#login horizon | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

damazcuz · 2 months

Text

I don't think people responding to the scrambled "uh oh, we got caught" Tumblr AI announcement with "just nightshade and glaze all the art you post guys! it's your own fault if you don't do that small step! It's ok we'll get through this!" are Getting It:

Everything has already been scraped, including the account you haven't been able to access since 2015. Yes even the private, locked sideblogs of all your old art. Did you glaze it? did you nightshade it? in 2015? can you log in and check? no? Opted in.

This also includes any writing, creative or otherwise, posted to Tumblr. Did you nightshade the poetry and fanfiction you posted to Tumblr on your old account in 2018? why not? not a plan-aheader huh? Opted in!

It's opt in by default and by design. People who left Tumblr ages ago will likely not hear about this and won't know to regain account access and opt out. People who have died won't be able to log in and opt out. People who deleted past accounts or sideblogs won't be able to log in and opt out. People whose content is reposted here from Pixiv or other external sources by unrelated third parties won't have any way to say "hey half of that blog is MY stuff. Opt ME out."

Sorry. They just have everything ever put on the site. And you didn't opt out in 2015 when you lost access to your login email, so it's included. This is on purpose because they don't WANT people to be able to opt out, they want people to stay opted in saying "well my art sucks so I'm poisoning the data model 👍" while posting jokes and creative writing, they WANT you to say "well I'm unaffected" and keep posting photos and text and stuff. Midjourney wants that and Tumblr wants to do anything it can to satisfy Midjourney and scrape some cash out of that deal.

I'm sorry because I love this place too, but genuinely the decisions being made here are business decisions being put into place by a company trying to squeeze the last drops of blood out of a stone. Tumblr is not your friend. Staff is not your friend. Automattic is not your friend. The CEO has hopefully PROVEN he is not anyone's friend. This is a business first and a product that they are selling, not to you and me, but to advertisers and partners. Tumblr will ensure that Tumblr users see their ads and supply them data.

Frankly I do not trust this company or this website and I cannot in good faith just believe that they're going to look at my opt out checkbox and say "okay! ^_^ we will remove everything Dama has ever said or done from our AI scrape. we promise to do it!" and then actually do it. They already have the data. They can just claim that whatever is produced through machine learning based in part off of my data is unrelated, came from other sources, etc. I do not have trust in this website. I don't see how anyone could at this point.

I feel like I'm watching a trainwreck from the inside and no one wants to get out of their seats and try hopping off into the safe grassy field. Wait, they say. Let's see if the train just climbs back onto the tracks, they say. The fire and explosions are all part of the process, they say. Eventually people will stop panicking or dying and it'll be a smooth ride, they say. Just look at how bright the horizon is.

#🛤️ well frankly i hope it explodes even faster.#lawsuit save me. lawsuit. save me lawsuit.

211 notes · View notes

tealin · 10 months

Text

McMurdo Internet

Internet service is supplied to Antarctica via a geostationary satellite. This far south, the satellite is only a few degrees above the horizon, and unfortunately for McMurdo, it's behind Mt Erebus. So the signal is beamed to a receiver on Black Island, about 20 miles away to the southwest, and bounced over to the sheltered alcove at the end of the Hut Point Peninsula where McMurdo sits.

The Chalet, administrative hub, with Black Island in the distance

The Black Island telecommunications infrastructure was installed in the 1980s, long before the internet we know and love today. It was upgraded in 2010 to allow more data transfer, mainly realtime weather data to feed into global forecast models. For this reason, it's probably the only place I've ever been where upload speed is remarkably faster than download speed – 60Mbps for outbound traffic, but only 20Mbps for inbound. Most regular internet use is receiving, not sending, so that's an entire base running on a connection that's only marginally faster than the average American smartphone. As you can imagine, this is somewhat limiting.

The limits to one's internet access actually begin before one even reaches the Ice. At the orientation in Christchurch, one is directed to a URL from which one must download and install a security programme from the U.S. government. It may feel like a hippie commune full of nerds, but McMurdo is an installation of the American state, and as such its computer network is a target of whatever disgruntled conspiracy theorist decides to hack The Man on any given day. Computers that are allowed onto this network (such as the one on which I am typing right now) have to have an approved firewall and antivirus service installed, then this extra programme on top of them. I am not sure what it does. For all I know the CIA is spying on me even now. (Hi, guys!) But you need to install it to get on the McMurdo Internet, such as it is, so I did.

To be honest, I was rather looking forward to a month cut off entirely from the hyperconnected world, so I was a tiny bit disappointed that quite a lot of day-to-day communication is done by email, and I would need to be on my computer a fair bit to get it. Had I known just how important email would be, I'd have installed an email client that actually downloads one's messages instead of just fetching them; as it was, the cycle of loading an email and sending the reply, even in Gmail's "HTML for slow connections" mode, took about five minutes, not counting the time it took to write. Tending one's email was a serious time commitment; sometimes I felt like I was spending more time on the computer in Antarctica than I did at home.

Crary scientists waiting, and waiting, and waiting

In a way, though, I was lucky, because I was technically a scientist and therefore had access to the one building on base with WiFi, the Crary Lab. And don't think you can just waltz into Crary with your laptop and poach the WiFi – in order to access it at all, you have to get set up by Crary IT with your own personal WiFi login. If you do not have Crary access, your portal to the Internet is one of a handful of ethernet cables in each of the dorm common rooms, or some public terminals in the main building. You can hop on, download your emails, maybe check the news or Google something you needed to look up, and then leave it for someone else. When most online time sinks are either blocked or too heavy to load, it’s amazing how little internet time you actually turn out to need.

Things that we have come to take for granted in The World are not a part of McMurdo life. Social media is pretty much out – the main platforms are bandwidth hogs even before you try to load a video or an animated GIF. There is no sharing of YouTube links, and no Netflix and chill. Someone was once sent home mid-season for trying to download a movie. Video calls with family and friends? Forget it. People do occasionally do video calls from Antarctica, often to media outlets or schools, but these have to be booked in advance so as to have the requisite bandwidth reserved. Jumping on FaceTime does not happen – not least because handheld devices have to be in airplane mode at all times for security reasons. Your phone might be secure enough for your internet banking, but not for US government internet!

It is, unavoidably, still a digital environment, it just gets by largely without internet access. Nearly everyone has an external hard drive, mostly for media that they've brought down to fill their off hours. If you want to share files you just swap hard drives, or hand over a memory stick. When the Antarctic Heritage Trust wanted some book material from me, I dropped it onto an SD card and ran it over to Scott Base on foot – a droll juxtaposition of high- and low-tech, not to mention a good excuse for a hike over The Gap on a beautiful day. It took half an hour, but was still faster than emailing it.

There is also a McMurdo Intranet, which includes a server for file sharing. Emailing someone your photos will take ages, but popping them into a folder on the I: drive and sending them a note to say you've done so (or, better yet, phoning them, or poking your head into their office) is much more efficient. To conserve space, this informal server partition is wiped every week, so you have to be quick about it, but it's an effective workaround, and also a good way to get relatively heavy resources to a large number of people in one go.

The telecommunications centre on Black Island is mostly automated, but like anything – perhaps more than some things, given the conditions – it needs to be maintained. There is a small hut out there for an equally small team of electricians and IT engineers; Black Island duty attracts the sort of person who might have been a lighthouse keeper back in the day.

Towards the end of my time on the Ice there was a spell where they needed to shut off the connection overnight, to do some necessary work. Given that most people's workdays extended at least to the shutoff time at 5:30 p.m., this meant essentially no internet for a large portion of the population, and some amusing flyers were posted up to notify everyone of the impending hardship.

Someday, faster, more accessible internet will come to Antarctica. It's more or less unavoidable, as communications technology improves, and everyone's work – especially the scientists' – depends more and more on having a broadband connection at all times. It will make a lot of things more convenient, and will make the long separation from friends and family much easier. But I'm pretty sure that many more people will mourn the upgrade than celebrate it. One can, theoretically, curtail one's internet use whenever one likes, but even before the pandemic it was almost impossible to live this way with the demands of modern life: I know from personal experience that opting out of Facebook alone can have a real detrimental effect on relationships, even with people one sees in the flesh fairly regularly, simply because everyone assumes that is how everyone else communicates. Being in a community where no one has access to assumed channels, and is more or less cut off from the rest of the world in a pocket universe of its own, levels the playing field and brings a certain unity. The planned (and, unarguably, necessary) updating of the physical infrastructure of McMurdo will wipe out a lot of the improvised, make-do-and-mend character of the place; how much would free and easy access to the online world change it in a less tangible way?

I'm sure the genuine Antarctic old-timers would shake their heads at the phone and email connections we have now, and say that no, this has already ruined Antarctica. It's not Antarctica unless your only link to the outside world is a dodgy radio. It's not Antarctica unless you only get mail once a year when the relief ship arrives. Doubtless the shiny new McMurdo will be seen as 'the good old days' by someone, someday, too. Change may happen slower there than elsewhere, but just like the rust on the tins at Cape Evans, it comes eventually, regardless.

For my own part, I'm glad I got to see 'old' McMurdo, such as it was, all plywood and cheap '90s prefab. The update will be much more efficient, and tidy, but yet another generation removed from the raw experience of the old explorers. My generation is probably the last to remember clearly what life was like before ubiquitous broadband; to some extent, Antarctica is a sort of time capsule of that world, just as the huts are a time capsule of Edwardian frontier life. I hope they'll find a way to hang on to the positive aspects of that.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to waste an hour mindlessly refreshing Twitter ...

If you'd like to learn more about the Black Island facility, there's a lot of good information (and some photos!) here: https://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/90s/blackisland.html

And this Antarctic Sunarticle goes into greater depth on the 2010 upgrade: https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/2114/

#mcmurdo station #antarctica #internet #wifi #connectivity #antarctic blog

268 notes · View notes

lolitakirstein · 1 month

Text

Hey Neighbor PT 10

WC:1.3k~

AO3 page

Toji

“So what exactly are you wanting me to do, sir?” the lanky male asks Toji. The computer opened and reflected in his oversized glasses.

“I am curious myself,” Shiu sits with his ankle over his knee, staring at Toji from across the kitchen table. “Your text from last night was quite unexpected”

Toji is seated with his forearms braced on the table, a slight frown on his face and a tiredness in his eyes. Which was to be expected since he hadn’t slept a wink the previous night. His mind spun from thoughts of you and this mysterious guy that had interrupted his owning up everything to you. He battled back and forth with his mind–should he really try to find out who this was or should he allow you to live your life and make your own choices? As the sun peaked over the horizon, he came to the middle ground, sorta. He’d find out who this guy was, but that was it! No background checks, no sending out people to his house, and definitely not wiping him off the planet and out of your life. Just a normal hacking of a phone.

“I need to see messages on y/n phone.” Toji answers.

Shiu’s eyes widen, taken back for a moment. Then, his face turns to one of joy. “Ah, already? The agreement must’ve been–”

“This isn’t about the agreement,” Toji interrupts, brusquely. He turns towards the hacker. “Just tell me you can do it.”

The hacker wrings his hands over his keyboard, clearly nervous in the presence of the infamous Toji Fushiguro. “Uhm, I can put spyware on it? Do you have the phone?”

“No, do it remotely. She uses an Apple phone and computer. I’m sure she has messages coming through her computer on the messaging app.” He demands.

“If we are in the range of her wifi, I can crack through her password, and then the software can gather all her credentials–logins and passwords. Then, we just enter those into the messaging app.” The hacker spoke quickly, clearly excited to show off his abilities.

“Do it,” he orders.

A day off work was never really a day off. Being so busy with work and honestly being lazy, the house chores had fallen behind. Though you have been living here for a few months now, the house still screams “Grandmother’s house.” You just hadn’t had the heart or the mental strength to get rid of things. Grief made you hang on to it as much as possible Until the smell of her house was replaced with your soft vanilla and lavender smell. You started in the bedroom, packing away old clothes to take to donation centers and replacing the bed sheets with ones that were more you—A soft purple comforter and an overabundance of pillows.

After folding the new bath towels and placing them in the upstairs hallway closet, you look up at the ceiling and the hatch to the attic ladder. You had been dreading going up there for a few reasons. Spiders, dust, dirt, mold, and the wild idea that someone might be up there living for all you knew. Another reason was what you DID know was up there. Pictures, memories of people you would never see again, and memories of moments you��ll never experience. But, today was the day. It had to be done.

Straightening your shoulder, you pull the string and allow the ladder to unfold to the floor. Surprisingly, no dead bodies tumbled down and no clouds of dust poured. You climbed the stairs, holding your phone as a flashlight. Once at the top, you notice it’s not the crypt you expected. It could be a spare room, the floors barely showed signs of neglect, neat stacks of books in the corner, and enough room to stand. Another string hung from the rafters to a light that still worked.

Getting to work, you pull dusty boxes from the corners, carry them to the floor below, gather the books to sort through and sweep the floor. Once satisfied with your cleaning, you gather your supplies and turn off the light. You switch all the supplies to one hand as you shuffle to the ladder.

The canister of furniture polish slips from your arm and rolls to the side of the attic. You chase after it, using your phone light again in the dark. The light bounced off the can and another glint of metal on the wall you hadn’t noticed.

Upon further inspection, you see a small gap in the wall, metal peaking out behind it. Using your phone light, a two-foot by two-foot section of the wall seems to be cut into the wall. YOu dig your finger into the exposed groove and gift it a sideways push. After getting stuck a few times, the panel recedes into the wall at the right, and the content behind it is revealed.

A silver safe about the size of a mini fridge sits behind the wall, a thin layer of dust coating it. A keypad blinks in the upper corner. You take a chance and attempt to pull the handle, hoping it would open—another part of you hoped it wouldn’t. Scared to see what was in it.

After 3 more tugs of the handle, you give up. It clearly needs a passcode. You try a few—1234, 11111, 2222 —-- before again giving up in case it had a system that locked it completely for an undetermined amount of time.

Finally, you climb back down the ladder, Confused, which seems to be your everyday emotion these days. You might as well have a giant question mark above your head

What the fuck is going on?

Toji

“I was able to hack into her cloud and find her contacts. I reverse-searched the number of the last message she received. It comes back to a Connor J. Falco but it appears he’s gone by a multitude of aliases. Here are some of the text messages I was able to—”

“I’m not going to read her messages, just give me what info you have on the guy,” Toji interrupts, slightly closing the laptop that the hacker had rotated around for him to see.

“Isn’t your concern that she is…involved with this man? Romantically?” Shiu chimes in from the living room where he is sitting on the floor with Megumi, playing with action figures. “ I believe I’d want to know what they were discussing, hmmm?”

“That’s—her business,” Toji replies, knowing how ridiculous it sounds.

“Doesn’t hacking into her phone inadvertently—”

“Just give me info on the guy,” Toji says to the hacker. He knows it doesn’t make sense. He tries to ease the guilt of spying by telling himself it’s only half spying. And it’s not spying on you, you were just the obstacle to get to the real prey. He wouldn’t read any of your messages or look through your photos and social media. That’s where he drew the line—the very thin one.

“Connor J Falco is an independent contractor, though I can’t find anything about what exactly he is contracted to do. Small online presence, just moved to town from overseas. No criminal records, no past traffic infractions.”

“See? An upstanding citizen.” Shiu laughs. “Completely harmless.”

“However,” the hacker clears his throat. “That’s just for Connor.”

“What do you mean?” Shiu stands behind the laptop.

“His other alias,” Toji answers. He knew this was what would happen. Whatever persona this guy was showing y/n was no doubt clean. It was his other personas that worried him.

“Correct. And Dmitri Sokolov?” The hacker nods and turns the laptop around for Toji to see. “He has quite a disturbing criminal history.”

Toji slides the laptop closer, clicking through the pages of court records and mugshots both international and domestic. From white-collar to violent crimes. His heart hammers in his chest. These weren’t petty crimes, this guy has experience.

“Shit.”

30 notes · View notes

revivemyreverie · 8 months

Text

A little favor to fix the orphanage’s fireplace lands Winston in the middle of Brightinten’s rooftops! With a little luck, however, he’s sure to see himself back home!

[ Can you find the hidden mickey? ]

Summon

"Something in the fireplace..? Lemme look at it!"

Groovification

"Let’s just follow the lampposts! They’ll surely lead me back home!"

Set to Home Screen

"Watch your step!"

Home transition 1

"A little smoke won’t hurt some- PLEH! Ew! Don’t breathe that in!"

Home transition 2

"Was it that way..? Or was it that way…"

Home transition 3

"A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down~🎶 Man, Zackery’s Ma got some good tunes!"

Home, after login

"Just hold my hand and we’ll get there in no time!"

Home transition: Groovification

"I actually don’t mind sitting here for a bit, you just don’t get views like this back at the dorm!"

Tap Home 1

"I won’t get in trouble for bringing in a little soot… right?"

Tap Home 2

"How many factories exist in Brightinten?! I can see smoke all the way to the horizon!"

Tap Home 3

"Sometimes, I wonder what it was like for Lotsie to live here. After all, him and Zackery live pretty differently…"

Tap Home 4

"Oh man, Pat’s gonna give me a long lecture about messes after this."

Tap Home 5

"…Hey, how old do you think Zackery’s ma is? I mean, faeries can get pretty old, right?"

#twst oc #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland oc #twisted wonderland fandorm #spoonful of happiness #winston herdsmen

55 notes · View notes

quietblueriver · 9 months

Text

Quick thing #4. Beatrice and Ava go on vacation.

Fluff fluff fluff fluff fluff. Thanks to @gingerniiiija for the prompt, holiday seasons, which I twisted a bit to get here.

“Hey, Bea.”

“Hmm?”

They’re in a hammock, acquired on a whim by Ava on a trip to the city and strung up by Beatrice in one of the groves a little further away from the Cradle. It’s a lazy afternoon, something Beatrice is learning to allow herself more, and she’d abandoned her book some time ago, focusing instead on the press of Ava’s body and unhurried kisses and the warmth of the springtime sun. Ava’s nose is tucked into her neck, and she feels the question in the breath against her collarbone.

“Wanna go on vacation with me?”

“Vacation?”

There’s a jostle, the hammock swinging unevenly until Ava employs the halo, a distinct hum and small glow, to finish hauling herself overtop Beatrice. She rests her arms across Beatrice’s chest and her chin on her wrist as she looks up at her. She is, as always, beautiful, hair a little wild and bright brown eyes wide and excited.

“Yeah!” She bites her lower lip, and Beatrice thinks idly that she’d like to take it for herself, refrains because Ava is telling her something, is excited to tell her something. She files the desire away for later. “I was thinking maybe France? The beach? We have time now, and we can afford it.”

They do have time, war no longer on the horizon, and they can afford it, the Church having set up very generous accounts for them both shortly after Ava’s return.

(She asked questions, of course, when she was unceremoniously handed an account login and a new debit card, numbers so high she had to read them three times to be sure she wasn’t mistaken. Ava, looking at the information on her own account, said simply, “Holy shit.”

“It’s the very least they can do,” Camila said dismissively, already back to reading her book.

“Indeed,” Mother Superion added from her own chair, “And you will continue to receive pay, of course. We can discuss the details when you’ve decided whether you’d like to stay and what you’d like to be doing.”)

Beatrice thinks for a moment, finds all of the excuses not to go far less convincing than the hopeful eyes blinking up at her. It’s a gift of peacetime that she doesn’t take for granted, the ability to say yes to Ava.

“I think you’ll love Nice.”

It’s only the halo that saves them both from toppling to the ground with Ava’s enthusiastic response, Beatrice wrapped around Ava like a koala as she laughs and then lowers them gently back into the fabric, kissing her in apology.

They leave two weeks later, after wrapping up a training series with some of the new recruits. Ava is delighted by everything, starting with the airport, and Beatrice knows, as she watches her girlfriend talk excitedly with a six year old about the plane taking off from the gate next to theirs, that this is going to be wonderful.

She spent most of her life surrounded by people who had everything and made a show of thinking it was nothing. Blasé discussions of trips to Vienna and Moscow and Santiago, vineyards and exhibitions and Michelin stars. She was ashamed, when she first got to know her sisters, of the distance between her life and theirs. She was ashamed of the respect Lilith granted her based on her last name. She was, most of all, ashamed to find that she had learned to take so much for granted herself.

Ava takes nothing for granted. It had been difficult for Beatrice, at first. She’d given her whole life to duty and service, and Ava was so focused on herself, on her own life. She hadn’t understood, at first. But teaching Ava to swim, watching her practice her letters every night, listening to her sing terribly in the shower and learn the names of all of the regulars, Beatrice saw an unfamiliar appreciation for life. She sees it still, although now its more selfish edges have been tempered by security and maturity and love. She is learning, with each lazy afternoon and late-night baking experiment and reality television marathon with Dora and Camila, to feel it herself. Still duty and service, of course. But she’s trying for balance, these days.

“Bea!” Ava squeezes her hand as they fly over the coastline. She’d given her the window seat, happily, and she leans into her now to get a better view of the ocean, letting Ava’s excitement catch hold of her, too.

After dropping their bags in the hotel, their first stop is the Mediterranean. Ava loves the beach, and Beatrice loves watching Ava on the beach, the seemingly endless joy she gets from letting the waves wash over her feet. She also loves the warmth of Ava’s skin after a day in the sun, the way she leans back into Beatrice on the balcony of their hotel room and shamelessly weaves her hand into Beatrice’s hair, tugging her down and letting out a pleading noise that Beatrice understands and responds to immediately, trailing kisses across the precious skin bared to her. Beatrice lets herself go, tries to let every bit of the love she feels make its way to Ava through the press of her lips and the touch of her fingers. She thinks, as she feels Ava come apart underneath her in the hotel bed, the salt of the ocean on her skin, that this must be joy.

On their second day in the city, Ava takes her shopping. Beatrice doesn’t own things appropriate for this weather, for the beach, and she knows this, so she agrees with only some trepidation to spend their morning finding clothes. Ava, who has a collection of things that work in this kind of weather, finds a pair of high-waisted black shorts that she loves and that make Beatrice feel a little stupid when Ava comes out of the dressing room, tanned skin on display. Mostly, though, she finds things for Beatrice. Or, she helps Beatrice find things for herself.

She knows what Beatrice wants. She’d spoken it quietly into the darkness of their room at Cat’s Cradle as Ava traced her fingers over Beatrice’s ribs and listened to her heartbeat. They had a rare day of freedom, in the time when things were still so unsure, and Beatrice and Ava and Camila wandered into one of the smaller local towns to see a movie and get ice cream. They passed a couple on the sidewalk, and it was nothing more than a moment, but Ava watched Beatice’s eyes track one of the women, wearing dark green chinos and a patterned button-down, all in a masculine cut, tattoos visible below her rolled sleeves and boots deep brown and well-worn.

“I think when we…I think after…that I’d like to try to find clothes that make me feel…more like myself.” Ava pressed a kiss to her sternum. “I love that. I’m so excited for you to get to do that, baby. We can go shopping together, if you want.”

Now, she steps into the men’s section without any kind of hesitation, and Beatrice follows. Ava pulls a shirt, a green linen henley, and holds it out in front of her, tiling her head slightly. She must like what she sees, because she turns to Beatrice with a question in her eyes, hanger out in invitation. Beatrice kisses her, hard and eager and more deeply than she usually would in public, trapping the shirt between them. Ava makes a startled noise but recovers quickly, relaxing into the kiss. She uses her free hand to cup Beatrice’s jaw and pull her closer.

Beatrice can’t help herself. This girl, this girl who loves her, is standing right there, holding up clothes from the men’s section for Beatrice as though it’s nothing, as though it wouldn’t occur to her to do anything else. Beatrice knows, actually, that it wouldn’t occur to her to do anything else, that the moment Beatrice expressed that this might make her feel good, Ava was on board immediately; Ava was ready to conduct the fucking train. When she pulls back, Ava is a little dazed, which is rare, and Beatrice feels accomplished. She gets the shirt and several others, as well as some linen pants. Ava even manages to get her to try shorts, and she likes them enough that she gets three pairs.

They wander past a barber shop the next day and Beatrice finds herself stopping, watching through the window as someone gets their cut cleaned up. Ava, who loves Beatrice so perfectly that it sometimes makes her chest ache, stops behind her and presses up to rest her chin on Beatrice’s shoulder. She says quietly and without any fanfare, “I think you’d look very handsome, if you ever wanted to cut your hair that way.” She slips her left hand into Beatrice’s back pocket and presses a kiss under her jaw.

“Really? You…you wouldn’t mind? I know you love my hair.”

“Baby.” It’s so gentle. Beatrice has never been treated with such care, and she’s not sure she’ll ever be used to it. Ava’s hand slips from her pocket and meets its pair around Beatrice’s waist. “I love you. It makes me so fucking happy to see you trying things, figuring out what you like and what makes you feel good.” She tugs at the short-sleeved button-down Beatrice wears as if in demonstration. It’s one of their purchases from yesterday, linen with wide light blue and white stripes, and Beatrice feels good in it.

“I’m thinking about it.”

Ava comes around to kiss her, grinning, and then takes her hand again. “Love that. Wanna go get ice cream?”

They go back to the beach for the afternoon and then return to the hotel to get ready for their reservation at a place down the street recommended by one of the older women Ava befriended on their beach walk yesterday, bonding with them over her obvious delight in a pastry from the bakery next door to their hotel. “You must try it,” the woman, Simone, said to Ava of her favorite seafood dish, before reaching a hand out, and, at Ava’s nod, wiping flaky pastry from her cheek. Ava went a little red but Simone laughed affectionately and said, “You remind me of my granddaughter. Very beautiful. Very alive.” Yes, Beatrice thought as she made the reservations while Ava discussed additional food they must try, very beautiful and very alive.

She takes a shower while Ava naps a little, puts on new, light linen pants and a dark blue button-down. She’s finishing her braid when she hears the sheets rustle, and she turns to find Ava sitting up and blinking sleepily at her. She’s in one of Beatrice’s t-shirts and underwear, the covers kicked entirely off of one leg. Beatrice’s breath stutters, as it does sometimes when she looks at her.

“Hello, love. Did you sleep well?”

Ava’s eyes grow dark as they wander over her, and Beatrice walks toward her like she’s on a string being pulled, no conscious decision, just movement. She’s barely managed to sit on the edge of the bed before she has a lap full of Ava, who is warm from sleep and largely naked and pulls Beatrice’s hands under her shirt immediately. They do not make it to dinner, Ava promising into her skin that she’ll call to move the reservation. Instead, they eat bread and cheese with wine in their hotel room, Ava still in her t-shirt and nothing else. The fish is just as good the next night.

She hands Ava a coffee, iced with caramel and coconut milk, and settles into the seat next to her with her own, more boring latte. Ava kisses her cheek in thanks and hums happily as she takes a sip.

“So, how was your first vacation?”

Ava grins at her.

“Perfect.”

Beatrice sits her coffee in the cupholder of the airport chair and then leans forward to kiss her, her lips sweet and a little cold.

“Perfect.” Beatrice echoes. “Where do you want to go next?”

#warrior nun #avatrice #sister beatrice #ava silva #warrior nun fic #wn prompt fic

97 notes · View notes

theemporium · 1 year

Note

Hey! Could you maybe write a Steve x reader where the reader is one of robins past crush and Steve meets her not knowing that and fell in love with her (ending up to you)

hiya lovely! thank you for the request, i hope you enjoy🖤

Steve Harrington didn’t believe in love at first sight until he saw you.

He thought it was childish and stupid and downright unbelievable. It was just one of those phrases people threw around to make their story seem romantic and cute—but nobody actually means love at first sight. They couldn’t.

He would need more than his own two hands to count the amount of times he had teased Robin about using the phrase before. When she would see a pretty girl at the local supermarket, or the gorgeous tattoo artist in the town over. Or even Tammy fucking Thompson of all people.

Steve teased her relentlessly over the fact she would fall in love with the next person who walked through the door.

And then, the bell rang and it was you who walked in Family Video that Saturday afternoon.

Steve was speechless and flustered and found himself unable to even login to the system to look up your name before Robin nudged him to the side, flashed you a smile and said your name before you even opened your mouth. He had watched the interaction in a blur, trying to focus on the conversation but seeming lost in his own daydreams until you left the store.

“You know her?” The words tumbled out of his mouth just as the store door shut.

“Yeah,” Robin said as she flashed Steve an amused look over her shoulder. “We shared a few classes together in sophomore year.”

Steve waved his hand, urging her to say more.

The grin on her face was one he wouldn’t forget. “She’s the artsy one from Señorita Gomez’s class.”

Robin and Steve had spent one shift going through the list of their past crushes and conquests, joking around and passing the time on a slow Tuesday morning. Steve always seemed to have something against every single one of her crushes, making small jabs or adamantly claiming she could do much better.

So the irony that Steve started to get the heart eyes for one of her past, small time crushes was not lost on her.

The shoe was on the other foot now, and Robin found herself coming up with different excuses to have you pop by the shop. She would claim she needed extra help in history and that was the only free time she got between customers, or she would tell you about a movie she swears you would enjoy that she put to the side just for you.

Just any excuse for you to come into the store and for her to hide away in the staffroom so she could watch Steve make an absolute fool of himself through the security cameras.

“Hey Stevie,” you smiled at him as you entered the store, the tip of your nose tinted pink with the colder weather starting to settle into Hawkins. “How’s my second favourite movie buff?”

“I, uh, good. So good. Very, very good,” Steve managed to spit out as he quickly stood up from where he was leaning against the counter, his own cheeks tinted a similar shade of pink at the little nickname you gave him.

Your smile widened. “Think a girl can ask for some movie recommendations then?”

“Anything for you,” he blurted out, pausing for a short moment when his words caught up to him. But just before you even got the chance to say anything, he was jumping over the counter and making his way towards the aisles of movies to distract himself—and hopefully you. “What are you in the mood for?”

“Hm, surprise me, Harrington,” you said as you followed him between the isles, big eyes looking at all the covers and titles. “I’m in the mood for something new.”

Steve cleared his throat a little, a small smile on his lips. “Finally dropping the horror movies?”

“Thrillers,” you corrected him with a look before shrugging. “Thought it was time to broaden my horizons, see what the norm is for a girl my age.”

His smile widened. “I’ve got a classic for you then.”

You quickly followed him to a different aisle where he proudly presented his choice of movie. “Risky Business? I’ve heard of Risky Business.”

“But have you watched it?” Steve countered.

“You have a fair point, Harrington, I’ll take it.”

Steve rang up the movie, typing your details into the system almost like he had them memorised—in a totally non-creepy way, of course. He wrote up a slip with a return date and handed you the tape, suddenly a little deflated at the fact you’d be leaving now.

“You’re gonna love it,” he said with a small nod of his head.

“I sure hope so, otherwise I’m blaming you,” you teased lightly before taking the tape, slipping it into your bag and making your way to the store entrance. However, just before you left, you looked over your shoulder and grinned at him. “Friday at seven work for you?”

Steve blinked. “What?”

“For the movie,” you said like it was obvious, enjoying the way his expression morphed into one of realisation. “I need my resident movie buff with me.”

“I—shit, yeah…yeah! Seven works for me, it’s great….perfect even!” he sputtered out, waving his hands around in some hopes of playing it off normal.

You grinned. “It’s a date, Stevie.”

Steve couldn’t even bring himself to care when Robin slipped out of the staffroom, cackling so loud as she mimicked and poked fun at him. Nothing could bring his mood down now that he scored a date with you.

#steve harrington #stranger things #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington one shot #steve harrington fic #stranger things x reader #stranger things x you #stranger things x y/n #stranger things one shot #stranger things fic

242 notes · View notes

mentes-revueltas-sin-salida · 23 days

Text

#chile #chilegram #tumblr girls #Spotify

8 notes · View notes

jeschalynn · 10 months

Text

Shining Spray Event & Mission Guide

Event Missions (Many can be completed while doing Daily Missions)

Win 300 Normal Mode battles

Win 100 Twilight Mode battles

Complete 30 Summoning of Sorcerers

Complete 30 Visits

Complete 100 Card Level-up (does not have to be the same card)

Pull the Event Scout 30 Times (requires 30 Magic Tickets or 8100 gems)

Give 50 Item Gifts during the Summoning of Sorcerers (items can be purchased with gems, unicorn horns, or acquired from Visits. We also get 3 event-specific items for the Login Reward for Day 3.)

Unlock Milky Way slots 100 Times (does not have to be the same card)

Event Scout Banners

Tip: convert Unicorn Horns to Magic Tickets [ guide here ]

Shining Spray Scout Room

SSR Pollux Sorcerer Card: Sparkling Ripple on a Summer Day SSR Arcturus Wish Card: Chilly Date

Under the Horizon Sunlight Scout Room (re-run)

SSR Vega Sorcerer Card: Seiren and Waves SSR Sirius Wish Card: The Stars and Sun

#arcana twilight #arcana twilight: my resources #arcana twilight events #arcana twilight pollux #arcana twilight arcturus #arcana twilight vega #arcana twilight sirius #jes.guides #jes.plays arcana twilight

27 notes · View notes

jadeazora · 1 year

Text

Some art from Machito Gomi celebrating the Pokemon Music Festival!

We also have the theme song, Dokimeki Diary, performed by asmi featuring Chinozo.

From the festival, a new character from Horizons has been revealed! This is Liko's homeroom teacher.

Pokemon Unite is having a special Lechonk-themed login bonus. There's stickers and frames and other items!

#lechonk #pokemon horizons #pokeani #anipoke #trainer liko #pokemon unite #tencent

24 notes · View notes

yridenergyridenergy · 1 year

Note

Hi, I've been contemplating a trip to Japan with the main purpose of going to lives. Could you explain what the general process of applying for and buying tickets from overseas is? What do I need? How do the mobile site raffles (for DEG/sukekiyo/kyo online and so on) work? I'd really appreciate any insight on this as I've never had to go through the process myself and I've seen people saying that getting tickets is hard.

Hello! With a new tour announcement looming on the horizon hopefully next Wednesday, this is perfect timing.

Basically, disclaimer that I don't know in advance if Dir en grey will stick with TicketTown again, but assuming they do:

When they announce the new tour dates, they will usually also reveal when you can apply for tickets. And that, of course, will be for the first round of a knot lottery. If you are not a member of a knot, you probably have to wait 3-4 weeks for the general admission tickets on e-plus. See below for details, but it does not have a good prospect.

For the 25th anniversary tour22 From Depression To_____, they were not very fair and they announced that tickets were going live without any advance notice... Which sucks because there is sometimes a correlation between how fast you were to apply and how good your ticket number ends up being.

IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF A KNOT

AKA if you do not have any Japanese address to use to be a member of the official fan club, whether a friend's address or a Tenso address.

I believe that Dir en grey uses e-plus for general admission, but that site also follows the global trend of multi-factor authentification and they require a Japanese mobile phone number to send a text-message for validation.

So honestly, your best bet to avoid the mobile number obstacle is to get a Japanese shipping address with Tenso, sign up to a knot for something like $30 a year, and that way you can use TicketTown freely.

Last alternative: try and get a ticket on the resale market. Some people might announce that they have extra tickets on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. A popular resale ticket website is TicketJam, but that also requires a Japanese address in case the tickets ever become paper and get mailed again.

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

IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF A KNOT

Registering on TicketTown

I can't remember exactly what I input when I created my account, but when I tried to create a new accont, it does seem that it would work with a foreign address. Everything is in Japanese, so just good luck finding your country in Katakana.

(Essentially, prepare your TicketTown account before the tickets go on sale!)

Apply for a ticket

Go on the category that interests you; in this case, let's go to Dir en grey.

Select the tour and round of lottery that you are looking for or that applies. Check the dates, but basically if the period for application is over, you shouldn't see a button to apply anymore anyway.

If I click on the latest round for the additional show at Shinjuku Blaze, you can see that the page asks you for your a knot login credentials before moving forward, but you also need to click on the section at the very bottom of the page to develop that box and there should be a button to apply for a ticket in the type that you want: either VIP, Exclusive or Regular a knot.

[Types of tickets:

The difference is that VIP costs way more but guarantees you a spot closer to the stage, so a much better ticket number. That being said, the official description mentioned that you could be really close to it but that's false: at Club Citta', VIP ranged from 1 to easily 150, and I don't know if you realize how many people 149 is in front of you if you aren't the tallest hah.

Exclusive usually puts you in a spot that honestly sucks: either on the second floor at the very back of the venue, or near the console for sound and lighting also near the bak... But it depends on each venue, so it might be worthwhile in some cases.

Both VIP and Exclusive come with the bag of exclusive goods: the portrait set, a coloured ticket, merchandise of varying levels of usefulness.

Regular a knot is probably just like regular general admission, but you *should* have a better ticket number than someone in gneral admission. That has not always been true for me, at all, but I had indeed applied very late into the second round of a knot lottery... Usually, a regular a knot ticket would still be a coloured design ticket rather than the general admission. ]

Lottery results & payment

I think that you receive an email when the results come out, which are still preliminary, as the actual ticket number will be revealed closer to the show date. But of course they want you to pay up-front, so you follow the link in the email or go back to your TicketTown account, then you confirm which ones you keep and enter your payment information for them. That would be credit card only, for overseas users, from what I remember.

On the night of the show, click to see your ticket but make sure not to click on the "use ticket" button or something like that.

By the way, at the shows, besides this upcoming Shinjuku Blaze special event, they usually never ask for ID or even for a proof that you are part of a knot.

If you have any questions once the next tour's tickets are up for sale and that I can actually provide concrete examples of what you should click on and what the exacy wording is, then feel free to ask!

#anon #ask

30 notes · View notes

myrfing · 1 year

Text

this is why im so enamored with the idea that it was the player’s wish that triggered the teleporter at the end of endwalker. and why i wrote absolute horizon to be the first point in where my azem meets my wol and why I half jokingly say it’s the place other than the login screen where the line between us and the wol is the thinnest. oh of course the stories about stories guy is saying this is a story about stories

#I JUST THINK IT’S CLEVERRRR #also why i say ew is a love letter to the player. it’s that final line or the beginning dedication that reads ‘and for you dear reader’

12 notes · View notes

avenyl · 5 months

Text

Hello.

Is saying hello even appropriate at this point?

Uh, hi. I’m not back yet, I think. But I’m working on it. I’m sorry for the radio silence on literally every front but I’d be lying if I said I knew why it happened.

I just want you all to know what’s up in case that’s something you’re curious about. For those who are, read on. Those of you who aren’t, that’s alright. I’m glad to have you around anyway.

TL;DR I tell you what’s up but in like, ~700 words because I have no self-control.

I’m pretty sure my last login was sometime around February 2022. Can’t believe it’s been over a year and a half! Feels so weird to acknowledge that I’ve been away from art, something that’s been a constant in my life up until this point, for almost two years! Wow!

Those of you who saw the last of my posts already know what my mindset was like at the time. Honestly, I can’t really say it’s improved much, if any. Looking at the art I’ve put out so far makes me feel miserable, for a lack of better word. I’m not gonna elaborate on the feelings because I’m certain all of you have had them at some point. I had hoped they would vanish in time, but they did not.

I can’t tell if these feelings are related to what was going on in my life at the time (they probably are but I haven’t connected the dots yet), mostly because I don’t feel like anything particularly bad happened that could’ve boosted these feelings for me. In fact, a lot of good things happened. Some bad things happened too, as they usually do in life. So, to spare you the details:

-I met someone and we’ve been in a relationship sinch March 2022 (he’s great and we’ve been living together for almost a year now);

-I failed to graduate in 2022 but I managed to fix that at the beginning of July this year (finally!);

-I worked three different jobs in the meantime (not simultaneously) to afford rent, and those took up most of my energy;

-I’ve been on and off different meds while trying to figure out what works for me;

-A lot of family-related events happened in the year I’ve been gone and I’m sure there’s more to come;

-I’ve been reading a lot, and I honestly feel like that sort of became my outlet when drawing felt like too big of a challenge;

-I’ve become even less interested in pursuing the major I’ve been working towards so far, and I’ve decided to stop at my bachelor’s and maybe try my hand at some other profession somewhere along the line.

The last one did me in, honestly. Seeing all my colleagues and friends graduate while I sat back really took a toll on me and I don’t think I’ll be able to recover from that one for a while. The inferiority I felt regarding my art and the progress I’ve made so far combined with not being able to do the one thing everybody around me seemed to be able to do almost effortlessly and, well… it didn’t feel very good.

I believe this is what made me disappear. Honestly though, I’m not 100% sure—it could’ve been something else, and it feels weird to blame my sudden departure on something like my mental state, given that I don’t feel much different now, and I didn’t feel particularly different then. Just existing and getting by has been challenging for years.

But I feel like I might be ready to try drawing again sometime soon. I’ll probably expand my horizons a bit. Don’t get me wrong, dragons are fun and I won’t give up on those, but you’ll probably be seeing a bit more variation from me in the future. I might even give humans a go! Oh boy!

(Not yet though. But soon, hopefully.)

Lastly, I think I want to rebrand my online presence. I feel like I’ve changed quite a bit since I opted for this username, and it no longer feels like me. So, if you see a stranger on your dash, fear not! It’s probably me, trying out something new. I think that’s going to be my first move.

It’s a start. It’s more than I’ve had for over two years, and I might just give it a go. I hope to see you along the way!

#personal #art soon! i hope

2 notes · View notes

shinagawa-division · 1 year

Text

ARB Birthday Special: Ritsuko Okada

~~ January 3rd ~~

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

“What’s this? I see a fly has managed to find itself in my web, I’ll give precisely one minute to explain yourself before the sedatives kick in.”

“This is….a present…I see, so the time has come, how absolutely dreadful…Hm? Oh, it looks like the sedatives kicked in faster than I thought, interesting.”

Voice Lines:

“I knew ever since joining the Division Rap Battles that I’d be in the public eye so I’m not surprised to receive attention on the day of my birth, that doesn’t mean that I’m not annoyed by the sheer frivolousness of it all.”

“Some of my colleagues have wished me a happy birthday which fascinated me, I didn’t think any of them had the nerve to look me in the eye without going into psychosis…it’s happened before.”

“The Prime Minister herself sent me a gift, it was an envelope and inside was a coupon for a free tan at a tanning salon. Quite the sense of humor she has, that woman. Unfortunately, I’m afraid I won’t be able to…repay her generosity, I hear that her personal computer got infiltrated…again. Fufufu….”

“The clones…they won’t stop bother me, well, they never stop bothering me no matter how much I threaten them but today it’s worse than usual, no doubt they found out it’s my birthday today….*sigh* Fine, just this once, I’ll indulge them….now where will I find a cake large enough to feed a small society of clones?”

“I don’t expect him to but Ramuda…*sigh* if it’s not for anything important then he’ll ignore my existence entirely, I don’t hold it against him but…I had hoped things would be different this year and he’d be the one calling me instead…*chuckles* how foolish, my attachment to my own creation has grown beyond that of professionalism.”

“Honestly Miho, you don’t have to gift me anything, all you’re doing is just wasting you money…*sigh* you’re truly stubborn, aren’t you? Well, I’m sure we wouldn’t be friends for this long if I didn’t find some endearment in that trait of yours. Fine, what is it?”

“…I see, *chuckles* Of course you would remember that conversation, how odd, it almost feels like a lifetime ago from when we were just simple schoolgirls who had to work together for a measly class project, I don’t believe in fate or any of that idiotic ideology…but I do think that day when we met, it certainly brightened my horizons.”

“Don’t think I haven’t seen you humming and bouncing around all day, Sumire, you’re almost as worse as them. Hm?…I would but knowing both you and Miho, the two of you have some pretty selective hearing, it wouldn’t do anything to tell you not to get me anything for my birthday so I’ll just save my breath, besides, a part of me is morbidly curious as to what sort of gift you got me.”

“I see, how extraordinary, well made and custom built as well, this is simply not a clone of Malphas….fufu, of course but this is quite the pleasant gift, thank you Sumire, I’m sure this will come very much in handy…what? A name? Don’t be ridiculous, it’s just a rob-….*sigh* Fine, fine, if it will get you to lower your voice, then how about Morax?”

Miho Lines:

“Ritsuko, a very happy birthday to you. Now, I know you don’t want to do anything today and I respect that but do you honestly think I wouldn’t get you anything for your birthday? Oh hush, we both knew this was going to happen whether you like it or not, now here, I do hope you like it.”

“Do you remember back when we were teenagers and we went stargazing on that beach? We were 15 and got paired together on yet another project for our science class, our topic was astrology so we spent all weekend stargazing and trying to take a clear picture of a constellation, and we did, it just also happened to be your constellation, the Capricorn but…it had looked so dull, like it was fading but you looked so fascinated with it and when I asked you why, I remember clear as day, you said, ‘The dullest of stars are most luminous’….I don’t know why but it had stuck with me ever since so when I saw this necklace…I had immediately thought of you, I know you don’t care much for jewelry but it would make me very happy if you wore it just once.”

Sumire Lines:

“Happy birthday, Ritsuko!…damn, that obvious, huh? Well, I couldn’t help it, I think this is the first time I’m celebrating your birthday ever since we met! Y’know, I’m surprised you’re not more reluctant, usually you’d say ‘why even bother?’…Uh, rude! Miho and I are nothing alike! Ugh, whatever, look, I totally get not wanting to make a big deal of out something that’s….really not a big deal so that’s why I just got you this present and nothing else, so here! Open it!”

“I know, I could have given you one sooner but I wanted to wait for a special occasion and what’s more special than today?! Your very own spiderbot for you to use however and whatever you see fit! He’s made completely from scratch so he’s not connected to Malphas’ hivemind, he’s completely independent unless you say otherwise…Oh man, I’m glad you like it! You’re a hard person to come up for a gift, y’know?…So, whatcha gonna name him? C’mon Ritsuko, he isn’t a robot, he’s got feelings! Just like me and you…sorta…not really…whatever, point is, you gotta name him! I made him just for you, so you better take good care of him!”

#hypmic oc #hypnosis mic oc #hypnosis mic #hypmic #hypnosis microphone #ritsuko okada #miho kobayashi #sumire shinomiya #codex #happy birthday ritsuko 2023 #alternative rap battle #arb #arb birthday special

10 notes · View notes