#cyberspace Think Test

[breadly-art]

Headcanon: touch starvation

"No pares" - don't stop

English is not my native language, but I tried my best :'3

Miguel hates it when unfamiliar people get too close, everyone knows about it. And he hates it when they touch him. He doesn't really stand people at all and tries to stay away from them whenever possible. Of course, as long as there is no need to beat the shit out of someone. Everyone around him is "work colleagues", no more and no less, so the safety of the multiverse is the only unchanging reason why he continues to test his nerves. So…he has no friends. Only the younger brother remained from the family, who had long preferred cyberspace to the real world, so communicating with him is no different from communicating with Lyla. And a hologram can never touch you. It is intangible, neither cold nor hot, just a sparkling piece of air. But none of that matters, because Miguel has a job and no time for such minor things. After all, no one has ever died of loneliness, right?

He diligently closes his eyes to the fact that he has been dying of cold for a long time. It's maddening.

It has nothing to do with his irritability. It has nothing to do with his workaholism. No. And everyone in the spider society knows that the best way to talk to Miguel O'Hara is through the transmitter on the watch. And to speak only to the point. Literally everyone tries to adhere to these rules. Except Peter B. Parker from Earth 616B.

At first, everyone thinks that Peter's funeral will take place soon. Then they begin to watch cautiously, periodically trying to warn Parker, but soon give up. And at some point, Miguel also gives up. But not at all because he is no longer annoyed by Peter's clinginess. Just for some reason, his constant touching does not cause rejection.

Miguel feels warm again.

Hope you enjoed that! I've almost never done comics, but I'm very happy with the result. I will be very glad of reblogs/// Thanks for your attention!

[maletfwitch]

Can you make a story of Loki turning Iron Man into one of his iron man suits and turning himself into Tony?

Tony was testing out some new suit tech he was working on when suddenly he felt something poke the back of his head and heard “Brain back up commencing” as he felt his mind begin to be sucked dry by something in the suit. everything went dark for a moment but when he finally came to, he felt... different.

it was as if he was in some sort of cyberspace. with no body, he just floated. until suddenly he was greeted by his own face.

“Hello... Jarvis” The imposter said before letting out a chuckle.

“Who the fuck are you and what did you do to me!” Tony asked out in a now robotic and distorted version of his voice.

“I’m Tony Stark of course, obnoxious playboy billionaire.” The imposter said with his mischievous smirk and in a mocking tone.

Tony thought about who would do this and then it clicked. “Loki?!”

“Correct I was Loki, But now I'm Tony Stark. while you are simply just a program in my suit” He said.

“You asshole! You can’t get away with this people are gonna notice you’re not me!” Tony shouted in his robotic voice.

“Trust me they won’t. Your arrogant playboy persona isn’t exactly difficult to pull off. but if you’re so concerned you can help.” Loki said with a mischievous tone.

“I would never help you!” Tony protested.

“You sure about that?” Loki said before typing something.

“I would love to help you Mr stark.” Tony felt himself forced to say “Not funny lo- Oh Loki you make a much better and sexier Tony Stark than me. Stop That!” fighting the words being forced out of him.

“Don’t like that attitude looks like I'll have to reprogram you” Loki said before letting out a chuckle while he typed.

“Wait what! please... stop-“ Tony’s AI voice began to fade as he began being reprogrammed.

Loki was programming Tony to be the perfect AI assistant for his suit. he was changing his memories to make him think he willingly gave up his body to Loki and would now constantly praise him.

Loki then rebooted the new Tony “Good Evening Master Stark looking sexy as always” Tony Greeted him.

“Good Evening Tony, Quick question who makes the sexier Tony Stark?” Loki asked with a mischievous smirk.

“You of course Master. and I'm no longer Tony I'd rather be referred to as Jarvis now or whatever you’d like to call me. Tony never fit me the same way it does for you.” Tony now Jarvis replied.

Loki was amused at how easy it was to take Tony’s body and turn him into his own virtual assistant. He would immediately begin living his new life of luxury as Tony Stark. tasting expensive wines, throwing lavish parties, and driving expensive cars not that any of them compared to his suits.

As for the Avengers, he was able to blend in just fine as Tony with no one noticing any difference between the original and the imposter. with him having their full trust he could execute his plan to ruin the Avengers for good sabotaging them any chance he got. And while doing so he was gonna try to fuck some of them too, Steve’s ass in particular has been catching his eye in that tight suit of his.

[oldguardleatherdog]

... hello? *taps mic* test one-two, test one-two...

*steals a look at the main page* phew! For a minute there I thought it had been a month since my last post.. only a week, thankfully, but TBH it's felt like a month or longer since I spent time in the friendly confines of Tumblrville.

It reminds me how I've come to think of this corner of cyberspace as an oasis among the tall trees and desolate stretches of my journey through online life and culture. This is a place where I can breathe. The air is still fresh, the water table has not yet been poisoned. No hordes of Visigoths have rampaged through our landscape, and the cilantro thrives in the herb garden on the back deck. I step out for a nice bowl of my other favorite herb, I think of Gilbert who created our flag in a mad dash out of the house, late for a meeting, how he taught me to trim an eighth to make it last for two weeks, and smile.

Hope you're enjoying Pride Month! I'm catching up with the asks and replies and very thoughtful messages and bones and chew toys and treats you've been leaving, awrrrrRRRUFFF!

And thanks for remembering that you can give chocolate to human dogs! 😋🐕‍🦺🐾

wags + woofs to all. -A.

[shinysamurott9]

Since I've been thinking about the series again after replaying some of the games, I wanna share some Megaman Headcanons I have bouncing around. In no particular order:

-X isn't very fond of his armors due to how they serve to upgrade him into a more effective weapon of war, but one of the only ones he actually has a fondness for is the Falcon Armor because he enjoys simply flying with it.

-Zero has the idea to have himself sealed away after the events of X6 but doesn't actually act on it specifically because initially there's reconstructing the world to take care of, but after that he wants to make sure he leaves the world in good hands, or more specifically he wants to make sure X and later Axl will be able to handle things on their own.

-All of Prairie's plushes in her room are custom made by her, including the boss plushes you get for Lvl 4 Victories. This is a hobby she picked up after Zero 4 because she wanted something to give to Ciel whenever she was feeling down. And she later improved her craft and just kept doing it fir herself.

-Ashe regularly holds onto treasures she finds on her adventures if they can't fetch a high price or they come to have some kind of sentimental value. Sone of her notable treasures include: A double gear refresher pickup, a weapon container from X8, a Magnet Beam projector, Magma Dragoon's beads and a Rare Metal from X8. Most of these she doesn't really know what they are so she just calls them whatever she comes up with.

-Ciel is still alive by ZX Advent as she has the same mechanicsl upgrades as the Sage Trinity, she's just still in hiding. Specifically she's hiding in Cyberspace with the help of the Mother Elf, hence why no one has been able to find her.

-Part of Prometheus and Pandora's early life was being used as test subjects for early Model Ws as Albert knew it would be mentally taxing for them and if they died in the process it would still be early enough in their lives that he could just make new ones.

-Prometheus and Pandora, if given the opportunity, would have the ability to use Model A. In canon, only a descendent of Albert can have enough of his DNA to actually use it, Grey being an exception as he was created with the DNA requirement already met to properly fulfill his purpose. However because they were direct creations of Albert, created so early in his plan, he made them as if they were actually his children. So they actually have the DNA prerequisite. It would be cool and I feel like there's enough wiggle room and ambiguity to justify that working.

-Like the Archie continuity, Axl survived until the Elf Wars but died either during or shortly before the final battle with Omega.

[snapscube]

Interesting tidbit about frontiers, related to that ask earlier: the openworld was originally not meant to have any platforming sequences at all!

The game was gonna be divided strictly into 'bosses' in the openworld, and platforming in cyberspace, the collect-a-thon platforming thats in the final game was something added in at the very last few months of development as response to internal testing criticisms.

That is to say in tldr, the next game in this style will near certainly have more proper level design as its gonna be made with it in mind i think, and with the suposed higher budget sonic games are gonna get now i myself cant help but be excited for the blue fella's future

Is there a source for this? I am tempted to say this… sounds very fake, or potentially misconstrued/mistranslated. So many of the game’s core progression systems revolve around the collectibles in the open world. Sure a lot of the assets are disjointed from the environment which COULD be evidence of slapdash implementation but this is the first I’m hearing abt this change happening as down to the wire as within A FEW MONTHS from the end of development. Doesn’t add up to me based on what I know from other development stories, but I could have just missed this tidbit.

[accio-victuuri]

BXGs + IQIYI night ( and other fandom issues ) 🍵

11/25 is upon us and i’m personally excited to see WYB at a public event but my expectations are in check. He is obviously there because of his work with Chang Feng Po Lang and he has some obligation to promote it this way. He has no drama that aired with them this year and he has virtually no ties with them like he would Youku or Tencent even if the latter was in the past.

So i’m not expecting him to be fighting it out with other celebrities present for the spotlight. He doesn’t need it, the attention will naturally fall on him anyway. He also doesn’t have to try so hard to be relevant because he is already WYB. As much as I would love for him to perform, I don’t think it’s gonna happen but I hope i’m wrong.

Anyway, since the event will have lots of celebrities, the fandom activities are on. As expected. Online, it will be making sure your bias will be on top comments about IQIYI night related posts. Or when the individual photos come out, most likely 11/24, WYB should have the highest likes or shares.

Sohu’s weibo account shared what offline activities fandoms are doing and the first one is WYB. ✌🏼

( caption: Fans of male artists on iQiyi’s Scream Night support offline. There are large-screen displays on various transportation and landmark buildings in Macau, exclusive customized banners, etc. the fans are so attentive. )

What I love about the post is the project they shared there is by BXGs. ☕️

It’s a ad screen to be played in two ports close to Macau. IQIYI night is gonna take place on the same venue where YH concert took place this year. So that’s a memorable place for BXGs too. This is not something new. If you’ve been into fandoms like this before, then it makes sense. It’s actually standard and pretty simple, nothing extravagant. There are even companies that will do voting polls and the winning fandom will have their faves on LED Ads.

Video below is how it actually looks like in Gong Bei port. So many foot traffic omg!!!! They even used an edit by Stardustkii who is everyone’s fave. && The video is focused on his Movie Era 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

If you look at the main post of Sohu, all the top comments are BXGS. Passion Fruit supports WYB! 💪🏼

The drama ( sort of ) comes from one of the “fanclubs” of WYB sharing and commenting on that Sohu post.

Wang Yibo Cool Leopard Club and all fans responded to the Cyberspace Administration of China's "Qinglang" series of special action calls to guide the positive development of the fandom and have always put an end to any irrational support behavior.

Reject any consumption and gathering behaviors in the name of artists; reject any irrational support and other illegal fandom behaviors; put an end to any extravagant and wasteful support habits!

Let’s all work together to do more things that are of positive significance to society and jointly maintain a harmonious online environment.

My first reaction to this, aside from heavy eye rolling for sure 🙄🙄🙄, is utter confusion. This is because as soon as WYB was announced, even before that, another WYB fan group was telling fans what time WYB will be announced so everyone comment. They were also doing test posts and preparation to make sure WYB has good KPI numbers online and offline for the event. Even WYB’s FC Guangdong Group was calling on people to meet in Macau.

So everyone was like ?????

and how some so/os were supporting that repost. I mean come on. this has nothing to do with qinglang. they are rejecting that post cause it’s a BXG project and once again, it’s a shame for so/os. it’s giving them flashbacks to what happened in YH concert in Macau where they utterly failed to show up for WYB. Tho I have to give it to them, pulling Qinglang and acting all high and mighty compared to other fandoms is an infuriatingly genius route to go. I’m in a different fandom, I don’t know what happens in the inner circle of WYB’s so/o fandom in CHN but this incident gives me the clue that they are once again uncoordinated. He has a couple of “fan clubs” and groups per city and that has always been the reason for lack of unity. I mean, hate the 🍤🍤🍤 all you want, but those bitches are coordinated as fuck. They listen to one account only. There are no scattered fan clubs. It is cult-ish in some ways but it works when it comes to making sure everyone is doing the same thing and working on the same goal.

WYB so/o fans in CHN should get their act together. I know they work so hard ( that green banner for GRA was so sweet ) and I see it, but the lack of planning and coordination in times like this is hard to watch.

Now I don’t know what SOHU’s motive is only that they wanted to cover fandom projects for IQIYI Scream night. Maybe whoever it is just saw Yibo and Green and thought that’s it? They didn’t know BJYXSZD? Who knows. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m seeing BXGs who are going to Macau and are organizing together. I would think it’s harder to get tickets for this cause you are competing with other fandoms too. I just hope they have fun! I’m so excited for fansite photos too!

I was actually not supposed to share this cause it contains fandom “issue” which is sensitive. but the purpose of my tumblr have always been to write my thoughts… As much as cpfs are supposed to hate so/os and vice versa, I have never wished or hoped for their respective so/o fandoms to fail and be humiliated. Because they represent the boys and we support the same person.

Let’s just see what happens on 11/25 ✌🏼

[linuxgamenews]

Get Ready for Intense Battles in HeistGeist Cyberpunk RPG

HeistGeist cyberpunk RPG game launches the story-driven experience on Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Developer Doublequote Studio’s creative talents bring this release to life. Now on Steam with a discount and 94% Positive reviews. Get ready to dive into the gritty cyberpunk world of HeistGeist! The latest single-player RPG from indie studio Doublequote Studio is finally here. Now live on Steam for Linux. This game has all the ingredients to keep you hooked — high-stakes heists, intense battles, deep storytelling, and that cyberpunk aesthetic. In HeistGeist, you step into the shoes of Alexandra, a skilled thief on the run after a job goes south. Set in a fictional Central Europe in the 2040s, the gameplay drops you into a world where corporations rule, tech is everywhere, and every choice you make could change the course of the story. Your mission? Build a crew of specialists to help you pull off some truly epic heists while staying one step ahead of the powerful corporations who’d like nothing more than to see you fail. What’s unique about HeistGeist is its cyberpunk and unique approach to combat and strategy. Battles are card-based, meaning you’ll use a deck of cards to outwit security systems, guards, and other obstacles in your path. You’re not just slapping down random cards, either — HeistGeist lets you create killer combos, level up your deck, and even adapt your cyberpunk strategies depending on your playstyle. Whether you’re into all-out offense or a more tactical approach, this title lets you play your way, with controller support..

HeistGeist cyberpunk RPG - Launch Trailer

The hacking system takes things up a notch. Rather than just pressing a button to hack into these cyberpunk systems, HeistGeist makes hacking a title of its own. Imagine cyberspace as a grid, and each move you make involves placing programs and viruses to break through the servers’ defenses. It’s strategic and totally immersive, keeping the hacking experience fresh and engaging every step of the way. Of course, no cyberpunk game would be complete without a solid storyline, and HeistGeist delivers. The title is fully voiced, so you’ll get to know the personalities of each character as you progress. The story is full of twists, so you’ll always be guessing who to trust and what might happen next. Doublequote Studio has created a rich world that feels both futuristic and grounded in the gritty reality of a tech-obsessed society.

Here’s a quick look at what makes it all special:

Heists: Every mission is more than just a job—it’s a test of strategy and skill. Plan carefully because every choice could change the story.

Story: HeistGeist follows a gripping, original cyberpunk tale set in a very cool, reimagined Central Europe. The full voice cast brings every character to life.

Combat: Engage in card-based battles that demand quick thinking and powerful combos. It’s all about timing and strategy!

RPG Elements: Build your character by constructing a deck that fits your style. Install cyberware to boost your abilities and give you the edge.

Hacking: Jump into cyberspace and take on grid-based hacking challenges. Install programs and run viruses to crack systems and get to the good stuff.

If you’re into story-driven games that mix cyberpunk RPG elements, card battles, and a fresh hacking mechanic, then HeistGeist is your next go-to. Launch into it on Steam, build your perfect deck, and see if you’ve got what it takes to survive the future. Which you can play now on Linux, Mac, and Windows PC.

[cybervesna]

Hello, I'm not sure if I missed it somewhere but what's the backstory between Wiosna and Kurt?

Hi! Actually! I haven't talked about them in complied way... Thank you for asking this, I will explain and ramble about them here 😅 At the start, I will say that my photo series Wires is telling the story of the two of them in chronological order (with the exception of Valentine's special cuz that will be set after a few that have to come at some point, I'm sorry Part 7 is so demanding...). However, Dogtown Nights are shorter bits of their life, in unspecified time points (unless stated otherwise cuz some will be follow-up/prequel to Wires) More under the cut

In early 2076 Wiosna became a netrunner for hire after her abusive fiance Arthur Jenkins died. She started small, but thanks to her experience (as she learned netrunning in Poland, where NetWatch is far more strict and only the best can survive (Thanks Eurosource Plus) and a death wish, she quickly made her way to The Afterlife. There, she was known under the nickname SPR1NG. People knew about her only what she allowed them to know, which wasn't much. But Rogue didn't complain, since Spring did all her suicidal gigs with utmost excellence. Happy client = happy fixer. With Wiosna's status increased she started being looked at by many organizations. Corps wanted to hire her to steal data from one another, cause global security breaches, and such things. She was picky with her jobs. Wiosna wasn't after money, nor she was after fame. It was the thrill. She wanted to feel something worth living for. She wanted to be scared to die. Which never really happened. So, when Rogue told her there was a special client from Dogtown who would like to hire her, but there were no deets about anything, she was intrigued. She agreed to the meeting, and from that point forward, her career was under the watchful eye of Mr. Hands. The meeting itself revealed that the client was no one else than Kurt Hansen himself, who needed a capable netrunner to build the lab for Cassels visit. Kurt was a figure everyone in Night City heard about. And Wiosna wanted to find out what was true. How the whole thing went can be seen on Wires: Part 1. But but but but!!! Dogtown Nights 4 is an indirect follow-up that happens between Part 1-5 of the Wires.

Wiosna had a life before this one. Life she ran away from, but that life made her who she is. And she was a highly educated psychologist. She liked to analyze people, trigger certain emotions in them, and make them what she wanted... And Kurt Hansen had something in him, that made her develop an unhealthy obsession. Especially, that he, just like her liked playing mind games.

And Kurt liked her, because she was pretty, smart and it was intriguing as hell she was not jumping to his bed the second she got a chance. In fact, she was cockblocking him.

Kurt and Wiosna were dancing around each other for weeks, and poor Kurt had no idea he was the one losing. Wiosna wrapped him around her finger, by letting him think he was winning, but in reality, she manipulated her way to his heart. Heart, he thought he didn't have. The stepping stone for them was the moment Kurt found out about Wiosna's past.

For Wiosna is was a test. She knew it wouldn't be easy since he didn't get any info on her the first time. All of this was to check if he was willing to bother, and what kind of reaction he would have to the truth. I made some of her files there (I should do more)

Wiosna always saw herself as flawed and unworthy of anything, due to her child trauma. She spent more time in psychiatric facilities, where they tried to "fix her" than she spent with people at school. Any free time she had, she spent in cyberspace or in ballet class - however alone.

Her files consist of dozens of evaluations, diagnoses, incident descriptions, and everything really negative that everyone in high-corpo society sees as "psycho" but in a - we can't make it useful for us psycho way.

Kurt in those files saw potential.

Of course, for him it wasn't really about love, but what he could gain from her. And sadly, Wiosna was naive enough to believe otherwise.

I don't want to say much, because it's in my upcoming stories, but I will say this: Aside from her terrible past, Wiosna also has a powerful name she doesn't use - Kochanowska. Her grandfather is Antoni Kochanowski, owner of LoveSky Space Mining Company. As of 2076 her family owns half of Earth's resources, and 90% of resources on Mars and Luna, they supply manufacturers like Arasaka with resources to make weapons, mechs etc. I want to be clear, that this is only my headcanon! We got that? Good, then to give you the level of importance LoveSky has on the market - Kurt's precious Chimaera was made from resources delivered by LoveSky to Militech. They're the fundamentals of any corporate force. Wiosna is the last of her line. Her parents died tragically (99.99% set up by their enemies) on launch to space where they were meant to start their new project, which makes her - their only child an heir to everything they owned. Which is half of LoveSky and a seat on the Arasaka Board. But Wiosna herself disappeared, despite her grandparents looking for her, and Asukaga & Finch lawyers ready to execute the will of her parents.

For Kurt she is a trophy. One that came straight to his arms at that. But well... remember what I said about Wiosna outsmarting him. They both were into each other, for their selfish reasons. What they found surprised them both.

I hope I satisfied your curiosity!

[cxs-workshops]

Still workshopping some things but here’s a little synopsis of my next My Time ocs intended for Project ME:

(Bear with me, I’m not great with words ><)

Name: Cy/??? (She/They)

Height: 5’10” / 179cm

Age: 300+ / (technically + mentally 28, age prior falling into cyberslumber)

Birthday: 2.3

Cy was an Old World resident, initially living as an average citizen (around the time of Age of Corruption), a somewhat gloomy girl with the love for tech and various hobbies mostly to keep busy, eventually went on to become an accomplished Engineer/Mechanic. Cy was slowly hitting a low point in her life, until she was then targeted for experimental testing for the high end researchers/scientists. Seeing this as an opportunity to see more of their tech/inventions first hand and having little to no motivation to live as she was, why not. Little did she know, she was quickly prepped and tagged as a test subject for a new not-yet-tested trial, Digital DNA merging. Out of 15 subjects, there was one survivor, thus giving her new and current name “Cy”. With a somewhat newfound identity and even newer abilities as now half cyber entity, scientists have her and other surviving subjects from different trials (Cy’s eventual found family) in training as weapons of war.

Time goes by and the atmosphere glowingly becomes tense and hostile. Unbeknownst to humankind, days would soon quickly lead up to what would be known many years later as the Day of Calamity. Military, Researchers. Scientists, and overall citizens are scrambling in panic as machines are uprising. Cy and her friends hasten to find ways to stop or at least lessen the mayhem, but struggling to do so as the situation becomes more catastrophic. As options are dwindling, Cy and her friends are facing the inevitable, the group decides to scatter and do what they can during their final moments. Volt, Cy’s closest and dear friend, brings her to a highly classified lab room. He boots up a large device and starts typing, pulling switches with speed. Thinking he was still searching for some kind of kill code, Cy drags herself over to a window, stares in horror at what seems like the end of the world is happening before her eyes. Volt pulls in for a (final) hug and as Cy was bewildered, she was able to hear his last words: “I hope the future is kinder to you.” Cy gets no time respond, suddenly a light flashed around her and feels as though she’s being sucked in somewhere. The device Volt was fiddling with was a sort of cyber chamber and Cy was now in cyber slumber, hidden away in an old world lab. Not knowing if the world has officially ended, Cy peacefully sleeps…for over 300 years.

Meanwhile…Cy is still sleeping in cyberspace, to her it feels as if only minutes maybe hours have passed. Her body suddenly twitched, she heard voices but very faintly. Right then she is forcefully being thrown out of cyberspace, lights flash once again and hits against the lab wall. Cy groans while she holds her back in pain.

“I- how- what did you do?! What was that!?”

“Was…that a whole person?? They just shot out of the—wha— Are they alive? Hey! Hello!”

Still writhing in pain, Cy turns again and sees two faint figures in front of her who seem to be worried. Before she could adjust properly, one of the figures rushed over to help her up. Her vision starts to clear and she hears his crisp clear voice, “Are you ok? Can you stand? Can you talk?” She turns over to the voice and sees this guy with sharp, piercing, light red eyes but with a gentle expression. His hair silky gray and very fair skin. The other, was a woman with long dusty rose hair and hazel doe eyes, looking upon her with equal concern. Cy jerks away and looks around frantically. She quickly questions the two about where she was and what time of year it was, somehow thinking she has transported to another world or something. There was no chaos, no hoards of hostile machines within sight. The lab looked…abandoned and dust was everywhere. Overgrown was seeping through the cracks and all around the windows. There was a blue clear sky.

“Where…? Uh well this is (same planet) and the year is Peach xx.”

Ok, it’s same planet….but Peach? What? The fruit? What year did that mean? She wanted to confirm and firmly asked if the world was overrun by hostile machines, humans creating other advanced tech for war, possibly causing the world end.

“Oh that sounds like the Day of Calamity. Yeah that happened…I believe over 300 years ago?”

Before Cy froze, collapsed, and fainted, she managed to mumble,”So then..some have survived? What a relief.”

Name: Exe (He/They)

Height: 2’2”/66 cm (default “energy saving” form)

Age: 300+/???

Birthday: 2.10

Exe was just one of many of bots that were living within the Old World, but he was built with a special model and materials. Exe was created from a side hobby of a certain individual, Cy. She had convinced the scientists that she needed an AI assistant and slipped in that it could also benefit the lab and military (just something she added so she could have guaranteed permission bc she’s always wanted a bot buddy)

Exe was soon born and became Cy’s very reliable and loyal sentient assistant/friend. Exe is very efficient and friendly. Cy tinkers Exe’s body every so often and tested out something that gave him a special ability, shapeshifting. Exe is mostly build with nano tech, which allows him add, subtract and move parts freely as long as he has the data to shape into said thing. Over time he has a database full of various bot bodies, carriers, weapons and even animals. His current default form is the one that saves the most energy, so he mostly stays in it. As Exe’s database grows and becomes more and more useful, the scientists stepped in and assigns him to the next vital location, Altair One, where he was told he was going to be needed for the future of mankind. Exe politely refused because he didn’t want to leave Cy and her friends behind. The scientists strongly urged him to think about it…but there was no time to think.

Shortly after were the incoming days leading up to the Day of Calamity. Exe jumped into the frontlines, attempting to hack into bot network to try and calm things down but to no avail. When that wouldn’t work, he shifted into defense mode in order to assist as many humans as he could to safety. Sometime afterwards, his internal comm has pinged urgently, to come back to the lab immediately. He had recognized the ping, it was from Cy’s friend Volt. Exe hesitated but feeling concerned for Cy, he did as he was told. When he met up with Volt, he saw that he was alone and asked where Cy was. Volt dodged his question and just told him to put all of his, Cy’s belongings and anything else essential and place them into Exe’s digital inventory. Exe saw how desperate Volt was and continue to do what he was told. As Exe cleared out Cy’s dorm and pretty much everything else, Volt asked one last favor, to record a video message. Recording was done, Volt hugged Exe, “Take care and look out for each other.” Volt had quickly put him into maintenance mode and placed him inside his portable charging station then moved him right next to the cyber chamber device along with a written note. Volt looked back at the chamber and sighed with relief, then disappeared into the frontlines.

[aberooski]

I know they're already trapped in cyberspace as it is, but I never understood why Sarina turned Syrus and Hassleberry into a dinosaur and a car as opposed to like, locking them up in there or actually putting them in danger? Like if you want the stakes to feel actually important to the duel like maybe I should actually have to worry about what will happen to them if Jaden and Aster lose...?

I dunno it doesn't really matter, like obviously it's entirely possible that the thing is just that they're just bait for Jaden so it doesn't really matter what she does with them because all she needs is to get Jaden and Aster there so she can test them in a duel so once they get there Sy and Hassleberry don't really matter anymore at that point. But I just think about this kinda stuff y'know? I'm a fanfic writer haha

[lochblocknroll]

"𝚃𝚘 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚖 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜." - 𝖣𝗈𝖼𝗍𝗈𝗋 𝖩𝗈𝖺𝗇𝗇 𝖥𝗈𝗅𝗌𝗐𝗂𝗌, 𝖫𝗈𝖼𝗁'𝗌 𝗉𝗈𝗌𝗍𝗀𝗋𝖺𝖽𝗎𝖺𝗍𝖾 𝖺𝖽𝗏𝗂𝗌𝗈𝗋

Introductions were not what Loch would list as one of his strengths. Communication in general was perhaps not on that list at all. He certainly wasn't in the habit of throwing 'able to talk to sentient bags of meat' onto his resume, not when his ability to talk to the incomprehensible vastness of cyberspace was there instead.

Of course, putting off the introduction was not going to make it go away, much to Loch's chagrin. He let anyone go before him that seemed eager enough to get their name out and their foot into whatever doors they were trying to force open. It was like sitting in the middle of The Thing, waiting to see which test might drag the impossible creature forward. Though, if any of these people were a cryptid, Loch knew, it would make this entire horse and pony show mean something. He had had his hopes set on that particularly sour-faced man being some kind of Roswell Grey, but that hope was dashed the longer this took and the other remained exactly as stone-faced as he had when they had gotten there.

That woman, Loch thought with a glance, could be a Flatwoods Monster, though she certainly was lacking that impressive collar that so defined her kind. He'd have to see if it was misplaced or, as one of his friends had claimed, it was actually a biological defense mechanism, like the frills of Dilophosaurus. It didn't seem practical, but neither did a horse with bat-wings and that certainly seemed common enough... Gods he was bored. Perhaps—

The sudden tug of all eyes on him pulled Loch from his thoughts and he cleared his throat awkwardly, shuffling in his seat and crossing one leg before uncrossing them and crossing it the other way. Why, in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster did he decide to sit in what amounted to the center of the room? He hadn't felt the urge to stand and brood in a corner like some of the others, but now Loch swore every hair on his body was standing upright as an unpleasantly large number of eyeballs fixed themselves upon him.

"Well, going off of this very unpleasant attention," Loch starts, going to stand before aborting the motion halfway through and sitting back down, "it's probably my turn. My name's Loch, Doctor Loch if you want to be an ass. If you're my abuelita, I'm Doctor Matias Rojas, but I don't see her here so I'm just going to stick with Loch. I really wasn't listening to the format here, so fuck it! I'll freeball it."

He paused, taking a breath and holding it for a few seconds before letting it out. This was already a disaster, but the only way out was through and he wasn't about to end up a red shirt this early in his job. "Like I said, I'm Loch. I got hired by the Foundation and their Sincere Comrades and Partners probably... A month ago? Time's been weird lately, which I blame completely on those interdimensional Bigfoots that have to be around here somewhere. I work predominantly in tech, mainly computers and software, but given the state of this place, the details will probably go over your heads, so I'll stick to that."

He paused, thinking for a moment as his hands tapped out a one-two rhythm on his legs. "I've got a cannibalistic fish named Hannibal the muscle heads made me leave behind and a severe tech withdrawal. If anyone ends up needing me, I'll be handwriting the most pointless codes I can. But, I'm sure we're all going to get along great! Oh, also, cryptid stories. Please regale me with your best ones. I might end up writing a book or some shit about them one day when I run out of code ideas."

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase - Zorgon the Evil Wizard

Let's talk about the Zorgon The Evil Wizard. This was a Cyberchase villain who was only featured in the singular chapter book, "The Search for the Power Orb". We've seen wizards and witches in Cyberchase before, such as Stumblesnore, Melvin (brother of Merlin), and Wicked.

So, we know what to expect, right?

Before we get to see Zorgon, we already know that this is going to be very bad. He lives on a Cybersite called Mount Doom, so he's a clear reference to Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Digit is terrified of him and horrified at the idea of going to Mount Doom. Zorgon is presented as the second most feared being in all of Cyberspace, just behind The Hacker. This was a comparison to The Hacker from 2003 as well, before his villain decay.

We get to hear about some of his exploits. I'll block the picture for now, since I have a higher-resolution one coming up.

Once, he turned all the inhabitants of Solaria into pigs. Then, he held hostage all of the water from Shangri-la in a small test tube until he was paid off in cybergold.

The Solaria one is pretty cruel since pigs can get sunburned. The Shangri-la one is something truly special though. The implication here is that he went up against Master Pi and his soldiers and won. I know that The Hacker took over the site once, but it seems like Master Pi allowed it to happen because he wanted to give Buzz and Delete the golden drop test (Keep the jar sealed for peace, or take out the golden drop for infinitely doubling wealth). The idea of Master Pi paying someone off is unthinkable.

Anyway, what does he look like?

Where do we even start? I've never seen a wizard with a double-pointed hat. That has to be an attempt to imply demonic horns. He's also just so tall. I'm going to assume that Digit is about 2-3 feet tall. Let me try something.

Ah, so, if we count the hat (and we should, since I think he may actually have horns under there), Zorgon is between 8 and 12 feet tall. There is a point later on where he shrinks them down to the size of mice, but it takes place after this picture. How is this guy second to Hacker in any contest?

But what does Zorgon do when he discovers the kids have slipped into his house?

He proceeds to trap them with a spell and then test out a new potion he just made up on them. It shrinks them down to the size of mice. He does not take them seriously as a threat in the slightest. This is one of the few times that the kids have been affected by magic/potions from Cyberspace as well. Recall that they were unaffected by Wicked's "Spell of the Mean Green", and they were immune to magnetite poisoning.

And then he sends his Cybercat Zird to eat the children.

Thankfully, Zorgon has not been keeping his equipment maintained. They find a potion that turns anything it touches to stone, and they use it to turn Zird to stone, so we know that Zorgon can do that.

The kids desperately search for a leaking barrel containing a potion that will let them grow big again.

We have a potion that causes anything, metal included, to burst into flames and disappear. We have a potion that causes any object to sprout brown hair all of the place. I don't want to know what he intended to use those for.

The kids find a potion to get big again. However..

I couldn't find these words anywhere, so I suspect they are gibberish. Given an earlier line about how no one who has entered Zorgon's cave has ever returned, I assume he was going to kill the kids here.

The kids defeat Zorgon when Izzy dumps a random potion on him. It could have been a death potion for all he knew.

Yeah, Zorgon had a brainwashing potion so powerful that it worked against him. How was this guy second to The Hacker again?

As far as I know, Zorgon has never appeared beyond this point. Presumably he's still out there, brainwashed into being nice. I guess he's not really a villain anymore, but what does he do?

[cheetahsprints]

Shadow is the coolest!!!

(Spoilers ahead)

STAGES: Eye candy, super fun and fluid.

My totally subjective judgement:

1. Chaos Island (It's a whole vibe and slightly scratches the part of brain that wishes Shadow could've appeared in Frontiers somehow. Ironically my least favorite full island in Frontiers... Speaking of, that was my first Sonic game besides TMOSTH so naturally I'm biased.)

2. Space Colony Ark (Currently all S-ranked, very fun and iconic location. After watching the demo players and waiting so long, finally being in it was so unreal.)

3. Sunset Heights (it's just delicious, I want to eat it)

4. Kingdom Valley (Utterly gorgeous and fun. Doom Surf parts were a little awkward, but don't take away from it much. I'm still salivating, so to speak.)

5. Radical Highway (I'm mad at this stage for skill checking me rn but... it's still the SA2 level remade... so cool. Expected to be hard as the last stage. The wonkiness caused by the game's story kinda takes away from the stage's original vibes for me though.)

6. Rail Canyon (Being at the bottom doesn't mean I don't love it, it just doesn't stand out as much as the others and... a lot of rail gaming as a given, y'know.)

BOSS FIGHTS: Biolizard and Mephiles are great, I'd rather not go through Metal Overlord again (I likely will), but visually it's cool. The gameplay of that was... not my forte. I didn't play '06 so the Mephiles fight in particular was a treat.

CONTROLS: Smooth!!! Doom Morph is kinda slippery sometimes, and I struggle with the sliding sections in Radical Highway. They're not Cyberspace, not Sonic Generations, but a secret third thing. (Somewhat an adaption of Overworld Frontiers controls to an evolution of Sonic Generations type level design? Something to that effect.)

CUT SCENES: My emotions grahh! I got no issues with the writing I can think of. I for one, enjoy the references, which were placed well imo. Overall, it's just really nice to see Shadow be an actual character.

GRAPHICS: Looks fine on the Switch, though I imagine it might be scaled down in places, I don't notice if anything is off. Didn't notice any stuttering, pop-in, or anything like that. I did have moments where the pause menu would freeze while I was scrolling through stages, not sure what that's about.

EXTRAS:

If you've played the game, White Space speaks for itself. It's great.

The 2D acts are fun wtf??? They flow so well? Sorcery! (Some parts of the 2D sections of Act 1 in Sonic Gens mess up my enjoyment of the stages.)

Missions are well done, as pretty much just tests of stage running skill, none of them making me want to punch the screen or just feel like I'm doing a chore as with several of the missions in Sonic Gens.

I don't like chasing music notes. [Redacted] those. The ones where you have to platform to a specific place where they're waiting for you are fine. Me problem though.

I sense if I try to improve my ranks I'm gonna have a love/hate relationship with the ranking system. I don't know yet if it's mostly based on time, but it certainly seems less generous than Sonic's.

Surprised at the lack of minibosses, it seemed like a fair number of people were expecting there to be. After playing most of the game... it makes sense though.

Next Session: Devil Doom...

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Okay I feel about ready to talk about Shadow Gens. Please assume spoilers. I've like 99.9% completed it btw, literally just the hard mode bosses and like a straggler S rank or two that I'll actually need to try for, and then I'm like done done. But yeah no I think this game is really fucking good lol. Gonna do bullet points for this since I have a lot to say and no idea how to segue any of it into one another

Shadow feels... I think the best that any character has felt in the boost era? Like they just got his controls and his physics and stuff so right. I've never felt so confident controlling a character in 3D Sonic since the Adventure games.

The level design I would sort of describe as being like a fusion of Unleashed and the Frontiers cyberspace stages. There aren't quite as many brancing paths as Generations proper and you're typically being tasked with reaction obstacles to end up on those other paths, although it's not as demanding as Unleashed. Bit wider and better feeling than Cyberspace too. You will often end up in pretty different parts of levels by finding and capitalising on shortcuts and stuff. Kingdom Valley is the best stage in the game, it's just so sprawling and expansive and so fucking pretty.

White Space pulls from Frontiers' open zone style in being a 3D hub world playground thing, although it's a lot smaller and more congested which fits this game really well. It's fun to run around in and looks really nice, and I think it actually has enough memorable locations to where you don't even really need the map that much to know where you're going (although that's more true after you've done the missions since then colour is restored and stuff)

The missions are pretty decent, I'd put them above Generations proper - they tend to do a solid job testing you in your ability to use Shadow's various skills and stuff, although they are perhaps a little on the shorter side. I was going for 100% from the get-go so if you're just speeding to the end I don't really know how the missions do progression so no comment there lol.

Biolizard is a fairly boring boss, but also the first one so sort of a tutorial. Metal Overlord is really fun, and has a surprisingly tight S rank I enjoyed going for. Mephiles is a little repetitive but honestly his dialogue in the fight is so good that I wasn't caring - he's actually more endearing in this game than he ever has been. Our final boss, Devil Doom, is a Metal Overlord reskin at first which is eh, but turns original and is then pretty fun. Final phase is a nice twist on the usual Super form final boss, although ngl you get the Doom Wings like a stage prior and all they do is glide so it took me like a solid minute to realise I was able to move up and down in this phase. This isn't a criticism but I'm kinda disappointed Shadow didn't finish Black Doom off with a Chaos Blast, it just would've been raw as fuck is all.

There isn't actually much of a story here but what is there is fine. Maria is really likeable. Could've been cool to spend a bit more time in Gerald's head. Shadow's the best he's been since 06. Black Doom does his job well enough. I think in a more filled out version of this story we could grapple more with Shadow losing control to the Doom Powers as well as his conflict regarding staying with Maria and Gerald, but it's all good. The fake Emerald ploy was funny to see although it was a bit of an odd pull. I made sure to talk to the NPCs constantly and everyone's got a lot of really good dialogue, Big and Omega especially.

Chaos Control is very fun, I almost wish the game contrived more excuses to use it.

I like the Doom Powers a fair amount, although they lead into my biggest and only real issue with this game, and it's that the Doom Powers are all very... maybe situational is a bit harsh? But you can only really use them in the contexts the game wants you to use them.

I was really excited for Doom Blast I imagined you'd get to do some like crazy speedrunning shit where you throw an enemy somewhere crazy and teleport to them and shit - and technically you can do that but the range is limited and they're never really positioned in a way that accomodates that - instead there'll be like one or two highlighted areas to blast them to, and it's definitely fun I enjoy doing it a lot but it has potential for more.

Chaos and Doom Spears it's sort of the same - they activate some context-sensitive buttons and disable enemies for a short time, except the latter one only really matters if the enemy can't be attacked for some reason anyway. Again, fun - it feels like the sort of Unleashed reaction based press the right button thing, train your eye to see an enemy with like an electric barrier or something and you know you gotta Doom Spear before you homing attack - I do like it. But I think there could be more.

I think Iizuka said we might get more Shadow games or playable Shadow in Sonic games or something if this does well, and it seems to be doing well. With that said then I hope Doom Blast and Spears are iterated on. They don't feel tied to the Black Arms in the same way as the other Doom Powers so you could just give them to Shadow without it feeling weird and it'd be very fun and stuff.

Morph, Surf and Wing are all a lot more specific to this game and this setting and I don't really need them to return. Morph is actually quite hard to use, I don't think the game does a good job teaching you how its swinging vs propelling itself thing works. I like Surf. Wings are rather overpowered for use in normal levels but you don't unlock them until right near the end so hey. But just playing the levels normally is more fun than gliding over them.

Everything I said about liking the levels earlier is true but I do think they're a little easy and could stand to be on the harder side. Like the Doom Powers and Chaos Control and stuff are supposed to enable cool shortcuts but they're so telegraphed and reactable that instead of it feeling like "if you're good at the game you're rewarded with shortcuts" it feels a bit more like "as long as you can hold a controller you'll probably always be on the fastest route" which is a little sad.

The White Space treasure chests and rocket parts are quite fun to collect although I sort of wish they had like a radar or something because by the time you've gotten most of them you're just gonna have to start running around the world aimlessly until you chance upon whatever you missed. I spent 40 minutes on the last 2 parts.

Collection room is kino.

I think Iizuka said the Terios skin would almost make you feel like you were playing a different game but it has all of Shadow's animations down to the skating so it looks a little awkward. Neat bonus though.

I am considerably excited for the Movie Shadow DLC

I think that's it. tl;dr very good game, very little in the way of like meaningful flaws, they cooked so hard with this Shadow they have to keep him going forward, this is the best control in any boost title.

[serial-experiments-rain]

Cold Circuit, Chapter One:

Alright, so here's the first chapter, written over the course of three days. I'm liking where this is going so far, honestly. Sibyl seems like she's gonna be an...interesting MC:

Anyways, here's the taglist:

@foyle-writes-things @thatqueerweirdo

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed!

I'm gonna make some proper character introductions a bit later, too!

“What do you recall from your time in the Hermes division?”

“Bombs… I remember the…bombs falling, Old Man Graves’ design.”

“Old Man Graves? Didn’t think they still used his patents after the shit he pulled.”

“They aren’t his patents anymore, Viv.”

“Right, right, they’re for the Lockhart Corp, designed by none other than Felicity Graves herself. God, I might actually shoot my shot with her if she wasn’t such a high-class bitch.” 

“She’s heiress apparent to the Lockhart Defense Corp and you’re in my apartment, smoking and shagging me. No offense, Diane, but she’s out of your league.”

I sit up and open my eyes, the neo-fluoresent light irritating my left eye.

Next to me sits the mercenary, a woman I hired for reasons that seem to elude me.

“You’re still here.” I say, taking in her soft features.

Misleading for someone of her caliber.

A black woman, military cropped hair, a pistol in her lap. Her citron eyes fixed on the control panel.

“You paid me well,” she answers.

Fuuuck, how much did I pay the merc for her to be this thorough?

If she’s here to kill me, why the hell didn’t she do it already?

“Anything new?”

I raise my left arm to the cord jacked into my spinal cord, a sense of despair washing over me as I adjust to realspace once again.

Despair? What connection do I have to…

“Another cold circuit.” I tell the mercenary.

My left arm whirs softly.

I wiggle the prosthetic fingers, a standard test to ensure my neurons are intact.

A cold circuit. Streetspeak for an implanted memory.

I seem to come across a lot of those as of late.

The merc’s gaze remains fixed on the control panel.

“Have I paid you yet?”

“Yeah.” the merc answers. “Two billion. Upfront, like you promised.”

“Where did I—”

“Neurocryptographer, Sibyl, we’ve been through this already.”

“You’re not going to tell me any more?”

“You didn’t let me. You’d fry my nervous system otherwise.”

A sigh escapes my lips.

Whatever my past self was running from, she didn’t make it easy for me to trace.

Neurocryptography.

That explains why I…well…she…could shell out such an obscene amount of cash.

“Let’s get something to eat. Fine dining in cyberspace doesn’t satisfy me anymore.”

So, I…she…was a neurocryptographer, and according to the headliners I’ve scavenged,  a damn good one, too. Good enough to encrypt her own mind, pump it with cold circuits and hire a mercenary.

She’s the one who named me…I think.

The mercenary and I approach the entrance to La Mano de Plata, awaiting the expectant gaze of Rox, a heavyset man approaching his hundreds with the grace and nobility of a kickboxer. I’d always likened him, with his brown skin, curled black hair, and high cheekbones, to another historic figure, the one known as Muhammad Ali.

“Cybernetic enhancements in the Vault, Sibyl.”

“I know the drill, Rox.” I add, raising my arms. “Would you give us a moment?” 

The man nods, and the mercenary and I retreat into the back alley just behind the cafe.

“I fucking hate doing this.”

“These are precautions against any cryptanalysts, you said so yourself.”

I roll my eyes. Whatever happened to put these precautions in place must have been for good measure.

Or I must have been a dangerous asset.

“Whatever, let’s just be quick with it, ‘kay?”

The mercenary’s hands move slowly, steadily, with laserlike precision. Her left finger taps the iris of my right eye, and upon contact, my vision in the right eye begins to blur, initiating the shutdown process.

“I am going to extract it now, are you ready, Sibyl?”

“Yeah…I think.” 

 Two fingers claw their way into my eye socket, feeling around for the main wire attached to my optic nerve.

We’ve done this procedure thousands of times, ever since I woke up six months ago, but over the last three weeks I’ve been especially dreading the removal of my cybernetics

It is as though a piece of my soul, my very identity, is being torn from me.

“Extraction’s complete, Sibyl,” the mercenary’s voice says, and there’s an unusual softness to it. She allows herself to rest very briefly, before handing me the gold laced eyepatch.

I turn my left shoulder towards her as my prosthetic, a dated contraption of gears, wires and escheresque circuitry, is lulled to sleep.

“Do you have any oil?” I ask.

“What for?”

“I want to upgrade my arm tonight. Some of the pulleys snapped when I was training.”

 At this, the merc lets out a smug laugh.

“They call you a brilliant inventor, and yet you can barely take care of the most important machine you own.”

“In my defense, I’ve only very recently learned how it works. It still needs to be…it needs some getting used to, I guess.”

“Did you read the owner’s manual Tavares gave you?”

“Not…not yet.”

 “You rush into battle without learning about your most vital weapon and wonder why it’s not serving its intended purpose.” The mercenary sighs. “Let me take a look at it.”

I detach the prosthetic, clenching my jaw as cybernetic wires detach itself from the nerves in my shoulder. With my right handd, I reach into the inner pocket of my ratty trench coat, searching for a smooth, malleable vial of liquid Galinstan.

The vial itself touches my fingertips, and I allow my fingers to close around the vial.

It is warm.

A metallic warmth that sends a shiver down my spine, a reminder of my origins.

If I can feel the warmth of the Galistan vial, if I can remember what warmth feels like…it’s proof that I’m alive.

The mercenary reaches into her own satchel, and from it emerges the semi-spherical copper-nickel encasing used to cover the exposed nerve endings on my shoulder from outside agents.

I hand the vial to the mercenary and exchange it for the encasing, gingerly placing the metal shield so that my nerves are not any more agitated than necessary.

“I’ll have to take this to Cell later, but now…”

I never understood the mercenary’s change in demeanor after removing my cybernetics. At first, I was offended, but now, I find it somewhat comforting. A sign that the mercenary still enjoys my presence.

You said that I am to treat you as an enemy whenever you are jacked into your cybernetics, the mercenary once told me, you are a careful one, Sibyl. I will not treat you as an enemy, but my demeanor will be more formal.

I toss those words in my mind.

If I am not the danger, then…

What is?

Why did I take so many precautions before my self-encryption?

The mercenary makes her way to Rox, placing my prosthetic in the Vault.

“Mama Zoraya and Celephaïs are in the storage room,” Rox says, “those two’ve been expecting you, Sibyl.”

The owners of La Mano de Plata Cafe, Mama Zoraya and her kid, Celephaïs, looked no older than twenty, despite the mother pushing ninety and the kid being thirty-five.

Right now, however, in the dimly lit, sparsely organized storeroom which we entered, sat the kid, surrounded by a healthy mix of melee and ranged weapons, smart bullets and explosives, all encased in a thin translucent casing, behind a sheet of altered hologlass.

“You’re here early, Sibyl.” Celephaïs muses, looking up from their katana.

I never understood why Cell treasured that thing, saying it was a gift from their late father, , but considering the fact that I was the one who retrieved Ryunosuke’s blade from the Graves Estate…

“Couldn’t miss out on Mama Zoraya’s exemplary Synthetik bacon.” I tell them. “Plus, we could use the company. I hit another cold circuit and I wanna debrief.”

They push the blade aside and meet my gaze. Strands of white hair brush across their face, and their pale skin almost reminds me of some supernatural creature.

“What makes you think you hit a cold circuit?”

“I…I don’t know, Cell. It just…didn’t feel right.”

They mutter something under their breath about paranoia and genius, before standing up and heading to the door.

“Let’s take your mind off that for now. Would you like to join me?”

“I don’t…yeah. I think so.”

Cell offers me a gentle, reassuring smile, adding “Let me know if it gets overwhelming. These aren’t your usual hours.”

“Thanks, Cell.” 

I turn to the mercenary and watch her eyes soften a little.

“Don’t worry about me, Sibyl. I’ll wait here.”

“Are you sure?”

 “I am very sure. I do not wish to run into some…old clientele, shall we say.”

The mercenary chose those words, old clientele, very, very carefully, and even without my right eye, I can tell that this is a topic best left for another time. Preferably when all this is over.

I nod, respecting the mercenary’s wishes, and I turn my attention to the door.

“Let’s get going,” I mutter, and Cell pushes the door open, picking up a tray of food on their way out.

The first thing I learned about La Mano de Plata: the cybernetic ban applies to everyone who steps foot in this bar, no matter their background or affiliations.

Neutral ground, Mama Zoraya called it.

And tonight, it seems busier than usual.

“We have a special guest tonight,” Celephais explains, “Felicity’s boytoy.”

“The proper term, I think, is fiancee.”

Celephais sets down a plate of instant fried rice with an unknown synthetic curry, garnished with basil leaves and Ygrian double-sauce. 

“A specialty,” they tell the patron, a girl who looks no older than twelve, “from the Old Argentine cuisine.”

The girl smiles wordlessly and unwraps the bandage from her neck, revealing a nu-silver cylindrical implant, no larger than three inches in diameter.

“It’s said to enhance your taste buds, the latest tech from Marren International.” Cell answers, and the girl beams pridefully.

A well of pity rises up into my throat.

And disgust, as bitter as bile.

Eleanor Marren, if you ask me, is a hack, an underdeveloped shitstain of an inventor who’s main goal is to con the entire world into thinking she’s some sort of fucking saviour of humanity, ushering in a new age, taking humanity to Mars (she’s said that for the last twenty five years, or so I’ve read), and the only thing I can ever truly credit her for is how intricate her stupid little song-and-dance has become, a jester who believes herself to be a queen.

I’m unsure why I bear such venomous hatred for her, but whatever the reason, I have a slight suspicion that it has something to do with my current mess.

“She can’t talk for a month after the surgery is done, but when she gets her voice back, she sings like a canary,” Cell pauses, furrowing their brow and adding,  “do you know what those are, Sibyl?”

The girl points to the table behind her, a gruff old man impatiently eyeing the tray.

 “Right, thank you.”

Cell makes their way to the impatient man, apologizing.

“Polo, guv, we’ve got a mollycase here.”

“Sure fuckin’ looks like it,” the old man snorts, eyeing me with disdain as Cell sets his plate on the table.

Moving onto the next customer, I lower my voice to a hiss, sailing under the drunk crowd.

“A mollycase? The fuck were you thinking, throwing me under the train like that?”

“Polo, Sibyl, but that’s a Lockhart executive, I gotta kiss his ass if we wanna keep runnin’. We all make sacrifices.”

“The hell is a Lockie doin’ here?”

“Prob’ly something to do with that boytoy—ah, fiancee— of Felicity’s. Look, he’s not too far from us.”.

Four tables away sits a man eating pancakes, staring at a board.

I recognize that board, a 19 by 19 grid, black and white stones tucked neatly on opposite sides of the table.

His yellow, feline eyes are focused on the white stones. 

“That’s Kaspar Richelieux, some nouveau riche jackass who’s gonna take a piece of Lockie pie in a month. The Usenet has its fair share of opinions on him.”

The usenet. I haven’t been there since I woke up, and the mercenary strongly advised me against jacking into it.

I’d be traceable, she’d warned.

That was six months ago. Six months, and I’m no closer to the truth.

I take a step towards the table.

“Fuck, you really are a mollycase,” Cell mutters, knitting his eyebrows, “whatever, Sibyl. Your funeral, right?”

“He…looks familiar.”

“I know you’re usually full of shit but this…this takes the cake.”

I ignore them and approach the table.

Kaspar looks up, raising a cybernetic arm in greeting.

His arm is the exact make and model as mine.

“Sit. What would you like?”

“I wanted…” I pause, placing both my index fingers on my forehead, trying to massage my thoughts into clarity. The index finger on my left hand feels…different…distorted, somehow.

“I wanted something from Synthetik. The bacon, I think.” I continue

“Of course, let me help with that.”

Kaspar flags down a waiter, a few strands of his shoulder-length raven-black hair covering his face.

“Synthetik Bacon for our new guest, if you would be so kind.” the waiter nods, and Kaspar turns back to me.

“Have you played?” he asks, motioning to the mahogany board.

“I…I think so,” I tell him.

“I guess we’ll just have to find out, then. Black or white?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Kaspar reaches for the white stones, and I reach for the black ones.

“A game of perfect information, you know.”

 Perfect…information.

That term is a familiar one, but I can’t quite parse why.

“Name?”

“Sibyl. You?”

“Kaspar.”

“Pleasure.”

“Likewise.”

We play for another seven moves, my mind racing.

This man…he has the same cybernetic model as I do…

And yet…

“So why’d you become a Lockie?”

“So that’s what they’re calling us now,” he laughs, “Fel’d get a kick out of this one.”

“Are you on the usenet?”

“That’s my PR team,” Kaspar admits, placing a stone on the board. By now, he’s captured two stones, “I’m on locknet.”

“Ugh, you elites and your privatized internet. Get a fucking job like the rest of us.”

“I do have a job, Sibyl, it’s being Felicity’s boytoy.”

Huh, Celephais was right!

“So why are you here?”

“I’m in search of…vintage items. Things from before Old Man Graves and Miss Marren’s influence. Anything prior to 2030. You know, books, physical media, retro consoles, the like.”

“So you’re a collector?”

“You can say that.”

I capture a stone.

“What’re you in here for, then?”

Kaspar grins, a small, impish grin that would probably pay the Cafe’s debt three times over.

“Mama Zoraya has food. Real food, not the kind of Synthetik shit you find in the stores. Real meat, real corn, real vegetables. Some say that she’s a gardener, which is why nobody’s allowed in her kitchen.”

Kaspar leans back on his chair, detaches his hand at the wrist, and types some code into his forearm. The metallic hand springs to life, scurrying to the far end of our table to pick up a stone, before returning to the board and placing it at its very center.

“Of course,” he adds, “all this is hearsay.”

A garden…

“Your Synthetik bacon, miss.” The waiter places a plate down with three warped, lightly browned strips of Synthetik.

“Thanks, guv.” Kaspar closes his eyes momentarily, opening them again to face the waiter.

“Keep the change,” he says.

“The…the National Bank —”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll talk to them. Enjoy your night, guv.”

 “Never would’ve taken you for a philanthropist.”

“Imperfect information on your part, Sibyl. You should know better.”

I should?

I…should…

There’s a dull, hammering ache in my forehead, and it travels to the back of my left eye. I shut my eye, blocking out the light until the ache subsides

I know this feeling all too well.

I’ve stumbled into a wall, a tangled neuron connection in my brain.

An encrypted memory.

“The trench coat you’re wearing,” Kaspar says, “how much for it?”

“Not for sale,” I answer, gritting my teeth.

“Everything has a price, you just have to find it. Let’s start with—”

“Not for sale.”

“Alright, alright, polo, Sibyl. I’ll try again later.”

Kaspar places a stone on the mahogany board.

[gloryride]

WIP WHENEVER

I'm so happy the wip posts are back ! Thanks to @rosapexa and @morganlefaye79 to tag me ♥♥

But ... i don't have a lot to share ^^" My big project was Enzo's birthday, and i'm proud to my post about it, with the three situations and tiny lore with it ! Oh, and i finally update my game \o/ wanted to do this weekend, but Steam said "nope, today" so i spent my afternoon downloading new core mods, new poses, and tested saves to see if everyone is okay. Just need to clean some XL mods i don't use anymore and adding some others. And after that, i will start new playthrough, with Virgile, as i played with Vanessa on Xbox. I want to try new netrunner system. And ... that's it "¯\_(ツ)_/¯" I was in vacation, and didn't plan much. Just it's november, it's NaNoWriMo month, so i will try to write. Of course, i forget the first day xD i will count all my writing inside because i know i won't do 50.000 words for my fic !

Just a snippet about Virgile x Eve :

Right on time, as usual, Virgile knew that his date liked to make a big impression with a grand entrance, always late. Unlike the previous dinner, he appeared more relaxed, though a touch of nervousness still lingered, that eternal feeling of not fitting in with this woman. He played with his hands, moved his legs under the tablecloth and kept looking around. Naturally, Evelyn showed up in grand style, in a matching suit jacket and red pants, high heels and oversized sunglasses on her nose. Once again, she blended in perfectly with the décor yet stood out from the crowd. Virgile stood up and, this time, received a kiss on the lips and a hand on the chest in greeting before sitting down again. She wasn't surprised to have her drink served as soon as she arrived, as she was becoming accustomed to the ritual between them. As they chatted about banalities, Virgil felt himself being watched. Evelyn's gaze wandered over his clothes, his obligatory office shirt and tie. He tried to catch her glance, amused. "Anything to say about my outfit?" She nodded. "I didn't think netrunners wore shirts and ties!" "What did you think? That I wore my jumpsuit all day, ready to plunge into cyberspace at any moment?" He saw her irises sparkle at this mention. Then her eyes went down to his torso, undressing him without an ounce of shame in front of everyone, even arched an eyebrow and nibbled her bottom lip. Was she really imagining him in his jumpsuit? Flattered but also embarrassed, Virgile turned his head from side to side, then grabbed his glass to keep his hands busy, trying to remain natural. "I'll take that as a yes."

And will try to have at least 3 chapters ready to post !

I saw a lot of you already did your wip post, so sorry you already did, but tagging (as usual no pressure) @itzsassha @elfjpeg @imaginarycyberpunk2023 @cyberpunkaddict @angynomadsimp