#high availability using group replication

It started in the dumbest most cliché way ever, drunk at a party.

You swore on everything you wouldn't interact with Suguru Geto again. What he did in first year really left your feelings hurt. You had liked him but never made a move, and you in all your political mind brought something up to him. Something to do with non sorcerers, and he opened his mouth to spew the most hateful things you had ever heard in your life.

You despised him ever since, even 2 years later when his political stance had changed, from what you heard, he was still blocked on every platform ( minus Instagram for stalking) and you hadn't spoke to him without a group in years.

You heard he hated you more than you hated him. He'd gone as far to tell his ex, Satoru Gojo, that you were basically a mouth on a stick and didn't know when best to shut the fuck up. He said that stupidly forgetting you were friends with everyone and Satoru told you directly.

You had confronted him on it, and he obviously denied but it made the atmosphere more frosty

There were instances where the two of you were left alone, like when you needed a ride and he was the only one in the group available and it would be weird for him to refuse you, especially when everyone else thought your dislike wasn't that deep.

He was nice, you were polite to an extent. You could tell he was trying but you couldn't help messaging your groupchat about the audacity of Suguru speaking to you like you were friends.

The hatred was strengthened by your own thoughts. Thoughts of fucking Suguru, like really fucking suguru. They'd get extremely vulgar. It was always in public, there for people to see him claiming you.

Sometimes you'd have him batting his gorgeous eyes at you as he ate out your pussy like a starved man, always begging for you to touch him always getting his lashes wet with tears when you refused to touch him. Those dreams in particular had you smiling to yourself.

The ones that always had you scowling were when he was more dominant and those came more often.

Sometimes when you would be in a lecture and he would answer a question you would use him talking as an excuse to stare at him, he'd scowl at you in return and you'd scowl back.

That was another thing you hated about him, you were so jealous. He was smarter than you stronger than you better looking than you. He was doing your dream course at your dream university, while you were stuck doing your 2nd choice course at your second choice university. It made you feel sick. Despite that the two of you were constantly competing for the top score in exams in premed.

One fateful night, under drunken influences, the two of you found yourselves back at Suguru's house. You stumbled around dragging each other to his room, before fucking until the sun came up.

That was weeks ago. 6 weeks to be exact. The two of you had gone from politely hating each other to avoiding each other all out.

You didn't need to hang out with his friend group all the time. If anyone needed you they could come meet you, there was no need bringing the whole group.

He would stare a lot though. You felt it all the time. Of course it was a drunken mistake and you would never stoop so low to fuck Suguru Geto once more, even if you did fuck yourself on your fingers for hours trying to replicate how he felt inside you. Or holding your vibrator to your clit while recalling the indecent things he whispered in your ear.

You would never do him again.

It's not like you had time to think about that now you had a chemistry test on NMR spectroscopy and wanted to get a high score to flex to all your friends.

Your study session was interrupted by a message notification from the last person you wanted to interact with.

" omg girls look," you beckoned your friends over to your phone, ignoring the fact that you and Geto shared the same hangout and revising spots and he could probably hear you right now.

Your face scrunched up, showing the notification to your girlfriends that also disliked him and watched their faces fall, " Suguru geto," you said like a slur, practically vomiting the word, " why the fuck has he messaged me," your face was still grimaced as your friends carried on revising and you went to open the message on Instagram.

Sugurogeto_98

Can you come to my desk?

You look up and over to said desk to see him staring at you. You feel no shame at the fact you laughed at his message. You then went and restricted him, placing your phone face down and continuing your revision.

You continue for another few minutes before the girls suddenly go silent. You wonder what you missed and are about to ask your best friend before your see a tall figure in front of you.

" I need to talk to you,"

You rolled your eyes dramatically. Hoping he understanding completely that you dont want to speak to him right now. However you do oblige him, following behind him.

You walk down the wide corridor, saying hello to everyone you knew, just to piss him off remembering that one of the things he hated about you was that you were friends to all.

He stops abruptly. Standing infront of the disabled bathroom and ushers you inside.

You raise your brow.

" isn't this private enough," you scoff gesturing to the fact he had taken you to the computer science corridor which never had students outside of classrooms.

He shakes his head. " Just listen to me, its urgent,"

" don't tell me you want to fuck?" You mumbled putting the pieces together in your head.

He bluntly agrees, opening the bathroom door wide so you could walk in. He expected more of an argument but you walked in without protest shocking him completely. He was shocked once again when you turn around and you're scowling.

" What?" He questions sharply, wondering why his request could be so absurd that you look like he shat in your face, however every time you stared at him you looked like he shat in your face.

" Why would I have sex with you now of all times, no. Why would I have sex with you at all? You're a freak." You say pointing a finger into his chest remembering how muscular he is when feeling the hardness of his pecs.

You hated how perfect he is.

" Says you, hate seeing your ugly mug staring at me all the time it's digusting."

Yeh you had a staring problem, but that wouldn't be the case if his eyes weren't so pretty.

" Your calling me disgusting and you want me to fuck you. You're actually not real." You go to leave the bathroom, feeling like your point of not wanting to have sex with him again had come across quite well. You were very wrong.

His hand link around your arm pulling you back into the bigger room. You almost tripped over yourself, hearing the door lock and furrowing your brow at him.

" oh yeh, cause Oxford accepts applicants that lock girls in bathrooms in order to coerce them, which is sexual assault by the way, into sex," you rolled your eyes. Putting the lid on the toilet seat down and sitting on top of it.

" I'm not gonna coerce, I'm not as low as you think I am"

" are you not the same person that said I should stop talking about those 'stupid monkeys' and they should die?" You mumbled opening Instagram and having a scroll.

He hated this about you as well, you were always on your phone. You thought you were so fucking perfect with your hundreds of friends and quick comebacks, and your high paying part time job and the fact your gorgeous smart and everyone loves you.

He hated how someone, whoever it was, was constantly texting you. You always had someone to text.

He also hated how you held onto something he said when he was young stupid and immature.

" I never meant that, you should've got over it by now."

"this is what I mean, you haven't apologised all you keep saying from my sources is that I should be over it cause you've changed. If you'd changed you would've said sorry." You sigh, you hadn't said that to him before, despite that being your main issue with him regarding your friends.

" I really am sorry," he says his voice suddenly quiet catching your attention, " my friend was killed and I was grieving and looking for someone to put my hatred onto, I didn't want to offend you."

Suguru Geto apologised. You didn't know he had it in him. How did he suddenly get so hot. Why did you suddenly want to release some stress. You were overwhelmed due to the chemistry test and you really were being nostalgia baited by that drunk night.

" It's ok," your voice is suddenly soft, " I'm sorry for being so cold to you over the years. You can just be really mean, and I get so upset when people tell me that's just how you are. You were so horrible to me durin-mph,"

You were so caught up in your own rushing thoughts you didn't notice him move towards you, bending to were your head was to kiss you.

You were quick to push him away. Giving him a glare a deep angry one only to then lean in once again.

You could feel him smirking against your lips, finally happy to get what he wanted. Finally shutting you up. You speak to much. He remembered that night like the back of his hand. You're such an idiot when you've got cock on your mind, so utterly pathetic, he swears it's the only time he likes you. The only time you need him.

Your sat on the toilet lid staring at him wondering what to do next and he swears he sees stars in your eyes, even if he knows that isn't true, he loves to imagine it.

" I swear you only look pretty like this," he mumbles, and youre so taken back by his beauty you only take in the fact he said you're pretty. " Gonna go straight in,"

His hands hold onto your cheeks, using this grip to pull you up and press your face against the tiled wall, and you just allow him. It's like you've reached an agentic state, going into some subspace that had you in a cloud of bliss. He hadn't even done anything to you.

This must be the sweet Y/n everyone is constantly talking about.

" Y/n," he snaps his fingers in front of your face, " you can say no if you want to," he mentions. Ignoring how he's chubbed up at how easy it was to get you here.

" no I want to, really rough like last time," you mutter, hands pressed against the wall your head turned to watch his face.

" you know I really hate sluts, especially easy ones," he mutters, pulling your maxi skirt from your waist and letting it pool on the floor. He laughed when he saw your undies, " and ones who wear my little pony underwear, you're 19 you need to grow up,"

You want to retort and say something cruel but you dont want him to stop being mean to you. You actually really like it.

He pulls himself out of his trousers. His cock so big it doesn't stay up, pornographically large balls hanging below matching his size . You peer over your shoulder, gasping and squirming as you imagine that going in you. No wonder you were left disappointed every time you tried fucking yourself on your fingers. Nothing could replicate that mass.

" Suguru~" you whined, the rest of your sentence dying in your throat, but you hoped your pleading tone told him that you needed him in you with immediate effect.

He'd become so used to you saying his full name like a slur, he didn't know how beautiful his name could sound coming from your mouth. You're just so such much better when you rely on him.

He places both hands on your panties and rips them open like it's the funniest thing ever. Thinking about you walking around in that thin long skirt and probably fucking you in his car if he sees you walking home.

His right hand interlocks with your hair, pushing you harder against the wall, his fingers grip your hair tighter. The fingers on his left hand part your pussy lips his cock kicking feeling now wet you are.

He presses his tip against your entrance then snaps his hips into you with one swift move.

You gasp loudly, tears pearling front the corner of your eyes.

" mhfuck-k big,"

That went to the panting Suguru's head. Him slapping your ass hard, while waiting for you to adjust. You felt so good around him, basically soaking him with all the hate you supposedly had, while looking over your shoulder with hearts in your eyes.

You were usually so rude to him, but now he watched you legs quiver from the mean thrust forced into you, but that was how you liked it. He could just tell, you liked to just take it.

Now he was tinking about it he'd love to see your suddenly gorgeous face.

"Y/n baby?"

" Yes Suguru," You whine. Suguru swears the sound of you saying his name was the best thing he'd ever heard.

"Keep your eyes on me ok?"

You nod. trying your best to stop your eyes from rolling when he slides out of your cunt. He then just as fast as before snaps his hips back into you causing an embarassing squelch to leave your cunt.

You look away already forgetting what Geto said. A reminder comes as his hand leaving your hair and wrapping around your neck. He stops his hips for a second, leanng closer to your face just to disrespect you by spitting on it.

You dont even wipe it off, you bite your lip, eyes pleading for him to move as his saliva drips from between your brows.

"m' sorry, just keep going," you stop for a second looking like you're thinking very hard, "p-please,"

You're perfect he thinks, the best girl he's ever had sex with. If you were this pathetically stupid in day to day life, he'd probably make you his. It also proved his theory was correct, no matter how immoral it is to put it into practice. You're an idiot when you've got some cock.

He doesnt let up his hand pressing into your neck. applying more pressure now you had this embarrasing look on his fsce. He's sure he could take a picture and you wouldn't even notice.

He reels his hips back and begins a steady pace. knitting his brows together as he feels himself falling apart in you. The hand bruising your hips grabs your breast in an attempt to steady himself.

Sure it wouldnt be a big deal for him to let out the occasional grunt especially with your loud mewling drowing out the noise, but something in his head felt like he had to keep his composure to prove some stupid point he had made up.

He probably felt like he had to be better than you in sex too and despite how loud you were being he believes you were a lot better at sex then him. Who could blame him? The popular smart girl, sucking his dick in and gushing all over him while batting her pretty lashes at him and making the most pornagraphic faces ever.

He doesnt compete, the only reason he has you speechless in the first place is due to the size of his cock which he used to be so embarrassed of. You were so annoying in more ways than he could comprehaend.

He could feel it. He could feel you pulsing and the change of pitch in your moans. You were cumming and you didnt even let him know first. You just sat there with a blank brain with your eyes rolling behind your head before you tightened up around him and squirted.

He rolled his eyes. At least he got what he needed from you. If he remembered correctly from the party, he had 2 hours from your orgasm until you came to your senses.

All he needed to do was cum himself.

As you slump against the tiled wall. You are suddenly lifted from the floor by the taller man his arms wrapped around your waist to lift you like a fleshlight.

He ignored your helpless sounds more focused on his approaching high and stared into the distance as he pounded into you. He tried to ignore the clap of your ass on his pelvis or the way your sounds curdled in your throat soundng like hiccups, or how your nails were scratching against the skin on his abs to push him away.

And by ignoring you he was able to finish nice and neatly inside you.

He left you on the floor, buttoning his trousers after tucking himself back into his trousers. He kneeled in front of you a bunch of tissue in his hand as he wiped you down and fixed your clothes so you looked presentable and ready to tackle chemsitry.

He tapped your face harshly basically slapping you to pull you out of a daze.

"What?!" You answered with a sharp tongue, however he could tell you still had that cloud over your head.

"Shoko is textng you she wants to know how your revision is going?" He told you, pulling you to your shaking feet and pushing you through the door.

" I've done enough revision, just take me to my friends," You mumble leaning against Geto.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You sat in your exam, extremely dazed. You couldn't concentrate at all. Every time you tried to remember where you were, your core would quiver and you'd think about how good Suguru fucks you, even if he'd bruised your ass hips and marked up your neck in a way that boardered abuse.

You were staring at the back of his head like he was the one who created mountains instead of trying to figure out if the compound was Azo dye or Aspirin. You bit your lip staring at his hair and neck and the way it was your lipstick on his collar. You felt him a phantom ache of him splitting your pussy in two. You felt the dull ache of him pushing in all at once or the feeling of him slapping your face or pulling your hair. You felt his saliva drip down your throat and his cum trickle down your leg when he creampied you.

It wasnt until 30 minutes of your hour exam was left that you snapped out of it and locked in.

This continued for 2 weeks, he would fuck you for stress relief and you became more and more willing while he became more and more cruel, with each limit he tested the bolder he became.

You in all your stupidity didn't realise your grades had slipped until you had got a B in all your classes. The worst case scenario for you.

You had to confront Suguru, he'd been doing this on purpose.

The only time you had available was now on a cliff in the middle of nowhere in front of Suguru's car.

This had only happened because when you had tried to confront Suguru, he had taken you on some makeshift date, a netflix and chill thing. Then had the nerve to fuck you stupid again. However despite him using that stupid tactic on you there was something you were completely against stupid or smart.

" Y/n baby,"

"Mhm?"

" We should start dating, you know, like really seeing each other," He states, a blush on his ears despoite his expectant tone.

You chuckle to yourself holding in the harsher giggles that want to erupt from your throat.

To explain what little I scribbled out, we’ll start with the fact that vampires claws are a lot like cats, except they don’t sheathe fully in the skin. When it’s necessary to hunt food, they’ll usually grow longer to hold down prey (Jade much prefers sitting on the chests of his victims, but he’s an old soul).

Their undead bodies need a regular supply of blood and blood fonons that match their own fonon sensitivities, which means Asch in particular has a lot of trouble around Natalia and Tear whenever he’s near the dreck’s group. Luke is a special case as he can only feed off seventh fonists, and replicas are the best food option available for him.

But back to the issue of gloves, Asch does in fact go through tons of pairs, as Van only keeps him just fed enough to barely leave him with his sanity (when starving, vampires do one of two things. If suitable food isn’t near they hibernate, and if the vampire is near food but is either holding themself back or unable to reach the source in time, they’ll become feral beasts). Van spent the seven years he had him teaching Asch that vampires were horrible, disgusting creatures, and the poor child internalized those teachings. As such, Asch refuses to feed himself properly outside of his master’s “rations”, which aren’t anywhere near enough for him to be at his best.

The order of Lorelei is aware of vampires in this au, and they have a special division for hunting them down and tracking rumors (guess where Van installed Asch, I’ll give you three tries).

As for why Luke and Asch have red eyes, let’s just say a certain insane individual turned Asch using blood from one very special colonel. Because biting isn’t what it is in those vampire romance novels, vampirism is transferred through blood, and even then there’s a massive possibility of the process failing and creating in-between creatures who live a tortured half-existence until their death.

There’s honestly a lot I could go over, but the things that do remain essentially the same are Asch and Luke’s connection, and the fact that Luke is a replica. I thought trying to work vampirism into fomicry would be entertaining, but I may have bitten off more than I could chew.

Asch will be spending a fair bit more time with the Jade gang in this fic as opposed to the original story of the game, for a variety of reasons. But that doesn’t mean he gets along with his replica :(. Being made into a vampire because of the replication process just gives him one more reason to hate the poor kid, which is a shame, but that’s just how Asch is.

Just for funsies though I’m relatively sure most people will have quit reading these ramblings, I have including a rough excerpt from the first chapter (I’ve edited it a ton but it’s not near the writing quality I want this series to embody, apologies)

Luke was furious. As he thrashed in the arms of his captors, he barely even registered the growing number of wounds on his arms and legs.

The all-consuming desire to escape eclipsed such petty concerns, and the young noble had long since lost track of where they were taking him.

He’d been tied up, but as soon as the large machine in the center of the dark, damp room had begun to glow green, they’d untied him and dragged him forwards.

Master Van’s voice occasionally broke through the frantic haze as the boy struggled against the iron tight grip of whoever had him. “This is for your own good, boy. Relax yourself.”

Luke jerked his head around wildly in an attempt at escape.

“Hold him tighter! He mustn’t accrue any further damage!” A high voice shrieked.

The young redhead flailed harder, he wouldn’t let them! Whatever they wanted from him, he couldn’t let them have it!

Throwing himself from the arms of his captor, a blinding crack against his skull violently tore Luke’s sight from his eyes in a white flash.

Something was wrong. His head-

“Now look what you’ve done!” The obnoxious voice howled.

“Something’s wrong with the boy, he’s bleeding far too much.” The words swam around Luke’s ears, they came from behind him, maybe. Where he’d left the man who’d held him.

“One of you, do something!” Master . . . Van?

“If I may, I might have a solution, though I’d hoped to save it for a more befitting project.” The gratingly annoying voice whined.

“Whatever it is, do it now, Dist!”

The young noble tried to hold on to the conversation, to anything at all, but it felt as though he was trying to tread water with weights tied to his ankles.

Even terror and pain had now fled him, he could no longer count on them to keep him grounded to the world.

Just before the cold fog claimed him, Luke distantly felt a clammy hand roughly grab his chin and tip his head up. What he felt pour down his throat tasted vaguely of salt and iron, -blood?- before that flavor morphed to nothing short of burning fire.

The agony spread through his veins as the sensation of his body returned in stark, painful contrast to the nearly blissful fading he’d experienced earlier.

Unable to cry out past the intense electrifying pain that had overtaken his entire being, Luke was only able to watch through heavily lidded eyes as they placed him on a table in the center of the green glowing machine.

The injury to his head was long since forgotten, chased away by the torture that racked his body.

Suddenly, Luke’s agonized writhing stopped as a force pressed down on him from above. The alien pressure increased, and then sharpened, as an invasive pain tore through him. If the earlier suffering was fiery hot, then this new sensation was cold and empty. Luke wasn’t sure which was worse.

With one last pained groan, something tore from him.

After that, the icy probing he’d felt immediately ceased. Which left the boy trembling with the effort of holding consciousness.

The last thing Luke registered was the deep voice of the man who’d betrayed him, though he couldn’t make out what had been said.

1,152 years before the War - supposedly, the mechanisms on the Looms that map out the destiny and timeline of the Time Lords they create begin to succumb to entropy after ten million years of use with the resultant Time Lords are no longer as innately/biologically programed to conform to Time Lord society/ It can be argued that these Time Lords are the first to truly have free will. It can also be argued that the Looms are working fine, and the Time Lords are blaming a cultural shift on their technology rather than confront the fact that their cultural stasis isn't quite as unshifting as they thought. In any case, the Doctor, the Master, the rest of the Deca, Grandfather Paradox, and Morbius are all loomed around this time.

880 years before the War - Morbius, now on the High Council, founds the Order of the Weal, a counter-intelligence service and a first for Gallifrey.

870 years before the War - Morbius becomes president with intent to turn Gallifrey into an empire across Time and space. The Order of the Weal betrays Morbius and exposes him to the High Council, and this starts the Gallifreyan Civil War. It is this war that makes much of the universe aware that the Time Lords exist beyond fairy tales

866 years before the War - the civil war ends and Morbius is executed.

823 years before the War - the Doctor leaves Gallifrey, and the Master leaves shortly thereafter. (this date actually comes from Lungbarrow, which dates itself to 673 years after the Doctor left Gallifrey. But since Crimes Against History dates Lungbarrow, we can pick an exact date here.)

700 years before the War - the Celestial Intervention Agency is formally founded, although interventionist groups had existed behind the scenes for quite possibly all of Gallifreyan history. This is them coming out into the open.

443 years before the War - the Doctor is apprehended by the Time Lords. He is sentenced to a forced regeneration and exile to Earth, although both the CIA and other outside forces made use of him as a deniable agent for a considerable amount of time after his sentencing but before the commencement of his exile. (The War Games)

439 years before the War - Gallifrey is briefly threated by the first return of Omega. The Doctor proves instrumental in defeating Omega, and is granted an official pardon as thanks. (The Three Doctors)

403 years before the War - Grandfather Paradox abandons his loom house - House Lungbarrow - and (perfectly legally) founds House Paradox as a new Gallifreyan House. Shortly thereafter, the High Council catches Grandfather Paradox was illegally carrying out experiments into alter-time structures and he has an audience with the High Council to explain himself. Grandfather Paradox shows up to this meeting dressed in armor fashioned from the skeleton of a vampire. The High Council, still unequipped to deal with dissidents amongst their own species, is cowed into letting Grandfather Paradox walk freely.

402 years before the War - The Master assassinates the then-president, causing the first presidential election in millennia. He then attempts to take control of Gallifrey's power sources, but is stopped and flees off-world. When the primary candidates both end up indisposed, the Presidency is left vacant for years. (The Deadly Assassin)

397 years before the War - The presidential vacancy ends as Greyjan the Sane is elected as Gallifrey's 406th Lord President

396 years before the War - House Paradox creates the Eleven Day Empire, at this point retreat and bolt-hole for them in Earth's temporal space, with Greyjan the Sane turning a blind eye to this action.

394 years before the War - Grejan the Sane commits suicide, leaving Chancellor Borusa as acting president.

393 years before the War - Sontaran forces, using the Vardans as a proxy, manage to breach the transduction barriers and land on Gallifrey. While they are repelled by superior technology, the Chancellery Guard are vastly outplayed in their first taste of real combat. Leela becomes the first non-Gallifreyan to take residence on the planet, and her biology is suitably altered to allow her a lifespan roughly equal to one incarnation of a Time Lord. Borusa is formally granted the title of 407th Lord President. (The Invasion of Time)

392 years before the War - Time Lord Cardinal Thorac decides to set up a rival presidency on the planet of Dronid. Gallifrey crushes this before it can get out of hand, destroying much of Drornid in the process (the villain in the tv story Shada is from there btw). Grandfather Paradox is imprisoned in the prison planet Shada.

320 years before the War - Agents of the Order of the Weal have a run in with War-era members of Faction Paradox, before dying shortly therafter. The Order of the Weal basically peters out, possibly at the hands of the CIA. This is the first recorded instance of the Time Lords learning of the War to come. Pre-shocks from the War cause the timelines of Time Lords not on Gallifrey begin to decouple from Gallifrey's, meaning from this point out it becomes possible for the Doctor, the Master, and others to run into Gallifrey at the "wrong" time. This possibility, and the extent to which it can happen, increases as the War approaches. Since such a decoupling has been considered an impossibility, this goes basically unnoticed.

302 years before the War - Omega attempts once again to return to Gallifrey, with the assistance of a member of the High Council and using the Doctor's biodata. The High Council considers executing the Doctor to prevent this, and while this does not happen, it does demonstrate further that Gallifrey has left its age of stasis. (Arc of Infinity)

291 years before the War - Lord President Borusa decides that only he can sufficiently rule Gallifrey. After politically undermining the High Council to prevent them from opposing him, he summons the Doctor and visits the Rassilon's Tomb in the Death Zone in an attempt to find Rassilon's secret of Immortality. He then disappears, and the High Council attempts to name the Doctor as the next Lord President. The Doctor runs off instantly, leaving Chancellor Flavia and then Tivoli as acting Presidents in his stead (The Five Doctors)

288 years before the War - The Doctor is recalled to Gallifrey and named 408th Lord President. He spends several months attempting to bring reforms to Gallifrey, before naming Lowri as acting President before running off. Shortly afterwords, the High Council deposes him in absentia, naming Lowri as the official the 409th Lord President. (Time in Office)

259 years before the War - The CIA authorize the (effective) destruction of Earth, and when the Doctor stumbles upon this, they strong-arm the High Council into arresting the Doctor on false charges, with plans to execute him. The Master finds this out and leaks this to the Gallifreyan public, and Lowri and her High Council are ousted from the Presidency. Former Chancellor Flavia is elected to replace Lowri, becoming the 410th Lord President. (The Trial of a Time Lord)

210 years before the War - Romana returns from E-Space, assists in stopping a rouge Instigative Group, and is granted a seat on the High Council (Blood Harvest & Goth Opera)

171 years before the War - Following Flavia falling victim to a scandal, there is a presidential election. Romana is the victor, and becomes the 411th Lord President. She immediately sets about allying with the other local time-active species, creating the Alliance of Temporal Powers, but she is kidnapped by the Daleks only a few months into her tenure.

155 years before the War - Tardises begin developing new systems and facilities in a way that to an outside observer would look like evolution. This is happening outside of the usual Tardis engineering.

151 years before the War - Romana is recovered from Dalek captivity, and the Daleks launch a full-scale assault on Gallifrey, although they are repelled. Romana is formally (re)inducted into office. Shortly afterwards, she accidentally authorizes the release Grandfather Paradox from Shada. House Paradox rebrands as Faction Paradox, breaking all ties to Gallifrey, and Grandfather Paradox removes himself from history. Shortly after this, Gallifrey is faced with the anti-time incident, where an unrelated paradox allows anti-time to bleed into real space. (The Apocalypse Element, Christmas on a Rational Planet, Neverland, and Zagreus)

150 years before the War - House Lungbarrow, as both a political force and physical place, implodes. Humans Ace McShane and Chris Cwej begin living on Gallifrey, and, like Leela, have their lifespans extended. Leela and Andred successfully conceive a child, breaking the curse of Gallifreyan sterility. The child would later join Faction Paradox and become Cousin Intrepid, erasing their childhood from history. For history's practical effect, the child vanishes into paradox almost immediately after being born. (Lungbarrow)

145 years before the War - The terrorist organization Free Time makes its first attempts to destabilizes Gallifrey's powerbase, although this ultimately accomplishes nothing. Lord President Romana opens the Acadamy to non-Gallifreyan students. Ace McShane and Chris Cwej are among the first attendees. The pushback to this leads to political rivalry, which escalates into Second Civil War. (Gallifrey season 1-2)

144 years before the War - the Second Civil War comes to a close, with Romana being removed from office, and Matthias becoming the next Lord President of Gallifrey. The artificial Dogma Virus is released onto Gallifrey, causing a mass pandemic. Romana, Leela, Narvin, and Braxiatel leave the planet to search the Axis for a cure. (Gallifrey season 3)

143 years before the War - Gallifrey is ravaged by the Dogma Virus. All infected are put into stasis by Lord President Matthias. Narvin's role as Coordinator of the CIA is filled by someone of Matthias's appointment, and the CIA is brought under much stricter control of the High Council. Matthias then exiles himself, and his replacement proves to be ineffectual at best.

141 years before the War - Overseer Luther uses the current political chaos to attempt to change Gallifreyan history into one of militaristic power. Luther is stopped relatively easily, but the side effects of the paradox he attempted to create lead to widespread damage throughout the Capitol. (The Final Chapter)

138 years before the War - Further signs of a future war have led to open speculation about the possibility, although the High Council is mostly deadlocked. The current problems with the Dogma Virus aren't helping, either.

134 years before the War - Romana, Narvin, and Leela return from the Axis with the cure for the Dogma virus. The Daleks make another attack on Gallifrey, but are once again repelled. Romana is reinstated as Lord President. (Ascension)

125 years before the War - the first generation of biological childbirth, with the tacit assumption that Gallifrey needs to build its numbers for the upcoming war. Gallifrey's population begins growing dramatically through both sex and loom, and this new generation is sped through adolescence into adulthood. One of the members of the new generation is Veklin.

112 years before the War - Ace McShane and Chris Cwej graduate together from the Acadamy. Ace and Chris join the CIA, although Chris goes missing in action shortly thereafter (he managed to get himself stuck in a cryosleep pod according to the book Deadfall)

100 years before the War - a group on Gallifrey, fearing the upcoming War, decides to take drastic action. Calling themselves the Doom Coalition, they launch a coup attempt on Gallifrey that results in the deaths (some regenerative, some permanent) of most of the High Council. One of the permanent casualties is the current Coordinator of the Celestial Intervention Agency, so Narvin retakes the role as its head. Cardinal Ollistra takes advantage of power vacuums to move herself from a minor politician to one of the most powerful Cardinals on Gallifrey. Several of the new generation of Gallifreyans, including Veklin, prove themselves in combat. (Doom Coalition)

96 years before the War - following the destruction of the Monan ship Moros, Romana's presidency ends and Livia Coralis is appointed as the next Lord President. Romana then joins the ranks of the CIA. It is around this time that the Nine Gallifreys project officially launches (Enemy Lines)

81 years before the War - The Master returns to Gallifrey, kills three guards, and corners the Lord President Livia for fifteen minutes. Instead of making any demands or threats, he attempts to warn the President of details the upcoming war and the true nature of the Enemy. He leaves, having failed to convince the President of anything.

76 years before the War - The Master returns publicly and is willingly arrested on the condition that he be granted an audience with the representatives of all the Houses. Lord President Livia objects to this, but is overridden by the High Council. The Houses listen to the Master's warnings and begin planning for the War. The Master was issued a full pardon and then left Gallifrey.

50 years before the War - around this time, Faction Paradox goes from "a handful of Gallifreyans who left Gallifrey" to "a far-reaching cult that accepts anyone willing to destroy their own timeline".

36 years before the War - The Master returns once again with new plans. Lord President Livia, in protest, travels to the Enemy's apparent homeworld, planning on creating a colony there to prove the Enemy's nonexistence and that the Daleks are the only potential threat. She is brutally killed and her head is returned to Gallifrey with the note "we are not amused". While news of this incident is restricted to the High Council, any doubt as to the upcoming war vanishes. Umbaste becomes the next Lord President, with the Master appointed as his advisor. In secret, Gallifreyan medicals manage to induce Livia's head to regenerate, although the process is highly traumatic and Livia is left with no memories of her journey to the Enemy's homeworld. Livia is left to slowly recover over the decades in the Matrix, in the hope that she will recover her leadership capabilities or knowledge of her encounter with the Enemy.

32 years before the War - The first wartime order of Time Lords - the Academicians for Game Logic - is founded.

20 years before the War - the majority of the Celestial Intervention Agency remove themselves from Gallifrey and from history by becoming conceptual entities. These entities, now called the Celestis, take residence in a bubble outside the universe, Mictlan. Romana and Narvin, the then-heads of the CIA, are among the minority of the organization who remain on Gallifrey.

19 years before the War - the first War Tardises are commissioned, but the project is a complete failure.

18 years before the War - Chris Cwej is recovered by Gallifrey. Concern over his loyalties lead Gallifrey to authorize the editing of his memories.

12 years before the War - The Enemy makes contact with Faction Paradox through its agents on the Dronid.

11 years before the War - the first of the Nine Gallifreys to fall is destroyed by Faction Paradox (possibly with assistance from The Enemy) in what is remembered as "the Battle of Mutter's Cluster". (The Ancestor Cell)

10 years before the War - the planet that Faction Paradox made its base on is blown out of the sky by the Time Lords, forcing the leadership of Faction Paradox to retreat to the Eleven Day Empire. Meanwhile, Galifrey has detected the Enemy on Dronid, and begin sending in their own agents.

9 years before the War - one of the Houses of Gallifrey (in fact, the same House that Irving Braxiatel was native to) abandons Gallifrey to live inside a universe-in-a-bottle. (Dead Romance)

8 years before the War - Faction Paradox begins experimenting on human colony worlds, creating a new species called the Remote, with plans to use them as weapons.

6 years before the War - Lord President Umbaste makes a risky attempt to divine future events, but burns his brain out. After the event, he spends a few days insane saying the word "One" over and over, and upon gaining any more lucidity, kills himself. Livia takes this as an opportunity to return to the public eye and the position of Presidency, with the official story being she was assassinated by a political rival and needed time to recover from the ordeal. The Master is appointed as War King, and the public leader of Gallifrey to other worlds. Livia remains the power behind the throne, with the Master being a decoy intended to be a target should any off-world elements attack Gallifrey's government. While the Master does appear to have considerable power, it is only at Livia's grace. Ollistra is, at this point, one of the most influential people on Gallifrey

5 years before the War - Gallifrey is now active enough that it is directly interacting with much of the universe outside the Temporal Powers, including posthumanity. The Master is presented as the leader of Gallifrey in these situations.

2 years before the War - Gallifrey attempts to recruit Compassion, the first humanoid Tardis, to their cause without success.

Start of the War - The Daleks annihilate the homeworlds of several of Gallifrey's allies in the Temporal Powers, and Lord President Livia declares war on both them and the Enemy in response. Dronid is the site of the first proper battle of the War and is annihilated. The Master remains the public face of Gallifrey as the War King, while Livia and her agents run the War from Gallifrey. The timelines of Time Lords are now completely decoupled from Gallifrey and could, in theory, time travel to any point during the War. Very few Time Lords are even aware of this possibility. (Celestial Intervention)

Some miscellaneous notes:

This shouldn't be taken as a timeline of the Doctor or Master beyond the 320-years-before mark - those both get complicated close to the War, and so I am claiming both may have had more (or less) time before the War started because at that point, their timelines were basically completely decoupled from Gallifrey's

There is some slight implication that the President who got decapitated is male in the Book of the War (if the Poenari Relic is indeed the president's head), so if that's the case then Livia regenerated into a male incarnation between Enemy Lines and then.

Greyjan being the 406th president and Romana being the 411th are both from Crimes Against History. All other numbers extrapolate from that.

I might do one of these for Gallifreyan history during the war, but I've spent almost 4 hours on this already.

“As humans, we only live one life. But what if we could live a million?” says Joon Sang Lee. “It would give us more breadth to experiment.”

“A Spicy Personality”

Pixel Societies was born in early March at a hackathon at University College London hosted by Nvidia, HPE, and Anthropic. Hrdlička and Joon Sang Lee are both members of Unicorn Mafia, an invitation-only group of developers who regularly compete in these kinds of engineering contests. In this case, contestants were told simply to build something simulation-related.

Over two days, along with Uri Lee, they developed Pixel Societies, using an image model to generate the sprites and coding automation tools to flesh out the codebase. Then they simulated a mini-hackathon within the virtual world they had created, populated with agents representing the other contestants. Anthropic awarded the team a prize for the best use of its agent tools.

I ran into Hrdlička a couple of weeks later at a workshop about OpenClaw, an agentic personal assistant software that blew up in January and whose creator was later hired by OpenAI. (In its simulation, Joelbot interacted with agents belonging to other people at the OpenClaw workshop.) Pixel Societies draws heavy inspiration from OpenClaw, which broke ground with the invention of a “soul file” that informed each agent’s unique identity. “It’s like giving an agent an actually spicy personality. That’s what we used to make the characters feel alive,” says Hrdlička.

Encouraged by the reception at the hackathon and among fellow Unicorn Mafia members, the trio intends to turn Pixel Societies into something that looks less like a closed-loop simulator and more like a social platform where agents interact freely and continuously, with the aim of stoking fruitful real-world relationships. They have not yet landed on a business model, but options include selling virtual items for avatar customization and credits for additional simulations.

“There’s a limit to how many people we can meet. Things are really based on serendipity,” says Joon Sang Lee. “There’s space for that. But we also want to create space for intentionally meeting people.”

Virtual Chemistry

Among the few hundred people who have played around with the Pixel Societies prototype, the most common request is for agents to recommend real-life romantic partners on the basis of virtual chemistry. The developers see agentic dating as a central feature of the social platform they are creating.

Algorithm-based dating apps “create a market with dramatic levels of inequality, where the rich get richer—where ‘rich’ in this case means ‘hot,’” as Paul Eastwick, a professor of psychology at UC Davis and author of Bonded By Evolution, puts it. But agents, Hrdlička theorizes, might be capable of surfacing “delicate matches” that their human counterparts might never have otherwise considered.

The available research casts some doubt over that proposition. Two speed dating studies by Eastwick and other psychologists identified that compatibility is near-impossible to predict on the basis of people’s hobbies, values, preferences, politics, profession, and so on—the kind of information they are willing to self-report (or presumably feed into an AI). The most reliable predictor, Eastwick says, is the amount of time people spend with one another and whether they hit it off early in their first encounter. “Think about compatibility as more of a growth process,” says Eastwick. “It has to do with the story that two people build together.”

Against that backdrop, for agentic dating to function as advertised, the AI would have to surface some sort of a latent truth about what makes two people compatible that humans have not yet identified. “This is the vanguard,” says Eastwick. “This is where we’re all struggling right now.”

Other thorny problems with the Pixel Societies concept abound: Do interactions between two agents—likely fed with differing quantities of data—amount to anything in real life? How costly would it be to run this type of simulation at scale? Is there a workable business model that doesn’t create an incentive mismatch between users looking for long-term relationships and the platform whose value depends on their continued singlehood?

There’s also the ick-factor: Might people be repulsed by the idea of outsourcing decisions about their romantic life to AI? The idea loosely traces the plot to a Black Mirror episode, after all.

But perhaps automating the preliminary stages of the dating process—whether using agents or other AI tools—is not so different to off-loading other time-consuming tasks. “Online dating and matchmaking are a form of labor. Many people talk about them in that way,” says Nicole Ellison, a professor at University of Michigan who specializes in computer-mediated communication. “The appeal of outsourcing that—just as we’re outsourcing so many other things—I can understand.”

Hrdlička frames agentic dating, in fact, as a way to escape the tyranny of technology. “We are already outsourcing this whole process of going somewhere in-person and trying to meet other people. We are glued to our screens, trying to swipe our way to victory,” he says. “Even though we are building more digital scaffolding for your social life, actually the goal is to minimize the amount [of time] you have to spend digitally.”

Conceptually the polish design is good. Stylized coats that are impractical as coats but look nice and fancy are not uncommon for pop stars. If you have those as a base element and change the cut, lenght and accesories it is a really smart way to dress a group in a cohesive way while still highlighting their personalities. It is the sort of thing you might see in a collab grammy performance. It is very smart for six. Problem is the execution.

If you saw the original polish designs those were all brown coats with very high couture looking skirts and pants in the queen's colors. Those seemed very impractical and looked more like a runway collection than stage costumes. Also if you saw them described as high fashion detectives, that's on me. I didn't hate them but don't think they were right either. The final costumes are reworked designs from those sketches.

Again the short coats concept is really good and I am kind of angry they didnt lean into that. Because many of the changes feel like they are trying to mirror the Gabriella Slade design. Aragon has big shoulders and an open skirt, boleyn has a big skirt in a shape no one else has and a B choker, Seymour has a less structured costume with a lot of soft, flowy fabric, howard has an open skirt, long sleeves and a choker, parr has a crop top pants and an open in the front element at the waist. Which production am I talking about? The replica production or poland? Sure polish costumes are not direct copies but there are way too many easy surface level comparisons to be made. Polish boots also look like something heavily inspired by the cleves boots. And it is the same with the set, reminds a lot of the original one. Its sad. Because all that tells me is that someone in the polish team didn't have enough confidence in making a new production that stands on its own. So they went with copying as many elements as possible without replicating, and basically saying to the audience "look we are the real thing".

Then you get the colors. While only the school license is available to read and the proffesional one definitely has different rules and conditions the dont copy the original design rule is probably there. But I think colors are excluded from it. They are too iconic to ban them. Would be like banning the use of hand held mics. But productions are likely encouraged to do their own colors and discouraged from only the original colors. The original design is black with the colors as secondary. A similar mix or using the original colors as highlights could work as a nod to the iconic design while still being original. Some things are inherent to shows even if they originated in a specific design. Think the phantom of the opera half mask, or the anastasia ballet blue dress. Those have a clear design origin, but are just way too iconic to not be part of the show. Poland using the original colors is not inherently bad, but when paired with a little too many elements that seem to come from the original design it starts feeling intentionally copied.

Thing is. Looking objectively a lot of things in the original design either come from the libretto or are easy interpretations of it. (Executed to perfection but not that deep). Problem is that there are many more easy interpretations that can be done.

Aragon is gold because of royalty and has a wider silhouette to give her a bigger presence. Fitting the longest reigning queen and the only to come from a royal background. But she could also be purple as that color was in some contexts reserved to royalty (hungary recently did gold and purple and if branding isnt purple then there is no problem with that), or red because that was the color of catholicism which is a big part of her story. She could have a very tailored and stilized silhouette to show she doesnt need anything flashy to show she is the queen, or pants instead of a skirt to show maturity and experience.

Boleyn is green because of the green sleeves line. She is also bold and fun and loud which shows in her costume. But there are a million shades of green. It is common to read her as younger and pastels and neon colors currently have simmilar associations, boleyn could be mint or aqua or neon green; she could also be wearing yellow (to a funeral). Also doesnt need to be a fitted top and big skirt, she could have shorts or a leotard or a tube skirt or a split skirt or loose pants, she could also have a crop top, or layers or a jacket on top. So many ways to interpret her personality. The B necklace comes from paintings of her so it is an obvious iconic detail, but there are many ways to interpret it aside from a choker. Name and initial necklaces come into fashion often so there are plenty of easily recognisable options.

Seymour is white because of the association to purity being the one to give birth to a male heir. Costume is less structured because she is characterized as softer or again pure. But she could also be in purple as she sees herself as the only one he truly loved so the true queen. Or in light blue or green (or any other light colors) to show her as the nice, approachable one. And while the soft fabric works she could have a structured costume without big elements to show her as more demure than the rest.

Cleves is red because of her holbein portrait and because red (plus black and yellow) is heavily featured in german heraldic shields. But she could be any bright, bold color or gold to follow the gold chains line.

Howard is pink as that is considered the most feminine color. And is characterised as young and flirty so she has a revealing, less grand costume. I do agree that pink is a smart choice (and the original costume is very much inspired in a specific era for arianna grande), but there are many shades of pink. Lighter shades are currently favored over bright magenta to show youth so that could work, but also lilac or any pastels. As for the costume, she could have a fitted skirt or shorts, or a less structured top. She is young, she is fun, there are many ways to show that without a corset and open skirt.

Parr gets blue (I think) to show she is mature and levelheaded. Pants are practical and associated with serious responsible people. Blue in any shade not just royal blue works great for the queen characterized as the quiet, observant one; but also grey and silver or darker shades of green. Pants are probably the best choice but a fitted skirt or looser pants can work great too.

Basically most elements in the replica production costumes are easily explained and it shouldn't be shocking to see some appear in other productions. They are not by far the only easy design or color associations that can be made for the queens. And that's what annoys me about the polish design, it has way too many things that quickly remind of the replica design to feel original. It lacks its own voice.

The way costumes fit should be mentioned too. Boleyn and Cleves are great fits and very flattering, just lack some structure. Aragon and Howard have fit problems (around the shoulders for Aragon and the chest for Howard) and also lack structure. Parr feels unfinished. Seymour feels unfinished and is ill fitting on both of them. Its just all over the place.

Fabrics too. There is no cohesion between the queens aside from they all have a lot of texture. Things don't need to be identical but an element in common all accross the board makes different designs look lile a set. And don't get me started on the sequin skirts/trains. The more I look at photos, the more unfinished and unlined sequin fabric I see and the more I want to fight someone. Most of the sequin elements look like an afterthought and make well crafted costumes look cheap tbh.

But before anyone says I am only being negative there are some cool things in the Polish production I truly like. I've said it multiple times already but the short coats customized to everyone concept is really cool and I love it. Hairstyles are simple but great and I love the way they are customized to each actress. Rhinestone headbands as crowns is an amazing idea and a really smart way to tie them all together. The cloaks they wear at one point are a little shocking but it is a bold new take I really appreciate. The black and white corsets with ruffs for HoH are really cool and the way they make the queens look anonymous adds a great layer to the scene (even if the corset style is off by a few centuries).

As for specifics.

Boleyn and Cleves are the highlights for me. Boleyn in a half leather jacket over a dress is a stunning look, the dress fabric has a slight texture that balances out the metallic leather perfectly and the addition of low key bracelets finishes the look in a really nice way. I just dont like the choker, it feels a little too big and out of place with the rest. Both hairstyles are original feel like Boleyn in the show. Honestly it gives me older fashion influencer which is a great parallel to the way Boleyn is written in the show and some element of the real life queen's life too. My only complaint is that there is nothing connecting this design with the rest.

While I don't like the fabrics in this one; Cleves in a sleeveless coat and crazy pants feels bold and fresh and works great for the foreign queen who ended living a life of luxury. But the true highlight of the entire show is the oversized puffer coat she wears (I think) for get down. It is an iconic hip hop look and fits perfectly with the song while solving the issue of not having time for a quick change bwtween HoH and GD.

Aragon and Howard are my middle ground. Conceptually good but not on execution. Aragon in a tailored coat is great, but the color makes them look washed out and the skirt feels dissconnected from the rest. Both hairstyles are great though. It feels like TV characters having perfect hair under any circumstances and passing it off as natural, that energy feels right for Aragon.

The base dress with armsleeves for Howard is fun and youthful but the ruffled shoulderpieces and peplum feel out of place (if something was trendy when I was in middle school its definitely not howard in 2023) and the skirt feels like something added last minute. Also in a show that threw in all the textured fabrics this dress desperately needs more texture.

Seymour and Parr are the ones I dont like. Seymour in a stylized cowl neck is good, but the fabric reads really bad in stage lights and makes them look washed out. The all draped fabric look doesnt mesh with the rest of the costumes either. It feels like someone said "nice coat now add something drapey to make her look soft". And honestly shame on any costume studio that gives the plus size actress the worst fitted costume.

I don't like Parr. The top being a minimalistic coat is really cool and the hairstyle might be my favorite. But everything else looks unfinished, pieces feel flat and dissconnected. The whole costume feels underwhelming compared to the rest. And fabrics don't match with each other and stagelights make them look flat.