#python set examples

[proeduorganization]

Python Sets

Introduction In previous post, we talked about the concept of python tuples. In this post, we will understand the concept of Python Set. In Python, a set is an unordered collection of unique elements. It is defined using curly braces {} or the set() constructor. Sets are mutable, meaning you can add or remove elements from them. However, unlike lists or tuples, sets cannot have duplicate…

[not-terezi-pyrope]

AI continues to be useful, annoying everyone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[bare1ythere]

How to back up your tumblr blog with Tumblr-Utils FOR MAC USERS

I've seen a few guides floating around on how to use some more complex options for backing up your tumblr blog, but most are extremely PC focused. Here is a guide for fellow (unfortunate) mac users!

Note: I am not a tech savvy person at all. My brother walked me through this, and I'm just sharing what he told me. Unfortunately I won't be able to help much if you need trouble shooting or advice ;; sorry! This is also based off of this guide (link) by @/magz.

- - - - GUIDE - - - -

First, open terminal. You can command+space to search through your applications, and search for "terminal". It should look like this.

You should see something like this within the window:

[COMPUTER NAME]:~ [USER NAME]$ []

First, create a virtual environment for tumblr back up. This will limit any conflicts with other python programs. Type and enter this into terminal:

python3 -m venv .tumblr_backup

Then, Activate the virtual environment by entering this:

source .tumblr_backup/bin/activate

The next line should now show something like this:

(.tumblr_backup) [COMPUTER NAME]:~ [USER NAME]$ []

As a side note, you can exit this virtual environment by typing and entering "deactivate". You can re-enter it through the previous line we used to activate it to begin with.

Next, install the base package with this line:

python3 -m pip install tumblr-backup

The linked guide details various options for tumblr back up packages that you can install. Copied from the guide for convenience:

"tumblr-backup : default tumblr-backup[video] : adds option to download videos tumblr-backup[exif] : adds option to download EXIF information of fotos (photography metadata information) tumblr-backup[notes] : adds option to download notes of posts (huge) tumblr-backup[jq] : adds option to filter which posts to backup  tumblr-backup[all] : adds all options (personally doesn't work for us at the moment of writing this)"

I chose the video option, but you can pick which you'd like. Download that specific package with this line. Note that unlike the previous lines Ive shown, the square brackets here are actually part of it and must be used:

python3 -m pip install tumblr-backup[OPTION]

Next, you need to create an app linked to your tumblr account to get an OAuth consumer key (aka API key). Go to this link: [https://www.tumblr.com/oauth/apps] and click the [+Register application] button. Here, you will have to input a bunch of info. What you put doesn't really matter. This is how the original guide filled it out, and I did pretty much the exact same thing:

(The github link for your convenience: https://github.com/Cebtenzzre/tumblr-utils)

For the next step, You'll take the OAuth consumer key (NOT the secret key) and set it as the API key in tumblr-utils to give it the ability to download your blog. Input this line. Note that in this case, the square brackets are NOT to be included- just copy and paste the key:

tumblr-backup --set-api-key [YOUR OAUTH CONSUMER KEY]

This will set you up to start your back up! Type this to see all the different customization options you can pick from for your backup:

tumblr-backup --help

To begin your back up, pick which options you want to choose from and select which of your blogs you want to back up. It should look like this:

tumblr-backup [OPTIONS] [BLOG NAME]

For example, I am currently backing up this blog and I wanted to save videos as well as reversing the post order in the monthly archives. This is what my command looked like:

tumblr-backup -r --save-video bare1ythere

And there you have it! Your backup will be saved into a file titled after your blog. You can search through finder for it from there. There is also an option to specify where you want to save your blog, but I'm not sure how it works. I hope this was useful!!

[pforestsims]

🔊 The Sims 2 sound effects - instances list (WIP)

Download txt file (BOX)

Below you'll find a list of The Sims 2 Base game sound resources that I've identified so far, along their instance number - this is for people who'd like to export particular sound, or replace it with something else.

My first attempt at replacing game sound resource with MP3 failed (older sound defaults: less dog barking in hood view and no bed woohoo music were made with resources found in the game files).

I used wrong export settings back then, now I tried MP3 32000 Hz /48kbs and it seems to work fine.

Worth noting - sound duration has to be the same as cutscene (or longer). If it's too short, it gets stretched and becomes too slow.

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

ALL sound resources extracted with SimPe get .MP3 extension, even if it's in fact an .xa file. Most audio players can't open .xa files and will throw an error.

XA format files can be converted to .WAV with Xantippe app. You need to change .mp3 extension to .xa before you open it - if xantippe throws an error that means the file is actually an mp3 or spx.

'Voice' files are almost exclusively spx format, more about that here, post by lingeringwillx @ MTS2 - they created python script to decode it, post includes instructions on how to tell if a resource is .xa or something else.

Lazyduchess has shared a re-encoded version of TS2 spx voice resources, these are mostly mp3 and can be played in any app. (Patreon DL link).

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

How to search for the sound in the game files:

Open TSData folder [The Sims 2 / base game Folder]/TSData/Res/Sound

Open one of these three sound packages in SimPe: Sfx1, Sfx2, Misc. Browse "mp3 or xa Sound File"

open "filter resources" tab on the right, paste Instance number (the last one in a row) and click 'set'

if nothing shows up, drop another sound package into SimPe (Sfx1, Sfx2, Misc) until you see the sound on the resource list.

Instance number is the LAST in a row

[ ? ] - [Instance(high)] - [Group] - [Instance]

example: 2026960B-7F75E59D-0B8AB3CD-FF05C5C6

instance = FF05C5C6

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

Cinematics / Events

(I've only specified if a file is MP3 in a few cases, but there could be more of those. Some sounds have a few versions so I can't guarantee these are actually used in the game)

0C6E3A70-0B8AB3CD-FF45ABBA lost Weight

2026960B-91CC2AC3-0B8AB3CD-FF081A6A giving birth

2026960B-8BB1E2CE-0B8AB3CD-FF2B96EE UFO abduction (an MP3 file)

2026960B-7F75E59D-0B8AB3CD-FF05C5C6 UFO - Sim returns (an MP3 file)

2026960B-8A0F83A5-0B8AB3CD-FFFA7AB9 alien birth

56A9AC78-6B8AB3D7-FFD763E1 plumbing malfunction

A60A0E48-AB8AB3D2-FF660BBF burglar theme

05EA3037-AB8AB3D2-FF838B86 developed a crush

00EC7172-AB8AB3D2-FFB15612 feLL IN LOVE

2026960B-ECDE4BA5-0B8AB3CD-FFF34D2B failed engagement

6F564CA3-AB8AB3D2-FF9F10A7 caught Cheating

2026960B-A1842B83-0B8AB3CD-FF509848 bed woohoo (an MP3 file) this one is used in the game

2026960B-2AA91173-0B8AB3CD-FF0C1673 hottub woohoo (an MP3 file)

2026960B-673DF43D-0B8AB3CD-FFCDA5F8 hottub woohoo, same as above, but louder (an MP3 file) Possibly used in the game but I'm not sure

E3017DDD-0B8AB3CD-FFDE90FB fireworks 1

1D29A473-0B8AB3CD-FF4A709D fireworks 2

4E7A4676-AB8AB3D2-FFDF28E2 Got promoted

2935C11F-AB8AB3D2-FF6777E4 social workers arrive

412D2401-AB8AB3D2-FF9EFAEC death

2026960B-5DE2C0D0-0B8AB3CD-FFABCEC1 ghosts? (creepy ambient)

C49567B9-ADA1F468-FFC79BDF quiet bells, mysterious ambient

9B817E4F-AB8AB3D2-FFC7516B bling !

50C4F377-0B8AB3CD-FFFA3E65 doorbell

5D87D5AE-0B8AB3CD-FFF6A793 nice Doorbell

Nature

2026960B-8E6F500E-0B8AB3CD-FFE90CD9 big fire

2026960B-B91CBC2E-0B8AB3CD-FFC106A2 thunder

2026960B-75C4A7CB-0B8AB3CD-FF441EAE Flies

2026960B-1DDBF5CB-0B8AB3CD-FF69A5A0 slow cicadas

2026960B-1098D312-0B8AB3CD-FF653C56 cicadas

2026960B-3E358AB1-0B8AB3CD-FFD3391C crickets less loud

2026960B-3376AC68-0B8AB3CD-FFDFA0EA crickets / jungle

660B32B0-4CC9E945-FF001DF3 single Cricket

A4890932-4C3E66EE-FFBFF835 single Loud Cricket

14E06D63-4CC9E945-FFAB8C2B very quiet Bird

05E7CF3B-2C3E53D9-FFDD6645 quiet bird 1

36DF6C79-4CC9E945-FF5558D6 quiet bird 2

4C7EC562-2C3E53D9-FFF0046A birds 1

4E1730EB-2C3F70D5-FFF352E8 birds 2

64ADEDB6-2C3E53D9-FF06AFCE single Bird 1

860EE7CD-AC4C568B-FF7A9383 single bird 2

A5961275-6E0A5058-FFDADC9C weird owl or something

C45E6713-2C3F70D8-FF6E98CC Owl hooting

ABC18F4D-4C3F70DE-FF223DA3 single Bird 3

ACA90A53-2C3F70D5-FF11F737 single chirpy Bird

DE814E15-6E0A5058-FFBBEC05 Crow

5A0AAD22-AC4C5684-FFCC9AC5 frogs

electronics /water / machines

49F28038-0B8AB3CD-FF5B3156 blender

E2B508B7-0B8AB3CD-FFC67282 jazuzzi hum

2026960B-7BDA5F0B-0B8AB3CD-FF6CC7D9 jacuzzi Hum 2

2026960B-FA6CA340-0B8AB3CD-FF2B2732 machine 1

2026960B-79FDA8C9-0B8AB3CD-FF39184F quiet car engine

2026960B-A5CCBC84-0B8AB3CD-FF67AFB1 hum

2026960B-51F6E7DF-0B8AB3CD-FFC77487 quiet hum

2026960B-0ACED28F-0B8AB3CD-FF21A07D tub water splash

2026960B-078DF456-0B8AB3CD-FF2D398B tub splash 2

2026960B-EF594603-0B8AB3CD-FF7BF68C machine 2

2026960B-6056339D-0B8AB3CD-FF8DED15 machine 3

2026960B-8FD1A3D8-0B8AB3CD-FFF6B07A water 2

2026960B-F8828DBC-0B8AB3CD-FF4BC580 machine 4

2026960B-53751DDD-0B8AB3CD-FFDDF748 water gurgle

2026960B-F5732187-0B8AB3CD-FF4FF045 jet

2026960B-42A7FD9F-0B8AB3CD-FFF6A592 quiet car engine

2026960B-62B6A707-0B8AB3CD-FF3592EC car 1

2026960B-78C55345-0B8AB3CD-FF205208 car fade off

2026960B-DAFBA3F9-0B8AB3CD-FFEA9191 jet fade off

2026960B-82F59CEF-0B8AB3CD-FF184230 light trafic

2026960B-BE0D9651-0B8AB3CD-FF62BECD shower or rain

2026960B-8FB6BA36-0B8AB3CD-FF14DBC6 light Traffic

2026960B-D4473A8C-0B8AB3CD-FF240C5E car 2

2026960B-D231F6E9-0B8AB3CD-FFF5F774 car 3

2026960B-A49FFBC2-0B8AB3CD-FF434DCC another car

2026960B-0164A643-0B8AB3CD-FF74F7C7 noise or shower

2026960B-193EDDA2-0B8AB3CD-FF010DB5 car 4

2026960B-8B2844F8-0B8AB3CD-FFE3B6EB car/ bus

2026960B-D7D2EA5F-0B8AB3CD-FF02932F cheap car or something

[nostalgebraist]

I typed out these messages in a discord server a moment ago, and then thought "hmm, maybe I should make the same points in a tumblr post, since I've been talking about software-only-singularity predictions on tumblr lately"

But, as an extremely lazy (and somewhat busy) person, I couldn't be bothered to re-express the same ideas in a tumblr-post-like format, so I'm giving you these screenshots instead

(If you're not familiar, "MCP" is "Model Context Protocol," a recently introduced standard for connections between LLMs and applications that want to interact with LLMs. Its official website is here – although be warned, that link leads to the bad docs I complained about in the first message. The much more palatable python SDK docs can be found here.)

EDIT: what I said in the first message about "getting Claude to set things up for you locally" was not really correct, I was conflating this (which fits that description) with this and this (which are real quickstarts with code, although not very good ones, and frustratingly there's no end-to-end example of writing a server and then testing it with a hand-written client or the inspector, as opposed to using with "Claude for Desktop" as the client)

[ilguna]

☼ between life and death pt1 (Finnick Odair) ☼

summary; Finnick saves your life on the first day of the games, asking you to be his ally because he wants to keep his eye on the biggest threat in the arena.

warnings; swearing, fighting, blood mention, death, death mention, gore.

wc; 8.9k

part two.

–

The platform moves slowly to bring you to the surface of the arena. 

You tilt your head back, squinting through the darkness as your eyes adjust to the sudden light. You find large trees hanging overhead, blocking the sun. The further you come out of the ground, the more you’re able to see.

A strong breeze pushes the hair out of your face for you. The golden Cornucopia sits tall in the middle of this small meadow. You don’t think you’ve ever seen the Gamemakers put the tributes so close together before. This must’ve been their only option.

You shuffle on your metal plate to look behind you, being careful to not set off the explosive connected to it. You’re met with a thick forest, a smile creeps at the corner of your lips. You couldn’t have asked for anything better, this is exactly what you were hoping for.

This is less about the placement of the Cornucopia, and more about what surrounds it. In a forest like this, so tightly packed, it’ll be easy to lose someone in them. The bushes and tall grass clumped together at the base of the trees offer concealment for prying eyes. And with how small the meadow is, it makes for an easy escape for an intruder. 

Like you, for example. 

You would be with the Careers, only they didn’t want you in the alliance. It has something to do with your young age. You promised them that you’d be useful, but they were more worried about your maturity. They didn’t care about your score, they were focused on your ability to shut up and do what you’re told.

You aren’t interested in being bossed around. You’re not their errand girl. You tried to appeal to them by making your tribute partner tell them about your ranking back home in the academy, that you are the top of your class, all the way up to the seventeen year-olds. When they weren’t interested, you didn’t push your luck.

You don’t care that much about being with them. You’re pretty confident that you can win this by yourself. They’ll just have to watch their back. If you wanted, you could attack them one night. It doesn’t have to be today, it probably won’t even be in the next week, but when you’re ready, you could strike like a python, and be gone in the weeds.

They could get lost in these trees trying to find out. It can’t be that hard to get turned around.

“Ladies and gentlemen, let the Sixty-Fifth Hunger Games begin!”

With the announcement, you turn back to the Cornucopia. You have sixty seconds to figure out what you’re going to grab, and which direction you’re going to run in, after.

In the meadow, hidden in the flourishing grass and the bright flowers, are a number of items that could help you win. The further away from the mouth, the worse it is. Which means they don’t have any weapons out here. If you want them, you have to get in close, risk the danger of running across other tributes.

If you were anyone else, with a low rank in the academy and an even worse training score, you wouldn’t consider it. Your age alone is a death certificate here. However, you are neither weak nor unskilled. That’s why you’ll be joining them in the bloodbath.

What you want is a backpack, and a weapon you can actually use, at the very least. Swords are usually too heavy for you to use, but something similar, like a machete, will work. It’s not as thick, the Capitol doesn’t make them out of pure metal. Just the blade, and the handle.

The tributes that surround you, are what you’d consider nobodies. It’s further down the line, do the faces become vaguely important. The four other Careers are spread healthily apart, two of them being behind the Cornucopia all together. This means you only have two to worry about fighting.

If you’re quick enough, you won’t have to do that entirely.

You bounce on your toes slightly, moving side to side as you watch the time tick down. In ten seconds, the gong will sound and it’ll be a free for all. You have to remember that your goal is to get in and out with what you want. You’re not worried about getting kills under your belt, that can be done later on. 

You can feel your heart like a drum on the inside of your chest, as you take deep breaths to prepare yourself, leaning forward. You’ve got this. There’s no question about it. This is what you were trained for.

The exact second the gong sounds, you’re the first off of the platform. You sprint for the green backpack that’s leaned up against a box on the right. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see two other people that have the same idea as you. 

Unfortunately for them, you make it there first. In one fluid motion, you get your arm through the strap and fling it onto your back. You jump over the box, heading a few steps further in, swiping a knife and a machete. When you turn around to make your escape, you’re met face to face with your tribute partner.

You intentionally slam your shoulder into his stomach, a new tactic you learned to get taller people away from you. It works for those who aren’t expecting it, but he’s seen you do the trick a hundred times in the mock Games back home. He wrestles you to the ground, already pulling at the backpack.

“Damn it, Hunter!” You shout, “Get off!”

“I told you not to come here.” He tells you, as if you’re some child. “I told you we’d kill you.”

“You’re not doing anything.” You draw your knee up to put between you two, slashing at him with the knife. He dodges it, giving you more room to swing your leg up and kick him back.

You scramble to your feet, almost tripping in the process. You take a step to run, and he grabs the only foot on the ground, yanking it. You fall flat on your stomach, face screwing angrily.

That’s it.

You can hear him behind you, you squeeze the knife in your hand. You didn’t want to kill him, but if this is what he wants, then you insist. You push up to your knees, twisting around, blade out to make a wide cutting motion. He grabs your wrist, you spring up, swinging your arm under his armpit and behind his neck.

Once again, this takes you down to the grass. He manages to get the knife out of your hand in the process. You fall on top of him, hand in a fist, barreling down at his throat, never minding his face. He tries to catch you, but he misses. You land the punch, feeling the area cave.

He chokes, eyes wide. You jerk forward, grabbing the knife only a foot away. You pin his wrist down with your foot, drawing the knife back, and slamming it into his neck. Before you’ve even removed the blade, blood begins to pool in the area. You yank it out, search for your machete, which is closer than you thought it would be.

You retrieve it, glancing behind you to see that the other tributes are caught up in their own struggles to pay attention to what you’ve just done. With that, you turn to the forest behind the Cornucopia, running into the trees. 

The entirety of District Two just watched you murder the one person that’s supposed to be on your side. As well as every sponsor that had their bets placed on your older counterpart. And not to mention the academy, where you were trained and specifically told not to harm your tribute partner because it makes you seem aggressive and greedy.

There’s nothing you can do about it now.

When you think you’ve cleared the first mile, you set a slower pace for yourself to run, wanting to put as much distance as possible between you and the Cornucopia. When the bloodbath is done, the Careers will take an hour to collect themselves, and then they’ll set out to find whoever they can.

Or maybe they won’t, they’re down to three. If they had four, you’re sure they’d be more comfortable. With Hunter being dead, and them outcasting you and the boy from Four because of your ages, their abilities are limited. They’re not as big of a threat as they could be.

It might mean that they’d be willing to recruit new members. You’ve seen them do it in the past. You’re not sure they’d come crawling to your feet exactly, but you’d be an option because of your training. However, if they saw what you did to Hunter, you’re a different sort-of target.

They have so many people to worry about in here, that it could be days before they finally come after you.

That’s one of the perks of being fourteen, you suppose.

It’s hours later when the first cannon comes through, signaling the deaths from the bloodbath. It’s always baffled you how long the fights drag on there. It felt like you were there for only a couple minutes, and yet, it could’ve been up to thirty. Just you and Hunter wrestling on the ground.

You come to a stop, the muscles in your legs aching. You breathe deeply in through your nose, and out through your mouth. The cannons fire one at a time, with enough space in between for you to think. This year, it goes on until it reaches ten. One of those deaths is by your hands.

You swing the bag off of your shoulder, sliding behind a tree to crouch and dig through your goodies. You pull it out one at a time: a pack of crackers, a bag of dried meat, a small bottle of iodine, a firestarter, a plastic bottle with a cap for water, a decent amount of rope, and a thin sleeping bag.

You rest your elbows on your knees, biting your cheek while you stare at your new belongings. This is a very good start, almost too good to be true. You carefully place everything back into the bag, as well as the knife, because you have your machete to use if need be.

You zip it up, pulling it onto your bag. 

With miles put between you and the Careers, you feel comfortable enough to walk for the rest of the day. You continue straight, keeping an eye out for any other tributes that might have traveled in the same direction. It’s a waste of energy, though. These trees are placed tightly together, anyone could be hiding out here and you wouldn’t know until you’re practically on top of them.

You were hoping that the forest would thin out the further you go. You should’ve known better. When you get what you ask for, there’s always a catch that comes with it. You can’t complain, you’ll take whatever you can get.

You hum an upbeat tune from home, usually used to taunt others. Last night, when you were talking to Hunter about a possible secret alliance with him, he shot you down. He tried to tell you that you would die in here, and he wouldn’t be surprised if you were one of the first to go.

It’s funny how karma works, isn’t it? He’s the one that had to be airlifted out of the arena, not the girl that should’ve lost the fight. He’s the one getting his throat stitched to make him presentable for his family at home. He’s the one that’ll be lowered into the ground in a box in a couple days.

While that happens, you’ll still be kicking and fighting every second of the day.

The ground begins to slope upwards. At the bottom, you look up the hill, and see that the top isn’t that far away. It’ll give you a good vantage point, maybe you’ll be able to see over the trees you’ve been in for the past four hours.

You wipe the sweat from your forehead, watching it glisten on the side of your hand before rubbing it on the side of your pants. The hill becomes steep and irritating—the dirt is loose and you slip several times—but it’s worth it once you’ve reached the top.

Well, you had the right idea for the most part. Except, the way you just came is completely hidden by branches and leaves. You can’t even make out where the Cornucopia is, which is practically unheard of. No matter where a tribute is in the arena, the golden horn is almost always visible, or easy to find.

You’re not heartbroken over the Cornucopia, in fact, you forget about it the second you turn around and see the other side of the hill. There’s more trees, of course, but these woods aren’t densely populated, you can actually see what’s over here. And your eyes lock on the river that runs on the far side of the arena.

You chew on the inside of your cheek, squinting at the water. It’s far, if you had to guess, it’s somewhere around fifteen miles away. It’s going to be a long walk, one that you’re not entirely sure you can make today. If you ran, it could probably take less time, but you’ve got tonight to worry about, and all of tomorrow. 

If you tire yourself out today, you’ll be screwed. You shade your eyes, looking up to find where the sun is positioned. There’s a good six hours until sunset, you can spend half that time going in the direction of the river, and the other half finding a safe spot to sleep. That way, by the time the Fallen plays, you’ll be someplace safe.

With that plan in place, you begin down the hill, still humming to yourself. It’s lively on this side, it’s not nearly as quiet. The birds chirp to one another above you. The bushes will rustle each time a rabbit darts in and out. You won’t have to worry about hunting animals, at least. They’re keeping relatively close to the water source, which is good news.

The problem is that the other tributes, especially the Careers, will pick up on this. You weren’t planning on setting up a permanent camp anyway, but it’s definitely out of the question now. Once you get in close tomorrow, you’ll spend the rest of the day finding an area that looks boring enough to skip over searching.

It’s during this part of the walk, do you really begin to feel hot. You swing the bag off of your shoulder, unzipping your jacket and stuffing it into your bag. The relief is immediate, the breeze is able to properly caress your skin, cooling you down. The sunlight is still relentless. With these trees being further apart, shadows aren’t consistent. You walk in the shade as much as you can, and cross your fingers you won’t end up with a nasty sunburn.

The next two hours are easier, when you aren’t thinking about how you could go for a cold glass of water. One of the many treats that you were sure to appreciate in the tunnel before they brought you to the surface. She asked you what you wanted, it could be any food you could think of, and you asked for a glass of water.

Mostly for hydration, knowing that you’d be sweating it out in an hour, but also because it’s a habit of yours. No matter how hot or cold, indoors or outdoors, while you’re training, when your skin feels like it’s on fire, water is the one thing you ask above all.

You hope the stream is cold for you to enjoy. You’ll have to collect it, put the iodine in and wait. In that time, it could become warm, unless you let it rest in the river while it sanitizes. It won’t be perfectly cold. Beggars can’t be choosers, though. You know this.

By the third hour, you’re more than happy to start the journey of finding a place to sleep tonight. There’s a sufficient amount of sun to cover you while you wander, eyes searching the trees and nearby hills for any hiding spot to explore. You’re hoping for more than what the eye can see.

You come up with nothing.

So, you continue in the direction of the river, knowing that there’s another couple hours of daylight. If you can’t find anything in that time, that means you’ll be out here with the animals and the Careers, which is basically the same thing. If they find you, they’re not going to hesitate when it comes to tearing you apart. Regardless if they know you killed Hunter or not.

The trees get thicker, but you don’t stop and consider them. They need to be able to hold your bodyweight, and the branches aren’t ready for that. Besides, it would take one look up, and they’d be able to spot you. They need more foliage.

You stop humming when the sun sets, your cheery mood beginning to dampen. The light is gone, the night creatures are coming to life. You grip the machete in your hand a little tighter, telling yourself that you’ve got nothing to worry about. You’re prepared.

It isn’t until the Capitol anthem plays, do you stop to listen and watch the death recap. The Capitol seal is bright in the sky, you want to be able to see who’s dead, yet this opportunity to see is too good to pass up. You start walking again, stealing glances at the sky.

The first face to appear in the sky is Hunter, now every tribute knows that they’re down a Career member. It’s not normal for them to lose someone on the first day, this will tank their credit and plant seeds of doubt in people’s minds. They’ll be underestimated, just not enough for tributes to start attacking them.

If tributes have been paying attention, then they’d also realize that they’ve been a small group since the beginning. They casted you out almost immediately, you were left to study and show off on your own. It was a pain, but it worked out in the end, you managed to score a nine.

The next face to show up in the sky is the girl from Five, meaning that districts Three and Four survived. At home, you’d be able to see exactly how the tributes died, as well as what they placed because of it. The next morning, you’d have training at the academy, where they’d go over each death and you’d have to come up with a way to survive, and then reenact it with another student. 

As morbid as it sounds, it works.

Both of the tributes from Six are dead, Seven made it out. The boy from Eight, both from Nine, neither from Ten, both from Eleven and just the boy from Twelve. It’s a pretty average group, you’re not all that surprised. The Capitol seal appears again, with a musical flourish, and then it’s gone and you’re plunged back into darkness.

You sigh.

However, you’ve traveled faster than you thought, because it’s less than an hour later, do you hear the sound of rushing water. Your pace picks up, you break through the trees, finding a small path along the bank of the river. You can’t help the laugh that erupts from you.

This wasn’t the plan by any means, you can’t bring yourself to care, though. You pull the bag off of your shoulder, going to unzip it to grab the empty plastic bottle, when something slams into you. The machete is gone, landing a few feet away. 

You twist, swinging your fist before you’ve even seen who it is that’s taken you down. They catch your wrist, pinning it down at a painful angle, leaning over you. It’s a girl, her dark hair creates a curtain around the two of you. There’s a sickening grin on her face.

“Where’s your friends?” She asks.

She isn’t very perceptive, is she?

As much as you’d like to pretend they’re around, if you called for help, it could alert anyone in the area that you’re here. If she does end up injuring you, the last thing you’d want is for someone to come around and finish you off. You’ve got to do this quietly.

“Around.” You smile when you say the word. “What about you? Do you even have any?” 

This isn’t the girl from Twelve, she’s skinnier, you could flip her over in a second, same thing goes for Three. And the girl from Eight is blonde, which stuck out for you because they’re usually dark haired. This is the girl from Seven, it explains the strength she has to pin you down and the body mass. She’s not fat, it’s muscle.

Maybe taunting her isn’t the brightest idea, but you really can’t help it.

“Around.” She mocks you. 

You bite your tongue, wanting to say a number of nasty things to her. “Oh really, why isn’t he with you? It’s safer to pair together when you’ve scored so low.”

She ignores the job, “Why aren’t they with you?”

You narrow your eyes, is she really going to mock you? “Because we’re scouting the area. We all agreed to meet back at the river, it’s only a matter of time before they come around.”

“Right,” She says. “They’d let the little girl go off by herself? How old are you? Thirteen?”

“You don’t believe me?” You ask her, “Fine.”

You draw in a deep breath, opening your mouth to scream for help, when she clamps a hand around your throat, squeezing. It’s painful, but you can’t help the smirk on your face, fingers grazing the machete above you.

“Shut up.” She snarls.

You grasp the handle, and you’re about to swing it at her neck, when a splash of hot liquid hits your face. Her hand loosens, as she leans back, looking down. You follow her gaze, and find the head of a spear sticking out of her stomach.

Blood. It was blood that got on your face. 

You shove her off, now that you have company, you need to work quickly. You get to your feet, hand sweeping the backpack off the ground, and tossing it out if the way. When you turn around, you’re met with the other outcasted Career. 

The boy from Four.

He comes out of the darkness, heading right for the girl from Seven. You take a couple steps back, fixing the machete in your hand. He keeps his eyes on you as he reaches forward, grabbing the handle of the spear, and yanking it out of the girls back.

Like you said, you weren’t the only one to get pushed out of the elite circle. The two of you are the same age, both being too young to be invited. Although, it won’t put him as far behind as it has you; he’s got everyone wrapped around his finger. Whether or not he’s done it intentionally is a mystery that you don’t care to solve.

From the moment he was reaped, the Capitol has been buzzing over him. Half of the tributes wanted him as an ally, too. The issue is, the ones that matter don’t want him. The older Careers want to win, and they can’t do that if they have the potential of being dragged down.

You don’t think he cared very much, though. He didn’t pursue them in the same way that you did. Once his partner told him to get lost, he went his own way to train for the Games. He scored a nine, the same as you. He is far from being innocent.

“I think we should be allies.” He says, taking his eyes off of you long enough to stab Seven. A cannon booms.

“And why’s that?” You ask.

“You’re a threat,” He tilts his head with a smile. “How is it that you managed to score so high without showing anything useful? I want to keep my eyes on you.”

His reasoning is flawed. If you were him, you’d want yourself dead. It’s the only way to ensure that you stay alive. A tribute down means one more tribute that you don’t have to worry about later on down the line.

You can’t help but believe him. Why else would he go out of his way to save you? If he wanted, he could’ve killed you in the middle of this interaction at any time, and you wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. 

The idea isn’t bad, either. You both have scored well, you won’t have to worry about carrying a bulk of the burdens, or protecting him against any tributes you run across. And he does have a lot of sponsors backing him up, which is a factor that you chose to ignore during training. You hate taking people for who they are at the surface or what they have on their side. You want to see their worth.

And this boy may be worth more than you think.

“Fine.” You tell him, his smile widens. “We aren’t friends.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” He dips the spear into the river. “My name is Finnick.”

“(Y/n).” You tell him, lowering the machete, taking a few steps away to grab the backpack. 

“I found a cave.” He tells you, motioning up the stream, “A little ways from here. I was going to grab water, but I don’t have anything to carry it in.”

“I do.” You unzip the bag, tossing the plastic bottle at him. “Is the cave concealed?”

He catches it, “Yes, they won’t be finding us in there.”

This might work out.

—

“Let’s go over the plan one more time.” You say, tying your shoes. 

“Sure.” Finnick says, he’s standing by the entrance of the cave, weapon in hand. 

The spear lays discarded on the far side of the cave, no longer useful to him. He told you that you could have it, but you turned it down, preferring the machete. He upgraded from it sometime last week, when a sponsor sent him the trident he’s holding in his hand now.

You almost screamed when you saw it, because you’ve never seen a gift so expensive get sent into the Games. You’ve seen sponsors actively keep up with the tributes they have bets on, up until it’s too expensive. They always send small things, nothing that could ever add up to something as large as a trident.

What threw you more was how unaffected Finnick was by it. He didn’t seem to care, he even said something about the spear working just fine. You had to take a few deep breaths to calm yourself down, because you would’ve killed to get something half as good from a sponsor. And you were going to strangle him for being so ungrateful.

Yours have been sending food, which was greatly appreciated the first few times, but you’ve moved on from that. Hunting here isn’t nearly as big of a pain as you thought it would be. 

“We’re going to leave for the Cornucopia in an hour,” You begin, “When we get there, we’ll light a fire that they’ll be able to see. They’ll come after us, and we’ll split them. You want both of the tributes from One, and I’m supposed to take your district partner.”

“Yes.” Finnick says, “And when they’re dead, we’ll meet back at the Cornucopia to regroup, gather, and come back here.”

“You’re sure you can take two tributes at once?” You ask. “They’re older than us.”

“I’m going to net the boy and fight the girl. I told you, I’ve got this. Just worry about fighting Amaryllis.”

You make a face, “Is she really that bad? She doesn’t look like much and she scored an eight.”

“It was on purpose, remember?” Finnick sighs. “She doesn’t care about sponsors. If it were up to her, she would’ve scored lower. It’s part of her plan if she ever got reaped.”

You hum, letting him know that you’re listening. You’ve tried a couple times to get him to switch with you. You’d rather be the one to take the One tributes, even if that’ll be the most difficult task, but Finnick can’t stomach the idea of killing Amaryllis. It’s something about knowing her younger sister, and not wanting to cause problems.

When you told him that you were the one to kill Hunter, and it’s not that big of a deal, he shut you down. He told you that there’s a difference. You want to win at all costs, if that means tearing down everyone in your way, then so be it. For him, he’d rather die than lay a finger on her.

In a way, he called you heartless. He doesn’t realize that you didn’t go out of your way to kill Hunter. It was the only option you had. You weren’t going to try to escape the Cornucopia again, because you knew that Hunter would pursue you. You killed him because it had to be done. He would do the same if Amaryllis was the only thing standing between his life and his death.

“Right.” You say. 

Since agreeing to be his ally, you’ve come to learn a lot about Finnick. Some of it being out of your own curiosity, or maybe because he told you during a vulnerable moment. Other times, it’s because of the behavior you’ve picked up on.

You’ve started to trust Finnick’s judgement regarding situations, because of it. He pays close attention, finds details that you never would have thought about. A few nights ago, you two had hunted down the boy from Seven, because he’d been stomping around the area.

Finnick saw the cuts on his hands and arms, the way he’d been limping. Once you killed the boy, Finnick led you to a cliffside, one that you could only pass if you climbed it. You were sure that no one would be stupid enough, but Finnick was convinced. And he was right. For the first few feet up the cliff, it was normal. The further you look, there was dried blood smeared across the sharpest rocks.

You thought that would be the end of it, knowing where he’d come from, how he’d managed to hit his hands and arms. You’d assumed that Seven hurt his ankle from falling or jumping down. Either way, the area was safe again, and you wanted to go back to the cave.

This is when you found out that Finnick has little to no regard for his life. Despite seeing the injuries that Seven had gotten from this cliffside, he wanted to see if there was anything at the top that you two could have. You tried to tell him that it was a bad idea, and before you could stop him, he was starting up the wall.

In his defense, it wasn’t that bad of an idea. Seven had a sponsor gift or two, which Finnick tossed down to you at the bottom. It wasn’t the first time he’d pulled a stunt like that, you were surprised that he kept doing it, though.

Him wanting to take on both Career tributes from One makes sense, when you think about that. It’s more dangerous to take two tributes that genuinely scored ten, versus Amaryllis, who’s just by herself. You have to give him some credit too, he has the tools to be able to do it without batting an eye.

That net that he has is made out of the rope you’d gotten in your backpack from the Cornucopia. When you gave it to him, his face lit up, and the first thing he did was weave it. It’s proved useful so far, it’s how he was able to kill the boy from Ten and the girl from Three.

So, as much as you’d like to make Finnick switch with you, you can’t do it. You understand his feelings towards Amaryllis to a certain extent. And since he’ll be able to take out the One tributes the easiest, you have to let it go. After all, you do trust his judgement.

When the sun has finally set outside, you and Finnick gather your belongings and leave the cave. It’s well-hidden, no one seems to be interested in venturing this far away from the center, wanting to be able to raid the Cornucopia each time the Careers leave. 

As for you and Finnick, you haven’t gone back since the first day, and it’s been almost three weeks. There hasn’t been a need to, you both have the weapons you could ask for, and you have an endless supply of food coming from your sponsors. The only reason why you’re going now, is because the pool of tributes have narrowed.

The Careers are going to split up any day now, and it’ll be harder to keep track of where they are that way. This is why you started brainstorming ideas on how to kill them. You’ve gone through a lot of plans, many of which you never ended up telling Finnick, because they were dramatic and stupid. You want something straight-forward that’ll progress the Games without the Gamemakers interfering.

There’s eight tributes left in the arena. You and Finnick waited long enough to let the Capitol do their family interviews, because it’s a favored tradition. If everything goes according to plan, you’ll kill the rest of the Careers, leaving five. You and Finnick, and three nobodies that shouldn’t be too hard to find out.

You’re assuming that the two of you are either going to hunt down or wait for them to die on their own, but it’s never been discussed. Actually, neither of you have even talked about what happens when it comes down to the final few. You two are going to have to split eventually, and that means having to kill each other.

In fairness, you haven’t thought about it much, yourself. You’ve decided to focus on the present, getting over the hurdles before thinking about how it will end. It was a good choice to ally with Finnick, the problem is that you’ve come to like him a lot more than you intended to. You were supposed to strictly be allies, you weren’t supposed to end up making a friend out of him.

As bad as this sounds, that will not stop you. Finnick is not enough for you to give up your life. You have your family back home to take care of. Your reasons mean something, too.

Still, if you end up winning this, you’ll never forget about him.

The hill doesn’t take that long to reach. At the top, the two of you take a breather, you’ve got a long couple hours ahead of you. The Cornucopia isn’t visible in the daytime, but especially not now with how dark it is. 

You point in the general direction you’d come from the first day, which is slightly diagonal to the right. “It’s about three hours that way, I believe. What way did you say you took?”

Finnick motions to the left. “That way. I ran right into the woods for a while, and then I went left and kept in that direction. There’s a valley between the cliff and the hill, led me a mile or two from the river.”

You nod. “Let’s just go straight from here, the Cornucopia will be on our right side.”

Finnick leads the way down the hill, he offers his hand to you to help you down the first steep steps. When he lets go, you follow behind him wordlessly. From what you’ve discovered, Finnick was on the left side of the mouth of the Cornucopia, while you were directly facing it. There’s a good chance he saw you fighting Hunter, but you think he might’ve mentioned it if that were the case.

When you told him that you killed Hunter, it was a couple days later. He was asking you if you were upset from losing him, because you hadn’t said much since agreeing to be his ally. That’s when you said that you were the one that ended his life, and no, you weren’t upset over his death.

He was surprised, you thought it was because of the news you delivered. Now that you’re thinking about it, you think he might’ve meant if it was because you killed him, not the other way around.

There’s obviously been some miscommunication, you wonder if that changed the way he thought of you or not.

The night wears on you, the longer you walk for. You can’t help yawning, wiping underneath your eyes, trying to wake yourself up. You knew you’d regret suggesting to do this in the middle of the night. You can’t back out now, though. Even if you did stop to sleep and wait for tomorrow night, you wouldn’t be comfortable. You’re too close to the Careers for your liking.

You push through, and make it there an hour and a half later. You manage to spot the top of the golden horn through a patch in the trees. You and Finnick stop walking, realizing how close you’d gotten by accident.

“We’ll set a fire over there.” You tell him, looking to the left. 

You follow his steps, and once you’ve walked five minutes away, the two of you begin to snap branches and place them in a pile. When you’ve got a good amount started, you dig through your bag to find the firestarter. You thought it’d be useless, considering you never felt safe to use it. It’s coming in handy now.

You crouch down, looking up at Finnick. “I’ll try to take Amaryllis back to the Cornucopia.”

“And I’ll take them further this way.” He nods. “We’ve got this.”

“I hope so.” You say.

In a quick motion, you scrape the flint rod against the flat piece, watching as sparks jump off, straight at the wood. It takes you two more times before a flame has started. You blow gently, watching as it grows, eating away. You reach into your bag, pulling out your knife, and tightening the backpack on your shoulders.

Finnick offered to take it, you didn’t want to risk his life like that. Besides, you’ve grown attached to the bag, and it’s carrying valuables. He’ll end up ripping it while fighting. You’re just going to throw the damn thing out of reach to make it easier.

You get back to your feet, backing away from Finnick. He’s going to be the main bait, standing where the Careers can see them. You’ll throw the knife at Amaryllis, and she’ll turn her attention to you. You and Finnick will split, kill them, and then go back to the cave.

This is going to be easy.

The flame grows higher with each passing minute, until it reaches its peak. It’s right around the same time you hear the running, the sound of multiple people coming in your direction. You prop the machete up against the tree, fixing the knife in your hand.

Sure enough, they come through the trees wildly, not caring if they were to scare away the rogue tribute. They’ll just chase them down. The first person to bound out is the boy from One, holding a very long sword, deathly sharp. His counterpart follows, with Amaryllis coming out last, slowing down.

Finnick’s on the other side of the flame, net in one hand, trident in the other. From where you’re hidden, it looks like he holds all the power here. His age doesn’t matter. He’s the one that set the fire, he’s the one with the expensive weapon, he’s the one that will be taking them down. They mean nothing.

“What are you, stupid?” The boy sputters, sharing a laugh with the girl next to him. Amaryllis doesn’t find the humor, shaking her head. “This is why we didn’t let you join, you would’ve killed us.”

“I’m going to kill you, anyway.” Finnick says, expressionless.

“Oh—” The girl starts, Finnick turns sharply on his heel, taking off into the darkness. 

They jerk forward to chase after him. You draw your arm back and whip it forward, letting go of the knife. It slams into Amaryllis’ back right shoulder, she shouts, hand reaching for it as she turns.

You smile, swiping the machete at your side, and beginning to run to the Cornucopia. From what you could see, she didn’t have a weapon with her. An odd choice, maybe she left it by accident.

She chases you, that’s all that matters. She’s fast, too. You thought that the tributes from Four were supposed to be excellent swimmers, not runners, too. You manage to stay ahead of her, breaking through the trees and bushes as you reach the meadow. 

Just like you said you would, you swing the bag off of your body, throwing it out of the way, turning to face Amaryllis. She continues to barrel at you, disregarding the weapon in your hand. You swing upwards at her, she barely moves her body in time to avoid the blade.

You try for her stomach, but she pulls a knife out of her belt. Your blade clashes with her small one, and the momentum is enough to send your machete into the air. You let it go, punching her in the face with your left hand. The pain in your knuckles is immediate, her head snaps to the side.

You grab her wrist, wanting to get the knife. Her free hand locks around yours, you place your other hand on the back handle of the knife. The tip of your boot hooks around the back of her foot, and with one sudden pull on that foot, she falls back, pulling you on top of her.

The knife—which you were hoping would stab her on the landing—misses, sticking into the dirt, all the way down to the hilt. Amaryllis throws you off, you land on your back. As you’re getting back to your feet, you see the machete. You reach to grab it, and a slicing pain goes through your palm.

“Fuck!” You scream.

The knife is now lodged in your hand. You grip your wrist, squeezing tightly, teeth grit. What do you do? Do you take it out? You can’t just leave it in, can you? You look to Amaryllis, and find that she’s run off to go inside of the Cornucopia. Likely to find more weapons to puncture you with.

You can’t leave it. You’ll start bleeding, but you can’t let it slice your hand up entirely. You take a few quick breaths, and pull the knife out of your hand. It’s a blinding white pain, you fall back onto one of your knees, leaned over, tears forming in your eyes. When you look at the wound, you can see the dirt and grass sticking out of it.

You’re going to be sick.

The sound of wind whistling makes you hit the ground without thinking first. The sound fades, you look over your shoulder to see Amaryllis with a spear, tilting her head at you. You throw the knife back at her, sweeping up the machete in your left hand to head into the Cornucopia before she can retaliate.

“How old are you again?” She asks.

“I’m going to kill you.” You tell her.

“You must be Finnick’s age, if he trusts you so much.” She says. “He couldn’t kill me himself?”

“Shut up.” You tell her, swinging at the spear. She tries to block, you yank it from her hands, slashing at her side. You get her pretty nastily, it’s deep.

The two of you go back and forth, with her switching weapons frequently, and you trying to take her down with the machete. She gets you a few more times with the knives she can get her hands on, but her aim isn’t perfect. She misses most of the throws, and it has something to do with the fact that you got her good shoulder.

At home, they teach you to fight with both hands. District Four must not think it’s important.

You get her cornered in the back, and instead of saying anything to her, you simply swing at her throat. She must’ve anticipated this, because she charges forward, not caring about dodging. For a second, you think that she and Finnick must come from the same family tree with the blatant disregard for their lives.

And then the hidden knife in her hand slams into your stomach, right as you stab her through the throat. She pulls up on the weapon slightly, blood dripping out of the corner of her lip. You stumble back. She can’t move, the other end of your blade is stuck in the golden Cornucopia, still soft from the day’s heat.

You reach to touch the wound with your good hand needles jabbing into your abdomen when you move the knife by accident. You cry, face twisting in pain. You sit on a box. You shouldn’t take it out, but Finnick will be here soon to regroup, he can stitch you then. 

There were two cannons during your fight with Amaryllis, and they were far apart enough for you to think that it had to be the One tributes. He killed the girl, made it back to the male tribute almost ten minutes later, and then killed him, too. 

Removing this knife sets your body on fire. The black spots eat away at the corner of your vision, the knife slipping from your hand. You try to catch yourself on the wall, but your knees are jelly. The dizziness wins.

You wake up on the ground, somehow holding yourself up with your good hand. A cannon blasts, you glance over your shoulder to look at Amaryllis, and the bloody mess that you made. Her entire front half is soaked in blood. Her eyes are on you.

“(Y/n)!”

It’s Finnick, he’s close. You try to get up, and then fall back to your knees. You can’t let him see Amaryllis. It’ll be awful for his mentality. It’ll be better if you lie, and you think you might do that about the wound on your hand.

You rock forward, using a box to get to your feet. On the way out of the Cornucopia, you grab a new machete. You have your bad hand on your stomach, taking shallow breaths to keep it from hurting too bad. Your hand is throbbing. You aren’t going to be able to hide it from him.

When you get to your backpack, you unzip, bringing out your jacket to wear. While you’re zipping it up, Finnick comes out of the trees, trident in hand. He looks worried for a moment, but he slows down.

“(Y/n)! Did you do it?”

“Yeah.” You force a smile. “It’s done. What about you?”

“Both of them are dead. I left the net because I couldn’t untangle his body.”

“We’ll make a new one.” You wave him off, “Let’s get going.”

“Where’s her body?” He asks.

You press your lips together. “It’s inside of the Cornucopia. I don’t think you want to see it, Finnick. I tried to keep it clean but I couldn’t.”

He nods, “Okay.” he jerks his head to the side.

“You lead the way.” You tell him.

And with that, no question as to why you’ve got a hand beneath your jacket, or why it’s darkening in color, the two of you start back to the hill. For the first hour, you think that you can handle the pain, it hurts but as soon as you get to the cave, he can wash it out and properly assess it. You think you’ll even be able to use the healing cream that the sponsors sent him when he got hurt from the cliffside.

It grows increasingly obvious that you will not make the six hour walk. Finnick asks about your hand, and he stops to use some of the drinking water to rinse it out. You make up an excuse about getting cut, that’s why you decided to put the jacket on. He doesn’t seem to care.

Once you reach the hill, you try to ask him if you can go through the valley instead, not wanting to go up the hill because of the pain. He gives you a look, not taking you seriously. You follow behind him, taking your time because you think you can ignore the pain and push through.

At the top, you’re hit with a headrush.

You shudder on the ground, fingers squishing around in the bloody wound on your stomach. When you look down, you see that it’s begun to spread onto your pants, staining them the same maroon color.

“(Y/n)?” Finnick asks, “What’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing, I just gotta—” A sharp pain hits the area, you grunt, biting into your lip, hard.

“Let me see.” He tells you. You try to dodge his hands, but he’s serious. He grabs the zipper, yanking it down.

With the help of the moonlight, Finnick gets an eyeful of the wound you’ve hidden for the past three hours. Like a vampire, it’s taken over a liter of blood. At the sight of it all, the lightheadedness gets worse. You struggle not to vomit.

“Oh my god,” He looks at your face. “You told me it was a cut.”

You force a smile.

“(Y/n), this isn’t funny. Why didn’t you say anything at the Cornucopia?”

“I thought it’d be fine.” 

He looks behind him, in the direction you came. You’re sitting right in the middle of the six hours. No matter what way he goes, it’ll take him a while to get there.

“You thought this would be fine?” He asks you, shaking his head. “Are you kidding?”

“Does it look like I’m kidding?” You shoot back, a spasm of pain makes you take in a sharp breath, closing your eyes. “Just go, Finnick. Now’s the time.”

“The time for what? I’m not going anywhere.”

“We’re down to five.” You look at him. “We can split up. Or better, you can kill me.” You reach out, grabbing his arm, smearing blood on his tanned skin.

His face twists. “You want me to kill you?”

“This is what you wanted. This is the whole reason why you became my ally.”

Finnick’s shaking his head dramatically, “That’s not true. I lied to you, I thought you knew that.”

You close your eyes, trying to remember the conversation you had with him. It’s not coming to you. You can’t focus. “Whatever.”

“(Y/n), you were the only one in that gymnasium that ignored me. You didn’t care about my sponsors or how I looked.” He tells you.

“Then leave me.” You squeeze his arm. “If you can’t kill me, then go.”

“I can’t do that.”

You sigh.

“Can’t you see? You’re the only one I trust here.” Finnick tells you. “You had plenty of opportunities to kill me. And you stayed with me instead. I can’t do this without you.”

He’s not going to listen. You swallow thickly, “Fine.”

“Okay,” He tries to pull away, but you don’t let go. “Let go so I can get you on your feet.”

“I can’t make that walk, and you’re not going to be able to carry me.” You say. “So, go get some water and the healing cream. I’ll stay here.”

Finnick’s eyebrows draw in. “That’s not happening.”

“What’s your big plan, then?” You snap, “Listen to me, I can’t move. Just go, I’ll stay here. We have no one to worry about.”

He stares at you, thinking about it himself. “I’ll leave you my shirt and jacket, and you can put it over the area. That’ll help slow the blood, right?”

“Right.” You agree.

He takes off the jacket and his shirt, coming to place them beneath yours. You place a hand on top of the lump of clothing.

“I’m going to be quick.” He tells you. “I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be here.” You murmur. “Thank you, Finnick.”

“Don’t thank me, not yet.” He grabs his trident. “Just hold on, okay?”

You can’t say anything else, because he’s already started running down the hill. You close your eyes, resting the back of your head on the backpack. He didn’t grab the plastic bottle for water. He probably won’t even notice.

You reach up your shirt, pulling the clothes out, letting them fall next to you. In the academy, they teach you many things, including when to come to terms with the fact that you’re not going to make it out of the arena alive. In special occasions like this, where you’ve escaped a fight or accidentally severely injured yourself, you can have hope at the beginning, but too much can kill you.

This is why you don’t hold on to your life.

You let it get taken from you, one aspect at a time. The idea of winning the Games, seeing your family again, becoming an infamous victor. The hardest one to let go is Finnick, who’s running for his life to make it to that cave in time before you drift away.

You hold onto one idea, which comforts you during your last breaths.

Your actions tonight will be the reason why Finnick wins the Hunger Games.

[starborncoven]

Greek God Apollo ☀️

Hello everyone! We wanted our first informative post to be about this amazing god who has lighten our paths many times during these years. So here you have a small post about him!

Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, titan of the light of night and, later, light of day; and twin brother of Artemis.

God of light, medicine, diseases, plagues, dance, music, writing, arts, divination and prophecy, initiation, colonization, archery, youth and male beauty, among other things.

His best known places of worship were Delphi and Delos, but Apollo's cults have been all over Greece and have been very varied. Moreover, as a god of colonization, many of his cults invaded the lands of others and forced them to worship Apollo. A well-known case is that of the women who worshipped Gaia who ended up being massacred by one of the cults of Apollo, and it was this fact that gave rise to the myth of Apollo and Daphne.

Being such a popular god in both Greece and Rome, he has a multitude of myths that reflect very well his diversity and ambivalence. Let's talk about, for example, that of his birth, which can also be consulted in the Homeric Hymn III to Apollo. Here we will speak only of one of the versions, since it has several.

It all begins when Zeus got Leto pregnant. Hera, who was jealous, made it impossible for Leto to give birth anywhere both on land and in the ocean. Luckily for Leto, his sister Asteria had also been harassed by Zeus and, to escape from him, had turned herself into a floating island by the name of Ortigia. Thus, Leto found a place to rest.

However, Hera had put more obstacles in her way. She had forbidden Ilithia, goddess of childbirth, to attend the titanide, so Leto spent nine days and nine nights in agony until the other gods managed to bribe Ilithia.

First Artemis was born, who assisted her mother to help in the birth of Apollo; he was born on the seventh day of the month, hence the number usually associated with the god.

Ortigia was renamed Delos, where a temple and a statue were established in honor of Apollo. From here comes one of his epithets: Delius Apollo.

On the other hand, the serpent or dragon Python resided in Delphi, where he had an oracle. It is said that one of his prophecies spoke that it would be a son of Leto who would kill him, so he had pursued the Titan during her pregnancy and did not stop until Zeus put a stop to it.

Thus, on the fourth day of his birth, Apollo set out for Delphi with his bow and arrows in hand to avenge his mother. There he killed Python with one of his arrows, and one of his epithets is "Apollo far-shooter", and took the oracle. Other versions say that he chased the dragon to Tempe and killed him there.

Apollo established his oracle in Delphi and, in honor of Python, placed his bones in a cauldron that would serve both for the oracle and for the initiation of the Pythia. And here is born another of his epithets: Apollo Pythius.

As you can see, he is a rational and at the same time visceral god. He has his reasons for killing Python, but he still doesn't think twice and does it.

There are many more myths, such as that of Admetus and Apollo, Niobe and the children of Leto, or the well-known myths of Apollo and his lovers (which are not few), such as Daphne, Hyacinth, Cassandra, Cipariso or Coronis. I invite you to read them and learn about him.

As for his attributes, Apollo is related to the number 7, to wolves for shepherding, to mice for plagues, to laurel for his myth with Daphne or even for his myth with Python and his victory against him, to hyacinths for the myth of Hyacinth and an endless number of animals, plants and crystals such as crows, cypresses or the sunstone.

He is also characterized by his silver bow, the sun and the lyre, which he acquired from Hermes.

Apollo is the chief of the muses and nymphs, the lord of the arts in all fields, although at the beginning it was especially of dance. And, if you want to work something related to the arts, Apollo is the right god.

The arts, oratory, divination, sports, self-esteem, self-respect, anxiety, medicine (biosanitary field in general), decision making, personal growth, etc., are areas that can be worked with him.

Personally I have a very good relationship with Apolo. I have been in contact with him for a few years now and we have worked on some things together, and I can assure you that it is a pleasure to work and talk with him. I don't want to generalize, because the gods present themselves differently to each person, but he tends to be patient and very kind, as well as funny if he trusts you.

Apollo is, in my opinion, such a diverse and magnificent god that you can learn everything from him. Just don't piss him off, because his bow never misses and it hurts when he shoots an arrow.

And so much for this divine Sunday! This month we dedicate it to Apollo in the account. What did you think? Do you want to know more about him? Have a sunny day ☀️

[msweebyness]

MiracOlympus- Luka

🎶Feel the beat and just let go, get the rhythm into your soul!🎶 @imsparky2002 @booksrbetterthanpeople @nerdy-chocomallow

Luka, God of Music & Prophecy (aka Apollo)

Appearance/Attire: Upper back-length, shaggy black hair, tied in a braid, turquoise eyes with flecks of green, blue, and gold, moderate tanned skin, teal snake tattoo that goes up right arm, lean and athletic build. Wreath of laurel leaves and thistle on his head, golden wrist cuffs with silver music notes, teal one-shoulder toga with golden music staves stitched along the hems, silver snake belt, golden sandals. Usually carrying his golden, seven-stringed lyre.

Bio: If there’s one god that helps keep Olympus in harmony and feeling the rhythm, it’s Luka. The god of music is a huge proponent of resolving conflicts peacefully and always does his best to help maintain the groovy vibes between his fellow gods. Luka’s skill in the musical arts are praised by both mortals and immortals alike, with his skills on the lyre rivaled by none. It’s this that gives him such a close friendship with the muses. He also deeply cares for both his twin sister Juleka and his mother Anarka, with disrespecting them being one of the few ways to anger him. Luka’s most incredible gift besides his musical talent is that of his power of prophecy. He can see into the future (to an extent) and it’s for this reason that the other gods often look to him for guidance and advice. He’s usually pretty good with this, but he’s not quite as smooth when it comes to his crush on the war goddess.

Fun Facts!

Luka may not like to fight, but he will when he has to. When Python, a massive monster of a snake, was plaguing the lands of Mount Parnassus, the music-loving people of which Luka was rather found of, he took matters into his own hands. He first attempted to peacefully convince the snake to leave, but when Python refused and attacked him, he took the snake down with a perfectly aimed golden arrow to the forehead. The people wanted to build a temple in his honor, which gave him an idea…

When the people of Parnassus had built him a humble but beautiful temple on the mountain’s slope, Luka decided to put his gift of clairvoyance to good use. He made the temple the host of his Oracle, the voice through which he would speak his visions of the future to mortals. After much deliberation, he chose the nymph Diane as his Oracle, sharing his visions and prophecies with her through psychic connection. People would come from all over the ancient world to hear of their futures.

Everyone knows that Luka’s music skills are unrivaled, with only the Muses able to square up to him in that regard. So when foolish satyr named Marsyas said that he could outplay the god of music on his flute, the immortals’ code of honor said Luka couldn’t take that lying down. It was decided there would be a contest between the two, with the Muses and Marsyas’ friend, King Midas (you’ll hear more about him when Nino comes around!) presiding as judges. The Muses, obviously, picked Luka’s far superior lyre performance, but Midas stubbornly voted for Marsyas. The muses were affronted by this, and it was Jean who commented that the king “must have the ears of an ass to think something so stupid!” Luka, having a sense of humor and knowing he needed to set an example, gave Midas the ears of a donkey to teach him a lesson! Not the worst punishment he could have gotten, by a long shot, but one he surely wouldn’t forget!

HE CAN SEE THE FU-TUURE. Leave your thoughts in the comments and reblogs.

[catt-nuevenor]

The Future

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

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

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

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

Source: Choice of Games.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[velvet-cupcake-games]

We had an ask today that touched on Will's sprite and its layout, so I thought it'd be fun to do one of my backstage in game development posts.

One of my favourite things in Ren'py (the Python-based scripting system I use to create Made Marion) is its layered sprite system. Layered sprites allow creators to link different images together so that they don't have to make an entirely new sprite for every facial expression and outfit change that a sprite has. Instead they can make transparent images that layer on top of each other like paper dolls.

Will happens to be my most complex sprite for two reasons. First, he has two major outfits because he wears a flamboyant swashbuckling outfit when he's not incognito and a dark hooded outfit when he's doing more thiefy tasks. He also has two major arm poses that are used with all of his outfits because I wanted to visually indicate when he's feeling more closed-off versus more open.

Add a cape and hat to the deal and poor Arrapso (our lead/sprite artist) was going nuts with all the layered sprite bits and bobs. Will's sprite has quite the base setup. If I'd just gone completely basic with the sprite layout, I would have to type the following in every time I called up Will's sprite as he appears above: show will normaldowncloak hat_gloatinge gloatingm hathair normal normaldown That's a lot of typing. Early in the process, I spoke with Feniks, our awesome code consultant, about how to link sprite bits together. They showed me a great system that I used so that now all I have to do to call up the Will above is type: show will normaldown gloating Most of my sprites are sorted by outfit, but because Will is special, he's actually sorted by his arms. "Normaldown" is his hand on hip pose while wearing his normal swashbuckler outfit. If I type "normaldown" my code settings call up that set of arms and add on his normal outfit, the appropriate cloak background, and his hairstyle with him wearing his hat. "Gloating" is my compound facial expression that combines his "gloating" eyes and mouth.

I also have facial expressions that combine different eyes and mouths (angrye smilem often makes a really good sarcastic expression!). Will even has two sets of eyes, one normal and one with his hat's shadow over them. The shadowed eyes are automatically linked to the presence of his hat, so I don't have to type anything extra there when I'm coding in a scene.

Here's an example of what my layered linking code looks like for Will:

Yeah, he's got a LOT of bits and bobs. It was a ton of work to set up, but it made it soooo much easier during the bulk of my coding since 90% of the time I now only have to type in an arm pose and a facial expression to call a properly attired Will onto the scene.

This does somewhat limit my flexibility. As I mentioned in my ask, the automatic linkage of Will's casual arm pose to his hatless hairstyle means he cannot easily wear his casual outfit with his hat. That's fine, since generally he isn't going to. And I've added and removed some outfits here and there if they weren't working for how I ended up using a sprite.

Anyway, as a player, layered sprites are why Made Marion can have such cool sprites with tons of facial expressions, different arm poses, combat poses, and multiple outfits without the game being 10 gigabytes in size and without its coder going entirely bananas. That's pretty cool!

[harrisonarchive]

With Eric Idle and Stuart Lerner; photo by Carinthia West.

“Even when we first met I felt like I’d known him forever. Not the Beatle George, he never seemed like that to me, nor the bearded garden gnome George, but the man, the real man with the deep, dark eyes and the crooked grin and the loud laugh. […] I never knew a man like him. It was as if we fell in love. His attention, his concern, his loving friendship was so strong and powerful that it encompassed your entire life. You felt comfortable and secure. We would stay up all night and talk for hours about our lives, about the hurts and pains, about the groups we had been in and the trying emotional strains and problems that being in such groups entails. He was always full of spiritual comfort, counsel, and advice. He saw everything from the cosmic point of view. Our deaths were natural and unavoidable, and he viewed everything from that perspective, even then in the mid-seventies. He had come off a tour of America, where things had been unpleasant for him. The ‘Dark Hoarse Tour,’ he called it. His pseudonym — for hotels, security (and guitar picks) — had been Jack Lumber. (He was always a raving certified Python fanatic as, of course, I had always been a raving certified Beatle fan.) Drugs and brandy had ruined his voice on that tour, and I think he had set out to challenge and defy the expectations of his North American audiences, presenting Ravi Shankar and the Indian music first and then doing jokey versions of various of his songs. The good news was that he met Olivia, the love of his life, and retired to Friar Park, where he felt safe and from where he would rarely emerge. Here he would discover the other great love of his, gardening, which became a living example of his concern to create beauty on the planet wherever he could.” - Eric Idle, The Greedy Bastard Diary (x)

[weekendviking]

Transcripts I never thought I'd see outside of a Spitting Image or Monty Python script, Russian Asset edition:

Transcript, in case you are one, like many, who no longer bothers with the howling fashy boomer kaos of the Zuckbook:

"Senator Jeff Merkley walked into the hearing room like a man who’d just been told his car got keyed and knew exactly who did it. On the other side of the table sat Christopher Landau, Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to Mexico, who looked like he hadn’t slept since Inauguration Day, and Matthew Whitaker, a former acting Attorney General who carries himself like a guy who still brags about his high school bench press record.

The setup was simple: Merkley had questions, and Landau and Whitaker had excuses — weak, sweaty excuses that couldn’t outrun a three-legged dog.

It didn’t take long for the whole thing to unravel. Merkley started calmly, like a guy setting mousetraps in a room full of blindfolded rats. Then the hammer dropped.

Senator Jeff Merkley: "I wanted to, uh... uh... ask you, Mr. Landau — is President Trump a Russian asset?"

That's how Merkley started — no warmup, no warning. Just kicked the door open and asked the question nobody else had the nerve to say out loud.

Mr. Landau: "Absolutely not, Senator. He's the President of the United States, duly elected by the American people."

Landau might as well have answered, "Please don't ask me anything else." Merkley wasn’t about to let him off that easy.

Senator Merkley: "Well, the reason I ask is many people back home have been asking me this question. And they say, 'If he was an asset, we would see exactly what he's doing now.'"

It’s the kind of thing that sounds conspiratorial until you start listing the evidence. And that’s exactly what Merkley did.

Senator Merkley: "For example... he proceeded to forward — or express from the Oval Office — propaganda that has been Russian propaganda... that Ukraine started the war... that, uh... Zelensky is a dictator."

Step one: repeat Kremlin talking points like they’re gospel.

Senator Merkley: "Second of all... he gave away key things on the negotiating table before the negotiations even started, ensuring the U.S. would absolutely oppose, um... any possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine."

That’s like showing up to a poker game and tossing your entire stack of chips across the table before the first card’s dealt.

Senator Merkley: "Uh... third... he's cut off the arms shipments to Ukraine completely — undermining their ability against a massive neighbor next door with short supply lines and... and huge resources."

Pause here and picture Vladimir Putin popping champagne.

Senator Merkley: "Fourth... he's undermined the partnership with Europe, which has been essential to security over the last 80 years — a major goal of Putin’s."

At this point, Merkley wasn’t describing bad policy — he was reading Putin’s wish list.

Senator Merkley: "And then... he's done everything to discredit and demean Zelensky on the international stage — notably with that shameful press conference in which he teamed up with the Vice President to attack Zelensky."

Ah yes, that infamous JD Vance press conference — the diplomatic equivalent of shoving Zelensky’s head in a toilet while Putin watched from the corner clapping like a seal.

Senator Merkley: "I can't imagine that if he was a Russian asset, he could be doing anything more favorable than these five points."

Boom. Merkley didn’t need to say “traitor” — he just pointed at the scoreboard.

Senator Merkley: "Uh... what else could a Russian asset actually possibly do that Trump hasn't yet done?"

What else, indeed? The room was dead silent — the kind of pause where you can hear chairs creak and paper shuffle.

Landau tried to squirm out.

Mr. Landau: "Senator, the President has made it absolutely clear that his top priority is to try to bring peace and end an absolutely savage war. I... I know you're familiar with the, uh... the... the savagery. This is turning into World War I-style trench warfare now in eastern Ukraine."

Translation: I have nothing, so let me ramble until you forget what you asked.

Mr. Landau: "The President is an exceptionally gifted dealmaker. He is probably the only individual in the entire universe that could actually stop this."

The entire universe. Not just Earth — the universe. Apparently Trump’s cutting side deals with Alpha Centauri now.

Senator Merkley: "Well, let's turn to another — thank you very much, since you're now off the topic I was raising."

That’s polite for “You're embarrassing yourself — let’s try someone else.”

Merkley turned to Whitaker.

Senator Merkley: "Mr. Whitaker, these five things that the President has done that are so favorable to Putin and so damaging to Ukraine and to our partnership with Europe... do you approve of them?"

Whitaker tried the old “blame Biden” routine.

Mr. Whitaker: "Well, Senator, thanks for that question. I'm just going to have to, uh... politely disagree with you, uh... on those five things and the way you've framed them."

"You know... the war in Ukraine would have never happened if President Trump was president in 2022. The war in Ukraine happened because of Joe Biden’s weakness."

Merkley didn’t flinch.

Senator Merkley: "Well, maybe you could some other time go on television and express those points of view, but... do you mind just answering the question I asked?"

And that’s where Whitaker realized he’d stepped into the bear trap.

Senator Merkley: "Do you agree with the five things that President Trump has done — starting with him expressing Russian propaganda from the Oval Office?"

Mr. Whitaker: "Well, you know... again, as I mentioned to your colleague, I am not here to assign labels. We're in the middle of a very, uh... important peace negotiation."

Senator Merkley: "I agree. Thank you. Uh... I... I do hope that we have an Administration that works to get the very best deal for Ukraine.

"But what a Russian asset would do would be to work to get the very best deal for Russia — and that appears to be exactly what Donald Trump is trying to accomplish."

Merkley didn’t shout. He didn’t wave his arms. He just said it — clear as glass — and let the silence hang heavy in the room.

Landau and Whitaker sat there like a couple of guys who’d just realized their GPS was guiding them into a lake.

If Trump isn’t a Russian asset, he’s sure putting in the effort to look like one."

[overthestars-and-offtoneverland]

Olaf's Last Name

Look, I know he'll never have a canon last name and we've already gone through the "Labinski" fiasco.

I wanna go through several options I've been considering for headcanons and why each would possibly work (or not). Hell, Labinski can even stay because someone else has already mapped that out (Though I'm gonna be annoying and tell you why I personally disagree. If you like it, keep it. All power to ya).

Actually, you know what? Labinski is going first! Why? Because it actually kinda helps my case for the other options. Onwards!

Olaf Labinski (Credit to @snicketsleuth)

Pros:

As Sleuth pointed out, Olaf's first name and title appears to be in reference to the character of the same name in Theophile Gautier’s novel Avatar. So, hypothetically, it makes sense to give our Count Olaf the same last name.

Cons:

However, here's my personal issue. Doing that A. Feels a little like plagiarism and B. Doesn't fit Handler's literary reference naming convention because of point A.

Whenever a character has a literary reference name, it is never a direct one. Esme, for example, is named after a poem. "To Esme with Love and Squalor" and Jerome is named after the poet who wrote it (That's the J in J.D. Salinger). Note his name is not directly Jerome Salinger.

Mr. Poe's obviously an Edgar Allen Poe reference. But his name is Arthur. His sons hold the more direct reference names.

Uncle Monty's a Monty Python joke.

Hell, this is actually why I know for a fact that Charles' last name is not Baudelaire. Our leads are names after Sir Charles Baudelaire, yes. But it's no coincidence that the Baudelaire children are temporarily in the custody of two men who go by Sir and Charles.

The only exception to this I can think of is Georgina Orwell just being the feminization of George Orwell because it's a tongue in cheek about the hypnotism thing. But even then, it's still not one-for-one.

So, him being straight up named Count Olaf Labinski when that name already belongs to someone else's character doesn't fit to me. However...

Let's get into some other options

Olaf Gautier

So apparently some of the reason the Labinski thing happened is hypothetically because Charles Baudelaire and Theophile Gautier had beef. So, my proposal, Gautier does fit the literary naming convention because it pits rival against rival again in a meta sense.

Also, think of the comedy of Olaf having a French last name. I don't know if it's funnier if he pronounces it correctly or not ("Gautier" is usually pronounced in the US as "Goh-Shay" [Wrong] it's pronounced in with the "CH" sound "Goh-Chay" [Correct] in French. Source: Lived in a town called Gautier named after the family that founded it. Was classmates with the grandson of this family) The jokes write themselves. I personally think it's funnier if Olaf pronounces it with the correct "CH" sound but everyone else treats him like he doesn't know how to say his own name.

Olaf Von Bulow

Okay, so this requires a little lore. To those of you who don't know, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny get their first names from the attempted murder trial of Claus Von Bulow. Klaus, though his name is altered in spelling, is named after the defendant, who (allegedly, he was acquitted) poisoned his wife Sunny, and was prosecuted by a woman named Violet (The Violet source is a little fuzzy. I just know she's named after one of the lawyers involved).

Dude, how messed up would it be if Olaf's last name was still in reference to this trial? It would be a really messed up way to make him into a matching set with the kids.

Also Von Bulow, like Labinski, does fit the general geography of where a name like "Olaf" would exist

Take it all with a grain of salt, just felt like throwing my hat in the ring on some options that generally fit canon naming conventions.

And no, I will not be addressing the "Olaf Baudelaire" theory ^_^. Too much canon material is super against the idea that Olaf and Beatrice are siblings. One super big one I can point to is Olaf being listed by Lemony as one of Beatrice's potential suitors in The Beatrice Letters ("-or even O"). Really don't think incest is what he had in mind when he was talking about marrying anyone that would make her happy especially since he brings up that R is on the table even though same-sex marriage wasn't a thing at the time.

Love to hear any other options anyone can come up with!

[dead-lights]

blender tool: batch thumbnail renderer

i did a blender/python thing! i've seen some people posting about the hassle of taking thumbnails for pose packs and thought I'd put this up - I wrote a simple script a while back to take thumbnails for my blender pose library (those are up to 256x256 pixels, much bigger than the thumbs exported from S4S) but I imagine it would work for posemakers as well.

what this does: it automates the pose/render/save cycle. add your character to the scene, set up your camera, add your poses to a collection, and hit the button - it will put the character in each pose, render, save, and then move on to the next so you don't have to do it manually. this is especially useful for things like emotions packs where the camera does not need to be adjusted between poses.

what this doesn't do: you still have to position the camera and configure render settings, import your model, and add your poses to the scene. the camera does not move between renders, so if some poses are out of frame or otherwise don't work with the camera settings, you have to fix that manually.

i got kinda anxious about posting this and let it sit in my drafts for way too long - I used generic blender rather than sims-specific tutorials and worry I did things inefficiently or improperly, but it works for me, I use it often, and it saves me a lot of time, so I'll put it up. I welcome any criticism or advice people have for me.

i've uploaded a sample scene I used to get those renders of L, as well as the script itself in case you want to import it into your own scenes instead. the sample camera is set to produce 500x500 pixel thumbnails with an orthographic camera, rendered with Cycles, but you can set up the camera/renderer however you'd like.

download sample scene (includes script & instructions)

download script only

download instructions only (just a .txt file with everything below, but without pictures)

i'm going to work with the sample scene for these instructions, but this should work in any scene with a character mesh, an active camera, and a pose collection.

import your model. you need the mesh. this does not have to be in its own collection, as long as it isn't in the poses collection. set your active camera up to have the render settings/framing/zoom that you want. this will be used for every single thumbnail and cannot be adjusted in between renders.

2. you need the rigs from the poses. for .blend poses exported from S4S, drag them into the scene, open "Object" and then select rig.

make sure the rigs are going into your 'poses' collection - the collection doesn't have to be called 'poses' but it does need to contain ONLY pose rigs. name them whatever you'd like the thumbnails to be saved as.

3. head over to the scripting tab. if the script "export_thumbs.py" isn't open, hit the folder button to find it.

4. in the outliner, click on both the pose collection and the character mesh (note - NOT the character rig, you want the one with the inverted triangle and the wrench). you should see both icons selected.

5. hit the "run script" button at the top of the scripting tab.

at this point, if all went correctly, blender should appear to freeze (because it's doing stuff!) but you will notice a folder called "renders" appear in the directory with this blender file. Inside the renders folder, there will be another folder with the name of whatever character mesh you used - this allows you to run the script with multiple character meshes without overwriting files, as long as the meshes have different names. one by one, your thumbnails should show up here.

once the script has gone through every pose, blender will become usable again, and you should have a directory full of thumbnails. hooray!

note: every pose in a collection will render with the same camera settings. if you need to change the camera, for example because you have both standing and sitting poses, you can divide the poses into different collections. you have to run this script for each collection of poses you want to render - it will not automatically go through every collection in your outliner - so this gives you the opportunity to adjust the camera between batches. because thumbnails are named after the pose names, overwriting shouldn't be an issue.

please let me know if you have any problems with this! It's possible the scene may cause issues in older versions of blender - it was saved with 4.1 - but if it doesn't work, the script itself works with versions at least as old as 3.3.

[finniestoncrane]

Punishment/Reward

Arkham!Riddler x Fem!Reader, word count: 550 oh some absolute sweetheart requested this on ao3 and i couldn't help myself because i have been giddy over him again 💚 request info • prompt list • send me a request • kofi • masterlist minors DNI!! 🔞 cw: fingering, cockwarming, teasing, orgasm denial, reader has a pussy but no gendered language is used

Eddie’s hand reached up to you, curling around your throat and tensing, python like in the confident, predatory grasp he held you in. 

“There were set stipulations to this agreement, and I am being very considerate in giving you a warning, first.”

You struggled briefly, trying to choke your words out, instead opting for a silent nod in understanding. There had been a formal discussion, with Eddie laying out his rules in advance of submitting to your will, and you had graciously accepted them. They had been reasonable, after all, you mused, as you played it over in your mind.

“If you want to be filled, I can satiate that desire. But you won’t move. You won’t speak. And you won’t be a hindrance to my concentration. Deal?”

Ever cock-hungry, only where Eddie was concerned, you had nodded so hard and enthusiastically your head had begun to hurt, only stopping when he had lifted your chin in his gloved hand and looked into your eyes with a confidence that always stirred both terror and arousal deep within your core.

“Very good.”

And now, here you were, breaking that rule already. So desperate, your body aching with an intensity and desire so strong you’d forgotten where you were, and who you were disobeying, and had begun to roll your hips a little as you sat on his lap. Of course, this disobedience would not go unnoticed, certainly not by Eddie. Despite the fact his cock throbbed inside of you, twitching with every slight stroke of it against your insides, he wouldn’t, or couldn’t, let you bend the rules. Every misdemeanour deserved punishment, even to his own pleasure’s detriment. 

“Now, if you’re going to misbehave, I will have to make you atone for it.”

He bucked his hips up once, thrusting himself up to the hilt, holding you down, one hand on your throat, one hand on your thigh. 

“Do. Not. Move.”

The hand on your thigh moved to your front to play with you, teasing you, taunting you cruelly as he growled in your ear. Rough fingers skirting over sensitive, tingling skin while you tensed your body in a desperate attempt to remain as still as possible.

“My, my. What a mess you’re making.”

He removed his hand from you and held it in front of your face, prying his finger and thumb apart and bringing them together again, displaying strands of your arousal as they stretched between his digits. You didn’t need the example, you were more than aware of how wet you were, dripping onto his cock as it pulsed, still, steady, hard, within you. 

His fingers moved to your mouth, pushing down on your bottom lip and placing his fingers on your tongue, letting you taste yourself. You choked back a soft gasp, imagining that any sound would count as “against the rules”, but he quickly pulled the digits out and cooed softly into your ear. 

“Oh, now… I’m not completely without empathy. If it helps, you may make some noise. I will admit to finding your pathetic mewling somewhat of a stroke to my ego.”

You whined, almost on command, a strangled sound that vibrated through you. It didn’t make it any easier however, but you knew neither of you could last much longer. Or at least, you hoped.

[packetpixie]

pro tip for programmers - how to alias

hey, so you know that annoying thing that happens when you're coding, and you need to run/test the same program 100 times in a row, so you end up typing "python3 testScriptWithASuperLongName.py" into the terminal about 80,000 times?

well, there's a better way! it's called aliasing :D

in your bash shell (or zsh, or whatever shell you use, but bash is the default on VSCode and most people on tumblr use VSCode, so I'm using bash as the default to explain this concept) you can set an alias, essentially a shortcut command, that runs longer commands.

(yes you can just use the up arrow key to re-run the same command, but sometimes you're typing other things into the terminal too and you don't feel like hitting the up arrow key four times in a row, and also this is just a cool and useful tip to get comfortable with aliasing so shhhh)

so, in your terminal shell, just type this:

alias run="python3 testScriptWithASuperLongName.py"

now, you can run that entire super long command, just by typing the word "run" into your terminal. Here's a screenshot of an example on my computer to make it make more sense:

in this example, i just created a simple python file that contains one line of code: print("it works!")

then, as you can see, by setting the alias to run, i can now run that file, runningatestscript.py, simply with the command 'run'.

the best part is, this alias is temporary - it only lasts as long as your shell session is open. so once you close the terminal, the run alias is cleared and you can set it again next time to any file or task you're currently working on, to save yourself a lot of typing, typos, and time.

so if you want to, you can get in the habit of always setting a run alias in the VSCode terminal for whichever file you're working with as soon as you get everything open. that way, when you need to run the same file 50 million times, you have a super easy way of doing it! you can even set it to a single letter if you want to go for maximum speed, but i prefer to use whole short words, because they're easy for me to remember.

note: if you do want to set an alias to work for all sessions, you can simply add it to your ./bashrc file. this is a common way to automate repeatable tasks, and simply to set easier-to-remember commands for terminal commands that are really complicated/confusing/hard to remember.

for example, i saved the alias checkboot="[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo 'UEFI mode' || 'BIOS mode'" into my zshrc file (zsh equivalent of bashrc file). this way, no matter how many times i rebooted my machine, i would always be able to quickly check which boot mode was running by simply typing 'checkboot'.

yesterday i was updating my boot mode from BIOS to UEFI on my very old machine that is technically compatible with UEFI, but not configured for it by default. So it was extremely helpful and saved me the time and headache of having to remember and type that long-ass command a thousand times in between many different reboots and new shells.

if you have any tasks like that, or terminal commands that you know would be useful to you, but you can never remember them when you need them, i highly recommend getting comfortable with aliasing! it can be super useful to simply set custom aliases for all the commands you don't want to remember, so that you can automate things away and not have to worry about so much linux syntax all the time when you're tring to focus on programming.

i know this may seem like a simple tip to some, but i only learned about it recently and it's been extremely helpful to integrate into my workflow and customize my OS with! so i thought it might be worthwhile to some people if i share :) hope it helps!