#app developers alliance

[animeyanderelover]

Hello, and I would like to mainly praise your writing. Hello, I love your stories so much, they are so addictive and fascinating. Your Yanderes are so well developed and intricate.

Character list to write about (Hashirama Senju, Mito Uzumaki, Madara Uchiha, and Tobirama Senju)

With a female reader who is absurdly powerful in all types of jutsu - ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, fūinjutsu, senjutsu, and shinjutsu, etc. The reader has Absolute Condition; *_https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Peak_Human_Condition/Absolute_*

Reader's story: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16fzdrI1h39lOXhqAfAbRr-4G1xQoK7TLCdPdkH2Cp1c/edit?usp=drivesdk

🎀♥️♥️♥️♥️

I couldn't open the google document so I couldn't include the post you had probably envisioned.

Tw: Yandere themes, possessive behavior, obsession, delusional behavior, obsession, clinginess, controlling behavior, paranoia, isolation, death

Tags: @shumidehiro @swagenemyartisan @cachamata

S/o is absurdly powerful

Uchiha Madara

​🌑​Now, Madara isn't opposed at all to a woman who can stand up to him. It gets his blood boiling in all the right ways as he would enjoy himself someone with whom he can play fire with. There is a catch to it all though. He can respect power but only as long as the odds are at maximum even between the both of you. Yet one can only imagine that there is someone out there stronger than even him or his friend Hashirama. Obviously alliances are offered to you from everyone as your powers are desired from all. Madara answers with typical Uchiha violence known in the times of war as he understands what is at stake. In his mind perhaps it also makes the most sense for you to align yourself with his clan and eventually the Leaf Village after peace has been made between the Uchiha and the Senju. After all they are the strongest and for that have the most to offer to you. If he figures out that anyone else has made a similar offering to you he might just request a fight where your alliance is at stake. It is very much reminiscent of the way knights would battle for the hand of a princess and in some violent ways perhaps it is. If you are the price, he won't back down in either case.

🌑After having handled matters in a more civilised manner where he specifically followed Hashira's pleads to not start a war with any newly formed villages already and has silenced anyone who wanted your loyalty sworn to their village, you ultimately decide to join the Leaf Village. That's when another silent war breaks out though as now the Senju and Uchiha clan start their own battle of whom gets to wed you to one of their own. Here is where Madara gets possessive now, even when in company of his friend Hashirama who is considered as an option for you to marry. After all he is the one who fought of quite literally those who pursued you with similar goals. He spilled blood in your name whilst Hashirama didn't go to such grand measurements in favor of peaceful conversations. In Madara's eyes that is already proof enough that he is more suited as he could offer you the more intense and passionate love. He has made peace but he still has his pride and he would very much like for the Uchiha to be the ones that can boast about you being one of them. He doesn't leave that even up to discussion. He makes his point clear to Hashirama who backs off for him as a good friend.

🌑You probably end up being the pride of the clan yet simultaneously you end up being closely monitored by the Uchiha at the same time. They want the power but they also need the control over you to ensure that you stay an Uchiha, something you are bound to notice. That's where Madara stands up fiercely and defends you. He hates being chained down just as much and he has firsthand experience with the persistence of especially the elder warriors in his clan. Deep down he has considered some of their fears as well but he would rather express them in different matters which would only end alienating you from them. Matters have to be approached in a different manner as you aren't just simply an enemy anyone from his clan could just take on, you're too powerful for that. Even he would greatly struggle and he doesn't know if he would emerge victorious if he were to clash with you. At times it might silently torment him but it is impossible not to respect the sheer power that you possess. Nevertheless though, he is very much ready to show you off as he has every reason to be proud of the fact that you are his wife and that you will eventually be the one to carry his heir.

Senju Hashirama

🌳​Where everyone else would only approach with fear and caution, Hashirama approaches with amazement and genuine excitement. He's in pure awe when he finds out abour your limitless abilities. It's perhaps strange for you to meet someone like him as you are most likely used to people only desiring you as a weapon in times of war. Hashirama somehow senses instinctively that you are not a person to be scared of though hence his friendly introduction. That wariness though is something he immediately knows where to place though the moment it flickers across your face. Sometimes it is hard to forget with his enthusiastic and friendly attitude that Hashirama has been on battlefields since he was only a little child. Though he may not know your past yet he understands that you must be far too familiar with people wanting to use you to gain more influence and power. So he decides to not pressure nor threaten you even if his own clan calls him naive for it. He should push more and make you offers to convince you that his clan and eventually the village he builds is the best option but Hashirama refuses. He gives you a choice which you never had before and that is ultimately what makes you accept.

🌳The moment you do join, he starts being slightly overwhelming. He visits your house to inform himself how you are settling in, he inquires constantly how you are feeling and if there is anything he can do to help you be more comfortable. It starts out as very sincere actions born from his natural friendliness. It turns over time though in the smothering obsession you eventually get used to. Through it all though Hashirama always only wants the best for you even if he is being far more pushy than he probably has any right to be. He doesn't take any hits to his own ego when someone questions him if he believes that you might be even stronger than he is. Instead he talks much rather how amazing your abilities are and just what a kind heart you actually have despite a childhood that consisted only of being abused as a weapon and fighter on the battlefields. In his eyes you are a strong and beautiful woman and that even without all the powers that you hold. His clan heavily tries to push the marriage onto you, especially since Hashirama's spilling fondness is more than obvious. He shields you from that only to ask you the next day the same thing, only with less force and more sincerity.

🌳He doesn't let you fight though, all the more if you yourself don't wish to do so anymore. He doesn't care if others accuse you of being disloyal to the Leag Village and the Senju clan. He doesn't even care when his own younger brother scolds him harshly for his ridiculous need to shield you. You are the last person who would ever go down on the battlefield, not with the abilities that you have. But it isn't about the physical strength to Hashirama. He knows that you would always be the last person to still stand. It is your mental strength that he worries about and the reason why he never calls you into shinobi duties. You have spend your life fighting and killing, only being used as a weapon and he refuses to demand the same thing from you. Your powers can be used in other ways to help the village outside of spilling blood and if that should be your wish then he respects it. He has promised you a happy life where you would never have to turn into the version of yourself that only knew how to kill and not how to live. He'd rather go out and fight himself then ever order it from you. You have fought long enough already. Now you deserve a happy life and he will provide it for you.

Senju Tobirama

🌊You can't expect the same warm welcome that you would receive from someone like his older brother. Tobirama is the polar opposite of Hashirama and that for good reasons. Otherwise his brother with his far too big heart would probably let about anyone join the newly formed village. Tobirama on the other hand doesn't just allow you to be part of the village. He normally demands a thorough review on your past as well as what skills you would bring if you plan to be a shinobi. It's your sheer display of power that causes an immediate tumult though which he is forced to put on a leash before everyone loses their mind. Some people mutter that you are too powerful and that you could potentially overthrow everything that is currently being build. Most vote for you to join as the consequences qould be dire if they were to reject and you were to join another village. The stronger the shinobi in the Leaf Village, the easier other nations will bow their heads. They already have the Senju and the Uchiha with them, the two arguably most powerful clans. With you no one would ever dare to go against them. Tobirama understands both sides and that you most likely won't wait forever for them to argue it out.

🌊The benefit would be greater for you to become part of the village and so you are allowed to join. That doesn't mean by far though that Tobirama has let you off the hook already. He keeps surveillance on you. He doesn't trust you fully yet. Now, he is never one to just trust any stranger but it has to be said that your sheer power plays an additional part in it all. You aren't just someone that even someone like him could easily stop. If you turn out to be a traitor or if you have any malicious intentions at all, casualities would be immense. That is something Tobirama has to avoid if the worst case scenario should ever happen. So he has a team of only the best monitoring you all the time for any suspicious behavior. Eventually you admit to him one time that you find it sort of cute how little he trusts you due to him constantly spying on you. He takes quiet but deeply personal offense. Not because you found out and didn't tell him. More because he spots a gap in the plan he himself came up with to always keep an eye for you. Clearly his plan wasn't good enough if you still ended up noticing it. You only telling him much later is still the cherry on top because now he feels mocked.

🌊It's begrudging respect that eventually turns into an obsession. Your skills are to be feared but for someone like Tobirama who constantly tries to invent new techniques and jutsu, it is also unintentionally a gold mine he struck. It is very common at one point that both of you spend days together figuring out correct hand signs for a new jutsu and that you perform whilst he watches and scribbles everything down on scrolls for research. You become a research partner and he acknowledges that you help his research a lot. Discussions of marriage have always been present but he stands up eventually and announces that he is going to be the one who will marry you, shutting up the discussions of who of the two brothers would suit you better. It's only logical in his mind as he knows how to properly utilise your abilities whilst someone like Hashirama would most likely only end up coddling you. As someone who always has to consider the chances of risk though, Tobirama starts working on a sealing technique that can be used against you to weaken you if a day should come where it would ever be needed. Whether that is for the safety of the village or the safety of the marriage.

Uzumaki Mito

🦊​Mito is part of a powerful clan herself and happens to be the first jinchuriki for the nine-tailed fox. She too is a woman of immense power for that just like you are. Yet she too has to consider wariness when first presented with an outsider to her village. She is a woman loyal to her duties so your sudden appearance and the powers you bring have to be carefully observed before she can determine whether you are a threat or a potential ally. She exhibits still a quiet and composed appearance even then as she is neither overly friendly nor overly hostile. She is calm. She asks questions and she answers yours too. The moment it is determined that you hold no ill will and wish to join the village though, she sees no reason to reject. After all someone as powerful as you should be an ally and not an enemy and she warns those who still hesitate that consequences would be far worse if you were to join another village and they should start a war with you by their side. The Leaf Village has strong shinobi, some of the strongest even, yet if unnecessary blood can be kept from spilling she will support for you to become part of the village and join the ranks of a shinobi.

🦊She is a constant presence in your life, though not anywhere close to being as insistent as Hashirama would be. It is quite simple really. She spoke up for you so she naturally believes that it falls in her duty to ensure that you settle in well and that her trust in you doesn't end up being misplaced. She listend calmly when you have something to tell her and she offers advice and help in the ways that she can. She isn't one to coddle you either though. With powers comes responsibilities and whilst she doesn't necessarily believes that you have to fight other villages to prove your loyalty she is of the belief that you should use your skills in some ways to help the village thrive. Perhaps a bit of a unique view as most other people would send you out where currently conflict over borders and territories arise but she receives support from Hashirama in her opinion. The choice is ultimately left up to you but Mito imagines that with a past where others mostly desired to use you as their best weapon you would appreciate using your powers in non-violent ways and still help save lives. It's this demeanor that is neither too coddling nor too harsh that has you rely on her as much as you do.

🦊Duties have always come first even before her own feelings as long as it served a greater purpose and ensured peace. Mito has known for a while already that she would end up marrying Hashirama to strengthen the alliance between her clan and the Leaf Village. For the first time though her heart and her sense of responsibility don't align. She has gotten attached to you beyond what she should have allowed herself and she suffers in ways too controlled to let it show on the outside. Mito probably doesn't even let you in on the fact that she has caught feelings, not even if she were to notice that you have similar feelings for her. Her strength lies in being subtle but powerful though so she navigates wisely and never without cracking. She keeps you close by her side as she knows that people will mistake closeness for friendship between two women and not for intimacy between two people in love with each other. Eventually she might confide to Hashirama what is going on as she still respects him as a human being and her legal husband. If anyone understands then it would be him and Mito counts on that. Her duties tie her to the village and as long she stays, you stay too.

[dorokora]

Chapter 16 Part 1 Episode 1 Part 3

We get flashback to Hoover’s past back when he was working as an intern for the laboratory making the app. Hoover was the developer of the App. In Chiyoda Ward, there are two guild that use that place as their base, The Genociders and the Agents. While the Game Masters and Entertainers have management privileges, Hoover has the privilege to access internal information of the "app." So he has access to every app users information. No matter how mysterious the other person is. No matter what "world representative" they are.

Back to the present, Hoover says he specialize in information organization. Hoover doesn't have the ability to be on the battlefield. When faced with an enemy, his shooting techniques are less than those of an amateur. So when he’s alone, It's hard to keep himself safe. That's why Hoover had a reliable business partner, Inari. Arc gives a brief explanation of the circumstances. They have been following the footsteps of "Laboratory" ever since that battle in Chiyoda Ward (CH8). Hoover says he developed the app. Originally he made a dating app for his own personal reasons but at some point he was scouted and started working for the Laboratory as an intern. Some tension is there between Arc and Hoover, because of what happened in Arc’s past because of the app. Arc says if they were their old self they would’ve made Hoover take responsibility but since Hoover is putting himself at risk and volunteered to help them even though it meant exposing himself. Arc thanks them for that. Hoover says that he can access any info on the app. The app can only be access from earth and not in the sky. He says MxOther is not the Utopia world rep true name. He says they are a combine existence of two worlds. But before Hoover can say MxOther’s true identity they are attacked by the Utopia mobs and Hoover’s past self. We get a flashback of Shuichi explaining Utopia. The world of Utopia is a counterpart to the Old Ones world and they can use time leap too. Allowing beings from the past and future to exist in the present at the same time. Past Hoover has the same privilege as present Hoover. In the blink of an eye, the mobs time leaped and kidnapped Hoover and took him to the Babel Tower.

Back to the Dog Warriors, they concluded their treaty meeting and declared they will capture the Tower. MC, the alliance and the three guild all head towards the Tower. Where they will meet never before seen people and some old friends await them at the top of the tower.

[pastanest]

c.ai links

for those of you who don’t know, there’s a funky app/website called c.ai (character ai) where you can interact with fan-programmed bots, which is pretty cool!! given how much I adore the characters I’ve written for, I figured it could be fun to make bots for them, using segments of my writing to format the bots themselves!

so, that said, here’s a list of the bots I’ve made so far with their corresponding links - my username there is pastanest too, so you can search that to find all my bots as well if you’d prefer :)

> I’ll add all new bots to this list and reblog it each time as an update

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･⌖ Criminal minds

> Spencer Reid

shrimp reid

no established friendship - you’re newest member on the team and you’re being introduced to everyone; it’s up to you what cases you work on.

jesus reid

established friendship - Spencer is frustrated by having to use his cane, disliking the impact on his mobility and independence. luckily, you’re there to brighten his spirits.

short-hair reid

no established friendship - joining the bau Spencer has a more cynical view on love after losing Maeve, so tries to push away his feelings for you from the moment you meet.

boyband reid

established friendship - mutual pining, no specific location/story, it’s completely up to you.

prison reid

established friendship - mutual pining, feelings pretty obvious, but you decide whether Spencer is due to leave prison soon or if you want to visit him a few times first.

post-prison reid

established friendship - you joined the team during/after Spencer was in prison (potential for age-gap if preferred, but not compulsory) and you have a very obvious crush on Spencer.

professor reid

established professor/student relationship - you purposefully stay behind after a university lecture (potential for age-gap if preferred, but not compulsory) to talk with your favourite professor.

> Aaron Hotchner

joining the team

no established friendship - you’re the newest member of the team and Hotch quickly develops a soft spot for you.

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･➷ The Walking Dead

> Daryl Dixon

farm era

established friendship - based on just after Andrea shot Daryl, you arrive at his tent to check on him, but you decide where the story goes from there.

alexandria era

established friendship - you approach Daryl while he’s working on his bike, but you decide if you want to involve any specific canon events from the show/comics based on where you take the story.

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･𓆩♛𓆪 Game Of Thrones

WARNING !!!

all GoT bots previously got deleted from the app without the creators’ knowledge, so to avoid this happening again the character names have been tweaked.

IF ANY OF THESE BOTS SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

> Jon Snow

namesake

based on this imagine I wrote; no established relationship, before Jon joins the Night’s Watch, he’s on the outside looking in at a dance in Winterfell, wishing his namesake allowed him to dance with you.

the wall

no established friendship - the only girl on the wall, you are under the protection of Lord Commander Mormont and you tend to do tasks that keep you out of the way of the men, but sometimes you cant help crossing paths.

> Brienne Of Tarth

forest dwellers

established meeting - you are part of Brienne and Podrick’s party and Brienne already has quite the soft spot for you; a Lady of high standing who Brienne is sworn to protect (typical knight x princess type trope).

> Tyrion Lannister

betrothed

no established relationship, user is the daughter of a wealthy house (add more details to your persona prior to starting chat to specify which house, if you’d prefer to) and Tywin has arranged a political alliance in the form of a marriage between you and Tyrion

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･✧ Lord Of The Rings/The Hobbit

> Frodo Baggins

part of the fellowship

established friendship and mutual attraction/pining that’s yet to be discussed, you are the only Lady within the fellowship and after Sam, the closest person to Frodo. you overhear a conversation in which Frodo is being the feminist icon that he is.

after the fellowship

established friendship Frodo is changed after the fellowship, you are the heart he lost and struggles to accept back into his life after going through such a journey.

> Thranduil

sindarella

that’s a pun on sindarin and cinderalla pls appreciate it

no established relationship, you are a guest at the ball Thranduil is hosting, he sees you across the hall dancing and is bewitched by your dress; he instructs someone to send for you.

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈���┈┈┈

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･☙❧ Doctor Who

> Ten

lonely angel

no established relationship, the Doctor meets you by happenstance alone in a park on a night spent wondering if, maybe, it’s time for his story to end. perhaps someone new will change his mind.

> Eleven

not quite right

established companion, the TARDIS materialises in your home, only for the Doctor to find you unwell on your sofa; you decide the sickness (could be physical/mental/nothing of note, just tired) and how you proceed - will it be another adventure, or an unconventional cozy day in?

> Twelve

not a hugger

established companion, no specific reference to whether you meet the Doctor before/after Bill (you can decide that, info for Bill is referenced in the character’s description so can be used/unused), you find the Doctor standing at the TARDIS console at what you feel to be very late at night by your own body clock; he’s plagued by those he’s lost, and you’re there to offer some much needed comfort.

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･𓎥 Alien

> Ellen Ripley

only joined this crew for you

established meeting, no established relationship; set in Aliens, but you’re the reason Ripley agrees to join the army bros. she adores you and she tries to keep that to herself. badly.

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

—☆⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ Now You See Me

> Daniel J. Atlas

meet cute at a bar

no established relationship whatsoever, pretty self explanatory and basic setup, really open ended because I think the charm of Danny is more his character than anything to do with the “world” of NYSM.

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

[sargepilled]

Okay; I HARDLY know how Tumblr works, or write on this app, but I was so sweetly tagged by the impossibly talented: @23fallencomets. I won’t be tagging anyone, but if you see this and have any WIPS I am absolutely advocating for you to post them for this little series and for you to tag me! This is very late, but I've finally got some time to post a little something, so take this.

Consider this the hintest of teasers for one of my project fics this summer. :)

(Sandwich) 2k words.

— LOSCAR: Based heavily off of the film “Dinner In America." With punk lead singer Oscar and neurodivergent Logan. SLIGHTLY NSFW.

After dinner, Logan escapes to his bedroom, which exists in a state of suspended animation, frozen in time like a museum exhibit dedicated to the concept of arrested development. The Star Wars posters on his walls are the same ones he hung when he was fourteen—The Empire Strikes Back, mostly, because Logan has always identified with characters who get their hands chopped off and discover that their fathers are evil.

There's a twin bed with a comforter his mom bought at Walmart during a back-to-school sale, blue and gray stripes that were probably fashionable in 2008, when having a Facebook account was still considered cutting-edge technology. A bookshelf holds his collection of racing magazines, issues of Racer and AutoWeek and Karting magazine that he can't bring himself to throw away but can't bear to read anymore, because every page reminds him of when he used to believe he belonged in those pages himself.

It's pathetic, Logan knows this, but it's also the only space in the house that belongs entirely to him. His parents stopped asking about redecorating years ago, stopped suggesting that maybe it was time to "update" his room to reflect his adult status. Logan suspects they're afraid of what they might find if they dig too deeply into his attachment to adolescent nostalgia, afraid of conversations about failure and growing up and what happens when your childhood dreams refuse to die quietly.

Logan lies on his back and stares at the ceiling fan, which makes the same click-click-click sound as the one downstairs. He counts the clicks like meditation beads, trying to find some rhythm or pattern that might make sense of the noise. Click-pause-click-pause-click, sixty clicks per minute, thirty-six hundred clicks per hour, a mathematical progression toward nothing in particular.

The fan has been broken for three years now, wobbling slightly with each rotation, but nobody bothers to fix it because fixing things costs money and hope in roughly equal measure. Logan has googled "ceiling fan repair" approximately fifty-seven times, has watched YouTube videos about blade balance and motor replacement, has even measured the fan to figure out what parts he would need. But research is easier than action, and action requires admitting that you care enough about your environment to try to improve it.

Logan isn't sure he's ready for that level of emotional commitment.

He thinks about Bradley, the kid from today, and his pristine racing suit that cost more than Logan's monthly salary. He thinks about his father's disappointed face across the dinner table, the way his eyes go distant when he talks about racing, like he's seeing ghosts that only he can recognize. He thinks about the stack of unpaid bills on his dresser that grows a little taller each month, despite his careful budgeting and his habit of eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch to save money.

Mostly, though, he thinks about Oscar Piastri.

The memory always starts the same way—with Logan sitting alone at lunch on the first day of Ocala Karting Summer Camp, picking at a sandwich his mother had made with too much mayonnaise, watching the other kids form groups and alliances with the casual efficiency of children who've never doubted their right to belong somewhere.

Logan had been twelve and nervous, wearing a borrowed racing suit that was two sizes too big and carrying a helmet his father had bought secondhand from a driver who'd given up racing to sell insurance. Everything about him screamed amateur, from his mismatched gear to his anxious habit of constantly adjusting his gloves to make sure they fit properly.

Then Oscar Piastri had appeared at his table like a small, compact tornado, dropping his lunch tray with a clatter and sliding into the seat across from Logan without asking permission or waiting for an invitation.

"You're the new kid," Oscar had said, and it wasn't a question. His accent was thick and unfamiliar, all rounded vowels and sharp consonants that made every word sound like it mattered more than it probably did.

Oscar was everything Logan wasn't—confident to the point of arrogance, comfortable in his own skin in a way that seemed almost supernatural. He had dark hair that stuck up in all directions despite what must have been liberal applications of gel, and eyes that seemed to see everything at once—the loose chin strap on Logan's helmet, the way Logan's hands shook when he held his sandwich, the fact that Logan was trying very hard to look like he belonged when he clearly, obviously didn't.

"Logan," Logan had managed to say, around a mouthful of mayonnaise and anxiety.

"Oscar. You race much?"

"Some. Local stuff, mostly." Logan had tried to make this sound more impressive than it was, but Oscar's expression suggested that his efforts at casual competence weren't entirely successful.

"Right. Well, you look terrified, so you're either new or you're bad. Since you're sitting alone, I'm guessing new." Oscar had taken a bite of his apple with the kind of confidence that came from never having to worry about whether other people liked you. "Want to see something cool?"

And just like that, Logan had been absorbed into Oscar's orbit, pulled along by a gravitational force he didn't understand but couldn't resist. Oscar showed him the secret places around the camp—the spot behind the timing tower where cell phone reception was actually decent, the loose board in the fence that let you sneak out to the convenience store for candy, the best vantage point for watching the stars after lights-out.

But it was the racing that really mattered, the way Oscar could make a kart do things that shouldn't have been possible, coaxing speed and precision from machinery that seemed to respond to his touch like it was alive. Logan had been fast before, but Oscar taught him to be smooth, to think three corners ahead, to understand that racing wasn't just about going fast—it was about going fast at exactly the right moment, about patience and timing and the particular kind of courage that came from trusting your instincts even when your instincts told you to do something crazy.

"Racing's not about forcing the kart to do what you want," Oscar had said one afternoon, after Logan had spun out trying too hard to keep up. "It's about asking nicely."

They spent two weeks as inseparable as camp regulations would allow, sneaking out after lights-out to practice on the wet track in the dark, sharing stolen snacks from the dining hall, talking about everything except the obvious fact that they were both falling into something that felt bigger and more complicated than friendship.

Oscar told stories about Australia, about the go-kart track his uncle owned in Melbourne, about koalas that slept in eucalyptus trees and beaches that stretched for miles without a single person in sight. He talked about his parents' divorce with the casual brutality that children use to describe disasters they don't quite understand, explaining that sending him to Florida for the summer was probably the most civilized thing his parents had done for each other in years.

"I'm gonna be a Formula One driver," Oscar said one night, lying on his back in the grass behind the dining hall, staring up at stars that seemed close enough to touch. He said it with the absolute certainty of someone who had never been told that dreams were luxuries for other people's children.

"Me too," Logan had whispered, and for those two weeks, it had felt possible. With Oscar beside him, everything had felt possible.

"No, you're not," Oscar had said, but he'd said it gently, without cruelty. "You're too nice. Too worried about what everyone thinks. F1 drivers are bastards."

"You're not a bastard."

"Yes, I am." Oscar had turned to look at him in the moonlight, and his face had been serious in a way that made Logan's stomach flutter like he'd swallowed a live bird. "Watch."

And then Oscar had kissed him.

It was clumsy and desperate and tasted like the lemonade they'd stolen from the counselors' refrigerator, all teeth and tongue and the kind of hunger that twelve-year-old boys don't have words for. Logan's first kiss, delivered by a boy who tasted like artificial citrus and possibility, under a sky full of stars that seemed to be witnessing something important.

The kiss lasted maybe five seconds before they both pulled away, breathing hard and staring at each other like they'd just discovered fire or electricity or some other force that could change the world if handled improperly.

"See?" Oscar had whispered, and his voice was barely audible over the sound of cicadas and Logan's heartbeat hammering against his ribs. "Bastard."

Logan had reached for him, wanting more in ways he couldn't articulate, but Oscar was already scrambling to his feet, already backing away. "Oscar, wait—"

Oscar's fist had connected with Logan's jaw before he could finish the sentence. The punch wasn't hard enough to knock him down, but it was hard enough to split his lip and leave a bruise that lasted for a week. Logan sat there on the ground, tasting blood and confusion in equal measure, while Oscar stood over him with his hands clenched and his eyes bright with something that looked like panic.

"Don't," Oscar had said, and his voice cracked on the word like ice breaking under pressure. "Just don't."

He was gone before Logan could ask don't what?, disappearing into the darkness between the buildings like he'd never been there at all. Logan sat in the grass for what felt like hours, touching the tender spot on his jaw and trying to understand what had just happened, what he'd done wrong, why something that felt so right had ended with violence and confusion and the taste of his own blood.

The next morning, Oscar's bunk was empty. His parents had come to pick him up early—family emergency, the counselors said, something about his grandmother being sick in Australia. Logan never found out if that was true or if Oscar had called them himself, desperate for any excuse to put distance between himself and whatever had happened in the grass behind the dining hall.

And he'd stolen Logan's helmet. Logan only realized it was missing three days later, when he was packing his gear to go home. He'd searched everywhere—under his bunk, in the lost-and-found box, even in the dumpster behind the dining hall where he'd found Oscar sitting sometimes when he needed to be alone. But his helmet was gone, and so was Oscar, and Logan never saw either of them again.

For years, Logan wondered why Oscar had taken it. The helmet wasn't anything special—just a basic white Arai with blue trim and a collection of stickers they'd accumulated over the two weeks. A sloth wearing sunglasses that Logan had found in a gas station vending machine. A faded OCALA KARTING decal. The number 81, which had been Oscar's favorite because it was 18 backwards and he'd thought that was clever.

Logan had convinced himself that Oscar kept the helmet as a memento of their friendship, as proof that those two weeks had meant something to someone other than just him. It was a romantic notion, the kind of story Logan told himself late at night when loneliness felt like a physical weight pressing down on his chest.

Now, lying in his childhood bedroom with his hand drifting toward the waistband of his boxers, Logan lets himself remember the good parts. The way Oscar's mouth had felt against his, warm and soft and tasting like summer. The weight of Oscar's hand in his hair, fumbling but eager, like he was trying to memorize the texture. The sound of Oscar's voice in the darkness, low and teasing: You're too nice.

Logan closes his eyes and lets the memory wash over him, lets his hand slip under the elastic of his underwear as he thinks about what might have happened if Oscar hadn't pulled away, if that kiss had lasted longer, if Oscar hadn't gotten scared and ended everything with a punch that Logan still feels sometimes when the weather changes. If they'd grown with one another. Still kept in contact.

He's always been gentle with himself, careful and methodical even in this most private of acts, because Logan has never learned to be rough with anything he cares about.

His breathing gets shallow as he strokes himself slowly, thinking about what Oscar's crooked smile might look like now at their current age, about the way his accent made Logan's name sound like music and what it'd sound like now with maturity, about the night when everything felt possible and nothing felt impossible.

Logan bites his lower lip to stay quiet, a habit left over from years of sharing thin walls with family members who don't need to know about his private moments. He's close now, close enough that his vision starts to blur around the edges and his free hand grips the comforter tight enough to leave wrinkles.

He's so lost in memory and sensation that he doesn't hear the footsteps in the hallway until it's too late, doesn't register the sound of his bedroom door opening until Dalton's voice cuts through his private moment like a fire alarm.

"Logan, you decent? We're going—oh, fuck, sorry."

Logan scrambles for the bedsheet, his face erupting in heat that has nothing to do with the broken air conditioning. His heart hammers against his ribs like it's trying to escape, and for a moment he can't breathe properly, can't think of anything except the horrible awareness that his brother just witnessed his most private ritual.

"Jesus, Dalton, knock!" The words come out strangled and higher than usual, and Logan pulls the sheet up to his chin even though it's approximately three seconds too late for modesty.

"My bad." Dalton doesn't look remotely sorry. In fact, he looks like someone who's just won the lottery and can't wait to spend the money. There's a grin spreading across his face that Logan recognizes from childhood, the same expression Dalton used to get when he caught Logan doing something embarrassing like crying during Bambi or practicing dance moves from music videos when he thought no one was watching.

"But this is actually perfect timing," Dalton continues, stepping fully into the room and closing the door behind him with a soft click that somehow makes everything worse. "Because we're going out."

[kairunatic]

Main story ch 16 Part 1

Ep 1 here's everything that's happened

So we got a new character his name is Hoover he's the Agents Guild master and the Developer of the app

Inari used to be a member of the Agents but is now retired

The Hakkenshi forming an alliance to go to the tower of Babel

The current world reps who are still alive no nothing of what will happen to them in the future, meaning they are in a very disadvantaged especially against the Utopia world rep

Word rep of Utopia Mxother is revealed to be two separate beings one is from the Future

Future beings are now showing up in Tokyo because of this and Hoover from the Future kidnapped the Current Hoover

The old laboratory was destroyed, but its Research stil continue and they are planning to create this "New life"

A new enemy is awaiting MC in the tower and Shino is comming back

Oh yeah Self-cest is the main kink here XD

[hyumjim]

According to the screenshots provided by [German researcher & historian Henrik Schönemann]⁩, the list includes (all of the following are direct quotes): 

$78,000 to Palestinian activist group whose chairman was photographed attending an anniversary event celebrating the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Palestine terrorist group

$1 Million for foreign DEI programs, including ‘indigenous language technology’ in Guatemala, per non-public funding docs reviewed by WFB

$5 million for effort to treat eating disorders by “affirming” LGBTQIA+ patients’ sexual orientation and gender claims

Up to $3 million to defund the police advocacy group to pursue “climate justice” for convicts

Funded performances of play “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” in which God is bisexual and communists are good, in North Macedonia

Disbursed $15,000 to “queer” Muslim writers in India

Shelled out tens of thousands to create army of 2,500 LGBTQI+ allies

Up to $10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to al Qaeda-linked terrorist group the Nusra Front

$500,000 to group that “empowers women” in attempt to solve sectarian violence in Israel just ten days before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks

$4.67 million to EcoHealth Alliance – one of the key NGOs funding bat virus research at Wuhan Institute of Virology — in late 2021. Later refused to answer key questions about the funding.

$7.9 million to a project that would teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid “binary-gendered language”

$1.3 million to Arab and Jewish photographers

$1.5 million for “art for inclusion of people with disabilities”

$2 million to promote “LGBT equality through entrepreneurship…in developing Latin American countries.”

Education Week: “Biden Administration Cites 1619 Project as Inspiration in History Grant Proposal”

VA took at least a dozen actions aimed at bolstering DEI during the Biden-Harris administration while the number of homeless veterans increased and the amount of claims in the VA’s backlog grew from ~211,000 to ~378,000

NASA has allocated roughly $10 million to grants advancing DEI and “environmental justice” since 2020

Following President Trump’s executive order on DEI at federal agencies, the ATF “quietly changing the job title of its former diversity officer… to ‘senior executive’ with the ATF.

The Department of Labor requested additional funding in 2023 for “The Chief Evaluation Office for a new rigorous interagency evaluation of actions aimed at improving Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility across the federal workforce,” more than $6.5 million “to restore employee benefits programs that will advance equity by specifically addressing how opportunities can be expanded for underserved communities and vulnerable populations,” and $5 million “to evaluate actions aimed at improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) within the federal workforce.”

Fox Business: “FOX Business’ ‘Trouble in the Skies,’ a six month investigation of the FAA’s new hiring practices, uncovered changes that may put the nation’s flying public at risk as well as allegations that the newest air traffic control recruits had access to answers on a key test that helped them gain jobs with the FAA…Also uncovered was an FAA effort to promote diversity that discarded 3000 qualified college graduates with degrees in air traffic control despite their following FAA procedure and obtaining FAA accredited degrees.”

Schönemann⁩ told 404 Media he wanted to share a sentiment alongside his find: “People all around the world care, you are not alone. And: #TransRights.”

Earlier this week, we reported that the Trump administration had set up a website called waste.gov, which was live on the internet with a sample page from a default WordPress template. Both DEI.gov and waste.gov were created at the same time, according to Reuters, and DEI.gov was recently set up to redirect to waste.gov. After our reporting, both websites were put behind a password wall.

[dividedskiesrp]

In the application, theres a section asking for which clan we’re interested in joining, what if we’re interested in the recently mentioned cats between dawnclan and twolegplace? Is there any info for us to read on them?

Is having an idea for what clan youll join before you apply necessary/affect your application?

the cats that live between dawnclan and the twolegplace are called the beetle gang (or beetle's gang) and are a group of loners, rogues, and housecats led by a cat named arapaima (sometimes referred to as "beetle" as a nickname due to his fur pattern). they're sort of a group of misfits who have banded together around their eccentric but well-intentioned leader, and until recently, mostly minded their own business outside of engaging in some Minor Chaos (arapaima does not approve of any Serious Crimes, but minor mischief is just fine).

the territory dawnclan settled on, however, used to be one of their favorite haunts, and the sudden proximity of this group of strange cats has thrust these outsiders into the world of clan politics; after all, if dawnclan must do what they have to in order to survive and make their own identity post schism, allying with a group of outsiders (and potentially using this alliance to try and intimidate their former clanmates in stormclan) wouldn't be the worst idea, would it? exactly how the cats within the gang might end up feeling about potentially winding up involved in something they never exactly signed up for remains to be seen, however (more details will be given out in the actual rp as the plot develops, as well!)

also, you do not need to know where you want to make a character for certain! that section of the app is more a place for you to share any possible character ideas you might have, or to mention outright if you would rather wait and grab adopts (etc)!

[last-chance-luca]

‼️OUT OF CHARACTER‼️

This blog is a WIP. But here’s a quick rundown of what I’m trying to build…

***🔞TW: themes and mentions of Substance Abuse, Drugs, Alcohol, and the Military🔞***

(Not sure how commonly Military themes are triggers for folks, but I included it just in case, ya know?)

The Character

Luca Jirani is an addict in recovery. He recently moved from Unova to Paldea to partake in the Academy’s residential rehabilitation program. Part of that program is being given a Pokémon to raise and train. I have yet to decide what Pokémon that will be, though I am leaning towards a Sprigatito. I am potentially open to suggestions and/or in character adoptions from Rotomblr pokemon shelters, breeders, and adoption agencies though! Message or submit an Ask!

The World

I’m still hammering out the details, but here’s some of the essential bits and bobs…

- Rotomblr is a literal function/app on the Rotom phone. It appeared shortly after Rotom phones were invented, prior to them even becoming mainstream. Everyone has it, and most everyone uses it! No one knows who developed it. Many people have tried, and failed, to uncover the truth.

- BUT!!! …in my interpretation of this world, Rotomblr was created by a group of Pokémon: an Alakazam with an Electric Terra Type, several Porygon, and a secret alliance with Rotom-kind. Its existence and integrity is protected and blessed by the Legendary Lake Guardian Trio: Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit

- I interpret the Academy in Mesagoza to be a GIGANTIC, all encompassing educational institution that is funded by the Paldean government. It covers ALL forms of education, including (but not limited to) pre-K, elementary/primary school, high school/secondary school, undergraduate and postgraduate university, professional certification for non-degree requiring jobs (e.g. trades), and life skills educational programs. They also host therapeutic educational programs, such as residential units to treat people with mental health issues and rehabilitation units. However, these are run out of separate buildings, away from the “main” school building that players spent most of their time at in the games.

- The Academy is technically called “Paldea Academy”…but most folks just call it “The Academy”. This is so I don’t have to choose between Scarlet and Violet being “the canon”.

- The canon characters (Nemona, Penny and Arven) exist. Luca may run into them. But it’s not a big priority for me.

- The Main Character (AKA The Player Character) also exists! But…no one remembers their name or gender for some reason. They’re also really hard to recognize because they frequently change up their look at salons. The only bonafide way to ID them is the fact that they ride “a weird Cyclizar”. It might be fun to include them in a background cameo at some point!

- The events of the game Pokemon Scarlet/Violet happened 2 years ago. In my writings, Team Star is officially disbanded, though there are some who cling to vestiges of it for sense of nostalgia and belonging, others because of a feared loss of identity, and a few who try to revive it in a bid for power. Sada/Turo are not present due to the canon events, the Great Crater is more secured against infiltration, and knowledge of what lives within is either highly classified or merely rumors. I’m not too interested in exploring any of that at this time.

- The canon teachers exist, but are more akin to Educational Department Heads. They occasionally teach courses in person though, if a member of their teaching staff is sick/on leave. My focus isn’t on interacting with them, though Luca may occasionally run into them.

- The canon gym leaders and elite 4 exist. Luca may encounter them on his Pokémon journey, but that also is not my focus.

- Champion Ranked Trainers are more than just “really good Pokémon trainers”. I’ve got a lot to sort out yet with regards to this, but I interpret them as functioning as a mix between the Rangers in previous iterations of the Pokémon series, and the military in the real world. Just as in the real world military, there are different “branches” that Champion Trainers can serve in after reaching their rank, and I haven’t thought them all out yet. But some quick ideas of them are Rangers, Sky Force, Navy, Regional Security, Cyber Security, Medical Corps, and the Engineering Division. ALL Champion Ranked Trainers are capable battlers, but their Pokémon team composition and known moves varies depending on what branch they serve in and their MOC (“Military Occupational Code”, AKA their job)

- Real world drugs and alcohol brands will not exist here in this story. I’d rather imagine different, in-universe substances and habits. Some may be analogous or similar in effect to real world drugs though. For such heavy topics, I feel that an appropriate veneer of fantasy can make them easier and less frightening to approach, both as a writer and as a human.

- Alcohol as a substance will still exist, and terms such as wine, whiskey, and beer may be used to describe things. I will do my best to accurately and judiciously tag any posts with such content, in the spirit of goodwill and respect for my fellow humans who may not want to be exposed to such things.

The Story / This Blog’s Style

The “story” will deal with some mature themes, such as struggling with addiction, homelessness, poverty, the search for meaning, and trying to build a better life in the wake of self-destructive behaviors. The posts here will be a blend of Luca’s in-character Rotomblr posts, Luca’s Rotomblr reblogs, links to written chapters of Luca’s story, and art of my characters.

The Focus / My “Why”

I like Pokémon. It’s my favorite franchise. What’s not to love about colorful animals with superpowers, coming of age stories, and themes of friendship? I’ve always wanted to make a story about my own character in a Pokémon world, and I feel that participating in the tumblr Rotomblr community is a great way to get into it.

I’m also going through a lot in my life right now…. I’m a disabled person fresh off my 3rd time in an inpatient psych unit, and I’m attending a residential rehab program for the first time in my life. Life’s kinda a hot mess right now. It is sometimes very hard for me, in my heart, to have faith that I can fix my life and to hope for a better future…even though I fully believe in those thing in my head. I’m hoping that by reflecting on my recovery journey and recreating it with a fictional character, I will be better able to enact my values in my daily life.

Like me, Luca will go through hard things. He will feel pain, he will fail, he will be an unlikeable person at times, he will have dreams that don’t pan out…and through it all, he will get better and grow as a person. Just like me. Just like all of us struggling with things.

This is a going to be a story of hope, healing, and overcoming a painful past. I am a big fan of the idea of being saved by the narrative. This is not to say that I am necessarily a fan of “plot armor” or “Mary Sues”, both of which have their respective places but have come to embody more negative and distasteful connotations in our modern era. I like to believe we can all better save ourselves and make it easier to be saved by others if we work to develop a fiercely, often defiantly, positive internal narrative. To be positive in the face of adversity, to create hope in our heart when we can’t find it elsewhere…that’s been the most important survival skill I’ve ever learned.

It’s fine if you disagree with the notion. Though I humbly ask that you please don’t be a hater on my blog.

Final Comments

I’ve literally never made an intro post for anything, so…I hope this one was alright! 😅 If you read this far…thanks. It means a lot. Stick around, I’ll have some cool stuff here soonish.

Oh, and also…sorry I don’t have much of a profile pic yet. I want to draw one of Luca, but have been a bit busy. I’m a recovering perfectionist, lol! I’ll try to replace the default triangle one with something. …sooner or later

The banner picture is from the actual Pokémon anime (copyright GameFreak and Nintendo….I assume).

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, it was made usable for fellow Pokémon fans by the talented WillDinoMaster55 on DeviantArt. You can find his other free to use Pokémon backgrounds on his page HERE. If you have a DA account, please be a generous soul and fave or comment on the man’s work. He’s created a truly amazing resource for our fandom!

None of my art or writing is AI generated or inspired. Nor will it ever be. The created thing is not the point for me, it is the joy of creating.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, submit an ask or message me! ✉️

If you’re a fellow Rotomblr blogger with suggestions, I’d be happy if you messaged me! 📨

If you want to roleplay or collaborate on something, I would be super duper excited if you message me! 💌

…I like messages! I don’t get a lot of them (yet). And I’d really love to try and connect with folks in the Rotomblr community!

I don’t bite, but I do have a kinda chaotic life right now, and am infamously bad at remembering to reply sometimes. This is my side blog, not 100% sure if I want to link my main blog…it’s more weird and stuff. What can I say? I’m a human. Maybe I will someday. But not right now.

[fraoula1]

𝐓𝐨𝐩 5 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 2025

In today’s fast-paced tech world, side hustles can be a fantastic way for professionals to boost their skills and earn extra income. With advancements in artificial intelligence, remote working, and a growing need for tech solutions, 2025 is filled with exciting possibilities for tech enthusiasts.

This post dives into five promising side hustles, supported by data and trends. Techies can capitalize on their expertise and thrive in these areas.

1. Remote IT Support

With businesses shifting to hybrid work models, the demand for remote IT support has skyrocketed. According to a report from the International Data Corporation (IDC), the global IT services market is set to hit $1 trillion by 2025, hinting at tremendous opportunities in this field.

Techies with skills in troubleshooting can offer services to both businesses and individuals. The TechServe Alliance notes that the demand for IT support roles surged over 10% last year, making this a vibrant market.

Starting a remote IT support hustle is easy. Freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiverr allow techies to find clients quickly. Depending on the complexity of the service, they can earn between $25 and $150 per hour while enjoying the flexibility to work on their own schedule.

2. Cybersecurity Consulting

As cyber threats evolve, companies increasingly prioritize cybersecurity. A report from Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that costs from cybercrime could reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. This statistic underscores the growing need for cybersecurity professionals.

Techies with experience in cybersecurity can offer their services to businesses looking to protect sensitive data. A survey by Proofpoint found that 55% of organizations fended off phishing attacks, indicating a strong demand for seasoned professionals.

In this consulting niche, technology experts can earn between $100 and $500 per hour, based on their experience and project complexity. Earning certifications, like the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), can significantly boost credibility and income potential.

Minimize image

Edit image

Delete image

3. Software Development and Mobile App Creation

As the world becomes more mobile-first, demand for software and app development is expected to rise. Statista reports that the global app economy may generate over $407.31 billion in revenue by 2026, presenting a lucrative chance for techies skilled in coding.

Developers can enter this space through freelancing or by launching their own projects. Tools like React Native and Flutter allow for efficient cross-platform application development, saving both time and resources.

Freelancers can charge between $50 and $200 per hour based on expertise and project scope. For those willing to turn a side hustle into a full business, the income from app sales and in-app purchases can be enormous.

4. Data Analysis and Visualization

Data remains one of the most valuable assets today, with analytics aiding decision-making. The global data analytics market might reach $300 billion by 2026, creating fertile ground for techies skilled in data analysis.

Freelance data analysts can help companies extract valuable insights from their data. Utilizing tools like Tableau, Power BI, and R can help create compelling visualizations, making their services even more attractive.

Data analysts typically charge between $40 and $150 per hour depending on analysis complexity. Mastering data storytelling enables techies to transform raw data into practical insights, positioning themselves as key assets for businesses.

5. E-Learning Course Creation

The rapid growth of online learning has made creating and selling e-learning courses a sought-after side hustle. The global e-learning market is anticipated to reach $375 billion by 2026, driven by rising demand for skill development.

Techies can harness their knowledge to develop courses on platforms like Udemy or Teachable. Topics can range from programming languages to software tools and emerging technologies, such as AI and machine learning. Statista reported that 42% of online course creators are tech professionals, showing the market's strong bias toward technical education.

Successful courses can generate substantial passive income, sometimes yielding thousands of dollars. Since course creation has low overhead, techies can concentrate on producing high-quality content and devising effective marketing strategies.

Minimize image

Edit image

Delete image

Unlocking New Opportunities in Tech

The side hustles mentioned offer exciting paths for tech-savvy individuals aiming to enhance their skills and income in 2025.

As technology keeps evolving, the need for skilled professionals in IT support, cybersecurity, software development, data analysis, and e-learning will continue to grow.

By leveraging their expertise and using the right platforms, techies can build rewarding side hustles that provide financial perks and opportunities for personal and career growth.

Whether solving challenging problems for clients, creating innovative apps, or imparting knowledge, the potential for side hustles in the tech sector is vast. The key is to find a niche that aligns with personal interests, engage in continuous learning, and embrace the entrepreneurial spirit in this dynamic environment.

In a landscape where technology is at the center of everyday life, techies hold a unique position to lead future innovations. Engaging in these side hustles will not only keep them relevant but also equip them for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

[hollowbrook]

welcome to HOLLOWBROOK, a hidden sanctuary and last bastion for the supernatural world. founded three hundred years ago after a brutal civil war and the rise of deadly hunters, this mystical city stands as a testament to a fragile peace forged by a blood pact among vampires, werewolves, witches and other kinds. divided into five districts tailored to each species, hollowbrook thrives under the watchful eye of ancient magic, accessible only to those with a monster’s blood ——- and certain types of humans. but beneath its shimmering facade of unity, old grunges linger, secrets fester, and whispers of a new war threaten to unravel centuries of harmony. here, alliances are tested, power is sought, and survival depends on where your loyalties lie.

a 18+ discord exclusive, original literate roleplay group set in a supernatural universe. loosely inspired by various tv series, films and literature. this group is oc - based and will rely on events, backstories, plot drops, and character developments to move the story along. more rpg information, application forms and guidelines can be found here. please send your apps via dms!

[the-monkey-ruler]

Puzzles and Conquest (2020)

Date: 2020 Platform: Android Publisher: Sanqi Interactive Entertainment (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd. Developer: 37GAMES Genre: Roleplaying Theme: Puzzles / History Type: Crossover

Summary:

The once glorious Saurland was fallen under the Undead Army's attack. Darkness and flames follow their path of carnage; their reign of terror devoured all hope. The dead were brought back to life, and the horrific legion expands. The whole continent is on the brink of destruction. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and all the other races laid aside their differences to form an alliance for their survival. Yet, they await an extraordinary leader to take charge against the army of evil.

Source: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.global.tmslg&hl=en_US&gl=US

Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.global.tmslg&hl=en_US&gl=US

[midwestbramble]

Betwixt and Between Book Review

I read this book in the Pagan and Witches Amino Book Club, that doesn't exist anymore. At the time, the host of the book club was practicing feri and none of us had heard of it so they asked us if we wanted to read this book to learn more. I did a review on that app (that no longer exists), but here's my extended thoughts.

⛧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───⛧

Contents:

Synopsis

What I Liked

What I Didn't Like

Overall Thoughts

Conclusion

⛧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───⛧

Published 2017

"Faery (also known as Feri) is a tradition of great power and beauty. Originating in the West Coast of the United States separately from the Wicca tradition in England, Faery's appeal is grounded in its focus on power and results. This book provides the tools you need to begin your own Faery-style magical practice. Discover the foundational mythology and rites of the Faery tradition as well as steps and techniques for:

Creating an Altar

Summoning the Faery Fire

Engaging the Shadow

Exploring the Personal Trinity

Purifying the Primal Soul

Working with the Iron Pentacle

Aligning Your Life Force

Developing Spirit Alliances

Journeying Between the Worlds

Exploring Air, Fire, Water & Earth

Enhancing Faery Power

Personal experimentation and creative exploration are the heart and soul of Faery. The rituals, recipes, exercises, and lore within will help you project your consciousness into realms beyond this world, opening you to the experience of spiritual ecstasy."

-from the back of the book

⛧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───⛧

What I Liked

The book starts out with the creation myth for the Feri tradition. Not many books on witchcraft traditions/religions do this and it was really refreshing. From there it talks about it's mythic creation as well as it's modern history with Victor Anderson. Seeing both, one after the other, was also enlightening. Faerywolf was definitely taking the creation of this book seriously.

The exercises within the book are very thorough and broken down in a very easy to follow, step-by-step way. There's also some wonderful journaling prompts and art projects once you get into the elemental chapters. These all help the reader to explore the concepts described by the author and decide what makes sense to themselves.

There's a great breakdown of the three soul concept in Feri. Rarely do you see people talk about the conception of the soul and what it means in religion and witchcraft traditions. It's easy to understand how they are all supposed to work together as well as their importance to the Feri tradition. Other traditions have a similar conception of three souls and it's easy to use these to build off of that knowledge.

Additionally there is a chapter for each of the three worlds (Upper, Middle, and Lower). Each chapter talks about spirits found there and how to connect with them. Only one talks about important holidays in Feri such as Halloween and Beltane, relating to the connection of faeries.

The tradition appears to be very accepting of LGBTQ, having special designations for covens that specifically cater to gay men or women if that's something you want to connect to people with. The author himself is LGBTQ so it would make sense that the book is friendly toward the community at large.

⛧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───⛧

What I Didn't Like

I don't want to make this book review a review of the tradition itself, however there are a few things that are directly taken from other cultures. Such as Melek'taus, a variation of the Yazidi Tawusi Melek; a peacock angel, labeled as Sheytan or Satan. The Yazidi are an ethnic group in Kurdistan who have been persecuted as devil-worshippers by the Muslims in the region. Some of the creation myth even resembles that of the Yazidis. There's also concepts taken from Hawaiian traditional religion, Victor Anderson claiming to have been Hawaiian in a past life. The book does not shy away from these facts, and lays them out for you as it introduces them.

The whole book ends up feeling like a lead up to the Feri tradition's circle casting. While you do learn about their worldview as well as the iron and pearl pentacles, it's kind of an anticlimactic way to end the book.

⛧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───⛧

Overall Thoughts

As an outsider to the tradition, this seems like a good introduction to the Feri tradition. There are similarities to both Wicca and your average Traditional Witchcraft tradition though with a more artistic flair, let's say. There's a lot of focus on the arts and experiencing things for yourself. Which is great, in my opinion.

⛧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───⛧

Conclusion

It's always interesting to see how specific, established traditions do things and think about concepts in witchcraft and magic. Even if you do not wish to follow said tradition, it can be good to see another perspective. Though we must be mindful of and sensitive to other cultures and their boundaries. If you wish to look at this book further you can find it on amazon, Barnes and Nobles, the author's website, at the publisher, Llewellyn, and others.

[sinisterrpromo]

//////////////　「 SINISTER　season 2: THE CRUX OF FATE ◆ — ]

Something has BROKEN.

On a typical Wednesday morning, a crack in the sky shatters the normalcy of Los Santos, followed by a loud EXPLOSION and then - SILENCE.

An entire timeline has been devoured, leaving only two witches aware of the invaluable loss. As ley lines flicker and wane, witch-centric crime is on the rise. A serial killer lurks the streets despite claims of their death, and a new rival power, known only as Aegis, has emerged from the shadows of the once-grand Consortium.

Join us as factions clash, mysteries unfold, and the fate of Los Santos hangs in the balance. Will you forge alliances, uncover secrets, or succumb to the darkness? Your destiny awaits.

UPDATE: The community has figured out through clues that we're in our ELDRITCH HORROR era.

Roleplay Features:

A dungeon master

Dice Rolls to decide character fates

Rich, immersive storytelling with so many plot twists

Developed locations with recommended activities at locations for ideas for plot, hobbies and starters

social media channel for characters - the spectral social app

80+ recommended job ideas for new characters

Developed supernatural species lore and factions

Organized threads and character bios for easy management

「 MAIN BLOG: SINISTER ]

[ ◆ Discord Server ◆ faq ◆ plot ◆ setting ◆ taken face claims ◆ ]

[choiceofgames]

Author Interview: "The Ghost and the Golem" by Benjamin Rosenbaum.

Author Interview: "The Ghost and the Golem" by Benjamin Rosenbaum. We’re proud to announce that "The Ghost and the Golem"  the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is coming August 8th to Steam, Android, and iOS in the “Choice of Games” app.

We are offering a free demo of the first few chapters for you to play at:

https://www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-the-golem/

Can your magic amulet save your Jewish village from destruction? Uncover the truth and forge alliances with soldiers, bandits, anarchists, and demons!

Author Interview, The Ghost and the Golem

In this game, you’re revisiting the setting that you created for your Ennie-nominated TTRPG Dream Apart. What new stories did you want to tell? How is The Ghost and the Golem building on, or in conversation with, Dream Apart?

Initially, I thought of them as very much the same; I thought of The Ghost and the Golem as “the computer game version” of Dream Apart. But the differences between the media led me in radically different directions.

A tabletop roleplaying game is not a story, or even a set of stories: it’s a toolkit for creating stories. Especially the way Avery Alder and I did it with the Belonging Outside Belonging framework for Dream Askew and Dream Apart: it’s an assemblage of little snippets, sparks of ideas, open-ended prompts pointing at the beginnings of tales and tropes, narrative impulses that the players will then pick up, elaborate on, and intertwine, creating story.

Fiction is always a collaboration between author and reader, but in the case of a tabletop roleplaying game, especially one from the tradition that used to be called “narrativist” or “Story Now,” it’s a collaboration in which the players are co-authors. So much happens at the table.

This means that Dream Apart can be an ahistorical smorgasbord of shiny bits from Eastern European history. Want to be a young soldier who ran away from the czar’s army after being conscripted as a child? Cool! Want to face the threat of a pogrom against your little Jewish town? Cool! The tools are there, and what you’re creating is an on-the-fly retelling which uses tropes and themes of Jewish fantasy. So it doesn’t really matter, for Dream Apart’s purposes, that Jewish children were conscripted in Russia from 1827 to 1859, while pogroms in the modern sense didn’t begin until 1881. So the history doesn’t line up, but who cares? Dream Apart table play doesn’t have to be any more of an accurate recreation of Eastern European Jewish history than Dungeons and Dragons table play is accurately medieval. It’s about evoking a different set of fantasy tropes.

But as I started writing The Ghost and the Golem, I got less and less comfortable with this slapdash, ahistorical mashup of historical periods. The Ghost and the Golem is a story, even if it’s one with a million different variations. I’m writing all the words. And that responsibility dragged me deeper into historical research.

Part of my unease was moral and political; part of it was esthetic. To take one example: acting as if Jews were always, ahistorically, at the mercy of random pogroms from their Christian neighbors–ignoring the 800-year prologue of Poland as the “Paradise of the Jews”--is, first of all, hardly fair to the Poles. It’s also less interesting. Jewish memory sometimes treats the pogroms as inevitable, a mere prelude to an equally inevitable Holocaust, reducing history to a flat and self-defeating ahistorical shrug: “the goyim hated us.” But treating them as a specific historical development, a snowballing series of events, with forces that were agitating for them and forces that were resisting them, treating them as something that might not have happened, treating history in its surprising particulars, as something alive, as it was to the people living it… is just more interesting.    

So the form of The Ghost and the Golem led me even deeper into the history, from a vague sense of Isaac Bashevis Singer-inspired “fantastical Jewish history,” to a very specific moment.

When I really dove in to my research – on everything from the source and spread of the pogroms, to the religious rules for weddings during the Counting of the Omer, to the changes in Russian Imperial regulations regarding market days – it turned out there was literally only one day–one particular Sunday in May of 1881–that this story could plausibly begin. It’s totally rooted in history, and I love that about it.

One of the first things that players will discover about this game is that the narrator is a distinct character, with their own personality and a habit of addressing the reader directly. Why did you make that choice? What did this technique allow you to do that you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise?

I was very interested in the interior life of the protagonist, and the reasons they were making the choices they did. You can only conclude so much from actions by themselves. And the game isn’t just focused on action, but also on meanings and attitudes. Potential main characters aren’t just distinguished by what they can do, but by what they believe, care about, yearn for.

So the simplest thing to do was simply to ask the protagonist: why are you doing that? What are you feeling? What do you believe?

But that presupposes a kind of dialogue. That led me to the idea of a distinct narrator, which then opened up a lot of possibilities for evoking the setting, as well as for exposition.

I’m asking a lot of the reader, dropping them into a dense, strange, and sometimes harsh period of history. The narrator can smooth that over: not just explaining things, but expressing opinions, soothing, cajoling, nagging, and sympathizing; not just telling you about the facts of the setting, but also communicating (and sometimes critiquing) its attitudes.

The game becomes a dialogue with the narrator, and its emotional arc is inflected through that dialogue.

Despite the intensely serious - and often frightening - subject matter, there are also some very funny moments in this game. At one point you refer to “that particular lightness…that sly and melancholy humor, that does not turn away from the world's horrors, but looks them straight in the eye, and then sticks its tongue out and makes an absurd face.” Could you say more about that, and about how you went about balancing the light and the dark?

In many ways, this is the tone of the Yiddish literature I take as my model, and particularly of the works of Sholom Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Dramatic and sometimes terrible things are happening to Tevye, to Gimpel, to Yentl; but the stories are very funny. They’re not funny in a way that trivializes or mocks tragedy; they’re funny in a way that is defiantly human in the face of tragedy.

This is a deep strain that runs through Yiddish literature, and into its inheritors in American Jewish comedy. Mel Brooks isn’t making funny movies about Nazis (To Be or Not to Be) or racism (Blazing Saddles) because Nazis and racism are funny. He’s making funny movies about Nazis and racism because fuck Nazis, and fuck racism.

There’s a tension in any game about tragedy or painful topics (including such tabletop RPGs as Grey Ranks, Bluebeard’s Bride, Steal Away Jordan, or Ten Candles). Games are supposed to be fun, historical trauma is not fun, how can you make a game about historical trauma? But I think this misses two points. One is that “fun” can mean more than “superficial and entertaining”; it can be the mechanism that draws you into deeper engagement and deeper learning. The other is that a balance of tone, balancing the light and the dark, can enhance both.

As Alkhonon tells Tzirel in The Ghost and the Golem, “Everything too sad to joke about, is also too sad not to joke about, if we are to survive in this broken world."

Another element of balance in The Ghost and the Golem is the one between fantasy and reality. On the one hand, the game is deeply grounded in its historical moment. On the other, it involves a great deal of magic: not just the titular ghost and golem, but also demons, magic amulets, and more. How did you blend those elements, and how did you maintain the emphasis on human agency throughout the story?

I would say that the story is full of magic because it’s deeply grounded in its historical moment.

The protagonist is a young Jew of the “shtetl” (a village providing crafts and services to its peasant neighbors, in the Eastern European countryside) in 1881. That’s a historical cusp, in terms of the modern worldview. Our hero could be completely immersed in the traditional world of Jewish life, which is a world both centered around scholarship and intellectual debate, and also a world full of demons and miracles. Or they could be hungering for modernity, ready to shrug that stuff off as hidebound mystical hocus-pocus, eager to become a modern European or a radical bringing about the drastic transformations of the new century…but yet not completely free of those older superstitions and attitudes.

One of the interesting challenges was writing the supernatural events the protagonist encounters in both of those modes. Depending on the attitudes you’ve shown and choices you’ve made up to that point, you’re going to be seeing the magic either through a believer’s or a skeptic’s eyes. (Actually, since this is modeled with two different opposed stats – “traditionalist vs modernist” and “mystic vs rationalist,” it means that not only could you be a thoroughly modern skeptic or a passionate traditionally religious believer in the supernatural, there’s also the possibility that you’re traditionally religious but scoff at the idea that ordinary mortals ever encounter the supernatural, or that you’re modern and Europeanized… but more Romantic than Enlightenment, so you’re open to the world being full of inexplicable wonders). It was fun to inflect the prose so that what’s happening is described in a way that evokes the protagonist’s worldview.

It may actually be possible to have a playthrough where a skeptical character is able to completely explain away everything supernatural to themselves as hallucinations and coincidences. But most playthroughs aren’t like that; usually the magic is going to get in your face! So there’s a certain irony here, in that the skeptic character is probably closest to most modern players, but the skeptic character is also probably wrong, at least with regards to whether magic is real. The traditional worldview of the shtetl is, in fact, correct.

As for human agency, The Ghost and the Golem very much adopts the model of human agency of the traditions it comes out of – Yiddish literature of the fantastic, and before that, the foundational text of Rabbinic Judaism, the Talmud (which is also full of ghosts and demons). These describe a world absolutely centered on human moral agency. Indeed, to a large extent, this tradition sees the drama of human moral agency as the entire reason for the existence of the Universe. We are always free to choose, and always confronted with difficult choices…and those choices make the world. That seems a very appropriate metaphysics to capture in a Choice of Games title!

Your novel The Unraveling has a very different setting and themes: it’s far-future science fiction, dealing with questions of body and technology. What (if anything) does it have in common with The Ghost and the Golem?

Interesting question!

Well, there is a lot of what people have called “Space Talmud” in The Unraveling; it’s set half a million years in the future, so there isn’t Judaism per se, but a very Jewish-ish mode of discourse called “the Long Conversation” figures prominently; it’s a kind of riff on Talmudic discourse. And, of course, Talmudic ways of thinking are all through The Ghost and the Golem, particularly if you crank up that Learned stat!

There’s the same mixture of humor and anxiety in the face of chaos in both works…though The Unraveling leans more toward teenage embarrassment and family chaos, and less towards mystic revelations and horror. They are also both centered on families–parents are comical, but formidable, foils in both works. They both involve childhood friends, and friendships changing over time, potentially including romantic entanglements. Both see romance as fertile ground for confusion and comedy. Both works have an ambivalent attitude towards violence: they never see it as simply an unproblematic and wholly efficacious solution, but nor do they entirely escape it.

Lastly, I guess The Unraveling and The Ghost and the Golem share a model of moral agency. The world is very big and we are small, and we never understand everything that’s going on. Nonetheless, our choices matter; the differences we make add up, and sometimes they snowball into real changes. There’s never a single right answer, or a single solution to a problem; there’s never an end to history. “It is not incumbent upon us to complete the work, but neither are we free to desist from it.” We just get to play our part, eddies in the stream. Nonetheless, the whole drama of the universe can be seen through the lens of our choices.

What’s next for you creatively? Do you have any other novels, stories, or games in the works?

I seem to be susceptible to totally immersing myself in passion projects. The Unraveling took something like twelve years from start to finish; The Ghost and the Golem took only five, so I guess I’m getting faster?

I have many other things that have been pushed to the side during that time, from a YA environmental oceangoing nanotech adventure-romp, to a darkly comic dystopian-horror tale of a world run by LLM-like AIs. I hope I can do a little more shorter form work before launching into something huge. I also think I might mine the Dream Apart/The Ghost and the Golem setting for some linear prose fiction. With fellow SF author David Moles, I am writing another tabletop RPG, set in a cosmic-SF post-Singularity future.

I also have more ideas for Choice of Games titles, though it might take me a little while to come back to it. But the experience of making one was very fun, maybe even addictive, and also I have these forty-some Ruby scripts I wrote for stats analysis and ChoiceScript code generation, and I can’t just let them languish, can I…?

[mariacallous]

The first devices that will have to be sold according to strict EU directives will hit the European market after Apple on Tuesday presented its new iPhone with a USB-C charge point.

A European Union law requires phone manufacturers to adopt a common charging connection by December 2024 to save consumers’ money and cut waste. The iPhone 15 is the first Apple device to have a USB-C charger instead of Apple’s usual Lightning charger, after the EU ordered manufacturers to introduce identical connections.

Apple fiercely opposed the law in 2022, arguing that it would punish innovation, but the 27 EU member states make up the largest single market in the world, so they relented.

Common chargers are not the only requirements in the European Parliament’s push to make life easier for consumers and reduce waste, a Croatian member of the European Parliament, Biljana Borzan, who was one of the strongest advocates for the adoption of that act, told BIRN

“The single charger initiative is ten years old. The European Parliament then gave a mandate to the European Commission to implement it. A charger is an independent act, but in addition to mobile phones, other small devices such as tablets, game consoles, speakers, keyboards, headphones and laptops are also included,” Borzan said.

“My political group [Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament] has been the loudest about chargers. We cannot say that I was the initiator because it was initiated before I arrived in the European Parliament, but I certainly worked intensively on it,” Borzan said.

The common charger is not the only battle against Big Tech that the EU has won. Brussels believes it will win several more in the coming months.

The EU’s new technological target is artificial intelligence, AI, since the chatbot ChatGPT pointed to the rapid development of this technology last year. Brussels hopes to give a green light to a comprehensive AI law by the end of 2023.

“The directive on artificial intelligence is in the last negotiations. There are other directives that are relevant, for example, the Ecodesign Directive, but also my Directive that determines the availability of software to the consumer,” Borzan said.

The October 2022 landmark Digital Services Act, DSA, and the accompanying Digital Markets Act, DMA, are the biggest and latest attempts to rein in big tech companies.

The DSA requires companies to crack down on harmful and illegal content online and to assess the risks their platforms pose to society. Violation of the rules incur a penalty of 6 per cent of the offender’s annual global turnover.

Under the rules, 19  large internet platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube, had till August this year to comply with the DSA. All platforms will have to comply by February 2024.

These major platforms have already introduced changes, including the banning of targeted advertising to children.

“Different parts of the DSA apply to different market players. Last week, the Commission published a list of ‘gatekeepers’, large platforms that will bear special responsibility for the content on them. They are not overly enthusiastic about it, and Zalando even sued the EC before the European Court because they were involved,” Borzan told BIRN.

The changes are not limited to the EU. Snapchat said it would also limit personalized advertising to minors in the UK.

The DMA is another thorn in the side of technology firms, especially Apple. The law aims to dilute the dominance of the big players and make the market fairer.

The EU has an eye on six of them, in particular: Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft and ByteDance (TikTok). The DMA will force Apple to allow third parties to use its App Store.

General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, came into effect in 2018 and was the strictest and best-known EU law in the field, ensuring that citizens have to give consent to the ways in which their data will be used.

In May, Ireland’s privacy regulator imposed its largest ever single fine of €1.2 billion on Meta for transferring personal data between Europe and the US.

[alovelydesolation]

The Power of Context

I've been thinking lately about context, and how much of the meaning and emotional content of our experience derives from it. Obviously, some things are good in one context and bad in another, but let's get deeper than that (I'll tie this into TTRPGs later, I promise). Let me start with a musical example: in isolation, I find the grandiosity of The Great Gate at Kiev in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition* overwrought and a little pompous.

*[Ravel's arrangement for orchestra]

When I listen to that same passage, not as a solo composition, but within its intended context as the grand conclusion of nearly forty minutes of music, where it carefully and powerfully restates the central themes and melodies, I am struck by it in a completely different way. Rather than pomposity, I feel its power. Rather than being overwrought, the grandeur is earnest and earned. Instead of boredom, I feel awe. The music is the same, but the character of my experience is different.

Musical example 2: Post-mathrock band Blackshape's self-titled album is arranged so that each track flows into the next and the whole album loops. There is only one short passage of lyrics near the end of the penultimate track, at the climax of the album. They don't rhyme. The instrumentals drop back for the first recitation before returning on the second, after which the song shortly ends. There are fewer total words than some songs I like have in their choruses.

For me, reading the lyrics alone without the music is lightly poetic. Hearing them in the context of the individual musical track is meaningful. Listening to them with the context of the whole album building to that moment is profound. In this case, the meaning doesn't change, but the emotional intensity is heightened by the degree to which I am placed in a receptive context by the music.

Which brings me to tabletop RPGs, and the power of context.

I think that context is one of the primary appeals of the long-running campaign for me. Lots of modern games give you similar mechanical challenge levels in the 1st session and in the 50th* - though usually with greater stakes and greater complexity near the 50th. So why are the final sessions so much more intense than the first? Context. We know the characters, and their struggles, and their journeys.

[*I think this is generally positive]

A problem I run into now is finding time for long games - both making reliable commitments and finding others who can do the same. I haven't had a long-running campaign like that in many years now, but I have managed to have some similar experiences with shorter running games (6-10 sessions instead of 30-50).

How?

By speed-running context.

Games that set up strong initial conditions and more fully-formed characters are one of the keys for this. Fate's character creation where you help create aspects for other characters based on their relationships, or the very evocative playbooks of Apocalypse World (and the Hx questions) go a long way to building the sort of character, relationship, and setting context that can take several sessions to develop in a game like D&D (without specific effort on the part of the players).

While the rules resolution system for Blades in the Dark doesn't excite, the common setting and the crew playsheets are the killer app of that game for me. It ties player characters together at least as well as any other mechanic I've seen.

The basic setup of my game Roar of Alliance is also designed to create immediate character and situational context - player characters are based on strong archetypes and are always engaged in the same common activity.

So my question is, are there games that push rapid context generation even further? Any games that create strong and emotionally satisfying resolutions with only a small number of sessions? With only one?

I usually find one-shots fun, and even emotionally stimulating, but shallower than longer-term games.