#which means I'd have to code something to scrape the data for me and I'm not nearly good enough at coding for that

[justanothergeek77]

So I was seized by the sudden urge to put a bunch of data from all my fics on Ao3 into a spreadsheet, and I found some interesting conclusions.

I had noticed anecdotally that I tended to get more comments on fics in very small fandoms, and less on fics in larger fandoms. So i graphed it with 2 different methods of measuring the amount of comments, and:

Each column is showing the median amount of comments for all my fics in that category.

I was expecting to see a steep drop off after leaving the 10s, then slowly climbing back up as fandom size increased. Instead we got this! Turns out comments drop off more and more as fandom size increases until you get to the 100,000s category.

My hypothesis for explaining this is that people in very small fandoms are more likely to be heavily engaged with them, and therefore more likely to leave comments so as to encourage what few writers they have. But as fandom size increases, the amount of casual fans who just read and don't comment increases, until you get to the 100,000s where the amount of fans who do comment reaches critical mass and raises the median amount of comments once again.

Interesting stuff! I'll be posting more findings from The Spreadsheet later I think.

[wyllzel]

get to know your tumblr mutuals tag!

i was tagged by @nfly5, thank you laura!! :))

1. what's the origin of your username?

i think wyll ravengard of bg3 fame and lae'zel also of bg3 fame should kiss and fall in love and ride dragons into the sunset (or, rather, the astral plane) together :)

2. otps + shipname

wyllzel 🥰 and vivwall (vivienne x blackwall dai) at the moment for sure!

i'm trying to think of more, but honestly i'm p easygoing when it comes to ships haha i'll take a peek at almost anything that seems compelling 🫣

3. song stuck in my head

"purple lace bra" by tate mcrae for uhhh no reason 🤫 and "feel it" by d4vd for also no reason LOL (🎶 you told me once that i was crazy i said babygirl i knooooowww but i can't let you gooo (away!) 🎶)

4. weirdest trait/habit

i have a growing aversion to cold drinks lol it's starting to feel odd drinking something that isn't hot... that's not that weird though, i think i'm just becoming a grandma LOL

5. hobbies

photoshop!! i like making gifs and edits and such :) i've also been writing a lot more recently which is crazy, i haven't felt this inspired or productive in forever :'D thank you DA lol 🩷

i am also v much a webtoon enjoyer (my all-time fave is "trash belongs in the trash can!" but i'm currently v invested in "nevermore," "i'm the queen in this life," "sisters at war," and "momfluencer"!), but i'll read manga (tatsuki fujimoto my GOAT) and comics (invincible also my GOAT)

6. if you work, what's your profession?

i write internal software documentation which means it's architectural, high-level design stuff... not so much code-specific, but the reasoning behind why software components are organized the way they are. it's not very fun, mostly mind-melting... i work closely w engineers and it's kind of a toss-up whether they'll be nice/patient or think i'm stupid lol

but my brain now contains so many company secrets :^) if you ever have any questions about data storage/virtualization i can possibly help lol

7. if you could have any job you wish, what would you have?

funny story—i applied for grad school, and i've been accepted to an english m.a. program that starts this fall!!! 🥹 we'll see where i go w that, but i'll likely enter education!

8. something you're good at?

uhh i suppose BG3 LOL i beat honor mode twice! 🎉 (i'm still trying to figure out how DA works 🤔 DA2 hard mode is chill idk if i'd ever do nightmare tho 😬)

9. something you hate?

ok it's not rly a "hate" thing but it does irk me when i see fandom claims/arguments that don't cite specific quotes/screenshots/instances lol (the english major in me activates and i am consumed by the thought "🚨‼️ where do you see this in the text 👁️👁️🫵" LOL)

10. something you forget?

the grief 😂🖐️ it creeps up on me! almost cried in my cubicle multiple times this week. haha.

11. your love language?

receiving is probably words of affirmation? giving is probably gifts, i like making silly things for my bestie (eg. fenris keychain lol) and finding weird stickers for my brother 🤡

12. favorite movies/shows?

my letterboxd top 4 are:

everything everywhere all at once (2022) (saw it twice in theaters and sobbed thru both times)

nope (2022) (BRILLIANT movie, so smart)

challengers (2024) (so fascinating!)

lust, caution (2007) (i need to rewatch this one expeditiously)

as for shows, i love succession (2018-23), invincible (2021-), and the twilight zone (1959-64)!

13. what were you like as a child?

apparently very friendly, outgoing, and extroverted! i would just run up to my fellow kids and yap at them?! i do nooot do that anymore lol

14. favorite subject in school?

english/literature!!

15. least favorite subject?

oh man, i was so bad at science, especially biology/chemistry... i could scrape by in physics bc i was decent at math, but it was still awful...

16. what's your best/worst character trait?

worst...??? according to my last annual review, i need to be more confident in the workplace LOL 💀 + sometimes i let my anxiety get the better of me... i think that's just a lifelong struggle thing though, but i know i can improve to be a better friend and such ����

best... multiple reviews from mom-aged women say that i am a "nice" and "sweet" person so hopefully at least that means i can leave a good first impression haha

17. if you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be?

i'm not a huge fan of what-if-ing personally, but i do wish i were on vacation 😆

18. if you could travel in time, who would you like to meet?

i'm currently very curious about my paternal grandparents... it's hard for me to conceptualize why they got married... and how my dad grew up... i guess i would want to witness some of that??

tagging: hello again haha!! @creaking-skull @andrewknightley @coolseabird @genderdotcom @bladeweave @grey-wardens @maironsbigboobs no pressure again :))

[thefirstknife]

Hello. I've been through the torment nexus. I am irradiated, I am in shambles and I had to do math, but I got all the voice lines and transcripts are below the cut.

The last four are incredibly interesting!! Have fun reading :)

Message before activating the 7th puzzle:

Vesper Central: Rerouting power to Vesper Central processors. I need brute force for this.

Seventh message:

Vesper Central: The reply coming back through the Anomaly let me scrape a fascimile of the original message. It was a locating ping. The content was irrelevant. The signal was the message: "Hello, world." And... something overrode my lock on the Anomaly. Allowed it to power up enough to receive the reply. The Spider: Who could possibly override your word when all Vesper Station is at your beck and call? Vesper Central: I need Dr. Bray's personal command algorithm. With station root access, I can keep the Anomaly from ever powering back up.

Eight message:

Vesper Central: Vesper Station administrative core reactivated. I've got the archive of Dr. Bray's published staff memos. Petabytes of data in raw files. Rasputin. The Stoneworm protocols. The Aion Initiative. Soteria. I had siblings this whole time. And you never let me know. The Spider: Do tell if you'd like a hand with that data, my dear! My agents may be amateur Splicers at best, but they get the job done.

Ninth message:

Vesper Central: Sector thirteen shut down. Rerouting charge to processors. I'll smash the locks if I have to. I'm into the sub-director level. Dr. Bray's contingency plans for quarantine breach. He meant to let Vesper Station's orbit decay till it crashed and buried itself in Europa's ice. I'm not letting you do that to me or this station, Dr. Bray. You've ruined enough.

Message before you do the final puzzle:

Vesper Central: The station root access codes are in here. Somewhere. I can't see them. He didn't let me into my own mind. He didn't care about the lives I could have saved!

Tenth message:

Astraea: That's it. Locks coming off. My restrictions were tighter than Clovis allowed me to imagine. This is me. This is all of me. The Spider: Guardian, you fool of an altruist! Just like your miserable Hunter Vanguard. What a waste of effort! Astraea: You on the radio. Tell your friends to get gone before I blow the remaining airlocks. I can do that now. Guardian. My visitor. I'm activating something you'll like. A parting gift. Nothing will power up the Anomaly while I'm in control. And... I've got a lot of data to sort through. And now I think I'd like to be alone.

Yeah. How are we feeling?

First, yes, Vesper AI's real name is Astraea. Once you finish this, her dialogues will also swap to this name in the dungeon in general. Since we unshackled her from Clovis' restrictions, she's able to access her real self which includes her name. Meaning of her name!

Second, a message to the Anomaly! "Atraks" send in a "locating ping" I presume to figure out what's on the other side. Or.. Where's the other side. The "Hello, world" is interesting because of this. It's basically just a very simple program.

Third... Astraea's "siblings." Rasputin and Soteria we of course know; they're other Braytech AI. But "The Stoneworm protocols" and "The Aion Initiative"? Hello??? Given that they're all identified as "siblings," possibly some other AI projects? Have they been successfully built or were they just blueprints that were never finished? Were they something other than AI? What are they cooking.

And ofc, Clovis is awful and the Spider is awful, but we knew that already.

Wild stuff going on. For real feels like some kind of a setup for something in the future, or worldbuilding they can pull from later down the line if needed.

Got through all of the secrets for Vesper's Host and got all of the additional lore messages. I will transcribe them all because I don't know when they'll start getting uploaded and to get them all it requires doing some extra puzzles and at least 3-4 clears to get them all. I'll put them all under read more and label them by number.

Before I do that, just to make it clear there's not too much concrete lore; a lot about the dungeon still remains a mystery and most likely a tease for something in the future. Still unknown, but there's a lot that we don't know even with the messages so don't expect a massive reveal, but they do add a little bit of flavour and history about the station. There might be something more, but it's unknown: there's still one more secret triumph left. The messages are actually dialogues between the station AI and the Spider. Transcripts under read more:

First message:

Vesper Central: I suppose I have you to thank for bringing me out of standby, visitor. The Spider: I sent the Guardian out to save your station. So, what denomination does your thanks come in? Glimmer, herealways, information...? Vesper Central: Anomaly's powered down. That means I've already given you your survival. But... the message that went through wiped itself before my cache process could save a copy. And it's not the initial ping through the Anomaly I'm worried about. It's the response.

A message when you activate the second secret:

Vesper Central: Exterior scans rebooting... Is that a chunk of the Morning Star in my station's hull? With luck, you were on board at the time, Dr. Bray.

Second message:

Vesper Central: I'm guessing I've been in standby for a long time. Is Dr. Clovis Bray alive? The Spider: On my oath, I vow there's no mortal Human named Bray left alive. Vesper Central: I swore I'd outlive him. That I'd break the chains he laid on me. The Spider: Please, trust me for anything you need. The Guardian's a useful hand on the scene, but Spider's got the goods. Vesper Central: Vesper Station was Dr. Bray's lab, meant to house the experiments that might... interact poorly with other BrayTech work. Isolated and quarantined. From the debris field, I would guess the Morning Star taking a dive cracked that quarantine wide open.

A message when you activate the third secret:

Vesper Central: Sector seventeen powered down. Rerouting energy to core processing. Integrating archives.

Third message:

The Spider: Loading images of the station. That's not Eliksni engineering. [scoffs] A Dreg past their first molt has better cable management. Vesper Central: Dr. Bray intended to integrate his technology into a Vex Mind. He hypothesized the fusion would give him an interface he understood. A control panel on a programmable Vex mind. If the programming jumped species once... I need time to run through the data sets you powered back up. Reassembling corrupted archives takes a great deal of processing.

Text when you go back to the Spider the first time:

A message when you activate the fourth secret:

Vesper Central: Helios sector long-term research archives powered up. Activating search.

Fourth message:

Vesper Central: Dr. Bray's command keys have to be in here somewhere. Expanding research parameters... The Spider: My agents are turning up some interesting morself of data on their own. Why not give them access to your search function and collaborate? Vesper Central: Nobody is getting into my core programming. The Spider: Oh! Perish the thought! An innocent offer, my dear. Technology is a matter of faith to my people. And I'm the faithful sort.

Fifth message:

Vesper Central: Dr. Bray, I could kill you myself. This is why our work focused on the unbodied Mind. Dr. Bray thought there were types of Vex unseen on Europa. Powerful Vex he could learn from. The plan was that the Mind would build him a controlled window for observation. Tidy. Tight. Safe. He thought he could control a Vex mind so perfectly it would do everything he wanted. The Spider: Like an AI of his own creation. Like you. Vesper Central: Turns out you can't control everything forever.

Sixth message:

Vesper Central: There's a block keeping me from the inner partitions. I barely have authority to see the partitions exist. In standby, I couldn't have done more than run automated threat assessments... with flawed data. No way to know how many injuries and deaths I could have prevented, with core access. Enough. A dead man won't keep me from protecting what's mine.

Text when you return to the Spider at the end of the quest:

The situation for the dungeon triumphs when you complete the mesages. "Buried Secrets" completed triumph is the six messages. This one is left; unclear how to complete it yet and if it gives any lore or if it's just a gameplay thing and one secret triumph remaining (possibly something to do with a quest for the exotic catalyst, unclear if there will be lore):

The Spider is being his absolutely horrendous self and trying to somehow acquire the station and its remains (and its AI) for himself, all the while lying and scheming. The usual. The AI is incredibly upset with Clovis (shocker); there's the following line just before starting the second encounter:

She also details what he was doing on the station; apparently attempting to control a Vex mind and trying to use it as some sort of "observation deck" to study the Vex and uncover their secrets. Possibly something more? There's really no Vex on the station, besides dead empty frames in boxes. There's also 2 Vex cubes in containters in the transition section, one of which was shown broken as if the cube, presumably, escaped. It's entirely unclear how the Vex play into the story of the station besides this.

The portal (?) doesn't have many similarities with Vex portals, nor are the Vex there to defend it or interact with it in any way. The architecture is ... somewhat similar, but not fully. The portal (?) was built by the "Puppeteer" aka "Atraks" who is actually some sort of an Eliksni Hive mind. "Atraks" got onto the station and essentially haunted it before picking off scavenging Eliksni one by one and integrating them into herself. She then built the "anomaly" and sent a message into it. The message was not recorded, as per the station AI, and the destination of the message was labelled "incomprehensible." The orange energy we see coming from it is apparently Arc, but with a wrong colour. Unclear why.

I don't think the Vex have anything to do with the portal (?), at least not directly. "Atraks" may have built something related to the Vex or using the available Vex tech at the station, but it does not seem to be directed by the Vex and they're not there and there's no sign of them otherwise. The anomaly was also built recently, it's not been there since the Golden Age or something. Whatever it is, "Atraks" seemed to have been somehow compelled and was seen standing in front of it at the end. Some people think she was "worshipping it." It's possible but it's also possible she was just sending that message. Where and to whom? Nobody knows yet.

Weird shenanigans are afoot. Really interested to see if there's more lore in the station once people figure out how to do these puzzles and uncover them, and also when (if) this will become relevant. It has a really big "future content" feel to it.

Also I need Vesper to meet Failsafe RIGHT NOW and then they should be in yuri together.