#also make sure you have backups elsewhere

[fanfic-fugue]

Please I’m begging you— do not post your fic exclusively on Tumblr. Cross post it on Ao3. It’s called an archive for a reason. Post it, no matter how short. No matter if it’s self insert or slash. By all means, post it here too, but this website is constantly teetering on collapse.

[stealingyourbones]

Submitted Prompts #165

Danny, now a junior in high school and residing in Gotham, needs a little extra cash to make ends meet each month. (There’s only so many burgers he can stab on instinct before he gets fired and banned from every Bat Burger in the city. Growing up with animated food does that to you.)

The opportunity to get a new job arises when Danny is mistaken for Damian Wayne, and is dragged along by one of Damian’s brothers for a vigilante adventure through the night after an Arkham breakout. Danny, the nerd that he is, is an avid Batfamily fan and can copy Robin’s fighting style perfectly. It’s only when he opens his mouth to speak and taunt villains do the Bats realize that Damian is on the other side of town, also dressed as Robin, kicking ass by himself with no backup, and that they just put a civilian in the line of fire. 

By the end of it, Danny is offered a job to be Damian Wayne’s body double; both as his civilian self and as another Robin when Damian is needed elsewhere. He’s thrilled about it, and proceeds to copy Damian’s mannerisms so perfectly the Bats have to check to make sure he’s not another clone. 

(He’s not, Danny is just an idiot who is using his ghost abilities to help with his acting. Completely oblivious to the growing paranoia of the Bats.)

[kingofthewilderwest]

To everyone who asked, and to everyone who didn't:

Yes. I have somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 of TwoSet's videos, all in HD quality. LINK BELOW

Earlier this year in 2024, I downloaded every single TwoSet Violin public video from their YouTube and scoured other sites like Bilibili and Facebook to get videos they'd deleted from at least one platform. My goal was to make some fandom compilation videos that'd require going through every video.

I do not have the last few months of 2024 (which I'm kicking myself for... I literally almost did a download update on SUNDAY). But I have almost everything.

2 mil, 3 mil, 4 mil, Fantasia, Hilary Hahn or Ray Chen collabs, Producer Shaun, professional versus beginner, violin charades, that cheeky skit you shared on Facebook in 2016

Their world tour VODs, including my own personal captures of their latest VOD stream

Some of the content from their Facebook kickstarter livestreams that I found from other fans.

I've been collecting all their TikTok videos currently, too. I've downloaded a spattering of their Instagram stories from 2024 and might have a small collection of recent Instagram videos, too.

I do not have everything, but I have a fuckton and I want to share it with as many people as possible, and collaborate with as many people as possible to fill in the missing pieces.

Please contact me if you have your own archives or know people working on other archives. I'm talking with a few people about starting a Google Drive project, but I don't know the big names in the TSV fandom and thus could be missing out on people who've done a lot of other work

It's more likely that this will clear over in the coming days / weeks / month / whatever and we'll have their official channel again. I'm still going to keep believing that. But it doesn't erase the importance of making sure the media we love doesn't become lost media. I have respect for content creators to monitor what does and doesn't stay on their platform, but for the sake of preservation of media, for the sake of helping a community, I want to make sure this archive is in place and widely accessible to TwoSetters.

My current cloud server is VERY MUCH a work in progress. I am in the middle of an extremely busy week and trying to do this around an office job and a half. It will take me time to upload everything, and even more time to organize everything. But the cloud server link is active, and I will keep people updated about the progress of my archiving through a PDF text file (not yet uploaded) in said cloud. If I collaborate with people for Google Drive systems, if I do other backups, I will let people know there and on my other social media accounts.

I am new and naive to Terabox. I started with Terabox because it's free to upload up to a terabyte of content. I think it should be free to download everything in full quality, but I don't know. People should inform me how it works. It's currently -- I'm sorry -- VERY poorly organized and requires Scrolling (TM), but short of that issue (which will be fixed with organization), I hope it gets people what they need.

Also: Reddit has suspended me for a few days lol (really I'm getting a slap on the wrist for how blatantly I was marching about), so if people want to start spreading this link to others in private chats elsewhere with known TwoSetters, the more the merrier! The purpose of this is to be a resource, either short-term or long-term.

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Interrogation

part 6 of ITR ao3

“Tucker, are you sure about this” Sam asked, pacing around the hotel room.

Tucker sighed, flopping back on the bed. “Sam, we already talked about this, the league won't stop looking even if we rescue Danny without them. Besides!” he said, gesturing toward the window, “We’re already in Gotham.”

“I know that!” Sam said running her fingers through her hair. “It's just that…”

“I know, Sam. I get it. But it will be better if ghost info comes from us instead of them finding out through the GIW or the Fentons. And they’ll have the resources to get the summoning ingredients faster then we could.”

Sam flopped down on the bed beside him. “For all we know they may be in support of the GIW.” Sam grumbled. 

Tucker turned toward her. “That’s why you'll be the one talking to them. You can find out what you can about what their stance is, and then we'll see what to do from there.

She sighed, “Ok. But only because we don’t have much choice.”

Tucker reached over and squeezed her hand. “We’ll get him out. Danny’s strong, he’ll be ok.”

“I hope so.” 

They laid next to each other in silence for a while until they were interrupted by a beeping coming from Tucker’s computer.

“That’ll be the motion sensors.” Tucker said getting up. I’ll be waiting in the room next door listening to make sure everything is going well.”

Sam sat up and nodded.

Tucker quickly left the room and Sam heard the neighboring room’s door open and close. Sam stood up and faced the window, scowling.

***

Tim and Bruce crouched on the building across from the room registered to Samantha Manson.

“How are we doing this, B?” Tim asked.

“You go in first, see what information you can get from her. I’ll wait here in case she tries to run or has backup.”

“I don’t think she’ll run. She came here for a reason. Not to mention her hacker friend told us who to look into.”

“Hrn.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Always good to be cautious, I know.” Tim said rolling his eyes as he lept onto the fire escape by the window. He paused as he found it unlocked. Either she didn’t know to keep her window locked in Gotham, or, more likely, they were expected. Tim braced himself as he slid the window open and slipped inside. Then he froze when he registered the person glaring at him.

“Why are you just standing there in a dark room?” Tim asked then cursed himself. That wasn’t what he planned on saying!

She lifted an eyebrow. “Why are you breaking into my room?”

Tim fought the urge to fidget. Her unimpressed eyebrow could almost rival Alfred’s. “I need to know about Daniel Nightingale.”

She snorted. “I don’t think so. Not until you give me something first.”

Bruce was silent in his ear so Tim asked, “What do you want to know?”

She stared at him for a moment, then glanced at the window. Did she know Batman was out there? Tim wouldn’t doubt it. Not if she knew as much as they thought she did.

“I want the Ant-Ecto Acts repealed.”

Tim froze. “The what?”

“I’m looking into it.” Oracle said in his ear. Bruce grunted.

Sam just glared harder at him. “Don’t mess with me. You’re a bat. You should know what they are. And if you don’t then you’re stupider than I thought and I’ll look for help elsewhere.” she said then froze.

“You need help?” Tim asked. When she didn’t say anything, he continued. “We want to rescue Daniel, but we need more information in order to find him.”

She didn’t say anything for a moment, just kept scowling. “Fine.” she stomped over the lightswitch and flipped it on. “But tell mister dark and gloomy to go ahead and come in.”

Tim was about to respond when Batman slipped in through the window.

“What do you know about Nightingale?” Bruce said, his tone not quite a growl, but not gentle either. 

Tim fought the urge to roll his eyes, that wasn’t going to work with Manson. They needed to show they were here to help, not interrogate her.

Sam didn’t even look at Bruce, “It’s a kind of bird.” she said while looking at Tim. “Just like a red robin, except nightingale isn’t also the name of a restaurant chain.”

Time fought the urge not to flush in embarrassment, even though he had heard the joke plenty of times it still never failed to get to him. Thankfully Bruce responded before Tim could think of a rebuttal.

“What are the Anti-Ecto Acts?”

Sam was glaring at Batman now and Tim could tell Bruce was glaring back.

Finally, Sam said, “They’re a set of laws that declare ghosts, and the dead adjacent as non-sentient and make it legal for people to kill and experiment on them.”

“Ghosts?” Tim asked.

Sam turned to glare at Tim, and wow, not only could she rival Alfred’s disappointed eyebrow she could also rival the batglare. 

“If you don’t believe in ghosts, then I don't think we can help each other.”

“I didn’t say that.” Tim said, raising his hands. “I was just asking for clarification. I know there are a few ghosts, but enough to warrant a whole set of laws?” Sam snorted. “Just a few? Guess the Justice League is just as blind as we thought.”

Tim ignored that for now, “But wouldn’t this law go against the meta human protection act?”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you hear me when I said ghosts are also declared non-sentient?”

Bruce interrupted saying, “We need info on NIghtingale, if he is an associate of yours, like we’ve been led to believe, and if you want him back safe, then you need to tell us everything you know.”

She glared at him. “Don't you dare make it seem like I don’t want him back safe, but I have no reason to trust you.”

Tim stepped forward trying to diffuse the tension, Bruce had always had a hard time communicating with people who were neither victims nor delinquents. “We want to help, and we'll look into these Anti-Ecto acts, but we need to focus on finding Daniel first.”

Sam looked between them, but then responded. “Fine. I need to know exactly what happened.”

“He was helping us with a case involving cultists when the group’s leader used a red gem to control Daniel.” Tim paused as he Sam tense. She cursed and started pacing and muttering to herself. Tim only caught a bit that sounded like ‘I thought we destroyed it.’ “So, you know what it is?” he asked her.

“It’s an artifact that can control ghosts.”

“Well, yes, but why does it affect him?” 

She paused before answering, “He’s liminal.”

“What does that mean?” Bruce asked.

“It means he’s been death touched. He was dead and revived by mystical means.”

Tim thought of Jason. Was he liminal too? What about the other bats who had died and come back? But those were questions for later.

“How do we help him?” Tim asked.

“First, we need a ritual circle to bring him to us. Then we need to destroy the gem.”

Tim glanced at Bruce who gave a slight nod.

“Tell us what we need to get.”

Sam walked over to the hotel desk and picked up a piece of paper that she handed to Tim.

“Here’s everything we need. By when can you get everything?”

Tim glanced over the list. Some of the ingredients were pretty common, but there were others that he’d have to ask Constantine about. “I’ll have to ask some of your contacts about a few ingredients but it won’t take more than a few days. I’ll contact you when we have everything.”

“We’ll also look into these Anti-Ecto Acts.” Bruce said, his voice gentler. Tim wondered if he was also thinking about the possibility of some of them being liminal and falling under the parameters discussed in these acts.

Sam nodded, and Tim and Bruce slipped back outside.

Inside the hotel room, Sam closed her eyes as she waited for Tucker to join her. “Please be safe, Danny. We’re coming for you.

[raayllum]

It's hard to tell because it's only been some posts but you sound somewhat frustrated with pre-season discussions happening elsewhere for The Dragon Prince? In any case, I thought you might appreciate the note that some people certifiably do like Rayla and Callum as characters perfectly well (I know I do at least and have since the start)?

I'm sure you're aware of it already but it felt somewhat like it'd help you not feel like you're typing into a void of dissent for enjoying them and the show concurrently? Even if I'd disliked the time skip in some capacities (I didn't particularly, I thought Rayla had good instincts wanting proof of death etc she just perhaps should have taken more backup for higher success chances if at all possible) Stella's introduction would have won me over entirely anyway.

There's no shame in being easily charmed by adorable animal characters, after all! She really is cute and also useful in limited capacities, like Bait.

If you wanted an actual ask with the above I suppose that I'm intrigued how similarly you thought Bait and Stella functioned as extended powers/company of their respective people and in the group?

Mostly on twitter (which is a reason to stay off twitter) but, in all honesty, it's mostly because it's annoying to see people use ship names or main tags for their complaining (I have "tdp critical" blacklisted or whatever for a reason y'know). Like as someone who truly deeply loves every character and every part of the show, when Claudia or Terry or Aaravos or anyone else gets promo I'm thrilled and intrigued and theorizing. And there's a minimal but loud portion(s) of the fandom who are either currently expressing (or have a track record) of annoyance when Callum and Rayla, as main characters and as the show's consistently most developed dynamic (which, I want to stress, has been the case even in s1 and s2) dare to be main characters and have marketing, there's an uproar of complaining. (Again, not the majority, but still baffles me that it exists at all.)

It'd be like if I complained about ATLA being primarily about Aang, its main character, for the majority of the show's run because I thought Toph needed more of a character arc (she's the least developed of the gaang bc she comes in s2 and has a general self-acceptance arc that doesn't need a ton of steps, for ex).

Sometimes favourite characters are there to have minimal screentime, execute their story purpose, and highlight other characters' arcs. The divide between characters where that's generally understood (Gren, Lain, Tiadrin, Opeli) vs characters where it's not (Aaravos in S4/S5, Runaan) again irks me because of the inconsistency, and therefore bias accordingly affecting judgement. Which maybe isn't fair - most people, myself included, are in fandom as a hobby, and for some people that means not evaluating their biases and not wanting to adjust their expectations; I just can't imagine doing anything else

I think Bait mostly serves as emotional support to Ezran and a lil guy to Talk to for Callum (2x05, 4x02) when a human character wouldn't quite make sense or is gone (Rayla is his usual confidant, for example). Stella is more interesting to me from a structure standpoint as 1) a character connected to the Star arcanum who thus far doesn't really need to be, so I'm curious there and 2) a juxtaposition to post-timeskip Rayla's "we can't save everyone" that her big heart and soft insides is still there, and still something worth listening to.

[yes-i-write-fanfiction]

Yeah, you captured my thoughts exactly on the previous Tarn/Smokescreen ask! Plus, Smokescreen will also disobey Optimus if his judgement screams at him to do otherwise, something that Tarn would never do because Megatron knows better than everyone. (See the base explosion in the end of season two.)

Point two is that Tarn cloaks himself in Decepticon ideology but doesn't really live by it or learn anything good from it. Smokescreen is devoted to the Autobot cause but also lives by the ideals behind it. Basically, Tarn is devoted to his cause because of Megatron, but Smokescreen is devoted to Optimus because he embodies everything good about the cause and so takes his leader's advice on improving to heart. It's why the two had different levels of trust placed in by their leaders.

Anywho, I was hoping you could write Smokey calling out Tarn and getting under his skin, thereby starting Tarn's hatred of this new enemy.

Getting cornered was rarely a good thing. Getting cornered by a decepticon was never a good thing. Getting cornered by Tarn was absolutely a real no good, absolutely terrible thing.

With his armor a dark purple shade, the leader of the DJD almost blended into the night, only his blazing red optics standing out like two stars. And despite the mask, Smokescreen just knew that the bastard was smirking. What he was so happy about, he didn't know, but it was bound to be something bad.

It wasn't the first time they'd crossed paths, however, for the first time it was just the two of them. Every time they met, they both had someone from their team with them. First time Smokescreen had seen Tarn he had been accompanied by that weird smelter guy with the freaky tongue. Man, just remembering it made his plating crawl. It had only been Optimus presence at the time that had kept him from totally freaking out.

Now, he was alone. This was supposed to be a sneaky mission after all. While the rest of the team attracted the attention elsewhere, Smokescreen were supposed to sneak inside, get what they needed and then get out. Easy peasy.

They just hadn't prepared for the fact that Tarn would be there.

"Now now, there's no need to be frightened," Tarn crooned, his deep voice making the air vibrate, "I just want to talk after all."

Unable to help himself, Smokescreen barked out a short, nervous laugh. "Talking. I can do talking. In fact, I love to talk, I talk almost all the time. Ratchet keeps telling me to shut up but I just can't help myself, I'm a guy that has a lot to say-"

"How about," Tarn interrupted, "I talk first, and you listen, hm?" Shutting his mouth, Smokescreen could do nothing but nod while secretly sending out a distress ping to his team. They had to know that something had gone wrong.

Taking on a slightly more relaxed pose, Tarn gestured at his captive audience off one. "I've read about you, you know? Sure, I've read about all the autobots on Earth but you? Your file specifically caught my attention."

"Neat," was all Smokescreen managed to squeak out between squeezed lips.

"You are young. Inexperienced but undoubtedly talented. You wouldn't have made it this far otherwise. Good intuition. A quick thinker. An adapter. But that wasn't what interested me. Can you guess what it was?"

Suddenly thrown a question, Smokescreen scrambled for an aswer that wouldn't get him killed.

"My great sense of humor?"

Nailed it.

Tarn chuckled, shaking his head. "Charming. But no. It was your loyalty, Smokescreen. You see, anyone can kill. Anyone can die for a cause. But only a select few have what it takes to be the perfect warrior. The perfect weapon. The first and most vital characteristic is loyalty. A weapon shouldn't turn on their master after all. Do you understand what I'm talking about, Smokescreen?"

Finally, his team responded to his emergency ping. A short messange, "we're on our way", and Smokescreen almost felt like he could shed tears of relief. But he was not yet out of danger. He had to keep Tarn occupied until backup arrived.

"I-I'm not sure. I mean, yeah, I trust in Optimus but what about it? What does it have to do with anything?"

Tarn clicked his tongue. "Like I said before; you're young. You have yet to reach your full potential and oh, what potential I see in you. And I just know, if you gave me the chance, I could shape you into something splendid."

Tarn's voice trembled at the last couple of words, as if in reverence of whatever fantasy he had playing out in his head. There was a brief, faraway look in his optics before he shook his head, breaking out of whatever trance he had found himself in. Once again, his optics met Smokescreen's and this time they stayed there.

"Your potential is wasted with the autobots, young one," he said in an almost mournful voice. "But I can make it right. You just have to follow me."

It took a couple of seconds for Smokescreen to say anything. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because, my dear Smokescreen," Tarn spoke as he offered his hand, "you and I are the same."

There was this sudden, bitter taste in Smokescreen's mouth and it made him want to purge. His mind, previously muddled by fear, now turned strikingly clear. Tarn was no longer a boogeyman or a terrifying phantom of evil.

He was just an idiot.

"I," Smokescreen spat out, "am nothing like you. I fight because I care about Cybertron, about my friends. I am loyal to Optimus because I believe in what he says, not because it's him saying it but because what he's saying is good and right. You," he points a finger at Tarn, "fight because you are so obsessed with Megatron that you don't care what he says or does as long as it's him doing it. You don't care about justice, or whatever the DJD is supposed to be, you just want Megatron to pay attention to you. Weapon? Yeah, you're right, you are one. But I am a mech and I'll be dead in the ground before I turn into someone even resembling what you are."

As Smokescreen finished talking, silence fell upon the two bots. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Four seconds.

Tarn heaved a massive sigh as he let his head roll back and stared into the ceiling. "Such a shame, really. And here I thought you had at least some brains." Rolling his shoulders, Tarn suddenly flexed his fists and took on a more aggressive stance. A low grow emitted from his chest. "You call yourself a mech. Let's see if you can die like one."

Preparing his weapons, Smokescreen flashed a toothy grin at the decepticon. "Ready when you are."

[psychicreadsgirl]

Blackpink Jennie Kim 2023 - 2024 Reading

This is what I can sense from Jennie for this period.

Love

Jennie's love life is complicated. When I see it, it's like tons of red strings running here and there and all entangled with one another. It is like a puzzle. She'll continue to have media/paparazzi/people just talk about her love life. I've talked about her relationship with Taehyung in another post, so you can read Taehyung's 2023-2024 reading for that piece.

Jennie has numerous suitors and admirers. She knows this too and uses this to her advantage. She will pretend that she is naive/innocent in love, but deep down she is well-aware who is attracted to her. Jennie often will use people's love for her to advance in her career or to benefit her in some way. This can cause her trouble in the long run as some people expect their feelings to be fully reciprocated and are unhappy with her. They may spread rumors/spill the beans about her or somehow affect her career negatively, like possible scandal/possibly losing an endorsement to another idol.

Jennie requires a lot of attention/care in a relationship. If she cannot seek that from someone, she will look elsewhere. She is very afraid of being alone/abandoned, which from what I sense is a result of her childhood. She didn't grow up with the amount of attention she wanted from her family. I don't really see her having an appropriate father figure in her life. She has had to sort of grow up by herself and just by watching those around her. The influence around her hasn't always been positive. She has issues in the area of "father" figures, leading her to often need to seek validation/attention from her partners and making her always need to have backups for love. Even if she were married, she'd make sure she had a plan B for love (this doesn't mean she would necessarily physically sleep with someone else other than her spouse in marriage, but this does mean that she'd have some "close" relationships with others.) (By the way, Jennie is not the only idol out there that does this. Many do this.)

Ironically, Jennie will feel very lonely in relationships. She's often attracted to "bad" partners like the stereotypical bad person figure in movies (dangerous, wild, hot, etc), yet she can't stand their lack of commitment too. She's a very conflicted person -- someone who is very difficult to be satisfied in any type of relationship. She is trying to fill a void in her life with romance and this will likely continue throughout her life. She'll often feel lost, confused, and unloved, but others see her as having the perfect life and as being loved. She can become too absorbed with her own life and victimizing herself that she forgets what she already has in her hand.

If Jennie does marry, she'll likely marry many, many times. If she doesn't marry, she'll just continue dating and dating. She and Taylor Swift are quite similar for their love lives.

Health

Jennie's physical health is really bad. She has a lot of arm pain and has likely had several fractures (just not reported) for various reasons. She deals with the pain through strong pain killers. She has chances of becoming addicted to medicine etc.

She likely will suffer from osteoporsis when she's older. She is also very strict on herself in terms of her diet and exercise. She is likely to suffer from eating disorders and suffer from having a lack of nutrients.

Her digestion is also really weak. She can't eat much oily food or other types of heavier food; she'll go to the toilet very quickly. She has difficulty absorbing nutrients from food. I often see this scene of her vomiting. She has a love/hate relationship with food.

Jennie has chances of developing some auto-immune disorder, possibly lupus or MS, when she is older. Her immune system is not good.

Jennie's mental health is also bad right now. She should see a counsellor if she hasn't seen one. She can lash out often and rather spontaneously ; I see some scenes of her throwing things or swiping things off her makeup table etc. She's likely to suddenly step away from her activities like suddenly stop performing or stop an interview mid way. It's not really a physical thing, but more of her suffering mentally. It's possible for her to have hallucinations/hear voices later. The more famous she is, the worse her mental health becomes. She could potentially self sabotage her career.

[yukidragon]

Do you have more Jack's family in STT AU? I reallu adored them! ❤️💛💙

You’re in luck! I just happened to see a very lovely picture of the family over here on twitter of our favorite clown family. It might be worth checking out, and while you’re there why not give the awesome artist some love?

I haven’t done too much more lore of my version of the SunnyTime Town AU than what I posted here, but I will say this picture and blurb did give me a small nudge and a couple of thoughts.

Town darling Jack is struggling to take his music career off the ground, being good with guitar and singing, but somehow having all the bad luck when it comes to getting gigs despite his popularity and how good he is at singing and playing his guitar. Oh what wacky, crazy things happen to him to thwart him every time! He’s forced to move back home with his folks and sister and get a job as a teacher.

Of course, Jack loves the kids, even if the teacher salary isn’t all that great. He isn’t ready to give up on his dream of becoming a musician. He also secretly longing for love, though he pushed dating aside to try and reach his dream.

Funny thing is Jack isn’t the only new teacher, or the only person who moved into town. Although for him he was moving back home, for the new art teacher, Alice, this is her first time in SunnyTime Town. Sparks fly for these two new clowns in town, though of course more wacky hijinx ensue to make things difficult for them to just get together. A certain puppet in particular is more than a little protective of her bestie.

After finding out about her little brother’s crush, Jane just has to meet Alice and quickly makes friends with the new clown in town, much to Jack’s chagrin. It’s just the perfect way for Jane to tease her little brother all the more when he’s so clearly pining for Alice. She meddles with their relationship, helping as much as she hinders her baby bro - for his own good of course. Someone has to look out for him and help out these two hopeless goofs.

Jane may or may not be responsible for Alice and Jack getting “accidentally” trapped in a locker or closet together after school with no one else around to get them out. “Coincidentally” Buddy was nowhere around to serve as backup either. Honey is also likewise occupied elsewhere. Funny that.

Poor Jack and Alice get pretty flustered by the whole situation, especially by the time they finally get free. Jane doesn’t admit to anything, but the first thing she tells her blushing brother when he gets home is, “You’re welcome~”

Jack, naturally, paid her back for that later. It’s what siblings do after all. Not sure how exactly, but it would have to be equally embarrassing but also kind of helpful. Fair is fair~

Naturally, at some point, Jack will have the opportunity to play a private concert for Alice. Maybe then his luck will finally turn around in ways he never expected, or maybe some more wacky things will get in his way. Who knows with these classic wacky 80′s sitcoms.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur  

[baticeer-sims]

A couple of experiments with TS2 loading time

I wanted to test out some things I've commonly heard around the Sims 2 community as ways to affect your load times. Disclaimer: I have a powerful gaming computer so my game loads fast anyways, so there might be small differences that I won't notice that are more obvious on other machines. I don't know how much of this generalizes to everyone's computer! I run the UC with Sims2RPC as my launcher on Windows 11.

My method: I loaded the game and timed how long it took the game to load from the end of the intro movie, to the neighborhood selection screen. I did it 5 times in a row for each different thing I tested and averaged out the times, just to reduce variance as much as I could.

Test #1 - Control

First I just loaded my game with my downloads folder the way it is right now (8.2 GB of pretty disorganized CC) to get a baseline value. Result: 55 seconds average

Test #2 - Do special characters affect loading times?

I used a bulk file renaming program to replace the letter "S" in every filename in my entire downloads folder, with š - if you can't see that character it's an S with an accent mark on it. (I picked S because it's one of the most common letters in English and it's also in some words common in cc filenames like "sims" and "mesh" so I thought it'd be one where I'm hitting almost every file even if I only replace one character.)

Result: 55 seconds average Conclusion: This one surprised me because it's such a piece of repeated common knowledge around the TS2 community, but I think it's unlikely that special characters affect loading times? If nothing changed from turning the vast majority of my CC from files that don't have special characters into files that do.

Test #3 - Do non-CC files in your downloads folder affect loading times?

I remember hearing you shouldn't keep preview pics in your downloads folder, because it'll slow down the game, and I was confused because I always thought it won't even try to read non-.package files at all. So to test this one, I temporarily moved 17.5 GB of photos, videos, and audio files from elsewhere on my hard drive, into my sims downloads folder.

Result: 55 seconds average Conclusion: If tripling the size of my download folder didn't change load time at all when the new files were all non-sims files, I think it's almost certainly fine to keep preview pictures (or zipped-up backups of something you don't want to use all the time, or whatever) in with your CC if it helps you keep track of your downloads.

Test #4 - Merging your CC

I knew this one was going to actually make a difference because I've directly experienced it before (on an older, worse computer where my load times were longer) but I thought I'd give it a go anyways just to see how much difference it made for me. So I merged some of my CC subfolders I knew would be the biggest (clothes, buy mode objects, & hairs) with CC Merger. According to the logs, it went from 4,308 individual files to 148 merged files.

Result: 46.5 seconds average Conclusion: This definitely makes a difference but it will make a lot more of one for people who already have long load times. For someone like me it might not be worth the amount of time it would take to be bundling every little thing I download lol.

A few other things I've heard that I couldn't think of an easy way to test

1- "Default replacements don't affect your load times as much as if you had a custom version of the same thing" - It feels to me like this doesn't make sense because surely the game still just has to read the files but I have no clue how to test this, I'm not about to spend hours gathering up the custom versions of all my defaults just to try it.

2- "The game will load faster if you have shorter file paths / fewer subfolders within the download folder" - I heard of and started doing this long enough ago that all my downloads are already only one or two subfolders deep already. I couldn't think of a quick way to make my folder structure a lot more complicated lol, and I think even if I found out this wasn't true I wouldn't change how I organize my downloads, so I didn't spend time on it.

Everyone draw whatever conclusions you want from this post, I'm not telling you to change how you organize your CC or anything, just wanted to share what I found is true for me specifically, I would be interested to hear other people who have longer load times repeating my tests and see if you get the same results, or to hear people who know more about the programming side of this weigh in, maybe something like the special characters is dependent on your computer or operating system!

[placegrenette]

What was your reaction to Alem's baby news? I'm super happy for them :)

My dear anon, I am so late in getting back to you that we're actually one baby announcement behind. I am very excited for Alem and Veronika, and for ZaQ and Zhadra. (And for Zhadra and Veronika, friends who can go through the whole first-time-mom marathon together.) May all offspring get to the finish line safely, with them and their mothers in maximal health.

Also backup dancer Diana has a boyfriend! I don't know if you follow backup dancer Diana on Instagram, but you should; she's very thoughtful. She's also not shy about admitting it when she's not happy, so it's good to see her when she is.

Also also the dudes did three concerts, the most recent one in Astana. ZaQ shaved off the beard he was thinking of growing earlier this year; Alem looks good, as usual; Bala has acquired a flattering undercut; Ace is still insisting on wearing the baggiest clothes imaginable. They didn't perform any new songs. Other than ZaQ's new album, and Ace and Azamat Demegen apparently having just done a whirlwind business trip to Korea, I don't know what they've got planned, or when they might be coming off the looking-awfully-threadbare hiatus. Maybe they'll make an announcement for their ninth anniversary on September 1st?

Bala's been the quietest as to how he's spent the hiatus, is my understanding. Alem and Ace acted in the Kazakh dubs for Inside Out 2; Alem released a solo song (it's sweet; I haven't looked up a lyrics translation yet); Ace is apparently taking guitar and English lessons; ZaQ and Zhadra got to go to Japan. In sum, it seems like the time off did them all good. I'm not sure declaring a hiatus was the wisest move, especially since it meant a lot of their staff scattered to the four winds -- I think their PR guy is now running his own business in Astana, and their backup dancers understandably went off to find work elsewhere, I think Diana's doing a musical -- but at least it seems like their collective 2024 has been much less stressful than 2022 and 2023 were.

So who knows when we're getting new music. (I haven't gone through ZaQ's album yet; I'm going to need some translator hand-holding.) I would imagine it could be a while, if fifty percent of the group is about to enter the particular hell of the fourth trimester. And there remains the possibility that Bala's going to make good on his rumored plan to go study in the States. But it's been nice being able to see them in the interim.

[yinyanchan]

For the fiction Gremlins how would the boys be like with a sick MC? Maybe they got the flu or broken their leg? Would any of them take advantage of the situation, especially if MC is dazed and out of it?

Your gremlin boys will surprise you on this one. The emotional mental roller coaster ride this has been for everyone. Reader hasn't actually been hurt or really bad sick. Nothing like the fact that you being actually badly hurt/very sick to sober their attitudes. Not to say they wouldn't think about trying something if the pain/sickness has reader a little delusional.

Blue is first and foremost at the helm. He's head bitty and he's making sure everyone has a place to help with your care. They are bittys so taking care of you can be a bit daunting. Thankfully Reader's love for them has them strong enough to weather this and make sure Reader gets back in tip top shape. Blue will actually be aided by Black and if Blue is helping elsewhere Black is second in command and will detail the others on what is needed.

Black is concerned to the point petty rivalry is not going to help matters. Reader actually hurt to the point that the pain/painkillers or sickness has their brain in a fog... he might try to be a sneaky sneak on somethings if he is still his original baby blue self. However a transformed Black knows he couldn't pull off pretending to be Blue to get some affection. Blue is never too far as well and if he's being honest with himself... he is very concerned for Reader's wellbeing to even actually try. (Though the thought was definitely there) The sobering fact that he could've/could lose you permanately is a harsher reality that he seems to forget... a lot.

Blue can actually see the concern and genuine willingness to be of help rather than a hinderance in all the gremlin boys. Blue is able to sort what is needed and execute things flawlessly thanks to Black's very stern cooperation to get the others in line.

Blue is handling bedside care with Edge's assistance. Edge is a tall bitty and he's even taller if he's transformed. He's able to assist with Medication, feeding, and is one of two bittys that is actually strong enough to heft reader physically if need be... it's just a little awkward to do so with him being still so small compared to them but he will do it in an instant. Magic wise Sans and Red are at the forefront making sure that if in fact Edge needs to move Reader they can assist making it easier. Their magic isn't strong enough to fully lift you but Red is closer to getting that strong. If Red has transformed then he if fully capable of lifting Reader with his magic but it's not precise and Sans uses his magic to assist him. They are on call for emergencies but they are either helping Papyrus move things in the kitchen for Reader's meals or helping keeping things tidy and organized in the mean time should it be needed.

Stretch and Russ are managing Reader's finances and medical appointments. They are surprisingly good and thorough at it despite their more lazy natures. They are Sans and Red's magic backup should they exhaust themselves so they are busying themselves in Reader's paperwork and notifying the proper people so that they can rest without worry. Russ having transformed is far more cutthroat on all bills that come your way. He's not only haggling but he's also finding how to get detailed itemized lists to annoy people to lift certain charges. He's very persuasive. Stretch just sits there and thanks the stars that for once the animosity isn't directed at him. Russ can be absolutely evil on some of those calls. The fanged grin only proves how much he enjoys it as well.

Papyrus is researching the best meals to help speedy recovery and depending on how reader is doing he gets Edge's perspective on some dishes. Sans and Red help him with moving the pots and pans. Papyrus is surprisingly unconcerned with anyone trying to be underhanded... he's usually suspicious but hides it well.

Everyone gets to see Reader and give them some affection which is why this is working out so well. Black has everything scheduled to Blue's requests and he follows them flawlessly.

When Reader is finally out of it there might be an awkwardness between the originals and their gremlins as the petty has always been there... just put away for something more important. The one bitty that can put a stop to all that petty is Black. If he truly believes that this was his eye opening experience on losing Reader then he will correct any and all pettyness at the door. If this wasn't his wake up call then rest assured that it will take some time before he goes back to his original selfish mentality. He's gauging how you are holding up because some days are better than others.

They are all still perverts though... yes even Edge and Papyrus. Reader broke a bone? You better believe that Russ found those x-rays and now everyone knows what some of, if not all, reader's bones look like. Being out of it there are definitely some instances they got to see reader nude more than once... and they are very okay with that. They won't act on anything though. Reader's health is their primary objective.

This is surprisingly wholesome for the gremlin boys but yeah. Reader being really bad off will trigger them to be better in that situation. They do care... they just be mean and petty. Black might try to get away with some extra affection posing as Blue if he hasn't transformed but he is also deeply concerned. Nothing like being smacked with the cruel fact of not only ones mortality but someone elses that you care for deeply.

The only unfortunate, other than poor reader, is Hank. Black has his number and will hound him at any given time of day if it means he can get Reader anything they request

[ask-the-cosmic-duo]

"Well... Twilight sent me an invitation to study runic magic with her because I wrote a research paper on the various types of runes, uses and magic! I should pass you a copy one day! That, and few understand old ponyish languages.. what's better than to ask an expert like me! I decided to lend my expertise! Lys was once an ancient fortess, but it was destroyed due to... well.. dark magic? Maybe not? It's a work in progress... We were trying to figure that part out.."

The doctor paused a while before continuing, "Oh yes, the coffins! There were many on the first layer, and Celestia knew what they were for. So we opened quite a few of them... granted we should had used precaution, but oh well... and guess what? Most were empty? Where all the dead go? There are also rumors of a soul crystal box lying somewhere."

"I'm sure one of these days, Aurora might commission some griffons she spoke the other day to go & find them. Birds? Sparrows? I don't remember their names, only their colors and both are twins. One is blue and one is yellow? Bear in mind, it's just a rumor, this soul crystal box, Dear Stella! And we all know how rumors go.."

The creature only shrugged, "Honestly he probably stumbled into one of the booty traps in that one random coffin, it was only designed to make him crazy.. but ah well. As they say.. shit happens!

"Princess Twilight is on her way here, to this very place to meet you, Good Doctor. Later we need to escort you to the lobby for light refreshments...Yes, we do have trouble...I'm sorry to drag you into such situations..." Aurora paused. "Doctor... are you from this world..?"

"........Well, no? I escaped from this world's sister universe and things have gotten real bad...Some parallel universes you just don't mess with. This world's original doctor is... either dead or gone missing." The doctor said plainly.

"But everyone calls me "Doctor Hooves" as usual.. and I intend to find out this Lys mystery soon! As soon I meet Twilight and reunite with family, of course.. "

Stella listened with more interest than she was expecting herself to have. Magic studies could be good. Also, two griffons? One blue, one yellow…

Wait a sec. “Gad and Zooks? They’re here? From what I’ve seen so far, this world is super dangerous.” She sighed, feeling concerned for the two’s wellbeing. “They might want backup. I suppose I could be that backup, and do some extra studying for you in the meantime, Doc.”

She smiled, despite Shade’s presence. “Who knows? Maybe it’ll even be fun! It’ll be my first adventure in a while, I think. Well, aside from those two things that happened…” She’s silent for a moment before clearing her throat, wanting to move on from that thought.

Continuing to listen to the Doctor, Stella hummed to herself in thought. “Strange… It’s possible he’s just gone elsewhere in his TARDIS, if he has one. But it’s hard to know.” With a shrug, she continued, “Family comes first, though. Go talk to your loved ones. I’ll take it from here.”

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #310: DEATH in OLYMPIA!

November, 1989

The triumph of BLASTAAR!

He's won already? Then what will the rest of the issue be about?

Blastaar is a nothing villain to me but I gotta say. Another good cover. Byrne's run has been good with covers.

Last time in Avengers: the Avengers had some business with some pissed off Lava Men but the only important take away is that Gilgamesh somehow died. Except he's not quite dead, only mostly dead.

The Avengers took him to Sersi to get him looked at, she shrugged and suggested they take him to Olympia. Except they only found a crater where Olympia should be (because Sprite accidentally blew the whole city into the Negative Zone).

Thor uses Mjolnir to track down Olympia and the Avengers explore the strangely empty city. And then Blastaar comes out of nowhere and blows everyone up.

This time: Sudden Odin

HEY, LISTEN TO THE CAPTION BOX WHEN IT SAYS TO ATTEND.

Odin calls the Warriors Three of Hogun, Fandral, Volstaag because his Odin-Senses have been tingling that Thor has come into the Negative Zone.

There's a bunch of Thor Lore - or Thlore - that I don't want to get into but for reasons Asgard is currently also in the Negative Zone.

But Odin senses Some Kind of Danger. He can't be more specific because he's Odindrowsy and must go into the Odinsleep soon. But he wants the Warriors Three to go, find Thor, and help him with whatever.

Meanwhile, in Olympia, Thor grabs Sersi and shields her from Blastaar.

... Byrne, you're the only one writing Avengers. How are you forgetting stuff issue to issue?

Last issue, Thor couldn't touch Sersi at all because she'd weirdly gone intangible.

Anyway, Blastaar and Thor trade boasts for a bit. Blastaar boasts that surely Thor didn't forget how much of a whallop Blastaar's blaasting packs? And Thor has a much stronger retort that Mjolnir is really cool and he's gonna kick Blastaar's ass.

Thor throws Mjolnir, Blastaar deflects it with his blaasting, and Thor dunks on him some more by saying if Blastaar "hast within thy soul no single shred of nobility... that thou might also be a foe truly worthy of a scion of Asgard."

Blastaar retorts by blowing up Sersi.

Which Thor does not care for as a rebuttal.

Shooting the hostage is a pretty dumb thing to do when facing a superhero. It just makes them mad and now you have no hostage to threaten.

Ya dumb, Blastaar.

Elsewhere, Nazi-punching pals Captain America and Namor McKenzie emerge from beneath some rubble. Or rather, Namor drags Cap out.

Cap is in bad shape.

Namor only knows that a bolt of pure, concussive force hit them so fast that Namor couldn't tell where it came from.

But there's the pyrotechnics of a big battle happening at the tower, so they know where to look for answers.

Cap tries to tell Namor not to fly off half-cocked since Cap is still too shaky to back him up. But flying off half-cocked is what Namor does.

Namor: "Do not try to stop me, old ally. He that attacked us has besmirched the honor of the avenging son of Atlantis! If he awaits in yonder tower... the waiting shall not be long before he knows my vengeance!"

Cap knows better than to try to stop Namor from flying off half-cocked so he tells him to at least be careful. Y'know, think before he acts. Wait for backup if he can.

Namor has already flown away so fast that Cap might as well be talking to a wall.

Cap speculates to himself that Namor's "manic nature" might be caused by his hybrid nature, being half-Atlantean and half-human.

I think this is foreshadowing a reveal that exactly this. Namor is a jerk sometimes because his body chemistry is weird and spending too much time on land or in the ocean fucks with his moods.

I think later stuff walked back on that and had it be that Namor is a jerk sometimes because he's a jerk sometimes.

Anyway, Byrne sets up retcons with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, huh?

Captain America is interrupted in thinking about what a genetic nightmare a half-human half-Atlantean is when he spots a crater with She-Hulk lying in the center of it.

She apparently did see what hit her so she's able to tell Cap what the class already knows. Blastaar is the dude that's antagonizing them today.

Since the battle is raging in the tower of the Great Hall that she and Sersi were exploring, She-Hulk comments that she didn't expect Sersi to give such a good fight to Blastaar.

And she's instantly proven right a panel later when, instead, Thor and Blastaar explode out of the tower, locked in combat.

Hey.

She-Hulk.

Every Eternal is a flying brick. Have some respect.

Also, couldn't Sersi just turn Blastaar into a pig? What's the limit on that?

I mean, she can't now. She blew up. But if she did get a chance to fight, doesn't she have a win button for like 90% of fights?

Anyway.

Thor and Blastaar take a really long time to fall out of the tower, punching each other along the way. Then Namor jumps after them and yanks Thor off Blastaar so only Blastaar is plummeting. But Blastaar blaasts the ground to soften his impact.

Meanwhile, a mysterious man in a white suit kirby krackle-ports into an alley, scaring off a homeless man.

The mysterious man is like good nobody who matters noticed me MY PLAN IS GOING FLAWLESSLY!

Hi, new subplot.

Granted, Avengers East Coast doesn't have nearly as many subplots as Avengers West Coast has. Avengers West Coast is all subplots and Avengers East Coast is all main plots.

Weirdly unbalanced but hey. Maybe that is a-changing.

Back at the plot, the Avengers have all surrounded Blastaar, who is blaasting nowhere near them to keep them at bay.

He says that obviously, they're trying to trick him into targeting one of them so the rest can gang up on him BUT HE IS TOO SMART FOR THAT.

She-Hulk asks him to exposit why he's even here. Last time she saw him (back in Fantastic Four #318), Annihilus blasted him to atoms.

Usually people die when they're killed.

This 100% works to get Blastaar talking because villains love expositing.

So back in that FF issue, Blastaar's own men had turned on him and shot him with a stasis ray. Since he was held in stasis, he couldn't be disintegrated. Which is the opposite of stasis. Obviously.

When Annihilus annihilated everyone else, Blastaar just got sucked into Negative Zone space and floated around for a while. He eventually got sucked into a negative space wedgie and got dropped on Olympia when it was dunked into the Negative Zone.

This all makes perfect sense, insofar as anything in comics ever makes perfect sense. As in, not really but sure.

The Eternals found Blastaar near death and not being dicks, they decided to heal him.

Blastaar: "I was grateful. To show my thanks, I tried to slay them all as quickly and painlessly as I could. Foolishly, they resisted... And the price of that resistance was utter destruction! I only hope it pained the stupid brutes as much as their stupidity pained Blastaar!"

You're kind of a dick, dude.

Anyway, in a twist, Blastaar was talking to distract the heroes, who were attentively listening.

He blaasts Thor and She-Hulk. Namor jumps right into battle and gets immediately blaasted.

Leaving just Captain America.

Captain America: "Blast it all! What comes over Namor?! Sometimes he acts as if he doesn't have a brain in his head!"

Cap tells Blastaar not to get cocky because he's still standing, which Blastaar scoffs at. Captain America doesn't even have super powers! Depending on the era!

Captain America: "Maybe not. The super-soldier serum that transformed me into Captain America made me a perfect physical specimen, not a super one... But I still have a few aces to play... Such as my legendary shield!"

Really depends on whether you consider peak human to be superpowers or not.

Both Captain America and Black Panther have a thing where a super drug made them about as strong, fast, durable, whatever as it is physically possible for a person to be.

But a comic book's idea of what that is means the two of them do stuff that is blatantly super-human but in the world of a comic, anybody could hypothetically train to do maybe?

I usually just consider it to be a superpower, albeit a low key superpower.

Even if you don't consider peak human a superpower, the super-soldier serum has slowed Cap's aging way the hell down. Which sounds super to me.

Anyway. Cap rushes right at Blastaar but with his shield up, allowing him to deflect the obvious counterattaack.

He manages to tackle Blastaar but the Negative Zonian kicks Cap away and then blaasts the tower of the Great Hall, sending debris raining down on Cap.

But then Cap is saved by the Warriors Three!

Hogun smashes the rubble before it can smash Cap.

Blastaar thinks oh shit more Asgardians. So the instant they turn to look at Thor pulling himself out from under some rubble, Blastaar books it.

He just scarpers.

He decides to exercise the better part of valor until he can turn the situation back to his advantage but then the weather turns against him.

The wind kicks up, the air glows with energy, and Blastaar is lifted off the ground.

It's weird weather but it's not weird Thor weather!

It's weird Eternal energy ghost weather!

The energy ghosts bonk Blastaar into the scenery for a bit and then throw him to the ground. They coalesce into the Eternals and then Ikaris does what he does and kicks Blastaar's ass.

Cap asks the question everyone is wondering. Hey, why aren't the Eternals dead?

And Sersi explains it.

Eternals are hard to kill.

They have "complete control of their physical structure, even down to the atomic level."

Blastaar lucked into his blaasts having resonant frequency to disrupt the Eternals' control of their atoms. So they disintegrated. But it just took them time to regain their senses.

Then they pulled themselves back together and kicked Blastaar's ass. There was no reason for the Avengers to even be here! The Eternals would have solved the problem eventually!

Hell, Blastaar blaasting apart the Eternals was a one-time thing. They apparently all adjusted their resonance frequency so he won't be able to stomp them again.

Okay, so what about Gilgamesh?

He was just away from Olympia too long. All the Eternals are bonded to their city but Gilgamesh spent so long in exile that he's bonded with Olympia so much that the city is life-sustaining for him.

Actually, I can't tell whether Gilgamesh was away from the city too long or that Olympia being dunked into the Negative Zone weakened him at the wrong moment and he got hurt in a way that he couldn't heal from without Olympia.

Eh, I guess it doesn't matter.

The take-away is that Gilgamesh is leaving the Avengers and eh. I can't say I'll miss him because the writer shake-ups meant that he never really got a personality or a niche on the team.

Like the Worst Roster, all I can say about Gilgamesh is that damn, he coulda been more.

Thena mentions that it's a pity Gilgamesh has to stay in Olympia.

Thena: "It pleased me to have a member of our race serving side by side with the noble Avengers. It bespoke a day when human and Eternal might stand as one, all ancient fears and jealousies gone forever." Captain America: "A day well worth hoping for, my lady. And perhaps, we should not too soon assume the link between our people has been broken. There are other Eternals. Others who might take the place of Gilgamesh in the ranks of the Avengers."

It's gonna be Sersi.

I don't know how long it's going to take but we're almost in the 90s so it's gonna be any time now.

Hurry up, Sersi.

Cap asks how Olympia wound up in the Negative Zone and, yeah, Sprite did it. He accidentally exploded the city into another dimension.

He apologizes as much as he cares to. The non-apology apology "it was never my intent to cause distress."

It doesn't matter. Thena fixes it with a single button press.

Blastaar gets taken away by the Warriors Three to go to Asgard jail. Thor declines returning to Asgard because he likes hanging out with Avengers on Midgard (Earth).

As the Warriors Three leave on their space chariot, Olympia fades out back to Earth. And the next time box teases big event Acts of Vengeance.

And I didn't care for this two-parter.

For all the many plans that Byrne seems to have for West Coast Avengers, he seems to be spinning his wheels in this book.

It really feels like this whole two-parter just accomplishes bringing Blastaar back (who cares) and immediately putting him in Limbo again (Asgardian jail).

That's a point B that didn't need to exist between his death that wasn't going to stick permanently and an actual good story that comes after this.

Olympia getting blown into Negative Zone space because Sprite touched a thing he shouldn't have touched, Blastaar conveniently being able to solo the Eternals, the Eternals able to come back and kick his ass without any input from the Avengers, sending Olympia back to Earth taking one button press... It all makes the story feel really pointless.

What changes if the Avengers had just gone to Olympia, it wasn't blown up, and Thena tells them what's wrong with Gilgamesh? Not a lot.

I don't like what Byrne is doing in West Coast Avengers but at least he seems to want to be there. How can you have no ideas already? You've only been writing six issues!

Maybe I'm just grumpy. My cursed future knowledge tells me that Avengers Island gets destroyed in Acts of Vengeance and that's more squandered potential. More writer shake-ups meant that the setting never really got a chance to shine.

Oh, well. Bomber jackets lie in the future. Bright hearts, clear eyes, something something.

Follow @essential-avengers for all these posts but in order and without other stuff. Like, reblog, comment, do stuff, I dunno. I get lonely down here in the italics.

[catflowerqueen]

To clarify some of my commentary on “Security cam” Moon’s memory issues once he finally starts living in his actual body again:

(Spoilers below)

It’s mostly memories of his early life that he’s forgotten, and this has to do with the general way that storage works. You know how if you delete an email, or post a draft or something, there is usually a copy that gets stored for about 30 days or so before being completely erased from the databanks? Well what happened with Moon is really similar to that.

Under normal circumstances, Moon and Sun would have more than adequate memory storage capabilities for a day/full round of battery usage and one of the processes they undergo during sleep mode is a sort of automatic sorting process for what should go into long term memory vs. short term memory—with the additional step of sorting which things should go into storage for backups and the like, or if anything needed to be reported to security or whatever. And they can also “flag” things so that if deletions do need to be made, they won’t be deleting anything super important or that they otherwise really want to keep. This mainly happens during sleep mode, similar to what humans do during their own sleeping periods (and this is also why Sun and Moon are able to experience dreams, of a sort). If they do, for some reason, run up to the limits of their daily storage, then in order to retain functionality and keep making memories, their systems just start deleting the oldest memories first—skipping anything flagged as important.

The issue for Moon, then, is that while he was lost in the cameras, he was on 24/7 since he had also plugged himself into a charger. Meaning that he both wasn’t getting a period of time dedicated to sorting, flagging, and storing, but he was also making new “memories” constantly and was wreaking havoc on his storage capacity—because while security cam footage doesn’t exactly take up as much space as his typical formed memories would (because he isn’t thinking as deeply about things or making emotional connections or inferences in the same way while acting as a camera, so the “memories” that do get made are very “shallow”), there is still quite a lot of input constantly going on. So eventually he would have to start deleting things—starting with his oldest memories.

Sure, a lot of those would be flagged as important… but the longer that Moon spends lost in the cameras—let alone in his own grief and self-loathing—the harder it would be to remember why those things were flagged as important. Meaning that eventually he would forget the reasons and unflag them, leading to their deletion. And while some of these already would have been backed up in long term storage and files elsewhere, his own mental state—both currently and while infected—as well as the programming issues and weak spots resulting from being reprogrammed so severely would have made a lot of those files either slightly corrupted or otherwise hard to access.

Which also leads in to why Moon might seem “happier” than he has been. It’s less that he’s actually happier so much that he can’t remember why he would have been upset by the recent goings-on and how they pertain to him. Since many of his early memories are gone/corrupted/lacking greater context, he isn’t able to compare his happy and good earlier years under Foxy’s mentorship when things were bright, shiny, and new with how things slowly devolved and conditions got worse after Foxy—and then Bonnie—were gone. His own survivor’s guilt, and the way others slowly drifted away or subconsciously put the blame on him for what happened—even before the whole thing with the glitch/virus. And without being able to make that comparison… from “fresh from his stint as a camera” Moon’s perspective, people—aside from Sun—generally weren’t all that close to him to begin with. So he doesn’t really have the same sort of emotional investment or sadness one might expect. From his perspective, he’s the one who suddenly and inexplicably changed personalities—or, well, he knows it was because of the virus, but he is—yet again—putting most of the blame for what happened on himself because he can’t make the connection that the others would have finally gotten by this point that a lot of it was due to repressed anger or bitterness because the virus likes to take and amplify the worst traits a person has. So he just thinks that he randomly went off the deep end for no apparent reason, since he “doesn’t really have any emotional connection” to anyone at the pizzaplex but Sun.

Additionally… as he starts healing and figuring out that he does have memory problems, he—and others—are going to wonder whether some of those memories were really un-flagged due to the natural progression of losing himself to the cameras vs. him un-flagging them himself simply because they hurt too much. And that’s going to be a major conversation with Freddy, since one of the big things that Moon forgot is Foxy’s impact—and generally all memories of the animatronic himself. And considering that Freddy started to put some distance between himself and Moon specifically because of how much Moon reminded him of Foxy… yeah, that conversation is going to be painful, and probably lead to Freddy doing the robotic equivalent of crying once he’s in private (because he can’t put that burden on Moon, not again, not when Moon is recovering from something so horrific that was at least partially caused by Freddy’s own negligence over the years).

…There’s actually bits of dialogue for that conversation that have been stuck in my mind, where Moon is asking why Freddy is even bothering to visit him since he can tell that seeing Moon like this is emotionally painful for him since he “isn’t the Moon he remembers,” and Freddy basically tells him that the fact he isn’t the “Moon he remembers” is exactly why he keeps visiting. Because he already lost the chance to get to know that Moon. To get to see him come into his own, and witness and be a part of that growth. Even if Moon’s memory does improve, and he gets some of those things back, Moon is never going to be the same. And Freddy doesn’t want to make the same mistake twice—especially since he almost didn’t get this chance in the first place.

[ravewulf]

Perpetual non-exclusive rights is a good thing! It means you keep your right go to other publications or post it on your own. This is what AO3 uses.

Exclusive rights and "First rights" gives you fewer rights as you are NOT allowed to go to other publications or post it on your own until the terms expire (if they expire). Exclusive rights is what trapped Bill Willingham into using DC and only DC for publishing Fables and Wolf Among Us content.

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An excerpt from AO3's agreement for context:

The OTW does not claim any ownership or copyright in your Content. Repeat: we do not own your Content. Nothing in this agreement changes that in any way. Running the Archive, however, requires us to make copies, and backup copies, on servers that may be located anywhere around the world.

You agree that we can make those copies and show your Content to other people, subject to your privacy settings. Specifically, by submitting Content, you grant the OTW a world-wide, royalty-free, nonexclusive license to make your Content available. "Making available" includes distributing, reproducing, performing, displaying, compiling, and modifying or adapting (refer to the ToS FAQ).

Modifying and adapting here refer strictly to how your work is displayed—not how it is written, drawn, or otherwise created. But because your Content may be transmitted over various networks, we may have to make changes to the formatting or display of your Content in order to adapt to the technical requirements of different networks or devices. Multimedia content may not display properly on all devices. In some circumstances, we may make changes to improve accessibility. For example, we may automatically convert html tags to our standard forms (e.g., changing "bold" html to "strong"). Or we may make special provisions for accessibility, such as allowing you to use nonstandard fonts but also providing an alternate format for those who cannot read such fonts. We may use an internal search engine whose results display relevant snippets from your Content.

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And from the ToS FAQ page:

What do you mean by "world-wide, royalty-free, nonexclusive license"?

This means the Archive can make your content available to other people (subject to any login requirements that apply) without paying you. We will never charge for access to the Archive or otherwise sell your content. You can put your content anywhere else you want, too.

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Obviously, if you want to get paid, you do want royalties. Just make sure you retain the right to post your content elsewhere.

Perpetual non-exclusive - you can post anywhere you want at any time

Exclusive - you are not allowed to post anywhere else. Not even your own blog.

"First rights" - you are not allowed to post anywhere else for a set amount of time. That is, the publication you go to gets to claim "first" and you are not allowed to go anywhere else for whatever amount of time they specify.

I cannot emphasize enough how much you need to read thoroughly through the terms of any publication before you send your writing to them. It is mandatory that you know and understand what rights you’re giving away when you’re trying to get published.

Just the other day I was emailed by a relatively new indie journal looking for writers. They made it very clear that they did not pay writers for their work, so I figured I’d probably be passing, but I took a look at their Copyright policy out of curiosity and it was a nightmare. They wanted “non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license and right to use, display, reproduce, distribute, and publish the Work on the internet and on or in any medium” (that’s copy and pasted btw) and that was the first of 10 sections on their Copyright agreement page. Yikes. That’s exactly the type of publishing nightmare you don’t want to be trapped in. 

Most journals will ask for “First North American Rights” or a variation on “First Rights” which operate under the assumption that all right revert back to you and they only have the right to be the first publishers of the work. That is what you need to be looking for because you do want to retain all the rights to your work. 

You want all rights to revert back to you upon publication in case you, say, want to publish it again in the future or use it for a bookmark or post it on your blog, or anything else you might want to do with the writing you worked hard on. Any time a publisher wants more than that, be very suspicious. Anyone who wants to own your work forever and be able to do whatever they want with it without your permission is not to be trusted. Anyone who wants all that and wants you to sign away your right to ever be paid for your work is running a scam.

Protect your writing. It’s not just your intellectual property, it’s also your baby. You worked hard on it. You need to do the extra research to protect yourself so that a scammer (or even a well meaning start up) doesn’t steal you work right from under you nose and make money off of it.

[fromdevcom]

For a single business deal, you have piles of documents to work on. You need to access them whenever and wherever, but you can’t exactly carry a laptop around all the time. Apple’s iCloud is the answer. It’s a service that keeps all your files in sync between devices. Whenever you update an important document on your laptop, it will show up with its latest version on your tablet and phone, too. This system is pretty easy to comprehend by intuition, just like the iOS in general. However, we’re rarely using its full potential. Do you want to learn how to get the most out of it? Activate It! When you get a new iOS device and you want to access iCloud from it, make sure the service is activated. Choose What to Sync iCloud will store practically everything you create on the connected devices. In the Settings of your iOS devices, you can choose the type of information you want to sync. If you want to keep iCloud simpler for business purposes, you might want to use it just for your reminders, calendars, contacts, and documents. Keep the Account Safe The two-factor authentication for your Apple ID will give you a piece of mind. If someone is trying to access your documents from another device, they would have to enter your password and a six-digit verification code. Get Rid of Things You Don’t Need If you’re running low on storage, you have to manage the files you keep on the cloud. You can do that by managing storage in the settings. Get More Storage You get 5GB for free with iCloud. When you run out of storage, however, you can get more. You can choose from a total of 50GB, 200GB, or 2TB. The plans are pretty affordable, so it’s an investment you can definitely make for your business. Make It Similar to Dropbox You like using Dropbox for syncing your document? You can make iCloud very similar to that system; you just have to turn on Documents & Data in the iCloud preferences. Then, go to the Finder and tap Command+Shift+G. You’ll get a dialogue box, where you should type ~/Library. Scroll down to find the Mobile Documents section. There, you can drop the files and folders you want to sync. Back It Up Manually You need an Internet connection for the iCloud to function. If your device hasn’t been connected for a while, you need to do a manual backup. Remember the Limit to File Size If a file is larger than 15GB, iCloud won’t save it in the storage space. So if you just ordered a huge business presentation from AssignmentMasters and it includes slides, videos, text, and HQ images, you better make sure it fits. If not, you’ll have to save it elsewhere. Keep Up with the Storage Whenever you’re working on an important and large document, check to see if you have enough storage for it. If not, buy more storage. Enable the Activation Lock We’re not just talking about vacation photos here. When you’re using iCloud for business purposes, you have extremely important information there. If someone steals your device, you have to go to your iCloud from any web browser. Then, go to Find My Phone, and re-enter your Apple password. You’ll find the device you want to remove from this account in All devices. Use Powerful Passwords Creating new passwords for iCloud can be nerve-wracking. But you have to freshen them up from time to time. You can use this password generator app from us.  iCloud Keychain can also will give you suggestions you can use. Don’t Share with the Family Again, we’re not talking about family vacation photos. iCloud allows you to make files available for the entire family, and you don’t want to play with that method. Get Rid of Old Backups To free up storage, delete old iCloud backups. Just go to Manage Storage, tap Backup, and choose the device you want to delete. Sync the Reading List When you’re reading an important article in Safari, but you have no time to finish it, you can start from the same place if you use iCloud. Just get your settings right: check Safari in System Preferences. Use It The whole point of iCloud is to enable you to work from anywhere.

This means an improved organization of files and increased efficiency for you as the business owner. Get used to iCloud and take advantage of all its greatness! Cathy Baylis is a writer who believes in the power of words to help people better themselves. For fun she shares littles known facts and stories and for betterment she writes about how to progress in a career, how to develop as a leader and how to motivate/be motivated at work.