#xor reads

[friendly-rat-king]

[friendly-rat-king]

One of the more rewarding things I've done this year, and something I plan to do again next year. Highly recommend.

January: Looking Back, Ursula K. LeGuin (c. 2015)

February: Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson (1833)

March: Sailing to Byzantium, W B Yeats (1933)

April: The Wreck of the Deustschland (I), Gerard Manley Hopkins (1876)

May: From fairest creatures we desire increase (Sonnet 1), William Shakespeare (1609)

June: The Truth the Dead Know, Anne Sexton (1962)

July: Three sonnets (2, 3, & 20), William Shakespeare (1609)

August: Two sonnets (ii & vi), Edna St Vincent Millay (1931)

September: Home is So Sad, Philip Larkin (1988)

October: Ozymandius, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818)

November: Pale Fire (first stanza), John Francis Shade/Vladimir Nabakov (1962)

December: Sonnets from the Portuguese 1, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1845)

take the 2024 dostoyevsky-official challenge: every month, learn one poem by heart. it could be in any language, it could be poetry you already know, it could be poetry you're reading for the first time, it could be a sonnet, it could be a ballad: go wild (but for this, i recommend choosing canonical poetry in your chosen language, not poetry in translation, nor something new). above all, poetry, language charged with meaning to the ultimate degree, is meant to be read aloud, to be felt with the tongue. by the end of the year, you'll have a better intuitive understanding of the poet's craft, of the possibility and beauty of language, an improved reading style, and, through the memorization process, a deep knowledge of each chosen poem—and you'll have committed 12 poems to heart, sitting around for any occasion, keeping you company wherever you go

[datchscursedblog]

Uhm hi guys uh I made a Silly Billy cover with bb and xor and erm... There is the video

Imagine what

THE PERSON WHO I DID TAKE INPO TO RESPONDED ME WITH SOME FACTS AND LYRICS OMGOMGOMHOMGIMGONNAEXPLOTEOMG

[its-xornoth-bitch]

For the ask game.

17, 18, 38

17: I don't really miss anyone. I have a handful of people I care about, and they're all still with me. I guess if I had to give an answer, I'd say Scott. Yeah, we're close, but... It's not the same. I'm terrified he hates me all the time and he's got better things to worry about than me.

18: Uh. There's a lot of them. I don't think I could pick just one.

38: There never was a choice. I was going to be King of Rivendell and that was that. But I would've wanted to be anything else.

[nesonkin]

My perspective on shipping characters that are canonically aroace (romance and/or/xor sex repulsive) as someone who identifies as aroace is simple. It's totally OK, but it's glaringly obvious when you do it without any regard to a character's orientation.

Because to me, it's just infinitely more interesting to explore one's struggles and desires when it comes to relationships with respect to their position on the aroace spectrum, than if I were to read yet another story where someone is magically okay being in a relationship with that one person.

To me aspec characters are primed for some interesting introspection on what a relationship is, what attraction is, what it means to love someone (all the different kinds of love) and how you choose to express it because those are the things that aro/ace people often have to think about in this amatonormative world we live in. For clarity's sake, I do not mean to suggest that non-aspec stories can't have those questions and themes too. Just that in my experience, I could not live a day without having to debate these topics with allos.

And that's not even going into non-partnering and loveless aces that are just as important part of the community as those that may seek companionship.

I hope all of this makes sense because I totally understand if this may come off wrong somehow. In short, if you're aspec, then you probably already get it, and you're off the hook. But if you're not my advice would be to pay attention to aspec experiences and learn to incorporate that into your stories, headcanons, or whatever. It always helps to learn something new.

[friendly-rat-king]

I just finished Murder by Latitude and wow do I love Mr. Dumarque. What a guy.

The conversation above takes place a few steps away from the scene of a murder.

I'm fairly certain this is the first time Dumarque has ever spoken to Valcour (aka the detective investigating the murder).

When Valcour asks if he knows the other passengers, Dumarque immediately launches into this monologue (to a total stranger) (who is actively investigating a murder):

Bizarre. Incredible. Valcour is really "yes, and"-ing like the pro he is.

(Everyone else in the book speaks like a normal person.)

Look, I can't possibly quote every scene where Dumarque is Dumarque-ing. You should just read the book.

Skipping ahead, in the classic scene where the detective gathers everyone together and reveals the murderer, Dumarque interrupts and takes over, despite not actually knowing who the murderer is.

(Final bullet point beneath the readmore because of mild spoilers)

Check out this rom-com epilogue.

there is no heterosexual explanation for this

[revenant-coining]

4 Pronoun Flags PT.17

(pt: 4 Pronoun Flags PT.17 /end pt)

(id: a rectangular flag with 7 horizontal lines. sizes in order from top to bottom are very thick, 2 thin, medium, 2 thin, and very thick. colors in order from top to bottom are a gradient from dark red to pink to dark purple. in the center of the flag is dark pink text that reads “xor/xors”. /end id)

(id: a rectangular flag with 7 horizontal lines. sizes in order from top to bottom are very thick, 2 thin, medium, 2 thin, and very thick. colors in order from top to bottom are deep blue, purple, purple-pink, pink, purple-pink, purple, and deep blue. in the center of the flag is deep blue text that reads “zix/zixs”. /end id)

(id: a rectangular flag with 7 horizontal lines. sizes in order from top to bottom are very thick, 2 thin, medium, 2 thin, and very thick. colors in order from top to bottom are dark red, red-brown, brown, pale yellow, brown, red-brown, and dark red. in the center of the flag is dark red text that reads “zr/zrs”. /end id)

(id: a rectangular flag with 7 horizontal lines. sizes in order from top to bottom are very thick, 2 thin, medium, 2 thin, and very thick. colors in order from top to bottom are dark red, reddish orange, orange, white, orange, reddish orange, and dark red. in the center of the flag is dark red text that reads “⚡/⚡z”. /end id)

Xor/xors, zix/zixs, zr/zrs, & ⚡/⚡z 3rd Person Pronoun Flags!

for cam & kami!

tagging; @radiomogai, @pronoun-flags, @pronoun-arc

[sora-fish]

So uh. I did something. A little silly.

Another au (I know I have a problem.) but.. but crazy bitches 🫶 anyways here is a small little snippet from the AU cause I’m not ok. (P.s thank you Xor for the idea I totally took it and ran.)

CW for NEEDLES!! Syringes to be exact, be warned!

Vyncent didn’t really love the smell of medical supplies.

It was something that he wasn’t used too yet, a weird difference from back home when all he had to worry about was going to a nurse after a difficult mission. Now though, it was different.

The smell of new, clean supplies filled all of his senses- frankly making him dizzy where he sat on the medical chair. The paper crinkled from under him didn’t help with this sensory overload either..

But it was just what he had to do. Or, that’s what Bell said. Too make sure Vyncent can adjust to such a modern world, he said.

Speak of the devil, the door to this little doctor’s office swung open, and there stood the person he came to know as Bell. He had shaggy black hair with a chunk in the front dyed white, obviously trying to be hidden by the darker strands. His eyes were a brown, and had big circles under them.

It mostly just looked like the man was a tired doctor, but Vyncent knew better.

Bell smiled to see Vyncent already sitting, walking over and taking his own seat next to him “Vynce! It’s good to see you again, how have you been adjusting to the new world?”

Vyncent only could shrug, feeling his voice die in his throat. At the lack of response, Bell felt his smile drop slightly, pushing his chair away against a wall of tools.

“Nothin? Seriously, when will you learn that just talking to me really will get you so many places” Bell almost lazily leaned back, looking through a new things before grabbing an empty syringe and standing, tapping it slightly.

Vyncent stood his ground, trying to stare daggers at the man that stood infront of him. It would have worked on Fauna, where everyone knew him as a great, intimidating hero that fought dragons and Demi gods-

Not here though. The look made Bell giggle. Giggle.

Nothing more than that giggle left his mouth as he grabbed Vyncents arm- and frankly? Vynce couldn’t find the energy in him to fight back. It was apart of the schedule now, just another thing to tick off the list.

Bell hummed softly before, without much hesitation, stabbing the syringe into Vyncents arm- earning a hiss from the elf and a ‘tsk’ from bell.

“You’d really think you’d be used to this now, huh Vynce?” Bell smirked, a cocky ass smirk that only read one thing. He won. And he would continue to win.

And the only thing that Vyncent could do is sit and let his head swirl with the dizziness loosing his blood would give him.

Maybe one day he could win. But not today. Not right now.

[giulliadella]

Would you read this comic?

This is a comic I want to drop on Webtoon. It's a silly sci-fi romance between two outcasts from different planets running away from evil empire tm.

Konem Petrovich is a social studies major from the planet Uryan who just wanted a peaceful life, but got caught in some serious intergalactic conspiracy and has to stay with Onyx.

Onyx Taka is from the planet Xor and she is wanted by the evil empire that rules on her planet for reasons. She is an astrobiologist and borderline insane.

They will travel the Andromeda galaxy together to escape the Empire and I'll be able to indulge in lots of alien biology and ecosystems showcase. The story will have quite a lot of twists and wild shit happening, even though it sounds generic.

Onyx's chest has "Suck my tits" written on the display. There will be lots of fun codes to solve as well :3

[yaldabaothadeez]

Finally deciding on whim* to actually learn the Japanese writing system properly (yes, I'm a failure of a weeb for not doing this sooner), and, while I already knew about all the normal complaints - two redundant syllabaries, pretending it all forms a neat consonant-vowel table when it just doesn't, "h" gets "voiced" to "b" for some reason - somehow I'd avoided finding out that there's syntactic font size.

That must be a pain for graphic designers.

*I can read a fair bit of Chinese, and I'm amused by the idea of being in a situation where for any piece of text I either** know what it means xor how it's pronounced.

**"xeither"?

[squish36-writes-and-draws]

Import Cygnus Oscuro

Summary: Creative Writing Final. It's a fedex humans are space orcs au. They're forced to be in the proximity of one another and it's fun for everyone except for those directly involved.

Word count : 5244

TW: one (1) swear word, auton (robot) racism including an in-universe slur (thanks, Fitz), absolutely incomprehensible worldbuilding (thanks, Squish)

Taglist (lmk if you want to be added/removed!): @stellar-lune @faggot-friday @kamikothe1and0nly @nyxpixels @florida-preposterously @poppinspop @uni-seahorse-572 @solreefs @i-loved-while-i-lied @rusted-phone-calls @when-wax-wings-melt @good-old-fashioned-lover-boy7 @dexter-dizzknees @abubble125 @hi-imgrapes @callum-hunt-is-bisexual @callas-pancake-tree @hi-my-name-is-awesome @katniss-elizabeth-chase @arson-anarchy-death @dizzeners @thefoxysnake @olivedumdum @loveution

On Ao3 or below the cut!

Bonus worldbuilding / q&a / suffering because I doubt any of this makes sense

    import pandas as pd

    import numpy as np

    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

    from sklearn import datasets, model_selection, metrics

    from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split, cross_val_score

    from sklearn.preprocessing import *

    from sklearn.neighbors import KNeighborsClassifier

    from sklearn.metrics import *

    “Once again, what do you mean by Eifelia? The planet itself or the system as a whole, including its moons?” Sophie asks, staring out the window at the receding planetary surface as their spaceship affectionately called the ‘Cygnus Oscuro’ lifts off the ground. 

    “Eifelia has only one confirmed inhabited moon, Batyrbai. Your home planet of Datson is the only satellite in the Telychian system to have more than one moon that is suitable for habitation. Supplies were acquired at the port of Darriwilian, located at 25.78, -80.21, on the planet of Eifelia itself,” Dex replies, reading off the coordinates from the corner of xor vision. 

    It’s very easy to read off coordinates when xor neural network is constantly searching for information that it thinks will be helpful to xem. It, more often than not, is entirely extraneous information, but it is difficult to discern when, exactly, it will be of assistance. 

    Dex continues, “Five crew members departed in preparation for Eifelia’s cyclical festival of Batyrbai appearing full in the sky from the dark side of the planet. In turn, three crew members embarked.”

    Dex’s fan freezes up. “One of these crew members is human, which hail from Earth, most accurately described as a ‘Death Planet’. It is located in the system of Sol, 40.3 light years away. Take care to avoid any and all possible conflicts.” 

    Sophie fixes Dex an unbelieving look. “They can’t be that bad.”

    Article after article scroll across Dex’s field of vision. “They’ve earned their infamous reputation and most are highly unaware of it. Did you know they have contests to see which one can suffer through the most capsaicin-induced pain? Then, to cool the pain, they consume a drink full of near-impossible-to-digest lactose sugar.”

    “Yeah, and you can bend titanium without even a second thought.”

    “I’m sure a dedicated enough one would figure out how to do that.” 

    Sophie rolls his eyes. “I’ll make sure to tell Keefe not to be an intergalactic space wyrm this week but I don’t think that’s going to be happening any time soon.” 

    Dex’s processor runs the numbers, and Sophie is correct for once. In any other situation, a correct prediction from him would be a thing to praise, but in this particular case, it’s more worrisome for Keefe’s safety.

    stars_df = pd.Dataframe(data=stars.data, columns=stars.feature_names)

    stars_df.iloc[39060]

    name                “Beta Pictoris c”

    distance_ly         60         # light years, 3*10^8 m/s

    yerkes_stellar_class    “A6V”

    mass                4658.44    # Eifelia masses, 4.13*10^24 kg

    orbital_period         197.55     # Eifelia years

    grav_accel         182.470    # m/s^2

    surface_temp        1250       # kelvin

    “Greetings,” Dex’s assigned partner says as Dex slides into the chair next to him. His voice is blanketed with a thick accent Dex’s processor is unable to place, though the circling loading sign in the top corner is certainly trying. Such is the curse of exploring new planets faster than xor updates are able to keep track of them. 

    Today’s mission is expected to make that problem worse, although only slightly.     

    “I’m Fitz,” he says, holding out a hand.    

    “I’m D3x+3r,” Dex replies, not actually pronouncing the numbers like numbers even if they should be pronounced like numbers because they are numbers. The loading wheel is still circling around itself. “Although most people call me Dex because apparently two syllables is too many. I don’t understand it either.” 

    Fitz’s hand falls into his lap. “Nice to meet you, Dex.” He pauses. “Unless you have anything else I’ve forgotten, I think we can probably get going down to the surface so that we can get back sooner than later.” 

    Dex pushes away the loading circle in favor of the small transport ship’s inventory list. “I believe we have everything. If that is a false presumption, the communication link with the Cygnus Oscuro is up and running.” 

    Fitz gently undocks from the Cygnus Oscuro and that’s when Dex’s processor finally decides to provide xem with any information. It’s odd how it’s so proficient with useless information and finally now that it’s relevant, it takes a suspiciously long time. 

    It apparently doesn’t think it’s a major priority to know that xe’s just been sealed into a very small shuttle with a human. No big deal. This is both fine and normal. It’s not like they’re documented to have very short tempers. 

    Now the accent makes sense. Humans have hundreds of different languages, owing to their incredibly diverse geographic distribution. Most other species, including the Eifelians, only exist in small pockets in the corners of their worlds. Humans looked at that and went ‘no, I don’t think I will.’ Any other species is almost immediately recognizable by their accent but humans. They live to be difficult. 

    Even if the accent hadn’t been atrociously obvious in hindsight, the lines streaking across his skin—Blaschko lines, Dex’s processor claims—should have given his heritage away. The even more entertaining part is that most humans don’t even know they have them. 

    Dex’s processor is able to pull up Fitz’s official file without too much difficulty, and that seems like a mostly safe conversation to have instead of stilted silence. “So, how long have you been part of Parallax?” 

    “Well, my parents have worked here since before I was born, so the answer I usually give is, ‘Yes.’ How about you?” 

    “I was built on Gzhelia roughly 250 Eifelia years ago.” Dex pauses, converting this to a unit hopefully a little more familiar to Fitz. “That’s a little more than 4 Earth years.” 

    Fitz’s brows draw together. “Built?”

    Dex’s fan pauses in such a way that it sounds like a sigh as xe pulls back the artificial skin away from xor wrist, revealing the wires twisting underneath. A green fiber optic cable shimmers in the artificial light of the shuttle. 

    “I am aware that I am running on slightly older hardware, but I promise that my software is as updated with the most current Parallax Dataframes an update cycle half an Eifelia year ago could provide. Again, for ease of conversion, that is about three Earth days.”

    “You can stop with that. The conversions. I’ve grown up around more Eifelia time than Earth time.” 

    “I apologize. I was simply trying to prevent any incidental miscommunication before there was an issue. I will refrain from it in the future.” 

    The table of conversions still floats in front of Dex’s vision like a temporary burn-in.    

    Dex and Fitz sit in a silence that even Dex’s emotion identifier that was deprecated two years ago can identify as uncomfortable. Xe really should get around to installing a new one. 

    Fitz is the one to break the silence. “How’d you know I was human? Your little CPU tell you?” 

    Dex nods slowly. “Yes, it did, along with installing several files explaining your species’ customs. I can feel one of them slowing down my SSD flash memory with its sheer size.” 

    “Yeah, yeah, we all get it. Humans are big and loud and dumb and there’s so many of us that you can’t be bothered to learn all of it.” 

    Fitz flicks a half-dozen switches, initiating the landing sequence of the shuttle now that it is within the last thousand kilometers of altitude. The reason that it has to be activated so early is due to Beta Pictoris C’s incredibly high gravitational acceleration, causing the shuttle to have a much higher velocity than if it were under the gravitational influence of most other planets. 

    In other, more numerical terms, gravitational acceleration on Beta Pictoris C at the surface is about 182.970 m/s2, while, for reference, Eifelia’s is 8.011 m/s2. Of course, they are still up in the air, meaning that their orbital radius is slightly larger than the planet’s radius, but that really is not that much of a difference due to the sheer scale of the planet. 

    It’s no wonder Parallax has chosen the two of them for this mission—they’re the most likely to not be crushed under the sheer weight of the surface gravity. Or, more accurately, their own weight due to the increased surface gravity. 

    Fitz touches down gently, one of the very few landings Dex has experienced without involving a significant amount of screaming. 

    “Are you ready to go find one amino acid and then leave?” he asks, standing up. 

    Searching for life on planets like these is, for lack of a better descriptor, a neural-network-numbing process involving taking a few dirt samples while trying to make sure that Dex’s zinc components don’t get instantaneously vaporized, among other problems. 

    A-type stars aren’t even the hottest ones out there, but they’re on the very edge of what is believed to be habitable due to their instability. Their scarcity in the universe also makes it much more unlikely for life to have the opportunity to form around one. 

    It’s nearly inhospitable to every life form currently described, leaving a few carbon-fiber autons to figure out how to sample things on stars-forsaken planets that are literally half the surface temperature of Eifelia’s home star, Telychia. 

    “It would probably be beneficial to don some protective clothing before doing that, even if Beta Pictoris C is nearing aphelion and we have landed on the night side. Do you happen to know if it is tidally locked?”

    “That’s not in your file system?”

    “I regrettably am unable to locate it if it is.” 

    Fitz rolls his eyes, muttering, “Turing incomplete,” under his breath. 

    It takes a few milliseconds for Dex’s processor to provide the context to that statement, and that context is not a flattering one. Its origins lie with both the first human theoretical computer scientist, Alan Turing, and it became popularized due to Earth’s history with artificial intelligence. 

    It’s…not a pleasant history. 

    “Do you believe that infinite memory is possible? Because everything is technically only Turing complete when it is assumed to have infinite amounts of memory, which is impossible to create in the real world. Thus, every device, including this shuttle and your knee replacement is Turing incomplete.

    “Yeah, but at least I can feel emotions.”

    Fitz slides the heat suit’s helmet over his head, obscuring his face.

    “Most of your emotions are induced by shifts in hormonal signals. The Floians don’t have hormones. Does that mean that they too are artificial because they do not experience emotions in the same way that you do?” 

    Fitz opens the shuttle door, pressing himself against the wall to avoid being blown away by both the swirling, windy atmosphere blowing dust into all of the delicate machinery of the shuttle and the zeroth law of thermodynamics. 

    Dex’s fan immediately kicks into its highest gear, and it will stay there as long as the door remains open, barring some catastrophic, friction-related disaster. 

    “The Floians had to figure out how to evolve on their own. That should be a reasonable enough distinction for you.”

    “That implies that genetically modified organisms don’t count as organisms. And then, most autons learn via a reinforcement algorithm that mimics how evolution works in order to train a neural network. That’s the thing that I have making decisions in my ‘little CPU’ and its trillion transistors. How many neurons do you have again?”

    Fitz steps out into the outside, his suit making him look like a large orange nebula. Hopefully the door doesn’t decide to close with its own artificial consciousness like last time. That was not a fun time. 

    “Why do you ask when you could just search through your files? I’m sure it’s in there.” 

    “The answer was 135 billion,” Dex says flatly. That would be a more relevant description if xe was able to inflect xor speech more, but xe has found the setting to make xor voice a specific frequency and uses it a touch more than xe probably should. 

    Fitz turns back to Dex. “What are you doing? The sooner we get these samples into your file system, the sooner I stop looking like the stay puft marshmallow man.”

    Dex smiles as the image flashes across xor vision. Xe follows Fitz down the ramp, revealing the expected vast desertlike landscape of Beta Pictoris C.

    It’s significantly too hot for water to remain liquid but—there’s something odd about the erosion patterns. Those might not just be wind erosion. Xe downloaded a whole library of algorithms a couple of months ago. 

    Ignoring Fitz’s demands to know where xe’s going, Dex approaches one of the striated, gray rock formations. 

    url = 'https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTCZgoegOH a49SFXYU-ZZTdCkgTp0sn&single=true&output=csv'

    rocks_df = pd.read_csv(url)

    features = rocks[["depth", "width", "mohs_hardness"]]

    label = stars_df["class"]

    X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = model_selection.train_test_split(features, label, test_size = 0.2, random_state = 42)

    model = KNearestNeighbor(n_neighbors = 53)

    model.fit(X_train, y_train)

    new_rock = pd.Dataframe([7,4,6.5])

    pred = model.predict(new_rock)

    A smile blossoms across Dex’s face. “We’ve got liquid erosion. It’s slightly less viscous than water, but liquid erosion nonetheless.” 

    Fitz stares at xem, waiting for an explanation that takes a long time to get there. 

    “I’m going to have to run some simulations on the ship because I don’t have enough RAM for the kind of resolution I want, but there’s potential that there used to be water here, and I’m sure you’re aware of how water and life are synonymous. Most of the time.” 

    Dex carefully scrapes off a corner of the ashy sandstone column for further study because xe, quite unfortunately, doesn’t have a built-in mass spectrometer. It’s also generally good practice to collect samples. 

    Another aspect of good practice is to look at more than one rock before drawing conclusions about an entire planet. 

    Dex traces into the dirt a simple sketch of Fitz in his marshmallow suit. He’s lucky to have all of his appendages attached, let alone proportional. Dex then takes a sample of the dirt. The mixing helps to paint a better picture of what the sand is like, rather than just the solar-radiation-exposed topsoil. 

    Suddenly, Fitz swears, pointing at something in the vial. That something is a little creature wiggling its way around the glass. 

    Dex nearly drops it, which would have been a less than ideal decision, as xe tries to find the little guy who is desperately trying to not be seen. 

    The little guy is a fairly standard arthropod-style body plan, with an exoskeleton, a number of legs that is larger than 2 and smaller than the number required for ‘burn it alive’ algorithms to kick in. So somewhere in the 6,8,10 range is probably pretty reasonable. 

    Although, to be fair, even numbers are more of a guideline than anything else. Once again, Earth is an exception to the rule with a three legged fish down in some of the deepest parts of its oceans. Also echinoderms with their five-fold radial symmetry. 

    “You, uh, might want to put him down,” Fitz suggests. “You don’t want to be charged with kidnapping should that little bug guy who I’m now going to be naming Fred turn out to have a consciousness.”

    Humans’ inclination to name creatures that have no way of communicating with them is a fairly large section in their file overview. It seems as though this can even occur with inanimate objects, which just links to a page advertising a pet rock, whatever that’s supposed to mean. 

    Dex pours the vial back onto the ground and attempts to take another sample without kidnapping another Fred. 

    Is that how human naming goes? Does it really matter? 

    The only reason this is a question is probably because It feels like all of Dex’s wires are currently being poached in the water designed to cool them. 

    There’s another one in the next vial. And the next. It’s almost like spontaneous generation but, like, not yet disproven by putting meat in a jar and covering it so maggots don’t get laid on it. 

    Yeah, that’s literally what the humans decided to do. Specifically one named Francesco Redi. Seems like a waste of calories for a species who needs to eat a lot of them to support their endothermic metabolisms. At least they figured it out in the end. 

    The fourth attempt seems to be safe as Dex only fills the vial halfway and shakes it extensively to avoid accidental kidnapping. Now the only possible complication could be microscopic creatures, but that’s past the point of reasonable care. 

    Fitz spends another few minutes gallivanting around, likely wandering around for more interesting samples, even if the entire report is already writing itself in the back of Dex’s processor. 

    He returns with a half dozen more samples of varying mineral compositions which get stored in his marshmallow suit’s pockets. “I saw another guy. Sorry I couldn’t get a picture, but he kind of looked like a scorpion. If you know what those are.”

    Dex nods, projecting a picture of one onto the first rock ledge just to prove that xe has image files stored in xor drive. 

    “Yeah, he looked kind of like that.”

    Dex switches the picture to a different one, one that isn’t necessarily a true scorpion. That doesn’t stop Eurypterus from colloquially being called a sea scorpion. It also doesn’t stop them from being extinct on Earth for around 252 million of its own years. 

    Fitz repeats, louder this time, “Yeah, he looked kind of like that.” 

    Fitz’s new best friend the Beta Pictoris C scorpion, who notably has yet to be blessed with a name, hops up onto the rock ledge, and it’s remarkable how similar they look, albeit the hologram being significantly larger. Blue swirls across its hardened exterior, and its pincers look like they’re very ready to reduce the number of fingers Dex has. 

    A warning light flicks on in the corner of Dex’s vision, cutting off access to xor files. 

    “We should probably be getting back to the ship. I have the coordinates of our landing point so that a larger, more prepared team can conduct a more detailed study. And before you begin to state that we are that team, if I am to stay out here for much longer, I will probably end up shutting down, and that is a burden I would rather not impose upon you.”

    It’s kind of odd how Dex’s vision is able to start flickering as xor processor threatens to have enough for the day. One would think it would work the same as when it gets too cold, but no. One second, xe’s completely fine and the next, xe’s restarting after eighteen hours trapped in an avalanche. 

    This is a normal experience. It’s not Dex’s first time, and most other autons xe has communicated with have had similar ones. It’s a risk associated with the job, and xor data won’t be lost in anaerobic environments the same way that data in an biologically-designed brain will. 

    Unless that brain belongs to an obligate or facultative anaerobe, but the vast majority of intelligent species do require some form of a gas to function. Many use oxygen, but carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide are fairly common as well. 

    Dex and Fitz make their way back into the spaceship and make absolutely certain that the hatch is sealed before peeling off their marshmallow suits. Dex’s blinking temperature warning sign disappears, but xor fan still remains running at full speed. 

    Fitz collapses into the pilot’s chair, sweat streaking down his brow, and barely waits for Dex to sit down beside him before lifting off. 

    They once again sit in an uncomfortable silence, punctuated only by the sounds of Fitz flipping various switches on the shuttle’s control panels. 

    Dex makes half a note that xe should learn how to fly a ship at some point, although Sophie would rapidly abuse that particular ability. 

    Once xe’s back aboard the Cygnus Oscuro, xe locates the mass spectrometer in order to analyze the samples before Fitz starts telling everyone about the larger portion of their discovery, because then xe’s going to have to answer other people’s questions instead of xor own.

    url = ‘https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16lsnIQaP37r682gKuz CZp-YqLgCis-Ln4PSaDEpiAjw/edit#gid=0’

    mass_spec = pd.read_csv(url) 

    compounds = []

    for i in range(mass_spec.size()): 

        id = identify(mass_spec[i]) 

        compounds += id 

     It turns out to absolutely no one’s surprise that liquid water doesn’t exist inside of the rock samples, but tricobalt tetraoxide, Co3O4, is in there, and it is a liquid at the planet’s surface temperature. It’s certainly a choice for an electron donor, and it’s kind of a wonder the entire planet isn’t bright blue with the Cobalt (ii) ions. 

    Dex isn’t surprised to find out that by the time xe’s had enough time with the samples that the entire ship knows about the little arthropod that was found, even if they aren’t formally related to the Earthen order of arthropoda Fitz is comparing it to. 

    They look similar. It’s close enough. 

    What Dex is surprised to find is that everyone wants a tour to see them despite the fact that the vast majority of the crew would acquire heat stroke almost instantaneously. This is xor thirty-sixth mission to actually go down onto a planet for the first time—autons are cheaper to replace than biological organisms—and this is by far the biggest response to a new species. 

    It’s odd. Xe doesn’t like it. 

    Dex’s neural network wants to blame it on Fitz, and there really isn’t any data to contradict that particular hypothesis. It also makes it a very difficult hypothesis to test, which makes it significantly less useful as a hypothesis. 

    On the other hand, a useful hypothesis would be one relating to the actual little alien creatures that for some reason are able to live on a planet that’s more similar to a furnace than a habitable landscape. 

    And so, against all logical reasons surrounding the temperature of a planet known to be at least twice the temperature of the hottest previously confirmed life forms. Of course it’s on Earth. Hydrothermal vents don’t look like a place where organisms could live, and then they’re just down there chilling. That’s probably not the best choice of a descriptor. 

    When in doubt, the answer is more often than not ‘Earth is a weird planet.’ 

    The journey back down to the surface with Fitz passes with significantly less fanfare than the first, the beeping of the ship being obnoxiously loud in the deafening silence. 

    They touch down, Fitz not taking as much care as last time with making sure the landing has as little of a change in momentum as possible, which is to say that it’s nowhere near the gentle landing of the first trip. 

    Fitz leans back and sighs. “Do you have any commentary you’d like to provide or are you ready to go and collect data so we can finish our reports on this planet?”

    “I mean, I’m always collecting data, even if it's only a live feed of my precise coordinates getting thrown into a plaintext file never to be seen again, so the answer is closest to both of the above.” 

    That does not seem to be the answer Fitz wants as he takes one of his bags of human snacks—potato chips, according to what’s printed on the yellow label—and throws it into the garbage can in the corner. 

    “Wow.” Dex’s visual apertures widen. “I didn’t realize that throwing projectiles with accuracy was a human skill. I’ll make sure to add that to my files, as well as to the main system.”

    Fitz’s eyes flash, his features drawing into hard lines. “Are you physically incapable of not being condescending? I get it. I’m a human. I’m from a death planet. Humans are weirder than fucking dark energy. It doesn’t require that many comments about it to get your point across!”

    Dex pauses, letting xor neural network fully process Fitz’s statements before replying, “I don’t understand where I was being condescending.”

    “You just did it two sentences ago!”

    “I did not do anything two sentences ago. It was genuinely quite interesting how your species has evolved to throw objects with accuracy, even ones with high surface area to volume ratios such as that bag of chips, because it is not something that has been documented in any other intelligent species.” 

    “Oh, please. It’s a basic skill.”

    “Do remember that your species evolved in part to bring down large prey such as Mammuthus primigenius. Throwing spears at a wooly mammoth directly led to that ability being rewarded with a higher rate of nutrients, and thus resulted in the following generations being more able to throw spears as well.”

    “You know all of that but you didn’t figure out that throwing things is pathetically easy? Your little auton brain isn’t very good at drawing conclusions from data you have, is it?”

    “It is simply something I did not have cause to consider before now, though I do recognize that it would have been quite easy to identify without the inciting event.”

    “And you’ve also said that you have a very large file on humans. Most of our games are based around the concept of throwing a ball. Was that not enough information to extrapolate that maybe we’re good at it?”

    “Games of chance are common in many species. It follows that this could simply be a manifestation of that desire in humans, so games like your ‘basketball’ or ‘baseball’ do not provide sufficient evidence to draw conclusions such as the ones you’re suggesting.”

    Fitz rolls his eyes. “Why do I even bother? It’s not like you’re going to change your mind. You don’t have a mind to change.”

    Dex wants to explain that xor neural network is actually changing its dependence on its individual notes on a regular basis, but that doesn’t seem to be advantageous in this particular context.

    Fitz rolls his eyes, muttering in what is likely his native tongue—one which Dex has not downloaded the translation file of—as he gets into the marshmallow suit once again. 

    They go out, describe a half dozen new arthropod-esque species, each with more legs than the last, and return with more samples with as few words as possible. But nothing is ever allowed to be simple. 

    The hatch on the shuttle has decided today that leaving itself open in the blistering heat is not something it likes to do, and while Fitz and Dex are distracted, it shuts its doors. 

    In turn, it opens the floodgates for Dex to learn some new fun human swear words when Fitz notices what’s happened. 

    “No reason to worry,” Dex says, making xor way through the sand to open up the back emergency panel that exists for exactly this reason. 

    “Uh, I left the keys in there. There’s very much a reason to worry.”

    “And I’ve got admin privileges. It’s fine. Go back to looking for the next beetle you’re going to call your son.”

    “Don’t be rude to Benny like that. He’s not that replaceable.”

home@Cygnus-shuttle-3:~$sudo su

home@Cygnus-shuttle-3:~$******

root@Cygnus-shuttle-3:~$ufw disable 

    There’s no particular reason why the firewall sometimes decides to make the hatch close, and this is enough of a solution for Dex to not go searching for an answer. 

    As the door begins to open again, Fitz asks, “So, what’s the password?”

    “I’m the password.”

    “Yes, yes, I understand that you’re helpful. Now, what’s the password if this were to happen again and you aren’t around?”

    “I’m the password. It’s literally just my name. D3x+3r. It’s got an uppercase character, lowercase character, number, and a special character. My friend Sophie thought he was hilarious when he heard it, so now it’s my password for everything. Don’t tell anyone.”

    “I won’t. I don’t even know where the special characters are even if I wanted to.”

    “The ‘t’ is replaced with a plus. The ‘e’s are fairly obviously transliterated to ‘3’s. There’s nothing fancy going on here.”

    Fitz turns to walk away but stops himself. “The name Sophie feels a little familiar. Does he by any chance know a Keefe?”

    “Yes, actually. The two of them dated for a while. Although I’m not sure if that should be in the past tense. I stopped asking for updates a while ago.” 

    Fitz laughs. “Stars, I wish I could figure out how to do that. I’ve never escaped from them.”

    “Just kind of stare blankly into the distance and people will stop wanting to tell you things. They’re usually doing it because they want compliments on whatever it is they’re telling you, and by depriving them of that, they stop wanting to do that.”

    “Are you sure you’re an auton?”

    Now it’s Dex’s turn to laugh, a sound xe was very much not designed to make, so it sounds more like an out of tune record skipping. “Yeah, I think so. I’ve walked into too many door frames to have gone this long without getting a contusion, which is another thing your species doesn’t particularly care about getting.”

    “Case in point: I found one on my leg yesterday and I have no idea how I got it. It’s already green and I’m not sure how I hadn’t noticed it before. I guess that’s what I get for being from a death world.”

    Dex gestures widely to the rolling desert around xem. “I think Earth’s death world status may be a bit outdated. If this isn’t a death world, I don’t know what is, and, by comparison, I’m pretty sure Earth is an absolute paradise. You didn’t have to evolve to use tricobalt tetraoxide as an electron donor.”

    “We’ve also had five mass extinctions,” Fitz interjects. 

    “So has everybody else, including the Datsonians, even if their government would rather not admit that out loud. You’re not special.”

    Fitz snaps his fingers inside of the marshmallow suit, which does not work well with the thick padding of the gloves. “And that’s exactly what I wanted you to admit.”

    “Is that why you volunteered to come back down here?”

    “That was mostly a decision based on Parallax’s inability to find another poor sap that would be willing and able to come down here.”

    “Wouldn’t it be really funny if they send a Gzhelian in your place?”

    Fitz smiles, the sound of the air conditioners they use onboard the Cygnus Oscuro at a nice, toasty 200 kelvin having kept him from sleeping for nearly as many hours as Dex has wanted to disconnect xor audio input. 

    A beat of silence stretches in the space between them, but for the first time it isn’t immensely uncomfortable. 

    “We should probably be getting back inside the shuttle before it decides to close again,” Dex says, even if it would be very entertaining if they stood outside long enough for it to grow its own intelligence again. 

    After all, that’s kind of how xe got here. Xe’s going to get replaced by a shuttle door within the next couple of Eifelia years. 

    Xe’ll probably get assigned to, like, repairing the Cygnus Oscuro in all of the places the non-auton mechanics are unable to go, but at least xe’ll have discovered a wondrous new world before that happens. 

    while True: 

        # avoid getting hit by Fitz’s projectiles

# no, seriously, they’re dangerous

        update_coordinates()

        data_status = upload_data()

        if (data_status == True):

            break() 

[friendly-rat-king]

2023 Books

In October I decided to start writing short tumblr posts in response to each book I read. Did I follow through with this decision? Absolutely not! Here's a half-assed list of books I read in 2023, assembled way after the fact:

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (4/5)

I enjoyed comparing/contrasting it with The Handmaiden (aka Park Chan-wook's 2016 film adaptation, which shifts the setting from Dickensian England to Japanese-ruled Korea and dramatically changes the ending). As with The Handmaiden, which I watched first, I feel like if I cut the story into pieces and Frankenstein-ed it together into two separate stories, I would end up with one of my favorite books and one of my least favorite books.

Why I read it: in the process of reading Sarah Waters' entire bibliography.

2. Bunny by Mona Awad (2/5)

This book sucked, BUT there was a really funny scene about 1/3 of the way in where the narrator's high school crush inexplicably shows up and dances with her. It might be worth reading just for that scene (you can stop reading immediately afterwards).

If a book is supposed to be a satire about wealthy women attending graduate school, its not a great sign when it seems like the author has never met a rich person, a woman, or a graduate student. This is even stranger because the author, a woman, attended an Ivy and got a graduate degree in creative writing. I'd love to read the book this is trying to be, but this isn't it.

Why I read it: my sister-in-law recommended it to me specifically (yikes) and I felt obligated to finish it.

3. Infamous by Lex Croucher (5/5)

In the summer of 1816, 18-year-old Mary Shelley famously stayed at the Lake Geneva villa of noted jackass Lord Byron. Trapped inside by shitty weather, Byron's guests competed to see who could write the best ghost story (the winning entry was, of course, "Frankenstein"). Lex Croucher obviously thought this setting in itself was a great book premise, and was absolutely correct.

I was expecting the basic shape of this novel after reading the back cover, and my assumptions about the plot were basically correct. I was NOT expecting even the most minor characters to feel three-dimensional and complicated or to be hit so hard by - well, I can't tell you without spoiling it, but three different conflictto s that are simultaneously of their time and cut very, very close to home. I also wasn't expecting to laugh as hard as I did.

Why I read it: people on my dash kept recommending Gwen & Art Are Not In Love but I didn't want to read YA.

4. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (4/5)

It took me forever to finish this one because I kept finding myself pausing to design a digital glossary to accompany the book. What if, as you read through the description of the garden, the glossary's map of the monastery was suddenly filled in with all of the herbs mentioned, and as you hovered over each illustration (drawn in a pseudo-medieval style, of course) you could learn about the purported and actual properties of each herb? What if I illustrated the intricately carved portal and thoroughly researched the symbolism and history behind each of its components?

Anyway, I was lukewarm enough about the actual ending that I gave up on the project. It would probably be impossible for any ending to live up to a beginning this ambitious, to be fair.

Why I read it: I read that it was an inspiration for Pentiment (a game I still haven't finished, oops).

5. The Bell by Iris Murdoch (4/5)

I might try reading this one again -- there was obviously a ton of cool symbolic symmetry going on that I never quite got the significance of. What I did enjoy was Dora's POV. There's this really wonderful scene near the beginning where Dora spends several paragraphs internally justifying why she shouldn't give up her seat on the train for an old woman. Then, the moment the old woman asks, she impulsively gives up the seat without even thinking of it. Dora spends the rest of the story stumbling haphazardly between moments of grace, never quite aware of why she does any of the things she does, in a way that's simultaneously alien and yet completely plausible.

Why I read it: @conven1encestorewoman mentioned it was one of her favorite books.

6. Either/Or by Elif Batuman (5/5)

I would read anything she wrote. Fingers crossed she makes this into a four-part series.

Why I read it: I loved The Idiot. (Shout-out to @a-rhombus to loaning me her copy.)

7 + 8. A Free Man of Color & Fever Season by Barbara Hambly (5/5)

The book that made me love murder mysteries. The author obviously did a ton of research on 1830's New Orleans and I do love great historical fiction, but what really made it shine was that the "red herrings" weren't dead ends -- each one was essential to the themes of the novel. Highly recommend.

Why I read it: I think @sea-changed mentioned that it was good, I added it to my library queue, and then didn't think about it again until I was notified it was ready to checkout.

9. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (2/5)

Mehhhhh. All (attempts at) shock, very little substance.

Why I read it: my baby sister recommended it.

10. Geek Love by Katherin Dunn (5/5)

"Geek" as in "circus geek," a performed who bites the heads off of live chickens. Tender is the Flesh fuckin wishes it had what Geek Love has. (I have reached the point in this post where I realize I'm not even at the halfway mark and decide to hurry up -- sorry Geek Love, you deserved better.)

Why I read it: @mylestoyne mentioned there were some cool parallels to The Tempest and I decided to check it out.

11. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (5/5)

Absolutely lived up to the hype.

Why I read it: the hype.

12. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (4/5)

The rare book I consumed in audiobook format -- reading James' prose was very difficult for me, and filtering it through an actor helped. I don't know that I enjoyed the process of listening to it, but I really enjoyed thinking about it afterwards.

Why I read it: the prologue of The Haunting of Hill House name-dropped it.

13. The Tempest by William Shakespeare (3/5)

Look, I bumped it up to 3 stars because I felt like I couldn't give Shakespeare anything lower than a 3-star rating, but I really disliked this. Part of is is that I was already familiar with the highlights, and putting them in context diminished them. Ariel's song is way less interesting when you know for a fact that the man supposedly undergoing a sea-change is completely fine; Prospero's final monologue feels less like it's tying together broader themes and more like Shakespeare thought it would be cool to break the fourth wall at the last minute.

Idk, maybe I'm just an idiot. I immediately sought out a series of lectures on youtube about the play + texted people I know who love this play to elaborate on their opinions so they could correct my incorrect opinion, but so far, no dice.

Why I read it: because of the Geek Love parallels.

14. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (2/5)

Bad, as previously discussed.

Why I read it: someone at by brother's wedding said the essay on ketchup was worth reading (it wasn't).

15. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin (4.5/5)

Why I read it: because I wanted to read the sequel.

16. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl (4/5)

Discussed previously.

17. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (4/5)

(Already reviewed this on Goodreads so I can just copy-paste, hurray!) An enjoyable read. The pacing was great, the scene composition reminded me of a Wes Anderson film, and the footnotes were a very effective way of shifting the POV from third person limited to omniscient and back again. I checked the author's Wikipedia page midway through and was unsurprised to learn that he is an investment banker from New York; after all, the villain is the only character who refers to Rostov as "Comrade" (everyone else continues to deferentially call him "the Count") and he doesn't even know his wine pairings! The idyllic representation of pre-revolutionary Russia partially undermines the author's ability to convey the horrors of Soviet Russia. That being said, the tone of the novel is mostly light, and I was able to have fun in spite of this.

Why I read it: my older sister mentioned it was the last book she tried to read before she had kids and they took over her life. So I guess I tried to... symbolically finish it on her behalf? Who knows.

18. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (5/5)

No idea how to describe this one, so I'm just screenshot-ing the first page:

Why I read it: an @a-rhombus recommendation.

19. The Merry Spinster by Daniel Lavery [reread] (5/5)

Extremely effective horror retellings of fairy tales. Impossible to pick a favorite.

Why I (re)read it: because I read a bunch of other good horror fiction this year (not my usual genre) and it reminded me how much I love this collection.

20. The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault (5/5)

Set during a failed attempt to make Plato's Republic a reality (a historical event I somehow didn't know about but that is Highly Relevant to my interests), told from the perspective of an artist (the most interesting viewpoint Renault could have chosen). The descriptions of places made me desperately want to hike across Greece when I get the chance.

Why I read it: @catilinas posted an excerpt that compelled me.

21. The Once and Future Sex by Eleanor Janega (3/5)

Spends a lot of time proving a thesis about modern women I basically already agree with when what I really wanted was more historical details. My fault for not taking the blurb at its word.

Why I read it: a friend I play D&D with recommended it.

22. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K Le Guin (6/5)

Ok it's almost midnight and I don't want to fuck up one of my New Year's resolutions (10 minutes of yoga/day) when I'm only three days into the year. Real summary coming soon (hopefully. maybe).

Why I read it: one of my favorite worldbuilding youtube channels mentioned it was in her top 5 books.

23. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer (3/5)

The thing about giant flying bears is that they're just kinda silly.

Why I read it: the Southern Reach Trilogy was so good.

24. Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (4/5)

Very strong start -- strong enough for the four-star rating -- but the final act pulls way too many punches.

Why I read it: I heard emilyenrose was publishing original fiction.

[mr-abhishek-kumar]

Nearly completed boolean logic [Study Log 11/30//2023 , 17:56]

So I have been reading slow. From yesterday to day, I have completed only 1 thing which is boolean logic, Such as NOT, AND, OR, NAND, NOR, XOR, truth table, and Demorgan's law, I still have to look at logic circuits. I gues I will look at that now. My brainwave entrainment website and app is back burner right now. Not doing anything except posting blog articles when ever I get time.

[siriannatan]

Best Spot for a Nap - scfwhip

It was meant to be a bit shorter but I got another idea so it got a bit longer.

'Go hang out with your fiancé,' his parents told Scott, to his brother's dismay. Unfortunately for Xor, Scott was more than happy to fly to Grimlands to escape all his classes and other princely duties.

First thing he did in Grimlands was, as always, fly a bit over the area. It was dang pretty if a lot less noisy and dusty than one word expect. Not that noise would be any trouble with how high up Scott liked to fly.

Once he was satisfied with flying he flew towards fWhip's manor. It was pretty and comfy enough for Scott's standards and his cooks made excellent tartlets in many flavoursome. As he neared the mansion he spotted fWhip's helpers running around like headless chickens, looking up to the roof. With burning curiosity he checked there first and found...

Count fWhip, the terrifying half-dragon ruler of Grimlands... Spread out on the roof of his home. Having a pleasant nap judging by how he was purring a little bit.

Holding back giggles Scott sat next to him and started playing with his hair. Scratching at the base of his impressive, decorated with dark metal, gold and gems horns. That got him really purring and Scott could no longer hold back his giggles.

"Why are you here?" The count asked, on eye cracking open to stare at the elf who dared interrupt his dragon-nap.

"I was told to hang out with you," Scott grinned, and started to retreat his hand.

"No, no, carry on, that felt nice," fWhip hummed and yawned widely. Shwing off all his sharp teeth. Scott shuddered as his mind conjured rather inappropriate for the moment images.

"Your helpers seem to be panicking about you being here," Scott hummed as he caught some distant yelling for fWhip to come down.

"They probably got a message that you're coming and want me to make myself more presentable," fWhip sighed and sat up with another yawn. Scott was damn lucky that his parents got him a pretty future husband. "We should go down and get them to stop," he sighed and stretched a little. Careful as to not push Scott off the roof.

"Shame, your naps are cute," Scott giggled and got himself an infuriated huff.

"Don't worry, I'm not telling anyone," he added, just to poke him a little bit.

fWhip hummed something about annoyingly pretty elves ruining his plans and jumped down. Gracefully gliding down towards his advisors.

Scott waited until he landed and quickly followed. With a much more graceful landing.

"...lord Scott's coming for a visit he can't..." The advisors fretted and froze as Scott landed behind fWhip, instantly wrapping him in a hug, using that he's taller.

"I don't mind if he's a bit rugged, it's a good look," he grinned and fwhip just rolled his eyes.

"I have stuff to do Scott," fWhip sighed and offered the elf can do whatever he wants. Scott just said he'll tag along for fWhip's day.

To his credit Scott didn't once complain he was bored or tired. Even after two hours in fWhip's office as the count goes over boring paperwork. At least his staff was used to fWhip's constant snacking so they didn't mind supplying Scott with candy and cookies.

"Why do you have children's book in your office?" Scott suddenly asked. fWhip didn't have to look up to know what the elf meant.

"I learned to read with that book," he said with a soft smile. He was so desperate to keep up with Gem he barely did anything but try and learn to read as fast as she could. He never quite managed that.

Scott hummed, fWhip caught him giving the cover of the book an affectionate smile. "I didn't take you for a memento type," he smiled at fWhip this time.

"I have a few I really like," fWhip shrugged. "You can always go to my library if you want something different, stuff in here is mostly ledgers and some personal favourites for when I take a break," he offered but Scott shook his head and read the children's book. He was visibly careful with it. "Gem enchanter it so it'd never break," fWhip half chuckled and returned to his work.

It felt strangely nice to have Scott read that particular book. He must have been starting to get old...

Scott woke up warm and comfy with vague recollection of some fairytale about a knight saving a Princess cursed into a dragon. It was a really nice story. He also remembered being in fWhip's office so he opened his eyes.

He had to be still sleeping. His head was in fWhip's lap, the count was reading some paper. His hair free of his usual short ponytail. Looking absolutely gorgeous in low light of sunset seeping in through the big windows.

"Slept well?" He asked, giving Scott an unfairly handsome smile.

"I... Yes... How long was I asleep?" Scott tried to act tough but quickly gave up and instead sat up. Hoping fWhip didn't see how he blushed.

"Not that long but it's about dinner time," fWhip informed, putting his papers away. "Did you enjoy the stories?"

"Yes, they're quite nice but I'm not sure if all are suitable for children," Scott shrugged and yawned. "You do not mind if I stay the night?"

"Not at all, I actually already send a message to your parent so your brother doesn't match here to kill me," fWhip shook his head with a smile.

Scott rolled his eyes as he followed fWhip to the dining room. He was wondering if he could convince fWhip to let him sleep in his lap. It was darn comfortable.

[kazoofnafhumanaublog]

DUBIOUS. Up to no good

hold on i just realized I'm like. Leaving so many asks I should probably just make a list of my questions at the moment for convenience instead of constantly leaving one and waiting for it to be answered and immediately leaving another and flooding the blog XD:

*So how was Glamrock Bonnie in this thing?

*What is Dee Dee (and by extension XOR). I know what you said about the FNAF world characters being toys Elizabeth made but is Dee Dee also one? And how does XOR work in relation to that?

*What are the endo characters like? Something similar to the mimic?

*how would the disassemble Vanny ending work (or did you never think of that/only think of one ending. I respect it if you did I'm just curious)

*is candy cadet still a robot and if not then how does it manage to cling to life all the way until ruin

*are the bidybabs and minireenas real

*What are Trash and the Gang are they still just trash. Are they cardboard cutouts. Or something else-

*Does Ennard still turn Michael into a flesh suit

*If there is no springlock suit then what happens to ol' willy boy

*Who did the Bite of 87

you can keep asking me individual questions i dont mind lol

Glam bon was a defect- he remembered his past and confronted vanny about it before she got rid of him entirely putting the blame onto monty. Hes actually been gaslit into believing he did it- but the audience has been told bonnie just retired.

deedee isn’t real- she was lizzie’s doll that cassidy turned into a being that exists to only torment afton in this little “game” cassidy has made for him in ucn- xor comes out when cassidy looses her patience

……..the corpses would rip vanny/vanessa apart basically… theyre not above killing the living.

candy cadet is a man inside a metal outfit- made to resemble a knight/cowboy because that was his gimmick- musicman and candy cadet never angered afton so they were reused until vanny got bored and stoped taking care of them

no- they are carved dolls made by funtime fred

trash and the gang are just dumb little characters that appear in toy freds nightmares and only scare him because of his insomnia that causes him to get paranoid

yes…

ok this last one has mentions of self harm so dont read if you cant take it- i completely understand and ill put it under keep reading

the withereds and toys refuse to say who did it- whoever did it is between them and them only. Not even i am allowed to know ;D

The springlock incident was william commiting “sewerslide” after the guilt of what he did caught up to him- it worked but omc’s curse prevented his body from resting. He will have to exist just like all his other victims but he is dead by his own hand snd looks mutilated because the process was very messy

spring has a consious- he dosent get enjoyment exactly in what hes doing but he just dosent think he can stop anymore. Hes always had an obsession with death and now he has become it

[hypexion]

Love Square Slander

Miraculous Ladybug manages to square the triangle and put its protagonists into a relationship shape that generates theoretically infinite amount of engagement. Everyone has a favourite side and in this post I will explain why each side is wrong. Prepare for some Very Serious Analysis.

Adrienette: We begin with what is clearly the most boring configuration because it has zero superheroes. After four and half seasons this one won by default while the other three sides were temporarily eliminated from reality. Also, Andre Icecream approves of this side, and he clearly has something wrong with him.

Ladynoir: The fun and flirty side. Except beneath the fun and flirty surface lies a pile of unresolved issues that still seems to be growing. Ladybug likes withholding vital information from Chat Noir for dubious reasons, while Chat once got seduced by a Sentibug. Only one of these problems would be fixed by them kissing.

Marichat: The side for people who believe in "true selves" theory, a reading of the text that gets shakier everytime a new Adrien transformation is introduced. And despite the individual characters being intelligent, when Marinette and Chat Noir are together, they have not a single brain cell between them.

Ladrien: Doesn't exist, in the sense that if you put all the canon Ladrien content together, you might not even be able to scrape together a full episode. Probably because this is the Easy Mode of the Love Square. The lack of canon content of course means its supporters are the most hardcore shippers and you shouldn't mess with them.

You would think that four relationships between the same two people would be the end of it, but no. Marinette has an additional superhero form and Adrien has two plus a villain form (fast forward boy doesn't count). This makes things much more complicated due to combinatorics.

Aspbug: The terrible hybrid of Ladynoir and Ladrien, constructed entirely from bad decisions. Around 25913 bad decisions, to be precise, which isn't funny because it's very worrying. Aspbug failed miserably and its success would have been even more miserable.

Ladywalker: It's like Ladynoir, but with everything that isn't emotional dysfunction removed! Adrien sands off what he thinks are the undesirable parts of his personality, a process heavily informed by what his father thinks, and it almost works. This collapsed instantly in canon because the status quo is only allowed to change in two-parters but it is theoretically stable, at the cost of the participant's long-term emotional health.

Multichat: This is just Marichat but more. More what is left to the reader, but it certainly isn't good decisions!

Snekmouse: Finally we reach a ship with a good name. Hypothetically, this situation contains a complex layering of secret identities due to each knowing, but not knowing the other knows, and they can't reveal they know because that would blow their main identity. In practice they'd just blurt out each other's real names in like ten seconds then put no thought into how they could know that information.

Aspnette: In this case Marinette is both aware enough of Aspik's identity and how very bad it would be for her to reveal that knowledge. There's like an 80% chance Marinette reveals her feelings during the panic and later Adrien is like "alas, if only she felt that way about me as me 😢".

Adrimouse: Not quite the previous reversed. Adrien is going to be much better at the whole "hello mouse hero I have never met before" deal, while Marinette not knowing Adrien knows supplies a shot of confidence. Thus, the whole thing ends up being more boring than Adrienette, somehow.

Mariwalker: Less a ship and more a torpedo pointed at the SS Ladywalker. One awkward balcony encounter will inevitably lead to Catwalker revealing to Marinette that he is either a) Chat Noir xor b) Adrien. This will rapidly accelerate the issues present in Ladywalker to new and emotionally destructive heights.

Mariblanc: Observational evidence suggests that most of the time, Mariblanc is just edgy Marichat, with Chat Blanc just being around in an otherwise normal Miraculous setting. This is deeply uninteresting. The rest of the time it's played for as much horror and emotional anguish the author can squeeze out of the situation. This version is surprisingly harrowing.

Ladyblanc: This one was technically canon for like five seconds before Paris and then the moon were destroyed. Tangentally, is there actually any evidence that Chat Blanc killed everyone on the planet? From the angle it doesn't look like the initial death orb gets outside of France, then most of the energy seems to be directed upwards for the Eclipse Cannon tribute act.

Multiblanc: Is this even a thing?

Adrigaminette: hey this isn't a side of the Lovesquare! It's a surface on the dreaded Love Octahedron. If we iterated all the possibilities Kagami adds to this mess, we would never finish! (don't even mention Lu-)

Toxigriffe: Thus we must accept that the best version of Lovesquare is the True Reverse Lovesquare. Sure they probably spent most of their time together before turning good trying to kill each other, but with all the identity shenanigans out of the way it's clean sailing for the heroes formally know as Shadybug and Claw Noir.

Well that's everything including the Mirror Universe so it's time to hit post and what do you mean "what about the selfships"? Fine but only the vanilla configurations.

Maribug: Look Ladybug might theoretically have the self-confidence for this but Marinette? I think not.

Adrichat: This one probably exists in-universe and whenever someone brings it up both Adrien and Gabriel grimace identically but for highly divergent reasons.

Now, that's everything. Do not join me next time for Constructing the Love Hypergraph because I literally just looked up if a hypergraph is a real thing and it is. Now interestingly a hypergraph could actually be used to encode a ship space with polyamorous ships, as it allows an edge to join an arbitary number of vertices, rather than just a pair. As graph theory is fairly easy to grasp, hypergraph theory is sure to take shipping by storm sooner or later. This is the most important conclusion we can gather from whatever non-maths stuff the rest of this post is about.