#zero constructs

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Major tangent to the zero constructs thing but its what inspired the thought, do you think the tera raid pokemon are real? Like do you think theyre constructs made by terapagos or do you think its more of a space-time distortion type thing where theyre real pokemon from somewhere in paldea.

oooh really interesting question!! tbh i think it might vary? like, i think it's unfeasible for the disk itself to be personally handcrafting every single raid pokemon, so some of them i think are in a similar situation to the alphas in pla where they've just been like, contaminated or touched by tera crystals, and they're otherwise regular paldean pokemon. however then you've got things like mewtwo or hisuian typhlosion, which probably weren't just like, lying around in paldea to start with, and those i would imagine are being directly manifested and planted in paldea by the disk, right?

(sidenote the hisuian typhlosion in particular is a really interesting pull bc it might actually add more credence to the canon idea that the disk is actually a time machine, BUT it also might mean that the disk is just picking up the idea of hisuian typhlosion as it's learning, since this is a postgame raid. does this make sense? i'm very tired today)

[horizontwinflames]

Some quick studies I did of buff Aloy in this alternative universe a time ago. This is how she'll look on the Forbidden West act in front. I'm using real professional wrestler women as references for this.

Also, yeah, in the FW act she's tired... like, really mentally tired.

[tinkerbitch69]

I gotta say, as a trans woman, seeing misaki in terminator zero, an a.i. that described herself upon creation as ‘neither male or female’ actively choose to be a woman and ask to be considered as one cuz she felt like it aligned more with her idea of who she is or at least would like to become was so validating, especially in an online climate of ‘gender is bullshit and made up therefore it doesn’t matter’ 🥹

[birbwizard]

Doodles of zero ffxiv based on an official reference because i think, she's epic

(also trialing a new sketch style so I draw more than once a month lmao)

[isbergillustration]

Post gig chilling🎸

[amelikos]

Sango and Onyx were quite hostile to each other the first time Hamber summoned them to go on a mission together with him all the way back in HZ024.

They were both arguing and didn't really want to be together. Sango didn't want Hamber to bring Onyx with them, and Onyx considered Sango as someone who would get in his way and didn't want her there either. (They turned out to be able to work well together, but they'd often clash because of their approach towards things.)

In fact, they weren't even the first people Hamber wanted to bring on a mission with him in Galar. Hamber asked about Spinel and Agate before considering both Sango and Onyx. They were a default choice, not the first people he would have asked for.

Which is quite interesting compared to Hamber summoning them to go on a mission now.

I think Hamber is asking for them specifically because he doesn't trust Spinel and Agate at the moment. So there is still a bit of a "default choice" angle at play here, but still, they are the first ones who come to his mind as people he can rely on in this situation.

He is also flattering their egos to get them to do what he is asking, but I think he is truthful in his assessment. They weren't really referred to as such before this moment, but this is the writing pointing out why Sango and Onyx are a duo at all. It's because they complement one another. One being rational, the other being bold (which is interesting because that description reminded me of Liko and Roy).

Onyx taking the initiative to say "let's go, Sango" really shows how far they've come too, considering that the first time Hamber asked them to come with him on a mission, they didn't want to be around each other. Now, it feels like they don't mind being with each other (and actually want to be together).

Also, it feels meaningful to me that Onyx calls Sango by her name since we know that giving out his own name and being remembered is something important to him. He gave out his own name to Liko as a show of respect towards her in HZ066 and asked her to remember it. He also called Liko by her name, and up until now, I think Sango and Liko are the only ones he's called by name at all. So, Sango being the only one he regularly calls by name stands out in this aspect because it means he acknowledges her.

And I need to point out that Sango and Onyx haven't argued once in this episode. When Hamber asked them to come with him to Galar in HZ024 and HZ025, they kept throwing words at each other but this time, they didn't.

In fact, they haven't butted heads or argued in a while. Precisely, the last time they did was in HZ046 at the beginning of the Terastal Debut chapter and Clavell told them to cut it out and be courteous to each other. Ever since then, they haven't argued once. I think it really shows how much their school lives impacted them in that way. It feels like they are becoming a bit more honest and more used to each other. They've become proper teammates now.

[divorceblogger]

I love how the conversation between louis and claudia where she tells him she would’ve probably had a better life if she’d married a man and had kids instead of being turned feels like it’s being riffed on when they bring daniel into the picture. daniel telling louis he can be his claudia in 2x05… the implication that he hopes to eventually achieve an ideal heterosexual relationship because it’s the safe and familiar thing, just like claudia fantasising that her life as a human woman in new orleans would’ve been kinder although race riots caused her death… and then we have claudia finally finding happiness when she allows herself to be honest about her desires - but daniel never really comes out of the closet. and he actually doesn’t fulfil the fantasy of heterosexual happiness that he’s constructed by staying in the closet either. and he also destroys his relationships with his wives and fails his daughters.

[hazelkjt]

"Trust me, you're gonna love this."

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

im thinking abt zero constructs again and i think its tough to really communicate the Vibe i want it to have but also i maybe never talked about it super in depth?

but anyway as a thesis statement it's mostly about how much faith you put into the evidence of your senses, and also the intrinsic gulf of understanding between all people. there's a fundamental youness to every person that never quite gets communicated through interactions. and then imagine the youness was erased from reality entirely, and then something else came in, a blank slate, unmolded clay, and tried to reconstruct the you out of the them; out of what everyone else thinks that person was like.

say the slate can perceive those thoughts and those preconceptions perfectly. could they be a perfect you even just from an external pov? how many people could they convince that they were the one they were replacing? because they can perfectly mimic what the other expects them to be like—but that's regardless of whether or not that perception is correct. they have no idea if that conversation partner misperceives them, is overlaying their own biases or malformed beliefs onto the personal idea of them.

so that's dusk and helic. continually-updating copies of deleted people, trying to convince society at large that they haven't changed at all.

meanwhile they're cooking in these bad templates, all these people who half-know them or don't know them at all, immediately judging them based on a scarce glance. meanwhile that snap judgement becomes a part of them because they're such well-polished prisms, they're made to be mirrors.

and then barry and emmet show up, and after months-to-years of these bad copies, they're faced with the two people who know their original basis better than anyone in all the world. and oh god, oh fuck, they had it all wrong. they've got to scramble in the milliseconds they're given to try and throw up a better front; how was dusk supposed to guess how much dawn liked touch, that it would be immediately and distressingly wrong for her to not tackle-hug her friend after so much time apart? how was helic supposed to intuit that it wasn't just a resting face, ingo never really smiled, but his subtle-shift version of a 'smile' was immediately recognizable to his loved ones anyway? they didn't know, they were perfect mirrors but they didn't ever really know—

...on the other end of this, though. the b-side and the first thesis. you thought you lost the most important person in the world and now they're standing in front of you again, and you, right now, gun to your head, say that they're not real. it's not even a matter of wanting, this isn't about pretending to themselves because they want it to be true. it's just that—it's been a while, they've gone through so much, and so much more importantly, what if you're wrong? are you willing to gamble on the chance that you've just told the real them you've changed so much that i don't even recognize you as yourself anymore?

but more generally "i think they've been replaced by a construct" is a completely bonkers thing to say about someone unprompted. if we're talking snap judgements then humans really prefer it when things go how they expect. it makes way more sense for the thing that walks like dawn and talks like dawn to actually be dawn, ditto with ingo. so then the question becomes, once they get cozy with that assumption, how much doubt does it take to make that mental jump? how high do you need to stack the differences before it tips?

on both sides it's about believing one thing, without even really having to think about it because duh, of course, and then the slow realization creeps up on you from behind, that the entire time, you've been horribly wrong.

[orthogonal-slut]

learning something entirely new about computers and realizing this, too, boils down to an array of zeroes and ones.

[rotten-apple-stims]

Ben Bigger Board with bears, construction and caviar stims

( requested by @annoyingdogsong ; stims specified )

(🐻) (🚧) (🐻)

(🎣) x (🎣)

(🏗️) (🚧) (🏗️)

Proship / Comship / RPF Do Not Interact Please ! Dividers by @kodaswrld !

[skyward-floored]

Ohhhh that’s why I feel terrible. right ok

[whatwooshkai]

2?

(important context in tags)

Dani sucks in a breath, and prepares for the worst. "There's no way you're fitting in that."

Blades gives her a blank look, the dress halfway up his thighs. "Huh?"

Even if there weren't love handles spilling over the waistband of his boxers, there's no way in hell Blades is fitting into anything Dani owns. He's taller than her, his shoulders are broader, and he's far more filled out. "You're not fitting in that."

"Why?" Blades asks, seemingly genuinely curious.

Because you're fat, is on the tip of Dani's tongue, but she holds it. Blades isn't even human on most days, she shouldn't subject him to human problems like body image issues. "We're not the same size," she settles on, tapping a beat on her arm. "You're bigger than me. And I'd rather you not rip that dress."

Blades' frown gets deeper, but he shimmies out of the dress and pulls back on the old tshirt and jeans from her dad, the only clothes they had that would fit him. "I could get smaller?" he offers.

Dani shakes her head. "No, you can't," she tells him. "You're not... y'know."

"Right," Blades mutters, crossing his arms over his chest. Dani can see the outline of his stomach through the shirt. How can he not be insecure about that? "But I don't like these clothes, I like your clothes. Your dad has no sense of style."

Dani cracks a smile at that. "No, he doesn't. But, uh..." she shifts, staring at the dress crumpled on the floor. Maybe she should've let him stretch out that dress. She always looks a little off in it... "I could take you shopping," she offers, and Blades absolutely lights up.

"Really?" he says, grabbing her hands. "Can we go to the mall? Oh, I've always wanted to do that-" he cuts himself off suddenly, eyes growing wide. "Oh my Primus. You have to buy me a pretzel."

Dani bites the comment on her tongue and forces herself to match his energy. "Of course!" she promises, squeezing his hands back. "You should enjoy your time as human!"

Blades' grin lights up the whole room.

Dani sighs when he turns away, babbling about all his plans and gathering up the clothes scattered on the floor to get an idea of what he wants. He's so excited, Dani wishes she could genuinely match that energy.

Maybe I could stand to learn a thing or two from him.

[tj-crochets]

Crafting update: I have discovered I am probably mildly allergic to Thin Mints but only after allergy-ing myself multiple days in a row* so I have had multiple daytime benadryl for multiple days so I am not functioning super great, which led to today's attempt to draft a new pattern I was trying to make a crow and I solved a plushie construction issue that's been a problem for me for four years without measuring anything or remembering to add a seam allowance to the extra bit, but somehow made the head like two sizes too small? I'll fix it tomorrow lol *less ridiculous than it sounds, because I can apparentely tolerate some Thin Mints but not a lot of Thin Mints so I did not react the first few days

[wachinyeya]

Hydrogen has been billed as the future of home heating for years but has yet to live up to its promises. That could be about to change, however, after Scotland cut the ribbon on a collection of newbuild hydrogen homes.  

Located in Levenmouth on Fife’s east coast, the demonstration homes show how hydrogen can provide heating and cooking experiences similar to natural gas. 

Hydrogen emits only water vapour and can be produced using renewables but has been hampered by high costs and a lack of infrastructure for storage and transportation.

The H100 Fife project offers a proof of concept that could pave the way for similar developments, says SGN, the gas company behind it. 

“We believe that H100 Fife can act as a catalyst for regional decarbonisation,” said SGN’s CEO Simon Kilonback. “This project is also far more than just a hydrogen for home heating trial and will provide key evidence to support the development of the hydrogen economy, whether that be production, storage, distribution or operations.” 

-via positive.news, 2/23/25

[his-saiko]

He can get it. ANYTIME! ANYWHERE! ANY POSITION!

HE CAN DRILL ME HOWEVER HE WANTS TO!