#anyway. i love it when computers do all my math for me AND make it look pretty

[zhongli-lover-69]

excel. i love you excel. if no one got me i know excel got me. excel i love you. saaave me excel. smooching excel tenderly on the forehead for doing such a good job. excel saving my life every single day of the week.

[literaila]

your newest fic has woken something in me, verity. can i request nice sweet petter with mean!reader, who isn't actually mean ? but she just teases peter and flirts with him and leaves him tongue tied and peter is like "its cruel of you to make me fall in love with you". thank you, you're the best !

masochism

tasm!peter x reader

a/n: this means absolutely nothing. and everything.

*

“peter,” you say, dryly, frowning as you set your bag on the chair next to you.

the library is usually empty this time of night. nothing but bookworms and tired librarians with their yawns to break the silence. but that’s how you like it.

that’s why you come this late. you don’t want to make small talk with a stranger asking if they can borrow one of your chairs. and you definitely do not want to get charm and pretty eyes all over you. it doesn’t come out.

“fancy seeing you here,” peter says, and he’s moving from his table to come and sit at yours. his papers are a mess and he doesn’t even blink when he almost drops a pen on the floor.

of course, he doesn’t even need an invitation because he’s peter parker.

“are you stalking me?”

“intentionally?” peter asks, and his smile is teasing and far too bright for the dark of this room. “no. it’s not my fault you always show up where i am. but i’m not complaining.”

“well, i am. i came here to study. alone.”

“and you got the pleasure of receiving my company instead. lucky you.”

you grunt but sit down anyway. even if you actually wanted him to leave, peter wouldn’t. he’s far too stubborn and shiny for that.

it was a mistake to take calculus in the first place, but it was a certifiable failure on your part that peter seemed to latch onto you. he was good at math (another red flag) and he liked to coo and you and your smudges and erase marks.

and he seemed to show up when you least expected it; like he wanted to give you a heart attack.

peter leans over the table, his hair falling over his eyes. “what’re you working on?”

“an essay.”

there’s a beat of silence, and peter laughs. “about…” he ducks his head, eyes teasing and smile incandescent. and irritating.

“the probability of committing homicide in libraries at eleven pm,” you tap a pen against his forehead, pushing him back.

“always at your service.”

“why are you here?” you ask him. “don’t you have babies you need to swaddle? old women you need to fond over you?”

“pfft,” peter says, leaning back, looking far too comfortable. “i already did that today. plus it’s a wednesday night, and the visiting hours at the nursing home end at eight.”

you nod understandingly. “well, unless you want to become apart of my research study, shoo.” you wave him away.

he only laughs. “but i haven’t seen you in almost a week. you’re not taking calculus b.”

peter is wearing a mock pout. his eyes are glowing in the three foot distance between you. and the smirk on his face is only a harsh reminder of how much you hate him. his hair is curled at the edges and it’s brushed across the top of his forehead. his teeth are straight and white.

and you can see when he swallows.

“oh you mean bodily torture part two? yeah, no, i figured i’d go with the classic bondage exposé class this semester.”

peter clears his throat, chuckling, and you watch as his cheeks tinge with pink.

“you’ve taken that class, haven’t you, peter?”

“haven’t had the opportunity, no.”

“well, if you never need a quick lesson…” you whisper, voice sultry and on the edge of manic laughter. watching peter squirm in his seat almost makes up for the lack of studying going on right now.

“good to know.”

you purse your lips at him, making an effort not to laugh.

while this conversation has headed into unfound territory, you’ve managed to pull out your notes and turn on your computer, making peter a little more than an object in the distance.

but not peter spins your computer around, illuminating his face, and frowning as he stares at the screen.

“this is a blank document,” he says.

“what wonderful observation skills you have.”

“your name isn’t even at the top.”

you steal the computer back, scowling. “i’m working on it.”

“oh, are you?”

“you’re distracting me,” you hiss at him, eyes glaring and heart burning as he smiles back.

peter is too smiley. he’s too effortlessly calm. too much for you, and too much for this entire library.

“oh, i’m distracting you?” he repeats, shaking his head. “that’s priceless.”

“i’m not sure what you’re implying.”

“i’m saying,” peter whispers, “that you’re the one talking to me about bondage while i’m trying to make pleasant conversation—“

“oh, i’m so sorry,” you interrupt, hand going to your chest in mock sympathy. “it just seemed like something you’d be in to.”

peter snorts. “really?”

“if the rope fits,” you say back, looking away from him and counting to ten.

you need lessons in holding your tongue. lessons in how to respond when someone smiles at you like there’s nothing else they’d rather be smiling at.

“that’s not funny,” peter says, but his lips are curled.

“then why are you laughing?”

“i like riling you up,” he says, “it’s very amusing.”

“you just called yourself a tease. you’re not even trying to hide it now,” you point out.

your computer dims because you haven’t touched it in the last three minutes.

“that would make you the masochist, wouldn’t it? since you’re the one enduring my teasing?”

“is this your idea of foreplay, peter?”

“is it working?”

you hadn’t even realized that you were leaning in with him. just a couple more inches and you’d be nose to nose.

you smile at him, undeterred by his proximity—at least, mostly—pretty and sweet. “why don’t you come over here and find out.”

peter tuts. “don’t say things you don’t mean, bub.”

“who says i don’t mean it?”

you’re mostly teasing him. mostly trying to get him to move as far away from you ask possible before you wrap your hands around his neck and either strangle him or kiss him until he wants to strangle you.

but finally, peter leans back, sighing. “you’re driving me insane, you know that?”

you shrug. “you’re the one stalking me.”

you look away from him, pulling your computer closer to you, and tapping on the keys to wake it up.

“i wouldn’t have to stalk you if you would just accept my offer to go to dinner.”

“i’m not really a dinner person,” you say, licking your lips while you purposefully avoid his gaze.

“coffee, then. or a trip to the schools gift shop. i’ll buy you a sweater.”

“mmm… i’m not really a peter person.”

“now that’s just mean,” he says, but you can hear him smiling. you can feel him watching you, his eyes burning circles into your skin.

it’s a pleasant warmth, though.

“i know,” you drawl, looking up at him. “and you still won’t leave me alone.”

peter sighs, shrugging, and he’s smiling while he looks at you. “maybe i’m the masochist.”

you try not to laugh and fail.

*

part two

[zexapher]

Vacuan Nights, Like Vacuan Days

They’re just so great together! I’d love for Jaune and Weiss to get a little downtime in Vacuo to live out a moment like this. They really deserve it, and I’d love to see Jaune’s guitar make a reappearance.

The comic here was inspired by u/Silverstar1243’s excellent piece of art, A Serenade Under the Moonlight. Send some love to them on their twitter, commission some art if you’re willing and able, they’ve made some great stuff.

You folks may have noticed I threw in a couple of references for those in the know; the Golden Oreos behind Yang (double stuffed, I might add) for the trio’s ship, Weiss liking it rough for Mallobaude’s great fic, and of course I made a whole theme around the Arabian Nights Disney song. A song, along with its Aladdin compatriots, which I spent the better part of a day finding covers for just to listen to on repeat while I worked.

This one’s now officially my longest comic project, with 14 panels, two over the past record since I added the White Knight kiss at the end. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Not sure I’d say it was more difficult than my Vanity of Vanities post, but for this one I actually knew how to use my editing software going into it (at least somewhat).

Put a lot of work into this one, been working on it on and off since February. Took a few breaks for vacation, to make my memorial post for Rooster Teeth, and another five meme edits or so, but I came back around to it. First half was pretty easy, relatively minor edits inserting characters into scenes and so on. The second half with Jaune and Weiss was tougher though, with color correcting, merging poses, redrawing features, drawing Jaune’s entire head to fix some lighting issues, etc. Really like how the edit to make Jaune strum his guitar turned out.

The time it took to make the whole comic got me down a little, until I did a bit of math. Including my side projects since starting this, all the scripting and editing and all, I’ve been pumping out a panel every two days. That seems pretty good to me, that kind of accomplishment makes me a little proud of myself.

Really need to get around to watching the second part of the Justice League Crossover movies. It’s got a few Vacuo scenes that might make things a little more authentic instead of me just using Saphron’s house and pretending it’s a suite in Vacuo. I do love taking yet more character stills from Jaune and friends experiencing deep trauma and turning it into something positive, been making that a bit of a personal habit. And I’ve got to say, the background for Jaune and Weiss’ scene is really beautiful, pulled it from when Sun and Neptune hear Ruby’s message about Salem. That’s just a really good shot all on its own, I even saved a copy for my computer’s wallpaper after editing out the two.

Posting a big RWBY White Knight edit, watching not one but two RWBY Beyond episodes, and all on the trail of the news that RWBY’s found partners that they’re negotiating with and that the creative team is expected to stay on. And I'm sipping bubble tea. Life is good.

Anyway, pardon the long write up. I’m invested in this one, and am quite pleased with how the comic turned out. I hope you all get a kick out of it as well!

[transtravisstoll]

Batkids Age Reversal List

want to do a age reversal AU for the batkids but why do the comics keep fucking up their ages this has taken me weeks of trying to figure out i’m gonna off the DC comic writers. if you have any better ideas for their ages pls let me know im going to gouge my eyes out if i have to do any more math.

alfred: ???

-immortal. fuck you. he looked death in the face and told him to stop tracking mud all over his freshly mopped floors and that dinner was at eight.

bruce: 39

-had damian at eighteen bc i wanted it to be as close to his age gap with dick in canon as possible but i am not having this man fathering a child at 15

damian: 21

-came to gotham at age 8, refused to be a normal kid bc he was literally raised an assassin and bruce doesn’t know how to encourage nonviolent activities in children so letting him fight crime seemed… better than being an assassin. he, at the age of eight, could not come up with a name that wasn’t fucking Terrifying so whenever gordon asked for his “little shadow”‘s name they were suspiciously silent bc no, damian, you can not call yourself Vengeance or Malice. the media called him shadow and it stuck.

duke: 18

-wanted to keep his age gap with tim similar, but with duke being the older one, instead of doing dick and jason’s age gap bc it makes more sense this way.

-his parents got jokerified when he was 12, and so did a Lot of people in the Narrows. it absolutely decimated their little community so duke became signal. he didn’t fight crime, he gave back to his community, he helped with the cleanup. bruce ended up basically kidnapping the poor kid. (duke ran away from his foster home because he wasn’t a glorified babysitter or maid, fuck you, he can crash on couches.)

STEPH: 16

-again, wanted to keep the age gap between steph and tim the same but keeping steph the older one. makes more sense this way!! leave me alone.

-became spoiler at 13, was only spoiler for a year before she became shadow at 14 for about six months in between damian and jason. there was a six month period as well where bruce didn’t have a shadow and alfred literally had to bribe steph to be shadow bc he wasn’t abt to let a kid run around the gotham night without knowing batman was two steps ahead of them. plus, having a kid with him made bruce more cautious.

TIM: 15

-FINALLY got to mimicking the age gap between dick and jason in canon

-never becomes shadow, actually, he takes bab’s spot as their computer wiz. doesn’t call himself oracle though because he fucking sucks at making names. calls himself override (barf).

-also, steph is the only one who hes told he’s override to and also knows the batfam’s identities

-duke knows tim is override bc he’s scary like that!! tim doesn’t know duke knows he’s override, but duke knows that tim knows their identities and tim Also doesn’t know that. duke is fr terrifying. love him.

-tim figured out the batfam because of duke’s meta abilities bc he’s also scary like that

Jason: 14

-oh, he’s… currently out of commission. became shadow at 12.

-didn’t die in ethiopia, because fuck that plot. he was doing a stakeout but the joker had kidnapped this itty little baby (an eight year old boy) who he found running around the gotham night. jason went out of commission saving that little boy. what does out of commission mean? who knows. could be dead. could be severely injured. kidnapped. the possibilities are endless.

-i think it’s fucked that the comic fans voted for a fifteen year old to die by the joker. y’all are crazy.

cass: 13

-mimicking jason and cass’ age gap with cass being younger bc it makes more sense leave me alone

-isn’t a Batman approved shadow (yet) but she shadows batman anyways after jason’s… indisposed. the bonus is that batman doesn’t Know he has a shadow but gotham is kept in the dark abt shadow being (redacted) because cass and jason had the same exact fucking build, okay, jason hasn’t gotten his growth spurt yet (because of childhood malnutrition) . weird how batman lost weight though, after he went on that rage incident after the latest arrest of the joker. he’s leaner now. (is it the same batman? who knows.)

dick: 8

-mimicking the tim and damian age gap, bc it’s six years in my head leave me alone.

-huh, jason went out of commission saving an eight year old and dick is eight… suspicious. coincidence? hm.

babs: 7

-mimicking the babs and dick age gap but with babs being younger bc i think she’s older in canon? unsure. DC please i’m going to kill you and then me.

[lvrsparadise]

'strangers.' - M.S

synopsis - "and then one random night when everything changes, you won't reply, and we'll go back to strangers."

warnings! - angst, kissing, profanity, depressing (i hurt my own heart writing this), italics are flashbacks, the bold italic in matt's pov is his thoughts (he's battling with himself). based on strangers by kenya grace

a/n - i wrote this in math class..... anyways. i absolutely love this, but hate myself for making it so sad. also, just to clarify, when the text part comes up, he's not cheating !! my friend thought he was and i had to clarify. (ths is me stalling as i try to finish the tracklist post and finish nikes (i started it!!!))

i smile as i get in the car,

we’ll get in your car.

matt leans over and gives me a kiss.

and you’ll lean to kiss me.

i look to the backseat to see the seats down and blankets and colorful lights decorating the back of the van.

“what’s that?” i turn my head to him with my brows furrowed, but a smile on my face nonetheless.

“movie night under the stars.” he smiles as he puts the car in drive and starts driving.

“you’re kidding right?”

“no, i’m not.” he reaches over and grabs my hand, lacing our fingers together and resting our interlocked hands on the center console.

--

we’ve parked in a field with the sunroof open.

i get out of the front seat and open the backdoor, crawling into the back of the van, lying on all the fuzzy blankets.

“how long did it take to set this all up?” i laugh as he gets in and lies down beside me, opening his backpack and getting out his laptop before pulling me into his arms.

“don’t even ask.” he shakes his head softly with a chuckle before he kisses my head and opens his computer, turning on our favorite movie before grabbing one of the many blankets and draping it over us.

we’ll talk for hours and lie on the backseat.

----

i sigh as i turn my phone back on.

maybe i’m being too paranoid. 

maybe he’s just busy, being famous is time consuming.

and then one random night

i try to refocus on the show that’s on my tv, for the 4th time. nothing’s working. why can’t i distract my mind long enough?

i only just sent the text.

maybe his phone’s dead.

when everything changes

no. i shake my head softly to clear my thoughts and i grab my phone and walk into my kitchen, placing it on the counter before walking back to the living room and switching the tv to a movie i’ve only seen but a thousand times just to rip my mind away from him.

you won’t reply,

and we'll go back to strangers.

----

my eyes light up when i look at the bouquet of red dahlias in matt’s hands.

“where’d you get these?”

“i kind of drove around for like 3 hours searching for a shop that sells them.” he chuckles nervously and scratches the back of his head.

“well, they’re gorgeous!” i look back up to his face to see the kindest smile on it, making his otherwise sharp features soft and kind.

“i’m surprised you still remember, i told you these were my favorite back in middle school.”

“of course i remembered. i always remember everything you tell me. i'll write them in my notes app or i'll go home and write them in my journal for me to go back to.” how does this man get any better? 

“i-” i’m speechless at the small confession, his words meaning more than i thought they would, making my heart flutter.

i take the bouquet into my hands and smell the flowers, smelling as good as the last time he got me them.

“do you want to take those with us, or do you want to set them in a vase first?”

“i don’t know, actually.” i chuckle and look back up at his face.

“here.” he grabs them from my hand and gestures for me to walk back into my house, him following in after me. 

we walk into the kitchen and i immediately spot the vase my mother got me for my birthday. i grab that and fill it with some water as matt sets the bouquet on the counter, unwrapping them and cutting the stems.

i set the vase in the middle of the island and matt carries over the flowers, placing them in the vase before grabbing one out and handing it to me.

“thank you matt.” i place one hand on the side of his face, pulling his face closer and kissing him.

“anything for my pretty lady.”

----

it’s been a few hours, maybe he’s replied?

i’m hungry anyways.

i get up from the couch and walk into the kitchen, grabbing out food and making me something to eat before picking up my phone.

i take a deep breath and turn on the screen.

nothing. great.

stop overthinking it. it’s probably nothing.

i open my phone and click on instagram, looking through everyone’s stories, matts popping up first.

it’s just a promotion of their new video.

that’s right, maybe he was filming and didn’t get to be on his phone.

---

!Matt’s POV!

i stare at the text on my screen for a little longer than i should.

pretty girl ♡: hey, i was wondering if you wanted to go out to eat tonight?

i just lock my phone and toss it next to me on my bed.

and then one random night

it’s not her fault, it’s mine. i just can’t be around her anymore.

we’ve already fought about it many times. im just helping.

when everything changes.

right?

she’s mad i don’t want to show her off, which is wrong. i want to. so bad.

but i don’t want her to get hurt.

but isn’t that what you’re doing to her now?

shut up.

all you’re doing is making her hurt more.

stop it.

it’s your fault if she shows up at your door crying and screaming.

that won’t happen.

yes it will. and it’ll be all your fault.

i said stop it.

you can’t get rid of me. not like you’re getting rid of her.

i’m not getting rid of her. i'm helping her.

like ghosting her is helping her.

you won’t reply

i scrub my hand over my face and sigh.

“fuck, fuck, fuck.” maybe this isn’t such a good idea.

there’s no going back now.

and we’ll go back to strangers.

Tags ! ✮

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And I hope you all have a good day and / or night ✮

[hellsburners]

orange juice

summary: you're a new library assistant in an elementary school and you cant help but fall for the cute teacher visiting your desk. pairing: teacher!peter parker x librarian!male reader word count: 2.2k (im being ballsy with these fic lengths its actually fun) warnings: none really more of fluff a/n: was in a fluff writing mood :> (might get a part 2 if it gets received well)

masterlist | more peter parker

You did everything by the book, literally. There was a handbook resting on the front desk of the library with everything you needed to do as an assistant. You took the books back to the shelves and made sure it was in the right order. You tidied up the library computers making sure every unit was logged off and the chairs weren’t a mess. You also took note of orders from the teachers, some lists from Mr. Jones, Mrs. Longford, Mr. Hayward, and Mr. Parker. You stretched your arms and legs, cracked your neck, and gave a little prayer to the universe that you wish your formal first day will be good. 

Ding! 

The bell on your desk pinged. A man, probably in his early 40s, stood in front of you. He wore a loose shirt with a pale pink tie, his hair was brown and sparse. 

“Mr. Parker?” 

“I’m sorry, I’m Roy Jones, from the math department,” he responds. You gave an embarrassed oh and gave him his stack of books. 

“Sorry, it’s my first day.”

“All good kiddo, you haven’t seen trouble yet, good luck on your first day,” Mr. Jones gave a kind smile before walking away. 

By 8:30 am the students came rushing to your door, you logged borrowed books, received returns, you even did the occasional hush to students being loud, it was going smoothly. The kid in front of you was borrowing a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray, an excellent choice you thought. You scanned the QR code inside the book, logged in the student’s info and you kindly smiled while giving the book away. Hours passed of you sitting around, sipping on an orange juice box. By 11 am at least 3 students were studying. 

Ding! 

Oh. The man standing in front of you was tall and handsome, probably in his mid-30s, he wore a neat suit in neutral colors, and his brown hair was combed to the side. You placed your juice box down. 

“Mr. Hayward?” you traced your fingers on the sticky notes on your desk. 

“Parker, Peter Parker,” he replied. Shit, not again. 

“I’m so sorry Mr. Parker.” you shook your head. 

“First day, huh?” you nodded shamefully. He gave you a cheeky smile. 

“Yeah, I’m so sorry,” you took the stack of books with the label Mr. Parker on it. He reached out to take the heavy books, your fingers were slightly touching. Your cheeks warmed from the contact. There was a certain pleasingness in his presence. You scanned the pile trying to spark a conversation. “So you teach physics?”

“Yeah, 8th and 9th actually,” he carries the books in his arms, he may look lean but you could see the way his arms flexed under his suit. “Are you new to the city?”

“Well kinda, I was born here but my family and I moved out when I was 5. I figured coming here in the city could give me more opportunities,” his brows would raise while you talked, making you feel like whatever words came out of your mouth he listened to intently. “How about you? Did you grow up here?”

“I grew up with my aunt, went to Midtown for high school, and Empire State in college. So, yeah, full-time New Yorker here,” he chuckled. “My daughter and I still live in Queens too.”

“Daughter?” you said shockingly. He looked down at his toes, and he laughed again, that soft deep laugh. “Sorry, you don’t look like one”

“I don’t look like a dad?” he said.

“I mean you look pretty young,” you bit the insides of your cheeks. “I’m sorry I must have been taking up too much of your time Mr. Parker, ‘twas a lovely chat though.”

“Oh it’s fine, I’m on lunch break anyway.” you waved him goodbye and he reciprocates the gesture. “By the way, Peter is fine, just Peter.”

He leaves, and you sit back down on your desk, your heart beating a little too fast for your liking. Your knees felt funny like they were going to give out. Oh, god. You were crushing on the physics teacher. 

Before your shift ended Mrs. Longford called and said she couldn’t go to the library due to her pregnancy. You gladly said you would deliver her the books instead. On the way to her room, you couldn’t properly find her classroom, they all looked the same to you, so you went one by one, looking through the windows and checking to see if Mrs. Longford was there. By the eighth classroom, you could see him. Not Mrs. Longford, but Peter. He was demonstrating the law of inertia to the class, making a funny action of being hit in the hip by force, and the class laughed. He seems nice, and the students all listened to him, taking in every word of his lesson. It was admirable really, to have such charisma over a bunch of impressionable kids and use it to educate them. 

The bell rings, and a swarm of students floods the halls. The books in your arms fall as a student bumps into you. You cursed, bending down to pick them up while a pair of arms reached out to help you. It was Peter, he had ditched the suit jacket at this point, his shirt sleeves rolled up to show his veiny arms. 

“Thank you, I was looking for Mrs. Hayward’s classroom and I couldn’t find it,” you hugged the book while Peter carried the other stack. 

“Mrs. Hayward’s room is in the other wing. Don’t worry I’ll walk you to it.”

“Oh no, you must have another class, I can find my way.” you try to take the books but he moves away.

“No it’s fine, my day is done. Let me walk you to her room.” he smiles, again, that pretty Peter smile. 

On the way to Mrs.Longford’s room, you talked about your education, where you went to high school, and in college, and where you live now. The conversation later went to his daughter, Mayday, named after his aunt who has sadly passed. She was 5 years old and in first grade, a smart girl, he says. 

You reached the 3rd door in the left wing. Peter told you that the lady with short hair and red cat-eyed glasses was Mrs.Longford, the baby bump also verified his claim. You knocked, and she waved at you with a smile, you and Peter went in to bring the books. Peter and Mrs. Longford exchanged greetings and talked about an upcoming faculty meeting. You asked Mrs. Longford to sign some papers for the book requests she had made and she obliged. 

Peter walked you back to the library. You continued to chat about random things, your favorite food (he was pizza), your favorite color (he was blue), and your favorite movie (his was Interstellar). You unlocked the library and turned the lights back on. You went back to your desk and Peter took a seat at a nearby desk. You stared at him, arms crossed, legs spread. 

✎𓇢𓆸

Weeks passed, and Peter had been visiting you in the library. Usually, he’d stay to check student papers or read new scientific publications on the school computers, he was nerdy about stuff like that; but most of the time, he just stayed around to talk to you. He would talk to you about Mayday’s science project, which you helped him come up with. It was an iced tea stand presentation that used butterfly pea flower tea and lemon juice, and it changed the blue liquid to a bright purple. She won a silver prize, Peter says. 

Peter had mentioned before that Mayday lives with her mom and that she rarely gets to see her dad. You could see the way the line his mouth would make and how it would frown sometimes when he talked about her. You wanted to give him some piece of comfort, but every time he would smile because it was Mayday, it was his only girl. 

You were at your desk enjoying a sandwich with your favorite orange juice box, Peter sat on the floor next to you hidden from anyone who came to the desk. He, too, enjoyed a sandwich you made. You scrolled through your laptop, mainly on the news. 

“Hey Pete, have you ever seen Spider-man?” you said, Peter almost choked on his food.

“Spider-man?” He cleared his throat.

“Yeah, I mean you’ve been here your whole life you must’ve seen him right?” you took a sip of your drink. Peter thought long before he answered.

“No, I haven’t,” he whispered. 

“Boo! You’re boring,” you threw an eraser at him.

“Hey! It’s not my fault he doesn’t swing by my apartment once in a while.”

“Well, I wish he’d come by mine, take me into his arms as we swing away into the sunset,” you waved your arms around thwipping your hands like Spider-man. 

“You’re so silly,” he laughs, he takes a big bite of his sandwich, talking to you while chewing. “You know, Mayday’s been asking about you, she said she wants to thank the guy that helped her come up with her science project.”

“She said that?” you were touched.

“Well, I wanted to invite you, and she told me we haven't celebrated her win so why not invite the guy who helped her,” he finished his sandwich, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “You don’t have to if you’re busy.”

“Friday night right? I’m in.” You smiled.

You knocked at the light blue apartment door, you could hear some ruckus inside. Coming! A man’s voice yells. The doorknob turns and there he was, Peter Parker, dressed in a light gray sweater, the sleeves rolled up, and a red apron. Behind his leg was a little girl with light red hair. 

“Hey there, I’m glad you could come. This is Mayday,” she was shy but she gave you a little wave and a hi. 

Dinner started in a few. Peter served baked macaroni and a Caesar salad. Mayday brought a plate of cookies she made, without her dad’s help, she said (Peter shook his head). You brought a box of pepperoni pizza as per Mayday's (and Peter’s) request. The three of you talked over dinner about how proud you were about the medal and if she ever needed help you would gladly be there. 

After dinner, Peter took the dishes, you went to help but he insisted you not. You were left with Mayday in the living room, she was talking about her favorite book, a book about planets. Venus was her favorite, she says. You began to talk to her about the many books you have on planets in your library and if her dad permitted, you would lend some. 

“Do you like dad?” you were surprised. 

“Yeah, he’s nice,” you offered her a smile, and she gave you a curious gaze instead.

“Dad is always alone.” you looked back at Peter in the sink, the fabric stretching on his back.

“You’re here,” you stroked her hair. “Your dad always tells me stories about you y’know.”

“But when I’m with Mom he’s all alone.” 

“What are you two talking about,” Peter stands above you and Mayday, his hands on his hips. 

“We were talking about your hair. Mayday said you’re starting to look like a sasquatch.” Mayday giggles. 

A few hours later Peter took Mayday to bed. Mayday hugged you and told you goodnight. You bend down to hug her and she tells you to be Dad’s best friend, always. You were sitting on the couch with your hands on your lap. You looked around the place, filled with books and a bunch of Mayday’s stuff. It seems like Peter just lets her stuff stay there, so as not to forget about her presence. Your eyelids begin to fall as you let out a yawn.

“Sleepy?” he mutters. 

“Just a bit. My head is just filled with so many facts about space,” you made a mind-blown gesture, Peter laughs.

“She does that a lot actually.” Peter sits beside you on the couch, keeping his eyes on yours.

“She’s a lovely kid,” you smiled. 

“She is,” Peter sank his head on the couch, his eyes closed. 

“You think I’m alone?” he frowns. “I heard you two earlier.”

“I don’t think so. You have me,” you mutter. Your hands fall on your sides meeting his. He laces your fingers with his, you could feel the warmth of his palms with your cold ones. He chuckles. “It’s pretty late, maybe you should get some rest too.”

“You’re right, let me bring you home first,” you refused. 

“I’d be fine,” you assure him. 

You were outside the apartment. Peter was with you in just his flip-flops, his hand never leaving yours. “I had a wonderful night.”

“Me too,’ Peter said, he took his other hand and patted your hair. You looked at him with hooded eyes, his hand falling to your cheek. You inched closer, your face so close to his chest you could smell him, like an ocean breeze. His face gets close to yours, the moment seemingly getting more tense. His thumb rubs your hand, over and over, it calms you. Underneath the moonlight, your lips meet. A tender kiss weeks in the making. Your eyes closed and you lost yourself in him. Your lips leave him a few moments later, a smile plastered on both your faces. You hail a taxi cab and when one comes, you wave him goodbye. 

But you swore that night, the moment you entered your apartment, you swore you saw the Spider-man swing by, almost like he was waiting for you to come home.

part two posted here

interactions are greatly appreciated btw if u liked this fic and want more send me a prompt and i'd gladly make something from it :>

[bugboysgf]

Hate + Love

Chapter 2

series masterlist

Previous chapter

Summary: There is a thin line between love and hate but what if it's way thinner than you thought?

“Hi, im suppose to be tutoring somebody.” you told the lady at the front desk. The last 2 weeks had been stressful but out of extreme luck you managed to get all A’s but that also meant you had to tutor the people that were not doing so well in school.

“Oh yes, you must be Y/n.”

“I am.” you confirmed.

“Min Ho.” The lady calls his name and he jumps out of his seat.

“You gotta be kidding me.” you look at Min ho and he seems just as surprised as you are. “There has to be some sort of mistake, I can't tutor him.” the lady looks at her computer for a second and looks back at you.

“Sorry but there is a specific note from the teacher saying you can't switch.”

“What? Who wrote that.” you asked.

“It was your math teacher. Take a seat and get started.”

“I can't believe this.” you said sitting down.

“Do you think I want to do this? I have no choice.” Min ho rolled his eyes.

“Whatever can we just get started.”

After two hours tutoring you were done but to you i feel like 5 hours because every 10 minutes you and Min ho were arguing about something different.

“Thank you.” Min Ho says. You look at him in shock, you were never expecting those words to come out of his mouth.

“You have manners, I see. Can I get an apology too?” you asked hopefully.

“It happened almost 3 weeks ago, get over it.”

“God you're such a bitch.”

“Takes one to know one.”

—-

“We have Alex next.” Kitty said. “Oh my god we still have to walk up the stairs.” you said, you were tired already and it was only your 2 period.

“Do you want to go to a ramen place after the 5th period?” Kitty asked.

“Im Pretty sure I don't have to tutor today, so yes.”

“How is it? By the way, you are still not getting along.”

“Nope now i have to sit with him in alex class, because he wont let me change seats.” you rolled your eyes.

“Dude you have 4 months left until winter break, at least try to stop hating each other.”

“He's the problem, not me, he won't apologize. He said thank you yesterday when i tutored him but that's it.” you explained to Kitty. You honestly don't think that you and Minho would get along every chance he gets to make fun of you. He's gonna take it and you're tired of it.

“The problem is that you are both stubborn.” Kitty grabs the handle of the door and lets you into the class, she gives you a ‘be nice look’ and takes a seat.

You walked over to your seat and to your surprise Min Ho was already sitting down, he was always late. You take a seat and don't say a word to him.

“No greeting?” he asked

“What do you want?” you say in a cold tone.

“Woah, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.” he smirks.

“I just don't have time for your bullshit today.”

Lucky Alex didn't have you guys do anything with your partner work today you didnt think you could handle it anyways.

You grabbed your things and stuffed them into your backpack.

“y/n?” you stopped in your tracks and looked at the guy that called your name. Minho also stopped and looks at him.

“Yes?” you look at him confused. You've never seen this guy in your life and you had no idea why he was talking to you.

“I'm Derek, I was just trying to see if i can get your number.” you look around to see if anybody was watching and behind him were his friends waiting to see your next move. You didn't want to seem stuck up or anything, so you just smiled and typed your number into his phone.

“Great, I'll text you.”

“Cool” you watch him walk away and turn to Min ho. “And why did you stay?”

“What does he want with you?” “What do you mean?”you asked, confused.

“His dad is literally a millionaire.”

“I honestly dont give two fuck about that.” you said.

“It had to be a dare.” Min ho shook his head.

“Oh really? Just because an attractive guy asked for my number that means it has to be a dare?” you said offended. Min ho knew he messed up, he always jokes around but he knew that what he said really affected you.

“That's not-”

“Save it.” you walked away.

—

For the next few weeks you continue talking to Derek, you thought he would be a jerk but turns out he wasn't. He was really nice and listened.

“Where are you going?” Min ho asked Q. “Oh the nature club is having a hike today.” Q said, putting on his shoes.

“Great i'll come” Min ho got up from the couch. “You can't.” Q said.

“Why?” “Club members only.” “Dude i went last time.” Q stayed silent and didn't say anything. “Unless you don't want me to go for some reason?” “It's not that I don't want you to go, it's just that y/n and Derek are going to be there and I don't want you messing it up for her. She told me what you said when he asked for her number.” Q confessed.

“That's not what I meant, I tried to tell her that.”

“You should have said it in the first place, are you jealous or something?” Q asked.

“What no… no”

“Yup that sounds so convincing.”

“I don't like her, I hate her.”

“You know, you can hate and love somebody at the same time.” Q said shutting the door.

Min ho stood there thinking there's no way that he loves y/n? He hates her too much.

[paracosmicessence]

Hey! I love your art so much 💖 I wanted to ask what program you use for 3D modelling?

aw thank you!! :3

and to answer your question i’m going to warn you this is going to be kinda long because i’m gonna use this post as an excuse to show my 3D models that aren’t awful (sorry lol).

i actually use two different programs, both for different purposes, but you don’t need to get both, it really depends on which kind of modeling you want to do.

1) the first is called Nomad Sculpt on the iPad, you do have to pay for it unfortunately but it’s definitely one of the best modeling apps for the iPad. i know Blender is free but my computer is really old and doesn’t run the program very well, and at this point i’ve already gotten used to nomad sculpt.

anyway tho, i use it for art-related things like the obvious 3D models, but recently i’ve been playing around with just making scenes to use as references for my drawings. they’re not anything impressive, most of the time i actually use it to make little figurines to print and turn into earrings/little friends that sit in my room just for fun.

i’m gonna show this first bc they look cooler once they’re printed and colored (also you can tell i printed mini crowley and aziraphale when my sonadow hyperfixation started bc i never actually painted crowley) (he’s just kinda sitting there oops).

the little red guys are actually my favorite bugs (goliath beetles), i made them about a year ago but i still wear them like every day.

and here’s what they look like in the app, it’s a little intimidating but once you get used to it it’s actually kinda fun just playing around and seeing what you can do.

2) the second program i use is Shapr3D (also for the iPad, but i think they made an update where you can run it on windows/mac). you also have to pay for this as a subscription which sucks, i’m only able to use it since the engineering program i’m in pays for it.

Shapr3D is one of the many CAD software programs out there, but it’s nice bc it’s very beginner friendly and very easy to use. CAD is mainly for architecture/engineering but i honestly think more 3D artists should give it a try. it’s really nice once you get the hang of it and (i’m probably biased bc i’m a student) i honestly prefer it over just normal modeling software because i feel like you can be a lot more creative with it.

right now for my engineering class, our semester final is to design and present something that’s functional, and we can either explain the math behind it or just 3D print it and demonstrate how it works, and i’m making a functional mini model of “the rack” trap from Saw III (i’m not psychotic i swear i’ve just had a Saw hyperfixation for 5 years).

i’m definitely gonna post it when it’s finished just bc i’m already excited with how it’s turning out, but for now here’s a couple at-home projects i’ve done:

(above) i have a bunch of wet liners and i designed a stackable holder thingy with bolts between the shelves and a little cute star screw to fasten it at the top.

(above) i also made a few rotating brush holders at home (bc the ones that actually rotate are like $40 for some reason) by buying a set of small sphere bearings at home depot for like $5 (that’s what those little metal things are inside the third one, i took it apart bc i don’t know how to put a video and a picture in the same post) (just pretend they’re spinning rn).

anyway that’s all!! if you actually read this whole thing i love you so much bc engineering and design is one of my special interests so thanks for letting me tell you about the silly things i’ve made :3

[cardboardheartss]

My Mars Persona Chart just makes sense 😙✨

I have a whole Gemini stellium, and I have thought and said this multiple times that i LOVEEEEE intelligent men!

+ if he wears glasses… that’s a bonus point for him lol 🤓

Mars being in Leo makes sense too… but this could mean I could possibly be attracted to my co-workers because of the 6H placement… idk… but anyways! I LOVEEE men with long hair and nice toned up bodies too!!

When it comes to me liking non black men, they need to have a little more tan-ish skin… I can’t do overly pale men!

My Sagittarius placements with Juno speaks volumes too… I feel more so attracted to foreign men.

Saturn rules over tattoos and my Saturn is aspecting my ascendant and I truly do like men who have tattoos. But he shouldn’t overdo the tattoos because I don’t want a partner who looks like MGK.

My Pisces ASC ruler (Neptune) in the 12H makes sense because I would love to have a partner who’s highly intuitive but with Aqua being there, this could lead to some detachment to spirituality on his side or he could possibly find an innovative way to connect to guides idk…

- one thing I’ve also picked up is how ALL my crushes from school were like top achievers or just naturally intelligent.

✨Like for my recent crush,LS, he does Physics, Business Studies, Computer Applications Technology & Pure Math. In terms of the body… he is slightly toned because he plays soccer and has to stay fit.

✨My ex-crush from 2 years ago was a nerd nerd! He was introverted and he got 1st place every term for academic achievement! He would get 80%+ for EVERY SINGLE SUBJECT. Every teacher loved that boy… like I’m telling you… he would leave the award ceremony with all the subjects certificates for 1st place.and a bonus for him… he also wore glasses too!!!

✨My crush from primary school, slightly has identical facial characteristics as Jude tbh… but anyways. My crush from then was really smart too but I really can’t remember the proper details because I either forgot or my subconscious is stopping me from talking about him.

side note: this persona chart has heavy water & air sign placements and that made me realize that majority of my celeb crushes have major water & air placements.

Jude : Cancer stellium (Tropical) & Gemini stellium (Sidereal)

Jaehyun : Aquarius stellium

Sebastian Amaruso : Aquarius stellium

Taehyung : Aquarius Venus

Alex landi : Scorpio Pluto, Moon & Venus and Cancer Mars

free me from air sign men… 🥺😔💔

[heartfullofleeches]

Oc-tober Day Ten – Movie Night

Yandere Slasher Director – Elliot Wiltshire 

Word count: 800

The brunette male checks the time on his watch, clicking his tongue as the seconds go by. “6:48…” 

He bounces his foot against the concrete floor as he does the math in his head. “Doesn’t give me a lot of time. Better get things started now.”

Elliot swings the bucket cradled in his opposite arm backwards, dumping its contents over a man tied to one of the room's support beams as he hurls it forward. The man is slow to rise despite the coldness of the water – till the bucket comes crashing down on his skull. He jolts to full attention, scanning his surroundings with frantic eyes. Though the only light in the room comes from a computer monitor, he can tell he’s in a basement. The walls and floor are covered in a black tarp and there’s a horrible stench in the air. He realizes the source of it is himself as he looks down at the dark stains crawling down the length of his shirt. He retches.

“Try not to throw up. I only have about twenty-six hours to edit, and I don’t want the smell of vomit in my workspace.”

His head spins, neck unable to carry the weight of his swollen skull as it rolls to the side.. “What… what the fuck is going on?” 

Elliot snaps his fingers. “Hey, hey, Michael? Can you hear me?” He adds support to the base of his neck. “You got hit pretty hard earlier. What can you remember, Michael?” 

Michael tries to point his attention to the man. The apron over his green turtleneck is covered in spots similar to the ones on his first. “huh?”

Elliot cuts into his windpipe with his fingers.. “What do you remember.” 

That seems to jog his memory. Michael rambles. “I-I was just delivering some pizzas and the last order was to this creepy place in the middle of nowhere. I got dragged inside and then- I can’t remember much after that..”

Elliot sigh, standing up. “That’s good enough. You put up a pretty good fight and got away. I would’ve finished you off then, but that couple down the road took you in. Really sucks. Seems like they were just a nice old couple.. i hope we’ll be like that someday. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. They’ll be good props for the second filming…” His eyes narrow as he mutters to himself. “Fuck, that’s probably a spoiler… Eh, your reaction should still be good enough when you see them.” 

With his lucidity returning, Michael lashes out; bruising his crushed ribs against the chains wrapped around them. “Who the fuck do you think you are, man?! Why are you doing this!?” 

Elliot's neutral expression becomes a half smile; emotion flashing in his eyes. “Me? Just a guy looking to impress the person he likes. I’ve been trying to get away from this life. Gone back to school and all that. It’s where I met them actually. We have a few things in common. For one, they love a good horror movie. Just like me.”

He kneels again, tapping Michael’s shoulder with a rusty cleaver. “You’ve met them too, you know? Did some.. searching around and found out their address. All I wanted was to treat my partner to something nice, and then you had to go and start flirting with them.”

Michael trembles as Elliot drags the teeth of the blade along his neck, stopping at the jugular. “Please… Just let me go.”

Elliot chuckles, tossing the knife across the floor and making Michael jump by reflex. He drinks in the man’s sobs as he leans in.

“I will – eventually. I only woke you up to give you some tips on your performance. I really like this person and it seems like they might feel the same in some way. They've asked to come over a couple times, and I want to make the best impression I can so do me a favor and scream nice and loud, alright?” 

Michael screams.

-

Elliot steps over the coffee table as a frightened face pops up on the television screen. He holds out the bowl of popcorn in his hand as he sits down beside you.

“Want some more?”

You reach around in the air for the bowl until he places it within grabbing range, eyes glued to the tv. You wince as a hacksaw cuts through the delivery man’s torso before breaking out into a smile. 

“Oof, that one looked like it really hurt. I didn’t know what to expect when you said you made horror films, but this is good, Elli.”

Elliot takes in your praise as he sneaks an arm around you. He leans in and kisses your hair as he then whispers. “The only thing better than a good horror movie scream is you, Y/n.” 

[wisteriagoesvroom]

highlights from ruth buscombe's podcast interview (or, views from a strategist baddie on the track)

listened to the ruth buscombe - the former ferrari, haas and sauber strategist - pitstop podcast over lunch and intended to make only a few notes, but she’s so sharp and funny that i ended up scribbling loads. anyway, enjoy:

ruth’s on gardening leave atm (hasn’t said where she’s going yet. peep the quadrant hoodie tho...). they have long gardening leave because strategists and engineers have so much proprietary info on the cars, they’re usually allowed at least a year to wait it out so they don’t (in theory) bring the intel with them

ruth worked with the FIA to build and simulate where the DRS zones should be because DRS used to be a free for all across the whole track. crazy to imagine huh

on planning for a race vs being reactive: if other teams make a “wrong” strategy in a race or something unexpected like change their number of pitstops, you’d have to be fluid in responding to that or it fucks your race too. she used daniel in shanghai (?) one year as an example

ruth was with seb for his first ferrari win!! legend. there were a number of personnel changes when he arrived and then she was “left holding the strategy baby [for that race] and i was like — okay!” lol. “this was after 2014 a winless season and you don’t want that because you bring shame upon the whole of italy”. aksjsksks.

kinda wild tho. ruth called for the two stop in sepang that resulted in seb’s race win and was 25 when this happened. making the calls like that is so impressive

on vegas: the maths of poker is the same as the maths of strategy (what!!!!! incredible)

she worked with charles and says he’s a very genuine guy, and very talented obviously

they ask her about the lewis ferrari signing and she drops the lore that lewis had actually been in talks with them ages ago, before the merc era. “maybe this [urge] has always been there”.

she was a DIEHARD mclaren fan and went to the ferrari job interview as practice but ended up saying yes to ferrari 💀💀 “ferrari carbed and ice creamed their way to my heart. and they showed me the factory bits you don’t normally see” she’s so real. “i went to ferrari for the interview and then mclaren. like the old grey mclaren not the cool one now. people thought something was wrong with me cus i grew up loving mclaren and then i was going to work at ferrari” AHHAHAKSKSKKSKS

kind of hilariously, she gets motion sickness from watching and monitoring the sim side of the engineering, which is kinda why she switched to the strategy side. the switch happened after one of the races with nando and massa, she proposed unsealing a gearbox on one of the cars, a legal thing, and it got the team a good result so that was history

she thinks max will win based on pace advantage this year cus of the braking evolution this year

2026 is gonna be a huge change in the reg cus of the power unit

all the sacrifice is for race day because it’s such a punishing career travel and time-wise. “if you do not see pressure as a privilege this is probably not the job for you”

on diversity: there’s a study from before liberty media’s takeover that said “the average f1 fan is a 53 year old white male blue collar worker who lived in coventry”. and now there’s a much wider range of fans. and also directly references lewis’s mission 44 as helping to broaden reach.

“drivers are like children. you cannot say who’s your favourite child otherwise you cause like, years of therapy. even if you like one child better than the other you should never say” HELP HAHAH

she troubleshooted a (sauber?) race during one of her first races, there was nothing was loading on the pit wall screens. she’s furiously checking the backend. lights out and they had no numbers. then “the lord sent me an aborted start”. turns out it was a timezone setting issue in the computers. crazy stuff. they ended up going from the back to p6 (!!)

on joining the career ladder as a strategist: there is no strategy school so it’s about learning skills you need to do the job. e.g. doing a maths or computing degree etc. she did the formula student challenge when they build a f1 car

random but: “the first time ross brawn sent me an email i printed it out. best. day. of my life.” 😂

on strategy calls and being able to adapt for different tracks: “as a strategist you do not want to be a one trick pony. you want like. a whole field of ponies”

(the end. loved her perspective. hope we get more in the future!! the whole thing is 100% worth listening to if you have the time.)

[thatdehydratedmedic]

Pre-med Results

It has obviously been a hot minute since A level results have been out. However, I thought writing in general about my O level results, A level results and other exam results would be the best way to start this little blog of mine. I will also take this opportunity to introduce myself a little.

During o levels, i wasn't exactly hard working. I had gotten burnt at some point during grade 8 and a personal experience in graded 9 pushed me further away from my studies. I do intend to go into those details some time in the future. For now, I will stick to my study methods and the results this gave me. Despite my lack of interest in studies during this time, I always paid attention in class. I was that girl who would maintain eye contact with the teacher, mostly because it helped me stay present. I did not have many friends and that definitely aided me in staying focused. I did have a few crushes on boys but this did not really affect my studies as I did not talk to them. I might go into more detail about this later. The memories are pretty funny when I look back. Anyways, luckily I did not do too bad on my exams. I got A*s in Chemistry, Biology, Math, Computer Science, English and Physics IGCSEs. I got As in Dhivehi and Islam SSCs.

My grades during O Levels were not perfect. I had not reached my goals. I had thought that that was to be expected as I had not tried as hard as other people my age, and promised myself to try harder in the following years.

My A levels started off to a good start. I was implementing methods which worked for me as well as avoiding methods I had tried and found not to work. In hindsight, some of my goals were pretty unrealistic and I believe that played a key role in my diminishing motivation and discipline. However, I remember feeling embarrassed when people would see me working hard and studying. Other people did not seem to be working as hard and this made me feel insecure. Gradually, I stopped studying completely and lost track of all my assignments. Talk about peer pressure huh. This also happened to be a point in time where I was dealing with a huge identity crisis and this only added to my stress. In the end, I got pretty good grades, but far from what I had hoped for. I got As in Chemistry and Biology A levels and a B in Math A level. I also got 2 As in Dhivehi and Islam HSCs. This was really unfortunate for me as in my country those who got all As received a full government scholarship to study in quite literally wherever they chose. Regardless, the B in math was deserved, I would say, as I had been a careless student.

After many tears, I decided not to dwell too much on the past. My parents and I went to a higher education fair where we spoke to a few medical schools in Malaysia. Namely, NUMed, Cyberjaya and MSU. I ended up really loving NUMed and MSU was a close 2nd. I was advised by all of them to take the IELTS and so I did, and recently received my results. I got an overall 8.0. (Listening: 8.5, Reading: 8.5, Writing: 7.0, and speaking 8.5)

I will be writing about my experience applying to medical schools as well as more soon so make sure to follow me!

[blacktobackmesa]

Hi, I'm sorry I'm back in your inbox again skfbdjdn, but uhhh I was thinking about the headcanons you posted on Valentine's day and now I've got to know how Gordon would react when he realizes he's developing feelings for Funny Benny who lives in the computer. I'm usually a fairly casual frenrey shipper, but with how good you are at writing the hlvrai cast I'm on the edge of my seat to hear about how their relationship in streamman

Ohhh yes yes good. (Also, no apologies, I love messages, they are my friends) I'm gonna go deep into the paint on this one, check below the cut for Gordon's slow realization, the little things leading up to it, and more.

(There's a little allusion to sexual topics. Nothing explicit. Literally just the fact that adults in relationships can have sex. If you are a fan of the show where the climactic final boss monologue has heavy discussion of a dick slip, I don't think you're going to be scandalized, but I've been wrong before.)

Gordon and Benrey have that fun dynamic of "omg stopp what are you doing (does nothing to stop them)", and there's a lot of ways for both of them to be affectionate while obfuscating their feelings. But it's not really like they're trying to hide anything from each other? It's just the language they've built up to communicate. Like:

"Oh, fuck you." [Gordon Translation: That quip was pretty funny, I'm surprised I didn't see that coming.]

"you wish. say please, k?" [Benrey translation: I'm glad my comedy had the desired effect, so I'm continuing my jokes. I'm also implying intimacy by being comfortable enough to make sex jokes about us.]

At some point, Gordon realizes that his interactions with Benrey are making him feel... almost lonely. Which is weird, because the things that make him feel lonely(?) are all the things he likes about hanging out with Benrey. He figures out that he misses being able to have that kind of dynamic with a romantic partner.

Then it takes another full week for him to do the math that "Being with Benrey makes me think about my past relationships" + "I feel sad that I'm not dating anyone" = "I feel sad that I'm not dating Benrey". Look, he's not a scientist. He just plays one in a video game.

First response to realizing his feelings: MASSIVE ANXIETY.

How can they make this work out? What if he's waited too long? He knew Benrey was into him in the game, but this is several years of platonic interaction later. If Benrey still likes him that way, will he be angry and bitter at Gordon for trying to act like he hasn't been quietly turning down Benrey's affections all this time? Even if Benrey's still interested, they're basically on different planes of reality!

Thankfully, he has someone to talk to who helps get some of those anxieties sorted.

Gordon: what about going on dates? Fang: you go on outings with the science team all the time. You literally sit in the dark and watch movies together at least once a month. Gordon: Am I going to be content in a long-distance relationship where I know we can't ever move in together? Fang: Okay, one: his domain is on a computer in your home. Two, you're pretty dang happy with your ""long distance"" friendships. Three, you have the haptic suit. And four, it is none of my business if you decide to buy some very specialized bluetooth devices. Gordon: dude. Fang: I'm just saying you have options on the physical side.

Thankfully, Benrey's kind of glad he waited. Like, it would be awesome if he and Gordon had been together from the start, but he kind of feels better about who he is as a person at this point. Gotta get Benrey lvl. 5 before you can unlock Ultimate Romance. Anyway Gordon asks him out and he ragdolls on the fucking floor

[miyuhpapayuh]

4. Foreign feelings

She heads into the library and finds a quiet corner, near the back. She pulls the purple, cushioned chair away from the desk and sinks down into it. She pulled her hood over her hair and folded her arms on the table, placing her head on top.

Forcing herself to drink an entire bottle of water with Aspirin, her head is still on fire. She was the definition of a lightweight.

"Stevie?" A voice calls out.

She opened her eyes and lifted her head up, turning to her right. All she sees is a red sleeve and instantly knows it's Rod. She laughs and lays her head back down.

"Please, sit down. You're entirely too tall to be hovering over me."

He smacks his lips and rounds the table, sitting across from her. She hums as his cologne hits her nostrils.

"You good?" She nods, keeping her eyes closed. An unzipping of a book bag is heard, along with the clicking of a pen.

She opens one eye, watching his hand glide across the notebook that's in front of him. This must be for his English paper.

He raises an eyebrow before speaking, "it's not polite to stare, you know?"

"Why not? You look adorable when you're focused."

He raises his eyes up from his paper to settle on mine.

"Are you flirting with me, babygirl?"

"Yep." She responds.

A shocked expression makes its way onto his face.

"Wow, she finally gives a straight answer." He cracks, while she rolls her eyes.

"Anyways," she changes the subject, "what's your paper on?"

"The OJ Simpson murder case. It's some wild shit." She snorts, leaning up from the table.

"Well, out of all the things to write about... that's the most interesting one, for sure." He laughs.

Silence falls over them, a comfortable one. The library is basically empty, besides a couple people towards the front on the computers.

"Random question."

"Shoot," she placed her chin in the palm of her hand, giving him her attention.

"What's your last name?"

"Johnson. What's yours?"

"Black," he clicks his pen and sits it down, "is Tyler the only friend you have?"

"Pretty much. The girls here are cool, I guess, but they try too hard and I don't have time. We've been friends since high school, and we've been inseparable ever since. What about you?"

"I'm a loner, honestly. I have friends back home, though. We link up around the holidays and the summer, but that's about it." He shrugs.

"Back home... where's that, if you don't mind me asking."

"New Jersey."

"Aw, you're like an hour away. That's gotta be convenient." He nods, smiling a bit.

"Yeah, it is. I make it a priority to keep money aside to go back home, from time to time."

"That's sweet. I bet your folks love seein' you."

"It's just my mom, actually."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately, my dad's never been in my life like that." She sighs, feeling bad for him.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's okay. My mom's like my whole world."

"Must be nice. My parents are total assholes." He chuckles at her air quotes.

"Really?" She nodded, rolling her eyes at the thought of that conversation.

"Yeah, they disowned me." His brows furrow.

"Is that what happened, that day I came and picked you up?"

"Yeah. We got into this dumb argument and my dad told me that I didn't have to worry about him or my mom doing anything pertaining to me, anymore." The shocked look on his face only grows.

"What the hell? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. I'm sorry that happened to you."

"It's fine. My dad actually tried to apologize to me, but I didn't care. Damage is done, ya know?" He nods.

"Well, everybody has bad stories. I'll tell you mine, one day."

"Alright, Ima hold you to that." She looked at the clock behind his head, squinting a little to read the time. 9:45 a.m.

She sighs and scoots her chair away from the table, beginning to stand up. He stands up as well.

"What's your first class?"

"Math."

"Mine is no better. I got biology."

Tossing his notebook back into his bag and zipping it up, he slings his bag over his shoulder and reaches out for her hand.

She stares at it, before placing mine in his. He laughs at her slight hesitation, making her blush.

"Is this too much for you?" He asks, as they start walking out of the library and towards her class. She shakes her head.

"Nah, it's just... new. Real new." She looks up at him.

"Yeah, for me too. But, this feels nice." He glances at her, then back at the semi crowded hallway.

They stop in front of her class, with their fingers still intertwined.

He licks his lips before pressing them against hers. Her body presses into his, slightly and he smirks against her lips, before pulling away slowly.

"I'll meet you after class, aight?" He says.

She nods. He finally releases her hand and heads back into the opposite direction. She sighs and heads inside.

"Mhm, I saw it too... that must be her man."

"Nah, that's gotta be a side chick or sumn— she ain't cute enough!"

"Maybe, y'all should mind y'alls business. That'd be great." They both look in her direction with flushed facial expressions.

"Oh," she sat down in my seat, "and that is my man. All fine and all mine." She winks at them, making them gripe and turn around.

༺═───────────────────────────────────────═༻

"And, what did he say?"

Stevie secures the lid on top of the hot coffee and hands it to the customer, before turning back to Claire.

"He thought it was cute."

She giggles, pushing her curls away from her shoulders. 

"Are y'all official?"

She shook her head.

"Nah, we still gotta get to know each other better, and all that good shit. I feel like we're moving at a steady pace, though." She nods, moving to her left to start wiping down the counter.

"Well, that's really cute. I've only seen him a few times, but y'all are adorable together." She blushes.

"Thanks, C." A couple of customers came in, pulling them out of conversation and back into work mode.

There's a couple and a group of teenagers. The teenagers head towards Claire, while the couple heads her way.

"Oh my gosh, you're so pretty!" She smiles at the brown skinned woman. Her black coils are piled on top of her head, wrapped up in a red satin-like scarf.

"Thank you! So are you," she looks beside her, nodding at her boyfriend or so she's guessing. "How are you?"

He nods, sending a small smile her way, and she returns the gesture, proceeding to take their order.

“What can I get for y'all, this afternoon?"

"I'll take a mocha latte and a chocolate chip muffin."

"I'll just take a black coffee."

She writes everything on a sticky note and hands it to Alana. She begins to fix the coffee, while she retrieves the muffin.

"What's your name, doll?" She placed her treat in a bag and slid it across the glass counter.

"Stevie." She looks at her boyfriend and comes back to her, making her look between the two of them, confused.

"You know John?" She asks, making her heart stop for a second.

"John who?" She asks.

He squints his eyes, before saying, "Stevens."

Alana walks up beside her, placing both drinks on the counter.

"I used to work with him, what's this about?"

"His friends know a few of mine. We were aware that he was fired and he told us that it was because of you, love." 

The irritation spread across her face like a wildfire.

"I didn't get him fired— you know what, this isn't the time or the place. Your total is ten dollars and five cents." Stevie says, feeling her anxiety rise.

She pulls out her card and completes her transaction.

"Thank you, Stevie. Our intentions weren't to disturb you, I apologize."

"Have a nice day."

They move to the side, letting other customers in front of them and eventually head out the door.

She sighs and continues serving.

I have no time for this mess.

༺═───────────────────────────────────────═༻

She decided to stay an extra thirty minutes, today, to let Claire know about the whole John situation and whoever those customers were.

She informed her to let her know when they come back, so she can handle the situation accordingly. It made her feel a little at ease, along with the schedule changes being made.

She'll now only be working until eight, at the latest, instead of closing like she's used to. She'll miss it but her safety comes first.

"Hey, lovebug!" Tyler comes beaming around the corner, plopping down on top of her. Caught off guard, she stares at her with wide eyes.

"Hey... why're you so cheery?" She smiles even harder.

"I got a job!" Stevie's eyes grow wider.

"What?! Where??"

"It's a café called The Little Diner. They sell more breakfast stuff than anything else, and it's got this cozy, old timey feel to it. My boss is this high yellow, gray big-haired woman. She's got the sweetest voice ever and she's already taken a liking to me."

"I'm so proud of you, girl! I knew you'd find a good place for yourself. I felt it."

She playfully rolls her eyes and gets up from Stevie's lap.

"Thanks, girl. I officially start Wednesday." She nods and pulls her hair up into a bun.

"How was work?" Stevie sighs at the question.

"Some people came in today, asking me what my name was and shit about John. It made me super uncomfortable and irritated, because he got people thinking that I got him fired. I'm not tryna get caught up in some bullshit, just cause that muhfucka can't get it through his head that he needs to fuck with bitches that actually like his stupid ass. Like, what the actual fuck?"

"Again, do you want me to gut him like a fish?" There goes that damn grin, again.

She grimaces and zones out for a second, thinking back to what Rod said.

"Stevie... hello!" She snaps her fingers in her face, pulling her back into reality. She chuckles and looks at her.

"The hell was that about? Why you laughin'?"

"I told Rod about him, and he told me that if anything was to ever pop off, he'd handle it." She raises an eyebrow.

"Ouu shit na! Big Daddy handlin' your problems, huh? Y'all must be serious—"

"Seriously, shut up. That sounded so ridiculous, Tyler." She starts laughing. She sucks her teeth.

I literally might strangle someone over that noise, one day.

"Whatever, heffa. I'll keep my hands clean... for now." She walks into the kitchen, leaving Stevie.

She eventually heads upstairs. Heading into her bathroom, she strips down and take a quick shower, brushing her teeth once she's done.

She heads into her room and grabs an oversized T-shirt, pulling it on. It's abnormally hot in her room, so panties are not an option tonight.

Turning her fan on, sitting down on my bed and grabbing her phone. She calls Rod and waits for him to answer.

"Hello," his voice comes through deep and raspy, making her insides flip.

"Hey... did I wake you up?" She asks, as shuffling sounds on his end.

"A little, yeah." He laughs. "But it's alright, is everything okay?"

"Well, not really...."

"Lay it on me, babygirl."

"You remember that guy I was telling you about, at my old job? Well, there was this couple that came in today. They were cool at first, then started asking me what my name was and looking at me funny. Come to find out, they know of each other and he's going around telling people that I got him fired and whatever the hell else he can make up, I guess."

"You want me to handle it?" The authority in his voice does something to me... I can't explain it.

"How would you ev—"

"All I need is a yes, and we can go from there."

"Okayyy,” she drags out, “yes."

"Alright, ima take this off your hands so don't go worrying about whoever they were, him or anything else about that situation, aight? I got you."

"Thank you." An mhm sounds on his end.

"How was your day, other than that?"

"It was alright. I missed you," it came out, before she could catch it. She mentally smacks herself.

"Word?" Amusement is laced in his tone, causing her to let out a sigh.

"Yeah."

"Hm.. I might've missed you, too."

"Might have? What does that mean?" He starts laughing at her defensive mood.

"It means, maybe I missed you... maybe I didn't miss you." She pressed her tongue against the inside of her cheek and rolled her eyes.

"Wow, using my line against me. I thought you were better than that."

He laughs, again.

"I can stoop to your level, if need be. That opportunity was right in my face, babygirl."

"Anyway... I was gonna ask you how your day was, but I don't care anymore."

He smacks his lips.

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't have announced that you were gonna even ask me about my day, dear."

"No, I only did that because it's polite, honey."

"Whatever you say, darling." She cracks a smile.

"Okay, Roderick."

"Using my government name, now? Wow, Stevie." Again, shuffling is heard.

"Hey, are you at home, by any chance?"

"Yeah. What's up?" She perks up a little bit.

"I wanna see you— if that's okay," she pulls the cover back and sits up.

"Uh yeah, that's fine."

"Okay, I'll be there in like five minutes."

She hangs up and stands up from the bed. She opens her top drawer and pulls out her lace panties and pulls on the first pair of sweats she can find.

She headed downstairs and slipped her feet into her slippers by the side of the couch and sat down, occupying herself with an episode of Living Single.

Another episode on the love story gone sour, between Scooter and Khadijah.

"Ugh, they can never get it together." Tyler comes around the corner, startling her some.

Walking beside the wall unit, she finally gets a good look at her friend. She's dressed in dark blue distressed jeans, a lace bodysuit and black strappy heels. Her hair is parted down the middle and her lips are stained with a plum colored lipstick.

"You look good! Where are you going?" Stevie asks.

"There's this party in Manhattan. I know after the rough day you've had, you'd rather chill here or something. Then, I was gonna come ask you but, I heard you on the phone with your boo so I left it alone."

"Well, it's a good thing you're a detective, cause I honestly just wanna stay home. As a matter of fact, Rod is on his way over here, so you have fun."

She makes a goofy face.

"Oouu, let me find out you tryna get some dick!"

"He's not even my boyfriend," she scrunches her face up.

"Lie again."

A knock sounds at the door, stopping their conversation. She backs up towards it with a smirk on her lips.

Stevie gets up and follows her. She unlocks it, pulling it open to reveal someone who's not Rod.

She sighs and turns away, heading back to the couch.

"Hey, babe!" She looks back at me and waves. She returns the gesture, along with, be safe.

A few seconds later, another knock sounds at the door. She gets up and opens it again, sighing heavily because Tyler never locks the damn door behind herself.

She comes face to face with gorgeous himself.

His waves are hidden underneath a dark red, velvet durag this time. A black hoodie graces his upper half, while gray sweats grace his lower half.

“Hi,” she says.

“Hey,” he responds.

She steps to the side and lets him walk inside, not without planting a kiss on her cheek. She blushes and closes the door, locking it behind herself.

He takes a couple steps into the common area and turns around to look at her. "So, this is how you livin', huh?"

She giggles and grabs his hand, leading him into the living room. He sits down, immediately fixing his eyes on the tv.

She starts to sit on the cushion beside him, but instead gets pulled into his lap.

Her eyes grow wide for a second, as she shifts a little, then becomes perfectly still.

He places his chin on her shoulder and wraps an arm around her waist. She relaxes a little bit and stares at the screen.

"So, you missed me, huh?" His breath tickles her neck.

"I actually did, yeah. It seems like you missed me a little more than you're letting out, though."

His deep chuckle vibrates through her.

"Well for one, I wasn't expecting you to feel the same I did, so I tried to play it off. But, you're right, I missed you." He places a wet kiss on her neck, causing the inside of her thighs to tingle.

"I can see that," she says, as his arm tightens around her waist.

His free hand plays with the end of her ponytail that's thrown over her shoulder, absentmindedly twirling random strands around his finger.

"Have you ever had a boyfriend, before?"

"Nah. I hadn't even been on a date, until you came along." He turns her sideways on his lap, staring down at her with wide eyes. She laughs.

"For real?"

"For real." She slides off his thighs and onto the other cushion, leaving her wine painted toes in his lap.

"That's crazy! Can I ask why?"

"I mean, boys were never an interest to me, in the first place. Like, of course everybody has their crushes and whatever else, but that's where it stopped for me. Tyler was always the one who got kissed after her classes, walked to her classes, taken out on dates and whatever else. While I was making sure I stayed on top of my studies, and kept my reputation as being the boring one." She laughs, shrugging.

"You're definitely not boring. But, I understand what you're saying. If it makes you feel any better, I've only had one girlfriend."

"That makes me feel a little better," she teases.

"Maybe I'll earn that title, one day." A smirk tugs at the corner of his plump lips.

"Maybe you will." His right hand rests comfortably on her ankle, while the other drapes the back of the chair. She pulls her hands inside her shirt and sinks down into the chair, getting even more comfortable.

They stayed that way until almost midnight.

A short marathon of one of her favorite shows, turned into a movie that neither one of them had seen nor wanted to see.

"I guess I should be headin' out. I gotta be up pretty early."

She pulls her legs off his lap and stands up, holding her hand out. He places his warm hand in hers and lifts up from his spot.

She cuts the tv off and leads them towards the door. He drags his feet behind her. She snickers and turns around, pressing her back to the wall beside the cold door frame.

"Do you have classes tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I have two. The first one is at twelve." He nods, rubbing a hand over his covered waves. She licks her lips.

"You wanna go to breakfast with me tomorrow morning? My treat."

"I'd love to." His dark orbs pierce through her, making her shrink underneath his gaze.

His feet take a couple strides towards hers, while his hand pulls her chin up to look at him. She sucks in a breath, out of habit.

"Do I make you nervous?" He asks, and she shakes her head.

"No, I've just never... felt this way before." He moves in closer to her lips, making it harder for her to breathe correctly.

Relax was the last thing she heard, before his lips were pressed against hers.

A sort of moaning sigh leaves her, making him press against her body. She wraps her arms around his neck, while his hands find her waist.

His teeth capture my bottom lip and tug on it, causing her mouth to open slightly and allowing his tongue to invade. 

Although this is new, it feels so natural.

She follows his rhythm, somewhat afraid that she'll mess up the mood if she goes astray. His fingers press into her sides, making her skin grow hot.

Pulling away from her swollen lips, his plump ones peck the corner of her mouth, all the way to a sweet spot on her neck. Her hands latch onto the back of his neck.

"Rod..." she whispers, her head falling back against the wall, feeling his teeth pinch her skin, then the soft butterfly kisses cover it up.

His tongue swipes over a specific spot, making her lower region throb. She softly pushes him away, trying to calm her hormones.

A smirk dances across his face, prolonging the throbbing. He pecks her lips again, before unlocking the door.

"I'll get outta here, before I start something you can't keep up with..." he sends a wink her way, "I'll see you tomorrow."

He leaves, closing the door behind himself.

She turns and locks the door, before heading back upstairs. She heads into the bathroom, turns the light on and a dark red bruise catches her eye.

"Woah.." she ran her fingers over it, still feeling his lips there.

Climbing into bed, she knew that tonight, her dreams were gonna be about nothing else but his lips on hers.

@soufcakmistress @thegifstories @blackerthings @cocoa-puffs @nahimjustfeelingit-writes @chaneajoyyy @prettyisasprettydoes1306 @headcannonxgalore @henneseyhoe @blowmymbackout @darqchilddaydreamz @becauseimswagman1 @twistedcharismaaa @uzumaki-rebellion @trippyscotch @blackpinup22

[bright-and-burning]

okay yeah i didn't know that there's the different ai stuff and that this is generative ai BUT GOD AM I HAPPY to see that you know the difference between ai and ml like !!! this is not ai !!! it's such a trend now and it's so wrong and so frustrating beyond the, in this case, misogynistic aspects of it. like this is not ai !! but that sounds catchy and URGH so frustrating. okay that's all i love ur additional tags thank u xoxo

yeah!! i did my undergrad degree focused on this kind of stuff (and dropped out of doing a phd in it at the last minute) so it's Literally my roman empire. like. i took so many courses in this and THEN it blew up right at the end of my degree and the misinformation........ chatgpt getting massive my senior year of college made me soooo mad i legit started to resent my field. like this particular use is particularly egregious (why hire a woman in an area severely lacking in women when we can rampantly misuse important computational and REAL LIFE resources to create a fake woman to "talk" abt SUSTAINABILITY!!!) but in general i am like constantly infuriated by AI bullshit from a lot of different sides bc Everyone overestimates/glorifies it/turns it into something it isn't, essentially. (rant abt AI from an AI perspective under the cut that idk might be informative or interesting LOL. i tried not to get technical but i did get mad)

generative ai drives me BONKERS bc it's literally not artificial intelligence. chatgpt is NOT AI it's fucking glorified predictive chat and all the dumbass tech bros on linkedin and twitter who hail it as like world changing infuriate me lol. like chatgpt literally works by calculating the word with the highest probability to come next in the sentence/in response to that prompt based on the data it trained on. is that super impressive ignoring the real world stuff going on? yeah!! it is! it's doing really well and it's fascinating in an academic sense. but then you put it in the real world context, where dumbass tech bros and business leaders worship it as god and where SEO morons use it to turn the internet to sludge and it's like oh god WHY.

and the ai art bullshit oh my god. ok i took a machine vision class right. and like literally one of my projects was to write code that could take in a photo and output it in the "style" of another photo. like as the cs version of a creative exercise, basically (they give u a Lot of projects that are basically write ur own version of an algorithm that's already been written more efficiently by someone else, bc that's how you can kind of pick it apart and really understand it, it's like reverse engineering) to show us how that works. (photos from that project are below; i took the cactus photo and then i "combined" it with a monet. i am STAUNCHLY anti-ai "art" btw this was Lich rally an assignment lol). but do you know what i learned (and what my whole class learned)? it's not fucking magic. it's LINEAR ALGEBRA. it's linear algebra on a truly batshit crazy level, combined with some crazy optical physics equations, but it's literally math. technically speaking, if you had infinite time, and were really insanely good at math (and really really perfect abt not making mistakes), you could do it by hand lol.

ai art from prompts? that's just turning words into numbers (not hard!! i did a project that did that in my second year of undergrad in literally 6hrs!!!) and THEN doing some crazy math and turning numbers into PIXELS! the computer does not know what is going on. it is a FANCY CALCULATOR. WHEN U THINK ABT IT LIKE THAT ASSIGNING HUMAN TRAITS TO MATH IS INSANE.

like tech bros who are like bro chatgpt is aliveeee bc they talk to it is like. if i made my high school graphing calculator draw a smiley face and then was like omg it has emotions......

anyways. like do you know how many projects ive worked on that use AI/ML for GOOD??? like. same kind of techniques that ppl use to create generative ai "art" algorithms? used to do things like detect cancer in scans before human doctors can do it with any confidence. isn't that so fucking cool???? i interviewed w a professor who used machine vision (so literally the field that is now seen as being abt ai art) to figure out what nutritional/vitamin deficiencies ppl in remote villages in madagascar are likely to have based on SATELLITE IMAGERY. so that the overworked underfunded public health ministry could more easily meet their needs without necessarily having to do expensive testing on everyone! i mean, shit, i've worked on really cool sports analytics projects using machine vision. that's not exactly saving lives lol but like. just goes to show how many positive applications there are!

in terms of chatgpt vibes like. i've worked on natural language processing! it has so much more potential than spitting out misinformation!! silly projects for classes, like classifying what political party a politician belonged to based on their tweets, but also more serious stuff in the research i did, like analyzing international public opinion by demographic and country on various conflicts based on individuals' social media posts! analyzing covid vaccine opinions based on demographics, and how to encourage vaccination rates based on that!!

idk it's just. infuriating. that ceos and dumbass business majors (sorry to business majors but i have met a Very Specific Type who like to butt into my field and i am Not A Fan) have completely twisted these really and truly interesting projects and applications. to continually make more money and to cut out/replace more and more people. and the way funding has mirrored this kind of interest, in part bc it makes money (the remote villages nutrition thing is never gonna make money. working on chatgpt on the other hand...) and in part bc of like. basically fear-mongering? you get so much more attention for research in these really dramatized fields (and people lie ALL THE TIMMEEEEEEE to get more interest) and it's all CAP. it's BULLSHIT. and it's just to create buzz for big tech companies' bottom lines. they don't care that it's fear based, or whatever. like people being terrified abt the impact of generative ai bc of bullshit headlines and disinformation HELPS THEM make MORE MONEY. and it's so FUCKING STUPID!!!! it makes me SICK!!!!!!

anyways. it's all math, at the end of the day. and i found a job where i get to use it to help people but i still am like deeply grossed out by what comes out of my field and gets popular bc . i got into this bc i loooove data i love information i love finding things out. and i love using those things to help people... and there are ppl using the things i love to hurt people......... it makes me so sad. and mad.

[tangibletechnomancy]

But really the thing that gets me about the "AI art isn't REAL art" argument-

More than the fact that this is a complete subjective non-argument, more than the fact that attempts to MAKE it objective inevitably lead to...dark places-

Is the fact that, fine, even if we agree that AI generation isn't INHERENTLY art, that's not going to take away the fact that humans fucking love taking "non-artistic" things and MAKING art out of them.

Look at ASCII art - that's "just" typing characters. Fractal art is a modern iteration of a long, LONG tradition of coloring math to make art. People ascribe meaning to found items and call them art - to broad agreement - all the time. Hell, this website itself has a whole subculture of shitposting artistic presentation into anything from candy wrappers to dog pee, or finding the value in art someone dreamed up and dismissed as nonsense upon waking.

So, sure, by one of my two own personal definitions of Art (1. Something someone creates or presents to project an idea; 2. Something someone finds Meaning in; i.e., potentially anything), yeah, I agree that, say, a generic portrait generated with no real intent beyond "look good on a shelf", because a Midjourney credit cuts into profits less than actually hiring an artist, to fill out a cover for Nepo Baby Cash Grab YA Book Of The Week isn't really Art. But what of when someone gives it an abstract prompt for the sake of seeing what the math engine produces in trying to make sense of it? What of when they find a result and spend 5 hours running it through multiple models, creating meaning in the chaos with every step? What of when someone shitposts up a storm, prints it out, and builds on top of it in the physical world? What of when someone uses it as a meditation on what latent space "looks" and "feels" like? What of when the flaws of the medium are the point? What of when the point is found in the fact that the computer doesn't know how absurd any given prompt is and just creates it anyway?

What if someone with hallucinations decides to take photos and img2img them into a deliberately imperfect approximation of what they see?

What if someone takes photos of their childhood play spots and img2img's them into what they imagined?

What if someone just challenges themself to take this "unartistic" medium and run wild with it for a full 24 hours to create one piece and a full meaning they can ascribe to it?

What if someone makes a whole series of art about jailbreaking the walled gardens of corporate AI?

This isn't a theoretical thing someone COULD do but no one IS - none of this is uncommon in the hobbyist space, because again, human beings will make art out of anything. ANYTHING. It's just what people do!

The Great Cosmic Tomato, created using img2img on a public domain photo of the planet Pluto from NASA's New Horizon's mission Generated under the Code of Ethics of Are We Art Yet?