#miscellaneous data types

[ao3demographicssurvey2024]

The AO3 Demographics Survey 2024 was an unofficial demographics survey of 16,131 AO3 users conducted in January 2024. We have just finished posting our initial results, so here is just a taste of the graphs and data you can check out now over on AO3!

We will be continuing to work on this project in the New Year, so please make sure you follow this blog or subscribe to the project on AO3 to keep up to date.

A full list of the survey questions with links to the relevant data is below the cut!

Demographics

How old are you?

Do you identify as LGBTQ+ in any form?

What is your gender identity?

Do you identify as any of the following? (LGBTQ+ related identities)

What is your sexual orientation?

What is your romantic orientation?

What is your race?

Is English your native language?

Which geographic region best describes your current place of residence?

Which religious or spiritual tradition(s) do you believe?

Do you experience the following? (Disability, Neurodivergence, and Health Conditions)

Usage of AO3

Which of the following AO3 activities have you done in the last twelve months?

How frequently do you use the following methods to find works on AO3?

In a typical week, how long do you spend on AO3 or reading downloaded AO3 works?

When did you begin using AO3, with or without an account?

When did you create your first AO3 account?

What languages do you use for reading and posting on AO3?

Works You Post On AO3

Which of the following types of works do you post on AO3? (Media)

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post works with the following ratings?

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post works focused on the following types of relationships?

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post works in the following genres/tags?

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post the following types of works? (Format & Miscellaneous)

Works You Consume On AO3

Which of the following types of works do you consume on AO3? (Media)

How much do you enjoy works with the following ratings on AO3?

How much do you enjoy works focused on the following types of relationships on AO3?

How much do you enjoy works in the following genres/tags on AO3?

How much do you enjoy the following types of works on AO3? (Format & Miscellaneous)

Fandom Beyond AO3

Which of the following types of fanworks have you consumed in the last year?

Which of the following types of fandom activity have you done in the last year?

Which of the following websites or apps do you currently use for fandom activities at least once a month?

Which of the following websites or apps have you previously used for fandom activities, but no longer regularly use?

When did you first begin participating in fandom?

How many fandoms have you considered yourself a part of in the last five years?

Which of the following types of media do you participate in fandoms for?

[haveyouusedthispokemon]

Fav Pokemon Polls Stats

Hi everyone, here are some assorted stats from everyone’s polls! I only pulled data from polls I’ve reblogged here, with *one poll per user. This brought us up to a total of 140 polls.

Let me know if there's anything else y'all would like to know. Enjoy! ^^

Unique _________________________

Out of the 140 polls, we had a total of 605 unique species out of 1128. So, with all polls, we represented 53.63% of all known Pokemon!**

Water type had the most unique species featured with 81 total. The most represented type was Ghost with 58 unique species out of the 78 available, making 74.36% of all ghost types represented.

Gen 5 (Unova) had the most unique species featured with 86 total. The most represented gen was Gen 2 (Johto) with 69 unique species out of 100 available, making 69% of all Gen 2 pokemon represented.

Ice type had the least unique species featured with 31 total. The least represented type was Steel with 38 unique species out of 83 available, making 45.78% of all steel types represented.

Gen 9 (Paldea) had the least unique species featured with 58 total. The least represented gen was Gen 8 (Galar/Hisui) with 59 unique species out of 132 available, making 44.70% of all Gen 8 pokemon represented. _________________________

Totals _________________________

Out of the 140 polls, there were a total of 1608 Pokemon!

The most featured type was Ghost, with 213 pokemon. The least featured type was Ice with 61 pokemon. The most featured type amongst poll-winers was Ghost, with 44 wins for 18.72% of total winners. The least featured type amongst poll-winners was Rock, with 1 win for 0.43%.

The most featured gen was Gen 5 (Unova), with 237 pokemon. The least featured gen was Gen 9 (Paldea), with 148 pokemon. The most featured gen amongst poll-winners was Gen 5 (Unova), with 27 wins for 18.88% of total winners. The least featured gen amongst poll-winners was Gen 1 (Kanto), with 8 wins for 5.59% of total winners.

The most featured pokemon was Sylveon, who was in 19 polls. Sylveon also won the most polls; 11 out of 19 for a 57.89% win rate.

The pokemon with the highest win rate featured in more than 1 poll was Alolan Raichu, who won all 3 polls they featured in. The pokemon with the highest win rate featured in more than 5 polls was Mimikyu, who won 9 out of 10 polls they featured in.

_________________________

Miscellaneous _________________________

All eeveelutions were featured in the polls, but only Jolteon and Flareon did not win any they featured in.

The most featured starter pokemon (excluding the eevee line) was Decidueye, who featured in 12 polls. The most featured Fire starter was Typhlosion with 8 polls. The most featured Water starter was Swampert with 8 polls. The Grass starter who won the most polls was Serperior, who won 1 poll. The Fire starter who won the most polls was a tie between Quilava and Hisuian Typhlosion, with 2 polls each. No Water starter won a poll.

Archeops was the most featured fossil pokemon, with 10 polls.

Slither Wing was the most featured Paradox pokemon, with 11 polls.

Xurkitree was the most featured Ultra Beast, with 6 polls.

The most represented pseudo-legendary was Dragapult with 9 polls. The most represented pseudo-legendary line was the Goomy line with 10 polls between all stages.

The most represented mythical was a tie between Shaymin and Victini, with 4 polls each.

Giratina was the most featured Legendary pokemon, with 10 polls. _________________________

Individual _________________________

The most common Ice type was Glaceon, who featured in 7 polls. The Ice type who won the most was Alolan Vulpix and Alolan Ninetails, who won 2 polls each.

The most common Fairy type was Sylveon, with Gardevoir as runner up, who featured in 11 polls. The Fairy type who won the second most was Mimikyu, who won 9 polls.

The most common Ghost type was Chandelure, who featured in 15 polls. The Ghost type who won the most was also Chandelure, who won 10 polls.

The most common Electric type was Luxray, who featured in 12 polls. The Electric type who won the most was Alolan Raichu, Mareep, and Luxray, who won 3 polls each.

The most common Dragon type was Appletun, who featured in 12 polls. The Dragon type who won the most was Flygon, who won 5 polls.

The most common Steel type was Tinkaton, who featured in 12 polls. The Steel type who won the most was Aegislash and Tinkaton, who won 1 poll each.

The most common Rock type was Archeops, who featured in 10 polls. The Rock type who won the most was also Archeops, who won 1 poll.

The most common Ground type was Gastrodon, who featured in 13 polls. The Ground type who won the most was Flygon, with Clodsire as runner up, who won 2 polls.

The most common Dark type was Umbreon, who featured in 10 polls. The Dark type who won the most was also Umbreon, who won 4 polls. [Absol ties with Umbreon on both counts if we add Mega Absol]

The most common Fighting type is Slither Wing, who featured in 11 polls. The Fighting type who won the most is Breloom and Slither Wing, who won 2 polls each.

The most common Poison type is Scolipede, who featured in 18 polls. The Poison type who won the most is also Scolipede, who won 6 polls.

The most common Fire type is Chandelure, followed up by Ceruledge, who featured in 11 polls. The Fire type who won the most is also Chandelure, with second place going to Ceruledge and Volcarona, who won 3 polls each.

The most common Bug type is Scolipede, with Slither Wing as runner up. Tied for 3rd is Joltik and Volcarona, who featured in 8 polls each. The Bug type who won the most is also Scolipede, with Volcarona as runner up. Tied for 3rd is Joltik and Slither Wing, who won 2 polls each.

The most common Flying type is Crobat, Togekiss, and Archeops, who featured in 10 polls each. The Flying type who won the most is Noivern, who won 3 polls.

The most common Psychic type is Espeon, who featured in 12 polls. The Psychic type who won the most is also Espeon, who won 5 polls.

The most common Grass type is Decidueye and Appletun, who featured in 12 polls each. The Grass type who won the most is Breloom and Lurantis, who won 2 polls each.

The most common Normal type is Porygon-Z, who was featured in 13 polls. The Normal type who won the most is Hisuian Zoroark, who won 7 polls.

The most common Water type is Gastrodon, followed up by Swampert, who featured in 8 polls. The Water type who won the most is Vaporeon, Wooper, Suicune, Gastrodon, and Golisopod, who won 1 poll each.

The most common Gen 1 (Kanto) pokemon is Gengar, who featured in 7 polls. The Gen 1 (Kanto) pokemon who won the most is Gengar and Eevee, who won 2 polls each.

The most common Gen 2 (Johto) pokemon is Espeon, who featured in 12 polls. The Gen 2 (Johto) pokemon who won the most is also Espeon, who won 5 polls.

The most common Gen 3 (Hoenn) pokemon is Gardevoir, who featured in 11 polls. The Gen 3 (Hoenn) pokemon who won the most is Flygon, who won 5 polls.

The most common Gen 4 (Sinnoh) pokemon is Gastrodon and Porygon-Z, who featured in 13 polls each. The Gen 4 (Sinnoh) pokemon who won the most is Luxray, who won 3 polls.

The most common Gen 5 (Unova) pokemon is Scolipede, who featured in 18 polls. The Gen 5 (Unova) pokemon who won the most is Chandelure, who won 10 polls.

The most common Gen 6 (Kalos) pokemon is Sylveon, who featured in 19 polls. The Gen 6 (Kalos) pokemon who won the most is also Sylveon, who won 11 polls.

The most common Gen 7 (Alola) pokemon is Decidueye, who featured in 12 polls. The Gen 7 (Alola) pokemon who won the most is Mimikyu, who won 9 polls.

The most common Gen 8 (Galar/Hisui) pokemon is Appletun, who featured in 12 polls. The Gen 8 (Galar/Hisui) pokemon who won the most is Hisuian Zoroark, who won 7 polls.

The most common Gen 9 (Paldea) pokemon is Tinkaton, who featured in 12 polls. The Gen 9 (Paldea) pokemon who won the most is Ceruledge, who won 3 polls.

_________________________ Disclaimers _________________________

*One poll per user means that if I've reblogged more than one of your polls, I'll only use results from one of them. The criteria I went for was the poll with the the least theming (i.e. shiny, region, or type) and the most votes (bigger sample size)

**For the purpose of this post, I counted regional variants and mega evolutions as separate species. I also counted all three Paldean Tauros's as a single entity. All regional variants counted towards the generation they were introduced in. All Mega Evolutions counted towards Gen 6 (Kalos).

For type totals, I pulled the numbers from Serebii and subtracted any duplicates based on the above criteria. Alternate forms counted for any additional types, but nothing that repeats types.

I.e. Arceus/Silvally counted as 1 for all (unique) types. Castform counted as 1 for Normal, Fire, Ice and Water. Oricorio counted for Flying, Electric, Fire, Psychic and Ghost. Etc. Etc.

All the above pokemon only counted for (overall) type total if the specific form was represented.

I.e. Arceus/Silvally/Castform counted only for Normal unless a specific form was mentioned. Oricorio counted for flying and the corresponding form's secondary type.

[danothan]

how about hc + 🚬 for barry?

[ask game]

🚬: headcanon about a bad habit

most of the bad habits that come to mind are just adhd things:

- having to write notes for himself (or someone else having to write a note for him) bc he’s so forgetful

- terrible posture, either thru the hyperfocus slouch or thr inability to sit still

- fidgeting/stimming/vibrating Very Obviously. one stim i’m esp partial to is that he creates flickers of lightning when he shakes/flaps his hands. gimme that speedster audhd combo

but i’m assuming this prompt is more abt vices, and barry’s got plenty of those too:

- overworking himself is a given, probably the worst of any of his habits. he will make no moves to change this

- doomscrolling as i’ve recently discovered 😭💔 barry sums it up best himself: “to me, social media is a danger, a real risk. see, you know all that content you can’t even begin to skim…? i can, and sometimes i do. … it’s a dangerous rabbit hole for me. even with all this raw data, i’m afraid i’ll miss something, somehow.”

- emotional eating but i’m not sure if that’s out of the emotions, or if the emotions work him up sm that he needs to refuel even more than usual. probably some combo of both. most ppl that don’t know abt his accelerated metabolism probably already think he emotional eats, and those that do know probably can’t tell the difference anyway unless they’re close

and bc more things keep piling onto the list, i’ll throw in some miscellaneous habits:

- barry is such a gossip without incriminating himself, an enabler that keeps his hands clean. he’s a great listener to dish out too, and he’ll keep track of who does what for the next hot goss sesh, but he’s much better at playing the passive aggressive game than actively contributing rumors or damning statements. you know that one tiktok audio that’s like “is she the one that’s so fucking annoying and never shuts the fuck up.” / “well i wouldn’t say that, but if i had to say that abt someone, i would say it abt her”? that’s barry. the worst type of social introvert (tho i’ll also add that if he actually were to say smth abt someone behind their back, it’s usually bc he needs to vent/process his thoughts)

- semi-related to that, barry is easy to read, which is made worse by the fact that he’s also analytical/opinionated. it’s so obvious when he wants to say smth but doesn’t. it’s not that he can’t school his opinions, but when he’s deep in thought or has a lot of input, he has a bad habit of letting it show on his face

- accidentally speedtalking when he gets caught up in a topic. also saying things without thinking (“sorry, it just came out!”). also talking to himself. the guy’s a yapper

- i read a fic once that barry always brushes his teeth before he eats breakfast instead of after, which i don’t think is particularly abnormal or unique, but i think abt that every time i brush my teeth before breakfast, so i’m adding it to this list

there’s probably a ton of canon ones i’m missing, and even more hcs i forgot or haven’t considered yet, but w the list looking how it does, i think barry’s had enough 😭

[javishifts]

some things I've scripted in my mha reality ｡𖦹°‧

personal things (?) ── .✦

I do my internship with Miruko and my work studies with my dad (who will be the #3 hero when the time comes around)

I win 1st place in the sports fest (cuz I can)

I get kidnapped with Bakugo during the forest training arc (I might change this honestly)

Endeavor's agency and my dad's agency team up during the work studies arc just to get things done swiftly (they were pretty close during their time at UA and still are)

There's a lot more but I don't really wanna type them out

miscellaneous ── .✦

MINETA. DOESN'T. EXIST.

There always have been dorms at UA and students go home during the weekends or holidays (they keep everyone on campus after the whole kidnapping thing, though)

The final war arc happens in our second year (everyone is a lot stronger at this time. AFO's plan for Shigaraki backfires which makes things a lot easier for us)

Izuku doesn't go vigilante, doesn't lose OFA, and becomes a pro like everyone else

Todoroki doesn't have massive daddy issues (he doesn't deserve the trauma)

The most serious casualty during the war is severe broken limbs (which happens to none of the main cast)

Japanese is a minority language; it is taught in schools and spoken by the senior population, but most people speak English

EVERYONE GETS STEALTH SUITS DURING THE WORLD HEROES MISSION, NOT JUST TODOROKI, DEKU, AND BAKUGO (they had cold asf fits for the first 2 mins of the movie and they were never seen again it was so unnecessary)

school ── .✦

School website

provides details for events, staff members, student interviews, and any news released to the public as well as the school newspaper

Has a separate tab on hero course students and a 360 profile view of their hero costumes and overall stats (is this an excuse to see microwave edits of myself? Yes. But villains can see our capabilities? Also yes. It gets shut down when the LOV starts its rise)

Brand deals

UA is the #1 school for heroics, so brands have the chance to negotiate deals near the sports fest to gain publicity. Sponsors are posted around the stadium and students (particularly with a large social media presence) have the chance to become ambassadors (I eventually model for Nike's newest comfort line)

Rankings

At the end of every year, UA releases a data sheet on top-ranking students within their classes and their year (includes the hero, support, general studies, and business courses)

Timetables

The time spent after lunch is used for training for students in the hero course

Fridays are half-days; hero course students spend that time only on training

That's all 🤗

[ninjagobythenumbers]

Ninjago Character Search Engine

I made a tool where you can search Ninjago characters by name, type, allignment, species, gender, season, or a combination of all those factors. If you want to play around with it here's the link. I compiled all of the data myself so there's likely a few errors. I've already corrected where I had accidentally labeled Zane's dad as a serpentine. Please let me know if there's any problems!

How to use it

Basically, you just input the criteria you're interested in seeing. For instance, if you wanted to see all of the nindroids in Ninjago, you would do a search as follows.

An important thing you may notice here is I not only input "Nindroid", but I also input "New." I did this because my index has a new entry for each character each season. If you choose not you choose not to put "New," the output will include 21 Zanes, which is great but may not be what you're looking for.

Another thing to note is that if you're not searching by name, you need to make sure the name box is completely blank or you will get 0 results like in the following search where I left a space bar in the Name box.

If you are searching by Name, make sure the name exactly matches the entries or nothing will show up.

You can either view the entry in the index on the next sheet, or you can just find the person by inputting the proper criteria.

I also left some comments on the sheet with some useful tips! Feel free to ask any questions!

Criteria

I think it's important I explain how I created and employed my criteria as it can be pretty subjective.

Type

Type is one of my more subjective criteria. The options are Main, Supporting, Recurring, Guest, or Ensemble and I agonized over some of these placements. For instance, did Mr. F fulfill a supporting or Recurring role during season 9? Very difficult to say. Still, generally, these were my definitions. Main: Ninja (usually) or someone who significantly contributed to the plot and had a large percentage of screentime (it takes a lot for me to demote a ninja from main, but I had to in DR) ex: Lloyd in season 4

Supporting: A character that has a significant degree of screentime, their own personality/backstory, and helps another character push the plot along ex: Garmadon in season 4

Recurring: Pretty much any character that speaks in more than a few episodes ex: Chope and Kapau in season 4

Guest: A character with personality who speaks or otherwise makes a mark in only one episode that season ex: Morro in season 4

Ensemble: A character that's only in the background and/or has no personality of their own and/or is just sort of filling out an army ex: Acidicus in season 4

Allignment

Allignment is also a very tricky category. I had to make a choice about whether neutral or good would be the default for characters I don't know much about. I went with good as I feel like it fits the tone of the show. Thus, I assume for instance that Mara from Nya's class is a good person even though she's done nothing to demonstrate that.

Good: Default. Also, if you help save the world, I usually let it overshadow previous bad behaviour. ex: Arin in Dragons Rising (S1)

Neutral: You have to be pretty morally ambiguous to get this designation. I generally assigned it to influencers, anti-heros, somewhat redeemed villains, and members of morally unclear societies. ex: Agent Rodrick Allen in Dragons Rising (S1)

Evil: I generally assigned this to all antagonists, even if they weren't actively trying to destroy the world. ex: Rapton in Dragons Rising (S1)

Species

Here's a list of each species I included in my index.

Human Nindroid Demigod Skeleton Dragon Serpentine Beast Oni Ghost Djinn Hunter Construct Formling Munce Geckle Islander Merlopian Devonian Tide Unknown Miscellanous

Most of this criteria is pretty objective, so I'll only clarify the less obvious ones.

Beast: Any animal, monster, or creature. ex: Krag from the Ice Chapter

Construct: I applied this to any character created by another whether it be through magic or engineering. I excluded Nindroids because they're a large enough sub-category. ex: Bonzle from Dragons Rising or MiniPix Seven from Crystalized

Unknown: This just applies to the Forbidden Five as we don't know much about them but they don't appear human. ex: Nox in Dragons Rising

Miscellaneous: I only applied this in rare categories where not only was their species a bit unclear, but they appeared to be the only member of that species on screen. ex: Benthomaar from Seabound

Gender

Oh no, it appears I accidentally created a gender cascade. Anyway, I based character's genders primarily off of the gender of their VA , but I also took into consideration the pronouns other characters used to refer to them. I didn't do a thorough transcript search though, so let me know if I've made any errors. I designated some characters as unknown, usually because they neither spoke nor were spoken about.

Season

Season, like species, is also pretty objective but I'll clarify some of my choices. I only used titles for Day of the Departed and the Islandbecause they don't really fit into the numbered seasons. I used numbers rather than season names for the most part because they're more concise. I designated Dragons Rising seasons 1 and 2 as 16 and 17, primarily because that's how I view them, but also for this conciseness factor. I split season 17 into two seasons (17 and 17.5) because they're two unqiue arcs that different casts of characters, some of which have changed their allignments/types between part 1 and 2. I may do the same for 11 and 16 in the future.

New/Old

I put a new entry for each character so it was necessary for me to designate whether this was the first entry of the character or a repeat entry. Having multiple entries allows you to view how characters changed over seasons rather than only being able to see their initial criteria. It also allows you to see the full cast breakdown for each season.

That's pretty much it! Here's the link again. Please do play around with the search and let me know if you find anything cool. The link also includes all of my previous spreadsheets so peruse that at your leisure if you're interested. Thanks as always for reading this far and let me know if you have any feedback, made the exact same thing previously (looking at you @agenericplaceholdername ), or have requests for new spreadsheets or charts. I have a lot of options now that I've created this tool and I've very excited to use it!

[wobster109]

Why is Aventurine Preservation-Imaginary?

(The real answer is, it's probably just HoYo filling out the path/element roster, but we'll play along!)

We'll tackle his element first. It's not the easier of the two, but it's the one with less info to sort through. The basic element types are:

Elements: wind, fire, ice, lightning

Sorta-abstract: quantum, imaginary

Physical: physical

It's a pretty funny system, all things considering. Here's Gepard, he can summon a massive wall of ice through will alone! Here's Dr. Ratio, he can make a massive tower just by thinking it into existence! Oh and here's Luka. Ordinary human. Pretty good at boxing.

(Not including Trailblazer here - probably the stellaron helps her swing that bat extra hard or something.)

And in the middle, you have Guinaifen, Hook, and Serval, who use the element but do not create it from scratch. For example, Serval is conceivably using electricity from her electric guitar.

Most of the elements are pretty self-explanatory, but Quantum and Imaginary are a bit more abstract. What are these types? What do they mean?

Quantum: technology, information, data, uncertainty

In my mind, Silver Wolf is the classic quantum character. She uses hacking to change data. In her hands, the data is always shifting. Fu Xuan is another direction that quantum can go - she's a diviner, and her job is peering into the future and making sense of the uncertainty. And then Qingque has elements of both: she works in divination, and also there is uncertainty in each hand of Celestial Jade.

Imaginary: Logic, abstraction, math/physics/metaphycs, theology

For some reason, Imaginary feels to me like dealing with the grand existential questions. There's Dr. Ratio on one end, knowledge is the measure of all things, and then there's Luocha with religious symbolism all over him, the devils, the church, the insanity in his character story, healing you with a cross necklace. Welt with his black hole - there's some kind of physics in there!

But this seems more like a philosophy than an element in battle. So in practice, what Imaginary characters have in common most of all is summoning miscellaneous objects 😅 black holes, dragons, chalk, etc.

So on that note, Aventurine fits right in, summoning dice and coins all over the place! Watch your he-ead~ 🎶🎵

I would've expected Aven to be Quantum. All the RNG in his kit. . . all the gambling, all the uncertainty. . . it seems more alike Qingque's tile suits. He even has card suits on his shields!

Perhaps the Imaginary is more about his character. Much of his story is intensely existential - what's the good of his blessing when everyone he loves is gone; why are we born if it's just to die. Perhaps he brings not just another answer, but a new way to see the question—not Why am I here, but All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

A more direct question that he himself discusses is why he's Preservation. We know he was offered the chance to become a Masked Fool, and seek Elation - the pursuit of happiness. Yet he turned it down.

As his alter-ego says, he and Preservation have nothing in common.

Interestingly, he also gives himself the answer.

He didn't choose the Preservation. Aventurine chose the IPC.

But wait—aren't the IPC the bad guys?

It is fascinating to me when people make out the IPC to be the villain of this tale, or talk about him "escaping" the IPC as if he's being held hostage. Not only did he choose the IPC, he gambled everything, including his life, just for a sliver of a chance to join them.

They didn't kill his family, enslave him, brand him, or make him kill 34 other slaves. Certainly, the IPC has used Aventurine's talents and self-destructive behavior to their benefit, and is not particularly concerned with what becomes of him. They are big, corporate, and easy to hate. But they are also not the cause of his tragedy.

It's not the IPC, but rather the Katicans, that kill Kakavasha's family. His sister describes them as "bloodthirsty, cruel, and insatiably greedy." Personally I can’t say with confidence that the Katicans are villains without knowing their full history, but either way, the conflict is between the Avgins and the Katicans.

My feeling is that the IPC is amoral - they are not actively out to do harm, but neither will they go out of their way to avoid or prevent it. They are focused primarily on profit. Sometimes that means taking over a planet against the people's will. Sometimes that means making gambles. . . or sacrifices. Other times, it means hosting an Aetherium event.

So, why does Aventurine choose the IPC? What's interesting to me is, he isn't a slave to the IPC in any sense - not even in the lack-of-choice sense of Topaz's planet. He had a choice. He could have become a Masked Fool. So, why?

It all comes back to this:

"Go ahead, use me as you wish, even stab me in the back if you see fit. Exploitation and treachery are simply tools of the trade. But remember, I don't make deals that don't pay off... So, I hope you don't disappoint me."

The IPC is a tool to him, a means to an end. He expects that the IPC will use him, and in exchange he intends to use the IPC.

But to what end?

It's got to be something big. He could have become a refugee or an ordinary IPC employee, and instead he took the risk of lying about Tayzzynronth's remains. He let himself be arrested and brought to Jade. "I bet you won't send me to the gallows." Death was a possibility, so it had to be worth that risk.

My guess is that he wanted to save the Avgin people.

(And in this sense, Preservation is his true path after all.)

His sister tells him, "As long as you are alive, the blood of the Avgin will never run dry." Perhaps his goal was to save the remaining Avgin people, bring them away from the land of rock and sand and hardly any rain, and give them a home where they could prosper. Or to environmentally transform his home the way the IPC transformed other planets. To do that, he'll need more money and power than an IPC grunt's income. But with a Stoneheart's power, the IPC's money, and the Intelligentsia Guild's knowledge, he could make that happen.

(It feels off. It feels like too simple of an answer.)

But the Avgin people are all gone. Aventurine specifically says there aren't any left. Now that his reason is gone, what will become of him?

In a way, he does offer us an answer.

Aventurine: There will come a day when the sky will drizzle, and I will hear the call of Gaiathra Triclops and know that it is time for me to go and be reunited with my family. Aventurine: So until the time comes... I should be preparing. Kakavasha: Preparing for what? Aventurine: Preparing to face them, Kakavasha, and to make them proud.

He will go on to live a good life. What form will it take?

I don't think he can ever completely shake off the responsibility of being the last surviving Avgin. It would be quite a leap for him to settle down and have a family, so perhaps he'll have to pass it forward some other way. Either by preserving the culture (another museum management event?) or by dedicating his wealth and power to saving other peoples.

The thing about being somewhere is, you can't help but grow into it, and it grows around you. And now, he has. . . allies who are a bit closer to friends than he might think.

He has two coworkers who willingly handed over their cornerstones for his plan—cornerstones more precious than life itself. He seems to genuinely look out for Topaz (advising her against getting involved in Belobog), and she talks about him cheerfully during 2.1. And I am sure that bringing him into the IPC was a significant personal risk for Jade, especially since he'd already caused the IPC a major financial loss. For Jade and Topaz, he has—if not their trust, at least their respect in his abilities.

And he has the Intelligentsia Guild's top Mundanite fussing over his survival. Not for the Avgin bloodline, and not for profit or the success of a mission. Acheron refers to Ratio as his “friend”, and he doesn’t bother to deny it.

He has three allies/maybe-friends involved in a grand scheme with him, and isn't there something addicting about scheming together? Something as marvelous as what the Trailblazer has with the Express? So, I don't think he'll leave the IPC anytime soon. He carved out this path with his bare hands, made a life and a purpose for himself, and even made some friends along the way. Now, it's time to live it.

[homestuckreplay]

EOA2 - Statistics!

I’ve run the numbers on Act 2 cause I have a secret and deep love for stats. The data is collected here in the Homestuck GameFAQ and I collect it all myself, so it’s limited by what I can reasonably record.

Act 2 is 67.4% of Homestuck so far by page count. It ran for 511 pages across 125 days (June 9, 2009 to October 11, 2009), 104 of which had an update (83%). This averages 4.1 pages per day (4.9 on update days). September 24, 2009 (Homestuck Day 138) had the most pages in a single day with 15.

This is slightly lower than Act 1’s 4.4 pages per day (5.3 on update days), and still does not beat April 13, 2009’s (Homestuck Day 1) 16 total pages.

377 pages contained narrative text (73.7%) while 134 pages were image or animation only. There were 639 images and animations in total (panels), with 69 pages containing two images (13.5%; nice) and 15 containing three or more (2.9%). Page 510 had the most panels, with 17. Of these 639 panels, 250 were still images (39.2%), 371 were GIFs (58.2% - defined not as filetype, but as a short, simple animated panel), 11 were complex, non-interactive animations (1.7%) and 7 were interactive panels (1.1%).

18 pages contained sound [S] (3.5%), including 31 distinct music tracks worked on by 16 artists, 25 of which were new for act 2. This includes two versions of Showtime by Kevin Regamey & Malcolm Brown and three of Harlequin byMark Hadley.

The distribution of panel types (still image, GIF, animation and interactive) was very similar between Acts 1 and 2, but the amount of new music was significantly higher in Act 2. This was entirely due to Dave’s MIDI samples on p.338, which contained 20 tracks, 19 of which were new.

333 pages contained a command in the title (65.2%). Of these, 120 commands were to John (36.0%), 55 were to Rose (16.5%), 82 were to Dave (24.6%), 64 were to WV (19.2%), and 12 were to miscellaneous characters (3.6%), including the game engine (3), narrator (1), Spades Slick (2), Nannasprite (1), John’s piano (1), John’s fridge (1), John’s bathtub (1), Dad’s safe (1), and Colonel Sassacre (1).

262 commands came from the player (78.7%) and 71 came from WV, with all of WV’s commands directed to John or the narrator except for p.277 (DO THE POTTED VEGETABLE NEXT. IT LOOKS DELICIOUS.), which was directed to Rose. There were 99 additional commands from WV within p.253, directed to a mix of John and the narrator.

I imperfectly track ‘point of view character’ based on who the ‘you’ in narrative text is directed to, or without that, whose experiences we are seeing in the image. If we are seeing something the character wouldn’t be able to see, the point of view is the player’s. Based on these metrics, John is the point of view character for 139 pages (27.2%), Rose for 102 (20.0%), Dave for 122 (23.9%), WV for 104 (20.4%), the player for 42 (8.2%), and a different character for 8 pages (1.6%), including the narrator (4), Spades Slick (3) and Nannasprite (1). Six pages contain multiple POVs, accounting for the small discrepancy in the total number.

Act 1 only contained three command recipients and four point of view characters, while Act 2 contained 13 command recipients and eight point of view characters. By both metrics, John is the main character in both Acts 1 and 2, although Act 2 is really more of an ensemble cast.

There were 39 pesterlogs on 38 pages (7.4% of pages) and 9 spritelogs (1.8% of pages). Combining all chatlogs, John appears in 31 (plus 10 where he’s the recipient but doesn’t answer), Rose in 29 (plus one where she doesn’t answer), Dave in 12, GG in 4, and Nannasprite in 9. The chatlogs vary wildly in length, but average 172.6 words. The longest chatlog is between Rose and GG on p.442, which totals 587 words.

In total, Act 2 contained 14,386 words of narrative text, 2815 words in page titles (commands plus ‘==>’, which counts as one word as it has a distinct meaning), and 8286 words in chatlogs. This includes commands and narrative text within p.253 ([S] YOU THERE. BOY) but does not include other types of words within images, as these are hard to track without extensive time or better computer skills than mine.

This gives Act 2 a total word count of 25,487, or an average of 49.9 words per page – slightly higher than Act 1’s 42.5 average. Page 253 is by far the longest page in Act 2, with 2103 total words including 1579 of narrative text; p.448 is the second longest based on narrative text alone, with 218 words.

In Act 1, the total time elapsed in the narrative was around an hour and a half (0.11% of the real, out of universe time). Act 2 is much harder to estimate, but from earliest to latest point, the elapsed time in the narrative is around 4 billion years (1.17trillion% of the real, out of universe time).

[kiwiana-writes]

Fic Writing Review 2023

Tagged by my fellow stats nerd @stereopticons - thanks pal!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either.

Words and Fics (fics written in 2023 only)

143,107 words published to ao3. At least 3,900 more guaranteed by the advent fic so... I think I should make a concentrated effort to break 150k, right? 👀

No good way of tracking unpublished words in WIPs written this year. My goal for 2024 is to set up my spreadsheet to track words written as well as published so watch this space.

3 published fandoms: Red White & Royal Blue (book), Schitt's Creek, The Last Of Us (TV show). Technically 1 unpublished fandom in Red White & Royal Blue (film) 😅

Most recent drop: Apart from the daily advent fic drops lilnked above, a PWP interlude in the hockey boyfriend Henry 'verse

Longest (published) fic: By a country fuckin' mile, With so much of my heart (that none is left to protest), aka the Much Ado actor AU, at 65,586 words.

Longest (published) oneshot: Kinda think that I might be his type (Alex and Bea fake date) at 12,864 words

Top Fics by Kudos (fics written in 2023 only)

With so much of my heart (that none is left to protest) [RWRB, Alex/Henry, rated E, 65,586 words]

Kinda think that I might be his type [RWRB, Alex & Bea + Alex/Henry, rated E, 12,864 words]

We were supposed to find this [RWRB, Alex/Henry, rated M, 3,384 words]

Puck It [RWRB, Alex/Henry, rated E, 9,739 words]

Feel your hands in my hair and you whisper my name [RWRB, Alex/Henry, rated E, 2,508 words]

Miscellaneous Data From My Unhinged Spreadsheet about 2023 fics

To no one's surprise, highest percentage of private bookmarks goes to Bukkake Breaky Heart.

Out of 24 fics published in 2023, 14 were explicit, 2 were mature, 7 were teen and up, and 1 was general audiences

3 fics didn't have a title sourced from anywhere. 3 were sourced from literature/poetry, 3 were puns, and the remaining 15 were song lyrics, with 3 each from Taylor Swift and Matt Nathanson.

My highest kudos/hits ratio was on Empty your heart of its mortal dream, aka the Fae Prince Henry fic.

My fandom fic events in 2023

Nilch nada zip in terms of, like, fests. I wanted to do Threesgiving but the words wouldn't come, so a sort-of-threesome-sort-of-foursome will probably appear on some random day in fucking February or something lmao. However while they weren't fandom-specific events, I did do:

Kinktober 2023

Advent 2023

Upcoming Events and Projects for 2024

I have a lot -- a lot a lot a LOT -- of WIPs that will be completed in 2024, so please don't think of this as an exhaustive list, but they are the ones I'm most excited for:

A Practical Arrangement - @clottedcreamfudge has Devised A Punishment if I don't get chapter two out for y'all by Christmas because my usual methods of pushing past my brain bullshit weren't working, so technically this is a 2023 project 🤣 @ships-to-sail and @celeritas2997 have the carrot and CCF has the stick.

Anastasia AU!!! I LOVE this fic and I think it's in the 'meaty one-shot' range buuuuuut we'll see. It might get a little out of control.

Angstapalooza RWRB edition - this is gonna be another long fic, 10-11 chapters, 50k words ish, and I cannot WAIT to make y'all cry sink my teeth into it. My Schitt's Creeks babes know what happens when I deem something 'angstapalooza' lmao.

Hockey Boyfriend Henry part 3, aka the whole reason I started writing the fucking series in the first place lmao

Leverage AU, which I haven't shared anything of yet because it's a post-angstapalooza longfic but I am VERY HYPE FOR.

Rafael Is Surrounded By Disaster Queers, aka the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead-style Rafael POV... 5+1? Vignettes? set in the Much Ado actor AU verse. Which at this point is just a gift for @inexplicablymine and @cricketnationrise and I wouldn't have it any other way.

STFAU 👀

*infomercial voice* And much, much more!

BUT, 2024 is also for taking original writing seriously. Maybe flash/microfiction on patreon, definitely diving into an original novel. I've thrown in the towel with my contracting agency in the new year and everything. Ack.

Tagging anyone I've tagged above and also @anincompletelist @cha-melodius @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart @myheartalivewrites and anyone who wants to play because I love data.

[chaotic-on-main]

Summer Event! 💕

Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream,

Kitchen Sink option but make it a surprise!

Thank you for being so understanding & sweet, I get really anxious if you can't tell haha. You're a dear💕✨

Order up!! One matcha green tea cone with everything but the kitchen sink for Eri!!

Sky's Summer and 250 Follower Event!

☾ Pairings ➼ janitor!Levi Ackerman x fem!people-pleaser!Reader

☾ Content/Warnings ➼ modernAU, meet-cute(kinda?), familial trauma, hurt/comfort, fluff, accidental therapy (for me), corporate ick

☾ Author's Note ➼ Hi Eri!! Thank you so much for sending this request in. I was a little worried with the whole "make it a surprise" because I struggle with lack of structure BUT I'm so proud of how this came out. I couldn't stop writing, as you can see. This might be a little self-indulgent and I hope I got the emotions right since I struggle with them. I just want Levi to call me out on my shit, okay?? Anyways, I hope you enjoy!! love you k bye *smooches*

☾ Word Count ➼ ~7.6k (oops)

“Hi, you’re the new hire right? It’s nice to meet you, I’m Carol from a few rows down. Listen, I hate to do this to you since you’re so new but you’re the only one I can ask. Would you be able to do the data entry on the Sina job? I can’t stay past closing tonight due to my set plans and unfortunately it’s due tomorrow morning. Could you help me out? I’ll pay you back!”

The voice of your overly excited brunette coworker reverberates through your skull as you type away at your desk, the bright light of your monitor biting at your eyes just like the migraine you feel in the back of your head. You had a feeling that this is not the first time the people in the office have picked on the newcomers, and you bet it wouldn’t be the last. You chalk it up the fact that you were still in the office past seven in the evening doing someone else’s work because they dropped the stack of papers on your desk before you could say anything back, but you knew better. Damn your pathological people pleasing tendencies.

Your chair squeaks as you lean back in it, closing your eyes and pinching the bridge of your nose as you sigh heavily. It’s a handful of days into your first week and you’re already daydreaming about your next vacation. An office job was not your first go to, but as all struggling artists do, you needed this job to supplement your income until your art took off – if that ever happened.

Thoughts of how much longer you’d have to be here swirl through your mind when you’re interrupted by a loud thunk a few cubicles down. It startles you so much that you jump up as your eyes shoot open, hand over your heart in an attempt to calm it. You weren’t aware of anyone else in the building so you can’t help but think there might be a mass murderer just feet away from you. Steeling your resolve, you push yourself up from your chair and carefully peek over the half wall to see what had made that noise.

At first you don’t see anything as your eyes adjust from seeing nothing to the semi-lit office floor from the setting sun and dimmed overheads. Down the row, you see the back of a man in what you assume to be a gray janitor’s suit. An undercut peeks between short raven locks, neck lines sharp giving away to a clean cut. It doesn’t seem like he notices you’re there as his attention is focused on the waste basket in front of him.

You sit back down slowly, heaving a heavy sigh from relief that it was indeed not a mass murderer – well, that you know of. He didn’t seem threatening from far away at least. Your hands hover on the keyboard as you do your best to blink away the tired. Only a few more pages now, you reassure yourself.

An hour later, miraculously you find yourself down to the last page. The miscellaneous words and numbers swim off the page as you force yourself to focus. With the promise of a late night treat, you finally make it down to the last line. Just as you’re about to hit ‘enter’, something kicks the back of your chair causing you to yelp loudly and slam down on the keys harder than you meant.

“What are you still doing here?” A deep voice grumbles from behind you, making your ears twitch at the sudden volume difference. You twist around in your chair to see who the voice belongs to and you’re surprised to see it coming from the janitor you saw earlier. What’s even more surprising is how young he looks, and handsome to boot - despite the look he’s giving you. Stark gray-blue lidded eyes stare down at you as he scowls, eyebrows pinched together. He doesn’t look pleased.

“I-I’m sorry. I’m working on some…” Your voice falters when his expression turns into annoyance.

“You’re in my way.” He simply states as he leans against a vacuum you only now notice sitting under his arm. Was your focus so strong that you completely missed the sounds of him cleaning around you?

“Oh, uh. Yeah, let me get out of your way then.” You say timidly, pushing yourself out of the chair. You’re face to face with him at standing height, even in your work heels. This was a very intimidating man despite his short stature.

“I’m not going to clean with you breathing down my neck.” He grumbles, eyes narrowing at you like you asked him the most offensive question known to man. Your lips part as you struggle to find your words, but nothing comes out as you find yourself low-key panicking.

“I c-can just-”

“Just finish what you’re working on, I’ll just come back.” He rolls his eyes before walking away, leaving you and the vacuum illuminated by your computer screen. You ball your hands in fists to keep them from shaking.

Exhaling a weak breath, you sit back down and force yourself to focus on the last line of data instead of the glowering expression of your office’s janitor.

.

You slam your forehead into the vinyl coating of your desk, not hard enough to leave a bruise but enough to hear the echoes of contact through the whole floor. It’s nearing seven at night again and you’re still in office catching up on yet another coworker’s workload.

When they asked what plans you had tonight, you didn’t think that saying you were going home to watch TV would bite you in the ass. If you were completely honest, you had quietly hoped they might be asking if you wanted to go out for drinks with them. After all, they were the only ones that had really talked to you in the past few weeks but you’re starting to wonder if they were just trying to butter you up to get you to say yes to their requests.

Who were you kidding though, you would have said yes anyways because the word ‘no’ didn’t exist in your vocabulary. You wish you weren’t so aware of that fact because not only are you stressed out, you’re full of self loathing. A groan escapes your lips.

“Still doing other people’s work?” You hear a familiar voice grumble from behind.

After lifting your head up from the cool desk, you swivel around in your chair to see the janitor – this time in dark blue. A white handkerchief wraps around his face, covering his mouth and nose so that all you see are his tired eyes. A same-colored bandana adorns his head with some of his bangs falling into his eyes. You bite your tongue to keep yourself from asking what the point of the bandana was if it didn’t keep his hair out of his face.

It takes you a moment to find your voice, partly from not using it for so long but also because of the steady unfriendly feeling radiating off him. He raises an eyebrow at you as you stare up at him almost dumbfounded.

“I- who said I was doing other people’s work?” You finally make out, voice trembling.

“You’re new, right? The office goons do that to every newbie that comes in.” He folds his arms over his chest and you see that his sleeves are rolled up to show his toned forearms, muscles popping up from the position they’re in. Your eyes flicker back up to his, blinking slowly.

“I’m sure but they needed the help, so...”

“Because they would rather slack off than do any work. They’re taking advantage of you and you’re falling for it? You’re an adult, right?” There isn’t malice in his words but they still sting.

“Of course I am! I work here, don’t I?” Your eyes widen in emphasis, sweeping your hands around you.

“Tch, that doesn’t make you an adult. I’ve been here for years and I’ve seen my fair share of children.” His scowl reappears at those words. You’ve never met someone so grumpy.

You close your mouth at that, not sure what else to say. He clicks his tongue and flips a small towel over his shoulder. Turning on his heel, he sets off down the aisle without another word, the sounds of his heavy boots getting quieter.

You don’t get done until 10:30 that night. On your way out, you pass by the janitor who was currently on the inside of the board meeting glass walls, wiping them down with what you suppose is glass cleaner. His eyes meet yours as you walk by and you offer a small wave and smile even though his short words still sting. You think he’s going to ignore you but instead, he gives you a curt nod.

.

The janitor’s words swim through your mind the next time you’re asked to stay behind to help out. You spent the last couple of weeks doing your best practicing in the shower on setting boundaries with your coworkers but when the person who came to you next was your supervisor, how could you say no.

You were in the middle of packing your bag while lost in thought of your weekend plans when she came to you. You’re thinking you might stop by the evening market by the river before heading home with some food from the local vendors when a finger taps on your shoulder followed by your name coming out in a honey-laced voice.

“Hey, I just wanted to stop by and commend you on being such a team player in the last month. It’s something we find rare in someone as young as you and of course we’re grateful.” Your red-haired boss beams down at you while she talks. The feeling of ice pricks in your veins at what you know was coming next.

“I’m really sorry to come to you so last minute and on a Friday no less, but because of your wonderful work ethic, you’re the only one I can trust to complete The Warrior Project. It’s been extremely slow going and we need it done by Monday. Do you think you can stay behind and help us out?” She offers you an apologetic smile, eyes boring into yours with sincerity.

You wished you could have said no but the words died before they made it out of your mouth, instead agreeing meekly with a fake smile.

So now here you sit at your desk with the dying rays of light rising higher against the back walls as the sun sets, fingers flying across the keyboard. You suppose you’ll have to stop by the late night convenience store on the way home for some dinner; your face scrunches up at the thought of your very limited choices.

“If you type any harder, you’ll break it.” You don’t bother to turn around at the voice, knowing damn well who it was.

“I’m sure they’ll get me another one. They need me to finish this, after all.” You mutter the last part under your breath. The smell of something sweet and tangy hits your nose and on contact, your stomach rumbles loudly.

Swiveling in your chair, you’re met with the janitor who’s simultaneously holding a feather duster as well as a bag of what looks like Chinese take-out. Your eyes widen at the sight, bouncing back and forth between the objects in his hand.

“Are you here to eat or dust?” You ask, finally looking up to his face. There’s no expression on his pretty face. You still haven’t gotten over how stunning he was, with his pointed nose and pouty bottom lip. Today he has his janitor uniform half on, the sleeves of the suit tied around his waist so that it’s only pants. Tucked in is a black t-shirt that shows more of his muscular arms. He’s not ripped by any means but it’s very obvious he exercises on his time off.

“I’m here to dust. This is for you to eat.” He says dryly, shoving the bag in your direction. Once again, you find your words stolen as you stare at the brown paper bag that sits curled in his pale fingers. Your eyes shift back and forth between his face and the food.

“F-for me? Why?”

“Whenever I see you here late, you never eat. You need to take better care of yourself.”

“I eat when I get home.” You retort back softly. A late night meal for you consists of a single serving bag of chips and whatever looked edible at the convenience store – but you wouldn’t tell him that.

“Just eat it.” He pushes it forward to you again, the warm smells of food wafting past your nose. It smelled like heaven.

“I- no. I can’t take that, it’s yours!” You wave your hands in front of your chest in a dismissive manner. A dark eyebrow shoots up his face.

“So she can say no.” He reaches over you and places the paper bag down on your desk. Along with the smells of delicious food, the scent of clean laundry and musky pine tickles your nose. It’s a very pleasant combination, and one you were not expecting. “Eat it, throw it away, I don’t care.” He says casually before turning around and walking off. Your hand reaches out in an attempt to stop him, but he’s long gone.

Twisting your chair around, you eye the paper bag for a moment before finally caving. Your stomach is about to eat itself and he had paid for it, so you don’t want to waste it. Why he would care enough about you to order food is a mystery, though.

Upon opening the contents, you’re greeted with a small foil dish with a plastic covering holding what you believe is orange chicken. A little white box off to the side contains sticky rice and in the little plastic package next to it holds some spring rolls – all still steaming hot and smelling wonderful.

You spend the next half hour scarfing down your dinner while thinking about how you’d pay the janitor back. The flush that started creeping up your cheeks at the end of your encounter with him stays even when you go to bed late that night.

.

The week after, you intentionally slow down on your daily work so that you had a reason to stay late and finish it. But much to your dismay, you don’t see the janitor anywhere. You’d leave each night a little embarrassed at yourself for being so excited for someone you’ve talked to a handful of times, but to your benefit you had a reason for your madness.

Finally, you gather enough courage to peep your head over your half-wall and grab your coworker’s attention – whose attention was on a mobile game in his hands and not on the spreadsheets in front of his face.

“Ryan?” You whisper-shout down. Your brunette coworker’s eyes shoot up to yours, almost in a panic.

“What? Is the boss lady making her rounds?” He asks back. You sweep your eyes around the office floor and finally find your supervisor who was currently in a meeting with other board members.

“She’s busy, you’re fine. I actually had a question?” You didn’t realize how soft you were speaking until he stood up to meet you, towering a good foot above you with his ear down to you.

“What’s up?”

“I was wondering if you knew when the janitor might be back? I haven’t seen him in a few days.” You subconsciously start picking at your nails – a nervous habit.

Ryan stares at you as he processes your words before throwing his head back in bellowing laughter. You’re quick to shush him and duck your head down from the glares aimed your way at such a loud disturbance.

“Not so loud!!” You whisper-shout again.

“I’m sorry, I’m just curious why you want to know? He doesn’t like anyone, and no one likes him.” He shrugs his shoulders. You so badly want to tell him to shut up and that you like him, but instead you settle on trying to get him to answer your question.

“Well, what’s his schedule?” You narrow your eyes in hopes of getting the message across that you were serious.

“Well, that’s the thing, he’s always working. Sometimes even on the weekends. From what I heard, his cleaning routes are the same every week. He doesn’t get to our floor until late in the week. He has a thing for cleaning, so I heard, and that’s why there’s only one janitor contracted. He’s so weird.” Ryan rolls his eyes as he rests his chin against the top of the wall.

“What’s his name?”

“Why do you care so much about the janitor?” It’s Ryan’s turn to narrow his eyes to you. You’re asking too many questions and he’s getting far too nosy about your business. It’s best to retreat for now.

“Uh, it’s nothing. Thank you.” You squeak before plopping yourself down at your chair and pretending to click around on your word documents until you no longer feel the pierce of your coworker’s stare.

So he’s always here, you think. You’re just missing him on your way down. You bite back a smile as you glance down to the clock at the bottom corner of your screen. The time reads 4:37pm and it’s a Thursday which meant that he would be around your floor this evening. Perfect. Your eyes sweep over to your bag in your excitement.

In the time it takes for you to wait for the gray-blue eyed janitor, you’ve finished half of the next day’s work. A part of you starts to wonder if he isn’t coming tonight, that it may be tomorrow instead, and weirdly you find yourself hoping one of your coworkers would ask you to help them out again so that you had a reason to stay.

“That’s so stupid.” You say out loud as you stir sugar into the black tea you had spent the last 5 minutes steeping. You’re standing in the office break room, lost in thought.

“I’m sure the mug doesn’t feel that way.” That voice makes your heart flutter, and you bite back the smile that threatens to curve into your face. Instead, you pinch your lips together and turn around.

The janitor is there alright, uniform zipped up tight as he holds a spray bottle and a rag. He’s leaning against the doorframe of the break room, arms folded across his chest. His black hair falls into his face, almost kissing the corners of his heavy-lidded eyes as they watch you intently.

“Ah, there you are!” You exclaim, pointing your spoon at him.

“Here I am.”

“I have something to give you as payback for dinner last week.” You muse, grinning at him. His eyes widened briefly before going back to normal.

“And why would you do that?”

“Because I’m grateful for it, dummy.” Carefully, you place your spoon next to your mug and walk towards him until you’re face to face. It takes him a moment to realize you were waiting for him to move, and carefully he backs away so that you have room to escape.

“Stay here, I’ll be right back.” You order before dashing off to your cubicle.

When you come back with the gift in hand, you see that the janitor hadn’t moved an inch. His intimidating eyes follow you as you stop in front of him, slightly breathless from speed walking back. An eyebrow raises at you as he waits for you to catch your breath.

“I-ah. Okay. So. I made these for you. I ended up having to make a fresh batch because I didn’t see you for a bit and I didn’t want to feed you stale cookies so. Anyways, here. Thank you for feeding me last week.” You beam up at him as you hold your hands out to show him your gift.

It’s a small plastic bag wrapped with a pastel bow. The contents of the bag include bite sized cookies that you spent all last night remaking in hopes you would see him again. They’re pale yellow in color, dusted with a light coat of cane sugar. His eyes widen again at your gesture, this time staying big as they stare at the bag in your hand like its gold.

“You… made these for me?” His voice is low.

“I did! I don’t know if you like sweets but these are my mother’s recipe and her cookies were never that sweet. Pretty much the sweetness comes from the sugar on top. The rest are just buttery goodness.” You gush as you stare off in thought, the happy memories of your mom making these cookies for you flooding your brain.

When your eyes fall back to the raven-haired man, you’re almost tempted to run away in embarrassment. His neutral expression stares back at you and you take a small step back.

“I’m sorry, this is probably weird. You don’t have to take them actually. In fact, I’ll just le-“

“No, you’re fine. I uh, I appreciate it.” He quickly reaches out and grabs the bag, the sound of crinkling plastic taking up space in the nearly empty mess room. You offer him a small smile, grateful that he accepted the gift. His eyes trail past you and onto the kitchen counter behind you. He purses his lips as he thinks but finally opens his mouth to speak.

“Pour that disgusting excuse for a tea out and follow me. Bring the mug.” He says tersely before turning on his heels and out the door. You blink hard a few times as your brain processes his words but quickly you find yourself dumping out the tea and chasing after him down the cubicle aisles.

Soon, you’re sitting on the ground with the janitor as he pours steaming amber liquid from the thermos he pulled out of his cleaning cart just mere moments ago. It splashes into the bottom of your mug and fills it quickly, then he hands it over to you as he starts speaking.

“So are you a workaholic or…” He gives you a side eye.

“I should be asking you that. I’ve been told you work practically every day, even on weekends.” You hold the mug by the handle as you stare down into the cup. “Is this…?”

“It’s tea and no I didn’t poison it.”

“What was wrong with the tea I had?”

“Stale tea leaves don’t make for a good cup of tea.” He states like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “No, I’m not a workaholic. I like to clean, and I get paid for it. Plus, I’m left alone. Usually.” He grumbles the last part, but you don’t detect any hostility in his voice.

“Well, I’m not either. A-a workaholic, I mean.”

“No, I suppose not. Just a people pleaser then?” His statement makes you splutter on the tea you had just sipped on. Despite it going almost everywhere, the bitter taste of the dark leaves bite at your taste buds. It’s unsweetened and you can’t keep the slight look of distaste off your face. Luckily, it’s covered up by the glare you shoot his way.

You don’t say anything back at that, knowing any denial would have been a lie but you didn’t want to confirm it either. However, you can’t hold back the annoyance that simmers in your chest at such a presumptuous statement, from someone you hardly know, no less.

“Beats being disliked by everyone.” You mutter finally, setting your mug on the floor next to you. Your eyes drift to the floor-to-ceiling window you were both sitting in front of. The last dreg of golden sunlight warms your face as you stare out into the bustling city as they prepare for the evening.

“You say that like it should bother me.”

“Shouldn’t it though?”

“Why would it?”

“Don’t you want people to like you?” You whisper softly, dragging your gaze over to his face. There’s no readable expression on his face as he sips his tea out of the top of his thermos lid. He’s holding it in a way you’ve never seen before – long fingers gripping the metal from the top rim and tilting it back into his mouth.

“I don’t give a shit if they like me or not.” He says finally as he gives you a side eye.

You’re not sure if your surprise at his callous attitude is warranted or not. Your interactions with him have been few and far in between but that night he got you dinner, you thought maybe he was a little more caring than that.

“Why do you care if people like you anyway?” He leans back on a hand, his other cradling his cup.

“I just- well. I don’t know.” You say simply. You do know.

“I read this thing about people-pleasers. It said that they’re great manipulators. They bend and break just so that others tolerate and like them, pretending to be something they’re not. Are you trying to get something out of it?”

Your eyes snap to his, feeling the heat behind your stare at his insinuation. Where did he get off calling you a manipulator? A pretender? Despite the subtle rage dancing in your eyes, you give him a smile and push yourself off the ground, grabbing your mug on your way up.

“Thank you for the tea. I really must be going now.” You say politely, voice coming out higher than you meant.

“Tch.” Is all you get back.

With that, you turn on your heel and head back to the break room to pour your tea out and rinse the mug, leaving it out on the rack to dry. You’re quick to gather your things before practically running down the aisles to the elevator, down to the front door, and towards home. A lump in your throat stays even after your shower and still when you lie down for the night.

.

After your last encounter with the janitor, you find that you’re rushing home as soon as you can. You aren’t necessarily mad at him for telling you a hard truth, but the rumination of having someone being annoyed at you doesn’t go away.

Your evasive tactics work for a while. Your office was in between projects and jobs so no one had come to you for help for anything. But of course that didn’t stay that way for long and your luck would run out as it always had as the quarter was about to close. Your supervisor came to you early on a rainy Tuesday morning to tell you that some freak accident had happened to the last reports which made the data you spent days organizing completely disappear.

You don’t know what was more frustrating: the fact that your hard work from the last week had completely vanished or the fact that no one in the office offered to give a helping hand when you needed it the most.

Your supervisor apologized and said the entries needed to be done by the next morning so they could be submitted in time for the quarter review. With a forced smile and false-positive voice, you agreed and got started on it right away.

This was about 12 hours ago.

The only thing that brings you solace is the knowledge that the janitor was not due for your floor for a couple days so at least you could work on it without worrying about running into him. And thankfully for you since you were semi-prepared for being held back, you ordered pizza for dinner before the front doors locked for the evening.

For some reason, you find yourself sitting on the floor in the same spot you had shared bitter tea with the janitor. You’re lying on your back with your phone hovering as you scroll on it mindlessly, a more than half filled pizza box next to you with the lid propped open slightly. There’s a vacation photo that pops up from one of your acquaintances that makes your chest tighten from envy.

“You’re in my way, brat.” A voice from above rings out. It startles you so much that your fingers loosen on your phone, and it comes smacking into your face with a loud slap. Your eyes scrunch shut from the stinging pain radiating from your nose as you groan softly.

You sit up from your position, making sure to grab your phone before it falls on the ground, and turn to narrow your eyes at the perpetually scowling janitor. You hear a subtle pop in your back as you do.

“What are you doing here?” Your voice comes out more accusatory than you meant, and you end up clearing your throat before giving him a forced smile.

“I’m working. That’s more than I can say for you.”

“You’re not supposed to be on this floor today.”

“Says who?” An eyebrow quirks at your statement.

The words die on your tongue because even you knew that one person’s word was not enough to be reliable. You reach over to close the pizza box and gather your things to leave. He doesn’t say anything and only stares while you push yourself up onto your feet.

“I’ll just get out of your way, then.” You mumble, bending down to grab the pizza box in one hand and your empty cup in the other. As you brush past him, you can’t help but wonder if he’s still mad at you, though you can’t logically find a reason why he would be mad in the first place. And if he was, then what did you do? These thoughts are jarred as a vibration in your back pocket alerts you to a notification. Upon more buzzes and the start of your soft ringtone, you realize it’s a phone call.

Stepping over to the nearest desk, you set your stuff down and pull out your phone. On the screen is the caller ID for your mom, her faux-happy face staring straight at you as the lights around it pulse. You don’t fight the grimace that etches into your features. Hitting the green button, you regret it immediately.

“Hi mom!” You exclaim, forcing another smile on your lips.

“There you are! I really thought you had died on us.”

“Of course, I’m not dead. Just busy!” You state happily, turning around to face the windows again. A relieved sigh escapes when you notice the janitor is no longer standing where he was.

“You should call us more. You know I was talking to our neighbor about you recently! Remember Donna and her kids? Apparently her youngest just got engaged. And it got me thinking…” Your mother’s words trail off as your eyes glaze over. Your pulse is steadily picking up speed with every word, and you grip the edge of the desk tightly to keep yourself grounded.

“Anyways, both of your sisters are coming to visit with their little families. When are you planning to come by? It would be nice to have everyone home again. Maybe this time with a man on your arm?”

“Oh, I don’t know, mom. I just started here, so getting the time off will be a little hard to do right away. But I will ask my supervisor, and see? I want to see everyone too.” Your voice wavers a little as the muscles in your face start to hurt from your smile.

“Your grandmother is asking about you, you know. I had to come up with some excuse about why you’re so far away, and single no less.”

“I’m working on it. I’ll give her a call soon.” Tears prick in the corners of your eyes.

“Well, I’m sure you are, honey. Oh, your little sister is calling, I need to go. Please call us more!” And just like that, the line goes silent as she hangs up.

“I’ll call tomorrow, I guess.” You whisper down at the blank screen. Setting your phone down, you press the heels of your palms into your eyes to get rid of the wetness that threatens to overflow. You practically feel your heart beating right out of your chest as your mom’s words float around your head.

“I see where it comes from now.” The janitor’s deep voice comes from the right of you. When you pull your hands away to look at him, he’s holding out a steaming mug to you. Hesitantly, you take it. The color of the liquid is lighter in color and smells slightly floral. A mile’s difference from the last thing he shared with you.

“Where what comes from?” You mutter before bringing the cup to your lips. It’s hot but not unbearably so. The taste is gentle and has a touch of sweetness to it. It’s pleasant, and not something you were expecting.

“Your people-pleasing tendencies.” He leans against the half wall next to him as he eyes you.

“Please do enlighten me, as I’m not sure what you’re getting at.” You reply back in a monotone voice. You were tired in more ways than one. Slaving away at this project that you were only 80% done with. Staying late, lack of sleep, and now your mother calling. You were tired and you can’t mask anymore.

“Let me guess.” He raises his hand and taps a finger against his chin in thought. “Middle child. Your parents always apologized for what you lacked. Always felt like you had to put in extra effort to be seen and walking on eggshells so that when you are seen, no one pulls away. You’re starving for real, positive attention.” Again, none of his words come out malicious but they really sting. This man hardly knows you and yet he’s spreading your entire childhood out like it was nothing.

You’re tired.

“Yeah. Exactly that. And it’s infuriating. Not to drag on my sisters because they’re doing their best and they have the same parents I have but it’s like…” You take another sip of the honey liquid before continuing, feeling the heat of not only the tea but also anger burning in your chest. Your eyes drift back to the front window.

“I can’t stop myself from doing above and beyond on the off chance I might be liked and appreciated. I’m putting in all this hard work and still it doesn’t matter. I’m just so tired.”

The sun is all but gone and is replaced by the city lights that illuminate the indigo sky above. The janitor stays quiet through all of this as he takes in your words. You’ve never told anyone any of this before, and part of you feels liberated. The other part feels guilty for putting something so heavy on someone who probably doesn’t even care.

“So, what if it doesn’t matter? Why are you putting so many expectations on yourself? You’re just one person.” He stands up from the wall and walks around it so that he’s face to face with you. His arms are folded across his chest again as he eyes you warily before continuing.

“I spend everyday cleaning after you shits and no one sees that. And yet, what I do matters because otherwise this place would be a shithole. You do not have to bend over backwards so people can see your accomplishments, they still exist whether they see it or not. But, say they approve of your help, then what?”

“What do-” Your fingers grip tight on the handle of your mug.

“They say thank you for doing what they asked you to do, then what? Do you keep up with their demands?”

“If I have to.”

“And what do you gain from that outside of exhaustion?”

You want to lie so bad. You want to say that you get a lot of enjoyment from making others happy. That you gain happiness for making others smile because you did what they ask of you. But you realize that putting yourself out there for the sake of others is wearing you down. And you aren’t actually happy.

“I don’t.” Your voice cracks and when you blink next, your sight is blurry.

“That’s what I’m saying. You bend and you bend for these short bursts of attention but you don’t need it. The only thing that should matter to you is your wellbeing. The rest comes after.” His voice retains the same dryness as it had before, but there’s an unmistaken lilt of tenderness.

You look away from his gaze and wipe the corners of your eyes with the back of your hand as you take a shaky breath.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but why do you care so much about me?” You offer him a small smile to hopefully deter any ill will that statement could bring up.

“Tch, don’t get me wrong, you’re still annoying. But, I can’t stand watching people tear themselves down for the sake of others. You’re here to live for yourself, not for them.” His steely eyes roll to the ceiling before landing back on you.

“Right. Well. I’ll keep that in mind.” You smile at him, a genuine one that squeezes your eyes closed. “Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, even if your words are a little rough.” He huffs at that then nods curtly, tapping his foot on the ground.

“On that note, I need to-“

“Will you stay with me?” Your words come out faster than you can stop yourself. A sudden burst of warmth blooms into your face. “I-I mean, if you want. I just have this pizza left and-“

“Do you want me to stay?” He stares hard at you as he reads your reaction. You have a feeling he’s testing you.

Do you want that?

Yes, you do.

“Please stay?”

He considers you for a moment before relaxing, his arms falling to his sides.

“Okay.”

Once again, you find yourself on the floor with the janitor, knees tucked into your chest as you’re lost in thought. He sits a few feet away, slowly chewing on a just heated up piece of pizza while he stares out into the night. Your eyes never leave his face, watching the way his long eyelashes tickle his cheekbones and the way his hair falls in his face. You notice the dark circles that bruise the underside of his eyes.

“Do you ever take time off?” You ask softly.

“I never needed to.”

“You look really tired.”

“That’s just my face.” You laugh at that and he gives you a side eye. He wasn’t expecting that from you.

“Where would you go if you ever took time off?” You ask despite the fact he might ignore you as he didn’t seem the type to indulge such stupid questions, but he surprises you.

“Home.” He says without skipping a beat.

“Home? Really? Are you not home that often that you miss it more or something?”

“It’s quiet and all of my things are there. Where else would I go?” He stares at you with a perturbed expression. His dry voice adds to his comment and you find it very endearing. You think you see his lip twitch, but it might have been your imagination.

“What about you?”

Leaning back on your hands, you stretch your legs out with a soft groan and stare out the window. By this time, it’s well into 9pm and you still have work to do. But with the janitor staring at you, you find yourself pushing the thought of work away for now.

“Don’t laugh. But I really want to experience a day in that park off of Centennial. I heard it’s really nice in the afternoon because of the trees and little river that cuts through it. I would love to just sit out on a blanket and draw for a bit.” You say wistfully. You can already feel the heat of the sun against your skin.

“You’re an artist?”

“Yeah, struggling and starving as most are. But I draw when I can.”

He hums softly. “That sounds like a good day.” He says, wiping his hands on the towel that was tied to his utility belt around his waist.

You beam over to him at that. You again think to yourself of why people don’t like him. He was blunt and a little tactless, but he was caring and empathetic. Something you wouldn’t see from the outside. You liked him for just being himself with you.

Realization dawns on you at what his words meant earlier. Just being you was enough. You matter.

“Thank you.” You say simply, a toothy grin pointed his way.

.

A month passes and you find yourself steadily settling more into your job. You haven’t seen the janitor much since that one night. When you got home after that conversation, you made a promise you would only do things that you wanted to do for the sake of yourself and not others. The next time your coworker came to you for help, you were able to put your foot down and tell them no. Your voice and hands shook the whole time, but since then you haven’t been bothered. Unfortunately, you helped your supervisor when asked but you are proud of the progress that you made with your boundaries.

And now, here you are on a blanket in Centennial Park on a Thursday, lying on your stomach with your sketchbook propped open in front as you pop grapes into your mouth. There’s dark charcoal smudged along the side of your hands but you can’t find yourself caring as you finish a hooded eye with a flourish. It’s a nice day with a light breeze that helps keep you cool and soft music flows through your ears from your earphones, quiet enough so that you can be aware of your surroundings.

You’ve been at the park for so long that you’re almost done with your drawing and you’re thinking you should have brought a book to read when something kicks your foot. It makes you jump and your head twists behind you to see who or what it was. You assume it’s a child that kicked their ball too far as that happened earlier, but instead you scrunch your eyes to make sense of the figure in front of you.

Your eyes trail up to find it's a man dressed in dark jeans and a t-shirt, with a pair of oversized headphones circling his neck and sunglasses covering his eyes. The shades are dark but you can only assume he’s staring down at you. In his hands are two hot to-go cups.

“Can I help you?” You ask up to the mystery man, not hiding the annoyance in your tone.

“So she does take a day off. It’s nice to see you away from the computer screen.” The voice is familiar and you find yourself scrambling up to your feet, staring at him hard. He’s the same height as you and you notice his lips are all too familiar. They’re the same ones belonging to the drawing you just finished.

“You’re the janitor! What are you doing here?” Your annoyance quickly changes into surprise.

“Took the day off and I’m meeting a friend.” He raises one of the cups which you assume must be his friend’s. “And you can just call me Levi, by the way.” He grumbles the last bit. You only now realize you never asked for his name in any of the interactions you’ve had with him. Your face flares in embarrassment.

“I- yeah. I’m sorry, that’s so rude of me to have never asked.” You tell him your name as well but he just nods.

“I know who you are, and it’s fine.” He shrugs, tone dry as ever.

“You know my name? But how?” You don’t remember telling him your name. Nor has he ever been around to hear it be said. You raise an eyebrow at him.

“You have a plaque on your desk.”

“Oh. Yeah, that’s fair.” You run a hand through your hair as you laugh at that. You don’t notice the way his eyes flicker from your sweet face to the sketch behind you on the ground. He huffs softly at that.

“Well, I can’t keep them waiting so. I guess I’ll see you when I see you.” He murmurs before turning on his heel in the opposite direction.

“Wait, Levi!” You yell, taking a few steps towards him. His head tilts back in your direction so that you see his blue-gray eyes side-eying you from behind his sunglasses.

“What?”

“Would you like to get some tea with me sometime?” You ask quickly. Your voice wavers slightly with anxiety as you shift uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

“Are you sure you don’t have other people’s work to complete first?” You laugh at that.

“No. I don’t think that will be a problem.” The sides of his mouth twitches.

“Then sure. Only if you bring your mom’s cookies again.” He raises his cup at you before turning his back to you and walking down the hill.

You sit back down with a grin, staring down at your finished sketch of Levi leaning against the doorframe of the break room.

Doing things for yourself has never felt so good.

I'm adding my taglist to this bc I'm actually quite proud of this one?

-> taglist: @averysmolbear @humanitys-strongest-bamf @youre-ackermine @notgoodforlife @roseofdarknessblog @missamity @levis-squishy-cheeks @icansmellsouls @dkbktk420 @elnyrae @romantichomicide95 @sckerman @secretmoneybearvoid @apolloshaiku @sujiroses @jadam724 @kamyru @highgoon69 @missyasma @nube55 @svftackerman

The link to my taglist is in my pinned post on my blog!!

[this-week-in-rust]

This Week in Rust 599

Hello and welcome to another issue of This Week in Rust! Rust is a programming language empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software. This is a weekly summary of its progress and community. Want something mentioned? Tag us at @thisweekinrust.bsky.social on Bluesky or @ThisWeekinRust on mastodon.social, or send us a pull request. Want to get involved? We love contributions.

This Week in Rust is openly developed on GitHub and archives can be viewed at this-week-in-rust.org. If you find any errors in this week's issue, please submit a PR.

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Updates from Rust Community

Official

Announcing Google Summer of Code 2025 selected projects

Foundation

10 Years of Stable Rust: An Infrastructure Story

Newsletters

This Month in Rust OSDev: April 2025 | Rust OSDev

The Embedded Rustacean Issue #45

Project/Tooling Updates

Avian Physics 0.3

Two months in Servo: CSS nesting, Shadow DOM, Clipboard API, and more

Cot v0.3: Even Lazier

Streaming data analytics, Fluvio 0.17.3 release

CGP v0.4 is Here: Unlocking Easier Debugging, Extensible Presets, and More

Rama v0.2

Observations/Thoughts

Bad Type Patterns - The Duplicate duck

Rust nightly features you should watch out for

Lock-Free Rust: How to Build a Rollercoaster While It’s on Fire

Simple & type-safe localization in Rust

From Rust to AVR assembly: Dissecting a minimal blinky program

Tarpaulins Week Of Speed

Rustls Server-Side Performance

Is Rust the Future of Programming?

Rust Walkthroughs

Functional asynchronous Rust

The Power of Compile-Time ECS Architecture in Rust

[video] Build with Naz : Spinner animation, lock contention, Ctrl+C handling for TUI and CLI

Miscellaneous

April 2025 Rust Jobs Report

Crate of the Week

This week's crate is brush, a bash compatible shell implemented completely in Rust.

Thanks to Josh Triplett for the suggestion!

Please submit your suggestions and votes for next week!

Calls for Testing

An important step for RFC implementation is for people to experiment with the implementation and give feedback, especially before stabilization.

If you are a feature implementer and would like your RFC to appear in this list, add a call-for-testing label to your RFC along with a comment providing testing instructions and/or guidance on which aspect(s) of the feature need testing.

No calls for testing were issued this week by Rust, Rust language RFCs or Rustup.

Let us know if you would like your feature to be tracked as a part of this list.

RFCs

Rust

Rustup

If you are a feature implementer and would like your RFC to appear on the above list, add the new call-for-testing label to your RFC along with a comment providing testing instructions and/or guidance on which aspect(s) of the feature need testing.

Call for Participation; projects and speakers

CFP - Projects

Always wanted to contribute to open-source projects but did not know where to start? Every week we highlight some tasks from the Rust community for you to pick and get started!

Some of these tasks may also have mentors available, visit the task page for more information.

rama - add ffi/rama-rhai: support ability to use services and layers written in rhai

rama - support akamai h2 passive fingerprint and expose in echo + fp services

If you are a Rust project owner and are looking for contributors, please submit tasks here or through a PR to TWiR or by reaching out on X (formerly Twitter) or Mastodon!

CFP - Events

Are you a new or experienced speaker looking for a place to share something cool? This section highlights events that are being planned and are accepting submissions to join their event as a speaker.

No Calls for papers or presentations were submitted this week.

If you are an event organizer hoping to expand the reach of your event, please submit a link to the website through a PR to TWiR or by reaching out on X (formerly Twitter) or Mastodon!

Updates from the Rust Project

397 pull requests were merged in the last week

Compiler

async drop fix for async_drop_in_place<T> layout for unspecified T

better error message for late/early lifetime param mismatch

perf: make the assertion in Ident::new debug-only

perf: merge typeck loop with static/const item eval loop

Library

implement (part of) ACP 429: add DerefMut to Lazy[Cell/Lock]

implement VecDeque::truncate_front()

Cargo

network: use Retry-After header for HTTP 429 responses

rustc: Don't panic on unknown bins

add glob pattern support for known_hosts

add support for -Zembed-metadata

fix tracking issue template link

make cargo script ignore workspaces

Rustdoc

rustdoc-json: remove newlines from attributes

ensure that temporary doctest folder is correctly removed even if doctests failed

Clippy

clippy: item_name_repetitions: exclude enum variants with identical path components

clippy: return_and_then: only lint returning expressions

clippy: unwrap_used, expect_used: accept macro result as receiver

clippy: add allow_unused config to missing_docs_in_private_items

clippy: add new confusing_method_to_numeric_cast lint

clippy: add new lint: cloned_ref_to_slice_refs

clippy: fix ICE in missing_const_for_fn

clippy: fix integer_division false negative for NonZero denominators

clippy: fix manual_let_else false negative when diverges on simple enum variant

clippy: fix unnecessary_unwrap emitted twice in closure

clippy: fix diagnostic paths printed by dogfood test

clippy: fix false negative for unnecessary_unwrap

clippy: make let_with_type_underscore help message into a suggestion

clippy: resolve through local re-exports in lookup_path

Rust-Analyzer

fix postfix snippets duplicating derefs

resolve doc path from parent module if outer comments exist on module

still complete parentheses & method call arguments if there are existing parentheses, but they are after a newline

Rust Compiler Performance Triage

Lot of changes this week. Overall result is positive, with one large win in type check.

Triage done by @panstromek. Revision range: 62c5f58f..718ddf66

Summary:

(instructions:u) mean range count Regressions ❌ (primary) 0.5% [0.2%, 1.4%] 113 Regressions ❌ (secondary) 0.5% [0.1%, 1.5%] 54 Improvements ✅ (primary) -2.5% [-22.5%, -0.3%] 45 Improvements ✅ (secondary) -0.9% [-2.3%, -0.2%] 10 All ❌✅ (primary) -0.3% [-22.5%, 1.4%] 158

Full report here

Approved RFCs

Changes to Rust follow the Rust RFC (request for comments) process. These are the RFCs that were approved for implementation this week:

No RFCs were approved this week.

Final Comment Period

Every week, the team announces the 'final comment period' for RFCs and key PRs which are reaching a decision. Express your opinions now.

Tracking Issues & PRs

Rust

Tracking Issue for non_null_from_ref

Add std::io::Seek instance for std::io::Take

aarch64-softfloat: forbid enabling the neon target feature

Stabilize the avx512 target features

make std::intrinsics functions actually be intrinsics

Error on recursive opaque ty in HIR typeck

Remove i128 and u128 from improper_ctypes_definitions

Guarantee behavior of transmuting Option::<T>::None subject to NPO

Temporary lifetime extension through tuple struct and tuple variant constructors

Stabilize tcp_quickack

Change the desugaring of assert! for better error output

Make well-formedness predicates no longer coinductive

No Items entered Final Comment Period this week for Cargo, Rust RFCs, Language Reference, Language Team or Unsafe Code Guidelines.

Let us know if you would like your PRs, Tracking Issues or RFCs to be tracked as a part of this list.

New and Updated RFCs

RFC: Extended Standard Library (ESL)

Upcoming Events

Rusty Events between 2025-05-14 - 2025-06-11 🦀

Virtual

2025-05-15 | Hybrid (Redmond, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group

May, 2025 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup

2025-05-15 | Virtual (Girona, ES) | Rust Girona

Sessió setmanal de codificació / Weekly coding session

2025-05-15 | Virtual (Joint Meetup, Europe + Israel) | Rust Berlin + Rust Paris + London Rust Project Group + Rust Zürisee + Rust TLV + Rust Nürnberg + Rust Munich + Rust Aarhus + lunch.rs

🦀 Celebrating 10 years of Rust 1.0 🦀

2025-05-15 | Virtual (Zürich, CH) | Rust Zürisee

🦀 Celebrating 10 years of Rust 1.0 (co-event with berline.rs) 🦀

2025-05-18 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Rust Readers Discord Discussion: Async Rust

2025-05-19 | Virtual (Tel Aviv-yafo, IL) | Rust 🦀 TLV

Tauri: Cross-Platform desktop applications with Rust and web technologies

2025-05-20 | Hybrid (EU/UK) | Rust and C++ Dragons (former Cardiff)

Talk and Connect - Fullstack - with Goetz Markgraf and Ben Wishovich

2025-05-20 | Virtual (London, UK) | Women in Rust

Threading through lifetimes of borrowing - the Rust way

2025-05-20 | Virtual (Tel Aviv, IL) | Code Mavens 🦀 - 🐍 - 🐪

Rust at Work a conversation with Ran Reichman Co-Founder & CEO of Flarion

2025-05-20 | Virtual (Washington, DC, US) | Rust DC

Mid-month Rustful

2025-05-21 | Hybrid (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust

Linking

2025-05-22 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | Rust Berlin

Rust Hack and Learn

2025-05-22 | Virtual (Girona, ES) | Rust Girona

Sessió setmanal de codificació / Weekly coding session

2025-05-25 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Rust Readers Discord Discussion: Async Rust

2025-05-27 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Fourth Tuesday

2025-05-27 | Virtual (Tel Aviv, IL) | Code Mavens 🦀 - 🐍 - 🐪

Rust at Work - conversation with Eli Shalom & Igal Tabachnik of Eureka Labs

2025-05-29 | Virtual (Nürnberg, DE) | Rust Nuremberg

Rust Nürnberg online

2025-05-29 | Virtual (Tel Aviv-yafo, IL) | Rust 🦀 TLV

שיחה חופשית ווירטואלית על ראסט

2025-06-01 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Rust Readers Discord Discussion: Async Rust

2025-06-03 | Virtual (Tel Aviv-yafo, IL) | Rust 🦀 TLV

Why Rust? למה ראסט? -

2025-06-04 | Virtual (Indianapolis, IN, US) | Indy Rust

Indy.rs - with Social Distancing

2025-06-05 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | Rust Berlin

Rust Hack and Learn

2025-06-07 | Virtual (Kampala, UG) | Rust Circle Meetup

Rust Circle Meetup

2025-06-08 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Rust Readers Discord Discussion: Async Rust

2025-06-10 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Second Tuesday

2025-06-10 | Virtual (London, UK) | Women in Rust

👋 Community Catch Up

Asia

2025-05-17 | Delhi, IN | Rust Delhi

Rust Delhi Meetup #10

2025-05-24 | Bangalore/Bengaluru, IN | Rust Bangalore

May 2025 Rustacean meetup

2025-06-08 | Tel Aviv-yafo, IL | Rust 🦀 TLV

In person Rust June 2025 at AWS in Tel Aviv

Europe

2025-05-13 - 2025-05-17 | Utrecht, NL | Rust NL

RustWeek 2025

2025-05-14 | Reading, UK | Reading Rust Workshop

Reading Rust Meetup

2025-05-15 | Berlin, DE | Rust Berlin

10 years anniversary of Rust 1.0

2025-05-15 | Oslo, NO | Rust Oslo

Rust 10-year anniversary @ Appear

2025-05-16 | Amsterdam, NL | RustNL

Rust Week Hackathon

2025-05-16 | Utrecht, NL | Rust NL Meetup Group

RustWeek Hackathon

2025-05-17 | Amsterdam, NL | RustNL

Walking Tour around Utrecht - Saturday

2025-05-20 | Dortmund, DE | Rust Dortmund

Talk and Connect - Fullstack - with Goetz Markgraf and Ben Wishovich

2025-05-20 | Aarhus, DK | Rust Aarhus

Hack Night - Robot Edition

2025-05-20 | Leipzig, SN, DE | Rust - Modern Systems Programming in Leipzig

Topic TBD

2025-05-22 | Augsburg, DE | Rust Augsburg

Rust meetup #13:A Practical Guide to Telemetry in Rust

2025-05-22 | Bern, CH | Rust Bern

2025 Rust Talks Bern #3 @zentroom

2025-05-22 | Paris, FR | Rust Paris

Rust meetup #77

2025-05-22 | Stockholm, SE | Stockholm Rust

Rust Meetup @UXStream

2025-05-27 | Basel, CH | Rust Basel

Rust Meetup #11 @ Letsboot Basel

2025-05-27 | Vienna, AT | Rust Vienna

Rust Vienna - May at Bitcredit 🦀

2025-05-29 | Oslo, NO | Rust Oslo

Rust Hack'n'Learn at Kampen Bistro

2025-05-31 | Stockholm, SE | Stockholm Rust

Ferris' Fika Forum #12

2025-06-04 | Ghent, BE | Systems Programming Ghent

Grow smarter with embedded Rust

2025-06-04 | München, DE | Rust Munich

Rust Munich 2025 / 2 - Hacking Evening

2025-06-04 | Oxford, UK | Oxford Rust Meetup Group

Oxford Rust and C++ social

2025-06-05 | München, DE | Rust Munich

Rust Munich 2025 / 2 - Hacking Evening

2025-06-11 | Reading, UK | Reading Rust Workshop

Reading Rust Meetup

North America

2025-05-15 | Hybrid (Redmond, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group

May, 2025 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup

2025-05-15 | Mountain View, CA, US | Hacker Dojo

RUST MEETUP at HACKER DOJO

2025-05-15 | Nashville, TN, US | Music City Rust Developers

Using Rust For Web Series 2 : Why you, Yes You. Should use Hyperscript!

2025-05-15 | Hybrid (Redmond, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group

May, 2025 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup

2025-05-18 | Albuquerque, NM, US | Ideas and Coffee

Intro Level Rust Get-together

2025-05-20 | San Francisco, CA, US | San Francisco Rust Study Group

Rust Hacking in Person

2025-05-21 | Hybrid (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust

Linking

2025-05-28 | Austin, TX, US | Rust ATX

Rust Lunch - Fareground

2025-05-29 | Atlanta, GA, US | Rust Atlanta

Rust-Atl

2025-06-05 | Saint Louis, MO, US | STL Rust

Leptos web framework

South America

2025-05-28 | Montevideo, DE, UY | Rust Meetup Uruguay

Primera meetup de Rust de 2025!

2025-05-31 | São Paulo, BR | Rust São Paulo Meetup

Encontro do Rust-SP na WillBank

If you are running a Rust event please add it to the calendar to get it mentioned here. Please remember to add a link to the event too. Email the Rust Community Team for access.

Jobs

Please see the latest Who's Hiring thread on r/rust

Quote of the Week

If a Pin drops in a room, and nobody around understands it, does it make an unsound? #rustlang

– Josh Triplett on fedi

Thanks to Josh Triplett for the self-suggestion!

Please submit quotes and vote for next week!

This Week in Rust is edited by: nellshamrell, llogiq, cdmistman, ericseppanen, extrawurst, U007D, joelmarcey, mariannegoldin, bennyvasquez, bdillo

Email list hosting is sponsored by The Rust Foundation

Discuss on r/rust

[spicykaraage]

Tenipuri Complete Character Profile - Eiji Kikumaru

[PROFILE]

Birthday: November 28th (Sagittarius)

Blood Type: A

Relatives: Grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, two older brothers, two older sisters, dog, parrot (Taichi), guppy [TP]

Father’s Occupation: Company employee (newspaper reporter)

Elementary School: Hikarigaoka Elementary School

Middle School: Seishun Academy Junior High School

Grade & Class: Third Year | Class 3-6 | Seat 7

Club: Tennis Club (regular)

Committee: None

Strong Subjects: Japanese history

Weak Subjects: English

Most Visited Spot at School: Gym

Favorite Motto: “See which way the cat jumps.” ➜ “If you can be a cat, you can be a tiger.” [TP]

Daily Routines: Fighting with his siblings over which channel to watch

Hobbies: Visiting pet shops, brushing his teeth

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Music: J-Pop

Favorite Movie: Anime, fantasy films

Favorite Book: Idol magazines (Morning Star [TP])

Favorite Food: Fluffy omelettes, tender fried shrimp, crunchy shaved ice

Favorite Anniversary: May 22nd

Preferred Type: A cheerful girl, a girl he can laugh with ➜ A girl he can laugh with all the time [TP]

Ideal Date Spot: An amusement park ➜ A zoo with meerkats [TP]

His Gift for a Special Person: “The fluffy loungewear that I wear too!”

Where He Wants to Travel: Koganezaki Park

What He Wants Most Right Now: A new knit hat ➜ A koala stuffed animal [23.5]

Dislikes: Going to the bathroom at night, changing his clothes during the winter [23.5]

Skills Outside of Tennis: Cooking, fly-swatting, collecting bugs, completing capsule toy sets [TP]

Spends Allowance On: Saving money to buy rare sneakers

Routine During the World Cup: Hanging out in everyone’s rooms

[DATA]

Height: 171cm | 5’7”

Weight: 52kg | 114 lbs ➜ 53kg | 116 lbs [23.5]

Shoe Size: 24.5cm

Dominant Arm: Right

Vision: 1.0 Left | 0.8 Right

Play Style: Serve & Volleyer

Signature Moves: Diving Volley, Acrobatic Play Style, Kikumaru Beam, Kikumaru Bazooka, Kikumaru Seal Step

Time Spent on Endurance Training: 4 hours a day

Equipment Brands:

Racket: WILSON (Slash DT Mid)

Shoes: DUNLOP (Revelation Pro Tour Series 90)

Fitness Test Results:

Sidesteps: 67

Shuttle Run: 120

Back Strength: 129kg

Grip Strength: 48kg

Backbend: 67cm

Seated Forward Bend: 52.8cm

50m Run: 6.62 seconds

Standing Long Jump: 246cm

Handball Throw: 31.5m

Endurance Run (1500m): 4:48

Overall Rating: Speed: 4 / Power: 2 / Stamina: 4 / Mental: 2 / Technique: 4 / Total: 16

Kurobe Memo: “Kikumaru has a strong heart because he recognizes the difference between friendship and sympathy. If possible, I’d like to see him take steps to better himself.” <Official Description>

[POSSESSIONS]

What’s in His Bedroom [10.5]:

“Daigoro”: His giant teddy bear. His sitting position is lopsided and he falls over easily since he was handled roughly

Bookshelf: He buys a lot of miscellaneous things but doesn’t discard any of them, so it’s very full

Outlet extender: Used for his TV, MD stereo, hair dryer, desk lamp, etc.

Bunk bed: He sleeps on the top bunk, and him and his older brother’s clothes are stored in the space beneath the bed. His bed cover also has a teddy bear pattern

His older brother’s desk: Their parents changed it from a study desk to an office desk when his brother entered high school. Both him and his brother use it for studying

What’s in His Bag [10.5]:

Notebook and writing supplies: He has them just in case even though it’s unlikely he’ll use them

Toothbrush kit: He always carries it with him

A snack: Calbee JagaRico. He brings a snack on days when there’s practice since he gets hungry afterward

MP3 player: He listens to the latest trending music on his way to and from school

Hair wax: Mod’s Hair brand to restore his curls after exercising

Hairbrush: It takes him approximately three minutes to fix his hairstyle with hair wax

Bandages: It’s a mystery as to why he always wears them…

Playing cards: He carries them to show off any magic tricks he’s learned

[TRIVIA]

The Prince of Tennis 10.5 Fanbook | Publication Date: 11/02/2001

He likes food meant for children and was always given children’s food at restaurants due to him being the youngest of five siblings

He likes sweets and dislikes spicy food

He loves brushing his teeth and is particular on the type of toothpaste he uses. He has his own toothpaste that is separate from his family’s

His entire family cooks and he is good at cooking as well. He specializes in making egg-based dishes, particularly omelettes

He is known to be very positive and always tries being cheerful

He and Oishi always have review meetings when they lose a match

Konomi developed Kikumaru’s phrases and speech from phrases he heard when he was a child

Konomi came up with his name since he thought a name with “-maru” in it would be cute

Konomi gave him cat-like qualities since he wanted him to be a whimsical character

He had lost many matches prior to the main storyline

He and Oishi have been an official doubles pair since they were second years

His hairstyle is not natural, he styles his hair every morning with hair wax

His parrot has a habit of saying “hey, Eiji!” because of his mother and older sister

He is good at swatting flies due to his excellent vision

He is described as being bright, cheerful, and always smiling, but also tends to tire out from all the excitement

Konomi describes him as a “natural character.” Not cool nor heroic, just a normal, natural young man

The Prince of Tennis 20.5 Fanbook | Publication Date: 12/04/2003

He will clearly express his emotions

People of all ages are easily endeared by him and will even admire him

He is described to be suited for professions such as being a model, entertainer, or childcare worker

He is very pampered in his family due to him being the youngest child, and he gained his lighthearted personality from it

His secondary sport would be gymnastics

The Prince of Tennis 40.5 Fanbook | Publication Date: 12/04/2007

His spirit animal is a salamander

He was more frivolous and would dawdle when he was younger, but has greatly matured since then

He has built up his stamina due to him doing low oxygen training

He is actually bad with technology and doesn’t even know how to record a video. When he went to the gym, he would constantly ask the staff how to use the machines

He is unsure of how many times he can duplicate himself, but states he wants to reach 100

Konomi states he is the most similar to his own tennis playing style

He is the character Konomi would like to be a part of his family since he’s cheerful and fun

The Prince of Tennis II Official Character Guide: PairPuri Vol. 1 | Publication Date: 11/04/2009

He is shown having a personal cell phone and showing Shiraishi Zaizen’s blog despite his previous information stating he is bad with technology

The Prince of Tennis II Official Character Guide: PairPuri Vol. 4 | Publication Date: 02/04/2010

He is fine playing doubles with a different partner, stating that he and Oishi will always be the Golden Pair regardless

He came up with his current hairstyle from growing out his hair and tampering with it

He and his family argue over which TV channel to watch, he has won only three times and wants to keep it a secret

He is happiest playing tennis when Oishi scores a perfect point

When asked what he struggles with at home, he replies with nothing and that his large family is easier to handle than school

When asked who he struggles with in the club, he replies with Oishi when he’s not playing tennis since he finds him too serious

Konomi named him after a friend he had in his middle school tennis club, “Haremaru”

Konomi created his acrobatic play style to be different from normal tennis, and wanted to express it in an animalistic or feline way

Konomi states Kikumaru isn’t too fond of Tezuka, and tries not to get too close to him. He states he is also aware that he has never drawn the two having a conversation

Konomi states Kikumaru’s appearance may not change much since he wants to depict him as a real-life middle school student

One of His School Days:

5:50am - Woken up by his brother

6:00am - On breakfast duty

6:50am - Arrives at school, attends morning practice

8:40am - 1st Period: Art

9:40am - 2nd Period: Social Studies (Japanese history)

11:00am - 3rd Period: PE (basketball)

12:00pm - 4th Period: Math III

12:50pm - Lunch, eats homemade bentos with Oishi in his classroom

1:20pm - 5th Period: Science III (chemistry)

2:20pm - 6th Period: English (grammar)

3:20pm - English supplementary course

4:00pm - Voluntary training, helps guide the underclassmen

5:30pm - Returns home after shopping for dinner

6:00pm - Helps with dinner

7:00pm - Plays a video game (an hour a day)

8:30pm - Takes an evening walk

10:00pm - Returns home, bathes, watches dramas and variety shows

11:30pm - Goes to bed

The Prince of Tennis II Official Character Guide: PairPuri Vol. 6 | Publication Date: 06/03/2011

He, Tezuka, and Fuji are shown having a chat with Yamato and appears surprised over the latter’s changed appearance

The Prince of Tennis II 10.5 Fanbook | Publication Date: 09/04/2013

He exchanges messages with his family everyday. However, he struggles responding since his family’s quite large

The Prince of Tennis II 23.5 Fanbook | Publication Date: 05/02/2018

Oishi had lended him 80 yen the day before the metropolitan tournament since he had went to him crying over not having enough money to buy a new pair of shoes he wanted

The Prince of Tennis 20th Anniversary Book: Tenipuri Party | Publication Date: 08/02/2019

Aside from playing tennis, he has gotten into parkour after watching a video about it

His parents had bought Daigoro for him since he disliked eating salmon and wanted a bear who would eat it instead

[kinghomesleppington]

A Comprehensive Guide to Using Home Building Cost Estimators in Sydney

Sydney, with its stunning harbor and vibrant culture, is an ideal location to build your dream home. But before you get swept away in architectural plans and design ideas, it's crucial to understand the financial realities of construction. This is where home building cost estimators come in – powerful tools that can help you navigate the complexities of budgeting for your Sydney dream.

What is a Home Building Cost Estimator?

A home building cost estimator is a software program or online tool designed to provide a preliminary estimate of the construction costs associated with your project. These estimators factor in various aspects like the size and design of your home, building materials, labor costs, and Sydney-specific variables like land prices and council regulations.

How Home Building Cost Estimators Work

Cost estimators operate by inputting specific details about your project, such as the size of the house, the quality of materials desired, and the type of finishes. The estimator then calculates the total cost based on current market rates and historical data.

Inputting Project Specifications: The first step involves entering the details of your project. This includes the square footage, number of stories, type of foundation, roofing materials, and interior finishes.

Selecting Materials and Finishes: Different materials come with varying costs. Estimators allow you to choose from a range of options for flooring, cabinetry, countertops, and more, each impacting the overall cost.

Calculating Labor Costs: Labor costs can vary significantly depending on the complexity of the project and the current demand for construction services in Sydney.

Adding Miscellaneous Costs: This includes permits, design fees, landscaping, and other miscellaneous expenses that might arise during construction.

Generating the Estimate: Once all inputs are provided, the estimator generates a detailed report outlining the total estimated cost and a breakdown of expenses.

Why Use a Cost Estimator?

There are several compelling reasons to leverage a home building cost estimator in Sydney:

Informed Decision-Making: Having a ballpark figure for your project upfront empowers you to make informed decisions throughout the planning process. You can adjust your expectations, explore design alternatives that fit your budget, and secure financing with confidence.

Realistic Budgeting: Cost estimators help you avoid the pitfall of underestimating expenses. By factoring in hidden costs like permits, demolition (if applicable), and waste disposal, you can create a more realistic budget that avoids financial surprises down the road.

Smarter Planning: With a cost estimate in hand, you can prioritize features and finishes within your budget. This allows for smarter planning and avoids the disappointment of having to cut corners due to unforeseen expenses.

Effective Communication: Cost estimates provide a common ground for communication with builders, architects, and other stakeholders. Everyone involved can work towards a shared financial goal, leading to a smoother and more collaborative project.

Tips for Using a Home Building Cost Estimator Effectively

To get the most out of your home building cost estimator, follow these best practices:

Provide Accurate Information

Ensure that the information you input into the estimator is as accurate as possible. Inaccurate data can lead to misleading estimates and budget shortfalls.

Update Estimates Regularly

Construction costs can change due to market fluctuations. Regularly update your estimates to reflect current prices and avoid surprises.

Consult with Professionals

While cost estimators are valuable tools, consulting with professional home builders, architects, and quantity surveyors can provide additional insights and validate the estimates.

Consider Contingencies

Always include a contingency fund in your budget to cover unexpected expenses that may arise during construction.

By utilizing home building cost estimators effectively, you can approach your Sydney dream home project with a clear financial roadmap. This empowers you to make informed decisions, build your dream within your budget, and embark on a rewarding construction journey

King Homes NSW - HomeWorld Leppington

21/23 Cato Cct, Leppington NSW 2179, Australia

+61287950022

[punishing-gray-raven-updates]

VERSION "A NEW DIVIDE" UPDATE NOTE

Greetings Commandants,

Thank you for supporting Punishing: Gray Raven. We plan to perform the update maintenance of the new version "Cinder Burns" on 8/22, 2023. During the maintenance, Commandants will be unable to enter the game temporarily. To prevent data loss, please exit the game before the maintenance starts, thank you for your understanding.

MAINTENANCE TIME 2023/8/22, 02:00 – 09:00 (UTC) 

MAINTENANCE COMPENSATION Black Card *500, Serum Bundle (S) *1

I. NEW MEMBER | WEAPON | COATING

=== New Character ===

Noan: Arca

Info: S-Rank, Lightning, Vanguard

- 100% rate up in [Target Uniframe] research during 8/23, 08:00 - 9/20, 07:59 (UTC)

=== New 6★ Weapon ===

Prometheus

Info: 6★, Uniframe Rev Blade, Arca Exclusive

Weapon Skill: 

ATK increases by 10%. Triggering Gear-Break Combo or Assault-Rising Combo restores 10 Signature Energy. Dodge Gauge restores 100% faster.

- 80% rate up in [Target Weapon] research since 8/23, 08:00 (UTC).

=== New & Rerun Character Coatings ===

Homecoming (Arca Exclusive) 

Duration: 8/23, 08:00 – 9/25, 07:59 (UTC)

Price: 68 RC (30% off)

- The coating Homecoming will enter the regular Coating Shop (Coating: Rainbow Card/Blueprint) in the future.

Dreamweaver (Dragontoll Exclusive) 

Duration: 8/23, 08:00 – 9/25, 07:59 (UTC)

Price: 168 RC (30% off)

- The coating Dreamweaver will NOT enter the regular Coating Shop in the future.

Street Rebellion (Laurel Exclusive) 

Duration: 8/23, 08:00 – 9/25, 07:59 (UTC)

Price: 168 RC (30% off)

- The coating Street Rebellion will NOT enter the regular Coating Shop in the future.

=== New & Rerun Weapon Coatings ===

Dragonboat (Uniframe Greatsword coating)

Duration: 8/22, 07:00 – 9/26, 01:59 (UTC)

- Purchase [Top-secret Intel] in [Tactical Assessment Manual] to unlock coating access. Achieve rating level 40 to claim the coating.

- The weapon coating Dragonboat will enter the regular Coating Shop in the future.

Red Blossom (Uniframe Dragon Axe coating)

Duration: 8/23, 08:00 – 9/25, 07:59 (UTC)

Price: 28 RC (30% off)

- The weapon coating Red Blossom will NOT enter the regular Coating Shop in the future.

Open Annulus (Amplifier coating)

Duration: 8/23, 08:00 – 9/25, 07:59 (UTC)

Price: 28 RC (30% off)

- The weapon coating Open Annulus will NOT enter the regular Coating Shop in the future.

II. NEW STORY

=== Cinder Burns ===

Event Duration: 8/22 (after maintenance) – 9/26, 01:59 (UTC)

Requirement: Commandant Lv.≥40

- Born on the Asslam train, Noan once had a blissful life with his family being an upper-level aristocrat. However, misfortune befell of a sudden, bringing him to the lower level of the train, where it's glutted with poverty, struggle, and hysteria for mere survival.

- The lower level environment further worsened as its intake of new passengers lost control along with the immoderate issuance of "Blessing Boxes." To strive for space and resources, a revolution was emerging to overthrow the dominance from the upper level. Faced with the train of fated history, how would Noan manage to survive this rain of blood? What had he experienced to eventually become the Construct he is now?

III. NEW EVENT

=== Limit Break ===

Duration: 8/22 (after maintenance) – 9/9, 06:59 (UTC)

Requirement: Commandant Lv.≥52

- Limit Break is a game mode in which you can adjust the abilities of the enemies and stage environments. Make your choices wisely to push your limits, and aim for higher Stage Modification Points to obtain better rewards!

- Each stage opens as time progresses, and provides miscellaneous modification options. Modification options are categorized into 3 types: Enemy, Enemy Affix, and Environment. Buff to enemies and harsher environment will increase your Stage Modification Points.

- Final Challenge Points of each stage will be recorded. Reach Accumulated Points milestones to obtain corresponding rewards including basic training and enhancing materials, CUB training materials, and Trade Vouchers. First clearance of each stage will also reward you with Event Construct R&D Tickets and character Leap materials.

=== Operation Uniframe ===

Duration: 8/22 (after maintenance) – 9/23, 06:59 (UTC)

Requirement: Commandant Lv.≥52

- Operation Uniframe focuses on the utilization of Uniframe skill sets and various stage buffs. Make good use of Parry and Speed Attack of your Uniframes to quickly eliminate enemies. 

- Finish event tasks to obtain various rewards including Unipower Modules, Skill Points, and Trade Vouchers. You may use Unipower Modules to redeem training and enhancing materials for Uniframes in the event shop.

=== Restless Dreams ===

Duration: 8/22 (after maintenance) – 9/25, 06:59 (UTC)

Requirement: Commandant Lv.≥40

- Restless Dreams has 5 sessions, each session has a different opening time and comes with 2 stages that drop event tokens [Firefly] and Memories. You may clear the stages repeatedly to obtain stage EXP that can upgrade the Authority Level (Authority Level: grants stats bonuses that only apply to Restless Dreams stages).

=== Event Shop - Warehouse G54 ===

Duration: 8/22 (after maintenance) – 9/26, 01:59 (UTC)

- Use event token [Firefly] to redeem rewards at Warehouse G54.

- New 6★ Memory set: Shelley.

- Limited items: Notebook and Pen (Noan's favorite gift), Verdant Cabin decor set.

- Other materials include partial 6★ Memory sets, basic training and enhancing materials, CUB training materials, and 6★ Memory Shards.

=== Simulated Siege Optimization ===

Duration: 8/22 (after maintenance) – Permanent

Requirement: Commandant Lv.≥52

- Introducing "Schools", a new mechanic providing powerful buffs to your preferred battle style in Simulated Siege. Coordinated Attack school encourages swapping in and out multiple members to maximize damage output, while Solo Enhancement school reinforces your solo experience by granting more powerful QTE supports. Each school features 1 Core Skill and 6 Standard Skills, you may equip up to 3 skills for battle.

- The new feature above will be available as the new session of Simulated Siege begins after the maintenance on 8/22.

=== A Sinner's Confession ===

Duration: 8/23, 08:00 – 9/20, 07:59 (UTC)

Requirement: Clear Normal Story 2-4

- A Sinner's Confession is the new trial stage of Noan: Arca to help familiarize yourself with the new character. Learn the basic maneuver and mechanics of Arca in the tutorial stage [Looming Night], and fight through the challenge stage [Ignite Oneself] to deepen your mastery of his skills. Clearing challenge stage will also reward you with basic training and enhancing materials, Trade Vouchers, as well as the limited collectible [Sunflower and Feather].

=== Immunopolis: Wasteland Journal ===

Duration: 8/29, 07:00 – 9/16, 06:59 (UTC)

Requirement: Commandant Lv.≥40

- Immunopolis is a post-apocalyptic survival simulator game mode in which you become the leader of a shelter at stake. Your objective is to help your fellow scavengers through the harsh winter by managing resources and exploring the doomed cities.

- Finish event missions to obtain various rewards including basic training and enhancing materials, Trade Vouchers, Black Cards, limited collectible [Wanderer's Journal], as well as a limited decor set [Burning Words].

=== Inner World ===

Duration: 9/5, 07:00 – 9/23, 06:59 (UTC)

Requirement: Commandant Lv.≥52

- Inner World game mode emphasizes overall strategies' impact on your tactical execution. The mode features 5 chapters, each containing two phases: Downstream and Upstream. 

- Starting with Downstream Phase, you need to clear a series of stages, in which you need to choose one of the two groups of enemies as your opponent. The defeated enemy group will grant Mirage Features, namely powerful buffs, to the other group of enemies.

- Upon finishing the Downstream Phase, you will start the Upstream Phase, which requires you to take down the remaining groups of enemies left from the Downstream Phase. Certain combinations of enemy types and Mirage Features may result in extremely dire battle conditions, so make sure to think twice before choosing the first group of enemies.

- Finish event missions to obtain various rewards including basic training and enhancing materials, Event Construct R&D Tickets, Trade Vouchers, 6★ Memory Shards, and a limited chat stamp [Drinking Tea].

IV. CHARACTER UPGRADE

=== Leap System Unlocked - Watanabe: Astral ===

Duration: 8/22 (after maintenance) - Permanent

- Leap system is unlocked for Watanabe: Astral. You may now significantly enhance Astral's capability by unlocking and upgrading Leap skills. Reaching certain Leap skill levels will grant new skill effects and performances.

=== Uniframe Skills Added - Qu: Pavo ===

Duration: 8/22 (after maintenance) - Permanent

- Uniframe Skills are added for Qu: Pavo. You may now significantly enhance Pavo's capability by unlocking and upgrading Finishing Move and Speed Attack. Reaching certain Uniframe skill levels will grant new skill effects and performances.

V. UPDATE

1. New Features & System Optimizations

- Added Chapter 16/17/18 to Stronghold game mode.

- Added a countdown timer for merchandise refreshment of [Shop] - [Voucher Exchange].

- Optimized visual performance of [Members] - [Skill].

- Optimized visual performance of Memory Set filtering feature in [Shop] - [Recycle Shop].

- Optimized the "Claim All" feature in [Tactical Assessment Manual].

- Optimized the visual indicators for event status in [Event Weekly Schedule].

- Optimized Custom Loading Screen feature. You may now set your custom loading screens in [Character Profile] - [Codex] - [Gallery].

- Optimized co-op stages experience. You may now restore or purchase serum in the co-op lobby.

- Fixed the issue where partial [Operation Uniframe] stages cannot be entered under certain conditions.

- Fixed the issue where the Purifying Site stage of Midland Deep Hive cannot continue upon defeating the enemies in [Norman Revival Plan] - [Cover Tactic].

2. Character & Enemy Optimizations

- Optimized the attack patterns of the enemy [Construct Soldier (Female)].

- Fixed the issue where the Counter attacks triggered by Extreme Dodges may display abnormally when Nanami: Starfarer is under Core Passive status.

- Fixed the issue where 9S's Signature Move and Core Passive cannot trigger the stage buffs in certain stages.

[millingroundireland]

The Millses in County Tipperary, Ireland

Map is courtesy of "Map of Ireland, Compiled from the Surveys of the Board of Ordnance and other approved Documents By J. & C. Walker 1838" and first verse of "The Tipperary Christening" is courtesy of an Irish genealogy site. Ballysheehan, near Cashel, is pictured in the map above, the location where John Mills said he was born.

As noted in my family history, Mills family members were living in County Tipperary, Ireland, including John Rand Mills and others. The Mills family has established roots in Tipperary. [1]

In 1766, a census recorded a Protestant man named Jno (either John or Jonathan) Mills living on Cashel Rock and a papist woman named Margaret Mills, living in Mealiffe. This census was, as irelandgenweb describes it,

the largest religious census...when each Church of Ireland minister was requested to provide a listing of the members of each denomination in his parish.  Although some were completed as requested, many ministers provided only the details on Church of Ireland parishioners, and omitted Catholics, Presbyterians, etc.  Others provided a complete survey of all local inhabitants, including family names and the numbers of children in the household....Parishes in this instant are Church of Ireland parishes which are much like the civil parish borders in later years.

Sadly, no one named Mills is listed in the 1821 census fragments. However, they are listed elsewhere. They were listed in applotment books for tithes, which were a "unique land survey taken as a way to determine the amount of tax payable by landholders to the Church of Ireland," with the books representing "a virtual census for pre-Famine Ireland. In the original enumeration, each landholder was recorded along with details such as townland, size of holding, land quality and types of crops," ranging from 1815 to 1838.

This post was originally published on WordPress in May 2018.

Specifically, in the tithe books, for Middlethird Barony, there were nine Millses mentioned, which I have re-ordered by first name, then surname, rather than surname being first.

As I have noted earlier on this blog, the John Mills who landed in Warren County was undoubtedly one of the two John Millses who were living in Ballysheehan. Digging into the data further, on can narrow it down by parish. This shows that there are three Millses living in the Ballysheehan parish: John (in Peake), John (in Ballinree), and Joseph (in Ballysheehan). Sadly, the deposition John Mills gives in Warren County does not give these specifics, only giving the parish, but it is clear, he is either the man who was living in Peake or the man in Ballinree. Furthermore, of the other six Millses listed above:

one was living in Castleblake (Honorable William Mills)

one was living in an unnamed town in St. Johnbaptist Parish (another John Mills)

one is living in Killough (yet another John Mills)

two were living in Grangebeg (two other John Millses)

one was living in Grangemore (one final John Mills)

For this, I created the following map, to show were all these Millses were living at the time, showing how they are spread out across County Tipperary which I put together on Google Earth: [2]

In 1831, one John Mills was on a list of "those liable for tithes who had not paid" and he was living in Grangemore as a farmer. Listings in other surviving records do not list anyone else with the surname of Mills. The same goes for House, Quarto, Tenure, Field & Miscellaneous Books for varied Irish parishes, assembled by Richard Griffith, concentrated in the later 1840s to early 1850s. This could imply that many of the Mills family members had either died or immigrated to the United States by that time. Griffith's Valuation from 1848 to 1864 lists a "Patrick Mills" in Erry Parish in the early 1850s, three Millses (Mary, Anne and William) in St. Johnbaptist Parish around the same time,  and a John Mills in Killough as well.

Is it is of any surprise that by 1876 there 16 individuals with the surname of Mills listed as land owners in Ireland? The answer is a strong no.

This post gives more context on the Mills family in Ireland and a place to start for further research!

© 2018-2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Some records show a "John Mills" buried in the nearby county of Wicklow but that is not what I'm referring to.

[2] Except for the one in St Johnbaptist Parish, because the only St. Johnbaptist that comes up are churches in Cashel and I'm not sure if he was living in Cashel.

[shadowwalkerimagines]

『 The State of Unreality: Drabble 2 - The Laboratory 』 Resident Evil/Biohazard (Gameverse) | You; Reader Insert; Second-Person Point of View; Female Reader Rating: M for source material and future content | Warnings: Canon typical violence, Unreality, TBD Summary: Is your subconscious trying to tell you it's time to see the doctor? Last you checked, doctors didn't have heavily armed security on-call though.

You don’t count the days that have passed since the dream with that lone mountain road, eerie green glows in the forest, and vicious dogs. The dream has all but faded from memory when you have another.

You come to awareness in some sort of science lab that reminds you of distant school courses. It appears to be a legitimate set up, like something one would expect from a hospital or research facility.

What’s with this setting?

You let loose a thoughtful hum as you walk along glass cabinets filled with labeled vials and unfamiliar equipment. Counter space that isn’t taken up by beakers, miscellaneous equipment and microscopes are covered in layers of folders, papers with data tables and indecipherable formulas, and pictures that remind you of things you’ve seen in biology textbooks.

Another hum escapes from your lips.

You pick up one of the pictures.

It looks kind of familiar—black and white and full of cell clusters—though you struggle to place why. Microbiology had been interesting in school and all but you had not devoted any more time studying it than anything else, so why is this piquing your interest?

With a dismissive hum and a shrug, you place the image back amongst the paper pile and shift your attention. Snatching up a scrap of paper that seems oddly out of place amongst its more pristine counterparts, you scrutinize it. You recall having heard text is indecipherable in dreams but...

With furrowed brows, you scan the document. You have to admit it is a bit of a strain—some words seem to double up or move around but you can definitely make sense of it.

Shouldn’t this be completely incomprehensible nonsense? And much like the image, the contents tickle something familiar in the back of your mind.

Wanting to test things further, you rifle through more papers and though the technical stuff makes no sense nor does anything else trigger that curious sense of familiarity, you find everything else may not be perfectly readable but readable nonetheless.

How curious. What if you check out what's in the cabinets, maybe there will be something in there?

“Who are you?”

You jump, whipping around in surprise to come face-to-face with a blonde, middle-aged man. His striking blue eyes are narrowed, thin lips pressed in a frown—a clear display of suspicion and distrust. His white coat and smart looking attire clue you in to the likelihood of him being a resident researcher.

“How did you get in here?” he continues at your silence, his tone low and accusatory. You want to ask him the same thing (you hadn't so much as heard him come in) but notice him fiddling with something in his pocket and, not wanting to press your luck, quickly raise your arms in surrender.

“I dunno.” You admit because honestly? You don’t.

He clearly doesn’t believe you, however, if his expression is anything to go by, and proceeds to fish whatever it was from his pocket. And oh man, is that-

“A pager?” Tense situation or not, the appearance of the archaic device has you belting out a laugh. “Really?” Where in your subconscious did that device get drudged up?

Your reaction seems to catch him off guard, a perplexed expression flitting across his face. He levels you with a glare but doesn’t probe, instead electing to type something away on the device.

You purse your lips and furrow your brow, arms dropping as you realize he had not been reaching for a weapon.

“So where is this anyway,” you nonchalantly ask, electing to lean back against the counter, arms crossing over your chest, “some kind of hospital?”

He gives you a skeptical look and you offhandedly notice that he’s very clearly blocking the door. “Playing dumb isn’t going to get you out of this,” he shoots back.

“I’m not playin’,” you sigh out, “I really have no idea where I am or how I got here.” Dreams don't often cover the logistics of that kind of thing, after all.

“I find it hard to believe someone would just so happen to stumble this deep into an Umbrella facility through sheer coincidence. Though…” and here he pauses to scrutinize you, making a very clear display of looking you up and down, “…I must admit that’s a very curious choice of attire for espionage.”

“Wha-? Espionage?” And what’s wrong with what you’re wearing? A quick glance down at yourself shows that, much like your last lucid dream, you are wearing what you had fallen asleep in. But what’s wrong with that? Comfort before all else!

With a harrumph you tell the man as much, “It’s comfy. Besides, you don’t see me judging your science nerd getup and choice in old school tech.” A petulant, petty response, but you couldn’t help it.

It takes a beat, but something he said finally registers and you jolt forward.

“Wait, Umbrella?”

Before you can gather any sort of reply, however, a loud beeping cuts through the room—a clear signal—that prompts the man to reach behind himself and fiddle with a keypad connected to the door. It slams open and in no time at all the room is swarming with men clad head to toe in black tactical gear, guns leveled directly at your head. Your arms fly up in surrender once again because dream or not, the thought of getting shot isn’t exactly enticing.

Damn, this dream went from zero to a hundred real quick.

The guards don’t say anything to you—no ordered commands or demands. Instead, they stand between you and the blonde, seemingly awaiting his orders but more than ready to take you out should you so much as blink wrong.

You watch as the blonde says something—a command to you or the guards, you can't say—but for some reason you are unable to make out a single syllable. You try to strain your hearing but nope, nothing.

That's when you notice the finer details of the laboratory are fading into an incomprehensible fog.

Oh, you think, is the dream ending already? And it was just getting to the action...

You can only watch as the guards all seem to meld into one nebulous blob of black, a single splotch of white breaking from it and moving towards you. A quick flash of light and then the next thing you know, you're registering the darkness behind your eyelids, the pillow clutched tight against your chest, the light blanket over your figure, and the droning hum of the fan you had fallen asleep to.