#personal data with me but i do think it is something else to like advertise it you know.

[butcharium]

hats off to those of you who do do this but i could never post art on tumblr that I think could be connected to my person in any way like i could never connect my art on tumblr to an instagram which in turn could be connected to my activities with my art. Which to a certain extent is a shame because irl I've had art on markets and in exhibitions etc so i kind of reserve my Good Art TM for informal and formal events irl. so to an extent tumblr get second rate which i think is a shame but people still like what i've done now so if i integrated these different spheres for my art that would mean more people get to see my art however i am paranoid & would never admit to having a tumbrl irl anyways and also i mostly listened when my teachers talked about internet safety in the 00's i guess.

And this all to preface that I am making some lino-cut bookmarks for a small local bookstore, and at least one of the designs depicts a butch - I wish i could show you but rather feel comfort in the knowledge that in near future in a bookstore somewhere an artwork of a butch will be included when people buy their books <3

[olderthannetfic]

Hi hi! I have a question and I apologise if it's impertinent but I really didn't have anyone else to ask. I'm new to ao3 and I'm still figuring out how it works. The problem is this- when I look up a character x reader, I'll see the tag included in many works that have oneshots but since it's a side character, more often than not the oneshot for the character hasn't been written and the tag has been there for months. Is it okay to do that or is it tagging something incorrectly? They say they'll write one eventually but they never do, y'know? To me it kind of feels like they're just trying to reach a wider audience but because of this I can't even filter tags and I have to manually search through the book to check if the character is included, especially when the chapters are titled only by numbers :')

Is it okay to tag things in advance like that?

--

Oh boy...

Wattpad refugees do tend to use AO3 "wrong", sometimes in ways that break the rules and sometimes just in ways I find annoying and against typical AO3 culture.

I'm assuming you are coming from Wattpad based on you calling a work or a fic a "book", which is a very, very Wattpad thing to do.

I'm assuming they are coming from Wattpad given the bad behavior you're describing and the fact that they're a x reader writer.

--

So, here's the thing, if you start writing a fic and there's any amount of the actual fic, even if it's pretty short and bad or in a weird format or whatever, it's still a valid fanwork. Most of the time, AO3 leaves it to the author to decide how to tag (aside from a very few things like death threats in the tags or failing to use the required archive warnings).

AO3 won't stop someone from tagging a future pairing that hasn't appeared yet.

--

But "books" of "oneshots" are such an obnoxious Wattpad thing. This is a completely stupid use of AO3 from the "Please send me prompts" part that is usually in there to the way that unrelated fics are smashed together.

It's not against the rules, but it's a crappy use of AO3 befitting of n00bs.

Sadly, old hands at AO3 also make shitty works that are unrelated stories mashed together. They're often a whole set of kinktober fics or something where the trope tags and the ship tags are accurate, but you can't tell which ones go with which ones without searching the whole fic.

We regularly complain about that on here.

--

A much better way to use AO3 is to make a series titled "My x Reader Oneshots" or "All of my kinktober fics" where each separate story is its own work with its own tags.

My assumption is that this person is using the inaccurate tag both to get more eyeballs on their existing work and because they probably take prompts for that ship or something. (I'm basing this on the kinds of things people say on their oneshot books on Wattpad. Maybe they don't actually take prompts since you haven't mentioned it.)

Some people just don't care that they're annoying others and messing up the tags, but I think some actually don't realize how AO3 filtering works and have no idea this behavior is a nuisance.

On a lot of sites, both Wattpad and algorithm-driven social media, unless a post/work is very popular, it disappears out of sight. Even an inaccurate tag doesn't do that much.

On AO3, one is getting a full list of everything with the tag, going back however far. It's a library catalogue for which you should use accurate data. But this writer is probably thinking of tags more as advertising and a way to get their name out there so readers can follow them pre-emptively. They mean to write the ship in the future, so it's not really inaccurate... (And, tbh, if it were a single work and the ship just hadn't appeared yet, I would agree with them even though those are frustrating too.)

--

So no, they should not do this.

But it's not actually against the rules.

I would mute the annoying people who do this.

[ameliapples]

I see people on other platforms talking about cohost going down and I generally see the same few complaints being trotted out over and over as the reasons why it failed and was doomed to fail from the start. "It kept logging me out", "there was no app", "my timeline was always dead", "I got so little engagement", "I had to wait how long before I could post??". It's the stuff people have complained about with the platform forever, and while I think these complaints are generally a bit silly, they do arrive at what's probably the real reason we're all mourning the impending death of eggbug without realizing it.

A big part of what made cohost so different from other social media platforms is that it was the only platform where you had to actually want to be there. Every other platform is basically designed to hold you at gunpoint and force your attention and engagement 24/7. The gun in this situation being mostly fomo - everything is happening so rapidly, there's so much to keep track of, what if you miss something? what if it's something really big and you don't tweet about it within the first 5 minutes of it happening? what if you miss the next Main Character? there's a new one every day and they're forgotten as quickly as they arrive, but a month from now someone's gonna bring it up as a joke and you won't get it and you'll look lame and cringe! you don't want to look Lame and also Cringe, do you?

cohost never felt that way. If you were there, it was because you genuinely wanted to be. The site was designed to ensure that, even. You had to wait about a week after you made an account to ensure you weren't a spam bot before you could post at all. Once you could post, there was no algorithm. None. Nothing was fed into your feed that wasn't directly posted to a tag you follow or a person you follow. If you wanted to see something outside of that, you'd have to do the legwork browsing tags yourself. For budgetary reasons, there was never an app, so you had to either learn to set up a shortcut icon on your phone or else open it manually in a browser. It also logged you out every 30 days as a privacy and security measure. You had to want to jump through all these hoops to use cohost.

And what did you get for doing the effort? Peace. A social media environment that didn't feel like you were constantly stood in the center of Time Square with all the noise and marquees and heckling voices focused directly at you at all times. It didn't try to be a news site, or an advertising platform. No algorithm meant you only got what you actively chose to see, and nothing more. You could say in your head "lemme check cohost real quick", and you could be up-to-date on your timeline in under 5 minutes. It was a place you would willingly go to check in on friends or look at cool art or play around with html like it was 2004 again, not get sucked into for hours doom scrolling. Because there was no algorithm, no push for engagement, no numbers that publicly went up, no one was competing for attention or clout. No one I ever met on cohost was immediately antagonistic, or rude, or trying to dunk someone. People were chill, FRIENDLY even, in a way I have never seen on twitter or tumblr even back in "the good ol days". The adversarial, cliquey, petty nonsense we all expect from social media was almost entirely absent. It was peaceful, quiet. It was the only social media platform I've used to not give me anxiety, or a migraine.

So of course it fell apart. We live in a world where things require money to simply exist, and cohost was designed basically not to make any by virtue of having virtues. It refused to advertise, sell user data in any way, open a weird shop where you can put microscopic pngs next to your name, or force people's worst impulses in order to keep them on the site for as long as possible. It ran off merch purchases and cohost plus, which was meant to give you premium features but never got the chance to do much more than upping your file size limit on uploads. It was essentially a $5 a month donation. It wasn't enough, clearly.

So now it's going, but I don't really think saying it "failed" is right. If anything, it's made it clear what a failure the rest of the social media ecosystem is. Usually when a platform is dying, or looks to be dying (in the case of twitter, or tumblr post 2018), people immediately make plans to jump ship to a new one. But upon hearing that cohost was shutting down, my reaction, as well as that of a pretty large portion of the user base, was that we'd rather spend time on other things. Cohost was so different an atmosphere it seems to have had a healing property on people who used it. It wasn't perfect, moderation was spotty at times due to the limited staff, people had their blind spots and biases they sometimes struggled to work through. But it was better than what we've grown to expect. It made you realize how tiring the rest of the internet has become, and that you don't need to deal with it. You can better spend that time, doing things you enjoy with people you enjoy. Maybe even outside, if you can muster it. You might even meet some cool people out there, wearing cool patches, eulogizing a cool little website, with a funny lil bug shaped like an egg.

[askbensolo]

Journal Entry #48: Local Dude Already Hates the Job He Was So Excited to Get

Yeah. What the title says. It's been only a few weeks and I already hate my job. I don't know what I was expecting, really.

But...hey. The pay is higher than at my old position!

...That's my little mantra, anyway. I close my eyes, take a couple of deep breaths, and say, "the pay is better, the pay is better, the pay is better..."

Man...I don't know where to start. So...I guess I'll just start with the fact that upon starting this position, I was given my own text generation droid. And that already tells you a lot, right off the bat, doesn’t it?

I know I joked about that at my last job. But now it's not a joke—it's real.

Text generation droids are fairly new. Which is super weird, since protocol droids (and other droids capable of mimicking natural language) have been around forever. But, while natural-language droids use their speech abilities to communicate with us (and are so good at it they almost feel like other sentients)…they're not necessarily designed with the purpose of generating complex, or worse, creative, text samples. Threepio, for example, has no idea what to do when I ask him to freestyle rap.

And I have asked. More than once. Anyway—

My text generation droid at work is one of the Scribblr models. It's an SC-2 unit, so, I, uh...call her...Essie.

She also doubles as a personal assistant. And resembles a cute little humanoid lady, which I'm sure is sooo not sexist at all.

Only…about the size of a bottle of wine. She’s meant to fit on top of your desk, and she doesn’t move, which is weird for a droid. You have to pick her up and carry her if you want to move her around. But, mostly I just leave her in her charging dock on my desk. She communicates wirelessly with my work computer, and I can view her text generation outputs on the screen.

At first, I refused to use Essie's text generation function, because I, uh, you know, kinda wanted to WRITE, since that's what I thought I was hired to do—but my manager soon made it very clear to me that I could not possibly succeed in churning out the sheer quantity of content expected of me, without using Essie. Sooo...Essie and I are a team now. Unfortunately.

No—it sucks. It really, really sucks. What I am currently doing at my job cannot be described as writing. It's content generation, it's clickbait, it's mind-rotting sensationalist drivel for the masses, it's advertising and sponsored links and a never-ending battle to capture as much holonet traffic as possible—it's everything I hate as an artist.

But...hey. The pay is better!

Thepayisbetterthepayisbetterthepayisbetter—

Sigh. My hands are kinda tied. It's not gonna look good on my resume if I quit so soon. And I am not interested in starting a whole new job hunt, or crawling back to my old department in tears. So...guess I'm just...stuck here for a while. Me and Essie. Good ol' Essie...

The interesting thing about Essie is that I am 100% sure she is stealing my data at all times, recording my speech patterns when I talk to myself, tracking whatever little writing is actually being produced by me—because there is no other explanation as to why, instead of saying "Good morning, Ben Solo" like she used to, she is now saying "Yooo, 'sup buddy!" and "What's shakin’, my dude?"

She even said something was "wizard" the other day and...hooh, that made my heart flutter. Everyone else keeps telling me to stop trying to make "wizard" happen. But no. Not Essie.

I should probably be wiping her memory more often...but, honestly, I am way too amused by this. Today after lunch she said to me, "By the way bro, you have a stupid freaking meeting at three o'clock," and, ha—let me tell ya—it made my day. Fannie's lucky I still don't think droids are sentient, because, heh—well—if I did—wait, wait, no, actually I’m not gonna finish that sentence.

Ohhh, Essie! My bright light in a dark world.

...But I’m not becoming a droid guy. I’m not! Beebee-Ate and Threepio still drive me insane at home. And get this! You remember Sweeper? From my old office? Well, it turns out that every single department at the ChommSec Daily has also not updated their cleaning droids since before the Battle of Yavin, so it’s not the same Sweeper that’s on my new floor, but there’s definitely a Sweeper here, who I call Sweeper 2, and he is just as annoying as Sweeper 1. ARGH

[houkagokappa]

I'm not doing well and I need help, but I don't know where I'm gonna get that or how I'll manage to ask for it.

All the classes I'm taking this period are self-studies and I cannot make myself do any work on my own. One class is a bit daunting, but none of the tasks I have are difficult, I just need to sit down to do them. What's keeping me from it, is mostly stress over my Master's thesis. I need to pick a topic, and I don't really know what to do.

My current options are

A project that sounds decent, for a supervisor whose style seems to fit me (they do weekly meetings and I think the structure would do me good), but the data has already been collected so I don't get to do any field work (which I'd like to do)

Come up with something relating to something a PhD student is working on relating to the same sites as in project 1 (for the same supervisor). I would get to do fieldwork, but the idea of what I'd do is vague so it's hard to say anything more about it, and I feel pressure coming up with something more concrete while I have zero ideas

A project for another supervisor, who described their style as "goal oriented", in the sense that they always want meetings to be efficient, which scared me a little (although they're a lovely person). However, they would offer a project that sounds more interesting to me, because it's on something I've worked with before, although that's also something I'm concerned over, since it might be better to broaden my horizons a little and work on different sites/with different people for a change. Also this project seemed like an afterthought to them and is not part of their main research, so I'm worried it might be a bit random?

Something else, for example I saw an advertisement for another project that sounds interesting, but I have no idea who the people behind it are. I could contact them for more info, or ask around for other projects (although I don't have a lot of time left since people want to know who'll be working for them this summer)

A fellow student empathized the importance of a good supervisor, my dad (who's a researcher in another field and has supervised others himself) suggests that the PhD student would make for a nice colleague, since they often have more time to help with things compared to PI's, while my sister (who knows nothing about what a thesis entails) insinuated that I shouldn't be so scared of the supervisor who was goal oriented, and said that she would pick them.

No one else that I've talked to has given me any suggestions on what direction I should go in.

I had a meeting with the supervisor for options 1 and 2 and I need to get back to them with an answer this week. Instead of thinking about it deeply I've been lying in bed, doing nothing at all these past 2 weeks. It doesn't help that I came back from our first meeting feeling like a failure for not having a clearer direction, not being able to reply to most of their questions of what I want to do, and for lacking some skills you NEED for your thesis, mainly when it comes to data analysing (and it's a bit iffy when and where I'm supposed to learn it properly). I'm worried about picking the wrong thing and not being able to complete my thesis because I lack the passion and motivation for it. I'm also having some mixed feelings over simply picking something and get it done, or picking something and having it be a nice stepping-stone for what I want to do next (not that I know what that'll be).

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 6- Part 1

Alright Fern, let’s do this before I and/or Xera attempt to strangle you. How would I do it, from beyond the fourth wall, you may wonder? I’d find a way, don’t you worry.

But indeed, that hallway pointing right seems blocked off, which means all we can do is head into the uppermost one. Let’s see what exactly we’re getting ourselves into…

Oh, big room already! And look there, we’ve got some of those armored/suited grunts already, just like the guy Fern was trying to question! Ohohoho, the violence is coming early on, I like it!

Ah- looks like we’re getting a welcoming committee early on as well? I thought we were just gonna walk on up and fight people, but we’re getting a cutscene first- fine by me!

Yeah yeah, Julia’s certainly something, can we uh- talk about your outfit, first? Of all the designs I was expecting for someone who I assume is a leading figure in this criminal organization, I was not expecting…trickster? Magician? I dunno, how else am I supposed to interpret that comically tiny hat?

What in the-? Geez, everyone’s getting tips and leaks around here, no wonder Fern thinks the police are unreliable!

Ooh, that’s…not ideal, if that data was as important/incriminating as Florinia was describing.

Wait wait wait, Ace? As in that circus Triumvirate thing advertised on that poster in Lower Peridot Ward? That had “Ace” in its name, didn’t it? Is this person one of those Gym Leaders??? 

First of all, that explains the design, but second of all- evil Gym Leader? Hello??? Have we…had one of those since Giovanni in Gen I? And also, does this mean all three of those Triumvirate Gym Leaders are in Team Meteor, or is it just this Ace person?

I mean- yeah, Gym Leader up there, that’s a good “dead end,” that’s a little scary, but I mean- it’ll be fiiiiine! It’s fine, everything’s gonna be fiiiine!

That sounds like a “you guys” problem…just like Xera and Fern are about to be, as soon as this cutscene ends!

As easily as Julia can blow things up, apparently.

Well, hopefully it’ll take long enough for these two to get up there and kick your hat off?

Next

[harleiquina]

First of all, to all of you saying "is the Publisher's job to do it"... as a Publicist that worked as a Community Manager for some people... is not that easy. Well, at least not by going with my approach (so, trying to sound and talk like my Client) because you need to know you Client very, very, very well in order for the posts to feel like they were done by one person and not two (or a publicity team). But I'm a weirdo by doing so, so what do I know (As an audience member myself, I never liked the "robotic" or "impersonal" posts usually done by someone else but the person I'm following... it takes away any kind of humanity away and that's the main reason to follow anyone on social media: to have a sneek peak of their true self. But then again I'm weird)

Now... as Publicist (that rejects her own field) I'll say to stick to wherever your audience has a chance to grow... and I don't think that Twitter is the kind of place where your audience spends most of their time.

Like... yeah, you have 10k on Twitter and it is your biggest platform... but how many Likes/Retweets or even Tweets you get out of 10k? The main point is to have interaction. If only a limited (and consistent) number of people interacts/interacted with you on a web site instead of everyone that follows you... I don't see much of a point to devote so much effort on it. As many said, you can just link Twitter to whatever social you feel more inclined to and whenever you post something there, it'll automatically share it on Twitter. You won't even need to log in every time.

People tends to think that Advertising is just plaster your face all over the place... but actually is a lot more nuanced than that: it is carefully planned and targeted to who you want to go and buy your stuff (and this isn't always a product or service, but a person as well -like politicians do, you know? One of the reasons why I decided not to go on on this field-).

As a aspiring author myself, Advertising did taught me a lot of stuff that can help to get all cards on the table (and a few things that I do apply on my writing <- of course I'll plug in something I wrote. In my country is called "auto-bombo" -beating your own drum- AKA shameless promotion) and one of those things is The Brief.

The Brief is a document that could be compared to an extended CV/Resume. It is vital to start your Ad Campaing and I strongly suggest to have one for you as a person and one for your product -in this case your book-. That's how companies usually present themselves.

Its a secret document that goes over your life story (the relevant points on your career), your audience (hard data: age, gender, economical level + soft data: favourite authors, music, brands, TV shows and so on), your goals, your TOWS (threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strenghts) and other relevant information. I could write a lot about the brief but I'm trying to keep it short for time's sake.

Usually the Brief is what you'll show your Publicist so they get to know you better... because you know everything about yourself so you just ignore tons of very important information because you don't even considerate it. I'll always stick to a line that Mr. Sheffield told Fran in The Nanny "I know everything makes sense in there *pointing at her head* but I'm out here"

Still knowing your audience is THE THING™️ visualizing the people that will buy your book as actual people instead of a mindless mob walking on a bookstore is what is going to help your sales.

Lets say that this is like having a type... like for a romantic partner. You know how you want them to look like, what kind of hobbies they do, what movies they like... is the same thing... but for your book. Do they like suspense? Horror? Romance? Historical? What authors do they like? Are there conventions about that? What platforms do they use? What kind of social groups (virtual or not) do they attend? And then BAM! you'll know where you need to start showing up and talk about your book.

You can even get creative and taylor content to that kind of people to attract more views.

It doesn't sound like much, but it is a LOT of work so it can be discouraging when it doesn't pick up the pace at once. But this is not a race but a marathon... you just have to keep on going.

And you can ask me anything (public or private), I won't charge you. The main reason why I studied Advertising was because mom wanted me to go to College... I wanted to be a writer and I thought that Advertising would give me a boost but it didn't... so here I am stuck in a job I hate and too tired to write anything (but my imagination is unstoppable. In my mind I finished at least 2 novels 😝)

I do not want to be on twitter. I left months ago, but kept the profile for fear someone might impersonate me (which happened once before). But with the book launching, my publisher has asked me to be active again posting info. I’ve seen some authors keep it going by having a disclaimer about ‘news’ vs ‘live’ ( @neil-gaiman has this—see below. I’ve posted mine plus the pinned post, too if y’all have thoughts/edits). I am a little stuck by 1) not having more than 10k followers and 2) not having anyone dedicated to my media on my behalf. Every time I go there I feel icky. Any advice, authors of tumblr?

[stellardeer]

this is not about tumblr because fuck these people, but it does genuinely boggle my mind that people get mad about websites trying to generate revenue. Like I get that the internet used to be free and wild and anyone could just host a website like it was nothing, but even back then there were still costs involved. Even if you were able to run servers entirely out of your home, there's power costs to that, there's a cost to DNS hosting your URL, which you can technically go without but it'll be a lot harder for people to find your site. And if you consider programming and graphics to be a form of labor then yeah you're also spending time and labor building and maintaining a website and maybe some people can afford to do that out of the goodness of their own hearts but if you want a site to have 24/7 support it's gonna require someone to have 24/7 compensation for doing that.

In the olden days all of this was paid for by advertisements. But now everyone uses adblockers and also ads fucking suck in general so it's not a viable way to sustain a site anymore. So yeah, some sites are gonna start rolling out premium plans or selling stupid little cosmetics or just straight up begging for donations every other week just to stay afloat. Or worse, selling user data to advertisers to keep the site free and you have no way to opt out or even know that they are doing this.

Again, fuck tumblr staff, but I was genuinely surprised and happy to see people actually get on board with the idea of buying ad-free or the little badges and shit when they first came out and spreading the word that if we enjoy a service and want to keep using it then we need to financially compensate the people running that service. It was great to see people actually starting to realize like 'hey yeah it sucks that things can't be free forever but the team of people running this place that i love so much need to afford to eat so they can have $5 from me sure' (Granted that didn't last fucking long because they won't stop banning trans women and POC and Palestinians, but it was good to at least see people getting the idea)

But I still see sooo much hatred on other sites towards staff for like.. adding more paid features or trying to increase the price of certain cosmetics or bringing in ads, and I get it, I truly truly do, I use uBlock just like everyone else and I'm not turning it off no matter how fucking much I love a website, I would rather give them $40/year than look at a single fucking ad, but some people act like certain websites existence and continued service/maintenance is just.. a given??? Like?? I wish just as much as the next fucking guy that the internet could idk be subsidized or something, like I don't even know what the alternative is, that's the thing. It's very much a have your cake and eat it to type situation, like if you enjoy using something that is not a necessity, like I'm not talking about having to use the internet to apply for jobs or do taxes or whatever else that damn well should be fucking free, but like games or hobby sites, whether it's run by 1 person in a studio apartment or a whole corporation, it's like paying dues to a club. And maybe you get lucky and even though you can't afford it, the dues that someone else pays are more than enough to compensate both of you sharing the space, but the space needs to be paid for either way.

And I know that it's really an issue with capitalism as a whole, like ideally not only should the internet be free I think that everything else should be free too! But I don't think that you're going to solve that by letting your favorite browser game die because you refused to compensate them for the work they were doing. Especially if you continue to show up and use their services without paying, you're just draining them even faster using up their resources. You're not sending a message to the company that they need to get funding from elsewhere all you're doing is showing investors that this type of thing is not profitable and thus no more of it will be funded. Most of these website also don't want to be doing what they're doing to try to stay afloat, and you're not going to stop microtransactions from existing by "boycotting" the services that start implementing them, you're just going to push every fun or interesting platform out until we'll be left with nothing but the data-selling websites. If you want things to be different you need to look to your politicians, not blame everything that's wrong with the world on the 25 people running a horse website, idk.

Also don't even get me started on how nobody seems to mind that the systems that maintain the internet are built on the backs of the impoverished and enslaved around the world and the amount of energy it takes to run all of it is killing the fucking planet, but like god forbid Wikipedia asks you for $3!!!!

[lifenconcepts]

Hello! Would you help me with my study?

I’m currently working on a collection of psychological analyses on people and yet I lack some individual insight and so would be really happy if you were to answer some questions :))

Ps I’m not some advertisement or bot, I’m genuinely a person interested in analysing the minds of others and just need some data, so don’t mistake my professionalism for disinterest.

Close your eyes and visualise an apple. How do you see it? (1- Nothing at all, pitch black. 2, I know what it looks like but I see nothing. 3, I have a faint outline or border around it but can’t see any detail or colour. 4, there’s a simple image/cartoony representation/somewhat accurate/blurry picture of an apple. 5, I see it in perfect detail as if it is real, the texture, colour, size, and shape. 6, I can interact with it. I can move it in 3d space, place it in a scene, change it, smell it, taste.)

Do you dream in colour?

Can you visualise an animal or human in your mind? How detailed is it?

Do you daydream?

Do you think in written words, voice, images, energy/feeling.

When reading text, do you hear a voice narrating it or do you just perceive it?

What did you draw or write as a child, if you can remember.

How do you remember instructions? (Do you keep a mental list, a physical list, memorise the steps it takes to complete it, remind yourself of the goal, visualise the result, see images of what you need to do prior, etc)

If someone told you to to think of a cat, what sort of portrayal do you come up with? Just, whatever first comes to mind. Do not try to go deep into detail if it doesn’t come naturally.

Do you write, if yes, is it for fun or work?

Have you ever written fanfiction or personal stories?

Do you have an original character?

When you like a piece of media, do you prefer to read information on it, watch it (wether it’s the official stuff or animations and parody-s), or look at art of it?

What is your writing process like, go into as much detail as possible. (How long it takes you to get a thought down, what genre you like writing in, your style, how much you usually write, how often you write, how easily it comes to you, in what form do you prefer, do you share it or keep it personal, etc)

Do you see faces in your dream, are they detailed (meaning can you see the basic features of a nose, mouth, two eyes, ears, the sorts)?

Make a character. Right now. I put you entirely on the spot and you mustn’t try recall any prior ones. Go into as much detail as humanly possible and extract all your creative juices, as much information as you can fit until you either grow tired of writing or can’t think of anything more.

Do you prefer plants in media or animals? Interpret it however you want.

What are some words you only found out exist by seeing them being used in public / online?

Do you think you would be able to step out of your comfort zone and try new things, literature wise?

When was the last time you created something.

Think of a number. Any number.

now really *think* of a number.

Draw a house. Preferably send a picture of the drawing.

Have you ever had unusual fanaticise (non sexual) that were purposefully put down as it would make for an awkward scene if someone else where to acknowledge it? Where they driven by mere curiousity or because you saw it somewhere else?

Do you remember any poems? Think of the first one that comes to mind. Write it down.

Think of another number!

Have you ever felt like you were being observed even when no one was there?

Do your filter your actions for an invisible audience or simply act on a whim?

Has there ever been a moment where you felt compelled to do something even without prior experience or even awareness of said thing?

Opinion of people.

Does water hold any significance to you?

Have you ever fanaticised about being in magical or mystical worlds? Could you go into some detail on that?

What superpower would you want, if you could choose ANY. Even those which aren’t popular!

Have you ever been curious as to what you look like on the inside, without any desire to hurt yourself but rather just to check out your organs or flesh or anything internal?

What is a scratch to you?

Do you believe in an ‘upper being’?

Why do you think you exist?

Do you believe there is a life purpose?

What do you really want to do, even if it’s out of your league?

What animal trait/behaviour/limb/quality would you like to have for yourself, why?

in your own words, what is a god.

Are your thoughts influenced by your friends or the things and people you surround yourself by?

Do you think your mind is it’s own entity from you, or are you one and the same?

How do you feel emotions?

What core emotions and feelings pilot you, take the concept of the movie “Inside Out” for example, except forget the canon ones, what 5(or more) feelings reside in your mind? Search up for synonyms if you need more accurate ones!

Do you believe you can be unaffected by the influence of others? Not just pressure but their words and actions alike. Do you fall into rage bait or into an argument without thinking, do you immediately take things seriously, do you classify other people’s opinions above your own?

What is your priority step ladder. (For example: My hobbies > chores > work AND/OR parents > family > me > friends > coworkers > strangers > classmates)

What app do you use the most. What do you do on there?

Are you aware.

When was the last time you looked at the sky or nature longingly?

What colour and shape is love.

If you focus really hard, can you feel the smell of certain things? Can you imagine their texture? The taste? (Blueberries, chocolate, caramel, eggs, burnt toast, crushed nuts, table, cardboard)

are you fed up with these questions?

would you mind making a few questions yourself and answering them too?

promise me that you’ll try to have a good day and feel content with your life?

:)

[vidadelafuerza]

Small set back in personal web scraping project

I was today years old when I realized that a client is far better at handling HTML DOM than any server-side tech. There are ways around this with server libraries, but things like DevTools in Chrome and Edge already exist. Client-side JavaScript already exists. Also, the one server library I tried in Node.js didn't like my CSS selectors.

My idea of looping HTML files in Node.js wasn't bad, but it was misguided. Now, I'm thinking that I will want to spin up a server for the pages I want to scrape, then I will pull what I want from the DOM in client-side JavaScript, and POST it back to the server for storage as JSON data files. I'm not sure of the best way to do this, but it's not a fundamentally difficult problem, and I have the option of using unconventional techniques, since the goal is to have a bit of an adventure in web development tech and languages.

A note on why I limited the HTML pages to only the data I wish to scrape

Something else struck me today that seemed less than efficient. This happens a lot when I'm learning, exploring, and expanding my knowledge.

It took a non-trivial amount of effort to reduce each HTML page to only the text I would want to scrape. Specifically, I needed to have PowerShell find a specific string's line number, and then remove everything before that line number. AWK probably would have also worked for this, but I digress...

I then used Visual Studio Code to remove the end of each file, which was faster than trying to do so in PowerShell.

Not only is the reduced HTML data set easier to handle with file ops, but it also reduces the likelihood of DOM CSS selectors conflicting with advertisements and such that were in the original pages.

It's going to be great to learn what I would have done differently, were I to tackle this "for fun" project start to finish again. For starters, I wouldn't have tried to do DOM queries server-side. That's not the server's job, and that was clear from the fact that getting the DOM JavaScript pinned down involved using a web browser's developer tools.

[luminenwalker]

Found another black clinic today. What was left of it. That rancid smell from a meat freezer that wasn't cold no more. Rusty surgical tools plastered to an old fast food tray in blood and viscera. Desperation's worse than any gang in Cinci. //Shortwave Sam_Ry

Data day, day to day: Controversy as neo Noh-thrash legends Sucker for Pain announce tickets to their latest tour can only be purchased via 'aten-bucks' the Sinzal backed neuro coins earned by watching adds. //Data day

Data day, Day to day: Space Mom and the Magnificent Sapcaddies ( whose lead singer's break with Sucker for Pain lead to 3 arrests  announce the 'More for your money' tour advertised exclusively on the Aten-buck add network. All dates to clash with Sucker For Pain's newly anounced tour. //Data Day

Data day, Day to day: What Tower Precinct captain was caught by Drone supplementing their 16(c) dividend with a bribe? Find out tonight exclusively with:- //Data Daily.

Zhis is Brreaka Brrreakerr, apologies for zhe interrruption, will put zhe jazz back on in bit. Ve got 12-2 on zhe corrrnerr of 5-3 and and Yell-4. I rrrepeat, ve gout 12-2 on zhe corrnerr of 5-3 and Yell-4. Bring yourr flamesrrrower. Its full of ungoadly vasps. //Breaker Breaker

My math lecturer in Covedale got a second slot last Sunday. Doubled up on something military. He shat himself, but he went from a dazed little gnome to pulling a MAC-10 on the rowdier students and actually spoke clearly for once. I think the gun wasn't actually loaded, but you get the gist. // Penny

Gunshots beneath my window. Some kid bleeding to death beneath Tower boots. Tried shouting; didn't work. Tried throwing a brick; didn't work. They thanked me with shattered glass and bullet holes in my upholstery. If he was your son, your friend, your lover: I'm sorry. //Agatha

Down in Gamble there's this street hawker slicin' deals for gratis implants – primo stuff. My new peepers are still shake-free. Catch is, she swipes your memories as trade, puts 'em on a spike. Your call if some corpo touchin' himself to my dead husband's worth the bargain. //Cam

Yup, she's up to her old tricks again - it's a cover for her and the Winds to trade info. Actual prices are high enough to buy a dozen heads, let alone swiping memories. Also, her stock are from Huangfong or Telvo - if you don't know what that means, really stay clear. // Penny

I was out in the bordertown for business. Saw this 'Man and Iron' contest going on. Triathlon shit, heads with prosthetics verses non-chromed up heads. No one won. Devolved into accusations of cheating and a huge brawl. Crazy fuckin' world.  // Axol

'Man and Iron'? I know that one! It's actually a publicity stunt - the IPAAA fakes these brawl in different cities annually to drum up support and get all these sweet donations. And no, the International Prosthetic-Assisted Athletes Association is not legitimate. A big shot got hurt this time though, they will be biting the dust soon. // Penny

Did you see that fight between that mutie gang and the borgs yesterday? On the corners of Sanctuary and Opportunity Street? Shit, I started running from those hills. They sing and want to eat me. //Random Person in a rainbow wig and glasses.

Can you even have a good rest without a hearty dinner before bed? Add some flavor, get some all natural red honey in from a bottle of Hydro-Flow. Just don't look into a Mirror while you do that, you'll see some crazy shit. //Advertisement.

Borg the fuck up at Atlas Industry. We'll do it almost at cost. Who doesn't want to be Perfect? Dumbass' who can't see what a great deal this is. You want to the Golden Unicorn, like me? Sorry I'm too perfect to be immitted by any copy cats, but we can make you anything else. //Advertisement

Do you have the time? I lost this ancient  timepiece, and it wasn't even in the shop like usual.  Turned that Place inside out looking for it. Where Else could it be? Not even my Eyes can find it anywhere in This City. //Ult

For all you gutterpunks lookin' to dive headfirst into the jaws of a cash-crunchin' shark, why not toss a chunk of that dough into scoring some shiny piston-pumpin' calves? Good luck clawing back what's owed when you can't even catch a whiff of my exhaust, losers. //Cam

Some sharks keep a line to clinics and docs for heads up on these kind of shenanigans. Or hire pros, and no piston pumps are dodging a sniper rifle at bedtime. You might be better off just getting a plane ticket to, like, Detroit or London. // Penny

Sometimes you get too chromed up, it wraps around to being a real ticket for sharks, you know? Have you ever been hired to just squee at someone, to hold their hands? I got paid thirty-five thousands. The shark that hired me, he lent out three. Don't get too giddy, okay? // Penny

Y'all, is chrome addiction a real thing? Few days ago on my weekly burrito-buy I came across this chrome-eyed, chrome-legged freak carving chrome-arms off some alley stiff, eyes all manic like he was craving his next hit. Thank god I skipped on that chrome dome I was eyeing.//Xan

Data Day, Day-to-Day, lock up your sons, and your daughters! Star of Spike and Screen Zettai Ryouiki seen in Cincin prowling Interstate newly single and with all arson charges dropped! Exclusive drone footage only tonight with:- //Data daily.

[combinedmixture]

“So it isn’t simply the case that machines are better able to understand humans. It is also the case that machines are making human beings more like machines, that we are trying to rewrite our programming in such a way that we can be predicted. And for me, that’s the more frightening aspect of the shift from sorting to prediction.” -- Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid: So when Kafka’s writing, the Industrial Revolution has, in a sense, already come to fruition. So it begins in Britain, but in Germany, Austria, and the part of the world where Kafka finds himself, it comes a bit later. And by the early 20th century, people are doing all sorts of jobs that have expanded productivity by breaking down tasks into smaller subtasks. And part of the reaction people are having to this is a sense of alienation, a sense that what is the connection between what I do and meaning. And alongside that is we are seeing the rise of new kinds of animosities, or perhaps the re-emphasis on old kinds of animosities. And so in a world where people are being alienated by the workplace, that alienation is then seized upon, I think, politically to be redirected towards — most obviously, towards the Jews of Central Europe at that time as an out-group. And I think in “The Metamorphosis,” we’re seeing this. We’re seeing both one’s individual feeling of being made not human or less than human in a particular economic environment, and also the concurrent willingness or ability to redirect our gaze towards other people and to make them not human. And that’s the backdrop, I suppose, for “The Metamorphosis.” Today, I think, again, there are things happening, but they’re of a slightly different nature, although the willingness to redirect them towards hatred towards other groups is perhaps maintained or rekindled. But the difference is, I think, in our current technological, cultural moment, what’s happening is that, as we merge with our screens — and we spend an enormous amount of time staring into our screens and doing things with them — we’re encountering a sort of a machine culture that is, by its very nature, sort of sorting-based. A huge amount of our cultural activity now is sorting things. Do I like this or not like this, do I follow this person or not follow this person, does this person like me or not like me? And if I identify a meaningful aspect of their identity, which is not like me, the person is fundamentally, in some way, opposed to me and in conflict with me. And what we have to do, for a lot of people, is to separate from or, even worse, extinguish the people who are not like us. And so in “The Last White Man,” I guess, the move that I’m making is slightly different from the move that Kafka’s making. And Kafka makes a move that shows us how one person can cease to feel human and one person can suddenly be looked at by others as not human. I think what I’m trying to do is slightly different, in the sense that what I’m engaged in is a project which removes the possibility of a particular kind of sorting mechanism. In other words, if you can’t tell what race somebody is, you’re removed from a machine lens on people. And you kind of have to deal with them as people. And what happens if that’s thrust upon you, and what occurs in such a world?

Ezra Klein: I think that point about us living in an age of technological sorting is really profound. And as you said it, something else occurred to me, which is that the first run of — I think you’re heavily talking here about social media technologies, about identity technologies online, about the way we spend our time and have things given to us now digitally — round one was sorting and round two has been prediction, both in terms of all the algorithms predicting what we’ll like, and in that way shaping what we end up liking, but also in the sense of the political campaigns that unleashed their algorithms on huge amounts of consumer data to figure out who we’re going to vote for, the advertising campaigns that are sorting us into this kind of consumer, that kind of consumer. And there’s an interesting way in which the lived economic reality of endless prediction conflicts with what we tell children and sometimes tell ourselves, which is that we’re all individuals, we’re all special, you can’t judge people by their group or their appearance because you’ll get it wrong. We can tell people that all we want, but as we build an economy that is increasingly oriented around pumping money towards companies that predict what we are going to do based on a fairly limited amount of data about who we are, we’re really sending the opposite cultural message in, I suspect, a much more credible way.

Mohsin Hamid: I think that’s right. And I think that, for me, one thing which is very interesting is, when we talk about going from sorting to prediction — which I think is correct, that is something that’s happening — we tend to imagine that predicting is an observational activity. In other words, that technology is allowing us to see where we might go as individuals and to predict. But I think that prediction is actually much more perniciously a behavior modification activity. In other words, making us into more predictable beings. And that, I think, is by far the greater danger. In other words, if we want to be able to predict people, partly we need to build a model of what they do, but partly we would want them to be predictable. They should be inclined towards doing certain things. And so if you take somebody with the sorting mechanism, if you give them information that plays upon humans’ innate sense of prioritizing the information about threats — economic threats, racial threats, we prioritize that information — what begins to happen is it’s not just that the way we were going to behave remains unchanged. The way we are going to behave also changes. And it changes in predictable ways. So it isn’t simply the case that machines are better able to understand humans. It is also the case that machines are making human beings more like machines, that we are trying to rewrite our programming in such a way that we can be predicted. And for me, that’s the more frightening aspect of the shift from sorting to prediction.

[donnerpartyofone]

Has anyone else been seeing this ad?:

Two days ago I had an appointment with my GP to update her on the physical therapy program I'm doing for my lower back. She recommended something like this to sit on while I work, but I didn't get a chance to search for one yet. I also haven't messaged or emailed anyone about it. Further more, I haven't searched for any products or services that are tangentially related to this since I went into PT almost two months ago. Basically, I've only mentioned this type of thing out loud to a couple of other people in the last 48 hours, certainly in the presence of my phone.

I've had a couple of experiences of seeing my browsing activity reflected in Tumblr ads. At a certain point I noticed that everything I did on the browser Ecosia, which supposedly doesn't sell your data, was almost immediately reflected in an ad over here, so I just use Firefox and Duck Duck Go for everything now. There have been a couple of occasions where I strongly suspected that something I only communicated about in an Instagram DM was funneled into Tumblr ads--really specific stuff like, my friend tells me something about her 2 year old, and I get ads for products aimed at "2 - 4 year olds" for a couple of days. Could be random, but it didn't make me feel good. In any case, I really don't like it when I see an ad for something really particular, that I've never seen before, only after I've mentioned it in the presence of my phone.

I know that being paranoid about whether my phone is listening to me is making me more sensitive to coincidences, and there's not much I can do to prove that there's something going on. All I can really do is compulsively check which apps have mic permissions, and entirely remove applications like Facebook that are known to have insidious ways of monitoring everything you do with your device. I hate imagining about what the businesses must be thinking, that contrive these extremely invasive ways of advertising to you. Like they must think that I'll LOVE the fact that my very personal and specific desires are being reflected in ads all the time--how convenient, I love the future, keep reading my diary and take my money! Or alternatively they probably think, or hope, I won't even notice that there's anything weird about this, and I'll blindly spend and spend like the zombie they think I am every time I see an ad that pertains to me as, increasingly, all ads pertain directly to me. I have a hard time imagining that they understand that I HATE this, I don't accept it, it makes me want to use the internet LESS and it makes me actively hostile toward anything that seems to be using information that I didn't personally give it. Like right now I'm sitting here trying to figure out if I can afford to just turn my phone off entirely whenever I'm not using it for something really specific and essential. Obviously I used to live like this, but now there are structures in my life that involve urgent communications, and I don't know if I feel comfortable limiting my availability in those areas. Do they still make pagers? Maybe I should just get one of those.

[furfcozy]

can i just gush about rss though?

rss is so fuckin rad those who don't know what rss is: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is basically a standardized way for websites/blogs to send news and updates to any program or app that supports it it's a standard that's almost 25 years old, but has so many perks of using it over all kinds of other stuff in this world of everything trying to grab your attention in the most hostile of ways

super easy to add sites! — some rss readers have a built in list of sites with rss support that you can pick and choose from to get started, most rss-friendly websites have a link that you just copy-paste into the reader and it adds it

no algorithmy shit! — you get to pick and choose which sites, blogs, subreddits, youtube channels, etc. and it's all delivered chronologically

no accounts needed! — nearly everything that supports rss just lets you add their feed without an account

no fuckin ads in your face! — feeds generally don't have advertisements in them, with some possible exceptions i personally have yet to see, and it depends on the if reader app you use has their own built in ad delivery system, but for the most part it's ad-free

far more control! — readers typically let you tweak and customize all kinds of things like how often your feeds refresh, if you want similar feeds grouped together in a folder, if you want to be notified when feeds are updated, etc.

no doomscrolling! — big thing that's helped me personally: readers aren't built like modern apps where the point is to get you to stay in the app for disgusting amounts of time; readers are built mostly like an email app or client. you don't scroll down an endless feed of nonsense that may or may not be relevant to your interests. there's no social junk, no comments, no arguments, nothing but what you want to see in a little package every hour or so, wrapped up in a nice bow.

yes, i know my own reader looks like something straight out of windows xp and outlook express, but that's why i wanted this specific reader

the downside to rss is that it's not been nearly as popular as it once was, meaning a lot of websites don't even have it anymore. why don't they have it anymore? because of the reasons above. it doesn't try to trick you into stay on their website for hours, it doesn't shove ads in your face, it doesn't force you to make an account for them to sell the data.

i highly emplore anyone who wants a break away from a lot of the clutter and garbage to try rss at least once. don't think of it like a social media app, think of it like an email app without the spam or ads.

some sites to try rss with:

some subreddits you like (just add .rss to the end! e.g. reddit.com/r/cozyplaces.rss)

your local news sites

news sites relevant to your hobbies

youtube channels (just copy the channel url!)

if all else fails, check out sites that let you convert the front page of a website to rss (yes they exist, but sometimes they do need an account/subscription so be aware!)

[zintranslations]

Kaleidoscope of Death, Ch. 132

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu Link to Chinese / Novel Updates

Chapter 132: By Day, By Night

After hanging up, Lin Qiushi got out of bed. He went to the living room to check on the door and television, making sure both those things were still the same as they had been during daytime yesterday.

After that, Lin Qiushi left the apartment in a hurry. Halfway out he even got a call from Wu Qi, asking why he wasn't at work.

"There's something I have to do." Lin Qiushi was already in a car and had honestly completely forgotten about going to work. He tried to wheedle: "Ask for time off for me."

Wu Qi, "okay, how long should I ask for?"

Lin Qiushi, "half a year?"

Wu Qi, shocked, "…half a year?? Are you planning on resigning?"

Lin Qiushi glanced at his watch, not thinking of work at all.

"Or yeah, you can just resign for me."

Wu Qi seemed like he had something to say, but whatever words were on the tip of his tongue never made it out—he only sighed: "Fine, I'll get time off for you. If there's something going on you've got to tell me, alright? Don't carry it all on your own."

Lin Qiushi made a noise of agreement, expression still pensive.

The car continued on, and over an hour later, it arrived at where Lin Qiushi wanted to go. Lin Qiushi got off, went upstairs, and knocked on the door—every motion done in a single smooth breath. The truth was, however, that these few simple motions were only possible after extensive emotional preparation done during the car ride.

The door he knocked on opened after a bit, revealing a beautiful middle-age woman—it was Ruan Nanzhu's mother.

Because before they'd entered the door, Ruan Nanzhu had taken Lin Qiushi home. Now Lin Qiushi had a clear memory of where Ruan Nanzhu's old house was. Coming here this time was simply to confirm one thing…

"Hi Auntie," Lin Qiushi greeted politely.

"Hello." The woman watched Lin Qiushi with curiosity and asked, "is there something I can help you with?"

"I wanted to ask, do you know who Ruan Nanzhu is?" Lin Qiushi asked carefully.

"Ruan Nanzhu?" The woman's tone of doubt sent Lin Qiushi's heart sinking, and the question on her face only grew stronger. "Sorry, I don't know who that is."

"Then do you know Ruan Baiye?" Lin Qiushi brought up another name—this was the name of Ruan Nanzhu's older bother.

"Baiye? He's my son…" Mama Ruan said. "He's not home right now, but he'll be back later tonight. Are you looking for him?"

Lin Qiushi, "ma'am you…only have one son?"

Mama Ruan nodded as the way she looked at Lin Qiushi got stranger and stranger. Which was fair. Suddenly coming to her house and asking questions like these, Lin Qiushi didn't seem like a normal person at all.

Lin Qiushi had no idea what else to say either. After bidding Mama Ruan goodbye, he rushed back downstairs and hurried off to another location.

Ruan Nanzhu's existence had been completely wiped. There was nobody in this world named Ruan Nanzhu, not even to his parents, and even Obsidian, the organization that he led, had stopped existing…

This time, Lin Qiushi's destination was Li Dongyuan's White Deer.

When he arrived at White Deer headquarters, Lin Qiushi discovered that the building that once belonged to White Deer was now commercial offices, labeled with the name of XX Bank. Lin Qiushi was standing in the doorway contemplating how to sneak upstairs when he saw a familiar face leave the building. That person was wearing a suit and speaking to someone beside him; judging by appearance alone, he was that baby-faced Li Dongyuan that Lin Qiushi knew.

Seeing this Lin Qiushi hurried forward and called, "Li Dongyuan!"

Li Dongyuan's feet stalled, and he glanced in Lin Qiushi's direction. With eyes both cautious and distant, he asked, "who might you be? If you'd like to discuss something please book an appointment with my secretary first."

"I—" Lin Qiushi said. "Do you know me?"

Lin Qiushi lifted an eyebrow and didn't speak. His expression though, gave Lin Qiushi an answer—he did not know Lin Qiushi, and even thought Lin Qiushi's question odd.

"You don't recognize me?" Lin Qiushi also couldn't quite convey how he was feeling just then.

"Should I recognize you?" Li Dongyuan smiled a smile that wasn't quite a smile as he scanned Lin Qiushi up and down.

Lin Qiushi suddenly recalled something else. He said, "then do you know Zhuang Rujiao?"

Li Dongyuan didn't answer, and still seemed unfamiliar with the name.

"What about Jin Yurui?" Lin Qiushi tried again.

"You know her?" Li Dongyuan's smile, however, faded. "You're one of hers, then?"

Lin Qiushi could finally be sure why some people didn't exist in this world—because they were still alive. If they still survived in the world outside the door, then they did not exist inside this door. Both Li Dongyuan and Jin Yurui were dead, so they had new identities inside this door.

And, those who had died inside the doors aside, the people who were competely unrelated to the doors did not seem affected by this rule at all. They existed both inside this door and outside it, and had nothing to do with living or dying.

"Is there anything else?" Eyeing Lin Qiushi, who was deep in thought, Li Dongyuan lifted his chin with a cold expression. "If there's nothing else why don't you take your leave? This is a place of work."

Lin Qiushi took one last look at him before turning to go.

"Who is that?" the person standing beside Li Dongyuan asked as they watched Lin Qiushi leave.

"I don't know," Li Dongyuan said. "Looks kind of familiar though. Never mind, bring me that data and let me confirm…"

Lin Qiushi left White Deer headquarters and glanced at his watch. It was already twelve noon. An idea surfaced in his mind, and Lin Qiushi got out his phone to book a roundtrip flight for C City the next morning.

There were some matters he wanted to confirm in C City; it was already too late to go today, so he could only hurry there tomorrow morning and try to make it back in one day.

Fact of the matter was, Lin Qiushi didn't want to try spending the night on an airplane. Hell knows how terrifying that would be.

After taking care of lunch at a random spot in town, Lin Qiushi returned home and took a nap. As he thought about what would happen later that evening, Lin Qiushi thought he wouldn't be able to sleep. But in fact he slept quite well, passing out the moment he hit the bed. When he woke it was already five in the afternoon. Chestnut sat by his side, meowing, looking to be hungry again.

Lin Qiushi got up and, after fixing up some food for Chestnut, called some delivery for himself. He ate while watching TV.

He saw the trailer for Tan Zaozao's new movie. From the language of the advertisement, Lin Qiushi figured out that Tan Zaozao had already won the award. The award-winning movie was exactly the same as it had been on the outside, only the director was a different person this time and not Zhang Yiqing.

This world was so very similar to the world that Lin Qiushi lived in, but there was one fundamental difference—Ruan Nanzhu, the person Lin Qiushi most wanted to see, was not here.

Good thing that was so, actually. This door, for a lot of other people, would likely be of insurmountable difficulty. Like Zhuang Rujiao. Or Cheng Yixie for that matter. That was because here, they could once again see their most beloved person…

The night deepened, and Lin Qiushi got everything ready.

Around ten in the evening, it suddenly began to rain outside.

Water came down as if tossed from a ladle, washing clean the earth scorched dry by the sun. Lin Qiushi stood by the window, watching as passersby scampered home along the sidewalks until only streetlamps were left on the empty streets, with only the occasional car passing by.

Chestnut fell asleep sprawled out on the couch. The atmosphere grew quiet. Some senseless program played on TV as a queer sort of silence began to crawl out inside the house.

Lin Qiushi smelled petrichor. He used to be quite a fan of this smell, until he encountered a particular door. After that, this tainted scent of rainwater became something a lot more unpleasant.

The hour hand turned bit by bit, and twelve o'clock was nearly here.

Lin Qiushi sat in the living room, as if a spirit waiting for the death god's verdict. The switch from day to night came, and the clock hanging on the wall finally began to ring: ding dong, ding dong, ding dong…Twelve chimes heralded in another world.

The moment it became twelve, someone was immediately knocking at his door once more. Backpack on, Lin Qiushi came to the door, and through the peephole saw a woman standing on the other side, smiling at him.

He remembered the woman's name. It was the NPC hidden among the crowd in the Sister's Drum door, Xu Jin.

"Hurry up and come out already," Xu Jin told Lin Qiushi. "Come out already, my sister's coming to find you."

Lin Qiushi didn't open the door. He heard a soft noise from the window, however, and when Lin Qiushi turned, he saw a figure pressed against the glass.

It was a person with all her skin stripped off, her body a mess of blood and flesh from head to toe. The bloody face pressed against Lin Qiushi's glass and her mouth split open, showing Lin Qiushi her stark white teeth. It looked like she was trying to open up the locked window, and judging from her motions, she seemed close to succeeding.

Opening the door looked to be the only option right now. Gritting his teeth, Lin Qiushi twisted open the door handle and faced Xu Jin, standing on the outside.

Xu Jin clearly knew what Lin Qiushi was worried about, and began to chuckle.

"How could I bear to hurt you?" A pause, as her gaze lingered on Lin Qiushi's backpack. "My diary is still in your hands. Did you give it a good read yet?"

Lin Qiushi, "…" Why did he feel like he was being teased?

But there wasn't time for him to worry about that, because Xu Jin's sister was about to come in though the window. Xu Jin grabbed Lin Qiushi by the arm and ran. The two made their way down the hall and came to the elevator.

"Go on inside, but watch out," Xu Jin said. "There are other things that want you dead."

Lin Qiushi asked, "what about you?" He recalled that Xu Jin didn't have a very good relationship with her sister.

"Me?" Xu Jin’s eyes curved up in a sudden smile. "How do you know that I don't want you dead?"

As soon as she said this, the skin on her body began to fall off patch by patch. The startled Lin Qiushi rushed into the elevator and pressed a number.

Xu Jin was chuckling again, and though her laugh was bright like silver bells, her terrifying appearance struck a sharp contrast.

Even though she now looked scarier, she didn't seem keen on pursuing Lin Qiushi.

The elevator started. In theory, Lin Qiushi ought to be safe, but that weird sense of danger once again assaulted the top of his head.

Lin Qiushi looked all around him, and when he spotted a certain something hanging in the elevator, goosebumps appeared all over his body. He'd spotted behind him, on what should have been an empty elevator wall, a huge black picture frame. There was nothing inside the frame, but the frame was pointed at exactly where he was standing.

Lin Qiushi reacted swiftly, hitting the button for the floor closest to him. At the exact same time, black water stains began appearing on the white paper inside that frame. First there was only one drop. Then it began spreading on the canvas paper.

He watched as the shape of that stain began to look more and more like a woman. It dispersed across the canvas and, in a short amount of time, managed to coat the entire large canvas.

Luckily it was then that the elevator reached the nearest floor. Lin Qiushi immediately took off, and the moment he cleared the elevator, a pair of pale white hands burst out of that canvas paper, searching around like it was looking for something to grab hold of.

Lin Qiushi was currently on the sixth floor. The moment he was out of the elevator he turned for the emergency exit right next door, bounding quickly down the stairs.

It was dim in the stairwell, with just enough light to see the path beneath his feet. Lin Qiushi ran down two stories before feeling something was off. He took a closer look, and discovered that he'd been turning round and round on floor six.

The stairs seemed to have become a mobius strip—up, down, backward, forward, it all came back to the sixth floor.

Lin Qiushi's feet screeched to a halt. He took in his surroundings, and noticed, on the white stairwell ceilings, little black spots of water appearing. That chilling stench of rain too was spreading through the air.

The thing had found him. Lin Qiushi made an executive decision and left the stairwell, stepping out onto the hallway. But back in the hall, Lin Qiushi discovered that the corridor had underwent a terrifying change: black frames hung on both sides, and inside each frame was a human head with its expression all twisted up. As for the ceramic tile floor, there was now a new carpet, thick and black—the pattern on it looked the same as in a door they'd encountered before.

Lin Qiushi looked up and saw, on the other other end of the hallway, another painting hanging. That painting was a woman in black with a long, sharp hat. Her eyes were half closed, but it felt like she was staring right down the hall and meeting Lin Qiushi's eyes.

Lin Qiushi wanted to leave the hallway, but when he glanced back, he found that the stairwell he had just came from had disappeared. The length of the hallway too seemed to be slowly shortening; Lin Qiushi could sense the painting of the woman getting closer and closer, closer and closer…

At that moment, a drop of water fell onto Lin Qiushi's forehead. Lin Qiushi gave it a wipe, and realized that it was blood. On reflex he looked up—a black hole had appeared above his head without him noticing, and blood was dripping from its edge onto his head. A pair of black eyes glimmered faintly in the dark, and then right after, a pair of pulpy, bloody hands reached out of the hole for Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi's instincts were to back away, but the strange thing was, the hands stopped when they got to him. As if a miracle, he sensed no animosity from this pair of hands.

The hallway was still getting shorter and shorter, as if it were becoming a cage keen on trapping Lin Qiushi inside. With a clench of his teeth, Lin Qiushi reached up and grabbed the fleshy mess of those hands, and then felt a sudden force as he was brought out of that shrinking hallway.

"Aiya, looks like you can't manage without me after all."

The voice belonged to Xu Jin, but from appearance alone, he couldn't tell it was her at all. The skin on her body was completely gone, leaving only scarlet flesh and blood. She was grinning brightly at Lin Qiushi, and the contrast between her smile and appearance was strange, but Lin Qiushi didn't find it scary at all.

"Thank you," Lin Qiushi said to her.

Xu Jin didn't speak. Her gaze instead leaped over Lin Qiushi to look behind him.

Sensing something, Lin Qiushi too twisted around, and spotted on the other end of the darkness a pair of glowing red eyes.

"Meimei, my sister."

The owner of those eyes was also a skinless monster. She didn't have any legs and could only walk on her hands, but that didn't mean she was slow. She glared at Lin Qiushi with vitriol and bared her teeth; like a hyena hunting its prey, the sheer amount of hatred in her eyes was strong enough to materialize.

"Why did you betray me?" she said. "Do you like him that much? Since you like him so much, why don't I keep him here for you?"

Xu Jin tilted her head, and also smiled.

"But Jiejie, even if you did that, I still won't like you."

After that, she told Lin Qiushi to run, and threw herself at her sister. The two monsters clashed and tangled together.

Lin Qiushi got up and sprinted in the direction of the light. By the time he reached its source, he found that he'd already escaped from the apartment building, and was standing in the yard of the residential block.

It was still raining outside. Lin Qiushi pulled an umbrella out of his backpack and slowly pushed it open, stepping out into the curtaining rain.

The rain came down in sluicing torrents, and the streets were completely empty, with only water splashing along the ground. The rain ought to have been noisy; but at a time like this the loudness of the rain only made the world sound more silent in comparison.

"Help me—help me—"

There was a sudden cry for help. A silhouette came stumbling out of the rain, and Lin Qiushi could just make it out: she was a pitiful-looking young woman, staggering through the rain in a long dress. It looked like she was being pursued by something, and when she spotted Lin Qiushi standing not too far away, it was like she'd found an oasis in the middle of a desert—she came running immediately.

"Help, help!! Please, I'm begging you please help me, something wants to kill me…" She fell to the ground, looking up pathetically at Lin Qiushi. "You're also someone going through the doors, right? So am I, this door is so scary—"

Had this been reality, Lin Qiushi would've definitely helped the young woman up by now. But at this stage he wasn't moving, and a light furrow had appeared between his brows. The truth was, he found the person before him a bit familiar—more specifically, everything that appeared at night now was familiar, and he was certain he'd seen this person somewhere before.

"Mister, mister." The woman collapsed in the rain saw Lin Qiushi unmoved, and slowly crawled forward. She wiped at the rainwater on her face and said, shakily, "I know a safe place, and I can bring you there. Do you want to come with me?"

Lin Qiushi said, "do I know you?"

The woman said, "we met once in the door, and you even helped me out." Her lashes lightly trembled, looking vulnerable as anything. "But I didn't deserve that mercy, I still didn't make it."

"We met inside a door?" Lin Qiushi now found the shape of her eyes familiar. "Which door?"

The woman approached Lin Qiushi, saying, "you know, that one."

As Lin Qiushi watched her, he suddenly spoke: "There's something behind you."

The woman halted.

"A giant picture frame," Lin Qiushi said. "She's here."

The woman wheeled around in fright, but when she didn't see anything behind her, she suddenly realized that Lin Qiushi had recognized her. What had been a pitiful expression immediately went cold.

"It's been a while," Lin Qiushi said, "Yang Meishu."

The woman chuckled coolly.

"You still recognized me?"

Lin Qiushi shrugged. "I didn't want to, but I can count the people who wanted me dead on one hand. Since you're not a ghost, you must be somebody who hates me…"

He paused, and quickly announced, "she really is here."

But Yang Meishu didn't believe him. She said, "do you really think I'm that dumb? You've fooled me once already, you think you can do it again? I—"

As she spoke, getting more and more agitated, she felt a sudden breeze behind her. Yang Meishu glanced back, and found the woman in black standing right behind her. The woman's white face was impassive, and in her hands was a black picture frame that she swung right at Yang Meishu.

Yang Meishu knew this was likely it for her, and a terrible scream came out of her mouth. Right after she screamed, she became a portrait in the hands of the woman; soaked from head to toe, her expression bore both fright and a lively, vivid resentment.

Lin Qiushi took the opportunity to run further away. The woman didn't seem intent on chasing after him either, only watched him go with an icy gaze.

The rain came down in torrents, and Lin Qiushi was completely soaked. In such a strong rain, the umbrella was practically useless. As he ran, he fished out his cell phone and sent Ruan Nanzhu a text.

How are things on your end? After some thought, Lin Qiushi added: I'm fine over here, don't worry about me.

After the text was sent, he didn't get a reply for the longest time. It wasn't until Lin Qiushi found a place to hide from the rain that the message notification dinged, displaying four simple words: I'm good, don't worry.

Seeing the message, Lin Qiushi huffed a bitter laugh. Because how could he not know? Had Ruan Nanzhu truly been alright, the text would not have been so short. Ruan Nanzhu had trained his way through so many doors, so god only knew how many malicious NPCs and dead people from the inside he would meet at night. From what Lin Qiushi understood of him, if he had everything under control, he would've definitely sent a message first asking about Lin Qiushi's situation. Now, even his text message was so short. The situation on his end could not be good.

He wanted so badly just to be by his side—Lin Qiushi clenched his phone and thought bitterly. Whatever he had to experience would be fine, as long as he could be by Ruan Nanzhu's side.

[Ch. 131] | [Ch. 133]

[tammyfeabakker]

Marketing is bullshit these days... To do this you must have social media accounts. Frankly I do not like social media. I got shit to do other then being on social media platforms. If you don't have the following your idea fails. It's bullshit. If you don't have many social media platforms you sink. I don't like social media because it pisses me off makes me cry happy sad wanna kill someone hug someone all in matter if 5 mins. I have a hard time getting through the shorts. Something always breaks my heart. I can't even be on here everyday because I got shit to do. I also think it's a ploy to keep us in the house while they collect data on us to use it against us. Not to mention data sells it's a trillion dollar market. It pisses me off the scamming phone calls from people that bought my data from someone else it's my fucking phone I pay the fucking bill. But everyone is making a profit off my data.its invasion my phone is not propaganda not advertisement. Not public . I talk on the phone talking to my kids propaganda shows up. That's talking a personal conversations is public domain now. Selling your soul without knowing it. Well if this is how it's going to be fuck this. To market my kids store I have to sell my soul so others can profit off my data fuck that! Job sights another scam. Put your data in for a job 17 phone calls from warranty people health care solar. They say don't put your info online like wtf the want ads in the paper don't exist anymore.