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anarchy-and-piglins · 7 months ago

Note

Fun AU time! Call it an "adopted introvert" au!

Technoblade is alone and alone is how he likes it. Absolutely. He's not lonely. Not at all. He just likes spending his time adventuring! Can't have friendships when you are adventuring, it takes too much time.

Anyways, Technoblade is exploring a fortress when he comes across a strange room. It has some kind of altar thingy? Its ancient. He is looking around it when he accidentally bumps into something. Sets off a Mummy-style rube Goldberg machine that breaks a vase hanging above the altar.

Out pops a flustered blond man with massive black wings, blinking at Technoblade with confusion.

The guy opens his mouth to speak and Technoblade books it. Conversation can't get him if he runs. Take that, socialization.

Technoblade runs for a while, stops to breath and check behind him to see if the guy is following him. He sees no one and turns back around.

Blond man is grinning at him, covered head to toe in soot.

His name is Philza. Technoblade didn’t ask, but the guy introduced himself. He was sealed up in that vase for REASONS. Philza does not explain those reasons, but Technoblade doesn't ask. Mostly because Techno is doing his best to jog away. Philza doesn't let him. Philza basically shouts at him that now that Techno freed him, Philza is bound to follow him everywhere. Techno is frozen in place by that. Oh no, he's been cursed with company. The absolute worst.

Techno finally stops to ask how to undo it. Philza is giddy as he tells Techno a variety of very silly tasks he needs to do to have them split.

Technoblade sighs and agrees, heading off in a direction as Philza chats with him.

Here's the thing. Philza lied. They are not bound together. Philza just got trapped because he was a bit too silly and MAY have caused a civil war in the nether. But he's just a silly guy! He's just having a fun time, living his best life. Not his fault people can't take a little bit of mischief and decided to seal him away. He was just having fun.

His fun DOES have a body count, but that just shows he is the LIFE of the party.

Anyways, Techno and Phil travel together. Sometimes, Techno feels like he should leash Philza because the man keeps doing ridiculous things (PLEASE do not steal all the saddles in the village, Phil! We can't do this!). However, Philza is also pleasantly surprised about Techno's streaks of chaos. If anyone tries to imply Techno CAN'T do something, you better believe he's gonna. (No, Techno, you can't sit in the shiny gold chair. Its reserved for the mayor-PLEASE STOP OVERTHROWING THE MAYOR!)

Philza loves this about Techno. They both can be so chaotic. But Philza also loves how Techno seems to mellow him out, to. Philza doesn't feel the constant need to DO. To EXPERIENCE. He can just...fish by the lake with his bestie. Its nice.

Phil eventually comes clean about not being bound. Of course, he comes clean about this AFTER Technoblade wears sliced potatoes in his socks for 3 days, one of the "trials" he made up at the start. Techno is quiet at first about that, and Philza is very nervous he just lost his only true friend.

Techno shrugs and says he should have seen that coming. Betrayal, from his new best friend! How could he? The audacity of this man! The cruelty! The gall! Techno goes on and on until Philza is laughing at Techno's dramatics. Techno jokingly asks how he can seal Philza back in a jar for this affront. Maybe a chicken canning company? Philza is so relieved that Techno isn't mad.

And Techno isn't. He had spent enough time with Philza to know when the man was lying. It became clear that Philza was bull shitting him. He had his suspicions for a while. But the company was NICE. Like a missing piece. He felt so much calmer and happier. What's one lie?

Techno declares that Philza can only make it up to him if he does all the trials that he convinced Techno to do. Philza tries to argue against this, but Techno is deadset. And Technoblade is so stubborn that eventually gives in.

Phil's going to regret making Technoblade speak backward for a week. Phil can't even read, how do backward words work???

Anyways, silly little thought! Just a fun Emduo having goof time.

Phil really thought going about making friends in the most fae way possible was a good idea and Techno's like "sure lmao" I love them <3

#technoblade #philza #thoughts #asks #lenn takes the mic

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in1-nutshell · 10 months ago

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The last one for this...sorry. Um, so there's this quote, "I lay my masculinity at the altar of your maidenhood." - Ride the Cyclone, and I think it would be good for TFA Megatron and Elita One's twin sister dynamic I think. He could either say it or it's shown with how they are with each other.

Bonus if you include TFP Megatron also with his own lover.

Thank you for your work ❤️

I love this quote so much!

The Queen has returned!

Hope you enjoy!

Elita One's Twin Sister and Megatron: Slice of Life #2

SFW, Platonic, Romance, mention of injury, Cybertronain (techno organic) reader

TFA

Since the confession, things around the base had been much smoother.

As the pinning finally stopped it didn’t mean that the looks and touches went away, if anything they increased.

A bit of course.

Megatron and Buddy reserved that for their private time.

Megatron even eased up on the PDA rule that he had to implement when Lugnut was with Strika.

He thought it was torture and apologized to Lugnut and Strika.

Lugnut was sent to the med bay that day.

“Lugnut’s fine Strika. He just fainted hearing the slight lift on the PDA around the base.”--Buddy

“I heard about that.”--Strika

“Yeah, it was a nightmare trying to explain what happened to Lugnut when he regained consciousness.”--Buddy

“That’s good to hear…”--Strika

“I will personally report anything wrong with his health Strika. You take care on your end, okay?”--Buddy

Strika nods feeling a bit reassured.

“Thank you… and I will let you get back to what you were doing…”--Strika

Video ends.

Buddy sighs feeling Megatron’s grip around her waist again tighten.

“You know you could have waited a bit longer. These chats don’t last too long.”--Buddy

Megatron just pulls Buddy onto his lap and buries his face into her neck cables venting softly.

Buddy chuckles a bit hugging back and relaxing into his hold.

Buddy’s love language mainly consists of Physical touch and Quality time.

She had been touch starved for a while since the incident occurred.

Even when she had joined Decepticon’s and managed to get on their good sides, she was extremely hesitant to asks or give touches that seemed intimate to her.

Buddy, now in an established relationship, often showed her affections as often as she could and that he would want. She didn’t want to give him any open affection and he did not want it or make him feel uncomfortable.

Megatron found this a ridiculous thing to worry about but appreciated Buddy thinking about his wellbeing.

Quality time was another factor for her.

Now she knew Megatron was quite busy and knew realistically that their intimate time would be limited.

Something that he hated.

But Buddy was fine if she was able to be by his side while working or taking a nap within his presence.

If she was there with him, she was happy.

Megatron sitting on his throne scolding Starscream for the latest failure in the plan.

Buddy, feeling that the scolding was a bit unjust, comes up with a plan to distract him.

“If you hadn’t gone after the beam none of this would have happened! Do you have any idea—"--Megatron

Buddy slips her servo into his.

Megatron pauses but tries to regain his train of thought.

“And you could have…”--Megatron

Buddy begins to play with his digits carefully, softly caressing each cervices and dip.

“…You are dismissed Starscream…”--Megatron

Buddy gives a wink to Starscream.

Starscream winks back and goes back to his quarters.

Megatron vents.

“I know what you are doing…”--Megatron

“Hmm? What do you mean?”--Buddy

Megatron smirks before grabbing Buddy’s wrist and swinging her onto his lap.

Buddy laughs a bit now in her new position.

“I need to be strict with the troops Buddy, you know this. And… this…”--Megatron

Megatron gesturing all of her.

“Is not helping.”--Megatron

Buddy tilts her helm a bit.

“Why… do I distract you?”--Buddy

“…You win this round…”--Megatron

Megatron is not afraid to let others know that Buddy is his partner.

He takes pride in having a partner like her.

Has absolutely tried and fought anyone who says anything remotely bad about her.

Megatron has his ‘wife’s’ honor to defend!

Forget if someone tries and threatens Buddy.

Buddy was cleaning the last tools from the cabinet when her private commlink went off.

“Hello?”--Buddy

“BUDDY GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!”--Bumblebee

Buddy nearly falls back.

“Bumblebee?! What’s going on? Is everything all right?”--Buddy

“ITS NOT IF YOU DON’T COME HERE AND GET MEGATRON AND PRIME!”--Bumblebee

Buddy readies her med kit and starts racing to the entrance.

“What happened?”--Buddy

“SOME LAMEO MECH DECIDED IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO START TRASH TALK ABOUT YOU AND NOW MEGATRON AND PRIME ARE GOING TO CATCH UP TO THE SORRY MECH IF YOU DON’T COME HERE AND RESTRAIN THEM!”--Sari

Buddy starts swinging to the city.

“I swear—just try and keep them busy until I can get there.”--Buddy

There is distant shouting and sounds of blasters.

“Are those blasters?! Why would he—”--Buddy

“OH, AND THE MECH ALSO, KINDA, THREATENED TO TURN YOU INTO A LAB RAT!”--Sari

Buddy shivers a bit.

“Now it makes sense…”—Buddy

The two do have their fair share of lover spats here and there.

No relationship is real without some.

But they do talk it over and work it out together.

Buddy made it very clear that they should not go recharge angry.

No matter what, never go recharge angry.

It’s worked for them so far, so they keep it.

Buddy focusing hard at the patch work she was doing on Megatron’s arm.

Megatron feeling the intense staring at his arm and wielding on his chassis.

Buddy finishes and sighs.

“Megatron—”--Buddy

“I don’t regret it.”--Megatron

Buddy looks at his optics a bit tired.

“He threatened your life. I do not regret stepping in and doing something about it.”--Megatron

Buddy sighs gently rubbing her digit on the wielding on his chassis.

“I know you don’t regret that… but did you really need to throw Prime at him?”--Buddy

Megatron’s optics widen a bit.

“You’re… not upset with the fight?”--Megatron

“Oh, no, I’m furious about what it caused and that you fell for some nobody’s bluff. I’m more upset that you threw my friend at his and then tried to blast the mech while Optimus was still there.”--Buddy

“He would have escaped.”--Megatron

Buddy raises and optic.

“No more doing that, okay?”--Buddy

Megatron grunts.

“I’m referring to putting Prime’s life in danger like that for my sake.”--Buddy

Megatron grunts a bit but agrees.

“Fine. Now for recharge?”--Megatron

Buddy moves to start walking but Megatron just carries her.

“Megatron! Wh—”--Buddy

“Shush.”--Megatron

“Did you just—”--Buddy

Megatron places a digit on her lips.

“Shush, you’ve had a long day, you deserve some time off of your pedes.”--Megatron

Buddy sighs tiredly and opts to just snuggle close to his spark chamber and let the hums slowly lull her to a peaceful recharge.

#transformers x reader #maccadam #bot buddy #tfa x reader #tfa x platonic reader #tfa megatron x reader #elita one twin sister

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ladyiristheenchantress · 1 year ago

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Techno Magic Crash Course

Hello World! (hehe)

Ive noticed a lack of information on techno-magic and what being a tech witch might entail! Tech magic is the use of modern-day technology in our magical practices! This can be a secular practice OR someone may pair other aspects of theology into it! There is also 'Technopaganism' which is the merge of neopaganism and digital magic. Some people may worship tech and its energy or some people simply use it as a tool for ritual magic!

In this post I wanted to showcase a few ideas to get you started in the tech practice! The first section being common tools, the second is common tech practices, and the last is about how to take steps into your new tech practice and advance forward!

First: The tools To get started here are some amazing apps people might get on their phones to carry magic anywhere

The Moon is an iphone based calander with a bunch of free information about the phases of the moon and even crystals and intentions related to the phase!

Rune reading on the Google Play Store this is a divination app in relation to runes!

Citrine Circle is a great crystal data base to keep track of crystal you either have or want to get

Time Passages is a free chart reader that will read your whole astrological chart!

Labrynthos is a free tarot app that not only gives you access to free tarot, oracle, and lenormand decks, but it teaches you how to read them

Next are physical or digital items you can use in your craft, I will go in more detail in the sections to follow!

Computers, phones, tablets

Mouse

Keyboards

Applications and websites

coding platforms

Second: The Practice

This section is all about creating ideas to use for your craft! This section is all about how to integrate common witchy things into your craft! There are thousands of ways to do this so it would be impossible for me to share every idea but hopefully, these get your creative juices flowing

Cleanse using music or beats you enjoy over a speaker

Use mechanical processes in your spells (for example your cars computer could be a green light charm if you hate waiting in red lights)

Create digital grimoires on places like notation or google docs

Create altars on places like Pinterest or sandbox games

Play video games with intentions, like tycoon games for prosperity and FPS for warding

Use autotune during chants to add more power to your voice

Use screens for scrying or intuition practices

Shufflemancy is when you shuffle through a playlist and get a song as a form of divination

Use the energy of a crystal on your screen if you don't physically have one

create digital sigils and hide them around your electronics

Learn a coding language and mess around with enchanting code

Third: How to move forward

So now that you have a few recommendations how can you advance? first research, check out some of these sources for even more information

Tech Magick for Digital Witches

Tags

american populism , andrew torba , gab

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inkribbon796 · 3 years ago

Text

What a Beautiful Wedding Ch. 6: The Wings of the Antarctic Empire

Summary: Tommy is desperate to convince Phil and Techno they’re in some kind of trap and he’d like to be taken seriously just once.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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Channel 6

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Tommy found himself at the foot of the long, tall black stone staircase. Philza was looking down at him.

When he set his foot on the first step, Techno drew his sword and stepped in front of Phil. “I don’t think so.”

“Phil!” Tommy yelled up. “Yer[1] both in some kinda[2] illusion. Wake up.”

About five guards appeared from almost nowhere and aimed their arrows at him, Tommy recognized the pink of Niki’s hair among them. Techno took two steps down from the altar.

“Take ‘em ta the holdin’ room,”[3] Phil ordered, spreading his wings and he held the baby close to him as he flew off.

“Let’s go,” Techno ordered as he walked down the steps, Tommy found himself at the dangerous end of Techno’s sword. “Come on.”

Tommy held his hands up and turned, which resulted in Techno pushing Tommy forward.

“Don’t fuckin’[4] shove me!” Tommy shouted, but Techno and Niki lead them to the palace.

Tommy sat down in some uncomfortable chair as Techno and Niki stared at him. Ghostbur looked at Niki nervously.

“H-Hey,” Ghostbur smiled at Niki.

“Stay back,” Niki told him, bow and arrow pointed down, but not notched or ready to fire yet.

“The two of you are waiting until the old man gets back,” Techno told him.

“Techno, come on, man, you have ta[5] know this is Dream’s doin’[6],” Tommy groaned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if you’re not careful you will get yourself shot,” Techno warned.

The heavy doors of the room were pushed open and Phil walked in. The lack of snow or distance gave Tommy a good look at the man. Little things about Philza were different. His eye color for one. The Phil that Tommy had always known had blue eyes but now he had more of blue-green color. He was maybe an inch or two taller. Not any taller than the other people in the room but it was noticeable enough to Tommy. His blond hair had a slightly dustier tint to it.

Phil paused when he looked at Tommy. “Stand down.”

Niki took her arrow away from her bow, “If you’re sure.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had a visitor like this,” Phil told them. “You two are from the future aren’tcha[7]?”

“Uh, yeah?” Tommy said. “We’re in an illusion. It’s Dream, he’s done somethin’[8].”

Philza just started staring at Ghostbur as a look of realization dawned on him. “I . . . Wilbur?”

“My name is Ghostbur,” Ghostbur corrected nervously, ducking behind Tommy a bit.

Niki seemed to recoil and Techno began slowly coming back to himself, clutching his head as he began grunting in pain and his knees crashed to the ground.

“Techno!” Phil rushed over.

“They’re too loud,” Techno grunted.

Tommy began stomping over, “What’s that green bastard doin’ ta yeh?”[9]

Phil used a wing to knock Tommy away before Techno was able to stab Tommy with a sword, his eyes a blood red and a frenzied look in his eyes.

“Tech, Tech, follow my voice, yeh[10] don’t need ta[5] fight here,” Phil told Techno as the warrior thrashed his head back and forth.

Niki inched closer and passed Phil a vial, he placed it under Techno’s nose and he began calming down.

“Thanks,” Phil said and inched closer. “Techno, yeh[10] need me ta[5] clear the room?”

“No, I,” Techno paused, swallowing. “I’ve got it.”

“What did that fucker do ta[5] you?” Tommy demanded. “It’s bad enough he’s got us trapped in here.”

“Dream’s not powerful enough for that,” Techno had a slight chuckle to his voice as he stood up.

“We still need ta[5] get out,” Tommy reminded him. “Tubbo an’[11] Ranboo are still trapped.”

Philza sighed, rather dramatically before he held his hand up and magic covered his hand before there was what felt like an earthquake and then a crash of some kind. Tommy, Shroud, and Ghostbur’s outfits changed into something that matched Phil and Techno’s. Tommy realized he was wearing a circlet, perched on his head and when he went to take it off to look at it he saw that it was studded with green and blue stones, and etched with perfect craftsmanship.

Tommy immediately rushed to the nearest window and saw at the foot of the palace, right outside the ground, an inn. And Tubbo stumbled out of it, looking around wildly. He was in an outfit that almost matched Tommy’s, but without the circlet and he was wearing thick gloves.

Ranboo followed after him, he was wearing a long purple cloak. But behind him, Michael was peeking his head out from behind Ranboo’s cloak.

Tommy immediately raced out of the palace, shoulding past guards and palace servants as he tried to get to Tubbo.

“Tubbo!” Tommy raced over but Tubbo glared at him, his false eye’s iris glowed with its radioactive symbol right before he punched Tommy in the gut.

“The fuck!” Tommy shouted angrily.

“I was safe!” Tubbo shouted in a fury. “Me an’[11] Ranboo an’[11] Michael were safe. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I didn’t do anythin’[12],” Tommy shouted back in anger.

“T-Tubbo,” Ranboo warned, and tried to hide Michael in his cloak.

Tubbo stopped and looked past Tommy to see, to his horror, that Techno was watching them as Michael peeked his head around Ranboo’s cape, holding his larger hand in his much smaller one.

Techno’s eyes narrowed and Tubbo moved, scooping Michael up and glaring at Techno.

“Stay back!” Tubbo ordered Techno with an angry snarl. “Get away!”

Techno looked between the three of them, Michael just staring at Techno with huge, wide dark eyes, the gears clearly starting to turn in his head.

The warrior took a step forward and Ranboo took a step forward. “Techno! Techno! Wait please, don’t hurt them.”

“Are you with them?” Techno demanded.

“I, uh,” Ranboo clearly had a look of panic on his face. “Yeah, but look I just want you to know—”

“I don’t care what you spend your time with but did it have to be with the government?” Techno spat at Ranboo.

“He’s my husband, of course I spend time with him,” Ranboo told him.

“Ehhh!” Techno sputtered. “When did you get married?!”

“Almost a year ago?” Ranboo asked.

“A year? Why am I just learning now?” Techno told him. “I’m like your mentor, I should have been the first person you told.”

“You don’t like Tubbo,” Ranboo reminded.

“Because he and Quackity tried to kill me with axes, why would I like the guy?” Techno snapped.

“Well, yeah, that makes sense,” Ranboo admitted.

“Take the kid, we’ll go inside to Phil,” Techno jabbed his thumb at the palace. “And don’t worry, not killin’[13] the kid. He’s Ranboo’s too after all, right?”

“Yeah,” Ranboo answered.

“Good,” Techno told him but Tubbo still glared at Techno suspiciously. He followed at the back of the group, always braced to dump Michael into Tommy’s arms and pull out the first weapon he could get his hands on.

He only marginally calmed down when he saw Phil and Techno started complaining to Phil about Ranboo, and then balked when he found out Philza was already aware of the boy.

The little meet-up was interrupted when Jack Manifold raced in, in uniform after getting pulled in from the bubble Tubbo and Ranboo had been trapped in.

“Emperor! Enemy soldiers were spotted at the gate!” Jack yelled, the trio of teens and Niki stared at Phil in surprise.

“Where from?” Phil called out.

“From the Errin Empire,” Jack reported. “They were dressed like they were in the royal guard. We were able to apprehend them.”

“Shit,” Phil spat. “I want three guards in front ‘a[14] the nursery. Ranboo, take Michael an’[11] go with them. Niki, make sure no one gets in.”

“O-Okay,” Ranboo stammered nervously, grabbing Michael, and standing in front of Tommy expectantly. It took Tommy a bit to realize he was quietly asking Tommy to take Shroud. Tommy nodded and passed him over, Shroud became very upset to leave Tommy’s arms.

“On it!” Niki pushed Ranboo after the soldiers the instant he had both young boys in his arms.

“Tommy, Tubbo, behind me,” Philza ordered.

“Hold up, why are you the Emperor, yer[1] an anarchist?” Tubbo asked.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Techno interrupted as Puffy, Jack, and a couple soldiers dragged Chase and Jackie in.

“That’s new,” Techno hummed.

“We spotted an enemy force, we think it’s Lord Phantom,” Puffy announced.

Jackie turned to look out the window, seeing a wall of darkness in the sky, coming for them. “Storm’s comin’[15] in,” Jackie commented.

“That’s the Entity,” Phil corrected.

“What? Dark?” Chase perked up, starting to try and twist himself out of the rope tying his wrists behind his back.

Puffy kicked him down, so that he was face-down on the ground and placed a foot on his wrists. “Not so fast, buddy.”

“Puffy, let him up,” Phil ordered, “cut ‘em[16] both from their bonds.”

“You sure?” Puffy asked, taking her foot off.

“Yes,” Phil ruffled out his wings. “Battle stations! Average, can you talk Ent down?”

“I think so?” Chase said, rubbing at his wrists as he wisely kept his distance from Phil. “I just need ta[5] reach him, I didn’t forget so I imagine he’s still good too.”

The storm reached them and Phil started to hear the screams.

“How’d they sneak up that quickly?!” Jack yelled.

“Because none ‘a[14] this is real,” Phil told him.

The door was thrown open and Phantom was standing there in royal purple. “Phil, Techno, long time no see. It’s just like old times.”

“So yer[1] awake, then,” Phil sighed.

“Where’s Dark?” Chase demanded.

Phantom motioned with his head back, “Dealing with the town.”

“Then move outta[17] the fookin’[4] way,” Chase snarled.

“Aww, he’s having fun out there,” Phantom smiled.

“Here I’d hoped he wouldn’t work with yeh[10] again, yeh[10] always have been a shite[18] friend,” Phil glared at him.

“Ehh, we were both standing on the cliff, and he wanted to blow off some steam,” Phantom shrugged. “You know empaths, they get a little needy when they’re emotional so I just let him go off.”

“Fook[19] off,” Chase spat at him. “Jackie!”

Jackie grabbed Chase and they blitzed past Phantom, who rolled his eyes.

“Don’t blame me when he starts getting snippy,” Phantom scoffed, bracing as he smiled at Phil and Techno. “Let’s tango, boys.”

As Phantom braced for a fight, Chase raced out into the storm.

“Dark!” Chase screamed over the whirlwind of snow. Chase was racing towards the darkest part of the storm. “Dark!”

The darkness seemed to evaporate and Dark had some soldier by the throat, when he looked at Chase he paused. “Chase?”

“There yeh[10] are,” Chase felt relief, walking over, a rumbling passing through the bubble as it began weakening from outside attacks. “We’re goin’ home. Yer okay. I’m takin’ yeh home an’ yeh can relax.”[20]

Dark blinked in disorientation, he felt drained. Phantom must have snagged some of his aura when he wasn’t looking, or the anomaly was taking more from him than he realized. “Yeah, I think that’s for the best.”

Chase was almost within arms reach and Dark realized his body needed a nap because it was getting harder to focus on things.

“Hey, yeh[10] look tired,” Chase smiled as Jackie noticed something shooting towards them, but because of the coloration of the smoke he thought it a part of Dark’s aura.

At least until it hit Chase.

Something stabbed Chase right through the heart and the marksman knew he should be dead. But he felt something in his very soul snap. Dark flinched, his eyes widening in horror.

Chase knew should be dead, the human heart was a fragile organ, but as he was tossed to the side, he felt weak and was losing blood but his heart was too stubborn to stop beating and blood was still coming from somewhere. As his soul cracked in two before snapping back together, good as new.

“Hey, Dames,” Marc spat as he grabbed Dark and pulled him closer. “Let’s try this again.”

“How dare you? What did you do?” Dark spat at Marc as he looked at Chase in horror. He was only slightly calmed when he saw Chase starting to try and pick himself up, glaring murderously at Marc. But the Actor burst into smoke and ripped a portal open, dragging Dark with him.

When the portal snapped closed, it destroyed the bubble with it. Barely a second’s warning as it shattered and violently dropped all its inhabitants onto the floor.

The bubble the Actor disappeared into snagged the Sanders bubble and seemed to violently tear it in half as it pulled it inside.

Phil screamed in agony as his bad wing returned and reminded the avian demon that he’d been grounded for years now.

“Phil!” Techno rushed over to him in concern.

Chase looked around, becoming furious when he couldn’t see Dark. “Fooker! That fooker! I’m gonna kill him.”[21]

“Average stop movin’[22]!” Jackie yelled and raced over. “Henrik! Chase needs attention, now!”

“Let me go!” Chase snapped at Jackie who was looking at him like Chase had flesh hanging off his bones. “I’m fine.”

“Yeh[10] were stabbed in the fookin’[4] heart! Stop movin’[22]!” Jackie yelled and that made people stare at Chase and Henrik who was at a brisk walk was now suddenly racing over as fast as he could. Marvin followed suit.

“Average! Lay down now!” Henrik yelled, forcing the marksman to a halt.

While the chaos of trying to get medical care and everyone just tried to figure out what was going on, Techno took a look around as Phil seemed to regain his strength and stood up.

“You okay?” Techno looked around as Ranboo was starting to get frantic.

“Where’s Tubbo?” Ranboo asked, an acute sense of panic growing within him. He scooped Michael and Shroud into his arms.

“He was right next ta[5] me, did that fucker grab him?” Tommy yelled as he looked around, his eyes locking onto Quackity who was just staring at Ranboo. Or more importantly, at Michael and Shroud, who were both crying. The screams only made Tommy even more agitated.

“What do you mean he’s just gone!” Ranboo yeled.

“Okay, give ‘em[16] here,” Philza swept in and just scooped the two toddlers into his arms, his aura soothing them and they stopped crying.

Techno took out his axe and walked closer to the remaining bubble that hadn’t been consumed by the Actor’s. His other hand summoned something that looked like a fishing pole with a small hand-sized grappling hook on the end of it and reeled it back before aiming it at the bubble and dragging it closer to him.

“Hey, let’s think about this,” Quackity urged.

But Techno slammed his axe into the bubble the instant he could and it cracked before shattering. Antfrost, George, Skeppy, and Bad all dropped to the ground but Dream rolled into a kneeling position and looked around. He almost stabbed Techno but the warrior easily used his weapons to deflect the blow.

“Hey man, chill out for five seconds, okay?” Techno chuckled.

Dream got up and looked around. He helped pull George up to his feet.

“Thanks, Techno,” Dream told him.

“That clear the books?” Techno smiled.

“Fuck no,” Dream chuckled. “You did that on your own, I didn’t ask you to do anything.”

“Ehh, it was worth a shot,” Techno shrugged, a smile still on his face.

Skeppy looked up from where he’d been laying on the ground next to Bad and when he looked up at Ponk he surged up.

“Give it,” Skeppy took the tome from Ponk, and checked it over. His eyes began to glow blue as parts of his skin began to crystallize. Magic fluttered around him. “Thank you, Ponk.”

“I was doing my best,” Ponk told him, emphatically throwing their arms up. “Took you long enough.”

“I was a bit busy,” Skeppy shot back.

Chase, once Henrik deemed him impossibly still alive and despite the blood he wasn’t dying, he looked up at the final bubble. Illinois gave Eric a kiss before he walked over to Chase.

“Actor’s up there?” Illinois glared at it.

“Yeah,” Chase said. “Fooker’s[23] a demon so snappin’[24] his neck’s so isn’t a crime.”

“Not a punishable one, and he’d only come back to life in a week,” Illinois agreed.

“Hey, the two of you are not going alone,” Silver said, in the middle of orchestrating ways to get people home. Dream ordering most of the Server group back home. Silver and Jackie quickly agreed to go with Chase and Illinois.

Philza was staring at Shroud before smiling at him. “I’ll take these two back home.”

“Deal,” Ranboo said without thinking, racing over to Chase. “Is Bomble okay in there?”

“We don’t know, but we’ll get him back home, the Sides seem to be in there as well,” Silver told him.

“No, I’m coming with,” Ranboo insisted. “I can open up a portal right into the bubble.”

“Count me in too,” Tommy rushed over.

“Absolutely not,” Silver told him.

“Let me rephrase that,” Tommy told Silver in his usual loud volume. “I am goin’[25] in there. With or without yer[26] fuckin’[4] permission.”

Silver sighed in frustration. “You two don’t take chances, and if you see Bomble, you two need to bail immediately.”

“Deal,” Ranboo spoke over Tommy and his eyes turned purple as he opened up a portal right over the group and took them right into the bubble.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Accessibility Translations:

1. You’re

2. kind of

3. Take them to the holding room

4. fucking

5. to

6. doing

7. aren’t you

8. something

9. What’s that green bastard doing to you?

10. you

11. and

12. anything

13. killing

14. of

15. coming

16. them

17. out of

18. shit

19. Fuck

20. We’re going home. You’re okay. I’m taking you home and you can relax.

21. Fucker! That fucker! I’m going to kill him.

22. moving

23. Fucker’s

24. snapping

25. going

26. your

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divinaes-bookofsecrets · 4 years ago

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Add something if you'd like?

Whats your thoughts on this upgrade or is it 🤔

Please share your personal experience too, to show off 😏 jk

🌟 Comment comment comment REBLOG!!! PLEASE please 🙏 im curio

Techno Witch

Filed under: Pagan Life, Spells & Potions — Leave a comment

I work with technology a lot, including virtual reality, and it made me wonder what or how it could pose as some good use for magick and witchcraft.

At the start of being Pagan, many things I did were very offline. I read physical books, went to physical locations such as the library and metaphysical shop, wrote in my physical B.O.S., things like that. If anything, I preferred it that way, things were very much in reach and given the history of magick is very much more so on paper than in bytes, it made better sense to me.

But eventually, technology got better and easier. More and more resources were online, and reliable resources at that. Granted, there is still a lot of bunk and dribble on the internet. Why people like to pick up spells from random corners of the internet is beyond me. If they are easy to get and plain out there for the world to see and, even worse, come with a price tag, it is probably fake. Some witches do indeed do paid spellwork/pay for pray but not to the excessive number that exists on the internet. More on that later, but basically, tech made witchy info collecting easier. It has probably been a while since I have penned in my B.O.S. but, if anything, I have more of a Disk of Shadows (D.O.S.) now. I have particular tumblrs and tags that I follow or curate on my own that are informative and helpful to my works and endeavors. They’re sometimes really hard to find, and sometimes they are not (if you know what to look for). There are more digital groups for Black Pagans and other minorities/poc now than when I started over a decade ago. Due to the internet, there is better access to much better information about non-European cultures that is not filtered through the perspective of a random White academic slathering on a layer of their own personal bias to the details and calling it “correct, accurate and objective information”. People can do their own research and not be blocked by institutions or paywalls.

But there’s still a lot of bunk on the internet. Due to the pop culture sensation of “witchiness” (basically think of anything American Horror Story, The Craft and the Sabrina reboot has pumped out, add some culture-vulturing via “I am a bruerja” and you got it), it makes decent info still rather hard to find. Since books and old texts that may or may not be translated well or correctly are not that popular, it is easier to find people who, frankly, don’t really know much of what they are doing, they just really like sage, cultural appropriation, gothic clothing and perhaps nursing a drug habit. They’re all over Instagram with their filter-laden pictures, offering to cast spells and do divination (usually tarot, because, what else are they going to learn? Cartomancy? Numerology? I Ching? Elective Astrology? Not as popular) but don’t seem to really know much about ethics and the other boring stuff of learning actual, proper witchcraft. It’s easy to blame just about everything on Mercury retrogrades but if that person has never heard of an ephemera before, they probably are also dead wrong about anything retrograde as well. Spells are cool and mysterious (not really), reading and research is … well, how many pop culture witch characters have you seen buzzing around countless books going “I thiiiiiiiiink this is definitely super old school Congolese – liiiiike, way, way, before colonialization. And of course, it’s a half-page passage in an out-of-print book and features a next-to-dead language. So we should either pick a different spell, or start bothering really old people who may or may not remember such a language – assuming the invading White folks did not torch or steal their cultural history – oh wait, it’s sitting in the British museum, with an incorrect placard and everything. Great, now may we have to talk to stuck up, myopic, well-dressed thieves that think they’re not stuck up, narcissistically stupid, or sticky fingered because ‘I have a degree and institutional prejudice is on my side’. You know what? Killmonger had some good ideas. Someone grab some coffee, that is probably the easier option”? Outside of Hermione Granger, not really anyone in witchy pop culture is very “research is good, research is great, research keeps random entities you summoned and can’t get rid of out of your home and life.” So it can make good info hard to break through the ether. Nothing is wrong with liking pop culture depictions of magic – I get a kick out of Doom Patrol’s magnificent depiction of chaos magick – but it is a bit of a problem when people try to base their practice on movie magic. Yes, psionics is real, yes, magic is real but no, it doesn’t look exactly like the tv and movies. If anything, they can be a lot more stressful and annoying.

I think being a technology-based witch, for me, is simply involving technology in your practice. I have thought of the idea of making a virtual space for spellwork and personal practice but then I think about my track record with magick, energy movement and electrical items. VR systems are pricy and I have made electrical items go ka-put. And, again, VR systems are pricy. But others could benefit, especially those who may not have the space or safety to comfortably practice in the real world. You can make whatever you want in the virtual world and it can be your own spot. A digital altar, a digital casting circle, the list goes on and on.

At first, I wasn’t too sure of these things because, well, they are new. No one was using computers for such practices – or any practices – centuries ago. But all technology, no matter how rudimentary, was considered new at one point. All creations were considered new at one point. From the typewriter, to the wheel, to fire itself. Certainly the deities can be understanding of some of these changes. As long as the changes are relatively seamless, especially for some deities. For example, some sun gods probably would not be too keen on the use of cell phone flashlights vs. actual natural light sources, like a flame made from the sun’s rays. I imagine working with water deities would be stress-inducing unless you are very confident in the IP rating of your technology and trickster deities + internet is probably literal trouble if you do not know what you are doing.

Has all my practices gone digital? I don’t think so but I do think a vast majority of it has. It has been the easier option for me but I always bear in mind that it is good to at least have back ups and that not everything worthwhile is on a computer. There is still always going to be a need for physical things. Links die, computers break and sometime technology can over-complicate simple processes. That and not everything is on the internet, not everything has been digitized and some things are simply harder to find digitally because the metadata is not up to snuff or it is plain incorrect. Thus it is good to find a decent balance, even if that balance is majority tech with analog supports.

Source:

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reverxnce · 3 years ago

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|| Continued ||

@counttwo-4

His courageous savior, it seemed, had lingered near one of the pews.

Instead of the holy-looking armor, he wore a sweater that barely fit him and his old military pants that were… horribly tattered, and was barefoot. His prosthetic leg faintly gleamed a tad in the candlelight– an old thing that looked to have been added on to time and time again with a strange, futuristic technology that could only be described as alien, with techno-organic wires that looked to be brass covering a wooden-ceramic leg, like muscle covering bone, with a few golden glows beneath it. Upon his palms, strange sigils were visible– much like before. His palms, his feet (yes, including his prosthetic), and his whole back… covered by his sweater.

Of course, beneath his attire was also quite a few bandages, too. But… his expression visibly softened for once, watching Ezekiel kneel before the crucifix and pray.

Slowly, Ezekiel was returning to his normal self, the Arch-Judicator knew, but he knew one thing: the knowledge of Hell would still cause pain. Still cause fear. He couldn’t have that– and, soon, he’d have to help him forget it in the same way he had with the girl he considered his granddaughter… but… Not yet.

Right now (even if he huffily didn’t want to admit it in his horrid state), he wanted to spend time with Ezekiel. He’d at least admit he really wished he had his own old clothes, but they wouldn’t fit him anymore. Not with all the muscle he gained from fighting… felt like a super soldier. Like one of those old comic books that William liked, back in the war. Captain America.

… But, first, he found himself slowly pressing his own hands together. A small gesture, still as silent as could be, his weary eyes, weary from war, from death, from suffering and pain and living for literal eons, staring off at the crucifix, at Jesus’s face. And silently– after ages, he prayed, too.

Lord… I know, I’ve never prayed ever since the war. I’ve done so many things in vain, I’ve succumbed to wrath and rage and things considered unforgiveable, maybe, by most. I do not deserve peace, nor happiness. I do not deserve the joys of life… but Ezekiel Brown does. All I ask is that you give the courage and the happiness and peace that he begs of you to him. He deserves it most.

… Amen.

He dropped his head after finding himself making a small cross, his hands soon dropping to his sides… and, he finally spoke when he knew Ezekiel had finished his prayer.

“ … Mr. Reverend? ”

“Goodness - it’s you!” Ezekiel had promptly turned, a hand raised to his heart in a gesture of surprise. “Gosh, how long have you been there?” A light chuckle left him, greeting the other with a smile. It was always nice to hear the other vocalise once in a while. It was so very rare that he spoke, it was almost special no matter how simple the words.

“I was just prepping the altar; thought I might reopen the Church tomorrow? I think it’s about time I got back to work. Too much time spent in my room lately. Besides, I miss it. What do you think?”

He still wasn’t quite back to normal. Sleep had been a massive issue in the last couple of months; the Reverend was tired and it showed. But it was getting better, bit by bit. And Ezekiel was starting to realise that he needed to get back out there, or else he would get stuck in a rut and not be able to climb out again. He was already oversleeping daily as it was. He’d had a rest, now he needed to rework that sense of purpose back into his life. He was ready.

Warm smile still present, he clutched the broom with both hands.

“Sorry, here I am going on about I, me, mine - did you need something?”

#counttwo-4

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crystalirises · 4 years ago

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The Final Answer (36 Questions AU 9/13)

Pain ;-;

Also robbed you guys of the line “I was speedrunning on a Tuesday night” for the previous chapter.

Ninth part.

REALITY

They settled back to their respective positions, their barely touched dinners left on the table as they curled up on the chair Dream had sat on. A momentary silence hung over the air, though it wasn’t as awkward or as tense as one might expect. They were both exhausted, their heads leaning against each other as they cherished the moment they had together. Their fingers were entangled, the warmth of their bodies mixing in with the other. It was a damning reminder of the cold they had both felt the first few days when they went to sleep, the other not by their side. Dream had gone to sleep the first night, hoping that when he awoke, Fundy would be curled into his arms. He held onto this moment. Fundy had gone to sleep the first night, tears in his eyes as he looked into a room that wasn’t his own. He clung to this moment. It was a fragile and loving peace, one they haven’t had in a long time. Not since the war began, and not since the war ended. Both of them feared to break it, but one of them had to. The tranquility had to end at some point.

“This is nice.” Fundy whispered, nuzzling his face to the crook of Dream’s neck. He felt the blonde shift beside him, a gentle arm wrapping around his form as Dream pulled him closer to his side. His heart pounded painfully in his chest, wishing that he could stop everything and remain in the blonde’s embrace for as long as he wanted. Thepitter-patter of rain echoed from beyond the safety of their little cabin, a world and time away from what they had then and there. Batry squeaked contentedly, flapping their wings on the small perch on the ceiling that they had settled on. Fundy missed the warmth of the home they shared. He missed the nights they used to spend together. He missed the lazy days where he would turn in bed to see a freckled face with beautiful forest green eyes that gazed at him as if he was the world. “I miss this. I miss us.”

“I miss you.” Dream buried his face in Fundy’s hair, laughing as a twitchy ear slapped him against his cheek. Fundy’s hair smelt like sunlight, bits of sand still stuck on the soft red strands. Dream really didn’t understand why Fundy would choose the desert of all places. He always thought that if Fundy ran away, he’d run towards the taiga lands. He had actually checked there first and almost got mauled by wolves. He hummed beneath his breath, content to hold his husband like this for the rest of the night.

Fundy sighed softly, knowing he would have to break the peace. “We should go back to the questions, huh?” He felt Dream tremble beside him.

“… If that’s what you want.”

“Isn’t that what we both want?” Fundy glanced up, nearly hitting his head on Dream’s jaw. He laughed softly, “You hunted me down to Dry Waters for that sole reason, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t hunt you down, Fundy.” Dream scoffed into his husband’s hair, pressing closer as if doing so would make him forget the situation they were both in. He felt a hand swat his shoulder, a playful gesture that Dream hoped didn’t harbor any resentment. He leaned towards Fundy, hoping that the fox hybrid wouldn’t pull away as soon as they resumed the questions. He liked the moment they were sharing. He didn’t want to let go. “I went to look for you… And it’s your turn to ask the next question.”

“Right.” Fundy’s gaze flickered over to the ceiling of the cabin. He recalled the hour before his first date with Dream, his mind had been a flurry of worry as he thought of how he could possibly make it a night to remember. As he paced the restaurant floor, a series of questions flew into his mind. The questions his father had asked his mother… at least that’s Wilbur said. Wilbur loved to change the narrative. “Question 12. ‘If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?’”

“It’s pretty hard to top admin magic.” Dream murmured beneath his breath, Fundy humming as if in confirmation. Dream wracked through his brain, wondering what he could possibly answer. He glanced around the room, at Fundy… the love of his life. “Maybe… if I could gain one quality, it would be … actually being normal for once.”

“Well, if I could have one ability, I would like invisibility.” Fundy felt Dream’s chest move, a wheeze echoing through the room. “What? It’ll be so much easier to scam and rob people that way. I wouldn’t have to worry about getting caught, ya know?”

"Of course you would pick invisibility. Why am I surprised?" Dream remembered the time he had given Fundy a taste of admin magic. The fox hybrid spent his entire day doing nothing but pranks to anyone who unfortunately got into the crossfire. He would have let him keep a bit of magic if it didn't mean chaos. "Question 13. 'If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?'"

"I'd definitely want to know why my family is the way it is. Like, you've seen how fucked it is right? I have a grandpa who's the 'Angel of Death' or some shit that I don't know about. I have an uncle who probably wants to murder me for being an orphan and another uncle who my ex-husband exiled to fuck knows where." Fundy rolled his eyes as he listed every member he could think of. He wasn't even going to mention the fridge – his supposed grandmother, according to his father. Speaking of, "Then I have a dad who's now a ghost and was probably a fish-fucker. Yeah! I want to know which deity cursed this fucked-up family tree. I love them, Dream you know that. But... I... I don't understand it. I don't know how any of that works."

Dream blinked, his mouth agape in surprise as he stared down at the fox hybrid. He'd never... Fish? Wilbur fucked a— "WHAT?!" Dream couldn't bring himself to even think about it. He pulled Fundy closer to his chest, hoping that he wouldn't wheeze himself to death as he thought about what type of family he was marrying himself into. He's heard about Phil and met his sons, but he didn't know any of them aside from Tommy and Wilbur. He let out a soft sigh, glad that Fundy had chosen to keep their wedding small... By not inviting his family because he didn't want to get murdered at the altar. "You know what, star? I'd have to say that as my answer because what the fuck was all of that?"

"I know, right?" Fundy chuckled, his breath ghosting against the skin on Dream's neck, the blonde shivering at the heat. Fundy couldn't begin to imagine how he'd ever introduce– He curled closer, pressing his face to Dream's neck that Dream nearly jumped. There won't be an introduction. How could he have forgotten? He felt his lips crease into a frown, his hands reaching out to hold onto Dream's waist. An embrace that the blonde melted into. Fundy wished they could stay like that. Fundy moved on, "Question 14. 'Is there something that you've dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven't you done it?'"

"I want to spend one day of peace with you. No obligations. No responsibilities. No wars springing up out of the blue. Just you and me. In this cabin." He would do anything to have that. Dream only ever wanted peace in the Essempy, and he was close to having that. He needed to stick to his plan. He was doing it for everyone, this is what everyone needed. He wasn't doing this just for him and Fundy. It was for everyone. He just needed more time. He'll give everyone the peace and quiet they deserved. He smiled, pressing a chaste kiss on top of Fundy's head. The fox hybrid's tail began to wag. "With everything that's been going on, we never had the chance to do that. Someday, we'll be able to."

"I'd... Love that." Fundy winced at how bitter his voice came out, Dream's relaxed hands reached out to pull him further into the embrace, spooked at the tone in Fundy's voice. If Fundy didn't know any better he'd think the blonde was scared he'd run off. He wouldn't do that. They weren't done with the questions and Fundy wanted to finish what they'd begun. "If there's one thing I wished I could've done... That would be fishing with everyone I loved... Which isn't a long list of people but it would be perfect. You and my dad would get along, Tubbo and Tommy would probably end up drowning while Techno and Phil have their whispered conversations."

"Idyllic. Peaceful. Maybe one day we could all go fishing." Dream looked down into Fundy's beautiful brown eyes, a flicker of light dancing across the irises. There's a questioning look in them, a confusion that Dream couldn't solve quite yet. He reached up, ruffling Fundy's hair a bit. They'll cross that bridge when they get to it. Dream cleared his throat, smiling as he thought about the next few questions. They weren't as difficult. Easy. "Question 15. 'What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?'"

"I've created beings and worlds into existence. I don't think anything could ever top my level of expertise when it comes to creating and designing." As if to make a point, Fundy gestured to the cabin, raising a brow as if daring Dream to argue. They'd both seen the houses Dream makes, and Fundy insisted he built mostly everything in the cabin after seeing... Dream's creative side. Fundy wouldn't even let him into the cabin until it was done. "Can't beat me on that, babe."

"My greatest accomplishment would be gaining admin powers." Dream looked down at his hands, his mind a haze of what he'd actually done to get his powers. George and Sapnap had refused to tell him, telling him it was better that he never knew. He couldn't help but feel worried. What did he do to get such magic? He shook the thought away. It wasn't important. This moment was important. Not that. He could worry about that later. "I don't remember how I got them and I swear to you Fundy, I'm not lying about that. I swear it! You have to believe me on that, I really don't remember how but I might have done something right."

"I get it, Dream. You don't have to explain that." Fundy sighed, knowing that would probably be one of many mysteries that even Dream himself couldn't answer. At least both of them were in the dark about it instead of it being Fundy... By himself. Alone in the dark. Dream might never find the answer to how he got his magic and... Fundy would accept that. "Question 16. 'What do you value most in a friendship?'"

"Loyalty." They both paused, bursting into wheezes and laughs. It was one of the many answers that didn't change. It was the same answer as the one they'd said on their first date. That didn't change at least... Except, this time Dream was alone and Fundy had more friends than he used to have. Funny how change works like that.

"Glad to see we both agree on that." Dream struggled to keep his wheezes in, hiding the pain he felt as he uttered that one word that shouldn't have meant so much to him. "Question 17. 'What is your most treasured memory?'"

"My mom." Fundy's tone was soft, a muffled whisper that almost sounded as if it was but a trickery of the wind. Fundy felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips. Wilbur didn't know but Fundy vaguely remembered what his mother looked like: the soft curls of red hair reaching down to her waist, a gentle voice that soothed his cries, a pair of kind brown eyes that looked at him as if he was a precious treasure to protect. He remembered so little and yet so much. "I remember a little bit of how she looked like. Wilbur refuses to tell me where she is or if she ran off or if she— I don't know. But I know she loved me."

"I would've loved to meet her, she sounds lovely." Dream caressed Fundy's hair, a gesture of comfort. He knew how badly Fundy wanted his mother to still be alive somewhere in the world. But Dream was still confused, was his mother-in-law a human or a fish? "My most cherished memory would have to be our wedding. If I close my eyes I could still remember the ceremony. My dress. Your suit." He doesn't tell Fundy of the nightmares that took over his mind the moment he ran away. The morphed images of a ruined wedding haunting the back of his mind as he so desperately clinged to the life he and Fundy had made together.

"The wedding was fantastic. I wished it was bigger but we couldn't risk my dad." Fundy shook his head, wishing he wouldn't have had to worry about that. "Question 18. What is your most terrible memory?'"

"Dying the first time was pretty terrible." They both shuddered at that, both having had the displeasure of facing Death and emerging back to life. It was an awful sensation, to feel your senses fall numb as the world around you fell into dust. It would be an endless void after a cacophony of noise that screamed into your very being until you suddenly woke up in the bed you'd slept in the day before you'd died.

"Mine would have to be the entire Schlatt Administration. Those were the worst years of my life." Fundy stuck out his tongue, disgusted at the memories of what he had done just to survive in Manburg... Feeling guilty about the sword that was in his inventory.

"Schlatt... Was the worst." They both left it at that, the air tensing at the mere mention of that name. "Question 19. 'If you knew that in one year you would lose all your three lives - or remaining lives - would you change the way you are living now. Why?'"

"I suppose I'd try and get closer to my remaining relatives, it would be difficult seeing as how estranged we are." Fundy let out a tired sigh, "I don't even know how I'd be able to explain you to them without getting both of us killed on the spot."

"So there'd be a need to explain us?"

"What?"

"You'd have to explain to your family why we're married?" Dream glanced down, Fundy struggling against his hold all of a sudden. He let go. "So, we... You and I, we can work this out? We have a chance to work this out?"

"... That isn't the question, Dream." Fundy got up from the chair, backing off into the hall. He heard footsteps follow after him. "You don't have to follow—"

"It's the only question! This is exactly why we're here in the first place!"

"We have 36 Questions left to answer, Dream!" Fundy wanted to tear his hair out. Why the fuck did he accidentally say that? They were getting through everything just fine but of course Fundy found a way to fuck it up. Of course he did.

"Well most of these you already know my answer for!"

"No, I don't Dream! I don't know anything about you anymore! How can I when you’re wreaking havoc to everyone right now?! When you’re out there terrorizing people for Deities’ know what?! And you won’t even tell me what you’re doing..." Fundy began to storm off, pulling the door open as a blast of cool wind entered the room. "Just give me a minute, I need to calm down."

"I told you to trust me! I need you to trust me, star! I just don't know when you'll finally forgive me for this, Funds!" Dream groaned into his hands. He wanted this to be over. He managed to get Fundy home and now he was trying to run away again. "You're leaving again, aren't you?"

"Wha—?!" Fundy looked at him, the rain splattering against his hair as he took a step outside. Dream followed him out, both of them immediately soaked in rainwater. "I'm not running away, I just need a moment to collect my thoughts!"

"What is there to even think about? Will you ever forgive me or not, Fundy?"

"NO!"

They both froze, the word hanging in the air.

Fundy breathed, trying to keep himself calm. "No, Dream. I... I can't forgive you. Not after everything. Do you really think I could ever trust you again? Did you actually think we had a shot here? Dream, we can't—"

"You kissed me."

"What?"

"You. Kissed. Me." Dream couldn't keep the hurt out of his voice. "You kissed me and now you say we never had a chance."

"Dream—"

"We have a chance here, Fundy. Just give me one last—"

"Dream. We can't. I can't." Fundy rummaged through his inventory, taking out the trident he had brought along with him. Dream looked at it, surprised in his forest green eyes. "I wasn't supposed to give you a chance, Dream. I’m sorry I kissed you, that was wrong. I should have never let you into my house. I shouldn’t have led you on like this. I’m sorry."

"Fundy—"

"I'm leaving. Batry can stay until the morning. I'll come back to get him."

"Fundy—"

"Enough, Dream!" Fundy shivered underneath the cool rain. "That's enough."

"We could have our old lives back, Fundy. Don't you want that?" Dream tried to reach for him, his voice cracking beneath the weight of his emotions. “Don’t you want me? Don’t you love me?”

Fundy turned away, a pained smile on his face.

"I have to leave you behind. I know that sounds harsh…” He felt the trickle of rain at the back of his neck, the salty taste of tears clinging to his lips. The trident in his hands felt heavy, beads of water tracing the edges of his fingertips. Fundy closed his face, felt the harsh wind caressing his cheek as Dream's pleas rang throughout the desolate night. His heart ached, a semblance of nostalgia begging him to return to the want embrace of the man he once loved. He wanted to return to the warmth of their home, the light casting shadows down onto the cobblestone stairway. “…but that's the reality. I wish we had our old life.”

A searing pain tore through his insides, a burning want that he needed to quell if he wanted to escape the fire unscathed. "But that shit's impossible. That's just reality." He bit back the sobs that threatened to rise from his throat, tremors running down his spine. He spared a glance at the blonde, a whimper slipping past his lips as those forest green eyes he'd love so much begged him to stay. "I should have told you the minute you came, but you sounded distraught standing out in the rain."

He knew what he had done, presented a silver lining of hope in a whirlwind that would end in demise. He forced himself back, further into the consuming darkness of the night. "And I wanted to let you in, swallow your pain, because that's what I always do." They both needed the closure... But why did it hurt him to leave? To tear himself away from a life he promised himself was dead? He gripped at his chest, knowing he had lied to both of them. "But I made a pact with my friends, under no circumstance..."

He heard the hitch in Dream's breath, the realization of what Fundy had done casted into the unforgiving air. "...should I ever hear out Dream. Unlike you I keep my word." He knew how the story ended, knew it the moment he'd open the door. He felt the shadows cling to his form, beckoning him to make his escape. They were done here. He should go. But he can't. Not like this. He stepped closer despite himself. "And promises I make become my reality. You like to live your life blurring the lines."

Dream did what he wanted, without the thought of what others needed. It was a bitter truth that needed to be said, "Bending the rules to make yourself look better. But all that I wanted was something concrete." Al he had wanted was a life with the man he had fallen in love with. He reached up a hand, the tear-stained cheek cold against his hold. Dream clung to his wrist, a desperation in his eyes that Fundy knew would haunt him until his final moments. "And to know for a fact you are real. What I know is..."

He felt a sorrowful and bittersweet smile form on his lips, agony tearing at his heart, "I still love you!"

Tears rolled down Dream's cheek, his mouth open in silent protest. He couldn't say anything. "That's my reality."

He felt their bodies press close together, their shared heat against the storm made his mind muddled and hazy, "You know..."

He leaned his face closer, his heart thumping loudly in his chest. They shouldn't be doing this. He shouldn't be doing this. But he wanted to. "I'd give anything to wake up with you next to me. You and I spent these years of our lives lost in your lies." He could feel the ghost of the other's breath, their lips a few inches apart. Dream pulled him closer, and for a moment Fundy let him. "Far from reality. And it felt like a dream..." Their lips met, a long and desperate kiss mixed with the taste of salt, lime, and orange.

He pulled away, "'Cause it was"

He felt those shaking and slender fingers try to pull him back, but he was leaving the embrace. The cold stinging the sides of his arms as he finally let go. "Why do I always give in? That is on me to change." He turned around. It was done. They were done. There were hands clinging onto the back of his shirt, not pulling, but there. He knew what Dream wanted to do, pull him into an inescapable embrace until his resolve melts away. He took a shaky step forward, his foot nearly slipping at the cobblestone stairs that led away from their home. He can’t turn around. Not if he wanted to leave. "That's my reality. I can't do this to myself again."

They needed to move on. No matter how much it stung. "I deserve someone who accepts reality."

He felt the cold chill of the rain mix in with his tears, the world engulfed in a monochrome hue without the presence of the celestial lights. What a fitting way to end. Fundy took another hesitant step, raising the trident in his hand. "I can't imagine rebuilding my life with you, constantly on the edge of what I know is true." He could feel Dream’s hold on his back. If he didn’t leave now, he never would. Why did Dream have to make it so difficult? All they needed to do was let go. It was time to let go. "And you would string me along like you always do..."

Fundy laughed, a bitter cry of anguish. He wished he could scream and let the whole world know what they had lost. What’s done is done. It’s over. "Knowing I will never let go."

He turned to pry Dream’s fingers off him, a hollow stare in the blonde’s eyes as their gazes met.

“Fundy…” Dream tried to reach for him again. Fundy shook his head, a goodbye. He raised the trident.

And with a flick of his wrist, he was gone. “FUNDY!”

‘I’m sorry.’

--------------

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#fundywastaken #fundy #dreamwastaken #mcyt

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alexsmitposts · 4 years ago

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The Emergence of the Technetronic Society of Humankind The world community is being transformed. The current pandemic is only another phase of a metamorphosis set in motion decades ago. The intersection of our physical and digital lives is the battleground, where the last hopes of freedom are being bludgeoned to death. Few can see this because most people are already casualties the old world order sacrificed before the altar of liberty. Most of you reading this introduction will sense a bit of melodrama. But I assure you, anything I could type out here pales in comparison to the skullduggery that has beset humankind the last half-century. The war for planet Earth is upon us, but the battlefield is not some desert in Syria or a swamp somewhere in Latin America. The battlefield is real and virtual. It’s in the streets of Portland, Oregon, and the pages of Facebook. The Third World War is taking place in Walmart. It’s spreading to every back yard in Florida and every apartment complex in Bucharest. We’ve taken up arms against one another over every facet of life, not just whether or not to wear protective masks. Working-Class Struggle Redux Some of you already see this. You understand because you were finally forced to unfriend that high school buddy who Tweets or shares Facebook posters revealing humankind’s ignorance and meanness. We’re back to being tribal, devolution is upon us, and the end is written on the slum wall and the internet version. Wall Street is making a killing, billionaires are gnashing their teeth and wringing their hands, and the so-called little people are boiling in a kettle about to explode. Amazingly, my words here can be proven. Nobody can call “fake news” on this author. No sir. In 1970 the legendary (notorious for some) Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote a book entitled, “BETWEEN TWO AGES: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era.” The author, who was one of the five or six most influential political celebrities of the latter part of the 20th century, is well known for his aversion for first the Soviet Union, and then the Russian Federation. Brzezinski’s book was an is a “how-to” book on methods for using computers and communications technologies as a means of transforming society. Though the book reads like an analysis by a technology outsider, the work is part of a wide-spanning strategy we see coming to competition today. Let’s look at an excerpt from the first section of the book where the former counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson and President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor delineates post-industrial America’s course: “In the technetronic society scientific and technical knowledge, in addition to enhancing production capabilities, quickly spills over to affect almost all aspects of life directly. Accordingly, both the growing capacity for the instant calculation of the most complex interactions and the increasing availability of biochemical means of human control augment the potential scope of consciously chosen direction, and thereby also the pressures to direct, to choose, and to change.” I won’t tax the reader here, but I encourage you to read the book yourself so that what I am presenting will sink in. Brzezinski, in no uncertain terms, is describing the fundamental transformation of society beginning sometime shortly before 1970, when he collated the information within the pages of the book. Remember, he was LBJ’s advisor. The Rise of the Techno-Bourgeoisie He continues in this section to refer to the past ideologies of the industrial age which built and sustained America and other democracies, to insist upon a more “modern” or “advanced” central ideology. Brzezinski, who most detractors would describe as a dinosaur or archaic, was discussing cybernetics replacing humans when Bill Gates was still at Lakeside Prep School being bullied and writing his first computer programs. I mention Gates for a purpose that may be obvious to some readers. This citation from Between Two Ages will transport the reader to my line of thinking here. Brzezinski writes knowingly: “In the emerging new society questions relating to the obsolescence of skills, security, vacations, leisure, and profit-sharing dominate the relationship, and the psychic wellbeing of millions of relatively secure but potentially aimless lowermiddleclass bluecollar workers becomes a growing problem.” Please remember, this was published in 1970, years before Brzezinski would brag that he had helped cause the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan so that it could get its very own “Vietnam.” The man was a genius, an evil one, but a brilliant geo-policy strategist nonetheless. This book is not a reflection of Brzezinski’s powerful mind, however. This book is the revelation of a plan set in motion after Dwight Eisenhower left office. It’s a blueprint for the liberal world order to completely dominate the world. But before you label me, please consider how this “growing problem” is being used today. Who is Donald Trump? Aha! Now I have your full attention. What about the psychic wellbeing of aimless lower-middle-class Americans? Or, the psychic wellbeing of relatively secure Germans right before Adolph Hitler made them afraid of all the nations surrounding their country? Wait! Don’t go to that tangent, please focus on who got Donald Trump in the White House and how this came to pass. You see, Brzezinski and his colleagues created the conditions, the society, and the “path” we see taking shape today. Think about our symbols now, for instance. How did Google come to dominate the internet? Who stood behind? What does Google do? How about Facebook or Amazon, or any of the monumental successes we see controlling this technetronic society we now live in? Google lured the masses in with “free” and with slogans like “do no evil.” The competition was driven off, through massive investment. Now billions of people are analyzed and “computed” like Brzezinski revealed, to transform society, not to simply extract money via ads. Take the case of Facebook, it’s the same story. A huge swath of humanity is studied, spied upon, and manipulated while the puppetmasters tweak ideology, foment discord, and steer the crowd toward the desired endgame. Sounds crazy and dramatic, doesn’t it? But, wait for it. In 1972, Bill Gates served as a congressional page in the US House of Representatives. He was then a National Merit Scholar who went to Harvard for a brief time, where he met Steve Ballmer, who would lead Microsoft until 2014. Ballmer was an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble for two years, where he shared an office with Jeffrey R. Immelt, the onetime CEO of General Electric. I hope you are keeping up with me here, for these names figure prominently in the current situation. Immelt was the head of GE’s Medical Systems division (now known as GE Healthcare) as its president and CEO back in 1997. To make a very long story shorter, Brzezinski was closely tied to all the names I am mentioning either through roles at the Council of Foreign Relations, or via more intimate and secretive associations. Take into consideration GE and Immelt’s view on China from back in 2010 when he said; “’I worry about China. I am not sure that in the end, they want any of us to win.” Fast forward to 2015 and Brzezinski is pushing for Donald Trump to “outbid” everyone for the presidency. He tweeted this to his followers on Twitter: “What’s better: a billionaire outbidding everyone for the Presidency, or billionaires picking the candidates for the Presidency?” The answer to his feigned query is drop-dead simple – “It doesn’t matter, the same people control no matter what.” And the control processes were put in action once John F. Kennedy was out of the way. LBJ played his role to a “T”, Nixon got too big for his britches and had to go, Ford plated nincompoop in charge to put the plan on pause, and peanut farmer/Nuke sub commander Carter helped roll out the red carpet for our current technetronic society. But I’m getting ahead. The Immuno-Catalyst Let me retrace a step to the associations of Gates, Ballmer, and Immelt. And most importantly, the current healthcare/pandemic crisis some experts believe is an induced one. Remember Gates’ pal Immelt headed GE Healthcare, which entered an agreement with Gates back IBio to commercialize the iBioLaunch vaccine manufacturing platform. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded iBio Pharma, which has been in recent news because of President Trump grandstanding about a COVID breakthrough. The company is one of those focused on vaccines against the coronavirus. And if you’re getting lost in this maze of technocrats, now it’s time to interject another key player named Warren Buffett. Buffett, who for all intents and purposes owns IBM, is another link in what we should call the Brzezinski Plan for world domination. Remember, it was IBM that teleported Bill Gates out of brainiac obscurity back in 1980. It is not common knowledge, but the last Watson family head of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, Jr. served as US ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1979 to 1981. It was the ideas and ideals along with the patriotism of the latter Watson, from which people like Brzezinski convoluted the notion of modern democracy. Thomas J. Watson Jr. was also central to the administrations of L.B.J., Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Moving forward, most people are unaware, that Warren Buffett is also the biggest contributor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (more than $30 billion). And in this, we see how the “system” of control gets its continuity. Finally, it was the Brzezinski plan that delivered us to the current sorry state of democracy. The former advisor to key presidents not only helped devise the plan to shift the world’s ideologies and social structure, but he also helped empower the super elites running the show, and the lower-middle class minions who would stoke the forest of orchestrated rebellion. When asked how he would deal with the super-rich, Brzezinski differentiated people like Warren Buffett and Gates from the rest, while at the same time feeding the mob that Trump now leads and the left learning hordes on the left hanging: “It would be increasingly helpful if there was a movement to publish, worldwide, lists of those who make, largely through speculation, enormous amounts of money almost instantly, and hide the fact from their social context.” A Government of Business Power So, a ruling elite was and is to be lifted, isolated, and protected using demonic intimidation from every vector. Today’s dog and pony show across western capitals have roots in Rockefeller’s and Brzezinski’s Trilateral Commission, established to help put in motion the tenets from the latter’s Between Two Ages manifesto. If I throw in the fact that the Trilateral Commission’s notable member list includes such notorious super-rich as Jeffrey Epstein here, I’ve no doubt the reader will be overwhelmed by the scope of this “plan” for turning the world upside down. Finally, the academic Noam Chomsky once criticized the commission’s goals as undemocratic saying the publication of the organization, The Crisis of Democracy reflects how modern democratic systems are not democracy at all, but systems controlled by elites. And the Rockefeller Foundation’s support of the various German eugenics programs and the connections to Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele and Auschwitz tarnish anyone and everyone associated with Rockefeller, and the ruling elite of this new “modern ideal” or technetronic society. In his 1980 book With No Apologies, Republican Senator and presidential candidate Barry Goldwater called the Trilateral Commission: “A skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical in the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved.” The Brzezinski Plan for new democracy is the liberal world order’s plan for humanity. It’s a process that’s been going on for decades, one centered around and dependent on the puppet President Donald Trump. You see, I believe it is Trump’s mission to utterly destroy the very social class of people he is supported by. It is the only idea that makes sense if you examine the loosed cannon idiocy of an otherwise shrewd businessman. What better way to bury the working class who have been bred, reared, and marginalized into mediocrity than to create a revolution against everything they stood for? The Confederate flag, the statues of heroes, the race issues resurfacing, riots, discord, snarling and biting at anyone and anything that is not TRUMP! Real Death, Real Fear, Real Monopolization For this Technetronic Era to culminate in a Utopia for the ruling classes, a pandemic was set loose, a very special kind of virus engineered (probably) for segmenting society. The hard-nosed working class would shun the femininity and weakness of mask-wearing, while the ultra-liberals at the other end of the spectrum would thrive on the morality of caring – and on winning against the callousness of right-wing discord. As I try to explain to those who ask, the situation today is a perfect storm of social upheaval engineered to bring in this new society. You see, both sides of the COVID argument are right – and wrong – at the same instant. This is as it was planned. Bill Gates and his monopoly on vaccines and the health community can hide in plain sight, while Trump’s and Biden’s handlers rake in hundreds of billions playing the dynamic markets. Watching it, at least from my perspective, is like watching the pressure in a boiler build up past the red danger gauge on the outside. In Hitler’s Shadow we find the depth of the US deep state and Brzezinski’s role in the planning for the new world without the Soviets (Russians) in the picture. There’s limited space for describing a CIA operation codenamed AERODYNAMIC which was the forerunner for transformative/revolutionary efforts in the CIS including Georgia, Ukraine, and now Belarus. The reader should understand that Brzezinski, and his father before him, were central figures in a movement to subdue and subdivide the Soviet bloc, and later Russia and her neighbors. No one reading this will know of a man named Mykola Lebed, who operated alongside Joseph Bandera and with the backing of the OSS and later the CIA. He immigrated to the United States because of his importance to the CIA and the deeps state, even though he was in league with the worst Nazis who ever breathed. Brzezinski broadened the scope of AERODYNAMIC, which was in league with former Nazi sympathizers to upend Stalin, and then later Soviet leadership. The history of it is all a deep well no single volume could encapsulate. Again, I have fallen too deep into the rabbit hole of the order, but the reader can observe via this CIA document bearing Brzezinski’s authorship how the plan for today was set in motion decades ago. Trump is destroying the Republican Party for good. Technocrat Bill Gates has monopolized immunization and will leverage it for this new Technetronic Society. The money and power behind this forceful transformation of our society are incalculable, mostly unseen, and probably unstoppable. Think about it, a plan to take over the world put in place decades ago, a plan hardly anyone notices because of its incremental, indomitable, and relentless nature. Sounds conspiratorial, doesn’t it? Well, conspiracies killed Caesar and overthrew the Czar. Conspiracies were the seeds of the American Revolution and the French one too. What? You think control is just a roll of the dice?

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metanetsoftware · 5 years ago

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Is it just me, or have the levels created by the fantastically talented N++ community been even more beautiful than usual, lately?! This week we have another 5 stunners for you -- as exciting to look at as they are to play. Check them out!

Thanks for the submissions, scottm, and to everyone for the comments and descriptions of the maps!

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graphite0: we're all of us alone by DarkStuff

"One of the most impressive qualities that I see in DarkStuff's maps is the ability to represent abstract concepts through tilesets, entity placement, and level flow. From the struggles of moths to the struggles of being trans, they always deliver not only a map, but an experience. That's why I was particularly interested in what DarkStuff would create from Pixl's prompt: A lonely map which would be as long as "an absurd marathon". What DarkStuff presented can only be described as a bleak and abandoned looking tileset, accompanied by the doors that open and close the 12 unique routes that run through the level, and a single rocket. At first glance, the map seems simple; after all, how hard can it be to avoid one enemy? Of course, after you are forced to face this lone enemy for the 10th time, you realize how difficult it can be to manoeuvre in such an enclosed space. But that is not what stands out when you play this map. The real magic happens when you are everywhere except the room with the rocket. There are no other distractions, no other obstacles. It's just you, a coin on the other side of the map, and the ever-draining timebar. After a while, you start to miss the frantic dance with the missile in the middle, the only thing trying to kill you and the only thing keeping you company. The tunnels that surround the center chamber of the map are dead and lifeless, with jagged corners and blocky gaps that threaten to drag you down and waste your precious, finite time. However, don’t be discouraged by the tricky terrain. Precise jumps and clever routing rewards you with the few milliseconds you desperately need to conquer this daunting challenge, and allows you to escape the crushing solitude that surrounds you." - HamSandwich

i mek a snek now tek the gold by RandomDigits

"Over the past fortnight 40+ maps were created and uploaded that share one common theme: sneks. From cute sneks to evil sneks, abstract sneks to serious sneks, bendy sneks to techno sneks, and much more! It's impressive how well one simple prompt highlighted the creative diversity within the N++ mapping community. RandomDigits made this snek now go tek the gold! (It's really fun)" - scottm

phantom altar by spiltmilk

”A beautifully atmospheric map that proves that some things are best experienced with friends who also want to kill you.” - donfuy

Still waters run deep (CN152) by VR456

”A big empty space that scares you with its boosted, deadly movement, and that reminds you of how small we all are in the grand scheme of things.” - donfuy

welcome by Sam

”Submitted to commemorate the introduction of Japanese players to N++, "welcome" by Sam (also known as bigblargh to parts of the community) is a scenic, serene map that anyone can enjoy.” - NiceDay

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Want to play these levels?

Awesome! All levels can be played from all platforms.

First, get N++:

Nintendo Switch:

https://www.nintendo.com/en_CA/games/detail/n-plus-plus-switch

Xbox One:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-CA/store/p/N-/BT33CHSSB89V

Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/230270

PS4:

https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/games/n-plus-plus-(n)/cid=UP2108-CUSA00041_00-NPPGAMENPPGAMENP

Kartridge:

https://www.kartridge.com/games/MetanetSoftware/n-nplusplus

Then from the Main Menu, just go to Browse, and choose the “Featured” tab. So easy! Of course the levels probably aren’t ;)

Want to suggest levels to feature, or to make your own levels for contests like this?

Join the excellent community on discord:

https://discordapp.com/invite/umGncGh

#Nplusplus #community-made levels #level-design #videogames #ninja

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theonyxpath · 8 years ago

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That’s right! Our Monarchies of Mau Kickstarter goes live at 12 noon Eastern US time tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th!

But wait – I imagine I hear you say – what, I say, what in tarnation is Monarchies of Mau?

Designed by Eddy Webb, Monarchies of Mau is the companion game to Pugmire, but rather than playing uplifted dogs you play uplifted cats. We stress that this is a companion game and not a sequel, because it is complete unto itself, but set in the same fantasy world that Man has left. The land of the Monarchies are to the east of Pugmire, through the forest, and there is an uneasy peace between the two domains. So you can play either game or both.

While Pugmire‘s tagline is “Be A Good Dog”, we are using “Trust Your Instincts”, for Monarchies of Mau. Cat society is a patchwork confederation of noble house led city-states, the Monarchies, where politics both ties the Monarchies together, and threatens to tear them apart.

And, of course, outside the cities lie adventures and dangers as well with the ruins and creatures of the absent Old Ones posing grand challenges for the cats. In these wilds Champions and Footpads, Mancers and Ministers, Trackers and Wanderers all vie to prove that they are the Best Cat.

Eddy and I had a lot of fun creating Monarchies of Mau this past year, and we’ll be going into more detail here and in Updates as the KS runs.

Our Pugmire Kickstarter last year was an immensely surprising and gratifying campaign, with some amazing additional projects coming out of the Stretch Goals, and we have lots of great ones lined up for the Monarchies of Mau KS. And just like we did with the Pugmire KS; backers gain access with the very first Backer Update to the Monarchies of Mau Early Access PDF: an abbreviated version of the rules. So you can start playing right away.

Meanwhile, I hear there was a lot of fun and lots of announcements last week at World of Darkness Berlin! Both Matt McElroy and Matthew Dawkins have told us some fantastic highlights, including some very interesting opportunities for Onyx Path, and we’ll go into more detail in the weeks to come.

One of the big shout-outs in presentations was for our own Beckett’s Jyhad Diary as the starting pad for the upcoming Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition, which was very cool to hear, since Matthew Dawkins and everybody’s favorite, Neall Raemonn Price, worked really hard with the new White Wolf to provide all sorts of clues and allusions to the V5 meta-plot.

You can still “pre-order” the PDF and/or the Deluxe hardcover version on our Beckett’s Jyhad Diary BackerKit site here: http://ift.tt/2irGJpN

So, a big shout-out in return to all of the new WW gang: Martin, Karim, Jason, Dhaunae, Shane and Tobias, as well as all the convention hosts, who showed our guys such a great time! And a huge shout-out to Ken Hite, who was announced as V5‘s lead developer, and Mary Lee, its art director!

Also, while I’m shouting, to all our friends who attended, danced, drank, and demoed, and especially Justin Achilli, Mark Rein*Hagen, and Jason Andrew from By Night Studios!

Illustration from Thousand Years of Night by Sam Araya

Finally, I just wanted to point out our unsung heroes here at Onyx Path: our editors. Editing for tabletop RPG books is an unholy mix of technical editing, setting knowledge, and fiction editing, and our dedicated editors have been doing amazing work!

One of Rollickin’ Rose Bailey’s first efforts for Onyx Path was to rebuild our pool of talented editors, and already we’re seeing Dixie Cochran and Carol Darnell perform heroic deeds of editing skill that very often take very good text and make it great, or pull together a paragraph with errors that just slipped through.

Thanks to them and all of our editors for their eagle eyes, and dedication to clean text!

If only we had time each Monday for them to go over this blog text…but that way lies madness!

Thulkan from Dagger of Spiragos by Brian LeBlanc

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

We’re going live at 12 noon Eastern US time next Tuesday, the 16th!

See you there! It’ll be purrfect!

ON SALE!

ON AMAZON:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!

BUNDLE OF HOLDING:

The Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition Bundle of Holding is in its LAST WEEK, and what a fantastic deal they have on our V20 line of PDFs! Plus, a percentage of every sale goes to charity! Here’s the link, check it out: http://ift.tt/2poCr8c

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages!

Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion Advance PDF glides in this Wednesday on DriveThruRPG.com!

Bill Bridge’s new W20 novel, The Song of Unmaking, is on sale in PDF/ePub/PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2qXQH9f and in ebook form on Amazon: http://ift.tt/2qpQM2V !

The fabric of reality is cracking. Fissures appear in thin air, glowing with balefire. Something is scratching on the other side, pressing, beginning to break through….

The Wyrm’s corruption finds its way into the hearts of humans and Garou alike. Even an ultra-rational techno-cratic scientist can fall sway to its lies. Channeling his hate and resentment through the most sophisticated machine ever created, Basil Czajka has turned a tool designed to peer deep into the heart of the quantum universe into a nursery for the hatching of a horror — a creature whose birth cry is destined to unmake Gaia’s Song of Creation.

The only ones standing in his way are One-Song, a bro-ken-down old Theurge, and Lord Albrecht, whose heed-less anger might be the very weapon the enemy needs to crack the egg and free the Unmaker.

The Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Companion has arrived in PDF and PoD physical book versions at DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pygIL7

The Dark Eras Companion presents eleven new Eras for the Chronicles of Darkness. Stretching from Ancient Rome and Egypt through the Black Death, the Thirty Years War, the Reconstruction, and the Russian Revolution, the Companion showcases even more of the secret history of this eldritch world. Included in each era are “snapshots” of the various supernatural creatures, including vampires, changelings, mummies, and demons. Also included are lists of inspirational media to help you put these Eras in context for your troupe.

Open the Dark Eras Companion and take another look back in time.

V20 Lore of the Bloodlines awaits in PDF and physical book PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com!

http://ift.tt/2pj8UuA

Lore of the Bloodlines is a single volume (created via Kickstarter) that revisits some of the bloodlines in Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, providing story hooks, character concepts, history, and bloodline-specific rules. The secrets of the Baali, Daughters of Cacophony, Gargoyles, Harbingers of Skulls, Kiasyd, Salubri, Samedi, and True Brujah are now yours.

Lore of the Bloodlines includes:

• The history, lore, and nightly practices of nine bloodlines, told from the perspective of the Kindred themselves.

• New combo Disciplines, powers, Merits, Flaws, and other rules specific to each bloodline.

• Revisions and updates of more classic Vampire: The Masquerade material to V20.

Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes for Beast: the Primordial, PoD and PDF versions is now on sale on DTRPG.com!

http://ift.tt/2j7p7lO

This book includes:

An in-depth look at how Heroes hunt and what makes a Hero, with eleven new Heroes to drop into any chronicle.

A brief look at why Beasts may antagonize one another, with seven new Beasts to drop into any chronicle.

Rules for Insatiables, ancient creatures born of the Primordial Dream intent on hunting down Beasts to fill a hunger without end, featuring six examples ready to use in any chronicle.

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Beneath the Skin (Demon and Skinchangers 1486-1502 Aztec Empire). Ahuitzotl sits on the throne at the height of the Aztec Empire, overseeing his sorcerer-priests’ sacrifices and the endless flower wars his jaguar and eagle warriors carry out in his name to keep the altars well-supplied with victims. The gears of the Aztec Empire turn smoothly and inexorably, but not everything is what it pretends to be. Skinchangers take the shapes of animals to run the wilds or bring down human prey, the Unchained cobble together identities from stolen lives, and stranger things still lurk in the deserts and jungles beyond the walls of Tenochtitlan.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2p79i1O

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Into the Cold (Demon: the Descent 1961 Berlin). East Germany erects a wall against its Western counterpart, turning West Berlin into an island within its own country. As the Cold War heats up, demons find themselves the targets of increasing human scrutiny, and begin to realize that the God-Machine’s plans didn’t end with the War.

On sale now in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2p70sBl

Beasts are added to Hunter: the Vigil with Hunter: Tooth and Nail, coming atcha in PDF and physical book Pod versions on DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2nwetoP

Tooth and Nail is a bonus chapter/companion book to the previous released Hunter: Mortal Remains that explores antagonists inspired by the Beast: the Primordial RPG.

Hunter: Tooth and Nail includes:

Fiction and story hooks to bring these beasts of legend to your Hunter: The Vigil chronicle.

New bestial Dread Powers.

New Compacts and Conspiracies which hunt the monsters, but also sometimes hunt the zealous heroes that hunt as well.

CONVENTIONS!

Discussing GenCon plans. August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Every chance the booth will actually be 20? x 30? this year that we’ll be sharing with friends. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s).

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: http://ift.tt/RIm6qP

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Monarchies of Mau Early Access (Pugmire)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Second Draft

V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Scion: Origins (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Development

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

Book of Freeholds (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

BtP Beast Player’s Guide (Beast: the Primordial)

M20 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Editing:

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

Indexing:

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook – AD’d

Cavaliers of Mars

Wraith 20

W20 Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Storypath Brochure

VDA Jumpstart

Scion Origins

C20 Jumpstart

Ring of Spiragos

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Waiting for the artnotes to arrive

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

M20 Art Book – In progress…

Monarchies of Mau EA – PDF ready for KS.

Gen Con Stuff

Proofing

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology

M20 Book of Secrets – 2nd Proof

BtP Building a Legend

VTR: Thousand Years of Night

At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Dark Eras: To the Strongest – PoD proof on the way.

EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart – PoD proof on the way.

C20 Anthology – Files uploaded and processing.

C20 – Out to backers, gathering errata.

Pugmire – At Press

Pugmire Screen – At Press

Pugmire Cards & Dice – At Press, proofs on the way

Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – At Press

Dark Eras: The Wolf & Raven– PoD proof on the way.

Dark Eras: Three Kingdoms of Darkness – Uploading files.

Dagger of Spiragos (5e) – Out to backers.

Dagger of Spiragos (PF) – Out to backers.

V20 Dark Ages Companion – Advance PDF out Wednesday on DTRPG.

Monarchies of Mau EA – Ready to roll out with KS

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Monarchies of Mau! Mew.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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shirlleycoyle · 5 years ago

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Everything Is Innovative When You Ignore the Past

This article appears in VICE Magazine's Stupid Issue, which is dedicated to the entertaining, goofy, and just plain dumb. It features stories celebrating ridiculous ideas, trends, and products; pieces arguing that unabashed stupidity can be a great part of life; and articles calling out the bad side of stupidity. Click HERE to subscribe to the print edition.

Anthony Levandowski is a very smart man who has said and done a lot of dumb things. Once a brilliant young engineer, Levandowski established himself as a pioneer in the area of self-driving cars, long thought to be the next big thing. In the mid-2000s, he helped build a self-balancing motorcycle that could drive itself (poorly) and spent close to a decade at Google working on Street View and the self-driving-car teams.

Every profile of Levandowski produced a nearly identical quote from a former superior attesting to his brilliance. A representative one from his adviser at UC Berkeley, Ken Goldberg, went as follows: “Anthony is probably the most creative undergraduate I’ve encountered in 20 years.”

Never mind that Levandowski has taken shortcuts while operating experimental software on public roads that put people’s lives in danger and injured a coworker. The crash, and every other line he crossed, was just another “invaluable source of data” in his quest to change the world and handsomely profit from it.

Levandowski’s creativity extended to his finances. While at Google, he licensed or used products from companies he also owned, the kind of financial subterfuge more befitting a Trump administration cabinet member than a Google engineer. He also set up a self-driving truck company called Otto, which he sold to Uber for $680 million just months after cashing out and quitting Google, even though Otto was barely a year old. Waymo, the self-driving car subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, sued Uber and Otto for stealing trade secrets. (The suit was settled in 2018.) In August 2019, Levandowski was indicted by the federal government for that alleged theft. (He pleaded not guilty and has contended he did nothing wrong, and the case is awaiting trial.)

This is Levandowski, the poster boy of Silicon Valley hubris. In a 2018 profile, the New Yorker deemed him “an exemplar of Silicon Valley ethics,” an oxymoronic and backhanded compliment if there ever was one.

The publication was, of course, referring to his alleged felony and financial chicanery, which left him astoundingly wealthy because his repeated duplicity was constantly excused by his superiors as a regrettable side effect of world-altering intelligence. He was another difficult man in a world of difficult men.

But that’s not the sole or even most important reason Levandowski is an emblem of the industry that made him rich. Levandowski is an avatar for the tech industry’s foibles because of his obsession with the future and disdain for the past, a consistent refrain at the center of the Valley’s beating heart. If the past has no relevance, everything is innovation.

As with everything else, Levandowski doesn’t go about it half-assed. In 2015, he started a church called Way of the Future, shortened to WOTF, just one letter off from the more appropriate abbreviation. WOTF worships a divine artificial intelligence being called “the Godhead.” The idea here, as Levandowski told Wired in 2017, is to ease humanity’s transition from the smartest species on earth to mere pets of our AI overlords in a positive manner.

“We believe in progress,” WOTF’s official website states, noting that it wants to be on the Godhead’s good side when the technological rapture arrives. “Change is good, even if a bit scary sometimes.”

About a year after Levandowski talked to Wired about WOTF, the New Yorker ran another long feature on Levandowski and his escapades at Google and Uber and the ensuing lawsuit. Levandowski told the writer Charles Duhigg not only that the future is all that matters, but that he didn’t care much for history either:

“The only thing that matters is the future,” he told me after the civil trial was settled. “I don’t even know why we study history. It’s entertaining, I guess—the dinosaurs and the Neanderthals and the Industrial Revolution, and stuff like that. But what already happened doesn’t really matter. You don’t need to know that history to build on what they made. In technology, all that matters is tomorrow.”

Levandowski may say it more harshly than others, but he is hardly alone in the belief that the past is irrelevant for those obsessed with the future.

“Tech, historically, has been deeply uninterested in looking backwards,” said Margaret O’Mara, a history professor at the University of Washington and the author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, a history of Silicon Valley. When tech companies do invoke history, she pointed out, it’s often closer to mythology. Consider the Tale of Two Steves of Apple in a garage. Otherwise, as she asked rhetorically in the book’s introduction, “Why care about history when you’re building the future?”

This anti-history bias is not merely a curious quirk of a group of people that has drastically shaped the modern world. It is a foundational principle. Like Levandowski’s church, it is the very basis for a belief system.

But O’Mara argues that this altar of progress is a distortion of what really made Silicon Valley what it is. “When you actually study history,” O’Mara said, “things get really messy really fast.” None more so than the history of the tech industry itself.

This hostility toward the past has deep roots in internet culture. In 1996, the Grateful Dead lyricist and early internet evangelist John Perry Barlow wrote “A Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace.” The second sentence is: “On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.” Wiping the slate clean with the digital era paved the way for the kind of ignorance techno-utopian narratives traffic in.

Whether intentional or not, reformatting the tech industry’s memory around the proliferation of the internet helped perpetuate a myth that the nascent industry sprang up from the brilliant minds of a chosen few without anyone else’s help. In turn, this story became the justification for a limited government that didn’t interfere with the independent spirit and economic structure that made the web great. Too bad it wasn’t true.

History does a lot of telling us what we don’t want to hear. It disposes of the progress myth we are taught in schools— which is also also a foundational principle of Levandowski’s AI church—that things just keep getting better, even as it feels like they are only getting worse.

To be sure, there were many brilliant minds working in tech, but they had help, and lots of it, from Uncle Sam. O’Mara painstakingly details such events in her book: Federal grants accounted for 70 percent of the money spent on academic research in computer science and electrical engineering from the mid-1970s to 1999; the fruits of that research were often spun off into some of the biggest and most influential tech companies of the day. Hell, the actual internet, at the time called ARPANET, was named after the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a government agency that provided it with about $1 million in funding. Starting in 1994, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and DARPA (the successor to ARPA, which focuses on defense projects) gave $24 million to six computer science departments to figure out the best way to index and search the internet. Two grad students at Stanford University named Sergey Brin and Larry Page substantially benefited from this program, which “supported much of Brin and Page’s work,” O’Mara writes. That work soon became Google. If DARPA were a venture capital fund, it would be one of the most successful in history.

This important context is either downplayed or avoided entirely when the tech industry talks about its roots. Steve Jobs, one of the greatest storytellers in modern times, excluded the government’s role in seeding many tech companies of note when evangelizing for his—and other—companies during a publicity wave of cover stories in the 1980s. Jobs, by the way, was hardly immune to the lure of government largesse. He once spent two weeks walking the halls of Congress lobbying the federal government for tax breaks for computers donated to schools; he failed in Washington but succeeded in California, putting his products in front of thousands of California children for pennies on the dollar.

As O’Mara pointed out, ignoring your own history or writing an altogether new one can be a great business strategy. “We see a lot of this in mid-20th-century America,” she said, where companies embraced narratives of “we’re marching toward the future.” Business leaders realized it’s a great public relations gambit with investors, politicians, and the general population to spin a yarn about progress and possibilities, “making the world more open and connected,” and brushing aside inconsistent facts. History was just another marketing tool, sometimes literally. An Apple ad campaign from the 1980s featured actors dressed up as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, and the Wright brothers holding Apple IIs. One of the taglines read: “Don’t let history pass you by.”

It’s traditional for cultures of innovation to regard history as more or less worthless. Considering Levandowski’s interests, it’s ironic that the Valley’s predecessor here is none other than the automobile industry. To take just one prominent example, for the 1939 World’s Fair, General Motors commissioned an exhibition called “Futurama” looking 20 years into the future, featuring vast, automated, congestion-free freeways. When the World’s Fair returned to New York in 1964, GM did it again with similar vast, automated freeways.

It was a good story, and good for business. In 1953, President Eisenhower appointed GM’s president and CEO Charles Wilson as secretary of defense to oversee, among other things, the planning of a federal highway system, a 100 percent government-funded program to the tune of some $100 billion that helped cement the automobile as a necessity for nearly all American families.

But this wasn’t merely about business. Charles Kettering, a GM engineer and perhaps America’s greatest inventor since Thomas Edison, was prone to decidedly Levandowskiesque pronouncements about history’s irrelevance. “You never get anywhere looking in your rearview mirror,” he once said. The future, Kettering added, was all that matters, because “we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.”

Kettering’s attitude was not only representative of the automotive industry around that time, said the Virginia Tech history professor Lee Vinsel, but of American business more broadly, which believed unflinchingly in American dominance and progress. Vinsel pointed out that one of the most infamous quotes about history comes from an American automotive titan, Henry Ford. An ardent isolationist, Ford said “history is more or less bunk” in a contentious 1916 interview with the war-hungry Chicago Tribune about whether the U.S. should get involved in World War I. The remark went virtually unnoticed for three years. (This and other details come from a 1965 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society paper by Roger Butterfield that investigated the history of this quote.)

Later that year, Ford sued the Tribune for libel, demanding $1 million after the paper called him an “anarchist” and an “ignorant idealist.” The case went to trial in 1919 and the judge made clear the issue at hand was not whether Ford was an anarchist, but whether he was ignorant. Ford spent eight days on the witness stand as Tribune lawyers pelted him with questions in an attempt to prove Ford was an ignorant man, and the press wrote up every juicy exchange. One such exchange regarded just how much contempt Ford had for history.

Ford won the case, but only just. The jury awarded him six cents in damages. Shortly thereafter, he wrote to his secretary Ernest Liebold that he was going to start a museum “and give people a true picture of the development of the country.” He vowed to collect and preserve artifacts in service of this mission because the only history worth observing is “that you can preserve in itself.”

“We’re going to build a museum that’s going to show industrial history,” Ford wrote to Liebold. “And it won’t be bunk.”

And it wasn’t. The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village complex in Dearborn, Michigan, is one of the largest collections of American historical artifacts. The guy responsible for one of the most famous anti-history quotes in our language came to care a tremendous deal about history.

This tends to happen. We get older and realize we may live the rest of our lives in the future, as Kettering said, but much of our time is spent in the past, too. As we age, the ratio flips. Great chunks of us become history. And one day, we will be too. The past no longer seems to be an abstract, irrelevant tale but something that happened to us, to people we know. It’s something we made, some- thing we did.

This is partly why O’Mara thinks we’re at the beginning of a shift in which Silicon Valley will start to care about history. She’s been invited to talk about her book up and down the Valley, in front of audiences of all ages. The industry is now mature enough that parts of it are history itself.

But it’s not mere nostalgia—or, less charitably, a dif- ferent form of hubris—that makes history important. Even historians disagree on why history matters. Some stress that its cyclical nature—“history doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes”—is the business case for learning history, so one does not repeat the mistakes of the past.

There’s something to this, but history’s relevance runs deeper. Learning it can be almost spiritual, a kind of therapy. It’s oddly comforting to learn about times when people thought they were experiencing unprecedented circumstances, when they were scared out of their minds about what had become of their society, when they were afraid they had lost all con- trol over events. Things may be different today, but not that different.

History does a lot of telling us what we don’t want to hear. It disposes of the progress myth we are taught in schools—which is also also a foundational principle of Levandowski’s AI church—that things just keep getting better, even as it feels like they are only getting worse.

The three historians I talked to for this article stressed that history disabuses us of these easy “progress narratives.” Instead, it presents a much more challenging yet honest view of humanity.

Patrick McCray, a historian of technology and science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told me that the story of humanity is not one of linear progress, but of spurs and splits, fits and starts, progress and backpedaling. For his scientific history course, one of his main goals is to show students this. But it’s no easy feat, especially for students in science and technology, fields entirely based on progress narratives and finding clean solutions to difficult problems. “It’s really hard to get them out of that mindset, because they really have this view that science is this ever-improving thing and we’re just simply knowing more and more and more,” McCray said.

This is hard stuff, and acknowledging it comes with a corollary: We, as a society, are not particularly special. Vinsel, the historian at Virginia Tech, cautioned against “digital exceptionalism,” or the idea that everything is different now that the silicon chip has been harnessed for the controlled movement of electrons.

It’s a difficult thing for people to accept, especially those who have spent their lives building those chips or the software they run. “Just on a psychological level,” Vinsel said, “people want to live in an exciting moment. Students want to believe they’re part of a generation that’s going to change the world through digital technology or whatever.”

Perhaps no single human embodies the concept of digital exceptionalism more than Levandowski. In an anecdote from a 2013 New Yorker profile, he showed the writer Burkhard Bilger his collection of “vintage illustrations and newsreels on his laptop” of the failed attempts to have cars drive themselves in the past. Levandowski may not be a student of history, but he’s hardly ignorant. For all his bluster, Levandowski may be more like Henry Ford than he lets on.

When Vinsel tells his students about the importance of history, he references the philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s classic work On Bullshit, which experienced a brief resurgence in 2016. Frankfurt argued that bullshit is not about lying so much as simply not giving a shit about truth. Bullshit is saying whatever you need to get elected or to build hype around your product or get that next round of venture capital funding or win that government contract.

“I think history leads you to be a bullshit detector,” Vinsel said. He supposes this may be the fundamental incompatibility between tech companies, which disseminate an awful lot of bullshit, and their disdain for an honest reading of history. Perhaps, he thought, they might see a little too much of it in themselves. After all, Vinsel added, “there’s not a lot of innovation in bullshit.”

“We didn’t come up with this idea,” Levandowski once said of cars driving themselves. “We just got lucky that the computers and sensors were ready for us.” He believes this time is different, just like everyone before him believed their time was different. It’s a gigantic downer to be told otherwise. In many ways, that’s what history is.

Editor's note: After this article was finalized for print publication, Levandowski declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy following a court order to repay Google $179 million.

Everything Is Innovative When You Ignore the Past syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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