#smart cube

[bccfggffbgv]

How many Drone types are in your multiverse story? Because it seems like there's a lot more than just the ones we've seen in the show.

Worker Drones: Drones designed to help with mining and excavation projects.

Worker Drone Plus: An attempted prototype for an advanced Worker Drone model designed to do construction and deconstruction work thanks to their added bulk and built-in tools that makes it like a swiss army knife...Given how costly it was to mass produce them, only five of them were ever made...For now at least.

Disassembly Drones: Combat units designed to hunt down and terminate any and all rogue A.I with the weapons they're built within them.

Guard Drones/"Murder Husks": consumer model versions of Disassembly drones that are designed to guard and protect important/assigned people, places, and things...Being models that are designed for the puplic, they have less features than the originals, a lot more cheaper to build, and are soulless machines with no emotion to speak of.

Murder Cubes/Cube Drones/Worker Cubes: rare cube drone hybrids that are very random in what they're capable of doing with the Smart Cube/Internecion Cube built within their cores...Some are less stable in mind, body, and soul than others...

Solver Drones: Special drones that have been infected with Code Stringer's Absolute Solver virus and tend to vary in what they can do with the only consistency being dwindling sanity and rising corruption that usually ends with them becoming a slave to the corrupt God of Steel...

[thisdastampdoesnotexist]

[angeldreamsoffanfic]

part two of this original ficlet

-

It’s a couple days later when Robin Buckley is in Steve Harrington’s bedroom when it fully hits her. That this boy, not much older than she is- is her best friend. There’s a million universes out there, Robin is one of the ones who believes in that fully and completely. Every little change splitting off and dividing, creating and creating and creating.

Robin, however, can’t even begin to imagine the universes where she doesn’t know Steve. Doesn’t know him fully and completely and as absolutely wholeheartedly as she does. Can’t imagine that there are galaxies where she doesn’t know him as well if not better than herself sometimes.

But he’s hers here.

“Do you want to move in?” Steve’s question is soft spoken, and Robin is quick to turn to catch his eyes in her own. He’s leant up against his desk, a Rubik’s cube in between his fingers. His head is cocked slightly, eyebrows furrowed as his eyes and Robin’s meet. “Rob?”

“Yeah?” Robin allowed herself to grin, a shy and slow curve of her lips, even as she pushed her statistics homework off of her lap. Steve nodded once then twice, a sharp bob of his chin that was so firm it almost caused his chin to make contact with his chest. “You want me to move in with you, dingus?”

“Yeah,” Steve murmured, soft and sweet, before he tossed the Rubik’s cube toward Robin. She didn’t catch it, she never could really, but it did land in her lap- completely solved. Robin plucked it into her hands, set about messing it up again, so Steve could solve it. “I wanted to ask, since I know you’re eighteen now and-”

“And since my parents still think all of this was an earthquake?” Robin supplied knowingly, before she threw the Rubik’s cube back to Steve. He caught it from the air with his left hand and shyly nodded, before he set about solving the puzzle cube once more. Robin is quiet for a second, just before she continues on. “What about yours?”

“My parents?” Steve asked with a slight furrowed brow, his head cocked slightly to the side. Robin let out a soft hum, though nodded when she saw that Steve hadn’t heard her well. “They uh, aren’t coming back to Hawkins, Rob.”

Robin felt her heart lurch as she rubbed her palms along her jean clad thighs, brow instantly taut as she eyed Steve. He had diverted his eyes, eyes now focused on the way he moved the Rubik’s cube. She had never been good at those, really, and had doubted Steve’s ability in solving them when he first brought the thing into the back of Scoops A’hoy.

That was, of course, until she saw this.

The modes where Steve’s brain whirred by him too fast, his past of dealing with the Upside Down heavy on his shoulders. No matter the jokes the kids tended to make in Steve’s expense, he really wasn’t an idiot. Not when it came to puzzles, at the very fucking least.

Robin shook her head, wiggling further onto the carpet to be able to extend one of her legs. She hooks her ankle around Steve’s, smiling a little bit softer when he immediately eased into the touch. His shoulders stopped being tense and up by his ears, easing down to their natural resting point. Robin let’s it stay quiet for a beat, then two, before she starts to speak again.

“I love you.” Robin let herself murmur the words easily, even when Steve’s eyes are immediately glassy and soft. His brows furrow and she let her own furrow back, a mirror image to his. “Like this all-consuming aching love that I’ve never felt for anyone. Not like this.”

“Robbie-”

“No, let me get this out there.” Robin shook her head quickly as she scrambled forward, coming to kneel at Steve’s side. She cradled his cheeks in her hands, thumbs curled against his cheekbones as she tilted his chin up so his eyes would be met with her own. She knew what she must look like, like she’s on a warpath. (And in her mind, she is.) “I don’t think I have ever loved someone as much as I love you, dingus.”

“You are it for me, Steven Richard Harrington. You are my soulmate, and you-” Robin let herself sniffle, let Steve cradle her own cheeks in his palms. He mimicked the way she held him, hands gentle and thumbs cradling softly against her cheekbones. His thumbs brush even softer under her eyes, sweeping away tears Robin knew had managed to come out. “You deserve someone to tell you that every fucking day, and if it has to be me saying it to you for it to sink in… then so be it.”

“I love you, Robbie.” Steve’s own voice is wet and almost muffled sounding, brows still taut as his eyes shimmer with his own unshed tears. Robin makes sure to be gentle as she pressed her fingers harder into Steve’s face, squeezing his cheeks as she meets his eyes intently.

A beat passed. Then another. Robin let Steve stare unabashedly into her eyes, even when his own softened at whatever he had found inside of them.

“What?” Robin is almost scared to ask the question, even as Steve’s smile twitched at the very corner. Steve hummed softly, thumbs doing a final swoop up Robin’s cheeks, before he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Dingus?”

“You like Nancy.”

The statement is enough for Robin’s hands to fall off of Steve’s face, and she could feel the way her jaw slackened slightly. Steve is smug, almost, in the way he leaned further against the base of his desk as Robin scrambled backwards. He’s even quicker though, catching her ankle with his own- and causing her to land with a thud onto her butt that’s only minimally softened by his carpet.

“How did you-”

“You’ll find, that I’m one of the ones that knows what being in love with her is like.” Steve’s voice is soft, but there’s an edge on the back of it that caused Robin to swallow. Robin isn’t sure what fluttered hard in her stomach and chest, an ache of a feeling that caused her mouth to go dry and her brows to furrow. Steve licked at the corners of his mouth for a second, fingers flying faster as he turned and twisted at the Rubik’s cube. “And I just… let me say this, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Robin heard her voice croak, and she couldn’t help but feel as if she’s swimming in molasses as she watched Steve. His shoulders are up closer to his ears again, before he seemed to make the conscious decision to lower them. After a beat, the Rubik’s cube is solved, and Robin lets him toss it into her lap again.

“I don’t care that you like her at all, really.” Steve’s voice is soft and his words are spoken with a slow tilt to them, brows still furrowed as his bottom lip is pulled between his teeth. Robin watched him worry at it for a bit, before he let it go and began to speak again. “I was in love with her, I know, and she broke my heart in two-”

“Dingus-” Robin tried softly, but she let herself be cut off when Steve shook his head sharply. She instead, tossed the once more scrambled puzzle cube his way- and watched as he began to solve it again.

“If she…” Steve shook his head once, then twice, before his eyes met hers. There’s something there that’s lurking in them, a steel glimmer to them that Robin hasn’t seen before. He’s never really like this with her, not pulling on his King Steve persona like a personal shield again. “If she hurts you, Rob? Whatever friendship between her and I that’s somehow been salvaged? It’s… There is… I don’t care for a lot, not really anymore.”

Steve paused for a beat, shaking his head as he sniffled. He continued, speaking quieter and focused on his hands as he let the Rubik’s cube fall to his carpet.

“But if I ever have to chose between you and her? Rob, I’m going to pick you every time. And I want to be selfish and ask if you’d pick me too.”

Robin felt the tears then, hot and almost burning against her cheeks. Steve scrambled forward almost immediately, and Robin let out a gross even to her ears sounding sniffle as she let him cradle her to his chest. Robin reached up then, fingers searching and digging, pulling Steve closer to her. They entwine easily, and Robin can’t help but immediately think of Greek mythology.

There’s a story, one her mother used to tell her in place of fairytales. Of how the Greek philosopher, Plato, believed that humans used to have four arms and legs, and had two faces. Her mother always told it best, of how Zeus had deemed humans too prideful and split them as a form of punishment. Humans destined to walk the Earth searching for their other half, for their soulmate.

When she was little she used to think it would be romantic.

She knew better now.

She knew better because here she had Steve. And she may never get the chance or even the balls to tell Nancy Wheeler how she feels.

(That there are times where Robin looks at Nancy, and envisions a life where they are incandescently happy. Times where Robin can remember the burn and ache she felt for both Tammy and for Vickie, but that even together they don’t amount to what she feels for Nancy. That there are times where all Robin can do is just fucking wish and—)

She may never have a romantic soulmate.

Maybe it’s not in the cards for her in this reality, maybe that’s only something she can have in a different universe. Strangely, a part of her is okay with that.

Because here she has Steve. Here Steve has her.

And they’re SteveandRobin and RobinandSteve.

Two halves of a whole split by a God in a fit of rage, but somehow against all the odds they have managed to find each other and conjoin again.

Robin kept her voice soft as she pressed a soft kiss to Steve’s chest, and she left her lips there as she mumbled her next words. They’re the only words that fit, even though she wished she could bare her soul and mind completely, let him read and take his fill. Let him be comforted by her love.

As complete and unconditional as it is.

“I’d chose you in every fucking lifetime, Steve.”

It’s quiet for a moment, and Robin squeezed her fingers more intently against Steve’s shoulders. Steve is quick to mimic her, giving Robin a few quick pulses of his fingers, before he spoke up after a beat.

“I think I have a crush on Eddie.”

Robin can’t help but explode into laughter.

Steve followed with his own shortly after.

—

hope you enjoyed! here’s the link for this fic if following along with it on ao3 is more your jam <3 more parts to come soon!

taglist:

@wonderland-girl143-blog @bxlthazar @estrellami-1 @plutoshelm @stevesbipanic @mackdaddyofheimlichcountyy @plyerice27 @justforthedead89 @nuttychaosface @princess-eddie @daydreaming-mood @anaibis @marsbars97 @messrs-weasley @beckkthewreck @he-she-steveharrington @practicallybegging @trashcanniballecter @theluckyalien @chaoticvictorianspirit @fantasyfr3ak @newtstabber @mightbeasleep @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @songbird-garden @thisisallicouldthinkof @emma-elsa-0000 @leather-and-freckles @shinekocreator @alex-whitley-187 @gay-little-bitch @pluto-pepsi @silentiumdelirium @kitchen-spoon @bossyknow-it-all

[trinalvrs]

the cube is my favourite set design EVER it represents the family and its complicated pieces and how hard it is to put it back together after being pulled apart. they only start to use real props after whizzer gets ill, showing the reality of his illness. in falsettoland reprise the cube is rebuilt but they use one of the pieces at whizzer’s tombstone, basically saying that the family will never be complete without him.

[so-very-small]

“well the square cube law-“ I’m done listening. I’ve stopped. it’s over. I’ve lived here for years. I fought in the g/t trenches. I was there for Downsizing. for the fandom mass twitter exodus of 2018. I built my home here. in this world of extreme height difference. and you come to me, in my gay size website home, and you say “square cube”? you say “giants would move and talk slowly”? begone. get out of my sight, vile and wicked thing. we dream about swift giants and worlds without giant bugs here. I spit on your realism. my giants are so fucking fast.

[martyrbat]

harley quinn (2000) #35

[ID: a sequence of three panels focusing on an abandoned cup of tea as drops of blood drip down into it. Harley Quinn's internal narration boxes reads, ‘I was a tomboy growing up. Tackle football with the local boys? You bet. Under a car hood changing a filter? Sure. Dances? No. Pedicures? Pass. Sewing? You have to be kidding.’ The panels expand, revealing Harley hunched over. She's shown in a profile view and from afar, her face hidden by shadow as her blonde hair is in a slightly overgrown pixie cut.

The blood continues to drip as her narration resumes, ‘I remember watching my mother. Sewing. Sitting in this old chair with a pile of clothes my dad or brother needed fixing. A rip, a tear, a patch. Just kept a smile on her face as that pile got higher and higher. I resented her so much. Sewing. I vowed I'd never learn.’ Her hand comes onto panel, revealing she's holding a needle as she yelps, ‘Ow!’ We finally see her bloodied face when she looks up at the suddenly ringing phone, it being revealed that she had to give herself sutures to close a large gash on her forehead. END ID]

[fontygolucky]

FreeShart or whatever

[incomingalbatross]

The struggle of looking for a Christmas present for my 13-month nephew that is complicated enough to entertain him... right now his absolute favorite thing seems to be taking lids off containers and putting them back on, and you'd think there would be toys designed to fill that need but I haven't quite found them. Considering some kind of matryoshka though.

[kristhesheep]

no but how messed up would it be to KNOW, from the beginning, you were MADE to be "The Stupid One"? like that's the most anyone expects from you. i dunno, i feel like it would seep into everything.

like suddenly i'm second guessing even the most logical conclusions, because I'm just The Stupid One. If it seems logical to me, I bet it sounds dumb to the people who actually know.

Never trying to understand anything, never really trying to think for myself, because what I'm capable of is hardly even thinking, is it?

Assuming that something unintuitive might be the answer, because The Stupid One surely couldn't intuit the correct answer. And then everyone looks at me like I'm dumb. Don't they know which one I am?

But it's fine, right? I may be The Stupid One, but that means there's The Smart One. I can just rely on you. Except when we're given different tasks. Except when you're too panicked to reason. Except when our creator disregards you, too. Except when you give up on explaining it to me.

"You never even try to understand, why are you asking me to explain it?" I could never understand, so why should I even try? I'm just The Stupid One. But you always seem to like explaining, so can't I give you that small comfort?

You do so much for me, as The Smart One. There isn't much I can give you in return, being The Stupid One. If we were made to compliment each other, why does it feel like you're also the important one? The valuable one? The desirable one? Shouldn't we work best as a team? Why does it feel like I'm the dead weight one? The one you're forced to make up for?

But you come to me for comfort when you're upset. I'm there to calm you down. To cheer you up. To keep you company. Is that why I'm here? But I could never really understand why I was created, right? I am just The Stupid One.

wow. glad i wasn't created in a pair! i'd feel real bad for other guy to go through that

[aldoodles]

A successful museum visit (the Rubik’s cube is for Lizzie)

[crescent-cubed]

Sometimes I'll think to myself "man my dash is kinda slow today"

And then I'll remember that it's the middle of the day on a weekday during the fall semester

[bccfggffbgv]

Jcjenson Incident Report #187

Oct 11th 2:10 PM: "Bring your kid to Work" day starts off as a success with it seemingly concluding with a sneak peek of their latest project: The Disassembly Cube.

2:15 to 2:20 PM: The project begins with The Internecion Cube being carefully placed within Serial designation W's Core cavity with the cube activated afterwards.

2:25 PM: Five minutes pass with nothing seemingly happening but would be proven wrong as Serial designation W begins suddenly violently convulsing and shaking along with the core/heart monitor beeping violently faster than average.

2:28 PM: After 3 minutes pass, Serial designation W began roaring in absolute pain despite having been shut off for the test (Possible reason being the Cube's activation).

2:30 PM: two minutes pass and a liquid subtance begins spilling out everywhere from Serial designation W's body (Substance was later identified to be a mixture of blood and oil.)

2:35 PM: The disassembly drone unit soon ceases all movement and noises and is presumed dead after heart monitors detects no more heartbeats.

2:36 PM: Just as a scientist team was ordered to take the body away Serial designation W had suddenly awoken and attacked the team with bone like claws and sharper than average disassembly drone teeth.

2:38: The newly reborn drone begins its rampage after breaking out of the testing chamber and starts tearing apart everyone and everything, in sight.

2:40 to 2:45: Jcjenson security and the regular Disassembly drones are sent to, handle the problem before it entirely becomes a bloodbath.

2:49: Serial designation C arrives to end this nightmare after the death of so many individuals and after witnessing the termination of Serial designation S.

2:57: This intense battle comes to an end at last after both left a scar on one another and Serial designation W was detained with orders to send him onto a uninhabitable exoplanet to potentially perish.

Addendum: 24 out of 25 kids survived with two being injured and one incredibly traumatized...The one who perished was Dr. Vivian Belladonna's own 10 year old child: Jake....

Test:...Successful....

Vivian Belladonna, while looking at the file with clear sadness and resentment with the other rebels nearby trying to comfort her:...But at what cost...

====

Multiversal-Ween day 10: Wrath.

[blorb-el]

dc comics presents 50, "when you wish upon a planetoid!" 1982, script dan mishkin and gary cohn, pencils curt swan, inks kurt schaffenberger, colors gene d'angelo, letters annette kawecki

(context: clark and superman have been separated into two different people here, so clark's manipulating the anti-quake protection measures of this nuclear power plant in order to shut down the atomic-powered supervillain)

[raayllum]

So we've seen Rayla in S4 now, and she looks great! However, making her hairstyle look almost exactly like Sarai's seems VERY deliberate, do you think it will have some kind of purpose? Like symbolism? Cause I can already imagine scenes with Callum or even VIREN noticing the resemblance.

Honestly my reaction to seeing Rayla’s hairstyle in the trailer and just how similar it is to Sarai’s was

with a few more tears. I’ve written about Rayllum and Harrai’s parallels before (like ages ago because this meta was written a few months after S2 came out and months before S3 was released) and I’ve kinda been wanting to do a little update (and I feel like I’ll do another post-S4 since Harrai-Rayllum parallels truly are my favourite in the “Rayllum paralleling all the married couples” trend TDP delivers to us). I don’t think there will be anything overt pointed out appearance wise, but I do think the narrative is heading towards ramping those parallels up in interesting ways

Which is all a fancy way of saying that both Rayla and Callum have had strong parallels to Harrow and Sarai; for Callum, it’s Harrow’s search for fairness and for Rayla his belief in paying the price. For Callum, it’s his mother’s compassion and questioning what a monster is, and for Rayla, the willingness to stand with him even when she disagrees. There are more similarities (and differences) of course, but these are some of the main ones to me

Screencap compilation post relating to the similarities with updated S4 info / screencaps here, but I find it particularly interesting in regards to the pictures Callum has hung up in his study too

At first glance, the picture of Sarai from 1x07 and Rayla from 2x07 doesn’t seem that odd; of course he’d want to hold people he’s lost close to him. But uh: where’s Harrow, if that’s the case? Why just these two in particular, both drawings Callum did while reflecting on loss and fear?

C: When you were down there under the ice, I was so scared. I thought I was going to lose you the way we lost her. But somehow you made it, and I can’t help but feel that maybe she was watching over us.

//

He still couldn’t believe she had left. His palms were sweating and his chest felt tight. What if she didn’t come back? Could he and Ezran and Bait really manage to get Zym to Xadia? […] “Maybe there is something I can do,” Callum said. “Ezran, you stay here. Protect Bait and Zym. Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon—with Rayla.” (Book Two: Sky novelization)

One of the core things about Rayla and Callum is that they do their best to break the cycle of their parents’ heartbreak, but with varying degrees of success. But just as Rayla is repeating some of Runaan and Ethari’s more damaging cycles by leaving in TTM, I wouldn’t be surprised if Callum repeats some of Harrow’s regarding Sarai in S4. This is for a few different reasons.

1) Viren and Avizandum being paralleled in the S4 intro. While there’s one half of the symbolism of Viren fearing losing his child (Claudia) due to the folly of his own actions, that’s only one half of the symbolism available here. The other half of the symbolism is why Avizandum died in the first place: for revenge. We know that Harrow and Callum both hate Avizandum for Sarai’s death and that previously, Callum thought Viren was dead. However, if he hates the dragon king for “taking” his mother from him and now taking Rayla away from him twice (once due to her own paranoia, now being taken captive or perceived to be dead), that would absolutely be enough to send him off the edge and to possibly want revenge / do something shady, as we’ve already seen from parallels with 2x07-3x06. 

While it doesn’t show up subtitle wise in the show, you can faintly hear Sarai yelling “No!” as her spear is thrown into Avizandum’s chest in 3x06, which is a lovely little parallel to Ezran’s 

Only for the irony to be perhaps be that it isn’t Viren’s fault this time, but Aaravos / Claudia’s, not that that would matter to Callum by that point (or for the narrative symmetry of his goal, anyway)

2) Why Sarai died and how S4 could implement it. Sarai died for two main reasons: a decision Harrow made that she disapproved of but went along with in search of a powerful magic object, and because of her commitment to Viren (in saving his life). We have already seen some of this play out in contrast with Rayla. Rayla almost died getting a magical object for Callum against her better judgement in 1x04 (the Key). Rayla has likewise put herself in major danger due to her commitment to Viren, although instead of saving his life, she was/is determined to kill him once and for all

3) Mistakes, regret, and reconciliation. This is where the “went along with it anyway” could come from, perhaps. I’ve long posited that my “Callum exchanges the cube for Rayla’s life” theory has merit because of how well it would structurally parallel 1x04. We know that Rayla can’t be wholly right / rewarded for her behaviour even though she was right, in a way, that Viren was alive, so she has to have something go hella wrong (which would likely be Callum putting himself in danger on her behalf). However, if we layer the Harrai parallels on top of it, we get an even more complex narrative parallel. 

Just as Rayla was put in danger inadvertently for something she reluctantly agreed to in 1x04, and as the same happened and killed Sarai in the magma titan mission in 2x06, we could see that structure rear its head again in S4, with Rayla, guilty and trying to make up for it, being unwilling to let Callum take a risk on his own even if she disapproves (perhaps pursuing magic or answers about the cube beyond what’s wise). This could lead to her being in danger / taken, leading Callum to not only regret some of the anger he’s held towards her but that his own pursuits put her in danger, again, and swearing to do whatever it takes to get her back / avenge her in his own way

After all...

Tell me she wasn’t your world. 

(Misc thoughts: and if the fandom is right in speculating that 4x03  “Breathtaking” ends with Rayla showing up in Katolis as a cliffhanger, not only does that link back to 2x09 “Breathe” in which Rayla and Sarai are most overtly paralleled to one another, Sarai also had her last breath literally taken, and the whole thing would just be chef’s kiss, especially when Rayla and Sarai are arguably the two people we’ve seen disapprove of but ultimately forgive dark magic for the most)

[happyheidi]

Just wanted to share some old pics of Moffe + an alternative way of solving the Rubik’s cube

[yummycrummy]

Uhhhh…. Do your au makes me happy and…I wanted to give you this as a present :] (btw I drew this late at night and I just realized I don’t like it-)

!!! AWW....omg this is so cute 🥺♥️♥️