#confident liars
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The “3,000,000 truck drivers” who were supposedly at risk from self-driving tech are a mirage. The US Standard Occupational Survey conflates “truck drivers” with “driver/sales workers.” “Trucker” also includes delivery drivers and anyone else operating a heavy-goods vehicle.
The truckers who were supposedly at risk from self-driving cars were long-haul freight drivers, a minuscule minority among truck drivers. The theory was that we could replace 16-wheelers with autonomous vehicles who traveled the interstates in their own dedicated, walled-off lanes, communicating vehicle to vehicle to maintain following distance. The technical term for this arrangement is “a shitty train.”
What’s more, long-haul drivers do a bunch of tasks that self-driving systems couldn’t replace: “checking vehicles, following safety procedures, inspecting loads, maintaining logs, and securing cargo.”
But again, even if you could replace all the long-haul truckers with robots, it wouldn’t justify the sky-high valuations that self-driving car companies attained during the bubble. Long-haul truckers are among the most exploited, lowest paid workers in America. Transferring their wages to their bosses would only attain a modest increase in profits, even as it immiserated some of America’s worst-treated workers.
But the twin lies of self-driving truck — that these were on the horizon, and that they would replace 3,000,000 workers — were lucrative lies. They were the story that drove billions in investment and sky-high valuations for any company with “self-driving” in its name.
For the founders and investors who cashed out before the bubble popped, the fact that none of this was true wasn’t important. For them, the goal of successful self-driving cars was secondary. The primary objective was to convince so many people that self-driving cars were inevitable that anyone involved in the process could become a centimillionaire or even a billionaire.
- Google's AI Hype Circle: We have to do Bard because everyone else is doing AI; everyone else is doing AI because we're doing Bard.
#ai#ai hype#large language models#confident liars#bard#google#enshittification#llms#chatbots#truckers#self-driving cars#selfdriving trucks
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you know what since I was talking about the rain world ending and i rambled a little about the karma system and how its all fake.
Big spoilers ahead and whatever I will be talking thoroughly abt the game lore (excluding downpour i don't consider it canon).
Karma in rain world isn't real and we've all been tricked to think it matters at all.
Here's a list of things we should consider regarding the information about karma.
We start on the lowest karma, and as slugcat rests it goes up until it caps at 5. Each of these karma levels represent the basic animal urges. Violence, lust, companionship, gluttony, survival.
The ancients are the ones that considered shedding the base natural urges of an animal necessary for ascension.
The ancients are also the ones that proposed the idea of ascension, and declared that the cycle of life, death, and rebirth is so awful that no creature would want to be a part of it.
(light blue pearl, outskirts)
Now, a lot of this game is about religion- and in the case of the ancients it touches upon the idea of the opressiveness of religion and exploitation therein. Anytime I think about how the ancients left behind the iterators to "solve the problem" for the rest of the creatures, it makes me think of how missionaries go to places to try and "save" the people there.
The ancients' religion is a manipulative cult. First, they convince (almost) all of their people that life is awful. Then, they continue with proposing the idea of solving that problem- no longer living. But there's a catch! You have to die correctly. You have to EARN this "blissful" release from the horrible fact of living. Either by rigorous torture (living off of tea and starving yourself) or by paying money.
(Bright red pearl, farm arrays)
Then, they make it a societal norm- an HONOUR to die in the way They Think Is Correct. But you HAVE to do everything they say to shed yourself of those nasty animal urges and be ready for ASCENSION. And they put a price on it.
But we have to remember, not only did they create a religion that convinced them all that living is horrible...
They destroyed the entire ecosystem that used to be there and replaced it with ruins or whatever managed to descend from purposed organisms.
The ancients were able to alter cells of creatures- the ability to do such a thing at all is described here.
(Gold pearl, Chimney Canopy)
So who is to say that they didn't alter the cells of their own people? That they didn't create all purposed organisms with that idea of karma inside of them? The gates respond to the slugcat, it reads something about its karma. Its a machine reading something within its genetic data. The guardians respond to creatures with karma- and in fact are hostile to anything NOT at karma 10.
But the guardians were made by the ancients to protect their temples. To prevent anyone "unworthy" from going down.
The iterators are forbidden from altering their own karma- how is that something you can do if its not an actual, physical trait somewhere within them? Somewhere within their genetic code that the ancients tampered with?
But most notably-
Cheesing your way past the guardians using flashbangs and throwboosts is an intended feature of the game, and you can go down and into the sea and ascend with no issue. If karma truly mattered for ascension, then why can we ascend without the approval of the guardians?
Slugcats are descendants of purposed organisms, they have this "karma" meter wired into their bodies.
So anyway karma isn't real and the ancients forced a mass suicide of their own kind as Im sure whoever benefitted from exploiting their own citizens had been long gone, leaving behind nations of people desperate to leave the world behind as they have been convinced its the only thing to save them from the horrors of living.
#There's still a lot of questions to be figured out regarding what the hell echoes are#the whole ending sequence#what even are the worms#etc etc. Which im still mulling about but man if there's one thing I am confident about its that karma isn't real.#six grains of gravel is a fucking liar btw#we found a way my ass you're an echo buddy#you didnt find shit#not art#rain world#rw tag#im having big lore thoughts ok leave me alone
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darker timeline AU where things twist just enough that it ends up with yoo joonghyuk on the absolute throne; the supreme king, unchallenged, ever victorious
at his left hand lounges a man in a white coat, who sometimes leans in close and whispers in the supreme king's ear (advice, admonitions, negotiations, gentle teasing-- 'joonghyuk-ah, don't be so stubborn, won't you listen to me on this once?' he is the only one who would dare), with a devotion so pure it is almost cruel, loyalty sharp as a sword and his tongue sharper; one of the few times that the supreme king's mouth forms a shadow of a smile, when his eyes show a ripple of something other than imperious indifference, is when he lifts his head, and glances at him
#(the second king some say; the shadow king)#(the king's consort is a secondary title that gets circulated around) like lmao. of course#of course kdj is still there; he is a liar but he would keep his word to yjh to see this through with him to the end Of Course. of course#u know an image of like yjh sitting on the throne#kdj next to him leaning over to whisper behind his hand close enough their faces nearly touch#does kdj have enough confidence to whisper flirtatious lines about yjh not frowning so much or else his face would get stuck that way...lol#yeah............#joongdok#orv#omniscient reader's viewpoint#yes#would so so so so love to see an art of something like this if I could draw it. my mind theater vision
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yeah zoro and luffy knew usopp would come around and apologize post-w7, but the agony leading usopp to apologize bc his friends - the friends he had just fought with against the world government, and for some minutes he had taken off his mask and been part of the crew again as himself - those friends now really set sail with their new ship and their new shipwright, two better replacements for merry and him, and they ignored him, they didn't listen to him, they didn't want him back, they didn't need a liar, a burden, a weakling, a coward, and there's shame and other emotions with anger being the easiest one to handle, they leave him they leave him they leave him, and no matter what he can't let it end like this, not after everything they went through, he had to be honest at least in the end, but honesty was hard and they were leaving without him, they didn't need him, they had a new ship, they had an excellent shipwright that would take care of their new ship, so much better than he ever could, and franky was such a great guy, they wouldn't even notice him gone, and even though there were things he could do that he others couldn't, it didn't matter in that moment bc they were leaving, without him, sick of his lies and cowardice and him, they were being attacked and finally nobody had to watch out for him, protect him, save him, he would have been no help there on the ship at all, so there was really only one thing left to do before he was all alone, alone like he had never been since his mother died and that nearly broke him but he didn't have time for that right now bc *his crew* was leaving and he had to say sorry, he had to-
and suddenly he is on the ship, with the crew, with everyone and he's crying and luffy's crying and there are a lot more other tears than anyone would have expected while fleeing from the marines attack together together together, they didn't leave him, they didn't not want him back, they wanted him-
...
you ever think normally about w7? :)))
#yeah this started with zoro and luffy were so insanely confident that usopp would apologize#there was just no other way#there was no way they would go on without usopp#and maybe they were liars as well#clinging to that sheer hope and denying any other outcome#because it's usopp#usopp with a heart of gold despite being scared all the time#usopp with a contagious laugh making sure everyone's having a good time#usopp with his outrageous stories that have each and everyone of them listen to him regardless#there's no doubt that usopp doesn't know what's right doesn't know what he needs to do#it's not only for them and the crew but also for usopp himself#and he got that#he got that!!!#there's so time and room for doubt#usopp's always taking his time with the punchline until it was unbearable#why hasn't he apologized ye-#f i n a l l y#he's back he's back he's back were he belongs#hello people this is my weekly w7 breakdown#can you imagine the horror everyone went throught between usopp appearing on the shores and him finally apologizing?#the horror that they would leave without him no matter how impossible that was#the raw feeling of having lost everything#maybe leaving him without wanting to leave him behind#yeah im okay :)))))))#w7 feels
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I know nothing about this guy, but I feel like Moonwalker and Dave would be friends in our AU, me thinks
#Dave is a boogeyman jazz swing tap dancing guy and Moonwalker reminds me of jazz sooo#They're both so neat to me x3c#I can't wait for ttevh to come out!!#I saw that Moonwalker can also mean to anxiously backtrack or offer excuses to previous statements arguments actions that were proven false#so it'd be funny if Moonwalker tends to be a liar liar plants for hire#talkin' smack or other wack stories that he back tracks on and pretends with absolute confidence in his voice that he didn't say it#like that one lonely island song I saw Andrew Hussie drawn over ages ago#ttcc#toontown corporate clash#toontown: corporate clash#imagionary rambles#ttcc au#ttevh#ttevh au#toontown event horizon#toontown: event horizon#moonwalker#dave brubot#major player#eldrich abomination and odd moonheaded space dude as friends for the au wins
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lol I love the idea that Clarinette in her “Lime collects weird things I’ll find some weird things for him!” she accidentally finds something SUPER rare and hands it to him and he just casually pockets it. He thinks he can just get away with giving it to Mochi and taking all the credit but then has a mental crisis of LYING????? to MOCHI???????
Funny continuation of this is it’s AM (after Mochi) so he sheepishly confesses that Clarinette is the one who found it and Mochi goes up and thanks her
Sad contunuation of this is it’s BM (before Mochi) is him having a mental crisis of how dare he even think of lying to her. He would never lie to her before she left! What’s changed in me. And then slowly watching it wilt away.
OKAY FOR ALL FOUR OF THESE POINTS I WANNA SAY SOMETHINGS!!!!! first of all i love it and it makes me sad and happy thinking about them :')
1 ) first i think clarinette would think its so cute that lime collects random stuff. everyone says "Ah nice, so the witches cant use it. good thinking" but clarinette sees just a LITTLE bit past it and thinks its a weird and endearing hobby of his. imagine how disillusioned she is when she finds out "Oh, this cute quirky thing he does isnt actually a cute quirky thing, its him thinking of the other woman the whole damn time."
2 ) LIME ACTUALLY LIES TO MOCHI MORE THAN HE SHOULD!!!!!!!! and it SUCKS because its always to save himself from looking like a simp or a dumbass because the truth is embarrassing for him, but it damages her levels of trust in him unfortunately. and she keeps telling him to stop but then another thing comes up where he doesnt want to admit the truth so he lies again (lime flaw). one example is when she asks him why he stays in the m34th, and his answer is "Because they pay well and I'm bored," but no matter how much extra commissions she finds and money she can magic up, he stays anyway. she has to learn from fucking clarinette that he stays because they make him stronger (real lime quote). he doesnt want to tell mochi that he feels so inadequate and inferior when he cant keep up with her, and the m34th is the only way to get his ass up to her level consistently. without it hes back to 16 year old lime who can barely help for shit in the face of magic and monsters
3 ) THAT LAST POINT IS SO TCWG IN NATURE!!!!!!!!!!! lime finding a super rare ingredient and its about to go bad so fuck it, sell it to the merchant. maybe he can keep it fresher than me and i get some money for it. and mochi sees it among the merchants wares and buys it :') bonus points if however shes keeping it fresh with magic, he sees it among her spell ingredients years later. its not IMPOSSIBLE to find one, its just so rare that makes him think if its the same one <3
(and of course the merchant doesnt say shit about where he got it. mochi goes "wow! so rare! where did you get this!" and instead of telling the TRUTH he goes "Industry secret!")
#sometimes i struggle with giving characters flaws but in the best case scenario they crop up organically#lime being a liar for the sake of his pride and shame is a good one though#he doesnt lie for no reason but this is also one of the worst kinds of lying#the kind that fractures trust for little reward#can you imagine how hurt mochi mustve felt when she heard that from clarinette#appearently he confides more in her than in me she thinks#and i thought we were best friends she also thinks#its okay shes hurt him plenty of times over before she can take a little hurt#compared to the emotional blow lime got when she left that festered for 3 years after this is nothing#a consequence of bitterness perhaps#EXCELLENT IDEAS ALL OF THESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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People keep posting in the tag like WHERE ARE THE LEAKS bc we keep talking about it.
To be clear, there are no leaks. And I feel like it’s disingenuous to keep humoring stuff that we know for a fact is false. Like it’s 100% false and there is no room for speculation.
And then on top of that not giving the full context of the situation that led us here, because a lot of fans just popping in obviously don’t have that context. They hear the word leak and they get excited and then it just spirals to something that complicates things even more.
To be clear, there was one account on Twitter that is known for having sources and getting leaks. This one account said they got a spoiler in their inbox. They did not share that source nor the spoiler. That’s where the supposed leak ends. That’s it.
Since that happened, fans have been unhinged making claims they have a source too.
I understand being misinformed because you don’t have all the information. And that’s why it’s harmful to humor stuff as if it has an ounce of validity when we know it doesn’t, creating confusion.
If there was ever a leak, it’ll come from a source directly, and it’ll likely end up on the Hawkins AV Club on Reddit. IF you want leaks, join that sub and wait it out. THEN if and when something happens, there will likely be a list of leaks based on what comes from that. THIS is when there will be fans saying they have a leak, when really all they have is the leak the sub has. If fans said they had leaks in the past and they ended up being accurate, it came from that sub, not from their personal source. And so that’s my issue with taking claims fans have sources seriously rn, bc there are no leaks for them to even claim they have. They’re just trolling and using the past of having leaks that weren’t even theirs in the first place, as an excuse for why they magically have some now. But they don’t.
And seeing fans take these claims seriously, when its coming from people very intentionally mocking bylers, like it’s hard to watch.
It’s not a matter of maybe it’s true maybe it’s not. It’s not true. And spending time confusing people over it as if there’s a chance it could be true, is going to make this hiatus miserable bc we are clearly struggling to think critically about what’s worth our time, as if it’s worth confusing other fans over, based simply on just wanting stuff to talk about.
Of course we’re bored and lacking content. There is still plenty of stuff we can do that doesn’t involve falling for stuff specifically made to mock us by antis.
And now people elsewhere are saying the leaks came from byler tumblr, which isn’t even true, and we’re getting shit on for something that wasn’t our doing in the first place. We get enough hate as it is for simply shipping byler, and now we have to deal with claims that we are making up stuff. People are going to think and say what they want about us, but I dread that we’re giving them ammo to criticize us even more for stuff that we never started in the first place.
#byler#pls pls pls do not spread stuff unless you are certain it’s true#you’re creating a paradox of confusion#if you have a source and you’re very confident in it#by all means share#but otherwise refrain from starting a game of telephone#where now we have to explain the context to every person that comes on#bc they’re misinformed based on that false speculation#like idc if ppl hate us bc we ship byler#but I do not see why we have to add liars to the list#like it just looks so bad and embarrassing for us when that’s the last thing we need#and the thought of this reaching important people from the show…#that bylers are making shit up…#like it would be humiliating that if the first time they acknowledge byler tumblr it’s to say that we’re lying and creating fake leaks…#worst nightmare actually#we are smart over here and we deserve credit for the good shot we’re doing#not for creating and spreading fake leaks
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i'm so sorry, y'all. part two of the nsfw meme is taking me 9ever bc istg i cannot tell if the dialogue is cringe or not, i'm crying lmaooo.
#nina speaks#is that the ooc tag?#anyways like i really cannot tell what sounds like the worst phone sex operator ass wattpad ass pwp ever#and what is good truly#like i am in pain#tfw u cant post things bc u think theyre cringe#but if you dont no one can tell u theyre not cringe#i actually have an entire personal ask abt how to be confident in yourself and ur uniqueness and not being afriad to be weird#and here i am...avoiding my cringe#rp i know i promised i'd post mine if u posted urs i'm a lying liar who lied i am embarassed lol like what if its giving riverdale i'll cry#like I think its good but i wrote the worst two chapters of peppermint in the world before they were wiped from the face of the earth#anyways...i'm sorry if they never see the light of day i am fkn embarassed to be alive#also how the fuck do u do descriptions that arent horrifying?#i cannot use the word ~Member~ i will end it all#anyways...screaming crying throwing up whats new#time to *stas vc* lie in the street#me: guys is this cringe#you guys: literally not allowed to tell me its cringe or i'll delete my tumblr blog and both my fanfictions#amazing#this all makes sm sense! *bashes my head in w my laptop*
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I do not have favourites (lying through my teeth)
#edit#not adon#contradiction#contradiction spot the liar#jenks#james#the favourites are the autistic di and the hippy he keeps confiding in#my fav thing is every time you can see Stephen almost smile bc Rupert is being ridiculous
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Having to build a search-ranking algorithm that can withstand relevancy attacks funded by every legitimate business, every scammer, every influencer, every publisher, every religion and every cause on the entire planet Earth might just be an unattainable goal. As Elizabeth Lopatto put it:
[The] obvious degradation of Google Search [was]caused in part by Google’s own success: whole search engine optimization teams have been built to make sure websites show on the first page of search since most people never click through to the second. And there’s been a rise of SEO-bait garbage that surfaces first.
Search was Google’s crown jewel, its sole claim to excellence in innovation. Sure, the company is unparalleled in its ability to operationalize and scale up other peoples’ ideas, but that’s just another way of saying, “Google is a successful monopolist.” Since the age of the rail barons, being good at running other peoples’ companies has been a prerequisite for monopoly success. But administering other peoples’ great ideas isn’t the same thing as coming up with your own.
With search circling the drain, Google’s shareholders are losing confidence. In the past year, the company caved to “activist investors,” laying off 12,000 engineers after a stock buyback that would have paid all 12,000 salaries for the next 27 years.
- Google's AI Hype Circle: We have to do Bard because everyone else is doing AI; everyone else is doing AI because we're doing Bard.
#ai#ai hype#large language models#confident liars#bard#google#enshittification#llms#chatbots#monopoly#search quality#activist investors#tech layoffs#stock buybacks
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today i just had to run to one place to run an errand so i only put my sunscreen on and no makeup, which a couple years ago i NEVER would’ve done bc i felt insecure to even be around my roommates without makeup on, let alone to go out into the world without any on, but i’ve felt more confident about my skin recently since it’s finally started to clear up even though i still have some redness/acne scars etc. so anyways today i just had a thin layer of sunscreen on and the woman helping me with my return at the store was like “is there something on your face that’s making it look so... glowy???” and i was so taken aback bc i’ve never had anyone say anything nice about my face sans makeup and i was so excited i was like “omg yes it’s the supergoop glow screen it’s sunscreen but it’s kinda tinted to make your face glow you can get it at sephora” and she was so excited and complimented me again and then the woman behind me in line ALSO asked for the name of it and i’ve never felt more confident in my skin in my life wow i really had a real life glow up huh
#if you had told me three years ago how much self-confidence i have now i would've punched you in the face for being a dirty liar#but now... i feel free
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The hardest lesson you will learn if you are interested in learning about Nazi Germany: so may people posting content about it are actual Nazis
No seriously if anyone is starting to get into WWII/Third Reich history, it is so easy to be indoctrinated because the main message a lot of Nazis spit now is that Hitler was bad and the SS were bad, but everyone else was chill.
And it’s hard to realize the narrative they’re spitting is wrong unless you know a lot going into it.
I have been watching a dude called “TIKhistory” the last few days on youtube and something felt off about his takes, but a lot of them had at least some plausible deniability and enough factual information that I thought it was still worthwhile.
I just start watching another video from this dude with the title “The REAL Reason why Hitler HAD to start WW2” which is an insane title and caught my attention. And then my answer was given by the first five mins of his video when I realized this dude was, at the least, a wehraboo, and at most, an actual Nazi.
Pretty much any non-Nazi historian agrees that Hitler started WWII because 1) he wanted to conquer Europe 2) he wanted “Lebensraum,” aka living space for “Aryans.” Where German people, with no Jewish or Roma people present, can have ample space to live.
You know why most non-Nazi historians agree on this? Because Hitler fucking said this. In his literal book. That everyone read.
WWII was declared by the Allies when Germany invaded Poland for LeBeNsRaUm. Yes, Germany never wanted to fight Britain. You know why? 1) they were white enough 2) a fucking ocean kept them apart. They wanted all of Europe + Soviet Union. That is why WWII started.
See how quick it was to get to that point? Fucking TIKhistory’s video is forty five minutes long. That’ll happen when your point is horeshit and also not true.
Hitler started WWII. All of the generals and higher ups at least knew of the Holocaust and most perpetrated their own massacres for shits and giggles. The Nazi army wasn’t really that great, they just knew how to play the cards in the circumstances they were in (they used horses a fuck ton. You don’t see it because a lot of documentaries use footage from Nazi propaganda in which they weren’t recorded). These are all basic facts for non-Nazis. So warning that if anyone you meet challenges those three facts, they probably are a Nazi
#I know no one cares but I was just gobsmacked when I watched the video#there’s a substantial amount of dislikes but a lot more likes#and it’s because those who aren’t familiar with Nazi history#which I know I got a lot of my own education from higher education#and to those who know only basic facts about WWII#a white balding guy speaking confidently in a polo seems quite trustworthy#nazism nowadays is less obvious than it used to be#lying or downplaying nazi history is such a big red flag#a lot of western education#specifically american#has been tainted because the USA hired a lot of Nazis after WWII to help fight the Soviets so a lot of#white lies#to put it lightly#were made up#that’s where popular beliefs like that it was just Hitler’s fault they lost or that generals were just following orders come from#so claims like that are more justifiable as it’s usually the education system that taught them wrong#but to claim that Hitler and his comrades started WWII for anything other than hatred and a need to kill Jews and Roma especially and also#disabled people gay trans people and so on#and modern Nazis justify this because it sounds bad#which you know#it is#so they need to justify it to themselves#all Nazis are liars it’s in the description#that’s the nicest word I can use to describe them btw#I feel like this shouldn’t be new news but fuck off if you’re a Nazi or a Nazi apologist#rae’s rambles#tw Nazism
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Just Bucky, trying to understand how pumpkin spice has no actual pumpkin in it, and Sam, trying not to look surprised by the revelation that there is no pumpkin in pumpkin spice.
#sambucky#the daily sambucky fluff diary#sam wilson#bucky barnes#sambucky headcanons#domestic fluff#bucky had asked about how they got the flavor so he could try to recreate it#and sam looked it up#and tried to pretend he always knew it had zero pumpkin in it#as bucky kind of freaks out over learning this information#'why is it called pumpkin spice then???' asks bucky#'because its the spices they use for pumpkin desserts' sam replies confidently#like a liar#my headcanons
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You should never feel dread about intimacy. It should be a pain-free and enjoyable thing. You should feel held by your partner. Your partner should defend you to others and make you feel wanted, in many more ways than just sexually. If this clicks with you, i encourage you to leave. Heartbreak and being alone is sad, but it's better than bad.
#i feel like too many people taking dating way too seriously.#if things are bad and youre not comfortable or happy#and if you do indeed try to voice yourself and address things. to not be heard or understood. or respected. LEAVE leave leave#leeeavvvveeeeee regain confidence recognize your charming character qualities take care of yourself.#you should never ever ever put up with feeling scared in the bedroom#because apologies cannot fix that level of trust breaking#p#yeah i slept through therapy yeahh im binge drinking again lmfaooo. love yourself because i don't love myself.#OH a liar is something we don't entertain.#if youre partner is a liar ESPECIALLY a pathological one RUNNNN AWAY#wrong your oh look i picked up a bad habit lmfao. god. have enough self love and worth to date someone whos fucking literate.#feeling [REDACTED] Today may record vocals for my friends album later
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don't doubt yourself. Big "fuck you" to fear.
#what's the worst that can happen#what ifs#try it#fear is a liar#faith over fear#confidence#courage#have courage#find your voice#do it scared#scared#doubt#self doubt#self acceptance#life#quotes#inspiration#motivation#dear jewels#over think#over thinking#over analyzing#anxiety#depression#stuck#keep moving forward#don't give up#don't quit#try anyway#you won't know until you try
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hi hello i am not a stranger things blog BUT i've had this idea kickin' around in my nog for like. months? and today the first part just beamed itself into my brain and i spat out 1000 words for it. i know i'm not the first to write this concept, but here's my take on the "steve sees dead people" au!
i want to write more for this, but i have a terrible track record for finishing fics (i have like. 13 drafts?? for stranger things fics??) so this is tentatively part 1 of an undetermined amount. it is supposed to be steddie, eventually. if i make more, i'll post it to ao3!
anyway, enjoy! <3
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December 1984
“What the hell are we looking for out here, exactly?”
It’s fucking cold out, and Steve’s fingers are starting to ache where they’re wrapped around the handle of his bat.
“I don’t know any better than you do, Steve.”
Steve scowls and roughly swings at a low hanging branch. It’s thin and bare and twiggy, and it catches on the pristine nails he drove through the barrel. He uses that hold to bend the branch forward and out of his way. His bat sticks when he walks past and he growls as he yanks it free.
The winter-brittle wood snaps with a loud and distinct crack, and Steve locks up.
When nothing jumps out of the shadows at him, Steve shakes the fresh tension from his limbs and continues his trek. The thin scattering of snow that managed to blanket the dead foliage despite the tight clusters of trees isn’t offering Steve any sort of direction.
No sign of anything. Not of squirrels or deer or fucking wolves or whatever the hell else lives in the woods surrounding Hawkins. Steve doesn’t know and he doesn’t really care.
All that matters is that there’s nothing to show for the thing he’s trying to find.
“The fuck do you mean ‘don’t know any better’ than me?! You,” Steve bites out, jabbing an irritated finger at his unhelpful shadow, “are the only one who’s actually seen it!”
Barb rolls her eyes as she sidesteps Steve’s accusatory point and wanders past. Half of her body has to phase into the thick trunk of a nearby tree for her to successfully maneuver around him, and that just peeves him further.
Steve’s out here getting whipped by and stuck on branches, and she doesn’t even have to worry about the trunks.
The petty jealousy fizzles and dies just as quickly as it came, though. It’s easy for him to forget how serious death really is. How permanent it’s supposed to be, for everyone except him.
Steve sighs and tromps after her.
It’s mid-December, which means the forest is quiet. To an extremely unnerving degree. There aren’t any insects or frogs or midnight birds to fill the hush, only the clack of branches rustling in the light wind.
“You don’t even have, like,” Steve steps over a fallen tree, slick with ice, “the teeniest, tiniest idea of what the— what the thing looks like? No more details?”
Barb scoffs. It’s odd, because she doesn’t make a sound, even as Steve hears her. Her voice doesn’t penetrate the stillness of the night, but Steve knows what she says, what she sounds like, her cadence and tone clear as if spoken aloud.
He doesn’t like thinking too much about the mechanics of it all. It gives him headaches.
“Nope,” Barb snips. “I’ll make sure next time I’m ripped to shreds I get a better look at the thing doing it, yeah?”
Steve watches her from behind, and sees her form flicker. He catches glimpses of bloody, shredded clothing over deep gouges in her back. His stomach turns. He looks at the ground under her feet. There’s no shadow to be cast under the faint moonlight, and the snow is undisturbed.
“Right,” he sighs.
“Maybe I’ll stop and take some notes. I could ask it a few questions before it kills me. Whatever makes this easier for you, Steve.”
“Yeah, okay, I get it!”
What they know about the whole situation isn’t a lot. But it’s more than the police, or Barb’s parents, or anyone else on this goddamn planet.
“So are we looking for like,” Steve ponders for a moment, “a den? Or something?”
They know that Barb isn’t just missing.
“A den?” Barb drawls, brow raised.
They know that whatever took Barb was big, at least. Grey, probably, but it was dark so maybe not. Toothy, with long, claw-tipped fingers. Barb wasn’t able to get the best look at it, before she was dragged away, so most of what she’s able to describe is how the different parts of it felt tearing her open.
“Don’t— come on, cut me some slack, here! I’m not a fucking… professional hunter or whatever. I don’t know what I’m doing!”
They know that Barbara Holland is dead.
“Clearly.”
Which is arguably, the most important piece of information that Steve has.
“Do you think we’ll find like… blood? Dead things?” Steve hates to even think it, let alone say it, but he’s not known for his tact, so. “...you?”
The most important piece of information and Steve can’t even share it, not without either going to prison or a fucking psych ward, neither of which Steve is particularly keen on doing.
Barb doesn’t dignify his question with any kind of response. Not even a twitch.
Steve’s hands aren’t getting any warmer. He looks up, through the branches and to the sliver of moon visible despite the clouds. Changes tracks and barrels forward. “Do we have a plan past ‘find the thing’? Or is that as far as this whole hunt goes, right now?”
Barb stops and offers him a flat look. “We?”
Steve scans the shadows when he stops, too. “Uh, yeah,” he says, face scrunched in his best duh expression when he finally makes eye contact with her again. “We’re trying to find the thing that killed you, so I’d say it’s a team effort, here.”
He doesn’t appreciate the deeply judgemental look she levels at him. “Steve. I’m dead.”
Barb’s form flickers again, almost as if she’s proving her point, but Steve knows it’s involuntary. Steve cringes when he sees her battered face. One of her eyes is hidden (or missing— probably missing) in a mangled mess of dark red that Steve can’t stare at or think about for too long before feeling ill. Her jaw and throat are ringed with deep bruises and scraped raw.
She’s back to normal in an instant, looking exactly as she had a month ago. Her glasses intact, clothes and skin pristine and undamaged, not a hair out of place from where it’s pinned.
Steve clears his throat. “Yeah, and I’m an idiot.” Steve lightly swings the bat at his side. “There is not a chance I can figure anything out alone. You know that. You told me that.”
“Yeah, because it’s true.”
“So yes, ‘we.’ This has to be a team effort. You make a plan. You tell me the plan. We find the thing. I hit it with this fucking bat.” Steve swings said bat more forcefully, aiming it at Barb. It swings straight through her. She doesn’t flinch. “Boom. Handled. Done.”
Barb looks physically pained. Or like she sucked on a lemon. “I cannot believe my only hope of getting closure is Steve Harrington,” she says to herself, for what feels like the thousandth time.
Steve flexes his fingers, hoping to bring some feeling back. Tonight is obviously going to be the first of many nights he ventures into the woods behind his house, so he’ll need to pick up some gloves. The ones he has are too bulky, and make using his bat unwieldy.
But cold does the same, so he’ll need to figure something out.
Steve sighs.
“Yeah. I’m your only hope, so it’s shit if I die of hypothermia on our first search.”
Barb doesn’t fight him on it, when he turns around and follows his tracks the hour it takes back to his backyard, even though she looks agitated.
They don’t talk the rest of the night.
The image of Barb, mauled and bloody, sitting on the diving board of his empty pool with her spine hunched and head hanging, glues itself behind Steve’s eyelids.
Steve shuts the sliding glass door behind him.
I cannot believe my only hope of getting closure is Steve Harrington.
“Yeah,” he breathes. “Me either.”
-------
YEAH so it's not an exact au. like. i fucked with the timeline and it's not just canon divergent its like. a monster hunter AND no upside down au? its COMPLICATED
just important that i say that because i made it december 1984 On Purpose. it takes place steve's senior year instead of his junior year.
hope you liked it! lemme know your thoughts if you did!! <333
#not super confident in my characterization of barb OR steve but yknow how it is#also not sold on the way i ended it but its whatever. its FINE. im proud of it regardless#stranger things#stranger things fic#stranger things fanfiction#steve harrington#barbara holland#steve sees dead people au#i feel a little bit like a liar but uhhhhhh#steddie#steddie fic#baubles writes things#<- new tag. i have never posted my writing on tumblr#i will not be tagging people for following parts because that sounds intimidating. sorry?
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