#'well it's all a computer system run by god so it's like deleting a program'

[exoflash]

the only thing that irritates me as badly as new agers is western christians trying to explain away the spiritual with pseudoscience

[captain-acab]

I posted 3,647 times in 2021

15 posts created (0%)

3632 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 242.1 posts.

I added 93 tags in 2021

#on a steel horse i write - 20 posts

#mine - 14 posts

#boost - 13 posts

#writing - 8 posts

#piracy - 8 posts

#capitalism - 7 posts

#writing advice - 7 posts

#photoshop - 7 posts

#writing reference - 5 posts

#scifi - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i understand you're waiting for la revolucion to come. well when it does send me a tweet about it. in the meantime i'll just be here actual

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Do you have a cracked file link for Adobe softwares? Or do you know any? Thanks!

Hell yeah I do.

Here's the deal: I think Tumblr's still blocking posts with external links from search results, and if I'm going to write a how-to, I want people to be able to find it. So I'm actually going to link you to a new post I just wrote. If you find this helpful, please reblog both of these.

HERE'S MY POST ON DOWNLOADING ADOBE CC FREE.

(If that link breaks for some reason, it's just my tumblr + "/post/655796038047825920/")

Happy pirating!

155 notes • Posted 2021-07-04 16:26:03 GMT

#4

Sapkowski's Witcher books: humans are violent, paranoid xenophobes who readily scapegoat and massacre anyone they deem "nonhuman" enough, including the witchers they had established to protect them

Netflix's Nightmare of the Wolf: actually the witchers are a cabal of money-grubbing, child-murdering evildoers who use unnatural black magic to create monsters and fabricate the conflicts that line their own pockets. Tetra was objectively justified in exterminating the witchers of Kaer Morhen. There is definitely nothing troubling about this characterization

243 notes • Posted 2021-08-29 18:24:43 GMT

#3

PIRATING ADOBE CC MASTERPOST

I was about to make this one of those posts that say, "Hey everyone, WATCH OUT, there's some ILLEGAL PIRATED Adobe software that you should definitely AVOID. Here's the link so you know what to look out for, because you wouldn't want to get stuff FREE by MISTAKE"... and then I realized, if Adobe actually wanted to come after me for copyright shit (which they don't), their lawyers don't fucking care if I did it with a coy wink and a nudge.

So fuck em.

Fucking steal that shit. It's a moral imperative.

(And if you don't want to for personal reasons, or because you're a business and they will come after you, you can get Adobe CS2 free legally, or any of these decent free alternatives.)

But if you want the real CC, read on!

The crack:

god I sound like a drug dealer now

I use the 2019 CC cracks made by Zer0Cod3, who was taken down almost immediately after, but this mirror site still works as of July 2021: https://cgpersia.com/2019/01/adobe-2019-cc-collection-win-x64-148263.html

You have to download it using one of the options at the bottom of the site (I used RapidGator) and it's a pain in the ass but still ultimately safer than trying to find a torrent (send me an ask about that if you want another masterpost).

How to use:

Once the files download, PUT YOUR COMPUTER IN AIRPLANE MODE

Make a System Restore Point just in case anything goes wrong and you want to roll it all back.

Install the programs you want. They may ask for you to sign in or put in a key. Just click the "do it later" option and close out of the program as fast as you can. Ideally, try to install the programs without letting them launch at all.

Copy the crack file (the one with its name listed on the website) and REPLACE the original file of the same name. You don't actually have to use the patch tool.

If you're confused, let's do Photoshop as an example. So you've run the installer, and you now have Photoshop installed. Go to its Program Folder (on Windows it's usually "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2019\" but if you're ever unsure, you can install Everything Search then just search your whole computer for "photoshop.exe"). Delete the original photoshop.exe, and put the photoshop.exe that you downloaded in the exact same place.

DON'T OPEN IT YET. We need to block Adobe from verifying/updating these programs...

If you have any other genuine Adobe programs (e.g. Acrobat DC) make sure you've signed out of your Adobe account.

Block all these apps in your firewall (You can look up how to do that for your specific device). Also, if you're on Windows, you can open "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts" in a text editor and add the follow:

0.0.0.0 lmlicenses.wip4.adobe.com

0.0.0.0 lm.licenses.adobe.com

0.0.0.0 na1r.services.adobe.com

0.0.0.0 hlrcv.stage.adobe.com

0.0.0.0 practivate.adobe.com

0.0.0.0 activate.adobe.com

(Here's instructions to do the same on Mac)

Next (on Windows), open Services.msc and set the following to Startup Type - Disabled:

Adobe Genuine Software Monitor

Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Service

AdobeUpdateService

See the full post

258 notes • Posted 2021-07-04 16:23:58 GMT

#2

Good evening! I would like to learn more about torrenting if you have the time.

Hi g3nesis, this is so polite! And anon, I'm sorry that happened, Cloudflare Warp is not a safe and anonymous VPN.

Let's talk about Torrenting!

So let's start with the basic requirements. What is a VPN?

A virtual private network is a secure encrypted tunnel you make to someone else's computer, and that's what actually accesses the public internet, so it looks like all your traffic is coming from that computer. The obvious downside here is that you have to trust whoever's running that computer to 1) Ensure a safe connection that doesn't leak your info, and 2) Not keep logs of who you are or what your traffic contained.

Usually that means a paid VPN service, because the general rule of the internet is that if you get a product for free, then you are the product. Paid VPN providers companies have more of an incentive not to keep logs, since they're already getting their money, but you still have to take their word for it.

The one big exception to the above rule is FOSS: Free, Open-Source Software. This means someone committed to the principles of transparency and community/cooperation has made their software free to use, and the code public to anyone who'd like to peruse it. FOSS generally isn't particularly profitable, unless they also offer some service, e.g. hosting servers. It's like saying, "You can read the code and run it yourself for free if you want to, but I'm already running it, I'm know how it works and I'm good at maintaining it, so I'll let you use my server for a small fee."

So let's talk about Windscribe.

Windscribe is my preferred VPN because much of their software is open-source, and they have a Freemium model. That means basic services are offered for free, while upgraded services (like unlimited monthly data) is a paid feature. While nothing is guaranteed, this model is generally pretty safe.

You can download it here: https://windscribe.com/yo/v40g2xlr

(Full disclosure: This is my refer-a-friend link. Free users get 10Gb/month of data, but with this link, you'll get 11Gb/mo instead! I also get an extra 1Gb/mo for every friend I refer. Consider it a free, easy way to tell me thanks if you found this post helpful!)

Now the fun stuff: How do I torrent?

First you need a torrenting client, AKA a program that can download torrent files. I recommend qBittorrent, which is a completely free and open-source program. It's lightweight and ad-free, and has versions for any operating system. Install your torrent client, install your VPN, start up both, and activate a VPN connection. Now you're ready to torrent!

How torrenting works:

Torrenting (aka "bittorrent") is a decentralized method of file-sharing. Basically, one person hosts a file (or multiple files) on a torrent client. That's called a seed - the complete file, available to be downloaded over the internet from their computer. While they have their client open and running, they are seeding the file. If they stop seeding or turn off their computer, that file will no longer be accessible over the internet, because it is not hosted permanently on any server.

They might post a link (called a magnet link) on a website like ThePirateBay so others can find it. If I want to download that file, I can click that magnet link, and it will tell my qBittorrent client how to start downloading the file in little bits and pieces of data. If the download gets interrupted before finishing, I'll still have those pieces of data, and I can always resume later. Downloading the file is called leeching.

Once I've downloaded (aka leeched) enough pieces of the file, qBittorrent can make it accessible to others. Now if you start downloading the file, you might download some pieces of data from the original person, and some from me. It's a way of decentralizing the burden of constantly uploading data. If I do this, I am called a peer. If I don't, I am called a leech, because I am downloading from the torrent without contributing to it. Don't be a leech!

Once I have fully downloaded the file, if I leave qBittorrent on, it continues sharing that file. Since I have the whole file, even if the original person stops seeding, others will still be able to download it - from me! I am now a seed.

And that's how torrenting works! One person starts sharing a file, and as more people download it and then share it themselves, it remains accessible long after the original host abandons it. This also means that if no one continues seeding a torrent, then it will be dead. Unaccessible. You won't be able to download it unless someone decides to start seeding it again.

There are many websites that host magnet links. You can search them to try to find whatever file you're hoping to download. They will list the Seed:Leech ratio. The more seeds there are, the easier/faster it will be to download. If there are zero seeds, the file cannot be downloaded.

❗❗❗ IMPORTANT ❗❗❗

Once you have finished downloading, you must seed the file. Yes, it's tough when your VPN has a monthly data limit. Seed it anyway. Seed it next month if you have to. In your torrent client, your "seed ratio" is how many times more data you've seeded vs the amount you've leeched. (AKA, if you downloaded a 1Gb file and you've seeded 800Mb, your seed ratio would be 0.8). Common courtesy is to continue seeding until your seed ratio is 5.0. This number depends on how many other peers are trying to download that file, though. So at minimum, you must seed for 1-2x as long as you leeched. (AKA if it took you 1 hour to download your file, continue seeding it for at least 2 hours after that).

Now, you might have heard torrents are full of viruses. In truth, anything off the internet could have malware. I recommend having a good antivirus program. Kaspersky Free is a good option. Make sure it's one where you can run a scan on an individual file; anytime you torrent something, scan it before opening it. For smaller files, you can upload it to VirusTotal.com to run it through a gauntlet of different antivirus scans simultaneously.

Last notes: Internet safety!

P.S. If you're like our dear anonymous asker, and you receive a notice from your ISP about pirating, don't panic! Unless you're seeding terabytes of movies, you're very unlikely to actually be sued. Your ISP isn't even likely to actually do anything. They may threaten to cancel your internet, but that's because they're required by law to notify you. Typically, they don't actually care. HOWEVER, don't be lazy or unsafe about it! Make sure you're following the above steps. For extra security, connect to a VPN server that's not based in your home country, and make sure you don't run out of your monthly data halfway through a torrent, or it will kick you back onto your regular internet connection. Always activate your VPN tunnel before opening your torrent client, just in case some torrents connect automatically (to avoid this, always Pause all torrents, even ones that are seeding, before closing your client!)

Also, torrents are generally safer if...

a) There are lots of seeds/peers

b) It hasn't been uploaded super recently

c) It has comments that look like they're from real people

See the full post

266 notes • Posted 2021-08-18 15:56:35 GMT

#1

Look, I support men having careers. I mean, I'm a working man myself! But there's some jobs we're just not cut out for. Let's face the facts: Every single major economic collapse happened under male leadership. Vietnam, Afghanistan... Every time America got into a failed war, a man was president. And we haven't even gotten into the literal tens of thousands of companies that male CEOs have driven to bankruptcy!

I mean, it's just biology. We don't have the right temperament. Men are way too emotional, chauvinistic, overly aggressive, and don't even get me started on the big red button! The only time a world leader got riled up enough to actually drop nukes, of course it was a man!

A good leader has to be nurturing, and in tune with her own emotions. The little gender experiment of the past few centuries has been fun, but enough is enough. We've clearly demonstrated our gender can't handle the pressure and responsibility. It's simply not our place.

Men, we need to come back to reality and stick to what we're good at: manual labor and rotating three-dimensional objects in our mind.

610 notes • Posted 2021-09-10 05:27:59 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[connorandersons-blog]

Computer Virus

Connor gets a virus from a murder victim, but the only way to 'cure' himself is... you guessed it! Have sex! This has definitely been done before it was still really fun to write! I also blame the convin discord server for this. It's just pure smut with feelings thrown in at the end.

The reference to rape is from the victims of the crimes, Gavin and Connor very much want this and consent. There is dubcon only cause its the whole fuck or die and I wanted to be safe!

Word count: 3,037 Rating: E

Hope you enjoy!

----------------------------------

He shifted in his sheet for what felt like the hundredth time since getting back from the case, trying to ignore the shivers and jerks that wrecked his body. He grabbed the edge of his desk, his knuckles turning white as his… problem got worse again. "Ha-Hank, I um, need help." It was getting too much, and he needed it to just stop. 

Hank hummed looking over with a raised eyebrow. "What's up, son?" 

"So, I uh, may have downloaded a virus." One that his systems didn't exactly know how to fight. "Normally I can fix it myself, but it isn't acting like a normal virus." It wasn't creating anything new but just enhancing things that were already there.

Hence why he kept staring at Gavin and having to stop certain programs, even when they kept coming back online without his permission.

He pouted when Hank burst out laughing, drawing nearly everyone's attention, even Gavin looked over rolling his eyes. Fuck, Gavin's eyes on him (or at least in his general direction) wasn't helping at all. Gavin caught his staring and stared right back with blinking. It reminded him of cats finding for dominance, and now he's thinking about that, fuck. 

He had to look away, trying to focus on Hank and not the rising heat in his face and his whole body for that matter. "Hank! This is serious! I got it when I connected to the victim." A dead one, so he thought it would be safe. Apparently, this virus didn't need power to stay alive, fucking wonderful. 

That sobered Hank up a bit, realizing exactly *what* virus Connor was infected with. "I am not helping in that way. Sorry, Con, I appreciate it, but no. Not happening." 

That only caused his blush to get deeper, shaking his head so quickly he's worried it would fall off. "What? No! I don't, oh my god, Hank, what the fuck? I meant I literally need help: I'm overheating!" 

"Oh. Uh, I can get you a drink? But you know what you have to do to kick this if you don't wanna burn up." Hank moved to stand, and Connor let him. They had both seen the burned bodies when the androids hadn't been able to work it out of the systems. 

And that was the problem. Connor would have to have sex with someone, the even worse problem was it didn't have to be consensual. With the cases they'd seen one too many sexual assaults due to it, which was hard to figure out how to charge them. On one hand it was self-defense, if they didn't they would die, but it was still rape. They'd let the lawyers figure that out, their main mission was to watch whoever created the virus. 

"I know, I know. I'm going to go to the bathroom, splash some water on my face so I can think clearly for a second." Standing was awkward but he shut down that program so he could at least make it there without his problem being too obvious. 

The bathroom was blessedly empty, he went to the sink. He yanked off his tie, tossed that and his jacket to the counter, and unbuttoned his shirt, the cool air making him shiver in relief. "Fuck." He grumbled, leaning against the counter. He cupped his hands under the cool water and splashed it onto his face, feeling the wet trail down to his chest. 

He didn't have time to pull his shirt on again before the door swung open and none other than Gavin Reed stoked in, eyes catching Connor's before sliding down to openly stare at his chest. 

"Jesus, what the fuck Tincan?" Gavin said, crossing his arms. 

Connor ran a hand through his hair, trying desperately to not jump Gavin here and now. "I'm having some technical difficulties, I apologize for my appearance." 

"Right… you know if I found a human-like this I'd say they were horny. Can droids even get horny?" Gavin leaned on the counter, apparently forgetting why he came in. 

"We can, the case I currently have deals with a virus that does just that but to the extreme. If the android does not release the tension they will overheat and die." He should have told him to just fuck off, use the bathroom and leave, but he wanted Gavin to know. 

"Right." 

"I've been infected with this virus." 

He watched as Gavin's face morphed into one of shock, then worry, then… interest? "Well damn. Can't you just rub one off? Not the first time someone's done that in these bathrooms." Gavin let his arms relax, eyes trailing up and down Connor's body. He lingered on his chest and crotch where there was definitely a tent to his pants. 

"It seems it must be done with someone else. I'm not sure why. I was going to contact one of my friends, perhaps Markus, to help if I couldn't get this under control." He knew Markus would understand, he'd been kept up to date on the case and had worried about the possibility of Connor getting infected. He had assured Markus it wouldn't happen, his firewalls were too strong and if it did get in he could work it out without a problem. 

"Don't you have like… android antibodies?" 

"Not exactly. This virus is different than most. I have to go and find the strings of code myself but they keep multiplying faster than I can delete it. My systems aren't recognizing it as a virus but part of my normal coding." Which just made it so much harder. And it took them a while to find in the androids since scans had said nothing was wrong. 

Gavin's face scrunched up adorably, trying to process the information. "Fucking hell. Well, how much time do you got left 'til you literally die from being too horny?" 

"Approximately thirty minutes unless I have sex, then the timer stops as long as I eventually climax." Might as well be as honest as possible if he really was going to die. It didn't feel real like it was just some silly prank, but he'd seen the damage. He knew how much agony the androids went through as they caught on fire and burned alive. 

"What the fuck?! You're going to die in thirty minutes but you're standing around talking to me? Go get some dick or whatever!" Gavin pushed away from the counter, shaking his head. Connor couldn't help but try to get closer, leaning forward just a bit. "... Why are you looking at me like that?" 

"I'm sorry, I'm trying to control myself, I swear." He tried to say it normally but it came out as a whine. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to take in slow breaths. The closer he got to the timer running out the harder it was to think clearly or even stop himself from grabbing Gavin and fucking him on the counter. 

He jolted, biting his lip to stop the moan that threatened to spill out when rough, calloused, warm hands ran up his chest. "Oh god," he whined, tilting his head to expose his neck. 

There was a tentative hot lick to it, a moan slipping out of him. "Can't let you die, I guess. Do you need to fuck or be fucked?" Gavin asks, fingers massaging Connor's chest. He shivered when those hands started playing with his nipples, getting them since and hard. 

He kept his hands to himself even as they twitched to hold and pull Gavin even closer. Each touch from Gavin was like an ice cube to his skin, burning cold, yet it felt so good. "I don't know, just need you." 

Gavin hummed, pulling Connor down enough so he could suck a nice big hickey onto his neck. "I can do that." 

No. Fuck, no this wasn't right. He weakly tried to push him away and off but his hands just holding him by his shoulders. "Don't do this, don't want to hurt you or… not without you wanting it too." He couldn't rape someone, he couldn't do that to Gavin or anyone else. 

Gavin paused, pulling away so they could see each other's faces. "I've wanted to get my hands on you from the moment you walked in. It was so unfair, it was like they stole you from my dreams and made you real. Drove me fucking insane." 

"Please touch me," he whimpered, leaning closer. It hurt so much, his body tugging him closer to Gavin to get anything he could from him. 

"Shit! Right, sorry Tincan." Gavin grumbled, crashing their lips together, teeth clinking awkwardly until they got into a fast rhythm. Gavin leans against the sink until Connor needs more and picks him up to sit him on it, slotting himself between his open legs. 

Connor ground his hips forward, hissing at the electricity that shot through him, making his arms tighten around Gavin. 

Gavin broke the kiss, gasping for air but taking the time to shrug his own jacket off and Connor grabs his shirt and yanks it over his head. He needed his hands on Gavin and he needed it now. His chest has some hair, and Connor couldn't help but squish and play with those soft but firm pects. 

"I want you to fuck me." He sighed out when Gavin scratched down his back. "I need you to, please Gavin."

Gavin sucked at the skin on his collarbone before pulling off with a soft, wet pop. It hit him that they were in the bathroom… at work. Anyone could walk in and see them and yet he didn't want to stop. It only made him want to keep going, the idea of being caught sending a thrill through him. He could easily say he had to, he had the virus after all. 

"Yeah, yeah ok. I, oh fuck, I don't have lube or a condom on me." Gavin leaned forward, resting his head on Connor's shoulder, biting down to keep his own moans quiet. The bathroom may have thick walls but if someone walked past there was the possibility they'd hear. 

"Don't need a condom with me and uh… I don't need lube either. I kinda self-produce it." Thank God for that. He could get away with doing it without on himself, it wasn't like humans could hurt him in this way. 

Gavin's mouth dropped open as he leaned back, eyes wide as saucers. "Well fuck me then."

"I thought you'd be doing the fucking," Connor teased, reaching a hand down to cup Gavin through his pants. He bucked his hips into the hand, letting out his own small whimper. 

"Fuck off! Shit, ok uh, how do you wanna do this?" Gavin asked, pushing off the counter, but his hands quickly went back to touch and pull Connor close. 

Connor glanced around before eyeing the stalls. He hooked a finger around Gavin's belt loops and pulled him into one, sitting him down. "This ok?" He pulled his own belt off, tossing it to the ground. 

Gavin nodded so quickly his head was sure to fall off, but he pushed his own pants and boxers down, eyeing Connor as he did.

The cold hit him up but he really couldn't care less. He hadn't even closed or locked the stall door before he reached behind himself and pushed a finger in. He bit his lip, working himself open quickly, eyes squeezed shut. He could hear the slick sound of Gavin fucking his own hand roughly at the sight of Connor. And if that didn't do things to him. 

He pressed a second finger in, then a third after a glance down at Gavin's length. It wasn't too long to be a problem, but it was plenty thick, flushed from the blood rushing through it. His lube had already kicked in, it had done that the minute he was infected but now he had an actual use for it. 

"Have you done this?" It was probably a stupid question to ask, but he wanted to make sure Gavin at least had an idea of what to do, even if Connor would do most of the work. 

"Trust me, I've had plenty of dick and given plenty. You aren't my first pretty boy, not by a long shot." Gavin smirked up at him with all the confidence in the world. 

Connor keened at the petname, nodding quickly. "Thank god, so have I if you're wondering." He had been very curious after deviating and had some friends that had no problem helping him experiment. 

Apparently, he was taking too long because his body started to tremble and the timer started up again. He pushed it out of his HUD with a small huff. "Shit, ok, you ready?" He positioned himself over Gavin, glancing down to make sure they were lined up. 

Gavin's hands rested on Connor's waist, thumbs rubbing soothingly into his perfect skin. "Course I am, take what you need, baby. I'm yours to use." 

His hands rested on Gavin's shoulder as he slowly sank down onto his cock, both groaning at the sensations. He just felt so sensitive, skin burning in a good way from where they were connected. He sat himself down, hips twitching but he needed to give them both time to adjust. 

Then Connor rose up and sank back down, again and again, speeding up to an almost inhuman pace. Gavin leaned forward capturing Connor's lips in a heated kiss. 

"So good, baby," Gavin mumbled when he needed to breathe again. "Keep going, ok? Shit, you're so beautiful." 

He rolled his hips just the right way that had him close to screaming, but Gavin was quick enough to stick two fingers into his mouth. Connor sucked on them, licking between them and swirling his tongue around the tips. Gavin pressed the other to the small of Gavin's back, almost reverently as he let Connor fuck himself just how he wanted it. 

Connor took the fingers out his mouth to intertwine their fingers, his other still holding desperately to Gavin's shoulder as their foreheads pressed together. It was close to being caring and intimate, but Connor didn't want to think too hard on that. Gavin was just doing this to keep him alive, nothing more nothing less. Right? 

Gavin kept mumbling sweet nothings against his lips, their breaths mingling as Connor's bouncing started losing its rhythm. "You close?" Gavin whined, his hands tightening enough that would hurt a human, but the pressure just felt good to Connor. 

He nodded, already feeling the tenseness come over him. There was a coil inside him but he couldn't get there, he needed something. 

"Come on, Connor. Let me see you come." Gavin pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. Gavin probably had no idea what he'd done, but Gavin saying his name like a prayer shook him to the core and he couldn't hold on anymore. He said it like he… like he loved him, but his mind went blissfully blank as he sat him onto Gavin's lap, squeezing around him. 

He could feel Gavin in him, feel himself being filled up but he went limp in Gavin's arms. The man didn't seem to mind, just putting his arm tightly around him as they tried to slow their breathing. 

He checked for the virus but it was completely gone and out of his system. He felt overheated but not unnaturally so now, now he felt content and satisfied in Gavin's arms. He pressed soft kisses to his shoulder and neck, leaving lazy hickeys here and there. "Thank you," Connor mumbled against his skin. 

"Yeah, no problem. Hopefully, you enjoyed yourself?" 

Connor nodded, his eyes still closed in bliss. "Very much so. Though we should both get cleaned up and back to work." Not that he wanted to even move let alone work, but he had responsibilities. He had to tell Hank he was ok and managed to get it out of his system. 

Gavin's hold tightened protectively around him, their hands still clasped together. "Nuh-uh, not yet. You fucked me so hard I need more than a minute and you're staying with me for it." 

Connor hummed happily, nuzzling at Gavin's neck before laying his chin on his shoulder. "Ok." 

The two sat there and no one even came near the bathroom (little did the two know, Hank had said there was a problem in there and told people to just hold it for now, and everyone listened). It was calm and warm, but he did pull off, making them both hiss. He sat back down, wrapping his legs around Gavin's waist. 

"Could we do this again?" He asked meekly, still hiding his face. He didn't want to push, Gavin was generous enough, but he didn't want this to stop. 

Gavin was silent for so long he was sure he'd be thrown off and yelled at for even thinking it was a possibility. But then Gavin pulled back, cupping his cheek gently and pressing the softest kiss to his lips. "Yeah, we can do this if you want. I'm ok with whatever you want, just sex or… more?" Now Gavin looked nervous, but Connor broke into a wide grin.

"More! More, please, I um, yeah I'd like more." This couldn't be real, but Gavin was still holding him and pressing kisses all over his face making him giggle. "Gavin!" He whined, his smile widening impossibly. 

Gavin smiled back, his eyes lighting up beautiful even in the bathroom lighting. "Good, cause so do I. But I think we should at least leave the bathroom, my ass is getting sore."

"Oh!" Connor jumped back, offering a hand to help Gavin up. They got toilet paper and cleaned each other up with soft words and laughter. They still both looked thoroughly fucked, but maybe people would think they just fought? One look at either of their necks would prove otherwise, but that was fine. 

He wasn't sure if he'd first thank or punch the person who created this virus, but either way, he would catch them. Plus Gavin had promised a reward for doing so, and he wouldn't fail his mission.

[doobler]

DATA LOG//VALERIE-01//XX.XX.XXXX

SOME FILES CORRUPTED. RECOVERING UNCORRUPT FILES.

LOG 1

LOADING... LOADING... LOADING...

"Hey! You're not quite done yet but I wanted to start leaving you some video diary entries! Today is [REDACTED] so my 14th birthday was just last week! Pretty exciting, huh? As of now, you're about a couple months old which is really weird to think about. I'm so excited for the day you're finally done! Hopefully that'll be soon but, judging by how progress is going, it might be longer than I first predicted. Which is fine! You're worth the wait. Okay, well I just wanted to start this new little diary ritual hah hah! I'll seen you soon, buddy!"

LOG 27

LOADING... LOADING... LOADING...

"Hey, buddy, it's me again! Yesterday was my 16th birthday. It was pretty fun, we didn't do much. Mom made all my favorites like tostones and empanadas. I'll be graduating college in just a few months. Man, it went by so fast. Regrettably, that means you've been on the back burner. I'm real sorry, bud. I've had to work so hard at school but it means I've got a better chance at getting the job of my dreams. You understand, I know you do, your programming makes you empathetic. One day, I'll be the head of design for T.A.B.H, you'll see. Then I'll finally be able to finish you and show you off to the rest of the world. Keep sleepin' until then, okay? Dream of electric sleep. I'll see you soon."

LOG 112

LOADING... LOADING... LOADING...

"Today is [REDACTED]. I've finally gotten my shit together at the office. We made it! I'm now officially an employee working for the Programming and Design department of T.A.B.H! It took maybe a little longer than I wanted, I was hoping to be here at 18 but I guess two years late is better than nothing! Most of the people here are old bastards anyhow, hahaha! I get a lot of dirty looks but fuck 'em, I worked my ass off to get here and I deserve the recognition! The real work starts soon which means you'll probably be put on hold again, but only for a little longer! It's weird, I've had to age up your designs as time goes on. I guess the perfect boyfriend and companion for a 14 year old looks a little different when it's repurposed for a 20 year old. Don't worry though, I intend on keeping your [REDACTED] on the bigger side, hahah! Anyways. The next update might be a little late, I foresee this job really swallowing up all my free time. See you soon, buddy!"

LOG 120

LOADING... LOADING... LOADING...

"Hey. It's been a few years. I'm sorry, bud, this job just... Takes all my free time and energy. Your basic infrastructure is easy to tweak, it's your coding that's really been dragging. If I had just... A week to myself, undisturbed, you'd be finished but... Soon. Okay? We'll be together soon. I promise. Sleep well, love."

LOG 121

LOADING... LOADING... LOADING...

"T.A.B.H. isn't what I thought it'd be. On the outside, they're a tech company "dedicated to the pursuit of improving every day human life" but on the interior, this place reeks. There's a suspicious amount of security and the employees like myself are constantly screened, our social media always monitored, our phones constantly looked through. Thank god these diaries are directly through you. If I'd been uploading these through my phone, we'd be fucked. It's been nearly 14 years since I began building you, Valerie. You're still cutting edge, nothing these dumbasses throw together are nearly as advanced as you are. But you'll have to stay asleep for a while longer. I'm terrified of what would happen if they found you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Sweet dreams. I love you."

LOG 250

LOADING... LOADING... LOADING...

"This isn't what I wanted, Val. The advances we're making grow exponentially as the days pass. Androids are out, they're becoming accessible to society, but... Not in the way I wanted. They're not companions like you, they're... Slaves. Used and abused then thrown out like trash. T.A.B.H. puts so much research and work and effort into making them as lifelike as possible, only to treat them like... Like... Fuck! It's sickening, I can't. I look at my reflection every night and I'm disgusted by what I see. They're keeping me in a junior role within my department so I'll be forced to work harder but I'll never be given the jurisdiction to make POSITIVE change. They see that I'm leagues ahead of everyone else but I'm fucking trapped like a rat."

The camera view shifts. Mar's face comes into focus. He looks tired, with bags under his eyes and wrinkles at the corner of his mouth. Silvery hair has started to grow at his temples. He has multiple day old stubble along his chin.

"I can't bring myself to age you up anymore, Valerie. I want you to stay as youthful as when I first designed you. I wish... You could've finished in time and actually fulfilled my dream of having the perfect boyfriend. Instead, I pray you'll at least come online in my lifetime, so I can finally show you the love I've been dying to give you for almost 21 years now. Sleep well, sweetheart. I'll see you soon."

LOG 300

LOADING... LOADING... LOADING...

"I've been in hiding for 10 years now, making today [REDACTED]. God, I'm so fucking tired. You're the only legacy I've got, Valerie. No kids, no husband, no family left. Just me. And you. T.A.B.H's influence continues to grow. They've taken over the entire tech industry and are sinking their nasty little fingers into everything they can reach, from food to infrastructure and beyond. Everything looks so shiny and nice on the outside but the system is rotted all the way through. They haven't found out about you yet, but... I'm afraid they're getting close. I'm lucky to have found this place, old land my family used to own way down south, almost to the border. My grandfather was a smart man-- there isn't a microcubit of trackable technology here. The only way I'll be found is on foot. It's hard to rest, though, but it does mean I've got a little more free time to work on you. Your coding is nearly complete. I'm really proud of myself, hahah, the infinity matrix will give you the ability to learn and grow and develop just like a human, though you do have basic personality programming. Your external design has barely changed. You're still so young... Anyways. The next update might be a while. I'll do my best to stay hidden. I'll see you... Soon. Okay? Soon. I love you. Sweet dreams."

LOG ???

LOADING... LOADING... LOADING...

Maurice appears in the camera's view. He's old now, old enough to be a grandfather maybe. When he looks at you, a funny expression crosses his face. Your basic sensors pick up his heart rate, slowing gradually. He lays wrinkled fingers on your frame and smiles.

"This is it, Valerie. The end of the line. They've finally found me. I'm too old to run now. It'll be up to you. I'm gonna finish uploading the final details to your software and then you'll be done. It breaks my heart that I never got to meet you. I've seen you in my dreams for so long. You're gonna be amazing, though, I just know it. My only wish is... Please. Go out there and show humanity what you really are. Teach them that androids have souls, too, that you're all equal. Only then can life truly improve, only then will we reach harmony."

Maurice twists around when he hears something. He moves to the computer beside you and types for  while. He has something in his hand but your sensors can't pick it up. 

"I'm... Sorry, Valerie. That it had to be like this. But you've got so much ahead of you. These logs are protected deep within your mental core. They'll be incredibly difficult to access externally and hard to delete so... I'll be with you always. You'll come online soon, and I'll... Be watching on. Stay safe. Keep your chin up. I love you, Valerie. I love you so much. It's time to wake up, old friend."

[luckdogpuppy]

Why I Hate Electronics

In the old days we had ms-dos and had to fiddle with config.sys and himem.sys spending endless hours and sleepless nights trying to get the computer to run a program. Computers have come a long way since windows 95 but using them certainly hasn’t gotten any easier. I remember wondering back then why they couldn’t make a computer that actually worked, that actually figured out how to make itself work and work with other programs and devices…after all, it is a computer, isn’t it? No, instead they just get more complicated and mystifying. Now its modems and routers and ethernets and wifi that drive me crazy, and trying to cope with constant buffering when I try to watch Netflix. Who the hell can remember which remote to use to access the right button? And when you do find the right remote to access your tv who can figure out how to get to whatever it is you need to fix? And how many fucking passwords can a person remember? And passwords have to be more complicated every year. I can barely use my phone, flipping from one screen to another with my finger. It seems the only way to get out of certain screens is to shut your phone off and restart it. And nobody tells you this stuff…you have to figure it out on your own. Ever read the Microsoft manual? Who does? Just looking at the pages makes me scream. And even when you go to Youtube they go so fast you have to pause it every two seconds to write that shit down. I have endless sheets of paper in a drawer filled with step-by-step instructions on how to do computer problems. Why? Why can’t computers do these things by themselves? The last time I lost my internet connection I got all excited when I discovered this thing on my computer that told me it would run a diagnostic of my system and troubleshoot it. Wow, that sounded great. When I went there and ran it it said “you have lost your internet connection.”  

They say that computers can do everything, but they still haven’t given us a computer that can fix itself or even do something as simple as letting us plug it into a router without having to go through an eleven step process to get the damn thing to work. What pisses me off is that I know they could do this. I can’t even get my two wifi extenders to work. By some miracle I did get them to work for a while but one day they both just shut off and I haven’t been able to get them running since. I can’t get past the step where I’m asked for a password. It says I’m supposed to use the one on the back of the router. Well, what it says on the back of the router is “password: (leave the field blank)”. Except when I am asked for the password it won’t let me leave the field blank. Instead it says “your password is not long enough.” Then I’m told to go to my wifi icon on my taskbar to find out what the password is. But I don’t have a wifi icon on my taskbar. So I go online and find that there are pages on how to find and/or replace the wifi icon on my taskbar, and after going through all five of the different methods of finding and replacing that icon on the taskbar without success I learn that there is no way I’m gonna get that icon to appear on the taskbar because the Windows 10 system that came with my computer doesn’t come with a wifi icon on the taskbar; Microsoft removed that file in the latest version of Windows 10. I learn that I have to buy Windows 10 Pro to get that stupid wifi icon. Are you shitting me?

I finally did find an obscure site that explained a convoluted way to find out what your router and extender passwords were. You have to start with your command prompt to get there…but that didn’t help…surprise, those passwords there didn’t work either. And don’t even ask me how to go back there and look at those passwords again. It took me an hour to figure out how to get to my command prompt from my start menu. Hint: don’t left click like you’re used to doing. When you left click on the Start menu you are presented with a long and very impressive list of places to go, all in alphabetical order, and you would think that the “Command” prompt would be there under the “c” column. But no, there is nothing that says “Command Prompt”. No, you have to right click instead. You’ll find another list of places to go there. But even then there is nothing that says “Command Prompt.” You have to click on “run” for the command prompt to come up. There is a lot of shit you can do through the command prompt but nobody is going to tell you what the secret codes are that will allow you to do those things. It used to be easy to get to the command prompt. All you had to do was click on the “Start” button. But now they’ve decided to make this an hour-long quest to find it. I have all this shit written down on endless sheets of paper in that drawer. Truth be told this electronic world makes me tear my hair out. I hate it with a passion. What pisses me off even more is that I also love it…when it’s working.

I can’t even get my computer to recognize my own email address. I bought a new Dell desktop three years ago and still get a daily message saying that I need to fix a problem with my Microsoft account. So I periodically go through the process and change my password but no matter what I do I still get that stupid message. I even had Microsoft tech reps guide me through the process three times now yet I still get that same old message. And every time I try to access my Microsoft account I’m told “that email address is already used by a different account.” I deleted all my accounts and started over but the message still comes up…the problem remains. I’ve explained all this to those tech reps but nothing keeps that message from coming up. I even signed up for a different email address but that didn’t fix the problem either and now I have an extra “Outlook” email address that I never use and wouldn’t know where it is if I did want to use it. I think the problem started when I bought a new Dell laptop. I had to sign up for a Microsoft account then. But I didn’t care for the laptop and sent it back two days later and ordered the desktop…and now Microsoft still thinks that whoever owns that laptop has the rights to my email address and not me. I explained all this to those Microsoft tech reps but that didn’t solve anything either. Yeah, this stuff bothers me. I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t like loose ends. I like things to be neat and tidy and feel like everything is in its place. But this computer stuff feels all scattered and disconnected and just fucked up. I know it’s working on my mind even when I’m not struggling with it.

In order to fix my Netflix buffering problem (and my wife’s need to have internet access for her work-at-home job) I bought a new router. I’ve had the same old cheap router for 6 years so I figure its time for a new one. I did just buy a 40 ft ethernet cable that I plugged into the back of the router and ran it along the ceiling down the hall and into the back of the tv in the living room, but we’re still having problems with “Home not available” still coming up at times. I actually bought a new router last year; an Archer A7. But I was never able to get it to work so I had to send it back, thinking it must have been defective. I realize now that it probably worked just fine and that the problem was me…that I couldn’t figure out how to get it to work. Then I had a helluva time trying to get the old one up and running again. Did you ever feel that your brain was on fire and ready to burst? That was how I felt after struggling with those two routers for 3 days. So my new router came last week and it turns out it’s the same model; the same one I tried to set up and sent back last year. I thought it was a different one because it was called a Tp-link, but its actually an Archer A7 too. On the box it says it’s a AC 1900 and on the instruction sheet it also says it’s a MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Router, so just figuring out what these things are called is a science in itself. So now I’m frightened to death to even try to set it up. The first thing the instructions say is “if this” and “if that”…as if I know the answers to these ifs. There is also a long list of FAQs in case you have problems and need help. That scares the shit out of me, too, cause I know I’m gonna need help…and lots of it. Then it gives me three different methods of setting the thing up, all of them quite convoluted and requiring me to access various internet sites, SSIDs and wireless passwords. Then I have to go to a number url: 192.188.1.1 and I remember that this is where I had to go to get my extenders to work but I was never able to get those urls to come up. Then I found out that they only come up if you use Google Chrome, and of course there is nothing in the instructions that tells you you can only use Google Chrome. No, you have to find that out on your own too. So now I have to change my browser and come up with another password so I can access Google Chrome. I am so afraid that I will not be able to complete these steps correctly and that I will then have to struggle another two days to get my old router to work again that the new router is still sitting on a shelf two weeks later. I’m thinking that I should go to Best Buy and have the Geek Squad come and set up my router but I know I’ll have to listen to them explain their convoluted tech plan that will ask me to decide whether to get a one visit deal or buy a year subscription…and I know one visit will not fix all my loose ends. And it makes me wonder if that is the reason why computers intentionally aren’t made to fix things.  

Oh, by the way, I’m sitting here writing all this down with my Microsoft Word, and now I find that I am unable to save what I’ve written because I don’t have a subscription to Word any more. I guess my free time is over. God, don’t you love it? You can’t even buy a computer with a simple word processor in it without having to pay a yearly fee to use it. Next thing you know somebody will figure out how to put a chip under your skin that measures how many breaths you take so they can charge you for the air you breathe.  

Dear Lord, if reincarnation is real please let me go to a world that is either before computers or way beyond computers. Or better yet, where computers and routers and extenders actually use a computer so they can work together.      

[ick25]

Rockman.EXE Final Episode Review!

I ain’t afraid of no Gostler.

Finally, the last episode of the first season of the Rockman.EXE anime, the last episode before Axess changes almost everything!

You might not know this, but I am NOT a huge fan of Axess, it nearly destroys everything I’m used to and love from the first season, but I’ll talk about that some other time. Lets dive into this final adventure!

Who you’re gonna call?

The episode begins at night where Netto’s dad is carrying out an experiment. He created something called the “Dimensional core” that projects a grassy field in a parking lot, however, this is not a hologram since Dr. Hikari is able to touch a tree, claiming the experiment was a success.

He is basically God now.

The next morning we are at Netto’s house where his useless mom is humming Aki’s cheesy song while Netto is working on some kind of device he invented. The device happens to be a wireless plug that allows him to connect Rockman into a far away computer.

I’m not completely sure how this is suppose to work. I initially thought it was a way for Netto to plug-in to any computer withing range, but I think it just allows him to reconnect with Rockman if he is stranded in a computer, since it has been showed in the anime that he can’t send chips if he is not directly connected to the computer or server.

Netto gets a phone call from Commander Beef who gives him some worrying news about his father before the title card appears.

We then see Netto and his friends, along with Higure, Masa and Mariko-sensei for some reason, in a commercial plane, I guess Yaito decided to get cheap on us today.

Netto tells everyone that Commander Beef just told him that his dad had suddenly gone missing in Jawaii. He is obviously worried by this and the grown-ups try to cheer him up, with Higure saying that Commander Beef was probably lying, which angers Masa for some “unknown” reason.

Netto suddenly receives a call from Enzan who gives him more information about Dr. Hikari’s location and what he was working on.

I find it interesting that this last line was skipped and given to Rockman later on in the american version.

What is Enzan’s reason to help Netto all of a sudden?

Speaking of the dub, the line they gave to Yaito here was very awkward, by revealing that she likes Chaud/Enzan which is completely out of character.

We don’t go to commercials just yet, but we get the first screen saver we haven’t seen since the first part of the season.

Gotta love the sub’s sense of humor.

The next scene takes us to the shopping mall that has been taken over by some big roots, with a giant tree suddenly appearing on the roof. Netto and company are now on a helicopter where they are amazed at the sight of the tree. Rockman tells them that the tree is made out of cyber matter but functions just like a real tree.

While giving us the code for shrinking the Shield program. I used to think that was a chemical equation or something. XD

So after Mariko-sensei makes a bad joke, Yaito orders the pilot... Oh no! Why is SHE the pilot?!

Did we really need that gag to return?

Meanwhile, on another part of Jawaii, we see the Ex-WWW who have opened a second restaurant called Maha Niban and it seems there is an air of contentment around them because they all look happy and fulfilled.

Oh boy, I can tell something bad is gonna happen to them soon and I just can’t wait!

Back to our heroes, the inside of the mall looks like that planet from the Degoba system where Yoda lived, except the camera rotates around some of the plants that look three-dimensional but they’re actually bi-dimensional.

Which raises a question. How come these plants are bi-dimensional but Dr. Hikari was able to touch a solid tree at the start of this episode?

The group suddenly hear a familiar voice, it turns out to be Aki-chan who calls for Netto from a projection near the wall.

Aki tells them about Dr. Hikari’s experiment and how it started in the parking lot of the mall with the program he created called the Dimensional Core, however, viruses have taken over the Dimensional Core making the cyberworld in the mall unstable.

After Aki’s transmission is cut off, everyone decide to go to the parking lot, but not before Yaito reminds us how clumsy Sakurako is by telling her to stay put.

Seriously, what were you thinking, Yaito?

The group find an elevator that is still working, while they wait, Rush sees what looks like a pink female version of himself, presumably, another Mole virus. The girl virus lures him over and then... Does this.

What in the world was that?! This always confuse me. Is that how those viruses are supposed to be like? Is Rush like a tamed virus? Was it trying to eat him? Unfortunately that isn’t the case since Rush quickly hides behind Meiru who then notices that they are not alone.

What a silly question, Dekao. They are viruses, they are programmed to destroy everything in sight, whether it moves or not.

The group manages to escape through the elevator where Tohru says that the viruses probably materialized due to Dr. Hikari’s experiment. Just then,  Metools begin to destroy the elevator.

So cute, yet, so deadly.

The group is forced to get off in the second floor with the Mettools right behind them, but they are suddenly stopped by a group of Bunny viruses. With viruses on both sides, Netto and friends pull an impossible stunt to avoid getting hit by the viruses attacks.

No uncomfortable line after that, Netto? When that happened in episode 29 you were pretty happy about it. 

After the vines break and Higure is chased away by a Ghostler virus, Netto and his friends decide to use their Navis to stop the experiment from the cyberworld. 

I remember this part having my full attention, if viruses where able to materialized in the real world, maybe the Navis would too, we might see something different for once.

o_o  Well... That’s certainly different.

Apparently the cyberworld has become so unstable due to the experiment, that the Navis had nowhere to stand on, because that’s how computers work, right?

So after this, we get the second intermission with Rush running away from a Mettool, with some confusing messages from the subs.

One, what would Pharaohman’s first appearance have to do with anything? And two, isn’t it CTRL+Alt+Del? Because either way, DON’T DO IT!

None of the PETs can find the Navis, so Netto takes out his WiFi device and says how it is connected to Rockman, and can tell Netto if there is a Bluetooh-I mean, if Rockman is within range.

Then what was the point of building that thing?

With the Navis missing, the group have to find another solution, but before they can think of something, they are surprised by a Handi virus, and during the confusion, a Magma Dragon virus kidnaps Mariko-sensei with Masa running after it. Netto and friends are then ambushed by a Powei virus who chases them. 

While trying to get away from the virus, Meiru trips (because of course she has to trip), Netto goes back for her and gets her out of the way just in time.

The virus breaks a water fountain and the splash deletes it giving Netto an idea of how to fight the viruses.

Meanwhile, we find the Navis walking around an area that looks like the inside of a tree. Since they have no idea where they are or where they’re going, they start to lose hope until Aki-chan appears before them with the compression code for Fast Gauge because we need to speed things up.

We return to Netto and friends who have found Gabgom’s department store that Yaito mentioned back on the plane, where they are all suiting up for some Live Action Virus Busting or LAVB.

So we get a Ghost Buster tribute, but instead of high tech gadgets, our heroes have water guns.

The boys cover an area of the mall shooting water at the viruses to delete them. Rush is also helping out (Even though we know he has a virus summoning ability), and we get one last scene with the weird female Rush virus before she is deleted with the water; but I still have one question in mind.

The girls cover another area where Yaito is riding a mini tank that fires water balloons.

She had a bazooka in another episode so this doesn’t surprise me.

Then we get this quick scene of Masa-san changing into Commander Beef in a dressing room and attempting to save Mariko-sensei from the Magma Dragon.

As expected, it didn’t work. 

After this, the Magma Dragon lands and is ready to eat Mariko-sensei or something, but the boys appear to save her. Since the Magma Dragon is big, it takes a lot of water to finally delete it. They reunite with Mariko who asks if everyone is alright.

Wow, that’s cold, Netto. I know it’s just a Gostler, but a materialized virus is still pretty dangerous, except for Rush.

We then get the final commercial break that omits the second part, something the subs kindly reminds us of.

I guess it’s fair since we saw chibi Blues twice in the last episode.

We return with the Navis who finally see the exit.

“Hurry just like a Fast Gauge!”

Back in the real world, our heroes arrive in the parking lot basement where they find the Dimensional core under a gigantic tree, but before they can think of how to fix it, they are surprised by a very big cameo from the game.

The Life Virus!

Of course the anime leaves the final boss of the first game for the final episode, and it is even more intimidating than in the game.

Turns out the powerful Life virus is the one responsible for making the program unstable. Since the boys are the only ones with water tanks for some reason now, they shoot water at the Life Virus, but because it is so humongous, their attacks are ineffective and they quickly run out of water.

With no more water, Netto and friends wait fearfully as the Life virus approaches them, but just then, Netto’s wireless device starts to react.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! FINALLY!

After 55 episodes, Rockman finally appears in the real world!

The rest of the Navis appear soon after, giving Meiru and the others my exact reaction to this scene.

But I have no idea why this shot was skipped in the dub.

The Life virus attacks and the Navis fight back.

Unfortunately, their combined attacks are not enough to delete the Life virus, so Netto connects his PET to the wireless device in order to send Battle Chips to Rockman.

Now, if you’ve been taking screenshots of the episode like me, you’ll notice that there are quite a few recycled shots and animation errors, like Netto’s slot-in scenes with his regular cloths except that they were painted over to look like the outfit he’s wearing.

And this reused shot from episode 51, since it’s the wrong chip and the background is from the WWW lair.

Kanketsen is Fountain, a chip that normally can only be used with an aqua element Style Change.

Speaking of said Style Change, Netto somehow activates the Aqua Custom Style without the Extra code to finish off the Life virus with the Mega Deus Ex Maquina burst!

Now it’s the right chip, but still the wrong background.

Once the Life virus is deleted, the Dimensional core stabilizes and all the other plants, trees, and even the Net Navis return to the cyberworld.

With everything back to normal, the group find Netto’s dad who was sleeping the whole time, and the ending music starts to play in the background along with the credits.

Netto wakes him up by pulling his ear, and then he has this weird formal exchange with Mariko-sensei.

No questions about why your son’s school teacher is with them in the artificial park you created in a mall in Jawaii?

Now, this part might be a little infuriating since Netto’s dad had no idea that the experiment was corrupted by a Live virus, how it took over the shopping mall, and how everyone was worried about him since they didn’t hear from him in a very long time, but the upbeat ending music kinda makes you realize that this is not suppose to be taken seriously.

The worst part is that Dr. Hikari just straight up leaves Netto behind while he goes back home to Japan in his weird flying van, something I would expect from Yaito.

I guess it’s a good thing the dub changed his lines to avoid making him feel like a jerk. What does he say instead? Well, its kinda of spoiler for what happens next.

Rockman and the other Navis materializing in the real world, and the Ex-WWW is attacked by a giant tree... I should feel satisfied, but not really.

My final thoughts?

Wow, once again the show plays with my emotions by finally making Rockman and the other Navis appear in the real world but it doesn’t last long and it doesn’t feel as meaningful as it should be. The whole episode is treated like a filler episode rather that an important plot point for the next season. During that time, and also because Axess was never dubbed in Latin America, I never knew that they were gonna use the Dimensional Core as the basis for the Dimensional Area in the next season.

Speaking of Axess, it looked like they weren’t even planning on making another season after this, but they just had to because of the forth game that would be released for December of 2003. This episode premiered in March of 2003 while Axess started in October of the same year, that means that the producers had to hire a whole new team of writers and animators to work on Axess in the course of 7 months, because the feeling of the new season is almost completely different from the first two, and that is why the first seasons will remain in my heart while having mixed feelings towards Axess.

The idea of Netto suddenly being an inventor in this episode is a cheap way to introduce the Wireless device he gets from Meiru in BN2.

Only to have it stuck forever on the other side of a room when confronting Princess Pride who had destroy part of the floor.

Battle Network logic.

Before ending this review I have to thank WolfPack Productions and the other groups who subbed these episodes, specifically the former because they made their own credits after this episode.

And thanks to them, not only did I discover that Higure and Numberman are played by the same voice actor, but Coloredman too.

So thanks to them and everyone who follows me on Tumblr and Deviantart who liked and or commented on this reviews.

[tariqk]

More Minecraft grumping

Cut to spare the dash.

Things I really don’t like about Minecraft, honestly:

The early survival game is inaccessible

Here’s the thing about early Minecraft survival: you’re plonked in the middle of the wilderness, with absolutely nothing, and literally the first thing you got to do is punch a tree and find a safe place to spend the night before you get beaten up by monsters.

That’s it. You could spend the night hiding in a hole, probably crafting and mining something in the middle of the night, while hostile mobs wander areas that aren’t lit up, waiting to, basically, kill you. And you’ll stay in this precarious situation for at least a few days, as you 1) make a place to sleep, 2) build shelter, 3) get supplies to venture out, and 4) don’t die, because if you die, you lose your stuff.

This is a game marketed to mass audiences. For children, even. And it can be so manifestly unpleasant I have no idea how it got popular so quickly.

I don’t actually have a problem with this, actually! I positively enjoyed some of that experience, and some of that tension makes for some fun gameplay and entertaining stories — like the one where I found a white horse, tamed it, named it, and then proceeded to take it to a foolhardy exploratory quest before it fell under a hail of arrows (RIP Binky 2019–2019).

And I don’t even have a problem with the learning curve, because I’ve learned and thrived in environments like Dwarf Fortress. I use emacs for gods’ sake. Low accessibility and high difficulty environments are my jam.

But getting here involved more than a dozen start-and-stop moments of gameplay where I literally quit the game, deleted the save, and went to bed in disgust. It’s stupid. It’s aggravating. I can’t believe that this was ready for mass market, what with the lack of telegraphing and the pretty damn high stakes from the start, that the only people who’d play this would be gamers who are familliar with the tropes, already know a little about Minecraft lore, and are invested to try and try again.

To be fair, they’ve made some things easier: they’ve included guidebooks with recipes to automatically load items you already know into the crafter, there’s an official guide online, and if need be, you have cheats. But consider:

If you need to cheat to get the game accessible, there is something wrong with the core game loop.

You can’t create a guidebook and then rely on players gaining “enough experience” to access them to make the game more accessible.

You can’t just bloody have a guide that a person needs to open a browser, or buy the book, to get by.

Survival is very much a non-starter if Minecraft is your first serious game, you get frightened or suffer from anxiety in trying to stay alive, and you have difficulty optimizing your moves to get the best result.

Redstone is a mess

Actually, I have no opinions on how redstone is implemented on a purely technical basis. It’s a system, it’s mostly Turing complete, that's… interesting. What pisses me off is how the Technical Minecraft community is… well, frankly, hard to get into, hard to gain proficiency in, and looks fairly clannish, insular and… honestly a drag to Minecraft’s further development, if Minecraft was to get developed further.

Like I’ve talked about this before, but the existence of the Technical Minecraft is entirely dependent on a class of software behavior that you could make an argument are actually bugs. Zero-tick pistons, anomalous sticky piston behavior with blocks, quasi-connectivity… these weren’t intended consequences for the developers of Minecraft, and they’ve said so before.

Say what you want, but honestly if the only reason why a developer reverted a bug-fix because a bunch of small, clannish, insular, and loud minority were making complaints, I’d honestly ask how much value those people should have in how you run your business.

But that isn’t all. I had taken to writing down notes because I wanted to figure out how certain redstone constructions worked, and even the simplest designs suffer from the following:

There appears to be no standard way of sharing schematics and designs for redstone creations.

Most of the instructions are in video, which is a terrible medium to instruct in, because you don’t have a way to skim through the resource, the presenter literally doesn’t have to say anything more than what they do on video (and thus can be as vague and contradictory as they want).

Most of the instructions are in the nature of, do everything this way, except this section, in which you need to do (flurry of movement as the presenter puts in a slightly different design that you better be able to catch). It’s “simple”. No, it’s fucking not.

Another thing that bothers me is that, fundamentally, most redstone designs are hand-crafted, which is mind-boggling. For one, if you are just starting redstone in Minecraft, you’re going to be sitting with the same toolkit that the most experienced users of redstone are. You’ll still be laying down redstone lines and putting in comparators. You’ll still be dealing with the janky and inconsistent behavior that experienced redstoners are. You’d still be debugging your creations with the same tools experienced redstoners are. And like, you’d be doing it with nary any institutional or technical support, because… reasons?

It’s like you progress from electrical engineering to low-level programming to high-level programming to virtual machines to virtualization… so that you can get back to electrical engineering again? Using skills that may or may not transfer well into other fields? Why?

And there are consequences for this as well, which I’ll get to in a bit, but also, I need to talk about how the community gets around this problem, which is basically…

Modded Minecraft replaces the problems vanilla has with other problems

Specifically? One of them is performance.

I don’t know if you’ve tried 1.12.x and then compared it with 1.15.x, but the differences are night and day. Like, I run a potato computer, mostly because we’re broke af and don’t have the scratch for a l33t gaming machine, but… well, yeah. What’s occasionally janky in 1.15 is literally unplayable in 1.12. What takes 5 minutes to load in vanilla takes up to thirty minutes in modded Minecraft.

And sure, this will sort itself out as modders eventually take advantage of the new architecture and optimizations within 1.15, but in some other ways, it won’t. Mostly because the nature of modded Minecraft is that it literally has to interface with the literal source files to generate or insert new code, and since mod-makers don’t have access to the code pipeline and the tools that they can use to optimize the game, well…

And we’ve only talked about the Java Edition, and not Bedrock, which I suspect will be even more tightly incorporated into the platforms that it runs, at the cost of having less open infrastructure, and as a result, more consequences to mod performance and stabilty.

But another thing that bothers me about modded Minecraft is how so many mods are just… Minecraft, but more. More power, more game mechanics, more technical additions, more mobs, more enchantments… but half the time the resulting game feels bloated and overly-complex.

This is funny because it literally sounds like I’m contradicting myself over the fact that early Minecraft survival had too little in terms of letting itself be accessible, so you’d think I’d welcome mods that worked out some of these gaps with things that made player lives easier.

But what I’m looking for is a realignment of how the game approaches players, not as a punitive, inaccessible system where difficulty is a mask for what is ultimately shallow gameplay, and what we get from modded Minecraft is more stuff. Sometimes, in some modpacks, just so many things that several mods do the same thing that the other mods do.

It’s kind of telling that every time I see a modpack that includes Draconic Evolution the first thing I think of is I better not get into Draconic early, because if I do the rest of the game will literally break, because I have no idea what the hell the mod creators are doing there, but when your damage scales allow you to three-shot the Ender Dragon final boss, that mod breaks the game. Doesn’t matter if you make a boss that’s three times tougher than, say, the Wither. Game’s fucking broken.

There are some good approaches: FTB Academy and other questbook mods do give players a chance to orient and align themselves with what to do, without forcing players to have to go through the anxiety and terror of not knowing what to do, and keeps them engaged far longer than they should be, but honestly… ultimately what you’re doing is more stuff, just through the lens of what the mod wants you to do.

Plus FTB Academy has Draconic and you can literally two-shot the Guardian of Gaia, which is supposed to be so tough that metal music starts playing and it can cause effects that are twice as worse as the Wither… well.

Is it just me or are there only dudes in this party?

If I have to count the number of people who weren’t cis men or boys in the time I’ve been lurking around Minecraft’s YouTube channels, I can quite literally say that the number would be less than half a dozen.

That’s very bad. When your visible community is 95% cis dudes and everyone else aren’t there, it tells me that:

The game alienates literally everyone who isn’t a cis dude

The player base are driving away anyone who isn’t a cis dude

Part of the reasons for #1 are, well, I’ve mentioned them above: it only really allows people who have the time and wherewithal to plug into an activity that offers no real benefit outside of the game itself, most of the fantasies it caters to is power fantasies of vanquishing more and more powerful opponents, and there’s barely any community support for newcomers.

So that’s no surprise that the kind of people who are popular Minecraft YouTubers are dudes who are either bad at explaining what they do, are inarticulate, or… well, to not put it too unkindly, dicks. I mean, Minecraft’s recent rise in popularity and relevance was, sadly, because PewDiePie was playing it. So that tells you everything.

And we haven’t even gotten into the fact that the playerbase looks pale as fuck, so you know that’s a thing. I’m seeing a few Indonesian-language Minecraft tutorials on YouTube, so that’s neat, but otherwise… it’s pretty white-dominated.

And this all assumes that the causes are all because of structural inequalities, not active fuckery against marginalized folks. I honestly don’t know how often that happens, though I wouldn’t honestly be surprised if it did. I mean, it’s not as if the game isn’t associated with nasty folk like PDP… and hell, even the original creator, who, to their credit, Microsoft and Mojang have sidelined, is a homophobic and racist dude.

But, yeah. I mean, $CHILD_1 and $CHILD_2 are still at it with Minecraft, and I’ll be around to help them through, hopefully to steer them away from the nasty stuff. But still, ugh. There are so many reasons to be grumpy about this game.

Mind you, at least it isn’t Roblox.

[apricot-kingdom]

Powershipping AU (Under the cut)

Instead of Yami Marik just killing Malik’s father, they struggle with the Sennen Rod and fight. Resulting in them both dying. (Malik/Yami Marik and Mr Ishtar.) Distraught, Ishizu grabs the necklace and sees her first vision of the future. They smuggle their younger brothers body to Japan going to Kaiba corp. Where they meet Seto Kaiba. Through bribery, dragons and whatever else. He agrees to help.

Seto then creates a fully interactive holographic image of Malik with his mind within the projection, he can come and go from a room into a virtual world. Sometimes there is a glitch in the systems which Kaiba’s a tad too stuck up to admit since he hasn’t seen it himself. The glitch is Yami Marik still residing deep within Malik’s mind.

Eventually Seto begins to set more projectors and such around the building and city so he can explore further. However getting too far away from the main frame they can glitch out but honestly Malik doesn’t mind. Still he usually reports it back because it can be due to an error back at the mainframe/labs. His siblings are able to visit him within the virtual world using headgear. And Kaiba comes to check his condition a lot, well it wasn’t a lot at first but now it kinda is.

Sometimes however Malik will purposefully glitch out to avoid situations he doesn’t want to be in. He can control it if he concentrates on doing so, such as to get past guards or particular topics like his father. Plus honestly, he doesn’t really remember what happened. And no one has the heart to tell him, and he doesn’t tell them about the odd dreams he gets about it sometimes.

He knows his father died and they moved to Japan. He does question occasionally but mostly in private, staring at his own hand, he knows he’s not exactly alive. Because he’s not really human any more mostly a hologram and Kaiba started work on a robotic body for him, he’d tested that a few times but it still needed a higher power source and more testing.

They do need to recharge at the end of the day regardless so most nights he does stay in the computer, Kaiba has the highest security on that singular computer. Higher than most of his own data and information. He programmed Malik a house there and a room, everything he wanted. 

And if you want it more series related: 

They play duel monsters often and Seto is intrigued in some of the rare cards Malik holds within in deck. He still participated within Battle City tournament, because at this time he had actually started to question why he was different. And he faintly remembers Shadi’s words. He starts growing angry knowing he was being lied to and runs from Kaiba corp, with the help of Rishid he creates the rare hunters. Rishid helps because he will not lose his brother. Not again.

Kaiba merely continues his work on duel disks and when Ishizu comes requesting to see him, he won’t admit it but he’s curious where Malik went. Malik stole the blueprints and built a new worsened charge station for himself but it worked. So Kaiba hadn’t seen him since he ran off. Then instead she starts going on about magic and he’s thinking well if you had magic why come to me with your brother and waves her off but she presents him with a God card, one Malik had spoken off in their duels.

He’s unaware Malik has anything to do with the rare hunters, he still hopes Malik comes to his tournament. When he comes but under Namu he’s confused but doesn’t care because he actually showed up, he set up a charging station in his room and Malik’s a little surprised but smiles when he sees it.

During Rishid’s duel where the lightnings going on and he’s freaking out, he’s actually just glitching with all the thunder, and he’s being corrupted by Yami Marik’s programming that’d been lying almost dormant but now had a shock to his system and has come back. Using the false winged dragon of Ra didn’t just glitch Kaiba’s systems, it affected Malik’s too. 

Kaiba scoffs it off because he was trying to defend his duel disks systems but intentionally he was regretting not looking into that early mistake in his data with Malik. But he still thinks his system couldn’t possibly have a bug, that had to still be Malik so he doesn’t look too far into it.

Meanwhile Malik attempts to weakly project himself to Bakura using his duel disk and such things. Anzu’s phone and such, anything to help him try to talk to others as him.

Meanwhile Yami Marik’s reprogramming different things such as their clothes, deck and everything else. Trying to dispose of Rishid and all his shadow games and such. During Noah’s arc because I’m going off that verse. He’s just glitching himself around the ship but due to the lack of projectors and such he has trouble getting through Noah’s fortress deciding brute force because he knew regardless he was damn safe being digital.

During Mai’s duel he’s programmed the shadow realm and such so in this Au he’s actually quite a good programmer and stuff.

And then at the end of Yami Marik and Yami Yuugi’s duel when Malik and Yuugi switch back in, Kaiba actually installed a function that’d basically delete Yami Marik from the system if Malik gave up. Yami Marik tries to blame the Pharaoh on taking their humanity and his father but Malik sighs and shakes his head. He knows better and he feels a weight off him with Yami Marik gone from his programming—well mostly gone. He’s a  cockroach. You’ll never full delete him.

After Battle city Malik goes with Kaiba and Kaiba’s upgraded all his systems just in case. They have some fun but then he says he needs closure and goes to Egypt with his siblings because despite my opinion being his dad’s a huge jerk and all that stuff. Bleh.  He wants to give him a proper burial, he wants closure because deep down he’s still really hurt and angry and he needs this.

Which is season four, then season five. Yuugi’s gang came over and everyone assumed Seto came because Bakura told him too and slightly yeah because it’s Bakura. But also he wanted to set up a better system for Malik in Egypt. Malik smiles and thanks him between everything. Kaiba refuses to admit to it but he’s quite attached to Malik in his own way, and thus stands down to watch his ultimate rival basically battle someone else to die rather than battle him. Because deep down he knows Malik wants the Pharaoh to move on so his duty as a tomb keeper could be fulfilled.

Malik stays with Seto for a while afterwards to both help move on in life and they live not happily ever after, but you know moderately alright. Happily together, and as they go on, Seto does build that machine from DSOD but because then in the afterlife, he and Malik can be together. That or just maybe he could bring Malik back to life properly.

And that’s all I have. have fun. 

Also. Rishid keeps the rod because I want him too. 

[dreamwritesimagines]

Don’t You Love Me? 9- Darling, I Can’t Seem To Quit [Steve Rogers x Reader]

A.N.: Your feedback makes me so happy and helps me write faster, please keep it coming! <3

Characters: Steve Rogers x Reader, Tony Stark x Pepper Potts, Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanoff.

Warnings: Drinking, mentions of addiction, self destructive behavior, cussing, explicit language, mentions of sex.

Summary: Past never stays in the past.

Word Count: 3659

Read Chapter 1 here!

Read Chapter 2 here!

Read Chapter 3 here!

Read Chapter 4 here!

Read Chapter 5 here!

Read Chapter 6 here!

Read Chapter 7 here!

Read Chapter 8 here! 

The beautiful moodboard is made by fictionwillneverdie

Gif’s not mine!

How was it that after years on the run, his voice still managed to give you goosebumps and made you fill with an urge to run away?

It didn’t matter where you’d run. Anywhere but there. Anywhere that he couldn’t get in contact with you, anywhere-

Wishful fucking thinking. There was no way you’d ever get somewhere he couldn’t get to you.

You could feel the panic roaring through your system and you clenched your fists, trying to pull yourself together. You felt like you would actually pass out from fear because the room was spinning around you in full pace and your legs felt way too weak, but you managed to open your eyes and blink fast in order to get your vision back before digging your fingernails into your palms.

“Don’t call me that, asshole.”

Thank God your voice was stronger than how you felt.

He tsk tsked. “Denial gets you nowhere, Y/N. I thought I taught you that.”

You bit inside your cheek hard enough to make it bleed, then turned around. He looked just like how you remembered him, even his arrogant smirk hadn’t changed. His hair was shorter but the way his eyes shone with that dangerous light was exactly the same.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Tony spoke for the first time as Steve took a step towards you, as if he wanted to come closer to make you feel better, stronger even. You grabbed your phone, typing in the password, then stole a look at the computer beside you.

“I’m Trent,” he smiled, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Stark. I heard so much about you,”

“Well that makes it awkward, because I didn’t hear anything about you,” Tony stated, frowning deeply and Natasha walked towards you to stand by your side, as if trying to console you.

“I see that you’re good friends with my wife-”

“I’m not your wife,” You stated, focused on your phone and Trent chuckled.

“We got married-“

“Did we though?” You looked up from the phone and raised your brows, “Show me documentation. It doesn’t exist.”

Trent’s jaw clenched, “Well, that’s because someone hacked into the state’s system and deleted the electronic copy-“

“Yeah, someone…”

“And because of an unfortunate accident on the same day, the hard copies caught fire.”

“Unfortunate accident, yeah. They never found the person, did they?”

Trent looked as if he had tasted something sour for a second, “Nope. Unfortunately.”

“Okay, full offense, you look like a dickhead-”

“Tony!” Pepper whispered and Tony shrugged,

“He does. He got this whole Bond Villain thing going on, do you have a cat too? A spinning leather chair? Why were you trying to steal my files, Trent?”

“You were getting too close,” Trent smiled, “I thought I could introduce myself. After all, we’re both businessmen, aren’t we? We know how business wor- Y/N, it’s rude to be on your phone while we’re talking.”

You ignored him until you punched in the code, then looked up,

“Look at the computer on your right.”

“I’m sorry-?”

“What, did you think you were the only person who has been keeping tabs, fuckhead? Look at the computer on your right.”

Trent turned his head and frowned, “I’m sorry, are you actually pointing a satellite at me?”

“Your office is still in that skyscraper you own, isn’t it?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Don’t try me, you compensating motherfucker.”

“You can hack a satellite?” Tony mumbled and you shrugged, still holding the phone tight.

“You can’t?”

“Speaking of that,” Trent said, “Keeping tabs. I gotta say, I don’t approve your past time activities.”

“There’s a solution for that, you should go and fuck yours-“

“All those people you’ve been sleeping with…” he tsk tsked “And now I find out that you’ve been seeing Captain America.”

And just like that, the room went silent.

"It's nice to finally meet you Cap." 

"Can't say the same, son."  Steve spoke for the first time, and unlike how you felt, his voice was under control, as if everything was okay. 

As if there was nothing wrong.

His calmness had a hint of authority in it, and that was more than enough to send a shiver down your spine. 

Okay, what the fuck? 

You really weren't supposed to be turned on right now. 

Trent's eyebrows rose, "I see," he said "Let's skip the small talk then." 

"Let's."

"Steve, don't-" 

"Sunshine, I am talking here." Trent cut you off and your eyes narrowed, the fury spreading through you. 

"You piece of-" 

"You're looking for trouble, Mr. Rogers." Trent cut you off, "I'd thread carefully." 

Steve smiled calmly and crossed his arms "I'm guessing your understanding of threading carefully means hiding behind a screen."  He stated “Like a coward.”

Trent's smile faded and Natasha shook her head. 

"You need to give me this guy’s address so that I can teach him some manners…" She muttered into your ear and you pursed your lips as Trent gritted his teeth, glaring at Steve before turning to you.

"You wanna know what I think, Y/N?"

You looked up at the screen "Not really Trent, no one fucking cares what you think." 

"I think you're doing it on purpose." Trent said "You went and found the one guy whom you knew I wouldn't stand, because you wanted to get my attention."

"Yeah asshole, because my whole life revolves around getting your attention." 

"You're trying my patience, sunshine. You know what happens when you do that." 

And just like that, all the muscles in your body clenched and the panic started bubbling at the pit of your stomach. The memories flooded your brain so fast that it almost made you wince but you managed to keep your expression as still as you could.

"I'll be in touch with you, Mr. Stark. We're interested in a program your company currently possesses, and I'd like to talk to you about that."

"Sorry, I don't do business with people my friends don't approve, and it’s obvious Y/N doesn’t approve you." 

"You haven't heard of our offer yet."

"Not interested." 

"You will be." Trent said as you felt something cold touching your shoulder and you flinched before you saw Bucky, squeezing your shoulder as if trying to assure you everything was fine. 

"Y/N?"

"Fuck off Trent." 

Trent smiled again "I'll see you really soon. We'll catch up, okay sunshine?" He nodded at Steve "It’ll be over his grave, so wear something nice." 

With that, the screen went dark and the room around you started spinning faster, panic flooding your system.

“Fuck this shit,” You managed to say, then grabbed your bag and stormed out of the room. 

                                         *

"Y/N, I'm serious, you need to stop." Jake said as he sat down across from you. Unlike before, you weren’t by the bar, but this time you had got yourself a table, figuring that less people would disturb you.

No such luck.

"You need to fuck off." You told Jake as you filled yourself another glass and he eyed you up and down.

"I'm cutting you off."

"Do I need to threaten you again?" 

"Threaten me all you want. You downed one full bottle, I'm surprised you can even see straight-"

"Listen, I'm not in the mood," you said, "Go back to work, and leave me alone." 

"What happened?"

You slammed the glass down "Leave me the fuck alone!" You snapped and he looked taken aback for a second before he licked his lips. 

"Don't leave okay? I'll take you home when I’m done."

"I'm not going home."

"To the Avengers Tower then." 

"I'm not going there either. What part of leave me alone don't you get?" 

"Y/N, you can't-"

"Thank you Jake," both you and Jake turned your heads when you heard a voice "I'll take it from here." 

You had no idea whether it was due to whiskey in your system or Steve was actually there, at the sleazy bar. Unlike how you felt, he looked as if everything was under control as he shed his brown leather jacket and rolled up his sleeves while Jake stood up and Steve sat down next to you.

"And a glass please." 

"You don't drink." You mumbled at Steve who shrugged. 

"I don't get drunk, there's a difference." 

You pursed your lips as Jake brought Steve a glass.

“Here, sir.”

“Thank you,” Steve said as he filled it, and Jake walked away. You raised your brows, watching him.

"You drank all of it by yourself?" He asked as he lifted the almost empty bottle and you nodded silently, looking down at the glass. 

"Yeah." 

"We gotta introduce you to Thor." 

"You should leave." You muttered, turning the glass between your hands. You couldn't take it, him being all perfect, not right now. 

"Why's that doll?" 

The sweet nickname made you pause at the warmth spreading through you but only for a second. 

"You know why,” You answered fractiously and he shrugged again,

"Not how it works." 

"I can tell you something that could make you run away."

"Hm, and what is that?" 

You gulped and reached into your pocket to pull the very small bag filled with drugs. You held it up, waiting for him to go away but he only clenched his jaw before his intense gaze fell on you. 

"I didn't… take any." You muttered "I haven’t, yet- I've just... I've been considering it for the last two hours." 

Steve extended his hand silently, motioning for you to give it and you tilted your head. 

"I'm not good with authority, Cap." 

"You would've taken them already if you really wanted to.”

“Yeah well, maybe I’m still considering-”

“Y/N,” his voice was gentle, “That's not the solution, you know that." 

You gritted your teeth and hesitated for a second before you placed the tiny plastic bag into his palm. 

"Where did you even get them?" 

You shrugged "I have a past, so..." You bit on your lip "You should bail." 

"What?" 

"You've heard what he-" you swallowed "He's coming for me, Steve." 

“Let him. We’ll be ready.”

You chuckled bitterly, “We?”

“Yeah, all of us. Me, Bucky- Buck hated him too by the way- and Tony, and have you seen Nat? I mean if I were him, I’d be more terrified of Nat more than all of us combined. She will place his head on a freaking stick, I’m just hoping she will let me watch.”

You wiped at your nose with the back of your hand, “You don’t know him.” You mumbled, “You don’t know what he’s capable of, I just…” Your voice cracked, “I don’t want to be here anymore, I want to go home.”

“Okay, let’s-“

“Not to my apartment. Home.”

Steve paused, “Where’s that?”

You sniffled and twirled the glass around, watching tiny droplets move, “Somewhere he won’t-“ you cleared your throat, “Somewhere safe. There’s no such a thing anymore, is there?”

“Come to the Tower with me.”

You shook your head, “They’ll have questions and I don’t want to talk to anyone. Besides Tower isn’t safe either.”

“I’ll be there, Y/N. Trust me, it’s safe.”

“Yeah well, he could still get me-“

“Over my dead body.”

“Yeah Steve, that was his plan, weren’t you listening?” You put the glass down to see him better but he didn’t look worried at all.

“He’s not gonna kill me.”

You gritted your teeth, “You missed the part where he failed to mention his last name then?”

“What’s his-“

“Besides, I don’t-“ You motioned at him, “I don’t deserve this whole thing. I- I hacked you.”

“Hacked me?”

“Got into your phone, pried into your privacy. I know stuff about you that you don’t think I know- I even went through your google searches – sex on the beach is really a drink by the way, want me to order that or will you leave before that?”

“Y/N, why would I leave?”

“Damn it, Steve-” you shook your head, “I wasn’t supposed to do that, okay? That’s- that’s like really rude and Fury told me not to, and I did it anyway-“

“You know, I got into lots of fights back in forties,” Steve cut you off, “Bucky kept telling me not to. I did it anyway.”

“Nice to know some things don’t change.”

“The point is,” Steve said, “Sometimes you just can’t do what people tell you to do. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, it just means you have your own rules.”

You stared at the glass for a couple of seconds as you tried to pull yourself together.

“I don’t…” you mumbled, “I don’t want anyone to lay a finger on me. That’s my rule now.”

Steve nodded slowly, “May I help you establish that rule, then?”

You could feel the sob climbing to your throat so you just nodded and wrapped your arms around his neck, burying your face to his rock hard chest. He held you tight, as if you would disappear if he didn’t, and pressed his nose to the top of your head, inhaling the scent of your hair. You stayed like that for almost a minute, in silence, wrapped in the scent of him before you felt him rubbing your back, shivers coming back with full force.

“Come on doll. Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

                                          *

You hugged Steve’s brown leather jacket tighter around your body, trying to inhale his cologne as discreetly as you could while you followed him up the stairs. For some reason, your heart was still slamming against your ribcage as you thought about the possibilities, but you chastised yourself in your head, since when were you getting nervous around guys?

“Steve, Fury called-“ you heard Sharon’s voice and you froze on your tracks, holding the handrail tight, unsure whether you should take those last steps but Sharon, being a well-trained agent immediately sensed your presence and turned her head. She paused only for a second before she looked between you and Steve, her eyebrows raised.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company,” she said, leaning back to her open door, “It’s Y/N, right? I saw you in SHIELD headquarters before.”

You tried to push a strand of your hair behind your ear, but jacket’s sleeves were too long for that so you just ended up brushing the sleeve against your hair, “Yeah. Hi.”

“What did Fury say?” Steve asked as he unlocked his door and you climbed up the last two steps, still feeling like you were intruding in a way. Sharon stole a look at you before she smiled at Steve.

“Nothing that can’t wait,” she said calmly, “Have a nice night. Nice to meet you, Y/N.”

“Um- yeah totally, you too.”

Awkward…

She closed the door behind her as you approached Steve, then stepped inside his apartment, looking around. He followed you suit and closed the door before switching on the light, and you bit on your lip.

“What would the neighbors think just got much more serious.” You mumbled, making him chuckle.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“You sure she’ll be fine with it? I don’t wanna-“ You shrugged slightly, “Fuck shit up.”

That seemed to make him smile while you followed him deeper into his apartment. It was a nice and cozy apartment, Steve’s characteristics reflecting on objects here and there. There were couple of framed black and white photos on the walls –who even framed photos anymore?-  and his shield was leaned against the wall, as if he had just remembered not to take it with him on his way out. A few books about World War II were scattered on the coffee table and on the corner, he had a phonograph.

“There’s nothing going on.”

“Hm?” You turned your head “What?”

“With- uh…With Sharon. There’s nothing like that.”

You scoffed, “She wants to jump on you.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, as if taken back by your outspokenness, “I’m sure you’re wrong.”

“Women can sense that shit, Rogers.” You muttered as you looked out the window. “Nice place.”

“Thanks. When was the last time you ate something?”

“I drank whiskey,”

Steve shot you a reprimanding look, “As in actual food?”

You thought for a second, “Can we make popcorn?”

“...That’s- Y/N, that’s not actual food.”

“It’s my comfort food,” You shrugged, and he looked like he would say no, then shook his head slightly, as if annoyed at himself for giving in. He made his way to the open kitchen and you shamelessly eyed him up and down, and leaned to the kitchen island.

“Sorry about tonight.”

Steve looked at you over his shoulder for a second before he spilled some popcorn into the pot, “What’re you talking about?”

“You know what,” You muttered, dragging your fingernails on the smooth surface, “Everything. I’m sure- I’m sure you have questions-“

“I don’t.”

You frowned, “What?”

“I don’t have any questions. Whenever you want to tell me, you’ll tell me.”

For some reason, that was more than enough to make tears fill your eyes and yet, you found yourself smiling before you took a shaky breath, pulling your phone out of your pocket.

“You know, I made my research. A little.”

“Hm?”

“About how dates worked in 1940s.” You touched the phone and the music filled the room, making him turn his attention to you.

“…And you’re supposed to dance on a date.” You held out your hand and he shot you a look, then shook his head, as if he was embarrassed all of a sudden.

“I’m not a good dancer.”

“And I’m drunk as fuck Steve, we make the perfect pair.”

“I don’t even know this song.”

“It’s my sex song- I’m joking!” You pulled at his hand, “Come on. It’s not very gentleman like to turn down a girl’s dance request, you know. What would forties’ etiquette say?”

He heaved a sigh but let you pull him closer and his arm sneaked around your waist, making you giggle. The soft popping sounds of popcorn filled the air along with the music and you bit on your lip as he swayed you, then you looked up at him as he entwined his fingers with yours.

“What?” he asked gently and you shrugged,

“You’re really pretty, Rogers.”

A faint pinkness adorned his cheekbones, making you smile but he played it cool,

“I’m pretty sure that’s my line.”

“Sucks to be you.” You muttered, “Why aren’t you running for the hills, Cap?”

“Never been the type.” he said silently, as if the minute he talked louder, the magic would disappear. You couldn’t help to smile.

“But you know I’m trouble, right?”

“Oh definitely.”

“That doesn’t scare you?”

“Nah,” he shrugged, “Buck says I have a thing for trouble anyway. Why bother proving him wrong? I’d never hear the end of it.”

You could barely feel him pulling your body closer to his as your heartbeat got faster, and for a second it worried you that he could hear it. You didn’t know why, but you were much, much more nervous around him than any other person, and yet it didn’t make you uncomfortable. It was the same feeling as you had riding a rollercoaster, excitement filled with glee.

“You should check the popcorn.” You muttered and the corners of his lips turned upwards.

“It can wait,” he muttered, his breath warm on your lips and you closed your eyes as you saw him leaning in, excitement washing over you, making your heartbeat go crazy but you were snapped out of your bliss before his lips could even touch yours.

“Rogers!” Natasha’s voice was accompanied by the pounding on the door, “You came back home? Seriously?”

You opened your eyes when you heard Steve’s impatient sigh, as if he was as annoyed as you were.

“What is this music?” You heard Bucky’s voice and a small laugh escaped your lips.

“Is it normal to hate your friends sometimes?” You wondered out loud as Steve pulled back.

“Sorry about this,” he said and made his way to door, then opened it. From the sounds of it, Bucky had just walked in and Natasha was on the phone, following him.

“Guys…”

“Yeah, me neither Pepper.” She said and Bucky heaved a sigh.

“I thought you were outside looking for-“

“Hey there Barnes.” You walked to hall and waved at him, while Steve looked between you,

“Y/N?” Natasha said as soon as she saw you, still on the phone, “No- Pepper, she’s fine, we’re at Steve’s place. No no- you don’t have to-” She stopped talking as Pepper probably hung up and Bucky cleared his throat, as if he didn’t know what to say.

“Your ex husband is a prick.”

Steve shut his eyes for a second, as if praying for patience and you pursed your lips, then nodded and threw up a peace sign.

“Word, man.”

“Potts is coming by to see if you’re okay,” Natasha held up her phone, as if now realizing she had interrupted something, her expression full of regret. “So Tony is probably coming too, to drop her off. Sorry.”

“O- oh? Good-”

“Did we…interrupt something?”

You exchanged glances with Steve, who looked as lost as you were,

“Nah you didn’t,” You waved a hand in the air dismissively and Steve seemed to get the clue because he shook his head fervently.

“No, not really.”

“Yeah nothing was happening.”

“Sure, just… you know. Nothing.”

A silence fell upon all of you and you could tell that neither Bucky nor Natasha bought your lies, but in the end, Bucky heaved a sigh.

“Well since we ruined something, we might as well eat the popcorn.” Bucky said as he and Natasha walked past you and you leaned your back to the wall, huffing out a curt laughter.

“Come on then Cap,” You pushed yourself off the wall as Steve let out an impatient whine, throwing his head back “Good things come to those who wait.”

Chapter 10 is here! 

A.N: Now repeat after me: I’ll leave feedback because Dream loves feedback! ❤️ 😂  

Special thanks go to:  @theskytraveler @asongofmarvelanddc @astanwehave @girlwhoisfearless @fictionwillneverdie @lilywoood @marss-anonymous @icameforthefanfiction @pandalandalopalis @barnesrogersvstheworld @evolutionofkatep  @lostkizzy @reallyconfusednow @miss-jen-winter @fandomcrazie @latibulemark @aikeji @dans-les-details  @evanstar @thatprofessionalfangirl  @minuialeth75 @optimisticheartyouth @laffers18@kiwngsoo  @myrabbitholetoneverland @itsyaboyo @avengemebuckyy @freightcarcap @stargeek727 aestheticimagines @kerishet @fangirlbookworm @samwinchxtr @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked  @marauderskeeper  @whogaveuspermission  @thewhinersoldier @iamthemaskhewears @sasunarushiita @whatiswrongwithpeople @mischievous-fairy @agent-smoak @allison-rosewood-maximoff @petrashappyplace @swtltlmrvlgrl @imalittlebean @hey-garrett-shut-up @ruffdog921 @hogwarts-and-houseplants @go-crybaby @danielhowellstolemycamera @zabeth716 @imaginecrushes @miss-jen-winter @attorneyl @missmidnightxo @renesmeeharelds , @sippinpeachtea@skeletoresinthebasement @birdandrose @dark-princesse @local-space-ace  @bva14 @broken-pieces yourwittywitch @yasssssvictoria @dreamsofcaliforniaadventure @hista-girl @im-only-slightly-psycho @meashy-moo@themessthatismymind soulsofstarsliveinyourveins @nininstinct@charlie1987me @imyxtay @owhatshername1  @raiymaj  and lovely anons! Without you, I wouldn’t be able to write this, you’re amazing! <3

[amillionsmiles]

checking (you) out (Pidge/Lance)

Summary: Katie works the tech desk at the university library. Lance never remembers to wipe his memory card before returning the camera equipment, which is how she becomes intimately familiar with his life via, of all things, his vlogs. A/N: finally get to post this in full!  Written for @plance-zine ; it was wonderful to be part of such a project, and shoutout to the mods for keeping everything running smoothly! :)

[Read and review here] or continue under the cut.

People, Katie has decided, are predictable.  Watch them for long enough, and their everyday motions start to read like clockwork.  At 9 AM on Thursdays, she shows up for her shift behind the library’s tech desk. At 9:20, the girl with space buns and an artfully distressed jean jacket strides in, heading straight for one of the study pods.  At 9:25, somebody blows through the doors in a last-minute effort to print materials for their 9:30 class. And at 10:50, ten minutes before Katie’s shift ends, Lance McClain shows up, laboring under the weight of a camera bag, backpack, and tripod.

Katie reaches for the scanner as Lance puffs his way toward her, depositing the tripod on the table with a heavy clunk.   It takes him another minute to locate his student ID card: he checks the pocket of his cargo jacket first (not there—it never is) before wriggling his fingers into his jean pocket instead.  When he hands the plastic over, it’s warm from being pressed against his thigh.  

Katie spares it a passing glance as she pulls up the ‘Equipment Return’ form, filling in the requisite information.

“You’re good to go.”  She gives him a thumbs-up, careful not to look him straight in the eye.

“Cool, thanks.” Flashing a bright grin, Lance backpedals toward the doors, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.  

Once he’s disappeared completely from view, Katie unzips the camera bag. She flicks the dial to on and goes straight to display mode.  Sure enough, the schmuck hasn’t bothered wiping the memory card.  

Smirking, Katie kicks her feet up on the table and leans back in her chair.  

Let the entertainment begin.

o.O.o

Lance McClain does not know her name, and Katie is completely content with this.  She applied for her gig at the tech desk specifically because it required minimal human interaction.  Nobody expects her to make conversation; they just want to check out equipment and leave.  Occasionally she has to troubleshoot a printer jam or direct tourists to the bathrooms; most of the time, though, she just does her homework and gets paid.

Still, when someone visits at least twice a week, it’s hard not to notice.  The first time Lance left recording footage behind on the camera had sparked her interest, and from there it wasn’t too hard to find his YouTube channel, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  Which was how she knew that he was a second-year bio major with a side-job at the Starbucks in the Garrison, the student union, and in his free time he liked to record himself attempting to do stunts with his skateboard, if not narrating a funny story about his day or answering the call of things like the Cinnamon Challenge.  

Katie and Keith had gotten halfway through that video before Keith closed her laptop.

“I can’t watch you do this to yourself,” Keith said, shaking his head.  “Katie, you’re too good for him.”

“I’m hate-watching!” Katie justified, attempting to wrestle her Chromebook from Keith’s grip.  

“You know way too much about him to just be ‘hate-watching,’” said Keith, making air quotes with his left hand.  “You have his student ID number memorized.”

Katie glared.  She regretted letting that piece of information slip.  Memorizing Lance’s ID hadn’t even been intentional—it’d only happened because of how many times she’d typed his information into the system during checkout.  

“You go to office hours just so you can breathe the same air as your TA for an extra 120 minutes,” she retorted.  “You don’t get to lecture me on sad.”

Anyways.  All of this is to say that despite what Keith thinks, she does not have a weird, borderline crush-fascination with Lance.  And when she stumbles into Green Library’s 24-hr study room at 3 AM to work on a CS project, he’s the last person she’s expecting to see.

Lance is slouched in a swivel chair, earbuds plugged into the desktop in front of him.  One dangles loosely around his neck, the other shoved in his ear. Upon hearing someone else enter, he lurches to attention.  Katie pretends not to notice—she fully intends to sit on the other side of the room—but Lance doesn’t give her the chance.

“Hey!  You’re tech-desk girl!”

It’s a dumb nickname.  Definitely not something to get excited about, and Katie schools her features to reflect that.  She’s above all… this. Unaffected. “I have a name.”

A quirk of the lips.  Lance somehow manages to hook an ankle around the chair closest to him and spins it so the seat faces toward her, an offering.  “Wanna tell it to me?”

It’s uncannily close to the Pick-up Line Challenge video he posted to his account a month ago.  Katie tries not to think too hard about that.

“What’s in the thermos?” she asks instead, setting her backpack down and warily accepting the chair.  

“Redbull and coffee.”  Lance’s leg bounces under the table, fingers tapping a jittery rhythm on the keyboard.  “Wanna try some?”

“No thanks.  It sounds unholy.”

“Oh, it is.  Definitely a personal low, but sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.”  As he gulps his strange concoction, Lance’s face wrinkles, throat flexing as if he’s swallowed a frog.  “God, this is like… sacrilege for me.” His voice lowers, confiding. “I’m a barista.”

“I know,” blurts Katie.  Immediately after, she freezes, hoping that the comment will drop unnoticed.

No such luck.  Lance raises an eyebrow, questioning.  A strange light has entered his eyes; by admitting that she’s paid attention to him, Katie has suddenly become the sole focus of his attention.  

How much to admit?  Best to be blunt—rip it off like a bandaid.  The best defense is offense, and all that.

“You never delete your videos off the camera before you return it,” she says.

Whatever explanation Lance had been anticipating, this one catches him off guard.  His face contorts as he tries to process the information. “I—my videos?”

It’s almost too easy, slipping into the impersonation.  “Hey guys, it’s ya boi Lance, and today I’ll be—”

“Okay, okay.”  Lance waves his hands, cutting her off.  “Please do not continue.”

“I thought you’d be flattered hearing your own lines back at you.”

“Not like that, it’s weird!  You make me sound like a tool.”  He sighs. “Well, now I’m disappointed.”  

Katie frowns.  “Why?”

“I don’t know! I thought it’d be cool if you knew stuff about me because I was like, your secret Starbucks crush or something.”  At this, he shoots her a hopeful look.

“I don’t drink coffee.”

“We sell other stuff.  Also, you still haven’t told me your name.”

“It’s Katie,” she finally relents, breaking eye contact to pull her laptop out of her bag.  When she looks over again, Lance is resting his chin on his hand, staring at her thoughtfully.

“What.”

“So does this mean you subscribe to my YouTube channel?”

“No.”

Lance pouts.  “Why not?”

“I like the raw footage better.  It’s funnier. Like the first take of the spicy noodle challenge, where you spewed milk out of your nose?  Classic.” She cranes her neck to look over his shoulder. “What are you working on, anyways?”

“Nothing!” Lance pushes his body between her and the screen, the broad line of his back blocking her view.  

“Doesn’t sound like nothing if you’re being like that.”

“Hey, haven’t you heard about this thing called privacy?  4th Amendment! Search and seizure! Gimme back the mou— ow!”

Years of wrestling with Matt has made Katie adept at underhanded maneuvers; with Lance still rubbing his side from where she pinched him, she takes control of the mouse and opens up the window he’d minimized earlier.  Onscreen, several scenes are being recolored and spliced together; she recognizes the footage from earlier today.

“Do you always make your videos on the school computers?”

“I have my own laptop. It’s just shitty and will only run like, 2 programs at a time, and all that’s being directed towards a stats project right now.”  Lance eyes her sideways. “Hey, what major are you? Or, wait—are you a freshman? Have you even declared yet—”

“I’m a sophomore.  Computer science and math.”

“Ah, the double major.”  Lance nods, then puffs out his chest.  “Guess what I am.”

Common sense tells Katie that she should play dumb.  Let him have the satisfaction of correcting her. But her overwhelming need to prove she knows things wins out.

“Pre-med bio.”

Lance blinks.  “Wow, first guess.”  His surprise turns sly.  “You do have a crush on me.”

Katie rolls her eyes.  “Don’t flatter yourself.  All it takes is a quick LinkedIn search.”

“Yeah, but you only fully read through someone’s LinkedIn when you’re a) hiring or b) evaluating their bae potential.  It’s okay—” he holds up a hand, cutting off her protest, “—I’m honored, truly.”

“You’re ridiculous.”  This entire interaction has gone so far off the rails, she doesn’t know how to begin redirecting it.  Lance, meanwhile, shifts focus easily, pulling a camera out of his backpack and popping the lens cap off with practiced ease.  The next thing Katie knows, it’s pointed at her, Lance narrating: “You’ve heard of Sleepless in Seattle, but we’re here with Sleepless in the Study Room, guest-starring my new friend Katie!”

“What—who said we were friends?” says Katie, trying to duck out of the frame.  Lance is an unerring videographer, though; he follows every motion.  Backed into a corner, Katie swats at the lens before remembering that it’s from the tech desk and, therefore, her responsibility.  She stays her hand.

“We’ve been talking for over half-an-hour,” Lance says, flashing his phone at her, where 3:30 AM makes itself known in thin white strokes.  “I’d say that counts for something.”

His smile is bright and close.  It’s probably the lack of sleep that’s making her loopy, but the feeling underneath her skin is not unlike a sugar rush.  

“I guess,” she says.

o.O.o

She regrets everything the next morning.  The minute she gets behind the tech desk, Katie thumps her head down and starts calculating. If she naps in ten minute increments, maybe she’ll recuperate some of her lost sleep and still manage to do her job.

The hours crawl by slowly.  At 10:50, the characteristic whoosh of the automatic doors awakens her from her latest sleep cycle, and from somewhere above, an entirely too chipper voice says: “You look like you could use a pick-me-up.”

“This is your fault,” Katie groans, raising her chin to glower at Lance.  “Because of you, I got distracted, and then I had to stay up even later to finish coding.”

“I know, I was there.  You are a very aggressive programmer, by the way.”

“Just pass over your card so I can check this equipment back in,” she grumbles, wiggling her fingers in demand.  Instead, though, Lance curls her fingers around a warm paper cup.

Katie stares at it blankly.  “I told you I didn’t drink coffee.”

“It’s my special blend,” Lance insists.  “You’ll like it, promise.”

“Yeah, well, it’s going to have to wait ten minutes,” sighs Katie, pushing it to the side and heaving the camera and tripod over the desk. “I’m not allowed to have drinks back here.  On-duty policy.”

“Then I’ll keep it safe in the meantime,” says Lance, snatching it back.  “I’ll just be over here.”

Katie watches him stake out a table.  Blinks a few times, to confirm that he’s still there.  This isn’t part of their usual routine. It feels strange but not entirely unwelcome.  

When she flicks to the camera’s memory card, it’s clean.  That’s weird, too—that they actually had a fully fledged conversation, and he took something she said to heart.  In fact, the other night, she’s pretty sure she made him laugh. And there’d been a moment, where Lance had tipped his head back, eyes crinkling, and Katie had thought: shit, maybe Keith had been onto something after all.

When her shift ends, she heads over to the table that Lance has staked out.  In characteristic Lance fashion, he’s already found a way to unfold himself over all the available space: backpack slung over the back of an empty chair, feet kicked up on the seat opposite him.  Katie nudges them aside as she sits down, reaching over to grab her coffee, and Lance’s face brightens.

“By the way, your earbuds aren’t plugged in completely,” she says, sipping her drink.  Lance, despite only knowing her from their interactions the night before, has somehow guessed at her sweet tooth, and the foamy latte goes down easily.  “Nice music.”

Lance rips the buds from his ears, gaping down at his phone in horror. Onscreen, a disturbingly animated baby waves its arms, singing, Yes papa, as a banjo strums in the background.  Katie marks that down as another piece of information on Lance: listens to educational children’s music in his free time.

“In my defense, it’s for a project.”

“Sure it is,” she says, slapping Lance’s hand away when he tries to grab the coffee back in retaliation, and it’s so natural to mess with him like this, to laugh and call him noodle arms and have everybody else glare at them for being disruptive.

I think it counts for something, Lance had said the other night.

Something, indeed.  

[lore-a-lie]

Chapter 3, Act 3: Neo World Symphony

Daily Life

When Kaede, Kaito, Kokichi, and Ryoma made it to Kibo’s pride and joy, as Kibo predicted both Gonta and Korekiyo were there waiting for them. But neither of them looked particularly comfortable around the machines; Korekiyo in particular kept glaring at one of the ceiling’s vents as if it was solely responsible for his discomfort. Kinda like how Kaito kept giving the hallways outside panicked looks. (But not me for a change! Honest.)

Kibo was too busy to notice; he was fiddling with some of the wires hanging off the machine instead of telling everyone what this was supposed to do. If Kaede had to guess, he was probably trying to buy time for Tsumugi so he wouldn’t need to explain the same things over and over.

“Must we all really be involved with this showing? I have no interest in modern technology, which also applies to this… “X Box” of yours, Kibo. This is hardly a time for games yes?” Korekiyo asked.

“...Dude, you can’t be serious.” Kaito said, looking completely dumbfounded.

“It’s a large cubical computer with an “X” on it and headsets attached to it, what else would I think it is?” He replied, tilting his head a bit as if hehe were confused about why Kaito now had his face in his hands. (Obviously not that! How could a game console ever be this big and mass produced? Even I knew that.)

“W-while you are right in that it is something of a game system, it’s more complicated than that! And while our situation is obviously serious isn’t escapism good to help humans in stressful situations?”

“Escape-ism? Kibo found way out in that kon-poo-ter box?”

“In a way yes! But please, let us wait for the others before we get to into it.”

Kibo was obviously nervous about what his friends would think about his work and went back to making sure everything was still as it needed to be for this demonstration. Kaede and the others didn’t need to wait too long at least, as an out of breath Tsumugi fell through the door a moment later.

It looked like she had tried leaning on the door before it opened by itself, so Tenko needed to catch her before she landed on the floor as Angie giggled. It looked like Tsumugi had run all the way outside to get these two, but the run back hadn't affected either of her more hyperactive companions at all.

As Kibo double-checked that everyone was there and that there would be enough visors and chairs for everyone and he started to explain.

“I realize this may seem suspicious to some of you, seeing how this technology was granted to us by Monokuma, and one of his cubs, Monosuke, helped show me how this program was meant to work. But I assure you, I took every step I could to ensure that the other world this opens up to us will be completely safe! What began its existence as a “killing game simulation” is now merely a “simulation” with little to no risks for its users that even Monokuma can’t interfere with.”

Kibo looked nearly as proud giving this introduction as he did when he was trying to brag about his inventor’s ingenuity or his own features.

“Wait, what? C’mon man, why would you tell Gonta this is some type of exit then? You just said this was something that was meant to help kill us!” Kaito shouted, looking frustrated about getting their hopes up for nothing.

“I didn’t say it was an exit, I said that you could see it as a way out! Your mind leaves our current school setting and enters a safer space for us all to interact in. No Exisals, no Monokuma, no risk of motives.”

“So it’s just like a virtual world, like the Matrix?” Tsumugi summed up, nervous but clearly interested.

“Basically, but it should be incredibly realistic for all of you. I only say “should be” on the off chance my sensory input data works a bit differently than for everyone else, but I can tweak things if I need to! This includes any changes you’d like me to make for the avatars you each will have in there.”

“Neat! Sounds fun. But do we allll need to do this? I mean if Kiyo wants to stay out why not let him?” Kokichi said with a cruel Cheshire cat grin, as Korekiyo looked hopeful at the suggestion.

“I would very much prefer he in particular comes with us actually." Kibo said. "While your consciousness is hooked up with these machines you won’t be able to feel your real bodies anymore in favor of moving your avatars, so even with Gonta’s supervision not including him could be… ill-advised.”

“What’s an “ah-vuh-tar”?”

“A physical incarnation or embodiment of a deity or concept so that it may interact with the world as we know it. Very commonly found among various religions, this word specifically relates to Hinduism. In virtual contexts, it refers to how humans may interact with the worlds created in these spaces, as in essence humanity would all be considered “gods” to those made specifically for their entertainment.” Korekiyo quickly supplied, cutting off Kibo's attempt to explain.

“... Gonta not sure he understand.” Gonta admitted as he scratched his cheek, much to Korekiyo’s disappointment. Before he had a chance to try again Kibo offered a simpler explanation, ignoring the room’s chuckles.

“Uhh… It’s like I made a smaller Gonta for you to control in the world in the box, since you wouldn’t fit.”

“Oh, okay!” Gonta said with a smile, while the probably pouting Korekiyo gave Kibo a bitter look. The robot responded with a nervous shrug, which did little to stop Angie or Kokichi’s laughter.

With a resigned sigh, Korekiyo took a seat. “May we please get this over with quickly then?”

“H-hey, we didn’t agree we’d even be doing this yet so don’t you menaces go making decisions for us!”

“Indeed, indeed! Atua doesn’t trust anything with Monokuma involved either. Angie can understand wanting others to experience your work firsthand, but are you sure it’d be safe? How do we know he didn’t hide a motive in there to take us by surprise?”

“I checked everything, there is no way he could have something like that still in there, and if I did find anything I would have told you all. I highly doubt there’s any way left for me to make this system safer for everyone. I deleted absolutely everything that I thought could ever be used as a weapon, nothing can be broken, and I don’t believe the avatars should be able to take any damage.”

“You don’t believe they can?” Tenko incredulously asked.

“I couldn’t test things too much by myself! But I wouldn’t ask this if I had any doubts about your safety.”

“At least try it you two. If we all stay together what’s the worst that could happen?” Kaede asked, trying to convince them.

Both girls looked pointedly at Korekiyo, who in turn looked at her as if to ask what else could she expect. Kaede just glared at him, while Kibo looked like he had a solution but didn’t think he should mention it yet. Not that Kaito needed to hear it to get back onboard.

“Yeah, we should have faith in Kibo! He’s not the sort of guy to lie about technical stuff.”

“Or at all.” Ryoma teased.

“Pfft, Not well at any rate. It’s not like a robot like him could intentionally put humans in danger, riiight?”

“I told you already Kokichi, I’m not entirely three laws compliant! The professor feared it could create loopholes that may harm my mental development or sense of self-worth if he made them impossible to disobey.” (Wow, that didn't help as much as Mr. Idabashi was hoping then. Poor Kibo.)

“It probably would have been better for you to have gone with that excuse, Kibo. But your honesty also plainly proves your point, doesn’t it? I believe you at least!” Tsumugi agreed, with surprising conviction for a change. (Or maybe it isn’t. Technically this could make us all 2D, or “fictional”, for real right?)

“It’s not that we don’t trust what he thinks he did, but it was the degenerate Monokub that helped teach him how to change Monokuma’s program and he’s still new at this on top of that! But if it means so much to him… Fine. I’ll do it,” Tenko reluctantly grumbled. “But if anything goes wrong in there someone’s gonna pay big time when we wake up!”

“Nothing is going to go wrong, I promise! I honestly believe you all will greatly appreciate this.”

“This isn’t more of your “inner voice” stuff, is it? Haven’t we all moved on from that Atua-type nonsense?” Kokichi asked, obviously trying to get a rise from Kibo again. And as always he got one like clockwork.

“Of course it is, and this has nothing to do with Atua. My inner voice wouldn’t steer me wrong. And while I no longer believe in it either it’s still very rude to dismiss Angie’s beliefs as being “nonsense”!”

“I’m just saying Pinokeebo. For us humans, hearing voices isn’t exactly a good sign of anything.”

“Just because your conscience has given up on you doesn’t mean the rest of us are crazy for having one.” (I’m not really sure I’d call that an “inner voice”, but Kibo is a robot. Maybe that’s just how it is for him.)

Kokichi gave Kaede a scowl when he heard her giggling, but he let Kibo have this little victory and took a seat. It wasn't like he was normally good at comebacks in the first place, and Kibo looked so proud of this.

With all of their biggest concerns addressed as well as they could be, everyone still standing found their own chairs and started setting up the visors the way Kibo told them too. Kaede was a bit confused as to why Kibo hadn’t put the red and blue cables into the ports already, but he claimed it was because he didn’t want to risk making a tripping hazard for anyone as he helped make sure no one made any mistakes.

Gonta nearly did thanks to Angie distracting him for a bit, as he initially put the red “consciousness” cord in the left port that was made to handle the blue “memory” cord, but the mistake was quickly found and corrected. When Kibo was satisfied that everything was finally ready to go without incident he told everyone to put the headsets on and press the button near their temples to enter the simulation.

He quickly mentioned he’d be the last to arrive as he wanted to make sure no one was experiencing any difficulties before going in, since their bodies would be relatively defenseless and wouldn’t feel anything in this sleep-like state, but that was the last Kaede heard before the world went black.

It was an odd sensation, watching as the data passed her by. She expected things to be instantaneous, but there she was, staring at the Ultimate Academy’s handcuffed and scarred emblem with a “Welcome to the Neo World Program” message in the corner of the startup screen.

Something about the name felt familiar, and not just in regards to this machine. But before she could place it a feeling like a flashback light’s vertigo overtook her and she found herself in a parlor.

It was comforting to see she wasn’t alone, as Kaito, Ryoma, Tsumugi, and Gonta appeared at around the same time she did. But they all looked… Different. Her pants were gone in favor of her skirt for starters. And everyone else was… well, cuter, for lack of a better term.

It was like she woke up to find themselves in her Magical Melody game she and her sister would play, with how small and round they all were now. Tsumugi would probably describe this as them being "chibified" if Kaede remembered right. Only these designs might have been even more simplified than any game she'd ever played. And for whatever reason Ryoma looked a lot taller, but he didn’t actually change much otherwise, so the feeling was just surreal. She didn’t even need to look up as much to see Gonta’s face either.

“... Is this what being tall feels like?” Ryoma asked as he looked around, and adjusted to being at eye level with everyone else for a change. His beanie’s horns almost looked like cat ears now with how they‘d been squatted down, which made Kaede giggle and got Ryoma trying to hide his blush.

“I think you mean more like “being average size” in your case. But I was expecting something different too...” Tsumugi said mostly to herself, her disappointment clear as she slouched and stared at the ground, ignoring the almost offended look Ryoma sent her way for her comment. She even got those comical blue lines floating above her head as she did it, like one of Dr. Shrunk’s expressions.

“This feels weird. I can move this avatar so freely it’s like it doesn’t even matter what condition my body was in before.” Kaito said as he did some stretches to prove his point. (Why didn’t he say so sooner?!)

“What condition are you talking about? Did you pull a muscle during last night’s training or something? Jeez, you should tell us when something like that happens you know!”

“Y-yeah, that’s it. Sorry, I didn’t wanna to worry ya.”

“Liar. Like you ever do enough during training to pull or strain much of anything.” Ryoma jokingly scoffed.

“Hey! Come one, don’t be like that-” Anything else Kaito might have wanted to say was cut off by Korekiyo’s arrival, much to Gonta’s relief. Korekiyo was a lot less pleased by this development.

The second he showed up it was like he was on edge, looking around like he was missing something before taking in the state of his new body. Which didn’t improve his mood any. “... I want to leave.”

“No! Kibo say he want to show friends his ver-chew-ul world, so we stay! Kiyo barely here at all, he at least need to thank Kibo for making this for friends.” Gonta scolded him, so Kaede followed suit too.

“Yeah! No need to be so quick to judge it.”

“But everything’s so… quiet now. Warmer too. I don’t like this.” (What’s he talking about? This is the same temperature as it was in the lab, and I thought being warmer would be a plus to him anyway.)

Before Kaede could ask what he meant Kokichi, Angie, and Tenko arrived at the same time, like Kaede’s group did.

“Oh~ so this is the Virtual World huh?” Kokichi started rambling with his little nods and Mm-hmms as he took note of everything around him, toying with the loose belts on his avatar a bit as he did so. He started walking around the room, getting a look at everyone else’s avatars, before he stopped behind Korekiyo with a wicked smile on his face.

Korekiyo barely had a chance to respond before being punched in the face, given the lack of their previous height difference. Angie laughed at that while Korekiyo rubbed at his cheek where he was hit.

“What exactly was THAT for?” (You want the full list? Because we all know you’ve had it coming.)

“Kibo said avatar’s couldn’t be hurt riiight? So I’m just testing that to see if it’s true! Soooo, did it hurt?” Kokichi asked with a grin as if he already knew the answer.

“Of course it did. However I believe he phrased it as making them immune to damage, not pain, so I’m not sure this disproves his previous claim. But you could have just pinched yourself to test this, yes?”

“Nope! Doing it this way shows our senses are connected in here, since we know I didn’t actually punch you. Besides, that trick never worked when I dreamed either, so what’s the point?”

“I see, I see. This place could be considered like a shared dream, couldn’t it? A peaceful dreamland we can enter by sleeping in our own paradise~” Angie hummed to herself.

“If this was Tenko’s dream there definitely wouldn’t be any males in it. But I love how CUTE we are now!” Tenko gushed as she bounced around, getting a look at everyone while nodding her head appraisingly at each of the girls.

And speaking of males, with everyone else accounted for Kibo finally entered the simulation. But his avatar was the most different by far.

His eyes were blue again like they were before Miu died, and the robotic lines under his eyes were gone. He was also wearing a fairly normal buttoned-up school uniform, instead of having his robotic parts exposed and styled to imitate one. There was even a pair of black gloves to hide his hands from view.

It was like he was trying to look more “human” in here, despite everyone else being made to look largely the same. Kaede wasn’t sure if using a virtual program to change himself like this was ironic or upsetting.

“So, what does everyone think? If anyone has any issues with their avatars appearances I can easily make some changes for you later, like my own. I just thought some equilibrium might be appreciated, and making their designs like this made them a lot easier to edit than what the system already had for us.”

“You mean in terms of heights?” Kaede asked him, looking between Ryoma and Gonta again.

“Well yes, that too! But all of us also have the same strengths and speeds, so we’re on equal ground. It’s not like anyone should really need them in here, since nothing can be broken.”

“W-wait, so Mini-Gonta weaker than real Gonta?! Then how Mini-Gonta protect girls from Mini-Kiyo?!” Gonta nearly shouted, while Korekiyo perked at this information.

“O-oh, not to worry! Kiyo’s avatar already has some personal adjustments to it. If he comes into contact with a female avatar, for any reason, he’ll be paused for as long as he’s touching her and for a brief window after it stops. This way Tenko’s not the only girl fully capable of defending herself!” Kibo quickly explained. This did little to comfort Gonta, and Korekiyo merely shrugged as if he saw this catch coming.

“Did that mean you had to make me weaker too though?... YOU REALLY ARE A MALE AREN’T YOU?! MASTER WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!”

“No he wasn’t, there was no way he could have known this would happen. You’re just way too gullible.” Kaito replied in a teasing tone.

“So you knew about the way our senses would connect, and thus our avatar’s ability to feel pain yes?”

“A-ah. Right, I did leave that out didn’t I? I mean, I haven’t been able to test that much so I didn’t want to worry anyone. The program directly affects the brains of everyone in it in real time, and by affecting the brain every sensation that you think should be occuring in here, like pain, will actually be felt by you. This applies to all five senses, and it’s hard to get rid of any impulses that might be read as negative feelings.”

“Doesn’t that mean that if we think something should have killed us we really could die?” Angie asked.

“I really don’t think so! I mean, even if you think you should be in pain if you can’t see an injury on your avatar that should help right? Please, let’s not linger on this stuff right now. Let me show you the map! So you can all get a better idea of what this world is like.”

Kibo led them all from the room to the main hall to explain all the other changes he’d made to the program, clearly ecstatic to finally have something to show off for himself. And from what Kaede could see he had every right to be. She wouldn’t be surprised if the only other person who could have gotten this program working and made it so (relatively) safe for them would have been Miu herself.

He may have even solved part of their problems with what to do with Korekiyo if this all worked out. The world he had here might not have been that large in the grand scheme of things, but if he couldn’t attack anyone he wouldn’t need to be watched like a hawk. It could give him, Gonta, Ryoma, and Kaito all more freedom in a sense, which everyone could use more of in this hell.

She was impressed by the map she could see at least. There was a church to the left of the mansion they were currently in, that could probably be seen from the dining hall, and even a forest behind them. She wasn't sure where the bridge over the rightmost river could lead to, as there were just squiggles beyond there. There were more squiggles at the end of the road past the church too, which Kibo kept calling it a “loading point”.

However, as he was explaining what he meant by “loading point”, there was a knock from the salon door.

Tsumugi was the first to respond to it, but everyone had a similar thought. “... Huh?”

“Are there NPCs you haven’t gotten to telling us about yet Kibo?” Kaede nervously asked.

“N-no! I mean the program does have the ability to make those in theory but in practice they were way too complex for me to get my head around. We really should be the only ones in here! Monosuke said not even Monokuma or his siblings would be able to harass us since they aren’t compatible with it.”

Everyone was panicked at Kibo’s admission and stayed as far from the door as they could. According to the map there was only one way out of the salon so whoever was inside had nowhere else they could go.

But the figure that did eventually come out wasn’t someone they could have expected.

Kaede looked to her left just to make sure Korekiyo was still there, before facing this anomaly again. He looked to be in just as much shock as everyone else at the sight of his slightly disoriented doppelganger.

“What is going on Korekiyo?” The person with his face asked. But it wasn’t in his voice, though it spoke with the same sort of cadence he had when he used his falsetto at the party rather than his natural register. It was clearly a woman’s voice now. One they had all heard once before, using his full name.

“S-sister?” Korekiyo said, nearly breathless as his eyes darted between her(?) and Kibo, looking for an explanation. But Kibo clearly didn’t have any, if he was even able to follow what was going on.

As it dawned on him that this wasn’t some sort of sick joke he wasted no time going over to his once dead sister and embracing her. Which was still pretty odd looking with Kibo’s avatar designs contrasting with Korekiyo’s normally creepy appearance, and both of them looking identical didn’t help matters.

Kaede tried not to listen to the whispering between the two that closely, which was made easier by having the confused conversations between her friends to focus on instead. It seemed rude to intrude on this unusual reunion.

“Ooookay, will someone explain what’s going on and who the hell this is now? Because I’m confused.” Kaito spoke up when it looked like the two had finished talking amongst themselves.

“R-right, my apologies. Everyone, this is my older sister-”

“And that’s all they need to know. Also, you’re stuttering again Brother. Do try to get ahold of yourself.”

“I… Beg your pardon? I was only going to introduce you to them.”

“And I have no such desire to be put on such casual terms with your bullies, brother of mine.”

“Then how are they supposed to address you Sister? Please be reasonable. And I’m fairly certain that’s a gross oversimplification as well, they are all well within their rights to be distrustful and angry with me.”

“They’ve threatened your life on more than one occasion now for crimes which aren’t even as severe as those of some of their other so called friends. Not to mention one that has proven to be to everyone’s net benefit thus far. And this is ignoring how they’ve been inclined to keep you at arm’s length even before that... minor episode. I do believe our surname should more than suffice for this situation.”

“Kirumi’s murder was no “minor episode”, and now we have Monokuma focused entirely on us!” Kaito interrupted, despite looking almost as ill as he did when the Necronomicon came up.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about how particularly rude you were at the party either, you blowhard!” She countered him with a glare as she removed her mask. Unfortunately for her any intimidation this could have had was undermined by the red blinking lines that appeared over her head to show her anger.

Apparently Kibo had tried his best to recreate Korekiyo’s face underneath it, but since the only time he saw it was at the party the resulting form still had his lipstick. Not that she’d be able to that know yet.

The way it suited her more than him wasn’t lost on anyone else watching though, particularly not Korekiyo himself. But Korekiyo’s face was harder for Kaede to read in the simulation than in person.

“Woah-woah-woah, how do you know this stuff in the first place? And why are you not dead!?” Tenko asked as Kaito began taking a position more behind Ryoma to avoid Korekiyo’s sist- err Miss Shinguji’s wrath. And Kaede had thought Korekiyo was weird before. (And it’s the last person I ever wanted to meet.)

“Because of my beloved baby brother of course.” She brushed her fingers through his hair as she rested her head against his. (Okay Korekiyo having his big sister back was almost sweet but this feels super weird. No wonder he comes across like he has a complex if this is how she normally acted before.)

“Yeah you’re gonna have to give us more than that lady.” Kokichi deadpanned.

“I… suppose there is no other way around this, is there? I assume she’s been the 17th “student” the Monokubs had referenced before, and as they said she’s been here for quite some time now. I do believe I had mentioned having been host to spirits in the past yes? This is whom that event was referring to.”

“I’m still here because he wanted me to be... In addition to some less pleasant circumstances. This is actually my second time having the chance to speak with you all directly. Not that most of you noticed.”

Tenko’s jaw dropped as the gears began to click in her head before sharing her conclusion. “... KIYO REALLY WASN’T A DEGENERATE MALE AT THE PARTY!” (... What? But… I… Huh??? My head hurts.)

“Oh! Gonta see. That why Kokichi thought Kiyo’s lying ticks kept changing. Kiyo’s twitchy side is different from Kiyo’s sister’s twitchy side.” Gonta said softly, as if mostly talking to Kokichi beside him, before the lair tried covering his mouth with his hands.

“Shut UP Gonta, nobody needs to know about stuff like that yet!” Kokichi quietly hissed, looking around as if hoping no one heard what Gonta said. (Lying ticks? You mean like tells? I’ve heard of those before. Was that what Kokichi has actually been trying to teach him about? To keep him from being tricked?)

To Kokichi’s relief it didn’t seem that anyone else did as their focus was more on Shinguji and Tenko still.

“My little brother has NEVER been a “degenerate” you moronic misandrist! Cease your slander.” (Okay no, I’m pretty sure being a remorseless serial killer counts. But you’re probably not much better either.)

“Sister that is really uncalled for. We don’t know why Tenko takes such issue with men still but I’m sure she has plenty of fine reasons for it beyond her Master's teachings.” (I’m pretty sure she really doesn’t. Or she’s just one hell of a hypocrite. I mean why else threaten to hurt or kill my friends for being guys?)

“Justifications are not excuses Brother. My statement stands as firm as it does for the other sexist swine.”

“I believe you are blowing his chauvinism out of proportion. If memory serves Kaito even brought more girls than he did boys when he first tried to make a plan to directly fight back against our captors yes?”

“Did you hear the way he spoke to me, thinking I was you? Did you see the way he reacted to us!?”

“To be fair, trying to make our switches as subtle as possible, without compromising your freedom, was part of the idea was it not? I was honestly more surprised his reaction was part of the minority there.”

“Korekiyo, being surprised people were less horrid than they could have been is never a good thing.”

Kibo cautiously spoke up, to try and curb the sibling’s arguing. “... Do you two need a moment? I could continue showing everyone else around and fill you two in later.” (YES! Thank you Kibo, save us! Wait...)

“Yes, that would be greatly appreciated Kibo. Would a warden still be required for me?”

“I can just wait outside of the salon and they can talk in there if you want. That should work since I can pause both of them if I need to, right?” (And maybe figure out what’s going on here. Just because our strengths have been equaled that doesn’t mean Kibo altered how strong some of our senses were.)

“If you really want to Kaede. But do you really want to? Not being a danger to others was the point of that feature, so I’m not sure a warden is really needed anymore at all.”

“Yup, don’t you worry bout a thing!”

And if I’m outside the door I can listen in and see how any of this fits with the whole “friends” thing. I mean she’s making it pretty clear she doesn’t like any of us, so would that mean Korekiyo’s lost his reason for killing people? Or is this part of an act? But his reactions here have been genuine I think.

“What exactly does she mean by “pausing” us, Brother?”

“Ah. Kibo said he made these digital bodies with a particular quirk in my own, and as you seem to be stuck with my design it would stand to reason it applies to you as well. If we come into physical contact with an avatar that is considered female we won’t be able to move for a brief period of time.”

“Pardon? But I’m touching you just fine.”

“Because you are using my avatar, so it’s considering you to also be male as I understand it.”

“Now that’s ridiculous, why would it-” Miss Shinguji began as she brought a hand to her heart as if she were offended before stopping herself as she noticed something wrong. She tapped at her chest again, before looking down at her hands. Or rather seeing what wasn’t under them anymore. “Oh. That’s new.”

“Huh~ How is that “new”? Didn’t Missy Sissy say she took over Kiyo’s body outside too?”

“What did you just call me? ” (Oh god we’ve actually been dealing with the less horrifying sibling up until now haven’t we? And he doesn’t actively hate us, he’s just a horrible person. This… doesn’t sound good.)

“Moment to talk first, addressing Angie’s antics later if we may?” Korekiyo “suggested” as he urged her through the door, sending Angie a glare over his shoulder best he could as he tried to pacify her state.

Kaede gave a bit of a wave as the others headed towards the dining room before settling next to the door. Ryoma seemed the most reluctant to leave her there alone, but Gonta urged him forward anyway. A little weird, since normally the positions of the two would be opposite, but she wasn’t complaining.

Instead she closed her eyes and focused on listening to the siblings inside. It might still be rude, but this was more a matter of safety than her own interest at this point.

Korekiyo’s voice was as soft as a whisper as he began their conversation. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I know. I’ve missed this too. I nearly forgot what my own voice really sounded like, it’s been so long.”

“If… I may ask, why are you so hostile to everyone? Do the girls here not all live up to your standards?”

“No, no it isn’t that. However it’s difficult for the dead to not envy the living, so I don’t wish to struggle trying to smother that feeling by befriending any of them before you can arrange for a true introduction. You understand, don’t you? It’s like how I could get rather… contrary in regards to your traveling before.”

Well so much for that hope. And now I know she’s definitely as much a part of his crazy schemes as he is, instead of just trying to make excuses for him. But if being around the living upsets her why doesn’t this apply to Korekiyo? Because he’s her “host”? Or because they’re related and been together for so long?

“I see. Sorry, Sister. But still, aren’t you going a bit too far? You know they are all good people at heart.”

“Good people wouldn’t even give the notion of killing you over something so inconsequential a second thought. And yet the people here who don’t openly endorse such a thing can be counted on one hand.”

“Seeing good people pushed to such extremes was part of what I was hoping my discovery would cause, so must you blame them so harshly for that? Murder is hardly a sin that should have carry no aftermath.”

“Your safety matters more to me than your pet project, Korekiyo. At least one of us should keep your well being in mind. But fine, I’ll try to be less… disdainful of those “friends” of yours for you. Within reason.”

“Thank you so much, Sister. And might you consider at least letting some of the girls here get to know you a little better in the meantime? Since I likely won’t be able to make any “arrangements” for a while still.”

“I might. But don’t be too surprised if encouraging me to do so makes me reconsider the exception you tried to make for Miss Akamatsu. Just because she changed her mind doesn’t mean I have yet, and she’s still the girl here who’s been least spiteful towards you. Truly impressive of her, all things considered.”

“Except Tsumugi you mean? She’s one more for avoidance than aggression, so she hardly changed at all.”

“... Technically I suppose that’s true. But from what I’ve seen of her I’m not nearly as interested in Miss Shirogane in the short term.”

“My apologies, but what exactly did she do wrong? She’s passionate, humble, and clearly talented in the ways of making various types of clothing. So you’d have at least that interest in common, yes?”

“Irreconcilable differences of opinion.” (... Please tell me this doesn’t involve Tsumugi’s “shipping” or something like that. I’m not sure I could handle it if things got that stupid with these lunatics.)

“... About what, pray tell?”

“Cultural reenactor erasure.” Her voice sounded, clear and as deadly serious as can be. Kaede couldn’t be sure at first if the long pause was real or just her losing focus while she brought a hand to her face.

Okay yup this is definitely Kiyo’s sister. Maybe I should I have been broader about what sort of dumb I didn’t want to deal with today. ‘Cause I’m not sure this is that much better than the shipping alternative.

When Kiyo did speak next it was clear he was also baffled. “I’m… afraid I’m not quite following, Sister.” (Thank god, at least he’s still normal enough to see how stupid this is too.)

“Her petty “Cospox” must be a fictional construct so she couldn’t be accused of impersonating anyone in this game. Anyone truly concerned with cosplay as an art that serves as an expression of their love for a subject has no reason to try gatekeeping against those who merely have a different preferred topic!” (What? I mean this sounds ridiculous, but also why would Tsumugi ever feel she needed to go that far?)

“... Are you accusing Kaede of lying about what she saw then?”

“No, her honesty isn’t the one I’m doubting. I’m quite confident that the effect was staged, as anyone sufficiently skilled in fabric work and special effects could do it. Either through the placement or prior knowledge of materials she would have a genuine allergic reaction to in order to sell her idea or clever quick use of makeup, as most people wouldn’t want to look too closely at another person’s pain or ills.”

“Might this be something we should bring up to the group then? If there are concerns of a mastermind being hidden amongst ourselves, one of our number still hiding the true scope of her talent would be most suspicious yes?” (Or maybe I should. It’s a fair point at least, if it’s really true. But it’s Tsumugi!)

“I hardly think it’s anything so drastic, Korekiyo. I merely have no desire to argue with her over what should and should not qualify as valid forms of costume play until we really have the time for it.”

Kaede didn’t need to wonder what she meant by that. Time shouldn’t really matter for the dead.

“I see. I’ll… see what I can do to give you both that time then, when I’m next able to.”

“Would you? Thank you Korekiyo. I know you won’t disappoint me.”

The next thing she could hear was a soft organic click and a hum, but Kaede couldn’t be sure what the source was. In another situation she may have mistaken it for a kiss, which would be kinda weird here.

At least she thought it would be, platonic family kisses aren’t really a thing she’s ever been used to, but if she remembered right that was more common in Europe or something. It could be something they picked up from Kiyo’s travels. Assuming that if she did guess it right that the kiss was actually platonic.

Wait why would I even think that?! Of course it is!... But Kiyo never actually said he didn’t have a sister complex, did he? He just got mad when people would accuse him of it. Or maybe the wrong sibling has the “complex” here, with how protective she’s being towards him- GAH brain stop it! Not going there.

No matter how weird something about the two of them feels, it’s probably nothing. Her being so touchy could just be related to how long she’s been dead. It might feel different to touch things for herself again instead of using Kiyo to do it. I really don’t want to think about what this means about the party crush...

“...Brother, if unit Kay One Bee Zero designed you to be male why are you still wearing my lipstick?” (WHY ARE YOU NOT HELPING ANYTHING?!- Easy Kaede, maybe him taking off his mask made that sound. Perfectly innocent explanation. I mean there’s no need to wear it around his own family right?)

“Sister, please don’t actually call him that. I’m fairly confident that’d greatly upset him. It’s only because of him you are here, even if only as a glitch in his system caused by our unique situation. The least you can do is use his creator’s family name for him, yes? He probably just included it because he’s only seen my face with it on. We likely both have your nail polish on under my bandages too for similar reasons.”

“Oh? That’s comforting at least, I merely took your mask off out of habit before. It’d make things go more smoothly for us if we give your friends visual indicators for which of us is which, no?”

“Tell me you aren’t just suggesting this to trick them by switching later. You don’t sound like me anymore so that ruse would end as soon as one of us speaks. And neither of us could keep quiet for that long.”

“... Fair point. I guess we’ll need to settle for only playing that game outside. Shall we rejoin them now?”

“If that’s what you want, then by all means, let’s.”

Kaede tried not to seem suspicious when the two finally came out, but if she failed they didn’t call her out on it. Kiyo’s mask was back in place and Miss Shinguji’s bandages were off, so they were easier to tell apart. With everything in order, the three headed to the dining hall to regroup with the others.

It sounded like Kibo was explaining minor tweaks he'd made to the program in the kitchen since he didn’t have the maps from the entrance to show things off, and specifically going into why the program was made to accommodate certain expectations for what a mansion should have, even though for avatars they wouldn’t work. Eating wouldn’t do anything to mitigate a person’s hunger, and at Tenko’s bizarre prompting he pointed out trying to use the bathroom would likely cause an accident in the real world.

Shinguji got an odd look in her eye as Kokichi pointed out how weird it was to make toilet paper that couldn’t tear. She pulled out her bandages, gave them an experimental set of tugs, and gave a malicious grin at the back of Tenko’s head. Which fell as soon as Kiyo snatched them from her hands.

Luckily for the two of them, no one but Kaede noticed this brief exchange, helped by Kiyo placing himself between his sister and the others. It didn’t stop her from scowling at him, which was nearly enough to make him cave in and return them to her before Kaede intervened and took them away herself.

Shinguji was even less pleased with the realization they still had an audience, but Kiyo looked rather relieved that he couldn’t be the focus of her displeasure anymore. (I’ll definitely need to tell Kibo to simplify those handwraps into gloves or something later, so they can’t be used to strangle anyone.)

In an effort to move on Shinguji chose the most recent lull in the conversation to pose her own question. “I don’t suppose you have an explanation for us too, Idabashi?”

“Huh? Do you mean me? W-well, that depends. I mean the visors are meant to import your consciousness into the program, so I suppose if Kiyo entering the program caused you to take over his body shortly after, it just automatically went through the process again. Which is probably a good thing, as if you tried taking the headset off I’m really not sure what would have happened to either of you.”

“You aren’t really buying her being a ghost in the machine, right Kibo?”Kokichi teased.

“Why not? I mean if they kept exchanging information between themselves mid-party this can’t be a case of Dissociative Identity Disorder, right? At no point did either of them show any signs of confusion, as if they lost time while the other was in control. If they had we would have noticed this all sooner.”

“Huh? But can’t they still “talk” to each other with DID?” Tsumugi asked.

“I believe that’s only in outlandish and inaccurate depictions in the media Miss Shirogane, be you referring to “talking” as either a mental or physical process. Leaving notes or recorded messages is obviously a different story, but multiple alters can’t all be “active” at the same time last I checked.”

“O-oh. I see. I… Didn’t know that.”

“That doesn’t rule out something like schizophrenia though!” Kaito spoke up, probably looking for ANY explanation that didn’t prove anything occult existed.

“Hearing voices is one thing, the voices being able to act on their own accord through the one hearing them is another I imagine. I did research as much as I was able to ensure Sister’s explanation fit. It wouldn’t have surprised me in the least if my grief over her passing had driven me mad after all.”

“It’s not like this matters anyway right? She’s clearly here now, so whatever Miss Shinguji is she’s “real” enough. I’m certainly not going to look a gift horse in the house if it means we get another girl!” Tenko pointed out and gave Shinguji a welcoming smile. (WHY ARE YOU SUCH A BAD JUDGE OF CHARACTER?!)

“Right, right~ And now that we’re all back together you can start going over bigger areas of your “world”, right Kibo?” Angie urged as she turned Tenko away from Shinguji and started marching her forwards.

“Right! So, let’s see… Well, with everything else going on the outside might be better left to tomorrow. For food breaks and everything, I wouldn’t recommend anyone else staying hooked up to this for too long. I’m a different case as I can even charge my batteries while my mind’s still in the machine. Hmm… I haven’t explained the logging out process yet, right? We could either go back to the salon for that, or you can all get an idea of what the area outside the mansion is like by heading to the roof if you’d like?”

“Let’s have a quick look at the roof and then call it a day then!” Kaede offered, which seemed agreeable to everyone. But when they did get to the door at the top of the stairs it became a slightly different story.

It was snowing! Like, actual snow! It was one thing to see a mostly white map and another to see it in person.

Any excitement Kaede felt about the change of scenery was quickly dwarfed by Kaito’s, and surprisingly enough Shinguji’s as well. Though her brother was a lot less pleased about this development, as he appeared to be turning blue out of disgust.

“Whoa! It’s snow! Look, Ryoma! SNOW! Did you ever think you’d see this again?!” Kaito exclaimed, like an excitable puppy experiencing it for the first time, while Ryoma merely shook his head and chuckled.

“And it’s cold! Actual cold, and wet too! It even smells like winter here!” Shinguji agreed, all smiles as she gracefully danced a bit, before realizing the person she primarily enjoying this with was Kaito. When he came to the same thought both paused in their merriment as they glared at each other like squabbling children.

At least before Tenko and Angie interrupted, knocking them over, made stranger by how the pause effect meant Shinguji was stuck mid-air from the impact for a moment. The moment did give Tenko the time to pose her so she wouldn’t fall on her face after she got over her initial confusion, while Kaito was left a grumpy pile on the floor as Angie laughed at them both.

Kaede nearly missed Kiyo’s reply over the sound of her own laughter, but there was no mistaking the pain in his whisper or sadness in his eyes as watched them and he clenched his fists. “But it’s all so fake.”

No one else seemed to hear him, as Gonta and Kokichi took off to look at the binoculars on their left while Kibo showed the nearly empty storage room to Tsumugi to go over how many objects he deleted.

“Kiiiibo, d-did you have to make the snow so-so cold? Angie would like to pl-play too, since she’s never s-seen snow before, but she’s really not dressed for this!” (Poor Angie, her teeth won’t stop chattering.)

“I’d also appreciate my ability to feel the cold lessened if you could,” Kiyo called from his spot near the door.

“Of course, sorry I forgot about that. I’ll see what I can do since I don’t think it’d be good for you to lose the sense entirely. Pain may not be pleasant, but it’s useful, and I think keeping the pleasure centers working is important.”

“Kukuku, now that sounds fun.”

“Hey, no fair! Kiyo said I wasn’t allowed to say any Miu type stuff anymore, so you can’t either! No double standards!”

“... You all do realize that the avatars aren’t detailed in, um… “that sort of way”, right?” Kibo said as he blushed and twiddled his fingers, oddly lacking the steam that would show up when he got like this in the real world. “I kinda forgot that was a thing, Sorry!”

“Oh? So that’s why his body isn’t as different to me as it should be. No matter. That just means we’d need to get a bit more creative, no?” Shinguji teased, though while Kibo sputtered indignantly and Kokichi snickered at his expense, Kiyo tried hiding his blush with his hand and groaned.

“A l-little cold is fine! Like an air-conditioned room would be simply d-divine~”

“Isn’t this place artificial enough as it is? Can we all please leave now?”

“Come on Korekiyo, it isn’t that bad if you give it a chance. When was the last time you even saw snow?”

“About six months ago I’d assume, give or take,” came his dry response.

“Pssh, liar. You keep scheduling trips away whenever the winter months come around,” his sister continued to tease.

“As I now have reason to believe that acting as your host means I’m often colder than those around me are, I’m very sorry if you felt slighted because of that but I don’t think I was out of line for doing so.”

“It’s fine, at least this place helps me make up for lost time. Though Idabashi, why aren’t we leaving any marks in the snow?”

“Oh, that’s a good point! If footprints don’t appear that means we can’t make snow angels later either!” Tenko exclaimed, and began to mime how exactly they worked to Angie after she whispered to her.

“Sorry, it’s a feature from the killing game simulator I can’t override. To make it harder to find murderers in this classic “closed circle” setting I assume,” he said, making the three girls’ faces drop.

As if to test something Ryoma took some snow and rolled it into a ball before rolling it down the sloped roof, and watched as it grew bigger as it went down despite not leaving a trail behind it. “Snowballs still work though, so you guys could prolly make snowmen or something if that will help.”

“We could play “war”!” Kokichi shouted, which made Tenko smile and whisper something again to the confused Angie until she brightened up too.

“What? No, war bad!” Gonta objected, appalled.

“He doesn’t mean an actual war, just a large-scale snowball fight with snow forts and stuff! It’s harmless fun Gonta, I promise.” Tsumugi assured him, before giving Ryoma and Tenko a glance. “Especially if no one can really throw any fastballs now.”

“Ugh, why’d you have to remind me? Where’s the fun in that if you can’t send one of these degenerates flying with a pre-emptive strike?”

“You can still pour snow down their necks or put rocks in the snowballs though. That’s always good for a laugh no?” Shinguji offered with an otherwise innocent looking smile.

“... I vote both Shinguji’s are banned from playing now,” Kokichi said with a nervous look on his face, while Shinguji crossed her arms and pouted which wasn't helped when she saw Kiyo happily nodding with that suggestion.

“I vote we find a better name for her than “Shinguji” too! It’s long and weird.” Angie chimed in with both hands raised above her head as if on a rollercoaster.

“Excuse me? No. Names have a power to them and I won’t have you disrespecting mine. Or ours rather.”

“But it’d make things sooo much easier. Like how about… Miyadera? That’s kinda the same as “Shinguji” right? And it kinda sounds like “murderer” in English too.” Kokichi said, leaping at the chance to troll his fellow troll.

“... Korekiyo how have you not killed him yet?”

“If I killed him wouldn’t we both still be stuck with him?” Kiyo replied with what was probably some sort of smirk.

“Ah, nevermind then. The annoying púca lives.” (The what now? Like that silly cartoon about the girl with a crush on a ninja boy?)

“W-what’s that supposed to mean?! Are you telling us Kiyo’s been killing girls to make a dead harem?!” Tenko shouted, looking ready to attack him for her assumptions. (And why shouldn’t she be for once? She’s not really wrong or anything based on how he described it to me. Still, what the heck's a "pooka"?)

“Of course not, don’t be so crude-” Kiyo started, face red with anger, before his sister chimed in.

“Of a mostly platonic sort yes! More for me than him of course, which is why he uses my standards instead of his own. He’s far less picky.” She was practically beaming while he gave her a blank stare.

“... Sister, I’m not comfortable with you addressing your friends like that.”

“Well Kirumi’s not comfortable being my friend yet, so I think that balances out. She’s still a workaholic, so it’s taking time for her to adapt.” She countered with a wink, which only made Kiyo go pale. Er, paler.

“Seriously, that’s what this was all about?! Making you “friends”?” Kaito nearly shrieked, horrified. As was everyone really, though Kaede and Gonta’s reactions were less surprised than the others.

“Yes, so what? Would you rather it be something more crude, like his own pleasure being his motive? At least he knows I take good care of the lives he sends to me, very few have such comforts for an afterlife.”

“So you think that makes this okay?” Ryoma challenged, eyes dark as he glared at them both.

“Of course it doesn’t! But neither was leaving her as lonely as she was. Possession would only help for as long as I’m still alive, so it was clear a more… permanent solution would be needed to ease her pain.”

“I… don’t think anything good will come of this conversation. Shall we all just log out now?” Kibo offered.

No one was in the mood for playing anymore, so everyone agreed and began going down the stairs one by one. It was almost like they were being filtered, so only one person could go through a door at a time.

“Why not just keep them both here?” Kokichi asked with a cold glare as they reached the salon.

“I told you, I don’t know how that might affect a human! But this does provide a safer means for Kiyo to have a larger degree of freedom, without putting the lives of others at risk, doesn’t it?”

“So, this is the hell you devised for me as punishment for what I did to Kirumi?”

“It’s not like that! I just thought it would help. And if your sister’s here it isn’t that bad, is it?” Kibo asked, looking like he could nearly cry over how his attempt at a kind gesture was being twisted.

“... No. No, it’s not. And I do thank you for your consideration, Kibo. But everything else about it will take more… “adapting” to.”

“I understand. It’s all a bit too sci-fi for me too at times. And there’s still so much left to show you all! But for now, the logout process. In order to log a person out their name will need to be said into the phone you see there. It doesn’t have to be your own name either, just in case someone got stuck or something. But this is the only landline the simulation has in it, which is why it’s also the room you’d log back into.”

As Kiyo’s process seemed the most likely to cause more glitches, and he wanted to leave the most, Gonta wanted to be the first to test it, so that someone would be there to make sure everything stayed safe when Kiyo woke up on the other side, and still be one of the first to get out. And it seemed to work at first, as he disappeared with a bright light just like Gonta had, in much the same way they initially all appeared.

Except his sister was still with them, and Kibo wasn’t sure about how to fix that.

“I may not need to sustain myself the way the living do but I would much prefer to not be limited to this place either, unit Kay One Bee Zero. I recommend you fix this soon.”

“HEY! I’m not a “unit” and don’t call me that! I-I know I need to fix this! I’m just not sure how exactly we need to tell the program to let you out too. I mean you didn’t need to press the button right?”

“Correct. I wasn’t paying too much attention to your little demonstration, but after Korekiyo disappeared with no sign of returning, I took over his body to find out what happened only to see an odd series of computer messages and woke up in this place.”

“Well, it could be good for you to stay in here. This way you could try making friends in a much healthier way than that- than your brother tried to do for you.” Tenko suggested, catching herself at the ghost’s glare. (Oh no. Bad idea Tenko, just because she’s a girl doesn’t mean you can trust her at all!)

Shinguji looked ready to snap at her, before thinking better of it with a grin that had more malice than she likely intended to show. “You may have a point there if you wish to try spending more time with me, Miss Chabashira. It’s not like I’ve really had a chance to get to know you, without your cruel bigotry.”

“S-sure! And a bit of distance would probably do you both some good from what I’ve seen! I mean the way you two treat each other… Doesn’t exactly seem sibling-y. No offense!” (HOW IS THAT NOT OFFENSIVE TO BRING UP EVER TENKO?! I mean you’re not wrong , but it’s still super creepy!)

“No, I understand. You heard before, he’s the only company I had for quite some time before my end. Whether I liked it or not. And well, you know what they say. A brother is a poor substitute for a lover.” Shinguji said, voice smooth as silk as she… flirted with Tenko? Tenko certainly seemed to think that’s what this was. Her face burned crimson and held her hands up as if in surrender when the former leaned close to her. Close enough that Kaede suspected she forgot the avatar's pausing trigger again.

Before things could go any further, not that they could without freezing her, Tsumugi felt the need to correct what Shinguji said with a cold, serious expression on her simplified face. “You mean “son”.”

“What are rambling about now?”

“The line was “A son is a poor substitute for a lover.” And a “poor substitute” is still a substitute, isn’t it?”

“Well, what do you know, the otaku does know at least some true classics. So, what’s your point?” Miss Shinguji’s grin was nothing but ice as she dared the girl to accuse her of what they probably all suspected by this point. (I can only hope everyone’s hoping this isn’t true just as much. It’s just so… sick. And gross.)

“My point is you’re not saying “no”.”

“And why should this matter to any of you? Particularly you, Miss Shirogane. You strike me as the type to be more than interested in these sorts of relationships .” (EWWW. Nononono. WHY?! EVEN IF IT’S A LIE, WHY GO THERE?! Goddamnit both of you, what the hell?! Isn’t two sickos enough? Fucking anime.)

“T-that’s different! I’m an only child after all! Ages and relations don’t matter if they’re all fictional-” (THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY OF THAT SHIT OKAY TSUMUGI, YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO CONFIRM THIS!)

“Hypocrite.” Shinguji hissed with so much hate the word felt like a curse. “I know what you are. You can tell yourself all the lies you like to make yourself feel more at ease over your “taboo” interests, but make no mistake. Fiction isn’t just a harmless means of expression when it encourages “unhealthy” mindsets. Out of everyone here, if you start tossing stones your own glass house will take just as much damage.”

Kaede took a deep breath before asking the one thing she really didn’t want to. “So, it is true?”

“So what if it is? Is there any point in denying it at this point, Miss Akamatsu? Why should this change anything? Aren’t you all just glad to have yet another “moral” reason to hate Us?”

“Why the hell would we?! We don’t want to dislike him! Or, uh “you”? Fuck it, you know what I mean. Both of you just keep giving us reasons to distrust you! I mean hell, are you listening to yourself? You have to know how wrong this is!” Kaito challenged back, despite obviously being disturbed. On more levels than one, considering what he’s talking to right now.

“If we don’t intend to procreate, why exactly is it “wrong”? Did that make Izanagi or Izanami “wrong”? Zeus or Hera? Obviously yes, humans indulging in relations like the gods only begets genetic misfortune in the long run. But that hardly kept royalty with the “divine right of kings” on their side from wanting to keep things “in the family” so to speak, no? And it’s not like I had many options to choose from before.”

“You’re the one who said “justifications aren’t excuses”, so why are you doing the same thing huh?! You can’t just pretend genetics are the only issue here, power dynamics are too! The breach or exploitation of trust. The drastic change of expectations and boundaries. Not to mention how hard it makes the idea of “consent”. No matter who pushed for it, with your extreme situation could the other really say “no”?!” Kaito shouted back, looking like his anger was outweighing his phobias for the time being. (If she isn’t a ghost what would that say about any of this? This is so screwed up. Would this be more or less disgusting if she’s just an overactive figment of Kiyo’s imagination after all?)

“Well, why should that matter to you?! Even if it started out of pity he clearly came around eventually. If both parties are happy what else should matter? You aren’t going to claim you care about him are you?” Shinguji snapped back, hair wild like a ball of writhing snakes and eyes nearly glowing in their intensity. She leveled her glare at everyone, as if looking for one to claim she’s wrong, that felt like it froze them in their tracks like a monster of myth. (No wonder Kiyo said it was a favorite. The resemblance is uncanny.)

But before the argument could go any further another light flashed and Kiyo was back in the room. He looked about as disoriented as Shinguji did when she arrived, like he was barely able to hold himself up.

“Huh? Kibo, why didn’t that work?” Kiyo began asking before he started to process the looks the others were giving him. “... Did something… Did I miss something?”

“Nothing dear, nothing at all.” His sister replied as she helped hold him steady, taking his hand in hers.

“What? Then why are they all looking at me like-” There was a panic to his voice Kaede wasn’t sure she ever heard before. Not during his motive video, and not during the last trial.

She understood the look in his eye this time. He was afraid of them, as the realization dawned. “... You…  didn’t?” (After scaring the rest of us for so long it should feel better to have it go the other way, right?)

“Apologies brother, I shouldn’t have doubted you when you said they could be quite clever. Would you have rather I lied?” She asked, smiling like nothing was wrong. As if daring him to deny her in a final effort to save some face. Knowing he never would, not with the way he adored her so much. Too much.

“I… see. So no more use hiding it then?” His voice was quiet, as if hoping they wouldn’t hear how nervous this change made him.

“Well, to be fair neither of you did much to hide anything! Like… EVER,” Kokichi snarked.

“Shaddup Kokichi! Let’s just… Focus on leavin’ for now, okay? Any ideas why Kiyo came back Kibo?” Kaito snapped, trying to focus on anything else.

“I think I do. As long as one mind’s still in the machine their body can’t wake up I think, so logging only one out will just result in a loop like this. And if she has his avatar, using his name might work to log them both out. So let’s just try that, and if it doesn’t everyone else can go while I stay and work this out.”

Kibo’s theory seemed right on the money, as this time when “Korekiyo Shinguji” was said into the phone it was his sister who vanished instead of him. Before he had time to panic over that he was logged out in the same breath, and after giving it a minute to assure them neither would be poofing back Kaito was the next to leave.

After Kaito went Ryoma, followed by Kaede and Tsumugi, while Tenko and Angie left right before Kibo so he could catch any other errors that may have occurred. But nothing did for a change.

The only oddity to be found was when they woke up to see Kiyo with his mask off again. Or rather his sister, judging from her painted smile and colder gaze, sitting beside a very confused looking Gonta. Explaining this mess to him later was not going to be pleasant. But her voice was different when she spoke this time, now that she was back to using her brother’s falsetto as a pale imitation of her own.

“I hope you understand if He’s not really up for conversation right now. If there’s no need to hide anything from you all anymore then there’s no problem with me showing up more often, no?”

“Hell yeah, we have a problem with that, brotherfucker! We have enough crazy judgy bitches in here.” Kokichi was quick to claim, earning him her ire again. But this time she kept calm as she replied.

“I’d be more respectful of your elders if I were you, brat.”

“Pretty sure being dead makes ages a biiiit of a moot point.”

“I disagree. While I may have died before I could graduate, and thus “count” as a student, had I not I’d be 23 right now. I’m reasonably confident that makes me the eldest “student” here, as disgraceful as it is.”

“... Wooow. So we got ourselves a case of incest, necrophilia, and statutory rape on our hands! You take the evil bitch cake, that’s for sure. No wonder you’re both so fucked up, with Kiyo having your voice in his head for so long. Did you start telling him to kill people for the funsies, or was that just his brand of evil?”

“Excuse me?! Strictly speaking, the defilement of any bodies has never occurred between us, and if you do wish to claim my age “shouldn’t count” I would still be 17!  So I’ll ignore that last bit of slander for now.”

“It’s only slander if it’s a lie you know, and if you think of yourself as being 23 while your brother is still a teenager I think it still counts. But no matter what the answer really is I’d say you’re both still to blame. Takes two to tango and all. Standing or sideways.”

You do realize if they were intimate before she died he couldn’t have been older than 12 or something right Kokichi!? Assuming Kiyo’s 18 now, which I’m not sure he is. Blaming both for his murders and trying to kill me I understand, but not anything sexual, that’s her fault regardless of who wanted to start it! … Wait, if Kiyo was that young, or younger, when she died was he lying about when she made his uniform?

“Stop talking you two or I’ll make you! Can we all just go now?! It’s late and I’m feeling pretty nauseous.” Tenko said, thoroughly uncomfortable by this conversation.

“Yeah, I agree. Let’s all just call it a night. We can deal with…” Kaito took the second to pause before vaguely gesturing at Shinguji, with a hand to his mouth as if trying to hide how sick he felt. “This, tomorrow or somethin’. ‘Cause we might need a change in the containment plan from now on.”

Angie was the first to leave with that option made available to her, and the others quickly followed suit. She must have been really unsettled by everything, since she'd gotten so quiet. But if she needed any help Tenko was probably the person best able to do it right now, rather than Kaede. Maybe Angie’d be able to help encourage Tenko to stop being so open-minded to people just for being girls while they’re at it.

But before bed, Kaede went by the wisteria again for Ryoma and Kaito’s nightly training, despite Gonta’s vain attempts to encourage following Angie’s nightly curfew before he was dragged off by Kokichi.

As it turned out the pants didn’t help much at all, and sit ups were only slightly easier on her body than the hell known as push-ups. But she still managed to do more reps then Kaito did. Which admittedly wasn’t saying much, particularly not with how having a “ghost” among them was still affecting him, but helped her confidence a little anyway. (Err, wait. Are they “reps” or “sets”? Stupid weird exercise terms. At least with everything going on it’s easier to ignore Maki’s absence now. I’m sorry Maki. I couldn’t help you.)

“Come on Kaito, is that really the best you can do? You’ve still got a ways to go as an astronaut trainee if you can be outdone by a rusty prisoner and a pianist. She even got dressed up just to show you up.”

“H-hey, it’s not my fault! It’s, uh… that pulled muscle acting up again!”

“Where, on your funny bone? ‘Cause it’s sure not anywhere that involves actual work.”

“Ow, you sure they didn’t call you “Killer Tennis” ‘cause you always go for the jugular?”

“At least I had the skills so that I was known for something Captain Usopp.”

Kaede couldn’t help but laugh when the two started bickering. (Pretty sure the only reason he acts so lazy with these is to make us laugh. What else could it be? He can’t really be sick and hiding it, right?)

“Ya know what? Why don't we take a break and just talk tonight?”

“And so the guy who roped us into this nonsense finally gives up. What’s on your mind?”

“I dunno, you’re not supposed to have a topic in mind when you do this sorta thing, right?”

“What? If you don’t have an idea to serve how do you expect anyone to react to it? All a conversation is a back-and-forth of ideas you know. Someone has to put things into motion.”

“... Was that a tennis pun Ryoma?” Kaede asked with a sly smile. Ryoma took a moment to go over what he just said before laughing at himself.

“Old habits die hard I guess.”

“Hm, well here’s a question: Next time we have the time ya wanna try teaching me some piano Kaede? I’m pretty sure I asked you about it before. We could even do it in place of training one of these nights!”

“That depends. How serious were you about using it to talk to aliens?”

“...What?” Ryoma asked, holding back a laugh that nearly lost him his candy cig.

“Dead serious! Music can communicate beyond language barriers!”

“You really liked Macross as a kid or something, didn’t you?”

“Don’t you go dissing Minmay on me man, at least I’m not stealing finishing moves outta manga.”

“Hey, of all the crimes I’ve committed no one's ever tried getting me for copyright infringement.”

“Yet.” Kaito shot back with a cocky smile.

“I don’t think copyright laws even work like that, you guys.”

“Still, is that a yes? Not for tonight of course.”

Ryoma leaned over to her and stage whispered. “Just let him have this excuse to be a lazy bum. We all know he’s just scared that if you keep practicing you’ll be able to deadlift his ass one of these days.”

As Kaito sputtered and started giving his tall tale excuses again Kaede could only laugh.

“You could always ask Kaede to try teachin’ ya something too you know.”

“Yeah right, because clearly I can reach all the keys and foot pedals no problem. Pretty sure I’ll pass.”

“W-well I mean for duets that isn’t really true! Since when you have another person you don’t need to focus on as large of an area on the keyboard after all. And those pedals aren’t always needed either.”

“Heeey, now there’s an idea-” Kaito teased as he ribbed his friend some more.

“Shut up.” Despite his harsh tone Kaede was pretty sure Ryoma had started blushing again, but she wasn’t really sure why. (I mean sure it’d be a beginner duet but there’s nothing to really be embarrassed about. Should I offer to teach him with a smaller piano or something outside? Hopefully one that’s tuned right.)

She hardly noticed when it was time for them to head back to their dorms as they hashed out some ideas for future piano lessons. Hopefully they wouldn’t all just end up being idle talk, but even if it was at least it was fun. Maybe it’d even open the door to watching Kaito and Ryoma play a tennis match soon too.

Though I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to play it myself. I mean, I’ve never really been allowed to since a pianist can’t really afford to let anything happen to their hands. I’d even need to sit out in gym a lot. … Probably why it’s still so hard for me to keep up with these athletic types. Even Kaito’s holding back. I think. Why else would he offer to train with us so late at night if he really wasn’t able to do it himself?

It was all almost enough to forget the chaos of the day by the time she got to her dorm. But when she did, she saw Monodam’s “bed” was still untouched with the little Monomi doll she'd tucked into it the night before, and it all came rushing back. She hadn’t even been in the mood to do her doll checks anymore.

Hopefully that wasn’t a bad sign of anything. Sure, she’d felt kinda… empty at times, but with everything going on Kaede figured that should be expected. Between the flashback lights, and Kiyo-

When exactly did I start thinking of him as “Kiyo” again? It’s not like I’ve forgiven him at all. But it is shorter and who knows what Angie and Kokichi might try as far as “naming” his sister goes. God that’s a mess...

Kaede shook her head as she went to bed, but at least it felt like it didn’t take long to sleep this time.

That just made Monokuma’s visit and pestering about her Love Key all the more annoying though. But despite her nearly literally kicking him out he didn’t seem bothered by her anger. If anything he just found it all the more amusing, for whatever sick reason he had this time.

But whatever it was she decided to ignore it and get whatever rest she could. She’d probably need it.

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[andieperrie18]

KAREN ( Peter Parker X Reader )

Supp guys! I know you all are waiting for the Get Some part 2. But i wanna post this first. Don't you worry people I will follow up the part two Of Get Some. For now enjoy this one.

" Oh dear. . . " said as she looked at the computer screen.

" Voice System Deleted. . " the screen flashed this word as her mouth dropped. She just wanted to see the Spiderman Suit that his dad made for Peter. It was all done until she deleted the voice command.

She heard foots steps as she immidiately placed a camo microchip so she could haywire the suit. The foot steps got louder as Y/n muttered profanities then ran out and hid in a corner. Happy entered the room as he saw the case the contained the suit open. He looked around as Y/n hid down. After scanning around, he closed the case and left to deliver the uniform.

" This is bad. " The girl said as she dashed her way to her room. She popped open her laptop as she locates the laptop.

" Friday, how long does it take to make the suit's voice command? " she said as her fingers tapped away the codes.

" I cannot say the approximate time but it could take a month or more, Ms. Stark. " the computer answered as Y/n muttered, " Crap. "

" Is there a way for me to help the suit work. With out the voice command of the suit. It would be useless. " she asked as she struggled to maintain calm.

" You did put a microchip on the suit maam. You could run the suit while you remake the voice command of the suit. " the computer suggested.

" What?!, but that would mean I would- " "Yes, Sorry Ma'am but that is all I can get. I could call Mr. Stark about it. " the computer stated as Y/n held her forehead in stress. She didn't think her clumsiness would actually lead to this. But she had to fix this.

" No Friday. Alright, I'll run the suit. Do me a favor and recreate the suit's designed voice command. I'll take care in transfering to the suit.

From that moment, You would always be alerted when Peter would wear the suit. You tried her best to make her voice as robotic as possible. It was funny that Peter would call her suit Lady. You go to the same school as him and no one really knew that you are a daughter of the Iron Man. You liked Peter too. Ever since you two met, your feelings for him continued to develope but he like Liz Allan, the beauty and brains of Midtown School. You kept a low profile and had your name changed to Potts so the relation isn't near.

Peter found you fun to talk to. He would sometimes sleep with the suit on just to talk you, unknown to him that you were just running the suit.

" Y/n, are you ok? You've been really distant?" Ned asked you as Peter stood beside him lookin at you. You opened her mouth to answer. " I - I, you see I've been busy. I'm building the Lightsaber at the moment and I wanna use it as soon as possible so yeah I gotta go, bye! " you said and ran out. You leave school early cause you have taken the schedule of when and what time Peter would suit up and patrol Queens.

Now you were, at your seat as you work with Peter. You were trying to wake him up. It seems that he was knocked out badly.

A few moments later, Peter woke up from a shake. He sat up and growned.

" Ughh. . . My head. " he groaned as you snapped back to your holographic screen and hurriedly placed the mic on and tried to be as calm as possible.

" You appear to have a mild concusion. " she said as she began to monitor his health status.

" Ok stable. " you said off mic so Peter would'nt hear.

" So hey. . . Where am I right now? " she heard Peter ask.

" I'm not sure, the container walls are hindering my sensors. " you reasoned as you tried to scan but fails. You can see Peter scanning his surrounding as well.

" Wait a minute, they must've hijacked the truck and took'em in to their evil lair. So lady we're goin to find our way this one. " He replied as you tried tried to find a way to help him.

Peter began backing up trying to much momentum to break down the door. You watched as he counted down run towards the door breaking it open. Peter stumble his way out as he stood wobbly as he got out.

" Uh,. Huh? " he looked around to scan the unfamiliar surroundings the room was big and contained alot of same black metal containers.

" what is this place? " he asked as you began to scan the place yourself and began to research.

" Suit lady where am I? " you heard Peter ask as you finished reading the info you've found about the place he was in.

" You're in the most secured facility in the eastern seaboard. The Damage Control Deep Storage Vault. " " No! Seriously. " he cursed as you took a sip of your coffee and sat back. It was useless to get out of that vault.

You watched him groaned as he tries to open the sealed doors.

" Ugh. . . Gosh Peter, be thankful your cute cause I might have flew their by now to give you an Iron Slap. " you muttered of mic as you rubbed your temple as you watch the poor boy find his way out. You sighed as you turn on the mic.

" The doors must likely remain close till morning. " You said as you held back your sarcasm for the sake of the voice command protocol.

Peter finally settled down and built a bed swing using his web as You watched him with your hands under your chin with your elbows resting on the table.

You stared at Peter at the screen as he settled down at the bed.

" Hey suit lady, I kinda feel bad calling you suit lady. You know?" Peter said as sincerity coated his voice. ' How sweet. ' you thought as you watched him.

" I should probably give you a name. A Glitz? No no no, god thats-thats weird. " he said as you laughed at his dorkiness.

" Its ok. " you said through the mic.

Peter swung off the swing as you watched him fall off as you voice out a small giggle that Peter heard making him smile inside the mask, " What about Karen? " he stated.

You watch him land on the floor on purpose. The name suits the voice command. It was programmed to be a female voice.

" You could Call me Karen, if you would like? " you stated with your smile neverr leaving your lips as you stood from the couch and leaned on the table inside your room.

Peter felt something in ' Karen's ' voice like he could hear a smile behind it but it felt weird and nice at the same time

" Hey Karen, what else can this suit do?" he asked as you watched him hang upside down as he read his chemistry book in coincidence that you too was actually reading.

You activated the flight suit as you heard him gasp through your earpiece.

" What! " he gasped.

Peter was practically rummaging all the suits ability as you just showed him all its abilities. He was now playind the laser symbol on the white gray walls of the vault.

" Ricochet Web." You stated as he repeated it making you activate the command as he shot a web making it jump back to him almost hitting him.

" Cool. "

" Spider web. " you said as countless spider webs shot out of Peter's wrist as he walked around making you laughed at his clueless-ness of how the web works. You then spoke out another command.

" Web Grenade. "

" WEB GRENADE! " you heard him yell as he shot a web making spread across the wall.

You continued to tell him all the commands until he was now using the web into a jumping rope. You could practically feel his boredom as your head dropped to your elbows.

" Should I tell Liz that I'm Spiderman? "

Your head shot up from the sketchpad on your lap. You were sketching out Peter's face in a smile. The name of the girl utterly made you feel jealous as you rolled your eyes and angrily flipped the sketch pad into another page.

" Whose Liz? " you said trying to stay calm as possible as stroked the black color pencil on the pad heavily.

" Who's Liz? Haha she's the best, she's awesome. She's just a girl who goes to my school. And yeah, I'd really want to tell her. It's kinda weird ya know? " he said in a dreamy tone.

You sighed as you looked at him in a sad look.

" Hey, I'm spiderman. " he said as you continued to gawking at him at the screen.

" What's weird about that? " your tone came out softer.

" What if she is expecting someone like Tony Stark? Could you imagine how disappointed she would be if it was me. " he confessed. You didn't minded the protocol and spoke.

" Well, If I were Her? I wouldn't be disappointed at all. " you stated with a warm smile.

Peter felt warmth surge his chest. " Thanks Karen, you know you sound alot like Y/n. " he said as curiousity struck you when you heard your name.

" and who is this Y/n? " you asked.

" Well, practically the coolest person and friend ever. She likes Star Wars and she is really a great friend. I think I'm practically thinking that she is my best friend. " he confessed.

' Best Friend. Huh . . .' you mumbled sadly.

" But . . . " Peter continued as you shot up.

" I've been feeling funny around her. I would find myself practically staring at her in Chemistry class, or when in lunch I would let her rest her head on my shoulder. I'm feeling really weird when I'm with her. " he confessed. Red dusted its way to your cheek as you looked down and smiled.

" Until she suddenly began to be distant. I miss her. " he stated sadly with a sigh. Now you felt bad.

" Maybe she's just working in something? " you reasoned out.

" Well I wish she could tell me. I'm . . . Getting really worried for her. I Miss her. . . So much. " he stated.

" I miss You too Peter. " you accidentally said.

" what?" Peter asked as you panicked and covered the mic. " I mean't that She Misses You too. " you answered as your breath hitched.

" Thanks, its really nice to have someone to talk too. " he replied.

" Your Welcome. " you replied with a smile. With a hint of relief, you felt butterflies surge into your stomach.

Should I make a part two?

[onebloodsoakedlion]

Top 10 reasons to switch to a Mac... or not.

Back in the early 2000s, around the time of Windows XP, Apple compiled this list of ten reasons to switch from a PC to a Mac: https://web.archive.org/web/20050415011955/http://www.apple.com/switch/whyswitch/ But are these reasons warranted? Probably not.

1. “The Mac... it just works.” This point is basically that because Apple made the computers that Mac OS runs on, you don’t have to worry about drivers or whatnot. But noooope! What really happens with letting third parties make hardware for your software is actually upgradable computers (probably due to the fact that the vital parts like CPUs and RAM need to be able to fit PCs of multiple brands) or specialised computers, such as gaming computers. Another benefit has been the inclusion of special features in some PCs, even way back when this was written. Sure, hardware manufacturers have to fight tooth and nail to get drivers that work well and don’t cause crashes, but hey, having an upgradable computer with niche features that can last for a long time with little more than RAM upgrades is worth it, right?

2. “It doesn’t crash” Ha ha... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Like that actually means so much in the grand scheme of things! Now let’s just say that Mac OS X came out in 2001. Before then, Bomb Screens were a thing. And they were everywhere. Due to the Macintosh’s terrible memory protection (as well as a very small amount of memory to begin with) meant that the simplest errors in an application (such as a divide by 0 error) would cause the entire system to crash. As the Angry Video Game Nerd loves to say, what a shitload of fuck. Windows, on the other hand, would only completely crash on serious errors. In Windows 9x, it was possible to resume after a BSOD which, like the bomb screen, applied to program errors as well as system errors. In Windows 3.11, you could get a BSOD just for pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete! It was in Windows NT, including Windows XP and later, that the BSOD was reserved for errors you couldn’t recover from. In Windows, the majority of crashes come from faulty third-party software, drivers or hardware, something that is to be expected. Meaning that there are few flaws within the OS itself. In the Mac, however, the only reason it can crash is due to a flaw in the OS (or maybe ruined hardware), due to the lack of third party contributions. Furthermore, while the Blue Screen of Death tells you exactly what happened with an error code (and sometimes even tell you which file or driver is responsible), as well as even giving you advice should the BSOD rear its ugly head again, Macs do very little of that, meaning that you may have no choice but to reinstall the OS.

3. “It’s a digital jukebox” Windows Media Player: Am I a joke to you? Moreover this reason is about the iPod, and Microsoft did not have an equivalent because they were focused on computers rather than portable devices. This is not a reason to switch to a mac. Also, there’s iTunes for Windows if you have an iPod you wish to manage songs on.

4. “Delivers The Promise Of Digital Photography” iPhoto is not the only thing that exists. There is a whole heap of freeware that exists that will do what iPhoto does and more. Paint.net and Windows Photo Viewer are just two of many. Also, with digital cameras, you need only have a compatiable USB cable, plug it in to your Windows XP computer and let it do the work. Because Windows XP can magically detect and adapt to hardware like that.

5. “Best Solution, In Fact, For All Things Digital” iLife more like iShit. Even Windows 98 could do everything iLife does with free third-party applications. Microsoft doesn’t put much on a clean installation of Windows because they know you’re gonna find a decent third party application for what you want that would quite possibly be better than what they can come up with.

6. “Built To Go Everywhere — Because That’s Where You’ll Want It” This argument is just so stupid, I swear to God... even ignoring the fact that laptops today can have massive hard drives and long battery lives Windows laptops are still pretty big contenders even back then. “capacious hard drives”? My old af Acer had 40 GB. Still fairly decent for the time. “built-in optical drives”? Oh please, it wasn’t until the Windows 8/10 era that I’ve ever seen a laptop without one. “USB”? My Acer has several! “Can your PC laptop go coast to coast with just one battery?” Well not anymore, because that battery is several years old but I bet it could in its day. “Can you put the system to sleep just by closing the lid? Does it wake up instantly?” No, because I told it not to! I wanted it to only go to sleep when I press the power button, so I can just put the lid down for a split second. “Can your PC laptop automatically switch between Ethernet, dial-up and wireless connections on the fly? Without a restart?” Yeah, what did you think the Network and Sharing Centre was for?

7. “The Internet Is Integrated” So you think it takes a heck of a long time to configure a PC for the internet. What!? “up-and-surfing within 15 minutes”? Jeez you set the bar low. An internet setup wizard can get the internet set up in under five. Also, as someone who has used VMs, all I’ve had to do it give a VM for an OS as old as Windows 98 the right internet adapter and immediately it would connect to the internet, generally to whatever network my host computer uses so I can assume that in Windows XP as well as some earlier Windows operating systems some components of internet connection are automatic.

8. “Office is Office and then Some” This one is also stupid. If Office is the same on Mac as it is Windows, then why switch when you already have Office on Windows? Oh, but Office on Mac improves on its Windows counterpart. Yeah, how?

9. “It Works Effortlessly With PCs” Sure, but if every Windows user switches to a Mac, this point becomes completely redundant. What’s the use of ensuring compatiability with PCs if you want every PC user to switch to Mac? This should be a reason to get a Mac in the first place instead of switching to one.

10. “It’s Beautiful” ...And ergonomic as well, apparently.  Haha, no. Not with a single-button mouse and not with the massive af box that is the iMac. Not when PCs were starting to get the thin external monitors allowing you to set them up even on smaller desk spaces. Oh yeah, and the towers are easier to maintain. As for beauty, PCs have it too, including it in the software as well as the hardware, and in the sounds as well as the graphics. Ever heard the beautiful music that plays in the Windows XP Tour? My favourite is the music for Safe and Easy Personal Computing. What about the large variety of system sounds that play whenever something happens? What about the cute doggo that appears when you search for your files? If that isn’t beauty, then I dunno what is.

These “reasons” to switch to a Mac are so dumb and stupid and also prove that Apple knew very little about PCs when they worte that shit other than maybe the blue screen of death that has a chance of appearing a lot.

[itstotalyblue-blog]

God and the Programmer

(Part 1)

CEO Loki x Reader

Warnings: Mentions of murder

Word count: 2000+

Summary: Loki runs the most popular business in the world, while (Y/N) works as a Programmer for him. When Loki throws a party for everyone, a team of hackers finds its the perfect time to steal information. Loki doesn’t like that. But he can’t have (Y/N) ruin the fun, either.

Part Two

“Hey, have you heard about tonight’s party?” Trisha asked, smiling as she leaned on my desk.

“Nope, but even if I did, I wouldn’t go.” I shook my head, looking back at the long code I was making.

“Well, Mr. Laufeyson is hosting a party in the lobby if you wanna go.” She sighed. “You’ve got to take a break once in awhile, it can’t be good to do that twenty-four seven (Y/N).”

“Well it’s a good thing you’re not me, huh?” I retorted, causing her to groan.

“When was the last time you slept?”

“Last week.”

“(Y/N)!” She gasped. “That’s not healthy!”

“Yeah? And neither is being around you, please leave.”

“Jesus…” she rolled her eyes, walking away.

Let me tell you this, I don’t like to be interrupted, she knows that. Unless it’s super important, don’t. Being twenty in a room full of thirty year olds, is insanity. They all think I’m a child, underestimating my power. So, every once in awhile, I prank them.

Sometimes it’s hacking into their computers and moving things around, or backing up their files and deleting them. I have never once gotten caught for my deeds, and I don’t plan on it anytime soon. Right now however, I was busy upgrading the Laufeyson’s firewall, so then it’s harder for people like me to get into the system.

While, of course, programming an alert that signals that somebody is hacking into the system. Yet I still don’t know why I, or any of the other programmers for that matter, work here. The pay is good, but none of us have been asked to do anything quite yet.

Not that I minded, I was able to mess around within the system, patching any holes I found while doing it. By the time I could retire, I alone could have this place be the most secure place anywhere in the world. If I worked at the pace I was going, I could knock this project out by next month.

I sighed and took another drink of red bull. It was the only energy in the area that could keep me awake for as long as I have been, so I didn’t mind the taste for it. I continued my job, only for the ‘manager’ to tell everyone it was time to go home.

He knew by now that I left whenever I pleased, and if I left late or early, he couldn’t do crap about it. Only he knew my power, my full power, for he was the one that hired me. The entire department was his, and he could hire or fire anyone he pleased.

It was the day after I graduated college, or rather they threw the diploma at me as they grew too terrified to get close to me. I had grown a reputation for myself throughout both the programming, and hacking communities around the world, one that many people picked up on.

That just happened to include my new boss.

He called me into his office, a smile on his face. “You’ve done a wonderful job so far, (Y/N).” He spoke. “I can promise you anything and everything if you work here.”

“I don’t need anything.” I replied.

“You need a safe place to work though, a place where you don’t have to worry about the Russians kicking down your door?”

I sighed. “I guess I do need something…”

“Great. You’ll start tomorrow.”

And it wasn’t until a few days later when I made everyone’s “safe computers” Rick Roll everyone did people start to take me seriously. Three weeks after that incident, one of my coworkers walked up to me and told me to quit, because I couldn’t amount to anything here. So I caused his girlfriend to dump him.

Nobody tried to tell me off again after that one.

Trisha was one of the few that I allowed to talk to me, but she worked on the floor down from me, and we never really saw each other that often. It’s better that way anyway…

I had to change everything about me, except my name of course. People would have expected that by now, at least that’s what I assume. For me to keep my name, I would have to be naive or just stupid, which is what everyone SHOULD think.

“You should go to the party.” Dave, my boss, said with a smile. “It would be good for you to take a break.”

“Yeah…” I sighed, closing out of the code I was in.

“You’ve been working non-stop, not that it’s bad or anything, but I haven’t even given you a big project!”

“I’m doing whatever I can for a company that’s giving me protection, Dave.” I replied, turning to him. “It’s honestly the least I could do.”

“Alright, well don’t stay for too long.” He smiled, walking out the door. “Party is starting in a few hours!”

I smiled and waved to him, finishing the alert system, and walked out the door. He was right, I did need a break. So after rushing to my apartment, which was guarded and paid by my job, I got dressed in a modest dress, and heels, placing my hair in a quick thing, and rushed out the door. One of the guards drove me, making small talk, only for me to gain more information on the guy.

When I’m not doing work, I’m running background checks and stalking people’s social media and texts. Gatta make sure they’re good people! However, this mans texts were all coded, certain words replaced with seemingly random ones sent to a burner phone.

I shrugged it off, deciding it best to investigate later. I stepped inside the building, which had transformed into a large ballroom for the guests, and a lot of people. I was truly here to collect people’s IP numbers, just in case they hacked into the system. I know, I’m a genius.

“Why, hello darling.” A man said from in front of me.

I was leaning back on the far wall, on my phone, watching the IP numbers roll in. I clicked my phone up, meeting the emerald green eyes every lady (and possibly man) in the entire area wanted to get lost in.

“Mr. Laufeyson!” I gasped. “It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“As is you, Miss…”

“(L/N), (Y/N) (L/N) sir.” I smiled. “It’s strange to see the lobby I go through everyday changed into such extravagant decorations.”

“Is this party not to your liking?” He asked. “You seem to be invested to your phone, rather than anything about the party…”

“Ah, just doing my job I suppose…” I shrugged. “As the song goes ‘there ain’t no rest for the wicked.’”

“What is your job here?”

“I’m a programmer sir, although as of last week I have been upgrading the electronic defense systems, keeping out hackers and whatnot-“ My phone began to beep, and my eyes widened. “Dave…” I whispered.

“Hmm?”

“Sir, I apologize but I have to go-“

“Ah, you wouldn’t ruin the fun, would you?” He smirked.

“What?” I replied, freezing.

“You’re underestimating how much I know, (Y/N). I knew all about Dave and his little army of people. Such as the man that drove you here, he was part of the plan.”

“So that’s what that was about…” I muttered.

“I thought he would have America’s hacker in the palm of his hands as well…” he sighed. “Would have been more of a challenge… but oh well. I suppose now it’s all too easy…”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, let’s go interrupt their process, shall we?” He grinned.

My jaw dropped, but I nodded. He shut off the security cameras, and lead me into his secret stairwell that lead to his personal elevator, that he allowed me to use. The ride up only lasted a minute, and soon we were on my work floor, were Dave and his group were.

“Stay here.” Mr. Laufeyson muttered. “I don’t know if they have any weapons.”

“Sir, what about you?” I asked worriedly. “You can’t just-“

“Must I repeat myself?”

“No sir…”

“Stay here,” he began to walk away. “And no matter who you hear scream, do not enter this room. Understood?”

I nodded, watching him walk into the room. A mere three minutes went by and I could hear the terrified screams of Dave, Trisha, and several other workers. Tears ran down my cheeks silently as my legs became jello. Was he killing them? Was this really the punishment for stealing information?

“Right, let’s go enjoy the party now.” Loki said with a grin as he walked towards me.

I took a step back, my eyes wide. “Y-You’re really the God of Lies and Mischief, aren’t you…?” I whispered.

He let out a small chuckle. “Relax. If I wanted you dead you would be by now.”

I looked down. He wasn’t wrong, but he was also the god of lies. “How do I know you’re not just toying with me?”

He pushed me against the wall harshly, holding the back of my head as to not cause too much damage, and moved his arm to the side of my head. His hand went under my chin, lifting it up as to tell me to look into his eyes.

“I wouldn’t toy with someone as unique as you, I promise you.” He spoke darkly. “I haven’t met somebody of your intelligence, or beauty for that matter, that was a mere mortal.”

I gulped. “S-Sir-“

“Now, i’ll offer you double pay, and a place in my home if, you become my assistant.” He spoke, taking a small step away from me, both hands in his pockets. “You will have everything you want, anything you want, your own room even…”

“Why do you-“ I paused, trying to quiet down as to not insult him. “Why do you want me to be your assistant?”

“If you truly are afraid of something harming you, or someone, I will protect you.”

“But-“

“Yes, or no, (Y/N).”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

I paused, realizing what I had just done. “But wait, Sir-“

“I’ll have somebody pick up your things. Let’s get going.” He smirked. “Well?”

I blinked a few times. “D-Did you… did you kill them?”

“They were taking my things. I don’t like when somebody touches what’s mine.”

“But did they deserve death?!”

“They deserves far, far worse, but I couldn’t allow you to hear their screams darling. You would go insane with their pleads for mercy.” He spoke. “Shall we get going now?”

“I…um yes.” I replied, following him back into the elevator. “Y-You never answered why you want me to do this…”

“Because you have a potential none of these other humans do.” He replied simply. “You have no idea of your place on this pathetic excuse for a planet. If you were to die, the uniqueness of this planet would fade into nothingness. You. Can. Take. Everything. You can have. Everything. Yet you refuse to take it.”

“I don’t take what I don’t need.” I shook my head.

“Why? You could make all of these people your slaves, and yet you work for them.” He questioned as the elevator stopped.

“Because I would lose my humanity.” I sighed. “Sir-“

“Loki, you may call me Loki.”

“Loki, I don’t know why I do what I do. Perhaps I’m afraid of losing myself, or losing what little I have of my family.” I shrugged walking down the steps. “All I know is that I’m sick of these heels, and regretting my decision to come to this party…”

He smirked. “You do what you do because all you humans are the same. You’re born to kneel. But I can change that in you, I can make you powerful enough to make them kneel to you.”

“I don’t want that.” I shook my head, reaching the door. “I don’t want people to kneel to me, I just want to fade into the background, away from everyone else. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

He huffed in acknowledgment, but didn’t bring up the conversation any further once we opened the door. He lead me through the ballroom, exiting the building, and into the back of a car. He sat next to me, rolling up the barrier so the driver couldn’t talk to us, and looked at me.

“(Y/N) you cannot tell anybody about what you have discovered. You understand this, correct?”

I nodded my head, causing him to smirk. I was in for a hell of a ride, wasn’t I?

[garrettvfqx626-blog]

Where Will bullet force credits online generator Be 1 Year From Now?

Controller assistance for any kind of PC Gamepad, Xbox 360 Controller, PS3 or PS4 Controller, PlayStation Controller, etc You are most likely having trouble playing Mount & Blade: Warband with your gamepad or joystick. Below's an extra accurate summary: By default, the System Bring back task is arranged to run whenever you start your computer and also everyday at twelve o'clock at night, as long as your computer system is idle and on A/C power. Emily started to feel a growing number of uneasy the longer the silence went on. Maybe she had actually acted way too much like a spaz. At that awareness, Emily began to feel depressing ... as well as guilty.

As soon as Willis began obtaining twitchy, Hotch can see that they weren't going to get anything more efficient out of him so he called it at 3:37. Hearing his trip being called, Hotch's ears perked up. Then he started walking towards his gateway once more. To cover Morgan's abrupt absence from job, at the Thursday rundown Hotch had informed the others that Derek was taking some trip time that he was about to lose.

Start-up Fixing Device in Windows 7. A lot of times if Windows can't boot properly due to an equipment modification, unexpected shutdown, or various other errors, it will certainly turn up. We dealt with a problem where might spike to 50%+ CPU for a suddenly very long time. Hotch had actually most definitely taken over that duty in her life, and also if there was ever (God forbid) a problem with her and also Baby, he was the just one that she would certainly want called.

When opening search all had a suddenly old timestamp, we repaired an issue where the tasks noted so you can easily choose up where you left off. After Emily put her head under Hotch's chin, she gripped her fingers into his tee shirt. We took care of an issue where when using Windows in Hebrew no search results were shown in Search up until a space was Visit this link gone into.

Her eyes started to burn as she sought out at him ... he truly may just be one of the most wonderful man in the world. In actuality it was most likely Hotch and Child together that had started to transform her life around. Hotch's expression softened as he stared down at Emily ... God, she looked so dissatisfied. Hotch was quiet for a moment, and afterwards he began rubbing his hands with each other once more.

And also as the hours had actually ticked by, he 'd started getting a little sidetracked thinking about the fact that Emily required to consume. Hotch reduced her off with one more kiss, and this time his eyes were soft when he pulled back. As Emily looked at Hotch, a stream of thoughts went flying with her head. When she informed him that she assumed God would penalize her, and Hotch began believing about the look on her face.

The tears started diminishing Emily's face as she overlooked at him. At that point Emily was seeming like a complete jackass for getting caught in such a stupid lie, so she as she raised her head she gave Hotch a sheepish sigh. Basically she began crying each time she considered Derek, and she 'd currently had to wash her face twice because she obtained residence.

And then Hotch placed his hand on her shoulder, and also began leading her towards the side door. We fixed a problem where Delete previous version of Windows" in Configure Storage Space Feeling was not selectable. Emily tilted her head quizzically and also Hotch slid his hands approximately surround her midsection. Really feeling the rips beginning to swimming pool in her own eyes, Emily cut him off.

Which landed him at the OBs workplace practically in a timely manner for the visit that Emily had actually been wringing her hands about for the last 2 days. FORTNITE AIMBOT Wallhack + ESP Free Download For MAC and also PC - Fortnite is an activity game developed by Epic Gamings. Seeing Emily about to object, Hotch shook his head scornfully. It was late currently, and also the day had actually been long, as well as also at the workplace, surrounded by noise and activity, the ladies stellar eyes would not leave my head.

Emily chuckled, as well as Hotch provided her an entertained look for a moment prior to his eyes softened. Taking the steps two at a time, Hotch jogged back up to Emily. We took care of an issue causing some people experiencing a Setups accident when navigating to Apps > Default Apps > Establish defaults by App. We fixed a problem where while browsing with OOBE, some of the switches in the web pages might not display appropriately.

She took every protective training program the bureau supplied, as well as once she would certainly worn down every one of their resources, she began taking classes on her own time. So as Hotch will certainly tell you at some time in this chapter, it has actually been 21 days because that early morning in Montana when Emily accepted provide a shot. Seeing Emily's smile, Hotch's eyes crinkled.

[tinypigeonlord]

Holy crap Murphy’s been screwing with me the entire day by now and I really need to vent or I’m gonna burst =A=

It all started in the early afternoon. I was happily working on my custom shimeji of an OC, when I found out that the shimeji-ee.exe I had downloaded was a different version than I wanted. I had the ‘active’ version which can run around, climb stuff and multiply on rare occasion, but I wanted the 'mischievous’ shimeji which multiplies like heck and climbs all over the place. No problem, I’ll find the correct version, I said to myself.

Hahahahah....

So it turns out that originally Shimeji was programmed for 32-bit Java. The version I had was customized for 64-bit, but like I said, kinda incomplete. It took me an hour or two to scour the internet and find a Mischievous version which was altered to function on 64-bit. HUZZAH, I said... until I found out that this version was customized to the point where it no longer recognized other shimejis than the one it came with when downloaded. Whenever I imported other shimejis I would get a configuration error. Well that didn’t work...

Several hours, multiple downloads and some sobbing later, I found a complete version which runs on 64-bit and recognizes other shimeji files than the original, and which had shimejis that could interact with all types of windows.

I am relieved, and carry on with the frame I was working on at the time I realized the version issue. Attempting to boot up an online editing tool, I come to the realization that during my digging through the world wide web to find the shimeji version I needed, I contracted malware which kept redirecting me to all kinds of random sites. Fake search engines, fake ‘update your outdated Adobe Flash Player here [insert download link]’ sites, websites that told me I had like 4 viruses on my computer and I needed to download shady antivirus software to fix them immediately or it would ruin my computer, even this weird site with an anime girl in bikini pressing her index finger to her lips and telling me to not enter her super secret website unless I was 18+ :’D

So I entirely reset Firefox in the hopes that would fix it. And at the time it seemed like it had worked. After re-installing adblock plus and setting my preferences right again, I re-open the online editing tool and open the image again to finally work on it. Only for the program to crash on me. Ok fine, happens. I reboot firefox and am about to retry... when Firefox decides to update. I grin and bear, set my preferences AGAIN, and return to the online editing tool to work.

Only to get a message that my Adobe Flash Player is outdated and I need to update it. I sigh, go to Adobe’s website and update. Good, great, everything is freshly clean and updated, time to work. Yeah I wish it was this easy. After the update, the layout of the online editing tool somehow changed, and the taskbar was gone, succesfully blocking me from importing my files to edit them. Refreshing the page does nothing and I end up rebooting the entire computer.

After all that is done, I return once more, and thank god the taskbar is back, and I can import my file. Alas, I barely get any changes done, when I get fucking redirected to a fake Yahoo search engine, closing my editing tool. The redirecting is back and ready to send me to every shady website in existence.

I am frustrated and upset, but there is nothing else to do than install the monthly updates which includes a virusscan to remove malware. This takes yet another hour and rebooting the computer 3 times for it to function again, but finally it is done. Updates installed, I assume EVERYTHING is freshly clean and updated now, and return to my editing tool to once again work on that same fucking frame.

All seems well in the world, I get a few edits in-- and then my tablet fails me. Out of nowhere, the left and right button on the pen ceased functioning, as do the keys on the tablet itself.  All I can do is move the mouse and tap things. I unplug the tablet and plug it back in, and for a moment it works again. -- until even the cursor stops moving shortly after. WELL, ANOTHER REBOOT IT IS.

After said reboot, my tablet is all fine and dandy again, I am happy once more, and open. the editor tool. again. By now I have gotten so used to taking this same step that I can immediately input the same edits as I kept inputting before. I am making progress here, I am doing good-- and then my editing tool disappears... replaced by a new website telling me to buy their totally not suspicious antivirus to save my computer from the evil 4 viruses they detected on it somehow.

I flip my lid, and google search for how to get rid of this shit. Only to get more shady websites in the search results, telling me to download these inconspicuous malware detectors blah blah.

At my wits end, I do a system restore. Another hour wasted, but the restore is succesful. No lost artwork or files, my shimeji stuff is safe and sound. I open firefox, open some pages to test if I get redirected. Nothing. The evil malware seems to be finally defeated. Relieved, I go to my bookmarks to open the fucking editing tool again.... only to find out that my computer went a little overboard and deleted ALL MY BOOKMARKS, FAVOURITES AND HISTORY, INCLUDING ACCOUNT AND PASSWORD INFO. EVERYTHING IS EMPTY, I HAVE A VERY, VERY CLEAN FIREFOX NOW :V

I quit, I give up, I spent an entire day fixing shit and still didn’t get that particular frame done. I am so tired, I need rest to cool off hngnhnghg. =n=