#i didn't know that about base value in the +3 system

[sunskate]

CPom might’ve preferred competing a couple of quads back - they’d have to do pattern dances, but back in the +3 GOE days the base value really mattered. They seem happy rn but it must be a little frustrating having made demonstrable improvements (Christina’s getting Level 4s!) and it making absolutely no difference to their standing in the pecking order,

i think we don't know yet that their track record this fall hasn't affected their standing. even though it feels like they're not being rewarded enough, it's a long game

C/B's place as US #1's not changing this season. but below that, there's a lot of uncertainty. i hope H/B come roaring back at Nationals, but it's going to be their first competition in over a year

Gr/Pa, who knows - CPom haven't gone head to head with them yet

but CPom have had 5 strong competitions - the issue with their ChRS at Nebelhorn felt fluky, and they fixed it. their consistency can strengthen how the judges see them and help in garnering support, so even if they haven't won the GP medal they wanted, people on the inside know their assignments were rough- going against the home faves at both Angers and Espoo they were solidly in 4th. they came within .12 of beating L/B's in the free. and they look like this:

like, how gorgeous ❤️😭 and i think if we're noticing they had the highest BV in this competition, skating people are noticing too. they're aiming for Montreal Worlds, they're aiming for 2026. if they get their trips, they're not going to remember the bronze medal they didn't get at a GP in November. their place in the US hierarchy is a bigger deal, and they're showing up in the ways they can control, so hopefully it's building some momentum and esteem for them

#i didn't know that about base value in the +3 system #now that skatingscores.com is gifting us by making it incredibly easy to look these things up #i'm curious to look at the protocols from back then

[poipoipoi-2016]

Apropos of nothing

If you are the techiest person in the house (and for many of you, this is not techy at all), today is a good day to build a pihole thanks to Google's new TLDs.

For the record, this straight up stopped Dad from getting computer viruses when coupled with the Ublock browser extension, so I will volunteer my time to get you set up. We will find an evening and do a Zoom call. I am serious.

Prerequisities:

Before you start, this will be way way easier if your router has a magic way to:

Set static IP addresses

Set a custom DNS server

If you can't do this, I'm not saying you're stuck, but there's some non-obvious failure modes and maybe it's time to buy a better router.

Parts:

Raspberry Pi 4B. 2GB if you just want to set and forget, 8GB if you want to do more things on this than just your pihole (Coughs in a MarioKart box) -> https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/

Spare USB-C charger if you don't have one already. I'm a fan of https://www.amazon.com/Argon-USB-C-Power-Supply-Switch/dp/B0919CQKQ8/ myself

A microSD card at least UHS class 3 or better. 32 is fine for just a pihole, I have a 512 in some of mine that I use for more stuff. https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/raspberry-pi-microsd-cards

Some method of flashing the card if you don't have one (Some come with SD to micro-SD adapters, if not a USB to SD/micro-SD adapter is about $10 off Amazon)

If you really feel like going nuts, go buy yourself an Argon case and then very very carefully never ever install the software for the fan that does nothing. The value is entirely in having a big giant brick that is self-cooling. If you want to play MarioKart, I would consider this a requirement. https://www.amazon.com/Argon-Raspberry-Aluminum-Heatsink-Supports/dp/B07WP8WC3V

Setup:

Do yourself a favor and ignore all the signs telling you to go get Raspbian and instead go grab an ISO of Ubuntu 64-bit using RPi Imager. Because Raspbian cannot be upgraded across version WHY U DO THIS

Download Rpi Imager, plug the microSD card into your computer,

Other General Purpose OS -> Ubuntu -> Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

So now you have an operating system on an SD card.

Assemble the case if you bought one, plug in the SD card, power supply, ethernet cable if you have one or mouse and (mini) HDMI cable if you don't. If you bought that Argon case, you can just plug a keyboard (server OS means no mouse gang; In this house, we use the Command Line) and HDMI cable into the Pi. Turn it on.

Gaining access

The end state of this is that your pi is:

Connected to the internet by cable or wifi

You can SSH to it (Also not scary)

If you plugged in an ethernet cable, once it's done booting (1-2 minutes?), you should be able to ssh to "ubuntu@<the IP of the system>". Look it up in your router. It may make sense to give the static IP NOW to keep it stable.

If you've never used SSH before, I think the standard is Putty on Window or you can just open a terminal in Mac. (And if you know enough Linux to have a Linux computer, why are you reading this?)

If you didn't plug it in, and need to setup the wifi, there's magic incantations to attach it to the wifi and to be quite blunt, I forget what they are.

Your username is ubuntu, your password is ubuntu and then it will ask you to make a new password. If you know the meaning of the phrase "keypair-based access", it may make sense to run `ssh-copy-id` at this point in time.

Router settings (part 1)

Give your new Pi a static IP address, and reboot your pi (as simple as typing in `sudo reboot`).

Open a new SSH session to the pihole on the new address.

Installing pihole

Open up an SSH session and

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

This is interactive. Answer the questions

When it's done, on your other computer, navigate to <the ip>/admin

Login with the password you just set. Router settings part 2

Give your new Pi a static IP address then point your router at that address

Set the DNS servers to the static IP

Then ensure you're blocking something. Anything.

Then do what you want to do. You'll probably need to whitelist some sites, blacklist some more, but the main thing is going to be "Adding more list of bad sites". Reddit has some lists.

And... enjoy.

/But seriously, there's some stuff to do for maintenance and things. I wasn't joking about the pair setup.

[vasito-de-leche]

I saw your post regarding the Self-Aware R1999!AU and it was good and mind-blowing! Now I'm wondering how will it go with 6 or 37 regaining consciousness, considering that they're always seeking for the "truth", and maybe the Reader's existence would heighten the quest for the truth more!

;R1999 37 - Self Aware AU

Headcanons about how 37 would act upon becoming self-aware. Related to this Self-Aware AU post.

I RECENTLY FINISHED 6'S ANECDOTE, SO NOW I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS THIS ASK IS A GREAT EXERCISE TO GET THE BRAIN GOING o7

this post only contains 37, since it got a little long and I didn't know how to format it the usual way because I LOVE rambling and rambling. I think there's another ask somewhere about 6 in the self-aware AU, so I'll get to that one soon!

also I think this post is impossible to read if you haven't read chapter 5 at least, bc I use a lot of the terms used in Apeiron!

37 is such an interesting character. Okay okay, bear with me for a bit while I get all of my 37 thoughts out of my brain!

I feel like people downplay how cruel or detached she can be. Because of her innate ability to see numbers in everyone and everything, essentially seeing "the truth" and being able to provide Proof to support her claims, 37 lives disconnected from her entire community while also being upheld as a genius and beacon of progress. She's the "Star of Hermes," after all.

A lot of her character focuses on this alienation and "othering," how her mindset and beliefs set her apart from others as she cannot understand the importance of soul numbers from an emotional standpoint--like she says in the main story, she's always known she's 37. Everyone's known this. And she does not understand the importance of knowing WHY she's 37. She doesn't care about the traits assigned to each number, that is meaningless rhetoric to her, what matters is the final result. She's 37, and that's it. She upholds the purity of numbers, practically worships this pure aspect of the world of Forms. She's at her happiest when she talks about how numbers will always be numbers, no matter who tries to figure them out, or when or how.

And we also see the cruel aspect of her that I believe people overlook--37 admits that she enjoys revealing people's numbers because she wants to be the first to prove this truth. It's only near the end of Chapter 05 that she wonders, if only briefly, whether being the first to prove someone's number means that she knew the truth better. Other than that, she has absolutely NO trouble revealing Vertin's number, nor attempting to tell Sophia her own number as kids--and 37, while she does not care for the rhetoric of numbers and their assigned virtues, knows how much the journey of self-discovery means to her entire community. And she still chose to do this, because she does not see the value in the process.

This isn't to say that she's exclusively a cruel character nor a misguided little baby, I would say that she's cruel the same way a child can be--37 is a very lovely and complex character! I just think people take her cute appearance at face value and forget the extent of her abilities and her perception of the world.

In the context of a Self-Aware AU, I believe that this self-awareness would be recontextualized as yet another eternal truth for her. Her curiosity wouldn't be applied to this, because there is nothing to figure out--the world has always been a game, that's it. Instead of focusing on the emotional or existential aspects, 37 would focus instead on the "guidelines" that rule this fake world.

It would revolve around the mechanical aspects: she understands that every fight follows a set pattern, as this is a turn based combat game. She wants to know why some people stand out, why they're assigned as 6 or 5 or 4 or 3 or 2 stars. Why not a 1 star? Why not 10? Why this system in particular? Why doesn't Sophia have any stars? Is it because she hasn't figured out her number yet? No, that can't be, because 210 also lacks stars. And so on and so forth.

The focus will still be numbers, so she would be the perfect assistant for Players who care a lot about meta!

I'm also willing to say that 37 would be one of the very few characters who has no trouble at all coping with the fact that she's a character in a videogame. To know that she's a bunch of "code" wouldn't change a thing for her, because she was already 37 in the first place!

There is also the aspect of finding out that her mother's death (as well as Sophia's father) was scripted. I'm going on a long tangent here, so bear with me for a second.

I feel like... 37 would see that as a positive thing? First of all, we know that the death of everyone in that boat was caused because of a miscalculation from Sophia and 37's part, which is the catalyst for 37's Emanation research. I do believe that, even though 37 shows little to no (conventional) emotion in that specific moment, she still grieves and mourns in her own way--and the way she does that is by clinging onto the one thing that is left of her mother: her pneuma analysis and research, the computer that stopped working, the pattern of the "Storm". We are told that 37 became a recluse, isolating herself even more from her community, when her and her mother's research was proven to be wrong, that she only came out of her lab when Vertin and her team arrived. We see her muttering while unconscious in the cave with Vertin, calling out for her own mother and telling her that their research wasn't wrong, that they were right all along (because they were missing one vital piece of information that only an outsider like Vertin could deliver).

Second of all, we know that 37 does not understand nor care about fate, she does not care for wordplay that muddies the true essence of numbers. So she would not think that the death of all those people can be attributed to something as vague and nonsensical as "fate."

Third and final point of this tangent, 37 does not like to be proven wrong. Or rather, 6's character event shows us that, no matter what she's told or how she behaves, 37 will always believe that she's in the right.

With all of this in mind, I think that finding out that this accident was something scripted--that is to say, part of the "truth" (or canon, from our perspective) of this world--would reinforce 37's beliefs. This miscalculation was a mistake born from her former self, the 37 that did not truly understand the world, before she achieved self-awareness. And now that she's wide awake, there's no way that she could ever make a mistake like that ever again. If else, I can see her being mildly irritated that it took her this long to open her eyes, struggling with the fact that she's not the first person to become self-aware. And just like she casually reveals other people's numbers, she would dangle the knowledge of self-awareness in front of others instead of keeping it secret.

On the subject of finding out about the Player, I'm not quite sure how 37 would react. Sure, 37's life is ruled by the same dogma that rules everyone else within Apeiron, but her approach is devoid of that same spiritual and religious devotion that others like 210 carry. Like we see in 6's character event, 37 does not care about the importance of the number 6 nor whoever holds the title, because the "truth" is that everyone within that bloodline is going to inherit the title at some point or another. Compare this to 210, who treats the previous 6 (Atticus' aunt, Alma) with such reverence.

So perhaps that's how 37 would act, then? This "divine" figure is yet another 6 for her, someone who has all relevant knowledge, nothing more and nothing less.

I like to think that 37 is able to see the Player very clearly right away, the same way she can see people's numbers, whereas 6 is the one who can hear them clearly, the same way he inherits the Revelation from his ancestors.

And unless you're another super math genius like her, I can absolutely see 37 pouting about it. How come someone like you gets to be "outside" in the world of Forms? Maybe she becomes curious about finding "proof" of your world, to confirm whether you live in the world of Forms or something else entirely, perhaps yet another world of Matters, full of Fragments. Realizing that the world the Player lives in is practically identical to her own--minus the existence of integers and fractions, just a world full of imaginary numbers--would be a curious experience for 37.

I can also see 37 telling Vertin the Player's own soul number the moment she figures it out, perhaps as a way to repay the favour for the events of Chapter 05. Assuming she survives that bomb, I actually don't know what happens in Chapter 06 LMFAO....

Long story short, not many would realize that 37 has become self-aware, since her behaviour remains largely the same. And it wouldn't affect her as deeply as it affects other characters.

#reverse 1999 #reverse: 1999 #reverse 1999 x reader #reverse 1999 37 #37 #self aware au

[inconspicious-random-thoughts]

How Valentino got Angels Soul

I just realized something about the dynamic between Valentino and Angel Dust. It rather obvious now I look back on it, but with all my rewatches, I sort of took the two together at face value.

I assumed, without much thought, Angel Dust was a new soul. Scared shitless and took the first deal that offered him some type of protection-Valentino. It's just the vibe I picked up on.

But I actually, thought about them more today and realized how wrong I was with that point blank view.

Angel died in 1947 while Val was 1970's. Angel been wondering around Hell with his own soul for minimum of 3 decades and been going by the name Anthony the entire time. -'Im putting Valentino being powerful overlord in the 80s.

Side note: I personally headcanon, it takes a new soul to achieve overlord power the minimum of 10 years with the exception of Alastor. The new sinner need time to adjust to their new bodies, learn their abilities, and the politics and ways of Hell. And the sinner needs to gain their power a little slowly, I think if they go to fast it alarms other overlords and just make the wannabe overlord a target. So, I say 10 years minimum to achieve overlord power. 10 years a drop in the bucket in eternity)

Other side note: I think Angel Dust soul is actually older than Val if you combine their biological age and their time in Hell. Weird right? What's weirder is Angel biological age is a few years younger then Alastor. whaaaaa? Angle just vibing he is much younger then Alastor when they were alive but apparently Angel died in his 30s, while Alastor is 30-40s

So how did the two got together?

Well, for starters, I think Angel was just scraping by Hell for those first few decades. He lived literally in a Hellhole. Get it? because they are in Hell? nevermind. Anyways, his living quarters was probably literally some hole in a wall that he found and probably have to share with other unfortunate souls. Any money Angel scraps up and spent on drugs. He lived his days getting fucked up by drugs or suffering withdrawals. He sold himself for quick cash grabs for more drugs.

Then one night, Valentino found Angel trying to do one of these quick cash makes. He saw a lot of potential in Angel. He so gorgeous. He promise to make Angel night worthwhile if he gets in his limo. Which to be honest, is the fancy place he done in what he felt like forever.

Angel didn't realize who he was dealing with. A freshly raisen overlord. "He doesn't pay attention to politics" remember?

It was a grand night. The drug flowed and Angel basically had the taste of the high life hanging with Val that night. Angel tried new drugs that night too. He usually strapped for cash so when he bought drugs, it was something familiar. He didn't want to spend his nearly non existent cash on something he didn't know on how it hits. Eventually Val took Angel to his place and had sex. Val purposely wasn't ruthless during this. In fact, Angel never felt more safe since he landed in Hell.

Val try to sway Angel to selling his soul to him. Making promises that were too good to be true. "I'll make you a star, famous!" "No one will dare harm you if you are contracted to me." All the while, blowing smoke in Angel face and other pheromone based moves. Angel was tempted but there no way he was selling his soul.

"I only own you partially...I will only own you while you are in my studio...I own you part time and you get the full time benefits."

Angel was still on the hesitate and left. While Val cooing "you know where to find me when you change your mind."

Angel return to his shit hole home. After the night of spent living the good life...it was extra miserable. Val pheromones was still in his system. He missed feeling safe in Val four arms with the promise of protection. The new drugs...which he starting to crash from pretty hard. He needs that fix again...bad.

Angel returned asking if the deal still available. One that can make him famous and be protected by Val.

-yes

"I can still keep my soul? that you only own it while in your studio?

-yes. Sensing Angel is still hesitant and using the knowledge that Angel complained about his living situation after seeing the sweet grand living space Val has. "How about I sweeten the deal...I'm feeling very generous. I can offer you room and board if you were more hours to earn it." Angel perked at this. "You will have your very own room...right at the studio...how convenient is that?" Angel was ecstatic about the idea of his own space. privacy and comfort. Fuck yea.

(Im sure theres more technical bits like, Angel required to work minimum of 40 hours a week to however long Val wants him. That way Angel can't just walk away when he had enough. It also give Val a loophole of making him work longer hours)

Which is why Val was so furious when Angel moved out. He lost complete control on Angel soul by that. I wouldn't be surprised actually forgot that clause and was pleasantly surprised when he realized he didn't feel the constraint invisible chain outside the studio.

"It's a deal" Not fully realizing that Val owns his soul outside of filming while in the studio. Angel signed and Val set out some celebrotory drugs.

Angel recognized it from the other night and its the new ones that he really enjoyed. "What's this stuff called again?"

"Angel Dust, its popular in my time." Val answered without looking up from the newly signed contracted. "Hey darling, you need to pick a stage name, Anthony not going to cut it."

Angel considers it for a moment as he done a line. Drugs got him into Hell, this drug got him back to Val it seem only fitting and it sounds pretty. "Call me Angel Dust."

Again, its pretty obvious why Val was so upset that Angel moved in retrospect but their dynamic changed a lot to me once I looked more into it. It explains why Anthony signed his name with his real name...because he didn't have his porn star name yet. Angel Dust was huge during Val time and not really around as much during Angel. So I can see Val introducing it to Angel and getting him hooked on it and also inspired his porn star name.

Just my idea but who knows, some of you might enjoy it.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel headcanon #hazbin hotel theory #hazbin hotel idea #hazbin hotel thoughts #hazbin thoughts #hazbin theory #hazbin headcanons #hazbin angel dust #hazbin anthony #hazbin valentino #hazbin hotel valentino #hazbin hotel angel dust #hazbin hotel anthony

[avelera]

OK, so, I have now seen Good Omens Season 2 and had a moment to muster my thoughts after binging it.

SPOILERS below the cut, if that needed saying.

--

Let's start with the good.

Loved that Beelz/Gabriel became canon. What can I say? I love stories about immortals falling in love over the course of several meetings at a pub ;)

John Hamm in general was fabulous

I cackled at the fact we were getting an actual fem Aziraphale/Crowley, human coffee shop AU running parallel with the absolute fanficciest of justifications that Aziraphale and Crowley HAD to make them fall in love in order to *mumble mumble* something plot whatever, lol

I loved the bits of lore flashbacks we got about Aziraphale and Crowley first meeting when they were both angels and I found the whole Job encounter overall charming.

I was deeply fascinated by the fact that Crowley consistently performed selfless angelic acts while Aziraphale consistently needed to learn and grow around doing the right thing. Even to the end he remained, for the most part, a good little soldier. Aziraphale thinks the system can be fixed. Crowley "knows" that it can't. Presumably, Crowley is right. More on that later.

Muriel was adorable

Loved that we got the kiss. Also, huge shoutout to the fandom that I genuinely went in unspoiled on that front after the whole trailer debacle. I SUSPECTED based on the reactions that the spoiler was a kiss, but I was able to successfully forget all about it so I genuinely gasped when they kissed.

I'm not really all that bummed by the ending. It's so obviously a "temporary breakup so we come back together stronger" moment so I was largely unbothered. I actually want MORE angst, not less, in fic after that, please and thank you.

Unpopular opinion praise for S2, but I'm glad we didn't get more of The Them, or Madame Tracy (though the recasting of the actress in another role puzzled me?) or Anathema/Newt, or any of the non Aziraphale/Crowley, Heaven/Hell stuff. I found all those plotlines hugely boring and I'm glad the story moved on from them.

Did I mention I adored Gabriel/Beelz? Loved that plotline. Might rewatch that bit again just for that. I SORT of suspected it was happening but was still delighted by the confirmation. I couldn't BELIEVE this minor ship got made canon, but along the way I was sort of side-eying Beelz's reactions through the lens of, "Wait, what if Beelz is WORRIED for Gabriel?" and it worked very well so I was tentatively *glad* for the shippers who might view it that way and NEVER guessed they'd make it canon this season with more than a few tidbits for those shippers to cling to. Wow. Whole-ass parallel instead of what Aziraphale and Crowley COULD be if they actually 1) communicated and 2) understood each other's values and valued the same things.

Truly, it was a love letter to the fandom I found that to be very sweet as a choice made by Tumblr Girlie Neil Gaiman.

H'ok, now let's get into the negative. To be clear, I enjoyed the season! A lot of room is left to explore stuff in Season 3! And I'm not a deep Good Omens fandom person, I didn't read much fic after S1 dropped, I was more of a book fandom fic person for it. So my level of investment isn't such that I'm *crushed* by any of this, these are just more things I found a bit "meh"?

I really thought we were heading to a side-swap story about Aziraphale and Crowley and I was little bummed it didn't happen, though there's still room for the possibility in S3. The whole "maybe I did the good thing and you did the bad" taken to the max. I really wanted the angst of them finding each other only to end up on opposite sides again and opposite-OPPOSITE sides of where they'd been and been comfortable up to this point. I really wanted to see IMPACT and SUFFERING and DISCOMFORT and... idk, more drama? Than we got?

Like, there were SO MANY references to Crowley being selfless and doing the RIGHT angelic thing while Aziraphale did a lot of HORRIFYING things, including all the mind-fuckery stuff he did around the ball, totally insensitive to the needs and wants of the humans involved, only seeing them as tools, that REALLY made me wonder if we were getting a swap by the end.

The fact we saw SO MANY ominous references to Aziraphale FALLING because he was tempted by Crowley, over and over, because he questioned God, over and over? I thought something would come of that! I thought Crowley would get through to Aziraphale just in time to have Aziraphale fall and for Crowley to do something truly angelic, to have Aziraphale get through to HIM at the same time so they'd swap sides officially, against their will, the same way Crowley never meant to fall. It seemed like falling was something that COULD HAPPEN TO YOU AGAINST YOUR WILL and I wanted REDEMPTION to work the same way, AGAINST Crowley's will. I wanted them to get absolutely FUCKED by the moment they finally got through to each other and swapped philosophies.

So that was a bummer. Could still happen in S3 but...? I'd be a bit surprised at this point given I think it will instead focus on (*sigh*) averting the Apocalypse again.

I thought the pacing was fucking atrocious. There was so much dead time. So many scenes that were simply *not* needed and didn't add anything. So much meandering script with darlings that desperately needed to be killed for the sake of a snappier story. So much that felt like padding. With a better editor and 2 fewer episodes, I think it would have been a much tighter, better, fast paced show.

S2 recalled with a problem I have with Neil's writing in general - he's a short story writer/comic issue writer at heart. I, personally, am a long-form novel writer. Neil is not great at writing novels, he's a novella/anthology/short story person and it shows when he so often, so consistently, fails to pull a long-form story together in a satisfying way (to me, and this is just my subjective opinion).

It shows up in so many ways with how, in my opinion, S2 seemed to flounder with how to fill 6 episodes. The flashback to the Resurrectionist stuff could have been half as long and I found much of the writing pretty awful and cliche in it.

I liked Aziraphale learning that morality is complex, truly, but that was all I really liked of that bit of flashback and it could have been much shorter. I found everything around Elspeth exasperating and on the nose. It was a short story straight out of a random issue of "The Sandman" and sometimes it really feels like Neil has never managed to break out of the same stories, plots, and themes, with a dash of horror as he did from that era. He's always, always, still just writing either 1) fanfic of another person or mythology's work or 2) an original Sandman short stories/issues with no long-form plot. In his defense, they're always COOL and have an interesting VISUAL or IDEA but these stories aren't very... good? Writing? Or rather, he tends to just do the same things over and over again. Nifty idea that don't actually really *gel* into anything more complex than a single storyline?

I felt the same way about the Nazi Zombie plotline. I found that entire story beat EXCEEDINGLY tedious and pointless except to fill airtime, not to mention a bit gross to watch. I found the Magician Aziraphale plotline in general EXCEEDINGLY pointless and tedious to sit through. I thought it added absolutely nothing and was incredibly dull for 99% of the story.

Everything with Shax was exceedingly tedious and boring to me. The fight in the bookshop felt nonsensical and poorly choreographed. That needed to be a 2x speed to feel any sense of peril or urgency at all, and not knowing where it was going, or if anyone was actually really threatened at all just robbed it of any real sense of tension.

There was just... zero sense in general of important stakes in the Shax storyline or really in the season because there was no Apocalypse to build towards, no event that we knew about to worry about.

The world wasn't ending. Shax didn't seem empowered to actually do anything or hurt anyone. They were just a random action plot for... reasons? To make the climax in the bookshop come together so we could have a Jane Austen ball at the same time as 69 demons (heh) invading? There were so many logical leaps there to make that happen and the pacing/editing being garbage just... robbed it of any feeling of importance except as a time waster of a plotline. The actress is great and all but dear lord was that plotline dull.

A lot of the flashbacks in general just felt like... padding. Yes, we got a bit more Aziraphale and Crowley but they never quite... worked for me in those. It was always pointless STUFF they were doing rather than anything that contributed to the plot or even to my sense of them being in love or working towards becoming a couple! They were just... there, a lot of the time, sitting next to each other.

Some of the script pauses were SO BIZARRE. Like as if they'd just written the script and not realized how bloody often Crowley is given NOTHING TO DO in the background so he just... stands there, waiting for his next line, or taking a nap, or observing random stuff. David Tenant in the Resurrectionist bit with all his theatrics felt, again, pointless and tedious but also the best the poor guy could fucking do to fill out this incredibly boring story with any sort of entertainment. Bless them, the actors worked their ASSES off to get some fun and excitement into huge swathes of this script.

Maggie and Nina's relationship was cute but ENTIRELY pulled off by the actresses, the story was again, incredibly tedious and pointless otherwise, as many coffee shop AUs are in my opinion. Their personal charm elevated the material but it all felt like more stalling tactics with a wink-and-a-nod at fic writers, with this entire season was stretched out to justify, presumably, Aziraphale being in Heaven after being promoted to Archangel while Crowley is on Earth and they're fighting.

Quite frankly, if the "real" sequel, which Pratchett co-wrote, just opens with Aziraphale thinking Heaven's shown up to destroy him, only to promote him on the spot, basically the last scene of S2, you actually don't need 99% of this season at all to get there. In fact, it's a pretty fun comedy beat to do quickly. Basically, "Oh shit, the cops!" then "Actually, we're here to promote you!" and boom, we've reached the same spot as we got to after 6 episodes of S2.

Not that I didn't enjoy many of the character moments! But overall, it felt like stalling for time to make it a trilogy series, since only a few plot threads had any longer term importance to anyone who isn't a fanfic-writing super fan who knows what a coffee shop AU is and can giggle over there being one in the actual show.

Basically, it was very lacking in the strengths of the story that I attribute to Terry Pratchett - like the ability to pull a long-form story together, and certain clever turns of phrase.

There were so many lines where there was a pause where it was as IF they were going to say something clever, and then they just... didn't? And the line was just another cliche or a trail-off of someone mumbling "comedically"? That's where I very much felt Pratchett's absence. It indeed felt like half the writing duo was missing in many ways. And I'm not personally... all that convinced of Neil's chops when it comes to long-form stories or romance, two things that this season kinda relied on pulling off right that I was left feeling pretty tepid about after.

Look, overall, I did like it! I'm really excited for how the fandom will run with what happened and make their own stuff with it. I'm very excited for Season 3, whenever we get it, and the return of Terry Pratchett's fingerprints on the story. I think it's going to be great!

It's not that I think my time was wasted so much as I thought places where *I* would have done things differently, which is not a fair criticism of any work. From a technical perspective, really I just think it needed a tighter script or tighter editing, and they just might not have been able to do that if they were contracted for 6 episodes when they only really needed 3. Oh well. Onward and upward!

#good omens #spoilers #good omens spoilers #good omens season 2

[ssunphire]

Blue by Billie Eilish and how it fits Azula perfectly

I'm sure people have talked about this already, but i just wanted to add my two cents to it. (english is not my first language so if i phrase some stuff a bit weird feel free to ask or correct me)

spoilers for the comic "Azula in the spirit temple" !!

in my opinion the lyrics of this song simply SCREAM azula, and here's why.

the first chorus:

azula tries to "live in black and white", as in pretends to know what is right and what is wrong. she believes in her father's words, the "white", and considers everyone who left her or dishonors the fire nation bad, "the black". but it doesn't feel right, even to her. even if it seemed like she thought that what her father did to zuko was right, the perfect reality that she dreamed of that was depicted in the comics shows zuko without a scar and her mother standing beside her father. even iroh is there with them despite her displaying dislike towards him throughout the whole show. additionally, they tell her things she thinks she should have achieved based on the values that her father posed on her, again: the "white". she misses them and she feels betrayed, but she tries her hardest to pretend like it's not like that, for example in the beach episode where she says her mother was right to call her a monster and that she's completely okay with that. she's in fact not over her mother. she feels "blue". stuck between believing her father and at the same time wanting ursa and zuko back.

the second chorus:

the phrase "but i'm not what you need" shows her insecurities. she saw the way ursa looked at her compared to how she looked at zuko. no matter what she did, ursa never seemed to be satisfied with her. she always got sent away or chastised. iroh never cared to consider what she might like as a gift, he just got her a doll because he probably thought it's what all girls want. but zuko got a really nice knife. she felt unneeded by ursa and iroh so she turned to her father.

now the verses.

1)

by logic, zuko and azula should be similar in ambitions and beliefs. they grew up in the same family after all and therefore also should have been treated similarly. for example they should both receive their mother's love and attention, but only zuko seemed to get it. zuko should have similar abilities to hers, but she was always ahead of him. she didn't understand what ursa saw in zuko that she didn't have and "lied".

in the comics azula states that she actually became aware of the fact that ozai used her as a "deadly fire bending weapon". she was a "bird in a cage". she didn't have anyone to rely on but the father that praised her skills, so she tried her best for him after being abandoned by her mother. she wanted to be protected too, but ultimately only zuko got that luxury.

2)

like i said before, since azula didn't have a support system like zuko, she didn't have a choice but to cling onto ozai. ozai clearly never knew what sympathy was, nor did he ever act like an actual father. he raised azula to be cold and deadly, so much so that she was even smarter with war strategy than him or iroh. she managed to take over ba sing se after all. azula herself lacked sympathy too. she had learned that trust was weakness and being feared was strength.

3)

here i can see the first part being said by zuko, he doesn't hate azula and he knows she did what she did because of their father but at the same time he was scared of her. at the point of the series he deemed her to be beyond saving and tried to avoid her together with iroh, then later chose to fight her in an agni kai without even trying to reason with her.

the other half of this part is pretty much self explanatory. she was clearly a victim who succumbed to her father's ideals due to being abandoned by her mother.

4)

unlike zuko, azula was "blameless" in the eyes of fire nation ideals. she was a prodigy and did what was expected of her. perfection was everything to her.

nonetheless they are both victims of ozai, just with different outcomes. they both grew up to be famous, just in different ways.

-----------

woooo you made it to the end!!! thank you to whoever read my little rant here, i just wanted to talk about this since i've been thinking about it every time i listen to the song. i'd love to hear other people's opinion on this so feel free to comment whether you agree or you think what i wrote up is absolute bullshit lmfao

#avatar the last airbender #atla #azula #atla azula #zuko #atla zuko #sokka #toph beifong #katara #atla katara #atla sokka #avatar aang #aang #atla aang #the fire siblings #fire lord ozai #ursa

[hungrydolphin91]

ok I had to go make my own post about Eugene Cassette Beasts, it's not fair for me to fill up everyone else's tags w how much I love this guy. I wanted to speculate a little about his backstory here cause it honestly fascinates me and I feel like I havent seen this happen much in other media, much less turn based monster collecting RPGs.

So Eugene is from a future world (seemingly the only party member who is except maybe Barkley but he's a dog so.) It sounds like he's from the turn of the century, maybe 2100 or so, and mentions in his rank 3 friendship that in his world, there was a massive reformation when society as a while realized they couldn't keep fucking each other over and destroying the planet, so everyone worked hard to abolish the kinds of structures that unilaterally hurt people (for instance, capitalism). Sounds like a utopia right?

Eugene only says good things about his world really, how much people value acts of goodness and kindness. But he says it all with such a sad tone, like something he's missing out on, because he thinks he is, he didn't fit in. He says that he wasn't great at being helpful all the time, which is why he wants to do better in New Wirral, a world removed from his own where he can be a better person than he was in his own world.

But the thing is, he IS a nice person. Maybe that's by design, everything he does in New Wirral is about him playing the hero, but it's also oh so clear that he brought his own expectations of goodness from his own timeline and they're just as much of a burden here. Even when hes succeeding, he won't cut himself slack, he says he needs to have a cause to rally behind, or what that archangel said to him would be proven true: he IS empty. Or at least, useless, which is probably the same thing to him.

What really grabs me about all of this though (besides the usual love of angst and guilt complexes and hero complexes and whatnot) is this future of moral reformation. Those are a pretty common historical phenomenon, often involving moral panics and an emphasis on presentation--- what matters is that you LOOK pure compared to others. And poor Eugene just felt like he couldn't keep up just because he has some small selfish impulses, or something in that nature I'd imagine--- I think he'd rather throw himself off a bridge than admit whatever the reason was that he didn't fit in in his own world.

It's easy to see his world being our future, in a way. I'd be delighted if terrible oppressive governments and economic systems were torn down in favor of ones that promote equality and universal well being, but currently moral purity is just as much of a trend as ever--- look at any discussion of book banning, not to mention transphobic legislature, fandom antis and so much more. So this hypothetical future is one where even though the 'right' thing has been done, there's still a subtle form of policing going on to enforce it. Maybe that is successful at keeping cruel practices from coming back. Or maybe it's just traumatizing people like Eugene who feel judged by their every action and pressured to be a saint every single moment of their lives.

One last thing I thought was interesting--- as part of his level 4 friendship rank, Eugene mentions how his parents' generation still seem scarred by the cruelties they endured before this reformation. But Eugene is too young to have lived through it himself so you know what that means?? Generational trauma babyyyyy. He's inherited guilt about a time he wasn't even alive for, along with a pressure to make sure it never ever happens again, so no unkindness is tolerated. It's no wonder this boy has so many issues.

So that's my late night rambles about this guy, probably like 50% of this is just me projecting but it's also fun to dissect what's happening here. Like I said before, it's unusual to see a unique concept like character like Eugene and his world in what appears to be a fun little indie game about turning into monsters with cassettes.

#eugene cassette beasts #cassette beasts #i think eugene might be from the future US too going by his accent and our history of protestant moral purity culture would add up #hope this was coherent i really am just rambling #i am most definitely projecting but mannnn. sometimes the characters just resonate w you

[subconsciousmysteries]

Laziness, some Attachment Triad dynamics, me hating on 3s

I couldn't imagine living my life in fear of being seen as lazy or a loser. Like it is the dumbest most pathetic most weak fear to have. Having this fear primes you to be a slave to your masters because you actually care about their opinions of you beyond a pragmatic survival perspective. You internalize your enslaver's moral compass as your own which makes you doomed for failure and self-loathing, because their "moral compass" is based on their narcissistic belief that they're superior and they have a right to control and enslave you.

Coming from someone who was raised by parents who tried to drill this fear of being an unsuccessful "loser" into me, and a mother who has given me the most horrific verbal abuse and angry meltdowns because I asked her questions about why I'm expected to care about succeeding conventionally... I've seen what this fear of being a loser does to people. it makes them jump off a cliff when the state says jump. It also makes them horrifically mistreat "loved ones" ("loved ones" in quotemarks because these people don't know what love is) who actually respect themselves, whilst sucking up to evil oligarchs who see them as cash cows and lab rats. They kneel before whoever has status and control and shun everybody else... Not even for pragmatic survival reasons, but because they genuinely fucking believe that high status people are morally superior to low status people. That's the most grotesque part. Not their actions but their internal rottenness, their inverted moral compass. They are devout believers in the religion of materialism and idol worship of the elite.

These people never question who invented the value system they follow or why they invented it, which is the ultimate manifestation of Spiritual Laziness (3 -> 9). They just religiously follow the idea that poor people are all lazy and it's all their own fault for being poor because they didn't sell-out hard enough. Of course, they don't believe that attaining wealth is "selling out", because they blind themselves to seeing this blatantly evident fact. They deceive themselves that we live in a democratic, free speech meritocracy where everything is fair, to justify their weakness-driven investment in a broken game.

If you try to explain to them that we live in a system where people have to compromise their moral compass at every corner to attain wealth, where those who speak for justice are marginalized and impoverished and imprisoned and killed, and you show them undeniable proof of this... it falls on deaf ears. You get gaslit that these facts are fake, and apparently you're only believing this stuff so that you have an "excuse to be lazy". Oh gee, I guess I'm supposed to blind my eyes to the truth of how everything works so that your dumb ass doesn't think I'm lazy? Good to know! Because that's what you're asking everyone to do when you say "conspiracy theorists are just lazy" without providing a rebuttal to their facts. You're basically saying "shut up and go back to sleep, goy."

Unenlightened 3 doesn't have any spiritual perceptiveness whatsoever, it is the most spiritually blind, materialistic type on the enneagram. So they don't know that they are the truly Lazy ones for never questioning the values which they live by. Laziness is not a refusal to go to work, Laziness is not receiving government benefits. People who do these things can be Lazy but contrary to materialist belief, this is not the crux of what Laziness is. True Laziness is about falling asleep into the material realm. Which often means falling asleep into your routine of going to work, paying your taxes, saving up for the next property, and never questioning anything you're doing whilst you do all of that. Falling asleep (9) is the opposite of thinking, scrutinizing, questioning, trying to enhance your perceptions (6).

As soon as you start asking legitimate questions about why you have the values that you have (aka, as soon as you "wake up"), as soon as you make a commitment to doing out what is truly right instead of just doing what is comfortable and accepted and easy... it becomes incredibly difficult to fall back asleep. It becomes nearly impossible to "succeed" inside of the 9-to-5 wageslave system that you once never questioned the merit of, once you realize that we don't in fact live in meritocracy at all and your taxes are funding terrorism. You see the truth of how rotten everything is, how it is all built on lies and a hatred of humanity with the intent of enslaving us. The reason why people refuse to accept at the facts proving conspiracy theories, even if you shove it in their face, is because they are spiritually weak as fuck. They are not emotionally prepared to handle the ostracization and the shaming and the isolation that anyone who wakes up endures. They are not prepared to take the Hero's Journey. They are not prepared to be called crazy and a loser and gaslit 24/7 and then worse: threatened by police if they dont keep their mouths shut. They would much rather live in their materialist lie which is comfortable (3 -> 9 as opposed to 3 -> 6. 3 -> 6 would be waking up to the uncomfortable truths whilst 3 -> 9 is falling asleep into the material realm).

All enneagram fears are evil and bad and lead to bad things but there is something uniquely contemptible about type 3. It's definitely one of the types that's behind executing all the world's problems moreso than the others. I believe that all spiritual rottenness originates from ennea 4 (perhaps because 4 is the center of Origin in general) and then it seems to execute itself most pointedly through it's neighbors 3 and 5. Like if you look at this satanic world, that is who is objectively running it... rich 3s and 5s.

#My mum is an evil bitch with anger issues #Also musings #789 triad isn't innocent it's mostly just useless and inept on a global scale #These types can definitely harm people in their immediate vicinity. but #These types don't ever seem to be a force of true globalist evil #They can be possessed by people with globalist agendas and used as pawns like Trump tho (78 combo) #345 have something in common #They are what I call the Pessimist triad cuz they are the integration points of the Optimist triad #Meaning that they all disintegrate to Optimist types #Meaning that they're gravely missing Optimism and desperately need to learn what it is #I find them to be the most calculating and emotionally disconnected types #Despite memes about 4s being ~emotional~ ~empath~ ~all about feeeeelings~ #I've gone through why that's bollocks before #Many 4s are thinkers and many feeler “”4s“” are 9s

[olomaya]

Hi there!!! I'm a big fan of your mods and I was wondering if could take on this mod request, can you please make a mod that brings over the skateboard ramp and skateboarding skill from Wii version of The Sims 3? Now I don't even know if it's possible since nobody has ever tried to bring over stuff from the Wii version ( Although Gamefreak managed to bring the karma system for the Xbox 360/Ps3 version of the game), I know that there's snowboarding but it's really awkward to use outside winter.

A lot of people thirsting for more sports in the game! I get it, it's definitely a big part of everyday life that the Sims franchise has never really done justice to but I also sort of get why since it requires a lot of unique animations and objects and they're forced to pump out a ton of content with dwindling budgets/timelines all to increase shareholder value and maintain astronomical CEO salaries meanwhile their own salaries aren't even rising enough to meet inflation in periods of regular inflation not even thinking about the runaway inflation we've experienced over the past couple of years which is directly as a result of corporate greed.

Ahem.

Anyway, I digress. This isn't for me. Skateboarding isn't really a sport that I feel offers a ton of gameplay value and I prefer to work on mods that enhance gameplay whereas to me, skateboarding is like bike riding. It's just a thing to do. Not sure if that makes any sense.

I didn't know about the karma system and I've never played Sims on console but that sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out!

In theory, if someone were interested in taking on your idea, basing it on the snowboarding ramp object would cut a lot of work and you could then just focus on switching out the snowboard for a skateboard, presumably you could keep all the animations the same (though you may have to raise the height a little to accommodate for the skateboard wheels). Just a starting point suggestion if someone out there wants to take this on!

#q&a questions #interesting that a company that makes most of its money off FIFA has never bothered to put real sports in the sims #eat the rich

[binarystargames]

Valiant Horizon post-itchfund-launch devlog #1: Diceless, Roll for Magnitude, and Roll for Success

This post is about the various mechanical choices made in Valiant Horizon at a very high level. I group these into three categories: Diceless mechanics (stuff that works), Roll for Magnitude mechanics (stuff that works but you roll to see how much), and Roll for Success mechanics (stuff that works if a roll goes your way).

Diceless

The simplest kind of mechanic. This is what Assets, Exhausting Assets, and Burdens are:

You take an action and it works.

If you didn't expend a resource, you add or amplify a complication on that action.

The complications here are Burdens.

The resources here are Assets or Determination (which can either restore the use of an Asset or negate a Burden).

You can also reduce your access to a resource to achieve a larger effect.

This is Exhausting Assets.

The vibe I wanted to achieve wasn't "do you solve problems, overcome obstacles, etc." so much as "how do you do it". We are going to assume, generally, that the protagonists will get to the other side of whatever problem they encounter. The question then becomes: how do they win? What do they prioritize with asset use? What are they willing to let fall by the wayside or go imperfectly to get there? What resources are they willing to pull from the combat side to make it work? Are they willing to overextend themselves to achieve a victory? It becomes a question of resource management and long-term risk rather than short-term probability-based risk.

It's also a matter of spotlight management and diversity of outcomes. If your Windmagus knows they only get one use of wind magic per session, they know they can't solve every problem with that. But maybe they have something in their background that will suffice, or there's a good chance someone else will have something else too that might work. Or if they think whipping up a tornado will solve the problem better, they won't have easy access to their wind magic in the future, but it might be worth it. (Given that the penalty for Exhausting Assets is reset when you gain a level, this also encourages players to go a little more nuts with it near the end of a level - which should probably be something somewhat climactic anyway, so good!)

This is not how it's going to work in every Total//Effect game. Liminal Void, for instance, has more traditional "skill" rolls with Assets being granted by skills or by tools, granting things like advantage or stepping up numerical outputs. Get you a system that does both!

Roll for Magnitude

Now, this isn't to say it's a diceless game! Far from it. You roll a lot in Valiant Horizon. But usually you're rolling for magnitude and not success.

Generally I like the idea of failure-less combat. I'm sure plenty of people love the tension of whiffing attack after attack but it's not my bag in almost any circumstance. I'm fully on board with removing roll-to-hit. One criticism I have of purely diceless systems, though, is that they can lead to very predictable situations, especially when diceless abilities are tied to set effects/powers. (It's what spawned my quarterbacking posts.) Now, of course a GM/Narrator/facilitator/etc can always introduce new things to the scene to spice things up - that's why there's a "the GM does something cool" thing in LUMEN, for example, and why I kept that rule in APOCALYPSE FRAME. But that's already an intensive role, and requiring them to keep things interesting is sometimes a big ask.

As a middle ground, combat in Total//Effect still involves rolls for variable effect for set powers. They all get better at higher Totals (3 dice added), and most of them key something off of Effects (individual die values). This means that something always happens, no matter the roll value - depending on the ability, it may be extremely small, but it's something. Correspondingly, even pretty middling abilities (like basic enemy abilities) can sometimes spike up hard on triple 6's! (This happened literally the first Total//Effect session I ever ran. Incredible moment.)

If you're wondering what probabilities look like for it, I wrote a big piece on it here. Back in October, so parts of it are outdated! I can hardly believe it's been going this long. The math's still good though.

This is also used for Fame rolls for Reputation: Fame decays by a die roll at semi-regular intervals. (This is actually an off-shoot of two separate Total//Effect systems that are in play in Liminal Void, Rolls for Progress and Threats, which are Good Clock and Bad Clock respectively. Having something that conditionally ticks up but at a non-constant rate adds another level of tension to an already tense thing!)

Roll for Success

There is exactly one thing that can still fail on account of a roll: Calling for Aid from Relationships. The tension I want in Valiant Horizon shouldn't come from "does my cool combat stuff work" or "does the cool thing that my hero gave me". It comes from "can I rely on my friends". This is partially because it's a huge benefit! It's a 1/session/relationship thing where you can tag someone in out of turn and outside the action economy (if it goes well). But it's partially because I want that tension: do you, does your character, think they can reliably call on their friends for help?

At low levels of relationship, the answer is...sometimes, but not really. At higher levels, you've gotten a better understanding of how to ask: you can reliably ask for lesser things, but grander things are still dodgy. And at the highest level, you can always rely on them: it'll never fail as such. (Sometimes you'll get a mixed result still.)

---

Dice, rolling, and such are tools in the toolbox. Knowing when you want to use them, how you want to use them, and why goes a long way.

Next devlog, I’ll get into the various classes and start showing off more of the incredible art Charlotte made!

#ttrpg #ttrpg design #indie ttrpg #total//effect #valiant horizon #game design #ttrpg dev

[sophieinwonderland]

Hey Senpai carrd creator and I would like to answer a few questions cause I JUST saw your posts.

1. Senpia is mix of the word sentient and the abbreviation (P)lural (i)internal (a)xperience (the alternative spelling of experience is inside joke between me and my friend it references like the alternative way of living as a system hence like alternative spelling I hope that made sense) It has nothing to do with the word senpai and isn't pronounced like it at all....

2. The main reason for collecting donations is to put it towards hosting a full functional website. Websites are not free you have to pay for the domain and you also have to pay for hosting (both of which are not one time payments) and the amount of storage you get varries as well as the quality. (Like you can host a site on some places cheap but the site will load really slowly ) it's not something that's required it's optional. I chose Litecoin over Bitcoin and Ethereum because Litecoin is what is considered a "stable coin" the value stays relatively the same whereas Bitcoin and Ethereum have huge value fluctuations. You can also track crypto transactions on a Blockchain explorer like https://blockchair.com/litecoin it shows you all the money in the wallet and all of the transactions , but I understand if not everyone is comfortable with it I can find something else (Also I didn't know about PayPal business I can Google it and do more research so ty : D)

3. Cryptocurrency is not inherently bad for the environment that's misinformation crypto mining is bad for the environment 🤦‍♀️ as it utilizes huge amounts of energy which is powered using fossil fuel. https://earthjustice.org/feature/cryptocurrency-mining-environmental-impacts and accounts for 0.3% of global emissions worldwide https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/12/20/failing-crypto-could-be-a-win-for-the-environment/#:~:text=This%20takes%20enormous%20amounts%20of,all%20global%20greenhouse%20gas%20emissions.

Cryptocurrency mining is it's own sort of separate "industry"

and you can't unintentionally mine crypto? It's something you have to intentionally do and often times requires complex machines to "mint" new crypto. (Remember kids there is a lot of misinformation online and if people can't provide sources for there claims always be skeptical)

Thank you for the info!

On the whole crypto thing, I don't think people are suggesting that trading Crypto directly harms the environment. I'm not super educated on the subject so people can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the real issue is that it's still supporting the crypto-economy.

The best comparison I can think might be Diamonds. Diamond mining is also damaging to the environment. And diamonds, like Crypto, are mostly expensive because we decided they are.

When you buy a diamond, you aren't directly harming the environment but you are creating more demand. And more demand keeps diamonds expensive which keeps them profitable for the people who are harming the environment. Industries wouldn't mine Crypto if nobody used it.

As I see it, the issue is that using Crypto incentiveses harming the environment even if you aren't harming the environment yourself. It's l the economics.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean about not being able to mine Crypto unintentionally or how it factors into the conversation but Cryptojacking exists and can use people's PCs.

If I might offer a bit of constructive criticism, I think there are a lot of issues with this that might make it inaccessible and unlikely to catch on.

The fact that the term is based on an inside joke. The acronym not really feeling accurate (why is an individual headmate referred to as a Senpia if the acronym calls it a plural internal experience?) The name itself not having its origin or meaning listed on the site. The fact that anyone who Googles it will have Google assume they meant Senpai.

And I think ideally, it would have been best to try to build a community first and show your commitment before asking for money to help setup a website. If there had already been quality guides on the page before you asked for donations, people might have been more inclined to see it as a pay-what-you-want service.

#syscourse #plural #crypto #cryptocurrency #litecoin #plurality #crypto currency #endogenic #system #multiplicity #systems #plural system #endogenic system #pro endo #pro endogenic #system stuff #endo safe #actually a system

[semi-sketchy]

PAW Patrol Episode Thoughts - Season 2

Another cross-post from my DA, although this is the last one since it's been like a year and I still can't bring myself to finish season 3.

Anyways, as a reminder, here's my scoring system that goes from 1-10 based on my initial reaction:

1/10 - The episode you'd force your worst enemy to watch on repeat

2/10 - Just awful

3/10 - Pretty terrible

4/10 - Didn't hate, but wouldn't wanna watch again

5/10 - Just okay

6/10 - Decent, wouldn't mind watching it again

7/10 - The average good

8/10 - Really liked it!

9/10 - This is a must-watch

10/10 - Probably my favorite episode ever like maybe two are going to get this rating

To keep things simple, I'm not getting into point values, so just because two episodes have the same rating doesn't mean they're equal to me. And yes I love my OCs and will be bringing them up whenever I want because this is my post.

Without further adieu, here's how my rewatch of season 2 went.

Episode 1: Pups Save the Penguins/Pups Save a Dolphin Pup

A: Already the animation is a downgrade. Something about Marshall sitting on a swing like a human is very disturbing, although with the debut episode of a new season comes the first showing of Super Spy Chase. But seriously, Adventure Bay gets SNOW, are you now trying to tell me it's a tropical area and an iceberg would last going to and fro southern South America? Weak for a new season's first episode. 5/10

B: Marshall being knocked out of the elevator and his uniform put on a toy dolphin, leaving him to scramble up the pole has to be one of the funniest jokes they've done. Still, it feels lacking. 6/10

Episode 2: Pups Save a Space Alien/Pups Save a Flying Frog

A: Rocky learned how to fly alien tech in a matter of minutes, amazing. Still, this one wasn't as bad as I was thinking it would be. 6/10

B: Didn't notice it before, but the top floor of the lookout got a redesign for this season. It went from beige to blue. More of Chase's crush on Skye is shown, Chase is actually overall very cute and clingy in this episode and Marshall is also great. 7/10

Episode 3: Pups Save Jake/Pups Save the Parade

A: A cave episode, immediately Tara would be perfect here. Here's the debut of Marshall's EMT gear, I actually like Marshall doubling as an EMT since real fire fighters often times do both jobs. 7/10

B: At first I thought this was cute and then we got inflated Marshall. Please no I've unwillingly seen too much inflation fetish-- Overall okay though, Chase was once again very cute. 6/10

Episode 4: Pups Save the Diving Bell/Pups Save the Beavers

A: Francois stop being mean, as long as something old still works, it's better to use it rather than have it in a landfill. But Turbot...you knew you lost the steering fin so why did you think you could just drive? Although, first episode with Zuma's sub and it was pretty good! Rocky diving and Marshall traumatizing that poor woman on the beach was great. 8/10

B: Yumi, you don't put hay in the coop, you put straw. Hay is for eating, straw is for bedding. This is an episode where Nami's animal skills would really come in handy, though I am just so happy to see them communicating with animals in a way that isn't words for once. 8/10

Episode 5: Pups Save a Ghost/Pups Save a Show

A: They're baiting a trap for a dog...with a chocolate chip cookie. I get they don't know it's Marshall, but...dude. Oh wait, Rubble eats it at the end and calls it a liver chip cookie. Um...ew. 7/10

B: Oh look, Rescue Knights 6 seasons early. But did they just have Marshall try to do a Tim Allen "Uwha" grunt reference?

Episode 6: The New Pup

IT'S EVEREST TIME, BABY!!!! Aight but the first 5 minutes is just an ad for the PAW Patroller, like Ryder I don't think self-driving vehicles are legal and pretty sure having a robot that sits in the seat to do the driving doesn't change this rule, he's clearly not even very good at it yet. But we meet Everest and poor baby is so lonely. BUT JAKE GIVES HER A GRANOLA BAR THAT HAS RAISINS IN IT LIKE BRO YOU WANNA GIVE HER KIDNEY FAILURE? Anyways, Everest steals the show here, but aside from her there's not a whole lot going for this? Kinda sad considering I used to love this episode and I'm probably rating it higher than I should because I just love Everest so much. 6/10

Episode 7: Pups Jungle Trouble/Pups Save a Herd

A: First time in the jungle, huh, and Marshall really just jumped on a snake and then nearly got eaten by a carnivorous flower. I must admit, the dialogue with Mandy just stealing Ryder's Pup Pad is pretty funny, although they really just wanted an Indiana Jones moment, huh. 7/10

B: Ah, the episode that features 3 seconds of a Chase recolor which the whole fandom wanted to return as an actual character. Do love how Chase's bully here is a sheep. 7/10

Episode 8: Pups and the Big Freeze/Pups Save a Basket Ball Game

A: Does the town not have snowplow/salt trucks? At all? Goodway, you should know better than to drive faster than you can control your car, and really they called Rubble to clear the roads and not Everest? She was an afterthought? In a snow episode? Okay but Zuma and Skye skating at the end was cute. 7/10

B: They really are facing off against Boomers, huh. I know this isn't the first time the rivalry between Goodway and Humdinger has been shown, but this is the first full on "yeah Foggy Bottom cheats" moment. Still, Marshall having no confidence in himself and everyone helping to build him up is cute. 7/10

Episode 9: Pups Save an Ace/Pups Save a Wedding

A: This is the opposite of Sonic Lost World where the motor somehow causes damage to the wing, also Marshall just randomly exposing people to radiation with his x-ray screen for no reason. 8/10

B: Do they only invite the PAW Patrol so they get free decorating? Of course though, they censor the kissing because that's...a no, I guess? But Skye was really desperate to catch the bouquet. 7/10

Episode 10: Pups Save a Talent Show/Pups Save the Corn Roast

A: I know they're dogs and them playing music is great, but...ROCKY THAT'S NOT HOW YOU PLAY CHORDS. Why is Al acting as if he's never met the PAW Patrol before like...heck they helped him IN THE LAST EPISODE. I don't normally care for the singing, but here it was okay, just 2 Marshall-has-no-confidence episodes so close together. 8/10

B: Popcorn and roasting corn are two different types of corn, they aren't interchangeable. Regular old yellow corn will not pop. Also they're serving and eating food THAT'S BEEN ON THE DIRT. Pretty sure that's a health code violation. 6/10

Episode 11: Pups Leave Marshall Home Alone/Pups Save the Deer

A: Rubble was the writer's pet of season 1, but honestly I'm enjoying Marshall getting a big spotlight here, I can't believe I didn't like him for a long time. Katie this is why you don't have automatic doors to your grooming parlor, but it means we see Marshall and Katie with a bunch of adorable kittens so I'm actually okay with this. Marshall was funny and cute. I'm glad to say this was even better than I remembered it being. 10/10

B: EVEREST, MY BELOVED! I guess when Ryder made Everest part of the PAW Patrol, that included Jake, too. I don't wanna think how cold it has to be for the bay, which is most likely salt water, to freeze that solid. Also if Nami was a member at this point in time, her animal skills would once again come in very handy. 7/10

Episode 12: Pups Save the Parrot/Pups Save the Queen Bee

A: Are Ryder's dogs not color blind? Cause they can see red and green pretty well. Something that is accurate though is birds being incredibly hard to tell their gender. 6/10

B: This exists. Lots of the stuff in it is accurate to bees though, which is nice. Dogs do love honey, too. 6/10

Episode 13: Pups Save a Mer-Pup

Ah, the fantasy in the show starts. Gotta love Chase being the biggest skeptic around, like don't you know when you're fed this exposition, the myth is gonna come true? Still his reaction was so priceless. You know Zuma and Skye also get along really well in this episode, it's cute. 8/10

Episode 14: Pups Save an Elephant Family/Pups and the Mischievous Kittens

A: Turbot really sleeping in the jungle without a mosquito net, huh. I mean...that was an episode, I guess. 5/10

B: Ah, the debut of the Catastrophe Crew. Did they always have names though? The Rocky kitten was called Tabby. Don't know why Ryder didn't call all the pups to help clean up, but Nami's gear was made for picking up after storms, so she would've been great here. 6/10

Episode 15: Pups Save a Friend/Pups Save a Stowaway

A: Another Marshall episode, but this one is sad. One of those cliché "I heard someone saying bad things and assumed it was about me." That said, it was still an alright episode. 6/10

B: Cats are curious but I can tell you they hate car rides. Surprised she didn't scream the whole way there. 7/10

Episode 16: Pups Adventures in Babysitting/Pups Save the Fireworks

A: Did Ryder get a VA change mid-season? He sounds so different here. Although the theme song playing 3 times was a bit much... 6/10

B: Surprise, show, but mailing most animals isn't allowed and I can assure you, piglets aren't. They do not go through the same mail as apples and shampoo. Also no fireworks either since those are a big safety risk. Chase really just stole a buggy though, huh. 7/10

Episode 17: Pups Save a Sniffle/Pups and the Ghost Cabin

A: I'd question how the virus spread so quickly to all the pups but after the past few years I don't think I need to. I will question why each of them has their very own branded box of tissues, though. 6/10

B: Yes, Chase, the mice will be sad, but that covering Rocky did will not keep them out. You need to stuff the hole with steel wool and CERTAINLY DON'T FEED THE MICE. THOSE ARE NOT PETS. 6/10

Episode 18: Pups Save an Adventure/Pups Save a Surprise

A: Poor Mr. Porter, he just wants a break but he's with a toddler. Also...don't give dogs chili. It's too spicy for them. This episode was more of a fire safety information dump than anything, although learning these types of things as a kid didn't stop me playing with matches. 6/10

B: Contrary to popular belief, tomato juice does in fact, not remove skunk spray. How did this myth even get started. Also he was wearing white clothes and they were still white, like...tomato stains, man. 6/10

Episode 19: Pup-Fu!

I feel like this came out just because it was the height of popularity for Kung-fu Panda, but after playing Xenoblade X and having to listen to Bozé, I can't hear "Sensei" without cringing. This was...something. 4/10

Episode 20: Pups Save the Mayor's Race/Pups Save an Outlaw's Loot

A: I am very quickly getting tired of the amount of problems being caused by the Catastrophe Crew. Do cats always have to be the enemy to dogs? 5/10

B: Annnd another Humdinger episode, you know I don't blame the pups for basically spying on him every time he steps foot in the city. Geez though is he RIPPED he just pulled a huge log! That has to be at the bare minimum 300 pounds! Not as strong as Ryder though, freaking 10-year-old just lifted an entire chest full of gold out of the ground. 6/10

Episode 21: Pups Save Walinda/Pups Save a Big Bone

A: Wally gets ass, confirmed. 6/10

B: Ah, excavation, something Tara would be great for, but that's it. 6/10

Episode 22: Pups Save a Floundering Francois/Pups Save the Pop-Up Penguins

A: Chase, were the cones really necessary when Rubble was just planting a bonsai tree...? But man does Francois cause so many problems, seeing this as a double-rescue though is cool. 7/10

B: Someone tell me how penguins get in a train freezer car in the first place, please. 6/10

Episode 23: Pups Save a Snowboard Competition/Pups Save a Chicken of the Sea

A: If Everest could clear the driveway with her snowcat the entire time, why did she sit there letting Jake shovel tons of it by hand? Also Humdinger is back but he's so minor in this episode that it's tolerable. 7/10

B: Okay, Cali underwater was pretty funny. 7/10

Episode 24: Pups Save a Pizza/Pups Save Skye

A: Marshall, sitting in a bunch of food people are going to eat is just gross. Also are they really using dough that fell rather than just making a new batch? Like pizza dough is 5 ingredients, it's not hard to make. Good they differentiated actual pepperoni from the dog kind, though. 8/10

B: Gotta love Skye, something bad happens and she takes it in strides. Everyone being so concerned about her is also very cute. Although don't give dogs ENTIRE BOWLS OF MILK, JAKE. 8/10

Episode 25: Pups Save the Woof and Roll Show/Pups Save an Eagle

A: Cleaning up after a storm? NAMI? But a celebrity is driving themself and that is because this is a work of fiction. Chase's smug grin after being able to tell off his mayor is great and surprisingly, the singing isn't annoying for once. 7/10

B: Ryder you need Byte to help you tinker with the Lookout electronics. ALSO WHY ARE YOU WORKING ON A CIRCUIT WITH ACTIVE POWER TO IT DO YOU WANT TO DIE??? I must say, it is sweet how Ryder's not making Skye deal with an eagle, well, at least right away... 7/10

Episode 26: Pups Bark with Dinosaurs

Remember when episodes like these were just dreams? But these dinos should have feathers and I have to admit, the sound effects they have for them are hilarious. Also dino on dino VIOLENCE. For a dream episode, it was pretty solid. 7/10

Season 2 overall:

While this season was still pretty good and I have a lot of nostalgia for it, I can see the heart starting to go. Some of the characters are losing personality and more than a few episodes feel so lifeless. Humdinger shifted from a rival to an actual villain and Marshall was the big writer's pet this time around, so it evened out somewhat. Just the sheer repetitiveness is really sinking in and I'm afraid even someone as amazing as Everest can't save that.

Will say this half makes me ship ZumaXSkye because they have so many good moments in this season.

#sassy watches paw patrol #paw patrol

[randomfandomdreaming]

An Explanation of the Coruscant Regulated Calendar

A forewarning: This is completely based off the calendar I know from my experiences with reality shifting. I learned this system back in 2008 (for us) and didn't learn until recently that it’s scarily close to the actual calendar (Coruscant Reckoning Calendar) created by Pablo Hidalgo.

The Coruscant Regulated Calendar (CRC) was the most commonly used calendar among the Core Worlds. It can get a little confusing on how to read the dates, so here's the best way I can explain it. I will warn you that I am not sober while writing this, and can therefore make no promises if this will truly make sense. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

How is the calendar set up?

There are 317 days in the CRC, equaling ten months and three festival weeks.

Month (Day amount)

New Year’s Fete (5)

Elona (30)

Kelona (29)

Selona (30)

Telona (30)

Nelona (31)

Helona (30)

Festival of Light (5)

Melona (31)

Yelona (30)

Relona (30)

Festival of Stars (5)

Welona (31)

Days of the week: Primeday, Centaxday, Taungsday, Zhellday, Benduday

So how does the CRC dating system work?

Date Format: YYYY.MDD.HH.mm.ss (Year.MonthDay.Hour.Minute.Second)

Please bear with me on this.

The Clone War began on 7955.518 CRC. To put it into a familiar format, it began on Nelona 18, 7955 (though, if they write out the date like that, they format it as 7955, Nelona 18).

The first number, 7955, is the year. The next number, 518, actually stands for the fifth month (Nelona) and the eighteenth day. No time of day was recorded.

Hours are counted 1-24, minutes and seconds 1-60. Unlike our clocks, the clocks of the Core Worlds don’t use double zeros for their new hour. 1:59pm would be written 13.60 while 2:00pm would be written 14.1. Think of it this way. Their minute is one number value greater than ours. We use 00-59 while they use 1-60.

Say you wanted to write the standard date for Welona 28, 7855 at 2:15pm. 7855.028.14.16 is how the date would be logged.

What about festivals?

There are three festival weeks separate from the ten months. Think of them as mini-months that are really just a week long. Festival dates follow a similar layout to the standard dates, but instead substitute the month digit and the first day digit with letters, while the second day digit is then replaced with a festival day number, 1-5.

Here are some examples from each festival. The times of days and years are randomized.

New Year’s Fete, Day 3: 7955.NY3.18.43

Festival of Light, Day 1: 7634.FL1.3.9

Festival of Stars, Day 5: 7956.FS5.20.57

Here is what each festival date would look like in the aurebesh (in order from above):

App used to create the aurebesh representation is Aurebesh IO

Again, if anyone has any questions or needs anything cleared up, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

#star wars #star wars the clone wars #reality shifting #coruscant regulated calendar #i’m high can’t sleep and am dumping random info probably no one is interested in #randomfandomdreaming talks spirituality #in universe calendar

[zosonils]

they should add a pokemon with base 1200 stats thats catchable and usable. for fun

WARNING: special interest activated. long ass ramble about an incredibly niche application of pokemon spaghetti code that nobody else cares about deploying in t minus 5 seconds. press j to abort

well here's the fun thing! gen 8 has eternatus, which isn't actually obtainable in its eternamax form but does have the code there for all its stats so you can fight it in the story, and sports a bst of 1125 [for comparison the highest statted actually obtainable pokemon, mega rayquaza, has a 780 bst, and without counting form changes it's arceus at 720]. even if you have eternatus in your party dynamaxing it doesn't do anything interesting, but as a consequence eternamax eternatus is a separate pokemon within the game's code, making it technically possible to hack in as a pokemon

enter smogon's two hacked formats, balanced hackmons and pure hackmons. balanced hackmons is probably better known, it's where things like sturdy shedinja and flash fire ferrothorn run around, but the key word there is balanced. moves, abilities, and pokemon that are so brokenly powerful they make things uncompetitive are banned, and standard rules like sleep and evasion clause are still in effect. naturally, eternamax is banned banned banned from balanced hackmons for being stupidly overpowered. however, it's allowed in pure hackmons, which is essentially anything goes but for sadomasochists. aside from endless battle sets [like the infamous funbro] you can literally do whatever the fuck you want so long as it is possible within the constraints of the game's code to hack in. naturally, this includes having an eternamax eternatus or three [not hyperbole] on your team

so the thing is that pokemon code is fucking bad. have i mentioned that yet. putting aside the obvious messes like everything that moves and most things that don't in the gameboy entries or scarlet and violet blatantly not being finished at launch, the battle system is full of bizarre oversights and overflow errors and needlessly complex accident-prone methods for doing incredibly simple things. one of these problems is that because of how natures are calculated [which i won't get into it's too much math] every non-hp stat only goes up to 654, overflowing to 0 at 655. normally this doesn't matter because you need at least a base stat of 249 to get this far, which no pokemon has in any stat other than hp, which isn't affected by nature and thus can't have this issue. but the thing is that pokemon can have a base stat that high, it goes up to 255 as seen with blissey's hp, there just isn't any pokemon with a non-hp stat that high. [if you're curious, the highest non-hp stat is on the mighty shuckle, with 230 in both defences; still not enough to overflow.] except eternamax eternatus, which beats out shuckle with 250 defence and special defence, which is just enough to trigger the overflow at level 100 with a boosting nature and max ivs and evs, making what should be a stat of 658 a very embarrassing 3 instead. and if you carefully stat your eternatus to have 655 in either defence, it will have a final stat of exactly zero

here's where we hit another error! isn't pokemon great! so pokemon's damage calculation doesn't really know what to do when you tell it to divide by zero, fair enough. instead of crashing itself trying to perform an impossible calculation, the game just kinda gives up and replaces the value with a zero and calls it a day. alright, nice, the game didn't crash, but because you did that at the defence step of the damage calculation, you just deleted the opposing pokemon's corresponding attack stat and its move's base power, whoopsy daisy! this makes it pretty much impossible to deal any more than 2 hp of damage to a pokemon with 0 defences. fortunately, it's only possible to overflow to 0 on one stat per pokemon, but still, you're effectively invincible on one side of the attacking spectrum. combined with eternamax's blissey-level hp stat, immunity to toxic, and monstrous other defence stat, this makes it practically invincible

centralising does not even begin to describe eternamax in pure hackmons. this thing makes gen 1 mewtwo look like quagsire. as the viability rankings put it, the only pokemon that are even remotely usable in ph are eternamax, pokemon that support eternamax, pokemon that can do something to at least one version of eternamax, and pokemon that counter the ones that can do something to eternamax. the only listed sample team is 50% eternamax. it's not literally unkillable, no pokemon is, but the only somewhat consistent way around it is to either do an incredible job setting up to hit its non-invincible side without getting knocked out in the process or to resort to frustrating, otherwise uncompetitive strats like perish trapping, ohko moves, or hazard phasing. either way, you're probably in for a mind-numbingly long, stally, boring, and uncompetitive game. eternamax is so overwhelming that gen 8 pure hackmons has been left mostly abandoned out of frustration and will probably stay that way unless eternamax is somehow banned or made possible to deal with

tl;dr they [kind of] added a [nearly] 1200 bst pokemon already and unless they fix their damn nature calculation it might genuinely fucking ruin the game if it was legitimately available lmao

#[not] sorry for infodumping at length about a really weirdly specific aspect of pokemon code without really being asked to! #it will probably happen again #long post #fancyson #god. good fucking morning tumblr dot com

[aresianrepose]

Can I ask about the Bruce and Jason argument scene you mentioned in your tags? 👀👀

You can find the fic here

The specific chapter that houses the argument here

I honestly did a shit job with the summary and it's the first multichapter fic I've written in probably about 3 years so it's a bit rusty with the plot hooks. So yeah, here's a little excerpt that ties into that specific post from the argument! It leans heavily into the idea that Bruce's arguments and stances are entirely based on his morals and feelings, even when he wants to pass them off as logic through stonewalling and stoicism.

Also, this fic is meant to have long-term character growth (with an intentional third-person limited POV) so if anyone yells at me about Bruce and Jay's bad relationship you get dunked in the ice bucket of critical thinking and reading skills.

Excerpt under the cut.

"Why?" Jason's voice broke around the word. His heart hammered in his chest, not wanting the response he knew was coming. "Why is he alive?"

"You stopped me once. You know why." Bruce replied quickly, but seemed to be having a conversation he already had a million times. As if he knew exactly where it went, what would be said, and the inconvenience of having to actually talk it through was painfully trite.

"I still ended up fucking dead. I stopped you to end the violence that you showed me comes with that brand of justice. And I still ended up fucking dead." Jason searched Bruce's face for any reaction to his words and came up painfully empty.

"Is this conversation really necessary?"

"Yes, it fucking is. I deserve that much. You watched a serial killer take my life and then just fucking gave him a free pass to kill more people." Jason was completely thrown off. He knew that he would have to fight Bruce on the moral viewpoint he was offering, but the idea he would have to fight him to acknowledge the need for the conversation floored him. He had been dead to Bruce for four fucking years and he didn't want to talk about it?

"The sanctity of human life applies to everyone. Even if you don't want to admit it does." Bruce was firm, unwavering.

"The sanctity of human life? Allowing Joker to live is a violation of the sanctity of human life,” Jason laughed incredulously, his bubbling anger tinging the laughter with bitterness. Jason's face and neck were getting hot. The collar of his shirt seemed to be shrinking, choking around his throat as he spoke. “It makes you responsible for the blood on his hands. Fucking rivers of innocent blood. I do value life. If someone has their chance at redemption and they can’t be contained, then the blood of those they kill is on the hands of those who should've put them down."

"Is that your reason for coming home? Revenge?" Bruce raised his eyebrows, his judgment in Jason evident.

"Justice." Jason hissed.

"There are systems of justice that meet that need. No man can not be judge, jury, and executioner." Bruce spoke as if he was teaching a child not to touch a hot stove.

"You started this because the justice system was corrupt and couldn't bring you justice. Why do you keep relying on it then? To hand over these repeat, violent offenders who have every chance to rehabilitate but choose not to. You're not a fucking idiot. You know the outcome. You know he can't be stopped. You know the cost of every breath he takes. This isn't about saving lives for you, if it was you'd take on the personal cost of taking a life to save others. That's a price I'm willing to die by. I actually give a fuck about individual lives, not the idealized concept of a city." Jason had moved to the edge of his seat, leaning forward as he spoke. He could feel every pounding heart beat in the smallest capillaries in his body.

Bruce sighed heavily. It only caused Jason's anger to flare. He knew his argument was solid and yet Bruce was treating him like a naive child. As if he hadn't spent years being a vigilante, as if he hadn't learned these lessons first hand. As if he wasn't giving up everything he wanted to bring the only kind of justice that would stop someone like the Joker.

"The sanctity of life-" Bruce started but Jason cut him off again.

"What's the point of doing what we do if we can't do what the law won't?" Jason demanded. "Little girls are locked up for life for killing their pimps while repeat offenders get off with slaps on the wrist? Or even worse, never tried at all. Do you know the percentage of assault cases that actually get pursued? What is the point of what we do?

"Everyone can change, not everyone will. And your circle jerk about not killing a man who has proven that he will not change and will continue to take lives with a staggering amount of power to do so only shows me the outright idiocy of your choice to become a vigilante. Just go put on a fucking uniform. Get a badge. You're choosing not to be a cop to get out of doing paperwork. Should've been a pig instead of a fucking bat." Jason's voice echoed through the study, chest heaving with every gasping breath between his words.

He felt like a battering ram, trying to beat past Bruce's stonewalling. Every cyclical thought since he had learned Bruce hadn't killed the Joker, every imaginary confrontation leading to this moment. Hours and hours of sitting in silence and arguing with Bruce in his own mind, trying to win. It all spilled out of his mouth in rapid fire. He would not be silenced. Bruce would hear every word.

"Where would the line be? Who gets to decide what is deserving of death? It would be too easy to cross that line and hold that power over who lives and who dies. To deal out death to whom I see fit without any repercussion is a slippery slope that would only lead to a gross perversion of justice. I thought I had taught you at least that much.” The disappointment in Bruce's voice cut Jason deeper than he realized it would. He didn't anticipate just how much he had hoped Bruce would see and understand him. The subsequent realization that Bruce would never see him cut into the tender, dead child inside of him. He railed against the pain, his jaw tightening.

"You're not listening! I don't know why I fucking try with you. Why can't you ever just fucking listen to me? It's always about you and your fucking amorphous morals. How does it feel to be the god of your own universe? Treating everyone in your life as pawns you get to swoop in and rescue, control, and push until they fall? This isn't about the stupid fucking game you play. This isn't about how fucked it is that you think you own this city. This is about your son standing in front you begging to be fucking heard. You value philosophical concepts more than your actual living, breathing son.

#clovis writes #jason todd #fanfic #this particular scene is also wayyy more dialogue heavy than i typically write but jason just had so much to say

[tesl8n]

Powers of 2, ranked

32 - As stated in the tags of that other post, I have a special relationship to this one, it was the first power of two I was introduced to and it'll always hold it special in my heart. You know that one post about hyping up your lame boyfriend? That's me and 32. She's special in my heart, and I don't care what you say.

1024 - More than any other power of 2, this one just feels right. Like yeah, 2^10 is 1024. It's the one that breaks the base-10 4 digit barrier, and its power is 10! It's perfect. And it forms the basis of all the other order of magnitude powers - 2^20 ≈ 1 million = 2^10 * 2^10, ofc! And so on. It's a beautiful synergy between two very different bases, and I love it.

2^31, ~2.1 billion - The maximum positive value for a signed integer in most systems. Or, well, one over that, because this is the point where it overflows to negative. It's just such a cool trait, and the one most people are likely to have interacted with in interesting ways that get into the technicalities of modern software development.

256 - The maximum positive value for an unsigned 8-bit integer. This is the overflow point for a lot of NES-era games and earlier, and it's cool for very similar reasons. Very close ranking between 3 & 4. Fun fact: The reason it jumps from 2^8 to 2^32 is because 8 & 32 are themselves powers of 2. And for technical reasons, those form very convenient numbers for indexing positions in memory, because you can store the power of the array in a power-of-two number of bits as well, which is real neat.

64 - The minecraft stack size. Listen, credit where it's due, she's done so much to spread knowledge about powers of 2, probably more than any of the others on this list. I love that minecraft used 64 for its stack size, even though it didn't have to and it's such an unintuitive number.

16 - Hexadecimal is a nice base, I like it. I love that you can represent 256 with two hex digits, and that it can be such a cool little syndication of another important power of 2 in computing.

2048 - I've got a max score in this game, so it's obviously on the list.

2^16 - The max tile in 2048. Okay, well, this is a lie, you can go one higher by filling the entire board, then spawning a 10% chance 4 in the bottom left. I've obtained a 2^17, but never finished a whole game with it. Plus, 2^17 just isn't as pretty as 2^16 - 65,536 feels like it could be a power of 2, it's got that 64 feel. 131,072 doesn't feel like anything.

#THE EXPERIENCE #anyway thanks to the 2^n poll for letting me think about powers of two some more :P