#bugs m 011

[huntertherapyeras]

all the things i don't talk about

anne voice: aster said it's my turn to have the breakdown.

but first, t4t4tsashannarcy's h/c tag club! (lmk if you want off the tag club, i'm mostly just tagging people who asked but also people i really want to see this!!! also feel free to ask to join the tag club also <3)

@mothicalspoken @useless-space-rock-lesbians @arcadiii @starryemeralds @oraclecoven @sweetstrangersearthquake @abyssalzones @insulationsun

title taken from "a pearl" by mitski!

Blurb: "Anne tosses and turns in bed that night. She can’t get comfortable. First, there are too many shadows in her room, so she plugs in her old night light. And then there’s the storm. Anne used to love the way rain sounded against her window, but ever since that first week in Amphibia, it’s only brought a sense of vague discomfort. Makes her feel like any moment she’ll be back in that cave, hiding from the predators outside alongside the worms.

And usually, she can ignore it. But tonight she feels raw, like the exposed nerves of a nail bitten to the quick. Like anything and everything can hurt her.

It’s a scary feeling."

AO3 Link

Word Count: 2,305 words

Content Warning: There is an explicit breakdown, implications of death, implications of harm to children, and an intense depiction of PTSD triggers!

It’s a normal night in the Boonchuy household. Or at least, as normal as a house hosting a family of extradimensional talking frogs can be. Anne is sitting on the couch, browsing through Tweeter, a Thai drama acting as background music to her scrolling. It’s Polly’s turn to use the TV, evidenced by the painstakingly organized schedule pinned to the wall next to it in plain view for the entire house to see – Anne had to write it out a couple of weeks into coming back home because the Plantars kept fighting over who got remote privileges. The quick murmur of Thai is a balm on Anne’s soul, soothing after months of not hearing the language at all.

That’s the thing about being home – Anne finds that things she used to take for granted are somehow more meaningful than before. As it turns out, absence does make the heart grow fonder.

“This is so boring!” complains Sprig. He wilts into the couch dramatically, sending a glare in Polly’s direction.

Polly gleefully ignores him, transfixed by her show. Anne is still surprised by how well she understands it – it took Anne herself years to get the level of fluency she has now. Which is to say, none whatsoever.

Anne’s neck prickles. She can feel Sprig’s eyes staring holes into her. She sighs.

“What’s up, dude?” Anne asks, giving him the side eye.

“I was wondering something…” he replies.

“Okay. Shoot.”

“So… are you going to tell your parents about Sasha and M–”

“No.” Anne interrupts before he can finish the thought.

“Why not? It seems like it’s bothering you a lot.” Sprig asks. Anne hates how his large eyes sparkle with concern. Even without looking at him, she knows the exact face he’s making right now.

“They don’t need to know. You saw how they reacted to finding out about the robots.”

“But isn’t it important? I mean, Marcy–”

The door opens with a bang. In strolls Anne’s mother, arms full of groceries.

“Anne,” she orders, “Go get the rest of the groceries from the car.”

After helping put the groceries away, Anne assists in preparing for dinner. She can’t help but smile fondly as her Mom sings a gushy love song under her breath while she chops the shallots. Tonight they are making ลาบ, or larb, which is one of her Dad’s favorite foods. Anne is excited to have it again – it’s the first time they’ve made it since she got back from Amphibia. She’d tried to make larb with maggots at Stumpy’s, but it just wasn’t the same as the real deal.

“Got it!” Anne says eagerly, hopping up off the couch. Now that Mom’s home, she can avoid talking about it for the remainder of the night. That’s good enough for now. With any luck, Sprig will forget about the conversation by tomorrow.

“Cut the spring onions, will you?” her Mom asks. Anne dutifully does so.

“Good girl. Now go ahead and sit down. You know I don’t like cooking with other people in the room, ที่รัก. (Dear.)”

Anne sits down on the couch with a sigh. Polly is still watching her show, but Sprig is nowhere to be found. That’s probably for the best anyway. She doesn’t particularly want to be questioned right now and Sprig is full of those.

And Anne isn’t sure why she feels this way, but it still puts her on edge.

“Look, Anne!!! สมชาย (Somchai) is about to ask มาลัย (Malai) to marry him!” Anne looks up from her phone to watch. Despite her lack of fluency in the language, she quickly gets sucked into the proposal.

All is well until the smell wafts in from the kitchen. And it’s kind of weird, because normally the scent of cooked pork would make her mouth water. But here, right now, it’s making her feel… uncomfortable. Grossed out. Anxious, even.

“Dinner’s ready,” Calls Mom a few minutes later. Consumed by her discomfort, the yell makes Anne startle and drop her phone. When she picks it up, she notices that her hands are shaking. Weird.

The tremors continue as she sets the table. Anne has to work hard to not place the plates down too hard. The cutlery rattles in her hands loudly, but she tries her best to quiet it. It’s fine, everything is fine. Anne doesn’t even know why she’s feeling this way. It’s like there’s a ticking bomb in her chest, set to explode at a hair trigger.

It doesn’t matter, though. All that matters right now is getting through dinner.

Anne tries her best to act as Normal As Possible as they all sit down to eat. She moves on autopilot, smiling whenever someone looks at her and making casual conversation. And she thinks she’s doing okay, until –

“Anne, are you going to eat your ลาบ (larb)? It’s usually your favorite…”

She decidedly ignores the call of her name that follows.

Anne forces a smile. It feels as fake as plastic, pulling against her tense jaw, “It’s good! But I’m actually not very hungry right now, haha. Must’ve eaten too many snacks this afternoon, you know me,” she lets out a nervous laugh, energy like electricity dancing up her back as she runs a hand through her tangled curls, “Actually, I think I’m gonna go get started on that unit five book report and go to bed early. Goodnight!”

Anne tosses and turns in bed that night. She can’t get comfortable. First, there are too many shadows in her room, so she plugs in her old night light. And then there’s the storm. Anne used to love the way rain pounded against her window, but ever since that first week in Amphibia it’s only brought a sense of vague discomfort. Makes her feel like any moment she’ll be back in that cave, hiding from the predators outside alongside the worms.

And usually, she can ignore it. But tonight she feels raw, like the exposed nerves of a nail bitten to the quick. Like anything and everything can hurt her.

It’s a scary feeling.

Eventually, though, she does doze off. But even then, her dreams are anything but peaceful.

It starts with her running through a forest. There is Something coming, something big, and it’s after her. She runs and runs. Her lungs feel like they are going to burst. Black dots spot her vision. She accidentally stumbles into quicksand. It takes a second for her to get her foot out. She continues running, barely noticing her lost shoe until she gets her sock wet crossing a rocky stream. She keeps going anyway, terror traveling through her veins like the blood keeping her alive. She’s got to go, got to go, got to go, got to get away –

She’s on top of toad tower, shoulder aching as she holds onto Sasha for dear life. Her hand is sweaty. She can feel Sasha slipping. Her recently crushed forearm is filled with a searing pain. But it doesn’t matter. Without Anne’s hand, Sasha will fall to her death.

“Hey, Anne? Maybe you’re better off without me.” Sasha says before she lets go–

They’re in the throne room. Anne feels a mixture of exhaustion and adrenaline. They’re so close, so close to home, they’re going to escape, all three of them, they’re going to be okay…

Before she can breathe out a sigh of relief, though, Marcy looks up at her, “I just need to–” she’s cut off mid sentence, a flaming sword through her gut.

Anne startles awake with a barely muffled shout. Her heart beats a heavy staccato against her chest. This isn’t the first time she’s had this dream. Normally, she’d get up. Pace around a bit like her cat does when she’s feeling boxed in. But right now, the fear is too great for her to even move. It’s like there’s something coming, like someone’s gonna fall, like there’s a sword against her back. But there isn’t. She’s at home, in bed. Domino stares at Anne curiously from the foot of her bed.

She needs to calm down, Anne knows she does. But her heart is beating like she’s running for her life and her head is spinning and it feels like all the air’s been sucked out of the room and she is so, so afraid. So instead she begins to cry.

And she tries to stay quiet, she does. But frogs have very good hearing. And the guest room shares a wall with her own.

“Anne?” says a tentative voice. Anne looks up. She didn’t even notice the door open, lost in her own mind as she was. Sprig is looking at her with his big, innocent eyes. He looks worried.

“Anne, are you okay?”

Beside herself, Anne simply lets out a keening cry, burying her face in her hands as though that will somehow make the tears go away. She hates it when people see her cry, hasn’t showed weakness like this in front of someone since she was six years old, and yet–

And yet.

“Now see here, what’s going on?” Comes Hop Pop’s stern grumble.

“Anne’s upset.” murmurs Sprig, sounding small and scared, “I don’t know what to do.”

Anne wraps her arms around her legs, burying her face in her knees. She doesn’t deserve their kindness, doesn’t deserve a lick of it–not when Sasha is stuck in a terrifying world full of talking amphibians, not when Marcy is–

“Anne? Do you need me to get your parents?” Hop Pop asks in a soft tone, putting his webbed hand on her knee. She flinches at his touch, then shakes her head desperately. Nonono, they can’t see this. Can’t see her break down. What will they think of her, if they know how scared she is? Will they even let her go back if they find out? She is strong, she is brave, she can handle this and anything the world throws at her.

If only she could just breathe.

But the thing is, the moment Anne tries to focus on her breathing, she becomes all too aware of the rest of her body–the beating of her too-fast heart, the way her hair feels like spiderwebs on her neck, the way her lungs burn from all the running–the way that she’s breathing. It’s a never-ending cycle of try to breathe, realize you can’t, get scared because you can’t breathe and everything is uncomfortable and scary and you can’t feel your hands and the rain is going to drown you like a tidal wave. Rinse and repeat.

And of course, concerned as they are at her obvious and embarrassing breakdown, the Plantars get her parents anyway.

“Anne? Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

Anne curls up tighter. Even if she could begin to explain all the things wrong right now, she wouldn’t. There’s too much at stake. Maybe, in an ideal world, she would be a perfect person. Maybe, in an ideal world, Anne would be known as her parent’s responsible daughter. Maybe, in an ideal world, Marcy and Sasha would be home, and safe, and they would all be spending their days making mischief in the park and drinking their weight in boba.

But this isn’t an ideal world. And Anne is not an ideal person. Anne is not her parent’s responsible daughter.

She’s just a scared kid, and she is so tired.

“Oh, Annie,” Mom says softly, sitting down on Anne’s bed. She reaches out a smooth hand out, grabbing one of Anne’s callused ones and rubbing her fingers along the ridges soothingly. The action is so comforting, so familiar, that Anne has to bite back a wail. It’s like she’s three years old again and crying over a skinned knee. God, she would do anything for a small surface wound to be her biggest problem. Slowly, as though telegraphing her movements, Anne’s mom scoots in close to her daughter, enveloping her in a hug. Only then does Anne realize how cold she is, how her entire body feels like she’s soaked to the bone in ice water.

“Anne. Can you breathe for me?”

Anne tries again to breathe, but it just won’t come. She shakes her head.

“Mmm, let’s try something else,” Mom says, situating Anne so that her ear is placed directly against her heart, “Can you hear my heart beating?”

Anne nods. But she isn’t sure Mom can feel that, so she makes a little sound instead.

“Listen to my heartbeat, Annie. Do you hear it?”

Anne makes another sound to say yes.

“Good girl. Can you copy my breathing now? Listen.”

Anne tries. It takes a few minutes of concentration, but eventually her own heart begins to mimic the calmer thrum of Mom’s slow and steady one.

“Just like when you were a baby, hm? You used to love my hugs,” Mom says wistfully, “When did you grow up?”

Anne frowns, burying her face in her mother’s chest. As much as she tries to act like it nowadays, she feels as far from “grown up” as she can get. And she’s tired of trying, if she’s being honest.

“I’m proud of you, you know,” Mom continues, “You work so hard to help the Plantars. But you have to work hard to help yourself, too.”

Anne deflates. Mom’s right. But it’s just so hard to take care of yourself when all you can think about is someone else. It’s a heavy burden, but one she has to bear. Maybe though, just maybe, she doesn’t have to bear it on her own.

“Mom?” she says. Her voice is hoarse. Her throat feels dry and scratchy like sandpaper.

“Yes, ที่รัก (dear)?”

“I need to talk to you about something. Dad too. But I’m… I’m not sure how to.”

“Take your time. We’ll be here when you are ready.”

“Promise?” Anne asks.

“I promise.”

[spaececase]

it really says a lot that i can handle a fly infestation so well emotionally at this point bc when i was a teenager i saw a few maggots on a trashbag and got so upset that i thought there were bugs in my eyes and then my nose started bleeding and i had the biggest panic attack ever. now i just tic a little bit 😌

[elgaberino-mcoc]

MCOC Wishlist Poll Snapshot: Entire Rankings

001 Mystique 002 Quicksilver 003 Beta Ray Bill 004 Sandman 005 Adam Warlock 006 Kitty Pryde 007 Lizard 008 Morbius the Living Vampire 009 Kraven the Hunter 010 Cloak & Dagger 011 Spider-Man 2099 012 Black Cat 013 Bullseye 014 Jessica Jones 015 Ares 016 Shang-Chi 017 Gladiator (Kallark) 018 Baron Zemo 019 Lady Deathstrike 020 Enchantress 021 Valkyrie MCU 022 Knull 023 Morgan le Fay 024 Scorpion 025 Captain Britain 026 Galactus 027 Dazzler 028 Silver Samurai 029 Black Knight 030 Dracula 031 Hobgoblin 032 Pyro 033 Fantomex 034 Spider-Woman 035 Jean Grey 90s 036 Silk 037 Polaris 038 Silver Sable 039 Sif 040 Anti-Venom 041 Mister Negative 042 Crystal 043 Legion 044 Shocker 045 Malekith the Accursed 046 Destroyer Armor 047 M'baku the Man-Ape 048 The Mandarin 049 Emplate 050 Multiple-Man 051 Shuri 052 Banshee 053 Onslaught 054 Warpath 055 Sunfire 056 Cannonball 057 Dark Phoenix 058 Blue Marvel 059 Prowler (Aaron Davis) 060 Okoye 061 Mockingbird 062 Spiral 063 Madame Hydra / Viper 064 Hydro-Man 065 Red She-Hulk 066 Agent Anti-Venom 067 Blackheart 068 Gorr the God-Butcher 069 Songbird 070 Quasar 071 Absorbing Man 072 Whiplash 073 Armor 074 Daimon Hellstrom 075 Wendigo 076 Nimrod 077 Graviton 078 Gwenom 079 Deathlok 080 Firestar 081 Vulcan 082 Wonder Man 083 Selene 084 Blob 085 Klaw 086 Rachel Summers 087 Thor (MCU Stormbreaker) 088 Shadow King 089 White Tiger 090 Tombstone 091 Jack O'Lantern 092 Valkyrie Classic 093 Toad 094 Moonstone 095 Weapon H 096 Jocasta 097 Dani Moonstar 098 Monica Rambeau 099 Wolfsbane 100 Franklin Richards 101 Ancient One 102 Arnim Zola 103 Exodus 104 Forge 105 Supergiant 106 Madelyne Pryor 107 Hank Pym 108 Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) 109 Negasonic Teenage Warhead 110 Spider-Man Noir 111 Phantom Rider 112 Blink 113 Sebastian Shaw 114 Clea 115 Black Tom Cassidy 116 Kurse 117 Danger 118 Daken 119 Omega Sentinel 120 Grim Reaper 121 Radioactive Man 122 Shatterstar 123 Darkstar 124 Werewolf by Night 125 Hope Summers 126 The Magus 127 Union Jack 128 Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) 129 Crimson Dynamo 130 Pixie 131 Conan 132 Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly) 133 Azazel 134 Jigsaw 135 Boom-Boom 136 Swarm 137 Xorn 138 Machine Man 139 Black Widow (Yelena Belova) 140 Madame Masque 141 Misty Knight 142 Chamber 143 Mistress Death 144 Skaar 145 Morlun 146 Thanos (Endgame) 147 Leader 148 Sleepwalker 149 Deacon Frost 150 Black Swan 151 Agent 13 (Sharon Carter) 152 Fin Fang Foom 153 Ka-Zar 154 Arcade 155 Iron Spider 156 Dust 157 Gorgon 158 Lash 159 Namora 160 A-Bomb (Rick Jones) 161 Ikaris 162 Nick Fury (Classic) 163 Rescue 164 Nico Minoru 165 Volstagg 166 Weapon Hex 167 Stingray 168 Maximus the Mad 169 Cyttorak 170 Skurge the Executioner 171 Doc Samson 172 Maverick / Agent Zero 173 Sauron 174 Baron Blood 175 Captain America Falcon 176 Wong 177 Mantis 178 Whirlwind 179 Firelord 180 Magma 181 Molecule Man 182 White Fox 183 Nova (Sam Alexander) 184 Satana 185 Dum Dum Dugan (LMD) 186 Holocaust 187 Shiklah 188 Valkyrie Moonstar 189 High Evolutionary 190 Bloodaxe 191 Magus (Technarch) 192 Nighthawk 193 Punisher: War Machine 194 Goliath (Bill Foster) 195 Nova (Frankie Raye) 196 Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) 197 Dr. Cecilia Reyes 198 Sentinel X (Shogo Lee) 199 Thena 200 Hellcat 201 Cosmic Spider-Man 202 Attuma 203 Shroud 204 Doctor Nemesis 205 Siryn 206 Nate Grey 207 Iron Monger 208 Black Mamba 209 Agent Carter 210 Kluh 211 Tiger Shark 212 Purple Man 213 Snowbird 214 Ice-Thing 215 Lilandra 216 Superior Spider-Man 217 Thane 218 Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur 219 Jackal 220 Jean Grey (X-Men Red) 221 Punisher: Frankencastle 222 Puck 223 Rockslide 224 Red Ghost and his Super-Apes 225 Deathbird 226 Hydra Supreme 227 Strong Guy 228 Zarda the Power Princess 229 Sage 230 Quentin Quire (aka Kid Omega) 231 Prowler (Hobie Brown) 232 Slapstick 233 Stardust (Lambda Zero) 234 Titanium Man 235 D'spayre 236 Colleen Wing 237 Thunderbird (John Proudstar) 238 Iron Maiden 239 Gorilla-Man (Kenneth Hale) 240 Jack of Hearts 241 Titania 242 Avalanche 243 Toxic Doxie 244 Death’s Head 245 Impossible Man 246 Worthy Captain America (Mjölnir/Endgame) 247 Outlaw (Higgins) 248 Scarlet Spider II (Kaine Parker) 249 Beetle 250 Typhoid Mary 251 Bloodscream 252 Serpent (Cul Borson) 253 Ms. America Chavez 254 Ghost Rider (Reyes) 255 Hummingbird 256 Mercury 257 M (Monet St. Croix) 258 Black Tarantula 259 Spitfire 260 Wizard 261 Superior Octopus 262 Maria Hill 263 Minotaur (Dario Agger) 264 Echo 265 Morph 266 Karolina Dean 267 Zarathos 268 Thundra 269 Smasher (Kane) 270 Hyperstorm 271 Boomerang 272 Stature (Cassie Lang, AKA Stinger) 273 Meggan 274 Caliban 275 Hollow 276 Abyss (Styger) 277 Silverclaw 278 Red King 279 Doctor Druid 280 U.S. Agent 281 Sersi 282 Molten Man 283 Zzzax 284 Singularity 285 Agatha Harkness 286 Blastaar 287 Korvac 288 Citizen V 289 Carter Slade the Satan-Stomper 290 Post 291 Shuma-Gorath 292 Sin 293 Triton 294 Quasar (Kincaid) 295 Martinex 296 Iron Man (Mark I) 297 Wiccan 298 Speedball 299 Paladin 300 Amanda Sefton 301 Overmind 302 Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) 303 Feral 304 Charlie-27 305 Rom: Spaceknight 306 Juggerduck 307 The Uranian 308 Blazing Skull 309 Starfox 310 Living Laser 311 Hiro-Kala 312 Namorita 313 Jack Flag 314 Stormborn 315 Doctor Bong 316 Crescent & Io 317 Gamora mcu 318 Wave 319 Ironheart 320 Venom Rocket 321 Doctor Spectrum 322 Davos the Steel Serpent 323 Lady Hellbender 324 Falcon classic 325 Bloodstorm 326 Tempus (Eva Bell) 327 Voyager 328 No-Name the Brood 329 Demon Bear 330 Moondragon 331 Arachne 332 Aero 333 Andromeda 334 Speed Demon 335 Phyla-Vell 336 Xemnu the Living Hulk 337 Aleta 338 Araña 339 Human Torch (Jim Hammond) 340 Constrictor 341 Iso 342 Arkon 343 Genis-Vell 344 Shanna the She-Devil 345 Volcana 346 Batroc the Leaper 347 Arclight 348 Scientist Supreme 349 Yukio 350 N'kantu the Living Mummy 351 Gentle 352 Caiera the Oldstrong 353 Beetle (Janice Lincoln) 354 Penance (Baldwin) 355 Super-Adaptoid 356 Ajak 357 Future Colossus 358 Moses Magnum 359 Vampire by Night 360 Superia 361 Puppet Master 362 Chimera 363 Count Nefaria 364 Stick 365 Hellion 366 Agent May 367 Mister Hyde 368 Spot 369 Cobra 370 Doop 371 Lyja 372 Wrecker 373 Stargod/Man-Wolf 374 Stilt-Man 375 Machinesmith 376 Spider-Bitch 377 Madame Web 378 Corsair & Sikorsky 379 Thor (Groot) 380 Balder 381 Random 382 Power Man (Alvarez) 383 Starhawk 384 Sun-Girl (Selah Burke) 385 Arcanna 386 Scream 387 Kree Sentry 388 Agent Phil Coulson 389 Thunderstrike (Kevin) 390 Talos 391 Carmilla Black 392 Uatu 393 Jennifer Kale 394 Warwolf 395 Enigma (Aikku Jokinen, AKA Pod) 396 Belasco 397 Swordsman 398 Trevor Fitzroy 399 Dazzler Thor 400 Hepzibah 401 Atlas 402 Ogun 403 Yellowjacket (DeMara) 404 Hala the Accuser 405 Entropy 406 War Machine (Infinity War) 407 Animax 408 Captain Universe 409 Whizzer 410 Hogun the Grim 411 Cottonmouth (Clemens) 412 Blizzard 413 Storm (Queen of Wakanda) 414 Silhouette 415 Immortus 416 Beast (Hex-Men) 417 Solo 418 White Rabbit 419 Aurora 420 Equinox 421 Hellcow 422 Owl 423 Arsenic & Old Lace 424 Beetle mk iii 425 Valeria (Age of Conan) 426 Trapster 427 Throg 428 Mimic 429 Hulkling 430 Iron Lad 431 Angel (Black Vortex) 432 Marionette 433 Phastos 434 Hobgoblin 2099 435 Razor Fist 436 Asp 437 Baymax 438 Captain America (Peggy Carter) 439 Sp//dr 440 Tarantula (Kaine) 441 Silver Scorpion (Barstow) 442 Midnight Angels of Wakanda 443 Demolition Man 444 White Wolf (Hunter) 445 Synapse 446 Kingo 447 Grey Gargoyle 448 Gilgamesh the Forgotten One 449 Justice 450 Atlas Bear 451 Iron Fist (Orson Randall) 452 Victorious 453 Lincoln Campbell 454 Luna Snow 455 Zadkiel 456 Crystar 457 Husk 458 Gravity 459 Kaecilius 460 Marrina 461 Ghost Rider (Circle of Four) 462 Nighthawk Supremeverse 463 Fixer 464 Cardiac 465 Capwolf 466 Kull the Conqueror of Atlantis 467 Noh-Varr 468 Korath the Pursuer 469 Miss America (Joyce) 470 Blackjack O'Hare 471 Bi-Beast 472 Vance Astro 473 Bushmaster (Quincy) 474 Krugarr 475 Poundcakes 476 Yo-Yo 477 American Son 478 Mister M 479 Cottonmouth (Stokes) 480 Manphibian 481 Infamous Iron Man 482 Paibok the Power-Skrull 483 Shatter 484 Daredevil Shadowland 485 Nakia 486 Garrison Kane 487 Makkari 488 Elloe 489 Northstar 490 Spiderling 491 She-Hulk (Lyra) 492 Proteus 493 Grey Hulk 494 Doorman 495 Toro 496 Nuke 497 Acroyear 498 Blonde Phantom 499 Drax MCU 500 Orrgo 501 Marvel Girl NPC 502 Fandral the Dashing 503 Spider-Girl 504 Ms. Thing 505 Captain America 2099 506 Veranke 507 Haechi 508 Mulholland Black 509 Mighty Destroyer 510 Eclipse 511 Powell McTeague 512 Druig 513 Copycat 514 Terror 515 Ahab 516 God-Emperor Doom 517 Doombot (V Series) 518 Sword Master 519 Cyclone 520 Black Mariah 521 Zenzi 522 Thor: Herald of Thunder 523 3-D Man 524 Hulk Endgame 525 Tetu 526 Doctor Octopus (Liv Octavius) 527 Margali 528 Molly Hayes 529 Sinara 530 Aldrich Killian 531 Goldballs 532 Mindless Ones 533 Nikki Gold 534 Foolkiller 535 Darkwing Duck 536 Thunderstrike (Eric) 537 She-Thing (Ventura) 538 Killmonger (Emperor Symbiote) 539 Iron Duck 540 Ms. Marvel II (Ventura) 541 Spymaster 542 Scalphunter 543 Spider-Man (Miles Morales Movie) 544 Karn 545 Gun-R 546 Terminus 547 Achebe 548 Llyra 549 Bushmaster (John) 550 Sugar Man 551 Great Lakes Avengers 552 Xarggu 553 Human Fly (Deacon) 554 Shogun 555 Plantman 556 Brawn 557 Elixir 558 Litterbug 559 Smasher (Rokk) 560 Bug 561 Mammomax 562 Synch 563 Anaconda 564 Wolvie 565 Dirk Anger 566 Captain [****] 567 Ezekiel 568 Diamondback (Stryker) 569 Unworthy Thor 570 Master Mold 571 Masked Marauder 572 M.O.D.A.M. 573 Hellsgaard 574 Hulkbuster 2.0 575 Forgetmenot 576 Ghaur 577 Arcturus Rann 578 Ultimate Green Goblin (Movie) 579 Dragoness 580 Porcupine 581 M-11 582 Taskmaster MCU 583 Dansen Macabre 584 Lady Bullseye 585 Harpoon 586 Unicorn 587 Bushwacker 588 Loki variant 589 Night Nurse 590 Psyklop 591 Mack 592 Eel 593 Water Snake 594 Chaos King 595 Red Hulk (Maverick) 596 Kaluu 597 The Russian 598 Geena Drake 599 Jimmy Hudson 600 Slayback 601 Mentallo 602 Skull the Slayer 603 Karkas 604 Dominic Fortune 605 The Buzz 606 Doctor Crocodile 607 Ox 608 Dorrek VII 609 Needle 610 Krang 611 Dino-Thor 612 Stegron 613 Zeitgeist 614 [VACANT] 615 [VACANT] 616 [VACANT]

[may-lin-b]

A Bad Idea Written Last Night After Midnight - By this dumbass [SE Fanfic]

She sat in front of her screen, forcing her fingers to type as her eyes focused on the lines of codes in front of her, trying to finish polishing the codes for the upcoming release. After a long moment of not being able to find the line that was messing things up for her, she sighed tiredly and took a big sip of the BlueBuffalo (™) energy drink—she didn’t care for its taste, but it was the only thing keeping her awake for the last couple of days.

“Let’s check the main blog to see if there’s any new asks,” she said to herself, “It would be at least something productive to do for now.”

Almost unwillingly, she pried her fingers away from the keyboard and switched the tap, logging on to her main blog, sweetelite-staff.tumblr.com.

When the blue screen loaded, and before her eyes could notice the blue bubble with the 99+ above her ask icon, she saw it. The post.

“Hey, heads up everyone! Apparently someone inserted their oc into the game and now there’s this bug that adds them as a li. I didn’t receive the bug in any of my game plays but apparently others have. So if you see this bug called “Tadashi” stay away and hopefully staff will fix it soon!!”

A small laugh escaped her lips, feeling grateful that her followers were this hilarious, and clicked on the notes to see the “funny” comments.

“A bug that’s pretending to be a love interest!” She laughed, shaking her head as she replied to a few of them before clicking back to her main screen and finally noticed the asks.

I swear there were less than 30 in the morning? She thought, clicking on the letter icon and waiting for the screen to load.

She laughed at first, seeing that the latest three asks were about the bug joke, but her emotions quickly changed to confusion then anger when she saw that almost all of the asks were about it.

“Did I speak too soon about the followers?” She thought, clicking away from the page and returning to her dashboard to write a post about it, but her dash was covered in mentions and @s from her followers.

There were posts from almost all the active ones speaking about the bug and how he, Tadashi they called him, was the ninth love interest, and was bullying the players in her game.

“Tadashi...?” she muttered as she typed his name in the search box, followed by sweet elite, and her jaw dropped.

There were hundreds of posts about him, some having hundreds of likes and reblogs. And some of those posts were from her main account. His face looked taunting, judging, but almost familiar.

“That hair…” She thought, but quickly shook the thought. There is no way this is real, someone must be playing a prank on her. True, she had intended to add a tenth character, but no one knew of that but her staff, and their design wasn’t finished yet.

She took a second to breath, convincing herself that this is the effect of her lack of sleep. “I’m hallucinating…” She said in a low. “That must be it. Because otherwise…” As her voice faded, she extended her hands to the keyboard and typed her websites name, and clicked.

And there he was. His image on the main page.

She wasn't sure if it was anger or the lack of sleep, but she was not willing to see what this is. She had to delete him.

Opening the pages of the codes, she clicked control + F and typed his name, then enter. And she had to contain herself to stop the cry that was about to escape her lips.

There were thousands and thousands of mentions of him, page, bio, dialogues, codes.  THIS IS INSANE! She thought, not wanting to open her mouth because she was afraid to actually scream in anger and fear. WHO DID THIS TO MY CODE? AND WHO ADDED HIM TO MY STORY?

With shaky hands, she moved the cursor to the button next to his name count that said “REMOVE ALL” that would erase everything about him in her codes—i know that's not how it work but its too much to do and honestly boring fam, so stay with me, m’’kay?— and clicked it.

The counter went to zero, and she let out a loud exhale, and breathed deeply. It’s gone. She thought, her lips quivering as she laughed in relief. She clicked back to her dashboard and typed a quick letter, informing her followers that the evil bug had been erased with a small gif under it. She clicked post and refreshed her page, wanting to see when people commented on it. But her post wasn’t there.

Instead, a different post made by her main blog was there, it read:

Dear Sweet Elite fans.

The bug you have found it actually a teaser to our new and most favorite dateable character that will be joining the game with the full release.

His name is Tadashi, and we, the Sweet Elite Staff, stan him.

“No…. No, No, NO!” She cried, trying to click the post to delete it, but the website kicked her off and she watched it go to the login screen.

She hunched forward and typed in her login to her staff blog, but it said that it’s wrong. She attempted her main blog as well but it said that her email was not attached to any account and if she wanted to sign up with it.

Angry and confused, she typed in the login to her old blog and was able to access it. But she saw that the damage had already been done.

She saw many of her followers and friends reblogging her post with comments, both excited and confused by the sudden update, but none of them seemed to be alarmed—except for Maisa, cuz that girl is wild lamo.

Looking through the main posts notes, she saw her staff members agreeing with the post and making jokes about it, discussing things about the future of the characters and how they were all stans now.

This is insanity! She thought, placing her hands on her head and staring with wide eyes at the madness that had happened. “This is not my game! This is not my character! This is not me!”

She hurriedly clicked on the code tap and saw that she was still able to access it, but was informed that a second person is coding and had changed the code.

Would you like to see the changes? The page read on top, but she wasn’t able to click no, all that she could do was agree.

The new code loaded, it was the oe she had just deleted, with the bug back in it.

The page flickered, and the code was erased for a moment, with only zeros and ones on the screen.

01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 01010011 01100101 01110010 01100101 01101110 01100001

Having dealt with binary, she quickly pulled up a decoder and translated it.

Hello Serena

The code disappeared again, and she saw the line blink on the empty screen.

If it hadn’t been for what she had been through, this would have made her panic, but she was far too angry and tired to emote.

She typed slowly, on the screen. Who are you and what have you done to my game and accounts?!

The screen went empty again and a second code appeared.

01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01010100 01100001 01100100 01100001 01110011 01101000 01101001 00101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101110

I'm Tadashi, your tenth and best character for Sweet Elite.

Translating it, her eyes went wide in disbelief, and she backed out of her screen.

“No, you're not!” She yelled at her monitor. “I only have ten!”

The screen flickered, and another code appeared on her screen.

01010100 01101000 01100101 01101110 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100101 01111000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01100101 01111000 01101001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101110 01100100 01101111 01101101 00111111 00100000

Then her tap changed, going to the decoder and pasting the code.

Then how do you explain my existence in the fandom?

With horror in her eyes, she looked around at her surrounding, trying to find an explanation to why this is happening.

“HOW THE HELL DID YOU HEAR THAT?! WHERE ARE YOU?”

Another code typed itself, the it went back to the decoder.

I’m right here. In your codes.

“NO! NO NO NO NO NO! YOU’RE HACKING MY  COMPUTER AND MESSING WITH MY CODES!”

There was a pause for a moment, but the code typed itself again and translated itself.

You have this all wrong you loser, lol. I’m in YOUR code.

Then another line appeared.

Watch.

The screen blinked, switching to a different tap and showing a second coding screen. A few lines were written and the mouse moved, clicking on the word “Save.”

Then, the room around her disappeared, and she found herself sitting in an empty white space, with only here and the monitor in front of her.

Completely frozen from fear, she dropped down on the white floor, her eyes glued to the empty screen.

“Why are you doing this…” She asked, her voice empty.

Another code appeared, but she found herself able to read it without translation

01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 00100111 01100101 01101101

“WHY! WHAT ARE YOU GAINING BY MAKING ME ENDURE ALL OF THIS?!”

Another code appeared, and her mind read it and understood its content.

01101000 01110100 01110100 01110000 00111010 00101111 00101111 01101011 01101001 01110100 01110100 01111001 01100011 01101000 01100001 01101110 00101101 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00101101 01100101 01101110 01101011 01100001 00101110 01110100 01110101 01101101 01100010 01101100 01110010 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101 00101111 01110000 01101111 01110011 01110100 00101111 00110001 00110111 00110000 00110001 00110111 00111000 00110011 00110110 00110101 00110111 00110100 00110101 00101111 01110000 01110010 01100101 01110011 01100101 01101110 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101101 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00101101 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101101 01101111 01110010 00101101 01100001 01110000 01101111 01101100 01101111 01100111 01111001

“...No.” she said, covering her mouth from shock. “This is too much…”

The screen went white, matching the walls of this white emptiness, leaving her alone in the midst of it. And after a moment, a code stretched across it.

01000111 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101100 01100101 01100101 01110000 00101100 00100000 01010011 01100101 01110010 01100101 01101110 01100001 00101110

And then, she woke up.

[k-young-audio]

Coding ADSR in Max MSP

As an audio programmer, a tool that often comes up in my practice is Max MSP. Max MSP is a visual based programming language designed for use specifically with audio applications. Max isn’t a text based language to be used in an IDE like C++, instead Max is it’s own application, and audio signal processing algorithms can be created, and then within exported into a applications as a standalone app, or can be exported into ableton. “Although MaxMSP is a little esoteric compared with mainstream music products, it is deeply entrenched in the digital media scene. This is mainly because of its flexibility: as an open–ended audio and media toolkit, artists, programmers and studio engineers have used it to construct all sorts of software systems, from audio plug–ins to art installations, and a fair proportion of laptop gigs worldwide will be at least partially Max–powered” (Rothwell, 2008)

Max is an interesting tool for new audio programmers because scripting and syntax errors aren’t an issue in de-bugging. Objects are pulled out of the Max library for us to use. As a programming language however, Max does have some drawbacks. “Sometimes, a task benefits from the particular strengths of 'real' languages: they can express algorithms succinctly (allowing direct iterative or recursive approaches), support complex data structures, can manipulate text, and are generally modular, allowing tasks to be broken up into separate parts in ways that a graphical paradigm doesn't easily support.” (Rothwell, Cycling '74 Max 8, 2019)

Making an ADSR envelope.

I want to use Max to create a simple ADSR plugin to be used in audio in Ableton. To do this I am researching into ADSR from a coding viewpoint. Looking at ADSR from a coding viewpoint seems relatively straightforward. Using my own experience in audio programming I know that ADSR is an amplitude envelope, and should contain 4 variables which are Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release. So the program created should contain these four values.

Doing further research into deconstructing the workings in ADSR, I have found the following important keypoints for designing and building an ADSR.

·       “The generator gets out of the ATTACK, DECAY and RELEASEstage by itself: After a given time has passed, it calls enterStageto go to the next stage.

·       It stays in the OFF and SUSTAIN stages indefinitely, until enterStage is called from outside.

·       Therefore, ATTACK, DECAY and RELEASE are time values, but SUSTAIN is a level value.

·       It can enter the RELEASE stage coming from the ATTACK, DECAY or SUSTAIN stage.

·       When entering RELEASE, it should decay from the current leveldown to zero.” (Finke, 2015)

Researching this lead me to P5.JS. An online platform with an open source library for audio objects coded in JavaScript. Within P5.JS, there was this example code for an ADSR envelope.

https://p5js.org/reference/#/p5.Envelope

As stated above, Max is a visual language, so the work of writing the text is already done in the Max library, meaning that there is no risk of typing syntax error. Cycling 74 have provided documentation of the inner workings of the ADSR object, and the parameters included.

(Cycling74)

Exploring ASRD, particularly from a coding standpoint has been useful in my professional practice as an audio programmer. When programming, it is important to understand the fundamentals behind the theory of what you’re trying to code to turn it into a practical and executable program.

Below I have linked a video I have made, putting my research into ADSR in coding into practice. I will follow this us with an updated video where I create another version of the code in Max.

References

Finke, M. (2015). Audio Plugins 011 Envelopes. Retrieved from Martin Finke: http://www.martin-finke.de/blog/articles/audio-plugins-011-envelopes/

Rothwell, N. (2008, 8). Cycling 74 Max 5. Retrieved 2020, from Sound on Sound: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/cycling-74-max-5

[spy-in-the-house]

4 Dayz In Detroit 02_BUG OUT @ The Works 05282016

Psycho Thrill Cologne's founder Claus Bachor closing the "BUG OUT" Movement '16-event at THE WORKS frontroom, right after Soiree Rec. Int.'s frontman Drivetrain aka Derrick Thompson, while DTM (Tom Linder & Bill Stacy) and Steve Bug made it seriously straight on the club's (back)main floor. Vinyl sounds range from Detroit Techno and Hi-Tech Funk to Detroit rooted House and BeatDown.

The mix features fourty tracks by Claude Young, 3MB feat. Eddie 'Flashin' Fowlkes, 7S Collective pres. The Machinists, Keith Tucker, Matt Chester, Itokim, Unit 2, Esser'Ay, Visitor, Robert Hood, Robot Man, Dopplereffekt (2), Scott Grooves, Julian Kendall, Timeline, Felix Da Housecat (remixed by Robert Hood), Sean Tate, Tony Brown, Oliverwho Factory, Rick 'The Godson' Wilhite, Baby Pop, Steve Lorenz, The Other People Play, Iridite Productions, Naquil, Monty Luke, Chez Damier (remixed by Kai Alcé), The Unknown, Fedde & Marcello B (remixed by Orlando Voorn), Fix feat. Orlando Voorn & Blake Baxter, Daniel Bell, Cool Peepl feat. Billy Love, Amp Fiddler & Sundiata O.M. (remixed by Mr.G), Rick Wade, KB Project, Professor Inc (2), Niko Marks, Theo Parrish, & Ujuzi.

TRACK LISTING 01 CLAUDE YOUNG: Impolite To Refuse [ A2-track from "Detroit - Beyond The Third Wave" (Album Sampler) US 12" | 1996 ] 02 3MB feat. EDDIE 'FLASHIN' FOWLKES: The Golden Apple [ D-side from "Technosoul" Tresor 008 DE 2x12" | 1993 ] 03 7S COLLECTIVE pres. THE MACHINISTS: Jerk It [ B1-track from "The Seventh Sign Collective Vol.2" Sevents Sign Recordings 7SR-011 UK 12" | 2006 ] 04 KEITH TUCKER: WDTR [ A-side from "Stick It In Your Ear" End>To<End 004 US Promo-12" | 2002 ] 05 MATT CHESTER: Defeat Me [ A1-track from "Into The Fall" 11th Hour Recordings EHR-002 UK Promo-12" | 2004 ] 06 ITOKIM: The Mood Device [ B-side from "Subject Japan: Rhythm Poems" Subject Detroit SUB-039 US 12"| Detroit Threads / FIT Distr. ] 07 UNIT 2 [RAPHAEL MERRIWEATHERS JR. & NIKO MARKS]: Hillary Clinton [ B-side from Ideal Trax IDEAL-T5 UK Promo-12" | 1996 ] 08 ESSER'AY [KEVIN MAURICE SAUNDERSON] : Forces _ Reese Mix [ A-side from KMS 052 US 12" | 1994 ] 09 VISITOR [DAVE HILL & MARK BROOM]: Cottage Pie [ B1-track from "Out of The Red" D1 Recordings Done-010 UK promo-12"| 1998 ] 10 ROBERT HOOD: Realm [ B2-track from "Post Office" Telegraph 006LP / Logistic FRA Promo-2x12" | 2002 ] 11 ROBOT MAN [RICHIE HAWTIN]: Hypno Freak [ A3-track from "Never" Definitive Recordings DEF-003 US Red-12" | 1992 ] 12 DOPPLEREFFEKT [GERALD DONALD, KIM KARLI, MICHAELA TO-NHAN BERTEL, WILLIAM SCOTT]: Pornoactress [ B2-track from "Infophysix" Dataphysix Engineering DX-002 US 12" | 1996 ] 13 S.G. [SCOTT GROOVES]: Deneb (Hybrid Part) [ B1-track from "Parts Manager 2" Natural Midi 009 12" | Detroit Threads / W.A.S. Distr. ] 14 JULIAN KENDALL: Assumptions [ A-side from "Julian Kendall EP" Vanity Press Records 001 US 12" | Detroit Threads / FIT Distr. ] 15 TIMELINE [JON DIXON, DE'SEAN JONES, MIKE BANKS, MARK FLASH]: Still Pondering [ B-side from "Forever Forward EP" 4evr 4wrd 001 / Underground Resistance US 12" | Submerge Distr. / Detroit Threads ] 16 FELIX 'DA HOUSECAT' STALLINGS: Footsteps Of Rage _ M-Plant (Robert Hood) First Decision Mix [ B2-track from "Metropolis Present Day? Thee Remixes Part I" Radikal Fear 010 BEL Promo-12" | 1995 ] 17 SEAN TATE: A Matter Of Honor _ Rick Wilhite Mix [ A2-track from "Rick Wilhite – Vibes 2 - Part Two Of Two" Rush Hour Recordings – RH-10.2 NL 2x12" | Rush Hour Distr. ] 18 TONY BROWN: Planet Full Of Robots [ A1-track from "The Brown Brothers – A Planet Full Of Robots EP" Brothers Records 007 US 12" | 2004 ] 19 OLIVERWHO FACTORY: Moonhacker [ A2-track from "Solitaire" Madd Chaise Inc MCI-006 US 12" | 2008 ] 20 RICK WILHITE: Techno Dust [ B1-track from "Freedom School DJ Series Vol.1" Freedom School FS-004 JAP 12" | Underground Gallery Distr. ] 21 BABY POP [DAMON PETERSON]: Deep Techno [ A1-track from Relief Records RR-737 US Promo-12" | 1995 ] 22 STEVE LORENZ: Berghain 5 AM _ Original Mix [ A1-track from Tarvisium Electronique Taelwax_002 US Promo-12" | Complete Distr. ] 23 THE OTHER PEOPLE PLAY [JAMES M. STINSON]: Let Me Be Me [ C1-track from "Lifestyles Of The Laptop Café" WARP LP-090 UK 2x12" | 2001 ] 24 DOPPLEREFFEKT [GERALD DONALD, KIM KARLI, MICHAELA TO-NHAN BERTEL, WILLIAM SCOTT]: Plastphilia Mix 2 [ B5-track from "Fascist State" Dataphysix Engineering DX-001 US Promo-12" | 1995 ] 25 JASON BRUNTON & REI LOCI: Methodology _ Re-wired [ B1-track from "Iridite Productions - The Acceptable Face Of Elitist Techno" Down Low Music DL-012 US Promo-12" | 2004 ] 26 NAQUIL [ NATHANIEL KILLINS IV ] : Bionic Dikk [ A-side from Infra NF-004 US Promo-12" | 1998 ] 27 MONTY LUKE: Ghosttown Traffic [ A3-track from "Rude Photo EP" Fina Records FINA-021 UK 12" | Distinct Distr. ] 28 KAI ALCÉ: Sky Up [ B1-track from "NDATL Special Edition 2016" NDATL SE-2016 US WL-12" | Detroit Threads / FIT Distr. ] 29 UNKNOWN ARTIST: Untitled B1 [ B1-track from IG 814 / NSC Acetate-12" | Detroit Threads ] 30 ORLANDO VOORN pres. FEDDE & MARCELO B: Untitled _ Orlando Voorn Remix [ A1-track from "Untitled EP" Soul Survivor SSR-001 US 12" | DBH-Music Distr. ] 31 ORLANDO VOORN & BLAKE BAXTER: Here We Are _ Clip! Rwrk [ B2-track from "From The Ghetto" JD Records JDR-005 ESP Promo-12" | Subwax Distr. ] 32 DANIEL BELL: Berserk [ B2-track from "Elevate Special Projects 2" Elevate ELVSP2 Promo-12" | 7th City Distr. 1998 ] 33 COOL PEEPL feat. BILLY LOVE, AMP FIDDLER & SUNDIATA O.M.: Free Prt.2 _ Mr.G's Testify Dub [ B-side from Moods & Grooves MG-056 / Big50Entertainment US 12" | W.A.S. Distr. ] 34 RICK WADE: Gambit [ A2-track from "Detroit Fury" Hizou Deep Rooted Music HZ-0O3 ESP 12" | Subwax Distr. ] 35 KB PROJECT [DANIEL BELL]: The Symphony _ Can U Feel It [ A-side from Elevate ELVSP-1 / ELV004 US 12" | 7th City Distr. 1999 ] 36 PROFESSOR INC. [FRÉDÉRIC PPIX]: Billie Holliday Edit [ A1-track from "Welcome Back To The Underground" WBTTU MB-111737 FRA WL-12" | Cyber Distr. 2011 ] 37 NIKO MARKS: Indestructible [ A2-track from Skylax Classic LAXC-1 FRA Promo-12" | W.A.S. Distr. ] 38 THEO PARRISH: 71st & Exchange Used To Be [ A-side from Sound Signature SSTTTPLC 1 US 12" | Detroit Threads ] 39 PROFESSOR INC. [FRÉDÉRIC PPIX]: GQ Disco Nights Edit [ A2-track from "Welcome Back To The Underground" WBTTU MB-111737 FRA WL-12" | Cyber Distr. 2011 ] 40 UJUZI [FELISHA STEVENSON & NIKO MARKS]: Sonny Daye _ Restless Movement [ B2-track from "Twin City Sampler" PAN-010 UK Promo-12" | 1997 ]  // The first mix in a row of five from  BANGTECH 12, 05272016 The 5th mix in this row of five from  HOUSE GALLERY SOIREE, 05302016

[itbeatsbookmarks]

(Via: Hacker News)

The latest 4.13.9 source release of the Linux kernel is 780MiB, but thanks to xz compression, the download is a much more managable 96 MiB (an 88% reduction)

Before xz took over as the default compression format on kernel.org in 2013, following the "latest" link would have gotten you a bzip2 compressed file. The tar.bz2 would have been 115 MiB (-85%), but there’s was no defending the extra 20 MiB after xz caught up in popularity. bzip2 is all but displaced today.

bzip2 became the default in 2003, though it had long been an option over the less efficient gzip. However, since every OS, browser, language core library, phone and IoT lightswitch has built-in support for gzip, a 148 MiB (-81%) tar.gz remains an option even today.

gzip itself started taking over in 1994, before kernel.org, and before the World Wide Web went mainstream. It must have been a particularly easy sell for the fledgeling Linux kernel: it was made, used and endorsed by the mighty GNU project, it was Free Software, free of patent restrictions, and it provided powerful .zip style DEFLATE compression in a Unix friendly package.

Another nice benefit was that gzip could decompress other contemporary formats, thereby replacing contested and proprietary software.

Among the tools it could replace was compress, the de-facto Unix standard at the time. Created based on LZW in 1985, it was hampered by the same patent woes that plagued GIF files. The then-ubiquitous .Z suffix graced the first public Linux releases, but is now recognized only by the most long-bearded enthusiasts. The current release would have been 302 MiB (-61%) with compress.

Another even more obscure tool it could replace was compress‘s own predecessor, pack. This rather loosely defined collection of only partially compatible formats is why compress had to use a capital Z in its extension. pack came first, and offered straight Huffman coding with a .z extension.

With pack, our Linux release would have been 548 MiB (-30%). Compared to xz‘s 96 MiB, it’s obvious why no one has used it for decades.

Well, guess what: gzip never ended its support! Quoth the man page,

gunzip can currently decompress files created by gzip, zip, compress, compress -H or pack.

While multiple implementations existed, these were common peculiarities:

They could not be used in pipes.

They could not represent empty files.

They could not compress a file with only one byte value, e.g. "aaaaaa…"

They could fail on "large" files. "can’t occur unless [file size] >= [16MB]", a comment said dismissively, from the time when a 10MB hard drive was a luxury few could afford.

These issues stemmed directly from the Huffman coding used. Huffman coding, developed in 1952, is basically an improvement on Morse code, where common characters like "e" get a short code like "011", while uncommon "z" gets a longer one like "111010".

Since you have to count the characters to figure out which are common, you can not compress in a single pass in a pipe. Now that memory is cheap, you could mostly get around that by keeping the data in RAM.

Empty files and single-valued files hit an edge case: if you only have a single value, the shortest code for it is the empty string. Decompressors that didn’t account for it would get stuck reading 0 bits forever. You can get around it by adding unused dummy symbols to ensure a minimum bit length of 1.

A file over 16MB could cause a single character to be so rare that its bit code was 25+ bits long. A decompressor storing the bits to be decoded in a 32bit value (a trick even gzip uses) would be unable to append a new 8bit byte to the buffer without displacing part of the current bit code. You can get around that by using "package merge" length restricted prefix codes over naive Huffman codes.

I wrote a Haskell implementation with all these fixes in place: koalaman/pack is available on GitHub.

During development, I found that pack support in gzip had been buggy since 2012 (version 1.6), but no one had noticed in the five years since. I tracked down the problem and I’m happy to say that version 1.9 will again restore full pack support!

Anyways, what could possibly be the point of using pack today?

There is actually one modern use case: code golfing.

This post came about because I was trying to implement the shortest possible program that would output a piece of simple ASCII art. A common trick is variations of a self-extracting shell script:

sed 1d $0|gunzip;exit <compressed binary data here>

You can use any available compressor, including xz and bzip2, but these were meant for bigger files and have game ruining overheads. Here’s the result of compressing the ASCII art in question:

raw: 269 bytes

xz: 216 bytes

bzip2: 183 bytes

gzip: 163 bytes

compress: 165 bytes

and finally, pack: 148 bytes!

I was able to save 15 bytes by leveraging gzip‘s forgotten legacy support. This is huge in a sport where winning entries are bytes apart.

Let’s have a look at this simple file format. Here’s an example pack file header for the word "banana":

1f 1e -- Two byte magic header 00 00 00 06 -- Original compressed length (6 bytes)

Next comes the Huffman tree. Building it is simple to do by hand, but too much for this post. It just needs to be complete, left-aligned, with eof on the right at the deepest level. Here’s the optimal tree for this string:

/\ / a /\ / \ /\ n b eof

We start by encoding its depth (3), and the number of leaves on each level. The last level is encoded minus 2, because the lowest level will have between 2 and 257 leaves, while a byte can only store 0-255.

03 -- depth 01 -- level 1 only contains 'a' 01 -- level 2 only contains 'n' 00 -- level 3 contains 'b' and 'eof', -2 as mentioned

Next we encode the ASCII values of the leaves in the order from top to bottom, left to right. We can leave off the EOF (which is why it needs to be in the lower right):

61 6e 52 -- "a", "n" ,"b"

This is enough for the decompressor to rebuild the tree. Now we go on to encode the actual data.

Starting from the root, the Huffman codes are determined by adding a 0 for ever left branch and 1 for every right branch you have to take to get to your value:

a -> right = 1 n -> left+right = 01 b -> left+left+left -> 000 eof -> left+left+right -> 001

banana<eof> would therefore be 000 1 01 1 01 1 001, or when grouped as bytes:

16 -- 0001 0110 C8 -- 1100 1 (000 as padding)

And that’s all we need:

$ printf '\x1f\x1e\x00\x00\x00\x06'\ '\x03\x01\x01\x00\x61\x6e\x62\x16\xc8' | gzip -d banana

Unfortunately, the mentioned gzip bug triggers due to failing to account for leading zeroes in bit code. eof and a have values 001 and 1, so an oversimplified equality check confuses one for the other, causing gzip to terminate early:

b gzip: stdin: invalid compressed data--length error

However, if you’re stuck with an affected version, there’s another party trick you can do: the Huffman tree has to be canonical, but it does not have to be optimal!

What would happen if we skipped the count and instead claimed that each ASCII character is equally likely? Why, we’d get a tree of depth 8 where all the leaf nodes are on the deepest level.

It then follows that each 8 bit character will be encoded as 8 bits in the output file, with the bit patterns we choose by ordering the leaves.

Let’s add a header with a dummy length to a file:

$ printf '\x1F\x1E____' > myfile.z

Now let’s append the afforementioned tree structure, 8 levels with all nodes in the last one:

$ printf '\x08\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\xFE' >> myfile.z

And let’s populate the leaf nodes with 255 bytes in an order of our choice:

$ printf "$(printf '\\%o' {0..254})" | tr 'A-Za-z' 'N-ZA-Mn-za-m' >> myfile.z

Now we can run the following command, enter some text, and hit Ctrl-D to "decompress" it:

$ cat myfile.z - | gzip -d 2> /dev/null Jr unir whfg pbaivaprq TMvc gb hafpenzoyr EBG13! <Ctrl+D> We have just convinced GZip to unscramble ROT13!

Can you think of any other fun ways to use or abuse gzip‘s legacy support? Post a comment.

[elgaberino-mcoc]

MCOC Wishlist Poll Snapshot: Entire Rankings

001 Apocalypse 002 Quicksilver 003 Galactus 004 Adam Warlock 005 Sandman 006 Professor X 007 Kraven the Hunter 008 Kitty Pryde the Shadowcat 009 Spider-Man 2099 010 Valkyrie MCU 011 Black Cat 012 Bullseye 013 Cloak & Dagger 014 Dazzler 015 Jubilee 016 Jean Grey 90s 017 Morgan le Fay 018 Hercules 019 Nova (Sam Alexander) 020 Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) 021 Morbius the Living Vampire 022 Captain Britain 023 Lady Deathstrike 024 The Mandarin 025 Emperor Kl'rt the Super-Skrull 026 Thor (MCU Stormbreaker) 027 Onslaught 028 Polaris 029 Pyro 030 Hobgoblin 031 Valkyrie (Classic) 032 Beta Ray Bill 033 Stormborn 034 Black Knight 035 Shocker 036 Silver Sable 037 Okoye 038 Graviton 039 Dracula 040 Spider-Man Noir 041 Shuri 042 Quasar 043 Namora 044 Cannonball 045 Enchantress 046 Deathlok 047 Moonstone 048 Ares 049 Silver Samurai 050 Silk 051 Banshee 052 Songbird 053 Whiplash 054 Mystique 055 Destroyer Armor 056 Sif 057 Negasonic Teenage Warhead 058 Sunfire 059 Rescue 060 Crystal 061 Conan 062 Gamora 063 M'baku the Man-Ape 064 Spiral 065 Baron Helmut Zemo 066 Absorbing Man 067 White Tiger 068 Tigra 069 Red She-Hulk 070 Pixie 071 Spider-Ham 072 Dani Moonstar Mirage Psyche 073 Jessica Jones 074 Klaw 075 Titanium Man 076 Hydro-Man 077 Boom-Boom 078 Weapon Hex 079 Madame Masque 080 Forge 081 Armor 082 Prowler (Aaron Davis) 083 Madame Hydra / Viper 084 Mockingbird 085 Iron Spider 086 Clea 087 Monica Rambeau 088 Legion 089 Agent Anti-Venom 090 Cyttorak 091 Spitfire 092 Black Mamba 093 Vulcan 094 Firestar 095 Fantomex 096 White Fox 097 Doc Samson 098 Phantom Rider 099 Shang-Chi 100 Crimson Dynamo

101 Grim Reaper 102 Hank Pym 103 Rachel Summers 104 Mr. Negative 105 Union Jack 106 Juggerduck 107 Thor (Groot) 108 Mercury 109 Iron Monger 110 Daken 111 Blink 112 Ice-Thing 113 Supergiant 114 Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) 115 Hummingbird 116 Hit-Monkey 117 Shatterstar 118 Gladiator (Kallark) 119 Tombstone 120 Captain Universe Spider-Man 121 Darkstar 122 Future Colossus 123 Slapstick 124 Multiple-Man 125 Paladin 126 Gorilla-Man (Kenneth Hale) 127 Namorita 128 Ancient One 129 Stryfe 130 Dark Phoenix 131 Agent 14 132 Hogun the Grim 133 Arachne 134 Holocaust 135 Odin 136 Mister Hyde 137 Wendigo 138 Warpath 139 Paibok the Power-Skrull 140 Darkwing Duck 141 Madelyne Pryor 142 Nico Minoru 143 Malekith the Accursed 144 Meggan 145 Punisher: War Machine 146 Volstagg the Voluminous: War Thor 147 Siryn 148 Doctor Spectrum (Martha Gomes) 149 Jennifer Kale 150 Whirlwind 151 Blastaar 152 X-51 the Machine Man 153 Wrecker 154 Caiera the Oldstrong 155 Red Guardian 156 Falcon (Classic) 157 Attuma 158 Rom: Spaceknight 159 Sebastian Shaw 160 Hydra Supreme 161 Blackheart 162 Ka-Zar 163 Black Widow (Yelena Belova) 164 Sun Girl (Selah Burke) 165 Misty Knight 166 Wolfsbane 167 War Machine (Infinity Saga) 168 Corsair & Sikorsky 169 Animax 170 The Magus 171 Human Torch (Jim Hammond) 172 Speedball 173 Spider-Man (Miles Morales Movie) 174 Baymax (Movie) 175 Deathbird 176 Worthy Captain America (Mjölnir/Endgame) 177 Radioactive Man (Chen Lu) 178 Araña 179 Feral 180 Drax (MCU) 181 Superior Spider-Man 182 Thanos (Endgame) 183 Lizard 184 Marvel Girl (Jean Grey NPC) 185 Dazzler Thor 186 A-Bomb (Rick Jones) 187 Super-Adaptoid 188 Captain America Falcon 189 Grey Hulk 190 Blue Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) 191 Wiccan 192 Thena 193 Selene 194 Fandral the Dashing 195 Kree Sentry 196 Agent Carter 197 Prowler (Hobie Brown) 198 Colleen Wing 199 Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly) 200 Beetle (Abner Jenkins, AKA Mach I-Mach X)

201 Ironheart 202 Superior Octopus 203 Morlun 204 Yukio 205 Arcanna 206 Overmind 207 Black Tarantula 208 Hope Summers 209 Werewolf by Night 210 Beetle (Leila Davis, AKA Beetle Mk III) 211 Red King 212 Captain Universe (Devoux) 213 Wizard 214 Nimrod 215 Enigma (Aikku Jokinen, AKA Pod) 216 Jack O'Lantern (Levins) 217 Lady Hellbender 218 Black Tom Cassidy 219 Black Widow (Movie) (AKA White Widow) 220 Titania 221 Hulkling 222 Typhoid Mary 223 Dum Dum Dugan (LMD) 224 Master Mold 225 Boomerang 226 Machinesmith 227 Molecule Man 228 Kurse 229 Anti-Venom 230 Outlaw (Higgins) 231 Thunderbird (John Proudstar) 232 Lyja 233 Arnim Zola 234 Hala the Accuser 235 Scorpion 236 Mighty Destroyer 237 Lilandra 238 Maria Hill 239 Power Man (Alvarez) 240 She-Hulk (Lyra) 241 SP//dr 242 Nova (Frankie Raye) 243 Scarlet Spider II (Kaine Parker) 244 Magma 245 Thundra 246 Molten Man 247 Lash 248 Skurge the Executioner 249 M (Monet St. Croix) 250 Jean Grey (Tech, X-Men Red) 251 Charlie-27 252 Martinex 253 Gun-R 254 Jocasta 255 Avalanche 256 Hulkbuster 2.0 (MCU) 257 Hellion 258 Stature (Cassie Lang, AKA Stinger) 259 Death's Head Classic 260 Aleta 261 Penance (Baldwin) 262 Mistress Death 263 Dragon Man 264 Jigsaw 265 Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) 266 Xorn 267 Throg (Frog Thor) 268 Mantis 269 Iron Man (Mark I) 270 Yellowjacket (DeMara) 271 Smasher (Kane) 272 Living Laser 273 Agent Melinda May (The Cavalry) 274 Martyr (Phyla-Vell, AKA Quasar, Captain Marvel, Oblivion) 275 Molly Hayes 276 Doctor Octopus (Liv Octavius) 277 X-Man (Nate Grey) 278 Quasar (Kincaid) 279 Sasquatch 280 Captain America (Peggy Carter) 281 Stingray 282 Gwenom 283 Impossible Man 284 Serpent (Cul Borson) 285 Fin Fang Foom 286 Scientist Supreme (Rappaccini) 287 Blob 288 Blue Marvel 289 Iron Maiden 290 Wonder Man 291 Madame Web 292 Maximus the Mad 293 Cobra (Voorhees, AKA King Cobra) 294 Photon (Genis-Vell) 295 Trapster / Paste-Pot Pete 296 Spider-Girl MC2 (Mayday Parker) 297 Stargod (Jameson, AKA Man-Wolf) 298 Zadkiel 299 Atlas (Josten, AKA Shatterfist, Goliath, Smuggler, Power-Man) 300 Equinox

301 Scorpion (Black) 302 Gilgamesh the Forgotten One 303 Valkyrie Moonstar 304 Emplate 305 Phastos 306 Sage 307 Gorgon 308 Magus (Technarch) 309 Ultimate Green Goblin (Movie) 310 Goliath (Bill Foster AKA Black Goliath) 311 Constrictor 312 Husk 313 Dust 314 Crescent & Io 315 Punisher: Frankencastle 316 Sauron 317 Jackal 318 Sersi 319 Echo 320 Davos the Steel Serpent 321 N'kantu the Living Mummy 322 Warwolf 323 Foolkiller (Salinger) 324 Acroyear 325 Garrison Kane 326 Batroc the Leaper 327 Whizzer 328 Baron Blood 329 Doctor Druid 330 Iron Lad 331 Bug 332 Iron Fist (Randall) 333 Toxic Doxie 334 Ikaris 335 Makkari 336 Snowbird 337 Weapon H 338 Bi-Beast 339 Blazing Skull 340 Shuma-Gorath 341 Zzzax 342 Spider-Woman (Veranke, Queen of the Skrulls) 343 Chaos King (Amatsu Mikaboshi) 344 Chimera 345 Toad 346 Northstar 347 Asp 348 Nikki 349 Danger 350 Aurora 351 Spider-Bitch 352 Psyklop 353 Marionette 354 High Evolutionary 355 Brawn (Amadeus Cho, AKA "Chulk," the Totally Awesome Hulk) 356 Citizen V 357 Shroud 358 Red Hulk (Maverick) 359 Crystar 360 Count Nefaria 361 Daimon Hellstrom 362 Ghost Rider (Reyes) 363 Shiklah 364 Orrgo 365 Stick 366 Ajak 367 Xemnu the Living Hulk 368 Unicorn 369 Iso 370 Aero 371 Ghaur 372 Andromeda 373 Porcupine 374 Krang 375 Deacon Frost 376 Korvac 377 Stilt-Man 378 Caliban 379 Immortus 380 Human Fly (Deacon) 381 Tiger Shark 382 Hiro-Kala 383 Dorrek VII 384 Leader 385 Azazel 386 Dansen Macabre 387 Mammomax 388 Masked Marauder 389 Valeria (Age of Conan) 390 Vampire by Night 391 Blonde Phantom 392 Swordsman 393 Lady Bullseye 394 Magik II (Amanda Sefton AKA Daytripper) 395 No-Name the Brood 396 Mentallo 397 Kaluu 398 Singularity 399 Grey Gargoyle 400 Guardian

401 Wave 402 Fixer/Techno 403 Spiderling 404 Water Snake 405 Doombot (V Series) 406 Silhouette 407 Sword Master 408 Karn 409 Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) 410 Nick Fury (Classic) 411 Loki, Agent of Asgard (Ikol) 412 Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur 413 Ghost Rider (Circle of Four) 414 Captain America 2099 415 Silver Scorpion (Barstow) 416 Kingo 417 Justice 418 Dr. Cecilia Reyes 419 Manphibian 420 Killgrave the Purple Man 421 Quentin Quire the Kid Omega 422 Shadow King 423 Toro 424 Hellsgaard 425 Capwolf 426 Doombots & Servo-Guards 427 Hellcow 428 Hollow (Yvette, AKA Penance the St. Croix twins) 429 Franklin Richards 430 Abyss (Styger) 431 Thane 432 Skaar 433 Strong Guy 434 Triton 435 Mulholland Black 436 Demolition Man 437 Arkon 438 Cottonmouth (Stokes) 439 Rockslide 440 Ahab 441 Ezekiel 442 Spymaster 443 Night Nurse 444 Ox 445 Victorious (Vukovic) 446 Mack 447 Diamondback (Stryker) 448 Cottonmouth (Clemens) 449 Needle 450 Dominic Fortune 451 Cyclone 452 Skull the Slayer 453 Synapse 454 Arclight 455 Copycat 456 Killmonger (Emperor Symbiote) 457 Sleepwalker 458 Stegron 459 Puck 460 Voyager 461 Professor Hulk 462 Entropy 463 Elloe 464 Goldballs 465 Demon Bear 466 Nighthawk (Classic) 467 Korath the Pursuer 468 Jack of Hearts 469 Mindless Ones 470 Eel 471 Arcturus Rann the Space Glider 472 U.S. Agent (John Walker the Super-Patriot) 473 Minotaur (Dario Agger) 474 Cosmic Ghost Rider 475 Nighthawk (MAX) 476 Arcade 477 Chamber 478 Volcana 479 Zarathos 480 Morph 481 Doop 482 Beast (Hex-Men) 483 Doctor Nemesis 484 Jack Flag 485 Belasco 486 Hepzibah 487 Thunderstrike (Eric) 488 Anaconda 489 Thunderstrike (Kevin) 490 M-11 the Human Robot 491 Black Mariah 492 The Buzz 493 Xarggu 494 Arsenic & Old Lace 495 M.O.D.A.M. 496 Margali 497 Marrina 498 Noh-Varr 499 Yo-Yo (Elena Rodriguez AKA Slingshot) 500 Hellcat

501 Starhawk (Stakar) 502 Bushmaster (Quincy) 503 Miss America Chavez 504 Krugarr 505 Daredevil Shadowland 506 Bushmaster (John) 507 Trevor Fitzroy 508 Zeitgeist 509 Terror 510 Major Victory (Vance Astro) 511 Geena Drake 512 Shanna the She-Devil 513 Wong 514 Satana Hellstrom 515 Scream 516 Zarda the Power Princess 517 Nuke 518 Venom Rocket / Venom the Raccoon 519 Speed Demon 520 Tarantula (Kaine) 521 3-D Man / Marathon Man 522 Doorman 523 Superia 524 Carter Slade the Satan-Stomper 525 Dino-Thor 526 Hobgoblin 2099 527 Gorr the God-Butcher 528 Mimic 529 Great Lakes Avengers (team champ) 530 Psycho-Man 531 Moondragon 532 Agent Phil Coulson 533 Firelord the Spicy Q-Tip 534 Sin 535 Aldrich Killian on Extremis 536 Angel (Tech/Black Vortex) 537 Kaecilius 538 The Uranian 539 Dragoness 540 Storm (Queen of Wakanda) 541 Exodus 542 Gravity 543 Beetle (Janice Lincoln) 544 Blizzard 545 Maverick / Agent Zero 546 Swarm 547 Bloodstorm 548 Achebe 549 Kull the Conqueror of Atlantis 550 Slayback 551 Tempus (Eva Bell) 552 Nakia 553 Zenzi 554 Midnight Angels of Wakanda 555 Hyperstorm 556 Moses Magnum 557 Scalphunter 558 Harpoon 559 Solo 560 Black Swan 561 Gentle 562 American Son 563 D'Spayre 564 Doctor Crocodile 565 White Wolf (Hunter) 566 Tetu 567 Atlas Bear 568 Agatha Harkness 569 Elixir 570 Sugar Man 571 Uatu 572 Proteus 573 Terminus 574 Wolvie 575 Talos 576 Captain **** 577 Llyra 578 Jimmy Hudson (Poison) 579 Luna Snow 580 Eclipse 581 Miss America (Joyce) 582 Ms. Marvel II (Ventura) 583 Smasher (Rokk) 584 The Russian 585 Ogun 586 Lincoln Campbell 587 Cardiac 588 Taskmaster (MCU) 589 Owl 590 Plantman / Blackheath 591 Ms. Thing 592 She-Thing (Ventura) 593 Bloodscream 594 Karkas 595 Red Ghost and his Super-Apes 596 Shatter 597 Kluh 598 ForgetMeNot 599 Post 600 Litterbug

601 Karolina Dean 602 White Rabbit 603 Shogun 604 Iron Duck 605 Druig 606 Poundcakes 607 Sinara 608 Synch 609 Bushwacker 610 Haechi 611 Dirk Anger 612 Mister M 613 Powell McTeague