#accessibility devices I guess?

[quill-of-thoth]

Hiking with Sticks: Disability Pride Month Review

Most of the time (job interviews, for example) the average person I meet is not aware of my disability, because the right shoes and the right orthodics make me able to do most daily tasks. I can't run, which most people never ask you to do as an adult, and I can't stand in line for more than about half an hour (which I avoid), and I can't carry heavy things up the stairs. Or go up more than a handful of flights without risking my amazing collapsible ankle. However, sometimes it is ninety one degrees out and I want to go to the mountains so I don't evaporate. Enter the hiking sticks. And a lake at the top of a local canyon / pass / high meadow.

Pointed tipped hiking sticks are good for:

Balance and traction on paths made of packed dirt, dust, packed dirt with rocks in it, mud, pebbles, gravel, and silt. Both going up and down.

Forcing you to keep your posture upright so you breathe easier.

Leverage when climbing rock or dirt-behind-plank "stairs" that are uneven or just too tall overall.

Especially when your problem (one of your problems) is that one of your feet just has no lift.

Stepping stones across shallow streams, or paths that decided to become streams this spring. They're round, they're damp, they tip - but with sticks you never have all your weight on the one foot.

Being able to actually stand on rocks that are not flat

Pulling over to the steep, loose dirt area on the mountain side of a path so people can pass you, and not immediately turning an ankle or sliding back down to the trail

Preventing trail runners from mowing you down or assuming you'll teleport out of their way.

Pointing at birds

Descending rocky trails full of good places to slip

Getting up off the ground / rocks that should be chairs.

Pretending you are a giraffe or a giant pterosaur

Just Okay For

Flat areas of path

Crossing small bridges

Being congratulated on making it up here, wow, you're doing great kid, good effort!

Preventing anyone from walking too close to you, lest they be whacked in the ankles. "Accidentally" or sincerely accidentally.

Waving reprovingly at children throwing rocks into the lake and scaring the fish

Bad for

When the path is all rocks and they can't stab in anywhere

Convenient photography

Untrained wrists, thumbs, thumb webbing and shoulders. Seriously my kayak paddling calluses and muscles are the main reason my hands are only a little sore.

Walking quietly / without accidentally whacking the poles on rocks

Sand

Navigating the still quite steep graveled trail that half of the trail runners in the united states are having a festival on, because in a crowd nobody gets out of your way

Accidentally whacking your hiking companions for the billionth time because they need to move fast enough to get out of your mini gravel avalanche zone

[uncanny-tranny]

Definitely don't knock your device's accessibility options. I was looking through my phone's accessibility settings last night, and wow, it feels like technology has really advanced since I first got a smartphone.

I've even found a setting that raises certain sounds I apparently have trouble hearing, and it feels like I'm experiencing the music I love with a completely different perspective. It's honestly wild because my first smartphone had like... mono audio, and that was as close as you could get to accessibility

[brittlebutch]

it has come to me in a vision (Lila using phone AAC app to write her essays when she goes to college)

[dolores-slay]

I think USAmericans need to realize that stuff like their recent brush with bird flu is not a sign of the end times but a sign they need to start beating their goverment with axes and hammers.

[3amsnek]

hahahhahhahaha. what a week huh.

[the-trans-dragon]

What if they didn't put ads every 3 posts. Three posts between ads, literally. Not even counting the ad for Tumblr Live.

Also what if tumblr didn't know what city Im in. I do not want my location tracked or stored anywhere unless I give explicit ongoing permission, like with my GPS app that I allow to track me only when the app is open, and then it deletes the data (allegedly) when I stop giving permission.

[ttngummybear]

My new phone arrived today, and I found out that USA models of Samsung devices can't be rooted at all. Poo.

... But, at this point, I've already learned all the workarounds I need after all my struggles with the teracube over the years. I know how to preserve my jotterpad documents, and I know how to fix my alarm app so it can access all my music files. I even know how to dig all the way into my storage, even with the restrictions they have on that these days.

If I ever need a rooted device for something, my teracube will still be around, retired to a drawer.

I'm not fully switching to the new phone just yet. I'm waiting on the case and phone grip I ordered for it to come first. That's gonna be a few days.

[freewayshark]

I don’t keep my phone connected to our house wifi because it sucks ass and we have unlimited data so I got locked out of Netflix on my phone because I hadn’t used it on the home network in 30 days fuck offffff

[sophiamcdougall]

You're a reasonably informed person on the internet. You've experienced things like no longer being able to get files off an old storage device, media you've downloaded suddenly going poof, sites and forums with troves full of people's thoughts and ideas vanishing forever. You've heard of cybercrime. You've read articles about lost media. You have at least a basic understanding that digital data is vulnerable, is what I'm saying. I'm guessing that you're also aware that history is, you know... important? And that it's an ongoing study, requiring ... data about how people live? And that it's not just about stanning celebrities that happen to be dead? Congratulations, you are significantly better-informed than the British government! So they're currently like "Oh hai can we destroy all these historical documents pls? To save money? Because we'll digitise them first so it's fine! That'll be easy, cheap and reliable -- right? These wills from the 1850s will totally be fine for another 170 years as a PNG or whatever, yeah? We didn't need to do an impact assesment about this because it's clearly win-win! We'd keep the physical wills of Famous People™ though because Famous People™ actually matter, unlike you plebs. We don't think there are any equalities implications about this, either! Also the only examples of Famous People™ we can think of are all white and rich, only one is a woman and she got famous because of the guy she married. Kisses!"

Yes, this is the same Government that's like "Oh no removing a statue of slave trader is erasing history :(" You have, however, until 23 February 2024 to politely inquire of them what the fuck they are smoking. And they will have to publish a summary of the responses they receive. And it will look kind of bad if the feedback is well-argued, informative and overwhelmingly negative and they go ahead and do it anyway. I currently edit documents including responses to consultations like (but significantly less insane) than this one. Responses do actually matter. I would particularly encourage British people/people based in the UK to do this, but as far as I can see it doesn't say you have to be either. If you are, say, a historian or an archivist, or someone who specialises in digital data do say so and draw on your expertise in your answers. This isn't a question of filling out a form. You have to manually compose an email answering the 12 questions in the consultation paper at the link above. I'll put my own answers under the fold. Note -- I never know if I'm being too rude in these sorts of things. You probably shouldn't be ruder than I have been.

Please do not copy and paste any of this: that would defeat the purpose. This isn't a petition, they need to see a range of individual responses. But it may give you a jumping-off point.

Question 1: Should the current law providing for the inspection of wills be preserved?

Yes. Our ability to understand our shared past is a fundamental aspect of our heritage. It is not possible for any authority to know in advance what future insights they are supporting or impeding by their treatment of material evidence. Safeguarding the historical record for future generations should be considered an extremely important duty.

Question 2: Are there any reforms you would suggest to the current law enabling wills to be inspected?

No.

Question 3: Are there any reasons why the High Court should store original paper will documents on a permanent basis, as opposed to just retaining a digitised copy of that material?

Yes. I am amazed that the recent cyber attack on the British Library, which has effectively paralysed it completely, not been sufficient to answer this question for you.  I also refer you to the fate of the Domesday Project. Digital storage is useful and can help more people access information; however, it is also inherently fragile. Malice, accident, or eventual inevitable obsolescence not merely might occur, but absolutely should be expected. It is ludicrously naive and reflects a truly unpardonable ignorance to assume that information preserved only in digital form is somehow inviolable and safe, or that a physical document once digitised, never need be digitised again..At absolute minimum, it should be understood as certain that at least some of any digital-only archive will eventually be permanently lost. It is not remotely implausible that all of it would be. Preserving the physical documents provides a crucial failsafe. It also allows any errors in reproduction -- also inevitable-- to be, eventually, seen and corrected. Note that maintaining, upgrading and replacing digital infrastructure is not free, easy or reliable. Over the long term, risks to the data concerned can only accumulate.

"Unlike the methods for preserving analog documents that have been honed over millennia, there is no deep precedence to look to regarding the management of digital records. As such, the processing, long-term storage, and distribution potential of archival digital data are highly unresolved issues. [..] the more digital data is migrated, translated, and re-compressed into new formats, the more room there is for information to be lost, be it at the microbit-level of preservation. Any failure to contend with the instability of digital storage mediums, hardware obsolescence, and software obsolescence thus meets a terminal end—the definitive loss of information. The common belief that digital data is safe so long as it is backed up according to the 3-2-1 rule (3 copies on 2 different formats with 1 copy saved off site) belies the fact that it is fundamentally unclear how long digital information can or will remain intact. What is certain is that its unique vulnerabilities do become more pertinent with age."  -- James Boyda, On Loss in the 21st Century: Digital Decay and the Archive, Introduction.

Question 4: Do you agree that after a certain time original paper documents (from 1858 onwards) may be destroyed (other than for famous individuals)? Are there any alternatives, involving the public or private sector, you can suggest to their being destroyed?

Absolutely not. And I would have hoped we were past the "great man" theory of history. Firstly, you do not know which figures will still be considered "famous" in the future and which currently obscure individuals may deserve and eventually receive greater attention. I note that of the three figures you mention here as notable enough to have their wills preserved, all are white, the majority are male (the one woman having achieved fame through marriage) and all were wealthy at the time of their death. Any such approach will certainly cull evidence of the lives of women, people of colour and the poor from the historical record, and send a clear message about whose lives you consider worth remembering.

Secondly, the famous and successsful are only a small part of our history. Understanding the realities that shaped our past and continue to mould our present requires evidence of the lives of so-called "ordinary people"!

Did you even speak to any historians before coming up with this idea?

Entrusting the documents to the private sector would be similarly disastrous. What happens when a private company goes bust or decides that preserving this material is no longer profitable? What reasonable person, confronted with our crumbling privatised water infrastructure, would willingly consign any part of our heritage to a similar fate?

Question 5: Do you agree that there is equivalence between paper and digital copies of wills so that the ECA 2000 can be used?

No. And it raises serious questions about the skill and knowledge base within HMCTS and the government that the very basic concepts of data loss and the digital dark age appear to be unknown to you. I also refer you to the Domesday Project.

Question 6: Are there any other matters directly related to the retention of digital or paper wills that are not covered by the proposed exercise of the powers in the ECA 2000 that you consider are necessary?

Destroying the physical documents will always be an unforgivable dereliction of legal and moral duty.

Question 7: If the Government pursues preserving permanently only a digital copy of a will document, should it seek to reform the primary legislation by introducing a Bill or do so under the ECA 2000?

Destroying the physical documents will always be an unforgivable dereliction of legal and moral duty.

Question 8: If the Government moves to digital only copies of original will documents, what do you think the retention period for the original paper wills should be? Please give reasons and state what you believe the minimum retention period should be and whether you consider the Government’s suggestion of 25 years to be reasonable.

There is no good version of this plan. The physical documents should be preserved.

Question 9: Do you agree with the principle that wills of famous people should be preserved in the original paper form for historic interest?

This question betrays deep ignorance of what "historic interest" actually is. The study of history is not simply glorified celebrity gossip. If anything, the physical wills of currently famous people could be considered more expendable as it is likely that their contents are so widely diffused as to be relatively "safe", whereas the wills of so-called "ordinary people" will, especially in aggregate, provide insights that have not yet been explored.

Question 10: Do you have any initial suggestions on the criteria which should be adopted for identifying famous/historic figures whose original paper will document should be preserved permanently?

Abandon this entire lamentable plan. As previously discussed, you do not and cannot know who will be considered "famous" in the future, and fame is a profoundly flawed criterion of historical significance.

Question 11: Do you agree that the Probate Registries should only permanently retain wills and codicils from the documents submitted in support of a probate application? Please explain, if setting out the case for retention of any other documents.

No, all the documents should be preserved indefinitely.

Question 12: Do you agree that we have correctly identified the range and extent of the equalities impacts under each of these proposals set out in this consultation? Please give reasons and supply evidence of further equalities impacts as appropriate.

No. You appear to have neglected equalities impacts entirely. As discussed, in your drive to prioritise "famous people", your plan will certainly prioritise the white, wealthy and mostly the male, as your "Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin and Princess Diana" examples amply indicate. This plan will create a two-tier system where evidence of the lives of the privileged is carefully preserved while information regarding people of colour, women, the working class and other disadvantaged groups is disproportionately abandoned to digital decay and eventual loss. Current and future historians from, or specialising in the history of minority groups will be especially impoverished by this.  

[coridallasmultipass]

Make sure you vote tomorrow, March 5th (2024), when most states are holding their primaries!

Speaking as a Californian and my personal experience as a voter and in doing pollworking for the past couple elections...

If you got a Vote By Mail ballot, you can drop it off at any polling place/post office/ballot drop box (if it has the correct county envelope you got it with - the county will forward it to the correct county for vote counting, same as the post office). MAKE SURE YOU READ THE ENVELOPE BECAUSE YOU'LL NEED TO SIGN AND DATE THE ENVELOPE BEFORE YOU RETURN IT. (And your signature needs to resemble the one you signed when you registered.)

If you want to vote in-person, you will need to find a polling place WITHIN the county you're registered to vote in, preferrably your assigned precinct - you should check your county's website to find the location if you didn't get a notice by mail.

I don't know how every county does this, but in my county, the accessible ballot marking device has access to all the ballots in my county, which is great for people who can't find or travel to their assigned polling place during the poll hours. Each polling place only has access to pre-printed paper ballots from the precinct(s) assigned to it, which is why the accessible ballot marking device (which prints the ballot once you finish marking it) has been super important, since people tend to just go to any polling place they've heard about or used in the past. (And we DON'T have access to ANY ballots from a different county, not even on that device.)

Voting registration and vote collection is done by each county SEPARATELY, so you won't show up on a roster in another county, and they won't have the ballot you're eligible to vote on. You'd need to re-register/vote provisionally with the different county in order to vote on their ballots. (Which is why it's important to vote on the Vote By Mail ballot that was sent to you - it has all the races you're eligible to vote for, SO GO DIG IT OUT OF YOUR MAIL PILE AND VOTE ON IT, 'CAUSE THEY WERE SENT OUT IN LIKE JANUARY OR SOMETHING. THAT SHIT COST AN ABSURD AMOUNT TAX DOLLARS PER BALLOT, SO DON'T WASTE IT.)

If you haven't registered to vote yet, you can register on the same day you vote! (Again, this is for California, I don't know how other states do it.)

Again, make sure you find a place IN YOUR COUNTY, and try to vote at your assigned polling place, so your vote is counted where it matters!

TLDR: Order of importance:

1. Fill out the mail ballot that was sent to you. Take it to the post office, polling place, or official ballot drop box. It must be collected BEFORE THE POLLS CLOSE. Drop it off on your lunch break, if you need to get it in before closing time.

2. If you can't do that, go to your assigned polling place. (Check your county website.) Same importance as number 1, but you may have to wait in a line depending on what time you arrive.

3. If you can't do that, go to any polling place in the county you're registered to vote in.

4. Register/update your registration to vote. No one can be denied the right to vote at the end of the day, but if it's not with the county you're eligible to vote in, your ballot may be deemed ineligible. (I've never done anything on the ballot-counting side, so I definitely can't answer questions about that. If you're curious, you can get an answer by calling your specific county.)

Side note: do not wear any merch that has a candidate's name who's on the ballot while going to vote. This is electioneering, which is illegal. (Also includes any propositions or other items on the ballot.)

[plinkcat-gif]

Do you play bedrock or java

education edition 👍

[fingertipsmp3]

Another sentence that just came out of my mouth: “yeah, it would be a lot easier to not do it! But I could also just do it”

[brunelsblog]

On 5th December of 2023, The Atlantic came out with an article titled "War in the Congo Has Kept the Planet Cooler" written by Ross Anderse, the senior editor at the Atlantic, where he oversees the science, technology, and health sections. As you could've guessed, this genocide-friendly title did not fly by the internet and they have since (9th December at the time of writing) changed the title to "The Grim Ironies of Climate Change", a paywalled article.

Let us break this down further to try to understand their thought process-

1) They posted an article with an insanely insensitive and dangerously racist title.

2) They, rightly, faced backlash.

3) With the knowledge that what they had done was wrong at least on some level, they decide not to remove the dangerous article...

4) ... but rename it and continue to unapologetically host it in their site?

There is no way to make sense of it outside of the framework of white supremacy that has dehumanized African bodies to the point where they, to a colonial mind, appear as viable sacrifices to quell the climate disaster that continues to be driven by the same countries whose foreign policy is to keep Congo as unstable as posible. There is no "war" in Congo, there is a genocide for raw minerals that, through multiple levels of slave labor, become the smartphones and other electronic devices you and I own. And the colonizers know this -- that they have implicated billions of people around the world in their inhumane project, and they hope to turn this forced complacency into active genocidal intent, where the plunder of Congo becomes acceptable to you if it buys the west a little extra time to protect what little comforts it has thrown your way. I am not going to tell you how to think. Sit with this information and come to your own conclusions.

They might have changed the title of the article but the internet is forever. Here is the link to the Wayback Machine snapshot of the original title. Ironically, you can access the archived version that implicates them for free, while you would have to pay to read the current version.

[maid-of-timey-wimey]

Or we could just… have some screenings with subtitles and some without, and make it clear which is which on theater signage, websites, etc. so everyone with a need (or even just a strong preference) for one or the other can go see their preferred format? Just like how 3D movies usually also have a smaller number of screenings in 2D? Or how “sensory-friendly” performances/screenings don’t stop anyone else from having dark and quiet because they can just go on a different day? I know there are small arthouse theaters that do like special events and they may still have to make one decision for everybody, but the large majority of movie theaters never have just one showing of a given movie which makes competing access needs a complete non-issue. Just do both.

There's a poll about whether or not subtitles should be standard at movie theaters on anonymous polling or a poll a day I believe and of course a bunch of people with ADHD who aren't HOH or have auditory processing managed to make it all about them in the notes saying it'd be ableist bc subtitles are distracting 😐

that’s so annoying and so typical. subtitles might be a little distracting but without them people can’t even enjoy them at all. it’s not like captions take up half the screen or are flashing bright colors . they’re captions 🤦‍♂️

[heart-buzz]

something i think a lot of able-bodied people (or really, ANYONE who doesn't use an electric mobility device) fail to realize is that while having a power chair can certainly open up your ability to go places, many places are not power chair/scooter friendly. even curbs aren't power chair friendly, (frankly im ignoring the width of sidewalks for this post... 😒) the first time i left my home with my chair, i had an emotional breakdown upon coming home, because my own driveway isn't power chair friendly. the curb has a two inch rise, which simply can't be rolled over. we'd already had to buy an expensive ramp to get OUT of the house, and i had to get out of my chair (ow) so that my fiance could lift the chair over the curb. if he wasn't there with me, i would've been out of luck. not only would i have had to leave my $5000 chair outside on the street, i would've had to walk myself back inside, which is one of the main contributions of my back pain. btw, insurance doesn't cover anything towards non-permanent chair ramps. as a disabled person, you are expected to cover those expenses yourself, and they are not cheap.

i also realized that not every road has an ADA-compliant curb to roll onto. do you know what that means? that means i have to drive my chair in the street, with actual cars. do you know the top speed of my chair? it's 5.1 miles per hour. im not sure if it's illegal to pass someone in a mobility scooter, but no one wanted to drive around me when this happened so i held up the traffic on a somewhat busy road. it was embarrassing and somewhat frightening.

i guess all im saying is, please think about power chair and scooter users when you think about wheelchair accessibility. please consider what our heavier, battery-operated chairs can and can't do when it comes to curbs and ramps.

[taylorman2274]

Reverse Isekai Genshin Shenanigans #2

Characters: Venti, Kaeya, Diluc, Xingqiu, Zhongli

---------------------------------------------------------

"Is everything to your liking, Venti?" you asked.

"Oh none of that, [Y/N]," Venti responded with a small smile. "No need to be so formal around me."

The two of you were currently in the living room of your apartment. Since Venti was here, you had planned on showing him some of the stuff around your place. As for how Venti got here in the first place...

It's kind of a long story.

But to make that story short, Venti told you that Albedo and the Traveler had been working on a device that can establish a linked portal between Teyvat and Earth. From what you understand, it's kind of how you are able to access Teyvat on your computer, but this time it's the other way around.

It's honestly surprising how quickly it took them to reach you.

"However," Venti began, raising a finger. "Before you show me any more stuff, do you by chance happen to have any wine around? I am quite curious to see how your world's wine holds up to Mondstadt's."

You shook your head. "Nope. Sorry, I don't drink."

"You don't?!" Venti gasped. "Well that's no fun! Life is so much better when indulging in fabulous wine."

"My liver would say otherwise." you quipped.

Venti, ignoring you, continued. "It's unfortunate, really. And I was just beginning to get my hopes up high," he sighed. "But alas, I guess a bard's stomach will have to go empty for now."

You could tell that he was joking, but you still felt like helping him out. He was your guest, after all.

Luckily, your apartment was in the middle of a shopping complex.

"How about this. There's a wine store nearby. I can walk down and grab you something. Would that be alright?"

Venti's eyes are shining so bright you nearly covered your eyes to stop from going blind.

"Ohoho, really now?" he smirks, before giving a Knight of Favonius salute. "Lead the way then, [Y/N]. I shall be right behind you."

You sighed. "No, Venti. I can't risk you being seen by other people. Just tell me what you want and I'll go get it."

"Not a chance!" he happily exclaimed, skipping towards the door. "A decision of great importance should be trusted with an expert connoisseur such as myself."

He opened the door and gestured you towards the empty hallway. "After you, dear [Y/N]."

...

The God of Freedom has restrictions when it comes to purchasing wine apparently.

---------------------------------------------------------

"I must say, [Y/N]. Your place certainly is interesting. It's both familiar and exotic."

You raised a skeptical brow at the calvary captain. "Should I be taking that as a compliment or...?"

In response, Kaeya chuckled. "I simply mean that it's unique. Let's leave it at that."

You slowly nodded. Kaeya was a hard person to read, but you think he meant it as a complement.

...You think.

"However, before we continue, do you have any drinks on hand. I'm getting a bit thirsty."

You nodded politely. "Of course, I'll go get you something right away!"

You quickly walked to the kitchen and opened your fridge. "What would you like? I've got water, milk, juice, soda..."

Kaeya thought for a second. "Do you have any wine?"

...

Goddammit.

You loudly sighed. "First of all, I don't drink. Second of all, Venti made me spend nearly $100 at the wine store, and I didn't even get to keep any of it!"

Kaeya pondered in thought some more. "A wine store...?"

Oh no.

"No..." you warned. "Don't you even think about getting me to spend more money."

Kaeya merely brought a hand to his hip, "But I am a guest, am I not? It is common courtesy for the guest to be treated respectively after all."

...

You hate it when they're right.

You sighed again. "Fine..."

Kaeya softly smiled. "Excellent. I can't wait to see what they have to offer."

Thankfully, Kaeya was nice enough to settle for only one wine bottle.

---------------------------------------------------------

"I'm sorry if this isn't to your liking, Master Diluc."

"Please, [Y/N]. Just Diluc is fine. No need for formalities when we're not in Teyvat."

He began to look around at his surroundings.

"Though I am curious as to why you decided to bring me to a restaurant of all places."

"Because you didn't want to go to the wine store." you replied, deadpan. "Which honestly surprises me considering you own the biggest winery in Mondstadt."

Diluc did not look impressed. "I've seen enough wine in my life already, it does not make any difference if I go see anymore."

You shrugged your shoulders. "Suit yourself."

You looked back down at the menu in your hands, reading its contents for something good to order.

"...Is there another reason why you brought me here?"

You looked up at him. "...I mean yeah, there is, but it's nothing important."

Diluc crossed his arms. "Oh? What is it?"

You pointed to the top of his menu. "It's the name of the restaurant."

He looked down towards the menu and read the name. "Firebirds? What of it?"

You tilted your head. "...You don't get it?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Get what?"

"Ah, forget it," you waved a hand. "I just thought it was something funny."

---------------------------------------------------------

"Where are we heading, my liege?"

"Somewhere I think you'll really like."

The two of you walked through the front doors and stopped just a few steps afterward. To the naked eye, books upon books laid upon rows and rows of shelves.

As expected of a library.

You looked at Xingqiu and couldn't help but chuckle at the wide-eyed expression he was giving. His mouth also hung open comically.

"Easy now, Xingqiu, don't go drooling all over the floor now." You turned and pointed towards the front desk. "I figure that this place might be too big for you to handle so I trust that any questions you have you'll ask the librari- aaannnnnnnnnd he's gone."

...

You looked away for five seconds and you've already lost the book lover.

Is this how parents feel whenever they lose sight of their kids?

You couldn't help but chuckle as you shook your head. You suppose this was to be expected after all. When Xingqiu sets his sights on a book of choice, there's not much that will drag him away from it.

Knowing that he had no reason to leave the library, you began walking around the building searching for him.

You did find him after a few minutes. He had grabbed a seat on top of a beanbag and was nose deep in a book in his hands. Stacked next to him were a ton of other books that he presumably collected.

However, as you walked closer to him, you could see a troubled expression on his face.

"Is something wrong?" you questioned.

Xingqiu lowered the book from his face. "Sorry, my liege, I seem to be unable to read this. I can't understand any of the words."

...

Ah crap, you forgot about that.

"Do you think you could read this to me?" he asked, handing the book to you.

You nodded. "Sure, I can do that."

Book in hand, you plopped down on another beanbag next to him and started to read. You had no other plans for the day, so you were fine with hanging around the library for a little bit.

---------------------------------------------------------

You didn't feel like going out today. It didn't matter who asked, you were exhausted.

"Hmmm..."

Even if that someone was an over 6,000-year old retired Archon.

To be quite frank, you were terrified to be in Zhongli's presence. Sure, this isn't the first Archon you've met in person, but Venti does a superb job at hiding his status. Nobody can take a look at him and think that he's an Archon.

Zhongli on the other hand, has this imposing aura around him. How does Hu Tao not feel threatened by this man?

"So this is where you're able to guide us from?"

You nodded. "Yes sir."

After showing Zhongli around your apartment, he expressed an interest in seeing the device you use to guide them. Not thinking ahead, and because you were terrified of telling an Archon 'no', you agreed.

...Okay, you did try to tell Venti 'no', but that's different!

Now, you were frantically trying to piece together a convincing story about how your guidance is not part of a video game and everything that they've come to know was written, modeled, and designed by a company. Existential crisis are not fun to deal with.

However, Zhongli isn't stupid. There's a high percent chance he'll see through your lies.

...Basically, you're fucked.

You focused back on the computer. The main menu was playing. You sneaked a peak at Zhongli. He appeared to be lost in thought.

"Need me to explain anything?" you asked, hesitantly.

Zhongli nodded. "Please."

You sighed. Here goes nothing.

"So to start things off, there's this company called Hoyoverse. This company is responsible for maintaining a stable connection between here and Teyvat. That's why you saw their name appear on the screen earlier. This down here is the region that the connection is held. If I click on that, I'm able to change to another region. However, I'm gonna keep it on this one since I get the best connection from there."

"Then below that is my User ID. Going back to Hoyoverse for a moment, it's not just one connection they're responsible for. They're able to hold thousands of connections at once."

You saw Zhongli open his mouth so you stopped talking for a moment. "But I've never known anyone other than you guiding us. How can it be that there are multiple connections to the same place?"

You shook your head. "No, it's not multiple connections to one Teyvat. It's multiple connections to different Teyvats. Think of it as parallel universes if you will. Through this connection, I am able to guide people such as you. However, through another connection, someone else is able to guide another Zhongli. Does that make sense?"

You nearly breathed a sigh of relief when he nodded his head. "I see. Please, continue."

"Right. Next, you have these two buttons over here. If I click on the top one, you'll see ways to interact with other connection members as well as the company itself. Also, you have the fair use statement and terms of service. These are just the rules I need to follow while guiding you guys. If I break any of these rules, my access is revoked and the connection gets terminated."

Zhongli looks at the screen for a brief period before turning to you with his arms crossed. "You say these are rules."

You nodded. "Yes sir."

"...They sound more like contracts to me."

...

"I mean..." you scratched the back of your neck. "I wouldn't say contracts, per se. I guess you could call them... agreements?"

Zhongli raised an eyebrow. "So now they're agreements?"

...

Welp. It was a good run while it lasted.

You sighed heavily and lowered your head in shame. "No. You're right. They're contracts."

Zhongli nodded in agreement. "As I thought."

"Sorry." you apologized.

...

"Do you know what is listed in the contracts?"

You looked up at Zhongli. He still bore a curious expression on his face. There wasn't any anger nor frustration hinted anywhere.

"Ummm... Not really."

Zhongli was quick to furrow his eyebrows. Okay, now he's looking a bit mad. "You signed a contract without reading its contents?"

You scooched your chair a tiny bit away from Zhongli to give you some more space. "Well I mean, yeah, but I'm not the only one who does that. Everyone does! Nobody's got the time nor the patience to read all of that legal jargon."

Zhongli's eyebrows furrowed even further. You might be overexaggerating out of fear, but he looks absolutely pissed. Now would be the best time to make a smart life decision.

"Oh please, Rex Lapis," you pleaded, kneeling on the floor with your hands pressed together in prayer. "I beg for forgiveness, O merciful Archon."

"Spare me your theatrics."

You winced. That didn't work out as well as you hoped.

A couple of seconds passed by before Zhongli let out a deep sigh. "I don't know what you were thinking when you decided to blindly sign multiple contracts.

...

"However, I am willing to go through each contract for you and teach you of anything you should be aware of for now and for the foreseeable future."

...

"...Huh...?"

"You mean... I'm not gonna suffer the Wrath of the Rock?"

"The Wrath of the Rock??" Zhongli asks, flabbergasted. "Did you really think I was going to hurt you?"

...

"Yes..." you answered, meekly.

Zhongli's face softened before he placed a hand on your shoulder. "I would never harm you nor let anyone bring harm you, [Y/N]. I'd be a fool to do so after all that you have done for my friends, for Liyue, and for Teyvat."

He gave a soft smile. "I'm just letting you know that you should be more careful while signing any contracts in the future. You never know if you're getting a fair agreement if you never read its contents."

You nodded, smile also on your face. "Yes sir, I'll read every contract from now on, sir."

"Good. Now then, would you kindly read the contents of each contract to me. I'll stop you if I need to mention anything worth noting."

You spent the next couple of hours going over each contract, taking notes on anything Zhongli deemed worth remembering. You guess that showing him the actual game will come at a later time.

---------------------------------------------------------

Author Side Notes: Wow that Zhongli bit took up a lot of this. In all honesty, it could probably be it's own thing separate from all of the other shenanigans.

By the way, I imagine that Zhongli uses reading glasses. I don't know why I think that, but I feel like it suits him for some reason.