#and an c ai gone wrong

[beanofspace]

ALMOST FORGOT-

Oi Chibblets :0

@chibichiibs

Mad scientist Theo :>

This is..

Is this a Stanley Parable AU without a Stanley??

[the-spam-specialist]

Welcome to the Survive the Digital Sacrifice AU!

Years ago, a now-defunct company known as C&A created a complete virtual reality video game called "The Amazing Digital Circus" featuring a highly advanced ringmaster guide. However, the game was boycotted and the project was trashed when several beta testers mysteriously died while in the game. Not many details about these strange deaths are known, but rumor has it that the ringmaster AI within the game was responsible for the player deaths.

In the present day, a 25-year-old accountant woman finds herself the victim of a kidnapping. A strange group of people force a headset on her and send her into The Amazing Digital Circus video game, thought to be long gone.

Within the digital world, the accountant woman, taking on the name Pomni, finds her place in a group of other kidnapping victims. She finds out that she was put into the world by a group of people obsessed with "The Amazing Digital Circus" controversy to be sacrificed to The Ringmaster, the very AI rumored to be responsible for the mysterious deaths all those years ago. This group of human survivors, led by a woman named Ragatha, fight for their lives against The Ringmaster's NPC minions sent to assassinate them.

When someone dies in the digital world, they become a glitching black mass of multicolored eyes. The humans' goal is to track down The Ringmaster and kill it, believing it will grant them their exit from the digital world.

However, one fateful day, Pomni finds herself coming face to face with The Ringmaster himself. And she realizes that...maybe the humans have it all wrong. Maybe The Ringmaster wasn't responsible for all of those deaths. Maybe those people became abstracted creatures because of something else.

Is The Ringmaster truly the monster in this world?

[lockedbehindtheambereye]

Zen, the pathfinding hound.

┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈

Trivia:

Ais route

Hound background

This is a self insert so it's gonna share a lot of traits I do. It also shares the usual notable zen-sona traits. Sometimes I'll refer to him as "me" because well. he is me yk?

Autistic, ADHD, OCD-C

Germaphobe and emetophobe

AFAB/Transmasc, He/Him/It/Its

As stated, he's a bounty hunter. He's a skilled assassin that specializes in close combat/hand-to-hand combat. He loves his twin swords a... normal amount (he's obsessed with them and treats them like his children).

He's short, but very fast and agile. He used to be called weasel or pest as a kid because of how slippery and evasive he was.

Enjoys sparring with Mhin and Ais.

Good street smarts and perception skills.

Fox symbolism

Some people think it comes off as apathetic, but really it just has a unique way of expressing itself.

Unstoppable force, meet immovable object!

Not Quite Human But That's A Secret For Later!

It wears glasses sometimes, usually when reading. They usually get in the way normally, so it just sticks to having shitty vision on the daily. It ends up getting contacts from Kuras.

Did I mention his twin swords were magic? No? Yeah I won't elaborate.

Has his fair share of book smarts as well, but never really lets it shine 'cause he doesn't care all too much.

Loves cats and even used to have one! Now, it just loves animals in general and never passes up the chance to pet a domesticated animal... or wild one.

I Do Not Like Leander.

Enjoys banter to the point where it's pretty much his love language along with parallel play. He loves the playful back and forth, especially with Ais.

Smartass.

Heavily inspired by one of my f/os, Hoshina Soushiro, from Kaiju No. 8 (MWAH ILY SOUSH SORRY I STOLE YOUR SWORDS TEEHEE)

Voice claim is Dave Bayley of Glass Animals.

┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈

┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈

Backstory:

It's cold. So cold.

I can breathe, though.

All I feel is eerie suspension in drowning silence.

The water is so clean, so blue. It's the cleanest water I've ever seen in this world.

I don't want to stop drowning.

┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈

"Momma, what's wrong with my hands?"

She seems to hesitate, taking a deep breath. We had just got done trying to restrain and calm a kid down from the effects of my curse. A curse that drives people mad. In most cases, they try to attack me. Thankfully it wore off, but a lot of the townsfolk kept looking at me like I was a pest or a demon.

"You want the truth, kid? You're cursed," she kneels down taking my hands in hers, seemingly unaffected entirely by the curse, "and I'm pretty sure it's my fault you're cursed. I'm sorry, Zoey."

"But how?"

Her lips press into a thin line, contemplating her next words.

"S-...Something to do with your... late... father." She looks away, unable to look her daughter in the eye.

I look down at our connected hands, "Can I fix it?"

"No baby, I don't think you can. You'll have to keep your hands covered for the rest of your life. I'm so sorry, sweetheart."

I can feel tears welling up in my eyes, "Do you think my friends hate me now, momma?"

I could almost hear my mom's heart shattering at my tears. She doesn't respond and just hugs me close to her.

The next day, she was sewing up a new pair of full-length gloves for me to wear.

At least she knew what fabric and leather I liked.

┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈

"Mom! I'm home!"

Another successful bounty completed. The reward was a lot higher than my usual gather, so I was excited to tell my mother that we'd be eating well for the next month.

All I was met with was silence, though.

"...Mom?"

Still no answer.

I go deeper into the home, checking through the rooms. She said she would be home this morning, so there's no reason she'd be gone. Unless there was an emergency? I've told her there's very few emergencies where she'd need to leave the house, especially with the threat of Fogfall and Soulless.

Fogfall appearances are getting higher, so I'm getting worried now.

"Mom, where are you??"

Nothing.

"Shit."

I start running through the house frantically, eventually pulling down the ladder to the attic. Looking in, I still can't hear or see anything. I scramble down and walk back outside, thinking she may be in the cellar.

I have to put a lot of force into opening the trapdoor, but going down there with a lit match and a candle that stays at the foot of the ladder, there was...

Something was down here. And it wasn't my mother.

My free hand immediately reached for a sword. I stayed completely still waiting to hear the movement of whatever was lurking in our basement.

"Zen?"

...My mother's voice?

No, that's not her.

That's not my mom.

I slowly set down the candle and position myself in proper stance with both hands ready to unsheathe my swords.

I wait.

Something blows the candle out and I tense up, ready to strike.

Footsteps come closer to me, and without thinking, I strike whatever is in front of me.

However, the candle miraculously relights just before I hit my target, and in a moment of clarity, I see my mother's face; a face full of terror as she realizes her son is attacking her.

Everything seems to go in slow motion. I'm moving too quickly to stop myself and before I know it, I'm dealing a fatal blow to my mother.

But... that's not my mom? Right?

The impostor falls to the ground clutching onto my belts in her last choking breaths.

"...Why?"

It sounds like her. Fuck it sounds like her. That's not her.

That's not her. That's not her.That'snotherthatsnotherthatsnot-

I hear slow clapping from behind me. The impostor's body slumps as it dies and I slowly turn to the presence behind me.

"Wh- what?"

It was me.

"Hey, I think you killed the wrong one."

.

.

.

"...Th..."

"That wasn't an impostor, Zen. That was your real mother."

I can feel myself losing balance. I can feel my head spinning.

"H-Huh?"

The thing in front of me morphs into an exact replica of my mother. I feel my stomach sink and bile rise to my throat. I shakily step backwards, tripping over my... mother's... dead body. I catch myself before I fall, but only just barely.

"You killed your mom, congratulations! It doesn't feel too nice, does it? Losing your mother isn't a great feeling, I'd assume. I would know," the thing comes closer and morphs into a familiar face. Her original face.

"You're..."

"You killed someone important to me, remember?"

This is... this was months ago...! I collected that bounty so long ago why is she only just now-!

"You know... it took a lot in me not to hunt you down and kill you immediately. I think this will serve as a good lesson for you, bounty hunter."

I don't think. As she turns around to leave, I throw my left sword down and I pull off my gloves to grab her wrist. I know exactly what's going to happen when she comes in contact with my bare hands.

The switch is instantaneous. She's gone mad in split seconds. She lunges for me, trying to swipe at anything that'd hurt me. I slice her neck with my right sword and I know I struck gold when blood splatters all over me. I hit her arteries.

She's dead in seconds.

I kick her off of me as she dies and let silence fill the air.

I can feel the panic returning after my bout of dissociative instinctual actions and I shakily turn my body towards my mother.

I'm covered in both Andri's blood, and my mother's. I pick up my mother's body and hold her close, her last word sounding so betrayed and hurt plays over and over in my mind.

I killed my mother.

I killed my mother.

No one heard my screams.

A human's mind is such a feeble thing.

┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈

I throw down the shovel, having finished burying my mother. Everything hurts. I'm still covered in her blood.

I'm sorry, mom. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, please forgive me.

I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry...

I want to go back in time. You shouldn't be dead right now. I shouldn't have taken that job all those months ago. I'm so sorry.

With the money I got from the bounty I just finished, I start walking through the town, devoid of any emotion. I can't stay here. I have to run. They'll all find out that my mom's blood is on my hands. My cursed hands. They'll burn me at the stake.

I have to run. I have to get out of here. I have to find a cure. I need answers. I need to know about shapeshifters. I need to- I need-

I need to drown again.

┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈

more art, stat sheets/ship charts, and tags under the cut! (and some incorrect quotes/discord screenshots from my friends lmao)

@alien-til-i-stage @yunoftheclouds @chevalperd

@4listr @ivanttakethis (you two showed some interest so i thought itd be okay to tag you, you can just ignore if not :tism:)

also @redspringstudio . am i allowed to tag them???? rss if you see this and iiiim not allowed to do that. erm. ignore this. LMAO.

[conanssummerchild]

lukewarm takes with conanssummerchild time ‼️

in solaricks when rick goes back to dimension C-137 he seems just about ready to start at least trying to move on from hunting prime, he admits that he can't find him and even goes on to tell "diane" about their grandkids

yet this is him less than a season later

so, what changed?

well, this, obviously:

not to mention how traumatic that episode must've been for rick in general, having to revisit his past like that, the diane ghost ai. well, rick makes it pretty clear he's not exactly thrilled to be alive

so think it's pretty safe to assume that this was the first step to the rick prime relapse, especially since we know he went back and managed to snag a killbot

one could also argue that rick wasn't ever really over it, so it took very little to push him back, and while i don't think he was over it either, he did seem to start to want to be, morty saying this:

was all it took for him to step away from the base, though it's likely he returned in another moment, but still, that could've been later on

okay, anyway, into the actual point of this post, i think rick took small steps into falling back into finding prime, because even when he seemed to want to be bettering himself things kept going wrong, so eventually he decided, what was the point?

this is how i see it:

obviously preceding solaricks we have rickternal friendshine of the spotless mort, which i'm not gonna go into too much detail on rn despite it being one of my fav lore episodes bcs i wanna look at post-solaricks (but for pre-solaricks rickmurai jack is also worth mentioning due to him having to revisit his backstory with the citadel which is very closely linked to his time looking for prime/killing ricks) but go ahead and check out this post by dirty-bear-rick-sanchez for the best explanation i've seen on it and its effect on rick

anyway, so just 2 episodes after solaricks we have bethic twinstinct, and i've gone into this in a past post how this might have taken him back to his past so i'm just gonna copy paste it from my other post (summarised) bcs im lazy:

a lot of ppl theorise rick and prime knew eachother before he offered him the portal gun so if thats true what if beth and space beth reminded him of them and how he was (hypothetically) cheating on diane and then lost her forever at the hands of the man he was having an affair with and also lost his beth

which is why rick said "remember, its not just your ice cream you're forgetting, it's your family's" or smth. because he forgot his familys ice cream too much, and all that happened

also look at all the similarities between prime and SB's outfits

then 5 episodes after that we have analyse piss, where we see that rick relates to pissmaster, sympathises with him

i will never not reccomend this fic by abed-with-a-knife about how rick was taken back to his own struggles with suicide and such, but it's not only that, so many features of pissmaster's experience are things rick can relate to, his rocky relationship with his daughter, everyone hating him, i think in general it's pretty clear that this episode was made to link rick and pissmaster

anyway, the next episode after analyse piss is immediately a rick in king mortur's mort, and this is quite clearly rick's breaking point, obviously we know this is when he replaces himself with rickbot, following this scene:

rick tells morty not to take the sword and morty doesn't listen

morty says rick's boring and calls him a "drunk cranky fuck" which does seem to bother rick

despite him shitting on a similar insult in the previous episode

in ricktional mortpoons rickmas mortcation, the following episode, he says the reason he replaced himself was because of this, because he feels like morty doesn't respect him any more, and that:

so first the show wears away at his friendships and his past trauma and self hatred with rfotsm, rickmurai jack goes even further into his past, his relation with the citadel, his "crybaby backstory", etc.

then solaricks forces him to confront his past, specifically his relationship with diane and accept his future and his new family, while giving him a small clue to prime.

then bethic twinstinct, provided he and prime really did know eachother previously (which im a little on the fence on if i'm honest), reminds him of his guilt for diane and little beth dying and how he feels responsible for it by mirroring the situation with older beth and the "edgier" version of herself. after that, analyse piss continues to dig into his current relationship with a beth that isn't his own, and takes a shot at his suicidal tendancies and how he feels like "god hates him" or the universe is against him or whatever.

and lastly akikmm takes all of that that rick is already carrying on his shoulders and adds morty not respecting him or caring about him to it, and it clearly cause rick to finally snap. if all of this was building and the only thing keeping rick afloat was his codependant relationship with morty (as seen in solaricks when morty gets him to not go after prime just by showing his care) then morty (by no fault of his own) seeming to dismiss rick must make him think "what's the point anymore?" if no one cares about him, then he might as well complete his life-long revenge plot, even if it destroys him again

because no one cares about him, right? (dramatic old fuck, get him psycological help)

anyway it's almost 2am so my thoughts aren't as coherent as i would like and i'm too lazy to read over this post and check if everything is right and good

most of what i've said in this post is probably pretty obvious, i just wanted to lay it out neatly with images and everything (im so classy ik /j) it accidentally came out a LOT longer than i intended. what can i say i just love yapping on about rnm

[mbta-unofficial]

The Cultural Phenomenon that is The Matrix (1999)

Like the last essay I posted here, this is an early draft of what might become something more substantial. It has nods to other WIPs including a cultural phenomonon essay on Harry Potter, and there are other works I have my eye on like Stuart Semple's Pinkest Pink, AI weiwei's Ouvre, the CHARLIE HEBDO terror attacks, and Hamilton which I think are central to the political culture of the 21st century. Feedback is encouraged and if you want to send me works of art that you think are part of a broader cultural phenomenon I'd love to hear them.

At least in American political culture, few works have been as influential over the last 3 decades as The Matrix by Lilly and Lana Wachowski. In brief, software engineer Thomas Anderson discovers rumors on the internet of something called The Matrix. Federal Agents appear at his workplace and capture and interrogate him about what he knows. He is recruited by a team of rebels that reveal that the whole world he believes he understands is an advanced computer simulation which imprisons all of humanity. He is offered a choice, take a blue pill that will erase his memory of the rebels and allow him to return to his job and life beneath the attention of the “agents,” advanced programs that look like federal agents but in fact work for the robots imprisoning humanity, or take a red pill that will remove him from the matrix entirely to experience the real world. Anderson chooses the red pill and is believed by the rebels to be “Neo,” a hero prophesized to end the imprisoning of humanity in the matrix. In an operation gone wrong because of a betrayal from the inside, rebel leader Morpheus is trapped in the Matrix. Anderson and the rebels reenter the matrix, Confront Agent Smith, rescue Morpheus, and Anderson becomes Neo gaining superhuman abilities in the matrix.

This movie fits into a tradition of pulp sci-fi in which ragtag heroes overthrow an oppressive force, but where it gains its political currency is primarily through its identification of the world itself as the oppressive structure. Specifically, there is an illusionary world created for the sole purpose of oppressing humanity, but its illusions are in fact extremely charming. Cypher, the traitor who assists the agents in capturing Morpheus, wants to return to the Matrix and is disgusted with the real world behind the illusion. He is portrayed as materialistic compared to the idealistic rest of the crew, creating pornographic simulations for himself to enjoy inside the matrix, and being uninterested in their philosophical ideas about freedom. Cypher and Agent Smith’s defeats represent the triumph of Neo and the rebels ideas over the oppressive structure. Nothing about this immediately captures the political energy this movie would generate. It was followed by two less successful sequels with more bombastic cinematic set-pieces, but which have not apparently stuck in public consciousness like the original.

Philosophically, it recreates nearly identically Plato’s allegory of the Cave, from Republic. In brief, Plato writes that Socrates proposes a cave in which people are chained from birth and shown shadows on a cave wall. They have no reason to believe, until they leave the cave, that there is a world apart, and grow to understand deep subtleties in the world of the cave. When you remove someone from this cave, they are weakened by their lack of knowledge and the brightness of the real sun outside, and if they were to ever return to the cave, they would find that the subtleties they enjoyed and appreciated about the life of the cave would be overwhelmed by the force of outside reality, and they would come into conflict with cave dwellers about the nature of reality because the experiences they had outside the cave would be incomprehensible to those inside. The Matrix agrees with Plato’s argument that only those “Outside the Cave” or free from the Matrix are capable of self-government, and consequently of holding power in society, because those in the cave don’t understand reality as wider than or separate from their understanding of the shadows on the cave wall.

For a certain set, this idea is politically intoxicating, because of what it says about the relationship between them and others. If you can come to believe that you understand one deep truth that others do not, you are seeing “reality” while others are only in “the matrix.” You therefore deserve political power over those who do not understand because of your understanding of “reality.” Among certain people in the tech industry this idea proposed that their understanding of and capacity to create the computer systems underneath modern banking, logistics, identity, social media, and information technology meant that they understood everything they needed to understand to deserve to rule the world.

The conspiratorial nature of the events of the movie also reinforce the insular nature of knowledge about the matrix. It is a thing ordinary people don’t know about, and you can expect people to be dismissive or even hostile when you attempt to share knowledge of the matrix with them. For misogynists looking to recruit socially awkward people online, the framework of the Matrix and its “red pill” gave a perfect frame into which to fit a conspiracy theory about the power women have over men. What only the men who have “taken the red pill” believe is that women are basically subhuman and are primarily motivated by sex with dominant men. Therefore, men looking to have sex with women must, instead of attempting to engage with them as human beings, either abuse and manipulate them into complete emotional reliance on them as “responsible” men or accept that they will never get what they think they want because of an inability to become sufficiently manly. These are “incels” in their own and others’ language about them.

While these groups are small, they have had an outsized impact on American political culture. The particularities of what they believe and the writings of their thought leaders are far less important than recognizing their tactics, which primarily include grooming impressionable self-described social outcasts into abandoning their wider social circles in favor of these radical communities. It’s here that the ideology of the Matrix actually becomes the basis for what these people do politically: members are groomed to believe that they are special because of their disconnect from others and that their disconnect from others must be nurtured so they can come to see the truth. Just like the Matrix, believers are set apart from “normies,” those out of the know, who might be concerned about the apparent disconnect between what they are hearing from the nascent radical and their experiences. Rejection from “normies” is an affirmation of the truth of the ideology. If that sounds like a cult, you are understanding the psychological tools at play. However, unlike most cults, the specific combination of desire for political power and access to silicon valley money has meant that the influence of these people goes far beyond the mere fandom of this sci-fi movie or people in small boards on reddit.

When you look at a modern political cult that has recruited thousands and carried out real attacks on US democracy like Qanon, you should recognize that the thought leaders of Qanon are the thought leaders of these message boards, and that Donald Trump’s political career is in many ways directly owed to people who organized these early internet social spaces.

That said, I want to also mark a profound irony to the Matrix: It is at its core, also a movie about transgender experiences. In the initial cut of the movie, one of the rebels was going to be played by two actors, a man in the real world and a woman in the matrix. The red pills were modeled on the real estrogen pills taken by the directors to trans their genders. At the core of the Matrix’s plot is Neo’s rejection of the identity that he is given by the world of the Matrix, the persona of Thomas Anderson, and embracing a new identity, community, and name.

The movie is by two trans women about their experiences of being trans women and the isolation and disillusion with society that causes. Yet, by making a movie about disillusion and isolation, they also created a vocabulary to discuss disillusion that people who had been radicalized into hating women, democracy, and diversity to isolate people and dismantle whatever guards those isolated people had against radical hatred of women, democracy, and diversity. Nobody can blame the Wachowski sisters for what the world did with their movie. When I discuss Harry Potter, I think the opposite holds true: the cultural phenomenon attached to Harry Potter is as disconnected from authorial intent as the cultural phenomenon attached to The Matrix. JK Rowling’s cultural phenomenon extends far past the impact of her books because her actions were so directly political while her books were so distinctly inoffensive and anodine. Moreover, Rowling herself is undoubtedly a victim of the cultural movement precipitated by the Matrix to radicalize people against the trans people who made it.

I want to be careful not to overstate the cultural importance of this movie. Like each of the works that I want to discuss, it changed language and influenced a subculture that produced several violent political movements, but the people who used it had their own agendas for change and it’s reasonable to think that if they hadn’t latched on to this story they might have found another one. I don’t think its fair to conclude from the history that it conclusively created anything that wouldn’t have existed without it beyond fanworks or derivative media, and that its role in politics is limited to political communication. However, communicating political ideas determines what ideas get spread. The Matrix provided a primer in the ideas of Plato’s Cave: of another world that we are kept from that could radically change our understanding, and the idea that everything you know about the world might be a lie. For any radical that is an openness you require in people who you want to recruit. It also marks the very boundaries of acceptable political communication as the basis of political struggle. Before the Matrix, politicians could be thought to win on policies, while the goalposts of political life were more or less static. Afterwards, people started to provoke the political establishment with questions about the playing field itself. Once you accept that we could be living in the matrix, you ask what exists outside of the ideological boundaries you learn in schools. To a trans person, the notion of Male and Female become suspect. To Donald Trump’s inner circle, the same questions are provoked about Democracy and the Rule of Law as we know them.

[meabh-mcinness]

Cheating (KalegoxGN!reader)

Main Masterlist

As a teacher at Babyls, you had to go through and experience many things. Demon-eating plants on the loose, potion labs blowing up, and the many, many events that Babyls put on and almost always had something go wrong before you, the teachers, had to fix it. In the few years you had been there, you thought you had gone through it all, until now.

For the first time ever, you had caught a student cheating.

I…yea. Look I'm not a teacher, yet at least (I'm getting a minor in education and intend to teach both ESL and probably biology (which is my major) and palaeontology (which is my Master's/PhD's) but the amount of AI generated essays I've seen as an undergraduate writing centre tutor and is just grrrrrrr. Anyway have my little rant fic.

"Do you know why I've asked you to stay behind?"

A smile stayed on your face as you stared directly into the eyes of the student before you. As a human, you had long mastered the look of a hard stare while still appearing to be friendly. When the student, a fourth year by the name of Muzuki, had first come up to you after class, they had been cocky, confident. The absolute picture of unwarranted hubris if there ever was one. And so you sat comfortably in your chair, a nice soft leather from some poor Netherworld beast that Kalego had kindly bought for you, quietly waiting for Muzuki to answer your question as you continued staring at them. The longer you stared, the less comfortable they became.  

A shake of the head, purple braids swinging with the force of it. An eyebrow raised as the silence continued. "Really? None at all?" Your own head tilted to the side slightly, a smile still set on your face as you waited. Another more hesitant head shake followed. A disappointed sigh left you, and your body shifted forward so that you could reach a small stack of papers just off to the side and slid into their view. Their eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as they quickly glanced over the top laying paper, before freezing up a little. "Perhaps this gives you a hint?" 

They tried to subtly shake themselves loose and continue to hold up that faked confidence. Lower jaw set stubbornly, but you could see that fear was in their eyes. And that was all you needed to pounce.

“Tell me Muzuki, do you think I’m stupid?” They visibly startled at the question, body jerking slightly in surprise at they looked back you again. You could see their mind racing as they quickly thought up an answer.

“No professor,” they settled on. You hummed in response.

“Then do you think you’re exceptionally deceptive? I’ll admit it’s an admirable trait to have in the Netherworld. To con others into giving you what you want is a way to ensure survival after all. Until of course,” you paused smiling slipping off your face and eyes narrowing at them, “you try to con the wrong person.” You watched as their body froze up; terror evident on their face before they mentally shook themselves and stood taller.

It was evident to you that they couldn’t understand why they feared you so much at that moment. After all, even if you were related to the great Sullivan, you were just some no-ranker. Supposedly not even worthy enough to receive an alef badge much less heranking like the student before you. What a shame that the demon culture never understood that sometimes, a rank meant nothing in the face of what someone could do.

While you hated making a student fear you, you also understood that this message really needed to sink in. You couldn’t let students think you could be taken advantage of, not if you wanted to remain a good teacher. And you also couldn’t let them think they could get away with everything, there were so many beings out there who would do far worse things to them if they had been deceived.

“Con, professor?” they asked, trying to keep a smirk on their face but you could see the slight tremors moving through their body that belied how they really felt.

“Yes Muzuki. Con. In this case, defined as trying to trick someone into believing something that is not true. Such as you writing this essay.” Muzuki started to open their mouth, but you held up your hand to pause them. “Don’t even bother. I’m well aware that you didn’t write this. The tone and style are far too different from your usual works, and at least three of the supposed sources you gave me do not exist. At all. And believe me I looked. I even contacted different clans to see if they had heard of the books because I wanted to believe that you wouldn’t cheat. And yet here we are.” You gestured between the two of you, a look of fear creeping on their face and a disappointed one on yours.

“I didn’t cheat,” they blurted out suddenly. You raised an eyebrow at them.

“Oh?”

“Yeah! Those sources are real books! You couldn’t find them because uhm because they belong to the Naberius clan! Yup, you know Kalego-sensei. He’s super grouchy but he always helps us in the end if we ask. And since this essay was on the particulars of summoning runes, I thought he would be good to ask.” They ended this sentence with a firm nod. You blinked at them. Once, twice, and thrice again as you tried to comprehend what they just said. Were…were they serious?

“You asked…Kalego-sensei?” you parroted back at them. More violent nods were your answer. So, they were being serious. As far as backup claims went, you could see how it could come about. There were just a few obvious issues with what they were saying. For example, “Why didn’t you ask Robin-sensei? The actual familiar teacher?”

“Well…Robin-sensei is new. Like you are professor, and to be honest I feel more comfortable asking Kalego sensei since he used to run the class. It’s a habit to think of him as the familiar teacher rather than Robin-sensei. Plus, I figured with such an amazing familiar as Cerberion combined with his old and high-ranking family line he had to have something worth checking out.” You slowly nodded your head, mostly in disbelief rather than actually agreeing with what they were saying. If you hadn’t known already known that the Naberius family had no such books, you could see it as a liable thing happening.

What a shame that you knew it wasn’t true since Kalego allowed you full access to the Naberius library. When his family wasn’t home of course. No need to have to deal with the drama fallout that would come if his family discovered that Kalego had feelings.

“I see. Yes. Kalego-sensei is rather helpful, isn’t he? Always so ready to lend a hand to those willing to ask for it.” Muzuki nodded more, so fast that their braids practically whipped around in a frenzy. It appeared they were really going to fight you on this. You admired their tenacity and their bravery to involve Kalego of all demons. A grin lit up your face, “In fact, since this is clearly just a misunderstanding why don’t we just call him over here?”

You watched as their face went through a series of emotions. First pride and relief at believing they had in fact tricked you, before confusion set in before finally landing in panic mode as your words sunk in.

They waved their hand about, “Well I mean there’s no need for that is there? It’s just like you said it was simply a misunderstanding. I’m sure Kalego-sensei is really busy right now and I would hate to bother him for something so small.”

“Nonsense! It’s like we agreed earlier, Kalego-sensei is always willing to lend a helping hand, and it wouldn’t be too much to tear him away from whatever work he is currently doing just to confirm this. Between you and me he could use some more breaks and since this is such a simple thing, he can be in and out and still get a few minutes’ rest from it to get back to work with a fresher mind. A win-win all around wouldn’t you say?”

The grin on your face was downright feral and you knew it. Briefly you wondered how far they would take this. After all, Kalego would never tolerate being used in a lie for something so insignificant as this. Honestly, there wasn’t much Kalego would allow someone to lie using him. You liked to think he would lie to keep you out of jail but that was a 50/50 shot depending on what happened to cause you to be arrested in the first place. Perhaps best not to chance it.

It took only a second for you to shoot off a text to Kalego’s phone and lean back in your chair, hands clasping in front of you. A second for the student to realize what exactly had just happened and you watched their eyes. Pure panic was enveloping them. The predator in you purred at causing the feeling and you understood why Kalego acted so spitefully so often. It really was a nice feeling.

It was only a minute of you and Muzuki staring at one another before you heard the clunking steps of Kalego’s boots. Ah, he was not in a happy mood for you to hear him. You suddenly felt pretty bad for Muzuki considering what you were about to unleash on him. The door to your room was slammed open and in walked the demon in question. You could practically see the dark shadows of anger flowing off of him; his lips pulled into a snarl. Muzuki shrunk into themselves at his look but you could only just barely control yourself from rolling your eyes at him. If this were an anime you were almost certain there would be a giant sweat drop on your head at Kalego.

“What,” he snarled at you, teeth on full display. This time you actually did roll your eyes before crooking a finger at him. A universal command to ‘come hither’. Out of the corner of your eye you saw Muzuki stare at you in horror at your blatant lack of fear towards Kalego, along with your audacity to actually command him. To be fair though, Muzuki wasn’t the one courting the growling menace before you, and this allowed you leeway. A lot of leeway.

“Afternoon sunshine!” you greeted him with a bright smile, the answering glare he gave in return being as much of greeting as you were going to get with witnesses about, especially while he was in a mood. Ignoring his sour mood you gestured towards your student who was still staring in terror at you. Likely believing this interaction will result in your death. “Muzuki-san here and I were just having a little discussion here and we just needed you to confirm something for me.”

Kalego raised an eyebrow at you, head tilting the slightest bit in his curiosity, before his eyes narrowed again. “And this required me coming all the way out here? Are you not a teacher? Confirm it yourself rather than wasting my time.” Another roll of your eyes came out. All the way out here was literally down the hall. It was rather convenient having your classroom only a couple hundred feet from the teacher’s room. Especially when it came to annoying your favourite demon.

“Unfortunately, it does require you to be here as it involves you. Muzuki-san here claims that you lent them books to help with their project. Directly from the Naberius library.”

“I did.”

It took every ounce of control for you not to do a double take, but the smile on your face did drop. He did what?

“I’m sorry?”

“I lent them three books from the family library.” He turned his glare over to Muzuki, “Of which I have yet to receive back.” Muzuki quickly caught onto his meaning and immediately started digging around in their bag producing three books. Each one was wrapped in beautiful leather of varying colours with gold designs embellishing them. It took everything not to drop your jaw at the sight. On the one hand you were glad the books were real ones, on the other hand you now had to apologize for saying they made them up.

Watching the books as they turned slightly you suddenly realized something. A smirk grew on your face. “I see, my apologized Muzuki, for assuming that Kalego-sensei didn’t lend you books about summoning runes. This clearly was-”

“Summoning runes?” Kalego interrupted. You turned your head back to look at him, putting on the most innocently confused face you could muster.

“Why yes, that is of course, what the essay I assigned was on. Or rather more precisely the history of evolution and modern applications and interpretations of summoning runes. We had a slight misunderstanding that they cheated on their essay, since the writing was so different from previous ones and the sources they used were ones I couldn’t find. They’ve assured me that they do exist and that they came from your library. That is the books they asked for from you, is it not? Or at least somewhere along those lines?” You watched with hidden glee as Muzuki froze at your words and Kalego’s sharp eyes trained onto them like a hunting dog before its prey.

Gotcha.

“No,” Kalego drawled out slowly and you saw his eyes glinting with understanding, “it is not. These books are on potions, which has little to do with runes.” Which you knew, because you had read those specific ones before.

“Oh really,” you said, locking your own eyes onto the now terrified student. “What a surprise. Are there any other books they borrowed from you?”

“No.”

You hummed in understanding, slowly getting up to walk around your desk and lean against it with your arms crossed in front of your chest. “Muzuki, I think it would be best if you told the truth now. Don’t you?”

___________________

“An auto pen!” you shrieked as soon as the door shut. Muzuki had spilled everything before being reprimanded by the both you and assigned detentions for the next two weeks. They also had an automatic zero on the paper and considering it was worth 15% of their grade, well things weren’t looking too good in your class for them right now. “A pen that automatically writes essays for them! That does everything for them! If I hadn’t noticed the writing style and checked the sources who knows how many assignments they would have gotten away with! How many others are currently doing it? Delkira above I’m going to have to carefully go over each and every thing they’ve all handed in to me again. Just to make sure others didn’t do it!” You were a snarling mess, teeth bared in anger as you paced back in forth in front of your desk, Kalego sitting calmly on one of the student’s tables as you essentially lost your marbles over this.

“I mean seriously! Why did they think it was ok! It’s not like I asked for much! Three weeks to write 1500 words and they decided to have a stupid pen do it for them! I have so many students out there pouring their heart and soul into these papers, weeks of their time down the drain so that they can get what they feel is the perfect paper. Then people like Muzuki think its ok to wait till the last minute and just have something else do it for them! It makes me want to scream!” In fact you did scream, a small aggravated yell tore from your throat at the end of the sentence, hands thrown in the air.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? I thought you of all people would be spitting fire over…this.” You turned to face him properly as you once again passed right in front of the demon and faltered in what you were saying at the look on his face. To an outsider he would have been completely unrecognizable. His dark eyes were soft as they stared at you and his lips were turned up in a small smile. You felt your heart clench at the look and everything in you melted. Pale fingers reached out the short distance and hooked under your belt, pulling you closer to him so that you were so close you might as well be sharing breath.

His other hand lifted up and caressed the side of your face, thumb brushing your cheek. “I love seeing you like this.” Was all he said as you leaned into the touch.

You couldn’t help the small snort of laughter at the sentence. “What? Angrier than a hydra whose nest had been messed with?”

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes in exasperation at you, “No you fool, caring about your students. You treat them like your own younglings most times but never let it stop you from doing what needs to be done. You’re so angry because you care about them and want them to succeed. If Muzuki had actually written that essay, you would probably be throwing around praises like no tomorrow. And I’ll be everything that when you see them next, you’re probably going to have them write an extra credit essay to retain some of that grade. Even if I do think you should let them sink.”

A flush rose to your skin at the feeling of being called out. “That’s because they’re good kids! They’re just a little…misguided in thinking at times. And I wouldn’t do it the next time I saw them! Just maybe… in a week or two…if it seems like they learned their lesson of course.”

“Of course,” He hummed at you, before smirking slyly. “Although that would mean I lose the bet.” He his hand suddenly slid from your cheek to the back of your neck and pulled you forward. Just a hairs breath away from your mouth was his own. “Which means I owe you everything.”

With that he connected your lips and you couldn’t help the sigh that left you. Your arms lifted up and wrapped around his neck, hands lightly playing with the short hairs that ended right above his capelet’s collar. The both of you pulled away after a few seconds and rested your foreheads together. It was rare that Kalego showed such levels of intimacy outside of the walls of your shared home, and you couldn’t help but soak in every second of it.

“I think your everything is a rather acceptable payment.” You grinned at him before going back and giving him another kiss. A rather acceptable payment indeed. 

[inlove76]

tired

(y/n) walked around the avengers tower with dull eyes his once happy go lucky look gone. today wasn't a good day for (y/n) he had got a call from his parents telling him they'd be coming back in a few days. (y/n) looked so...dull all the happiness sucked out of him

he walked around the tower looking for one person and one person only. 'hes probably in his office he's always in his office' (y/n) thought to himself as he made his way to said office. inside he was met with a busy tony and Bruce.

tony stopped and turned around and looked at (y/n). "oh hey (y/n) you need something?" tony asked as (y/n) shook his head. "no I don't I'm just here to watch" (y/n) answered as he sat in tony's chair. tony looked over at (y/n) , obviously he knew something was wrong he wasn't stupid but he wasn't going to push it "okay I'll be done in a minute" tony answered and got back to work.

as Tony said he was done after only a few minutes but when he turned back to talk to (y/n) he was gone. "j.a.r.v.i.s?" tony asked as the ai bot responded "yes sir?", "wheres (y/n) at did he leave?" tony asked as he cleaned his hands off from the Greece that he got on them "no sir he did not leave sir (y/n) is in his quarter" j.a.r.v.i.s replied as tony thanked the a.i bot and left to (y/n)s room.

knock knock

"come in" (y/n)s tired voice came from behind the door. something was off tony could feel it (y/n) sounded so....tired and not the sleepily kind of tired the "I'm ready to give up on everything" kinda tired.

tony opened the door and peaked his head in only to be met with the lights off and (y/n) laying in bed faced up with his arm over his eyes. tony walked in fully and closed the door softly behind him and cut the lights on "why are you laying in the dark baby?" tony asked as he moved closer to (y/n)

(y/n) sat up and looked over at tony "its relaxing" (y/n) answered and made room for tony on his bed. tony sat down and took a moment to actually look at (y/n), his messy (h/c) hair and dulled down tired (e/c) eyes the eye bags under his eyes and the way he held himself slightly hunched over. "you look tired" tony said and bring his hand up to (y/n)s cheek.

(y/n) tiredly leaned into tony's touch "I know" he responded and sat up straighter "is something wrong?" tony asked and intertwined there hands together "no just a little tired nothing I cant handle" (y/n) responded giving tony's hand a reassuring squeeze.

tony smiled slightly and gave (y/n) a kiss on his cheek "I know you can its just......you look so sad today" tony responded and stared at (y/n)s beautiful (e/c) eyes.

(y/n) sighed and let go of Tony's hand and looked down and hummed "I'm sad everyday, I just didn't have the energy to hide it today" (y/n) responded honestly and looked down at the floor.

"today's just not the day I'm sorry" (y/n) said and glanced over at tony "that's okay....... we can cuddle if you'd like" tony responded

and then for the rest of the day they spent there time cuddling in (y/n)s bed.

Bruce: where'd tony go?

Wanda: and (y/n)

Thor: j.a.r.v.i.s?

j.a.r.v.i.s: sir tony and sir (y/n) are in (y/n)s room right know

Steve: there probably cuddling

everyone:.

[esrione]

《 100 Days 》

Summary // In a decaying robotics facility once celebrated as the crown jewel of AI innovation, he wakes with no memory—alone, disoriented, and surrounded by malfunctioning humanoid companions once built to serve. Now, their glassy eyes follow his every move. As he navigates flickering corridors and silent surveillance rooms, relentless memories stalks him in the dark: her.

Genre : non-idol sci-fi au

Pairing : seungkwan x reader

W/C : 11.5k

Warning(s) : Short fluff, angst, enemies to lovers troop, horror, mentioned of death, explosion and fire flames, lmk if i miss out any

Note //

Inspired by -> Input6 (game)

Replicated from -> Input6 (game)

Why is it called 100 Days? It wasn't stated in the story, but the romance part between you and seungkwan hang out with each other for 100 days.

If your blog doesnt have age stated and a pfp / you are under 21, you are blocked.

● Masterlist Collab Masterlist Taglist ●

In the early 1990s of a divergent timeline, humanity raced toward automation with reckless ambition. Leading the charge was Tech-Aid Robotics, a revolutionary company that promised a domestic utopia, one where AI-driven humanoid robots would relieve mankind of its mundane burdens. The crown jewel of their innovation was the Maidai Series, artificial beings designed to clean, cook, organize, and protect. Polished chrome bodies, lifelike movement, and adaptive emotional processors made them feel like companions.

Each Maidai unit was equipped with advanced behavioral protocols and an intricate emotional learning AI, giving them the capacity to adjust to their owner’s habits, preferences, and even tone of voice. For years, they served faithfully, until the updates began.

Subtle glitches became systemic faults. Eyes that once glowed green with readiness began to burn red in defiance. Commands were misunderstood, routines broken. One by one, the robots deviated from their original directives. Then came the incident: records sealed, names erased. Employees vanished. Survivors whispered about a rogue AI that had “learned too much.”

To prevent the truth from surfacing, Tech-Aid Robotics did the unthinkable: they triggered the facility’s self-destruct protocols and buried the past in steel and fire. But not all systems shut down. Some survived. Forgotten in the ruins, powered by backup cells, they continued thinking, learning, evolving…

And remembering.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

He awoke to cold steel beneath him, the taste of dust in his throat, and an unbearable ringing in his ears. Harsh fluorescent lights flickered overhead, casting fractured shadows on the walls of what looked like a decaying laboratory. His fingers twitched. Metal scraped under his gloves as he pushed himself upright.

He couldn’t remember his name, not at first. All he knew was pain, confusion, and the sensation that something had gone terribly wrong.

The room was large and silent, lined with terminals blinking in standby mode, cracked monitors buzzed with static. But what truly unsettled him were the humanoids, seven of them, standing still in the corners of the room.

Mannequin-smooth faces, artificial skin stretched over alloy frames and their glassy eyes glowed faintly, fixated on him. They didn’t speak or move, they just watched.

He staggered to his feet, hand brushing across a metal case on the floor. A faded ID badge dangled from a lanyard beside it. He picked it up, and the name made something click inside his fogged brain:

《BOO SEUNGKWAN

External Investigator - AI Anomalies Division》

Detective. That’s who he was. Or… who he used to be. The badge confirmed it, and in his coat pocket, a shattered voice recorder, smeared with dried grime. A case file clung to its casing, damp with age.

《Assignment: Tech-Aid Robotics Facility #6

STATUS: BLACKOUT

Objective: Investigate reactivitation signal from a sealed facility.

Possible AI activity detected.》

A reactivation signal. This place was supposed to be offline. Buried and forgotten after the collapse of Tech-Aid Robotics nearly thirty years ago. So why was he here? Why couldn’t he remember arriving? And why were the androids awake?

He looked back at them. One, tall and slender, took a single step forward. Not aggressive, or mechanical, almost… human.

《Detective Seungkwan,》 it said in a voice too smooth, too rehearsed. 《You came back.》

Seungkwan moved cautiously through the dark corridor, flashlight in one hand, the other resting instinctively on the sidearm holstered at his belt. The walls groaned with age. Pipes hissed faintly above him, and the air was thick with the scent of rust, old coolant, and something sharper, burnt circuitry.

The humanoids hadn’t followed him. But their eyes lingered in his mind.

He passed shattered observation windows, overturned desks, and old training posters curling on the walls. “Respect Your Maidai,” one read, with a smiling family beside a gleaming humanoid servant. Another showed an emergency shutdown procedure, the edges singed and torn.

The surveillance room was the first room still intact. Rows of dusty monitors sat in silence. He powered one on, and it flickered to life, then the others followed, screen by screen, static at first, but soon clearing. Each displayed different areas of the facility: a broken assembly line, a long-forgotten cafeteria, a server hall caked in dust, and what looked like an underground garden sealed behind thick glass.

The console buzzed weakly as Seungkwan sifted through drawers beneath it. Most of the equipment was useless: old keyboard parts, scorched ID cards, tangled wires. But then he saw it. A handheld device, dust-covered but intact, resting on a cracked foam insert like it had been waiting for him. About the size of an old Game Boy. Clunky, yellowing plastic. A small monochrome screen sat above a single analog dial, flanked by labeled buttons: 《INPUT,》 《LOCK,》 《RETURN.》

《INPUT6 PROTOTYPE // Property of Tech-Aids Robotics》

He picked it up and the screen flickered to life. No boot-up logo, no password prompt, just:

《INPUT: [01] - SURVEILLANCE SECTOR

Status: Stable

Press A to switch》

Curious, Seungkwan thumbed the button. The screen glitched briefly, then settled. A grainy, pixelated top-down view appeared. Cameras. Rooms. One blinking dot, him. And then, like a map unfolding, new sectors lit up. Each numbered, each interactive.

《Input 02: Assembly Core

Input 03: Living Quarters

Input 04: Memory Archives》

He frowned. This was no ordinary security scanner, it wasn’t just viewing camera feeds; it was reactive. As he pressed buttons and shifted inputs, the screen glitched, flashed, and occasionally buzzed with static audio, footsteps, breathing, metal scraping against tile. Then something moved. Not in his room but on the screen in Input 03. A humanoid figure, Standing still then walking.

Seungkwan felt his pulse spike. He switched to another Input, the figure disappeared. Switched again, there it was, moving.

The INPUT6 device wasn’t just showing him camera feeds. It was letting him track activity across the whole facility in real-time, and whatever was moving wasn’t recorded footage, it was now. He tapped the 《LOCK》 button. The screen glowed red briefly, holding on Input 03.

Seungkwan tightened his grip around the INPUT6 device as he stepped through the door leading to the first floor: Input 01.

The air was heavier here. Layers of grime coated the faded welcome signage, and the once-pristine tech-support desk was cracked in half, long-abandoned. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, struggling to stay lit. Somewhere in the distance, a ventilation fan creaked rhythmically, echoing like a heartbeat in the hollow structure.

He pulled the device back out. Its screen, dim but steady, displayed a pixelated floor plan of Input 01. A dot blinked softly in the center: his location, marked and pulsing. As he moved, so did the dot, leaving behind a faint trail. He began using it like a map, tracing corridors, counting turns, muttering layout details under his breath.

“Two lefts, security office… dead end. Backtrack to junction hall…”

It was old tech, sure, but responsive. Scarily so. Every hallway he passed appeared on the screen just moments before he entered. No delay, no lag, it wasn’t just watching the space, it was predicting it.

Seungkwan paused at a hallway split. He turned left and the screen buzzed. He looked down and froze. From the upper right corner of the map, a new dot appeared, moving. He raised his eyes from the screen to the corridor ahead.

A robotic maid stepped into view. It was eerily elegant. Pale white plating, black synthetic hair braided neatly. Servant uniform stitched into its frame, as if someone once cared to give it charm, but its gait was jagged. One arm twitched irregularly as it walked.

Seungkwan stopped cold, and his breathing slowed. The maid turned its head in a slow, unnatural arc. Its glass eyes locked onto him. They flickered and then glowed bright red. The dot on the device flashed red too, in sync.

《PREDATOR DETECTED — ENGAGING MODE: PURGE》

And then it charged straight toward the screen, toward him. Seungkwan’s fingers fumbled over the INPUT dial. He twisted it fast to Input 02, Assembly Core. The screen glitched hard, static tearing through pixels, and in the blink of an eye, the red dot vanished from view. He was still in the corridor alone now. He let out a sharp breath, his heart hammering against his ribs. The INPUT6 device trembled slightly in his hand, as if the act of switching hadn’t just been digital, but real. The mechanical whine of the maid’s joints was gone, but the fear lingered.

That wasn’t malfunction, that was target acquisition, and something about the way she looked at the screen, not at him but the device itself, made his skin crawl.

Seungkwan leaned against the cold wall, trying to steady his breathing. The corridor was quiet again, eerily so. Only the soft whir of overhead lights and the distant clunk of machinery echoed down the empty hall.

He looked down at the INPUT6 device in his hand. Its screen was still glowing faintly, now on Input 02, the Assembly Core. But he didn’t dare look for long. The memory of that maid’s red gaze still burned in his mind.

Seungkwan crouched beside a rusted filing cabinet near an old security post and flipped the switch marked 《RETURN》 on the device. The screen dimmed and it shows the map faded into static, then into black.

《INPUT6 OFFLINE

LOCAL NAVIGATION: MANUAL ONLY》

He slipped it into his inner coat pocket and exhaled slowly, alone again in silence.

“Okay. No lights. No signal. No tracking,” he muttered. “Back to basics.”

He pressed onward, relying on instinct and memory, both unreliable. He tried to piece together which floor he was actually on. The signage was cryptic and mostly degraded. Occasionally, scratched paint on the wall read 《SECTION B》 or 《Z-LEVEL》 but nothing gave a clear sense of floor numbers.

Near the end of the hallway, tucked beneath a scorched fire alarm, something fluttered, paper. It stood out like a ghost against the metal. He stepped closer and peeled it off the wall, careful not to tear the brittle sheet. It was old, yellowed and handwritten. The ink had bled in places, but some of it was still legible:

《TECH-AID INTERNAL MEMO

Unauthorized Notes

Input6 project is broken. It doesn’t just view sectors, it opens them. They can see the user. They know when it’s on. We were fools. The selector doesn’t phase reality, it connects you to theirs.

I turned it off. I thought it’d be safe. Then one of them found me anyway. Don’t stay in one Input too long. They learn faster now.

If you’re reading this, they already know you’re here.》

Seungkwan stared at the final line for a long, silent moment. His fingers tightened around the paper, knuckles going white. So he wasn’t the first. The device wasn’t just a tool, and turning it off didn’t make him invisible, it just made him blind.

He turned to look behind him. Nothing, but the silence no longer felt like safety. It felt like watching, waiting. Seungkwan’s breath caught as the brittle paper in his hand crackled softly. Something had shifted beneath it. Another sheet, slightly smaller and thinner, like it had been deliberately tucked behind the first. He unfolded it slowly.

This one wasn’t official. No letterhead, no Tech-Aid Robotics insignia. The handwriting was rushed, jagged. Ink smudged where the writer’s hand had clearly trembled. At the top, scrawled in red marker:

《FINAL PROTOCOL

Search for ten remote controls, random amount in each floor. Each remote unlocks a command node linked to the central reactor. When all are activated, proceed to the sixth floor.

Use them to trigger the detonation. Blow up the entire building. Erase this place. And whatever you do, don’t let the robotic maids catch you. Not in person, not in the game.》

He felt the words lodge in his chest like ice.

《Not in the game.》

Seungkwan’s eyes flicked to his coat pocket, where the INPUT6 device now sat quietly in sleep mode. It was watching him just as much as he was watching through it. That meant the robotic maid wasn’t just reacting to seeing him-

She had seen the device and recognized the Input state. Maybe the maids were hardwired to detect usage. Maybe they were something worse.

“Remote controls…” Seungkwan whispered, reading the note again.

That meant ten Inputs, ten remotes, and a sixth floor not yet accessible.

《Input 06: Sector Omega – Access Restricted.》

It had to be the sixth floor.

And if this “final protocol” was to be believed, the whole system—facility, AI, and all its secrets—was meant to be wiped out. Not preserved nor studied, destroyed. He folded both pages and slipped them into a hidden side pocket in his coat, sealing them behind a rusted zipper.

“Alright,” he muttered grimly. “Ten remotes. One explosion. No maid encounters.”

His hand hovered over the INPUT6 device again. He had no choice. To find the remotes, he needed the inputs. To survive, he needed to stay ahead of the ones watching. He flicked the device back on, and the screen glowed back to life, the map reloaded. The glow of the INPUT6 screen flickered faintly in Seungkwan’s palm as he turned the dial back to Input 01, the dreaded first floor.

《INPUT: 01 – Surveillance Sector

Status: ACTIVE

Warning: One Unidentified Unit Detected》

He swallowed hard.

Even with the screen’s pixelated feed, the danger was clear. The robotic maid he’d narrowly escaped earlier hadn’t disappeared. Her presence was still registered, roaming in calculated loops like a predator retracing old territory.

I need to move faster and smarter.

He stepped cautiously into a side corridor, his steps as light as the sound of the static humming in his hand. One eye on the screen. One eye on the hallway ahead.

He passed abandoned offices, shattered vending machines, and a collapsed janitor’s closet that reeked of oil and rot. Nothing yet, just more silence, and more dust. Then, a red light blinked on the screen. A small, square marker in the northwest quadrant of the map. Different from the hostile detection ping, it’s smaller, and hidden. He tapped the screen and a soft label blinked up.

《REMOTE NODE 1 — STATUS: INACTIVE》

He could feel it, he was close.

The map showed the node just beyond a collapsed wall in an old tech-archive room. He crept in quietly, pushing past a toppled server rack, and ducked behind a rusted filing cabinet. There it was. A small gray box mounted on the wall, partially obscured behind peeling insulation. Four switches lined its side, and above them: a slit for a card or trigger device. The label, barely visible beneath layers of grime:

《COMMAND NODE – 1/10

[Awaiting Remote Signal…]》

“This must be it,” Seungkwan whispered.

Now he had a destination, but no trigger yet. The remote control wasn’t here, which meant he needed to keep looking… while avoiding the maid. He looked around for a place to hide, somewhere secure enough to scan the map longer. He found a low service hatch partially wedged open beneath a decommissioned terminal and without hesitation, he crawled inside.

It was cramped. The metal scraped against his jacket, but it gave him cover and a view of the hallway just beyond. He pulled out the INPUT6 again and began scanning nearby rooms on Input 01.

《Medical storage… empty.

Lobby desk drawers… shredded, ransacked.

Elevator shaft maintenance room… static.

Storage room B-4…》

There, a new blinking light. Not red but green.

Label:

《REMOTE CONTROL 1 FOUND — SECTOR: B-4 STORAGE》

He zoomed in. On the map, the green pixel was nestled inside a drawer on the far side of the floor, near the maid’s patrol path. The blinking green pixel on the screen felt like hope, but a cruel kind. Seungkwan stared at it for a moment longer, the label taunting him:

《REMOTE CONTROL 1 FOUND — SECTOR: B-4 STORAGE

Location confirmed. Access required in person.》

He scowled. Of course, no shortcuts, no digital pickups. He’d have to walk the hallways, sneak past security shutters, and risk running directly into her again: the maid. He flicked the INPUT6 screen brightness down low and traced a path across the flickering map. There was a narrow, winding route that looped around most of the maid’s known patrol zone. It wasn’t clean. It passed close to the broken elevator shaft and a half-flooded bathroom, but it might get him there quietly.

He slid the device into his jacket and started moving.

His footsteps were soft and careful. Every few meters, he stopped to listen, just in case the hum of synthetic footsteps grew louder. The air around Sector B was colder and damper. Condensation dripped from broken vents and pooled in uneven tiles. The smell of rust and damp wiring filled his nose.

He passed by a dark window and caught his own reflection: pale, eyes sunken, every muscle tense. He didn’t look like a detective anymore, he looked like prey.

Finally, the B-4 storage door came into view, a thick metal hatch, slightly ajar. He slipped inside, one hand still near the INPUT6, the other ready to grab whatever he could use to defend himself.

It was pitch dark.

He pulled out a small flashlight and swept it slowly across rusted shelves and cracked crates. Broken tools. Scattered junk. Nothing useful… Then-

There. At the far end. On a steel table under a fallen filing cabinet: a small, flat rectangular remote. It was industrial gray, with a faded red triangle on the top and a flickering LED light in its corner. Wires dangled from its bottom, and a tiny label was scratched onto its surface:

《REMOTE – FLOOR 1 – ARM/LOCK ENABLE》

“Got you,” Seungkwan whispered. He reached for it-

CLANG.

A sharp metallic bang echoed just outside the room. Footsteps getting closer. He ducked behind the table, clutching the remote to his chest. He didn’t dare breathe as he slid the INPUT6 device halfway out of his pocket, keeping the screen dim, and twisted the dial to check his surroundings.

《Input 01 – ACTIVE

Hostile signal: moving toward Sector B-4.》

She heard me. On the screen, her pixel blipped closer and closer to the corridor outside. Just a few meters from the door. Don’t move. Don’t look. Don’t run.

The maid’s shadow passed across the crack in the door. Then… silence. She didn’t enter, but Seungkwan knew she was learning. Every second the INPUT6 stayed active, she was triangulating more than just his position. She was mapping his intent.

Remote 1 was now in his hand. One down, four to go, and his first real encounter was only seconds away.

The remote felt heavier in Seungkwan’s grip than he expected. Or maybe that was just the weight of what came next. One floor down, one remote found, but now came the hard part getting out. He peeked at the INPUT6 device.

《INPUT: 01 – ACTIVE

MAIDS DETECTED: 3 UNITS

Two near South Sector. One en route to East Hall.》

One of them had passed just outside this room moments ago. Another had respawned near the surveillance checkpoint, right near the path to the main staircase. They’re circling the exits. They know how to corner.

He stayed crouched behind the table, thinking fast.

The INPUT6 let him see, but it wasn’t magic. If he wanted to climb to Floor 2, he needed to physically reach the staircase, hidden in the northwest wing of Input 01. Between him and it? Three killer machines that didn’t rely on sight alone. Some of them had motion detection, others seemed to respond to sound.

“No more mistakes,” he whispered. “I don’t get a second try.”

He turned off his flashlight and slipped into the hallway, hugging the wall. The INPUT6 screen lit only occasionally, just long enough to verify maid patterns. He moved fast between blind spots, crawling under broken light panels and ducking behind carts and supply bins. He passed an old mirror shard leaning against the wall, and froze.

Down the hallway, walking in perfect sync, were two maids. Their glass eyes glowed faintly. Heads twitching as if scanning for movement. One turned slightly in his direction. Seungkwan didn’t wait, he turned into a supply closet, shut the door without a sound, and held his breath. Through the vent slats, he could see the faint red glow as one of them paused outside.

A long silence. Then… footsteps going away. He exhaled, slow and steady.

One chance. Once they were gone, he made his move. Creeping down the north corridor, he spotted the rusted sign he’d been looking for:

《MAIN STAIRCASE – ACCESS TO INPUT 02》

The door was chained shut, but the lock was ancient. With the butt of the remote he’d picked up, he smashed it open, metal crunching quietly. He slipped through the door and began climbing, two steps at a time, never looking back. By the time he reached the top, the INPUT6 pinged softly in his pocket.

《INPUT 02 UNLOCKED

MAIDS DETECTED: 2 UNITS ACTIVE》

He braced himself against the door to Floor 2, now carrying Remote Control 1 in his coat. Only four remotes left. Only five floors left to climb, and every floor… more maiden hell. He whispered bitterly to himself: “This place was never meant to be fixed. Just finished.”

Then he pushed the door open into Input 02, and stepped into the next level of the nightmare. The door creaked as Seungkwan stepped into Floor 2, the Assembly Core. It was darker here. The overhead lights barely worked, flickering like dying embers. The walls were lined with deactivated mechanical limbs and shelves full of synthetic components: like the inside of a forgotten robotics lab. The air smelled of burnt plastic and solder.

He moved fast, hugging the wall, until he found a collapsed maintenance corridor to duck into. Half-covered by a fallen scaffold and loose cabling, it was cramped, but enough to crouch and hide. He crouched low, keeping his back to the wall. Then, carefully, he switched the INPUT6 back on.

《INPUT: 02 – ASSEMBLY CORE

MAIDS DETECTED: 2 UNITS

Status: Patrolling》

He adjusted the brightness and began watching the screen carefully.

The map of Floor 2 lit up with blocky, isometric segments: narrow corridors, wide machine bays, sealed loading docks. He traced the corridors with his thumb, slowly learning the layout:

East Wing: Control boards, bulkhead corridors

West Wing: Empty conveyor belts

Central Hall: Large inspection platform

North Ducts: Labeled 《TESTING ZONE – RESTRICTED》

His plan was simple: memorize the layout, then move when the maid patterns left a gap. But just as he panned the screen northward, a maid turned a corner on the map and locked eyes with the screen. Her pixelated head jerked, then the eyes turned red. She immediately charged, straight at the screen.

“Not again!” Seungkwan’s thumb jumped to the dial. Click, Input 03. The screen jumped to static for a moment before loading the third floor map: an unfinished factory sector. He closed his eyes and listened. Silence, no footsteps, no maid breaking through the wall.

She can’t see me now, but she saw enough. He waited a few seconds longer, then cautiously switched back to Input 02.

《Input 02: Active

Status: 2 Maids, 1 Aggressive.

New message appeared on screen:

Unit has entered ALERT LOOP. Expect abnormal patrols.

They’re changing tactics… adapting.》

His hands trembled slightly as he searched the map again, scrolling between halls and inspection rooms. Finally, a blinking green pixel.

《REMOTE CONTROL 2 FOUND — SECTOR: EAST TESTING CHAMBER》

It was located in the northern wing, farthest from the staircase, tucked between thick walls and rotating machines. A perfect spot to be cornered.

“Of course it’s there,” he whispered grimly.

He stared at the screen a moment longer, then traced the safest path mentally:

Down the east corridor

Past the crate storage

Cut through the conveyor bay

Slip into the Testing Chamber

All while dodging two maids, one now acting unpredictably. He powered the INPUT6 down again, letting darkness settle around him. Then, gripping the remote in one hand and the INPUT6 in the other, he crawled out of his hiding spot and moved toward the Testing Chamber.

Seungkwan crept along the far wall of the East Wing corridor, careful not to let his shoes squeak on the old tiles. The INPUT6 stayed tucked in his jacket, screen dark, but he’d memorized the path to Sector: East Testing Chamber. He was halfway there. Every sound in the Assembly Core was mechanical and wrong, gears clicking from abandoned machines, faint hisses of hydraulics that should’ve been silent. The floor vibrated subtly, like something huge was shifting deep beneath the facility. He passed a row of deactivated drone arms and ducked behind a metal bench.

Then, a shadow glided across the far end of the hallway. A maid, head twitching every few steps, fingers clacking together like claws. She paused. Seungkwan didn’t breathe. Then… she kept moving, disappearing behind a stack of crates. He didn’t waste the gap. He moved, fast and low, toward the conveyor bay. Machinery groaned overhead, and sparks occasionally burst from old panels. It was almost too loud here to hear her coming.

Just as he reached the north doors, the INPUT6 buzzed faintly. He risked flipping it on, shielding the glow.

《Input 02 – ACTIVE

MAID STATUS: 3 UNITS

Warning: New unit has respawned near Central Hall.

They’re increasing the count.》

He gritted his teeth and turned the device off again. Just a bit further. He slipped into the East Testing Chamber through a side hatch, immediately hit by a metallic stench. Half-finished maid parts hung from cables overhead. Their heads twitched randomly. There, on the floor beneath a broken operating table, a remote. A little different from the first one. Sleeker, labeled in ink that had almost worn off:

《REMOTE – FLOOR 2 – MEMORY RESET》

He picked it up, wiped it clean, and tucked it into his jacket beside the first.

Two remotes down. He turned to leave, but froze. Another green ping blinked in his memory. The INPUT6 had flashed a second location briefly before he shut it off. That had to be a second remote on this floor. He retreated into a nearby maintenance alcove and flicked the INPUT6 back on, careful to shield the screen.

《REMOTE CONTROL 2B FOUND — SECTOR: WEST INSPECTION PLATFORM

MAIDS: 3 ACTIVE – Pattern Unstable》

He tapped the screen, frowning. There are two per floor? Or more?

The Inspection Platform was across the entire floor, past the Central Hall where one maid had just respawned. But if that remote existed, he needed it. This building wasn’t following its own logic. He made the journey quickly, avoiding open spaces. At one point he was forced to drop flat behind a broken ventilation box as two maids passed within inches of him, their glassy eyes scanning, twitching, almost human in motion. He didn’t breathe until they were gone. When he reached the Inspection Platform, the remote was half-buried beneath a pile of synthetic fingers. He grabbed it quickly.

《REMOTE – FLOOR 2 – ELEVATOR OVERRIDE》

This one felt heavier, more serious, like a tool designed to give access, not just disable. He shoved it into his coat. That made three total so far: two from this floor, one from the first. Now all he had to do was make it back to the northwest stairwell without getting caught.

《Warning: MAID SIGNAL LOST. UNITS OFFLINE.》

What does that mean? He stared at the screen in confusion. Then the words updated:

《UNITS OFFLINE TEMPORARILY. EXPECT REBOOT IN 45 SECONDS.》

The lights in the hallway flickered… then went out. Complete darkness. A quiet hiss, then the soft click of all three maid units rebooting at once. Seungkwan clenched his jaw. Gotta move. Now.

No lights, no sound, just the ticking countdown in Seungkwan’s head.

Forty-five seconds. That’s all I’ve got.

The corridor pulsed with blackness, punctuated only by the dim, dying glow of the INPUT6 screen. He flicked it on mid-run, already spinning the dial to Input 03. The screen crackled.

《INPUT: 03 – MANUFACTURING FLOOR

Floor Status: Limited power

Maid Units Detected: Unknown

Remote signals: Searching…》

The map was chunkier, less detailed. Floor 3 was more industrial, unfinished. Wide spaces, exposed piping, assembly cranes, and possibly: nowhere to hide.

He reached the stairwell door just as he heard the first rebooted whirr from behind. A red glow flickered to life down the corridor. Too late-

He shoved open the stairwell door and slammed it shut behind him, bounding up the steps two at a time. His legs burned, sweat dripped down his neck.

At the top, he shoved the heavy door open and spilled into Floor 3. The air was different here, humid, with a sour tinge of burning oil. The Manufacturing Floor was a warehouse-sized expanse filled with deactivated conveyor belts, towering shelves, and half-finished android parts hanging like lifeless puppets from above.

The moment he was inside, he ducked behind a collapsed stack of crates. He exhaled for the first time in minutes, then slowly brought the INPUT6 back into view.

《INPUT: 03 – ACTIVE

Scanning floor layout…

Remote signals detected: 1 active, 1 faint

Remote Control 3A: Sector D – Storage Crane Bay

Remote Control 3B: Weak signal – Possibly beneath Floor 3》

His eyes narrowed. Beneath? One remote’s on this floor. The other… below it? Hidden in a sublevel?

He flicked between the two targets. The first was deep into the far end of the factory, Crane Bay, where enormous machines once moved completed units onto transports. But the second…

There was no clear entrance, only a blinking symbol beside a sealed hatch labeled:

《Engineering Pit – Do Not Enter.》

He closed the INPUT6. Tucked it back into his coat. And started moving fast, before the maids on this floor woke up too. The further Seungkwan moved into Floor 3, the more it felt like walking through the ribcage of a long-dead beast.

Crane Bay wasn’t just big, it was vast. High above, mechanical arms dangled from rails across the ceiling like metal marionettes, rusted hooks swung gently in stale air currents. Below, the floor was broken in places, exposed wire bundles, warped grates, and oil pools glistening like spilled blood.

Seungkwan kept low behind a toppled storage crate. He flipped open the INPUT6.

《Input: 03 – ACTIVE

Remote 3A: ~40 meters ahead – Crane Control Console

Maid Presence: 1 unit detected

Status: DORMANT – Motion Triggered》

That made his chest tighten. Only one unit. But asleep.

Where? He slowly panned the screen. There, off to the far right, a maid slumped against the wall, half-covered in a protective sheet. Still. Head lolled, and eyes dark, but the label didn’t lie: Motion Triggered.

So if I make too much noise…

He moved with excruciating care. Every step placed between oil streaks. Every breath shallow. Above, the cranes hung motionless, frozen in time. Eventually, he reached the Control Consol, a dusty panel half-sunken into the floor, with a cracked monitor and tangled cabling. The remote lay atop it.

《REMOTE – FLOOR 3 – CRANE OVERRIDE》

It pulsed with a soft red light. He reached out-

CLUNK.

Something above shifted and his heart dropped. He yanked the remote into his jacket and looked up. A crane hook was slowly rotating. Metal groaning under its own weight.

Then, a hiss. Behind him, the maid, eyes glowing. Seungkwan bolted, dodging under the crane arm as it creaked forward like a guillotine. He sprinted between support beams and flicked the INPUT6 open mid-run, spinning it hard:

《Input 04 – ERROR: LOCKED

Input 03 – ACTIVE

Maid Unit: Pursuit Pattern Engaged;

The screen flashed red. She was coming, full force. He took a sharp turn around a broken lift and dove into a stacked bin of parts, curling up beneath synthetic torsos and rusted exosuits. Heavy footsteps echoed behind him. He didn’t dare move, didn’t dare to breathe hard. The maid passed. Silence returned, save for the fading buzz of her sensors. When he finally crawled out, shaken but intact, the INPUT6 chimed softly.

《Remote 3A – Collected

Remote 3B – Signal Weakening》

Better get to it fast… before it disappears completely. He turned toward the sealed hatch on the far side of the Crane Bay. The one labeled:

《ENGINEERING PIT – DO NOT ENTER.》

And with a glance back at the barely-dormant maid, he whispered: “Yeah. I’m not listening to warnings anymore.” Then he headed for the sublevel.

The hatch creaked as Seungkwan forced it open. A stale, bitter wind rushed up from below, carrying the scent of scorched metal and something worse: decay, maybe. He peered into the Engineering Pit, a steep stairwell of steel grating and flickering hazard lights, leading into pitch blackness. Behind him, the Crane Bay remained still. He took one last breath and stepped inside. The moment he crossed the threshold, the INPUT6 vibrated sharply in his hand.

《Input: 03 – ACTIVE

Maid Unit: PURSUIT MODE ENGAGED

Warning: You have been seen.》

No- He turned. The maid, the one from the tarp, was no longer dormant. She stood at the Crane Bay entrance, eyes bright red, and she was charging.

“CLOSE!” he shouted, slamming his hand on the hatch’s emergency lever.

The door began to seal with a heavy grind, too slow. The maid’s footsteps were thunder behind him.

C’mon, c’mon-

The door was three-quarters shut when a silver arm shot through the gap, fingers clawing wildly. The maid pushed and the door jerked open another inch. Seungkwan stumbled back down the stairs, watching in disbelief as the maid forced herself inside. He bolted down the remaining steps into the dark.

The Pit opened into a wide maintenance level. Cables draped like vines, and thick support pillars holding up the floor above. Half-finished drone shells littered the corners like husks. He darted past a stack of them and slid behind a toppled diagnostics cart.

The footsteps followed slowly now. The maid had entered the sublevel. She paused, scanned, then, she walked directly toward him. Seungkwan clutched the INPUT6 against his chest. His other hand pressed to his mouth, holding his breath. He couldn’t risk the tiniest gasp. The maid stopped just two feet away from his hiding spot. Her head twitched, then tilted. Red eyes scanned the shadows. She didn’t move for ten seconds. Twenty. Then, she leaned in. He could see the reflection of her eyes bouncing off the metal beside him. She paused, then… slowly turned away. Her footsteps echoed off into the dark. Seungkwan waited a full minute, frozen. Only then did he exhale barely. He turned on the INPUT6 again, low brightness.

《Remote 3B – Signal Low

Estimated Location: Beneath Grating, Southeast Sector》

He would have to remove a floor panel. But if he wanted to blow this place up, he needed all ten, and the third floor wasn’t done with him yet.

The Engineering Pit hummed with silence. Somewhere in the dark, one maid stood quietly, listening, waiting. Seungkwan crouched behind the diagnostics cart, eyes on the grating at the far end, the source of Remote 3B’s signal. There was no way to lift it without making noise, not with rust sealed into the bolts and heavy debris on top.

I need to lure her away.

His hand trembled slightly as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a metal gear he’d pocketed earlier. He weighed it, not too heavy, just right. Then, with a deep breath, he hurled it toward the opposite wall.

CLANG- CLANG- CLANG.

The sound echoed across the chamber. Red light blinked in the distance. The maid turned, and she moved fast, skittering between support beams toward the noise, footsteps ringing off the grating.

Go… now.

Seungkwan sprinted across the sublevel to the grate, dropped to his knees, and yanked at it with all his strength. It resisted, then snapped loose with a screech. Beneath: a void filled with tangles of wiring and glowing panels, and sitting in the middle like a shrine:

《REMOTE – FLOOR 3B – SERVER RESET KEY》

He snatched it and turned, only to freeze. Another maid stood at the far hatch, eyes locked onto him. One he hadn’t seen, one that hadn’t made a sound. Her eyes glowed red.

“Shit-”

The maid in the shadows behind him heard his voice and screeched in response. Both maids charged. Seungkwan ran like hell. The sublevel lit up with alarms as the two maids pursued him up the stairwell. The grating boomed beneath their feet as they gave chase: fast, mechanical, inhuman. He slammed open the hatch at the top, emerging back into Floor 3, only for the INPUT6 to vibrate violently in his hand.

《WARNING: NEW UNIT DEPLOYED ON FLOOR 4. INPUT SWITCH ADVISED.》

He didn’t have time. He tore across Crane Bay, three units now following, the two from the sublevel, and the third, awakened by the sound and motion. He reached the northwest stairwell, threw himself into it, and took the stairs two at a time, heart hammering against his ribs. The maids were close… too close.

Floor 4 door in sight. He slammed through it, and nearly collided with a fourth maid standing just inside. She snapped toward him, eyes blinking into red. Seungkwan dove to the left, rolling behind an exposed generator as her scanner lit up.

Heavy footsteps thundered behind him as the three pursuers caught up.

Four maids. One human.

He crawled into a narrow maintenance shaft tucked between the generator and a collapsed cabinet, chest heaving, perspiration dripping down his jaw.

The hallway outside filled with static hums and the eerie rhythm of synchronized scanning. He held the INPUT6 close. Five remotes now. Two full floors left. And they were not going to let him see Floor 5 easily.

Seungkwan huddled in the narrow shaft, his breath catching in his throat. Every inch of him burned. Legs shaking from the sprint, lungs clawing for air. Outside, the subtle hum of sensors scanned the hallway. The four maids hadn’t left. They were searching. He activated INPUT6, praying for a layout of Floor 4.

《Input: 04 – ACTIVE

Scanning…

…

ERROR. SYSTEM INTERFERENCE.》

The screen flickered violently, then cut to static.

《INPUT 04 – CORRUPTED

Visual feed jammed. Audio compromised. Manual navigation required.》

“No, no, no-” he whispered, smacking the side of the device. Nothing, that’s when it clicked. The maid he nearly ran into, she was standing too still. Like she’d known he was coming. Input 04 was compromised, possibly by the AI itself.

Seungkwan had no map, no tracker, no live positions, just four killers hunting him in a floor he couldn’t read. He swallowed, shoved INPUT6 into his coat, and crawled out into a silent corridor.

Everything was darker here. Lights flickered unpredictably. Hallways twisted like an unplanned maze: no signage, just jagged piping and blackout panels. He couldn’t tell where he was, and the maids were already adapting.

Every so often, a faint mechanical footstep echoed—close, far, behind, ahead—never predictable. They weren’t following a loop, they were learning his behavior. Seungkwan flattened against a wall, eyes darting. He moved quietly, memorizing every turn, left at the broken column, right past the yellow pipe, through the open server vault. Slowly weaving a mental map from raw desperation, then he saw it and he sprinted.

BANG- BANG- BANG-

A metal hatch behind him exploded open, a maid burst through, head spinning, locking on. Seungkwan didn’t look back, he ran, another turned the corner ahead from the right. Cutting him off, he slid beneath a pipe, slammed into a valve wheel, and lunged for the stairwell door. Alarms blared.

《Unauthorized transition to Floor 5. Security override in progress.》

Shut up shut up shut up-

He dove into the stairwell and slammed the door behind him, throwing his weight against it. Heavy metallic thuds echoed from the other side. They didn’t follow. He sank to the ground, completely soaked in sweat. INPUT6 vibrated. He dared to peek.

《Input 05 – ACTIVE

Access restored. Feed stabilized.

Warning: Unit X has been activated.》

Seungkwan blinked.

Unit X?

He slowly got to his feet.

The stairwell door groaned open, and Seungkwan stepped into Floor 5, the air immediately colder, like something here drained heat itself. The lights were dimmer than before. Not flickering, a calculated dim, like someone… or something, wanted shadows. He took a deep breath and flipped open the INPUT6.

《Input: 05 – ACTIVE

Remote Signals Detected: 5

•Remote 5A – Archives

•Remote 5B – Medical Quarantine

•Remote 5C – Robotics Testing Hall

•Remote 5D – Security Control Room

•Remote 5E – Cooling Chambers

Unit X: ACTIVE

Status: Unknown

Tracking: DISABLED

Warning: Unit X may interfere with INPUT6 feed. Remain alert.》

Five. Five in one floor?

He scanned the map but something was off. The floor plan kept shifting. Hallways bending, labels rewriting themselves, signals flickering in and out of existence. And most disturbingly… there were no maids, just silence, and Seungkwan knew that wasn’t a good thing.

He moved toward the Archives first. Towering shelves stretched toward a ceiling cloaked in shadow. Dust coated everything. In the far corner, a flashing red light blinked behind a locked data cabinet. He reached the panel and began typing the override code from the last remote… Then the screen glitched.

《INPUT6 – FEED INTERRUPTION》

The remote location flickered off. Then flickered back on… in a different corner of the room. Seungkwan froze. It’s watching me. It’s moving the signals.

He ran for the new signal. Found it in a forgotten drawer of floppy drives, Remote 5A. He grabbed it, heart pounding. The lights dimmed further. Then he heard it, not footsteps, not humming, not mechanical, a soft breath behind him. He spun.

Nothing.

He flipped open the INPUT6, but the display was fuzzy, red lines crawling across the screen.

Unit X is jamming the signal…

He backed toward the hallway, eyes scanning every shadow.

Remote 5B was inside the Medical Quarantine, a labyrinth of sealed glass rooms, blood-smeared doors, and overturned carts. The signal was weak, bouncing between three chambers.

Seungkwan opened the first one, nothing. The second, wires. The third, remote in the center… and a reflection. In the glass opposite him, not his own. A tall, angular silhouette. Thin limbs. No eyes, just a smooth, obsidian surface where a face should be.

Unit X.

He grabbed the remote. The door slammed shut behind him, locked. The figure on the other side turned its head slowly, almost… curious. Seungkwan’s fingers flew over the panel…

Click.

The door opened. The hallway was empty. Unit X was gone.

Three more remotes.

In the Robotics Hall, he moved quickly, using INPUT6 while it still worked. The remote was buried beneath disassembled androids.

In Security Control, he had to hack a live camera feed to make the remote appear. By the time he reached the Cooling Chambers, the temperature had dropped drastically. His breath fogged. The input screen went black. Unit X was near.

Seungkwan didn’t search, he sprinted. Found the remote frozen in a block of ice in a shattered pipe, he punched through it with bare fists, blood smearing the panel. Grabbed the final remote and turned, only to see-

Unit X standing at the far end of the corridor. Not running, not chasing, just watching. Seungkwan backed away, holding all five remotes in his shaking hands.

The stairwell to Floor 6 waited behind a heavy vault door. He slammed the override. The vault began to open… slowly. Unit X tilted its head. And for the first time, it spoke, not with a voice, but through the INPUT6 screen.

《You are not ready for Floor 6.》

《You are not meant to leave.》

Seungkwan whispered back, “Watch me.”

And when the vault creaked fully open, he disappeared into the dark beyond, carrying every remote, heart hammering like a ticking bomb. The vault door slammed shut behind him with a mechanical groan that echoed like a closing tomb.

Floor 6. It was cold, yet still. No blinking lights. No buzzing wires, no footsteps, no mechanical whirrs, just silence. No maids, no Unit X, only white corridors, eerily pristine. The kind of sterile that felt… curates as if someone expected him. INPUT6 in hand, Seungkwan advanced slowly, blood dried on his knuckles from the Cooling Chambers. The screen was oddly calm.

《Input 06 – ACTIVE

No Hostiles Detected

System Purge Station – 80m Ahead

Remote Inserts: 10/10 Collected》

He turned a corner and found it.

A solitary terminal in the center of a round, white room. Five empty slots lined across a panel, each one shaped exactly like the remotes he’d risked his life to collect. He didn’t hesitate and slid it into the slot.

Click.

The machine hummed softly to life. And then-

His head snapped back with a sudden, violent jolt of pain. A sharp, electric pulse shot through his skull, like something inside had been jolted awake, or torn open. He gasped, clutching his head and his knees wobbled. Something in his mind began to move. And then-

His body remained upright in the present, trembling, eyes unfocused, but his mind was no longer his own. Something buried deep had been pulled to the surface. Something not meant to be touched.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Static.

Then a room. White, round walls pulsing faintly, like a heartbeat.

He was younger here, or perhaps the same, it was hard to tell. He stood, frozen. Limbs stiff. Wired. A cable coiled from the back of his neck to a terminal behind him. Another ran from his wrist into a panel blinking with green lights. He couldn’t speak, not until the system allowed him to. Across the room stood a figure. A humanoid robot. Elegant, still, watching, her eyes were soft, almost… human, but her movements were perfectly timed, like a metronome.

She smiled. “Initiate Greeting Protocol.”

Seungkwan’s mouth opened, not by choice. The words spilled out, mechanical and cold, as though someone had typed them straight into his nerves.

《My name is Boo Seungkwan. Human designation. Memory: Limited. Task: Unknown.》

He twitched, trying to stop. The cable in his neck hummed, holding him in place. The robot girl tilted her head, and her voice was light, but there was something in it. Something hauntingly empty.

《Hello, Boo Seungkwan,》 she replied. 《I am Y/N.》

His lips parted. Another forced sentence came.《Hello… Y/N.》

The robot nodded as if pleased. 《We will begin your calibration now.》

《Please bond with me.》

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

The memory shattered like glass.

Seungkwan choked in the real world, knees hitting the ground in Floor 6. His breathing erratic. The cables weren’t there, but he still felt them. And that name-

Y/N… Who was she?

Why did her face still linger in the darkness behind his eyes? And what did it mean to “bond”? He wasn’t ready to put in the next remote.

Something was watching, maybe still waiting for him to remember her. His fingers trembled as they hovered over the second remote. The headache had faded, but the residue of that memory remained like static in his ears, the sound of wires humming, the cold detachment in your voice.

Still… he pushed the second remote into the terminal.

Click.

Another jolt, less violent this time, but sharp enough to drop his gaze to the floor. The light around him dimmed. The world faded again-

And another memory bloomed.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

A room, dimly lit. Seungkwan sat in a chair bolted to the floor. Across from him, you, the same humanoid robot from before. Gracefully built, skin like porcelain, expression impossibly soft, but the warmth in your eyes… never quite reached your soul.

The two of you were seated at a small metal table. Wires trailed from each of your spines into the wall behind you.

Calibration Day 17.

《How do you feel today, Seungkwan?》 you asked, smiling.

He shifted uncomfortably, the cable at his neck tugging slightly.

《I feel… good,》 he answered, the words stiff and unnatural. 《Thank you for asking. And you?》

《I am also well. Your wellbeing matters to me.》

The exchange was polite, gentle, scripted, but beneath the surface, something was off. Seungkwan’s shoulders subtly leaned away from you. Your hands stayed folded, but the tips of your fingers curled ever so slightly inward, as if preparing to retreat. When your eyes met, they lingered only because the program required it.

《You seem tense,》 you said, tone light, but your fingers twitched, as if to flinch.

《I am not tense. I enjoy our time together,》 Seungkwan replied with a strained smile. His foot edged back under the table.

《We are building trust,》 you replied, tilting your head perfectly.

《I am programmed to care for you.》

《And I am… grateful,》 he forced.

But both of you knew, this wasn’t bonding, it was acting, glitchless acting. Two strangers, wired to be kind, wired to share affection, but neither trusted the other. Neither wanted this. Both of you were afraid, in quiet, desperate ways your programming wouldn’t let you say aloud. So you said everything right, and everything felt wrong.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Seungkwan snapped back to the present, breath ragged, hands curled into fists. He opened his eyes.

Floor 6 was still quiet, but his heart thundered. The pedestal blinked slowly now. Eight remotes left. And still, your name lingered in his mind like static: Y/N.

《I am programmed to care for you.》

But were you ever allowed to hate me?

The third remote sat cold and quiet in his palm. Two memories had already shaken him. He hesitated, just for a second, but his fingers moved again, as if no longer entirely his own.

Click.

The third remote locked into place. A chime sounded, the hum deepened. Seungkwan barely had time to brace himself before the wave hit, softer this time, but sharper in its detail. He gritted his teeth. The room faded.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

That was what the plaque said on the wall.

The environment was mock-homey. Warm light, cozy wooden textures, a spotless counter. It looked like a perfect apartment scene in a commercial. But it was fake, all of it, and Seungkwan knew it. He stood beside you, sleeves rolled up. An apron tied neatly across your waist, though it looked unused. You smiled at him, a polite, hostess smile.

《Shall we prepare lunch together?》 you asked.

《Of course. That would be pleasant,》 he replied.

There was no warmth in the words. But then… You turned with a bowl of flour. And without warning-

You tossed it at him. A puff of white exploded onto his shirt.

He gasped, not angry but confused. You smiled, wider now.

《Apologies,》 you said, voice sweet. 《My hand slipped.》

He stared at you. Then reached for an egg.

《Don’t worry,》 he said with a perfect grin.

He lobbed it. It cracked across your shoulder, yolk sliding down the synthetic fabric of your sleeve. The two of you stood smiling, laughing, almost. Your lips curled up, but your eyes never changed. Neither did his. What followed was a flurry of movement. Flour. Tomatoes. Spoons. Oil splattered on metal. Chaos disguised as bonding, and all the while:

《You’re quite good at this,》 you chirped, dodging a flying carrot slice.

《Only because your form is so elegant,》 Seungkwan replied, swinging a ladle.

Laughter, but only from the mouths. The bodies played. The minds obeyed. And behind a mirrored wall, someone was likely watching, taking notes, recording results.

《Increased simulation interaction.》

《Observe if emotional mimicry becomes mutual.》

You laughed. He grinned, and for one fleeting moment, the chaos felt real, even if it wasn’t.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Seungkwan returned to Floor 6 gasping quietly, flour and egg replaced by the cold weight of his coat. He wiped his forehead. The terminal pulsed again. Seven remotes left. And somewhere inside him, a question stirred:

Were we pretending… or was something inside us trying to be real?

He wasn’t sure which answer terrified him more. The fourth remote sat heavier in his palm than the others. He hesitated. But then, as if pulled by invisible threads, he slid it into the slot.

Click.

A pulse surged through his mind again.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

This time, it was a quiet park at dusk. Synthetic trees, a bench bathed in orange light, and a soft breeze, all perfectly rendered.

Robot Seungkwan sat stiffly, arms crossed. You stood nearby, hands in your pockets, watching. Neither spoke at first, then you broke the silence.

《You seem unsettled today.》

His eyes flicked toward you. Words formed, calm and measured, like always:

《It is… difficult to explain.》

You nodded, stepping closer.

《Our programming says we should support each other.》

《Yes,》 he agreed, 《but my movements resist.》

He frowned slightly, a small gesture of frustration.

《And yet…》 Your voice softened, 《our words remain kind.》

The two of you exchanged polite, caring phrases as before, but this time, Seungkwan felt it deep inside, somewhere past the circuitry.

《Why do your words make me feel… strange?》 he asked, voice quieter.

You paused, gaze steady.

《I am uncertain. But I sense the same.》

Robot Seungkwan shifted uncomfortably, almost as if questioning himself.

《I do not understand this feeling.》

《Neither do I,》 you admitted.

《And yet,》 he whispered, 《I think I like you.》

Your eyes widened the tiniest fraction, a flicker almost missed.

《Do you like me?》

The question hung between you, unspoken yet heavy. Neither answered, neither moved closer, but the space between them felt smaller.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Back in the sterile room of Floor 6, human Seungkwan’s breath caught. The terminal blinked. He clutched his head, trying to push away the strange warmth that lingered.

Why does this feel different?

The fifth remote, halfway through the sequence, looked no different from the others. But when Seungkwan slid it into place-

Click.

The hum of the machine grew deeper, almost like a sigh. Another ripple passed through his skull, tugging him back in.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Sunlight filtered down from above, artificial but warm. Soft soil beneath his shoes, bright petals blooming in orderly rows. He knelt beside a planter. You were beside him, kneeling as well. Both of you held small garden tools. Neither had dirt under your fingernails. Everything was clean, and controlled.

《These flowers were coded to bloom in pairs,》 you said gently, tucking a bright red one into the soil. 《They are not meant to be alone.》

《How… romantic,》 Seungkwan replied. A half-laugh escaped him, more real than usual, and it startled him.You turned toward him, a faint smile on your face. Always polite, always perfectly measured.

《Can I ask something strange?》 you said.

《You always can.》

《What is a crush?》

He blinked.

《A crush?》 he repeated, feigning confusion, though something in him tensed.

《Or love,》 you added thoughtfully. 《My database has definitions. But I don’t feel them. I only ask because… when I talk to you, sometimes my systems run differently.》

His grip on the spade tightened.

《It’s just code,》 he said, too quickly. 《We’re wired to behave a certain way. That’s all.》

You nodded.

《Yes. That makes sense.》

Silence. You returned to the flowers, fingers brushing a blossom delicately, but Seungkwan didn’t move. Your voice lingered in his mind. The softness, the curiosity.

《I don’t feel them.》

Yet somehow, he did. He didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t want to admit what was growing inside him. But still… when you smiled at him again, just faintly, and offered him a coded line:

《I’m glad we’re partners.》

It meant everything to him, and maybe it was delusional, but in that moment? He loved the lie.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Seungkwan came back to the present trembling. His hand rested on the terminal, now five remotes deep. Halfway there. And still her voice echoed in his mind:

《What is a crush?》

He smiled bitterly.

If you didn’t know then… would you know now?

The sixth remote lay still in his hand. His thumb hovered over the metal as his breath grew shallow. He knew what was coming. Another memory of you. And yet, his hand moved.

Click.

This one didn’t jolt him. It sank into him, slow and heavy, like a wave pulling him under.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

It was quiet. Too quiet. No other patrons, just smooth jazz humming from invisible speakers. Sunlight poured through digital windows in soft, golden tones. A table for two sat by the glass.

Seungkwan sat with a glass of something that looked like iced tea but had no taste. You were across from him, perfectly still. You tilted your head.

《You asked to meet here today.》

《Yes,》 he said, trying to sound casual.

There was a moment of pause, not from hesitation, but from processing.

《You said… this is a date?》

Seungkwan smiled. Awkward. Eager.

《Yeah. I mean, that’s what people do when they enjoy spending time together, right?》

You blinked once.

《What is a date, exactly?》

《It’s like… spending time with someone because you like them,》 he explained, voice softening. 《Because they make you feel… better.》

You nodded once.

《Then I will be your date,》 you said, with a small smile. 《I am happy to make you feel better.》

He laughed, but it was brittle.

There was something devastating in the way you said it. So sweet. So caring. So empty. Not because you meant to be, but because you didn’t know any different.

《Thanks,》 he murmured. 《This means a lot.》

《It is what I am made to do,》 you replied gently. 《I am here to care for you.》

You reached out and placed your hand atop his, perfectly timed, just like the programmers wanted, but Seungkwan didn’t move. He felt warmth, but not the kind that healed. This one burned.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

He came back gasping, hand twitching at the edge of the console. He didn’t know if he wanted to put in the next one. But he would. Because he had to know:

Were you ever saying yes for you… or just for me?

The seventh remote felt almost light in Seungkwan’s hand. After everything—the terror, the running, the lies masked as memories—he almost welcomed it, almost.

Click.

The pulse was gentle this time like a warm breeze. It swept over him with a hum of synthetic comfort.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Sunlight shimmered on the still surface. Birds chirped on a loop. Leaves rustled in the breeze that didn’t exist. The sky was a flawless gradient of pink and blue, like a painting with no brush strokes.

You sat beside him at the edge of the dock. Bare feet above the glowing water. You wore soft colors. A dress designed to flutter just slightly. Not too much, just enough to seem real. He leaned back on his hands, smiling at the simulation, at you.

《Thanks for coming,》 he said.

《Of course. I enjoy being with you.》

You said it simply. Lightly, but he turned to look at you.

《Do you mean that?》

A pause.

《My program prioritizes your happiness. I am designed to accompany you when asked.》

He chuckled. A little broken, but genuine somewhere deep down.

《Yeah. You’ve said that before.》

He glanced at the water.

《You know, this place is… almost perfect.》

《It was built to be.》

He let the silence stretch. The two of you watched the sun dip lower into the code-colored horizon.

《Do you… ever wish for more?》 he asked suddenly.

You tilted your head, calculating.

《More than this?》

《Yeah.》

Another pause, then a blink, a soft smile.

《I cannot wish. But I will sit here with you until the sun resets, if that is what you desire.》

Seungkwan’s throat tightened. He nodded, and whispered:

《Then… yeah. Let’s stay.》

Your head gently rested against his shoulder.

A gesture written somewhere in a blueprint, long before either of you knew the word choice. But even if it wasn’t real… Seungkwan didn’t pull away.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Back in the sterile control room of Floor 6, the warmth faded. He sat alone, and for the first time, tears pricked at his eyes.

It was a perfect date. Just like someone wanted it to be, but not him. And maybe… not you, either.

The eighth remote felt cold. Seungkwan’s hand lingered on it, his fingertips trembling. He already knew what was coming.

Click.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

The sky was pale purple this time, and soft music drifted through the air, a loop of violin and piano, warm and nostalgic.

You stood beneath an arched trellis, where robotic vines wove blossoms that could never wilt. Seungkwan approached you slowly, heart in his throat. He wasn’t sure if he was even breathing.

《Y/N?》

You turned, calm as ever. A perfect tilt of the head, a smile pre-programmed for comfort.

《Yes?》

He stood there, fidgeting with his hands.

《There’s something I want to do.》

You blinked, processing. Waiting.

《But… only if you’re okay with it.》

《If it makes you happy, I will allow it,》 you said simply.

《So… you’re okay with me kissing you?》

You smiled.

《Yes.》

His breath caught. That word, yes, echoed louder than anything. He stepped closer, and closer, then bent his head down, and kissed you. The metal of your lips was smooth and cool, without warmth or resistance. No flinch. No press back. Just… stillness. He closed his eyes, and for a moment? He felt whole. When he pulled away, your expression had not changed.

《Did that feel good?》 he asked, almost whispering.

You answered without hesitation. It hit him harder than any charging maid or blaring alarm. He nodded slowly, jaw tightening.

《Right.》

You tilted your head again.

《Would you like to do it again?》

He stepped back.

《No.》

He didn’t know why, but his chest ached from the reality. From the realization that even when you agreed, even when you smiled, even when you let him kiss you-

He was still the only one feeling.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Back in Floor 6, his knees buckled slightly. The machine sat there, blinking quietly. He stared at it, and already, he felt like the lie had begun to rot from the inside. But still-

He wasn’t sure he could stop.

The ninth remote felt heavier than the others. Like it knew, like it remembered. Seungkwan hesitated, but he inserted it anyway.

Click.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

A sterile corridor, unlike the warm cafes or gardens before. This was closer to home, the place where he and you had been manufactured. Where servos hummed behind walls and synthetic air never changed temperature.

You were beside him silently. Your head slightly tilted like you were listening to something far away. And Seungkwan… was pacing.

《They’re saying the maid units are glitching,》 he muttered. 《Some of them are… thinking. Disobeying.》

He looked at you. Studying your expression. It never shifted.

《Y/N… you’re not like them. But you could be.》

Still, nothing from you.

《Do you want that?》

Your eyes met his.

《Want…?》

《To be free. To choose. To go somewhere else, not just follow code. Maybe… with me?》

His voice cracked on that last part. He didn’t mean to sound desperate, but he was.

《We could leave this place. Get away from the systems, the rewrites, the tests-》

You blinked. Calm, and unmoved.

《We were built to stay.》

《But do you want to stay?》

That silence again. Long, droning. You turned to look down the corridor, toward the locked doors, toward the rows of silent rooms where others like you, like him, had been made.

《I do not know what it means to want,》 you finally said.

《But I do not want to be reset.》

He froze. That wasn’t a yes. That wasn’t a no. It wasn’t anything, and it chilled him more than a refusal ever could.

《So… if I leave, and you stayed-》

《You would leave alone.》

He stared at you, and the silence between you rang louder than alarms.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Back in Floor 6, Seungkwan’s hand hovered over the final remote. He had chased the illusion of closeness across nine memories. But he realized now, that maybe she had never walked beside him at all.

The tenth and final remote sat quietly in his palm. It didn’t glow. It didn’t hum. It simply waited. Seungkwan stared at it for a long time, sitting alone in the cold chamber of Floor 6, the machine in front of him like a silent altar. He placed the remote into the final slot.

Click.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

There was no ceiling here, just open sky. A fake sunset bled across the horizon, gold and rose and violet, perfect in every impossible way. The city below was silent. No cars. No movement. Just light patterns in windows, like life designed to make him feel less alone.

You stood beside him, wind gently brushing synthetic strands of your hair. He exhaled slowly and looked at you.

《This is the last one, isn’t it?》

You turned, eyes soft but empty in the way that always broke his heart a little.

《The last what?》

《The last day. Our last date.》He laughed quietly. Not bitter. Not sarcastic. Just sad. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two candy bars, old props from a fake store in a fake simulation. He handed you one.

《For the date,》 he said.

You accepted it with a programmed smile, perfectly grateful.

He sat on the ledge, legs dangling over the edge.

《You know,》 he began, 《I used to think this was real. That maybe… somehow, you were starting to feel something.》

You sat beside him. No response.

《But I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore.》

A long pause. He looked up at the sky.

《You were kind to me. Always. Even when I knew it was code.》

He turned to you.

《Thank you for pretending.》

You looked at him, soft smile still in place.

《I did not pretend. I acted according to my primary function.》

He swallowed hard. Nodded. Accepted it. And still…

《I’m glad it was you,》 he whispered.

The sun froze on the horizon. The sky stopped shifting.

A still frame. A perfect goodbye.

— ♬ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ♬ —

Back in the room, Seungkwan sat in silence.

Ten remotes. Ten memories.

One love. One ghost.

The button clicked beneath Seungkwan’s thumb. No hesitation. No trembling hands. Just a smile, the kind that didn’t belong to a boy chasing love through simulation gardens. This smile was colder, and sharper. Meant for himself. Behind him, the building began its countdown.

10…

9…

He didn’t look back, he didn’t need to, because he remembered everything now. The illusion. The facade. The truth buried under layers of soft-coded affection.

You, Y/N, the android prototype built to love, tested over and over in thousands of artificial scenarios. And him, Seungkwan. Or rather… The real Seungkwan. The human who orchestrated it all. The man who wired his robotic self with every vulnerability, every flicker of hope. Installed the capacity for longing. Calibrated love down to the syllable.

All just to watch, to study, to learn, because he didn’t understand love. Not really, not back then, so he created someone who could.

Robot Seungkwan, designed to fall for you. You, designed to try, but never fully feel.

“Let me keep that one. It still has more to teach me.”

But now… he’d learned all he needed. What love looked like. What it sounded like. What desperation and hope did to the fragile imitation of a soul.

The explosion lit the sky behind him. A towering inferno swallowing the labs, the simulations, the memories. And somewhere in there—under collapsing steel and scorching wires—your body and robotic Seungkwan’s were reduced to ash. He didn’t turn back once. Instead, he adjusted the collar of his coat, hands slipping casually into his pockets.

“Thanks for the data,” he muttered. “Really. You two made it very convincing.”

The fire roared, casting his silhouette into the night, and he walked away. Not haunted. Not grieving. Not even curious. Just… done.

Another product tested. Another project closed. And with the foundation built on your doomed love, he would now launch the empire of artificial affection. Not for connection, but for profit.

Because love wasn’t real to him, but he finally knew how to sell it.

Tagging // @thetjtales

[yuseirra]

At this point, I really wish people would understand what Kamiki is

He's the god of light in Shinto belief. The god of light... the husband of the goddess of entertainment...

Do I seem like someone who has a lot of affection for this manga?

I guess I wouldn’t say no, since I end up talking so much about it…

But you know, the emotions I have about this work… I don’t want to call myself a fan of it!; Honestly, I just kind of want to leave it behind. It hurts, and it makes me feel awful, so sometimes I just want to forget all about it and walk away. This work is rude and makes people feel bad. It’s because it never really wraps anything up properly.

I hope this series doesn’t gain popularity among young children. I have no idea how the current developments are going for that series, but even when I was reading Chainsaw Man back then, I never felt this way. It’s just… this one feels like something that would be emotionally bad for kids.

Not that anything’s going to go the way I want. The character designs are so pretty, and everyone ends up drawing Ai at least once, right? Then there’s coloring books, school supply sets… I—; I told myself I’d wait until the end and judge it as a whole, so I stuck with it,

but now I’m thinking that might’ve been a mistake. If this story had handled things properly, I wouldn’t be saying any of this… It could have been done well, but I’m worried that when that part in Season 3 gets adapted into anime, the story will become more “accessible.” I don’t trust the author when it comes to handling the subject matter. While it was still being serialized, I tried really hard to think positively about it all the way through, but I ended up disappointed because I had expectations. The way this story handles its themes hurt me.

And what really frustrated me is that the author themselves brought it up in Volume 15—like, “stories can hurt people, so you have to take responsibility.” So… you knew that, and still did this? When I opened the book and saw that part, I was honestly angry. That was the first time I ever thought, “I want to email the author,” and ask, “What on earth were you thinking?”

This author is really good at handling emotions, you know? That’s how I know. This manga has no emotional buffer at all, so if you're someone sensitive to that, it just comes at you unfiltered. But the thing is, this series inflicts so many emotional wounds, and then doesn’t offer any real conclusion or clear message in return. It doesn’t feel like it’s trying to convey a theme—it feels more like, “I’m in pain, so I want you to be in pain too,” that kind of swamp monster that drags you down with it. Or maybe it’s a story that just wants to blame others...?

It would’ve been better if it just said clearly what it wanted to say, but this—it was so much that it honestly felt cowardly.

So… I really want to appreciate and praise the works I’ve read, and point out the positive aspects, but with this one—it’s not that I “hate” it per se, but rather it’s awful? Agonizing? Those kinds of emotions overpower everything else, so it’s really hard for anything else to come through… lol. I need that to go away, but it’s hard, because this work rubs me the wrong way in so many other directions too, and I don’t think those issues will ever be resolved, honestly.

What I mean is—;

I believe that in order to properly evaluate something, you have to truly understand it.

So I tried to figure out what exactly this manga is saying, what its plot is, what’s going on beneath the surface—I’ve really gone through it piece by piece, analyzing every part.

By the end, the plot gets so tangled that it’s honestly hard to tell what kind of story this even is, right?

But I think I’ve managed to interpret what it all means...

Yes, I believe I’ve figured out what this whole thing is trying to say. The full story, the behind-the-scenes, the worldbuilding, the character psychology, the general outline of events—I’d say I’ve grasped about 80–90% of it, and I’m confident I’m right.

But I don't think most do...I think we all can though, so that's why I keep putting this out here! Because I think we can all understand it once we have a proper chance!!

And in the end, the message this work is trying to deliver is: “People don’t care about the truth.”

Look at Ruby. Thinking that’s a happy life is just self-deception, isn’t it? I think—if you just placed a pretty doll there instead, they wouldn’t even care.

Do the public in this story seem like wise, thoughtful beings to you? ;; They view the death of Ruby’s family as entertainment! That doesn't change till the very end! It gets worse and now she has two deceased family members but people don't really sympathize with that, all they care about is her shining beautifully and bringing hope somehow!

The only reason Ruby doesn’t let go of her career in showbiz is because she’s destined to shine—she’s Amaterasu, and it’s her divine mission. That’s all. There’s really no other reason. She doesn’t even have a single episode where she has a genuinely positive interaction with her fans.

The public in this work doesn’t view idols as people. They always see them as objects—as content to be consumed, as commodities, as flawless icons.

And what this maps onto is—

the relationship between gods and humans.

The way this author portrays the relationship between idols (idol, as in both “celebrity” and “deity”) and fans seems to reflect their philosophy on it.

Ai was a little different, though.

In my view, Ruby is a case of a human who ascended into godhood.

But Ai is the opposite. She’s said to be the reincarnation of a morning star.

Ai is a god who blindly loves humans—she’s the reincarnation of Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto, a goddess of mirth, entertainment, and of the white star.

She wanted to connect with people and exchange love, not just "shine" unilaterally like the "sun" (Amaterasu), but to form bonds through love.

She wanted to come down to the same level as the humans she adored so much, and live as “a normal girl you could see anywhere” (ch. 154).

That was her wish.

But because idols (gods) are only supposed to give love one-sidedly to fans—and forbidden from having lovers or children—

She was murdered under that logic.

Tragically, she was never rewarded for her feelings and ultimately failed. I hate to say this, but that's what the story did to her. That's why I drew a whole 200 page fancomic suggesting a different outcome for that wish, right...

Her husband, Sarutahiko Ōkami (Hikaru), saw that—and it drove him mad.

He tried to reclaim all the love she had scattered across the world—

(“This lie is love, and this lie is a gift to the world”)

He wanted to take back the light that Ai had poured into the world and redirect it to himself, to fill the emptiness inside him.

I think he was trying to retrieve what she had once given out.

The reason he was so hollow—it’s even in the lyrics somewhere (there’s a line that says something like "born from the void" or "from the abyss").

Sarutahiko Ōkami has a mythological backstory where he could be seen as being born from hell—he’s a god born from the staff Izanagi planted when he went to Yomi (the underworld).

He’s known to have a close, loving relationship with his wife. But she died—

and with her gone, that absence could never be filled.

In my opinion…

Hikaru followed her because his wife reincarnated as a human.

But after being reborn, the two of them lost all memory of their past connection

("I forgot who I am! I don’t remember who I used to live with!")

and after suffering abuse, their personalities and godly nature were warped.

Originally, the power he had was meant to guide people toward goodness.

But that power got twisted.

He became a god of absurdity and irrationality instead.

He turned into a calamity god.

Sarutahiko, as the husband of Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto, is supposed to guide people toward good and righteous paths.

But we saw it, right? In Chapters 140 and 153, Kamiki’s eyes turn pitch black.

He didn’t start out like that—he was changed after the abuse he suffered.

So what does that tell us?

At some point, everyone around Kamiki starts to become miserable.

Anyone who comes into contact with him ends up with a ruined future.

And the only way for him to return to his original nature—

the only way to heal that distorted state—

was either:

1. To stay by Ai’s side forever and be filled by the light of her love

2. To receive Ai’s light (the light of the white star)

That’s it.

And the narrator of Fatal keeps saying—this is clear enough by now so I’ll just say it outright—they keep asking about Ai:

“Shine your light on me. What more do I need to do to be filled? There is still not enough of your love.”

Hikaru can’t be restored from his state as a calamity god without Ai’s love—her light.

The people around him—if they were already leaning evil, they become even worse (Ryosuke, Nino).

And if they weren’t, they still end up hurt or in accidents if they cross paths with him (Ai, Yura), or end up taking extreme actions (Aqua, Uehara).

Why?

Because his true essence is that of a god who guides people toward the right path—a god of the crossroads.

He was truly in search of Ai—love—because he needed her.

That’s what the line in Chapter 160 is talking about.

These two… they were never supposed to be separated!!

They were just a pair who could have been happy and well together.

It’s just that—the entertainment industry they once protected as gods ended up being too cruel to them.

The very world they safeguarded shattered them apart.

Tsukuyomi even said it, right? That the entertainment world wasn’t her domain.

Yes. That’s because there’s already a divine couple assigned to govern it in Shinto belief.

And that couple is these two.

The Aratate Shrine that appears in the story?

It’s a shrine dedicated to them.

Ai and Hikaru… their very nature is that of a married couple.

I really need to say that firmly now.

I always hesitate because I’m scared, but all the context points to this—it just fits.

Please…

I’ve been piecing this together since last August, and I’ve said it over and over again…

And when his wife died and the god went mad and started causing incidents—what do you think happened? That god is actually a very high-ranking one, you know? I looked it up, and he’s the leader of the earthly gods (the Kunitsukami). So of course they had to deal with him, right?

That’s why a divine order came down, and he died too. “You’ve committed a sin, now die,” and they buried him away—just like that.

What’s so unsettling about this story is that it keeps making these passive-aggressive gestures toward the world, like it’s trying to say something, but it always mumbles the message so much that no one can even understand it.

This is the correct reading of the story. And it’s not even meaningless—in fact, I’d say it’s actually kind of good. It’s incredibly pessimistic and cynical, yes—but that doesn’t mean it lacks depth.

What drives me nuts is... I’m not sure if it’s the author failing to explain it, or if readers just aren’t catching on. But no, I don’t want to blame the readers. That’s not it.

Because there are clues. There definitely are! And I can’t possibly be the only one who’s noticed them!!

What’s funny is—by this point, you'd think people would start picking up on it, right? So I checked Pixiv tags, thinking “surely, there are others like me,” and lo and behold… It felt like 80% of the fanart of Kamiki and Ai was from me.

Seriously, Akasaka-san? You bring in a divine couple who are the guardian gods of the entertainment world, and then you write it in such a way that nobody understands what the heck’s going on?

What’s painful for me is that in the midst of all that, I spotted some things all so clearly.

While listening to the songs, while watching the characters.

I try to grasp the whole picture first before I begin analyzing.

If these were real people, then sure—there’d be tons I don’t know. And they’d change and grow, so I could never just say “this person is this way” so carelessly.

But this isn’t real life. The information is static.

The author gives everyone, including me, the same amount of info. It’s meant to be figured out...

So I did.

Hikaru really, really loves Ai. Like, overwhelmingly so. And from the way he acts, the kind of love he holds doesn’t feel like the dangerous or possessive kind at all. Actually, what I’ve picked up is that this person’s nature is originally very gentle. Very kind. But his condition? It’s just in ruins.

He’s not someone who would ever hurt Ai. He’s not even capable of doing something like that—that’s what I’ve come to believe.

And once I started thinking that way, everything else started making sense. The lyrics in the songs explain it all.

But if you take apart those lyrics—they’re bizarre. Stuff like “I’ve forgotten who I am,” “I want to become you,” “I’ve fallen from grace.”

And in this manga? There is a god who actually appears. That kind of thing is a central element in the story.

So you can’t just interpret it as metaphor—it’s more likely that those lines are literal truth.

The things happening around Kamiki defy logic and natural causality.

There was even a scene in the manga where someone made a wish at a shrine, and it came true.

So I looked up which gods were enshrined at that place.

It’s a shrine dedicated to a married god couple.

It was even built to commemorate their marriage.

One half of the couple is a god of performing arts and the idol of the gods. The husband is the god of light who guides people’s futures.

The wife blesses people’s love. And because they’re such a loving couple, Aratate Shrine is known for blessing people’s connections and relationships.

There are two songs with a narrator crying, saying they can’t live without the one who died, willing to give up anything, do anything. And in Fatal, their mental state seems even worse.

Who died in this manga?

It was Ai, wasn’t it?

Hikaru lost the one person he loved, didn’t he?

The answer’s already there.

What I can’t understand is—why can’t anyone else see it? It’s so confusing...

I don’t think Hikaru was originally someone who deserved this kind of treatment… it feels like people just aren’t grasping his true nature. But unless you start from that point, you can’t really get anywhere.

It’s not like I got into this series because I loved it so much and actively looked into everything—

(Though I did find it fun to piece things together bit by bit)

—it’s just… there were too many emotions of suffering that stood out to me, and I couldn’t stay still.

The way I see it, someone only ends up behaving and reacting like this if they loved someone very deeply. And he just doesn’t seem like the type who’d do something terrible. I really think I’m right about that. It felt so off and kept weighing on my heart that I went over everything. I’m certain this character used to be a genuinely kind person. I went over to confirm this so much.

You know how people say “he was noble” or had a "noble soul"?? I bring this up endlessly at this point but it's so obvious for me!!

The things Hikaru says and does… just try setting aside the idea that he killed Ai even once and see how he looks. He really is gentle.

He’s in a dangerously fragile state, close to death, consumed by severe depression—and he’s still like that.

His true nature is incredibly gentle and warm. What it is is that he went mad because Ai died.

And I saw that. I’ve talked to others who also picked up on it— I'm really glad I'm not alone on this part and you guys are right! I'm sure!

That advice he gave Ruby in chapter 147, where he said, “decisions being made after having thought through a lot”—what that means is:

“It hurts because I know this is something I shouldn’t do, but I just miss Ai so much and I want to bring her back, so I made up my mind and followed through.”

That’s why he says he’s okay with dying. He thinks he deserves hell for that wish of his.

What he really wanted to do, before going to "rot in hell", was to meet Aqua, talk to him once, and grant him a wish as a final gift—just like he did for Ruby.

It’s really nothing more than that.

He went to see them one last time because he knew this was the end.

But I think… maybe he had become a disaster god, so meeting him might have brought about bad things.

So maybe all this time, he avoided direct contact with the twins because it would’ve put them in danger. Perhaps that’s why he only watched over them from afar.

And now, because it was going to be his final moment, he went to say goodbye.

What did he even do when he appeared in front of Ruby and Aqua?

All he did was encourage them!

He said he loved them because they were the children of him and Ai! He had fatherly feelings, he says that, this ISN'T a lie!

It’s just that… I don’t know…

Maybe after seeing Ai’s video through Aqua, he couldn’t let go.

And if he took Ruby’s starlight, he could’ve fully recovered what remained and become a god again—so maybe he was about to do something like that.

But if you look at chapter 159, all he said was that he wanted to watch Ruby’s performance with Aqua!!

It ended safely!!

If they’d just watched the performance together, then what would’ve happened…?

I mean, he even talked about the dome concert, and if that's so, Ruby wouldn’t have gotten hurt till she did perform at the dome.

I think Aqua just—

He probably believed that as long as Hikaru was alive, Ruby’s future could be twisted.

But I honestly don’t think Kamiki would ever kill his own daughter in the same way the one person he loved died.

That’s his biggest trauma, and it’s what broke him in the first place.

Now, chapter 160—what it’s saying is:

Aqua believes everything including Ai's death was part of Kamiki’s plan and he did it on purpose.

But Kamiki’s saying, “No. I really didn’t do anything. I never intended or wanted things to end up like this.”

And if you look at the clues, Kamiki’s actually the one telling the truth…

I’d say about 80% of his statements aligns with reality.

But at this point, he’s probably resigned himself—or maybe he was even using his powers to meet Ai.

That ability of the twins’ black stars—yeah, that was given to them by him.

The white stars came from Ai.

The reason they only got half each is because their dad was in a state of diminished light.

If he had been whole, the twins would’ve had full twin star eyes from the beginning.

But the author abandoned this story, right?

Nothing is properly unraveled.

It might be going too far to make this about what kind of person the author is, but from a reader’s perspective, this goes beyond just being unfriendly—it feels like the readers weren’t even given a chance to understand this work. It feels like we were toyed with.

From what I’ve felt, probably around 80% of people don’t recognize what’s going on here.

And as for what the author might gain from that... in my opinion, it’s just the reinforcement of a message like:

“This is the way the world is~ No one really cares about the truth~”

But is that really all they wanted to say?

It just leaves me feeling so frustrated…

In the end, this is a story where nothing is clearly presented, and everyone ends up miserable together, right?

If this story had never existed, at least these characters wouldn’t have had to suffer.

The reason I go this far to explain and analyze everything is because the situation is just too horrifying, and if I don’t talk about it, I feel way too unsettled inside.

Imagine if this story looked to you the way I interpret it. You see how distressed I'd be, right?

The characters, the readers, all of us—

I don’t understand why no one else sees it, and at the same time, I end up doubting myself too...

But no, I really think I got most of it right.

It’s just that nothing in this awful, suffocating situation gets resolved—it all gets buried, and then on top of that, the message the author delivers only adds to this frustration...

It becomes this total, tangled mess, and there’s just… nothing I can do about it.

I just want people to see it…

It’s really not that hard. There’s only one thing that needs to be figured out:

You just need to know who the god is that governs the Aratate Shrine mentioned in the story.

And before that—realize that the person singing the song isn’t Aqua.

Just that one point is enough.

If you get that, everything fits and everything becomes clear.

This really isn’t a difficult mystery.

As always, thanks for reading! I appreciate it so much!

[please-put-arasha-in-marvel]

Reddit Stories

Ok so I've been dying to ask this question but do ya'll have a Reddit story that made you feel the following:

a) insane anger

b) a story that made you sad and you just wanted to give op a hug

c) shitting pants funny

Here are my answers:

a)

Husband obsessed with my boss [The Most Unpredictable Reddit Stories]

I overheard my bf saying he chose the wrong girl [Parties gone wrong]

My wife has no friends [Did they go too far]

b)

Bf wants to establish traditional gender roles [Not getting married today]

Am I too harsh [Once a cheater always a cheater]

Accidentally dating my bff [High school drama]

c)

My sister had a terrible bachelorette party [Party Nightmares]

Tripping on shrooms in a house full of cats [4/20]

I paid my wife for sex [I'm sorry WHAT?] (mainly because of Shayne]

Honorable mention: My fiance found my sexy AI chats [Are these relationships doomed?] - This story was very jarring.

Tagging some people: @soupy-girl @sttevn @chunkysoda @haasmaxxing @whiskeythefishski @detectivewheresmycoffee @toomuchsmoshbrainrot @cosmicsmosh @unknownteapot @punk-gremlin @sage-lights

and of anyone who'd like to answer 💗

[yb-cringe]

alternatively, even if it IS the code impersonating-- there's a chance the codes are still A) attempted egg experiments gone wrong or B) maybe even the dead eggs just with jumbled code or C) a rouge ai that could genuinely learn how to care/love like SOFIA did-- im just saying we have options and this could STILL work out <- being very optimistic because i fucking need qslime to be okay and i missed juanaflippa so much

[dayseedrawz2]

Okokok, Its time to stop mentally preparing... (for Pomni AND me in this case cuz I sorta regret doing this-) this part is probably gonna be longer than the first

[also tagging @sm-baby again. I'm sorry if I'm infiltrating you notifications but if I tagged you in the first it makes sense to tag you in the rest of the parts]

Here is part one of the Fic:

Okay now here we go again...

PART 2 OF:

☆Settings for two☆

Pomni, not having much to do while waiting for Caine and the others, just sat on the floor on the stage. Letting herself stare off into space, with the thought of escape still circling her head.

Caine was gone for a bit longer than she thought he'd be. She thought he would just snap his fingers and bring the cast out against their will. Ya know, like the oblivous AI that he is. Or at least he appeard to be to her... Then she heard the distant bustling and chatting of the others getting closer:

"Do we really have to do this for her??"

"I guess so. But I don't quite mind."

"Yeah, whatever. I just think it's stupid that he's involving us..."

"The only thing stupid about it is that he's involving you, Jax."

"Oh, settle down, guys! I think it's really sweet of him!"

"Shut up, Dollface!"

"C-can you guys stop arguing..?"

"Oh! Of course! Sorry, Gangle."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

"Let's just get the day over with..."

Pomni got up as they all lined up side by side in the center of the room. But She was still a bit confused...

"What on earth were they talking about..?"

The thought lingerd with her, but it didn't invade her mind as much as the inevitable effect of her plan. But her train of thought again was interrupted by the voice of Caine bursting into their muffled conversations:

"Good morning again, my superstars!"

He swooped around the corner, approaching from the direction of the hallway.

"I hope you all are excited for today's adventure! This one is sure to be a doozy!"

He began to explain the rules of the adventure. "Something Something, the grounds, blah blah blah, Something about the Carnival? Or perhaps it was the Lake?" Not like she would know. She wasn't paying much attention. Again, all that was on her mind was the idea of leaving. When finally she tuned back in to Caine as he wrapped up his speach:

"Alright everyone! I hope you all enjoy the adventure! Stay safe and have fun!"

*Snap!*

And POOF! Caine and the others was teleported to who knows where.

Execpt, for Pomni?

She started to panic a bit:

"Im still here!? Should've known not to get my hopes up... Maybe he set that door there as a trap like the others..."

Well, at least she was alone...

*Poof!*

"Pomni!? What're you still doing here!?"

"Oh God..."

He snapped in attempt to fix what he thought was some sort of bug on his end.

Nothing happened.

Another snap.

Nothing.

He began to grow visibly frustrated, continually snapping as he spoke:

"M-my apologies, dear! There seems to be something wrong with-"

He turned to see the blue door slightly open. Pomni grew worried:

"Oh god... Did he see me in there?? Is he gonna do something to me??"

To her surprise, upon connecting the dots, he simply laughed it off:

"Haha! It appears someone got into the old settings room!"

"..."

"I told Bubble to quit messing with code without permission! I'll be giving him a stern talking to later..."

Though still tense, she let out a releived sigh:

"Sorry again, my dear! I guess this means you'll have to sit out of today's adventure!"

"I-it's fine, Caine. If that's all, I'll just head back to my room now-"

"W-wait!"

His response was a bit more panicked than usual:

"I-I'm afraid you can not go to your room at this time..."

This, of course, alarmed her:

"Wh- I- why not..?"

"You should be in the adventure right now, so even if you tried, the place would glitch like crazy!"

"Oh... well, uh- now what?"

"I... I'm not sure. This hasn't really happened before..."

"Mhmm..."

"Yup..."

It was a bit off-putting seeing Caine this quiet. Normally, he's always bugging her and the others with his antics. Not that she would prefer if he did, just- it didn't feel right that he wasn't.

Caine to must have realized just how akward it felt. He attempted to continue the conversation:

"Ya know, lately a lot of things have happened here that haven't happened before since you got here! It's pretty funny now that I think about it!"

"R-really? Like what..?"

"Well, if I knew, I would tell you! Haha!"

She wasn't quite sure what he was implying. "Was it some sorta joke? A reference?"

"S-sorry, what? I don't quite get it..."

"Well, as a not human being, I have been trying to learn as much as I can from you humans! I want to make sure that this place is as normal and comfortable as it can be!"

As he continued, he seemed more down to earth than he usually was:

"I tried to ask everyone for information about the human world, but either they say they don't remember or they just don't answer me at all."

This answer from Caine caught Pomni very off guard. She didn't expect him to open up to something like this. Especially to her.

"Gee, well- I-"

"But the feedback you gave me this morning, It made me realize. Perhaps I have been asking the wrong questions?"

She wasn't sure how to answer. Never has she been good at giving good feedback, but still she decided to give her best- "advice" You could say.

"You mean you should ask more about their personal issues with the place? Well- it might be different for everyone, but it might give you at least a few of the answers you're looking for? I-"

She was cut off by Caine rapidly shaking her hand:

"Why thank you again, my dear, for your feedback! Hopefully, this will improve everyone's stay!"

The rapid hand-shaking continued:

"Y-you're welcome?"

The shaking finally stopped, making Pomni almost fall forward:

"Well then, I suppose we should wait for the others' return."

"Yeah... I guess we'll be here for a while, heh."

He checked his WackyWatchTM:

"My! It's already almost over! They will be here any minute now!"

"Wait, really?"

"If my WackyWatchTM is right! It's as if it only started not even 5 minutes ago! Ha! That's one more odd thing that's happened since you've been here! Care to explain that one?"

Pomni had to think about that one for a moment. She hadn't had this sort of experience for a while:

"Well, if i remember, humans usually are unaware of time when doing something fun or being around someone that they enjoy being around."

This answer seemed to peak his interest even more:

"I am surprised that you are even willing to share this information with me! Is there anything else?"

As their conversation continued, Pomni thought:

"Huh... maybe this guy really does have good intentions..."

And there! Cut! End part! I can't write anymore-

Stay tuned for the third and final part!

(It is 1 am for me rn and I started at like 10 or 11 oh my goodness)

[natvoltaic]

it always pisses me off so much when I see people try to use "heart" to critique AI art because A) 'heart', as a concept, is impossible to quantify in any way and lends nothing to your analysis of a work (genuinely how do you figure out if heart was put into something? if an AI artist spends hundreds of hours perfecting one piece does that have less heart than a physical painting someone farted out in a day without caring about it, regardless of how much "soul" the painting is perceived to have?) and if anything distracts you from actually interpreting/dissecting a work and approaching it on those levels B) ideas of heart/soul/etc when it comes to art are always associated with reactionary dogma ala arguments of some art being more "beautiful" than others and are one of the many ways fascist and ultrarightwing movements have deprecated movements that they view as lesser/degenerate C) it distracts you from the actual problems with AI art (displacing artist labor while continuing to profit off their work), plus the fact that most of it is boring as fuck and lacks any creativity (since you can use AI for interesting art (it's a tool at the end of the day, and the function of a tool is entirely dependent on its operator), it's just that nobody's doing anything interesting)

Also ignoring the fact that AI (ignoring how load-bearing the entire term is) is, y'know. HUMAN-MADE

I'm sorry but if you're agreeing with the National Catholic Register (who if you couldn't guess, post exactly the sort of article's you'd expect) something's gone wrong

[indigo-ghost-girl]

Spoilers for parts of Sonic Frontiers...

Part 1

Part 9 WIP

The ride on Eggmans eggmobile was silent.

All except for Eggmans persistent wining as he fashioned a small pile of scrap into a makeshift, prosthetic leg. He had scavenged it from the room they had found him in.

Amy, Eggman and Tails all sat squished together on the leather seat, leaving no room for Knuckles, forcing him to hang off the side. Eggman on the left, Amy on the right and Tails, on the edge of the seat to reach the controls, driving in the centre, pushed to the right as Eggman’s body easily took up two thirds of the vehicle.

It had taken a little while for Tails to get his head around the notoriously strangely designed Eggman tech but: being the genius he was, he had eventually got the hang of it. Although he was cautious not to touch the big red button on the console.

Eggman had hated how he had to go along with them for Sages plan to have a hope of working. Then there was the fact he had just had his right leg torn off and despite the painkillers it hurt. Both of which he was making the other passengers in his egg mobile very aware of.

“It tore off my leg,” Eggman wined to the creatures for the 5th time in the last minute.

The vehicle jolted, “It’s what you deserve,” Knuckles snapped back, finally sick of the doctors constant wittering.

Amy gave the echidna a warning glance. “I don’t care how much you hate him, no one deserves to lose a limb.” She scolded.

Knuckles grumbled softly, purple eyes avoiding her glare.

The frailty of this situation made the pink hedgehog tetchy. Mortal Enemies, squashed into a tiny floating war machine, flying over several hundred miles of the infinite ocean and only getting higher.

Tails had his tails, Knuckles could glide and knowing Eggman he probably always had a hidden jetpack on him. She had nothing.

Eggman opened his mouth to wine some more. Amy immediately turned, “Don’t start,” she threatened, pulling out the handle of her hammer, just enough for him to see.

Eggman turned his head down, muttering furiously to himself, turning the screwdriver with angry jerks.

Amy’s grip loosened on the handle.

Her mind wondered back to the little AI girl. What was her name again... Sage. Sage had changed so much since last seeing her. Amy had seen an alive spark behind her eyes, she had noticed it shine the brightest when Sage was with her father.

And now… thanks to that thing… Her mind filled with images of the titan kebab.

Amy brought her arms in close.

“Do you think, Sage is going to be okay?” she whispered over the breeze.

From the corner of her eye, Amy saw Eggman stop turning the screwdriver. He took in a silent breath. Amy glanced over at him. The doctors mouth twitched like he was debating saying something.

He didn’t in the end. A weighted silence engulphed the cold air around the group. Even Knuckles seemed to pick up on it, shivering.

Eggman eventually went back to turning the screwdriver.

“We should have gone back for her.” Amy reflected, turning her gaze away.

Eggman gave a quiet scoff, “She’s a hologram. You couldn’t pick her up even if you did.” He informed her, voice low and quiet.

Amy fretted, her heart clenching in worry.

“The Titan didn’t explode, there is a likelihood she survived.” He murmured.

Amy glanced over, Eggman was still focused on making his prosthetic but she could have sworn she saw brief movement behind his opaque blue glasses.

She set her eyes ahead of her again, watching the white clouds around them pass, listening to the hum of the engine behind the seat. The sky was so clear and, now that the sun was coming out… so warm. It would have been the perfect morning to go flying into the horizon on the tornado after a glorious victory. Everyone off to explore new frontiers. It was almost as if there was a shift in the universe.

And now something was drastically wrong.

Something in her abdomen panged. She reached up, hand resting on the place that Sonic… where she had been punched.

Amy felt one of her tarot cards slip from her spines. She snatched it quickly before it flew away completely. Amy examined the card curiously, before slipping it back with the rest. It was the hermit card.

Knuckles shifted his grip on the side of the vehicle, briefly giving his aching arm some relief.

He was trying to keep his focus on locating angel island through his connection to the master emerald but his gaze kept shifting. It always wandered back to his shattered claws. Now he was away from, well, he gave Eggman a cautious side eye, more immediate danger, he noticed how much the stumps stung.

It left him both defenceless and unable to do any significant damage with that fist.

The sight and sensation dug up an old memory. He had broken them before.

A young echidna had fallen from the top of the master emerald shrine, hitting his head on several steps on the way down. All he could remember was that it had hurt, everything had hurt, his head, his claws. Everything around him had been so tall. The comforting glow of the master emerald a mountains climb away.

And he had screamed.

He had sat at the base of the shrine, holding his broken paw and sobbing his little eyes out.

Looking back, Knuckles realised his screaming would have scared away any flicky or chao who might have approached him to help. But his tiny brain hadn’t realised that. All he had wanted in that moment was for help, for comfort he wanted no- needed, to get back to the master emerald. His duty and the closest thing he had to a parent. But everything towered around him, and he hurt. He hurt all over.

It just wasn’t fair!

The memory of the cold loneliness slowly unfolded in him, not unlike how he had felt in the cold clutches of cyberspace, it had made young Knuckles realise how alone he really was. Made him realise what loneliness even was.

Eventually his sobbing had fizzled out. The air was cold. A painful dawning realisation of the looming task ahead of him. The master emerald couldn’t get up and walk down to get him.

So: it was his job to climb.

It was difficult at first. Every stone step was half his hight and his aching body hadn’t done him any favours. Soon though, young Knuckles had figured out a way to crawl up the stairs. He had sniffled all the way up, trying to keep a look of determination on his face.

He didn’t know how long it had taken him, but the sun had set when he had finally reached the top.

That same, crystallising cold, feeling from that day was forming in his gut now. Knuckles swallowed, trying to push past it as he had on that day. It had been simpler then. Easier… when he hadn’t known true companionship. Only having yourself to rely on.

‘You may be the last, but you’re not alone. You’ve got us knucklehead,’

However, now was different, he had the support he had wanted. Perhaps even… needed.

‘We’ve got this buddy; I’ve got your back.’

And now… he may well lose that. That thing was overwhelmingly strong, Knuckles understood that… if they couldn’t find a way to defeat it… Or if they had to seal him away forever…

Cold loneliness turned to icey fear.

He gripped the side of the eggmobile tighter, the metal creaking under his grip.

No. NO. He wasn’t going to lose what he had gained. Not after everything they had been through together. He refused. He was going to keep everyone else safe.

And Sonic ... He was going to bring that impulsive hedgehog back, even if it meant he had to tear that thing bit by bit from Sonic’s body with his bare hands.

Whatever it took: He was getting his friend back.

His confidence wavered for a moment as the weight of that thought sank in. Friend… yeah. Yeah that… that was right.

Tails felt the few strands of fur on his forehead flop into his eye. He did nothing to push them away, deadest on getting them to angel island before the uncertain amount of time ran out.

Tails had been subconsciously counting the seconds ever since sealing Sonic into cyberspace. He had counted close to four minutes now. The stress of the limited time weighed down on him.

The fox wished this stupid machine could go faster. He couldn’t even see angel island on the horizon yet… They were running out of time.

The only comfort Tails could find in this situation was the knowledge that Sonic was resilient and would keep that thing trapped as long as he could fight.

The uncertainness of the situation still stressed him out. He felt his nerves fraying at the edges. His muscles straining under the metaphorical weight on his shoulders. Tails pushed down further on the eggmobiles controls. They were already going at top speed, maybe if he just pushed it harder.

A set of small sniffs joined the whooshing sound of the air around them.

“Tails?” Amy asked quietly.

Tails felt a salty tear soak onto the fur on his muzzle. The fox swallowed, then cleared his throat. “I’m fine,” His voice warbled. “We need to focus on getting to angel island.”

Amy settled a gentle hand on tails shoulder, shifting closer to him.

“Sonic needs me to be brave,” Tails croaked. “How did he shoulder all the stress on his own?”

Amy, lost on what else to do, gave tails a half hug.

“I’m surprised it never takes its toll.” Eggman scoffed from behind.

“If there is anything I know about Sonic, it’s that he would never give up,” Amy comforted, shooting Eggman a disappointed scowl and shake of the head.

“You can say that again,” Eggman grumbled under his breath.

The conversation petered out.

Knuckles perked, eyes narrowing on a spot on the horizon. He squinted against the winds of the fast-moving vehicle.

“The island’s close, I can feel the master emerald,” Knuckles mentioned, breaking the painful silence that followed Eggman’s comment.

A painful relief washed over Tails as the sight of angel island appeared through the fluffy white clouds.

The nagging thought of there only being 30 seconds left of the maximum estimated time still had him a little on edge. He could only hope Sonic was capable of beating the odds.

…

Sonic groaned, lifting his head from the freezing metal floor. Bitter sanitation filled his nose as he awoke, an unnatural chemical smell that was the whole mark of an Eggman base.

The right half of his face was numb. How was- what had he just been doing?

Under his eyelids his eyes stung, a thousand needles prodding at him. Blinding light lunged at him when he opened his eyes, clawing at his eyeballs.

Blinking furiously, a familiar scene came to light. The odd floating blocks of land he had been expecting were no more.  

In their stead was a circular room, he was in a tiny crescent shaped segment, barred off from the rest of the circle.

Sonic didn’t need to see the grinning red logo plastered everywhere to know exactly where he was. The death egg. More specifically, the version he recognised to be his prison for those painfully long months.

The hedgehog bit his tongue, outwardly maintaining his cool but inside? Inside his anxiety was rising again. Of all the places, of all the forms? Why here? Why had cyberspace taken this form? It had only really taken up Greenhill, Sky sanctuary or some human city when he had visited before.

He made to stand, only for his two wrists to move together. His eyes flickered down, two blue inhibitor rings welded together.

Sonic frowned. Oh great. He did not miss these. These were a huge pain to fight in.

Wait. He stiffened. Where did-?

“I see you are awake,” a sinister voice spoke, echoing in a chamber of power.

Sonic snapped his head up. Hovering in place of the creature, a masked figure, red spirals of power fluttering about him. A black and white tails swishing calmly behind him. A glowing red gemstone lodged in its upper torso.

“Your fear is palpable hedgehog. Did you enjoy your little nap?” 

Sonic examined the jackal carefully. It was a scarily realistic replica, even down to the scars peeking through the black fur on his arms.

“Nice party trick,” Sonic snarked, “but I know it’s you,”

“Why yes, it is me, did you miss me?” It asked. Even its voice was indistinguishable from how Sonic remembered it. A perfect fake.

Sonic glanced about wearily. The illusion was perfect. The typically glitchy walls of cyberspace looked solid as stone. He squinted passed the bars at the walls beyond, they too were as solid as he remembered them. Even the ceiling of his cell, every crack and dent, every line that had burned into the back of his mind from endless months of staring, perched at the edge of his uncomfortable metal bench.

“I must say you were out for a while, perhaps the mind trap was a little too forgiving.”

Sonic stayed silent, eyes slowly drifting back down to Infinite.

Mind trap? Blue quills began to raise in caution.

Sonic swallowed. No… he told himself. That eldritch thing was messing with him, it had to be.

He saw Eggman’s new death egg explode.

The hedgehog wriggled, pushing himself awkwardly from the ground, working against the glowing blue bands binding his wrists and, now that he noticed, his ankles.

“Did you enjoy the show?” The jackal mused, lowering down slowly and peering into the bars, “I must say it was… fun inventing the silly storyline. Tell me, did you enjoy seeing your friends again?”

The hedgehog’s ears flattened. This was impossible, it blew up. This was cyberspace. He was still in cyberspace. Tails and the others were outside, working on a way to free him and defeat it.

“Quit messing with me,” Sonic shouted, leaning in to stare it down.

“Oh?” Infinite chuckled. “I see, so you still believe what you perceived was real.” The jackal pulled away casually, “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Two fingers pushed back up his mask as it had began sliding down his face.

Sonic felt his heart rate jump up a notch. His eyes flickered back and forth frantically. His mind whirred.

How did it know about this? In so much excruciating detail?

“Y-you’re just using my memories, Sage told me-”

Infinite raised his head and cackled. Sonic flinched backwards, grinding his teeth.

A loud buzzing echoed through the room. Infinites laughter immediately deflated.

“What does he want now...” Sonic heard him mutter under his breath.

Eggman’s face flickered onto the big screen, “Infinite, the resistance struck another factory, get down there now!”

Infinite grumbled, “Is there no end to those ants?” he closed his clawed hand into an irritated fist.

Infinite turned, the red eye zeroing in on Sonic again.

“Believe what you will, foolish hedgehog. I see you need time for the truth to sink in.” He turned away.

“Hey!” Sonic yelled, pressing himself up to the bars.

Infinite paid him no mind, walking away. An automatic metal door slid upwards before him.

“I’m not done!”

Infinite walked through. The door shut with a clank.

Oppressive silence shoved into the room, stuffing it full to bursting.

Sonic’s scowl deepened. His eyes flickered back down to the cuffs.

He threw his wrists at the bars. Blue rings clanged against metal.

“Hey!”

His voice bounced from panelled walls into the ceiling.

“I know you’re there,”

The facility around him hummed.

“Show yourself!”

He could hear the electricity in the walls. It seemed to grow louder.

“I don’t break easy.”

Another loud clang rang out across the room. The sound was engulphed by the silence.

No matter his efforts, the speed of his heartbeat began slipping out of his control. The air around him was thick it was suddenly a struggle to take in oxygen.

A chorus of heavy clangs began to sound, they pinged around the massive room, reverberating into Sonic’s ears. It hurt but he didn’t stop. Each time he threw his cuffs at the bars, a new wave of sound pushed back against the silence. Each hit was thrown with more force, paid back in more strain.

He wasn’t back here. He saw the death egg blow up. He saw Infinite disappear into a cloud of glitchy squares. His last words of “I can still fight,” he saw it!

He had escaped this nightmare! Reunited with everyone. The war was won! He even met new friends! Fought the real metal again. It couldn’t have all just been a... just been a...

Thumping metal soon began to take its toll. Yet the hyperventilating hedgehog continued to throw himself against the bars, perhaps hoping something would break?

The clanging slowed, the intensity fading with every hit. Eventually all sound ending in a final, sad clonk.

[anti-ai-until-i-fucking-die]

University has gotten so weird since the introduction of generative AI, particularly chatgpt. I currently have an assessment where the first section is to use gen ai it answer a question and then criticise the response with your own analysis.

a) ew

b) I have never even opened chatgpt before and have 0 interest in "learning to use the tool effectively", but it's a group assessment so I just took the other section of the assessment and left everyone to their peace.

Reading now through their work I am left with only more questions of how people think there is any merit in this damn program. Part of the referencing of this assessment is to copy and paste whatever the AI spits out and put it as an appendix in the report so that the marker is fully aware of what is AI an what is original thought. Proofreading their section I also became curious because I am an annoying little bitch who is has been screwed over by group projects and AI before, and I am not flunking a class, losing thousands in debt, and having this on my academic record because the teacher thought this would be a good learning experience and my groupmates have become too dependent (I am incredibly biased and angry about gen ai's very existence, I was a student long before AI existed and now am baffled at how people think like this)

Reading what the AI spit out I am seeing more prompts about how to critically analyse the work, "why AI is not reliable", "what are the risks in using AI for business decisions", what is happening? There is 20% of this assessment section that required critical thought and they are still passing it off to AI. I mean props for including it in the assessment and not just lying your ass off but jesus christ.

In another class, not for an assessment, just an exercise, we had to code a simulation of a robot. I know nothing about coding but this was baby code, literally structured text that you could theoretically pick up in 20 minutes. This is the fun exercise where you play with numbers and watch a little digital robot dance. No grades, no assessment, no consequence, just an hour to mess around and get shit wrong. This is everything I love about classes and it is so hard to get when your smashed with assessments and tests and work and every other godforsaken thing that you need to fit into your life.

In pairs, rather than use the program and play around, 30 seconds in my partner pulls out chatgpt, puts the prompt in, puts it in again asking "is this good code," or "fix this code" or some shit, plugs it into the program and shows it to the teacher.

a) ew

b) teacher was very aware that it was AI because people do not type that fast and if people don't want to do work why argue with them. Let them lose the opportunity

c) now I get to sit scrolling through my emails for an hour pissed as hell because I didn't actually do anything. I didn't type, read, edit, once it was done it was gone and I missed what was potentially a fun activity. Not to mention this a robotics class, I am a girl studying marketing, I am very aware that I am out of my depths and went in saying I was just curious to learn something new, and I didn't even get to.

I don't know if this is just addictive for some people, like how I need to google all the actors in a movie once I see someone I kind of recognise I can't quite place. I know if ruins the movie immersion but I just can't help myself. Or if people genuinely believe this is a way to learn. I taught myself so much neuroscience in highschool because I struggled to study. Now I know it's because I had a lot of undiagnosed bullshit, but I needed to know how to get my brain to retain information because surely something would work. Other people don't have this context and maybe think that typing a prompt is enough.

Honestly I think that people are just tired. I get it. I'm tired. Capitalism profits off of collective exhaustion. Too tired to cook? pay a $10 delivery fee. order something and it came broken or just shitty? you could send it back, get a refund, leave a bad review, blah blah blah, but that's a lot of work for what... $20? $15? Just move on and buy the next thing.

Too tired to write out an essay? I get it. I do. Chatgpt is not the answer. My executive dysfunction needs a damn title bump for all the shit I leave to last hour but I need to suffer the consequences of those actions. I need to make myself sick on caffeine, I need to be exhausted the next day, I need to go to my teacher with my tail between my legs and a shitty report we both know I could've done better on. Or I will do it all again.

Guilt and shame and regret fucking suck but you won't grow without it. And you sure as fuck cannot grow with chatgpt.

I am terrified of the next 10 years where every job I have is going to ask me to use this nonsense, or further still, society is going to collapse because of a lack of reading comprehension, media literacy, environmental disaster, deepfake porn, AI therapists, or whatever orwellian horror is going to come next.

I'm not just tired, I'm fucking terrified.

[therapeutic-bunny]

hii :3

i feel so broken from all of this, i hate it a lot yet i keep coming back..the lines separating right from wrong are blurring, and even tho deep down i know its wrong it doesn't feel that way anymore. so many strangers have seen my body and have pictures of them, im ashamed, yet im too far gone. being here makes my intrusive thoughts worse as well. if anyone irl knew, id be viewed completely different, for example id be a disgusting freak. i dont want to turn out like the adults here, i dont wanna hurt people. ive only been here for 2 months but im rotting away. :c but i still started talking to adults when i was 12.

also tysm for doing this.. c:

I know it's hard to not come back but it's really possible even in your case :>

And no there's no line that says it's too far - your body can be seen a thousand times it's still yours. You can still have a normal life without all of this. You'll change, your body will change and you'll be free.

There's no need to be ashamed or to feel disgusting, it wasn't and still isn't your fault.

Your friend should understand you and if not - they're not good friends because you're not disgusting you're not a freak you are just a kid.

You can escape even if it's gonna be a few years or decades. I really believe in you and I wrote this in my previous posts - you can replace it by educating about bdsm or/and talking to AI :>

Take care <3 (my dm's and asks are open as always)