#THE FUTURE IS HERE

[welcometololaland]

wip wednesday

y'all - i feel like i've been so fucking annoying lately but i'm here to request one thing of you - give me some juicy snippets to read because i'm finally on top of my shit. and i've always wanted to start wip wednesday (for all i know someone has already started it but don't rain on my parade! let me live in denial) and now i maybe can. This is from ALTA which is (omg) so close to being posted. 10 days. fuck. i'm not ready (i am).

“She’s really gone, isn’t she?” TK asks, his voice breaking as his head remains burrowed into Carlos’ shoulder. He’s stopped shaking now, which Carlos takes to be a good sign, but he’s cried so persistently that the whole front of Carlos’ jacket is wet. 

He pauses, leans back and cups TK’s face in his hands, using his thumbs to brush away a few errant tears. He briefly considers making a passionate speech about TK’s mother being dead but not gone – living on in his heart – but then he decides for pragmatism. He thinks TK will appreciate that more, anyway.

“Yes,” he says simply. “But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to accept.”

TK sniffs, his glazed eyes staring helplessly into Carlos’ own. “What do I do now, Carlos?”

Carlos sighs, brushing away another of TK's tears. “I’m not really sure, TK,” he admits. “But right now, I can take you home. It might be nice to cry somewhere that isn’t your high school computer lab.”

A tiny, hesitant smile appears at the corners of TK’s mouth. “I think my dad will be relieved,” he says. “He keeps asking why I haven’t cried yet, like it's some kind of crime.”

“Well, he’s definitely going to be pleased to see you,” Carlos points out, as TK nods tearfully. 

“Could you— Do you mind coming with me?” TK asks as Carlos steps back and drops his hands. “I don’t really want to be alone and my dad is driving me nuts. My other friends…they wouldn’t understand.”

“I hope they do understand, TK,” Carlos replies solemnly, collecting his books and following TK out of the darkened classroom. “I think everyone will do their best to support you.”

TK makes a non-committal sound as they walk down the empty hall – devoid of students – amplifying the sound of their sneakers on the linoleum. “Not like you,” he says, after a pause. “I know we’ve only been friends for a little bit, but you’re different.”

“Oh yeah?” Carlos asks, pushing open the front doors and following TK down the steps. “In what way?”

TK pauses, looking back up at Carlos as he descends the stairs, a pensive look on his face. “You’re good, Carlos,” he replies simply. “You’re good for me.”

Open tag for anyone to share but also some targeted attacks under the cut (with insane requests, feel free to ignore me)!!!

@theghostofashton (need some exes to lovers PLEASE), @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut (boxing AU boxing AU!), @goodways (got a tasty treat shannon?) @reyesstrand (food fic???) @strandnreyes (please don't hurt me but you can if you want) @rmd-writes (just because i love you) @heartstringsduet (FIRST AID?!) @carlos-in-glasses (what's next up CIG?) @birdclowns (your wip snippet game has me blurry eyed, i must know more) @fitzherbertssmolder (any comic progress?) @louis-ii-reyes-strand (been loving your snippets) @lilythesilly (fighter pilot AU?!) @kiloskywalker (tarlos fighter pilot AU????) @sanjuwrites (soulmates????) @three-drink-amy (teacher AU teacher AU teacher AU!!) @chicgeekgirl89 (any yachts about?) @lemonlyman-dotcom (some music fic for my ears???) @wandering-night19 (4 x 18 coda???) @thisbuildinghasfeelings (cross stitching update??!!!) @freneticfloetry (something from the soulmates timer fic???) @alrightbuckaroo (summer parisian au my beloved!!!!) @cha-melodius (you've got mail AU????) @redshirt2 (anything you would like to contribute, i'd just love you to keep feeding me!) @iboatedhere (how are those prompts???) @orchidscript (lovingly bullying you to keep writing) @marjansmarwani (i know the words are hard but also i am lovingly bullying you as well <3) @morganaspendragonss (has angst queen got anything this week?) @lightningboltreader (THAT ANGSTY ONE BED THING I AM SCARED BUT I WANT)

[sordid-popsicle]

Your voice turns me on…keep crying.

[best-of-theworst]

Day 100 on Mars.

I accidentally installed the SpaceX chip wrong and been getting ads to buy cheap cables on alibaba every 30 seconds. Directly to my rectum... Elon is relentless...

[leebrontide]

I

I just

I was literally outlining a book about how bad corporate biometric scanning is, just like this, YESTERDAY.

As a cyberpunk-leaning near future scifi author I

I just.

STOP BUILDING THE TORMENT NEXUS.

[metamatar]

ipad kids this ipad kids that my baby cousin is doing parallel play with the girl on youtube. we are making concoctions. for the teddy bears.

[midnightcowboy1969]

i need to learn more about camp ✌️

[amandaoftherosemire]

Today's minor irritation that ultimately doesn't matter but still makes me want to set fire to some corporate headquarters: Ads on paid services. Dear every streaming service, get your fucking ads out of my face. Advertising is the price I pay for free entertainment, not for something pulling between ten to twenty dollars from my bank account every fucking month. If I have clicked on something on your shitty app (every single one is shitty, I don't need to specify), it means I want to watch that thing. Do not show me an ad for something else. I'm already angry from trying to deal with auto-play trailers, or incomprehensible interfaces, or unhelpful search results. I do not need any further reason to hate every single last one of you motherfuckers. I do not want whatever you're offering. You suck and I hate you and I'm only dealing with you because you're in the way of something I love in spite of you. Get out of the god. damn. way.

[thatfantasylovingdork]

HOLY BALLS THE FUTURE IN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST WAS 2023?! THAT’S LITERALLY RIGHT NOW

I guess we better wish good luck to Hugh Jackman and his glistening abs as he attempts to prevent the bad future from happening. :P

[fanficmaverickpodcast]

I was listening to your recent podcast "Gingerpilot" (very nice!) and you were talking about publishing and the changing relationship btw publishers and fanfic.

I once saw a book, an actual hardcover in a Barnes and Noble, that had a section of "Ao3 style tags" on the back book flap. It actually said "ao3 style tags" and then there were listed a whole bunch of tags just like you'd find on a fic. I forget the title but it was a YA-type fantasy. I've never seen that since but I found it really interesting at the time. This was pre-2020.

Oh WOW! That's super fascinating! See? I'm starting to think that storytelling in all forms will most likely cater more and more to fanfiction style tropes and formats moving forward because it's becoming so culturally ingrained in the rising generations. It's what the people want! I'd like to think that when I'm very old we'll get to see more films and TV shows following along this trend as well. Give me some live action angsty whumpy h/c please and thank you. Love the comment, thanks for reaching out! Cheers!

[xylophonetangerine]

When the AI busts out the letter shape to sound correspondence table to explain to you that overencumbered is spelled with a P.

[delcat177]

Continuing to slide Firefox and DuckDuckGo across the table to people. Brave is affiliated with Google, incidentally, and also tries really hard to sell bitcoin. I never thought changing browsers could be an ecological statement, yet here we are.

[intertwined-dave-and-bambi]

Just a doodle <3

[grewie-stiffin]

"Alexa, play Turn the Lights off" that song by Tally Hall

"Okay. *turns off my lights*"

The future us here

[sebbys-mama]

OH MY GOD I JUST FOUND OUT THAT THERE ARE LAMPS WITH USB PORTS

I AM 36 YEARS OLD HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS WAS A THING

MY MIND IS BLOWN

WE ARE LIVING IN THE FUTURE

[kawaiibarbariansublime]

I live in a large city Somewhere In England. All the phone carriers boast 5G coverage. On the outskirts where I live, I get that. Whenever I go into town, it drops to 4G and occasionally 3G depending where I am. Remember, large city.

Took the cats to the vet this week for their annual checkup. The vet is in a large outdoor shopping centre with parking for around 1,000 cars. 4G, one bar, and unable to connect for the whole time I was there.

So yeah, I keep important stuff as well as trivial things like books loaded on my phone, and make sure the apps I use to access them don’t need to go online.

smartphone storage plateauing in favor of just storing everything in the cloud is such dogshit. i should be able to have like a fucking terabyte of data on my phone at this point. i hate the fucking cloud

[eyedtheevidence]

Is there a term for the stage of capitalism where advanced technology combines with greed to create a nightmare panopticon.

Our local event center is changing out their metal detectors for AI security checkpoints and wow yuck. It's all coated in Secure your Children language like terrorism is something that happens a lot at the new Baby Shark tour.

Meanwhile I can't find anything about how these doodads actually work? Are they conducting body scans and storing a naked little 3D version of you and your toddler on some poorly protected local drive? Is your digital image being saved and tagged with the events you go to?

Are they hitting us with X-rays and thermal imaging and radar and building a dystopian mega image of us while we eat overpriced popcorn and watch a cartoon shark sing-along?? And then that data is being sold? Probably? One article I read says it helps event planners plan by collecting info on the demographics most likely to attend an event.

All I can find are meaningless terms like "advanced weapon detection system" and "sophisticated signal processing algorithm" and "sensor fusion" which is great. I personally love being tracked by a poorly-trained neural network owned and operated by shadowy tech and venture capital bros.

Also, lol, a quick search of news stories shows this expensive new tech actually kind of sucks at detecting weapons. But I bet it's great at generating marketable data while creating the illusion of security.

Anyway I hate it.