World Ep. Fin Diary Entries:

The Intro provides us with a bit of backstory to the setting of 'Crazy Form':

The city is currently mid-Revolution: the people who left the system (now classified as Sense Offenders) are actively fighting against the ones still trapped within - tensions are mighty high to say the least.

Graffiti proclaiming "Wake up" and "Be free" covers the city walls, though it has been hidden by the suppressors under concealment screens (this is something we get to see in the MV).

Fed up with the Black Pirates' activities, the government is no longer satisfied with just denouncing them as a terrorist group and asking for them to be turned in - they now deem anyone who joins their cause to be a co-conspirator. Simply put: If you're caught inducing emotions in anyone, you'll be executed on the spot. You won't even be taken to the Disposal Site.

We cut to a scene right in the center of the city square where Guardians pull up in their cars and approach the display erected there for one clear purpose. A rope is lowered and pulled, hands are dusted off and the Guardians take off again. Words are no longer needed. They leave behind, hanging below the display, the corpses of multiple captured and executed Sense Offenders. A warning to all who dare to resist: the next one could be you.

Unbeknownst to them, it has the opposite effect. Tears and sobs fill the air, cries of sadness and anger. The loss of innocent life reinforced what they already knew: it can't go on like this. Their deaths won't be in vain. The system can be changed.

The aftermath of the raid on Prestige Academy had spread by word of mouth, getting past all attempts at censorship, and showed them a path of resistance.

We now rejoin Ateez and Black Pirates right after the Prestige Academy raid where Seonghwa had left with the leader of Thunder.

The boy's brother, exhausted from crying, is sleeping in the corner while the remaining Ateez members are freaking out over Seonghwa's disappearance. Though luckily, he isn't gone for long and rolls up to the bunker shortly after.

Hongjoong immediately pounces on him and is like: "Tell me you didn't run off with that girl because she looked like the 'Be Free' girl like Yeosang suggested." And Seonghwa's like: "It's not like that."

He pulls out an unfamiliar map and explains it was provided by the girl as the leader of Thunder, the students' version of the Black Pirates, aka fellow revolutionists.

They'd put a tracker on the boy before he was captured and believe he's being taken to the Disposal Site which is the place the map is of.

Still doubtful, Hongjoong questions the girl's and Thunder's motives - why not join the Black Pirates? Why act behind their backs? - but Seonghwa reassures him: as the elite of the elite, Thunder has access to information that can lead them directly to Z.

We now get more background information about the Z-World and Strictland's main oppressor 'Z' in particular (which has me personally very excited because we're tying in some more old plot threads; side note: the Glossary has been updated accordingly):

He's the Z-World's leader of Sciensalvar. However, unlike in the A-World, where this organization was founded in 1999, is still rather small and lead by Henry Jo (see Fever Epilogue Diary Version), this Sciensalvar is a pseudo-religious scientific organization spearheaded by 'Z'. They're behind the creation of the AI simulation for the 'best solution', aka the answer to their question of "What do I need to do to gain absolute, unchallengeable power?" To which the self-learning AI answered: get rid of all human emotions. With this knowledge, they created a political party under the catchphrase: "The pursuit of a peaceful world without religious conflict and terror through emotional control." Said party grew in size until they were powerful enough to pass the 'Emotional Regulation Act' which lead to the solidification of the class system to the point where 'defective' people are now being 'disposed of'. However, as they have not yet achieved total control, Z and his political subordinates stay exclusively in Z's hideout near the city center where only the elites reside. They never leave the building, only the elitest of the elites ever get to enter and once they exit, they remain under strict surveillance by the Android Guardians to prevent the spread of insider knowledge. Android Guardians, who are collectively referred to as the Imperial Watch, are the only ones allowed to freely come and ago since they're not human and thus immune to being corrupted by emotions if captured and interrogated.

The Black Pirates have never been able to obtain the precise location of Z's hideout despite past efforts to catch a hold of suspects who they then coaxed into spilling by utilizing their breakers to surface long suppressed emotions.

Working with Thunder, despite the risk, thus now seems like their best shot at finally eliminating the hideout and securing a massive leap forward in the revolution.

We cut to Z's office where the Prestige Academy principal was just executed by the Head Guardian of the Imperial Watch.

A new order is given by Z: "Now that we've set the bait, the Black Pirates will go to the Disposal Site to save the child. Take care that no mistakes like this are repeated at the Disposal Site. Or you'll be the one replaced this time."

With a troop of 100 Android Guardians, the Head Guardian enters the Disposal Site alongside a slew of blue butterflies who spread out among the workers with red, marred skin from the furnaces.

The Head Guardian refers to them as the 'Red Humans' who are 'so hideous' they 'resemble goblins more than people'.

The troop marches after a butterfly fluttering down a hallway toward the cells where the to-be-disposed-of people are kept - humans who've been classified as physically disabled or harboring feelings.

They appear enchanted by the sight of the butterfly, unlike the Guardians who took no note of them, which leaves this singular one to continue onward past the cells toward a boiling furnace filled with the remains of the disposed. 'Red Humans' are stirring the remains in the incinerator as the butterfly rises up past the executioner platform.

Upon closer inspection, the butterfly can be identified as an animatronic containing a camera.

The next entry informs us that it's Yeosang who's in charge of the tiny delicate butterfly drone and here, to me, everything regarding these blue little critters finally falls into place (which is why Part 5 - Deja Vu and Part 15 - Answer have now been updated accordingly):

Back in Deja Vu, Yeosang took note of the blue butterflies fluttering around Strictland and how they're so common and, despite their beauty, get fully ignored by the unfeeling Android Guardians. As a result, he studies their appearance and anatomy, creates a 3D rendering (which we catch a glimpse of in Deja Vu and its appearance is similar to the one of the pirate ship hologram we got to see in Crazy Form, leading me to believe this is their usual modus operandi when they develop tech). By the time Answer rolls around, the 3D model has been turned into a fully functional animatronic with a built-in camera - a drone. This explains why the butterfly in Answer looks more artificial than the one in Deja Vu - it's not organic, it's a delicate little machine. A spy gadget.

Moving on to Ateez who are parked outside in their van: they're utilizing the beautiful little butterfly drone to compare the map to what they're seeing.

Deeming it all good enough, they strap in and Mingi crashes through the gates. They storm inside, trap the workers with their burnt skin in side-rooms and split into two groups - one in charge of freeing the imprisoned, the other in charge of warding off the guards.

The first group was left with the Cromer since they'd need to transport all the imprisoned to the Black Pirates' Bunker as fast as possible, which left the others at a significant disadvantage in their fight against the Guardians, even with the weapons provided by Left Eye.

They quickly get overpowered and Hongjoong is left on the ground with a gun pointed straight at his head. Jongho is left to call for back-up.

Back at the hideout, however, things are also going south - a fellow pirate bursts through the doors and informs them their location had been leaked to the Guardians. He barely gets to finish his warning before a beam saber cuts down his back and leaves him coughing up blood before he drops dead.

Wooyoung's thoughts are racing as he questions how their location could've possibly gotten out before Mingi looks to Seonghwa: "Please tell me you didn't share the location of the bunker with the Thunder girl".

Seonghwa, previously extremely sure of where the girl's loyalties lie, begins to doubt.

Meanwhile at the Disposal Site, a scream rings out - the Prestige Academy boy's.

The Guardian still aiming at Hongjoong's head offers an ultimatum: "Tell the members with the Cromer to come over here. I'll give you 10 minutes. Or this kid- well, you know what'll happen."

The timer is set. Hongjoong relays the information to the four members at the bunker.

Unable to leave the bunker fully unprotected however, the four try to fight off the Android Guardians before they depart, only to be struck down. Left on the ground. Spitting up blood. Seonghwa. Mingi. Wooyoung. San. Four down.

At the same time, at the Disposal Site, the remaining four are dragged along the ground to the execution area.

All eight of them think about how much happened to them since they entered the Z World - how much it felt like fate. They realized how powerful music and performance can be, how it can stir emotions in other people, how it's powerful enough to be used as a weapon against oppressive forces in this world. It allowed them to feel emotions they'd almost forgotten about and gave them a goal to achieve. They'd been happy here. And now they might die here.

But just then: a zap. And a Guardian hit the ground in the bunker.

People wearing "ridiculous masks" (according to Wooyoung) and armed with modified electro shockers flooded the bunker and began to take down the Guardians before helping the four Ateez members to their feet.

With their identity hidden behind their masks and voice modifiers, they promise to take everyone to safety and ask the four to come back once they're done at the Disposal Site. Their leader also hands a note to Seonghwa.

With no other option, the four take off with the Cromer's help, though the boy's brother manages to leap on them quickly enough to be taken along.

They make it just in time and use the Cromer to zip across the room, disposing of the Guardians' weapons by throwing them in the incinerator, but the one clutching the boy is quick to raise the kid by his throat and threaten to toss him feet-first in after them.

Momentarily defeated, Ateez get tied up with rope, but the boy's brother, who'd remained hidden nearby, manages to slide a jackknife he'd been keeping in his pocket to Yunho. One by one, the knife gets handed around as they free themselves.

Meanwhile, the boy begins to talk to the Guardian who'd dropped him back to the ground - it's revealed he'd been working alongside them all along to obtain the location of the Black Pirates' bunker.

When the boy had first found out about his older brother's break, he'd fled Prestige Academy and posted a message on Black Link (the system set up by Left Eye in Movement Diary Version: The Revolution which pings the Black Pirates when a citizen's chip fails so they can reach out and contact them) after failing to find the Black Pirates and their bunker.

With no one to help him, he hid out at the Disposal Site in hopes of finding a way to safe his brother once he was dragged there by the Android Guardians.

While still there, he received a message from his brother, asking him why he hadn't come home last night. Relieved, he returned home and discovered a message from the Black Pirates who disclosed a rough location of their bunker and offered to help him if he still needed it, though they'd have to clear him first over their security system.

However, after seeing the reality and experiencing the horrors of the Disposal Site, the boy chose to return to Prestige Academy instead and beg for mercy for both himself and his brother.

The Guardians agreed but requested the exact location of the Black Pirates' bunker in return.

Upon hearing this, Ateez felt betrayed which the boy's brother openly voices. He tells his brother that, after experiencing emotions, he can't go back and pushes him to leave the wrong side and rejoin them while there's still time to make things right.

Yeosang manages to trip one of the Guardians with his newly freed legs which gives the boy a chance to take his brother's offered hand, but just before they can make contact, the Head Guardian grabs the brother by the collar and throws him off the execution platform down to the incinerator.

The members threw off their ropes and pushed the Head Guardian into the incinerator while the boy jumps after his brother and Mingi activates the Cromer.

Mingi catches the gaze of the boy's brother as his legs slip into the incinerator. His eyes close. Mingi grabs the boy's arm before he could share the same fate. The boy screams.

Newly traumatized, Mingi drops the boy in a safe place and rejoins his members who're actively fighting the Guardians and makes quick work of them by tossing them in the furnace one by one.

The boy breaks down in tears.

Only the Head Guardian was left. But unlike all the others, he was suddenly tackled from the back by the boy who was rushing at full speed and dragging them both toward the incinerator.

Hongjoong's hand shot forward, grabbing the boy's arm who mouthed "I'm sorry" right before the Head Guardian's weight dragged them over the edge and out of Hongjoong's hold.

Hongjoong had no choice but to sit by as they disappeared into the incinerator below.

The distant sound of an explosion. "I know how you feel but... We need to get out of here first. The bomb's about to go off," Seonghwa reminds Hongjoong.

San takes them away with the Cromer right before the blue butterflies spread throughout the building flash red and explode, collapsing the Disposal Site.

While all this was going down, the masked people who'd helped at the Bunker were revealed to be Thunder and the note handed to Seonghwa was revealed to be a map.

By the time the Disposal Site went down, Thunder managed to pack all the prisoners into a big bus and take them past all the security barricades into the city center thanks to their high ranking elite status.

Thunder's main base has a garden. It consists of trees and flowers bearing the names of the two brothers and all the fallen Black Pirate members lost in the battle.

Dressed in black, Ateez, the Black Pirates, and the Thunder members bow to the dead as fireflies circle over their heads. "I will not let your sacrifices be in vain. I promise." Yeosang's words echo everyone's thoughts.

The fireflies ascend above them as if they were carrying their wishes to the stars. They watch them rise for a long time.

The village is located in a forest away from all government surveillance. A small haven. Thunder's leader is showing Seonghwa around as she tells him her story:

She met the Grimes siblings in this place and when she heard them sing, she realized that something valuable had been taken from humanity. Taken by Z. Reminder: the Grimes siblings are the ones who first helped Ateez when they landed in the Z-World (see: Fever Part 2 Diary Entries). At that time, she was already recognized for her talents at Prestige Academy and put in the position of Thunder's leader. As a skilled actress, she managed to continue on undetected, even while she silently planned find a way to rise high enough to meet Z - an opportunity very few ever got. By using her status at the Academy, she managed to prevent students from getting taken to the Disposal Site: spewing empty threats instead of reporting them as 'defective'. Her time there also allowed her to carefully approach others who had awoken thanks to the Grimes siblings. Together, they held a funeral for them after their souls were taken (see: Fever Epilogue Diary Entries). They heard stories of the Black Pirates and Ateez but, as a smaller group, needed to be more careful and couldn't reach out to them.

Her story gives Seonghwa hope that there are more groups out there fighting for their cause.

When he voices the thought, the girl feels the same hope for the future.

After the raid at Prestige Academy, the school is shut down and repurposed while students are transferred to other schools in the area based on their performance.

Thanks to a heart rate controlling device provided by Left Eye, the girl passes the emotional detection checks and manages to excel in her studies and is deemed the superior candidate among all students - she earns the position of Z's protocol manager. A position which will take her to Z's hideout.

They take her to the city center and into the underground parking lot by the central bank's building. From there, she's guided through corridors until they reach Z's office.

Inside, he's already waiting for her and immediately addresses how closely she'd been paying attention to her surroundings the entire way there - from the car ride all the way up to now. As if she were curious. "Curiosity is also an emotion. Curiosity is dangerous, you know."

Ever the perfect student and actress, she replies with "What is 'Curiosity'?" and offers her chip to be checked - a chip that has been modified by her to switch on and off on her comment to avoid detection at school.

She passes the final test and is hired on the spot.

[leofiat-bunny]

After The Scene™

Then

Chen Yi woke up, stumbled through getting dressed, and - when he couldn't find Ai Di - checked his phone. Then he sees the text from the night before. He sends his guys out searching for Ai Di while he goes to hq to speak to Boss about BZY.

When Boss tells him what happened - a bit exasperated but not surprised that Ai Di didn't let him know - he doesn't yell at Boss mostly because he's frozen. He's stuck trying to process "Ai Di will be in prison for as long as BZY is, which will be some years".

Since then he's been more uptight than ever about never setting a foot wrong. When he messes up THIS is what happens. He's legit traumatised by it.

(As said elsewhere, it's no small miracle Chen Yi didn't give himself alcohol poisoning after losing Ai Di.)

If someone else went over his head to leave the gang he'd be annoyed but accept it.

But Ai Di can't go over his head because Ai Di doesn't belong to the gang, he belongs to Chen Yi.

Now

Chen Yi doesn't understand why he's being avoided because "Ai Di thinks I hate him" requires "Chen Yi hating Ai Di" to be a concept that computes and he'd have an easier time dividing by zero.

Chen Yi has long accepted that if Ai Di kills someone, that's on Chen Yi for not being there to stop him.

Of course "killing someone" and "betraying Chen Yi" are very different propects.

As for the betrayal of taking advantage of his drunken state, I don't think Chen Yi will process it like a normal person would. He was raised in a gang. It would be more strange if his moral compass wasn't a bit wonky.

Yes, he could process it by switching their places but I'm not sure he'd really allow it to rest with him?

Almost: if my pet bites me, that's bad; if I bite my pet, that's unforgivable?

(He doesn't think of Ai Di as sub-human or stupid, that was just the best simile that occured to me)

Even if he really allowed it to sit with him, by far the greatest betrayal was leaving.

Meanwhile

Ai Di will do anything to avoid hearing Chen Yi say "I hate you". He knows😒 it but he can't take hearing it.

Except Chen Yi came for him, brought him back, prepared his favourite foods. Ai Di doesn't know what's going on but he does know that hope has no place here.

He's unforgivable and maybe Chen Yi wants to hear Ai Di's excuses before passing judgement, maybe he's been telling himself that Ai Di would never have done that to him.

Ai Di can't stay for the realisation.

He has no place by Chen Yi's side and never will again and he deserves whatever Chen Yi does to him but he can't.

Ai Di is collarless and will remain that way until he's ready to stop running.

Soon

Are we recovered from ep 9? No? Shame, I wanted to break you again.

Well, I have (spoilery) ammunition, so I'll give it my best shot.

I trawled their youtube channels for clues and!!!

(Partially ninja'd because I am a slow bunny)

Next ep

Better pic of outfits for colour convo:

And then

Chen Yi has a tried and tested way of getting Ai Di to come back.

And it still works. Quelle surprise.

Until

Remember what I said about collars? I thought that before finding this and I just lost it.

Give the wardrobe department a raise. And a bonus. And shares. And a prize.

But what is he trying to pinky promise?

"Even if you die tomorrow, you must wait for me to die first. Only then can you die."

"One second. I will give you just one second, then I'll follow."

(I transcribed the subs: 就算你快掛 也要等我先掛 你才能掛

一秒 只讓你一秒 我隨後跟上

According to google translate:

Even if you die quickly You have to wait for me to hang up first Only then can you hang up

One second Just give you a second I followed later

Then I tidied it up a bit, hopefully without moving away from the meaning

I found an official sub where they translate it as

"Promise me that you won't die before I do" "One second, Then I'll follow up right away"

Bonus point? Guess which outfits are in the cover image:

They got to privacy but not home 😊)

[rubykgrant]

In my whole bit where the AI Fragments help different people escape the bad guys who have them sedated/plan to scan their brains to make new AI (which will kill them in the process because this is junky boot-leg equipment), there is a bit of a hiccup; Tucker almost dies. He REALLY put up a fight, all on his own, so the bad guys gave him an extra dose of sci-fi knock-out darts, and he's in danger. Church and all the Fragments pull together to get his heart going again/keep his lungs breathing until he's stable... but that takes a LOT of energy, and Church needs to hop back to his body before HE blinks out.

Omega offers to stay and be the one who helps Tucker with the grand escape, because- "I care about these people now... AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, CHURCH" (he hates letting anybody know he's fond of them). Tucker never got to experience an "O'Malley Moment" back in Blood Gulch, and I just thought it would be funny for them to be united in pure righteous fury. Later, Tucker has an "Omega hang-over", meaning he's all pissy. Church was SUPPOSED to stay out of this new big problem, y'know, so he doesn't DIE again. After Tucker vents a little ("Why call me a leader if y'all won't LISTEN TO ME"), Church offers to give him a piggy-back ride as a peace offering...

This winds up lasting for an hour and a half. Tucker might be a bit CLINGY. Church even tries to just drop his arms, but Tucker wraps his legs around and won't let go. Along comes Carolina...

Carolina; So. What am I looking at, and why is it happening?

Church; Well, Tucker almost died, and he's afraid I might die, so now I have to live like this

Carolina; Hmm (pauses a moment, then reaches out and tickles Tucker until he lets go and falls down, landing on his butt)

Church; Oh thank g- what are you doing?

*Carolina is grinning and starting to climb onto Church's back

Church; No, no, Carolina don't you dare- CAROLINA NO-

*She gets on there. Church just sighs, defeated

Tucker; OH SURE, SHE CAN DO WHATEVER SHE WANTS

[isara0408]

I always have Geiju and Kaga in my mind and form on how their friendship would be considering how Geiju is towards anyone. So, I wanted to make some headcanons between them for fun.

⚠️ I'm sorry if anyone gets mad over a headcanon that I made. I'm going by how I see Geiju and how he would react to certain things. Everyone sees Geiju differently, so please, don't get mad over how I'm making Geiju towards Kaga. I'm trying my best here 😔.

I imagine Geiju is the calm one between the two, obviously. Kaga is the loud one and the one who doesn't care much about danger when it comes to science. Geiju is the type who wouldn't really stop Kaga from doing dangerous things.

If Kaga ever did get hurt by an experiment, Geiju won't show much of a reaction. He just says,"Your fault." Before actually starting to clean any wounds or burns Kaga made on himself.

Kaga tries to test on Geiju to see why he's so emotionless and speaks only two or a few words. Geiju would always say to him,"Get out." Or "Out." Or "leave." Kaga doesn't give up, though.

Geiju uses sign language to talk to Kaga or uses a paper (his sketch book) and pencil to write down his thoughts or draw them. He does this whenever he is hanging out with Kaga (who dragged him to come with him to the town).

Even if Geiju doesn't really show emotions or express himself well, he does care about Kaga. He does show it to him, but in his own way of silence.

Geiju uses the word, "Okay." A lot. Kaga sometimes wonders if Geiju is some type of AI robot.

Geiju is the tall one between the two.

Whenever Kaga is drawing a sketch for a new invention or anything else, Really, Geiju, would stare at the sketch/drawing. He would critique it. I have a headcanon that Kaga took drawing/art classes when he was younger because of his parents and wanting to further his skills.

Kaga blinked when his pencil was snatched from his hand,"Wha..."He looked over at Geiju, who was next to him. Geiju shook his head,"Monstrosity."He pointed at the sketch Kaga was doing for the past 10 minutes.

"It's a sketch. A sketch for one of my brilliant invention that I will be making."Kaga smirked, being proud of his barely started sketch,"I believe it looks great. I took art classes before when I was much younger."

"No talent."Geiju blankly said, snatching Kaga's sketch book.

"Hey! I've been drawing since I was young! My drawing skills are not that bad."Kaga protested before watching Geiju cross out the sketch he was doing. With a jaw dropped after seeing his 10-minute sketch be crossed out by his close friend, Geiju started re-doing his sketch.

Kaga would be dragged by Geiju (mostly bribed) to go with Geiju to art museums to look at the art exhibits. Geiju would mostly bribe him of being his test subject if he goes with him to certain art museums.

Kaga does the same with Geiju. He bribes him as well to come with him to science events or museums he wants to see.

Kaga is quite a touchy person. He uses his hands to study people or examine them for certain things, or just because he's close to the person. Geiju would either push, slap, or hit his hand away. There are times he would let Kaga do whatever he wants with him. (👀) without getting himself killed, of course.

Between the two, they would either draw/paint together or be doing a fun experiment. They take turns. One day is drawing or painting, the other experimenting and explosions! (Geiju does hate those days since he does dislike Science).

Kaga was the first one to actually go up to Geiju and formed this friendship in a weird way. Geiju doesn't talk to a lot of people or go near anyone. He doesn't care or pay attention to anyone who isn't his art. Kaga might be an exception for him, though.

Geiju will use Kaga for paintings or sketching. He would do it in public, too. He doesn't really care who looks. He would even stand up from his seat and look at objects closely to draw.

Kaga stared at Geiju sitting across from him. Geiju was drawing something on his sketchbook that he pulled out from his bag and a pencil out of nowhere and in the middle of the Café,"What are you doing?"

"Quiet."

"Quiet? This isn't a good place to get silence that you want and need, Geiju. What are you even drawing?"Kaga questioned, watching Geiju look at him before looking down at his sketch and seeing the pencil in his hand move. He did this a few more times.

"Perfect lighting."Geiju mumbled as his eyes focused on the drawing,"Perfect environment."

Geiju glanced up and stared at Kaga, who was still wondering what he was drawing,"Ugly muse."He said, looking down again at his drawing.

"I beg your perdon?"

Geiju pretty much roasts Kaga unintentionally. He just says what's in his mind. He is brutally honest.

Even if Geiju doesn't stop him from doing dangerous things, he will prevent him from going into danger. For example, if Kaga somehow ends up walking onto the street and a car comes in towards him. Geiju will grab Kaga's shirt or trench coat he's wearing and pull him back towards him. When it comes to Kaga eating something that Geiju knows will be bad for his stomach, he will cover Kaga's mouth to prevent him from eating it. (Or slap it out of his hand).

Geiju will use the science club for some of his paintings after bribing Kaga to let him borrow one of them for art.

Their club members don't care much about Kaga and Geiju's friendship ( the same thing goes to their relationship if they start dating). They are more focused on their own work. Homu doesn't see a problem with Geiju being with Kaga or near him, but she keeps an eye out.

Whenever Kaga is doing his maniac laugh, Geiju will either leave or smack him with anything he has in his hand.

There's not a lot of headcanons, but I'll do more in another post. :D

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Game Garage: Lancer

Hello! Welcome to what I hope to be the first instance of a series about Game design and clever usages thereof in Tabletop games! We'll be talking about lancer, it was the first post on this blog so I felt it was fitting, we'll be going through standard character creations from License Level 0 til License Level 3, and showing how our mech, and pilot, grows during that time while playing out a theoretical game. Is this just like the example of plays in the actual books? Yes! But I wish to go for some more mechanical depths than those often do, and try to theorize around certain decisions made in a specific game.

I'll be using Comp/Con as a visual for this guide, I'm aware there's other ways to do mech building but basically everyone agrees you should just use Compcon for it, also while I'll avoid using expansions too much, I'll still assume you at minimum have KTB as it adds some pilot-side customization

LL0: Beginnings

You are immediately prompted to give a portrait, name, Callsign, and a background to your character, already just giving your character a callsign adds that little bit of personality to them! Lancer is primarily focused on the tactics side, rather than the roleplay side, but these little things do really help in fleshing out a character's personality, as that's still a factor.

I'll also give a quick shout out to Comp/Con for having the sickest UI of any webapp for a ttrpg i've seen, intuitive and strangely immersive, I really like it

Thracia was a project by a shadowy, now defunct, corporation to create a spokesperson for their gene editing services, the company went defunct before she turned 3, so she was just thrown away into some bin somewhere. She was eventually picked up by a gang of mercs who brought her back to base where she was effectively communally raised before joining the corps proper at age 20.

Now that we've filled out some simple flavor, lets move on to proper stat creation

We're brought to a stat creation screen, these don't matter too much in combat, but outside of them they're what your character specializes in, their role outside of the mechs. Don't sweat these too much, you can respect at any level up in lancer, and this won't matter too much outside of on the floor missions, which barely happen

For now, Thracia's good at fighting, investigating, and leading and inspiring, its what she was built for after all!

Now we get to talents, these are vaguely intimidating at first glance, but don't worry, you can respec at any time RAW, and they're pretty easy to decode once you get the hang of the system. For now, just think of what your role within the party will be, I want Thracia to be an artillery Pilot with a side of support, so we'll be taking Crack shot (which lets me give up my movement to become better at aiming each turn) , Leadership (which lets me add leadership dice dice to allied rolls as long as my fellow party member is within range) and Technophile (which gives me a Servant-Class NHP, a form of AI that controls my mech if I'm away, not too useful right now, but gets better benefits later on)

Now we get to the part I don't like, Mech Skills. Mech Skills are... theoretically really fun, but practically speaking you always want at least one level in Hull, and the other level in whatever your main stat is, in this case we'll be taking Engineering, you'll see why later.

Now we have our full pilot card! but there's still a little bit left to do before we Level Up for our first time.

First lets pick out our equipment, this is basically purely flavor so just pick what you think your character would logically have

NOW! we finally get to the fun part: Building your Mech... kinda

see right now, you're stuck with default configurations, you're not licensed for anything more complex than GMS mechs, the Great Value store brand of Lancer. So we carry on with an Everest, a basic if not a bit underwhelming mech, its reliable, customizable, and handy, if not a bit underwhelming and a lot less flashy and optimized than later mechs you get, I'd still keep an everest in your backpocket though, never know when you might need it

Someone playing with all official products would have a choice of 3 different GMS mechs, but I still recommend just picking the Everest, its the handiest option. though for reference: the Chomolungma is a Hacking frame, and the Sagamartha is a tank

You're prompted to name your mech, Thracia's gonna name it A farewell to Arms, after an ancient book she read once

Booting into your mech screen, it may feel a bit overwhelming at first but don't worry, these all aren't too complex to understand Traits are just that, what your mech has that makes it special from other mechs, its just that genesequouis that makes them cooler than other mechs.

Attributes are derivative stats that take your skills, Grit, and base mech stats into account, in our case the Everest is pretty middling in everything, but has a decent heat capacity due to our investment into Engineering.

and now for the fun bits, Core System and Mounts

Core Systems contain two things: your ultimate move, your signature play, that special power that you use once per duel and spare only for the most dire moments! the other thing is your Core System itself, Everest doesn't have any, but for future reference these are what your build is entirely based around, your core gimmick

Mounts are what you put your weapons into, and Systems are non directly attacking abilities that you use to gain advantage during battles, we once again only have GMS tools to go with for now. Something clever about the mount system is that it adds an inherent balance to mechs, a mech could have incredibly powerful abilities, but lack specific mounts that could make it overbearing, as an example the Gorgon lacks a heavy weapon mount, and Heavy weapon mounts are in general sparsely distributed, as giving them to the wrong mech could break the balance, this is a problem I see a lot of lancer GMs and homebrewers run into, underestimating the power of a heavy slot, even some who were contracted by Massif themselves!

For now, we'll give ourselves a shotgun, to dispatch enemies at close range, a Mortar, to deal with large clusters of enemies, and an Anti-Materiel Rifle to be our primary weapon.

Now for the systems, you have a budget of SP to use on buying systems for your mech from the ones you've unlocked, the GMS systems, outside of some standouts like the Flight System are... underwhelming mostly, you'll usually dumpster these pretty quick, but we might as well pick them because hey, its just free advantage, right?

We'll be mounting our free NHP we got from our talents of course, as well as a shield, a turret drone as we're not doing much with our reactions right now and they allow you to expend a reaction to deal some extra damage, Personalizations and a Custom Paintjob, these are basically just flavor but they both have to do with adding some extra bulk to your mech, in our case the Personalization is a built-in winch, adding a +1 to relevant Hull skill checks, and the Paintjob is a tasteful pin-up of an older looking woman, a fling from a past mission.

And that's it for LL0! It might feel like a lot, but I promise its a breeze in actual play. Now onto: LL1: Your First Taste of TRUE power

Thracia Schrader Came back to home base, sweaty and tired after a long mission, nothing big, just dispatching some pirates, but it was her first truly serious one, only to receive a ping on her terminal: she'd gotten a promotion, she'd be given budget to buy new parts for her mech, a raised paycheck, and some free time to work on new skills, she was over the moon, finally she'd be getting recognized!

Now onto LL1, so far your mech has had decently high customization, but from here on out? the world's your oyster honey, pull it open and devour its flesh, show the world that it's gotta be scared of you!... I think I lost my train of thought there, sorry about that.

Anyways, when leveling up you'll be given the down-low on what you're getting, an improvement to your skill triggers, more talents, more skills, more grit, your first license unlock, extra sauce on your eggs, and a complementary chocolate bar... OK those last two aren't there, but I'm sure most merc companies add them in

Skills don't matter too much so we'll skip over that, but for reference I took a boost in Leadership

You get an improvement in one talent, in my case I'll take the second tier of Technophile, which lets me reroll one roll per scene, very useful. You can also take a 4th talent at this point, but I recommend holding out a bit before doing that, your build is too weak to really afford big moves like that right now. You could also actually delevel one of your talents and level another to level 3, if you have a talent that you don't really need or want, but again, not recommended unless you know what you're doing

Now onto mech skills, you just get a flat +1 to any skill, right now I'd advise taking whatever you picked as your second skill after Hull, but if you wanna boost hull even further because you don't wanna get hurt too bad, I don't blame you, but we'll be getting that engineering boost for now

NOW to the fun part, the part we're all looking forward to (I think), getting more mech parts! now, people familiar with the system knows that the Engineering boosts and Artillery focus probably means we'll be taking a Harrison license, the 4 licenses in the game correspond roughly to the 4 mech skills in how they're built, they do end up mattering for something called Core Bonuses, but that's for much later, for now just treat them like a way to split playstyles. IPS-N likes Hull, Smith-Shimano Corp likes Agility, HORUS likes Systems, and Harrison Armory likes Engineering, choose accordingly.

We'll be unlocking the Sherman first, its a cool mech that I think often gets overlooked in this game's cluster fucks of eldritch mecha nightmares and othersuch things. You don't get the mech itself until LL2, so for now just slap on the parts you got into an Everest

The first level up is always kinda underwhelming in lancer, but trust me it'll get better from here! for now, we'll just replace our shotgun with a Sol-Pattern Laser Rifle, and our Personalizations and Custom Paint Job with a Reactor Stabilizer, a useful tool for keeping us nice and healthy when melting down

That's about it for LL1, yeah as I said its kinda boring, but it only gets better with LL2: You know what they say: Find what your niche is, that leads to riches!

Thracia Schrader comes back home, tattered, bruised and beaten, the promotion obviously meant more dangerous missions, this she knew, but she didn't expect to deal with enemies of that caliber just yet, turns out the pirates were more equipped than she thought at first, they seem too organized to be pirates actually... Well, she's being paid to dispatch rabblerousers, not think, she goes back to sleep in her cot, while browsing mech licenses for sale, she got a big bonus, she can splurge a little bit

While you get the same benefits as from LL1, this is where the fun really begins because if you take a second level from your frame you obtain:

A frame! You can finally get out of that dinky everest and get into something COOL! Frames in lancer essentially serve as your classes, they're what you mount your other obtained abilities into to create your unique playstyle, but overall they're probably the most important aspect of your character. Frames can have different sizes, HP thresholds, armor, and so on. the Frame system leads to your creativity being effectively limitless, while I'm doing a fairly basic artillery build, I'm sure a melee Sherman build could be fully possible! anyways, if you're using this as a build guide for some reason, I took Crack shot and an extra point in Hull alongside the Sherman frame

Now lets build our new puppy shall we? Our new mech will be called... how about Mr. Blue Sky? its Thracia's favorite childhood song

Now you'll have to rebuild your mech, but with a few considerations in mind 1: Your mounts are all different now, you can't rely on the weapons you did previously most of the time, Sherman's actually an exception to this, it has largely the same mounts as an everest, with the main difference being a built-in laser gun which charges while stabilizing, hm, maybe taking some stabilization talents could be worth the time... 2: Your new mech has new traits! the traits in the everest were pretty simple, just some bonus actions once per scene, "More of what's good" is the unofficial GMS Motto

The sherman's a bit more complex, it can keep you in the danger zone (which benefits not just the sherman but most Harrison Armory mechs really), give you soft cover by throwing steam at your enemy's face, and makes it better at engineering (handy, since you'll be trying your best to not take too much unintended heat)

For equipment, we'll be using some old tools and the new ones we just got

Sherman just got the incredibly powerful Andromeda-Pattern heavy laser rifle, but don't worry kids, this isn't the peak of laser power, oh no no, that comes a bit later. We're also using our handy shotgun, she needs to defend herself from nearby enemies somehow.

For systems, we're dumping the reactor stabilizer, its served its purpose but we can manage our heat better now, and we're picking up a deployable cover, useful for long drawn out gun fights, personalizations (a huge library of ancient and modern texts, useful for SYSTEMS checks), and turret drones, we're still not doing much with that reaction and our sensor range's pretty dang strong. Now a word of advice, at LL2 is where your build will branch most, you're comitting to an entirely new mech after all! but always remember: you can respec at any time

LL3: True Power!

Thracia comes back home and brews herself a cup of tea, so it turns out that the pirates she was dispatching were just locals defending themselves against the corporate agency paying her, she was offered a contract by them, lower price, but less price on the conscience, she urged her boss to take it, and she did take it in the end, she thanked Christ the Buddha she didn't need to betray the closest thing she had to a family. Tomorrow, Thracia would dispatch a corporate HQ, the locals were calling the Union for aid, and they promised aid would come in the form of supplies, but they'd need to fend for themselves, and supplies did come, she took some of the mech weapon supplies for herself, she was fighting for them now, might as well right?

LL3 is where your chosen frame's power peaks, many people actually skip the third level of a license, the items given are usually fairly niche, we won't be doing that, this is a pretty standard build so i don't think its worth it

you know the drill for skills

Talents, I'll actually do something a bit weird here, if anything to demonstrate one of the more interesting RAW decisions of Lancer, I'll take away crackshot. Most of the laser rifles of the sherman are AOEs, and Crackshot assumes one target. Instead we'll be taking two levels of Grease Monkey, they make our stabilizations stronger, and give us some nice bonuses during rests, and we'll also be capping off Technophile, you'll see why soon.

We'll be leveling up Engineering for this level and taking the final level of sherman, but more on that later because now, we have the first sight of our Core Bonuses

the 5 companies of lancer like to reward brand loyalty, so if you stick with one company for 3 levels, you unlock their "Core Bonuses". what are these? these are powerful abilities that you only get every 3 levels, and you need to have 3 levels in a company to unlock their respective core powers, GMS powers are unlocked by default of course. We'll be taking Superior by Design, the premiere Harrison Armory ability

the boost to heat cap is what we're looking for, anything that makes us less punished for taking too much heat is a good thing. the Impaired immunity is a good bonus

Now at this point, your mech should have unlocked their most powerful weapon and system, these are often "Super Heavy" weapons, which means they take up two slots to mount, but sometimes they just may be a powerful control ability, for example the Kidd unlocks their ability to build misc structures at that level.

We'll be installing our brand new and shiny Tachyon Lance, a massive motherfucker of a weapon that just emits a line of destruction and a cone of destruction behind you

we'll also keep the shotgun, its a handy weapon

for systems, we'll be equipping our brand new Asura-Class NHP, what does it do?

well, once per scene, it just lets you take another turn! No caveats, and the only real cost is a bit of heat on your end, but other than that? you just have two turns that turn, incredibly valuable in a build that often wants to stabilize, wasting precious actions

Oh, as for the third level of technophile? I can't have 2 NHPs in a mech at once unless I take that level, its just not possible, NHPs are incredibly powerful resources so I understand wanting to limit them like that.

That's about it for LL3, its your peak of power... for now, but soon enough your mech might be having some... foreign intrusions

LL4: The Crossover nobody wanted

Thracia was broken. She wished she'd never signed up for this mission in the first place. Children and women running from corporate mechs way better equipped than them, farms being abandoned by people who lived there for generations, good people sacrificing themselves to keep their loved ones safe. Terrakis had gone from a quick buck by dispatching pirates, to a nightmare. She was always told it was a dirty business, making money from blood, but she never expected it to be this bad. Looking to calm down, she calls up a friend, a warehouse worker from IPS-N, and wonders if she could maybe hook her up with something

You know the drill by now, the only thing of note is I'm going to dump Leader to take 2 levels in Siege Specialist (lets me take down structures more easily and lets me knock down adjacent enemies), we're picking up another level of Hull, and now, for the interesting bit: your 4th license

At this point, you've found your niche and made your mech plenty strong... but it could always be better, right?

Thracia picks up a level of the Drake, giving her the powerful Assault Cannon, a handy, if not low ranged, weapon that can grow in strength by spinning its barrels before launching, as a bonus its also a cannon allowing for our Siege Specialist to trigger. She throws away her nostalgic shotgun for this weapon

Thracia had also been feeling protective of her fellow backliner, a clumsy goblin pilot named Lika whom she borderline had a crush on, while Thracia's mech isn't bulky by any means, its bulkier than xer goblin, so she gives up her redundant systems to pick up the Argonaut Shield, a tool that lets her take half the damage her fellow pilot would take instead.

Conclusion: You got your tools now! Thracia was tired of seeing people dying, she was tired of the war, of the bastards in suits puppeteering it, she wanted it done and she wanted it done now. Talking to the leaders of the locals they decide on a final plan of attack: destroying the HQ of the corporate settlers

SimpleCorp must fall

Terrakis must be free

From here on out, you have your own tools to make your own builds, remember to focus on your roles, pick up abilities that complement your allies' playstyles and positionings, and most of all: have fun! a bad build in lancer isn't a huge deal, you can always try and try again until you get it right.

Oh, you wanna know how Thracia's story ended? Alright then, here you go

Mr. Blue Sky stood atop the ruins of SimpleCo's elite pilot: Fear, Thracia was no longer afraid, she was no longer broken, she was now only filled with pride, and joy. Terrakis was free, and she had been a part of its liberation. She hoped this would send a message to any bastard trying to take it over, she looks upon the pictures hanging inside her cockpit, complimentary drawings given to her by small children, of her mech as a hero of legend, of SimpleCo goons being burnt by her Tachyon Lance. That day, Thracia knew she had for once in her life done the right thing. After all of this, she decided to stay, War was not her business, and the locals of Terrakis wished for her to stay to help with any future intrusions.

She and Lika lived a peaceful life together, no one wanted to fuck with Terrakis after SimpleCo's downfall

Too cheesy? well, sometimes that's just how careers end, in the duty of a lancer, you either leave before you die, or you die before you leave. Go play your own stories! I'm sure there's some GM out there struggling to find new players who'd love to have you in their group

oh fuck i completely forgot to talk about bond-

[thequietkid-moonie]

Class 3-E with an autistic classmate

[ PLATONIC HEADCANONS ] [ All Class 3-E ] [ Assassination Classroom / Ansatsu Kyoshitsu ]

More comfort headcanons with one of my favorites classes again!! :D

Also, is being a while since I last see the anime so i hope I made this right!

Being in class E is already bad enough, so the class will be pretty protective over you. After Koro-sensei became their teacher everyone began to warm up with each other, and you won't be an exception

Koro-sensei will make sure to explain to the class everything they have to know about autism and even teach them sign language

They understand how feels being underestimated and treated like a fool, so they always make sure to treat you as an equal (and that you feel like one)

If the sound of gunfire its too much for you Koro-sensei will make sure to give you earplugs or headphones/ear defenders, and will always carry some with him in case you need them

Everyone is trying to make the classroom more comfortable, so they'll make sure to considerate you in it, making sure not put anything overwhelming

Everyone will make sure you never feel left behind, always inviting you to participate in their plans, both of murder and those of hanging out (especially Kayano and Kurahashi )

If you need help with climbing the hill or improving your skills they will help you out

It isn't new for the class to have problems with the school grades (is the reason why they are here), so the class along side with Koro-sensei will help you with the subjects that you have the most difficulty paying attention to. Also Koro-sensei will help you by explaining the topics relating it to your special interest if necessary (just like he did with Takebayashi)

If you go no/semi verbal (or just don't feel like talking) they can do the talking part (like with Nakamura, Sugino and Kurahashi, they are pretty talktive). They don't judge and they are kinda used to since some of them are more quiet (Hayami and Chiba don't really talk so they pretty much understand you)

Also there are some students who have problems with social skills too (like Okuda or Itona), so you may can learn together about it.

I think Isogai and Sugino will be the ones who always ask you if you're alright and if you need anything (Isogai is a gentelman and Sugino is super friendly and caring)

Also Nagisa is a really observant person, so he will learn to read your body language and can tell when you're getting overwhelmed, too stressed or something its making you uncomfortable, in those moments he will inmediatly help you (either getting you out of the situation or just distracting you)

If you have problem to understand something they said, they don't have problem to explain it to you, and you can always ask Ritsu to explain it (I mean she's an AI so she can explain it in different ways and in depth if you want)

Since there is a forest around the classroom you probably can find a lot of things to stim with or just go and relax. If you don't want to go alone you can ask someone to accompany you (they won't mind)

We know Class E is bullied for all the school, but if someone is bullying you for your autism they will defend you if you need it (Okano, Kataoka, Terasaka, Yada and Fuwa will always be the ones how stand up first), also that person automatically become Karma and Nakamura's target (along side with the rest of the class, but we know how sadistic they are) Nobody mess with class 3-E and gets away with it!

When they changed the sports uniform Bitch-sensei makes sure it was made with a material you feel comfortable with!

[no-gram]

VOICE DRAMA　非人間と宇宙人

Ai: Hi, Jun.

Jun: Hi. Admin.

Ai: ...... huh.

Jun: You seem to be at a loss for words, didn't you come here with a script?

Ai: I wonder if Tsuguha told you about that...

Jun: Well, yeah.

Ai: It's true that I've been thinking about what to ask, just in case. I was, however, amused. You were hostile at first, but you're surprisingly cooperative, aren't you?

Jun: Are you kidding me? If it looks that way, you're wrong. If anything, I'm just not going to put up a pointless resistance. You're not our enemy either, even though you ended up in that role.

Ai: Right.

Jun: I gave you an answer, but you're not going to like it if you act like that.

Ai: Thanks for the advice. I'm sorry, but I don't really know what that feels like.

Jun: Oh, I see.

Ai: Well, introduce yourself.

Jun: Jun, that's all.

Ai: Didn't you say you don't interfere with business?

Jun: That's your broad interpretation, one, I didn't say I wouldn't interfere, and two, I introduced myself. That's all.

Ai: Don't you introduce yourself too?

Jun: Hmmm, I see. Did Tsugu say the same thing? Well, that's what I meant.

Ai: This job isn't easy either...I'm going to change the way I ask. What did you do before you came here?

Jun: Nothing special. Just the usual. Go to school, go home. Eat and sleep.

Ai: ...How is life here?

Jun: Nothing too good, nothing too bad.

Ai: Really? You seem to get along well with Tsuduri.

Jun: Hmm, I won't deny it. There are a lot of weirdos out there, so it's only logical to approach the one who seems the most normal.

Ai: Wow, you think that way. So, if there is someone more decent than Tsuduri, would you hang out with him?

Jun: Hmmm, sorry, I can't say that I would. I guess it would be more correct to say that I am where I am supposed to be.

Ai: I don't really know...

Jun: You don't have to understand, I didn't ask you to.

Ai: No, I didn't mean it the way I said it. 

Jun: What?

Ai: I understand your point of view. I mean, you are where you are because you are comfortable with your role, right?

Jun: Well, that's what it comes down to.

Ai: As I told you earlier, I don't understand you because you are so cooperative instead of complaining about this jail. If you want to sabotage me, you don't have to answer my questions, do you?

Jun: You've made your decision. I'm just comfortable in my role. Sabotage is pointless.

Ai: Why do you feel that interference is pointless?

Jun: I kind of know what I'm going to do. To put it plainly, I could hit Anta here and sabotage her, but that would be played by the system, right? It's the same thing.

Ai: Didn't you say you were falsely accused at first? Why are you giving up so much?

Jun: I think it's a false accusation. But that's for you to decide, isn't it? It doesn't matter if you try. Life is complicated because you try to cover it up. If you are honest, your life will be easier.

Ai: ...What if I judge you to be evil?

Jun: What will you do...? I don't know. You won't know until the time comes. I don't want you to judge my life in the first place.

Ai: I hope I didn't give you a hard time.

Jun: Don't feel sorry for me, it's creepy.

Ai: I'm not trying to antagonize you guys. Besides, I think I've learned a lot about compassion for others after talking with Tsuguha.

Jun: ...I'm sorry Tsuguha, but I'll teach you for your own good.

Ai: Jun?

Jun: It is indeed difficult to survive without compassion. As a human being. But you shouldn't live by caring sincerely. Instead of caring sincerely, you should care in order to use, otherwise it is you who will be used.

Ai: Well...

Jun: You don't understand, do you? It's knowledge that you will eventually need. If it's unnecessary for you, that's okay.

Ai: Oh, thank you? I wonder if it's okay to...

Jun: Giving up, you know, is my salvation. Expectations are feelings of betrayal and loss. Life can be mundane. Just because it's Sunday doesn't mean it's good, and tomorrow I have to go to school.

Ai: For you, is it painful to go to school tomorrow?

Jun: At least it's not fun. There are a lot of humans there, right?

Ai: You are human too, right?

Jun: ...I don't know. Maybe I'm just a looker, maybe I'm not a person.

Ai: Are you the type to be surprisingly spiritual?

Jun: No? See, some people are very human, and some are outcasts.

Ai: I know what you mean. What is the difference between the two for you?

Jun: Difference? Difference, yeah. If a person was down and you were the only one there, what would you do first?

Ai: What? In practical terms, I would call an ambulance to help him.

Jun: If you were a human being, of course you would do that, right?

Ai: Of course.

Jun: That's naive. There are people in the world who think about the benefits of helping first. There are people who would help a fallen person if they can get a reward for it.

Ai: Worst case scenario...but there are definitely people like that.

Jun: I think such a person is not a human being.

Ai: So, what you mean by ''not human'' is...

Jun: You can figure out the rest on your own.

Ai: Yes. Non-human.

Jun: Hmm, I like that way of calling you that. But I would call myself an alien. And you are the non-human.

Ai: I guess you're right, now I'm...

Jun: But you should remain pure and innocent and believe in your own values. Don't be influenced by anyone.

Ai: Can I ask you something else that I don't understand?

Jun: Sure.

Ai: Why do you care so much?

Jun: I don't care. It's a role.

Ai: That's a kind role.

Jun: No matter what you say to an alien, you won't reach him because he doesn't have a heart.

[bell tolling]

Ai: Come on, alien, the interrogation is over. Do you have anything left to say?

Jun: Nothing left to say. I'll leave it up to you to decide, but you've got to be a good judge of character.

Ai: You say disturbing things.

Jun: I have an alien intuition. No, it's a lie. Maybe it's telepathy between aliens.

Ai: It's a roundabout warning.

Jun: That's what it's supposed to do. Don't let someone like me kill you.

Ai: Yeah. I never really knew much about yourself.

Jun: Only now. I'm just one way or the other.

Ai: Well, then, let me retrace the steps that led to your resignation.

[mimikooandbts]

The criticism from Jikookers onto Taehyung comes from him literally inviting himself onto a show that wasn’t his. Stating literal facts from the episode which tell us Tae did this on such short notice and insisted on being there, when this was planned in advance for Jimin and Jungkook. This comes after a month of promotions for Are You Sure, where the show was marketed as a Jikook one, just to have Tae on it too.

I’m playing a lesser of two evils right now, but from what I’ve seen, this has been playful joking about Tae being a third wheel and being critical of how he joined the show. Meanwhile Tkkers have been finding ways to harass Jimin, erase him out of his own show, and belittle AYS down to a scripted show of zero importance. Now all of a sudden that Tae is there, they’ve walked back the scripted comments and are ignoring jimin’s presence all together. They’re making Taekook fanmerch out of edited vminkook photos that remove Jimin from the shot.

If you’re worried about what Jikookers are saying about Tae, I wish you could see what antis say about Jimin and Jikook together.

Anon, there shouldn't be any criticism of Tae to begin with. Y'all are literally doing to Tae what the antis used to do (and continue) to JM . “If it was Jimin, he would have received so much hate.” But the fact is, he shouldn't have either. Hating on JM is as bad as hating on V. Neither of them should receive hate for desiring to hang out with friends.

All of this just translates to giving the same energy. If Jikook agreed to let him on the show, then who are you to hate him for that? It's ridiculous! They are friends and you are fans, know your place! If they didn't want him, he wouldn't be there! Anon, my friend can bother me to spend time with me and my partner on a planned vacation for only the two of us. It's me who's annoyed! If anyone else starts hating on my friend for this, I won't tolerate it. Because they are my friends, I was the one who was annoyed, but at the end of the day, I agreed, so who are you to get mad on my behalf?

The show was promoted as a jikook show cause it literally is!! They themselves said that Tae is a guest!!

I'm seeing more passive-aggressive than playfulness. Anon, I can read the undertones, and I'm getting a lot of bitterness under those jokes. You all are not being honest.

Anon, why should I care about what taekookers say or do? Isn't it already known that they are crazy? A bunch of vile, brainless people. So why are you comparing jikkrs to them? Isn't that like comparing oranges and tomatoes? So you want to give the same energy, is that why you tolerate (encourage) similar behavior?

Keep watching and listening fools. You will be one day (reporting and blocking are your best friend). You don't have to hate on Tae or shade him to defend Jimin.

I'm calling out jikoookers because I believe most of them still have brains. The day they stop thinking, you'll never hear from me again.

[cottonfeltgembira]

[WIP] Im finally writing a full proper fic in months now... (Rolls over on the floor)

Yosuke heaved a sigh, “Something tells me while you won't press me any further, you definitely wanna figure out what's up with me today.”

Yu, who was semi preoccupied with dusting a collection of music CDs on the bottom of the rack let out a chuckle, his response slightly muffled by the medical mask he was wearing.

“How did you know? And yes, I would like to know what's going on with you and if you allow it I'd like to help.”

“God, you are too good, man. And it's… really stupid.”

Yu got up from the floor and disposed of his medical mask and disposable gloves into the trash bin, turning to Yosuke with his hand on his hip. “Yosuke, if it's bothering you then I don't think that whatever it is it would be considered stupid.”

“That's the thing!” Yosuke sat up from his previous slumped position. “Look, just promise me you won't laugh when I tell you.”

“I promise.”

After Yu promptly dusted his shirt off he made his way to the couch, taking a seat next to Yosuke. “So, what is it?”

“The truth is… I'm stuck on the fact that I don't have a girlfriend.”

Yosuke’s silver haired friend only stared blank eyed, he wasn’t sure what he expected from Yu but his poker face wasn’t one of them.

“Uh, Earth to Yu Narukami? This is the part where you either break the promise and laugh or realize it's over for me.”

“Sorry, I guess I was expecting something else.”

“Something else?” Whatever it was Yu thought of, it couldn't have been good.

“Mmm, I was thinking you forgot Teddie in the freezer in Junes and you had to defrost him for a whole day.” He knew it…

“Well actually that did almost happen once- Hey!”

“But in all seriousness,” Yu changed his tone from his light jest. “I don't think you should let that worry you, I'm sure you’ll find someone. Besides, didn't you mention before you were going on dates?”

“Those were just dates, they’re different!” And they were different, Yosuke swore he tried everything in the book of dating and romance but not a single girl he went out with considered a second date. Was he not charming enough? Was there something about himself Yosuke didn’t know that girls just didn’t like? If only it were easy, like Yu would ever truly understand his plight. Yu could say he wanted a girlfriend and 30 girls in his near vicinity would drop everything to run at a chance to be his.

“Hmm, I don’t really get it. I think love comes when it wants to, you just have to be yourself.”

“Man, easy for you to say. Aren't you dating like 3 girls simultaneously right now?”

“Snrrk.” A loud snort came Yu, “Yosuke, you believe in me way too much.”

“What?”

“Actually, I’ve never dated, not even once.”

“WHAT!?” Yosuke shouted, thank god neither Dojima nor Nanko was home. He couldn't believe it, Yu could easily be pulling his leg but he sounded genuine, there was no way and yet…

Yosuke had to confirm,”You’re not just saying this to make me feel better about my dating failures, right?”

“If I was lying to you I would’ve said I’ve only been on a date or two.”

“Holy shit, you’re serious.”

“Oh, I am serious. I’m showing you it's really not the end of the world if you haven't found anybody by now. It's different for everybody, Yosuke.”

And he was right, as displeased as Yosuke was to hear it from Yu. Maybe he was just too eager. Yeah- Yeah that had to be it.

“I guess you’re right…Hey wait, didn't you had a thing with Ebihara?”

Yu tilted his head, almost akin to a fox, “Ai-san? No, she was troubled at the time. She did suggest dating but she was doing that out of wanting validation, she just needed a friend who could understand her and support her.”

“How did that even happen?” Yu only shrugged, another mystery to the strange array of acquaintances Yu had. From creepy nurse to grieving old woman to a middle school kid he tutored, it’s miraculous how he made the time to get to know these people, hang out with the investigation team and solve the case at the same time. That was his partner alright.

“Speaking of Ai-san, I wonder if it's still in my closet.” Yosuke watched as Yu eagerly got up, walking towards his closet and began digging through the drawers. As Yu dug for whatever buried treasure he had in his closet from being reminded of a female friend, Yosuke stopped the music on his mp3 player and took his headphones off for once, placing them on the coffee table.

Love comes when it wants to, huh?

Yosuke wondered if that love will ever come, at this point it started to feel bleak. Countless failed attempts with girls, maybe he wasn’t made to ever be in a relationship. It’s silly but he can’t deny it made him feel miserable. Yosuke Hanamura, still a loser at 21 and forever alone.

At least there was his partner. Yu was the first person who he’s ever felt truly close to, he saw Yosuke in his ugliest moments and didn’t bat an eye, Yu reached out to Yosuke and he’s been holding onto that hand ever since.

Yosuke admired Yu, he was smart, headstrong, and always got back up no matter what. At the same time, envious of the same things he liked so much about his best friend. It’s an ugly feeling, one he thought Yu beat out of him years ago at the riverbank. But every once in a while, jealousy would rear its head, and Yosuke sometimes wished it would show itself as a shadow so he can whoop its ass instead of doing it the hard way.

[mentallyshattered]

This is part 8 of the "What if Yuu didn't want to go back?" Series!

(I, the author of this work, do not consent to this work being crossposted/translated without my knowledge or used to train an AI, ever.)

Masterlist

Vil stares for a moment, just a moment, and then smiles. Grim is still looking at me weird, but says nothing.

We leave to eat. Grim's strange looks halt when he sees breakfast: poppyseed bagels with cream cheese and lox. We eat instead of talking, and I take the time to admire just how clean this place is.

Everything is so shiny. There aren't any paintings or pictures, noticeably, but there is a mirror hanging over there. It was probably put there to allow people to look at the oven without having to turn around, given the location and angle.

Looking in the mirror... Hey, it's Korrak and Mandible! And...Rook? Looks like he's intercepting them, too. At least he's giving them food first. Korrak walks toward the stairs with half a poppyseed bagel in hand.

Oh, well. That's none of my business. I'm done with my bagel, though, so it's off to the Backstage Room!

Grim finishes his breakfast on the way, and I brush him until his coat is soft and even. He doesn't complain about me stopping this time, but he does set off on a quest of magically dressing himself.

When I finish my routine, we head off to put my new phone up, and then it's off to History of Magic.

Trappola isn't here yet, surprisingly. I figured he'd've learned his lesson after yesterday, but I guess not. Oh, well. His problem! We'll snitch again if he starts today with a repeat of yesterday.

By the time we sit down and start talking to Deuce, Trappola walks into the room- with a collar on?

"I see your stares. Don't ask."

With that, he sits. Deuce stares right at him for a solid 20 seconds before speaking.

"We don't even have oolong."

"Not what happened."

I sit there, contemplating why this kid is wearing a heart-shaped collar with a lock on it to class. Very much a "Heartslabyul" look, though. Half is black, half is red, and the outlines are gold.

The bells rings, and Trein starts the lesson. I take notes and help Grim do the same with his levitation magic. He picks up on it pretty fast, and his writing is easily legible within 5 minutes.

Crewel gives Trappola a funny look when he walks in, but says nothing and the way he teaches seems normal. This is only the second time I've had him, though.

More note-taking commences. I'm rather tempted to question Trappola where he got that and why he's wearing it, but class is ongoing, so I refrain from asking and make sure Grim does the same. He shoots me dirty looks whenever I close his mouth for him, but he stays quiet.

Grim and I actually manage to stay conscious all through P.E.! That's a win for us.

"What, you think you're special just 'cause you didn't take a nap when you fell?"

"Nope! We think we're special cause we aren't the ones wearing a collar, and one of us is a cat."

Trappola turns bright red. "What the hell?!"

"Mya-ha, that's what you get!"

"He has a point, Ace. How did you get that, anyway?"

"Shut up, Deuce."

"Hey, Trappola, remember that one time you were snarky with Deuce and wound up cleaning all the chairs in Trein's room? I do."

Trappola shuts his mouth, forgets his lesson, and speaks again. "Hey, you can call me 'Ace.' I don't mind. Why do you only ever call me by my last name?"

"That's what the headmage called you during the entrance ceremony. Besides, we also call you 'entrance ceremony claustrophobe.'"

"Behind my back?"

"To your face, entrance ceremony claustrophobe."

"Okay, guys, that's enough."

"Shut it, Deuce."

"Dude, what is your problem?" Evidently, Deuce has finally had enough.

"It probably has something to do with the collar." Okay, being a dick here won't help, but I'm bored and hungry, so I'll care after lunch.

"Yeah, it does!"

"Myeh... I'd just take it off."

"I. Can't."

"Why not?"

"You say that like you don't know."

"They're first years from a different dorm, Ace. Of course they don't know. You have to tell them."

Trappola says nothing. Apparently, that thought didn't occur to him. I'm guessing most of them don't, though.

Trappola sighs, but still doesn't say anything. Deuce, clearly fed up, turns to us. "Our housewarden's signature spell is called 'Off With Your Head,' and he uses it on Heartslabyuls who break the rules. The spell places a collar around the target's neck," Deuce motions to Trappola, "and seals away their magic. I'm not sure what Ace did to get collared, but only Riddle can remove it."

I remember one of the Pomefiore sophomores explained all of the housewardens and dorms to the freshmen, me and Grim included. That's how I know Riddle Rosehearts is the Heartslabyul housewarden, a sophomore in the dorm based on strictness. No wonder, huh?

"Myaah... hey, Redhead, did you complain about yesterday in front of Rosehearts?"

Trappola looks stunned. "Yeah... How'd you know?"

"You swear when you're mad. That's probably banned."

"...You're right."

Grim appears prideful of his accomplishment, chest out and everything. Trappola looks lost. Deuce looks hungry.

"Let's go to lunch. Come on, Ace."

Grim and I wave. "Bye, Deuce! Bye, Trappola!"

The walk back to the dorm is tiring, but it's nice knowing we're just a little step closer to whatever it is we're reaching for.