#tiniest cory

[photozoi]

"Thank you for your most sage advice, oh Great and All Knowing Julii!"

"I have come to seek the wisdom of the Great and Powerful Julii!"

"Oh Great Julii, I, too, have come to seek your Guidance!"

"I have come to seek the wisdom of the Great Julii!"

(Not bad, so far today I have received 5 bloodworm payments.)

"Have you come to seek my Great Wisdom as well?"

"No, FALSE Julii, I have NOT. I am here to tell you to stop scamming the Little Ones or I will return with some Real Wisdom for you!"

"It's ok, you can come out now, the False Julii has been shut down and we all get our bloodworms back!"

Wyatt, Peacekeeper of the 30 Gallon tank. He ensures everyone gets their fair share.

[knightforflowers]

may I interest you in the tiniest cori crew u ever did damn see. thank you carry on

[this-aint-massachusetts]

more FNaF hcs because the tism™️ is telling me to info dump

sorry if some of these are the same as the last one I forget which ones I put before 🙁

-When Mike was chasing after the car he tripped scraped his knee broke his ankle and busted his kneecap and just gave up on life right then and there

-Mike smokes weed but he could take the tiniest tinniest hit of a bong and he’d cough up a lung so he just mainly sticks to blunts or bowls

-Abby has called 911 multiple times because she wanted to contact Vanessa but it obviously didn’t work. 

-Vanessa used to dye her hair fun colors but she can’t anymore cuz of her job but she wears colorful extensions 

-Abby’s therapist has tried so hard to hint at Mike that he should get an autism diagnosis because his sister has one and he still hasn’t picked up on it despite showing clear traits of autism 

-When golden Freddy and Abby left the cab he just handed Cory a piece of paper with ‘one million dollars’ scribbled on it in green crayon. Cory was to scared to say no he just was like “yeah ok sure” and then cried 

-Mike and Abby did not go to Aunt Janes funeral they instead went to Dave and Busters and played arcade games while their entire extended family blew up Mikes Nokia phone

-Aunt Jane was a “wine mom” and was in heavy denial of being an alcoholic 

-Abby really likes bugs and puts them in her pockets but Mike is terrified of bugs so he freaks out whenever he sees them crawling on her or in her laundry 

-Vanessa apologizes to people while arresting them

-The animatronics consider the cupcake to be their puppy and get confused when people think he’s a menace

-One time Doug ran into Mike and Abby at Walmart once and he just threw his thick ass lawyer wallet at then then ran away to have a panic attack. Mike and Abby bought a blow up pool that day

-Doug had to go to therapy due to Aunt Jane being an absolute fucking Karen

-Doug’s now a regular at Sparkys and is besties with Ness, he considers Ness “The son he never had”

-Bonnie kid (Jeremy) really liked Spider-Man

-Vanessa has a pitbull named Princess that she took home from an animal control call. (The dog is a fucking danger to society)

-Abby picked up on some 80s slang from the animatronics and now just says radical to everything 

-Max and her friends would be doing TikTok trends before TikTok was even a thing (stealing soap dispensers from public bathrooms, sticking pennies in electrical sockets ect)

-Vanessa is a Disney adult/hj

-There’s a rubix cube in the pizzeria that the animatronics have been trying to solve since they’ve been dead basically 

-Every night after Abby goes to bed Mike goes to the kitchen and eats shredded cheese by the handful. Abby caught him once and he cried.

-Mike is the type of person to ask those weird questions while watching movies, like: “If their underwater how are they drinking soda?”

-Mike would stuff all his emotions and feelings down till he bursts and it usually results in him locking himself in his room while having a panic attack

-Max was also a weed dealer so Mikes out of a babysitter and a plug. 

-Vanessa hates soda, loves tea tho

-Mike really likes the Care Bears and uses Abby as an excuse for liking it

-Ness uses those really cheesy pet names for Mike, some of them southern originated because I believe in southern Ness solidarity. Ex: Sweetie pie, Sugar, Doe

-Abby is really good at hide and seek but caused Mike a few panic attacks because of how well she hides

-After Freddy’s neither Mike or Abby could sleep without a nightlight so she lent Mike hers on the agreement she could sleep in his room with him. (He of course accepted)

-Mike: Where’s my Diet Coke?

Vanessa: Oh I threw it away, sodas not good for you.

Mike: Oh ok- WHAT.

-Abby still asks Mike to tie her shoes for her even though he already taught her how to tie them herself

-Mike has a very particular morning routine that he has to follow every morning and feels icky if it gets interrupted for any reason 

-Mike is more noise sensitive and Abby is more texture sensitive but Mike still hates certain textures (ex: olives)

-Mike has considered owning chickens and even went with Abby to look at little chicks but she soon started sneezing and feeling sick and that's when they found out she's allergic so that quickly got shut down

-Abby gives her stuffed animals lore and hierarchies and Ness is always asking her about it when her and Mike go into the diner

-Vanessa Has a very minimalist style not because she likes it but because she's scared of getting attached to anything she calls home which at times worries her when she's with Mike, Abby and Ness. This results in her sitting in bed, chewing on her lip thinking of constant escape plans and emergency exits in case her father ever returns, if something bad happens, etc.

-Mike likes seeing Abby draw him and pretends not to notice when she stares and tries to get the color of his shirt just right (he buys clothing in colors she has to make it easier)

-Abby is the type to point out cows and horses and will repeatedly kick Mike's seat even while he's driving until he acknowledges them

-Abby doesn’t understand why her and Mike can’t just print more money to make them rich and Mike has had to explain to to her 12837383838 times

-Ness is a theater kid (yeah if you didn’t see this coming I think you need glasses)

-Ness and Mike play lps with Abby, Abby explains all of her lps lore extensively and Ness listens to every bit of it while Mike is just like: “I love you both but wtf”

-Mike sometimes age regresses sometimes when put under pressure and Ness is literally the best caretaker ever (this one’s based on a Dreamtheory fic I read once and I fell in love with the idea)

-Ness and Mike call each other every night before going to sleep and once Mike forgot so he woke up the next morning to 300+ voicemails from Ness asking if he’s ok

okay that’s all i have for now I’ll post more later when i feel like it oki byeee 😘✌️

[myconetted]

bah. i have a lot of nostalgia and warm fuzzies about tumblr as a social media platform. i mean, it's where i met my freaking husband. that's why i defend it a lot. but it's also not just that. i really do think tumblr is one of the last Big social media companies to actually put its users first.

which is why it makes me really sad to see people hooting and hollering for joy about photomatt saying the 3-year(?) experiment is over. they put the resources in, did a ton of frontend (and likely backend!) renovations, explored a bunch of different angles for growing the userbase and monetization strategies that don't optimize ad revenue or cater to adfluencer culture.

it was a huge bet and it didn't pan out.

the userbase really doesn't give them enough credit for this. i don't know if you've noticed, but there's a distinct lack of

detailed post analytics with audience demographic breakdowns, view counts, conversion metrics. tumblr blaze gives you the teeniest, tiniest taste of this

ads targeted to your age, race, gender, hobbies, ... it really looks like tumblr lets them target by coarse location and not much else

verified users, not even governments or non-profits. neil gaiman and cory doctorow post here just like any other shmuck. no special badge or display name

revenue share for content creators. there's tipping and posts+, but those are all about users choosing to pay rather than being funded by ads

automattic/tumblr really didn't take easy outs. that doesn't happen unless the user-first values are an integral part of the company's culture. i really truly respect tumblr staff that have been around since yahoo days. you guys didn't sell out. you probably went through a lot of shit, fighting top-down edicts from new owners trying to cash in on all the eyeballs here, and pretty much removed them when changing hands. i remember what that damn oath ad network privacy menu looked like.

so yeah this is just one more sign in a row that's like "TUMBLR IS NOT A FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL PLATFORM", and one of those signs might be at the end of the line. all i can do is hang tight, throw a few bucks at it, and enjoy the ride.

[justplainwhump]

Favor

Jack is introduced to Blanca.

(Very optional backstory to Pet Safety)

Content / warning : No softness here. BBU, BBU Romantic, two whumpers, creepy / intimate whumpers, whumper pov, very frank discussion of noncon, noncon touch, fade to black noncon (observer pov). Cory seems like the better man in here, I guess that means a lot already. This is a dark and very intense one, and if you're not in the mood you're definitely safe to skip it.

It's always something, visiting a business partner at their home for the first time. It shows a glimpse of who they are - and a whole lot more of how they want to be seen.

Cory's current host wants to perceived as rich, conservative, pragmatic, and subtly intimidating. And it works. Dark wood, Scottish countryside paintings, thick carpets, and broad shouldered WRU Guard pets at every corner. There's even one in the room with them right now, called Macnair, like the Whisky. His host owns Domestics, too, Cory is sure of it, even though he had made it all but a ceremony pouring the drink for Cory himself.

There's only one Romantic in the house right now, though, and she's Cory's. Blanca is kneeling at Cory's feet, dressed elegant yet seductive in a shimmering dress of dark green silk.

"You know, I never thought about getting a Romantic myself." Jack Donnell's smile is practised, charming, the one he can just switch on for presentations and photo shoots for the cover of nationwide tech magazines. "I could get any woman I wanted."

Cory doesn't ask if the implication is that Cory couldn't. He knows that it's not.

Jack Donnell cares so little about other people, he wouldn't even bother provoking them. No, Jack only cares about himself, about what he wants, and Cory is going to make sure Jack will get that from him tonight.

So instead of defending his pride, Cory just smirks and takes another sip of the exclusive 18 year old Scotch he's brought along as his first, more obvious, gift.

"Good for you. If your tastes can be fulfilled by regular women." Cory brushes his thumb over the cheek of the pet kneeling next to him. Blanca's light gray eyes are taking him in, a little expectant, a little challenging, a little nervous. She still leans into his touch gracefully, her soft lips parting for him already.

He doesn't need to look over at his business partner to know Jack's eyes are glued to Blanca's mouth as well. He's bought her to be irresistible.

"I have a woman at home who is young, bright, snappy, successful, fantastic in bed. But you know what I can't do to her but can with my pet?"

Cory holds Blanca's chin, while he looks over at Jack, waits until the other man meets his gaze, and then a little longer.

"Anything. Everything. My future wife is up for some things, not for others. She says 'no', or 'not today', or she has a mood. Like people do. Pets, though." He flexes his index finger under Blanca's chin, just the tiniest pressure, but of course she understands it. She understands everything about him. Which is certainly not the point Jack needs to hear; but it probably is the thing that Cory loves most about Blanca. She gets up from the floor, with the sensual grace that even after years still let's him shiver, puts a hand around his neck and eases onto his lap with a knowing smile. He clears his throat, struggling to resist the urge to kiss her.

"Pets don't have moods. They don't say no. They don't judge you. They obey. They let you do anything. And best thing - they won't tell anyone about your preferences." Cory flashes a well-dosed grimace. Jack has had his share of unfavorable press coverage. Sure, the women in question have fallen silent quickly, the articles been banned, but the gossip has remained.

Cory plays with a strand of Blanca's hair. "I think there's a lot wrong with WRU's marketing. They're called Romantics, but they're not about romance." He sees the tiny crease between Blanca's brows, smooth again at a second glance. It doesn't matter. If he remembers, he will tell her later, that of course what they have is something more. But this right now isn't about her. "They're about freedom. To make it about you, and yourself only. Nothing holding you back. These Pets have no limits. No lines they won't cross. You say it, they do it." Cory smirks. "In my conservative interpretation of the word, that's not 'romantic' at all. But let me assure you, it does feel good."

Jack puts his empty glass down with a smirk. "I might be crude around women, but I'm an exceptional salesman, Cory. I do recognize a sales pitch when I see one." He gets up from his armchair, strolls over to Cory with measured steps. His Cowboy boots are clicking on the polished hardwood floor. Blanca tips her head back lightly, long hair falling over Cory's shoulder. He loves it, when she's so close to him that he can feel her heart beat. And it's racing now, despite the perfect smile he's sure she's offering Jack.

Jack reaches out, and Blanca flinches when he rests his hand against her neck. "So what is it, Cory, do you want to sell her, or share her?"

To his own surprise, Cory feels anger simmer in his stomach at the implication. Blanca is his. Sure, WRU has laid the groundwork, but the details, everything that makes her perfect, that's what Cory has done with her over more than seven years. "She's not for sale," he says briskly, and notices the shift of muscles in Blanca's shoulders, as she relaxes the tiniest bit. "But if you're interested, you can get a fantastic time out of her."

"And you want me to have a good time, because you want my company to stay in business with yours."

Cory gives a half shrug. "That's how the world runs, is it not? And I've encountered you as a man of acquired taste."

"Acquired taste, huh?" Jack smirks, and before Cory can wonder how to interpret that smile, his hands are on rim of Blanca's dress.

A small blades flashes.

Blanca gasps, Cory tenses, as Jack tears open the dress. He stares down at Blanca's breasts and licks his lip. "I would describe my tastes as more... primal."

Blanca's hand clutches into Cory's shirt. "Sir?" she breathes.

"Point is, I don't care if she says no," Jack remarks. "I actually like it."

Cory pries her hand off his shirt. "Do it, sweets" he says hoarsely. He'll have to make up for that to her, he thinks. Jack's a fucking creep. But then again, a whole lot of money and effort has gone into making Blanca take anything without complaint. She shouldn't be bothered. Cory's definitely gotten too soft with her. "And - give him a fight."

"Sir, please I-"

Cory slaps her hand away.

Jack raises an eyebrow. He's too fucking tall, hovering over them like that. It's these stupid fucking boots, probably. Cory hates him, suddenly.

"Cute," Jack says. "I like how she begs for you. Feels almost real."

He grabs Blanca's throat with one big hand, lifting her from Cory's lap with casual ease.

"How much was she? Just in case I break her. Less than a mil, right?"

Cory knows he's playing, but he still flinches as he sees Blanca hitch a sob. She's a natural at seeing through lies, usually. She's not, now. "Please," she croaks. "Sir. Please, I..."

Cory can't stand it. Not her begging, not the pretty dress hanging in tatters, not the glee in Jack's eyes.

"300k," he says briskly, as he gets up from his chair. "I want her back alive."

A small twist of Jack's arm, and Blanca yelps as she almost crashes face down own the leather couch, barely catching herself with her arms. "Would be a better scene if you stayed," Jack remarks, as he slaps her ass, hard enough for her to fall down again. "She's pretty attached."

Cory grabs the gifted bottle of Whisky from the table and shakes his head. "I'll leave you to it."

He all but flees the room.

Cory, her desperate voice echoes in his head. Cory, Sir, please.

It's all in his imagination, he's sure of it.

So must be the cry that follows.

And even if it's not.

It's fine. She was made for it. He bought her for it.

The bottle is trembling in Cory's hand, as a Domestic appears out of nowhere and guides him to a guest room.

Of course Jack owns pets, Cory thinks, but there's no triumph at being right.

He does not sleep well that night.

---

-

Pet safety backstory tag list: @gottawhump @labgrowndemon @pigeonwhumps @whumplr-reader @somewhumpyguy @tragedyinblue

[dilidos]

*twirl hair* let's talk oral fixation and the Corinthian.

So Freud has this weird theory called Psychosexual Development (which is so Corinthian it's funny). Yes, it's where the term penis envy comes from. I know everyone and their mother take Freud for a grain of salt nowadays, but let's entertain this theory for the sake of discussion.

According to him, there are 5 stages of development from infancy that influence pleasure-seeking behaviors later on in life. Each stage is associated with one erogenous zone, with the first being, you guess it, the mouth.

The thing about psychosexual stages is that if you don't get over one stage in your childhood, it'll develop into fixations. Oral fixation is a condition where a person is unconsciously obsessed with their mouth because they're still stuck in that first stage. This becomes pretty fundamental later on. Chewing become self-soothing behaviors, bad habits like smoking, alcohol abuse and nail-biting are usually the tells of someone who has oral fixation. The person will even have nifty eating disorders like pica which is when you eat things you're not supposed to. It'll also change the whole personality, which I'll talk about later.

So how do fixations come to be? Usually it's because of either overindulgence or deficit. Babies in their first years of life relies heavily on the oral sense. They put shit in their mouths all the time. They also suck tits. The mouth is basically the source of nutrition, socialization (with mom), exploration (what does that yummy looking choking hazard taste like?), and self-soothing. Take away mommy milkers and you get a miserable baby who grows into an agressive, ambitious, and selfish adult. Overfeed it and you'll get an opstimistic and overly-sociable person. There are also personality types like:

Oral dependent: being overly talkative, smoking and alcohol addiction, overeating

Oral sadistic: sarcastic and biting personality

Oral aggressive: obsessive focus, hostile, opportunistic, jealous, violent

Oral receptive: obsession with eating and drinking, needy, sensitive to rejection

How is this connected to the Corinthian? Watch the damn show (and read the comics).

Now I'm not suggesting that the Corinthian is Like That because Dream deprived him of Endless nipples or whatever (I do think Endless nipples will solve most of Dream's problems tho). However, Dream has a direct influence over the Corinthian's consumption habit from day 1. He made the Corinthian a Major Arcana, basically giving him the entire human subconscious as his feeding ground (overindulgence). He also tells Cory all the yummy eyeballs in the Waking world are off-limit (deficit). Both patterns leave us with a monster who derives immense pleasure from feasting on what he's not supposed to. He's fixated, obsessed, and greedy. He needs to consume everything and do it as fast as he possibly can. He'll devour the entire fucking world.

Anyway, this is probably obvious to everyone already, but I just want to talk about it because I need to dissect this gay psychopath down to the tiniest details or I'll go insane. My last thought about this is that oral fixation is a form of addiction. Addiction can be transferred, hence the severe whoring. Hope this makes sense!

[edupunkn00b]

Decoherence, Ch. 11: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Stays in Town

Creative Commons 1.0 Public Domain

Prev - Someone Comes to Town - Next - Masterpost - [ AO3 ] - Playlist

“All secrets become deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets.” - Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow

WC: 1572 - Rated: T - CW: swearing -

2027, April 29, London, England

The sunlight streaming in from the window glowed through Remus’ swollen eyelids. He blinked then winced at the sandpapery drag over sore eyes. His pillowcase was cold and wet and his whole face throbbed like he’d been crying. Can you cry in your sleep?

He closed his eyes again and reached across the bed to turn off the alarm, then let his arm fall over the empty expanse. Why the fuck did he have such a big bed, anyway? It’s not like there was ever anyone here but him. Who had time for that? He should probably sell it, free up some space.

But he loved these soft blue sheets and sometimes, in that half-aware daze as he drifted off, his bed felt a little less empty, the pillow clutched to his chest almost… hugging him back. Soft hair like silk falling between his fingers, love and warmth right there in his grasp. Bright blue eyes looking back at him and a crooked little cupid’s bow smiling, whispering, “I love you, Mue—”

The alarm blared again. Thankfully, some scrap of sense in him had driven him to hit snooze instead of turning it off completely. He smacked the off button and heaved himself out of bed. The moment his feet touched the cold floor, everything hit him with a flash. 

The dreams!

Remus turned on the spot, scanning the room for something to write with. Where the fuck was he? Electric lights, a window that opened. He pressed his face to the window glass and caught the tiniest edge of a yellow and blue Aldi’s sign about a kilometer down the street. London.

A Sharpie lay abandoned on the floor and he picked it up and started writing on his bare arm. Last night had been… that Victorian kinda thing… big fireplace, heavy curtains on the window, feather-stuffed blanket on the bed. Big old house with Ro and Janus and Patton and Virgil. He’d turned five a couple weeks ago but he still had the little paper balloon he’d made him.

Okay, and the night before that had been. Nah. The fucking White House?

Shaking his head, Remus scrawled a question mark next to that one. That sounded like a dream-dream, not a memory, but still he wrote the name Gladys. Like in the old game? And before that was the motorbike. He could feel the buzz of the electric engine vibrating through his thighs, the clink of their helmets as he’d clung to Lo’s waist, leaning with him on the curves. Like a dance.

No. No, the last time he’d been there, he’d been alone. He’d woken up to the automatic lights, taken a shower and driven alone to CERN. But Lo had been here with him before. He remembered.

Nodding and muttering to himself, he sat on the edge of the bed as he wrote and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Hair wild, naked, with frantic markings between his tattoos over his arm and both legs. The shadows under his eyes looked painted on. He looked like a circus freak show.

He fucking was a circus freak show. Was he losing it? How do you know when your impossible thoughts are just… thoughts?

The marker stilled in his hand and he let his eyes close. “Find me, Meus… Find me.”

Remus opened his eyes and copied down the words that ran so clearly through his mind. “I’ll find you, Lo,” he promised aloud, then showered, careful not to scrub at the permanent marker on his skin. He’d copy it out again. And again. And again. Until he found him.

~

The lab was close to home and last night’s downpour had petered out to a drizzle, so Remus walked the half kilometer to the imposing grey tower. Fucking ‘Cheese Grater.’ They just needed a ‘Chips’ building and they’d complete the set of food-themed skyscrapers. The Leadenhall building wasn’t the Tower of London or even the Shard, but it had stood long enough to get its own nickname. And it had been long enough since it had been erected that most people weren’t really sure how far down the sub levels went.

People who didn’t work in the quantum computing lab, at least.

Remus keyed his way onto an elevator going down and pressed G2. He was early and the only one heading in at this hour. 

“It’ll be worth it, Lo,” I say, laughing as the man with the crooked cupid’s bow groans and chugs his third cup of tea. 

Was Lo his name? No… His real name was Logan. Like the superhero. 

The elevator dings at G-2. We get off and walk down the hall to another elevator and thumb the biometric scanner to call it. “We can get a test run in before anyone else even logs time on the multi-core.”

“I’ll agree with you in about an hour, Meus,” he mutters and, when we’re alone in the second elevator, hooks my arm to tug me closer. He leans on my shoulder, melting against me. It feels right. 

I turn my head, and press kisses into his soft hair, chuckling at the way it tickles my cheek and warms my lips.

The doors opened with an empty clang and Remus stepped out of the elevator alone and walked down the hall to prep for the clean room. If he hurried, he might even get in two test runs of the new qubit array before anyone else showed up.

~

It was after seven by the time Remus finally shut down his workstation and peeled off his cleansuit. He stood there for a good ten minutes in that little alcove, face pressed against the bonnet, breathing in the weirdly comforting scent of Tyvek and compressed air propellant. It’s what Lo’s hair smelled like in some of his memories. Remus was pretty sure, at least. 

He was losing it. 

Scoffing, he shoved the bonnet and his bunny suit into a recycler and thumbed his way out and into the hall.

Outside of the dry, cold, recycled air of the clean room, Remus sucked in a deep breath and made his way toward the first set of elevators. His stomach grumbled. Fuck, he’d forgotten to eat lunch again. 

Once upstairs, he paused just outside the lobby doors. The rain had picked up while he’d been working, the morning’s soft drizzle blooming into a full-on thunderstorm. He could always duck into the Aldi’s between the lab and home. There hadn’t been much in the fridge at home anyway, and with any luck, maybe he could wait out a bit of the storm while he was shopping.

Hair dripping, Remus lingered in the produce section. He spent just long enough staring at the loganberries to make the manager nervous and call for a security sweep. “We all know what code B in aisle 9 is, right, Lo?” he muttered. A woman picking out strawberries watched him from the corner of her eye until he retreated to the freezer section in search of something he could toss in the microwave and call it a fucking night.

Woo-ee, party animal right here. He might even make it to bed before nine-thirty.

When he got to the checkstands, he eyed the line that snaked out of the lane and halfway down the soup aisle and shook his head. The buggy little machines they laid out to convince their customers to work for free checking out their own groceries sat forlornly beeping and flashing to no-one. U-scan it was. 

He fell into a pattern scanning and bagging his groceries, the monotonous chant of the computers around him lulling him into his own sort of trance. The voices in the supermarket layered and fizzled together until the voices in his memory took over. 

“Gotta say ‘yes’ to something for the little guy.”

“As though you let that child lack for anything, ‘Uncka Re,’” Lo murmurs near my ear as he slips his arm through mine.

While the receipt slowly printed, Remus shoved his wallet in his pocket and grabbed the bags with his other hand. Turning, he tucked the receipt into the bag and looked up.

Right into Lo’s eyes.

Remus stared at the raven-haired man in front of him. “Lo?” Eyes the color of the sky looked right into him. “Is that really you?”

Lo’s face bloomed, that crooked little cupid’s bow spreading into a grin. “Meus!” he cried and threw himself into Remus’ arms. “You’re you,” he whispered, face pressed against his chest. “You—you’re actually you, aren’t you?”

Remus was still holding the groceries but he could only tighten his arms around Lo’s back, afraid to move enough to set them down. He didn’t want to let go, he couldn’t let go. They held each other until someone shuffled past them, muttering under their breath as they passed. “Lo?” He pulled away just enough to look into his eyes. “Lo, what’s happening?”

“Meus…” He reached up to cup Remus’ cheek. Another customer pushed their cart past them. “Let’s go somewhere we can talk.” 

Nodding, Remus let go but then moved close again and laced their fingers together. He bent and picked up Lo's bag where he’d dropped it. “I… we?” He shook his head. Would Lo’s clothes still be there in the wardrobe when they arrived? Or had that all been in his head? A half-woken dream? Was any of this real?

“The flat’s close by.”

[cories-in-the-house]

Garlic is stable

I wanted to report in about Garlic! For the past week, he was in a hospital tank for which I was doing daily water changes. I was convinced it was all for naught, but somehow he is still alive even after the “death spiral”. He has not exhibited spiraling since the day he first did it, he has not shown buoyancy problems at all.

Him staying alive is truly a miracle. I thought he would have died within the next 24-48 hours—after all, that’s often how organ failure goes. But I’m wondering if it wasn’t organ failure, that maybe something else about the tank disrupted him. I think I said before how I had the tank full of overdosed medicine for a while when I was treating Sesame and how it could have disturbed Garlic. He’s small, my tiniest cory cat—the medicine may have made him ill or woozy. It’s also possible he gulped an air bubble that caused the buoyancy issues, sometimes cories will do that on accident when they come up for air.

Because I haven’t been able to identify markers for known illnesses, I have no idea what went wrong with him and what his true stability is. However, I didn’t want to keep him in hospital too much longer. Crouton has seemed depressed, Dumpling has been on edge. These are schooling fish, they were very clearly feeling the absence of their friend. Garlic himself was also stressed out, but still did not die. I’ve decided to place Garlic back into the main tank tonight to see how he does. I felt so bad looking at how upset everyone was.

If Garlic continues to be stable into the weekend, I will be picking up at least three more cories for a total of six so the school is a healthier size. They could really, really use the socializing after all of this heartache. I will let you know how everything goes, as usual.

Pictured: Dumpling, left. Garlic freshly added, right. They are my largest and smallest respectively.

[silverjetsystm]

is there an artform they've always wanted to try (glassblowing, woodworking, painting, ect) but never have? if so, what about that artform speaks to them?

THE TINIEST DETAILS: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS | Accepting

Honestly, Steven's far more of an art appreciator than an artist himself.

They can sing, though it's rare to hear. For Marc, it's tied up in a lot of obligation as a child. Being encouraged to be a rabbi or a chazzan (two different paths to being a respected part of the Jewish community).

They are up for spending quality time together with loved ones. Try out art. Can't say they'd be good at it but it'd be the time spent that matters.

I think they can sketch okay, but don't consider themselves an artist. It was only really in Lemire's MK (2016) and presented as "You drew this." It's far more meta than real.

MK (Vol. 8/2016), #2. Writer: Jeff Lemire; Penciler and Inker: Greg Smallwood; Colorist: Jordie Bellaire; Letterer: Cory Petit

"How hard is it to get car driver's license" (Taxi Driver!!???) - well you see...

Sienkiewicz pinup from MK Special Edition #1

“The Big Blackmail,” Hulk! (Vol. 1/1978) #13 Writer: Doug Moench; Penciler: Bill Sienkiewicz; Colorist: Steve Oliff

[holiestofbingles]

TINIEST OF BABIES

I love pygmy Cory catfish so much I'm gonna die

[cherrybombfangirlwrites]

Happy Blorbo Blursday! Which of your OCs can handle spicy food?

--@oh-no-another-idea

Happy Blorbosday!

I would say that:

Hestia can, because of her fire powers

Raven can, because he grew up with his mama’s cooking, and her food is Mexican spicy

Sapphire can’t really handle it but she’ll try anyway

Nickelle can, but only low to moderate spicy, unlike some of her friends

Asher can, because he’s Latino and grew up with his Mama, Grandmama, and Tia’s cooking- he prefers spicy food over everything else and it drives the can’t handle spicy people nuts when they order food

V absolutely can, and most spicy food ‘isn’t spicy enough’, they need like, ghost pepper level of spicy to be happy. The spicy stuff they like is even a little too much for Asher

Corie can, and it makes her laugh when the aliens/half aliens on the crew almost explode with the tiniest bit of spice or seasoning in food (Knox and Aries can’t handle it at all)

Thanks @oh-no-another-idea !

[photozoi]

Originally, when setting up the 30 gallon tank, we got three tiny little threadlike Kuhli loaches. Two darker (above) and one lighter in colour. They are now big Chunkus Wyrms and thriving.

Just before the holiday we got a tiny, threadlike singleton Kuhli loach, rescued from being an "only loach" in a bare tank (no hidey spots.) He had buried himself in the group of Pygmy corys that were freaking out in the back of the tank as well. (Kuhli loaches need friends and hidey places.)

We brought them all home, Pygmy corys and tiny loach. I was concerned for the tiny thread who promptly disappeared into the vegetation in the tank. We did not see him for three weeks.

However, he has resurfaced!

And he is at least four times larger than when he was last seen diving into the foliage! How did he survive the Guppy Threat?

His protector, Wyatt, Bestest Betta in the Fishiverse.

Wyatt has been stuffing loach wafers under the Spiderwood, and chasing off the Guppies when they get obnoxious. And now that Tiniest Loach is starting to explore more of the tank, his bodyguard is never far from his side.

(Last photo shows Wyatt warning off a Guppy while Tiniest Loach peeks out from under the Spiderwood.)

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

I’m running a bit behind again this week. Kim, Taylor, and I went out for breakfast this morning at TipTop and I had their excellent biscuits and gravy. Something else of not at TipTop is their coffee. It’s excellent! So, if you’re ever in Charlottesville head over to the Pantops area and visit TipTop Restaurant for breakfast. Hopefully you like it as much as I do.

This week was my last week of work until the new year. My brain has been checked out all week, thinking ahead to Christmas and time with our girls, grandkids, and son-in-law.

Oh, we also had a little snow flurry this morning. It was a single cloud overhead and once it passed no other cloud has dropped snow. We saw cars in Charlettesville with snow on them. Not much. Just the tiniest dusting. I’d love to have an inch or two for Christmas, but I we don’t have any in the forecast. Just cold, which is also fine.

I hope you enjoy the links!

Matt Mullenweg ��� WordPress.org

I hope to find the time, energy, and money to reopen all of this sometime in the new year. Right now much of the time I would spend making WordPress better is being taken up defending against WP Engine’s legal attacks. Their attacks are against Automattic, but also me individually as the owner of WordPress.org, which means if they win I can be personally liable for millions of dollars of damages.

This feud is getting more and more dramatic by the day. I’m surprised it hasn’t been forked a bunch of times and taken in new directions.

What happens to WP Engine if the community fragments and different versions of WordPress evolve? Shouldn’t WP Engine fork it and do with it what they please? Yes, of course. Will they? I doubt it. They’re owned by a private equity firm, Silver Lake. All they want to do is bleed the company dry, sell it off for parts, and move on to the next company.

Joost de Valk

We, the WordPress community, need to decide if we’re ok being led by a single person who controls everything, and might do things we disagree with, or if we want something else. For a project whose tagline is “Democratizing publishing”, we’ve been very low on exactly that: democracy.

This is probably what the WP Engine folks should be doing and I hope more of the community gets behind this effort.

Manton Reece

Some people think that wouldn’t go far enough, that WordPress would be better off with someone new taking over Matt’s role across the project. I’m not convinced. WordPress and Automattic didn’t accidentally become successful. They are successful in large part because of Matt and the teams he built.

The reason I’m linking to Manton is because I think he’s become a leading voice for the open web, blogging, and micro formats. He’s built a nice business on top of open web technologies and fully embraced micro blogging formats like Mastodon, Bluesky, and Nostr. He’s also opened up Micro.blog to post to Tumblr and WordPress blogs. Basically Micro.blog has become the center point of blogging for me. I write on Micro.blog and it gets published to these other locations autmagically. Of course you, the blogger, have to configure Micro.blog to publish to these other places but that’s easy. Once you’ve done it, it just magically happens when you post. Easy peasy.

So, if you’re looking for a pure blogging platform give Micro.blog a look. It’s well worth the $5 per month and you can start with a free account just to give it a try.

Cory Doctorow

When a platform can hold the people you care about or rely upon hostage – when it can credibly threaten you with disconnection and exile – that platform can abuse you in lots of ways without losing your business. In other words, they can enshittify their service:

Once of the promises of Bluesky was that by creating the AT Proto protocol the service wouldn’t exist as a single entity, there would be many implementation that all tied together. So far everything is centralized under Bluesky.

I haven’t fully wrapped my brain around what AT Proto really means for the open web. I’d asked what it would take to spin up an instance on Bluesky and I learned there aren’t really other instances but you could host your own data anywhere as long as you did an implementation of a specific portion of the protocol. I have so much to learn.

Drew McCormack

Today, I’m launching Forked, a new approach to working with shared data in Swift. And it has actually worked out better than I expected. I wasn’t even sure it would be possible to build, but with the new Swift macros, I was able to come up with a minimal API that seems to work great. I’m really looking forward to dog fooding it.

This looks extremely interesting to me. I’ve had requests from folks to provide a mechanism to sync Stream feeds across multiple devices. Forked may provide that means. I will be putting some time aside to give Forked a try. Hopefully it’ll do what I need to make syncing work across devices without the need to build a backend service, which could be terribly expensive and time consuming to operate.

Kelly Crandall • Racer

McLeod and co-owner Matt Tifft sold the charter to Spire Motorsports. In doing so, the organization chose to go from a full-time operation to competing on a limited basis, primarily on superspeedways. McLeod made five starts in 2024 (plus two for Carl Long’s team) in the Cup Series and four (plus one for Long) in the Xfinity Series.

I’ve written before about how much I like B.J. McLeod. He’s the little guy, not some giant team with backing from a major manufacturer like Chevy, Ford, or Toyota. It’s surprising a little team like his can put a fairly competitive car on the track. He’s especially good at what are considered Super Speedways like Daytona and Talledega.

He failed to qualify for the 2024 Daytona 500 so I hope he manages to make it in 2025. I would love to see him pull off a miracle win at one of these Super Speedways. Sure, it’s not likely, but of all track types Super Speedways are very unpredictable because of pack racing. These cars are so equally configured they typically run within a few tenths of a second of each other.

I’m looking forward to the opening of the 2025 NASCAR season in February.

Paul Krugman • Bluesky

Reminder for anyone who doesn’t know: I’m writing almost every day on my Substack

I like reading Paul Krugman but he’s decided to host his writing on Nazi loving Substack and that is a bummer. I have a large list of writers I wish would move to a better service (if they must have a service.)

It would be just as easy to host on WordPress.com or even Micro.blog. I’m not sure if Mr. Krugman plans on having a subscription plan but Substack is a terrible choice for it and his wonderful writing.

Jake Johnson • Alternet

UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty wrote in a New York Times op-ed Friday that the for-profit U.S. healthcare system “does not work as well as it should” and that “no one would design a system like the one we have,” admissions that came as his industry faced a torrent of public anger following the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive.

Medicare for all with the United States Government as the single payor. Yeah, sure, we’d need to pay taxes to make it work but medicine operated as a for profit business is a huge mistake, not to mention the disaster that is medical insurance.

Christopher Harper • Tom’s Hardware

A recently posted photograph of old-school Commodore 64s, which debuted 42 years ago, in use as registers at a modern bakery has attracted a lot of attention. As further sleuthed by commenters, this bakery was identified as the Hilligoss Bakery in Brownsburg, Indiana, and the last publicly posted picture of the Commodore 64 register was in 2021. As such, we called the shop, and they verified that the registers are still in use. At the time of writing, the establishment in question has 488 Google reviews with an average 4.7-star rating and 202 Facebook reviews with an average 4.5-star rating— and, if some reviews mentioning the C64 are any indication, it even seems to be busier than usual, likely encouraged by the spreading word of this retro tech curiosity.

How cool is this? My brother had a Commodore 64 and he had a ton of fun playing games on it. He also wrote a program to generate D & D characters, as one did in the early 80’s.

I think about old tech like this from time to time and wonder if it could be repurposed to very specific tasks. The answer is obviously a resounding YES!

I wonder how they keep the equipment from getting all sticky and covered in flour?

[xtinyslip]

"you know i was really expecting someone taller… richer… eh, just not you?" harsh but true and perhaps he was being a dick but right now he didn't really care. was he all aboard the capture, kill, torture the fbi agent plan? uh, no because he wasn't a fucking moron but it didn't mean he wasn't interested in the other. oh, and the look on finn's face if he knew this conversation was happening? well, it made it so worth it. plus anyone who could find something to love in his brother was a monster. how did he know? well, up until very recently and shoved very deep down inside of cory -- there had been a part of him, maybe the tiniest teeniest part that found a way to love his little brother. now? finn could go up in flames and cory wouldn't lift a finger to help. "oh introductions, right... i'm cory pederson. you may known me as the big bro?" @demongemz

[ctrl-salt-delete]

DMCA 1201 is an "anti-circumvention" law. It bans the distribution of any tool that bypasses "an effective means of access control." That's all very abstract, but here's what it means: if a manufacturer sticks some Digital Rights Management (DRM) in its device, then anything you want to do that involves removing that DRM is now illegal – even if the thing itself is perfectly legal.

...

Today, it costs about a quarter to add a system-on-a-chip to even the tiniest parts. These SOCs can run DRM. Here's how that DRM works: when you put a new part in a device, the SOC and the device's main controller communicate with one another. They perform a cryptographic protocol: the part says, "Here's my serial number," and then the main controller prompts the user to enter a manufacturer-supplied secret code, and the master controller sends a signed version of this to the part, and the part and the system then recognize each other.

...

Of course, Apple is a huge fan of VIN-locking. In phones, VIN-locking is usually called "serializing" or "parts-pairing," but it's the same thing: a tiny subassembly gets its own microcontroller whose sole purpose is to prevent independent repair technicians from fixing your gadget. Parts-pairing lets Apple block repairs even when the technician uses new, Apple parts – but it also lets Apple block refurb parts and third party parts.

[quite-actually-a-nacho]

MEET TORI’S CORIES

Dumpling, Sesame, Garlic, and Crouton!

Dumpling is the biggest and plumpest baby of them all, I’m 80% sure she is a female Cory. the tiniest of them is Sesame, and the other two are Garlic and Crouton but I haven’t been able to differentiate them yet!