#or useful databases that are just not very well known

[cuties-in-codices]

Where do you find these manuscripts? Is it like a website or do you find it randomly??

hey, thanks for the curiosity! lenghty answer below the cut :)

1)

medieval manuscripts are typically owned by libraries and showcased on the library's websites. so one thing i do is i randomly browse those digitized manuscript collections (like the collections of the bavarian state library or the bodleian libraries, to name just two), which everybody can do for free without any special access. some digital collections provide more useful tools than others (like search functions, filters, annotations on each manuscript). if they don't, the process of wading through numerous non-illustrated manuscripts before i find an illustrated one at all can be quite tedious.

2)

there are databases which help to navigate the vast sea of manuscripts. the one i couldn't live without personally use the most is called KdIH (Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters). it's a project which aims to list all illustrated medieval manuscripts written in german dialects. the KdIH provides descriptions of the contents of each manuscript (with a focus on the illustrations), and if there's a digital reproduction of a manuscript available anywhere, the KdIH usually links to it. the KdIH is an invaluable tool for me because of its focus on illustrated manuscripts, because of the informations it provides for each manuscript, and because of its useful search function (once you've gotten over the initial confusion of how to navigate the website). the downside is that it includes only german manuscripts, which is one of the main reasons for the over-representation of german manuscripts on my blog (sorry about that).

3)

another important database for german manuscripts in general (i.e. not just illustrated ones) is the handschriftencensus, which catalogues information regarding the entirety of german language manuscripts of the middle ages, and also links to the digital reproductions of each manuscript.

4)

then there are simply considerable snowball effects. if you do even just superficial research on any medieval topic at all (say, if you open the wikipedia article on alchemy), you will inevitably stumble upon mentions of specific illustrated manuscripts. the next step is to simply search for a digital copy of the manuscript in question (this part can sometimes be easier said than done, especially when you're coming from wikipedia). one thing to keep in mind is that a manuscript illustration seldom comes alone - so every hint to any illustration at all is a greatly valuable one (if you do what i do lol). there's always gonna be something interesting in any given illustrated manuscript. (sidenote: one very effective 'cheat code' would be to simply go through all manuscripts that other online hobbyist archivers of manuscript illustrations have gone through before - like @discardingimages on tumblr - but some kind of 'professional pride' detains me from doing so. that's just a kind of stubbornness though. like, i want to find my material more or less on my own, not just the images but also the manuscripts, and i apply arbitrary rules to my search as to what exactly that means.)

5)

whatever tool or strategy i use to find specific illustrated manuscripts-- in the end, one unavoidable step is to actually manually skim through the (digitized) manuscript. i usually have at least a quick look at every single illustrated page, and i download or screenshot everything that is interesting to me. this process can take up to an hour per manuscript.

---

in conclusion, i'd say that finding cool illuminated manuscripts is much simpler than i would have thought before i started this blog. there are so many of them out there and they're basically just 'hidden in plain side', it's really astounding. finding the manuscripts doesn't require special skills, just some basic experience with/knowledge of the tools available. the reason i'm able to post interesting images almost daily is just that i spend a lot of time doing all of this, going through manuscripts, curating this blog, etc. i find a lot of comfort in it, i learn a lot along the way, and i immensely enjoy people's engagement with my posts. so that's that :)

[copperbadge]

So, I got tagged in a post, and I wrote a bit of a novel in a reblog in drafts, and then I realized that probably it wasn't for the best to post up All That Nonsense when the OP was just making a funny post about Wikipedia's fundraising. And it is a funny post! So I'll link here to the post and where I was tagged but I decided to put my thoughts here. Please take this as a hint to be respectful of OP and the person who tagged me both :)

I will say my initial reaction to seeing Wikipedia selling merch AND asking to be in your will was "Well, they're trying something." It's just such a weird topic to bring up, it's hard to be graceful about it, so I think what they were doing was probably the best you can do.

And the response did make a lot of the points I'd make about making a will and such. In fact, FreeWill is what I made my will with and we recommend them to our donors.

There was a study that came out a decade ago or more, so my numbers probably aren't accurate, but the statistic that knocked me back was that most donors who leave surprise large bequests (gifts to charity in their will) give an average of $17 a year during their lives. So there's likely a reason that Wikipedia is targeting users and not huge donors.

It's an ongoing issue that most people also don't document their bequests. By all means, leave money to charity in your will, they will be happy to have it, but they will be even happier to know ahead of time.

Perfect example, THIS WEEK we got a check for six figures from a woman's estate. It was an eyebrow-raising amount of money for us. My boss, who handles both "eyebrow raising money" and "gifts from dead people", immediately went to look her up in our database.

Which she is not in. We had no idea this woman existed. Never gave to us before.

Had we known she was leaving us this money, my boss would have made sure she understood how grateful we were and like, bought her lunch a couple of times a year, and when she did pass we would have known who to reach out to in order to offer our support.

Instead, he came to me and said, "I have a name and an address," and I set to work to find out why she gave and who we could thank. I found her obit, but she didn't die of anything related to our work. Using information from the obit, I confirmed none of her family were in our database either. I looked up her second husband, mentioned in the obit, and his obit said he died of lung disease, which told me that this gift is because she lost her husband.

This helps because I knew from her obit that they had a blended family; they didn't have any kids together but they each had kids when they married, all of whom are now like, my age. So we want to thank her kids but we want to make sure her stepkids, who lost their dad, get a specific kind of outreach as well. I told my boss their names and he said one of the husband's kids was listed as the executor of the will, but there was nothing (surname-wise) to indicate they were related. I found contact information for that person, and my boss was able to reach out to her. She didn't realize we didn't know about the bequest, and now she and her siblings are talking to us about their dad and their own health while her stepsiblings, whose mother left us this very generous gift, are getting condolences and thanks and getting to say how she will be thanked in our documentation.

And I mean, that's why my job exists, to fill in those blanks. We just...would really like to have told her thank-you while she was alive.

SO! The moral of the story is: please consider leaving money to charity in your will if you can, use FreeWill to make your will (they will also help you document your gift) and let the charity know you're leaving them an estate gift. Not only will you maybe get cool swag but especially if it's a concern close to your heart, you'll get to build your relationship with the charity.

[rubra-wav]

I had this interesting scenario where Vox one day becomes exhausted from his rivalry with Alastor after realizing that the one-sided interactions were becoming old. He later meets the reader (who can also be a part of the hotel) who starts hacking into Voxtech's database to troll the company for shits and giggles. This catches Vox's attention and he's pissed about it. You can do what you want for the rest but they continue to have this rivalry to the point where it's very well known around hell. From an outside perspective, there is just back-and-forth angry banter but there are moments where they're just;

Reader: *appears on screen* Hey Box head, guess who found some good blackmail with your name on it- Vox: *Is so close to having a breakdown, he had a bad week.* Reader: Oh shit- did something happen, are you okay? 😰

They hate each other but they don't hate hate each other. This can be taken as platonic or romantic. I sent this request to someone else but I wanted to share anyway.

Vox x troll/hacker reader: Why So Blue? (Oneshot/concept version)

Why So Blue fic Masterlist

A/N me when I get to write Vox getting utterly humiliated by a troll-y hacker demon 🫶

I changed about the order of stuff as things happen a bit and took creative liberties with this one - sorry if it's really different then the thought you originally had.

(REQUESTS ARE CLOSED, THIS WAS FROM THE LAST TIME THEY WERE OPEN)

Update: This was really well-received, and several people have requested a part 2. I've decided that I will be writing it properly from the start in a proper chapter kind of way rather than in this format so it makes continuity kind of work better rather then the drabbl-y format used here.

Cw: SFW, romantic, enemy's to lovers type beat, references to one-sided radiostatic, also references to staticmoth, mildly suggestive in one part 💀, gn reader, mostly light-hearted - idk if it qualifies as quite hurt/comfort lmao

- It was just a normal morning for Vox when you first showed up.

- As usual, he booted up for the day, got changed out of his casual clothes, and made his morning coffee.

- As he walked into his computer room, absentmindedly sipping his coffee while looking at his phone, he sits down in his desk.

- Then promptly spits out his mouthful.

- When he finally looks up at the screens around him, he's mortified to see a muted video of himself passionately (and very drunkly) singing and dancing horribly from last night while he was out with Valentino and Velvette.

- Posted on Sinstagram from his own account.

- Hundreds of comments flooded in underneath it; laughing, saying it's cute, complimenting his singing, and talking about the caption underneath with curiosity.

- The caption reads; 'For someone who talks so big about being ahead technologically, it was awfully easy to hack old Boxy here LMAO'

- Vox flips out instantly.

- It doesn't take long to take down the post, change all of his details, and post an official apology for his lack of professionalism with a hypnotising message to forget the whole incident occurred at all. He also does a massive comb over for any other breaches and changes all of his systems to be even more impenetrable to a potional attack.

- He calms down, and the incident fades away to the back of his mind.

- But then it happens again.

- Another morning, an employee is rushing into his studio as he wakes up properly, telling him this time that someone is somehow broadcasting Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' to the entirety of hell at 6 am, interrupting every one of the scheduled programs.

- There's a message in big letters on the bottom of every screen in hell, under the god forsaken video and song playing, saying, "What is love~? - U" Underneath them.

- And that's how it starts, the infuriating thorn in Vox's side that is 'U'. No matter how hard he tries, you're constantly undermining his efforts to keep you out of the system and tormenting him in ways that aren't necessarily malignant but are extremely damaging to his image as the overlord of technology.

- For some reason, he's the only Vee you seem hellbent on coming after as well. Vel finds your pranks funny or cute when they don't inconvenience her, and Valentino just likes to prod Vox into getting angrier further.

- He just cannot work out what your motivations are at all. Is it truly that you just want to piss him off? He doesn't understand why someone with such clear skills would simply use them to taunt him and leave him messages to unveil as he undoes whatever you do.

- It vexes him even farther when these messages from you that you leave for him to decode start to sound borderline flirtatious, which makes him feel all the more humiliated.

- He is a grown demon, skilled businessman and entrepreneur, an overlord, and yet you insist upon calling him things like Box, Boxbabe, Boxbitch, and even babygirl of all things for some goddamn reason.

- The back and forth goes on for months, and 'U' quickly becomes a long lasting meme, several people, much to Vox's horror, shipping you two together and even partaking in ship wars as to whether Vox x 'U' is better then Vox x Val.

- Theres one day where Vox quickly puts his phone down after reading a rather concerning expert from what is certainly explicit fanfiction between the two of you, even him deciding that that's enough internet for today while just sitting staring off into space silently for a solid 10 seconds.

- Vox's sleepless nights pouring over his code to try and keep out your attacks, him glitching out whenever he finds infuriating messages left by you, etc. Begin to become routine and he just anticipates the consistent blows to his pride you give him at every turn.

- A weird, unconscious part of him deep down begins to enjoy your rivalry, almost wanting to see what punches you pull out next to disarm his constant losing battle to keep you out, but it gets squashed down the second he becomes aware of it.

- The rivalry is always at arms length, but sometimes he has to stop himself from replying with the same vaguely flirtatious tone you take on whenever he experiences a small win against you.

- He fights to make sure he doesn't have any potential of getting too into it.

- Things take a different turn, though, with the double blow of Alastor coming back and his on-off relationship with Valentino once again going up in flames.

- After stopping his usual monitoring of all things going on in hell online and in real life as picked up by his cameras, he presses his face into his hands with a long, exhausted groan as he fights crying.

- All the people he was actually interested in were as unrequited as per usual. He always tried so hard with Alastor, but as always, he never got anything but met with the clear reminder they would never be anything more.

- And, of course, any potential of anything more happening with Val was completely off the table. It would be stupid to even think about anything real with him.

- He shut his eyes, putting his screen on the desk in front of him.

- Was he just not worth it? Was that it?

- He startled when he heard the familiar crackle of the speakers coming to life around him. It was rare he ever heard your voice coming through his speakers, you usually preferring to just leave messages, however you decided to surprise him tonight apparently.

- Your blurred out face appears on the screens, only showing the lower half of your grinning face.

- "Oh Boooooxybooooy! I found some world-shattering cringey shit you did 2 months back, i-" You begin singing out, before stopping, seeing by his expression.

- Vox was trembling, looking as if he was about fall apart at any second. His monitor was dulled, red eyes half lidded with pixelated bags forming under them, his bottom lip slightly quivering around his sharp teeth.

- "What the- fuck- ....are you alright?" You asked unsurely.

- Vox finally snapped out of it, realising that you were here witnessing him in a way that was very much not something he wanted you of all people to see him in. His mask slid back on, but it was hardly convincing.

- "Of course it is. What the fuck do you wa-ant. I've got shit to do." He inwardly cursed as his voice glitched slightly. God fucking dammit why did you have to show up.

- He watched your lips on your mostly blurred out face slightly curl as you hummed, clearly not buying it.

- "You wanna stop with the lying bullshit and tell me the truth, Boxhead?" You somewhat chided him, your hand coming into sight as you leaned your cheek onto it. Vox let out a growling sound, going to spit some vitriol at you, but was cut off as you absentmindedly made your next comment.

"Felt you once again have a fit about the radio demon going online. Lights in my house and the houses out my windows started flashing and shit. Is it hi-" your brows shot up and eyes widened, this hidden behind the censorship as you watched Vox, leader of the Vees, your rival, let out a shuddering breath and actually start crying comically pixilated tears right before your eyes.

- Vox's claws gripped into his desk as he grit his teeth as he let out a gasping breath he fought to stifle. He was so goddamn exhausted that he just couldn't be assed to keep it all up anymore. It wasn't like you hadn't seen rather unsavoury things he'd been trying to hide anyways.

- "No shit it's about Alastor. It's always about him. Does it get you off knowing I can't get with the guy I have always wanted no matter how hard I try? There. Are you fucking happy now?" His voice cracks as he snarls the words out at you.

- You let out a long humming sound, as if thinking. "I mean, not really. I'd only be happy if you were this upset over me, not some old hazbin radio announcer who fell off years ago." You shrug with a slightly sad smile.

- Vox squinted at you, confused.

- "I mean, come on, I'm your rival too. Why neglect me so much in all this?" You press your bottom lip out in mock sadness, tone mocking again. Your words are true despite the joking tone however, it did bother you that he always seemed so much more ready to go running after the most obviously aroace man you think you had seen in your entire fucking life.

- Vox couldn't believe what he was hearing, hot embarrassment caused his monitor to start heating up a bit, painting animated flush over his cheeks. "Oh, stop taking the piss, U. Fuck off." He scoffed, rolling his eyes, looking to the side in irritation.

- You chuckle at him, shaking your head and causing the thing blurring your face to shake with it. "Is it really that hard to believe I'm into what we have going on here?" Your voice is still lined with the usual tone you take on with him, but much less so.

- Vox looks back at your blurred, smiling face incredulously. "Yes." He growled, blinking his tears away as he regained his composure a bit.

- You sigh heavily, rolling your eyes. "Ooookay, well, once you're done riding the coattails of a man who will never want you, come hit me up, Boxhead." You say through smiling lips, before abruptly pressing 'hang up' on the call so he didn't have time to actually respond.

- Vox sat in bewildered silence, not able to react properly as his brain felt as if it was working on low resolution comprehending what you just said.

- His face heated up the more he thought about it, heart beginning to hammer in his chest as he laughed in disbelief. No way. No fucking way.

- But you had said it.

- Despite his usual pessimistic nature, he allowed himself to actually believe it, chuckling.

- He looked over to his phone as a notification sound rang out to see a photo of himself presumably just now; flustered, eyes wide in disbelief and unfocused while staring off into space, a crooked grin on his face.

- It was captioned as follows; 'POV: local pathetic radio simp finds out other rival actually wants him'

- "FUCK." He yelled out in embarrassment, knocking out several of his monitors with a surge of electricity.

I loved writing this sm omfggg.

There's definitely part 2 potential to this one, but it would have to be in a while w all the other stuff I'm gonna get to first.

Masterlist

[thezombieprostitute]

Tech Tuesday: Steve Rogers

Summary: It's only your first day on the job. That's way too soon to have an office crush. Right?

Warnings: Workplace stress and bullying. Please let me know if I missed any!

A/N: Reader is female. No physical descriptors used.

Part 1

Tech Tuesdays Masterlist

Bucky sits across from Steve, a cocky smile on his face. Steve raises an eyebrow and Bucky says, "I gave her my number." Steve doesn't know that it wasn't about a date, but he doesn't have to know.

"You didn't."

"I did," Bucky smirks. "Which means, it's your turn."

"It's...it's not the same," Steve tries to argue. "You've known your Sweetie for months now, right? This girl is still a newbie. She's barely been here a month!"

"Deal's a deal, Punk," Bucky shakes his head. "One of us gives our number, the other one has to as well."

Steve's cheeks are incredibly pink from embarrassment. He's never been good at flirting, always stumbling over his words. Sure, his body attracts attention, but inside he's still the scrawny kid who always got laughed at when he tried to talk to a girl. Especially a girl as sweet and pretty as you.

The two of you had run into each other in one of the break rooms a few times. Every time Steve talked with you, he found himself getting lost in your eyes, but that led to him not knowing what you were saying. His face would turn red and he'd quickly run out of the room. Another time you'd complimented his art and he got scared you'd see one of the drawings he did of you so he quickly closed his book and you felt bad, like you had overstepped.

And now, thanks to Bucky, Steve needs to admit he'd like to spend more time with you. Admit that he thinks about you every day. Admit that he likes you. He can do this, right?

You were crying in the ladies room for the third time since you were hired. There was so much, so fast and your coworkers were already blaming you for things. Especially things you didn't even know were your responsibility. No one had told you or shown you how to do them but they still blamed you! It's not like you were entirely new to this kind of work, but the systems were very different and, most importantly, you didn't know what was and wasn't part of your job because they hadn't told you! When you finally calm down, you head to the sinks and wash your face, trying to hide the tears.

As you tiptoe back to your cubicle, trying not to draw attention to yourself, you end up literally running into Steve, the dreamy guy from the IT Department. He manages to catch you before you fall, bringing you in for an accidental hug. You find yourself instinctively hugging him back, squeezing him tight.

"Are...are you okay?" Steve isn't going to complain about being hugged by you, but he's worried you're not in your right mind.

"Oh, sh-shoot," you break the hug and jump away. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean...I'm just..." you fight a resurgence of tears and run to your cubicle. When you get there, Maggie, your least favorite new coworker, is glaring at you, arms crossed.

"Really, Newbie," she admonishes, "you've been here a month and you still don't know how to update the most basic fields in the database?"

"I...every person does it diff--"

"Enough!" she cuts you off. "Really, you should be able to do this. You're killing our metrics!"

"I'm...I'm sorry," you hang your head, trying to not cry again. "I keep getting told different things about how to do the updates."

"Empty apologies and excuses!" Maggie retorts. "I don't know why you got hired. You're bringing us---"

"Margaret," Steve interrupts her. You jump, not realizing he had followed you. "Tell me, Margaret, how do you think your boss would react if he knew you'd been spending half your day on Facebook?"

She fumes at both of you for a minute before going back to her own cubicle.

"I really wish you hadn't done that, Steve," you whisper. "I'm already on their sh-crap list. This is only going to make it worse."

Steve takes a breath, "you're right, I'm sorry. I just really hate bullies."

"Me too," you nod. "But right now I've gotta make these bullies happy, okay?"

"It's not okay," Steve shakes his head. "But I promise I'll be more careful."

"Thank you."

Tagging: @alicedopey; @darsynia; @delicatebarness; @ellethespaceunicorn; @icefrozendeadlyqueen;

@jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory; @late-to-the-party-81; @lokislady82; @ozwriterchick; @ronearoundblindly

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Doodles Made by a 6-year-old Boy Named Onfim, from Russia, c. 1240-1260 CE: created nearly 800 years ago, these drawings were scrawled onto the homework/spelling exercises of a little boy in Novgorod

Over the last 75 years, excavations in and around Novgorod, in Russia, have led to the discovery of hundreds of documents dating back to the Middle Ages. These documents were made using pieces of bark from the local birch trees; they include letters, notes, spelling exercises, shopping lists, receipts, and legal documents, among other things.

The most famous examples are the panels that contain the writing exercises of a 6-7 year-old boy named Onfim, whose work was often accompanied by drawings of knights, fantastical beasts, battle scenes, and depictions of himself in various forms.

These are just a few examples:

Birch-Bark Document no.199: on the back of a panel that had been used for his spelling exercises, Onfim drew this picture of himself as a wild beast, writing "I am a wild beast" in the center of the drawing; the beast is also shown holding a sign that says "Greetings from Onfim to Danilo," likely referring to a friend or classmate.

Birch-Bark Document no.200: Onfim began writing the Cyrillic alphabet at the top of this panel, but he then stopped to draw a picture of himself as a warrior on horseback, labeling the figure with his name; the drawing shows him wielding a sword while he impales his enemy with a spear.

Birch-Bark Document no.202: the boy's mother and father are depicted in this drawing, which accompanies another writing exercise.

Birch-Bark Document no.206: Onfim began to copy a liturgical prayer (the Troparion of the Sixth Hour) onto this strip of bark, but he apparently got distracted after writing just the first few words, and started drawing a row of people along the bottom of the panel instead.

The examples above are just a few of the many documents that have been unearthed in Novgorod (now known as Veliky Novgorod) and its surrounding areas. More than a thousand birch-bark manuscripts and styli have been found throughout the region, suggesting that there was a high rate of literacy among the local inhabitants. Most of these documents were created during the 11th-15th centuries, when Novgorod served as the capital city of the Novgorod Republic; they had been buried in the thick, wet clay that permeates the local soil, in conditions that allowed them to remain almost perfectly preserved for hundreds of years.

I know that Onfim's drawings are pretty well-known already, but my most recent post involved a very similar writing exercise/doodle from a child in Medieval Egypt, so I just thought I'd post some of Onfim's work, as well.

Sources & More Info:

Institute of Slavic Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences: Birch-Bark no.200, no.199, no.202, no.203, no.206, & no.210 (the site is in Russian, but can be translated)

Institute of Slavic Studies: Full Database of Birch-Bark Documents

The New York Times: Where Mud is Archaeological Gold, Russian History Grew on Trees

Russian Linguistics: Old East Slavic Birch-Bark Literacy - a history of linguistic emancipation?

[robin-evry]

Heeeyyyyy~ it’s a me again, so just watched the Transformers one movie, and it got me thinking of what would happen if Yuu was a cybertronian/Transformer? Like alien robot that Can transform into a vehicle isekaied to a magic School? Imagine the fun! the chaos! They can pick up the overblot students and put them in air jail like a misbehaving cat! Ortho finally has a bestie!!!!

Sure thing, ask and you shall receive

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐔𝐔 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐂𝐘𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐀𝐍 👾🤖

Cybertronians are a species of autonomous robotic organisms originating from the distant planet called Cybertron that had their essences transferred into robotic bodies known as "Transformers".

Cybertronian!Yuu one of by far most unique students ever, they tower over most of the students. By cybertronian!yuu has received some modification in twst that helps them fit in the world more.

They can partially transform parts of their body into mechanical tools, like shields, scanners, or even small weaponry. This ability has led to some interesting duels in combat class, where they improvises with forms no one expects.

Cybertronian!Yuu sees magic as something like a digital matrix, with each spell having its own “source code.” While they may struggle with traditional spellcasting, Cybertronian Yuu can often rewrite spells or make unique modifications, leading to unexpected effects. This adaptability often puts them at odds with teachers, yet impresses friends like Ace and Deuce.

Cybertronian!Yuu can store and retrieve a ton of information like a living database, sometimes glitching and blurting out random trivia. Ace and Deuce find it hilarious, but it occasionally becomes handy, especially during exams.

Do you know the meme of the song I woke up in a new Bugatti, that's the first year riding on cybertronian!yuu on their transformation form. They have become their friends chauffeur around school pretty much everywhere.

Ortho + Cybertronian!Yuu : robot besties.

NRC tend to call them both a “tech wiz.” They often exchange “upgrades” and tech secrets, and Ortho even helps Cybertronian!Yuu unlock hidden Cybertronian features that they were previously unaware of. They’re like the school’s tech-savvy duo, making Idia’s life easier and sometimes scaring him with their synchronized techno-speak.

Cybertronian! Yuu has an “echo mode” that lets them record and replay sounds, which Rook finds utterly fascinating for tracking creatures or investigating mysteries. Sometimes, they use it to replay people’s voices, teasing Ace or copying Riddle’s strict tone. Grim once caught them imitating the Headmage and nearly exposed them!

Their system has an auto-translate function for languages, magical runes, and even animal sounds, making them NRC’s unofficial interpreter. This skill shines with Sebek, who tries to one-up them in translating ancient text, and with Kalim, who loves hearing animal translations from the Spirit of the Dunes.

Inspired by Pomefiore’s focus on beauty, they develop a “glamour mode” that projects holographic outfits, allowing them to “try on” new looks with a simple transformation. Rook and Vil are fascinated by their ability to shift appearances at will, and Vil even pushes them to “update” their glamour mode regularly to keep up with fashion trends.

Cybertronian!yuu is very curious about the world around them, since originally back in Cybertron there wasn't any organic like plant-life. You can find them being curious and browsing things that find them interesting.

When seriously damaged, cybertronian!Yuu has an auto-repair protocol that initiates a regeneration process. This usually involves a “recharging stasis” where they power down for a few hours to restore internal systems by transforming into a metal box to repair any damages coming to their body and database.

They also have the ability to heck or connect themselves into different technologies, they can see through the technology database as well copying the abilities of the technology.

They discovers they can use holo-projections to mimic voices and create illusions. With Ace and Grim, Yuu pulls harmless pranks like projecting an image of Crowley, scaring students into thinking he’s around.

During battles, cybertronian!yuu possessed a wide range of arsenal weapons. But one of their favorite styles of fighting is basically running over the enemies in their transformation form.

Imagine overblot Azul laughing and yapping about something, and the next thing he got hit by a vehicle as well putting their enemies in time out.

[max-levchin]

Shamir Secret Sharing

It’s 3am. Paul, the head of PayPal database administration carefully enters his elaborate passphrase at a keyboard in a darkened cubicle of 1840 Embarcadero Road in East Palo Alto, for the fifth time. He hits Return. The green-on-black console window instantly displays one line of text: “Sorry, one or more wrong passphrases. Can’t reconstruct the key. Goodbye.” 

There is nerd pandemonium all around us. James, our recently promoted VP of Engineering, just climbed the desk at a nearby cubicle, screaming: “Guys, if we can’t get this key the right way, we gotta start brute-forcing it ASAP!” It’s gallows humor – he knows very well that brute-forcing such a key will take millions of years, and it’s already 6am on the East Coast – the first of many “Why is PayPal down today?” articles is undoubtedly going to hit CNET shortly. Our single-story cubicle-maze office is buzzing with nervous activity of PayPalians who know they can’t help but want to do something anyway. I poke my head up above the cubicle wall to catch a glimpse of someone trying to stay inside a giant otherwise empty recycling bin on wheels while a couple of Senior Software Engineers are attempting to accelerate the bin up to dangerous speeds in the front lobby. I lower my head and try to stay focused. “Let’s try it again, this time with three different people” is the best idea I can come up with, even though I am quite sure it will not work. 

It doesn’t. 

The key in question decrypts PayPal’s master payment credential table – also known as the giant store of credit card and bank account numbers. Without access to payment credentials, PayPal doesn’t really have a business per se, seeing how we are supposed to facilitate payments, and that’s really hard to do if we no longer have access to the 100+ million credit card numbers our users added over the last year of insane growth. 

This is the story of a catastrophic software bug I briefly introduced into the PayPal codebase that almost cost us the company (or so it seemed, in the moment.) I’ve told this story a handful of times, always swearing the listeners to secrecy, and surprisingly it does not appear to have ever been written down before. 20+ years since the incident, it now appears instructive and a little funny, rather than merely extremely embarrassing. 

Before we get back to that fateful night, we have to go back another decade. In the summer of 1991, my family and I moved to Chicago from Kyiv, Ukraine. While we had just a few hundred dollars between the five of us, we did have one secret advantage: science fiction fans. 

My dad was a highly active member of Zoryaniy Shlyah – Kyiv’s possibly first (and possibly only, at the time) sci-fi fan club – the name means “Star Trek” in Ukrainian, unsurprisingly. He translated some Stansilaw Lem (of Solaris and Futurological Congress fame) from Polish to Russian in the early 80s and was generally considered a coryphaeus at ZSh. 

While USSR was more or less informationally isolated behind the digital Iron Curtain until the late ‘80s, by 1990 or so, things like FidoNet wriggled their way into the Soviet computing world, and some members of ZSh were now exchanging electronic mail with sci-fi fans of the free world.

The vaguely exotic news of two Soviet refugee sci-fi fans arriving in Chicago was transmitted to the local fandom before we had even boarded the PanAm flight that took us across the Atlantic [1]. My dad (and I, by extension) was soon adopted by some kind Chicago science fiction geeks, a few of whom became close friends over the years, though that’s a story for another time. 

A year or so after the move to Chicago, our new sci-fi friends invited my dad to a birthday party for a rising star of the local fandom, one Bruce Schneier. We certainly did not know Bruce or really anyone at the party, but it promised good food, friendly people, and probably filk. My role was to translate, as my dad spoke limited English at the time. 

I had fallen desperately in love with secret codes and cryptography about a year before we left Ukraine. Walking into Bruce’s library during the house tour (this was a couple years before Applied Cryptography was published and he must have been deep in research) felt like walking into Narnia. 

I promptly abandoned my dad to fend for himself as far as small talk and canapés were concerned, and proceeded to make a complete ass out of myself by brazenly asking the host for a few sheets of paper and a pencil. Having been obliged, I pulled a half dozen cryptography books from the shelves and went to work trying to copy down some answers to a few long-held questions on the library floor. After about two hours of scribbling alone like a man possessed, I ran out of paper and decided to temporarily rejoin the party. 

On the living room table, Bruce had stacks of copies of his fanzine Ramblings. Thinking I could use the blank sides of the pages to take more notes, I grabbed a printout and was about to quietly return to copying the original S-box values for DES when my dad spotted me from across the room and demanded I help him socialize. The party wrapped soon, and our friends drove us home. 

The printout I grabbed was not a Ramblings issue. It was a short essay by Bruce titled Sharing Secrets Among Friends, essentially a humorous explanation of Shamir Secret Sharing. 

Say you want to make sure that something really really important and secret (a nuclear weapon launch code, a database encryption key, etc) cannot be known or used by a single (friendly) actor, but becomes available, if at least n people from a group of m choose to do it. Think two on-duty officers (from a cadre of say 5) turning keys together to get ready for a nuke launch. 

The idea (proposed by Adi Shamir – the S of RSA! – in 1979) is as simple as it is beautiful. 

Let’s call the secret we are trying to split among m people K. 

First, create a totally random polynomial that looks like: y(x) = C0 * x^(n-1) + C1 * x^(n-2) + C2 * x^(n-3) ….+ K. “Create” here just means generate random coefficients C. Now, for every person in your trusted group of m, evaluate the polynomial for some randomly chosen Xm and hand them their corresponding (Xm,Ym) each. 

If we have n of these points together, we can use Lagrange interpolating polynomial to reconstruct the coefficients – and evaluate the original polynomial at x=0, which conveniently gives us y(0) = K, the secret. Beautiful. I still had the printout with me, years later, in Palo Alto. 

It should come as no surprise that during my time as CTO PayPal engineering had an absolute obsession with security. No firewall was one too many, no multi-factor authentication scheme too onerous, etc. Anything that was worth anything at all was encrypted at rest. 

To decrypt, a service would get the needed data from its database table, transmit it to a special service named cryptoserv (an original SUN hardware running Solaris sitting on its own, especially tightly locked-down network) and a special service running only there would perform the decryption and send back the result. 

Decryption request rate was monitored externally and on cryptoserv, and if there were too many requests, the whole thing was to shut down and purge any sensitive data and keys from its memory until manually restarted. 

It was this manual restart that gnawed at me. At launch, a bunch of configuration files containing various critical decryption keys were read (decrypted by another key derived from one manually-entered passphrase) and loaded into the memory to perform future cryptographic services.

Four or five of us on the engineering team knew the passphrase and could restart cryptoserv if it crashed or simply had to have an upgrade. What if someone performed a little old-fashioned rubber-hose cryptanalysis and literally beat the passphrase out of one of us? The attacker could theoretically get access to these all-important master keys. Then stealing the encrypted-at-rest database of all our users’ secrets could prove useful – they could decrypt them in the comfort of their underground supervillain lair. 

I needed to eliminate this threat.

Shamir Secret Sharing was the obvious choice – beautiful, simple, perfect (you can in fact prove that if done right, it offers perfect secrecy.) I decided on a 3-of-8 scheme and implemented it in pure POSIX C for portability over a few days, and tested it for several weeks on my Linux desktop with other engineers. 

Step 1: generate the polynomial coefficients for 8 shard-holders.

Step 2: compute the key shards (x0, y0)  through (x7, y7)

Step 3: get each shard-holder to enter a long, secure passphrase to encrypt the shard

Step 4: write out the 8 shard files, encrypted with their respective passphrases.

And to reconstruct: 

Step 1: pick any 3 shard files. 

Step 2: ask each of the respective owners to enter their passphrases. 

Step 3: decrypt the shard files.

Step 4: reconstruct the polynomial, evaluate it for x=0 to get the key.

Step 5: launch cryptoserv with the key. 

One design detail here is that each shard file also stored a message authentication code (a keyed hash) of its passphrase to make sure we could identify when someone mistyped their passphrase. These tests ran hundreds and hundreds of times, on both Linux and Solaris, to make sure I did not screw up some big/little-endianness issue, etc. It all worked perfectly. 

A month or so later, the night of the key splitting party was upon us. We were finally going to close out the last vulnerability and be secure. Feeling as if I was about to turn my fellow shard-holders into cymeks, I gathered them around my desktop as PayPal’s front page began sporting the “We are down for maintenance and will be back soon” message around midnight.

The night before, I solemnly generated the new master key and securely copied it to cryptoserv. Now, while “Push It” by Salt-n-Pepa blared from someone’s desktop speakers, the automated deployment script copied shard files to their destination. 

While each of us took turns carefully entering our elaborate passphrases at a specially selected keyboard, Paul shut down the main database and decrypted the payment credentials table, then ran the script to re-encrypt with the new key. Some minutes later, the database was running smoothly again, with the newly encrypted table, without incident. 

All that was left was to restore the master key from its shards and launch the new, even more secure cryptographic service. 

The three of us entered our passphrases… to be met with the error message I haven’t seen in weeks: “Sorry, one or more wrong passphrases. Can’t reconstruct the key. Goodbye.” Surely one of us screwed up typing, no big deal, we’ll do it again. No dice. No dice – again and again, even after we tried numerous combinations of the three people necessary to decrypt. 

Minutes passed, confusion grew, tension rose rapidly. 

There was nothing to do, except to hit rewind – to grab the master key from the file still sitting on cryptoserv, split it again, generate new shards, choose passphrases, and get it done. Not a great feeling to have your first launch go wrong, but not a huge deal either. It will all be OK in a minute or two.

A cursory look at the master key file date told me that no, it wouldn’t be OK at all. The file sitting on cryptoserv wasn’t from last night, it was created just a few minutes ago. During the Salt-n-Pepa-themed push from stage, we overwrote the master key file with the stage version. Whatever key that was, it wasn’t the one I generated the day before: only one copy existed, the one I copied to cryptoserv from my computer the night before. Zero copies existed now. Not only that, the push script appears to have also wiped out the backup of the old key, so the database backups we have encrypted with the old key are likely useless. 

Sitrep: we have 8 shard files that we apparently cannot use to restore the master key and zero master key backups. The database is running but its secret data cannot be accessed. 

I will leave it to your imagination to conjure up what was going through my head that night as I stared into the black screen willing the shards to work. After half a decade of trying to make something of myself (instead of just going to work for Microsoft or IBM after graduation) I had just destroyed my first successful startup in the most spectacular fashion. 

Still, the idea of “what if we all just continuously screwed up our passphrases” swirled around my brain. It was an easy check to perform, thanks to the included MACs. I added a single printf() debug statement into the shard reconstruction code and instead of printing out a summary error of “one or more…” the code now showed if the passphrase entered matched the authentication code stored in the shard file. 

I compiled the new code directly on cryptoserv in direct contravention of all reasonable security practices – what did I have to lose? Entering my own passphrase, I promptly got “bad passphrase” error I just added to the code. Well, that’s just great – I knew my passphrase was correct, I had it written down on a post-it note I had planned to rip up hours ago. 

Another person, same error. Finally, the last person, JK, entered his passphrase. No error. The key still did not reconstruct correctly, I got the “Goodbye”, but something worked. I turned to the engineer and said, “what did you just type in that worked?”

After a second of embarrassed mumbling, he admitted to choosing “a$$word” as his passphrase. The gall! I asked everyone entrusted with the grave task of relaunching crytposerv to pick really hard to guess passphrases, and this guy…?! Still, this was something -- it worked. But why?!

I sprinted around the half-lit office grabbing the rest of the shard-holders demanding they tell me their passphrases. Everyone else had picked much lengthier passages of text and numbers. I manually tested each and none decrypted correctly. Except for the a$$word. What was it…

A lightning bolt hit me and I sprinted back to my own cubicle in the far corner, unlocked the screen and typed in “man getpass” on the command line, while logging into cryptoserv in another window and doing exactly the same thing there. I saw exactly what I needed to see. 

Today, should you try to read up the programmer’s manual (AKA the man page) on getpass, you will find it has been long declared obsolete and replaced with a more intelligent alternative in nearly all flavors of modern Unix.  

But back then, if you wanted to collect some information from the keyboard without printing what is being typed in onto the screen and remain POSIX-compliant, getpass did the trick. Other than a few standard file manipulation system calls, getpass was the only operating system service call I used, to ensure clean portability between Linux and Solaris. 

Except it wasn’t completely clean. 

Plain as day, there it was: the manual pages were identical, except Solaris had a “special feature”: any passphrase entered that was longer than 8 characters long was automatically reduced to that length anyway. (Who needs long passwords, amiright?!)

I screamed like a wounded animal. We generated the key on my Linux desktop and entered our novel-length passphrases right here. Attempting to restore them on a Solaris machine where they were being clipped down to 8 characters long would never work. Except, of course, for a$$word. That one was fine.

The rest was an exercise in high-speed coding and some entirely off-protocol file moving. We reconstructed the master key on my machine (all of our passphrases worked fine), copied the file to the Solaris-running cryptoserv, re-split it there (with very short passphrases), reconstructed it successfully, and PayPal was up and running again like nothing ever happened. 

By the time our unsuspecting colleagues rolled back into the office I was starting to doze on the floor of my cubicle and that was that. When someone asked me later that day why we took so long to bring the site back up, I’d simply respond with “eh, shoulda RTFM.” 

RTFM indeed. 

P.S. A few hours later, John, our General Counsel, stopped by my cubicle to ask me something. The day before I apparently gave him a sealed envelope and asked him to store it in his safe for 24 hours without explaining myself. He wanted to know what to do with it now that 24 hours have passed. 

Ha. I forgot all about it, but in a bout of “what if it doesn’t work” paranoia, I printed out the base64-encoded master key when we had generated it the night before, stuffed it into an envelope, and gave it to John for safekeeping. We shredded it together without opening and laughed about what would have never actually been a company-ending event. 

P.P.S. If you are thinking of all the ways this whole SSS design is horribly insecure (it had some real flaws for sure) and plan to poke around PayPal to see if it might still be there, don’t. While it served us well for a few years, this was the very first thing eBay required us to turn off after the acquisition. Pretty sure it’s back to a single passphrase now. 

Notes:

1: a member of Chicagoland sci-fi fan community let me know that the original news of our move to the US was delivered to them via a posted letter, snail mail, not FidoNet email! 

[nyxmainex]

I finished it guys. I finished them. IN A DAY.

Be it, they are VERY rushed and look as such, but I AM PROUD OF MYSELF FOR ONCE.

@velnna @bara-izu @necromosss

Fanart for your characters.

(Warnings: Me rambling)

If any of the artist I made this for see this, I hope you like it even maybe a portion as much as I do. Maybe more. Genuinely, each of these three artists inspire me to continue my hobby of making art. The reason I even do this hobby is to share it in hopes to inspire others. As much courage as it takes for me to even make these much less post them is just proof to myself how far I've come in terms of social interaction. I thank my friend, my mom and teacher for supporting my hobbies and specifically convincing me to make this. I'm off on a ramble, apologies.

I really do hope you like this. Each character has something I added to them, and I explain in their dedicated paragraph. Then you also get an overall part:).

MIRA ♡

Necromosss is the second BG3 artist I found on Tumblr and I adore their art. Everytime I see Moss post, I promise you I immediately spread it to my friends just so they get the recognition they deserve.

Mira was the last character I ended up drawing, and is definitely the most hurried and sloppy. I made hers pretty late, close to the time I sleep, yet I do feel proud of how I made her. Imagining Mira in the stories I've created, I believe she'd fit in with Meladonia, a kingdom of ghosts, poison, and death. Overlooking the main theme, Meladonia's queen, Chamixie (and funny enough, my character who romanced Gale), is a very lighthearted, flirty person. She, while respecting death and it's concepts, is always up to make an occasional joke. She doesn't take everything personally, and I think she'd get alone well with Mira. The Meladonia magic is dark magic known at Kalak. 'Mixie (Chamixie's nickname) created Kalak as a form of a way to express herself. Kalak magic is not negative, and it's not harmful. In fact, Kalak magic is meant to heal and embrace your fears to use positively. Most of the time, using Kalak magic causes small white, almost snake-like slits to form in the pupil of the user's eyes.

I hope you like how I drew her!:)

STAEVE ☆

MAF is the first BG3 artist I found on Tumblr. I can't put in to words how much they've inspired me. Me and my mom both love Staeve, we think he's great, and I can't wait to see more art from Velnna.

Staeve is the first character I drew, and though not as rushed as Mira's, I wasn't confident drawing him. I'm not too sure about how I drew him, though I do hope anyone reading this likes it. Much like Mira, I imagine he'd be from Meladonia if put in my stories.

In case you haven't read about Kalak magic, I'll copy it: The Meladonia magic is dark magic known at Kalak. 'Mixie (Chamixie's nickname) created Kalak as a form of a way to express herself. Kalak magic is not negative, and it's not harmful. In fact, Kalak magic is meant to heal and embrace your fears to use positively. Most of the time, using Kalak magic causes small white, almost snake-like slits to form in the pupil of the user's eyes.

I've, as an anon, told Velnna about one version of my first OC (Broodmother Nera). And she's a version of my main five characters. Her and Chamixie are sisters, four years apart (Nera is 28). Chamixie is a much more sort of flirty person and takes everything told to her with a drop of comedy, unless it's extremely serious (ex: any abuse) as she has experienced negative situations herself. I imagine that she'd want to be friends with Staeve as long as he wants to, but would likely rather protect him even if he doesn't want to be friends. Staeve reminds Chamixie of Alison, the youngest of the five sisters, and was Chamixie's previous life's bio daughter. Even if they are sisters in this life, Chamixie still, while not overprotective, is cautious around Alison. To an extent, Staeve gives off a similar vibe as Alison, and 'Mixie would do more than her best to help Staeve without being overbearing.

I hope this is interesting enough, and that you enjoy how I drew Staeve.

HALION ◇

I have so much trouble remembering how to write this lovely man's name, please correct me if it's wrong, I have terrible memory.

I recently found Bara, and I love all their characters. (No joke though, I ran to my mom to show her your characters). Halion is definitely one of my favourites.

I was the most confident creating Halion, and I genuinely am proud of my art. This is honestly one of the few times I do feel proud of myself. From the posts I read, which is not too many, I love his cheery personality. He makes me believe he'd be from Parfi if he was in my stories. Parfi is the kingdom of the Wasteland, but is known for war, previously known for lust, but after Lord Clemin became the ruler, she changed it to accommodate travellers. While it was re-built for wars, she's made it a beacon of light within a desert. That reminds me of Halion. Clemin, as a ruler, comes off as strong and demanding. But out of all five of the rulers, and as the second oldest sister, she's very soft. Even with her own insecurities, she lifts people up and encourages their positive ambitions. She's actually not very confident, even though presenting as such. Even if she is very silent, and kind of reserved, she'd feel comfortable with talking to Halion.

She created Taei magic, the magic of heat. Taei magic is considered neutral magic, and though she has used it negatively on herself, Taei was meant to be positive. Using Taei magic is essentially holding the essence of a flame, and it's a guiding light to find others. Clemin wants the people of her and her sister's kingdoms to never have to experience what any of them did/do. Using it reflects a flame in the user's eyes.

I hope you agree he'd be from Parfi, and if not, tell me why:)! I also hope you like the art I made for him.

OVERALL/EXTRA

I'm sorry this post is so long, and I wanted to be finish setting up my blog when I made this but I'm just too impatient to do so. The reason this post is so long is because while I could've made art of any artist I enjoy, these three artists inspired me the most. (And I'm an overthinker, so I want to make sure you understand how much I appreciate these artists.)

I hope you enjoy the ideas I had and the art I made. I love all three of these pieces I've made, and I love the original art that they were based on more. And if it's alright with the artists, I'd love to draw more!:)

While writing this, my hands are shaking. Ignore any mistakes in the writing.

(References)

Mira: (her Notion page)

Staeve:

This

And this

Halion:

This

This

And this

PROGRAMS USED:

Infinite painter for lineart and Clip Studio Paint (pro) for everything else.

Edit: LOOKING BACK AT THIS, IT'S SO SAPPY AND LONG I'M SORRRYYYYYY

[literaticat]

Do editors need to build relationships too to even get books sent to them? Like, will you forget a newbie exists if they don't keep reaching out to you? I would assume agents prefer to send to people they know very well over junior editors?

Do editors need to build relationships too to even get books sent to them? Yes. And since agents are building relationships with editors, naturally the reverse is also happening. And yes, I'd say that is important -- it's obviously helpful from the editor's side if agents are aware of what kinds of things they work on and want to see, so they (hopefully) are lessening the number of poorly targeted submissions!

Like, will you forget a newbie exists if they don't keep reaching out to you? I don't know if they need to "KEEP" reaching out -- like once in a while, is presumably sufficient -- if I put the notes in the database, they are there, the whole agency has them, and getting the same info multiple times is not really that helpful. But of course if anything changes with what they want, etc etc, by all means let us know.

Usually we get to know people either because one of us emails the other -- and/or we meet them / have a call with them -- and/or because we try to submit something to them that we think they might like based on their wishlist, and either they buy it (in which case we are working with them and have lots of convos) OR they decline it, and their reaction helps us hone what kind of thing they REALLY like, you know?

While it's true that the more junior editor I haven't really gotten to know yet might not be first to just randomly pop into my head, that's OK -- I don't make submission lists off the top of my head. :-) That's what the database is for!

I would assume agents prefer to send to people they know very well over junior editors? Agents and editors tend to form cohorts -- so the people who were junior editors when I was a newbie agent are the first people I got to know. They are the ones I was going to conferences with, etc etc. We came up together, so now that I'm a Senior agent, those editors I've known/been working with forever are in Senior/Executive roles. (Meanwhile, the people who are more junior agents at my agency tend to know the more junior editors the best.)

That said, I think we all TRY to get to know everyone at every level, and most agents probably prefer to have a healthy mix of more senior and more junior editors in submission lists -- after all, a junior editor today could be the executive of tomorrow!

At the end of the day, I want to send to the people I think are most likely to "get" the book. And while, yes, that means that sometimes, with people I know really well, I'll be like "Oh this is SUCH a so-and-so book" -- I'm just as likely to say, "oh, yeah, no, so-and-so would NOT like this, I need somebody different."

(ALSO, if I only sent to people I know VERY well, those people would get sick of hearing from me, and I'd never get to know the newbies!)

[trial-run-tiefling]

V (Cyberpunk 2077) mod for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk!

Thought it would be funny to post this on Cyber Monday! I was taking a break from some personal projects and though I might revisit the BRC modding tools to take a crack at V. Really proud of how they both turned out visually, though there aren't any complicated physics elements on either of them which made it a bit easier.

Originally I was just gonna do fem V, but then I realized a lot of masc V could just use the same textures and slightly adjusted meshes from fem V.

This time around all of the themed skins are from the same franchise, since there were plenty of cyberpunk characters I could pay homage to with the color swaps.

For the Graffiti I blocked out a shape based on the C from the Cyberpunk logo, which already is basically just a sideways V, and then I swapped the colors in case you want to have both Vs in your game at the same time. I also included some tricks where one of the characters is named "V" and the other is named "V " - so they look about the same but don't conflict with each other.

As always I had fun making stickers for them, lots of text this time around, but Cyberpunk is full of logos and icons, so I was not hurting for choice on inspiration for pixel art! (Jackie's shirt was likely the hardest, trying to make the guns show up in the limited color pallet proved difficult).

Voice lines were also a bit difficult, mostly because V goes through a lot of shit and doesn't take a lot of time to celebrate or cheer, so finding phrases that sounded appropriate when doing skateboard tricks took a bit of work. Huge thanks to the cyberpunk sound database tool - wouldn't have known where to start with extracting those otherwise. Masc V's lines aren't very well documented over there, but I did discover that for most of V's voice lines, the file name includes either a "_f_" or a "_m_". So when I found a voice line I liked for one of them, most of the time I could change that tag and find the same voice line for the other, even if it wasn't documented on the sound database, so that helped a lot.

I had a lot of fun making them, so I hope y'all have fun playing with them too!

[kinkandkreep]

TokRev Bois with Superpowers

A/N: Hey hey y'all! This idea sprung up on me while I was perusing the Superhero Database and I wanted to share it wit y'all! I tried to keep the bois powers as cohesive as possible (although admittedly, Mikey's sonic scream is kinda random 'cus the idea just ran into me full speed and wouldn't let go 🙃) and I tried to keep the number of powers limited. Let me know what y'all think! Enjoy!

Mikey:

- Sonic Scream

- Heightened spatial and kinesthetic awareness 

Results from his martial arts training.

- Peak Human Physical Condition

Also courtesy of his formal training and all the fighting he does.

- Nigh Invulnerability 

Manjiro is nearly impervious to all forms of damage, be it physical or emotional. The only materials known to be able to cause him lasting physical damage are Tungsten and Moissanite. 

Draken:

- Super Strength

- Strength Augmentation 

This augmentation can be self-applied or used to temporarily empower others.

- Superhuman Durability 

Ken has a superhumanly durable body. As a result of this, he is able to shake off with relative ease blows that would normally shatter the bone of other normal human beings. 

Baji:

- Shape-shifting 

Can shape shift into nearly any conceivable living creature, but must possess knowledge of and be able to visualize the creature in order to shift into it.

- Berserk Mode 

Primarily stemming from his animalistic instincts, Keisuke has the ability to enter a 'Berserk Mode,' which temporarily grants him enhanced speed, durability and strength in whatever form he's taken.

- Camouflage 

By consciously tapping into the power of the chameleon (an animal which he can shapeshift into), this ability allows Keisuke to seamlessly blend into his surroundings, whether that be walls, foliage, people, etc.

Sanzu:

- Bloodlust 

Beyond the general intense focus that accompanies it, this state greatly increases the keenness of Haruchiyo's senses, enabling him to see, feel and hear things beyond his normal limited human capacity.

- Blood Manipulation 

Similar to bloodbending, Haruchiyo can manipulate the blood of others, although dissimilarly from the aforementioned bending, Haruchiyo can only manipulate the blood once it has exited the body of the target, including his own.

The extracted blood can then be used to create a number of tools and utilities, including keys, lockpicks and weapons.

- Master Swordsman 

Hanma:

- Decay Embodiment 

Shuji can manipulate aspects of death such as rot, dust, mold and of course, the titular decay. This ability is a variation of life force manipulation, and as such, Shuji can even cause the soul of a person to begin rotting or decaying. 

- Enhanced Durability 

Shuji possesses an incredibly durable body that can withstand blows that would normally break the bone of others less hardwearing.

Izana:

- Chaos Manipulation

Izana’s ability of Chaos Manipulation allows him to, in a sense, alter the very fabric of reality. He can shape the likelihood of events happening, and control whether they do or don’t. Subsequently, there’s not really a limit to what Izana can accomplish with this power.

Kazutora:

- Atmokinesis (the ability to psionically control the weather)

This ability, along with Kazutora’s other power, is tied heavily to his emotional state. Because Kazutora is volatile emotionally, he sometimes cannot control this ability well, and has the potential to do major amounts of damage if not careful. 

- Elemental Transformation 

This power allows Kazutora to change the chemical and physical makeup of his body into any one of the four main elements, those being Earth, Air, Fire and Water. These states are tied to his emotions: for example, being angry will cause his body to heat rapidly, eventually catching fire, being calm or in a deep state of relaxation will cause his body to harden like stone/earth, etc.

Kisaki: 

- Telepathy 

Tetta is a telepath. He can read and sense the emotions of others to a heightened degree, as well as hear people’s thoughts and detect when they are lying.

- Necromancy 

Tetta possesses the ability to telepathically commune with the souls of deceased animals and humans, allowing him to temporarily call them back to their bodies. During the period in which the deceased are “called,” they are completely subservient to Tetta’s whims. In order for Tetta to call upon the soul of a deceased creature, he need be in the vicinity of the body/place of burial of the creature.

- Latent Abilities 

Tetta, as a by-product of his telepathic abilities, possesses also the ability to influence objects in his immediate environment either willingly or unwillingly, based on his emotional state (i.e anger causes objects to shake and shatter, sadness causes objects, like flowers, to wilt and lose vitality or color, anxiety and alternatively joy causes objects to float, etc.)

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for telling my ex I had sex?

This has been rolling around in my head for a while. I'm pretty concerned I did the wrong thing and was needlessly cruel.

My (20X) ex-boyfriend (25M) was pretty self-obsessed the entire time we were together. We has known each other for 8 years and got together when I was 17 (I know this part is fucked up, I've come to realize it since).

He always expected me to be there and spend all my time with him. Example: One time he got mad at me for falling asleep when I had a crown on my island in animal crossing and made a public show of it on the group I was opening my island to, consisting of both my brother and my cousin. He's overall just very clingy and doesn't really seem to think anything is ever his fault from my friends' perspective, and eventually mine as well.

Anyway, I tried very hard to get away from him, but since we had been using the same Skype group for years and he was the one I told everything to, it was pretty difficult to do, until my current girlfriend (21X) came into my life and I could cling to them instead of this dying, toxic relationship.

I ended up deleting Skype and not initiating conversations with him. He started using Discord to talk to me occasionally, and I kept it polite but distant. He kept trying to work his way back in though, and I could tell. Largely innocuous things, like sending little hearts and stuff, and continuing to make sexual remarks after I told him I didn't want him to anymore.

So here's where it gets rough.

My ex had this girlfriend who left him and stopped talking to him altogether. Eventually she got married, and he took it very personally and hated her husband. I promised I would never leave him the way she did.

Well, I met up with my girlfriend for the first time and we immediately clicked. That night, like the title says, we had sex.

(I need to make it clear that I had told him at this point multiple times I wanted to break up and just be friends, trying FwB at one point just to ease him into it, but at this point I wanted nothing to do with him aside from polite conversation. I had also told him he needed to get therapy before I would consider getting close to him again, and he still hadn't attempted to get therapy.)

The next day, while I was trying to enjoy the event we were at, my ex sent me a picture of a heart-shaped stone. I sent back a picture of the two of us at the event.

He asked who it was, and "I can't believe you went without me smh" (probably a joke. probably.)

I responded back, "we had sex last night"

He immediately got more formal, asking why I would do this to him and saying his ex and I have a lot more in common than I think. I then explained to him that I was sick of him doing the things he had been doing, and he claimed it was all platonic.

We haven't spoken since, except once when I let him know his art was in an AI database.

So.... AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[dr-futbol-blog]

Aurora, Pt. 12

While on the Daedalus Ronon and Teyla had just been caught running interference for McKay and were begging Caldwell to give them a few more minutes, inside the virtual environment McKay and Sheppard again seem oblivious to the passage of time. Sheppard is keeping McKay's six in more ways than one where McKay has just discovered that he cannot actually deliver what he had promised Sheppard because the communiqué is no longer in their system. Probably because he is still feeling the need to repair Sheppard's "faith in his abilities," this failure to deliver seems to make him tense.

McKay: The communiqué's been erased. Sheppard: Why would the wraith do that? McKay: Well, it says right here: “I, the wraith, delete this important information to keep you from seeing it”!

On the surface, this seems to be a repeat of what happened previously when McKay was trying to figure out the system and Sheppard asked him a question that made him snap and imply that it had been a stupid question, where he knew even himself that it was a good question. "It says right here: “Why is the smart one having to stop and answer so many questions?”" Only, it had been McKay's jealousy rather than the fact that Sheppard was making it difficult to concentrate that had made him snap because by this time, McKay has gotten really rather good at figuring things out while Sheppard is talking his ear off. Sheppard talking to him while he is working is perfectly ordinary for him and he probably misses it when it is gone.

McKay's inability to concentrate had not been the issue, being reminded of Chaya was what had made him sour. And here, too, Sheppard makes a reference to "the wraith," being the hot chick that they had just seen in the hallway, and McKay had not even had time to begin processing what he was supposed to be feeling about all that. Sheppard's question here, very similar to McKay's own question "Why would the pods do that?" which Sheppard had called a good question, actually triggered McKay's memory for the fact that Sheppard had been real eager to get back to the virtual environment the first time around, and why was that, again? But here, too, Sheppard actually has a valid question and McKay knows it. And Sheppard also seems to get what is eating McKay because he purposefully refers to the wraith as a he.

Sheppard: Obviously he did it to keep us from seeing it, but why didn't it end the damned program? What's the point of continuing? McKay: Oh no! Sheppard: What?

But Sheppard is tetchy himelf as he responds to McKay because he really does not like it when McKay implies that he thinks Sheppard is stupid. McKay does not actually think that and even here he recognizes immediately that Sheppard has a good point, Sheppard is asking the kinds of questions that he would not even think to ask because he is focused on the how when Sheppard is so often focused on the why. Sheppard does let his tetchiness show by peppering his response with an expletive, but it is directed more toward the wraith than it is at McKay. But just as soon as Sheppard has asked the question, McKay figures it out. We see over and over again how well they work together. Sheppard can also hear it in McKay's tone that he had just arrived at something significant.

McKay: You said they were trying to modify the hyperdrive. Sheppard: So they can get back to Atlantis faster. McKay: Well, according to the Atlantis database, there are two different types of Ancient hyperdrive.

McKay repeats Sheppard's words from earlier, telling us two things: for one, he files off things that Sheppard tells him and has a good memory for them. And second, it confirms that his mind had just been on Sheppard coming out of the virtual environment the first time, when he had made the comment about the hyperdrive, which probably had triggered his previous comment. McKay suspected that the hot Ancient that Sheppard had not known had been a wraith at the time had been the reason Sheppard was so keen to return. This seems on par with the kind of idiosyncratic mental association McKay is known for. Sheppard can play it cool all he wants but McKay thinks of himself as too clever to fall for that ruse. Inadvertently, this had given him insight into the wraith's possible motivation and he was now trying to walk Sheppard through it, to explain things to him the way that he knows Sheppard wants him to explain things.

McKay: There's the more basic interstellar kind, like the one the Aurora has; and then there's the more powerful intergalactic kind, similar to the one the Asgard provided us for the Daedalus. Sheppard: Why would the wraith wanna soup up the Aurora's hyperdrive?

As mentioned, there is a through line from Trinity (S02E06) to Aurora and Inferno (S02E19), and there is a connection here to the earlier episode in Sheppard's reference to "souping" up Ancient technology. He thought that the Ancients had been souping up their space gun at the weapons platform and he suggests that the wraith are wanting to soup up the Aurora's hyperdrive here. This invites us to ask how much of what happened between Sheppard and McKay in the previous episode is still lingering between them, making McKay want to prove himself to Sheppard and Sheppard trying very hard to trust McKay to be able to take care of himself. And again we see Sheppard ask the "why" question here. McKay can tell him what the wraith are doing but Sheppard is the one that pursues the question of motivation and they get to the answer in ways that neither could have arrived on their own.

McKay: Because the wraiths' hyperdrives are nowhere near as advanced as the Ancient hyperdrives! All this technology the Captain's feeding her right now... Sheppard: ...she'll learn how to modify the wraiths' hyperdrives from interstellar to intergalactic! McKay: Which means they'll make it as far as Earth! Sheppard: That's what this whole thing is about! Their new feeding ground! And this is just step one.

Here, we even see Sheppard finish McKay's sentence, and we have seen McKay finishing Sheppard's sentences before (e.g., very prominently in Underground, S01E07). Also, the fact that Sheppard is finishing McKay's sentence here while McKay is the one to call the wraith "her" just emphasizes the fact that Sheppard is taking his cue as to what pronoun to use of it from McKay, he really does not care either way.

They are both horrified by this prospect but more so Sheppard, feeling as he does guilty for the wraith even knowing about Earth. Note that Sheppard is getting really agitated here over the prospect that the wraith might be able to reach Earth because of his personal responsibility in the matter. He feels guilty, and the anger in his tone, while directed toward the wraith, is partially also meant for himself. His disposition is motivated by self-recrimination. And this explains Sheppard's behaviour for the remainder of this scene.

McKay: Even if she doesn't have all the information she needs, we need to stop her from sending what she's learned so far to the wraith ships that are on the way. Sheppard: There are wraith ships on the way?

McKay lets on information that he actually thought that he had already told Sheppard but which had actually slipped his mind. This is information that Sheppard could have used ten minutes ago. Sheppard immediately catches on to the fact that their situation is even more dire than he had previously thought.

Let us note that Sheppard steps forward immediately here. Advancing on McKay accompanied with his tone that is clearly faux-calm but seething with barely controlled aggravation makes Sheppard seem intimidating. This is especially true for McKay, who had probably suffered the temper of his parents as a child, and given that he had been smacked upside the head by Sheppard for what he thought was him screwing up only a little while ago in Instinct (S02E07), he is understandably apprehensive here. For McKay to feel intimidated here makes sense. But that is not actually Sheppard's intention.

Sheppard steps closer to McKay because he is protective of him. He had been watching out for McKay where he stood but now that he had suddenly discovered that they were in even more danger, he needed to be closer to McKay. Sheppard had zero inclination to lay it on McKay here, and even the previous time had been much more about him wanting to hit himself than it had been about McKay. Sheppard is the master of projection and it is because McKay is the closest person to him that he often becomes the target for this projection. But where Sheppard advances on McKay seemingly with barely controlled anger, it is his own wraith-related guilt that is making him lash out verbally.

McKay: I'm-I'm sure I mentioned that. Sheppard: No, you didn't. McKay: Well, it... it-it-it threw me when she was so hot! Sheppard: How many ships? McKay: It's two cruisers.

This is a bold-faced lie. McKay had known about the two cruisers when he had first come in and that was probably why he had decided to go into the simulation in the first place, to tell Sheppard. They had a whole conversation sitting down on the bench where they updated each other, and McKay spent all of his time between coming in the simulation and seeing the hot wraith in Sheppard's company. He had all the time in the world to tell Sheppard about the cruisers, and the reason he had not mentioned it is certainly not because he was thrown because she was so hot. But he may be telling the truth, that he did forget because he was thrown when he first came in. Not because of her but because of him. Because Sheppard was so hot in his strange sci-fi uniform.

In fact, as he is being walked into the brig by the two Ancient guards, he is describing Sheppard's physical appearance to them; he is telling them how hot Sheppard is. Rakish, tall, mussed hair. And we clearly see McKay take in Sheppard's body here:

He first looks at Sheppard's handsome face, Sheppard does not return his gaze. Because Sheppard's attention is so obviously elsewhere, he then looks at Sheppard's hot body in the kind of clothes he has never seen Sheppard wearing before, and he then glances down at himself noticing that he is wearing similar clothes, confirming that he had just been checking Sheppard out.

This is why he entirely forgot the reason he had come in in the first place. He was not thrown because she was so hot, he was entirely and fully thrown because he was so hot, and because he had missed him. Following this, McKay spends the rest of the time in the jail cell talking about Sheppard and asking about him, and because the two wraith cruisers are not directly related to Sheppard, they slipped his mind. So while McKay is clearly lying trying to come up with some excuse as to why he had forgotten to mention this, and trying to remind Sheppard that it was actually he who was supposed to be miffed here about Sheppard and the hot chick, he is revealing the truth at the same time. Often there is the seed of truth in lies.

Sheppard: Can you disconnect her? McKay: Him. Not from the inside, no. I should be able to disable the pod interface from the outside.

Here we see how close Sheppard is to McKay now, and how there is nothing intimidating about his posture. He is being protective of McKay, his body curled toward him like he wants to cover him with his own body. Sheppard looks to the side, swallowing hard and seeming utterly at a loss for a moment, and in this we see how much of his anger is projection. He is supposed to be the leader, he is supposed to have the answers and he is supposed to know what to tell others to get them to act. He is supposed to protect this man before him, and now they were going to have to do some probably dangerous heroics to safeguard the Earth. And all he can do is to ask McKay for his advice here.

Note again McKay's insistence that the wraith is a he. The hot woman is a he. There are only two reasons for him to be so insistent on this: either he wants to convince Sheppard of the fact that the hot woman is not actually a hot woman so finding her hot is a waste of time. Or he is trying to convince himself that feeling attraction to a woman is not so strange for him because she is actually a he and the fact that it is a wraith is beside the point. It does tell us that he is having some issues about this and it is telling us that he does not want Sheppard to think of the wraith as a woman. But what is interesting is that Sheppard was calling it a he, and only switched to she because that is what McKay was using. It is an issue for McKay, not for Sheppard.

Sheppard: Then why didn't you? McKay: Because I didn't know what that would do to you. Sheppard: Well, that's very thoughtful of you, but now she knows all about Atlantis.

This again is McKay being brave and emotionally open in a way that Sheppard is not capable of being. He confesses that he was doing this for Sheppard--he had come into the simulation for Sheppard, he had been careful not to disturb the wraith for Sheppard, it was important to him that Sheppard would not be harmed because he had, in his own way, promised Sheppard that it would be safe for him to undergo this experience. He is telling him here that he cares about Sheppard. He is telling him that he loves him.

And because that is a lot for Sheppard to take in when he is not good with feelings or expressing them, he tries to lessen the impact of what McKay had just told him. Where Sheppard does think it was thoughtful of McKay to think about his well-being before making any rash decisions, his tone is sarcastic here. He is being sarcastic about it but only because letting his authentic appreciation show is too difficult for him. Besides which, he still has a lot of frustration in him with no outlet and he needs to somehow diffuse it, making his tone come across as needlessly combative when he really is appreciative and touched by what McKay had told him.

McKay: You told her? Why? Sheppard: Because I was trying to convince them that... Just go and unplug the wraith while I talk to the Captain!

Now, this is maybe the most telling moment in the entire episode. The way Sheppard, clearly defensive, seems to feel the need to start giving McKay an explanation. He then decides that he does not have to explain himself to McKay because there is nothing to explain, he had done nothing wrong. Only then he does start explaining because he does not want McKay to get the wrong impression. Only, he had been flirting with her but that was just a means to an end, he was trying to convince them of his good intentions and that they were on the same side, to establish rapport with the Captain's First Officer.

While she was attractive, he found her unlikable and would never have even attempted to flirt with her if he had not been locked up in a jail cell trying to get information out of them that might possibly help them defeat the wraith. He had thought that was important enough to use any means necessary. But McKay was fragile, he was still feeling some kind of way about something that had happened a year ago when he had tried to flirt with another Ancient to get a wraith-destroying weapon out of her, and it clearly hurt him to think that Sheppard was actually attracted to these women. He did not want McKay to hurt but he also did not want to be having this discussion, and this seriously was not the time or the place for it anyway. So he tells McKay to go unplug the wraith and take care of his problem for himself.

McKay knows that they are under a time element here, that he had mere minutes to get Sheppard out of the simulation. And here, he folds his arms, clearly prepared to have a lengthy conversation about boundaries and respect and the state of their relationship. He is clearly digging his feels in, wanting to talk this thing out. It is as though Sheppard confessing that he had told what he had thought was a hot Ancient woman everything had completely overridden every other thought he had and they were going to have this out in the open right now.

These men, they are clearly in a relationship and Sheppard even almost acquiesces, almost starts getting into it with McKay. Feeling slighted because your co-worker was having a conversation with a member of the opposite sex is and throwing a jealous fit about it is completely normal heterosexual behaviour. No matter how you turn this, you cannot get a dynamic between a team leader and member of his team or a commanding officer with a subordinate here. McKay is demanding an explanation, thinks that he is owed an explanation by Sheppard and Sheppard seems to feel the same way. This is accusing husband of flirting with the waitress on an anniversary dinner vibes, not O captain, my captain vibes.

McKay: The communiqué is blank! Sheppard: Yeah, but he might still have some intel about the wraith weakness. Now, Rodney, is there anything else you'd like to tell me? McKay: Only that Caldwell was probably gonna destroy the ship at any moment. Sheppard: Go! McKay: Going!

Note also the fact that Sheppard does not give McKay an order here, he is not commanding McKay to go even though he tells him to go. He barks the word in a tone that can only be excused by an intimate relationship. He also calls him Rodney here, emphasizing the intimacy of the exchange even in spite of his tone. Also, had he said the words "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?" in a different tone, he might have gotten a whole other answer. McKay did have many things to tell him but they were severely short on time so they would have to wait. And note again that they do not say good-bye because they are not parting, they are temporarily vacating each other's presence.

Note that McKay does the Jeannie-pose here again, apparently having decided that this was his method of focusing on disconnecting himself from the virtual environment. What is interesting is that there is an episode on the show entitled Who Needs a Green Eyed Jeannie? where Jeannie is jealous of Major Nelson's date with what he describes as the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Hijinks ensue and it turns out this woman is actually bad news but what connects this episode to that is that Major Nelson is locked up in a jail cell in the middle of his living room (by Jeannie) for a rather lengthy time until he is let out by her, and the episode ends with the two of them seeming to play chess but actually playing checkers, Jeannie convinced that Major Nelson is letting her win.

Relevant here is that Jeannie is seriously jealous of Nelson giving attention to any other woman which is precisely what McKay is here. He is the green-eyed Jeannie. And because he is so keen to take on the role of Jeannie, it means that he seems to have fantasized about handsome Air Force Majors from a very young age, perhaps even prompting his desire to start contracting for the USAF. As we will see later with The Game (S03E15), which also features a game of chess between Sheppard and McKay, playing the part of beautiful blonde women to get the attention of handsome Air Force officers is something that he finds very easy and pleasurable to do.

We should emphasize again that Sheppard's disposition here is not caused by McKay. Yes, he trusted McKay to provide him with information and he certainly could have used it earlier, but none of what had gone sideways here was actually McKay's fault in any way, shape or form. If Sheppard blamed anyone for the situation, he blamed himself and it was just easier to lash out at the person closest to him than it was to deal with those feelings. He takes off at a run immediately after McKay is gone, intending to fix this to the best of his ability.

McKay: Teyla! Ronon? Oh, I can't believe it! Two minutes in the pod and I'm abandoned! Come on! Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go! Oh! Right. OK.

McKay comes to in the real world and also immediately sets out to do what Sheppard had wanted him to do. What he says here is in contrast with Sheppard coming out of the simulation quickly only to get back in earlier, noticing that McKay was no longer by his pod. Sheppard said nothing about it, but that is not because he did not care. He is much more fearful of people abandoning him than McKay is. That is why McKay is able to vocalize it here, even to make it into a kind of a joke. Because he does not think that Teyla and Ronon have really abandoned him, he is just inconvenienced by their absence. For Sheppard, it is a much larger existential question and so he refuses to even think about it, let alone acknowledge it in words. The moment Sheppard had made it back to the simulation, he had told the guard "I really don't like being ignored" because he really did not like being ignored by McKay. But it was never McKay's intention to ignore him. Even here, as he takes off, he takes a glance at Sheppard's pod to make sure that he is alright in his stasis.

Continued in Pt. 13

[1tsteatime]

REFERENCE TO JON AND MARTIN IN EPISODE 17

RIGHT HELLO I NEED TO KNOW I'M NOT CRAZY HERE.

I loved episode 17, and this isn't even to talk about the VERY interesting details to do with Celia at the start, and the jmj error at the end (trust me, those are whole crates of worms to be opened), but this post in particular is about a very quick, very sly detail at the start of the statement.

Allow me, if you will, to quote directly from the transcript:

"Anyway, there was a new receptionist behind the old front desk, some big, soft-looking guy who stumbled over every word. A year ago, it would probably have wound me right up, but what can I say? Therapy works.

There was another patient too, some bookish-looking guy with serious city miles. I used to play the game “what are you in for,” where I would pass the time guessing… well. You know. In my head he was definitely some kind of weird pervert, really into stroking orchids or something."

PLEASE TELL ME I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE HEARING SEASON 1 JON AND MARTIN? Let's check the list:

Big, soft looking guy: that runs true with every canon description we've heard about Martin, not to mention ALL the fanart. Not to conflate fanon with canon, but here it's pretty cut and dry. Besides, 'stumbled over every word'? Now that is Martin to a tee, particularly in season 1.

Bookish-looking guy: oh, it's not like we know a certain stuffy archivist who is known for saying 'good lord' and describing merry-go-rounds as 'thrilling'. Again, I'm not saying those are the same thing but COME ON. The next bit is also interesting: 'serious city miles'. That can refer to someone who looks rough due to life incidents or substance use, and we do know that Jon is a smoker. The stroking orchids bit I have no clue about, likely just a funny line.

Their roles in this cameo are interesting as well; Martin as a receptionist and Jon as a patient. Besides thinking of a dozen fanfic AUs that would leap from this topic, it sort of reverses the power dynamic? Well, not exactly, but the roles do make sense given what we know about them: Martin being very caring and compassionate, but not the most qualified, and Jon's mental state being...less than stellar, this totally checks out.

Now, I'm not banking any firm theories on this; honestly I think we're still too early in the podcast to have a semblance of the 'real' plot, but if this is foreshadowing instead of just a cute nod to the characters, here is the proposal I'll make:

What if the dimension shifting didn't happen perfectly? This episode already deals with identity, and body vs mind vs soul. What if that is Jon and Martin's actual bodies, but their souls got separated? Now these incorporeal souls need a host...maybe an old computer database? What if those 'city miles' weren't just any old marks, but worm holes, desolation burns, our Jon's scars and wounds. What if their bodies have forgotten what happened to them?

There is a good chance that this goes totally nowhere. Still though, I'm calling it early. So excited to see where this all goes!

[windvexer]

Hi, Chicken!

I have recently entered a dilemma. After diving headfirst into research about 'quantum mysticism' (and VERY quickly learning how BS it is), I'm left wondering if there's anything linking witchcraft and science together.

I ended up watching a ton of science videos from a reputable source, and it left me feeling... weird about magic/witchcraft as a whole.

I guess I'm just looking for validation that magic/witchcraft is real, whether or not science can explain it.

Thanks, friend! <3

Internalized Scientism is common.

The only things that are true can be measured (so the philosophy goes), and if you experience something that cannot be measured, well, you aren't crazy - it's just that your experiences are not yet able to be reduced to measurements; your mysticism cannot now be tacked up on a board and dried out as a scientific specimen, but one day - what a relief! - everything you've ever known or been will be reduced to binary, nothing but a mystery-free code copied down in some database; measured, true, complete. What a comforting feeling, apparently, for how ardently some love the thought.

It is not particularly any of our faults for being made to feel crazy, foolish, stupid, or whatever pejorative term, for believing in things that have meaning without having measurement.

At the intersection where you meet the rest of reality lives a dazzling mystery, dark and glittering like granite in a mossy stream, breathtaking and sometimes so sacred we fear to touch it.

What little cracks appear in things that are when a person learns to explore that mystery. There is hardly an easier way to keep people from exploring those bothersome depths than just convincing every last person that because some crude scientist cannot reach into the mystery of their soul and crack it apart with a measuring tape, those mysteries simply do not exist.

I will tell you why I started practicing witchcraft (apart from the goading spirit man) - I knew there had to be something more.

There had to be something more.

Why are you here, Anonymous, sniffing after the mossy stream? Can you tell that your feet are wet, even if you can't feel the water? Do you sense there is something glinting down there, tucked away in invisible cracks?

You are at work, you are at school, you are on your phone, at the store, at a party, and still: moss is growing over your toes. Lichen is growing on the box of cookies on the store shelf. A ghost stag is sad somewhere near the meat department. And if they are not there, is something in the back of your mind yelling, keening, weeping: why not? where did it go, it is supposed to be there, how do I find it?

What is witchcraft, my friend? It is different things to different people, but I will tell you something that it can be:

Witchcraft is a system of tools and frameworks to explore the desperate need for something more.

Do you have that need? Does something inside of you want to cry with joy if you dare admit to yourself there might be something more?

If so, witchcraft may be the framework you choose to explore those mysteries.

I cannot convince you that there is a mystery to be explored. I do not want to convince you of that. I am just telling you - you can explore it. We have the tools. Sometimes, some of these tools are called Witchcraft.

Do you know the problem with trying to see more clearly in the moonlight?

As soon as you bring the sun in, it isn't night any more.

In the rich darkness, you may never gain the clarity of sight and insight you already have under the sun.

But for some of us, that gentle night is a place we must go to; to see things in their ghostly, star-struck forms; to feel the world outside of its measurements; to experience our same universe, inside-out and upside down, merely by virtue of having the sun slip away, and thereby become complete within ourselves - because so many of us are already inside-out and upside down to begin with.

Explore the darkness if you would like to. All you've got to do is open the door and let the moonlight reveal what you may already know:

your toes are in a stream.

[robin-evry]

HII i'm loving your works omg! could i ask you to make a bronya!yuu or silverwolf!yuu? (you can choose just one if you want). take care or yourself and do your work at your time, no need to rush! :D

I decided to do two but sorry if bronya is so short , aww thank you.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐋𝐅!𝐘𝐔𝐔 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐖𝐒𝐓🐺👾

A member of the Stellaron Hunters and a genius hacker. She sees the universe as a massive immersive simulation game and has fun with it. She's mastered the skill known as "aether editing," which can be used to tamper with the data of reality.

Silver wolf!yuu is rarely known in nrc, they prefer to stay behind the scenes only a few students know about their existence.

Rarely appear in public, mostly using their holograms to go to school. It's pretty rare to see them actually outside of the ramshackle dorm.

Has a habit of disappearing and appearing, imagine your standing there and suddenly a hologram or game particles appear and silver wolf!yuu appear beside you.

Every time Crowley manages to piss them off, silver wolf!yuu would choose an area to vandalize at school, and some students manage to learn when you take a photo of it you can get a hidden message from silver wolf!yuu about Crowley.

silver wolf!yuu has a habit of collecting data about students, they have a database about their past, quirks, strength and weakness.

A very famous gamer in twst known to beat unbeatable levels of any game in twst and they use a fake alias. They hear about idia ranting towards Ortho about their game persona and find it funny. And join many game tournaments and win them easily and they gained money for this.

The ignihyde dorm is their second home, the dorm has good wifi for gaming. And manage to get close to idia and Ortho and talk about games with each other.

Their uniform has technology imbued to it. allowing them to access and project holographic screens on command. These are mainly used for quick data checks, sending encrypted messages, or pulling up maps and files in real-time without needing a handheld device.

They possessed a higher advanced technology than anything in twst. Also they use their aether hacking to change the ramshackle to their liking.

In battle, they would dominate due to having a lot hex on their side, they can hack into reality and get in the students file and remove the overblot. Or use it to discover and apply weakness towards the enemy.

They also have a mysterious job, operated as a freelancer, known for taking on jobs that require skill, secrecy, and the ability to circumvent the most complex security systems. Their reputation was built on their expertise in digital infiltration, information gathering, and high-stakes hacking, often working for those willing to pay for their skills without asking too many questions. most of their clients seem to be suspicious or not morally good.

Notorious for being a phone addict always playing their game outside or inside of class and when they were asked a question they immediately answered it correctly.

They also have a talent of engineering zoning out imagining about creating new tech ideas, mods and strategies for games.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐘𝐀!𝐘𝐔𝐔 𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐖𝐒𝐓 ❄️🌬️

Heir apparent to the Supreme Guardian of Belobog. She possesses pride befitting of a princess, but also the determination and integrity of a soldier.

Bronya!yuu is the embodiment of what a leader and an heir should be. Their charisma is able to encourage people and lead them towards the right path.

As well a dignified soldier bronya!yuu may look weak but are by far one of the most efficient in hand to hand combat, able to pin down a student who is bigger than them.

Has a tendency to reminisce about their mother and would just sit there and reminisce about them and grim would always be there to comfort them.

An expert marksman, rook and them once a week have a contest with each other who ever is the better marksman.

They are by far one of vil favorite, they are dignified, elegant and strong like a soldier and a princess should be, they also inspired epel to be more like them he admired them and have lessons with him where they tutor him.

They are patient and calm in the heeds of battle always believing as being one in harmony they could work together and forge a more successful path, as well being the back bone of a battle planning and helping them behind the scenes by shooting at the enemy

Them and Lilia would usually trade military tactics to each other over a cup of tea and also discussing other topics

They usually get burned out and they don't know when to rest, since they always have to keep a princess like dignity many of the first years notice and comfort them during hard times.

Bronya!yuu abilities allow them to enhance their comrade ability extremely towards its potential, as well to summon winter soldiers to help them but it takes a lot of energy.

Have a love and interest in history, usually seen in the library studying about twst long history and enjoy talking about them to their friends.

As well being a top student, always studying and getting good grades without any issue and always be respectful towards people

By far have a good reputation at school for being a capable leader, many students admire their discipline, while others have some sort of a sense of rivalry with them.