#Prodigy hacks to level up

[psychemochanight]

This may sound bad, but there's something I've noticed that bothers some of Nightwing fans, and it's not exactly something new (since Jason's first appearance, actually)-

And for many, as a new batfamily member appears, the writers seem to take away or diminish some quality in Dick to enhance it in another character

Let me explain:

One of the reasons why many people initially disliked Jason (not the only reason, by far), is that they saw him as a copy of Dick, even if they both had their differences, many did not feel that Jason had anything "special" that separated him from Dick.

And for those who say the difference is that Jason was cheerful and Dick wasn't, no, that's a modern thing, and that interpretation was given especially because it was the time when Dick was more "angry" as Discowing (he wasn't even that angry, just a little bit more serious); same with those who say that Jason was the only model student, when in fact, Dick was also a star student, there is even a panel where some students dismiss the possibility that he is Robin because Dick was a "bookworm".

That's partly why many applauded the change he made in becoming Red Hood, because it gave the character something that set him apart, that made him unique.

With Tim is when this change that they make to Dick (more the fandom than the writers themselves, but it is growing in them too) was most noticeable, to enhance Tim's qualities.

When talking about Tim (and God knows how much I adore canon Tim, he's so damn cool), people ALWAYS downplay Richard's detective skills to highlight Tim's. To make him look like the only good detective in the family after Batman.

People forget that Dick was originally like a mini-copy of Batman, but he was destined to surpass him. Not just in combat, but in detective skills as well. Before they even thought about a new Robin, there were already hints that Dick was, and would be, better than Batman.

Even with the appearance of other family members, Dick's abilities were still pointed out. I'm not talking about his physical agility, but his mental agility.

Dick was a genius, just like the other members of the family, he was ALWAYS pointed out as someone so intelligent, someone logical. He also has extraordinary skills with technology, He didn't need someone to back him up with hacking issues 24/7, he could do it himself, not always, but most of the time.

Now, what they point out the most is his physical agility and leadership (characteristics that he always had), but they leave aside his other aspects, such as combat ability and above all, his capabilities as a detective, like someone intelligent.

Some even bring up that Ra's called Tim "detective", when in reality he also called Dick that, and I'm pretty sure he also called Jason that at some point.

I want to clarify, that with this I am NOT saying that Tim's skills are inferior, AT ALL. I am one of those who think that Tim was the one who finished polishing Robin's name, the one that gave it a meaning beyond being Batman's sidekick, the one who turned Robin into his own hero. Tim is probably a prodigious detective, but like Dick, he too needed help honing those skills. Damn, it was Dick himself who taught Tim how to be a full-fledged detective.

But seriously, I'm not saying this to put Tim down, but to talk about the need to put Dick down in order to elevate others.

Even with Cass this happened, Cass fans throw away Dick's abilities to bring out Cass's when that is not necessary, like, It is more than possible to highlight the qualities of your favorite characters without putting down the others.

There were even times where people were putting Dick down for Damian, and I honestly didn't even understand why, but aha.

I think you're getting my point across, right?

Again, I am NOT trying to say that ANY character's skills should be nerfed, on the contrary, I feel like people should stop doing that just to level up other characters' abilities.

The fact that Dick is also a prodigious detective does not make Tim any less of a detective ? The fact that he also knows how to handle technology does not make Barbara any less competent at her job ? Just because he's an excellent fighter doesn't make Cass the weakest ???? God, just because he was a light in Batman's life too doesn't make Jason any less of his son!

Partly yes, it was the writers' fault for giving Dick too many abilities from the start, which made it harder for later characters to stand out in their own fields, but, fr, taking away his abilities to getting up the rest is not the solution at this point either.

And as I said, this mostly comes from before there were even other members of the batfamily, Dick's only purpose was to be better than Batman, it wasn't even the plan to be his own person yet. Probably for a while, the plan could even be that the next Batkid would accompany Dick as the next great detective, and then the next batkid would take the mantle and so on, a chain. I'm not saying that's the case, but that's honestly what it seems like from the way their abilities are written, at least before they started really developing them as their own individual person.

Something I love about part of the fandom is that there are people who understand that Dick was an inspiration, so that his younger siblings did not inhibit his abilities, but rather learned from him, and then surpassed him with their owns, just as Dick did with Batman. Idk.

And... Yeah, that's just me complaining about my favorite character being downgraded when he's clearly way more capable than the fandom gives him credit for <3

This is me btw

[01zfan]

venusian

producer!anton x alien!reader | 10k words

another installment of my rock the house seriez! this was fun to write even though it took me forever.

contains: face sitting, alot of implied sex, intergalactic booty call, anton catching feelings

rock the house masterlist

Anton gripped the metal of his fire escape, looking down at street below him.

He was a struggling artist, not the type that leaped over banisters down to oncoming traffic but the one that watched. He watched people like they were characters in movies, crafting stories for each single one. The student rushing to beat the light had an assignment waiting for them when they got home. The mother that had to pull her kids behind her on a plastic scooter worked all day, the man was looking at his phone was texting his mistress.

Honestly, it was too cold for Anton to be outside. He was also too busy to be doing this. He had a list of things to do before his band released their newest project. But like a thousand times before, the closer Venusian got to the release date of music Anton started getting sentimental and spending his time doing things he shouldn’t be doing. Procrastination is what Wonbin called it, Sohee referred to it as cold feet. In the deep corner of Internet somewhere they would say this was a product of Anton being a hack, and each project Venusian released, the world was closer to finding it out. 

Now, Anton couldn’t dispute this. He was talented, no one could take that away from him. From a young age he was able to play instruments at an advanced level and read classical music like it was a second language. Reading notes on a musical staff came to him faster than reading actual words in a book. He confused his teachers with his disdain for math when he was so easily able to divide a beat down to the hemidemisemiquaver. He was born with perfect pitch and a metronome built into his feet, and was able to memorize anything music related at the drop of a hat. 

Anton knew it would be to everyone’s dismay if they found out how often he lost faith in himself. Why would someone who was held in such high regard lose his poise so often? Why would someone so talented refuse to claim the section leader position when it so clearly belonged to him? Anton—and apparently the trolls on the Internet—knew the answers to these questions long before everyone else. He looked over the railing looking for inspiration because like he knew he was a musical prodigy, he also knows he doesn’t have a creative bone in his body.

He knew no one would understand. Creativity wasn’t sight reading music perfectly or being able to tune the other people in your section when they were off key. Creativity to Anton was being able to pull something from the depth of your mind. He would’ve settled for ideas coming to him slowly, but they didn’t come to him at all. Anton needed months to compose sheet music, and atleast a week notice if he had to improvise for the class. Everything he did was too refined, devoid of emotion. He blamed it on the classical cello lessons his mother put him in the moment he expressed an interest in music. He believed his young impressionable brain never had the ability to entertain the idea of music before the technical aspect of was shoved down his throat. He never got the luxury of being that kid that banged on pots and pans with abandon because he liked the way it sounded—he was the kid that had a private lessons teacher looming over him with a ruler in case he got anything wrong.

Anton lacked the complex understanding of the ebbs and flows of the music and where modern musicians fit into the crests. He was able to hide his failings as a musician until he made it to university, where each of his teachers seemed to pick up on it like a sixth sense. 

He believed he was cursed when his senior project called for him to write and produce a whole mini album. The technical aspect of it all didn’t frighten him, he knew the ins and outs of producing software. What scared Anton shitless was that he had nothing to produce. He could hear a note and know exactly where it landed but he could never find out why it was that note. What drove someone to sing in minor key instead of major key, what idea popped into someones mind to make something? 

Anton needed creativity if he wanted to graduate. At the very least enough to get him through five songs that were three to five minutes in length. He stayed after hours sitting in a practice room in silence looking for creativity, then he spent time drafting an extremely long and pitiful email to his faculty advisor. 

Right before Anton could press send and reveal his biggest secret, he met his first bandmate. 

(Technically, Anton heard Sohee before he met him. As he edited the final line of his email he heard the distinct voice of someone in the practice room beside his. The soundproof walls couldn’t block the voice next door. Anton perked up, straightening his slouched back as he listened, really listened to the voice next to him. Even when the voice would chip away after losing air or crack when his throat would become strained Anton knew the voice was special. The organic sound was refreshing, it drew Anton in so much that his pitiful email was long forgotten. 

He left the practice room and peaked through the window. He looked at the back of Sohee’s head as he continued to sing, his hand gripping tightly on the music stand in front of him. When Sohee tipped his head back and another beautiful falsetto note bled through the door, Anton walked right in. He was able to connect a face to the voice, someone he had seen before. The nursing major in the music theory class Anton was a teacher’s aide for. Anton remembers Sohee’s reason for joining the class was to fulfill a requirement.)

From there the rest was history. Anton spoke with his foot in his mouth, the sudden idea of having someone sing on his final project coming out in a huff. Sohee looked from side to side before letting a confused huh? ring through the practice room. Anton only repeated himself in the same rushed manner, followed by him mentioning his final project.

Sohee kept the same confused tone and his hand still gripped his music stand from the exertion of hitting high notes as Anton explained his final project. Sohee didn’t really listen until Anton started flexing his knowledge in music, talking about being flatand breath control, things Sohee knew he had trouble with. 

Then, he started listening. He even worked his schedule around ever so slightly to fit their practice and recording sessions into the day. A week later, when the only thing Anton had to show for was song covers, Wonbin came around. He was in the same situation as Anton, up Shit Creek with no paddle and a final project that needed to be finished if he wanted to graduate. 

Everything was luck. Anton was lucky that he was able to turn in a completed mini album for his final project. He was lucky that his teacher practically forced him to upload the album to a streaming platform due to how refined it was for a senior project. Anton was extremely lucky that the blossoming indie community attached themselves to his work. He was lucky that he found his album earn a shining review from Pitchfork, and countless streams on his songs every night. 

Something that was a stroke of luck fueled by energy drinks and the overwhelming feeling of getting a failing grade on a final project made Anton, Sohee, and Wonbin famous. By the time school ended they were on the list of albums to listen to and in the middle of the sweltering heat of the summer the news broke. Senior Project by Unnamed was ranked as the Top 50 Indie Albums of the Decade. 

After that everyone found out about them pretty quickly. Wonbin couldn’t go on MySpace without it crashing. Sohee’s parents called him crying that their son was singing on the radio. Anton’s heart rate hadn’t been a normal BPM since early April.

The pressure to release something and have it be as good as the accident weighed heavy on him. The sole producer of his trio—and the de facto leader—couldn’t make a beat to save his life. The mere thought of sitting down and crafting something left him even more stumped than he was before. 

But before Anton could confess to Sohee and Wonbin that he couldn’t deliver the same way he did on Senior Project, he found out they were all in. Sohee dropped out of medical school and Wonbin quit his day job. Wonbin spent his earnings on a new guitar and Sohee spent his on vocal lessons. Anton was considering spending his money on a one-way plane ticket to Hawaii and never looking back. They couldn’t make you produce an album if they didn’t know where you were. He could’ve been sipping Mai Tai’s looking at the Oahu sunset but instead he sat out on the curb of Sohee’s apartment complex with his head in his hands as Wonbin and Sohee tried to understand what was wrong. 

Anton for the first time in his life voiced that although he was a prodigy, he had nothing to show for it. The confession came out like vomit, splattering on the concrete and warming underneath the sun. Wonbin looked up to the clouds while Sohee twisted his head away in defeat. Anton felt actual bile raise in his throat as grasshoppers rubbed their legs together in the silence.

Wonbin put a hand to his face to block the sun. Anton heard the muffled shock of Sohee saying he dropped out of med school for this. Then, as if lack of creativity could be cured in a weekend, Wonbin gave his recommendation.

“Let’s buy a van and go sleep in the forest. Completely disconnect with the world and reconnect with nature.” 

Wonbin said it so happily, backed with the reasoning that some rock band neither Sohee or Anton had heard of has done it before. Apparently the band went on a societal cleanse and came back to create  one of the best albums ever made.

(Years later, Anton listened to the album and hated Every. Single. Song.)

 In any other instance Anton would’ve called Wonbin crazy, but the lack of an album and the increasing pressure from everyone wanting a new body of work pushed Anton into reluctantly saying yes. So within the week Anton blew some of his earnings on a van, the three packed their bags and went to camp in the dense forest an hour away from their hometown. Wonbin’s words played again and again in Anton’s mind as he stayed in the passenger seat. He looked for creativity in the tall trees. Anton looked for it all and stayed in the front seat in an effort to see it first. 

When the sun no longer gave him light he switched to the flashlight in the glove compartment, keeping it close to his page full of marked out lyrics and mindless ramblings. He couldn’t think of anything else without lingering on each failed attempt. One of the last things that wasn’t crossed out was the tiny print at the bottom of the page. You’re not going to make it stared at him, it caused his flashlight to go out and it made a headache form right in the center of Anton’s head.

He came to the shocking discovery then and there that he was a one hit wonder, that he was lucky to have famous song on that found its way from an obscure streaming site to the biggest social media platform. His unnamed bands overnight success would dwindle within the week, and they would go back to living their regular pedestrian lives.

Anton finally gave up when he made it to the bottom of his page. He let the flashlight take a break in the cupholder between the two front seats and closed his notebook. He opened the glove compartment and slammed it shut a little too hard, not caring a bit when Wonbin groaned from the back of the van. Anton looked back to see Wonbin and Sohee dangerously close to cuddling as they both shared a single blanket on top of the small inflatable mattress. 

Anton turned away and rolled the window down by the plastic crank and stuck his head out as if inspiration would be carried into the van by the gentle wind. He balanced his head on his arm that hung out the window and sighed. He thought about the lyrics Wonbin wrote, how his bandmate had no instrumental to put it over. The sinking feeling Anton got at the thought of Sohee and Wonbin waking up tomorrow even more worried about the future of the band suffocated him. 

He opened the van door and shut it so hard the van rocked. 

Anton tried to find inspiration in the sound of twigs snapping underneath his foot, the absence of sound as the trees blew in the wind. He walked to the side of the van and leaned against it, hoping that something would whisper to him in the dead quiet of the night. 

When nothing came and only the moon shined down on him, Anton let out another sigh. He leaned his head back until he felt the large window of the van press his hair flat. He looked directly up to the moon, the only thing that seemed to be awake like him. The stars in the sky were shining bright, or maybe they were normal—Anton couldn’t remember the last time he looked to the night sky. He closed his eyes and fisted his hands so tight he could feel his nails dig into his palm. He pressed his head against the glass even harder, trying to remember the last time in his life he was so desperate for results. He drew in a breath, parted his lips, and screwed his eyes shut.

“Please give me something.” Anton whispered into the night.

When he opened his eyes he started laughing at himself for how ridiculous he sounded. Wishing on planets and stars for inspiration like he was a child. Talking to God like he wasn’t a man of science. He considered waking up Wonbin and Sohee to tell them that this wouldn’t work out. Dissolving the band before it even has a man, carrying on with their lives like they didn’t have the most downloaded EP on iTunes.

Anton looked down at his hands, spreading out his fingers so far he felt the stretch. These hands could play Flight of the Bumblebee with ease and could write a paper on music theory overnight, how could they not produce a song? Anton looked at the callouses on his fingers in the moonlight, twisting and turning the rings on his fingers to feel something. Everything about him was hard to the touch, but he felt so incredibly soft. Like he was about to cry, despite not being blessed with the talent of music. 

Anton wiggled his fingers again and felt the urge to curse at them. His eyes drifted to the shadow that was cast underneath him onto the ground.

He was still staring at his fingers when the white light of the moon shifted to a muted green. The change was so sudden Anton blinked first, making sure that his eyes weren’t failing him. When he realized the color being casted on him became hidden by the clouds, he looked up to the sky again. He saw something in the sky, a white cloud trailing behind it. Anton followed its path in the sky, walking around the edge of the van as it came closer and closer to making an impact on the Earth.

Anton’s first reaction was to drop his jaw. Then to pound on the side of the van, as if waking up the only two people on the planet more clueless than him would help. He mindlessly followed, stepping on leaves and twigs and tripping over things as he saw the thing come even closer. Right in front of Anton it crashed into the trees, then straight into the ground. Everything moved around him, he went backwards to hide behind the protection of the van. Underbrush was uprooted from the speed of the wind caused by the impact. 

Anton looked bak up to the sky. White moonlight replaced the green. He looked around. The sound of something falling was replaced with the normal sounds of the night. He looked down. The Earth didn’t split down the middle.

“What just happened?” Anton said to himself quietly. 

He peaked past the van, looking right where the crater would be. Past the lining of trees, less than a two minute walk away. Anton should get back in his car and drive away. But the fact that something unbelievable needs to happen to him made him stay in the same spot.

Anton debated for a long time on if he should take a step closer. More leaves and twigs snapped underneath his foot as he crossed by the van entirely. His blood went cold and everything in him told him to turn around. He should put the key in the ignition of his car and drive away. But he took another step. Then another. Anton creeped past the tree line walking like a prey animal. He looked back to the stationary white van behind him. There was still a chance to go back, but the something unbelievable was calling to him. Anton took the last step to make it to the edge of the crater before looking in.

His hair stood on end when he looked down into the impact on the earth. The circumference of the crater was the length of two vans put together, but it was deep. So deep that the bottom was almost hidden by the night. Anton had to bend down close to look deeper. 

When Anton saw something move in the crater, he was gone. He no longer was looking for something unbelievable to happen to him, inspiration be damned. He cleared out of the forest to make it to the van, opening up the back with an incredible amount of speed. The momentum caused the car to shake, and Anton’s hands were on the shoulders of his bandmates in seconds.

“A girl fell from the sky.” Anton said it quickly, shaking Wonbin’s shoulder harshly.

Wonbin tilted his head to the side as Anton continued to relay what he saw. He blinked his eyes once, twice, then a third time as he tried to comprehend what was being said to him.

“Is that the name of the album?” Wonbin said, groggy voiced as he rubbed one of his eyes.

Anton shook his head angrily before trying to catch his breath. 

“Green Comet…” Anton huffed, suddenly realizing his vision was starting to spot. The adrenaline and the confirmed sighting of an extra-terrestrial being made him feel dizzy. “Fell from the sky. She’s in a crater.” He huffed.

When Wonbin moved from the pallet of clothes and blankets, Sohee did the same. His eyes fluttered open but stayed partially closed. His hair was bumped on one side as he also tried making sense of what Anton was saying.

“Are those song titles?” Sohee asked.

His voice was high-pitched and whiny, Anton knew he was angry from the lack of sleep and being woken up in the middle of the night. There were more important things happening. They needed to call the cops, they needed to call the press.

Anton continued shaking his friends awake, but the lack of mentioning a song title, album name, or anything music related made them go back to sleep. Anton watched in dismay as the two laid their heads back down, ignoring and turning away from his hands that were trying to will them awake. The only thing they did was move their shoulders out of his reach, one of them grumbling wake us up when you have a song finished.

Just as Anton was about to climb into the back of the van to shake his bandmates awake, he heard leaves and twigs snap. His full body froze, the hair on the back of his neck stood up and his throat was suddenly dry. The spring night suddenly felt cold as he felt a presence behind him.

When Anton first heard a voice, he didn’t want to turn around. He didn’t want to acknowledge whoever was speaking to him. He wanted to heave his body into the back of the van and shut the doors behind him. He wanted to speed off back to civilization, at the very least he wanted to scream and wake his bandmates up. But Anton couldn’t do anything, he didn’t move an inch when he felt the presence take another step.

“Where am I?” You repeated

Anton quickly told you that you were in the quiet midwest of America. He said you were on planet Earth, and some other things he forgot now. He was rambling at the mouth, he’s sure he started telling secrets of his own at some point. He’s in a band. He’s a hack. He has no creativity. He’s scared that you’re getting closer. He thinks you’re going to abduct him and probe him and he’s going to be your human prisoner for the rest of his life.

At some point between your first step and your last step, Anton closed his eyes. He prepared for death, his life flashed before his eyes, everything. But then you grabbed his hands. He felt warm all over, his rambling stopped and his fear was replaced with something else. The turbulence in his mind cleared and everything stopped making sound around him. The wind stopped blowing, Wonbin stopped snoring, everything felt peaceful. 

Then, when Anton opened his eyes you were gone. All traces of you vanished into the night. Reality came back slowly. Anton clasped his hands hard, then looked down at them again. He was no different. He wasn’t being beamed up into the sky, he wasn’t hurt. He was suddenly alone again outside, the trees and the sounds came back to him like they never left. He could also clearly hear the beginning chord to a song and a name for his band. 

Anton heard everything, the longer he stared at his hands the more inspiration struck. He heard it all, he could see it all so clearly. The album name, song titles, album covers, music videos. Anton was up for the rest of the night, filling out pages and pages in his notebook until his hand could no longer hold the pen straight.

Sometimes Anton could still feel the pain in his hand from writing all night. He flexed his hand that gripped the railing, closing his palm in on itself before leaning closer to the banister. He looked behind him to his apartment. The studio door was wide open, and had to audibly sigh to try and relieve some of that burden.

The word had dropped nearly three months ago that a new album was coming. A rumor that wasn’t really a rumor, and once people caught wind of it there was no use in denying it. Their recording company was already reaching out about any possible singles. Wonbin started already reinventing himself. Sohee was sending Anton lyrics everyday in hopes of getting the music faster. 

The only way he was able to get a break from everything was to say he needed time to collect and recenter himself. What this meant for his colleagues was to go on a weeklong coke fueled bender. What that meant for Anton was to look at foot traffic in the street below him hoping to see his alien girlfriend-who-is-not-his-girlfriend.

He learned that you would always come when he least expected you to. Washing up on the beach during his vacation to Vietnam. Offering him a wine glass at an industry party. Appearing as room service during his stay at a hotel abroad. He wasn’t sure what summoned you. He was always so used to the feeling of not being inspired that he never knew when he was about to reach a breaking point. 

But you always did.

The first time you appeared and he found you in the forest, when he thought he was going to die but he lived and Venusian and the chords for the first EP was in his head.

The second time you appeared was outside of a diner. Anton spent the whole day disconnected from the world, enjoying an AYCE sushi special instead of finishing the vocal mixing on the first single when you appeared across the street. Locked in the phone booth right in Anton’s line of sight the moment he lifted his head from his salmon roll. 

He thought he was seeing things at first. By this point in time he had convinced himself that seeing you in the forest was the product of starvation, anxiety, and sleep deprivation. In the morning when he finally got Sohee and Wonbin to come and see where you landed, they said it was only the beginnings of a construction site. So Anton told himself you were just a very real figment of his imagination. But across the street you were very real and you were beckoning for him to come to you.

In the phone booth, Anton finally had a conversation with you. Cramped in after you pulled him inside you two had a formal interaction. To offset how normal the greeting was you told him you were not from this planet. Anton thought he was imagining things again. He shook his head and smiled waiting for the punchline of your joke, and an actual explanation as to why you fell from the sky and asked where you were so honestly. 

Anton doesn’t remember speaking very much in the phone booth. His first reaction was to shiver from the feeling of the hairs raising on the back of his neck. His second was to deny you not being from this planet. You talked like a human, you smelled like a human, you looked like a human. Then you said something ridiculous like being human is relative, which ended up being a track name on Venusian’s first full length album She Fell From the Sky.

(Anton could’ve named the album My Girlfriend Fell From the Sky Because She is an Alien and no one would’ve done anything about it. No one second guesses the names or titles indie bands use for their titles, but giving you the title of girlfriend seemed a little presumptuous.)

He found out on your third visit when you knocked on his door in a private studio that you kissed better than any human being ever has. You two kissed better than people could, all of his past experiences and stories he heard paled in comparison. The way you leaned in close, hovering over him while he basically shook in his office chair. You looked so beautiful standing above him, you smiled to ease him into you. You pressed your lips to his so softly and his hands went to your waist, holding onto you. You weren’t able to disappear into thin air. That night you kissed Anton goodbye, he was able to see you leave, and he was able to get you to promise you’d come back. 

When you closed the studio door behind you, Anton did what any artist would do. He turned the situation he found himself in to profit. All the confusion and love and lust from an alien he’s met a handful of times, who appears and disappears on her own accord. An alien who always knows where he is and when he needs her. Always smells so good, and looks at him so intensely it literally sparks creativity. Someone who his bandmates thinks is fake. He put all of that—and much more—into the second album. My Girlfriend is an Alien. A little on the nose, but it was green lit nonetheless. The album featured tracks such as i hope you’re real, please meet my friends, imaginary friend, and star/meteor. 

On the fourth visit Anton found out you were a fan. He knew because you liked the song come to my apartment next time, and no one liked that song. A dud on the album but something you felt like was just for you. You called him on the phone in his hotel across the world, just when he was about to fall asleep. You talked to him but didn't tell him where you were, it sounded like you were driving or laying in bed and kicking your feet and writing in your journal. Before you could hang up and disappear for an undisclosed amount of time he had questions ready. In his notebook next to lyrics he looks at the chicken scratch in the margins, the hotel phone caught between his shoulder and ear as he made sure to speak clearly into the receiver.

“Will you come when I ask you to?” 

“No.” 

“Will you come when I need you to?”

“Yes.”

“How will I know when you will be here?”

“You don’t.”

“What’s your favorite song by Venusian?”

That was the question that stumped you. You were silent for a moment, the crackling sound of a connection. Anton looked at the lamp on the bedside table, staring at it until it left an imprint in his vision. He thought the line had disconnected before you spoke.

“The ones you write about me, of course.”

All of them were about you, he couldn't tell you that before you told him that you loved him and had to go. Without a doubt in Anton’s mind, every song was about you. Even when Wonbin wrote the lyrics, they were always about an elusive figure that was appearing in and out of someone’s life. When Sohee wrote lyrics, they were about wanting something. On the rare occasion the song wasn’t about you, the bands name itself was a homage to you. He never asked if you were from Venus because he thought it'd be rude, but he wished on that planet before you came down in a crater his bandmates thought was a construction site.

He couldn’t escape you, but no one even knew you existed. Sometimes Anton didn’t even know you existed. He searched harder in the street. He saw a school teacher finally heading home. Someone with a coffee cup, spilling it on themselves because they were walking too fast. Taxi driver smoking on the corner, letting possible clients pass him to hop in the cars of his competition. A woman walking down the sidewalk, past the smoker and the school teacher and the spill on the person shirt. Her pace got slower and slower until she came to a stop right in front of his building.

Anton looked further down, leaning even closer to the banister. The metal railing pressed into his stomach, going right through his thin shirt as he looked down. Foot traffic continued around her. From the high floor of Anton's apartment his hair started blowing, whipping forward and closing his eyes. The woman in front of Anton's apartment building was unmoving, so was he. If Sohee was here he would've believed it to be the paparazzi, Wonbin would've thought it was a coincidence. But Anton knew before you looked up. The hat and sunglasses you had on obstructed the view of your face, but Anton knew. All you had to do was point towards the front door before Anton was turning on his heel, running through his apartment until he made it to the front door.

Anton cleared his apartment a little too fast to ring you up. He kept his eyes glued to the front camera of the building as you walked up the steps. When the buzzer sounded off you smiled, pulling at the large door before you walked out of frame of the camera. 

Anton imagined you coming up the stairs. He swore he could hear you from floors away, your heeled shoes coming through his apartment building as you made your way to him. He could hear the elevator music from his living room, and he could see you looking at the red number climb until you were at his floor. He wasn’t sure how you knew, but you always knew. He stopped asking questions long ago. He was just so happy to see you, a relieved smile coming across his face as he opened his door to you standing there.

“Did you miss me?” You asked.

Anton nodded, pulling you by your arm to get you to come inside. He learned to not waste time when you were here. No more shy greetings or acting amazed when you’d show up. He learned to think about your surprise appearance when he was alone. He helped you take off your hat and shades to put it on the table at the entryway. He guided your jacket off of your arms as you looked up to the high ceilings.

“This place is so big just for one person.” You said quietly.

Anton didn’t know how you lived. He didn’t know where you lived either. Venus was the presumed place, but it could've been the moon. Both were visible when he made his wish that night. He didn’t know if millionaire musicians lived in gigantic lofts by themselves where you came from. He could’ve had roommates. Sohee and Wonbin always wanted to stay with him during the album creation process, to really get involved in the body of work. Venusian tours made Anton encounter his fair share of groupies that wanted him. He could’ve had one of them as a live in girlfriend that uses his money to buy drugs and his fame as an aphrodisiac. But Anton preferred to live alone, even if he had a guest room littered with things he’d think you like in between your visits.

Anton continued guiding your jacket off, then the fleece button up you had on underneath. You always complained about the cold. Anton imagined wherever you came from was always in an eternal spring compared to the frigid weather here. You liked the weather in Puerto Vallarta the most. You came to Anton on a pool floatie saying you could get used to the weather here. You hated it the most in Germany. You emerged from a snow bank when Anton was leaving the convenience store late at night. You were shaking like a leaf then, and Anton gave you his jacket and had to spend the whole night warming you up.

(At first the sentiment was innocent. He offered you all the blankets his room had to offer, and then you said you needed body heat. His huffs of hot air was sticking to your skin, and you were clinging to him for dear life. He repeated how badly he wanted to warm you up as he covered his body with yours, and hushed you over and over again when you were running out of breath. You were both sweating by the time the Sun came up, and then you said you were finally warm enough to go home.)

He knows you probably hate the weather now. But you bite your tongue to stop you from saying how cold it is even when you’re shivering. You just walk fully into Anton’s living room, sitting in the middle of the couch before you tap the spot next to you.

Anton is uninspired. He’s not creative. That’s why you’re here. Offering your magic touch again, his next Grammy nomination and wave of accolades is waiting for him on his large couch.

He follows in your footsteps, discarding his robe on the chair next to the couch. In his plain black tee and sweats Anton gets on the couch, climbing on until he rests his head in your lap. Even with all this space he’s too big. His foot dangles over the edge of the couch, and you let out a soft grunt when he lays his head on you. He doesn’t care because this is enough. When your fingers massage his scalp he closes his eyes, trying to will the stress away.

Anton felt you stir underneath him, and he already felt the stress coming back. He instinctually reached a hand to your arm, trying to keep you there. When he realized you were only repositioning yourself his hand left your wrist, going to his chest. He rubbed the fabric of his shirt and hummed the beginning of a song.

He looked forward as your hands carded through his hair, flattening out the bits that were sticking up.

“Where were you this time?” Anton asked.

“Your kind haven't discovered it yet. But I came back pretty fast this time, didn't I?” You asked.

Anton nods his head against your fingers because you did come back faster this time. When Venusian was just beginning you used to appear every week, when the band was at its peak the longest Anton was left waiting for you was two years. Before you showed up at his apartment today you called him over the phone a month and a half ago. Your voice crackled through the speakers and you sounded like you were somewhere far away. Anton almost asked you if there was reception on Venus, but instead he decided to put it in a song. Not knowing the answer made him look for it himself, and that’s how he came up with the idea of the first single for Venusian’s upcoming album. 

Anton remembers the last conversation you guys had over the phone. He asked you if you were real for the hundredth time and you laughed before saying yes. He asked if you’re real why can’t he reach out and touch you and you said he would just have to save it for next time. So Anton opens his eyes and reaches up with one hand, until he can feel your cheek underneath his fingers. His other hand wraps around your hand in his hair, and he keeps eye contact with you while you look down at him. It’s really not fair that you get to come and go as you please. You should stay here with him, be his live-in alien girlfriend who helps him write music. You wouldn’t even have to do housework, he’d hire someone to do that. He can get whatever people eat on Venus shipped right to his doorstep just for you.

Anton holds you tighter, there’s silence and you moving your legs underneath his head again. From this spot on your lap all Anton can focus on is you. You two are floating in space together, holding eachother’s hands. Anton thinks about a spaceship and then Star Trek, and then the parts of you that he couldn’t touch over the phone. He was telling you about it long after the phone call suddenly disconnected until he was shaking and his body was covered in sweat. 

“How’s the music thing going?” You asked.

The question was asked just to fill the silence, because you wouldn’t be here if Anton wasn’t struggling with the music thing. If Anton could finish the mixing on this song you’d still be floating around space somewhere and Venusian’s latest album would’ve already hit streaming platforms. 

Anton sits up from your lap and your hands combing through his hair. Even though he lets go of your hands he still feels them close, and when he turns around to face you on the couch you have them pressed in the space between your two bodies. You look like you want to reach out and touch him. Anton feels your pull, he sees your eyes focus on him after running down his body. He put his hands on your shoulders then your face, forcing you to look at him and only him. 

“It’s going well.” He couldn’t believe that your face was already becoming hot to the touch. Anton watched you become so bothered you didn’t correct his lie, only nodding against his hand. “Did you hear the new single?” He asked.

Anton watched your hands finally leave the edge of the couch to go to his thighs. Nothing about you was alien. He knew you well, he knew your hands would go underneath his shirt to touch his soft stomach. Anton knew you’d look down first then to him as you let your head rest in the palm of his hand. 

“It was pretty. Felt like you were singing to me.” 

“Well,” Anton trained himself to never answer the question directly when he’d be asked who his muse was. Wonbin always said he sang about love he never found and Sohee said he was singing about an idea. “who else would I be singing to?” Anton 

“Thought maybe you went out and got yourself a girlfriend.” You say.

Anton smiled to hearing that. Like he wasn’t waiting everyday for you to materialize. He could never waste his time dating when he spent all of it waiting for you and making music. He only shook his head, bringing you closer by the hold on your face. 

“I was thinking about you the whole time.”

“Oh yeah?” Your hand left his hair after pulling it one last time. Anton looks up at you sideways as you tilt your head. “I was thinking about you too."

He knows he's being dramatic, because just the thought of you somewhere thinking of your human boyfriend makes him smile. He already thinks of a bonus track for the album think about me will be the title, and he will get Wonbin to write something beautiful about a couple in love. He'll pair it with a beat that's light and sounds like someone's dreams, then end it with the sound of a phone disconnecting. He might even pair it with a music video.

"What were you thinking about when you were thinking about me?" You ask.

Anton has done this dance with you plenty of times. He knows that you’re here to breathe creativity into him, like the fate of his world depends on it. Fuck or die, fuck or never make another song again—it’s the same thing in Anton’s mind. But he still falls victim to your ability to raise the tension, like it was the first time all over again. Back then he was all nerves, thinking about music and how you were his sign from the universe that everything would be alright. He spent more time on his knees than he ever did in his life, he was drained but you kept wanting more. Sometimes Anton can remember the exhaustion vividly, and he also remembers when he woke up the next morning he knew exactly what he was going to do for that collaboration with his favorite artist.

You’re here now, countless save-his-career fucks later and still looking at him like you haven’t gotten enough. He sits up from your lap and turns to face you.

“I was thinking about the last time I saw you,” Anton’s hands start moving to the side of your face then down to your waist. You’re already moving to straddle him. “and you did that think I really like.” He continues.

Anton watches you look down at him and he wonders what’s going on in your head. He remembers last time you were here and you said sincerely he should get a girlfriend. He asked if you had a boyfriend on Venus but recanted his question immediately, knowing he wouldn’t be able to handle the answer. He has been making happy music as of late and didn’t want to change that.

Now you looked at him like he was delicate, your little human boy toy you entertained between periods of floating around space.

“I was thinking I just need you so I can get inspiration for this song.” He didn’t mind if he was nothing but an intergalactic booty call. Sometimes it felt like you did things for his benefit, like showing up at to him when he needed you the most. Your hands went to his face and he felt his heart stop. He swears he doesn’t mind.

“How many times do I have to tell you Anton, it’s all you?” You started letting your hips rest heavy on his lap, and he could feel how warm you were all around him. You can say all you want that your fingertips don’t have magical powers, but he has already found a chord for the lyrics Sohee sent him the other day. “You’re talented, just stressed and—” He presses your hips deeper into his, until you feel him twitching in his pants. “You’re already hard?”

Anton is helpless against you. You’re extra-terrestrial, that has already been established, but there’s something more. The planet Venus must have blessed you with powers. Anton's hand goes to the back of your neck and brings you closer.

“I just need a little bit more.” Anton murmurs against your lips.

Before you can speak Anton brings his other hand to reach into your pants, pushing his hand in your panties. Instantly you arched from the touch, when he applied pressure you swiveled your hips. He’s been here before, he’s been here a million times. An intergalactic booty call on his Italian leather sofa. You're already doing the thing he likes, where you whimper and push your tongue into his mouth. The simple action makes him already falter, becoming your puppet so easily.

Anton doesn’t know what you have in store for him. After discovering he was already hard the look in your eye changed, and your idea of comforting his feelings of inadequacy shifted to something different. 

He’s been holed up in this apartment for more than a week, and he hadn’t made a new friend in God knows how long. Anton forgot how to interact with people beyond his bandmates, and he felt ill-equipped to keep the conversation going with an alien. You’re here, getting off of his lap until his hands follow after you and you’re standing in front of him. When the coffee table is too close to you Anton wastes no time pushing it away with his foot, giving you enough space in front of him. You don’t say anything about it, instead bringing your hands to the bottom of your shirt and lifting it over your head.

Your shirt is balled in your hands then it’s obstructing Anton’s vision. He pulls it into his lap too quick to see you messing with the waistband of your jeans, shimmying out of it before pushing it down your legs. You came all the way from Venus in a matching set, all for him. He’s lied by saying he just needs a little more. Whatever happens each time you leave has only made him worse, and only makes him crave more. Each time you leave he’s left with a sense of this being the last time. 

When you come back to him in your bra and panties he’s too rash. Instead of guiding you to his lap Anton  gets on his back. He doesn’t tell you what he needs when you try to adjust to the sudden change. When you still try to go to his lap Anton’s hand on your wrist stops you. You look at Anton and it takes both of you too many dragging seconds to see what Anton is silent hinting at. He’s missed your touch, your voice, and your taste. When you realize it your eyebrows are raised nearly to your hairline, and he’s still guiding your body towards his face. 

From that point everything happened pretty fast. You asked Anton a million times if he was sure and said yes without fail. When you finally situated yourself with your knees on either side of his head, he knew this was what he needed. The skewed perspective of you down here, his hands on your thighs trying to guide you down. Feeling you cage him in and you taking up all his senses was what he needed. But you were still unsure, even with Anton’s eyes honing in on the pretty pattern of the panties he was determined to eat through you hesitated above him.

“You’ll stop me if you can’t breathe right?” You fought against his hands trying to bring you down. Every breath he took fanned your heat, he could already see the fabric forming to you. “I really couldn’t deal with the guilt if I killed you.” You said.

Anton thought this would be an amazing way to die. Suffocating between thighs and drowning in you. Could aliens be persecuted on Earth? Would you just go back to Venus and never come back?

“Anton.” He looked from your heat back up to you. You tried leaning back to see more of his face but his hold on you kept you in place. “Are you listening to me?” You asked.

“Yes. I’m listening.” He almost went crosseyed focusing back on your center. One of your hands went to grip the armrest past Anton’s head, preemptively giving yourself something to stabilize your body with. He dragged his words out, purposefully letting his breath fan your clammy skin. You were twitching for him already. He pulled you down again. “I’ll tell you, I promise.”

He was grateful his plea was what made you give in. One more tug at your thighs and you were lowering yourself on his mouth, and Anton was sticking out his tongue to lave your panties that covered your clit. He felt you hovering your weight above his head, scared to give him all of it, then he pushed your panties to the side. Almost immediately Anton felt more of your weight and your thighs close around his head. He felt your body lean forwards and he heard your exasperated breath, then a whimper that told him you were getting used to this. He lifted you only a second to drop you directly on his tongue, and he started sucking and licking whatever he could touch. 

Your thighs were shaking around his head, and Anton was becoming increasingly aware of his own body. His dick was twitching in his pants, with each jump or sound you made he was beginning to feel the tension rising along his entire body. He needed more. He was almost there, he almost had the chord or the arrangement. Revelation was on the tip of his tongue. Anton's fingers kept your underwear pushed to the side, he could feel the wet cotton sticking to the side of his face. He hummed again, and you pitched forward to grab the armrest of his couch for stability.

"Do you want me to touch you?" You asked the question quickly. You two made eye contact, his words of just needed you to get off was trapped between your legs. Even if you heard him he knew it'd be lost on him. You were too giving, and he revealed that one of his favorite things in this life was when you'd touch him.

You push yourself from the armrest of the couch and reach behind you, instantly pressing into the bulge. He's so strung up stimulation feels like pain, he's ready to pop at any moment. He hasn't been touched since he saw you last, and he couldn't think of doing anything for himself when you weren't here. Part of being from a different world must mean that your touch goes right through fabric. When your hand cups over his pants it's like you're gripping him in your own hands.

Whatever it is you're doing to him is too juvenile for him to cum first. It almost becomes a competition, he becomes greedy. He tongues you until he pushes past the ring of muscle, sucking on whatever his lips touch. Anton pushed on your ass until it pushed you forward, where his nose bumped your clit. His other hand wrapped around the top of your thigh and pushed you back. He repeated the motion, sucking harder each time your body hitched from you bumping into his nose. When he stopped guiding you Anton was grateful you abandoned more of your inhibitions to repeat the motions on your own. He was grateful that his pleasure became an after thought. You abandoned his dick completely to lean forward again, to press your hand to your lower stomach to really focus grinding on his face. Anton could feel you over his body, but your slick coated his chin. You You were making a mess on his lips too, moaning louder than the sounds he was making between your legs. 

Anton was too busy watching the way your stomach tensed and relaxed each time you ground your hips on his face that he was getting lost. Between notes and songwriting and everything else he was grinding against nothing, his legs draped over the other end of the couch and his body tensed up. You were becoming rigid above him too, your hand in his hair pulled roughly as your body came increasingly heavy on his lips. Anton still drove you forward, until your clit bumped his nose over and over again. You shifted on top of him to fully ride his face, bucking on him over and over.

"Close." You whimpered. Anton felt your hand grip his hair, keeping him in place. He was getting smothered by you, your thighs came close to his face and kept him caged in. "Close, Ton. You're always so good for me."

Anton nodded and continued the motion. He guided you easily, through your body shaking above him. He still continued to suck, until your thighs shook around his head. When you looked down at him Anton kept going, even when you tried lifting your body again he kept you there. He was so close, he just needed a little more. His hands on your waist was rough, he could see your skin dimpling underneath his fingers. He vocalized how he needed you to hold on, but it was hard to break through your noises and how your body was muffling him. 

When you finally froze above him, Anton could taste all of you. He continued sucking even when you pulled even harder at his hair. You had to shake your head and cry out to finally get him to stop. You melted above him, it was Anton who had to lift you off of his face. He watched you stagger on your knees forward, he tiled his head to follow your movements until you were leaning against the edge of the couch.

Both of you had to catch your breath. Anton sat up fully to see you mold into the couch, your chest raising and lowering. He was a little bit more composed, save for the way his hair stuck to his forehead and his entire face glistening with you and sweat.

"Did that help with your writers block?"

Suddenly, everything hits Anton at once. He stands up from the couch, still painfully hard and face flushed, leaving you in your seat. Anton peaks past the doorway of his bedroom to stare directly at you.

"Don't leave." He says quickly before disappearing past the doorframe.

Anton woke up from the sun coming through his window. He forgot to draw the blinds last night, leaving him blinking and already fighting through a headache. He blinked to try and adjust to the light, moving from his side to the other. His door was open. He remembered closing it last night. He also remembered you being on the bed next to him, but he went to sleep knowing you wouldn’t be here in the morning. Still while he faced the open door his other hand mindlessly ran over the spot you were laying last night. He still felt a crater in the sheets where you laid and he swore you left your perfume there too. When he took a deep breath in he could smell you, and he could still taste you too. 

When he looked past the open door he could see the mess you two left in the living room. There was a moment you two were having a heart to heart and the next you were pushing things off the coffee table. His expensive glass fruit bowl was surely chipped if not broken, and he had his throw pillows and blankets laying on the floor. He was still waking up when the buzzing sound from across the bed pulled his attention back to his room. Anton had to crawl over your side of his bed to his nightstand, unplugging his phone and mindlessly unlocking it.

He meandered on the homescreen, blinking constantly as he tried to jumpstart his mind. He even looked away from his phone completely for a moment, focusing on the quiet of his room as he let his thoughts come back to him. He remembered what he was doing the moment his eyes landed on his home studio. He looked at the turn tables and his computer screen that was still awake. He still had the file he was working on open. Anton recalled the song as he clicked on Wonbin’s phone number in his call log.

Anton brought his phone to his face and listened to it ring. He went back down to laying on his bed, one side pressed into the mattress as he kept his phone balanced on the other side. Anton even let his eyes close again as the phone continued to ring. He let out a yawn, fully expecting to catch Wonbin’s voicemail instead of catching him.

“I was calling you last night.” Wonbin says.

Anton still keeps his eyes closed as he hums an acknowledgment into the transmission. Wonbin doesn’t continue to pry even at the clear sign of disrespect, both of them already know what Anton is about to say.

“I have a new song.” Anton could practically hear Wonbin on the other end of the line sigh in relief. Anton imagined Sohee was there with him, the two crowded around the receiver of the phone trying to see who can hear the good news first. He imagines the two of them hitting eachother in excitement at the thought of releasing something new. Anton opens his eyes to look at his computer screen again. He finally feels the embarrassment as he recalls the inspiration he got for the song. He clears his throat, trying to will the memories away. “Come by and I can play it for you guys.” He says.

Anton didn’t have time to clean up his place before the two of them arrived. It seemed as though Wonbin and Sohee were waiting on his call. Within ten minutes he already got the text from Wonbin that they were outside. Anton only had five minutes to light an incense and try to desperately clean up the mess you two made the night prior. He ended up stuffing somethings into his closet, there were still shards of glass on the floor when the two were knocking on his door. 

When Anton opened his door the two barely spared a greeting, instead making a beeline past Anton’s mess of a common area to his bedroom. He saw Wonbin’s attention scatter across his terribly cleaned mess, speaking over his shoulder as Anton closed the distance between them.

“Your place usually isn’t this much of a mess, Anton.” Wonbin says casually.

Anton watches Wonbin’s attention stay on the jostled throw pillows and blanket on his couch. Anton’s face heats up when he remembers the night before. After you rode his face, the rest of the night was a blur. What you two did after that came in snatches. When Anton followed Wonbin’s gaze around his apartment he remembered it. Your hand planted on the back of the couch and the other clutching at the armrest as he fucked you from behind. He remembered the feeling of your sweaty shoulder clasped in his palm as he kept you driving backwards and the way you looked back at what he was doing to you.

“This usually happens to artists when they work on a project.” Sohee says matter-of-factly. 

Wonbin stops walking and looks at the back of Sohee’s head. Anton stops behind Wonbin and Sohee stops right before he walks past the threshold of Anton’s door. 

Anton feels like at any moment their attention will go to the mess and ask why it looks like a tornado ripped through his apartment. Anton almost feels relief that the two decided to bother eachother instead.

Anton watches Sohee give Wonbin his snooty know-it-all look, the one that always drives Wonbin crazy. Instead of responding, Wonbin only drives his finger into Sohee’s side. Sohee instinctually reaches forward to return the favor, causing Wonbin to back up on reflex before reaching forward to try and prod his side again. Anton watches the two of them try and fight. 

They don’t stop until Anton clears his throat and points towards his room. Almost immediately Sohee and Wonbin come to their senses to walk towards Anton’s room. Wonbin pokes Sohee’s side one more time as a joke, causing all three of them to laugh.

When Sohee goes into Anton’s room, he heads to the bed first. Anton tries to be calm seeing Sohee sit in the same spot on the edge of the bed you occupied not even twelve hours ago. Sohee unknowingly sets his backpack next to him, right on top of the pile where your discarded clothes rested before. Anton had to push past Wonbin, remaining neutral as he prepped the song to be played.

Anton trailed behind the two of them, and had to remain neutral at the sight of Wonbin doing a once over of the ground. Anton panicked and did the same, praying that he picked up all evidence of the night he had. When Wonbin’s eyes lingered on a crumbled shirt that looked a size to small, Anton cleared his thought. When his face went hot again he focused back on the computer, letting the sound of Sohee moving on his unmade bed fill the silence.

“When’d you finish this?” Sohee asked.

Anton looked back briefly. He saw Sohee playfully kick his feet that dangled over the edge of Anton’s bed as he leaned back onto the mattress. Anton forced himself to focus on clicking through the files on his desktop not looking back again. 

“Uhm. Last night.” Anton mumbled.

He felt bad for his non-assuming friend, how he had no idea he sat in the same spot where you were pathetically drooling onto his mattress the night before. The thought made Anton the complete opposite of how he was in that moment, he could only shyly nod his head when Sohee made a sound of acknowledgment.

Wonbin moved to the same spot beside the bed where Anton got down on his knees and draped your legs over his shoulders.

“Let’s hear it.” He said.

Anton pressed play and adjusted the volume, letting the beginning play. As the instrumental picked up Anton sheepishly described the type of song he had in mind for the beat. He prayed Sohee and Wonbin didn’t pick up on the deep bass immediately. He tried desperately to beat around the bush to such an extent that Sohee and Wonbin would come up with their own interpretation. 

“It’s on the slower side, but I think we could have really hard hitting lyrics here.” Anton said while making an encompassing motion with his hands.

Anton was grateful that his bandmates didn’t notice the flustered tone or his nervous habit of speaking with his hands. Sohee was thinking about the vocal color he needed for this song and Anton could already see Wonbin crafting the lyrics in his head. The true inspiration of the song seemed to go over their heads for a moment—Anton started easing as they nodded along approvingly to the beat. 

He believed he was in the clear, but when the chorus of the song came around and the sound of a bed creaking played through the speakers of Anton’s computer his bandmates froze. Anton saw Sohee and Wonbin exchange a side eye. Sohee’s legs that dangled over the edge of Anton’s bed stopped kicking suddenly and his head tilted to the side. Wonbin’s mouth dropped and he pulled his hand away from his face. 

Both of them were pulled from their reverie, looking up from the ground to look Anton dead in the eye.

“What type of song is this?” Wonbin asked.

Anton watched Sohee slowly turn around to take in Anton’s unmade bed. He could practically saw the lightbulb go off above his bandmates head as he watched Sohee look over the jostled covers and the folded pillow still laying in the center of the bed. Sohee slowly lifted his hands from the mattress and sat upright and turned back to Anton just as slow.

“No way.” Sohee says in disbelief.

At Anton’s reddening face and Sohee’s agape mouth Wonbin did a once over again. When the lightbulb went off over his head he begins laughing so hard he has to bend over and hold his chest. 

“Unbelievable.” Wonbin wipes the tears from his face. “Unbelievable.”

[quasi-normalcy]

So there's this thread on the Star Trek subreddit asking everyone what exactly they don't like about Discovery, and, inevitably, most of the answers are pretty bland, surface-level whining about "people crying" or whatever (something that famously has never happened before on Star Trek)

(He's just rubbing his eyes, don't mind him)

But I actually wanted to get into the weeds of it a fair amount, and so I wrote a post that became way longer than I anticipated. So below (specifying first that I don't actually hate it by any means), here's my in-depth critique of Discovery as a science fiction writer and fan:

Basically issue is this: much has been written about how Star Trek is a utopian future, a positive vision for humanity and yada yada yada…and all of these things are true. And in fact, I believe that Discovery—after its first season, at least—fits into this tradition. And I’m glad that this is true of Star Trek; I wouldn’t like it half as much if it were like, say, Babylon 5, or Battlestar Galactica.

But.

Star Trek is also fundamentally a science fiction story. And more to the point, it’s a specific kind of science fiction story: it’s science fiction in the vein of Isaac Asimov. When it works, a good Star Trek story—like a good Asimov story—works as a sort of a mystery or riddle or logic puzzle. Our heroes are faced with some problem, and we, the audience, are given clues to the solution. And if we, and the heroes, are clever, our perspective on the problem shifts and there’s this beautiful Aha! moment when suddenly everything falls into place.

Why is the Horta killing those miners?  It’s a mother protecting her young.

Why does everyone keep disappearing on Beverly? The don’t; she’s the one who disappeared, all of this is a false reality, and her friends are trying desperately to save her.

How are they going to bring the Romulans into the war? By making it look like the Dominion murdered their senator.

Now, not all Star Treks (nor all Asimov stories, honestly) fit into this mould. Sometimes the problem is poorly set up; sometimes the solution doesn’t really make sense. Too often, they’re just technobabble problems with technobabble solutions and you’re just left wondering why anyone should care. And indeed, some of the very best Star Trek episodes have an entirely different structure. Like I think that “Living Witness” is honestly the best Star Trek story ever told, and it doesn’t even try to fit into the mould. Nor does “Family”. Nor does “Bar Association” or any number of my other favourite episodes. But I still think that this is the baseline Star Trek plot: clever people in space encountering problems—whether scientific, diplomatic, political, engineering, or moral—and solving them by being clever.

This applies, by the way, even when it’s not really the main thrust of the episode. Like in the latest season of Prodigy, there’s this episode where the gang are taken prisoner by the Vau N’Akat, and Jankom has his prosthetic hand confiscated by them. How do they get out? Jankom reprograms a tricorder and hacks his own prosthetic hand! It’s a minor plot point but it’s clever and it’s fun to watch, because it plays fair with what we’ve established about the universe and the characters and how technology works here.

So then. Getting back to Discovery, my issue, straightforwardly, is that I doesn’t really have this plot structure. I mean, it does sometimes—I think that the solution to “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” is very Asimovian, and I can see how the outline of it in the resolution to the Klingon War, though I don’t think they really sold the solution. But it seems more or less absent after season one. I can’t think of a single moment in the last four seasons (and maybe this would change if I watched them again, but that won’t be for another few years at least) where I could point at the screen and say: “Aha! That was clever!”

It’s not that it’s dumb writing, by the way! Often times, particularly in season 4, the scriptwriters go out of their way to show their work (or, well…Dr. Erin Macdonald’s work, let’s be honest) to render their scripts scientifically plausible. But they feel somehow…paint by numbers.

Like, I liked season 4! It was my favourite! I think that the 10C were a cool concept and that the episode where they communicate with them was the best in the series. But did anyone ever seriously doubt how it would play out? The 10C didn’t know they were hurting people; we talk to them; we work out a mutually beneficial compromise. For Star Trek, that’s pretty much a stock plot; except here, it last 13 episodes. Or “Whistlespeak”; Michael and Tilly beam down to this jungle planet, participate in a ritual race…is there any chance that this won’t end in human sacrifice? Again, it’s competently executed, but it’s nothing new; nothing clever; nothing that makes me point at the screen and say “Aha!” The entire final season was a scavenger hunt literally based on solving riddles, and none of these riddles really rose above an escape room level. And what’s worse, none of these riddles really required elements that had been introduced beforehand. It never really felt like they were playing fair with us.

And ultimately, I think that all of this is a manifestation of the big, overwhelming problem with Discovery: everything—plot, character, worldbuilding—is driven entirely by theme. “We want to do a season on xenophobia / authoritarianism / COVID anxiety / etc.” Okay, well then this, this, and this need to happen, this character needs to act this way because they represent this, and then this needs to happen to convey this message. There’s no roomfor the story or characters to evolve organically; there’s no room for play. And that’s what this kind of cleverness is: it’s play. It’s the writers picking up the pieces that they’ve laid out and finding clever ways to use them. It’s the writers having fun. And if the writers are having fun, then the show is fun, and the audience is having fun! But if you just pick a theme and subordinate the logic of character, plot, and world to advancing this theme, it just becomes a sort of dour ritualistic pantomime, even when fun is had on screen.

Anyways, that’s my take.

[nightsky652]

Yandere Prodigy

Her name is Aqua, she is a prodigy.

She is a quiet and serious girl, also considered a kuudere. She doesn't show her emotions, but her words and actions make her obvious infatuation with you.

She is a little tall, has long blue hair, and gray eyes. She is quite beautiful, typically dressing in long dresses.

A super genius with an IQ over 200, considered one of the brightest minds of the century. She excels in mathematics, physics, chemistry, economics, medicine, and law. Her abilities surpass those of normal persons.

Since childhood, she found everything boring and didn't get along with other kids. She was different, not playing with toys or engaging in childish activities. She preferred reading over playing with others.

She saw everything in gray until she met you, a cheerful kid who, like everyone else, enjoyed playing childish games. However, she saw something different in you, something that caught her attention. It was as if you were the only point of color in a world of gray. She wanted to know more about you, to find out why you were completely different from everyone else.

Years later, after observing you from afar for a long time, she finally discovered it was love. Realizing she was in love, she also became aware of all the strange things she had been doing while trying to figure out the reason you were so different. This included collecting your hair, observing you from a distance, measuring you while you slept, among many other things. However, she knew she couldn't stop; she wanted to know everything about you.

Her great intelligence also helps her get closer to you. She knows your schedule by heart, where you'll be at every moment of the day, allowing her to find you whenever she wants.

In high school, she was considered a worldwide genius, participating in international competitions and excelling in math without needing to study. She took advantage of her position as a genius to become a tutor, with a clear goal in mind: to become your tutor.

It's normal for you to struggle with an exam or a topic from time to time. When that happens, she jumps at the opportunity to offer help with your studies, using it as a chance to spend more time together, go to your house, and stay up late studying together.

Being skilled with computers and programming, she can hack into your account to see your school schedule, know which classes you'll have and with whom. She uses this information to adjust her schedule so that you have most to all classes together, helping you with any questions you may have during class.

She also uses her hacking skills to access your computer and account, having access to your history and front camera. She loves watching you through it, especially when you put on a cute face while concentrating on reading or when you laugh at a video. She doesn't regret learning to program and hack just to do these things.

She uses your history to research topics you like, making it easier to talk to you about these things. It also helps her find a gift you might really like for your birthday or in Christmas, ensuring she updates her information about you from time to time.

She enjoys playing video games, and when you were younger, she used to go to your house to play with you. She was very good at it, practicing to beat you every time because she found it adorable how you concentrated when trying to win or when you lost.

She studies hard to fulfill her future plan, which involves having you always by her side. Despite her natural talent and prodigy, she dedicates herself to achieving this dream.

In the future, she will create her own company, becoming the CEO, and it will become an international-level company in a short time thanks to her well-planned strategies and skills in economics. The company will sell some of the revolutionary inventions she has created.

Once she is the CEO and her company has enough power, she will have everything she needs to keep you always by her side. She will offer you a job, a well-paid position as her personal assistant. You won't be able to refuse the offer; it has too many benefits.

Once you start working for her, you will sign a confidentiality agreement, but there were some small print and legal gaps that worked to her advantage, which you didn't notice.

The contract was to prevent you from sharing information about her or the company, but mainly to prevent you from reporting her for the things she was going to do. Violating the contract would have serious consequences.

The small print of the contract included that you had to be available to help her 24/7, requiring you to move practically next to her if you lived on your own, with your family, or with your girlfriend.

Another small print included the duration of your contract, about 10 years. You cannot resign during this time, or you would violate the contract and face legal problems.

In summary, the contract worked in her favor, and once signed, she would have you in the palm of her hand for a decade. She would make you renew the contract without you realizing it if she deemed it necessary, in case you hadn't learned by then that you belonged to her.

If you were to reject the job despite the absurd benefits presented, she would be a bit concerned because she thought you would accept instantly. However, she had already planned what to do in that situation, so there would be no problem.

In case you rejected her job offer, she would take care of tarnishing your name and putting you on the blacklist of any company or place you applied to work at. No matter how much you studied or if you had a degree or a doctorate, no one would want to go against a big company like the one she owns, so you would be constantly rejected from the jobs you applied to.

You would inevitably end up crawling back to her feet, after falling into despair and being rejected from every job, you begged for the position she offered you earlier. Aqua would act hard to get, but only to pressure you into accepting the new contract she made for you, thicker than the previous one, with more restrictions for you. Being desperate for the job, you would be more likely to sign anything she gave you.

After seeing how you resisted the first time, she wanted to make sure it didn't happen again or prevent it as much as possible. This new contract would help her keep you under control.

As her assistant, you would spend most of the time with her in her private office. She could work while staring at you, and although it would make you uncomfortable, you couldn't do anything to make her stop. She was your boss, and she could do anything she wanted. After signing and discovering some clauses you didn't read well, you began to doubt if accepting the job was a good idea.

One advantage of your contract with her is that you have several days of vacation, despite being a newcomer. You might try to use one of these days to get away from your boss and rest from her penetrating gaze. You could even go with your girlfriend and enjoy time together, if you're still together, but you didn't take into account that there was a legal gap in the contract. As you had to be available 24/7 as her assistant, you could only go on vacation if she went with you, something she would surely do.

If you don't have a girlfriend, she will suggest that you share a room, offering to pay for the room, saying that you deserve it for working so hard. Although her true intentions are to choose the hotel where you will stay, so she can make modifications thanks to her contacts. For example, accidentally having a confusion and ending up sleeping in a room with a double bed instead of two, or asking to install a secret camera in the shower so she can record and watch you shower. She would treasure that recording like a treasure; these are just some of the things she can do.

If you still have a girlfriend, your boss will accompany you, regardless of whether it bothers your girlfriend or not. It's in the contract, after all. She will suggest a hotel owned by one of the company's partners because it is a prestigious hotel, and they will get a considerable discount. In the hotel, she will use her influence to ruin the moments you and your girlfriend can have together, and to hurt her.

At night, you won't be able to sleep or be together peacefully because apparently the upstairs and next-door floors are under construction, and the noise of drills, hammers, and others won't let you sleep peacefully. Also, during meals, the waiters might "accidentally" trip and spill food or drinks on your girlfriend, ruining the elegant clothes she brought for your date at this beautiful hotel.

If these small annoyances are not enough to separate you, she will take more extreme measures. If any accident were to happen in the hotel, it could easily be covered up by the hotel owner. There would be no witnesses, and security videos would mysteriously be deleted. It's the perfect place to get rid of the woman who has what she has desired so much.

Your new home would be quite nice; it's an apartment on the same floor and building as Aqua. It's a very nice and exclusive place with a lot of security. Thanks to the generous salary from your new job, you can afford it. You are obligated to live there; according to the contract, you must always be close in case your boss needs you.

Naturally, your room would be monitored through the hidden cameras she installed before you moved in. If she thought you might bring your girlfriend, she could prevent you from getting too comfortable and would call you immediately for help with something as her assistant. You would have to go with her at that moment, ruining the quality time you had planned to spend with your girlfriend.

Since she can't spend time with your girlfriend because you have to live next to your boss, and every time she visits, there seems to be an urgent matter that forces you to leave, your relationship won't last long, just as Aqua had planned. She would take advantage of your sadness after the breakup to get closer to you.

[therollinkaagenda]

Kalinka navigation notes from Mega Man 4

The GameCube MegaMan anniversary collection included a few unique features, one of which was adding optional 'navigaters'- hint systems introduced in X5(?) That involve a character calling you at certain points when enabled in the settings - in this case similar to calling Roll in Megaman and Bass, being activated by simply pausing.

What is most exciting about this feature is that in mm4, it gives a ton of new dialogue to one of my favorite characters and one of the series most criminally underutilized: Kalinka Cossack. I intend to analyze and overanalyze every one of these calls over the course of my playthrough; after all, this is debatably canon and probably contains more lines for her than all of the other classic series games combined.

This is NOT a transcript, just notes on what Kalinka is saying during my playthrough and my occasional thoughts about it, and I will be skipping over repeated advice or otherwise uninteresting dialogue, and condensing similar points into one note.

General:

-Kalinka is likely responsible for establishing this call, despite being captured by Dr. Wily. This likely involved creating a communication device compatible with Rock's receivers, masking it's signal, and making it a video call for fun I guess, all under her genius captor's nose. It's possible that she had help from protoman, but i suspect that she did most of the mechanical stuff - after all this game puts her intelligence on full display

- another major point is that Kalinka can see where MegaMan is, what he is doing, and what obstacles are ahead of him- I'm not sure whether she somehow is receiving feedback from Rock's sensors, hacking security cameras and other equipment, or some other third thing,, but either way is impressive in it's own right

- Kalinka seems to know how the vast majority of robots work, but often doesn't know the actual names of enemies. Because of this, it seems she doesn't seem to be reading from any type of manual or guide, and limited prior knowledge - meaning she is likely coming up with the majority of her advice on the spot. This makes the accuracy of her statements quite impressive.

- this will become more apparent as I recount more examples, but this game paints Kalinka as a sort of genius prodigy - seems like she learned a lot from her father, but she is brilliant in her own right too

- Kalinka will occasionally speak as if she was fighting instead of Megaman, especially later in the game (ex: 'what if I used X weapon). This is most likely a series of typos, but I feel like it's worth mentioning

Toad Man:

-Kalinka is immediately able to tell for certain that the wind is strong enough to push Rock around despite him being a robot, before he ever tries to jump; same mostly applies to the effects of water flows later in the level.

-Kalinka knows that the snail miniboss is vulnerable when it's eyes are open

-Kalinka not only has a general idea of what Toad Man's weakness is, but also knows that he's freaking pathetic

Bright Man:

- I don't know why Kalinka is introducing herself now, but I guess that the Dev's thought most people would start with Bright Man??? Toad man is right there???

-Kalinka seems to already know how the enemies in bright Man's stage affect the lighting

-Kalinka not only knows how dangerous spikes are, but that the grasshopper robots are safe to ride on and will move in a predictable pattern

- upon seeing the split path in the stage, she knows that nothing to important is on the bottom path, and when exploring the bottom path she wants you that you may not be able to return if you don't have energy for Rush

- on the main path, she will warn you about hitting the lightbulb enemies and about the falling red platforms

-Kalinka knows that Bright Man is weak to water, and that being in the air during the time freeze makes you less vulnerable to his attacks

Pharaoh Man:

- Kalinka will immediately warn Rock about the quicksand

-Kalinka will once again inform you that jumping on certain enemies is necessary to proceed, with some additional caution reflecting that these robots have projectiles. During the final section, she will advise you to take the higher platforms

- Kalinka pretty much successfully deduces Pharaoh Man's weakness, in this case it's made clear that she is coming up with this on the spot.

Ring Man

- Kalinka knows how the rainbow platforms (and their alternative later in the level) work

- Kalinka explains how to deal with the hippo minibosses, and later that the rain flush ruins them

- Kalinka explains how to defeat the Whopper minibosses, and later that they can bet skipped with a time freeze

- Kalinka knows that the mono loaders will be one-shot by charge shots

- Kalinka knows that Ring Man is weaked by heat, and advises you on how to avoid his attacks

Dust Man

- Kalinka immediately tells Mega Man to hit sheild attackers from behind

- Kalinka warns Rock about enemies launched from bottomless pits

- Kalinka informed Rock of appearing platforms

- Kalinka warns Rock about the Press

- Kalinka tells Rock how to deal with breakable blocks, and seems to be working with Beat (Beat acts as a series of arrow signs in this game)

- Kalinka gives a detailed idea of how to avoid Dust Man's attacks, but only has a vague idea about his weakness

Skull Man

- Kalinka tells Mega Man to use charge shots against Zato, and that only charge shots work on Skeleton Joes

- Kalinka tells Rock that one enemy is only vulnerable from the front

- Kalinka warns Rock about caterpillar enemies

- Kalinka seems to know relatively little about Skull Man compared to the other robot masters, as both her idea of what his weakness is and her advice for fighting him, while accurate, are rather short. This seems to support the idea that skull man was built specifically for fighting MegaMan as per Wily's demands

Dive Man

- Kalinka warns of enemies in the water

- Kalinka states that uncharged attacks are more effective against moby, and that it's vulnerable to flash stopper

- knows that mega man can't defeat the jellyfish robots

- Kalinka knows how mega man operates in water

- Kalinka gives Rock advice about dodging dive man's attacks. Interestingly, she recommends using the normal buster- this may be more evidence that she doesn't know Skull Man, or perhaps she just knows that using the skull barrier against Dive Man is very risky

Drill Man

- Kalinka tells Megaman about the map

- Kalinka advices that Rock defeats a crusher enemy with rapid fire

- Kalinka recommends using charge shots against the blue enemies

- Kalinka gives Rock advice about dealing with the dust shoots that drop rocks

- Kalinka tells Rock how to use the switchs

- Kalinka tells Rock to move when Drill Man is underground, and recommends using a weapon that is 'sure to capture', an odd but useful hint towards his weakness

IMPORTANT: Kalinka seems to acknowledge that Drill Man is the final stage in my playthrough - unsurprisingly, it seems likely that her dialogue may change slightly depending on the order the stages are completed. However, I have yet to confirm this and do not know the extent to which it happens if true.

Cossack Fortress 1

- Kalinka advises Megaman on how he can deal with the local ice physics. She also admits that they caused her to slip once

- Kalinka tells Rock when he needs to use Rush Coil or Balloon to proceed, and recommends using the Rush jet

- Kalinka tells Rock how avoid the moth bosses attacks and counterattack

Cossack Fortress 2

- Kalinka shows excitement when MegaMan enters the fortress proper, and asks him to help her and her father

- Kalinka tells Rock when the Rush jet is nessisary, saying 'all I have is a Rush Jet...', which i assume is a figure of speech but it's really funny to imagine that she just. Has a rush jet. No Rush, just the jet for Rush. And has somehow used that for everything she does in this game

- Kalinka tells Rock how to traverse the spike blocks, and that he can skip some with a balloon

- Kalinka tells Rock that certain walls can be destroyed by the drill bomb

- Kalinka tells Rock how to damage the room boss

Cossack Fortress 3

- Kalinka directly addresses the auto scrolling segment, ('here the background moves by itself') breaking the fourth wall

- Kalinka tells Megaman to defeat an otherwise invulnerable enemy with Dust Crusher (there seems to be a typo)

- Kalinka tells Rock how the golden platforms work, and how to use them

- Kalinka knows that this boss is weak to pharaoh shot, and asks mega man to defeat it quickly

Cossack Fortress 4

- Kalinka tells Megaman about a shortcut

- Kalinka states that Rock is the only one who can save her father...

- unlike any previous bosses, Kalinka gives no advice about fighting Dr. Cossack at all, and doesn't contact you during the battle. This is likely because she is being saved by Protoman

Wily fortress 1

- Kalinka thanks Megaman and promises to use the data she got from Wily's base to continue supporting him

- Kalinka warns Rock that the stage has a large number of metaurs

- Kalinka advises Rock on how best to deal with the disappearing blocks

- Kalinka gives advice on avoiding attacks from the metaur boss

Wily fortress 2

- Kalinka warns Megaman about the large number of spikes in the stage

- Kalinka gives a detailed description of how to deal with the boss

Wily fortress 3

- Kalinka states that Megaman is close to Wily and offers encouragement

- Kalinka affirms the the robot masters have the same weaknesses in the rematches

- Kalinka tells Rock how to use the Drill Bomb against the boss (it's worded poorly but I'll chalk it up to a typo)

Wily fortress 4

- Kalinka losses connection with Megaman, which smells like the Devs wanted to troll players by not telling them that the final boss can only be hurt by the fully charged Pharoh Shot, which would have been the single best thing for the hint system added in the remake to tell you. For shame devs, for shame.

------

If anyone has additional information or caught something I missed, it would be appreciated. While this project may have not been a direct addition to Rollinka, it's still greatly reaffirms much of what I already knew about Kalinka's character, and may be a useful resource for anyone writing Kalinka - which is like, half of writing Rollinka, so I think it's worth posting here.

[buzzdixonwriter]

The End Of An Error

AI is good for crunching large amounts of data to find patterns within it. Humans then need to analyze those patterns. For research, it might be extremely useful. However, since most of us here are creators of one stripe or another, I'll focus on what it's doing there. It's wreaking havoc among musicians who previously found some sort of steady, reliable income through Spotify and other streaming services. AI generated music crowds out all but well established acts and old standards; musicians struggling to break through find their support in live performances and merchandise. AI generated blog posts and emails are already dominating those venues, perversely causing more and more people to ignore them. In fiction writing it enables mediocre writers to hack out acceptable mediocre genre fiction at prodigious rates. There, too, it will eventually undermine itself as discerning readers look for something more original and idiosyncratic. Original writers will need to put more time into promoting / marketing themselves, and the revenues will probably dip the way they have for musicians, but the ones who weather through it will survive. Artists are already being hard hit. Top line design jobs will still go to humans who can understand the wants and needs of other humans, but for lots of lower level art jobs it will be easier to generate / steal art (full disclosure: I gleefully swipe AI generated art when I find something that fits my fictoids when I post them on my blog; unlike public domain art I post, the AI prompters get no credit or recognition). The next big sh!t hammer to fall will be AI video. Already passable short films have been made using AI generated clips skillfully edited together.

 It helps that most of these are short-shorts of a horror / sci-fi / fantasy nature since AI’s inability to remain consistent can play into the air of unreality found in those genres.  Once AI learns how to stay on model it will be a major game changer. Elsewhere I've said I have no objection against people using AI for personal amusement, creating their own music videos, mashing up art, creating political satire, etc. But doing that is going to undermine mass media by creating user-specific content. What that will do culturally is anybody's guess; what happens to cultural touchstones when there isn't one version of Gilligan's Island but a three hundred million? There's a lot of practical uses real artists can find for AI (musicians trying out different orchestrations, artists doing a variety of concepts before settling on the one they want to develop, writers creating prompts for themselves, etc.) but it's already disrupting the creative sphere.

 © Buzz Dixon

[itsbenedict]

Bullet Proof: Postmortem

Waaaay back in the day, when I was 19 and I'd just discovered Dangan Ronpa (back when we put the space in the title, because all we had was the Orenronen LP and we called Ultimates "Super High-School Levels"), I decided to do my own. That was the heyday of forum adventures on the MSPA Forums, and there were no standards. I didn't know how to draw, but I decided to learn. I wanted to make a thing!

I got a good ways into it, honestly! It went through a few format changes, skipping over a couple cases in the middle in an abridged format on Tumblr, but I'd finally found my groove for the fourth case, playable from the perspective of the murderer. It was going well!

Then the MSPA Forums got hacked and the admins didn't keep any backups and everything was lost.

So that sucked! And once it became clear they were never going to recover the forums due to a mix of security incompetence and not giving a shit, I didn't really have a choice but to try and reboot it. I'd lost all the text, apart from a few garbled pages from a corrupted archive snapshot.

But... I've got way too much else I want to do at this point, and it's not looking too likely I'm going to have the time to come back to it. So if you want to know everything about what happened and where it was going...

You've clicked the readmore. So you do want to know all that. Here goes! Activate theme music.

You remember how it opened, right? It was a forum adventure, and at the time, I asked the readers to select an SHSL talent and gender as the protagonist entered the American branch of Hope's Peak Academy.

That was diegetic. "Alice Bayko" was an SHSL Impostor, or- I actually kinda waffled on having her not technically be SHSL anything, as she infiltrated the school with a false identity. She has, however, forgotten this, and her original identity and mission, leaving her with nothing but the mask. I believe there was a scene planned, or maybe a scene that did happen, I forget- where Alice would be called upon to demonstrate some sort of stage magic trick... and completely not know how to do any of that.

But what was she up to?

Well, that's a good question, with a complicated answer. Let's start pulling back the layers, here.

Seventeen students, and of the seventeen... somewhere between six and nine of them could be considered secret masterminds. Hilariously, I seem to have ordered this old banner issue in order of who's the most technically the ultimate mastermind, which was very cheeky of me. Would've been fun if someone ever caught that.

Let's start with...

Mastermind Level 1: Disguise

This creepy kid, SHSL Prodigy Billy Bookerton, was supposed to be the original secret mastermind in charge of the school. As came up in the adventure proper, this iteration of Hope's Peak was intended to be a safehouse from the ongoing despair apocalypse pictured in the Danganronpa canon. The son of the headmaster, he would control their Monokuma puppet and be in charge of faking to the outside world that this Monokuma-themed airship was in fact a murder-happy despair cult (like everywhere else on Earth somehow.)

This was not supposed to be a secret to the student body. And this 27-year-old man was not supposed to wake up in the body of a malnourished child and pose as a student. After events occurred, he found himself like this, with a note in his own handwriting instructing him to lay low and play this role.

What events occurred?

Mastermind Level 2: Blackmail

Also explained in the adventure proper, since these two were culprit and victim of the playable case 4: Gwendolyn and Ursula Schultheiss, SHSL Sysadmin and SHSL Retro Gamer nothing at all. Gwen was admitted to Hope's Peak on the basis of an actual talent, and pretty quickly gained control of their computer systems, sneaking Ursula in under the guise of Sakura Aran, and learning about the plan to escape Ultimate Despair by disguising the school and taking to the sky.

She thought that plan was really stupid.

Specifically, she thought Ultimate Despair was a flash in the pan, and it was ridiculous to think that some student riots all the way in Japan posed some sort of apocalyptic threat. (In her defense, this is a reasonable thing to think! It is ridiculous! Danganronpa's worldbuilding is fucking nonsense! But unfortunately for her, we're rolling with it.)

So she and Ursula hatched a plan to get rich. Hope's Peak is full of the progeny of the super-rich, like the Bright conglomerate. Obviously people like this would have loads of incriminating secrets, with which they could be blackmailed, and by which they would deserve to be blackmailed because screw those nepo babies. The plan was to run a Deception Game, not a Killing Game- they'd steal Billy's remote-control scary apocalypse terrorist, and pit everyone against each other in a contest to uncover each other's darkest secrets.

Once they had the dirt, they'd pretend to lose control and land the ship somewhere safe and sound, and Hope's Peak could deal with the scandal of the Monokuma hijacking and the consequences of their bonkers overreaction to some airhead fashionista's trendy protest.

If you recall, their plan went like this:

Each of them assumed that the other had somehow betrayed them and hijacked the school's systems on their own- Ursula retained control of the damaged Monokuma puppet, and Gwen retreated to her secret closet base to try and wrest control of the systems back from whatever super-hacker Ursula found to compromise her control. It took Gwen a few chapters (and accidentally murdering her sister) to realize that there was a...

Mastermind Level 3: Reality TV

It all started with SHSL Heir Henry Bright, heir to the Bright Conglomerate and active vice director of the company. Specifically, he directed vice. The Bright Conglomerate, in his opinion, did things too by-the-book, and were passing up big opportunities for growth in the organized crime sector. He was fostering connections with the Hit Deck (which led to the altercation that led to his and Dominique Martine's deaths in case 2), and...

Unlike Gwen, he didn't think the emergence of Ultimate Despair was nonsense. No, it was a growth opportunity. His plan was to invite a film crew to the airship and broadcast an exciting (fake) killing game to pander to this emerging despair-based market! With illicit funds provided by his contact in the Hit Deck (in exchange for his help securing a place on the ark for the Hit Deck's boss and trusted confidantes, posing as students), he assembled a team. Bribed some students, located an SHSL Doctor and some effects artists for realistic murder effects, did some networking, and...

...well, word gets around. The team he put together had bigger ambitions. A creative vision. One that had no room for executive meddling. They cut him out of the production team and forced him into the cast.

(I'm honestly not sure if this layer of convolution was necessary- I was on the fence about cutting him from the cast. The show's team might've found out about the school just because Gwen and Sakura screwed up the school's stealth measures. He's gotta kind of be there to explain the Hit Deck's presence, though, since aside from Dom none of them were actual Ultimates.)

Realer Reality TV

Before I reveal the members of the final mastermind tier, let's go over how they did this.

I never ended up using this portrait, but this is Davi Rossi, SHSL Doctor, though he prefers "Ultimate Necromancer". He's a graduate of the original Hope's Peak in Japan, and his technology is the cornerstone of the whole setup here- underneath the school, in the restricted areas in the body of the ship, he has a whole secret lab with vats of glowy chemicals and fancy futuristic surgical tools.

He can bring back the dead.

Well, sort of. He can do all sorts of repairs on ordinary tissues- lose a limb, get a vital organ mashed up, bleed out, he can fix that. He can make alterations to the body, too- such as surgically reverting someone's apparent age, or implanting remote-control death chips, or strategically weakening someone's skull.

He can even fix a certain degree of brain damage- the kind of stuff that might occur if you suffer blunt force trauma or total deoxygenation, where the brain is still mostly intact.

As a result, most victims are recoverable. When someone dies, he can bring them back again and again. However: he can't fully reconstitute the brain, and he has a number of limitations when it comes to working with it:

If the brain is completely torn apart or otherwise destroyed, he cannot revive the victim.

He can't directly mind-control anyone, nor can he insert false memories.

He can delete and rearrange memories, but not read minds, and memory deletion is episodic- he can't mess with specific facts, only spans of time.

I think I... also made an exception so he could delete specific people? Which is clunky and doesn't really make sense in hindsight.

There's still a lot you can do by cutting up and rearranging the filmstrip of someone's memory- but except in one specific case, he only ever really used it to delete the last loop.

In case it wasn't obvious, this isn't the first killing game. This show has multiple seasons. It's been going a while- and while injuries that destroy the brain are rare, they're not nonexistent, and so there's quite a few students who died before the story began. There used to be a lot more students! That's why all the dorm rooms have bunkbeds!

And there's also unfortunately the one who received a fatal injury in this loop by blowing himself up with an improvised explosive device. Sorry, Mill!

(There's actually only a few people physically present running the show, since the show's been running for years now and they found that they really didn't need more than a skeleton crew to run it- Davi and some student plants, along with Monokuma drones and countless hidden cameras, are all that's necessary for production on the ground. There's no adult film crew present on the ship.)

(♪ Kids with guns. Kids with guns. Taking over. But they won't be long. ♪)

Davi is also responsible for rigging up the masterminds with the mental control rigs for the two Monokumas- and has a third Monokuma of his own, who was going to show up to treat Martha's injury during case 4, I think in literally the very next update planned before the forums exploded.

So who are the people in control of these Monokuma knockoffs?

Mastermind Level 5: Case 5

All that I just mentioned about Davi? You learn about this in the fifth case, after case 4 in which you play as either Sakura or Gwen after killing their sister and trying to avoid getting caught in the trial. You can't win case 4, but you can successfully stall and bullshit long enough for the trial to be interrupted by a sudden explosion before you can be executed.

Prior to case 4, Billy has disappeared into a secret passage, trying to track down the mastermind. Likewise, Flopsy-Turvy, Alice's rabbit, has also disappeared into a secret passage. Billy remains missing during case 4's trial.

After the explosion, the Monokumas call off the trial and lead the whole class to Davi's secret lab, which is the site of a set of murders.

Davi has been murdered via various small lacerations all over his body, including a slit throat.

Billy has been blown to bits by an explosion.

If Gwen or Sakura was executed during the trial, their corpse is found on a table in the lab.

Flopsy-Turvy, who was a robot all along, has been reduced to mechanical smithereens.

Violette, not dead anymore, but unable to speak aloud due to an incompletely healed throat injury

Some completely unfamiliar redhead kid, who doesn't know jack about anything and doesn't know how he got here.

The two survivors of this scene are naked save for some towels they found, and appear to have been spilled out from a couple of big glowy specimen tanks which were broken in the explosion that killed Billy and Flopsy. More on them later.

The subsequent investigation reveals all that stuff I just told you about Davi, blowing the setup wide open. In the course of that investigation, two of the masterminds find themselves confessing their involvement. After all- Davi's dead. There's no way they can run another season without someone to bring people back to life!

One in particular confesses before the other one- she doesn't care anymore, and she's happy to watch her co-conspirator squirm to try to avoid revealing his evil machinations to the people he desperately wants to think he's cool.

Lilakali Bhallu and Raymond Rizzini are my favorites. They suck so much. They hate each other quite a lot, and have gotten together and broken up like three different times. Their collective theme song is No Children by The Mountain Goats. They're like 25 at this point, stuck in the bodies of the teenagers they were when the show started filming and they fully agreed to be part of the production.

Why? Well, Lilakali hates everyone and enjoys seeing them turn on each other like rabid wolves repeatedly- and Raymond craves acceptance and is using his memory privileges and surveillance abilities to try over and over again to be Popular In High School (to no avail.) They're both pretty pathetic people.

Notably, they are both real students who're supposed to be here. I don't remember if I ever had Lilakali make any predictions, and she'll insist she's just making shit up, but I was gonna have her predictions all come true, because the Fortune Teller thing is a real talent. And Raymond really can make a pretty mean burger. (Cheekily, that old Tumblr post was supposed to have taken place in a previous season- you might notice Gwen in the background, who in this iteration was never convinced to leave her room for meals, instead sneaking out at night to raid the cafeteria.)

Lilakali also has an Edgy Backstory- she grew up in the circus, apprenticed under her grandmother, who refused to let her socialize with kids her age. She was supposed to learn the family divining techniques, not dance around like some harlot with a pack of urchins! Her grandma taught her to hate the world, and herself, and accidentally also her grandmother. One day, in a moment of perfect nihilist clarity, she took a Sixlizard cigarette lighter out of the trash, wandered amongst the tents, and burned down the entire circus, killing her grandma in the process. She looks back on that moment fondly as the happiest she's ever been.

Anyway. Those two are my favorites, but they're not the ultimate masterminds. In fact... they're quite sure there's supposed to be a third mastermind, and they suspect this third mastermind of having erased their memories of them and killing Davi. They can tell their memories were edited- they're fully aware of how the tech works and what the signs are, and they can tell there's big ugly gaps and gashes in their recollection of the past. Someone was missing, and Davi was being all cagey and weird about it. And last loop...

Well, what happened last loop is the direct cause of case 5. And at the end of the investigation... the two Monokumas go dead, and one giant Monokuma shows up, furious that Davi is dead and forcing the students to go to trial one more time. This will be the final execution- catching Davi's murderer.

Mastermind Level 6: Sailing No More

It doesn't take long into trial 5 for the identity of this giant Monokuma to be revealed- it's a mechsuit with a living person in it, not a robot, and he unmasks himself during the trial without too much objection once people start questioning... that confused redhead kid who they found at the crime scene. That character introduces himself as... the Super High-School Level Pilot, Nolan Cubbins.

Wait. What?

Didn't that guy die?

Well, you see--

--oh, shit, I forgot Tumblr has an image limit of 30 images per post. Uh, gonna have to break this up into two posts. Continue reading here!

[reasoningdaily]

Futureland - Walter Mosley

Futureland - Walter Mosley

Projecting a near-future United States in which justice is blind in at least one eye and the ranks of the disenchanted have swollen to dangerous levels, Mosely offers nine interconnected stories whose characters appear and reappear in each others' lives. For all its denizens, from technocrats to terrorists, celebs to crooks, "Futureland" is an all-American nightmare just waiting to happen.

Nine interconnected short stories capture the high-tech world of the United States in the near future, capturing the lives and fates of such characters as Ptolemy Bent, a child genius whose merciful actions land him in a privatized prison, and Fera Jones, a heavyweight boxing champ who abandons the ring for a political career. 75,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Futureland is bestselling mystery author Walter Mosley's first science fiction book since Blue Light, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Futureland's nine linked stories will provide an accessible and intelligent introduction to written science fiction for mystery or mainstream fiction fans who do not normally read the genre.

Experienced science fiction readers, however, may be less than satisfied with Futureland. Reading it, you might decide Mr. Mosley grew up reading SF, respects the genre, and still watches SF movies, but has read little SF written during or after the New Wave of the 1960s. However, something more may be going on here than a genre newcomer making beginning-SF-writer mistakes. Mr. Mosley may be deliberately, and craftily, creating SF accessible to his large non-SF readership and to others who are strangers to this genre.

Some have labeled Futureland cyberpunk, and it does present a dark, infotech-saturated, corporation-controlled future; but it is in fact an inversion of cyberpunk. Instead of that subgenre's cliche of cool, cutting-edge, street-smart, but not very believable outlaws who out-hack and outwit powerful multinational corporations, this Dante-esque collection presents outlaws and outcasts who may be street-wise, but who have little chance of overcoming the corporations and governments that control, and sometimes take, their lives. Like shockingly few other SF works, Futureland directly examines the lives of the working and the nonworking classes, the poor and the marginalized, the criminal and the criminalized. In other words, Futureland is set in a world quite alien to many veteran SF readers, and is therefore a book they should try. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

After the qualified success of his first science fiction novel, Blue Light (1998), Mosley (best known for such mystery fiction as the Easy Rawlins series) returns with nine linked short stories set in a grim, cyberpunkish near-future. Unfortunately, heavy-handed plotting and unconvincing extrapolation weaken the collection's earnest social message. "Whispers in the Dark" introduces prodigy Ptolemy Bent, who will grow to be the smartest man in the world in spite of his poverty-ridden childhood. Ptolemy reappears in "Doctor Kismet" as an adviser to assassins trying to kill the richest, most corrupt man in the world and as the brains behind a series of global plots to overthrow the status quo in "En Masse" and "The Nig in Me." Champion boxer and much-hyped female role model Fera Jones steps away from the ring to take hands-on responsibility for the influence she wields in "The Greatest." With its easily befuddled talking computer justice system, "Little Brother" is more Star Trek than high-tech cyberpunk. In more familiar territory for Mosley, PI Folio Johnson investigates a series of murders linked to Doctor Kismet in "The Electric Eye." Although packaged as SF, this book is likely to disappoint readers of that genre who've already seen Mosley's themes of racial and economic rebellion more convincingly handled by authors like Octavia Butler. Mystery fans, on the other hand, are far more likely to embrace this latest example of Mosley's SF vision, with its comfortably familiar noirish tone and characters, than they did Blue Light. (Nov. 12)Forecast: With a five-city author tour and national print advertising, both mainstream and genre, this title book should be slated for solid sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Mosley's first foray into writing science fiction since Blue Light (LJ 10/1/98), these interrelated stories, set in the near future, read as a natural but chilling extension of our present. From child genius Ptolemy Bent, sentenced to prison for euthanizing his grandmother and uncle, to female boxer Fera, who becomes a feminist icon for the 21st century, his characters battle for both personal survival and a chance to turn back the clock. In this futuristic world, privacy is little but a memory and prejudice and suspicion still sour race relations. Mosley's reputation as the best-selling author of the Easy Rawlins mysteries may entice a number of his regular readers to pick up this book, where they will find some of the same bleak outlook, flashes of insight, and true-to-life African American characters. An additional audience will come from iPublish.com, where the first two stories were previously published as e-books. Recommended for all public libraries. - Rachel Singer Gordon, Franklin Park P.L., IL Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Mystery star Mosley tries his hand at science fiction again, to better effect than in the novel Blue Light (1998). For these nine interconnected stories, he conjures a mid-twenty-first-century world in which one company is the most powerful force in the world and political correctness is the law. The only significant revolutionaries are black, and blacks and whites are still highly antagonistic. All Mosley's good guys are black, including the smartest man in the world, imprisoned for assisting the deaths of his ailing grandmother and uncle; the world's heavyweight boxing champ--a six-foot-nine-inch woman who goes into politics after KO'ing the male heavyweight champ in less than a minute of round one; a private dick who solves cases with the help of a greatly enhanced artificial eye; and a regular-joe worker who becomes the reader's eyewitness to the dawn of a new world when a backfiring biological weapon kills everyone who isn't at least 12.5 percent black. Lest that last bit of business seem too black-triumphalist, the worker-hero quickly discovers that intraspecies predation hasn't vanished. Ably slinging the technobabble to explain the odd wonder-gadget in his tales, and greasing them with plenty of "oh-baby" sex, Mosley creates sf in which Shaft and Superfly would feel at home. Can ya dig it? Ray Olson Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Walter Mosley is the author of the New York Times bestselling Easy Rawlins novels. He lives in New York City.

[mail-me-a-snail]

BOLD THE FACTS✨ rules: bold what applies to your oc

i was tagged by @swearingcactus !!! thanks for the tag, ive been dying to talk about vance forever n ever...

⭐PERSONAL⭐

vance grew up in a corporate family of four. they all lived in charter hill for most of his relatively, unexceptionally happy childhood. he had friends, crushes on the cute neighborhood boys, the works. he was mistakenly assigned female at birth and transitioned, much to his family's surprised delight, just before he took his place in arasaka's netrunning ranks. before he went by vance, he went by penn.

vance would often sneak out of the house to explore westbrook's neighboring districts, usually so he could klep tech he'd need for his cyberdeck/homemade daemons, or just to dick around and fuck with people by hacking little objects like radios and holo-ads.

Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty

Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non-applicable

Class or Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other

Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other

vance received a formal education growing up (given his family's corporate status) but he only ever finished a highschool level of education. he left soon after graduating and entered into a netrunning apprenticeship.

Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed

working as an assassin/netrunner for arasaka has its perks! the rare times he was caught in the middle of some corporate espionage (ie: carrying out a hit), arasaka always had just the right alibi for him. and for the crimes he did get away with...well i imagine they keep his file under lock and key so good luck to the ncpd on bringing him in for anything :3

⭐FAMILY⭐

vance isn't close with his family. both his mother and father fought in the war; they were never unkind to him or his sister maya, but they lacked a gentle touch. worse, still, that they carved their own spot for themselves in arasaka and have held on tight since. both parents would work late, late into the night, not coming home until early morning, so vance rarely saw either of them to begin with. vance tells johnny, kerry, and his other romantic partners the same story: he cut off contact with his family, including maya, because he never wanted to be part of that life again. but the truth is this: he knows he isn't worthy of their shared surname, so why associate himself with it?

Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children

Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased

vance and maya are both prodigies in their own rights. maya is a weapons specialist, particularly for smart tech. she's chromed up to the wazoo. she'd set vance's arsenal up for every hit that he'd carry out; that was the only thing they could really ever bond over. she didn't ask after him when he left and didn't go looking for him, either. she was the first person vance came out to, and the one to suggest his first name: penn.

Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted / disowned (kind of) / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable

⭐TRAITS AND TENDENCIES⭐

vance is autistic (im not projecting what!!!) so he has issues with remembering things and with socialization. he's a pro at masking and can talk with people at length--something arasaka taught him to do--but he has his off days where he goes out into the badlands just to be away from the overstimulating night city. he could go on forever about tech and rache bartmoss' books and kerry's music !! ask him about his daemons, he'd be happy to demonstrate them for u. he's pretty proud of his cupid daemon, but more on that sometime soon....

✨extroverted / introverted / in-between

✨disorganized / organized / in-between

he was actually pretty meticulous in his netrunning days, but now he accumulates little piles of stuff in his apartment (including half-baked, work-in-progress daemons, among other things)

✨close-minded / open-minded / in-between

✨calm / anxious / in-between / highly contextual

✨disagreeable / agreeable / in-between

✨cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual

✨patient / impatient / in-between

✨outspoken / reserved / in-between / highly contextual

✨leader / follower / in-between

✨empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between

✨optimistic / pessimistic / in-between

✨traditional / modern / in-between

✨hard-working / lazy / in-between

✨cultured / uncultured / in-between / unknown

he has knowledge of some things, like enough to say confidently that he's 100% a eurodyne fanboy. but if you told him about certain BDs or games or the rest of the night city music scene, he'd just stare at you blankly.

✨loyal / disloyal / in-between / unknown

✨ faithful / unfaithful / in-between / unknown

⭐BELIEFS⭐

vance doesnt believe in a god or follow a certain religion. he grew up practicing something like catholicism; he only prayed with joshua stephenson before his whole fucked up braindance crucifixion because he thought that was the right thing to do. he believes in The Forces That Be but he doesn't care enough to put a name to them.

Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic

Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking

tech ghosts, mostly, like johnny--or the rogue ai beyond the blackwall.

Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking

Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking

Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious

Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual

he has his own personal philosophies, like his unwavering belief in luck and karma.

⭐SEXUALITY AND ROMANCE⭐

while vance's relationship (no pun intended) with romance is iffy at best, his personal philosophy vis-a-vis sex is that he's here to fuck nasty while he still can, especially with the relic on his ass. he doesn't care about being someone's one-time or frequent input (he's the latter, for river); this attitude, however, is pretty much a front because he doesn't know the first thing about romance, having foregone it entirely as a netrunner, and he's trying his best to mend that for johnny and kerry...

...that being said, his relationship with kerry is. weird. on one hand, he thinks kerry is only with him because of johnny (which is pretty possible). on the other, he kind of enjoys the way kerry looks at him like he hung the moon, even though he knows the other man is imagining someone else entirely. it's both nice and horrific to not be seen as v for once. he thinks, maybe, that's what it means to love.

they're in a happy relationship, they love each other, but they've got johnny's skeleton in the closet, and they're both trying to ignore it--johnny included.

Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual

Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable / naive and clueless

Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious

Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious

Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all

Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all

vance typically goes for masculine presenting individuals.

⭐ABILITIES⭐

vance is a great strategist, negotiator, and netrunner. while he isn't rache bartmoss or alt cunningham, he's good in his own right and learns fast. he relies mostly on his quickhacks, as his aim isn't capital p Perfect, but he also specializes in knife-throwing and sneaking up on people. he's not afraid to get down and dirty, either!!! the most he can draw is squiggles on his hands when he's bored (that, and/or stick figure renditions of johnny and kerry, much to the ghost's exasperation and kerry's delight)

Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor/ none

Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

⭐HABITS⭐

vance likes to party, likes to go to the bar after a tough gig and wind down--but only after a job. never during or before; he's made that mistake before, and he paid for it...literally. he lost a lot of good eddies that day.

Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / rarely / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic / former borderline alcoholic turned sober

Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker

he used to smoke on and off while working for arasaka, then quit when he left. he relapsed bc of johnny and has been trying to quite since, but he hasn't had much luck in that regard

Recreational Drugs: tried some / never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict

Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess

was formerly reliant on tranquilizers and bounce backs, now just uses the latter to manage the seizures/pain the relic gives him.

Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / rarely / sometimes / frequently / binge eater

he has a bad habit of forgetting to eat and can go quite a while before realizing it, so he ends up eating whatever's readily available, like vending machine snacks.

Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic

vance's biggest weaknesses are nice clothes and even nicer bikes. someone stop him before he buys out arch's entire catalogue please

Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gamble

whooowee that was a long one !! thanks for reading if you got this far :] won't be tagging anyone, so if you'd like to do this for your own oc, feel free !!

[winterpinetrees]

The Human Protagonists

Hey wait, I thought The Gap Years was about some rich kids on a road trip? It is, I just like them less than the rest of the cast. Whoops.

A few days before the story begins, three extremely rich kids graduate from private rich kid high school in San Francisco. They have all been accepted to outrageously prestigious universities, but they’re taking a gap year first. They are tired of this life and they want one year of pretending to be normal before being dragged back to fundraising galas and tabloid news. So they’re taking a road trip. Money isn’t an issue so they’re going to drive off and not come back until they feel sane. It doesn't go to plan.

They are...

Brian Whitaker, a humanities kid who’s been declared a himbo by everyone but his closest friends.

Sierra Bracken, a quiet tech genius who actually knows that magic is real.

and Clay Shepard, the cynic who can keep a budget and pretend to be normal.

The intro said that there are four kids on the road trip. That wasn't a typo. The fourth is the true protagonist of the story. He's an unexpected addition to the party, Prince Marin Sondaica.

Name: Brian Whitaker

Pronouns: He/Him

Species: Human

Age: 18

Special skills: Strong, fast, and well-coordinated. A D1 level baseball player, wrestler, and skilled surfer. Solid knowledge of history, literature, and politics. Charming and liked by the media.

Appearance notes: 6’3 with a lean, athletic build. He is as tall as Ishtar, but takes up less space. He is a very conventionally attractive white boy with blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a significant tan. Brian is even more attractive by elven standards, which is a benefit and a problem. Brian has calloused hands and a few scars from various sporting accidents. Specifically, he has a small scar on his jaw.

Brian Whitaker drives the car. He endures constant jokes that he’s a himbo. Despite this, he is a humanities kid who gets nearly perfect grades. Brian is the third son of an old political dynasty. However, he thinks that gerrymandering is bad and can talk about all the ways that American democracy is broken for an hour on end without needing notes. Brian is charismatic, but he isn’t going to go into politics because he is a kind and honest person. He likes to think that he would sacrifice for the greater good. Brian was pretty neglected as a child but found that he could get noticed through sports. Now Brian is a varsity athlete and surfs all summer. This backfired, and now everyone thinks that he’s a dumb jock. They also think that he’s a playboy, which really isn’t accurate because he respects other people. Brian does live his life in search of feeling though. He’s a thrillseeker, a frequenter of high school parties, and a hopeless romantic. Next year he plans to attend Princeton as some sort of English major and join a fraternity.

…………

Name Sierra Bracken

Pronouns: She/her

Species: Human

Age: 18

Special skills: Genius mechanic and engineer. Skilled but not prodigious programmer. Upper body strength. Has a tiny bit of background knowledge about magic.

Appearance notes: 5’3 with a heavier build. She is half white and half latina. Light brown skin, black hair, and dark brown eyes. She is rarely seen without a pair of teal headphones and wears copper wire wrapped around both wrists.

Sierra Bracken is the oldest child of a Silicon Valley tech magnate. She has a genuinely positive relationship with both her parents (she’s the only one in the trio who does), and a complicated one with the media.

She is a tech genius who can build anything and hack… most things. She also has a special interest in nuclear physics, which means that she essentially has a special interest in magic. Sierra has spent enough time in university physics departments (In this world, being a physicist is a direct path to adventure…and sometimes death) and on tiny Internet forums to know that magic is real. She doesn’t know any of the details, but she knows the basic fact that humans are not alone in the universe. She is snarky but not particularly good at it and doesn’t have any close not-online friends other than Brian and Clay. She’s going off to MIT next fall. Sierra’s more nervous about this than she wants to admit and is thinking of the road trip as a way to say goodbye.

…………

Name: Clay Shepard

Pronouns: He/him

Species: Human

Age: 18

Special skills: Amazing liar and very good at reading people. First-aid. Wilderness survival skills. Street smarts. Sees the world the way it is and can make it work for him. Very accurate with a gun.

Appearance notes: 5’10 and skinny. He is white with sharp features and a perpetually tired expression. He has straight chin length brown hair, brown eyes, and ‘tortoiseshell’ glasses.

Clay Shepard hates his father, and his father hates him. His family earned their fortune relatively recently from America’s terrible healthcare system. He’s the middle child of the family, which is very helpful because he’s trying to be forgotten. (He’s thankful for the money, of course, but other than that he wants out. Clay has a strong moral compass. He’s also gay, and his father is both very corrupt and somewhat homophobic.) Clay wants to be a real doctor, and actually do no harm. As a result, he’s doing first aid on this quest. Clay also has extremely good people skills, honed by spending his nights and weekends around normal teens. He is an amazing liar, and knows how to say exactly what people want to hear. Clay's miserable home life has been getting to him, though. He doesn’t have much faith in humanity. The only thing keeping him from true cynicism and despair are his friends. Both the ones on the quest with him, and his more secret friends, a loose collection of lower class teenagers who by some miracle adopted him into the group as they explore the abandoned parts of the city and try to make adolescence work. Clay supplies them with money. Lots of money. As much as he can take from his father. He’ll attend Harvard next year as a pre-med student.

In a classic fighter-rogue-wizard-cleric D&D party, Brian is the fighter, Sierra is the wizard, Clay is the cleric, and Marin is the rogue.

[clericofshadows]

Tell me something about what Regis was like as a kid?

ooooo fun question :) I ended up making a mile long post about this because I don't think I've really talked about it much, and I ran with the prompt lol

Despite never knowing his father, Atlas, Regis was a relatively happy kid up until his pre-teens. As a young kid, he loved being in space with his mother, Hannah, and despite visits to his father's side of the family being sparse, he was content just seeing his family through vid calls and occasional visits. Hannah didn't have much family, many only children in her family tree, so she never had much of a connection to the few family members that were on Earth, as well as no living maternal grandparents. So, most of the extended family was on Atlas's side.

But the allure of space quickly wore off when he became a pre-teen, and he was tired of moving between ships and stations, never being on solid ground. He was always aware of how his father died (freak accident as a shuttle pilot), but it started to wear on him a bit as he got older. He wanted to live on Earth with his father's family, but his mother never relented, wanting to keep him close. This is due to her wishing that Atlas could've served closer to her and thinking he would still be alive because of it, but also, he was a pilot first and foremost, and never would've been happy on a large ship like a dreadnought.

By the time Regis was a teenager, he was definitely the rebellious type, always trying to find a way to convince his mother that space wasn't for him or make it hard for her to keep him on board. His most notable moment was him stealing a shuttle from the ship his mother served on when he was fifteen and piloting it back down to Earth.

He already knew how to make his own hacks and omnitool programs, so it wasn't a hard job for him (and it showed the Alliance how much of a tech prodigy Regis was, which led to Anderson, a good friend of Hannah's, taking notice and seeing if he was interested in serving. At the time, Regis was not, and was offended at the notion. This soured the relationship between them, and ultimately never recovered. Hannah was also trying to push him towards the Alliance, and Regis thought she put Anderson up to it. Did she? Sort of, but not to the extent Regis thought she did, but Regis can hold one hell of a grudge, and never really gets close to Anderson or hears Anderson out as a result of that.)

He was also very defensive as a teen, always quick to fight back. Regis also excelled in school, and he loved learning, the only time he was civil on the ships and stations, but any other time, he was a menace.

After his second eezo exposure and BAaT happened, Hannah took a more hands off approach, and Regis finally got the independence he wanted. Regis was angry that she sent him there without a second thought and blamed her for not checking in on him with the low level of communication, considering she was always a bit of a helicopter parent otherwise. After that Regis said he was going to live on Earth whether she liked it or not, and Hannah finally let him.

He finished school on Earth while living with his uncle (incidentally his father's twin brother, Adrian), got both of his tattoo arm sleeves since his mother never liked tattoos, got all of his facial piercings (including some others), he kept in contact with Kaidan that soon led into a long distance relationship as Regis went to university to study biotic implants and VI tech, and ultimately chose to enlist with Kaidan because he realized how beneficial the Alliance was for a biotic compared to normal civilian life. And to prove that he was going to get into the Alliance on his own terms.

This last bit isn't related to his childhood, but rather his relationship with his mother, but I think it still stands. Their relationship is better if they perceive it as superior officer and soldier, rather than mother and son. They communicate better over vid calls, but once in person, it starts to get volatile. Their relationship is best left to emails, honestly, but a small part of Regis wishes it could be a little better, but he isn't going to do a damn thing about it.

[ruplagpratik2]

Explore Grassroots Cricket: Unsung Heroes & Bright Prodigies

[alexversenaberrie]

This is Hiba’s sister Minerva:

Name: Minerva “Minnie” Ailyn Bridger-Wren

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Year of Birth: 15 ABY

Place of Birth: Mandalore

Parents: Ezra Bridger (Father) and Sabine Wren (Mother)

Siblings: Hiba (Sister), Kanan (Brother), Eleni (Sister)

House: Kryze

Clan: Wren (Formally of House Viszla but switch affiliation with House Kryze by Countess Sabine Wren, Minerva’s mother, in 10 ABY.)

Titles: Princess of Knownwrest, Countess of Lothal, Senator of Mandalore, and Mayor of Sundari (During the Age of Resistance)

Appearance:

•5’3

•Light brown Skin (Middle Eastern X East Asian)

•Athletic

•Diamond-shaped face

•Has long natural black hair

•Brown eyes

Notable Skills:

•Combat: Unlike her sickly older sister, and like most members of her family clan, Minerva is well rounded in various combat skills. This includes hand-to-hand combat skills, martial arts, handling various types of Westar blasters, and being able to wield a light saber without issue

•Ship Building: Minerva is highly skilled in the construction and reconstruction of various ships that are used for transportation purposes. She first conceives blueprints of different ship designs that each have their own purpose. She has designed and built ships for her people on Mandalore, for the New Republic, for the Resistance, and currently for Rey’s newly established Jedi Order.

•Ship Engineering: Because Minerva builds different types of ships that each have their own purpose, she develops each and every one of them their own engineering needs that aims to not only allow them to travel for long periods of time, but also, design them to where they’re less likely to sustain major damage from collision or conflict with battle fleets and type-fighters in space. Reducing the mortality rate of all on board. She’s also developed software in her ships that allows pilots and their crew to immediately call for help from any neighboring planet to come to their aid when in distress, which again, saves lives and prevents tragedies.

•Athleticism: Due to constant training by both her parents and by Prince-Consort Din Djarin-Kryze, Minerva is very athletic.

•Computer Hacking: Minerva has a reputation for being to hack into both Imperial and First Order computer systems in order to obtain information about their future assaults, which then, can allow her to warn targeted planets ahead of time and prepare them to stand up against the invaders.

•Intelligence: Genius-level intelligence, excelled well at both the newly reestablished Royal Academy as a youth and in training with her clan. Considered prodigal.

•Diplomacy: Due to her skills in ship building, ship engineering, and in computer hacking, Minerva has earned herself the title of “Countess of Lothal”, where she conducts most of her work but has served as both a senator to Mandalore and as the mayor of the newly rebuilt Mandalorian capital of Sundari during the Age of Resistance.

Force Sensitive: No

Additional Information:

•She’s the second of four children born to Sabine and Ezra Bridger-Wren.

•Has been considered an engineering prodigy since she accidentally fixed Hera Syndulla’s ship “The Ghost” by defrosting its frozen engine with her mother’s flamethrower during a blizzard on Madurs. She was three years old at the time.

•She was born six months after her parents married on Lothal.

•Has a very tight-knit relationship with both her family clan and other members of the Ghost Crew.

•Although she lives on Knownwrest with her family, her main base is on Lothal.

Strengths:

•Has demonstrated willpower and determination by never going down without a fight.

•If her mind is set to it, she can get anything done.

•Her skills and knowledge with computer systems and how to hack them are dangerously adept.

•She’s constantly able to think things through and stay focused when in battle and during her builds.

•Has a strong void of fear.

Weaknesses:

•Despite being both a Senator and later a mayor, Minerva is not the best politician and has been known to sabotage the political careers of senators and other problematic political figures by hacking into their personal computing systems, exposing holo-messages that she deems “disturbing” and “scandalous”. Much to the dismay of everyone in the Senate.

•Can be very cocky at times.

•Is known to get reckless, which can result in freak accidents.

•She’s known to be very impulsive.

Armor:

•Helmet: A Wren-styled Nite-Owl helmet that was reforged from a helmet that once belonged to her late maternal Uncle Tristan Wren. She had decorated to look similar to what her mother’s helmet looked like she was still a member of the Rebellion with the “Wren feathers” crowned with two different color shades.

•Chest and Neck Pieces: Similar to her mother’s but features a decal that’s almost identical to one her maternal grandmother once had on her own armor during the Siege of Mandalore.

•Pauldrons: Similar to her mother’s but with a Starbird signet that serves as an ode to her mother and a wolf signet to represent the Jedi routes of her father.

•Gauntlets: Similar to her maternal grandmother’s in both style and how they function in combat.

•Hand armor: Similar to her mother’s.

•Knee Armor: Similar to Ahsoka Tano’s from when she served the Nite Owls during the Siege of Mandalore.

•Shin Guards: Heavy Shness shin armor that’s attached to the knee armor like her mother’s.

•Jet pack: Inherited from her late maternal grandmother.

Armor Color Scheme:

•Oxford Blue

•Heather

•Alien Grey

•Hematite

•Slate Grey

•Blue Rhapsody

•Shuttle Grey

•Light Gold

•Dull Yellow

•Oil (a shade of brown)

Soft Parts:

•Similar to her Mother’s.

Belt:

•A Single waist belt attached to a dull yellow sash that holds two holsters.

Weapons in Possession:

•2 identical Westar blasters

•1 Beskad Sword

It was also difficult to make XD

[marketingprofitmedia]

Boss Traffic Review – Targeted Buyer Traffic Hack for Any Link In Any Niche

Welcome to my Boss Traffic Review, This is a real user-based Boss Traffic review where I will focus on the features, upgrades, demo, pricing and bonus, how Boss Traffic can help you, and my opinion. This is Our Secret 2024 “Traffic Hack” that Drives 1,500+ Laser Targeted Buyer Clicks To Any Link In Any Niche Banking Us $373.95 Per Day No Tech Skills Needed.

>> Click Here to Get Boss Traffic + My $15000 Special Bonus Bundle to Boost Up Your Earnings More Traffic, Leads & Commissions >>

Boss Traffic Review: What Is Boss Traffic?

Boss Traffic is a cutting-edge web-based platform designed to significantly boost internet traffic for organizations across a variety of sectors. It works by combining a variety of traffic generating tactics to attract people from various sources such as social media platforms, search engines, and direct website visits.

Boss Traffic Review: Overview

Creator: Fergal Downes

Product: Boss Traffic

Date Of Launch: 2024-Mar-04

Time Of Launch: 11:00 EST

Front-End Price: $12.95

Official Website: Click Here

Product Type: Video, SEO & Traffic

Support: Effective Response

Discount : Get The Best Discount Right Now!

Recommended: Highly Recommended

Required Skill: All Levels

Refund: YES, 90 Days Money-Back Guarantee

Boss Traffic Review: Features

Step by Step System that Gives You Everything you Need to drive high converting, FREE traffic.

Tested and Proven to Work and with MANY Student Success Stories

Set & Forget System. Simply set this up one time and it brings in traffic automatically

No Tech Skills Needed, 100% newbie friendly

This method is something FRESH and NEW that You’ve Never Seen Before

NO Waiting For Results — Get Buyer Traffic Today

New Traffic Loophole For 2024

Money-Back Guarantee

>> Click Here to Get Boss Traffic + My $15000 Special Bonus Bundle to Boost Up Your Earnings More Traffic, Leads & Commissions >>

Boss Traffic Review: How Does It Work?

Boss Traffic Review: Can Do For You

How to get everything setup in the next 30 minutes.

Why this COMPLETE passive profits system makes it faster than ever to get traffic and start making money today

We’ll show you how to use the included ‘Done for You’ Follow Up Series to not only make your initial sales, but to make multiple sales from your traffic.

Once the traffic starts flowing steadily, it just keeps coming, so it’s easy to scale this up as big as you want when you follow the simple steps inside the training

Boss Traffic Review: Who Should Use It?

Affiliate Marketer

Blog Owners

CPA Marketer

eCom Store Owners

Product Creators

Small and Large Business Owners

Freelancers

Agency Owners

Any Kind Of Marketer

Boss Traffic Review: OTO And Pricing

Front End Price: Boss Traffic ($12.97)

OTO 1: Done For You ($27)

OTO 2: Mass Free Traffic Training ($17)

OTO 3: Empire VIP Club ($2)

OTO 4: Product Launching Training ($197)

OTO 5: Arbitrage Prodigy ($297)

OTO 6: Done For You Prodigy ($37)

OTO 7: Reseller rights ($97)

>> Click Here to Get Boss Traffic + My $15000 Special Bonus Bundle to Boost Up Your Earnings More Traffic, Leads & Commissions >>

Boss Traffic Review: User Opinion

Boss Traffic Review: My Special Bonus Bundle

And before I end my honest Boss Traffic Review, I told you that I would give you my very own unique PFTSES formula for Free.

Boss Traffic Review: Pros and Cons

Pros:

Increased website traffic: Aims to attract more visitors, potentially boosting brand awareness and conversions.

SEO and content assistance: Offers SEO suggestions and pre-written content to ease traffic generation.

Convenience and time-saving: Provides a centralized platform for managing SEO, content, and social media.

Cons:

Limited transparency: Methods for generating traffic remain undisclosed, raising concerns about legitimacy.

Reliance on pre-written content: May compromise originality and user experience.

Unrealistic expectations: “Unlimited traffic” claims can be misleading and unsustainable.

Limited control and customization: May offer limited control over the type of traffic and content used.

Boss Traffic Review: Money Back Guarantee

100% of your money back inside 90 days totally risk-free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is there a Money Back Guarantee?

Yes, you get the next 30 days to make sure this is for you. If you change your mind for any reason, just let us know and we’ll send you a refund. The only way you can lose out is by not getting Boss Traffic today at a big discount.

Q: What is Boss Traffic?

Inside Boss Traffic you get access to Step-by-Step Training, a Unique and Powerful FREE Traffic Method, and access to 1 Passive Income Follow Up series to help you get results from all your Free Traffic.

Q: How does Boss Traffic work?

There are just 3 simple steps to success

Step #1 — Use the Step-by-Step Training Inside BossTraffic To Get Everything Setup In Less than 10 Mins

Step #2 — Activate your free Traffic hack

Step #3 — Start Making Passive Profits Within 24 Hours

Q: Is Boss Traffic newbie-friendly?

Yes, it’s probably the MOST newbie-friendly system we’ve ever released. Everything inside is simple and ready to go. Just follow the steps to get setup, use the training to get your FREE Traffic started, and then send the traffic to our proven follow up series included inside.

Q: Do I have to spend money on traffic, or is the traffic Free?

No spend at all, the traffic method included inside is completely Free.

Q: How Much Money can I Make with this?

The sky is literally the limit. You can scale this up as big as you want.

Boss Traffic Review: My Recommendation

Boss Traffic offers features that may appeal to beginners seeking a quick traffic boost. However, the lack of transparency in their methods and potential reliance on low-quality content raise concerns about long-term effectiveness. Consider exploring organic SEO strategies, content marketing, or alternative traffic generation platforms before investing in Boss Traffic, especially if you prioritize sustainable traffic growth and brand control.

>> Click Here to Get Boss Traffic + My $15000 Special Bonus Bundle to Boost Up Your Earnings More Traffic, Leads & Commissions >>

See my other reviews: WebinarX Review, AI NextSite Review, Ecco Review, WP Host Review, Orion Review, NITRO AI Review, ClipFuse AI Review, AI Platform Creator Review.

Thank for reading my Boss Traffic Review till the end. Hope it will help you to make purchase decision perfectly.

Note: Yes, this is a paid SEO & Traffic tool, however the one-time fee is $12.95 for lifetime

[re-ikrmso]

small RAMBLE ABOUT Pokemon Fire Red Rocket (Romhack)

dude. listen, i know it's like. a cruel subversion for some people but I LOVED THAT ROMHACK. i don't have that same attachment and i write it off as an alternate universe. there is so much like headcnaons so effortlessly weaved into the story. its so. URGHHH. SO GOOD.

But just a small ramble here and there:

Personally, I believe Red in that Rom Hack...is just sociopathic/ or just has something that accounts for his lack of empathy. He CAN be taught different, except his uh...main caregiver/parent is Prof. Oak who is clearly...not the best influence. at all. Because I feel that some people may take Oak's words to heart when it's not really the case. Oak just thinks Red is just a puppet because that's what he thinks. We haven't seen much or ANYTHING from Red's perspective within the Rom Hack, but we do know these things at least according to oak:

Oak's word is law to Red

He "lacks" an emotional core+conscience.

"innately aggressive" with "unconstrained intelligence"

now while you can argue that "well if oak thinks red is a puppet and if red believes oak then he's just a puppet"

but me personally, i like to think Oak was just wrong on many levels, on regards to Red and the main character. They didn't need to be created in some lab (well i mean red's kind of. but whatever) to be fuckin prodigies. they just needed a REASON. Like, You don't Need to be a RED to be Champion. BLUE IS RIGHT THERE! Like, just how ironic would it be if it turned out Red and the main character were just naturally psychopaths but Oak chocks it up to something much larger? also, i like to think it leaves up room for pain. red looks up to oak, obviously but i do think he was listening the entire time. i dunno, like...it just feels it was NATURAL within Red's circumstances to go on the journey the way he did. he was always GUIDED by Oak. Well DUH, NO WONDER HE DID WHATEVER OAK WANTED! He also always had an interest in Pokemon! I do think that was genuine to some degree! Like, if Red was taught everything by Oak, then NO FUCKING WONDER HE FOLLOWS HIM! FOLLOWS HIS FATHER FIGURE! LIKE RED'S NOT A PUPPET. HE'S most likely JUST A KID who's NEVER had the chance to think twice on anything because Oak's word is law to him! and he also probably lacks self-awareness needed to properly look at his impacts on other people and why it should matter ot him but whatever. we don't know that much about the protag's or red's personality (WAHH) but we do know copycat is the best reflection we have. due to Fire Red Rocket being mostly paraell to an actual gameplay of Pokemon Red, we can assume most things said to Red are still applicable in THIS canon.

also another like slight thing that is very unrelated, but sometimes when character's are talking to a character but aren't facing them, i assume that the taking person is actually turned at a diagonal angle, or is like talking to them as they pace or something. i dunno, i think it gives the from more life that way.

so yeah wahh

[mmorgsticky]

Prodigy hacks to level up

#Prodigy hacks to level up how to

#Prodigy hacks to level up password

Calling All Prodigy Users This Is A Hack To Get To Level 100 Not A Virus #Hack #Prodgy #Fyp. Nothing will be better if users are provided with both login links and login guides for prodigy level 100 hack. Also, note that our goal was to improve prodigy's security. Go to prodigy level 100 hack website using the links below step 2. How to hack prodigy to get to level 100.the way you do this glitch is.

#Prodigy hacks to level up how to

In this video, i'm going to show you guys on how to level up really quickly in prodigy! .data.level=100 if for some reason you can't do the hack add me on discord at theone#2868 and give me your information and i will hack full guide 🙂 in other words. / 5 If You Really Need Gold, Use Prodigy.You Could Turn From A Noob To A Pro!Please Like And Subscribe!.Calling All Prodigy Users This Is A Hack To Get To Level 100 Not A Virus #Hack #Prodgy #Fyp.Source: You could turn from a noob to a pro!please like and subscribe! In this video, i'm going to show you guys on how to level up really quickly in prodigy! Source: How to hack prodigy to get to level 100.the way you do this glitch is. How to hack prodigy 2020 level 100 life hacks from. Source: .data.level=100 if for some reason you. Source: In this video, i'm going to show you guys on how to level up really quickly in prodigy! How to hack prodigy to get to level 100.to put it simply, it modifies the game files to make it easier to hack. You could turn from a noob to a pro!please like and subscribe!

#Prodigy hacks to level up password

Hi to level 100 in minutes!!! Enter your username and password and click on log in step 3. (it works)shoutout to youtubezaxy for being awesome!link: How To Hack Prodigy 2020 Level 100 from How to hack prodigy to get to level 100.to put it simply, it modifies the game files to make it easier to hack.