#couldn't find any at all to start but one of the admins has been going after them too

[afkintheark]

Turtles!

Got on N&A first because it needed a base refresh and I could use the tracker to find out where they spawn. Found a 145 male and two 135 females right around the base, so I went out and rounded them up. They are pretty stinking nice but I'm gonna keep looking whenever I remember to see if we can get even better ones.

On Aras I had to go out and actually look, so it took a lot longer. But I think it paid off, we got some really nice turtles plus I tamed SO MANY new seahorses and ran into a 165 basilo left over from the last event. \o/

The dark boy was a 140, the red female was a 145, and the orange boy between them was 135. The two white ones are just for colors, but we can play with them while we're breeding up the others. I kinda want to head back to the Island and get started on them already. XD

[dulltoned]

I know I mostly just ask random thoughts about brozone and how unbelievably angsty they are but

What about any headcannons about brozone? Individually or as brozone as a whole?

-🦦

(Also happy holidays!!)

Oh, that's a fun question. I genuinely haven't put too much conscious thought into it but I have a few that I can share off the top of my head.

There's at least one headcanon involving Branch in there for all of them but I might follow up with more headcanon posts somewhere down the line. (Excuse the funny little doodles, I wanted to see if I could make decent headers and I did... okay.)

-> He doesn't like being alone. He didn't spend the twenty-some years after BroZone broke up just on his own in the Neverglades but instead hopping around from place to place looking for new experiences and new people to meet. He'd always go back to the Neverglade Trail, though. Just in case someone needed him.

-> It was still really lonely but he never thought too much about his brothers or the Troll Tree. He's an expert at denial and avoidance.

-> He's pushy with Branch because he wants to try and help Branch be more open and direct with him but he doesn't really know how to sit down and have a serious conversation about it.

-> He's not stupid. He can be unobservant and a bit full of himself but he has a good head on his shoulders.

-> He and Branch bond over survivalist tips.

-> He was worried he was going to be a bad father. He still had a lot of stuff he was working on when he and Brandy had their first kid and he was old enough that he really didn't remember his dad. He certainly didn't want to emulate John Dory. He knew they'd be okay the second he saw his son in Brandy's arms for the first time.

-> Brandy helped him get over the toxic mindset BroZone gave him and while he can still struggle sometimes he's never been happier.

-> Amazing cook. His food is amazing. Cooking, baking, it's all divine.

-> He cooks for Branch a lot when he visits. At first it's because he couldn't get the image of his baby brother out of his head but then it was because Branch had confessed that no one really cooked for him before and he just couldn't have that.

-> Clay chose the admin building as his room back when he was still desperate to be anything other than the fun boy. He regrets it.

-> He and Viva have bonded a lot about their family traumas, especially over how much they missed their siblings. He never wanted to stay away as long as he had but after they found refuge in the Golf Course he never got the courage to leave Viva behind to go find his brothers.

-> Clay's hair just naturally changed color with age. It wasn't stress-induced or anything, it just happened. Like how some blonds change to brunette when they get older.

-> He really likes crossword puzzles and sudoku. It has nothing to do with his desire to distance himself from his fun persona. He's just a nerd.

-> He really enjoys Branch's input. Branch is an incredibly handy, if not a bit paranoid, realist who isn't afraid to share his opinions. It's really helpful when it comes to safety measures or even trying to avoid complicated emotions.

-> Floyd may be alive but he doesn't recover fast. The effects of the diamond vacuum (exhaustion, weakness in the limbs, a chill in his bones, dizziness, etc.) linger with him for years afterward and he finds it incredibly frustrating.

-> Floyd is such a smug little shit. He will give you shit and tease you to hell and back and then give you the most innocent smile immediately after.

-> He moves into Pop Village after he's rescued. It reminds him a lot of the Troll Tree when he was a kid and it's bittersweet.

-> He finds out about Branch's puzzle tradition and the two of them start doing daily puzzles together.

-> Floyd's pod is in the clearing where Branch's bunker is.

Surprisingly I don't really know what to put for Branch here but I think I'll reblog this later with additions for Branch and Poppy.

I hope you enjoy the holidays, thanks for the fun question.

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Well. I'm back on the job market as of 1 week before what was supposed to be my first day.

This whole experience has just been so freaking weird from start to finish. At first it felt like complete and total hashgacha pratis. I wasn't even seriously looking for anything because it was during the time 5yo didn't have a para yet and I couldn't so much as commit to an interview. And the job title wasn't even something I would normally have clicked on. But I clicked on it solely due the organization it was for and discovered that the job title seemed to have been poorly chosen because the actual work was mostly in my actual area of expertise. And then I applied and they offered me an interview a week from the date of offer. I had absolutely no idea if I could actually commit to that interview because I had no idea when 5yo would have a para, but I did anyway, and his para ended up starting the day before the interview. Besides the job title, the other reason I wouldn't normally have applied for the job was that it wasn't full time, but extremely uncharacteristically, I somehow missed that fact and found out during the interview (mortifying but apparently other applicants were significantly worse all around). And then it was just like, this is so clearly HP, maybe it does make sense to start mornings later (and not need to find a morning sitter, which has proved near-impossible in the past) and have Friday off, technically we can afford this even though the salary cut would be a blow to my ego and it would've been nice to have more money. Fine. I'm doing it.

That was 2.5 months ago. I only had the one interview because it was a very small organization but the whole hiring process was super schlepped out. Over time I started realizing that the two people I'd be working under were regularly not on the same page as each other to an egregious extent. Person A told me that Pesach is the slowest time of year, to the point where I probably wouldn't need to take any formal time off to prep. Person B then told me that actually, most years, that's the busiest time of year. I also was told about 4 different versions of what the position entailed, ranging from it being primarily my area of expertise, to a 50/50 split between my expertise and admin, to 100% admin for the first few months and then transitioning to my expertise, to admin-dominant for at least the next few years.

I really probably should have pulled out sooner - they also didn't offer health insurance and were paying me less than I was worth even considering the reduction of hours - but again, so much of it felt like such obvious hashgacha pratis, I was frustrated but didn't really seriously reconsider accepting despite the downsides and the fact that clearly these people were a bit of a mess.

But the turning point was when I received the contract and realized I'd forgotten to discuss PTO. They were only offering me half the vacation days I had at my old job, a number lower than I'd almost ever seen in other job ads recently, and had a stipulation that no vacation could be used until after 6 months, which I have never seen in my field in 2024. I politely wrote back requesting more vacation days and explaining why I was making this request (to partially balance out the blow that was the reduction in pay from what I'd expected to make and lack of health insurance, which was 80% covered at my old job). I also asked to have the 6-month requirement waived.

Person A wrote back almost immediately saying yes, of course, no problem! We'll send a new contract. But then 3 days later I got what came across as a fairly stern email explaining that actually they could not give me additional PTO, though we could revisit that in a year, and that in fact, they were being extremely generous considering the total number of days off I had per year, which they enumerated.....and apparently, the Fridays that I was not going to be paid to work, which were already accounted for and then some by the lower salary, and which could not be used at will or in a row by definition, were supposed to balance out the lower PTO?? It was really ridiculous logic, but I was still kind of in this zen "this is all so clearly hashgacha pratis" zone, so I wrote back that I could accept the lower number of vacation days for now. They had also said we could have a Zoom meeting to make sure we were all on the same page, which seemed unnecessary to me at that point and I said so, but told them if there was something they felt still needed to be discussed I had availability at X times.

I expected this meeting to be just them reiterating that they can't give me more vacation days but we can revisit it in a year, and me being like yes ok.

That was not what it was.

It was a confrontation, in which they both backed me into the proverbial corner and declared that they were "taken aback" by the "tone" of the email in which I had tried to negotiate more vacation time.

Now. In the past, I have gotten professional feedback that I need to be more flowery with my emails because people who don't know me as well can take my matter-of-fact style as blunt/rude, even when there's nothing objectively rude about what I wrote and people who do know me wouldn't read it that way at all. But. BUT. I wrote and rewrote and edited and reedited the crap out of that email to make it nice. It was literally. just. a normal benefits negotiation email that a normal new hire should be considered perfectly justified in sending. And I graciously accepted their denial. But there I was, being forced to defend a very normal request? Asked in a very normal way?

And it was like they were taking personal offense to the fact that we had gotten to this stage and I wasn't satisfied enough with what was on the table. Person B especially. She zoomed in on specific phrases and demanded that I explain them, like why I'd said I could move forward "for now" with the number of vacation days. Because. You guys. Literally told me we will revisit the issue in a year??? And I was just acknowledging that reality??? Person B asked if I would be satisfied if nothing changed in a year, declaring that there was no way that I would get more vacation days at that point, because Person A is [fancy title] and has been there for 3 years and also only has that many days. Which. One, I notice that she didn't mention that she herself, also with a fancy title, and who has been there significantly longer, only has that many days. HUH. Two, why the f would you (you being Person A though) offer to revisit it in a year if there is no way it's going to change, and get mad at me for the crime of taking you seriously? And three, that sounds like a Person A problem? Because she is the [fancy title] and she could've negotiated more for herself upon hire and she didn't. That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to try.

Anyway, the whole experience was deeply unpleasant, and so out of left field that all I could think to do in the moment was to try to make nice, avoid burning any bridges, and process what the heck just happened afterwards. At the end of the meeting, Person B said, "Ok, the two of us are going to talk and we'll get back to you." I was floored, because what was there even to get back to me about? They wanted me to explain and defend my attempt to negotiate in all its minutiae, I had done so, and it's not like the benefits themselves were up for discussion. I told her I was confused, what were they going to get back to me about, were they reconsidering the offer of employment? Person A jumped in all, "Oh no, of course not, I think we're all good! Everything is good!" but Person B did not elaborate or concur.

I like 75% expected they were going to revoke the offer, and kind of almost hoped that they would so that I wouldn't have to make my own decision about what to make of that absolute narishkeit. But not long afterwards I received an updated offer letter waiving the 6 month requirement and that was it.

At that point I decided that I would give them 2-3 months to see if they could exceed the now very, very low bar of my expectations, and if not, begin job searching in earnest again. But I was absolutely dreading my start date.

And then came yesterday, 1 week before my first day. Now, as background, I had been told that I would normally be expected to work in person twice a week, and only very occasionally 3 days when needed. I had asked them which 2 days I should expect to come in so that I could arrange a babysitter accordingly, and they had told me that I could choose according to my needs, and just let them know. I told them Tuesday and Wednesday. They said ok. They asked whether Monday or Thursday would be preferable for the occasional 3rd day, and I said Thursday. I hired a babysitter whose hours were calculated according to the assumption that I would be commuting on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

So I get this email yesterday morning. Informing me not to come into the office Tuesday and Wednesday next week, but rather only Thursday, with no acknowledgement whatsoever that this was counter to the arrangements we had discussed and no explanation as to why it couldn't be one of my regular days. I know why, though - it's because these 2 people work with each other to arrange which days they want to be in the office each week, and I realized then that I was never going to be part of that discussion, just expected to follow their whims, despite what we had discussed before. They were not seeing me as equally worthy of consideration.

Oh, and the other part. They also informed me that in my 2nd week of work, there was an event on Wednesday starting at 5pm that they expected me to work. This event would be at a location significantly further from where I live than the office is and they apparently didn't consider it relevant to tell me until what time I would be expected to stay just yet (so, like, thanks for the heads up but how am I supposed to make arrangements, exactly?). My husband does not get home til 8:30-9 on Wednesday nights and has no flexibility to leave early, and they theoretically knew this from previous discussions. They also knew that I have little kids. But for some reason, even though I'd had the basic job offer for about 2 months prior to the event, and even though this event had definitely been planned well in advance, they didn't feel a need to let me know that they'd require me to work a weekday evening event specifically on a day of the week that it would be incredibly difficult for me to work in the evening.

Now, in a normal freaking workplace, I would simply bring up these scheduling concerns. What a thought! But these people could not handle standard benefits negotiations because any hint that I wasn't fully satisfied with current arrangements was personally offensive. So. You know.

The entire advantage of accepting a less-than-full-time job was supposed to be that I would have to worry about childcare less. But it was at this point patently obvious that these people would think absolutely nothing of making my schedule completely unpredictable on a regular basis and also would not be remotely open to pushback about it. I couldn't just put my head down and give it 2-3 months and then look for something else because I would constantly be stressing out trying to sort childcare. Which should have been the one single solitary non-problem in this position!

So I let them know that it doesn't seem like this is going to be a good fit and I regretfully have to withdraw my acceptance - I am receiving too much conflicting information about, well, literally everything, and it seems like they need someone who is able to offer a level of flexibility in their schedule that I simply do not have at this stage in my life.

I'm sure they are royally pissed and telling themselves the fairytale that they tried so hard to accommodate me and make me happy and I totally misled them about being satisfied with their offer and then screwed them over at the last minute. That's not what happened - despite everything, I was gung-ho until that unbelievably disturbing meeting - but that's the narrative they'll be bouncing off each other to avoid admitting that they totally botched a good hire.

It's been 27 hours since my "resignation" email and they haven't bothered to reply. Really regretting missing out on a workplace that is such a paragon of professionalism! 🙄🙄🙄

[silverskye13]

okok i've another question but not an in-universe one; were there any rules or patterns you followed when coming up with the appearances of the helsmets for RnS? :V or are they all moreso based on What Seemed Right for each individual character :0

Mostly just what seemed right, to be honest! A lot of it is based on what I'm trying to do with them as character themes.

Tanguish started out as more of a riff on Tango as a fire-related character. Then I decided Tango would be fire/redstone, ergo his double would be ice/sculk. That eventually kinda balooned into his personality. He's contained, isolated, secretive, sneaky. But he seeps into things. If you've ever had to deal with your road deteriorating over winter, because water keeps freezing in the cracks and breaking the asphalt apart, that's his vibe. You almost don't know he's there until he's cracked you open.

Helsknight has a canon design, but his 110% was just me designing something that looked cool. My first Wels/Hels designs had Wels as a Ottoman inspired knight, with a focus on short, blocky shapes. Meanwhile Helsknight was more of a pointy anglo-saxon knight style, with a lot of triangles and sharp lines. Eventually when RnS started to reform my ideas, I decided Wels was a more caricatured english knight, with a lot of modern crusader/paladin vibes, and focused on making Hels a dark mirror of that. Giving him sharp, unapproachable armor was a visualization of him being an angry, brooding character [which is why, as a lot of people have noted, he opens up a lot more when he starts taking the armor off. That's also why, when he's feeling vulnerable, his nervous ticks have to do with the buckles on his gloves, or the hilt of his sword. He's trying to decide if he's going to open up about something.]

Martyn and Red both have canon designs as well, technically, since they're the 3rd Life versions of their characters, just a little to the left. The crown the Red King has, which covers his eyes, is a direct reference to Ren's quote, "The blood is dripping into my eyes. I can't see. I've been blinded by the violence." He's been blinded by violence, and finds it hard to keep his humanity intact when the crown is off. It binds him to his purpose as The Red King -- protecting people. Martyn in my head looks almost exactly like his 3L red life skin, and that's purposeful. He wants to keep a low profile. He doesn't want his other half to know he's his own entity that exists.

EB's design has a lot to do with his past and not his present. [I feel like I keep alluding to him having a backstory,,,, we'll get there someday.] The way I've put EB and EX as characters in relation to Xisuma, is they represent different struggles he's had at different points in his life. EX was the hubris of being a server admin, the desire for limitless control. EB was the pride of success, and the white knuckle grip it required to keep it. He used to be a very prideful, and very dangerous, person. And stung pride [ha! bee jokes] can lead to some very angry outbursts. So he looks very waspish, long and thin, and sharp angled. The fact that he's an android is 110% just because I headcanon Xisuma is a robot. Sorry doomguy I've fallen in love with the AI headcanon.

The Demon is a take on ImpulseSV's character trait of sharing that turns into exploitation. One of his big collab points with other people is the fact that he makes farms, and in 3L there was an entire plot point around how he kept giving people things, and all of those people individually agreed because he kept giving everyone things, he was on nobody's side, so, you couldn't really betray him, could you? The Demon therefore is a character who is determined not to be used or exploited in any way. He hoards his wealth like a dragon, makes pacts and bargains that only benefit him, like a demon, and his eye is always watching for a knife in the dark [don't think too hard about Tanguish taking knife lessons]. The man has, to put it bluntly, trust issues. So his design echoes that idea of a monstrous person so busy armoring himself he's forgotten how to connect with people. Bright golden eyes, impenetrable scales, armor and tools disproportionately strong compared to what he should ever be expected to use them for. He's daring someone to betray him, so he can be justified in destroying them for it.

I'm trying to think of other characters that've popped up.

Evil Sausage [I think the fandom calls him Bratwurst??] is mostly just a parody of some of his appearances in Empires. I liked how linked he was to Xornoth, so I imagine the shadow that makes his elytra wings is what's left of his union with Xornoth the demon.

Hels!Watcher Grian is both a reference and a handwave at the fact that Grian is an instigator. It makes sense that a fear, or mirror, for that would be someone who refuses to interact with the world, or maybe wants to but physically can't. Eye themes abound.

[loud shrugging]

Yeah, that's it. It's whatever seems right for what the characters are doing.

[fuck-customers]

It's almost sad that when I tell my regulars I only make $14.50 an hour at a job where I do professional level graphic design and print work, they all get shocked and say I should be making more (I work at a locally owned print shop, and I love the job for the most part, I just hate how I'm rushed and hate certain clients).

WcDonads employees make more than I do. Gas station employees around here make more than I do. And I honestly feel quite jipped because I was told to go to college. Get a degree. Find a job in the field I go to school for and I'll be set (I'm one of those "zillenials," too young to be a millenial but too old to be gen z). Some people say i should be thankful, $14.50 is a lot, but cost of living where I'm at is at least $20/hr. Granted, my college is completely paid for so I don't have student loans to worry about and I'm happy I have graphic design and photography experience. But when I'm at work and I feel the bald patch from where my hair has been falling out from stress from workload, it makes me feel like I was tricked.

I'm so conflicted. Like I said. I like this job. When things aren't busy it's wonderful. But those are becoming fewer and farther between where stuff has completely reopened from Covid and more people want printing for events and sales.

And I've met wonderful people! And learned about small businesses in my community I would have never known about otherwise! I love getting to make nice designs and print beautiful art every day. One of my current friends I've met copying her artwork for her! My gifts to my family have been photo prints and even signs for my dad's workshop that I've gotten printed at a discount and they're all loved so much. And I don't have to wear a uniform - jeans and a t-shirt of my choice every day!

But I've also been yelled at over small shit like maps not being printed on time, or how the color on a flyer isn't as "vibrant as it is on screen," or told to hurry up on a yard sign that someone decided they needed today rather than next week, or have a someone chew me out because I haven't even had time to print three sheets of mailing labels because I've had to hold the hand of a very picky woman who wants her rental guest book to look "just right" yet can't be assed to learn how to use a computer on her own. I've had packages thrown at me when I've said people need to pay to ship them. People getting mad over $.20 black and white copies and $.49 color copies. People saying they're going to get their business cards from PistaVrint because it's cheaper. People come to us and act like we're tech support - "Why is my computer not opening Wicrosoft Mord?! Why is my email not sending?! Why is my phone doing this?!" Like I don't know! Take it to Bye Best!

My manager hardly gets paid any more than I do and she's been with the business for almost 30 years and drives an hour each day to come to work. I only got bumped to $14.50 after my boss overheard I was interviewing at a college print shop that would have paid me $18 an hour. He couldn't even wage match! And I didn't even get the job.

I don't have funds to move to another location where I could find a better paying job in my field, nor would I want to as my family and community are here.

There is a pillow factory here I never knew about. They're hiring various positions starting at $19 an hour. Evenings and weekends mostly off, only needed to work if they need to fill a very large order. My friend started there this week and while she says she's physically tired, the environment seems nice so far and I'm so burnt out here that I've already asked her if she can get a word in for me to start there. More pay? And way less customer interaction? I could do that! But it sucks that I feel like abandoning what I like to do because of my pay grade and the stress I feel. I wish it was all different.

Posted by admin Rodney.

[evicted-oc]

Admin: hey I'm still alive :D I haven't done a main post in so long and I'm slowly getting back into it! I felt like doing a little bit of angst so here's this monstrosity. Keep in mind I'm not a writer. Except more writing in the future! I want to progress this bot more

A bit of background knowledge: Hœnir's original home was constantly at war with another group. They fought for years and neither side were winning. The leaders of both groups decided to offer up their best warriors to give to the other side. Hœnir happened to be one of them who was traded off. They would torture Nir constantly. It took Nir years to escape and ever since then, they have been looking for him.

Warnings: my shitty writing skills, kidnapping, torture, stabbing, force fed glass, blood, broken bones, beating

Arawn was sitting at a table along with some of the other Celtic and Norse gods. They all had a meeting planned and more gods started to trickle in. Arawn was bouncing his leg nervously and chewing on his lip. It was rather quiet amongst the gods, they all could hear his platformed shoe squeak as it bounces on the marble floor.

He taps his finger on the arm rest before clearing his throat to break the silence. "Has anyone seen Nir recently?" He asks, scanning the other's faces. Most mutter quietly, trying to think back to the last time they saw the small god.

"I saw them yesterday at their café. He gave me a cookie." Morrigan speaks up softly, already starting to get worried. "I've had an off feeling all day... do you think?-" She gasps and covers her mouth. "No it couldn't be them. Would they really do that?"

All the gods and goddesses eye each other sadly before collectively getting up and preparing what they need.

*28 hours earlier at Hœnir's café*

It was around 8 at night when Hœnir was closing up their café. They locked the door and put on noise canceling head phones. There was some loud noises going on outside and it was giving him a headache. The only thing they could hear was his own thoughts. They quietly humed to themself as they cleaned up around the café and tidied it all up. He stood up straight and took a minute to look around at everything, making sure nothing was out of place.

Just as he was looking over the café, a group of three people snuck up quietly behind him. One of them took a cloth and put it over Nir's mouth and the other two held his arms and legs still.

Nir was thrashing around and attempting to use their powers to get out of the unknown peoples grips. However, whatever was on the cloth prevented Nir from using any of their powers. His eyes slowly rolled back into their head as they fell unconscious.

*back at Asguard*

Morrigan was focusing on trying to find Hœnir. Due to some of her powers, she can sense where any sort of violence and disruption is. Her eyes shoot open when she finally can see a glimpse of Nir. "He's there."

Those were the only two words she got out before Arawn, her, Cailleach, Donn, and Balor got up to leave. The other gods were on stand by and watching from the sidelines, ready to jump in.

Loki said their goodbyes to Donn, doing their best to hold back any tears. "You die and I bite you." She mumbled to Donn, who only chuckled in response. They share a kiss and Donn leaves to go to the chariot.

Arawn was facetiming his boyfriend, mumbling quietly to keep their conversation private. He puts the phone in his pocket, but doesn't hang up. He zips up the pocket and follows close behind Donn.

"Am I the only one excited for this?" Cailleach bounces. "I'm ready to make people sick!" She squeals as Morrigan nods her head in disappointment. Balor grins and wraps an arm around Cail. "I'm excited too~ I haven't hurt anyone since I got locked in that damn cell." He fixes his mask and pulls both Cailleach and Morrigan to the chariot. And with that, the five gods and goddesses were off.

Below this cut has a bit of a torture scene! Please read the warnings

*It has been 32 hours since Hœnir has been captured. They have been taken to a dungeon and is tied up with enchanted rope. During those many hours, they have been hit and kicked countless times, and both of his legs are broken. He's positive one of the bones in their legs have been shattered*

Hœnir is exhausted. They don't know how many hours they have been awake for. They just want to fall asleep and hope this nightmare will be over. His legs were aching from being forced to sit on and because both were bent at angles that shouldn't be bent.

It was silent in the room. Hœnirs eyes slowly started to fall close. He thought he was safe at the moment. They let their guard down as they slowly fall deep into their thoughts. Nir was ripped away from that trance by a heavy kick to the side. Loud crunching can be heard which causes Nir to grit his teeth, trying their best to fight off a pained whimper.

They do their best to keep a straight face, not wanting to show any pain or weakness. His nose scrunches up slightly when his hair was grabbed, forcing his head back. One of his kidnappers was holding up a small bag full of glass shards.

"Remember this?~" They ask with an evil grin. Any colour left in Nir's face dropped. "No-" he barely mutters out before his mouth his forced open.

"Oh yes you do~ now open up. This will only hurt for a bit~" He laughs and grabs a shard of glass, shoving it into the back of Nir's throat.

*back to the 5 gods/goddesses*

The five godly beings arrived at the destination. They made it into the building quietly before all hell broke lose. There was about 40 people waiting inside for them.

*I'm really bad at fight scenes but basically it takes the gods about 15 minutes to defeat all of them*

Morrigan stood up once she defeated the last person. She stretches her arms up and wraps the deep stab wound she has on her arm. "Its been a long time since I've done this- I'm rusty as hell."

Cailleach runs over to Morrigan and hugs her tight. "I got to fight people!" She squeals happily. There was one person still barely left alive. He grabbed Cail's foot and yanked her down. She smacked her cheek hard on the ground, causing the skin to break open. "Well thats fucking rude-" She coughs on him which causes him to get sick with the bubonic plague and slowly die. She hops up and dusts her shirt off. "Did you see that Morr?! I missed making people sick!" She bounces and hugs Morrigan tight again.

Morrigan chuckles and tugs Cail. "You can tell me all about it later. But first we need to get Hœnir."

Balor slowly walks behind the two girls with his ax swung over his shoulder. "Huh.. I don't think my fingers are supposed to be facing that direction." He mutters and looks at his hand curiously.

Arawn practically drags Donn out of the main room and the two of them run everywhere to find Nir. They head down into the dungeons where they can hear small pained noises. Arawn quickly covers up his bloodied hand with a bandage and looks over at Donn.

Donn nods, silently communicating with each other. He summons the dead which causes his arms to go black all the way up to his shoulders. He tightly closes his eyes, trying to ignore the burning sensation. He acts quick and commands the dead to barge into the room.

*Hœnir's perspective*

He was handling blow after blow. Hit after hit. Stab after stab. He knelt there and quietly took all of it. Whatever the three people threw at him, they took it without a peep.

Hœnir's head shoots up when the doors slam open. They knew immediately who it was and the tears they were holding back started flowing down their cheeks.

The dead dragged the three kidnappers down to hell where Donn and Arawn would take care of them later.

Arawn rushed over to Nir and immediately untied him and picked him up. Nir was sobbing, weak and covered in blood and bruises. "I-i want to go home." They cry and cling onto Arawn.

Arawn quietly comforts them and holds them as carefully as possible. "We'll get you home."

AND FINISHED. Welp that was long. Please let me know if I need to add anymore warnings or anything like that. This was way longer than I expected. Hope you enjoyed :D be prepared for more angst in the future

Tags: @livealittleoc-cb @the-hellhounds @kardpackcb @beaconhillsxbot @domxbot @florintradat @beastfights-starting @romeochen @welcometosector1 @dawnswonderland-entertainment @mxthxbot @k-venturetime @cafesongmingi @reve-rv @multi-esme @3rachabot @elemental-dream @badbf-cb @mutant-academy @pasdrak @theonesxcb @clubwnderland @kenharu @dark-royals-cb @namiras-rose-tattoos @hoteldelluna-rp @model-boyscb @logan-oc-cb @moongods-cb @enhanced-cb @thedevoted-cb @tsunfullsunbot @san-cb @domrachaa @silcntxnight @timmburrton @league-of-assassins @androidmuses

[duckapus]

It's actually pretty easy for everyone to figure out who Mr. L is working with and why they took those four Avatars specifically thanks to the fact that GG has actually been playing "Connected Cosmos: The Game" and was looking forward to the new crossover update (her name is gamer girl, this is pretty much her Whole Thing, remember?). Of course, there's the issue that they can't just go into any old copy of the game and grab them once the update comes out, since it wouldn't be their version of them, so they have to find and break into the CCC's systems and the developer server, which is... shockingly well-hidden considering Jayin couldn't possibly know how to hide it from a Digital World perspective. Still, this is the internet, people talk, somebody's bound to know where it is. It also helps that, thanks to Timmy being so deeply entrenched in things and Alyssa obviously wanting to help when she finds out what's going on, the Grid is fully on board with helping the Admins and Meme Alliance in this, and Alyssa in particular has a lot of useful information to contribute as a co-founder and former employee of the company.

And of course there's plenty of friends they can call on from all over the 'net and beyond. Thus, the plan goes like this:

During prep we have three teams

Team one will scour the Digital Multiverse in search of an entry point to the Connected Cosmos Company Servers. Overseer and Abyssal will take point on this since Overseer has more knowledge of the modern DM's layout and cultures than just about anyone else and he already has Abyssal's contact info. The Grid will also be heavily involved in this part due to their extensive spy network.

Team two will learn all the ins and outs of Connected Cosmos: The Game so that when things get going the infiltration teams will have as much information as possible. Gamer Girl and the kids will be in charge of this since GG has a big head-start thanks to already playing it on her own time and the kids wanted to help and this was a relatively safe option for those of them who wouldn't have been as much help during the big fight.

Team three will be more general preparations. Getting the Codeship Fleet up and running, finding the cure for the Nintendo Firewall Virus plaguing the stolen Avatars, recruiting allies, coming up with the actual attack plan, etc. This will mainly be in the hands of the Avatars and the Meme Alliance.

Also, they need to transfer the memes refugees in Equestria to a server that can actually support a Meme Cycle as soon as possible, especially the Dead Memes. Discord is keeping them from becoming Corrupted somehow but whatever he's doing isn't sustainable in the long term, especially since it technically counts as actively preventing chaos and is thus taking a toll on him.

In the meantime, Jayin notices Tama is in the game when she's supposed to have been dead for years in-universe, but shrugs it off and figures she can just stick her in Devos as a random NPC, let the fans speculate, then come up with a quest involving her and put it in one of the smaller updates later down the line (it's an MMO, the players'll eat that shit up).

While Jayin's convinced she's already won (since her inability to see most Digital Beings as people means she's only considering Glitch Productions' possible reaction to this) Mr. L has enough experience both as part of Luigi and as the Crew's enemy to know this is far from over, so he slips through one of the leftover cracks between dimensions and makes a deal with someone those Junior Heroes would never expect...

Once things actually kick off, this is the plan:

The fleet, led by Peach and made up of everyone and everything they've got that can withstand Code Space, will battle the CCC's outer defenses (Twilight monsters, Brobots of every type, the CCC's own Code-level beings, and Mr. L's surprise guest who I'll be introducing in an actual ficlet) to keep the heat off of the infiltration teams.

One infiltration team will be all the Avatars/Anchors and their Crews and some other allies (except Doc and his Hamtor army, who have a Codeship and are part of the fleet) will enter Connected Cosmos: The Game courtesy of Timmy making a wish (since they know that FOP Fairy Magic trumps firewalls but Jayin doesn't), cure the stolen Avatars, then take out all the major Bosses in Renata, Harmonia and Sleeping Gaia (because the Twilit Rifts the bosses are connected to are acting as anchors keeping the stolen code attached to CC:TG's developer server) and await extraction.

The other infiltration team consists of Steve, Rob, Welony, Cursor, Samurai Bob, King Mickey, the AVA Squad and Enigmoth (the Paradox Pokemon, a legendary Bug/Dragon type that has Phase Shift, an ability that makes it not exist every other turn) sneak through the firewalls in a Gummi Ship using Enigmoth's Ability while Chroma and Blaze are being distracted by Mira (she's literally running across the physical firewalls to exploit the fact that firewall programs are programmed to destroy potential virus infiltrators at all costs because if you'll recall her base programming is to be annoying as hell and never get caught) so they can get into the maintenance areas of the CCC Servers and find and destroy the Purchase Keys so this can never happen again (Piracy, Bitches!!!)

Then the final steps are to breech the Firewalls entirely (they will, in fact, have several options for doing so) and have their strongest Programs grab the three Servers and the infiltration teams and hightail it out of there.

Jayin won't be able to do shit about it legally, since if she tries to press charges she'll have to explain how the hell it even happened, which will either make her sound nuts, or pull back the veil of secrecy and in the process reveal that she's exactly the kind of person she's been getting portrayed as in SMG4 and the Grid's videos when so far it's been seen by the viewers as part parody of studio execs in general, part Alyssa being understandably bitter about what happened to her. Either way her reputation would take a massive hit, and she would not be willing to do that to herself even if it would make her win overall.

As you might expect, this is going to work, but it will not go off without several hitches.

[mollysunder]

Jinx Doesn't Work Alone

I know a lot of the audience sees the hexgem heist as a spur of the moment thing Jinx did to reassert her value to Silco, and that seems partially. It's just that the whole heist appears extremely premeditated.

To pull of the heist, Jinx would have needed to know where the guards would be posted, whether any assistant(s), admin, or custodians would be around in the general building. Then she'd have to know how much time she'd need to not just collect the gem and key notes related to it, but also GRAFITTI the place where Jayce first presented the gem to Heimerdinger. On top of that Jinx would have needed to locate an unoccupied warehouse in bustling Piltover, plant her timebombs, grafitti that place too, and set it on fire with enough gas to catch the Enforcers attentions from a distance, but not burn hot enough to prematurely set the bombs off. I get Rule of Cool exists, that protagonists can pull off extraordinary feats, and some things don't need to be explained if they're sufficiently intuitive and satisfying to watch... but this all happened in one day! Jinx's loss on the ship and her hexgem heist were all on Progress Day, and that’s a massive turnover in planning and execution.

You could argue it's a callback to how she robbed Jayce and blew up a building accidentally, but even then she had help. Ekko was the one to follow Jayce and case his apartment for Jinx and the gang in the first place. What I'm getting at is Jinx couldn't have done this alone, she had to have had a support team, there's way too many moving parts that had to go right. And that's how practically all successful heists work, it's a team effort.

It would also explain how Jinx knew that there was a top secret hexgem in Jayce and Viktor’s laboratory. I'm sure Silco had a network of informers both in Zaun and Piltover that both Jinx and he used. Jinx and Silco must have been informed about the hexgem earlier at some point, because when she hands it to Silco, he instantly understands what it could do. I'm sure everyone was aware of what a regular hex crystal could do, especially with the launch of the hex gates. But instead of stealing the surplus of hex crystals that Jayce and Viktor likely had, Jinx knew where to go in the shop to find the gem. If they both knew aboutbthe gem, it adds weight to when Silco said Topside is leaving them behind. The hexgem would have been the crowning jewel to Piltover's hyper advancement away from Zaunite labor. Jinx understood that concern and decided to make a gambit for the hexgem and Silco's favor, and I argue she probably planned to frame the Firelights from the start.

Also, Jinx's animal motif, the crow, they're often seen in groups, whether she's specifically around them or not, like the Enforcer funeral. In some scenes it appears like they're encouraging the traits she excels at and her own choices. The crow she shoots calls to her from the shooting game she was the best at rather than the boxing game Vi dominated. Jinx later uses the crow's feathers to help her succesful recreate Hextech technology. Later another crow will cry out to her the second Jinx drops the hexgem she chose to steal. This is a long way of saying crows are incredibly social animals that travel in flocks and effectively work together to hunt and fight predators. Jinx has always been a crow and maybe next season we'll see her flock.

Tldr: The more you think about the logistics of the capers Jinx pulls, the more reasonable it sounds that she has a team behind her. Crows are also more team oriented than ominous in reality.

[isolaradiale]

Caelum sighs, looking from Pleiades' glasses to the paint-splattered city on the screen, cane leaning with him.

"I was wondering why Janus wasn't answering any of my recall requests. I usually bring him back here when there's an experiment going on. "Perhaps he felt he needed to correct a mistake there. I saw Taygeta warp in to help him out." "I suppose so. But I don't see how he could manipulate the city as a whole from one mistake--the museum has limits of what it can do." "Hm?" "This happened because he tried to re-paint the mural, no?" "Ah. You weren't in on it. That's a fun little detail." She smirks. "...I am not! Do enlighten me."

Gracefully, she reaches over to tap a few keys on the console without spilling her latte. There seem to be entry commands by three admins: one is Taygeta, arriving in the city, and the other two...

"So, Mimosa and Solaris saw an opportunity and couldn't pass it up, mm?" "When you can turn your entire experiment into an art project, the opportunity is a little hard to pass up." Pleiades chuckles... and then gives a single laugh when she turns back to Caelum's frown.

"Oh? Don't you usually enjoy the silly ones? Don't scowl like that, you'll get more wrinkles." "Yes, well, I-" "I know, I know. Janus is your program, and you're very attached to him. It's been fruitful, comparing your interactions to ours with Ophiuchus." "Multiple experiments going on here, I see."

She takes a long sip of her coffee in lieu of a response.

"Well. If you could help me wash all that away and get the city back to normal, I would appreciate it." "And what are you off to do while I clean it all up?" "I'm going to do a little... decorating for Mimosa and Solaris. 'Tis the season to be haunting and all." "Record it for me, and I won't say a word."

Ah--there's a laugh, finally!

"Done."

_ _ _ _ _

An autumn rainstorm rolls past the city, and the splatters of colour begin to melt down the painted buildings, revealing the original foundations underneath those thick globs of colourful goo. A tie-dye nightmare of colours run down the streets and into the drains. The run-off from the beaches appear to evaporate before hitting the coastal waters. And in every spot where the water had nowhere to go, flowers in all colours of the rainbow began to bloom to absorb all the paint.

Citizens caught in the rainstorm begin to lose their chaotic mis-mash of a colour scheme too, revealing the same wet, soggy self they started with. Their doubles, though, appear to wash away...

In everyone's homes and apartments, right on their nightstand, is a little figurine of your painted self in all the moods and experiences you've been painted with. A keepsake of the event.

_ _ _ _ _

Thank you for participating in our newest event, Colour Theory! We hope you had fun, and remember to add 100 Stars to your trackers for your participation. _ _ _ _ _

"I guess Caelum was in charge of decorating this year? There are a lot of new paintings in the hallway." "Maybe it's a new fad?" "Maybe an old fad, knowing him." Solaris muses. He looks around for a light switch, but his hands don't find the panel. Just that same painting of a woman from before."

"...Well. He did a good job. It's creepy." Mimosa complains, walking further. But the hallway gets darker, and they don't seem any closer to the control room. And the painting of the woman is getting closer, her features becoming more gaunt.

"...Okay, funny! Good job! I hate it a lot!" "We'd prefer the lights on, if you please? As to not trip and fall on something?"

The THUD behind them makes both of them jump.

"...Ha. It was just the painting falling." "Y-yeah. Just... that. Nothing creepier. No--"

Another smack as a hand reached out from the frame. And then another. Until the same woman, now ancient and withered, began to crawl after them on the floor.

And as they both ran and Mimosa shrieked past the door, Caelum returned the hallway to normal, allowing them to escape back to the room. Janus gave a chuckle, picking his hair out of his eyes and smearing some of his makeup. Taygeta rolls in from behind him, head bobbing in a laugh.

"How was that? Scary?" "Fitting, I think~"

[dotwav-refactored]

Uuhhhh.wav Re-Factored has been discontinued

Been meaning to make this post since like… July, and then kept forgetting to, but here’s more info:

Reason for cancellation has been because all the devs have been really busy with IRL things. One’s in university, one’s nearing the end of college, etc etc.

Not to mention the lead dev, Torrent, has actually released a demo of a new game called Detriment! It has just hit it’s 7th anniversary upon starting development just a week or two ago! I’ve helped contribute to it as an artist and playtester and highly recommend giving the game a try if you haven’t yet!

Important notice: The cancellation may not be permanent! Torrent says he has hopes in coming back to Re-Factored some time in the future, though not guaranteed based on how things have been for him.

Outside of that however, I may end up giving comic writing a go someday. For compensation of everyone’s patience waiting for this game, I hope to make a comic series of my fan interpretation of Uuhhh.wav! Unsure of when I’ll do this though, given I am really busy with IRL things myself

We all apologise for this inconvenience. We know how much Uuhhh.wav meant for many people, and to ourselves too, but we hope you understand. Do stick around though for any updates, whether on the comics or the potential recontinuation of the game development!

For now though, here’s some concept art we’ve made for the game! Under the cut!

Sprite ideas for the characters, including a joke that Disco would get a lot of sprites for shits and giggles because... it's Disco Man.

Seav! But also concepts of Stella's potential design

Characters that Torrent made. one was a minigame guy, the other is a HQ admin of some sort, and theres the other guy I have 0 memory of

Stella's full design! With insight given from Ritzy_Raven herself!! Along with characters I made (they're actually really old OCs and I figured it'd be cool to implement them to the game)

Characters that I made from scratch. We were really looking forward to adding the "Secret Boss" to the game after making these

(Art below belongs to Elisa, one of the other developers for the game)

An idea of what the boss sprites would look like in-game

An earlier, possibly even first version of Stella's potential design (it was revised due to the fact that we couldn't find the clothing and accessories needed in roblox)

[piastrinorris]

thanks to @pollenallergie i haven't stopped thinking about older!tom grant for days now, and while any fics i could write about him need to be put on the backburner for now (there's one that's been in the pipeline for a While now), here's some headcanons of my interpretation of what lil tommy g is like as an adult:

(under the cut bc long)

(also as i'm writing this i may or may not be planning fics that happen at each stage of the timeline)

(also x2 before any of u weirdos start hopping into my ask box, this is in no way trying to overshadow cassie's version of him, i'm just throwing my own ideas into the void. i love cassie's tom, and then in a separate universe, i can have my tom, too. also he's p much every guy i've ever pulled except he's way more romantic than any of my exes, so this is more self-catharsis than anything else LMAO)

okay so tom's timeline post-canon:

after his lil summer gigs at the caravan park, he moved back up north to derby and got a job at a construction company that's owned by an old family friend, like his dad's childhood best friend. it was always a given, even when he wanted to pursue a life living down in cornwall, he just couldn't stop associating the whole place with ruth and heartbreak and all manner of things that weighed heavy on his heart. and fuck that, right? he's got his whole life ahead of him!

he spends his first few years as a legal adult the way all british lads do - by spending at least two nights a week at some kind of pub, bar or nightclub. he can pull, of course, but the convenience of still living with his parents gives him an excuse to put off going any further with anyone. cassie's anon who suggested bi tom, i'm kissing you so hard on your forehead rn bc he'd literally spend like almost a year being just shy of his Hoe Phase, making out with anyone who wants to, regardless of their gender, but only while he's at the club, he never lets himself go further.

until that one night when his parents are away and his mates know full well that he's got no excuse and they're very obviously egging him on. (this would probably be the first fic in the series)

he moves out from his parents' place into a flat with a friend he's made outside of work, and that's when his lil slut era truly begins. (maybe a series of blurbs for this?) he lives with a friend he's made outside of work (any gender, it's not relevant bc bi!tom and his flatmate are 100% Best Buds For Life but also if neither of them find anyone worth pulling on a night out, they'll go back to the flat and fool around together anyway)

in his working life, tom absolutely thrives at the construction company. mostly bc he's known the workers his whole life, so he can have plenty of banter with them, but also, more importantly, he knows just enough IT skills to be able to help the owner with digitalising all the admin stuff. this means tom rises the ranks to supervisor pretty quickly, and everyone loves little Boy Wonder himself. he hates being in the office though, he's always out on site wherever the company's got jobs going. he's hands-on, he wants to help, he doesn't want to be a Big Boss Type

okay, from now on, this is the part in tom's life where he meets you, the person who ends up as his endgame. so this is a different character to those i might write about in his hoe phase, probably time skip a few years of tom taking a break from slutting it up and just casually dating until he knows exactly what he wants to give and take from a relationship.

and then he meets you. it's summer, and your work bestie has invited you over to her place to meet her boyfriend and her non-work friends for the first time. you're a little nervous, but you remember that she has a dog, so if all else fails, you can just go full Party Dog mode and switch everyone else off

it's not that you don't like her friends from outside of work, you just have way less in common with them than you do her, and it feels awkward trying to put yourself in conversations without her there, and she's all over this new fella of hers, so you go to your failsafe to find that someone else has had the same idea as you

tom's come along as support for his best friend, who's dating your work bestie. however, since the boyfriend is being walked like a dog around the whole party being introduced to everybody, tom isn't as sociable and was promised there'd be a Party Dog there, so he's gone looking, himself.

you guys bond v quickly over being Party Dog People, spending the night narrating different groups as though you're david attenborough and taking it in turns to let the dog comment in silly voices you both make up for it

stupidly, you don't get his number, or even his last name. one thing you'd learned about him is that he doesn't really use social media, which you can tell from the instagram account you find from several hours of snooping lightly browsing, which was last updated when he'd gone on a lads' holiday to ibiza several years ago, and only features group shots in which he's tiny and his face is mostly obscured with sunglasses. which means you've got to try and convince your work bestie to invite you somewhere that her boyfriend's friends are gonna be, too

thankfully, this is nice n easy, bc tom's been planning the exact same on his end. you guys get so lost in conversation all night that you almost forget to ask for his number, until you're rolling down the window in the back of the Uber you've ordered and he's hanging halfway through it to make sure he studies the screen so that he can make sure that everything he thinks he's saying matches up with what he actually is

the Uber driver gets a little peeved about this and is like "listen mate just get in so i can drive off" and tom sheepishly complies, ending up riding all the way home with you. you'd feel rude if you didn't invite him in, though a little part of you is sad that tom's just probably gonna be another one night stand bc you really liked him. you get another drink for the two of you once you're inside, he suggests the two of you watch something for a bit for some background noise. naturally, you cuddle up, and that leads to kissing - a lot of kissing. but he doesn't try it on any further. you both end up falling asleep on the couch until you wake up to the sight, sound n smell of him making himself home in your kitchen, cooking you breakfast

you guys have this sort of, slightly more than friends, not exactly friends with benefits, relationship that he isn't out here jumping the gun trying to define, so neither are you. you're trying to stay casual with it, to keep up with him, even though your work bestie keeps pushing you for more bc she doesn't believe that that's just what you guys are, but she's not making any hints that tom's suggested taking things further, and so neither will you. (would it be an rj fic if there wasn't a comedy of errors thanks to basic miscommunication? lol)

either a significant amount of months pass, or valentine's day approaches, and tom gets you a gift. it's not any big grand gesture, but it's something that v much pertains to something you really love. a hobby, an interest, some silly little objectification of an inside joke) you feel bad, of course, and he insists that he's just a gift giver by nature, it wasn't done with the intention of getting anything back. but after many minutes of bargaining, he relents and allows you to invite him over for a homecooked meal. this is when you guys talk it all out, explain that both of you have felt a Spark but didn't want to Assume so you'd been dialling it back to protect your friendship with each other. naturally: tom ends up spending the night, but not a lot of sleeping happens, if you catch my drift

now in terms of what the dynamic is with you and older!tom:

he's still the menace he was in his younger days. you head into the office to give him the lunch he forgot to make bc he'd been running late too busy eatin something ELSE amiRIGHT and his coworkers tease you for being so in love that you'll bend over backwards for him and you know as soon as they've said that, that any second tom'll be leaning in once they're looking the other way to mutter in your ear about how you certainly were bent over backwards for him last night

speaking of, remember how he hated being in the office? not once he starts dating you. any excuse he can get to have you in there with him, whether his colleagues know or he's snuck you in, he's there

i also think that. okay i'm also co-opting @mypoisonedvine's idea of tom having a housewife kink, but hear me out. so, you know there's that saying, if you joke about a kink long enough, you'll end up into it? i think something similar-but-not-really happens to tom. where he works with a bunch of older men with "traditional" values, they're always making jokes about being in trouble with the missus, or about whether he can't stay after work bc you've got the dinner on and you're expecting him home. and tom isn't afraid to call them out on it, to tease them right back that it sucks for them that their partners aren't into them, but he's just built different. but the more he vocalises against being into the idea of you being a stay-at-home wife, the more taboo it becomes. which means the sexier that idea becomes. which means soon enough, he's dreaming about you, looking after the house while he makes sure he can look after you. it becomes obvious after a while that he's got a specific fantasy in mind for you, so he eventually tells you, and you're into it, too. especially considering construction pays pretty decently once you're up the ladder like tom is, technically you're one let's do it away from making your fantasy a reality. but there's just something about sensationalising something so easily obtainable, but not giving into it, that makes it all the more exciting for you both

i don't think either of you fully make your minds up about whether you want to start a family or live the dink (double income, no kids) life forevermore and use your money to spoil each other. i think you guys spend most of your twenties and maybe some of your early thirties just enjoying life, travelling the world, indulging yourselves, until eventually you settle down. a lot of yours and tom's friends, especially the ones who have already started families of their own, question why you wouldn't want to start young, grow up with your kids, and then enjoy your later years without the responsibility. but you and tom have talked it through, and his mindset has always been that you don't stop being a parent once the kid hits 18, and that he's always thought life was for living, not for saving up for a future that never ends up coming because you're forever saving up for it

i've written way more than i initially intended to LOL but yeah, i might make this something? i might not? idk. but this is my tommy. <3

[foundationhq]

ACCESS GRANTED TO SITE-φ.

Hello, 𝐶𝐿𝑂𝑊. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙴𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚎 is pleased to anoint you for the role of [𝑆𝑀𝑂𝑂𝑇𝐻 𝑂𝑃𝐸𝑅𝐴𝑇𝑂𝑅].

So, where do I start except that I love you? We've always been great collaborators, but I knew this task was a daunting challenge and called on you for so, so much. I wanted my return adminning a game for the rpc to be thoughtful, passionate, and always, sincere. These are epitomes of what I always find in you. And truth be told, I did not expect this little what-if exercise we invoked during our chat would grow and develop into what we have now. Probably the reason why I didn't expect it was because I didn't account for you wanting to be my side through it all. But you did, and I couldn't be any more humbled by your breadth of knowledge for the world we've chosen to inhabit these muses, your careful considerations of what this world means to us and everyone we want to invite in, and of course, your exceptional writing, emotive and so, so moving. I made this world for Gael. It's the same selfish reason I have for everyone I accept in the game (oh, to showcase their talents! to tell the world, "please, I need you to acknowledge what I see, because it's just beautiful.") I feel in exponentially when it comes to you. I'm sorry! Please allow me to be this self-serving, just this once! (Sorry I'm so cringe, I don't care! I love caring!) I have no fandoms anymore except this singular man with so much on his shoulders!! How charismatic his sad big brown eyes are!!! Jesting (not jesting) aside, I know you’ve given incredible amount of thought and care to him, just as you do for everyone else, and I cannot wait for others to see the heart that enlivens your creative works. Thank you for giving it your all with making the arcane lore as accessible as you could. That meant hours of poring through countless pages to summate thousands of peoples' vastly different ideas, policies, and viewpoints. Thank you for shining the skeletons, polishing Gray's and my drafts 'til they gleamed with Foundation Approval™️. Thank you for staying up late with me, in both of our timezones, helping me through the highs and lows of an rp launch. Being in my corner as I had childish little tantrums about 'Dobe locking me out of PS because they're a greedy yucky corp, or when I was so heartbroken about our not one, but two shadowbans. Mind you, this is a lot to handle for someone who is adminning for the first time ever. (Please everyone reading this, please give Clow his flowers, he deserves a big bouquet.) Thank you so, so much. I know I would not have made it this far, or even have started, without you and Gael. You're my companion wherever we go; I hope this adventure will be one that will be fulfilling for you as it has been for me. So where do I finish except that I love you, haha. — π

From taking on the daunting task of leading this wild team to your max-level lore mastery, you've been the strong and steady right hand to sculpt Pi's vision into this project we're all about to enjoy! It's been a joy to while away these odd hours tag-teaming replies and powering through to bring Foundationhq together. You're a true architect, and I can't wait to see what you and Gael build on the dash. —gray

Please refer to our checklist for onboarding, and have your account ready in 24 hours. The flight to Site-φ leaves on the dot. And 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙰𝚍𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚛 doesn't like to be kept waiting.

[cinnamonfridge]

So sorry you've been victimized by people over, what, a writing website? Do you think the whole thing's a false flag for them to find a scapegoat? Was it your bosses/the mods over there going after teenagers and saying it was you? Did they really not give you any help or support when your wife died in 2019 or 2020 or 2021 (sorry, just trying to read the different posts so might have gotten years wrong)? Did you ever give them a doctor's note for your medical problems? Cuz you can probably sue them if there's like a paper trail. Why did they target you and no one else? What do they have against you, is it just your radical honesty? Sorry so many questions.

It was other participants making the bullshit claims that I had been targeting them. Too bad 39 seconds reviewing my PMs would have proved that was a damn lie. Staff just refused to admit it.

My wife died June 2nd, 2019. The actual heart attack was actually on May 31st. And to correct something, I was given the support I asked for.

As for my health issues, most of them I didn't even mention for a very long time. I honestly can't remember if I shared the note from my PCP with them when I found out I was stage 5. I did PM Sarah, Heather, Letitia, and Samma_Jaye though. Sarah, because it was going to affect my ability to manage the ML group that year. Heather because I knew she knew me well enough she would understand why I was begging to be allowed to remain a moderator as long as possible. Samma_Jaye was the moderator I was most certain would be able to spot the warning signs as my behavior changed as a side-effect of the toxins building up because of the kidney failure and the fact it was only a matter of time before I would have to stop my dialysis (and I'll get into that weirdness in moment). Letitia, of course, as the lead forum mod has final say on whether or not I would be allowed to continue as a moderator.

As for targeting me? There's two sides to this that people need to understand. At the start of June I knew I was going to have to end my mod duties, but I was also sick and tired of seeing the toxicity that had been building up and was continuing to build up. I'd seen that shit before and I wanted staff to address it once and for all in a way that didn't involve a bunch of other bullshit getting in the way.

So when I saw some well known malicious flaggers that I also knew had made a habit of stalking my posts, I took advantage of it. I deliberately posted I would override the lock on the CTT thread if it happened because of the flags. And sure enough, within minutes they'd gone running to the Moderation Feedback thread about it. And that's when the fun started.

All those violations of the moderation policy I did? Staff and the other mods knew from the start it was intentional to force fhem to see just how toxic the forums had truly become so they could try and fix it. And well, as recent days have proven, they ignored my warnings and the shot I gave them at fixing things.

Now, here's the other half: if you find the What's Happening Here thread from December of '22 you'll see in the public posts I'm not exactly friends to Marya. A lot of that was because initially we were ordered to not moderate that thread at all. And I chose to go malicous compliance on her. I lowered my trust level to level 2 and then flagged every violation, no matter how minor it was.

See, we were told we couldn't moderate, but we were also told we could participate so that is exactly what I did. It wasn't long after word came down that with some exceptions we were permitted to moderate it.

But the true story is that there are a lot of whispers (mod/admin only posts) in that thread and I was far more blunt and honest in those comments than Marya liked.

And every interaction Marya and I had after that there was a very noticeable animosity in it, especially after she decided kissing donors' asses was more important than making sure she had all the facts before commenting on a situation.

So yeah, I guarantee a lot of the reason staff never addressed the shit they knew was false because Marya told them not to as revenge for me not bowing down and kissing her ass.

That's also why I'm now 100% certain she lied to the board by leaving out key details to try and save her job at the expense of Letitia's.

[daniidreamss]

Monday, October 23, 2023

I couldn't sleep last night. I guess I just have too many thoughts ravaging around in my head. Some may say it's wedding stress, some may say it's life in general. But those people aren't me, and those people don't know what is really going on inside of my head.

It's like this...I have a bachelor's degree in Television and Digital Media. I absolutely loved working on television and film sets, and editing audio was my passion. The problem? I graduated in May of 2020. There...wasn't exactly going to be any companies hiring at that point in time. Not for lack of trying, though! I searched far and wide, high and low, even considered relocating across the country just to find a job in my dream career! But... it was no use. There was absolutely nothing. Anything that was hiring, wanted more years of experience that I just could not give them as a recent college graduate. It was hard, and I was devastated. So, I took a semester off to figure out some new plans.

One semester later, I decided to try for a new goal. I was very much inspired by all of the teachers during COVID-19, and I decided that I wanted to be like them. So... I enrolled in a Master's program, and started my journey towards a Master's in Education. I have a semester and a half left to go with that. However, I did get fully certified as of last May! My certification is in Social Studies, 7-12. I just need to finish a few more courses for the actual Master's Degree. I can still teach though! I applied for jobs all summer long. With the teaching shortage, finding a job should be easy, right?

Wrong. The amount of times I was turned down...felt like insanity. Every interview I went on asked new questions that caught me off guard that I just did not know how to answer. These school districts wanted more than just student teaching experience. But how am I supposed to get more experience, if no school district will hire me to get that experience? Application after application, interview after interview... Eventually, September came around, and I was still jobless.

It doesn't end there. I decided that I needed to make money. I mean, I have a wedding to help pay for, after all. I applied to be a substitute teacher at one of my local school districts. I was accepted there immediately, thank god. It's a decent gig, I mean, I can choose when I want to go in, when I don't want to go in, what classes I want to be in for, stuff like that. The problem? I have been a substitute for 2 months now, and I have only be in the Junior High School once. Every other school I have been in has been elementary schools, which I am not certified in whatsoever.

Okay Dani, so, why is this a problem? Well. I have been getting sick. Every other week. Because of these kids. I was not an Elementary Education Major, so I was not warned about that part of the profession. I just missed a whole week of work last week due to a double ear infection that I no doubt caught something from the kids that I've been with. Which means, I'm missing work anyway and not getting paid. Am I even working at all?

Along with that, I'm starting to second guess my choice of being a teacher in general. The teaching profession is only getting worse. Admin do not care at all about the lives of teachers or their mentality. They really only care about themselves. They let violent children in classrooms without a BHT. I once had a violent child throwing things at me, and nobody did anything to help. I just had to stand there and wait for him to calm down. I am not trained in that sort of thing. I should not have to deal with that. Nobody should.

Teachers constantly have to bring work home. Grading, lesson planning, writing emails to parents and responding to admin. Not only that, but they don't get told things until the last possible second. I may know that I'm supposed to be in a classroom a week in advance for a teacher to do extra training, but that teacher won't know until the night before, and have to scramble to put a lesson plan together for me, the sub, which 9 times out of 10 is incoherent and I just have to do my best. But I can't blame the teacher for that. They didn't have the time to properly write things out for me.

Also as a teacher, I will be spending more time with other people's children, then my own someday. It just does not seem fair in the slightest bit.

I love teaching, don't get me wrong. But I hate everything that comes with it.

So now I'm left here. What am I supposed to do now? I am 25 years old. I can't go into more debt to try to figure out a different career path. I do know that I love being creative. I love creating things. But I'm just not sure where that can get me. I can't just... become a content creator, or an author, or something like that. I feel like I have let a lot of people down because I am failing at a second career. Even just now, I checked my sub portal, and a job popped up...and the name of the teacher is actually one of my classmates who also just finished her certification. If she was able to land a position, why couldn't I? Why am I having so much trouble?

I apologize that this post was so long. I honestly just have so much on my mind that I needed to get out somewhere. If anyone has any thoughts, ideas, advice, anything at all, do not hesitate to comment or message me or, idk, give some words of encouragement. I'm going through it right now.

[desoletongue]

So I've been having a little bit of a time lately. This one may end up a little long and a little sad, but it's all okay.

I left my job of 5 years, it was eating me to pieces and I just couldn't give my time to those people any more. It was a good choice. That it happened to coincide with my therapist closing her practice was unexpected, but I felt like I would be okay after about two days of moping in a woe is me style.

It has been okay. There have been hiccups. Some days it's really hard not to be a depressed burrito. I make a lot of "gainfully unemployed" jokes while I try to get my brain to remember that we can art and write to our hearts content and if we get tired we can just nap about it. I am lucky to have a cushion and the time to do this.

I'm adjusting to sharing space with humans again. Remembering they aren't just humans and are actually my friends helps most of the time. I wish we communicated more viably about house stuff but hopefully we improve on that. I'm just hoping I'm not the only one that thinks improvement is needed in that area.

The anxieties are gripping me tight and shaking me around every few days. Last week I couldn't sleep for two (thankfully) separate nights because I was just very convinced I would die. Not very helpful, but I played some video games and listened to chill music and tried to be kind to myself.

I'm getting back into the habit of regularly cleaning. I'm trying not to make a big schedule because I get overwhelmed easily when I see lists of things to do anymore, but I do try to grab one or two things from the "to do" jumble a day. Sometimes it's just some laundry, but I unpacked like 9 more boxes the other night. I was in bed the next day, but it was big progress and I can afford a day in bed right now.

I've been writing. I posted three fanfics in a series I've been saying I'm working on for almost a year at this point. I'm really proud and trepidatious about it. I've posted stuff before, it's not that it's a new experience, it just feels like something that I've started a growing piece for others to see. I've also been writing and developing stuff for my book.

I haven't been listening to music much, which may tie in with some of the depression. I should have a music outlet, that's been a constant for years. I just forget and the novelty of actual silence is one that I've appreciated since when I started to really feel my burn out.

Next week I should probably really start job hunting, for all that I hate it. Need to redo my resume maybe completely. Also might apply for weird slightly out of the wheelhouse stuff because to be honest? I really hate scheduling. I keep getting notifications that the schools around here are hiring secretaries and admin assistants and while I Absolutely do not want to work at a school in the year of our lord 2023 in Okla-fucking-homa, I could do admin work elsewhere. And maybe, if things work out ... I could go to school? I haven't done that but I want to. Anything but banking or workforce.

School was a thing that I've waffled on for nearly 10 years because fear of debt but at this point... We're all gonna die in debt unless we burn this whole candle down (won't bank on that), so why the fuck not. I'm a smart boy, I could learn a thing.

I did start a fansly. It's mostly friend traffic at the moment, which is really sweet and mildly comical, but only because I never know whether they're following me because they love and support me or because I'm hot. Could be both, but I'm not sure of any of it much less the all of it. (Oh geez, did they get there and not expect boobs because I'm normally bound down??)

I've been a little isolated, but I forget to socialize sometimes because it's kinda nice being able to just hang out and read and cuddle the cats? And then I realize it's been a week since I've messaged my best friend and I feel too guilty about that to message him now, except then I find a meme they really need to see and auto send it and suddenly we're talking again. We've done that a couple of times. I miss him.

So overall, a bumpy leg of our journey, but we're still trucking along.

And I have blue/purple hair again. That's pretty fuckin rad.

[elwynten]

Chapter 45

The waiting finally ended. It was the day Piemur, Jancas and Robinton would find AIVAS. I had kept an 'ear' open so I would know when they started excavating the AIVAS building because I wanted to be one of the few to first enter the building and to listen to AIVAS.

Most of the girls wanted to go with me, but they understood why they couldn't go. Although Mercedes came up with a solution. She made a tiny camera that I could wear that would send the video back to Tel Aviv Hold, so the girls could watch and hear what was going on in real time. And it would be recorded so we could watch it any time we wanted to.

I ported to Landing with Taima in her small dragon form. Jett, Cindy, Kimmy, Willow, Amber, And Crystal had accompanied me to Landing. And of course, they each had their Companions with them in small dragon form. We walked over to the building Piemur and Jancis were standing on and Jaxom and Ruth were beside. "Morning Piemur, Jancis, Jaxom. Morning Ruth" I said as we walked up to the building.

Jaxom turned to see who had greeted him. "Good morning, Lord Eilwyn. What brings you to Landing? And… um, Jett, Willow, Crystal, and I'm afraid I don't know or remember the rest of those with you." Jaxom admitted.

I chuckled. "Yes, it can be difficult to remember all their names." I said then introduced all the girls to Jaxom, Jancis and Piemur.

"I come here from time to time to see what's going on. Besides, I have to check on our shops at The Market Place as well." I told him with a grin on my face. "And I saw y'all over here and decided to see what Y'all were up to."

"How is The Market Place working out so far?" He asked me.

I nodded my head. "Slow, but we're getting some business, but then anything new takes time to get going." I replied.

"Hello Eilwyn." Jancis said as looked up from map she had taped to a reading board and waved to the girls.

'I'll have to have Mercedes make clip boards. We can sell them in one of the shops.' I thought to myself.

"Planning on digging up this building?" I asked Piemur and Jancis. I already knew the answer and what was in the building, but I didn't want them to know I already knew what was in this building.

"Yes, Jancis had the idea that this might be an important building. We found a map that said this building is ADMIN and this part." He tapped the top of the building with a long metal rod. "Says it is AIVAS, whatever that is." He told us.

"The map says it has solar panels on it. No other building," Jancis made a sweeping motion to the other building around us. "Has solar panels on them. So, I believe this building must be important." Jancis told me.

I nodded my head in understanding. "Makes since." I told Jancis then I turned to Piemur. "You have the rod. Why don't you see what you can find." I suggested.

Piemur hefted the rod them dropped one end into the dirt. After the rod sank a little ways into the ground there was a clicking sound. Piemur looked at Jancis then he looked over at me. "That's odd. The click I mean." Peimur said.

"It's usually a thunk." Jaxom said knowingly.

"I believe this is a good hunch." I said and smiled at Jancis.

Jaxom grinned. "Do you have another trowel?" He asked.

"Taima, how would you like to help?" I asked Taima. Taima took a step away from me and shifted into the small dragon form. "You know to be careful with these panels." I advised her.

Jaxom, Jancis and Piemur looked at me for a moment. Then they each called their own Companions into service to uncover the solar panels.

The girls with me added their own Companions to the effort of uncovering the solar panels.

Jancis looked over at me. "I keep forgetting how intelligent they are. I'm so used the Fire Lizards and how scatter brained they can be." Jancis admitted.

I nodded my head in understanding. "I haven't been around Fire Lizards very much and I've had Taima for quite a while. So, I'm used to how smart she is." I looked over at Taima. "Sometimes too smart." I added.

Taima stopped digging and looked at me. Then she stuck her tongue out at me and went back to digging.

In short order the solar panels on the southern side of the building were all uncovered. And with Ruth's help the roof of the building was uncovered.

"Look these tiles cover the original roofing material. Mortared on." Jancis scratches at the surface of a tile with a sharp cutting tool. "It could be ceramic, but it's the hardest I've even seen. However, did they get such strength to ceramics? Jancis wondered aloud.

"Your Grandfather should take a look at this." I told Jancis.

Jancis stopped what she was doing and looked at me. But Master Esselin should probably have a look at it first. He is in charge." Jancis replied.

"Master Esselin is in charge of excavation. Master Fandarel checks new materials." Piemur added.

I stood up and dusted myself off. "Well, we need to check out the shops then head home. Tell your Grandfather I said hello. Jancis. We'll see y'all in the morning. I want to see what's in this AVAIS building of yours Jancis." I said and turned to leave.

Jancis giggled. "I'll tell him, Eilwyn." Jancis said.

Next Morning

I knew everyone would be starting early on the AIVAS building. So I planned on getting there early as well. Because most of the girls wanted to see what was going on. I decided to take different girls with me today. So, Robbie, Heather, Verdi, Sucki, Snowdrop, and Yuki accompanied me this time and of course their Companions went as well.

I would have taken Mercedes, but she would be to excited and talking up a storm about things no one on Pern would be able to understand. I didn't think that would be good, so I had her stay behind. Although I did tell Mercedes she could go see AIVAS when they started rebuilding the keyboards. I suggested to her that she might want to work in the Technician's Hall once it was started.

As usual, I ported everyone to just in the tree line so we would not be seen appearing out of nowhere. Then we walked over to the work sight. We arrived just after Master Robinton, D'ram, Jancis and Piemur had arrived on Tiroth.

As we walked up Master Fandarel was talking. "Master Robinton, Dram, good morning. Jancis, Piemur. We calculate a full span's encrustation. I also deemed it wise to remove the tiles, so obviously a temporary cover. last night I compared them to some still in place on the flying shops, and I believe that it is the same material, though none of the ships seem to be missing any significant number. That confirms my theory that originally there were more than three ships." Fandarel said. Then he saw me and my group. "Morning Lord Eilwyn. I don't believe I know those with you."

"I think that's likely," Master Robinton agreed, shivering a bit in the cool dawn air. The fire-lizards' images always suggest more than three. Twice that many is far as I can tell."

"This is, Robbie, Heather, Verdi, Sucki, Snowdrop, and Yuki." I introduced the girls with me to Fandarel.

Fandarel nodded his head at each name. "Morning ladies."

Someone brought stools and hot Klah for Robinton and D'ram. Jancis and Piemur stood off to the side. I sent some of the girls over to keep them company, knowing they didn't like that their personal dig had become so public.

"Morning Robinton, D'ram. How are you doing this fine morning?" I asked. Robinton had both Zair and Balta with him. "And good morning to you Balta and Zair." I added.

D'ram and Robinton looked over at me. "Morning Eilwyn… and good morning to you too ladies." He told us.

I introduced the girls to Robinton and D'ram. "D'ram, I'm sure Robinton has told you about Balta and where he came from or rather who gave him to Robinton. With that, I thought I would gift a copper Companion to you as well." I told D'ram and at that moment a Copper Companion flew through the air and landed on D'ram's shoulder. "His name is Waqas. I informed D'ram.

I almost laughed because of the excretion on D'ram's face. His face was a mix of shock, surprise and awe.

Fire-Lizard - Copper (M) Name: Waqas Mythical (Of course, to get a dragon.) Regeneration Level 1 Sustenance Level 2 Intelligence Level 2 Strength Level 1 Durability L 1 Flight Teleportation Level 1 Speed Level 1 Agility Level 1 Magical Level 1 (Dancing Lights, Mending, Servant) Elemental Blast L2 (Fire and Ice)

D'ram stared at Waqas. "What… I… where… um…"

At that Piemur couldn't hold back and started laughing.

I chuckled also. "What, he is a Companion like I gave Robinton, Piemur and Jancis. I'm sure you would have gotten to why. So why, because I wanted to gift you with him. As the others will tell you. Any ability he has you now have. Which means you will live to see the end of the present fall." I told D'ram. At which I reached out mentally and gave Tiroth Durability, Regeneration, Poison Proof and Sustenance.

"I-I can hear him in my head like I do with Tiroth!" D'ram exclaimed.

I looked over at Piemur and Jancis. "Hearing that never gets old." I said and chuckled.

People started cheering. Piemur jumped up, grabbed Jancis by the hand and worked his way through the crowd. I followed behind Jancis. Master Fandarel and Robinton were ushered to the freshly uncovered door.

"I beg your pardon, Master Fandarel and Master Robinton, but this building was Jancis's hunch, and she should by rights go first!" Piemur told the two masters.

There were sounds of indignation and surprise from this in the crowd.

"You know, you are right, Piemur. Robinton said and stepped to one side. "We have usurped Janics's prerogative."

"After you Jancis," Fandarel said. He spoke with the utmost courtesy but looked thoughtfully at Piemur.

Piemur had to take over because Jancis was to overwhelmed by Piemur's audacity. Using one hand to keep Jancis from fleeing. Piemur ran his free hand over the door. Shortly the door opened. Piemur motioned for a glowbasket, then entered the building. Robinton and Fandarel followed behind Piemur and Jancis, and I followed behind the Craft Masters.

"A corridor to the right." Piemur said as he held the blow backet in one hand and Jancis's wrist in the other. We could see a white gleaming wall at the end of a short hall. "They sure weren't taking any chances with aivas."

"That's an obvious door." Fandarel remarked. He started to move forward, then stopped and gestured for Piemur and Jancis to continue.

Jancis gave Piemur a look of consternation. "You found it - you get to see it first!" Piemur told her smiling.

The hall is wide enough for Fandarel, Robinton, Janics and Piemur to stand side by side. The door had a knob that Janic refused to try, so Piemur reached out and tried to open it. With effort Piemur was able to twist the knob and pull the door open.

"There is little dust on this floor." Fandarel remarked.

"There's a red light on the cupboard." Piemur observed.

"And more light." Janics said in a nervous voice.

"In fact, the whole place is lighting up." Piemur added.

"The red light illuminates letters." Robinton said in a hushed voice as he looked over Jancis's shoulder.

Robinton looked back over his shoulder at me. "Can you see Eilwyn?" He asked me.

I grinned. "I'll see better once we enter the room." I replied.

"Remarkable, truly remarkable!" Fandarel said reverently.

The light in the room was getting brighter, so it was easier to make out more objects in the room. We all looked around taking in the unusual and strange items in the room.

There was a 'blip' sound from the screen and a message blazed from the left-hand corner: AIVAS FUNCTION RESUMED.

"That corner said 'AIVAS.'" Piemur pointed out.

"Please state ID and access code! Your voiceprints are not on record."

"Who said that?" Fandarel demanded, his voice booming in the small room.

"State ID and access code, please!" AIVAS repeated sounding slightly louder.

"That's not a human voice," Robinton said. "It has no real resonance, no inflection, no timbre."

"State the reason for this intrusion."

"Do you understand what he's saying Master Robinton?" Piemur asked.

"I have the feeling I ought to," Robinton admitted ruefully.

"Unless ID and access codes are given, this facility will close down. Its use is restricted to Admiral Paul Benden…"

"Benden, it said Benden!" Piemur cried excitedly.

"… governor Emily Boll…"

"Boll, that's another recognizable word," Robinton said. "We recognize the words 'Benden' and 'Boll.' We do not understand what you are trying to tell us."

"… Captain Ezra Keroon…"

"Keroon. It knows Keroon. do you know Telgar?" Fandarel could not contain himself any longer. "Surely it must know Telgar."

"Telgar, Sallah, married to Tarvi Andivar, later known as Telgar in memory of his wife's sacrifice…"

"All I understand is 'Telgar,'" Fandarel said. He raised his voice in frustration. "Telgar, we understand. Keroon we understand-that's another big hold. Ball is a Hold; Benden is a Hold. Do you understand us?"

Symbols and letters ran across the screen along with blips, beeps and wheering sounds.

"Did I say something wrong, Robinton?" Fandarel asked, his voice an awed whisper.

"Are you all right down there?" Master Esselin's plaintive asked.

"Of course, we are." Fandarel bellowed back to the Masterminer.

"Clear those windows. Let some light in. Glammie has my diagrams. Work from that and leave us alone!"

"New letters," Piemur said, digging Fandarel in the ribs to get his attention. "Running… Running? E… M… E… R… G…E… N…"

"Emergency," The harper guessed before the C and Y appeared. He grinned with pleasure.

"P-R-O-G-R-A-M--program? The words we understand, but what do they mean?" Piemur asked.

"The lights are quite bright now." Fandarel said cheerfully. "Very curious." He stepped into the room, his initial surprise having worn off, and we followed suit. "There are buttons on the wall." He flicked on, and a soft whirring noise began. The fine film of dust on the floor began to shift: the closeness of the air freshened. Fandarel flicked the button again, and both the noise and the stirring of air stopped. He flicked it on again, murmuring happily to himself. "Well, this aivas of your is an ingenious creature, He commented, smiling down at Jancis, "And efficient."

"We still don't know what as AIVAS if!" Piemur remarked.

"AIVAS is an acronym for Artificial Intelligence Voice Address System," The voice intoned. "To be precise, a Mark 47A, programmed to interface the main computer storage banks of the Yokohama and the settlement on Pern."

"Pern-I understand Pern," Robinton said. Then, enunciating very clearly and projecting his rich baritone voice, he added. "From where are you speaking, AIVAS?"

"This system is programmed for voice address. State your name. Please."

"It sounds testy, but I think I'm getting the hand of the accent. My name is Robinton. I am Masterharper of Pern. This is Fandarel, who is Mastersmith in Telgar Hold. With us are Journeywoman Jancis, Journeyman Piemur and Lord Holder Eilwyn. Do you understand me?"

"Lingual shifts have occurred, Robinton. Modification of the language program is now required. Please continue to speak."

"Continue to speak?"

"Your speech patterns will be the basis for the modification. Please continue to speak."

"Well, Masterharper, you heard it." Piemur said, recovering his composure. "Here sit down." He pulled the chair from under the desk, brushed the seat off, and make a flamboyant gesture.

Master Robinton looked aggrieved as he sat. "I always thought the Harper Hall had succeeded very well in keeping the language pure and unadulterated."

"Don't feel so bad, Robinton. No matter what you do language always changes. People shift the meaning of words over time. The come up with new fraises and people pick up or lose accents." I explained.

"Oh, AIVAS just doesn't understand us!" Piemur murmured reassuringly. "Everyone understands you. That thing," He said, airily dismissing the AIVAS. "doesn't even use words we know."

"This is very interesting," Fandarel said, looking at every surface, poking his finger into the slots, and cautiously touching the various knobs, buttons, and toggles. "Very interesting. Much less dust has filtered into this room. No doubt due to the tile layer."

"Please do not attempt to use the touch-screen controls. That function is now deactivated."

Fandarel pulled his hands back like a small boy caught reaching for bubbly pies. The slanting board, which has been glowing amber, went dark. Jancis had gingerly settled on one of the stools, rolling her eyes around the room and trying not to look at the screen.

"What's happening down there?" Breide called.

"A modification of the language program has been necessary," Piemur called back. Master Fandarel has it all well in hand, Breide."

"Five persons are observed to occupy this room, but only four voices have been registered. Will the fifth person speak?"

Jancis looked around apprehensively. "Me?"

"You are requested to speak a full sentence."

"Go on, Jancis," Piemur urged her. "I don't think it will bite you, and a feminine voice will give it a new perspective on life here."

"But I haven't the faintest idea what you say to… a disembodied voice."

"Any speech will suffice. The difference in resonance and timbre has been noted. To assist the program, question: You are a female person."

"Yes, she is a female person." Piemur replied.

"The female person is asked to answer for a voiceprint reading." Jancis burst out laughing at the surprise on Piemur's face, for the reproof, despite the uninflected tone, was unmistakable.

"You should see your face, Piemur."

"At least you can laugh about it." Piemur said. "Then you… sir, whatever. How should you be addressed?"

"This is an artificial intelligence voice address system. It does not require personification."

"Does artificial mean man-made?" Robinton asked.

"That is correct. "The men who built the Dawn Sisters?"

"Reference to Dawn Sisters is unknown. Please explain."

"The three metallic objects in the sky overhead are known as the Dawn Sisters."

"You refer to the spaceships Yokohama, Buenos Aires, and Bahrain,"

"Spaceships?" Fandarel asked, turning to stare at the panel with its green blinking legend.

"Spaceships, life-support vehicles that travel in the vacuum inaccurately referred to as 'space.'"

Do the spaceships still support life?" Fandarel's eyes were wide, his usually expressionless face betraying a passionate avidity that surprised even Robinton.

"Not at the present reading. All systems are on hold. Bridge pressure is .001 standard atmosphere, or 0.1 KP. Interior temperature reads minus twenty-five degrees Celsius."

"I don't know what it's talking about. Fandarel said, collapsing onto the other stool, his face a study of terrible disappointment.

"Hey!" Jaxom came running down the hall. "No, that's all right, Breide, I'll just go right in. I'm expected." He entered the room, slightly breathless. "I thought you'd wait for me, Piemur. Excuse me, Master Fandarel, Master Robinton. What is this?" He began to assess the bits and bobs of the room, the lights, the ventilation, and the expressions of his friends.

"This is an artificial intelligence voice address system…"

"Let us begin at the beginning them, shall we?" Robinton asked.

"That is the correct procedure." AIVAS replied, and what had been a dark panel suddenly became illuminated with a diagram that those in the room identified as similar to one found in the flying ship Jaxom had discovered. Only this diagram had such depth and perspective that it appeared three-dimensional, giving the awed observers the feeling that they were hovering in space, an unthinkable distance away from their sun. "When Mankind first discovered the third planet of the sun Rukbat in the Sagittarian Sector of space…"