#information about python language

[not-terezi-pyrope]

AI continues to be useful, annoying everyone

Okay, look - as much as I've been fairly on the side of "this is actually a pretty incredible technology that does have lots of actual practical uses if used correctly and with knowledge of its shortfalls" throughout the ongoing "AI era", I must admit - I don't use it as a tool too much myself.

I am all too aware of how small errors can slip in here and there, even in output that seems above the level, and, perhaps more importantly, I still have a bit of that personal pride in being able to do things myself! I like the feeling that I have learned a skill, done research on how to do a thing and then deployed that knowledge to get the result I want. It's the bread and butter of working in tech, after all.

But here's the thing, once you move beyond beginner level Python courses and well-documented windows applications. There will often be times when you will want to achieve a very particular thing, which involves working with a specialist application. This will usually be an application written for domain experts of this specialization, and so it will not be user-friendly, and it will certainly not be "outsider-friendly".

So you will download the application. Maybe it's on the command line, has some light scripting involved in a language you've never used, or just has a byzantine shorthand command structure. There is a reference document - thankfully the authors are not that insane - but there are very few examples, and none doing exactly what you want. In order to do the useful thing you want to do, they expect you to understand how the application/platform/scripting language works, to the extent that you can apply it in a novel context.

Which is all fine and well, and normally I would not recommend anybody use a tool at length unless they have taken the time to understand it to the degree at which they know what they are doing. Except I do not wish to use the tool at length, I wish to do one, singular operation, as part of a larger project, and then never touch it again. It is unfortunately not worth my time for me to sink a few hours into learning a technology that you will use once for twenty seconds and then never again.

So you spend time scouring the specialist forums, pulling up a few syntax examples you find randomly of their code and trying to string together the example commands in the docs. If you're lucky, and the syntax has enough in common with something you're familiar with, you should be able to bodge together something that works in 15-20 minutes.

But if you're not lucky, the next step would have been signing up to that forum, or making a post on that subreddit, creating a thread called "Hey, newbie here, needing help with..." and then waiting 24-48 hours to hear back from somebody probably some years-deep veteran looking down on you with scorn for not having put in the effort to learn their Thing, setting aside the fact that you have no reason to normally. It's annoying, disruptive, and takes time.

Now I can ask ChatGPT, and it will have ingested all those docs, all those forums, and it will give you a correct answer in 20 seconds about what you were doing wrong. Because friends, this is where a powerful attention model excels, because you are not asking it to manage a complex system, but to collate complex sources into a simple synthesis. The LLM has already trained in this inference, and it can reproduce it in the blink of an eye, and then deliver information about this inference in the form of a user dialog.

When people say that AI is the future of tutoring, this is what it means. Instead of waiting days to get a reply from a bored human expert, the machine knowledge blender has already got it ready to retrieve via a natural language query, with all the followup Q&A to expand your own knowledge you could desire. And the great thing about applying this to code or scripting syntax is that you can immediately verify whether the output is correct but running it and seeing if it performs as expected, so a lot of the danger is reduced (not that any modern mainstream attention model is likely to make a mistake on something as simple a single line command unless it's something barely documented online, that is).

It's incredibly useful, and it outdoes the capacity of any individual human researcher, as well as the latency of existing human experts. That's something you can't argue we've ever had better before, in any context, and it's something you can actively make use of today. And I will, because it's too good not to - despite my pride.

[catt-nuevenor]

The Future

Time to establish what's going to happen from this point forwards.

The vast majority of you have been exceptionally patient this last year, and for that you have my deepest thanks. You've given me the time to not only write a book, but edit it, and send it off to literary agents, something I would have long given up on doing without the continued support of those who enjoy my writing.

Now that the book is off doing the rounds independently, it's time I got back to Myrk Mire.

Originally Myrk Mire was built in ChoiceScript, a scripting language created by the Choice of Games company. Choice of Games control what is done with their script, understandably, they own it. This does pose some restrictions. I can't, for example, release any paid material built using ChoiceScript unless it is directly through their publishing label. If I do publish under their label, I maintain IP or Intellectual Property Rights, however I also grant them the exclusive rights under perpetual license to publish the multiple choice game 'electronically'.

Source: Choice of Games.com

As you can see from the outline above, they do make exceptions for stories published in non-competing formats, and for sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. However, traditional publishing houses might require stricter control over IP, distribution, and exclusivity. It will only become more and more complicated as things progress, and being locked into a perpetual license agreement of any nature is not a decision to make lightly.

As some of you may be sensing from the tone of all this so far, I'm going to be moving Myrk Mire away from Choice of Games and ChoiceScript, and into a new medium/format.

After tinkering, and trialling with a few alternatives, I've decided to go with Renpy. Renpy, while largely used for visual novel style games and stories, provides a very workable framework for interactive fiction, and is an Open Source script, it isn't beholden to publishing contracts, licence cost, or exclusivity.

I'm not going to be diving into transferring Myrk Mire right away, it's a huge piece of writing, in an entirely different scripting language, and as previously stated, there are a lot of changes I want to implement with the cast. Instead, I'm creating a trial story: One Háḟest Day. My Patrons have been aware of all this for about a month or so, and have already seen some previews.

One Háḟest Day takes place in Aldmirham before the events of Myrk Mire, around the time the Main Character and the Wanderers first arrived in town. The reader will have the choice to follow one of the romanceable characters through a single day, with opportunities to explore their lives and relationships before the Main Character and Child come along. I hope it will provide a proving ground for the changes that previously caused debate, and an opportunity for people to try out the new format and interface.

My plan is to distribute One Háḟest Day through Itch.io, working with their early access framework and voluntary payments for such as soon as one of the character routes is ready to play from beginning to end, updating regularly with the other characters as they too are completed, and with additional features as required. Once the full game is complete, I will release a separate full build with a set minimum price that can be discussed with the community as we move forwards.

At the second, I'm aiming for a web hosted format and a desktop/laptop downloadable format, with phone compatibility to come later down the line once things are stable.

I will post production updates and info when I can to tumblr, though a lot of what I'm doing now is very python coding heavy, so perhaps not that interesting?

I've included some screenshots below of very early development, featuring a Character Log and Word Log that I hope will allow readers to more easily navigate the story. I'm toying with the idea of having a Mysteries Log as well that will keep track of snippets of information gleaned from each character's route, but that can be a tinkering feature for now.

Let me know your thoughts, concerns, or excitement, though do keep all messages objective and polite.

[rigelmejo]

learning to code!

When I was 9 years old, I learned enough html to code neopets pages, my own geocities websites, and I even made forums on my own sites so my friends could all roleplay together or rant together lol. And then? I forgot so much. I no longer no how to make a forum, or even a 'next page' button - so even the dream of just making a simple blog or webnovel site feels like a huge hurdle now. (9 year old me could probably figure it out in 2 hours).

So I'm relearning! I figured this would be a fun post to place resources I find for coding, since there's coding languages, and I figure maybe if you like running you're blog then you also might be interested in tools for making blogs!

First, for those of you who miss the old geocities and angelfire type of sites to make your own free site on: neocities.org

You can make free sites you can code yourself, the way 9 year old me did. A lot of people have made SUCH amazing sites, it's baffling my mind trying to figure out how they did, I definitely wish I could make an art portfolio site even a fourth as cool as some of the sites people have made on here.

And for those pressed for time, who aren't about to learn coding right now: wix.com is the place I recommend for building a site, it requires no coding skill and is fairly straightforward about adding pages or features by clicking buttons. I used it to make my art portfolio site, I am testing out using it for my webnovel - the alternative is Wordpress, but wix.com is letting me basically make a wordpress blog Inside my own site. It's very beginner friendly in terms of "how the fuck do I set up a 'sign up for updates' message and have my site actually email these people my novel updates?" and "I need a 4x20 grid of my art down the page, that lets people click the art to see it's information and make it bigger."

I did neocities.org's little html tutorial today, it's the part of html I DID remember (links, paragraphs, headers).

My next step is to go through htmldog.com's tutorials. They go from beginner, to intermediate, to CSS. Unlike many a coding tutorial I've seen, they explain what program on your computer you need to WRITE the code in and then how to save it and how to open it. (You'd think this isn't a big deal but I've been looking into how to learn Python for months and I can't find a tutorial explaining what fucking program to write my python in... notepad? do I need something else? I don't fucking know!! My dad finally gave me a printed textbook which supposedly tells you what to download to start... I learned C++ in college and for that you needed Visual Basic to code C++, so I figured I needed Something to Write the fucking python IN.)

[copperbadge]

Amateur Translation Programs

So I had a lot of imaginative and informative responses to my post about looking for an amateur translation program -- something where I could load in a foreign language and it would insert a box where I could add a translation every-other-line. The idea was that this way I could practice translation with more advanced texts, and texts I chose, and thus move away from Duolingo, which at this point is good for drilling and daily practice but not for more advanced learning.

I didn't find precisely what was needed but I did get some inspiration for further explanation, and I also learned that adding the term "glossing" (thank you @thewalrus-said) into my searches helped a great deal in terms of weeding out programs that were either "Let this AI translate for you" or just endless promotional links for Babbel and Duolingo and such. I thought I'd collect up the suggestions and post them here; at the end I'm including my best swing at designing what I wanted, and why it doesn't work yet.

Suggestion one, from many people, was various ways to generate a page that is simply fixed Italian text with space underneath each line to add in a translation. This is pretty simple as a process and there are sites that will do it for you, such as this one that @ame-kage suggested. However, most of these don't allow for movement in the Italian text, and many produce a PDF which you would need to print out in order to write on unless you're willing to open it in Acrobat (and deal with Acrobat). A good solution for some but not what I'm looking for purely because I'm trying to make this super frictionless so that (knowing myself as I do) I will actually do it.

I did find this version interesting, suggested by @drivemetogeek: Have one word doc saved as your "template" doc and set the line spacing as 2.0 or higher. Select your text from source and paste it into the template doc as text-only. Ctrl a, ctrl c to select all and copy, then open a new document and "paste special" as picture. Right click and set the "wrap text" as behind text. Now you have a document where you can, basically, type over the existing text because it's the background of the page. This seems like the most frictionless version, because you could set up a bunch of them ahead of time. If you wanted to move between desktop and mobile, however, you'd need to ensure that the pasted image was fairly narrow so that you don't have to sideways-scroll.

Relatedly, people suggested generating a document that is simply the Italian text with empty space beneath it for typing in of the translation. This can be done either semi-automated, using a macro or a language like Python, or find-and-replace on, say, the stops at the ends of sentences. It basically outputs the same as above but with a more digitally accessible format, without any more effort than above. If you were to do this in Google Sheets you could also fix the column width so that it didn't do anything weird when you opened it on your phone. But it is still very friction-y, and does not allow for easy shifting of the Italian as needed. There's high probability of the translation breaking weirdly across the page. Still a top option in terms of simplicity and access.

@smokeandholograms suggested another variation illustrated here where essentially you're converting the text to a series of tables, with each paragraph a row, and an empty cell next to it for the translation. I might play around more with this one eventually, since I think I could possibly make it a three-column and put the Italian in one, the translation in the next, and the auto-translate to let me know where I might be slipping in the third. (Not that I trust auto-translate but comparing a hand translation to an auto translation can be useful in terms of working out when I've messed up the way a tense or mood is read. I tend to read indirect verbs as automatically imperative because I'm a weirdo.)

@wynjara linked to an add-in for Word specifically designed for translators, known as TransTools; this appears to employ a macro to do the same thing, though it does have a format where you can place the translation next to each sentence directly rather than in a separate cell. The full suite of tools is only $45 which is reasonable for my budget, but for what I need I think I could also just create the macro.

Using LaTeX as a tool specially designed for glossing was an option on offer, but I don't know enough about LaTeX to figure out the pros of this one, which is in itself the major con -- there's a learning curve that I think varies widely by person but for me is unfortunately a wall. It came out of a discussion on Reddit about trying to find something like what I want; also in that discussion is a link to a code generator that allows you to…do something…to the initial language, but it's not entirely clear to me (I'm sure it's clear to people who understand coding) what you would then do with it that would allow it to be output in the way I'm hoping for. Like, I could turn a paragraph of text into HTML, I understand that far, but any Italian I find is already on a website.

Moving more into apps that might work, Redditors on the LaTeX discussion suggested SIL Fieldworks, which is a professional language tech tool. Fieldworks isn't a program I'd previously encountered but much as with the ones I had, it looks like the learning curve is fairly steep and it is definitely overkill generally for what I need, though it might also harbor within it the thing I want. It is free, so I may download and play around with it.

@brightwanderer suggested using note-taking or "whiteboard" apps such as Freeform or Nebo; these are generally a kind of "infinite canvas" in which you can drop objects, text boxes, or handwriting. I don't know that Freeform would be measurably different to just using Word and a macro, since I'd still have to input/format all the text and then be stuck with the same "fixed text" setup -- and it's also iOS only -- but for some folks it might be more helpful. Nebo is a similar infinite-canvas with unfortunately the same issues, though on the plus it's available for Android, which is where most of my mobile property resides.

@bloodbright suggested that I was looking for a CAT tool, a professional translation tool mainly used by translators working in the field. This was a concept I'd encountered, but I hadn't found a good starting place. They suggested Smartcat and OmegaT. Smartcat bills itself as an AI translation platform and is HARD pushing the "don't translate it yourself, hire a translator or let AI do it" angle, so it's difficult to tell what it offers in terms of actual tools for translators, and it's also cagey about pricing, so I can't really evaluate it. OmegaT is free and gives off big "some weirdo homebrewed this in their basement" vibe (which I am here for) but I also recognized it from screengrabs that were the reason I veered away from professional-grade software: it looked too complex. Realistically, the major downside of OmegaT is that I don't think I can put it on my phone. One thing I did find interesting is that once you translate a portion of the text, the original language goes away, though I assume you can turn that off if needed. I do kind of like that because it means my distractable brain is looking at Less Stuff.

So where did I end up?

Well, it looked like I was going to have to try a homebrew myself. I had the idea of trying some of the initial suggestions but in reverse -- designing a document where every other line was a single-cell table fixed to the page. You could paste in the Italian, which would wrap around the cells, and then enter the English in the cells.

You can fix a table in place in Google Docs -- you click on the table, then under Table > Style select Wrap Text, Both Sides, and Fix On Page. Getting the whole page set up is a little labor intensive but once you did that, you could just save it as a template and make a duplicate of it each time. And this actually works….on desktop.

Unfortunately, if you open it in the mobile Docs app, the app can't handle the fixed tables and automatically moves them all to after the text that's been pasted in. I tried redesigning it so that it's a table within a table -- one for the Italian, then within that a series of them for the English -- but when you nest a table in Google Docs, it doesn't let you fix the second table in place. And you are also still dealing with the wrap issue, although you can resize the page and add a large right-hand margin as a kludge of a fix for that.

You can build this same kind of document in Word, so I tried building one in Word and then uploading it to Drive, but when you open the Word file in Docs (or in Microsoft Word for Android), it still strips the fixed positioning -- there's just some functionality missing from both apps that doesn't allow them to handle fixed-position tables.

So, the design is sound, just not the final execution. If I could program an app, I could probably remedy the issues with it -- it's simply a series of text boxes nested inside one another with different formatting. I would imagine that's relatively basic to set up, although given that neither Docs nor Word can handle fixed tables in mobile, perhaps I've stumbled on a much bigger problem that everyone is ignoring because nobody actually needs or wants fixed tables in mobile. :D

Experimentation is ongoing, anyway. I might simply have to resign myself to the fact that my translation study is going to have to be in front of a computer, which might be for the best anyway when I inevitably want to compare my translation to an auto-translate to see where I might have read something wrong.

[thewertsearch]

Second part of the giga-ask compilation!

@publicuniversalworstie asked: Why assume the Horrorterrors would know that changing events would create a doomed timeline? That assumes both A) that the horrorterrors know the future and B) that they don't think it can really be changed. Maybe they genuinely thought they could change things, such as by perhaps fulfilling all the requisite loops a different way? Imagine a scenario where a time traveler learns of their death, therefore being destined to die, and instead fake their death to create the conditions under which they learned of the death originally.

It's possible. But if the Horrorterrors do have a way to trick the Alpha Timeline like that, then they've really been holding out on us by not mentioning it to the Players. Such a revelation would completely change the game - we might even be able to fake the Earth's death.

Anonymous asked: i want to learn more about coding to analyze homestuck better - do you have a place i could start? resources? idk love the liveblog hope you're doin well :]

Absolutely! I've got two separate answers for you, depending on what your goal is here.

If your main goal is just to analyse Homestuck, then you’re probably best off picking a language whose syntax is easy to understand, such as Python. You'll pick up on the basic logic pretty quickly, and the ~ATH snippets will start to make a lot more sense.

If you’re actually interested in programming for its own sake, then I recommend you start with my own first language, C. It’s a lot harder for a newbie to get to grips with, but doing so will give you a much more solid theoretical foundation then ostensibly ‘easier’ languages.

W3schools is a decent starting resource for both languages - but if you need more specific guidance, let me know, and I'd be happy to help!

@skelekingfeddy asked: actually grubmom having the same color wires as in that pic of sahlee wasnt intentional! i based it on how sollux’s game grubs have red and blue wires attached to them

Serendipity!

Anonymous asked: Did you run any mysterious ~ath programs on that computer of yours?

Honestly, running ATH on that thing would probably have improved it.

Anonymous asked: One voice headcanon I have for Terezi is the English dub of Power from Chainsaw man

Honestly, she sounds pretty much exactly how I imagine Terezi does. She even has the horns!

@martinkhall asked: I'm surprised none of the suggested instruments for a time player were an ocarina.

Some fruit is just too low-hanging.

@delicate-ruins asked: what's an animal you like that you think doesn't show up very much in media, be it fiction or news or just generally? example: i like secretary birds. but except for videos about them, i have never heard them references.

They're not obscure, per se, but there will never be enough sloths in media. The only fictional sloth of note is Sid from Ice Age – and he does not do them justice.

Capybaras are also underrated as hell – so much so that LibreOffice, which I'm using to edit this compilation, doesn’t even recognize the word as real!

Anonymous asked: “I’m trying to figure out if it’s fully a Breath outfit, or if there’s some Heir stuff too.” the general rule for god tier outfits is that the colors and symbol represent the aspect, the clothes represent the class. so, for example, if two princes of different aspects ascended, their clothing style would be the same but they would a have different color scheme. @skaiandestiny asked: If you haven't already figured it out, class informs the godtier outfit and aspect informs the colors and icon!

In that case, there is something about John’s outfit that says ‘heir’ – but nothing really stands out to me.

@driventopoison asked: Hey, I don't know if it's just me but it seems like you've skipped ahead. I have been following your liveblog daily, but I haven't seen you come across the windy thing yet. Is this because you were using the app or something? Also just want to let you know that I love your liveblog. Keep up the good work!

Thank you! Anyway, John’s Windy Thing is indeed documented on the liveblog, and it’s visible to me. I was using the app for some of that segment, though – are app-made posts particularly buggy?

@classpecting-guide-official asked: story about a modded game of sburb where the characters notice that something isn't right and slowly realize that their world is a lie

Back in Act 1, this is pretty much what I thought was happening. It was a simpler time.

@ignis-cain asked: Note the colors the capslock flashes for WV.

When WV locks his capsule, the button’s light flashes red and green – but I’m not sure what the significance of these colors is, in this situation.

Anonymous asked: i know i'm SUPER late to answer this, but i think the instantiation thing is the same as any video game, newly made with a prebaked history. when you name your character, that has been their name for their whole life, even though you thought it up a few seconds ago. when you enter the medium, the planet has a history and the denizens have memories, even though they just showed up when you entered.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is indeed what’s going on. The implications are just a lot more wild when the game is physically real, rather than virtual!

@kintatsu asked: So, I know I'm a little late to the party, but I have to point out: Alternian sunlight doesn't need to be THAT much stronger than Earth's to blind Terezi as quickly as it did. Trolls are nocturnal, which means they almost definitely have a tapetum lucidum (eyeshine membrane), which means that however much light entered Terezi's eyeballs? Her retinas were blasted by every photon twice.

Damn, Vriska. For a second, I thought this ask was explaining why Terezi wasn't in as much pain as I'd thought - but this alternate explanation might actually be worse than what I was picturing!

@delicate-ruins asked: It's delightful to see somebody read Homestuck and be as charmed by it as I and a lot of my friends were way back when we first read it, and the calm, digesting pace at which you're enjoying it is honestly so nice. I rushed way too much to catch up since my friends recommended it in about 2016, which means I went from knowing nothing about the comic to being caught up on it in like a week. I never sat down with the ideas and thought "hey, does this mean XYZ?" because quite often I got the answer five seconds later as I rushed to catch up. But seeing you asking those questions is so so fun. Yeah, DOES it mean that?? Guess we'll find out! In the meantime, we get to guess, which means we basically get to have fun twice. It's reigniting my enjoyment of homestuck quite significantly, I think!

Thank you! It’s really nice to be able to engage in a dialogue about the comic through these asks, which is something that wouldn't be possible if I was speeding through it. As I always say, I'm here for a good time and a long time.

@manorinthewoods asked: Alright, here's another transtimeline fun fact. Each of the kids was supposed to have a Quest related to their associated material - John had a land covered in oil, Rose's ocean was polluted with chalk, the gears of LOHAC were gummed by amber, and LOFAF was in a nuclear winter. Ultimately, while the ocean of LOLAR is still chalky, nothing but John's oil made the cut. ~LOSS (16/5/23)

I think it was a good change, then. Not everything has to be a pattern, and Dave's two weird maybe-quests are a lot more unique and interesting than a generic 'materials quest'.

@captorations asked: oh hey, this walkaround! so funny story, i used to run a blog where i posted one of terezi’s canon appearances each day, in order. yes, i completed my task, and more besides. however! when i was wandering through this as terezi, a glitch rendered me trapped. i decided that this counted as a noteworthy appearance, and took a screenshot. then, by sheer coincidence, it ended up being posted on… halloween. it was pretty great (also don’t forget to check out ctrl + t)

You accessed the double-secret version of Past Karkat: Wake Up, which plays the Earthbound Halloween Hack version of Megalovania rather than the Homestuck one.

Anonymous asked: Personally, I think John gaining so many levels so quickly is tied to his role as the heir - he gains so many levels without really trying, not because he's better than the trolls or his friends, but because he just kind of falls into it. The game rewards him for taking the path of least resistance.

That certainly makes sense if we just look at John - but I have trouble reconciling this interpretation with our other Heir. Equius certainly has some advantages, but they aren't exactly unique to him, as you'd expect them to be if his Heir class was responsible for them.

Yes, he's a highblood, but he's outranked by three non-Heirs - and his strength doesn't seem to be unique either, as Feferi seems capable of similar feats. Perhaps Equius will trip and fall into more unique privilege, but it hasn't happened yet.

Anonymous asked: my personal headcanons for midnight crew claspects: Slick - Prince of Blood, Droog - Mage of Space, Boxcars - Knight of Heart, Deuce - Bard of Doom. knowing you youre probably gonna attempt to analyse these LOL

Slick has had ties to Blood since he first met Karkat, so that tracks - and Boxcars is a shipper, so Nepeta's aspect is probably the best fit for now. I'm not sure about the other two, but I'll revisit them later!

[idioticbat]

i'm curious about something with your conlang and setting during the computing era in Ebhorata, is Swädir's writing system used in computers (and did it have to be simplified any for early computers)? is there a standard code table like how we have ascii (and, later, unicode)? did this affect early computers word sizes? or the size of the standard information quanta used in most data systems? ("byte" irl, though some systems quantize it more coarsely (512B block sizes were common))

also, what's Zesiyr like? is it akin to fortran or c or cobol, or similar to smalltalk, or more like prolog, forth, or perhaps lisp? (or is it a modern language in setting so should be compared to things like rust or python or javascript et al?) also also have you considered making it an esolang? (in the "unique" sense, not necessarily the "difficult to program in" sense)

nemmyltok :3

also small pun that only works if it's tɔk or tɑk, not toʊk: "now we're nemmyltalking"

so...i haven't worked much on my worldbuilding lately, and since i changed a lot of stuff with the languages and world itself, the writing systems i have are kinda outdated. I worked a lot more on the ancestor of swædir, ntsuqatir, and i haven't worked much on its daughter languages, which need some serious redesign.

Anyway. Computers are about 100 years old, give or take, on the timeline where my cat and fox live. Here, computers were born out of the need for long-distance communication and desire for international cooperation in a sparsely populated world, where the largest cities don't have much more than 10,000 inhabitants, are set quite far apart from each other with some small villages and nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples inbetween them. Computers were born out of telegraph and radio technology, with the goal of transmitting and receiving text in a faster, error-free way, which could be automatically stored and read later, so receiving stations didn't need 24/7 operators. So, unlike our math/war/business machines, multi-language text support was built in from the start, while math was a later addition.

At the time of the earliest computers, there was a swædir alphabet which descended from the earlier ntsuqatir featural alphabet:

the phonology here is pretty outdated, but the letters are the same, and it'd be easy to encode this. Meanwhile, the up-to-date version of the ntsuqatir featural alphabet looks like this:

it works like korean, and composing characters that combine the multiple components is so straightforward i made a program in shell script to typeset text in this system so i could write longer text without drawing or copying and pasting every character. At the time computers were invented, this was used mostly for ceremonial purposes, though, so i'm not sure if they saw any use in adding it to computers early on.

The most common writing system was from the draconian language, which is a cursive abjad with initial, medial, final and isolated letter shapes, like arabic:

Since dragons are a way older species and they really like record-keeping, some sort of phonetic writing system should exist based on their language, which already has a lot of phonemes, to record unwritten languages and describe languages of other peoples.

There are also languages on the north that use closely related alphabets:

...and then other languages which use/used logographic and pictographic writing systems.

So, since computers are not a colonial invention, and instead were created in a cooperative way by various nations, they must take all of the diversity of the world's languages into account. I haven't thought about it that much, but something like unicode should have been there from the start. Maybe the text starts with some kind of heading which informs the computer which language is encoded, and from there the appropriate writing system is chosen for that block of text. This would also make it easy to encode multi-lingual text. I also haven't thought about anything like word size, but since these systems are based on serial communication like telegraph, i guess word sizes should be flexible, and the CPU-RAM bus width doesn't matter much...? I'm not even sure if information is represented in binary numbers or something else, like the balanced ternary of the Setun computer

As you can see, i have been way more interested in the anthropology and linguistics bits of it than the technological aspects. At least i can tell that printing is probably done with pen plotters and matrix printers to be able to handle the multiple writing systems with various types of characters and writing directions. I'm not sure how input is done, but i guess some kind of keyboard works mostly fine. More complex writing systems could use something like stroke composition or phonetic transliteration, and then the text would be displayed in a screen before being recorded/sent.

Also the idea of ndzəntsi(a)r/zesiyr is based on C. At the time, the phonology i was using for ntsuqatir didn't have a /s/ phoneme, and so i picked one of the closest phonemes, /ⁿdz/, which evolves to /z/ in swædir, which gave the [ⁿdzə] or [ze] programming language its name. Coming up with a word for fox, based on the character's similarity was an afterthought. It was mostly created as a prop i could use in art to make the world feel like having an identity of its own, than a serious attempt at having a programming language. Making an esolang out of it would be going way out of the way since i found im not that interested in the technical aspects for their own sake, and having computers was a purely aesthetics thing that i repurposed into a more serious cultural artifact like mail, something that would make sense in storytelling and worldbuilding.

Now that it exists as a concept, though, i imagine it being used in academic and industrial setting, mostly confined to the nation where it was created. Also i don't think they have the needs or computing power for things like the more recent programming languages - in-world computers haven't changed much since their inception, and aren't likely to. No species or culture there has a very competitive or expansionist mindset, there isn't a scarcity of resources since the world is large and sparsely populated, and there isn't some driving force like capitalism creating an artificial demand such as moore's law. They are very creative, however, and computers and telecommunications were the ways they found to overcome the large distances between main cities, so they can better help each other in times of need.

[geekgirles]

If there's any TV Troper in the Wakfu fandom, please, let me know!

TV Tropes is my Bible and it breaks my heart to see it hasn't been updated in months, not even after The Great Wave dropped. Is there something I'm missing? Are there rules about when it's appropriate to update?

Because I know for a fact there are shows that update their information within hours of a new episode dropping.

Please, I've been obsessing over Wakfu and the different tropes that could be applied to both old and new characters for months! If you'd like to know in order to update the site yourself, then hit me up! We can discuss tropes and see if they actually fit or not, but for the love of everything good, update the damn character sheets!

Seriously, I'm pretty sure the only characters who've received a notable update in the last few months are Oropo and Echo, but mostly Oropo.

I'm sorry, I'd gladly do it myself, but I don't know how and if it requires to write in HTML or Python or that kind of language, I have no idea. So please, if anybody here has access to TV Tropes and is willing to edit the Wakfu page, don't hesitate to reach out to me 🥹🥹🥹

[destinationtoast]

hi! research question I'd love your input on:

do you know how to generate size-of-fandom stats? I'm researching the Ghost fandom and while I know from the This Week in Tumblr posts about what their size is *now,* I'd like to try to compare it to past years, and be able to make statements like "x% of the fandom is reblogging explicit content."

I'm also looking for deeper info on how tumblr works if someone deactivates - do their notes vanish too?

It sounds like you want to gather Tumblr information only -- is that right? I don't have a lot of expertise with Tumblr data (I think I last gathered some over a decade ago), but it looks like their API still lets you retrieve posts with a certain tag and specify a timestamp, if you're willing to do a bit of programming. So you could, e.g., retrieve the last N posts of each month that use a particular fandom tag. And then you can compare those samples of posts to see how the content has changed over time. If you want to do that, there are libraries in Python and probably other languages that can make it easier to work with the Tumblr API.

I believe the posts retrieved this way don't include reblogs, so you'd also have to look at the post notes to get info about how many reblogs different types of posts are getting. As to your question of deactivated accounts within those notes, I'm not certain of the answer. I frequently see reblog chains where some accounts in the chain have deactivated, so those notes are not entirely gone. But I don't know if the replies/likes from deactivated accounts disappear from post notes. Anyone else know?

[matchakaros]

apollo pjo fanfic favs (pt 1)

)The Stolen God by TsarinaTorment. Rated T, 107k, Completed

Python is defeated. The prophecies are restored, and Nero has fallen. Apollo has not been seen since. His trials are over; why isn’t he back on Olympus?

Starting off strong with my personal introduction into the ToA fandom. And also a fic that still holds a special place in my heart lol. Magnus Chase x ToA crossover where Apollo (as Lester) is picked up and dropped off in the Norse afterlife. Which, yknow. It could cause quite a few problems. The Will characterization is a favourite of mine, there's a solid comedy around Lester and his Lester-ness in Asgard, the stakes and well-built and executed beautifully. Very bingeable!

2. You Cried for the Moon by oKathleen. Rated T, 2.5k, One-shot

Apollo collapsed, his fragile mortal body hanging limply from the chains like a ragdoll. His eyes rolled back, glassy and unfocused. Her twin started seizing. Artemis reached him too late, half a second after his head brutally slammed into the floor. "No, no, no, stay with me darling," she knelt down, holding him and cradling his head but he flopped down unconsciously, flailing in his restraints. OR: Artemis intervenes too late. Day 3 of ToApril: "Divine Intervention" and day 8: "Moonlight’s Reflection"

i will never shut up about this fic. oh MY GOD. the entire thing is written like a fucking punch to the gut, if the Burning Maze wasn't canonically angst enough. i think what keeps drawing me to this fic is the reminder of how mortal Apollo truly was during all of this in canon. Also I love how Artemis and Apollo's relationship is so well established in a short few paragraphs. This fic is a brutal tragedy wrapped in silk and flowering language. This fic leaves you reeling. You know what's going to happen. You can't stop it. And it's gonna fucking hurt as it does.

3. we're gonna sing it again by TigressinCreamSilk, Rated T, 19k, Completed

In which Apollo and Nico play with the big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey wimey stuff like a pair of cats. But sneaky, subtle cats who’re simultaneously trying to figure out the best way to make a garrote.

Time Travel to pre-series, fix it fic, told in a series of outsiders' pov, comedic as hell. Includes Apollo's revolution but comedy'd. I love the pacing on this one-- it's fast, it's funny, it gives readers fun easter eggs that make the characters in fic scrambling for information while simultaneously giving readers satisfaction as they put the pieces together. This fic is just straight up fun and I love that

4. Sunrise from SkyFall series, by IcyDreams_and_FieryWishes, Not Rated, 47k, Compleated fic, series ongoing

At 10,000 years of age, Apollo falls to Chaos. With the last of his strength, he sends his memories through the fabric of Space-Time. At 1 day of age, Apollo refuses to let the story be the same as last time. Vi Va La Revolution. SkyFall: Season 1, Arc 1- The Rising Sun. In which Apollo lives through his early life, forming alliances and rewriting mythological history while striving to keep his siblings and family safe from threats outside and within their home. Will he succeed? Or will Fate prevail once more? One thing is for sure, Apollo remembers. And he will take his vengeance.

Apollo time-travels to the beginning of his life and IMMEDIATELY starts the shenanigans. I really love the world-building in this bc there are a lot of mythology elements that are being incorporated into a toa apollo pov, as well as a spotlight on the huge responsibility Apollo feels he must take on to ensure his mother, sister, and overall family's lives play out better than the future he's from. yeah lmao Apollo's Going Through It, as angsty time-travel fic mcs do, and it's wonderful to see him suffer haha

[gender-trash]

What’s the language you use for the robot? I’m assuming you’re not using ladder logic (standard for industrial automation including robots) because you would have yelled about it by now.

i don't understand anything happening in industrial robotics land and every time i hear a new piece of information i'm like "how do you people live like this". anyway the on-robot software is a ros-based system with a mixture of c++, python, and rust nodes, and all the fleet management stuff is in python but my coworker keeps making noises about switching to golang :/

[argumate]

Hi Argumate! I just read about your chinese language learning method, and you inspired me to get back to studying chinese too. I want to do things with big datasets like you did, and I am wondering if that means I should learn to code? Or maybe I just need to know databases or something? I want to structure my deck similar to yours, but instead of taking the most common individual characters and phrases, I want to start with the most common components of characters. The kangxi radicals are a good start, but I guess I want a more evidence-based and continuous approach. I've found a dataset that breaks each hanzi into two principle components, but now I want to use it determine the components of those components so that I have a list of all the meaningful parts of each hanzi. So the dataset I found has 嘲 as composed of 口 and 朝, but not as 口𠦝月, or 口十曰月. So I want to make that full list, then combine it with data about hanzi frequency to determine the most commonly used components of the most commonly used hanzi, and order my memorization that way. I just don't know if what I'm describing is super complicated and unrealistic for a beginner, or too simple to even bother with actual coding. I'm also not far enough into mandarin to know if this is actually a dumb way to order my learning. Should I learn a little python? or sql? or maybe just get super into excel? Is this something I ought to be able to do with bash? Or should I bag the idea and just do something normal? I would really appreciate your advice

I think that's probably a terrible way to learn to read Chinese, but it sounds like a fun coding exercise! one of the dictionaries that comes with Pleco includes this information and you could probably scrape it out of a text file somewhere, but it's going to be a dirty grimy task suited to Python text hacking, not something you would willingly undertake unless you specifically enjoy being Sisyphus as I do.

if you want to actually learn Chinese or learn coding there are probably better ways! but I struggle to turn down the romance of a doomed venture myself.

[snailsnaps]

Part 2 of a Computer Science student's analysis of the FNAF: SB intro

Full with tech lingo, abundant personal interpretations, and translations so that my tech illiterate fellas may undertand whatever the fuck im yapping about!

This post is written under the context that you've read my last analysis. I highly recommend you first check out these two posts before continuing with this one if you haven't already: > First post + Continuation ( IMPORTANT!! ) > An addition to the first post

Once you've read through those two (three?) posts, come back here! You're back? You've read them? Awesome! Let's begin then. =)

Reminder! This analysis has been done based off of my own understanding of the subject of both computing and programming - which I am currently studying. I would also like to yet again shout out this reddit post, that also gives a great perspective. Definitely check it out if you're interested later!

Also I have not re-read this, you may find typos - don't hold it against me, they will be fixed, someday =(

Now then, fellas, this is where shit gets wild.

Last post, I talked about the command box we can see at the top right corner of the intro - what each command did and how it basically corresponded to what happens to freddy in the events of the intro.

However, you might recall I mentioned a second command box, the one found at the left side of the screen. This command box is by far the most important piece of information we have throughout the entire duration of the intro. Mostly, because it changes 3 times.

It changes a total of 3 times in the time it takes for the right command box to finish.

Each time it changes, it displays new lines of code. And every single line of code it displays, tells us a lot about what is happening to Freddy.

This is the first block of code that we get:

system32> Get-568_win heat_869%yTnu_bl8 lvl_b> 228.wst serial.dot_btb rec.556> dtd /

You might inmediately realize that the first line of code from this command box matches exactly the one from the first analysis. Here are both of them as comparison.

Hopefully, you've already made the connection. This command box is the one possibly being run by the Glitchtrap/Vanny Virus. Whatever lines of code appear on the command box to the left, are the ones being executed by the Virus - and they affect Freddy in real time. However, the command box on the right ir Freddy's, so to speak.

Both CLI (command line interfaces) are being run at the same time - yet independently of one another. Keep this in mind.

I don't want to go too in depth with this first block of code. All you need to know is that it moves around some directories and runs something called 'dtd', wich could be a command or a program.

The next two blocks of code, however? Ohhh damn... This is it, fellas. This is what I've been waiting for.

Now, I want you to know that this doesn't quite resemble any 'real' code, at least not at first glance. I do believe that it is a very 'condensed' form of the Python programming language, since the syntaxing of the commands shown here somewhat resemble how a string written in Python would look like.

So, I have taken the time to try to decipher what each line means, and what they do. And well, let's just say it explains why Freddy wasn't affected by the Virus in the first place.

def rule(x) return warning78 init; self_overdrive abort(3)RTLKt abort(5)XGE END

This is the second block of code that we're shown, so lets break it down.

def rule(x) return warning78 init;

This string would define "rule" as a function, specifying "x" as the parameter. Basically, this line specifies that if the command rule is inputted, it should return whatever value (or argument) x has taken.

Normally, define is followed by a return function, which is why I've shown them together, as well as the init; command.

The command return followed by "warning78", makes it so whenever we call upon the function rule, it shows us whatever warning78 may be - and judging as to what happens in the intro, it could be any of the multiple warnings that appear in Freddy's GUI. Or it could also easily be the big "WARNING!" message that can be seen the entire time near the top of the screen.

Lastly, the init; command isn't exactly a standardized python command - but it is a common abreviation of the initialization command, where in the field of programming, it means "the assignment of an initial value for a data object or variable". Basically, it's when you assign the initial values and variables to a program so it can start.

All in all, these three lines create a command that, when called upon, gives out the warning78.

self_overdrive

Again, not really a python function, but important nontheless. This command doesn't have a specific meaning, but we can try to understand what it does.

The term overdrive doesn't really exist in the field of computing/programming. However, it is asociated with overclocking - "the practice of increasing the clock rate of a computer to exceed that certified by the manufacturer" - Overdrive is also a term in the field of music, also known as distorsion, which is when you force an amplifier to output past its limits.

Both of these definitions go around the same concept, pushing a computer to its limits so that it works better, or faster - even while it possibly damages the computer.

We can then assume that the function self_overdrive is making Freddy's system run pasts its usual limits. Which is why I believe Freddy's integrity level plumits during the intro.

abort(3)RTLKt abort(5)XGE END

Lastly, we have these three lines.

The abort function isn't a real python function - but I believe you can asume what it does. Both lines are attempting to kill something - a program, a process, another function... However, I am not sure wether these two are really functions, since they could very easily be error handling messages. Essencially, warning messages that the system returns when something crashes, for example.

The last line, END, specifies the end of this string of code.

Which leads us to the third and last block of code. The one which in my professional opinion, is the one that reveals to us why Freddy's cool with us during Security Breach! =]

report.NULL gridlock [ax674] init_task>void alloc [overload] SW.failure return /

THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR, FRIENDS. THIS IS IT. This is the part where I had the most fun with this analysis...

report.NULL

Now, usually report, in the field of programming and software, it means to record or log something. For example an error log, or crash log. However, it being followed by NULL could also mean that this is an error handling message of sorts.

In computing, Null is, well, zero. It's nothing. It's the absence of value, when something that should be there, isn't.

From this, we could gather that this is a warning message that attempted to report something, yet failed to find anything to report back. No value at all.

...or, we could take this line literally. Taking into consideration that this code is being executed by the virus - this line of code could be taken as an attempt by the virus to stop Freddy's system from freaking out.

Remember that this entire code is being executed as Freddy's actively getting a big flashing WARNING! message. So, this line of code could be an effort to silence it, returning a null value to a warning message.

Both scenarios are plausible, so stick with the one you think fits best!

gridlock [ax674]

This one... man... this line was wild. It's where everything clicked for me. You will want to ignore the characters [ax674], what we truly care about is the first word: gridlock.

You see, a gridlock isn't really a term used in computing at all. It is a term refering to a "severe congestion of traffic, where continuous queues of vehicles block an entire intersection". HOWEVER, gridlock is also known as another term for deadlock.

A deadlock is what's known as a stalemate. A situation where two opposing parties come to a point where no progress can be made. In programming, it means basically the same thing.

A situation where two processes can't proceed, since both of them are waiting for the other to release a resource. Now, imagine this scenario. We have two processes, A and B, and two resources, R1 and R2.

Process A is currently using resource R1.

Process B is currently using resource R2.

Process A requests resource R2, but is blocked because it's held by Process B.

Process B requests resource R1, but is blocked because it's held by Process A.

Now... imagine this situation, but with Freddy, and the virus.

What we most likely have here, the line gridlock [ax674], is an error handling message, warning that a deadlock is ocurring. The string of characters beside it has no meaning, and could easily be but an error handling code of sorts.

init_task>void

I've explained before that init is the abreviation of initialization. So, we can gather that this is a command that is attempting to initialize a task. Now then, in the context of the previous line, this one could mean one of two things:

The virus is attempting to initialize a task (a set of instructions) called void.

The virus is attempting to initialize a task, however, due to the deadlock, it returns this line as an error message, indicating a void return. In programming, when a function returns the word void, it usually means that the function was not able to return a value. It is similar to Null, yet not the same.

Either of these could be a posibility, so I will leave it to your personal interpretation.

And here it when it all goes to hell...

alloc [overload] SW.failure return

Alloc is not a real function, but it can be considered an abreviation of the word allocation. In computing, the allocation is the assignment of memory and resources to the various processes the system may have.

Proper memory and resource allocation is very important in a computer. As you may know, a computer as a limited amount of RAM it can work with, and the same goes for it's processing power. But, for example, what happens when you try to allocate resources that aren't available?

Well, a lot of things may happen. Mainly, the program could hang, the process could freeze - or the entire system could crash!

Remember earlier, we saw that it was likely that Freddy and the virus were in a deadlock. Yet, the Virus tried to allocate more resources to itself... Which overloaded the system, and likely resulted in the next line.

SW.failure has no real meaning - but I've interpreted the first two characters [SW] as software. This would make this line an error message warning about a software failure.

So... What does this all mean? How does it all tie together? Why didn't Freddy get infected by the Virus? Because it got too greedy. It tried to allocate too many resources/memory, overloaded the system and crashed both itself and Freddy.

Why only Freddy, though? Why didn't this happen to the other animatronics? That... I'm not sure. I believe this is more of a lore question rather than computer question.

In my opinion, I don't think this was a case of 'Freddy knew that he was getting infected by a virus, and fought back'. I'm leaning more to the posibility of it being a 'wrong place wrong time' type of situation... or maybe 'right place right time'? In general, a lot of factors and a lot of different things happened that lead to this specific scenario happening.

Anyways, this is it! This has been my analysis - or nerdy infodumping, if you please.

I do hope that I was able to teach you something today, and that this whole analysis helps you understand the animatronics a bit better - and helps you with future fanfics, comics, AUs, artworks... whatever!

One last reminder - if you have any more questions about this stuff, my ask box is open! I love talking about this stuff!!

Oh, and, coming soon...

DJMM's Bouncer Mode ! A theory by a computer science student as to why it's still present, and why it makes him so aggressive.

[r3dcam3llias]

How do you make mods?

To answer in short terms: Ren’py!

In longer terms, I use a program called Ren’py, which is basically a visual novel game making software, and the software used to create OLBA, along with VS code (you don’t need this though, it was just downloaded on my computer already LOL) to be able to actually view the code itself.

There’s plenty of information about Ren’py itself in forums and their docs, and learning the Ren’py language itself isn’t that difficult if you go through a tutorial or two or already have some preexisting knowledge of the Python coding language.

If you’re looking to make a OLBA mod yourself, this is the way I would do it, not a means to an end, feel free to adapt if you find a way that works easier for you:

Download Ren’py, specifically THIS version, as other versions will not be compatible with OLBA. (You can use 7zip to unzip it)

Crack open Ren’py, and just create a new project, name it whatever you want, just make sure it’s 1080 by 1920, everything else doesn’t matter.

Locate your legitimate game files and feel free to just copy and paste everything from the legitimate OLBA folder into your new project (you can find its folder in documents by default iirc, but if not there, try searching for it by name), don't worry about keeping any of the old files in there, just overwrite all of it.

legitimate game files ↑ new project files ↓

Before you can begin editing the scripts or DLCs however, you need to actually be able to see them. You can't because they are in .rpa files, which are basically secured ren'py folders. To crack them open, do these steps:

Find these files in the "game" folder of your new Ren'py project. The archive.rpa file contains everything in the main game. Depending on what DLCs, if any, you have, you may see additional .rpa files with the titles of the DLC you own.

2. Move these files out into a new folder on your desktop. Download this extractor and place it in the same new folder on your desktop. EX:

2. One by one, drop the files onto the rpaExtract.exe Icon. Afterward, you should get some folders with the names corresponding to the .rpa files and potentially an image folder. (NOTE: the archive.rpa file is not contained in one folder, meaning ALL the files will just appear freely, I recommend moving all the other finished folders back into the "game" folder before you do this one so you don't end up confused/overwhelmed!) (my files, excluding the archive.rpa files)

3. You can just delete the .rpa files now, you won't need them, and put the all new folders/files you got back into the "game" folder.

Now you will be free to go into Ren'py and click "open project" to edit the scripts to your heart's content! At this point, if you're experienced with Ren'py things should be looking a bit more familiar, if not, I recommend watching some ren'py tutorials to learn the ropes or just shoot me a message and I'd be happy to help you out in any way I can.

Lastly, when you finish your mod, if you want to be able to use it in a legitimate game, it depends on whether it's an edit of an existing script or adds a completely new one: If it's an edit, just get whatever files you edited and follow my instructions here in this "how to download OLBA mods tutorial". As for a mod that adds completely new scripts, you will still have files that are just edited from the original game, so for those scripts follow the tutorial above. As for original scripts/images/sounds etc you should be able to just paste them into your legitimate game folder and shouldn't have to bother with converting them to a .rpa file at all. I hope this helped answer anyone's questions! Can't wait to see what you guys make :) If you ever need help or have questions, my messages are always open!

[the-trinket-witch]

Trinket's TWST OCs x Reader Headcanons

(I blame @thehollowwriter for inspiring this one XD)

These Headcanons are a mix of platonic/romantic, ignoring any 'canon' pairings they might already have (Lookin' at you, Al)

His love language is Acts of Service, so when he starts trying to do stuff for you? Keep an eye out. The problem is he's usually friendly to everyone so it's the subtleties to look out for.

To this point he's one to pine after someone. He hopes his actions might speak louder than words, so there might not be an outright 'I fancy you'. The only reason he actively pursued/told Azul outright was because subtlety can be easily dismissed by a guarded heart.

He will insist on public transit if going anywhere if a car is a viable option. Likewise he could come off as obnoxious when it comes to driver/passenger safety. Seatbelt before keys, music isn't too loud, put the phone down, etc.

Oddly, if you really want to know the biggest tell you are In With Him? The mask starts coming off. His chipper, stiff upper lip attitude gives way to a more calm, almost melancholy air. He's gotten comfortable enough with you to open up about certain things, things he hasn't so much 'lied' about so much as 'omitted details to let you make your own truth'.

For as much as they give airs of 'being more mature' than their peers, there's still a 16yr old there. If they start trying to show you some of their art/music tastes, that's def a path of at the very least friendship.

If you find yourselves having a good whinge over something to drink? You're DEFINITELY friends. Being a Prefect is difficult, they gotta let things out somtime and there's only so many suggestions of 'Just Burn them to a Crisp' from Grim that they can take.

If comes a crisis and they feel need to give Grim to YOU? Congrats you now have a relationship with a Prefect.

Ya boi is awkward. He's acutely aware of his size and strength so his attempts to make friends usually has him trying to seem as unimposing as possible. But if he can't, he'll content do just stand off to the side for you

He's not writing or drawing anything lewd, he swears! Catching him sketching you or writing observations is a bit of a tightrope. Either you can make him clam up about how much of a muse you are to him, or you can open the floodgates to more information about human culture (whether you're human or otherwise) that you would have any idea what to do with.

Dates may be sparse at first, as he'd want to go to a local cultural or holiday event with you. Him burying his nose in another journal isn't him ignoring you or his way to call you boring, he's just really invested in the atmosphere (and maybe observing how you're enjoying things to note for later)

Laz is kind of a flirt, so off the bat it'll be hard to tell if he's just being him or if there's anything more.

Like a lot of guys, if he's inviting you to band practice, it's to show off. 'Mira, any requests?'

He loves the idea of being on the road for shows, but deep down he wants someone who is willing to wait for him at homebase, cheering him on. He just needs to prove it's just his music and not his heart that likes to rove.

It should be first and foremost stated that no matter what he says, he has no interest in friends or romantic partners. Less people to share his success with.

However, one can find themselves more often at his side with a few points of navigation.

How gullible are you? How willing are you to ignore the progression in things he asks of you? How much do you need to see a therapist? How well connected are you? These are a few deciding factors in how close the Python will allow you to get.

Depending on what you can give him, he has the means to pull out quite a few stops. Gifts, travel, physical intimacy, it's all in the name of dividends.

Of course, when it comes to wits and intelligence, is where you can genuinely start to 'charm' him instead of the other way around. If you can out-psychology him or evade all his attempts to crack you, while also showing off what you know but aren't willing to divulge, will make him utterly writhe.

He's a king looking for a ruling partner (that isn't going to threaten his status)

Friendships (or 'alliances') are mutually beneficial. He knows just the right balance of give and take.

He can smell a gold-digger a mile off. It's happened enough times he knows all the steps. Because of how often younger folks tend to shoot their shot that way, he tends to go romantically for those 30+.

While he doesn't want a leech on his arm, he doesn't want someone overly codependent either. He's a busy man, so someone with hobbies and a general maturity of independence would be ideal.

Friendly gatherings tend to be part of public events, but he's a busy man so compile your stories into elevator pitches.

'Dates' on the same hand, are typically in those same spaces. hearkening back to a need for maturity, he isn't going to bring someone who's going to get him in the paper for all the wrong reasons.

[ENTRY REDACTED. CANDIDATE NOT AVAILABLE FOR ROMANCE]

TAGLIST: (lemme know if you want added/removed)

@ceruleancattail @squidwen @thecosmicjackalope @vaporvipermedia@writing-heiress

@oya-oya-okay @k-looking-glass-house @thehollowwriter @rainesol @cyn-write

@heartscrypt @honey-milk-depresso @br3adtoasty @jackiecronefield @ruggiethethuggie

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[doahaesunshine]

Chapter 13

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There are some nights The scary ones Where I feel as though my heart will burst I hear it Pounding against my chest It fills me with anxiety I know I won’t die But my thoughts keep me awake And I’m left staring at the dark ceiling

Half of a year.

That’s how long you have been in the magical world of the Seventeenth Realm.

And it wasn’t any closer to feeling like home…

Of course there were people that you considered friends. For example, Vernon, Jihoon and Soonyoung, your dorm mates, were all very good friends. You ate delicious meals that Mingyu cooked for everyone like a little family. Dino still checked on you and performed routine examinations every other week. It was hard to ignore the Alchemist, especially when his familiar had taken a liking to you.

Archivist Jeon was still keeping his space but you no longer felt awkward around the older Arcanist. Whenever you had a hard question about magic or needed to find a specific book, he was always there to help. Seungkwan was also always willing to lend a hand when finding informational books on language and incantations. You were still yet to meet his mentor, Joshua, but that didn’t necessarily bother you. Apparently, the young Ward was very busy.

Lessons with Jeonghan halted during your short healing period. The raven haired man himself never entered the dorm, but his black ball python familiar, Obsidian, would visit from time to time. The slithering creature was able to climb up to your window and when you let him enter, he would always curl around your forearm. You felt bad, spending all this time away from Jeonghan without telling him what had happened, but through Obsidian you were able to send small messages. 

You found yourself telling the sleek snake about your day and what you’ve been learning while away from his Arcanist. The creature obviously was unable to respond since he wasn’t your familiar, but he understood your words and you were certain he relayed them to Jeonghan. 

There was one evening, during the beginning of summer, where Obsidian tapped on your window expectantly. When you welcomed him into your room, you saw a small note attached to his body. You let Obsidian crawl up your arm and gently untied the note from his lithe form to open the slip of paper. It was in Jeonghan’s handwriting.

Come to the balcony.

With the black scaled snake still wrapped around your arm, you opened your door and peeked out, looking both ways before exiting the confines of your room. Even though it had been three months since your last episode, you knew that if Jihoon or Soonyoung saw you out of your room they would escort you back. Shadow was also a possibility, his sense of smell was good and Tigris had very alert ears, but you saw neither the familiars or their Arcanists. Gingerly, you stepped through the hall to reach the balcony, thankfully no one was there.

The evening air was warm and slightly humid, clouds formed, shielding the orange sky from showing itself. Despite the desire to see the sky you scanned the area, looking for Jeonghan. Obsidian crawled from your arm to the balcony railing, wrapping himself around the structure to climb downward. You watched as he reached the ground and slithered out toward a figure in the grass. 

Jeonghan stood in the small field below you, gazing up at you with his sleepy eyes. His lips tugged into a lazy smile and he beckoned you forward. 

“Come down.” He projected his voice while trying to remain somewhat quiet.

“I can’t- Jihoon will beat my ass if he sees me walking around the halls.”

You couldn’t hear it, but Jeonghan was definitely laughing.

“Jump-”

“What?!”

Jeonghan sighed. “Jump- I’ll catch you.”

Flabbergasted, you rolled your eyes as you processed Jeonghan’s words. He wanted you to jump off of the balcony so he could catch you? That sounded like a sure fire way to break your ankle. 

“Fuck it-”

You leapt over the railing and felt a short breeze blow past you. Instead of Jeonghan’s arms catching you, the wind had guided your fall, the soft grass beneath your feet. 

“See? I would never let you fall~” He said in a playful tone.

“Ha. Ha.” You said in a sarcastic tone, rolling your eyes again.

Jeonghan threw his arm over your shoulder to pull you in for a hug. “I missed you.”

You reciprocated the embrace with a soft smile. “Awh. I missed you too.” The words were less than kind when you spoke them.

As you stayed close to Jeonghan, Obsidian slithered his way back to you, hanging himself around your neck. You stroked the smooth scales and smiled as the python fashioned himself into a scarf, a snake scarf. Jeonghan released his hold on your shoulders and slid his hand down your arm to grab hold of your hand. 

“Do you want to go to the glade or the lake?” He asked as he led you along the stream.

You pondered the options. “Hm… Can we go somewhere new?”

Jeonghan thought to himself as the two of you continued down the path, but paused as something popped into his mind. “Oh! I can take you to see my friend.”

“Friend?”

“Shua! He’s a ward here.” Jeonghan said with a bright smile. “We hang out occasionally.”

“Shua? Like Joshua? Seungkwan’s mentor?”

Jeonghan nodded as he pulled you in the opposite direction, moving toward the woods away from the main path. You were afraid you would get lost, but your company appeared to be well acquainted with the less traveled paths.

The black brick cottage was bigger than Dino’s but much smaller than the Evoker Dorms. Everything was so tidy, the potted plants on the porch were well taken care of and the shrubs around the house were expertly pruned. Jeonghan, still leading you by the hand, knocked on the door and waited patiently.

Without a single creak, the door swung open and you were met with warm, chestnut hair and a fawn-like face, his overall appearance was charming and friendly. He greeted you with a smile but as he turned to Jeonghan his lips flattened.

“Wow- You used the door.” His dark brown eyes peered down to where you and Jeonghan’s were linked.

Blushing, you unlatched yourself from Jeonghan and rubbed the back of your neck while avoiding eye contact. 

“I thought I should be polite since I brought Sage with me.” Jeonghan said with a forced smile.

“Nice to meet you. You must be Joshua.” You muttered in a small voice.

“That is correct! It’s nice to finally meet you, Sage.” Joshua held the door open for both you and Jeonghan, welcoming you into the home with an outstretched arm.

The three of you spoke over tea and biscuits. You learned that Joshua was originally from California, but his parents sent him to the Seventeenth Realm for protection. He also spoke on how even though he is technically younger than Seungkwan, he is still a mentor and is proficient in Abjuration magic.

You briefly read about the Abjuration School, it's a class of magic that is centered around defense, counter spells, and ward casting. Seungkwan spoke highly of Joshua, he often praised his mentor on how skilled he was in casting protection spells as well as enchanting items to create magical charms. 

“Speaking of magical charms, Joshuji here said he had something for you…” Jeonghan leaned on Joshua as he spoke, a playful smile on his features.

Joshua shot a confused look at Jeonghan. “I- Yeah, that’s right. I’ll go get it- one moment-” 

You and Jeonghan were left alone in the living room, sitting across from each other. He continued to sip his tea while you studied your surroundings. The interior of the house was just as neat as its exterior, overall it had a rustic feel with a lot of crystals and minerals decorating the shelves. Even the mantle of the fireplace had plenty of trinkets and geodes that came in different shapes, colors, and sizes. Jeonghan veered into your line of sight with a knowing expression.

“Joshua and Seungkwan like to collect things. They’re like little crows.” He chuckled to himself. “I’m sure half of the things Seungkwan has laying around are from that human boy he’s sweet on…”

“Vernon?”

“That’s his name?” Jeonghan perked up. “He’s one of the Evokers- a roommate?”

You nodded your head. “Yeah- and sweet on each other is an understatement. They need to get on with it and start dating…”

“They aren’t dating?”

Joshua returned from upstairs and reclaimed his spot on the couch. In his hand he held a long chained necklace with a chunk of dark metal attached to it. In spite of the piece of jewelry looking a bit rough, it was still pretty.

“It’s a charm I had been working on for the past three months. The metal has strong properties. For example, the enchantment is-”

“Balance based.” Jeonghan interrupted Joshua’s explanation. “Shua told me a lot about it. Seungkwan informed him you’ve been filling your weeks with studying and so he wanted to give you something that would keep your energy in balance.”

The thoughtfulness made you smile. “Thank you, Joshua. It’s super cool-looking too, I like the long chain style.” You thanked him as you held the necklace in your hands.

Wearing the chain, you looked down and admired the shiny rock. It went down to your sternum so it could easily be tucked into your shirt.

“The enchantment will take effect slowly, gradually repairing your psyche and replenishing your mana.” Joshua explained. “Jeonghan helped me with it, so it should be extra potent.”

You flashed a warm smile to Jeonghan. “So I should be thanking you as well.”

“I’m glad you like it! It suits you.”

A light blush heated your cheeks due to Jeonghan’s compliment. You peered down to fidget with the necklace. but you could feel that Jeonghan’s gaze was piercing through you.

“Alright-” Joshua started as he rose from his seat. “As much as I would love for you to stay, I have some work.” He walked the two of you to the front door. “Get the hell out, Jeonghan- Sage you can visit anytime, I’m sure Seungkwan would love it.”

The door was shut, and with a click you and Jeonghan were locked out of the home. 

“Damn- I was going to ask some more questions about the charm…”

Jeonghan returned his arm to your shoulders and draped himself over you. “I helped with it, I can try and answer any lingering questions.”

Your raven-haired friend was successful in answering most of your questions, the simple ones. He told you that the hunk of metal was Magnetite and that its properties were best suited for balancing energy, emotions and focus. The two of you continued to chat as you walked along the pristine cobbled road. Here the pathways were better kept and fresher, they must have been paved recently.

The trees were a bit more sparse in this area, instead of evergreens they were birch trees with white bark and light green leaves. You saw the evening sky easily through the canopy, the clouds cleared and the deep purple of dusk was clear and visible. 

“Oh?” Jeonghan whispered in a low voice as he focused his attention forward.

You followed his eyeline and saw another man walking down the path. His head was faced downward, reading a book that he held with bandaged forearms. You saw a head of dusty orange hair and tanned skin, his eyes were trained on his book. The outfit he wore was simple, a loose fitting white button up, equally flowy navy trousers, and laced boots that disappeared past his pant legs.

“Ah- Dokyeom! Long time no see!” Jeonghan called out with a lazy yet boisterous smile.

The other man, Dokyeom, tore his eyes from his book to look for the source of the voice. When he saw you and Jeonghan, he froze for a moment and bowed his head as a greeting. The orange haired man began to turn.

“What have you been up to, Kyeomie?” Jeonghan called out while dragging you with him to approach the other.

Dokyeom stopped in his tracks and turned to address Jeonghan. “I’ve just been experimenting with spells. Exploring my potential and such…” His voice was sweet and polite as he spoke, dark, nearly black eyes studied you as he spoke. 

His eyes glued onto where Jeonghan had his arm wrapped around you. There was a subtle bunch of nerves that filled your chest, it wasn’t a comfortable feeling. 

“Oh- How fun! Are you using the tome I lent you?”

Dokyeom returned his gaze to Jeonghan. “Yes. It’s been very helpful with Sanguis Magica .”

“You study blood magic?”

The orange-haired man was about to speak, but Jeonghan leaned in close to your ear.

“Mhm- Dokyeom here is a Vitae and a damn good one…” He chuckled darkly. “He’s learned how to enhance his healing magic by using his own blood. Kyeomie has always been a bit of a martyr .” Jeonghan sighed another laugh as he fixed his posture.

“This is great actually!” He continued to talk. “You can thank Dokyeom in person now, Sage!”

You raised an eyebrow at Jeonghan’s statement but returned your attention to Dokyeom as a wave of panic crashed into you.

“He’s the one who saved you and brought you to Dino- He practically drained himself dry healing you…”

The words hit you like a truck as you realized this man, Dokyeom, had saved you more than once. He retrieved you from the lake, healed you, and then the time your head almost burst, he saved you again.

“Ah- I- Thank you!” You stuttered. “I honestly don’t know if I can thank you enough. You saved me twice and I’m thanking you six months later- Wow- I am awful.”

The concern and anxiety that was radiating off of Dokyeom started to fade away as you spoke to him. A bright smile plastered on his face and your heart skipped a beat at the sight.

“It’s my duty to help people if I can. Even if it means sacrificing my own strength.”

You heard Jeonghan snicker next to you and whisper a soft, ‘Martyr’ You nudged him with your elbow, softly but enough to get him to behave.

“Were you heading somewhere before we interrupted your path, Kyeomie?” Jeonghan asked playfully.

Dokyeom shook his head. “Just returning to the Springs…”

“Oh- Then we’ll be on our way, I’m sure you need to recharge-” Jeonghan began to walk away, dragging you with him.

“It was nice to finally meet you!” You said in a raised tone as you looked back.

Dokyeom was still standing still in the middle of the road as he watched you and Jeonghan walk away. 

For once, Jeonghan walked you to your dorm. Twilight was in full effect with indigo skies and a rising moon. The late evening air was refreshing compared to the warm midday weather. Jeonghan had resorted to holding your hand instead of smothering you with his arm. He stopped at the opening in the treeline, the dorm only yards away.

There was a moment of pause as the hold Jeonghan had on your hand anchored you in place. Instead of his usual lazy expression he looked nervous as you turned back and approached him.

“Thank you for seeing me today, Sage.” He said, keeping an even tone.

A smile creeped its way up to your cheeks. “You know it’s no problem and thank you for the gift.”

“Why are you thanking me for that, it’s from Josh-”

“I knew that was a lie.” You snickered. “You were too eager and he was too confused.”

“You got me there…” Jeonghan trailed off with a dry chuckle.

Another pause.

Smiling at each other, the two of you shared a look.

Jeonghan raised his hand to your face, brushing a stray strand of hair from your cheek. The proximity made you hold your breath instinctively and you closed your eyes as Jeonghan leaned in slowly.

The feeling of soft lips gently pressed against your skin as Jeonghan placed a delicate kiss on your forehead. Heat immediately filled your face, making the chilled touch of Jeonghan’s hand more prevalent. Your eyes fluttered open and you saw Jeonghan staring down at you, eyes soft and full of adoration. 

“Goodnight, Sage.” He said as he released you.

Too stunned or flustered to speak, you nodded your head to show that you understood his words. With another quiet laugh, Jeonghan turned and made his way into the tree line.

“Ah- Goodnight!” You called out before he fully disappeared.

With a spin, Jeonghan looked back at you and waved goodbye with a two finger salute.

What had just happened finally caught up to you, and you blushed once more, a surge of energy threatening to burst forth. The feeling in your chest was warm and light, and it lingered as you entered the dorm.

A resounding chorus of chirps welcomed you at the door as you saw a gaggle of familiars in the entrance. 

“Oh- Hello, Ruby, Shadow, Tigris, oh- Yucca is here too… Kelpy? Is that a rabbit?”

Without another sound, Ruby chirped an order and led the rest of the familiars into the house. Sheepishly, you followed behind, hoping that everyone would just ignore you as you passed by the dining room. Before you could even think of executing your plan, you were stopped by a very agitated Mingyu leaning against the archway.

“Sage- Where were you all evening? We’ve been searching for-” Mingyu checked his pocket watch. “A whole two hours…”

“Uh- I went for a walk, got a little lost…”

“Two. Whole. Hours?” 

“Jeez, sorry mom I’ll be home on time next time…” You rolled your eyes at Mingyu.

The taller man crossed his arms and leaned his weight on one hip. “Seriously, Sage?”

“Y’know what? Dinner sounds great right now.” You walked past him, ignoring the flames in his eyes.

Just as you suspected, the whole gang was here. Vernon sat side by side with Seungkwan, Jihoon and Soonyoung ceased all conversation as they watched you enter, and a troubled Dino sat across from them. Sauntering to the counter, you fixed yourself a plate of food and sat next to Dino.

“Where-” Dino started to ask a question.

“I went out for a walk to get some fresh air and I ended up getting lost. I found where Joshua lives- You were right Boo, he’s very nice.”

Mingyu took a seat at the table as Dino rose from his chair to refill his plate.

“Oh and I met this nice guy named Dokyeom-” 

The sound of a plate shattering against the hardwood floor had you whipping your head up in surprise.

Everyone paused and stared after you spoke. The atmosphere was… weird and the feeling in your chest was even weirder.

“Did I say something wrong?” You asked with an innocent expression.

Dino crouched down and began cleaning up the plate he dropped. Vernon and Seungkwan noticed the tension, standing from their place at the table and leaving with their familiars. Mingyu patted his hand on the table to grab your attention.

His puppy-like eyes filled with worry. “Are you feeling alright?”

“What? Yeah-” You thought for a moment. “Is he, like, not cool or something?”

“No- No! He’s fine, he’s cool.” Soonyoung stuttered, the tone sounding a little forced.

Jihoon lightly smacked Soonyoung’s shoulder and muttered a low “Shut the fuck up.”

Dino returned the table empty handed and sat right beside you. “Did he say anything to you?”

“I mean- now I know who saved my life.” The table went still as everyone held their breath. “And I thanked him… Why are you guys acting so weird?”

“We’re just worried that because he was present when you entered this realm that it would tie in with your memory loss.” Jihoon spoke with an analytical tone. “Dino told us he could have triggered the near-hemorrhage you had. We just want you to be careful…”

As Jihoon spoke, a bad taste covered your tongue. Jihoon himself was feeling uncomfortable, you could sense it. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to focus on your friends at this moment…

Dino was the easiest to read, you didn’t need to dig deep, his concern was evident from his appearance alone. Mingyu was indifferent, more worried about where you were than who you were with. Soonyoung seemed a little lost, like he was missing a piece of the conversation, but the others' uneasiness must have bled onto him.

“Guys- I’m fine- No headaches or nose bleeds while I was out. It was actually really refreshing because, y’know, I’ve been cooped up in my room for three months…”

“No- That’s fair.” Mingyu spoke and all heads turned to him. ‘What? The balcony can only provide so much, it’s only fair that Sage gets to take a walk.”

“Thank you, Mingyu-”

“But-” He interrupted. “It would also be nice if you let someone know and took a buddy with you…”

“Okay- I can do that. Jihoon, wanna go on a walk with me tomorrow?” You spoke as you dramatically turned your head to the man in question. 

He sighed deeply. “Yeah- Sure…”

“Don’t sound too excited…”

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[loser-female]

Hi! You mentioned there are online tutorials/sites for learning Comp Sci and OSINT - any recommendations? Thanks!

Hi! You got lucky that today is the day I check my inbox lol. So. For comp-sci: - CS50X from Harvard is a public avaiable course on youtube I'd 100% recommend. These are the undedited (so far) lectures of 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LPJfIKxwWc&list=PLhQjrBD2T381WAHyx1pq-sBfykqMBI7V4&ab_channel=CS50

This gives you all the basics you need to understand how coding and pcs in general works. (I had comp sci in my university course)

- Freecodecamp is a website full of FREE tutorials on several programming language. Advice: learn python. You will understand later on.

- The rest really depends on what you actually want to learn and why - each programming language has its own purpose and application. OSINT: -There is this full course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwA6MmbeGNo&t=205s&ab_channel=TheCyberMentor (But you can find more on youtube.) - Bellingcat's resources: https://www.bellingcat.com/category/resources/ -IntelTecniques: https://inteltechniques.com/ - Osint Newesletter: https://osintnewsletter.com/

But here is the catcher: if you plan to do osint it heavily depends on where you live. I'm in Europe, so it means I'm under GDPR, therefore I must abid to stricter regulations than a US OSINT analyst. A lot of data that might be considered public domain in the US(big one: conviction records) are not in europe, and you won't be able to access it unless you are a registered private investigator at least (but in my case it's rare that I go after people, that's not a part of any task I might encounter at work). Not only that, but a lot of the avaiable tools are designed to work only with specific countries in mind for various reasons and there is a big bias on US-based investigations. If youre' not in the US I recommend you reach out to your local OSINT or cybersecurity professionals association, they usually have resources and specific information, a lot of times for free. Also keep in mind: OSINT has a lot of different applications and it depends on what you're doing with it. Journalists might work more with satellites and images (a thing I know nothing about), debunkers will definitely understand social media more, if you do business intelligence you will look more at news sites, trademarks and deposits and so on to reach your conclusion. You did your course... Now what? I recommend getting on CTFs, like tracelabs that I've linked above, but there many of them (osint dojo for example) or Kase Scenarios. These are safe environments to practice on (except for tracelabs since it deal with actual cases of missing people and it can lead to... not so good leads, allow me to leave it there) You should also understand how intelligence (as the discipline) works. There are several resources, but my favourite is definitely Psychology of Intelligence Analysis. It's a series of declassified training documents from CIA analyst Richard Bauer, that was based on Daniel Kahneman (yes, the "thinking fast and slow" author, and I also do recommend this book) research on euristics. Intelligence is fundamental because OSINT might be helpful to gather the data, but the data then needs to be processed, analysed and you also need to get a conclusion from that analysis. Studying intelligence will help you avoid a lot of pitfalls that happens when you do an investigation, such as not understanding when you know enough, if you're being a victim of your own bias, if you're missing something or if you're going with the right approach. But I have to admit that the best of training I've received so far is from my local OSINT association because I've been able to train with people that work(ed) in the military, get their advice and have a deep understand of the work itself (and the reason why I have decided to actually make cyber threat intelligence my job, even if I work for a private company and I have no interest in working for the government). And yes ethics is a big thing for the OSINT community.

I hope this is helpful enough!