#techno grifters

[odinsblog]

[nando161mando]

Musk is known as a cybernetic or techno-fascist, as is clear from the promo video; control of information processing will reduce the value of ordinary and poor people to a resource for protein and water! The elite will call it reprocessing, for everyone else it will be genocide, on an unparalleled scale. The movie ‘Soylent Green’ partially predicted it. Cybernetics ends the dependence on renewable resources necessary for human sustenance, which are in danger of extinction and degradation. Entropy is the result of accelerating the unsustainable production of non-renewables. #AIMarketingDeathCult

[cochart]

ChatGPT fans are abolutely techno-spiritual, you are correct. A vague sense of destiny has always pervaded the AI community, and recently they have fallen victim to grifters and tech gurus who have played that up to get investment, because they have financial interest in convincing everyone that AI is the future, and also that what we have now is AI. (It's not. What we have is a series of data-crunching tools, nothing intelligent, just like you said). The podcast Behind the Bastards had a recent episode or two about how culty and weird these AI goons have become. It's worth a listen imo

Yes! I do feel like the recent surge of stupid genAI models is partly due to the fact that we're reaching the end of Q1 for this year. This is usually the time when companies whip up bs (the recent video generators, game generators, etc.) to beg investors to pour in more money for them.

The AI community is def culty. I feel like a lot of tech spaces can get culty but are not called out as much because it consists mostly of men. NFTs and crypto, for example, were reasonably called out as MLMs for young men. I've seen some interviews on Youtube where these really young guys fresh out of college talked about how they actually went into debt by joining various crypto/nft discord communities and pouring in their money.

I'd better check out that podcast if I can haha

Thanks for the recommendation.

I also found this article from Rollingstone earlier this year interesting. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-companies-advocates-cult-1234954528/

[hardtruthsfromsoftcats-blog]

I remember reading about Sophia soon after "she" was unveiled. It was like watching some sort of surreal vintage soviet sci-fi --- a humanoid head not unfit to live in Disney World's Hall of Presidents looked grafted on to a circa 2000 Honda Asimo, as if it were a high-tech Sid reject from Toy Story. A cool bit of animatronic work, sure, but by no means intelligent. It was relying on some sort of ancient expert systems technology for its dialogue, its control algorithms were as janky as humanoid robots' control algorithms ever were, and I wouldn't trust it to hold a glass of water let alone something important.

And yet the media loved it.

I was annoyed. It was the highest-profile example of news media parroting a press release as if it were true, with almost no due diligence. Oh haha "hot robot tells SXSW she wants to destroy world," great reporting CNBC. "Robot tells UN she can run world better than them." I will go on record and say that the CEO of this company is a grade-A grifter, that for n years he would push this non-functional product as if its a next-gen organism. His activity in creating crappy humanoid robots is not malpractice, but his existence as a human is malpractice.

Putting a chatbot into a crappy robot does not make it any more human, sentient, or interesting to talk about than the crappy robot by itself or the non-sentient chatbot by itself. It's just three pieces of technology stapled together, with no new capabilities. When you convince a country to give a robot citizenship in some desperate play for relevancy on a world stage, you are wasting everyone's time and attention, and pretending to be doing something profoundly philosophical, when in fact, you quite frankly, are not.

More recently I saw a company claim it has a robot CEO. Oh, does it make better decisions now that it's in a robot body?

Any time you see a story like this, please do me a favor and do not click on these links. Do not give them ad revenue. Those reporting on these stories in 2023 do not deserve credit for filling out niches in this techno-toxic ecosystem. Just assume that everything inside is bullshit, and move on.

Ah crap, I should have said that before I put all the links in here.

Incidentally there is a pseudo-weird weird pattern with making all of these human-like robots women. Don't get me wrong, I want women to keep chipping away at that glass ceiling. I just want it to matter when they do.

[chucktaylorupset]

A Grifter’s Rings

“Does that ever bother you?” asked Breanna.

Sophie finished working her wedding ring off her finger.  Laid out on her bed was the disguise for her persona: an impoverished mourner who was extremely ready to sell off her only inheritance of a priceless lost Monet to a corrupt antiquities smuggler.  The simple threadbare black dress was an ensemble that would be completely contradicted by the austere elegance and wealth displayed by Sophie’s wedding ring.

“It’s no bother.  Not at all.” Sophie smiled.

“Because you’re such a good thief?”  Breanna said eagerly with her usual brilliant hunger for rooting out the right answer and the praise for doing so.

“I am a grifter,” Sophie corrected.  “And while I am good enough to put aside any personal feelings, I married a man who planned so that I would never have to.”

Sophie brought out her primary jewelry box, which by size is closer to a tasteful small jewelry trunk.  She set it on the vanity.  

“My Nate knew he was to be the husband of a grifter.  A retired one, but still a grifter.  And so he didn’t get me just one ring.” Sophie opened the jewelry box with a flourish.  Nestled inside its tiered felt shelves were dozens of different rings.  Elegant rings, garish rings, rings big and small.  She found and selected a plain silver band and placed it on her finger.

“Nate ensured that no matter who I would be being, that I would have a ring from him to wear.” And neclaces and bracelets and brooches for those personas where the rare mark was put off by the challenge of meeting someone married.  But she didn’t need to go into that with Breanna now.  “Most of them he made sure we stole together.  All of them have a story.  This one is forged from melted silverware that belonged to Henry the Eighth.”

Breanna came over to peer into the jewelry box.  She picked up an enormous emerald ring with a square cut.  “Where is this one from?”

Sophie felt a pang of grief, but then it passed as it always did. “A private collection in a penthouse in Berlin.  This was actually a gift for my birthday.  We went in as party guests, the Duke and Duchess of Hanover.  The mark had what was then the latest from Coast Security.”  She added the technical details as a tidbit for the hacker.

“With the full six different sets of sensors each on their own circuit and the Widogast XV firewall?  Don’t you need at least ten hours and a Babel Techno Tower to crack that?”

“Ordinarily I assume yes.  But we were grifters.  If we’ve done it right, it ends with the mark handing us what we want.”

Sophie went into the story of that heist, and the stories for all the other rings caught Breanna’s fancy.  Each time there was a pang of grief, that gentled into nostalgia.  Breanna brought the same eagerness to learn to each of Sophie’s stories, her mind desperately working to make out the twists of the con before it was revealed.  Once or twice, she was even right.  

It was no wonder Hardison had told Breanna so many stories if she was always this much of a joy in listening.  And there was the fact that Breanna had never known a living Nathan Ford.  So there was none of the weight of if Sophie were to tell these stories to Eliot and Parker and Hardison, the heaviness of their worry and shared grief.

On the bed, the black dress and the con with it could hold for a couple hours.  For now there were the legends of mastermind Nathan Ford and grifter extroirdinaire Sophie Deveraux who were, like the rings, brilliant, glittering, and glamorous, forever.

[votederpycausemufins]

hehehehe. We got some hels lore in this chapter! that's totally the only thing going on here. nothing else. nothing with the nightmare crew or stuff with grian. nope!

hermit tommy au by @petrichormeraki

Phil looked away from the scroll and towards the window of his study. Wherever they were all stuck, time was moving faster than normal, obvious by the fact that he could see the sun moving. As far as anyone that was part of this false reality was concerned, the day was progressing normally, so any attempts to point it out didn’t go well. That also meant that as far as his kingdom and the other one were concerned, they had been fighting for a number of days by now. And whether that was a good or bad thing, Phil couldn’t tell.

On one hand, with time moving the way it was, things were progressing faster, so he didn’t have to wait days for a message to arrive and be left sitting, waiting for an answer. On the other hand, if everyone was imprisoned to get at him, they likely weren’t being treated well and possibly tortured if this place thought that was what he feared most. It wasn’t, but it could get at that.

Fortunately, the scroll in his hand assured him they were unharmed. They were being held captive and weren’t taking well to it, but they still had food and shelter. The one problem was the messages implied that it was just the princes, meaning Tommy, Techno and Wilbur, but a few made mention of others, so Phil couldn’t be sure.

No answers had been given in terms of a trade, since apparently they had captured some of those belonging to the other kingdom, but apparently they weren’t of the same worth as a prince. Though, as Phil mulled it over, the most information he had was through the means of the letters he got or what those in his castle told him. If he talked with the captured guards, he could interrogate them, learn more, and then possibly work from that.

“Someone prepare the prisoners for questioning. I want to speak with them and see if I can’t weasel something out of them that we can use.”

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Grian looked at the house in front of them, then back to the other teens, both Flora and Astrid not taking their eyes off of the building. “Alright, here’s the plan. Neither Toob or Sil know about Astrid being back, plus she knows the layout of the place. Grian, Silski obviously doesn’t like you, so you’re going to be with me distracting both of them. I’ll disguise it as getting off on the wrong foot and also introducing you to Toob.”

“What after that?” Grian asked, a little lost since he had only caught half of what Astrid had been signing to Flora on the way there.

“Well, once Astrid gives the signal, which is probably bashing some kneecaps, we book it out of here. Wait, Grian, you’re avian, maybe you can-”

Grian stopped Flora before she could continue. “I haven’t tried flying in years. My wings were never in the best condition, and while they might be good enough to fly on now, I’m probably really rusty.”

“Yeah, okay, probably not the best thing to find out when we need it. Uh, hey, you could try shooting Silski if he doesn’t have his knees bashed in enough. He’s a sculk hybrid, so they’re pretty tough.”

“I… don’t know what that is.” Grian said. Grifter had told him plenty about the people and things they had made here, but not really much about what was different compared to the world he grew up in. Flora obviously wanted to help explain that gap if her expression were anything to go on, but Astrid nudged her and signed. “Astrid’s right. We’re already here, with a plan. Let’s do this prank and then you can talk as much as you want.”

‘Bold choice of words.’ Astrid signed, then pulled out a bat, resting it on her shoulder and holding it with her head. ‘You two head in first.’

Flora gave a thumbs up and then grabbed Grian’s hand, pulling him over to the front door of the house and knocking on the door. There was a voice from inside, and then after a bit someone answered the door. As opposed to Silski, who Grian had seen at the trek to see Flora’s mom, they were instead faced with someone who Grian was surprised to see was shorter than him, though part of that did seem to be that they were hunched over a bit. They had curly blond hair and large light grey horns coming out from it that made Grian wonder if maybe that was why they were so hunched. “What do you want, Fleur?”

Flora gave a sweet little smile that Grian could tell was a bit forced. “Well, my uncle invited another family member of mine over! His name is Grian and I’m helping him meet people.”

“And why the fuck are you bothering me about this?”

“Well, I met someone else earlier, I think they were named Silski?” Grian spoke up, immediately finding a groove. “Well, we got off on the wrong foot and I wanted to try and start over.”

Toob looked Grian over before scoffing. “Whatever. You act like Wassa. Just less drugs. Let’s get this over with.”

“Well, is Silski here?” Flora asked, getting a glare from Toob, but he hobbled off and soon returned with the hulking teal and pink person Grian remembered before. This time, the avian was able to get a better look, the person having weird sort of antler things on his head and wearing an unbuttoned dress shirt that revealed a pattern of shifting and glowing dots that were almost hypnotizing. Almost. “Hello Silski!”

“Why’s short Grifter here?” Silski asked with a huff, making Grian move a step closer.

“Uh, my name is actually Grian. I’m a relative of Flora’s.”

“Who spends too much time with Sense no doubt.” Silski spat at Grian, causing Flora to pull out her axe. “What? It’s true. That unnatural little fuck shouldn’t be around here.”

“That’s my uncle you’re talking about!” Flora shouted, swinging her axe next to Silski as a warning.

“Who’s fucking your cousin or something.” Silski shouted back, pointing to Grian. “There’s no way he smells that bad otherwise!”

“Ew! Gross!” Grian said, now with that unfortunate thought in his head. Technically, that was probably true because of Grifter… but gross.

“Well not even Grifter smells that-” Silski stopped, antler things twitching before he turned around just in time to get hit by Astrid and her bat.

“Go go go!” Flora shouted, whacking Toob and then grabbing the sack Astrid had brought with her but set down to attack. True to Flora’s words before, Astrid’s attacks didn’t do much, so Grian pulled out his gun and shot Silski a few times before running after the other two, catching up at the cliff where they started. “Whew! That was close!”

“Yeah, but we got what we wanted, right?” Grian asked, and Flora held up the bag. “Okay good. Can we get back to the castle before I can think about what Silski was saying again.”

“Yeah yeah yeah let’s go!” Flora agreed, giving the sack to Astrid and then heading to the castle. Once they arrived, Astrid went to deal with the sack, leaving Flora a chance to explain things to Grian. “So, what do you want to know first?”

“Uh, I guess anything that leads up to the sculk stuff, whatever that is.”

“Okay, so I’m sure you know most peaceful animals like pigs and sheep and rabbits.” Flora started, making Grian nod and internally disagree with one of the animals being on the peaceful list. “The only weirder ones are probably the nylpigs. Wassa has a lot of them. Astrid even has a few deals with him because she can get mycelium which he apparently really likes. Anyway, right, uh, so the more monster stuff show up in different dimensions. Main overworld stuff is like skeletons, zombies, spiders- uh there’s two kinds of those, big purple ones that you can only find in certain caves, and really big brown ones that are all over. Creepers are exploding things. I’m sure you know about that since Euro’s a hybrid.”

Grian shook his head before catching himself. “Uh, you seem to like talking about it, so go ahead.”

“Right! Well for the most part, they’re just really quiet and like to sneak up on you and explode, or explode if you sneak up on them because they get scared. Silverfish are annoying as fuck and guard the gateway to The Dark, but Grifter is still trying to fix that place up so we can access it. There are slime you can sometimes keep as pets, illagers- right, forgot. There’s a native population of other humanoids that are just known as villagers. Anyway, where was I?”

“You mentioned the villagers because of the illagers.” Grian reminded the fox hybrid, who lit up.

“Right! Well illagers are outcast villagers that want to get revenge or something. Then there are like water zombies called the drowned, and then there’s the barnacle and greater barnacle. I know, sounds silly, much deadlier than the name implies. They live in sea temples. Uh, there’s also zombies called husks in the desert and… oh yeah! The Great Hunger. Also in deserts. It’s actually pretty cool!”

“Well, glad to know all the-” Grian started, but Flora stopped him.

“No! There’s still two other dimensions! I mean the aether is filled with stuff like Aerwhales, sheepuffs and kirrid, but also hostile monsters like tempests, valk and swets. And then The Dark has sculk and the Warden and shriekers! There’s so much more!”

Before Grian could object or Flora could continue, there was a knock, and the two of them looked to see Astrid in the doorway. ‘Hey …, everything’s set up.’

“Hell yeah!” Flora cheered, jumping up, then helping Grian to his feet.

“Hey, little confused about something Astrid signed there.” Grian spoke up, following as Astrid led them to a different room.

“I’d tell you, but we’re- oh who cares, let them learn. This sign-” and Flora repeated the movements. “Is for bitch. Astrid was saying bitches. You need to learn more curse word signs.”

“I’ll agree with you there.” Grian said, then they reached the room Astrid was leading them to. For the most part it was an unused but messy cross between a bedroom and storage room, but sitting on the dusty mess of a bed was a little kid with shimmering blonde hair and a pair of silvery wings that were poking out of an oversized t-shirt that they wore as a dress. They also were very quiet due to the candy cane in their mouth. “So then… this is Jane?”

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When guards came to pull one of them out of the cell, Doc was the first to volunteer. He hoped that being outside the cell, if only for a little bit, would help him get some information or item to break them out, even if that ended up being swiping the keys off a guard.

As the hybrid was pulled to a different room and chained to a table, he couldn’t help but wonder what this was about. They had thought that they were imprisoned to keep them out of the way of whatever was going on, but here Doc was, suddenly pulled into the events.

He sat quietly at the table, mulling things over when the door started to open. Doc looked over to see who it was and froze, Phil doing the same as they stared each other down. “Doc?”

“Oh thank void.” Doc said, relaxing a bit. “Me ‘n a few of the others have been stuck in a dungeon cell or something.”

“Yeah. My dungeon.” Phil said. “I… Look, apparently I’m at war and you were supposed to be some captured soldiers from another kingdom.”

“Not the case here.” Doc shrugged, making the chains keeping him to the table rattle enough to draw Phil’s attention to them and then uncuff Doc. “I’m with Mumbo, X and EX. We woke up in the cell and have been trying to break out since. I mean, we figured out this is supposed to be your nightmare, but other than that, we’ve got nothing.”

“Well, Tommy, Techno, Wilbur, Paul and Grum are probably all hostages to the other kingdom if you guys are here. They’re trying to get me to surrender in return for their freedom.”

“I’m sure they can handle it.” Doc said, leading Phil to the cells so he could free the other three. “Paul has his prison expertise, Grum has a number of tricks up his sleeve, and Tommy has that knack for finding his way out of things. I’m sure the other two also have their own things they can do.”

“Yeah, but none of this is running on real logic. I mean, a day barely lasts an hour around here and I still don’t know who I’m fighting.”

The pair reached the cells and the other three were very glad about being let out. Phil led them out of the dungeons and into the main area of the castle, showing them to a large room near his study which they could use as a sort of meeting area that wouldn’t concern the guards. After everyone was settled, Phil grabbed some parchment and started writing, eventually sending a message to the other kingdom, hoping this new development would change some things.

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Jrum raced out of the storage room to find out what was going on. The first thing he noticed was the giant box made out of bedrock that wasn’t there before. Meanwhile, curled up and huddled against one of the nearby walls of the base was Vee, who seemed to be scared of something, probably whatever was trapped in the box.

Those suspicions were confirmed when Jrum asked what was wrong and Vee pointed to the box. “Do you think you could open it again?” Jrum asked, pulling out a sword, but Vee just curled up tighter and started shaking her head. “If you let whatever it is out, I’ll fight it.”

Vee didn’t seem completely convinced, but she at the very least was convinced enough to make an opening in the bedrock that Jrum could get through. The bot nodded at Vee and then turned back to the box, only for her to scream again as the thing inside managed to escape. As it did, Jrum put his sword away, now upset at Vee than wanting to protect her. “You trapped Ren?!”

Before more could be said, magic suddenly wrapped around Ren and he was suddenly shoved back into the box, a groan of pain coming from inside it a moment later. Angrily, Jrum stomped over to Vee who had, for some reason, stuck all her fingers in her mouth. “What are you doing?!”

“W-well…” Vee started, moving her hands to sit on them instead. “Papa said you lick your fingers before putting out a fuse so your saliva helps put it out, and that using magic is kinda like that, so I-”

“Not that! Why did you trap Ren?! Is it because he followed us? The others probably didn’t like us going on our own, that’s all!”

At that point, Ren escaped the box again. “Yeah, that’s exactly it, and I think it might be that she knows I’m a werewolf.”

“Ugh! I’m getting Basil to see if petti-” Jrum stopped, gears turning in his head. “Wait, do you know who Perfect Sense is?” He asked Vee, who nodded. “What about Grifter?”

“Y-yeah… h-he’s friends w-with my d-dad.”

“And what server are you from?” Jrum asked, eyes narrowed.

“M-Mystic P-Paradice.” Vee answered quietly. “W-well, my dad m-made a world for us… b-but it doesn’t really have a name.”

“Don’t care. What do you know about my dad?”

Before Vee could answer, Ren came over to Jrum and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, calm down. Even if she knows something, I doubt you’ll get much out of her.”

Jrum crossed his arms, but looked at Vee again, who he had to admit did look terrified out of her mind. Almost like… “Fine, whatever. But I’m gonna find out later.”

“Alright, now what were you up to going all the way out here?” Ren asked, and Jrum ran back down to the storage system before returning moments later with a shulker box. “Redstone?”

“Of course redstone! A lot is going on and I want to make something comforting with all the chaos going on. It's… it's too much chaos for even me!”

“That does sound pretty serious. Here, now that you have that, we should head back to the shopping district.” But then Ren paused to look at Vee. “Well, I’m not sure how we’re getting them back yet. Unless you can carry them?”

“Why can’t you?” Jrum huffed, before Ren reminded him that Vee was freaked out because of him. “Oh… right. Uh, can we get another hermit to help?”

“Yeah, let’s see if anyone can-” Another scream came from Vee, leaving the two hermits to look over at her in time to see a second, smaller bedrock box forming. “Vee, what did you put in the box?”

Vee refused to answer Ren, so he nudged Jrum over. The bot resisted for a bit, digging his heels into the ground, but then Ren leaned down to whisper to him. “No no no! Don’t hurt them!”

“Me?” Ren asked. “I’m not going to hurt him. Look, I may be a werewolf but-”

“Just take the bad thing and go away!” Vee sounded through her tears and pointed at the second box. Sharing a glance with Ren, Jrum walked over to the box, which opened enough for him to pick up a Jellie clone.

“She doesn’t like Jellie?” Ren asked, before Jrum thought of something. He handed the Jellie to Ren and then ran off, leaving Ren to stand awkwardly nearby until Jrum returned with Professor Beak on his shoulder and a sheep on a lead.

Seeing the animals made Vee freak out more, which Jrum responded with letting the pet parrot fly home and ‘accidentally’ pushing the sheep off the edge of the base. “So…” Jrum started, looking back to Ren, who seemed to realize what Jrum had.

“She’s not scared I’m a werewolf. She’s just… scared of animals in general.”

“Yeah.”

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Paul gripped the scroll in his hands, trying not to lose his cool. None of this stuff was actually real. It couldn't be. He didn’t actually have anyone betraying him and joining the other kingdom. This was all just trying to mess with him. “Um, H-Hoodie? Any word on that group of travellers I’ve asked the guards to be on the lookout for?”

“I’m sorry sir. Nothing yet. I… don’t wish to worry you, but if I may be honest with you your majesty, it has been many a day, and I fear the worst at this point.”

Paul nodded. “Then, if that’s the case, I have no other choice.” And Paul got up off of his throne, leaving Hoodie to stumble after him. “I will go out myself and look.”

“Your majesty!” Hoodie objected. “We are at war! You leaving the castle walls seems like a horrible decision at this time.”

“Then I will be careful. Have some prepare Pickles for me.”

“Sire, please. At least have someone accompany you.” Hoodie begged, but Paul ignored the suggestion.

“Pickles is the only pegasus we own and even if we did have another, I am the only one who knows how to handle such beasts.” Paul spoke as he walked out of his castle and through the kingdom’s streets. “Hoodie, it is best if you stay here to watch the kingdom in my absence.”

“But sire-!”

“You will stay and-” Paul stopped as he got closer to the stables, a guard running up to him. “What is it?”

“There’s a problem sir.”

“Take me there.” And Paul immediately followed the guard. While they still crossed the bridge over the river, they turned left instead of right to head to the amphitheatre instead of the stables. Paul’s first guess was there was a scuffle of some kind between the workers, but that changed when he started hearing the sounds of some sort of alarm. “What… what is that?”

“We’re not sure. It sounds like it’s coming from the prison. With the reficuls in there, it’s not advised that you leave to see to the problem yourself, but what should be done is your decision.”

Paul thought it over before coming to a decision. “Let’s go into the amphitheatre so I can get a better vantage point of outside the walls and towards the prison. I’ll make my decision from there.”

The guard agreed and both he and Hoodie followed Paul up the stairs to the second floor seating. The king looked out towards the jail trying to find any sort of sign for what the sound was, when movement caught his eye. Pointing in the sky to the right, everyone looked at a person donned in reficul armor flew in. It was an avian hybrid, one whose wings Paul quickly recognized, but he wasn’t sure if that was good or bad right now.

“Stay here. I’m going to the prison.” and before the guard or Hoodie could object, Paul jumped down and broke through the kingdom’s wall to get through to the prison, only to have the walls of the building explode moments later.

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Grian shoved some boxes out of the way and collapsed on the couch with Astrid. The avian was regretting agreeing to this prank, and the other teen seemed to agree. Fortunately Flora was still doing fine, having taken Jane to run around the castle, especially if it meant finding Sense apparently.

Grian was just closing his eyes, hoping to take a nap, when he was suddenly flicked on the forehead. “Ow hey! What the fuck?!”

‘Can’t talk to you if you aren’t looking at me.’ Astrid signed back, and then hit Grian’s shoulder when he started closing his eyes again with a playful grin. ‘Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch.’

“What? Is that the only curse you know?” Grian taunted, earning him another punch.

‘No, but it’s the only one you know.’ Astrid replied, then paused, clearly showing her weapon ready to be drawn and used. ‘Now, you and I need to have a little chat.’

Grian immediately stopped being playful and was now fully awake, ready to grab his own weapon and fight. “What is this about?”

‘Something doesn’t add up. Who are you? Who are you really?’

Grian stared at Astrid, trying to figure if there was some way out of this, but the mask she wore covered her face and hid her emotions, so Grian had nothing. “Why do you want to know?”

‘I don’t like you lying to Flora. I don’t care if anyone else knows, I’m not planning to tell them. But I want to know for Flora. Plus, she’s already suspicious because of something she found before.’

Thinking it over, Grian realized the hybrid probably saw the papers Grifter had given to him about his past. His future? Stuff that had happened at the very least. “Well, Grifter didn’t really want me-”

‘How about this. You answer, and then you can ask me other shit.’ And Astrid finger spelled the last word for Grian, making him laugh a little.

“Alright. Well, to start off, yes Grian is my name. I mean, I haven’t gotten the chance to legally change it, but that’s my name.” Grian paused to look at Astrid, who nodded to show she was following along. “Uh, I’m… actually kinda… from the past.”

Grian paused, waiting for Astrid to be surprised at least a little, but she wasn’t. ‘My brother messed with time stuff all the time to torture people. Accidental time shit doesn’t seem that bad.’

“Oh. Alright then. So, Grifter is future me, but he’s also Grian.” And that was something that got a reaction from Astrid. “Okay, see, something happened when I was a kid, getting me sent to another world away from my family. Apparently later on, me slash Grifter got the power to go looking for everyone and it worked, but… everything was a mess.”

Grian paused, pulling out the balled up piece of paper that hadn’t been taken back from him by Grifter. “My… my youngest brother is dead. He killed himself. Then my twins, one of them is some sort of murdering monster who betrayed our younger brother, and the other one is also dead, killed off by my dad.”

At this point, Grian had teared up a bit, and Astrid did her best to comfort him, unfortunately knowing that whatever Grian was saying had to be true. Papers like that couldn’t be forged, especially since her dad had mentioned helping to get them.

With Astrid’s support, Grian wiped his eyes, looking the paper over again before stuffing it back in his inventory. “W-well, apparently after finding all that out, Grifter went looking for someplace to stay. We’ve already dealt with other universes with different versions of ourselves, so he went looking for that and… found here. Instead of needing to kill his other version or trying to keep him away, the real Grifter was stuck in some sort of prison and he took their place.”

From there, Astrid did a bit more comforting for Grian, but inside she was fuming. It was a perfect sort of lie to tell. She couldn’t tell anyone the truth since Grifter had threatened her, she couldn’t give half of the ‘truth’ Grian had been told because then he might try correcting her, and she couldn’t tell the full ‘truth’ because that would upset Flora.

‘Alright. That sounds like a lot. I won’t tell Flora, but, I would consider telling her yourself at some point.’

Grian nodded in agreement, calming down a little bit and just sitting there quietly until there was some buzzing, and Astrid had to pull out her comm. ‘Can you call for Flora. I need her right now!’

With how quickly Astrid was signing, Grian nearly missed what she was saying, but caught enough to know what she needed and based on how frantic she was acting, it was really important. “Flora! Something’s wrong! Astrid needs you, like, right now!”

Almost immediately Flora came skidding into the room, asking what was wrong. Astrid’s answer was to hold up her comm, which drew Flora nearer as the non-hybrid pressed a button. She then pressed a second one and suddenly crying came from the speaker of the communicator, Astrid and Flora now huddled around it as the comm was passed to Flora and Astrid started to sign.

“Vee? Vee it’s Flora, and Astrid’s here too of course. What’s going on, what’s wrong?”

“Bad things! Bad things are here a-and they’re tr-trapping m-me and I’m s-scared!”

“Hey hey hey, calm down. Can you tell us a little more detail. What bad things? What do they look like?”

“Th-there are two of them. T-there were four, b-but one flew a-away and one l-left.” Vee explained through the comm.

“Okay, and what are the two that are left.”

“O-one i-is a feline thing… it’s gray and white.”

“And how big is it?”

“Um… I-It’s a l-little s-smaller than… than… a tv?” Vee explained, getting Flora to look up with a shrug and Astrid to quickly sign something to Flora in an explanation. “A-are you still there?”

“Yeah! Yeah we’re still here. That’s a cat. A normal cat. It might scratch you but you should be fine if you leave it alone. What about the other one?”

“It’s… it’s really b-big. Bigger than p-papa. They l-look like a p-person… m-mostly… but they g-got ears and a tail a-and they s-said they’re a w-werewolf.”

“Oh shii-oot, that’s not good. Can you find someone who can keep you safe? Can you try calling your dad?”

“I h-have a fr-friend here, b-but I c-can’t call p-papa!”

“Okay. Okay okay okay. Uh, and I left my comm in the other room!” Flora said, more to herself than anyone. She then looked around before shoving the comm into Grian’s hand. “Hey, my uncle is here too! He’s gonna translate for Astrid while I get my comm, okay?”

There were a few sniffles before Vee said “Okay.” And then Flora rushed off.

Astrid turned to Grian and started to sign, slower than she had been signing to Flora, but still faster than normal. “Okay, uh… how close is your… your friend to you? Keeping them close… should help out. They’ll keep you safe from any ani- er, bad things.”

“Ok-kay. J-Jrum… c-can you-”

Vee was stopped when someone else spoke. Their voice was quieter, but got louder as they got closer. “Now what is it? I’m not really in the mood to try talking to anyone right now.”

“Y-you don’t h-have to. A-Astrid just s-said I should k-keep you c-closer r-right now.”

“And Astrid is mute, so she’s signing to me and I’m translating.”

There were a few moments of silence before Vee’s friend asked a question. “And who’s translating?”

“Flora s-said her uncle was g-gonna translate. H-He’s the o-one married t-to Perfect Sense.”

After that, there was the sounds of some sort of struggle before the other person’s voice came through the other side, louder than before. “What did you do with my dad?!”

[eirikrjs]

Isn't wildly differing interpretations of the significance of x or y subject within a larger framework that remains roughly consistent one of the hallmarks of the natural sectarian tendencies of living religions/myth systems? I don't think the modern UFO community having different interpretations of the purpose or hierarchy of the visitors disqualifies them from still being considered part of a larger "belief system" even if it's not as ordered as equivalent "classical" myth systems. A lot of the modern eye on interpreting ancient myth systems elides or collapses what was likely a significant amount of differing interpretation or etc. from person to person, let alone from temple to temple - we only get a broad picture of what was most widely accepted or documented.

Fair, and believing UFOs exist definitely qualifies as a transformative worldview. But as I said in the reply to Caligula, I personally just don't feel right calling their phenomenon more than "folklore" or thereabouts. And unlike the classical period where we certainly have multiple, conflicting accounts of myths, our modern media has more or less recorded every single instance of extraterrestrial phenomena--and more footage of lights in the sky or hazy recollections of abductions doesn't mean they are automatically compelling.

UFOs also exist alongside of (or in response to) our technological advances in science and its skeptical attitudes. Even if some buy into an event as genuinely extraterrestrial, just as many if not more will doubt and/or search for scientific explanations instead. These beliefs are considered fringe from the get-go. While lots of religious/spiritual worldviews (take the Goetia) are fringe themselves, they depend on an inexplicable supernatural force and are compatible with parent systems. On the other hand, aliens' existence depends on science and technology, not magic, albeit "technology that's indistinguishable from magic." (Though honestly, what's so techno-magical about dissecting cows in open fields?) That said, accepting the fabric of alien lore doesn't require the believer to scientifically consider the insane technology needed to travel vast distances in space or theories like the Fermi Paradox that raise doubts about Earth achieving actual extraterrestrial contact anytime soon.

While we've mentioned the consistencies, if you consider extraterrestrials holistically, there is a sliding scale of seriousness, tone, authenticity, you name it. For example, here are three wildly different extraterrestrial-based events: the Flatwoods monster, the Travis Walton account, and Heaven's Gate. Respectively, a barn owl that'll spook kids, a grifter whose movie adaptation spooked adults, and an actual religious cult that resulted in dozens of deaths. Even assuming the Flatwoods monster and Travis Walton abduction are authentic, is it even possible to reconcile these three into one system in a satisfyingly cohesive way? I would say no, and that the only "legitimate" one is Heaven's Gate, not necessarily because of the deaths but because of the members' fervor for Marshall Applewhite, their prophet and redeemer and on whose words they performed a final ritual for their own salvation. But Heaven's Gate by itself doesn't prove a consistent UFO mythology (in fact it seems rather incompatible), just that the group existed (exists?) as its own distinct interpretation.

I might be so opposed to the idea of UFO religion/mythology as equal to ancient mythology because I started learning about it via a book I read as a kid (that I've never been able to find in adulthood) that considered aliens or at least characters like the Flatwoods monster in the same category as the Mad Gasser of Mattoon, Spring-Heeled Jack, and other urban legends!

[dogboyren]

fungus brain decided to combine hyperfixes so here’s my take on an mcyt x tma au (tips and additions accepted readily) [more or less character replacement for the tma timeline but i work better with a preconstructed timeline]

dream- hunt avatar. his mode of “hunting” is thrill-seeking, constantly finding people good enough to give him a chase before he turns it around at the end and hunts them back full force. marked by the stranger (and doesn’t like it)

george- eye avatar. head of the magnus archives and a calm observer, taking in everything in the archives. the real george seeps through every once in a while, since it is mostly just jonah magnus 

sapnap- desolation avatar. got into the cult of the lightless flame and accepted his fate there

bbh- dark avatar? idk 

fundy- the archivist, eye avatar. seeks out and consumes knowledge, especially when it’s unknowing to the person he’s spying on. thrives off knowing people’s secrets and life stories, but doesn’t accept the fact that he’s an avatar.

wilbur- lonely/desolation (no clue which one yet). shaken by everything post-unknowing, he isolates himself in “exile” and tries to blow up the archives. a lot. someone send help

philza- vast avatar. loves flying around and doing the traditional fairchild execution fall. is somewhat responsible for helping wilbur be in isolation in his domain (skyblock)

tommy- slaughter avatar. has no idea he’s an avatar and constantly denies it. listens to grifter’s bone for fun and actually likes it

tubbo- corruption avatar. is a living beehive for his many bees. his blood is honey and he can talk to bees 

techno- flesh/slaughter (again, undecided). runs a butcher shop, kills ppl for fun and for some meat :) human flesh tastes like pork, ya know

schlatt- web avatar. kinda takes the role of peter lukas, aka takes over the archives at one point. makes a lot of contracts and holds people to them and bc he’s a literal web avatar they can’t escape them

all i got so far but more are to come

EDIT: more

skeppy- spiral avatar. just likes shoving ppl into his mazes and having fun watching them stumble <3

[mostlysignssomeportents]

RÄT

When I learned I was going to be a dad, I asked dads I respected for advice. Mostly, I asked cyberpunks (obviously). @brucesterling​ reminded me that no matter how bohemian and outre I was, I would be the epitome of contemptible bougie normalcy in my kid's eyes by the age of 15.

But then I asked Rudy Rucker, and he said, "My kids kept me cool" and Rudy was like, the coolest adult I knew, so I was in (plus his kids are super cool - Isabel made my cipher-wheel/wedding ring and Rudy Jr runs San Francisco's amazing Monkeybrains ISP).

Both predictions have come true. My kid is 12 and ahead of schedule on the "contemptible bougie normalcy" project, but she's also keeping me cool. This weekend, she played Penelope Scott's viral Tiktok hit RÄT for me. Holy shit is it amazing.

https://www.tiktok.com/@worsethanithot/video/6881853360467758342

It's a bouncy, upbeat chiptunes track about the disillusionment of Big Tech billionaires who turn out to be sociopath self-dealers whose techno uptopianism is a mask for extraction, exploitation, selfishness and eugenics.

The lyrics are structured as a breakup letter with Elon Musk, but Scott's said that he's a stand-in for every personality-cult tech grifter.

Those lyrics! A perfect bathetic mix of silliness, braininess, scathing wit, self-examination and hope.

https://genius.com/Penelope-scott-rat-lyrics

It's a balance between damning tech's leaders and holding out hope for a better future:

> God damn, I fell for you, your flamethrowers, your tunnels, & your tech

> I studied code because I wanted to do something great like you

> And the real tragedy is half of it was true

She's merciless on the venality behind the rhetoric:

> When I said take me to the moon, I never meant take me alone

> I thought if mankind toured the sky, it meant that all of us could go

> But I don't want to see the stars if they're just one more piece of land

> For us to colonize, for us to turn to sand

By the time she hits the third chorus, I was on my feet cheering:

> So fuck your tunnels, fuck your cars, fuck your rockets, fuck your cars again

>  You promised you'd be Tesla, but you're just another Edison

> 'Cause Tesla broke a patent, all you ever broke were hearts

> I can't believe you tore humanity apart

> With the very same machines that could have been our brand new start

I mean.

Wow.

You can buy Scott's whole album Public Void on Bandcamp for $6, or just this track for $1.

https://penelopescott.bandcamp.com/track/r-t-2

(I paid $10)

Meanwhile, if you're looking for something less acerbic but no less brilliant on who gets to go to space in our imaginations and our future, try Ada Palmer's "Somebody Will." It pairs beautifully with RÄT.

http://www.sassafrassmusic.com/songs/sci-fi-fantasy-fandom/somebody-will/

[iregretallmydecisions]

LEVERAGE SBI YES PLS GIMME ALL THE HEADCANONS

Ask and Ye shall receive. Leverage AU titbits one (1) person asked for. 

Phil turned to crime after he got disillusioned with the justice system not actually providing justice. The longer he was in the system, the more he found himself hating it and himself. Eventually his wife got killed because of a case and his people did nothing to protect her, so he ended up quitting his job.

Wilbur lied about his age to Phil, so Phil thinks that he is 28, when in reality he is 24. No one knows that he isn’t 28.

Wilbur is also the alcoholic in this AU, not Phil. Phil just has to come to terms with caring for people again.

Tommy also lied about his age, saying that he was 22. No one believes him and Phil knows that the kid is at best 18. Tommy is eighteen in this AU, but barely.

Tubbo didn’t bother lying about his age, mostly because he isn’t even sure how old he is himself.

Technoblade literally lies to everyone about his age. He told Tommy he was 32, he told Tubbo he was 38, he told Wilbur he was 29, and Phil he was 30. Technoblade is actually 27, and just doesn’t want to admit that Wilbur is older than him. He also lied about his age when he enlisted.

You know how in leverage there is a second crew that they go against on one occasion, then team up with later? Yeah, here is my cast for that.

Mastermind: Dream. I mean really, was there any other choice for that? Grifter: George. No, I will not be taking questions at this time. Hacker: Quackity. The idea of him and Tommy having, essentially, a hack off? Can’t be beat. Hitter: Sapnap. Tell me I’m wrong. I’m not. You simply can’t. Thief: Karl. Karl is absolutely a thief, and t you can’t change my mind.

Jack Manifold works in the brewpub and is CONVINCED that the crew are murders or part of the mafia or something. A running gag is him trying to catch them doing illegal stuff and it’s jsut them,,, being wholesome or doing normal stuff OR him just missing something incredibly illegal. Tommy and Techno realize and think it’s funny, the others just haven’t noticed.

Technoblade is still a chef in this AU. Niki is somewhat  like Peggy in this, and Tubbo got her a job at the Brewpub beacsue he loved her baking and she makes all the deserts.

Sam is Tommy’s ex-foster dad (Tommy learned technology from him) who is just exhausted and is trying to keep up with his kid. Eventually he tracks Tommy down and he and Phil start a quiet emotional custody war over him.  Tommy doesn’t even know that they know each other. He just thinks that Sam found him and is happy to see his first father figure sometimes, even if he has ti lie about what he does.

[odinsblog]

“Hard working, self made man” my Black ass. But we already knew this.

👉🏿 https://futurism.com/elon-musk-dad-emerald-mine

[dollar-store-sparklez]

im making a sbi leverage au and by that i mean im taking the roles from the leverage crew and they whole ‘the rich and powerful take what they want, we steal it back for you’ thing and making a shitty au about it and no one can stop me au things under the cut

ok obv this is sbi (plus tubbo) so its found family, i have to state this bc while theres a found family aspect in the leverage crew in the show, theres also romantic subplots and im just ignoring those bc no, anyways roles

nate/mastermind - philza sophie/grifter - wilbur hardison/hacker - tubbo eliot/muscle - techno parker/thief - tommy

for anyone that doesnt know leverage, probably most of you, its a cool tv show and you should go watch it, so basically the gist is basically, criminals that normally work alone get roped into working together and accidentally all adopt eachother while doing robinhood esc crimes  and frankly i think these roles fit really well for their characters, with minimal tweaking, which is really interesting! so heres the reasoning for the roles

phil is the mastermind cause in leverage thats nate role and nate is the team dad /j no but partially that, mostly because the others all fit the other roles better, and as the oldest and most experienced he’s just generally the best for that role, so he gets to be the plan guy

wilbur is the grifter bc thats all acting and wilbur is a theater kid- no but have you seen his acting? dude is all charisma, i bet he plays a bard in dnd, hes perfect for this role because hes very good at changing personas and keeping them seperate (see the difference in revolution!wilbur, pogtopia!wilbur, ghostbur, rust!wilbur, ect ect)

tubbo is the hacker bc. i mean have you seen his videos about hack clients? have you??? also i heard somewhere he used to play on 2b2t, not super relevant but yeah hes the hacker ok no further questions

techno is the muscle bc. again, pretty self explanatory just look at all his mindcraft monday and mcc wins, or the 1400 bedwars streak, or basically anything hes done ever. terrifying

tommy is the thief bc hes a little raccoon child that could and would crawl through vent and steal the hope diamond, return it, and steal it again just cause hes bored, also if you look at the smp he has a little bit of a streak in just kinda takin shit. fits him well i think

theres also some backstory that the Actual leverage characters have that seems to fit the little bits of lore people have made for the sbi characters/theyve made for their own characters depending which is neat! anyways please ask me questions about this also if someone sees this is knows leverage hmu i wanna Talk Please

[excrucian]

Chuubilis Games I Want To Run After My Thesis:

I am super keen on these and am tempted to start setting up. But it will be about a month until I can do anything. I guess I could see if people are interested in taking a month to make characters... but I should resist! Still, gonna put this out there:

Wacky Variant GMD, Chuubo Everyone is a variant! No defaults allowed! Occult Leonardo! Dream goddess Shokyou! Was Once A Wish Spirit Seizhi! We go through the arcs of GMD and make it work.

Really Wacky GMD, Chuubo Everyone is a really wacky variant! As in, non active arcs can be exchanged for absolutely any other arc, and active arcs can be shuffed Colourwise or Immortal/Frantic/Sickly-wise. Rinley Titova with Called Away linking her to whatever's under the shrine, Entropy II is instead the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy's son, Seizhi's concept has been merged with Leonardo's and now he's an imaginary deviant scientist best friend! We break the characters and then try to make the arcs of GMD work!

Excrucian Heist, Chuubo, or Nobilis with a bit of homebrew Set in Nobilis-Earth, you are all Excrucians and you have to set up a heist to steal an Estate. Or many Estates. You need a Face, a Grifter, a Hitter, a Thief, a Mastermind and possibly other people I am forgetting! You can play as any Excrucian type, with guesswork and homebrew for non-Deceivers, and the hierarchy of Creation may be treated like an evil corporation in the style of Leverage.

Ambassadors, Nobilis As the finest representatives of the Powers of Earth, you have been assigned to travel the many worlds of the Ash to mix with their Nobles (to make life easier for the HG, quite a few Estates will be duplicated from Earth but may be treated... weirdly). You also may or may not have a secret mission. Or maybe all of you have your own secret missions. I hope they don't clash!

Black Ops Hunters, Nobilis Your Familia has been put together with the express mission of dealing with the monsters that other Nobles have fallen to. Excrucians, Actuals, weird things that don't fall into any paradigm, rogue Nobles, if other Nobles can't deal with this, you're the guys sent out to deal with it, quickly and quietly. You also deal with clean up and pursuing your interests whenever you can. And maybe panicking over Lord Entropy's occasional edict.

Cyberpunk Arcadia, Chuubo Jenna mentioned writing some stuff for a Cyberpunk Chuubo and I have no idea how Cyberpunk Chuubo works so I want to run it. Clearly this is Techno. May have influences from Demon the Descent.

Enrolled At The Bleak Academy, Chuubo Epic Fantasy, you are all students at the really creepy Hogwarts called the Bleak Academy. Magic! Hijinks! The void! School trips to the Outside! Learning to care for white horses! (Note: The Bleak Academy may be portrayed as less evil and more weird. But still evil.)

Of The Far Roofs, Chuubo All or mostly rats game, Adventure Fantasy or Immersive Fantasy or Fairy Tale, you’re hunting Mysteries and finding ancient secrets!

[livioacerbo]

Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s Nouveau Riche

Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s Nouveau Riche

Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s Nouveau Riche In 10 years of political reporting I’ve met a lot of people with very specific ideas about what the perfect world would look like — but none quite so strange as the starry-eyed techno-utopians and sketchy-ass crypto-grifters on the 2018 CoinsBank Blockchain Cruise. December 6, 2018 …

Continue reading “Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s…

[ah17hh]

Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s Nouveau Riche

Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s Nouveau Riche In 10 years of political reporting I’ve met a lot of people with very specific ideas about what the perfect world would look like — but none quite so strange as the starry-eyed techno-utopians and sketchy-ass crypto-grifters on the 2018 CoinsBank Blockchain Cruise. December 5, 2018 at 03:21PM via Digg https://ift.tt/2UirUIV

[votederpycausemufins]

God this was a long chapter, but there was a lot that happened that based on the location, I didn't want it to be split into multiple chapters.

so for the most, we're staying with the rescue group (but we do get some Grifter and Sense at the end)

hermit!tommy au originally made by @petrichormeraki

Arguments had been put on hold as the group combed through the strange shopping district. As they searched, Wilbur, Techno, Paul, Phil and EX were actually doing better of searching the place, Mumbo, Xisuma, Tommy and Doc so used to the current shopping district that they were turned around by expecting something different. Still, even with the large group, actually searching the place was difficult from them also trying to stay together mixed with Mumbo’s panic. So it ended up less of trying to search for Grum and more of keeping Mumbo in check.

“For goodness sakes!” EX finally yelled at one point in frustration. “You’re making this difficult! We could have found him by now but you’re just acting like we could turn the corner and he would be right there!” And then they happened to round a corner and find a robot standing there. “…what the fuck.”

Before Paul could try to point out something about EX managing to do whatever it was he was complaining about again, Mumbo rushed over and picked Grum up. “Oh thank goodness you’re alright!”

Only moments after Mumbo had picked the robot up, Techno stood next to him and pulled Grum away. “There’s no way it’s going to be that easy. You should be more careful than that.”

“Well it sort of has been so far.” Phil spoke up, Paul nodding while glancing over at Xannes.

“Okay, how about we get the main question out of the fucking way.” Tommy spoke up, pushing through the others to get closer to Mumbo and Techno. “Grum what the fuck happened when you got here?”

There was silence from the robot and then Techno looked down at them, the thing blinking and obviously active, but not responding. “Uh kid, you going to answer?”

The robot looked up at Techno when he spoke, then looked over to Tommy. “Apologies. It was not clear the request was posed to this unit. ‘Getting here’ refers to this location of about a three to five foot radius and also the general location of the island. Which is preferred for your answer?”

“Well, that’s obviously not good.” Doc said, stepping closer. “I’m guessing that’s enough of an answer for now. Whatever separated him from us did this.”

“The question now is how we fix it.” Xisuma said. “Or if we even can.”

“I’m sure we can.” Mumbo spoke up, taking the robot back from Techno. “Let’s search the shops, see if there’s any redstone supplies I could use to try and fix him. Uh, Doc you could help too if you can.”

Before Doc could respond, the robot escaped from Mumbo’s arms and then turned to look at him. “Redstone is in a shop towards the north west.” And then he started walking, leaving the others to follow.

As they started to move Tommy hung towards the back of the group. He was looking around and slowly separating from the group, so he was the only one to see some movement from a different street. It made him pause to draw a weapon and start to approach it, forgetting to tell anyone. He changed his path when he saw more movement going into a building, so he carefully followed whatever it was.

He paused in the doorway, staring at the source before glancing back in the general direction of the group. They had found Grumbot, at least he thought they had, but here in front of him, digging through some chests, was another Grumbot. “Uh… Grum?”

The robot jumped from Tommy talking, banging their head on the chest lid. “Wh-who? Oh… uh… who are you?”

“Tommy.” He answered, noticing the voice definitely did not belong to Grum. “I’m guessing you’re not actually Grum. Sorry for the mixup.”

“That’s okay. Um… I was just hoping to find some stuff for campaign things. Do… do you want to help?”

Tommy thought about it for a second. Obviously this was supposed to be a robot still doing political things. “Sure. Got any shirts or stuff?”

“Yeah!” The robot smiled “Follow me! They’re this way!”

“How about we meet up with the rest of the group I’m with. I’m sure they’ll want to help.”

“Yes! That sounds great! With all that help we’ll beat everyone else! Let’s go let’s go let’s go!”

While that bot was distracting Tommy, the group noticed his absence. Since there had already been the trouble with Grum, they panicked a bit and split up to look for him. So by the time Tommy got back to where the group would have been, they were all over the place instead, the only one having stayed nearby being Xannes. “Oh, there you are. Where had you disappeared to?”

“I saw something moving around and found another version of Grum.” And Tommy gestured to the robot he found. “Where’s everyone else?”

“They went looking for you. Running off like that made everyone freak out.”

“Everyone? You’re still here.” Tommy pointed out, making EX sigh.

“I thought that if I didn’t try looking, I wouldn’t get in trouble again. But oh look, I just so fucking happened to find you again.”

“Hey! That’s a bad word!” The robot chastised EX, pulling their hand out of Tommy’s so they could rest them on their hips. “That’s not a good thing to do!”

“Since when do you care?” Xannes asked. “I thought you would have spent enough time near this one to not care.” And he gestured to Tommy.

“Hey, he didn’t recognize me when I found him.” Tommy explained. “Plus he’s still trying to win the election or something.”

“Hey!” The robot shouted, crossing their arms. “It’s she. Get it right!”

“...It’s what.” Tommy and EX said in unison, staring down at the robot.

“You’ve obviously got me mixed up with someone else. My name is Gorgeous, not Grum. And my pronouns are she/they!”

“Well that’s not-” Tommy started to say, but then the robot looked at him. “Well, so we don’t get more confused, why don’t you do the same?”

“Me?” Tommy asked, pointing at himself, Gorgeous nodding in reply. “Uh, Tommy. He/him?”

“Why’s that a question?”

“I don’t fucking know! I’m just confused by this shit happening right now!”

“Again with the bad words! Now, what about you?” And she looked at Xannes.

“Xannes, EX or Evil Xisuma. He/him and they/them.” EX said, though obviously not enthused. “We don’t really have the time for this, Tommy, you take them and look for the others. Make sure you don’t tell them you ran into me first because I do not want to deal with any more arguments right now.”

Rolling his eyes, Tommy complied and grabbed Gorgeous, dragging them along to find someone else. Of course, as he started to walk, Gorgeous started asking questions. “Why is he getting into arguments?”

“My fucking uncle showed up and doesn’t seem to like people that much. He already got upset at my brother cause he had a fucked up time growing up and now he’s arguing with Xannes because of a bunch of coincidences surrounding him.”

“Oh. Well, maybe there’s some truth to it.”

“Don’t even start on that. You’ll probably make it worse when we find the others.” Tommy said, then paused, thinking of something then speaking again. “Might hurt your election efforts.”

“Right! Not going to bring it up! Got it!”

From there, Tommy led them around the island, searching for the others who had gotten surprisingly far. But finally as the pair was approaching town hall, Tommy was glad to see Mumbo. “Did you all have to go so fucking far? And before you complain, I saw this kid and went after them. Their name is Gorgeous. Ring any bells?”

“Slow down a little. Since it’s just you two, you haven’t found anyone else yet, right?”

“No.” Tommy replied quickly, following Xannes’ wishes. “Just you right now. Any clue which direction the others went?”

“No, not really. We’re probably best wandering around and hoping for the best.”

“So basically what I was already do-” and then Tommy was cut off from an explosion nearby. He and Mumbo both looked out from the building and from their higher vantage point, they saw Paul facing off against an avian with a chicken mask. “Who the fuck is that?”

“Oh my word. That’s Poultry Man.” Mumbo answered.

“Wasn’t that supposed to be Grian’s alter ego? So they’ve gotta be fake. Probably why they’re fighting him.”

“No! But fighting him is bad!” Gorgeous spoke up. “He’s really nice and everything!”

“Tommy? What do you think?” Mumbo asked, putting a hand on Gorgeous’ shoulder.

Tommy looked between Mumbo and Paul and Phil, then had his answer. “Let’s break it up and talk it out to see what at fuck is going on.”

The trio ran down the steps and got over to the fight, standing in the middle. It made the pair of brothers stop as Poultry Man was able to take a breather. “Thanks for the help.”

“Hey, what are you doing?” Paul asked.

“I’m trying to figure out what the fuck is going on here.” Tommy answered. “I found this kid that looks like Grum and they seem to trust him. So how about we trying hearing him out before other shit happens. Because I’m assuming you attacked before asking questions.” And neither Paul nor Phil argued against that point.

“Thank you. I’m guessing you already know I’m Poultry Man thanks to Gorgeous. I’m not actually the original, more Grum’s interpretation of the stories he heard. I’m meant to be a protector, not an enemy.” And he glared slightly at Paul and Phil.

“Well so far we’ve only really found people who are trying to mess with or attack us.” Phil spoke up. “Plus we’re supposed to be in Hels, and there’s kind of a god there that uses chickens for evil or whatever.”

“Hmm, I guess that does make sense why you would attack me. Alright I forgive you. However…” and he looked over to Mumbo. The redstoner raised an eyebrow in questioning, especially as the avian walked towards him. But then everyone’s attention was drawn away by someone else.

“Hey! We need some help over here!” Wilbur was the one to be yelling as he ran over, dragging what they were no longer sure was Grumbot along. “Another thing like Grian before is attacking but it’s not exactly the same. I mean, it’s got the same symbol he uses a lot and purple wings and stuff.”

“Oh no, that’s probably Eyes.” Poultry Man said. “Here, can you lead us towards them, I should be able to help them calm down.”

As they started to walk, instead of everyone approaching another fight, they instead ran into the group who was headed their way, Doc holding a bundle of purple feathers in his arms. “Oh, I’m guessing this means he’s not attacking anymore?” Wilbur asked, poking the bundle before being swatted away by Poultry Man.

While most of the group was focused on Doc and what was in his arms, Gorgeous tugged on Tommy’s pants, proceeding to point between Mumbo and… Mumbo.”

“How the fuck are there two Mumbos here?” Tommy asked, getting everyone to look around and notice that the redstoner indeed had a copy of himself.

“That’s something I was worried about.” Poultry Man said, looking between the doubles with a glare.

“Is that why this guy,” Techno spoke up, gesturing to the feather bundle, “Started attacking Mumbo in the first place.”

“They did, did they?” And Poultry man looked at the Mumbo that had come with Doc’s group.

“What? Why is that a problem?” Mumbo asked confused and looking for an answer.

“Don’t act like you don’t know.”

“But I really don’t know!”

Then Poultry Man looked over to the first Mumbo. “What about you?”

“The only clue I have is that obviously one of us shouldn’t be here… but we did find the version of Grum that’s with Wilbur as well as Gorgeus, and we haven’t really been going through reality I don’t think, so… maybe it’s just part of all this?”

Poultry Man crossed his arms. “That’s the thing, it is a part of all this.” And he looked back to the second Mumbo. “Drop the disguise Dream.”

The name had an immediate effect on everyone except for Paul, who didn’t know of everything that had gone on a month ago and anything before that. “What? How would I be Dream? I thought Grian said he was killed by Grifter.”

“Grum kept differentiating between Dream and Admin Dream. Apparently the former was one of his chat voices.” Techno spoke up. “No clue if the same name is a coincidence or not, but rather not take chances.”

“Well, if we don’t want to take chances…” Paul started, before pulling out his sword and whacking both of the Mumbos to the ground with the broad side of the blade, then pulling our leads to tie them up with. “Sorry for the one of you that’s real, but I don’t want to take the chance of getting it wrong and letting the bad one have free roam.”

“No, I believe that makes sense.” One of the Mumbos spoke, getting a glare from Paul.

“Alright, the best test is simply asking questions that only the real one would know.” Poultry Man spoke up. “But we need to exclude things that Grum would possibly know since there’s a good chance that Dream would know.”

As everyone tried to figure out what to try, the first Mumbo caught Grumbot’s attention, mouthing something to it. The robot took a moment to process the message then went over to Gorgeous and took their hand. Still no one noticed as she was pulled away by the other bot, not until they were drawn back by laughter from the first Mumbo.

“So then… you’re Dream.” Poultry Man said, crossing his arms.

Paul pointed his sword at the revealed copy. “What did you do? What happened to make you change your mind about revealing yourself?”

“I did what I wanted. Technically I could do more, but it seems Eyes is out of commission.” And then the clone’s appearance shifted before being hidden under a mask that matched Dream’s or Theseus’.

Xisuma was the first to notice the missing bots. “What did you do with them?”

As Dream laughed again, Phil worked on untying Mumbo, Paul still pointing his weapon at the former copy. “I merely told Console where to go. It’s very obedient no matter what I ask it to do.”

“Don’t call them an it!” Mumbo said, rubbing his wrists after rope was removed from them.

“But that’s what it is. What it wants to be. It chose that a long time ago.” Dream paused to look over at Eyes. “They would actually agree with me. And I’m sure Poultry Man would too.”

The avian crossed his arms. “Don’t try and turn them against me.”

“Well how about a little more information. Eyes is in that current state due to Listener interference. Which I already took care of.” Dream bragged. “But of course I can’t take care of them myself, and only I know where they are, so I really suggest you let me go.”

“Likely story.” Poultry Man growled, but then Doc spoke up.

“Nah, something about this hasn’t been adding all up. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s telling the truth. I say we let him go, but we have to have at least someone follow along.”

“Phil and I can go.” Paul immediately volunteered. “We’re best suited for combat in this scenario. You’re still carrying who’s apparently Eyes, and while Techno would be helpful, the kids are also missing, so while we follow Dream, you guys will be able to look for them.”

“Well, if it keeps us from confusing us again, I’m fine with this setup.” Mumbo agreed. “Especially if it means finding Grum again. Though I do have one question.”

“And that is?” Paul asked, though with how Mumbo was directing his question, it was obviously meant for Dream.

“Where exactly is the Listener you captured? Where is it you’re heading? Because I have a slight suspicion on where Grum is, and I want to see if you’re going there.”

“Well…” Dream started, looking to the side. His response made Mumbo frown and Poultry Man’s wings puff up.

“Are you saying to left them with the others?!” The avian shouted, not caring who tried to stop him as he grabbed Dream and started throttling him. “Change of plans then, Mumbo, you lead them. I’m staying with Dream to knock some sense into him.”

.

.

.

Grum huddled in the corner of a cage, trying to ignore the other person with him in there. Console had show up recently, dragging them along and trapping them in here with him. It wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t he just be let out. He… he wasn’t that broken, was he?

He covered his ears as there was tapping from the other half of the cage, the person reminding him of their presence. It worked to block it out, but it didn’t help when he was suddenly hit, something being thrown at him. In shock, Grum looked up, only to see the person’s appearance had changed. At first, they matched the description Techno had given before of the Nightmare thing messing with them, but now the mask was missing, their face instead hidden in their hood, only a braid of hair escaping the closed hood.

In looking for the mask, Grum found that it was what had hit him, now to his side on the ground. He quickly scooted away from it to another corner away from both the person and the mask. After he had done that, the person pulled out a weapon, making Grum hold his arms up in defense. But instead of attacking, they just used it to pull the mask back to them, then stuff it in their pocket. Once the mask was gone, they put the weapon away as well and showed Grum their empty hands.

“G-Go away.” Grum mumbled to the person, but they just banged on the bars of their shared cage, obviously not able to get through them. “T-Then let me p-pretend you’re not here.” And they shook their head. “Then what do you want?”

The person carefully revealed some of their face from the hood, just their mouth and chin. Their hand moved in a mimic of claws and then they proceeded to hit the middle finger of the gesture against their chin before pointing at Grum. They mouthed along with the motion, but in trying to watch that and the hands, Grum was just left confused. “Wh-what are you doing?”

Grum jumped as the person’s hand turned to a fist which they then slammed into the bars, making the cage rattle along with a large clang. As Grum trembled from the noise, the person looked at the bars, then hit them a few more times, though with a lot less force. Eventually, they were alternating between two noises of clangs from the bars, forming some sort of pattern. For a moment Grum thought they were trying to make a tune or something, but then he realized it was a different pattern.

Looking at his own bars, Grum tried the same until he too was getting the noises. He looked over to the other person, who had stopped, then he hit against the bars, the first one four times, then a pause, then the first again twice. A moment after he stopped, he looked over to the person, who waved. Morse code.

Grum quickly tapped out a message to the person, asking for their name. After it was given, he greeted them, then asked why they were there. Slowly, through plenty of tapping, they told Grum how they were trying to help the group get through their nightmare tests.

“Why did you bother using the word nightmare? Xannes already explained the tests and we were headed to the NSMP.” Grum asked and explained at first before the person responded. They had used the phrase because the tests were nightmares. “But then… are you saying that all this… is just a nightmare of mine?”

The person didn’t even need to tap, they just nodded. “No. That’s… I mean I guess, but then how do I get out? I mean, I know none of this is real now, right? When Daddy and Techno found out, it all ended.” But that got the person to shake their head.

The next message was much shorter. A simple ‘face your fears’ which while it made sense, wasn’t very helpful. “Well, I’m facing them right now, aren’t I? So it should end now cause I did that and know it’s not real.”

It took a bit for the person to get Grum to notice they were giving another message, but eventually he realized and translated. “What I’m afraid of? Well, being stuck here obviously.” But they tilted their head and waved for Grum to explain further. “I… It doesn’t matter. It’ll go away soon.”

The pair sat in silence for a while before another message was tapped out. “What about your brother?” More tapping. “How is that your fear?” And then they pulled the mask out again, tapping it before hiding it again. “Wait… s-so your brother is…” Grum was answered by a nod, then some tapping.

“Okay… okay…” Grum relented. He sighed in trying to calm himself, thinking it all over. “Um… mine is with my dads. Most of my family really. I’m just… I wonder if they just think of me as a robot sometimes. I mean I am, but…” Grum paused, collecting his thoughts again. “I broke really badly. It even happened here. Well, the real life version of here.” And with that the person started looking around, getting a better sense of where exactly they were. “They tried fixing me after the shock of it all going wrong, but at first, m-my dads… th-they just…” And Grum broke down crying. The bot didn’t care when the person came to his side and hugged him, glad for some comfort and soon hugged back.

After he wore himself out a little, though still teary eyed and hiding his face in the other person’s chest, he continued his story. “R-Recently, my brother and I got stuck in a different world. W-we were stuck there for a l-long time, but that was because of s-someone messing with time-” Grum’s voice caught as there was a rumble in the person’s chest like a growl. “-A-and while it s-seemed like my brother and I were stuck there for a month or s-so, it was only a few days. But for m-me, it just seemed like o-our dads left us. It… it was like when I b-broke all over a-again.”

Some tapping came from the bars, and Grum looked up slightly to get a better angle to hear at. “Yeah… I guess you’re right… I… I guess I’m scared of being seen as broken.”

But everything stayed the same. There was still something else to it, and the person had one idea of what it was. So, they tapped out their question. “The other- That… That’s Console. That’s… It’s… Console’s like a part of me. Well, not like… is.”

There was a long silence before three quiet taps, four quiet taps, two quiet taps, and finally a single louder tap. “What’s wrong?” Grum asked, but before he could get an answer, someone else further away spoke, pulling away his attention.

“No! No no no no no! I don’t want to be on the island! I want to be in the shopping district! Let go! Console let me go!” It was Gorgeous who spoke, struggling against the other bot as they dragged them along.

“Orders were to bring you to here. That order must be completed.” Console answered. “You must be out of the way.”

“What about you?”

“The order is the same. Go to the creation island and remain in the cage until further notice. That is what will happen.” And before Gorgeous could argue further, Console was shoving her into the cage with Grum and the other person before joining them and closing the cage behind it. “Now it is time to wait.”

“Did… did you see anyone other than Dream?” Grum asked, mainly towards Gorgeous, but Console answered faster.

“Those seen since the Listener’s arrival here include Paul, Phil, Doc, Xisuma, Evil Xisuma, Techno, Wilbur, Mumbo, Tommy, Eyes, Gorgeous, Dream, Poultry Man.”

The person tapped out a message, making Console look at them. “As many were located simultaneously, the list was given in aged order. Do you believe that is incorrect in some form? Prior connection with Eyes signals that these are correct. Do you perhaps wish to swap Techno and Wilbur as they are twins? Or perhaps mixing between the last four? That order is indeed the order of their forming. Eyes first due to the addition of the mayoral reservoirs, followed by Gorgeous as the rewiring and Dream at th-” Console was stopped as the person slammed their fist against the cage, making the bars rattle and causing Grum and Gorgeous to cover their ears at the sound.

The person moved their arms in some fashion that Console seemed to understand, making the robot nod and causing the person to continue, finally pausing to let Console speak again. “Beginning with a translation, your question is if there is word about Eyes’ condition as well as the location of the group. The answer to those questions is that Eyes is currently in a fragile state due to the interference from multiple Listeners. The second answer is that the group is likely on route to this location due to discussion previously from Mumbo. One exception may be Evil Xisuma, aka Xannes, as they were separated from the group at this point.”

There were a few more hand gestures from the person, Grum managing to realize it must be sign language, though not understanding what exactly was being said. Signed? Either way, Console could understand, and that was enough. “Due to no use of magic, but presence instead, should the problem not be solved soon, irreparable damage could be done.”

The person immediately tensed up and looked over, not to Grum, but to Gorgeous before looking back and signing once more, pulling their mask out of their pocket and showing it to Console. The robot took it, inspecting the mask and banging it a few times to test it. That caused a few of the added gems to fly off, but Console didn’t seem bothered as it handed the mask back. “Very well. The situation does indeed allow for changes.” And then he opened the cage. “Discussion will begin at the point of your spell’s ending.”

The person nodded, then looked back to Grum and tapped out another message. ‘Finish this. Sooner is better. Help others. I’ll try helping your dad.’

Before Grum could respond, he flinched back as the person started using magic, specifically in the same color that Grifter used. Grum closed his eyes due to what the magic was doing, but when he looked up once again, he and the other two bots were no longer in the cage, but instead on the shopping district island where the other group was starting to set up boats.

.

.

.

“Where are you going so late?” Sense asked, Grifter getting some items together.

“A message from Flora.” Grifter answered. “It seems Grian reacted poorly to the papers I gave him. More so than I initially expected. Because of that, I need to head over there and-” Grifter stopped at the buzz of his communicator, especially when he realized Sense’s hadn’t done the same. The Listener pulled it out, initially expected more information from Flora, but instead he growled and shoved all his gathered items to Sense. “Change of plans. You’re going to help Grian.”

“What? Why the hell am I going to help? Isn’t he supposed to be over at, eugh, Krys’ place? The one Silski always hangs out at?”

“Yes and I know you don’t like him.” Grifter spoke, cupping Sense’s cheek before giving him a kiss. “But I really need you to do this right now. A certain Listener in training is trying to help that group we noticed in the captcha. And she’s been hiding it all along until now. I don’t want her interfering, but if I send her home early to her dad, he’ll ask questions. And if she just stays here, so much will go wrong unless I can… tell her what she needs to do.”

“So while you threaten her, I’m in charge of Grian?”

“Exactly. Now, I can make things easier by teleporting you closer, but the trip back is on your own. That being said, we’re likely both getting back late, so once we’ve pawned off the troublesome teens, I wouldn’t mind some relaxing quality time with you.” Grifter purred, making Sense smile.

“Mmm, only if it's without the wings.” Sense replied, getting a nod. “Then absolutely.”