#I was talking about my desktop theme though

[puppys-rhythm-heaven]

why is tumblr so fucked up on my chromebook-

[forestgf]

does anyone actually care abt desktop themes anymore just curious

[prettyboykatsuki]

I LIKE IT BETTER WHEN YOU CAN'T KEEP WARM | ODXNY

✮ tags ; heavy themes, gender neutral reader, mentions of past suicidal ideation, getting together, romantic tension, angst to fluff, extremely lovey-dovey ending, some implicit and suggestive content (lit one paragraph n non descript), themes of touch starvation, small height difference (reader is shorter)

✮ wc ; 6.3k (this is so shameful bye forever)

✮ a/n ; every time a semester ends i lose my mind and me writing this in several hours straight is evidence. if i had a nickel for every time i wrote a character study with the central theme of loneliness, i'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

i will spare you the insane rambling for the authors note at the bottom of this fic.

✮ synopsis ; he wants something. to live maybe. and if he could be a little selfish, to be with you. he wants that, too.

Bright.

Could just be the dark room he keeps himself in talking. His computer system and encrypted Internet browsers are all in dark mode - and his desktop set-up doesn’t have any L.E.D. strip lights to keep him company. He prefers it that way, the ambiance a better environment to work in  when he’s doing his usual rounds. Down to the programs U.I. - Odxny spends most of his time in perpetual darkness. Cozy and familiar - totally safe and secure. Nothing but the low whirrs of a computers fan and the faint blinking of routers to keep him company.

You’re the brightest thing he’s had on his screen in a long time. You’ve got white walls and no precaution, really. You’re sitting at your own desktop - and he can see everything of your life in the background of where you sit. There are photos of you graduating high school, being around unnamed friends, vacations and trips, and head shots like the kind you take for a resume. It’s all so personal. Bookshelves, trinkets, poorly made clay sculptures. Posters of musicians you like and Studio Ghibli movies. Evidence of life surrounds you like a halo.

Awful. Angel comparisons to someone he’s only known for a day make him wonder if he’s more pathetic than he thought. He probably shouldn’t think so hard about a stranger, a real stranger. Thrim generated randomly, though he thinks it sounds like a name. Finds it fun to say, for better or worse.

Natural light pours in from a window nearby, casting shadows in your room. He already knows you, in a way. He did the background search. Where you were born, raised, grew up.  The schools you went too, the career you seek. Bits and pieces of you are all scattered in his memory and are not at all thorough. He wasn’t really trying for that at the time, just needed to know if you were dangerous. There’s a cognitive dissonance. To know a life so thoroughly and to witness it is completely, and utterly different.

There’s miles between you. Must be thousands. He can’t remember the last time he’s really met someone, though. It’s hard not to notice that this feels akin to that. Like the embers of a campfire, glowing but not burning. A comfortable warmth.

Bright. His screen is very bright talking to you. Even obscured behind the mask, it’s a little difficult to look at it and leaves him on edge - restless and mildly painful.

When his vision adjusts though, there’s clarity. A person, a stranger - with an exceptionally nice laugh and who is exceptionally trusting. Odxny tries not to think too hard about the feeling of warmth that flutters at your overflowing sincerity.

The conversation is easy.

“Does that mean you trust me now?”

Odxny pretends to think on it. “Enough to keep you around.”

“See you later.”

“See you.”

You accompany your last words with a wave - short and sweet. Darkness pulls him in, back where he started. He has a mild headache from all the light.

__

You pick up on the language better than he thought you would.

He underestimated you. Can you blame him? Your choice is language is ArnoldC, for fucksake. Sure, he has limited knowledge on esoteric languages but can it really be in-depth enough to show you the basics.

(It can. Or at least, Od presumes this to be the case because you’re rather helpful in Incri’s hacks and Incri is hardly helpful to anyone in the world, no less the server.)

You pick up on things quickly with little guidance - always to the point and not usually making many errors. He has to commend your abilities and give you credit where it’s due. It’s not a hard language to learn, but for anyone with no familiarity with coding at all he’d expect there to be a learning curve. Even if you had coding language, it’s not like you knew SQL coming in.

You fit strangely well into the server somehow. You’re happy to learn and nonplussed about helping with small things, though you don’t know these people at all and have no reason to participate in their nonsense. You talk to Incri fine, and manage to get Pep to accidentally reveal telling information. Odxny finds all of this rather… entertaining maybe. More than impressive, really.

He has a hard time making sense of the feeling. He would hope you don’t think you’re under duress - given the fact your relationship in two days has been pleasant. Then again - maybe he’s missed some social cue and you do think that. It’s possible. After all, he doesn’t actually remember the last time he’s spoken verbally to anyone with very, very few exceptions.

He manages to call you again after the fact - opens the call with sincere and heartfelt congrats and feels pleasant seeing you take the compliment in stride.

You land on the subject of programming again, inevitably. He interrogates you a little more over your choice in language - almost like he can’t help himself. It’s basic curiosity. You had said you were the best in ArnoldC. A little research proved that to be true, presence of you in the forums of various esolang pages. He landed on many things. You’re the best at ArnoldC, but you also know Brainfuck for some ridiculous reason.

He thinks you’re a little ridiculous in general.

“It’s really for the love of the game, huh?”

You nod when he asks this. Smiling, bright and unbothered with a soft edge of smug pride that makes the muscles of his face twitch up. “Mhm. I like my little collection.

Odxny doesn’t doubt it for even a minute. He’s seen the proof, but perhaps he doesn’t need to mention that. “Your trophy case of ridiculous language?”

Your eyes come to life all of a sudden. “Wait. A real trophy case would actually be so cool.”

He pauses, blinking as the words sink before a smile breaks onto his face helplessly. “That was not to enable you.”

“Too late. I’m already looking up the ugliest wood trim display cases I can find.”

The laugh comes naturally. “You really are just like this?”

You look proud again. “What? Fun?”

Yes, Odxny thinks but doesn’t say. “Baffling.”

You ask Odxny to elaborate and he does. The conversation flows with frustrating ease. So easily that he mouths off about his plans to you without a second thought. He doesn’t know why he does it. Not really. He’s thought it through over and over - so it’s not like he needs to disclose it. He made his choice.

He thinks about moving it along. About ending the call or simply brushing past without going into any detail.

When he glances at the screen, you’ve got a pillow in your lap and your eyes completely focused on him. There’s that feeling again, alarming clarity in your gaze and brightness that causes him immense unease in the world he’s made of nihilistic, apathetic darkness. There’s a plan, always has been. He’ll do this and disappear and the world will soon forget him. If it happens that way, than at least this loneliness is a choice he’s made for himself and not something the world has cruelly decided for him.

His lips move faster than his head, than even his heart. Compelled by a nameless and brilliant force. “I don’t have any reason to stay. I’m just — tired. Of everything.”

“No reasons? Nothing makes you happy here?”

His response is measured. Quiet. It’s not secret. He finds his voice crumbles around the words anyway as if they’re a confession. “Not for a long time. I don’t feel much of anything, really. It is what it is.”

You frown. He’s seen it all before. Heard it all before. “That’s…”

He cuts you off quickly.

“We just met. And we’ll be strangers again soon enough.” He says with as much conviction and resolve as he can possible manage. Who he’s convincing remains unclear. “So, not to be cold but..you know.”

The disappointment in your face leaves an impression, but you relent. He tries to make amends for the depressing conversation of talking again and you perk up so genuinely it makes want to cry, in a distant and foreign way.

“Catch you later, then.” He says, and closes at out the call. The room falls dark for the second time. He blinks a few times to get rid of the light clouding his vision.

__

Wnpep is eager to teach you on the third day.

You’re eager in reply - matching energy with sharp wit and enthusiasm. Wnepep is a better teacher than Incri by several miles. Evident in how much faster everything falls into place for you. Not that you really need too much help in the first place. You break down the crumbling walls of an insurance scam with ease and come out of the other side more accomplished.

It’s a noble last hack, Odxny thinks.  Not unsurprising from Pep - unofficially the most sane and likeable member. He figured it’d be something like this less than a matter of personal vengeance.

You go back and forth for a bit in admin chat. Od types an apology about winding you up and tries not to read too much into the innuendo of it as you reply back with your own faux offended replies. He insists he’s somewhat sorry, and you’re far from believing him.

He finds himself grinning at his screen while he texts you mid conversation. When the realization hits, he almost curls into himself from embarrassment - a hand covering his mouth like it’ll do away with the grave sin.

The inneundo happens twice in one conversation, before you get to call under the premise of a victory toast.

A brief conversation about the last hacks barely leaves room for much else except Odxny plans of total isolation.

“Mm. I should’ve known it would come back to this. Why do you care what I choose to do with myself?”

That baffles you in a terribly genuine way. “Am I not allowed to care about another person?”

Odxny speaks honestly. “You are but I mean…” He trails off. He knows how he feels. “I’m not really a person anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m no one. I’m going to be no one. You have other things to fill your life with.”

There’s a vulnerable edge to his voice that he winces at when he hears it. It’s true isn’t it? All of it is true to Odxny, but especially where he says you have other things to fill your life with. You might share the same hobbies, but he’s seen it. He’s seen how different you are - your livelihoods, your existence. You’d be missed if you suddenly disappeared. Odxny knows the same isn’t true for himself. It’s been like that for a long while now.

(It’s crushing. That’s what makes your very ephemeral existence feel like a burden. Why it casts the shadows of doubt on choices he made, about how he would live so long ago. You care, don’t you? At least, more than anyone else in his life in the present. You care so undeniably, and so obviously and it is all so simple to you.

He almost envies it. Almost resents it, too. It’s such a small shred of humanity, the barest forms of sincerity but it is painfully raw. A split nerve. An open wound It’s not like the server, all of whom have accepted this distant fondness. It’s a delicate thread - spider silk accuracy and just as much strength. There’s conviction in your missing him and it haunts him.)

You think of what to say for a long time before landing on it. “I do. But I can care about multiple things at once,”

It sounds like I care about you too closely. He finds himself shivering. He’s truthful with you, unsure of how else to be when it comes to these conversations.

“That sounds burdensome.” He says. “Isn’t that exhausting?”

You don’t lie to him either. “Sometimes. But it’s worth the trouble.”

“Why?”

“Because I like your company,” You reply. Soft sincerity in your words. More clarity. More painstaking light.

“It can’t be that simple.”

“Why not?”

“If it was that simple then -“ Then it makes it seem like things could be different. He doesn’t say that. Stops himself before it can happen. “I don’t know why I’m bothering to argue. Why do I feel like I need to prove this to you?”

He’s almost afraid to look at your face, wincing when he sees how knowing you look. Not in a condescending way - but genuine, full blown understanding. Like you see through him.

He wonders if he knows you as well as he thought he did.

Your face is so sympathetic. “Are you sure it’s me?”

He cuts the conversation short on his own - making an awkward transition from the topic at hand into whatever he can manage. It’s an awkward fumble - a poor attempt at distracting both of you from this line of thinking. You’re kind enough to let him have it. He asks about your hobbies. You tell him about how you like to try the weirdest things and combinations you can find in a restaurant.

He finds it suits you.

A lot of things suit you. Even your piss poor attempt at the Terminator that he quickly mimics - possessed by god knows what.

You laugh when he does. Brilliant and bubbly and characteristically warm. You say the words through giggles.

“That was so bad!”

“It was a lapse in judgment,” He replies back defensively, smiling against his will. He finds himself laughing too.

“I like your laugh, by the way.”

He pauses caught off-guard. “Oh? My laugh. Oh, uhm. Thank you.”

You make a face that he can’t read. Knowing. In a different way than the last. He feels nervous.

“I have been laughing quite a bit, haven’t I?”

You grin. Smug and deliriously happy. “Sure have.”

He looks away from you. “Ha...Odd.”

You giggle again. Your eyes crinkle at the corners, nose scrunched in genuine delight. It’s a pleasant sound but not because it’s particularly wispy or floaty or delicate. But it’s real. Pleasant in the way the white noise of park during summer. Pleasant like the varied playlist overhead in a record shop. Pleasant like a moment of humanity tucked between everyday. He clears his throat.

“I like your laugh, I think.”

You laugh again, gasping with faux offense. “You think???”

He tries not to feel so grounded by that sound and fails. “Yeah. I think. Laugh again.”

He tries not to add please. You shake your head like you’re reprimanding him.

“No, no, you have to earn that. Make me laugh.”

“Nevermind. Shut up.”

You do laugh again that time. He joins you soon after. “And now you laugh? At me?”

The conversation moves again, comfortable like a tide. You ask about his favorite language and he tells you as much. You’re quiet and growing cheeky, listening to him talk.

“So you do like coding.”

“Maybe a little.” He replies, not giving in. “You remember far too much of what I say.”

The conversation comes to a close again. He thanks you for how nice its been and you make an off-handed attempt to get him to change his mind. You could always talk more. The implication delicate beneath it.

We don’t have to forget each other. Odxny brushes past it - but says he’ll see you tomorrow anyway.

__

Extorting Elimfs childhood friend (?) is an easy enough endeavor. Odxny texts you through out - to ask advice on what things to take when he leaves.

He calls you again when its over too. He can’t find a reason for it - nothing that makes sense. He just wanted to call you. He hasn’t wanted something like that in a while,  but he tells himself its fine. This is the last time you’ll ever know each other.

So its fine. He won’t waver.

He’ll just.. call you.

He asks you on your weed habits, mildly surprised when you tell him you smoke and take edibles sometimes too. The conversation loops back to the fund at one point. You don’t hide your displeasure about the whole thing today.

You’ve talked about it already. No need to keep bringing up. But you seem to feel so strongly and Odxny can’t figure out why. Can’t shake the feeling of wanting to know why every single time.

“Is it really so hard to believe I’ve come to like you in a few days?”  You ask, after probing.

“In a way that matters, yes.”

You frown at him when he says that. It’s the most upset he’s seen you look, if he can call it that. You’ve never been upset when he’s been rude or insulting - but this is bothering you. It doesn’t help him pull away from you.

He says it again. Reinforces how temporary this all is. He’s trying to convince one of you. Both of you, maybe, of his unimportance.

“I don’t think that little of you.”

He finds it hard to reply to that. It’s that feeling against. It makes him uncomfortable. It’s not empty platitudes or some vague sense of responsibility for his life. All of it is real, and all of it is meaningful in how plain it is. You make it seem easy.

“It’s life. It’s normal. People come, people go.”

You shake your head. “Not for me. I can’t forget you that easily.”

He wishes you would. He’s painfully, painfully relieved that you wouldn’t it. He voices neither thought.

“Then- try! You’re putting so much on yourself, and for what? You don’t stand to gain anything.”

You shrug. “Peace of mind. Knowing you’re still out there.”

It’s heavy. The implication is heavy. He’s not going to kill himself. He doesn’t want that anymore, though he thought about it. At the beginning. Loneliness is more painful when you have memories of what not being that way was like - he thinks. At the start of all that loss, the hollowness bared an almost painful gravity inside of him.

It’s like being told to breathe or blink - becoming conscious of what was once a natural function, how full life was once when it’s escaped. He doesn’t want to kill himself, but living is meaningless.

 These things aren’t paradoxical to him. They haven’t been for all this time.

(They weren’t until he met you at least. A mirror of wanting. Odxny looks at you and sees life reflected back. Despite it not being his, its moving. It’s beautiful in a human way, reachable. Tangible. Earned.

Wherever you are. Whenever you’re together, the black hole inside of himself seems to fade back into average planetary darkness. He becomes cruelly human again, feeling warmth and laughter.

He’s tells himself he’s not afraid of dying and that’s mostly true. He’s most afraid of living. Afraid he won’t be able to learn it again.)

 He manages to tell you some of what he’s thinking. He has no clue how to start over. He doesn’t know if it’s possible. You don’t feed him any false hope, but he tells you how he sees it. You’re feeling pity for him right? And you should figure that out sooner rather than later.

“Is it really that easy for you?”

You shake your head. You’re smiling but it doesn’t quite reach your eyes. “It isn’t. But I have to try.”

“Is that what you’re doing with me?”

“What?”

“Is this…?”

He cuts the call off when he hears himself, unsure of what answer he’s hoping for. The realization dawns on him too much, too quickly. The feeling of hope is loud in his chest but there is another feeling, embarrassing in it’s swiftness that follows shortly after.

Oh.

Oh.

__

The servers shuts down after a mildly sappy adventure to close up shop. The closest Odxny has gotten to flirting with you in his own way. He’s sad to see everyone go, despite there being no other choice.

It’s easier than he thought it’d be. To give you his number he means, even after shutting the entire server down. After leaving everything behind. He gives you the choice to make. Call me if you still want it - a silent promise.

 Maybe because deep down - some part of him always wanted to make this choice. Just maybe.

Your voice is different over the phone line. A little clearer, spoken softer. Just as lovely as it was the first time he heard it. Maybe more. Maybe.

The city beneath him is bright. So bright. It doesn’t hurt to look at, he thinks.

__

You call him every day.

You’ve been doing it for months.

He thought, at some point, you’d let up or start to forget. He’s been waiting on it to happen as horrible as it sounds. Like some self-fulfilling prophecy, he’d slip back into the background as is natural. A proof of his nonexistence, if you will.

You don’t forget though. He almost wonders if he’s dreaming when it happens. There’s a routine between you two, these days. You have your own life that you’ve been living the same as normal. When it’s night time for you, though - you hop onto your desktop and call Od like you’re two very average people.

There’s nothing solid to define your relationship aside from friendship as is. This is less frustrating than he expected it to be. Getting to know you better has only made him like you more. Your relationship is solid in a strange way. It’s been about six months total, and as corny as it sounds - Odxny feels like he’s known you for his entire life. You understand him in an intimate way, with vulnerable tenderness and radical acceptance.

He kind of misses the privacy of his old stomping grounds, but he doesn’t mind speaking though discord. It feels… normal. In a not displeasing way. You mostly talk to talk about whatever comes to mind. Sometimes it’s your job search, other times it’s  your part-time or friend drama. You’re vibrant as always. Without the wall of anonymity, Odxny gets to know of you like he’s just your average person. He finds he really, really likes that.

You play games together frequently. He’s never been interested in cozy gaming, but you play Minecraft and Stardew Valley together per your request. Odxny streams himself playing Ocarina of Time for you on Discord in the background sometimes too, and you keep it on when you’ve got work to do or you’re cooking or something else. There’s something very mundane to it.

You’re not doing anything with him today though. You’re calling him on facetime, rather than at your desktop. You’ve made the executive decision to laze around and Odxny has no problem joining you though you speak less than usual as a result of being sleepy. You had a long shift yesterday so perhaps Odxny can’t blame you.

“Need to get better shoes. For walking and stuff.” You say thoughtlessly. The corners of his lips twitch up.

“Yeah?”

You nod. Your face is smushed against your pillow at an unflattering angle. He smiles a little.

“Yeah. I’m on my feet for like nine hours when I serve and it hurts wearing flats. Need something sturdier even it diminishes my drip.”

He laughs at that. “Please never say that again.”

You continue onwards. “Decreases my aura, even. But alas, utility comes first.”

He snickers as he glances at you through the phone. You’re propped against one of his monitors as he does work on his computer. He’s getting back into programming for the love of the game, just seeing what he can do.

“Want help looking?”

“Feels a little ridiculous asking a super pro-hacker to shop Sketchers with me.”

“You seriously thinking of buying Sketchers?”

You laugh lightly. “Maybe I’ll get tipped more if I get the light-up ones.”

“Please don’t.”

“Hater.”

You break out into genuine laughter as Odxny shakes his head in despair. It’s something you’d do, no doubt. You sigh.

“I really do want a break from work.” You roll around on your mattress. Odxny can hear your rustling but can’t see you much. “The chains of capitalism shackle me in place. Woe is me.”

Odxny thinks on what you’ve said for a long while in silence. The question comes up every now and again though he’s never brave enough to ask it. His ludicrous amount of disposable income however is still sitting in his bank, collecting dust. It’s been six months and he’s hardly made a dent in it.

“Do you want to come visit?” He asks, cringing at the sound of his own voice. The words are strained and a little too eager. “I can pay the difference for expenses for wages and stuff. And, uh. Uhm,”

He loses his train of thought trying to speak, worsened by the way you pop onto his screen when he says that. Your expression is unreadable to him, comfortable and even. You smile a little as you lift the phone so he can see what you look like laying in your bed. Your face is in full view.

“It’d be a little weird to visit you before we start dating officially, no?”

His eyes go wide at the implication. You grin, mischief and mirth making your eyes practically beam. He can feel a blush crawl up his neck as soon as he registers it.

“Excuse me? Why are you saying that like it’s already been decided?” He bites back, not sure what else he could say.

“So you don’t want to date me?”

“I didn’t- you - damn it,” He groans at his own bluster as he giggles on the other side of the line. So cheeky. Damn him for liking it and damn you for being cute. “…You are saying you like me right?”

Your face softens. He can feel his heartbeat quicken. “Uh-huh. Just wanted to take it slow. But I’ve liked you for a long time.”

“How long is that, exactly?”

You shrug playfully and the fact he can’t be within reach to kiss you feels especially harrowing. “A secret.” You smile again, all trouble. “So. Wanna date?”

“Terrible confession. Zero stars,” He says petulantly. He leans back in his chair and finds himself smiling uncontrollably. “Fine. I guess.”

Your laugh fills his room. He doesn’t get tired of hearing it. His face hurts from smiling.

__

He manages to stave off on the anxiety of you coming to see him for a lot longer than he thought possible.

Making arrangements proves to be a little difficult. You have to tell your roommates that you’ll be gone for a while but promise to still pay rent and explain to your boss where you’re going. You have a good enough relationship and have been working long enough for them to agree to keep a spot open so you can start working when you come back.

After that, there’s the matter of Visas. Odxny goes out of his way to make that process go much faster than normal, though he doesn’t actually tell you. Once all of that’s sorted, there’s living arrangements. Try as you might to insist to live somewhere else, his place is too spacious for him to let you stay anywhere else. You can take the guest room.

He pretends that all of this is just happening in his imagination. He doesn’t even know the last time anyone came over, let alone lived with him. He does his best to make things presentable, and makes a guest room for you to live in should you desire. He even buys more decor (plants and things) to make it look… less like a cave and more like a home.

Nothing really feels real until the day arrives though. It’s a long flight and difficult trip. You refused to let him pay for the tickets so he moved it around to get you into first class both ways through other methods.

You text him the terminal, the arrival time, any and all delays. Still. None of it feels real until he’s already waiting for you near the bags. He can feel his heart race, his lungs short of air. He’s never experienced something so ridiculously contradictory in his entire life. He wants to run away while feeling stuck in place.

The anticipation nearly kills him.

He would recognize your voice anywhere though. Like he did for so many days alone in the dark. A hand waves high, shouting as loud as it can.

“It’s you!”

The sound of sneakers skidding across tile floors make his breath hitch. His eyes go wide as you stand still in front of him, luggage in hand and a million-watt smile on your face. He feels his heart beat so loud, he wonders if he’s going to throw up.

“Hey.” He says, dumbly.

“Hi!”

__

The adjustment period to living together isn’t what he expects.

It’s been a long time since he’s been so close to another human being. It becomes clear that you’re really living together though when your things end up in the bathroom completely incidentally. There’s something about finding your sleep shirt on a towel rack that makes reality settle in. You’re living together.

He’d be stupid not to notice the purposeful distance between you. An attempt to be thoughtful and not overwhelm him. It’s never awkward when you’re together. You eat together, watch movies and play games while sitting too close on the couch. You’ve been on a date in the two weeks you’ve spent, and it barely took any convincing on your end to make him go along with you.

Isolation aside though, Odxny is not clueless to the conventions of modern dating. You avoid touching him too casually. He doesn’t blame you, but he can’t help but crave your presence with a little more bittersweet longing as the days pass. He has to get past it or bring it up eventually, but it feels like something he’s never going to get over somehow.

The opportunity to do so gets thrown at him all at once. You’ve been living together for sixteen days. A conversation about love languages is what undoes it.

“Whats your love language, Od?”

He gives you a quizzical look. “Dunno actually. Never bothered to look.”

“I’d guess… hm. Quality time maybe? Or words of affirmation.”

He shrugs as he sits next to you on the couch, glancing at your phone as you read through the different ones. “What’s yours?”

“Physical touch. I’m super touchy. With anyone who will let me, honestly. Bad habits.”

Odxny gives you a long look as you say it. He debates if he should bring it up.

“You don’t have to be so careful around me, you know?”

You look up at him, startled by the comment. Several things pass over your face before you settle on an apologetic smile. “Sorry. It’s not like I don’t want to. I just don’t want to be too much for you.”

“That wouldn’t happen.” He says automatically. You laugh good-naturedly.

“Your confidence is assuring, but you underestimate how touchy I am. I’m afraid of I get my hands on you, I’ll never let go again,”

He thinks he wants that more than is normal. He shakes his head. “I don’t mind.”

You give him a long look, seeming struck by an idea, before humming and standing up. You turn around with your hand out towards him. His brows furrow in bewilderment.

“Have some faith.”

He takes your hand and stands up with you. He likes that he’s taller than you. Staring at you, he feels your fingers clasp around his hand and his heart thuds - loud and messy.

“Your room or mine?”

“What?”

You laugh. “Get your mind out of the gutter. Or don’t actually, but I don’t bear lewd intentions.”

He crinkles his nose at the word usage and laughs. “Shut up.”

“Just trust me, okay?”

He concedes with embarassing swiftness.

“Okay.”

__

You lead Odxny to the guest room you’ve been living in for the last two weeks. The bed is well-made and all the new furniture he bought is occupying so many of your belongings. It makes him dizzy. You shut the door behind him as you lead him in. It just feels especially surreal.

Wordless, you let go of his hand and hop up onto your bed. Once you’re laying down, you prop up on your side with your elbow and pat the empty space next to you, smiling at him as you do. Once it clicks what your asking, he can feel his face grow hot. He can’t refuse it though, and he doesn’t want too.

The sheets you bought together smell like you. Between there’s practically no distance between you at this angle. He’s gotten to look at you plenty through these few days but it’s different. You scoot impossibly close to him until there’s nothing separating you.

Your breath is warm - a soft exhale leaving your lips as you inch closer.

“What’re we doing?” He asks in a murmur, stone stiff. You smile, coyly.

“Touching each other.”

He frowns at the joke. Your expression goes a touch serious right after. The sincerity is debilitating. “Can I touch you?”

He nods. Can’t do much more than that.

He stares at you with impending, long-suffering longing as you bring a single hand to his face and cradle his neck. He flinches unintentionally, but pulls your hand back when you try to move it. He wants this. You relax a little when he does that.

Your hands are softer. Softer than a heartbeat. He can feel the various cuts and scars from years of working against his skin but they’re still so soft. He can feel how warm you in such a brief touch his chest aches. Your hands cradle his face tenderly, thumb brushing across his lip with a smile brighter than thousands of lights. Something in your expression wreaks havoc on his heart. Something so raw and so gentle and so full within it - all directed towards him.

It’s been so long. So long. He’s never wanted something so bad  he couldn’t remember needing. He’s never wanted to be closer to someone than he does to you in the moment.

“You’re handsome,” You say, so sweetly. Not a confession, but gentle appraisal. It’s rare he cries but he wants too. “I like looking at you. Can I kiss you?”

“Please.” He rasps, gravel in his voice unfamiliar.

You hum a little. Closing the space between you with a press of lips. It’s not chaste. Odxny is grateful for how long and how deep you linger. He wants it so badly. He wants you in some damning and unforgiving way. How could a human being feel so warm? Feel so pleasant with so little?

You press your foreheads together. His hand trembles when they grip onto your waist but you encourage him just a little. It’s just a kiss. His heart might beat out of him. It’s just a kiss. He thinks he loves you.

Your hand moves away from his face. You let it go underneath his loose shirt to touch his shoulder, running your palm down the plane of his chest. You squeeze his waist, and wrap your arms around his back and pull him to you until your bodies touch somewhere in the middle.

You guide his face to your neck and chest as you hold him. He grips onto you tight in response, a gasp in the back of his lungs at the sudden sensation. You coo above him, soft and light - your fingers threading through his hair and nails massaging his scalp.

Your voice sounds above him, despite how deep in a haze he is. He can’t do anything but cling to you with impossible longing. You speak softly as you pet him. Your heartbeat soothes his.

“I’m glad you’re here.” You tell him. There’s that familiar clarity that makes him want to cry. “I’m glad you let me come with you.”

He can’t think of anything to say back. It’s a soul-shattering emotion. “I love you.”

You laugh wetly above him. “I love you, too. So much.” And then much softer. “Let’s be together for a long time.”

__

You lay in each others arms until sunset. In small talk and silent murmurs. It takes him hours to work up the courage to kiss you again - but only minutes to take it further.

It’s desperate. Terribly. Inevitable. You’re beautiful in a way that is undescribable, best expressed through his teeth on your neck and his hands all over where he can reach - each grip and thrust and bite a reminder. You’re pretty when you’re pleased, warmth reaching up inside of him whenever you make the right face.

He buries himself in you. You’re soft and warm and beautiful and he wants to stay with you. Time is a thief. He damns the sun when it tears you from him come morning.

__

He decides to make breakfast when you wake up. Nothing complicated. You go to shower after him and he plates up toast and eggs and other various things. It’s half done when you come downstairs.

Your skin is still damp, and you smell of vanilla and soap. Your coffee sits in a cup on the table as you pad over to him. He turns to look at you as you reach your hand up and cup his face. You pepper a kisses along his cheeks stopping at his lips for the last one before you’re satisfied.

He fails in his attempt not to blush.

“Morning.” You grin. He tries not to be sick at the domesticity of it all and fails.

“Yeah. Morning.”

You sit at the counter and drink your coffee, glancing outside the window. “It’s bright outside.”

Odxny can’t tear his eyes off of you. “Yeah...” He agrees. He’s not torn his gaze away. “Very bright.”

✮ a/n ; i want all real life compsci men to kick rocks but odxny sweeped me off my feet in a way i can only describe as humiliating. he is a bit like astarion for me in that i see a lot of myself in him at least in the past. he is also incredibly babygirl and uhm . other things (fine. he's very gorjus.) but i truthfully was most compelled by his idealized idea of isolation. as the fic will show it resonated with me as a fellow compsci dork who also tends to isolate like crazy LOL

this fic was like a demon that possessed me. literally no meds, no caffiene - just balls to the wall demonic possesion of needing something out of my system LMAOO. and adhd of course. im working on all the other stuff too i promise. consider this a short interlude 👍🏾

[kaixserzz]

this one is very self indulgent. i go on a TANGENT talking about my favorite character's lore and i thought about dottore... gamer!reader x dottore set on me and my friend's modern!au :3

dottore rabble x3 - "favorites"

oftentimes, you find yourself gushing about the video games you always play whenever dottore was around. you can't help it—it just feels so natural, to let your mouth run until you're out of words in his presence.

he never tells you to stop or make you feel like you are unheard, he asks questions and pays utmost attention to you. you knew dottore isn't one to play video games, so he doesn't know much, but he genuinely enjoys it whenever you talked about it.

you feel so safe and not weird when you rant to him, and he's been watching you play video games to understand more of your interests. the words just escape your lips before you could think. your heart always feels like it's about to burst whenever he gives you an adoring smile, staring at your cute, scrunched-up face, completely focused on your video game.

but there was one thing that bothers dottore.

why do you keep talking about this certain character? recently, every time you talk about video games, he hears their name. and what irks him more is the fact you get so giddy when you speak about their lore, and the way your face flushes in excitement sours his worsening mood even more.

he wasn't jealous. of course not! he scoffs at the idea. why would he be jealous of a video game character that isn't even real?

but can you blame him though? you've made that character your desktop wallpaper, and the majority of your accounts are themed after them. just how obsessed are you with this character?

that isn't fair. he's your lover! it should be him that—

hmm... perhaps he is a tiny bit jealous. just a small fraction of the horrid feeling. nothing more.

and though dottore doesn't want you to know anything about his growing jealousy, he asks you anyways,

"if you were to choose between us, who would you pick?"

the question caught you off guard, taking your eyes off the screen to look at him incredulously. it was hard to discern what he felt at the moment, only staring back at you intensely as he awaited your answer. you glance at your screen, seeing your favorite character standing idly, then bit your bottom lip to hold back a snort.

"between you and my favorite character?" you asked back, tilting your head towards him, forcing yourself to be as serious as he was.

dottore nodded, his eyes now glaring at the screen of your computer, showing absolute disdain towards your favorite character. you hummed as you rubbed your chin, pretending to be deep in thought, and you see how utterly offended dottore was at the fact you had to think about whom to choose.

"well, i'll pick my favorite, of course," you answer innocently, with a mischievous smile on your lips. and just as you suspected, his eyes narrowed, red eyes darkening as he leaned towards you, as if his ears deceived him.

"what?"

then you burst into a fit of giggles, cupping dottore's cheeks into your hands and pressing your nose against his. he was so cute getting jealous over someone fictional. maybe you should've been paying more attention to him anyway.

"that's you, silly!" you reveal, and you feel him lean against your touch, his skin tingling in delight at how close you were to him. "you're my favorite. i'd never replace you over a bunch of pixels."

his tensed shoulders relaxed at that, a satisfied smile emerging on his lips as he press his forehead against yours, his hand caressing your cheek. "good," he mutters, "because you're my favorite too."

your heart felt like it was about to soar at his genuine confession, biting your bottom lip to prevent you from squealing. on the inside, you were screaming at how sweet dottore was being at the moment. but of course, you just had to ruin it.

"... well, if they become real though, it'd be a different story!" you joked, and you feel his smile shift into a scowl.

dottore pulls away from you and simply said. "you're not getting any kisses tonight." and turned around to walk out of your room.

"wait, no!" you called out for him, "baby please, it was a joke!"

- ̥۪͙۪˚┊❛❛ If you like this a lot, consider reblogging! I'll appreciate it very very much! Don't repost and/or translate my work anywhere. ❜❜ ┊˚ ̥۪͙۪◌

[posallys]

ok 1 ur desktop theme is GORG and 2 i need (if u wanna) ur thoughts about the show (or show sally in gen bc ur the only one i trust with her)

thank you!! i was actually thinking about updating it but maybe i wont 🤭🤭 and i have a lot of thoughts about the show except none only very few of them are good and i will be crucified by the 13-year-olds

im going to tell you anyway.

i will start with something i like....percy being angry. like yes give me the anger of a 12 year old who feels utterly alone in the world and doesn't understand (or does and it makes him more angry)

the fight scenes are dog shit. the only kind of cool one was in the arch but it was only cool because of percy doing the bait and switch and falling through the arch...the fights are bland boring sucky whatever other synonym you wanna use

uhhhhh sally jackson is not and would never be sitting in the rain pining of the god she told to leave....and especially not to teen pop...if she WERE going to act like a 16 year old and do the pining thing it would be to fucking like...billy joel and ricky martin and donny hathaway and stuff llike that okay...

i will preface this by saying that yes i understand that talking back to an abuser the way sally does in ep 1 doesn't make the abuse less abusive....however i DO not like the fact that that scene explicitly goes against sally characterization in the books....i am not digging my book out atm but the part where percy is like "my mother has never raised her voice or said an unkind word to anyone"....me thinks the writers all read the books 10 years ago and are going off of memory alone + or their brains are so clouded by the obsessive Big Screen Need to make women a badass girlboss slay queen i fucking hate it here

LET ANNABETH BE SILLY AND FUNNY AND CUTE AND CRY AND NOT BE AN ADULT THANK YOU....hated that they made annabeth the one to realize that it was medusa and not grover...give me back grover having to wrangle percy and annabeth into backpack leashes just to keep them on task/stop them from wandering off...book trio i miss you

i absolutely ADORE leah, walker, and aryan though the three of them are so so perfect, A+ casting no notes couldn't have done it better myself. if it weren't for the three of them i would have zero hope for the show i cannot lie...they're carrying. without them it's just..bad.

the pacing???? bad.

why did we waste half of the 4th ep on the train with echidna...stupid dumb pointless i hate it here

i do like the whole not all monsters are monsters and the gods aren't inherently good just because they're gods thing they've got going on though...very inch resting...silently hoping that they do a complete 180 and have percy side with luke and redo the series from there because that would be iconic as fuck <3 a girl can dream because at least then i could take the show at face value and not take 80 health damage every time they mess up a key part of the books...im at -29834 heath rn.

where was the time at chb before the quest??? the oh so important vital scene where luke teaches percy to sword fight???? like BRO that's soooooooooooo important to ME how could you get rid of that

not having annabeth show percy around camp

additionally, not having annabeth feed him the nectar and ambrosia, WHICH BY THE WAY they haven't even mentioned in the show yet...plot armor gone rip

not the fredrick chase sympathy while simultaniously blaming the woman...........rick when i get my hands on you...

annabeth having to EARN thalia's love??? absolutely not probably one of their biggest fuck ups fr.

the scene where sally is talking about Poseidon to percy...i do not like it sam i am. bad. not wistful enough not longing enough not sad enough not gut wrenching enough...also not completely here for sally telling percy that his dad was a god because....sallys whole thing was NOT telling him in order to keep him safe...i know they changed it in the show so sally knew he was going to camp immediately but that does not mean i have to like it

the scene with sally and percy in the pool. i hated everything about that. sally would never talk to percy like that never talk to him about money never make it seem embarassing NOT TO MENTION that percy simply wasn't scared of the water. that's stupid as fuck. theres a part in the book where percy literally says being by the water calms both him and his mom like...come the fuck on just admit you can't fucking read or at least didn't read the book.

sally annabeth get behind me so they cant hurt you anymore

i did loveeeee percy praying to sally though...absoutely insane and true of them. also the "I AM SALLY JACKSON'S SON" yesss baby you tell them about your mommy!!!!!!

them making athena moa level bad in tlt is quite interesting. setting up annabeth siding with percy pretty well.

also the whole impertinence thing over medusa's head was weird to me. when annabeth first said that i had immediately thought that annabeth's impertinence was telling percy to pray to poseidon IN ATHENA'S TEMPLE bc that made much more sense to me...but whatever

the annabeth/medusa parallel is intriguing at the very least

the underwater scene with the neraid was cool even though i hated the parallel to the pool scene w/ sally.

the dumbass pinecone fate line. 0/10 did you read the book? did you pay attention to how empathetic and reflective percy was when he found out about thalia?

honestly....i think disney was just the wrong place to go with this show because it's like what...pg? it should be pg 13 and should have more... sustenance.

this medusa was so cool though. which we could've seen a fight.

i need to know how many women are in the writer's room though...because It Does Not Look Good. funny how the characters that they're fucking up are all women....crazy. weird. totally coincidental.

are we just not going to talk about the vitality and pressure of getting the bolt back on time? where is the inherent inevitable danger, the suspense, the fear of not accomplishing a seemingly impossible talk looming over everything

this is 10000% not all of my thoughts but im not going to rewatch in order to collect them all so this is what you get xoxox

[autolenaphilia]

Currently using Debian 12, with KDE Plasma, which i previously used. But i had problems running plasma last year, with repeated random plasmashell crashes. I could even repeatedly cause plasmashell to crash by removing a second panel/taskbar.

But i returned to plasma to check out running wayland, i've previously used x11-based desktops and even ran plasma on x11. And it turns out plasma is actually more stable on wayland, at least the 5.27 version debian 12 ships with. Which is not something i expected, because all the talk of wayland not being fully there yet, which iirc is why i defaulted to using x11 earlier despite plasma's wayland session. I can still cause plasmashell to crash on x11 by removing a panel, but not on wayland, and the random crashes don't happen either on wayland either. It's a smooth reasonably bugfree experience that lives up to debian's reputation for stability.

I'm running older versions of KDE Plasma and of most things on this OS, because that's the Debian way, but who cares. if the software works I don't care if it's old, and with Debian I don't have to worry about an update breaking my system, and don't have to worry about frequent updates in general, which is a plus in my book (don't judge me, I have Windows update trauma /j).

my current desktop, the theme is Sweet KDE and the wallpaper is from this post by greekie-via-linux

So now finally KDE Plasma works good for me, without all the crashing. And I'm slowly becoming a fan. It's very customizable, KDE provides a traditional desktop layout by default (which i prefer) but so customizable that you can turn it into almost anything you like. It's defaults might borrow from the windows 95 to 7 desktop paradigm, but Windows never gave users this much control.

It's pretty looking, it has all the eye candy effects and animations you want, but not too heavy on the ram useage (the performance is actually comparable to xfce) , and you can turn the effects off thanks to the aforementioned customizability. And it provides all the programs you need for a fully featured desktop environment, everything from basic stuff like a terminal emulator and file browser to a GUI package manager that supports basically all packaging formats. Neither mate or xfce has the latter, for example, when I ran debian with xfce i had to manage my flatpaks through the terminal.

Maybe even too many programs. KDE makes a lot of programs, and i'll probably never switch from mozilla firefox and thunderbird to kmail, falkon or konqueror. Though to be fair, KDE does develop a lot of programs that are first-rate in the linux world, practically without competition. And i personally find KDE connect to be extremely useful. It syncs your android phone with your desktop or laptop computer and it's awesome. Once I learned how to allow it through my firewall, I can see my SMS messages on my computer and type them with an actual keyboard on my computer, it's great. And It works on other desktop environments and even on windows.

[devildomditzy]

Pacts 2; Levi - A Mammon x MC Fic

Part one of ?

Haven’t read Pacts No. 1? Click here for the three part story!

🚨🚨:) this is still missing the final line on mobile and it’s displaying twice on desktop. i don’t know what to do about that :)

——————————————————————————-

Ah, nothing like a nice mist hitting your face on a hot day to keep you cool from the sweltering heat of hell.

Was it a light rain that suddenly moved in, uninvited? no.

Was it one of those flimsy tourist fans found at human realm theme parks that mixed a laughable amount of water into its foam propellers to bring your body temperature down?

of course not.

Was it your demonic boyfriend spitting out your shared bufo egg tea all over your face in shock at the words that had just left your mouth? bingo.

“YA WANNA WHAT?!”

“First of all, gross,” you grimace, wiping the remnants of the drink off of your cheeks and out of your eyes. “Second of all, I said I want to form a pact with Levi.”

“W-Why do ya need to go a do a thing like that for! You’ve got me! Ain’t I enough?!”

You can’t help the small smile that begins to form on your lips. Of course he’d get jealous over this. And while Mammon was certainly more than enough on his own for you personally, you simply couldn’t help but want to get closer to your newly forced housemates.

“It’s not that! You’re perfect. It would just…be nice you know…to have more than one friend here. And to maybe get to know your brothers more?”

“T-There’s no need! I can tell ya anything about them ya wanna know!”

“You know that’s not what I mean. I want to be friends with them!”

“And out of all of em to be friends with, ya pick Levi?!”

You roll your eyes at your incredulous pact mate. “Well, he was the first one to talk to me besides you. And he didn’t have to be forced to, unlike some people”.

While you mutter the last part under your breath, it was still loud enough to hear, causing a swift flick to your forehead from the second born.

“Oi! Do I gotta remind ya he used ya to make me pay him back? He saw ya as a means to an end! At least I saw ya for what you were.”

“Oh, and what is that?”

“A spoiled brat”, he mocks, ruffling a hand atop your head causing you to lightly push him back.

“Cmon. I didn’t make you and Beel marathon TSL for nothing! Levi’s not gonna just befriend some normie who doesn’t know their stuff! I gotta get good!”

“Gross! You’re even startin’ to sound like him.”

“Lol.”

“Ugh! Stop, I feel like I’m on a date with my brother!”

“Lmao. Rofl.”

“CAN IT!”

Mammon takes another irritated sip of tea before continuing, “How’d ya expect to do that anyway huh? It’s Levi we’re talkin’ about. The only person he’s nice to ain’t even a person. It’s a damn fish for cryin’ out loud!”

Your eyes twinkle in determination. “Maybe he just hasn’t met anyone like me!”

Mammon breaks out into a cackle at that one. “Yeah, you’re certainly somethin’!” He can hardly contain his laughter. “Aw shut up”, you shine, playfully pushing his shoulder. “It’ll work! I’ve already got a plan!”

“Ah- does this little ‘plan’ involve me?”, he questions, whipping away a stray tear.

You shoot him a mischievous look as you steal the cup away from him. “Yes, to some degree.”

“Damn. You’re really hellbent on this, huh?”

You nod in agreement. Of course you were, though why you could not disclose to the demon in front of you. You’ve heard someone? or something? calling to you from the top of that spiral staircase ever since you got here, the one Lucifer was determined to keep you from climbing. Unlucky for him, you were just as determined to get up there. The others must be suspicious too, considering the fact they’ve been dropping hints on how to catch Levi off guard.

Appealing to his music aficionado side with a rare cursed record was sure to work to lure Lucifer from the place his been guarding steadfast, but first you had to obtain said record. Of course, that’s were Levithan came in, the owner of the TSL record. Also, adding one more demon friend to your repertoire wouldn’t hurt. The more the merrier.

A TSL quiz, you wagered to the third born, to prove who was the biggest fan. Talking about TSL was about the only way to get him to interact with you, and it seems he wasn’t gonna budge. If he wants you to prove you can be a bigger dweeb then him, fine. So be it. As long as it brought you closer together.

And one step closer to the top of that staircase.

You stand up abruptly, wiping the front of your uniform off. “C’mon, we’re going to go talk to Simeon.”

Your lover looks at you with an annoyed gaze. “Ugh, why do I have to come? I don’t need anythin’ from the angel or the pipsqueak.”

“No, but you’ll do it because you looooove me? Or, you know, I could just command you to come with me?”, you point out, a crucial detail that he seems to forget often.

“Hey! You can’t play those cards! That’s cheatin’”.

You lean forward to place a chaste kiss on his cheek. “I learned from the best!”.

The second born (begrudgingly) grabs your hand as you walk towards purgatory hall together in search of Simeon at the behest of Satan’s advice. You needed something big to stump Levi, something he can’t one up you on, something that will make him jealous. And for some reason, it seems the answer to your prayers lie with the angel.

“WHAT!? Woah woah woah slow down! Ya mean to tell me you know what happens in the ninth volume of The Seven Lords!?”, your boyfriend questions, openly gawking at the angel sitting across from you.

Simeon chuckles fondly, “Is that so hard to believe?”. As you converse, Luke sits at his side, pouring you a steaming cup of devilwood tea all the while throwing the man sitting next to you a look that could kill.

“How do ya know all this? What happens to Geldie? To the Lord of Fools? To Henry? Ya gotta tell me!”, Mammon all but begs the angel.

Once again Simeon let’s out a laugh at his astonishment. “Let’s just say the author and I are…close.”

“Isn’t this a series of books? How does Mammon know about it? Does he even know how to read?”, pips the smaller of the two, still holding his glare steady.

“Oi! How dare ya speak to yer elders like that! Course I can read!”

“How long did it take you to finish all eight books?”, questions Luke in an innocent voice you can tell is laced with venom.

“Uh- I uh- I didn’t read the books. I-Im not some nerd! I watched the movies. B-but I coulda read em if I wanted to!”

Luke’s laughter fills the room as Simeon has to hold back another giggle.

“Shaddup, tiny! Even yer laughs sound like yapping.”

Luke snaps to attention at his comment, Mammon’s teasing.

“Hey! I am not a chihuahua!”, he shouts, crossing his arms across his chest.

You give Simeon an apologetic glance on behalf of your second half. He simply responds back with a knowing one, placing a hand on Luke’s shoulder.

“Luke, would you please go brew some more tea for our guests?”, he asks as gently as he can.

"Hmph!", Luke indignantly huffs as he snatched the kettle off the table and heads towards the kitchen.

Simeon settles back on the couch after watching Luke leave the room. Facing the two of you once more, he says, “I suggest the two of you make yourselves comfortable. This… may take awhile.”

[darknightsblog]

Hello! I think it is my first time posting but I really wanted to convey this feelings to you. I downloaded Dark Nights a few days ago and I swear I've been obsessed with the game since then. I can not stop playing it even though I already finished all the routes and got the achievements. I honestly hold this game so dear to my heart and I'm talking so much about it to my friends. When I read the news about a DLC and saw the art I was speechless. I think I stared at that page a whole day! I love so much how everything looks and can't wait for the full experience! It's the only thing I look forward the most this year. I also hope you're doing well and not pushing yourself too much, I can only guess how much work you're putting in, but please watch over your health as well!!

Secondly, I do have some questions. Will we get in the future some art of the characters in the form of like setting it as a laptop background or even phone background? And when the beta version is out, how can we sign for it? Or how would the whole process happen?

Then again, I thank you for your efforts and this amazing game and can't WAIT to play the DLC and see what it has the offer. Seeing the new routes include my absolute favs, I'm so excited for it!

Hi andee! Thank you for giving Dark Nights a try. It makes me happy that you enjoyed all of the game. Dark Nights is my first project, so there's a lot I can improve. I take feedback from the community at heart, so I hope the DLC will be a better experience. This year, I try to pace my workload. You're right about health is the highest priority. I plan to release some wallpapers for desktop & phone later. Perhaps some CGs that might be suitable. I haven't drawn all of the cast in their own theme yet. I'll get through it at some point.

A while ago, I released public applications for editor, proofreader and beta testing positions. Unfortunately, it's no longer possible to sign up for it. However, you'll get to enjoy the game fully polished upon its release. Anyway, I appreciate your kind words and I hope to hear from you again!

[navy-leader]

Mildly losing my mind so im gonna talk about my AvA AU, Heaven's Underpass

Its essentially just a demon/angel au with some minor worldbuilding and slight altering of the already existing narrative (and lots of shipping...). It is by far Not comprehensive and merely done for fun so inconsistencies abound, sacrificed for self-indulgence

I made this AU before AvA6 came out and structured the initial timeline with what we had at the time so it branches off into different alternates ever since then

Anyways the story for the most part follows the actual AvA series with the added addition of them being some sort of divine or infernal entity. Chose started off as and angel but once Chosen was captured and enslaved by noogai he burnt off his wings and became a demon. Then AvA3 rolls around, another angel was created and tasked to take down Chosen, Dark. Though after Dark was defeated and accepted Chosen's hand in partnership her divinity slowly drained out of her as she becomes a fallen angel/demon, though she doesnt fully become one until AvA5.

Then comes The Second Coming, a deity that rivaled the power of the animator but was raised amongst mortals (The Color Gang) so they never found out of their divine nature until much later. Also Green was a guardian angel watching over RBY until he got his wings stolen by a demon and became mortal like them, aint all that bad though cause now they can actually get to know eachother! He still has that protective and caring nature from his time as a guardian and extends it towards Second when they came into the picture.

Purple intermission! Cause theyre the only other character outside of the AvA series that i put much thought into. Shes a demon who had stolen an angel's wings (wink) to reach some form of divinity. I havent really thought of her background all that much but i did entertain the idea that her parents are demons but them being a mix of angel and demon but leaning more into demon sounds more interesting and i feel adds a bit more to their character. I also had the thought that King was a mortal who had made a deal with the devil to achieve his goals, that demon being Purple. He has a lot of moral dilemmas just like canon Purple but made worse because of the everything 👍

Moving on, AvA5 happens and Second awakens their divine powers (though temporarily) and Dark gets blasted into the stratosphere and becomes a proper demon, but shes not dead! Somewhere down the line she met Purple in her weakened state and they bond over their moral dilemmas like good trauma bonding buddies should do, and Purple takes care of her as she recovers

Meanwhile something appears on the desktop as the color gang head home from the events of AvA5 and find,,, a demon hollowhead? They seem confused and absolutely terrified of the mouse cursor that belongs to the animator and attempts to attack it but was soon held down by the color gang and calmed down. After a brief introduction they find out this demon's name is victim. And then this essentially follows the AU i had for if victim came back, made before AvA6 came out. I discussed it in this post here.

Anyways Second and vic and Chosen get crazy gay with eachother in the end and Purple pulls up to the desktop with Dark in tow like "hi guys meet my girlfriend!" and Dark and Chosen look at eachother like "Shit. Thats my ex." but in the end they talk it out and agreed they should see other people and yayy happy times

And then AvA6 came out and uhh crushed everyone's headcanons and i couldnt be happier!!! And then i havent really figured out what to do with the AU timeline wise and im just having fun slapping wings and horns onto these sticks and bringing out the themes inside the story to be more visual and etc etc

Anyways goodnight

[kiisuuumii]

@kiisuuumii's writerly questionnaire !

thank you @lead-to-code for tagging (ily kara <33)

i'd love to see yall's answers (only if you'd like to share of course !) @noahsbong @yearning-rambles @thesorcererpoet

about me:

1. when did you first start writing?

i was maybe between seven and nine ? to be honest, i can't really remember when it was, but i remember the first few things i wrote were story quizzes on a (now gone </3) website called quizilla (it was naruto rp....................)

2. are the genres/themes you enjoy reading different from the ones you write?

not really, now that i actually think about it ! ive always been the type of writer that only liked writing angst, and even outside of writing (fan) fiction (which tbh i dont do very much of anymore), so much of my poetry either comes from heavy emotion or features it so sdghjksd

3. is there an author (or just a fellow writer!) you want to emulate, or one to whom you're often compared?

theres one mutual, actually, who i actually wished i could write more like. in a very self-deprecating way, but ive since become very comfortable, and maybe even happy (!), with my style of writing ! so, no, i'm not really looking to emulate anyone in particular, and no one's ever made a comparison between my work and someone else's so no to that one too :0

4. can you tell me a little about your writing space(s)? (room, coffee shop, desk, etc)

i usually write on my phone, in the notes app or in my drafts here ! and ill usually only write in a (head) space where i can really think, undisturbed, for at least 30-45 mins. so i'll usually be out in my backyard under one of my calamansi trees ! though, lately, ive been occasionally writing at my desk on desktop tumblr :>

5. what's your most effective way to muster up some muse?

fall in love with someone

once i start thinking about how everything around me is alive, i start remembering that i, too, am apart of nature—a lucky enough set of sequenced mutations, to make me—just a eating, breathing, shitting animal. how lucky this set of mutations is to take it all in, the emeralds in the trees, and the beat of a chipmunk's heart, how scared we all are.

that or love

6. did the place(s) you grew up in influence the people and places you write about?

people, no, but places, yes. i grew up for most of my childhood in the desert, and i have /always/ hated summers, because i'm kinda heat sensitive, and i sweat easily, and i hate it i hate i hate it djhks

but, a year ago, i moved back home, and, honestly, since being back home, ive come to appreciate the desert a bit more sgkjds i used to think they were ugly and uninteresting, but there's so much more there if you look a bit harder imo

7. are there any recurring themes in your writing, and if so, do they surprise you at all?

honestly !! i think there are plenty obvious ones, but i really wanna talk about /the lack of/ sexual themes in my work !! i wanna write more sexetry or whatever, but it feels really embarrassing to sdghks i really like writing them too, but again !! it just feels embarrassing !! ;w;

my characters:

1. would you please tell me about your current favourite character? (current wip, post wip, never used, etc)

not to copy of kara dskjfs but i love my first (and my current) d&d chara !! her name is maeve umerie, and shes a drow wild magic sorcerer / (planned artillerist) artificer !! shes so packed full of trauma and self-harming behaviors and addictions that i dont even know where to start <33 (i promise i love her i would actually be so devastated if she died before i could give her a proper happy ending </3)

2. which of your characters do you think you'd be friends with in real life?

i have this fantasy novel thought that ive floated in my head since maybe september-october of last year, and, in it, i have a character named levin hel, and AUGH hes just a sweetie :^( hes the son of a blacksmith-gunsmith duo who know a thing or two about magic, and is the apprentice to the son of the wizard who saved his life (who's name is nox, and he's an asshole ! but also i love him so much ;v;)

i need go go back to all my notes and stuff on it, bc i invested A LOT of time worldbuilding for it, but yea levin's a very kindhearted person, very much wanting to be like nox's father :'''^) </3

3. which of your characters would you dislike the most if you met them?

i would absolutely hate to meet maeve mother. she's horribly self-serving and emotionally manipulative. she rules the house with an iron fist, and anything less than the best is worthless. she uses everything at her disposal to get what she wants, family or not.

4. tell me about the process of coming up with one, all, or any of your characters.

im ngl most if not all of my characters are just bits and pieces of me and my wants in different aus >_> .................................

5. do you notice any recurring themes/traits among your characters?

family and/or religious trauma mhm yep

6. how do you picture them? (as real people you imagined, as models/actors who exist in real life, as imaginary artwork, as artwork you made or commissioned, anime style, etc)

for my fantasy wip, i imagine imaginary artwork, but for maeve, i have pieces i've drawn and pieces i've commissioned of her !! id love to someday get pieces of her family and other major characters in her past commissioned :>

my writing:

1. what's your reason for writing?

i will say that it's changed over the years. as a kid, and up until college, i've wanted to always be a story-teller. but, lately, i dont really have a reason for writing, other than to satisfy the thing that lives inside me that wants to write :^)

2. is there a specific comment or type of comment you find particular motivating coming from your readers?

knowing other people's reactions, getting to hear how something made them feel emotionally, or physically, or if there was a particular thought or memory that came to mind. i love knowing what people see, what my work makes people see, if anything.

that or if theres something, a word choice, or a line, that you thought was clever or struck you !!! i always love knowing people's thoughts !!!

3. how do you want to be thought of by those who read your work? (for example: as a literary genius, or as a writer who "gets" the human condition; as a talented world builder, as a role model, etc)

i want to be thought of just as another person, honestly. someone who had very human emotions, and did the only thing she knew how to do.

4. what do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

uhhhhh im ngl i think this is also my greatest weakness but i have a tedium to my world-building, in that i need history-book-level details of my worlds or i will die (like i drew my own map. i drew a fucking map of an entire contiment)

5. what have you been frequently told your greatest writing strength is by others?

yk,,,,, no ones given me a whole lot of specifics so im not sure,,,,,

6. how do you feel about your own writing? (answer in whatever way you interpret this question)

i said it before, but im pretty content at the moment with my poetry. though with prose, i think i could probably improve a bit sdgjksg

7. if you were the last person on earth and knew your writing would never be read by another human, would you still write?

uh yeah !!!! i write and record voice memos in my journal fully knowing no one will ever read it or listen back right now as it is so !!!!

8. when you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely what you enjoy? if it's a mix of the two, which holds most influence?

i gotta be honest, writing is a selfish act for me. i write because i want to, in ways that tickle my fancy dgkjds

it really is almost like an instinct for me

[vindieselsfacebook-blog]

Ranking 7 photos algorithmically served to me attempting to aesthetically stage a Gilmore Girls rewatch

7. Coming in dead last is this disgustingly tragic and confusing combination of frozen mini pizzas and what appears to be a stemless wine glass full of orange juice??? positively hanging on for dear life to a thin, cracked cutting board that looks like it started its life in the Target dollar spot. I can't imagine a more nightmarish stain on my bland white sheets or frustrating debris to try and drain from my laptop keyboard than the pukey combination of marinara sauce and sticky juice, nor can I imagine a more depressing excuse for a comfort meal. Praying this person is a 12 year old trying to feel fancy by stealing a stemless wine glass from their mom while they were distracted by an episode of The Bachelor. Also, can we not find a single vibey Ikea lamp to turn on? Not cropping out the cable in the top right corner is an extra ominous choice. Bonus point for the gay sounding caption caught on screen though. 1/10

6. All I can think of looking at this cursed image is innocently uncrossing my legs and flipping the entire set-up over, spilling sugary milky foamy pumpkin coffee all over my twee cotton sheets, crushing burnt cookie crumbs all up in my grill, poopy melted chocolate chip stains everywhere, and setting my fluffy synthetic pillows ablaze. Making sure the food items are resting unwisely on your laptop but straight up nestling two Glade clearance candles right on your bed is extremely unwell behavior. 2/10

5. These cookies look like hamburger buns with jam and I hate thinking of the texture of them in my mouth but at least the hearts are trying and the waffle knit of the blanket looks cozy. The plate looks like it's resting on crossed legs rather than an actual bed this time. Good job with no open flames!!! 3/10

4. This looks like a second attempt from #6 - these cookies look like an upgrade, even down to the cutesy plate. They're livin' on the wild side with black coffee directly on the bed this time, but I guess that's less insane than multiple lit candles. I'm imagining this poor girl applying lipstick to kiss her list of things she loves which include "2000's movies", "stars/moon", and "pretty clothe" and I realize I am mocking a very lonely little girl and now I feel bad. Keep on binging GG, friend, you need it!!! 4/10

3. First off, trying to post ~aesthetic GG content with tea instead of coffee? Who are you, Luke Danes??? Points subtracted immediately. You're expecting me to think you're just casually whipping up a batch of cinnamon rolls, watching GG AND reading a novel? You're either watching or reading, doll, I simply refuse to accept both. That book is stressing me out. Get a bookmark! 4/10

2. I had to really study this one and decide if it was the same person as the previous photo. It may be, but this one features some important upgrades - that mug may possibly be coffee, the gray sweater looks fuzzy and comforting, cute manicure, and the cinnamon rolls are positively drowning in icing which I respect. I am once again judging your casually open book you fucking liar, but I enjoy the natural lighting and practical desktop surface. I refuse to entertain the thought that a GG rewatch can hit even a little bit on a tiny propped up iPad though. Give me a big TV and a couch/bed or nothing. 5/10

Now this is what I'm fucking talking about!!! Commit to the bit, people. This person put their whole pussy into making that delightful looking drink and stuck to the pumpkin theme. There's some pleasant mood lighting going on and I buy that this could be a tablescape rather than a crowded obstacle course on a twin bed. I am actually curious to try one of those cookies and the sweater weather candle is no doubt contributing positive vibes to the room. All precarious items are safely crowded onto a tray. Still hate the iPad but whatever. 8/10

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-12-16

Entering the Holiday Vortex any day now

Listening: The soundtrack to Cats: The Musical because I have never stopped being a musicals nerd. Prompted me multiple times to check if they got rid of a fun part from a song in the 2019 movie and they always did! Got rid of Deuteronomy's 99 wives, entirely dropped The Moments of Happiness, and in order to resolve that, here's The Moments of Happiness.

One of those bizzare meandering songs.

Watching: Watched Get Out because I figure I should get the Peeleverse going.

It's good! It does a great job of making you deny the very obvious fact that the girlfriend is extremely in on it the whole time until you can't anymore and it's like, yes, of course, she is not somehow being manipulated or brainwashed she's just as into this as the rest of them, it's very smooth.

Love how every single person talks like an evil vizier.

Reading: Started The Parable of the Sower. Look there's not much to say that hasn't already been said, Butler is a good author, I only just started but it's interesting to read this like, half imagined half lived reference to what it feels like to be surrounded by abject poverty. It's bad! It's not a fun experience, and I think this is a really good coverage of how it feels to be in this environment and how it affects the way you think about people.

It stands out to me that one of the big themes being set up here is the protective and isolating force of walls, which. If you are ever in South Africa you will notice immediately the shockingly large number of walls. Every single house has walls, and the richer an area is the higher the walls are, in Soweto every little house has a meter and a half high brick wall, my suburbs had two meter walls, Sandton has three meter walls, topped over with electric fences. This is probably not an experience you have had. Going to other places and finding that they just. don't have walls. It's very strange.

Still getting going! Going to be interesting!

Playing: More! Cyberpunk. The city design is crazy, it's so heavily layered in many places. They do funnel you into a few more heavily designed zones so you don't notice the emptier areas as much but the designed areas are SO huge. Layer upon layer of detail and flash and colour. It makes Skyrim and GTA V look like sandpits.

Hit level 20 netrunning the other day and it's extremely fun to hit people with the ten thousand beam attack the second they pop their head up. You really have to lean on your abilities and cyberware if you want to survive which is nice, very much aligned with the game. I am pleased to notice that the DLC includes a copy of the CP2020 rules which I have been rereading. Friday Night Firefight is such a good read.

Making: 3D printed skull! RobotOS stuff! Lots of middleware stuff that doesn't lead to much.

Tools and Equipment: I keep saying I'm gonna talk about Distrobox. Let's talk about Distrobox.

Distrobox is a container management tool that goes basically the opposite way to every other container system, and aims to tightly integrate the containers it runs with your desktop system. Containers run in distrobox inherit your home directory, access to most peripherals and hardware, tie in to your display manager, and as much as possible try to act like they're meant to be part of your base system.

It can use podman, docker, or the bizzare ultra-lightweight userspace-only container manager lillipod to host containers, which means that in that last case you can run it on any system even if you don't have root, I've done this on my work dev server at $oldjob before we got Podman on there.

This means that, for instance, you can directly access your files from the container without having to mess with complex shared mounts or copying files back and forth, and it allows GUI applications launched within a distrobox to just appear on your desktop as though they were native.

This allows you to mix and match packages and features from a variety of different systems very easily, and is particularly handy for developing for multiple distributions or using tools that only really ship for one distro. At work I had to run mksusecd to build some install images and rather than deal with trying to set up mksusecd on Ubuntu, I just dropped into a SUSE Tumbleweed distrobox and got to work. Worked great!

I've also used it to sandbox messy development environments and I'm currently using it to host a robotOS learning playground on my desktop without having to look after an run a whole VM or anything. It means that the install of neovim and zsh and whatever in the Ubuntu container directly inherit my standard config files and even have access to the same plugin ecosystem as on my base system!

You can heavily customise your distroboxes, allocating them separate homedirs if necessary, exporting apps from inside a distrobox to the host system so you can seamlessly run them as though they're installed on the host, and more weird designs. Really handy tool!

Here's some reading if you're interested

Containers are really cool.

[thesummerstorms]

This is sooo late, but I didn't have a proper keyboard while I was housesitting and I've just managed to sit down now and do anything that required any length typing.

Thank you to @nepobabyeurydice for the tag!

If I'm being honest, I've not perfectly been able to keep track of who I saw answer this already on my dash, but if you are a writer and we are mutuals, consider yourself optionally tagged.

When did you start writing?

I remember typing up original stuff on our hand me down Windows 95 computer in elementary school, though I could not tell you what any of it was about.

My first fic was a very, very, very cringy Naruto fic when I was 11 and emo everything was at the height of its popularity. I never finished it, and it is now nonexistent, which is very much for the best.

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

I read a somewhat decent amount of science fiction that isn't as "loose" in it's worldbuilding as even space opera, but you will never catch me doing world building outside of fantasy. I can make things internally consistent, but do not ask me to make them realistic to science.

Also, just in general, while I don't read action per say, or at least read for action, a lot of my favorite genres and series do have fight scenes, and I cannot write those at all.

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

I can trace a few things in my own writing- both good and bad!- to a handful of authors that particularly influenced me as a young teenager, but I don't think it's anything anyone else would pick up on.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I have a proper desk in my bedroom with a desktop PC and two monitors and everything, and if I'm doing any serious and researched meta, or leaving comments on particular fics, I use that.

But I don't really write fic so much these days, and what I do post tends to be... fragments? Concepts? Worldbuilding that morphs into slightly-longer than drabbles? here on tumblr. And 95% of that gets posted from my phone because inspiration struck and it was in my hand.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

I don't go seeking things out, honestly. Like I said, I don't write plotted or long fic or really much fic at all. So what I do write comes out because it's sitting there poking at my brain for too long and then I can't ignore it anymore.

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

... looking at my SW stuff and my PJO stuff, one thing I guess I like the idea of a lot is the boundary between human/larger than human, mortal/immortal, mutable/immutable etc.

I loved some eldritch Force stuff and I love the idea of the PJO gods as being forces as much as or more than they are people.

Like, there's an Anne Carson translation of a Sophocles quote I saw for the first time years ago on tumblr- "Nothing vast enters the lives of mortals without ruin"- and I can't help but fixate still on that idea. What if the vast is inherently part of you but in a way that is alien to your humanity? What happens when the "vast" is both sympathetic and destructive to your personhood?

Also, a slightly less pretentious and definitely less wordy answer, I just think angst is fun to write. Not pure tragedy or grimdark, but angst.

What is your reason for writing?

My brain Will Not Shut Up and it has to go <i>somewhere.</i>

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

I want people to talk about ideas with me!

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

Not as a fiction writer per say, but I fucking killed every literary analysis paper I ever wrote in college. Like, this may sound arrogant, but I got nominated for awards by my professors. I thrived off of getting their feedback and that looping into a discussion. So I feel like meta comes easily as a result.

Now if only you could get paid and have health insurance writing literary analysis... alas, I cannot afford a doctorate and academia doesn't pay well or have decent enough healthcare access for my many needs.

How do you feel about your own writing?

I wish I could write long fic and coherent plots, but I am proud of the ideas I come up with sometimes.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

I feel like most of my writing is in conversation with what I read, whether it be the original text, other folks' fic, or meta. But even if it's in conversation, I'm never going to even have the idea much less the words unless it's something I'm interested enough in that my brain snags on it.

[violetlypurple]

Linux for FFXIV and more, Extended version

Its been a month since my previous post about FFXIV and general use with Linux. The more time I spend with it, the more I have both refined my setup and and made discoveries that are worth going more in-depth about. This is going to be a long one, so I'm putting it under a cut as a megapost of nerd shit.

Chapter 1 : Discord

First up, and the first thing that might make a new user turn right back around: Discord. Look. If you're an MMO player, chances are you have your social circle of friends that live across country, or across several countries, that you want to hang and share things with. If you're here and you don't use Discord constantly, I have questions about you. Anyway.

Discord screenshare does not work. It virtually never has. Now, full truth is that, sure, you can share your screen. But not audio. Wanna stream games to your friends in chat? Not viable. Wanna group watch something? Not viable. The available workarounds for this are a combination of technical bodgework to make your mic transmit screen audio (which a new or casual user is unlikely to do, or want, since you can't talk while doing it) and potential ToS violations using 3rd party clients. I consider my Discord account too essential to risk a ToS ban.

Surely Discord is working on this righ-

Ah.

Discord's own feedback forum has a thread that is over 4 years old with near 1900 upvotes for a Linux screensharing fix and there has been no traction. It is the most upvoted topic and second place has 500. I'm not holding my breath on this one.

Maybe this isn't important for everyone, but this single feature in this single programme is going to be the thing that keeps Windows reluctantly installed on one of my drives.

Chapter 2: Ways to Play FFXIV (and others ft. Lutris)

I went over, in my last post, how Steam's compatibility features will run FFXIV just fine if you have the Steam version (and the non-steam version if you copy over the game files from a Windows install). The more graceful solution for non-steam accounts, which I explored for the sake of cleanliness, is Lutris. TL;DR - Lutris will run anything you don't have through Steam.

What is it?

Lutris is a programme that installs games and game launchers inside a compatibility framework that mimics a Windows environment, similarly to how Steam does. The Lutris website maintains a library of configurations which allow you to install launcher based games, with the option for Lutris to download the launcher for you, or download the install file yourself and provide Lutris with it to complete the configuration. You could make an account with Lutris if you like, but it is not necessary.

I successfully installed Battle.net (and installed WoW though the Battle.net launcher) and FFXIV fresh with Lutris. So far it has been flawless*. You can do this with other storefronts too, if you have games on the Epic store, EA store, etc.

Lutris will set up a folder for the game and, nested inside, is an entire windows directory and virtual C:\ drive where you can go in and view the install. In theory, tools like shaders that only need be dropped in the game folder should work by dropping them here in the same way, but I have not tested this. You can also add any .exe to Lutris and have it try to run it, though success is not guaranteed.

Chapter 3: Desktop Environment

As far as I am concerned, there are two options here.

KDE and GNOME

Most Linux distros will give you an option to pick. Either when you download the install media or during the install itself. The important thing to remember is that your desktop is not specific to your distro. Ubuntu comes with GNOME but you can download and install KDE later if you want to, and switch between the two at login.

Pick based on how you like the look. GNOME has a MacOS look and feel and simple menus. KDE is more Windows-like with more customization of colours, themes, and extended system menus that may be more familiar to Windows users and easier to get to things like detailed networking options. KDE also has HDR support, if that's a thing you have.

Each comes with an array of software which can be installed independent of the desktop environment you use. For example, I use KDE but have GNOME's Disks utility downloaded as my go-to for disk management. When I use GNOME, I still use KDE's Spectacle for a snipping tool and KDE's Krita as a screenshot editor.

Chapter 4: *Caveats and I am an Optimization and Temperature Control Freak

You're still here! Awesome! Now I am going to go over some things that have more to do with the fact that I am a freak about my PC hardware. If you are a laptop user, and/or are the type to just use one SSD and touch nothing about your PC, this might be safe for you to skip.

4a: Storage

SSDs and HDDs that are not your primary install drive for Linux will often be mounted in the system as removable media. This means that they have the potential to be reassigned to different mount points on each boot. You might see how this might be a problem if your Steam or Lutris libraries are not on the same SSD as your Linux install. This turned my Lutris install of WoW upside down several times.

This is something that I would love to be able to provide a new-user friendly solution for, but it isn't a friendly process if I'm being honest. How you do this will likely vary depending on your comfort with the command line and the distro and desktop environment you use. The solution I came to was to have drives mount by their UUID in GNOME's Disks utility. Disks is pretty friendly and makes this not terribly technical.

Finding the UUID if you don't use Disks is something for a more detailed guide, but if you haven't run off yet you're either invested enough to look that up or already know how to do it.

4b: Controlling Fans and GPU (all of this is going to require command line, editing config files, and more knowledge or strong googling.)

I am very particular about two things with my PC. Operating temperatures and fan noise. If you build your own PCs, chances are you're like this too. Fan control on Linux is a mixed bag, since we don't have access to the excellent Rem0o FanControl. Generally, if you connect all your fans to normal fan headers, you can set up your fan curves in BIOS and let that take care of everything. Alternatively, modern distros have lm-sensors and fan control, both of which require command line to configure and use. There is a gui app for fan control, but in my case, downloading it through my package manager always returns a version that uses Fahrenheit instead of Celsius and I couldn't abide it or be bothered installing it from GitHub. I have Lian Li Uni Fans, AL120 v2. These come with a USB controller normally run by Lian Li's software, which has to be told to pass control over to the motherboard connector. On the off chance that you have these too, here is a utility that allows you to set this in Linux. In the end, I let my BIOS take care of all my fans for simplicity's sake, after setting up that UniFan utility.

For advanced GPU and CPU control there is corectrl. For the most part corectrl is great and straightforward, but for some GPUs you need to edit specific boot options outlined in their install guide (this ended up being the case for my 6900XT, which I run an undervolt on. If you want it to run without requiring a password every time, that needs to be tweaked as well.

After all that, I have my temps and noise balanced just as well as I did in Windows! Yay!

Chapter 5: Boy Howdy Do I Hate Flatpaks and Snaps

For those of you who are not yet Linux users and somehow got this far, an explanation is on order.

The traditional way of installing applications on Linux is though the command line terminal, using a package manager. If I wish to install Steam on Ubuntu, I will open up my terminal and use the apt package manager with "apt-get install steam", or in Arch i'll use pacman with "pacman -S steam". This prompts the package manager to download and install the application and its dependencies from a repository managed by the organization that maintains the distro. This looks a little intimidating to new users, but is the one "true" way to install things.

Distros and desktop environments will almost always come with an app or software center that allows you to install applications through an easy graphical interface. These applications are packaged in Flatpak or Snap packages.

In KDE this is Discover.

Unfortunately these things suck.

When you properly install an application, it has access to everything it could need with regards to hardware and software dependencies. Steam, for example, needs access to your hardware to add secondary drives to your library. OBS needs access to webcams or capture cards, etc.

Flatpaks and Snaps are self-contained. They run in their own sandbox, isolated from the rest of the system. Ergo, Steam installed this way cannot access additional drives to add for additional library storage. OBS installed this way cannot access said capture cards or other devices.

This makes me very angry, since these user friendly packages could be doing so much to make Linux easier to use for newcomers, but they are hamstrung in functionality compared to a command line install.

Chapter 6: RGB GaMeRRRr

Install OpenRGB.

...ok, OpenRGB is a bit much if you're used to something like iQue or Synapse. In my experience, I needed to determine how many LEDs were in my fans and RGB strip. That info is generally available online. Once I did that math and told OpenRGB how many LEDs were connected, it was fairly easy to use after that. I generally just do solid colours, but OpenRGB and its plugins are another rabbit hole to get into.

OpenRGB also supports a long list of keyboards and mice... which mine aren't on (the Razer Naga X is such a lost and forgotten lil mouse), but that's ok, most people will be covered by this.

Chapter 7: A Point About Drivers

With Windows, we're used to having to install drivers for most things. Desktop Linux is different with the way drivers are handled. Which is to say, you don't have to do anything. Drivers are part of the kernel that makes up Linux. If you are using a rolling release (Arch-based) distro, you are getting all the drivers everywhere all at once every time you update. For other distros, the long term support version may be behind on drivers for things released after the LTS distro, but more current (often deceptively named 'unstable') releases are generally good about updates. This leads in to a much larger discussion about distros, but without getting into that, the TL;DR is: You're fine, just get your Nvidia drivers and everything else is already there.

I think that's it for now okbye

[coldtomyflash]

Hi, you have been a huge influence in my fandom life and I love your writing! I just wanted to tell someone that I finished the flash tonight and it is a whole mixed bag of emotions. They made some season 1 callbacks that were kind of painful, with how careless they were with them. Very strong armed. You were so good at capturing the essence of the show, its themes, the characters, especially season one and drawing from the comics, you really made me love it that much more. I'll always remember and enjoy what you made and your stamp on the fandom whether or not most of the show was even enjoyable. So thank you! If you ever watch the final season, I hope you post your thoughts because I'd be curious to know what you think!

hi!

i'm sorry i didn't see this sooner; i've been using the tumblr app mostly and i swear i screws with my inbox, because there's more in here on desktop than i see on mobile.

anyway!

that's - tough. i stopped watching years ago because i kept wanting the story to be something it wasn't, and that can make for a fraught relationship with any piece of media. callbacks to the beginning can be wonderful when done well, or tacky and frustrating as hell when not, and it can be a really subjective judgment as to which of those any given callback lands on.

nonetheless, i'm really warmed by this message, and happy to hear i contributed to your enjoyment of the show :) i mean it when i say that "season 1 is my happy place", or when i talk about the influence this show had on my life. i haven't gone out and gotten it yet for various reasons, but i designed a tattoo years ago centred on a lightning bolt, and even though i stopped watching, i still want to get that tattoo, because the joy and creativity and wonder that The Flash brought into my life is eternal, even if the hyperfixation has passed.

if i ever watch the rest of the show, i'll no doubt be on here blogging loudly about it, so i'm sure you'll hear my opinions if i do :D

thanks for the lovely message :)

[tmsource]

hello. im not new to tumblr but i feel like i am rn. what does it mean in ur application submission where it talks about affiliates? i tried looking online but i cant understand it 😭

hi there, well, long story short, an affiliate blog is a source blog that gets displayed on the desktop page of our blog as a way of advertising it. Eg. In our case, it's this little box on the left of our theme:

If you do want the long answer, I've tried to explain a little more under the cut.

So let's say you have a source blog of your own (that is: a blog that specifically and regurarly provides content for a specific media/actor/character) and you want it to be associated with us, that's what affiliatism is for.

Now, on why you would seek to be associated with another blog in this way: usually, blogs that have similar content seek to become affiliates because, for example, fans of castle or lucifer might also be fans of the mentalist, and having our blog displayed on these blogs would potentially draw in these fans. Or vice verca, fans of the mentalist would get to see those other blogs too. But that's not the only reason you'd want to be an affiliate with someone. For example, sometimes blogs that have some popularity or a broader spectrum of content (eg. a blog that posts about crime shows in general, or a tv network blog like netflix) are desirable targets for affiliatism because they have larger audiences. By that, I don't mean followers, but like "more people that could potentially be interested in their type of content". So again, long story short, affiliatism is a means to "share audiences" between blogs, and therefore, a means to spread a blog's sphere of influence. That's why it's mostly source blogs that become affiliates and not personal blogs (though the latter also happens in rare cases).

I hope my answer has helped! And don't feel bad about not knowing, I also had no idea what affiliates were for at first! 💜

- emorfili