#ctrl-alt-rip

[the-fab-fox]

Could you possibly do a Drabble with Idia x Reader with the cute pocky game you had going on?

@ Anonymous,

Thank you for the request. Literally no one has been requesting any so I was super excited to get yours. And it's Idia which tickles me. Lol.

I hope you enjoy and sorry about the wait. A lot of stuff came up. (I have gotten a lot more requests since the initial drafting of this. Also, I'll be making a collection of these on AO3 so if you'd like me to gift the fic to you, please drop your AO3 in the notes.)

Original Post

Without further ado—

Idia x f!Reader

[ One-Shot under the cut. ]

Idia was legit not surprised with how the game the Ramshackle Prefect introduced to them all had spread like wildfire throughout the campus.

They were teenagers, after all. Meat suits with raging hormones and maybe a couple handfuls of brain cells shared between the whole of the student body. And several of those brain cells were held in vice-like grips by specific singular students, making the overall pool of available brain cells even smaller for the rest of them.

The Ignihyde Housewarden was just glad that no one with half a brain would ever consider inviting him to play.

As if I'd want to? A game designed for normies who just want an excuse to suck face? No thanks! I'm good. He rolled his eyes. Tch, it's so cringe it hurts.

At least, that's what he continued to tell himself. If he didn't really buy his own words... well, that was his business and no one else's.

The problem wasn't the game itself, he supposed… if he really stopped to think about it. But he didn't want to think about it.

Ugh. Hope some new cringe fad comes out ASAP! This really triggers my rage.

He sighed as he watched his game load bar slowly inch toward completion. Because, of freaking course, the server would be hella saturated today of all days.

Groaning, he CTRL + ALT + DEL’ed out of the game rather than wait for it to load before exiting out.

This thing’s got me not even wanting to play my games. FML! This is the WORST!

He got up and jerkily opened his deskside food cabinet. Pulling out a random noodle cup, he slammed it onto his desk. Luckily, it wasn't hard enough to crush it. Much.

It was still functional, in any case, so whatever.

Smoothing out the cup as well as he could, he opened it and added some hot water from his electric kettle. Setting the lid over it once more, he idly played with the little ingredient packet as he grabbed a spoon from the little plastic drawer set on his desk.

Why can't these idiots think about anything, but making out and shit?

In reality, Idia knew why.

He was one of the idiots, after all. Not that he was going to admit that to anyone. In fact, he tried his very best to ignore it completely.

Admitting that he wanted to make out with someone would mean he'd have to think about the very person he wanted to make out with.

That person?

The one who had set this whole mess into motion.

“Meh,” he muttered, glancing at the little digital numbers at the bottom left hand side of his desktop screen. Meh, meh, meh.

After a few more minutes, Idia couldn't wait any longer. He pulled the top off the noodle cup and tossed it aside, giving it no mind to where it drifted. Ripping open the packet, he poured the ingredients in and used the spoon to stir them. Some of the broth spilled with how aggressively he stirred, which only further fueled his ire.

Damn it. Damn it all to Tartarus.

He began to eat, ignoring the slight crunch to the noodles as well as he could. He had just finished up his impromptu meal, downing both a small energy drink as well as half a bottle of water, when a sound rose in the air that he hadn't expected.

Knocking.

Glaring at his door, he was about to yell at whoever was on the other side to just leave him alone to his misery when he realized that there were only two people who would knock on his door.

The other Ignihyde students would never. If they needed to get ahold of him for any reason, they knew well they would need to contact him via technological means. Ortho-chan would just come right in. None of his peers outside the dorm would come to see him. He had no friends after all. Not really.

Well… maybe…

No. Especially not her. Like yeah, okay. She was like really sweet, and nice, and actually seemed interested in what he had to say when he went full fanboy and otaku mode, but that was just her being nice. Nothing more.

And yet, she was one of the two people who would be on the other side of that door.

The other was Crowley, but considering the fact that he was Crowley, the man would more likely just summon him to his office rather than pay a visit to his dorm.

Which meant it could only be the Ramshackle Prefect.

As if proving him right, another knock came upon the door, followed by the annoyingly cute sound of his crush’s voice.

“Idia? I know you're in there. Can I come in?”

What kind of event did I trigger? Idia sighed heavily. He hated this.

Somewhere along the line, Idia had come to realize that when it came to the otherworlder, he had a very hard—if not impossible—time denying her anything.

He brought his hands up to his face, letting out as quiet and muffled a groan as possible before pulling his hands away once more. Taking a shaky breath, he stood and crossed the space between his desk and the door.

The third year wondered if he should just ignore her. After all, if he didn't answer, she would have to leave at some point right?

“Idia Shroud!”

“Eep!”

“I'm not leaving until you let me in, mister!”

Idia tried and failed not to smile.

He could just picture her. Standing on the other side of the door, hands on her hips, glaring cutely at the door like some romance anime heroine.

For the love of STYX, why was she so freaking cute?

And why was she so determined to see him?

It made no sense.

Except that she likes and cares about you, another voice said. His mind, and the rest of him, silenced the thought as quickly as it came.

His face became a grimace and he decided that now was the time to get this visit over with, so that he could get back to his raging pity party.

Whatever she wanted couldn't take that long, right?

Just rip the bandaid and be done with it.

Spite forced his hand in the end. He unlocked and pulled the door open, his face still a deep scathing frown. The moment his eyes met those deep, warm brown eyes—however—he felt his demeanor and posture go shy.

“Ah, h-hey…” he said by way of greeting, with the smallest smile on his face. Then he remembered he was supposed to be annoyed, and tried to force the grimace once more. He wasn't sure if he managed, but the moment he took in the rest of her, he had to keep himself from laughing.

If he had to hazard a guess, he imagined he looked a lot more like the nauseous emoji rather than a scathing one.

The reason for his sudden urge to laugh was that the Ramshackle Prefect was, no cap, standing with a wide, determined stance with her closed fists on her hips as she looked up at him.

That made him feel off-kilter for a moment. He kept forgetting how short she was compared to him. She could still no doubt kick his ass TKO style, because who couldn't, if he was honest—but she was just so… fun sized and cute.

He longed to hug and cuddle her. He wanted to hold hands with her. Wanted to whisper soft couple things into her hair as he embraced her from behind. He wanted to keep her safe, since she didn't have any magic of her own. And to support her in whatever she wanted to do because, damn, this was a young lady who was going places. He wanted to beg her not to leave if a way was ever found, because who would he talk to then? (Other than Muscle Red, of course. But even then, this was different.)

“There! That's better isn't it? We can definitely talk better this way.”

Idia felt himself start to nod and smile along with her, before shaking his head and frowning.

“What do you want?”

Her brows rose and slowly she began to frown. Then her brows knit together and her stance became even more stern than before.

“You won't talk to me like that, Idia! No, sir. We're friends, remember? Besides, I brought you a gift. Doncha wanna know what it is?”

Idia felt his conviction slip.

A gift? For him? Had he really triggered some kind of event?

He frowned.

If it had been anyone else, he would have thought it was a trap. The problem was, it wasn't anybody else.

It was the girl of his dreams.

“Why?” He heard himself ask. He frowned, but he wasn't sure if it was at the situation itself or himself. “Why would you get me a gift?”

The Prefect sighed, now crossing her arms. Idia called himself several kinds of idiot.

That stance is never a good one in anime and manga.

Now he'd likely ruined everything, and she was going to leave, and he'd be in an even worse funk than before.

“I already told you, Idia. We're friends. Sometimes friends give each other gifts. And I care about you. Gift giving is a great way to support the people you care about.” She then grinned. “Or just chock it up to the fact that I wanna. Okay? Now—” She fell silent and only continued when Idia looked up, into her unfairly gentle and pretty eyes. “Can I please come in?”

Idia said nothing. He just scoffed under his breath and moved aside, ignoring the rush of affection he felt as she quickly moved into his room. That quickly turned to dread as he suddenly realized how much of a pig sty his room truly was.

Shit, shit, shit.

She didn't seem to notice, however. In fact, she didn't even seem to look around. She just turned back to him and the moment he closed the door, she moved in closer and closer.

Was she about to go plot twist villain on him? Well, he supposed there were worse ways to go than being murdered by a ridiculously beautiful girl in a school girl uniform.

“W-What are you—”

She stopped in front of him and rummaged in her book bag before pulling out a rectangular, shiny yellow box. He frowned.

He was a little ashamed to admit it, but he already knew what it was from the sight glimpse.

A box of Pocky.

A box of banana-flavored Pocky.

His favorite.

“What are you—”

She said nothing, only smirking as she opened the box, then the unopened package inside. Pulling one out, she held it up as she held his gaze.

“I'm guessing you've heard about the game?” She asked, though it wasn't really a question. She knew he knew it well. “Wanna play it with me, Idia?”

There was something new there. A sort of hint of something. A variation.

He would never vocalize his guess, but if he wasn't mistaken, it sounded a lot like flirting.

“M-me?”

She groaned and threw up both hands, the Pocky rising with the one that held it.

“You're not as dumb as you like to think, Idia—about people, I mean.”

She held his gaze firmly. He just continued to stare dumbly at the shorter girl. Slowly, it dawned on her that he had absolutely no clue what she was talking about.

“Okaaay… so you don't get it.” She sighed. “Fine. I'll tell you. In a way that even you won't be able to find a single way to deny it.”

Idia just blinked.

“I like you, Idia. A lot. And I want to be more than friends. But you're also really skittish. I only introduced the game in the hopes that I'd be able to play it with you, and the kiss would tell you the rest.”

Idia just stared. And stared some more.

She sighed, moved in closer, and held up the Pocky.

He took it without thinking.

“If me being your girlfriend is something you are on board with, play the game with me…”

Idia didn't think he had ever put anything into his mouth as fast as he did the Pocky.

There it was, just the tip of the flavored part of the cookie stick held between his lips. It was worth it, though. The Prefect smiled so brightly, a light tinge of pink coloring her cheeks.

“So you do like me!”

He sighed. Here it came.

Time for the ridicule to commence in 3, 2, 1—

“I'm glad.”

That's what I thought you'd say, because duh—wait what?

“You're… glad? Why?” It wasn’t easy to talk with a piece of pocky being held by his lips, but through luck or maybe he had a high enough stat, he managed.

She sighed. This time, however, it sounded fond.

“If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you.” She then beamed and Idia felt himself mirroring her without his consent. “But I'll give you a hint.”

She then closed the remaining space between them, took the other end of the Pocky in her mouth, and quickly nibbled through it until she'd reached his end.

Idia was pretty sure he short circuited for a moment. He blinked rapidly until he was finally able to register what was happening.

The Ramshackle Prefect had kissed him. Was kissing him.

Their lips were still touching.

He swallowed the bit of banana Pocky in his mouth and closed his eyes tight. He'd never kissed anyone before, except his mom and his figurines and—though he would take it to his grave—a couple of his character and idol body pillows when he was feeling particularly needy.

Still, he let instinct take over and did his best to match her actions.

Pulling away, he opened his eyes to meet her gaze.

“I knew you liked me back. Thank you for finally telling me.”

Idia blushed. He felt his throat trying to work, but all that came out was something like squealing—but less cute and more strangled.

Apparently, the Ramshackle Prefect had no trouble finding it endearing, if the fond smile on her face was any indication. Then a conspiratorial grin slipped onto her face.

“So what do you think about the game from my world?”

Idia had liked it. He was pretty sure she knew it too. She just wanted to hear him say it.

Unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to do that just yet. Instead, he let some of his hair fall forward to obscure his face as he brought his index fingers together, tapping them against each other a few times.

“I don't… um… not really sure.” He cleared his throat, trying to speak up, but mumbling worse instead. “Maybe we should try it again… a few times… just to get a good sample size…”

The smile that radiated off her face in that moment took Idia to a whole other realm. His room no longer felt so gloomy and depressing. It looked brighter somehow.

His attention was immediately snapped back to the short Prefect, who still stood very close. He blushed as he realized how close, before reminding himself that they'd just kissed, which had been a hell of a lot closer. That only caused him to blush more deeply as the realization sunk in.

She had kissed him.

Him!

And he had, technically, kissed back.

His face felt like it was radiating heat.

She giggled and pulled out another Pocky stick, putting the cookie tip in her mouth. She then raised her brows and grinned.

A clear invitation.

It was one of the only invitations Idia had gotten for anything (outside of gaming) that he immediately RSVP’d on.

As they kissed, Idia felt his muscles loosen and his body warm. At some point, long after the cookie was gone, petite arms wrapped around his neck as his hands awkwardly settled upon her waist. He had successfully passed the surprise event and achieved the Best Ending.

Maybe I can convince her we'll need to go through the whole box, just to be absolutely sure I like the game.

He smiled into the kiss at the thought.

[roboreviewer]

"You call being chased by a lunatic snowman scary? You twit."

Name: The Computer

(Mental) Age: Adult (implied)

Pronouns: He/Him It/It's

Appearance(s): Courage The Cowardly Dog, The Fog of Courage, Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog

Fandom Activity: dead at the moment. More on this later

Fanon accuracy: Man.. it's too complicated to say here

------In Canon------

Computer (yes that's its name) is the computer owned by the Bagge's located I'm their attic. Courage uses him to search for how to defeat the monster of the day, research specific items, with occasional off screen NORMAL computer activities

Computer appears in every season if the show: 9 times in season 1 (one being a cameo), 5 times in season two, 3 times in season 3, and four times in season four. He makes two quick appearances in The Fog Of Courage and Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog movies.

The Computer will usually say a snippy one liner before and or after actually giving the information Courage wants.

Courage (searching for a cure): "What should I do?"

Computer: "if I were you, I'd get a big mallet and-" (smash them presumably)

Courage: "No no NO! A cure! A cure!"

Computer: "Oh....... That's easy, get a little hair from the mole that bit you."

(Courage gets ready to leave)

Computer: "just don't get bitten!~" (teasing tone meant to shake courage up)

The Computer has a masculine British voice DRIPPING with sarcasm, having a new voice actor in every new appearance: Simon Prebble, Paul Schoeffler, and Jeff Bergman respectfully

------Analysis------

- The computer is most likely based off of a Amiga 3000

You can see the resemblance yes? Cube monitor that sits on top the rectangle (I forgot the name sue me) with the clunky keyboard (ho mama) honestly perfect for a cartoon. Although he is still simplified, without a mouse and numpad (fair enough)

- In season 2 episode 14 he gains an off switch meant only as a gag. The Computer makes fun of Courage for.. being a cowardly dog and Courage flips the switch turning it off. It then disappears for the rest of the season until season 3, where it now has the words "OFF" under it.

- In season 3 episode seven, Muriel presses a random key on the Computers keyboard. Which then plays [SENSUAL TRUMPET NOISE] and presumably shows something in his screen, it isn't shown to the audience and Courage covers it up embarrassed. The Computer then says "Hey, push that button again!" in a..flirtatious??? Tone, To which Courage responds by ripping out the key and tossing it.. did Courage have a P@%# Hot key?? Was it giving The Computer physical satisfaction?? Gross.

- Anyway in this episode The computer has three keys near both sides of the space bar (unlike the images shown above before this episode, which has two keys on each side)

Courage rips out the one in the bottom right of the keyboard. Here's an image of the Amiga 3000 keyboard

As you can see it doesn't HAVE a third key at the bottom. The quality is s$!÷ but the closest one is the right ALT key. Meaning the 'button' is either the ALT key in earlier episodes or (going off of other keyboards) the right CTRL key in this episode

- the Computer regularly says suggestive S#!÷ in a suggestive tone. In Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog: he outright flirts with Velmas iPad and asks if later she would want to do some "Downloading and updating"

Yeah I don't even know man

- The computer is a lot nicer in the Scooby-Doo movie. When I say a lot nicer I mean he only insults someone like once

-----This part------

Okay so when I first looked up the computer, I just did a quick search on Tumblr and saw only a few posts. So like a sane person I just assumed he wasn't very popular and moved on.

BUT NO! F#@%!×$ NO!!

For S#!+$ and giggles I did one lazy search and found All things End: A Computer x Courage slow burn

If you use your eyes you can see 3 things: one, this has 144 chapters, 2 this has 415,955 words, so those aren't SHORT chapters, and three-

THIS IS PART F@#$%!÷ ONE!!!

This series has 3 parts, the final STILL BEING WRITTEN. it started in 2010-07-31. As of writing this that's 13.86 YEARS! This series would be getting ready for high-school!

The plot is about courage falling Ill with a rare fatal disease that will soon kill him. So he and the computer go on a quest to get the cure. The Computer gets a dog body, and the creator has drawn posters for each volume (although only volume one's showed up for me)

The first volume has 415,955 words

The second volume has 474,148 words

The final volume as of writing has 110,744 words

The total word count of the series 1,000,847 words. Giving it 217,770 more words than the kings James version of the Bible which- may I repeat the final is STILL GOING. I hope to one day finish reading this masterpiece. Godspeed Couragefan09 o7

------My Opinion------

10/10 this all started with a video on my YouTube recommended, which I use for most of the pictures. I came out of this having a new fanfic to read for the summer.. and probably fall too. With that being said his character actually made me laugh out loud and I'm SO F#@%!$# PISSED NO ONE TALKS ABOUT HIM! WATCH IT, WATCH IT NOW

[ch404]

oh my god your header is fantastic😭💕 could you show how you made it? you're very talented!!<333

omg thank you???? i love making make them tbh <33 i'd be happy to show how but i'm also not sure how to go about it because it's just a PSD that's a mess of layers that i don't name haha

i use photoshop, find gifs i like, convert them from frames to smart objects so i can manipulate them (with an action i made for myself bc im laaaazyyyy), then the rest is just graphic design-y shit i play around with

i save gifs using 'save for web' (or ctrl+shift+alt+s) and play with the colour settings until the output is under 9.5mb bc tumblr spits out anything over 10mb and gets fussy when you get close to 9.5mb in my experience

i take zero credit for the gifs i find (unless i have ripped them myself, of which i only have a few, so not usually), nor the shapes i find (sometimes i do make them myself, but not usually, the ouroboros is not mine)

i am also more than happy to take requests so long as i'm not bombarded, i do enjoy making stuff like this — gonna shamelessly plug a few others i've made haha, two for one of my rp blogs and one for cooper howard (my beloved)

also this one because i love the kid — he's my sidebar on my desktop theme <3

[scarlet-cookie]

Got to LOTM Volume 3!!!!!! Yippee!!! Oh, man, the story just keeps getting better and better. Miss Ctrl+alt+delete really saved Klein’s ass back there in the Vol 2 end fight (RIP Old Kohler I liked him noooooooooooo why Cuttlefishhhh). Will halt the LOTM art every time I finish a volume thing for now. I wanna do a thing when I finish all the volumes and make a collage or something.

Vol 2 thoughts :

-man I want that quill burnt along with Zangwill

-AZIK OUR GOAT, OUR TEACHER, OUR SAVIOR

-Emlyn is just living the life fr. Beyonder powers since birth, cool (and alive) family, lawful, honest jobs, hobby that doesn’t hurt anyone. Dude is just chilling and doing his own thing here.

-Xio : works to death, risks her life multiple times due to the Fool

Klein : mhm.

Fors : ow curse oh no losing control

Klein : yea you’re in

Klein I have no issues against that but- please don’t forget our girl Xio… (I love Xio. She’s just kicking ass and living with pride right now.)

-Why is Trissy suddenly pathetic…..

-There was a period of time that I got so paranoid of Brody that I ended up googling if Brody was some secret enemy. Glad to know he’s just a cat. Glad to know we can still enjoy cat doing cat things here without freaking out if it’s some secretly horrific entity.

-Klein agrees to help catch an affair and gets tangled in ten other matters at once. Purely through. Coincidence. Sure. Sure sure. Yeah. Haha. Coincidence. Right..

Vol 3 thoughts so far :

-Danitz is hilairous. I absolutely adore his character and his chaotic energy when combined with Gehrmann. It’s a weird variant of stupid and smart except it’s stupid by circumstance and smart outside, panicking inside. Anyways it’s a great combo of flavors.

-I love, love the Gehrmann Sparrow persona and Klein’s occasional contradictory thoughts and internal panic. That said, the latter makes me sad reading them sometimes. Like he’s just. On high alert. Dude is like “o yea this is nothing I’ve seen/heard/encountered worse :D” like it’s a good thing… the only way it’s a good thing is that if you’re Klein and Klein specifically.

-on that note, WHY CAN’T KLEIN JUST GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP COME ON

-“this is madness” I felt something there and it’s a bad feeling

-Klein’s list of jobs so far : secret police, detective, cult leader, professional schemer, dropshipper, seer, clown, magician, Batman, assassin, food enthusiast, adventurer, bounty hunter, and also, babysitter

-Klein’s list of crimes grows in adjacent to his list of occupations

-Forget horrifying entities, The Fool’s real weakness is food and money

[seancurry1]

Hey, I really liked your article on what the Internet is like in 2024. For many of us the way it is now is all we have ever really known. How did people navigate an internet before Google owned search bars and the same 10 or so sites ran public opinion?

Thanks for the ask, anon! I got into that a little in the beginning of the article that excerpt was from. Repasting here, and I'll elaborate further down:

There was a solid three years in college—maybe even longer—when I literally read every single article on CollegeHumor.com and Cracked.com. Whenever I had some free time (an abundance I was tragically unaware of at the time), I’d type their URLs into my browser bar, scroll down to the last article I read, and start reading. Once I was caught up, I’d check in on a handful of other sites the same way (mostly webcomics, and a few blogs). Questionable Content, Penny Arcade, XKCD, Ctrl-Alt-Del, and, yes, even some more embarrassing to admit than CAD that I’m not going to mention here were all readily-available in my browser bar’s autocomplete. When I ran out of new stuff to read, I’d hit StumbleUpon, or Reddit, or Digg. There were always some new URLs out there for me to uncover, good or bad (and there were a lot of bad ones), and I loved finding them. Please don’t take this as me flexing my OG internet cred; nothing I’ve said here is all that different from the mid-00s experience of any online American goober. I say all this to point out a fundamental shift in how the internet (at least the internet that I’ve experienced, within my social and geographical bubble) has worked over the last ~10 years. Those early days were defined by websites, not social feeds. When I “went online,” I went to specific URLs to see what the people behind them were up to. Sure, there was Twitter and Facebook, and Myspace before that, but those were still avenues to direct traffic to websites, more or less. People went on those platforms (and later, those apps) to be social, not make content. The most “content creation” you’d do on Facebook in those days was upload a selfie or tag all your friends in a party photo from the night before.

Before the feeds, everyone had a website, and you'd spend your online time going from URL to URL to check in on them. If you've ever heard the term "blogroll," this is the time that was from.

Let's say it's 2006 and I have a blog with a bunch of dedicated readers. Somewhere on my blog's page, I would have section dedicated to linking out to other blogs I liked. That was the "blogroll", and before that there were "webrings" which accomplished a similar thing in a slightly different way.

Webcomics were really, really good at this. They organically created a lot of the social infrastructure that earlier internet ran on, and that the later web 2.0 stuff was built on.

After a while, RSS readers became much more user-friendly, and blog owners made their blog's RSS feed as accessible as possible. If you input a website's RSS feed into your RSS reader (RIP Google Reader, we didn't deserve you), then your RSS reader would update.

[Random screenshot of Google Reader I found online. This was Google's take, but all the other ones more or less worked the same way.]

It looked a lot like email, to be honest. And on that note, I think the recent surge in newsletters is recreating that experience, to a degree. I subscribe to over a dozen newsletters, from Substack and other platforms/outlets, and I filter them all out of my inbox and into a separate label. This is a screenshot of my newsletter inbox:

I don't have to log into Twitter, or Threads, or Bluesky, or whatever to get the content I want from the people I want to get content from. I don't have to worry about how the algorithm is sorting it; this feed is always chronological. There's nothing between me and the writers, artists, and other creators I want to keep up with.

With the collapse of the algorithm-driven era*, I think we're heading back to this (or at least, I think we should be). What's great about this is: we don't have to be beholden to the whims of platforms anymore. We can just get the stuff we want from the people we want.

*The algorithms are still very much alive and still very much want you to keep yourself hooked up to their slurry, but they've dropped their end of the bargain. The spell is broken, there's no longer one place that feels like everyone is logging into to talk about whatever's happening on the internet in any given moment. Elon Musk ruining Twitter was the final thing that broke the spell, but it started happening after everyone got mad at Facebook for helping get Trump elected in 2016. Now that everyone's looking for something else to replace what they used to get from algo feeds but failing to coalesce in one place again, that's never going to come back.

So that all answers your question: "For many of us the way it is now is all we have ever really known. How did people navigate an internet before Google owned search bars and the same 10 or so sites ran public opinion?"

But I'd like to focus on the second sentence there for a second. You're right, right now it feels like Google owns search bars and the same 10 or so sites run public opinion. However, that's only because we've all given that power to them. I understand it, and sympathize with it. Creating an intentional presence on the internet is a lot of work, and it's hard to keep up with it as all the services we use to do it change their policies and settings.

I think this straight-to-the-source model would be better for all of us in general, and the best part about it is you can just start doing it for yourself whenever you want. You don't have to wait for a platform to start offering it, just find the writers and creators you want and subscribe to their newsletters. If a platform changes something that puts a wall up between you and the people you like there, doesn't matter. You're following their email newsletter and will still get those emails as long as they keep sending them.

That early internet I described was full of people still figuring out how it all worked, so the gears and inner workings were a lot more apparent and easier to play with. As the internet has gotten more polished, those gears have been covered up and less visible, but they're still there.

In fact, every Tumblr page has an rss feed, just add "/rss" to the end of its URL like this: https://seancurry1.tumblr.com/rss. You could set up an RSS feed yourself, or figure out a way to convert RSS updates to emails. Here's an IFTTT recipe to do it, but I'm sure there are other ways.

The platforms all want you to think the way the internet currently exists is the way it's always been and the only way it ever can be, but all the gears are there if you look for them. You can start ripping the guts out and seeing how it works for yourself, and even make it better.

Anyway, happy to pass on my Elder Internetter knowledge if you have more questions! I think we're at an exciting turning point in the internet where the power to shape our experiences is up for grabs, but it's up to us to grab it.

[jc-fmp-2025]

Making a fuel tank Pt 2:

Here, I lowered the curve so that I could add a fueling section of the tank without it being higher than the tank itself.

Next, I moved and duplicated it to make two fuel pipes.

I then joined the two pipes together by pressing Ctrl + J. From there, I attached them to the tank by using the Boolean modifier.

There was a problem. I kept trying to use the Boolean modifier but it won't select the curve as an object. I searched on the internet why this is happening. This is a screenshot I took of what I found.

Following this information, I pressed Alt + C to turn the curve object into a mesh. It didn't work. However, I found that I could when I right clicked on top of it. From there, I clicked on 'Convert To' and 'Mesh'. This seemed to work. I could finally perform the Boolean operation. After that, I deleted the curve object as I no longer needed it.

Here, I added a new cube mesh. I want to cut it in half and use it for a Boolean operation.

I searched on the internet how I cut a cube diagonally to make a wedge shape.

For some reason this didn't work for me. I then looked at this video instead.

Here, I selected all the faces and clicked on 'Mesh' and 'Bisect'.

Next, I dragged a line across to make the cut line. I tried to line it up as much as possible.

Here, I clicked on the 'Bisect' tab that was on the bottom left of the image. I ticked the 'Fill' box to give the shape its hypotenuse face.

I then clicked on 'Vertex' and 'Rip Vertices'. I did this to separate the shape.

There was a problem. When I tried to move the desired shape upwards, it just moved one face up. It is also still attached. I undid this step.

Here, I selected the faces of the mesh that I didn't want and deleted them. I found this to do the trick.

Next, I resized and rotated the wedge so that it should fit inside the tank wall for the Boolean operation.

I then moved the mesh inside of the wall of the tank in order to add a fuel pump adapter for fueling the rocket.

After I accepted the Boolean settings, it didn't seems to do anything other than create a glitching effect.

I then deleted the mesh and found that it had only removed a bit of the tank. I undid these steps and resized the mesh. However, I realized that I should rotate the mesh the other way round to cut the desired shape.

There was a big problem. When I had set up the settings for the Boolean operation, it removed most of the tank with no explanation.

At this point, I realized that it wouldn't work and would need a different approach to the tank adapter. I decided to add a cube mesh and made it small enough to only just poke out of the tank wall. I was ready to use the Boolean union operation to combine the two meshes together.

Personally, I found it still looked decent using this method.

Next, I added a cylinder mesh that resized and rotated. I was doing this to make it look like nozzles to pump fuel into the tank.

I duplicated it for the two different pipes. I then joined them together by pressing Ctrl + J.

Next, I used the Boolean modifier to cut into the tank mesh. I was pleased with the result.

Here, I added a cone mesh for the top and bottom of a large fuel pipe.

I duplicated the cone and flipped it upside down.

Meanwhile, I added a cylinder mesh and increased its size on its 'Z' axis.

After adjusting the mesh positions I combined them together so I could use the Boolean modifier on one object.

For some reason it wasn't highlighting the cones.

I switched the mode to 'Union' but now it isn't highlighting the cylinder instead.

[garballax]

Fucked up that M$ and Dell think the fucking Copilot button is more important than being able to Ctrl+Alt+Del one-handed. They really ripped out the right Control key on all their new laptops for this. What the fuck man.

[forgetmenautical]

there’s a very specific video/gif I’m thinking of and it’s. a clip from a yakuza game where he’s standing there all menacingly and then goes and rips off his shirt and has a back tattoo of a ctrl+alt+del comic and then it moves over to a different character who also rips HIS shirt off and his back tattoo is a screenshot of the first guy from like 5 seconds ago showing off his tattoo. am I crazy or

[foolsdiamond]

here's the epilogue ideas i dont know if i will actually turn into content

concept: either a series of snapchats a-la the homestuck ending, or a series of ctrl+alt+del format comic strips because i like those

Getting Jake new clothes

Dirk: Thank god I’ve learned literally every skill, including sewing/tailoring Jake: What are you talking about, why is this relevant. Dirk: Your clothes are torn and disgusting and not to mention ill-fitting.  Come with me into the city, where I can dress you up into something more proper. Jake: Gross

A scene of them in Lotak just. Filled with dirks in various peasant costumes doing various peasant jobs

Dirk successfully gets Jake in a properly fitted suit.

Jake flexes and rips the sleeves off immediately.  Dirk’s gay heart can’t take it.

Jake teaching Dirk things too

Maybe how to shoot a gun

About how politics have changed in the outside world

Jake just ranting to Dirk about his many adventures slaying other vampires; it cuts to “This one’s asleep?!” because. The dirk listening fell asleep.

Obligatory GangBang joke

Obligatory Jake gets banged by several dirks at once joke

ALSO Jake sparring with multiple dirks at once

COULD be combined into one, like those old plastic holo trading cards that would show one image and then the other; it’s a bunch of dirks with swords launching themselves at jake, but you rotate it 20 degrees and now they’re all naked and holding dildos.

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

ok so chances are these rambles aren't going to make any sense lol but like i hope y'all have fun reading them anyway...

so ok thoughtsss on glasses in inside no 9:

gonna start with Reece's characters because of course i am lol

the two that i was initially thinking of were Simon (simon says) and George (cold comfort) because of the way their glasses almost blend into their faces due to the thin wire frames, i guess this could be interpreted as both characters hiding their true nature in plain sight (this will be a common theme in this post btw)

Simon's are an unusual shape, though (not quite round, not oval, not square, idk how to describe them lol...)... can't explain it but they're kinda youthful looking? matching the weird (90s) school boy haircut he has lol...

we also have this a bit with Neville (misdirection), when we first see him he's wearing similar glasses to Simon, but after he kills Willy they change into thicker, darker frames, almost as if he's no longer hiding (or at least no longer hiding to the viewer). i think the 2nd pair are also there to suggest that he's more intelligent than he actually is lol and to emphasise his cockiness at thinking he could get away with murder (literally)

another character with this is Gerry (boo to a goose) who is wearing fairly old fashioned glasses (similar to the ones that Maureen wears, who I'm not gonna talk about here since she and David are Psychoville characters lol...), perhaps there to emphasis his more conservative/old fashioned values? hinting at the final reveal (also it aligns with him being older, perhaps they're just the same style of glasses he's been wearing for 40 odd years lol)

(this is a similar reasoning behind Norman lol... there's not really much to say about him lol)

other more minor characters where the glasses feel like they're a sorta stand-in for there being something hidden about the story and/or character that we're not yet privy to are; Klaus (the devil of xmas) who isn't even wearing them when we get the reveal of who he really is, Maxwell (la couchette) (ok not really a minor character i know lol but there's not really a lot to say about him... guess you could also bring up the way the eye-mask is also there as a way to emphasise him being a liar?), Maurice (private view), The Stranger (12 days of christine) & Rudolph (a random act of kindness)...

and given all of this i think it was interesting that Varney (the stakeout) doesn't wear glasses, especially since hiding in plain sight is his whole Thing but i can only assume that glasses would be a hard thing to film in such dark scenes? plus idk would vampires even need glasses? ... asking the real questions lol

Jonah's (the curse of the ninth) feel different to the other glasses on the show mainly because of the distinct vintage shape/style of them, but of course there is an element of Jonah (after killing staffordshire) having to keep a part of himself hidden? idk

Tommy (bernie clifton's dressing room) has fairly plain nondescript glasses, they almost look like reading glasses? perhaps a reflection of him being all 'serious' now, especially in comparison to the young!Tommy we see in photos that doesn't wear glasses!

have to note that Reece as himself also wears glasses and not really much to say other than the ones he wears in plodding on are my fav on him (i think they frame his face rly lovelyly... that's not a word shh) but other than that idrk any thematic relevance other than 'lad needs them to see irl' pfft...

there are ofc other characters that wear glasses that don't feel as if they're that important to the character:

so, Nick (tempting fate), Gareth (paras.........phobia), Doug (ctrl alt esc) (although arguably you could suggest that the deception here is that Doug isn't who we think he is cos he's actually a nurse? also feel like the glasses might be a subtle nod to Ollie Plimsolls, which i vaguely remember someone saying Doug kinda reminded them of??? can't remember who though rip...), Eric (lip service), Barnabus (nine lives kat), and The Reverend (dead line) (again, i guess you could make an argument for him being representative of the wider deception in the episode?)

---

now, the Steve characters with glasses are honestly a really interesting mix! haven't counted them but i think there are definitely less of his characters that wear glasses than Reece's, so in a way it feels even more significant for his characters that DO wear them!

there are a fair few Steve characters that start out seemingly as nice and end up being revealed to be baddies, and it's interesting that a lot of these also happen to be glasses wearers!

Spencer (simon says), Squires (riddle of the sphinx) and Blake (the trolley problem) come immediately to mind. Spencer's glasses are plain black, rigid frames to match the harsh unmoving lines of his house, his unwavering nature. i think both Squires and Blake have tortoise shell framed glasses? which has a suggestion of elegance and refinement in contrast to the natures of the characters that are revealed through the eps!

you also have them all pretending to be smarter than they actually are, each trying to play the other characters within their individual episodes only to have everything thrown back in their face due to their own hubris!

there are also a few of his characters that suggest towards the hidden pasts of the wider narratives in the episode:

so, Harry (mother's ruin), Carl (sardines) who has some of the most unique glasses in the whole show but i couldn't really tell you what the significance of that is... maybe someone else can figure it out idk lol?, Ezra (nine lives kat), Giles (and the winner is), Roger (empty orchestra), Jasper (the bones of st nicholas) and Il Dottore (wuthering heist).

now Adrian (to have and to hold) i don't think wears glasses throughout the whole episode, but he does have them on in various scenes (the very start comes to mind?) which feels like it's calling back to his darker nature. also the glasses he does have are on a chain, much like... well you know...

kinda suggests the idea he can put on and take off his 'disguise' with ease depending on whether he's around his wife or his lover...

the final character of Steve's that has glasses is Kenny (mulberry close) who i guess is sorta involved in the final deception but also not really? idk... this one's got me stumped ngl lol

final thing i will say is that i think there are a few other characters that wear glasses in one off moments (maybe David in Diddle Diddle Dumpling does?) but idk if they necessarily feel relevant enough to be a part of the wider character so i'm leaving them out lol...

so yeah that's about it, hopefully this makes some sort of sense lol

i said i'd write this when i'm less sleepy which i'm not, but i couldn't get this out of my head and i knew if i didn't write it now then i'd forget about it so........... here we are

in general i think it's really amazing how so much within this show feels so deliberate into giving the audience as much information about any given character! from the set designs, the costumes, hair and makeup, and of course the performances! because with such limited time they need to immediate establish certain things about the characters and world to help bring everything together after the final reveals!

and something about rewatching simon says and noticing the glasses made me think about this and the wider implications lol...

making this to remind myself to make a 'glasses in in9 and what they could mean' post at some point in the near future when im less sleeby lol

[synthaphone]

i put on a jacket because i was shivering uncontrollably and now i’m just still doing that, but with a jacket on

[hellboys]

low quality video ➜ "HD" gifs tutorial! (2022 UPDATE!)

back by popular demand. warning, this is a work in progress! so far I have found this is the best way to restore low quality movie videos into somewhat clear and “hd” gifs. I will update if I discover anything different (:

this works on movies/videos in 720p and lower

you must have basic gif making knowledge

I'm using adobe photoshop cc 23.4.1 (2022) for windows

link to previous version of this tutorial

TUTORIAL UNDER THE CUT 🔽

so this tutorial is going to show you how to create the ILLUSION of high quality and film grain in your gifs just by using smart filters, coloring, and the filter gallery tab! this trick works on 720p, 480p, 360p, and 144p resolutions

1. MAKE YOUR GIF BASE

I’ll be using a scene from hello mary lou: prom night 2 in a *really* gross 480px lol

2. RESIZE YOUR GIF

ctrl + alt + “I”

These are my resizing settings (copy these). 

Resampling your gif under the ‘preserve details 2.0′ option allows you to resize your gif without losing those small details - essentially making your gif sharper.

⭐ please note that gifs will look better if resized to 268px instead of 540px as its easier to hide low quality trails that remain in the end.

3. ADD ‘SMART SHARPEN’ FILTER

filter ➤ sharpen ➤ smart sharpen...

When adding your smart sharpening layer, be sure to unselect More Accurate from the drop down menu at the top. (You can access this menu by clicking the gear in the right hand corner)

Unselecting this option will add more sharpness to the highlights and shadows of your gif, which is essential for this trick to work

⭐ of course if you have preferred sharpening settings, feel free to use those instead!

3. ADD ANOTHER ‘SMART SHARPEN’ LAYER

filter ➤ sharpen ➤ smart sharpen...

Copy these settings

Keep the More Accurate option SELECTED for this layer!!!

4. CREATING FILM GRAIN

filter ➤ filter gallery... ➤ texture ➤ grain

These settings will depend on what you think looks best! For this gif, these are the settings I ended up with

Be sure that the “Soft” option is selected from the drop down menu. Its the cleanest grain filter photoshop offers and its the closest you’ll get to grain used in films

The intensity will depend on you and what your gif needs. Don’t go too crazy here. Keep the number low (no higher than 10) 

Contrast will generally stay in the 50′s but if you need more black areas in your gif feel free to push that number a bit

⭐ Don’t get too attached to these right now as they may change throughout your process!

4.2. ARRANGING SMART LAYERS

MUY IMPORTANTE!!!!

In order to get that sharp grain look, you’ll need to place the “Filter Gallery” layer beneath the 2 smart sharpen layers like in the pic above

Edit your grain settings as needed!

5. COLOR COLOR COLOR

After all of that is said and done, add your coloring! Try to push the shadows and add more black in your 'selective color' adjustment layer just to give your gif more contrast. This will clean up the pixel-y blacks and make your gif look a bit nicer to look at. Again this will all depend on what you’re looking for and what you think looks best!

6. SAVE!

Once you're satisfied with how your gif looks, alt + ctrl + shift + “S” and you're done! Here are my save for web settings

MY RESULTS!

480px video, before and after:

(Still looks pretty shitty but I guess its better than the original ???)

360px video, before and after:

(I ripped this movie straight from the DVD and the glitch you see came with it unfortunately 😒)

End notes/tips!

This trick will not work on every low quality movie

Please play around with the sharpening, grain, and color settings to find the best version for you!

The higher the quality of the video (720p, 1080p dvd) the less grain you will need to add

Again, gifs look even better if they are put into 2 column posts instead of a single column (268px instead of 540px)

The grain filter will unfortunately make your gif size very large which is something I havent been able to work around

And once more for the people in the back - this is FAKE HD, it won't turn your 480p video into a crisp blu-ray 1080p quality. it just gives an illusion of higher quality 🤠

Please feel free to send me a DM or an ask if you need further help or have any questions whatsoever! Thank you!✨🖤

[weytani]

@themaarika asked: person of interest + favourite episode/season

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

CTRL+ALT+DECEIT

Warnings: non-consent sex and rape; oral, fucking, stalking, hacking, threats, implied violence.

This is dark!Jake Jensen x reader and explicit. 18+ only.  Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Synopsis: You find your pictures on someone else’s Insta but that’s not the only thing he’s stolen.

Note: Yay, another Jensen fic at last. I’m probably gonna try to work in more one shots between my series. I’m looking at Andy Barber, Ransom Drysdale, or Lee Bodecker right now for next week but we’ll see.

Thanks to everyone for sticking around and putting up with me and thanks in advance for all your feedback. :)

I really hope you enjoy. 💋

<3 Let me know what you think with a like or reblog or reply or an ask! Love ya!

The chirp of the chat pierced your eardrum once more as you ignored it for the spreadsheet of dates on your other monitor. Working from home could be both peaceful and distracting but the third bing had you muting and pushing your headset to your neck with a grumble. You switched windows as the chat box blinked.

‘So why didn’t u tell me u had a bf?’ Zia’s bubble blipped up followed by impatient emojis.

“Wat r u talking bout?’ you typed back and clicked back to the spreadsheet to update the status of each course. That noise came again and you flipped back.

‘I’m not stupid! Come on. He’s far away but he’s cute.’

You frowned and tapped the space bar lightly. You were utterly confused. The only activity in your daily life were the general notifications from Tindr. You repeated the question and she sent an emoji rolling its eyes.

‘I’m serious.’ you replied.

She sent a link and then a laughing GIF attached to another bubbled response, ‘I’m not buyin it.’

You clicked on the hyperlink and a new tab opened. You scrolled down on the Insta as the air was knocked out of you at the sight of your own face. Not only were their pics taken from your public profile but several you’d never even posted. Your skin crawled and the bing sounded again.

‘So… an online thing huh.’ Zia pressed on.

‘I gotta work.’ you closed out of the window entirely but stayed on the Insta.

You scrolled through about a dozen or so selfies of you, each labeled as ‘missing my lady’ or ‘she’s so sweet, sending me pics to keep me company’. Your stomached roiled with mortification and the unsettling sensation of intrusion. It was easy enough to guess you’d been hacked but to think this was what the creep did with it was even more startling.

You changed the password on your Insta and went through the process of doing so with all of your accounts and ran a scan on your PC. You would likely have to file a ticket for a proper inspection with a specialist. You couldn’t help but shake as you went back to the profile after checking your bank account and PayPal to make sure it wasn’t worse than just pics.

You went back to the profile and found photos of the culprit. His spiky blond hair and glasses were unsurprising and his comic book tee shirt was even less. Your disgust was quickly replaced with anger as you hit the chat icon above his info.

‘Hey, jackass, care to tell me how you have my photos on your profile?!’

The read icon appeared almost and you saw him typing. It stopped and then started again.

‘You’re so beautiful, I wanted to share it with everyone.’

You scoffed at the message and cringed at the screen. ‘Are you nuts? Like actually. You stole my photos! You hacked me. Creep.’

You blocked him immediately after hitting send and logged out. You opened Excel again and tried to focus on the coloured cells. You could hardly process what you were doing as your phone began to vibe on the corner of your desk. It didn’t let up and you couldn’t focus past the incessant buzzing.

You snatched it up and several messages covered the screen as you unlocked it. ‘You really think that’s gonna work’; ‘You can’t block me’... several in a similar vein that you deleted before blocking the number. You silenced your phone and turned back to your monitor.

Suddenly the screen went black and you blinked. You hit the keyboard and clicked, assuming it fell asleep. It lit up again but all you saw was yourself staring back. Your mouth fell open and you ripped the clip-on cam from atop your monitor. You disconnected it as the notepad opened and typing flicked up across the white space.

‘I didn’t want it to be like this.’

You could move the mouse or backspace. All control was lost and you sat there helplessly watching the scrawl.

‘I think we’d be really good together if you only gave me a chance. Can’t you see I worship you?’

Your phone began to shake constantly and a private number flashed. You picked it up and hollered into the speaker, “leave me alone”. You hung up but it kept on and your screen turned to black once more. Your PC was still on but there was no reaction from the machine.

Fuck, you sat back and looked at your phone. You couldn’t even call work to tell them because the damn thing wouldn’t stop ringing. You put your head in your hands and grunted in frustration. How the fuck did all this happen?

🖱️

After your initial panic died down, you disconnected your tower and shut off your phone. You left your cell behind as it was just as useless. You hauled the PC down to IT at your work and filled out the ticket without giving intricate details on everything the weirdo had taken.

You left with a borrowed laptop. You wouldn’t sign into your personal accounts and stick to the company portal. You were embarrassed but happy to have a temporary solution. You got home and set up the new computer and reconfigured your wi-fi. You finished the last of the day’s work and ended the day with a glass of wine.

When you dared to turn your phone on again the next morning, it was filled with notifications from all platforms but each one you clicked on errored and prompted you to sign-in. All your new passwords were wrong and you knew it was him. 

You checked the Insta and found a screenshot on his profile from the day before, your mouth agape in horror that could easily mistaken for surprise.

‘Her face when you pop the question on the call’. The caption made your stomach curdle and you nearly flung the phone away. You couldn’t comment without logging in or message. So you created a shell account with a throwaway email you used on Reddit.

‘Why won’t you stop?’ you sent the message through as you waited for your coffee to brew.

‘Stop what?’ he added a winky face with his reply and you growled.

‘You know who this is! Why are you doing this?’

‘Hmmm…’ he let the message hang there and you sat down with your mug and listened to the birds outside. ‘Imagine what someone else would do with everything I have.’

‘Look at what you’re doing. You’re ruining my life.’

‘Ruining? Sweetie, I’m watching over you. Protecting you.’

Your nostrils flared and you burnt your tongue on the coffee and planted it on the table so it sloshed over the sides.

‘Love you, sweetie. See ya soon.’

The chat box turned grey as you realised he blocked you. That pissed you off more than anything and you lobbed your phone away with a shout of anguish. This guy was fucked!  

You were shaking so much you couldn’t even drink your coffee. You got up and paced until you could think straight. You dialed into work and told them you were taking the day off for a personal emergency and shut down your phone. You were too afraid he would find a way onto your work laptop and you didn’t want to have to explain that to IT too.

🖱️

Zia showed up on Saturday and she wasn’t happy. She buzzed up and banged on your door impatiently. You let her in and she crossed her arms over the strap of her purse as she crooked her hip.

“I know I shouldn’t have snooped but if you’re mad at me, you should’ve just said so. I would’ve backed off,” she scowled.

“I’m not mad,” you said as you backed into the front room and dragged your feet over the rug.

“Sure, you’re just ignoring all my messages by accident,” she stayed at the other side of the room.

“Not exactly, no,” you shrugged, “it’s a long story.”

“And you couldn’t shoot me a message to say that at least?”

“Look, I’m stressed the fuck out. I’m sorry but the only reason I didn’t answer you is because I can’t.” 

“You can’t?”

“I can’t even turn my phone on anymore.”

“What--”

“Just--” you touched your temples, “I don’t even know how to explain--”

“Jesus, are you okay?” her anger slaked away as her voice softened.

“No, I’m not,” you sniffed, “I’ve been trapped in this apartment and I can’t think straight and I can’t even talk to anyone because my phone and my life is totally fucked.”

“How about we get a coffee and you can tell me once you’ve calmed down,” she said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so worked up.”

“You don’t know how bad it is. I really fucked up,” you whined, “I don’t even know how it happened.”

“Is this about the boyfriend?”

You huffed and shook your head, “I told you, he’s not my boyfriend-- Let me get dressed.”

After you felt presentable enough to leave the apartment, the thought of getting away ushered you down the winding stairwell and onto the sidewalk. You and Zia walked down to the cafe on the corner where you always overspent on their specialty drink and caught up.

You ordered but when you tried to use your card, the machine beeped in rejection. You tried again but still no luck. Zia offered to pay and you promised you’d pay her back. Anxiety pitted deep in your stomach as you sat. You’d have to call the bank and figure out why eight dollars would bounce.

“So,” Zia said as she shaded her eyes against the sunlight streaming onto the open patio, “he’s not your boyfriend?”

“I don’t even know the dude,” you hissed as you almost overturned your cup, “Zee, those pictures, they were all on my phone. I never sent them to anyone. I don’t even know his real name and when I confronted him, he crashed my whole system and blew up my phone. I haven’t been able to log into anything because of him.”

“You’re shitting me,” she chuckled.

“Zee, I’m not fucking kidding,” you blinked, “don’t you think if I was dating some dude out in who knows where, you’d be the first to know? You think I’m wasting my time with the idiots on Tindr for fun?”

“No way,” she scoffed.

“Zia, look me in the eye,” you said as you gave her a stern look, “I’m freaking the fuck out.”

“Did you call the police?” she asked.

You sat back and closed your eyes. You were so swept up in the panic, you hadn’t even thought. You could report it to the police, just get a record of it even if they didn’t do anything else. You heard horror stories of hackers and how little could be done but you had to at least try.

“I guess I should go down to the station today,” you ran your fingertips along your chin, “I don’t know, I felt so alone, I thought--”

“And call your bank right now,” she slid her phone over, “figure out what’s going on with your accounts.”

You took her cell and dialed the number on the back of the card. You dragged your finger down the side of your cup as you listened to the automated message and hit the buttons to direct you to customer service. The hold song bubbled in your head and finally picked up as you finished the last of your mocha.

You explained the issue after giving your information as Zia sat patiently across from you. She watched the other patrons and looked out across the street as you waited on the representative on the other end.

“Looks like your account has been locked. Your savings and checking have been placed on hold citing possible fraud,” the woman explained.

“Well, can’t you unlock them? Why would they be flagged?”

“Hmm, well I see no suspicious spending so possibly… it could be due to an external lock, not us.”

“What does that mean?”

“I can’t speak to that. Have you received any communications from the Revenue service?”

“Revenue service? I don’t--no,” you gulped.

“I’m sorry, there’s nothing else I can tell you,” she said, “you should consider contacting federal services.”

You hung up and handed Zia her phone back. “Apparently, I’m under investigation for fraud? I don’t know.”

“Shit,” she took her cell, “are you sure?”

“It sounded like it but-- I gotta check my credit card,” you stood and grabbed your empty cup and your purse.

You stormed down the street to the ATM at the corner and inserted your card. LOCKED the machine made a hideous noise and you pulled out your card in irritation. You put your wallet and touched the sides of your neck as the heat swelled through you.

“I don’t understand--”

“Um, you should see this,” Zia said.

Zia turned her screen towards you and your heart dropped to your toes. There was a picture softened by a blush Insta filter and the caption read, ‘just got into town, surprising bae with flowers’. Over the cluster of petals at the bottom of the image were you and Zia sitting at the cafe patio.

You spun and searched around for any sign of the man and the bouquet. You could hardly breath as it felt like you were being squished between invisible walls. You clapped your hand against the wall and steadied yourself as Zia gently rubbed your arm.

“Let’s go to the station,” you croaked as tears welled in your eyes, “please.”

🖱️

The police told you everything you expected. Even as you showed them the photos and explained how you never met that man in your life, they only offered you words on a piece of paper. They’d file the report and follow-up in case of any further escalation. It was a non-answer, a cold shrug.

Zia went home with you as she offered to stay the night. You gladly accepted and the two of you cozied up on your bed and spent the night watching early 00s rom coms. You found it hard to relax even with her there. You couldn’t stop thinking about how close he’d been without you even knowing.

You at last began to doze off as Reese Witherspoon triumphed and exhausted by the endless maelstrom of dread, you slipped into a deep but perilous sleep. You were locked in limbo between waking and slumber, almost as if you could hear everything around you but remained blind and unknowing all the same.

You woke with a start as you felt like you were falling. You sat up and reached to the other side of the bed. Zia was gone. She must have got up to get water or use the bathroom. You took a breath and turned your legs over the edge. You got up groggily and lumbered across the room, your mouth dry and head aching. Some tylenol and water would do you well.

You hesitated as you noticed the bloom of light just around the corner from your doorway. Zia must be having trouble sleeping, you guessed as you kept on. As you came in sight of the front room, you heard a whimper and you backed up against the wall as tall figure stood before the coffee table. The flowers laid across the wood, slightly crumpled from a struggle.

As Zia whined, he jabbed her with his foot and she grunted around the rag tied around her mouth. Her arms and legs were bound behind her as the man loomed over her. You recognized his blond hair and glasses, the menacing blue eyes as he raised his chin and crossed his arms.

“Been waiting on you,” he stepped over her, “I was disappointed when I realised it was her. Good friend though, hanging around…”

“Don’t hurt her, please. What do you want?”

“You can’t figure that out?” he taunted, “huh, I’m sure you can guess what it will take for me to leave her in one piece.”

Zia wiggled and received another boot. You pushed yourself forward and he stepped closer, predatory as he dropped his arms and clenched then unclenched his fists. He chuckled as you stopped short and gaped up at him.

“She’s cute,” he said, “she can join us if that makes it easier for you.”

“You’re disgusting,” you snarled and winced as he reached out to touch your cheek. You fought not to shove him away, your eyes on Zia’s bound figure.

“Play nice and I will,” he warned, “every time I hurt her, that’s on you. I wish I didn’t have to do this to show you how much I love you.”

You shook your head as your lip trembled. He pressed his palms to your cheek and ran his thumb along your lips. He leaned in and you cowered as you realised how big he was. You didn’t expect that looking at him from the other side of a screen.

“Do we put on a show for her or did you want a little privacy?”

“You won’t get away with this,” you hissed.

“Oh yeah? I locked you out of your social media, your pc, your bank… do you really want to see how far I can take this?”

He smothered your murmured answer with his mouth and kissed you gruffly. He pulled away and looked you in the eye. He bit his lip and hummed.

“So, do we do this here?”

“You’re sick,” you grabbed his hand and wrenched it away from your face. You yanked him and directed him to the bedroom, “you monster.”

“Now come on,” he twisted his wrist around and grabbed your elbow, “I could’ve killed her. Don’t think I won’t.”

You quivered as he forced you back into your bedroom, the street lights casting shadows between your curtains. He flung you ahead of him, as strong as his thick arms would suggest. You stumbled and caught yourself on the side of the bed. You turned as the door slammed and he prowled towards you like a wild cat.

“Well,” he threw his hands up and you caught a glint of light against the lens of his glasses, “you want me to undress you or you think you can handle that, sweetie?”

You puffed in repulsion and looked away from him. Even in the dark, you could feel his eyes on you. You jittered as you reached to the neck of your loose tee and slowly raised it over your head. You dropped it to crumple on the floor and you touched the top of your shorts. You heard him moving around and shied away as he flipped the switch and light shone across the room.

You pushed down your shorts as you heard a thump from the next room. His jaw twitched as his eyes lingered on you and he reluctantly glanced away. He swung the door open and stormed out into the front room. You went to the door and heard his snarl.

“Stop fucking moving,” he rasped, “every time I have to tell you, I’ll pop another out.”

Zia gave a muffled sob as you heard a sickly crack and you hurried to look around the wall into the room. He blocked your sight with his broad chest and pointed you back to the room.

“I didn’t say you could leave the room,” he spun you and slapped your bare ass, “fast, fast, fast… before I lose my patience.”

Your skin stung from the strike and you tripped through the doorway as he followed quickly. Another slam and he poked you further into the room with his knuckle. You stepped away from him and tried to cover yourself as you faced him in horror.

He quickly swooped his shirt over his head and revealed a buff chest thick with blond hair. He kicked off his shoes and fumbled to undo his fly. He tilted his head as he looked you over and groped himself through his jeans.

“You know what to do,” he said, “I’ve seen the way you touch yourself… cyber security 101, cover your webcam.”

You shuddered as he beckoned you closer. He stopped you and put your hands on the waist of his jeans. He leaned in and nuzzled your temple as his hot breath seeped into your goosebumped skin.

“My turn,” he pushed on your hands until you pulled down the denim on your own strength.

He stepped out of his jeans and snapped the elastic of his boxers. You stood and latched onto those shakily. He ran his fingers along your arms as you pulled them past his erection and they fell to the floor with a whisper. You didn’t look down, instead staring past him as his hand swept up to cup your tits.

His fingers crawled up your chest and his hands wrapped around your neck. He squeezed and turned you so that your back was to the bed. He marched you backwards as you felt his dick bobbing between your bodies. You gasped as he pushed you down onto your mattress, your legs dangling over the edge as he came up to straddle you.

“Such a good girl,” he taunted, “look at you… I bet you’re wet already.”

He pulled a hand away and stroked his length as he raised himself on his knees. He clung to your neck as he leaned over you and planted his hand on the bed above you. He hovered his dick over your head and you closed your eyes.

“Put it in your mouth,” he ordered, “now, or I’m putting it in your ass.”

You reached up blindly and angled his tip against your lips. He dipped his hips down and you choked as he prodded at your throat. Your legs twitched as he forced his cock past your gag reflex and your whole body tensed at the intrusion.

He balanced on the hand above your head and the one on your neck. He thrust harder and harder as sloppy sucking reverberated around the room between his dark groans.

“That’s it,” he purred, “look at you taking my cock. I can only imagine how tight that cunt of yours is.”

Your eyes welled and you flicked your lashes as you tried to bat them away. You kept your hand at the base of his dick as you tried to ease his motion. He ignored your reluctance and only delved deeper as he brought himself to his limit, your lips touching the fuzz along his pelvis.

When you couldn’t breath, you slapped his hard stomach and he reared out of you abruptly. You coughed up spit as he sat back on his heels and released you. He huffed as he looked down at his glistening dick and climbed off of you.

“Stand up, turn around,” he snarled as his eyes flashed. 

His glasses were low on his nose and he slipped them off entirely and folded them up on your night table. He squinted as he watched you stand and turn stiffly. He smacked his hand in the middle of your back and pushed you over impatiently. He stepped closer and tapped his tip against your cunt as you were exposed to him.

He bent his legs and poked along your slick folds. You were wet enough for him to glide in and fill you up completely. He was so big it was painful and you arched your back as you tried to take it. He pulled back and slammed into you harshly. You let out a garble and he repeated the motion, taking you off your feet.

He leaned over you and grabbed your knees, lifting them on the bed as he urged you forward. His hand brushed up over your ass and he pressed between your shoulder blades until your face was flush to the mattress, your arms bent around you like a broken doll.

He thrust again and the loud slap made you wince. He jerked his hips roughly until he found his motion, rutting into you with hissy breaths as his other hand groped your ass. He hummed as your body shook before him, ruled by his touch as your walls clenched him.

He pushed his thumb down between your cheeks and circled your asshole. You strained and lifted your head in alarm. His other hand quickly stretched over your crown and pinned your face to the bed. He felt along your cunt and slickened his thumb before trailing back to your puckered ring.

He pushed lightly at first and as he broke through you gasped and whined. You gripped the blankets as he moved his thumb in and out of you, his hips still rocking steadily into you. He slid his thumb out entirely and prodded with two fingers instead. Before you could react, he forced them inside and you cried out in surprise and pain.

“I know you want it, sweetheart,” he groaned, “I can feel…” he kept fucking you, “I can fucking hear it.”

Your holes tightened around you as he carried the pace. A new pressure began to bloom inside of you, unlike anything you’d felt before. The burning in your ass and the stretching of your cunt mingled to an agonized bliss. You sobbed into the blankets as you came uncontrollably around him, shamed by the unwanted release.

“Fuck,” he drew out the word as both his hand and his hips sped up, “look at you cumming for me. Cumming for this creep.”

You moaned and curled your fingers around the duvet tighter. You felt the same knotting deep inside and you came again as he reached a tantamount. This time, you gushed around his cock and felt the deluge down your thighs as the noise grew wetter and louder.

“Look at you, sweetheart, you can’t handle it, can you?” He snorted as he sucked in a breath suddenly and his hips staggered.

He pushed his fingers deeper and kept them there as he fucked you as hard as he could. He slammed into your cunt over and over. Your hips throbbed with each tilt of his pelvis and you smothered your cries as you felt him coat your walls in his release. 

He stopped just as suddenly and dragged his fingers out of your ass. He leaned against you until your legs collapsed and fell onto you with a sigh. He covered your body with his as his shallow breaths hazed around you. 

Your own heart raced as you stretched your arms out stiffly and quivered. You tried to pull yourself from beneath him. He kept you pinned under his weight and jolted you with a cruel thrust.

“Oh, we’re not done, sweetheart,” he muttered along the shell of your ear, “not even close.”

[shieldfoss]

Pop!OS? Apt is kind of infamous for getting itself tied in knots. Maybe try "apt update && apt dist-upgrade", reading very carefully before letting it continue, to make sure it's not going to rip out an important part of the system. Also if you haven't updated in a long time you might want to do that from a TTY console (Ctrl+alt+F3) and reboot immediately after.

Yeah it's Pop!_OS by System76, an operating system for STEM and creative professionals who use their computer as a tool to discover and create. Unleash your potential on secure, reliable open source software. Based on your exceptional curiosity, we sense you have a lot of it.

[DOWNLOAD][SUPPORT POP]

Streamline your workflow

Pop!_OS is designed for fast navigation, easy workspace organization, and fluid, convenient workflow. Your operating system should encourage discovery, not obstruct it.

Workflow Customization

While you’ve got your wheels turning, take the scenic route with a dock and touchpad gestures, or race along a minimalist track from behind the wheel of a revving keyboard. With a variety of both mouse-driven and keyboard-driven customizations, you’re empowered to navigate your workflow the way you’ve always wanted.

[VIDEO]

Auto-Tiling With Pop Shell

Pop!_OS uses auto-tiling for the same reason that people hire assistants: Organizing your work is incredibly time-consuming. Sure, you could still move, resize, and arrange windows yourself, but why spend the time when your OS does it for you? Auto-tiling helps you be both organized and efficient, and is especially convenient on large displays.

[VIDEO]