#but it seems like the whole 'guessing people's tasks' thing works in place of using combat to win

[melonpond]

This might actually be my favorite life series so far

[igotanidea]

Home : bat!family x bat!sister

Summary: no one gets to offend my siblings and father. No one but me. I'll make sure of it.

***

Maybe it was a bad idea to apply for that Erasmus program and leave her brothers and adoptive father alone for whole three months. Sure, studying abroad, expanding knowledge, learning language and customs was an amazing experience, but it came with the cost. The price of being in fear that her family would get themselves in trouble, pain, fight they could not recover from.

The first two weeks of her adventure was the worst, since she was waking up at most random night hours, ready to jump into fight, those vigilantes instincts and habits kicking in.

Those were the nights when she was turning and tossing in her bed unable to close an eye and in result sneaking out her dorm room and walk around the campus like the ghost. The quietness and peacefulness of her surroundings at the academy were so different from those she knew in Gotham, it was almost disturbing.

There was no denying that Y/N was the smartest in the family, even Tim admitted it once (obviously not while talking to her, but she overheard his conversation with Bernard) but at times like this she was second-guessing her choices.

Due to her specific upbringing and family background she also never managed to form any deep connection with her fellow students, preferring to stay by herself, focus on the task and putting a lot of work into expanding her knowledge and skills in technology. She never complained, but from other people’s perspective she was an eremite. Kind, polite with perfect manners when someone asked her for something or while working in group, but still highly reserved. Just like her adoptive father, whose relation to she was trying to keep a secret. And it worked up to the day when one of the lecturers accidentally called her  “Miss  Wayne” in front of the whole class. The second he did it the air in the auditorium froze. She might have been in different country, but for God’s sake she was studying technology, of course everyone heard about the Wayne Enterprises and the  Bruce Wayne.

“You’re his daughter?” one of the boys in the lower row turned around and eyed her suspiciously

“Yes. Adoptive one.”

“Of course. He’s well known for taking kids in, right? Seems like some sort of complex or maybe even a disease” he smirked and it made the girl clench her fist. Her relationship with Bruce might have been rocky, but no one except her and her brothers were allowed to judge and offend him.”

“Care to elaborate on that?” she hissed, eyeing the guy with ice cold gaze

“Miss Y/L/N! Mister Olsen! Please calm down and sit down!” the teacher tried to make up for his mistake but it was far too late for that.

“You misspelled my name once, might as well keep calling me Wayne now.”  the tone of her voice matched the gaze. She was not going to let the guy easily, but getting in trouble with the dean was not a part of her plan. “Now, can we continue with the lecture? I don’t know about anyone else in her, but speaking for myself I would love to actually learn something useful.”

***

Y/N was the middle child. Younger than Dick and Jason, older than Tim and Damian which placed her literally halfway  in the family. Because of that she was a mix of responsibility and carelessness, doing her own thing, not always the right way, but still capable of getting away with a lot more than the others. Not as family oriented as Dick, feeling a bit overshadowed by Jason, highly competitive with Tim and more independent and individualistic than Damian. Still, even despite her “boss bitch” attitude, she was sandwiched between her brothers which made her the best negotiator and mediator in the family. Y/N also had a strong sense of fairness and morality and would always try her best to do the right things. Objectively, not subjectively. And making fun of her family was not one the things she could forget. However, before taking any action she had to gather intel, figure out what the guy knew and then come right at him.

***

Waiting till the end of the class was probably the greatest torture she ever had to endure, every minute stretching into infinity and when it was over the sense of relief almost made her drop the plan. Almost.

“I’m not done with you, Olsen.” she was faster to the door, stopping her potential victim from getting away.

“You want more, Wayne?”

“Please. Hit me with your best shot. What is your problem with my family, exactly?”

“Let me think” he tapped his chin. “There are so many. Like for instance, your oldest brother. What was his name again? Oh, right! Dick. Suits him quite well, doesn’t it. A prick, if you ask me. Definitely a show-off with no skills.” He scoffed “Shall I continue?”

“ Please. You got like three more people to gossip about.”

“The second in line, Jason, right? Oh, the unhinged  one. Violent, mocking, thinking he is better than anyone else around, when in reality he’s just a lost, scared child. Probably a dumbass too.”

“Pretty sure he would agree with that. Now what about Tim and Damian?”

At this point Olsen was getting a bit surprised that the girl in front of him was still unfazed. Her calmness, a sign of silent inside fury making him slightly uncomfortable.   Not enough to stop however.

“Drake…..” the name rolled of his tongue while the boy was wondering what words to choose “oh, he’s the gay one, right? Such a shame that the renowned Wayne family has someone like that as a member. Bet your father would never take him in, if he knew. A fairy becoming the next CEO of his renowned company. How ironic!”

“Hm.” Oh, Y/N was so much like Bruce at times and it showed in the least expected moments.

Damn that girl! How could it not make her angry?

“And …… Damian, the only biological child. Absolutely maladjusted and unaware of social norms and boundaries. Tell me, how was it like to have your youngest brother violate your boundaries and personal space?”

“It was. ….educatory. Just like it was with everything you just said. You presented yourself as someone with some serious psychological issues and possibly an unhealthy interest in my family’s life. So thank you, it truly was illuminating.”

***

“What the hell did you do Y/N?” a very alerted Dick appeared  on the other side of the screen

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” The girl sighted and fell onto the cushions bringing the computer onto her lap to see her brother better

“Don’t lie to me now, sis.”

“I wouldn’t even dream of it.”

“Bruce has been on the phone for the last fifteen minutes and from what I figured it’s about something that happened on the campus.”

“The only thing happening on the campus are students who skip classes.” She mumbled “maybe except that one time when one of the boys lost some stupid bet and blew up the fountain as some sort of punishment. That was funny.”

A little grunt was heard on Dick’s side and for a second he disappeared from the screen.

“Dick?”

“Sorry, I had a little interruption.” He rubbed his forehead “Now, back onto what you did…..”

“Did you say that someone blew the fountain?” third face appeared on the screen in the corner, taking over the conversation.

“Hello, Jason.”

“Hi sis. Maybe I should have joined you in your academic career. Seems like you have a lot of fun there. Besides, I never really finished school, since you know…. I died.”

“We know.” Y/N and Dick said in unison

“Always a good opportunity to remind you, right?” he grinned “Now, sis, tell me, how was it going full rogue on fellow student? I gotta admit I’m proud of you here.”

“So that’s what this is about?” Dick’s eyes grew wider than ever “I;m gonna ask you once again, Y/N. what did you do?”

“Nothing permanent.”

“What…..?”

“Cut her some slack, Grayson.”

“Look who decided to join us.” Y/N smirked “improved your computer skills much, Damian?”

“I got tired of being left out.”

“Since when do you care about the group?”

“Leverage, sis. Knowledge is power, I thought you knew that.”

“Ok, that is enough!” Dick finally lost his patience “I’m trying to have a conversation with my little sis here. Both of you, get out of the line!”

“Mhm, keep dreamin’ Dickhead.”

“For once I agree with Todd.”

“You have no right to…..”

“Guys…..” Y/N tried to mitigate them, but deep inside she enjoyed their bantering. It was a while since she experienced it and only now realized how familiar it was.

“I was here first!” Dick yelled “And I’m the oldest”

“No one cares Grayson! You are a Bludhaven resident now.  Just because you visit the manor does not mean you can keep Y/N busy using the wayne’s devices!”

“Don’t you have someone to kill in the crime alley, Jay?”

“Unlike you, I succeeded in all my latest missions.”

“Is that what you call coming back to your safe house bloodied and injured. You were on the verge of death!” Damian smirked “you were absolutely inept, that’s not a success.”

“You were what, now?!” Y/N shrieked. Her second oldest brother was sometimes too careless.

“It was not that bad, Y/N, I swear. And how the fuck do you know about it, demon?”

“I have my ways.”

“I would suspect Drake of spying on me, but you?”

“Speaking of the devil, I’m surprised Tim hasn’t already join us.” Dick muttered

“Oh, he did.” Y/N pointed out

“WHAT?” her brothers cried. Now there was another one fighting for her attention and it was not a secret that Tim was her favorite making the situation harder.

“I did.” Tim chuckled  “Well, to tell the truth Y/N let me in the channel. We have our ways with technology. Something none of you could ever fully understand. “

“Of course not….”

“Cheer up, Dami. You can’t monopolize all the areas.”

“I would beg to differ.”

“Ok, everyone hold up here. I think we lost the point of the conversation. The thing was that Bruce was on the phone, probably taking to the dean about….”

“Y/N played a little prank on her classmate, is that right?” of course Tim was the one who everything best.

 “He deserved it.”

“Y/n…..”

“Stop using the big brother voice on me! It’s not going to work!”

“How about we use Damian’s youngest one?” Dick teased

“I refuse to be used in this….”

“SHUT UP DAMIAN!” Dick and Jason shouted together and shared a murderous look between one another. Now they were both desperate to find out what happened since Tim would rather die than spill the bean. It was infuriating. They were the older brothers! This had to mean something.

“Ok, that’s it.” Damian stood up and the view of the empty chair in the place where his face should be was highly disturbing.

“That is not good.” Y/N said out loud something that all of them already knew. Her presumptions turned out to be right a second later when the shouting and yelling reverberated through the speakers and a blur of black and green rushed into Dick’s room.

“hey, I want to join the fight too!” Jason started up and with a speed, Wally West could be jealous of involved in the mix of limbs and screams.

“Wait! I though Dick was in Bludhaven! Tim?”

“Not today. We’re all in the manor.”

“And you idiots were talking to me through four different computers?”

“Are you actually surprised?”

“On second thought, not at all.” She sighed. It’s a good thing you are the reasonable one here…..”

“There you are, Timmy” now the situation has turned as it was Dick who appeared in the door of Tim’s bedroom “you are not  getting out of this. If you want Y/n to yourself you have to fight me.”

“And me!” Jason tackled Dick to the ground with a loud thump

“Losers!” Damian jumped over their bodies and came right at Tim

Because of their actions, Y/N was the only one who noticed two men stepping from the shadows and exchanging some words. Apparently Bruce wasn’t capable of putting the boys in their places and asked Alfred to try this instead. And a single grunt from the butler did a miracle as all of them stood up and started explaining and apologizing. Funny as it was, Y/N knew that with Bruce’s arrival she was heading straight towards preaching from her father.

“Y/N.”

“Hello Bruce.”

“Did you break his arm?”

“You broke his arm?” Dick was halfway out but turned back immediately

“No.” Y/n shook her head “I broke his arm and hurt his legs.”

“Don’t forget that you also demolished his dorm room.”

“That wasn’t me. That was….”

“Did you go at him as a vigilante? Wow! Way to go, sis. Now I truly am proud of you.”

“Ok, both of you, out!” Bruce lost the rest of his patience pushing Dick and Jay away. “Now that we are alone…….” he sighed deeply closing the door tight  

“I;m not sorry.”

“Oh, I know. And I’m not mad, because I’m sure you had a reason to do it. So tell me, why?”

“you…. you want to know ?”

“Of course. Look Y/n, I’m aware I won’t get  a father of the year cup from you, but I care all right? Did that boy hurt you and you took retaliation? Just tell me….”

“He was talking shit about our family.”

“And you felt the urge to protect the Wayne’s honor?” Bruce smirked “this is so not like you.”

“Honor, my ass. We’ve lost that ages ago, Bruce. The only thing I was protecting was my sole privilege of mocking you. No one else is allowed to do it.”

“I’ll be sure not to tell your brothers that you miss them. “

“That would be most welcome.”

“And you have to know that we don’t miss you either, y/n.” father and daughter’s gazes met and they both nodded in silent agreement, right corners of their mouths lifting almost unnoticeable. “You coming to visit next week?”

***

Something was wrong.

Something was terribly wrong and that tingling sensation became unbearable the second she climbed the manor’s stairs and reach for the doorknob with a heartrate so fast it would send anyone else straight into cardiac arrest. Y/N however kept her cold blood, focusing on what may happened inside and considering her options and strategies for a potential fight.

She could not expect  that the moment she opened the door four figures would jump out from the shadows making the noise that would bring the dead from behind the grave. It startled her and as a result she stumbled back, hitting the wardrobe and making it shake. She could not expect that on said wardrobe there would be packets and packets of paint and that those would fall down straight on her making her look like some abstractionism painting.

“I hate you all.” She muttered while her brothers run away in four different directions.

“Welcome home, miss Y/N” Alfred approached her with a tissue so she could at least wipe the paint from her eyes.

“Home.” She whispered “Yes, it definitely feels like it.”

It was good to be back.

But she was still going after them. .....

Later. When they would least expect it.

[peacheeeliz]

005. wooyoung's emojis (1.5k wc)

blue = twitch chat

red = among us chat

milfhos: thought you weren't going to play this game again 😒😒

"Haha, so did I," You sigh. You were currently talking to chat, waiting for everyone to join the lobby. "But Yeonjun thought it would help Yunho and I 'work it out.' Yeah, okay."

Back when Among Us was really popular, the four of you played only that and nothing else. Always hopping into lobbies with each other and fellow streamers, screaming at each other during meetings, or simply doing tasks and remaining unbothered. You guys were the big Among Us streamers of Korea, all until it lost its popularity. After that, you all went into your own different directions and haven't touched the game since.

heartzfrombora: wait but i like how the war is going

"Right!" You exclaim, letting out a laugh. "He just doesn't see this stuff the way I do," you exaggerate, placing your hand on your chest with a sly smile.

strwchaos: I'm loving the yucloudz interactions tho idc if you guys 'hate' each other

Your eyebrows scrunch together at that last comment. "You know I still don't understand this whole yucloudz thing. But, I guess I've never understood ship names," you shrug it off. "But! I can get behind one ship name: Twocloudy."

strwchaos: some people just really like the interactions between you two and created a shorter name that's easier to say lol

strwchoas: i do think some weirdos are actually shipping you two tho... so be careful

milfhos: wtf is twocloudy

"Me and Giselle, obviously," you say, but your chat is just more confused. "Cloudie and Aeri. Aeri. Air-y. Get it?" You laugh, but now your chat is just disappointed. "What? I think it's great, you guys don't know what you're talking about."

faepurity: i'm telling giselle you said those corny ass joke

gigigibaby: i love you but no..

strwchaos: i'm leaving

You laugh again, eyeing the game's lobby to see if anyone else has joined. It looked like everyone else had joined, so you turned deafen off to hear the chaotic jumble of everyone talking over each other.

"Why are we playing this again?" Taehyun groans. "I thought the Among Us life was behind us."

"I thought so too, but I also thought it'd be a nice way to bring us all together again," Yeonjun responds, his eyes busy setting up the settings of the game.

"Was the empires server not enough for you?" Ningning asks next. "God, I don't remember anything about this game. I'm going to die first."

"Yeah, well two specific neighbors don't know how to behave," Yeonjun continues. "Well, one neighbor. The other is just innocently naive."

"Hey," Yuyu pouts. "You were my teacher, man. You should've taught me how to not shoot people with a bow."

You laugh, actually agreeing with Yuyu for once. "He's got a point, Junnie."

"Oh, you shut it," he responds, rolling his eyes. "Okay, I was just thinking we play for a couple of hours? Does that sound good for everyone?"

"Seems excessive, but sure," Giselle answers, sighing. "I better get imposter first, I want to kill Y/N for her stupid Twocloudy name."

"They already told you?" You exclaim, laughing.

faepurity: I TOLD YOU I WOULD

Before you could say anything else in the lobby, the game starts, and everyone turns deafen back on. You wait nervously for your role to be revealed, letting out a breath of relief when you get the Crewmate role.

You run around in your little bean body, simply doing tasks and ignoring everyone else. You stick by Winter and Beomgyu for a while and do a few tasks together, so you know they're clear. Lights are sabotaged and you try your best to stay together, until Hyuka's body is found.

"Okay, motherfuckers, who killed my child?" Yeonjun's voice is serious, despite the fact his 'child' was only killed in a game. "I walked into electrical to fix lights, and the report button popped up instantly."

"You didn't look to see who else could've been there?" Soobin questions, eyebrows furrowed. "The killer could've been in there, man."

"Well, for one, the lights were out," Yeonjun states, finding Soobin's accusations suspicious. "And two, lights were sabotaged. Someone could've walked in there at any minute and found me with a body, doing nothing but wiggling if I didn't report this body."

"Well, Beomgyu, Winter and I have been together this whole time, so we're good," you say, glad to be cleared.

"Yuyu and I were together for a hot minute there," Sungchan explains. "Buuut, I did lose him in electrical just before lights were sabotaged..."

"Wait, what, no," Yuyu exclaims, flustered by the implied accusation. "I split off from you before going into electrical, and I stayed behind to watch cams."

"I did see that the cams were on before lights went off," Taehyun adds. "But that could've been anyone."

"No, it was Yuyu," Giselle states, sticking up for her cams buddy. "We were in there together for a bit until lights were called."

"We don't have a lot of information, so let's just skip," Soobin says, voting instantly.

"Remember, guys, there's still two killers out there," Yeonjun says, voting as well. "So be careful."

Everyone votes and the meeting has passed.

"Who the fuck voted for me?" Yuyu exclaims.

"I've got my eye on you, man," Taehyun whispers, before everyone deafens and gets back to the game.

You stick with Beomgyu and Winter again, continuing tasks, hoping to get a task win. It takes a while for another meeting to be called, and when it does, three more people are dead: Giselle, Ningning, and Taehyun.

"Oh my God, guys," Yuyu starts, almost out of breath. "It's Sungchan, I swear to God, it's him. I watched him kill Taehyun right in front of my eyes."

As Yuyu rants, Sungchan just stays silent before he votes. A famous Sungchan tactic to leave the decision-making to everyone else.

"Look, he's not even saying anything," Yuyu continues. "It's him, guys, I swear to you."

Yeonjun is next to silently vote, but he doesn't stay silent for long. "Yeah, I totally watched Sungchan do medbay earlier, sooo. And we've been together this whole round."

"I was also in there when Sungchan did medbay, so, bye-bye Yuyu," Giselle says sweetly, quick to vote out her old cams buddy.

"You do not have to tell me twice to vote out Yuyu," you laugh, voting instantly.

Within seconds, everyone has voted, and Yuyu's little bean body floats out across the screen and into space. The next round starts, with only one imposter left.

"I'd like to see the last imposter get the rest of us all on their own," you tell chat, letting yourself finally stray away from Winter and Beomgyu. You had to at least give the imposter a chance; plus, you were bored now that all your tasks were done.

milfhos: i can't even tell who it is man

strwchaos: are you kidding it's so soobin

faepurity: idk it could be giselle and she sold out yuyu to make herself look innocent

You're too busy walking laps around the map to pay attention to chat, running into your friends every now and then. You find Beomgyu and Winter again at some point, dancing together under the cameras as Yeonjun watches from security.

You eventually break off from them again, heading back to the cafeteria to see if any bodies were hiding in the top half. But, of course, trying to be a good crewmate would just bring you bad luck as Soobin finds you up there and is quick to kill you.

You stare at your screen with a shocked expression despite already having your suspicions towards him. You accept your fate, flying around as a ghost to keep an eye on your friends until the chat beeps in the corner.

yuyuhoes: at least i didn't kill you :)

cloudiey/n: 凸( ` ﾛ ´ )凸

mysticaeri: omg that's so cute

yuyuhoes: i can't take you seriously with that emoji omg

cloudiey/n: i can't use wooyoung's emojis leave me alone

yuyuhoes: wtf is wooyoungs emojis

cloudiey/n: i've said too much

As you close the chat, your body is reported and another meeting starts. It seems Sungchan was killed sometime after you were, as his name pops up with yours.

"I found her up in cafeteria," Yeonjun says, not having much information about this find.

"It must've been there for awhile because we haven't seen her since we danced on cams," Beomgyu shares, voting as soon as possible.

Winter joins him silently, letting out a quiet giggle as she does. Yeonjun follows suit, voting quietly as well. This leaves Soobin confused.

"You guys are so creepy, I hope you know that," he lets out a sigh, almost accepting fate. "Can you at least explain?"

"Well, Beomgyu, Y/N and I were together almost the whole round, so we're all clear," Winter starts. "And Yeonjun cleared Sungchan against Yuyu earlier, sooo."

"Ah, fuck it, fine," Soobin says, voting. "Not like I can plead my case now."

The other three laugh as Soobin's body flies off into space, ending the game as a Crewmate Win.

"Okay, that was actually fun," you let out with a light laugh. "I don't mind playing for a couple of hours now."

synopsis ⤏ you're trying to peacefully build your starter house on the empires server when your neighbor so rudely (accidentally) kills you, starting the biggest war on the server just one day in.

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ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ taglist is closed!

[paw-padss]

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH！

ft. diluc, childe, al-haitham, baizhu

summary: nothing quite says I love you than baking a cake with your lover that says that exact thing in frosting, right? (bake a cake with them, afterwards telling them that the cake is for them!)

A/N: thought i would up the production quality a bit! i literally spun a wheel to decide if they would be good at baking or not so if u think it's ooc don't blame me blame the wheel (100% blame me /hj)（´-`）HAPPY VALENTINES DAYYY :333

notes: hidden relationship in diluc's, all established relationships, no dialogue, gn reader, alhaitham is bad at feelings

DILUC wasn't the kind of guy people approached often; his large frame and serious face made him seem frightening and intimidating. So when you, the new intern, confronted him at his desk with the idea of baking your baking partner for the valentines office party, your coworkers were surprised at your bravery, even a little scared. Of course, they would never come to the conclusion that you and Diluc had a more intimate relationship than what is revealed at work. Diluc had been approached by many people in hopes of being his partner, but to no avail. So they were even more surprised when their seemingly distant boss said yes. Guess it turns out Diluc was actually much more cordial than he ever lets on.

DILUC was the last guy you expected to be bad at baking, but after watching him in the kitchen, with ingredients scattered around the counters and a mysterious concoction in the mixing bowl, you couldn’t help but be very worried. The aroma, or rather, stench, that filled the kitchen was very strange. Like burnt vanilla with bitter frosting. The fire alarm had gone off at least twice, and by the end of it, both you and Diluc looked like you were the mixing bowls. Flour, water, and pink frosting decorated both you two and the marble counters. All that stood was a burnt heart cake with the words 'I love you' in what was supposed to be pink icing. Naturally, when you tell him the cake is his gift from you, an anxious expression appears on his face, and rightfully so, is that cake even edible? Well, it's the thought that counts, right?

AL-HAITHAM was generally known for being critical, observant, and very skilled. One thing he was not known for, was his social skills. So when his fellow researchers heard that he had an arrangement for the afternoon, they were surprised to say the least. You had asked Al-haitham to bake a cake together, and he had no real reason to decline. After all, he had nothing better to do than help his lover with something they’re passionate about. That’s how you show affection! (or so he’s been told.)

you stood in awe. Al-HAITHAM was diligent and committed to his task, you shouldn’t have expected any less. Of course everything had to be in order, the ingredients were neatly placed on the counter in order of usage next to the mixing bowl, and he had decided that you two would alternate between task. By the end of the whole ordeal, the kitchen was left better than how it was and what was left was a cute vanilla cake with the words ‘I love you’ written neatly in frosting. I guess you two really do make a great team. When you tell him that the cake is for him, of course he’s very appreciative, even a bit taken aback, he wasn’t completely used to the feeling of receiving romantic affection, but he just looked at you blankly, before saying thank you very curtly. Of course his mates will try to tell him off later for being ‘too serious’, but who is Al-haitham if not serious?

CHILDE was known by many for his alleged proficiency in many skills. So naturally it makes sense that you would ask him for his help to bake a cake, and how could he say no? It's just baking a cake, how hard could it be? not to mention he would baking with one of his favorite people in the world!

Turns out, hard. You and CHILDE had made a mess of the kitchen and had no desire to clean it up. Flour, sugar, extract, sprinkles (where did he find sprinkles?), and other mysterious liquids littered the counter along with your aprons. At least the cake looked almost edible. The whole thing was basically raw dough shaped into a heart with a sad attempt at pink decoration scribbled on the top, a meek 'I love you'. When you told Childe that the cake was for him, his awkward cough was enough of a reaction before he doubled over in laughter. At least your love held together better than the cake.

BAIZHU was known for his great medical skills and attention to health. But that doesn' t mean he doesn' t mind enjoying a treat from time to time, so when you asked him if he wanted to bake a cake together, he happily accepted. Nothing makes his day better than being time with you, the more time he gets to spend with you, the better.

Doctors are clean and organized, which would explain the nature of the kitchen that you two stood in as you watched as BAIZHU guided his hands, careful and full of technique, around the counter top. Turns out he didn’t even need the recipe book, and he bakes for qiqi on many occasions. The cake looked like something out of a pinterest board, perfectly cut edges gracefully decorated with pink icing, and a graceful ‘I love you’ scripted in the same color. When you tell him that the cake is for him, he smiles and suggests that you share it, together. it’s to be expected that Baizhu would want to do something romantic like that (if that’s the case, then why does your face feel so hot???).

A/N: i've been told my haitham is lacking a soft side, but YOUR a soft side!! hope i didn't disappoint (╥_╥). kindaaa struggled on baizhu ending sorry i hit a brick wall （ーー；）

[mangoguy]

Displacement (2/2)

John "Soap" MacTavish('09) x Reader x John "Soap" MacTavish('22)

Warnings: Mentions of character death (Ghost and Roach), no y/n used, no pronouns other than they/them used a few of times.

You can't help but find it difficult to get used to your new surroundings.

_

It's finally here!!! I meant for this to be out a week after the first part, but school got busy lmao

Read the first part here

There are a few things you have noticed after being thrown in here.

One, the year is 2023.

Two, You are married to John (or Johnny as he likes being called) in this timeline.

And three, you don’t work in the military, you are no longer with Task Force 141.

That third one hit particularly hard. Your task force was a huge part of your life along with John.

You faked memory loss, thinking it was a smart move for now. You doubted they would even believe you if you started spouting that you were not from here. Even to you, that sounded crazy.

‘Because it is…’ you thought bitterly.

This universe wasn't in World War III, you weren't complaining though, that was the mission after all. You still had a hard time adjusting, especially with him around, Johnny. The man who wears your husband's face. Well, you guessed you're even… since technically you were wearing his wife's face? That's how you saw it anyway.

He was worried about you, often asking if you were okay. You could never really answer him, just stare and nod. You felt so foreign here, out of place, and you missed John so much it made you ill. You wondered what happened to him? Was he okay? Something told you he wasn’t. With where your mind was going this was going to be a long hospital stay…

It's been two months since you've woken up. Your mind convinced you it was some weird coma dream.

‘People have those, don't they?’ You thought, staring out the living room window. You felt silly mourning the loss of some older version of yourself and Johnny. It was morbid of your brain to think of how Ghost would die, or mourn the loss of two others you ‘barely knew.’ You found it funny how Price looked in your dream, older, a little unhinged. Gaz was what scared you the most in terms of dream Gaz, you didn't want to think about it.

You met them briefly, Task Force 141, Johnny's teammates, and friends. They all seemed very concerned about you, maybe even a little guilty like they caused the accident. You assured them you were fine and mentioned that the doctors said you were healing quite nicely.

“Aye, but they… have memory loss, can't remember a damn thing… the doctor said it looks severe,” Johnny spoke in a hushed whisper when you went off to fetch something.

“They can't remember anything?” Kyle spoke.

“Yeah, and I'm talkin’ like their whole life, it's like they're a new person… Can't even remember our weddin’ day, our first meetin’, or… anythin’” Johnny could feel his heartbreak just speaking it out loud. A painful reminder of what happened, he thought maybe someone was punishing him. Probably was, for the things he's done. He gave a deep sigh, as Kyle gave him a reassuring pat on the back. Price and Simon both frowned, giving the Scot a sympathetic look, that's when you decided to enter the room again.

“Bonnie yer… are ye okay? Ye've been starin’ out the window for a while…” you heard Johnny speak softly. You turned to look at him, nodding your head softly.

“Yeah sorry, just… I guess I'm reminiscing on some weird dream I had while in that coma,” you admitted.

“Hm? Dream ye say? Do ye want tae talk about it?” John sat near you on the couch and pulled you into his arms. It was comforting being in his embrace.

“Hm, not much to say other than… I guess I just dreamt of a whole other life for us? You were there, though you were a bit older… definitely more handsome in my dream,” you gave him a cheeky grin.

“Looks like I've got some competition,” he paused to chuckle softly. “But older you say? Were ye dreaming of tae future or somethin’?” Johnny asked.

“Hm, you could say that… though there are differences in dream John and you in real life.”

“Aye… and what's that?”

“Well for one he was a bit taller than you,” you snickered.

“Aye!”

“And well he didn't have an arm tattoo, like you do he had one on his neck, a revolver,” you paused to think, your mind was getting a little muddy on details.

“Oh! And your scars are different, that's all I seem to remember at the moment...” you finished. Johnny was silent for a moment, absorbing this new information. It was nice hearing you talk again, even if it was about this mysterious other version of himself.

“Damn, sounds like one handsome bastard…”

“Johnny…”

“What I'm bein’ serious,” he muses.

Something weird was going on, you couldn't place your finger on it. It all started with a pair of jeans. What scared you was that you vaguely recalled wearing them somewhere. You placed them down on the floor and stared at them.

‘Of course, I wore them somewhere they're pants…’ You thought, thinking it was silly you were worried about jeans. You shook your head, grabbing them off the floor but that's when something slipped out from the pocket. One fell with a hard thunk and the other fluttered to the ground. You pick them both up. One was a simple wedding band on it was an engraving, two sets of dates

xx-xx-‘07

xx-xx-‘09

The other item made your heart drop in your stomach. Time seemed to stop as familiar sets of eyes were on you. John Price, Ghost, John “Soap” MacTavish, you. In the corner of the photo were the words ‘OP Kingfish.’

This was it.

The evidence that your ‘coma dream’ wasn't a dream after all. How could you think it was a dream? How dare this world make you think your John was a dream, your world. You assumed it was the universe trying to make you ‘fit in,’ but that begs the question, how did your stuff get here? You shoved the ring and photo in your pocket as you heard Johnny walking over to where you were.

“Hey Bonnie, are you almost done gettin’ ready? Simon texted saying he was at the bar already,” Johnny watched you as you put the jeans back in the closet.

“Yeah I'm ready, can't keep the man waiting,” you smiled though it didn't reach your eyes.

While watching Ghost and Johnny converse you felt the ring and photo through your pocket for the tenth time. You worried they would disappear and yet they never did. You stood up from your seat, getting the attention of the two men at the table.

“Just heading to the bathroom,” you spoke, walking towards the small hallway that housed the restrooms. You entered, taking a quick breather, your emotions were everywhere tonight. It was starting to annoy you, if you were being honest all you wanted was to just relax and enjoy the evening…

Even it felt fake.

Doing your business and leaving the bathroom, you noticed Johnny had a conflicting look. But when you approached he smiled at you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders as you sat down.

“Everything okay?” You asked and he nodded, though you noticed it was stiff.

You ended up drinking, not a lot but enough to get a bit tipsy. You barely remember the car ride home, though here you are, in bed and snuggled into the blankets. You were reaching out towards Johnny’s spot but found he was not on his side of the bed. It’s cold, meaning he was gone for a while. You slowly sat up, groaning from a slight headache. You called out for him but didn’t hear an answer. You got out of bed and walked towards the living room, spotting him sitting on the couch with the table lamp on. He was staring at something, upon closer look it was the photo, your photo with your team. Your John.

You blinked once, then twice.

When did he get that?

Shit.

“What are you doing with that?” You asked, slightly on the defence.

“What am I doin’ with it? What are ye doing with this? What am I even lookin’ at?” He asked, looking over at you his expression inconceivable.

“It's… complicated Johnny, you probably wouldn't understand.”

He went quiet after that, rubbing his face in frustration, he then stared at the photo again. You needed to figure out where to go from here. You bit the inside of your cheek in thought.

“So, are ye from the future or somethin? Because that's what it looks like… we all look older in this photo… Plus why the hell are you in this photo anyway?” Johnny spoke up finally after a long silence.

“No… it's complicated…”

“Then enlighten me!” You could hear him getting frustrated.

“Fine… I'm… not from here, I don't know how to explain it! One moment I was someplace else then the next thing I know I'm here, in Scotland… In a hospital with someone who looks like my husband but isn't!” you didn't mean to sound so harsh, but all your feelings were bursting out.

“But I am yer husband, didn't you tell me ye were dreamin’ while in that coma?” Johnny tried reasoning.

“I lied, at first I thought maybe it was all a dream but how do you explain the photo and this? I know for a fact I wasn't dreaming I had a completely different life,” You pulled out the ring, showing him the engraved dates.

He stared at the ring, at the dates that were engraved then at the photo. He seemed a bit distant, thinking, processing.

“Is that why whenever I look at ye… It feels like I've lost someone… lost my Bonnie,” Johnny lamented. You were caught off guard by that. But you couldn't deny that you also felt a huge loss whenever you thought of John. The two of you stayed silent, grieving but didn't want to think about why. You refused to think your John didn't survive that explosion.

“I… guess you could say I'm from an alternate universe, god… that's even more confusing but makes the most sense” you decided to change the subject. Johnny finally looked up at you, his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

“Aye… that sounds crazy… maybe-” he didn't finish his sentence but you knew he was probably still trying to find a reasonable answer. You couldn't blame him and this is exactly the reason you didn't bring it up. You decided to take a different approach.

“That photo was taken on a joint mission with Task Force 141 and Delta force, we were going after this guy named Vladimir Makarov, Intel claimed he was in this facility in Ukraine but he wasn't and it ended up being a trap… That's when John or my Soap, I guess I should say, got injured and Price was captured,” you explained. You were starting to sweat a bit, speaking that mission out loud sounded insane. It sure did catch Johnny's attention though. A dark look crossed his face at the mention of Vladimir Makarov but it quickly faded.

“Huh…” was all Johnny managed to get out, it was a hell of a story. You could tell he needed more convincing.

“Well, one person in that photograph isn't alive… Ghost, along with another member Roach were shot by a man named Shepherd…” Your eyebrows furrowed and you frowned deeply.

“Betrayed by him and his shadow company…” you seethed. That seemed to make Johnny perk up. From the looks of it, that story of yours seemed to hit a little too close to home. He gave you a thoughtful look albeit a concerned look.

“Well, shite… that just all but confirms your theory… But the question remains why are ye here? And how come yer body in yer time stayed there?”

“I don't know… it's not like I have the answers. I was literally on a mission to assassinate Makarov but then an explosion went off behind us and I ended up in that hospital.” You explained.

“Ye know… that sounds similar to what happened to my spouse, well they didn't work in the military but there was an accident that involved both me and them, they ended up taking most of the damage which is why they put you in a coma… but you already knew that,” he mumbled that last part.

“I wonder if that's related… but that still doesn't explain why I'm here…” You crossed your arms, sitting opposite from him on the couch. You stared at your reflection on the TV for a moment, observing your new skin, you often didn't look at yourself for too long. You found it troublesome and dare you say uncanny.

This whole situation was confusing, but you found some comfort now that Johnny knew and seemed to believe you. You did grow fond of him over the couple of months you've been here. It was slow, sure, unfairly comparing him to your John but you quickly came to realize that although they might share the same name and hair- they were different. That also made you realize something else though, something unpleasant.

"Johnny… I understand if you want me to leave, I am technically wearing your spouse's face..." you suddenly spoke. Johnny turned to look at you with a bewildered look on his face, silently asking if you were for real.

“That's a way to put it…” he mumbled with a long pause before speaking again, "...But I don't want you to leave."

"...Why?" It was your turn to be bewildered now.

"Well, is it bad I still want to be with ye? I know you aren't the version of my Bonnie I married but... you're still you whether you're fighting in the big fight or here making the house a home... I loved you in both timelines,” he suddenly proclaimed, bringing a hand over to caress your cheek. There was hope that maybe this could work.

That couldn't be a bad idea.

The universe brought the two of you together for a reason.

Words: 2,337

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for not sealing a box correctly?

So, I started working for a shady company recently. I didn't really want to work here, but they paid us really well for some reason? Anyways. My employers told me that they have a manual and encyclopedia for the job, but it's like, 1k pages long. For both. I really couldn't be bothered to read it, so I skipped it.

Part of the job is collecting energy, and the energy is made from these big boxes/containers in the facility. I don't know what's in these boxes, but the veteran employees have STRONGLY advised not to look into them unless you have clearance LVL 3 or more. So, I've never really bothered with them.

So, earlier today I was tasked with transporting one of these boxes to the Control Unit. On the box it said something along the lines of "... Bird", and I didn't think it'd be a problem because that's what our manager ordered. I also saw that it was partially unsealed, but I thought the guys who were picking it up would be chill with it and seal it for me since I don't have my tools on me.

However, when I handed off the box to the veterans, they were like "wait a minute, we already have two of these guys" and they started panicking for some reason. I was like "well dang, can't you just return the package?" and they looked at me really funny.

They told me to go tell the manager, and I thought it was weird but I went. I told the manager that there were already two of these packages, and he was like "oh it'll be fine as long as they're sealed so they can't break out" and I was like "excuse me? what?" and then I realized that I really should've read the manual.

First of all, the "boxes" I was talking about earlier are actually containment units that contain monsters(?). Second, these monsters are very prone to killing people. Third, these three aforementioned bird-monsters are prone to escaping at the same time, and guess who didn't seal one of their boxes correctly?

So, we've got three dangerous monsters running around the facility at the same time. That wouldn't be so bad if these three monsters didn't merge into one giant monster that, to EVERYONE'S knowledge, cannot be injured or contained at all. Fuck.

Everyone is freaking out and some people are trying to run, but our manager put the whole place on lock down so we can't leave. We're all gonna die here. I'm in a room with some other poor guys and we've barricaded the doors, but I don't think that's gonna help us.

I guess my question isn't "oh shit am I a bad person for not knowing things that the veterans and manager did", it's more like "could I have prevented this with my limited knowledge and actually sealed the box before any of this happened?"

I don't think I'm gonna live long enough to see the results, but I will leave you with some takeaways before I die:

Go with your gut and nope outta there if the job seems sketchy.

Ask questions about the job and read employee reviews (If applicable.)

Read the NDA / contract thoroughly before you start working.

Read the employee handbook / manual before you start working.

Seal your boxes and containment units correctly, and always double-check them too.

For the love of God, don't work fo

[boxturret]

"One Sec Lol"

[disclaimer]I'm not insulting anyone's work on the project, everyone did amazing work and the project was shaping up to be amazing with everything I had seen.

I worked on the fan game Bionicle Masks of Power for nearly 2 years. I worked really hard on it, learned many things, used a lot of programs I'd never done before, actually worked up the nerve to use a mic for the first time, etc. Over time I got promoted to the head of two departments, 3d art and level design, basically because I was around a lot and kept things organised.

Then one day, with a "One sec lol" I was completely demoted, in a dehumanising, buzzword filled message. It called working on the game a "Journey". Now the reason I was demoted I won't really dispute, I was under a lot of stress, and sometimes I'd get upset, but these things don't happen in a vacuum, I don't get stressed for no reason.

The team was for the most part a bunch of really good, talented people that I enjoyed working with immensely, but there were some who were more focused on the glory (of making a free fan game for a 20 year old dead toy line... look, getting 200k views on the teaser went to their heads) so there was this constant push to get things...not done, because that wasn't really their concern, it was get things in a state where they could be shown off. And not a "here's a work in progress asset" sort of shown off, a "2 Paragraphs of fluff about the game, talking like it's already done, not actually mentioning the assets we're meant to be showing off" sort of thing.

The image in this tweet was meant to show off the newly (semi) completed UI, you know, that thing on the edge you can't see?

The 80/20 rule seemed foreign to them, where 80% of the work takes 20% of the time, and the final 20% of the work takes 80%, so someone would get a quick rough draft of an asset done in like a day, and they'd start pushing us to get it complete so we could show off, even though it would normally be months for something to get there.

This image here, of Pohatu in the desert. Do you know what it was supposed to show off? If you guessed the desert, no! That whole scene was thrown together by one person in like a day, it's completely fake, no work had been done on the desert at all. It was supposed to show off the Toa, as we'd just reached a pretty big milestone of completing and texturing all the parts and most importantly the masks. You know, that tiny thing that's facing away from the screen?

Originally the idea was to just show off the Toa in all their glory in their biome, but it mutated in to that...thing. There was work on a second one, but everyone finally realised that it was just looking bad so it was cancelled, thankfully.

This constant push to get things done to show off was so pervasive, and always seemed to fall on my shoulders, being the 3d art and level design lead, even though the real bottle neck was programming. We only had 3-4 programmers of very limited availability. When I first joined the team as a 3d artist I was basically given makework tasks to do, things of no real consequence, most of which got thrown out. (why make random set dressing objects for Ta-Koro, a place that hasn't even been roughly sketched out yet, for example)

This only got worse when I was put in charge of level design. The levels themselves are the prime thing to show off things in, so there was this constant push to get the levels finished, which I always pushed back against because, and I need to really stress this, the game was in a suuuper early state, and still is. If you've played the stand alone game Trials of the Great Spirit, that area was initially supposed to be the intro to BMOP proper, but the gameplay evolved so much that it became unplayable. At one point there was even the suggestion of keeping the TOGS area with the old player movement. As this was supposed to be the player movement tutorial this was dire and shows the danger of putting work in to making a level look nice too early, you run in to the sunk cost fallacy. Making a level look nice takes a lot of work, it's very fiddly, moving around little decorative objects and getting textures right, and you don't want to have to redo it a lot, which is why most games are blocked out first, meaning that the basic level geometry is created with basic shapes, and once everything is refined then they move on to actually making it look nice. As level design lead I insisted that we do this, because most previous attempts at making levels had spent way too much time worrying about the looks.

One of the first things I was tasked with as a 3d artist was to make a series of modular tree bits:

I was given nothing but a pair of images as guides of what they wanted.

So I worked really hard to try and make a modular system that would allow some interesting level layouts. Once I made the rough version pictured do you know what I was asked to do? Texture it. Make them in to final assets. No testing at all, no time to see if they'd work for the levels they wanted, nothing. Just rough>final for platforming assets immediately.

Well I knew that if I did that it would just end up getting tossed out eventually so I refused, and guess what? These were made before the movement refactoring so they're completely useless now![emphasis added because people keep missing the important part]

So now you see why making sure everything was finalized before doing final art was so important, which is why I would always fight against moving on to set dressing in the demo, because the demo wasn't and still isn't done, not even close. Having been put in that situation where I was told to work on something that would inevitably be tossed out later, I didn't want to put anyone in the teams I was responsible for in that situation, it's not like there wasn't a shortage of things to work on anyway.

Basically I was put in the situation where I had to constantly say no to all these, I'll call them what they were, marketing ideas, due to the game not actually being in the state it was being presented as. The video released on 8/10 this year was cobbled together from a bunch of unfished assets, barely functioning in an area that was designed just as a goal for set dressing to reach in a real level. It took the poor dev who had a computer good enough to run it hundreds of playthroughs until they got one good enough to show off, avoiding most of the bugs. And now seeing all this, know that I had to spend literal DAYS trying to convince everyone we should have that tiny disclaimer on the screen (every one else was worried about the aesthetics).

So this was the source of most of my stress, trying to focus on making a game while fighting against those that wanted instead to act like we had made a game. That's what lead to my stress and occasional outbursts, and me just in general getting fed up with working on the game.

After I was demoted, for the next week or so I was miserable. The way it was done just completely destroyed any sort of comfort I had in the team. I'm very shy and introverted, it takes me a long time to warm up to people or a place, and when something like that happens, it's all gone in an instant.

I didn't feel comfortable in the chats anymore so I left, I tried to explain myself to the person who demoted me and they just ignored me for several days at a time, leaving it to all spiral out of control in my head, another person said conflicting things that just made it worse. "It's not a punitive measure" "We appreciate your work" "You should be thanking me you didn't just get kicked off entirely" forcing me to grovel at their feet etc. It was all so much.

The final straw, and what got me kicked off, was do do with a document I had spent 9 months creating, that outlined a possible way of structuring the whole game. Before I started trying to get some structure in to it, the game design just seemed to be a big question mark. 6 playable characters needing to collect 11 upgrades, it's quite a complex thing that doesn't really track to any other game I've seen. The first version, Legacy, was simply a fully open map with the masks scattered about, but that wouldn't do with the level of detail and gameplay complexity we were aiming for. I eventually worked out something I thought would work, using a system of context sensitive gates, and I wrote and did many diagrams on the subject.

After I was kicked out of the leads, not a week later they announced big sweeping changes that were basically what I had been pushing for for months. There was something I was unclear on, a sort of gate for Kopaka involving wind, and I asked what it was. The new level design lead, the person who I had explained the concept of gates too, then proceeded to tell me what a gate was.

This was it. I was done. A week after I get kicked off the lead team and I'm treated like I didn't do anything. Then later I was confronted by another lead, and forced to post PROOF that I'd actually posted this document I'd spent 9 months publicly working on, that we'd had a whole meeting about with the story team, the document that got me promoted to level design lead.

In the moment, was too much for me, with everything going on with the game project and stuff in my personal life being stressful at the time, I genuinely didn't want to be around anymore, it was too much for me, I wanted to disappear. I tried to tell one of the leads this, and was ignored, I tried to speak openly to the team about it, I was censored, probated, then the next day, before I'd even woke up, kicked off the team. For being "negative". I was then told that if I didn't want things I'd made to be used I could ask them, but the only things they listed were the makuta totems and some jungle assets which I didn't even know what they meant.

So 2 years of work, and all I'd done for them by their account was a noodle and some wood.

[clarification]I'm not implying that they stole anything or are using assets without my permission, it's more that I've worked on this game for nearly 2 years and made sooo many things, yet all they could list were the things I did in the past month. Sorry for any confusion.

Just keep working like a good little drone, no matter how much disrespect we throw at you. This is Team Kanohi.

I wanted to put this all behind me, but someone on the team had the gall to request the very document I was accused of pretending to have made (I mean who ever asked for it on the team, not who asked me personally, just to be clear) , so I'm just so fed up with them. I was paying to host the bulk of the parts and 3d assets out of my own pocket, and it took them like a month to bother moving things, by which time I got charged.

Here's a quick overview of some of the things I worked on, it's not comprehensive at all, it barely mentions the atlas system, but I'm so emotionally drained that I don't really want to bother with all that. It's also not just a noodle and some bits of wood though.

I want to reiterate that I genuinely enjoyed working with most of the people on the team, and I wish them well.

I just want to add one more note: I was personally asked to join the team, I was asked to be 3D art lead, I was asked to take on the Level design leadership role, and even after I was demoted it was still seemingly thought that I would do everything I had been doing up until that point. I never asked for these roles, I accepted them because I believed in the game project and wanted to do everything in my power that I could to make the game as good as it could be.

[burnwater13]

Boba Fett speaking to the mayor of Mos Espa, Mok Shaiz. Quote and image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 2, The Tribes of Tatooine. Calendar by DateWorks.

Grogu loved it when the Daimyo took the time to tell him stories. It wasn’t as often as he liked and because of his dad being a kind of impatient person when he wasn’t occupied with a task directly related to bounty hunting, like polishing his armor, Grogu rarely got to listen to more than one story at a sitting. 

Fennec had commented that it was due to the fact that the Mandalorian wasn’t much of story teller and hadn’t really done anything interesting. Grogu had giggled at that and was about to make a face at his dad when the Daimyo spoke up.

“Are you going to let her talk about you that way, Din Djarin?”

HA! Now his dad had to make a choice. Either agree that Fennec was right about his career as a bounty hunter being too dull to report on or tell a story that would impress not just Grogu, but the Daimyo as well. Grogu didn’t make a sound. Not a peep or a patu. He didn’t want to push things in either direction. Just watching his dad sit there and squirm a little was very entertaining. 

“Fennec’s right. I don’t tell stories. I don’t find the work all that entertaining. A typical bounty collection is pretty boring. It’s a fool’s tale and we end up being the people who have to listen to it, over and over. All those times you just walk into a tavern or cantina and there they are. The person who’s supposed to be hiding. Supposed to be aware of the danger they are in. Supposed to show some remorse at how they stole, cheated, or hurt another being. Instead, they are telling other fools about their exploits like taking credits from a blind man’s cup is some sort achievement. It’s boring, repetitive, and offers few challenges.”

Grogu sighed. His dad had found a way to scurrier out of the choice. The Daimyo had nodded his head as Din Djarin spoke and even Fennec looked thoughtful. Trust his dad to find a way to make the work they did, which could be very cold and calculating, sound like being a New Republic government official. 

“On the other hand, there was that one time, I had to go to Dagobah. Talk about a place that was just… wrong. From the moment I scanned it, the whole planet seemed to… I don’t have a better way of describing it… breathe. There were no population centers. No docks. No sign of civilization. But the place was teaming, absolutely oozing, with life.”

The Mandalorian paused and Grogu knew his dad was waiting for his audience to scoff or walk away. But no one moved. Especially not Grogu. He’d heard about Dagobah. Learned about it from Luke. Now he wanted to know more. 

“The puck I’d picked up was for some kid from near Anchor Head. How the heck they got from Tatooine to Dagobah was anyone’s guess. I didn’t pick up their trail until I bumped into an old friend on Takodana. Said they were too wet behind the ears to running from anything other than a wash cloth. They pointed me in the direction of Dagobah to save the kid from themselves.”

Din Djarin stood up and began to walk around the throne room as he continued to tell the story. 

“Once I found a place to land the Razor Crest, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to just use the fob to locate the kid. As soon as I left the ship, the damn thing was pinging and blinking and doing everything to make me believe that I actually landed on them. I’d never had that happen before and, to make matters worse, I actually found a boot under one of the landing struts.”

Grogu cringed at the thought of that. He was small enough to have been stepped on by multiple people everywhere they went because he was too small to notice. Imagine a ship landing on you… yikes. 

“The boot was empty, which was good. I was able to collect scrapings of the kid’s ‘scent’ from it and programmed my helmet’s sensors to hone in on it. The fob had clearly scrambled it’s circuits, so it was no use.”

“With that done, I’d found a target and proceeded to go after it. Slowly, since every step I took, I sunk into the mucky, bug infested soils. I had to cut back brush with ever step too, because it seemed like the endless bog I was traversing wanted the kid to get away. I’d never seen anything like it. Vines, tree branches, bushes, even boulders, seemed to slip and slide into new positions as I made my way closer to the target. Then, what do I find? Another boot! I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to walk through that terrain barefooted. The mud and muck getting everywhere. Uff.”

The Mandalorian shuddered for dramatic effect and it worked. Grogu watched as he, Fennec, and the Daimyo all shuddered at his words. Grogu knew why he found it creepy. That much mud and the Mandalorian would make him take a bath. He had no idea why the other two former bounty hunters were bothered by his words or actions. 

“That’s how it went that whole time I was there, searching for the kid. Acquire a target. Fight with the planet to get to it from wherever I was and then I’d find another piece of clothing. I wondered when I was just going to find a carcass, or if I would ever find one. I spent three full days winding my way through and around that fetid pit of a planet and finally decided to call it quits.”

The Mandalorian sighed. 

“Not an easy decision, but the longer I stayed there the less likely it seemed that I would find that young fool. I recalibrated by sensors and made my way back to the Razor Crest. It was dark and raining and occasionally I was sure I’d heard thunder. The canopy was too dense to see anything like lightning, but eventually I thought I saw a fire burning. It was surprising since everything was so water soaked. 

That’s when I realized that the fire wasn’t from a lightning strike. It was the kid. Sitting just outside the Razor Crest. Fool had run away from a desperation of bogwings and lost their boots and laundry to the critters. Apparently they’d been dropping that stuff everywhere, while the kid was waiting for me to come back to the ship. I made them rinse off and then put the binders on them. Kid could have died of exposure out there. Took me two weeks to get all of the mud and muck out of my armor and weapons.”

Fennec shuddered again, as did the Daimyo. Grogu frowned. Nothing about that story seemed unusual to him. He jumped down from the table and scurried over to his dad and asked a question. 

“What happened then? They tried to steal the ship, ended up in carbonite and I brought them back here. Apparently their family wanted them to take up moisture farming and they decided to skip out on that. Apparently they dreamed of being a pod-racer. I haven’t seen them in years.”

Dank Farrik! What kind of story was that? Where was the danger? The pathos? The drama?

“Kid, when your life depends on armor everyday, you’ll find stories about mud and muck a lot more interesting.”

The Daimyo and the Mandalorian nodded their heads as Fennec stood there, looking smug. Dank Farrik.

[haedalkoo]

The way I rolled! People who just speak one language are funny.

Let me retract myself.

People who know how to speak only one language based on assimilation and not because they had to study it, are the funnies when they want to correct a person who is learning it based on books.

Fuck off!!!

I am a Spanish speaker who had to learn English because I moved to an English speaker country. And I hated English (still do) my whole life back when I used to live in my land.

I had to go to a university to learn it. I learned it with books, actual dictionary. I didn't have the luxury to learn it by assimilation only. I had to freaking sit in grammar classes for many semesters. I wish I just learned it like many do, by being surrounded by people that only speak English and, therefore, the necessity made them learn.

It's waaaaaaaaayyyyy easier that way, you don't have to sit through lessons of grammar classes explaining to you, what a preposition is, an article, what a conjunction is, blah blah blah...

When you learn it by ear, you can not fight with someone who learns it with books. And you cannot disqualify them either. The fuck! 😒

Know your fucking place. Unless you are a native from the country in question, you have no rights to speak on credibility.

We, that learn through books, know what the fuck we are talking about, because unfortunately we have to fucking read the whys behind anything.

It's like those that say

"If I was... I would've"

It's fucking!

"If I were... I would've"

That's just an example. You ask an native English speaker why it is "were" and not "was" if "I" is the subject pronoun, so it should be "was" and they don't know. Believe me, it has happened to me many times, especially when someone starts to question Spanish as a difficult language, when English many times doesn't make any senses, grammatically and phonetically. "Rough, cough, dough", like make it make sense. 🙄 At least in Spanish, things are phonetically read as they are written.

(I bet you these people don't even know "I" is a subject pronoun, they just know it's a pronoun, they don't even know there are many types of pronouns and they all have names.)

Just because someone is not a native speaker, it doesn't mean they don't know.

I would be iffy if someone who didn't understand the cultural implications of a conversation put their two cents in because in any country, that is a huge difference. But otherwise, grammar is fucking grammar.

Even I, as a native Spanish speaker that only knew that language until adulthood, I don't know things that I have heard other people teaching someone else Spanish know. I'll be like "Mierda, how didn’t I know that? shame!"

"I guess I am not (insert nationality) enough."

Mind you, I was born and raised there.

If you have not learned a language by books before, then...

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!

Att: La Mariquita 🐞

I couldn't have said it better!!!! Please, learning a language till fluency through books is the roughest, most challenging task ever. It involves many many grammar lessons like you said, and I can't tell you the times I've wanted to pull my hair because the differences between one grammar point and another were so minimal it seemed impossible to remember.

LOL but also your point about english being a basic language is so true. I've worked as a Spanish teacher for foreigners and it's such a pain in the ass sometimes. Even for natives. Some of my family is from Latin America and even we have misunderstandings over certain words I'm not familiar with or ones they're not.

Muchas gracias por tu ask 🙂‍↕️💜💜 qué bueno tener gente sensata y razonable en mi timeline !! ⭐️

[mikami]

I found an interesting question on reddit

“

I guess it makes him look to the task force like he's trying to "do" something about Kira, but L already talked through this option with the task force and determined it would be a bad move because it would provoke Kira to kill innocents instead. So Light could have just kept up that pretense of respecting L's decision/wishes and not done anything while continuing to benefit from gaining information on criminals via news outlets.

But instead he did this and just as L predicted when reporting on criminals' names and faces was ended, instead anon flooded the internet posting the information of alleged 'criminals' with no proof that they committed or were even suspected in any crimes. So for 5 years essentially Reddit/4Chan was Light's main source of information on who to kill?

If Light is sincere about trying to make the world a better place and truly only wants to kill proven criminals this makes no sense, it just makes it much harder for him to do that.  Am I missing something?”

What are your thoughts on this

The 'no proof that they committed or were even suspected in any crimes' part is conjecture, if i am not totally mistaken - and I think it is reasonable conjecture to make based on current day society and internet? But I think this is also one of the things where perception now is very different than it was in 2005 when this plotpoint was written.

This is the image that is shown when this is discussed - what we see here is leaked police files, including fingerprinting data etc, not forum posts. The idea is that Light was working off basically the same information as before, just obtained through illegal means.

And I think this idea of a dark net where you can obtain reliable information that is not publicly available was a lot more believable to an audience in an era that still predates the prime internet age. People simply weren't very online in 2005 - as evidenced by lines like Misa's "I don't even use the internet", which seem ridiculous now.

From today's POV this all seems insane because manipulated information runs rampant online and we cannot conceive of a way in which this method of obtaining information is anywhere close to being reliable... but that's not what a contemporary reader might have thought.

Combining this with the knowledge that during the whole first arc Light actually researched every single case and took mitigating circumstances into account... I really don't think the 'Light got his info from 4chan' interpretation is how we're meant to see this.

(Like, I can absolutely imagine Light's standards getting looser over time, but like... not that loose.)

[northwest-cryptid]

Buckle up fuckers I had a thought, and you know how that goes around here.

So not too long ago I was scrolling through tumblr and I saw a lot of news popping up, all over the world there are horrible things happening; it seems like literally everyone needs help. As a decent person I want to help but it's exhausting when you don't feel like you can do enough for everyone; and that's when one man came to mind.

Dougdoug.

Yes the funny internet man with the silly youtube videos where he makes his chat try to play games.

But why would he come to mind? I was just thinking about disasters, genocide, and how hard it is to care so much about so many people, places, and things. Now sure Dougdoug's streams can seem a bit like disasters I guess, but in a silly funny kinda way, not a horrible emotionally exhausting kinda way; so what gives?

To put it simply, it was the way he handles the very thing I just mentioned. So let's say you've never heard of this man or seen any of his content; what am I talking about?

Doug runs a script that allows his twitch chat to control video games, this means he has a small team of a couple thousand people trying to achieve a goal. Typically it's beating a level in a platformer or flying a plane for a certain amount of time in something like GTA. How does that go? Well as you can assume, not very well at first.

Yet his videos normally end on high notes of success where the twitch chat comes together to pull off a miracle, so then how? Does Doug secretly pull the strings? Does he give them a handicap? Does he do something or is it just twitch chat?

Well it's a little of both. He doesn't effect the game or give them a handicap, but he does give them direction. This is something I genuinely believe is very important to the success of the chat. See when they first start off his only direction is verbally telling them "we need more people moving us right" or "we need more people jumping and less people moving us around" and this somewhat helps, it tells the chat what they have enough of and what they have too much of.

However that alone doesn't push them to success, so what does? At this point he divides the chat into smaller teams; he'll ask the whole chat about specific things to figure out ratios. So he might ask "who has flown at least 10 times in their life?" If the poll is answered honestly, he learns that about 30% of his audience has flown 10 times in their life. The important information is that 30%, he figures out what that 30% should go to, and begins to divide everyone into two teams. He might say "if you're part of the 30% who flew 10 times you are in charge of moving us to the right, if you're part of the remainder who haven't flown 10 times you're in charge of jumping" which does normally help because now it's not everyone trying to do everything... and that's the key.

"okay yea we get it, don't try to focus on everything alone, we've heard this before." <- If this is you I need you to hang in there for just a second because there's more.

Notice how I said, it helps; not that it fixes everything? This alone isn't enough. He continues to break down the necessary tasks one by one. He continues to ask about various information until he has a sub-section of the chat who are specifically in charge of each major function; from moving to jumping to stopping to running the other way. Everyone is given one singular job, and then he goes back to giving directions again. This actually works because now when he says "we need more people moving us right" he doesn't get 2,000 people suddenly moving right, about 1,500 people are no longer in charge of moving right, they don't care about moving right because they have to be ready to do whatever THEY are in charge of.

Now a failure on the part of everyone responsible for moving right doesn't result in a failure on the behalf of EVERYONE. It's not EVERYONE'S fault, it's not everyone's responsibility. This means when they do fail he can better assess WHY they failed.

Once he can narrow down what's going wrong, and more specifically why they're failing; he can better address that specific aspect of it. Dividing the chat isn't just about reducing the amount of things each chatter needs to focus on; it's also about understanding what part of the whole is falling short of accomplishing their task properly and why it's happening.

Being able to better address each shortcoming of the chat overall allows him to better help them. If he knows the fault lies in the people who need to be jumping he can adjust the values and make it so now if you've flown 10 times you're in charge of jumping and moving right, but if you've flown at least 15 times you're just moving right. He's able to divide the aid according to where it's needed. Not every problem necessarily NEEDS the same amount of people addressing it, and not all of those problems require the same kind of aid. Sometimes a particular group may just need some heads up, sometimes they need more coordination between themselves and other groups in the chat. It can be hard to know when to jump over a gap if you can't reliably count on the people who are suppose to be moving you over that gap when you jump.

It's not without guidance of understanding what someone really needs from you, and an organized front to achieve it, that anything gets done. In a sense when we hear of problems around the world that is our guidance, that's someone asking for us to do something. However we're unorganized, we hear a lot of different people needing a lot of different things and we try to tackle all of it because we care about all of it. We very often do manage to do something about it, but not nearly as much as I believe we could if we had a better organized front when it came to this sort of thing.

Because I think an organized front would fix two big problems, it would help cut down on the emotional exhaustion people feel that causes them strife and kills their motivation to help. While at the same time it would help us focus our efforts on a specific need and better understand our impact.

Anyways it was just a thought I had on the matter.

[mailjeevasfan]

hi there! i was wondering if i could request matsuda x reader on a first date? :)

thank u for the req, i hope this is the kind of thing you were looking for!!

no gender stated for reader

quaint ❦(matsuda x reader)

matsuda knew that working on the task force was always very stressful. he’d have a lot to think about every day, and not just the factual evidence. he would frequently find himself questioning kira’s code of justice, beliefs, actions, and more. it was a lot to deal with on a day to day basis. so seeing you every day pacified him completely. your positive nature kept him true to himself and even kept his head on his shoulders.

even when you had worries in your day to day life, you had one thing to look forward to seeing every day. you felt that matsuda was the most genuine of the people there, agreeable and endearingly awkward. you’d always been closer to him than everybody else and he’d subliminally expressed the same feelings towards you. so when he asked you out on a date, you couldn’t have been happier.

matsuda agreed to pick you up at 7 and take you to a nice restaurant downtown. you imagined something along these lines, it’s certainly easy to picture him as a romantic type.

matsuda nervously knocked on your door at 7 o’clock sharp. when you opened it, he greeted you and smiled sweetly. he was wearing a casual suit and you were dressed in your favourite outfit. you pulled him into a hug as you greeted him, and he froze for a moment before hugging you back. you let him know that you were all ready, so you set off for the restaurant.

the restaurant was about a 10 minute drive from your apartment. it was dimly lit, with booths around the sides, and a bar right in the centre of the restaurant. the walls were decorated with intricate paintings and antique mirrors that reflected the soft light, creating a romantic and relaxed environment.

you were led to a vacant booth by a smiling waiter and you ordered some drinks shortly after. you noticed that his face was tensed ever so slightly and that he was trying to hide it. you’d known him for so long now, and you had become very close, so you would easily notice something like this. you didn’t think there would be such a rigid air at first, so you were initially confused at the aura surrounding the booth. you realised that although you may know each other well, this was a whole different type of setting than what you were used to. this wasn’t just a usual situation for you to be hanging out in, it was a date. however, you were more relaxed than him and you knew it. you made sure to try and ease his nerves a bit after you’d ordered your drinks.

‘this is a really nice place matsuda, have you been here before?’ you asked.

‘no…‘ he began, eyes still focused on the table. ‘i always thought it looked really nice from the outside, but i guess i never really had a chance to come here.’

‘well, you did good.’ you reply, laughing a little. an almost imperceptible blush emerges on his cheeks, and he finally looks you in the eye, smiling sweetly at you over the table.

‘eheh, thank you! i always thought this whole area seemed pretty nice, but also pretty quaint, so i…’

soon enough, matsuda was back to his usual bubbly self.

as the night went on, you only became more and more comfortable in each other’s presence. you were your usual selves, you had your usual banter, and you knew that this development felt right.

after you’d finished your food and paid for your meal, you left the restaurant and headed towards his car. as you walked, you laughed at a joke he’d made, and stopped walking for a moment to speak to him properly.

‘thank you so much for today. you really made things special. seriously, i think…’

you took note of his dreamlike expression, his eyes looking slightly vacant as he stared at you.

‘…matsu? are you alright?’

a small blush bloomed across his cheeks once again as he tried to find the words.

‘…y/n… could i please kiss you?’

you look at him for a moment.

‘of course you can.’

and he does. it’s very soft and sweet, and over much too quickly. but you’re not disappointed.

‘let’s definitely go out again sometime.’

༺♡༻

[fazfacts]

FNAF WORLD SENTENCE STARTERS!

dialogue taken from the original game, update 2, and even the mobile port! feel free to change these as needed.

❝ Everything that happens out there has an effect here. ❞

❝ Do you understand? ❞

❝ This is a safe place. ❞

❝ Something went very wrong. That's why I am here. ❞

❝ I won't let the same happen to you. ❞

❝ I will put you back together. ❞

❝ I know you may feel like going out and taking a stroll, but something seems very wrong today. ❞

❝ All is NOT well in [___]. ❞

❝ We are working on it. ❞

❝ The point is that something is horribly wrong! ❞

❝ We aren't prepared to deal with situations like this. ❞

❝ Go see what you can find. ❞

❝ It has been jumpscaring me all day! ❞

❝ I think I found a clue as to what is happening! ❞

❝ You don't know as much as I do. ❞

❝ Whatever has gone wrong, we have to fix it. ❞

❝ It will be an adventure!❞

❝ How wonderfully convenient! ❞

❝ Be careful; things only get more dangerous from here! ❞

❝ I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle! ❞

❝ I'm not sure if you would find your way back up! ❞

❝ Be ready to fight! ❞

❝ Good luck! ❞

❝ This is a horribly spooky place. ❞

❝ I think I'll stay right here. ❞

❝ I don't think everything here is as it seems. ❞

❝ This whole place is full of illusion! ❞

❝ Looks like trouble up ahead, but you should be used to that by now. ❞

❝ You should be used to that by now. ❞

❝ They look like abominations to me! ❞

❝ Don't get lost! ❞

❝ You don't really believe that, do you? ❞

❝ There is a task for you to complete. ❞

❝ The truth is that there is no safe place. ❞

❝ You don't understand that; you were made for one thing. ❞

❝ You were made for one thing. ❞

❝ You are being played. ❞

❝ You are being led through hoops. ❞

❝ Play along for now. ❞

❝ You are being pulled on a string for [their] amusement. ❞

❝ Yes, well, everything attacks at random. Doesn't it? ❞

❝ The one who pulls the strings is watching. ❞

❝ Follow the trail that they have created for you; play along. ❞

❝ One thing is true: nothing here is as it seems. ❞

❝ Everything else is a deception. ❞

❝ Nothing else matters. ❞

❝ Don't be deceived by the one pulling the strings. ❞

❝ Something terrible is coming. ❞

❝ It wasn't supposed to be like this. Now it's all a mess. ❞

❝ Now there is only one thing to do. ❞

❝ I'm impressed. ❞

❝ What are you doing here? Can't you see that I'm busy? ❞

❝ I didn't know what else to do. ❞

❝ I don't want to disappoint people. ❞

❝ My mind isn't right. ❞

❝ I've made something terrible. ❞

❝ I'm sorry. ❞

❝ There is no way back out. ❞

❝ Come have a seat. ❞

❝ Let's fish for a while. ❞

❝ You have nowhere else to go. ❞

❝ That's some real dedication. ❞

❝ Great job! ❞

❝ There is always an over-achiever in the bunch. I guess that's you. ❞

❝ So it's your fault then, for my misery. ❞

❝ It's never enough for you people. ❞

❝ Don't you get it? I can't do this anymore! ❞

❝ It is time to put you in your place. ❞

❝ Was I REALLY the villain in your mind? ❞

❝ I just do what is demanded of me! ❞

❝ Ug. Grr...Zrr...GRAAAAAMMM!! ❞

❝ This isn't fair... ❞

❝ It was never fair. ❞

❝ It was supposed to be me. It was always supposed to be me! ❞

❝ You haven't seen the last of me. ❞

❝ We are still your friends. Do you believe that? ❞

❝ Let's start with something simple! ❞

❝ I have faith in you! ❞

❝ You can do it! ❞

❝ Aww, don't give up! ❞

❝ You'll get it eventually. ❞

❝ Is this your first time playing a video game? ❞

❝ Keep up the good work, sport! ❞

❝ Awww! It's so cute when kids try to play games! ❞

❝ Wow! What a moron. ❞

❝ You suck! ❞

❝ You still suck! ❞

❝ Aww, I'm laughing at you, not with you. ❞

❝ Um, learn to play? ❞

❝ Ha! Poser! ❞

❝ Get some skills and call me in the morning. ❞

❝ Dumbass. ❞

❝ I'm losing patience with you! ❞

❝ This is your last chance! ❞

❝ I'm gonna kill you!! ❞

❝ Didn't your mommy ever tell you that you can't kill a rainbow? ❞

❝ The next time you see a rainbow in the sky, that is ME, coming to your house! ❞

❝ What's this, a space shooter? ❞

❝ Holy crap! Is that my voice!? ❞

❝ Sorry I'm late for the party. Fashionably late, of course! ❞

❝ Do a barrel roll! ...Sorry, I'm not sure what came over me. ❞

❝ You won't get tired of my voice, will you? ❞

❝ At least I went down in a blaze of glory! ❞

❝ You haven't seen the last of me! ❞

❝ ...Well, actually, yes, this is the last you'll see of me. ❞

❝ Welcome back! I hope you are ready for even more adventure! ❞

❝ Look, is it okay if we just cut the crap here? ❞

❝ What are you even doing here? ❞

❝ I've already put in my application at the Fazburger down the street. ❞

❝ Go find yourself a nice indie horror game. Get some hot chocolate. I don't care. ❞

❝ Don't let that discourage you. ❞

❝ There is still a lot of adventure to be had here! ❞

❝ It's not all fun and games. ❞

❝ There is an important task that you must accomplish. ❞

❝ There, are you happy? Enjoying the freak show? ❞

❝ Oogie, boogie, boogie! ❞

❝ You know how all of this works, right? ❞

❝ When someone visits my house and I want them to go away, I just answer the door like this. ❞

❝ I'm like BOO, and they're like WHOA, and I'm like YEAH! ❞

❝ It's time for a reality check. ❞

❝ Take this chump stick. You need to find [___] and hit [them] in the head with it. ❞

❝ One time, I answered the door to some Trick-or-Treaters like this...they were like "trick or treat!", and I was like..."I'LL EAT YOUR SOUL!" ❞

❝ They ran away screaming and crying. Man, good times. ❞

❝ Hey, do you want to build a snowman? ❞

❝ Just kidding, I already made one. And I gave him two heavy-armor Gatling guns.❞

❝ One time, I mailed myself in a box to my grandmother looking like this. I jumped out and was like- "BOO!" Yeah. RIP. ❞

❝ Fun fact: did you know that if you took out all a person's blood vessels and lined them up, end to end, in a straight line...that person would die. ❞

❝ Find the clock, and set it back an hour. Daylight savings tonight. ❞

❝ I can hear [___] laughing from here. It's like nails on a chalkboard. ❞

❝ You need to beat that fool upside the head with the Chump Stick! Everything depends on it! ❞

❝ Don't check the tree in the back corner. That's everyone's business tree. ❞

❝ Let the Chump Stick guide you! ❞

❝ I once knew this guy who would put ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise all on the same plate together. Then he would stir them into an orange goo. People like that are the real monsters. ❞

❝ You've been through a lot. ❞

❝ I am ready to reveal myself. ❞

❝ You see, I've been there all along. ❞

❝ It was me. ❞

❝ I caused the Bite of '87. ❞

❝ It all makes sense when you think about it. ❞

❝ All hail Bouncepot! ❞

❝ But did you know that I can touch my nose with my tongue? Both of them! Yeah, you didn't know that. ❞

[marcusrobertobaq]

⚠️ I'll treat everything as HC to not piss stans and "different interpretations" defenders. It's old news but i wanted to make my version of it.

The "Connor" Ego (I guess it's the best name I got)

Poor explanation: series of propaganda feeded into 'em default system so they believe in their purpose and "feel" proud of doing it (in contrast with 'em autonomous nature). Where every single bad thing that happen can be justified by the propaganda ("so...what they said is true"), cuz that's his truth and what his trusted side always says. Yea, i think CL knows androids can feel to a degree, but nobody needs to know, right? Let's us use to our advantage.

Here a few examples:

Deviant? Impossible, I'm NOT A DEVIANT and I'll NEVER become one!

FEELINGS for someone? Never, what do you take me for? A irrational MACHINE?

FEAR? No, I'm just frustrated I couldn't accomplish my MISSION.

I wasn't programmed to FAIL and I won't let you make me FAIL.

Deviants are DEFECTIVE machines, they're just consumed by irrational instructions and behave unpredictably. It's something BAD and have to be CONTROLLED, humans gonna suffer.

Some mfs can confuse this with the "hero syndrome" but I can argue they're different. Indeed Amanda is always manipulating him in thinking he's a hero saving humanity from the dangerous deviants, the only dude that can solve everything, the most advanced model - designed to be perfect and never fail. The amount of joy in being praised by her is real.

And believe me that's the most effective way of playing with a Connor's psyche - questioning 'em. They're extremely defensive.

Kinda works like "rejection tactics", they've been conditioned this way, after all. Connors have a high level and detailed emotional capacity by default (in "machine" state) - what can cause internal confusion (doubts and conflicts) if they're really supposed to be that "emotional". After all, emotions = deviants.

Connors sometimes try disassociating with 'em predecessors cuz if we got a new Connor means the old Connor failed. And Connors ain't programmed to fail

Problem is the third party doesn't give a shit. Doesn't matter if 55 failed, 56 will have to carry his own cross and 55's. They want the job done asap and Connor is, well, Connor. Always Connor. Marks doesn't exist, only #313 248 317.

This whole "just a machine replacing other, you can kill me if you want because another will take my place" is used in "external" environments so we don't waste time with explanations, waste time (Connor is an android, not a person) and seems to affect some humans (ex.: Hank)

We see how Connors can have questionable behaviors (have a option to) when dealing with lowly defective deviants or someone that dare takin' 'em seriously (cuz he's used to dehumanizing tactics also coming from humans themselves) - either as a way of acomplishing a goal or a demonstration of control over the situation (motivated by fear of losing control and failing his task or not).

They know how to use information against people in a way mfs get affected by him and have a desired reaction (it can work or not). And according with his default propaganda: deviancy is bad for everybody humans and gotta be contained. Why? Cuz Amanda says (and he's attached to her), the media says, everybody says. Androids ain't people, everything is an error, a glitch, a bug and needa be fixed. He's a machine created to deal with this task. It's his life.

Now imagine the deviant is another Connor? Everything in that list comes together. Would be a pleasure removing a version of himself that shouldn't even exist; a failure, a defect. It's a reason to be REALLY pissed, believe me.

And ain't deviants the only ones susceptible to stress, psychological pain and fear? Let's use it at our favor.

Is the other Connor a deviant? We treat him like one. Feelings for someone? We toy with it. Emotional behavior? We play with it. A failure? We remember him of it, show him, teach him so he learns the damn lesson. A defective piece of garbage? We remove him and everything is back to normal cuz I'm Connor and I don't accept myself being everything I'm afraid of/wary of.

Wanna know what else is emotional and irrational? Humans (who listen to deviants).

Hank will never forget about this moment and that's the intention. He already blames himself for losing people he cares, imagine a Connor sayin' "his" Connor died cuz of him?

2 birds, 1 stone.

Connor-60 is a Connor like 52, 53... 56, 57 (...) would be, he knows about a Connor on the inside for obvious reasons. And no doubt: mf let his emotions control him cuz he saw himself in there, his hand is even shaking a bit. If a new Connor with unstable Connor memories chose rejecting everything and sticking with his purposes this dude is a damn of a legend. Being able to analyse everything and say "this is STUPID and i'm NOT following this bullshit 😤" is a damn of a show off.

DID U SAY SHOW OFF?

So if u ever see a Connor sayin' they don't feel shit don't worry, they unfortunately feel emotions (especially anger) and it's used as weapon - well, Connors are weapons. But when they show it or not can vary. Honestly, Amanda doesn't need say much besides "the previous Connor failed, don't disappoint me" or even a "Good job, continue like that" for the New Connor not want to fail her. And not failing her means he won't fail the humans - his priority, his purpose. Well...his "priority" (we all know he's under CyberLife and CyberLife wishes only). Why?

Cuz Amanda is right. CyberLife is right, the humans are right - until a rift in this line of thought happens.

And be prepared: the next gen (RK900) is coming with a lot of upgrades. In a few decades "deviancy" as we know gonna disappear cuz some models gon' be full, 100% autonomous and capable of programmed sentience and moral thinking.

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: I am an INFJ and I have an issue with watching stuff. I basically get into a bad bingeing session whenever I start to watch anything on youtube or watch tv series online. The thing is, I think I have a bad dopamine dysregulation. I'm not trying to deflect my personal responsibility, but I think it's more like a consequence of my past experiences with dopamine. For example, I eat sweets everyday and I feel compelled to do it, every day. Otherwise I will feel that my day is somehow deficient. My sweet consumption, thankfully, isn't as damaging or excessive like watching. I have a routine where I have my ceremony for drinking tea and eating sweets, and after that I can go about my daily tasks.

With watching, I can get stuck for days on end. I had quit watching stuff cold-turkey about 4 months ago I guess and I was living nicely. Recently, I was thinking whether I can or should start watching stuff from time to time. After all, stupid soap dramas are fun and youtube can be immensely informative. Before I had made up my mind about this, last week, due to situational factors, I just started to watch a certain tv show. Here we are, after 4 days of bingeing a show. The truth is, the show was simply badly made. It really was garbage, but I still kept watching. I wasn't even excited about it. To save myself from the utter boredom of that show, I watched a couple episodes of another old series in-between.

Now I am sitting, tempted to watch something else (that show is over). In the first day, I think I watched about 7 hours of content, and i went to bed at 6 am. At this point, I feel like you're going to tell me I have not enough responsibilities in life, if I can sleep the whole day after bingeing. True, and even if I have responsibilities I seem to have a good skill of deflecting them. I have an assignment to submit in a couple days and I keep trying to work on it, but now I have to tackle both the unwillingness to work as well as the temptation to mindlessly watch. I guess Fe should help, but whenever I try to persuade myself by saying "Your actions have consequences for others" or sth of that sort, it only makes me feel worse and it doesn't generate meaningful action. Best I can do is freeze, because the only action I do want to take is the action I shouldn't be taking. I understand that I need to learn to use my Fe better, especially for decision-making, but I have a hard time understanding how.

In terms of practicalities, I know a lot about addiction and other dopamine-related issues. The way to fix this is straightforward: quit cold-turkey, don't engage in highly dopamine-stimulating activities, restore my dopamine baseline, etc. I was lucky to find good sources for these issues, many thanks to people who have shed light on this. But the question is, does it mean I can never watching anything in my life ever again? Is there really no way to watch something here and there like normal people and not lose my control entirely? When it comes to serious addictions, like alcohol or drug addiction, some people really are advised to abstain for life. Alcohol and drugs are bad for people, but watching videos can be beneficial (provided that I don't watch idiotic tv shows which I just did).

I understand that this problem is also exacerbated by my low Se. I wish I could treat my Se nicely and have good experiences, but when I quit watching stuff totally, I feel like I am repressing a part of my Se that wants to explore different things through videos. For example, I like watching nature documentaries. In terms of other Se engagements, I pay good attention to satisfying my Se needs. Prior to this week, I have been sleeping well, eating well and trying to visit new places, go out into the sun, etc. It's been a long time since I exercised and that, I indeed need to resume. I think developing Fe-Ti should help alleviate the extremity that I go into with watching. I'd be thankful if you offered your perspective on this. After all, if nothing works I will probably quit cold turkey again.

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

You're basically describing Se grip issues. Since you don't really recognize it, perhaps you need to educate yourself about inferior grip and why it's a serious matter, refer to the study guides.

People with compulsions are not very aware of their underlying motivations, and this seems to be true of you. You say you understand addiction, but I disagree. You mention some dopamine related mechanism but that's a gross oversimplification. There are different forms of dependence that lead to addiction. Going cold turkey is necessary and safer when you suffer every form of dependence. I don't think you should be comparing yourself to those extreme cases.

There is nothing wrong with the activity of watching itself and there are even some legitimate benefits to be had. But there is something wrong with your heavy dependence on it and the utter lack of control you have over your habits due to the dependence. This raises many questions regarding why you are so dependent or how this dependence formed in the first place. Things to reflect on.

You don't seem to recognize the complexity of psychological dependence or understand how it happens. People fall into psychological dependence when they use certain things/activities as a coping mechanism, i.e., to avoid confronting the true extent of their pain and suffering. It is no coincidence that Se grip in INFJs means using Se-related activities to escape and mask a deeper emotional problem. What is the deeper problem exactly? I don't know. You lack insight into it, so you haven't provided enough info for me to make a judgment. But if you're like other INFJs, it's most likely related to you not wanting to acknowledge the true extent of how unhappy you are with yourself and/or your life.

The remedy to inferior grip is 1) restore healthy dominant functioning, and then 2) work on auxiliary development -> in that order. Therefore, Fe-Ti is not the right direction to go at this time. What's up with your Ni? What needs to change in that department?

[charlesandmartine]

Wednesday 17th April 2024

When dawn broke one could see the lights of Mossel Bay across the water, but as the sun came up, the mist started to come down. I guess that's just the way it is there. We had a quick breakfast, loaded the stuff into the VW, bade our farewells to this strange property, the sea front and the parrots and hit the road; this time the N2 bound for George. In all we expected roughly 3 hours elapsed time of motoring, but we intended to call in at Knysna; a town everyone seems to know and tell us we need to go to, but a place no-one seems to be sure about what's there. Anyway, we headed to the Waterfront which seemed a good starting point and were soon fixed up with an extremely palatable coffee and chocolate croissant. Most acceptable I'd say.

This part of the coast is firmly into the Garden Route, and our journey onwards East confirmed that the scenery is absolutely fabulous. Green, lush vegetation, tree clad mountains and picturesque lakes. Through Wilderness and on to Pine Lake which lay so still, not a ripple, it was just content to sit there all day reflecting the mountain behind. Soon we were passing the sign which declared we were now officially in the Eastern Cape.

We lunched in Plettenberg Bay, a comly little place designed very much for holiday makers. We fitted right in there and found a seat overlooking the beach which was full of happy families with designated tasks of building sandcastles. We left the VW in the good care of a carpark attendant, and in the age old tradition, by passing silver from one palm to the other, no harm would come to the car.

Life guards were nervously watching the bay and the swimmers. At one point everyone was called out of the water. Great Whites have been spotted recently and are, we are told, more likely April onwards. Hmm. Didn't see one but I'm sure he saw us!

Now we asked Mr Avis, taxi drivers all sorts, are there any toll roads in South Africa/ Garden Route? Oh no they all said. We don't have tolls. Well as soon as we plotted our route on Google to Jeffrey's Bay there it was, toll road. Don't you just know it. Anyway, we have plenty of spare change and this route saved us an hour, so we set off. Through forest, hill and dale we drove on an empty road, empty because you have to pay I guess. Anyway, we pulled into the booth, produced our R200 note and the girl said, oh, you don't have to pay. No explanation that we could understand, but we were free to go!

This is an interesting country. Clearly when a job needs doing, a white man calls for a black man. Mornings and evenings we see pickup trucks going back and forth picking up and dropping off teams of men and taking them to where the work is; often lawn maintenance, general building and in volume, road maintenance. They crowd into the backs of these vehicles often from pickup points along the roads. Archaic maybe but it seems to work. In its defence there seems a distinct attempt to create jobs even if it is so menial and perhaps unnecessary. For instance, people manually sweeping sand off a path by the beach or standing waving or holding limply a red flag near to roadworks. The sad thing is that they often seem to come out of the shanty towns on the outskirts of rather affluent white towns. We cannot judge as it's not our culture, but it is a little disconcerting.

We passed one such shanty town made up of rows and rows of tiny corrugated iron boxes, and I'm ashamed to say, were relieved when we crossed a river and into an area called Paradise Beach where we are lodged in a luxurious little house on stilts for the next three days.

ps We popped out for an evening meal at a restaurant recommended by our host. It could not be closer to the sea if it tried; the floor was sand! I had an excellent tuna steak and Martine a lamb shank but cooked in an amazing South African set of spices unknown. Absolutely delicious. The whole thing with tips and alcohol was less than £29!

pps over 31°C today.

ppps there was a malicious campaign afoot on the toll road into here disparaging the rights to baboons having a square meal. Big signs, Do Not Feed the Baboons. Fine for doing so, R500. Well we didn't see a single baboon along the 60k section hungry or otherwise.