#project for the web accelerator

[project-management-australia]

GLMS is a Microsoft Gold Partner specialist professional services company that focuses solely on the design, configuration, deployment, training, and support of Project Management solutions in Australia. They work around Microsoft Technologies and deliver digital transformations accordingly. GLMS specializes in consultancy services that leverage business technologies, such as Office 365, Project Online, Microsoft Project Server, and Microsoft SharePoint Server. Their goal is to establish cost-effective solutions tailored to best suit your business needs.

[cherrrydragon]

➤ find something worth saving (it's all for the taking)

CHAPTER FIVE: GOOD OLD-FASHIONED LOVER BOY

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SUMMARY ↳ Spider-Man and homecoming, when did that ever end well? He clears his throat. “May I… have this dance?” You stare at him dumbly for a second, making him nervous. “W-What?” Well said. “Well, I can’t dance with you during homecoming, so… let’s dance now.” His face is set in an adorable determination. Your heart soars. pairing: jon kent x gn!reader x damian wayne warnings: fear gas (people get affected but it's not described), spiking drinks (not with the intention of taking advantage of anyone) wc: 5.9k

Your mind is elsewhere as you perform your warm-up stretches in the dance studio. Progress with the particle accelerator had been slow. Tony Stark had access to all the materials he needed when he built it, but you don’t. Not to mention all of the welding, cutting and assembling you’ll have to do. You're occupied in your thoughts, but you still hear footsteps approaching.

Victoria. She has her hands on her hips and is looking at you like you’re the nasty chore she’s stuck with.

You raise a brow. “Yes, Vicky?”

Despite all of her faces of disgust when you call her that, she hasn’t demanded you stop calling her that.

“I don’t know why I expected you to be paying attention, clearly you are too airheaded otherwise,” she huffs.

“You’re right, dearest, I wasn’t paying attention. Please, enlighten me.”

“Our instructor has just announced a winter performance. For a grade, of course.”

You sigh. “Of course.”

“We,” she drags the word out, disgruntled, “are the leads.”

Your lips quirk up into a smile. “Oh. This’ll be fun.”

“I will not let you embarrass me, so I will make sure you are a suitable lead,” she huffs.

“And how do you plan to do that, my dear?” you sing, circling her. Your fingers tap her arms as you walk.

She clears her throat. “I will make sure you are paying well attention and are performing adequately.”

“Sounds good to me, princess,” you say, walking away and extending a hand to her. “Shall we?”

She sighs dramatically and puts her hand in yours. It’ll be a long couple of months.

Your extended leg rocks your web hammock back and forth as you think. A song is hummed under your breath, pondering your next move.

“How far is Metropolis from Gotham?”

“Depending on your method of travel, it could range from an hour to 4 hours.”

You have no doubt LexCorp is very well protected in terms of its security measures, but Lex Luther seems a bit of an arrogant man. If he were to find out you had managed to break in and swipe some material, he might not do anything in embarrassment of being had. On the other hand, he is also pretty paranoid, so you have no idea what type of crazy defenses he has.

WayneTech is a very hesitant maybe, for pretty much the same reasons. Batman will already be on alert from your little hacking show earlier.

“Perhaps we shall simply wait for the opportunity to present itself to us, [Name].”

“We’re trying to leave as soon as we can, K,” you whine, bouncing a web ball back and forth between the wall and you.

“You can’t rush perfection.”

“Oh, you flatter me, K.” You lean over and fall out of the hammock, landing gracefully. “But I can never argue with you, lovely. I guess I’ll just have to make due with stuff from the school.” Hopefully they don’t notice the decline of materials.

Patrol goes smoothly that night. You've gone back to listening to your certified patrol playlist now that you’ve gotten back in the groove of things. You hum to a beat as you walk alongside the roof, grooving slightly. You run through equations and formulas in your head as you think about your next headway with your project. You still notice the footsteps approaching, though.

“Which one are you?” you announce, shifting slightly. You don’t get an answer, so you turn around. The figure standing behind you is shrouded in darkness, but a glint of moonlight reveals a familiar silhouette.

“Nightwing!” you hum pleasantly. “Pleasure, quite a pleasure. To what do I owe the visit?”

Nightwing shrugs. “Standard stuff, really. Making sure Gothams latest pest problem isn’t up to no good.”

You chuckle. “That was pretty good.” You sit down on the ledge. “I assure you, blue, that I have Gotham’s best interest in mind.”

“Well I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that Gotham likes you, for the most part.” Nightwing sits next to you. “Of course, the webs you leave irk them just a bit.”

“They dissolve,” you defend.

“They do,” he agrees, and lets the conversation die. Distant sounds of sirens fill the silence. You can see the blue and red lights from here. You and Nightwing share a moment of calm amidst the chaos.

“Every time I think Gotham can’t get any weirder, I hear news of a ‘giant spider’ terrorizing the criminal underworld.”

You snort, “yeah, that was my bad. I totally had rumors spread about that.” You can see his eyebrow raise underneath his domino. “It was funny!”

“I guess Gotham attracts all kinds of people,” he hums.

“And yet… it’s home,” you whisper.

Another brief silence settled between you, tinged with unspoken tension that always sneaks up on you in Gotham.

“So, did the big Bat put you up to this?” you ask, breaking the quietude.

Nightwing shrugs casually. “Nah, this is all me. Don’t worry though, I’m sure B will corner you eventually.”

“Charming,” you huff dryly against his chuckle.

“And of course, crime never sleeps in Gotham.”

“And so, neither do we,” you smile.

He turns to you. “Surely someone as young as you should be getting more sleep?”

You hum. “So Robin told you about little ole me, huh?” He shrugs sheepishly, in a can you blame him? kind of way. “Like I told him, I’ve been doing this for years.”

“So what’s a young person like you doing spending your nights fighting crime?”

You scoff, “oh, don’t give me that. The first Robin was barely out of diapers when Batman paraded him around.” You ignore Nightwings dramatic gasp of offense. “I’m doing the same as you, trying to make a difference.”

“But no one would blame you for just trying to live a normal life in spite of your abilities.” You’re not sure what exactly Nightwing is trying to achieve here other than getting you to spill something about yourself. What’s it to him what you do in your free time?

‘Yeah well, someone once told me something. Kind of changed my life a little.” You take a deep breath and recite the famous spidey quote, “With great power comes great responsibility.” You turn to face Nightwing. “I can’t in good faith live a normal life when there are people that need me. I have the power to help people, why wouldn’t I do just that?”

You hope your speech passes whatever test he had for you, and the way he stares at you before nodding suggests that you did.

“Just…” he hesitates. “... be careful out there. Gotham’s a tough place, even for someone with your talents.”

You’re not sure why he cares so much, but Dick Grayson does have a sort of a bleeding heart. You watch Nightwing stand, nodding at you before grappling away. It was nice to not have a more violent encounter with one of the Bats (looking at you, Damian). You’re left with the quiet of your own mind.

The next few weeks are a whirlwind of dance rehearsals and lab work. Victoria, true to her word, pushes you hard. She ensures every step, every movement is perfect. You can’t help but admire her dedication.

“Remember,” she snaps one day during a particularly grueling practice, “lean into the spin. It will further your momentum, making your performance overall smoother.”

“Yes, ma’am,” you smirk. Your classmates take notice of the way the two of you dance around each other. You’re sure you both appear really intense to them.

One new development you’ve reluctantly acknowledged is homecoming . You don’t care much for it, you’d rather spend it working on the badassium or patrolling. However, it’s a good way to sneak in and take some more material, so you’ll probably show up for a bit then sneak away. You just have to get through all of the sickeningly sweet hoco proposals.

In other news, you’ve finished your painting that you were assigned for art. You stole one of Miles’ designs from his spray-paint pieces, you hope he won’t mind. It’s a figure outlined many times in all kinds of vivid and bright colors.

“What is it?” Pipes up Damian from your side. Lately you haven’t really interacted much, you’re far too busy trying to make this universe's history books.

“My project,” you reply vaguely. At his unimpressed stare you elaborate, “it’s supposed to be a bunch of different versions of one person. Different people living the same life, one person living different lives, yadda yadda.”

Damian hums, satisfied. You take a breath, spinning in your chair to face him. “So, Damian,” you start, smiling at the way Damian’s face automatically scrunches in irritation. “Anyone special in mind for hoco?”

Damian tsk’s at the thought. “I will not waste my time indulging in such a frivolous activity.”

“Yeah, spiked punch and sweaty teens grinding on each other probably isn’t your vibe,” you agree.

“Then what better things do you plan on doing?” You rest your legs on his side of the table, invading his space. He ignores it, to his credit. He’s gotten used to your antics.

“Doing something far away from you.” You bark out a laugh at his response. You retract your legs and massage your feet. For all your super strength and resilience, ballet is still killer.

Damian eyes your movements. “How are your dance classes progressing?” Damian’s gotten better at conversing, you’re just surprised he chooses to do so with you. But then again, you’re sure he still thinks you’re the number one suspect as to who Spinnerette is.

“Victoria is a delight, as always,” you roll your eyes. “She’s more of a teacher to me than the actual instructor. She’s thorough though, knows her stuff.” You pause. “Think she’ll say yes if I ask her to hoco?”

His eyes narrow. “You jest.”

You close your eyes and nod. “I jest. I stand no chance because she’s waiting for you to ask her,” you grin, eyeing his eye roll. You furrow your brow in thought. “They accept people from other schools, right? Maybe I’ll ask Jon…”

He straightens in his seat. “Jon?”

“Oh yeah, you guys are friends, forgot.” You didn’t forget. “Yeah, we’ve been hanging out lately.” It’s true, Jon frequents at least once a week for movie night. You’ve also exchanged numbers, affectionately naming him ‘please get this boy some brown contacts’ in your phone. “You think he’d say yes?”

“Do not even think about asking him,” growls Damian. Woah.

You hold up your hands in defense. “My bad dude, didn’t know it was like that.” Jeez, it’s not like you're going to corrupt Jon or anything. Then, you slump in your seat. “Maybe I’ll just skip it, then. Going alone is only cool if you’re cool.”

“If it means so little to you, why bother?”

“Opportunities, D. It’s all about opportunities. Plus, who knows? I could be missing out on the chance for something big. Like my rich future spouse.” Damian scoffs, and the bell rings. You grab your stuff and set off to practice, Damian falling into step beside you. You groan.

“Come on, man. Vicky’ll put me through hell when she see you with me.”

‘Maybe that’s my plan,” he smirks.

“One moment of peace with you. That's all I want.” Predictably, Victoria’s eyes narrow when Damian drops you off at the studio. However, she doesn’t waste time fluttering her eyelashes at him.

“Hurry, get dressed,” she demands, turning away from you two. You share a look of surprise with Damian as you step inside. Perhaps this show is more important to her than you thought. You get changed in record time, hurrying back out lest you encourage Victoria’s wrath further.

The hour passes in a blur of graceful movements. Your hands grasp Victoria’s waist as you lift and spin her. She spreads her arms and legs with all the elegance of a true dancer. You wonder if she wasn’t set to inherit whatever her parent’s set aside for her, would she have pursued a career in dance?

“You’re getting the hang of it,” she admits, a hint of begrudging approval in her voice.

“Only because of you,” you flirt, smiling with your teeth. She rolls her eyes but says nothing.

A knock sounds on the door. The instructor gets a giddy grin on her face and practically hops over to open in. You and the rest of the students stop practicing in curiosity. Behind the door is your typical jock type, with a bouquet and a poster in his hands that says ‘Will you PLIÉse go to Hoco with me?’ It’s clever, you’ll give him that.

“Victoria Hearst, will you do me the honor of going to homecoming with me?” Your classmates clap and cheer in awe of it. Victoria gasps, walking up to the jock, but pausing. To your huge surprise, she turns to you. Her eyebrows are furrowed, like she’s confused.

You’re not sure why she’s looking at you. Maybe she’s waiting for your approval? You can’t think of why she would want it. Personally you wouldn’t be caught dead with his type, but maybe he’s sweet on the inside or something. You give a smile and gesture her forward.

She purses her lips, before smiling charmingly at the boy, nodding. The class erupts in cheers once again as the pair hug. The instructor, for all her giddiness earlier, quickly snaps at everyone to go back to their places. Practice continues well into the evening. You get a small wave from Victoria when you depart home, a pleasant surprise.

You end up outfit shopping with Jon the day before homecoming. The boutique you’re in isn’t too fancy, even though you can afford more with Bruce Wayne’s ever so gracious stipend.

“Maybe I should wear blue, the same shade as your eyes. I like them,” you mutter, thinking. Nothing here particularly catches your eye. You suppose you shouldn’t care so much, it makes no difference to you. Besides, you won’t be spending much time at the dance anyway, you’ve got material to steal after all. But Tony has instilled the art of appearances into you, and you don’t want to disgrace his teachings.

Jon gulps beside you, still not used to your random flirting's despite the fact it’s been weeks. “I thought you had a thing for hot pink?” he asks as you pick up some simple heeled dress shoes.

“Yeah, but I’m not going for a bold look this time around.” You place your hands on your hips. “Maybe just plain old black is the way to go,” you say, grabbing a black suit off the rack and examining it. You hang it over your arm, deciding that it will be the way to go. It’ll be easier to hide in the crowd when you look like the rest of ‘em. “Now, for accessories…” you mutter, looking at the earrings on display. You pick up some faux emerald studs and examine them.

“I like this ring,” Jon pipes up. You turn around and see he’s holding a simple flowery ring with a blue gemstone in it. You hold out a hand and he slips the band onto your ring finger. It looks at home.

“Looks good,” you agree. You pack up the earrings, ring and the suit and take it to the register. You pay for it and Jon picks up the bag for you. What a gentleman.

The walk back to your apartment is filled with mindless chatter between the two of you. Nari greets you when you open the door, meowing real cutely. You press a bunch of kisses on his skull, because he deserves them. Jon places the bag on your couch.

“Well, since I’m not allowed to ask you the hoco, I’ll try it on just for you, yeah?”

Jon blinks. “Not allowed?”

“I mentioned it to Damian, and he made it very clear I was not allowed to take you.” You lean in and whisper in his ear, “between you and me, I think it’s because he wants to ask you.”

Jon snorts. “I doubt that,” he mumbles, watching you go to your bedroom to change. “I would have had to say no anyway, I’m… busy that day.”

“Well, I guess I was saved from an awkward moment,” you holler through the door. You make sure you look clean and put together before stepping out. You spread your arms and do a twirl.

“Well?” you ask.

Jon’s mouth is ever so slightly agape. His eyes seem to sparkle a little as he looks at you. Blue meets blue when he stares at the ring on your finger. You watch as he stands up, walking over to you.

He clears his throat. “May I… have this dance?”

You stare at him dumbly for a second, making him nervous. “W-What?” Well said.

“Well, I can’t dance with you during homecoming, so… let’s dance now.” His face is set in an adorable determination. Your heart soars.

You chuckle, abashed. He holds out his hand for you, waiting.

“Oh, wait!” you gasp. You dash over to your laptop, opening youtube. Jon watches as your fingers dash over the keyboard. ‘Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy’ fills your apartment. The song has always reminded you of him. You race back to Jon, finally putting your hand in his. He quickly pulls you close to him.

“Queen?” he chuckles, placing his hands on your waist. You throw your hands over his shoulders, scoffing. “Nothing wrong with Queen.”

“No,” he agrees, swaying with you. You spend the rest of the evening together.

Walking into the academy’s gym, you’re immediately blasted with loud music and colorful lights. Everyone is looking quite dapper, but like you suspected, a bunch of black suits. You fit right in.

You sip a bit of the punch, grimacing. Nobody spiked it yet? You’re surprised. Yeah, this is a prestigious school or whatever, but teenagers will be teenagers. You guess they’re all too pussy to do it. No worries, you’ll do it for them.

“I don’t believe this is wise,” says Karen as you pour some alcohol into the bowl. “It’s only a little amount,” you reassure. “Drunk people are less likely to notice things.”

You observe the people of your school. They’ve long gotten used to your presence, hesitantly making room for you. Still, you aren’t really a part of them. You sigh. You know you sound like a broken record, but you really have to get back home. The last time someone stayed on an Earth not their own was Miguel, and well… you know how that ended.

In other news, you’ve spotted Victoria! She looks real pretty, all dolled up. Her hands grip a cup of punch as she stands next to whats-his-face. He’s chatting with his jock friends, completely ignoring her! Hell no, you’re not gonna let that slide.

You wait for his friends to go away before sneaking up on him. “You better dance with her, asshole.” It’s satisfying to see him jump and look around to see who said that, but you already walked away. He scratches his head, before walking over to Victoria. It’s satisfying to see her face light up as they walk to the dance floor. Your job here is done.

You find your way to the gym doors, peaking into the hallways. No one’s there, surprisingly. You scurry down the hall. You visit the lab first, swiping any and all things you think you might need. The blueprints left behind by Howard Stark are kind of obscure. They weren’t meant for anybody but Tony, after all.

Next you make headway to your engineering workshop. Seeing it now, it looks pretty spooky without the lights on. You walk into the storage closet where all the materials and parts are kept. It’s actually pretty big. You think you might be in Heaven. You set your backpack down and go through everything. You stuff various metals and scrap into it, tools and switches, fans and whatnot. Then, you spot it. A glass chamber, hidden in the corner.

You grab it carefully, examining it. It’s the perfect size for your nanite chamber! You grin. You have no idea why there’s a big glass tube just in here, but hey, you’re not complaining. You carefully make room for it in your bag, hauling it over your shoulder. You poke your head out in the hallway, no one’s there. You sigh, content with your scavenge. Humming under your breath, you make your way out of the school.

behind you right behind you grabbing yOU–!

You turn around quickly, eyes wide. You just looked around, there was no one there! A hand lays outstretched in the air before you. Your eyes travel up the offender's arm and meet green. Damian. Of course.

“I thought you didn’t have time for such frivolous activities,” you blurt, for lack of something better to say. You grip your bag strap tight.

“Who else would keep an eye on you?” he grunts. You coo, “do I attract your eye, then?” Performing a spin, you miss the way he looks you up and down.

He reaches out and flicks your emerald earring. “Tell me why I shouldn’t report you for theft,” he says as he gestures to your bag.

“Because I’m… awesome?” you try. It doesn’t work, clearly. Damian’s looking at you like you’re the very epitome of ‘human disaster’. “It’s for my personal project, lay off.”

Damian steps closer to you, and you finally have the time to really take him in. He’s got a simple dress shirt covered by a black vest. Dress pants, dress shoes, all looking very expensive. An elegant satin green tie pulls it all together. You hum appreciatively as you look him up and down.

“And what exactly does this ‘project’ entail?” he murmurs, grasping your hand and examining the ring. Flirting with you to get you to spill? Smooth.

“You like it?” you ask, referring to the ring. “Jon chose it.”

Damian furrows his brow immediately, looking at you. You grin. “He said he liked it on me, specifically.”

Damian huffs, dropping your hand. “I’m not building a world-ending weapon or anything. I’m allowed my hobbies,” you say, laying a hand on his chest as a way to calm him. “Honest.”

He looks into your eyes for a moment, opening his mouth to speak–

BOOM .

The ground rumbles, Damian grabbing you and you grabbing him. You stay locked together as you stand still, listening. Screams erupt, coming from the gym. Damian pushes you towards safety in a nearby janitor’s closet.

“Stay here, lock the door,” is all he says before running off towards the gym, no doubt planning to save the day as Robin. Way to be subtle.

Karen already knows what to do, letting the suit emerge from your bracelets under your sleeves. You sprint towards the gym, opening the doors silently. People are hiding behind and under tables, whimpering. There’s a gaping hole at the end of the gym, no doubt the loud explosion you heard earlier.

The one and only Scarecrow stands in the settling dust. He sure lives up to his name, that costume is frighteningly ugly. He raises his arms, canisters in hand, and throws them into the crowd. They explode with a hiss, releasing plumes of noxious gas. Hell. No.

You spring into action, webbing the canisters to try and block the spread of the fear gas quickly. A few gasps are heard from the students. You turn to them. “The fuck are you waiting around, for? Run!” They heed your call, quickly finding their way to the doors on the other side of the gym. Scarecrow tries to throw a canister at the running crowd, so you quickly web it, sticking it to the wall.

“You cannot save them,” he taunts, gesturing to the few students that still got hit with the fear gas. “Their fears will consume them, just as yours will consume you.” Ah, right. You are standing right in the middle of where his first cans exploded. Time to find out if your suit blocks the fumes.

A batarang appears, knocking Scarecrow's canisters out of his hands. Robin, the man himself, lands next to you. You can’t help but quip, “I thought such a prestigious school wouldn’t be so easy to break into?”

“It isn’t,” is Robin’s dry reply.

“Well, looks like someone missed the memo,” you retort, eyes locked on Scarecrow. You survey your surroundings, there’s still some lingering kids, plus the one’s victimized by the fear gas. “Handle him, I’ll get them out of here,” you command. Robin nods in understanding.

You jump away, quickly webbing up the fear gassed victims so they don’t hurt anyone or themselves. They scream and trash, making you wince and mutter rushed apologies. You kick up a table, depositing them behind it. Robin is holding his own against Scarecrow efficiently.

A couple of rushed whispers escape you as you encourage the leftover students to follow you out. You guide them, ducking under tables until you reach the doors. You breathe, the only one left is–

Victoria. Where’s her date? Did he leave her to save himself? Asshole, you swear. You call for her. “Hey!”

She turns to you, looking worse for wear. Her makeup is running down her face, carefully tied hair now loose in disarray. Poor girl. She runs over to you, tripping into your arms. “It’s okay,” you whisper as you usher her to the exit.

“Spinner!��� Robin yells. You turn around in time to deflect a throwaway can of fear gas. Victoria whimpers in your arms. “It’s alright, Vicky,” you say breathlessly. The last you see of her is her wide eyes as you shut the door.

Scarecrow growls in frustration. “You!” he points at you. “Why are you not affected!?”

A clawed finger clinks against your mask as you tap it. “My suit’s really cool like that.” Thank God , you weren’t sure if it would repel the gas. With a flick of your wrist, you send a web at Scarecrow to restrain him. He dodges, just barely.

“Or maybe I’m just already living my worst nightmare: a villain with a bad fashion sense,” you quip, weaving around. “Now let’s wrap this up before I start critiquing your escape plan.” You launch a web up at the ceiling, letting it carry you up. More webs grasp at Scarecrow, tugging him to you. Robin watches as you tie him up, Scarecrow flailing uselessly in the air.

You ignore his speeches about how ‘fear is eternal’ and ‘you’re delusional if you think you can stop it’ in favor of dropping him to the floor, roughly. You land next to him, leaning down and dragging him with you to the hole in the wall. “I’ll leave you here as my thanks to the GCPD.”

Robin comes to a stop next to you. “Call me corny, but you and I make a pretty good team, no?” you say, crossing your arms as you look at him.

“Do not flatter yourself, I did most of the fighting.”

You snort. “Yeah, but I got him in the end, didn’t I?” Robin shakes his head. “I’m just surprised you’re not shriveled up in fear like the rest of them.”

Robin crosses his arms. “I am capable of holding my breath.” Your mind wanders to inappropriate trains of thought, making you grin. The sound of sirens get closer, signaling the approach of the GCPD, and probably the other Bats as well.

“Well, I get terrible police anxiety, you know how it is,” you say, taking steps out of the hole. Robin follows you out. “Bye,” you say, before swinging away. You round the building, letting the suit retract back into your bracelets. You enter through a back door, avoiding cameras. You quickly straighten out your ruffled appearance, making your way to the gym. Some students are lingering around on their phones, either showing each other what they recorded or calling somebody to pick them up.

You pass Victoria on the way. She’s holding her arms, hugging herself. She raises her head and stares at you as you approach. You pause in front of her, not really sure what to say. She probably doesn’t want your comfort, so you’ll keep it brief. “Glad you’re okay,” you say as you awkwardly pat her shoulder. You quickly scurry inside the gym, feeling what you’re sure is a judging stare.

Just as you thought, some of the Bats are here, administering the antidote to the victims. You make a show of looking for Damian, just in case he’s watching. There’s an incessant buzzing in your pocket. Pulling out your phone, you swipe open Jon’s messages.

please get this boy some brown contacts

why did i just turn on the news and ga was attacked

hello?????

are you okay??????

please be okay

why arent you answering are you dead

please dont be dead

Your heart churns at his worry. You just want to gnaw on him, he’s so cute. You send a selfie of you throwing up a peace sign with the police and Batman in the back.

yeah lmao im ok

shit was crazy but damian shoved me a closet all romantically and then ran off

looking for him rn hope he aint dead

he told me he wasnt even gna come what a liar

oh my gosh youre alive no way 

are you sure youre okay im pretty sure you just experienced something really traumatic

YES jon like i said i was in a closet the whole time

well im glad damian shoved you in there

also yeah he is a stinkin liar sometimes

You chuckle and let the conversation die. You make sure to answer Sam’s concerned messages with the same selfie and reassurance.

“I see you are alive and well,” comes Damian’s voice behind you. He’s got his hands in his pocket casually, looking completely put together and not like he just fought crime. He’s good.

You huff and turn around to face him. “Yeah well, it’s hard to die when you’re chilling in a closet that somebody shoved you into,” you snark accusingly.

He scoffs, ”I practically saved your life.”

“And then ran off. Where did you go, anyway?”

Damian turns his head, surveying the law enforcement as they work. “I helped in aiding the other students escape.” Yeah, whatever.

“Oh, really? We got ourselves a hero type over here.” You cross your arms and bump him gently. His head lolls with the movement. “Maybe you really are Robin.” He ‘tsk’s, but says nothing. You let the silence consume the both of you, eyes wandering the scene. Concerned parents cry in outrage at their fear gassed children. You wonder if they’ll sue. Then, you notice something.

“Why is Batman looking at me like I just cursed his entire bloodline?” you ask Damian, making him drop his arms and look to where your eyes are. You’re exaggerating, it’s hard to tell exactly how Batman’s looking at you with the cowl and the distance, but he isn’t exactly being subtle.

“That’s just how he usually looks,” says Damian, trying to remain casual. You are pretty damn sure he’s trying to signal to B that he needs to chill. Karen confirms that he actually is in your ear. Your mouth twitches as you wrangle a grin under control.

“Well, tonight was lame. I’m gonna go home before the big bad bat decides I need to be ‘vengeanced’ or something.” You turn around and begin walking away. “See you around, Dami.”

Damian grabs your arm before you can get far. “Let me walk you.”

You raise a brow. “Trying to figure out my base of operations?”

“It is late and you shouldn’t be going home alone. Especially after tonight,” he gestures to the scene.

You shrug. There’s really nothing to hide at your apartment, and he definitely already knows where you live regardless. “My hero. Okay, if you insist. But you’re paying for the ticket.”

“What ticket?” he scoffs. “My butler will be driving.” Oh. Right.

You scoff. “Of course you have a butler.”

He places a hand on your back to guide you out. You risk a subtle glance behind you and see that Batman is still looking, but more so at Damian now. You make a stop to the closet Damian shoves you into to pick up your haul, ignoring his side-eye. It seems he has let it go, for now.

Cold air greets you as you step outside with Damian. Arguably one of the coolest characters in the DC verse stands beside a sleek looking car, Alfred Pennyworth. You’re a big fan.

“Master Damian, Mx [Name].” He greets primly, stepping aside to open the door for you both. Damian nudges you in, and you make sure to thank Alfred and give him your address as you slip inside. Damian settles in beside you, his arm pressing into yours. You look out of the window as the drive commences. There’s not much to say.

“Tonight could’ve gone worse,” Damian says, breaking the silence. “I suppose we should be grateful for that.”

“Grateful, sure,” you reply, not taking your eyes off the city lights flashing by. “Though I wouldn’t have minded if it hadn’t happened at all.”

He nods, a slight smirk playing on his lips. “True. But then, I wouldn’t have had the chance to save you.”

You roll your eyes. “Is that what you’re going to hang over my head forever? ‘Remember that time I saved you in the school closet?’”

Damian chuckles, a rare sound that makes you glance at him. “Perhaps. But I think you’d do the same.”

“You know me so well,” you say, a small smile tugging at your lips.

You lean back in the comfortable leather seat of the car, feeling the tension of the night slowly ebbing away. The drive through Gotham's streets is surprisingly smooth, with only the occasional sound of sirens in the distance to remind you of the chaos that unfolded earlier.

As you pass under the shadow of skyscrapers, you steal a glance at Damian. His profile is illuminated by the faint glow of city lights filtering through the car window. Despite the adrenaline of the evening, he seems composed, almost serene.

He catches your glance and turns to meet your eyes, his own reflecting a mix of lingering intensity from the night's events and a quiet contemplation that seems to soften his usually sharp features. The silence between you feels comfortable now, no longer laden with the tension of earlier encounters or the urgency of the situation you just escaped. You offer a smile, and this time he doesn’t have any reaction. Just a calm expression.

“We have arrived,” Alfred announces softly as the car comes to a stop, almost hesitant to break the silence. You step out of the car, giving Alfred a nod of gratitude before heading up to your apartment. You turn back one last time, meeting Damian’s gaze before unlocking your door and heading inside. As you settle in, you can't help but feel a strange mix of emotions—relief, curiosity, and something else you can't quite place.

You drop your bag next to your bed and collapse in it. Nari comes trotting over, hopping onto your mattress and curling up next to you. Tonight was anything but lame. And as reluctant as you are to admit it, Damian’s presence made it a bit better.

You close your eyes, letting sleep take your mind.

notes: i know in a lot of peter parker in gotham fics they have that "dick grayson is richard parker in a different reality" storyline so i think im gonna try to reference that just a tad, since reader is peter parker just not yk.

in other news, im gonna TRY to update every weekend or so. keyword try.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Knefel at MMFA:

Several right-wing organizations known mostly for opposing abortion, immigration, and trans rights are also involved in supporting and funding election denial groups, a sign of the issue’s centrality to the MAGA movement.

Following former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020 and subsequent attempts to remain in power, a complicated and sprawling web of organizations emerged to sow doubt about future elections and spread debunked and baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud. Stringing these overlapping efforts together is the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, an umbrella organization connecting state and national election denial efforts with the broader right-wing policy ecosystem. These groups also significantly overlap with Project 2025, an effort organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide the next Republican presidential administration with staffing and policy recommendations.  Even as early as March 2021, mere months after Trump’s multifaceted effort to reverse the 2020 election, socially conservative groups began pouring money into election denial initiatives. That trend has only accelerated in the intervening years, with a host of anti-civil rights groups — often euphemistically characterized as engaged in the “culture wars” — having expanded their operations to include so-called election integrity.

These groups include the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the anti-trans American Principles Project, a fund run by Hobby Lobby founder David Green, and high-profile right-wing charities National Christian Charitable Foundation and Christian Community Foundation, among others.  One of the primary myths that the election denial movement has spread this cycle concerns noncitizen voting, which experts agree is exceedingly rare. This manufactured scandal synthesizes two key pillars of the MAGA movement — demonizing immigrants and claiming that elections are rigged against right-wing candidates. The partners listed in the Only Citizens Vote Coalition include anti-immigrant groups the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Immigration Accountability Project, illustrating how election denial groups have incorporated nativism into their movement. Both FAIR and IAP have strong links to the Tanton network, named after John Tanton, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center refers to as the “the racist architect of the modern anti-immigrant movement.”

Right-wing anti-civil rights organizations are going all-in on pushing the nonexistent “noncitizen voter” canard.

[mariacallous]

Are there generative AI tools I can use that are perhaps slightly more ethical than others? —Better Choices

No, I don't think any one generative AI tool from the major players is more ethical than any other. Here’s why.

For me, the ethics of generative AI use can be broken down to issues with how the models are developed—specifically, how the data used to train them was accessed—as well as ongoing concerns about their environmental impact. In order to power a chatbot or image generator, an obscene amount of data is required, and the decisions developers have made in the past—and continue to make—to obtain this repository of data are questionable and shrouded in secrecy. Even what people in Silicon Valley call “open source” models hide the training datasets inside.

Despite complaints from authors, artists, filmmakers, YouTube creators, and even just social media users who don’t want their posts scraped and turned into chatbot sludge, AI companies have typically behaved as if consent from those creators isn’t necessary for their output to be used as training data. One familiar claim from AI proponents is that to obtain this vast amount of data with the consent of the humans who crafted it would be too unwieldy and would impede innovation. Even for companies that have struck licensing deals with major publishers, that “clean” data is an infinitesimal part of the colossal machine.

Although some devs are working on approaches to fairly compensate people when their work is used to train AI models, these projects remain fairly niche alternatives to the mainstream behemoths.

And then there are the ecological consequences. The current environmental impact of generative AI usage is similarly outsized across the major options. While generative AI still represents a small slice of humanity's aggregate stress on the environment, gen-AI software tools require vastly more energy to create and run than their non-generative counterparts. Using a chatbot for research assistance is contributing much more to the climate crisis than just searching the web in Google.

It’s possible the amount of energy required to run the tools could be lowered—new approaches like DeepSeek’s latest model sip precious energy resources rather than chug them—but the big AI companies appear more interested in accelerating development than pausing to consider approaches less harmful to the planet.

How do we make AI wiser and more ethical rather than smarter and more powerful? —Galaxy Brain

Thank you for your wise question, fellow human. This predicament may be more of a common topic of discussion among those building generative AI tools than you might expect. For example, Anthropic’s “constitutional” approach to its Claude chatbot attempts to instill a sense of core values into the machine.

The confusion at the heart of your question traces back to how we talk about the software. Recently, multiple companies have released models focused on “reasoning” and “chain-of-thought” approaches to perform research. Describing what the AI tools do with humanlike terms and phrases makes the line between human and machine unnecessarily hazy. I mean, if the model can truly reason and have chains of thoughts, why wouldn’t we be able to send the software down some path of self-enlightenment?

Because it doesn’t think. Words like reasoning, deep thought, understanding—those are all just ways to describe how the algorithm processes information. When I take pause at the ethics of how these models are trained and the environmental impact, my stance isn’t based on an amalgamation of predictive patterns or text, but rather the sum of my individual experiences and closely held beliefs.

The ethical aspects of AI outputs will always circle back to our human inputs. What are the intentions of the user’s prompts when interacting with a chatbot? What were the biases in the training data? How did the devs teach the bot to respond to controversial queries? Rather than focusing on making the AI itself wiser, the real task at hand is cultivating more ethical development practices and user interactions.

[mimisempai]

You are the wind beneath my wings 1/?

Summary

Aziraphale, angel scrivener, is always late.  His reason: the archangel Jophiel, star maker and architect of heaven, who fascinates him.

One day, Jophiel cries out for help, and Aziraphale doesn't hesitate for a moment before veering off course to lend a hand.

Little does he know that this decision will change his life and forever link his destiny to that of Jophiel.

For better but also for worse. 

Notes

I'd had this project in mind for months, but hadn't really got round to it because I didn't feel skilled enough. But encouraged by my beloved and a few friends, here I am.

The plan and outline are complete, and the first chapters finished.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

On Ao3

Rating G -  3161 words

Master post for this story here

"Damn, I'm going to be lectured again, it took me too long once more..." 

Aziraphale looked back one last time and accelerated through the black webs. He would have a hard time explaining the reason for his frequent lateness.

How to explain that the reason...

"Excuse me." 

... had just called him?!

"Oi!"

Aziraphale didn't think twice and turned to the person who had just called him, and in less time than it took him to say it, he was standing in front of him.

Smiling, Aziraphale immediately said, "Yeah? Was that you?"

Idiot, of course it was. 

You know he's the only one there.

Archangel Jophiel, Star Maker and Architect of Heaven.

The reason for Aziraphale's frequent lateness in carrying out his assigned tasks. One of the many higher-ranking angels who didn't know he existed.

The red-haired angel barely glanced at him as he replied, holding the parchment in his hands, "Oh, hi, yeah. Uh, look, if you don't mind, could you hold this while I crank it all up?"

Aziraphale's gaze darted back and forth between the parchment and the archangel several times as he grasped it before asking, "Um, which way up does it go?"

Keeping his eyes on the parchment and inserting a strange instrument into it, Jophiel replied, "Well, like this. Just hold it tight. There you go."

Then he looked up and asked, "All right, ready?"

"For what?" 

The archangel didn't answer and turned the strange instrument.

"There you go, dear."

The parchment emitted a few purple glows, then the space around them shook slightly before Jophiel stepped back and said with a smile, "Thank you, you can put it down now." 

Aziraphale, still not understanding, replied with the same smile, "Right. Is that it?" 

The red-haired angel shook his head and replied, "Oh, no. That's just priming the engine."

Then he extended his hand to the left and added, "This is the fun part," before looking around with an excited expression on his face.

"I've been waiting for this since... well, always." 

Aziraphale thought it might be time to introduce himself and began a little hesitantly, "Um. Hello. I'm Aziraphale."

Jophiel smiled politely and replied, "Nice to meet you," before leaning forward and exclaiming, "Okay, here goes."

Azirapahle took no offense, for he was used to others not paying much attention to him; after all, he was just a messenger, just a scrivener.

Jophie raised his hands and exclaimed in a loud voice, "Let there be matter, let there be gravity, let there be everything from pages 11 to 3,000,602 inclusive.

Aziraphale saw the pages of a floating book turn beside the archangel as he finished his incantation with an elegant gesture of both hands.

Only nothing happened, Aziraphale in a state of expectation, wondering what would come next, then not holding out any longer, he asked with curiosity, "Is something supposed to happen?"

Jophiel was slightly surprised at first, before exclaiming, "Oh, right, sorry, yes, yes.

Then, in an apologetic tone, he continued, "I knew I'd missed one."

They both laughed lightly, then Jophiel took on a serious air, raised his hand solemnly, and lowered it gracefully, saying softly, "Let there be light."

Immediately in front of Aziraphale's eyes there was an explosion of light and color, the black webs of space around the two of them colored in reds and blues and yellows, overwhelming Aziraphale with their beauty. He didn't know what it was, but it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.  

He immediately understood why the angel beside him was an archangel and he was only a scrivener; he'd never be able to squeeze such beauty from his fingertips.

All Aziraphale could do was exclaim, "Oh, good Lord!"

Although, deep down, he knew at that moment that God had nothing to do with it. It was indeed the hands of the angel at his side that had generated this explosion of light.

But as magnificent as the stars and shimmering lights were, it was this angel who caught his attention even more than the display of color in front of him. Jophiel radiated a joy even brighter than his creations, and Aziraphale found himself drawn to that light far more than he would have liked.

"Look at you, you're gorgeous."

The archangel's exclamation snapped him out of his thoughts and Aziraphale turned to him with a smile, thinking he was talking to him, but he saw that Jophiel's attention was still on the stars. Aziraphale couldn't help but feel a small pang of disappointment which he quickly pushed it aside.

After all, it was really silly of him to think that Jophiel could talk to him, and after a few seconds, when everything had calmed down a bit, Aziraphale asked, "You made it all yourself?"

Jophiel replied, waving his hands a little, "Ah, well, I mean, more or less.

I wasn't... I wasn't, um... I wasn't the original concept designer, but I worked very closely with upstairs on it." 

He may not have been the designer, but it was still all his work, and Aziraphale couldn't help but compliment him, "Well, it's very pretty."

Jophiel, a happy smile on his lips, replied, "Oh, thank you."

"And I think you've done an excellent job. "

Jophiel, visibly embarrassed, laughed slightly and Aziraphale joined in before asking, "So, what's it for?"

"How do you mean?" 

Aziraphale pointed to the space around them and explained, "Well, what exactly does it all do?" 

Jophiel's face came alive as he explained, "Oh, right. Well what doesn't this beauty do? Basically, it's a star factory. All the dust and gas you can see, it's actually building about, young stars and protoplanets. Most of the universe of stars will come pre-aged, but these ones are only starting out. 

A few million years to bake, and then boom, stars everywhere!" 

As he began to laugh, Aziraphale realized something that dampened the joy he felt.

Could it be that the other angel didn't know?

"Oh, that's nice."

He looked serious again as he said in a slightly hesitant voice, "You know, the current word from upstairs is that we'll be shutting this all down again in about, uh, years." 

"But that's nothing!" 

Aziraphale hadn't expected to see such despair on the face of the archangel, who had looked so cheerful just before, and immediately blamed it on himself.

"Oh. What's the point in creating an infinite universe with trillions of star systems if you're only gonna let it run for a few thousand years? The engine won't have properly warmed up by then."

Aziraphale, wanting to see the smile and joy on Jophiel's face again, tried to reassure him by explaining, "Ah, the point. Ah, well, you've heard of Earth?" 

Jophiel frowned and replied, "Yeah, not as such."

Aziraphale continued, "Ah. Blue-green planet. It'll be over there somewhere

when they roll out that quadrant. Now that's where the people that we're currently designing are going to be. I've seen the plans. We're going to start out with a breeding pair, and then pretty soon there'll be oodles of them. They'll breed like um... Well, they'll breed like people. The impression I get is that the stars and your um..."

He pauses, not knowing what to call the creations of the archangel who came to his aid and said, "Uh, call it a nebula."

"Right. Well, they exist just so that the people can look up into the night sky and marvel at the illimitable vastness of The Almighty's creation."

At that moment, as he said these words as if reciting a lesson, he realized that there was something strange he couldn't quite put his finger on. But he couldn't think any further because Jophiel exclaimed, "But that's idiocy! It's the universe, it's not just some fancy wallpaper! Millions of galaxies, trillions of stars, oodles of... everything! It's not just put here to twinkle! Most of it won't even be visible from Earth. Why don't you put Earth in the middle of the universe so the view's better?" 

While Aziraphale understood the archangel's point, he felt obligated to be the voice of reason. As a scrivener, he'd heard things. Angels in his position were always somewhat ignored, considered nothing more than paper pushers, but that didn't stop him from seeing so many documents, and being an avid reader, he made a point of reading them, even though Gabriel had warned him several times, telling him it wasn't his job.

He said to Jophiel as gently as he could, "It's not our job to advise The Almighty on the details of creation." 

Jophiel looked at him like he was an idiot and replied, "Well, then whose job is it? I mean, someone has to say, 'Look, boss, this is a really, really terrible idea.'" 

Aziraphale realized that maybe he should never have told Jophiel the truth about what was going to happen, and tried again to talk some sense into him. 

"Well, I suspect that would be considered inappropriate." 

But Jophiel objected, "Well, I don't suppose anyone could object to me putting a note into the suggestion box." 

Oh no, he shouldn't.

Aziraphale had seen things.

Things that happened to angels who asked too many questions.

They always disappeared, and when they came back, these angels were like newborn. As if they had all forgotten. Aziraphale didn't want that to happen to Jophiel.

He insisted urgently, "I don't believe The Almighty has actually created a suggestion box. And besides, I don't think it's our place to suggest that there should be a suggestion box."

Jophiel shrugged, "Well, if I was the one running it all, I'd like it if someone asked questions. Fresh point of view."

Increasingly worried that someone might hear them, Aziraphale turned his head and looked around as the archangel continued, "You can't just create a universe, run it for a few thousand years, and then stop."

Aziraphale tried again to dissuade him by diverting his attention, and exclaimed with false joy, "I like the pinky-blue bit in the corner of the, the nebula. Yes, it's very um, ah!" 

Then, looking serious again, he couldn't hold back and said a little more quietly, "Um, but look, word to the wise, I'd hate to see you getting into any trouble."

Jophiel, a little calmer but still looking a touch sad, said gently, as if to reassure him, "Mm, thanks for your help. And thanks for your advice. I wouldn't worry though. How much trouble can I get into just for asking a few questions?"

Aziraphale was about to reply when a shower of stars began to fall upon them, and Jophiel immediately spread his white wings over Aziraphale's head to protect him.

They stood there in silence for a few moments, and Aziraphale basked in the sense of closeness he was experiencing for the first time, when he suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, good Lord! The scrolls! I had to get those scrolls to Michael! I'm going to be late! Again! Well, uh... Jophiel. I, uh... thank you for this. I'm glad I was the first to witness your beautiful creation."

He pointed to the colorful sky around them, and Jophiel looked at him earnestly, as if for the first time, before saying softly, "Thank you for helping."

Aziraphale nodded and was about to leave when he couldn't resist: "Please don't do anything rash.

Jophiel looked at him in silence for a few seconds before nodding and saying, "I will. And Aziraphale?"

"Hm?"

"Don't hesitate to come back and see me."

He gave a small, amused smile before continuing, "I could use some help."

Aziraphale couldn't hold back a smile before turning and leaving as quickly as he had appeared.

**********

"That's why you will remain a scrivener for the rest of your life!"

Aziraphale did what he always did in such situations. He withdrew into his mind and let the admonition pass while he thought back on the moments he'd spent with Jophiel. 

Probably, no, in fact, undoubtedly the happiest moments of his life as far back as he could remember.

So he didn't wait long to return to the place where the Starmaker, as he secretly called him, resided.

But despite the archangel's invitation, he didn't approach him, and watched from a distance. Each day, Aziraphale hid behind the remaining black webs and watched in awe as Jophiel created and perfected his work. His wonder was heightened by the fact that Jophiel continued even though he now knew that his creations were destined to die. 

Aziraphale couldn't help but feel sad at the thought, realizing that it was an emotion he had never felt so deeply before. Like everything else about Jophiel, if he was honest with himself.

The other angel awakened new emotions in Aziraphale that he had never felt before, and the angel found himself drawn to the Star Maker, fascinated by the passion he poured into his creation. Mesmerized by the joy the other angel radiated.

It was the first time Aziraphale had ever met an angel like him. 

It was the first angel of higher rank who didn't belittle him and put him in his place.

If Aziraphale dared, he'd say Jophiel treated him as an equal.

Just as Jophiel's stars had suddenly illuminated the dark sky, the red-haired angel had shed a new light on Aziraphale's existence.

Aware that he had been the one to slightly tarnish that light by announcing the limited lifespan of his creations, Aziraphale no longer dared to approach him, contenting himself with watching the other angel from a distance.

He could see him twirling, giving birth to stars at his fingertips or conversing with them, always moving with grace, his red hair following his dance, just like at this moment.

"Aziraphale."

The call of his name startled him as the red-haired angel turned to him and continued, "I know you're watching me. You don't need to hide."

Aziraphale stepped shyly into the light and asked, "Do you mind if I watch you?"

Jophiel shook his head and replied with a half smile, "I seem to remember telling you you could come back. You could come closer, you know?"

So Aziraphale stepped forward until he was beside him, just as on the first day they met, and Jophiel, as if he weren't there, continued to watch his stars, moving his arms in an elegant choreography. Suddenly he stopped, reached out his hand, and Aziraphale saw a faint ball of light arrive and land on Jophiel's outstretched hand. 

The archangel closed his hand, then turned his closed fist toward Aziraphale and gently opened it.

Jophiel said gently, "You see, this little star, it's shining too dimly and it needs a helping hand. Will you help me give it the shine it deserves?"

Aziraphale hesitated at first and said modestly, "I don't know, I'm just a scrivener and-"

Jophiel shook his head and replied, "Stop it, like any angel, you're capable of miracles, so you can do it. Unless, of course, you don't want to."

Aziraphale immediately replied, "Yes, yes, of course I do!"

Jophiel smiled at the angel's eagerness and gently instructed him. "Place your hand on top of it like this and give it a little bit of power, just like when you want to perform a miracle. It's as simple as that."

Aziraphale nodded, and after Jophiel placed his hand next to his, he did as the archangel said.

Suddenly, Aziraphale felt a gentle warmth under his hands and saw a violet glow spreading out and enveloping the little star.

Puzzled, he realized that it was the same color as when Jophiel had turned the crank in the parchment.  

Jophiel said gently, "You can take your hand away now. "

Aziraphale watched in amazement as the little star now glowed with a strong, warm light and Crowley reached out his arm to toss it into the sky.

Azi couldn't help but giggle as he watched it fly away and return to its place.

"How pretty."

Not to be fooled a second time, Aziraphale didn't react to Jophiel's words and continued to look at the star they had just 'healed'.

"I'm talking about you, Aziraphale"

Aziraphale turned sharply to the archangel and replied with a pout, "Ha ha, very funny."

But Jophiel looked serious as he replied, "I'm not joking. You looked pretty right now."

Aziraphale shook his head, "You don't have to flatter me to get me to help you."

Jophiel turned his full attention to him and asked quietly, "Don't tell me this is the first time you've been complimented." 

Aziraphale replied self-deprecatingly, "Not for anything I have done, and certainly not for how I look."

Jophiel shook his head and continued, "I've always said that higher-ranking angels should have much more appreciation and respect for the lower ranks."

"Uh... I..."

Jophiel placed a gentle hand on his arm and added, "Did you see the color of the magic when I turned the crank, when you held the parchment, and when we healed the little star together?"

Aziraphale nodded, for yes, he had noticed.

"I'll tell you a secret. My magic never had that color before those two times. And do you know what they have in common?"

Aziraphale shook his head.

Jophiel replied softly, "It was you."

"Me? But..."

Jophiel raised his hand, palm facing Aziraphale, and said gently, "Put your hand on mine."

Aziraphale, a little hesitant, raised his hand in return and placed his hand on Crowley's.

Immediately, the same gentle warmth as when they healed the star washed over him, and most importantly, both hands were surrounded by the same violet glow.

They stood there in silence for a few moments, palm against palm, watching the purple glow swirl around their hands. 

Aziraphale looked up at Jophiel, and Jophiel smiled warmly at him as he said, "You see? Only with you."

Aziraphale couldn't look away from the archangel's shining eyes, and a new, unknown emotion ran through him.

He knew nothing about it, except that the archangel before him was responsible, and most importantly, that he had never felt such bliss as he did at that moment.

*********

"Your Reverence, forgive me for disturbing you, but I feel it's important to share some information with you that could cause a problem. "

The Metatron motioned for Archangel Gabriel to sit across from him.

"I am listening, supreme archangel Gabriel."

Once seated, the archangel leaned forward and said: "There may be a case of fraternization between the archangel Jophiel and the scrivener Aziraphale. Some have spoken of a strange increase in power and..."

"What?!"

"I have no proof, and these are only rumors, but..."

Metatron stood up abruptly and said, "Very well, we'll wait and see. Keep me informed of what you hear. You may leave now."

Gabriel rose, bowed slightly, and left Metatron's office. 

As Gabriel left, Metatron muttered, "Nothing and no one can thwart my plans. Not even a little scrivener and a star maker."

_________

Still not beta'd

Still not my native language

Still hoping you'll enjoy this story  🥰

Still thanking you for bearing with me 😝

Ineffable fan fictions Masterpost : here

[beardedmrbean]

March 12 (UPI) -- A coalition of the world's biggest corporate energy users signed a pledge Wednesday in Houston to support a tripling of nuclear energy capacity by 2050.

Founding signatories include tech giants Google, Amazon and Meta as well as Occidental, Dow, Allseas and OSGE.

The World Nuclear Association brought the companies together to make the pledge to support the nuclear energy goal.

It marks the first time companies outside the nuclear sector have come together across industries to push for concerted, robust nuclear power expansion to meet future global energy demand.

The pledge initiative was led by Sama Bilbao y Leon, Director General of the World Nuclear Association.

"The unprecedented support announced today by some of the world's most influential companies to at least triple global nuclear capacity by 2050 sends a clear signal to accelerate policy, finance and regulatory changes that enable the rapid expansion of nuclear power," he said.

"Google will continue to work alongside our partners to accelerate the commercialization of advanced nuclear technologies that can provide the around-the-clock clean energy necessary to meet growing electricity demand around the world," Google's Lucia Tian said.

Anti-nuclear power organizations like environmental activist group Greenpeace oppose the expansion of nuclear power, advocating sustainable solar and wind power instead.

"Nuclear reactors are inherently unsafe. Meltdowns like the ones in Fukushima or Chernobyl released enormous amounts of radiation into the surrounding communities, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate. Many of them may never come back. If the industry's current track record is any indication, we can expect a major meltdown about once per decade," Greenpeace said in a statement.

Greenpeace asserted that nuclear plants are not only more dangerous but are more expensive and take longer to build when what the world needs are fast, affordable and environmentally sustainable solutions.

"As global economies expand, the need for a reliable, clean, and resilient energy supply is paramount. Nuclear energy, with its ability to provide continuous power, can help meet this rising demand," Meta's Urvi Parekh said.

Amazon Web Services said in October it will invest $500 million in small nuclear reactors to generate electricity needed for expanding tech services, including artificial intelligence. It's part of Amazon's zero-carbon emissions effort.

"Accelerating nuclear energy development will be critical to strengthening our nation's security, meeting future energy demands, and addressing climate change. Amazon supports the World Nuclear Association's pledge, and is proud to have invested more than $1 billion over the last year in nuclear energy projects and technologies, which is part of our broader Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040," AWS Head of Americas Energy and Water Brandon Oyer said.

"It will be a lot harder to address environmental concerns while facilitating economic development in the world without the reliable, 24/7 base load power nuclear energy provides," Urenco Chief Commercial Officer Laurent Odeh said in a statement. "This support from large energy users is another sign for governments to enable new nuclear projects so we can accelerate construction and meet the energy needs of both industry and the public."

[laanirouche]

2025 Homevalley Global Entrepreneurs Competition

Registration Now Open

March 1, 2025 — The highly anticipated 2025 Homevalley Global Entrepreneurs Competition officially launched today, with global registration now open. Innovators and entrepreneurs worldwide are invited to participate, with registration available until May 10. This competition aims to build a global entrepreneurial ecosystem, offering a dedicated investment fund of RMB 300 million to recruit high-quality projects and accelerate technological innovation and industrial upgrades in Shanghai.

Key Highlights of the Competition

Expanded Global Reach

Five major competition zones across 18 Cities/Countries: Including ​North America （West/ East）, ​Europe, ​Asia, and ​Oceania.

Six Competition Tracks

New track: Advanced Equipment Manufacturing, joining Artificial Intelligence & Software Technology, Electronic Information Technology, Life Sciences & Health, Green Environmental Protection, and Cultural Innovation/New Consumer Trends.

Generous Awards & Funding

150 award slots across all stages, supported by a RMB 300 million investment fund.

Individual project funding ranges from RMB 3 million to RMB 10 million.

Post-Competition Benefits - Shanghai Incubation Program

Finalists gain access to a 1-6 month fully funded incubation program in Shanghai, covering flights, accommodation, workspace, and mentorship.

Policy support via integrated municipal and district-level resources.

Global Talent Scout Incentives

"Global Talent Scout Award" : Up to RMB 500,000 for individuals/organizations recommending outstanding projects.

Prize Structure

Regional Preliminary & Semi-Final Rounds:

Preliminary Awards:

First Prize: ​$1,000

Second Prize: ​$500

Third Prize: ​$300

Semi-Final Awards:

First Prize: ​$5,000

Second Prize: ​$3,000

Third Prize: ​$1,000

Special prizes include ​Amazon Web Services credits (up to $25,000).

Global Finals:

Gold Award: ​RMB 100,000

Silver Award: ​RMB 50,000

Bronze Award: ​RMB 30,000

Project Implementation Support

Funding: ​RMB 3–10 million for outstanding projects.

Talent Subsidies: Up to ​RMB 2 million based on qualifications and location.

Office Space: Free workspace up to 300 sqm in Shanghai.

Residency Support: Shanghai residency quotas for up to 5 core team members.

Credit Financing: Loans up to RMB 30 million.

Competition Timeline

Registration: March 1 – May 10, 2025

Regional Preliminary Rounds: May 11–31, 2025

Global Semi-Finals: June 2025

Global Finals: August 2025

Eligibility

Open to global innovators who are founders or largest shareholders of submitted projects, regardless of nationality.

Organizers & Partners

Hosted by Homevalley, with support from 100+ investors, angel networks, and media partners. The competition bridges startups with Shanghai and Yangtze River Delta industrial resources.

How to Apply

Scan the QR code below or visit the official website: 

www.homevalley.net （Home）

www.homevalleycapital.com (Abroad)

For details, follow the official WeChat account ​**"归心谷"** or email service@homevalley.net.

[rhiandoesfandom]

Chapter 2-Mama's Medicine

He's watching the road front and back. It doesn't help that Barb is in the passenger seat and Fizz is in the back and they're both yelling whenever they see a car nearby. 

"Guys chill the FUCK out! I'm the one with a license for a reason", he tells them and it quiets them for a moment, then Barb speaks up again, "Only cause Dad made me do a show on my test day", she complains and Blitzo rolls his eyes. That's all they ever talk about anymore, is the shows they're made to do and the things they miss because of it. Well- and why they're all in this car. For Mama. 

"Blitzo you're gonna miss the exit!" Fizz yells and points to a sign, and Blitzo swerves into the exit, making Fizz and Barb hold on to one another.

"Hehe...everything's fine...", he looks back but Barb yells back, "EYES on the road asshole!" 

Blitzo finally drives into the parking lot in Sloth and parks the car, and the teens all fall out of his mom's station wagon that he'd "borrowed". 

"Oh sweet unmoving ground!" Fizz says, pretending to blow the ground a kiss. Blitzo rolls his eyes and nudges him, "Pff, you're not funny".

"Liar", Fizz shoots back. 

"Jester slut!" Blitzo jokes back but Barb flicks the back of his head, "Ow what the fuck!" 

"Get your heads focused bozos, we're here for Mama", she says and Fizz sticks his tongue out at Blitzo. 

"Don't make me flick you too", Barb points and Fizz hides behind Blitzo. They follow her into the pharmacy and look around boringly. 

"Hey you think Mama could use a neck massager?" Blitzo jokes as he tries it out on himself. Fizz grabbing it and trying it out as well. 

Barb rolls her eyes, "No". She pulls both their arms over to the pharmacy desk as a tall older imp woman looks down at them. 

"Can I help you kids? Candy is on aisle 5", she says and Barb narrows her eyes. 

"We're here to pick up a prescription. Tilla Buckzo? We're her kids-", she grabs Blitzo and pulls him to the front, "And he's 16 so he can grab her medicine for her", she says, gesturing to Blitzo. Barbie hasn't been able to get her ID updated, again, because of being forced to do shows. 

Blitzo's mouth is in a line but he nods and hands her his ID, she looks it over with an uncaring stare then hands it back, "Alright then, what kinda medicine?" She asks. Barb and Fizz look at one another and shrug but Blitzo speaks up, "Immunotherapy meds. She has an autoimmune condition that rapidly gets worse", he tells her and for a moment the pharmacist looks impressed. Blitzo writhing his hands behind his back in anxiety. 

She comes back and tells the dosage instructions to Blitzo who nods, then gives it to him. 

"Do you have the copay? It's $50", she tells him and the teens freeze. A copay? What's that? 

Blitzo stutters, "W-well uh-What's that!" He points and when she looks away he holds the bag of meds close to his chest and runs, pulling Barb's arm who pulls Fizz's. They run to the car as the pharmacist sicks two hellhounds onto their trail. 

"Blitzo! The key!" Barb yells as she watches the hellhounds draw nearer and Fizz jumps up and down nervously. Blitzo throws the medicine back at Fizz who holds it close, then Blitzo digs in his pockets for the key and pulls it out, pushing it into the driver's seat door. Pulling open the door he sits and finally is able to unlock the rest of the doors and Barb and Fizz frantically fall into the car, pulling the doors closed with their tails. 

"Blitzo get us out of here!" Fizz yells, covering his eyes as the hellhounds aim a gun for their window. 

"Don't worry I got this", he turns the ignition and reverses the car, running over the hellhounds, then accelerates forward, speeding towards the inter-ring highway. 

Barb widens her eyes as she looks back, "Did you just kill people?!" 

"Mama needs this medicine, Barb", Blitzo says seriously, continuing to accelerate. 

"Yeah but Blitzo that's...death that's...killing!" She says and Fizz covers his ears, "Let's just pretend we were never here!!" He says. 

"I agree", replies Blitzo. He looks back and no one is on their tail, he slows down to the speed limit. Turning into the exit of Pride, where their circus currently resides. 

They all get out and Fizz hands Blitzo the bag of medicine. He holds it close and heads separately to his Mama's tent, not even checking to see if Fizz and Barb are behind him. 

He runs in and finds his Mama on her couch, watching her shows. 

"Hi Mama", he says. She looks up and smiles, acknowledging him. He walks over to the kitchenette and pours some water in a cup, then sits next to her and pulls out the pill bottle, popping the top. 

"The pharmacist says to take this twice a day okay?" He says, handing her the pill and cup. She shakily takes them but puts them down first. 

"Mama no you gotta take them...", Blitzo says then she puts her cold hands on his cheeks. He leans into them. 

"You went all the way to Sloth for me? Did you take my car?" She asks. Blitzo looks down and nods. 

"Such a sweet boy", she kisses his forehead then takes the cup and pill, taking it. 

Blitz wakes up sweating, both claws gripping the sheets and tearing a little through their silken cover. 

"Darling?! Are you alright?" Stolas asks as Blitz breathes heavily, looking around to get his bearings. He nods, "I'm...fine. Just..very realistic dream". 

Stolas climbs into the bed and pulls Blitz towards him, "Would you like to talk about it?" 

Blitz wraps his arms around Stolas's torso and squeezes close to him, coughing a little more and Stolas rubs his back again. 

"Not really", he replies. Stolas kisses his forehead, "As you wish". 

[rhodophoria]

You're No White Dove | CHAPTER 3 - CROWDED PLACES

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: F/M

Fandom: Undertale (Video Game)

Relationships: Sans (Undertale)/Reader, Bad Sans Gang/Reader, Papyrus (Undertale)/Reader

Characters: Killer Sans (Undertale), Dusttale Sans (Undertale), Horrortale Sans (Undertale), Cross Sans (Undertale), Nightmare Sans (Undertale), Horrortale Papyrus (Undertale), Error sans (Undertale), Nightmare Gang (Undertale)

There’s something creeping along the walls.  Wariness drives you to stop in your tracks, and you squint through the gloom at the suspicious growth. It looks like… roots? Or branches, maybe.  Whatever they are, they're growing at an accelerated pace. The tendrils creak and groan as they weave together, filling the ceiling with a web of light-swallowing onyx. 

Additional tags under the cut:

Additional Tags: Porn with (Some) Plot, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Predator/Prey, Biting/Marking, References to Knotting, Edging, Overstimulation, Dirty Talk, Degradation, Praise, Established Relationship, Marathon Sex, Rough Sex, Vaginal Sex, Oral Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Dry Humping, Ecto-Tentacles (Undertale), Ecto-Penis (Undertale), Ecto-Tongue (Undertale), AFAB reader, Gender unspecified, A tiny lil Error Sans cameo, One (1) subsequent reference to voyeurism, bad sanses literally hunt you thru the castle and fuck you when they catch you, R.I.P your clothes (ha), (Thanos voice) reality can be whatever I want

[namegoeshereagain]

WIP on the script update (MORE WORDS, YAYY💀💀💀)

I went through the prologue again and for about half of it, I've added stage directions/insights into the character's minds. The half of the prologue is at the bottom👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻CLICK LINKS IN DESCRIPTION, LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE, CLICK THE BELL NOTIFICATION ICON😱😱😱this is a really rough uh like uhm sketchy sketch of it so far. I'm actually enjoying fleshing this all out. It feels like f00kin I'm making this already like 8dimensional metalayered peace 16th dimensional and third eye opening. No, but its like I'm focusing on pacing, actual character emotions, triggers/what sets them off, their insecurities

😳😳😳😳😳

-

SETTING: Inside a cave, three rocks in a row erect high to seemingly uphold it. Chained to the right and left one with rope are two characters - TELEO and CYNICUS. The one in the middle has a broken chain encircling it. Behind the sandstone columns is a campfire that VOID uses in combination with two puppets to project the puppets on the wall. To TELEO and CYNICUS, having watched these puppets for their lives, they believe it is them while ANIMA - the dispossessed of chains - is disillusioned with it.

COSTUME: Each character wears a toga. CYNICUS’ toga is red and pristine. TELEO's toga is blue and pristine. VOID's toga is black and is in good conditions up to it's knees where it is torn. ANIMA’s toga all over is ripped and torn, self inflicted and somewhat from nature – he's possibly been crawling.

LOOKS: ANIMA is extremely deshevelled with a long and scruffy beard and he has scrape marks all over his body mainly on his forearms and forehead – self inflicted with the jagged ends of the rocks on the walls and floor.

PROLOGUE

[The audience enters into a dark stage with no light and there are no seats – they are bemused - they can choose to sit or stand – the stage is small and claustrophobic and the audience will be squashed behind, in between or in front of characters. ANIMA is mindlessly mumbling in the dark words like “Die…Stop…Fuck you…Just stop…end” – when the audience have filled the room – feeling awkward and out of place, ANIMA starts]

ANIMA: (softly, to no one in particular) Where are we?

TELEO: (distant) Huh?

ANIMA: Where are we, TELEO? CYNICUS?

TELEO: What do you mean?

ANIMA: Where are you?

CYNICUS: (muffled, lazy) Obviously I’m asleep. That’s why I’m talking right now…

[An indignated pause by ANIMA]

ANIMA: (with spite) Have you realized how absurd this all is?

TELEO: What do you mean?

ANIMA: It’s painful.

TELEO: (bracing) What is?

ANIMA: Life.

TELEO: We know that. But we live to grow, remember?

ANIMA: Live to grow.

TELEO: Yeah...our suffering is necessary to grow in life.

[ANIMA’s breathing slows - there is a pause - the weight of a thousand rocks bears on his breath]

ANIMA: ...what if I don’t want to grow?

[His breathing accelerates as he finds what he deems is strength to speak]

What if I don’t want to live?

[Silence. TELEO feels what ANIMA means, and unsure that logic will satiate ANIMA’s thinking, he presses further anyways, stuttering - unsure]

TELEO: Then l-live. Aware. In spite of it.

[The bareness of that thought sits on ANIMA as it begins to fuel the entanglement of his thinking, as rapidly as CYNICUS speaks]

CYNICUS: Bullshit. ANIMA, let my lusting licks of luster lap your ears in a blanket of sooooooothingnesss…

come closer to me - my voice.

[ANIMA, confused, in a web of worry, disorientation and dissociation gets up - his body almost limp and catatonic – he makes no eye contact with the focal point of his vision – everything is in his peripheral vision – his feet step left, crossing each other – his movement doesn't spare the energy to turn his body to approach intention…when his foot senses warmth, contact, the struggling to drift any further from CYNICUS’ grounded and exposed thigh, he kneels passively - the jagged rocks digging into his kneecaps and his body hunches over and then on the thigh of CYNICUS]

ANIMA: I want to die.

[CYNICUS immediately coats ANIMA’s words, kicking back, almost maternally]

CYNICUS: Hushh…Feel the heat of my breath lulling you to sleep.

ANIMA: (perplexed, dazed, fighting a war of fog) I feel…dead.

CYNICUS: (honest, lucid and frankly) No, you feel like you want awareness to drift away, until you're left gliding weightlessly, free falling deep into slumber…

[ANIMA breathes meditatively. Contemplatively as though finding a trench to hide in from the chaos, he nestles deeper into CYNICUS’ lap and slowly confesses]

ANIMA: I don't…I want an end- to even that.

[There is a pause.

CYNICUS: Tell me about i/

TELEO: Stop. He's not entertaining you.

CYNICUS: (snaps) Entertain me? You're being so facetious- (stresses) love.

[A weighted pause like a bullet's hit TELEO. Unease. CYNICUS slowly centers himself]

CYNICUS: (trepidatious and slowly) ANIMA. (proposed in a quick, quirky and carefree way) How do you wanna kill yourself?

(Pause. The air reeks of inauthenticity, of repressed guilt cloaked in silence. This, being felt by ANIMA causes his eyes open. He stares at the ground, face still on CYNICUS’ lap. His eyes only make out vague shapes – ball-like illusions that scatter the ground)

ANIMA: (in a dissociative state) Lift blunt rock… bash into skull. (He mimes tapping his temple thrice.)

CYNICUS: (mockingly and quickly) What is—rock?

[The mild maternal comfort of CYNICUS’ presence has now completely faded into that of a quick witted satirist. ANIMA notices this confrontational attitude to CYNICUS and tightens up; from being nestled in the dissociative comfort of his peripheral vision, he’s forced to focus his vision on a singular rock. The brute way out. His mind races]

[fortheloveofaminorcharacter]

Updated Gif Making Tutorial!

What you will need: Google Chrome. Quicktime Player. Photoshop.

TLDR version

Turn off graphic acceleration in Chrome and relaunch.

Use Quicktime Player to record the screen.

Trim the recording and upload it to Photoshop.

Turn the layer into a Smart Object. Resize Image to 540 width. Apply Smart Sharpen Filter.

Add adjustment layers as needed to correct color. Suggested Adjustment layers: Exposure, Brightness/Contrast, and Color Balance.

Save for Web (Legacy) set to Gif 256 colors Loop Forever. Must be under 10M for Tumblr.

So I have changed my process and I figured I should document it for whenever I inevitably forget how to do it. This is definitely for more intense gifmaking so if you are just wanting to do something less intensive, you can still do step one of this tutorial but then use something like GIPHY Capture to record the gifs. You can do basic gif captures and add text with it but you won't be able to get the same quality without doing a little editing. Most of my older stuff was done with Giphy Capture and some of those gifs I would use this tutorial to edit. Even then, they weren't the quality I wanted so now I use this process.

Anyone who is just starting out doing this, super important first step - you need chrome. It sucks but you need it to do the screen recording later on. Once you have chrome downloaded, go to the three dots in the top right hand corner >Settings> System>make sure that the Use graphic acceleration when possible is NOT CHECKED. You will see in the first gif mine was already turned off (greyed out with toggle to the left side). When you initially turn it off then it should give you an option to relaunch (note that because mine was already off I did not need to relaunch).

Now for the screen recording. First go to whatever streaming site you have the media you want to gif on it. For this tutorial I used Abigal that I streamed through Movies Anywhere. You should be able to screen record from pretty much any site but be aware of the quality. VUDU/Fandago at Home will only let you stream in SD on Chrome so that is why I use Movies Anywhere. I then use Quicktime Player to record. I keep it on my dock so I just go down to it and tap it to open a menu at the top of my screen. On that menu, go to File>New Screen Recording and a menu will pop up on the screen with options of what to record. Use the Record Selected Portion then adjust the size to match the size of the video. Once you hit record you can play the media and then it will record until you hit the little stop button on the top right of your menu bar.

Once the recording is done, you can trim it and save it. I HIGHLY recommending trimming down the screen recording before moving the file into Photoshop. Otherwise it will be such a pain when it comes time to edit. Also, your screen recording original will still be saved usually on your desktop if you want to trim down multiple parts of the video into different gifs.

Next, you drag the trimmed file into Photoshop and turn it into a Smart Object by right clicking the layer and selecting Convert to Smart Object. This will allow you to add filters which you will want to do if nothing else but to sharpen the layer. Then you should resize the image to an appropriate gif size (I use 540 x 335ish for my gifs because I find it just looks nice but you can mess around to find what dimensions work best for you).

After you resize your image, go ahead and go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and set the amount to 500%, radius .3, reduce noise to 10%, and Remove to Gaussian Blur. Hit OK and then you should notice your gif looks clearer. After that, you are free to play with the Timeline to adjust timing (you may have to double click the Smart Object layer to change the trim of the layer but once you have adjusted it just exit out of that project and it will automatically save the trim to the original PS document you are working in), add shapes/text, add adjustment layers, etc. I would recommend an added Exposure, Brightness/Contrast, and Color Balancing layer then play with those settings until the color looks right. Be sure to save the file once you get the coloring down so you can just drag and drop other screen recordings into the PS document and it will copy those settings to it. Just remember to do the Smart Object and Sharpen Filter on every new screen recording layer you drop in.

Once you are ready to save, go up to File>Export>Save for Web (Legacy). It may take Photoshop a moment to load this menu. There will be a circle of loading white dots you will just have to wait out. Once the menu does load, select Gif from the menu just under Preset. Make sure the colors are set to 256 to get the best quality gif. Also check in the bottom left hand corner under GIF that the size is under 10M or tumblr will hate it. You may have to adjust the length of you gif if it is over that size. Also, select Forever under looping options and that the dimensions are reasonable. Tumblr hates anything bigger than 540 wide which is why that is my standard width. Once your settings are right, hit Save and then now you are ready to upload to Tumblr!

[kandisatechnologies]

Accelerate LWC Development With Salesforce’s Local Development Server

Tired of constantly deploying and refreshing your UI every time you update your Lightning web components (LWCs)?

With Local Dev (beta), you can streamline your workflow by developing your LWCs while previewing them in real-time directly within your Lightning app or Experience Cloud site.

Note: Before you begin make sure that you have the latest version of the CLI command, run “sf update”.

Step 1: Install the Local Dev Plugin To begin, install the Local Dev Plugin using one of the following commands based on your environment:

For Production or Scratch orgs:

sf plugins install @salesforce/plugin-lightning-dev

OR

sf plugins install @salesforce/plugin-lightning-dev@latest

For Sandbox environments:

sf plugins install @salesforce/plugin-lightning-dev@prerelease

Step 2: Enable Local Dev

Navigate to Setup in Salesforce.

In the Quick Find box, type Local Dev.

Select Local Dev and enable the feature.

Step 3: Enable Local Dev for Your Scratch Org

To configure Local Dev for a scratch org:

Open your SFDX project.

Locate the config/project-scratch-def.json file.

In the settings section of the file, add the following key “enableLightningPreviewPref”: true

Step 4: Preview

Use Local Dev to run a preview of the following types of Salesforce projects.

Lightning Experience apps (desktop and Salesforce mobile app)

LWR Sites for Experience Cloud

To preview your application, use the following steps:

Run the command below in the CLI to start the guided setup: sf lightning dev app

Alternatively, if you want to bypass the guided steps, you can directly use the following command in the VS Code terminal: sf lightning dev app — target-org — name — device-type — device-id — flags-dir

Replace the placeholders with the appropriate values for your project. This will launch the application preview.

Guided Steps When Running the Command sf lightning dev app:

Step 4: Build an LWC Component and Experience the Real-Time Magic of Local Dev (Beta).

Start by creating a Lightning Web Component (LWC).

Embed the LWC into any Lightning app. For now, you can add it to any page in the Sales App.

Make changes to your LWC, such as modifying the HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. As soon as you save your code, you’ll experience the power of Local Dev (Beta), with changes reflected in real-time on the UI.

Notice how quickly the LWC updates, without needing to deploy your code or refresh the page. The changes are applied instantly!

Considerations and Limitations:

LWCs automatically update for the following changes only.

1. Basic HTML revisions: Changing component attributes, like in our case

lighting-button variant=”neutral” to variant=”brand”

Get More info: https://www.kandisatech.com/blog-details/accelerate-lwc-development-with-salesforces-local-development-server

[gatekeeper-watchman]

Steven P. Miller, [2/8/2025 10:10 AM] I am Steven P. Miller, Jacksonville Florida USA @ParkermillerQ, gatekeeperwatchman.org, TM, ‎Founder and Administrator of Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups..#GWIG, #GWIN, #GWINGO, #SPARKERMILLER 904-917-8637 Saturday, February 8, 2025, Jacksonville, Florida USA 10:07:01 AM EST

Steven P. Miller, [2/8/2025 10:17 AM] My Mission Objective:

I want you to know that I am just a man and they will never build a monument in my name. Life is about establishing relationships called friendship and loving others.

Every day of our lives we are given opportunities to show love and kindness to those around us. We must remember that those mortals we meet in parking lots, offices, elevators, the internet, and elsewhere are that portion of mankind God has given us to love and to serve. If we cannot regard those who are all around us as our family, we will never be capable of loving our neighbor or our enemy.

Pending; Gatekeeper-Watchman International Group is my goal of a Christian-based non-profit organization, that is a faith-based group of associates and friends from all over the world but is not limited to, environmental, social, advocacy, and human rights work. It is my passion that we all can work to promote social or political change on a broad scale or very locally. Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups (#GWIG) seek to play a critical part in developing society, improving communities, and promoting citizen participation all over the world through love, kindness, joy, and various forms of living support. As the founder and administrator of Gatekeeper- Watchman International Groups, my primary purpose is to defend or promote specific causes. As not opposed to operational project management, these organizational groups typically seek to raise awareness, acceptance, and knowledge by lobbying, press work, and activist events and are not limited to donations or outside financial support. Our mission is to accelerate and educate the community and world on the importance of why it's pivotal to empower men, women, and minorities in business globally. When the impoverished are elevated financially, communities, states, and countries prosper, this builds a global blueprint that will alleviate and eradicate poverty and redefine our common cause which is a fair and united democracy.

In this overcrowded online world, do you ever wonder why people spend most of their time googling? or sending a friend request without knowing you? I hope your experience with social networking has been good. And please let me introduce you to a fresh outlook on social platforms. In the beginning, I didn’t understand why people would read and share Posts, Blogs, Tweets, and or Comments when the web is awash with information, advice, and wisdom from people more experienced, more knowledgeable than myself.

As I have grown older, my need to search for quality friends, associates, and companions, immediately discovering that it wasn't easy to do. A relationship with intrinsic value and opportunity is also harder to mobilize because of our change in interests and environment. I have always preferred to choose my friends for myself rather than allowing others to do so for me and this is why I contact others that I may not know and that I find articulate, and exciting because we are communal beings.

I have learned that to introduce social and political change on a broad scale, I concluded that sharing, teaching, and discussing problems head-on and the topics of interest may allow us to focus on a particular subject, unlike the media which recklessly spits out more in shorter bytes than we have been able to chew on as a democracy.

In doing so, I have attempted to connect with people across the world. I constantly search for thriving groups of quality friends from many different cultures’ interests, and scopes of expertise. There, I placed open forums at specific locations and called them Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups. I have intended to ask for prayer, and discussion so that we may encourage others to change the way they gather and extrapolate information while focusing on different perspectives relating to education, employment, social advocacy, and human rights as "Information Specialists".

Steven P. Miller; I believe that we all can work together at promoting change on a broader scale. Likewise, we must all seek different means of sharing our experiences, knowledge, and faith on social platforms if we want to be less cluttered with better resolve. I am also graciously seeking your support and participation in developing an all-volunteer movement. Your contributions and donations, I believe will support our mission to encourage, accelerate and educate humanity on the importance of why it's pivotal to empower the less fortunate who have fallen between the cracks of bureaucracy globally. and when the impoverished classes are elevated financially, communities, states, and countries prosper, and this builds a global blueprint that will alleviate and eradicate greed and selfishness that destroys economic growth and a lack of positive change. Respectfully, From: Steven P. Miller

[vivirsmart]

My Journey to Becoming a Frontend Developer

In today’s fast paced digital world, frontend development has become the cornerstone of delivering exceptional user experiences. From seamless web app navigation to visually stunning interfaces, a frontend developer brings ideas to life.

Why I Want to Be a Frontend Developer and How HNG Will Help Me Achieve My Goals

My journey to becoming a frontend developer is fueled by a passion for creativity, problem solving, and the desire to create applications that users love. Joining HNG internship bootcamp as a frontend developer is the perfect opportunity to sharpen my skills and gain hands on experience while contributing to real world applications.

My Motivation for Becoming a Frontend Developer

Ever since I first interacted with web technologies, I’ve been fascinated by the magic of turning code into functional and beautiful interfaces. It’s amazing how a few lines of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can create immersive websites and applications that millions of people rely on daily.

Another reason I gravitate toward frontend development is its user centric nature. I love the idea of creating intuitive and visually appealing designs that make people’s lives easier. I’m driven by the opportunity to make technology accessible and enjoyable for everyone.

How HNG Will Help Me Grow in the Field

The HNG internship bootcamp is a game changer for aspiring developers like me. One of the most significant challenges in the tech world is bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and real world application. HNG provides the perfect platform to tackle this by immersing participants in a fast paced, project driven environment.

Here’s how I believe HNG will accelerate my growth:

Hands On Experience: HNG’s focus on building real life applications aligns perfectly with my goal to learn by doing. By collaborating with a team to tackle real world challenges, I will develop technical skills that can’t be learned in isolation.

Mentorship and Guidance: HNG’s experienced mentors will provide valuable insights and feedback, helping me refine my coding skills, improve my design thinking, and understand industry best practices.

Exposure to Modern Tools and Frameworks: The bootcamp emphasizes modern frontend technologies. This aligns with my goal of mastering the tools that drive innovation in the industry.

Networking Opportunities: Being part of a vibrant community of like minded developers and industry experts at HNG will expand my professional network and open doors for future opportunities.

My Goals for the Internship and How I Plan to Achieve Them

During my time at HNG, my primary goal is to become a finalist in the frontend track and I plan to achieve this through other key goals such as:

Master Frontend Fundamentals: I aim to strengthen my knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and popular libraries like React. I plan to achieve this by actively participating in all coding sessions and tasks, seeking feedback, and consistently practicing.

Contribute to Real World Projects: One of my key goals is to contribute meaningfully to the applications we build at HNG. By collaborating with team mates, meeting deadlines, and embracing challenges, I hope to add value to every project as I move up the ladder.

Enhance Problem Solving Skills: Frontend development often involves debugging and optimizing code. I will approach every challenge as an opportunity to learn and improve my critical thinking.

Develop a Strong Portfolio: By the end of the internship, I want to have a portfolio showcasing my contributions to real world applications, demonstrating my skills to potential employers that require the service of an experienced JavaScript and React developer.

Conclusion

Becoming a frontend developer is not just a career choice for me, it’s a passion that aligns with my creative and technical interests. The HNG internship bootcamp provides a unique opportunity to accelerate my growth, gain hands on experience, and prepare for the dynamic world of frontend development. With a clear vision of my goals and a commitment to learning, I’m excited to embark on this journey and make the most of this incredible opportunity at HNG.

[mariacallous]

Pretty much every online lurker knows the image: A man gawks at a passing woman making the kind of “How you doin’?” face that would make Joey Tribbiani blush. Ever since it landed in 2017, the “distracted boyfriend” meme, which took that stock photo and projected scenarios onto it, has been seared into the internet’s collective consciousness. Now, artificial intelligence is rendering the memory of that viral moment fuzzy, along with the memories of dozens of other memes.

Often called “time traveler” videos, particularly on TikTok, the AI-generated clips currently bouncing around the internet take well-known memes and add context that wasn’t there before. In some cases, they “interrupt” the action; sometimes they include a haunting specter. In the “distracted boyfriend” animation, which was posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) last month, the boyfriend is seen turning around and following the girl walking in the opposite direction while his girlfriend stands nearby.

The clip was made using Luma Dream Machine, an AI model that takes source images and text prompts and creates high-quality, realistic videos. Within days of its release, social media users started to borrow images and frames from recognizable memes to create visuals that test Dream Machine’s generation abilities. The results proved that while the AI model isn’t flawless, it does have the ability to rewrite internet history by altering the web’s most enduring images.

As Dream Machine spread, some common visual limitations and faults of generative AI showed up in the model’s output, such as unnatural human depictions and objects morphing. While some social media users found the visuals to be scary and concerning in terms of AI’s acceleration and its potential to create misinformation, others found amusement in the model’s incoherent errors.

While it may be disconcerting to think that one of these AI-altered memes could go so viral it eclipses the image that inspired it, Know Your Meme editor Phillip Hamilton believes that the trend doesn’t pose a huge threat to digital media preservation. Rather, it’s the ubiquity of the originals that makes the reboots work.

“Generally, everyone knows the context,” Hamilton says, referring to the viral images being edited. “The iconicness of the video is at the core of the trend … the core of the [time-traveler] meme is that popular thing being stopped.”

The nature of meme-sharing on social media revolves around user interaction with memes. Since most are the result of editing to begin with, editing memes with AI is fair game, Hamilton says.

Luma boasts that Dream Machine can generate 120 frames of high-quality video in under 120 seconds, despite facing significant delays due to extremely high demand. The speedy generation, along with the availability of a “free” tier that allows users to generate up to 30 clips per month, have made Dream Machine much more accessible than its OpenAI counterpart, Sora, which, despite being revealed in February, has not yet been released to the public so far.

The freedom and easy access of the Dream Machine model have led many users, like Lukas Robert Hron, a 23-year-old game developer based in Sweden, to create new versions of popular internet memes, like viral videos from the defunct platform Vine (RIP).

On June 14, Hron posted a clip on X showing a modified version of a 2013 Vine where a young kid incorrectly answers the question “What’s nine plus 10?” In Hron’s version, a shadow enters the room right before the boy declares his iconically wrong answer. Soundtracked by spooky music, the video sparked unnerving reactions from social media users who were as confused as intrigued. Two weeks after Hron posted it, the clip had racked up more than 30 million views on X, and as it made its way to different channels, the video accumulated captions like “POV: time traveler comes to stop meme.” As more users have remade viral Vines, the “time traveler” joke has followed them, too.

The videos, often bizarre in substance, trigger the sort of body horror that comes with generative AI’s uncanny depiction of human forms and movements. While Hron—who also happens to make horror games—did intend for his video to have an off-putting vibe, its strange visuals were merely a product of Dream Machine’s faults. Other posts under the “time traveler” trend show the people in the original videos being chased by shadow figures, morphing into unrecognizable creatures, and being consumed by monsters.

“It's a lot easier for AI to get things wrong, and that just makes them inherently scary,” Hron says.

While these AI-generated visuals might not overshadow the original memes, they signal a new wave of digital content and a new engagement dynamic for social media users. What might only look like bizarre and unrealistic meme-editing at the moment could set the groundwork for a widely skeptical online audience, one that believes not even memes are to be trusted.

[govindhtech]

Obsidian And RTX AI PCs For Advanced Large Language Model

How to Utilize Obsidian‘s Generative AI Tools. Two plug-ins created by the community demonstrate how RTX AI PCs can support large language models for the next generation of app developers.

Obsidian Meaning

Obsidian is a note-taking and personal knowledge base program that works with Markdown files. Users may create internal linkages for notes using it, and they can see the relationships as a graph. It is intended to assist users in flexible, non-linearly structuring and organizing their ideas and information. Commercial licenses are available for purchase, however personal usage of the program is free.

Obsidian Features

Electron is the foundation of Obsidian. It is a cross-platform program that works on mobile operating systems like iOS and Android in addition to Windows, Linux, and macOS. The program does not have a web-based version. By installing plugins and themes, users may expand the functionality of Obsidian across all platforms by integrating it with other tools or adding new capabilities.

Obsidian distinguishes between community plugins, which are submitted by users and made available as open-source software via GitHub, and core plugins, which are made available and maintained by the Obsidian team. A calendar widget and a task board in the Kanban style are two examples of community plugins. The software comes with more than 200 community-made themes.

Every new note in Obsidian creates a new text document, and all of the documents are searchable inside the app. Obsidian works with a folder of text documents. Obsidian generates an interactive graph that illustrates the connections between notes and permits internal connectivity between notes. While Markdown is used to accomplish text formatting in Obsidian, Obsidian offers quick previewing of produced content.

Generative AI Tools In Obsidian

A group of AI aficionados is exploring with methods to incorporate the potent technology into standard productivity practices as generative AI develops and speeds up industry.

Community plug-in-supporting applications empower users to investigate the ways in which large language models (LLMs) might improve a range of activities. Users using RTX AI PCs may easily incorporate local LLMs by employing local inference servers that are powered by the NVIDIA RTX-accelerated llama.cpp software library.

It previously examined how consumers might maximize their online surfing experience by using Leo AI in the Brave web browser. Today, it examine Obsidian, a well-known writing and note-taking tool that uses the Markdown markup language and is helpful for managing intricate and connected records for many projects. Several of the community-developed plug-ins that add functionality to the app allow users to connect Obsidian to a local inferencing server, such as LM Studio or Ollama.

To connect Obsidian to LM Studio, just select the “Developer” button on the left panel, load any downloaded model, enable the CORS toggle, and click “Start.” This will enable LM Studio’s local server capabilities. Because the plug-ins will need this information to connect, make a note of the chat completion URL from the “Developer” log console (“http://localhost:1234/v1/chat/completions” by default).

Next, visit the “Settings” tab after launching Obsidian. After selecting “Community plug-ins,” choose “Browse.” Although there are a number of LLM-related community plug-ins, Text Generator and Smart Connections are two well-liked choices.

For creating notes and summaries on a study subject, for example, Text Generator is useful in an Obsidian vault.

Asking queries about the contents of an Obsidian vault, such the solution to a trivia question that was stored years ago, is made easier using Smart Connections.

Open the Text Generator settings, choose “Custom” under “Provider profile,” and then enter the whole URL in the “Endpoint” section. After turning on the plug-in, adjust the settings for Smart Connections. For the model platform, choose “Custom Local (OpenAI Format)” from the options panel on the right side of the screen. Next, as they appear in LM Studio, type the model name (for example, “gemma-2-27b-instruct”) and the URL into the corresponding fields.

The plug-ins will work when the fields are completed. If users are interested in what’s going on on the local server side, the LM Studio user interface will also display recorded activities.

Transforming Workflows With Obsidian AI Plug-Ins

Consider a scenario where a user want to organize a trip to the made-up city of Lunar City and come up with suggestions for things to do there. “What to Do in Lunar City” would be the title of the new note that the user would begin. A few more instructions must be included in the query submitted to the LLM in order to direct the results, since Lunar City is not an actual location. The model will create a list of things to do while traveling if you click the Text Generator plug-in button.

Obsidian will ask LM Studio to provide a response using the Text Generator plug-in, and LM Studio will then execute the Gemma 2 27B model. The model can rapidly provide a list of tasks if the user’s machine has RTX GPU acceleration.

Or let’s say that years later, the user’s buddy is visiting Lunar City and is looking for a place to dine. Although the user may not be able to recall the names of the restaurants they visited, they can review the notes in their vault Obsidian‘s word for a collection of notes to see whether they have any written notes.

A user may ask inquiries about their vault of notes and other material using the Smart Connections plug-in instead of going through all of the notes by hand. In order to help with the process, the plug-in retrieves pertinent information from the user’s notes and responds to the request using the same LM Studio server. The plug-in uses a method known as retrieval-augmented generation to do this.

Although these are entertaining examples, users may see the true advantages and enhancements in daily productivity after experimenting with these features for a while. Two examples of how community developers and AI fans are using AI to enhance their PC experiences are Obsidian plug-ins.

Thousands of open-source models are available for developers to include into their Windows programs using NVIDIA GeForce RTX technology.

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