#i do not have enough data on the subject lol

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

Honestly, I can't imagine the whiplash for a first-time watcher going from Blazar to Mebius. Like, who the heck is a "Father of Ultra", and why do they have such a bitchin' cape? Brothers? He can turn into some (very cute) dude???? lmao

Its a little wild, but also such a delight! Good for little Mebius having an Ultra support system. I'm grateful that the show is very gentle with it's references to previous series.

What strikes me the most is in one show i'm watching a nice young (Ultra)man, and the other is a feral Creature.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hey boss, got a sex ed question: is there any evidence that using a vibrator on a clitoris/vagina makes it harder to get off or be pleasured by manual/oral stimulation? I’ve tried researching on my own but it’s been tricky to find sources that aren’t trying to sell me something (product or ideology lol). and my own experience is that it’s easier to get off with a vibrator than with a partner, but there’s a laundry list of reasons why that could be and I just want to know if the vibrator is making my partnered sex life more complicated. I also don’t really masturbate/fuck often enough to have solid data points.

anyway if you don’t know that’s totally ok 🫡 it’s kind of a weird and subjective question, so I just thought I’d see if you had any better info. hope your day is great either way

hi anon,

okay. so. we're gonna do nuance here.

right out of the gate, I'm going to say this: the common misconception that using a vibrator or another kind of sex toy will somehow deaden your clitoral nerves is just that - a misconception.

as you already noted, there are a LOT of reasons why someone might consistently have an easier time getting off with a vibrator than they do with another person. for most people, the biggest reason is the intensity and consistency. the fact of the matter is that sex toys can provide the exact same feeling indefinitely (or at least until the battery dies), which isn't something most human partners can match. for people who take a long time to get off (which is fine!), a vibrator can be the MUCH more reliable way to orgasm.

it's also worthwhile to remember that, in many cases, getting off can be a matter of practice. orgasms are a series of muscle movements in response to stimuli, and it can become much easier to get off with a particular behavior the twentieth time than it was the first time.

I think of it as being sort of like cooking. if you've spent all your time really perfecting a recipe for, I don't know, a grilled cheese, you might get really, REALLY good at making a grilled cheese, such that you could practically make it in your sleep and without needing to consult any notes or recipe because you have the recipe completely memorized. (let us assume this is an extremely fancy grille cheese.) this culinary dedication doesn't mean that it will be IMPOSSIBLE for you to cook, say, a lovely pasta dish, but if you've sunk all of your kitchen practice time into making grilled cheeses, it is going to take you longer to make the pasta! it won't feel as easy or intuitive the first few times, and the results might not be as lovely as you would like. it'll take more practice before the pasta comes as naturally as the grilled cheese!

you know what I mean? the grilled cheese is the vibrator, btw.

the point being: everything is easier with practice and variety is not only good for you, but delicious.

[selfshipdatabase]

🌹Selfship Database Introduction!! 🌹

Hello, everyone! Inspired by other blogs such as selfshippersfromthissource and there being blogs with this kind of gimmick in the past, I wanted to try my hand at this—making a carrd that functions as a database sorted by source/fandom. While it can function as a way to find selfshippers in the same source or just wanting to see if someone ships from a certain source, I’d also like to see which sources are the most common within selfshippers!

Please reply/reblog/send an ask if you would like to be included! I will not include anyone who does not give me this kind of confirmation.  And below read more will be some ground rules going forth for this blog :-) of course, things can change as this database evolves, but these are the guidelines I am currently following!

1- While I understand this can and will impact results, I ask that those will label themselves as proshippers dni for my own personal comfort. i have no desire to entertain or be neutral toward incest, rape, pedophilia, whatever on my own blog. i have no desire to entertain people shipping with minors while they’re adults, rapists, fascists, pedohpiles, etc. While I try to stay in the know, I cannot simply know everything, so I will always assume 100% good faith unless I have proof otherwise. I can remove people from the database. However, outside of these reasons, unless you personally request to be taken off, I won’t ever remove anyone.

2- I will also refrain from including the following sources on my blog/database— countryhumans, hetalia, attack on titan, your boyfriend/boyfriend to death, the coffin of andy and leyley, degrees of lewdity, harry potter. Other than whatever is listed and anything that may apply to the first one, everything else is on the table. Whatever’s listed can be changed, but I would rather not blacklist a lot.

3- As there are some things that I won’t include and there’s some boundaries in place, I understand fully this won’t be a fully unbiased/100% accurate database. While I would like to see the data and to combine my interest in this kind of subject with selfshipping, this is purely for fun and a side project for me. Please do not use my blog as some kind of factual source (I mean, it’s a tumblr blog, so no matter… it’s not one lol) and please keep things lighthearted.

4- A source/fandom will be listed whenever there's two selfshippers for that source. Exceptions may apply if certain sources/fandoms are requested. Though, I won’t accept every request if there’s not enough selfshippers for a source.

5- For simplicity and not overworking myself, for this database, I will only include romantic and queerplatonic f/os. Queerplatonic f/os will be noted as such with (QP) by the character's name. If you want to he included, all I ask is there to be a public f/o list somewhere accessible on your blog. You don’t have to send it to me as long as it’s linked somewhere easy to find on your blog.

6- For the time being, some media will be lumped together, examples being Marvel, DC, Disney, Slashers, Tim Burton, etc. Some may be given their own section if there’s a notable amount of selfshippers for a certain media in that category and/or by request potentially.

7- For any updates to people’s f/o lists, I will try to schedule times where I personally look through them again and make any changes to keep the database current. It’s not required at all, but any heads ups would be appreciated! 

8- Anonymous is turned off for asks for my own comfort. If you send an ask that you don’t want answered or would like to have your url cropped out of, please include it SOMEWHERE in your ask, either at the end or beginning will work. Also, currently, messages are turned off. They may be turned on in the future if need be. Unfortunately, I cannot see shadowbanned blogs. Please be aware!

9- Please note that I am one person. I am also a selfshipper, a non-sharing one at that, but I am hoping to be able to push through if that ever comes up in order to make this database. There may be days where I’m not active on this blog or answering asks. Please be patient with me!! If I ever decide to step away from this project, I will make a clear post that states that exactly.

10- Now, as I am dealing with a large part of the community, I understand the risks that could occur with something like this. If something bad was to ever occur from this database (drama in general, me dealing with any strong negativity), depending on the severity, I will shut down this project. Especially if others are harassed for something. I do not tolerate harassment at all.

I may add more or remove some aspects in the future. For now, the carrd will be public with the sources in alphabetic order. Then, the urls and characters said selfshipper ships with will be in each section. Suggestions are welcomed for things I could add or change! Though, I may be picky with what suggestions I take to stay on task for this database.

[literary-illuminati]

2025 Book Review #12 – Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

I don’t read much in the way of non-historical nonfiction, but I am very much known as A Reader by friends and family – and so, I usually get at least one very buzzy bit of pop-nonfiction every Christmas or birthday. This was from my sister, and I opened it having never heard a word about the book or (I thought – I do in fact vaguely remember some of the campaigns she talks about organizing in the book) the author before. Having read it, the book is perfectly fine – though it feels more dated than the 2019 publication date really justifies. To a great extent it feels like a distillation of early 2010s feminist blogging and discourse, which is to say not much of it really felt new enough to be worth a whole book for me.

The book is polemic through and through, divided into sections that each advance and apply the central thesis to a different subject or area of life. That thesis is the severity – and severe impact – of what Criado Perez calls the ‘gender data gap’ – the lack of sex-disaggregated across a wide range of fields, and a general disinterest in analyzing what data there is to determine how women are impacted, or the degree to which their interests are taken into account, by any given policy of phenomenon. There’s no pretense of disinterested objectivity, and you can at points feel evidence being bent and angled just so to best suit an argument, but it barrages you with enough data points in any given chapter that I always found at least a few to be both new and compelling (something like a quarter of the book’s page count is taken up by its voluminous citations and end-notes).

The book’s main goal is convincing you that the data gap is a) real and b) bad. The former it manages to do pretty convincingly in most cases, the later it sometimes struggles to convincingly explain to the satisfaction of anyone but demographers and statisticians. Still, it does a better job than any other book or essay I can recall explaining actual specific and consequential concrete harms what it terms ‘male as default’ thinking actually causes in the world, both in terms of data gathering and in, e.g., manufacturing protective equipment or user interfaces to fit an ‘average’ user that are somewhere between inconvenient and entirely useless (if not actively dangerous) for a large fraction of women trying to use them.

Every section of the book is focused on that central thesis, but there are a lot of tangents as well – reading it really did feel like a ‘best of feminist blogging’ at points. Often in a good way, occasionally not (we can all hope and pray that some day the 2016 Democratic Primary will finally end). It all did leave it feeling oddly dated not even because it’s especially old or because the problems it discusses have all been solved (lol) but just because the particular style and aesthetic of discourse has so thoroughly fallen out of fashion.

In what could charitably be attributed to that datedness, or less charitably lead one to have dire suspicions about where the author’s politics have gone since publication, the complete absence of any mention of trans issues was striking. Like, literally complete absence – issues of race, nationality or (once or twice) sexuality were at least nodded at from time to time, even if this is not exactly a richly intersectional text, the concept of someone being transgender simply never comes up. Which is a bit disquieting as you read it, given how liberally the book uses essentializing language about sex and gender (the chapters on medicine especially often read like men and women are different species entirely). Hardly overtly hateful or anything but the book was published in 2019, it’s not like trans issues were unknown at the time – you’d think they would have been mentioned once or twice in terms of drug effects and how symptoms present if nothing else (but they do make broad and general statements about physical ability or height a bit more awkward, I suppose – maybe I should count my blessings there was no section on women’s sports).

Anyway yeah, interesting enough book. Would never have read it if I didn’t receive it as a gift, but hardly a waste of my time to. I’m not sure it’s going to convert anyone who isn’t at least a bit concept to the idea of gender-bases analysis on its own, but if you find yourself needing to do so it at least provides plenty of arguments and evidence to use.

[thevoicefromanotherworld]

"I NEED TO TALK TO YOU"

I WROTE A FIC WITH REED RICHARDS

(The trailer aired today and I just love him so much guys, I'm so excited for this movie to come out like, the employers of the cinema told me that I've to leave but I can't I'm simply so seated for this one lol)

(ALSO, parts of the movie where shot in my freaking country, so I'm SOOO excited to see the locations on the big screen)

I hope you like it! 💛☝😊

It was the third time that week that you sat in the back of the physics and electrical engineering class, listening to Professor Richards.

You thought he wouldn't notice, but as the days went by, he realized that, after the first five minutes of his class, you would sneak in like a cat to take the spot closest to the wall.

You couldn't help but put on dreamy expressions as you listened to him explain theories, parameters, and calculations you had no idea how to do, but just hearing him explain them made you think you'd walk out of there a full-fledged military science expert like him.

The way his lively brown eyes focused intently on different people across the room made you look away from the board, avoiding bumping into him.

You didn't want him to see you.

You were afraid he'd think you were actually his student and ask you a question about the subject, which you wouldn't know how to answer.

He turned to face the blackboard, giving you a close-up of his strong, broad back.

You felt your cheeks heat up, and you ducked your head for a moment to look at your phone, distracted.

Then the class ended, and the students began to disperse.

"That's all for today," he smiled. "I hope you come back tomorrow with the same desire to learn as today," he said sarcastically. "You can all go…" He scanned the people who were leaving until his eyes fell on you. "Except you," he nodded. "I need to talk to you, privately."

When everyone had left and the class fell extremely silent, you started to get nervous.

You didn't want to be alone with him, especially not there. What if someone came in?

You blinked a few times to clear those thoughts before focusing on him.

His soft, kind eyes rested on yours before he smiled the same smile.

"You've stopped by to listen to several of my classes over the last week," he began, getting straight to the point, "so I thought it would be only right to introduce myself." He offered you his hand. "Reed Richards."

"I know who you are, Professor. I…" You shook his hand. "I'm a big fan of your work." "I'm glad to see someone so young is motivated by my classes." He smiled, and you thought you might faint right there.

"Is there anything about the subject that particularly catches your attention?" “Gauss’s law seems particularly interesting to me,” you said after a moment of thought.

“It’s an interesting topic,” he agreed. “Many scientists before me tried to define that concept without success, until 1835, when Carl Friedrich Gauss discovered the divergence theorem, which later became known as Gauss’s theorem.” He smiled. “But I can explain that to you another day. I’m sure you have more interesting things to do right now than be here with me.” He laughed.

“Not really,” you acknowledged, looking at your wristwatch. “We have exactly twenty minutes for you to explain that law to me in great detail.”

“More than enough time,” he murmured, nodding at you to take a seat in the front row of the classroom.

Twenty minutes later, you left the faculty with two full sheets of paper filled with data and formulas you didn’t understand, and a smaller piece of paper with Professor Richards’s number written on it.

[thelaurenshippen]

finally taking the time to read through the SAG agreement summary and oof, I hope they have an AI town hall soon because...well, there are things to discuss!

so, in case folks are curious, here are my immediate takeaways from the deal as a SAG actor, a SAG producer, and person who is not any kind of expert but spends a lot of time being skeptical of contracts I sign. this is a summation/commentary, not a holistic breakdown of every point, nor even an in-depth discussion of the points I do talk about. and it is, of course, in no way legal advice or voting advice.

this post is already maybe the longest post I've ever written on tumblr (lol) and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. to be clear, nothing I'm saying here represents how I'm going to vote, how I think other actors should vote, or my be-all-end-all stance on a particular issue. this is me reading through, flagging what concerns me, and asking myself questions. and I'm here to take your questions too! though of course my expertise is limited.

(what?? something I wrote got annoying long?? in my tumblr? it's more likely, etc. huge write-up after the cut)

the good

self-tape stuff: this is one of the more niche/the thing that the general public will find least interesting, but they've put in a lot of provisions to make sure self-tape auditions have limits (# of pages, no stunts, no nudity, doesn't have to be professionally shot, etc.) which is amazing because these types of auditions have gotten out of control since the pandemic. this feels like a great gain

data transparency: in no world did I think the streamers were ever going to agree to any data sharing with either the wga or sag so even though the data is limited, this still feels huge to me.

folks who sing and dance will be paid for both of those things now, which is great

they've added MLK day and Juneteenth as holidays (about time)

a performer cannot be required to translate their own lines

principal performers are required to be given hair and makeup consultation or reimbursed for obtaining their own services - this seems like a small thing, but it's being put in here pretty much entirely because HMU services have generally been appalling when it comes to textured hair/a variety of skin tones. there's also stuff in here about working to hire more diverse HMU artists

it looks like it's going to be easier/provide a path for folks getting IMDb credits even if they're not credited on screen

miscellany: there's a bunch of gains in wage increases, P&H increases, relocation fees, franchise language etc. that all seem good to me, though my limited knowledge on those subjects prevents me from going in depth on them.

this is not important, but it tickled me, there's a term to replace all instances of "telegraph" in the contract with "email & text" which like...why has it taken us thirty years to do that lol.

the "...hm..."

intimacy coordinators: oof. when I watched the press conference SAG gave, I was fucking thrilled when they said that the new agreement required folks to hire intimacy coordinators for nudity and simulated sex scenes. that was almost reason enough for me to vote for it tbh - not requiring it is the exact reason I voted no on our last contract. however, reading the contract summary now, the exact language is: "Producer must use best efforts to engage an Intimacy Coordinator for scenes involving nudity or simulated sex and will consider in good faith any request by a performer to engage an Intimacy Coordinator for other scenes. Producer shall not retaliate against a performer for requesting an Intimacy Coordinator." this....sucks. "best efforts" and "good faith" are not the same as "required". IMO, an intimacy coordinator is the same thing as having a stunt coordinator or, like, any number of health and safety requirements. OSHA doesn't say you must "in good faith" put your "best effort" to providing fire exits. it's great that performers can request coordinators for any kind of scene, and this is still the strongest language we've ever had in a contract but....c'mon guys.

residuals: look, I can't speak to these new terms in any concrete way. there are increases, there are bonuses for streaming success, there's a whole thing about a fund regarding those successes that I need explained to me more in depth, but overall, it looks like we made some in-roads here. as someone who employs actors under digital distribution contracts that has no residuals (podcasts), I know how genuinely cumbersome the unholy trifecta of "views-success-profit" can be (as in views do not equal success, success does not equal profit, etc.). I also have no sympathy when the majority of companies dealing with that cumbersome trifecta are massive media conglomerates. anyway, long story short, idk if this is good enough, I'm hoping to attend the next info meeting sag has.

the bad

the new hair/makeup provisions are explicitly for principal actors. while I hope it leads to better, more inclusive HMU services all around I haaaate that this implies supporting or background actors (who oftentimes also have to sit in HMU) don't deserve the consideration. (then again, background actors are usually required to do their own HMU/bring their own costumes, but for productions where that's not the case, the same HMU provisions should apply IMO)

as with every contract, there's language that could be stronger, clarity that needs to exist, and important things missing - but this isn't the final contract and I'm not a lawyer, so I'm gonna leave that stuff to the experts.

but, "lauren", you say, "what about all the AI stuff? where does that go?" well, reader, I was planning on including that in the above but it's the hot-button issue right now and I think it's wickedly complicated, so I wanted to break it down separately, after I had a chance to point out all the good-bad-in-between stuff that's not getting talked about.

a note: in my career, I've learned there's two big things to keep in mind when reading a contract you might sign:

what is the worst case interpretation of this language (thank you to my lawyer, prince among men, for teaching me how to do this in practice (that said, anything I say here is not legal advice, he'd also want me to say that lol))

what are you willing to lose/compromise on/what are the limits of your pragmatism? contracts are not about a company giving you everything you want out of the goodness of their heart - it is always a compromise. pragmatism has to be a part of the equation.

so, with that said, I'm going to play a little devil's advocate here, and a) try to find the good/the pragmatic and b) catastrophize the worst case scenario. but first, it might be handy to look at this SAG infographic for some basic definitions. let's go.

the AI good

a ton of stuff here requires consent. that is not a small thing, and the consent continues even after your death (whether it was a yes or no; though this can be complicated by your estate/your union)

the language does establish that the consent must be a separate signing from the employment contract, even if its in the contract, which is great (but more on that below - timing matters)

actors often do get paid for use of their digital replicas, though it's different based on the use/type of replica.

the actor must be provided with a "reasonably specific description of the intended use". this language is vaguer than I would like, because it allows producers to decide what "reasonably specific" and "intended" means - there's always going to be some vagueness when it comes to this specific thing, but a good start would be for producers to require not blanket consent, but conditional consent for each significant use of digital replicas.

if the replicas are being used in other mediums, that must also be consented to, thank god.

replicas cannot be used in place of background actor counts on a given day - if I'm understanding this correctly, this means a production can't just have a bunch of fake background actors by themselves, they have to engage real people up to a certain number first (which in this new contract is 25 for TV and 85 for movies). we're already filling in background with digital people or copy-pasting of the same crowd over and over and have been doing so since at least the late 90s, so it's good we're continuing to put up boundaries around that.

the AI "...hm..."

it's unclear (to me) when an actor can be asked to consent. IMO, everything is meaningless if the consent is happening as part of regular contract negotiations. these things have to happen when - and only when - the actor has already been engaged in a role and feels empowered to say no

the use of independently created replicas (replicas pulled from existing footage, not created by the actor) being allowed without consent under first amendment reasoning - this is obviously concerning a lot of people bc first amendment arguments are so broad. that said, there's a pragmatism part of me that understands this is already happening/has been happening for a while and used in ways I think are perfectly fine - I was just watching the new episode of For All Mankind (one of the best TV shows right now!) and it's an alternate history, which meant that in the opening scenes of this season they had some bonkers good deep fakes of Al Gore saying stuff he never said. I think that's okay to do in a fiction show that imagines a different US history! "but Lauren", you might be saying, "Al Gore isn't a member of SAG!" are you sure? are you positive? because I'm pretty certain he is - he was in several episodes of 30 Rock, way more people are in SAG than you think (every NPR reporter for instance), and the two worst presidents we've had in the last 50 years (yes, those ones), are both definitely members of SAG (even if one is dead). now, the other side of this is that public figures like politicians are under a different social contract than actors, and if they wanted to sue, they could, unlike the average SAG actor who might have their image abused. this is why this is in the "hm" column - deep fakes and parody/satire/commentary use of replicas is already here and there's always going to be a 1st amendment argument to make, so we need to figure out how best to limit those and protect the most vulnerable.

alteration: with this language, a project can digitally alter without consent if the script and performance stays "substantially" the same. again, this language is too mealy-mouthed. I don't know that I have a huge problem with a line of dialogue getting replaced with a digital version of that actors voice if, for instance, a word was mispronounced, or wind garbled the sound or whatever - yes, it would eliminate the need for ADR, but if we put some limit on it like..."if there are more than 5 lines in a given episode/movie that require digital alteration in the service of clarity, the actor must be engaged for an ADR session or paid for the digital replacement" then I could see this being workable. I'm also personally okay with things like costumes being digitally altered but, again, we need limitations on that. digital altering cannot replace the art of costuming but, for instance, if a costume needs to be altered to include a hate symbol or something, I think that's fine (example: I have friends who worked at the VFX house for an alternate history TV show that involved a lot of Nazi costuming and set design - a huge part of that VFX house's job was to put swastikas in places, rather than props making nazi flags. I'm okay with that!) but again, these fringe cases do not a compelling arugment make, and this contract language can be interpreted too broadly for my comfort! like everything else in this "hm" category, I need to see the final contract language to decide.

the AI bad

there's a bunch of circumstances in which actors don't get paid for creating their replica/use of it and those circumstances are too broad for my taste.

synthetic performers - this is just awful. no. no, we should not be allowing AI to generate entire actors. just............no. there's some language about the producers having to talk to the union if the synthetic performer is "used in place of a performer who would have been engaged under this Agreement in a human role" but this doesn't apply to non-human characters so....wouldn't that be all roles?? leaving the producers room to be like "this role has to be synthetic, we never would've cast a human!" is bullshit. also, even if we're having AI create a magical talking unicorn whole cloth (which, like, also no, we have artists for this), that unicorn still needs to be voiced by a human person. this whole section is a disaster.

the exceptions to consent for digital alteration are bad-bad. I talked about the potential ADR replacement above and that has a whole host of issues with it that I didn't even get into, but I can see the argument. the rest are very troubling:

there is an exception under "any circumstance when dubbing or use of a double is permitted under the Codified Basic Agreement or Television Agreement" - okay, so does this mean we can replace dubbing artists and stunt performers entirely? this section is about digital alteration, but who's to say alteration couldn't turn an actor broadly miming a fight into an entirely digital, expertly performed fight that usually a stunt double would have done? with AI translation technology, does this mean we're replacing VO artists for dubs entirely? bad!

similarly, "Adjusting lip and/or other facial or body movement and/or the voice of the performer to a foreign language, or for purposes of changes to dialogue or photography necessary for license or sale to a particular market" - Justine Bateman has a great twitter thread on the terrible puppetry potential of this but I want to draw attention to the particular market bit - we all know that selling to china is such a huge part of studios' strategies that they'll remove entire scenes or lines around queer stuff. to me, this clause makes all of that so much easier. I know the argument here is going to be "we can replace swear words and license it for kids!" which.......sure? fine? but, uh, we already have ways to deal with that? and the potential for abuse here is terrifying to me. with all the digital alteration stuff too, there's just so much icky implication for the beauty/body standard to get so much worse.

if a background actor’s digital replica is used in the role of a principal performer, they'll be paid as if they actually performed the days for that role, which, sure, but uhhhh why are we saying it's okay for a digital replica of a background actor to suddenly be a leading role!?!?! I can't think of anything more demoralizing than going to set to act in background (a job I've done! an important job! a fun job a lot of the time! but creatively limited) and then getting a much bigger role (the dream!) and.....not being able to, you know, act that role or be in scenes with other principal actors or do the thing that you've dedicated your life to doing. nightmare stuff.

woof. there's so much more to say but I'm going to leave it there. these are the concerns I'm going to go into SAG's meetings with, and the concerns I'll be considering as I decide how to vote. I know there are things I didn't address and very possibly things I misinterpreted or misrepresented - if you're an actor, I highly recommend a) reading that Justine Bateman thread and b) attending SAG's meetings to ask questions and express your concerns. and I'd love to hear what y'all think! my ask box is open.

[curio-queries]

ARE YOU SURE?!

Episode 4 production Notes

Again, I genuinely didn't think I'd have anything to say at this point about this episode. I had such a good time the first time I watched it, just smiling the whole way through. There is one thing that did stick in my brain a little bit though so here I am again with another post.

Episode Break Points

We honestly can't be making any final conclusions at this point but there is starting to emerge a picture of how the production team approached the development of this show as an episodic release. The question that was rattling around my brain after watching episode 4 was how they are choosing their cut points between episodes. We really only have three data points right now which is not enough to definitively identify their intent but it does start to paint the picture a little bit. Sometimes, the break point is beyond obvious, like cutting ep.2 at the end of the USA trip. But when there's not a definitive line, a choice has to be made when to bring one episode to a close and start another.

Some shows use the changing of the day as a break point but that's not necessarily always the best choice to make for the narrative of the show. For example, the break between eps 1 and 2 is in the morning after JK has his coffee and makes the stone tower. This better served the momentum of the episode and wrapped up the story beat of JM's rough night. Ep 2 then starts on a high note with JK's motorbike ride. In my opinion, this was an excellent choice as we close ep.1 feeling all cozy and ep.2 begins with a little bit of excitement.

A Look Back

So why am I bringing this up now? It's because I was so confused as the choice of when to break these two episodes. I don't know if I've decided if it was good/bad/somewhere-in-between but I absolutely was not expecting Episode 4 to start the way it did. Ep 3 ends at the Go Karts and feels like a complete story beat. While ep 4 starts with the drive to the Omakase.

To me, it feels like we're picking up on the last remains of the previous episode and not starting a new section. Which is honestly, kind of counterintuitive. Why would it feel like that? They're literally on their way to the next activity. I suspect it has more to do with the tonal momentum. The guys are still coming down from all of the energy they expended from Rock Climbing and racing and are having a well-deserved relaxing drive. Even the brief moments we see of JK on the motorbike are quite chill. (mostly because there's not really a great way to get action footage on a bike in the dark lol).

So...to see if I could support my suspicion, or if I was just bringing something else into my viewing experience, I decided to rewatch the whole series so far and rank every story beat on a scale for how energetic/intense I felt the narrative was supporting.

A couple of notes before you judge my rankings:

This data is the very definition of subjective. if I redid this same exercise even the next day, I'm sure I would disagree with myself on certain rankings so you certainly don't have to agree with my rankings.

If a storybeat had a noticeable tonal shift, I entered it twice and included both rankings. If it just varied a bit, I entered a ranking more representative of the scene as a whole.

This won't be reflective of the time occupied by each story beat. Some sections are longer than others but with sustained energy so it doesn't translate in this visual representation how much of an impact on the overall tone of the episode any one of these are.

I also added a star at the end of each episode of my median scores. I feel that this was a better representation of the overall tone of each episode rather than an average but that's just my personal view on this teeny dataset. Please don't come for me analytics folks! This is just a post for funzies, not proper analysis!

So What?

The point was curious about is in the gap between eps 3 & 4. Everywhere else there's a pretty clear shift in the start and end of the energy but that gap looks like it was just a step that was missed in what could have been a continual episode.

Here are the runtimes of each episode so far:

USA: 56 min

USA: 72 Min

Jeju: 56 min

Jeju: 70 min

I don't have any conclusions about why it was done this way other than they felt the tonal break was the sacrifice for keeping the Omakase story line in tact. Which honestly, I agree. There would have been time to include the drive in the previous episode but it would have left us on an unfinished storybeat. This is one of the reasons that we never get footage of the members return trip from their travel shows. Bon Voyage ends every episode with the members remarking on the trip overall. Even though we know they have to return home, we don't see it because that would start to build energy for whatever they're doing next and not the story of their trip.

Even in ITS1 when the members do return home in the middle, we see them packing up and getting in the cars but the episode ends before they really start traveling. (Actually it ends before they even let Jin in the car so they're definitely not on their way yet!)

Commercials?

I have a question for anyone that's watching this with ads. I don't really watch streaming content so I'm curious, do the ad breaks just randomly occur? Or does it seem like they're intentionally scheduled? Building story breaks for commercials was a huge focus of legacy tv and I'd be interested to learn more about how streaming services are incorporating it (not enough to not have commercials though, I get insta-rage when the content I'm consuming is interrupted lol). I vaguely remember getting frustrated when I was attempting to watch something at my parent's over the holidays but I don't recall if it seemed structured or not.

That's it. That's all I've got to say right now. We're definitely getting a lot more to the story of this show and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm going to be away for a bit next week and I honestly don't know when I'll fit in watching episode 5 but I'm very much looking forward to it!

If you've seen this post and are interested in some more of my thoughts on Are You Sure, here's a link to my AYS MasterList. Still can't believe I've rambled so much about this show but it's been fun! Thanks to everyone that's been rambling with me!

[bubble-tea-bunny]

to be seen//to be loved

[mark s. x reader]

author's note: she liiiives! i love mark s and just wanna squish his lil cheekies. would consider this a warm up fic, as it's been literal yrs since i've written anything lol. hope i haven't lost too much of my touch. inspired by "vanish into you" by lady gaga. enjoy <3

word count: 2,668

The plain white walls of the severed floor are all you’ve ever known, and honestly, you never gave much thought about what was beyond them. 

It isn’t quite zero thought, because Irving had you beat in that regard. Anytime Dylan brought it up (Do you ever think about what’s out there?), and he was guaranteed to do so at least once a quarter, Irving was always the first to respond–no hesitation, eyes never leaving the screen, and it left little room for doubt that he could be lying (Not at all. Pointless speculation). You always take him at his word, but Dylan, always inquisitive and skeptical, isn’t so easily convinced. 

The brief back and forth that inevitably followed about if he really means that and how yes, he really does mean that serves as background noise as you refine, a small smile on your face at their banter which drops when a feeling of dread settles in your chest at a particular set of numbers. But then you move them into a bucket and the dread dissipates and the percentage of completion in the top left moves from 54 to 55 and Dylan has changed the subject to which of the four of you might get the waffle party this quarter. The routine is comfortable in its familiarity. Why, therefore, would you possibly want to disrupt it? People like patterns, and you like this one well enough.

But it is true, you’d given it a little thought. You suppose it would’ve also remained at zero if not for the congratulatory animation that played when you completed a file. Your first one, from two quarters ago, had a pixel version of Kier Eagan in a forest, emerging from the thicket onto a cliff overlooking a waterfall and against the backdrop of a beautifully blue sky. Colorful flowers bloomed at his feet and he commended your hard work and dedication and your fellow refiners were all around you because the accompanying tune had grabbed their attention, and they were proud.

“Great job!” 

A gentle hand set itself on your shoulder and you looked up to see Mark with a bright smile on his face as he watched the screen. He was so close you could smell his aftershave–musky, invigorating, what you think you’d smell if that was you in the forest among those towering trees.

“Thanks.”

At your simple response, Mark’s gaze slid down to you and he squeezed your shoulder. It’s the first time you had ever wondered what could be up there–on the ground floor, and farther still, past the edges of the Lumon office.

But you didn't linger on it long. There was work to be done, data that needed to be refined, and as the cartoon Kier Eagan had said, you were nothing if not a dedicated employee. And close on the heels of this recollection was another, of your boss this time, sitting back in his chair and wagging his pen at you when you questioned what exactly MDR was working on. Remember: the work is mysterious and important!

That had been when you were new, and he was so eager to show you the ropes. The memory makes you smile again as you grab your mug of coffee and take your first sip of the morning. It’s stronger than normal, and you grimace. Because the screens between the desks are lowered, Mark notices, and he leans over to speak to you quietly, an undercurrent to the conversation Dylan and Irving are still having (you hear mention of finger traps).

“I accidentally brewed it a little stronger today, sorry,” Mark says sheepishly.

Your smile returns. “Don’t worry about it.” A bitter aftertaste sits on your tongue, difficult to ignore, and maybe you should get a cup of water to keep next to your coffee. But then Mark smiles back, and suddenly the acidity is less intense. All you sense now is the heat in your stomach–the coffee settling, perhaps, or something else.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

You don’t know for certain what’s “out there,” but it must be somewhere warmer, surely. 

You’re wearing a long sleeve button-up but it’s still not enough. You wonder if the weather outside has been more agreeable, because you arrived without a blazer. You wish your outie had considered bringing one along anyway. The air conditioning always seemed to be running on high, and Mr. Milchick made sure to keep the temperature at 70 degrees, no higher, no lower. You surmise the thermostat is broken, because you’re practically turning into an icicle. 

With eyes focused on the computer screen and the numbers you’d selected moving into their assigned bucket, you rub your hand along the opposite arm, trying to generate some warmth. Once the bucket closes, you lay your hand back down on the trackball to continue searching for the next set, but as you do, a heavy weight comes to rest around your shoulders. 

You freeze (no pun intended), and when the surprise fades, you reach up. The fabric of the suit jacket is heavy, thick, quick to assuage the shivering you could do precious little to hide (to your embarrassment, for your coworkers never seemed to feel as cold as you did, if ever). But there’s extra heat emanating from the satin lining, a sign that someone had just been wearing it.

“Hope that helps.”

You turn to see Mark, suit jacket-less, with his hands on his hips and a sympathetic grin on his face. There had been a slight upturn at the end of the statement, like he was asking a question. 

It’s so easy for you to smile back, and it’s no wonder he’s the boss, you think. Instinctively, your grip tightens on the jacket to bring it more snugly around yourself, and you nod. “It helps a lot. Thank you.”

Mark nods once, a silent You’re welcome, and walks the last few steps to his desk; he’d been walking back from the kitchenette before he paused at your station. The screens are up today, so when he sits, he disappears from sight.

You can smell the detergent he (well, his outie) uses for the laundry, and the numbers you’re making a box around don’t feel very scary anymore as two passing thoughts occur to you–what it might be like to do laundry, and what it might be like to do laundry with Mark.

The next day, you step out of the elevator and deflate slightly when you realize you’re in a short sleeve button-up. Your purposeful steps through the expansive hallways kick up a slight breeze that raises goosebumps along your arms and you consider asking Mr. Milchick if you could have a blanket, but you already get the sense the answer will be a decisive no. That, or it will be yes, on the condition you meet a certain percentage of completion on your file. It wouldn’t be Lumon without management incentivizing its employees in some way or another.

The staggered schedules of those on the severed floor mean you’re the last to arrive at the MDR department, and you mutter a quiet good morning to the others as you take your seat and boot up your computer. Dylan and Irving respond in kind rather absentmindedly, clearly absorbed in their work. Last you checked, they’d both been pretty close to 75 percent completion. They had incredibly good pacing this quarter, and you know an MDE is coming soon, though who would get it first, you couldn’t say.

It’s Mark who responds with a bright Good morning! in typical department head fashion: enthusiastic, and somehow always able to meet the day with a burst of energy. You guess it’s because there’s only four of you, so he takes it upon himself to make it a little livelier–or at the very least, to bridge the gap when the rest of you are quieter than usual.

In any case, the effort never goes unnoticed by you. You smile even though he can’t see it because of the divider, and it remains as you type in the name of your file, keyboard clacking quietly.

It takes nearly an hour for you to realize you hadn’t shivered once. You stop scrolling, brows furrowing. You twist around to look at the thermostat on the back wall, but you don’t know why because it’s not as if you can see the temperature readout from this distance (your vision isn’t great, and if you were allowed to communicate with your outie, you would tell her just a couple of things: bring a jacket, and get your eyes checked). 

“Is it a bit… warmer than usual?” you ask your coworkers, wanting to see if it was just your imagination.

The sound of a screen sliding down prompts you to turn back around. Mark confirms that yes, it is warmer. I went to see Mr. Milchick yesterday before leaving for the day, he explains. It took a bit of convincing, but once I let him know it was hindering productivity, he agreed to let us increase the temperature a maximum of five degrees!

You’re at a loss for words at the thoughtfulness, and Mark smiles, albeit awkwardly, due to the blank look on your face. “So hopefully you can work comfortably now.”

You blink and feel your cheeks heat up and you’re embarrassed to have been staring like a deer in headlights. “U-Um…” you stammer, momentarily averting your gaze. But then you meet his again as you give as earnest of a Thank you as you can manage, the corner of your lips turned up in a shy smile of your own.

The awkwardness vanishes, and Mark relaxes. “You’re very welcome.” When he returns to his work, he leaves the screen where it is, and you make no move to raise it either.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

“Guys, I’m at 70%! That MDE is upon us.”

At Dylan’s announcement, you chuckle and remark Can’t wait! Irving says he’s nearly there too, and muses that they might reach 75 percent at the same time.

“How would that work?” Dylan wonders aloud. “A double MDE…”

You push yourself slightly away from the desk so you can stand and stretch: arms high overhead, as far as you can go, and you sigh at the relief in your spine. You bend to the left, then to the right, then come back to center and drop your arms. It’s the middle of the day and you’ve yet to have your coffee; you’d been so absorbed in your file today, getting to work the instant you sat down, and it simply didn’t cross your mind to step away briefly to pour yourself a cup.

As you walk to the kitchenette, you roll your shoulders a couple of times. When you’re really busy, you fail to maintain proper posture, and you mentally scold yourself for not being more mindful. It’s good you decided to take a break when you did.

You see Mark at the vending machine, observing his snack fall from its tray and down into the delivery bin. 

“What’d you pick?” you ask.

Mark bends down to grab the cardboard package and then turns to you. “Blueberries!”

You grin. “Good choice.”

Rather than leave right away, Mark lingers, opting to lean against the counter near where you’re preparing your cup of coffee. In your peripheral, you can see him watching as you grab what you need: three tubs of creamer, two packets of sugar. Slightly flustered to be scrutinized so closely, you speculate if he might be memorizing it.

He asks how you’re doing with your file and you shrug and share that it’s going okay. This one is a little trickier than usual. Sometimes I think I’m moving too slow, but I think it’s Dylan and Irving that move too fast! The comment makes him laugh and you like the way it sounds. 

“Don’t sell yourself short,” he encourages. “You’re a great refiner too.”

You detect he’s completely genuine and give a bashful thank you. But you don’t look up at him when you do, opting to keep your attention on your coffee as you stir it because you think if you did, you’d only grow more nervous. And at this distance, he would definitely be able to hear the way your breath catches.

You take a sip and your eyes light up. It tastes great today, not too weak nor too strong, and you tell Mark as much. He beams.

“Tried my best to make sure you had the perfect cup.” His smile is fonder than usual when he says this and his voice soft, and you’re thinking about it again–the world beyond these walls.

You’re still holding your mug up to your mouth and you take another small sip, mostly to hide the blush quickly spreading across your cheeks. The small tendrils of steam are hot against the sensitive skin, and you don’t notice Mark’s moved a little closer until you turn to him. You have to tilt your head back to meet his eyes and at this distance his scent is strong–a light spice, sweet and pleasant to draw in, and somehow intimate. 

Your breath catches. The corner of his mouth twitches because he hears it. But you don’t want him to step back. Almost imperceptibly you take a half step forward instead, and you wonder if you moved even closer to each other if you might meld into one.

Maybe in another life you’re both at home and he’s brewed the perfect pot of coffee. Maybe the sun is shining, a tranquil morning light coming in through the kitchen window that makes his brown eyes glow like pools of honey. If you try hard enough, you think you can sense the office melting away–these harsh fluorescent lights, these plain white walls, the coldness of it all. Until it’s just you and him, and you imagine him to be someone else to you besides a manager, to be someone more.

He brings his hand up to gently cradle your cheek and you startle slightly, having been so enamored with watching his face. He murmurs an apology and asks if this is okay and all you can muster is a nod. If you could dream, you believe you’d dream of this. 

His lips connect with yours in an innocent kiss; it causes a lovely warmth to bloom in your chest. And you’ll never know for sure what’s beyond the severed floor, but you’d like to cling onto the slightest chance that it could be a life with Mark.

You’re the second to last refiner scheduled to leave for the day, with the last, of course, being the department head. It’s Friday and you know for non-severed employees it’s a pretty big deal–the end of the work week, with two wonderful days off ahead. You won’t get to experience that, so instead you look forward to coming back to the office feeling a lot more energized, since your outie will have had more time to rest.

It’s 4:55pm when you shut off the terminal. You stand and push your chair in. Mark is staring at his computer and biting the tip of his pen.

“Good night, Mark.”

He almost seems surprised when you say this, like he hadn’t realized the time. But then he smiles easily, setting his pen down and leaning back, wholly relaxed, comfortable to be in your presence.

“Good night.” He says your name so tenderly your heart clenches, and it overflows with affection.

As morbid as it is, you know your days aren’t guaranteed. You are at the mercy of your outie, and there may be a day you don’t come back because she’s decided to leave Lumon. But you think that if this was the last thing you ever saw–Mark lounging in his chair as he bids you good night, gracing you with a smile that makes you wish the two of you were anywhere but here–you could be happy even as you faded away.

[sysakiddo]

Daniel is an overworked scientist who needs litres of coffee to function properly. He likes doing the research and he is acclaimed enough to be treated like a popstar in the community. He likes the attention that comes with it, likes being invited to symposiums where they ask him about his work. 

One day, he gets an email from the head of the association he is part of. The subject of the mail says kid has balls. Daniel chuckles and opens it, finds out it's a research paper that's been printed out two days ago. His own work is referenced multiple times. He scrolls down to the first mention. 

Ricciardo et al. (2024) conclude that this effect is caused by the failure of humanitarian interventions in Africa so far. This can be, of course, easily debunked. The success or failure of humanitarian intervention can be measured by at least sixteen different variables (Schmidt 2022). Ricciardo et al. (2024) use three variables. One must therefore doubt the validity and accuracy of these conclusions. 

Daniel scoffs. He doesn't read the paper, only shoots a quick reply email with nothing but lol. 

He forgets about it soon enough. Ain't nobody dissing Daniel in his own research field. But a similar email comes again in a month, and Daniel's mood is sour. This time, it's a reaction to a speech he had at a random symposium. 

Ricciardo (2024) steers clear of defining this geopolitical concept in a definitive matter. He reconstructed the operationalisation of the concept numerous times. This ambiguity is unfortunate and detracts from the validity of the whole research. 

Daniel yells at Josh across his office. “Come and look at this shit, mate!” Josh doesn't have the reaction Daniel hoped for. He reads the passage and cackles evilly at his sour look. “Is it the same guy as the last time? You got your ass handed to you,” 

Daniel reaches his limit the third time it happens. He looks up the author of the paper. Verstappen, Max Emillian, PhD., Associate Professor with Tenure. Yale University. Daniel's frown deepens. He reads the offensive passage again. 

Numerous researchers claimed the same. For example, Ricciardo (2022) used a survey to collect data from citizens of the contented districts and concluded the same thing. A survey is hardly a good choice for this type of research question, as it is highly reductionist and cannot be duplicated with high validity. 

Daniel has enough. He is going to confront this guy when he attends the same work thingy as him. He won't let an Ivy League freak diss his research. 

And he is truly ready the next time he is at a black tie event. Josh knows about the plan and it's him who finds that dick first. He points a finger at a man standing just a few feet away from Daniel, his back turned to him. Daniel nods to himself and strides to the group where his nemesis stands. Luckily, he sees Alex in the group, who waves at him to come over. “Hey, Alex!” Daniel exclaims loudly enough that everyone looks over, even the man Daniel has his hate speech prepared for. 

He is SO not prepared for the gaze that lands on him, the steely blue eyes and wide shoulders and thick, thick tights that are on full display in his dress pants. Daniel's mouth is suddenly very dry. He tries to swallow. It doesn't help. Max is looking at him with a slight smirk on his face. Alex is saying something, and Daniel nods even though he has no idea what was said. 

“You must be Daniel,” Daniel says nonsensically, then chokes. “Or, no! Oh my god. I am Daniel. You are, of course, doctor Verstappen. Gosh, it's so hot in here, isn't it?” 

The smirk on Max's face grows more prominent. He still doesn't say anything. Daniel thinks he hears Alex trying to hold back his giggles. He brings the wine glass to his mouth but doesn't drink from it, petrified he is going to spill it all over himself. Don't look at his tits, don't look at his tits, he chants at himself but doesn't really succeed. His cheeks are way too warm to look naturally flushed.

“So, yeah. That was embarrassing. I got some new funding. Would you be interested in being a part of my new project?”

[qqueenofhades]

I’m in undergrad but I keep hearing and seeing people talking about using chatgpt for their schoolwork and it makes me want to rip my hair out lol. Like even the “radical” anti-chatgpt ones are like “Oh yea it’s only good for outlines I’d never use it for my actual essay.” You’re using it for OUTLINES????? That’s the easy part!! I can’t wait to get to grad school and hopefully be surrounded by people who actually want to be there 😭😭😭

Not to sound COMPLETELY like a grumpy old codger (although lbr, I am), but I think this whole AI craze is the obvious result of an education system that prizes "teaching for the test" as the most important thing, wherein there are Obvious Correct Answers that if you select them, pass the standardized test and etc etc mean you are now Educated. So if there's a machine that can theoretically pick the correct answers for you by recombining existing data without the hard part of going through and individually assessing and compiling it yourself, Win!

... but of course, that's not the way it works at all, because AI is shown to create misleading, nonsensical, or flat-out dangerously incorrect information in every field it's applied to, and the errors are spotted as soon as an actual human subject expert takes the time to read it closely. Not to go completely KIDS THESE DAYS ARE JUST LAZY AND DONT WANT TO WORK, since finding a clever way to cheat on your schoolwork is one of those human instincts likewise old as time and has evolved according to tools, technology, and educational philosophy just like everything else, but I think there's an especial fear of Being Wrong that drives the recourse to AI (and this is likewise a result of an educational system that only prioritizes passing standardized tests as the sole measure of competence). It's hard to sort through competing sources and form a judgment and write it up in a comprehensive way, and if you do it wrong, you might get a Bad Grade! (The irony being, of course, that AI will *not* get you a good grade and will be marked even lower if your teachers catch it, which they will, whether by recognizing that it's nonsense or running it through a software platform like Turnitin, which is adding AI detection tools to its usual plagiarism checkers.)

We obviously see this mindset on social media, where Being Wrong can get you dogpiled and/or excluded from your peer groups, so it's even more important in the minds of anxious undergrads that they aren't Wrong. But yeah, AI produces nonsense, it is an open waste of your tuition dollars that are supposed to help you develop these independent college-level analytical and critical thinking skills that are very different from just checking exam boxes, and relying on it is not going to help anyone build those skills in the long term (and is frankly a big reason that we're in this mess with an entire generation being raised with zero critical thinking skills at the exact moment it's more crucial than ever that they have them). I am mildly hopeful that the AI craze will go bust just like crypto as soon as the main platforms either run out of startup funding or get sued into oblivion for plagiarism, but frankly, not soon enough, there will be some replacement for it, and that doesn't mean we will stop having to deal with fake news and fake information generated by a machine and/or people who can't be arsed to actually learn the skills and abilities they are paying good money to acquire. Which doesn't make sense to me, but hey.

So: Yes. This. I feel you and you have my deepest sympathies. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to sit on the porch in my quilt-draped rocking chair and shout at kids to get off my lawn.

[weepingpussywillowtree]

watching alexander avilas new AI video and while:

I agree that we need more concrete data about the true amount of energy Generative AI uses as a lot of the data right now is fuzzy and utilities are using this fuzziness to their advantage to justify huge building of new data centers and energy infrastructure (I literally work in renewables lol so I see this at work every day)

I also agree that the copyright system sucks and that the lobbyist groups leveraging Generative AI as a scare tactic to strengthen it will probably ultimately be bad for artists.

I also also agree that trying to define consciousness or art in a concrete way specifically to exclude Generative AI art and writing will inevitably catch other artists or disabled people in its crossfire. (Whether I think the artists it would catch in the crossfire make good art is an entirely different subject haha)

I also also also agree that AI hype and fear mongering are both stupid and lump so many different aspects of growth in machine learning, neural network, and deep learning research together as to make "AI" a functionally useless term.

I don't agree with the idea that Generative AI should be a meaningful or driving part of any kind of societal shift. Or that it's even possible. The idea of a popular movement around this is so pie in the sky that it's actually sort of farcical to me. We've done this dance so many times before, what is at the base of these models is math and that math is determined by data, and we are so far from both an ethical/consent based way of extracting that data, but also from this data being in any way representative.

The problem with data science, as my data science professor said in university, is that it's 95% data cleaning and analyzing the potential gaps or biases in this data, but nobody wants to do data cleaning, because it's not very exciting or ego boosting, and the amount of human labor it would to do that on a scale that would train a generative AI LLM is frankly extremely implausible.

Beyond that, I think ascribing too much value to these tools is a huge mistake. If you want to train a model on your own art and have it use that data to generate new images or text, be my guest, but I just think that people on both sides fall into the trap of ascribing too much value to generative AI technologies just because they are novel.

Finally, just because we don't know the full scope of the energy use of these technologies and that it might be lower than we expected does not mean we get a free pass to continue to engage in immoderate energy use and data center building, which was already a problem before AI broke onto the scene.

(also, I think Avila is too enamoured with post-modernism and leans on it too much but I'm not academically inclined enough to justify this opinion eloquently)

[tonkatsubowl]

blind. ii

dan heng x fem!reader

it's a series now! ⛧ part one. ⛧ part three.

➽ inspired by satoru gojo! what if the reader had a special ability with her eyes and often wore a blindfold?

➽ reader is a flirt!

≫ requested tags: @truesimp

after successfully infiltrating the astral express and downloading a bit of data from dan heng's computer, you returned to elios' office to deliver the flash drive where you were praised for your work.

...in truth though, the flash drive you gave to elios was a fraud. should he open it, it would only be a security error with corrupted data. you executed this flawlessly, too, due to the sake of your curiosity and admiration for dan heng.

as a result, you were given a few days off, considering you didn't exactly have any missions to do since kafka, blade and silver wolf were assigned to those missions.

elios really did fall for it, huh? after all, you had a plan for dan heng.

the moment you entered your own room, you pulled your blindfold off, looking into the mirror with those strange, stellaron-infused eyes of yours.

right... you were a test subject to a project of another world. the scientists that practically had your life in their hands had these experiments where they'd force a stellaron into someone's body to see if it was compatible. but alas, you were somehow compatible with a stellaron forced into your eyes, deeming you a successful experiment, and forced you to become a powerful soldier for the worldly military. unfortunately (?) for you... your world was... well, destroyed for whatever reason. you didn't have any memories besides you were being tortured constantly by those scientists. kafka had retrieved you and took you prisoner at first, where elios had given you the opportunity to work for him.

and now here you were, one of the best performing members of the stellaron hunters.

... and really, here you were, seated at a café in belobog. you were a regular here in belobog on your days off.

in public, you wore a pair of sunglasses that kafka specifically made for your eyes. your eyes weren't always visible, but you always had the hearts of the baristas.

you always ordered a sweet, white mocha latte, and the baristas in the café who practically had a crush on you basically memorized your order. they always created cute little foam art on your coffee that represented a cat, or a bunny... sometimes random animals whenever you paid them a visit.

while you were relaxing on your day off, you hear your phone go off, a gentle buzz and your peculiar notification ping that rang through your very ears.

".. hm?"

➽ unknown: hey, it's me.

ooh, oh my. he really did text you...

➽ ???: oh, you really did text me, dan-dan. let me add you.

➽ dan heng: your name isn't even displayed through your contacts...?

➽ ???: oh, not at all. i like to keep my identity a secret.

➽ dan heng: i see.

➽ ???: so, what brought you to text me, cutie pie? did you miss me? ♡︎ i missed you too you know.

➽ dan heng: i'm texting you because i want to know why you downloaded the information of my entire database into that flash drive... and you didn't even bother erasing everything on my computer.

➽ ???: it should be obvious to you that i stole some info from you lol ♡︎ it's for my boss.

➽ dan heng: boss? you're a stellaron hunter then?

➽ ???: was it not obvious enough, babe? why, cmere, let's talk more in person. i prefer talking to you than text.

➽ dan heng: okat.

➽ dan heng: ojay.

➽ dan heng: okay**.

➽ ???: lmao. you're so cute... but i doubt you can come here right now. you're still on xianzhou luofu aren't you?

➽ dan heng: ?? how did you know i was just there... well, i guess it makes sense considering kafka was there too. but i'm on my way to belobog right now to visit a library. we can meet up later.

➽ ???: oh, well lucky day for the both of us. i'm at the café in belobog.

➽ dan heng: alright. well, i'll be there soon.

➽ ???: see u soon cutie

there was a sly smile across your face as you placed your phone upside down on the table. you were quite excited to see dan heng again since that fateful day. it wouldn't be long until dan heng would show himself.

the café had bells attached to the door, and the moment you heard the bells jingle, you took one final sip of the latte before moving the empty mug to the side of the table, recognizing your little boy toy from a bit of a distance.

catching the glimpse of your h/c hair and the lack of visibility of your eyes, he made his way towards your table, seating himself across from you. you could hear the quiet gossiping of the baristas as they wondered if you were truly single.

"hey, baby." you cooed at dan heng, who had a serious expression on your face. "oh, you didn't bring anyone. i was half expecting you to bring your trail blazing team for a moment."

"were you worried?" dan heng raised a brow as he looked down at the menu.

"ufufu. no, not exactly. you didn't seem to bring a friend on... the first date."

you see him flinch a bit, a tint of red painting his cheeks as he coughed awkwardly.

"this is not a date." he stammered.

"yes it is.~" you cooed before tapping the table. "order anything you'd like. it's on me."

"i don't want to order anything. i'm here purely for business purposes." dan heng said, as he looked straight towards your sunglasses.

"... the flash drive. you already submitted it to your boss, no? for what purpose do you have with the information in my database?"

there was a look of amusement. he could read it too, despite being unable to see your sunglasses.

"oh, who knows? my boss was just telling me to do things. i get paid very well whenever i'm tasked with what to do, y'know. that's the work of a stellaron hunter." you tilt your head, staring at him amusingly. "oh, right..."

reaching into your pocket, you pull out the flash drive. the same one you used to infiltrate his computer.

"i still have it. i gave my boss a fake one."

dan heng froze at the sight of the flash drive, almost ready to reach out to steal from your grasp. but you were... well, faster than him, especially when you had knocked him on his ass the other night.

"...what? why do you have that? look— just," dan heng shook his head, "i doubt anything i say will sway your mind to giving me that flash drive."

"ah, ah, ah." you mused, shaking your head at him. "hold up there, dragon boy. you're rushing into conclusions too fast. do the others know about this, actually? did you tell them?"

dan heng shook his head. you read his body language — he wasn't lying.

"...i see. perfect. let's have a deal, then."

dan heng blinked, raising a brow. "a deal?"

"you heard me, cutie." you said, looking back to the menu. you might order another latte or something else in a bit...

"...what's the deal?"

"hehe. curious, are you? well..." you stuffed the flash drive away, adjusting your sunglasses. "be my boyfriend."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..." you were smiling innocently at him.

".. wh— gh-..? huh!?"

"did i stutter, babe?"

dan heng choked for a moment, coughing into his fist as he turned red. "what—? why? are you... a-are you sane right now?"

"guess i'll turn in the info." you mused.

"wait—wait. fine."

your smile widened. "oh, geez, dearie me. does this mean you're my boyfriend?"

dan heng exhaled, looking to the side. "... i don't even know your name. if i'm going to be your boyfriend, i at least need to know your name. you already know mine."

"oh, for sure. as a reward for being so obedient, i'll tell you my name.

...it's y/n. ♡"

[vivi-writings]

Every Little Experience <3

BLLK Boys (mainly Karasu) x ???? reader (Fem!)

Warnings: Foul language, uhm I’m not sure yet I’ll just figure it out along the way. Gory descriptions, heavily traumatized reader, biases against guys, sarcasm lol.

Blue lock. Two words. Two little words, and behind them was an opportunity of a life time. Uncle Ego Was hired by a woman he called Anri-Chan, to make the world’ s best striker. You may not know much about the sport, but you knew this was huge.

Ego always included you any anything he did, in some way or another. Though this was by far the furthest he’d ever gone to involve you.

You were going to work in blue lock with him. As his assistant. As great as it was to build up experience as a sixteen year old getting into tech and psychology, Ego was…less than ideal to work with. He was demanding to an absurd degree, great, right? In the end, he is your uncle and provides great experience and opportunities. It, in the long run, was worth it.

But you pissed him off, so your first day in the eerie ass building, you were stuck doing maintenance checks and cleaning. Fuck. All you did was rig his noodles…wasn’t that serious, damn… and karma was pretty instant with that prank, you tripped on the rug and face planted immediately after the trap was set. Your poor eye. Bruised on your first day of work.

Now, like the soon-to-be candidates of Blue Lock, you were stuck living there. You were allowed to have your phone, you had your own room, bathroom, etc. It was fairly nice compared to what you observed what the candidates were being treated with. You also, depending on how many tasks you did and how well the job was done, got to pick your meals. Courtesy of your uncle. You got to come in a few days prior to decorate your space as you wished, go over the rules, learn the layout, etc. It was an uncomfortably large building, to say the least.

The biggest rule, or at least the one Uncle Ego and Anri-Chan emphasized the most was,

Limit your contact with the players.

Easy enough. You had no interest in a bunch of (most likely) stuck up, narcissistic jocks who only care about soccer. To be fair, here they were literally fighting for their futures that revolved around soccer, it would be understandable to be desperate and focused, no? Like rats in a cage, attached to a man’s face with one side lit ablaze. Desperate, scared, and tearing into each other just to survive. A raw instinctual thing, really. Always enjoyable to observe…

Well, anywho, not people you’d want to interact with.

So here you were, setting each and every room to be perfect, all because Ego was petty over a prank.

Last quarters, team Z’s. Each sleeping bag was perfectly laid out, the bathrooms organized, towels folded. What a shame it would be, hard work waisted on slobbish boys… sigh. They’d be here tomorrow, and the experiment would begin. Hurray!

…

Your alarm blared in your ears, the sun rising, though you couldn’t see it. No windows, how unfortunate. You sluggishly dressed, very casual clothing for today, you decided. You threw on leggings and a large hoodie, putting on a smidge bit of make-up as well. It fit the occasion. Today you’d be greeting the candidates and handing them their…uniforms? Outfits? You weren’t sure exactly what to call those uncomfortably skin tight data collectors. The word would come to you later, you were sure.

This was the only time you were allowed to purposely converse with the subjects- er hmm, “diamonds in the rough”, as Uncle Ego called them. In your eyes, they were kind of like lab rats. Soccer gods in the making, was a nice way to put it. Poor boys didn’t know what was coming, you felt….only slightly guilty to be apart of their torment. Only slightly.

…

Through the doors they charged, a large herd of brawny, muscle-headed, boys.

“Anri-Chan, I don’t particularly wan’t to be the one to take their phones. It’s like taking crack from an addicted drug dealer, bad news. I fear they’ll bite me, males my age are a bit peculiar, no?”

Anri laughed, finding your bias against guys hilarious. As well as the way you spoke, so odd for a sixteen year old. So amusing to her.

“Y/N! They won’t bite! God, what, do you think they’re wild animals?”

“They may as well be,”

She snorted.

Guy after guy retrieved his suit and info. Many grumbling about the rules, some refusing to giving up their addiction device. After some fierce battles and trickery, they gave it up. Willingly or not. Then navigated their way to their rooms. A sweet looking boy walked up, eyes wide with …maybe it was anxiety, or just uncertainty? You couldn’t tell, maybe a mixture of both.

“Hello Miss, I’m sorry but I don’t know where I’m going, I’m not great with direction. Could you help me? Oh god, am I being a bother? I shouldn’t have asked, I’m so sorry!” He was so quick to panic…

“Hey, hey, don’t fret, you aren’t a bother dear. It’s my job to help, let me guide you,” You baby talked him a bit, it oddly felt necessary with his anxious, meek demeanor.

You waved to Anri, letting her know you’d be gone, and walked with the anxious boy. He was muscular, obviously so. You found humor in how anxious he was for someone who could’ve easily beat the ever-loving crap out of anyone. He had short brown hair and eye-catching forest green iris’s. You found them lovely. They were large and noticeable, very cute. If only he’d stand straight, with correct posture he’d be tall, definitely would help him in the long run. More attractive, even…

“What team are you assigned to, dear?”

“Team A, I-I’m Tokimitsu, by the way…” He stumbled over his words, his nerves messing with him oh so obviously. He fidgeted around with his fingers. Poor guy probably needed therapy and meds.

“I’m Y/N, nice to make your acquaintance, Tokimitsu-sama. What led you to be here? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

He ranted a bit, he seemed to loosen up after you gave a conversation starter. He kept spewing soccer facts like it was his job, very cute. His love of soccer was impressive, but so would be everyone else’s. It would have to be, to end up in Blue Lock. You listened to him ramble as you showed him to his team’s room, adding your thoughts here and there.

…

Every so often people would catch your eye, their hairstyles, accents, outfits, posture, etc. Many unique and out there, those of which you loved to observe. Though, the comments from the tall, tan, blonde guy with pink ends were definitely not necessary…soccer perv.

Someone who really caught your eye, was a purple haired boy. He had a cute mole by his eye, hmm. You couldn’t find a perfect word to match it with. Made you feel weird, in a pleasant way. He was tall, as were many of the participants here, an air of confidence clung to him. Though, you had a feeling… mmm… maybe you were overthinking him. Over analyzing. When he spoke, oh when he spoke…sharp, intellectual, pleasant, hell it soothed a part of your brain you didn’t know needed soothed. Oddly everything about him tugged at your heart. What the fuck. He wasn’t even really polite, his gaze seemed judging. The same gaze you laid upon other people. The people you often deemed boring and a waist of time. Now on you. The look, about to title someone mediocre. You knew it, so similar to your own… He was so….interesting. Made your brain buzz with thought mere moments after laying eyes on him. If you were to struggle to not converse with any candidates, it would be him. Your brain wandered to the wonderful conversations you could have and analyze. Oh, and his eye’s fought yours as well. You thought Tokimitsu’s were nice, but this boy’s took lovely to a whole new level. Breath taking. Enchanting, if you dared. His hair reminded you of something, you just couldn’t think of it at the moment…a certain animal. Hmmm.

“Hey Miss, why should I hand over my phone to you, you don’t look particularly responsible. What if you lose it, or damage my property? Hm?”

You blinked and snapped out of it.

“I’m only following orders. If harm were to come to your addiction device of devil, then you’d be fully repaid. You’d receive a new device as well as money.” You gave a slightly irritated smile. Though he was charming, he’d be a pain in the ass. Much like how you imagined how doing his hair in the morning was. “Please hand it over, sir-“

“Tabito Karasu,” He interrupted.

“Mr. Karasu, then.”

He handed it over and you gently placed it in the bag, so he was reassured it was fine. Though, you suspected he didn’t actually care all that much.

“You certain you’re qualified to work here?” You’re sure he’s referring to your casual outfit, sure it wasn’t fancy like Anri’s but why would you get dressed up to greet a bunch of lab rats? Hm?

“Very.”

Oh, what an interesting experience this was going to be.

Pt.1 |Pt.2 Coming soon!|

[thatmexisaurusrex]

Ridiculous BuckTommy prompt

Tommy has been secretly working to get information not for Gerrard but his uncle Dr Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Send Me Ridiculous BuckTommy Prompts

Lol the way that I've never watched a full episode of Phineas & Ferb but I feel like I know enough about Doofenshmirtz from Milo Murphy's Law 😂 Let's gooooooooo.

The Unpaid Intern

When Tommy's Uncle, notorious villain Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, had dubbed Tommy his "Unpaid College Intern" (despite Tommy not being in college) and tasked him to do research on the "Hot Firefighter-inator", Tommy knew that he would have to go deep undercover.

He joined the army.

He got discharged from the army early.

He got his pilot license but then finally hit step two - becoming a firefighter.

He silently worked his way to Harbor Station and built essentially an almost twenty-year-long fake career as a firefighter pilot.

And then.

Tommy found him.

The perfect research subject for his uncle's "Hot Firefighter-inator".

Evan Buckley.

Not to say that Tommy hadn't accrued research on other hot firefighters over the years. Howie Han, Hen Wilson, Bobby Nash, Lucy Donato, and Metlon had all been prime research subjects for Tommy's mission. Even newer faces like Eddie Diaz and Ravi Panikkar were now vital to Tommy's "Hot Firefighter-inator" data.

But Evan Buckley?

There was something different about Evan Buckley.

It totally wasn't because Tommy was in love with the guy. It totally wasn't because every time Tommy's eyes locked with Evan's, his heart skipped a beat. It totally wasn't because every time Evan's eyes flittered from Tommy's eyes to his lips, Tommy wanted to kiss him. It totally wasn't because every time Evan gave him a TEDTalk about the evolution of ants or the history of the paperclip, all Tommy wanted to do was listen to Evan forever.

However, Tommy didn't expect his heart to break when he saw that Evan had found his dastardly plans - had walked into the guest bedroom marked "TOTALLY NOT SECRET PEPE SILVIA ROOM" and found all the data Tommy had gotten over the years for the "Hot Firefighter-inator" tactfully organized on the walls with red string.

With Evan at the center of it all.

"You're... trying to make a ray gun that turns everyone into hot firefighters?" asked Evan, confused.

"Yes. Well. No. Not me. My uncle is. But it's true. I've been lying this whole time," said Tommy, "I'm not a hot firefighter pilot. I'm an intern. An unpaid intern for an evil mastermind hellbent on turning everyone into a hot firefighter. And I'm here to spy on you all."

"But - you have a pilot license."

"I do."

"You've been a firefighter for almost twenty years."

"As a ruse for my nefarious schemes."

"And - and you think I'm the hottest firefighter?" asked Evan, waggling his eyebrows.

And.

Okay, Tommy thought Evan would be a little more upset over this.

"I mean, yeah. You're always smiling. You can talk for hours about monarch butterflies and the creation of butter and it's always fascinating. You're sweet. You're kind. You're thoughtful. You've got muscles and a nice tummy. Not all hot people are abs on abs on abs. Who doesn't like a bit of a stomach? It's healthy. And all I want to do is spend time with you. Of course you're the hottest of the firefighters I've spied on."

"Oh, of course. Definitely just because I'm hot. Only ulterior motives with that answer," said Evan as he walked over and draped his arms loosely over Tommy's shoulders, "Want to make out? For science?"

"I mean, if it's for science," said Tommy as Evan backed Tommy up into his Pepe Silvia board of hot firefighters; as Evan dove into a deep kiss that made Tommy forget his name.

And okay.

Maybe this wasn't just about science.

Fuck, Tommy was a bad spy.

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

Notes on “do you think we’re together in every universe?” (skulmerayer multiverse post):

Putting pain aside for a moment, this was a really neat mini project to make! I put some thought into what kinds of universes I wanted to have a peek into. There are just so many to choose from! This ain’t even the tip of the iceberg, I’m sure. But I hope the ones I did choose were interesting enough to think about and/or familiar to some of y’all :)

On an artistic note: I love using grayscale every now and then! I have some experience with charcoal and ink wash drawings so the style here is lightly inspired by that (even though I used pencil and gouache brushes 😅)

Composition-wise: Allow me to introduce you to the multiverse rubix cube lol!! The placements of each universe are meant to parallel each other. Universe A and C are branches off of union cross canon, so they’re across from each other. D and F are branches off of missing link. G and I are branches off of the era between. And B and H are about childhood innocence.

Here are each of their descriptions, in order:

Main Universe [in the context of the art]

The ataraxia universe, where Skuld, Ephemer and Player get together and stay together (my khux/skulmerayer copium universe)

Universe A

In which Darkness says “We could take over one of you here and now.” and actually commits to it, choosing Ephemer as its vessel.

Universe B

A universe in which Skuld is not Subject χ. After she and Ephemer awaken in Daybreak Town’s rubble, they found Scala and raise a family together.

Universe C

AU where the lifeboat roles were switched. Ven, Ephemer, Skuld, and Player escape the data world first, while Brain, Lauriam and Elrena stay behind. But it was never supposed to be this way.

Universe D

@corishadowfang’s Fallen Stars universe, in which Skuld arrives in Scala during Missing Link’s era.

Universe E

The current presumed canon universe, unless Skuld being Subject χ is proven otherwise.

Universe F

A universe where Brain and Player2 become close friends (perhaps more?) in Scala. Also known as the plain universe, because what’s a multiverse post without mentioning a bagel or two? 😄🥯

Universe G

I had my fic A Light That Never Goes Out in mind, but this is pretty much any universe in which the whole gang gets to stay together, and Ephemer and Player have the chance to properly build on their relationship. lots of copium in this one

Universe H

High school/modern/real life AU. (Special shoutout to @rosie-kairi’s idea of giving Ephemer braces!)

Universe I

Ephemer lives his life. Open to interpretation!

and finally, a Bonus (Everything Everywhere All At Once reference):

[altin-studies]

Hey there! I want to go into statistical analysis and comms/data analysis, and I have a pretty good plan in place already and know what I'm doing, but was wondering if there are any tips you could give as I see in your bio you're studying data science?

Anything I should do for prep/classes to take to get me a leg up would be amazing, thank you in advance!

Hey there! Thanks for the ask!

If you're going into stat, the first thing I'd suggest is get a good grip on your maths.(Rhyme not intended lol) You should take courses on Derivatives, Integrals, Linear Algebra. We are also taught Real analysis pretty intensively.

For programming languages, I'd say Python is more than enough. But R, SQL are good to have on your CV. Open up a kaggle account and start doing some work there. It will take you a long way.

The best tip I can give you is to take care of your health. It's a pretty taxing subject once you get into it. But prioritise yourself first. Our coursework is intense and while it might not be the same for you, doing mathematics all day is always difficult.

Good luck on your journey. Hope I was of help.