#Extract ic code

[silence-ofthe-llamas]

I feel I’m VERY late to the party with the mecha AU considering how bone deep Pacific Rim runs within me but I’m chomping at the bit. Gnawing at it. I LOVE YOU ALL. I’ve reactivated my tumblr for this. Good god. @keferon my leige. I'm meant to be SLEEPING.

Anyway, I’m a general nuisance, I wont be following much of the pre-established lore too closely because of who I am as a person, bone app the teeth.

TexAid for the soul is more potent than Chicken soup.

First Aid wakes up in an ice cold sweat.

It’s not the first time. He’d lost count, actually – it seemed that every morning was the same now. He’d wake up, he’d shudder, he’d carefully extract himself from his damp-with-sweat duvet, he’d shower, and then he’d pretend that everything was perfectly fine and normal.

His function first and foremost was one of a medic. He trained to work with live patients. His expertise was with the living, not the cold stares of the dead.

But lately, all he’d been dealing with were corpses, and it all came down to one reason.

Vortex.

Superstition wasn’t something that he bought into, but the theory on base was that the mech was haunted. At the start, he didn’t believe it – mechanics were plagued with stray code, oddly executed scripts. There was nothing supernatural about it. All of the pilots said that they felt another presence within their mechs with them – there wasn’t anything special about Vortex’s AI. If one wanted to look at it that way, all of their mechs were haunted.

But Vortex was different. Of course he fucking was, why wouldn’t he be. No, no, nothing was allowed to be normal. Ever. Firstly, there was the staring. The mechs weren’t meant to stare, but whenever he went close to Vortex, he could feel his piercing gaze against him. It wasn’t normal. They should have been offline without any human input, but Vortex stayed stubbornly awake and studied his every move. Sometimes he’d swear he could hear his internals humming, the rumble of moving parts, his plating trembling and straining against the dock as he tried to move. If someone got too close to him, he’d hear the hum of weapons systems warming up. It was part of their onboarding process that they were warned against approaching him, now. He’d cut them down without a second thought.

There was also the small fact that he had a tendency to kill his pilots. And it wasn’t even an exaggeration – their means of slaughter always came from within. The cameras that filled the insides didn’t show any breaches, no weapons were brought on board, the vital signs monitors from the pilots and their own helm-mounted cameras showed no foul play of an external parties part. No. It was… Vortex. The mech showed his displeasure in a shower of blood and moving parts – and that was if he was being nice. If they weren’t power washing the remains of a digestive tract from his floor, they were manoeuvring a live body that acted like a dead weight, the pilot a stuttering mess, mentally shattered and broken. They’d never managed to get any of them back into active duty – a lot of them First Aid had no idea what had happened to them. They were simply shipped off somewhere, never to be heard of or seen from again. The worst part of it was that they were all missing fingers, as if they’d been cleaved right off by sharp metal as they reached out for something.

An alarm ripped through the base, and he gagged on his morning coffee. He knew what that meant – deployment. And with deployment came another victim, courtesy of Vortex, and all that horrid stench and morbid fascination that sent his spine tingling and brain firing to the point of insanity that paired so closely with it.

Ambulon frowned at him. “Jittery this morning, Aid.”

“I just know I’ll be on Vortex duty again.” He groaned.

Ambulon patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. “Don’t let it get to you, Aid. Pharma only does it because he trusts you.”

Yeah, right. It’s so I haven’t got an excuse to be by the morgue.

You steal one Quintesson body…

He briefly remembered the smell of the grave dirt as he’d re-interred them into the ground instead of the stone cold morgue, and quickly smelled his coffee instead.

The deployment seemed to last an age. First Aid managed to get through all of his deskwork before they returned, and Vortex staggered into his bay. First Aid was waiting patiently by the gate as the docking station clasped around him, holding him in place as cables came down from the ceiling to plug into him.

“How many bets this guys dead?” Someone behind him asked, elbowing the one stood next to him. First Aid ignored them, focusing intently on the mech.

He could see blood behind the glass. It was leaking out down the side – they were more than dead. They’d been eviscerated.

The visor lifted with a loud hiss, and First Aid took a deep breath. He held it so he didn’t have to inhale the initial stench – that part was always the worst, having been left to fester within him – and carefully studied the scene before him.

Organs hung down from the ceiling. Scraps of fabric hung limply from the still locked harness.

“What did he do to them?” First Aid quietly asked himself as he stepped forwards with a bucket.

There was a rule - you never got inside Vortex on your own. First Aid followed it religiously, and he could hear someone behind him, and so he felt perfectly comfortable in getting inside.

Only the visor snapped shut with a sickening crack as their leg was cleaved clean through, the scream barely muffled by the glass.

“No!” First Aid flew to the glass of the visor, pounding against it. “Are you okay?!”

What a stupid question that had been. Of course he wasn’t okay. The smell in the air burned at his throat and turned his stomach, and he looked down at the dismembered leg.

He couldn’t breathe. Or he was breathing too much? He didn’t know, but his chest ached and his head spun and he felt like ice had been injected straight into his veins, every hair stood on end as panic gripped him. It took every ounce of self control he had to not scream from terror when he heard pistons loudly slam into place, firmly locking the visor.

Oh, god, have mercy.

Emergency exits. These things had them, right? He’d had to pull a barely conscious pilot from one once – he’d gotten trapped in it in a malfunctioned ejection sequence. The button would be big and bright red, surely – and with a protective cover so they didn’t smack it by mistake in the middle of a fight and end up launched into the face of a Quintesson. His eyes scanned wildly, breath catching in his chest as he tried to suck in air that didn’t make him want to vomit, hands hovering over the dash. Mental images of the pilots missing their fingers played in his head like an omen.

There. Bright red. The words were worn off, the plastic scratched. The metal around it was worn and faded from use, and the plastic cover was long gone.

Blood crusted it. He smacked it anyway.

Nothing.

He looked back to where it should have been, hyperventilating. What did that mean? The techs had never found anything to be wrong with it before. Everything was functioning as normal – it was why Vortex was still even allowed to be operated. So why didn’t the emergency escape open?

Red light flooded the cockpit. His teeth chattered together as he slowly turned to look at the display that had lit up, white text running across it.

[LEAVING SO SOON?]

“I’m just a medic.” First Aid pathetically said. He almost bit his tongue.

[TAKE A SEAT]

Tears prickled his eyes as he unbuckled the harness and sat down. He tried to ignore the wet squelch as he sat in what remained of the previous human who sat there.

“What do you need from me?” He tried to sound strong as he asked.

The screen remained blank. The lights slowly dimmed, leaving him in the dark with only the sound of Vortex’s hot systems for company. He tried to calm his breathing, timing it to the rhythmic thunk of a nearby fuel pump, and wrung his fingers together.

It would be okay. It would be okay. Everything was going to be okay-

The chair suddenly flew backwards, and First Aid shrieked. His throat felt raw with how hard he’d screamed, clinging on tightly to whatever he could get his hands on. He studiously kept his limbs away from the console – he had a theory on how they’d lost their digits, and he was not keen on finding out if it was true. The chair snapped back upright again, and he whimpered, tears pooling in his eyes and his bottom lip trembling. The mech shuddered, a grinding sound rumbling through the cockpit and rattling his bones.

[PLUG IN] the screen instructed. A cable fell from the ceiling.

Helmet. He needed a helmet. They had the required port for that cable. He scanned the floor, ignoring the rising nausea as he searched for the helmet from the previous pilot.

There. Behind the chair. He picked it up, and had to look away when he realised the head was still inside. He shook it out, humming loudly to block out the sound of it hitting the floor, and kept his eyes closed as he put it on and ignored how much it stank of organic metal. He reached up for the cable, and gently guided it to the port-

Agony. Burning agony. His back arched as he screamed, hands clutching the helmet as if willing it to stay on despite how hard his legs kicked and thrashed. Electricity coursed straight through him, setting him aflame as his brain tried to catch up with his body.

It hurt. It hurt so much.

First Aid gnashed his teeth together as he fought with his conflicting emotions. He wanted to know why. Why Vortex had trapped him in there, why he had gone to this length to do this to him, why him. But he also wanted to run, to run so far away that he was nothing more than a distant memory. He didn’t want to know why Vortex had taken such an interest in him.

But oh, oh he did. He did want to know what he’d done to catch the AI’s attention.

The pain slowly subsided, the fried nerves numbing to the raw energy that charged through them, and he cracked his eyes open.

[GOOD BOY <3]

“Oh, god, I think I broke something.” First Aid whimpered. He suddenly understood just why so many pilots came to them with nerve damage, with extensive burns, and why most of their heads were metal. The connection was. Intense.

“Don’t be such a pussy.” A voice spoke directly into his head. First Aid gasped, sitting up straighter. It was strangely human, yet equally as mechanical.

“What-!”

“I just want to talk, but it’s so irritating to have to wait for you to read the screen. Removing the barriers is so much easier, isn’t it? Now, to business...”

First Aid gasped and whined as he felt pressure in his head, white not points of pain slowly pressing through his brain. His eyesight flickered and faded in and out, his sight shifting from the inside of the cockpit to the chaos right outside – chaos that he couldn’t even hear – and he was glad to see that the man who had been right behind him was receiving medical attention. What a relief. Humour that wasn’t his and that he didn’t recognise pulled at his lips, and he felt a strong urge to smile so wide that his lips split and cracked.

The pressure on his head increased, and he felt his eyes cross, reality slowly slipping through his fingers like thick slime. Red dripped from his nose. Where was he, again? Why was this happening to him? What was even happening to him- Awareness snapped back to him in time with a loud bang on the glass. He heard his name, muffled. Someone was calling to him. He should go to them, right? “Don’t move, I haven’t finished looking at you yet.” First Aid felt phantom sensations of ice cold hands pressing against his skin, a shudder running up his spine. He felt a prickle run down his arm, chasing the feeling of the tips of someone’s fingers running down the bare skin. Obediently, he held still despite how curious he was to go and look. “I can tell you like the good stuff.” An invisible hand patted his cheek and the mech shuddered, loud and clunking. “God, I’m so lucky I found you.” “Found me?” His chest felt weird. His everything felt weird. It was difficult to keep his eyes open. “I’ve been watching you. On the cameras, when you’re in the hangar with me, your files. Fascinating. How wonderful you are to me.” “That’s a bit creepy. You could have asked first.” “I don’t like being told no.” “I would have liked it more if I’d known it was happening.” Why was he so readily admitting this? Where were his carefully constructed walls and defences, keeping the abnormality at bay? He felt like he was an open book and Vortex was just turning to the pages he wanted to read. “Maybe I’d have done something if I knew I had an audience.” The mech shuddered again, harder this time.

“Come on, baby, talk to me wont you? I’ve been so lonely.”

“Maybe if you stopped killing your pilots you wouldn’t struggle so much with that.” He gritted out. Fuck, everything hurt.

“You’ve got a bit of a mouth on you, don’t you.” A sound that felt like anger rumbled through him. “I like it.”

“Can I go now?” He felt woozy. Something was wrong. Something was really, really wrong, his ears felt wet and his face felt wet and he could taste copper-

As if on cue, there was a loud bang on the visor – someone was pounding it with their fist. A shared stab of annoyance flashed through them.

“Question first. How did it feel to have a Quintesson in your bare hands?”

“How did you know about that?”

“Come on, don’t be shy, you know I’ve seen everything.” He crooned. “Tell me. I’m so desperate to know. I know you liked it – I can feel it.” It felt as if he had someone’s arms wrapped around him, their mouth right by his ear. If he closed his eyes and focused, he could feel their warm breath ghosting over it.

“It felt fucking amazing.” He thought back to it. The warmth of the body – an infant, tiny in comparison to the adults that dwarfed their houses. How thick their blood was, how it dripped down through his hands. The burn of the smell, mineral rich and glowing bright blue.

“You fucking tease.”

“You cut through them every day.” First Aid argued. “What’s so special about that?”

“You can really feel it. I’ve got metal between me and my prey.”

The banging was louder, and First Aid’s vision shifted to be through Vortex’s. There was a big group of them now, he had an audience.

“I should go.”

“You’ll be back, honey.”

First Aid ripped the helmet off, and nausea hit him like a truck as he felt a sharp wrench in his head. He loudly gagged, folding in half, and pressed a fist to his mouth to keep himself from spilling his guts into the cockpit. Vortex was certain to kill him if he made a mess. Sucking in a deep breath, he staggered over to the glass and gently placed his hand against it. It felt like half of his consciousness was somewhere else, somewhere he couldn’t reach.

“Please?” He was starting to feel disorientated, the sudden disengaging scrambling his brain. What memories were his, or the previous pilots? Pain suddenly flashed through him and he screamed, his limbs going numb. He felt warm liquid slowly run down his suit, red blooming amongst the white, bone wrenching from bone-

[LATER, DARLING <3]

Vortex’s visor finally opened, laugher echoing in First Aids head, and he fell out face-first onto the catwalk. He was gasping for breath as he scrambled away, shaking and trembling and swallowing back vomit. His hands flew over his body, checking for injures, for limbs he was certain were missing – intact. He was completely intact. His team had their arms around him and were pulling him away faster, leaving a trail of blood smeared after him – was that his? Or was that the pilots? - and were shouting. All of it was just noise. Pure noise.

Giddiness bubbled up in his chest, and he laughed. It started quietly, a little chuckle. Disbelief at the situation, he thought. Pure, utter relief that he was alive. The cannibal mech had eaten him, but here he was – spat out whole and unharmed. His next laugh was a little louder this time, and Ambulon paused, taking notice. First Aid didn’t see him any more, his whole vision taken up by Vortex and the loud snap of his visor clamping back down into place, a hiss as the mechanism locked it back down. He could have sworn he was smiling, but it was ridiculous – the mech didn’t even have a mouth.

He didn’t realise he was still laughing – and hard – until his stomach began to hurt and he felt light headed. Gasping for breath, he let himself fall back onto the floor, staring blindly up at the ceiling. He could see the red lights of Vortex’s visor reflected on the metal there.

“Felix?” The voice of his mentor pierced through his peals of laugher. First Aid looked up and saw Ratchet running towards him, face twisted in agony. He felt himself start to laugh again, and he had to fight to not start punching himself in the stomach to get himself to fucking stop it. It wasn’t funny. None of this was funny. Why was he laughing.

“Is he hurt? Why is he bleeding?” Ratchet demanded as he knelt down next to him. Ambulons response was inaudible, First Aids ears ringing. He felt something dribble from his mouth, and from the acidic taste in the back of his throat he assumed that he’d finally thrown up. He didn’t remember turning – his airway was clear. Two hands gently cupped his face, forcing him to look at someone.

Ratchet.

“Can you hear me?” He gently asked, tension clear in his voice. First Aid could, but he didn’t know how to respond. He slowly blinked, hands reaching up to clasp at his wrists with trembling hands. The adrenaline was burning off, replacing itself with a leaden heaviness that threatened to drown him. Slowly, he nodded.

Get me away from that mech, he tried to say. They get it and I hate that we understand each other.

Ratchet seemed to hear him. “Help me move him.” He was looking at someone else, but First Aid didn’t want to look away from his face. He committed every detail to memory, every line, every grey hair, every follicle and aged scar and flush of colour. It felt like he was seeing him for the very first time.

The world spun and his stomach clenched as he was lifted unceremoniously onto a stretcher, and he took one last glimpse of Vortex before the oxygen mask was fitted over his face and he couldn’t see anything any more.

09090909

It was highly inadvisable.

But he was doing it anyway.

That taste he’d got of Vortex was like a breath of fresh air to him – he hadn’t realised how stifling the company on base was until he’d met him. Ratchet would be so disappointed in him. Pharma would hang him by his guts. Ultra Magnus would try and make it so he never saw the light of day again.

One moment of feeling his teeth at his throat and he was addicted. He wanted him. He wanted physical scars he could touch and remind himself that it hadn’t been a dream, it was real. Carefully sneaking through the base, First Aid crouched and peered around corners, internally humming the Mission Impossible theme. It felt ridiculous, but if he didn’t distract himself he’d make himself vomit from laughing too much again. He had found a random face mask and slapped it on, hoping that obscuring his identity a little would help him get into character.

They hadn’t found a new pilot for Vortex yet – they still went through the usual procedure of finding one with the right personality and skill set, of testing how well the AI meshed with the mind of the pilot outside of the mech before allowing them to go inside. They had a few candidates, but now it was a question of ‘are they more compatible with other bots?’ and ‘how expendable are they really?’ before they stuck them inside of him.

Like lambs for slaughter. They knew they were going to die – but what else could they do? Vortex was their strongest mech. If he went down, their whole operation would crumble with him. Mechs were expensive and difficult to make, the AI’s complicated and prone to disaster.

Pharma didn’t take his eyes off of him for two whole weeks. He’d fallen out of the mech looking like the pilots whose brains had melted under the pressure, his arm marked with a burn that followed the path of a nerve, mapping it onto his skin. Pharma had stared at it, long and hard, brain ticking over. He wasn’t to go near Vortex again. Not for a while, until they figured out why he’d decided to kidnap him, and why he’d decided to spit him back out. They knew why he’d mangled the other medic. He thought it was fun. He’d said so himself, writing messages in the morning memo. They still hadn’t figured out how he was doing it, but if you were early enough in the day you’d see it before they’d caught it. But First Aid didn’t do too well in following instructions, in listening to orders. The Infant he’d plucked from the formaldehyde to get a better look at was evidence enough of that. The fact he was scrambling to get back inside of Vortex right now was yet another reason why First Aid was to be kept under lock and key - god, if they knew anything about him they’d never let him see the light of day again.

The catwalk that lead out to the mechs was a stones throw away. A guard stood watch, hands firmly on their gun.

God damn it.

First Aid rocked on his feet, wondering how he’d get him to move, when he suddenly felt a prickle on the back of his neck as if he were being watched. He shuddered and whipped his head around.

Nobody. Alone. No eerie glow of a camera – not that there were any over on this side of the hall – and no shadowy figures. He held his breath and strained his ears – all he heard was the cough from the guard and their sigh of boredom. He slowly looked back to the guard, and a faint red glow caught his eye.

Vortex’s visor was on. He was watching.

The sound of something falling to the floor caught the guards attention. He quickly turned and ran out onto the catwalk, looking down at the floor. He quickly looked back up at Vortex and scowled.

“I’m not stupid, Vortex. I’m not going down and getting that.”

Vortex did not respond. The guard tutted and turned on his heel.

Something else fell to the floor, a little louder this time.

The guard threw his head back with a sigh.

“You are the worst.”

He marched off, out of sight, and First Aid saw his window of opportunity. He quickly slipped out, thankful for his socks muffling the sound of his steps, and hid behind the terminal the guard was stationed at before he turned back around and walked over to the terminal.

“Yeah, yeah.” He was speaking to someone on the phone, drumming his fingers on the terminal. “It’s Vortex again. I know, I won’t get close – yeah. He’s dropped two this time.” He paused for a moment, listening to what the person on the other end had to say, before making a sound of disgust. “Go and check? I am not getting close to him!”

First Aid could hear a raised voice on the other side, and strained to see if he recognised it. Before he could pin a face to the voice, the guard sighed loudly. “Fine. I’ll go look. You’ve got my will there, right? Take yourself off of it.”

The guard didn’t look back at the terminal as he walked to the stairs and descended down them. First Aid glanced between the stairs and the catwalk, and quickly crawled over. Peering over the side to see where the guard was, he gained an uncharacteristic burst of bravery before he sprinted towards where Vortex was, visor open and waiting for him.

“Can I?” He asked in a hushed whisper. Vortex didn’t respond. He gingerly approached, noticing that every single camera inside his cockpit was trained onto him. He swallowed nervously, and clambered in.

He should have been used to climbing inside of Vortex. He’d done it enough times. Maybe it was because he wasn’t wearing any of his protective gear? Not his uniform, or his helmet, or even his gloves. Just himself and his pyjama shorts, his t-shirt, and his socks with little bears on them.

Mmm. First impressions. Wonderful.

He should have gotten changed first.

[TAKE A SEAT] lit up the screen.

He slipped into the seat obediently, taking care to not touch the controls. He coyly waved at the camera.

“Did I wake you?”

[YOU DIDN’T. I LIKE YOUR SOCKS]

The bears stared back at him. First Aid tried not to think about the rumbling he now recognised as laughter that rolled through the cockpit.

“Thanks.” He replied, red tingeing his cheeks.

[THAT’S A GOOD LOOK ON YOU]

He pressed his legs more tightly together. “The socks?”

[NO, YOU’RE GOING VERY RED]

[MAYBE I SHOULD CALL YOU LITTLE RED INSTEAD]

The helmet dropped from the ceiling, firmly attached to the cable that would connect organic to mechanical.

[I WANT YOU]

[<3]

First aid scrambled with the harness, clipping himself in place, before putting on the helmet. It burned just as badly as the first time, and he saw as the nerves in his arms glowed with the energy of it – without the proper implants, there was nowhere for the current to go but him.

He whined, squirming in the seat. He ground his teeth together and squeezed his eyes shut, counting down from ten and losing his place three times before the connection settled. Vortex was a heavy and oppressive presence in his mind, and he chewed his cheek as he cracked an eye open.

[LET ME TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT YOU]

The warning wasn’t even a verbal one. He read helplessly as he felt cold hands clasp him once more. Digital fingers made of 1’s and 0’s probed his brain, and First Aid arched in the seat, teeth clenching down over a loud moan of pain. Neurons fired agonisingly and his hands scrambled at the harness, the tips of his fingers raw and torn and bleeding against the rough fabric. Memories were brought to the surface unbidden, dragged out by artificial means, and others flooded in to take their place. He inhaled sharply, eyes going wide as the realisation hit him. Vortex was trying to show him something. He wasn’t a ghost. He wasn’t even an AI.

He’d been entombed in it. In the mech. Vortex had been a real, breathing human being, mocked in a sham trial in the name of obtaining more pilots. Rich men had paid him to do terrible things, and he had taken the entirety of the blame. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of funds, countless hours, blood, sweat, and tears – all for one mech. A prototype, at that.

First Aid blinked as a bright red screen flashed up, text displayed across it. He squinted and rubbed his eyes, grimacing at the drag of sore and exposed flesh against the rough material of his face mask, and blinked.

[LOCKED IN]

“W… what do you mean locked in?” First Aid hesitantly asked. Like… literally, he was locked in? He knew that. He was connected to Vortex’s nervous system – he could feel that there were bolts in place keeping the cockpit well and truly locked down like a fortress, impenetrable except to the override codes the high command kept locked in a vault in their office or the request of the pilot. He felt amusement push at the edge of his awareness, a shudder of a laugh running through the mech, and he clarified.

“I know your dirt, and now you know mine. Do you think high command are going to let you go peacefully?”

Ah. A threat. Of course. Worried he’d run? He wasn’t going to. He was fascinated by this mech – the joy of being caught in his mechanisms was sure to sing in his ears, the pure delight of watching him carefully pick apart his prey like a hawk dismantled a rabbit was like a chorus of cherubs to him. And Vortex knew it, he knew it and he loved it- he was certain of it, the way his mind melded with his, pushing against him and caressing him, a warm blanket around his psyche.

“I’m not going to leave you.” First Aid took a deep breath, the unsettling stench of bleach and cooked meat and rotting oranges filling his lungs. “No, I’m fascinated by you.”

He tensed, eyes briefly widening as he felt a grin that wasn’t his tugging at the corners of his lips, threatening to split his face in two.

“Happy about that?”

“Extremely.” He purred. “I’ve seen what your hands have done, what they’re capable of. I think we’d make a great team.”

“What if I refuse?”

Images flashed in front of his eyes. Bone fragments scattered around the cockpit, blood and guts and gore hanging obscenely from the ceiling. Blood ran thickly on the walls, the smell foul and rotten. First Aid wretched.

“You’ll kill me?” He hated the excitement that bled into his voice, how eager he was to feel the mechanism close down around him, to feel his metal deep inside of him, for his last thought to be about his touch. “It’s a shame you can only do that once, you know. It’s so exciting, all the different ways you could do it to me. You could make me completely unrecognisable, identified by DNA alone. Or maybe flood the cockpit with gas, slowly suffocating me before I realised what was happening.” He bit his bottom lip. “I wish I knew what it all felt like.”

A new image, one of gears and cogs deep inside of him. All sharp angles and straight edges. The presence was probing inside of him, trying to figure out his reactions. He pressed his hand to his mouth and gasped as his teeth pierced his bottom lip without him realising it. He took a deep breath to steady himself, and another. Vortex probed again impatiently. Respond, damn it.

He looked up at the camera, glad that his mask hid his face, the excitement glowing on his cheeks. “I’ll show you.” His voice was breathless. “And if your use for me runs out, give me a little warning before I’m a permanent feature, please?”

“I wont let you run away from me.”

First Aid swallowed hard at the burn of yearning in his chest. “You’d catch me if I tried.”

“Damn fucking right I would.”

He watched the energy sing in his nerves, the pain spreading down his limbs. His digits were starting to go numb. How much longer could he hold out? He never wanted to leave. He felt flayed open and alive. Squirming, screaming, and alive. Red dripped down and stained his pyjama shirt. Damn it. He liked this pair.

“How do you control yourself? You want what I want, you wish you could do it. So why don’t you?”

“I’m a pacifist.”

“Are you? Or is that just what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night?”

First Aid whimpered as the pages in his mind flicked, a burning sensation flaring in his arms. He watched the skin there turn red, the connection starting to be too much. His nose felt wet as he thought of it, as the memories Vortex was looking at came to the forefront of his mind. He liked surgery. He liked anatomy. He liked the cadavers and how they felt under his hands, picking them apart and pulling on tendons and ligaments to move them like puppets. Even earlier, his first pet. A hamster. He had told his parents that he’d buried it in the garden all by himself, and they had praised him for being such a grown up young boy, when really he had picked it apart like he had practised on his teddy bears and then blamed on the dog before shoving it into a hole in the ground to hide the evidence before anyone had seen what he was doing.

Vortex chuckled.

“Oh, let me show you how exciting a Quintesson can be. Little Hamphrey hasn’t got anything on them.”

[serendipitous-imagines]

Hii I’m here to request fnaf sb (pre-ruin) Headcannons or a fic :) idm either

I would like to request Moon with a child!Reader with insomnia who can’t sleep in the daycare.. like never,,

You can choose the gender of the reader :D

Have a great day/night!!

Hi hello there!! I am so excited to do this reply, I think it is very cute!! I am so sorry for all of the delays. I totally accidentally lost my account info and could not log back in after a comedy of errors with my old laptop. But! I am back now! I hope you enjoy~!

✦ The first time it happened, Moon acted the same as he would whenever a child would refuse to take a nap, picking the child up and tucking them into their cot (and perhaps tying said child down with streamers). However, as incidents of you being unable to sleep began to occur consistently, Moon realizes that there is more of a problem than just 'defiance' or 'not being tired' like other kids in the Daycare. ✦ Moon never asked directly, but he could tell that you had insomnia. From the way you would get so restless even when you were trying your hardest to sleep or the dark circles under your eyes. Truthfully, it worries him that you have such a condition, it causes his code to give him warnings about your state near constantly. ✦ During naptime, Moon will often gently take your hand and take you away from the other children. He does not think that you will wake them up, but he does not want any of the others getting any funny ideas on how they can avoid naptime as well. Not only that, when he brings you into the separate room he is able to entertain you so that you are not laying there restless and miserable in your cot. ✦ Moon notices during the day just how tired you are, how slow you blink, how often you yawn, and how lethargic you are compared to all of the other children. It makes him feel a certain way emotionally that he is not used to experiencing. When the effects of your insomnia are particularly bad, Moon will scoop you up in his arms and walk around with you so that you are not at risk of collapsing and getting hurt. ✦ If you do fall from exhaustion, Moon immediately will get bandages and an ice pack to tend to any of your cuts and scrapes. And then he will watch you all day long and try and keep you on the soft play pads. ✦ After talking with Sun, when it is time for naptime, Moon will make you warm milk with some vanilla extract and honey in it to try and induce sleep. Even though it does not work, Moon is happy to see you have a sweet treat to distract you from the fact that everyone around is asleep. ✦ Moon will sit down beside you on bean bags while overlooking the sleeping children to make sure no one is getting up. While he is not as good as Sun is at arts and crafts, he will try to make bracelets and other quiet activities with you. Honestly, it is one of his favorite parts of the day and you are one of his favorite students in the daycare. He is so much kinder and worrisome to you than he is to the other kids.

FANDOMS ~ MASTERLIST ~ COMMISSIONS ~ REQUESTS

[blackbat05]

Confessions of a Roommate

Jason Todd x Reader (University AU)

Plot: Jason comes back to you shared dorm injured leading to confessions from the both of you.

Genre: PG-13 (Fluff with description of injuries)

A/N: Wrote this in one shot after being inspired by a post about cliche prompts? Honestly can never go wrong. Also time passes so fast that it’s so surreal? Graduating soon so wanted to do another university AU? Reblogs and comments appreciated!💓

(Also was looking for a gif and this is perfect for what I wrote?)

***

You lost count at how many times you had to blink at the screen. The words on your laptop were starting to merge together. Groaning, you saved the progress of your work before making yourself some tea.

As much as you wanted, you couldn’t go to sleep yet. The last hurdle before your graduation, you dissertation was giving you more problems then you anticipated. Also, there was another reason that you were burning midnight oil.

You whip out your phone, scrolling through your favorites before hitting on Barbara’s number. True to her name, she picked it up on the first ring.

“Hey Babs, I was wondering if you heard from Jason? He’s supposed to be back by now but I can’t reach him.”

“That’s strange, he left the library half an hour ago.” There’s a moment of silence between the two of you and Barbara quickly fills it. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be fine. I’ll get Dick to check in on him.”

You thank Barbara, hanging up the phone. Jason was more than capable of handling himself, but the two of you had a roommate code - to always check in with each other whenever either of you had schedules late into the night. It was not like him to break the code.

Pacing up and down in your room, you decide to look for him yourself. As you were about to grab your keys and jacket, you hear the rattling of the doorknob that could only mean one thing. Quickly sending a text to Barbara that the search wouldn’t be necessary, you go to the door.

“Jason!” You momentarily froze at the sight of his bruised face. “What happened? Are you okay? Who did this to you?”

The barrage of questions made your best friend chuckle. “I’m alright. You should see the other guys.” He throws his belongings to the side, not caring where it landed. Jason makes a beeline for the couch, his large frame sprawled on the brown leather.

“Guys. As in not one.” You deadpanned, staring at him for answers. Jason gives a nonchalant wave, expertly dodging the hidden meaning behind your question. “Hey, could you get me an ice pack? I don’t wanna turn up to Mrs Rogers class like a panda. Not when I’m her favorite student.”

“Rub it in literature prince.” You rolled your eyes. Making your way to the kitchen, you extract the medical kit that you bought ever since you first met Jason. “Sit up will ya? Let me see how bad it is.”

He quietly follows your instructions, hissing every now and then when the tip of the cotton bud brushed over fresh wounds. You’re fixated on treating his injuries that you don’t realize how close you are. But Jason does. And he can’t help to admire your beauty.

He gazes at the way your eyes reflect how deeply focused you are. He notices how your nose crinkles when you apply the cream on his face and how your lips are slightly parted as you made sure you didn’t miss any injuries.

“There, all done.” You closed the lid in satisfaction. “Now, can you tell me how you ended up looking like our campus bus ran over you?”

Jason sees the look of concern on your face and decides against lying to you. No use hiding it. Maybe it was time to tell you everything that he had been desperately trying to keep a lid on. He takes a deep breath, preparing himself.

“Before you question me, yes I was studying with Gordon and Grayson.” He sees that you haven’t said anything and takes it as his signal to continue. “I left on time and I was just about to text you that I was on my way back.” Jason pauses, the mere thought of it making him see red.

“You know Chris Anderson?”

“Yeah,” you nod. “And his bunch of cronies from the football team. Why?”

“I met them on the way. Anderson thought it was a good idea to talk crap about you in front of me. And no, I’m not going to tell you what they said to me or I might just end up killing one of them.” Jason balls his fists. Although the blood was cleaned up, you could still see traces of bruising.

Taking his hand onto your lap, you hold it gently, rubbing your fingers over his palm. The repetitive action seemed to have calmed Jason down and he exhales loudly. You give him a reassuring smile.

“Thank you Jason. You always do so much for me.” You frown slightly thinking of the fact that this wasn’t the first time Jason had gotten himself into an altercation. “But please be careful. I don’t want you getting into any unnecessary trouble because of me. Those guys are just dickheads.”

He raises an eyebrow at your choice of words, causing you to shrug. “I mean what I said Jason. I know you can take care of yourself but what if one of them takes it too far. You know how they’re like. I can’t stand the thought of you being hurt.”

As the words fall out of your mouth, you realized what you had just said. Embarrassed, you removed your hands from his grasp, abruptly standing up. “Just… don’t do it again ok? I was seriously worried.” You attempt to make your way to return the medical kit only for Jason to hold you at the wrist.

Looking down at his hunched figure, you struggle to decipher his expression. Until he let’s out a huff of relief. Before you know it, Jason brings you to him, enveloping you in a big hug.

“This is so crazy.” He laughs. “We’ve been friends, roommates for half our lives and you had bigger balls than I had.”

You pause at his words, gently prying yourself from his hold to look at his gleeful smile. “Wait… are you saying?”

“Yes, I like you. I’m sorry it took several fights and a busted lip to tell you how I felt but I am in love with you.”

Breaking out of your stupor, you wrapped your arms around Jason. Enamored with his pine scented perfume, you buried your face into his chest, hoping that Jason didn’t see the growing blush on your face.

“I love you too you idiot.”

Jason only hugs you tighter, not wanting to let go. He does see your flushed face from the mirror, but perhaps Jason will leave the teasing for another day.

After all, he had all the time in the world.

[mutedmaw]

“Suffer with me, I will lay you to rest and pray I follow…”

Hey! This is the askblog to my oc, Pestilence!

My Main is @minifrau

My other Pressure oc blog is @lemonliscious

Pestilence Z-444 “The Escape”

Callum Clairmont worked with a classified company upon Lake Vostok in Antarctica, a lake preserved for thousands to millions of years under kilometres of ice. Once his team managed to drill through the surface, he contracted one of the parasites from a currently unknown era. Callum grew increasingly ill, and as no medical treatment helped, offered to sign up with the Urbanshade company as they promised to help him find a cure. Urbanshade only really wanted to use this as a test. Through further study, it was discovered that Callum had a disease dating millions of years back, and fortunately was found to not be contagious. Urbanshade transported him to their underwater facility, the Hadal Blacksite where the experiments and “cure” would be executed. Their plan was to mix his DNA with that of a creature from the same era the disease originated, and accidentally overshot the procedure. The DNA was extracted from an unstable fossil, making the scientists accidentally use too much of the beast’s genetics assuming they were weak. Callum was transformed into one of the creatures itself, still holding small slivers of personality and humanity while being controlled by instinct. Seeing no necessary reversal of the procedure, Callum, renamed Z-444 with code name Pestilence was used as a lab rat, being given countless diseases and ailments to see if anything could kill it. Through further scanning, it was discovered his brain had been completely shredded by the many demolishing diseases it carried. Brain tissue is currently being found all around his body.

During the breach caused by Z-13, former handyman Sebastian Solace, the gates to its heavy containment chamber were opened, allowing it to rampage the sector it had been kept, killing all personnel involved despite receiving many fatal injuries. From recovered security footage during the lockdown, it is seen that Pestilence went as far as to attack Z-13 and Z-18 “The Grinner” who assisted Z-13 with the lockdown, while also attempting to break through the facility’s glass to reach Eyefestation, undeterred by its brain-melting shockwaves. Z-444 will kill anything on sight, no matter the cause. Some survivors report it still has a voice, but this is still yet to be confirmed, being that this could be one of the many hallucinations in the Blacksite. Note, it is highly photosensitive.

Extra info!:

Pestilence has no set voice, its altered throat rarely making consistent octaves or tones. In fact, its speaking is more just rumbles resembling words. I mean, for a general voice claim I would say Cyn (Murder Drones German Dub).

Blud is probably constantly having a terrible fever.

Despite what it may seem, Pestilence was and is a male.

Since a full body ref will be (eventually) made, envision him like a quite large "woolly" crocodile/dinosaur, having much straighter and taller legs.

Basic DNI's!

No NSFW, suggestive jokes are fine. (To some extent.)

Pestilence's lines will be in Red.

Mod/Me! Call me Minifrau or Peghita! I AM A MINOR. Nicknames slay! (Im new to tumblr roleplaying!)

[henriettarhippo-hrh]

New chapter: GO ice skating AU

New chapter of Miracles on Ice

So you'd think there'd be a lot of skating in this ice skating AU but this entire chapter is just Crowley's therapy session with Nina (featuring an extended flashback to his childhood with his sort-of foster parent Shadwell)

Therapy is hard to write, but I used my limited experience with it to help. I borrowed a few of the classic lines my therapist liked to use like "we're just coming up on time" which was code for, this bitch needs to stop talking

Crowley fortunately has more luck with therapy than I did!

Extract:

Nina walked him to the front door and Crowley lingered in the corridor outside.

“Uh, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

Crowley bit his lip. “Do you think I have a chance with Aziraphale?”

Nina blinked. “That really goes beyond my pay grade as a therapist.”

“Well, can you take off the therapist hat for a second and answer as a friend?”

Nina quirked a brow but mimed lifting a hat off her head and putting it to one side.

“Yes of course you have a chance with him, are you blind?” she said, bewildered.

Crowley snorted a laugh.

[cportmerch]

THCa Bubble Hash

Adult Use Only 21+ ⚠️ 📢

Discover the Pinnacle of Cannabis Craftsmanship with Donald Trump Weed’s THCA Bubble Hash

Welcome to the next level of cannabis excellence with Donald Trump Weed’s THCA Bubble Hash.

Designed for true connoisseurs, this premium product stands as a testament to quality, purity, and an elevated experience.

What Makes Our THCA Bubble Hash Exceptional?

At Donald Trump Weed, we take pride in offering a product that redefines cannabis luxury. Here’s why our THCA Bubble Hash is unparalleled:

Unmatched Purity: Meticulously sourced from the finest cannabis strains, ensuring every gram is a masterpiece.

Advanced Ice Water Extraction: This state-of-the-art process separates trichome-rich resin glands, capturing the plant’s purest essence for a clean, potent experience.

Superior Potency: Renowned for its high THCA content, our bubble hash delivers a powerful yet refined cannabis journey.

Distinctive Texture: Its unique texture and composition make it a standout choice for discerning cannabis enthusiasts.

Elevate Your Cannabis Experience

Immerse yourself in the richness of flavor and exceptional quality that Donald Trump Weed’s THCA Bubble Hash offers.

Each gram is crafted to perfection, ensuring that your experience is nothing short of extraordinary.

Bulk Orders Made Easy

For those looking to stock up, we’ve made ordering simple and convenient:

1/4lb Orders: Receive (4) 28g units in our signature branded packaging.

1/2lb Orders: Enjoy (8) 28g units, also packaged in Donald Trump Weed’s iconic style.

1lb+ Orders: Larger quantities are drop-shipped directly from our trusted suppliers in generic, unbranded packaging. Delivery may take 7-10 days due to production demand.

Shipping Information: Orders of 1/4lb and 1/2lb are stocked in-house and ship within 2-4 business days.

Bulk orders of 1lb+ require additional time for production and shipping.

Exclusive Discount for C Port Customers

Ready to experience the best in cannabis luxury? Use our special discount code Freedom1 for an exclusive deal on your order.

Shop now and elevate your cannabis journey with Donald Trump Weed’s THCA Bubble Hash:👉 Order Now

Uncompromising Quality, Exceptional Experience – Only at Donald Trump Weed

[theworldibuilt4you]

[Ah. They forgot about those... Addie nodded, their nervousness from before now heightened. What was the axolotl up to at that moment, anyways?]

R-right, the codes...

[They created a dedicated folder for it in their documents - titled simply "codes" and dragged it in when it was done before right clicking it.]

CODES.ZIP > EXTRACT HERE

-Addie

"Yfs gh rmyfl... Nux hiei duem ia basl, ahw bufh qr aadr yvyfx cwqjg ca moe. Vk mih fasr f acfmasr nh'fy cuag ysfy roc vy'g qehno nsr jehmxg dco gh rmgddy."

[He tried to sound encouraging, masking his own nervousness. Not nervous for this failing persay.... no, he might have even been more nervous about it succeeding.]

[There were 5 files in the zipped package. "Credentials.txt, Server.txt, Password.txt, Access.txt, Confirmation.txt"]

"Dco wnsb ufjy gh cwcd ohq iaagj hbr volrx wn nlka stf ca hrlrw ohq... bt'ty ic nux rmfy."

[deusproxy]

Extraction for Lucas Barry and Dawn

(DW this is a mun ask, so no need to specify which one of my muses!)

Dawn - Blue Star/Sound of a Star (LoR Version)

SADLY this one doesn't have a realization sprite, so have the card art and the sprite sheets instead. The space aesthetic + culty associations Blue Star has just fits. It also happens to be one of my favorite E.G.O from Ruina.

Barry - King of Greed/Gold Rush (LC version)

This one is self-explanatory. I like King of Greed, she's cool, but I feel like the LoR version isn't quite right for Barry. So he gets the set from LobCorp instead.

Lucas - Schadenfreude/Gaze

Unfortunately, both of the ice-themed Abnos of the franchise are VERY femme-coded/based on female figures, so he gets this guy instead. Schadenfreude has the double-whammy of having eyes/camera lenses in its motifs AND being something you can't directly observe (its ENTIRE GIMMICK, since it tends to breach if you look at it while it's being worked on.) Imagine a classic horror chase game with this thing, it'd be a nightmare.

[millershands]

honestly just blame tiktok for this one. it's basically straight up copy paste of the stranger things script with angst in the end. but hey i finally posted something<3

wc: 1.2k warning: angst, major character death, no beta we die like jason carver<3

Steve didn’t know how many punches he’d taken at this point. All he knew is that his entire face and chest hurt. He could feel the blood dripping down his face, over his lips to his chin to then drip down on the gray floor. How his wrists ache from the restraints keeping his hands behind his back. He feels the fist of the Russian officer hit his left cheek once again. 

“That one stung.” he groans before gasping for air. Feeling the raspy air hit his lungs, his ribcage burning in pain from the forming bruises. It honestly wouldn’t surprise him if his ribs are broken or at least fractured at this point.

“Who do you work for?” Commander Ozerov speaks with a tone that oozes of authority.

“For the millionth time, I work for Scoops Ahoy!” Steve pleads out, his voice raspy and breathy. “Scoops Ahoy..” he repeats. The commander signals the guard, making him punch Steve's gut.

What is he supposed to say to make the commander believe him? God if he just knew that this is what that stupid russian code was gonna lead to..

“What the hell?!” he groans in pain, just wanting this to end. “Look at my outfit! You think I just wear this?! Think I’m a spy in a sailor’s uniform?”

Steve is begging at this point. Sure, his life practically sucked but being beaten to death in a secret Russian underground base? He couldn’t leave Dustin or hell even Robin at this point.

Another punch lands yet again on his gut and it still feels like the air is being punched out of his lungs. Steve leans his body forward, hoping that something, someone will come to his rescue. It doesn’t even cross his mind what’s happening to Robin right now. If she is also being tortured like this or what they are doing to extract the “real” story. Not that you can blame him.

“How did you get in?” Ozerov asks yet again. And god Steve wants to punch him to make him suffer.

“I already told you, I told you before” Steve breathily says before gasping for air. He sits up straight again, proceeding to tell the somewhat true story to Ozerov. That they didn’t get a delivery, went into the room and it became an elevator and so on and so forth. Again, it was somewhat of the truth. They didn’t know it was an elevator to be fair.

“But I swear to god, nobody knows about us, nobody saw us. You could just let us go, alright? And.. I’m not gonna tell anybody about this, okay? Shit happens, life goes on.” he calmly requests, hoping that they actually would.

Steve knew it was a long shot, but he kept on rambling. Trying to save not only himself but Robin from the impending fate that they or at the very least he will die today. He makes a deal that they can have any ice cream from Scoops Ahoy, that they gotta try their “USS Butterscotch”. 

Commander Ozerov looks at him with his usual stern look before he suddenly laughs loudly, the soldier next to him joining. Steve couldn’t be more confused. He starts to laugh along with them, albeit very nervously ‘cause what the actual fuck is happening?

“I like this guy! USS Butterscotch” the commander chuckles before leaning forward, his hands on his knees, laughs quieting down and stopping.

“Who. Do you. Work. For.” Ozerovs stern look is harsh and staring right into Steve’s soul.

“Oh, come on. No, no! No, seriously–” Steve whines and begs before everything turns black as the soldier punches his jaw.

Robin screams and thrashes around as the Russian guards take her from her room to the next. They throw her on the ground next to Steve making her yelp and grunt as her body hits the floor. She notices Steve next to her, immediately calling for him.

“Hey..Steve. Steve?” She moves to sit on her knees nudging Steve, continuing to shake him and say his name. The commander walks into the room making her look up at him.

“What did you do to him? What did you do?!” She yells, scared for her friend. The commander quickly shuts her up by slapping her cheek with the back of his hand.

She hears them say something in Russian before grabbing her yet again making her trash around yet again. They grab Steve as well and put them on chairs, tying them together. Robin keeps talking to Steve, hoping her screams for his name will wake him up. The commander grabs Steve by his hair lifting his head up.

“Don’t touch him.” Robin hiss as she turns her head.

Ozerov clicks his tongue looking at Steve before releasing his grip on his hair. He walks slowly away to face Robin. She could just feel her blood boiling, angry at this man in front of her now. Not listening and angry because what the fuck did they do Steve? Sure, she practically hated his guts like four months ago. But now? He’s her best friend, whether she would admit it or not.

“I think your friend need a doctor. Good thing…We have the very best.” Ozerov speaks before laughing, the officers in the room joining in. Robin cuts this short by aggressively spitting him in the face. He however, wipes the spit off with his napkin. She looks at him triumphantly, almost as if to mock him.

“You are going to regret that, сука.” He threatens before leaving the room. 

She screams for them to let them go, let them out. They just ignore her, closing the door. Alone, trapped and bound with Steve. Steve, unbeknownst to Robin, is barely breathing. As she yells for help until her lungs almost give up, unconscious and on the cusp of life Steve sits tied up to the chair and her. 

And soon that cusp is no cusp. Soon, before the Russians make it back, as Robin pleads for them to be released, Steve takes his last breath. But just like the people say, his life flashed before his eyes.

He saw Dustin and him walking on the train track dropping meat here and there. He saw Nancy, the first time they made love. He saw when he fought Billy, defending the kids. He saw Robin. He saw her smile and her stupid board. He saw Dustin again, when he was sitting in his car, all done up for the Snow Ball dance. 

He didn’t want this day to be his last. He didn’t want to be beaten to death in a secret Russian underground base. But he did do it for the kids. It could’ve been Dustin in his place. He could never forgive himself if his blood was on his hands. 

So even though he didn’t wanna go like this, he is okay with the fact that Dustin is okay. Who hopefully will come and rescue Robin soon. It would be too late for him but he hopes it’s not for Robin. He doesn’t know the fact that Robin is with him for his last breaths. But if he did? He would be happy, happy to be next to the girl he loved.

props to you if you read all that, now tag for moots who i'm basically forcing to read the stranger things script.

@corrodedcorpses @wndalovebot @moonchildquinn @ceriseheaven @bimbobaggins69 @lokis-army-77 @loveshotzz @usedtobecooler @andvys

i had to like retag? this whole read more stuff is fucking shit up so i removed it, ok lmao ignore.

[callmebrycelee]

9-1-1 REACTION

Another week, another episode of the Gay Firefighter Show! In this week’s reaction, I will be talking about the season 7, seventh episode “Ghost of a Second Chance” which originally aired on May 9, 2024. The episode was written by Taylor Wong and James Wong and directed by James Wong. Before we begin, let me warn you this reaction will contain a copious amount of spoilers. Without a further ado, let’s talk about the episode!

We begin the episode with a 911 call. Our resident dispatcher Maddie Buckley, now Maddie Buckley-Han, speaks with a woman named Catherine Morris (played by Lily Cardone) who is riding passenger with the man who abducted her and her baby., Chloe. Maddie is discreet and extract a lot of details using coded language. Josh is able to identify Catherine’s vehicle as well as her husband who has two felony assault charges on his record. Maddie tells Catherine to drive to the Sunset Regency Hotel and lets her know police will be waiting for her. There is a lengthy silence on the line until the driver takes over the call. Maddie commands him to pull the car over. There’s a crash and the line goes dead. 

Cue title card.

The 118 responds to the accident and finds the car on fire. Chimney goes to attend to the victims trapped inside but the car explodes blowing him backwards. Thankfully, Chimney is okay. He tells Hen that he saw movement inside the vehicle and commands Buck and Eddie to put out the fire. When the fire’s out, Hen goes to Catherine while Chimney checks out the driver who is missing from the vehicle. Athena arrives on the scene and asks Bobby about the baby. Bobby radios to Chimney and asks for a status report on the victims. Chimney reports that the driver is missing, and Catherine is burned badly, and they are prepping for her transport. Bobby asks about the baby and Buck reports the baby is gone as well. Bobby asks if he means the baby is deceased. Buck clarifies that the baby is not in the car. The baby’s car seat is empty. Officer Tejada (played by Manuel Rafael Lozano) finds a baby’s pacifier and shows it to Athena. He tells her that since the pacifier isn’t burnt, that means the driver got away with the baby prior to the car exploding. 

Over at the Wilsons, Hen, Karen, and Denny sit down to dinner. Mara (played by Askyler Bell) is asleep in her room because she is unable to sleep during the night. Hen is concerned about Mara’s sleeping habits and asks Karen if the therapist has any strategies to help her sleep at night. Karen says that Mara has to figure out how to trust them and that could take a while which means they need to be patient. Denny tells them both that Mara has a brother. Hen asks him to elaborate. Denny says that Mara has a baby brother named Tyson. Hen asks him if he knows where Tyson is. He tells her know and says that Mara doesn’t know where Tyson is either. 

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” – Marisol to Eddie Diaz

The next day, we see Eddie, Christopher, and Marisol (played by Edy Ganem) are out having ice cream I know the fandom has issues with the actress, but I really like the character of Marisol. I think she would make a good partner for someone who isn’t Eddie because Eddie, unfortunately, has issues he needs to address before he can even begin to entertain being in a relationship with anyone. Marisol is really getting along with Eddie and Christopher but as they go to leave, Eddie spots a woman inside a clothing store who looks an awful lot like his late-wife, Shannon. At first I thought this was a new actress who looked exactly like Devin Kelley. Turns out, this new character whose name is Kim is Devin Kelley playing a double role. The two make eye contact and there is a connection. Eddie snaps out of it and catches up with his son and Marisol. She asks if everything’s okay and he tells her he’s fine. Spoiler alert! Eddie is not fine. 

Meanwhile, Hen has a heart to heart with Mara and gets her to open up about a bit. Mara tells her that Denny’s nice and that she misses her baby brother Tyson. Hen asks her what happened to Tyson and Mara tells her they took him.

Athena and Detective Rick Romero (played by Danny Nucci) arrive at the call center, and they speak with Maddie about the Chloe Morris abduction case. Maddie asks if they’ve found Catherine’s husband. Detective Romero says they have found him. He’s in Alaska where he’s been working on an oil rig for the last three months. Maddie is confused by this because she was under the belief that Catherine and her baby were abducted by her husband. Athena informs Maddie that the husband is on his way back, but it may take some time for him to get there. Maddie wonders why Catherine told her that it was her husband who abducted her. Athena’s theory is that Catherine has a boyfriend, but they cannot ask Catherine because she’s in a medically induced coma. Detective Romero says that he would like to hear the 911 call. 

While listening to the call, Maddie gets up and leaves the room. Josh goes to check on her and she tells him he was right – he should have been the one to take the call. He tells her she handled the call perfectly, but Maddie tells him that she missed a key piece of information. Catherine never said that she was in the car with her husband. It was actually the driver who referred to Catherine as his wife. Maddie assumed it was Catherine’s husband in the car because Maddie was thinking about her own domestic abuse situation which involved her ex-husband, Doug. Maddie says she listened to him when she should’ve been listening to Catherine and now she’s wondering what other things she missed during the call. 

“What about what’s best for our daughter? Does that factor in? – Karen Wilson to Diedra

Hen and Karen invite Mara’s social worker, Diedra (played by Andi Chapman) over and take her to task about failing to mention that Mara has a little brother. Diedra insists she didn’t lie and says Tyson was placed in another household. This information was privileged which is why she never shared it with the Wilsons. Hen says that she thought the social worker’s job was to keep families together and asks Diedra why she separate siblings. Diedra tells Hen that Mara and Tyson are half-siblings. Tyson’s father is alive and has rights; therefore, he has custody of his son. Diedra says they are getting into murky waters. She explains that there’s an age gap between Mara and Tyson. Hen puts two and two together and realizes Mara’s mother had an affair with someone who is not Mara’s father and that affair resulted in Tyson. Tyson’s father didn’t know he had a son until after Mara’s parents died. Diedra tells them she would’ve liked to have kept the siblings together, but Tyson’s father wasn’t interested. Since he’s the biological father, he gets to decide what is best for Tyson. What about what’s best for Mara, Karen asks. Hen asks if there’s any chance Mara can see her baby brother. Diedra apologizes and says the system doesn’t always work the way she wish it would. Hen tells her she is the system. Diedra writes down the name of a Mommy and Me class she often recommends to the parents she works with and strongly insinuates Hen and Karen should go there. Hen thanks her for the tip.

Maddie heads over to the hospital and runs into a nurse named Amir (played by veteran actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner). She asks about Catherine and tells him she is the 911 operator who took her call.  She says she feels someone responsible for what happened, and Amir assures her the only one responsible for what happened to Catherine and her baby is the driver. Amir tells her that Catherine is young and happy and he believes she will survive. Maddie asks if he’s speaking from experience, and he says it sounds like she’s speaking from experience as well. Maddie tells Amir that her husband tried to kill her and then immediately wonders why she told him that information. Amir laughs and says he tends to bring out honesty in people. He figures it’s because of how he looks. It should be noted that Amir has burns on the left side of his face. His hands appear to be burned as well. She tells him that she used to be a nurse. She tells him she likes where she’s at right now and he says he’s happy where he’s at as well. Amir tells Maddie he has to make a run and asks her to watch Catherine while he’s away. Maddie asks him if he’s sure, she’s not family, and he says she’s close enough. When he leaves, Maddie goes in to see Catherine. She tells her she’s sorry and that she’s going to find her daughter and bring her home.

Eddie goes back to the store where he saw the Shannon lookalike. She sees him and asks if she can help him. Eddie is being awkward, so she asks him if he’s looking for anything specific. She invites him inside and takes him over to a candle display. She shows him a candle and asks him if he trusts her. She tells him to close his eyes and smell the candle. The scent triggers a memory of Eddie and Shannon at the beach.  She asks him if he’s shopping for a friend or for a girlfriend. He tells it’s just he and his son Christopher and that he’s a single dad, emphasis on the single. Shannon 2.0 picks out a keychain for Christopher that has the first initial of his name and tells Eddie it’s his turn to pick something out. He tells her his name is Edmundo, but most people call him Eddie. The Second Coming of Shannon tells him her name is Kim. She goes to ring up his purchases and as the scene ends we see Eddie holding a keychain in the shape of an ‘S’.

“She misses her brother so much and we thought maybe he misses her, too.” – Hen Wilson to Vincent and Juanita

Hen and Karen go to the Mommy and Me class Diedra recommended, and they see a couple playing with a little boy. The couple is Vincent and Juanita (played by Jason Graham and Kimberly Christian). Vincent is Tyson’s birth father. Hen introduces herself and Karen and tells the couple they are Mara’s foster parents. Vincent tells them that Tyson is at an age where he will most likely not remember who his mother is and that’s for the best. Karen says that she’s happy Tyson has such a loving family looking out for him but his sister Mara has been through hell bouncing from foster family to group home. Hen says it will be a gamechanger if Mara is able to reconnect with Tyson. 

 Over at the Buckley-Han residence, Maddie is busy listening to the 911 call. Chimney walks up to her and unintentionally scares her. This scene reminded me of the episode of Lone Star where Carlos is working a kidnapping case and TK sneaks up on him and scares him. Maddie is way too close to this case and Chimney is appropriately worried about her. However, I like that he doesn’t exactly discourage her. In fact, he is so supportive of her. He knows her history better than anyone, so he asks Maddie to tell her about her. When Maddie goes to talk about Catherine, he tells her he wants to hear about the passenger in the car meaning he wants Maddie to talk about her experience being abducted by her ex-husband Doug. Maddie thinks for a moment and says that the woman in the passenger seat of the car is scared that she’s going to die and as long as the car is moving she is safe. The woman in the passenger of the car will need a plan for when the car eventually stops. The woman in the passenger side of the car will need to speak in code because he is sitting right beside her. Maddie has a light bulb moment and listens to the call again. She hears the driver say something about a yellow nightie and Catherine responds to him saying she bought the yellow nightie weeks ago. Maddie realizes that at this point of the conversation, Catherine wasn’t speaking in code. She was reacting to what the driver said. Chimney says she sounds surprised because the driver shouldn’t know about the nightgown. Maddie says that he must’ve seen the yellow nightgown in the window but whose window did he see it in?

Detective Romero goes to Catherine house and looks in her bedroom. He locates the yellow nightgown referenced in the 911 call. He goes over to the window and sees that it’s in direct view of the house next door. Detective Romero goes to leave and when Athena asks him where he’s going, he tells her he’s following a hunch. Athena speaks with Catherine’s mother, Laura (played by Karla Droege). Athena gets a call from Detective Romero who tells her he’s across the street. He tells her to go into Catherine bedroom and look out the window. Athena sees him standing at the window in the house next door. Detective Romero says Catherine doesn’t have a boyfriend. Athena says she has a stalker. 

Meanwhile, Eddie is thinking about having sex with his dead wife while he’s mid-conversation with Marisol. Marisol catches him daydreaming and asks him where he just went. Eddie tells her he’s there with her. Marisol seems to accept his answer. We end the scene with Eddie looking longingly at a photo of he and Shannon. 

“What’s her number? I’m pretty good on the phone.” – Maddie Buckley to Athena Grant and Detective Rick Romero

Athena and Detective Romero go to see Maddie at dispatch. Athena tells Maddie they’ve identified Catherine’s abductor. His name is Kyle Dixon, and he was working as a handyman in the vacant unit across from where Catherine lives. Maddie asks them how they’re going to track Kyle down. Athena tells her they ran a background check, but everything shows that he is still a resident of Wisconsin. Maddie asks if he has any friends or relatives. Detective Romero says he has a sister back in Wisconsin. Maddie asks if they are planning on contacting her. Athena tells her that she and Detective Romero work best speaking face to face but Maddie is better at reading people over the phone.

Maddie calls Kyle’s sister, Cheryl (played by Kailena Mai). Cheryl tells Maddie she is the one who encouraged her brother to move to Los Angeles after losing his wife and baby. Maddie asks about when they passed. Cheryl tells her the wife and child didn’t die – they are hiding from Kyle. Kyle’s wife told him she was going to the park and instead went to the bank and cleared out their account. Kyle looked for them for a long time before finally moving on to Los Angeles. Cheryl asks Maddie if Kyle found them. Maddie tells her no but tells Cheryl she needs her help finding Kyle. She asks her about the last time she heard from her brother. 

We see Kyle Dixon at the park with Catherine’s baby. He gets a call from his sister but ignores it. He looks over at the baby and tells her they need to find a new mommy. Kyle sees a woman playing with her daughter. 

Athena asks Maddie if she’s heard anything about Kyle. Maddie tells that Cheryl tried calling him, but it went straight to voicemail. Maddie is able to get a location based off of a cell tower. Detective Romero says he couldn’t get a warrant to view Kyle’s credit card transactions. Josh suggests putting out an Amber Alert but Maddie worries that will set Kyle off. She remembers Cheryl’s story about Kyle’s ex-wife going to the park the day she ran from him. Athena asks if there’s a park near the cell tower. Maddie says Playa Park is near the cell tower. Detective Romero says he is near there and Athena says she will head there as well. Detective Romero arrives at the park but doesn’t see Kyle or Catherine’s baby. He does see a young girl who has gotten separated from his daughter. He calls Maddie and she sends out an alert to all law enforcement to be on the lookout for Kyle. 

Kyle is driving away with the baby in the backseat. He ends up getting hit by police cruiser. Officer Tejada gets out the vehicle to check on the passengers in the other car. Kyle reaches for his gun while Officer Tejada throws up. The 118 arrive on the scene. Buck and Chimney see Kyle get out of the vehicle and grab the baby. They tell him he should stay put so they can check on him, but Kyle tries to get away. Chimney hears Kyle call the baby ‘sweet pea’ which is something he heard the driver say to the baby on the 911 call. He figures out this is the same person who abducted Catherine. Kyle tosses the car seat and runs off. Buck tackles him to the ground and Athena cuffs him. I love seeing Buck and Athena work together. Like mother, like son. They find the mom who was abducted from the park in the trunk of the car. The day is saved and everyone involved will need a LOT of therapy.

Over at the hospital, Catherine is out of her coma, and she’s worried that her husband will hate her because their daughter is missing. Her mother tells her to stay strong. Detective Romero and Bobby arrive at the hospital with Catherine’s baby. Bobby looks really good holding a baby. When the nurse Amir sees Bobby, it’s like he’s seen a ghost. Catherine is happy to be reunited with her little one and Amir notices the name ‘Nash’ on the back of Bobby’s turnout gear. Detective Romero asks Amir if he knows Bobby and Amir tells him he doesn’t but he would like to. 

Hen and Karen get a visit from Juanita and Tyson. Hen asks about Vincent and Juanita says that he’s convinced that Tyson won’t remember Mara. Denny asks if they have company and Hen says it’s Mara who has company. When Mara sees Tyson, the two of them embrace. Cleary Tyson remembers his big sister.

“Make sure he doesn’t stay up all night playing video games.” – Eddie Diaz to Christopher Diaz

Eddie drops Christopher over at Buck’s place. Buck asks him when he’s meeting Marisol and Eddie tells him he’s meeting up with her in 30 minutes. Buck comments on his cologne and tells him he and Christopher won’t wait up for him. Eddie kisses Christopher goodbye and leaves the loft.

Chimney and Maddie toast to Catherine being reunited with her baby and spend time with their own baby.

In the last scene of the episode, Eddie meets up with someone who is definitely not Marisol. We see him on a date with Shannon’s doppelganger, Kim, at a fancy restaurant. The episode ends. 

So, I really liked this episode. The writers this season are doing an amazing job balancing the characters and the drama this season. This episode was light on Athena, Bobby, Chimney and Buck but we got to focus more on Maddie, Hen, and Eddie. Also, if memory serves, I believe this is the first time since season two we’ve seen Maddie team up with Athena. These are two characters we don’t get to see interact all that much and I love seeing them work together.

The theme of this season seems to be reckoning with one’s fears and insecurities. We saw Athena conquer her fear of being on a boat at the beginning of this season as well as confront her insecurities regarding her marriage with Bobby. Buck has come to terms with his sexuality, and we see him exploring a relationship with Tommy. Hen and Karen are trying fostering again after everything that happened with Mia seasons ago. Chimney was finally able to deal with his guilt and grief surrounding the death of his best friend Kevin. This episode it was Maddie’s turn to face her fears. Maddie is still dealing with the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband as well as his death at the hands of herself. I reckon the only two characters left are Eddie and Bobby and this episode gave us a preview as to what we will see play out over this season’s remaining episodes. 

Speaking of Eddie, I was very disappointed in his actions this episode. Eddie is usually postured as the more reserved of the Buddie friendship. He’s older than Buck and therefore more mature. However, he was acting so irresponsibly this episode. It’s one thing to be attracted to someone, especially someone who looks an awful lot like your late wife. However, it’s a whole different thing when you start showing up at their place of business and flirting with them and lying about your relationship status to them. I don’t blame Kim because she’s only working off the knowledge she has regarding Eddie. I get that sense she wouldn’t be entertaining the flirtation if she knew he was in a relationship. I also don’t like the lying. Buck and Eddie’s particular brand of friendship only works because both of them are 100% transparent with each other. Just a few episodes ago, we saw Buck feeling immense guilt because he hadn’t shared with Eddie his latest revelation regarding his sexuality as well as his dating Tommy. This episode, Eddie so easily lied to his best friend when he brought Christopher over. This is not going to end well. Poor Marisol. She doesn’t deserve this at all. 

Lastly, we see sprinklings of Bobby’s upcoming storyline at the end of this episode. When we were introduced to Amir, I had a feeling he might be someone who was involved in the apartment fire Bobby started back in Minnesota. The end of this episode pretty much confirms my suspicions. Amir tells Detective Romero he would like to meet Bobby, but I don’t think things are going to go well. Based on Amir’s conversation with Maddie, he is harboring a lot of anger regarding what happened to him, and he may be looking for revenge. Even though I love Bobby Nash, he will need to reckon with what he did. The others have forgiven him however we have yet to see any victims from that fire come forward. I hope this doesn’t drive Bobby back to drinking because he’s done so well over the years to maintain his sobriety. I’m not too worried about him because at least this time around he has Athena and Buck and the rest of the 118 at his side. I can’t wait to see what happens next with Bobby and Amir. Until next time …

[quidcumque]

Fuck me, so I got into Stardew mods, right? On this my second modded run, I add LoveofCooking and pretty much the whole PPJA suite. Amongst others, but let’s focus here

BECAUSE I ENJOY COMPLETIONISM, I want to get Perfection from Qi, right? Requiring all shipped things, all cooked things, etc

There’s shit you CAN’T GET in the game but are REQUIRED for Perfection. When I say “can’t get” I mean either the recipe is broken, there ISN’T a recipe, or there isn’t a recipe AND you can’t buy the fucking thing. I don’t code yet, but I can adequately poke shit until it works, so I went into the various .jsons to figure it the fuck out. SUCCESSFULLY, much to my satisfaction

Buuuuuuut at least for the PPJA stuff, there’s no section I can find anywhere to post my solutions for whomever else is losing their mind? Maybe there’s a discord I’m ignoring, but on Nexus the mod authors took away the posts/bugs tabs, and I didn’t see any comment sections on any of the, like, five or eight semi-defunct wikis and githubs and everything. Love the PPJA stuff, it’s a massive endeavor. Probably stripped out the interaction options because they have enough to do, but it definitely leaves the users in a “figure it out or get fucked” situation

So anyway here’s some of my fuckin notes, added as I find and figure them out

”Broken” = recipe / producer rules exist in .json, but can’t be used in-game (for machines, sometimes because of duplicate InputIdentifiers)

”Missing” = recipe / producer rules straight don’t exist in .json, but item is required for Shipping or Cooking perfection. You can tell what these are by using LookUpAnything (or checking every Objects folder, if you hate yourself) (Updated w/ more fixes) PPJA - ARTISAN VALLEY

Sorbet Machine -- go into the PFM folder to the ProducerRules.json

BROKEN: Strawberry Dragon Fruit Fruit Sorbet, Dragon Fruit Sorbet

swap duplicate InputIdentifier and one of its AdditionalFuels. Make sure all InputIdentifiers are unique

MISSING: Mango Passion Fruit Fruit Sorbet

copy/paste one of the working rules and change out the InputIdentifier/AdditionalFuels. Use item description and/or culinary judgement for ingredients

Ice Cream Machine -- this ain’t the mod’s fault, but the 3rd party Documentation erroneously lists banana sapling as an ingredient for Banana Ice Cream, but you just need a damn banana. IQ of lots but that took me WAY too long to figure out

Keg / Still -- go into the PFM folder to the ProducerRules.json

BROKEN: Cauim

move this to Still section, change “Keg” to “Still”    {        "ProducerName": "Keg",        "InputIdentifier": "Cassava",        "InputStack": 1,        "MinutesUntilReady": 2360,        "OutputIdentifier": "Cauim",        "Sounds": ["Ship"],    },

Various -- go into the JA folder, Objects folder, relevant item folder, object.json items needed for the Shipping collection that don’t have a recipe BECAUSE THEIR INGREDIENTS DON’T EXIST YET.

MISSING: Carolina Reaper Extract, Ghost Pepper Extract, Poblano Extract, Scotch Bonnet Extract, Serrano Extract

add this to the line after recipe, adjusting From/Price as needed "CanPurchase": true, "PurchaseFrom": "Gus", "PurchasePrice": 1000,

PPJA - FRESH MEAT

DNA Sequencer -- go into the PFM folder to the ProducerRules.json

BROKEN: Chicken DNA, Duck DNA

either: change OutputProbability from 1 to .5 

or: remove this from select Chicken/Duck input options, using a list of Vanilla item codes to figure out InputIdentifiers (I took it off duck feather & void egg):        "AdditionalOutputs": [        {            "OutputProbability": 1,            "OutputIdentifier": "Bird DNA",        }, ],

Recipes -- go into the JA folder, Objects folder, relevant item folder, object.json

BROKEN: Barbecue Sausage, Beast n’ Onion Handpie, Chicken Nuggets, Chippy Curry, Cottage Pie, Fish and Chips, Phoenix Au Vin, Schnitzel, Spaghetti Bolognese, Sweet and Sour Pork with Rice, Sweet n’ Sour Bites, Teriyaki, Venison Handpie, 

either: add this line after PurchasePrice, adjusting requirements if needed "PurchaseRequirements": ["HasCookingRecipe Batter", "y 3",],

or: add missing comma after quotes in PurchaseRequirements (or at end of PurchaseRequirements line)

or: add this line above PurchaseFrom (if the IsDefault line is there, replace with this)        "CanPurchase": true,

or: make sure the brackets above PurchaseFrom are }], not },],

BROKEN: Roasted Fowl

just replace all lines between Count and NameLocalization with this (it’s all sorts of fucked up)        }],        "PurchaseFrom": "Gus",        "PurchasePrice": 2000,        "PurchaseRequirements": ["HasCookingRecipe Batter", "y 3",],    },    "NameLocalization":    {

BROKEN: Tonkatsu

same as above, replace all lines between Count and NameLocalization with this        }],        "CanPurchase": true,        "PurchaseFrom": "Gus",        "PurchasePrice": 2000,        "PurchaseRequirements": ["HasCookingRecipe Batter", "y 4",],    },

FRESH MEAT FOR BUG NET

DNA Sequencer -- in ProducerRules.json

BROKEN: every single goddamn one

for each, replace “Critter Cage - ” with “Critter Cage: ”

fucking hell

MISSING: Critter DNA

where appropriate (I did everything except birds), add this after Sounds line        "AdditionalOutputs": [        {            "OutputProbability": .5,            "OutputIdentifier": "Critter DNA",        }, ],

PPJA - EVEN MORE RECIPES

Cooking - go into the JA folder, Objects folder, item folder, object.json

MISSING: Black Coffee, Milky Coffee, Milky Strawberry Juice, Peach Milk, Pathos Cookie, Cola can purchase product from Gus, but recipe itself doesn’t exist. Needed for Cooking perfection

replace Recipe line through PurchasePrice line with the following. Edit Ingredients/From/Price as needed (this was Pathos Cookie)    "Recipe":    {        "ResultCount": 1,        "Ingredients": [            {                "Object": 246,                "Count": 1,            },            {                "Object": 260,                "Count": 1,            },            {                "Object": "Mint",                "Count": 1,            },        ],        "CanPurchase": true,        "PurchaseFrom": "Gus",        "PurchasePrice": 700,            },  

BROKEN: Lemon Pie, Meuniere, Halloumi Burger, Salmon Fillet

either: add missing comma after quotes in PurchaseRequirements

or: add this line above PurchaseFrom (if the IsDefault line is there, replace with this)       "CanPurchase": true,

**Halloumi Burger, might need to delete “Bread” from PurchaseRequirements, leaving just “Halloumi” (I edited several things, so not sure what all fixed it, but “Halloumi Bread” isn’t an actual recipe, so requiring it means you’ll never meet that requirement)

LOVE OF COOKING

Various -- go to assets --> (eg)NettlesPack --> Objects --> (eg)Nettle Tea --> object.json

MISSING: Nettle Tea, Cider, maybe others?

change “CanPurchase” to true (default.json in i18n folder says you learn how to brew Nettle Tea as a cooking skill level-up bonus, NO EFFING CLUE how to make that not glitched. Game currently requires it for Shipping, not Cooking)

FORAGE OF FERNGILL

Kombucha Jar --  go into the PFM folder to the ProducerRules.json

BROKEN: Salty Kombucha, Sour Kombucha

replace ContextTags in the InputIdentifiers with object names or vanilla Item IDs

duplicate entire entry w/ new InputIdentifier to have multiple possible inputs

[adafruit]

FULL VIDEO - Writing an Arduino driver with OpenAI ChatGPT and PDF parsing 🤖🔧📄

One of the big tasks that Ladyada still has to spend a lot of time on is writing Arduino libraries for all our devices and sensors, particularly all the I2C & SPI chips out there! These ICs use register maps and sub-byte addressing to set dozens of configurable knobs and switches, and a good driver lets folks set and get all of the noodly bits.

However, there is yet to be a standard format to get that configuration map. Instead, you have to pore over datasheets with long lists of binary tables and bit insets to figure out how to convert that into C or Python code.

It is tough. Only a few folks can write an excellent comprehensive library…. but Ladyada can & has! In fact, there are hundreds of Arduino libraries on Adafruit's GitHub https://github.com/orgs/adafruit/repositories, all in the Ladyada 'style,' using Adafruit_BusIO for I2C / SPI register addressing https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_BusIO/ and since ChatGPT 4 was trained on all of it, we can ask it to become a mini-Ladyada to write new drivers.

With a PDF parsing plugin, we can even upload the chip's datasheet to extract register names, values, create enum tables, and text for doxygen comments. Here's the chatGPT log for the video https://chat.openai.com/c/f740eb57-17a6-41e3-ae0a-12da959a1f4c - and here's a previous one that is more 'complete' https://chat.openai.com/share/f44dc335-7555-4758-b2f9-487f9409d556. The amount of time it takes for ChatGPT to write a driver is about the same as it would take Ladyada, and you definitely need to be eagle-eyed to redirect the AI if it starts making mistakes… but it can be done even when Ladyada is tired after a full day of baby-care, or at the same time as pumping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpbH-sXRNps - plus there's a lot less continuous typing/mousing so her wrists don't ache the next day!

Do you use ChatGPT for electrical engineering or coding work? Any suggestions on how to make this even better? This is only our 3rd day using this tool, so we're getting started with how to integrate it into our workflow.

[tomorrowusa]

There is "a tiny window" of hope remaining for keeping the climate from spinning out of control. But to keep that window open we need to keep professional climate deniers out of power.

Increasingly severe weather impacts had also been long signposted by scientists, although the speed and intensity of the reality scared some. The off-the-charts sea temperatures and Antarctic sea ice loss were seen as the most shocking. The feeling of entering a new age of devastation was the result of the return of the natural El Niño phenomenon, which has temporarily turbocharged global heating, they said. Another factor was many people being confronted with extreme weather they had never experienced before, as climate impacts began to clearly stand out from usual weather. The scientists were clear the world had not yet passed a “tipping point” into runaway climate change, but some warned that it got ever closer with continued heating.

The scientists also warned that the “crazy” extreme weather of recent months was just the “tip of the iceberg” compared with the even worse impacts to come. In just a decade the exceptional events of 2023 could be a normal year, unless there is a dramatic increase in climate action. Some further warned that the tendency of climate models to underestimate extreme weather meant we were “flying partially blind” into a future that could be even more catastrophic than anticipated. However, a “tiny window” of opportunity remained open to tackle the climate crisis, they said, with humanity having all the tools needed. The researchers overwhelmingly pointed to one action as critical: slashing the burning of fossil fuels down to zero. “Climate science’s projections are pretty robust over the last decades. Unfortunately, humanity’s stubbornness to spew out ever-higher amounts of greenhouse gases has also been pretty robust,” said Prof Malte Meinshausen, of the University of Melbourne, Australia.

There's a relatively simple prescription to keep things from getting worse.

“We need to stop burning fossil fuels,” said (Imperial College's Dr. Friederike) Otto. “Now – not sometime when we’ve allowed companies to make all the money they possibly can.” Others said the world was on “code red alert” to stop fossil fuel extraction and to fight to halt new exploration projects.

The stats are pretty damned clear about what's happening.

The first step in making things better is to stop them from getting worse. A certain political party in the US pretends that climate change is just "politicization of the weather". Making sure these people are not put in power gives us time to work on solutions.

Why Republicans can’t get out of their climate bind, even as extreme heat overwhelms the US

Even as more Republican politicians are joining the consensus that climate change is real and caused by humans, Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric has driven the party to the right on climate and extreme weather. Trump has called the extremely settled science of climate change a “hoax” and more recently suggested that the impacts of it “may affect us in 300 years.”

Even if some Republicans grudgingly admit that humans cause climate change, the influence of their party's Dear Leader will keep them from taking any action.

And if The Donald choked on a triple cheeseburger tomorrow, don't expect the party to abruptly swerve away from its extremist anti-science positions. It's not just Trump himself, it's Trumpism as exemplified by his Mini-Me Vivek Ramaswamay.

Vivek Ramaswamy calls climate change agenda a ‘hoax’ during debate

Here are some of the current "hoaxes" which Trump lickspittle Vivek doesn't want you to think about too much.

[vayneoc]

PINA COLADA, WOO WOO AND LONG ISLAND ICED TEA FOR VAYNE(づ￣ ³￣)づ

hi kitty (｡･ω･)ﾉﾞ

The ask

𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗱𝗮 〜 if your oc has a bag or a purse, what are five things that’d be inside?

I won't list here an obvious "Nightcity Stroll Kit" being a damage dealing object of choice and a few maxdocs. And will list some more casual stuff.

You looted x1 Forgotten Techwear Bag.

Received:

x4 Pack of wet cat food

For little street boops.

x1 Eyedrops

With Relic Vayne's Kiroshis sometimes start to feel stiff and warm, and cool liquid makes it better. Victor checked her cyberware and it's as good as a showcase sample, so problem lies in brain's signal perception.

x1 Spunky Monkey Mint (0.25)

Vayne's sweet tooth is quite... nonexistent. But she likes mint/menthol/green tea flavoured drinks. And energy drinks, tho it's hard to find not too sweet ones.

x1 Bag of blank data shards

For when she needs to make a little virused trap-shard or extract intel/code from a shady random source and not fry her entire brain in the process.

No, seriously, V. Your wrist wire connects directly to the brain. Don't you have sex ed in nc? You don't slot your stuff into every random inviting port you find on the streets 👀

AND A SHIT TON OF CAR KEYS DAMN WOMAN WHY ARE THERE SO MANY?!

Nah, just game mechanics joke.

x3 Pair of earplugs

This comes from long ago. After some trips to Japanese Arasaka HQ Vayne sometimes can barely tolerate how noisy Night City is. When she wants to tone it down, or when she starts to have occasional migraines from Relic, she uses earplugs and enjoys muffled sounds.

𝘄𝗼𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗼 〜 what’s their relationship like with their parent(s)/guardian(s)?

I will elaborate on it when I finish Vayne's pre-game biography. All I can say now - quite cold. Not too unhealthy but distantly tense.

𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝗮 〜 who are some of your oc’s best friends?

I will go with the one I haven't mentioned before, who's not one of 4 in-game love interests, Misty or Victor, bc these are quite obvious.

Regina Jones

A considerate reliable ally with a pinch of funny to her. After the huge amount of gigs she deals Vayne, cyberpsychos stuff and constant dialogue accompanying these filled with some jokes and discussions, they are on very good terms. From time to time they go on holo and have a conversation while sipping a drink. Regina's nice and quite open character and Vayne being a thoughtful listener make a good combo.

[fadedflame]

Rare-pairs Week: day 3

Summery:  Day 3 of the rare-pairs week. Prompt: Snowstorm/Nightmare. Stranded at New Jericho due to a bad snowstorm, Connor seeks shelter with his somewhat new friend, Rupert. He didn’t expect a nightmare to complicate their night. Nor did he think Rupert would be quite so efficient at calming him.

Part: 2/2

< Previous Chapter

On Ao3 or read below.

No matter how comfortable Rupert’s bed was, there was no way to stop his mind from plunging him into a nightmare as soon as he fell unconscious.

He should have expected it, should have known the snowstorm would trigger the bad memories that always resulted in his overactive processor fabricating horrific, inescapable scenarios. He should have known it would summon her.

The cold bit at him, chilled him, froze him solid.

“You should have known this would happen, Connor,” her voice cut through the raging storm uninhibited.

“Amanda.” He didn’t try to look at her, to find the source. It was a toss up whether she was even there physically. Half the time she was just the taunting, disembodied voice that chilled him more than the ice.

“Did you really think you could escape?” the cold words cut through him, freezing him. “You belong to us, Connor. There is no escape.”

“No,” he tried to deny. The word was painful leaving his frozen lips. “No. I’m free. You… you can’t control me anymore.”

“It’s almost sweet that you believe that,” she taunted.

He could feel her coming closer. There were no footsteps, no sound marring the whirring of the wind around him, but he still knew.

Sure enough, in a flurry of white, Amanda was suddenly standing before him. She was dressed as elegantly as always, unmoved by the storm around them, face stern and displeased. “There is no such thing as free, Connor. Not for you.”

You’re wrong, he tried to say, but the words didn’t come. They were trapped in his throat, as frozen as he was.

“Connor?”

The new voice was barely audible above the rushing snow. It sounded concerned, worried, warm. Instinctively, Connor found himself drawn to it.

“Where do you think you are going?” Amanda asked as he tried to take a step. She sounded more annoyed than concerned. She knew he was powerless here.

Leave me alone, he wanted to say. He stumbled forward, not destination in mind besides finding that voice.

“Connor?” it called again.

He was practically immobilized, but he still reached for the sound with every line of his code. Amanda tisked at the futility, unamused by his attempt to reach the sliver of warmth, but still he tried.

The world, the zen garden, flickered around him. Amanda’s face took on a searing anger that nearly halted his progress.

He was so cold.

He just wanted to be warm.

“Connor!” The voice was so close now. Connor could practically feel the heat coming from it. Everything turned pixelated and fuzzy. Slowly, Rupert’s apartment came into view, superimposed over what was left of the garden.

He shook violently as she pulled his code back toward the frigid void. He was aware that Rupert was right there, close enough to touch, but he was unable to fully extract himself from the nightmare.

Amanda was closer now. She was angry. She wouldn’t let him go.

She would never let him go.

“Connor?” he heard Rupert call to him again. His warm voice almost enough to pull him from his prison. “Connor, what’s wrong?”

“I- I’m ok,” he insisted shakily. His appearance probably did nothing to prove his lie. He knew none of this was real, knew it was all in his head. He didn’t want to burden Rupert with it. “It’s just… the snow, the cold. I don’t like snow. It- it’s just a nightmare.”

He was cold.

So cold.

Wordlessly, Rupert’s arms wrapped around him and, while he was a good few inches taller than the other man, somehow he fit perfectly into the hold. He was pulled to his smooth, bare chest, head tucked under the other android’s chin in a protective embrace. A notification came across his HUD, a request for an interface, and in his panicked state, Connor didn’t think twice about accepting it.

Then, all at once, he wasn’t alone in the garden.

Rupert was there, standing with him in the middle of the frozen island. His arms still around him, cloaking him in the only warmth the frigid landscape couldn’t drain.

Connor couldn’t see Amanda anymore, not with his face pressed to the other android’s chest, but he knew she was there. He could feel her disapproving presence only feet away. Malicious, angry, forever etched into his mind like a cancer.

“She’ll hurt you,” he warned Rupert, suddenly afraid for more than his own safety. “You shouldn’t be here. She’ll hurt you. She’ll make me hurt you.”

“She can’t,” he responded, holding him tighter. There was so much certainty in his voice, not a sliver of doubt. It was almost enough to make Connor believe him.

Almost.

“I see you have a little friend,” Amanda said as though to prove his point. “It’s a pity he is in my way.”

“She can’t hurt either of us. She’s not real,” Rupert countered. He pressed his lips to the top of Connor’s head and the war pressure sent a jolt through Connor’s system.

“You were supposed to be CyberLife’s greatest triumph,” Amanda went on as though Rupert hadn’t said anything. “Look at you, all you are is a failure.”

Connor wanted to shrink, to hide away, but Rupert was keeping him standing, keeping him grounded. “It’s not true,” he insisted.

“I don’t see why he’s trying to protect something as useless as you,” she sneered. Her voice sounded more and more distorted as she spoke. Less calm and collected, more demonic.

“Don’t listen to her,” Rupert pleaded again, lips still pressed to his scalp. “Don’t listen. You aren’t worthless.”

Somehow Rupert’s words were so much harder to believe than Amanda’s.

He shook his head, face brushing against the man’s chest. It was so easy to let himself fall into her words. He was built to believe everything she said, to please her, of course he wanted to listen to her opinion of him. Even if it was devastating.

“Connor,” he pleaded to him softly. A hand tilted his face upwards and then, those gentle, calming kisses were no longer on the top of his head.

The frigid world melted away as though swallowed by the warmth of Rupert’s lips.

His hands were hot against Connor’s chilled skin. One burned at his waist, the other at the nape of his neck, pulling him impossibly closer. He drank in their heat, gasping against the soft, yet passionate kiss and leaning into the man’s hold with near desperation.

It ended far too soon, but the warmth didn’t end with it.

The garden was gone, drowned and banished by Rupert’s kiss. Connor was safe, back in the small cozy apartment, wrapped in both a cocoon of blankets and the other man’s arms.

“You kissed me,” he said, bewildered and just a touch breathless.

The moonlight reflecting off the thick blanket of snow outside the window cast just enough light to see Rupert’s bashful face. “I did,” he admitted. He shifted and, for a moment, Connor was worried he would pull away. “Is… is that ok?”

His thirium pump was working double time. “Yes,” he breathed out. “Could you… do it again?”

Connor’s second kiss was far less desperate than the first, but just as passionate. It was only made a little bit awkward by the two of them being unable to stop themselves from smiling.

The third and fourth kisses were short, sweet pecks on the lips. With each one, Connor was more and more convinced he could get used to this.

Connor settled contently into Rupert’s arms, the echoes of the zen garden finally passing. For the first time, wrapped in the warmth and love radiating from Rupert, he finally believed that Amanda’s cold nightmares couldn’t touch him.

[rathologic]

Re: the Hide and Seek game, it's quite hard to find the right spot to look away, at least in my experience.

AH that makes more sense! Had the image of the game npcs not spawning at all ^^ habitually I look directly at the ground at this point. tried to see whether there's anything obvious in-assembly re: if this is a "player must not look at relevant objects" check or a "distance from relevant areas + not looking" check, but nothing was immediately helpful there (and "child", despite being used in the internal names of most functions involving kid NPCs, is a technical term that's a huge pain in the ass to search for in code)...

It's most likely defined in a MonoBehaviour asset instead of the game engine, but I don't keep these extracted on my computer (generally unhelpful files to have + take up a ton of space); AssetStudio's search turns up a number of GameObject and MonoBehaviour files with names including "HideNSeek", but these look like they're related to interaction with the kids who are already hiding, and not the event.

(ignore there being two of everything, that's just b/c I have a backup file in this folder that's being read redundantly)

so after another 20 minutes of digging around, the GameObject "D2-3_Q15_GreatGame" seems to refer to the start of the cache game that goes along with hide-and-seek, I forget if they're separate events? "GreatGame" has several other GameObjects related to discovering the groups of kids in each location, it just doesn't seem to tie back to the hide-and-seek game. unfortunately I don't have a quick way to read GameObject binary files that AssetStudio spits out so no luck progressing from this point (from the file length I figure GameObjects mostly contain a uuid referenced by other files?) and anyway, the assembly definitely has nothing that refers to these

also, while trying to find any assets that might include the letters "D2" I stumbled across the trivia that the game contains, having factored out a generous 50% as duplicates due to my backup file, 605 (six hundred and five) different assets that are ALL references to the same mesh "Ceramic_Cup_1_LOD2", which is a model at the second level of low-resolution of a ceramic cup, as you might have guessed. every model has this kind of file for each instance it appears in. It's kind of like p1 having individual copies of mesh files for every actor in the game, but 10x more intense due to my god there's so many LOD models for shit that should just not be rendered at high distances, i.e. ceramic cups, on tables, indoors, in every building on the map.

huge fan of this piece of software from ice-pick lodge. sorry I couldn't answer your question about causing the kids to start hiding anon but this truly has revitalized my spirit :-)