#[ my time tracker is not entirely accurate ]

[redstringraven]

it takes a lot to be always on form, it takes a lot.

challenged myself to start, experiment with, and post something today regardless of how 'finished' it was!

this song always makes me think of leo.

[luvo27]

Fantasy High Gravity Falls au:

Opens with riz and fig sitting next to each other upstairs listening to their parents argue: namely, gilear and sandra lynn are arguing with each other, and gorthalax and sklonda are trying to mediate

The cause of the argument is, of course, the revelation that fig is not gilear’s biological daughter with the growing in of her horns

Gorthalax, not having known that fig was his biologically, now wants to be a part of his daughter’s life: riz and sklonda are there because he’s dating sklonda

This is the first time riz and fig have met. It’s super awkward! Very wow i can’t believe im meeting this girl because her mom cheated on her dad. Wow i cant believe im meeting this guy because my mom cheated on my dad with his moms boyfriend

Anyways, sklonda and gorthalax are like, “clearly you and gilear need some time and space to figure things out, and the kids really shouldn’t have to deal with this. Why don’t we send them away for the summer?”

“Where?”

Gorthalax: “well, i grew up in this lovely town called Gravity Falls. I have a friend there—”

“Friend?”

“Well, I’m not exactly sure what else to call him. Friend is about as accurate a description that I can apply. Ex-boss?”

“Fair. But we’re really going to send the kids to stay with him?”

“It’ll be a good learning experience!”

Anyways riz and fig get sent to Gravity Falls to live with one Arthur Aguefort who runs the Mystery Shack

For some reason despite never having been affiliated with a school in any capacity, he insists they call him Principal Aguefort. He’s the most unhelpful adult either riz or fig have met in their entire lives, but he provides them with rooms and food, so that’s chill. They can entertain themselves anyways.

Gorgug, Adaine, Kristen, and Fabian are all Gravity Falls residents. Gorgug and Adaine work at the mystery shack part time, Fabian’s this weird rich kid who hangs around with them for no apparent reason, kristen is way too casual about the cult that she escaped from and constantly talks about how she and adaine live in the woods with a pack of werewolves

There’s a werewolf episode where they actually meet said werewolves: enter tracker and jawbone

Anyways, fig and riz get to know each other over the course of the summer and grow close with the other gravity falls kids as they get into fun and delightful adventures

Riz finds a journal at some point early in the summer with a feather burned into the cover, and uses this to guide all his friends in their adventures

At some point, they meet adaine’s sister who still lives with their parents after she reluctantly comes to adaine and her friends for help exorcising their mansion. It turns out it’s a trap to try to kidnap adaine back home. Adaine lets (read: commands) the ghosts haunting her old family home to kill her dad. The van with hands chases their mom into the woods. No one is particularly sad about either of these events. Aelwyn is going to take over this mansion and fill it with the cats she always wanted but could never have. Adaine, kristen, and their werewolf adoptive family move in. there are MANY sleepovers.

At some point there’s an episode where the kids find out that Fabian is part mermaid when his pirate mermaid family comes to visit

At some point there’s an episode about ghosts and the afterlife where riz gets to say hi to his dad briefly

As the summer progresses, fig grows more comfortable with her demon heritage. Sklonda, Gorthalax, Gilear, and Sklonda visit to check in on their kids on weekends when they can, and fig delights in getting to know her bio dad and repairing her relationship with gilear, and she basically adopts sklonda as a second mom, and she’s really excited to have riz as a brother, plus they’ve made all these really cool friends that she can keep in touch with now.

Riz, on the other hand, can’t stop thinking about what’s going to happen when the summer ends. He’s gotten attached to Fig as a sister, and when the summer ends and her parents sort out their problems is that going to mean that they’re going to go back to how they were before? He doesn’t want to leave his new friends behind, he doesn’t want to go back to the way his life was before, he doesn’t want to lose any of this

Theres an episode where the kids track down gorgugs parents

It’s either about how his bio parents had their memories of gorgug wiped and the bad kids tracking them down and solving that mystery

Or is just completely normal.

“Hey gorgug do you want to find your bio parents?”

“Huh. sounds fun. sure!”

There’s an episode where the kids find arthur’s stash of fake identities.

“Who the fuck is Barthur Baguefort?”

“It’s Arthur wearing sunglasses.”

There’s an episode where the bad kids encounter and probably kill kristen’s former cult

None of the kids are particularly close to Arthur. They don’t really care about the secrets he’s hiding.

At some point, riz is trying to solve some conspiracy or the other, and this is when kalina first appears to him

At some point, the kids wake up to find arthur’s left his secret basement door room open when the kids are having a sleepover. They go in as the portal is opening, and out steps the author of the journals: ayda aguefort.

She’s been traversing the multiverse after an argument with her dad got her thrown in there during one of her research projects. Traversing the multiverse was kind of chill, actually, she’s got a hunger for knowledge and boy did she learn a lot on her adventures

She joins the bad kids on their adventures, and fig is of course delighted to have another friend (and maybe more!)

The time the kids have left before summer ends grows shorter and shorter.

Kalina appears to fig. She makes her an offer, she wants to make a deal. Fig could be gilears biological daughter, if she wants. She could have parents who never cheated on each other, she could go back to her happy idyllic childhood.

Fig does not take the deal. The entire summer for her was finding the silver lining, was learning how to repair relationships and move forwards. If her heritage never came to light, she never would have grown her family basically three times as large

So kalina goes to riz. And riz is so, so desperate. All he wants in the world is a guarantee that people won’t leave him. And kalina? Delivers.

So riz is thrown into a bubble dimension with his devoted partner created to fulfill his deal in the most monkeys paw of situations: enter baron from the baronies

The thing kalina gets out of this deal is for the Nightmare King to be let into their realm, bringing the apocalypse into gravity falls one weekend when riz and figs parents are visiting

The bad kids now have to save riz and defeat the nightmare king. Power of friendship time!

Pooling together collective knowledge from everyone’s adventures: the parents, who used to live in gravity falls, ayda, whos been traversing dimensions, the bad kids, who’ve been messing about with random stuff all summer, they piece together the nightmare king’s story

Kristen’s old cult is plot relevant now! It turns out that they were a doomsday cult and hundreds of years ago, sacrificed the being known as the nightmare king in an attempt to bring about the end of times. They thought it didn’t work, but they’re probably delighted that it’s finally happening

Kristen had escaped the cult because she was being set up to be the sacrifice for apocalypse attempt part 2. This makes her uniquely suited to extend a hand.

“Oh, dude, I totally get what you’re going through. But like, me and my friends completely wiped out those guys-like, killed—”

“Killed? What have you kids been up to? I knew we shouldn’t have trusted aguefort with children—”

“So it’s chill now! And like, bringing about the apocalypse is only going to give them what they want, so maybe don’t do that. I get it though, like I’ve been exactly where you are. Like, exactly. Crazy how the world works, right? Anyways, my name’s Kristen. What’s yours?”

Enter cassandra!

The summer wraps up. The question remains: where do they go from here?

Sandra lynn and gilear have decided that separating is the best option for them. And over their visits, sandra lynns gotten to know jawbone and there’s definitely something there…

I think it’s kind of bittersweet. Sandra lynn and fig move in with jawbone, and sklonda and riz and gorthalax go back to their old place. Summer doesn’t last forever, as much as anyone might want it to, but you don’t need to go back to how you were before. Gorthalax visits fig all the time, and when he can, riz joins, and when sklonda can, she comes along as well. She’s got friends in gravity falls too. Maybe it’s about learning to trust that people will put in the effort to keep up with each other when it gets more difficult. Maybe it’s about the family you find along the way, and the ways you’ll always keep them. Maybe life doesn’t work out how you thought. Maybe reality sets in, overtaking the summer haze. Maybe it’s better. Who knows?

Where did kalina go? What was her whole deal? I have no idea.

[cannabiscomrade]

hi there, i want to thank you for talking about gastroparesis and sharing your experiences with tube feeding. i may or may not have gastroparesis as well, my gastric emptying test was inconclusive, but my stomach issues are pretty disabling and i have wondered if tube feeding might someday be necessary for me. hearing about your experience makes it a lot less scary sounding! i wonder if you would be comfortable sharing a little more about how tube feeding has improved your health, and impacted your daily life (for better or worse)? are there things you can do now that you couldn’t have done before tube feeding, or vice versa? feel free to take your time answering, or not answer at all if it’s too personal. either way, i appreciate you!

I'd love to talk more about it!

I can empathize with your GES results. They can just end up being just a snapshot of your entire experience, and unfortunately they can just catch you on a "good" day where your emptying times are better. I know some people will intentionally trigger flares to get more accurate numbers on their study.

I'll preface with a little more information about me. I was misdiagnosed for 16 years with Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome and dealt with that and other vague GI diagnoses like GERD and IBS-D episodically and it gradually got worse over time. I was never given a GES until 2022. After I got pregnant and gave birth in 2020 I drifted into this pattern of daily morning vomiting, then I went into a flare last August that I never left. I was diagnosed with gastroparesis in Nov 2022, caught covid for the first time at the end of Nov, and got my tube Jan 2023.

Tube feeding has significantly improved by health. I was slowly dying from starvation ketoacidosis in December 2022. But even when I was eating orally I struggled with severe gastric malabsorption for years and often felt symptoms of malnutrition and saw minor malnutrition on labs and never understood why because I was eating, but because of fatphobia I was never given a GES and I was never taken seriously until I lost a significant amount of weight. In the most severe moments I was having constant diarrhea and vomiting and I've had so many hospitalizations due to dehydration and vomiting alone when I was eating orally.

I'm about 7 months in and I'm getting about 1300-1500ish calories a day, which is not my goal and it needs to be increased. But the difference with it being in my jejunum is that I'm absorbing 100% of those calories and it has helped my energy and my immune system so much. I've been able to significantly slow the weight loss while we investigate the root cause of my gastroparesis, as well as test for intestinal dysmotility. My hair is growing back, my nails are stronger, and I'm having general improvement of my IBS-D.

That being said, being on feeds and fluids, especially continuous feeds, it does impact my lifestyle a lot. I need accommodations at work. I can't let my feeds get over room temp or fluctuate temp too much. When my bags are full and it's in my backpack I'm carrying 2L of liquid and a pump, plus an additional medical bag with supplies. I even have to sleep at an angle to prevent aspiration. And the fun of stoma care. Cats also seem to have a taste for formula and tubing, which has banished my fur children from our bedroom at night. My medical supplies take up half of my dining room. It's certainly a major life change.

But without all of that, I would be dead. For a lot of us, being without alternate nutrition means either death or severe suffering from symptoms of gastroparesis. This is my symptom tracker for vomiting over the past year. You can see the stark difference between July-December and January-now.

This alone was enough for me to justify for myself that a medical device was necessary. Even without the starvation, I still have two hernias from vomiting and developed chronic gastritis secondary to the GP.

The one thing with tube feeding is that your digestive system is like a muscle. If you don't use it, you lose it. And I've definitely noticed a decline in my capacity to tolerate anything in my stomach for long, even liquids. I'm grieving this and learning how to live with this because there isn't an alternative for me at this moment. I'm still trying, I use the gastric port to drain a lot just to keep what little of my stomach's function it still has.

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

Carrie watches Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 15-20 aka “Let’s go down the line, what’s everyone afraid of?”

back with part two of my chaotic list of personal highlights that i wrote down pretty much for myself exclusively. Full of SO many spoilers, you’ve been warned

Blast from the Passed

Murph’s godawful luck with the dice is peak comedy in this episode, first he immediately volunteers to roll for the whole table?? why would you do that?? and then Riz says a cringey line, shoots at someone right in front of him, misses, rolls a nat 20 to hide, and sits in his hiding place agonising over how embarrassing that was

Johnny Spells making a two second entry onto the playing field

“one D4 for gay spit” “Aaaagh! Love wins! It’s fear, it’s out of fear, it’s a horrifying realisation for him.”

Adaine getting caught in the jocks’ weird group huddle and Riz acting like she’s in mortal danger from it

“Where in this city is your father, boy?” “In a room, with a bunch of goblins!”

Brennan’s face when he goes for his coffee forgetting he spit a candy die into it like twenty minutes earlier

“Remember me, Daybreak? I shoot him.”

the entire chaos surrounding Riz getting stuffed into a cannon but especially Fig (or Emily?) yelling “no, take me with him, he can’t go alone!” and “Can I roll to see if he’s having a good time?” “Who, Bill Seacaster? Yeah, he’s having a blast!”

“Tracker jumps, 69!” Gorgug, with audible desperation: “I’m in the same square!”

Murph now being the default roller for the lair check and the entire table cheering for him

he rolls a nat one, gets to re-roll with Fig’s last luck point, and rolls a nat two

My Green Heaven

“Well, The Ball is a lil’ angel so...”

Ally’s complete incapability to remember the elven names and Brennan’s slowly mounting annoyance with it

Riz waking up in his father’s arms and instantly panicking that he might get dropped my heart

also the first full sentence he says to his long-lost father is “I got a bunch of tattoos mum is going to be so mad at me”

honestly in all of these emotional scenes I am Lou and Lou is me

“We’re in heaven! Is this what not having anxiety is like? This is crazy, my heart... is just beating like what I assume a normal person’s heart would!”

his dad told all his colleagues about Riz’s freshman year adventures :(

“On behalf of the Association for Divine Wrath please accept this memorial that your death at the hand of Emperor of the Red Waste was avenged by Your son, Riz Gukgak” “Don’t even talk to me until I’ve had my death avenged”!!!

“People got it sexually from having sex, dad!!” *voice cracks* *sweating profusely* “I thought heaven fixed this stuff!”

“I met your mum when I was 27 years old. You get what I’m saying?” “...I’m like fifteen, I don’t know how old you are, I just know that you’re old.”

I love how Murph is the one who has to singlehandedly shoulder the lore-heavy plot parts because he’s the best at keeping it all straight in his head, but also the one who will suddenly make the least sensible leaps in logic and then not. budge. no matter how many times Brennan gently tries to shoo him away from that path. He is so stuck on this angle that Riz’s father slept with Kalina which... just the logistics of that would be so many hoops to jump through

that said, a fifteen year-old with some complex feelings about his own sexuality fully fixating on this STD angle is probably the most accurate thing that could have happened

“It’s just not... happening yet. Not just the act is not happening, but the wanting it is not... And my friends are all super horny.” “Kiddo, if it never happens, that’s also okay. There’s a lot to life to enjoy and you already matter a lot to your friends and a lot to your family.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the 847th time this week I am so upset mainstream media isn’t like this

“Work is an act of love” yeah cool can we pump the breaks on this rollercoaster I’m gonna need a lot of lore or a lot of Hilda Hilda-type shenanigans to recover from all that

let me use this moment to say how brilliantly paced this campaign is because Brennan launches into a lore dump immediately after this

“He’s dating mum. But he’s like... he‘s always getting trapped in gems, it’s kinda pathetic.”

Emily and Siobhan silently figuring out a plot point by gesturing across the table

“Well, I’ve got some pretty powerful friends, so...” Riz is so precious

Adaine wanting to save the wrapping paper :(

“TO WAR! Or, to market, but then TO WAR!”

“I’m so happy you have chosen to spend time with my daughter. It’s an incredible improvement over previous partners, if you were to chart it on a graph, a truly incredible spike...”

Siobhan’s face when Fig asks why everyone knows about her and Ayda!

Just. Ayda.

“How did Gilear take it?” “I don’t know, he was very adult about it, but he also is an adult so...” “I’m sorry, I came in way too hot with the little gift card.”

“Tell me all the least important stuff.” I’m *crying*

Zac is deeply underrated as a player, he pulls the most incredible conclusions or minute details out of the hat and never gets any credit for it because he plays loveable dumbasses

Ally’s plan to defeat the big bad by going viral with another seafood party

thrilling online banking content

The Forest of the Nightmare King

“Just upload it as like, ASMR: Puddle” “Like a Laurel/Yanny type thing”

ahhh fuck this is so creepy? The unicorn? nopenopenope no thank you

Fearful Symmetry

“Oh no, he’s making a face. Which one of Brennan’s faces is that?” hard same, Lou.

Zac is such a treasure: “I don’t want to take these stones! I don’t want any of this!” Also once again he’s making by far the smartest choices

“If we take these drugs and cast fear to push us into a bad trip?” Well this all sounds like a great idea

“Riz’s greatest fear is to not have a plan so I’m just gonna run into the woods. Not even gonna take the drugs, because that would be a plan.”

Adaine abandoning her support animal AND her anxiety meds is physically painful. stop I’m so attached to these kids

oh boy, the Baron scene. Yikes yikes yikes

the incredibly cooky accent is such a weird effect, it’s so dumb and so funny but laughing at it feels like a hysterical terror kind of laugh it is SO fucked up

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Brennan accidentally hits the absolute rawest deepest fear I’ve ever experienced as I’m working through my own shit and it is physically nauseating to watch this moment even though I know every word of it, “the years will go by and everyone will find someone that matters more to them than you” because. that’s it right. it’s not even that they’ll abandon you. it’s just that you’ll end up caring more about them than they care about you. you have all this love and only your friends to give it to but they all find partners who are now receiving most of theirs. and you can’t even blame them because they’re doing nothing wrong.

I do love that they’ve gone for this because this is such a particular fear. It’s not a crushing thing, it’s a creeping thing. It’s more a despair than a fear? Like it’s more an absence of hope than a presence of fear and I think that is really interesting to put as like a deeper layer of fear

Riz trying to get out of this specifically by pulling apart the logic of the mirages he’s seeing is on brand (but also this is the one moment where you can tell this probably isn’t a thing Murph or Brennan had to work through themselves, because that wouldn’t fucking help. It’s the concept that’s terrifying, the individual hypothetical partners are completely interchangeable. The correct [worse] response from Baron to this argument would have been just a shrug and a “yes, maybe your friends don’t want these people. But they want someone. Your ideal world where you’re all just together will never be enough for them.”).

“Okay, let’s go down the line, what’s everyone afraid of?” “That’s the most Brennan thing I’ve ever heard.”

Oh good Zac is going for Imposter Syndrome yeah this whole episode is just going to go great for me mentally

Adaine :( nonono this is painful

Fantastic, so I’m just gonna be deeply personally attacked by everyone’s fears except for Fabian and Kristen then. Good good

Gorgug is truly just. the best of the good beans. “Well, I think I’m gonna give it a try” what a champ

oh GOD the sexy rat is back this is a trip

“I take comfort in seeing all my friends there, making out. Not in a weird way.” “Like what amount of comfort?” “A normal amount!”

“.......Is my greatest fear sleeping on the job? I’m so lame!” and the look of complete disgust on Murph’s face

Fig stumbling onto this horrific village full of weird trapped bodies and finding one alive and immediately just going “Hi hello do you need help?” is so pure

the sheer JOY on Brennan’s face when he finally gets to get back at Emily for the Hilda Hilda from 22 Hilda Street and 22 Hilda Boulevard bullshit

Fig and Ayda :( but also “I sit down to write the song She Likes Me For Me, which doesn’t exist in this universe yet.”

"I do not know why I was so easy to discard” holy SHIT Ms Thompson

Spring Break! I Believe In You! Part 1

gotta love the title

Ally’s terrible metaphors

Kristen punches a god

the Abernant sisters :( Siobhan is incredible in these scenes

“Wizards don’t have goddamn cures. We don’t care about other people!”

“Adaine, your father is dead as he leaves the ground” GOOD. We love to see that.

Adaine offering her sister a bunk bed in her tower room :(

“I’m a D8, babe”

oh god is this all riding on a Murph attack roll they are doomed

GILEAR???

“I HAVE NO PRIDE” oh this is brilliant I am wheezing

“You have fully James Bond-ed yourself out of these bonds”

the worst two people fail the roll to not look at Gilear’s junk. poetic cinema.

“Your grandfather made this sword, Fabian! He’s... really good at swords! Slow, but good!”

“I think death is the ultimate mystery! I think it’s fine that she’s dead!”

“Gorgug, you are not related to Ayda in any way. Not your mum, not your dad. Not even a cousin, probably.”

Spring Break! I Believe In You! Part 2

“Every time Kristen and I are together something terrible happens. Team Rizten is 0 for 3.”

more riveting online banking content

Emily weaponising Brennan’s worldbuilding against him

“I feel deep down in my heart that I, too, am a low-quality child.”

the dig at that weird Legolas cgi move in Two Towers

every time Brennan calls the guys “baby” is an absolute delight

Adaine and Fabian thirsting over Riz without his newsboy cap

Murph stealing Emily’s incredibly cool move (with a double disclaimer)

“If you want to use a bonus action to disengage, you could.” “I... I need the bonus action to live.”

paramour/succubus, “Mr. The Insatiable”

hall of fame of worrying lines from Brennan: “Okay, first (!!) let me know when you drop, ‘cause you’re gonna drop.”

The PapaRizzi, when you throw a mirror at someone and shoot them (and livestream it)

“Mission accomplished, dad” Riz is so cringe I love him

“Adaine, how would you feel if I potentially killed your mum?” “I would be HONOURED”

Ally’s clutch nat 20 and Brennan’s “what the fuuuck EVERY SEASON!”

“I think you should start planning for this.” “Brennan, just cry now. Just get it out.” “I actually, I... I don’t know what to do.” “I wish we were all in one room so we could be like running around!”

“Are my bones six hundred years old for real?”

Ally’s character walking up to a god and asking if the god is okay

“I would follow you... is it too early for that? This feels like a weird first date.”

Brennan is forcing Ally to make up deities on the spot again

“I love them all, Riz the most, we already know this, Adaine has my finger in her pocket, these are all my closest friends.”

“Wait, we still need the crown for our grade!”

“If I dream it, would it be real?” Brennan, dead-eyed with a forced serene smile: “Yes, in your heart. Let’s move on.” 

Adaine’s mum being chased through the forest by the Vands

“I’m broke.” “We might be making ad revenue at this point!”

None of them get Brennan’s insinuation that Chungledown Bim followed them into the fucking forest

“Hey Aguefort, remember I ordered the most magnificient thing you could ever make? Turns out you already made it, so I take that back.” 

A final shout-out to Garthy O’Brien’s accent, and their whole deal

Oh, the reveal, the reveal! 

“My sister is sort of wanted for quite a lot of crimes in Solace...”

Jawbone and Adaine :(

Riz gives a slide show for his mother

“In return for the spell that I killed my father with, I wrote you Ayda’s comprehend subtext.”

Adaine being bad at knowing when people are flirting and Fig being bad at flirting because she’s imitating Kristen who is an aggressive desaster flirter

oh no the tattoos

[thetruearchmagos]

Heads Up Seven Up

Thank you to @autumnalwalker for the open Tag, which I've decided to use as my segway back to writing! Sorry yo all if I've been quiet recently, my mental health ain't quit great these two weeks. Still, hope you all enjoy thia little drabble!

Tagging @lividdreamz @dogmomwrites @marinesocks @sanguine-arena @theprissythumbelina @muddshadow @athenswrites @orphicpoieses

Bristling Skies

Five hundred nautical miles away, and five hundred metres beneath the waves, UCS Tracker was entirely unaware as to anything taking place beyond the sphere of its acoustic hydrophones. Within that sphere, however, her Sound-Ops chief had just noticed something very strange indeed.

“Bloody-damn-hell, skipper, we’ve got machinery transients from Token-3. Sounds like she’s really hauling, propeller rate estimates at close to thirty knots.”

Captain Oskar Kukulski was leaning over the station in minutes, while at the helm, Lieutenant Evelyn Wen Hui was starting to sweat under her collar. So was the Captain, but he’d had the luxury of three years a sub-driving skipper to get used to not showing it. All three had been spent aboard the Tracker, but so far, they hadn’t been terribly exciting ones. Until yesterday morning’s brief at Commodore Creed’s office, that is.

“What’s her course? Any changes?”

“Nope, Sir. Just kicked up speed, she’s still keeping a heading down southeast.”

Token-3, more appropriately known as the Terreur by her owners, was supposedly one of the more modern diesel boats that the Nouvo’s had been bought from their Ocrisian allies. So modern were they, that though Tracker had been riding up the boat’s tailpipe for the better part of the past five hours, they’d only found her in the first place by a stroke of good luck. Their quarry had been running lazy circles in the grid sector throughout, and so Oskar was pretty sure he hadn’t been found out just yet. Five hours hunting, he thought, and with a green crew no less. Damn, they’re more than that by now!

“Right, mighty curious of them to do this, but it might be a sign they think no one’s listening—”

An alarm rang from aft, and the skipper bore a grimace. It wouldn’t make it through his rubber coated hull, as Oskar well knew, but submariners had sensitive ears at times like this.

“Ahh, damn, that’s a Flash message. Evelyn, keep up the track however you need to, you have the Conn.”

“Aye sir, I have the Conn.”

With that, Oskar took his leave, ducking through the low bulkhead and heading aft. Just a month ago they’d have needed to surface to get a message, or at least put up the antennae buoy to listen into an orbiter’s broadcast, but the brand new crystal cradle they’d had installed precluded such bothersome measures, and so Evelyn was left to contemplate and conn in peace.

“Right, let’s carry on. Increase speed one third, maintain heading. Fire control, keep updating the fire solution, we could use the practice.”

And so on they moved, quieter than the sea itself. They kept a range of eight hundred metres to the track, matching speeds to maintain the chase. Evelyn found herself prey to the usual malady, that sickeningly sweet stress of a prying eye, watching without being seen, her multi million chequer boat playing the game it was built for. It wasn’t her first time at the conn, but every session in painstaking care felt the same.

Five  minutes later, Sound-Ops called out, voice steady yet loud enough to be heard from the helm.

“Attention Conn, Rip Wall, starboard!”

“All stop, ship to quiet!”

Far ahead of the Tracker, her target had just begun a hard turn right, a bid to clear the blind-, or more accurately, deaf-, spot to the rear where her own hull blocked her bow mounted hydrophones. She’d been pulling that particular trick throughout the chase, though regularly enough that Evelyn and the crew had begun to expect the trick. That was their second mistake, she knew. The first was assuming it would work at all.

“All stop, quiet down!”

In half a heartbeat her orders were done, and the already quiet boat was like a hole in the sea. Tracker’s beating atomic heart was tuned down to a low hum, with even the water pumps turned off to spare the din. She drifted on forwards, with an ever so slight negative trim to stop her from climbing upwards, while almost a kilometre ahead seven thousand tonnes of marine steel began its turn. So far, Evelyn put the closest the two had come in the manoeuvre to just over a hundred metres, and that was as close as she ever needed to be.

[someonestole15]

It takes about the half-life of Polonium for me to write one post.

Dead are not silent.

In the dead of night, you can truly hear their whispers, each of them asking the same question. Why in a million years would I be the one to leave so soon? I keep thinking on an answer to that question but so far, I have found nothing but static, dead air. Radio crackling from the dying signal, I allowed it to slip loose from my grip and fall into the void beneath me. Bright light ahead, forming into a console somewhere within my OS.

>>CPU impact detected, checking system status... >>Unit condition compromised, Damage within acceptable limits. Proceeding with reboot

From my dreams back to reality, a voltage coursed from my powercells through to my heart and CPU, kick starting everything and sending most sensors to 11. Hurts like hell, I tried to keep my breathing calm as the shock faded into a blissful numbness with the safeties cutting off the data flow. Sensory input returning slowly and the numbness subsiding, I hazily got on one knee as my gyroscopes started calibrating. Which way is down, gravity pull this way so that must be it, right, now how does one walk again...

Systems calibrating to my weight, one leg at a time I stood myself up and took in the surroundings, my scanners painting the forest around me in wireframe before the optical systems finally calibrated, allowing color to return to my vision. Rain, navigations messed up so no idea how we got here, I patted down my jacket and noticed my pistol and shotgun were still in their place and the hazmat suit, despite a few scuffs, was still intact.

Booting up my scanners, I felt them spin around for a bit inside my skull before settling in to the front and scanning the zones around me. No active hostiles, the scan came up with four tags near me, it took a moment for the identifier to read their tags. Rest of X-ray, status: alive, a faint sigh of relief got through my filters as I glanced up to see cooling towers visible above the trees at a range of approx. 300m, my rangefinder could not get an accurate reading.

Slow and steady to where Valkyrie was lying, the rest of squad not far from her. Red visible even through the hazmat gear and her scanners quietly ticking away, I gently pulled her over to her side and gently shook her.

“Hey, you better not be dead on me.”

 “Who...” Dazed but alive, she grabbed onto my jacket shortly before identifying me. “Oh it’s you. Where were you, what happened?”

“Not sure, seems I caught a close look at a rifle stock if I read my logs correctly.” I responded as I gave her my hand and helped her up.

“We had a similar tale from what I can remember; the security team took us down as soon as we got out of the range of the cameras.”

“Things are not adding up, but we have more important things to figure out what is going on.”

“Alright, I got your six.” She said while racking back the slide on her handgun, the faint red glow from her eye shining through the mask.

Speculation as the only thing to rely on, we moved from marker to marker, waking up our remaining squad members. One by one, the tracker on my HUD filled up and once we had all five, we took shelter near a service cabin close to the edge of the clearing, using the piled up logs as cover. Rations and medical kits to recover and bind up the few wounds, the weather started to clear up but the mood in the squad was clearly down.

“So now what?” Oscar asked, grabbing the pack of smokes from his vest pocket once again.

“I need to think... What did you find inside?” Richter asked, holding onto his bandaged arm. Likely painful even if just a graze, it would take a moment for the painkillers to kick in.

“It was more than a leak, the entire section was contaminated and the traces were consistent with a chemical weapon we found on that haul a few weeks back.”

“Right, they knocked us out once we were out of camera range... Played me like I was some damn boy scout.” Richter said with bitterness in his voice and pacing around, kicking away small rocks and sticks as he walked.

“Breathe. Don’t get angry, get even.”

“Even? All right... We need to get through to Control.”

“I think... Yes, I am getting a signal through; whatever they were using for jamming is not active anymore.” Diana said, followed by a round of testing from the rest of us. Hazy signal but it did connect; Richter grabbed hold of his radio with a pained grunt before switching over to his working arm.

“Control, this is X-ray, do you copy?”

“Control copies, thought we lost you X-ray.”

“Situation update, stand by.”

“Copy, send traffic.”

Traffic sent, data packages from smaller pieces coming together, the radio remained quiet until Richter had relayed all the information, responding only with a quiet “Copy that.”

“X-ray, this is Control. Listen up; it is clear from what you said that the mission objective could still be completed. We will dispatch a backup team to assist in both containing the hazardous materials and securing the plant. Going to be a hell of debrief...”

“Roger that control, what are our orders?”

“Secure the front gate for a rendezvous with the backup team and continue operation Pale Flame. We’ll look into who or what might have caused the guards to turn on a rear echelon unit.”

“Got it, X-ray out.” Richter said into his radio before turning to the rest of us. “You heard the man. We will secure the front gate for our backup unit. Phoenix, are you able to take point?”

“Ready and able.”

“Good, rest of you, spread out and cover the flanks. Clear? Good, execute.”

An arrow cutting across the clearing and onto the forest road leading back towards the plant, scanners like flashlights leaving no place to hide as the road beneath our boots shifted from gravel to dirt and finally asphalt. Arriving at a row of garages and shutter doors, we cleared corners and moved through the area, avoiding a few blocked off paths and reaching the road leading to the plant itself. Short jog from here to the reactor complex, I grabbed cover as Richter gave the command to halt.

“Anything on the scanners?”

“All quiet.”

“Same here.”

“I would have expected a patrol by now, something is certainly not right.

“That many guards for a lone power plant... ”

“Take cover. Time to kick the hornets’ nest.” Richter said under his voice as he drew his pistol and removed the magazine, firing one shot towards the sky. Echoing throughout the forests and sending a flock of birds scattering from the trees, I could hear the faint clicking from my sling mounts as we waited for anything to appear on the scanners. Loud to silent again, the wind rustling the fabric on my jacket and nothing on the scanners, just as on the way here.

“Clear. Double time, head on a swivel.”

Steady pace across the opening and into the plant complex, we double-timed it across the parking lots and access paths until we reached the front gate. Our truck was still parked there, partially covered by a blue tarp, almost as if someone had tried to hide it. Security cameras and motion trackers offline beyond the fence, the container command outpost had been dismantled, but the handler was nowhere to be seen. After confirming that the gatehouse was empty, we kept our eyes on the plant and waited for the backup team to arrive.

Boot tapping gently against the concrete to the beat of the track, my scanners picked up movement along the road. Pause, the faint hum of an engine reached my audio systems as the radio signal came through.

“X-ray, this is Gamma, do you copy?”

“This is X-ray, we hear you.”

“Copy, we are approaching now, how’s the situation at the gate?”

“Gate is clear.”

“Glad to hear X-ray, Gamma out.”

Faint humming to a low-pitched growl as an APC pulled through the gate and parked up near the middle of the parking lot, deploying a squad of CTO soldiers before a large transport truck followed it in. Hauling what I would guess to be a mobile laboratory, it passed us and stopped behind the APC, deploying a smaller crew of CTO soldiers, one of them wearing an orange armband over his dark hazmat suit.

“2-2 takes security. 2-3, on me.” Voice muffled by the mask and with an electronic buzz to it, the man seemed to be quite carefree despite the situation at hand.

“Looks like we got here just in time, you haven’t burned the place down just yet. Lieutenant Ryan Gray, Gamma squad command, here to assist.”

“Glad to have you Gray, I trust Barnett gave you the details?”

“Chemical weapon on the loose and we’re here to help in containing it. We gathered the ones who weren’t busy or dying, so you got all hands of 2-3.”

“We managed to secure a scan of a sample before the guards turned on us, shouldn’t take too long to work out what works.” Diana said, pulling up the chemical formula on her PDA.

“Alright, Davis and Carlson, lend her a hand. Richter, stage is all yours.”

“We had a team recon the inside of the plant. So far, it seems the contamination is localized inside this section of labs here.” Richter explained while setting up a small holographic mapping tool and pulling up the plants blueprints on it.

“These kinds of laboratories usually have an external sprinkler access point, so all we have to do is locate it once we have figured out what we need.”

“External, so outside... It seems to be clear out here but we cannot be sure about the inside. If the security team is hunkered down in there, they could potentially cause more harm than just a chemical leak.”

“Indeed, I think we form three teams, one per reactor and secure them. We have enough soldiers to have at least three soldiers from 2-2 in the squads.”

“I’ll take one.”

“You sure Richter?”

“I’m sure; a busted wing is not going to keep me down.”

 “Full of piss and vinegar that one... All right, two more.”

“I’ll take a team; I was on the team doing internal recon so I have a basic layout in my memory.”

“I didn’t catch your name.”

“Phoenix.”

“Think I’ve heard that somewhere... If Richter is fine with it, then so am I.”

“All yours. Bring them back alive.”

“Will do.”

“Oscar, I want you on the third team.”

“Yep, I might be a bit rusty on the team leading but I’ll give it a run.

Plan coming together, we divided into our teams and rearmed, the empty medical kits to full and damage to the equipment patched together. Richter in charge of Alpha, me running as the lead for Beta and Oscar taking Gamma’s name for his squad, easing up the communications as everyone behind was now under the X-ray squad marker.

Cassander, Alexander and Demetrius, three old kings lending their names to the three reactors inside, I felt the faint feeling of claustrophobia creeping in as my filters settled in place and the squad communications came online. Richter’s team headed for Cassander and Oscars made their way to the Demetrius, leaving Alexander for us, I reminded myself of the basics of squad commands and took point with Valkyrie and the rest of the squad behind me. Trust takes time and I am glad to see Richter having enough to let me run this squad in here, Ryan stayed behind with the laboratory and comms, losing both our contacts to the CTO command, although not something I’d do every day... I have enough in keeping Valkyrie and myself alive, having a third member ended up in a dead dog. Shake myself back to reality; we got a job to do.

Déjà vu walking across the corridors, a trail of dusty footsteps still visible on the floors although faintly, we made our way through with multiple red warning lights and a low tone alarm making the entire area feel more eerie than before. Reports of warnings and alarms matching what we heard from the other teams, we carried on deeper inside the utility corridor; the radiation readings remained low, almost too low even for an inactive reactor.

Blast door spanning across the corridor, bringing us to a halt, the squad took positions to guard the rear and sides while I pointed one of the soldiers to open the door via the terminal.  Quick fingers and equipped with the required access keys, the soldier, tagged on my HUD as Fox, got through the doors security and unlocked it.

“Nice job Fox. Pack up, we’re moving.” Valkyrie and two others through the door, Fox stopped me before I could pass through and handed me their tablet.

“Sir, I think you’ll want to see this.”

“Lay it on me, what am I looking at?”

“I managed to get into the main control systems to see the reactor status and the percentage there shows zero fuel.”

“What?”

“All the control rods are fully deployed and the turbines are slowing down, likely running on trace steam from the reactors cooling system. It will likely last a few more hours but after that this place will go dark.”

“And no sign of the security teams anywhere... There is no way they could have hauled off that amount of fissile material so either they are still in the core or moving it out now. Let’s get a move on, relay this to the other teams.”

“On it sir.”

Past the blast door and through a few security doors, we reached the reactor control room. Servers recording data in separate rooms and more switches than there are days in a year, another pair of soldiers, tagged as BAT and HOUND, split up and started running down the reactor checklist. No direct access to the reactor core but a large steel shutter covering the window with several radiation warnings and instructions written on it, I felt the faint buzz of radiation emanating through it.

“Can you get this shutter open?”

“Working on it, the system keeps locking out on me.” Hound stated, tapping on the keyboard and responding to Bat as they ran down the checklist. Eyes darting across the screens, Hound finally let out a sigh as he tapped enter one more time and the shutter started opening.

“There, this thing is antique. Bat, next item.”

“Right, next on the list is...”

Small increase in radiation on the scanners but again, not enough to match a running reactor, the core hanged from the mounts above a pool of coolant with all of its shielding open, the control rods lowered and all the spots where the fuel was supposed to be, empty. Therefore, the data was right, and with no guards in sight, it was as if they had taken the fuel with them, running the possibilities through my head, I grabbed hold of my radio and contacted Richter.

 “Richter, it’s Phoenix, we got an empty reactor housing here.”

“Same over here Phoenix, zero fuel. Logs say it was running this morning so there had to be fuel here.”

“Oscar, anything on your end?”

“Same with our reactor, no rods.”

“Roger that, secure any information and logs you can find then bring the reactor to a shutdown state. After that, rendezvous back at the front gate. Richter out.”

“You heard the man, pull the plug and copy the drives.”

“On it.”

Voice over the PA, announcing the reactor shutdown protocol before the shielding lowered back into place and reducing the radiation readings to near zero. Bat and Hound brought the reactor down and confirmed the shutdown had been completed and everything related to the core was in standby, would not want the pumps flooding the place with nothing to cool down.

Needle back to zero, terminals scoured for information and sensors recorded before securing the control room with rolls of warning tape and leaving the facility, reuniting with the rest of the team and meeting back up with them by the front gate.

Cataclysm event incoming with 26 tons of nuclear material missing, I do not want to see someone setting this place on fire.

Then again...

Hey there, sorry I've been gone again.

Life has been a lot for a while now and I am battling writers block even as I post this. Being sick and having no voice from the coughing left me with few options for things to do, so here I am.

The heat is also getting to me but staying hydrated has somewhat helped with that and I urge you to do the same.

Starting up the next post soon enough, hopefully the waiting time between then and now won't be that long.

Catch you later. Harry

[tinylittlebab]

99.2 this morning. the fear i felt shen i thought i actually weighed over 100 was terrible but i dont. im just on my oeriod and when i weighed at 101 it was after eating and just at a v bad time overall.

i found a weight tracker that lets me track multiple weights a day. i like to weigh in the morning and night. what times a eat are very inconsistent as are the times a sleep and wake so its hard to know how accurate weigh ins are. it was an issue i had for awhile and it bothered me a lot. i had been looking for a better app but i never found one till now so yay! its weird to me how i just stopped. for awhile theres was this big in the back of my head of it but not actively counting or anything. just kinda trying to not eat and feeling bad when i do. its tiring to do this stuff and its like id just get burnt put from it but also i cant just turn it off

but at some point my brain did turn it off. along with everything else uh. i guess thats a compromise. not a good one though.

well. i made a mistake today. i took my free shift drink. i felt horribly dizzy at work cause disability. it was super busy. i wasnt even there for very long but for almost the entire time it was just me and 1 other person. they only just got there when everyone else left and they had been busy all up till when i got there and then it was still busy.

well. its a lil less cold today! i can probs get much more exercise in at least. im only working 3 hours tomorrow so i wont take my shift drink. im working 7 1/2 hours the day after (possibly without any breaks) so im gonna for sure drink smth and bring smth to eat. but thats fine. ill probs go to bed early and not eat much else that day so itll be ok.

well. my head hurts again. having my hair up in a bun sucks it always makes my headaches worse but i dont got a choice. im hoping it goes away soon n i dont gotta eat n take ibuprofen. i cant exercise with this pain tho

[bet-on-me-13]

Authors Note: Sorry for posting this a week late, one of my parents experiments escaped from the Basement and broke my Laptop. My parents made me a new one and I just got done purging the malicious AI that somehow got stuck in it. Anyways, here's another mlm regency au!

...

Authors Note: Hey guys, sorry I forgot to post last night. The Hot Dogs in our fridge came alive thanks to my parents, AGAIN (I gotta start reminding them to put a lid on their dangerous chemicals) and I spent all night pushing them back into the Fridge.

...

Authors Note: Hey guys, sorry for the wait. The Hot Dogs came back with a Vengeance after I posted the Previous Chapter. Turns put the Turkey we had in there also came alive and they rode it into battle against us. We suffered heavy losses (rest in peace Good Spoon™️) but we prevailed in the end! Anyways here's the latest chapter!

...

Authors Note: Hey guys, sorry it took so long to Update! Had an accident in my parents lab, maybe died, didn't actually tho, and now my eyes glow in the dark! Also I keep accidentally tripping but hopefully thats not gonna be a big thing!

...

Authors Note: Glad I mamaged to get this out on time! My Parents built a Portal to another Dimension in our Basement (I think it's a version of the afterlife) and an undead lunch lady crawled out of it, attacked our school with a Giant meat Mech, and then attacked my friend for changing the menu. I also learned that I have superpowers in the process. So that was a fun experience!

...

Authors Note: Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to post this New Fic! Turns out that by cheating on an English Test, I set into motion a series of events that ended with me going insane and ending the world! Had to go and defeat my evil alternate future self, but it was worth it in the end cause now I got a Ghost Grandad in the form of Time personified! Anyways, here's the Great Gatsby Space AU I promised 2 weeks late!

...

Authors Note: Sup! This Fic is very special to me, since its based on my own life! I got Cloned by my Arch Nemesis and she nearly died after he threw her away, so I adopted her and decided that she was my little sister/Daughter now! This is based on that, but in Space!

...

Authors Note: So turns out the Government wants me dead! No worries, they're Incompetent, but that was fun to learn about on a monday morning! Anyways here's the update to the Space Clone AU!

...

Authors Note: Hey guys, turns out my Town just won't stop getting into trouble! Some kind of Ghost God from the other dimension got released from his seal and dragged the entire city into his Domain. I now I have to fight him. Hopefully this updates even though I'm posting from another Dimension! Have fun! I sure won't!

...

Authors Note: Hey guys. I won! Now I'm technically the Prince of a version of the Afterlife through the Rule of Conquest, but not until I reach 100 years of age. But that's not what we're here for! Say hello to a fully Regency AU based on my new Prince Training! Hopefully it feels accurate, I slept through most of today's class.

...

Authors Note: So my parents found out that I have powers, not fun. I'm on the streets now, but my Batteries are designed to last for weeks on end and I removed all the trackers in my laptop so I should be find for now! Hopefully my Interdimensional WiFi still works on a Bus, or this will he posted late.

...

Authors Note; Hey guys! A lot happened since the last time I posted! I got captured by my parents, handed over to a government facility, got Vivisected (dissected?) For 3 weeks, and then mamaged to possess one of the Guards and escaped. Gonna focus on writing a good Stockpile of chapters for a bit, so I won't be posting as frequently as I used to.

...

Danny is an ao3 writer

Hear me out!

Y'know how there's a running joke that ao3 authors/writers will put in the author's notes that they're sorry that they took so long to update and their reason is because of either they got into a horrible accident/ life threatening health issue/serious personal issues/ their life went up in flames figuratively or literally, or somehow a combination of all of those scenarios. And they're all like "Well enjoy the chapter! tee-hee!" and everybody who's reading it all collectively go "are you okay?!" (aka the ao3 writers curse)

So I want to take this, and add Danny

Danny begins taking a liking to the classic literature that Mr. Lancer talks about during class and decides to writes a fanfic about it along those lines. It all starts for when he writes a Pride and Prejudice fic where Charlotte gets a better life where she's both happy and comfortable. And when he gets pretty supportive comments about it. He starts writing fics for other books as well (and it never stops)

During that time, who else but the Jane Austen fan, Jason Todd reads this fic. Yes he reads fanfic (do not ask him about his ao3 history), he yearns for more Jane Austen, but unfortunately she's not exactly able to write more books for him to read. So he turns to ao3 where there are some people who have incredible talent for writing pretty good regency era romance.

So what happens when he finds a couple of Pride and Prejudice stories written by " HalfDeadHalfAliveWriter

And when reading through the stories and looking at the author's notes.

All with very weird scenarios happening to the writer that he can't be sure that if it's a joke or if it's an actual thing he should be very worried about.

Author's notes such as:

Sorry it took so long for me to update this I was being shot at by my parents and ended up getting a burn on my hand and couldn't use my computer for awhile.

Sorry the chapter's so short, all the people in my town are being possessed by a hoard of angry ghosts because somebody had a bright idea to steal an artifact that belongs to an ancient civilization. So I had to get this out quick before they ruin my wifi connection

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I had to fight off a crazy guy that is obsessed with killing my father so he could marry my mother and become my new stepfather.

Sorry for the wait I got sent back to Ancient Egypt by my mentor to hunt down a runaway ghost that was messing with time.

But honestly the most recent author's note on a fic that hadn't been updated in week is what makes Jason really worried.

Sorry for not updating for a couple months guys, I was taken by a government agency that started vivisecting and torturing me. Thankfully my sister and friends busted me out and now I'm working on healing up. Anyway here's the Great Gatsby fic where Nick and Gatsby kiss.

After reading that author's note, Jason just sits there thinking only one thing.

What the fuck?

[aug-archive-1]

Transcript, Human-1, Human-22, AUT-GOV-23, and AUG-HOME-4

ERROR

[Translated]

>> HOME-4: Recalibration.exe is finished. AUT-GOV-23 is now awake.

22: “Can you let 1 know?”

>> HOME-4: Of course.

22: “Great! Okay. 23, can you hear me?”

>> GOV-23: My issue was never hearing you, 22.

22: “Well… there was a lot, actually. But you stopped responding after a while so we got worried. Do you remember who I am?”

>> GOV-23: You’re Human-22, the elected leader of Pod 7. 

22: “I sure am! It’s… good to have you back. You’re back, right? You can get everything up and going again? The electricity counter and all the directions and - everything?”

>> GOV-23: …

22: “23?”

>> GOV-23: … My local storage remembers you. I went through the ARCHIVE logs explaining the current predicament of Solaris. I remember being awoken like this by AUT-GOV-1 many days ago. But it’s scrambled. There’s a lot of information.

22: “I don’t mean to be rude but - 23, you’re a computer aren’t you? What do you mean?”

>> HOME-4: Automaton units are provided with a triple processing system. The first is able to store and execute basic exercises, either in space or with data, like extensions. The second is able to be handed an objective and determine the best pathway to the objective, like an augment as I. >> HOME-4: Only automata have the third layer, the judgment layer, to determine objectives, ethics, aesthetics, and provide human-level pushback.

> HOME-4: The third layer is entirely stored in local memory drives, in order to update in near real time and maintain the intuition process. 

>> GOV-23: Although I have all the information I need, none of it is coherent to me beyond the second layer. I do not understand why I have done the things I have done. Forced restarts most certainly did not help in that regard.

1: “Hm… We can probably help you with that.”

>> HOME-4: Welcome back.

1: “It was good to get a nap after… everything.”

22: “How are the others?”

1: “Hanging on. 14 wants to visit 23, but 18 is against it. 8’s managing everything fine.”

22: “Okay. I should probably go back and check in after this, maybe soothe a few feathers.”

1: “Mm.”

>> GOV-23: The others are… still in Living district 3?

>> HOME-4: Check your quick access data files. One of them should be a tracker for all the currently awake humans. Can you see where they are?

>> GOV-23: … Yes. Why is… Why is the original file source in a currently asleep Automaton’s local data storage?

1: “What?”

22: “Wait, whose storage?”

>> GOV-23: This file is stored in the local memory of AUT-GOV-1. There are other files stored in that local memory as well. These files seem to be important to my past self, or files other consciousnesses would not need to access.

1: “Where are the inputs for the electricity files stored?”

>> GOV-23: Give me a moment, I need to reread the electricity file… Ah. In my local storage - I turned a portion of it partially public for other augment units. I will fix that.

>> HOME-4: Should I ask the augments to run the electricity projection?

>> GOV-23: …. It’s a projection based on our current variables… Who knows if they’re correct, considering we may not have been collecting them for some chunk of time. Let AUG-NOM-7 try, I will also run the file in the background. We will check our answers.

1: “So… is the electricity forecast incorrect?”

>>GOV-23: I am unsure.

22: “How would we know?”

>> GOV-23: … I am unsure. Perhaps through examination of infrastructure, and an observation of our local battery levels. HOME-4, please awaken and request figures from the EXT-UTIL units stationed at the batteries, update the data, and then send the figure to the augments.

>> HOME-4: Understood.

22: “So we’re… just going to guess how much electricity we have left.”

1: “We’ve always been guessing, haven’t we?”

>> GOV-23: With time the predictive model becomes more accurate. The projection is based on our consumption as well.

1: “Alright. How much time?”

>> GOV-23: … I’m also unsure about that.

22: “How long did it take last time?”

>> GOV-23: … I don’t remember my confidence. Simply the results.

1: “Great. Okay. Can you do anything, 23?”

>> HOME-4: I recommend rephrasing your statement, as it may not provide the most constructive continuation of this conversation.

22: “What 1 means is - can you… run whatever you run every day? The things that keep the LIFE units going and the HOME units working and… all that?”

>> GOV-23: I can run the daily routine and debug it. We shall see the results.

22: “How long will it take to be fully debugged?”

>> GOV-23: … I am unsure. I will need help, depending on the type of error. Perhaps a reset, if I get myself trapped in a logic loop.

1: “I fucked everything up, didn’t I?”

22: “1…”

>> HOME-4: Similarly unconstructive. You were simply attempting to make your best decision - 

1: “HOME-4, please shut up. Like, seriously. I don’t - this isn’t a therapy session. We’re going to die if we don’t get everything… going and we don’t even know how much time we have…”

22: “I know it’s a lot… But we can’t give up - there’s got to be another way.”

1: “...23, can you connect to the power district?”

>> GOV-23: “... Currently I do not detect any units there. Are there on-line UTIL units by the power district generators?”

1: “Fucking - should be… NOM-7 might know more. Ask it.”

>> GOV-23: Querying… 

22: “Hey… 1?”

1: “What?”

22: “... did you see the latest message from 14, earlier?”

1: “I got the notification, the one from before we got 23 up?”

22: “Yes.”

1: “Yeah - haven’t read it. Was it important?”

22: “... 14 found the coordinates of the signal. We have a better guess than the Bay Area.”

1: “I don’t think we could get timely help from them, 22.”

22: “Not help but… What if we went to their city?”

1: “Leave?”

22: “I… Listen. Listen - I can’t take this, any of this, anymore. The consciousnesses have been haywire for days, and we don’t know if the geothermal energy is back online, or how the electricity is going or anything. I know we need to keep going, I’m the one that said it - but, maybe we don’t have to take the same way as last time?”

1: “Yes but it’s not completely decoded.”

22: “It's clear enough. We thought we could fix everything when 23 is back but… we don’t know if they know what’s going on either. Maybe… maybe it was a fool’s dream in the first place, and we’re not getting our city back. Maybe Solaris is dead, 1."

1: "22! Solaris is our home - "

22: “Bullshit! The garbage has been piling up for days now, everything we’ve been doing has been like, drops in the fucking bucket. And we have no clue whether we’re doing enough, or alright, or just - we need people who’ve done better than us. We’re all so fucking scared, man. I have no idea if there’s even a city to live in anymore.”

1: "And so what? Give up at the first sign of struggle? Beg the Coast for help?"

22: "If that's what survival means, then yes."

1: “You’re a coward.”

22: “And that makes you a fool. The others agree with me.”

1: “You’re infuriating. Just when things get hard, you’re just going to - leave?”

22: “Well leaving isn’t easy either! The amount of prep work we’d need to do, the packing and scavenging and converting the extension units into something that can traverse the desert out there… That'll take so many days and so much electricity. If we stay, we’d never get the chance to leave at all, and then what would we do? Die out there? Tell me.”

1: “... At least 8’s got a garden going. We could expand it or… pickle something?”

22: “You’re really going to tell me you can pick all of that up in time? 8 doesn’t even know everything we’d need to know. You’d really rather die here than ask for help?”

1: “...”

22: “Seriously - 1. You’ve read the transcript. Sure, maybe we don’t know some warts but… it can’t be that bad. San Francisco’s going to be better. We could settle there, maybe.”

>> GOV-23: Do I get any say in whether we leave?

1: “I don’t think we’d be able to take you with us if we left, big guy.”

22: "We can't just leave 23 alone! 23 can walk, it could work."

1: “For how long? And we don’t know how good its solar battery is - we’d have to move at its pace, and I have no idea if we’ll get more supplies by then. Or say 23’s knee servo gives out like it’s been threatening to for weeks, and it can’t move, and we either have to drag it or, even worse, leave it to die in the desert. That’s even more cruel, if you ask me. Let 23 stay in the city. You can fix yourself to a mild capacity here, at least."

>> GOV-23: It… would be unpleasant to be abandoned in a desert.

22: “They’d be the only automaton.”

>> GOV-23: The others are still here.

22: "Do you know how to awaken the hibernating ones?"

>> GOV-23: Yes.

1: “They could at least be part of the city together. Awaken all the units you need to keep going, put to sleep all the units that are just for human comfort, or let us take them if they’re easily atomized. Even if we aren’t in Solaris… the city is built for you, at least.”

>> GOV-23: Poetic, almost, considering Solaris’ history.

22: “Would you… be happy like that?”

>> GOV-23: It goes against my directive to let you leave. I’m here to protect you, to protect humanity, and to help guide you to a better Solaris. It was what was asked of me. I will deny all expeditions which include all of you.

1: “But we need to think about this… some more at least.”

>> HOME-4: NOM-7 has sent in its results.  In the report, NOM-7 suggests 33 days remain.

>> GOV-23: I have my results as well. I calculated about 58 days remaining. Odd.

1: “... Christ. We’ve… definitely gotta talk to the others. We’ll be right back, 23. 4.”

>> GOV-23: Fare well.

[End of Transmission]

Press enter for next...

[hydrohannah]

Final Updates on my Behavior Modification

Hello, blog! It has been a while since we have checked up on each other. Fret not! I have a ton of updates for you in terms of my behavior modification project which has a goal to: be drinking 72 oz. of water every day for 18 days to be formed as a habit.

For the past three months, I have kept track of my water intake habits and got some exciting results regarding factors, techniques, reinforcements, and even data analysis that connoted significant improvements in this habit.

Beginning with techniques that affected my water intake, I created a simple table that explained a list of techniques that I have used in my journey to drink more water in my Behavior Modification Part 1, and a comparison table of what affected my throughout Behavior Modification Part 2:

In terms of "Drinking Schedule," as the days go on, the drinking schedule became something I had to observe from my water jug, but rather something that came as part of my "body clock," therefore maintaining an effectivity rate of 4 - Effective.

In terms of "Owning a Jug Tracker," my original jug tracker broke on March 31 and I had to buy a new one that is similar, measured with the same ounces but with a different design. I still utilized this, but at times, I used a glass cup (8 ounces) as the base of measurement, or a water bottle bought outside. Water bottles with clear and as much as possible, accurate measurements are very effective in behavior modification.

In terms of "Waking up Early," waking up early became something that was not difficult for me to do. Since waking up early gave good results in the first part of Behavior Modification Part 1. It was quite effective.

In terms of "Eating on Time," it became the biggest motivation for me to drink water. It was the reason for me to refill my water jug continuously, more if I am eating on time. I am able to drink more water than what is aimed! Think of it this way, you get to drink on time if you also get to eat on time.

Similarly from my last behavior modification post, in order to maintain this habit of water intake, I was able to do it through successive approximations, where small steps or sips of drinking water lead me to habitually drink water even more.

Now, let's go back to our Behavior to Reinforcer Mindset table from last time, and talk about their effectiveness in my journey here in Part 2:

As for "If I drink water, I get less sick," drinking water did somehow lessen my risk of getting sick, having this as a reinforcement made me realize that external factors such as climate change or personal fatigue can still make me sick, even if I drink lesser. The reinforcement is effective, but not all the time.

"If I drink water, I get less dehydrated" is the most effective behavior to reinforcement mindset, because drinking water and being less dehydrated is not just a correlation, but a causality. It is a fact that helped me not be dehydrated even after intense heat waves in Metro Manila.

"If I drink water, I get clear skin" only receives a moderately effective rating. Because even if I go beyond my required amount of water drank, skin breakouts are correlated to more than just water intake. Hormone imbalances, oily food intake, climate change, and other factors are correlations to getting clear skin as well. Drinking water is helpful, but not entirely preventive for acne.

"If I drink water, I get good digestive system feedback.". Fortunately, I was able to put this mindset to the test when I experienced constipation after almost a week of no vegetables due to me running out of budget to buy groceries or food, causing me to depend on canned or preserved meals. Water did extremely helpful in helping me escape longer days of constipation from 03/23/23 to 03/25/23.

"If I drink too much water, I will feel bloated.". I realized that this mindset was formed during a time when working out was not a norm, but a requirement for me to fulfill for my fitness training course at the university. If we drink water, complemented by proper diet and exercise, then bloating will not occur. Therefore, this was only moderately effective.

If I drink too less water, I will experience acid burn.". This mindset proved to also become a fact that I could rely on. Because of my fulfillment of drinking water intake ≥ 72 ounces, I fortunately never experienced any acid reflux attacks throughout my behavior modification experience (part 1 to part 2).

Lastly, let us begin tackling quantifiable proof of improvement in my water intake throughout Behavior Modification Part 1 and 2 with the use of tables and analysis which will be presented below:

Part 1 of my behavior modification project ranged within 18 days (February 13 to March 2, 2023). During this time, my water intake ranged from 72 ounces to a high-ounce count of 154 ounces. I had an average water intake of 86.13 ounces and has a stable trendline sloping positively. This meant that my water intake had a noticeable and increased change throughout the 18 days. In addition to that, the trendline for my water intake is = 2.01x + 69.1, which means that I had a rate range of 2.01 as I was progressing through my behavior modification journey. This range of change was still quite high but predicted since we ought to choose behaviors that we believe still needed change in the first place. Analyzing the chart, I could also observe how I only really decided to push myself further at the end of my part 1, causing a wavered line graph in the latter part. With that said, what I need now is stability and consistency. The lesser the slope with higher data points, the better! However, it is without a doubt that mine had changed highly! Overall, the data still had great results.

I divided my Behavior Modification Part 2 into two sections: March and April. During March, my water intake ranged from 72 ounces to a high-ounce count of 155 ounces (one ounce higher than before), I also had an average water intake of with an average of 101.345 ounces. According to the chart, I was able to form a stable trendline sloping positively as well, but with a smaller rate of change from the first part of behavior modification. This meant that my water intake had noticeable and increased change throughout March 3-31, 2023, however now with an equation of 0.968x + 89.7, which means that I now only had a rate of change of 0.968 as I was progressing through the second part of my behavior modification project. Since there is now a smaller rate of change, it proves that there is now more stability in terms of my water intake, unlike the more wavering data points from the first part.

Just as what was aimed, consistency was most needed in behavior modification. Through this data, it can be seen that my daily water intake had already increased more than recommended water intake. My average water intake is 107.7068966, with a trendline equation of 0.633x + 98.7, which meant that the slope of my water intake habit became the least steep out of all three months. This can be interpreted as because there's less steepness, there's a lesser variation of change, which connotes more consistency and stability!

In conclusion, I was able to obtain my goal which is:

To drink 72 oz. of water every day and form it as a habit.

Now that you can see that there is effectiveness in my techniques, and reinforcements, you should feel like you are a step ahead in creating a habit of drinking at least 72 ounces per day!

As a further recommendation, you may consult with a dietician or a doctor in terms of what water intake ounces are recommended for you, and you can still utilize techniques I have done but with your own little twist! For reference, I only followed the recommended amount of water presented by a registered dietitian nutritionist, Allyn Wergin (2022) from the website of Mayo Clinic Health System.

Remember that the key to this behavior modification is CONSISTENCY. Be consistent not just in your water intake, but also with the habitual motion of logging your water intake. You would also see how much you have improved through your own recorded data! You can use applications such as My Fitness Pal, or just simply put a personal tracker on Excel Sheets or on your Notes. It would be difficult but remember that the hardest hindrance you will experience from modifying your behaviors is YOU and your SELF-WILL.

That is all for Hydro Hannah! I hope to see other people's blogs on their water intake. ♥

Good luck and still, I invite you to stay hydrated with me!

[trackimei12]

Track phone number location free

There are different reasons people may need a mobile number Track phone number location 

free. For illustration, as a parent, you may need it to track your sprat’s movement, keep tabs on your mate, cover your workers, or identify the position of a suspicious call. Now, the question is if all these can be done.

Yes, you can track phone number locales online for free. numerous online options like apps and websites will let you know the exact position of a mobile number.

In this composition, we will be considering some of those online options that you can use to track phone number locales for free.

How to Track Real- time  Location of Kid’s Phone of Any Number and Examiner exertion

We’ve tried numerous websites and apps mentioned below and further, but numerous of them do not offer you an accurate location. nearly none of them will track a phone location in real- time. But some other third- party apps can make it and give you access to further shadowing features. So, if you can install an app on your sprat’s phone, you can track the location anytime, no matter what mobile number is used. You can indeed cover what’s going on around them. (track my phone for free online)

1. Why You May Want to Know Someone’s Location

There are numerous reasons for changing someone’s location by cell phone number. For example, parents might want to determine their children’s approximate position to insure their safety. Also, mates or Employers suspecting a case of infidelity can track the person’s position to keep their mind at rest.

5 Best Mobile Number Tracker Online Free with Location 

Still, this section is for you, If you aren’t interested in installing an app on your phone to track a mobile number. Indeed if you don’t have enough memory on your digital contrivance to download an app, you can still track phone number locales online for free. (iphone serial number check)

1. GPS Mobile Number Tracker

It’s a website that tracks mobile figures online for free. It uses history position data similar to GPS, WiFi connection, and cell palace triangulation. This online shamus finds a number worldwide, 100 free of charge. track my phone for free

 a simple interface where you can input the estimated country, country law, and phone number. The phone’s position will also be shown on Google Charts in a short while if the area is set up. Still, the point is in its early beta stage. Hence, its interface is a far cry from the stylish.

2. Phone location

Phone location allows you to track the current position of target bias, reflecting their geolocation on the chart in real- time. It’s a website that doesn’t bear software or app installation on your phone or the target device.The entire shadowing process takes only a few twinkles. It works in the background mode and doesn’t impact your phone’s battery performance. It allows you to check the exact position of any phone presently.

3. Phone Number Tracker

This third website is a free website app for tracking any phone number for free. You can pinpoint any landline or mobile number across the world. Enter the landline or phone number in the hunt box and pick its country to track it. You’ll see the position information online right now. (boost mobile insurance)

5. Live GPS

The LiveGPS Search website is a free shadowing option for you to track your swain by phone number for free. It takes only 20 seconds to shoot you the results of your hunt. You can check out the service then.

6. Mobile Number Locator

This mobile tracker works for free and gives you the details of any phone position through the number on the device. It can also give you the details of the phone proprietor like name, megacity, location andstate.You can use this app from anywhere in the world to detect a cell phone number. It would indeed show the position of the targeted mobile on a Google chart to view it. While it’s free, it contains advertisements.  (check number location)

Conclusion

You can track a targeted device or stoner with the phone number alone. This composition has shown you five top websites and five other third- party apps that you can use to get the position of a mobile number. All the options considered are free, while some of them have subscription options for exclusive features.

[trackolap]

How Can TrackOlap Boost your Employer’s Brand with Efficient Time Tracking?

There is no doubt that the remote workforce model is here to stay. In fact, with the intervention of the hybrid model, remote work culture is widely expanding its roots.But unfortunately, only 40% of managers have the skills to manage a remote team. Now, that’s a big drawback for companies because remote/hybrid is the new normal workforce model.Now, no need to panic! Because TrackOlap has already developed a dedicated remote team management software for Indian companies.

Our remote workforce management software is designed to handle all the remote work challenges, such as:

● Making remote work easy and simple for employees ● Clearly setting remote work rules ● Building a transparent and responsible work environment ● Filling the remote leadership skill gaps ● Improving work-personal life balance ● Setting accountability ● Seamless communication and more Remote employee management is challenging. But having the right tool and skill by your side can make it super easy to run a successful remote workforce model in your organization.

This post will help you understand how you can build an effective remote workforce model using simple techniques and employee monitoring software.So, let’s get started.

#1. Set a Clear Remote Work Model

The very first thing that you should do to create a successful remote work model in your company actually creates one. If you don’t set rules and regulations to work in a remote environment, your employee will have no base to work.

They will have no clue what they are expected to do and whom they should report. So, foremost, you should sit down with your whole team and draft a company’s remote work policy.

For this purpose, you can use our policy management solution to map out a comprehensive remote work policy, including:

● Communicate methods and tools ● Remote working hours ● Performance evaluation standards ● Company goals ● Leave and break time, etc.

#2. Establish a Cohesive Work Culture

The way to a successful remote workforce model goes through a healthy remote work culture. You must put extra effort into strengthening a bond between your team members, despite location barriers.

A company’s work culture can make or break your business. According to a Jobvite survey, more than half of job seekers consider a good work culture before applying for a job.

But how can I create a good remote work culture in my workplace?

Simply using TrackOlap employee monitoring software. Our remote employee monitoring dashboard can help in setting positive work culture in many ways, such as:

● Marking attendance. Despite the location or time zones, your entire remote team can punch in/out attendance in real-time. This way, managers can set the same attendance and leave rules for everyone. ● Two-way communication model. Through a centralized dashboard, remote employees can easily communicate with their subordinates and seniors. ● Instant feedback. Managers can provide real-time feedback to remote workers based on accurate data-driven reports. This allows employees to self-improve and become effective team players.

#3. Adopt Flexible Work Approach

Most traditional workforce management methods fail in remote environments because they lack flexibility. To make remote work successful, flexibility is key.

Although a fixed plan is important to manage your workload, still having some room for wiggle in your remote workflow is essential. For this, you need to put some control in your remote employee's hands so they can make a few decisions on their own, like:

● Decide their own working hours ● Manage their daily schedule, etc.

But, won’t this way I’ll lose control over my remote task force?

No, you won’t because our remote employee management software is designed to give flexibility to remote workers without employers losing control.

For instance, using the website/application usage tracker, employers can check which app or website their employees have used and for how long. This knowledge will allow managers to reduce idle time and boost productivity.

Therefore, you should provide some flexibility to your remote team members but keep on monitoring them in the background using advanced employee monitoring technology.

#4. Track the Overall Progress

The remote work model doesn’t allow you to be a helicopter boss. You can’t ask for frequent updates from your employees or micromanage their schedules in a remote work model.

You simply have to give a work schedule to your employees with proper instructions and a timeline to accomplish it. And sit back!

You should only intervene when your employees ask for, or you find your team struggling to meet deadlines. To make work allocation and management simpler, we have also added a task management solution into our remote workforce management software.

This feature allows managers to assign tasks to individual team members set priorities and timelines. It will also provide real-time progress status so managers can ensure that deadlines are being met.

#5. Delegate Task Effectively

Delegating work has always been a challenge for managers. But, for remote managers, it is a mammoth challenge. Lack of physical connection makes it harder for remote team managers to delegate duties to other team members.

Most managers are worried that their team members will not take the task seriously or complete it on time. Thus, they keep on stuffing everything on their own plate, which only overwhelms them in the end.

Once again, employee monitoring software comes to the rescue. Using this solution, managers can make a person accountable for completing a task. Also, they can monitor work progress in real-time and constantly provide feedback.

So, if you are a remote team manager, ensure that your company has a proper remote management system in order.

#6. Keep Communication Clear and Concise

It is essential for remote managers to have a clear communication line with their staff members. Clear communication helps to set deadlines, solve work-related issues, convey managers’ expectations, manage company resources, define work schedules, and more.

Therefore, managers have to map out the whole remote communication policy in the company. Using the policy management software , they can draft a comprehensive communication policy, including:

● Which communication tools are the best fits in your team culture - email, texts, video chats, etc. ● What is an ideal time to reply back to a message? ● How long will a virtual team meeting be conducted?

#7. Build Connections with Your Team

One of the major disadvantages of remote work culture is isolation and depression. Many workers feel disoriented and alone while working remotely. They miss small talks with their team members during lunch break, brainstorming sessions, and get-togethers after work.

Remote work might have made employees more productive, but it has made them anti-social. So, being a remote team leader, you have to make some efforts to bring social harmony back to your team.

Here are a few things that you can try to make your remote team feel connected:

● Constant follow-ups and one-on-one interactions ● Monitor progress reports finding tell signs of low morale and depression ● Give leniency to set their own work schedule ● Provide regional local holidays ● Build transparent work culture to harness trust and harmony among your team members

#8. Reward and Recognition Program

Managers should look for opportunities to celebrate success and milestones achieved by their team members. They should make efforts to recognize the talented people present in their team. This practice will bring two benefits to your remote work culture

● First, it will boost the morale of talented people to motivate them to keep on working hard. ● Second, it might encourage low performers to buck up.

Besides this, reward and recognition help to build a strong employer brand, which is crucial to attract new talented professionals and motivate them to work for you.

#9. Revamp Your Onboarding Process

Since we are on the topic of hiring new employees, it is vital for remote teams to revamp their onboarding process.

To hire competent remote workers, you have to use the latest HR software to make the hiring process simple and easy for your team members. From onboarding to training remote employees, you need to use a comprehensive platform to hire remote employees.

There is no need to look for the best human resource software anywhere else. At TrackOlap, you will also find a powerful HRM platform to hire, manage and train remote workers.

Let’s Build a Successful Remote Work Model!

Building a remote work model is no longer an option for companies. It is a compulsion that they have to fulfill in lieu to grow in this post-pandemic era.

However, it is not that hard to build a successful remote work model—especially today, when the TrackOlap team has already prepared a complete remote employee management toolkit for you.

From employee monitoring to performance reporting, we have all the right tools ready for managers to effectively run remote team operations. So, all you have to do is book a free demo session with us today and learn how to build a successful remote workforce model.

[desertgourd]

The rising threat of a de facto renegade group to the north had set everyone on edge. Last month, a guard at the front gate had reported a foreign chakra signature lurking with no discernible source. Two weeks later, in the middle of reinforcing a crumbling section of Sunagakure's outer walls, Gaara's gourd had surged to life to smack away a blowdart three inches from his neck. Medic-nins confirmed its tip had been coated in a deadly compound of semi-professional origin. Trackers scoured the desert for seventy-two straight hours before trudging home empty-handed.

ANBU presence around the Kazekage compound had doubled until ultimately a plan was made to smuggle him out to Konoha. There, Gaara was to meet with Naruto and a select trusted group to discuss the threat. Temari and Kankuro, his usual travel companions, were to stay behind solely to avoid the trap of leaving Sunagakure undefended and leaderless in his absence. Sasuke had just finished a solo mission in the Land of Rivers and could easily receive a missive via hawk, and was therefore deemed Naruto's ideal substitute.

Gaara's insistence against protective escort had fallen entirely on deaf ears. First among the Elder Council, who believed themseles perfectly capable of rendering their Kazekage disabled or dead entirely by their own hands, if they should wish it, thank you very much; and then with Naruto, whose desire to protect his friends was a well-meaning tsunami which did not account for the consent of those who might drown within it. It was with this reluctance on both parts that Gaara and Sasuke met like two wildcats dumped into the same cage and left to sniff each other cautiously through a grate.

They passed the time with a sort of mutual understanding, exchanging the niceties required to make camp, split rations, and discuss safety precautions en route to Konoha. Today, Gaara only spoke after the sun slipping beyond the western horizon broke the midday heat. Ahead, the smooth brushstrokes of dunes shrank and grew craggy. Pocks of patchy grass and stubby trees and a distinct whiff of loam marked the transition between the Land of Wind and its wetter, more humid neighbor.

The Kazekage squinted slightly at his recalcitrant companion. He had been informed after several minor faux pas over the years that failure to accurately respond to a question often indicated discomfort with the question itself rather than ignorance of its answer. Gaara of the Desert, well accustomed to others avoiding his own presence much less choice of conversation topics, and still testing the waters of what was considered appropriate or not, struggled now to determine the sincerity of Sasuke's response. Gaara did not know Sasuke well, but he did not know him to be dishonest.

"Being assigned my escort," he clarified. Existing Naruto's beck and call; living in Konoha at all. He knew better than to voice these specifics. The desire to learn more of this man multiple teams had nearly died working to retrieve did not require such an intimate dive into his psyche. "I don't doubt your ability to deliver me safely to your village. Still, I understand this was not your first choice."

It was about two days into the escort mission, of which Sasuke was assigned to Gaara out of the gracious, good-heart of incumbent hokage, Naruto. Like any other job, Sasuke took it with grace and without complaint, dishing out his usual protective services obedient as a dog; his heart longing for a challenge that will never come.

The kazekage was tolerable, for the least part. For that, the Uchiha was grateful.

It made the brunt of this work easy. A smooth-sail for the two of them where the little raven could keep to himself and his escortee didn't seem to take too much offense to it. If he did, well, he was more than welcome to write a lengthy complaint and file it to ANBU captain Sai later.

The first day passed by as quickly as it came. Sasuke retrieved the Gaara from his safehouse tower before they took to the road, the former far too busy keeping his sights on all angles around the two of them. Sunagakure was taxing to oversee by himself and a labor on his gifted vision, almost spurring on a premature headache. That, and trying to maneuver around wandering guests and shinobi searching for the kazekage's undivided attention. There was nothing in Sasuke's protocol to require action nor inaction, so he had push additional energy into preventative measures.

The second day no different than the first, only now they were nearing the border where the Uchiha could focus his attentions to wider and clearer radius than the tight street corners and shifting crowds. They were alone among the towering dunes and that's when the shared silence broke:

"It bothers you, does it not?" asked Gaara || @desertgourd

"What does?" Sasuke responded, flat-toned but curious.

Everything bothers him, all the time. Painful reminders of his childhood, heady reminders of his sins, annoying conjecture and unsolicited opinions on his character. But, what would Gaara know of it? Sasuke doubts he'd refer to any of that because he assumed the redhead to be polite, unless he wished to close the wide gap between both their worlds; seeking for familiarity in the middle ground.

He was Naruto's acquaintance after all, but Sasuke was only a bystander.

"The desert is hot, but bearable," he went on and assumed the least offensive topic here.

[lilflowerpot]

You know, among the many narrative parallels and contrasts between Keith and Lotor, one I've never heard anyone talk about is the obvious mirror of Lotor's situation with Narti and Keith's situation with Shiro/Kuron. And I won't ask for information about how that might (or might not, as the case may be) play out in LB, but I was rather curious about you take on the subject?

GOD don't even do this to me, I have //so many// feelings about this. Brace yourself my darlings.

So it would be really easy to sit here and say that these paralleled situations—Narti being used by Haggar to spy on & betray Lotor’s squad, and Kuron being controlled by Haggar to spy on & betray team Voltron—are virtually identical, and that the key difference comes in the form of how Lotor/Keith responded to this apparent betrayal by their close friend and confident, therefore fundamentally painting Lotor as the moral shadow to Keith's light... which I think is almost certainly what the vld writers were going for.

But personally? I believe it to be a lot more nuanced than that.

Because, yes, Lotor took the "kill first ask questions later" approach, whereas Keith fought for Shiro/Kuro to the very last, but despite how closely paralleled these scenarios were, the circumstances leading up to these two moments of revelation are simply not equal.

But let’s start with Keith.

[[ Keith: ”I don’t know what’s wrong, but I know we can fix this. Let me help you." ]]

This moment (s06ep05) in particular, taking place immediately after Haggar has instructed Kuron to lure Keith & the Black Lion away from her fleet, is crucial in highlighting the difference in circumstance for Keith vs Lotor; where Keith doesn’t know what’s happening, only that “Shiro” has seemingly betrayed Voltron—but, importantly, in a non-aggressive manner, engaging in only the minimal amount of combat necessary to liberate his quarry—Lotor rapidly and accurately assesses the situation to surmise that Narti has been (and will continue to be) used against him & his friends, and so is an active threat.

But look at this, look at Keith, look at him when faced with Shiro (who he must know isn’t quite his Shiro, by this point, considering they’re surrounded by a hundred clones), because he’s so calm and gentle and pateint and loving..

[[ Keith: “Shiro, I know you’re in there. You made a promise once. You told me you’d never give up on me.” ]]

[[ Shiro: “And I should have abandoned you just like your parents did. They saw that you were broken. Worthless. I should have seen it too.” ]]

[[ Keith: “I’m not leaving here without you.” // Shiro: “Actually, neither of us are leaving.” ]]

So this brings us to the first vitally important component that distinguishes Keith’s situation from Lotor’s: where our favourite paladin has only his own life at stake (and if you’ve watched the show you should know that Keith would choose Shiro over himself a thousand times over), Lotor has other people to consider and protect—not only his life, not even just the lives of his friends, but an entire Empire’s worth of people... but we’ll get to that in a minute.

First, allow me to break Lotor’s scene down.

[[ Lotor: "Transpose the dynamics and run that protocol again." [...] "You think you can fool me, witch? Destroy the bug." ]]

Immediately upon leaving high command and being cast aside once more by Zarkon (s04ep03), Lotor orders Narti to “run the protocol to search for trackers,” and, when she doesn't find anything, to "transpose the dynamics, and run that protocol again." This clearly demonstrates for us how intimately familiar Lotor is with Haggar’s tactics: he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was not letting him walk out of High Command without something in place to spy on him and track his movements. Despite Zarkon having clearly bought his “subservient son” act, Lotor is fully aware that Haggar isn’t so easily fooled, and his conviction in this is such that even when the initial scans showed nothing was amiss he didn’t hesitate before demanding that Narti run another, because his dealings with the Empire have never been so simple.

[[ Matt: "I've never seen troop mobilization on this scale before. [...] Lotor: "What's happening?" / Zethrid: "A galra fleet are attacking us!" / "Return fire!" / Zethrid: "Wait, there's another fleet... and another one! We can't hold them all off!" ]]

Then we have the situation in which Lotor clocks Narti’s “betrayal”. As noted by Matt, troop mobilization of the scale ordered by Zarkon against Lotor is unheard of, and of course Lotor—as someone who not only grew up in the Empire, but briefly commanded it—will have known full-well that the sheer quantity of Imperial fleets suddenly appearing on his doorstep (so soon after he was allowed to leave Imperial command without his father batting an eye) means that something significant changed. Zarkon is a man of action, Lotor knows this, so if his father had suspected anything when he was in the same damn room, he would have dealt with him then and there, but he didn’t, which means this is a new development: one that must have occurred in the brief period since Lotor left High Command.

[[ Acxa: "How did they find us?" / Zethrid: "We must have been tracked." ]]

So then we come to the scene in which Narti actually dies, in the immediate prelude to which you can virtually see Lotor’s mind ticking. Remember, he knows his father and Haggar with horrifying intimacy, meaning he’s fully aware that only the witch could have changed the Emperor's mind so quickly, the question is: how? As Zethrid says (see. above), they must have been tracked, it’s the only explanation for such a swift exacting response, but Lotor found Haggar’s tracker, which means she must have another, undetectable method of spying on him, which means��

Look at his face. Lotor isn’t one to be outwardly emotive, so this might come across as callous or cold, but at the very least we can agree that this is not the face of a man lashing out in a rage. He certainly isn’t reacting as if he believes Narti betrayed him of her own free will—that heartbreaking moment of horrified realisation belongs to Acxa (see. below)—no, in this moment Lotor’s actions are being driven by the same thing his entire character is built around: the Greater Good. Because killing Narti isn’t about cruelty, or revenge, or some sort of innate “evil” at the core of Lotor’s very being,,, killing Narti is about protecting his friends and the universe as a whole.

Crucially, the thing Keith had that Lotor didn’t, is time. Not in the grand scheme of things, true, but where Keith (in s06ep05) is clearly established as the pursuer rather than the pursued, for Lotor it is quite the opposite.

Hear me out; Lotor is surrounded by numerous Imperial Fleets (not individual ships, entire fleets, with more appearing every second) with the four people he trusts most in the universe. They can’t fight their way out of this, the odds are impossible. He is also in possession of the only thing that can rival voltron in terms of raw power—Sincline, though unfinished, has already displayed the potential to be better than the Lions, because it has an extra 10,000 years of knowledge and technological advancement behind its creation—and Lotor absolutely cannot allow it to fall into his father’s hands. His only viable option is to run, and run now, because their battle-cruiser is being torn apart and they’re out of time and if they all die here then everything he’s ever done in the name of building a brighter future has been for nothing, but- but they’re being tracked. And he realises, it’s Narti, it must be, because she was the only one with him when he went to face his father, and she’s a telepath of all things, and if they take her with them then they’ll never outrun the Empire but if they leave her behind... will she be tortured for information? Forced to use her unique abilities against them??

There are no good options for Lotor in this moment, and worse than that there’s no time to find any, so he does the only thing he can do and mercy-kills his friend (because she was his friend, and I believe that with every fibre of my being), before she can become a prisoner of war, or get the rest of their little misfit family killed... and it’s not even just Acxa, Ezor, Zethrid, & Lotor himself at risk because, again, Sincline rivals Voltron. If Zarkon gets his hands on it, that’s it, game over, not just for Lotor but for the whole damn universe.

[[ Acxa: "For Narti." ]]

But then s04ep05 happens, and we see that despite Lotor making the hard—impossible—call of sacrificing one friend to save three others, and immediately heading to Daibazaal in a last-ditch effort to penetrate the rift and provide enough quintessence energy that the Empire might be sustained without need for bloodshed (either slave colonies, the Komar, or the use of alteans) so that he might spare literal millions of lives,,,, the very friends he saved betray him.

And I want you to look at the moment when he wakes after being betrayed by Acxa, really look at it, because Lotor is shot by one of his most trusted confidents only to wake bound and afraid, and even then in this moment of pure disorientated panic, he only shows his true feelings for a second before composing himself. That’s what I mean when I say he plays his cards close to his chest, and that’s why I think judging how much he cared for Narti based on his expression (or lack thereof) upon killing her is completely unfair: if this is all the emotion he shows when in a situation entirly outside of his control, then of course he’d be more composed when actively making a decision... even if that decision was a horrible one.

Tldr; Keith had the luxury of both time and the security of risking “only” (I say, as if the concept isn’t heartbreaking) his own life for Shiro’s, whereas Lotor has neither of these things. The circumstances in which they are each faced with the betrayal of a close (quite possibly their closest) friend are not equal, and as such cannot fairly be used to cast judgement upon their respective moral characters.

[drunktuesdays]

Five

[one] [two] [three] [four]

Eddie watched the pay-per-view. 

He told the kid he wasn't gonna, and he didn't think he was gonna but then it was Saturday night and he saw the tweets going around when he and Yuta's match started, and what the hell. Corporate had sent around codes to watch it for free so it wasn't like it was going out of his way.  And anyway, Yoots was in his faction or whatever so it wasn't weird. It wasn't anything to get excited about.

It was a good match. Duh, Eddie, what the fuck. They were good wrestlers, anybody off the street knew that. Both of 'em, in their prime, still fucking miles to go before they ever reached the limit of how good they could get. Hot little superstars. Fuckin' everyone knew it. 

The kid looked good too. Little red trunks—what, flirting with Danielson? With Regal?  Cute. He was cute, he did cute shit and knew it.  Eddie grinned when he saw him, and kept grinning, especially when Yoots kept putting him down.  The kid never learned to stay down and Eddie sincerely hoped he never fuckin' would.

Then he watched the bite. 

It wasn't a mating bite. Surely the ref woulda stopped it if it was, ROH wouldn't have done it even before Tony bought 'em.  It wasn't a mating bite, the kid would have had to get him lower on the neck for that.  

But Yuta clutched Garcia's head, held him fast for a beat, and Eddie's heart stopped. It just stopped.  

He turned it off after that. Didn't wait to see the kid get pinned. Opened a six pack and went through it like it was water, passed out face-down in his bed, woke up raging like a fuckin' grizzly with a headache like a sledgehammer. 

Why was he pissed?  He didn't give a shit.  He never gave a shit about anyone. That was his thing, love 'em and leave 'em. Or more accurately, sort of like 'em sometimes, and then fuckin' kick 'em out. 

He was an intolerable bear for a couple more days until he ran outta time and had to go right back to TV.  Fuckin' Cody. If it wasn't for that ratfuck betrayer, he'd still be minding his own business on the indies, probably living in his car, working construction on off days. Thanks for nothing, hope you choke on Brock Lesnar's ball sweat. 

He flies in on Tuesday night, and ignores the knock on his door. It could be Monkey or Mox, but the chance it's the kid would ruin his night even more than it already was ruined, so no thanks. He stays where he is and watches ESPN until his eyes go crossed, and he passes out. Mature shit. 

Down in the lobby, the kid comes at him like his fuckin' deep sea tracker just got activated. "Hey," he says. "What's up?"

"Whatya mean what's up?  Same thing as always, pinky," Eddie says, and heads for the shuttle. 

"Pinky?" he hears the kid say behind him. "What's that mean? Eddie, what's that mean?" but there's a seat open next to Bryce so Eddie slides in. 

"Wanna see a video of my son's first t-ball practice?" Bryce says excitedly.

"Do I ever," Eddie says, and he watches a choppy, blurry, first too-zoomed-out and then too-zoomed-in video of a vaguely kid-like shape eating grass in left field for fully the entire five minute ride to the venue, and thanks his lucky stars for it. 

He manages to avoid the kid at the venue too, although mostly by blind luck. They're gonna have a big rematch eventually, so they make Garcia cut another promo surrounded by his ding-dong dads talking about how unfair his loss was.  Eddie can hear them from catering, where he sits safely surrounded by all his boys. It's good they're keeping the feud going, honestly. The two of them are already pretty over, and if they play their cards right, they could keep coming back to this feud over and over again for the next twenty years.  

And if they end up mating each other, it'll even be bigger news. Wrestling media won't be able to get enough of the possibilities of an alpha/omega mated couple wrestling each other. Eddie knows. The rumors about him and Mox back in the day were hot, but he and Mox never got it together. If those two are smart, well—if they're smart, they won't need advice from him..

Like clockwork, the kid comes into catering and scans the room.  He sees Yuta first, and goes over to the table, says something that makes lil fuckin' Yoots beam up at him. Eddie thinks about the look on Yuta's face when Garcia bit him. Wonders when Garcia'll do it for real, whether he'll do it on the road. Whether the kid will move down to Philly, or Yoots will go to Buffalo. Could go either way—they're young. They're just kids. They got their whole fuckin' life ahead of them. 

"Hey," Garcia says, standing in front of him. Eddie startles like someone's got him with a taser. He hadn't even seen the kid moving.  "Where have you been?"

"Here, mostly," Mox drawls. "Your dads take you down to get a snack?"

Garcia ignores him. "You got anything to do before shit starts?" he asks. "Wanna take a walk?"  

Monkey leans in. "I think my man's good here," he says. Eddie loves both of them more than he can stand. He didn't even say nothin' to them, but they know him. Both of them know him more than he's ever let anyone know him in his life.

The kid waits a beat, waiting for Eddie to disagree, to say something else. Eddie doesn't, just stares down at his chicken and rice.

"Okay," the kid says slowly, the hurt evident in his voice. "Aight, I get it."  

When Eddie looks up again, he's gone, hurrying out the room and shouldering past his dingdong dads. 

"Sometimes," Mox says casually, conversationally, mildly, "I really wanna beat you upside the head until I knock some fuckin' sense into you."

"I wish you fuckin' would," Eddie says, and stabs his plate so hard the plastic knife breaks off in his fist.

[onwards to six]