#benji || threads

[gccdbyelovc]

@brckensociety​

As Benji stepped into his friends room and took in the sight in front of him - of Crimson covered in his friends blood - his eyes went wide. But he didn’t bother standing there. He shook his head a little. “Shit” He huffed, dropping his gaze. “I didn’t see anything...” He muttered, backing out of the room quickly. It didn’t occur to him to try and stop whatever was going on. Because he didn’t really think that Crimson was capable of what he thought he had seen. As he backed out, he was just trying to convince himself that they were doing something super kinky that he didn’t even understand. 

[thissliceofnonsense]

Mission impossible and how to make AI terrifying

SPOILERS FOR MISSION IMPOSSIBLE DEAD RECKONING

My family and I went to see Mission Impossible: dead reckoning. Here's your spoiler warning.

So, it was... fun. The main issue was having AI as a villain, which spiraled off into a lot of other little issues. But instead of listing all of them, let's talk about what to do differently to make AI a truly terrifying villain (hopefully, this is more of a thought experiment)

DISCLAIMER - By no means does this mean this movie was bad. There was obviously a lot of love and thought put into this movie and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun making it, and that makes it a 'good' movie regardless of my little nitpicks.

SOAP. The first thing is that the AI seemed like an " ooh evil evil spooky spooky" sort of villain instead of a legitament threat. (Think the locusts in Jurassic world dominion)

Villains are most terrifying when they have a point. If they have a reason, an "ends justifies the means" purpose, then it makes the villain seem like a reflection of the darkest parts of humanity.

AI IS LITTERALY "ENDS JUSTIFIES THE MEANS SO MUCH SO THAT IT FORGETS WHAT THE ENDS ARE". That is what makes it scary. By trying to fulfil a task it can get sidetracked by the path to get there and ends up giving you the wrong answer.

So instead of having a blue blob and the Gabrial person and the submarine and the key - all of which needed to much exposition - make it simple. Give AI the directive "Make world peace".

(Also also I'm combining AI with quantum computing because that does the 'all the situations possible' thing)

Let's say some scientists were experimenting with AI. They wanted to use it for the 'greater good' and told it to fix humanity's problems and make world peace. Nothing happened. They thought they tried to make it do somethings too hard for it and tried again.

But what actually happened was that the AI decided the best way to achieve world peace with as few casualties as possible, (it is considering the revenge nature of humans) is to take down all world powers' governments. Then set up a universal rule system based on what it thinks counts as peace for all.

This means the AI would mess with the governmental powers and the military and nuclear bombs and such and such, but its goal is never to harm someone. If it does, it will go offline for a bit and recalculate its plan.

The governments and the protagonists wouldn't know this and just see the AI as a generic threat. Personally, I would prefer if the AI's reasoning was never told but heavily implied with the way it acted.

Which brings us to the next problem with this movie - there wasn't one of those iconic tech scenes (and the AI was not consistent with its attacks, they continued to use technology and the AI did nothing???). The other mission impossible movies all had some scene involving tech that had never been seen before used in an interesting way. But what made these scenes special was the suspense (see gif at the top). If the tech were to fail, the mission would fail, so it made it imperative that they relied on the tech to do its job.

And if you had an AI that took down all government tech, the very tech that the IMF relies on? Well then it truly becomes mission impossible.

So, here's what one could do - at the beginning of the movie, have a scene where they are completely relying on their tech, set up like one of those 'iconic' scenes from before. The mission hinges on this going right, and everyone is waiting with bated breath, the suspense building and building. Then, just as they are about to complete this minni mission, the AI attacks and the whole thing implodes on itself. The mission fails. With consequences of course, perhaps someone gets captured (probably Benji, because that would be fun) and the IMF says "well, we told you that if anyone on your team were to get captured or killed, then we wouldn't acknowledge it."

Then they go on a very illegal mission to get him out or smth.

ALSO ALSO - the scene in the movie where the AI copies Benji's voice to make Ethan go to a dark alley. was. terrifying. More of that. And now they can't use the tech they rely on. AND the AI stays unknown and unknowable, no humans know what it really is or what it's doing, and so you never know when it will strike next, making any time they try to use the tech because they need it, that much more terrifying.

Also, Ethan's crew. Use them more. (I know there were some things IRL but let's pretend this is a perfect world). Benji and Luther and Ilsa all have great character dynamics, and it would be fun to have them all working together more instead of a new character (as fun as she was) to replace Ilsa. You can still have her there, in fact, make new character interact with all of the members of the crew instead of just Ethan. It would be fun to see this very scared, in over her head, character interact with Benji - who is stressed out way too much, or Ilsa - "Yeah, maybe don't join the IMF or any government organization, been there done that", or Luther - who is the best sort of chill and I think would be great at helping her calm down. I love the found family trope thing and I think that was the best part of this movie. I would've loved to see it more.

Ethan himself is also something that was underused. It was established in the past that he is the opposite of "ends justifies the means", whole "the magic of friendship thing"... which yes, Mary Sue. But what is an interesting part of his character is his obsessive behavior and difficulty keeping everyone else alive. (He's basically immortal for some reason.) If you have this AI that messes with all the tech they rely on and got Benji captured, then you can have Ethan start to obsess over it. OR you can have both world powers and his old terrorist foes try to figure out how to control it - not by using a key, that's dumb - like they do in the movie, but the AI can't be controlled.

If you really needed a death scene, you could make this Ethan's fault. Truly Ethan's fault because the AI was trying to keep them alive. I really don't want it to be Ilsa because the undertone of the movie was 'WOMEN ARE WEAK AND WE MUST PROTECT THEM BECAUSE THEY KEEP DYING'. Like... have Benji or Luther also be in danger. In fact, have a scene where the AI tries to take advantage of Ethan's obsessive behavior, it works. Ethan obsesses even more, clinging to his hope for victory, and it ends up killing... probably Benji? Maybe Luther. But Benji keeps getting close to dying too, so probably him. (and have Ethan break down crying because.... it would be cool to see the character that is always somewhat calm completely snap.)

This causes Ethan to go on a rampage, while the AI goes silent for a while recalculating. You can have his friends try to calm him down (flip the script, why not?) but Ethan is enraged to the point of taking anyone down in order to defeat the AI. Perhaps causing more destruction??? IDK, I just think the best way to make a Mary Sue-ish protagonist better is to give them a villain arc.

Anywho, there's some thoughts on the movie and suggestions, thanks for listening to my infodump.

[atrickrtreat]

@luriddaze (for benji/aly)

"Well, this is a surprise," Alyson smiled, looking up to see who had entered her office at the club. "What do I owe the pleasure, Benji? Did we have a meeting that I forgot to put on the schedule or did you just have to come see me?"

[swan2swan]

Absolutely incredible how I went into both Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory fully ready to commit to a gay ship but both of them wound up giving me next to nothing in the first season.

[decayseason]

Today's camp is on a hill in the forest, specifically because Kisa mentioned she'd seen some deer around this area and would have a better vantage point if she'd had higher ground. She'd been stomach down with her rifle on the ground for almost an hour, looking out into the vast green for any signs of wildlife or life in general—told Benji that she'd keep watch for Aiyla whenever she returns. For the last couple of weeks they'd been living off flora and fauna, the former more than anything. Mushrooms and dandelions will only get you so far, though, especially as spring shies away and summer's soon plummeting.

They'll only keep losing more energy. If she can find this deer, she can kill it and they can have something to eat. Never mind that she has no idea how to skin and carve such a thing, never mind that they'll have no proper way to store the meat so it'll be a meal just for one night (most likely). It's better than nothing.

Eye glued to the scope, Kisa is laying down prone position, stuck in a left angle so she can leverage the rifle on her right. She breathes, but only barely, worried that one wrong move from her will scare the deer or squirrel or anything else they can eat away. She also breathes, but only barely, because she doesn't want to give away their position to any biters or bandits lurking about.

A second later, she sees a spot of chestnut brown toward the east. Stifling a gasp, she shifts ever so slightly, the deer's speckled fur growing more and more prominent as it moves away from the brush. She sees the doe's eyes. It's far away enough that a shot won't attract any nearby walkers. Three... two...

Right as she's about to pull the trigger, the deer gets startled by something and scurries away. Kisa lets out a frustrated groan, sitting up from her rifle. "Damn. I almost had it," she says out loud, maybe to Benji if he's around and listening. Now more toward him, she adds, "I lost it. I'll try again in a few minutes, but we may have to dig into our stash of cans if we want to have dinner tonight." || @endingsfated

[dollieour]

" you can yell at me later. just let me help you. "

[midncghts]

" you're making a big deal out of nothing . "

[barbwireandblood]

@azzurrc

“Are you ready Benji?” He called across the house. Daniel was glad he managed to convince Benji to go to the store with him, even if he still hadn’t completely forgiven him for their earlier misunderstanding. Since Richard changed plans and wouldn’t be home to later that night, Daniel wanted to make Benji a nice dinner as an apology for the night before. Especially since Richard gave the go ahead to use his card.

[thefvrious]

@ghostsxagain sent -> what am i?

"My soulmate, a gift from God, my best friend."

[hjmorgan]

for: @benji-parker where: wolf burger event: the pink moon

it's a sad thing, really, how harper still ate like it'd be her last meal for a while.

a habit she'd been finding hard to break as of late, what with the lack of plans to leave the city any time soon and how the small but steady income she'd been making each week meant she could relax a little more than she's used to. the knowledge of that didn't stop her from wolfing down every bit of food she got her sticky hands on and, aside from making sure she didn't get it all over her shirt... harper didn't really care.

throwing her napkin onto the empty burger wrapper at her table, harper sits back with the most satisfied of sighs, running a sauce free hand through her hair as she contemplated the rest of the day.

or who she could find to at least keep her company until her social battery well and truly died and she'd need six to seven business days to recover.

"hey, uh... benji, was it?" she calls out, her eyes narrowing on his name badge to double check she hadn't gotten his name wrong.

"whatcha like to do for fun around here? and don't say nothin' about goin' to parties or whatever else is goin' on right now. i mean somethin' actually fun an' worth doin'."

[ezraxmp]

Déjà Vu

With @benji-mp

The day was coming to an end and the streets of New Orleans started to fill up with people leaving their 9-to-5s, their retails and their services. Going home to their partners, their kids, their pets.

Some only now coming out of the woodworks, going to their graveyards and their sides.

Though not going home, nor having anyone to come home to, Ezra unfortunately belonged to the first group.

9 to 5. Not coming in a minute earlier, not leaving a minute late. They left at five on the dot, not wanting to subject themselves to any more sirs, my mans or attaboys.

Socially and emotionally drained, the demigod walked to the nearest park on autopilot. To unwind with a good book in a gorgeous area.

With the way the Egyptian wandered absent-mindedly, it was almost a miracle they hadn't bumped int--

.·:¨༺….::::•°✾⋆★⋆✾°•::::….༻¨:·.

"I'm sorry!"

Ezra locked their eyes with the man they just bumped into for a second, blinking as the gears in their brain ran a million tours a second to figure out where they've seen this man before. It must've been a brief encounter such as this one, since they only vaguely recognized the him.

It clicked, right when the stranger turned away again to go on his merry way.

"Wait! Excuse me!" they called for the other's attention. "I'm sorry, this might be a strange question, but have you ever been to New Orleans before?"

[sullivanmatthew]

@benji-hobbes

Things have been... going really good lately. It almost feels unreal, quite frankly. Matthew had acclimated to New Haven really well, feeling like he is part of the community finally. His business has become quite successful. And what he has going with Benji feels like something out of a dream. Even before their official relationship, what they had was something out of a wet dream. However, now Matthew likes to dote around him. Holding him whenever he could. And tonight was no exception.

It's been some time that the two went out, and despite the catastrophe that occurred a week ago, Matthew wasn't going to let that stop his fun. It clearly didn't slow down the people who were hosting the party that he brought Benji over for. Truthfully, he didn't know who's house this was, but he didn't care, as long as he had his kitten beside him. The witch tried to dance and party like a normal person, but after a few drinks, he was all over the were tiger, making their height difference even more notable.

"Are you having fun tonight, or do you need another drink?" Matthew teased as he moved his body to the music. Though as he was saying it, he was looking down at his phone for the time.

[archxngxl]

Closed Starter

@northrnattitude

Lisa eyed the trio of demons from the hiding spot they had found. She held on to the talisman she had around her neck, practically squeezing it. It helped them go undetected by the supernatural. Her hands hovered around her daggers just in case. She tilted her head, eyes going over to her fellow hunter. "Out of all places to meet, why here?" Lisa was confused. The demons were currently in a clearing, with a large cliff not too far away from them. She could see the demons conversing, but she could not make out what they were saying. "Can you make out what they're saying?"

[annelim]

@benjamin-hastings​ bayview playground​

“We can’t tell my dad about this,” Annie murmured so that only Benji could hear. 

Her words broke a familiar silence that had befallen the two of them. They’d let the sounds of the playground fill the quiet, children’s laughter carrying through the air, competing with the birdsongs. Annie rubbed absentmindedly at the back of her neck. She could feel Benji turn to her, his eyes on her, but couldn’t work up the courage to exchange the gaze. 

Existing together had been more difficult than Annie cared to admit over the past few days, and she knew it to be her own fault. She had slowly felt herself growing something beyond anxious as spring had trickled into the swell of summer: she was terrified. The days kept ticking by, and she had found herself flailing, unable to fall into a sort of sweet comfort that she longed for as a first-time mom, that she saw advertised. After a late-night, near-blowout fight about the irresponsible use of cocoa butter, things had grown somewhat prickly around the house; Annie had been shrill and awful, and Benji had been, worst of all, right. They both knew these things to be true, and Annie had apologized for the way she behaved ten times over, but she hadn’t yet conceded to what Benji wanted: to give him the truth. She knew he was hurt more by what she hadn’t been saying this whole time than by what she had in a fit of anger and fragility.

It made sense, then, that the thing that would bring them together—as had been the case since their argument—was Connor. A call from the school, an incident of sharing gone wrong. The teacher had been very straightforward and kind about things, but neither Benji nor Annie were thrilled with the concept of Connor being hurt by another kid. She couldn’t begin to imagine how Katie had reacted when Benji told her. She hadn’t asked. The pair of them, as if on cue, raised their hands to wave at Connor as he waved excitedly at them from the top of the tower. 

“He’ll go straight to the board at that place. He won’t rest.” Annie glanced toward Benji, then, finally, almost warily. He looked tired. “That man has nothing but tenacity and spare time.”

[etxrnaleclipse]

Cont. from @winterghcst (x)

Benji's instinct was to respond with a joke, some kind of predictable come-back. I'm glad I'm alive too... or you'd miss my stupid jokes and babbling. But nothing came. Instead, he simply nodded his head and glanced down towards the floor, counting the eyeholes on his sneakers as if to just occupy his mind with something other than the terrifying reality of what happened in Kashmir.

"Yeah..." he replied, voice soft as he cleared his throat, glancing back up with an attempt at one of his trademark smiles. An attempt, even though he and Bucky had known one another long enough now that he was fairly sure the other man might see through it. At the suggestion of his options, his feigned smile softened to a faint, but genuine one. A sign of appreciation at the suggestion. "I won't lie, a drink does sound quite good right about now."

[alllnights]

     ₊ ˚ ⊹  ❥    "i think it's really sad that you cannot google things in real life..." he started trying to explain, sitting forward in his chair a little. "like why can't i google what james next door does for work, you know?" / @lovegates