#we weren’t created in a copy machine

[barneysbigstompers]

i had to listen to multiple people admit to wanting to kill/abandon their baby if it came out autistic or special needs and i had to just sit there in disbelief.

this is so normalized ts isnt a joke it makes me scared and im not even autistic or special needs (well im not 100% sure actually.) but still it hurts and has hurt my heart for years when i see people talk down to autistic people like they’re babies or the evilest people alive like uhm…buddy you’re harassing someone over something they cant control that will never be funny in my eyes. never has been and never will. why worry about others? you have a life of your own. focus on yourself and what you’re going to do with you life.

[manorpunk]

2️⃣

‘Comprador’ refers to an agent of a large multinational corporation whose typical job responsibility is taking a small underdeveloped nation and turning it into a vending machine for a natural resource - oil, coffee, coal, minerals - then getting that nation so dependent on selling those raw materials to that company that they effectively control it.

Unrelatedly, the Global Logistics Network was the single largest anything of 2069.

They weren’t a monopoly, no, no, no. They were… you see, the crowded and fragile system of intercontinental shipping was simply too important to be left in the hands of any single nation. You all saw what happened when the Brits monopolized it, and when the US monopolized it after them. You’ve seen how nations owning major canals turns them into a hive of corruption. Shipping belongs to the world, which means it belongs to the GLN.

They were headquartered in Qingdao, a major city in the Shandong province of China. Don’t be fooled, China fumbled the past few decades as much as everyone else, but every institution needs a head, and every head needs a headquarters, and the headquarters of the Global Logistics Network were located in Qingdao. The complex of skyscrapers that comprised GLNHQ was large and populous enough to form its own city-state, a closed loop of offices, gyms, fabricators, dormitories, labs, shops, copackers, cafeterias, and warehouses. You could spend your whole life there without ever setting foot on the earth itself. Many did.

Such was the Global Logistics Network. Like capitalism rising centuries ago from the sclerotic and shambling remnants of feudalism, the GLN rose from the old ways of hyper-financialized over-leveraged capitalism to create something new, something so new it didn’t even have a name yet. Much like the transition from feudalism to capitalism, things were better overall, but good lord, what a low bar to clear.

Towering above it all at the top floor of the central skyscraper sat Meng “Harold” Jianli, sole co-founder of the GLN. One might wonder how someone could be a ‘sole co-founder,’ and the answer was that the GLN was so powerful and omnipresent that its leader could have called himself a living god for all the power that sat upon his person. He certainly had more power than those who had historically claimed the title of living god.

But Meng “Harold” Jianli was no god, living or otherwise. Despite the vast power seated upon his person, or perhaps because of it,he looked rather disheveled, with a jowly face like splotchy old parchment, a sagging belly, and a crudely functional flat-top of black hair. His suit was slack and rumpled - his weight had a tendency to fluctuate wildly thanks to the stress.

It was stressful, being in charge. Past a certain point, you don’t really get more powerful, you just have more people to babysit and more fires to put out. He had to keep an eye on Novo Karo Bioresearch, or they’d be so excited to show off their new research that they’d start doing eugenics. He had to keep an eye on Vae Victis Engineering, or they’d get so excited testing out their new tech that they’d start a world war. And now, with his hands steepled and his brow furrowed, he had to keep an eye on the vtuber that the American League had elected president.

 He stared at Sunny Roosevelt. Sunny smiled back and gave him a little wave.

“I am willing to work with you, miss Roosevelt. The GLN is willing to work with just about anyone, it’s one of our biggest strengths.” He shifted effortlessly between ‘I’ and ‘we,’ treating the two as synonyms. “The issue is, we are still trying to figure out what your administration actually intends to do.” 

“Hmm.” Sunny put a finger to her chin, pursed her lips, and looked upward. An ellipsis appeared over her head.  “You got a copy of my campaign objectives, right?”

“Are you referring to this?” He held up a single sheet of paper, on which was written ‘make anime real’ in 48-point font and nothing else.

“Yep!”

“And you think this qualifies as a roadmap for your presidency.”

“Personally, I think it’s quite ambitious.”

Harold puttered his lips. “Miss Roosevelt-”

“Please, call me ‘mommy.’”

“Miss Roosevelt, I understand that you are standing on rather shaky ground. The National Board of Directors is being dragged away from the provisional US government days,” he said, which neglected to mention how half of the National Board of Directors were former GLN big names, “and the new state congress acts more like a rehab clinic for celebrity podcasters than a governing body,” he said, which stood just fine without caveats.

“I understand,” Sunny said, nodding and still smiling, “I’m a bimbo who’s in way over her head, so you’re going to unveil the GLN’s big five year plan and tell me to follow it like a good little girl.”

Harold was already in the process of lifting a hefty unlabeled binder, intending to thump it dramatically atop his desk, but the accuracy of Sunny’s comment left him slightly deflated. “I prefer to think of it as an advisory-”

“And then I’ll kiss up to you during our conversations,” Sunny continued, “but stall and drag my feet when it comes to actually implementing anything, and you’ll say,” she loosened her face and dropped her voice, “dammit Sunny, are you trying to play me for a fool?”

“I don’t sound like that. I don’t sound like Richard Nixon,” Harold protested, sounding kind of like Richard Nixon.

“And then I’ll say, it’s not me, it’s the state governors, they just refuse to cooperate. The new congress is one big old boy’s club. Even the Board of Directors is demanding overly-detailed descriptions of everything before they’ll sign off on it, it’s malicious compliance!” Sunny hung her head and threw her hands, wailing, “you set me up to fail, Harold. You set me up to fail, you rat bastard!”

“Are you done?”

Sunny straightened back up. There was that smile again. “Yep. That was fun.”

“In any case, while I understand you are currently something of a figurehead, even figureheads cannot afford to do nothing. Not when a third of the country is still lacking even the barest measures of centralized government.”

“What, you mean the Midwest Autonomous Zone?” A little question mark appeared over Sunny's head. “I mean, yeah, but it’s not like that started with the fall of the old US. Missouri was a dump long before the thirties.”

“Be that as it may-”

“That’s the 2030s, because we’re in the future.”

“Miss Roosevelt.”

“Please, call m-”

“No. Miss Roosevelt, why did you become president if you are so averse to actually presiding?”

Sunny shrugged and let out a huffy little sigh. “Look, most people weren’t exactly begging to have America back. Not even Americans. They don’t want someone with a bold, inspirational vision. Bold, inspirational visions are what start world wars, for George’s sake. I, for one, believe that bench-warming is not just a good idea but a moral imperative.”

“George’s sake?” Harold repeated.

“Saint George Washington. Oh, right, America’s got a brand new religion now, it’s called Founderism. We took the whole Founding Father worship thing and made it an official heresy. Also, Jesus was a small business owner.”

Harold grimaced and considered leaving the former USA to the wolves for a few more decades.

[devastator1775]

"Her name is Anne. Please love her like we would have loved her."

Summary: When you are immortal, there are rules you need to follow. Hide in plain sight. Be unassuming. When the time comes, vanish and start anew. V and Uzi have lived their many lives with these rules. An unspoken rule between them: never have children. It's better that way. Then, on the eve of the start of a new life together, something goes wrong …and now they have to decide how to deal with this accidental baby.

Immortality.

Eternal youth.

Not even for Drones, this was a thing. Drones aged: in programming, in mentality, their personality matrix – basically what housed what one could call a Drone’s ‘soul’ – matured and thus did the Drone in question. Their bodies would age as well, to the point where regular repairs wouldn’t suffice anymore. The outer shell would lose their shine and become weathered, joints and servos would lose their flexibility, programs would malfunction over time and hardware would wear out. A Drone would grow old, fade away …and die. They weren’t designed to last forever. Even sentient machines have their natural lifespan.

Unless you were Worker Drone Uzi Doorman and former Disassembly Drone Serial Designation V – just going by V these days. Their victory after the final encounter with the Absolute Solver had left both of them changed. It wasn’t enough that the Solver had killed N, taking him away from Uzi and V. No, it had a final card to play. A last curse, a vengeful courtesy of a dying eldritch abomination unwilling to let its enemies have the last laugh. Replacing old ‘gifts’ with new ones.

Uzi and V were immortal. Their bodies ever young, never aging, never malfunctioning, always healing, unable to let them die. Cursed to see their loved ones wither away while they remained.

More things changed over time for the two. They grew closer, as there were no others who knew what they were going through. In the face of eternity they found solace with each other. A close bond formed between them; a friendship which eventually turned to love.

As time went on, people around them were changing at how they looked at them. There were whispers in the streets, curious glances when they thought it wasn’t noticed. Uzi and V knew that something bad would happen if they didn’t do something. And thus, during a stormy night, the two immortal lovers packed up everything …and left. They vanished out of Drone society. They found a place for themselves, far away from prying eyes and potentially harmful intentions. Hide away until history became legend. Until the events of the past just became a scary story to tell young Dronelings.

And for a hundred years, it was enough.

Until the moment that it wasn’t.

When their shared loneliness became too much, they took a new step out of the shadows. They slowly returned into the light and into this new world the Drones had built for themselves. Even from their little hideaway, they had seen the expansion of the Drone population and the subsequent rise of town and cities around the Planet. In this New Age of Dronekind, they could hide in plain sight. Disappear into the masses and become just another face in the crowd.

But they knew they had to be careful. Their unique condition made them an oddity in this new world. If they were found out, who knew how people would react? With fear? Animosity? Someone with less than amicable intentions would be inclined to destroy them, or worse: capture them and try to copy their …affliction.

All that Uzi and V wanted was to live their lives, in peace and with each other. So they renewed their vows to look after each other. They would take every precaution they could think off. They created dozens, if not hundreds, of different backstories. Countless variations of where they were from, how they met and so on.

Uzi already had some self-taught knowledge about hacking, coding and other computer skills, but in the years leading up to the moment that they would start their lives anew, she learned everything possible in order to become a true master. She studied for years to collect every other tool and skill they would need to adapt.

V had to adapt in other, more permanent ways. Since every trace of Disassembly Drones had vanished over time, her appearance stuck out like a sore thumb drive and people would take notice if a Drone looked exactly like something that in the new world was considered an urban legend. So, despite Uzi urging that they would find another way; V did what she deemed necessary …and made several modifications to herself. She amputated her tail, removed more than a few weapons – keeping a few ‘just in case -  and altered her body so she would appear more like a regular – though, still taller than Uzi – Drone. Uzi insisted on V keeping her wings, though. Uzi even designed a pair of prosthetic boots for her, so they would appear more those of a common Drone. V still needed to walk with a cane, since her legs never fully recovered from the Sentinel attack all those years ago. 

And thus, once they felt like they were properly prepare, Uzi implemented the final touch: new identities for the both of them. And with new names, new skills and an entire world for them to travel, they ventured out.

They settled their first new home in a quaint little place in the mountains named Sparc Village, where they took residence in a house in a quiet neighbourhood. To their neighbours, they introduced themselves as ‘Iza and Violet Hatchway’. Keeping their background simple: Iza and Violet met in high school, where they didn’t see eye to eye at first but eventually found common ground with each other after ‘‘Violet’ had an accident, which had severely and permanently damaged her legs.

After school, they didn’t see each other for a long while, but met again some years ago and decided to pick up where they left off and started going out together. From there, ‘‘Violet’ and ‘Iza’s’ started relationship bloomed and they recently got married – with Violet teasing that ‘Iza’ was bawling like a Droneling when she asked, albeit ‘Iza’ insisting that it was the other way around.

‘Iza’ started working for the local administration as a software engineer – which gave Uzi the opening to lay the seeds for a new program that would help them in the future – albeit working remotely from home, because she was also ‘‘Violet’s’ primary caretaker. ‘Violet’, on the other hand, was an artist-  a little hobby V had picked up in their first century living away’ – and made her living selling her paintings and sculptures from their home. In the years that followed, they were known as a friendly, sociable couple that also tended to keep to themselves just as much.

For almost 4 decades, ‘Iza’ and ‘Violet’ truly had a great life, filled with friends and happiness. But then came the day that the ‘old couple of the neighbourhood’ wanted something new and decided to move away to a new town, saying that a change of scenery might be good for ‘Violet’s’ deteriorating health . A few weeks after the move, friends in Sparc Village would receive the heartbreaking message that Violet had passed away and Iza – sick with grief – followed soon. The small group of friend the couple had made over the years held a private and intimate funeral for them, bringing up happy memories and funny anecdotes.

In the meantime, in a city far away from the mountain village, some helpful neighbours helped a young couple move into their new apartment. As their identity chips indicated, their names were Nicky ‘Nix’ Vanderpoort, an aspiring writer who mainly wrote horror sci-fi with an eldritch touch, and her girlfriend Vicky Razborka, a former athlete who had to throw in the towel after an injury permanently damaged her legs and had decided to pass on her knowledge become a trainer instead. They were childhood sweethearts and had left their quiet town to make a life in the big city.

And this is how Uzi and V kept moving through the years. They lived their life through their chosen identities to the fullest and then …moved on, starting fresh in another place, with new identities and new lives. ‘New Chapters’, as they would come to call it.

More than often, they were already together when starting a new chapter. Sometimes, they mixed things up. One chapter, they were merely roommates and dated other people. But V and Uzi didn’t use this scenario often, finding that things were too complicated between them and it was impossible to have a full relationship with a partner if they couldn’t tell them the whole truth.

Another chapter, they were neighbours who couldn’t stand the sight of each other and fought almost every day, but tried to keep things as amicable as possible because they shared friends. Until during a friend’s wedding ‘Karen’ and ‘Vanessa’ got way too drunk and confessed that they had a crush on each other but were both too shy to admit it. A couple of month after that wedding, they moved in together.

There were Chapters that they spend living separate lives, living in different places but keeping contact with each other and meeting up from time to ��passionately reconnect.

No matter which identity they were currently going through; every year, Uzi and V made the journey to the town that formerly housed the old Colony-3, to visit the graves of their old friends, Uzi’s parents …and N’s grave-site. It brought a form of solace for them, making sure they lived their lives to the fullest in their memory. And this is how it went for many decades, moving from one Chapter to the next.

Just the two of them.

Forever.

***

Every Drone City housed a Cradle Facility, where Drones couples went to combine their codes into a Untrained Neural Network – UNN for short - and create an infant Droneling that would over time form its own personality with minor influences of the parents’ ones. For practical reasons, these facilities were connected to the planet wide network that contained the residential data of every Drone on the planet. The systems these facilities houses – due to Uzi in another chapter having worked with the team that globally upgraded them – had a backdoor that allowed the immortal Drone to create new identities for them.

The only downside was they needed to be physically there for  the process, because Uzi believed that a hardwire connection would be the safest option for them. And this was why Uzi and V, on the twilight of their current lives, were there, in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep, to make the final preparations to start anew. It was also a lengthy process, which meant that one certain Drone was losing her patience while her partner was working.

“Uzi, I don’t want to rush you-“

“Which you are doing right now.”

“But-“

“Don’t you dare...”

“Is this going to take long?”

Uzi looked up from her laptop and scowled at her eternal partner. “V, I am making extremely difficult alterations to the hardcoded information on our internal identity chips, while running the program that will covertly transfer our funds and assets to our new accounts, unless you want to start our savings account from scratch?” When her girlfriend didn’t answer, she turned back to the laptop. “Didn’t think so. I am also installing a virus that will silently erase any info about our current lives over time, so that we won’t have overlapping data wherever we make our new lives.”

Uzi really didn’t like he grin that was forming on V’s face. “So …about 5 minutes?”

“Keep this up and I’ll make us sisters in our next Chapter.”

V gasped theatrically, dramatically holding her hand to her chest. “Not even suspiciously intimate stepsisters?”

“And I’ll make you the straightest, most boring sister ever.” Uzi grinned as she kept on typing. “A real study bug, doesn’t like to party, likes boys but is way too shy to talk to them, really into polka and-“

“Okay, okay, I’ll zip it.” V grinned. “Man, even after centuries you are still so easy to rile up, Purple thing.”

“And you’re still a psycho, psycho.” Uzi countered, glancing over at V to give her a teasing wink. She let out a deep sigh as V let her arms drape over her shoulders, giggling as V planted a kiss on her cheek. “V, I have done this hundreds of times. Why are you so nervous today?”

“Dunno…” V answered, nuzzling against Uzi’s cheek as she watched her beloved’s fingers fly over the keyboard, the sound of the keys clicking filling the control room of the deserted Facility. “It’s …like a feeling in my core. I’m expecting something to happen.”

Uzi just shrugged. “Well, there’s no need to think that. I have it covered. Security footage shows a loop of an empty building, the system in completely under my control and in a couple of minutes, we’ll be starting our new identities.” She could understand why V was a tad anxious, since she was feeling it too despite not showing it. It was always like this on the eve of their new lives. Neither of them really enjoyed doing this. It meant ending and starting another Chapter of their lives and leaving people they’ve formed a bond with behind. It never got any easier, only smoother.

Uzi’s words seemed to put V somewhat at ease. “Yeah, you got this.” She took a deep breath. “Sorry, Uzi. I’m not doubting you, it’s just… ”

“It’s okay, I know.” Uzi replied, putting in the final command before handing over a cable to V, as she plugged another one into the data port on the back on her neck. “Program is ready, plug in.”

V grabbed the cable and plugged int, unwillingly making a soft moan as it made the connection with the surprisingly sensitive data port, making her blush. She tried to ignore Uzi’s teasing – incredibly cute, though, smirk. “Not a word.”

Uzi just snickered as she initiated the program. Lines of codes started to run down their visor, with a progress bar slowly filling up. All seemed to go smoothly, until the computer that Uzi’s laptop was hooked on started to flicker.

“Uh, Uzi …is that normal?” V asked.

Uzi quickly looked at her screen. “I think that-“

Suddenly, the screens of the laptop, the Facility computer and the Drones’ visors lit up and the two immortals let out a pained yell as they both seized up. Sparks flew up from their bodies as their internal circuitry started to melt but simultaneously healed at the same time. Pain flew through their entire body, leaving them almost immobilized.

“U-U-Uziiii, doooo somethiiing.” V choked out.

With immense difficulty, Uzi reached out to her laptop and managed to slam her hand on it. With a loud pang, both drones got thrown on the floor, their wounds immediately healing as smoke still rose up from their visors.

With a frustrated groan, V managed to scramble up, rubbing her bad leg as she threw an angry scowl at Uzi. “WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT, MRS. ‘HUNDREDS OF TIME’?”

“Are you blaming me?!” Uzi yelled back as she popped up from the crates that she got blown into.

“You must’ve done something!” V bit back as she stomped her way towards Uzi.

Uzi jumped up and ran up the V, shoving her face inches away from V’s visor. “Well, maybe if someone didn’t rush me!”

“Screw-up!”

“Bite me!”

Panting heavily, they kept their angry staring session up for a few moments …and then threw themselves into each other’s arms, pulling each other closely against one another, relieved that their respective beloved seemed unharmed. Their lips met and immediately they latched onto each other, running their hands through the other’s hair and kissing with such a passion one would think they had been apart for years.

“Oh, my robo-God, are you okay?” V asked as she eventually parted her lips from Uzi’s.

“I …I think?” Uzi’s breathing shuddered, tightening her grip around her partner. “That …hurt.”

“I was so scared that-“ V pulled Uzi against her chest. “I’m so sorry for yelling at you, Uzi.“

“I know, V. Me too, me too.” Uzi released her grip and wiped away a digital tear. “I didn’t mean to accuse you either. I just-”

“I know. I know, no apologies needed.” V placed a hand on Uzi’s cheek and rubbed her thumb over her visor, before planting another prolonged kiss on Uzi’s lips. “I did try to rush you, after all…” She took a deep breath and – reluctantly for both sides – released Uzi from her grip. She groaned as she buried her face in her hands. Everything was still tingling from …whatever they just experienced. “So …what in the Solver’s soiled britches just happened?”

“I’ll find out.” Uzi ran to her laptop, which was slightly smoked but still functioning – for the time being – and checked her logs. After a few minutes of checking every line of her logs and running every analytical program she had in her arsenal, Uzi let out a surprised gasp. “So …good news, bad news.”

“Don’t tell me that we’ve triggered an alarm or something?” V groaned.

“No, we’re still in the clear.” Uzi began, but her expression betrayed something had gone amiss. “Good news: my program did its work. Our new identities are compiled and installed into our ID chips. Same goes for my virus, which is going to start its work in a couple of days. Our saving accounts have been transferred successfully as well.”

“So, what messed up?” V asked, she ran her hands through her hair to place it back in shape. Their little …malfunction – and their fiery make-out session – had really messed up her hairdo. “Seems to me that everything – mostly everything – went as planned.”

“N-not exactly ….It seems some employee here got sloppy and didn’t follow the proper protocol at the end of their work shift.” Uzi started to explain, looking very nervous all of the sudden. “They didn’t shut down the system as it should and left a …certain program running in the background while I was hacking. The two programs collided midway and caused a feedback loop, which …well, you felt what happened.”

“What kind of program?” V asked. She cocked her head when she saw the blush forming on Uzi’s visor. It suddenly dawned on her. They were in a Cradle Facility. What kind of program did Cradle Facilities primarily use? “Ooh, no. No, don’t tell me…?”

“Maybe nothing happened.” Uzi tried to reassure with a small voice, albeit sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince V. “I mean, the people working here wouldn’t be dumb enough to leave a blank connected and-“

Suddenly, crying could be heard from the Facility’s main floor. V and Uzi stared at each other for a few moments, after which they both ran out of the control room and towards the crying. They ran through Cradle Stations, which were used to upload new codes compiled with the data of two parents into blank Untrained Neural Networks.

“Uzi…”

“Maybe it’s just a demo that got activated?” Uzi tried sheepishly. They ran, following the sound of the crying.

“It’s this way.” V called out, grabbing Uzi’s hand to pull her into the right direction.

“Maybe it’s not so bad?” Uzi tried again as they reached the source of the noise. They both froze in place. “Oh no …”

“Uzi…”

“This is bad.”

“Is that…?”

“This is so bad.”

Out of the various Cradle Stations that were in the facility, only one seemed to have turned online. In that one, someone had left a blank Untrained Neural Network; but now … Plugged into the Cradle, crying softly, was a small baby Drone. It opened its eyes when it noticed Uzi and V staring, revealing eyes who’s colors looked like swirling pools of purple and yellow.

“Uzi, please don’t say that-“

“We made a baby.” Uzi squeaked out, her eyes hollow and beaming pure panic. “V. We. Made. A. Baby!

“I see that!” V grabbed Uzi’s shoulder and shook her gently to snap her back into focus. “What are we gonna do with it?”

“Why ask me?” Uzi blurted.

“Uzi, if we leave it, someone is going to find it and –“

“And they will check her coding to find out who her parents are, I know!”

“’Her’?” V questioned. “How do you-“

“I just know and you do too, don’t tell me otherwise!”

Staring down at this accidental creation of new life, Uzi had only one thought: ‘this was bad’. While they could rewrite their ID Chips over and over again without problems; the coding that made up the Personality Matrix was a whole other thing. Not even Uzi had found a way to alter them. Those codes were permanent and unchanging, as it made up who a Drone was. And they could easily filter through those codes to find the parental donors and run those through the system to find them. And then they would find multiple identical matches, spanning throughout decades, even centuries. And then people would start asking questions, investigating things and there would be a strong possibility that the truth about two immortal Drones walking Copper-9’s surface would come out and then …who knew how people would react. Or how they would react towards this innocent infant. Its mere existence possibly put its life at risk.

Uzi’s eyes narrowed as she came to the conclusion that there was only one possible solution. “We’ll have to take her with us.”

“What?” V asked, taken aback. “No way, Doorman! We’ve talked about this!”

“Do you have any better idea?” Uzi asked as she unplugged the pill baby from her Cradle, the latter making happy chirps as it was being picked up. She ignored V’s sputtering when she handed the Droneling over to her. “You wait outside while I’ll cover our tracks. I need to make sure nothing in their systems can be traced back to us!”

Before V could object, the pintsized she-Drone had already run and left the former with a happily buzzing baby in her arms. She looked down at the infant with a scowl, who returned the gaze with a happy expression. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m not happy with this. I don’t like you.”

The infant just chirped cheerily in response, and something tugged at the corner of V’s lips, almost a soft smile. V shook her head and scowled again, getting a happy tune back again.

***

It had been some hours after Uzi, V and their accidental third member had left the Cradle Facility and made their way to a forest far away from any City. They’ve had been discussing on what to do with the baby, who had fallen asleep in the meantime.

“We can’t keep it.” V was pacing around, getting more and more annoyed by the situation. She had been very adamant about her opinion on the matter, while Uzi…

“I know, you keep repeating that, and keep your voice down, you’ll wake her up.” Uzi was sitting on the ground with the baby in her arms, wrapped in V’s scarf and rocking her gently back and forth to keep her asleep. “And what do you suggest we do? We’ve been at this for hours and we’ve been through all our possible options.”

V buried her face in her hands, more to muffle her groan than anything else. Uzi was right, they’ve had exhausted all possibilities. They couldn’t just leave it behind in the woods, that would be too cruel. If they left just left it with someone, they would likely run into the very same problems as if they would have left it in the Facility. And they couldn’t-

“Is there really no possibility we can keep her?” Uzi asked, jolting V out of her thought process. “I mean …it’s our-“

“No!” V snapped, making a startled Uzi recoil. V took a deep breath and smiled apologetically at her girlfriend. She knelt down in front of Uzi and held her face, rubbing her cheek with her thumb. “Uzi, we’ve had this discussion before, remember?”

Uzi sighed deeply. “I know.”

“We decided that we can’t have kids, no matter what.” V took a deep breath. “For one: we don’t know if it would have our …affliction. If she has, she’ll have to make the same sacrifices we have to make over and over again. Even after numerous decades, that is already hard on us; so, who knows what would it do to them? Leaving friends behind and starting over again? Living with the knowledge that they would live on, while the others around them fade away.”

Uzi nodded, digital tears forming in her eyes. She knew how their child would feel, because both Uzi and V had gone through those emotions throughout the years. That longing for an end that never would come. “It would destroy them….”

“And we have each other, but they …” V hesitated to finish her sentence.

“She would be forever alone.” Uzi sighed, tears rolling down her visor. “And if she doesn’t have our immortality …we’ll see her grow up, but one day she’ll grow old and …”

“And I’m not letting you experience that heartbreak.” V insisted. “Because that paint would be worse than what we felt with everyone else we have lost over our immortal life.”

Uzi looked down at the sleeping Droneling in her arms and took a deep breath, eventually looking up at V. “What are we doing to do?”

V started pacing around again, letting every possible route they could take run around in her mind. They couldn’t keep it. They couldn’t leave it with someone. It never was supposed to have happened in the first place. She was feeling more and more frustrated by the minute. This should never have happened. This …infant never should have been –

The former Disassembly Drone froze in her tracks when the thought made her realize what they – she – had to do. She slowly turned around to face Uzi, her gaze to the ground made her expression dark and foreboding. “Uzi, we …we have to get rid of it.”

Her eyes hollowed in shock as Uzi immediately realized what V was suggesting. She pulled the infant Drone tightly against her chest. “No, V, no-no-no, we can’t …you can’t just ….there must be another way!”

“If there was, we would have thought of it, Uzi.” V insisted. She walked over to Uzi and placed her hands on her shoulders. “And ‘we’ don’t have to do anything. I’ll do it.”

Uzi shrugged V off her, pulling the baby away from her. “But …your vow? It’s been centuries since you’ve …You …you aren’t that person anymore.”

V produced a fang-filled grin. “Hey, didn’t you say I’m still a psycho?”

“Yeah, as a joke!” Uzi objected, shaking her head frantically. “V, you can’t kill her!”

V took a deep breath. “Uzi! It’s the only way. This child never should have been born. Our curse, whether or not it will have it, will be nothing but pain for it. Think about it: all it will know is that either it will keep losing loved ones, or that one day we’ll lose them.” She placed a hand on Uzi’s shoulder. “And if it has our immortality, we’ll have to assume the worst case scenario: that there will be a greater chance that someone will find out. We’ll be hunted down for our abilities. We can’t let it live that life. Killing it …is the kindest thing we can do.”

Uzi closer her eyes, tear running down her visor.

“Right now, it’s asleep.” V pointed out softly. “I’ll make sure it won’t feel a thing. It’ll sleep through and just …never wake up. Fast, painless and merciful. It’s the only way.”

Uzi didn’t reply for several moments, breathing heavily while tears kept running. Eventually …she nodded. She whimpered as V gently placed her hands on the infant, unwittingly pulling it closer to herself. V eventually managed to gently pull the baby out of Uzi’s hands.

“Don’t follow me.” V instructed as she turned around and made her way towards the denser parts of the woods. She stopped for a moment to look over her shoulder. Her expression was sorrowful, her eyes screaming pain despite the words she had spoken earlier. “I’m sorry.”

With that, V deployed her wings and flew up in the air; leaving Uzi to sob alone.

***

V didn’t need to fly very far to find a nice open clearing. The stars were out at full force tonight, the sky littered with sparkles and light. The snowy terrain was filled with flowers, as nature had found its way back on Copper-9 in the centuries following the core collapse. It was a beautiful sight.

“At least your final resting place will be pretty, little one.” V stated softly as she gently placed the infant on the ground, making sure it was wrapped up comfortably in her scarf. She gazed down at the little one for a few moments, mentally preparing herself for the thing she hadn’t done in such a long time.

With a heavy sigh, she stood up and deployed her EMP Rifle. V had long ago made the vow that she’d never take a life again and got rid of most of her weapons, but she still kept a few in case they needed to defend themselves. She had kept her claws and swords, but her rifle she had modified that it would fire EMP bolts. An adult Drone would just be knocked down until its system rebooted, leaving them with a few missing hours of memories. But an Untrained Neural Network’s body was weak and very vulnerable. One shot of her EMP rifle would be enough. Fast. Painless. Merciful.

She took a deep breath and aimed her rifle at the sleeping baby.

‘I need to do this. It’s the only way.’

Her rifle hummed as it charged.

‘Just one quick fleeting moment and …done.’

The infant made a soft noise in its sleep. V felt her arm starting to tremble as her expression softened. She shook her head with a scoff and tried to look as resolute as she could.

“Stop acting like you’ve never done this before, V.” She whispered to herself. ‘It’s not the first baby you’ve …disassembled. Just …pull the trigger.”

V’s arm was really trembling and she used her other hand to keep it steady. Her scope was aimed directly at the sleeping baby.

‘It’s easy…’

Uzi’s baby.

‘Take the shot.’

Her baby.

‘Stop crying, V.’

Their daughter!

With a yell, V fell to her knees as tears started to roll down her visor. She couldn’t do it. How could she do it? This was their daughter. Their baby. She and Uzi had longed for a child for years, but they had convinced themselves they couldn’t, because of the very reasons V had given Uzi. And now …they had a baby. And she just attempted to kill her? Was she still the same monster that the Absolute Solver had turned her into back then?

Soft crying jolted V back to reality with a startled gasp. The baby Drone was crying loudly, sounding like it was in deep distress. She must’ve woken the baby with her scream. She frantically scrambled over to her daughter and scooped her up, pulling her tightly against her chest. “Shh-shh-shh, it’s okay. Don’t cry.” She planted a kiss on the top of her head, rocking back and forth as her tears never seemed to stop. “Momma is here. See? Momma is here.”

V lost track of time while she sat there, crying while she was comforting her infant daughter. But when she suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her and the baby, she wasn’t even surprised that Uzi had ignored her instructions and still had followed her.

Uzi nuzzled V’s cheek. “Oh, sweetheart.”

“I couldn’t do it, Uzi.” V eventually confessed as she caressed the Droneling’s head. “I couldn’t …I couldn’t do it.”

“I’m happy you couldn’t.”

“I wanted to kill your child, our child.” V sobbed softly as she nuzzled the baby against her cheek. “I’m a monster.”

“No, you’re not. You are absolutely not a monster, V.” Uzi denied softly, planting a kiss on V’s cheek. “You haven’t been that person in a long, long time. You just wanted to protect us. You wanted to protect her.” She paused for a moment. “But this is not the way to do so, V.”

V shook her head in agreement, sniffling. She smiled softly as she saw that the infant had fallen asleep again. She took a deep breath and looked over at her eternal partner. “Uzi …we still can’t keep her.”

“I know.”

“Everything I said …it’s still true.” V stated, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than Uzi. “It wouldn’t be fair to her. We need to do something for her, but …I don’t know what.”

“I agree that we have to do something.” She smiled as V handed over their daughter to her, positioning her in her arms so she could sleep comfortably. They sat in silence for Robo-God knows how long, just staring down at their child as it blissfully slept. Eventually, Uzi spoke up, her tone cautious. “I …I think I have an idea.”

“You do?” V asked, a hint of hope in her voice.

“Yes …but it’s going to take time.” Uzi smiled, but it was sorrowful one. “-and my computer.”

***

Everyone who knew Hazel and Naomi knew how much of an odd couple those two were. When they met in Sprocketon High School, something instantaneously clicked between them. However, it was a fiery rivalry instead of friendship. While neither of the two treated the other with much animosity, there nevertheless was a tension around them. They always felt like they had to compete to outdo the other.

They went to the same sport teams. They tied as top of their classes. They often went after the same boys. They had the same taste in clothing, music and other forms of entertainment. One could argue that would have made them great friends.

Still, they couldn’t stand each other.

After High School, Noami and Hazel  both enrolled in Cogniton University for Medical learning – somehow never ending up as roommates – got their medical degree and both ended up– at different times – in Rivetdale Medical Hospital, ending up living in the same street.

There, to no-one’s surprise, they both developed a crush on the same doctor and competed for his attention. However, after a series of incidents where they both realized how much of an arrogant, misogynistic and egotistical blowhard that guy was, they decided to burry the hatchet and go out for drinks.

From that moment on, their rivalry turned to friendship and it didn’t take them both to realize how much alike they actually were …and how much they actually liked the other. When Naomi got thrown out of her house, it was Hazel that took her in, making their friendship even greater. And as their bond grew closer, it only took one kiss during a party for their latent feelings to emerge and swiftly rise to full bloom.

The very next year, they were married and they talked about extending their family. But tragedy struck as it turned out that an undiagnosed fault in Hazel’s coding made it impossible for her to have children of her own. No matter how much they tried, it would never succeed.

Unwilling to let their wish for children just die out, they turned to other options and applied for adoption. The progress was slow and it never seemed to go anywhere, but neither of them gave up hope. Even now, almost two years after they first applied, as they were watching tv as a massive storm raged outside their house, they talked about their possible future Dronelings. Until lightning struck and thunder roared, making Hazel yelp and drop her bowl of popped button cells.

Hazel scowled at her laughing wife as she started to pick up the tasty snacks. “Don’t laugh, I was focused on the movie.”

“I’m sorry, Haze. It’s just …that sounded so cute.” Naomi confessed with a giggle and a saucy wink, making her wife blush. She got up and knelt down. “Here, let me help you.”

Outside, the world lit up with a flash and soon thunder rolled over their house.

“Wow, it’s really going hard out there.” Hazel muttered. Storms always made her nervous. She gasped as lightning flashed again.

“Aww, I’ll protect you.” Naomi cooed as she pulled Hazel and her bowl of Pop-cells back to her feet.

Hazel placed the bowl on the coffee table and closed the distance between her and her wife, their visors almost touching as she gave her a seductive look. “You know what would make me feel better, Dr. Naomi?”

Naomi hummed as she wrapped her arms around her Hazel’s hips, pulling her tightly against her own hips. “Tell me, Dr. Hazel.”

“If we’d go to bed early ….”

“Good start.”

“We’d get very comfortable…”

Noami planted a few tender kisses on Hazel’s cheek. “Go on…”

“Then I’ll-“

They both screamed when the lights and the tv suddenly powered down, shrouding them both in darkness. They instantaneously started laughing hysterically.

“Well, call about a mood breaker!” Hazel laughed. ���Gosh, your scream….”

“You screamed too!” Naomi objected with a giggle. She planted a kiss on her wife’s head and looked around. “Looks like we’ve blown a circuit. I’ll better check the fuse box.”

“Don’t bother. It’s not just us.” Hazel interjected. She pointed out to the side window, where they could partially see their neighbors’ house. The lights at Mrs. Mcdonavan’s were out as well and judging by the absolute darkness out every window, the streetlights weren’t functioning as well.

“Looks like a power outage.” Naomi concluded. “Well, I’m sure that-“

A loud knock on the door startled them both.

Naomi sighed and walked to their front door. “Who’d be brave – or stupid – enough to wander through a storm like this?”

“Maybe one of the neighbors checking in one us.” Hazel guessed. “Just tell ‘em we’re fine and send them-“

“HAZEL, COME QUICK!”

Hazel nearly stumbled over her own feet as she ran over the hallway. “Naomi! Are you-?” She gasped when she saw her stupefied wife down on her knees, holding an infant drone in her arms. “Is that-? How? What?”

“Someone left this baby at our doorstep, Hazel.” Naomi stated in a dazed tone. She pointed at a basket that probably held the infant. “In that…”

Hazel ran out the door and tried to spot whoever had left this child at their home. No-one as far she could see, which was strange. The streets were deserted. There was no way anyone could have left the area without a trace that quickly. They hadn’t even heard a car or anything. “I don’t see anyone.”

“Come back inside!” Naomi called out, as she quickly took the child into the house. She plopped down on the couch, wrapping a blanket around the pill baby. “Poor thing must be freezing.”

Hazel grabbed the basket and closed the door behind her, looking inside the thing to spot any clues about their mystery Untrained Neural Network foundling. There was an old red scarf, an old beanie, a choker where the engraving had been worn out so much she couldn’t make anything out of it, a pair of black rimmed and yellow tinted glasses, and … a note.

“Got some things and  a note here.” Hazel announced as she walked in, smiling softly as she noticed how her wife was making silly noises at the baby, which were evidently greatly appreciated, judging by the happy chirps they were making. She sat down next to Naomi and smiled at the little one. “Hi there, little stowaway. How did you get here?”

The baby chirped cheerily, looking around to scan its new environment.

“Such beautiful eyes you’ve got, darling.” Naomi cooed. “Aren’t they, Hazel?”

Hazel had to agree. Two-toned eyes like that weren’t too common, not without any sort of modifications anyway. Hazel unfolded the note and cleared her throat. “’Her name is Anne. Please love her like we have loved her.’ …nothing else.”

“’Anne’, huh?” Naomi mumbled as she tickled Anne’s visor. “Pretty name for a pretty girl, yes it is.”

Hazel giggled and held out her arms, smiling as her wife handed over the infant girl. Her smile grew wider as Anne’s eyes started to droop and suddenly closed, with little ‘ZZZ’s appearing on her visor. She turned to Naomi with a heavy sigh. “What just happened?”

“I think …we’ve been chosen to be …this girl’s parents.” Naomi stated quietly, not wanting to wake up the baby.

“Are you for real?” Hazel asked. “I mean, it’s a cute baby, but …I thought we were going to adopt?”

“Honey, we’ve been waiting two years, and we only recently got on the list to get on the list.” Naomi let out a heavy breath. “Hazel, from the moment we’ve first became a couple, we’ve talked about having children and becoming parents. We’ve endured so much hardship. We’ve been waiting so long; hold on to hope for so long. Our baby room has been ready for 16 months without any use. This little one is a gift.”

“I don’t know …” Hazel groaned. “It’s all so …unorthodox. I mean, we’re going to have to report this. Have her checked out by tech-medics. We’re going to have to deal with a lot of administration and red tape. There’s no guarantee they’re going to let us keep Anne.”

“So, you wanna keep her?”

“Of course, I wanna keep her!” Hazel whisper-shouted as she planted a kiss on her wife’s cheek. “Are you kidding me? She’s perfect!”

“In that case, we’re going to fight for her.” Naomi stated. “We’re not going to rest until we can call ourselves little Anne’s parents. But for now ….” She smiled softly as she looked down at the sleeping Anne. “I believe we have a perfectly good baby room for little Anne to sleep in.” She stood up and gestured Hazel to follow her. “And we better get to bed too. I have this feeling that we are going to have some pretty exciting weeks ahead of us.”

Hazel started to follow her wife up the stairs, but stopped when she set her foot on the first step. She looked over her shoulders to the note on their coffee table. She smiled. “Whoever you are, I promise we’ll love her like you would have loved her, and …thank you for trusting us with her. We’ll take good care of your little girl, our little girl.”

“Hazel?”

“Coming.” She rushed up the stairs, not wanting to miss putting their little Anne to bed.

***

Outside the house, two figures gazed down at Hazel and Naomi’s house. A few minutes earlier, V had deployed her EMP generator, knocking out the entire grid in the street and, with the cover of darkness shrouding her and Uzi, left their sleeping daughter at the door, knocked on the door …and flew out of sight. They had been hiding in the clouds, only landing down at the roof opposite of the young couple’s house after they were certain that these two Drones were going to take their baby daughter inside.

“So, …no-one is going to find out?” V asked with a trembling voice, holding on to a distraught Uzi, who was at the verge of crying.

“I-“ Uzi took a deep breath. “I’ve installed a program that’ll redirect any scanner to a dummy personality matrix with fake coding. If they’re going to try to trace back her parents, they’ll end up at a young couple who will have died a few days from now. As far as anyone will know …we aren’t around anymore.”

“I love the name we’ve chosen….” V stated, her voice small and broken. “Anne …N would’ve loved that.”

“That’s why I chose that.” Uzi whimpered, tightening her grip on V’s hand. “She’ll be alright here, right?”

“We’ve observed this couple from afar for days. They’re a kind, loving couple of Drones. Really involved with their community. They’re great with children. “They …they’re perfect. They’ll love Anne like she’s their own. This …this was for the best.”

“And what if she has our …affliction?” V asked.

“I guess …we must have faith in her that she’ll figure out things on her own.” Uzi answered. “Maybe …maybe, by some small miracle, she’ll find her way back to us.”

“Yeah …maybe.” V choked out.

A sob escaped Uzi’s throat as she threw herself in V’s arms, who couldn’t stop herself from crying as well. They stood there for who knows how long, just sobbing softly in each other’s arms. Eventually, V broke away from the embrace, wiping away a digital tear.

“Uzi …”

“No…”

“We have to leave now.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Me neither, but …”

“I know.” Uzi sighed, wiping away a digital tear. “Just …a few more minutes?”

V smiled softly and pulled Uzi against her. “Okay …a few more minutes.”

***

EPILOGUE: 16 years later

“Okay, where the flipping heck did my moms hide my snack stash this time?” 16-year old Anne asked herself as she rummaged around her parents’ closet in search of the box of Battery Bites that her parents had confiscated earlier that day. Something about ‘not wanting to ruin her appetite’. Nothing in this cabinet either. With a sigh, Anne stood up, smiling as she saw her own reflection in the mirror. She had to beg her parents so much to dye her hair, but it had been so worth it. Jet black with crimson red ends. So glitching rad. It went so well with her bright red jacket.

“Maybe they’ve hidden in on top of the closet again.” She told herself as she grabbed a chair. Even then, she had to tiptoe to reach the top of the closet. Curse her short stature that made her insanely cute also.

As she reached out her arms as far as she could, she suddenly felt her fingers brush against something. A basket or something? Her curiosity awakened, she stretched out herself as much as possible until she managed to get a good grip on it. She nearly tumbled off the chair as she pulled it towards her.

As she hopped of the chair, she confirmed it was indeed a basket. She walked over the cabinet with the mirror and put down the basket. There was something about this basket that drew her to it. Like …and old memory.

Curious, she pulled the first item out: a red scarf. An old scarf, by the look of it. She ran the fabric between her fingers. Why did it feel so …familiar. She held the scarf to her face and rubbed it against her cheeks. It felt so …comfortable. It brought out feelings of safety …and sadness?

She threw the scarf on her parents bed behind her and took out another item. An old grey beanie. She placed the beanie on her head, smiling at how good it looked on her. It felt …right to wear it.

The next item made her grin. It was an old black choker. “Wow, never knew my parents were into this fashion choice. Retro.” She chuckled as she put on the choker. Like with the beanie, it just felt right. It was weird, she never really had the urge to accessorize before, but these things were just calling out to her.

A pair of yellow tinted glasses were the last item she pulled out the basket, and she just put them on to try them out when she saw something at the bottom of the basket. A note? Perhaps an old love letter from her parents? She grabbed the note and opened it.

Her name is Anne. Please love her like we have loved her.

Anne felt her core freeze as she read the message. What was this? This was not her parents’ handwriting. She read the message again. As she felt all strength leave her legs, she stumbled backward until the back of her knees hit her parents’ bed and she plopped down.

“Anne? Anne, where are you?” Her mom Hazel called out. She appeared in the master bedroom doorway, her expression a mixture of stern and amused. “Are you trying to find your snacks, because …” She froze when she saw what her daughter was wearing and the note she holding in her hand. “Anne, where did you…?”

Anne’s voice was soft as she held out the note. “Mom …what is this?”

“Oh no.” Hazel eyes started to tear up. “Noami! Naomi, come here, quick!”

The sound of footsteps rushing up the stairs and soon her momma Naomi appeared next to her wife. She gasped when she saw her daughter.

“She found it?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“She always was one to snoop around.”

“What have told her?”

“Nothing, I just got here.”

“I am not ready for this.”

“Neither am I.”

“Can someone please tell me what this is about?” Anne asked loudly, her tone a bit sharper than she intended it to be. Tears were welling up in her eyes. “Sorry, it’s just ….all these things, this letter. What are these things and why did you hide them from me? What does it all mean? Who wrote this letter?”

Hazel and Naomi gave each other a look. The latter sighed and nodded at the former. Hazel cautiously approached her daughter and sat next to her. Naomi placed herself on the other side of their daughter.

“Anne, honey, I believe it’s time that we’ve told you something.” Hazel began.

“Something that, maybe, we’ve should have told you a long time ago.”

Anne’s grip around the letter tightened as she readied herself for her mothers’ story.

To be continued?

[brotrustmeicanwrite]

Using Schrödinger’s Mary Sue In Creative Writing

Every once in a while, out of nowhere, the idea of something like a cool fight scene, a witty exchange between the villain and hero or a very dramatic finale just ✨pop✨ into a writer’s head; usually accompanied with a sudden burst of inspiration. When those scenes involve established characters and stories, more often than not the writer regains consciousness several hours later having fully thought through the most epic thing they’ve ever written, contemplating weather or not they should rewrite the entire story to be able to properly include that scene.

But sometimes those scenes are just about A hero, A villain, A couple, not about someone specific. When that happens we often get stumped in the creative process because we have to sit down and actively create characters or fledge out vague character ideas we’ve had on the back burner to have material to continue the train of thought. And that usually kills that burst of inspiration.

That’s where what I call “Schrödinger’s Mary/Gary Sue” comes into play.

A SM/GS is a character concept for a specific archetype of character who possesses only the characteristics that you tend to give these archetypes, as well as all of the abilities for them that you came up with but weren’t able to include but wanted to.

To give an example, this is how my own SM/GS for the MC/Part Time Hero looks like:

- personality and appearance -

Vaguely Male

Light Hair

Kind (optional, might have been beaten out of them)

Intelligent

- abilities/roles -

Teleportation

Ghost sight

Half human / half spirit

Fox spirit

Dragon shifter

Follower of / reaper for the god of death

Genius magician and high priest

A planet throwing heavenly knight who helps the gods of creation fight evil gods from other dimensions

A literal god

Etc. etc. bc yes there is much more

That list on its own looks pretty Mary Suey. What makes that character a Schrödinger’s Mary Sue however is how to use them: Once that character has been placed into a scene their abilities are limited to just one, or if compatible and not over the top a few of those abilities.

This setup gives us the opportunity to experiment with not only that scene that originally came to mind but also old ideas that we didn’t want to abandon but couldn’t make work at that time. Basically what we’re doing is instead of playing with air, we play with an unpainted, unclothed, wig-less doll. It’s not concrete enough to just be copies of pre-existing characters but gives us enough substance to develop the scene; and if all goes well that doll won’t stay in that state for too long and become its own fully fledged out character.

(I used to really struggle with losing that burst of inspiration but since I’ve started using the SM/GS approach my brain has probably become the fastest and most effective recycling machine on the planet.)

Also, I you end up trying this for yourself, keep in mind to keep the SM/GS’s personality and characteristics as vague and basic as possible before going into the scene, else you risk writing the same character over and over again. Once you start working you can add proper personality traits and make a real character from that base concept. And of course, don’t be afraid to change those basic characteristics if you feel like it or the story develops into a direction that calls for it.

Happy writing :D

[kid-of-chaos]

Mock Matterborn Re-Explained

For this, we’ll be using a few examples. For example…

Hey, hey Gooey!

?

This is Gooey. He’s a result of being magically created in the image of something and is negatively charged (to a extent).

By that default, he’s a Mockdark Matterborn. Hey, how does it if feel being a Mock Matterborn, anyways?

!!!

Nice, huh? So, let’s say, you weren’t using magic to make a Mock Matterborn, but machinery.

You get Kirby Copies.

So basically Magic-Mock Matterborns are mass produced yet very easy to be defects like Gooey, and Machine-Mock Matterborns were… short lived, but they were near perfect imitations with little chance of creating defects.

And uh..

We already know what a Machine-Mock Matterborn can do.

…

Sorry Gooey.

Also yes, Mock Matterborn are hybrids of another Matterborn, that’s why they’re MOCK MATTERBORN.

[detectiveichijouji]

Act 1-7: The Thief of Memories

[AO3 v.]

“Sigh… I almost got caught… again.”

“Eh, it’s not a big surprise,” Lunamon said with a sassy tone.

"However, we did get a few names that matched the project's list of the staff members we got previously," Coronamon tried to defend the mysterious agent.

“At least the plan worked, monsieur. Just as I thought” still nonchalantly, Noel tried to cheer him up.

“So… what now?” the tiny digimon companion asked.

“We’re close, I think” Mizuki was with headphones on and reproducing the cam’s video.

“Close…?” their agent repeated.

Soleil then answered: 

“Before we send the data you got we need to track down the person who purchased the data and then they will reveal who sold it to them.”

“So we can catch the real villain, stop their plans and send them to jail… Correct?”

“Oui. Because of that we need to keep everyone in the dark.”

“But this is getting more and more dangerous though…” the tiny digimon frowned.

“I know, I know. I suppose Ichijouji-san and his group will figure this out sooner.” 

“That’s… bad, don’t you think?”

“... You do seem calm even with that problem” the newbie thief commented, “Does it mean there’s any new detail from what those people were doing with the stolen notes about Eosmon…?”

“Glad you asked!” Noel clasped his hands, excited. Then he continued, “Yes, even if it takes a few more weeks to decrypt the entire data… We got at least the lead that they were building a digimon.”

“Building…?”

“As you thought previously, none of us, be human or digimon, would mind the fact of creating life, but we all condemn creating meaningless, mindless machines for war.”

“...”

“This is what made you accept my deal, non ?”

The silence from the other clearly meant it.

“Without the data we extracted from their database, they cannot proceed. But, if the person who took hands on this is still in contact with the real thief…”

“... They might have copies of it, is that what you want to say?”

“Bingo,” Noel said, “But, as pointed out by your petit camarade, this is getting more risky for you. So you could stop right now or continue. What is your decision?”

“...” 

“So you weren’t able to answer his question…?”

“Yeah…”

Ken just went to see Daisuke in New York, before Daisuke closed the shop for the night. At least his best friend offered him a cup of water to relax and vent out the problems he had been dealing with.

“So… Rui went to Mochizuki-san’s house because they’re friends and then he accidentally put himself at risk of being flagged as a suspect for the theft.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“And he kept going to the bathroom many times before, but Ukkomon kept with you guys in the same room.”

Ken nodded his head.

“But once he was back, you three saw the phantom thief Chat Noir in front of you and Ukkomon dodged all the attacks and successfully got stuck in the same room he, Chat Noir and professor Mochizuki were.”

“Exactly.”

“You guys broke the door, found Ukkomon and the professor unconscious and the thief there. But then, Chat Noir got a way to escape.”

“Yes, but… Why would Rui think I’d suspect him…?”

“Something makes no sense here,” V-mon commented, “I mean, you were doing your job! And making sure Rui wasn’t the culprit!”

“... Yeah, we did,” Wormmon’s antennae were down, “Because we don’t want to think Rui and Ukkomon are doing something bad…!”

“No, I get that perfectly well” Daisuke said, while checking his phone’s messages, “Rui is our friend and had been through a lot of things before, we just don’t want him to get in more trouble.”

“Yeah, I guess so…”

“If Noel is really involved, maybe we could ask him directly.”

“Wh-- What do you mean?”

“Noel called Miyako before, right? The next time he calls you… You go and ask him.”

“But Rui definitely said something odd when we met him before,” V-mon mentioned, remembering those words.

“What did he say?” Wormmon asked, out of curiosity.

“He said ‘I don’t want you to get involved in this’ and that’s all.”

“Involved…?!” Ken and Wormmon exclaimed.

“He then said it was because of a movie they were about to use the cafe shop’s building as one of the recording sets” Daisuke added immediately, “He didn’t want us to be around because it could attract a ton of people there and ruin the recordings…?”

That sounds like a terrible excuse though…

“But now that you said it…” Daisuke frowned, “I’m starting to worry about him again. Like, he’s a cool guy and does not like to get involved with anything big, and he only climbed the Tokyo Tower because no one had done anything for a week…”

“He was also related to the giant DigiEgg though” Ken reminded him, “It gave him a reasonable motive of doing it in the first place.”

“Then, if there’s no real motive for him to do something reckless like, pretending to be a thief… He wouldn’t be the best candidate for it.”

True but… How can you be so sure…?

“... Even if he is doing so, there might be something we don’t know and he does.”

Daisuke’s words kinda sounded a little… bittersweet. He was hurt by that possibility?

There were no calling cards or police reports for a while. In fact, Ken decided to watch Rui’s moves carefully now. Just to make sure his and Daisuke’s concerns weren’t real.

“...?”

Rui noticed Ken looking at him from that table. He talked with Kouda Yuna, who was finally back to work and recovered from her little work accident.

Ken saw the woman give her cousin a nod and he went in that direction. Rui just sat on the other end of the table.

“Is there something wrong?” Wormmon asked, while Ken was still quiet.

“... Someone left me a message last night.”

“A message?” Ken raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah… It was…” he took a deep breath “One of those cards.”

Ok, why would Rui be a target now…?

“I think it was meant for you, but why would it be left at my home…?”

“Maybe because you were at Mochizuki Meiko’s residence,” Ken pondered, looking at the black card Rui had placed on the table. Then, he took it and read:

-- Memory acquired: Look up at the names of the Project Mei contributors and researchers. There will be more data from where it came from. --

“... Project Mei?” Wormmon read the card, “Isn’t that…”

“I have no idea,” Rui replied immediately, “After Ukkomon getting hurt I don’t want to get near that guy again…!”

“... Wouldn’t you want to catch him and make him apologize?” Wormmon asked, knowing that Rui definitely has the guts enough to do risky things.

“I told Daisuke-kun and Takaishi-kun this and now I’m telling you,” Rui stared at the digimon, “I’m not doing anything reckless after the Tokyo Tower incident from three years ago.”

You sure about that?

“That’s all, now if you excuse me…” he got up from the table and went back to the kitchen.

“Why was he upset with my question, Ken-chan?”

“...” Ken silently looked at Rui leaving, wondering the same thing Wormmon had asked him.

“A list of people involved in that project?” Miyako raised an eyebrow; at this point she was working in the case alongside Ken. But they couldn’t let it be discovered by Ken’s high ups, that he’s working behind the curtains.

“Yes, do you know anything relevant to it?” He asked, "I think the phantom thief is leaving us a hint about his next victims."

“As usual, the phantom thief leaves a fair warning so we can catch them before committing the heist” Hawkmon commented with the other three, nodding his head sagely.

“So you have a list of the researchers working on the top secret project that was stolen from the facility?” Then, Miyako looked at Ken.

“They sent a copy of that list, but no details on what that project is.”

“Ok, give me that list, I will check on the key names they have in common and then we will know the next victims from the phantom thief Chat Noir.”

…

Miyako took the two lists and ran a search engine to match all the names they had in common. In a few seconds… The names Amano, Kayama, Minase, Himekawa and Shibayama appeared in a third list isolated from the rest. The list also had Yamashina and Mochizuki in common, but they had been targets already.

“Oho, bingo!” The skilled hacker smiled with a big grin, "These are the key members of the researchers from the failed Project Mei!"

“So they’re the potential victims,” Wormmon mused.

Ken gave a serious gaze at the list and then to Miyako, “At this point I should call the department and report this immediately, but…”

“Doing it so would make them catch Noel, right…?” She was able to predict what he was about to say. Because she was also concerned.

Noel is not only a phantom thief for them. Noel is a friend they made, even if they were playing a cat and rat game for a while. He had helped them out before and protected them as well.

Besides, if Noel Leblanc was involved… This means that something grave has been going on.

“If Noel Leblanc is trying to catch someone doing anything that could put everyone’s lives at risk… Then I’d like to keep the department out of this for a while.”

“Right, and about the email he made me write…”

“Hm?”

“There was something inside it, a code I guess” she opened the saved email text and showed it to him, “He told me to  sign it with ‘phantom thief Chat Noir’ instead. I think he’s using another pseudonym for this.”

“Another form…”

“Like what Daisuke said!” Wormmon commented, “He suspects that this new phantom thief is another identity from Arsenemon.”

“Daisuke being a detective all again, huh…?” she chuckled, “Are you still going to secret dates with him, dear?”

“Not many as I have with you,” Ken teased her back with a smirk, “Anyway, now we have to pick one of those names and try our luck.”

"Does your detective gut have a potential candidate?"

“Hmm…”

The sneaky phantom thief recruit landed on another victim’s balcony later that week. Unlike Arsenemon, Chat Noir did not warn his victims, and would just act as some sort of spy agent trying to gather potential confidential information from them. That could be easy though, but he hoped to not have to use that ability again.

With professors Yamashina and Mochizuki he had no choice. They panicked and did not cooperate with him in the first place. But the idea of using that ability as truth serum felt kinda handy and he would adopt that approach if it just keeps happening. But he would prefer to have another option, dang it!!

“... Do you think he figured something out?” the digimon asked in a low voice, after they opened the balcony’s glass door and sneaked in.

“Probably did,” Chat Noir answered, “He’s a police detective after all.”

The thief looked around, trying to make sure there were no cameras in that room. Sending his digimon assistant seemed pretty obvious -- the tiny creature can turn invisible and then use his little string-like tentacles to disable the cameras and anything else.

(Thieves would’ve been very efficient if they had a digimon partner, spies too. That’s all.)

The residence the phantom thief was visiting belonged to a lone wolf lady, the digimon researcher Amano, who was definitely not waiting for him in the next room, just focused on something and being sleep deprived.

"... We will have to do that again, won't we?" Chat Noir sighed, knowing that the best thing to do would be to brainwash the woman and extract the information from herself instead.

He opened the door so he and the digimon could slip inside the room without catching the professor’s attention. She was on the phone and judging by the conversation… That person on the other end of the line was another researcher facility colleague from the same project:

“Ok, Kayama-kun. I will check those papers later…”

Suddenly, the phone connection was interrupted, and she noticed it.

“Hello…? Kayama-kun?”

She felt something was behind her, and then… Amano turned back and saw the phantom thief standing there.

“Y-YOU!?”

“Please calm down, I just want to talk--”

She grabbed her desk chair and tried to hit him, unfortunately. He gulped and stepped back.

“I won’t… I won’t let you--”

Suddenly, a digimon with green eyes was staring deep inside her soul. She couldn’t resist it and then she got successfully caught by the digimon’s power.

“My apologies for doing this to you, ma’am. But you have left me no other choice...”

Then, he took the phone from the woman’s hand and checked it out. Oh nice, the screen got locked, "Can you unlock this for me, please?" and showed the phone to the digimon.

“Right…!” and with one finger he released a tiny string-tentacle inside the smartphone’s jack and unlocked its screen, “There you go!”

“Thank you,” the thief said with a soft tone, and proceeded to examine the victim’s phone.

He used the camera in his helmet to show the contact list to Mizuki, who was following his moves cautiously (as usual). Then he proceeded to do the same thing he had done with Yamashina and Mochizuki respectively -- interrogate their target.

Another day at work and Hikari heard some rumors about what happened recently:

“What is wrong with that thief?!” she heard one of her coworkers chatting to another in the teacher’s room on their break, “The research facility theft was all they could steal though?!”

“Right, they just invaded two houses and didn’t take anything from the house?! Maybe they’re not a thief and yes a killer?”

“So, are they trying to kill the people who work at the research facility though…?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Tailmon frowned, This makes no sense.

Hikari and Tailmon had been informed by Ken and Miyako that yes, their former rival and current friend Noel (aka Arsenemon) was involved in those heists. And even, that this new phantom thief is helping him.

Those recent three cases (only two handled by the police, because Meiko was told to not report it to the authorities), has nothing stolen and just having the victims being found unconscious in their homes. Seems like they were also on a small sleep stasis for a few weeks. 

So they had to wait for those victims to wake up.

…

“Could it be a digimon like Eosmon, again?” Hikari asked Miyako while she was visiting her friends and their baby, on the weekend. Ken had actually invited all four to a small reunion, so miraculously, Daisuke, Iori and Takeru were also there.

“A digimon… like Eosmon…” the other repeated those words, vaguely. Miyako stroked her chin, trying to find any correlation to those cases and that hypothesis.

“A digimon who steals consciousness like Eosmon…” Ken mused, then said, “It’s true that the stolen project is related to Eosmon, because what they stole had Menoa Bellucci’s confidential blueprints of Eosmon.”

“... So, Arsenemon could’ve gotten a digimon who can steal consciousnesses to help him catch the real target, huh…” Tailmon pondered.

Daisuke frowned, “Didn’t you guys beat the Mother-Eosmon-or-whatever-it-was-called? Because shouldn't ALL of the Eosmons have just… vanished with it?”

“Mother-Eosmon?” the others exclaimed.

“Look, Taichi-san said it was like a giant bee-like creature so maybe it was like a Mother-or-Queen bee… It doesn’t matter what we call it! They all should’ve disappeared when Taichi-san and Yamato-san took it down!”

“Oh… that’s right, dagya…” Armadimon said.

“So… Noel is using a digimon who can do this and then steal the information all he wants without leaving traces?” Patamon commented from the top of Takeru’s head.

“More likely,” Hawkmon with that hypothesis.

“So he’s Chat Noir and has another ally besides Miss Espimon?”  V-mon said, and then looked at Ken, “Or do you think she can do those?”

And everyone also looked at Ken. Because… he’s the digi-nerd in that group. Yes.

“I’m not familiar with her digimon species, sorry.”

“We’re back to square zero, dagya…”

“Let’s suppose she couldn’t do it,” Takeru started, “Didn’t Arsenemon have a skill like this too?”

“He definitely used a hypnosis trick to put Koushiro-san, Taichi-san and Hikari-san’s cousin to sleep, yes” Iori recapped their previous encounters with the elusive digimon from a decade ago.

“Maybe he’s still using those tricks?” V-mon commented.

“But Noel said he hates to use brainwashing,” Daisuke argued back, “Unless he changed his mind…?”

“But then… Why would he just go full panicky when we had met his Chat Noir persona?” Wormmon asked the group.

“Well, he’s the master of disguises,” V-mon replied, “I think this makes sense, right?”

“It’s plausible, at least” Hawkmon said, while everyone nodded sagely.

“Hmm…”

Suddenly, the baby’s cry just made Miyako excuse herself from the living room and move to her room to pick the baby from the cradle. The rest of the conversation changed from the mysterious heists to other stuff… Like food, of course.

None of them noticed a digimon outside, with green eyes, observing them in silence. The digimon then quickly returned back to the ground level and met the mysterious phantom thief Chat Noir.

"So? How are they doing?"

“Um… I think they think you are Arsenemon…”

“You heard that, right?” and the thief talked with the misfit trio on the other side of the line with his helmet’s communicator, “Are you okay with that, though?”

“It’s better than having them targeting you, don’t you agree?”

“Yeah, I think so…”

“Now leave those people alone and go to our target’s residence.” Mizuki said with a serious tone, “Before Ichijiouji catches you snooping around.”

“Alright,” and he nodded his head. Then, the digimon and the phantom thief just left the area, heading to their next victim.

[jcmarchi]

AI in Marketing: The Ultimate Growth Co-Pilot

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/ai-in-marketing-the-ultimate-growth-co-pilot/

AI in Marketing: The Ultimate Growth Co-Pilot

It’s 2025 and Machine Learning is in full swing and the hot topic at every marketing conference across the globe. The rise of AI-powered martech (marketing technology) promises to make advertising better, accelerate creative development while deciphering large amounts of data, and make human-like decisions. Further proof: a recent report states that 80% of CMOs plan to increase spending on AI and data in 2025.

Over the last decade, marketing leaders have been inundated with data, unrealistic pressure to “make things viral,” measure everything, along with an evasive and evolving consumer.

It’s the perfect recipe for a technology that can analyse data at scale and optimise a near infinite amount of outcomes in milliseconds. Have we found the holy grail?

AI in its current form is very helpful but not magical…yet. From video production and copywriting to SEO and ad creation, AI can create a powerful co-pilot that can fast-track creative thinking, speed up processes, and enhance human ingenuity, accelerating strategic thinking rather than replacing it.

Let’s look briefly at how marketing got here:

From digital boom to data overload

The 2006 digital marketing boom promised a totally trackable experience for advertisers. From ROI to detailed cookie targeting, and optimised budget distribution. Yes, many of these promises came true, to some extent. Clicks, conversions, and cost-per-acquisition are now more accurate for digital marketers. E-commerce giants like eBay who spent millions on Google Search Ads and Facebook marketing overwhelmingly succeeded.

The pressure to be digital only with clear ROI was immense and the Creative Marketer was pushed out by the data gurus. However, this caused issues. Gartner Research in 2022 states that 60% of CMOs struggled to turn data into actionable insights. The quest for total attribution or clarity led to probabilistic modeling and confusion. ROI Multipliers dropped in some cases from 6:1 to 2:1 on some platforms. GDPR, Data privacy, cookie policies, VPN’s, and the rise of walled gardens like Facebook and Apple have drastically limited marketers from securing first-party data.

Here comes the robots!

The marketing landscape is constantly changing, but the lack of clarity and massive amounts of data have made it ripe for an AI revolution.

Machine learning can pull data, find trends and commonalities in large amounts of information. It can look at the data, learn from it, and discard without storage. It can understand client behaviours and preferred actions. Both Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads have shifted to AI-powered bidding tools, and their creative suite creates incredible ad imagery and copy in seconds.

The benefits from AI are easy to measure. Time savings, easy-to-understand insights, and the ability to scale.

Savings with Automation – AI-driven platforms can automate email marketing, creative design, and data mining. According to Deloitte, using AI automation reduced operating expenses for 71% of marketing professionals in 2023.

Decisions Based on Data – Machine Learning can start to look at making decisions with the data at hand—guiding strategic moves, predicting outcomes, and measuring results. Budget allocation will always be a challenge that marketers have, and AI can help. There will be a shift from instinctive to data-based planning, leading to better outcomes for marketers.

Less with More – Smaller teams will now be able to do more. With automating procurement deals, creative cold starts, and performance, they should be able to free up time to focus on what’s important: their customers. Mid-market companies who weren’t able to afford data scientists like P & G will now have the same capability at a fraction of the cost.

There is a lot of excitement around AI, but with anything there is a potential downside. Over-automation can lead to content similarities. Marketing has always been about zigging when others are zagging. AI creates content that has a high probability of being liked, therefore likely similar. Email subject lines and advertising that follow a similar ML script will likely create a boring experience for consumers. Using AI to create brand narratives and positioning is at a high risk for being copied and left behind.

With an over-reliance on performance, brands can easily lose their identities. Retaining a brand voice in an era of similarity will be key to success. Conversions may not reward human creativity, putting it on the chopping block for performance. Ultimately eroding brand identity and its unique selling points.

Additionally, with the rise of AI impersonating human creativity, scepticism is at an all-time high. Reddit forums are full of complaints about advertisers using AI and sharp-eyed sleuths calling them out. If consumers feel that AI is having their way with their personal data, they can feel violated and uneasy. A 2019 Pew Center research study found that 81% of Americans have no control over their data. AI will likely increase distrust and put consumers on the back foot, leading to the rise of Ethical AI. The good news is that this leads to studies showing that 70% of enterprise CMOs will prioritize ethical AI (privacy and secure data) in marketing by 2025.

Ethical AI

How do we integrate artificial intelligence without losing emotion? By keeping a human in the loop. AI is certainly the future and it will be at the forefront of science, technology, and many other industries. In marketing, keeping a human in the loop will add cultural significance, intuitive awareness, brand context, and certain areas of creativity that machines won’t understand. Creativity comes from thinking outside of the box and shocking a normal brain pattern to create a memorable experience. This will be difficult for AI. A real human marketer can curate, adjust, and find ideas that match brand values and audience behaviours in lockstep with their machine learning co-pilots.

Ethical AI is a new term for marketing. Reviewing each campaign and understanding the data it’s using are guardrails that will protect brands and help them navigate through a changing world.

AI will be great at predicting customer behaviours, but true creativity will turn touchpoints into memorable moments. Pioneering brands that use data for targeting and storytelling will stand out, where the machines will tell them who and when—it’s the creatives that will provide the why.

Where does AI in marketing go? Agentic, driverless, autonomous!

Agent hubs are on the rise, with platforms like SalesForces, Agent Force, HubSpots, Agent.ai, and Xenet.ai’s hub marketing agents that will plug in and do their jobs. The “agentic” or autonomous marketing world will open the door to data science agents, PR agents, creative agents, AB testers, and more—all to be run without human intervention. The top line strategy, creative execution, and overall direction will require humans in the loop.

The rise of AI will benefit Mid-market businesses the most. Large companies can and have hired data scientists for years, whereas small businesses were stuck with “set and forget” techniques in Google, Meta, and other platforms. An Agentic marketing tool, would deliver enterprise-level abilities at a lower cost. Think of it like an AI “data scientist agent” that understands, reviews, predicts, and decides every second.

The good news for martech: there is no winner-take-all. Results as a service will be on the rise. Disruptors will always be in the bush waiting to take out largely funded players. Money is no longer the advantage—it’s intelligence, timing, and strategy. Agents that show real ROI will be trusted partners in a $1trillion dollar industry.

Balancing AI and Human Ingenuity

In conclusion, CMO’s will benefit greatly from the advancements in AI. Automation will cut costs, time, and effort.

AI is not the panacea, but a symphony of tech and humans will lead the way. Good marketing demands creativity, intelligence, and strategy. An over-reliance on automation can water down a brand’s messaging, wear away unique positioning, and drive away customers. AI is a great co-pilot, and it will drive precision and efficiency at scale, while humans in the loop will lead creativity and ethics. As agentic, driverless marketing grows, humans and algorithms must be balanced carefully. In a world of unlimited choice and limited budgets, marketing teams who use AI’s power without sacrificing the emotional connection to their brand will succeed.

[x147]

@saltiestgempearl hi, i'm moving off of bogleech's post to spare him the notifications

here’s the entirety of AWAY's code of ethics:

i strongly suggest you read about what fair use and transformative use actually mean. the consent of the copyright holder is not necessary for fair use.

why is fair use important for understanding the legality and ethics of ai? this is an interview with ben sobel, phd, a law professor- you can check out his website for his more in-depth academic writing, as well as his credentials. i'll share some excerpts here:

"Training an AI typically requires making copies of the data on which it will be trained, and sometimes, copyrighted works are used to train AI without the permission of the rightsholders. This is presumptively copyright infringement unless it’s excused by something like fair use."

and this...

"SOBEL: We’re approaching what I call a “fair use dilemma,” because, in the context of commercial, expressive machine learning, no outcome seems desirable. If expressive machine learning weren’t fair use, an author could seek outsize remedies simply because her work ended up in a training dataset among thousands of other works. This would be a huge obstacle to the progress of a valuable technology."

if you still don't understand why ai art is transformative use, you may not understand how image generation works. check out this twitter thread.

even if you don't believe fair use is ethical: check out the mitsua diffusion model! it only uses public domain images in its dataset.

stablediffusion, which i use for my ai art, is open source as well. it uses the open dataset laion-5b. i suggest reading their frequently asked questions webpage. they did not actually crawl the web to create the dataset, that was done by the common crawl (link to their website) (also, their wikipedia page)

stablediffusion, laion-5b, and the common crawl are all research focused, done by data scientists. there is no commercialism involved. the common crawl is a 501c nonprofit! these aren't companies creating these things, they're researchers and scientists.

companies' usage (and misusage) of these is an entirely separate can of worms, and not something i care to discuss here. i'm anti-capitalist. i think the company itself is a scourge upon the earth. don't get me started on the downfalls of the profit motive. we should destroy society somewhat.

i don't think there's much more i can say about this topic, i encourage you to do your own research. i'm just one guy, and i don't have all the answers. these links are very word-heavy because that's the way i learn best, and i'm reluctant to share things i haven't personally engaged with. but there are lots of videos on these topics as well! i have not watched these myself, so i don't know if they'll address fair use and ethical dilemmas, but they're from AWAY's reading list:

who's afraid of modern art by jacob geller

ai art explained by vox media

the bonus video from ai art explained, which talks about what ai art means for human artists

that's all from me!

[londonfoginacup]

Twenty Four Days of Ficmas

Harry/Louis | Zayn/Liam | 12k | 24 Chapters

Twenty four days of One Direction Christmas ficlets! Get ready for large amounts of Christmas tooth-rotting fluff. Evles! Meet-cutes! Large amounts of hot chocolate, light dustings of snow, and several boys that may or may not make Santa's nice list!

Six Weeks

Harry/Louis | 20k | 7 Chapters

When Harry takes the afternoon shift at the cafe, he meets a boy who drinks a lot of tea and never remembers his umbrella.

Here's to Many More

Harry/Louis | Zayn/Liam | 8k

Harry Styles is nothing special. He grew up in the foster system and now, at eighteen, he's out on his own. He's just sort of… existing. That is until one day, when it's cold and raining and he takes a chance on a coffee shop instead of a forty minute bus ride during rush hour. There, he meets a boy who talks too much and draws friends to him like a magnet. Merry Christmas, here's to many more.

Home for the Holly Days

Harry/Louis | 2k

Louis’s participating in the Secret Santa exchange between all the Hogwarts professors stuck at school over the winter holidays, and the Sorting Hat may fancy itself a bit of a matchmaker.

Frankincense-ational

Harry/Louis | Zayn/Liam | Niall/Shawn | 31k | 25 Chapters

Do Not Falter (There's a Star Ahead)

Harry/Louis | 2k

It's Christmas Eve, and every single one of Louis' family members are crowded inside his little flat. Really, what more could he ask for on his birthday? The present he never knew he wanted - in the form of an omega from his past - might just make this his most memorable Christmas.

Forget the Silent Nights

Harry/Louis | Zayn/Liam | Niall/Shawn | 44k | 25 Chapters

For years afterward, everyone who lived at 404 E. Redwood referred to that Christmas as The Christmas we stole a baby. Technically, that wasn’t the strict truth, as Evie had already been five years old by the time she came to stay in their crowded (but loving) home. And technically they didn’t steal her. Either way, the last Christmas with the seven of them in that broken old house on Redwood all together was probably one of the most memorable holidays each of them had, what with the wedding and the the snowstorm and the raccoons in their attic… And the baby they stole, of course.

Unto You

Harry/Louis | 3k

Louis is a lamplighter celebrating the saturnalia season in his own way. Harry is heavily pregnant and new in the city. The holiday of Christmas is yet to be created.

Give A Little Sing To The Singles

Harry/Louis | Zayn/Liam | 31k | 25 Chapters

Harry Styles is an adult now, with a real adult job (and benefits! Whatever those are!). He spends his days at the copier. Copying things. That being said, no one told Harry that being an adult came with a confusingly chaotic boss, a copier machine that would be hell-bent on ruining his life, and a coworker so good looking that Harry might just have to quit. After all, Christmas is coming and if their office doesn’t win the decorating contest, Louis has threatened to break several laws and kneecaps in retaliation. Happy Christmas, here’s to many more.

You Don't Have To Be Lonely This Christmas

Harry/Louis | Zayn/Liam | 35k | 25 Chapters

Louis knew that it would happen sooner or later. He was struggling, and his roommates weren’t. It only made sense for them to offer his place in the house to someone else. But now, it’s the first of December, and he has less than a week to find somewhere cheap to stay. At least until after the holidays. Enter: an old friend with an old house and a suspiciously empty bed. Happy Christmas, here’s to many more.

All Your Mates Are Here

Harry/Louis | Zayn/Liam | Lewis/Niall | 36k | 25 Chapters

"The pack is… It's folding, Harry." Like every werewolf does when they get to a new town, Harry joined one of the many local packs when he started university. Now, three years into his program, he's hit with the news that his pack is giving up, going their separate ways. In the wake of the holidays, the three single wolves from the Majestic pack are pointed in the direction of a new pack to join; one that's got struggles of its own. A new pack, a new house, and two new roommates with personal space issues… Plus exams, of course. Happy Christmas, here's to many more.

Oh Little Town of BATHlehem

Harry/Louis | 2k

Louis Tomlinson needs a small pink bathtub. He needs it. His fucking family had forgotten to include him in the email chain for Doris for Christmas, with her very carefully thought out Christmas list, until every easy item was gone. Only when he asked Lottie if anyone else had heard from Doris yet, only then did they realise their mistake and forward the email chain to him. So, it’s either a small pink bathtub or an entire bouncy castle. And if he had the money for a bouncy castle that would be fine, but that fucker costs more than his monthly rent and he simply does not make that much working as an optometrist assistant.

[frizz22]

Behind the Scenes

NOTE: An idea I had while writing another Work Wives fic, haha, hope you enjoy. From camera crew POV.

READ ON AO3

“I’m telling you,” Jenn insisted from where she sat playing with her camera lens, “they’re in love.”

Rolling his eyes, Josh didn’t bother to look away from the clip he was editing. “Barbara is married.” He replied in a bored tone, knowing exactly who she was referring to.

Mouth pursing, Jenn set her camera aside. “And? Doesn’t stop you from loving someone else. You edit most the footage, Josh… you have to have seen how they look at each other.”

A long suffering sigh escaping him, Josh finally looked at her. “I know this assignment’s been a bit longer than you’re used to, but are you really so starved of stimulus that you’re creating relationships where there aren’t any?”

Affronted, Jenn punched his arm. “Ass! You know I love observing people. And these two,” her shoulders dropped as she softened at the thought of them. “They’ve got something, Josh, come on, you know I’m not imagining this.”

Josh pinched the bridge of his nose. “I…” he groaned. “Fine. They do share an abnormal number of affectionate and knowing looks. But that doesn’t mean they’re jumping each other’s—"

“I never said they were cheating!!” Jenn exclaimed, cutting him off. “I said they’re in love with each other.” The difference mattered, it did.

At a loss, Josh shrugged helplessly. “I, what do you want from me, Jenn? Have I noticed the way Melissa looks at Barbara? Yes, fine, I admit it. Have I witnessed Barbara watch Melissa with the most tender expression I’ve seen on a human, yes! Have I wished someone would look at me the way they look at each other? Also, yes. But that doesn’t change anything. We’re just observers.”

Biting her lip, Jenn leaned her forearms on her knees. “What if we weren’t?”

Exasperated, Josh threw up his hands. “What if we weren’t what?!”

She scooted her chair closer to him. “Just observers, dumbass. What if, you know…” Jenn nudged his knee.

“No, I don’t.” He retorted a bit grumpily as he crossed his arms.

Jenn inched closer. “Josh, come on. It’d be so easy to compile some clips, oh, maybe with maybe soft classical music in the background and have copies of these just happen to find themselves on their desks….” She bounced a little in excitement at the idea.

Brows furrowing in a dramatic manner, Josh rolled his shoulders. “I’m too busy. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

She scoffed. “You have to go through and pull stuff for promos anyway, just do this as a side project as you go through everything else.”

Uncertainty radiating off him, Josh finally met her eye again. “These are peoples’ lives you want to mess with, Jenn. They have families and boyfriends and… you want to play matchmaker.”

“One,” Jenn straightened and held up a finger for emphasis. “Melissa deserves so much more than ‘Gary the Vending Machine Guy’,” her voice took on a mocking edge at the guy’s name. “I mean he’s fine, but Melissa deserves lightning!” At this Josh mumbled something about her obsession with Ted Lasso, but Jenn plowed on, holding up another finger. “Two, these two are only denying their feelings because they think the other doesn’t feel the same. But they do! You know they do. And three, we wouldn’t be ‘messing’, per se, just opening their eyes to what’s right in front of them.”

Pleased with her speech, Jenn leaned back in her chair and waited for Josh to fold.

He did. It took all of a minute.

Lips twisting, Josh huffed. “All right! But I’m not doing the music and you have to swear to leave it, leave them, alone after this. Nothing else, no other prods or shit like that.”

Grinning, Jenn held out her hand. “Pinky swear!”

Unamused, Josh hooked his pinky around hers and sighed. “What did I just sign up for?” He groused, mostly under his breath.

All but popping out of her seat in excitement, Jenn twirled and then stopped to face Josh. “For Cupid duty!” She crowed, mentally congratulating herself for this and impatient to see what would happen once Melissa and Barbara saw the results.

[luckhaver]

Might piss some people off for this, but AI art isn’t theft. Y’all are just the same type of people who back in the day said Jackson Pollock or Marcel Duchamp pieces weren’t art either.

Author’s Note: i’m a working artist with a BFA.

First, we need to kill this notion that art is mystical and is made in a vacuum. That’s a bullshit take. Art is a skill any person can learn. And every single piece of art ever made was inspired by other art and techniques. Hell, to learn art you need to study and steal from other artists.

One example: Look at what happened in Renaissance art over a 100 year span. One single artist figured out how perspective worked and almost immediately every single other artist copied him.

This isn’t plagiarism - this is how art works. Everyone copies and learns from each other.

All fundamental parts of an art work - composition, lighting, brush strokes, style, etc. are not copyrighted! Artists have, forever, blatantly copied and stolen all of these aspects without issue. Heck, this is often what creates periods of art - the impressionists, baroque, rococo, etc. The only thing copyrighted is the final artwork.

You can even take copyrighted art and use it to create new art - this is called free use. And it’s legal! “Art will be considered fair if it is ‘transformative,’ or adds ‘something new, with a further purpose or different character.’”

All this to say that a human artist can study copyrighted images, and copy the exact brush strokes, composition, lighting of the piece to create new ideas - and that’s entirely legal! It happens all the time. You can say this work is derivative—which it may be—but it’s still art. Legal, protected art.

But now when an AI does the same fucking thing with a prompt and style training, it’s suddenly theft? This is literally how all artists work.

I’ll never understand why people hate machines that do the same thing that people do.

[natromanxoff]

Queen live at  Barra da Tijuca in  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - January 12, 1985 (Part-2)

After the show, EMI threw a party in Queen's honour at the Copacabana Palace Hotel. On the beach outside the hotel, some fans had gathered for a candle-lighting vigil, where 1,500 candles spelled out the word "Queen", as seen in the last three pictures above. Security tried to keep the enthusiastic crowd away from Brian May who was coming out of the hotel, very touched by the gesture of the fans. After he lit the last few candles, he stayed around to sign autographs. Not long afterward he jumped into the pool fully clothed.

About a minute of soundcheck (bits of Radio Ga Ga and Jailhouse Rock filmed on January 8) was shown on Brazilian TV around this time. Also, a few songs were soon shown on Globo TV: Somebody To Love, Love Of My Life, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Radio Ga Ga, and We Are The Champions (Hammer To Fall and I Want To Break Free were apparently broadcast as well, but no known copies have emerged). A 60-minute compilation of both nights in Rio would be officially released on VHS, simply entitled "Live In Rio", shortly after the concerts - only four months later. Like the "We Will Rock You" video from Montreal '81, upon its release it would debut in the British video charts at number one. Also like the Montreal video, the picture and audio aren't always from the same night. The picture fluctuates from night to night, often during songs, but that is the extent of the editing - no overdubs on the audio were done (other than adding artificial audience noise throughout much of it). Here is the video's track listing, with the italicized songs taking the audio from the first night: Machines (tape), Tie Your Mother Down, Seven Seas of Rhye, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar [cut], It's A Hard Life, Now I'm Here, Is This The World We Created?, Love Of My Life, guitar solo [cut], Brighton Rock (ending), Hammer To Fall, Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen While in Japan in May, Brian and John appeared on MTV Japan to promote the VHS release. While talking briefly about the Rio show, Brian modestly says, "Lots of people came." He then humourously plugs the station. "Don't stop watching MTV. In fact, keep watching MTV." About seven minutes of short clips from both nights are then shown (Another One Bites The Dust, Tie Your Mother Down, Killer Queen, It's A Hard Life, Dragon Attack, Love Of My Life, the guitar solo, Hammer To Fall, Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Ga Ga are from the first night), some of which weren't on the VHS release. The snippet of the guitar solo is actually a section that was cut from the official release. Three songs were shown on TV in Brazil not long after the show (including the infamous version of I Want To Break Free). In 1985, Hammer To Fall from this show was released in the UK as a 12" promo single. Bits of the Rio footage were used in the promo video for One Vision later in the year. The audio of the official release was broadcast on MTV FM on February 15, 1986. In 2007, Masterplan released the same 60 minutes of footage on DVD, but it seems to be a pirate copy. The picture on the cover was taken on The Game tour. It's A Hard Life and Is This The World We Created from this show were released on disc 2 of the 2011 deluxe edition of The Works. Freddie's vocal flub in the former was patched in with the second night, and compression and reverb were added to the drums. In 2015 Globo TV aired an hour long special commemorating the 30th anniversary of the festival, including clips of Under Pressure and Love Of My Life - both of which were not seen on the official release. One notable piece of commentary is from Brazilian singer Eduardo Dussek, who remarks (in Portugese) that families, rockers, and the metalhead headbangers all accepted the band." As mentioned above, a virtually complete video of the show has leaked into collectors' circles, although it is many generations from the master. The picture quality is acceptable, but the audio is far from great. Only a few seconds of Under Pressure are missing. As impressive as the sizes of these audience were, they were far from the largest ever at a concert in Rio. An estimated 3.5 million people came to Copacabana Beach on New Year's Eve in 1994 when Rod Stewart was playing, the largest audience ever for a concert anywhere in the world - although, to be realistic, not everyone was there to see the show, considering which day of the year it was. A technical note - in Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, and Seven Seas Of Rhye, Spike Edney now plays along with a few vocal lines with a vocoder, which practically drowns out Brian and Roger's backing vocals in these songs for the rest of the year. Here are two pro pics from the first night: 

The last picture above is a screenshot from The Magic Years VHS. Although it's seen during the Magic Tour documentary, it's actually a Works tour setlist from 1985 - but the piece of paper is originally from August 1984, as Staying Power, Stone Cold Crazy, and Great King Rat are crossed out, and the second half of the show has been revised many times (Sheer Heart Attack wasn't officially ousted, though!).

(x)

Part-1

[shihalyfie]

What went down with the DigiFes situation, from the community and translator perspective

I think the events of the last few days have gotten everyone in a huge fuss, and because everything got caught up in a lot of chaotic social media stuff, there’s been a lot of questions about what came from what and who knew what at what time. Fortunately, I happen to be:

Someone who’s a veteran in this fanbase and thus has a small handful of friends in this community, who also have their own friends

Someone who understands a little Japanese (although not as much as others in this community do) and therefore can read things in Japanese myself to some degree without needing someone else to translate it for me

So hopefully I can shed some light on what kinds of things were being discussed, and what was known and not known at what time in this fanbase with all of this.

The most important thing I want to establish is that there was no organized coalition or smear campaign. (Kind of ironic I have to say this when the topic at hand has so much to do with conspiracy theories.) I’m a veteran, I know friends who are veterans, they know other friends who are veterans but don’t know me at all. My friends usually agree with and like the same things I do, and I give them advice and assistance with my skillset when I can, and they return the favor. We pass things along through the grapevine, not through some super-secret club grapevine, just via the nature of social relationships and some Discord servers (multiple; again, not everyone knows each other). So these are my impressions of what happened, based on said grapevine.

How it all started

Konaka’s blog is long. Like, really long. Which is only natural, because he was recapping basically the entire 51 episodes of Tamers in excruciating detail, so no translator in this fanbase would be able to translate all of that and not lose their mind! So for the most part people who couldn’t read Japanese had pretty much given up on reading it (with maybe a few dedicated people using machine translation), and some people who understood Japanese would point out parts they found interesting, but for all intents and purposes it remained untranslated and not super-accessible to the mainstream. (Even the Japanese fanbase itself wasn’t super aware of the blog’s existence.)

So when that first post in May about 9/11 dropped, the people who did read Japanese started going “uh...”

At the time, the DigiFes stage reading hadn't been announced yet. So, in other words, everyone reading it only knew it as, functionally, him namedropping an alt-right YouTuber and praising his observations. The reaction from anyone reading the blog at the time was something along the lines of “disappointed and mildly concerned.” (Note the mildly.)

The posts in June about the Great Reset and the anti-vaccine sentiment were when people keeping an eye on the situation started to get really worried about how far this was going to escalate. At this point, I want to make something clear that may not be apparent to those who weren’t keeping up or who are outside the fanbase: Most of the translators and Japanese-reading people deliberately chose not to be too public about this at this time.

Why?

This is the irony surrounding the fact that said translators are now being accused of trying to further “cancel culture”: cancellation was absolutely not what anyone wanted back then! If anyone wanted to create a smear campaign, 9/11 conspiracies, the Great Reset, and anti-vaccine statements are already more than enough to make a starting case. But at the time, this was a blog that very few people (Japanese or otherwise) knew about, translating it would basically just boost its platform more than it would have had in the first place (which would be counterproductive), and -- well, let’s be real, it’s not hard to imagine that people might get reactionary over it, and people would go nuts. Was there any real benefit that would come out of that? Not really, no.

So at the most, those keeping an eye on it might have vented a bit on their personal accounts, but some even tried to self-censor with “[redacted]” or vagueposting, because this was a matter that needed to be handled with delicacy. Thus, there were “mild rumors through the grapevine” about what was going on, but those who knew were trying to hold back with restraint and mostly inform people quietly in the hopes of this not needing to become some kind of huge social media campaign.

(Also, to be a bit blunt about it, it’s really hard to be in front of someone who loves Tamers and is gushing about it and showing admiration for Konaka, knowing all of this and wanting to say something, but feeling like a jerk if you pop their bubble like “also, he’s probably an alt-right conspiracy theorist now.” Not to say that the ignorance-is-bliss concept is always a good thing, but...)

But since the blog posts in question were discussing the prospect of having his sentiments in fiction, everyone reading them was on edge anticipating what might be in store for DigiFes. The hope was that it might blow over. Hopefully, everything would be in the form of subtle themes with plausible deniability, it would all stay within the realm of “it’s not worth causing a fuss over this,” that would be the end of it, and we’d all move on with our lives.

Unfortunately, “Political Correctness is activating Cancel Culture” isn’t exactly subtle.

DigiFes and the aftermath

I think it’s too easy to assign too much responsibility to the fansub group that was indirectly responsible for breaking the news for all of this, but actually, the truth is, this would have gotten out anyway.

Even when the stream itself was going on, there were Japanese livebloggers, and there were also English speakers who caught on that something was happening with “the Tamers fighting political correctness”. Some hours later, an upload of the stream went live on YouTube, and quite a few people started watching it and caught onto what was going on. If the fansub group that released the now-infamous version hadn’t done it, I’m absolutely certain someone else would have eventually (perhaps in a different language first, but nevertheless). And even before then, information about what the hell was going on was already starting to circulate in broken and incomplete forms. That fansub solidified what was going on, and perhaps accelerated the moment the bomb dropped on everyone, but if it hadn’t been there, it would have happened much more gradually and chaotically.

On top of that, while the use of Western alt-right rhetoric (seriously, please do not try to bring the “injecting Western politics into Japanese media” argument here when all of us are asking him to take the Western politics out) meant that it went over most of the Japanese audience’s heads (hence your answer to “who approved this?”), there was at least one Japanese person who was politically savvy enough to call it out for what it was in disgust. (I’m not linking them here because I’m not dumb enough to fling them in a place where some of you trigger-happy people will go after them.) They didn’t even need to be super in-tune with Western politics to get it; they understood enough to tell that there were some pretty alarming extremist views in there. If they understood that much, it was naturally going to follow that the Western side was definitely going to become aware one way or another.

Even all that aside, at the very least, said fansub is accurate; imagine how much worse this situation would have been if someone else had taken it up and confused things further with a misleading translation, or, worse, deliberately messed with the contents. Basically, this debacle could have easily been a lot worse.

I don’t think anyone expected this to get as big as it did (as in, to the point mainstream anime reporters outside the fanbase picked up on it). There was a similar tri. reading back in 2016, but even a lot of the hardcore fanbase barely remembers it exists! These aren’t even supposed to be canon, either! But when you have that disclaimer at the front, and the contents are really like that, it was probably inevitable for it to become a social media sensation. I mean the contents...sure are a thing.

One thing I should point out about the disclaimer is that it only mentions the program itself. It doesn’t bring up the blog, and it doesn’t bring up who wrote this scenario, just the fact that the program contains alt-right rhetoric and conspiracy theories. Because it does! It’s not even technically praising or condemning the content within, it just says “we don’t agree with it”! What the group did condemn was...approaching staff about it (and especially starting a fight). Because, in the end, that’s what the disclaimer was for: a heads-up about what was in there, and an added reminder that the people translating this are just translating it for the sake of informational purposes. Or, in other words:

It was a content warning. Even without the disclaimer, there were many, many people who would have recognized the contents for what they were and been caught by it unawares, and become upset by it. There were many people who said that they were glad to have that there because it at least gave them some time to mentally prepare for what they were about to be slapped with!

It really, really was a disclaimer. When you have something that level of extremely politically charged stuff, it’s only natural to start suspecting that the translation group had an agenda (official translations tend to get this a lot when content is remotely political). But no, the translation group did their due diligence, even if their opinions were starkly opposed to what was in there.

I was not personally involved in that translation, but I’ll give you this (copy-pasted with permission, from someone who wasn’t technically involved directly in it but was privy to discussions while it was being done):

no we brought up all of those questions like the fact that Yamaki's clearly off his rocker and this isn't supposed to be taken seriously in the first place or that maybe if we're lucky he'll just sound like a fake woke boomer but no matter how you slice it the plot is about him "convincing" the unbelieving Takato and co. into rallying up against the true enemy of Political Correctness and that's just literally the alt-right playbook in a nutshell

the thing even made it to YouTube, we were basically racing against the clock

I mean I really want to say this is plausible deniability but I don’t know how you can get any less subtle than this, this is not something you can mince words

like I really wish we could pass this off as “as long as you don’t know the blog you can take this innocently as political commentary or something” but I honestly don’t think this is something you can take innocently even without context

tbh the Political Correctness part is the most cringeworthy but Yamaki’s rant about fact checkers being evil and all that is probably a lot more worrying when you think about it

tbh I’ve never felt as conflicted about what’s the right thing to do as I do now

So in other words, it was not a reckless decision to just tack on a political label; it was done after a lot of consideration about the consequences to put the label on and what people would think of it with or without context, whether there might be a glimmer of light possibility to try and pass this off as more innocuous as it was, and eventually a determination that, in the end, there was indeed alt-right rhetoric in the program, and should be labeled accordingly.

The result was that, of course, everything broke out on social media, chaos burst out, a lot of hearts were unfortunately broken, and a lot of alt-righters started invading spaces accusing people of proving him right with cancel culture. Ironically, my personal observation is that, while there were exceptions, most people in the actual fanbase did honor the requests to not harass people about it, and this may actually be the most solidarity I’ve ever seen from the Digimon fanbase in my life, which is saying a lot considering how we usually tend to be a drama magnet most of the time. The ones who were actually directly messaging him were his newfound supporters locking down on offering him “support against people trying to cancel him” (I think they were more heartbroken and upset at him than anything...), and most of the harassment came from alt-righters not even in the fanbase, namesearching and sending harassing, accusatory messages to anyone involved for as much as expressing mild dismay. (You want to talk about harassment and being attacked for having an opinion? Pot, meet kettle.)

This leads us back to the question of the blog: if you’ll remember, I just said that the fansub in question did not bring it up at all. That’s because, at the beginning, there was no intention to bring it up if it wasn’t necessary; this was not intended as a smear campaign. The warning was attached to the DigiFes program because it was about the DigiFes program. But the resulting chaos had a lot of people bring up the blog because it better contextualized what was going on, and discussion led to people looking it up themselves and posting fragments of it on social media, sometimes even using machine translate.

Ultimately, that’s the reason this document was released: it was the same reason as the fansub being released at the time it was, which was “if it hadn’t been released, the alternative was watching things get disseminated more slowly and chaotically.” I will say outright that I was one of the people who got to lay eyes on that document before it was publicly released (and even helped out with some advice here and there); it’s no secret that it was being quietly passed around as an internal memo prior to the outbreak. The original version of the document had a request to not post it on public social media because of the chaos it would cause, and while I don’t know how many people got to see it before it was released, I’m under the impression that it was enough people that I was quite surprised everyone who saw it respected that request.

Why does the document contain a ton of analysis and debunking on top of just the translations? Well, when you’re translating those blog posts, you’re technically giving it a bigger platform (which was one of the reasons it was originally considered better to not post it publicly). Since the document exists primarily to inform people, especially about why certain things that may seem innocuous actually have wider context behind them, it’s going to need to contain an analysis like that.

The summary

There were a lot of decisions involved by a lot of different people through all parts of this ordeal. I think it’s fair to criticize whether they were the right decisions in retrospect or whether certain things should have been done slightly differently (including my small role in this), but nevertheless, it was one where the risks involved were thought through and taken into account in every step of the situation, with a desire to avoid chaos, or at least prevent it from getting too much worse. When you have contents like this, a controversy honestly is inevitable -- how on earth are you going to be able to put contents like Yamaki reciting off all the typical alt-right YouTuber talking points and ending in Political Correctness activating Cancel Culture and not expect that to make a stir at some point? -- and so, in the end, this wasn’t so much a conscious attempt at stirring the pot as much as it was the dam finally breaking, and a desire to keep it from spilling over too much. Nobody coordinated this! I think everyone just really hates drama.

Knowing all the steps and thoughts that went on behind all of this, I think being reactionary or accusatory for clout is the last thing anyone involved wanted to be. Considering just how many of these steps above could have easily been made into exposure, from the posts all the way back in May and June to the internal memo document that was made to keep friends quietly informed but could have been leaked to the public with only one bad actor, there was an active, common desire among people who didn’t even know each other to try and minimize the potential damage as much as possible. When you look at the situation now, of course it looks awful and hardly like something that came out of “trying to minimize damage”, but in reality there’s only so much you can do when the contents really are like that, and I personally believe everyone involved was doing what they thought was their best option as the situation kept changing.

I can’t speak for anyone else, especially since I don’t even know most of the people involved, and I didn’t have much of a role in all of this, but I think everyone involved, myself and my friends and everyone who’d been keeping tabs on this situation for months, has been going through a lot of heartbreak and conflict over what to do next, so please understand that there was a lot of thought put into all of it, and that it really was a difficult situation no matter how you look at it.

[anyrun]

Malware History: I LOVE YOU

On the 4th of May 2000, a new malicious program was released into the wild —  ILOVEYOU, also known as Loveletter and Lovebug. We didn’t know it then, but this worm would forever change how we view malware, causing devastating damage.

Twenty years ago the internet was different. Then, people were not used to receiving tons of spam emails. It is not surprising then, that one of the first malware to use social engineering and massive email spam campaigns would cause nothing short of a malware pandemic.

In the end, the world has suffered billions of dollars in losses, up to 80% of computer networks in select countries become infected and the malware itself has acquired a Guinness book record for causing the most damage.

ILOVEYOU behavior

ILOVEYOU was a computer worm designed to spread through emails of Microsoft Outlook users. First victims of this malware received an email with a subject reading “ILOVEYOU”. An email like this was hard to miss in an uncluttered mailbox. Attached was a file, named LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs.

The malware would run after the unsuspecting victim downloaded the infected file. Once opened, ILOVEYOU would overwrite or hide a lot of the files on the infected machine. Usually JPGs MP2, MP3, and various document files. Replacing most of the files would render a machine unbootable. Then, having gained access to the Microsoft Outlook of the victim, the malware would send itself to all addresses found in the Outlook address book.

The worm usually makes its way into machines with an infected VBS file, that victims download from emails. When the ILOVEYOU execution begins, the malware first copies itself in the Windows directory. Then, the worm creates a registry key MSKernel32. Additionally, the worm generates a new Local Machine RunServices key Win32DLL, which causes it to launch at system boot before the user is even logged into the system. Then, ILOVEOYOU downloads a trojan and creates a registry key for it as well. Finally, the worm begins looking for files to modify, overwriting them, and copying itself. The malware keeps the original file names but adds a .VBS file extension to all compromised files.

ILOVEYOU Distribution

The damage from the Loveletter was first felt in South-East Asia. Then, it scaled over to Europe and the USA. Data varies on how many victims were infected but based on different evaluations ILOVEYOU compromised from 30 to 80 percent of computer networks in specific countries.

As the worm was spreading, security companies began making cures. Unfortunately, most were ineffective. Writing in VBScript gave the attackers a way to easily introduce changes to the malware code. Soon after launch, multiple versions of ILOVEYOU circulated in the wild. Each targeted different files and exhibited modified behavior, such as changed email subject lines.

Some of the subjects used included:

fwd: Joke;

Important! Read Carefully!!;

FRIEND MESSAGE.

Other subject matters were:

An airline ticket receipt from Arab Airlines;

A rage email, presumably from a friend;

An antivirus designed to protect from ILOVEYOU;

A present for Mother’s day, a holiday celebrated in the US.

When security professionals began creating cures for the malware, many targeted an older version, rendering their efforts near useless.

What resulted, was a cyberattack we simply weren’t prepared for. ILOVEYOU proceeded to infect millions of machines.

Not only could the malware spread further and further after each victim, but consequent emails were distributed from familiar addresses. People began receiving letters from their acquaintances. Most would presume them to be safe and open the love letter. At the time, an ingenious way to make users drop their guard.

According to data from the Trend Micro company, ILOVEYOU infected over 3.5 million devices around the world, including the network of the US Department of Defense. The malware caused about $15 million worth of damage.

ILOVEYOU Creator

Soon after launch, researchers learned that ILOVEYOU originated in the Philippines. Authorities began investigating two local programmers, Reonel Ramones and Onel de Guzman.

By tracing messages from European users to a Filipino internet provider, the investigation was found conclusive and Ramones was put into custody. De Guzman, however, at the time escaped the arrest.

The evidence was pointing at the programmers, but neither was charged. In 2000 there simply aren’t any laws related to hacking in the Philippines. First, authorities wanted to use credit card fraud as a substitute, then malicious mischief. But neither could apply completely.

In addition, de Guzman who just graduated from a programming class with a project extremely similar to ILOVEYOU claimed that he could have released the malware by accident. He never admitted to being responsible. When asked if he created ILOVEYOU, he would reply “maybe” and “I could have done it without realizing the consequences” through his lawyer.

Only 20 years after, when Geoff White of the BBC News tracked down de Guzman, the hacker admitted to being behind the ILOVEYOU attacks. Allegedly, all the students wanted to do was steal internet passwords, as he wasn’t able to afford his own connection. According to de Guzman’s words, he had no idea about the mayhem his creation could cause.

According to his words, after launching the worm de Guzman left to hang out with friends, soon forgetting about his actions. He only discovered the chaos he caused, by learning from his mother that the Police are looking for a dangerous hacker in Manila.

Conclusion

A lot has changed since the year 2000. At the time, creating malware was more of a hobby. A way to prove programming skills to co-workers and friends. But ILOVEYOU showed the world just how effective and devastating malicious programs can be. In doing so, it helped shape the cybercrime landscape into what it is today.

Twenty years later nobody takes malicious programs for granted. Today, they are highly specialized and sophisticated tools designed to cause damage. They target businesses and sometimes private users with one goal — stealing money or information that leads to money. Now, there are people who develop and operate these programs professionally.

In the last 20 years, the malware was evolving. Despite better modern cyber defenses and anti-viruses, some programs can spread even faster than ILOVEYOU, causing even greater damage.

We are likely to see a lot of attacks utilizing botnets. They will be more automated and more complex. Many are likely to resemble WannaCry, attacking in multiple stages.

Users can trigger a massive outburst of malware by simply opening a phishing email or following a phishing URL. In some instances, simply clicking on a malicious link can compromise the network router, opening even more backdoors, and enabling the attackers to redirect network traffic to malicious websites.

That’s why today more than ever we must be extremely cautious when working with emails. Especially when they contain links or attached files. Even if an email is from somebody you know — it is not a guarantee that it is safe. Vigorously checking all suspicious content is a vital step in building an effective security perimeter. Luckily, with ANY.RUN it is extremely easy.

Test everything; don’t risk infection of the entire network. Take care of yourself and your data!

[elena-reina]

You’re Done - Bucky Barnes x Reader

Request: Can I get a bucky imagine where the reader messes up really badly on a mission, can she have fire powers, and bucky is there for her in the end. Maybe like a friends to lovers kind of vibe? Thank you! Love you!- Anon

Warnings: none

a/n: [For the sake of this imagine my bby Pietro is alive for his two seconds of fame ;)]         There will be a pt 2. Idk when, but eventually.

“I need you all to lay low,” Steve’s voice spoke through the earpiece.

“Copy,” you along with the other Avengers said into the intercom in unison.

You have gone on many missions with the Avengers, however, this one was different. Most of the ones you’ve experienced were small track and point ones. Nothing like this where it was a life or death situation.

You had to capture one of the men named Azazel. He had vital information that was going to help the team out on a lead for the rest of the mission. You were a powerful asset to the team. The only issue was how much you underestimate yourself.

For weeks you had been training your powers and learning to keep them under control. There had been many incidents where you accidentally caused the sprinklers to go off at the tower for reasons we shall not speak of. But let’s just say they were all minor setbacks in your progress.

The team loved having you go on missions with them, but most of the time Steve wanted you to stay back at the tower and continue to train. You underestimate your powers and It took you many days to convince him to bring you on this specific mission. It wasn’t until you had a one on one with him that he finally gave in.

You had all the weight of the world on your shoulders. However, the adrenaline masked all the doubts running laps throughout your mind.

“I can see four of the guards standing by the door.. and I think a couple more on the other side of the building,” Wanda said slyly moving around the compound unseen.

“Could you at least try to make an effort to stay hidden,” Tony groaned, maneuvering around in the sky. “I can literally see your red head from here.”

“Listen Stark, you’d be caught long before I am,” Wanda smirked, sassily.

You softly chuckled to yourself.

“No, you listen Maximoff-” Tony began before Pietro cut him off.

“In all honesty, you’re not that witty Tony. Sorry, not sorry.”

“You know I don’t appreciate this slander on my title,” Tony mumbled.

While they bickered back and forth, you noticed one of the guards waving at the men to go inside the building. You ducked down when one of the men gave one last look around the area and went inside.

“They’re going inside,” you announced.

“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do,” Steve commenced going over the mission.

After listening to the entirety of Steve’s plan, you felt like there were some flaws in it. Naturally, you had your own plan in your head. Steve wanted everyone to go inside unnoticed and basically move around incognito. You, on the other hand, wanted to do it the old-fashioned way and all gang up together because there were more of you guys than there were of them. Or so you thought.

Sneaking inside the facility, you hid behind boxes and waited as Wanda and Pietro were the first ones to begin. Wanda would use her powers to mess with the men’s minds and make them fall asleep while Pietro would move their bodies to somewhere outside away from the rest of the Avengers. The building was old and looked like it could fall apart at any given moment.

Everything was going smoothly until one of the men, who had gone unnoticed by the rest of you, punched you harshly having you slam into the wall, sending an immediate alert to the people inside.

Clint and Natasha took awareness of this immediately and rushed by your side, but it was like the man had a vendetta on your head. He was overpowering all three of you and none of you understood how. Everyone was in full combat mode, and soon enough, almost a full army of them was coming out in groups. There was more of them than you thought there were.

Your fire powers were flowing out of your hand as you disintegrated any daggers or weapons they would try and throw your way. By this point, you were growing irritated and were having enough of this nonsense.

“Tell us where Azazel is!” you shouted holding one of the men up by the collar of his shirt. He smirked and pulled out a machine from the back of his pocket. You looked at it confused until you noticed a timer on it fastly counting down.

Your eyes widened.

“There’s a bomb in here!” you shouted into your earpiece.

“We’ll get this under control. Y/N, Bucky, and Clint get everyone out now!” Tony responded, already using his suit to find and defuse the bomb.

You were about to respond when you caught something out of the peripheral vision of your eye. You saw a door that was left cracked opened and decided to do a little digging for yourself. Looking around at the Avengers busy, you slipped away and entered the room. Silently closing the door, you moved behind a big crate to remain hidden.

Inside, you noticed a man dressed in all black with his back to you. You bet this was Azazel.

“Y/N, where are you!” Steve yelled into the earpiece.

You knew that you had to respond to Steve, but doing that would compromise your position. Without saying anything, you made a B-line towards the man.

“HEY!” you shouted, as who you assumed was Azazel, frighteningly looked up. He pushed boxes of glass out of his way and started to run. You weren’t going to leave him that easily and every place he tried to dodge into, you would blast up with your powers.

Picking up speed, you threw a firebolt at him hitting him in the back causing him to fall to the ground. You slowly sauntered over to him, a small triumphant grin on your face.

“Tell me what you know!” you fiercely shouted. Feeling bold, you had him exactly where you wanted. However, that confidence you once had faltered as his face then fell into a smirk. He pulled out a cylindrical device with a red button on top of it.

“Y/N! Do you copy!” Steve yelled again.

Ignoring Steve, you quickly extending your hand out to grab the device out of his hands but instead, you accidentally triggered your powers and blasted out an uncontrollable flame you’ve never seen or done before.

Azazel let out an excruciating scream of agony and the device slipped out of his hand. He was being burned alive.

“Oh no no no! What’s happening?!” you freaked, trying to get your powers under control. The flames emerged from your hands and began to consume everything within its path. It had a mind of its own and it was determined to burn everything to ashes.

Your screams rang throughout the room and Tony busted through the wall, frantically looking around. His eyes landed on you and the fire coming out of your palms.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! Y/N STOP!” Tony yelled, wanting to get close enough to grab you, but the heat coming from the flames was too much, even for his suit. If anyone came close, they would have gotten burned as well. Pietro followed suit next to him.

You tried to stop them and bent down trying to grab onto Azazel, but this only made matter worse. It wasn’t until you felt a knife slice through the side of your arm, distracting you, that the fires coming from your hand died down.

You brought your hands up to your face horrified. His face and body were burned beyond recognition. You slumped to your knees and grabbed his lifeless corpse with one of your hands. His blood pooled out of his burnt clothes, coating your hands in warm crimson.

Looking further down his arm, you grabbed the device that was now barely holding together and looked at the odd wiring.

He was bluffing. It was a fake only to intimidate you.

“The bomb is going to go off! Everyone out-”

An ear-shattering explosion began to erupt throughout the facility before he could finish. For the most part, everyone was already on their way to the outside.

Pietro took awareness of you being out of it and quickly scooped you up into his arms and sped out of the exploding building. All of you had made it just in time before the entire building was already engulfed in flames. Pietro safely placed you down and grabbed onto your shoulders.

“Hey, are you alright?”

You nodded still shaken up.

“We almost fucking had him!” Tony exclaimed frustrated. “Let’s go.”

The ride back was silent. You had ruined the whole mission. You were mentally beating yourself up with a war inside your brain.

Why couldn’t you have just listened?

Back at the Avenger’s Tower, Steve ordered you to meet him at the office. You knew that whatever was coming wasn’t going to be good.

“Y/N, do you realize what you’ve just done?” Steve groaned, angrily placing his hands on the table in front of him. You looked around the room and at your hands that were covered in Azazel’s dried blood. You didn’t know that you were being set up. As a matter of fact, you didn’t even know that your powers had that much potential.

“I.. I didn’t mean to I was just-” you whispered, backing up to create some distance between you and Steve.

“You ruined the whole mission, Y/N! I told you that you were not ready!” he snapped, making your head jerk towards his direction. You opened your mouth to form words, but nothing came out. If you would have just had a moment to collect your thoughts, you would be better at articulating yourself.

“If you would just let me explain myself!” you shouted growing frustrated with overwhelming emotion, you felt your body getting hot. Taking a deep breath, you tried your best to calm the fire inside of you, quite literally.

Steve placed his hands on his hips and disapprovingly shook his head.

“You’re done.”

Your chest felt like it plummetted twenty feet underground. Despite the fire running through you, you felt your body grow cold. You had been training countless nights just to get where you are. There were so many things you wanted to say, while at the same time, you had nothing to say.

What was there to say anyway?

“What?” you managed to breathe out.

“Just go, Y/N.”

Steve then walked past you, leaving you standing in the middle of the complex. You clenched your fists and turned on your heel. You needed to get out. To blow off some steam before you burned the whole building down.

You rushed down the stairs, down every elevator, and all the way down to the empty field in front of the Avenger’s Tower near the aircraft. You felt the flames wanting to come out of your hands, but you tried your best to suppress them. Frantically looking around, you finally spotted a metal storage container.

Running inside, you shut the door and dropped to your knees finally letting the flames ignite. You cried your feelings out, this time not holding back. The flames engulfed the entire space.

A small part of you was fearful about not being able to contain it, but you knew you had to let it go. No one in this compound listens to you. It’s like they just want to keep you here to stay out of the way.

Was it for your benefit or theirs?

A knock on your door interrupted your thoughts, but you didn’t bother to turn around. Not that it would have mattered at this point. After releasing your emotions, you took a cold shower to cool off before coming back to your room at the Tower. The tower seemed empty. There was a stale stillness in the air that could be cut with a knife.

You couldn’t help but feel that everything was your fault. If you had just been able to stop underestimating yourself, maybe things would have happened differently. Or if you would have maybe just trained a bit more.

The door clicked signifying that someone was entering your room.

“Hey, mind if I come in?”

You turned around, lifting your gaze as your eyes fell on the handsome soldier before turning back around to face the window. There was nothing to be said. You and Bucky had always had this unspoken bond since the day you joined the Avengers. Whenever you were having a bad day, he was always there to talk about it and vice versa. Was there more underneath the surface than the two of you would like to acknowledge? Yes.

You watched as the trees flowed in the wind looking as peaceful as it could be, the opposite of how you were feeling.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

He closed the door behind him and trudged next to you. He pulled up a chair and sat down, mirroring your actions by gazing outside the window.

“What’s there to talk about?” you dismissed.

“No one is blaming you,” he said, leaning back in the seat and crossing his arms over his chest.

You scoffed, shaking your head. “Oh really,” you mumbled, “I’m sure Steve would beg to differ.”

Gossip spreads like wildfire throughout the Tower and there was no way that anyone was going to be oblivious to what was going on. There was no easy way to sugar coat it. You fucked up and Steve knew this would happen. It’s plain and simple.

“Steve is just upset right now and will get over it. The mission was already a work in progress, to begin with. I don’t know exactly what went down, but your powers are stronger than you realize and with just a little bit more training-”

“Stop!” you shouted, standing up. Your chair fell behind you with a loud thud. Bucky jerked his head at your outburst but remained seated. He knew you were overwhelmed and wasn’t going to invalidate how you were feeling.

“No one listens to me! I was doing what I thought was right! I didn’t realize what I was doing until it was too late. It doesn’t matter how much ‘training’ I do, no one is there to help me!”

“And you have every right to feel that way. No one is blaming you, things happen. We live and we learn. It a part of life, Y/N. I recognize that I will never understand the struggles you are going through, but I can try.”

“Don’t patronize me, Buck,” you frowned. Truth be told, you just wanted someone to appreciate you.

This time, he stood up and placed both hands on either side of your shoulders. “I’m not. Look, how about we go out tonight to get your mind off things. Then, when you’re feeling better, we can discuss a plan to talk it out with the rest of the team.”

“They’re not going to listen to me.”

“I’ll make sure they listen, okay? Now, go get dressed before I dress you myself. You’ve got thirty minutes,” he winked pulling you in for a hug, to which you gladly returned.

Maybe you do need a night out.

[isolaradiale]

As suddenly as the Subversion Incident came, it passed with a similar absence of fanfare. Weeks passed since the moment the copies had been either sealed away proper or eliminated, and general unrest plagued a city without as much as a peep from Ofiuco nor the scarcely known forces that kept their prison in place.

For what reason did it all occur? Was it worth all of the suffering? What would become of those that murdered their own copies in cold blood? Heavy questions like these hung over the heads of Spirale’s citizens, answers not available to them. At least, not available for the moment.

—————

Ofiuco laid flat against the table she’d first awakened on, cords and cables attached to various parts of her body. In the aftermath of the incident her presence had been requested for a diagnostic. The hearts of others. It was something she hadn’t been able to properly grasp until now, but something had changed as a result of this incident.

The sadness she felt upon seeing the citizens live out false lives paired with the tragedy she’d been asked to enforce had pushed her to act of her own volition. Sealing the clones was never meant to be an option, rather her initial orders had been to create a scenario where the otherworlders would be end up having to kill them.

Sealing? That had been by Ofiuco’s own design, and it had used up valuable resources to boot. She’d also marked each otherworlder that had been so crass as to destroy their clone with a safe alternative on the table. The marking was no bigger than a dime on their upper arm (or equivalent if they weren’t human), in the shape of a simple red ‘X’. What did it mean? The citizens didn’t know, of course.

But the island had been opened up and the incident was hardly a failure; in fact some might say it was more of a success than originally planned. Imbuing a spark of humanity in one of their machines exceeded expectations. Or perhaps it was the intention all along?

Regardless, the change in Oficuo sparked a flurry of research to be conducted over the android. Some Galaxy members were proud of her, others slightly annoyed at the extra work or complete disobedience, but they were all excited over her development. It was likely the tests and monitoring would take a while to finish conducting, but time would go on regardless and it wouldn’t be long before she saw the light of the city once more.

CLOSING NOTES

As a reward for participating in both parts of this event, we will be allowing characters to claim a weapon (or if all of their weapons are unlocked already, a small power unlock). More information regarding this will be coming soon, so keep an eye on the Ask the Galaxy blog.

Remember that because the rerun took place within the Intraspace, no items or anything can be brought from it into the real city. Digital data like photos or videos will be corrupted. But that doesn't mean you won't be able to regain that in the future...

KSHT... KSSSSSSHT.... KSSSSSSSSSHT!

"IS ANYONE THERE? CAN ANYONE HEAR US? EVERYONE... KSSSSSSHT... DANGER!"