seasw

[robpegoraro]

Apple and Google could be a lot clearer about their security patches

Multiple times this week, I’ve updated mobile devices with security patches from Apple and Google. And every time, the user experience has left me feeling that these companies don’t think I need to know anything about the content of those patches. On my iPad mini 6 and my Google Pixel 5a, and then later on a review iPhone 11 (I don’t know why Apple PR hasn’t started charging me late fees on that…

[rurifangirl]

Vi prego non sto capendo un cazzo

[thefirstknife]

The Infinite Forest

Sighs. This post has been on my mind since we saw the trailer for Echoes, because they showed us the gate to the Infinite Forest and I thought: how many people even recognise that? Let alone have been there? Or know stuff about it? It's not been in the game for over 4 years, outside of a few pvp maps.

The Infinite Forest was a victim of the yoinkening of planets at the end of Arrivals. Unlike Mars and Titan that have since returned, Mercury has not (and neither has Io) so there was really no reason to think about it until they decided to do something with that. And it appears they've decided, something I hoped they might do in Echoes, given that we've speculated from the start that it would be a Vex season.

But now that we did get the proof that we'll be dealing with it somehow, I want to get into it, and mostly because they gave us zero explanation about how is it even possible for us to consider the Forest. I'm going to have a normal time with this one. I know we'll get at least some answers in a few days, but I need to cook in the meantime so I don't descend into madness (too late). Obviously spoilers for this week under the cut, and also a long post:

What is the Infinite Forest?

How does it all work and why?

What happened to it?

Echoes

What is the Infinite Forest?

The best, and arguably only, source for this is unfortunately a vaulted campaign, Curse of Osiris. Here's a link to the campaign from Destiny Lore Vault, but there are also playthroughs around from the time it launched. It's not needed to watch the whole thing, although it is fairly short, but this is where most of the information about it comes from.

There's also the Osiris comics that accompanied the DLC; first two are available on Bungie's site. The third is only in the physical book, helpfully scanned here.

Probably the most concise explanations are from the campaign:

Reflection of Osiris: Behold — the Infinite Forest! A planet sized prediction engine, simulating trillions of realities in parallel, all geared towards a single Vex purpose. Keep going, and you'll see. Sagira: The Vex are simulating reality in here. Brute forcing the future. And before you ask: everything in here IS real enough to kill you.

And this entire lore tab:

Physically, I am beneath the surface of Mercury. That is what Sagira's sensors say. The Vex hollowed out the planet, replaced its molten heart with cold right angles. But that is not what I see. I see infinity. An infinity of possible worlds, so perfectly simulated as to be indistinguishable from the experiences I once called "reality." I can touch them, taste them, pass lifetimes in them! They grow within this machine like fruit upon a tree—no, a forest of trees, its fractal expansion nigh unmeasurable.

Essentially, the Infinite Forest is a simulation engine that the Vex use to make predictions and find possibilities that suit their goals. It's physically located inside of Mercury; the Vex dug into the planet and replaced its insides with the engine. So far it has only been accessible from Mercury, from a single gate. Putting my 7 year old screenshots here like grabbing pictures of loved ones from a photo album:

Ikora noted that Osiris spent a long time studying that gate back in the day, believing it's the entrance. And he was correct.

There is a Vex gateway near your location. Osiris spent years studying it. He was convinced it was the door to the infinite Forest. If it is still possible to find Osiris, we need to open that door.

Osiris, or rather, his reflection, also said:

First, I will show you where it all began. Mercury, untold centuries ago, before the Vex arrived. Here, the Vex planted the seed that became the Infinite Forest, and its Mind, Panoptes. Panoptes has a single purpose — reshape reality for the Vex.

To keep things simple, the campaign revolved around us stopping Panoptes from achieving the Vex' goals by using the Infinite Forest. We ended up killing it, of course. We did so by hopping around through the Forest, going to simulated pasts and futures.

But the Forest largely consists of a really weird constantly shifting space that looks like this:

Thank you past me for this really helpful screenshot. It looks like it's an open sky, but it's not; the ceiling is a solid flat surface. That is the surface of Mercury, seen from the inside of the planet. On the edges of the picture, there's two tall structures; one looks worn down and destroyed, the other looks newly built. These are the gates leading to the actual simulations. The left one leads to a simulated future and the right to a simulated past.

These structures are called "trees" and are the reason why this place is called the Infinite Forest. Each of these "trees" generates a simulation and leads there, but you have to go through this shifting reality with ever-changing platforms to reach them. This is the physical space needed to essentially "run" the Forest.

You can still see this on pvp maps Fragment and Convergence:

A lot of the stuff about how the Vex actually made this was not entirely confirmed at the time; the stuff about Mercury being converted back during the Collapse was something that's been in the lore since literally D1, but not much was known about how true any of that was or how it started and how it was done. This was somewhat cleared up later, in the first page of Trials and Tribulations (from Worthy). I say "somewhat" because like. Reading this page is an exercise for sanity:

Chrome-hooked appendages |breached sky, counted in triplets| stretched for miles through sun-soaked atmosphere. They bored |with deepest intentions| into the marigold sands. From the great temporal chasms |wailing mouths of creation| flowed an ocean |a second conception| of radiolarian fluid. Across the horizon |of definitive sprawl| the scene was |super-imposed design| resonant and |uniquely| multiplicative. Each injection site |form mirrored in the hundreds of thousands| fostered a new lineage in stone and steel and fluid. |They would live| the new age in sub-routine |sleep| and observation. They would foster the |metallic| seeds of a generation in |twilight| time. From the sites bubbled pools |progeny| of |endless possibility| that murmured chaotic, |lullabies of change| and wrung the Traveler's Light from Mercury. The Light coalesced |imbibed| within the pools. The planet transformed |reborn| into a |sleepless dream| machine of prediction.

Yeah. What this whole thing seems to be implying is a confirmation of Mercury being converted by the Vex during the Collapse. The Vex flooded the planet with radiolaria and drilled into it, changing its terraformed environment into a Vex world. Some of this is shown in Curse when we first visit the simulated past. The Vex appeared and started raising the spires and transforming the surface of Mercury into what we know it as. Its core was eventually fully replaced by the Infinite Forest.

After we killed Panoptes, Osiris essentially claimed the Forest for himself and returned there sort of indefinitely. He would leave years later, when he contacted us in Season of Dawn, though we know that he was periodically leaving anyway, since he was building the Sundial. It's not really been used for anything else, outside of various adventures and the quest for saving Saint which I went into in this post.

How does it all work and why?

It's always been kinda weird that the Forest was not a bigger deal, though it makes sense if we consider the out-of-game factors and the fans' general dislike of Mercury as a whole (which I personally think is a skill issue). The Forest was also difficult to work with so it was difficult to make new content for it which is probably why it was never really done, even though realistically, setting-wise, it should've.

It's mentioned in lore here and there, and Osiris spent his time there a lot up until Dawn. The Infinite Forest also alerted him that our actions drastically changed the Vex predictions which was serious and important enough for him to finally leave. So for all intents and purposes, the Forest was always a big deal, just difficult to implement into gameplay. This is quite unfortunate because it should've reasonably been something to use more, including explaining its danger a bit more in-depth over time. While Osiris did have a major influence over it post-Panoptes, the place was still largely Vex-controlled and they still had access to it.

So why is that dangerous in the first place? After all, it's just a simulation engine. That's true, but the danger is in how the Vex were using those simulations. By having access to a place that generates trillions of situations and possibilities, it allowed them to explore options that would normally be almost impossible to explore in-person, physically. Even the Vex, who can exist outside of time, would need to spend... well... time and resources to explore these options by simply time travelling. With the Forest, they could just generate them all at once, instantly, with no time passing outside of the Forest.

They could use this to simulate anything and then explore what would happen if they followed that possibility, which allowed them to predict more accurately. It allowed them to essentially run a certain scenario through every single possible iteration and see the outcome of all of them, then pick the option that suits them best and act accordingly. It could also let them study their enemies; by simulating many situations and observing how the enemies react in those situations, they could learn about the strategies their enemies use.

This is incredibly powerful and dangerous. But are there limitations to their simulations? Sort of... As we know, the Vex can't simulate Light or any other paracausality, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they can't try. This is where things get complicated because we lack a lot of the details about how this all works.

From what we can tell, the Forest can include simulations that feature paracausality and Guardians; it's seen in the intro cutscene for Curse where Osiris casually wanders into the Guardians raiding the Vault of Glass. It was also briefly mentioned in Lightfall's CE (page 28), where Elsie explores different timelines. In one of them, she finds Osiris wielding Stasis who tells her that he saw her wielding it:

"I saw glimpses of you wielding this power during my time in the Infinite Forest."

This is where things get complicated because we don't truly know if there are meaningful differences between normal simulations and simulations produced by a planet-size machine. The Vex, for all intents and purposes, can't really simulate Light and Guardians, but could they create simulations based on what they've personally experienced? After all, the Vex from the Vault of Glass experienced the Guardians raiding them; can they load up their memories and simply replay it? Would that even count as a simulation or is that simply just a recording that you can access within the Forest?

Is it accessible in other Vex spaces or is the Infinite Forest unique in some way? After all, there is also the Vex network as well as corridors of time. There's also some sort of overlap between them, according to Osiris:

...Vex security measures where the network intersects with the corridors of time.

There's even the implication that a simulation from the Forest could potentially escape the engine and enter the real world.

Sagira: Hey, team! Copies of the Cabal invasion are trapped inside the Infinite Forest. On the, uh, off chance one of them escapes, possibly armed with world-breaking Vex tech… Ghost: Wouldn’t be the first time. We’ll handle this.

There is also the whole question about timelines and realities and how that works in the Forest. Can you use the Forest to look into real timelines and realities, those that might be happening somewhere, or are they just projections and simulations of possibilities? Could you interact with them, and affect other timelines? This is an interesting question now that Echoes is going on with all the stuff about the Conductor and what's happening to Saint, but we currently don't know the answers.

What I think is the most likely is that the Infinite Forest is somehow unique and can offer a lot more than the normal Vex network; its simulation options are so well-developed and so powerful that it can genuinely simulate a lot more than the Vex usually would be able to, including showing glimpses of paracausality, especially glimpses that the Vex have themselves recorded in their interactions with Guardians. Then, they can use the Forest to try and build on that, essentially train the engine by feeding it trillions of data points to attempt to make accurate simulations that lead to good predictions.

And these seem to be the key words: accurate and prediction. The point of simulations is not just to look at things, it's to use them to be able to predict things, giving the Vex an advantage. This is directly referenced and discussed in the lore:

There's just one thing: if Osiris used the Infinite Forest to develop his prophecies, and the Infinite Forest cannot accurately simulate Light, how did Osiris predict the Traveler would wake? The Forest's very inability to predict this very thing is what prevented Panoptes from breaking ground with its apocalyptic calculations.

So what exactly is the Forest capable of? It can definitely show the past even if it involves paracausality. It can also show the future, though the accuracy of any future predictions may be in question, depending on the amount of paracausality involved. It's very much implied that it can also show other timelines and/or realities. And of course, it can simulate future possibilities, as well as show simulations of anything from the past; events or places alike. For example, Osiris simulated the Fundament, apparently:

Ghost: The Forest can generate so many Hive - it might as well be their homeworld. Sagira: We've thought about that. Ghost: Have you simulated the Hive homeworld? Sagira: Didn't go well.

If there are specific limitations, we're not sure what they may be. There probably are, but they're most likely deliberately not spelled out to prevent any kind of conflict with stuff they might want to add to the Forest later; like for example now, with Echoes. Because there's a lot of questions right now about the Forest now that Ikora has so casually told us we're going to be going back in there. So...

What happened to it?

As has been established, the Forest is physically located on Mercury. Or rather, in Mercury. Its one and only entrance is on Mercury as well. And Mercury has been eaten by the Witness over 4 years ago. So that's it then? Well no. Not only is the Forest on an inaccessible planet, it has actually been sealed, from the inside, before the planet was taken.

He struggled with his pack as a tempest beat on his eardrums. He withdrew his Infinite Simulacrum, impossibly small in this immense space, and with trembling fingers synchronized it to the frequency of the crack in the Forest. It ticked like a metronome and then… Silence. The Forest was sealed.

Instead of evacuating, Brother Vance decided to stay on Mercury, go into the Forest, and seal it. I go about it for a long time in this post, but basically he believed that it would be really bad if the Pyramids gained access to the Forest. He also believed that the Sundial did something to the timelines and that the Pyramids could exploit that, as well as the Infinite Forest being somehow "the key to all of this."

He also wanted to use the Forest to... spread hope. Through the timelines?

"I will walk into the Infinite Forest and spread hope, Guardian."

He essentially wanted to do something and prove that even Lightless people can still help. He appeared to be willing to die for this, which is quite strange mostly because this whole idea and endeavour wasn't in the name of Osiris. Hell, in a way, it was about doing something to fix the unknown consequences of Osiris' meddling with the timelines.

You notice Vance's hands are balled tightly at his sides. "The Pyramids draw close. Through this system and beyond, the Lightless are filled with fear. I am no Osiris, true, but in my small way, I will bring light to their darkness." There is clarity in his voice. "I will tell them they must believe."

Since I've gone into it in the other post in a lot more details, I won't go into it here again, although I could. But the point that I want to get across is that the sealing of the Infinite Forest was quite a significant part of Arrivals and the whole plot of the evacuation of Mercury (or rather the non-evacuation of Mercury; the sole reason for Vance staying was to seal the Forest).

In another post (you'll have to scroll through the back-and-forth insanity) I also mentioned how much of Vance's story in Arrivals seemed to be connected to him losing his mind about the effects of the Sundial on the timelines. It also directly links to the Perfect Paradox. All of these things have been quite prominently connected to this episode, especially the stuff with the Sundial and what Osiris has done with it and how it may or may not have affected the timelines and, most of all, Saint and the whole ordeal of saving him.

It's fairly unclear how many characters know what happened to the Forest though. The YW knows obviously because Vance told us directly. I do believe that Zavala would also know as we reported back to him, which also most likely extends to Ikora as well. Another issue is that we don't really have any specific proof that the sealing was successful or permanent. It seems like it was, but a lot of stuff could've happened in the past 4 years of Mercury being in an anomaly.

As I've mentioned many times before, Mercury is the last unsolved plot from Arrivals; as in, we genuinely don't know anything about it. Mars has returned in WQ and Ana's side of the story was concluded in Seraph. While Io is still gone, Asher's story was concluded in Defiance through Avalon. Titan returned in Deep, which solved the story of the planet and also Sloane. We know why these planets were taken (with the exception of Io, though it's fair to assume it had something to do with the Pyramidion because of Asher's story being tied to it), and we know what happened to all of the vendors. Except Mercury and Vance; two things inherently connected to the Infinite Forest.

We don't truly know why Mercury was yoinked, though it's once again fair to assume it was most likely for the Forest. But you know. It got sealed so the Witness couldn't do anything with it and we have no idea what it was doing with Mercury all this time. We also don't know what the hell was Vance on about when he talked about the "anchored timelines" and how the Forest is incredibly important to everything. Due to how unreliable he is, it could just be his usual cringefail. After all, Osiris himself did not have any plans for the Forest himself; he was upset that he'd lose it, but he didn't think anything more about it, even if during Dawn he insisted that the Forest cannot be sealed or destroyed yet.

But also I think dismissing it all is an easy mistake to make, and possibly a deliberate one. Everything with Vance is written to be as easy to dismiss as possible, but he did know certain things that were absolutely correct and real. Not to go on about the tones again, but. Yeah. And given the current situation...

Echoes

Failsafe has come up with a plan for which she needs data from the Vex. She specifically needs data that can be compared to the altered Vex on Nessus, so we need large amounts of information that hasn't been changed or messed with. She concluded that the best source of that data would be Saint's dead body. It exists in a specific space (and time) and would have this information; information that has not been altered or influenced by anything else because that Saint is dead and preserved as is.

Failsafe explained this to Ikora and Ikora agreed that this is the best source, she's just worried about how this will affect Osiris and Saint. She doesn't want us to tell them. So next reset, we're going to the Infinite Forest to find Saint's tomb again. Yay!

But like. How?

They presented this so casually, with Ikora even saying that the best "accessible" source of this data is the Forest and Saint's tomb. And I know that they know that we know that Mercury is gone and that the Forest was sealed. But they've already showed us the gate to the Forest on Nessus, twice: in the mini showcase and then in the intro to the season in-game:

The first picture is showing the gate when it's open. And yes, this specific portal effect has only ever been used for the Forest. The second image shows the gate when it's closed with that impenetrable barrier. The structure itself is different from the original; it's worn down, coloured differently and doesn't have the same tip - instead there's the weird orb and the statue. It looks far more Nessus-like, and closer to present-day Vex, or maybe future Vex. But it's guarded by Precursors, so I don't know. It definitely doesn't look like the original however.

We clearly aren't going to Mercury. And even if we were, how would we enter? Neither Failsafe nor Ikora have mentioned this little problem and it seems as if they already know that the gate is on Nessus; I assume they'll discuss the details of this in the Act 2 finale next week. But the problem is that without all of this context, how do they even explain the issue with the Forest? They can always shorten this to some reasonable quick explanation, but they still have to explain how are we entering the Forest. There's a few key problems.

Obviously, number 1 is that the Forest is on Mercury and as of now Mercury is still in the anomaly.

The Forest itself is sealed from the inside.

So far it has not been possible (or at least not known to us) to enter the Forest from any other location. As we've seen, Osiris spent years looking for the entrance and back in Arrivals he was quite upset about losing the Forest. If he simply had the ability to enter it without being physically on Mercury, then why bother or lament Mercury's loss?

It is, to our knowledge, one of a kind. It took quite a tremendous effort to build it and it requires a lot of power to run; a whole planet.

Possible solutions:

Mercury is back and Ikora hasn't told anyone yet because she doesn't want anyone to go there yet; perhaps it's in quarantine. I don't think this is very likely, but it's possible.

Opening a gate to the Forest from another location IS possible and we just didn't know about it.

Opening a gate to the Forest from another location is possible only because of the situation with the Echo; a powerful source of paracausal power can maybe help us do this remotely. So this simply wasn't an option before the Echo's existence.

The Vex and the Conductor have built or are still building a new Forest inside of Nessus this time. The Vex lost access to the original, either simply because of the anomaly or because it was sealed or both, so now with the Echo they're just doing it again, and better. So the Forest we're going into is not the original, but a new one; the assumption being that the data from the old Forest is accessible to the Vex so the new Forest can essentially run the same code as the old one, allowing us access to Saint's tomb.

The Vex and the Conductor only have to build a new gate that can lead us to the old Forest, despite it being in an anomaly and despite it being sealed. It essentially just brute forced another door.

And the possibilities in regards to it being sealed:

As I mentioned before, maybe the sealing wasn't as successful as we (or Vance) thought.

Vance is somehow still alive and he will open it for us from the inside, essentially concluding his role from Arrivals.

Maybe the sealing wasn't permanent; either the Vex could eventually counteract this, or Vance couldn't hold it closed for very long. He's a Lightless man and it's quite dubious how long he could survive inside. Maybe the seal automatically broke when (if?) he died.

If we're going with the option that this is a new gate to the old Forest, then as I said before, this may simply be able to counteract the seal.

If we're dealing with a completely new Forest, the seal may simply not even be in effect. The old Forest is sealed, but we're not going to the old one so it doesn't matter.

What I'm assuming is that Osiris could open the gate if he saw one again, so if the gate is simply now on Nessus (either to a new Forest or connecting to the old one), Osiris can just use his cubes as he did before and open it again, counteracting the seal. Vance's device used to seal it was made from Osiris' notes anyway, so I'm assuming it's something similar to the cubes. In that case it can just be opened with the same thing.

Ikora will just blast it open like she did back in Curse. Seal or no seal, new or old Forest, she doesn't give a shit,

There's an option for all of these that's basically just they don't mention it all. I don't think this is very likely, but hey. It's possible!

I've been running these scenarios in my head for days. Actually, I've been running them ever since the showcase for Echoes showed us the gate to the Forest, but this significantly increased when this week confirmed that we are indeed heading in there. And it was delivered so matter-of-factly as if there aren't any of these problems and scenarios I listed above. This is baffling me. I know there will be some explanations offered, but the setup completely blindsided me with how it was delivered. Ikora with the simple "Oh yeah the best place to grab data from is the Infinite Forest. Pack it up boys." And I'm standing there with a 8 hours long presentation asking her to explain how. She blocks my number on vannet.

Perhaps the situation is far simpler than I'm making it out to be. It would be really easy to just write the old Forest and Mercury away as being permanently lost. That way you don't have to explain or deal with any of the stuff with the anomaly or the yoinkening or Vance's shenanigans. I will obviously remain forever unhinged about it if that's the case because I simply need to know what happened, but it's the easiest way to deal with this. The Echo allowed the Vex to make a new Forest, they're using massive amounts of radiolaria and the core of Nessus to just recreate it all, then they copied all the data from the old one into it, booted it up and that's it.

But what if the seal is in effect? Or what if we're dealing with the old Forest on Mercury that's still in the anomaly? How do they plan to deal with that in a single mission? Well... We have no clue.

Bungie article lore time, but back last year in the State of the Game article, they said this about the pvp map Multiplex:

Although many of us had been thinking about a lo-fi Vex map for the Crucible, the challenge of this palette was the possible lack of player orientation in the play space. We thought bringing the Mars palette into the Vex Network realm would be a great way to mitigate this while adding an evocative look. Narratively, the space is in the middle of compiling the Infinite Forest, so this is what you’ll see in action.

Yes, while everyone was losing their mind about this article, I was looking for lore about the Infinite Forest. But yeah. It seems like they have information about it in the network and they were using it to compile that information; perhaps preparing to make a new one? Or simply using it for data.

So essentially, the Vex could have enough information about the Forest to recreate it, and better now with the Echo, which would allow us to simply bypass the anomaly and the Forest being locked, while allowing us to enter and still find Saint's tomb. This is by far the easiest solution.

But I want a conclusion on Mercury and Vance. I feel like this episode is the only time to really do that and they've been giving us so many Mercury things already, clearly showing that it was a big inspiration for it all. The music, the assets, the enemies. This includes the stuff about Saint and his grave, as well as the whole thing with the Perfect Paradox. There's still Act 3 of course and some still unknown exotic mission, but I feel like the quest that has us literally going into the Infinite Forest to revisit a place not even from Dawn, but from Curse, is the best spot to also deal with this.

I just have no idea how that's going to happen and I wanted to list out the stuff that would have to be somehow addressed and solved, even if the solution ends up being the simplest one. I also wanted to try and list some information about the Forest itself since this thing has not been in the game for years. I hope this was useful and that it explains things well.

Anyway, I've spent the whole week pacing around my room like a wild animal. Help.

In conclusion:

[igncrxntripley]

Can i request a Rhea x fem imagine, where the R’s personality is like original alexa bliss NXT debut, like girly/fairy all that. She’s also part of the bloodline and has a secret relationship with Rhea, cause the judgement day and bloodline are in a feud. Then hints about their relationship drops to both groups, then after a huge win Rhea congratulates her exposing their relationship. It causes both groups to majorly buttheads about it, making like slick remarks. It just ends in fluff, and has angst and all that. Lol thank you so much!💛💛

blood is thicker than water

a/n: pls i hope i did this idea justice

tags: fem!reader, poc!reader, wlw, little cousin!reader w/ the uso's/roman reigns, brief mention of the judgement day, SFW

There was something so fun about sneaking around behind your cousins' backs. None of them needed to know about your relationship with Rhea because it was truly none of their business, but they also wanted nothing more than to keep you away from them. The Judgement Day was the same way with Rhea, but she was more assertive when it came to standing up for herself in comparison to you.

You and Rhea apparently weren't as sneaky as you originally thought though, as someone had begun to drop hints to not only your cousins and Paul and to The Judgement Day as well. You didn't even know until your older cousins sat with you looking incredibly pissed.

"You better be honest with us, Y/N." Jey said. Jimmy was pacing around the room, and Paul was watching you very closely to see what your answer would be. But you just rolled your eyes and pretended like nothing happened. "You guys just really have zero faith in me, don't you?" You asked them; that alone unleashed a whole argument. Of course you loved your family, but they couldn't just let you be yourself and it was incredibly frustrating.

The Judgement Day had been pestering Rhea about it just as much. "So now you're sneaking around with The Bloodline?" Damian would ask. Finn would chime in and provide his two sense, Dominik being too confused and upset to even say anything. But Rhea just shook her head and ignored them as well. "If you're gonna believe some sneak who has no clue what they're talking about then you're no better than them." She would say.

After having those conversations though, you and Rhea had your usual secret meet-up in a tech closet backstage. You sat in her lap, Rhea's fingers drawing gentle patterns on your arms as you talked about the conversations each group was having. "I don't get it's even an issue." You mumbled to her, and Rhea sighed in frustration along with you.

"It doesn't," she assured you. "They're all too controlling for their own good." Rhea titled your face up to look at you sadly. "This doesn't change anything for me though, okay?" She assured you. "I'm not going anywhere."

You nodded at her words, your foreheads leaning together as you sat in comfortable silence. After some time though, Rhea giggled at you and you stared at her in confusion. "I'm glad our pain is funny." You mumbled, making her laugh again.

Rhea lifted your face and held your cheeks as she smirked. "I have an idea." She told you.

--- ---

Originally you thought Rhea was insane; was she truly going to just...expose your relationship? After The Bloodline and The Judgement Day were already butting heads? The thought made you just slightly nauseous but you had to trust her. Rhea already had a plan, and you just needed to sit back and let it happen.

You had a huge match that night against Bayley, and it was going to determine whether you were going to get the championship match you'd been dying for. Not only were you itching for that opportunity but your cousins had been down your throat about it.

Nothing about that match was easy; not only were you fighting Bayley, but Io and Dakota were trying to make everything that much difficult. They kept interfering, distracting you, doing anything they could to give Bayley the upper hand. It didn't work though, and you came out on top in arguably one of the biggest matches of your career so far. Not only that, but you did it without your cousin. You proved that you don't need them, and you hoped they could finally realize that.

As you stood in the ring celebrating your big win, Rhea's music hit and she was slowly making her way down the ramp. With both of you still in character, she stared at you with the same shit-eating grin she always had on her face and you watched at her with the intense stare you'd mastered from watching your cousins. Rhea took her time getting up into the ring and she stood across from you. She slowly inched closer and you tried to hide the smirk tugging at the corner of your lips but it was nearly impossible.

Before you knew it, her hands were on your hips and she was pulling you into a passionate kiss. The audience went wild, and you know both your cousins and Rhea's partners were backstage going absolutely mad. But you didn't care; all you needed in this moment was Rhea, and for the first time in a long time things felt...okay. All because you didn't need to hide anymore.

--- ---

"Y/N, what the hell do you think this is? A game?" Jimmy asked you. As soon as you got backstage with Rhea, your cousins led you into your locker room while The Judgement Day began pestering Rhea. You sat on the couch as your cousins and Paul stood in front of you; your family watched you in anger, while the Wise Man was in disbelief.

You crossed your arms before answering Jimmy. "I never said this was a game." You said. "I don't get why this is such a big deal! We wouldn't have this issue if you guys would just let us do what we wanted to do!"

Paul moved to sit across from you. He was someone who always tried to butter you up and appeal to your senses, but he wasn't going to win this. "It's not that we don't want you to." He said softly. "Your cousins want you to be happy. The Tribal Chief wants you to be happy." You rolled her eyes and looked away from Paul. "But being happy is not always what's best for your tribe."

Paul's words made your blood boil. "Well sometimes the tribe doesn't always need to come first." You said, standing up and grabbing your bag. "We'll talk about this later. But just so you guys know, I'm not giving up on Rhea just because you guys can't get along with The Judgement Day." Before anyone else could say anything, you left the room and walked to the parking lot where Rhea was waiting for you at her rental.

She looked up from where she leaned against the side of the car, and she immediately wrapped her arms around you in a hug. "The boys finished your tongue lashing?" Rhea teased softly.

You chuckled against her neck and breathed in her scent. "More like I cut it short." You mumbled, pulling back to give her a kiss. "I take it your boys weren't thrilled either?"

Rhea hummed and gave you another kiss. "They'll survive." She chuckled. "I'm done talking about them though. Tonight's about us." She opened the car door for you, and for the first time since being with Rhea you felt like things were normal...even if your respective factions were anything but thrilled.

[gabbiadicarta]

a volte temo di non essere guarita davvero dai miei pensieri intrusivi. a volte penso di non farcela, di mollare tutto e sparire.

non riesco a chiedere aiuto, non riesco ad esprimere le mie emozioni. non capisco il perché io mi senta così tanto sola e sostituibile. c'è sempre una voce che mi ripete che valgo zero.

[ilpianistasultetto]

I partiti progressisti avrebbero per le mani due ottimi argomenti per competere con l'attuale maggioranza: abolizione del sostituto d'imposta e Taglio di 5punti (so' tanti) delle imposte irpef e Ires. La prima proposta e' una forma di giustizia rispetto alle partite iva. Tu in busta paga mi dai tutto il lordo, poi io mi pago i contributi inps e le imposte (come fanno loro). Spendo tutti i soldi e non pago niente? Bene! Faccio come quella marea di imprenditori, artigiani e commercianti: aspetto la rottamazione delle cartelle esattoriali. 👍Piu' importante il taglio di 5punti sulle imposte, per tutti gli scaglioni Irpef. Dal 23% al 18% - Dal 27% al 22% - dal 38% al 33%. Una sola contropartita: zero contanti, tutto con carta elettronica a zero commissioni. Finirebbe quel balletto che va avanti da anni, quella bufala che la dx usa descrivendo certi partiti d'opposizione, dei Dracula succhia soldi e non ci sarebbe alcun buco di bilancio (matematico). Certo, non vedremo piu' decine e decine di personaggi che, ad ogni perquisizione a seguito di indagini, devono giustificare perche' hanno in casa 200-300mila euro in contanti, come capitato all'imprenditore Spinelli per l'inchiesta su Giovanni Toti, Presidente regione Liguria. Certo, per tantissimi sara' un problema comprarsi cocaina non avendo piu' contanti o pagarsi escort o gioielli di gran lusso ma io me ne farei una ragione. Ma ci vuole tanto?

@ilpianistasultetto

[sayitaliano]

LA NOIA | ANGELINA MANGO

Quanti disegni ho fatto How many drawings I made Rimango qui e li guardo I stay here and look at them Nessuno prende vita None comes to life Questa pagina è pigra This paper is lazy Vado di fretta I am in a hurry E mi hanno detto che la vita è preziosa And they told me that life is precious Io la indosso a testa alta sul collo I wear it head held high on my neck La mia collana non ha perle di saggezza My necklace doesn't have pearls of wisdom (perle di saggezza=> idiomatic, could also be used ironically "words of wisdom") A me hanno dato le perline colorate They gave me colored beads Per le bimbe incasinate con i traumi For young girls messed up with traumas Da snodare piano piano con l'età To slowly untie while growing older Eppure sto una Pasqua, guarda, zero drammi And yet I'm doing great, look, no dramas (stare una Pasqua => idiomatic and usually very ironic, "to feel/do great") Quasi quasi cambio di nuovo città Maybe I (should) move to another city once again (quasi quasi => idiomatic, when you think about a chance you say "Maybe...") Che a stare ferma a me mi viene, a me mi viene If I stand still I get, I get ("a me mi" is a colloquial grammatically wrong concept that translates literally as "it comes to me"; it should be "a me viene" but for lyrical/musical lyrics is okay to find this in songs) La noia Bored(om) (for translations reasons -aka the sentence construction in English- I'm using the adjective "bored" here but "noia" is a noun so the literal translation is "boredom") La noia Bored(om) La noia Bored(om) La noia Bored(om)

Muoio senza morire, in questi giorni usati I die without dying, in these used days Vivo senza soffrire, non c'è croce più grande I live without suffering, there's no greatest trial ("croce" here has a figurative meaning as in "portare una croce", idiomatic, meaning basically "to bring pain/affliction/trials *on your shoulders*") Non ci resta che ridere in queste notti bruciate We cannot do anything but laugh in those burnt nights (like the famous movie's title "non ci resta che piangere" but from a happier/ironic pov) Una corona di spine sarà il dress-code per la mia festa A crown of thorns will be the dress-code for my party Ah, è la cumbia della noia, mmh Ah, it's the cumbia of boredom È la cumbia della noia The cumbia of boredom Total definitive Ah, è la cumbia della noia Ah, it's the cumbia of boredom È la cumbia della noia It's the cumbia of boredom Total definitive

Quanta gente nelle cose vede il male So many people see the evil in things ("quanto/a/i/e" if not used as a question usually means "a lot", "there are so many...") Viene voglia di scappare come iniziano a parlare One feels like running away as they start talking E vorrei dirgli che sto bene ma poi mi guardano male And I'd like to tell them I'm doing good but then they look at me sideways Allora dico che è difficile campare So I say that it's hard to keep on living Business, parli di business Business, you talk about business Intanto chiudo gli occhi per firmare i contratti, mmh In the meantime I close my eyes to sign contracts Princess, ti chiama "princess" Princess, (he) calls you "princess" Allora adesso smettila di lavare i piatti Then stop washing dishes now

Muoio senza morire, in questi giorni usati I die without dying, in these used days Vivo senza soffrire, non c'è croce più grande I live without suffering, there's no greatest trial Non ci resta che ridere in queste notti bruciate We cannot do anything but laugh in those burnt nights Una corona di spine sarà il dress-code per la mia festa A crown of thorns will be the dress-code for my party Ah, è la cumbia della noia, mmh Ah, it's the cumbia of boredom È la cumbia della noia The cumbia of boredom Total definitive Ah, è la cumbia della noia Ah, it's the cumbia of boredom È la cumbia della noia It's the cumbia of boredom Total definitive

Allora scrivi canzoni? So you write songs? Sì, le canzoni d'amore Yes, love songs E non ti voglio annoiare And I don't want to bore you Ma qualcuno le deve cantare But someone needs to sing them Cumbia, ballo la cumbia Cumbia, I dance the cumbia Se rischio di inciampare almeno fermo la noia If I risk to stumble at least I stop the boredom Quindi faccio una festa, faccio una festa Therefore I make/hold a party, I make/hold a party Perché è l'unico modo per fermare, per fermare, per fermare, ah Because it's the only way to stop, to stop, to stop, ah La noia Boredom La noia Boredom La noia Boredom La noia Boredom

Muoio perché morire rende i giorni più umani I die because dying makes days more human Vivo perché soffrire fa le gioie più grandi I live because suffering makes the joys look bigger Non ci resta che ridere in queste notti bruciate We cannot do anything but laugh in those burnt nights Una corona di spine sarà il dress-code per la mia festa A crown of thorns will be the dress-code for my party Ah, è la cumbia della noia, mmh Ah, it's the cumbia of boredom È la cumbia della noia The cumbia of boredom Total definitive Ah, è la cumbia della noia Ah, it's the cumbia of boredom È la cumbia della noia It's the cumbia of boredom Total definitive

[hopeymchope]

Tribe Nine, anyone?

The anime for "Tribe Nine" came and went last year. The game is finally entering a closed beta this month, and an English release is confirmed for iOS, Android, and Steam.

And I admit that I haven't really been feeling all that interested since the initial reveals. I watched one episode of the anime, but I wasn't feeling it. I meant to keep going or go back to it, but as of this point? I haven't.

I'll still try the game, but at the end of the day, no matter how "extreme" or gang-war-based it is, it's still centered around baseball. And baseball doesn't exactly fill me with hype, I'm sorry to say. :P

However, this is still a Tookyo Games' joint, so obviously there are Danganronpa/Zero Escape alumni involved. That mean I'm still kind of interested—particularly in the game side of the project. I do love me some action RPGs, after all, which is the genre they're putting this title into. Kodaka is listed as being on the staff behind the game in some vague capacity, and Rui Komatsuzaki's character designs are recognizably on display.

But what about you all?

Did anyone out there watch the anime? And if so—what'd you think?

Are you at all excited about this game?

I just want to hear how people are feeling about this whole venture.

[orbitbrain]

Apple Scraps CSAM Detection Tool for iCloud Photos

Apple Scraps CSAM Detection Tool for iCloud Photos

Home › Endpoint Security Apple Scraps CSAM Detection Tool for iCloud Photos By Ryan Naraine on December 08, 2022 Tweet Apple has scrapped plans to ship a controversial child pornography protection tool for iCloud Photos, a concession to privacy rights advocates who warned it could have been used for government surveillance. Instead, the Cupertino, California device maker said it would expand…

[love-triangles-au]

Gotta know, which Triangle is needier?

(Mod Minty let me steal her art for today's edition of the gay geometry channel. Say "thanks Minty for letting us see your gorgeous art!")

Bill, by a longshot!

Y'see, when he eventually realized that he actually does kind of give a crap about Venuz, he became aware of something: oh, no, a whole lot of people want my loved one dead. Sound familiar?

With that realization comes an immediate (and in his mind extremely embarrassing) trauma response. The last time he loved someone, they were taken from him brutally and unfairly, and the very nature of Venuz being the Gun God means that he is destined to eventually be succeeded.

Now, rationally, what happened to Liam was not at all Bill's fault -- his big brother was basically doomed from the moment he was born -- but as we all know trauma loves to make no sense. Because Liam was taken away while Bill was out, a part of him feels like if he had just been there maybe he could've done something.

And so we begin what we've dubbed the "separation anxiety arc".

He tries to bottle it up, god knows he does, because if Bill's good at anything it's pretending like everything's okay, but the moment Venuz goes to walk out the door it's like being hit with a bolt of lightning made of "what-if"s.

Luckily for him, the first couple times Venuz can just stay home or take him with him. Frankly, more often than not he goes to work as more of a way to keep the day interesting than anything else, but eventually it becomes clear that this is a serious problem.

The more the behaviour is enabled, the worse it gets, and the worse it gets the less Bill's excuses for his behaviour add up. Eventually, he lets it slip.

Once Venuz is aware, it begins to stress him out because there's nothing he can really do to help and he hates seeing Bill so uncharacteristically afraid. All he can really do is distract him at best, because he doesn't know any other way.

And then, one day, he has a lightbulb moment: vacation time! Far away planet (I dunno why but I've leaned towards Io, one of Jupiter's moons), no mortals, no guns. Bill really, really likes this idea, and so they hop in one of Venuz's 50 cars and, when they arrive, Bill finally feels a little better again.

Now, Bill doesn't have very much. As far as he's concerned, he's got his Veeny with him and they're perfectly safe right here. So, he basically pitches that they just stay there forever and live happily ever after.

But, they can't, and here's where another piece of our Gun God lore pops up.

The Gun God's power is tied to Venus itself, and he can't be away from the planet for too long without his powers fading. This prevents the Gun God from just dipping and living out in the deep recesses of space for all eternity, keeps the machine running so to speak.

So, they have to eventually go back.

We haven't got much further than this, but the current thoughts are that anxiety does get better with time (I have an anxiety disorder and know this firsthand), so that will likely ease him a little eventually.

BUT, where things get muddy here is that what Bill's afraid of isn't entirely irrational. Venuz is gonna get into gunfights, people are gonna come try to kill him, it's unavoidable. Thankfully, each Gun God tends to rule for a longer period of time than the last, because his skills only get better with each iteration. So, Venuz is very likely to keep his position for a couple thousand years at the least. But, the chance of him meeting an early demise is never zero.

I think the only way he's gonna get through this is if Venuz helps him through it, and even then I don't think it ever entirely goes away; dude's got like a trillion years worth of suppressed trauma, that doesn't just heal overnight. I think if Venuz is able to consistently prove that he's the best gunman on the planet that will gradually make Bill feel a bit better, but it would need to be consistent, like maybe Bill watches him train every day.

And, okay, when I said we hadn't gotten much further than this, that was kind of a lie; Bill's post-marriage activities very much revolve around this anxiety he feels around losing the fabled Only Guy He Cares About™.

With inclusion into the Yung family, he also becomes immortal and gains Venuz's powers. So, what's the logical thing to do with this newfound power, then? Begin an underground criminal organization dedicated to snuffing out possible competition before it can get to Venuz, of course!

The return of some of his power gives him the confidence that he can protect Venuz himself and that's when he forms his whole mafia operation. And, of course, Bill always thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, so he's often able to fool himself into thinking his plans are air-tight and cannot possibly fail and that suppresses his anxiety as well.

However, he does still sometimes have the occasional moments of doubt that result in full little kid meltdowns. He still needs occasional blanket time to calm down.

~ Mod Emily 🦇

P.S.: Sorry for the slowness on asks right now! It usually means we're wanting to draw something for it, so sit tight; we see you! :D

[sentience-if]

I have come today (and every other day) to test the very limits of Connie's patience lmao (Val would be so proud), so: how would the ROs (re)act to the classic 'we're inextricably locked in a lone cabin in the woods together and we JUST got out of a massive thunderstorm so we're all completely soaked and just haveee to get out of them/change/cuddle up for warmth' hehehe. Especially when they're still in the crush/preconfession stage! Thank u and have a great day!!!

hello and sorry for making u wait so long 🤭

Ira: get this thing dry immediately before it catches pneumonia; their teeth are chattering so much they can't even protest or say thank you. fully accepts cuddling up under a blanket as necessary, up until they're warm again and can think straight. They're certainly not going to mention the fact that they're okay now. Maybe they'll even fall asleep a little bit on purpose

Klaus: idk what it is, but something tells me this would distress Klaus so much it would finally unlock Normal Klaus who's actually focused on survival over being clever and rude. Magic to get warm, etc etc, but somehow the whole situation doesnt' even register with him as an Opportunity. Not until he's half asleep curled up next to Io, anyway.

Connie: not having any of it. builds a fire and gives Io the heaviest blanket in the hopes it'll keep them still for once. Intends on sleeping by the door for safety reasons, but if Io plays their cards right (whines and huffs) they can begrudgingly convinced to get closer. Just to shut Io up, of course

Kat: ugh, how dreadful :/ Has absolutely zero qualms about stripping out of her soaked clothing and wrapping herself in a blanket, though. Not even in a seductive way- she just simply doesn't care, and would probably be surprised if Io does. She'll fully take the opportunity to make Io blush if she thinks she can get away with it, but otherwise it's just business as usual. Want to play cards? She's found an old bottle of whiskey that's probably not poison.

Val: hates the cold so being warm and dry is the utmost priority. Depending on your Io, being close and cozy with Val is probably pretty normal, but if it's not, Val will be careful to not make a big deal out of it. If Io seems hesitant or shy, they won't hesitate to make themself the baby that needs to be taken care of. you k now, as an excuse

[soul72]

5 anni fa ero lavorativamente atterra, stavo ripartendo da zero, ma proprio zero ,!! Nemmeno avevo aperto la partita iva, è stato un momento dove ho dovuto fare affidamento a tutte le mie risorse mentali x non soccombere . Oggi a 5 anni di distanza è tutto un gran casino ma in continuo divenire, i soldi non mancano e nemmeno le soddisfazioni e se mi guardo i dietro, senza timore di sembrare vanitoso, posso darmi sicuramente una pacca sulle spalle e dire ... Bravo io !!!! Have a nice day. Namastè

[netscapenavigator-official]

People who complain about internet content being in a language they don't speak have no excuses these days. Just shut up. Firefox literally has on-device translation built into it. iOS has an on-device translate feature in the copy/paste menu. Google Translate and DeepL are free, as they always have been. Like, there are zero excuses in this modern, connected world that language is ever a barrier worth whining about. Use the resources at your disposal, or you didn't want to understand in the first place.

[turuin]

Day 49

Giorno 49 - ieri.

Totale caffè bevuti, due. (Ne ho anche RIFIUTATO uno a cena fuori!)

A pranzo: riso con le carote.

A cena: hamburger con contorno di patatine e polpette di melanzana.

Ho fatto i miei primi esercizi su Autumn Leaves + diteggiature drop2.

Nel pomeriggio, sono stato al Branchie - Festival di illustrazione, fumetto ed editoria indipendente ... grossa delusione: in pratica, gli stand di illustratori erano una decina, un altro paio di editori, il tutto non all'aperto come avrebbe dovuto essere ma impossibilmente stipato nel foyer del Teatro Sperimentale; la stanza era da debito d'ossigeno, e in venti minuti comunque s'era già visto tutto quello che c'era da vedere. Grava su di me il forte sospetto che il tutto fosse una scusa per ospitare Zerocalcare che faceva un firmacopie nel pomeriggio (ovviamente zero posti prenotabili sin dai tempi di Mosè) e un talk nella parte serale del festival (che però era a pagamento: in pratica, nel pomeriggio era gratis e poi bisognava uscire e rientrare col biglietto, anche questo pesantemente sold out da tempo). C'erano due laboratori in croce, uno di serigrafia per bambini e un altro che non ho capito, in ogni caso erano a pagamento anche quelli.

Insomma, la parola "festival" era leggermente ottimistica.

E' stata comunque un'ottima occasione di incontrare una bravissima disegnatrice di fumetti erotici, nostra amica (e con la quale siamo stati assieme a Bologna) ed il suo compagno, e con cui abbiamo cenato; e abbiamo fatto anche una capatina in fumetteria, così ho potuto completare la mia collezione di Conan - integrale (perché se ti piace Conan non puoi non avere i numeri disegnati da gente come Buscema e Barry Windsor-Smith) e prendere il quarto numero di Elden Ring.

Ora vorrei passare il pomeriggio in relativa quiete. Ieri ho scoperto che su Amazon Prime c'è l'intera saga di cartoni animati di Saint Seya! Ho fatto vedere la prima puntata a mia figlia, non ne è rimasta impressionata; poco male, me la rivedo volentieri io.

[abatelunare]

La palla è rotonda

Ieri sera è successa l'ennesima cosa che mi ha fatto pensare a papà. La Juventus ha esordito in campionato battendo il Como per tre a zero. Lui, in quanto piemontese, era un tifoso sfegatato. Detestava Allegri perché faceva giocare male la squadra. Non ho visto la partita, non essendo io juventino. Ma ho sentito dai commenti che ha giocato piuttosto bene. Penso che il nuovo allenatore gli sarebbe piaciuto davvero. Anche perché a lui bastava non ci fosse più l'altro. Buonanotte a tutti.

[der-papero]

Stamattina, leggendo l'ennesimo reblog chiarificatore di @kon-igi, perché avevano provato a ribattere con un velato Argumentum ad consequentiam, ho pensato di essere davvero fortunato, perché le scienze che io adoro e di cui parlo ogni tanto qui non hanno nemici sui social, per il semplice fatto che nel mondo della Matematica le persone scelgono di non capire, e quindi ne ignorano l'esistenza nella sua interezza e a priori. Magari c'è qualcuno che si lancia in un "chi lo dice che 2+2=4???" però è un post che non fa manco 10 metri e si esaurisce da solo, per il semplice fatto che ci sono argomenti ben più piccanti sui quali rompere le palle (è andata per un po' quella cagata dove sfruttano la divisione per zero per dimostrare la contraddizione di una relazione, ma pure quella non ha mai avuto troppi proseliti, perché non riesce a spremere più di qualche like).

Mi sono sempre lamentato su come le persone violentino una materia come l'informatica, ma considerato i guai che puntualmente passano chi studia medicina, fisica applicata alla Terra (lo studio dei fenomeni naturali), l'astrofisica (i religiosi ci sguazzano qui), e tutte quelle scienze minacciate dai laureati a UniStrada, rivaluterò le mie considerazioni, accontentandomi di non trovarmi mai (spero) nella condizione di dovermi fare il sangue amaro.