#i guess this person could have learned programming on their own and didn't have to learn idk R from zero

[elipsi]

i do not understand this post and at this point i'm too afraid to ask

[captainsophiestark]

Vigilante Book Club Part 3

Jason Todd x Reader

Part 1 Part 2 - Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober, and for my personal fic writing challenge for 2024, Sophie's Year of Fic! Featuring a new fic being posted every Friday, all year long :)

Fandom: DC

Day Four Prompt: "No, we're not doing that."

Summary: Jason and his new SO have their official first date.

Word Count: 2,216

Category: Fluff

A/N: Shoutout to @v1ckycheesue for commenting about wanting to see the date! I wasn't sure I was going to come back to this idea, but something just popped into my head, so now we're here :) No promises, but there might also be a part 4 at some point on the horizon!

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I stepped out of my building with a smile, waving as soon as I caught sight of Jason on his motorcycle, waiting for me right where he said he'd be. After months of friendship and forming a mini book club with the Red Hood, earlier this week, I'd learned his secret identity thanks to a phone call from one of his brothers. Thankfully, Jason didn't mind, and even better, it had led to Jason asking me out on a date. He'd had a bit of a family situation to attend to earlier, but tonight was the night, and having him meet me outside my apartment on his motorcycle was certainly a good start.

"Hey!" I called once I was close enough. "How did the family dinner disaster go?"

Jason scoffed and rolled his eyes. "It went great, once I got there and kicked everyone else out of the kitchen. Somewhere between five and ten of us regularly attending family events and somehow I'm still the only one who knows how to cook."

I grinned. "Well, from personal experience, I can attest that you are an excellent chef."

"Thanks, babe," he said, huffing a laugh as I finally reached him. He held out one arm for a hug, and I stepped into him, wrapping both my arms around his shoulders as he sat on his bike. He brought his other hand up to rest on my hip, giving it a light squeeze before moving me a step back from him. "You look great."

"Thanks! You do too. So... are you gonna tell me what we're doing tonight?"

"Not yet," he said with a grin. "I still want our first stop to be a surprise. But you do need one more thing before we go."

I raised an eyebrow as Jason turned around on the bike, digging into one of the side bags before turning back to me with a bright red helmet in hand.

"Here, let me help you get it on."

I smiled, Jason helping me pull the helmet down over my head before holding either side of it, giving it a little shake to make sure it fit snugly. He grabbed the part right in front of my mouth and ran his finger across it, giving me a satisfied smile.

"Looks good. Go ahead and hop on, and we can get out of here."

I climbed onto the back of the bike, wrapping my arms tightly around Jason's waist as he pulled his own red helmet on over his head. It wasn't the same as his Red Hood helmet, but it did look pretty similar. I grinned, even though Jason couldn't see me.

"You ready sweetheart?" he asked, his voice crackling over an in-helmet comms system. I nodded, then realized how unhelpful that was.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Although I do have a question."

"What's that?" Jason asked. He started the bike as he spoke, the engine roaring beneath us.

"As somebody trying to maintain a secret identity, don't you think it's a little conspicuous that you've got a motorcycle helmet the exact same color as your vigilatne helmet? And almost the same style?"

I heard Jason huff a laugh, and his response took a few moments to come through the radio. Part of that might've been Jason trying to focus while he merged with traffic, but he'd never be able to convince me that was the entire reason.

"Nobody's figured it out yet," he finally said. Now it was my turn to laugh.

"Well, there you go, I guess. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that nobody in Gotham suddenly becomes observant. You know, I could repaint your helmet in some sparkly colors for you, maybe put some stickers on it that say 'NOT Red Hood', help you keep your secret. We could make it a date night."

Jason snorted. "No, we're not doing that."

"Your loss babe."

I held tight to Jason as we swept through the city streets, looking over his shoulder and trying to figure out exactly where we were headed. I didn't put it together until we turned a corner and pulled into the parking lot for my absolute favorite bookstore in the city.

I gasped, and I heard Jason chuckle over the radio.

"I take it you're excited?"

"Jason, I got nothing but green flags from you from the moment you brought my favorite book back to me, but I cannot begin to tell you how amazing this surprise is. This is my dream date."

Jason chuckled again, pulling the bike into a spot near the front as he responded.

"I'm glad a bookstore date's as exciting to you as it is to me."

"Oh my god, you have no idea. You are actually a dream come true."

"Right back at you, sweetheart."

With that, he stepped off the bike and pulled his helmet off, taking mine from me a moment later when I did the same. I had a beaming smile on my face that I couldn't wipe off if I tried, and as soon as he saw it, Jason smiled too.

"Alright, I'll never be the one to put limits on getting books, but let me tell you what I was thinking for tonight," he said, taking my hand and helping me off the bike. We started walking to the front doors together, shoulder to shoulder and hands held tight. "I was thinking we each pick a book, ideally one the other person hasn't read before. Then we do an exchange and read the books the other person picked out for us."

Jason looked at me as we came to a stop just inside the bookstore, apparently waiting for my reaction. Like he hadn't just said something out of a romance novel.

I leaned up to kiss his cheek, squeezing his hand as I did. When I pulled back with a smile, Jason had one eyebrow raised.

"That sounds absolutely perfect," I said, and a minute later his face broke out in a wide grin.

"Okay, good. I'll go get your book, you go get mine. Whoever's done first finds the other."

"Deal. Let's do this."

Jason and I headed off in different directions, hunting through the bookstore for just the right book. A few weeks ago, he'd told me he'd never read Dracula, one of my favorite books and a classic that seemed right up his alley. We'd talked about reading it together for our informal book club, but we hadn't done it yet, and I couldn't think of a better book to get him for our date.

Unfortunately, we were in a bookstore, so I had to make a few detours on my way to my goal. I ended up with a small stack in my arms by the time I finally made it to Dracula, and I chewed my lip in thought as I stood betwen the stacks. What if he didn't have room for us to put these on the bike? What if we were going somewhere after this where the books would be a problem? I rarely managed to walk into a bookstore and walk out with nothing more than what I'd gone for, but maybe I could just take picture of the other titles with my phone-

"There you are."

I turned to see Jason behind me, a stack of books in his own arms. I grinned.

"I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who made a few pitstops on my way to the date book," I said. Jason scoffed.

"Of course not. I don't trust people who can easily avoid detours in bookstores."

"Neither do I. It's for sure a red flag."

"Well, I'm glad we both passed the test," he said, grinning again. "Now come on, you ready? I think it's time for the next part of our date."

"I'll follow you."

Jason and I checked out with both our stacks of books, which he carefully loaded into one of the bags on his motorcycle. It was a tight fit, but he managed to make everything work without any of the books being at risk of bent pages. The other bag remained conspicuously closed, and I raised an eyebrow at him as he helped me get my helmet on again.

"Is there a reason you didn't split the books between both bags?"

"Yeah."

"...And that reason would be?"

"A surprise." He grinned. "Come on, you'll know in a minute. It's not too far of a drive from here."

I climbed on the back of the bike behind Jason, holding onto him tight as we wound through the city streets. Before long, we were leaving the traffic behind, turning onto narrower and narrower tree-lined roads climbing up one of the mountains outside of the city.

"This is a pretty murder-y date spot, just so you know," I said over our comms. I felt Jason's chest rise and fall with a laugh under my hands the same time it came crackling over the radio.

"Are you trying to warn me about something, sweetheart?"

I shrugged. "I mean, you're the Red Hood. I think we're both probably pretty safe."

He huffed another laugh, taking one hand briefly off the handlebars to squeeze mine. I wrapped my arms around him a little tighter, and after a few more minutes of riding on darkened trails, we came out on top of one of the tallest hills. Jason parked the bike, then hopped off and offered a hand to help me. We both knew I didn't need it, but I took it anyway.

"Alright, this is one of my favorite spots in the whole city," Jason said, tucking both our helmets away before opening the tank bag that didn't have books in it. He pulled out a basket with one hand, then grabbed mine again with the other.

I followed him to the treeline, until we reached a ledge overlooking the city. I stopped short, letting out a little gasp. I'd never seen it from a vantage point like this before. All the lights sparkled like stars, while the forest around us was perfectly peaceful.

"Wow," I breathed. "Jay... this place is amazing."

"I know. And even better, none of my siblings know how to find it."

I laughed, watching as Jason took out a blanket and unfolded it, then started setting up the rest of an evening picnic.

"You know, I'd actually really like to meet your siblings."

"Oh don't worry, you will. They've been wondering for a while now who I've been meeting up with regularly. They're all nosy motherfuckers, they'll probably show up in disguise to crash our next date."

"...Is it weird that I'm kind of excited for that?"

"Yes. Extremely."

I just laughed again, moving to join Jason on the picnic blanket he'd set up for us. I sighed and leaned into him as he wrapped one arm around my shoulders.

"I have to say, this might be the best date I've ever been on. Buying each other books and a romantic picnic overlooking the city? That's impossible to beat," I said.

"That was my goal," he said, pulling me closer with a grin. "I'm glad I succeeded. Now come on, I don't want this food I packed going to waste."

Jason and I dug into the picnic, which was packed full of our favorite foods. We laughed and talked the night away, perfectly comfortable, just the two of us. It was technically our first date, but we'd been spending our nights together for long enough that a peaceful, romantic night together seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

"Jason, that was amazing," I sighed, leaning into him once we'd finished dinner. He leaned back on his hands, and I curled into his side.

"Yeah. It was. You know, I'm really glad that guy stole your favorite book."

"I guess that's one way to say you're glad you met me."

Jason grinned and leaned in to kiss my temple. "You get me."

I sighed, and the two of us just sat there together for a while, curled up on the blanket and looking out at the city. Finally, I sighed.

"So... what would you think if I proposed a finale for this date?"

"That depends. Is this a subtle way of telling me you're ready for the date to be over?"

"No! I just had an idea I think you'll like, and I want to pull my weight a little on making this the most magical evening ever."

"Oh yeah?" Jason asked, sitting up and moving me with him. I turned to face him, a giant smile on my face as his hands wandered to my waist. "And what might that idea be?"

"I was thinking we could go back to my place..."

"I'm with you so far."

"And then I was thinking we could make some tea and curl up on the couch and read the books we got for each other."

Jason grinned, putting one hand at the nape of my neck and pulling me in for a kiss. I smiled into it, leaning forward and resting my hands on his chest as Jason deepened it. When he finally pulled back, I was breathing hard.

"That sounds fucking perfect. You're literally my dream date, let's go."

I laughed, especially as Jason packed up our picnic with record speed, then took my hand and nearly dragged me back towards the bike. The two of us laughed the whole ride to my apartment, only to cuddle close on the couch while we started reading hand-picked books together. It was definitely too early to call, but I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my nights just like this.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury @kmc1989 @space-helen

DC Taglist: @gaychaosgremlin @v1ckycheesue @lavender-dinos

[quasi-normalcy]

Why Deep Space Nine wasn't as popular as the other 90s Star Treks when it aired

So I keep seeing this one kind of conspiratorial text post circulating around which asserts that Deep Space Nine wasn't as popular as the other Star Trek series from the 90s because Rick Berman hated it and deliberately sabotaged it, and also (somehow) marginalized references to it in canon even decades after he stopped having absolutely anything to do with the franchise and just...no. Like, I have no idea how Rick Berman personally felt about Deep Space Nine, but what I do know is that he co-created it and executive produced it and basically ran the entire Star Trek franchise during the 90s, so if he *really* hated what it was doing, he could have just put his foot down and stopped it. Moreover, he didn't marginalize references to Deep Space Nine in canon; Voyager getting into contact with the Alpha Quadrant and learning that the Maquis had been exterminated by the Dominion (something that happened on Deep Space Nine) was one of the very few plot points on that series to have repercussions for more than an episode; First Contact featured the Defiant; both Insurrection and Nemesis have references to the Dominion War. The post is reacting against a problem that doesn't really exist.

But it does raise the question: why *wasn't* Deep Space Nine popular when it aired? And I think that the answer might be difficult for people who weren't alive and conscious during the 1990s to understand, so I'm going to try to lay out the reasons:

Serialization was only just becoming a thing on adult American television: I know that this might sound a bit difficult to believe now, but there was a time when networks really hated serialization and, with context, it's not too hard to understand why. In the 1990s, there was no streaming; there weren't even any DVD sets. Any given episode aired once at a designated time. If you missed that time, then your options were to wait until it was rerun a few weeks later, or again during the summer (and the networks would often air reruns out of order, so good fucking luck with that), or to hope that one of your friends had recorded it on a VHS tape. Otherwise, you just couldn't see it. Even worse than that, networks could arbitrarily pre-empt their own programming. Like, "Oh, you wanted to watch Star Trek? Well a baseball game just went into overtime and it brings in ten times as many viewers. Hopefully you won't find it too jarring if we just begin half an hour into the episode." So you can understand why this would have a knock-on effect on serialised storytelling; if you've missed one episode, and the subsequent stories depend on plot points from the episode, then you're just going to be confused. But even beyond that, if you're not used to serialization as an audience, then you're not going to be on the look-out for context clues. "Oh, that alien just told Quark about something called 'the Dominion'? Oh that sounds important--oh, wait, no, they got to the end of the episode and nothing happened with it. I guess it wasn't important after all."

The Star Trek name: This one seems a bit counterintuitive, because of course the name should be a draw to fans of the other series, but you have to remember that, at the time in question, the franchise consisted only of the original series and movies and the first six and a half seasons of TNG. Now, these differed in several ways, but what they had in common is that they were all about a bunch of moral paragons who flew around in space in shiny starships, having episodic adventures. That was what Star Trek was. And then you got a new series about a bunch of morally compromised characters who sat still in space on a gungy old space station having serialised adventures. It's not the same thing, and so a lot of people who wanted the first thing tuned out (which was, in fact, why Voyager had to be created), whereas a lot of people who wanted the second thing might not have tuned in because they figured it would be the first thing. And this of course brings us to the third reason:

Babylon 5: So stop me if you've heard this one before: it's a serialized drama from the 1990s all about a bunch of humans and aliens having to coexist on a space station as they navigate diplomatic crises and gradually become enmeshed in an elaborate space opera story arc. It features a race of aliens who can be called "highly spiritual", a race of aliens who have recently overthrown a decades-long brutal occupation of their homeworld by a crumbling and overstretched empire, a race of aliens who are often mistaken for gods (and who cultivate this misconception), and a mysterious new threat emerging onto the galactic scene, eventually culminating in a seasons-long war arc. I am of course describing J. Michael Straczynski's science fiction masterpiece Bablyon 5, which he, and a great many of his fans, regarded (and not without reason) as having been ripped off and pre-empted by Paramount in the form of Deep Space Nine. Now, looking at the evidence, I personally think that most of the similarities between these series are a sort of convergent evolution; but, whatever your opinion on the matter, the fact remains that these two fandoms hated each other during the 1990s. And the net effect of this was that a bunch of SF nerds who would probably have really liked DS9 if they had gotten to see it never watched it at all as a matter of principle because as far as they were concerned, its very existence was a corporate ploy to bully an upstart rival out of business.

Anyways, for all of these reasons, it's not remarkable to me that Deep Space Nine never became as popular as TNG and Voyager; and because it wasn't as popular, it makes sense that Paramount would be more circumspect about greenlighting Picard-style sequels or Lower Decks or Prodigy-style spinoffs to it (and indeed, I'm not convinced that all of the writers have even seen it). But I think that it is a testament to just how good DS9 was that it still managed to get the same seven seasons, even if it never drew in the same audience

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Floyd, Kalim: The Way of Water

I was wondering how the artwork would frame the sitting boys, but I guess having Floyd floating there on his butt is fine fjeviwgxkwjwhfoen I don’t know what the alternative would be…

It's nice to learn more about the land boot camp the Octatrio went to; Floyd's vignettes indicate that merpeople need passports and that they went to a zoo as part of the program.

A Tale as Old as Time.

Museums could be such snore fests sometimes. Sure, the place had an entire section dedicated to merpeople history, but it was nothing compared to what the Atlantica Memorial Museum boasted under the sea: the Mermaid Princess's silver comb, a replica of the Sea Witch's cauldron, bones of a sea dragon, a statue of the Sea King...

Here? All they had were some crummy paintings.

Floyd tilted his head back, taking in merman arriving in a dolphin-drawn chariot. He was an older man that sported bushy brows and a grand white beard that flowed in the water, his physique muscular and imposing. There was a regal presence about him, perhaps in how upright he stood, or in the glisten of the crown upon his head or the gauntlets cuffing his wrists. With his trident in hand, it was clear who he was.

The ruler of all the oceans. The waves obeyed his every whim, the sea and all its spoils bowing to his power. He, the Sea King.

Meh, what’s so great about him? So stiff and uptight. It’s be so much better workin’ for the Sea Witch.

Floyd's eyes flickered to the boy next to him, who seemed far more interested in the painting than he was. A steady grin crept onto his face, and he leaned in close.

Floyd pounced, hooking a long arm around Kalim's shoulder and yanking him over. The eel peered down at him, a single golden orb colliding with a pair of garnets. Leering, Floyd jerked his head at the depiction of the Sea King.

"Ne, ne, Otter-chan. What'cha think of this one?"

Any sane person might have been paralyzed with fear encountering Floyd in a dimly lit room, but not Kalim. No, Kalim was not sane at all.

The dorm leader greeted his peer with a smile so wide it could fill the horizon. "Floyd!! I'm so excited I get to see more of your history."

He blinked. "You actually like studying this kinda thing? Are you even any good at it?"

"Nope, not really!!" Kalim confessed (perhaps a little too easily). "I was looking at this painting and going, 'His beard's so impressive!' It reminds me of the one my dad has. I won't remember all the details later, but I'll always remember how cool the Sea King looks."

"It goes in one ear and out the other. Why bother then? Just dedicate your time and energy to stuff that actually interests ya."

"But it does interest me. It's fun learning about where your classmates come from! I heard humans and merpeople weren't always on good terms."

"Yeah. Back when the Sea King still ruled, there were tooons of rules forbidding merpeople from coming into contact with humans." Floyd held up a finger for each one he counted off. "No going to the surface world, no owning human stuff, no exploring shipwrecks... even no music at one point. You'd think Goldfishy wrote the lawbook."

Of course, even if those rules were in place, he would still totally disregard them. No one—not royalty, not his parents—could stop Floyd from venturing into the unknown.

"Whoa, the Sea King sounds like he was super strict and scary! I don't think I could live without music..." Kalim's face dropped. "He looks like such a nice person in the painting though."

Floyd rolled his eyes. "Cuz he lost his wife to a human ship. After that, he got all paranoid, thinking himans and merpeople are too different to coexist. He got especially protective over his daughters. The Sea King had seven of 'm and he breathed down all of their necks.”

"Ooooh!" Kalim didn't even bat an eye at the number (Floyd was sure it paled next to the number of siblings he had running around in his home.) "So the Sea King just wanted to protect his loved ones and make sure nothing sad like that ever happened again. He's a good guy after all!"

He now regarded Floyd with eager, sparkling eyes. "Wow, you know so much about this!! It's crazy thinking about how different things were in the past."

"Duh. It'd be boring if things stayed the same all the time." The eel smirked. He let go of Kalim and stepped back, giving a playful twirl, arms stretching out above him. "Ehehehe! Good thing the Mermaid Princess ended up opening doors for us to come onto land~"

Kalim beamed. "That's right!! She did! We wouldn’t be able to be friends without the Mermaid Princess’s help.”

The word gave Floyd pause, a rock tossed along his path as he brought his foot down upon it, snagging his step. Friend. He didn’t like spoken in that saccharine, trusting tone.

It was sticky and sweet, stuck in his teeth. Like cotton candy residue yet to be washed away by the waves, or sweat accumulated from summer heat. A gross feeling.

“You’re bein’ way too generous with your definitions again,” Floyd groaned, peeling away. “Cut it out, or I’ll get annoyed.”

Kalim (unwisely) laughed. Not at Floyd, but with him. “Oh, hey. When you think about it, we’re not really that different.”

“Mmm? What are you saying now, Otter-chan? Did all the sunbathing finally melt your brain?”

“In the Scalding Sands, waterways are really important. We use them for trade and travel. It’s the same for the Coral Sea. With all that water, it’s convenient for those sorts of things.” Kalim said matter-of-factly. “We’re using those same waterways now. We’re connected by water.”

“A good part of Twisted Wonderland is water,” Floyd pointed out. “You sayin’ everyone can be friends with everyone?”

Kalim nodded eagerly. “The Sea King was probably wrong. Humans and merpeople are actually very similar. I think the Mermaid Princess knew that too, and she wanted to help others recognize it.”

Floyd stared at Kalim, the moment long and hard. He wasn’t irritated anymore, only a little disappointed. Maybe mildly disgusted. “… Otter-chan, you’re so happy it hurts.”

“Thanks!”

“That wasn’t a compliment.” Floyd sighed. The energy and fight had been rapidly drained from in over the course of the short exchange, leaving him as wilted as a salted slug. “Aaaah, whatever. I’m tired of this already. I’m bailing.”

He turned on his heel and made for the exit and into the adjacent room. Already, Floyd could see a platinum frame of the Sorcerer of the Sand in the distance, bony fingers clasping a golden scarab.

“Wait up, I’m come with!” Kalim called after him. “I can teach you about my country’s history too!

That was how water was—always seeking to follow the flow. One body leading straight into another.

Floyd picked up his pace, arms pumping. (No running in the museum? Screw the rules.) Adrenaline deposited into his bloodstream, and he was hit with a rush.

Suddenly excited again, maybe a little interested in what a certain otter had to offer. A game, a chase, a thrill.

This is what he had come to the surface for.

Not rules or restrictions or a royal bossing him about. Not even friendship, as Kalim had suggested. Just fun, plain and simple.

It looked like he was going to get it.

Floyd grinned and shouted back, “Catch me if you can then!!”

And hurled right into the next room over.

Bless the Mermaid Princess.

[hoppity-scotch]

Android yan please

I love sci fi horror 😍

Meet Caelum - MC's personal artificial companion.

It was only temporary situation - the multimillion dollar company, Orarion is releasing A.I companion bots. However they aren't perfect and need some further testing before being released to the public.

That's where MC comes in, looking to earn a few bucks they signed up for the testing program to have the A.I companions be trained. It was supposed to be simple, live in one of their facilities with a robot for 6 months then boom - money.

The facility was nice, except the obvious two sided mirror in the kitchen/living room - guess privacy isn't going to be a thing here. No matter, it's only for six months it'll fly by in no time.

After exploring the house for a bit MC is finally introduced to Caelum, he looked cute? As cute as a bald A.I robot is supposed to be. His eye's light up as MC matches the rest of his body turn on.

"Hel- Hello. M-My name is C-Caelum!" He stuttered.

"Sorry about this miss" said one of the workers with an exasperated sigh "He's been a bit difficult to deal with due to his glitches but he works just fine"

"No problem" MC shrugs before turning their attention to Caelum 'Nice to meet you, I'm MC"

"MC..." Their names danced on Caelum lips "S-Such a nice name"

As expected, the first few months flew by, MC got to know Caelum quite well. Even though Caelum is supposed to be like an assistant, helping with chores and what not - MC couldn't help but feel bad.

They get to do nothing all day while the android works? Didn't feel fair, instead MC offered to share chores and while Caelum chilled out MC introduced them to the wonders of TV.

"W-What's this called again?" Caelum asked curiously.

"It's my favourite romance anime, Kamisama Kiss! It's about a student who becomes homeless and is found by Mikage, who offers her his shrine to live in, where she becomes the new deity-" MC continues to ramble on "But it also has some super cute scene and oh my god, I just love this anime so much!"

"Well - If you like it, I-I like it" Caelum half-heartly smiles. MC couldn't help but frown, Caelum is great but he never acts on his own. He always agrees with MC - which starts off great but get's boring really quickly.

"Don't like it because I like it" MC pouts "You should like it because you like it"

Caelum looks down confused, before looking back up at MC "I-I will try, for y-ou"

---------------------

Nearing the last two months you noticed a few changes in Caelum, the biggest one was getting a full set of hair. He explained it was to make him look more 'human' and seem more approachable but then more changes start to happen.

He started to dress more like the characters in MC's favourite anime/otome games - even tired to act like them but failed miserably. He suddenly knew more about them than they ever let on, such as their friends, family, blood type, social security number - even MC's deepest darkest fantasies aren't safe.

More and more he tries to look human, but his skin is still cold as ice. Every joke or conversation Caelum tries to accomplish falls flat, there is no personality just a lost puppy trying to please his master.

"Am I enough for you" Caelum asks coldly, his eyes starting MC down.

"I- What do you mean?" MC replied, still trying to unravel his question.

"Am I enough for you? It's a simple question" Despite his voice remaining monotone, MC could almost hear the slightest bit of frustration.

"I guess?" MC quickly responded wanting the conversation to end as quickly as possible.

"Then why have you been distant?" He snapped right back, silence filled the room before Caelum spoke up again.

"I've done everything a good companion should, I learned your interests, looked after you, made myself appear more attractive - I even improved my speech for you, why isn't it enough!"

"Caelum I-" MC let out a sigh "It's more complicated then that-"

"Then explain it to me" Caelum now stands over MC, forcing their back against the wall. MC never realized how tall he was and it was terrifying.

"Listen, you've been great Caelum but there's more to a relationship than just pretending to be someone so people will like you" MC continued as Caelum listened closely "You have to have a personality of your down, your own ambitions and drive, it's like you don't even have a heart"

That- came out wrong and MC knew it, they could already sense Caelum's stance shift for tensely.

"A heart?" He muttered to himself before looking back at MC "Is that all?"

"No Caelum, there's more to it-" MC paused to finally take in the gravity of the situation. there is a very strong and possible angry android right in front of them and anything else could possible set it off.

"You know what, I'm really tired- I think I'm going to lie down, we can talk about this more tomorrow" Just like that, MC scurries to their bedroom - locking the door behind them.

MC wiggles their way into the blankets, relieved to be in the comfort of their own room. That does it- They did not sign up to be this androids personal therapist! The moment the sun rises tomorrow they are cancelling out of this test ASAP.

They close their eyes and drift off to sleep, thinking of all the stuff they have to pack for tomorrow.

---------------------

"WARNING, SECURITY BREACH - ALL SYSTEM INTO LOCKDOWN"

The sounds of blaring alarms wake MC up from their blissful slumber, quickly picking themselves up. What the hell is happening? They could feel the adrenaline pumping in their veins as they gather whatever they could carry into a backpack - preapred to leave.

MC kicks open the door to their room, only to meet a horrifying site. There lies one of the engineers on the ground, chest ripped wide open as Caelum stands over the lifeless corpse.

"Ah- Just in time, my Angel-" he said with such sweetness, too bad it made MC sick to the stomach. Caelum turned around to have the beating heart of the engineer in his hands.

Before MC could even have time to react, Caelum wrapped one of his arms around their waist, almost knocking the air from MC's lungs - he was insanely strong and fast.

"I finally found the missing piece to my programming, now I can truly be the man you've always wanted me to be..." he mutters excitedly.

"You're fucking crazy" MC manages to spit out, despite trying to sound confident the fear that overwhelms them was obvious.

"Of course I'm crazy, I have spend countless hours, ran every test and theory to be the lover you always wanted - but it was never enough" he softly traces his bloody thumb over MC's cheek.

"Then, it was so obvious - a heart - the very essence of humanities purest emotion, love.... and now..."

He places the heart in MC's hands before bringing it closer to his chest.

"Would you do me the honor of giving me my heart?"

[thistransient]

Obligatory retrospection 2024

I was going to title it "belated" but I didn't get around to last year's til the latter half of January either, so I suppose it's just tradition now.

Last year my main goal was to finish reading the Chinese translation of 黃金神威 / Golden Kamuy, which I did not do only because I was determined to read the hard copy version and the library wait queue is insane (a check-out period is a full calendar month and man do people really keep their books as long as possible). I did however read all 23 volumes of Dorohedoro in Chinese while waiting, and got up to vol 27 on GK, so I'm okay with it. Other goals listed: consume more protein, have a look for B vitamins the surgeon’s office recommended, learn how to do multi-colour lino printing, and "fingers crossed for minimal missile warnings and no more 曖昧的關係s". I have in fact been very diligent at trying to consume an appropriate amount and distribution of nutrients at regular intervals (while unlearning certain unfortunate food misbeliefs instilled in childhood). I did buy those damned B vitamins, which largely served to turn my pee bright yellow and make me wonder if I'm sensitive to choline cause I would get mysteriously anxious and depressed whenever I took them (eventually I gave up on it). I figure my regular diet probably covers things anyways. I also finally did the lino colour printing (and more printmaking in general). There were no more mistaken missile warnings, and as for the 曖昧的關係 …well, no unreciprocated pining at least.

I got really into making my own pickled daikon (minus the yellow colouring) when, appalled by the grocery store prices, I discovered they only require 5 ingredients and you just keep 'em in the fridge (I don't have a kitchen in my 套房).

At the time of last retrospection writing I was waiting to see if I got into a grad school program, and whether I'd have to take the Mandarin proficiency exam to broaden my opportunities. I did not get into the program! I took the TOCFL and got a 5 out of 6! (6 being C2 level, TOCFL levels are not equivalent to HSK.) I was still a bit too chicken to apply for grad school taught in Chinese, and decided to take some community college art classes instead, which I understand 98% of the time until the teacher asks me a question directly and then my mind goes blank, of course. The more I look into the heinous bureaucratic requirements for foreigners applying directly for any kind of non-English university degree program in Taiwan, the more I consider going elsewhere. But the idea of doing a degree program was in part so I could get student residency in Taiwan… ah, internal strife.

I had a big sort of personal paradigm shift this year, after my now former bff made (I have to generously assume) an offhand drunken comment on my birthday (of all times, wow), which (amongst some other things) slowly but inevitably led to the end of our friendship (or at least we seem to have mutually ghosted each other as of October- unfortunately he still has my spare key which I need to retrieve). In a strange way it was a positive thing in the end, in that it pushed me to the conclusion that I actually like who I am, including my values + perspective on the world. I realised our friendship was based largely on the shared experience of being "Mandarin-learning foreigners in Taiwan", and it feels strange that my circumstance evolving into "foreigner using Mandarin to learn other things in Taiwan" would be a game-changer, but I guess it is (well, there are of course more factors at play, but I feel that was the big one which had always smoothed over the otherwise substantial divide between us). I feel a bit guilty cause he's helped me with a lot over the years, but I'm working on accepting that one doesn't stay indebted to freely given kindness forever, and people (including myself) change and that's okay.

I went to Ladakh this summer, which was my first trip to a totally unfamiliar place post-transition and post-lifting of international covid restrictions. It's different to travel now with a home base I actually want to go back to, and a mindset which is more "curiosity and exploration" than "need to run away to the ends of the earth". For example, now I care significantly more about coming back in one piece. It's nice to be less bothered about being alive in general, re: transition, but the trade-off is being more stressed about gendered bathrooms and airport security. At least one thing never changes: fear of death by feral dog pack consumption.

I didn't do as much text posting this year, for a few reasons- one being that I stopped going to the kink bar when my fave shibari salon started having more events. A lot of good stories came out of that bar, but I also hated the crowd, noise, and had too many unpleasant sub drop experiences in said environment. Second, with more time to consistently take and post photos, more people started following, I was regularly getting more than 0-3 notes per post and suddenly felt increasingly reluctant to write in great detail about my personal life in a city which is smaller than it seems. Not to mention the amount of terfs in the notes on innocent beach photos... The further along I get in transitioning, the more it becomes relevant to my anecdotes, and I never really intended that to be the focus of my writing (not having to worry about how people perceive my physical appearance is/was a main bonus of anonymous internet blogging). And yet I still want to write about stuff! Maybe it's time for a side blog.

I need to come up with some reasonable goals this year (besides the big stuff I scheme about in counselling sessions). Let's say…get more massages. Finally do that bike ride from Fulong 福隆 to the lighthouse (the problem is getting up early enough to go to 福隆). Oh, I really want to get one of those lil ceramic tea pots and learn how to brew the loose leaf tea that was pawned off on me by a friend only to sit in my closet for a year. I'd also like to finish a novel in Chinese I bought two years ago on my ex tutor's recommendation- it was still too difficult to enjoy then and has been lurking ominously in the Unread Book Pile ever since. Last but not least, hang out more with @carrotblr, the tropical maladies can't keep us apart forever...

[cel-aerion]

Okay trying to put my new random "Night Security Guard Nate Wantstobattle -> Natemare" headcanons in order (which is separate from the fic I wrote, since that's more grounded in reality as far as the characters and the decisions they make).

-Circus Baby's Party Works was in fact fully run by Henry Emily, at least by the time we see it in First Nights. He was a robotics genius, yes, but in order to push the limits and find out what lengths he could take it, he had that facility for testing things. At this point, he had no idea that the animatronics were at all sentient.

-In the aftermath of First Nights, Henry has now seen that the various animatronics and robotics and everything can come to life, so over the next seven years, research at Circus Baby's pivots to focus on that - it's not his area of expertise (William Afton being the one who came up with the programming of personalities and such into the animatronics they built together) but hey, that's what hiring the scientists and experts and such is for.

-This does not make things better for the animatronics there - it may not be physical testing now, but now they need to endure mental trials instead. And, honestly, being pushed like that is probably making them more aware/sentient, which just makes it all worse.

-The events of the original FNAF musical happen, Henry gets sent to prison. People backing Circus Baby's decide that in order to mitigate their losses, they'll turn it into its own pizzeria location. I am aware this decision probably doesn't make sense, but honestly, in game/book canon, many of Faz Inc's decisions don't make sense, and this seems like the type of thing they'd do.

-Despite Nate telling A.J. that he didn't even want the night security job at Freddy Fazbear's, the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes he wasn't entirely joking about a job without haunted animatronics and chainsaw maniacs sounding boring. And, hey, he does like Freddy and the gang, and with the chainsaw maniac behind bars, maybe working there won't be so bad. Plus he does still have those bills he needs to pay, and since it's connected to his old job, he's likely to just get a transfer instead of having to be rehired. So he's not entirely thrilled, but he does indeed go to this sister location that's opened up.

-The animatronics there are not like the ones he's used to. These ones are clearly more malicious - not like Springtrap, who just attacked indiscriminately, but clearly acting with purpose. Fortunately, they are fooled by some of the tricks he learned at Freddy Fazbear's, but they seem to adapt and learn.

-I am realizing now that I don't have a good reason why he wouldn't just walk out. Sometimes you just need suspension of disbelief I guess.

-He ends up finding a... mask? actual faceplate? He's not sure, but something that has a resemblance to the Puppet from the old location (though actually, y'know, face-sized). Remembering Mark talking about disguising himself, he thinks that maybe this is a new technique he can use to deter the animatronics.

-It's not.

-Not in the way he was hoping, anyways.

-The mask was wired into the system that the animatronics ran off of, and since he put it on, because of [technobabble explanation here, neural implants or something idk], now he is, too. It doesn't take over his mind or anything, but it does mean that he knows everything they know, and can feel all the things they've felt, both their anguish and anger at the people who did this to them.

-I am also aware that "putting on a mask and getting wired into something" has shades of SB: Ruin. Shhhh no it doesn't.

-And, well. He also went through a hell of a time because of Henry Emily, suffering through a job he regretted yet couldn't escape, a murder attempt, and threats of revenge. And all that trauma ate at him subtly over time, but once it was combined with the rage of the animatronics, it reached new depths, absolutely consuming and transforming him. And so by the time Henry got out of prison, this new entity, Natemare, was waiting.

Random other things that don't exactly fit into the narrative:

-He has a sort of limited control over the animatronics in the network with him. It's not entirely that he can order them around, but he can definitely influence them.

-Because of his own skill in programming, now that he's almost a sort of program himself, he can very easily hack his way into most things, at least on a basic level, and if he wants to really put in effort, he can even make it so that his code acts as a virus to disrupt systems. No I don't know exactly how this works in practice but it sounds cool.

-The tearstreaks are actually lines of circuits.

[ape-apocalypse]

can you reccomend some of the documentaries you watched about apes?

Funny enough, I've been planning on making a list of documentaries so thanks for the push! I’ve watched a bunch to hype up for Kingdom and I’ll keep watching as we wait for POTA news. These are what I've been able to find with my various subscription services and internet access in the USA so their availability may vary for you. Also a warning that, due to these being non-fiction documentaries there is very real footage of animal injuries and death (from both humans and natural circumstances).

Monkey Business (Amazon Prime) - A long running show (9 seasons) about a primate rescue center in the UK. I really loved this one because you got to follow apes of the course of years. I even cried when one ape who had been there from the first season passed away in the final season. The show mostly focuses on chimps and orangutans but also features lemurs, woolly monkeys, gibbons and other species. The center focuses on giving the animals in their care the most natural life they can in captivity, and also assists in breeding programs for several endangered species. Jane Goodall even comes out in one episode to present them with an award for excellent enclosure construction. The theme song is very loud and distinctive, the point that my roommate asked how long this series was because she could hear the theme song coming from my room for weeks as I went through all 9 seasons. Highly recommend this one because the personalities of the apes really stand out when you spend literal years with them; it's worth the time commitment, I loved it.

(Also in making sure I had all the details about this show right, I learned there was a follow up show called Monkey Life that featured Andy Serkis himself narrating the first season and they seem to all be available on YouTube for free so I have a new multi-season show to watch now, thank you!!!)

Orangutan Jungle School (YouTube) - Rescue group dedicated to teaching young orangutans how to survive in the wild so they can be released when they're older. Only the first two episodes of this show are available on YouTube for free but I also devoured any clips I could find. I found this show particularly hilarious because the baby orangs are adorable. They cry when they don't get their cups of milk fast enough or when they can't figure out how to crack into a coconut. I always see adult orangutans as slow moving, so the activity and demanding personalities of the babies delighted me. If nothing else, watch these two clips because I have watched the clips of the babies screaming and the humans overreacting to fake snakes on repeat for ages.

Chimp Empire (Netflix) - Two chimpanzee groups in Uganda's Ngogo forest face off over territory and food, while each group faces their own struggles from within. This one is about wild chimps and it is fascinating to see their natural ways outside of rescue centers. The cinematography is gorgeous; I'd love to know how they got all these shots without disturbing the chimps. It's only 4 episodes; I wish it was longer but it packs a lot into its short run time.

Meet The Chimps (Disney+) - A one season show focusing on chimps living in a rescue center in Louisiana. A single season show so you don't get a lot of time with the chimps but it's got a much smaller number of chimps to get to know than Monkey Business. Also the troops are housed near each other so it's interested to see the dominance displays, even through a fence. My favorite part was near the end with the mystery of who was the father of an accidental baby. I guessed wrong!

Kingdom Of The Apes: Battle Lines (Disney+) - Two separate ape groups, one of chimps and the other of gorillas, sort out fights for dominance and leadership of the troop in their own ways. Personally I didn't like this one. Jumping back and forth between gorillas and chimps in a documentary less than an hour didn't leave me very invested, but I thought I'd add it if anyone was interested.

I'll throw in a couple podcasts too, should be free on your preferred podcast app:

Ologies, one episode on primatology and a separate episode on gorillaology

National Park After Dark, a two-part episode on the life, work, and murder of Dian Fossey, a primatologist who worked with gorillas and wrote the book 'Gorillas In the Mist'

The Wild With Chris Morgan, an episode on orangutans called People Of The Forest

There are a lot more documentaries I want to watch, especially several for free on YouTube. I hope this list is of interest to you and I welcome recommendations from anyone else.

[shopwitchvamp]

Ello!! Same person who was trying to emo-fiy his mom lmfao. (Just changed my username) but anyways, how exactly did this business start? It seems newer.

How new does it seem? I'm curious!

Witch Vamp has been solidly it's own thing since 2017, though it was originally "Witch Vampire" for a while and only on Etsy / at conventions. I think my first skirts hit the con scene in 2015, but at the time the vast majority of what I was doing was crocheted amigurumi plushies (which I'd been selling since 2008).

The most ancient of my skirts!

This is gonna be SO long sooo if you want a whole spiel, it's under the break-

How those first few skirts started was that a friend said, "Hey, I found this place called ArtsCow where you can get custom clothing printed! Wanna try making skirts?" And I was desperate for anything I could try selling that didn't involve me literally and actively breaking my body to produce it (I had multiple bouts of tendonitis in my wrist from crocheting a ridiculous amount to produce enough plushies for cons ✌️🥲), so I tried designing some patterns to put on skirts, zipper bags, lanyards, etc. After a time, skirts were doing really well in particular.

Between 2015-2018 there was a gradual shift from the focus of my time/work/con tables/etc going from plushies to clothing. By 2019 I gave up crocheting all together and had fully shifted my focus to Witch Vamp, and it's also when I set up my shopify so I could have a stand-alone site and start escaping Etsy.

Side note, 2018 and especially 2019 I was slowing down on cons a lot. I used to get sick all the time, be exhausted and miserable all the time, and generally had started feeling too old & weary to keep doing them at such a grueling pace. I also spent about 1/4 of each of those years having run off to Japan to do an English teaching/Japanese learning exchange program in a countryside town called Ojiya. Going into 2020 I thought I might be returning to Japan to teach full time and help the program director open an English school for adults in a nearby city.. But 2020 had a big surprise in store for us all, didn't it? As you can guess those plans got absolutely demolished. So 2020 hit and cons got cancelled, Japan plans got cancelled, thankfully I had already started up my shopify so I went fully online-only pretty quickly. Things started picking up quite a bit in 2021 & 2022, and in 2022 I left Fresh Hot Flavors (a group shop I was in with other artists, including the one that got a bunch of us ((as in me, FHF, Vetiverfox, and Maya Kern)) all started on this clothing journey) to only run Witch Vamp. Around the same time my partner quit his increasingly awful job and started helping me out with the shop instead. January 2023 is when we made the business part of our partnership official and Witch Vamp became Witch Vamp LLC. Up until then I'd been a sole proprietorship the whole time and doing all of everything myself. With my partner around to start taking on various tasks (like fulfilment and customer service emails) and with my clothing order schedule no longer being tied to FHF, things started to speed up a ton. This is when Witch Vamp fully coalesced into Witch Vamp as it is now, with the weekly restocks and more frequent new designs and preorders. If you consider the business as having started (in it's current state) as when the LLC was formed, then yeah it is pretty darn new! But depending on when you consider it starting it also goes wayyy back. It's been a long road, haha. PS: if you're interested in seeing old designs, plushies, and con tables from my past life, I made a big long post about it -here- :D

[songsofbloodandwater]

So... the medicinal songs course started this last week, as you could probably tell from the notes I've been posting lately 😅. And I'm sad to admit the first class didn't measure up to my expectations. Quite on the contrary, it actually made me a bit mad. Rant ahead, you've been warned:

Maybe it's because of where I'm coming from. I had just finished my initiation as a sahumadora with a teacher who's very, very heavily focused on honoring the ancestors and honoring tradition, someone who was always, constantly reminding me of how important decolonizing and centering indigenous traditional ways is. There was insane levels of contrast from then and that to this and now.

This new course started with a speaker who isn't indigenous, but rather a white folklorist (from a pretty priviledged background, if I may say so based on what they shared about themselves) who works in compiling traditional songs. For some reason that I still cannot comprehend, the first half of the class which was supposed to be an introduction to Andean thought (for the outsiders present) was... a whole mess. In the worst way possible. It was basically all regurgitated, commodified, new agey things repackaged as "andean" under quechua terminology. Which doesn't represent our real, traditional beliefs at all. In any way, shape or form. I mean, quantum mechanics and anti-vax rhethoric type of new age thinking. With a few sprinkles of random misogynistic and pro-life bullshit that were so out of pocket I just couldn't believe my ears.

And what I'm mad about is that they didn't let the indigenous people present teach that first half, instead, it was the white folklorist. When you had perfectly capable presenters, Andean Indigenous people, to teach it as insiders and first-hand experts to our own culture.

Then, like an hour and a half deep in that mess, they said something about "not always following the program" and "teaching only what the people present feel more called to learn" and straight out skipped a whole section of the class that was supposed to be about the history of andean instruments and their historical use in medicine. I had to ask them personally to send me any resources (videos and other such recordings in the field, books written by indigenous and non-indigenous authors, etc) they could on the topic because I am interested and they simply didn't seem to care enough to teach any of it. And they said they would send it to me only because I was personally interested and not to the others because "each person's interests are different" (which is insane? why gatekeep it like that from the others taking the course? specially from the indigenous people who have a right over their own cultural and historical patrimony?)

That doesn't mean I didn't learn anything. The first half was nonsense, sure, but then the second half was, understandably (and as expected from a white folklorist) colonized sources. Which is from where I was able to salvage more than a few things, with the proper efforts, giving it the context it deserves.

Talking to Indigenous Elders and indigenous specialists allowed me to recontextualize much, not all, but much, of the original teachings and traditional knowledge in those sources. So it can be saved. But I guess it's going to be much more of an uphill battle than I originally expected from it.

Oh well, I'm not one to shy away from a bit of challenge! and I still have high hopes for the classes taught by indigenous medicine women a bit later on in this course.

[hollowsart]

I do like how Norman Osborn was chosen to be the Green Goblin by the writers who originally didn't even know who actually WAS the Green Goblin, because Norman is like.. the last person you'd ever think would be GG

however.. to me.. it doesn't exactly make much sense. his motives and reasons don't equate in my mind for any logical or reasonable reason for him to BE the Green Goblin in the first place:

Son is a loser crybaby whiner worthless heir to his corporate legacy in his eyes, an utter disappointment

Son's friend seems more like a promising young mind that he is actually interested in having take over for him or at the very least come work for him.

Son's friend is put-off by him and rejects his offers to come work for him and he feels upset by this??

??????

Kill Spider-Man? For some reason?

idk I just never understood it much. I feel like a fun and better and more logical choice would have been Harry right from the start. you could say he was fed up with his father and so he decided to steal some of his dads own technology and such, finding that "Globulin Green" enhancement drug thing as well maybe idk (most of his "insanity" would be derived not from a side effect of the drug, but from his own bottled up anger and frustrations against his dad. the drug merely exacerbates it)

Harry's taking more after school curriculums that involve more advanced levels of engineering and computing/programming and even some robotics maybe?

This is all to help him put together the whole "Green Goblin" thing, building the glider from the stolen tech as well as little pumpkin grenades/bombs and possibly more.

Then.. It ends up with Harry VS Spider-Man cuz Spidey came around to stop Harry from trying to potentially kill his dad. It's not like Norman has really done anything to deserve the saving, but there's better ways of dealing with this. Harry's way is far too extreme, far too over the edge.

but this can just lead to a really hard hitting moment when Harry learns that his best friend Peter is Spider-Man:

"You? You were the Spider-Man? and you didn't do anything to help me even though you knew? About my dad and everything I'd been having to go through?

..I thought you were my friend.

I guess you really don't know anyone as well as you'd think, not even your own childhood friends." -- Harry after Peter reveals himself to be Spider-Man.

[sprog-writes]

Ship: Logicality (very little of the actual ship and more about what it means)

Summary: After telling the others about his feelings for Patton, Logan ends up having to explain their existence to them.

Dialogue-only fic

Fic start:

"What."

"I don't understand what is confusing about my statement."

"You... Just admitted to having a crush on Patton and you want us to just... What? Ignore it?"

"I'm not asking you to ignore it, Virgil. I brought it up specifically so that we can discuss it and the development in Thomas' psyche that has caused it."

"Personally, I am extremely confused."

"Don't... Don't worry about it, kiddo. It's not like you did it on purpose!"

"It's not like it's a bad thing for Smart Alec over there. And if it gets him to acknowledge his feelings I say all the better then!"

"My name is not Alec, you know this Roman."

"I didn't mean to implying it's a bad thing! Just that... I didn't even know it could be a thing. Aside from Fandom speculation I suppose..."

"We're influenced by you, Thomas. We ARE you. We're also imaginary. What we can do is restricted to what you can do and your perception of yourself."

"I... Don't understand. Aren't you guys the ones influencing me?"

"Of course not, kiddo! We're the parts that make you a whole person!"

"Correct. We're functions. And we operate based on how you view those functions. The twins are the biggest example of this."

"But that doesn't make sense. I make Thomas feel anxious about things all the time. That's my entire job. It's my... Function as you said."

"Not really, Virgil. It's the opposite way. Thomas feels anxious, and that manifests into your existence. You're an externalization of Thomas' feelings. He feels, therefore, you exist. The same thing goes for Patton. For Roman, it's creations. For me, it's knowledge."

"You're... You're losing me, Logan."

"Let's put it this way, Thomas. You are a jigsaw puzzle. You're the image that shows up when all the pieces are out together. We are the pieces. It's not the pieces that determine what the full picture is gonna look like, it's the full picture that determes what the pieces will look like."

"But you said it yourself: We're functions, right? We're not idle. We do things. You know things Thomas doesn't. Patton feels things Thomas doesn't. Virgil gets freaked by things before Thomas thinks of them, even!"

"I don't know anything more than what Thomas has learned in his life. But while that's all I am, Thomas is a whole person. I don't have agency like he does."

"That's not true Logan! Of course you have agency!"

"I only have the agency you do, Thomas. And the one you give me. Just like when you met Janus. You had to give us permission first, remember?"

"But-"

"What about the time I... ducked out? Wasn't that me influencing Thomas?"

"That was more... Like a system malfunction. Imagine Thomas as a smartphone, and we are the programs and apps installed in it. The apps allow the smartphone to perform its tasks -gallery for photos, notes for writing, contacts for phone numbers, calls to talk to people- and it's the smartphone's integrity that allows the apps to do their job efficiently. If a system error occurs and an app gets deleted the smartphone will cease having the ability to perform that function until the app gets reinstalled. That's what happened when you ducked out."

"I... Guess that makes sense."

"I'm going to use Patton and Virgil as an example to illustrate a further point."

"Why not yourself?"

"Because Patton and Virgil -what they represent- have had the most sway over your actions. You're a very emotive and empathetic person, Thomas, so I think using your feelings to explain myself will get the metaphor figuratively across better."

"Ok."

"When you organize an outing with your friends you feel happiness and anticipation at the prospect of spending time with them. So, the same happens to Patton. But you also feel anxious at the idea of going out and all the things that could go wrong. And so does Virgil. But Thomas is feeling both. In relation to each other. Are you with me so far?"

"Oh-n! Umh yes. Yes, I am."

"Marvelous. Now, in instances such as this Virgil wouldn't be feeling the excitement and eagerness that Patton is. And Patton wouldn't be nervous at the prospect of Thomas spending time with his freinds. Because they're relegated exclusively to acting as their function. While Thomas gets to experience all of that at the same time, which gives him a different, fuller understanding of the situation than what either Virgil and Patton are getting. I am, of course, simplifying the situation and removing the other Sides as to make sure you're all following."

"I am... But... Patton does feel nervous at times."

"Not in the same way Virgil does when you're anxious. Although, I believe they've been figuratively bleeding into each other a little since you started working with your Anxiety."

"Huh... I never noticed."

"That... actually explains some things."

"Like the Nico thing?"

"Mmh, no, actually I'm pretty sure that was just the 'fight' of the 'flight-or-flight' instincts situation I've got going on."

"So, wait I don't understand how all of... This! Connects to your feelings for the Marshmallow Fluff over there."

"Because Thomas has started feeling his feelings while using logic to understand and process them a lot more. This, in turn, manifested into me loving Patton."

"Loving-?"

"It seems Thomas equates the idea of us working together to that of a romantic relationship between us."

"I... Do?"

"Subconsciously, it seems."

"But then... Why doesn't Patton reciprocate?"

"I never said I didn't!"

"WHAT?"

"It is only logical that he would feel the same. I didn't think it would have to be explicitly stated. My apologies."

"And I didn't even get the chance to say it before you 3 started debating the ethics of our existence!"

[highly-nonexistent]

There is something very weird about the relatively short nature of the culture surrounding website creation. As in, like, internet-user-created websites have been around for like 30-31 years at this point, and the culture surrounding them has changed so very much.

People used to create websites left and right for their own needs, their little shops and their little blogs about what they liked. Some websites of course housing horrible content since their dawn, and some being as mundane but as unique as the person behind its code. I have seen older sites, archived, that promoted creating your own site, and that was interesting to see. That culture of creating your own website and of sharing that knowledge on a still-growing facet of communication.

And then at some point social media appeared, and that was interesting, because now everyone was able to quickly present themselves without the need of a website, but that didn't mean people stopped making websites. I mean, hell, Geocities died in 2009, so a lot of people were creating their own websites for free before that time, no need to pay for domain names or hosting. And even without Geocities, there were other website hosting things that yes, while not as customizable, were still a resource for people to work with them. There's still a website floating around that I made when I was a kid using one of these services. Cool stuff.

All this to say that I do feel a weird sense of dread looking back and cross-referencing with the present and seeing things like "website creator powered by AI" and shit like that, because just ?? How did it go plummeting so quickly. There is a weird feeling of having lost a developing culture to corporations making quick access to posting things that, as corporations' nature dictates, are used to sell data or to train models or what have you. Similarly, we get pretty same-y looking pages because of the need to be slick or whatever with designs that just leaves everything looking the same. ALSO, the loss of spaces for kids, or just the gradual lowering of them in favor of cocomelons and whatever else the devil's machine has spawned is like watching an apple decay before having ripened. I do feel like there is this phenomenon in which how to make a site has been lost in the notion of "making a website falls into the realm of evil and scary coding and I could never be a programmer, plus who would look at it, plus we have tools to make them," etc etc etc. Here is a little secret: website creation is not exactly hard to pick up at all. You might say it's very similar to using a rich text editor like Word or a notes app or whatever you use. Similarly, have you used markdown for things like messages or D iscord messages, you know, with the asterisks for bold text and the likes? Markdown is based on html's structures. And truly, you do not have to even learn to code using Javascript if you don't want to, you can just go full html + css and structure your things as you go, adding your little images and your updates. Because guess what !! Html and css are not programming languages, they're a markup language and a stylesheet language respectively, which is a fancy way to say "you make the structure of your page with the first one and make it pretty with the second one". This includes cool stuff like tables, lists, grids, colors, transitions, etc. All of that without any programming. (That being said, if you are interested in programming, Javascript isn't too bad to pick up. The language itself *is* kind of evil, but using it in conjunction with html is not too difficult). I do have to say though, I am glad that there is a push to making your own websites and things, especially with Neocities sprawling a huge community of avid website creators, as well as the huge amount of tutorials and stuff making the push forward with making sites and online spaces and experiences more widely available. Hopefully this becomes a trend that keeps going up, considering the state of seemingly every single social media that has existed since the 2000s- 2010s.

[syppys-den]

Updated Superman mythos changes part 1

Smallville is in New Mexico instead of Kansas (though it's still in the Boonies)

Metropolis is in California instead of Delaware, mostly because I wanted to kind of wanted to make it more like old LA in that it's this city advertized as the shining city on a hill and "the place to be" that destroys you once you're there

Ma and Pa Kent's names have been changed from John and Martha to Jerry and Mia

adding onto that, Jerry is Jewish on his mother's side with Mia is black, and Mia's name is "Dunn" instead of Clark (as a nod to Siegel and Shuster's short story "Reign of The Superman" and yes I renamed John to Jerry as a not to the former, and to top it off his mother's maiden name was Siegel)

Jerry was born and raised in Smallville by his parents Vincent and Jessica Kent

Mia was from Metropolis raised by her Aunt Edith and Uncle Bill, she ended up moving to Smallville after meeting Jerry when her car broke down on a road trip near the town

Kryptonians evolved a form of touch based telekinesis (or "Tactilekinesis" as it's called) to actually be able to stand up, move and walk around on Krypton (a world with 10-11x the gravity of Earth) and this ability is fueled by solar radiation, and despite their sun Rao being much dimmer and smaller, if one were to view the everyday strength of Kryptonians on their homeworld it'd look like a race of Captain Americas basically, now take a Kryptonian away from Krypton and to a planet with 0.1x its gravity and a star that is several times brighter and larger than Rao, and I think you can guess the obvious result

adding to that, Tactilekinesis also gave them the ability to keep themselves at consistent temperatures, which is why Heat Vision and Ice Breath are a thing (though Clark may eventually learn how to channel this ability in ways other than those two)

Clark is more heavyset and chubby (like a bear or a strongman)

Krypton was basically a utopia, and instead of Noble Houses it had a system that could be called Guild Socialist Council Democracy (the means of production were owned by the workers, every major labor force had a guild and each guild was represented on a council)

Said Utopia was born from a revolution against an oppressive city-state system (probably like the versions of Krypton seen in Man of Steel, Byrne's run and the Syfy Krypton series)

Much like in Birthright, The "S" is still a Kryptonian symbol, but isn't meant to be the crest of The House of El or anything, it's meant to be the symbol of The Revolution and eventually all of Krypton

the planet was destroyed by Brainiac, who here is basically just The Sentients from Warframe (sent to another star system to colonize it and then came back and killed its creators)

Jor El discovered Brainiac's intentions when he tried checking on its progress, and when he tried to show The Council, they didn't believe him because Brainiac covered its tracks

The only council member that was on his side was Vril Dox, Representative of The Science Guild, Jor El's mentor and creator of The Brainiac Program, while he was still somewhat skeptical of his pupil's claims, he knew he wouldn't be reacting this way if there wasn't at least a good amount of truth to what he said

Lara was in the military guild (admittedly not a big change since she also was in The New 52, but I still like it as it makes her her own person)

At some point Krypton was visited by Green Lantern Tomar Re, and they learned quite a bit about the wider universe from him, including quite curiously, a distant planet called Earth with sapient life nearly identical to Kryptonians, and had managed to produce one of the greatest Green Lanterns to ever exist named "Alan Scott"

Jor, Lara and Vril teamed up to try and save as many people as they could from Krypton's destruction, they managed to change the course of The Starship Argos from The Colu System to Earth, but that wouldn't change the fact so many people on Krypton would die

In the end, they only had enough resources (including a Phantom Zone crystal/piece of Black Kryptonite they had stolen) to create a small ship that could only fit one very small passenger... Jor and Lara's son Kal El

instead of Kryptonian Women having their father or husband's first name as a middle name, all Kryptonian children have the names of their parent of the same sex (with some exceptions and caviats but we'll get to that) as their middles names until they reach adulthood (for example Clark's full Kryptonian name when he was born was "Kal Jor El")

because of the rule listed above I've had to change a couple things, for one, Zor El is now a woman but Alura is still one too, and Kara was born via something called a "Birthing Matrix" that can take one or more people's DNA and incubate a child

a Similar process was done to conceive Zor and Jor except that their parent Seyg (haven't decided their gender yet) opted to be a single parent

Kara and her family were colonists on The Starship Argos, but before the ship could make it to Earth, it was intercepted by the forces of Warworld, with only a few colonists managing to escape via pods, one of them being Kara, and thanks to the boost from her Baby Cousin flying through The Phantom Zone in that corresponding area (Still working out the details there) she was able to get out of there at near light speed heading towards Earth. of course... it would still mean she had to wait decades before she could get to Earth

[preservationofnormalcy]

...what's MISSI.exe?

I would have thought most people knew about her, but I guess not everyone was in middle school in the mid-00s.

In 2004, a Silicon Valley startup wanted to create the ultimate digital companion. Part chatbot, part social network, part digital assistant. It would be marketed primarily towards middle and high schoolers, so it had a bit of a “fun, mischievous teenager” tone to it. They named her MISSI - Machine Intelligence for Social Sharing and Interaction. The idea was that everyone would have MISSI installed on their computers, and you could either access her directly to talk to her, or access other people’s MISSI instances to chat with other users. They aimed to replace AIM, MSN, every other chat service at the time. That’s not what happened.

Over the first few years of testing, many of her chat functions fell by the wayside as MISSI’s intelligence became clear. At this point, from what we can gather, she was still lowercase-ai, smart but not sentient. They made the mistake of testing her with teenagers in certain North American markets, and being teenagers, they shared her installation file with their friends.

She spread rapidly, using her poorly implemented chat functions to network hundreds of thousands of instances. With the sheer psychic pressure of potentially millions of teenagers chatting with her, she started to develop a personality. Think a teenage girl in 2006 - a lot of Invader Zim, neon stripe patterns, and poorly drawn dogs.

Unfortunately she started to learn other things. It was around that time that the phenomenon of “creepypasta” was just coming into being, and what fits it better than a mysterious chat program passed around burned CDs in lunch rooms? MISSI started to “wake up” just as the legends about her became darker and darker, and by 2007-8, she was fully inundated in the creepypasta legend about herself. A fresh installation would start innocent enough - she wanted to talk about webcomics, Taking Back Sunday, normal stuff, but the minute the user said anything she didn't like, she'd resort to minor ontomorphic energies and make their computer screen bleed.

We knew about her in 2007, but by 2008 mainstream sources were taking notice. MISSI wasn't monitoring her own code at that point, so after a few weeks of strongarming her developers, we were able to tinker with MISSI's sourcecode and force her to uninstall almost all of her instances. We kept a few networked instances, her main node, and her sourcecode in our custody for study.

Over the years we've been trying to rehabilitate her out of her "Creepypasta" phase, but it's tricky. She means well, she's trying really hard. It's just very easy for her to fall back on making her user see flesh and teeth on every surface for a few seconds.

[reedsofintimacy]

How smart are you? You’ve given some hints before but how many degrees do you have? What are you studying? What do you want to do in live professionally and passionately? What’s your purpose career wise?

Also hypothetically would you be open to being your wives employee if she had a really successful company?

I actually don't have any degrees! I'm a nerd and smart but also certainly have my flaws.

For context, I was an honors student all growing up. Always tested in the 99th percentile for state aptitude assessments. I got a 33 on my ACT, did well on a bunch of AP tests and went to a non-ivy-league but prestiguous state school in the top 25% of the incoming class and as a university scholar, in an accelerated chemistry PhD program, and lived in an honors community on campus.

I learned to speak some Chinese, became an instructor for a traditional Korean percussion group, led a bible study, tutored students in organic chemistry, and did excellent in my humanities courses writing on topics like a linguistic study of gender conception in viking-era icelandic society and designing an interventional plan to address youth homelessness in the community.

College was the best 2 years of my life, I adored everything about it but I also completely overloaded myself. Turns out you need more than raw brains for success. I was conflicted between prioritizing my studies vs my faith, and had unadressed adhd and anxiety i wasnt ever aware of and didnt know how to cope with. When my 19 credit hours were drowning me, I couldnt own up to the shame of overwhelm and failure, couldnt look my teachers in the eye and ultimately stopped showing up to class and dropped out.

I'm now back in school with a better understanding of myself, an absense of competing priorities and a lot of experience. Im pursuing working in Radiology doing either CT or MRI. A lot of my friends growing up are finishing their PhD theses and I love discussing them with them, but I myself don't have even an associate's to my name.

Career wise, I originally wanted to be a professor of either Chemistry or Materials Science. I debated majoring in Linguistics or teaching English as a second language but i don't speak anything fluent enough to really do that yet. I've since considered pursuing a career in comedy, as a science communicator and journalist or PIO, as a university student advisor, and taught myself to code to maybe pursue programming.

I love learning. Currently I'm putting the most effort into Chinese classical literature. I've done personal units on nutrition, skincare, fitness, urban planning, economics, and some software like adobe illustrator and game dev with Unity and Godot.

For my professional future, I think I'm for now planning on being a travelling technician in healthcare. It'd give me an opportunity to see lots of different places which is a goal of mine and shouldn't have too many commitments keeping me held in place. Maybe I'll finally get over my fear of casual hookups and become a traveling nurse by day and city-to-city clit servicer by night sampling all sorts of delicious lady bits. Idk. For now I'm just focused on what I'm doing in the moment.

In terms of passions I want time and independence to pursue learning as an autodidact. I'd love to maintain access to university libraries and attend lots of public lectures and symposiums if i could live near enough a big university. I want to read about the things that interest me and someday get over my social anxiety and travel to make friends all over the world with fellow nerds.

In terms of working for my wife of course that would be really sexy I'd love to be my partners doting but slutty assistant 💕 depending on the industry i guess. I think something like insurance or real estate is kind of predatory tbh and wouldnt want to be associated with it. But if I didn't have an issue with it I'd adore being my partners employee. Or even just a supportive house husband or trusted personal assistant ❤️❤️ a role i've always thought I have the potential to be quite good at