#Pawprint Panic!

[deathrowline]

Prototype Panic

couldn't think of another title EL OH EL this is based off of the album Pawprint Panic! ive been listening to it all day today and i love tje album cover so what else to do other than draw ur favorite character as it?!

You can listen to Pawprint Panic! on spotify!

#prototype regretevator #regretevator prototype #regretevator #regretevator roblox #prototype #roblox regretevator #still obsessed with prototype #lasso tool #album art #technically #napcast #Pawprint Panic! #colorful #rainbow #Spotify

[rhythmicjester]

he is certified now

this was meant to be a 10 minute doodle tops after i finished the code for the wiki page but. um. autism took hold of me i guess. this took 2 n a half hours and listening to 3 full albums. alts under the cut if u so wish....

theyre transparent. click on them

#our wonderland #my art #orlam brewbacher #the albums in question were carousel by vylet pony pawprint panic by napcast and days drift by by blithe field #in that order #it was a weird ride through my auto play #i hope u enjoy im rlly proud of this #smiles n makes mlp squee noise #ibispaint

[lilotl]

#pawprint panic #napcast

[planetnapcast]

Did you know someone made a bot based on your Pawprint Pan!c album?

Also, do you have an official name for the silly littol cat guy on the cover or is it just a silly littol cat?

that's cool :o what kind of bot (and can i get a link or something... i wanna see >_>)

also yes!!! internally (aka to me and my boyfriend) they are called paw and print, and can be differentiated by their different ear, paw and feet colors. enjoy this doodle i made while brainstorming cover art ideas

they're meant to mimic player 1 and player 2 characters from old DS games. paw is the main character, and the one you'd play as in single player!!!

#pawprint panic #napcast #indie music #sillycore

[meowboyfirepaw]

Work in progress fan art for @planetnapcast !!

Paw panicking while Print looks at a tiny rainbow :>

I wanted to draw something that gave me nostalgia over playing 2 player games with my siblings! One of us was always trying to get things done while the other was getting distracted and playing around lol

#2 player games #Pawprint panic #NAPCAST Fan art moment real #work in progress #i seriously need to go do homework lmao #the beans

[dumbhero]

listening to weird instrumental music and doing some cleaning to feel normaler and i just sat down to rest and had a moment where my first thought was 'wow i'm so glad to be alive'

#diary #pawprint panic is really good very crunchy #lil bit of le fishe and math rock too

[edible-erasers]

this song is just

vibes

vibes and

vibes

#napcast #new music #music #pawprint panic #chiptune #song #vibes #vibe #Youtube #silly music #sillyposting #silly #boredom posting #im bored #bored #i’m bored #bored af #boredom

[cupcakeconfettiplayroom]

Hi!! Thank you so much for all the likes and support to this blog ^^ 🩷 I want to share with you my christmas gift 🎄✨

My favorite one was the club penguin pine plush and toy chica 🩷

#kidcore #cute #plushies #safe place #toycore #kawaii #decorakei #edit #softcore #toy collector #five night at freddy's #Fnaf #carebears #build a bear #tokidoki #Club penguin #christmas #haul #mcdonalds #Lisa frank #Stickers #Spotify

[emerald-antssss]

Happy Sunday!

“Hey kiddo, what’s up?”

Sonic looked down at his communicator. It had been buzzing just seconds before, informing the hedgehog that his little brother was trying to reach him.

“Hello,” came the soft reply.

“You okay?”

The kit hesitated before answering his brother. “Yeah, I-I’m fine.”

“O-okay,” Sonic said. Even over the phone, he could read Tails’ emotions and knew for a fact that the kid was not fine. “Was there a reason for your call?”

“Did you know…” Away from the phone, the kit coughed and whimpered. Sonic winced. What was up with him?

“Did I know what?”

“French Angelfish stay together until one d-dies…”

The hedgehog smiled to himself. He thought he could see where Tails was going with this. He leaned back in the chair he was sitting in.

“And… it’s unlikely to find one alone. Pairs of-of t-these fish work t-together to defend their territory against other A-Angelfish pairs…”

“That’s a lot like us.” Sonic chuckled. “We partner together to save the world from Eggman…”

“…And it’s hard to find one of us without finding the other,” the two finished together.

On the other side of the line, Tails smiled at the ceiling of his workshop. “Did y-you know t-that Eggm’n has badniks t-th’t shoot arrows n-now?”

“What’s he gonna name them, ArrowBots?” Sonic snickered. 

That got a small chuckle out of Tails, which ended with a whimper. For a bit, the line went quiet.

“Tails,” Sonic said quietly, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Dodging the question, Tails whispered “I l-l’ve you.”

“I love you too, Tails.” Sonic sighed, leaning forward in the chair. “But I need to know you’re okay. You were stuttering a lot, did you have another panic attack?”

Silence.

“You‘re a g-g-good b’other.”

“Thanks, buddy. Uh… is something going on?”

The blue blur heard shifting from the other side of the line. It stopped abruptly. 

“N-no.”

“Okay then,” Sonic replied. He was confused, to say the least.

The line went silent again.

“If you don’t have anything else to say, I’m gonna hang up, lil’ bro.”

More quiet. Sonic could hear the AC in the background on the other line.

“I’ll see you tonight, keed,” the hedgehog whispered. Tapping his communicator, he hung up and leaned back into his chair, arms crossed against his chest.

Something was up.

And he was going to get to the bottom of it.

________

Tails was not picking up the phone.

It added some difficulty to Sonic’s dinner search. He wanted to know what the kid wanted to eat.

But at the same time, Tails was never a picky eater. Sonic knew he would eat anything he brought, even if it was absolutely disgusting. 

And the hedgehog was pretty sure he had bought more than enough food to the point where he could share with Tails and still have leftovers.

But the brotherly part of him told his to get something the kid wanted.

Sonic pushed the Chinese takeout bags further down his arm. Tapping on his communicator, he tried to get ahold of his little brother yet again.

It rang once.

Twice.

Three times.

Four-

“Hello?”

Sonic sighed with relief. “Jeez, kid. What took you so long to pick-“

“You’ve officially reached my voicemail. I got you there, didn’t I Sonic?”

The hedgehog glared at his communicator in response to the kit’s smug voice coming from the speakers. 

“Leave me a voicemail, would you?”

Beep.

“If you’re not gonna answer the phone, you’re just gonna get this takeout, buddy.”

Pausing for a moment, Sonic sighed. “You’ve been off today, Tails. I wanna talk about it when I get home, okay?”

Hanging up, the hedgehog glanced at the sky. “Come on buddy, talk to me,” he whispered.

________

“Hey buddy, I’m back!”

No response. 

The workshop was eerily quiet. No tinkering, no food cooking in the kitchen…

Nothing.

And that’s when Sonic noticed the bloody pawprint on the wall. It looked dry now.

Something had happened.

The hedgehog sprinted through the different rooms in Tails’ workshop. Nothing in the kitchen, nothing in the kit’s bedroom, nothing in the-

Bathroom. 

A thick stream of half-dried blood trailed out of the bathroom. A jagged knife laid on the ground. The bathtub was murky with bloody water.

Sonic felt his ears press to his head. He was afraid to touch anything.

Whatever happened, it wasn’t good.

He followed the red line out of the bathroom and into the main room, where he was greeted with a sight that he would never forget.

He didn’t hear the cry that exited his throat as his eyes fell on the corpse of his beloved friend.

The fox was laying on his side on the wooden floor, an oversized puddle of blood surrounding his small frame. The kit’s dusty grey eyeswere half closed, and his lips formed a small smile. The Miles Electric was on the floor, just above the kid’s head.

Sonic dropped to his knees, gently touching Tails’ face. 

He didn’t mind the blood that smeared against his hands as he gently held the kid’s head in his arms.

Sonic stared into his vacant eyes.

They weren’t the bright blue he remembered.

Sonic gently put the fox down and slid the Miles Electric to himself. When he unlocked the device with his gloveprint, the first thing that he saw was the phone call screen.

There was a call to Vector from last week, and Tails had missed a call from Amy yesterday.

There was a more recent phone call.

The last thing that Tails had done was call Sonic.

The last thing he had done was talk to his brother.

He had compared them to fish who depended on each other and watched each other’s backs and loved each other.

Sonic’s Angelfish was gone.

And as he gently picked his kid’s cold body up and covered him with a sheet, the tears spilled over.

#Im so happy with the way this turned out #if it wasn’t clear mimic killed tails #I’ll make a detailed post about it later #emerald-antssss #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #unbreakable bond #my writing #ao3 #fanfic

[nightghoul381]

I have a little prompt for Silvio fluff 👀👉👈

Emma/MC begs Silvio to adopt a pet, and Silvio is trying to talk her out of it with the millions of reasons why a pet in a palace is impractical… but she has the power of persuasion.

Thank you anon and @happy-pup so much for the requests! I decided to combine them because the idea of doing a cute fluffy Silvio fic in his POV about the struggle of trying to convince his lover that pets don't belong in the palace was too good to leave separate.

No Pets

Silvio Ricci (POV) x Reader Genre: Fluff WC: ~ 1k

I can’t believe you’re on this again… How many times am I gonna have to tell ya, the palace is no place for a pet. But here you are, tryin’ to convince me yet again that you’d be less lonely. What do you mean you’d be less lonely? Are the rotten mutt and I not good enough company for you?

Thoughts spiral through my mind as I stalk through the halls on my way to my last meeting. It seems like you’ve been even more eager to get me to agree to letting you get a pet recently, coming up with the most random reasons.

“It’ll give me something fun to do while you’re working.  I could take it out to the beach and let it run in the sand!”

“I want to be able to try out this new recipe that was developed specially for dogs.”

“They’re just so cute!”

My entire meeting went by in a blur as I recalled time after time that you had mentioned wanting to get a dog, a cat, a rabbit, any sort of little furry companion.

Recently it really seemed like you were interested in getting a dog. Every point, every question, every… everything.

I’m really not sure why you’re so desperate for an animal. The thought of you spoiling it with your affection honestly had my heart twisting just a bit with jealousy.

I threw open the door to our room and was greeted with a startled scream and a flurry of thumping sounds as you leap to your feet, running toward me and blocking my view of the room.

“You’re acting suspicious,” I state, fixing you with a questioning stare.

“What are you talking about? I always come and greet you at the door.”

The look on your face tells me everything I need to know.

“Is someone else in there?”

“Just me,” Valerio’s voice called from the far end of the room.

My eyes flick back to you, and I can’t stop the fear and panic from flaring up.

“What the hell?! Why is that damned dog in here with you?”

“Silvio please calm down! It’s not what you’re thinking! I promise!” You sputter, taking a few steps backward and glancing nervously at Valerio.

“It sure as hell looks like what I’m thinking.” I’m having a really difficult time holding the red rage inside. Valerio leaps to his feet, stalking around the side of the bed.

“Will you calm down already? She was just too nervous to tell you about the surprise!” He growled, fixing his sky-blue gaze challengingly at me, as if daring me to keep talkin’.

“Rio!” You shout, an indignant scowl crossing your features.

And then the room is filled with a flurry of loud yapping and scrambling noises.

“No, no, no! Luca, sit!” you squeak, twirling around and darting over to the side of the bed.

You don’t seem to notice that I’m right behind you, peering over your shoulder. You little sneak. You went and got a dog.

I look down at the little bundle of white and black bouncing at your feet, tongue lolling as he excitedly tries to grab at one of the toys you had picked up. Another bout of excited yaps spill from the puppy as he notices me looking down at him, his tail wagging furiously as he runs around your legs to come see me.

“Silvio! I’m really sorry I was going to come and talk to you but he followed me home from the market and I tried to find his owner for several days! Rio was keeping him in his room but the maids insisted that they clean his chambers today and didn’t want the little guy running around and leaving pawprints all over the freshly mopped floor.”

I kneel down, reaching out a hand to the dog who eagerly sniffs at the rings on my fingers before licking at them. Normally, I’d be repulsed by the drooling creature getting my hands all dirty like this, but there’s something so innocent about his eyes and the cute way the spots on his face are laid out makes him look endlessly happy. Dammit. Leave it to you to manage to find a damned puppy that I’ll never be able to say no to.

“You would,” I sigh, shaking my head.

“Silvio, please. I really did try to find his owner.” Your tone is so melancholy and I can’t help but chuckle. You’re so dense sometimes.

Looking up at you I see your hands fisted in your skirts and you’re nervously chewing on your lip staring at me with such a deep look of guilt.

“You would manage to find an animal that, without a doubt, belongs here.”

You’re stunned, I can tell. It’s so damn adorable, I scoop the puppy up from the ground, his tail never slowing down as he leans up to lick my face.

“Hey! Hey, stop it little guy! Ya said his name’s Luca right?” I ask, petting between his ears and earning and excited bark as he leans into my hand.

“Um… yeah that’s what I’ve been calling him. He just makes me so happy and it means ‘bringer of light’ so I thought it suited him.”

Damn. Damn. Damn. I don’t get it… you’ve already got me hooked on ya and then you go and do this shit. I lean in to steal your lips in a kiss but it seems our new little companion wanted in on the fun as he begins licking at our faces.

We both start laughing furiously. Looks like he’s gonna need a lot of attention, but I’m starting to think it might not be too bad to give him the attention.

“We can count on Uncle Valerio to puppysit sometimes too, right?” I joke, flashing my brother a smile.

“Really! You’d let me watch him!” Valerio exclaims, his eyes welling with tears of joy.

This is absolutely not what I had expected when you had started asking so many questions. I can’t say I’m surprised; you’ve always been able to come up with some sort of harebrained scheme and it all works out for you. And damn if I don’t fall even more in love with you for it.

Taglist: @candied-boys @aquagirl1978 @itsjudesfault @xbalayage @themiscarnival

Please feel free to message me if you'd like to be added to the tag list!

#100 followers! #ikemen prince #ikepri #Silvio ricci #ikepri silvio #ikepri silvio ricci #ikemen prince silvio #ikemen prince silvio ricci #ikepri fluff #ikepri fanfic

[puppyeared]

38 and 39 for the ask game!

(Love your art by the way)

38: fav song at the moment?

pawprint panic | party at club bug | love birds

39: youtuber you've been obsessed with and why?

link to scruffy's youtube channel

#i dont really have a set music taste cuz i just listen to whatever i like but i think i lean towards bedroom pop??? #these songs come to mind bc theyre relatively new so i havent gotten tired of listening to them yet lol #i do love snailshouse's love songs and ordinary songs 5 albums.. as well as cavetown and sidney gish #but i dont have any real way of discovering music outside of oc amvs and listening to the rest of an artists discography #i also dont watch a lot of youtubers to begin with but i really like scruffy and solo solo travel.. hes a japanese travel vlogger that #my mom likes and he usually rides trains and documents the whole trip. doesnt speak but writes his thoughts in subtitles #hes pretty funny and his videos are relaxing to watch so i can see why my mom likes him lol #i highly recommend scruffys fnaf sound effects videos.. its interesting to see how sound design is incorporated as a part of #game atmosphere without even realizing it!! and his video for totks instruments is interesting too!!! #ask #ask game #answered #yapping #doodles

[nyaagolor]

Henlo, back at it again! While thinking about some stuff, here's what i imagined for this AU for the Area Zero Squad:

- Nemona: Were-Lycanroc, a rather big monster with Nemona's battle love cranked up to 11. Once aggressive to everyone and everything with an impressive will to fight, gets "tamed" after the protag defeats her and gets recognized. Now less bloodthirsty and a big puppy (at least to her friends), although still wants to challenge everyone... Nemona doesn't know she exists.

Arven: Were-Skwovet, calmer than Nemona's Alter Ego, and usually won't attack... unless you have bad intentions or you look at Mabosstif funny. He's *really* protective of him. Can be found around Paldea stealing Berries and other food, although no-one knows what for...Arven knows of his existence, due to somehow remembering his transformations.

Penny: Were-Glaceon, an incredibly reclusive and shy monster, she only attacks if her personal spaces are invaded. Becomes a bit more outgoing after Penny's storyline, although only with her friends. Her Vees see her as a sort-of kin, for obvious reasons (and they aren't in danger). Penny knows of her existence, not because she remembers her transformations, but for other clues around her room (I mean, if i woke up with ruined clothes, a slight coat of ice on the walls and pawprints around the floor, I would have a few doubts)

The protagonist can be what you want, there's no specific mon for him/her!

Oh, and they're a pack, because it fits.

(Note: i still think that Arven's Mon is not the right one... any ideas?)

Drew the designs for Nemona and Penny!! Decided Nemona would be a dusk form Lycanroc bc Orange. Love all the stuff u wrote, I especially dig how some are aware they’re werewolves (awarewolves?) and others just have no idea. Makes for some really fun stories :3c. Didn’t draw Arven bc I can’t decide what he would be either. I’ll keep brainstorming!!!

Anyway some assorted headcanons:

- How animalistic u look is determined by how much tera energy ur normally in contact with. For people like Nemona who are constantly using a tera orb, their transformation is more dramatic. For someone like Penny, who rarely uses a tera orb and isn’t a paldean native (less access to environmental tera energy) the transformation is relatively mild. The professor? When they transform, it’s impossible to tell they were human at all

- Nemona hears about the terrifyingly strong beast in the forest and keeps going out to fight it, only to wake up on the ground all scratched up in the forest at sunrise. She starts to think the beast knows Hypnosis for its uncanny ability to put her to sleep. Somehow, despite the obvious connections, she never realizes she’s the beast in question

- Being a werewolf doesn’t change your personality or what you want, just your inhibitions and manners. Nemona always wanted to battle her heart out, but never could bc of various social conventions, so during her transformation all that pent up energy is released and she just goes bonkers. Penny transforms and no one knows bc she still never leaves her room

- Penny sets up a camera after the first transformation because she’s shocked a Glaceon so large could wreck her room without waking her up. When it happens a second time after the next full moon, she now has video evidence— only to realize it’s HER. She initially panics, then realizes all she does is eat leftover pizza right out of the box and hide under the bed the whole time which is what she would do anyway if sleep deprived enough. She elects to just lock all her doors and windows and never tell anyone, since she’s unaware that werewolves are a Thing in paldea

- Whatever Arven is, Mabosstiff keeps him in check. Also now that I think about it, maybe Arven is an artificial werewolf? His parent tried to get him to be a werewolf on purpose so he could better adapt to “paradise”, so maybe he’s a Cyclizar? With the professors being the ‘raidons? in that case maybe Arven has different transformation rules and stuff. I’ll think abt it more

- No one except the protagonist and possibly a few trainers (Geeta, some of the professors?) know the beast attacking people in the forest is a werewolf. Nemona is fast and her transformation is pretty beastly looking anyway, so in the thick of battle everyone thinks she’s just a really big pokemon. It’s only people who manage to defeat her / tire her out that can slow her down enough to see that she has a humanoid shape and might be more than just a Very Large Dog

- I’m lame and love emotion based transformations, so I think the adults can control their shifting to various extents but the kids can’t. The more emotionally well adjusted you are, the easier time you have controlling yourself, to the point where some adults even have control over their shifting during full moon nights

#nemona #penny #werewolf au #werepokemon au #ask #mod vex

[mewtwobootleg]

        Lucastar’s challenge

        By Amelia An

            Inspired by Erin Hunter

Chapter 1

      The sun shone brightly over a meadow in the forest over ThunderClan territory. Two mewtwo kits- Lucakit and Dunklekit, were left in the cave by their friends while they were playing; not on purpose, a storm came, so bad the clan had to leave their dens. Lucakit and Dunklekit had no idea what was going on, so they stayed in the cave. Rain was dripping off the plants and tree leaves around the cave the kits were in.

“We’ve been in here for literally 5 some hours! I don’t even think I’ll make it out of this cave without a bite of food.” Dunklekit complained. “We could catch some by the RiverClan stream” Lucakit suggested. “We’re only 3 moons old-duh? We can’t catch anything-land or water.”

“We could try?”

“Fine! Go ahead and try! I’m staying in here till our mothers come back and I have food in my paws. So get on with it! Hunt!” Dunklekit yelled.

“Ok, I’ll go, no need to be so bossy Dunklekit.” Lucakit mewed back. Lucakit zoomed out of the cave, running down the wet muddy grass. “Remember you can’t fly yet, either!” Dunklekit laughed. “Same with you, Dunklekit!” Lucakit yelled back with a purr. Lucakit kept going down the meadow towards the river.

After a while, Lucakit thought he knew where he was going. But instead he was heading towards the thunderpath, not the river. All of a sudden he heard a noise up ahead. “Hello?” Lucakit mewed. He got closer to the thunderpath. At the edge of the thunderpath, he froze. Two ShadowClan Mewtwos were flying up ahead to him. “A trespasser! Seize him!” The green one called. The dark purple one flew down to Lucakit. “It’s a kit, 3 moons old I think.” The dark purple one said. “Attack him! He has no right here!” The green one called back. “He probably doesn’t even know what’s going on, I’m sure. Why attack him? He’s only a kit anyways, Forgefang.” The dark purple one yelled back. “We will not have mercy on anyone who goes on ShadowClan territory! A trespasser is a trespasser.” Forgefang yelled back at the dark purple one. Then he flew down to Lucakit, grabbed him by the braincord, and tossed him onto the thunderpath.  He landed with a thud onto the hard pavement. “Ah! Mommy help!” Lucakit staggered. Pain shot through his left arm like a needle prick.

“That’s against the warrior code!” The dark purple one exclaimed. “Go get him before he turns into fresh kill, mouse brain!” The dark purple one started to panic mid air. “No, Snoopclaw. It’s up to you to save that ball of fur now.” Forgefang replied. All of a sudden a loud, unnatural roar came from up ahead the thunderpath. “A monster!” Snoopclaw shuddered. “No time to talk, let me get him! Humans might notice us!” Snoopclaw jabbed. Before Snoopclaw could dive to the rescue, a pale colored Mewtwo shot like lightning out of its den and dashed through air to grab Lucakit off the thunderpath. “Wait Fadeheart! It’s too- Fadeheart looked next to Lucakit midair next to her. The monster’s paw was only a tail length away from Lucakit’s shaking with fear body. She grabbed Lucakit’s leg and tossed him in the grass, leaving her right in Lucakit’s spot before he got tossed to safety. The monster roared a loud call, then the Mewtwos heard a bump. The monster zoomed past, leaving Fadeheart’s body on the ground under its pawprint. Fadeheart lay lifeless on the thunderpath.

“Fadeheart!” Snoopclaw and Forgefang yelled. They both flew down to Fadeheart on the pavement. After a minute, they dragged her into the grass where Lucakit lay, horrified by all the events that just happened. “She’s alive! She just has a fractured leg. Go bring her to Leaftoe to make sure she’s ok.” Snoopclaw mewed. Forgefang lay a few fox lengths away from Lucakit, with anger filling up his green eyes. “You little dung rascal! It’s all your fault this happened.

Why didn’t you get up when I threw you onto the thunderpath? She wouldn’t have gotten up to save you, you helpless rat!” Forgefang screamed at Lucakit. Then he carefully picked up Fadeheart and carried her to Leaftoe’s den. Lucakit felt hurt by the words as he left. “Hey little kit, don’t listen to him. It’s not your fault, ok?” Snoopclaw said, trying to cheer him up. “I’m really sorry this happened. What’s your name? May I ask?” He wondered. “Yea, it’s Lucakit.” He replied morbidly. “I live in ThunderClan. Me and my friend Dunklekit were playing under a small cave, then all of a sudden a storm came up and made the whole clan leave. But we didn’t know what was going on, and we stayed in the cave for hours and nobody came still. Then Dunklekit got hungry so he asked me to hunt for him. So I wanted to catch a fish at the river to impress him, then I got lost and ended up here. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.” He mewed. “Huh, that’s strange. We all got the storm too, but we never left our territory. I guess they were being extra careful, heh? But where did they go?” Snoopclaw asked. “I don’t know, they never said.” Lucakit reviled. “Oh well, anyways, how about you come to my den to rest? I’ll introduce you to the clan!” Snoopclaw mewed excitedly. “There’s Mewtwos of all kinds for you to see!”

Chapter 2

     The Mewtwos entered the ShadowClan territory, and Lucakit started to get excited. “Wow! This place is really, stinky.” Lucakit told Snoopclaw. “I know, sorry bout’ that. We don’t really clean up around here.” Snoopclaw replied, laughing a little bit. “Who is this? Why is he in our territory?” A Mewtwo growled. “Calm down, everyone. He got lost, and he’s visiting my den to rest. Don’t be angry at him, he’s not here to attack.” Snoopclaw shouted to his clanmates. Faces turned, and eyes prowled at Lucakit and Snoopclaw. He started to become anxious. “Don’t worry, we’re here now. Come take a look in my home!” Snoopclaw mewed excitedly. They both flew in through a small hole in a cave. “This is my den. Me and Squirrelfire sometimes chill in this corner. By the way, Squirrelfire is my sister.” Snoopclaw exclaimed. Lucakit saw a soft pile of moss, and lay his body down on it. He felt as if he were on a cloud in the sky, and light as mouse fur. “Comfy, huh?” Snoopclaw bragged. “I made it myself.” Snoopclaw went on. “Well, I’m gonna go on a hunting patrol with my friends. Can you stay here and rest? I’ll bring you some fresh kill to eat.” Snoopclaw mewed. “Ok, thank you!” Lucakit mewed back. He watched Snoopclaw fly out of his house, wondering how Dunklekit was doing. “I hope he’s not too hungry.” Lucakit thought worriedly. “I promised I would bring him back some food.”

      About 40 minutes later, Lucakit heard Snoopclaw calling him. Seconds later Snoopclaw zoomed it, with a burger. “I found this in a human garbage place. It smells like meat, and I thought we could share it.” Snoopclaw mewed happily. “Um, are you sure this is edible?” Lucakit asked. “Oh, of course it is! Humans eat it, and we’ve eaten these since ShadowClan began. They’re very delicious, please try some! It will bring your strength up.” Snoopclaw pleaded. Lucakit agreed, and bit a piece with his newly grown canines. It was the most yummy thing he had ever eaten in his 3 moon life. “Oh wow! It’s so good!” Lucakit exclaimed with a smile. He gulped down another piece, and they both spent the night happily eating and talking together in the den.

Morning light glowed brightly in the sky. Lucakit yawned, and looked up at Snoopclaw. He got up and looked over at Lucakit, with an uncertain expression. “Hey Lucakit, Blackstar wants to see you and ask you questions in about 10 minutes” Snoopclaw mewed quietly. Lucakit was shocked at the question. He would have to talk to the ShadowClan leader. “Make sure you’re ready. He may want you to leave, since this isn’t your clan.” Snoopclaw mewed. “He doesn’t like ThunderClan.” Lucakit heaved out of the moss bed and flew out of Snoopclaw’s den. Panicking, he asked a random Mewtwo where Blackstar’s own den was. “Um, it’s over to the left of that large tree.” The Mewtwo said to him. He quickly thanked her and flew off to the den. It was very dark. “Hello? I’m Lucakit, the one you asked to talk to. I’m a bit early, but can I still speak with you?” Lucakit murmured, shaking like an earthquake. “Yes. I’m here on the back of this wall.” A voice sounded. Still shaking, Lucakit flew over to the wall. He was then face to face with Blackstar. He was a tall, grey and black Mewtwo with a glowing yellow tail and a strange crystal on his right arm, the same color. Lucakit was amazed by his dazzling, dark appearance. “You’re so cool, Blackstar.” Lucakit mewed, less afraid by his warm welcoming. “Thank you I guess, now where are your parents?” Blackstar said boldly. Lucakit told him the whole story about leaving Dunklekit, the thunderpath, his clan leaving and all that. “Well, you know you could stay here if you’d like. I’m sure Dunklekit will find his way here too, it’s not that far.” Blackstar mewed. Lucakit was too stunned to think. “Um, um, yes Blackstar! That would be such an honor!” Lucakit exclaimed. It truly was an honor. “Well then, it is decided. Lucakit is a member of ShadowClan now.” Blackstar said with a grin. Lucastar liked this Mewtwo. He looked fierce and mean, but he had a heart of kindness.

Proud, he head out of the den to tell Snoopclaw the news. Mewtwos still stared at him, but they seemed more used to him than when he first arrived. “Hey Snoopclaw? Guess what?” Lucakit piped up while dashing into his den. “Blackstar said I can join ShadowClan!” Lucakit yelled happily. Snoopclaw got up out of his moss bed. “Oh wow! I’m so happy for you Lucakit!” Snoopclaw yelped. They both happily sat down on the gravel flooring to talk. “Blackstar looks so cool, too. Why does he look so different?” Lucakit piped up again. “Well, he was just made that way, if you guessed. I think you’re really cool too! Your light blue peach fuzz, blue tail and glowing aqua eyes, you’re just so handsome!” Snoopclaw mewed happily. They were just so cheerful in the moment, Lucakit didn’t even remember what was going on with Dunklekit. Later, he started to think of him again. “I really hope Dunklekit’s ok. I miss him.” Lucakit murmured before drifting to sleep. After a minute Lucakit began to dream that he was on the thunderpath. Dunklekit was next to him. Before he could say hi to his brother, a monster was roaring up ahead. With his instinct and fear, Lucakit flew off the thunderpath quickly without turning his head. “Dunklekit! Get off the thunderpath!” He yelled, just remembering his sibling was still in the danger zone. Before Dunklekit could even get up, the monster ran over him. The monster’s paw rolled right over him, this time crushing his whole body, and not just his leg like Fadeheart’s moment with that other monster. The same horror shot through Lucakit like before. He saw some sharp glass fling in the air as the monster zoomed past, hitting Dunklekit in the head. Lucakit didn’t see where it hit him cause he was facing the other way. Dunklekit turned, with his paw over his left eye. Blood streamed down his finger over the eye he was covering. His face had the most pure anger that Lucakit had ever seen in his life. “Look, Lucakit. You don’t care anything about me at all. Why did you leave me to die? You care only for yourself and your own pleasure. I’m gonna have revenge on you, Lucakit. And you’ll remember it.” Dunklekit growled, and then everything turned black. Lucakit woke up with a shock from the traumatic dream. Then he looked over at Snoopclaw, floating a few fox lengths away from him. “Wake up, Lucakit! It’s your first day as a member to ShadowClan!” Snoopclaw mewed excitedly.

Chapter 3

   Lucakit got up and flopped onto the ground from exhaustion. “I’ll carry you!” Snoopclaw mewed. He picked up Lucakit and flew out of the den. After about 3 minutes, Lucakit was introduced to all the others. “I heard your new to ShadowClan. Nice to meet you.” Rollpang yelled to Lucakit. “Thank you!” Lucakit replied. Snoopclaw guided Lucakit to the end of ShadowClan territory. “This is the- “Hey! We got news.” Another Mewtwo called to Snoopclaw. “ThunderClan has returned, but two kits are missing.” “Which ones?” Snoopclaw asked. “Lucakit who we know is here, and Dunklekit” 

“What?” Lucakit exclaimed. “Dunklekit’s my brother! They all stood in silence. “Really?” The Mewtwo asked Lucakit. “It’s true. He told me the first day he came here.” Snoopclaw replied. “Oh no, I’m so sorry! I hope he’s ok.” The Mewtwo mewed to Lucakit. Lucakit started to get worried again for his sibling. “How about we go in the forest to look for him?” Snoopclaw asked Lucakit, as the other Mewtwo flew away. Lucakit remembered his dream again. The monster running over Dunklekit, him saying he’ll have revenge while he was all bloody on the thunderpath. “Sorry, no no no. Please.” He mumbled to Snoopclaw, panicking a little bit. “How come?” Snoopclaw questioned. “Please, just trust me.” Lucakit staggered. “Um, ok?” Snoopclaw snorted back. The Mewtwos flew silent back to Snoopclaw’s den. “Hey! We have trouble!” They heard Leaftoe call from her den. They raced out of the den to see others emerging too. “I saw ThunderClan Mewtwos spying on us behind Blackstar’s den.” Leaftoe went on. “They’re planning an attack!” Mewtwos stared in horror as Leaftoe said those words. Lucakit was worried too. “How come?” Lucakit yelled to Leaftoe. “Cause of you.” 

Mewtwos stared at Lucakit. He felt flustering embarrassment go through his body, as Ducepaw piped up. “I saw it too. They told each- other that we stole Lucakit while they were gone, and they’re gonna fight to take him back. They say whoever took him into ShadowClan will get a death sentence by their leader, Heatherstar.” 

Lucakit stared at him with anixiety. Snoopclaw looked very aggressive. “Well, we’re not letting them have him. It’s not his fault they left him there with Dunklekit. They should have taken him and his brother with them. Besides, Lucakit WANTS to be here. I’ll fight for him if I have to. Who’s with me?” He yelled. 5/6ths of the clan agreed, including Blackstar. Lucakit was stunned of having so much mercy by the most feared clan of all. Snoopclaw finished. “Let’s all prepare for attack! Follow Blackstar’s orders!”

Mewtwos yowled loudly in war cry.  Lucakit got excited, it was his first battle! “I’ll join some warriors Shadesong picks out. Can you stay in my den?” Snoopclaw mewed. Lucakit didn’t want to be lazy inside a den. He wanted to fight. “Sorry, Snoopclaw. I want to fight to show I want to stay here, and I’m not a prisoner.” Lucakit vowed. Snoopclaw new he was a kit, but he was the main source of the war. Snoopclaw nodded in agreement. “I want Armkill, Snoopclaw, and Waterpine to be our fighting force. If we need more, we will choose to more warriors or experienced apprentices.” Shadesong called to everyone. “This will be an easy battle.” She fazed. All the Mewtwos gathered where they were told to and lined up. Lucakit watched Snoopclaw fly to the other warriors, and Lucakit hid behind a bush around the exit to join them when they leave. After 2 minutes of preparation, they dashed away like lightning. Lucakit snuck out and followed. In the air he heard birds chirping, and the sun was blazing above them. After a minute, they settled near the thunderpath to wait for ThunderClan to strike. Lucakit cringed at the sight of the thunderpath ahead of them, then all of a sudden he heard a yowling in the distance. It was ThunderClan. “We’re coming without justice! Nothing!” They yelled. Lucakit felt a chill up his body, but he forced himself to stay in one position through all of it. “私たちはもう平和ではありません!” One exclaimed. Lucakit didn’t know what he said. “They said they are no longer in peace. What did we do? Anyways we didn’t steal you, if you were the reason.” Snoopclaw told Lucakit while bracing for an attack. One of them attacked Waterpine, but they didn’t expect her to retaliate in a water type move. The ThunderClan warrior got blasted in the air, before hitting a tree and knocking it down. It crashed right onto the thunderpath, then the worst thing happened. A monster was coming, faster than normal. The mewtwos watched as the monster stopped its paws, but they slid on the water that Waterpine attacked with. It slipped and flipped around, but the ThunderClan mewtwo glowed its eyes and used a psychic move to stop the monster. He placed it down carefully on the other side of the thunderpath, and watched it run off. The mewtwos felt a relief as it left. But the relief didn’t last long, the fight was still undergo. After the mewtwo lifted the tree and threw it off the thunderpath, another one struck down and pinned Snoopclaw down on his back. Lucakit watched in horror as the mewtwo raked Snoopclaw’s purpleness down to the middle of his tail with psychoclaw. He saw blood stain from there to his tail down, as the mewtwo flipped him over and kicked him across the clearing. He rolled and landed face first on the grass and didn’t move. “Snoopclaw!” Lucakit screamed. Snoopclaw was his best friend. “Are you okay? He panicked. He flew over and saw the mewtwo that attacked Snoopclaw. His horror turned to anger. Without thinking of his size, he plunged at the mewtwo, biting him with his canines. He didn’t realize how hard he bit him till he saw blood come out of the bite marks. He then saw the mewtwo look at him, and he didn’t seem fazed at all. Until he made a small shriek and picked him up by the braincord, which made him go limp. “You traitor! I thought you were loyal to ThunderClan, not our enemies!” He yelled with anger. Lucakit blindly saw that he was creating a shadowball to blast at him. 3 hits of that could kill him, and no one was looking.

“Help me!” Lucakit shrieked for his life.

Waterpine and Armkill looked at him with fear. They dashed away and from the attackers ,and flew down to Lucakit. Armkill had especially strong arms, stronger than an average mewtwo. He got a superpunch attack ready, then punched with all his might right into the mewtwo holding him’s solar plexus. He grunted and flung far into the air, dropping Lucakit while Waterpine flew up to block an attack facing him. Armkill grabbed him and put him next to Snoopclaw while he got up and helped Waterpine. Lucakit couldn’t help feeling bad for his original clan’s mewtwo getting hit with such a terrible attack, but his mind swapped to Snoopclaw when he heard him breathe. “Are you feeling alright?” Lucakit exclaimed. “Yah, I’m fine. Are you ok?” Snoopclaw asked Lucakit. He nodded. “My tail and above hurts, but I’ll survive. Hey, It looks like we’re winning!” Snoopclaw perked up. Lucakit turned to see ThunderClan mewtwos fleeing in fear. “I’m gonna go back by myself. Please be okay.” Lucakit mewed to Snoopclaw. “I’ll be okay. Thanks. And please make sure you make it back safe as well.” He replied drowsily. Lucakit waved his tail and flew on to ShadowClan territory. 

On the way, Lucakit heard something in the forest. When he looked, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

It was Dunklekit.

Chapter 4

        Dunklekit!” Lucakit happily purred out loud. He flew through the bushes, popped out and hugged him, still covered in leaves. But Dunklekit shoved him away. Then without saying a word, he blew an attack a Lucakit. Lucakit tumbled backward and hurt his neck. “Ow! What was that for? It’s me, Lucakit!” He gasped while catching air from the blow. Dunklekit said nothing. Without warning, he hissed and flew deeper into the woods. Wait!” Lucakit yelled. He followed him. Then he remembered the dream again. “It’s just some stupid dream,” he thought. “Dunklekit’s probably in a bad mood or something.” he kept on going.

After a while, he saw Dunklekit go into a hole in the ground. Not thinking it through, Lucakit followed him down. “What are you doing here? Stop following me fox dung!” Dunklekit screeched at Lucakit. “At least he’s talking now,” Lucakit thought. “Why does his voice sound like he’s been talking for 10 hours straight?” Dunklekit all of a sudden got on for legs and started hissing again. He was acting so wild, Lucakit thought he was playing a joke. “Stop it, silly! I’ve finally found you! I’ll bring you some fresh kill.” He told him happily. But Dunklekit wasn’t changing. He just hissed more, and Lucakit could feel a chill up his back. He was alone in a cave with a strange acting mewtwo kid, his brother. “Um… I’m gonna go back now.” Lucakit staggered. Dunklekit had fire blazing, angry eyes. Lucakit couldn’t hold his internal anger anymore. “Okay. I’ve had enough. What is wrong with you, you little rabbid rabbit? You’re NOT acting like my brother, at all!” Lucakit prowled at Dunklekit. He didn’t move, then Dunklekit flew over to the end of the cave. He picked up a weird bone on the ground and started eating it while flying back to Lucakit. “Uh… are you okay?” Lucakit snorted. He thought Dunklekit was doing that to be funny again, but then he gobbled it up like it was ice cream. He looked at Lucakit with the blood from the bone he ate drooling out of his mouth. He looked like a horror, but in real life. He was smiling. That’s when Lucakit realized something was really wrong with him. He dashed out of the cave, not looking back. He needed to tell ThunderClan what was going on. About him wanting to stay in ShadowClan, and what was wrong with Dunklekit and that he had found him. He thought maybe the dream he had could have been a sign. “Oh arceus no…” he thought panicking. “Does my brother have rabies?”

Lucakit dashed out of the forest, heading for ThunderClan. He needed to tell his mother about Dunklekit. In under a span of 8 minutes, he made it to the ThunderClan border. “It definitely smells better than ShadowClan.” He thought, giggling silently. Then he saw his old den. His mother, Hillchime, was bathing in the sun on a moss blanket. He quickly but silently sprinted out of the bush he was hiding in and ran to his mother, not flying so less noticed him. “Mommy!” He exclaimed. Hillchime flinched and looked at him. “Oh my sweet Lucakit! You’re back!” She purred extremely loud. They both gave each other big hugs. “I was so worried, I was crying.” She went on. “When we left ThunderClan to home in the forest during the storm, I thought you and your brother came along with your friends. But y’all didn’t, and I panicked and looked for you guys. But I couldn’t find you or Dunklekit, and I was so sad. I weeped the whole way. But now you’re back, and I’m so happy! But, do you know where Dunklekit is?” She mewed, words tumbling out of her mouth. “Yah, I do. That’s why I came here to tell you about him.” Lucakit mewed back. “I also heard you’re staying in ShadowClan! How’s that? Is it fun? Do you have friends? How many? Are you- “Wait!” I’ll answer those later. Dunklekit’s acting very strange. He scowled.“ He’s so skinny, even his ribs are almost showing. He’s eating bloody bones, he attacked me when I found him, and he would hiss and he acted like he never knew me.” Lucakit shuddered. Hillchime looked horrified. “My poor baby!” She exclaimed. “I have to find him.” She mewed anxiously. “Okay, well I’ve gotta go back. My clanmates might be worried for me.” He softly mewed to Hillchime. She happily nodded, then flew right into the woods. Lucakit was happy to have such a great and loving mother.

When he entered the entrance to ShadowClan, he saw everyone who fought were back and being cared for. It gave him a wave of relief to see Snoopclaw up cleaning the retired warriors cave for them. His cuts were barely noticeable. “Hey Lucakit!” Snoopclaw yelled. “Fadeheart had her kit today!” He exclaimed. “You should go see her.” Lucakit just then remembered that Fadeheart was the mewtwo that had saved his life from the monster a few days ago. He hadn’t even thanked her yet, and he didn’t know that she had a kit with her the whole time she had saved him before. If she hadn’t of made it, two lives would have been taken instead of one. He felt very guilty, and flew off to her den. The baby kit was sucking on a wet piece of moss. “Fadeheart, I should have come to you sooner…” he staggered a bit from a tight throat, cause of his guilt. “ I owe you a bunch for saving my life. I must repay you with something extraordinary.” He mewed brightfully. The she-mewtwo glanced at him with a loving face. “No no… you’re okay. No need to repay! No one needs to. I just wanted to do my job of protecting us all, and my little one here.” She mewed while purring. “By the way, her name is Lifekit.” She mewed. “She brings my heart to life.” She purred happily. Lucakit thanked her and purred as well. “Thank you Jesus for everything and everyone!” He mewed happily. “We all love you!”

The rest of the night was great. Lucakit ate more burgers and fries, while they all played leaftoss. Lucakit started to feel guilty again looking at Fadeheart’s fractured leg, but he felt better seeing that it was healing. 

1 moon passed. Things were going very well. They always had enough food, Lucakit got to play with Lifekit every day, and he got to explore more of the camp. He knew almost every single name of the ShadowClan mewtwos. “Wow. I love it here.” He mewed, proud for feeling strong that day. “I get to eat like 5 burgers every day with fries and donuts from the human garbage, and my brother lives as a savage in the forest, eating rats and bones.” He shivered at the thought of being related to such a kit.

Chapter 5

2 more moons passed. Lucakit learned how to glide, use shadow ball, and build a den.  Forgefang flew over while he was chewing on a rock from teething. “Hello! Do you need something?”Lucakit asked him cheerfully. Lucakit has just found out the day before that Forgefang was Lifekit’s father. She was 3 moons old now, and they had become very fond of each other. “Oh Lucakit, get ready for some exciting news!” He mewed. “You’re becoming an apprentice today, Orbkit too!” He exclaimed.

Lucakit smiled big and squealed happily. “Oh yah!” Lucakit snapped, super pleased. Within seconds, Lucakit heard Blackstar call from the highrock. “Let all Mewtwos old enough to catch their own prey gather around the highrock for a clan meeting.” He yelled. “Oh boy, it’s time!” Snoopclaw mewed, while heading towards Lucakit. “Would Lucakit and Orbkit please come up here?” He mewed with a glitter in his eye. Both kits tumbled and tripped up the highrock. Orbkit climbed up first, leaving Lucakit panting half way. “I give up, I’ll fly the rest of the way.” He breathed silently. After he got up and layed down on the scorching hot rock, he saw Blackstar floating an inch over ground, while Orbkit was picking at his toes full of grime. “Today I will appoint Orbkit as a new apprentice. His mentor will be Loudfern. Train him well, and I expect you to pass on your knowledge of fighting to him. Good luck, Orbkit, your new name will be Orbpaw.”

Everyone cheered, but Lucakit couldn’t get up from his tiredness, and being too hot to clap. Orbpaw looked like he couldn’t contain his happiness, and yowled loudly. He flew down from the highrock and went to see Loudfern. They both purred and touched foreheads. “Lucakit, thank you for being here. You are strong, loyal, and brave. Your new name will be Lucapaw, and your mentor is Snoopclaw.” Blackstar mewed to Lucapaw. “Snoopclaw!” Lucapaw purred. He stumbled and crashed down the highrock, landing in Snoopclaw’s arms with slices and cuts. “You’re the best mentor ever! I’m so glad Blackstar chose you.” Lucapaw piped up. “I’m glad too! I’ll train you like a prince.” Snoopclaw laughed back. They both had the best time until sunset.

Lucapaw watched the dawn patrol leave with Snoopclaw. He sneaked on with them, curious about where they went. They went to the thunderpath, hiding behind a bush. He saw them looking out, then one glowed its eyes and picked up a trash can from far off. They rummaged through the human garbage, picking up food and then flying back to ShadowClan. Lucapaw stayed around the trash can.

After like 4 minutes of searching through it, he couldn’t find anymore edible objects and flew on back. On the way he heard a scruffling behind a bush. “Hello? Is anyone there?” he stuttered with fear. Then all of a sudden, Dunklekit pounced out of the bush next to him. Lucapaw stared at him intently. Dunklekit looked back at him. “Well look who it is, Dunklekit. I’m now Lucapaw. A kit can’t beat an apprentice.” He mewed, still scared. Dunklekit growled back. “Well I’m not Dunklekit either. I’m Dunklepaw.” He hissed while crawling. “What do you mean, you little furball? You don’t have a mentor, or even a clan.” Lucapaw told him  sternly. “I don’t need one. I’m being mentored in the dark forest, by Bloomfeather.” He growled back to Lucapaw. “You can’t be…” Lucapaw replied shaking. “If you don’t believe me, then attack me and I’ll show you my strength.” Dunklepaw hissed abundantly. Lucapaw thought for a moment, then without warning Dunklepaw plunged at Lucapaw. “Owwaaah!” Lucapaw screamed. Dunklepaw was biting him on his tail. Blood started to rush out, and Lucapaw started to get really angry while in pain. He flipped upward and flung Dunklepaw off him. Then he used psycho cut, but missed Dunklepaw’s chest and cut his face. Lucapaw watched in horror as he saw the blade cut right through his left eye. “Gahhhhhh!” Dunklepaw shrieked in flustering pain. Lucapaw couldn’t watch anymore, and turned his head away. After a few seconds he turned his head and looked at Dunklepaw. His left eye was gone. All that was left was some scaring and blood, while Dunklepaw was panicking and feeling his face. “You ripped my eye out!” Dunklepaw screamed. Lucapaw flew away as fast as he could, and didn’t turn back. “I’m sorry…” he murmured in his head. “The dream WAS a message…”

After he escaped the forest, he flew to the edge of the ShadowClan border. He stared at his bloody tail, and didn’t know what to tell them.

“I’ll say that Dunklepaw was just really angry, and I fought back. But I won’t say what I did to his face.” He frittered. Then he went past the border. “Lucapaw! What’s wrong with you?” Lucapaw flinched. It was Snoopclaw. “Why are you bloody?” “Um um I fought Dunklepaw.” Lucapaw replied. “Why did you fight him? Dunklepaw? Why is that his name?”

“He’s being trained in the dark forest. That’s why his name is Dunklepaw, as well as my name adding in a paw. He’s crazy. I I…” Lucapaw stuttered. “What? Snoopclaw went on. Lucapaw knew he shouldn’t say what made Dunklepaw stop attacking to give him time to flee. “Never mind. He just scared me. I think y’all should stay away from him.” He shivered in a blank voice. “Um ok? Well let’s take care of your tail and paw.” Snoopclaw replied sternly. They both flew into Leaftoe’s den. “Hey, we got an injured apprentice here.” Snoopclaw mewed darkly. “Oh my Lucakit- I mean Lucapaw. You need my healing herbs this instant!” She exclaimed. Snoopclaw stared at him, then flew down and stood on a rock, watching. “This goes here… and this goes- “OWCH!” Lucapaw yelped. “It stings!” “I know I’m sorry, but just for a bit, Lucapaw.” She replied carefully. After a while, Lucapaw left the den with a weird leaf around his tail. “What does this do?” He pooted. “Well that keeps the cut safe from germs, and it helps heal it up quicker.” Snoopclaw mewed back cheerfully. Lucapaw decided he would go play with Lifekit right at that moment. He flew over to her play place. “Hi, Lifekit! He purred while floating to the sunny spot next to her den. “Hi Lucapaw- yuck! What’s that stinky smell? The whole clan could smell that!” She exclaimed. “Sorry, I pooted.” Lucapaw replied. The rest of the day they played until sundown. “Bye bye! I had a lot of fun.” Lifekit mewed to him. “Bye bye too!” He mewed back like a kit. As he tumbled home in the gold sunlight, he realized how really close to Lifekit he really was. “Why does she give me a different feeling than all the others?” He murred while floating into Snoopclaw’s den.

Chapter 6

“Your vibes are rancid… heheh.”

“BAHAHAHA!”

Lucapaw stared at the mewtwos chatting along the gravel. “I’m glad everything’s going well.” He mewed cheerfully while heading out of the den. Morninglight and a cool breeze flew across the clearing while he flew to Snoopclaw. “Hey bro!” He purred while flying to the brush he was laying in. “What’s up?” Snoopclaw replied.  “How come your laying in a brush?” Lucapaw asked. “Well, you’ll see if you come lay down. It feels just as good as laying in the moss chair!” Snoopclaw bragged. Lucapaw jumped onto a brush and sank into it. “Ahhhh…” he moaned while closing his eyes. It felt like sheep’s wool! “Look up at the sky! Try to make shapes with the clouds.” Snoopclaw purred. Lucapaw opened his eyes and looked at the sky. “That one looks like a duck… and that one looks like a big rock!” Lucapaw mewed cutely. “Maybe… cause that is a big rock! Get out of the brush, now!” Snoopclaw screamed. Lucapaw shrieked and flew out of the brush with Snoopclaw following. The huge rock crushed the brush they were laying on. “What in Arceus name?” Snoopclaw shouted. All of a sudden they jerked and saw Blackstar zoom up into the air. “Everyone listen! We’re under attack!” Blackstar yelled. “It’s from ThunderClan!”

“Why do they want to attack us? We just sorted out the problem last time!” One of the mewtwos yelled. “I know, right?” Leaftoe exclaimed back.

“All of our warriors, line up at the dens! Armkill, protect the babytwo den!” Blackstar ordered the warriors. They all rushed to their places. Lucapaw watched Snoopclaw line up next to Hoppelt, and Forgefang line up next to Fadeheart and Waterpine. “Get ready!” Blackstar ordered again. The mewtwos got prepared. Lucapaw saw ThunderClan soaring on air to their clan, while Defkit was waddling out of the babytwo den. No one was watching him. “Defkit stop!” Lucapaw yelled. But something horrible happened. Defkit started stumbling around the edge of the hill around the nursery, and then tripped on a rock. Lucapaw watched him flail, then fall off the cliff.

“No!!!!” Lucapaw screamed. He flew faster than he ever had before, then blew off the cliff after Defkit. Defkit was wailing and shaking every limb on its tiny body. “I almost got you…” Lucapaw veered. “Gotcha!” He grabbed a hold on Defkit. He stopped wailing as loud, and grabbed tightly around Lucapaw’s tummy. Lucapaw then scrambled on the edge of the cliff and hung onto a rock. It was big enough for Lucapaw to heave himself onto and slump on so he and Defkit could rest. “That… was so… crazy.” Lucapaw panted. Defkit still hung on tightly to him. “We got to get back up. Your mother Mellow must be really worried about you.” Lucapaw mewed, still out of breath. “You’re so cute.”

After about 3 minutes of resting, Lucapaw gathered enough strength to fly back up the mountain. “What?” He exclaimed. The whole clan was fighting. Even the retired warriors. “This needs to stop!” He yelled. Before finding his friends, he brought Defkit back to the nursery. “Hopefully he won’t come back out again.”

Lucapaw dashed out of the den, and flew over the highrock. He saw Blackstar fighting someone familiar. “Heatherstar!” Lucapaw exclaimed. Even the clan leader had come to fight. “This has to stop somehow!” He mewed angrily. But before he could get down, a grey and prickly mewtwo flew up to him and grabbed him by his foot. “Wah!” He yapped. He was thrown right off the highrock. “I can… get up!” He thought eagerly in the air. And so he did. After flipping right side up again, he looked for an opponent his size with the breeze blowing across his thighs. “There!” He whispered to himself. A common mewtwo, a little smaller than him was floating in the corner of a den. “That one’s small to be in a battle…” he thought. He didn’t care, and dashed off while making a shadow ball. As he flew right over it, the mewtwo flew away. “Scaredy cat!” He yelled. As he blew the attack, the mewtwo flew straight into it. While he was thinking how dumb that act was, it counter attacked the shadow ball. “That’s so smart- it blew him across the clearing before he could finish the sentence. Then the mewtwo flew away. “Now I’m the dumb one…” Lucapaw snickered to himself while he got up, aching from the hit. Then he saw Snoopclaw fighting a blue shadow mewtwo with a crystal on his back. “I’m coming to help you!” Lucapaw yelled. “Oh Lucapaw! I didn’t know where you went!” Snoopclaw mewed back, panting. Lucapaw flew over and shadow balled the enemy from behind. He acted like he had no damage done. “Why am I so weak?” Lucapaw exclaimed. “I don’t know, we’ll train you up after the battle is finished… Ack!” Snoopclaw screamed. He got cut by the claws from the shadow mewtwo. “No you don’t!” Lucapaw yelled at the enemy. Before he could pounce, he heard a horrific scream, then another. “No!!!!” A ShadowClan mewtwo shrieked.

“Banejay is dead!”

Everyone froze, including the ThunderClan warriors. The mewtwo yelled again. “Hillchime killed him!”

Lucapaw was speechless. “My MOTHER killed him?” Lucapaw screamed. Faces turned.

“Lucapaw! Everyone! It wasn’t on purpose! He was weak, and he attacked me, so I fought back.” Hillchime floated towards Lucapaw, shaking. “If only you’d believe…” she started to cry. Lucapaw was shaking too. He couldn’t hold it in anymore, and he flew to his mother and hugged her tightly. Tears ran down her face and onto Lucapaw’s ears. “Please forgive my mother… and can this battle end? Why can’t we just stop!” Lucapaw yelled to everyone. Surprisingly, everyone agreed. Lucapaw and Hillchime watched the ThunderClan mewtwos retreat. “Bye mom,” Lucapaw mewed. “I love you no matter what.” “You too, Lucakit.” She mewed back. “Actually, it’s LucaPAW now!” Lucapaw exclaimed. “Oh wow! Im so proud of you, Lucapaw!” Hillchime chuckled, cheering up. “Bye bye!” They both mewed to eachother. “Bye!” Snoopclaw also said. They both looked at each other while she flew off. “Wow, it’s already midday.” Snoopclaw said silently. “Yah… uhhh…” Lucapaw started to stutter. “Lucapaw?” Lucapaw fainted from heat stroke.

Chapter 7

this is my trainers book story lol

she still has to write more though but I’ll post it when I can heheh

[planetnapcast]

Welcome to Tumblr! I'm kinda curious, how do you get those awesome retro instruments? Is there like a VST, or are they just soundfonts? Also what DAW do you use? Sorry if it's too much at once, but hope you like your Tumblr stay!

Thank you!!! I use soundfonts, I have around ~140 installed (not that that matters, I just wanted to mention)

And I use FL Studio!! It has a built-in soundfont plugin, so it's pretty much just plug and play. I do use some other VSTs... But that's very rare. (Actually, I think i only use Synth1... Most synths are far too complex for me haha)

Drums are a different case though, as I have some sample packs I use, the most common of them being 'Bitkits' which I used in the song Pawprint Panic

Also don't worry about asking multiple questions!! I like talking about music :-)

#music production #napcast #pawprint panic

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Dumping links like Galileo dumped the orange

Today (May 20) at 3:15PM, I’ll be at the GAITHERSBURG Book Festival with my novel Red Team Blues; then on Monday (May 22), I’m keynoting Public Knowledge’s Emerging Tech conference in DC.

On Tuesday (May 23), I’ll be in TORONTO for a book launch that’s part of WEPFest, a benefit for the West End Phoenix, onstage with Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Ron Diebert (Citizen Lab) and the whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri.

Welcome to my Saturday linkdump, the third in an occasional series that may or may not be restricted to Saturdays, but which will ever be a celebration of olde-timey linkblogging of the sort practiced by our blogfathers, blogmothers, and assorted other blogparents:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Any fule kno that Saturday is Caturday, and today’s woke felinism comes courtesy of Dr Eleanor Janega, the earthiest of all the Medivelist Bloggers, author of the superb Once and Future Sex, all about dirty dirty medieval people and their filthy filthy habits:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/17/ren-faire/#going-medieval

One of Janega’s winningest formulas is “Find a dopey thing about medieval people racing around social media and then set the ignorant straight in a world-beating, extremely well-informed rant.”

See, for example, “I assure you, medieval people bathed”:

https://going-medieval.com/2019/08/02/i-assure-you-medieval-people-bathed/

This week, Janega addresses herself to the burning question, “Did 14th C religious leaders label cats evil, precipitating a mass European cull of poor moggies?”

The answer, you will not be surprised to learn, is: “No.”

https://going-medieval.com/2023/05/16/on-cats/

Rather, medieval people — including those in the 14th century — just adored cats. That goes double for the religious leaders, as is evidenced by all the cats monks drew in the margins of religious manuscripts. Janega also reproduces painstakingly inked manuscripts crisscrossed by pawprints left by a cat that did the medieval version of walking back and forth over your keyboard while you’re trying to enter your password.

There’s also a manuscript with a large blotch that is labeled by a monk who identifies it as a piss-stain left behind by a cat (presumably a cat that wanted to go out and was tired of the monk not taking the walking-back-and-forth-over-the-manuscript hint).

In case there’s any doubt about how monks felt about cats, there’s a freaking adorable manuscript margin-doodle of cat in a little monk’s outfit. There’s doodles of cats with nuns, illustrations of cats hanging out with 14th century monks, and of course, drawings of working cats keeping down the rats in the barns and kitchens of the day.

As if that wasn’t enough, Janega closes with this banger: 14th century didn’t kill all their cats in a witch panic, because “witch panics are not a feature of medieval society”:

Indeed, medieval people didn’t really believe in the concept at all. Even in the fifteenth century when the Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches, a witch-hunting guide was written it had to justify its very existence because no one believed that ol’ Heinrich Kramer was right about witches existing.

When people think that the Middle Ages is a place full of superstitious backwards religious fanatics it allows them to think they can just ignore over a thousand years of history because all you are going to see is disease and cat murder. This then allows stupid ideas like this to perpetuate and exacerbates the problem further. Suddenly the only people paying attention to medieval history are weirdo trad people who can bend the truth to suit their own aims, and baby, we cannot have that.

Happy caturday all, and especially to Dr Janega, may her quill never blunt.

Caturday — even a caturday about people being Very Wrong About Cats — is a reminder that the internet is often great, and not a cesspit of awful. Here is one way in which that is true: Mohit Bhoite builds tiny, perfect electronic sculptures that are both gorgeous little artworks and supremely functional exemplars of the hardware hacker’s noble art:

https://www.bhoite.com/sculptures/

Oh. My. God. These are so great. The tiny temperature monitor with the 7-seg digital display:

https://www.bhoite.com/sculptures/tiny-temp-monitor/

This stunning 7-seg counter:

https://www.bhoite.com/sculptures/seven-segment-counter/

This 555 Demux, with its delicate tracery of chassis and pins:

https://www.bhoite.com/sculptures/555-bcd-demux/

Each one a delightful morsel, made seemingly for the artist’s own pleasure and self-expression. I’m slightly disappointed that these aren’t for sale (because I want all of them), but even happier that these pure works of art, unsullied by commerce.

An important note about Bhoite’s sculptures is that they’re built on open source hardware, notably kits from Adafruit, often based on Arduinos and other open designs. This openness leads to “generativity,” the ability of follow-on creators and inventors to make new things based on existing things.

Generativity is the heart of the early explosive growth of the internet. From “view source” teaching millions of us to make the web to the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, Mysql and python/perl) forming the substrate for billions of projects, the generative internet was — and is — the creative internet.

Despite a decade of energetic commons-enclosing, some of the staunchest bastions of openness and generativity continue to thrive, like Wikipedia, an encyclopedia that isn’t just “free as in beer,” it’s also “free as in speech” — free to mix and remix as you choose.

Here’s a whole passel of delightful Wikipedia-generated search tools, the Search Gizmos, a whole suite of special-purpose search tools that mine Wikipedia for informational goodies:

https://searchgizmos.com/

They’re the creation of Tara Calishain, and there are so many of them that’s it’s hard to choose just one to highlight, but I’m enormously fond of “Gossip Machine”:

A powerful tool that uses Wikipedia page views to surface potential “news days” in a given year for any topic with a Wikipedia page. By analyzing daily page views and flagging dates with significantly higher-than-average views, Gossip Machine provides you with pre-filled Google News and Google Web search links, taking you straight to valuable and insightful information about your chosen topic.

One of the bitter ironies of companies like Open AI is the co-opting of generativity for “Generative AI,” a set of products that could not be more unlike the generative projects of Bhoite or Calishain.

This kind of language game is a hallmark of every scam (not for nothing: Open AI isn’t open, and its product is neither artificial nor is it intelligent). As debates over “Generative AI” (which neither “generative,” nor “artificial,” etc, etc) rage, it’s worth revisiting how earlier debates about automation, creativity and appropriation played out.

This week in Clot Magazine, Estela Oliva interviews electronic music pioneers Jennifer Walshe and Jon “Wobbly” Leidecker (Negativland):

https://clotmag.com/interviews/jennifer-walshe-jon-leidecker-on-collaboration

The whole interview is great, but it really starts to smoke when Leidecker describes “Morover” a Negativland project built on samples of billionaires’ own fevered rants about AI:

With Negativland, we sample those CEO quotes directly — with Jennifer, those quotes also wind up in her notebooks, which she uses live as a source — it turns out CEO & EA musings make for an excellent libretto. Our deliverable is the ecosystem itself! Image diversity is more useful than photorealism! Sometimes the original sample is unbeatable, such as when Sam Altman’s voice falters when he says he feels terrible that AI is the reason his Rationalist friends have decided not to have kids. He thinks in the future, so many jobs will be lost to AI that our economy will be forced to come up with new solutions.

Later, Leidecker digs into the meat of the debate:

Electronic music has been dealing with issues of generative music and cybernetics since the 1940s, with Louis and Bebe Barron working out the creative potential of these new tools, making self-playing instruments capable of observing their own behaviour. I take the core questions faced by creative electronic musicians to involve issues of automation. What can be automated that points one in unheard musical directions?

Can networks involve more people, as opposed to replacing them? What new roles open up for humans once the old decisions are being handled? Electronic music has over 70 years’ worth of deeply moral and very creative responses to the issue of automation, and these patent-chasing corporations aren’t likely to bring up any of that work during their product demos. They need you to believe they invented this. But there’s a long and helpful history, and there’s still time to learn it.

These are the interesting discussions we could be having about these tools, if we could stop letting mediocre billionaire live rent-free in our heads as they hold flashlights under their chins and intone “Aaaaaaaay Eyeeeeeeee” in their spookiest voices. These guys are pumping their upcoming dump, and all the biggest disaster-stories are part of the scam: “AI will become sentient” and “AI will do your job as well as you” are both statements whose primary purpose is to increase the value of the stock in companies making “AI” technology (neither “artificial” nor you get the idea).

I mean, sure, our bosses will fire our asses and replace us with shell-scripts, but they don’t need working AI to do that — no more than they needed working voice response systems to replace human operators. They just enshittify their products and services, and do it under cover of chasing amazing new technology, and reap the stock gains bequeathed by keyword-drunk investors.

But the endless repetition of this vision of Fully Automated Austerity Pronatalist Space Neofeudalism gives people absolute brain-worms. The entire passive-income/rise-and-grind subculture has been convinced that they can use AI (neither etc etc) to make a fortune by…uh…generating plausible paragraphs.

Only problem: there’s no market for plausible paragraphs. The closest anyone comes is the tiny, low-dollar market for short science fiction and fantasy, which is pretty much the last bastion of paid short fiction markets. Now, these are amazing publications, and they do wonderful work, but they pay $0.01 to $0.25/word, and — more importantly — are edited by humans who sift through 1,000+ manuscripts per month looking for brilliant work to publish.

These editors are handily capable of distinguishing between extruded verbal slurry and actual short fiction, but the brain-worm bros are convinced that if they hammer these editors hard enough with enough algorithm-wrought word-salad, eventually, they’ll sell a “story” (netting a princely sum in the tens of dollars!).

This is objectively very stupid, but it’s also very terrible, because the human editors doing this labor of love are drowning in aishit. The most vocal among these LLM-blighted publishers is Neil Clarke, editor of the great Clarkesworld, who is waging a one-man war on spammy LLM submissions. His latest dispatch from the front lines (ominously titled “It continues…”) would be hacky sf, if it wasn’t real:

The one thing that is presently missing from the equation is integration with any of the existing AI detection tools. Despite their grand claims, we’ve found them to be stunningly unreliable, primitive, significantly overpriced, and easily outwitted by even the most basic of approaches.

http://neil-clarke.com/it-continues/

This is not the future we dreamt of. It’s been stolen from us by the brain-worms. Writing in Business Insider, the great Nathan Proctor describes how automation lets companies bring about the “death of ownership”:

https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-software-legal-tricks-subscriptions-customers-money-pay-death-ownership-2023-5

When your device won’t accept the ink you chose, or run the software you prefer, or let you repair it at the depot of your choosing (or even on your own kitchen table), do you really own it?

This is the theme of much of my work, of course, including my novella “Unauthorized Bread,” which performs the science-fictional trick of building a world around a single technical conceit to magnify and clarify the underlying issues:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

Proctor leads PIRG’s Right to Repair campaign, and he’s a comrade. He’s got these companies’ numbers and he’s a tireless fighter:

I believe in truth in advertising. If you’re going to sell somebody something, sell it to them. If you are going to lease something to somebody, lease it to them. If you tether their future purchases to a secret “agreement” that you baked into the technology that they don’t know about, that is deceptive. Not to mention, tinkering and fixing are American traditions. The ethos of “if it’s broke, then fix it” has other benefits, too. Repair teaches critical skills, it saves consumers money, it helps cut waste and product obsolescence. Tinkering and fixing also leads to product innovations that can benefit everyone.

Preach on, brother!

For ever tech bro who took cyberpunk dystopia as a suggestion, there are a dozen more who took it as a warning. Technologists like Micah Lee are on the front lines with Proctor and others. Lee was my colleague at EFF when Snowden contacted him privately, identifying himself as a would-be whistleblower who was trying to securely deliver a trove of US government leaks to some journalists who were struggling with the technology.

Now Lee is at the Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Intercept, and he’s working on a book: “Hacks, Leaks and Revelations,” is a practical manual for whistleblowers, reporters and investigators. Subtitled “The Art of Analyzing Hacked and Leaked Data,” it’s out in November:

https://nostarch.com/hacks-leaks-and-revelations

Meanwhile, Lee has put swathes of the book online for early perusal:

https://staging.hacksandleaks.com/introduction.html

This book isn’t a mere manifesto — it’s a manual, and it contains exercises for the reader to help them build a secure process for communicating and publishing in a way that protects sources.

Micah’s work is a reminder that the internet is made of people. Take the people away, all you’ve got is algorithms spamming each other (this is the plot of my short story, “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth”):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/14/masque-of-the-red-death/#eschatology-watch

People matter. Everything people make — corporations, cities, workplaces, networks — only matter to the extent that they help people. Here’s a useful rule of thumb: when you’re trying to figure out whether a cause deserves your support, ask yourself, “Does this help people? Does it help more people than the alternative? Does it help people who need help?”

Asking that question made me a union man. That’s why I’ve been walking the WGA picket-lines in my neighborhood on my home-days while touring. It’s also why I cheered the dancers at LA’s Star Garden Topless Dive Bar when they became the first topless dancers in America to win recognition for their union:

https://apnews.com/article/strippers-union-los-angeles-star-garden-4069df93b149076dc2e23a0bff16438b

The Star Garden workers are organized under the Actors’ Equity Association, the same union I wrote a check to when I paid Wil Wheaton to record the audiobook of Red Team Blues (Wil’s a union man, too:)

https://www.tvinsider.com/1093201/jeopardy-wil-wheaton-ken-jennings-writers-strike/

There’s been a lot of “ha ha the strippers unionized ha ha” nonsense in response to this news, but fuck that. Sex work is work. These are workers. They work in a field that is physically demanding, potentially dangerous, and rife with exploitative practices. Damned right they need a union. Go, sisters, go!

People who think they understand ironic laughter because they made a snotty remark about a stripper’s union are absolute amateurs. To see how it’s done, check out The Onion, a publication that is consistently pretty funny, but also reliably screamingly, viciously, incredibly funny, especially about the things that hurt the most.

The canonical example of this, of course, is The Onion’s first issue after the 9/11 attacks, headlined “HOLY FUCKING SHIT” and containing such articles as “Not Knowing What Else To Do, Woman Bakes American-Flag Cake”:

https://www.wired.com/2001/09/onions-bitter-tears-of-irony/

The Onion continues to be America’s leading ha-ha-only-serious forum, serving, somehow, as both escape valve and flame-fanner for the nation’s bitterest ailments. For years, they’ve run their “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” headline after every major mass shooting:

https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1819576527

But as America continues to record multiple, daily, mass shootings, The Onion’s writers needed something else. Yesterday, they ran “Americans Describe What It’s Like Surviving A Mass Shooting,” and oh shit is it a doozy:

https://www.theonion.com/surviving-a-mass-shooting-americans-describe-what-it-s-1850438794

“It makes you really appreciate how free we are as a country when you’re hiding under a desk with bullets flying over your head.”

“Those 15 minutes standing a safe distance away from the school while the suspect finished shooting were the most harrowing of my life.” (picture of a cop)

“There’s nothing like a brush with death to remind you that all your previously held beliefs are correct and should not be questioned.” (Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA))

“My boss let me use one of my three unpaid sick days to get sewed up.”

“Only two of my three kids came home from school, but Texas has no property taxes, so it’s a wash.”

I mean.

Shit.

The new Gilded American Age is already looking a little tarnished. The unholy alliance between the infinite greed of the capital classes and the sadistic indifference of the terrified, authoritarian, musket-fucking Bible-bashers has us racing for the precipice.

It’s wild to see the parties fiddle while the Shining City on the Hill burns. I think we all expect it of the Republicans, but watching the Democrats fail working people and continue to climb into bed with the ultra-wealthy and their priorities is demoralizing, especially for those of us hoping for more from the party of the New Deal.

There’s been a lot of ink spilled on the Trump transformation of the GOP, but Dems’ transformation from a party representing labor to a party representing McKinsey consultants is less well understood.

A new book, Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality, by Lily Geismer, tells that story:

https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/lily-geismer/left-behind/9781541757004/

Left Behind gets a fascinating review by Ruby Ray Daily in Public Books, where it is contrasted with Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s by Nicole Hemmer:

https://www.publicbooks.org/what-the-1990s-did-to-america/

Both books grapple with way that the end of the Cold War and the Reagan era transformed both major US parties. In Hemmer’s telling, Reagan wasn’t the “dawn of the free-market conservative,” but rather, the “late summer” of that brand of conservativism. Without “anticommunism” to animate it, the Reagan Right coalition thrashed in a void, eventually gelling into today’s “nativism, racial resentment, and media hysteria.”

Meanwhile, the Dems under Clinton turned their backs on state-backed programs and towards market-based initiatives, making today’s “lopsided, unfair economic gains” inevitable. The Atari Democrats of the Clinton years were — in the words of one bitter union organizer — “crypto-Republicans.”

Clinton isn’t the Democrats’ Eisenhower (“accommodating his party to, and sanding the radical edges off, a new consensus”). He’s the Democrats’ Reagan, “shaping and even leading this new market-oriented consensus.”

For Geismer, Clinton wasn’t simply jettisoning the New Deal — rather, he was embracing its technocratic, expertise-worshiping aspect. It was this tendency that produced Clinton’s ghastly “welfare reform” and other attacks on working people. It’s a stark reminder that ideology without a moral center sows the seeds of its own ruin.

Meanwhile, we live today in the Atari Democrats’ world, where wealthy professionals play a high-speed game of musical chairs for the few remaining opportunities to survive the coming polycrisis with intact shelter, food and comfort. One way this plays out is in the surreal, vicious fights over college admissions.

It’s only been a minute since the Varsity Blues scandal erupted: wealthy parents (including some celebrities) bribed college officials to pretend that nepobabies and failsons were elite athletes, letting them ooze into top college slots reserved for sports prodigies (slots that often represent the only chance for poor teens of color to enter these universities):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varsity_Blues_scandal

The scandal touched a nerve, perhaps because it punctured the already-fragile bubble of pretense that top colleges were full of the smartest kids in America — rather than, say, the kids whose parents attended those institutions (“legacies”), or made giant donations, or were coached and polished by tutors and consultants.

Well, there’s never just one ant. Varsity Blues wasn’t the only way for rich, status-obsessed parents to buy their kids’ way into college. The latest rot exposed is a doozy of a scam: parents pay academics to pretend to collaborate with high-schoolers so they can put their names on papers published in peer-reviewed journals:

https://www.propublica.org/article/college-high-school-research-peer-review-publications

The story was broken last week by Dan Golden for Propublica and The Chronicle of Higher Education, in a long-read that details all the variations on this scam. For example, sometimes the kid does actually do some original research, but the “journal” is a fake outlet run by the “service” that connects academics and kids.

Bottom line is it works: college admissions officers are deluged with applications and don’t have time to look up the “peer reviewed” publications claimed by applicants. Faculty don’t have the time or inclination to do it either. The stakes are incredibly high, the costs are very high, and the institutions that do the evaluations are weak afterthoughts.

I wonder if we won’t just eventually give up and admit that a degree from a Big Ten or an Ivy is just a thing you buy, like a Picasso or a blood diamond. We could just turn it into a half million dollar blue tick and have done with it.

Anyway.

Hate to end this linkdump on a down-note, but there you have it. Next time I do one of these, I’ll try to remember to hold back one of the upbeat links for a palate cleanser.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/20/the-missing-links/#plunderphonics

[Image ID: A pot of chunky chicken and vegetable stew.]

#pluralistic #class anxiety #realignment #linkdumps #llms #science fiction #publishing #clarkesworld #the onion #ha ha only serious #mass shootings #education #unions #post-ownership society #dinos #junk scholarship #scholarship #drm #electronic music #plunderphonics #college admissions #art #sculpture #electronic art #parenting #search #wikipedia #cats #history #medieval history

[washbearzz]

i'm obsessed with that cover you did for pawprint panic with the cat!! it's so cool! is there more art of that kitkat somewhere???

thank you! :D

and yes, there is!! they've also been illustrated on the inserts for the upcoming CDS, along with the old milestones image & the mockup DS cartridge. all of which can be seen below:

(note: the cat on the album cover actually has a nickname! we have called them 'paw', while the other cat you can see here has been called 'print'. you can tell them apart by their patterns--see the last image for more info!!)

all art by me of course, aside from the last image--that was drawn by napcast!! aka @sillyguiro :)