#code quality tools | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

raven-at-the-writing-desk · 4 months ago

Text

book 7 chapter 13 part 1 thoughts!

***THIS POST CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR BOOK 7 PART 13 OF THE MAIN STORY!!*** This spans part 295 to part 327.

Part 2 of this update will be out on the 10th of this month.

Please note: this is NOT meant to be a summary or a translation; these are only my initial thoughts on the events that roughly unfold. There may be details overlooked or misunderstood in this post, so PLEASE do not use this as a translation.

WOW awful way to start this update off 💀 They’re falling from the sky and L*ONA TAKES chARGE AnD THELLS tHe otHER thURD yEARSTO TO NOT juDt FALL BUT FucKING DO SmTH… So him, Cater, and Trey use wind magic to cushion everyone’s fall.

We land on the sandy beaches of Ace’s dream. Ortho picked this spot because it has the lowest chance of encountering darkness. (zbxjsbkwdhks Cute scene of L*ona shaking sand off of himself…) Ortho worries because he still has not regained connection with Idia’s tablet.

Sebek yoinks Grim out of the sand and checks on Yuu but ignores Adeuce, who are right next to us www

Trey initiates the card soldier roll call, with Ace counting off as 1, Deuce as 2, himself as 3, and Cater as 4. They realize Riddle isn’t there and panic until Leona informs them he’s probably in that “third layer” of his dream, where he is confronted with his truest, darkest self. Omg… Leona calls that third layer “the abyss” because there was nothing else there, just “the darkness, quietly opening its maw.” SO THAT’S WHY THIS BOOK IS CALLED RULER OF TGE ABYSS, EH…

Trey begins to worry like a dad looking for his lost child (Leona’s description, not mine lol). Leona tells Trey Riddle’s strong enough to hold his own in the abyss (which I guess is his way of reassuring Trey 😂).

Ortho expresses frustration that he can’t do anything right now. If he dream hops again without Idia’s cloaking + other tech support, Malleus will surely notice them. The group decides to try and recover for now. They also reassure Ortho that he has done a lot for them.

LEONA FUCKED OFF TO NAP, BTW 💀 Bro cannot be bothered to deal with a crying kid…

Silver like. Grabs Ortho and tries to squeeze him to help release tension from his muscles. It’s something Lilia taught him. Silver shares that he understands how he feels. Ortho continues to worry that they may “lose” Idia and that he’ll break his promise to their parents (to stop them from “losing” another son). HE STARTS CRYING… Sebek shouts at Trey to do something, because him just standing there and pointing out that crying’s expected in situations like this isn’t helping. So Trey strokes Ortho’s head and provides comfort.

Everyone kinda falls asleep together on the beach?? And Ortho hears his mom’s voice. Mr. and Mrs. Shroud appear via holograms!

Shroud parents tell everyone that Malleus has invaded Idia’s dream. For now, he cannot quite barge in due to the technomantic shield in place, but Idia can only hold him off for so long. They worry about the discovery of the cheat tool Idia was working on to help them fight Malleus. Mrs. Shroud shows them a photo of recent transmission from Idia’s dream. However, the quality is pretty bad.

LOL WHYmS THAT lOOK LIKE A MISSING chILD IMGAGE…

The Heartslabyul students spot Riddle in the corner of Idia’s picture. Ortho is a little relieved that Riddle can support him, but then the others point out that Riddle and Idia have clashing personalities + cannot get along. Trey says we should put our trust in those two…

Idia wants Riddle to keep Malleus busy while he works on the cheat tool. He provides Riddle with magic coding books and tells him to read them in 3 minutes or so???? Riddle claims it’s impossible but Idia goads him saying Riddle can memorize the Queen’s 810 laws and all school rules but not this??? His big head’s ready too full, so he can’t hold more info? Okay then stick a pacifier in your mouth and let us game over :v Riddle gets annoyed but then swears he’ll memorize all the coding manuals in 2 minutes, not 3, since he owes Idia for all of his help so far.

Uhhh I think they use a coding program thing (not sure of terminology) called Spell Forge. Riddle uses a stylus called InQuill to fill out the gaps in the protection spell’s construction, since he prefers doing things by hand rather than typing (Idia uses a unique keyboard with weird shaped keys and very few of them).

New mini game thing…? Where we basically just punch in the letters displayed up top.

Malleus is made aware of Riddle’s presence and tries to meddle using frost and electricity magic. Riddle has one more book to read… he likens the coding to solving a crossword puzzle.

Malleus breaks the door off?! But Idia needs Riddle to entertain him for 3 more minutes so he can finish his cheat tool.

AgHHHhHhHHH SudDENLy…?! Ignihyde-themed main screen reboot?!

YOu’RE JOKING…

TWST iS IdIA’/s FRiGGin’ CHEAT TOOL???????? 😭

Oh my god, he had Malleus trapped on the home screen and he cannot move without “player input” 😭

Boss!!!Idia has a cool new jacket that helps him optimize his performance. If he gets a new SSR, it might feature this jacket.

We also see S.T.Y.X.'s headquarters! On the large screens in the back, you can spot some battle map plans.

UMMMMMMM Idia summons us all as SSRs via the Mirror Chamber… HE SAYS THE SAME THING THE MIRROR OF DARKNESS DOES… The exact same animations for pulling them from the gacha play. I show one example with Ortho below, but he does this for all of the cast, excluding Lilia and Malleus. (D-Does this canonize our gacha pulls...?????)

... By the way, Idia hacked himself infinity gems and 999 keys + rigged the rates to always pull SSR OTL We all wish this was us…

We’re brought to HQ to talk about our next steps. Idia moves Malleus to various isolated battle maps (with that dorm’s members there) to slowly whittle him down. Each OB boy is granted the ability to take on their OB form, which enhances their powers. LMAO they all start complaining about how lame Dream Form Change is but Idia mutes them 💀

Silver, Sebek, Yuu, and Grim are with Idia, everyone else is with their dorm members. Yuu and Grim ate going to grant support on the battle maps via the Twst app 💀 Heals, buffs, that kind of thing. They’re being very literal with us being the strategist here. Ortho meanwhile is going to go wake up the staff (bless, idk if I could have handled like 60 extra parts of waking them up too).

Silver asks about Lilia, who wasn’t summoned. Idia says he was not able to bring Lilia since he never handed him an invite.

Silver lets everyone know that Lilia is his father. (asdhbasa Cater and Kalim think he was talking about a teacher..._

Pomefiore is especially touched by Silver’s love for his father, so they volunteer to be the first to step up and fight Malleus.

OKAY OKAY SO

There’s like 6 battle maps, each of them involving the OB boy changing into their OB forms and then kicking Malleus but Malleus still manages to resist every time. Idia has to intervene to prevent him from turning us into charcoal and isolate him to the next map. There’s a lot of extra dialogue on each map, but the gist of it is we see the members of each dorm fighting alongside each other, along with some commentary interjected from members of other dorms (via projections/holograms). I’m pretty sure this is meant to show how far they’ve come in willingness to cooperate with each other, because previous battle maps did not have nearly THIS much dialogue. Before going to the next battle map, we always get a brief scene of the next dorm chatting about what happened in their dreams and then psyching themselves up for their turn to bash Malleus.

Mrs, Shroud gets in contact with her son!! She had trouble because Idia kept her account blocked. He’s embarrassed to face his mom after she’s been digging around in his computer.

Mr. Shroud also appears! He lets us know that they’re looking for a mystium in order to craft weapons that can take Malleus down, since his dragon scales are very tough. Baur (in the real world, not the dream) has joined the search as well.

Silver and Sebek realized that Lilia’s magearm contains mystium. However, it was wrapped up and shipped to the Land of Crimson Long to join Lilia in retirement. Mr. Shroud moves to contact the countries the magearm would have to pass through to get to its destination. They MUST intercept the package!

Heartslabyul is happy to reunite with Riddle. He apologizes for causing them trouble, but Ace scolds their dorm leader for thinking he can order Cater + Trey to stop him and Deuce from trying to pull him from the darkness and then going missing for a while. And now Riddle thinks he can resolve things with a simple “sorry”? There’s so much more to say!

UHHHHHH Ace starts bawling and the seniors comfort him 💦 Riddle praises Adeuce for getting their UMs. Cater says Ace must be jealous that Trey comforyed Ortho earlier??? AcE wHInES THAT THE SENIORS ShOULD LOvE hiM AnD DEUCE Ghe mOst 😭 Bro… you chose now to unleash all of your brat energy…

LOL Ace wishes Riddle learned how to comfort people instead of magic engineering… He gives Riddle’s apology 30 points.

Riddle confirms he is one month older than Ace. The seniors say Riddle is an underclassman too and start being all “aww you guys are so cute!”

Mmm so after the battles, the participants are transported to a virtual infirmary space to recover.

chzjsvejdhoawjn Idia didn’t wake the teachers first because they’d just be annoying??? 😭 Not sure if I understood that part correctly.

Azul worries that they’re violating the other dreamers’ privacies by peering into their dreams via the STORY function of the app. He then decides he should peek anyway because the dreams may contain weaknesses and secrets he can take advantage of. Idia calls Octa away for their battle map before he can.

Oh, there’s a specialist mage known as a… Returner?? They can use long range transfer magic, even being able to transfer a large number of people across long distances. Sebek realizes that humans and fae can work together to minimize damage from Malleus’s magic.

They’re able to intercept the magearm!! Either Silver’s blessing, S.T.Y.X. begins to process it into weapons for Silver and Sebek to use.

Kalim casually asks Jamil how he’s doing 😭 (since his cheeks were swollen from Kalim punching him)… He mentions that he thinks Jamil and Azul are very similar (which Jamil is insulted by) and that he even though his dream!Jamil was fun, it wasn’t the real Jamil. “It was like looking into a mirror.” Kalim admits that even though some people cannot be friends (wow, character development for him??), it is those differences that make the world an interesting place. He prefers that kind of world.

Jamil agrees with Kalim. Jewels are called jewels and not stones because they’re hard to get. He’s sure that jewels are formed through hardship… a lot of heat and pressure.

LOL???? Kalim says it’s great they were able to make up. “Hah? When did we make up?” — Jamil, #1 Kalim Hater (Kalim also tries to plead with Malleus to stop this and make up, but of course that doesn’t work.)

Idia’s getting overwhelmed managing everything. Have no fear!! Ortho comes in with Ignihyde Mobs A, B, and C, who provide backup with their technical know-how!

LMxnhdsjafTahwj Leona’s chomping at the bit to beat up Malleus 😭 Later on, Ortho says he's so impressed with his group's teamwork, which Leona brushes off. sdhasbyofayil IDIA GETS MAD AT LEONA FOR BRUSHING OFF ORTHO'S HEARTFELT PRAISE

S.T.Y.X. finishes processing the mystium! They create the Sword of Truth and Shield of Virtue, as well as Harmonia Frame/Armor. When equipped, the armor will change into the shape that best suits its pilot.

The sword is given to Silver and the shield to Sebek. It’s the opposite of their stances in their Dorm Uniform cards—Silver is standing defensively but Sebek is standing offensively, yet the items they are granted are the reverse.

There’s a battery in the item(s???) that will allow them to fire off a powerful beam, but it is limited to 2 uses.

A dragon’s horns store magical energy and amplify power…? So you have to be careful with those. Apparently it is the horns that affect the weather, which is why Malleus’s mood alters it.

They think they can take Malleus out just by grazing the corner of his horns? So accuracy is important. Silver and Sebek will train in a virtual space to prepare.

Silver and Sebek say farewell to Yuu and Grim. Silver wants to be able to meet them again when he wakes up 😭 AWWWWW

Idia and Ortho go off to have their battle map with Malleus. WaH ORTHO 🥺 He says he and Idia were able to have an adventure at NRC… the same thing he promised when they were kids…

OH MY GOD WTF 💀

Idia uses his UM to open Tartarus and summon his own Phantom army to help him fight Malleus and his army of darkness. Phantom!Ortho rises up too??!!!?!! AND GE GOES BUMBBUMBUMB 😭 and compliments robo!Ortho’s new gear, calling it cute… 🥰

I can't believe all three Shroud brothers came together for this... INCLUDING THE DEAD ONE

Malleus keeps pushing his agenda and Idia counters by saying he hates having others impose their views on him. Does Malleus realize it yet? He’s a ruler of evil, not of good.

AHHHHHH crap OTL Malleus rescinds his blessing (because he finally realizes Idia and co. are only able to stand up to him because of dream hacking. But in the real world, they’re only a smidgen of his strength—so now he’s removing the thons and taking this fight into the real world.

THAT’S WHERE THIS UPDATE ENDS…

I did not think they would stretch the final fight out to be THIS long, but lo and behold, Twst proved me wrong 💀 Again, not a fan of this pacing but I understand what the thought process behind it probably was ("we need to show everyone working together, everyone needs their time to shine!"). I especially felt that Heartslabyul's segment was way too long, but perhaps that's a byproduct of how many members there are there??

asdilbyailbyraiyorqo3iyrt3768ot3aegoffwOI I THINK I SPEAK FOR ALL OF US WHEN I SAY MY MIND WAS BLOWN WHEN I SAW IDIA'S "CHEAT TOOL" WAS TWISTED WONDERLAND ITSELF 💀 To use the design of a mobile gacha game to contain the Big Bad, as well as to summon the heroes to save the day... That's so meta??? I just have no words for this other than that, I've been stunned into silence. How very fitting for the otaku to use THIS as his oh-so-clever solution 💦💦💦

Even though I want more than anything for book 7 to just END already, I will say that I liked how minor characters are being pulled into this fight as well. We have tons of support from the Shroud parents and S.T.Y.X. staff, Ortho going to fetch the NRC staff (I assume they will be appearing later?), other family members pitching in (Maleficia, Baur, OG!Ortho), and even RANDOM MOB STUDENTS. As a mob student appreciator, you cannot believe how much I love that for them. It feels like everyone genuinely plays an important role in this story, not just the main cast of NRC.

The highlight for me as definitely the Shroud brothers reunion. HJBDSBYIAFIS I KNOW IT'S JSUT A DREAM AND OG!ORTHO CAN'T ACTUALLY RISE FROM THE DEAD WHENEVER HE LIKES IRL BUT I LOVE THE IDEA OF WANTING TO STRIKE DOWN A MAN SO BAD YOU DEFY THE LAWS OF LIFE AND DEATH TO DO IT. He gets along so well with robo!Ortho and has a mischievously cute side to him 😭

This update makes mystium and its properties relevant again (it was mentioned like once in the beginning of book 7). It's so cool that what was Lilia's weapon of war back then is now reborn into a world-saving sword and shield for his disciples to use. It feels like a dad passing on his family heirloom to the next generation.

Speaking of Lilia???? Surely he'll rejoin us next time, right????? RIGHT??????? ?? ?? ??? ? Maybe with the staff??? And since the thorns have retreated... maybe we'll even get backup from RSA students and mages from other countries (since this is an international incident now)??????? ???? ? WILL ALL OF TWISTED WONDERLAND COME TOGETHER TO COLLECTIVELY KICK MALLEUS'S ASS...

UUUUUUUUUUGGHGHHHHHHHH H HHH H HHHHH HH H HH OTL *rakes hands over my face* My stomach's clenching in anticipation for the conclusion, but I'm not even sure if next time will even wrap everything up 💦 How will it go…? The 10th can’t come soon enough…

448 notes · View notes

starrygazers · 5 months ago

Text

in my streamer era?!

aka: modern au streamer characters and their life with you.

˖ ࣪⭑ ⸱ felt like writing smth more lighthearted (once again procrastinating on my homework)

˖ ࣪⭑ ⸱ tags : modern au, fluff, crack

˖ ࣪⭑ ⸱ featuring : Mydei, Phainon

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Phainon ➤ vlogs, irl streams

Phainon loves traveling and talking to people, which makes him the perfect irl streamer. he has a large following due to the fact that he's so polite and friendly to everyone, but somehow his streams always go wrong in the funniest, murphy's-law-esque way

he's streaming in a restaurant and reviewing the food and the next moment a waiter trips and spills a water jug right to his camera and lowers the video quality for the rest of the stream

or he'd be doing a grocery run and the things that he wants are all gone, and he has to ride the bus to the grocery store that's further away, and the bus would blow a tire in the middle of the highway so now he's hungry and stranded with no groceries

these somewhat harmless, silly and unexpected situation keeps his viewers entertained, and the fact that he's always so optimistic about it has viewers donating to his streams to cheer him up whenever something goes wrong

his mods are so protective of him that if anyone starts trolling they'd be banned in an instant

when he first met you, it was by chance, and you don't recognize him (he's a niche even on streaming sites; his fans gatekeep him because they don't want people trolling this nice boy)

he falls in love with you immediately, and it's so obvious by the way he talks about you on stream.

"chat, there's this person," he lays the camera down on the counter and starts unloading his groceries. "and they're so... like... I don't know how to say it. they're so pretty, but also so scary to talk to, but it's not because they're mean or anything, I think it's a me problem. do you guys ever feel like that about someone?"

of course, his chat teases him relentlessly about his newfound crush

once he finally has the guts to ask you out (someone sent him a super donation telling him to, and he feels bad not doing it), you say yes, and he's over the moon.

he introduces you to his chat, and even though you're a bit confused and new to all of this, your personality balances out with Phainon's so well that his community can't help but love you

he doesn't film all your dates; in fact, he rarely ever does. whenever you're on stream, it's because you're both spending time chilling or cooking or doing grocery runs together. he likes to keep a small portion of his life private, and he doesn't want you to feel like you're a tool for his moneymaking scheme.

overall, he's such a nice understanding boyfriend, and if having a camera around you is too much then he'll respect your space and schedule his streams around days that he'll spend alone so he can have you all to himself without any distractions.

Mydei ➤ fighting games, tourneys

you can't convince me this man isn't some sort of fighting game god, particularly tekken, mortal kombat, smash, or something in the likes

he'll spend hours just 1v1-ing randoms on the internet, and he's got his friend code public for anyone who wants to try to challenge him.

this obviously brings a lot of traction because there are a lot of tryhards who want to test if Mydei's the real deal (he is, and he does so while talking shit and not breaking a sweat)

fans enjoy his straightforward, no-bullshit commentary (roasts) while he destroys players with a straight face. it's almost comedic how such a stoic man could have such a petty personality, and chat always teases him for it, but he could not care less (whatever brings in the bag)

"Get out of here if you can't even jablock, man. All that big talk for you to not even take a stock from me is just embarrassing," he spits out. "You're so mean, he's trying his best, yeah, sure, chat. He should try his best recovering from the sauce I'm about to do to him."

he'll sometimes do irl streams when he's in tournaments. he'll do a hotel tour (begrudgingly, because he keeps getting donations forcing him to do it)

he's by no means funny because he tries to be. people just find his mean commentary and resting bitch face amusing, and he's also good looking, so he has a lot of fangirls

he's been in a relationship with you since before he started streaming. matter of fact, you were the one who suggested streaming (because if he's going to spend that many hours on something might as well try to make money from it)

you often walk in on him while he's in his man cave, and you'll stay a bit to chat with him or interact with the chat

if his fangirls are mean to you, they get banned immediately ("MODS!!!! GET THEM THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!!!")

he's very proud to call himself your boyfriend. Whenever someone tries to flirt with you in chat, he'll have a quip comeback of some sort about how they can try but you're in a very healthy, very secure relationship

he is unfortunately the type of streamer to have lots of tiktok edits to chase atlantic songs (iykyk)

but he'll only repost his fan edits shipping him and you <3

definitely the type of guy to wear an ugly "I LOVE MY GIRLFRIEND" t-shirt out in public, he's just a nerd like that.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

if you liked this, consider buying me a ko-fi! (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) .ᐟ.ᐟ

643 notes · View notes

elbiotipo · 2 months ago

Text

It's so funny when people say "not all AI sucks! only generative AI!" because generative AI is genuinely an amazing technology.

You know why those early AI images like crayon and such were so strange and dreamlike? It's because generative algorithms actually do generate those images. They don't copypaste like a collage, images are created pixel-by-pixel. Generative AIs are actually systems that assimilate concepts, associate them to images, are able to translate instructions in plain human text instead of code and create new things from it (this was seen as pure science fiction less than 5 years ago). This is why AI images now have better quality, because new models are able to understand more concepts and implement them. Because the idea with generative AI isn't and shouldn't for it to be able to just copy-paste images or text, it's the ability to generate new images or text from learned concepts.

This post gets, in a very easy, understandable way, into the details on how this works. And I hope you do give it a read no matter your stand on this:

This, as I always say, was considered pure science fiction, a thing that would not exist until at least the 2100s if at all, and it is now here. And not only by corporations, but open-source models are being researched by the minute.

No, I do not care for AI corporations and I don't care for what they're mostly trying to use AI for (advertising and customer service). I care about what can become of this technology. Advertising and mass produced shit will be shit, no matter if it's done by human or AI. Do I expect an advertisement to be shit because it uses AI? No, I expect it to be shit because it is an advertisement.

What will be interesting, and I think we will see more in the future when the utterly poisoned current discourse about AI calms down, will be when artists with interesting concepts and a good handle of these tools start to create new things, much like synthesizers or photographers didn't ruin music or art, because there was always an artist behind the tool in the first place. Someone is doing those prompts to create something. Your question should be who and why.

#cosas mias #I don't know why I try to take a nuanced measured tone with this since people will scream bloody murder at even the merest hint #that AI might not be a satanic engine but an emerging technology with potential even artistic potential #but whatever

234 notes · View notes

wileys-russo · 10 months ago

Text

tiny red hearts II a.putellas

amid the pandemic everyone picked up a hobbie in lockdown.

if it be knitting, dancing, pottery, reading, cooking, puzzles. you name it, someone had likely perfected it as an art form during those weeks and weeks locked away from society.

for you it was no different. you'd tried cooking, reading, jigsaws, colouring in, sudoku, even gardening but nothing really clicked.

until one day you were endlessly doom scrolling your various social medias as again, everyone was, when you stumbled across a nail art video. intrigued you'd watched it, then another, and another, and another, the worm hole you fell down was one that was long and steep and swift.

then before you knew it you had package after package arriving on your doorstep, much to your girlfriends confusion at your sudden online shopping habits. normally you were quite the stickler for the 'its a want not a need' type attitude, but with the packages snatched up and hidden away in your room the days melted into weeks as you worked tirelessly to perfect your new art.

and a week of hard work and countless hours spent watching youtube tutorial after youtube tutorial later holed up in the guest bathroom, you'd done it.

that wasn't to say your clear dedication to your new hobbie was one your girlfriend enjoyed, forever trying to bait you into doing something with her but you'd just brush her off, eyes glued to your phone screen which was propped up against a bottle of shampoo.

which is how you came to be sitting on the floor of your living room weeks and weeks later, bottles of polish sat in perfect colour coded order on the coffee table with all your little brushes and tools neatly lined up in front.

your bottom lip was firmly between your teeth, eyebrows furrowed deeply with concentration as your eyes squinted and your hand moved slowly and precisely.

your girlfriend of two years whom you shared your home with and whom you'd been locked in with for the horrendously active period of this ghastly pandemic lay stretched out on the sofa behind you, toned tanned arms crossed firmly across her chest.

her face was stoic and seemingly stern as ever, you'd forever nag her about the frown lines she was embedding into her beautifully smooth skin with the scowl she'd not even clock was on her face nearly all the time when she found herself deep in thought or lost in her own mind.

but she'd merely brush it off with a wave or a hum, nothing unusual when she was reviewing game footage and given she wasn't currently able to play her studying of games when she could had only increased.

you were off in your own little world and she was in hers, you coexisted but knew how not to be codependent, something which had surprisingly caused your relationship to stay just as strong if not more so during this lockdown together.

one of the key things that made your relationship healthy was the fact that despite how long you'd been seeing one another you still spent time apart, and despite not being able to leave the house much you still had different hobbies and interests to preoccupy your time.

you would go shopping or out for drinks with your school friends you'd known for years, as alexia would often go for dinner or hikes with some of her own childhood friends, well that was when she wasn't chasing after ball and getting grass stains all over her legs.

but that's not by any means to say you weren't positively and certainly head over heels infatuated with one another, and whenever you did spend time apart you were increasingly clingy that night once you were reunited, but when out you knew to respect one another's time and space and didn't feel the need to be texting one another the entiere time.

after all there was seldom you loved more than laying down with alexia of an evening, the two of you knew how to treasure quality time and found that so long as you were together you could be doing nothing at all and still perfectly content.

with her body warm and strong it pressed against yours as you'd lay down squished on the sofa, soft gentle kisses littered across your shoulders as your fingers intertwined and you'd take turns filling one another in on how your days were since you'd spent them apart.

back to present day sat on the floor you gave a small exhale of relief when you finally finished the intricate design you'd been working on, your frown of concentration switching quickly into a grin of delight as you slipped your hand into the UV nail lamp and waited for them to dry.

as you had been every now and then you leaned your head back to rest against the couch, knocking it back into alexias good knee and puckering your lips expectantly.

then with a smile and a small chuckle your girlfriend pulled herself up to sit with a quiet grunt, leaning down and rewarding you with a soft kiss before returning back to her previous position.

punching the pillow behind her head and wiggling slightly until she was comfortable, her foot poked at your shoulder every now and then as if to reassure her you were still there without needing to look.

since a young age you had been known to daydream.

it got you into a fair deal of trouble in school, forever having a teachers hand or a heavy textbook slammed down onto your desk with a loud bang to snap you back into reality, your peers giggling and cheeks flashed bright red as you'd smile sheepishly and do your best to focus on your lessons.

your girlfriend however had always found it adorable as much as amusing as you'd zone out from reality and go somewhere she never understood.

sometimes as you drifted away into your own head alexia would just watch you with lovesick puppy dog eyes, filled with nothing but pure adoration that was so sweet it could give someone a tooth ache, though always in the privacy and intimacy of just one another's company.

after all the big bad la reina couldn't be known to be so whipped for her girlfriend (everyone already knew she was).

case in point right now where you'd clearly drifted off somewhere as the footballers eyes glanced down toward you and her hardened features softened, corners of her mouth curled upward into a smile.

"hola, princesa." you snapped right out of it as her foot moved to poke at your cheek this time, dragging you back down to earth as you pushed it away and sent her a playful glare, pulling your other hand out and flicking off the lamp as both of them were now dry.

"look amor!" you leapt up eagerly and dropped down on the lounge next to your girlfriend, sat practically on top of her, wiggling your fingers proudly at the blonde who hummed.

"muy bien bebé." alexia complimented, leaning up and softly kissing your cheek before turning her attention back to the television where the match had resumed, as did the stoic expression on her face.

"alee." you started with a coy smile, grabbing her hand and interlacing your fingers with a gentle squeeze. "mm?" the midfielder hummed, eyes unmoving from the screen.

"can i paint your nails cari?" you asked hopefully, alexia only letting out a puff of air from her nose as she chuckled, shaking her head. "por favor you know i am good and they will look good!" you pleaded, squeezing her hand again and even kissing over her knuckles a few times.

"no mi amor, no nails." alexia shook her head as you huffed, moving to rest your chin on her shoulder, lazily kissing her jaw. "sí nails. sí, sí, sí, sí, sí-" you repeated over and over, peppering kisses across her face.

now as much as alexia could be at times be a fierce woman, driven and passionate and willing to do absolutely anything to achieve whatever she set her mind to, she had a fatal soft spot.

you.

alexia would do nearly everything that you asked of her, especially with a few choice sweet words in her ear and a charming smile you had the catalan wrapped around your little finger, and you reveled in it.

so of course it was with a deep sigh that alexia inevitably gave into your demand, wordlessly placing her free hand in your lap as you beamed and perked right up.

clapping happily you sat up properly and grabbed her chin in your hand, pecking her lips a few times and reveling in the slight pink blush which coated her cheeks.

"tan lindo." you cooed, pinching her cheeks as her eyes rolled but she made no move to argue which only caused your elated grin to grow.

you moved her hand and sat back down on the ground, staring carefully at the arsenal of colours at your disposal, taking a few moments to decide what you wanted before nodding happily and grabbing what you needed.

you settled back down on the lounge as again alexia moved her hand into your lap, eyes glued to the match as her eyebrows turned downward in frustration at a fumbled tackle and an easily preventable shot at the barcelona goal, a shake of her head and an annoyed grumble under her breath.

"you will get wrinkles corazón." you teased, smoothing out her eyebrow with your thumb as the tiniest of smiles flickered across her face just for a moment which wasn't missed by you.

"déjame en paz." the footballer muttered as you chuckled and kissed her palm sweetly, turning her hand back over and adjusting your position a little.

warning her to stay still you placed her right hand down on your knee and grabbed the first colour, tugging the coffee table closer so everything you needed was well within reach to avoid anything being knocked or falling.

much as alexia might bend over backwards to do as you asked you knew well enough if you spilled even a drop of polish on the carpet or the sofa you knew you'd be hearing about it for weeks.

as you set to work your girlfriends face remained blank, but her bright hazel eyes flickered down to you curiously every now and then, corner of her lip curling upward at the look of sheer concentration on your face and the way the tip of your tongue poked out of the side of your mouth.

finishing one hand you blew gently on the nails, unable to use the machine which was plugged in on the floor and just out of reach. though not in any rush you awaited her first hand to dry as you kept a cautious eye that she didn't move as your head dropped to her shoulder.

there was a comfortable silence between you, the only sound the occasional grunt of frustration from the taller girl whose side you were curled into, a shake of her head and something mumbled under her breath at every costly mistake.

her first hand drying you tapped her knee, gesturing for her to swing her legs into your lap so you could reach her other hand. shuffling her body she did as you asked, sliding down a little as her head thumped backward into the soft cushions behind.

you couldn't do anything to keep the smile off your face as you worked on your girlfriends nail design, incredibly happy with how it turned out as again you gently blew on her other hand, settling it back into her lap to dry same as the first one.

warning her once again about not moving you crawled up the lounge and wedged yourself into her, sitting half on top of her much to the older girls amusement as you pulled her other arm to drape across your shoulder allowing you to tuck yourself even tighter into her side.

checking a few moments later you were happy they were dry and sat up a little, shrugging off your girlfriends arm and eagerly taking her hands in yours.

"listo!" you announced happily as alexia's eyes moved from the tv to her hands which made yours seem tiny, your own gaze falling to admire both the size difference and the small 11 tattooed on the back of her palm.

"i did more of a pale pink because i know you do not like them too bright, but i did tiny red hearts on each nail for barça!" you explained with a beaming smile, alexia melting at the confession as she stole a glance toward you and softened even more seeing the clear and pure joy in your eyes.

"muy perfecto bebita." your girlfriend gave you a small smile not giving much away, one of her hands slipping around to cup the back of your neck and bringing you into a tender kiss.

"can i put them on my story? i think these are some of my favourites." you asked hopefully as alexia shrugged, eyes having returned back to the final few minutes of the match, seemingly unfazed.

grabbing your phone you positioned her hands on her knees, taking a few photos and editing your favourite before adding it onto your instagram and curling back up on top of your girlfriend who held you tightly, eyes flickering down to her nails with a small hidden smile every few minutes.

that next day at training was a very different story though as alexia couldn't wait to show off her nails to the rest of the team.

the morning was spent with the midfielder very proudly boasting how good you were and that you were completely self taught, ignoring all the teasing remarks thrown her way about how she'd gone soft.

when you'd come to collect her that afternoon having dropped her off and borrowed her car for the day as yours was being serviced you were overwhelmed as a small group of the girls suddenly swarmed you in the carpark.

"hey hey hey back up!" alexia warned protectively, moving in front of you with a mean stare as a few of the younger girls cowered and hurried off to their own cars as the rest rolled their eyes, knowing that really she was all bark and no bite.

"me next amiga! maybe little black hearts? or...letters!" mapi beamed, eyes flickering toward her girlfriend who caught onto what she was wanting and blushed as you laughed.

"get your own! este es mío." alexia huffed, wrapping herself around you as her chin hooked into your shoulder and she sent her best friend a glare.

"tomorrow? but you must cook me dinner as payment maría." you offered with a grin, mapi agreeing eagerly as you promised to also do ingrid's nails when you caught her frowning at you over her girlfriends head.

"sí, sí! before the next game chicas, promise." you laughed as pina, salma and cata swooped in next undeterred by the murderous glare given by your girlfriend, who refused to unwind her arms where they wrapped tightly around your torso holding your back flush to her front.

"we are going! relax capi, you will get wrinkles." cata smirked as alexia's eyes narrowed even further and the three sprinted off and away.

with a small laugh you craned your back back staring up at your girlfriend with a wide grin.

"see amor? i warned you about the frown wrinkles."

you expected alexia to allow the nails for a couple of days before she'd want to return back to normal with a clean set again, so you were surprised when anytime you'd offer to help her take it off she seemed to come up with every and any excuse not to.

by the end of day five with the rigorous gym program and workouts needed with alexia's recovery the polish was cracked and chipped, most of it worn off and faded, hearts now barely recognisable as just small red blobs.

it was that night alexia finally seemed eager for you to wipe them clean, again swinging her long bare legs into your lap and settling her hands on her knee for you to work on.

the removal process compared to the creation was next to nothing and before even five minutes had passed you were finished, tapping her legs to let you up to move your things back to the bathroom where they normally lived.

when you returned it was to an empty and dark living room, so changing route you followed the light at the end of the hallway where you finally found your girlfriend once more.

you held a hand over your mouth to stifle the loud boom of laughter you wished you could get out, the catalan having fallen deep asleep on top of the bed, one of your favorite dramas playing in the background where she'd clearly intended the two of you to lay in bed together and watch.

with a small sigh of amusement you flitted back around the house ensuring everything was locked before you returned, closing the bedroom door behind you with a gentle click.

the room now only illuminated by the dim glow of the tv you flicked off the downlight and you made you way around to her side of the bed and crouched down.

"amor. amor. alexia!" you called out softly, moving one arm to shake her lightly when there was no response, the blondes chocolate brown eyes fluttering open tiredly once you shook her a little harder.

"hola bebé, into bed?" you ran a hand through her mane of hair, moving a few loose strands off her forehead with a soft smile as the footballer sighed tiredly but sat up with a curt nod as you tugged down the covers allowing her to slip in properly.

already showered and changed you ducked off to the bathroom to brush your teeth before joining her, chuckling as once more she was seemingly dead to the world, mouth ever so slightly ajar as her blonde hair sprawled across the pillow.

though as the mattress dipped, never the heaviest of sleepers alexia awoke a little, turning around to her other side and shuffling down the bed as her face pressed into your neck and her long legs tangled with yours, feet rubbing against one another.

you felt an i love you mumbled against your skin as her arms wrapped tightly around your torso, latching her taller body firmly onto yours making you smile and tangle a hand in her hair, lips lingering against the warm skin of her forehead.

"te quiero más."

a few days later you'd removed your own nail design and sat down to try a new one, having spent a few hours scrolling through for inspiration before it struck and within minutes you'd grabbed what you needed and settled.

though before you could even glance to the bottles of polish a body dropped down next to you and suddenly strong hands were on your hips lifting you up.

"ale!" you laughed as she set you down on her lap, long legs stretched out straight as you wiggled a little to get comfortable. "my turn first please." the girl spoke in her adorably accented english, hands moving around you and placing themselves on your knees.

"oh your turn?" you asked both equally pleased and surprised, turning a little so you could look at her properly. "sí, mi novia so my turn." alexia grinned, pointing to you and then back at herself before moving her head to press a soft and tender kiss against your lips.

you smiled as you pulled away, a hand softly carressing her cheek as your thumb pulled at her bottom lip, pressing another tender kiss against them with a lovesick sigh.

"of course mi amor whatever you want. so, what colour?"

#woso x reader #alexia putellas x reader #woso #woso community #woso fanfics #alexia putellas imagine #alexia putellas #woso imagine #woso blurbs

796 notes · View notes

snackodev · 1 year ago

Text

Snacko is a life sim with lots of decoration options and freedom in gameplay

My partner and I have put a lot of work into making sure the game respects your time with the different movement and quality of life features!

There's a free demo with a sandbox mode to try on Steam, and we'll be on sale for 20% off until the end of Farming Fest ✨

Steam | Twitter

Some of the games that have inspired us during development include Rune Factory 4, The Sims, Animal Crossing, Ragnarok Online, and Super Mario 64.

We've updated the game a ton since EA release, and we've recently added fun things like:

Tool upgrades: different gems give different effects depending on the tool. Mix and match to find something that suits your playstyle

Send & receive items with your friends offline using the Snack Pack code system! Think GameCube Animal Crossing or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Character customization: we've added the ability to recolour your ears, eyes, and more!

We're always making changes to integrate fixes and feedback, and we make sure all saves work with each new update.

#snacko #indie game #cozy games #farming sim #indiegame #indie games

984 notes · View notes

are-we-art-yet · 2 months ago

Note

Is AWAY using it's own program or is this just a voluntary list of guidelines for people using programs like DALL-E? How does AWAY address the environmental concerns of how the companies making those AI programs conduct themselves (energy consumption, exploiting impoverished areas for cheap electricity, destruction of the environment to rapidly build and get the components for data centers etc.)? Are members of AWAY encouraged to contact their gov representatives about IP theft by AI apps?

What is AWAY and how does it work?

AWAY does not "use its own program" in the software sense—rather, we're a diverse collective of ~1000 members that each have their own varying workflows and approaches to art. While some members do use AI as one tool among many, most of the people in the server are actually traditional artists who don't use AI at all, yet are still interested in ethical approaches to new technologies.

Our code of ethics is a set of voluntary guidelines that members agree to follow upon joining. These emphasize ethical AI approaches, (preferably open-source models that can run locally), respecting artists who oppose AI by not training styles on their art, and refusing to use AI to undercut other artists or work for corporations that similarly exploit creative labor.

Environmental Impact in Context

It's important to place environmental concerns about AI in the context of our broader extractive, industrialized society, where there are virtually no "clean" solutions:

The water usage figures for AI data centers (200-740 million liters annually) represent roughly 0.00013% of total U.S. water usage. This is a small fraction compared to industrial agriculture or manufacturing—for example, golf course irrigation alone in the U.S. consumes approximately 2.08 billion gallons of water per day, or about 7.87 trillion liters annually. This makes AI's water usage about 0.01% of just golf course irrigation.

Looking into individual usage, the average American consumes about 26.8 kg of beef annually, which takes around 1,608 megajoules (MJ) of energy to produce. Making 10 ChatGPT queries daily for an entire year (3,650 queries) consumes just 38.1 MJ—about 42 times less energy than eating beef. In fact, a single quarter-pound beef patty takes 651 times more energy to produce than a single AI query.

Overall, power usage specific to AI represents just 4% of total data center power consumption, which itself is a small fraction of global energy usage. Current annual energy usage for data centers is roughly 9-15 TWh globally—comparable to producing a relatively small number of vehicles.

The consumer environmentalism narrative around technology often ignores how imperial exploitation pushes environmental costs onto the Global South. The rare earth minerals needed for computing hardware, the cheap labor for manufacturing, and the toxic waste from electronics disposal disproportionately burden developing nations, while the benefits flow largely to wealthy countries.

While this pattern isn't unique to AI, it is fundamental to our global economic structure. The focus on individual consumer choices (like whether or not one should use AI, for art or otherwise,) distracts from the much larger systemic issues of imperialism, extractive capitalism, and global inequality that drive environmental degradation at a massive scale.

They are not going to stop building the data centers, and they weren't going to even if AI never got invented.

Creative Tools and Environmental Impact

In actuality, all creative practices have some sort of environmental impact in an industrialized society:

Digital art software (such as Photoshop, Blender, etc) generally uses 60-300 watts per hour depending on your computer's specifications. This is typically more energy than dozens, if not hundreds, of AI image generations (maybe even thousands if you are using a particularly low-quality one).

Traditional art supplies rely on similar if not worse scales of resource extraction, chemical processing, and global supply chains, all of which come with their own environmental impact.

Paint production requires roughly thirteen gallons of water to manufacture one gallon of paint.

Many oil paints contain toxic heavy metals and solvents, which have the potential to contaminate ground water.

Synthetic brushes are made from petroleum-based plastics that take centuries to decompose.

That being said, the point of this section isn't to deflect criticism of AI by criticizing other art forms. Rather, it's important to recognize that we live in a society where virtually all artistic avenues have environmental costs. Focusing exclusively on the newest technologies while ignoring the environmental costs of pre-existing tools and practices doesn't help to solve any of the issues with our current or future waste.

The largest environmental problems come not from individual creative choices, but rather from industrial-scale systems, such as:

Industrial manufacturing (responsible for roughly 22% of global emissions)

Industrial agriculture (responsible for roughly 24% of global emissions)

Transportation and logistics networks (responsible for roughly 14% of global emissions)

Making changes on an individual scale, while meaningful on a personal level, can't address systemic issues without broader policy changes and overall restructuring of global economic systems.

Intellectual Property Considerations

AWAY doesn't encourage members to contact government representatives about "IP theft" for multiple reasons:

We acknowledge that copyright law overwhelmingly serves corporate interests rather than individual creators

Creating new "learning rights" or "style rights" would further empower large corporations while harming individual artists and fan creators

Many AWAY members live outside the United States, many of which having been directly damaged by the US, and thus understand that intellectual property regimes are often tools of imperial control that benefit wealthy nations

Instead, we emphasize respect for artists who are protective of their work and style. Our guidelines explicitly prohibit imitating the style of artists who have voiced their distaste for AI, working on an opt-in model that encourages traditional artists to give and subsequently revoke permissions if they see fit. This approach is about respect, not legal enforcement. We are not a pro-copyright group.

In Conclusion

AWAY aims to cultivate thoughtful, ethical engagement with new technologies, while also holding respect for creative communities outside of itself. As a collective, we recognize that real environmental solutions require addressing concepts such as imperial exploitation, extractive capitalism, and corporate power—not just focusing on individual consumer choices, which do little to change the current state of the world we live in.

When discussing environmental impacts, it's important to keep perspective on a relative scale, and to avoid ignoring major issues in favor of smaller ones. We promote balanced discussions based in concrete fact, with the belief that they can lead to meaningful solutions, rather than misplaced outrage that ultimately serves to maintain the status quo.

If this resonates with you, please feel free to join our discord. :)

Works Cited:

USGS Water Use Data: https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/water-use-united-states

Golf Course Superintendents Association of America water usage report: https://www.gcsaa.org/resources/research/golf-course-environmental-profile

Equinix data center water sustainability report: https://www.equinix.com/resources/infopapers/corporate-sustainability-report

Environmental Working Group's Meat Eater's Guide (beef energy calculations): https://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/

Hugging Face AI energy consumption study: https://huggingface.co/blog/carbon-footprint

International Energy Agency report on data centers: https://www.iea.org/reports/data-centres-and-data-transmission-networks

Goldman Sachs "Generational Growth" report on AI power demand: https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/gs-research/generational-growth-ai-data-centers-and-the-coming-us-power-surge/report.pdf

Artists Network's guide to eco-friendly art practices: https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-business/how-to-be-an-eco-friendly-artist/

The Earth Chronicles' analysis of art materials: https://earthchronicles.org/artists-ironically-paint-nature-with-harmful-materials/

Natural Earth Paint's environmental impact report: https://naturalearthpaint.com/pages/environmental-impact

Our World in Data's global emissions by sector: https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector

"The High Cost of High Tech" report on electronics manufacturing: https://goodelectronics.org/the-high-cost-of-high-tech/

"Unearthing the Dirty Secrets of the Clean Energy Transition" (on rare earth mineral mining): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/18/clean-energy-dirty-mining-indigenous-communities-climate-crisis

Electronic Frontier Foundation's position paper on AI and copyright: https://www.eff.org/wp/ai-and-copyright

Creative Commons research on enabling better sharing: https://creativecommons.org/2023/04/24/ai-and-creativity/

#ai art #ai art discourse #discourse #ai discourse

217 notes · View notes