#team for garbage collection

[hireskipbinadelaide-blog]

Role of Skip Bins in Parties and Events Waste Management

Parties and corporate events generate a lot of garbage and leftovers. It is vital to employ excellent waste management strategies and execute them carefully to manage the waste. This execution comes with the guarantee of success when you hire a skip bin for proper garbage storage.

EVENT WASTE MANAGEMENT MADE EASY WITH SKIP BIN HIRE SERVICES

Generally, skip bin hire services are used in construction, renovation and cleaning processes. But this is a wrong thought that they are helpful only in some particular areas. You can hire a skip bin in Adelaide for any project where garbage will be generated. You can hire skip bins to manage the waste at your personal or corporate event and keep the environment cleaner and greener. Some reasons why you must employ skip bins in Adelaide are presented below.

WASTE MANAGEMENT BECOMES EASIER

With skip bin hire services, waste management at your event will become very easy for you. You can simply place a skip bin that you and your guest can use to throw away the rubbish or garbage. Some everyday things that are dumped in the skip bin hired are –

Leftover food

Bottles of any drinks

Disposable cutlery

Broken items like plates and glasses

Food cans

Event decorations

Event props

SKIP BINS PROVIDE EXTRA SPACE FOR GARBAGE COLLECTION

Events like weddings, birthday parties, and other celebrations at personal and corporate events generate a lot of garbage that has to be disposed of carefully. This is where the skip bin hired by you becomes useful, as the garbage will stay accumulated at one place and you will not have to involve a team for garbage collection after the event. You can be assured that the skip will hold all the garbage that has to be disposed of after the party.

MOTIVATE GUESTS FOR PROPER WASTE DISPOSAL

When you hire a skip bin in Adelaide and place it at your event venue, it clearly indicates that you want them to be very strict about where they dispose of their waste materials. This will motivate them and they will actively participate in proper waste disposal that will save your time and keep the area cleaner. You will influence them for the future as well in terms of dumping their garbage responsibly in the skip bin.

[i-love-dopamine]

Okay

Assuming that shows that are portrayed im mc count, why the fuck are SpongeBob and L!Scott fighting? And

SpongeBob may be pretty powerful but Scott would absolutely win and i will fight all of you

1. Yes they have to fight, 2. Tell me who’s fighting who in the tags! (I’ll add the most ridiculous combos in a reblog)

[thewertsearch]

JADESPRITE: whats happening? DAVESPRITE: reckoning […] DAVESPRITE: the battlefield will probably be wiped out soon JADESPRITE: can we do something to stop it? DAVESPRITE: would there be a point

And I thought Aradia was defeatist.

This is incredibly sad to read. I remember how hyped I was when Davesprite first joined the team - I thought we'd gained a fifth Player, and that Dave had found a brother he could actually bond with.

In the end, though, Future Dave proved too traumatized to really bond with his co-Players. He drifted around LOHAC for a while, and then just floated about the Medium in what was probably a depressive fugue state.

Given time, he might be able to heal from what his timeline did to him - but right now, I'm getting increasingly worried that he doesn't have that time.

JADESPRITE: i felt like i was drawn to come here when i wasnt sure where to go DAVESPRITE: yeah me too

I really don’t like the implications of that.

Is this how the game garbage-collects used Sprites, then? Once the Reckoning is coming to an end, are they simply summoned to the Battlefield, to go down with their session?

Very cool, Sburb! What a generous reward your Sprites earn, for dutifully serving their Players to the end!

JADESPRITE: the meteors JADESPRITE: and all the fire… JADESPRITE: it reminds me of when i died JADESPRITE: and i was trying to wake john up JADESPRITE: i was scared then too JADESPRITE: but i didnt let the fear stop me from trying to save him DAVESPRITE: what would you want to do DAVESPRITE: if you werent scared

Jadesprite's a true-blue god, and I still don't think we've scratched the surface of what First Guardians can really do. As soon as she stops being afraid, everyone else should be a little afraid of her.

[fairyrcts]

DREAMS, FAIRYTAILS, FANTASIES , N.D.

by fairyrcts contents - intended lowercase , 3rd person , use of y/n , unprotected sex (not recommended) , cursing , praising , semi-public sex , male masturbation , virginity loss (not mentioned) , mommy kink , overstimulation, breeding

an - ik y'all said you wanted chris fic first but i was too eager to write the nate one

taglist - @pvssychicken , @gothiccvnt6996 , @emely9274 (header by @issysh3ll )

y/n walked up and down the rows of seats as she tidied up after the hockey game.

her father was the coach, so she always stayed later after the games to pick up anything left behind and help her dad with whatever he needed.

she'd bent down to pick up a foam glove that was left. her light blue mini skirt rode up her thighs as she reached down.

nathan, who was taking off his gear in the bench area, had thought everyone including y/n had left.

he'd always see her with her dad during the pre-game pep talks, sometimes she'd sit and watch them at practice, or just cleaning up after everything had been finished.

although the only thing he knew about the girl was her name and father's name, he had the biggest crush on her.

he'd glance over at her in her skirts and lacy tops or tight, soft colored dressed that made him want a taste of every curve on her body. her innocence and naivety made him want him for himself even more.

unknown to him, y/n had a slight thing for him too.

when he'd take off his helmet and his hair would stick to his forehead as he panted. or when he'd take his jersey off after playing and he'd be left in his white tanktop, his mucles shining due to the sweat.

she'd direct her gaze towards him every time she'd watch the team play or practice. seeing him get sweaty and angered out on the ice had to be one of the most attractive things ever.

nathan stood up with his skates and pads in his hands. he walked out of the closed in area and into where the seats were. he glanced around for a sec before his eye's landed on y/n.

she was bent over, picking up things from the floor. her skirt was way up and her pink lacy panties caught his attention.

he was in a state of shock for a moment as he stared at the unaware girl in front of him.

he walked closer, deciding to speak to her.

"hey, y/n. i didn't know you were still here. your dad here still?" nathan spoke in breathy tone, causing y/n to whip around.

"hm? oh, yeah. no, he left a little bit ago but there was still stuff to be cleaned up. you did really good by the way. my dad says you're pretty talented." she gave him a toothy smile as she talked to the brunette.

nathan's grin became wider as those words came out her mouth. "thank you, really."

"yeah, anytime. well, i'll be here for a bit longer, so if you need anything just let me know." she was a very generous person.

generous enough to help with the ache in his pants? no, no, he shouldn't be thinking that stuff.

"will do. nice seeing you." he reciprocated her smile and made his way toward the locker room.

nate immediately yanked his clothes off, tughing his pants off as quick as possible.

he sat on the bench in the locker room as he pulled his boxers down to his ankles. his tip leaked pre-cum, it dripping down his length.

he balled his hand into a fist and began stroking himself. he was so sensitive just his own touch caused him to moan out loudly.

he let a line of drool leave his mouth and onto his dick. "mm, fff-uck, y/n. i- holy shit, keep goin'."

he imagined y/n's mouth on his cock, her throat stuffed and her lips puffy from his length.

y/n finished cleaning the bleachers and made her way towards the garbage can that sat beside the entry to the mens locker room.

she threw away all the trach she'd collected and was getting-ready to leave til' she heard her name being called.

"mm, y/n. jjust like that, yes ma'am."

she tightened her thighs together to keep her mind away from the wetness in between them.

she cracked the door open slightly, nate's head turning the second he heard the creak of the hinges.

"i- i'm sorry, i didn't know you were in here. sorry." her words were rushed as she shut her eyes abruptly.

nathan panicked to get his boxers back on. "no, shit. no, uh, youre good."

"uh, were you calling me?" she asked, her voice unintentionally innocent as she opened her eyes slightly. her eyes went wide at the sight of his dick, fully visible from his boxers, a small wet stain were his tip sat.

"uh, nope. wasn"t callin' ya. must've been like, uh. i dunno." nate's eyes looked everywhere but her as if trying to take away the attention.

y/n let out a soft giggle at the sight of him awkwardly trying to end the damn conversation. "i mean, it's alright. you're not very quiet. do you, uh.. need some help?"

her tone sent aches through his body, his cock pulsing through his underwear. "i-i, i'm sorry? say what now?!"

she chuckled once more at his stuttering voice. "c'mon, just sit back. let me show you."

nate thought he was living one of his own fantasties as he wobbled back onto the bench beneath him.

y/n undid the bow in the back of her shirt and pulled down the skirt she wore with it. she was left in her bra and panties, which she took off slow and seductively.

she now stood naked in front of the brunette boy. nathan's eyes just stared at her as he was frozen and stiff. if you squint, you could see his dick get even harder under his boxers by the second.

she scooted closer to him. "wanna take it off for me?" her voice was low as she played with the waistband of his underwear.

"i-yup." his obedience was so attractive. she knew he'd listen well.

he quickly yanked them off before sitting back on the warm bench.

y/n straddled him, his dick not in her cunt quite just yet. she began sucking on his neck to get him just a bit more excited before finally letting her hips move down onto his soaked cock.

the sound of her dripping pussy and his absolutely messy cock made nate's mind fuzzy.

he let out a loud, guttural moan at the new feeling. "holy fuck, mommy- fuck! i-"

he couldn't even form a coherent sentence just one pump in.

"just relax. i've got you." her words were hushed as she whispered into his ear.

she slowly moved her body up and down his length, going all the way off and back on him each time.

the feeling of her tight cunt on his absolutely aching dick was already too much for him.

"mo-mmy, no, please keep goin'."

y/n couldn't say no to her handsome boy. happily, she obligiged, bouncing herself up and down on his dick.

after only a few minutes, nate was so close. "fffuck, i c-can't no more. pleasepleaseplease."

"nuh uh, you can keep going, be a good boy for mommy , hmm?"

her voice sent him over the edge. he just couldn't anymore. he needed to release and make a mess inside of her.

"pleaseee, i need to. i-i've been good!"

he had behaved and listened fine the whole time. she debated wether or not to let him or have more of her own fun.

she ultimately chose to let him for his benefit. she'd enjoyed teasing the boy enough.

"mhm, go ahead." and almost instantly, he came all inside her. the moan he let out was louder than before as he let his juices release in the girl's pussy.

"good boy." she whispered softly in his ear before she stood up, nate wincing lightly.

"b-but, i didn't get to make you feel good."

"some other time, baby."

[justivik]

yandere! loser headcanons.

english isn't my first language.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser who is part of the photography club while you are part of a school sports club. He met you when his group went to the gym for a photo shoot of all the clubs.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser who thought you were gorgeous and got nervous when he had to sit next to you, while you held your sports ball and he nervously held his camera.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser that after your first meeting he couldn't stop thinking about you and started looking for you all over campus almost every break. He would see you playing with your classmates or talking to your friends and gosh... your smile is beautiful!

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser who started to have you as his muse in every photo shoot he did. His little crush on you turned into an intense obsession, he had to know more about you!

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser that recapitulated all the data he had about you, such as full name, social circle, family, address and house number or even collected the garbage you threw away to keep it in his special folder for you.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser he thought about approaching you but he didn't know how to hold a conversation, he barely had any friends at school and you were the team captain along with you being popular. He doesn't stand a chance with you!

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser that one day during the break between classes he was doing his history work until your presence invades his tranquility, your voice dominates his ears and your eyes manipulate his heart. You approached him to chat while waiting for your friends, you showed interest in his work and he was mesmerized.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser where after that conversation he started acting like a real creep

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser started following you everywhere, trying to have a conversation with you even when you were with someone else. You thought maybe he wanted to be your friend and you let him continue with these attitudes until the actions went from distance to physical contact.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser who held your hand, was jealous when you spent more time with other people, hugged you without asking and take pictures of you without you noticing. You were patient with him even when everyone told you to report him to the principal.

He's not a weird kid! Maybe his display of affection is like this!

He literally has a folder with 450 pictures of you.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser start to be more and more present in your personal life. You find him in your favorite coffee shop, in the park where you always go to relax or even in the supermarket.

“Y/N! Nice to see you here. I didn't know you were coming here too.”

“don't you live about 40 minutes away from my house and this supermarket?”

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser keeps watching you in your training sessions to the point that your coach has had to take him out because he was distracting your team with the sound of his camera.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser he's a good manipulator and blackmailer, he knows you feel bad about being rude to others or even excluding someone. you're so sweet! even he gets jealous when you are nice to someone else.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser He behaves desperately and may even have a panic attack when you are not by his side.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser that you have become so accustomed to his presence that you start calling him ''best friend'' (he thinks). You've let him into your room because your mother forced you to after he came to your house by surprise and introduced himself as ''a good friend coming over to make the history homework''.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser when you go to the bathroom, he steals some clothes and objects from your room to have it on his ''shrine''.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser has severe anger problems.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser always spamming you with messages, sending you audios and pictures of what he's doing.

๋࣭ ⭑ yandere! loser acts like a lost puppy by your side, following you around. He's pathetic and he knows it.

“I still can't believe how perfect you are!”

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI is a WMD

I'm in TARTU, ESTONIA! AI, copyright and creative workers' labor rights (TOMORROW, May 10, 8AM: Science Fiction Research Association talk, Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures building, Lossi 3, lobby). A talk for hackers on seizing the means of computation (TOMORROW, May 10, 3PM, University of Tartu Delta Centre, Narva 18, room 1037).

Fun fact: "The Tragedy Of the Commons" is a hoax created by the white nationalist Garrett Hardin to justify stealing land from colonized people and moving it from collective ownership, "rescuing" it from the inevitable tragedy by putting it in the hands of a private owner, who will care for it properly, thanks to "rational self-interest":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

Get that? If control over a key resource is diffused among the people who rely on it, then (Garrett claims) those people will all behave like selfish assholes, overusing and undermaintaining the commons. It's only when we let someone own that commons and charge rent for its use that (Hardin says) we will get sound management.

By that logic, Google should be the internet's most competent and reliable manager. After all, the company used its access to the capital markets to buy control over the internet, spending billions every year to make sure that you never try a search-engine other than its own, thus guaranteeing it a 90% market share:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Google seems to think it's got the problem of deciding what we see on the internet licked. Otherwise, why would the company flush $80b down the toilet with a giant stock-buyback, and then do multiple waves of mass layoffs, from last year's 12,000 person bloodbath to this year's deep cuts to the company's "core teams"?

https://qz.com/google-is-laying-off-hundreds-as-it-moves-core-jobs-abr-1851449528

And yet, Google is overrun with scams and spam, which find their way to the very top of the first page of its search results:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

The entire internet is shaped by Google's decisions about what shows up on that first page of listings. When Google decided to prioritize shopping site results over informative discussions and other possible matches, the entire internet shifted its focus to producing affiliate-link-strewn "reviews" that would show up on Google's front door:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

This was catnip to the kind of sociopath who a) owns a hedge-fund and b) hates journalists for being pain-in-the-ass, stick-in-the-mud sticklers for "truth" and "facts" and other impediments to the care and maintenance of a functional reality-distortion field. These dickheads started buying up beloved news sites and converting them to spam-farms, filled with garbage "reviews" and other Google-pleasing, affiliate-fee-generating nonsense.

(These news-sites were vulnerable to acquisition in large part thanks to Google, whose dominance of ad-tech lets it cream 51 cents off every ad dollar and whose mobile OS monopoly lets it steal 30 cents off every in-app subscriber dollar):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

Now, the spam on these sites didn't write itself. Much to the chagrin of the tech/finance bros who bought up Sports Illustrated and other venerable news sites, they still needed to pay actual human writers to produce plausible word-salads. This was a waste of money that could be better spent on reverse-engineering Google's ranking algorithm and getting pride-of-place on search results pages:

https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/

That's where AI comes in. Spicy autocomplete absolutely can't replace journalists. The planet-destroying, next-word-guessing programs from Openai and its competitors are incorrigible liars that require so much "supervision" that they cost more than they save in a newsroom:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/29/what-part-of-no/#dont-you-understand

But while a chatbot can't produce truthful and informative articles, it can produce bullshit – at unimaginable scale. Chatbots are the workers that hedge-fund wreckers dream of: tireless, uncomplaining, compliant and obedient producers of nonsense on demand.

That's why the capital class is so insatiably horny for chatbots. Chatbots aren't going to write Hollywood movies, but studio bosses hyperventilated at the prospect of a "writer" that would accept your brilliant idea and diligently turned it into a movie. You prompt an LLM in exactly the same way a studio exec gives writers notes. The difference is that the LLM won't roll its eyes and make sarcastic remarks about your brainwaves like "ET, but starring a dog, with a love plot in the second act and a big car-chase at the end":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

Similarly, chatbots are a dream come true for a hedge fundie who ends up running a beloved news site, only to have to fight with their own writers to get the profitable nonsense produced at a scale and velocity that will guarantee a high Google ranking and millions in "passive income" from affiliate links.

One of the premier profitable nonsense companies is Advon, which helped usher in an era in which sites from Forbes to Money to USA Today create semi-secret "review" sites that are stuffed full of badly researched top-ten lists for products from air purifiers to cat beds:

https://housefresh.com/how-google-decimated-housefresh/

Advon swears that it only uses living humans to produce nonsense, and not AI. This isn't just wildly implausible, it's also belied by easily uncovered evidence, like its own employees' Linkedin profiles, which boast of using AI to create "content":

https://housefresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Advon-AI-LinkedIn.jpg

It's not true. Advon uses AI to produce its nonsense, at scale. In an excellent, deeply reported piece for Futurism, Maggie Harrison Dupré brings proof that Advon replaced its miserable human nonsense-writers with tireless chatbots:

https://futurism.com/advon-ai-content

Dupré describes how Advon's ability to create botshit at scale contributed to the enshittification of clients from Yoga Journal to the LA Times, "Us Weekly" to the Miami Herald.

All of this is very timely, because this is the week that Google finally bestirred itself to commence downranking publishers who engage in "site reputation abuse" – creating these SEO-stuffed fake reviews with the help of third parties like Advon:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/keyword-swarming/#site-reputation-abuse

(Google's policy only forbids site reputation abuse with the help of third parties; if these publishers take their nonsense production in-house, Google may allow them to continue to dominate its search listings):

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/03/core-update-spam-policies#site-reputation

There's a reason so many people believed Hardin's racist "Tragedy of the Commons" hoax. We have an intuitive understanding that commons are fragile. All it takes is one monster to start shitting in the well where the rest of us get our drinking water and we're all poisoned.

The financial markets love these monsters. Mark Zuckerberg's key insight was that he could make billions by assembling vast dossiers of compromising, sensitive personal information on half the world's population without their consent, but only if he kept his costs down by failing to safeguard that data and the systems for exploiting it. He's like a guy who figures out that if he accumulates enough oily rags, he can extract so much low-grade oil from them that he can grow rich, but only if he doesn't waste money on fire-suppression:

https://locusmag.com/2018/07/cory-doctorow-zucks-empire-of-oily-rags/

Now Zuckerberg and the wealthy, powerful monsters who seized control over our commons are getting a comeuppance. The weak countermeasures they created to maintain the minimum levels of quality to keep their platforms as viable, going concerns are being overwhelmed by AI. This was a totally foreseeable outcome: the history of the internet is a story of bad actors who upended the assumptions built into our security systems by automating their attacks, transforming an assault that wouldn't be economically viable into a global, high-speed crime wave:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/24/automation-is-magic/

But it is possible for a community to maintain a commons. This is something Hardin could have discovered by studying actual commons, instead of inventing imaginary histories in which commons turned tragic. As it happens, someone else did exactly that: Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom:

https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons/

Ostrom described how commons can be wisely managed, over very long timescales, by communities that self-governed. Part of her work concerns how users of a commons must have the ability to exclude bad actors from their shared resources.

When that breaks down, commons can fail – because there's always someone who thinks it's fine to shit in the well rather than walk 100 yards to the outhouse.

Enshittification is the process by which control over the internet moved from self-governance by members of the commons to acts of wanton destruction committed by despicable, greedy assholes who shit in the well over and over again.

It's not just the spammers who take advantage of Google's lazy incompetence, either. Take "copyleft trolls," who post images using outdated Creative Commons licenses that allow them to terminate the CC license if a user makes minor errors in attributing the images they use:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/24/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator/

The first copyleft trolls were individuals, but these days, the racket is dominated by a company called Pixsy, which pretends to be a "rights protection" agency that helps photographers track down copyright infringers. In reality, the company is committed to helping copyleft trolls entrap innocent Creative Commons users into paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars to use images that are licensed for free use. Just as Advon upends the economics of spam and deception through automation, Pixsy has figured out how to send legal threats at scale, robolawyering demand letters that aren't signed by lawyers; the company refuses to say whether any lawyer ever reviews these threats:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/13/an-open-letter-to-pixsy-ceo-kain-jones-who-keeps-sending-me-legal-threats/

This is shitting in the well, at scale. It's an online WMD, designed to wipe out the commons. Creative Commons has allowed millions of creators to produce a commons with billions of works in it, and Pixsy exploits a minor error in the early versions of CC licenses to indiscriminately manufacture legal land-mines, wantonly blowing off innocent commons-users' legs and laughing all the way to the bank:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/02/commafuckers-versus-the-commons/

We can have an online commons, but only if it's run by and for its users. Google has shown us that any "benevolent dictator" who amasses power in the name of defending the open internet will eventually grow too big to care, and will allow our commons to be demolished by well-shitters:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/09/shitting-in-the-well/#advon

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

--

Catherine Poh Huay Tan (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/68166820@N08/49729911222/

Laia Balagueró (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/lbalaguero/6551235503/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[hollowtones]

if you could give one franchise or piece of media a kart-racing game (that doesn't already have one), what would it be?

OK. Prefacing this with "I don't care all that much for Uncharted" and "I'm sure people have made this exact joke or comment before". Yadda yadda. But Naughty Dog has made so many games about driving or racing over the years. People adored "Crash Team Racing". People tolerated? the vehicle shit in the Jak & Daxter games. And the name is free. "Unkarted" is a billion dollar idea. Easily better than "The Fast of Us".

More(?) serious(?????) answer: kart racing is inherently kind of a goofy genre so you need to lean into that. The ideal for me is something that makes me go "haha, thats pretty funny" without it feeling TOO much like a shovelware thing. The Mario ones are funny because Mario sports games are funny. Sonic ones are funny because those guys don't need to drive a damn cars!! (& the good ones also pull from a bunch of old Sega properties. And Danica Patrick.) So I feel like the ideal here is primetime television. You've seen all the "Breaking Bad" edits and that's a good sell for the concept but that's played out by now. We need "Sopranos Kart". We need something based on "The Wire". We need "Twin Peaks: Power Drift with Me". Hell, get stupider with it. People love to eat up crossover multiverse garbage these days, right? "The Karterion Collection" would probably be slop but it'd at least be pretty fuckin funny slop.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Nearly 63,000 small pieces of plastic were pulled from Toronto Harbour over six months last year — thanks to trash traps, according to research data released on Monday. The plastic pieces were part of 43 kilograms of garbage removed from the water from May to October 2023, according to PortsToronto and the University of Toronto Trash Team, a community outreach organization. In a news release on Monday, PortsToronto said its network of trash traps includes eight Seabins, which are floating garbage cans that suck in trash, and two WasteSharks, which are small remote-controlled vessels that skim the surface of the water to collect floating debris. Apart from the volume of plastic taken out of the harbour last year, however, both organizations say there are signs that the amount of plastic garbage floating in the water is on the decline this year and the drop may be due to outreach and education efforts. 

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[theinstagrahame]

It's a bad day, and I've been dragging my heels on this. But, I got a bunch of neat new TTRPG stuff in October, so here's what landed in my mailbox.

Break!! - A few years ago, I stumbled on some art on Twitter. It was fun, it was vibrant, and it felt inviting. I wanted to know more, looked into the artist, and discovered it was spot art for an upcoming RPG called Break!! So, I kept an eye on it. The book is beautiful, well laid-out, and really cool, so maybe one good thing came from Twitter*.

The Electric State - Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood have been pretty high on my "To Play" lists for years. A follow-up, set in a similar (or the same?) world was kind of an instant pickup. Not as interested in the movie, but the game seems pretty rad.

The Geologist's Primer - I picked up the Herbalist's Primer when it came out, and was really impressed with the quality and care that went into it, so when I saw "That but for rocks" was in the works, I was definitely already in. Also excited for the follow up "Mushrooms next time".

Starkhollow Hall - I accidentally fell into a Gothic Fiction kick over Spooky Month, so the timing of this was perfect. I don't know a ton about the GUMSHOE system, but I do feel like what I know about it makes it a perfect fit for the genre. Gothic heroines (and I guess heroes) are at their best when they know there's a dangerous mystery at the heart of what's happening around them, and go looking for it anyway.

Forsaken - Kyle Tam is, honestly, a designer to watch. I picked this up because it was part of an Afterthought Committee project, which is a team I've also really enjoyed work from (my game Water Landing is built off of their game Cast Away). Does a better job of establishing a sort of grimdark/Soulsbourne vibe than some stuff that explicitly tries to.

Iron Edda Reforged - The pitch for this caught me immediately: Cyberpunk Norse Mythology. Tracy Barnett is another Designer to Watch, and I really like all of their stuff--haven't played the original Iron Edda, but have heard it on Party of One and really dug it. Was really hyped to see this come into being.

Electrum Archive v2 - I went through a Weird Sci-Fi phase this year, and the original Electrum Archive was an early pick for it. I really loved the world, the way each class worked differently, and the magic/currency/MacGuffin that it used. Obviously I wanted more, because the second book is here.

Alice is Missing - Silent Falls - My friends and I have been talking about the prospect of another Alice is Missing game since playing the first one about two years ago. It was a really memorable experience, partly due to the game's really compelling design, and to some of the in-moment decisions we made (I played the facilitator character, who starts the game having returned after a long absence, and another player immediately got pissed at them for sorta abandoning the group. it created an interesting play dynamic for the whole session)

Kill Him Faster - I picked up a previous Kovidae Games book as a lark: a collection of exercise-based RPGs. I nearly ignored their other stuff, but this had a pretty compelling pitch: What if time-travel was invented mostly so people could speedrun murdering Hitler. Since Eat the Reich came out, I've thought a bit about Hitler Revenge Fantasy as a genre, and honestly, I'm kinda into it. He was a loser, and deserves to be reduced to a video game villain and killed over and over again; so, yeah. Let's kill him faster next time.

Splat (issue 5) - I'm not usually one for essays and interviews, but this is a zine featuring and by some folks I really like and respect, and this one is packed with thoughts about the state of the indie TTRPG scene and industry from a diverse and immensely talented group. It's honestly a must-read.

(Already getting a few things for the next edition, but also feeling too garbage after the Clusterfuck Election to think about doing anything else today...)

---

footnote: * Technically, two good things came from Twitter. I also once expressed sorrow that I'd missed out on a limited T-shirt from a web comic artist that said "Sorry, Glenn, the only Beck I listen to has two turntables and a microphone", and the creator saw it and had an extra in my size.

[syeren]

HOW ARE THEY LIKE IN REAL LIFE? — JJK MEN & WOMEN.

SYEREN; mayhaps my 12 AM thoughts… but what if the characters from jjk get plopped down into the real world? whatcha think they might be like?

Gojo — 五条 悟

in all honesty…

he’s givin frat

LMAOOOOOOOO

or a rich kid with really successful parents who are either a)

architects

or b)

business owners

he also gives me the vibe that if you ask him how rich he actually is, he’ll just respond with

“i’m living comfortably xx 🫶” 😭😭😭

complains about how his body reacts to things like pollen or how his eyes get too dry throughout the day— so, he carries eye drops, lozenges, and those ointments sniffer thingys.

he also gives me the type where he looks not so concerned about maintaining good grades in academics… but he’s just NATURALLY smart

does that make sense?

he’ll just chug energy drinks to pull 3 consecutive all nighters before a final exam, and BOOM… flying colours

decides to opt for his own business and annoys utahime with how much bank he’s making

love language slowly switched from words of affirmation to gift giving, thus showering his friends with lavish gifts

right now at this point in time, he’s just berating all his friends with how much money he has

Geto — 夏油 傑

minus the whole ordeal that happened

he looks the type who would ACTUALLY get his life together 😭😭

occasionally parties, still regularly studies and does his part in group projects

he would go for philanthropy or mayhaps sociology

gojo is his one and only best friend and classmate that he somehow ALWAYS gets stuck with in every class

after graduation, he’s taking a break for himself and is travelling the world

during one of his trips in thailand, he calls up gojo to ask why tf he’s bragging abt his wealth

Nanami — 七海 建人

he’s never escaping the business world i fear LMAOOOOO

he really DOES give business i’m sorry pookie 😞

BUT, his OWN business where he’s his own boss and doesn’t have to work under someone else

he would much prefer that either way

but yeah, working class adult, has a dozen pack of beer or sangria wine in his own personalized wine cellar

often competes with gojo’s business, but decides to make a partnership in the end due to gojo’s persuasion

he’s also stuck in his office currently, looking at his phone in bewilderment to screenshots of gojo’s bank acc that gojo himself sent

Yuji — 虎杖 悠仁

average teenager

he partakes in the track team at his school and likes to exercise ALOTTT

gym buddy in question? todo

i feel like his guilty pleasure is watching mukbangs to torture himself 😭😭

he ends up being megumi’s roommate after a long time of convincing.

he tries to keep his side clean and tidy but it always ends up being an organized mess

right now, he just came back home from the gym with todo and is in choso’s apartment watching a horror series

Yuta — 乙骨 ���太

would you look at that?! average college student

LMAOOOO

definitely majors in either a) science or b) math

NOOOO WAIT

or c) computer science

overall normal kid!

i have no other words, he is also living his life to his fullest, but is very stressed out due to some big projects and tests he has coming

performance anxiety 😞

Megumi — 伏黒 恵

also another average teenager

he’s a bit more toned down tho

lil’ meg over here gives me the vibe that he also knows what he’s doing and is very present in life

he’s on top of his hw, does his chores, has a comfortable room that’s neat enough for him…

he also gives me the vibe that he does NOT GAFFFF !!!!!

protect my own peace 🙏 kind of guy

in college he makes the silent regret of dorming with yuji, the complete OPPOSITE to his own tastes but thats twin 🤞

“yuji, could you take out the trash to the lobby? it’s garbage collection today.”

“what? why me?”

“because i have a meeting through zoom with my classmates”

“then do it after?”

“yuji, my zoom call is two hours, taking out the trash will take around five minutes."

"it's actually a five minute walk down to the lobby, and another five minutes back up... w-wait, why are you holding up your slipper?"

ANYWAYS, he’s havin a good time chilling with his friends 😋

Choso — 脹相

he’s for SURE in a biker club

rides a kawasaki ninja h2r with yuki from time to time

other than that, decided to work after hs and he works in a tattoo shop next door to mechamaru’s pub

big scary big brother vibes compared to golden retriever yuji 😞🙏

currently, he’s lounging in his apartment with yuki, yuji, todo, and megumi

Inumaki — 狗巻 棘

he's too busy spending time with me unfortunately <3

im kidding

maybe not

ANYWAYYYYYYY, i feel like inumaki would have a hobby in pc games.

he would absolutely ROCK valorant

whenever he plays horror games he FORCES the rest of the squad to play with him because he's a pussy scaredy-cat

in his spare time he likes to do track or go on long runs whenever he feels stressed out from uni

forgets to shower sometimes after he runs, so he fucking reeks the day after

he's majoring in comp-sci

speaking of runs, look at him go! he’s on one right now

Sukuna — 両面宿儺

the most annoying and narcissistic man

AND SO MEAN TOO?!

yknow those tiktok comments or ig reel comments you see? yeah, those ones.

that’s him. he’s the one making those actually.

very misogynistic, controlling AND argumentative

he swears on the history of the world wars and somehow always brings it up during conflict? 💀

believes mental health is fake and violence can solve everything

prolly wholeheartedly disagrees with women’s rights with his ancient ass mentality

he’s preparing for an argument stream against mahito 😭

Todo — 東堂 葵

GYMMM RATTTTT

ALWAYS HOGGING THE MACHINES NO MATTER WHATTTT

only talks about fitness and nutrition, girls, and what his plans are for the weekend.

“nah bro, i’m all natty rn,” “i don’t use creatine,” “what?! i’m not on roids dude! just the chicken breast and asparagus with rice”

he’s also the type to look at someone a little too long at the gym, or outside

or anywhere, in fact

studies kinesiology

hope i spelt that right 😁🤞

Mechamaru — 与 幸吉

in my reality, he and miwa would be a couple

THERE I SAID IT!

he would genuinely try to be a good boyfriend while bartending in a dingy pub just two blocks away from their shared apartment.

he would be the type to spam miwa msgs on his break

lowkey wants a tattoo done by choso so he could swipe that discount 😋

Mahito — 真人

he’s known on the internet for being a controversial streamer on twitch

he also has such a shitty mic that when he screams it cuts off the sound

ALWAYS has his shirt off during the stream 😭😭

he would say the most out of pocket statements and without context, it would be the most HORRIFIC thing

so, people would clip that and post it 😟 thus, he gained a large following bc of those statements

Miwa — 三輪 霞

raves about cats and dogs to her bf and after a long, agonizing wait… they finally adopted one from the pound and this is all she has been doing

taking care of her animal child, and man child that is mechamaru

I FEEL LIKE MIWA WOULD ABSOLUTELY LOVE ANIMALS SO THIS IS WHAT SHE DECIDES TO GO FOR IN COLLEGE

with a minor in marine biology too :3

Shoko — 家入 硝子

i would catch her at a pub or a bar somewhere either drinking gin and tonic on lighter day, and more heavier days she would go for whiskey

if NOT, then she’s in an back alley smoking before she needs to go back to her like… 20 hour shift as a nurse.

spends most of her time at home and scrolling on her amazon shopping cart to see what else she can buy to help her busy ass life

Maki — 禪院 真希

similar to todo, but she gives me the vibe that she would train in both calisthenics and mma as a hobby

like hobby: all that stuff, and the other half is dedicated to working towards her degree in either a science like forensics or history.

she lives her life to the fullest on her terms!! really mia from social media and is training real hard everyday

right now, she’s with nobara on a shopping trip to the mall

(she did NOT wanna go, but she likes spending time with her bestie anyway)

Mai — 禪院 真依

FASHION DESIGN I REPEAT FASHION DESIGN

when i first saw mai come on screen, i also did too jus a little bit

but her aura makes me imagine that she runs a tiktok account to post fit pics onto it, has so many pinterest boards dedicated to vintage or her new obsession— office siren outfits.

also has such a GOOD spread of pictures up on instagram, like she’s THAT girl

now, she’s currently studying fashion while scourging the internet for good statement pieces like red leather kitten heels to go along with her two-piece cropped blazer and mini skirt outfit.

Mei Mei — 冥冥

hmm… 😟

teacher vibes…

but like, those english teachers that only interact positively with the popular kids

PLSSS IM SORRY OKAY, THATS THE ONLY FACTOR ABOUT MEI MEI THAT REALLY CAUGHT ME OFF GUARDDDD

APART from that

actually good at her profession, and makes sure her class is fun

the type that does NAWT give two fucks abt late hw bc she complains that “the workload will double up on her anyway”

Utahime — 庵 歌姫

bc of her personality as well as her easily irritated anger tolerance with gojo…

def a head master of a boarding school or an instructor for flight attendants

occasionally goes out for drinks with shoko, but only rants abt gojo bc of his dumbass

very good at her job, and often sees her alumni if she has time in her schedule

right now, she’s currently cooped up in her office filing out different paperwork and silencing her phone from gojo’s numerous screenshots of his bank acc 😭

Nobara — 釘崎 野薔薇

the last of the bunch for average teenagers.

nobara DOES NOT give that much attention towards school, so she opts for a general of easier course— psychology being one, because everyone else is taking it so she thinks it’s easy. two, general studies.

you can find her ALWAYS OUT for some reason?!

she gains her energy by socializing and just being outside of the house in general 😭

says it’s a ‘waste of a day.’

she’s dragging around maki to push clothes into her arms that she deems acceptable and will look amazing on her

—

AN; SYEREN here! creds to @ kOmuuuug1xxx on x for the pic :3

[dr-spectre]

My Splatoon Idol Headcanons!

Im so normal about them, like totally...... (note, some of them may be more serious than lighthearted so keep that in mind. i have warned you.)

Callie

Has ADHD 

Got a permanent version of the octopus tattoo that she keeps hidden with make-up when on stage. She sees it as a reminder that she has grown and to always believe that she is loved and to never listen to the dark thoughts that lie in her head

Hides most of her issues from everyone no matter how big or small because she’s scared to upset her family and friends. She'll only tell what's going on with her if someone REALLY presses her about it 

Always talks to Frye after each Splatfest loss to make sure she’s okay. She cheered extremely loudly when Team Bucket List won

Can be kind of clingy around her friends and family 

Marie

Is on the autism spectrum but has not told anyone due to feeling shame about it 

Considers Agent 3 family and treats them extremely nicely. She knew what happened to them in the Deepsea Metro

Massive Pokémon fan 

Constantly worries about Callie and was told by her that she willingly left with the Octarians. Marie checks up on her every day and needs to make a call with her otherwise she’ll get fidgety and restless 

Best friends with Marina and Big Man and they hang out when their schedules all line up

Pearl

Used to have an eating disorder that affected her health badly before she met Marina, she is currently working on eating better with Marina's help

Feels guilt and shame over being very rich and tries to do all she can to help out less fortunate people via charity and music 

Has sleeping problems and needs Marina to be in the same bed with her to fall asleep 

She still keeps up with the heavy metal scene and loves seeing new artists pop up

Loves outer space and being high in the air

Marina

Is on the autism spectrum and has told Pearl about it which she accepts and still loves her all the same

Wears her headphones as much as she can because she’s very sensitive to certain sounds and other sensations. If she becomes too overstimulated, she needs Pearl’s help to calm her down 

She loves to ramble on social media about her special interests and machinery

Is a workaholic and doesn’t like to relax for long periods of time, she must be doing something 

Wants to adopt Eight as her child but she hasn't gotten around to it or asked Eight about it due to her schedule

Shiver

Has a strained relationship with her father and mother and has low contact with them 

Has an addiction to juice and can chug down several boxes of it every day, she has kept this addiction hidden from Frye and Big Man but they have noticed an odd amount of juice boxes in the garbage 

Seeks companionship and deep connections with people badly but hides it with a cold exterior because she's scared of getting hurt or betrayed. She sometimes cries at night because she thinks she’s all alone and wants to be held 

Was an extreme perfectionist at high school and would get upset if she got decent or poor grades

Wears pajamas all the time at home and isn't the most hygienic 

Frye

Has a plushie collection that she keeps on her bed 

May have ADHD but she has not gotten a diagnosis for it yet 

Has issues with analysis paralysis and can never decide things easily 

Can be a bit too overbearing with her siblings but she means well and loves them to death 

Is deep down insecure about her appearance from seeing comments about her body online and trains her body constantly to feel good about herself 

Big Man

Is constantly overworked and wishes he could just relax

Has a vinyl collection where he has boxes upon boxes of vinyl records 

Is secretly a big fan of Off the Hook and the Squid Sisters 

He’s a pro bowling player and takes it VERY seriously even amongst friends 

Hates getting into arguments and gets very emotional even at the slightest of criticisms 

[wttcsms]

wttcsms wags blind bag, one shot collection ;

about poking fun at blind items & wanting to explore wag culture (and also looking for any reason to write about hot anime athletes), this fic collection's theme is inspired by/based off of... well, blind items about wags!

you're what i wanna love on, shugo meian

at the height of peak stardom, you're not just japan's pop princess — you're everyone's. with it comes controversy; your infamously short dresses, the late night parties you attend after every concert, your outrageously expensive concert tickets and merch, your racy performances that have concerned mothers going on social media saying you're a bad influence. adding to your list of typical pop star transgressions, you also have a hot, successful, wildly successful and just barely controversially older boyfriend!

but it would've been fun (if you could've been the one), tooru oikawa

from high school rivals to long-distance college sweethearts to perhaps the couple that got eloped way too early, it's no surprise that you and oikawa end up divorcing soon after getting married. while in your case it seems like love might be a losing game, you and oikawa both only play to win. when the olympics brings you two together once more, there's a good chance you two can reconcile and get your relationship back and better than it was before — or, go down with this sinking ship. with either outcome, at least you two are doing it together.

something to lose, shoyo hinata

heartbroken, jaded, and convinced that all men are garbage, you don't plan on anything happening when you're invited to an after party for a profession volleyball team in order to boost said team's publicity. you don't plan on making any friends or meaningful connections, and you certainly don't plan on getting the number of one of their star player's, shoyo hinata. then again, a lot of things don't go as planned when he's involved, and you don't expect yourself to be happy about these turns of event, but for once you are; happy, that is. and it's all his fault.

easy like sunday morning, wakatoshi ushijima

wakatoshi ushijima is notorious for his devotion to two things: volleyball and his family. during his post-game interview where he's been away from home for nearly two months, interviewers are asking him if he's excited to attend the rowdy after party to celebrate. ushijima's answer? he's taking a flight directly after this interview to head back home. he plans on celebrating the only way he knows how to: by finally being able to tuck in his sweet kids to bed, and then show his beloved wife how much he's missed her.

it's the same damn thing that made my heart surrender, koutarou bokuto

before he gets scouted by the msby black jackals and becomes one of japan's most famous athletes of all time, he's a struggling athlete trying his hardest to get a contract. during the off-season for recruiting, he decides to make some extra cash by using his looks and charms to become a contestant on a reality dating show, where he meets you: beautiful, intelligent, ambitious you, who is so clearly out of the league for anyone. you adore him, and you two have the strongest connection out of everyone on the show, so when he ends up picking someone who's not you, you're shocked. you don't know that he thinks he's doing you a favor because he believes he'll only ever hold you back. when the show invites you two for a reunion episode special, bokuto can only hope your feelings haven't changed.

burn out season, michael kaiser

what do you do when suffer a potential career-ending injury? hopefully not get diagnosed with depression, find out that because you devoted your whole life to your sport, you now have no sense of what to do without it, and then realize the only person who really Gets You is the only person who can irritate you like no one else does. hopefully you don't start to spend your newfound free time with him, and hopefully, you don't start to experience all the fun firsts in your life because of him and with him. or, maybe hopefully you do.

life could be a dream, yoichi isagi

getting together was no easy feat, and yoichi wants to show you how happy he is that you're his. he showers you with presents, shows you off at any given chance, always has a hand on the small of your back or around your waist. his possessive streak only grows when he finally slips that expensive engagement ring on your finger, and he shows you just how good married life is going to be for you.

i was supposed to sweat you out, michael beckenbauer

michael beckenbauer doesn't give a shit about japan, or the other subpar racers who have the nerve to get behind the wheel of the cars just to lose by a wide margin to him, or about how he's perceived by the media. he just wants to finish out this season, return home, and maybe find some worthy competition. he doesn't care if it's your job to try to brighten up his image; he never asked for a publicist, and in typical michael fashion, he's going to go out of his way to get you to quit. he has a bad tendency to underestimate his opponents, though, and off the track, you just might be his worthiest competition yet.

[in1-nutshell]

Hello, Another Part of this TFA Request, Bot Buddy as Wasp's twin sibling who takes his place

Where Bot Buddy, who disguised as Wasp, became a broken bot, and that now speaks like how Wasp do. She somehow escap from Autobots and didn't held a grudge of that 'incident'

Buddy came to Earth and meet the team prime (if Wasp's in Repair crew, a reunion happens between him and Buddy), also Buddy (and Wasp) reveal their true selves

I have a feeling we are going to see this Buddy a bit more in the future.

Hope you enjoy!

Wasp Twin sister meets Team Prime

SFW, Platonic, Angst, Mention of injury but nothing graphic, Cybertronain reader

TFA

Time didn’t seem to exist within the walls of the stockades.

Half of the time W-2 didn’t even know what was happening anymore.

It was better that way.

Her name was even changed while being in there, she had to constantly remind herself that she was still had a name… but even that was slowly being replaced by the shorten nickname given to her.

2.

Just plain ol’ 2.

She rarely talked anymore and when she did, it was mainly to herself.

The guards made fun of her speech whenever they had the chance to do it.

One night 2 woke up to find the door of her cell wide open.

Thinking this was another trick, she waited a bit.

When nothing happened, she bolted out of the cell and straight to the memorized exits.

She remembered running and running until she reached the local spacebridge.

She punched in random coordinates as the blaring sounds of the alarms shrieked.

2 instinctively tried to transform, but the inhibitor claw on her back prevented her from doing so.

As soon as the bridge turned on, she leaped in, not caring now where it could lead her.

All 2 knew was that she couldn’t stand another day in the walls of the stockade.

She was free falling when she appeared on the other side.

2 landed on a pile of trash.

2 rubs her helm while throwing a greasy banana peel off her helm.

“Ow! Stinky garbage hurt 2.”--2

The garbage bot starts collecting the garbage including her.

It starts compacting.

2 starts clawing fruitlessly at the wall and screaming.

“NO, NO, NO! 2 DON’T WANT TO GO! 2 DON’T WANT TO GO!”--2

SLICE!

The machine had been sliced in half thanks to the quick thinking of Optimus Prime.

He had just been in the area when he heard a bunch of screaming coming from the garbage bot.

He thought it was a couple of humans caught, he was not expecting a bot that looked a little bit like Bumblebee to spill out. The bot in question looked at him and scurried into a corner in the alley and placed her servos on her helm, shaking like a leaf.

Optimus carefully approaches her slowly putting his axe down and getting on his knees.

“Hello.”--Optimus

The bot looks up a bit but keeps quiet.

“My name is Optimus Prime—”--Optimus

The bot curls up even more.

“Like Sentinel bot?”—2

Optimus shakes his helm.

“No, I’m not like or am Sentinel. How do you know who Sentinel is?”--Optimus

The bot shaking lessens.

“Truck bot save 2. 2 like nice Truck bot.”—2

“Your name is 2?”—Optimus

2 nods.

“Just 2.”--2

Optimus smiles before noticing her pede sparking.

“You’re hurt.”--Optimus

She looks down at the injury, wincing a bit as the spark grew a bit.

“Oh… 2 hurt...”--2

“Listen 2, I have a field tech back on my base—”—Optimus

2 looks at him in panic.

“No!”--2

“No?”--Optimus

“Truck bot take 2 to get arrested! 2 not go back to stockades! Not go back!”—2

She tries to get up but yelps when the pain shoots up and crumbles.

Optimus catches her.

“Listen 2, your injured, I promise whatever this is about the stockades won’t happen because you get arrested when the other first see you. You have my word.”—Optimus

2 looks at him in fear and uncertainty.

“2… not get arrested on sight? Truck bot promise?”--2

“Yes. You have my word.”—Optimus

He holds out his servo for 2 to take it.

She does hesitantly.

Optimus carefully carries 2 in his arms.

2 freezes a bit before relaxing in his arms.

This… this felt nice…

Optimus sends a message to Ratchet to get the med bay ready and to prep everyone for someone’s arrival.

2 just clinging on the only source of positive touch she had received in what seemed like millennia.

She doesn’t see the bots due to her slightly buried helm in Optimus’s chassis.

She gets set on the med slab and that’s when her optics zero in on Bumblebee and Bulkhead.

“Is that W-2?!”--Bulkhead

2 starts clinging on Optimus arm shaking furious.

“Prime! You brought a spy to our base!”--Bumblebee

“2 not spy. 2 is just 2.”--2

“What happen to your voice?”—Bulkhead

Bumblebee gets up in 2’s face with an angry expression on his face.

“And why are you here traitor?! You’re ready to try and con us too?!”--Bumblebee

THUD!

2 passes out on the med slab.

Bumblebee and Bulkhead explain their history with 2 in their early days in the boot camp.

After she was taken away, many things were no longer the same.

Bumblebee and Bulkhead couldn’t believe that she was the spy all along. She didn’t look like a spy or acted like one, but maybe that was the whole point.

Her arrest took the biggest toll on Wasp.

The bot was fighting any bot that got on his nerve and was nearly expelled from boot camp if he suddenly didn’t stop.

His overall mood and attitude did change a bit.

He could still be insensitive and play pranks, but they were significantly fewer than before. Wasp even became good acquaintances with Bumblebee at one point.

It was thanks to Wasp’s recommendation that he and Bulkhead were partnered in the same space bridge repair crew when he moved a bit through the ranks.

Ratchet, meanwhile, is mentally taking note of some injuries that had been untreated in a while.

It was clear that wherever this bot came from, it wasn’t a good place.

Especially when he saw the damage made to her voice box. That explained the rough speech.

When Bee and Bulkhead are done with the story, it leaves some questions and mixed feelings about the bot.

“There is still something off about all of this.”--Optimus

“Like what?”--Sari

“You told us she admitted to being the spy when Wasp was being taken away right?”--Prowl

“Yeah?”--Bumblebee

“No spy in their right processor would through themselves under the bus for one bot, family or not. Just me kid, I’ve met plenty of spies in my lifetime. She is not spy material.”—Ratchet

“But then…”--Bumblebee

“Do you mean…”--Bulkhead

“I don’t think 2 is a spy.”--Optimus

Bee and Bulkhead share a look.

If she wasn’t the spy… then who was?

She comes around and starts to shake seeing bee and bulk

Optimus carefully moves in front of her to not let her see Bumblebee and Bulkhead.

“2 don’t want to go back!”--2

2 tries to get off the med slab but Prowl and Ratchet hold her down.

“No one is taking you back 2.”—Prowl

2 stops abruptly.

“2 not?”--2

Prowl sits down next to her.

“We have a feeling you’re not really the spy, but we can only confirm it if we hear your truth. Can you do that?”--Prowl

2 looks down shaking her helm.

“Are you trying to protect someone?”--Prowl

2 freezes and refuses to look anyone in the optic.

Sari comes next to her putting both of her hands in hers.

“Hi. My name is Sari, Sari Sumdac.”--Sari

“S-Sari?”--2

“Yeah, I really want to be your friend 2. You look like a nice bot to be friends with.”--Sari

2 looks at her with wide optics.

“Sari… want be friends with 2?”—2

Sari nods.

“But we can’t if we don’t know what happened. Don’t you want to tell someone?”--Sari

2 nods her helm weakly.

Sari squeezes her hands a bit.

“Nothings going to happen to you if you tell us.”--Sari

“Promise?”--2

“Pinky promise!”--Sari

2 tells them about how scared she felt when she saw her twin being wheeled out after an accusation that should have had more evidence.

She took the blame to save him.

Everything she said on the spot was false and she had hoped that Sentinel was dumb enough to take the bait and take her instead.

At that moment she didn’t care how it made her look, she was worried for her twin’s safety.

She is crying and refuses to look at anyone in the optic.

Sari give 2 a hug around her neck cables.

“You did a good job 2.”

2 shakingly reaches to gently hug Sari back as the tears in her optics make everything look blurry.

She feels someone sitting next to her and a servo pulling her into a side hug.

The blob on yellow is all she needs to know who it is.

“I’m sorry for calling you a spy 2… do you think—”

2 puts her helm on his shoulder trying to stifle another sob.

The message is clear.

Bulkhead starts to pat her helm making her cry even more.

Sari pulls away and looks at 2.

“Sari?”--2

“I don’t like 2. You need a new name.”--Sari

2 points at herself.

“New name?”--2

Sari nods and smiles.

“And I know just the name, Buddy!”--Sari

She tilts her helm a bit.

“Buddy?”—Bumblebee, Bulkhead and 2

Then she starts to smile.

“Buddy! Buddy like name. Buddy is new name. Buddy thank Sari. Sari, Sari, Sari!”—Buddy

Bulkhead pulls the entire team in for a group hug.

Buddy is in the center of it spilling some tears.

For the first time in a long time, she felt safe.

Buddy was finally safe…

[numptypylon]

“Rayla is… not my lovebug.”

“Oh ho, now?" Nyx leaned obnoxiously close, her eyebrows raising. "Have you told her that?”

“She told me," Callum said, angry all over again suddenly that... she actually hadn't told him that and yet they weren't- "So I’m tentatively assuming that she knows.”

“Oh ho? So she broke up with you and yet you’re still adventuring together, risking your lives for each other, making love eyes at each other at every opportunity… ah, to be young and in love and a garbage fire of collective awkwardness of such radiance as to light up the heavens-”

“Yeah!” Ezran agreed, walking up to them. Oh no. Hopefully Nyx would tone down the… everything… around an 11-year-old, but… considering he had been 14 himself when he’d first encountered Nyx, he didn’t have high hopes. “It’s gross and they’re so dumb, and here I am, a doomed onlooker!"

“You got the family braincell, I see,” Nyx said, winking at Ezran.

Ezran nodded sagely. “My blessing and my curse, ‘tis true.”

Really?! Did Ez really have to form an alliance with every new person they met to tag-team roast him?!

Nyx turned away from Ezran, her unwanted attention firmly back on him now. “I still need the full status update on my favorite dysfunctional lovebugs!” Nyx would keep prodding, and Callum didn’t want her to prod Rayla- “You know there’s another ex-lovebug who could tell me-“ Did he just curse that idea into Nyx’s head?! “But you’re currently the less puke-smelling option, so…"

Nyx really didn't subscribe to the idea of sensitive subjects you should keep your trap shut about.

“We… broke up. Like you said.” One way to say it. But he wasn’t giving Nyx any ammunition to use against Rayla. “Then made up. Kind of. We’re friends, just not… lovebugs.”

“Friends with benefits?”

“What friends do you have?” Ezran asked, all wide-eyed, vicious innocence. “Do you not consider friendship a benefit?”

“Hey!” Nyx looked insulted. “I thought we were allies against yon magus of maladroit you tragically must call brother?”

“My allegiances are many and inscrutable!” Ez stuck his tongue out at Nyx.

“’Allegiances’? ’Inscrutable’? Sheesh, kid, how old are you? And what awful, terrible company do you keep?!”

“11. And… politicians.”

“Oh no, you’re serious?! Oh kid, the depths of my condolences is one of them yawning chasms of endless screaming-“

“Oi?!” Villads yelled. “Matey? Riggin’ snagged!”

“I don’t hold court with betrayers, anyway,” Nyx said, incredibly hypocritically for someone who’d stranded them in a desert, and she pushed off the deck and was airborne, heading off towards the center mast.

“What is the benefit of being ‘friends with benefits’?” Ezran asked, looking around to Callum and then Soren, who had just arrived with Hat perched on his head. “The friendship is pretty obviously a benefit of being friends without having to say it, so I know it isn’t that, I just said that because Nyx was being mean.”

“Oh, I know!” Soren said, eagerly. “It’s s-“

“Sandwiches!” Callum cut him off. “Sandwiches, Soren! Remember?”

“Riiiiight!” Soren winked, exaggeratedly. “Sandwiches. Got it. Corvus makes the best bread sandwich, extra mayonnaise-“

“Please, Soren,” Callum choked. “Please, let’s… talk about something else. Anything else. Please.”

———

Excerpt from an upcoming chapter of my S4-6 between-canon-episodes fic, Downtime’s Up (successor to my S1-3 between-canon-scenes fics Downtime in Wartime and Upside Downtime)

It’s wednesday and I have many wips I want to work on and no time, but I DO also have a lot of stuff written and not posted, so… hope you enjoyed some overgrown pigeon time and depraved sandwich innuendos. Once I get past the next 4 chapters of Downtime’s Up, I have most of the rest of the story written, just… it’s been rough going to write anything lately

[stevebattle]

Wakamaru communication robot (2003) by Toshiyuki Kita, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Tokyo, Japan. "Wakamaru" was so named because the two sensors on its forehead resemble the eyebrows of the Heian Era Yoshitsune Minamoto, whose childhood name was "Ushiwakamaru."

"The design concept of Mr. Toshiyuki Kita, who designed "wakamaru", was to create "a humanoid robot that can approach its user." "wakamaru" is designed in the image of a human being, not merely as a "machine" or a "computer terminal," but rather as an "independent personality." Its familiar facial expressions and body appearance make it feel friendly to everyone from children to elderly people." – "Wakamaru" Design, MHI.

The three stages of Wakamaru are seen in the 6th image, from first concept in 2000, through Toshiyuki Kita's blue sleeved prototype, to its final form in 2003. "The first inkling of "wakamaru" lies in a company project titled "MHI Frontier 21," started in 2000. In order to start a new product/project with a 21st century theme, ideas were canvassed from all employees. Then, one of the proposals summarized by the investigation team, mainly consisting of younger employees was, the "Service Robot Project." ... "wakamaru" was born. A robot that can live with human beings, enriching the quality of life." – Who is "Wakimaru"?, MHI.

"Wakamaru, the multi-function service robot developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries close to a decade ago has never seemed to gain much traction or use outside of research labs and universities. While Wakamaru is extremely cute, most observers agreed that it didn’t really address a compelling customer need, especially at its USD$14,000 price point. A tweet earlier today by @rani_chocobreak seems to provide visual confirmation [see 7th image] that Wakamaru may have reached the end of its rope. According to the tweet, there are quite a few Wakamaru robots stored in the garbage collection area at an unnamed Japanese university." – Is Wakamaru Alive and Well, or…?, robots dreams, 2014.

Yet Wakamaru keeps on giving (see video). "Under MHI's "wakamaru gift" initiative, based on the number of handshakes the MHI Group makes monetary donations to support the earthquake and tsunami recovery effort in the Tohoku region. … To date, the number of handshakes with wakamaru [based at the Company's showroom on the second floor of the Shinagawa Head Office] has resulted in donations totaling 2.4 million yen. The money is being put to good use to fund various events supporting Tohoku's recovery, a project to cultivate seedlings for creating green spaces as a disaster-prevention measure, and activities to help nurture the next generation. Many people who have cooperated in this campaign have expressed their joy at being able to help in the Tohoku recovery effort." – "wakamaru gift" Campaign Reaches 8,000 Handshakes!, MHI, 2016.

[saywhatjessie]

“So you thought you kissed your way into that situation, might as well kiss your way out of it?” “Basically!” Jamie cried. “‘S like that old American sitcom, innit?”* Or the one where Jamie can't stop kissing Roy in front of other people. Written for the @rjbigbang! 10.1k [Ao3] Video by MicheleYourBelle under the cut

The way it started was so fucking stupid that Roy could not be surprised at any of the stupid things that followed.

He was sitting at his desk - the one that had formerly been Ted’s - and Jamie was sitting on the corner, chatting with Nate about Mother’s Day plans. It was still early, Jamie having taken a ride to training with Roy, so it was still mostly just the coaches waiting for the rest of the team to fill out the dressing room.

“It’s always shitty being so far from mummy on mummy’s day,” Jamie said, sadly, his feet gently kicking back against Roy’s desk. “But she always likes the flowers I send her. And Simon lets me pick what he makes her for breakfast, so it’s like I’m there.”

“That’s thoughtful, Jamie,” Nate smiled, his own feet kicking back against the bookshelves he always perched on. “My mum never lets anyone cook for her, not even on mother’s day. But I do get her flowers. My niece and I might make her another special box as well.”

“You’re dead good at those,” Jamie told him. “But what does she need all these boxes for?”

“Oh, nothing. They all end up collecting dust in the attic. But we like making ‘em and she likes getting ‘em, so there’s really no harm.”

“Unless you consider ecological harm,” Trent said, sliding into his place against the doorframe, his mug softly steaming. “I imagine this crafting generates considerable waste.”

“Come on, Trent, you can’t quantify the quality of making art by equating it to the trash it makes,” Beard argued. “I’d rather Nate and baby niece Nate make a ton of garbage doing crafts than the waste major corporations generate doing capitalism.”

“And you could always recycle,” Jamie said. “Use old magazines or summat. That’s what I used to do.”

“Were you crafty, Jamie?” Trent smiled. “Make little posters of your favourite footballers?”

Jamie stiffened, his eyes head making an aborted jerk like he was fighting not to look at Roy. “No.” 

Roy smirked.

“All right,” Roy started, leaning forward in his chair and shoving at Jamie’s back. “That’s enough, Tartt, go put on your kit.”

“Okay so maybe I did!” Jamie said, hopping off the desk and turning to face Roy. “Doesn’t mean they were for you. There are other footballers.”

“Not according to Simon,” Roy grinned, his head tilting back to look up at Jamie as Jamie stepped toward him. “I can call him and get the real story if you like.”

Jamie scoffed, folding his hands into the bottom of his jumper. “Simon doesn’t know everything .” He frowned, leaning forward. “But you better not call mummy.”

Roy rolled his eyes, his face going just a bit too fond for company. “Go change, Tartt.”

“Ay ay, Coach,” Jamie said before leaning in to kiss him goodbye.

Roy and Jamie had kissed before. They kissed all the time: had been since they first kissed after that disastrous fight over Keeley that got both of them kicked out of her home and good graces. They’d worked out their aggression, their mutual attraction and, soon enough, their quads while they were fucking it out back at Roy’s place.

Roy’d had a special clause put in his manager contract that he wouldn’t have to break up with Jamie and Jamie would be totally protected as a player if they did break up. He’d worked it out with Rebecca, with Higgins, and with Sharon during his many therapist appointments about it.

But no one else knew. They’d never done this in front of anyone else.

They both froze.

Jamie pulled away. He and Roy had a half second of eye contact where they had the following silent conversation:

“I fucked up.”

“You fucked up.”

“I can fix it!”

“How the fuck are you gonna fix it?”

“Shut up, I’ve got this.”

Jamie stood up, his back rail straight, and took a deep breath. Roy watched him as he put the ‘Jamie Tartt’ affectation back on, smirk fixed, as he turned back to the rest of the room, everyone still struck speechless.

“Coach!” Jamie said, again, stepping towards Nate. Nate sat there, stunned, as Jamie took his face in his hands and kissed him full on the mouth.

Now it was Roy’s turn to be speechless.

“Big man Trent Crimm!” Jamie said, turning to Trent, and planting a fat one on the writer’s mouth. Tren’t mouth was still puckered when Jamie pulled back.

Jamie turned and pointed at Beard. “And I wouldn’t forget you, Coach!”

Beard tilted his face up to accept the kiss, seeming more prepared for it than the other two had. 

Jamie pulled away with a loud “Muah!” and grinned around to the assembled coaches, slightly manic. “See you on the pitch!” And he turned and fled the office.

They all watched him go for a few beats before the other three all turned their gazes to Roy, demanding explanation.

Roy did his best to pull out a Roy Kent worthy performance. “What the fuck was that!?”

Trent hummed, touching his mouth, consideringly. “Not half bad is what that was.”

Roy swallowed a growl. He couldn’t be obviously jealous and it’s not like Trent was wrong. Jamie was a famously excellent kisser.

“I'm more surprised you let it happen,” Nate said, still staring at Roy. “You didn’t even headbutt him.”

Roy grunted, crossing his arms. “It’s in my contract I’m not allowed to nut players anymore.”

“Still, you think you’d do it on instinct,” Beard said, eyebrow raised. “You didn’t even shove him.”

“I panicked! Froze up or some shit.” Roy said, desperate to get the attention off of him. “None of you did it either.”

Nate shrugged his mouth. “Well I never dreamed he’d kiss me .” he said. “He used to shove sweaty pants at my face.”

“I figured he was trying something.” Beard said, dismissively. “Thought we’d see where it goes.”

They all looked at Trent who held up his rainbow mug in tribute. “Who am I to deny a kiss from a beautiful man?”

Roy very heroically did not possessively bare his teeth.

“Well I’ll tell him to cut that out,” he grunted. “Can’t have players just go around kissing people. We’ll have a whole sexual harassment crisis.”

“That’s only if people don’t want Jamie to kiss them,” Beard said, fairly.

Roy couldn’t quite bite back his growl at that. Beard put up his hands.

“I think it’s nice that we’ve created a culture where our players can be so comfortable with us,” Nate noted, pleased. “Remember when they were throwing me in bins?”

“Those can’t be the only two options,” Trent said. “Kissing or bins?”

“You’re right, we need a third option,” Beard said, leaning back in his chair. “Kiss, bin, go drinking with.”

“The three genders,” Trent confirmed with a smirk. “Of those three options, I’m happy to kiss Jamie. Couldn’t lift him to put him in a bin and I worry how we’d fair in conversation.”

Nate and Beard hummed in agreement and now Roy wanted to defend Jamie’s conversation skills of all things.

He wouldn’t because that would be fucking suspicious but he wanted to. How pathetic.

“I’ll bin the twat,” Roy said instead. “Someone should.”

“He’d probably bin himself if you asked him to,” Beard noted, smirking.

Roy smirked back, not disagreeing.

[Read the rest on Ao3]