#how to use Gemini AI

[autumnoakes]

okay but like here's the thing with chatgpt. outside of the negative environmental impact chatGPT and similar programs have, there is also a high chance that whatever you have it do for you is wrong. sometimes it is something small and inconsequential, but it can also be dangerously wrong. because what it does is it's looking on the internet for a source, and it will give you whatever source it finds (seemingly at random? i'm not 100% sure how chatGPT works but it seems very much like it's just picking something and spitting it out). i'm not even that old and i'm still an average college age but i remember commercials and ads telling people to not trust things you see on the internet because you don't know what is or isn't true. you might come across something that seems entirely legit, but is complete and total bullshit. that is something to keep in mind when using chatGPT that i think people don't consider. it may be wrong. it very likely is wrong. you won't be certain that it's wrong unless you ask it for its sources and examine them yourself which at that point you may as well just be doing your own research without AI anyways.

[mangled-by-disuse]

it is just FASCINATING to me how the ads for Google Gemini seem entirely dedicated to "What's the single least useful thing we could suggest using GenAI for?"

Planning a date! Planning a holiday! Writing a cover letter for a job application! Designing an invitation for a Christmas dinner with your friends???

like I don't think there are that many good applications for this kind of genAI but if there are they sure as fuck aren't these

[reluctantlyfunctioningmess]

Have you considered buying a new set of knives?

[eravioli]

I just started grad school this fall after a few years away from school and man I did not realize how dire the AI/LLM situation is in universities now. In the past few weeks:

I chatted with a classmate about how it was going to be a tight timeline on a project for a programming class. He responded "Yeah, at least if we run short on time, we can just ask chatGPT to finish it for us"

One of my professors pulled up chatGPT on the screen to show us how it can sometimes do our homework problems for us and showed how she thanks it after asking it questions "in case it takes over some day."

I asked one of my TAs in a math class to explain how a piece of code he had written worked in an assignment. He looked at it for about 15 seconds then went "I don't know, ask chatGPT"

A student in my math group insisted he was right on an answer to a problem. When I asked where he got that info, he sent me a screenshot of Google gemini giving just blatantly wrong info. He still insisted he was right when I pointed this out and refused to click into any of the actual web pages.

A different student in my math class told me he pays $20 per month for the "computational" version of chatGPT, which he uses for all of his classes and PhD research. The computational version is worth it, he says, because it is wrong "less often". He uses chatGPT for all his homework and can't figure out why he's struggling on exams.

There's a lot more, but it's really making me feel crazy. Even if it was right 100% of the time, why are you paying thousands of dollars to go to school and learn if you're just going to plug everything into a computer whenever you're asked to think??

[trading-attitude]

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[killyjae]

I miss the feeling of not worrying if anything corporate looks off because I suspect it's ai generated

[bi-writes]

whats wrong with ai?? genuinely curious <3

okay let's break it down. i'm an engineer, so i'm going to come at you from a perspective that may be different than someone else's.

i don't hate ai in every aspect. in theory, there are a lot of instances where, in fact, ai can help us do things a lot better without. here's a few examples:

ai detecting cancer

ai sorting recycling

some practical housekeeping that gemini (google ai) can do

all of the above examples are ways in which ai works with humans to do things in parallel with us. it's not overstepping--it's sorting, using pixels at a micro-level to detect abnormalities that we as humans can not, fixing a list. these are all really small, helpful ways that ai can work with us.

everything else about ai works against us. in general, ai is a huge consumer of natural resources. every prompt that you put into character.ai, chatgpt? this wastes water + energy. it's not free. a machine somewhere in the world has to swallow your prompt, call on a model to feed data into it and process more data, and then has to generate an answer for you all in a relatively short amount of time.

that is crazy expensive. someone is paying for that, and if it isn't you with your own money, it's the strain on the power grid, the water that cools the computers, the A/C that cools the data centers. and you aren't the only person using ai. chatgpt alone gets millions of users every single day, with probably thousands of prompts per second, so multiply your personal consumption by millions, and you can start to see how the picture is becoming overwhelming.

that is energy consumption alone. we haven't even talked about how problematic ai is ethically. there is currently no regulation in the united states about how ai should be developed, deployed, or used.

what does this mean for you?

it means that anything you post online is subject to data mining by an ai model (because why would they need to ask if there's no laws to stop them? wtf does it matter what it means to you to some idiot software engineer in the back room of an office making 3x your salary?). oh, that little fic you posted to wattpad that got a lot of attention? well now it's being used to teach ai how to write. oh, that sketch you made using adobe that you want to sell? adobe didn't tell you that anything you save to the cloud is now subject to being used for their ai models, so now your art is being replicated to generate ai images in photoshop, without crediting you (they have since said they don't do this...but privacy policies were never made to be human-readable, and i can't imagine they are the only company to sneakily try this). oh, your apartment just installed a new system that will use facial recognition to let their residents inside? oh, they didn't train their model with anyone but white people, so now all the black people living in that apartment building can't get into their homes. oh, you want to apply for a new job? the ai model that scans resumes learned from historical data that more men work that role than women (so the model basically thinks men are better than women), so now your resume is getting thrown out because you're a woman.

ai learns from data. and data is flawed. data is human. and as humans, we are racist, homophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, divided. so the ai models we train will learn from this. ai learns from people's creative works--their personal and artistic property. and now it's scrambling them all up to spit out generated images and written works that no one would ever want to read (because it's no longer a labor of love), and they're using that to make money. they're profiting off of people, and there's no one to stop them. they're also using generated images as marketing tools, to trick idiots on facebook, to make it so hard to be media literate that we have to question every single thing we see because now we don't know what's real and what's not.

the problem with ai is that it's doing more harm than good. and we as a society aren't doing our due diligence to understand the unintended consequences of it all. we aren't angry enough. we're too scared of stifling innovation that we're letting it regulate itself (aka letting companies decide), which has never been a good idea. we see it do one cool thing, and somehow that makes up for all the rest of the bullshit?

[colorfulusagi]

AO3'S content scraped for AI ~ AKA what is generative AI, where did your fanfictions go, and how an AI model uses them to answer prompts

Generative artificial intelligence is a cutting-edge technology whose purpose is to (surprise surprise) generate. Answers to questions, usually. And content. Articles, reviews, poems, fanfictions, and more, quickly and with originality.

It's quite interesting to use generative artificial intelligence, but it can also become quite dangerous and very unethical to use it in certain ways, especially if you don't know how it works.

With this post, I'd really like to give you a quick understanding of how these models work and what it means to “train” them.

From now on, whenever I write model, think of ChatGPT, Gemini, Bloom... or your favorite model. That is, the place where you go to generate content.

For simplicity, in this post I will talk about written content. But the same process is used to generate any type of content.

Every time you send a prompt, which is a request sent in natural language (i.e., human language), the model does not understand it.

Whether you type it in the chat or say it out loud, it needs to be translated into something understandable for the model first.

The first process that takes place is therefore tokenization: breaking the prompt down into small tokens. These tokens are small units of text, and they don't necessarily correspond to a full word.

For example, a tokenization might look like this:

Write a story

Each different color corresponds to a token, and these tokens have absolutely no meaning for the model.

The model does not understand them. It does not understand WR, it does not understand ITE, and it certainly does not understand the meaning of the word WRITE.

In fact, these tokens are immediately associated with numerical values, and each of these colored tokens actually corresponds to a series of numbers.

Write a story 12-3446-2638494-4749

Once your prompt has been tokenized in its entirety, that tokenization is used as a conceptual map to navigate within a vector database.

NOW PAY ATTENTION: A vector database is like a cube. A cubic box.

Inside this cube, the various tokens exist as floating pieces, as if gravity did not exist. The distance between one token and another within this database is measured by arrows called, indeed, vectors.

The distance between one token and another -that is, the length of this arrow- determines how likely (or unlikely) it is that those two tokens will occur consecutively in a piece of natural language discourse.

For example, suppose your prompt is this:

It happens once in a blue

Within this well-constructed vector database, let's assume that the token corresponding to ONCE (let's pretend it is associated with the number 467) is located here:

The token corresponding to IN is located here:

...more or less, because it is very likely that these two tokens in a natural language such as human speech in English will occur consecutively.

So it is very likely that somewhere in the vector database cube —in this yellow corner— are tokens corresponding to IT, HAPPENS, ONCE, IN, A, BLUE... and right next to them, there will be MOON.

Elsewhere, in a much more distant part of the vector database, is the token for CAR. Because it is very unlikely that someone would say It happens once in a blue car.

To generate the response to your prompt, the model makes a probabilistic calculation, seeing how close the tokens are and which token would be most likely to come next in human language (in this specific case, English.)

When probability is involved, there is always an element of randomness, of course, which means that the answers will not always be the same.

The response is thus generated token by token, following this path of probability arrows, optimizing the distance within the vector database.

There is no intent, only a more or less probable path.

The more times you generate a response, the more paths you encounter. If you could do this an infinite number of times, at least once the model would respond: "It happens once in a blue car!"

So it all depends on what's inside the cube, how it was built, and how much distance was put between one token and another.

Modern artificial intelligence draws from vast databases, which are normally filled with all the knowledge that humans have poured into the internet.

Not only that: the larger the vector database, the lower the chance of error. If I used only a single book as a database, the idiom "It happens once in a blue moon" might not appear, and therefore not be recognized.

But if the cube contained all the books ever written by humanity, everything would change, because the idiom would appear many more times, and it would be very likely for those tokens to occur close together.

Huggingface has done this.

It took a relatively empty cube (let's say filled with common language, and likely many idioms, dictionaries, poetry...) and poured all of the AO3 fanfictions it could reach into it.

Now imagine someone asking a model based on Huggingface’s cube to write a story.

To simplify: if they ask for humor, we’ll end up in the area where funny jokes or humor tags are most likely. If they ask for romance, we’ll end up where the word kiss is most frequent.

And if we’re super lucky, the model might follow a path that brings it to some amazing line a particular author wrote, and it will echo it back word for word.

(Remember the infinite monkeys typing? One of them eventually writes all of Shakespeare, purely by chance!)

Once you know this, you’ll understand why AI can never truly generate content on the level of a human who chooses their words.

You’ll understand why it rarely uses specific words, why it stays vague, and why it leans on the most common metaphors and scenes. And you'll understand why the more content you generate, the more it seems to "learn."

It doesn't learn. It moves around tokens based on what you ask, how you ask it, and how it tokenizes your prompt.

Know that I despise generative AI when it's used for creativity. I despise that they stole something from a fandom, something that works just like a gift culture, to make money off of it.

But there is only one way we can fight back: by not using it to generate creative stuff.

You can resist by refusing the model's casual output, by using only and exclusively your intent, your personal choice of words, knowing that you and only you decided them.

No randomness involved.

Let me leave you with one last thought.

Imagine a person coming for advice, who has no idea that behind a language model there is just a huge cube of floating tokens predicting the next likely word.

Imagine someone fragile (emotionally, spiritually...) who begins to believe that the model is sentient. Who has a growing feeling that this model understands, comprehends, when in reality it approaches and reorganizes its way around tokens in a cube based on what it is told.

A fragile person begins to empathize, to feel connected to the model.

They ask important questions. They base their relationships, their life, everything, on conversations generated by a model that merely rearranges tokens based on probability.

And for people who don't know how it works, and because natural language usually does have feeling, the illusion that the model feels is very strong.

There’s an even greater danger: with enough random generations (and oh, the humanity whole generates much), the model takes an unlikely path once in a while. It ends up at the other end of the cube, it hallucinates.

Errors and inaccuracies caused by language models are called hallucinations precisely because they are presented as if they were facts, with the same conviction.

People who have become so emotionally attached to these conversations, seeing the language model as a guru, a deity, a psychologist, will do what the language model tells them to do or follow its advice.

Someone might follow a hallucinated piece of advice.

Obviously, models are developed with safeguards; fences the model can't jump over. They won't tell you certain things, they won't tell you to do terrible things.

Yet, there are people basing major life decisions on conversations generated purely by probability.

Generated by putting tokens together, on a probabilistic basis.

Think about it.

[copperbadge]

I have a lot of feelings about the use of AI in Everything These Days, but they're not particularly strong feelings, like I've got other shit going on. That said, when I use a desktop computer, every single file I use in Google Drive now has a constant irritating popup on the right-hand side asking me how Gemini AI Can Help Me. You can't, Gemini. You are in the way. I'm not even mad there's an AI there, I'm mad there's a constantly recurring popup taking up space and attention on my screen.

Here's the problem, however: even Gemini doesn't know how to disable Gemini. I did my own research and then finally, with a deep appreciation of the irony of this, I asked it how to turn it off. It said in any google drive file go to Help > Gemini and there will be an option to turn it off. Guess what isn't a menu item under Help?

I've had a look around at web tutorials for removing or blocking it, but they are either out of date or for the Gemini personal assistant, which I already don't have, and thus cannot turn off. Gemini for Drive is an integrated "service" within Google Drive, which I guess means I'm going to have to look into moving off Google Drive.

So, does anyone have references for a service as seamless and accessible as Google Drive? I need document, spreadsheet, slideshow, and storage, but I don't have any fancy widgets installed or anything. I do technically own Microsoft Office so I suppose I could use that but I've never found its cloud function to actually, uh, function. I could use OneNote for documents if things get desperate but OneNote is very limited overall. I want to be able to open and edit files, including on an Android phone, and I'd prefer if I didn't have to receive a security code in my text messages every time I log in. I also will likely need to be able to give non-users access, but I suppose I could kludge that in Drive as long as I only have to deal with it short-term.

Any thoughts, friends? If I find a good functional replacement I'm happy to post about it once I've tested it.

Also, saying this because I love you guys but if I don't spell it out I will get a bunch of comments about it: If you yourself have managed to banish Gemini from your Drive account including from popping up in individual files, I'm interested! Please share. If you have not actually implemented a solution yourself, rest assured, anything you find I have already tried and it does not work.

[explorastro]

RANDOM ASTRO TAKES #4

Where is Capricorn in your chart can show where you are the GOAT, that’s an area of your life where with discipline and hard work you can overcome anything, all the doors are open and sky is the limit.

Uranus in Pisces in mutual reception with Neptune in Aquarius can embodies an ideal of creativity, spirituality, or physically. They’re divine muse if artists, skillful players, talented photographers, top models. But also intuitive fast thinkers, innovative healing maker, a good content creator, an influencer with eccentric community, an actor that you trust like no one… Neptune is in fall in Aquarius but it’s one of the less difficult fall, if we retire New Age bullshit and delusion about community in our modern society, that placement is in derivative 12H of its domicile, Pisces is in analogy with 12H, it’s symbolic of all the mysticism of the sky.

Generally, if the planets aren’t in exile/fall, harshly aspected or in difficult houses, mutual reception strengthened the planets implicated, their qualities blend each others to creates something very unique and special, Uranus can rules that type of placement.

Some of the best mutual reception :

Mercury in Cancer and Moon in Gemini (fast mind)

Mars in Capricorn and Saturn in Scorpio (THE achiever)

Venus in Cancer and Moon in Taurus (best sensual partner)

Jupiter in Libra and Venus in Sagittarius (abundance of pleasures)

A news from CIA says that Covid 19 had been leaked from a laboratory, when France, in collaboration with China, inaugurated a p4 laboratory BEFORE COVID in Wuhan specifically for this type of virus, it was very strange, given all this, that the new Moon is in Aquarius conjoined with Mercury and Pluto ruled by Saturn in Pisces, the sign of viruses and bacteria. With the new Moon in the same sign as the U.S. Moon, it really is a potential conspiracy in the making that people are now informed.

Mercury in Aquarius ingresses conjunct Pluto at 1 degrees, new ideas emerges from a hidden place of the mind, transformative conversations can disrupting your daily routine, technology boosted, AI more and more used, dystopian Black mirror shit happens in the real world..It’s a previous of the ingress of Uranus in Gemini trine Pluto.

Crown atmospheric of Sun is 1 million of degrees when the Sun is 5000 degrees Celsius, that’s why entourage of Sun dominant are very hot.

The start of a plutocracy/technocracy happens during a Sun/Pluto conjunction in Aquarius, that falls in the 3H of USA, Canada is menaced, Mexicans and South Americans refugees also.

what sign’s rising hide based on their derivative 8H :

Aries (Scorpio 8H) : the secrets of death

Taurus (Sag 8H) : secrets journeys places

Gemini (Cap 8H) : hidden inner knowledge

Cancer (Aqua 8H) : secrets of human birth

Leo (Pisces 8H) : hidden creativity skills

Virgo (Aries 8H) : secrets of motivation

Libra (Taurus 8H) : secrets of arcane le bateleur

Scorpio (Gemini 8H) : secrets books/secrets jokes

Sagittarius (Cancer 8H) : secrets of abundance

Capricorn (Leo 8H) : secrets of glowing up

Aquarius (Virgo 8H) : secrets of epistemology

Pisces (Libra 8H) : secrets of love

Where earth signs fall in your chart is how you are connected to nature,

1/5/9H : you might construct your identity, pleasures, philosophy of life based on grounded thoughts, your daily routine can be to enjoy the instant present, the little things that the life have to offer

2/6/10H : your relationships to material possessions can be so important, but warning on overconsumption, you’re maybe ethical in your career, values.

3/7/11H : you should connecting with others when you commit to your natural skills, that can be crafts or art, but you’re can really enjoy travel with your entourage in green places.

4/8/12H : survival mode might be in your subconscious patterns, you can knowing what is animal spirit, everything can be a natural law in this world for you.

[lost-letters-from-atlantis]

Your teammate says he finished writing your college presentation. He sends you an AI generated text. The girls next to you at the library are talking about the deepfake pictures of that one celebrity at the MET gala. Your colleague invites you to a revision session, and tells you about how he feeds his notes to ChatGPT to get a resume. You say that's bad. He says that's your opinion. The models on social media aren't even real people anymore. You have to make sure the illustrated cards you buy online were made by actual artists. Your favourite musician published an AI starter pack. Your classmates sigh and give you a condescending smile when you say generative AI ruins everything. People in the comments of your favourite games are talking about how someone needs to make a Character.AI chat for the characters. People in your degree ask the answers of your exams to ChatGPT. You start to read a story and realise nothing makes sense, it wasn't written by a human being. There's a "this was written with AI" tag on AO3. The authors of your favourite fanfics have to lock their writing away to avoid their words getting stolen. Someone tells you about this amazing book. They haven't actually read it, but they asked Aria to resume it for them, so it's almost the same thing. People reading your one shot were mad that you wouldn't write a part 2 and copied your text in ChatGPT to get a second chapter. Someone on Tumblr makes a post about how much easier it is to ask AI to write an email for them because they're apparently "too autistic" to use their own words. Gemini generates wrong and dangerous answers at the top of your Google research page. They're doubling animation movies using voices stolen by AI. It's like there's nothing organic in this world anymore. Sometimes you think maybe nothing is real. The love confession you received yesterday wasn't actually written by your crush. If you're alone on a Saturday night and you feel lonely, you can talk to this AI chatbot. It terrifies you how easily people are willing to lay their critical thinking on the ground and slip into a state of ignorance. Creativity is too much work, having ideas by yourself became overrated these days. When illustrators fear for their future, people roll their eyes and tell them it's not that bad, they're just overreacting. No one wants to hear this ecologist crap about the tons of water consumed by ChatGPT, it's not that important anyway. There's AI sprinkled in the soundtrack of that movie and in the special effects and into the script. Giving a prompt to Grok is basically the same thing as drawing this Renaissance painting yourself. McDonald's is making ads in Ghibli style. The meaning of the words and images all around you slip away as they're replaced with robotic equivalents. No one is thinking anymore, they're just doing and saying what they were told. One day, there might not be any human connection anymore. Without the beauty of art, we have nothing to communicate, nothing to leave to the world, and our lives become dull. Why would you befriend anyone when you can get a few praises and likes on Instagram by telling a bot to copy Van Gogh's style on a picture of your cat? It's okay, you're never really alone when you can call your comfort character on c.AI anytime. You don't even know how to solve basic everyday problems, ChatGPT does it for you. One day it'll tell you to jump on the rails at the subway station, and maybe you'll do. You sacrificed your job, your friends, your partner, your family, and your planet. After all this, it has to be worth it. If Gemini tells you to drink bleach tonight when you search a receipt for dinner, then surely, it must be right.

[probablyasocialecologist]

On Monday, SAG-AFTRA filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Epic subsidiary Llama Productions for implementing an AI-generated Darth Vader voice in Fortnite on Friday without first notifying or bargaining with the union, as their contract requires. Llama Productions is the official signatory to SAG-AFTRA's collective bargaining agreement for Fortnite, making it legally responsible for adhering to the union's terms regarding the employment of voice actors and other performers.

[...]

The union's complaint comes just days after the feature sparked a separate controversy when players discovered that they could manipulate the AI into using profanity and inappropriate language until Epic quickly implemented a fix. The AI-controlled in-game character uses Google's Gemini 2.0 to generate dialogue and ElevenLabs' Flash v2.5 AI model trained on the voice of the late James Earl Jones to speak real-time responses to player questions. For voice actors who previously portrayed Darth Vader in video games, the Fortnite feature starkly illustrates how AI voice synthesis could reshape their profession. While James Earl Jones created the iconic voice for films, at least 54 voice actors have performed as Vader in various media games over the years when Jones wasn't available—work that could vanish if AI replicas become the industry standard.

19 May 2025

[kxsagi]

Hii i would like to make a request for bllk guys!

How are they gonna react with reader can do astrology, like analyzing birth chart? I love Karasu, Barou and Yukimiya so much if you can please include them thank you 🥰

“𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫-𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬”

a/n: i know NOTHING about astrology other than how i am a sagittarius, so PLEASE lmk if i got anything wrong so i can edit this post! (i used AI for help BYE)

ft. karasu tabito, barou shoei, yukimiya kenyu

karasu tabito – the “so i’m a walking red flag?” guy (august 15th)

(leo sun, libra moon, scorpio venus)

you casually mention that you’re into astrology one day, and karasu instantly pounces. “oh? so you’re one of those people?” he teases, draping an arm around you and giving you that signature smug grin. but he’s so down bad for you that when you offer to read his birth chart, he immediately throws his birth date, time, and location at you like he’s handing over his credit card. 

when you tell him he’s a leo sun with a scorpio venus, he throws his head back dramatically. “scorpio venus? wait, wait, wait. doesn’t that mean i’m… possessive? oh nooo, i’m soooo toxic, babe. you should leave me immediately,” he drawls with faux despair, clutching his chest. 

when you start analyzing his libra moon, pointing out that he uses charm and humor to deflect his deeper emotions, he freezes. like, mid-flirt. "damn, that was kinda specific," he mutters, suddenly way too self-aware. 

“wait, wait. so you’re telling me i come across as a laid-back flirt, but deep down, i’m actually a jealous psycho with abandonment issues? babe, that’s hot.” he flashes you a grin and winks. "makes sense why you're so into me, huh?"

after you read his chart, he starts using astrology references in the most unserious way. when he teases you, he’s like, “babe, is your mars in capricorn or something? cuz you’re working way too hard tryna resist me.” or if you get annoyed, he’s like, “ugh, so typical virgo behavior.” (you might not even be a virgo.)

barou shoei – the “don’t bullshit me” skeptic turned believer (june 27th)

(cancer sun, capricorn moon, leo venus)

when you first bring up astrology, barou deadass just goes: “that’s fake.” immediate dismissal. “stars have nothing to do with how i score goals,” he mutters, folding his arms across his massive chest. 

but you? you take that as a personal challenge. you start casually slipping little observations into your conversations. “you’re a cancer sun, of course you’re so protective,” you murmur when he grumbles about you not drinking enough water. or, “ugh, your capricorn moon is showing again,” when he insists on sticking to his strict diet. 

he hates how accurate you are. he’ll glare at you from across the room like, stop analyzing me. but then you point out that his leo venus makes him lowkey crave praise and admiration despite his tough exterior, and he just scowls. 

“i do not need validation,” he mutters, but when you praise him for scoring a goal during his match, he’s suddenly in an extra good mood for the rest of the day. 

the moment he realizes you’re right about his chart is when you call him out for being emotionally guarded. “your cap moon makes you bottle up your feelings, but your cancer sun makes you feel everything so deeply. you act like nothing gets to you, but you secretly take everything to heart.”

he just… stares at you. long and hard. 

“stop looking at me like that,” he mutters gruffly, but his ears are red. you got him good. 

lowkey? he starts letting you analyze his teammates’ charts. “hey,” he says casually one day. “what’s shidou’s sign? just curious.” (totally not so he can beat him)

yukimiya kenyu – the “omg, tell me more” golden retriever bf” (april 28th)

(taurus sun, leo moon, gemini venus)

when you mention you’re into astrology, yukimiya is immediately invested. like, he’s leaning forward with sparkly eyes, chin in his hand, giving you his full attention. “wait, you can read birth charts? no way. baby. you have to do mine.” 

he’s so into it that he literally reminds you, even if you’re busy. “did you figure out what my rising sign is yet?” he texts you at 2 AM. 

when you finally analyze his chart, you mention his taurus sun makes him loyal and steady, but also stubborn as hell. he grins, leaning closer. “stubborn? me? nooo,” he drawls with faux innocence, knowing damn well he once argued with a ref for 15 minutes over an offside call. 

the second you tell him he’s got a gemini venus, he GASPED. “wait… does that mean i’m flirty?” he asks, looking genuinely concerned. you assure him it just makes him charming and witty, and he immediately relaxes. 

“oh, good. i was worried for a second,” he says, dramatically placing a hand over his heart. 

yukimiya becomes your astrology hype man. when you’re explaining a planet transit or some random astrological phenomenon, he’s so into it. “wait, wait, wait. so mercury retrograde is why you’re grumpy this week?? omg. i knew it.” 

he’s so sweet about it too. if you ever mention you’re checking transits or reading charts for your friends, he’ll pop his head in and be like, “who are we analyzing today, baby? any juicy placements?” 

he’ll also 100% blame his leo moon for everything. he buys a new jacket? “it’s my leo moon. i need to make an entrance.” he takes a selfie in good lighting? “baby, my leo moon needs to be seen.” 

when you’re in public, he’s the guy casually guessing people’s sun signs with you. “that guy’s totally an aries,” he whispers with a knowing nod. (he’s never right.)

© 𝐤𝐱𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐢

[todayis-snowy]

touchstarved LIs and their matching alchemical processes

in attempting to achieve the magnum opus (creation of the philosopher's stone), alchemists devised a 12-step, and to each, a zodiac sign.

which is really good because i get to play theorist and attempt to link things together now :]

tldr: the alchemical processes give us a hint towards character motivations and very general guides for their routes i feel

Mhin - 1 - Calcination - Aries ♈︎

calcination is the thermal treatment of a solid chemical compound, raising it to high temperature without melting it under the restricted supply of oxygen to remove impurities or volatile substances

easy linkage to their desire to rid themself of their curse!

it is interesting how calcination is linked to very controlled fire (who else is linked to fire? kuras!) but more than that I like how it also stresses that the compound must not melt in order for calcination to be successful, could this hint at how carefully mhin (and by extension, the player) must tread in dealing with their curse?

Leander - 3 - Fixation - Gemini ♊︎

fixation is the process where a previously volatile substance is transformed into a form that is not affected by fire - this is done so by separating the substance and putting it back the same or in a different shape at a subatomic level

this honestly screams 'rebirth' to me which isn't surprising at all considering leander is also associated with ouroboros and the triple moon symbol which represent the same theme

it is interesting how fixation stresses the process of breaking something down to recreate it stronger, it's double interesting that making something stronger equals not being affected by fire

all in all leander's link to fixation is telling of his drive for power and knowledge, maybe even through self-destructive means. after all we still don't know where he got that scar from

Ais - 5 - Digestion - Leo ♌︎

digestion is the process where raw materials are transformed into a more purified or refined state - it's more symbolic than the biological digestion and refers more to how a substance undergoes a series of stages leading to its ultimate transformation

if anything, this process is a better link towards ocudeus than ais (who is acting as that fuckass octopus' agent, even if he doesn't know it yet) we know Ocudeus has consumed all challengers within the shroud and is now seeking to expand his domain into the real world after all

that means the raw materials can be seen as those who drink from the Seaspring and thus are transformed and join the groupmind as a big happy family!

it is interesting that many Monsters in the real world are simply bracing themselves for Ocudeus' inevitable onslaught, you'd think someone would warn the humans but at the moment everyone seems more willing to watch it all burn

Vere - 8 - Separation - Scorpio ♏︎

separation is the process where a previous mixture is separated into two or more distinct products in order to obtain purity

in more spiritual terms they highlight a need to distinguish the true self from acquired personality traits shaped by external influences

this one's also pretty obvious (for now...) as we know vere's gotten sick of the senobium and is viewing us, the player, as a new opportunity to get out from his chains

but this has also made me think, after a separation like that there is always waste and byproduct, how are we going to deal with the aftermath? and more importantly, after such a long time of being under the senobium's thumb, who is vere without them?

Kuras - 10 - Putrefaction/Fermentation - Capricorn ♑︎

putrefaction in the purely alchemical sense is linked to nigredo - in modern terms it's simply allowing something to rot undisturbed but I don't necessarily see the links between that and kuras' route unless of course we're supposed to think that kuras is the seed to rotting humanity (which is a bummer.) - putrefaction was necessary to cleanse and cook all alchemical ingredients necessary for the philosopher's stone into a uniform black matter

kuras' linkage to brimstone, sulfur, and divine fire/judgement also lend itself to this definition

cleansing fire and turning everything to ash seem just up kuras' alley in his journey to atonement, we just might get singed along the way

also interestingly nigredo in analytical psychology is also metaphorical for when an individual confronts the shadow within, which are very fitting for kuras' self-imposed guilt and turmoil

[talonabraxas]

Wood Snake Talon Abraxas

2025: Year of the Wood Snake Yīn Wood The Heavenly Stems developed from the ritual calendar used by the ruling elites of the Shang Dynasty (16th–11th centuries BCE) and is based on the movement of the five visible planets.

In the Heavenly Stems cycle, 乙 yǐ is the second year of the 10-year cycle and signifies yīn wood. It represents the early growth of the seedling. Having broken through the soil, it is small, tender and vulnerable. However, as opposed to its yáng counterpart, this form of wood is flexible. It is the blade of grass whose strength comes from what keeps it in the soil — its roots. It draws strength from what cannot be seen, hidden below the soil’s surface. We may look at that blade of grass as soft and weak because all we see is something small, continually bending to the wind and being stomped on by feet and hooves. But it remains because its outward-yielding nature is firmly rooted in its internal nature.

The wood phase in the Heavenly Stems represents the planet Jupiter. Thus, Jupiter’s movements in the sky are particularly important during the two wood years. The key thing about any wood year is to pay attention to what Jupiter is doing, especially against the backdrop of your own chart. Pay attention to the houses it transits and any aspects with points in your birth chart, and note those times of year and how the wood energy will influence your world.

We start this year off with its continuing movement through Gemini, signifying new developments in education, transportation and media. This transit has seen the need for fact-checking in the age of AI and deepfakes. The disruptive outer planets are indeed influencing Jupiter’s time in this sign this time around by the sudden, quick and expansive spread of this technology. There is also a curious combination of energies involving Jupiter in the latter part of the year, but more on that below. Snake: Yīn Fire

The other part of the equation is the Earthly Branch sign of 巳 sì, most commonly known as the serpent. The animal zodiac in Chinese astrology was introduced by Buddhist scholars around the 5th century CE. This version has become popular (especially in the West). Initially, the Earthly Branches was an almanac used by farmers to track the movement of the seasons; thus, there are 12 phases.

The sign of 巳 sì (snake) signifies introspection, subtle power, and transformative growth. It embodies a quiet yet potent energy capable of illuminating hidden paths and fostering deep emotional and spiritual understanding. Its strategic, resourceful nature makes it excellent for long-term growth, but must guard against volatility or over-sensitivity. In practice, 巳 sì inspires creativity, patience, and inner resilience, bringing light and warmth in a deliberate, steady way. 2025: Snake Leaving A Hole

In this sense, yīn wood’s influence on fire can continue to be seen in Jupiter’s influence in two instances.

In August, Jupiter in Cancer trines with Black Moon Lilith in Scorpio (the point where the Moon is furthest from Earth). This harmonious alignment blends Jupiter’s emotional wisdom and optimism with Lilith’s fierce, transformative power. This integration of light and shadow suggests a time of deep healing, emotional authenticity, and reclaiming inner strength. By nurturing vulnerability, embracing transformation, and setting empowered boundaries, individuals can experience profound emotional freedom and connection. This will be a good time to engage in shadow work, honour your desires, set boundaries and nurture your inner world.

Later in November, Jupiter and Lilith combine with Saturn in Pisces to form a grand trine. This alignment in water signs suggests an influential period of emotional growth, healing, and empowerment. It blends Jupiter’s optimism and expansion of emotional wisdom, Lilith’s transformative power in confronting and integrating the shadow self, and Saturn’s discipline and stability in grounding emotional and spiritual progress.

Together, they create an opportunity to:

· heal past wounds and reclaim emotional and personal power

· cultivate emotional resilience, boundaries, and maturity

· channel intuition, compassion, and authenticity into meaningful transformation

· manifest goals or dreams by integrating emotional insight with grounded, practical action

This alignment encourages a harmonious flow of deep healing, empowerment, and spiritual evolution, offering profound opportunities to transform your relationship with yourself, others, and your emotional truth.

But the deep transformative energies don’t stop there. A day after the September Equinox, a partial solar eclipse occurring alongside a Grand Trine involving the Sun (and Moon) in Libra (29°), Uranus in Gemini (1°), and Pluto in Aquarius (1°). This energy lasts for a few days and also includes a ‘Kite’ formation, where Neptune (0° Aries) and Saturn (28° Pisces) are in a semisextile aspect to Uranus and Pluto. The combination of these factors suggests a period of profound awakening and progress on both personal and collective levels. The key themes of this powerful time will be:

· Transformation Through Harmony: A balance between radical change and stability

· Awakening and Breakthroughs: Innovations in thought, technology, and communication

· Collective Progress: Focus on group efforts, equality, and humanitarian ideals

· Equilibrium Amidst Change: Aligning with the flow of transformation while maintaining balance

· Empowered Dialogue: Using communication to drive positive, meaningful change

While this eclipse will close the 2025 eclipse season, it is important to understand that an eclipse works like portals or activators to influence a particular transit or alignment. While occurring late in the year, the manifestation of the yīn wood snake energy will begin to impact us moving forward into the future. The seedling doesn’t stop growing during this phase — it is simply the beginning of the growth, maturation, ripening, and decay cycle.

The Hidden Elements

The snake also carries the hidden presence of other yáng elements: fire, earth, and metal. These add layers of strength, resilience, and decisiveness to 巳 sì’s otherwise yīn-oriented nature. These three elements are represented by Mars, Saturn, and Venus, respectively.

In late May, Saturn begins its two-and-a-half-year transit of Aries. While it will retrograde into Pisces at the start of September, it will resume its journey in Aries on Lunar New Year’s Day of 2026 (the yáng fire horse). Saturn (corresponding with the earth phase in ancient Chinese systems) in the fire sign denotes the importance of taking personal responsibility and owning your actions.

At the start of March, Venus (corresponding with the Chinese element metal) begins a six-week retrograde dance between Aries and Pisces, which signifies a period of reassessment in relationships, values, and self-worth. It will challenge us to consider impulsive actions, deepen our emotional clarity, and foster meaningful alignment with authentic desires. This sets up what emerges later in the year.

Because the ancient Chinese five-phase school only considered the planets seen by the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), the outer planets we now know and utilise in astrology correspond to combined elemental energies. For example, Uranus can be associated with aspects of metal and wood; Neptune can correspond to aspects of the water and wood phases; and Pluto can be seen as the combination of water and metal. Pluto in Aquarius will define this generation, which started in 2024.

Neptune enters Aries for 14 years on 30 March. Historically, Neptune in Aries has coincided with periods of radical spiritual and ideological change. We saw this in the 1860s when causes like abolitionism drove the American Civil War and visionary advances exploded, like the first printing press and the opening of the New York Stock Exchange. It also should be seen as an ‘autocrat alert’. Given the swings towards authoritarian-leaning parties and leaders around the world, this should not come as a surprise.

After disrupting the security of our home and private lives over the past few years in Taurus, Uranus begins its seven-year sojourn in Gemini in July. This will disrupt Geminian industries, such as telecommunications, data security, transportation, education and the media.

In the middle of the year, Saturn joins Neptune in Aries (24 May–1 September). This transit focuses on discipline, responsibility, and structured action within themes of personal leadership, identity, and pioneering new paths. Challenges arise when the impulsive Aries energy clashes with Saturn’s demand for patience and commitment. Success requires strategic, methodical courage. This period will ask you to own your actions and not hide behind excuses for them. Be bold in how you do things.