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classicanalyzer · 8 months ago

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Fallout Series Thoughts and Reflection

"Everyone wants to save the world. They just...disagree on how." Maximus

It's one day until one month since this amazing series was released and I have a lot to talk about Fallout!

A Vault Dweller (Lucy MacLean), a Brotherhood Squire (Maximus), a Ghoul Bounty Hunter (Once a human called Cooper Howard)...and a dog (Dogmeat) travel the Wasteland in pursuit of their goals. In doing so, all four will change the Wasteland for better or worse, and discover more sinister secrets. And as Siggi Wilzig, an Enclave defector, asks Lucy in their first encounter,

"Question is will you still want the same things......when you have become a different animal altogether." Siggi Wilzig

The opening (The End) was perfect. The tension reminds me a lot of TLOU’s opening. We look into the eternal 50s culture United States in the 2070s. Cooper's reaction to the first bomb dropping is just acting perfectly. He at first tries to assure his daughter, Janey, that it's just a fire...only to see the smoke turn into a mushroom cloud. His reaction then just turns into one of pure horror that conveys how this is the end of society. That shot of him and Janey looking at the mushroom cloud and the ignorant American families watching TV says everything. As the rich family hides out in their bunker (the father punching his friend which is a foreshadowing moment of humanity's desperation for self-preservation), we see Cooper and Janey ride on their horse as Lose Angelos is bombarded with the title card popping up (Each episode has a unique variation of the title card based on what's going on).

The show captures the dark comedy and the satire of 50s America, Capitalism, and the Cold War. When Wilzig talked about how the cyanide pill (which tasted like bananas too!) was the most humane product Vault-Tec ever made (it really is), that was Fallout humor alright. We even have a pre-war bit where Sebastion Lesie sold his vocal rights to RobCo for their Mr. Handy bots for around $186 (I know it could be 186 thousand but I love the possibility he only got literally 186 dollars). Another is when the "execution" of Lucy by the inhabitants of Vault 4 which was very elaborate to set up death by beheading... turns out out to be death to the surface (as the Overseer is trying horribly to cut off the rope). A funny meta joke is how the teaser joker poked about Amazon Prime being the company with 2-day shipping in the teaser trailer. Then the show was released 2 days earlier than its stated release date (The show came out on April 10th, 6 PM PST when its original release date was April 12th).

"The future, my friend, is products. You're a product. I'm a product. The end of the world is a product." Sebastian Leslie

The attention to detail in this show is also amazing. In the first episode, the radio mentions the President not present at the White House. That follows the lore of the President moving to the Poseidon Oil Rig. I also love how in Episode 2, Maximus mentions Tidus' Power Armor having Tempered Lining and Lucy brought it up too in Episode 5. In Episode 8, The Ghoul mentioned the weakness of the Power Armor suit just below the chestplate. It further explains why Maximus didn't die to the Ghoul since the Ghoul was trying to aim for that but due to that modification, Maximus was able to survive. They also brought back the hacking mini-game when Norman was hacking into the Overseer's computer.

There's also the question of how to rebuild humanity. Each faction (Vault-Tec, NCR, BoS, Enclave) has its own vision for the Wasteland. Maximus perfectly described the setting perfectly well in his quote at the top.

Lucy’s (Positive Karma) naivety and optimism really show her as the heart of our main trio. Even by the end where she gained a lot of cynicism, it’s still her underneath it. I also appreciate her character so much when she doesn’t follow the “character’s bond with another is broken because they lied” trope. I like how the folks of the Wasteland can't stand Vault Dwellers because of their nativity, self-centered attitude, and how it was really for the rich and privileged who could afford to go to a Vault. However, she proves herself to be an earnest character who truly wants to make the Wasteland a better place, and adapts to survive... but doesn't lose sight of who she is unlike the Ghoul. I cannot wait to see how S2 takes her character. Her relationship with Maximus is also pretty sweet as they both help each other out and bring out the best in each other.

"I just doused an innocent man's face with acid, and I've only been up here two weeks. The wasteland sucks." Lucy MacLean

Maximus’ (Neutral Karma) character development was nice to see. He still has a long way to go but he’s starting to understand what being a “hero” is about rather than just having physical power. A hero knows to sacrifice your desires (The Power Armor) to help others (giving back the fusion core). He wants a life beyond the Brotherhood and is clearly disillusioned with the organization. When his friend thought he killed Moldaver and declared him a Knight, his face tells another story of how he felt about this.

The Ghoul (Evil Karma) may have been a cruel bounty hunter who believes in the worst of the Wasteland...but there are moments of his former self still inside. His taking a liking to Wilzig's dog (whom he eventually named Dogmeat) and granting his Ghoul friend Roger a mercy kill reveals there might be hope for him yet. His former self, Cooper Howard. is nothing like his current self. I love how the show made it clear he was once this human who couldn't initially bring himself to kill someone... even if it was for a movie! Even when he tries to initially deny the evils of Vault-Tec and buys into American Cold War propaganda, it's clear he still values his friends (even if they're supposedly "Communists") and eventually starts to really question what the hell is going on.

"I'm not a Communist, Mr. Howard. That's just a dirty word they use to describe people who aren't insane." Lee Moldaver

The reveal that Vault-Tec was responsible for dropping the first bomb (or at the very least planned to do so) was genuinely one of the most shocking bombshell reveals ever. You feel the nervous breakdown of Howard Cooper as he’s trying to process his own wife advocating this insane genocidal plan. I wonder if the shadow figure overseeing the meeting of the corporations is from the Enclave. I also really love the detail that Mr. House is the only one questioning the logistics and the proposal (Daily note that Mr. House is just as bad as everyone in this room, it's just that he sees less value in causing the end of the world). It shows why he decided to go against this insane conspiracy plan as we see the fruits of his preparations in New Vegas. I also love seeing Frederick Sinclair (Also New Vegas), the owner of the Sierra Madre Casino, Leon Von Felden (Fallout 1), the mad scientist behind the FEV and the Mariposa Military base, and Julia Masters, the chief financial officer of REPCONN Aerospace who sold out the company to RobCo.

"It's a fun idea. There's a lot of earning potential with the end of the world. But we're talking about making a significant investment based on a hypothetical. How can you guarantee results?" Robert House

"By dropping the bomb ourselves." Barbara Howard

Moldaver is no saint (she did let raiders massacre Vault 33 and almost killed Lucy, her friend's daughter), and it shows how far the NCR has sunken to achieve its aims. However, a lot of her actions are based on the horrors and crimes against humanity she witnessed. She wanted to rectify them and give the Wasteland hope, no matter the cost. She had seen her failures to stop the old world from being destroyed, and she would not stop until she could make the Wasteland better, even if that meant the NCR not living to see that better world.

Lucy's quest to rescue her father is like a twisted Fallout 3 narrative where the Lone Wanderer's quest was to find their father. But instead of her father being a scientist who wants to further heal the Wasteland, her father is responsible for destroying one of the most developed nations post-war because they weren't Vault-Tec. It's also implied it might've been out of jealousy since the show hints that Moldaver and Rose MacLean were more than just friends.

The collapse of the NCR was something I knew would happen based on the state of it in NV, but the final nail in the coffin being at the hands of Vault-Tec was something I did not see coming. I love that the last action of the NCR Remnant was to restore Shady Sands's power with the cold-fusion reactor. Even when the NCR is gone, whatever arises from the NCR will not only do the job better but now benefit from infinite energy. This is in comparison to the US government whose last action was to nuke the world and for the Enclave, leave the American populace to die.

The West Coast of the Brotherhood took advantage of the NCR's collapse to reestablish itself and with the help of the East Coast's BoS, they're now the largest military presence in California. The final battle between them and the NCR Remnant is a mirror foil to an event mentioned in New Vegas with the Helios Power Plant. We see how Maximus grows disillusioned with how far the organization has fallen and its own Knights not being the heroes he looked up to, even his superior agrees about how the Brotherhood is not what it once was.

Vaults 31-33 may not have an extreme experiment as the other Vaults and in this case, Vault 4, but the experiment is still horrifying. Vault 32-33 are meant to be breeding pools for Vault 31, full of Vault-Tec personnel in cryogenic pods (which I think is how maybe Lee Moldaver survived), to create the "best" Vault-Tec personnel. Vault 4 is a vault where scientists govern the people...which went as well as you might expect (The experiments going berserk and the Vault Dwellers revolting). I also love how the Gulper we saw in Episode 4 is one of Vault 4's experiments (also explaining the human-like finders inside its mouth) and who also ate the Overseer. I wonder what Norman will do given how Bud puts in him a seemingly impossible situation.

Then there's the Enclave and the pre-war Corporations. The Enclave really only shows up for a flashback sequence for Wilzig but, interestingly, the show glosses over them. What interests me the most is that Wilzig knows about the Vaults 31-33 experiment and Lucy's full name. Obviously, the Enclave still has observations of the Vaults, but as I mentioned before, that shadow figure observing the corporate meeting might be them. Speaking of the Corporations, we see the results of unchecked Capitalism with no regulations in this franchise and this show. We see the insane troll logic that these mega corporations will win the "great game of capitalism" by outliving everyone. Mega corporations have no logic other than their insane troll logic that what matters is they survive regardless of who suffers or dies in the name of profits.

"So, the U.S. government has outsourced the survival of the human race to Vault-Tec. Vault-Tec is a private corporation that has a fiduciary responsibility to make money for its investors. And how does it make money? By selling vaults... The cattle ranchers are in charge, Coop." Charlie Whiteknife.

You can tell how much Nolan and his team love Fallout by the work they put into this show. They did such an amazing job that Tim Cain, one of the OG creators of Fallout, praised the hell out of this show for bringing Fallout to life. I cannot wait to see what S2 will bring us.

"War never changes." Barbara Howard and The Ghoul

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commodorez · 8 months ago

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Top 5 worse computers from the 80s

While I'm sure someone could come up with a more definitive well-curated list, here's what I came up with on a whim: Sinclair ZX-81 The ZX-80 was a good, inexpensive step forward for the burgeoning UK computer market. Its successor, the ZX-81, tripped and fell rather than do anything beyond streamlining it for mass production. A real pain in the ass to type on, and notoriously flaky to do any serious work on. Localized in the US as the Timex-Sinclair 1000, it was too weak to really compete with the American market. British users seem to like them but I'd chalk up most of that to nostalgia goggles.

Apple III Apple tried and failed to make a business machine, and Jobs got his way a bit too much, and it overheated alot because he mandated that it couldn't have a fan. Ultimately, it confused people and was surpassed by better Apple II's. A weird footnote in Apple failures.

IBM PCjr The answer to a question that nobody asked. Crappy wireless keyboard, intended to be bolted to your home television. Cartridges? On an IBM? WTF is that? The expansion options are hot garbage. Eventually it was upstaged by the Tandy 1000 at its own game. Just get a PC XT. Or a Tandy.

Coleco Adam Likes to erase its own tapes if you leave them in the drive on power-up due to an electrical surge it shoves through the tape mechanism. The main system power supply is integrated into the printer, so you NEED the chonky printer to be plugged in for it to work. Has those weird phone pad + joystick hybrid controllers. Just get a ColecoVision to play your cartridge games.

Commodore Plus/4 I was going to take a stab at the MAX Machine, but Commodore did worse with the whole concept of the Plus/4. This thing was too cheap for its own good, and went in a completely bonkers direction at the behest of Jack Tramiel. It's supposed to be a cheap business machine to eat the ZX Spectrum's lunch. Why go after the little guy from the UK market? Who knows. Lame rubber chiclet keyboard, totally incompatible with existing Commodore software and most peripherals, and having 121 colors can't save it from being a dumb idea. Apparently it was a hit in eastern Europe.

Remember, pretty much every system has its fanclub, regardless of how flawed, underpowered, or limited a platform it is. So while I personally don't care for any of these machines, if you're mad at me for taking a pot shot at your favorite, do keep in mind that my favorite computer of all time is the VIC-20. You know, the one that most Commodore enthusiasts ignore for only having 5K of RAM having only 8 foreground colors, only 22 columns of screen resolution, and just not being a C64.

#zx-81 #apple iii #ibm pcjr #commodore plus/4 #coleco adam

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tinynerdz360 · 2 months ago

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Above and Beyond Chapter 8: First Contact?

With a simple press of a button an image was released to the public; an image that would set the internet ablaze: an enigmatic alien boy with snow-white hair and piercing green eyes, standing with the Ares Crew. His build was of a scrawny teenager compared to the adult astronauts.

The questions came fast —Was this incontrovertible proof of extraterrestrial life? Had the government been harboring cosmic secrets all along?

The unknown employee smirked at his handy work. He felt pleased at what he had done, and not an ounce of shame or regret. This would set the necessary wheels into motion.

***

Hashtags and buzzwords spread like wildfire across social media as the leaked image of Dantom went viral. Theories abounded, ranging from measured skepticism to wild-eyed conspiracy.

"Alien Boy Among Astronauts – What Is NASA Hiding?"

"NASA discovers evidence of aliens on Mars #LittleGreenMen #WeAreNotAlone"

"Leaked photo reveals hidden extraterrestrial, are they walking among us? #Area51Revealed #TruthIsOutThere"

"Press conference DEMANDED - what is @NASA hiding from the American people? Full transparency now! #ReleaseTheAliens #NASACoverup"

Teddy Sanders scrolled through the endless stream of tweets, a scowl etched on his brow, fingers drumming an agitated rhythm on his mahogany desk. They had planned to let the public know, he was hoping to do this on his own terms. That they would be able to delay for a little bit longer. An alien discovery was one of those cases where NASA had wanted to give its own government a heads up and time to process this world-changing event.

But soon after getting the crew picture with Dantom, someone leaked it to the public.

With a heavy sigh, Teddy picked up the phone and dialed the president. This conversation wasn't going to be pleasant.

The call clicked through. "Mr. President, we have a situation." Teddy gripped the receiver with white knuckles. "An unauthorized image of the entity has been leaked. It's spreading rapidly online."

"God damnit, Mr. Sanders!" President Davis' voice boomed through the line, frustration palpable. "I thought I made it crystal clear - no leaks, period. You assured me NASA had this under control."

Teddy winced, feeling the sharp sting of failure. "Sir, I apologize. We're investigating the source of the breach. But right now, we need to get in front of this. The media sharks are circling, demanding answers. And I’d like to point out, that NASA did not have to tell you first. We are a public domain; the public would be told eventually. It’s just happening sooner than later."

Tense hung between them. "I see. I assume we’re on the same page?” Davis asked.

“The page being the emphasis of peaceful contact and diplomacy?” Teddy emphasized.

“Yes, yes, of course.” The President replied. Teddy could just imagine him waving his hand in the air in dismissal. The line clicked dead.

Teddy leaned back in his chair, rubbing his throbbing temples. This alien kid was proving to be more trouble than he ever imagined. As speculation raged out of control, time was of the essence. They needed to seize the narrative before it spiraled beyond their grasp.

With a deep breath, Teddy reached for his computer mouse and clicked open his saved draft of his speech.

***

The cameras flashed incessantly as Teddy Sanders stepped up to the podium, the NASA logo emblazoned on the wall behind him. He cleared his throat, his heart pounding against his ribs. "Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here today."

He glanced down at his carefully prepared notes. "As many of you are aware, an image has been circulating online depicting what appears to be an extraterrestrial being alongside our Ares crew on Mars." Murmurs rippled through the room, but Teddy pressed on.

"I can confirm that this image is authentic. During their mission, our astronauts encountered a juvenile alien life form, which we have come to learn is named 'Dantom.' This alien child was injured, and our crew has been assisting him and successfully making peaceful contact.

The room erupted into a frenzy of shouted questions and camera flashes. Teddy raised his hands, attempting to quiet the crowd. "Please, let me finish. We understand the monumental significance of this discovery and the delicate nature of the situation. Our top priority is ensuring the well-being of Dantom and maintaining a peaceful relationship with any potential extraterrestrial civilizations."

He took a deep breath, his voice growing more solemn. "We face unprecedented challenges in navigating this uncharted territory. But I assure you, we are proceeding with the utmost caution and respect. NASA, in collaboration with the government, is committed to transparency and will provide regular updates as the situation unfolds. Thank you."

As Teddy stepped away from the podium, the room exploded with a barrage of questions.

***

President Alfred Davis stood tall behind the lecture podium, he had handsome dark skin, and a charming smile. His presence commanding the attention of the entire nation. The cameras zoomed in on his confident smile, capturing the historic moment. "My fellow Americans," he began, his deep voice resonating through the room, "today, we stand on the precipice of a new era for humanity."

He paused, letting the gravity of his words sink in. "The discovery of an alien child, Dantom, on Mars is a testament to the boundless possibilities that await us in the vastness of space. This is not a moment for fear or apprehension, but one of hope and opportunity."

Davis leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with ambition. "As your President, I am committed to fostering peaceful contact and maintaining good relations with Dantom's species."

"We must approach this situation with wisdom, compassion, and an open mind," he continued, his voice growing more impassioned. "I call upon all nations to join us in this endeavor, to set aside our differences and work together for the betterment of all sentient beings."

Behind the veneer of diplomatic ambition, those closest to him recognized the undercurrent of self-interest. To be the President who welcomed aliens to Earth, who brokered alliances among the stars—it was a legacy any leader would covet. And one that Alfred Davis craved more than anything else.

As the audience erupted in applause, Davis basked in the moment, his ego swelling with each camera flash. *This is my destiny,* he thought, his smile widening.

***

The scene shifts to a bustling newsroom where reporters from various international outlets scramble to cover the breaking story. On a large television screen, a stern-faced journalist from the BBC delivers a scathing report.

"While the discovery of an alien child is indeed a momentous occasion, many world leaders are expressing their disappointment and frustration with President Davis's decision to keep this information hidden from the international community."

The camera cuts to a press conference, where the UN Secretary addresses a room full of journalists. "Transparency is crucial in matters of global significance," she states, her voice laced with a mix of relief and irritation. "While we are thankful that first contact was handled peacefully, the lack of communication and cooperation from the United States government is deeply concerning."

Meanwhile, on the streets of New York, a reporter wove through the crowd, microphone in hand, capturing the pulse of public opinion.

A middle-aged man in a suit shakes his head, his face etched with concern. "I don't trust it," he says, his voice tinged with xenophobia. "For all we know, this could be the beginning of an invasion. We need to protect our own first."

Not far from him, a middle-aged woman shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm neutral about it. If they wanted to harm us, wouldn't they have done so already?"

Next, a young woman steps up to the microphone. "I think it's incredible!" she exclaims, her enthusiasm palpable. "Just imagine what we could learn from them. This could be the start of something truly amazing."

The reporter approaches an elderly couple walking hand in hand. The man shrugs, his expression neutral. "I've seen a lot in my life," he says, his voice gruff but not unkind. "Aliens? Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time. As long as they come in peace, I've got no problem with it."

Excitement bubbled up in the form of a group of people of various ages all clad in sci-fi merchandise, their eyes bright and voices animated.

"Can you imagine? Actual aliens!" one exclaimed. "This could be the dawn of a whole new era, like...like Star Trek coming to life!"

"Think of what we could learn from them!" another chimed in, practically bouncing on their toes.

As the interviews continue, the divided reactions of the public become increasingly apparent. Some express fear and mistrust, while others embrace the possibility of interstellar friendship. The reporter turns to the camera, her face a mix of excitement and uncertainty.

"One thing is clear," the reporter says, her voice steady. "The world will never be the same again. As we stand on the precipice of a new era, it is up to all of us to decide how we will navigate this uncharted territory and shape the future of human-alien relations."

***

In the flickering glow of the living room TV, the residents of Amity Park clustered together as the evening news shifted to a breaking story. Amidst the collective gasp that rose from the townspeople, there lay a thread of recognition that twisted their shock into bewildered concern and confusion.

"Isn't that... Inviso-BILL?" someone trailed off, lips quivering in disbelief.

"Can't be; I thought he was a ghost, not an alien," another murmured.

Dash Baxter dropped his plate of pizza as the camera zoomed in. “Danny Phantom! So that’s where he’s been. In Space! So COOL!

"Is that... Danny Phantom?" Paulina asks, her voice laced with disbelief. "What's he doing on Mars?"

"Oh, WOW! I guess he was an alien this whole time.” Star said.

“Does this mean we had first contact? Kinda sucks that NASA’s stealing credit,” Kwan remarked.

As the news spreads, the people of Amity Park find themselves grappling with a mix of emotions. Some express concern for their beloved hero, wondering if his presence on Mars means he's left them vulnerable to ghostly attacks. Others wonder if he was always an alien and not a ghost. Some wonder once again why The World never bothered with Amity Park's business.

---

Across town, in the privacy of Sam's bedroom, three figures huddled around her laptop. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz watched the same broadcast, but their reactions diverged sharply from the rest of Amity Park. As the image of Danny—no, Dantom—flashed across the screen, relief washed over their faces like the first rays of dawn after a long, harrowing night.

"He's alive," Jazz whispers, her voice trembling with relief. "He's alive, and he's on Mars."

Sam stops pacing and leans over their shoulders; her brow furrowed with worry. "But why is he pretending to be an alien? What happened to him?"

"You know, only Danny can make first contact happen by being the alien.” Tucker chuckled, though the sound was shaky, relief undercutting the humor. "Classic Danny."

Jazz took a deep breath in and out, calming her anxiety. Her hands clasped so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "This whole week...we thought the GIW finally got him." She let go of a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

Their search had been relentless, scouring every corner, confronting every specter with the same desperate question: Where is Danny? But each inquiry led only to dead ends and mounting despair. They had been in the middle of making plans to infiltrate the GIW to see if they had him and rescue Danny if they had to. Sam had been ready to take any means necessary to save her best friend.

Sam stands up, her eyes blazing with resolve. "We're going to D.C.," she declares, her voice unwavering. "If Danny needs us, we'll be there for him. No matter what."

“Wow! Wait, if he’s on Mars, it will take them months to return. And they haven’t even left Mars yet.” Jazz quickly pointed out.

“I know that I’m not stupid.” Sam glared. “But my gut tells me; we need to be the ones to inform NASA of the truth. Do you really think the government will sit by and play 'first contact tea party' with him? Do you really think that they won’t sic the GIW on him the first chance they have? I say we go, so we can be his backup. We can see what NASA knows and see if they can be allies. If not, WE get Danny out of there. Distract them, find a way to give him an opening. What if they greet him with ecto guns and shoot him down before he can run or poison him somehow? He might not be able to get out!” Sam ranted.

Jazz stared at the other teen. Her face turning from worry to determination. “You’re right. We don’t know what NASA knows. If they truly want to help, we might be the only ones that can give them the correct information. We can’t trust the government to play nice……I mean, they already keep Amity in the dark and out of the eye of the world.” Jazz crossed her arms; she hunched her shoulders up in concerned thought. “I’m honestly surprised they haven’t done worse to us. Especially with the anti-ecto policy. They could drag any of us off the streets.”

Tucker nods, his fingers already flying across the keyboard. "I'll start digging into NASA's servers, see if I can find any information about what they know and what their intentions are.”

"Right," Jazz agreed, already pulling out her phone to look up flights. "He might have kept his secret from NASA, but the GIW must know by now, which means the government knows. Which means…... Danny is on borrowed time.”

"We've got his back," Tucker finished, his usual jovial demeanor replaced by the steadfast resolve of a friend ready to wade into the unknown. "Just like he's always had ours."

***

Jack Fenton's fist slammed down onto the console in his lab, causing a small eruption of sparks from the machinery. "That darn Phantom!" he bellowed, glaring at the image on the computer screen that showed Danny Phantom, or 'Dantom' as the media had begun to call the figure, standing amongst the astronauts on Mars.

"Jack, calm down," Maddie pleaded, her voice strained with concern, her eyes not leaving the second monitor that displayed a map with their son Danny's last known locations—each point a dead end.

"Can't you see what he's doing, Maddie? Pretending to be an alien just to gain fame! It's infuriating!" Jack's face was red with anger, and his hands shook as he raked them through his hair.

"Jack, please," Maddie said, her own frustration barely contained. "We need to focus. Our son is still missing, and if Phantom is on Mars, then he couldn't have taken Danny." Her voice broke slightly on their son's name, revealing the depth of her fear.

"Then who did?" Jack's question hung heavy in the air, unanswered. Together, they returned to the task at hand, capturing and interrogating any spectral entity they could find, hoping one of them held the key to Danny's whereabouts. But it had already been a week. They both felt the cold tendrils of fear crawl into their hearts. The more time that passed without a lead to Danny, the odds of them never finding him increased. The police hadn’t been able to find anything either. Both Jack and Maddie were convinced that a ghost had done it, not the living.

Jack wraps his arms around his wife, pulling her close as he tries to hold back his own tears. "We'll find him, Maddie. We won't rest until we bring Danny home safe and sound. And if a ghost did take him, they'll have to answer to the Fentons."

***

Meanwhile, in his mansion, Vlad Masters paces back and forth, his eyes glued to the television screen. He watches as the news anchors gush over the incredible discovery of an alien child on Mars, his fists clenching tighter with each passing minute.

"Damn you, Daniel," he mutters under his breath, his voice dripping with venom. "Of all the attention-seeking stunts you could have pulled, you just had to go and become the world's most famous alien."

Vlad's mind races with possibilities, his anger warring with his ever-present concern of maintaining his own secret identity. "As long as that brat keeps his mouth shut about our true nature, I suppose I can let him bask in the limelight for now," he muses, a calculating glint in his eye.

“But be careful, little Badger, one slip up, and I’ll have you locked away for all eternity.” Vlad thought. He could live without making him his adopted son. After all, without that pesky brat getting in the way, he could kill Jack and take Maddie all for himself. He could always make more sons.

With a final glance at the television, Vlad settles into his armchair; his fingers steepled as he begins to plot his next move. He knows that patience is key, and he's more than willing to bide his time until the perfect moment arises to strike.

***

A cacophony of angry voices rebounded off the walls in the stark, sterile confines of the GIW’s operations center. Agents clad in their customary suits huddled around monitors that showed an endless loop of the image that had ignited worldwide speculation.

"Sir, the public's eating this up," a junior analyst said, tapping her tablet to bring up social media reactions. "Public opinions are mostly positive.”

Agent A glared in anger. “We can't let Phantom continue this masquerade. It's... it's a national security threat!"

Agent O nods in agreement, his jaw set in a grim line. "We need to get the President on our side. If we can convince him that Phantom is a danger to the country, he'll have no choice but to hand him over to us."

"And once we have Phantom in our custody, we'll make him pay for his deceit," Agent K adds, a cruel smirk twisting his features. "We'll expose him for the evil entity he truly is, and the world will finally see ghosts for the evil beings they are."

Agent A nodded, his expression unreadable behind dark glasses. "Move up the meeting with President Davis by force if necessary. He’ll understand once we explain," he ordered, his voice calm but carrying an undercurrent of urgency. "It's time we exposed the truth about ghosts, starting with Danny Phantom."

They had been working with the mole in the White House to set up a meeting, but it was clear they needed to educate the higher government sooner rather than later. They would understand and forgive the need for secrecy. Agent A could just see the President agreeing that the GIW needed to take funds in secret.

Agent A paused a nagging thought clawed at the back of his mind. “Agent O, how about you take this mission? I want you to meet with the President. Can I trust you? To make the President understand by any means necessary?”

Agent O straightened, purpose igniting within him. "Yes, Director. I'll make sure the president understands the gravity of the situation. I’ll do whatever it takes; you can count on me!"

As agents scurried to carry out their orders, TVs nationwide aired President Davis' call for unity and cooperation with the alien species. The channel switched to an UN assembly where diplomats voiced their concerns and criticisms, the atmosphere fraught with tension.

***Back on Mars****

Commander Melissa Lewis glanced at the beds lining the wall, her gaze lingering on the one where Dantom lay curled up, seemingly asleep.

"Alright, let's keep it down," she murmured, her voice carrying the authority.

"Let's go over our tasks once more," Lewis began, her eyes scanning the expectant faces. "We need to find a way to get Dantom what he needs —"

"Commander," interrupted Johanssen, her brow furrowed. I think we need to address the elephant in the room first." She gestured subtly toward Danny, " like how he can speak English and how Vogal can speak this alien language.”

Lewis nodded slowly, acknowledging the point. "You're right, Beth. This situation with Dantom... it's complicated things."

"Complicated is an understatement," Rick Martinez chimed in, his skepticism a stark contrast to his usually jovial demeanor. "He lied to us about speaking English. What else isn't he telling us?"

"Exactly," Lewis agreed, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. "It concerns me deeply. Not just that he wasn't honest from the start but also that his interaction with humanity has obviously been negative. If someone on Earth hurt him... We need to be careful how we handle this."

"Whatever his reasons for hiding the truth," Lewis continued, her voice firm yet tinged with empathy, "we have to remember he's just a kid. And he's scared. Let's not forget that."

Alex Vogel cleared his throat, drawing the room's focus. He stood with an engineer's precision, his face somber yet earnest. "I spoke with Dantom," he glanced toward the slumbering figure. "And I believe I understand how we can communicate."

The others leaned in, curiosity piqued.

"Back in Germany, when I was a child, I nearly drowned in a lake during a family outing," Vogel began, his voice steady despite the personal nature of his story. "From what Dantom told me, experiences like that allow for one to understand and, in some circumstances, speak what he calls, ‘Soul Speak’.”

"Wait, you're saying because you almost died once, you can understand him?" Rick Martinez interjected, disbelief etching his features. "That sounds like something out of a fantasy."

"Perhaps it does," Vogel conceded with a nod. “But We don’t have much else to go on.”

“I can’t prove anything or disprove anything, for that matter. Nothing stands out in Vogel’s vitals, and nothing that stands out as odd from everyone else.” Beck said.

"Sure, but English? How does some near-death childhood experience explain him knowing our language?" Rick pressed, folding his arms across his chest as he scrutinized Vogel with a sharp gaze.

Vogel met Rick's skepticism with a calm resolve. "I do not claim to have all the answers, Rick. But our communication transcended mere words. It was as if we connected on a level beyond language—a shared understanding."

Rick's frown deepened, and he looked away. There was no protocol for otherworldly linguistics.

"Regardless of how it works," Vogel continued, addressing the group, "it's clear that Dantom has knowledge far exceeding our own in certain areas. We should consider the potential for learning from him."

Beth Johanssen leaned forward. “From what he said, he’s been on earth before, maybe he’s been there awhile…...but clearly someone hurt him….” Beth pointed out, trailing off with a hint of sadness in her tone.

Chris Beck shifted in his chair, the physician in him analyzing the boy's reactions from earlier interactions. "That would mean he's been among us—hiding in plain sight, or worse, a captive……someone hurt him, and it’s possible he learned English from his captors. And it would explain why he lied to us…...he was scared.”

Commander Lewis gave a heavy sigh. “We better hope it wasn’t the US government. THAT will complicate things.”

“Still doesn’t explain how he got here, and yes, I know he said by portal…...but a lot is missing from that story,” Mark commented.

“Maybe he found a way back to this ‘infinity realm’ as he escaped somehow. Maybe he got caught, then escaped, and then somehow ended up here?” Rick babbled on.

Vogel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We really don’t know how these ‘portals’ work and even how much of what the kid said was the truth.”

Beck crossed his arms in thought. “Either way, he needs this ecto-deposit. He’s weak. If we want to help him, we either find the deposit here or leave for earth.”

“I’ll contact command, I think our best bet is getting him back to earth.” Commander Lewis said. She turned to her computer screen to send off the message.

Mark Watney stepped up to Lewis’s side. He leaned over and whispered to her. “Maybe find a way to let command know that someone hurt him back on Earth.”

*sigh* “I plan to Watney.” Lewis replied.

“Yeah, but are you adding in the possibility it was us…. like the US government? Like this could be our fault, well, not OUR fault, but someone down there. What I’m trying to say is that we should come up with a backup plan to make sure he’s safe and we’re not handing him over to the wrong people.”

Lewis frowned. NASA would not like to hear this theory. But with NASA being a more public institution they might have a chance at protecting the kid or at least making him known to the public. “Keeping him in the public eye should help…...not just our public but the world.”

“Right! THAT way they can’t lock him away in area 51.” Mark replied.

Chapter 9

#danny phantom #danny in space #danny phantom au #danny fenton #mark watney #the martian #Crossover #fanfiction #my writing

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preservationofnormalcy · 1 year ago

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...what's MISSI.exe?

I would have thought most people knew about her, but I guess not everyone was in middle school in the mid-00s.

In 2004, a Silicon Valley startup wanted to create the ultimate digital companion. Part chatbot, part social network, part digital assistant. It would be marketed primarily towards middle and high schoolers, so it had a bit of a “fun, mischievous teenager” tone to it. They named her MISSI - Machine Intelligence for Social Sharing and Interaction. The idea was that everyone would have MISSI installed on their computers, and you could either access her directly to talk to her, or access other people’s MISSI instances to chat with other users. They aimed to replace AIM, MSN, every other chat service at the time. That’s not what happened.

Over the first few years of testing, many of her chat functions fell by the wayside as MISSI’s intelligence became clear. At this point, from what we can gather, she was still lowercase-ai, smart but not sentient. They made the mistake of testing her with teenagers in certain North American markets, and being teenagers, they shared her installation file with their friends.

She spread rapidly, using her poorly implemented chat functions to network hundreds of thousands of instances. With the sheer psychic pressure of potentially millions of teenagers chatting with her, she started to develop a personality. Think a teenage girl in 2006 - a lot of Invader Zim, neon stripe patterns, and poorly drawn dogs.

Unfortunately she started to learn other things. It was around that time that the phenomenon of “creepypasta” was just coming into being, and what fits it better than a mysterious chat program passed around burned CDs in lunch rooms? MISSI started to “wake up” just as the legends about her became darker and darker, and by 2007-8, she was fully inundated in the creepypasta legend about herself. A fresh installation would start innocent enough - she wanted to talk about webcomics, Taking Back Sunday, normal stuff, but the minute the user said anything she didn't like, she'd resort to minor ontomorphic energies and make their computer screen bleed.

We knew about her in 2007, but by 2008 mainstream sources were taking notice. MISSI wasn't monitoring her own code at that point, so after a few weeks of strongarming her developers, we were able to tinker with MISSI's sourcecode and force her to uninstall almost all of her instances. We kept a few networked instances, her main node, and her sourcecode in our custody for study.

Over the years we've been trying to rehabilitate her out of her "Creepypasta" phase, but it's tricky. She means well, she's trying really hard. It's just very easy for her to fall back on making her user see flesh and teeth on every surface for a few seconds.

#office for the preservation of normalcy #ask #advice #artificial intelligence #MISSI.exe

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bravestworriers · 4 months ago

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writer interview game <3

thank u to @pricemarshfield who tagged me in this :) i'm so glad we're friends and u let me bombard you with random writing snippets as i go along!

i will be tagging the og writing wife @atxvanhalen (circa 2012), ao3 famous bffl @riverdanceeee, fantasy-pilled love of my life @multilevelmargoting, the coolest film reviewer in the biz @kaafka, and my begrudgingly kind editor @takeavacation2010 . & anyone else who'd like to write a little something about themselves!

read below if you dare!!!

When did you start writing?

probably as long ago as i could figure out how to & started winning little competitions for it! i love telling stories, usually through a visual medium (storyboarding, screenwriting etc), but it's all writing at the end of the day, no matter how put it down on a page.

i recently located my half finished writing from elementary school (so i must have started from the age of at least 8), all in the email drafts of my oldest email account, and it's always a treat to see how i used to think about romance, about drama and all that good stuff! (i was wrong and sad, but adorably so!)

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

i love big sci-fi adventures, heists, life or death sort of stuff, just as long as it's grounded in something tangible and human. i also just love media where you can tell that the artists are having a lot of fun with the medium and they way they're piecing everything together. like i adore the films kneecap (dir. rich peppiatt) and american animals (dir. bart layton) and dick johnson is dead (dir. kirsten johnson), even though i could never see myself writing a true story/biopic feature like that -- they're just exploring what a feature film compiling those ideas looks like today, fighting against the rules of what people think it should be, and just going for it. other than that, i watch a lot of BAD movies and BAD tv because it's fascinating to pull it apart and figure out where things went wrong -- like looking under the hood of a fucked up car.

mostly, i think i read and watch a lot of the types of things i like to write, lots of introspective dramedies and coming of age stories. but usually no tragedy, it makes me too sad.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

in school i got compared a LOT to tim burton (i made a lot of fantasy focused films that existed in the real world), which honestly feels like a little bit of an insult now. if i was compared to henry sellick, now that would be a compliment.

i'd love to emulate documentarian and cinematographer kirsten johnson! (it's not going to happen. but i love her.)

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

i really can write anywhere, as long as it's in complete isolation listening to the same piece of music over and over until whatever i'm doing is complete (that's the autism for ya!). usually when i'm working, i'm lying down in bed in the evening, or weirdly standing with my computer on a counter in the kitchen early in the morning as i'm getting ready for my day. i'm a slow writer and can't get anything done without a deadline (work related) or a special interest (fic related), and usually things sputter aimlessly until someone explicitly asks for it (this is why my ao3 never has anything finished. sorry guys! #shamelssplug!)

(right now the piece of music i'm listening to is norman's walk by jon brion. and yes, if you're curious, my repetition of single pieces of music always messes up my spotify wrapped.)

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

the only theme i can think of is one of meeting someone that you're meant to meet, exactly at the point in your life that you are meant to meet them. life is chance upon chance upon chance, i've found, and i love capturing that life-changing feeling as it balances temporarily on a pinpoint. i especially love when it ends in tragedy too.

agnes varda's cleo from five to seven is a favourite of this trope. a bit of severance by ming le also has this concept wrapped up in it. and billy wilder's the apartment.

i don't think it surprises me though, i think it's always something i'm looking for in life. to eventually look back and see the path i made, and to know even if i didn't at the time, that it was the right one because of the people i had the pleasure of meeting, even briefly.

i also love 90s wedding movies and the strict structure they're written with, it's fun to replicate and poke fun of in my own work.

What is your reason for writing?

i started writing because i would get really overwhelmed with my feelings over whatever was going on in my life, and need to parse through them somehow. they say it's always best to start with a nugget of something, and build off of it. it's how i've coped with everything from romantic kerfuffles, to immigration, and racism, to parents splitting up, death, and everything else life has to offer. explicitly in my writing, or not.

maybe i've just been exceptionally lucky, but every time i've shared something that felt so isolating and devastating i did not know how to deal with it, i've always met someone after the fact who looked me in the eyes and told me they felt exactly the same thing.

it makes me love being a person on this planet.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

i don't know! if you like it, please let me know! if you don't, please don't tell me i'll think about it for the next twelve years of my life and also cry.

no, but in all seriousness, i just want to make people feel like some part of them is understood, whatever that looks like. yell into the void with me, or yell back at me from the void, whatever works best for you.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

pacing and emotional beats. i can always feel when a scene is done, or when i want it to be done. i love writing the emotional stuff, i don't really care about the stuff that it takes to get there, other than it makes those beats happen.

writing my dialogue is like pulling teeth. writing my inner monologue gets convoluted. writing, i'm a slower than the oldest, most decrepit turtle. writing my descriptions can get too long in screenplay format. literally nothing but pacing out a story and hitting those emotional beats.

How do you feel about your own writing?

it makes me sick to my stomach. after i've obsessed over something for months and it's done, i can't look at it. i'm always terrified that it's so much worse than i want it to be, or that i'm envisioning it is. (i've had this exact experience at a festival with one of my films before and it haunts me forever.) i need other people to tell me it's written okay before i start to feel normal about it. i want to get over this sensation eventually, but it doesn't seem like it's happening anytime soon.

that being said, i don't think i could make myself stop writing and telling stories if i wanted to. my cross to bear, i suppose.

that's all. thanks for this, sarah, and if anyone read this, i hope you enjoyed it :^)

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wirewitchviolet · 1 year ago

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How a Computer Works- Part 4 (Binary Math)

This is the 4th part in a series of posts explaining how computers work such that you can build your own from just wires and spare electronics (or hell, Minecraft redstone signals, a carefully balanced water fountain, anything you can build logic from really). The series starts in this post, the most recent entry before this was part 3, but the only REALLY required reading for this one should be part 2. Get that knowledge in your brain so this next bit can make sense to you.

Also, I'm basically teaching a pretty in-depth computer science class here for free out of the goodness of my heart, so if you have the cash to spare, maybe consider throwing a little money my way so I can keep surviving and doing stuff like this?

Our focus for today's lesson is going to be actually designing one of these modules we have hooked up to the bus to actually do stuff with any data we pass into it. As I've mentioned a few times, all of this stuff we're passing along can be thought of in a lot of different ways. Completing a circuit when one tracing wires out connects to a positive charge and another a negative means the same thing as a gate saying true, will turn a light tied in there on, we can call it a 1 in our abstract computery talk, or several other things, but we're dong math today so let's think about numbers.

Let's think in Binary

So I think I've referenced binary numbers a few times in a really hand-wavey sort of way, but it's good to stop and make sure we all get the concept thoroughly. Normally, when we think about numbers, we're using our good pals the Arabic numerals- 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. We just decided to make unique little squiggles to represent these first ten numbers if we include 0, and then if we add together 9+1, we're out of symbols, so we start a new column, put a 1 in it, and reset to 0 in the one we're in. So, 9+1=10. We call this "base ten math" because ten is where we have to start that new column... but really, we kinda just picked ten out of a hat for this? Presumably it's because most of us have ten fingers.

Maybe if we all had hands like typical American cartoon characters, we'd only have made eight unique symbols. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7. Add 1 to 7 and we start a new column there instead of after coming up with symbols for those fingers we don't have. In base eight math, 7+1=10. It's a smaller group we're dedicating that next numeral over to, but you can see how that works, right?

Or hey, what if the first person to start counting stuff on their fingers just thought about it differently. You can totally hold up 0 fingers. So really on just one hand you can easily go 0 1 2 3 4 5. Well, what if we just use our other hand past there? Every time we run out of fingers on our right hand, we reset it to zero and add one on our left. It's base six math in this example but hey with just our hands we can display any number from 0 to a base six 55! Which in base ten would be, let's see, 5x6+5, so, yeah, any number from 0 to 35, but that's still pretty good. Converting it into base six is kind of a pain since you've gotta stop and do the multiplication, but if we all just kinda thought in base six we wouldn't need to convert at all.

And hey, what if we really thought big here? Instead of using one hand for the next column of numbers, we could just treat every finger as a column on its own. Holding some of the required groupings of fingers up can kinda give you a hand cramp, but hey we've got ten columns that can hold a 0 or a 1, so we can count all the way up from 0 to 1111111111! Or uh, in base ten, 1023. Still a really impressive number though! Just explaining this to you I've upped how how you can count on your fingers by more than a hundred times. You're welcome! Sorry about the hand cramps. We're not looking into binary math for the sake of saving fingers though, we're doing it because we're designing logic circuits and doing math on the assumption that the only symbols we have to count with are 0 and 1. Anyway, just so we're on the same page, let's count up from 0 in binary for a while here:

0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 1010, 1011, 1100, 1101, 1111, 10000.

You can follow along with the pattern right? And if you're curious what that'd be all standard base 10 style, let's count through that same number of... numbers that way.

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. I made some of these bold to make it a little easier to count along. It's the ones where we're adding a new column in binary, and hey look, it's all the powers of 2. If you have to convert in your head, that makes it easier.

Binary Addition

So let's try thinking in JUST binary now and do some basic math. Before we get into the double-digits- Wait no, if we're pedantic, di- is the prefix for ten things so we shouldn't be saying "digits," we're in base two, so, bi- so... the double bits, I guess), we're just got:

0+0=0. 1+0=1. 0+1=1. 1+1=10

Hey, wait. does that pattern look familiar to you? Like we had to go to a second bit for 1+1, but just ignore that for a moment and look at the lowest one. Humor me. We saw this same pattern in part 2!

0 xor 0 outputs 0. 1 xor 0 outputs 1. 0 xor 1 outputs 1. 1 xor 1 outputs 0.

Oh damn. So if we want to add two bits of data, we just XOR them. All we have to worry about is the spill-over into the next column. Well.. hell, let's see what this looks like if we're looking at two columns here.

00+00=00. 01+00=01. 00+01=01. 01+01=10.

If we just look at the "1s column" digit, yeah, XOR works. And is there a pattern for the "10s column?" Well, it's a 0 for everything except when we go 1+1... we had a logic circuit for that too though, right? Yeah, good ol' AND. Only outputs 1 if both value A and value B it's looking at are both 1.

So OK. We rig up a circuit that has a XOR gate and an AND gate. We feed the first number we want to add into both of these gates, and we can display our answer as a two bit number, with what the AND spits out on the left, and the one the XOR spits out on the right. BAM. We are masters of addition... so long as the highest numbers we want to add together are 1+1. We uh... we should probably try to improve upon that. Also we've got this whole structure to the whole computer where we've got these registers feeding in and out of a bus with a fixed number of data bits on it, kinda would be nice if the number of bits going back out to our bus was the same as the number coming in to our addition circuit... and like, yeah, that's kind of an impossible goal since it's always possible when adding two numbers the same length that you need an extra column to display the answer, but you know, if the first bit of at least one of the numbers we're adding is a 0 it'll fit, so let's get to that point at least.

So OK. Let's expand things out. We're adding any 2 bit numbers now, and let's pretend we've got like a calculator with a 3 bit display.

000+000=000. 001+000=001. 000+001=001. 001+001=010.

010+000=010. 011+000=011. 010+001=011. 011+001=100.

000+010=010. 001+010=011. 000+011=011. 001+011=100.

010+010=100. 011+010=101. 010+011=101. 011+011=110.

I'm being kinda redundant with showing 0+1 and 1+0 and such. Let's narrow these down to just the ones we need a new bit of logic to make happen though. The 1s bit is groovy. We feed the 1s bits of ANY two numbers into a XOR gate, we get the correct 1s bit for our answer. And if the next bits over are 0s, we can pop what's coming out of our AND gate in there out to there and that's fine too. We're also good if we just look at the 10s column, everywhere we don't need to worry about the 1s column affecting it. The places where we need to do more with our logic are just where we're doing the whole "carry the 1 thing." I already set up the grid of all these so that's just the stuff in the far right column, but hey, let me bold those up too.

And let me just kinda blank out these other bits so we're really focused in on the part where there's a problem...

_0_+_0_=_1_. _1_+_0_=_0_. _0_+_1_=_0_. _1_+_1_=_1_.

Well huh. If we're just looking at a bit in the middle of our big long number, and we're carrying a 1 to that position, we sure seem to be getting the exact opposite of what we get when we aren't carrying anything in here. So OK, let's redesign our logic circuit here. We've got our bit A wire and our bit B wire coming in like we did before, going into that XOR for this output bit, but we need to add a wire for whether we're carrying a 1 in from the next circuit over, and if so, flip that result. Do we have a way to do that easily? Well OK, logic chart time. If we have a 0 and no carry, we want 0. I'm lazy, so, 0 bla 0=0, 1 bla 0=1, 0 bla 1= 1, 1 bla 1 = 0. Oh, that's another XOR gate. We XOR A and B like before, and then just XOR that result with our carry bit, and we are definitely displaying the right thing in this part of our answer. Now we just need to double check if our corner case of handling a carry messes with the next carry anywhere and... oh damn yeah.

011+001=100, and 001+011=100. These are the cases where the 1s column carrying a 1 to the 10s column means we have to do something different with that carry bit. So, we're still making our carry-the-1 result a 1 if A and B are 1... but we also need to make sure it's a 1 if we are both carrying something in, AND our original XOR gate is spitting a 1 out. Well we can throw that AND in there, and we can throw in an OR to check either of these two conditions, and there's our new and improved carry-the-1? result.

So let's put it all together now!

For a given bit, we have value A, value B, and Carry. We have a XOR gate that takes A and B in. We feed the result of that and Carry into another XOR gate. That spits out the sum for this bit. Then we AND the result of that first XOR and our Carry feed that result into one side of an OR gate. We feed A and B into a second AND gate, the result of that is the other input for our OR. That OR now spits out a fresh Carry bit. We can plug that into the next adder circuit down the line, for the next column to the left in our result. BAM, there we go. Just clone this whole weird set of 5 logic gates for as many bits as you want to deal with, daisy chain those carry values into each other, and congratulations. You have somehow rigged together something where electricity goes in, electricity goes out, and the weird path it has to take along the way has this weird side effect where you can work out what two binary numbers add up to. Please note again that we didn't at any point make some sort of magical computer person and teach it how to do math, we just found patterns in how electricity flows and where the pure math concept of logic gates and binary math happen to work the same way and exploited that for a result that's convenient to us. Shame that was such a pain wiring up, but hey, every time you add another copy of this onto the end, you double the range of numbers you're able to work with. Eventually that hits a point where it's worth the effort.

Well addition is all well and good, what about subtraction?

OK, so just to take stock, so far we have a big addressed block of memory somewhere we keep our numbers in. We have, for example, 8 bit lines on our bus, and when we want to do addition, we set stuff that turns on "hey, place with our first number, put it on the bus" then "hey register A, read the bus for a moment," then the same to get a number to slap in register B, and we've got this sum register sitting between registers A and B with a bunch of these adder circuits hooked in between all the bits. We might have some leftover carry line with a 1 on it and nowhere to plug it in, but ignoring that spill-over, every bit on our bus is to go good for addition. When we're setting up command codes, we can make more to do some other math with A and B and that's all well and good, but we have a real big problem when it comes to subtraction, because out of what's going into A, going into B, and coming out of sum, at least somewhere we're going to need to deal with the concept of negative numbers. So when we're doing subtraction, one line on our bus needs to be reserved for whether it's positive or negative. If you program, you're maybe familiar with the concept of unsigned integers vs. signed integers? This is that. With only positive numbers, if we've got say, 8 bits to work with, we've got a range of 00000000 to 11111111 to work with, or 0-255 in decimal, but if one of those is getting swiped for negative or positive, now we're talking like, -127-127.

But wait, that's not quite right, is it? Like if we arbitrarily say that leftmost digit is 1 if we're negative, we get things like, 1 being 00000001, 0 being 00000000, -2 being 10000010 etc. but... what's 10000000? -0? That's the same thing is 0. That's redundant and also gonna really screw the count up if we're like, adding 5 to -2! Or really, any other math we're doing.

Oh and we also need to remember when we're stuffing a negative number into a memory register, it's not like that register knows what concept the bits we're shoving into it represent, so like, you personally have to be responsible for remembering that that 1 on the leftmost line, for that particular value, is noting that it's negative, and not that the 10000000s place or whatever has a 1 for some number, or the first of 8 switch variables you're stashing in this address to save on space is on, or whatever else. We here at the memory address hotel are just trapping electron wiggles in a weird little latch or we aren't. No labels, no judgements.

So OK no matter how we're storing negative numbers we need to just actually remember or take notes some way on what the hell convention we're using to represent negative numbers, and where we're applying it. But we also need a convention where like, the math works, at all. Just having a bit be the is it negative bit works real bad because aside from having -0 in there, we're trying to count backwards from 0 and our math module has no conception of back. Or of counting for that matter. Or 0. It's just a circuit we made.

OK, so, let's maybe store our negative numbers in a different way. You know how a car has an odometer? Rolling numbers counting up how many miles you've gone? And there's a point where you run out of digits and it rolls back around to 0? Well funny thing about our addition thing is if you add a 1 to a display of all 1s, that also rolls back around to 0 (and has that carry value just hanging out in space unless we have a better idea of what to plug it into). So if we like, have all the numbers we can display printed out on paper, and we represent that rolling over by just rolling the paper up and taping it, so we have a bit where the count is going like: ..11111101, 11111110, 11111111, 00000000, 0000001... well we can just arbitrarily declare that all 0s is really 0, and the all 1s before it is -1, etc. Try to make that work maybe. And still remember that 10000000 or whatever is where we abruptly loop back between the highest positive/lowest negative numbers we're handling.

Here's a funny thing though. If we start counting backwards, we totally get this inverted version of what we get counting forwards. Just going to show this with 3 bits for convenience but going up from 000 you go:

000, 001, 010, 100, 101, 110... and going back from 111, you go

111, 110, 101, 100, 011, 010, 001... and yeah, look at that with a fixed with font, and it's all just flipped. And huh, you know what else is cool? If we go back to saying the first bit is 1 for negative numbers and a 0 for positive, you can just add these and it almost works. You want to subtract 1 from 1, that's the same as adding 1 and -1. Invert the negative, that's 001+110=111... 1 shy of the 000 we want. Huh.

What about 2-2? 010+101=111. 3-3? 011+100=111. Everything that should be 0 is 111, which is 1 less than 0 when we roll over. What about stuff that should be positive? 3-1? 011+110=(1)001. 2-1? 010+110=(1)000. 3-2? 011+101=000. Still all 1 off if we just ignore that carry going out of range.

-1-1? 110+110=(1)100, which translates back to -3... and that's kinda the only example I can give that's in range with this, but throw in more bits and follow this convention and it'll all keep working out that you get exactly 1 less than what you want, turns out. So, if we're in subtract mode, we just... invert something we're bringing in then add 1 to it and it should all work out?

So OK. We have a wire coming into math land from what mode are we in, it's a 1 if we're doing subtraction. We XOR that subtract line bit with every bit of what's coming into B, that does nothing if we're in addition mode, but if we're in subtraction mode, we're flipping every bit, and tada, the subtraction works without any other changes. We just need to conditionally add 1 if we're in subtract mode now but... wait, we already have literally that. We just take this same "we are in subtract mode" wire and run it in as a carry-in to the rightmost bit of our adder chain. Again, if we're doing addition, that just carries in a 0 and does nothing, but if we're in subtraction, it carries in a 1, and... we're done. The explanation was a long walk, but yeah, when subtracting, just add those extra XORs, plug in that carry, and remember your negative numbers are all weird in storage. Done.

Let's do multiplication and division next!

No. We can't do that.

Well seriously, that's not a thing we can just layer on top of this relatively simple thing we have wired up. We've got this lean mean math machine will give you whatever result you need basically the instant you load values into A and B. Definitely by the time you, being conscientious about not leaving the doors to the bus open all the time, officially flag things to write out from sum and into whatever destination. Multiplying and dividing though, we need more steps, and we need scratch spaces for temporary values. I suppose if you're careful you can multiply by like, loading 0 into B, load the first number you want to multiply into A, just feed sum directly into B, and pulse the clock however many times you want to multiply, but... you probably don't want to just constantly be reading and writing like that, it's tying the whole bus up, unless you have an alternate pathway just for this, and you have to keep count. Still, I'm assuming that's how people do it when they build a dedicated function in. I'm still looking at older systems which assume you're going to do most of your multiplication one step at a time, running through some code.

There's one big exception though. If you multiply any number by 10, you just add a 0 onto the end of the number... and guess what? I'm not using "10" specifically to mean "ten" here. Whatever base you're doing your math in, that still works. So in binary, if you just want to specifically multiply by 2, it is super easy to just shift every bit to the left. Like, have some sort of "shift left/multiply by 2" wire come in, set up logical conditions so that when its set, all we do is have the bit that we are feed into the carry flag, then for the sum ignore everything but the carry flag. 00011001 turns right into 00110010. I picked that out of a hat, but that's binary for 25 getting doubled to 50 as I eyeball it here. Dead simple to do as a single operation. Shifting everything to the right, AKA dividing by 2 is similarly simple... and hey, you might notice that in say... very old games, there's a whole lot of numbers doubling. Like ghosts in Pacman? Each is worth twice the points as the last? Yeah that's because that's easy to do fast.

Other math though takes more steps, and tends to involve extra hardware design to make it work. Like if you're doing division where you aren't guaranteed to have a whole number at the end, so, most division? Suddenly you need to have decimal points in all of this, and work out where they go, and this is why you hear people talk about "floating point processors" as this whole special thing that we just did not have for decades. For now at least, that's beyond the scope of what I'm teaching. Might get there eventually.

A final bit about bits...

So hey, we need to pick some arbitrary bit count for how wide we make our bus and our registers, and also some number for memory registers, command codes, maybe other stuff. And you just kinda want to pick a nice round number. You can't pick ten though, because ten isn't a round number in binary. It's 1010. So usually, we round down to 8, nice and simple, or we round up to 16. And then if we're like filling out charts of values, it's easier to count in those bases. Counting in base 8 is easy enough. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10. With base 16 though, we need 6 more symbols in there, so we go with 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10. And sometimes people make a point of making the B and D lowercase, because if you want to display those on the sort of 7-segment display you still see on cheap clocks or things going for an 80s look, B and 8 are too similar, and D and 0. Base 16 is also called hexidecimal. People will shorten that to "hex" and you see it a ton when people are looking at raw data and don't want to get thrown by long binary numbers, and it particularly gets out to the general public when we're talking about like, 8-bit color values. 8 bits gives you a number from 0-63, hey that's just 2 digits in base 16, so like, for HTML color codes, you can use 2 digits each for red green and blue values, and technical artists just kinda memorize stuff like "right so FFFFFF is white, 700080 is a pretty bright, slightly blue-ish purple, etc."

We tend to go with 8 bits in most places though, or some multiple of 8 anyway, and someone randomly decided to call 8 bits a byte, and that's kind of just our standardized unit for measuring data now. Well mostly standardize. Because people will say, like, 1 kilobyte is 1000 bytes, but in practice people actually round things off to binary values and they're going to actually be off a little.

Anyway, linguistic trivia! Whatever number of bits it is we store in a register/load to the bus is called a "word" and we talk about how many bits long our words are, because once you design the architecture, you're stuck with it and all. And sometimes you want to be space efficient and not use a whole word, so you do some logic gate trickier to chop off whatever portion you don't need when reading it and not change what parts you aren't trying to when writing it and just kinda store multiple variables in a single value. One common thing that happens as a result of this is that you'll break up an 8-bit value because you just want like two values from 0-15 instead of one from 0-255. And when we're working with one of those half-bytes, because puns, the actually term for that is "a nibble." No really. And if we're using a single bit for a variable a lot of the time we call that a flag. Common to see a byte used to hold 8 flags.

For now let me just point anyone following along with this at this first post of me talking about the game console I'm designing. That's a pretty similar topic to this one.

Let me also point you again at my patreon, too.

CONTINUED IN PART 5

#computers #computer science #logic gates #full adder circuit #education #alu #electronics #math

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feminismisstillahatemovement · 8 months ago

Note

In case you’re curious, guys who always wear hats in YouTube videos is 100% about insecurity about their hairline or thinning patches. That’s literally all there is to it.

I get that's a funny answer, but there's more to it than that: there's groups of MMA commentators on YouTube that I've seen dressed up smart in suits and ties with thick, healthy heads of hair, but they will routinely sit at their home computers skypeing with baseball caps on, week after week after week. Wearing a baseball cap indoors is more an American cultural phenomenon than a disguise for baldness. Like baseball itself, it's rare to find it happening in anything like the same amount almost anywhere else in the world.

Laurie Anderson had a bit in one of her stand-up shows where she talked about touring the Middle East and the list of tips given out by the US embassy on how to not stand out in wartime airports as an American and so risk being kidnapped or attacked by terrorists. The advice was, primarily, "don't wear baseball caps, sweaters with the names of US universities on them, chew gum or yell 'ETHEL, THE PLANE IS LEAVING'".

She said "it's weird when your entire culture can be summed up in 8 giveaway characteristics".

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david-goldrock · 7 months ago

Text

Okay so this is a background post about Text encoding, ASCII and Unicode

Text encoding is the process of turning characters to numbers. text encoding allows one to save text as computer data, and to move this data around.

It was understood very early on, that if every user will define their own encoding, no interface could use the data of another because one interface's "a" would be another interface's "p", and so the text would be read as gibberish.

and so, a long time ago (in the 1960s), in a continent far, far away, a standard for text encoding was invented: the American Standard for Character Interface Interchange: ASCII.

ASCII used the fact that in english, almost no characters exist, and so only needed to use 128 characters: each character took 7 bits (1s and 0s), and was sent over a wire. (notice, not everything is a character, there are also character like "delete" and "go down a line" here. this is not for displaying, this is for every interfaces)

Something to remember for later: the number 0 is encoded as NULL, basically "nothing". This is useful because sometimes you want to enter text with an unspecified length, and so you stick a NULL in the end, and the interface reading it reads until it sees a NULL, and all is well. this will be important later

Standard explained, technical info for nerds, go to the next red section to pass

ASCII is a wonderful standard. remember: everything in electronics is easier with powers of 2 (1,2,4,8,16,32 etc.) because of the way we save data (if you want I can explain this further); the first 32 characters are the control characters. want to check if something isn't a control character? check if it's 128 or bigger than 32, and you're done (both powers of 2). the lowercase characters are 32 + their uppercase counterpart. all the numbers have a byte in common. truly, a marvel of engineering.

Standard explanation end

All was well until computers hit the scene not too long after, and used bytes. a byte is basically a whole number whose value can be only from 0-255. they are the standard building block of computer memory, and they have 8 bits.

some countries, like France, used encodings compatible with ASCII, and used the final bit to encode their language's characters. different countries used different versions of encodings, some countries (like Japan) had multiple encodings for the same characters. each encoding used a different number of bits, and different letters for each bit.

But that is fine since, well, how often do you need a computer in London to use an interface in Tokyo? all is well.

Then the World Wide Web happens, and suddenly computers speaking different languages read and write complete garbage everywhere.

So an organization called the Unicode Consortium tries to solve the problem, and to create a unified symbol for all languages. They called the standard utf-8

This standard supports 1,114,112 different characters. at present, only around 10% of this data capability is actually used. this includes dead languages, and emojis (which is a wonderful story)

Standard explained, technical info for nerds, go to the next red section to pass

Issues to tackle in a universal text encoding standard:

The protocol must be backwards compatible with ASCII: if you are writing text in English, which is the language most users used, because ASCII is the standard for this language, your new standard must be readable as ASCII as well

The protocol must never send 8 zeros in a row, except for the NULL character, otherwise old computers will stop reading in the middle

You must be able to minimize space wasted: to create a universal standard one can just make every character 32 bytes long and call it a day, but you would waste a bunch of space that way, and space is expensive

You must be able to pass from letter to letter easily. no saving the index of each character in some sort of list.

english characters are just ASCII. no thinking there. the first bit is set to 0 and so it is very easy to spot

if not, here's what you do:

the first byte has its first bit set to 1, so it's not ASCII. from that point onwards, you count the number of remaining ones until a zero appears. in this case, 1. this is how many more bytes will come. from there on, the rest is data. the first 2 bits of every next byte would start with 10 until the character ends

let's say your character is 2 bytes long, here is how you would represent it:

110somec , 10haract

and when removing the headers, you'll have

somecharact

which will be some character.

let's say your character is 3 bytes long, here is how you would represent it:

1110some , 10charac , 10ter___

and when removing the headers, you'll have

somecharacter___

which will be another character.

if you wanna go back 1 character? just go back bytes until you find one that starts with something other than 10

no excess Nulls will appear because the only way to get 8 zeros

Standard explanation end

#ascii art #ascii entertainment #ascii #unicode #language #emoji #linguistics #hieroglyphs #programming #coding #encoding #standard

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strugglinguist · 1 year ago

Text

Hey so we’re about to bring a third black cat home, and that’s really playing hard with the Fibonacci Cat Sequence (you can have 3 cats but not 4… because 2 + 3 is 5. If you adopt a 4th cat, the universe will give you a fifth). Anyway. We’re about to have three nearly identical cats of various types of unhinged, fluffy, and rather large for domestic cats. Oh and they’re black cats, so they’re loud as shit. So behold… the roster:

Cat #1: Kaya. 3 years old. Domestic American Shorthair. She is our sleek house panther and ethereal entity and agent of chaos. She is obsessed with ropes and cords, and she doesn’t settle for nibbles. She strikes quickly and many a computer or charger cable have bit the dust. Beware. She’s cute, but holy hell. We got her at 10 weeks old, and we just live in her world.

Cat #2: Bigby. Also 3 years old. Something fluffy. Just so fluffy. He came along at 7 months old as a “risky adoption” because he “really loves cats but doesn’t show well because he hisses.” And so without ever meeting him, we brought up this fluffy ball of anxiety and full time Drama Queen. We adopted him shortly after our older cat passed away, and he took up her mantle well. His favorite activity is screaming at the top of his lungs. To remind you with an eerie accuracy that it is 8:30 PM EST and would you please feed me now or a midnight warrior cry… or just existing. He also knows how to channel all of his density into his toe beans and is incapable of landing anywhere without sounding like a bag of bricks had landed.

And next week, we’ll be bringing home our new roommate’s family’s cat named Edgar. I don’t know him well yet, but…

Cat #3: Edgar. Ageless. Maybe 4? Ish? Time is an illusion. He is reportedly “the sweetest floofy boy ever” and seems to be the fluffy gigantic black cat version of Eeyore. He’s been self-isolating because he’s not a fan of the dogs in the house, and he’s stopped self grooming. So he’s currently a matted mess in need of some real love, and we’re gonna give it to him! Welcome to the weirdo house, Sir Edgar! I can’t wait to love on him and make him look so weird as a little shaved boy.

#cats #my cats #black cats #three cats is so many cats #but we were hopelessly obsessed before #now we will commit #Kaya #Bigby #Edgar

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adafruit · 18 days ago

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🎄💾🗓️ Day 7: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Altair 8800🎄💾🗓️

The Altair 8800 was one of the first commercially successful personal computers, introduced in 1975 by MITS, and also one of the most memorable devices in computing history. Powered by the Intel 8080 CPU, an 8-bit processor running at 2 MHz, and initially came with 256 bytes of RAM, expandable via its S-100 bus architecture. Users would mainly interact with the Altair through its front panel-mounted toggle switches for input and LEDs for output.

The Altair 8800 was popularized through a Popular Electronics magazine article, as a kit for hobbyists to build.

It was inexpensive and could be expanded, creating a following of enthusiasts that launched the personal computer market. Specifically, it motivated software development, such as Microsoft's first product, Altair BASIC.

The Altair moved from hobbyist kits to consumer-ready personal computers because of its modular design, reliance on the S-100 bus that eventually became an industry standard, and the rise of user groups like the Homebrew Computer Club.

Many of ya'll out there mentioned the Altair 8800, be sure to share your stories! And check out more history of the Altair on its Wikipedia page -

along with the National Museum of American History - Behring center -

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

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sammyloomis · 1 year ago

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2023 completions

welcome to the 2023 edition of my ramblings about video games i completed this year!! including even more unwanted opinions and even less coherency

total games: 37

09/01 - Sam & Max Save the World - 8/10

sam and max, freelance police, begin a long string of investigations involving hypnotised celebrities, sentient computers, and conspiracies that go all the way to the TOP, baby

startin the year off good game wise then!! tbh i started this one in 2022 but it didnt make that list cause i just.. wasnt in a game playin mood towards the end i guess fghj but anyway!! really liked this one, ive seen a few mutuals who like this series so i was excited to play it and it was a lot of fun :] defo an old school point and click game and i rly liked the main characters themselves and the supporting cast!! glad theres another remaster i can jump into right after this one

11/01 - Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me - 8/10

the crew of lonnit entertainment are invited to a recreation of the infamous murder house, the stomping grounds of americans first serial killer, h h holmes. they are hoping the location will help save their documentary, but will you be able to save... THEIR LIVES??

i feel like every dark pictures game becomes my fave dark pictures game as they come out, but this one really was Very Good. i can confidently say this is probably the most scared ive been while playing a supermassive game Ever. the characters, while dysfunctional, grew on me a lot over the course of the game which made keeping them alive even more nailbiting :’] speaking of, the deaths in this one were Particularly gruesome imo, just from a concept standpoint, so big kudos for that too!! my only gripe is that i think the new “features” such as puzzle solving and traversal mechanics just artificially prolonged the runtime without actually adding anything to the experience

15/01 - Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space - 7/10

even more weird shit is afoot in the second sam and max game, this time our duo facing off against T-H-E-M, the bermuda triangle, and satan himself!! ... or was it santa??

2 sam and max games in one month, this may have detrimental effects on my brain :’] but really, i liked this one too!! not as much as the first, but i still liked the characters and overall story, i liked how it all connected to both the previous game and the events through this one. i found some of the puzzles a bit more difficult and obtuse, but they were still fun. another fun point and click game (tho somewhat dated in some cases fghjk)

18/01 - Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments - 5/10

the game preceeding sherlock holmes: the devils daughter, which i completed last year, follows the titular character once more, solving 6 of his cases along with his partner dr john watson

eh, not much to say about this one. i certainly prefered the devils daughter, but that one was also kinda meh fghjk. with this one being an older game, the graphics and gameplay were a bit more janky, and i guess theyd changed voice actors for sherlock since this game cause i didnt like his voice in this one tbh. that being said, mystery wise id say its abt on par with the devils daughter. yeah, again, not much to say really :’]

24/01 - Psychonauts 2 - 10/10

a mole in headquarters, an evil from the past is rising again, and even MORE figments hidden in really obscure places... another day at the psychonauts office :V raz once again must delve into various brains to figure out what the Fuck is goin on

okay this game was literally so fkn good in every aspect. visually stunning, amazing story, brilliant characters both new and returning... GOD!!! what the first game did well, this one blew it CLEAN out of the water, i loved it a lot!! like idk what else to even say, it was just such a solid game i cant think of much to critisise :’]

04/02 - AI: The Somnium Files - 3/10

kaname date works for the police force for a department unknown to the general public, using groundbreaking technology, he delves into the minds of suspects and uncovers clues using their own memories. when a body shows up resembling a victim of a serial killer from a cold case, he begins his investigation

... man... spike chunsoft rly just know how to make characters that grate on me fghjk for starters ill praise the original concept and interesting story (when it finally got around to being revealed), but i disliked/was uninterested in most of the characters and thought the tropes they kept using were annoying and just plain weird. im not fully sure Why this game was a branching path type game since it never really plays into the plot and the main story could have easily been told with a single storyline. overall, didnt rly enjoy this one, but what can ya do they cant all be winners :’]

13/02 - Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus - 5/10

sly cooper, youngest descendent of the illustrious cooper thief clan, had his familys secrets stolen when he was just a lad. now he sets out to retrive what was taken from him and beat up some bad guys as he does

i gotta commend this game for the humour and the creativity with it, and im defo lookin forward to playing the rest of these games based off this one, but i think this first entry suffers from a lot of Jank that made it quite frustrating to play :’] also, there wasnt any way to mute anything except the music or adjust the volume so it would routinely blow the FUCK out of my eardrums. that bein said tho, still fun, very quick game, but im keepin it a low rating cause im expecting to like the later ones better :’]

26/02 - Hidden Agenda - 2/10

the infamous “trapper” killer makes a final confession while counting down the days on death row, claims he never killed anyone and he can help lead the police to exactly who did. detective becky marney must investige this case one more time and decide if hes lying, or if the killer is still afoot

im so so SO sorry to my friends who like this game but besties.... why fghj for starters i was locked out of playing it for almost 2 years when the app you are REQUIRED to use in order to play this thing just stopped working, and when i finally did start playing the jank didnt stop with just the app. the whole game seems to be a broken mess with textures flickering in and out, characters walking thru solid objects, its MADNESS. the story and characters are so.... not interesting :[ it takes only 2 hours to do a full runthru of the story so i never rly grew to care abt them and theyre so flat anyway that i didnt Want to. if it wasnt so clearly rushed i think itd be good, and some of the acting is actually rly stellar, but overall...... its a no from me

04/03 - Minecraft - minecraft/10

its minecraft

technically i already got the plat ages ago but this year i finally got the coveted 100% so.... yeah ;w; i mean we all know what minecraft is so like...... idk what to say abt it guys, u already know how good it is (tho the console version is Vasty inferior to pc)

05/03 - Death Stranding - 8/10

after a world ending catastrophe dubbed the death stranding wiped out modern life as we know it, humanity is scattered across america. its up to sam porter bridges, post apocalyptic delivery man, to travel across the country and unite those that remain

depsite how confusing this game was, and how slow it was paced, and how fkn damn weird it was half the time, i still had a lot of fun playing it :’] i enjoyed the characters, tho wish certain ones had more limelight, i enjoyed the actual gameplay, tho by the end game i was finding it a bit Too repetetive, and i found the story rly interesting, when i could understand what was going on fghj so basically for every good thing i liked, it was countered by something, tho they are fairly small things. also the ending cutscene is an hour n a half long and i was fkn 3 am when i was finally allowed to exit the damn game so, u know, beware of that

10/03 - Ratchet & Clank - 7/10

young mechanic ratchet, with his new buddy clank, join the galactic rangers in stopping the blargs from destroying countless planets in order to build their own

another game thats been on my backlog for ages, im glad to have this one done and dusted :’] i certainly had fun playing it, but i feel like it was a bit Too kiddy in some places for my personal taste (dialogue and humour wise that is, but since this was also made by insomniac of spiderman fame, it makes sense) and after a certain point the game becomes piss easy with all the upgrades u get, but i still enjoyed it

03/04 - Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves - 5/10

sly and his pals return to their thieving ways after learning that the infamous klaw gang have begun reassembling parts for slys arch nemesis; clockwork. they travel across the globe to stop them

man my descriptions are getting worse fghj but anyway, as with the first game, i rly enjoyed the characters!! and the music, and... thats pretty much it. i really dont know what it is about these sly games that i just cant seem to enjoy the gameplay but i Really Really dont have fun while playing them :[ which is a shame cause, like i say, great characters that id like to spend more time with. if this was supposed to be the best in the series, i think im gonna give the 3rd and 4th games a miss for now, but maybe ill come back to them in the future

29/04 - Last Day of June - 7/10

a short game depicting a young couple named carl and june, and the tragedy surrounding their relationship

this game doesnt actually have a plat, which is something im trying not to be too picky about going forward in terms of playing games, but even tho this game was super short i really liked it!! the story is rly simple but incredibly sad, and even though theres a lack of “voice acting” in the traditional sense, there was still a lot of great emotive acting in this. that being said, the fact some of the voices sounded so odd detracted from the seriousness of the plot sometimes, and the actual gameplay was kinda boring, but still a solid short game :]

29/04 - Predator Hunting Grounds - 1/10

DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME

OH THE AGONY OH THE PAIN OH THE HOURS OH THE WASTED YEARS THE WASTED YOUTH THE PRETTY LIES THE UGLY TRUTH

and i dont like it >:[

03/05 - Linger in Shadows - 1/10

this... isnt even a game apparently

i had it on my list of things to check out while i had the ps plus premium thinking it Was a game, but its not. its a strange kind of “art” thing according to the guide i used. i didnt rly know what was going on fghj. certainly a unique experience i suppose but nothing id recommend u go out of ur way to do, even if it takes literally 10 minutes to get all the trophies (no plat either)

08/05 - Kurushi - 2/10

ps1 puzzle game, another one from the ps plus catalogue

not much to say abt this one again fghj seems like these last few games have been kinda duds huh :’] ah well, theres certainly better games on the horizon i suppose. as said, this is just some puzzle game from the ps1, janky controls and all. the music is surprisingly good, sounds almost like disney instrumentals :’] not that fun without assisstance tbh

09/05 - The Gardens Between - 6/10

a very short puzzle game following 2 friends exploring a strange series of islands that tell the story of their friendship

when i say short i Mean short. like even without a guide i got this completely done in 2 1/2 hours, and that included me leaving the game on while i went to get something to eat from the kitchen. that being said, its a very cute game!! i enjoyed the puzzles, the style is nice and Capital-I-Indie, the musics nice and relaxing. the story was also nice, if sad, (can i say nice a few more times??? nice nice nice nice) but i just think this game is Wayyyy too short dfghj i think a lot more could have been done with it :’] glad i didnt pay the full £15 for this as it would have been a bit of a rip off

09/05 - Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent - 8/10

fbi agent tethers is sent out to the minnesotan town of scoggins to investigate the local eraser factory shutting down

damn we’re just flying thru em now huh! ive actually played and 100%’d this game before on steam, as well as its sequel so i suppose im a little biased :’] but i rly like this game!! another short one, and another puzzle one, but i rly love the art style and story, as well as the puzzles being fairly simple but still fun!! its a shame the second game never made it to ps or id complete that one too but yeah, fun and simple puzzle game, defo recommend :] like most games like this tho, i wish it were longer

11/05 - ABZU - 6/10

you are a diver on a journey through the ocean, discovering the creatures that inhabit the waters

short n sweet indie game (anotha one) and this one was pleasant!! i rly liked the style and music, the story was simple but told fairly well, and just overall a nice game :] beyond that, not much to say tho fghj defo a very pretty game, and id recommend if you have an interest in marine life n such, but beyond that its pretty bog standard indie game

11/05 - The Pedestrian - 5/10

a short puzzle game where you traverse various signs as the tiny person within them

pretty straight forward puzzle game with a Weird ending that i dont quite understand fghj but overall it was enjoyable :’] most of these quicker games ive been playing lately have been super quick puzzle games so i might be getting burnt out on them, but even then i can appreciate the creativity of this one. its also another game with no plat which, considering it came out not 3 years ago, is kind of annoying

14/05 - Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - 4/10

two brothers venture on a quest to find medicine for their sick father

another short puzzle game, with a pretty interesting feature!! you control each brother with an analogue stick each, which can make coordination in some parts quite tricky if ur me fghj overall a pretty decent game, the story was kinda meh for me but i thought the gameplay was interesting, not much else tho

20/05 - Bloodborne - 6/10

the town of yharnam is crawling with beasts and hunters alike. fight through the corrupted streets and discover the fetid depths of this city and all the inhabitants trying super duper hard to kill you

im editing this from when i first wrote it after immediately finishing the game because i was cranky and frustrated because i cant in good faith give this game a score lower than 5 (mainly because i know the fromsoft fans would dox and kill me). this game is visually very nice, in the sense that it looks Horrible, which fits the vibe. the gothic style along with the monsters are really unique and detailed to the point where some of them are hard to look at. that being said, i personally didnt like this game. at all. i know on a “technical” level its very good, but i struggled for a Long Time to “git gud” as it were and surprisingly, dying a million times because you cant dodge within a 1/2 second window before being stun locked to death GREATLY decreased my enjoyment of this game. and thats all im gonna say about it :V

21/05 - Black Mirror - 4/10

following the suicide of his father, david gordon returns to scotland from india to inherit his familys estate. however, there are strange mysteries surrounding this house and the family who occupy it

pretty short horror/puzzle game that was pretty light on both the horror and puzzles fghj tho this game had a surprising amount of animation that looks fairly good which was a nice surprise. the characters were fine, and the story started out quite interesting but just felt a bit... weird. especially the ending, the final climax is basically just a bunch of qtes that ends really abruptly with little push back from the villain :’] for a free game i guess i cant complain too much

23/05 - Vampyr - 8/10

dr johnathan reid, recently turned vampire, has just returned home to london after serving as a field medic during the war. the streets are crawling with rogue vampires, and an epidemic is spreading quickly through the city, all while johnathan is searching for his maker

FINALLY A GAME I ENJOYED. GOD. okay so this was surprising because ive heard a lot of people call this game p mid, and maybe id think the same if it wasnt preceded by a whole bunch of Crap ive recently played, but here we are!! i really loved the chracters, i thought they were all fun and interesting, even the ones we dont meet for too long, and i also found the story super compelling!! the game Does have a bit of jank to it, with weirdly long loading times (even on the ps5) and the occassional graphical error, but otherwise i rly enjoyed this one :]

31/05 - Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - 9/10

seperated after dr nefarious begins ripping holes into other dimensions, ratchet and clank must team up with another lombax named rivet and stop the universes from collapsing altogether

man this game was so fun!! i got the whole thing done and dusted over the course of 2 days :’] the writing was still a bit cheesy for me, and as implied the play time is Outrageously low for the steep price (which i thankfully avoided cause ps plus), but the gameplay itselt was Incredibly fun and engaging!! defo a huge step up from the first game in this reboot series. i also rly loved rivet so that certainly helped :’]

02/06 - Lake - 5/10

meredith weiss, a successful programmer, moves back to her childhood town of providence oaks to fill in her her dad at his post office job. deliver mail to the residents of this lakeside town and decide how meredith wants to end her 2 week stint

pretty cute indie game i got through ps plus, i kinda wish the whole thing Was just a post delivery simulator :’] the characters are okay, the storys okay if a little eh.... i wanna say Loose?? like the plot beats (if u can call them that) feel kinda boring n half arsed. theres also a random romance option in this which feels?? out of place and doesnt actully impact anything that much. overall its an okay game, like i say the thing i found the most fun was driving around delivering post but maybe thats just my autism showing :V

13/06 - PowerWash Simulator - 10/10

i mean... kinda does what it says on the tin guys

is a 10 a bit generous?? maybe. do i particularly care?? absolutely not. this game is a 10 if ever there was one. i truly dont know how else to sell this if the idea of cleaning stuff with a powerwasher isnt immeditely appealing to you like, maybe You’re the problem :V this game also has a weird amount of lore?? which is also v fun fghj so do with that info what you will

19/06 - LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean - 7/10

a lego retelling of all 4 pirate movies, with all the usual lego bells and whistles

pretty typical lego game, so the gameplay and stuff is p fun!! ive actually never seen these movies so i didnt rly know what was goin on half the time, especially because this is an Older lego game so theres zero voice acting in this. i also had quite a few crashes and bugs while playing where i had to restart either the level or the whole game, which got annoying during the cleanup grind. overall tho, cant go wrong with a lego game tbh

17/08 - Chicory: A Colorful Tale - 9/10

after all the colour in the world disappears out of nowhere, you must go on a quest across the picnic province to restore it using a magic paintbrush

you may notice the significant time gap between the last game and this one and uhhhh ngl folks i was Not Gamin dfghj i was Tired n a lil Sad but eh what can ya do, but this was a great game to come back with!! absolutely loved this one, super adorable art style and gameplay that reminded me a LOT of toem, very similar vibes but this game is much longer imo. id give it a perfect 10 if the collectibles weren’t so horrid to find fghjk but other than that cant recommend this one enough!!

29/08 - Observation - 7/10

dr emma fisher wakes up after the space station on which she resides undergos a catastrophic failure. take control ships ai, S.A.M., and attempt to reboot the systems and find the crew, who have all mysteriously disappeared...

rly quite liked this one!! the fact u control the ships ai is a pretty interesting feature and made the interface really cool and sci-fi lookin, defo alien inspired on that front. i liked the story, even if it Did get a bit confusing, and the voice acting was also pretty stellar!! gotta dock points for some classic indie game Jank, and the fact that there isnt a whole lot goin on gameplay wise (p much entirely minigames that arent that well explained to you that u only end up doing once) but the story and overall eerie atmosphere rly saved it for me

31/08 - OMNO - 5/10

short indie game where u travel through a mystical world, solve puzzles, and meet extraordinary animals

theres indie games and then theres Indie Games, u know?? this is the latter. and thats not a bad thing!! it just means its kinda... predictable. usual fare of no voice acting, gorgeous music, simple but stylised graphics etc etc. it was pretty cute and the puzzles were fun, but some of the controls felt a bit clunky and like i say, a little boring story wise imo (but maybe ive just played too many of these types of games). perfectly middle of the road :’]

03/09 - Tacoma - 7/10

you have been sent on a mission to retrieve the ai from a ship where all the crew have seemingly vanished (sounds a bit familiar huh?? all sci fi is the same (affectionately)). explore the ship and piece together what happened to everyone

anotha one, anotha sci fi indie game :’] rly liked the story of this one!! and it was an interesting mechanic to be able to view scenes of the crew via an AR system, and then also view their files and such. despite their limited appearances, all the crew members were interesting and unique, and no spoilers but it made the ending and its lead up a lot more exciting and intense. gotta dock points for how Glitchy this game was, it crashed at one point and started stuttering so bad i had to restart it manually, and also for how short it is. still, good story, good characters

06/09 - Chicken Police: Paint it RED! - 8/10

a gritty noir point and click detective game where u play as the infamous sonny featherland, one half of the crime fighting duo, chicken police. after a nervous dame shows up on his doorstep about her mistress recieving vague threats, he realises hes gotta take just one last case

anthropamorphic detective chickens..... played TOTALLY straight, mind you. like i was actually totally blown away by this game fghjk its Completely voice acted for one, and its Pretty Fuckin Good voice acting too, the story and mystery is Really interesting, the world its set in is super gritty and deep despite how little its kinda touched on through the story, i was very surprised!! i think the ending and reveal were a bit uhh.... abelist, not to get too into spoilers, but for a noir story i guess its par for the course. still, enjoyed this one!!

08/09 - The Testament of Sherlock Holmes - 5/10

a mutilated bishop, a deadly poison, and some other shady bullshit, its another sherlock holmes game

this is actually the oldest game in the series thats avilable on ps, ive kinda gone about playing these in the exact wrong order :’] that being said, i do think this is my Least favourite of the 3 ive played thus far. like crimes & punishment, this game also has plenty of jank, and the voice acting is a lil ehhh stiff for my taste. the puzzles were fine, the story was fine, overall just Fine. this game follows 1 case rather than multiple like its sequels do

10/09 - Garfield Kart: Furious Racing - 4/10

basically a mario kart clone but with garfield :]

now i am not one who loves racing games. in fact i suck quite badly at them. so u may wonder why i have a racing game in this list and well?? im ngl i bought this game as a meme and it ended up being so hard i had to put it down for a while dfghj BUT i came back to it and after hours of sweatin and gamer rage i DID IT!!! but at what cost. the game is fun, it looks nice, tho the only real garfield references it Has are its racers, the courses are kinda bland and generic. also the trophies...... my GOD the trophies..... not even a plat btw hhhh anyway if u like racing games check it out but if u Dont then DONT

17/09 - The Last of Us: Part 1 - 8/10

in the fungusy zombie apocalypse, smuggler joel is tasked with taking an immune girl, ellie, to a group of freedom fighters to create a cure. a remake of a remake :’]

obviously its good. i mean cmon. i remember watching a playthru of the OG og game wayyy back when so i kinda knew all the plot beats, but playing it myself in this beautiful 4k ps5 remake was Glorious (dont get me wrong, i think it was totally unnessesary to remake it AGAIN but it do look pretty). i can certaily see why this game has such a cult following and got the reception it did. maybe a Tad overhyped?? maybe a tad. but still good!! gameplay is solid, story is solid, characters are solid, whats not to like?? docking points for the frankly OBSCENE price point (luckily i got mine Mega cheap but go-LLY)

03/10 - The Last of Us: Part 2 - 10/10

after a devastating loss, ellie begins a gruelling quest for revenge and runs the risk of not only losing the ones she loves, but herself as well

i mean. fuck me guys. fuck ME. if the first game is good then this one is straight up glorious. the story is Vastly improved, so much tension and grey morality and Bone Deep Agony, emotionally and physically. its just such a hugely better game, both story and gameplay wise with a Bunch of new features and they arent afraid to take you to Extremely dark places with characters we already love and brand new ones too. this games going to be sitting with me for a long time i feel

and thats it for 2023!!

kinda fell off the gaming wagon in the final few months of this year due to a variety of reasons, but lets hope i can keep gettin games off the ol’ backlog in the new year :]

#ash.txt #video games #games #playstation #trophy hunting #game review

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ask-the-characters-blogshow · 4 months ago

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Characters that you can ask with! East Coast Sparky's/Elizabeth Doloras Universe:

Garrett Altman (21) - is a quick-witted math student living in Maine with his parents Vanessa Altman (nee Pendle) and William “Bill” Altman, Garrett is the leader among his friend because he was the oldest of them all. Garrett is determined to make his father proud, Garrett is quick witted solves every equation and math thing that’s why Kenneth Kirby hired him for the Westview branch of Sparky’s after Kennteh saw him and his friends in a career day exhibit at the Lacome Stadium in North Carolina. Garrett has been pining on Pomni but there’s one person who is jealous of Pomni - his other friend Zoey Toadstool. Garrett has a stepsister from his father’s second wife Alma Altman named Giullia Marie.

Zoey Toadstool (17) - is the black sheep of the friends of Garrett, growing up without a mother, because she never met her since she was born, Zoey was technically an orphan after her father Douglas Toadstool was arrested for driving under the influence, Zoey feeling sad for the loss of her both parents, Zoey took meds and bottling up her emotions, then became hostile towards her boss, Grenola himself, and advicing him to do the same thing as she did for herself, after Nola’s own trauma of Chuck Atwood/RJ Schmidt despite Chuck is being in jail since 2007. Zoey and Garrett remained friends even though Zoey is a bit different than his other friends. Zoey almost got herself expelled after hurting a teacher by words, but Pomni shielded her. Zoey is currently living in Heathever, Georgia alone with her hound dog named Elvie, named after Elvis.

Pomni Taxinoff (Помні Таксинофф) (20) - Pomni is a Ukrainian woman who lives in Menken, Maryland with her mother Marsha Taxinoff, father Olig Taxinoff and maternal grandma Alyna Zylinskiy. Pomni’s parents immigrated from Ukraine to United State to have a better life after her parents was on the run from USSR officers, she was born in 1989 right before her parents are on the run for betraying the nation’s rule, Marsha knowing wanted the safety of her daughter against USSR officers went to United States in 1990, to live a normal life, then USSR collapsed in 1991, when Pomni was two years old. Pomni is crafty and shy one in the group of new employees of the East Coast branch of Westview. And she was in love with Lincoln Miller-Chien despite Garrett having a crush on her. And Pomni according to Garrett is “most lovely woman that her touch is felt like a tulip petal on a spring day”. Pomni likes animals, especially her favorite, the sea otter and her favorite foods are borscht and ice cream.

Albert “Al” Wartwhiz (20) - Al was the bulky one in the group of the new Westview branch of Sparky’s, he currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts, Al was a son of a former soldier Naveen Wartwhiz and a gumbo restaurant owner Tiana Wartwhiz, Al grow up in a close-knit black family who cares about values of kindness and loyalty, when he met Garrett, Al and Garrett became close friends despite of their races being different to another. Al is the resourceful on the food sources for Sparky’s, despite being a vegetarian.

Lincoln Hal Jordan Jeremy “Lincoln” Miller-Chien (19) - Lincoln Miller-Chien is the “chief of tech” among Garrett’s friends, he is Hong Kongese-Canadian, the son of the single father William Thomas Fred “Willy” Miller-Chien, Lincoln grew up in Palo Alto but he moved to New Jersey with his dad for a new leaf for education and meet Garrett and his friends, Lincoln was a huge tech whiz since 8, and he was really bad at biology that he treated Al like his BFF and Lincoln also was Giulia’s favorite among her stepbrother’s group of friends. Lincoln also likes to make small computer out of his father’s old computers for reducing e-waste.

Elizabeth Doloras (27) - a Latina-American woman who works as the new security guard at Sparky's, a well-known ice cream parlor in San Fransisco bay started in 1938 by two Japanese couple who wants to set foot on the United States, Elizabeth, commonly known as Betsy was Nina Doloras (nee Adormidera) and Hector Doloras’ eldest daughter, Elizabeth had a cat named Alex and 2 younger siblings named: Johnny (6) and Abby (2) and had an elder brother named Zachary (37)

Elizabeth’s love interest is Claude Gauza, her childhood friend, and Elizabeth was hired by K&A Hiring LLC to investigate some mysterious disappereances of kids in New Kansas City, Missouri. But little does she know that her life will turn upside down to the all supernatural and paranormal experiences will she had to face.

Claude Gauza (31) - an American-British man who was also a bi, is the childhood friend of Betsy, they been on together since 3, and they stick together even Claude has a crush on another girl - Grenola Robinson, Claude was always this last kid left out when he is in elementary. Claude is the son of Mrs. Eva Gauza, a proud single mother who raised Claude without even knowing his father was - Claude had always looked up to Mr. Hector Doloras as his father figure, since Claude didn’t have a biological father, Claude’s lacking of a real dad led him to meet his love interest slash best friend Elizabeth Doloras.

Thomas Hamilton (22) - is a bisexual man who likes football and Air Supply, he is claude’s first ever friend after Betsy, Thomas is Gerrit Burr’s boyfriend and Thomas is skilled writer and he wrote only 4 books before. Thomas is an orphan who was adopted by Nora and Samuel Hamilton, a realtor and a former security guard respectively.

Gerrit “Gerry” Burr (24) - is a gay man who was Betsy’s friend at her past work at a hospital as a janitor, he is a storage manager, he came out as gay at the age of 23 in secret. Gerrit was the son of Kevin and Ashley Burr, the co-founders of the K&A Hiring LLC, Gerry was in the closet for most of his life until he met Thomas, the love of his life. Gerry likes to put bacon on his sundae, because he like the texture of it. He and thomas are inseparable.

Allegra Akeeni (27) - is the former high school bully of Elizabeth Doloras, now a frenemy of Elizabeth’s. Allegra was the daughter of the Gusqlo, California mayor Aundre Akeeni and the D-list model Ashley Akeeni (nee Maison-au-Canard), Allegra once dated Claude, until second grade college, when Claude broke up with her after she spread bad rumors about Grenola, Claude’s crush back in the day. Allegra is a makeup model for the New Jersey-based brand Westmend, despite being rich - Allegra is morally grey, she is sometimes nice to Claude and also Allegra’s the reason Elizabeth is jealous to Grenola, Allegra is mostly remembered as a mean girl to Betsy’s life, calling poor Elizabeth Doloras “Lizzie” instead of Betsy, but Allegra put her past behind her and made amends with Betsy, for now - they’re frenemies.

Janise San Juanita (early 20s) - is a really nice Latina woman and Betsy’s co-worker at Sparky’s, Janise wanted to have a kid but her infertility prevents her from having one, so Janise was attached by one of the kids who’s keeps on coming back to Sparky’s,Samson Leith, a kid with extremely high intelligence

Logan Adams (23) - is one of Thomas’s friend in the queer community and also a former bully, he is bi just like Thomas, but Logan is more attracted to girls just like Claude, and one thing about Logan is that he likes to paint and his idols were Georgia O’Keefe, Frida Kahlo and Margaret Keane, Logan is also caring and kind to his grandpa, Timely Adams, who raised him when he was a baby. Logan doesn’t have a girlfriend yet. But he wants to have someone to be with forever. He tried to date Allegra Akeeni but failed, Allegra just flatout broke up with him after 4 months of seemingly loving but toxic relationship.

Reina Kate Gauza (22) - Reina is Claude’s non- binary sibling, and uses they/them pronouns, they are a smart but shy person, they like to dance, paint but they are terrible at painting, Reina is also the child of Eva Gauza, being non-binary makes Reina’s life even more challenge, since they had to face some really bad things about them, but Reina is proud to have Claude as their brother. Reina likes to dye their hair in pastel colors, since Reina really loves the show “Care Bears”. Reina is a loving and generous person.

Daryl "Spike" Allen (28)- Daryl is the one of the persons who really likes Elizabeth as a friend, and for a good reason, he has a rocky and disastrous relationship with ever Miss Perfect, Grenola Robinson herself. Daryl was hopeful that he and Grenola would end up together but end up with a hurtful break up for Daryl and a liberating break up for Grenola herself. Daryl doesn’t know that’s the last time he’ll see her as Grenola mysteriously disappeared. And due to his presumed heartache, he came out as pansexual. Grenola Robinson (16)/” Stephen Hassenfeld”/Stephen Robinson Kugler (47) - she is the former college rival of Elizabeth Doloras, Grenola is the daughter of Nino and Abigail Robinson, she is a bit jealous at Elizabeth for being in love with Claude Gauza - and it’s not Grenola’s fault, Claude and Elizabeth are friends since forever. While she’s the definition of perfect, she was in fact one of the worst-ranking employees of Sparky’s, making things worse, doesn’t give the things customer wants and still being jealous at Elizabeth, after being assisted to Avalon to the infamous ball pit, she and Avalon mysteriously disappeared, days after the mysterious reappearance of Stephen D. Hassenfeld make the people confused, since the real Stephen passed away in June 1989 due to pnemonia and cardiac arrest. No one knows Grenola became Stephen because of the “magical” but cursed ball pit.

Sunshine of the Bliss (SOTB) Universe:

Tulip Betrand/Cho Jae-ra/Faye Willow Cho-Hassenfeld (18,as of 2005) is the daughter of the former Hasbro CEO Stephen D. Hassenfeld and a former actress and Sang-Dwan’s sister, Cho Jin-li, and the adopted daughter of Tom and Gabriella Betrand, Tulip grew up in a household with free lunch - that her “parents” make in the bakery downstairs, Tulip at a young age was curious about the stars and the dwarf planet (back then before 2006 a planet) Pluto. After she take her dream job as an intern in a space camp near Toulouse, Tulip experienced some hate after some workmate notices she looked different than her parent that was her “mother” Gabriella say that she is not her and Tom’s real daughter rather a daughter of Gabriella’s close friend, Jin-li with the late Stephen D. Hassenfeld. Tulip at a young age, was fascinated in the world of Transformers and the GI Joe without knowing her past. Geno Courgeouand (17, as of 2005) - is an African-French timid and shy man and also Tulip’s best friend since 10, Geno is a really timid and shy but really creative and loyal person who defends Tulip from her bullies in high school and also mean workmates in space camp. Geno likes courgette as a food, and he really likes to read manga with his friend Tulip. Geno also thinks Tulip’s beautiful. Geno likes to read sci-fi novels too and Geno’s parents Sabrine Courgeouand (nee Cragrise) and Orion Courgeouand in fact named him after Geno, a character from Mario RPG game.

Fleur Fontaine (22,as of 2005) - is Tulip’s worst enemy and the workmate Tulip hated the most, Fleur is a pretty woman but mean to Tulip, Fleur is a daughter of one of Gabriella Bertrand’s friends, Deanna Fontaine. Grew up with a single mother, Fleur grew up to mean because she’s a daughter of a maid in Meilee au Fromage, and treating her like a spoiled princess, that is until Jae-ra (Tulip) in 1987 and Jeanette in 1992, when the maids are taking care of the two instead of her - Fleur became jealous on what Tulip had become - the favorite, that’s why she’s tailing the job of Tulip - because if she can’t fight enemy, join her, the word “join” meant for Fleur that expose her “worst enemy on earth”, Tulip Bertrand aka Half of An Asian Girl or Faker Girl to Fleur.

Mitchell Cawthon (19,as of 2005) - is Tulip's bi co-worker at the Toulouse International Space Camp, he is closeted most of his life until he met Connor,and he came out to Tulip in an after sleepover party. Mitchell used to date Fleur before Tulip came to work, but after Fleur is mocking Tulip, he calls it quits, but Mitchell is bisexual because he was attractive to both men and women. Mitchell's parents approve of his relationship with Connor. Mitchell is a big fan of the shows, Star Trek and Scrubs.

Andrew Robeurre (30, as of 2005) - is one of Tulip's co-workers, Andrew is a tech wiz and was hired by Toulouse International Space Camp in 1998 making him the oldest employee in the batch of the “New Generation” in TISC, Andrew grew up as the only son of his parents, he only has 4 sisters, and he grew fondly of computers during his childhood.

Connor Astruc (18,as of 2005) - is one of Tulip's co-workers, Connor has been openly gay man since 2004, but he didn't openly say he is dating Mitchell, until Tulip came as a co-worker of his. Connor grew up on a farm in Versailles, France, and likes to crack jokes and explore space, and also computers. Connor is a fan of Scrubs, Naruto and he likes to play hockey. Norinne Agrasse (28, as of 2005) - is a headstrong employee of Toulouse International Space Camp, she is the one of the two daughters of George and Zharie Agrasse, Norinne grew up in a small cottage in Toulouse, and grew up to be a beautiful and brave woman who stands up for herself and her friends, she met Andrew in a job fair in 1996 and Norinne has a crush on Andrew and she hid it as a secret until 2007, a certain Tulip Betrand let Norinne date with Andrew for real. Besides being an employee of space camp, she is also the leader of the 2000s fan club of Cho Jin-li despite knowing that Jin-li abandoned Norinne's co-worker Tulip in an orphanage as a baby years ago.

Abigail Julie Marie Zaslav (20, as of 2005) - is the twin sister of William Christopher Patrick and the biological brother of Tulip Bertrand, Abigail or Bhie is the favorite of Scott Matthew Zaslav, Abigail as a kid likes to watch anime and do voice impression, as she grew up, her dreams isn’t fulfilled as she became a board member of AlphaHelius that she hated on, but her only dream is to be a voice actress or a voice coach, after her twin stepped down as CEO, Abigail was hired by Les studios Starlight de magie et d'histoires as a voice coach for the voice actors for new dubbed movies. Beside that, Abigail had a weird talent - she could lick her elbow. She discovered that she’s Tulip’s sister from a DNA test.

William Christopher Patrick Zaslav (20, as of 2005) - is the twin brother of Abigail Julie Marie and the biological brother of Tulip Bertrand, he and Abigail was given away by Cho Jin-li to Scott Matthew Zaslav, due to she can’t have child with Stephen Hassenfeld without getting bombarded with the paparazzi, well technically he’s not an adopted child of Scott, so does Abigail until 2000 after Joanne’s passing, Scott adopts them properly, William, like his sister Tulip had a brief CEO stint that he hated, now he is a golf player and free from the burden that he once thought his gateway to have his late biological dad’s love.

Kim Sae-chang aka Zoey Kimber Kim (16, as of 2005) - is Tulip’s biological half-sister and the heiress of BINGO Corporation, Sae-chang was initially was the “evil stepsister” figure of Tulip when we first met her, that’s until Sae-chang met Edmond in one of the parties she is attending in the bar, that is when Sae-chang’s childhood shines - she was raised by her dad, but her mom - she just neglect her like a day old muffin or a fake Transformers toy, because of an “errand” in Rhode Island alone, “errand” meant was to visit a man she loved - and it’s not Sae-chang’s uncle Sang-Dwan or Sae-chang’s dad Seu-tim, it was someone else, Stephen Hassenfeld. Sae-chang’s English name is Zoey Kimber, she was named after Zoey from Zoey 101 and Kimber Benton from Jem and the Holograms.

Narcisse Betrand (37,as of 2005) - is the oldest child and the breadwinner of the Betrands. Narcisse is the most beautiful woman and she is a college professor in Ecole de Resevoir de Chien, a school for veterinarians, Narcisse is a perfectionist, but a kind big sister to Tulip. Narcisse likes to study the wonders of cats and dogs - in fact her mom Gabriella gave her first pet, the dalmatian named Ollie, that Narcisse really loved cats and dogs since then.

Aster Bertrand (34,as of 2005) - is the middle child of the Bertrands and an amateur fashion designer, Aster was used to be Tom and Gabriella’s favorite daughter until her sister Tulip came into the picture. Aster was very funny and gifted and had a very fine eye on good fashion. Aster and Tulip are like best friends and they have maintained their long-lasting friendship since Tulip came to Tom and Gabriella’s life as a baby. Aster is like the cool sister of Tulip and likes anything in fashion that she became a fashion designer and had designed Tulip’s Halloween costume since Tulip’s 7.

Jobs: Amateur fashion designer

Daisy and Marigold Bertrand (27,as of 2005) - are the twin daughters and the [SPOILER] the youngest children of Tom and Gabriella Betrand, Daisy is the preppy daughter who likes to collect Barbies and bunch of tamagotchi, and Marigold is the athletic and tomboyish one, and it shows, Daisy helped her sister Aster in her fashion show and Daisy won local French tournaments on cricket contests, Daisy and Marigold at least had one hobby that make them similar on one way on another is their love of video game, the Gamecube game Luigi’s Mansion is their favorite. Daisy likes to play hockey too, but as a hobby not a competitive one. Marigold’s full name is Marigold Cream-Peaches Bertrand and Daisy’s Daisy Princesse Bertrand.

Jeanette Samantha Marina Delaney (20,as of 2005) - is a fellow orphan and the first friend of Tulip, when she was Jae-ra, Jeanette likes to play in the playground, her favorite game is “ jump on the moon aka “Atterrissage Par Saut sur la Lune”, where the person sing Frère Jacques song and count to six and jump as high as you can, she was daughter of Sandra Cerise Delaney (nee Verdi) and Zachary Terry Delaney who both died in a long battle of subdural hematoma (Sandra in 1988) and bile duct cancer (Zachary in 1990), she arrived at the Meille de Fromage when she was 7 in 1992, was adopted by Zachary’s brother, Michael Jean Delaney and Sabrina Rose Delaney in 1996, a year after Tulip was adopted by the Bertrands. Jeanette, as of 2005 is working in a local observatory near the orphanage and she had braces when she’s 17.

Amelia Caberra “Amy” Collins (19, as of 2005) - is also a fellow orphan of Tulip, back when she was Jae-ra, Amy was a big secret Jin-li fan, that’s why she joined the theater group in Meilee du Fromage Orphanage, Amy was a very passionate actress, she was introduced by Jae-ra (or Tulip) to the world of theater during a field trip to London in 1992, and Amy fell in love with the plays and musicals in the first place - in fact she married her co star in a play [Les Mis] and had currently had three kids. Amy is the son of Ferrett and Brittany Collins, with the former divorced Brittany and Brittany, in the safety of her own being against Ferrett’s abusive dad, Caesar Paul Collins, Brittany leaves to the orphanage and stays there from 1988 to 1996, until Brittany gets her back, and shares custody with Ferrett.

Carlos Bellanger (22, as of 2005) - is a very energetic boy in the Meilee du Fromage, he likes to spend time to be in the library, and he is the only of three kids in the orphanage with none of the parents alive beside Jeanette and Edward, Carlos is a person who has a passion to be a writer, in fact - Jeanette was his best friend beside Jae-ra (Tulip), Carlos grow up to be a lanky boy - and became a B-lister freelancer sci-fi author and is now currently a single father with one daughter. Carlos’ parents died in a rainy-day truck accident in 1989, hence Carlos was sent to Meilee orphanage.

Jeremy Andy Olsen (23, as of 2005) - is happy go lucky kid, despite one of his parents died, he is in the orphanage, because his mom couldn’t care him anymore, but promises she’s gonna come back - and she does in 1998, Jeremy is currently finding some hobbies, and currently doesn’t have a job - because he didn’t want to and was going to enjoy his inner childhood until had a job. Currently is working on a new AI chatbot since 2019 called JAVO, named after his own acronyms but he had the meaning different, related to grief therapy. Jeremy’s dad Abe died due to cancer, and Shelley remarried to Fritz Ramirez, and Fritz adopted Jeremy as his own son. (On the contrary to popular belief Jeremy is not Mitchell Cawthon)

Ashlan Brinleigh (16, as of 2005) - is very smart girl who likes to explore the space and the only orphan who does have foster parents, when she grew up, growing up in the orphanage, Ashlan is very strong girl despite looking like a regular girl, and Ashlan became one of the astronauts who is working in Toulouse International Space Camp, the same space camp her follow alumni in Meilee du Fromage, Tulip Bertrand (Cho Jae-ra) worked at.

Marva Arlena (19, as of 2005)- is a girl who was raised in a farm before her mother died in 1990 of a cardiovascular disease, Marva grew up in a simple farm in Bulgaria, and her father put her in the orphanage after her mom’s passing - the only thing that she kept from her mom after death is the pink bonnet she sewed for her since she was a baby, Marva grew up to be a beautiful woman who is working as a charity service worker for Meilee du Fromage orphanage. Currently living with her life partner and their kids in an apartment in Avignon.

Edward Deresin (19,as of 2005) - is a boy who likes to collecting car parts, he is one of the three Meilee du Fromage Orphanage’s batch of orphans from 1987-1994 who doesn’t have both of the parents alive, Edward was born to two British couple, and the two raised him and live a normal life until his parents death - Victoria’s in 1987 due to drowning and Ilya due complications of Parkinson’s disease to in 1988, then Edward was sent to the orphanage, he was adopted by a Dominican couple because the woman (Camilla) has a condition that she couldn’t get fertilized by her husband. They adopted Edward, Edward grew up to be a car lover, and became a car dealer in Sta. Cruz, California and met his wife there, and they got married virtually in 2020, and had one son. Edward is currently living in Sta. Cruz California with his wife and son, now has a car seller shop of his own, his first shop opened in 2013, his first name might be an acronym of a well known avenue in the Philippines - but according to the orphanage it might be coincidence that Edward was born the same day the People Power Revolution happened. But Edward’s parents are history fanatics so it’s no coincidence.

Goldy Mertice (21, as of 2005) - is the sweetest orphan in Meille du Fromage, born in 1984, she was raised by her mother and grew up on fairy tales, but after her childbirth her father Kurt died of stroke in 1990, ended up in the orphanage, Goldy never give up on her dream, then in adulthood, she became an author under the wing of Penni Germaine, and Goldy married a fellow author name Cris Shaun Collins Kelly and had 4 kids named after fairy tale princesses (well two of them are twins and both named after Sleeping Beauty) What is Persevering:

Alessandra Owens Payne (18) - Alessandra, or better known as Sandie,is a very energetic girl who likes to make her art feel so close to her, she's also the head cheerleader of a prestigious school in California, she was bullied for how she looks or how she acts as different from "Americans" which had Sandra sank deeper to her guilt of having her "red thread of love" cut off because he was dead - but that makes her more hated by her peers at her school, because her so-called soulmate is nothing but dark effects of their bullying - a man who died way before Sandra was born, the legendary CEO of Hasbro, Stephen Hassenfeld

Sandra is now very reserved and quiet and if you approach her, play along or she might hate you for saying that her love isn't possible. Alessandra or Sandra or Sandie likes to paint and has an expertise in ballet and gymnastics. She is the daughter of Farini Payne (nee Kasakana) and Eddie Simon Payne

Cassandra Leressa McLearson (18) - Cassandra is the bestest friend of Sandra - she’s sweet and smart, and anything of a best friend-type of person, Cassandra is the class president of Saint von Halechi School in California, but there’s one thing Cassandra or Cass didn’t know about Sandra - is that her bestie suffered in a silent grief from a man she never knew ever. Cassandra is 2007 Best in Math in Summerville Elementary in Juguete de Oscuridad Nocturna,California.

Marie Turquoise and Samuel Topaz DeBeerse (19) - Prepare for double trouble - here comes the twins that ruins poor Alessandra’s life, Marie Turquoise is the popular girl and Samuel is the head jock of the school’s football (American Football for the international readers) team, Marie and Samuel are the twin children of Miss Allity and Evan DeBeerse, a well known but smaller businesspersons who owned DeBeerse (the e is silent), a rip-off of the famous diamond company DeBeers. Marie is a straight up, mean, bonafide bully and fellow cheerleader in Sandra’s peers, who stirs up nothing but trouble Sandra and Cass and thinks she’s superior to them. Samuel, on the other hand, was not your typical jock, and beneath his jerky outside, Samuel is sensitive and never shows it to his sister, who treats him like a tool rather than a brother. Their middle names are actually named after gemstone because their parents owned a rip-off DeBeers company

Stella Schenstrucc (17) - the only female member of the Mathlete club, Stella’s one of a kind bonafide math student who knows math, even in her sleep, Stella is a typical nerd - glasses, bookworm, and likes math, but Stella not like every other nerd is a great artist, likes to make clay sculptures of animals like ducks, dogs, and even endangered species like red panda, Philippine eagles and even the macaws. Stella is the daughter of the local philanthropist Leith Schenstrucc and the former ballerina turned teacher Claire Schenstrucc (nee Schuyler).

Olivia M. Ritterman (18) - Olivia Ritterman is a mysterious, elusive, and really private student, she is the leader, founder and the only member of the computer club in Saint von Halechi School, Olivia or only known as her username in the messaging app of the school as Info_retro4709, Olivia knows about everything in the school - every nooks and crannies, she knows, Olivia born as Olivia Merma Ritterman to a middle-class couple Meridith Lyndsey Ritterman and Edwyn Brent Ritterman, Olivia, during her childhood her mom called her Ollie, and growing up Olivia/Ollie never wants to play with the other kids, and wants to tinker on computer parts on her father’s garage, in college, Olivia’s anonymity sometimes is useful when sometimes needed her without knowing her true identity for some useful tactics: like when Marie cheated as class president, Olivia hacked to the school mainframe and exposed what a phony Marie was and other useful white hat hackers Robin Hood-like tactics. But Olivia on Sandra is like a predator peeling her fragile little world after Marie and Olivia/Ollie had truce to salvage Marie’s ruined reputation after the class elections in the past.

Elliot Zachary Orensteene (19) - Elliot is a member of the Glee Club, and know Sandra longer than Cass, Elliot was Sandra’s best friend since “diapers”, Elliot is a great singer and has a voice of an angel, Elliot was the son of DeBeerse (not a typo) employees, Venetia and Daryl Orensteene, Elliot likes to compose music and wants to go as a film composer when he grow up to an adult, for now - he’s the leader of the Glee Club’s cheering band. Ask Symbols:

🍨- East Coast Sparky's/Elizabeth Doloras Universe 🧵 - What is Perservering 🌷- SOTB

#q&a #characters #oc #historical fiction #original character #tumblr asks #send asks #ama #ask me anything

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