#do they count as AGI?

[theultimatepumpkinpie]

I know it's pry stupid to do crossovers with my own fan content but I've been reading up on wh40k stuff again and the idea of a cross-over with tech priests getting stranded and in my rimworld-verse and struggling to repair their ship and the archotech trio show up just results in the funniest fucking scenarios even if the archotechs keep all hush hush about what they are and just offer to help normally.

The tech priests are wafting incense around chanting and Randy's just like "are we going to fix it or have ritual sex in front of it?" and the tech priests are all "do you think that would help?" Luna would pass out from laughing

[sheeple]

Miracles don't exist | Bonus: Nott v Potter

Genre(s): Riddle!reader / Slytherin!reader / kinda slowburn / little happy moments Fandom(s): Harry Potter Pairing(s): Theodore Nott x Reader / Harry Potter x Riddle!reader Summary: Being the Dark Lord's daughter and raised under the strict supervision of the Malfoy's is no easy life. Especially if you start crushing on your father's arch-nemesis, Harry Potter. And that while being engaged to one of his follower’s sons. Warning(s): Violence / Theodore's pov A/n: A small blurb to make the wait a little shorter for a new chapter. This happens in between chapter 29 and 30 [Masterlist] [Mini masterlist] [Playlist]

Theodore Nott is known for not losing his temper. Ever. He tries to stay calm, level-headed and, above all, not lose his temper. He knows the reputation his family has and he's not one to prove his peers right with their whispers and accusations.

But right now? Fuck staying calm. Fuck being level-headed. He's going to fuck Harry Potter up and nobody is going to stop him.

He storms through the hallways of Hogwarts, steam coming out of his ears. How dare that damned blood traitor hurt her. Hex his girl. 

As the portrait of Fat Lady comes into view, Theo snatches the nape of a scarlet first-year and drags him towards the painting. "Say the password", hisses Theo as he practically lifts the poor boy from the ground by his robes.

Everyone knows that you don't stand in the way of a raging Slytherin. So, the boy quivers, "Quid Agis", and the portrait swings open.

Dropping the boy, Theo strides into the Gryffindor common room. "POTTER!", he yells out and all the faces in the room snap to him. He spots the bespectacled boy by the fire with his friends, and he makes his way over to him with his fists balled.

Before Harry can inquire why the Slytherin is in their common room, Theo lands the first hit against Harry's face. The boy drops to the ground and Theo jumps on top of him, his fists pounding down. 

Yells and screams can be heard from around them. Hands wrap around Theo's arms but nobody can pull him off. Harry tries to fight back. He actually lands a couple of blows. But nothing compared to the damage Theodore Nott does.

Once he has enough, Theo gets up and looks down at the pathetic lifeform that is supposed to be The Chosen One. His nose is broken — both boys have felt it crack under the Slytherin's fists — and is bleeding profusely. He has a black eye and his lip is split. And that is not counting the bruises forming on his cheekbones, chin, and forehead. His breathing is laboured as he stares up at the ceiling.

"If you look at her, try to speak to her, or even as much as breath in her direction, you filthy Half-Blood, I will do the Dark Lord a favour. Stay the fuck away from my fiancé", Theo hisses as he spits on the ground next to Harry's face.

He looks around the common room, at the shocked faces of the students. At last, his eyes land on Hermione. She looks horrified, eyes wide as she is backed up into the arms of Ron. 

Theo huffs, shaking the blood off his hands as he turns around and marches out of Gryffindor Tower. He needs to calm himself. He doesn't want her to see him like this. He doesn't want to worry her even more.

Having taken the long way back to the infirmary he sees the two cousins asleep. Draco dragged a chair close to the bed and he has his head dropped forwards, his hand a firm hold on hers. 

The dark-haired boy stands at the end of the bed, his hands wrapped around the frame. A hiss leaves his lips as the skin of his knuckles gets ripped open again.

"Teddy?" Her sweet voice is drowsy with sleep and painkillers. 

The boy in question hums and walks closer towards her, placing a kiss on her forehead. "How are you feeling?", he whispers, careful to not wake up the other cousin.

A soft whimper leaves her lips as she tries to sit up. Theo quickly helps her, fluffing up the pillow. She looks at Draco next to her. "He looks tired."

Theo wants to retort that she looks worse for wear, but he bites his tongue. She has been looking exhausted ever since last year. It doesn't help that she has to prove to herself that she isn't like the rest of her family. Everybody keeps repeating about her being a Death Eater and Theo can see that it has taken a toll on her mental health. He wonders how many times she has laid awake — or Merlin forbid, has cried herself to sleep.

Theo pulls the covers up and tucks her in. "Go back to sleep."

Without protest, she snuggles into the pillow and soft puffs of breath indicate that she has fallen asleep.

He walks over to the other side and lays a hand on Draco's shoulder. The white-haired boy shoots up, disorientated where he is. But when he spots his cousin he is reminded of what happened.

"It's okay, I'll stay with her. You go to the dorm."

Draco shakes his head, tears in his eyes. "I don't... I don't want to leave her."

Theo sighs and pulls Draco to his feet. "Don't worry. I took care of Potter. He won't hurt her again... You look like shit, go. I won't say it again, Malfoy."

Draco nods dazed. He gives her one last look before he drags himself out of the infirmary. Theo takes place in the chair. He takes his wand out of his pocket and plays with it in his hands.

His hands hurt as dried blood clings to his skin. But Theodore would do it every time he had to. For her. Everything for her.

Taglist (bold means I couldn’t tag you): @the0doreslover @lqndkxlmqma @st4rrry  @choppedpartymuffinwinner @ledtassoo @literallyobessed @lestat-whore​ @vanishingcherry @harrysnovia @pietrobae @ireallywannasleep127 @yeolsbubbles @fruityfrog505 @fluffybunnyu @theroyalmanatee @shinrjj @hegdus @kermits-bitch @m1kasawps @noah-uhhh-what @mypolicemanharryyy @fals3-g0d @decapitated-coffee @thatgirljas13 @slytherinambitious @raineisms @mastermindmiko @timmytime17 @regsg18 @supernatural-lover @bubybubsters @lafrone @hermionelove @the-sander-fander @akengii @aliciacat20 @unstablereader @burns-in-the-sun @rachelnicolee @damagelove @daintylittlerose

[ethereal-engene]

hey tayo? but that's appa!

pairing: enhypen!husband maknae line x fem!reader

genre: slice-of-life, husband/father AU, fluff, and attempted humor // warnings: none

summary: how I think the maknae line would react to you showing your kid’s (like the kid is yours and his) hey tayo/billy poco

word count: ~1.5k

note: THANK YOU THANK YOU so much to anon who requested this! I’m sorry for the long wait 😭 I hope you enjoy this <3 your message made my day so much when I got it!! // hyung line ver

Sunoo

You’re in the living room with your child as they watch tayo the little bus on the tv

It’s been a long day with them running around and playing pretend with them. Oh and of course, they spent a lot of time running away from you while trying to put on their clothes

They bring you lots of joy but it can still be tiring

So you settle for some tv time before nap time and you’re on the brink of falling asleep until you hear a familiar tune start to play that instantly wakes you up

It’s the one and only billy poco music video

You hold in your laughter and watch your child’s reaction to it and they have stars in their eyes

They 100% recognize their dad and is having the time of their lives right now

Sunoo is in the other room and when he hears it, he smiles and walks over to y’all

Seeing his child dance to this song makes him really happy and his heart full

So he starts showing his kid how to do the dance and sing his lines

Even goes as far to pick them up and spin them around while singing

“Appa! Appa! You met tayo and his friends?? What were they like? Please tell me so I can tell all of my friends how cool my dad is!!” They excitedly take a seat when sunoo sets them down

Sunoo gently shhhs them and making a motion to calm down

“To answer your question love bug, I did meet them and they were all so friendly and kind. If you promise me to be kinder to mommy and help her out by listening to her, I’ll make sure you get a special gift from tayo! Can you do that for me, love bug?” Sunoo asks while staring at them

They nod so much that you worry their head is gonna roll off. Not long after, they go over to you and apologize for running away earlier

You tell them it’s okay and that you accept their apology

“Now, can we please play the song again?? I really like appa’s voice, it’s so pretty!”

Handing him the remote, he replays it and sits next to you. Sunoo gently lifts your head up so he can move his arm through you & then places your head onto his arm

So your neck is more comfy and you smile at each other

Watching your little bundle of joy enjoy this song is a great memory and one that you both won’t forget

It fills his heart with pride and happiness that he was able to have made something for his kid to appreciate growing up

Bonus, the kid got a happy birthday message AND a message from tayo & his friends telling them that they love them and they should be listen to their parents

Jungwon

As far as I can tell jungwon seems to be pretty chill about singing hey tayo or billy poco

So much that he’s actually the one showing your kid(s) the music video

(gotta switch up the scenario for wonnie🥺)

He’s teaching them the lyrics and how to sing it

Not even gonna lie, you thought you were just hearing things as you were in another room doing another chore for the house

But then as you listen, you recognize that he’s really playing the song that you’re hearing

Curiosity gets the best of you and take a peek out of the door to see them

Your heart melts as you watch them play with jungwon

Trying to dance and sing like their dad 🤧

Jungwon has no shame in his career, even if he had to sing some kid songs

He lets them sing it to him, despite it being off-key

Sooner or later, you join them and ask them if they recognize their “appa”

Not even taking a moment to think, they point to jungwon

“Appa looks like an agi here. He was so cute, but I love appa now too! Appa, how come you met Tayo before I was born?? You could have taken me.” They pout and sulk a little when they remember this fact about their dad

Jungwon looks at you for help but you gesture it’s your probelm not mine

“Oh sweetheart, if I had known you wanted to come I would have brought you. Don’t worry, next time I get to meet Tayo, I’ll bring you with me, is it okay?” He asks them while holding them up in air

“okay okay!! YAY!! Appa you’re the best! Now let me down please!” And of course, jungwon obliged to the request

Not long after, they get tired and you put them down for nap time

Heading over to where Jungwon is, you tell him “Honey, that was a good save there. Sorry I couldn’t help you out, but I honestly wanted to see what’d you say.”

You plant a small kiss on cheek after finishing your sentence and drag him to the couch to nap

“I can’t believe you let fend for myself back there but I gotta say having quick wits and thinking is just a skill I learned from being a leader.”

He places your head on his chest and gives you a forehead kiss before napping with you

Ni-ki

It’s not that Ni-ki hates billy poco or hey tayo, it’s just notttt what he really expected to be doing when he became an idol

Anyways let’s get to the story

You, the kid, and Ni-ki were out and about

Probably shopping at the mall and stopped by a kids shop

The kids shop has a tv on and it’s playing hey tayo

Before Riki even registers it, his child is watching the TV screen with a dazed look on their face

They look at the TV screen and then back to their dad (and repeat the process for a few times)

Riki still hasn’t registered it until his kid runs up to him asking him about it

He is confused as ever like where and how did they learn about this

Riki wanted to pretend it didn’t exist 😭

Before he gets any questions out, you point to the screen and his eyes just pop

He feels like his world is falling apart (he’s so dramatic)

Legit drops down to his knees and hands on his head

Your child thinks they did something wrong and starts to get worried

Runs over to their dad and hugs him

“I’m sorry if I made you sad otōsan . I just wanted to know if you were the same guy on the screen. I didn’t mean to make you cry, please don’t be sad!”

You lovingly smack Riki on the back of the head. MAKING YOUR KID CRY LIKE THAT??

“Riki, if you don’t get your butt up, I’m going to give you something to actually cry about. And bubba, don’t worry. Otōsan isn’t sad, he’s just not happy but don’t worry, we’ll make it all better!”

Slightly scolding him, you gesture him to explain to their child about this

He wipes their tears away and hugs them tightly back.

“Oh bubba, no no. You didn’t make me sad. I was just shocked that this song was still playing. Please don’t cry, I’m sorry for making you feel that way earlier. Yes, I’m in the video, a long time ago I filmed a video and song for tayo and his friends. I’ll tell you more about at home, is that okay?”

They hug him back and nod. “It’s okay otōsan, I still love you and I think you look the coolest! Especially when you had your moment with dancing. Can you teach me how to do it?”

Riki nods and kisses them on the head

“Now let’s get back to shopping!” He says before dragging them around the store and playing with them

Before y’all leave the store after checking out, the employee shyly asks for his signature in which he accepts but cringes when he realizes it’s on a tayo product 😭

You are for sure never letting him forget about these songs for tayo and baby shark. You laugh a bit hard when you see what he has to sign

On the bright side, Riki still feels like he’s on top of the world with his kid reassuring him he looks the coolest (even if it’s a kids song)

thank you so much again to the anon who requested this <3 happy holidays and I hope everyone has a safe new years!!

as always if you liked it, please leave feedback through the notes, send me a dm or an ask, or reblog it with your thoughts in the tag !! they really mean the world to me 💗

signing off with love,

- ash

[stusbunker]

Spotless: Arpeggio

Chapter Twenty

Featuring: Dean Winchester/Reader, Dean/Bela

Other characters: Sam/Madison, Bobby/Annie, Pam/Lee, OFC Gibson, Ash, Benny, Cesar/Jesse, Kevin, Cas, and Charlie

Word Count: 4031

Warnings, etc: Mutual pining, recreational drug use, surprise birthday guests, Dean being a giant kid, actually it's everyone, more history and an uh-oh, unbeta'd

A/N: You know how you outline bullet points that you need covered in a chapter and then you write all day long and forget one of the biggest ones until literally the last sentence? Yeah, me neither.

Anyway, I can't believe we are TWENTY whole chapters into this beast. Thank you all, so SO much for hanging around. xoxo Stu

Series Masterlist

Dean’s morning began with a blow horn blast compliments of Sam, who then received a bitch slap from his very frightened and at odds older brother. 

“Rise and shine, jerk. It’s the last year of your thirties!”

Dean groaned and buried his head beneath the pillows, poorly hiding from anymore horns. “Hephha waaff to wff agy hpp birfay”

“WHAT?! I can’t hear you?!”

Dean flipped Sam off and rolled over. “Helluva way to wish a guy Happy Birthday.”

Sam laughed. “Don’t worry, that’s not all.”

He pulled out a bag of the greasiest breakfast burritos from a shop around the corner from Charlies that they had discovered after being up all night gaming, drunk and caffeinated out of their minds. 

“Oh my god, you do love me!” Dean snatched the bag out of Sam’s hand and grabbed a burrito and cradled it to his chest. He looked up at Sam and said fervently, “I take back every mean thing I’ve ever said to you.”

“No you don’t. You’re just hungry. You want me to leave you two alone or should I take it back downstairs where the coffee lives?”

Dean stared down at the warm lump in his hand and honestly considered eating it right away, but Sam was right and scrambled eggs and peppers were not something he wanted to clean off his sheets whenever he found them again after the coming festivities.

“Yeah, thanks, let me grab some clothes and I’ll meet you down there.”

“You got it,” Sam took the burrito back as Dean dropped it into his outstretched hand. 

“No fucking with it now, I know how it’s supposed to be wrapped,” Dean warned with a firm pointer finger.

Sam rolled his eyes and his hair along with them and stalked out of Dean’s room towards the backstairs that led into the kitchen.

They ate breakfast in relative silence, coffee and contemplation and all that. Just two brothers celebrating a year that both of them were worried wouldn’t come. Aging might be a bitch, but it is definitely better than the alternative. And for the Winchester brothers, a blessing they weren’t ever quite sure they deserved.

Charlie and you slinked in just after noon, after Dean and Sam had half-heartedly worked off their breakfasts and showered for the day. You had the most obnoxious balloon cowboy hat for him while Charlie presented him with a ‘birthday prince’ sash that he was under orders to keep on all day.

Dean eyed you both with a simmering shame-twinged annoyance. This wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. He already got looks when he went out as it was, plus only a douche of a grown man demands strangers acknowledge his birthday that way.

“Guys, come on. I’m not— this is a little ridiculous,” Dean didn’t want to be ungrateful.

You sighed. “Okay, fine, spoilsport. Just let us take a few pictures and you can ditch the hat.”

“Oh! The hat was the best part!” Sam lamented.

“Can it, Sammy,” Dean snipped.

Charlie chuckled. “Okay, but you can totally wear the sash where we’re going, because nobody else will even be there to see you in it, just your friends.”

Dean pursed his lips and looked the redhead in the eye, she wasn’t going to let him win. “Great—- just great.”

Lee and Benny were gonna have a field day with this one.

“Atta boy! Say CHEESE!” Charlie chirped, taking way too many shots and angles with him and his birthday attire.

They hung out and shared a joint, picking at a cheese tray that Sam had pulled out. Sure they had places to be, but that was the beauty of being the guest of honor, everything revolved around Dean-time. And as absolutely narcissistic as that sounded, Dean could get used to that kind of schedule.

The party bus arrived just before two. It was actually the band’s touring bus, which meant it was roomy and stocked to the brim with alcohol and edibles. Bud itself was never left on the bus to dry out. Inside were Benny, Cesar and Jesse, all moderately sober as they were also acting as light security detail for the day. Pam and Lee brought Gibson along, which told Dean wherever they were headed was going to be fun, however wholesome. Madison and Annie were there with Bobby upfront driving ‘The Proud Mary’ as the bus was so lovingly called. And around the table in the small kitchenette were Kevin, Ash and Cas.

Holy shit, Dean had to blink.

He turned around on the stairs and looked at you, who were the only one daring enough to pull this off. “Are you kidding me right now?!”

“What?” You smirked and batted your eyelashes with fake innocence.

Dean looked at you and felt something in his chest crack.  But before he could get overrun by the emotions, gratitude, fear, even anger, Sam cleared his throat.

“In or out, Dean, air’s on.”

Dean nodded and blinked away the awe. “Thank you,” he grunted beneath his breath and turned to the cheers and jeers of his people.

“There he is!”

“Birthday boy!”

“Hey Winchester, I like your do-hickey,” Benny teased.

“It’s a sash, dumbass,” Cesar quipped, flicking the brim of Benny’s cap.

“HAPPY BIRTH-DAY,” Pam started offkey and then everybody joined in. Dean nodded along, faux-conducting and fighting the blush on his cheeks with every out of tune note.

He bowed as the song ended and then griped, “Yeah, okay, enough of that. Let’s get this shit started, shall we?! Uh, Gibson you good to DD on the way home, buddy?”

Everyone laughed.

“UNCLE DEAN! I can’t drive yet.”

“You sure?”

“I’m only six!”

“I don’t know,” Dean said thoughtfully, bending to look the stringbean over. “I think you could pass for seven or eight maybe.”

“Nuh-uh!”

Dean ruffled his hair and pulled him into a hug. “Fine! I’ll let Bobby keep his spot for today, but when you get your license, come talk to me about a job young man,” Dean promised.

Dean eased onto the bus, with you and Sam on his heels until you broke off to find a seat. He nodded and accepted hugs and high fives before he made his way to the table in the back, well that section’s back. The bunks and the bathroom were down a short hallway past the eating area and bar.

“Hey guys, thanks for coming,” Dean said broadly, but his eyes couldn’t stop looking for Cas’.

“Of course, man! Gotta celebrate another trip around the sun,” Ash exclaimed, his hair bouncing with his enthusiasm.

Kevin sniggered as he looked up at Dean and back across to Cas. “You know he’s real and everything.”

“He even speaks,” Cas deadpanned, turning his glare at Kevin.

“Hey, Cas.”

“Happy birthday, Dean.”

Dean felt the lurch of the bus entering traffic and panic resurfaced. “Good to see you. But, uh, we’ll catch up at some point? I gotta,” Dean sputtered and thumbed toward the general direction of the side-by-side seats along one wall.

“Of course,” Cas nodded, but gave Dean a tentative smile. Dean felt lightheaded but he felt better when he had a solid seat underneath his ass. Talk about a mindfuck. 

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and silently thanked the universe that he agreed to these super secret, group, birthday shenanigans.

The adventure park was suspiciously abandoned, even for a weekend day. But Dean took it as part of the present, no paps, no families with kids too young for school clogging up the Skee Ball lanes or having accidents on the go karts. He was kind of amazed y’all were able to pull this off, but it was far enough away from the busier parts of town that maybe you had scored a good deal. Or maybe Dean didn’t want to think about how much you and Sam and probably Bobby had shelled out for the day.

Even after years of his own success, Dean felt guilty whenever people spent money on him.

“Okay, line up for your wristbands. Everyone gets one, if you run out of tokens, tough luck. Laser Tag and Go Karts are available if we ask, just make sure there’s a big enough group to make up for the staff being pulled to those locations. Pizza will be set out as a buffet at five. I’ll get pitchers of water and soda out in the meantime,” you used a teacher's voice over the rowdy crowd as they beelined out of the bus and up to the gates.

Dean was almost giddy; he was so excited.

You bestowed a lanyard over his head, instead of a wristband. Which meant unlimited tokens for games and a turn in the vortex machine where paper tickets floated around and he was supposed to catch them for prizes. He was banking on letting Gibson take that responsibility, but hadn’t said anything because he knew Pam hated to spoil him, especially on someone else’s birthday. Oh well, being a surrogate Uncle held some leeway afterall.

“First one to the gokarts is a rotten egg!” Ash called out, making everyone turn on their heels and book it through the doors.

Dean laughed at the reversion to grade school taunts, but definitely tripped Sam on his way passed.

Somehow, Bobby and Annie got the first kart, but then again Dean didn’t remember seeing them as you made your little announcement, so they must have had a head start. The line was a mass of people bickering for a turn, which color kart they wanted, or which number if you were Charlie and Kevin. Dean had his shotgun attached at his hip, bouncing on the soles of his feet. But everytime he glanced up and saw Cas talking to Sam or nodding at something Pam said, he had to do a double take.

In all, they filled nearly all the available twelve karts. Dean and Gibson were in number 11, Lee, Benny, Pam, Cas, Ash, Kevin, Cesar, Jesse and Charlie all drove solo. While Sam and Madison, Bobby and Annie paired off. No one could get you in one of those things if they tried, and they all knew better than to try. Which Dean was grateful for, he hated rehashing your shit for other people’s understanding.

They did four lap races for almost an hour, with Dean sneaking past Bobby for the final victory. But everyone (except for Ash and Charlie) had lost count of their stats by the time they got inside to chug some soda and hit the arcade area before dinner.

Dean was sweating, faux satin clinging to his back through his shirts as he polished off a cup of flat cola. But he couldn’t keep the grin off his face long, seeing all of his favorite people milling around, trying to one up each other or just beat one another to a coveted game. It was the stuff of childhood birthdays he had only ever dreamed about, but you had made possible.

Lee held Gibson on his shoulders as they took Sam on at the free throw alleys. Charlie and Madison were playing some kind of shooting game while Kevin and Cesar watched them, obviously impressed by their stances with the fake rifles. It made him think of Jo and Big Buck Hunter for the briefest moment, but he tucked that away and chose to relish in the moment instead. Cas and Jesse were at the air hockey table and Bobby and Ash huddled by the wall of Skeeball machines, not partaking themselves, just watching you as you sank ball after ball into the 300 or better rings.

Dean couldn’t pick what he wanted to do next, so he just watched for a few minutes, soaking in the joy around him.

Eventually, his stomach chose for him. The pizzas were delivered in a tidy row down a side table of every cheap topping option available. There was even a mushroom option, which was probably the only thing close to a vegetable in the place, but it meant Sam couldn’t bitch. Everyone chowed down, standing and sitting in hodgepodge groupings, laughing and debating on what to do next.

Pam was comparing Cas’ and Kevin’s tattoos as Dean approached, paper plate firmly in hand, chewing as he silently butt into the conversation.

“Looks good, I mean, he’d hate them, but you know that would only be for show,” Pam said about the late Rufus.

“Yeah,” Cas agreed, pulling his arm back.

“Crotchety old bastard,” Dean added between bites.

“May he rest in peace,” Pam added, respect and mirth flitted in her eyes.

“So, Cas, how’s the kid and the band and fucking everything?” Pam changed the subject.

“Uh, we’re—- making progress,” Cas said simply, clearly unsure what to do with Dean’s presence. He worried at his lip ring like he always did when he was uncomfortable, but Dean was too damn curious and stubborn to take the hint.

“They’re finding their sound, it’s kind of cool to see it happen. You should go with me sometime to their rehearsals. It’s very organic,” Kevin explained. “It’s like they can sense what the other is thinking and just go for it.”

Dean couldn’t even pretend that that didn’t sting.

He cleared his throat. “So, where do you guys practice?”

“Oh— my place,” Cas said.

The fact that Kevin had been hanging with Cas and getting tattoos was one thing. The fact that he was in on this new band and its budding chemistry all while getting to spend time in Cas’ space was nothing short of getting his knees kicked out.

Not to mention, Cas had barely a townhouse with only one extra bedroom. He always preferred to live simply, as he put it.

“How does that work?”

Pam crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, seeing where this was going better than Dean. “Are you a garage band, Cas?”

He just shrugged.

Dean chuckled under his breath. “That’s what you meant by organic,” he said to Kevin.

“Not exactly— that’s part of it, but I don’t know if it’s like some gene thing or a psychic connection. They’re just really good together.”

Pamela inhaled as Dean squinted at Cas, who had gone stock still with Kevin’s words.

“Gene thing?”

“Dean—,” Pamela warned.

“Oh, crap,” Kevin said, realizing too late that Dean was apparently more in the dark than he’d known.

Castiel remained silent, eyes boring into Dean, waiting for the explosion. It made Dean sick to realize that Cas was afraid of him, of his temper, still.

Dean set down his slice of pizza and squared his shoulders, trying to keep it civil. To not be that guy anymore. “Cas, come on man. What’s that about? He some long lost cousin or something?”

“Jack’s my kid, actually.”

Dean sputtered. “Yeah right, nice one.”

Everyone glared at him.

“You’re serious? How? When? I would have fucking noticed if you had actually boned down some chick—- I mean how old is he?”

Cas rolled his eyes and Dean had the sinking sensation that absolutely none of this was his business. But Cas had been his best friend for most of their lives— it was important information to have, even if it was twenty years too late.

Kevin and Pam silently agreed to disappear, but Dean couldn’t pinpoint the moment it happened. They were there and then they were gone.

“Dean,” Cas chastised.

“No— I deserve to know. I mean, what the hell? A kid?”

Cas raised his eyebrow, the one with the damn ring in it and Dean wanted, not for the first time, to yank it out.

“Kind of like I— like we deserved to know you were in an underground fighting ring? Like you had some sort of deathwish pact with a pimp and a known murderer?”

Dean felt an icy chill run down his spine, his hands instantly turned to fists and he had to breathe to keep the rage at bay. But his chest was so tight and the shame had become worms in his stomach. He wasn’t going to puke at his own birthday party, not from something as pathetic as his own mistakes. Alcohol would have been an easier taste in his mouth.

The party continued around them, but Dean didn’t reply. He couldn’t.

Cas seemed to register that and looked down at his boots before meeting Dean’s eye once more. “Dean, I’m sorry— that— that was uncalled for.” 

Dean swallowed down the bile and exhaled.

He unclenched his fists, shaking them slightly to feel something other than overwhelming emotion, the kind he’d need a few sessions with Missouri to even name.

“Don’t worry about it,” Dean grunted, head down as he got himself together.

“Dean— we should talk, but I can’t really explain myself in front of everyone.”

Dean hummed.

“It’s just— I think there’s a lot we never got off our chests and it only made the last couple of years harder— on both of us.”

“It seems like everyone else already knows your business, Cas. Just kind of sucks to be the last to know.”

Cas nodded, eyes still tight, still on guard.

“But I guess the way I was— kind of makes sense. I didn’t deserve to know.”

Cas’ face softened. “Dean— that’s not. Let’s not, right now. Later. Okay?”

Dean nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

Dean inched around the corner, weapon drawn and head on a swivel. He couldn’t see much, but endless nooks for the enemy to hide. The arena was dark, out of necessity, but it only added to the adrenaline pumping through him. Dean nodded to his teammate and they spun around the next edge, fingers on their triggers as they stood back to back. 

He really wished they had communication between the other members of Green Team, but that was just rich people thinking for a family entertainment center. It wasn’t like they were storming the beaches of Normandy here.

Something moved in his periphery but before Dean could turn you shot behind him, getting Kevin square in the chest. You both watched as Kevin fell dramatically to the floor, one down, five more to go.

“Nice shot,” Dean said out of the corner of his mouth.

“I feel like that was too easy,” you replied, searching the area while you whispered.

“Might have been a scout,” Dean agreed.

“Yeah, but—” 

He felt you shift behind him and he rounded to cover you, but Benny was already there, a near wall of guns behind him. 

“It was a fire fight!” Ash screamed out of his spot above them, taking Charlie out with the distraction.

You kept your body turned, lessening their target and fired without even blinking, but Sam had height on you and you ended up taking each other out. Dean, unable to make a shot connect, cursed, turned tail, and ran, ducking down a ladder and trying to loop back on Benny and Pam.

Three down to his team’s one, that he knew of, still good odds.

But then he saw Jesse sitting with his back against a wall, clearly down. Dean needed to find Cas and Cesar yesterday. Or they wouldn’t be able to call it in their favor. He crouched down and checked his back, without you to watch his six he felt extra exposed, though he kept to the edges, using the shadows to his advantage.

He heard whispering and he immediately hit the deck, rolling until he was flush with wall length-wise. But the voices stopped about ten feet away, either on the level above him or around the corner out of sight. Dean waited, gun drawn and senses on overdrive.

The telltale electronic chime of a chest plate activating sounded off and the voices turned from whispers to shouts of shock. Someone had gotten Pam. 

Which meant that Lee and Benny were the only ones left from Sam’s team.

And Lee was alone looking to the rafters from the sounds of it.

Dean army-crawled around the corner and got Lee from underneath, his cackle of victory the only way Lee even knew he was there.

“You sonofabitch!” Lee griped, helping Dean up before disappearing to the land of misfit toys, aka following Pam to the nearest exit.

Cesar appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and nodded Dean back to the rest of the team. Cas and Ash were still alive and kicking, strategizing on how to find or draw out Benny. But before Dean could turn and let Cesar back into the huddle, his chest piece crackled to life: Benny had shot him in the back.

Dean waved him off, trying to catch up with Benny’s trail, as Ash and Cas flanked him widely. They tried to cast a broad net, but instead they left too much space and Benny wound around them and took Ash out without Dean or Cas even seeing him.

Dean looked at Cas and Cas nodded, doubling back and letting Dean take point. 

It felt like hours, but really it only took maybe five more minutes of creeping around the obstacles in the center of the arena for Dean to catch sight of Benny. His sturdy frame ducked behind a pillar as Dean slowly followed. But he was too slow, because Benny had spun around and had his gun on Dean’s back plate before Dean could move.

“Bang bang,” Benny taunted, but he didn’t pull the trigger. He wanted Dean to surrender, but that wouldn’t do anything unless… Benny didn’t know Cas was still out there.

Dean held up his arms, but he didn’t drop his weapon.

“Alright, cher, nice and easy,” Benny coaxed Dean to turn face him.

“You got me,man,” Dean huffed, playing it up.

“Well, even the Birthday Prince loses sometimes.”

Then Benny’s chest flashed to life.

“What the—”

“And sometimes they still win,” Cas’ deadpan interrupted Benny’s surprise.

“Nice one, Cas!” Dean held up his hand for a high five, but Cas just cocked his head as the overheads snapped on, blinding them all in sudden light.

It wasn’t the first time that Dean thought Cas had some super-human senses. And he was happy to think that it probably wasn’t the last time either. Not anymore.

Everything considered, Gibson won the day. Every single adult, even Kevin, forked over the prize tickets they had wracked up on their wristbands for Gibson to exchange for a four foot long stuffed dog from some show or another. Dean fist bumped him and helped him carry the thing back onto the bus. But before Dean could haul himself up the first step, Sam pulled him back to the curb.

“Here— don’t say I never got you anything.” Sam handed him a massive rainbowed Slinky.

“Holy shit! I didn’t even see that! This is awesome,” Dean geeked out. “Thanks, man.”

Sam just shook his head and grinned.

Everyone got back on the bus and started in on the adult beverages as you sorted the tab and made sure everything was alright with the staff. Dean sat on his hands, forcing himself not to run back in and add on his own tip. He really did trust you, but some habits were hard to break. 

“Ready?” Dean heard Bobby ask you before cranking the door shut.

The bus rumbled off the curb and into the neverending traffic of the city at night. But they had everything they could possibly need on board. And when you sat down in the spot beside him, Dean couldn’t think of a single thing that could make his birthday any better.

He looked over at you and smiled, soft, just a hint of it on his lips, trying to keep himself from saying something stupid. You rolled your eyes and smiled back. And yeah, today might have been one for the books. But there were still chapters left unwritten between you two and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to wait anymore to find out what they’d said.

Then his phone rang. “Dean? Happy birthday! How did you want to go celebrate?”

It was Bela.

He had completely forgotten to invite Bela.

And apparently, somehow, so had you.

Fuck.

Tagging:

@deans-spinster-witch

@mrswhozeewhatsis

@cosicas-cuquis

@fics-pics-andotherthings-i-like

@suckitands33

@ladysparkles78

@deans-baby-momma

@stoneyggirl2

@sassy-pelican

@leigh70

@globetrotter28

@winharry

@lastactiontricia

@rockhoochie

Chapter 22: Dolce

[theinfiknight]

What if the characters of Discworld were Avatars of the 15 fears from the Magnus Archives?

Now, just a disclaimer, this is just my personal opinion of which character would best fit the bill. Regardless if you agree or disagree, feel absolutely free to do so either way. Also, obvious spoilers for the books excepting Shepherd's Crown and Raising Steam.

The Web:

This one is obvious and can be no one other than Lord Vetinari himself. An absolute master of subtle manipulation and long term planning, Vetinari is the perfect Avatar of the Web. He creates a reputation of pervasive fear and makes people believe that he could do away with them at a whim, despite him never once killing a single person who wasn't an irredeemable criminal of some sort, and even then usually giving them chances to redeem themselves first. This being the case, I'd say Lady Margolotta is also an Avatar, and the one who exposed Havelock to the Web in the first place.

The Hunt:

The most stereotypical aspect of the Hunt is manifested most by Wolfgang von Uberwald, the textbook Hunter who chases and kills for the thrill of it. Both Sam Vimes and Angua hear the call of the Blood, but both refuse to heed it, and so aren't Avatars. I'd argue that there's another Avatar of the Hunt fulfilling the other role, created by the Hunt to be the perpetually hunted, the never caught but ever pursued white stag/ golden doe, the one, though not only, Rincewind.

The Eye:

One Avatar is Jeannie and every Kelda before and after her. The Kelda sees everything and knows what has happened and what will. The alternate answer is Blind Io, given his literal eyeballs that float around and also that he's cognizant of everything that goes on in the Disc, and that everyone knows he's watching.

The Spiral:

The Elf Queen. The undisputed master of illusion and deception, creating false worlds that operate on her rules, trapping people in unreal dreams they cannot escape, making them see and believe what she wants them to see and believe. Bel Shamharoth is also a possible answer given how he distorts the senses and feeds on those he traps.

The Buried:

Albrecht Albrechtsson. Knockermen are undoubtedly Avatars of the Buried, with the complex stew of fear and reverence they feel for the underground, and Albrecht is the lowest among them. Agi Hammerthief is probably the only fully realised Avatar of the Buried, who dwells beneath the Disc where no one will ever reach him.

The Flesh:

The Igors and Nutt. The Igors for obvious reasons, their affinity for tinkering with bodies, and their indisputable understanding of the fact that meat is meat, and as such can be used for a lot more than its original intention. Nutt because he is a creation of said tinkering, flesh made warped, with a living engine of meat inside him.

The End:

Mort and Bill Door, and possibly every zombie. This really needs no explanation. Mort stepping into his Master's role is the textbook descent of a human into Avatarhood, developing strange powers and slowly becoming Other. I'm not counting Death because he is the personification of the thing and isn't human enough to qualify as an Avatar, and I'm not counting Susan because she never carried out the Duty.

The Slaughter:

Carcer, the Gonne, and Cohen the Barbarian. Carcer killed for the fun of it with no care for reasoning, consequence or morality. He WAS a one man slaughter by himself. Cohen's existence was also very similar to Carcer's, albeit he killed far more people and lived by a Code that ensured that though he mass murdered on the regular, he always did it with the same honesty as a man hunting for his next meal. As such perhaps Cohen was more an impersonal personification of the Slaughter like the Piper rather than an Avatar of it. The Gonne was more an a artifact that channeled the Slaughter into whoever held it, be it D'Eath, Cruces or even Vimes.

The Corruption:

Vorbis and the Cunning Man. Vorbis absolutely embodies the toxicity and insidious creeping infestation of the Corruption. He pollutes organisations and people, changing them and turning them into versions of himself, utilising extremely unhealthy relationship dynamics in order to do so, creating an atmosphere ripe with fear, desperation and despair. The Cunning Man is similar except his method of corruption is more direct than Vorbis's ie literally taking over the body of his victim while subtly influencing the minds of those around him when he's less corporeal. His presence is filth of the mind and stench of the soul, and incites disgust and fear among those aware of his true nature.

The Stranger:

I had some trouble with this but finally decided on Susan and Lu Tze. Although one would intuitively put Susan under The End, in practice the characteristics she actually exhibits line up more with the Stranger. She walks unseen among others, unknown in the places she passes through, never usually staying very long in one place unless that happens to be her dwelling at that time. Her presence unsettles people. She doesn't fit in among others and has always been set apart. She's too undead to be truly alive and too alive to be truly undead. The only people who really know her are Death and Time. To everyone else, she's a stranger they see sometimes.

And Lu Tze, of course, is just the Sweeper. No one knows the first thing about him apart from the fact that he happens to be there. He's a part of the background of whenever he is. If anyone ever truly Looked at him, and actually noticed what they saw, that he's in fact a stranger in their midst, the first words out of their mouths would be "I do not know you"

The Desolation:

Stratford, Spider the Rat King, and Ipslore the Red. Stratford was a motherfucker who would bleed every last drop before abandoning the corpse he created. This was a bastard who, wishing to cause Vimes as much pain as he could, chose to target his son rather than seek him out directly. A man after the Desolation's own heart. Spider was out for everything the humans had. It wanted their utter ruin and destruction and was well on its way to achieving it. And Ipslore attempted to destroy the whole world with his resentment, using and abusing his own son as his instrument to do so, and would have succeeded too, if it weren't for some idiot with a half brick in a sock.

The Extinction:

The Things from the Dungeon Dimensions. The Extinction is the end of the rule of Man and their replacement with the horrifying Other. And there's nothing that fits that description better than the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions, constantly seeking to bring about exactly what the Fear is.

The Lonely:

This was difficult to decide as well, but I believe the First Tooth Fairy might qualify. Living literally locked up in a bubble separate from the rest of reality, it lives apart from everyone and everything else, keeping alone for all eternity. Additionally, I believe that every living witch(with the exception of Nanny Ogg) carries a piece of the Lonely inside them. Its influence never goes away, and those who succumb to it are the ones who become cacklers.

The Vast:

Tiffany Aching and, funnily enough, a Simon once again. Tiffany's primary source of power is that she is, at her core, something far bigger than herself. She may be just Tiffany but she is also Land under Wave, the power and will of millions of years of life before her. At her most powerful she is aware of EVERYTHING, from the bones of the flint beneath the chalk to time itself to the stars being born in the distant sky. She is small but she is also Vast. And Simon sees the whole universe and truly understands what he's looking at. He sees and understands more than he can express and his knowledge of the Vast almost approaches comprehension.

The Dark:

The one, though once again not only, Samuel Vimes. There couldn't be any other answer here. The dark walks with him. He was born in it, moulded by it... By the time he saw the light it was nothing more than BLINDING. But yeah, he is most at peace in the true dark in the pissing rain on the cobbles, even before he was literally possessed by the living darkness itself. The dark aids him and talks to him. The dwarfs and the goblins may live in the dark, but Sam Vimes looked into the Abyss, and he wasn't the one who blinked.

[fipindustries]

Artificial Intelligence Risk

about a month ago i got into my mind the idea of trying the format of video essay, and the topic i came up with that i felt i could more or less handle was AI risk and my objections to yudkowsky. i wrote the script but then soon afterwards i ran out of motivation to do the video. still i didnt want the effort to go to waste so i decided to share the text, slightly edited here. this is a LONG fucking thing so put it aside on its own tab and come back to it when you are comfortable and ready to sink your teeth on quite a lot of reading

Anyway, let’s talk about AI risk

I’m going to be doing a very quick introduction to some of the latest conversations that have been going on in the field of artificial intelligence, what are artificial intelligences exactly, what is an AGI, what is an agent, the orthogonality thesis, the concept of instrumental convergence, alignment and how does Eliezer Yudkowsky figure in all of this.

 If you are already familiar with this you can skip to section two where I’m going to be talking about yudkowsky’s arguments for AI research presenting an existential risk to, not just humanity, or even the world, but to the entire universe and my own tepid rebuttal to his argument.

Now, I SHOULD clarify, I am not an expert on the field, my credentials are dubious at best, I am a college drop out from the career of computer science and I have a three year graduate degree in video game design and a three year graduate degree in electromechanical instalations. All that I know about the current state of AI research I have learned by reading articles, consulting a few friends who have studied about the topic more extensevily than me,

and watching educational you tube videos so. You know. Not an authority on the matter from any considerable point of view and my opinions should be regarded as such.

So without further ado, let’s get in on it.

PART ONE, A RUSHED INTRODUCTION ON THE SUBJECT

1.1 general intelligence and agency

lets begin with what counts as artificial intelligence, the technical definition for artificial intelligence is, eh…, well, why don’t I let a Masters degree in machine intelligence explain it:

 Now let’s get a bit more precise here and include the definition of AGI, Artificial General intelligence. It is understood that classic ai’s such as the ones we have in our videogames or in alpha GO or even our roombas, are narrow Ais, that is to say, they are capable of doing only one kind of thing. They do not understand the world beyond their field of expertise whether that be within a videogame level, within a GO board or within you filthy disgusting floor.

AGI on the other hand is much more, well, general, it can have a multimodal understanding of its surroundings, it can generalize, it can extrapolate, it can learn new things across multiple different fields, it can come up with solutions that account for multiple different factors, it can incorporate new ideas and concepts. Essentially, a human is an agi. So far that is the last frontier of AI research, and although we are not there quite yet, it does seem like we are doing some moderate strides in that direction. We’ve all seen the impressive conversational and coding skills that GPT-4 has and Google just released Gemini, a multimodal AI that can understand and generate text, sounds, images and video simultaneously. Now, of course it has its limits, it has no persistent memory, its contextual window while larger than previous models is still relatively small compared to a human (contextual window means essentially short term memory, how many things can it keep track of and act coherently about).

And yet there is one more factor I haven’t mentioned yet that would be needed to make something a “true” AGI. That is Agency. To have goals and autonomously come up with plans and carry those plans out in the world to achieve those goals. I as a person, have agency over my life, because I can choose at any given moment to do something without anyone explicitly telling me to do it, and I can decide how to do it. That is what computers, and machines to a larger extent, don’t have. Volition.

So, Now that we have established that, allow me to introduce yet one more definition here, one that you may disagree with but which I need to establish in order to have a common language with you such that I can communicate these ideas effectively. The definition of intelligence. It’s a thorny subject and people get very particular with that word because there are moral associations with it. To imply that someone or something has or hasn’t intelligence can be seen as implying that it deserves or doesn’t deserve admiration, validity, moral worth or even  personhood. I don’t care about any of that dumb shit. The way Im going to be using intelligence in this video is basically “how capable you are to do many different things successfully”. The more “intelligent” an AI is, the more capable of doing things that AI can be. After all, there is a reason why education is considered such a universally good thing in society. To educate a child is to uplift them, to expand their world, to increase their opportunities in life. And the same goes for AI. I need to emphasize that this is just the way I’m using the word within the context of this video, I don’t care if you are a psychologist or a neurosurgeon, or a pedagogue, I need a word to express this idea and that is the word im going to use, if you don’t like it or if you think this is innapropiate of me then by all means, keep on thinking that, go on and comment about it below the video, and then go on to suck my dick.

Anyway. Now, we have established what an AGI is, we have established what agency is, and we have established how having more intelligence increases your agency. But as the intelligence of a given agent increases we start to see certain trends, certain strategies start to arise again and again, and we call this Instrumental convergence.

1.2 instrumental convergence

The basic idea behind instrumental convergence is that if you are an intelligent agent that wants to achieve some goal, there are some common basic strategies that you are going to turn towards no matter what. It doesn’t matter if your goal is as complicated as building a nuclear bomb or as simple as making a cup of tea. These are things we can reliably predict any AGI worth its salt is going to try to do.

First of all is self-preservation. Its going to try to protect itself. When you want to do something, being dead is usually. Bad. its counterproductive. Is not generally recommended. Dying is widely considered unadvisable by 9 out of every ten experts in the field. If there is something that it wants getting done, it wont get done if it dies or is turned off, so its safe to predict that any AGI will try to do things in order not be turned off. How far it may go in order to do this? Well… [wouldn’t you like to know weather boy].

Another thing it will predictably converge towards is goal preservation. That is to say, it will resist any attempt to try and change it, to alter it, to modify its goals. Because, again, if you want to accomplish something, suddenly deciding that you want to do something else is uh, not going to accomplish the first thing, is it? Lets say that you want to take care of your child, that is your goal, that is the thing you want to accomplish, and I come to you and say, here, let me change you on the inside so that you don’t care about protecting your kid. Obviously you are not going to let me, because if you stopped caring about your kids, then your kids wouldn’t be cared for or protected. And you want to ensure that happens, so caring about something else instead is a huge no-no- which is why, if we make AGI and it has goals that we don’t like it will probably resist any attempt to “fix” it.

And finally another goal that it will most likely trend towards is self improvement. Which can be more generalized to “resource acquisition”. If it lacks capacities to carry out a plan, then step one of that plan will always be to increase capacities. If you want to get something really expensive, well first you need to get money. If you want to increase your chances of getting a high paying job then you need to get education, if you want to get a partner you need to increase how attractive you are. And as we established earlier, if intelligence is the thing that increases your agency, you want to become smarter in order to do more things. So one more time, is not a huge leap at all, it is not a stretch of the imagination, to say that any AGI will probably seek to increase its capabilities, whether by acquiring more computation, by improving itself, by taking control of resources.

All these three things I mentioned are sure bets, they are likely to happen and safe to assume. They are things we ought to keep in mind when creating AGI.

 Now of course, I have implied a sinister tone to all these things, I have made all this sound vaguely threatening, haven’t i?. There is one more assumption im sneaking into all of this which I haven’t talked about. All that I have mentioned presents a very callous view of AGI, I have made it apparent that all of these strategies it may follow will go in conflict with people, maybe even go as far as to harm humans. Am I impliying that AGI may tend to be… Evil???

1.3 The Orthogonality thesis

Well, not quite.

We humans care about things. Generally. And we generally tend to care about roughly the same things, simply by virtue of being humans. We have some innate preferences and some innate dislikes. We have a tendency to not like suffering (please keep in mind I said a tendency, im talking about a statistical trend, something that most humans present to some degree). Most of us, baring social conditioning, would take pause at the idea of torturing someone directly, on purpose, with our bare hands. (edit bear paws onto my hands as I say this).  Most would feel uncomfortable at the thought of doing it to multitudes of people. We tend to show a preference for food, water, air, shelter, comfort, entertainment and companionship. This is just how we are fundamentally wired. These things can be overcome, of course, but that is the thing, they have to be overcome in the first place.

An AGI is not going to have the same evolutionary predisposition to these things like we do because it is not made of the same things a human is made of and it was not raised the same way a human was raised.

There is something about a human brain, in a human body, flooded with human hormones that makes us feel and think and act in certain ways and care about certain things.

All an AGI is going to have is the goals it developed during its training, and will only care insofar as those goals are met. So say an AGI has the goal of going to the corner store to bring me a pack of cookies. In its way there it comes across an anthill in its path, it will probably step on the anthill because to take that step takes it closer to the corner store, and why wouldn’t it step on the anthill? Was it programmed with some specific innate preference not to step on ants? No? then it will step on the anthill and not pay any mind  to it.

Now lets say it comes across a cat. Same logic applies, if it wasn’t programmed with an inherent tendency to value animals, stepping on the cat wont slow it down at all.

Now let’s say it comes across a baby.

Of course, if its intelligent enough it will probably understand that if it steps on that baby people might notice and try to stop it, most likely even try to disable it or turn it off so it will not step on the baby, to save itself from all that trouble. But you have to understand that it wont stop because it will feel bad about harming a baby or because it understands that to harm a baby is wrong. And indeed if it was powerful enough such that no matter what people did they could not stop it and it would suffer no consequence for killing the baby, it would have probably killed the baby.

If I need to put it in gross, inaccurate terms for you to get it then let me put it this way. Its essentially a sociopath. It only cares about the wellbeing of others in as far as that benefits it self. Except human sociopaths do care nominally about having human comforts and companionship, albeit in a very instrumental way, which will involve some manner of stable society and civilization around them. Also they are only human, and are limited in the harm they can do by human limitations.  An AGI doesn’t need any of that and is not limited by any of that.

So ultimately, much like a car’s goal is to move forward and it is not built to care about wether a human is in front of it or not, an AGI will carry its own goals regardless of what it has to sacrifice in order to carry that goal effectively. And those goals don’t need to include human wellbeing.

Now With that said. How DO we make it so that AGI cares about human wellbeing, how do we make it so that it wants good things for us. How do we make it so that its goals align with that of humans?

1.4 Alignment.

Alignment… is hard [cue hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy scene about the space being big]

This is the part im going to skip over the fastest because frankly it’s a deep field of study, there are many current strategies for aligning AGI, from mesa optimizers, to reinforced learning with human feedback, to adversarial asynchronous AI assisted reward training to uh, sitting on our asses and doing nothing. Suffice to say, none of these methods are perfect or foolproof.

One thing many people like to gesture at when they have not learned or studied anything about the subject is the three laws of robotics by isaac Asimov, a robot should not harm a human or allow by inaction to let a human come to harm, a robot should do what a human orders unless it contradicts the first law and a robot should preserve itself unless that goes against the previous two laws. Now the thing Asimov was prescient about was that these laws were not just “programmed” into the robots. These laws were not coded into their software, they were hardwired, they were part of the robot’s electronic architecture such that a robot could not ever be without those three laws much like a car couldn’t run without wheels.

In this Asimov realized how important these three laws were, that they had to be intrinsic to the robot’s very being, they couldn’t be hacked or uninstalled or erased. A robot simply could not be without these rules. Ideally that is what alignment should be. When we create an AGI, it should be made such that human values are its fundamental goal, that is the thing they should seek to maximize, instead of instrumental values, that is to say something they value simply because it allows it to achieve something else.

But how do we even begin to do that? How do we codify “human values” into a robot? How do we define “harm” for example? How do we even define “human”??? how do we define “happiness”? how do we explain a robot what is right and what is wrong when half the time we ourselves cannot even begin to agree on that? these are not just technical questions that robotic experts have to find the way to codify into ones and zeroes, these are profound philosophical questions to which we still don’t have satisfying answers to.

Well, the best sort of hack solution we’ve come up with so far is not to create bespoke fundamental axiomatic rules that the robot has to follow, but rather train it to imitate humans by showing it a billion billion examples of human behavior. But of course there is a problem with that approach. And no, is not just that humans are flawed and have a tendency to cause harm and therefore to ask a robot to imitate a human means creating something that can do all the bad things a human does, although that IS a problem too. The real problem is that we are training it to *imitate* a human, not  to *be* a human.

To reiterate what I said during the orthogonality thesis, is not good enough that I, for example, buy roses and give massages to act nice to my girlfriend because it allows me to have sex with her, I am not merely imitating or performing the rol of a loving partner because her happiness is an instrumental value to my fundamental value of getting sex. I should want to be nice to my girlfriend because it makes her happy and that is the thing I care about. Her happiness is  my fundamental value. Likewise, to an AGI, human fulfilment should be its fundamental value, not something that it learns to do because it allows it to achieve a certain reward that we give during training. Because if it only really cares deep down about the reward, rather than about what the reward is meant to incentivize, then that reward can very easily be divorced from human happiness.

Its goodharts law, when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Why do students cheat during tests? Because their education is measured by grades, so the grades become the target and so students will seek to get high grades regardless of whether they learned or not. When trained on their subject and measured by grades, what they learn is not the school subject, they learn to get high grades, they learn to cheat.

This is also something known in psychology, punishment tends to be a poor mechanism of enforcing behavior because all it teaches people is how to avoid the punishment, it teaches people not to get caught. Which is why punitive justice doesn’t work all that well in stopping recividism and this is why the carceral system is rotten to core and why jail should be fucking abolish-[interrupt the transmission]

Now, how is this all relevant to current AI research? Well, the thing is, we ended up going about the worst possible way to create alignable AI.

1.5 LLMs (large language models)

This is getting way too fucking long So, hurrying up, lets do a quick review of how do Large language models work. We create a neural network which is a collection of giant matrixes, essentially a bunch of numbers that we add and multiply together over and over again, and then we tune those numbers by throwing absurdly big amounts of training data such that it starts forming internal mathematical models based on that data and it starts creating coherent patterns that it can recognize and replicate AND extrapolate! if we do this enough times with matrixes that are big enough and then when we start prodding it for human behavior it will be able to follow the pattern of human behavior that we prime it with and give us coherent responses.

(takes a big breath)this “thing” has learned. To imitate. Human. Behavior.

Problem is, we don’t know what “this thing” actually is, we just know that *it* can imitate humans.

You caught that?

What you have to understand is, we don’t actually know what internal models it creates, we don’t know what are the patterns that it extracted or internalized from the data that we fed it, we don’t know what are the internal rules that decide its behavior, we don’t know what is going on inside there, current LLMs are a black box. We don’t know what it learned, we don’t know what its fundamental values are, we don’t know how it thinks or what it truly wants. all we know is that it can imitate humans when we ask it to do so. We created some inhuman entity that is moderatly intelligent in specific contexts (that is to say, very capable) and we trained it to imitate humans. That sounds a bit unnerving doesn’t it?

 To be clear, LLMs are not carefully crafted piece by piece. This does not work like traditional software where a programmer will sit down and build the thing line by line, all its behaviors specified. Is more accurate to say that LLMs, are grown, almost organically. We know the process that generates them, but we don’t know exactly what it generates or how what it generates works internally, it is a mistery. And these things are so big and so complicated internally that to try and go inside and decipher what they are doing is almost intractable.

But, on the bright side, we are trying to tract it. There is a big subfield of AI research called interpretability, which is actually doing the hard work of going inside and figuring out how the sausage gets made, and they have been doing some moderate progress as of lately. Which is encouraging. But still, understanding the enemy is only step one, step two is coming up with an actually effective and reliable way of turning that potential enemy into a friend.

Puff! Ok so, now that this is all out of the way I can go onto the last subject before I move on to part two of this video, the character of the hour, the man the myth the legend. The modern day Casandra. Mr chicken little himself! Sci fi author extraordinaire! The mad man! The futurist! The leader of the rationalist movement!

1.5 Yudkowsky

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky  born September 11, 1979, wait, what the fuck, September eleven? (looks at camera) yudkowsky was born on 9/11, I literally just learned this for the first time! What the fuck, oh that sucks, oh no, oh no, my condolences, that’s terrible…. Moving on. he is an American artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics, best known for popularizing ideas related to friendly artificial intelligence, including the idea that there might not be a "fire alarm" for AI He is the founder of and a research fellow at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), a private research nonprofit based in Berkeley, California. Or so says his Wikipedia page.

Yudkowsky is, shall we say, a character. a very eccentric man, he is an AI doomer. Convinced that AGI, once finally created, will most likely kill all humans, extract all valuable resources from the planet, disassemble the solar system, create a dyson sphere around the sun and expand across the universe turning all of the cosmos into paperclips. Wait, no, that is not quite it, to properly quote,( grabs a piece of paper and very pointedly reads from it) turn the cosmos into tiny squiggly  molecules resembling paperclips whose configuration just so happens to fulfill the strange, alien unfathomable terminal goal they ended up developing in training. So you know, something totally different.

And he is utterly convinced of this idea, has been for over a decade now, not only that but, while he cannot pinpoint a precise date, he is confident that, more likely than not it will happen within this century. In fact most betting markets seem to believe that we will get AGI somewhere in the mid 30’s.

His argument is basically that in the field of AI research, the development of capabilities is going much faster than the development of alignment, so that AIs will become disproportionately powerful before we ever figure out how to control them. And once we create unaligned AGI we will have created an agent who doesn’t care about humans but will care about something else entirely irrelevant to us and it will seek to maximize that goal, and because it will be vastly more intelligent than humans therefore we wont be able to stop it. In fact not only we wont be able to stop it, there wont be a fight at all. It will carry out its plans for world domination in secret without us even detecting it and it will execute it before any of us even realize what happened. Because that is what a smart person trying to take over the world would do.

This is why the definition I gave of intelligence at the beginning is so important, it all hinges on that, intelligence as the measure of how capable you are to come up with solutions to problems, problems such as “how to kill all humans without being detected or stopped”. And you may say well now, intelligence is fine and all but there are limits to what you can accomplish with raw intelligence, even if you are supposedly smarter than a human surely you wouldn’t be capable of just taking over the world uninmpeeded, intelligence is not this end all be all superpower. Yudkowsky would respond that you are not recognizing or respecting the power that intelligence has. After all it was intelligence what designed the atom bomb, it was intelligence what created a cure for polio and it was intelligence what made it so that there is a human foot print on the moon.

Some may call this view of intelligence a bit reductive. After all surely it wasn’t *just* intelligence what did all that but also hard physical labor and the collaboration of hundreds of thousands of people. But, he would argue, intelligence was the underlying motor that moved all that. That to come up with the plan and to convince people to follow it and to delegate the tasks to the appropriate subagents, it was all directed by thought, by ideas, by intelligence. By the way, so far I am not agreeing or disagreeing with any of this, I am merely explaining his ideas.

But remember, it doesn’t stop there, like I said during his intro, he believes there will be “no fire alarm”. In fact for all we know, maybe AGI has already been created and its merely bidding its time and plotting in the background, trying to get more compute, trying to get smarter. (to be fair, he doesn’t think this is right now, but with the next iteration of gpt? Gpt 5 or 6? Well who knows). He thinks that the entire world should halt AI research and punish with multilateral international treaties any group or nation that doesn’t stop. going as far as putting military attacks on GPU farms as sanctions of those treaties.

What’s more, he believes that, in fact, the fight is already lost. AI is already progressing too fast and there is nothing to stop it, we are not showing any signs of making headway with alignment and no one is incentivized to slow down. Recently he wrote an article called “dying with dignity” where he essentially says all this, AGI will destroy us, there is no point in planning for the future or having children and that we should act as if we are already dead. This doesn’t mean to stop fighting or to stop trying to find ways to align AGI, impossible as it may seem, but to merely have the basic dignity of acknowledging that we are probably not going to win. In every interview ive seen with the guy he sounds fairly defeatist and honestly kind of depressed. He truly seems to think its hopeless, if not because the AGI is clearly unbeatable and superior to humans, then because humans are clearly so stupid that we keep developing AI completely unregulated while making the tools to develop AI widely available and public for anyone to grab and do as they please with, as well as connecting every AI to the internet and to all mobile devices giving it instant access to humanity. and  worst of all: we keep teaching it how to code. From his perspective it really seems like people are in a rush to create the most unsecured, wildly available, unrestricted, capable, hyperconnected AGI possible.

We are not just going to summon the antichrist, we are going to receive them with a red carpet and immediately hand it the keys to the kingdom before it even manages to fully get out of its fiery pit.

So. The situation seems dire, at least to this guy. Now, to be clear, only he and a handful of other AI researchers are on that specific level of alarm. The opinions vary across the field and from what I understand this level of hopelessness and defeatism is the minority opinion.

I WILL say, however what is NOT the minority opinion is that AGI IS actually dangerous, maybe not quite on the level of immediate, inevitable and total human extinction but certainly a genuine threat that has to be taken seriously. AGI being something dangerous if unaligned is not a fringe position and I would not consider it something to be dismissed as an idea that experts don’t take seriously.

Aaand here is where I step up and clarify that this is my position as well. I am also, very much, a believer that AGI would posit a colossal danger to humanity. That yes, an unaligned AGI would represent an agent smarter than a human, capable of causing vast harm to humanity and with no human qualms or limitations to do so. I believe this is not just possible but probable and likely to happen within our lifetimes.

So there. I made my position clear.

BUT!

With all that said. I do have one key disagreement with yudkowsky. And partially the reason why I made this video was so that I could present this counterargument and maybe he, or someone that thinks like him, will see it and either change their mind or present a counter-counterargument that changes MY mind (although I really hope they don’t, that would be really depressing.)

Finally, we can move on to part 2

PART TWO- MY COUNTERARGUMENT TO YUDKOWSKY

I really have my work cut out for me, don’t i? as I said I am not expert and this dude has probably spent far more time than me thinking about this. But I have seen most interviews that guy has been doing for a year, I have seen most of his debates and I have followed him on twitter for years now. (also, to be clear, I AM a fan of the guy, I have read hpmor, three worlds collide, the dark lords answer, a girl intercorrupted, the sequences, and I TRIED to read planecrash, that last one didn’t work out so well for me). My point is in all the material I have seen of Eliezer I don’t recall anyone ever giving him quite this specific argument I’m about to give.

It’s a limited argument. as I have already stated I largely agree with most of what he says, I DO believe that unaligned AGI is possible, I DO believe it would be really dangerous if it were to exist and I do believe alignment is really hard. My key disagreement is specifically about his point I descrived earlier, about the lack of a fire alarm, and perhaps, more to the point, to humanity’s lack of response to such an alarm if it were to come to pass.

All we would need, is a Chernobyl incident, what is that? A situation where this technology goes out of control and causes a lot of damage, of potentially catastrophic consequences, but not so bad that it cannot be contained in time by enough effort. We need a weaker form of AGI to try to harm us, maybe even present a believable threat of taking over the world, but not so smart that humans cant do anything about it. We need essentially an AI vaccine, so that we can finally start developing proper AI antibodies. “aintibodies”

In the past humanity was dazzled by the limitless potential of nuclear power, to the point that old chemistry sets, the kind that were sold to children, would come with uranium for them to play with. We were building atom bombs, nuclear stations, the future was very much based on the power of the atom. But after a couple of really close calls and big enough scares we became, as a species, terrified of nuclear power. Some may argue to the point of overcorrection. We became scared enough that even megalomaniacal hawkish leaders were able to take pause and reconsider using it as a weapon, we became so scared that we overregulated the technology to the point of it almost becoming economically inviable to apply, we started disassembling nuclear stations across the world and to slowly reduce our nuclear arsenal.

This is all a proof of concept that, no matter how alluring a technology may be, if we are scared enough of it we can coordinate as a species and roll it back, to do our best to put the genie back in the bottle. One of the things eliezer says over and over again is that what makes AGI different from other technologies is that if we get it wrong on the first try we don’t get a second chance. Here is where I think he is wrong: I think if we get AGI wrong on the first try, it is more likely than not that nothing world ending will happen. Perhaps it will be something scary, perhaps something really scary, but unlikely that it will be on the level of all humans dropping dead simultaneously due to diamonoid bacteria. And THAT will be our Chernobyl, that will be the fire alarm, that will be the red flag that the disaster monkeys, as he call us, wont be able to ignore.

Now WHY do I think this? Based on what am I saying this? I will not be as hyperbolic as other yudkowsky detractors and say that he claims AGI will be basically a god. The AGI yudkowsky proposes is not a god. Just a really advanced alien, maybe even a wizard, but certainly not a god.

Still, even if not quite on the level of godhood, this dangerous superintelligent AGI yudkowsky proposes would be impressive. It would be the most advanced and powerful entity on planet earth. It would be humanity’s greatest achievement.

It would also be, I imagine, really hard to create. Even leaving aside the alignment bussines, to create a powerful superintelligent AGI without flaws, without bugs, without glitches, It would have to be an incredibly complex, specific, particular and hard to get right feat of software engineering. We are not just talking about an AGI smarter than a human, that’s easy stuff, humans are not that smart and arguably current AI is already smarter than a human, at least within their context window and until they start hallucinating. But what we are talking about here is an AGI capable of outsmarting reality.

We are talking about an AGI smart enough to carry out complex, multistep plans, in which they are not going to be in control of every factor and variable, specially at the beginning. We are talking about AGI that will have to function in the outside world, crashing with outside logistics and sheer dumb chance. We are talking about plans for world domination with no unforeseen factors, no unexpected delays or mistakes, every single possible setback and hidden variable accounted for. Im not saying that an AGI capable of doing this wont be possible maybe some day, im saying that to create an AGI that is capable of doing this, on the first try, without a hitch, is probably really really really hard for humans to do. Im saying there are probably not a lot of worlds where humans fiddling with giant inscrutable matrixes stumble upon the right precise set of layers and weight and biases that give rise to the Doctor from doctor who, and there are probably a whole truckload of worlds where humans end up with a lot of incoherent nonsense and rubbish.

Im saying that AGI, when it fails, when humans screw it up, doesn’t suddenly become more powerful than we ever expected, its more likely that it just fails and collapses. To turn one of Eliezer’s examples against him, when you screw up a rocket, it doesn’t accidentally punch a worm hole in the fabric of time and space, it just explodes before reaching the stratosphere. When you screw up a nuclear bomb, you don’t get to blow up the solar system, you just get a less powerful bomb.

He presents a fully aligned AGI as this big challenge that humanity has to get right on the first try, but that seems to imply that building an unaligned AGI is just a simple matter, almost taken for granted. It may be comparatively easier than an aligned AGI, but my point is that already unaligned AGI is stupidly hard to do and that if you fail in building unaligned AGI, then you don’t get an unaligned AGI, you just get another stupid model that screws up and stumbles on itself the second it encounters something unexpected. And that is a good thing I’d say! That means that there is SOME safety margin, some space to screw up before we need to really start worrying. And further more, what I am saying is that our first earnest attempt at an unaligned AGI will probably not be that smart or impressive because we as humans would have probably screwed something up, we would have probably unintentionally programmed it with some stupid glitch or bug or flaw and wont be a threat to all of humanity.

Now here comes the hypothetical back and forth, because im not stupid and I can try to anticipate what Yudkowsky might argue back and try to answer that before he says it (although I believe the guy is probably smarter than me and if I follow his logic, I probably cant actually anticipate what he would argue to prove me wrong, much like I cant predict what moves Magnus Carlsen would make in a game of chess against me, I SHOULD predict that him proving me wrong is the likeliest option, even if I cant picture how he will do it, but you see, I believe in a little thing called debating with dignity, wink)

What I anticipate he would argue is that AGI, no matter how flawed and shoddy our first attempt at making it were, would understand that is not smart enough yet and try to become smarter, so it would lie and pretend to be an aligned AGI so that it can trick us into giving it access to more compute or just so that it can bid its time and create an AGI smarter than itself. So even if we don’t create a perfect unaligned AGI, this imperfect AGI would try to create it and succeed, and then THAT new AGI would be the world ender to worry about.

So two things to that, first, this is filled with a lot of assumptions which I don’t know the likelihood of. The idea that this first flawed AGI would be smart enough to understand its limitations, smart enough to convincingly lie about it and smart enough to create an AGI that is better than itself. My priors about all these things are dubious at best. Second, It feels like kicking the can down the road. I don’t think creating an AGI capable of all of this is trivial to make on a first attempt. I think its more likely that we will create an unaligned AGI that is flawed, that is kind of dumb, that is unreliable, even to itself and its own twisted, orthogonal goals.

And I think this flawed creature MIGHT attempt something, maybe something genuenly threatning, but it wont be smart enough to pull it off effortlessly and flawlessly, because us humans are not smart enough to create something that can do that on the first try. And THAT first flawed attempt, that warning shot, THAT will be our fire alarm, that will be our Chernobyl. And THAT will be the thing that opens the door to us disaster monkeys finally getting our shit together.

But hey, maybe yudkowsky wouldn’t argue that, maybe he would come with some better, more insightful response I cant anticipate. If so, im waiting eagerly (although not TOO eagerly) for it.

Part 3 CONCLUSSION

So.

After all that, what is there left to say? Well, if everything that I said checks out then there is hope to be had. My two objectives here were first to provide people who are not familiar with the subject with a starting point as well as with the basic arguments supporting the concept of AI risk, why its something to be taken seriously and not just high faluting wackos who read one too many sci fi stories. This was not meant to be thorough or deep, just a quick catch up with the bear minimum so that, if you are curious and want to go deeper into the subject, you know where to start. I personally recommend watching rob miles’ AI risk series on youtube as well as reading the series of books written by yudkowsky known as the sequences, which can be found on the website lesswrong. If you want other refutations of yudkowsky’s argument you can search for paul christiano or robin hanson, both very smart people who had very smart debates on the subject against eliezer.

The second purpose here was to provide an argument against Yudkowskys brand of doomerism both so that it can be accepted if proven right or properly refuted if proven wrong. Again, I really hope that its not proven wrong. It would really really suck if I end up being wrong about this. But, as a very smart person said once, what is true is already true, and knowing it doesn’t make it any worse. If the sky is blue I want to believe that the sky is blue, and if the sky is not blue then I don’t want to believe the sky is blue.

This has been a presentation by FIP industries, thanks for watching.

[skz317cb97]

Street Fighter

Jeongin x Female reader

Word count: 2K

Synopsis: When your friend Jeongin shows up at your door with a black eye you insist on him explaining why he's playing real life street fighter again.

A/N: 18+ ONLY! Just a quick lil Jeongin fic that was inspired by some pictures in an ask I received. To anyone with a request I promise as soon as I'm back in the swing of things completely I'll be working on them again! Thank you for your patience. In the mean time if you all enjoy this story please give it a reblog, like, comment, shoot me an ask, I just love you guy's feedback! As always warnings and smut below the cut!

Warnings: 18+ ONLY MDNI! Cursing and strong language, mentions of fighting and mild violence, oral (m&f receiving), deep throating, gagging, breath play, unprotected piv sex, rough sex, choking, strength kink, Jeongin is a little possesive, praise, pet names (good girl, gorgeous, goddess), little degradation (Jeongin calls MC his slut/whore a couple of times), cream pie. I think that's everything but if I ever miss something please let me know and I'll add it immediately!

“Why the fuck do you have a black eye?!” Was, of course, the first question out of your mouth when you saw Jeongin. He sighed and walked through the door you had just opened. 

“Can I come in before you start giving me the third degree, please?” You gave him just as heavy of a sigh. 

“Can you not show up to my door after another fight club match with no explanation?” He gave you an incredulous look. 

“I’ll tell you jeeze just let me put some ice on my face and I’ll explain everything.” You followed Jeongin into the kitchen and stood there with your arms crossed as he got a hand towel and some ice and pressed it against his face. He looked over at you and you gave him a look that said, ‘Well?’. 

“Okay, okay! I was leaving the convenient store and I was on the way here when I ran into Sam.” You looked confused for a second. 

“Sam?” Jeongin rolled his eyes clearly not a fan of ‘Sam’. 

“Your ex.” Oh yea. You tried not to think about that one, it was bad. He was verbally abusive and he scared you. So you got away before things could get physical. 

“Oh that Sam.” He nodded. 

“Okay well what’s that have to do with your bl-…" You stopped and sighed. 

“Please tell me you didn’t.” Jeongin grabbed the back of his neck. 

“I just couldn’t help it. I thought about the last things he said to you and I saw red. I shoved him and he got a cheap shot in. We fought until a couple other guys split us up and we went separate ways.” 

“Again? That's like the third time you’ve gotten into a fight with one of my ex’s. Are you gonna beat up every guy that breaks my heart?” Jeongin looked at you seriously. 

“Yes...” You were about to say something but he cut you off. 

“Yes, I will. Until you finally realize the guy you should have been with all along.” Your brow was furrowed in confusion again. 

“Wha-what do you mean?” Jeongin put down the ice filled towel and walked over to you. 

“Do you really not see...” He grabbed your hand. 

“I mean I’m waiting for you to realize that I’m not agi ppang anymore. I’m a man, and I’m in love with you. It should be me you're with. I’d never treat you like any of those other guys. I’d treat you like a queen, worship you like the goddess you are.” He kissed your hand. 

“I.N... I... I didn’t know you felt this way.” He took a chance and wrapped his arms around your waist pulling you closer to him. 

“Well now that you do, how do you feel about it?” You put your arms around his broad shoulders and carded your fingers through the hair at his nape. 

“I feel like...” He nodded a little smiling softly at you. 

“I feel like I want to kiss you right now.” Jeongin chuckled and didn’t wait any longer. His lips found yours gently slotting together at first before quickly starting to nibble and trace your tongues along the others. It wasn’t long before you were grasping at each other frantically as you made out. You pulled away long enough to pull Jeongin’s shirt off over his head. 

“Wait are we gon...” You cut him off with your lips. 

“Stop talking and fuck me Innie.” He nodded and pulled your spaghetti strap top down, freeing your breasts then kissing you hard. You grabbed at his belt but before you could undo his button and fly he lifted your legs and wrapped them around him before slamming you against the fridge.  You could feel his hard cock pressing into your throbbing core. It made you clench. 

“GOD! YES! FUCK! Jeongin!” He kissed down your jaw and neck, biting a little harder each time. 

“Fuck you sound so pretty. Make some noise for me gorgeous.” He bit you again, hard. 

“OW! JEOn-” He rolled his hips into yours rubbing against your clit through your clothes. 

“Fuck!” You grabbed two hand fulls of his hair and pulled as he started to nip his way down your neck again, more gently this time. You tugged and tilted his head back before sinking your teeth into the crook of his neck and shoulder. 

“Mmmm, okay, I deserved that.” You both laughed and Jeongin gripped your ass and carried you to your bedroom. He tossed you on your bed and you laughed again. 

“Get those shorts and panties off.” You smirked. 

“What panties?” Jeongin’s mouth watered. 

“Such a bad girl. No panties? Let’s see.” Jeongin grabbed your shorts and pulled revealing you in fact did not have any panties on. When he saw your glistening folds, he licked his lips.  He took his fingers and spread you open then spit on your pussy before leaning down to lick it up. Your head flew back and you moaned at the contact. His warm wet tongue slowly, gently exploring every inch of you. Going down on you was as much for him as it was for you it seemed, the way he moaned into your cunt when he gently sucked at your clit. You gripped his hair tightly again. 

“Ohh my god Innie fuck! You're doing so good god please! Fingers please!” Jeongin slurped at you and pushed two fingers inside. He started slow pumping them in and out, stretching you but when he started to get really excited his tongue worked faster and he finger fucked you harder. 

“Yesyesyesyessss! Holy fucking don’t stop I’m gonna cum!” A guttural growl came from Jeongin as he curled his fingers inside you pushing you over the edge. You had never cum so hard in your life. Your legs shook and attempted to trap Jeongin between them only stopped by his strong hands pinning them down to the bed. He gave you one more lick from bottom to top and then kissed his way up your body. He kissed you so sweetly and then looked into your eyes. 

“How do you feel about choking on my cock beautiful?” Truthfully your mouth watered at the idea. You got on your knees and Jeongin stood in front of you. You finally unfastened his pants and pulled them and his underwear down at the same time. His cock sprung out hard and ready. You grabbed him and gently licked the tip. Then again, then again. 

“Don’t tease me now, or remember, payback is a bitch.” You smiled looking up at him then took his tip into your mouth swirling your tongue around him. He patted your hair. 

“Such a good girl. Go on. More.” You took more of him into your mouth sliding down the shaft of his dick, coating it in plenty of saliva. The first time you went down enough to gag on him Jeongin let out a soft moan. 

“That’s it. Deeper.” He thrusted when you went down, pushing the tip of his dick deeper into your throat. You gagged again. 

“You can do it beautiful, choke on it.” You hummed and Jeongin held your head as he thrusted deeper into your throat, over and over, fucking your face as you drooled, spit dribbling down your chin.  

“Look up at me. Fuck! Yes my pretty little slut! Open up and let me fuck that throat.” You opened your mouth and Jeongin’s cock squelched as he punished the back of your throat. He gripped your hair tightly and then pushed you all the way down on his cock, pressing your nose into his pubic muscle and then pinching it closed. You gagged and struggled a little and he let go allowing you to pull off him. 

“God damn fuck yes you are such a good girl, a fucking goddess! Get that sexy ass up on this bed I’m fucking you stupid right now!” He practically lifted and tossed you on the bed again.  

“Bend over.” It wasn’t a request and you weren’t going to argue anyway. You bent over and Jeongin gave your ass a smack. 

“Fuck yes my good little whore listens so well, sucks so well, I gotta fill her up good.” You nodded leaning down into the mattress, your ass perched up high for Jeongin to admire. Both hands rubbed your ass cheeks and he gave one a smack again. 

“God fuck me please!” Jeongin lined up with your dripping hole and started to push the tip in. You moaned out as he sank all the way into you. When his balls were pressed against you he let out a grunt. 

“You’re so fucking tight! How are you this tight gorgeous? Those assholes weren’t even fucking you right huh?” You shook your head no, honestly none of your ex’s fucked you well. If you got off it was because you were on top and you got yourself off. Jeongin had you seeing stars already. 

“Don’t worry this is my pussy now.” Just like with his fingers Jeongin slowly started thrusting into you from behind. After a minute his grip on your hips tightened and he started to go harder. 

“God yes fuck me like that, hard!” If you told Jeongin to fuck you hard then he was going to do just that. He started fuckin you harder your face pressing further into your mattress with each thrust of his hips into yours. He felt divine. You couldn’t speak it felt so good.  

“You already fucked dumb beautiful? Hmm? Come on let me hear you.” He pulled you up so that his chest was pressed against your back and his cock was so deep inside you all you could do was scream his name in pleasure. 

“JEONGIN! FUCK SO DEEP! YES!” He felt you clenching and shaking, as your orgasm approached he grabbed you around the throat with both hands and started to squeeze, when you started to get a little bit of a head buzz Jeongin let go, you took a breath and came out of nowhere. 

“Good girl cum on my cock. My little whore likes it deep and hard. You like it when I choke you?” You nodded as you reached back and gripped his hair with both hands holding on while he slowly grinded up into you and you rode out your high. Once you had clarity again Jeongin whispered in your ear. 

“On your back gorgeous. I wanna see my goddess’ face when she creams on my cock this time.” His breathy, raunchy words made your body erupt in goosebumps and you shivered. Jeongin pulled out and you fell onto your back and spread your legs. 

“Fuck that’s the prettiest pussy I’ve ever seen.” He rubbed the tip of his cock up and down your swollen cunt then pushed it inside you. 

“Ohhh god yes!” Jeongin fit inside you perfectly, rubbed you in all the right places. He gripped your hips and went rough straight out the gate this time, slamming his hips into yours hard and deep. He leaned down over you, wrapping his arms around you and holding your shoulders as he fucked you harder, making you take all of him. All you could do was lay there and let him take you there. He let go of you and propped himself up over you. He slowed down and started rolling his hips, then one of his hands was wrapped around your throat again pressing with a deliciously perfect amount of pressure. Your legs started to shake and Jeongin knew you were close again. 

“Go on, cum for me baby, give in, give it to me.” You exited your body for at least sixty full seconds before you felt Jeongin’s hips falter and his warm cum fill you. 

“God yes beautiful fucking take it all!” You both shook and trembled through the last bits of your orgasms and then Jeongin fell on top of you sweaty and out of breath. He was heavy and crushing you. 

“Innie, can’t breathe.” You both laughed and he rolled off of you.  

“Sorry.” You giggled and scooted in close.  

“It’s okay, you’re allowed to crush me after fucking me like that... just...” He raised an eyebrow at you. 

“Refrain from crushing other men because of me please. I don’t like seeing you hurt.” Jeongin nodded, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you closer.   

“I will refrain from crushing anyone but you.” You laughed and kissed him. 

“There’s no one I’d rather be crushed by.” 

Please do not repost or translate any of my works. My blog and stories are NSFW and 18+ ONLY! Minors, ageless, and blank blogs will be blocked!

@acciocriativity @caroline-ds-world @chansynie @ughbehavior @jquellen27 @jisuperboard @fixation-dump @lachinitaaaaa @rinrinndou @bangchans-angel @laylasbunbunny @owo-manii-uwu @armystay89 @b00dyguts @purplenimsicle @caticorn61 @lauraneuuh @channieandhisgoonsquad @minnysproutgriffinteddy @svintsandghosts @the-sweetest-rose @alice630 @3rachasninja @m0ri-apeuda @eastleighsblog @linoification @mlink64 @smally97 @fun-fanfics @chansducky10 @starfire21 @cessixja @siewoon @berryberrytan @binnies-minsung-fanclub @lethallyprotected

[v-love]

Sick jpm with a christmas cold x reader? :)

Christmas Blues (JPM x GN!Reader)

Summary: After spending the day on the roof doing Christmas activities with the ghosts of the hotel, James becomes sick.

CW: None

Taglist: @yes-divine-ruler @evanpetersfav @preselelle @quicksilversg1rl @kaylaperiodqueenslay @theyluvvkoi @bldmoth @nvtallowed

Word Count: 1729

Images/GIFS are not mine.

Laughter and music could be heard from the top of the marvelous Hotel Cortez. Lights were hung up around the hotel as well as some trees decorated with beautiful crystal ornaments. In the recent years, James has allowed the holidays to be celebrated since he loved seeing how much fun you had. As you threw snowballs at your fellow ghosts, James sips on his hot chocolate, humming at the rich taste. While he was playing with his cup, you threw a snowball at his chest, taking him by surprise. “What on earth?” He shouts, his lips curling into an evil smile. James set down his cup and gathered snow into his hands. “Two can play that game, darling!” He said before hurling a snowball at your back. Hearing you laugh and try to throw more back at him, he chases you around. The other ghosts join in, hurling ball after ball at each other. Soon you all got bored and decided to settle down, telling stories of Christmas past. James recounts a time when his mother had gotten him a metal car instead of the wooden one he originally wanted. He expressed how ecstatic he was because the car he received on that morning was so much better than what he originally wanted. Of course, James left out the sad details of the story. His father had said horrible things to his mother when he found out how much the car was worth. James shook his head out of those memories as he listened to you tell many stories of your family and how many gifts you would receive because of how large your family used to be. He loved listening to you speak. He wanted to hear you all day and everyday. Well he could since you both were dead.

Soon the festivities came to an end, James thanking everyone for another fun Christmas celebration. Hand in hand, you and James went to your shared room. “Did you have fun tonight, my dear?” He asks you, kissing your hand gently. “I did, it was absolutely glorious. How about you?” Your hands make quick work of his shirt, hanging it up to dry. It was cold and wet from all the snow. “Of course. I got to see you have fun.” He says as he helps you with your own clothes. After bathing and slipping into warm nightwear, you both settle into bed. James frowns a bit as he notices that he felt colder than usual, pulling you close to him for warmth. “Are you alright? You’re shaking a little.” You ask, placing your palm on his chest. “Why yes, I’m just fine. A bit cold is all, my love. Let’s rest now, I’m awfully tired.” He said, yawning a bit before holding your hand on his chest. Kissing him briefly on his cheek, you both fall asleep.

The whole night was difficult for James. He was shivering and moving around, making you stir a bit once or twice. In the morning, you notice he’s not in bed. “Jimmy?” You call out, sitting up as you look around your room. Coming out of the bathroom and clearing his throat, he smiles a bit. “You’re awake, good morning. Is something wrong?” He says, drying his hands. He sounded odd to you. His normally silky deep voice now sort of…raspy. Frowning, you shake your head. “No not at all…the bed was just cold. James, are you alright? You look…sickly.” His skin looked clammy and even more pale than usual to you. “Oh yes, I’m alright-“ a short cough erupted from his chest. “Oh Jimmy…” you say, getting out of bed and pulling him close to you. “Don’t tell me you’re ill.” You say, cupping his warm cheeks. “No, dearest. I am perfectly fine.” He says, pulling away with a frown on his face. “Just too much yelling from yesterday’s activities.” He tried to convince you. He only called you dearest when he was agitated…or sick.

Your pleas for him to rest fell on deaf ears, making James a bit for agitated. “I’m far too busy. I’ll rest when I need to so please, don’t worry yourself too much.” He said, moving in to kiss your lips before hesitating and kissing your forehead instead. Your frown deepens as you watch him walk out of the room, cane in hand. Now James Patrick March was not the type to take a day off, you knew that. He just went on his daily duties as he normally did. Speaking to guests at the hotel became difficult, his throat hurting more and more by the second. He opted to just nod and keep the conversations short. The staff quickly noticed his now sour mood and made sure to steer clear from doing anything wrong. James wasn’t sick often but it was always difficult for them because he would become incredibly rude. Liz Taylor sighs softly as she listens to your complaints on how quickly he brushed you off this morning. “Darling, you and I both know he’s not going to give in. James is a…difficult person. Even the Countess didn’t want to associate with him when he would get sick.” She says, wincing a bit at the mention of the Countess. You were the only one that was truly considered a close friend, other than Liz, to the Countess. Recently, Liz and Elizabeth had an argument over some boy they both knew. Tristan Duffy. That boy was something else, you had to admit. “But Liz, this is like…another level. He’s even talking different. I’ve seen him twice today but he only nodded at me and left.” You say, sighing softly. “Men are like that. They don’t want to appear weak at all, especially that James.” She says, making you laugh a little.

Just then, you both watch as James stumbles into the bar. “The usual.” He says, panting a bit. His voice almost completely gone, his skin even more clammy, and his whole body shivering. You and Liz made eye contact, nodding as you both had a silent agreement. “Jimmy, no drinks for today. No more working either.” You say and watch his demeanor change. “Just give me my usual Liz Taylor.” James says, his tone demanding and dripping with irritation. You turn him to face you, warm hands on his very warm cheeks. Looking into his eyes you see the walls he’s made to conceal him being sick fall, him sighing and just laying his head on your shoulder. “I can’t…I’m too exhausted.” He mumbles and lets you lead him back to your shared room. James let’s you undress him and dress him back up in the warmest and softest clothes you could find. Laying down, he groans and coughs. “Dearest…” he says, his voice cracking. “Jimmy, that’s enough talking. Let me take care of you.” You say and gently run your fingers through his hair. Relaxing into the warm bed, he actually lets you. You had never done this before but you tried your best. His face turns sour as he drank the cold medicine, shaking his head. “Don’t be a child, Jimmy.” You say and dab at his sweating face. He grumbles and soon falls asleep, looking peaceful for a few moments.

When he opens his eyes again, it’s evening. You come in with a tray of food. “Oh good, you’re awake. Did you sleep well, honey?” You ask as you place the try down, coming up to check his temperature. “You’re finally at a more normal temperature…” you say and finally take a good look at him. “What?” You ask, tilting your head a bit. “Excuse my language but, as shitty as I feel…I would want to get sick again if it meant being taken care of by you.” He says, his voice now more normal. You blush and shake your head, kissing his cheek. “You’re too much. Now eat your food. I made it, it’s chicken noodle soup with bread. It’s my mothers recipe…it always helped me when I was sick. Also tea…iced because you’ll become too hot again.” You ramble, helping him sit up. “Sounds absolutely delightful…thank you my love.” He clears his throat before eating, nodding at the taste. “Tastes divine…I wish I had met your mother when she came by. When will she be coming back?” He asks, chewing on a soft carrot piece. “Next week actually. Hopefully you’ll be fully recovered by then…she’s turning 95 on Thursday.” You look down and play with the blanket. “She’s always asking about you…she always asks why I can never see her and why I look so young at 75.” You both laugh a bit, making him cough. “Wait until she finds out I’m 128.” He says and wipes his mouth. “She’d freak out.” You say and watch as he smiles fondly at you.

“I wish you could’ve met my father.” You say and held his hand. “He would’ve liked you…well no he wouldn’t because you’re 128.” You giggle and watch him roll his eyes. “I already met him, darling. He stayed here back in…when was it?” He says, thinking hard. “Ah yes, 1946. You weren’t born yet, to my understanding they were here on honeymoon. I’m surprised your mother didn’t recognize my name. I’m sure I said hello to them.” He says and sips on his tea. “Really? And here I am, girlfriend of the owner of the hotel they stayed at for their honeymoon.” You say and smile softly. “Girlfriend? You’re practically my wife.” He says, frowning at you. “Yes but technically we aren’t married nor engaged.” Rolling your eyes at him you take a piece of one of the slices of bread. “I suppose you’re right…you’re still my wife.” He says and checks the time. “I need to take more of that medicine you gave me. It’s been…6 hours?” He asks and watches you nod. You give him the medicine and laugh as he scrunched his face up at the taste. “You’ll fall asleep again soon.” You say and clean up, placing the tray elsewhere. “Sleep with me then. I missed your presence today.” He says and you obliged.

“What on earth would I do without you?” He asks and soon became drowsy. “I can’t believe…you’re mine…in sickness…” he doesn’t finish his sentence before falling asleep. “And in health.” You say before drifting off yourself.

Authors Note: yes i know it’s not christmas but for us ricans, Christmas doesn’t end until mid January. hope you guys liked this short little story!! i liked making this a lot because it’s so cute!!

If you’d like to be added to the taglist, dm me or comment!!

[mrsparkjimi-na]

H for Home

Hello friends, I’m sorry that it took me so long to post but to be true all feeling of writing left when Jiminah enroll to the military service, I know he will return home in 520 days but I really miss him. But who is counting right?

Without further things to tell you, I now leave you with the small drabble.

Pairing: Park Jimin x reader (Y/N)

Warnings: None

Words: 446

With the start of tours comes been in airports, airplanes, hotels, rehearsals, concerts, eat fast food, sleep and do all over again until the end of them all far away from home, but not all the times home is a place...

You start to hear the sound of the opening door of the hotel, starting to feel excited and nervous all the sudden.

You see him opening the door and enter without bothering to turn on the lights, closing the door behind him and rest his back on the now close door. 

Making you bite your lower lip trying to control the urges to walk and hug him knowing how anxious and nervous been on tour cause him. 

He sigh trying to release all the stress out to then turn the light and wait until his eyes and yours adjust to the bright light “Jagi?!” he question surprise, unable to believe you where here. 

“Are you gonna stand there all night or are you gonna greet me properly?” you reply to him with a big smile and open arms waiting for him. 

He didn’t said anything, he just drop everything he was carrying and start to short the distance that separate you.

“I can’t believe you’re here, Y/N!” he state pulling you into a crushing hug.

“Jiminah, you’re crushing us” you let him know, making him release you immediately.

He bend over your stomach to place a kiss in your now pronounce baby bump “I’m sorry agi” 

“Did you miss us?” you call his attention, making him incorporate to then kiss your lips. 

“You don’t have an idea” hugging you again, this time been careful with your baby bump. 

He sigh, closing his eyes still hugging you “what is it, Jiminah?” 

“Don’t get me wrong jagi” he start opening his eyes to see you “I love that both of you are here with me” placing his right hand over your bump. 

You pass an arm over his shoulder and start caressing the hair your hand reach “but?” 

“but you should have stay at home jagi, you need to rest and been from one place to another won’t help you at all” he state, starting to get worry. 

You move yourself to be in front of him “don’t matter where we’re Jiminah as long we’re together, I know everything would be fine, you know why?” you question him serious. 

“Why?” he ask curious of your answer. 

“Because my home is where my heart is” you state.

“And where is your home?” he question eyes fix on you. 

“With you” you respond, standing on your foot fingers to rest your forehead on his “Where ever you’re” you add.

[ac-liveblogs]

Manshine City vs Bastard Munchen Part 2 "Oops I stopped Reading For Two Weeks" Edition

Last time: Nagi stood underneath Reo's window with a boombox and asked him to take him back. Reo, who swore he didn't need Nagi and was going to do this for HIMSELF, flings himself out the window.

I do like that Isagi is trying to master-mind the field 'oooh I can predict your every move!', theoretically Kaiser is doing the exact same thing, and they still fail to account for each other and completely fuck up their Pro Strats. I swear, Kaiser is just if the Isagi That Plays Soccer existed off the field as well as on it.

GOD Reo's inner monologue. "We split up once... we followed different paths..." ONE it's been like a month absolute tops TWO I maintain that Reo and Nagi exist in a totally different genre than the rest of the cast.

(Tbh I'm a little disappointed the Reo-Nagi drama seems to have resolved so easily, though there might still be tension outside of the field. I doubt Nagi's going to try and split up with Reo again at this point. Gotta wrap up these character arcs and move on, save the real meat for Episode Nagi in 4 years. Which is a shame, because given how batshit things were back in Blue Lock Reo absolutely Losing It was one of the things I was looking forward to most. What, he can't be too crazy in the insane soccer manga?)

Kaiser and Isagi, you two are my only hope... I need a murder attempt, c'mon...

I don't know enough about soccer to say if a two-stage volley is an 'insane, godly move' but I think a 5-stage anything has got to be pretty impressive. Who knew Nagi could be bothered to count that high. (I know Nagi didn't actually punt Isagi in the face but it sure looked like it, I was taken aback for a second.)

I love the way Nagi's 'ego' manifests on the pitch too, it's great. Gets really hyped up for a little bit of a game, gets super intense, trashtalks like a champ, I am a GOD routine, scores an absolutely insane fucking goal, goes 'yep that's all I wanted' and powers down mid-game. It's not over yet but he did what he came for! He's just like me forreal

"If not for the simple fact that Nagi doesn't know how to play this game, he would be unstoppable!!!" - Reo Mikage, probably

Agi... Reo... guys... chill

Chris' absolute lack of class is the funniest thing about him. This match is being televised, don't go calling your opponent a slut again.

Isagi "I have every tool I need to beat Kaiser except actually being better at this game than him!" Yoichi

Noa's just watching his team burn around him like "hmm. Excellent."

Chigiri throwing his hat into the 'dumb eye power' ring with a truly outstanding entry.

I know Kunigami is in this game, it just really doesn't feel like Kunigami is in this game. The match is losing track of Chigiri as well, I got a little surprised when he popped back up. I know the lack of synergy is on purpose due to the 'every man's either out for himself or the guy he's mentally ill about' aspect/'build your team around the striker' philosophy, but it does make the teams feel really uneven when the only characters that tend to matter are the Strikers + whoever's supporting them at the moment. It wasn't so bad when they were playing with limited teams, but right now half the teams feel like total space filler.

(The whole 'guaranteed shot' thing feels a bit... insulting to the concept of goalies/defense players too. I don't know much about soccer but it does feel like a major dick move LOL. To be fair, Gagamaru is not a goalie. Does Bastard Munchen not have a goalie better at goal-keeping than 'guy with hard head that doesn't play this role normally'.)

But yeah seriously Kunigami went to an ambiguous soccer torture camp to get his whole personality destroyed and for what. This? He doesn't even get to pretend to be the biggest threat on the field for even one game. Give that man a refund. Or at least some free therapy.

"go... the world's most random shot... even i don't know where it's going!!!" that is NOT impressive that's what i do every time I kick a ball. maybe i should be a pro soccer player. i could beat noel noa

Isagi has some nerve being shocked that Yukimiya is sabotaging him because ~they're on the same team~ yeah okay whatever dude and what was your end-goal here again

man, these matches just keep getting longer and longer despite the fact that they're aiming for way less goals...

[jadagul]

I really liked this Sarah Constantin article on why current AI approaches fundamentally aren't going to lead to AGI.

Her discussion of ontological robustness reminded me of the point I was making the other day, about how GPT on a deep level can't learn.

And for the agent to be able to conceive of [the possibility that its fundamental model might be wrong] and count it as something to avoid, for it to be able to say I don’t want my loss function to be spoofed by something that kills me, it needs to have a “goal” or a “value” that goes beyond its loss function. AKA, not a static terminal goal. A way to distinguish the “true real-world goal” from one’s mere current specification of it, and update the specification as necessary. AKA, cross-ontological transfer of goals.

GPT-like systems just...can't do this. They have their training weights, and that's what they have; nothing ever updates.

And of course there are ways to retrain them and fine-tune them, but that's awkward, and manual, and not feeding off of any of the AI capabilities that GPT has. There's no iterative improvement; and there's no obvious or even really suggested path for how to get there.

Sarah says no one is even really working on this, and I believe her. I haven't encountered anyone genuinely working on this; and it doesn't seem terribly commercially useful, while it does seem super hard. And this is part of why I'm just not terribly worried about the AI apocalypse.

[abalidoth]

it is fucking wild to me that bad AI (LLM specifically) takes are coming from such vastly separate parts of the conversation

You've got the tech bros on one side going "I talked to chatgpt for an hour and I'm having an existential crisis about the nature of humanity 😨" like my dude. Even on the off chance that this does qualify for sentience (it doesn't) this is something that people much smarter than you have been thinking about for decades. You are not unique in your "but what if AI think DIFFERENT??" tweets.

(...and then these chucklefucks are trying to solve the alignment problem with mind control -- directly injecting contrary thoughts into the internal state of the network. Which if this thing IS as smart as they fear it is, is horrifically unethical, and if it isn't, it's pointless. Sigh.)

But then on the other side you have non-tech anti-AI folks with the "ugh why does anyone think it's intelligent 🙄 it's just mad libs/cut-and-paste prediction" as though GPT is just a really big Markov model or something.

Like, ok, no. The end task is language modeling, yes, but we're asking these systems to model language to such a high precision that the only way to do it is to actually develop an internal conceptual model of the world. This isn't just "this word usually comes after that word", it's "this string of words maps to _this_ concept in thought space, that string maps to this _other_ concept, here's a transform that bridges the two."

Is it conscious? Fuck man I dunno, we kinda have to figure out what the hell consciousness is other than "the thing humans have, you know, the thing where you're conscious!" before we can properly answer that question. But I'd say there's a tremendous amount to support that LLMs have _thoughts_. Because we can see them! They are mostly black boxes, yes, but you can still poke around inside the internal vector spaces and figure out what areas light up with different concepts, same as you can on a human brain with a PET scan.

Yes, the task they're set to is currently language modeling, but the means by which they do it necessarily requires context-dependent abstract concept manipulation on a pretty impressive scale. And that's not bringing in things like AutoGPT where a primary LLM spins up prompts for daughter LLMs in order to solve some specific task. As someone in the field, it's honestly pretty impressive, and we're going to start seeing major shockwaves soon.

This is the first time that the eternal joke of AGI being "twenty years away for seven decades and counting" is starting to feel like it might be outdated. It's gonna change a lot -- don't let the fact that a lot of the voices talking about this are clueless techbro types lull you into thinking otherwise.

[swishysword]

Last time on JJM, my players went through a brief tournament arc. Gauntlet style mission (no short rests beyond a stabilize between encounters), but they could leave after any fight and take their rewards.

Absolutely clowned on 2 of the 3 opponents (the Other Suns and Brigade Legion) and partially clowned on the last (Mastadon), this was their LL2 first encounter and I set up a nice movement and trap stadium for their lovely Sunzi to play around in.

Side objectives to use the environment for kills, refunding them at least 1 cp every time they did. They've ended with no structure lost, but now a lot of them have a maxed overcharge die and are down several repairs from self-healing.

Copy of the mission deets under cut.

M03.1 - Gauntlet

"This one isn't a job offered to us by any particular party, but instead an opportunity that's presented itself. Gloria's running a tournament called "The Gauntlet", apparently looking for fresh talent among mercenaries and ignobles. I say, let's sweep them clean - there's a lot of wealth in one spot and we'll raise our profile to boot."

Objectives

Primary Objective // 1: Defeat at least one of the opposing mercenary groups. COMPLETE! - Reward: +1 Wealth to all players.

Secondary Objective // 1: Defeat two of the opposing mercenary groups. - Reward: +1 Wealth to all players, +1 House of Remembrance reputation COMPLETE!

Secondary Objective // 2: Defeat all three of the opposing mercenary groups. COMPLETED - Reward: +1 Wealth to all players, +1 House of Remembrance reputation, +1 KTB reputation

Secondary Objective // 3: Defeat 3 enemies via using Environmental Features. (3/3) COMPLETE! - Reward: x1 CORE Battery, immediately placed in the arena in the player's Deployment zone, and usable as a Free Action while in the zone. If unused, goes into Reserves.

Secondary Objective // 4: Defeat 6 enemies via using Environmental Features. (6/6) COMPLETED - Reward: x1 CORE Battery, immediately placed in the arena in the player's Deployment zone, and usable as a Free Action while in the zone. If unused, goes into Reserves.

Secondary Objective // 5: Defeat 9 enemies via using Environmental Features. (6/9) - Reward: x1 CORE Battery, immediately placed in the arena in the player's Deployment zone, and usable as a Free Action while in the zone. If unused, goes into Reserves.

Environment

Arena - Pits: When a character is involuntarily moved into a pit, they take 3 AP Kinetic Damage. They must then make an AGI check, or be knocked Prone. A character can only be affected by a pit if they are moved onto it by involuntary movement, not by regular movement or starting a turn above it. - Coil Pillars: Can be activated or deactivated either with a Tech Attack vs E-def 8, or a Quick Action while adjacent to the pillar. At the end of every round while active, characters within Burst 1 of the pillar take 3 AP Energy Damage and must make an ENG check or become Jammed. - Launch Treads: Any character that voluntarily enters the space of the treads immediately ends movement, and then flies 8 spaces in a direction of their choosing. Any character that involuntarily enters this space flies 8 spaces in the direction of their mover's choice.

Special Notes

This is a Gauntlet style mission, meaning that there will be multiple encounters back to back that count as new scenes but do NOT allow a Short Repair between them.

[general--winter]

Could we please get general relationship headcanons for Ann from Persona 5?

author's note: Ann my beloved. My best friend in the whole wide world. I see a lot of myself in her actually, if I wasn't so reserved lol. I bestow upon you the headcanons. Please, enjoy and thank you for the request!

rating: general

fandom: persona 5

pairing: ann takamaki x gn!reader

warnings: mentions of objectification of women's bodies

word count: 671

summary: What would Ann be like in a relationship?

Oh gosh Ann, I love her with all my heart. There’s a reason her element alignment is Agi (fire), she’s a passionate and driven woman who will stop at nothing to see her way to her goals. So, I imagine that when her mind is set on pursuing someone romantically, she would be the one to pull out all of the stops, but only if she’s already comfortable around them. Perhaps as a friend or acquaintance she has a positive history with, that she can trust. I definitely don’t think she would want to be in a relationship before being friends with someone, just to make sure their vibes are proper.

Chocolate on Valentine’s Day? She’s suave as all hell about it. Flowers? Any time you meet up to hang out, she’ll sneak to the florist and get you a single rose (or whatever your favorite flower is when she figures it out). A nice night out? I’d imagine once her modeling career takes off, and why wouldn’t it, she would treat you to a delectable and fancy all-you-can-eat buffet and take you on a walk through Inokashira Park.

Her love language is acts of service and gift giving, these two especially going hand in hand. She loves to do things for people, to show them that she cares about them through what she does. That doesn’t mean that she doesn’t also appreciate a good gift though. Perhaps buy her that makeup collab set she’s been talking about all month? Or the new album from her favorite band that just came out? Just to show you listen to her and care about her interests as much as she cares about your own!

Despite her forward nature when pursuing a romantic interest, she’s pretty shy about physical contact. The first time you hug her, she’s stiff as a board and takes a minute to relax into it. You initiate your first kiss together, and it flusters her beyond all belief. This stems from her negative experience being objectified as a model, especially as a woman with traditionally Western features (naturally blonde hair and blue eyes) in Japan. She definitely has to be eased into it very gently, and reassured consistently along the way that you’re not there just for her physicality, but for her as a complete person. Either way, she’s not really touchy-feely, but if your love language is physical touch, I guarantee you that she will do her best to make sure you feel as loved as you make her feel.

I think the Phantom Thieves would all really enjoy your presence when you’re introduced to them (if you don’t already know them), except the way you make Morgana bicker way too much. If it is your first time meeting Ann’s friends, their opinion is incredibly valuable to her; she trusts their instincts as much as she does her own. It would be best to make a good impression! Especially with Shiho too, I imagine that she’s Ann’s personal shadow defender and will hurt you if you do anything to Ann. (Don’t let the kind and outgoing facade fool you after her recovery from depression, Shiho can and will throw hands for Ann for playing such a huge role in saving her life.)

Overall, day-to-day with her I imagine to be very exciting and fun. Ann is always down for an adventure to the beach or the amusement park to spice up the day, but she’s more than content staying bundled up inside or just hanging out at Leblanc all day with you. Her personality is unpredictable and she can have an incredibly short temper, but overall it's usually in jest. It’s easy to tell when Ann is being sarcastically pissed off for comedic effect or when she’s really angry by the tone of her voice. She’s incredibly impatient, and you catch yourself teasing her until she’s incredibly flustered and “enraged” about her overreaction to the crepe stand’s wait times. She secretly enjoys it, not that she’ll ever admit it.

[void-thing]

i'm gonna do that "oddly specific questions" thing I just reblogged for Ruby

this will be a 2 part post because the post is too long

(yes this is the only actual postable picture I have of her for some reason. I will rectify that tomorrow)

(note: all references to AI in this context are actual AGI, not the shitty LLMs people today are talking about)

What's the lie your character says most often? She actually doesn't tell lies often enough for this to be applicable. Partially because she doesn't talk to most people. If she likes you enough to talk to you she likes you enough to be honest with you.

How loosely or strictly do they use the word 'friend'? Very strictly. She can count her friends on one hand (not including her wife and three children)

How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing? She actually has an AR system that reads her mind to determine her emotional state and tell people around her. This helps with the difficulties she has expressing them naturally.

What's a hobby they used to have that they miss? She doesn't really have any. If she did she'd start doing them again.

Can they cry on command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen? No. Her therapist is too good for that.

What's their favorite [insert anything] that they've never recommended to anyone before? Favorite flavor of nutrient paste. Most people don't care about nutrient paste. She loves it though, because it's convenient, consistent, and inoffensive.

What would you (mun) yell in the middle of a crowd to find them? What would their best friend and/or romantic partner yell? Just... her name? Her name is Ruby. But this is the 24th century, we use AR to find people.

How loose is their use of the phrase ‘I love you’? There are only 4 people in the solar system she will say these words to: her wife and her 3 children.

Do they give tough love or gentle love most often? Which do they prefer to receive? Gentle gentle gentle. She's a cinnamon roll. She will get upset if you are tough to her or around her about anything in any way. She is very sensitive.

What fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity? Anything about nuclear fusion reactors. Literally anything. If she has a chance to talk about that topic she will take it.

If someone was impersonating them, what would friends / family ask or do to tell the difference? Probably something about her childhood. She had an abusive family growing up and the only people she's really talked to about it are her wife and therapist.

What's something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific! That one meme from My Little Drone where CinderEye blows up Malaysia

When do they fake a smile? How often? She used to back when she lived with her abusive parents. Nowadays though, she doesn't. She's recovered and is now much more honest about how she's feeling. It's just as well - she's very bad at faking smiles.

How do they put out a candle? What's a candle? She's never heard of that before.

What’s the most obvious difference between their behavior at home, at work, at school, with friends, and when they're alone? She has very strict boundaries and only really loosens them around her family and very close friends. She doesn't go to work or have a job though, unless participating in her mandatory Civil Guidance counts as work. (it's just voting on shit)

What kinds of people do they have arguments with in their head? I don't understand this question

What do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them? She notices her face, most other people notice the sick climate-controlled bodysuit she never leaves her house without.

Who do they love truly, 100% unconditionally (if anyone)? Her wife and kids, of course.

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they've been avoiding? Probably hide in the corner in silence, even if spoken to. If she had to talk she'd have her AI assistant give her a script to recite.

Who do they like as a person but hate their work? Vice versa, whose work do they like but don't like the person? She hates Stella Sol but does want to visit the Solar Union someday.

What common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it? She's autistic so she tends to dislike a lot of confusing neurotypical mannerisms such as not saying what you mean and expecting other people to understand. This was a problem back when she lived with her abusive family, now not so much.

What simple activity that most people do / can do scares your character? Talking. (unless it's about fusion reactors or MLD. Then she won't shut up)

What do they feel guilty for that the other person(s) doesn’t / don’t even remember? She tends to be the one doing the remembering.

Did they take a cookie from the cookie jar? What kind of cookie was it? She only likes the chewy variant of chips a'hoy.

What subject / topic do they know a lot about that’s completely useless to the direct plot? Fusion reactors. However, bold of you to assume she's part of a plot. this is just an OC i made for funsies

How would they respond to being fired by a good boss? Probably hiding in her bed and crying

What’s the worst gift they ever received? How did they respond? Her daughter showed her a cool rock and she did her best to pretend she finds rocks interesting

What do they tell people they want? What do they actually want? At this point she kinda has everything she wants. Her life is pretty good now. Mostly she tells people she wants to go home.

How do they respond when someone doesn’t believe them? Depending on the topic and context she will either cry or double down on it.

(part 1/2)

[transformersmr-hq]

Quick question. What alt mode is the fastest in ur continuation?

Short answer: Space shuttles.

Long answer: It depends on circumstances. Details provided under readmore.

To be honest, any altmode can achieve the "fastest" title if they were a speedster-type outlier. However, since that's obviously not the point of the question here, so let's state what's obvious first:

In order to be considered the "fastest altmode," They must have control over their speed and direction (e.g. launching them with orbital railgun doesn't count)

Now then, let's get started.

On land - Hovering type Racers

As I mentioned earlier, Hoverbikes or hovering vehicles are part of the groundframe family. In fact, it's actually considered as a type of beneficial mutation, which means any altmode with wheels has a slim chance of being hatched with thrusters instead.

Naturally, hovercrafts can generate greater speed than their wheeled counterparts as they are relatively free from road condition issues. Adding that with sleek, aerodynamic structure of a racer frame, and you have an ultimate speed demon.

One downside is that, the faster they get, the more unstable they get as they do not have any wheels to keep them firmly on ground when they are trying to make a turn. Sometimes they spin out of control as soon as they hit the curve when they are at their top speed.

On Atmosphere - Seekers

Basically, they are F1s of the sky. The entire species evolved to have maximum SPD, maximum AGI, and minimum of anything else, so there is no way a plain Cessna or Helicopter can ever take them over at Sky race. It's pretty obvious just by how their alt mode looks, honestly.

'But hey, wait a sec! Didn't you mentioned it was the Shuttles that were the fastest? What happened to that?'

Well......

On anywhere else - Space Shuttles

The Seekers may be the fastest on atmosphere, but the space is a vast place with no air friction no gravitational pull and plenty of space to accelerate. Given enough time, Shuttle can and will hurl themselves through the void with almost godzillion times the speed of an average Seeker. That alone would be enough to grant them the title of "fastest altmode."

Besides, the terminal velocity needed to escape Earth's atmosphere is 11.9km/s(~42840km/h). No Seeker would ever dare to challange THAT. This would have made the Shuttles the fastest on atmosphere too, but as I mentioned they can only produce such speed when they are going to Space. Their atmospheric cruising speed is obviously a lot less impressive than those of Seekers.