#Spherical magnets

[suprememagnets]

Magnify Your Home: Creative Uses for Household Magnets

Searching for the best Household magnets are often underestimated in their versatility and utility, yet they play an essential role in our daily lives. From keeping your refrigerator organized to serving as clever tools for DIY projects, the use cases for household magnets are virtually limitless.

[suprememagnets1]

 The Fascinating World of Small Magnets

Small magnets are powerful, compact magnets used in various everyday applications. Despite their size, they can have a strong magnetic pull, making them ideal for precision tasks where larger magnets would be impractical.

[soriagravity]

physics

[cerastes]

I still think it's really cool how Amuro starts as the shittiest pilot alive (because he's a 15-year old) that only gets carried because he's in the biggest, fattest stat stick in-universe at the time (a few retroactive additions made in the future notwithstanding), enough that even its crappy vulcan guns are tearing Zaku IIs apart, and when he starts getting a bit too cocky, Char and Ramba Ral show up in objectively inferior pieces of junk and absolutely deliver his pizza, they just drag his face across every available surface in Planet Earth like he's a Yakuza mook, all because they are simply that much better at piloting, and the thing is, Amuro takes that very seriously.

He goes from shitass kid in an unfortunate situation that doesn't want to get in the robot to the most unwell child soldier in the war, which is really saying something, but most importantly, becomes so good at piloting the Gundam that the Gundam physically cannot handle Amuro's piloting. They need to apply "Magnetic Coating" to its joints so they don't fucking snap away from the main frame because Amuro, one, moves too damn well but also in too extreme a way for the frame to handle it, two, despite being equipped with two sabers, a shield, a beam rifle and vulcan guns, Amuro is a stern believer in introducing most everyone in thagomizer range to his Rated Z for Zeon hands, the single most official pair of hands in the business, tax free. He KEEP going Ip Man on these dudes, he does NOT need to do a Jamestown on these mother fuckers but he INSISTS. Somehow even the Gundam Hammer, which is a giant Hannah Barbera cartoon flail-- Ok, look at this thing, words do not do it justice

Even this god damn Tom and Jerry prop is less savage that whatever Amuro decides to do the moment he's done throwing his shield to get a free kill on someone and it officially becomes bed time forever for the unfortunate sap at the business end of his ten-finger weapons of mass destruction.

The RX-78-2, "Gundam" for its friends and family, even has a top of the line cutting edge Learning Computer that 'learns' alongside the pilot and their habits. This data extracted from it was so absolutely fucked up that it completely revolutionized Mobile Suit combat afterwards, which is a wholesome thing to think about when The Best Combat Data Ever came from a really angry, really stressed 15 year old that doesn't even like piloting. He was 15! He made Haro with his own hands! Amuro literally just wanted to make funny cute spherical robofriends! Amuro was out there trying to make Kirby real, but fate had other plans for him. His cloned brain put in a pilot seat is one of the setting's strongest 'pilots'.

They made fucking Shadow the Hedgehog with his brain, god damn.

By the end, Zeon is rolling out Gelgoogs out of its mass production lines. These things are in the Gundam's ballpark in terms of overall specs (or "power level"). Amuro is bodying them as if they were episode 1 Zaku IIs.

AND THEN HE GETS FUCKING PSYCHIC SPACE POWERS. Not that he needed them, he bodied a couple Space Psychics without any of those powers before awakening to them. But heaven's most violent child was not done evolving, whether he liked it or not.

Char bodied him in a souped up Zaku II at the start, a machine objectively inferior to the Gundam. Amuro more or less one-sidedly beats the shit out of Char when he's in a custom Commander-type Gelgoog that you could consider to be equal spec-wise to the Gundam. Amuro is the embodiment of Finding Out. He is Consequences. You tell him he better make it hurt, better make it count, better kill you in one shot, buddy, he needs half a fucking shot. The complete transformation. One could consider the central 75% of the show as long drawn out training montage turning a kid into the Geese Howard of giant robots.

[boxturret]

Voya-Nui: An Overview

Hello,

This will be somewhat similar to my 1/10th scale Mata Nui posts, discussing the floating island of Voya-Nui based upon recently revealed information, mainly dealing with its size and role in the initial story.

Warning, this post is embarrassingly long.

Any who have the misfortune of knowing me know I have a rather selective view of what constitutes Bionicle. Essentially I consider Bionicle to have run from 1998 to mid 2002. As a kid I was a die hard fan until 06, where a combination of the marketing and the sets just not being very good caused me to gradually lose interest until I just got one set in 07 and never again bought a Bionicle.

All this preamble is to say that for the longest time I never really knew all that much about Voya-Nui, apart from it being the namesake of a terrible game. Later on, as I got back in to the hobby I heard rumors, dark, twisted rumors. They spoke of a stick making the island fly underwater through a hole, that the island itself was ejected from the body of the robot and left a Voya-Nui sized hole in a continent. Just the ravings of a mad man, so I threw it in the bin along with everything in Bionicle after the Toa go in to the Bohrok hives in 02 and moved on with my life.

Fast forward to now, and Christian Faber starts releasing some development materials through a humanoid water fowl, and this very interesting image is among what's released

This image made everything click for me and I fell in love with Voya-Nui as a concept.

But I think before revealing the original intent, its important to explain the "canon" sequence of events surrounding the so called "Island of Doom"

ISLAND OF DOOM, A PRIMER

Okay so there's a big robot sleeping in an ocean, one day its heart pops and a chunk of land that was on top of the heart breaks out of its chest and starts floating in the ocean. The island, I must add, survived this event, as the hole it left is the same shape and size as the final island.

Now the island floats around for a bit, the volcanic crater on it eventually builds up a large land mass in the middle of the bay, the people on it (yes there were people on the island when it got ejected, and they survived the event) decide that this is the best place to build a city.

It turns out that wasn't the best place to build a city as the new land mass breaks off and somehow anchors it to the sea floor.

Eventually some guys show up and break the anchor cord and the island, inexplicably, sinks down under the water, and manages to go right back in to the hole it made and everything returns to normal.

In some blog post it was explained that there was a magic wand that fixed everything that was used at the same moment.

This is the canonical sequence of events.

More like island of dumb¹.

THE ORIGINAL CONCEPTS

Okay now that all that unpleasantness is out of the way, we can start with the actually interesting things.

There are so many details to cover here, I think the best way to organise them would be to present everything roughly chronologically.

The scenario is the same, a massive robot crash lands in a large ocean, its completely under the water outside of its face, upon which the larger island of Mata Nui forms.

From the beginning its very different, there's no large landmass over the heart (in fact the very idea of the robot itself being full of various domes with islands in them is very suspect but this post is already long enough). The heart is a reactor, and consists of a massive spherical cavity in the chest. Something occurs and the heart pops open, a small panel or valve on the perimeter of the reactor core's wall bursts out of the chest of the robot. Through this hole sea water begins to flood in-this is important!

The ejected panel floats, and some sort of system within it cools it down, causing the sea water to freeze, essentially turning it in to a massive iceberg. There's also mentions of it being magnetic, the final island is described as looking somewhat like a magnet run over a factory floor. It probably also attracted debris from the sea bed as it floated through the seas. As you can see in that diagram the core is filled with massive long cables and the island eventually gets anchored by a long cable, so that's possibly where that came from!

Over years the island grows and grows as it floats around the oceans, being buffeted around by the currents. Eventually part of it becomes unstable and breaks off, sinking to the ocean floor, and since a large cable was attached to both pieces, it anchors the island in place.

Now we get to the crucial part. In the canon depiction of events the most baffling thing is why does breaking the anchor rope make it sink? Now we come back to this image:

When the panel popped out it left a hole. Water is pouring back in to the hole, forming a giant whirlpool. The robot is so massive that even after all these years of constant flooding the cavity on the inside is still not even half full. Voya-Nui was caught in the whirlpool's strong currents when the island broke up. This impromptu anchor stopped it just as it was about be pulled in! Then the super strong currents from the whirlpool gave it the distinctive curved shape.

So now we know why destroying the cable holding it in place causes the floating island to sink: once untethered its free to be pulled in to the whirlpool! The island that formed around the panel would break off and the panel would basically be a giant plug and stop the flow of water flooding in to the reactor.

Figuring this all out was such a revelation, taking one of the most nonsensical sequences of events in the series and transforming it in to this completely logical scenario which, from the point of view of the characters involved, is still quite mysterious and oblique, but when looked at from the perspective of repairing this giant robot it makes perfect sense.

And we were robbed. Imagine the Mata Nui rising sequence of animations starting off with a whole island being pulled in to a whirlpool.

THE CORE

This is getting a bit beyond the main focus of the island, but I just want to talk about the core itself because there were a few interesting tidbits there as well. Its a very evocative setting which I feel suffered greatly and few of the interesting parts were conveyed well in the story.

The water streaming through the hole is described as having some sort of light emitting reaction to the part of the reactor its hitting, lighting the whole chamber. Steam from the reaction swirls upwards and vaporised materials from the heat of the reaction collect on the roof, forming massive stalactites that eventually fall, creating this jagged forest of stone needles within the massive pool of water, water which's temperature varies depending on how close it is to the reaction.

Really seems a shame that in the final story it was simplified down to "sky" and "swamp". Just imagine, this forest of stone, shrouded in fog, lit by this flickering unearthly light emanating from the centre. You have the added aspect of once Voya-Nui has returned to its rightful place the water fall would cease, leading to the light dwindling until the whole area is pitch black.

MISCELLANEOUS OTHER NOTES

One major feature of the island that was missing from the earlier ice and rock version is the massive lava crater, supposedly from the mask of life². I had been toying with the idea that the volcano formed the rest of the island around the panel, but with how much larger the island was it just didn't make sense, so the ice and magnetism really helped out there!

Its said that the ice formed as some sort of self defence mechanism, like an organ freezing itself to preserve itself in an emergency. Personally though I have this little idea that the panel was actually something like the cooling system for the reactor, and without it the reactor was going to over heat, but luckily it was kept just cool enough by the falling water. The cooling system, being linked somehow to the main robot, detects that the reactor was over heating and starts working over time to cool it, leading to it freezing the surrounding ocean and making itself in to a massive iceberg, but as it wasn't connected to the robot's core and nothing it did had any effect, it ends up overheating itself, causing the pool of lava on the top. But that's just a little fan idea.

Another one I have is that the island, when it was floating freely, may have passed next to Mata Nui, close enough to be sailed too, at some point far in the past. Explaining how there would be inhabitants on it despite it getting shot out of the robot like a bullet.

Also it would be remiss of me to not mention that even though the canon depiction of events makes no sense, the whirlpool is briefly seen in the 100% ending of the torture device Bionicle Heroes.

But this is much smaller, and seems to only have just opened up in the bay. Rather than being something to do with the hole it made it seems this is more about how the mask they were seeking went underwater.

SCALE!

Time to talk sizes!³

This drawing is especially useful here, as it shows all 3 major objects in question all relative to each other. Yes Voya-Nui is there, its the tiny little dot on the bottom right. So I simply took the height maps for Voya-Nui, used them to make a quick little model in the same fashion as my Mata Nui, and brought in my old GSR model. I scaled them all to the Mata Nui from my last posts, and guess what! It all lines up perfectly.

The Voya-Nui Model is the exact right size it should be, according to this map:

And what was more impressive, was that the GSR turned out to be pretty much bang on with this even older concept art:

Scaling the GSR was a more bit awkward, as the final design is more gangly compared to this drawing, but lining up the torsos worked really well!

And now let us visit the 1/10th scale Mata Nui and meet Geroge. A new island has floated up off Ta-Wahi beach and he want's to explore a bit!

Excuse the monochrome island, the height maps I'm using are actually quite different from the final island.

There is a height map more accurate to the final island, but that one didn't have an underside. The little islets in the bay were also neat.

The large lava lake in the centre is roughly 250 metres across. Its nothing compared to Mata Nui's caldera, but its still very huge when you get down to the ground level.

The panel that forms the centre of the island is massive as well.

Approximately 550m wide, and 900m tall. Just think of the massive reactor core this thing popped out of!

Seeing it separate from the island really puts it in perspective.

Imagine this thing shooting out of the robot's chest like a bullet.

I'll just quickly mention, earlier on I posted that map of all the internal islands. If you use the size of metru nui on there you can scale Voya-Nui appropriately, and you end up with this.

Its less a small panel popping out of the heart and more the scene from Alien at this point.

CONCLUSION

This has been quite a rambly post, but there was just so much information to cover. I left out a lot of details. This whole thing just makes me very excited, sorry.

I just think its such a beautifully elegant scenario that really adds a lot to the setting and story, rather than just having yet another new island, but this time the island is mean. I find it quite interesting how everything would have sorted itself out, if not for the island breaking in half. There's no Machiavellian plots, no scheming, no betrayal, just an unfortunate occurrence that makes a bad situation worse, and everyone has to work to fix it. It was utterly butchered in the final story. It makes me quite sad for what could have been. Just picture it, this floating island getting pulled towards a massive whirlpool, the outer island breaking off as it spirals deep down underwater until this long, tarnished metal plug is revealed to have been at the centre. With a huge impact it closes up the hole, fitting back perfectly where it came from, managing to avert the disaster of the flood waters growing ever higher inside the core of this robot.

But in any case, really the important take away is, Voya-Nui is just a rip off of Noah's Island when you get down to it.

I'll leave you with a photograph of George waving hello to his large friend.

Have a nice day/night[delete whichever is inappropriate]!

¹-You know its true. ²-Not to be confused with the Mask o' Flight, the film staring a swarm of Tahnok. ³-Please note, I am using 1 kio = .1 km as per my previous posts, if this offends you simply multiply every number in this post by 43.75966487787¾⁴ ⁴-Yes even this one.

While I was working on this I made some more revelations about the core which will probably need its own post. ;_; This thing already took 3 days to make....

[bigfan-fanfic]

Divination (Male!Reader x Sokka)

"Oh, no. What are those?" Sokka groans. "Don't tell me that crazy fortuneteller lady got you hooked too?"

Katara scoffs. "She may have been wrong about ONE thing, Sokka, but she was right about-"

Sokka gives a loud grumble, and she rolls her eyes, turning back to lean against the side of the railing of Appa's saddle as you cast strange stone tablets.

You're a young Earthbender, who left his village to help Aang on his journey.

Not a master by any means, but you are skilled with a bow, and have been using stone arrowheads so you can earthbend the arrows even faster and more accurately through the air.

After your adventure with Aunt Wu's fortunetelling and the village that became dependent on her, Sokka's noticed you fiddling with a set of magnetic, roughly spherical stones.

Sokka's had a crush on you for a while, and he doesn't think he could handle it if you went fortune-crazy too.

Aang chuckles. "Just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean the world doesn't have different fortunetelling methods, Sokka."

"In the Fire Nation, they'd prepare ritual paper that would burn along specific lines - the diviner would try to read the characters that would be burned into the paper before it was consumed." Aang explains.

Katara nods. "Gran Gran once said that there was a lady in our village who would throw whale walrus bones and tell the future depending on how they fell."

"And in the Earth Kingdom, we have these." you grin, even as Sokka groans.

The stones begin to rise into the air and whirl in a circle, much like Aang's marble trick - though he's too fascinated by what you're doing to protest.

As they whirl, now too fast to be distinguished properly from each other, a semi-transparent circle of stone, the circle starts to squish, until the stones stick in the air, a slightly-diagonal line in front of you.

"Aang, we're drifting east." you call.

"Whoa! Was that our fortune?"

"Pretty much. But yeah - we're drifting east, you wanna go north."

Sokka looks confused.

"They're lodestones. They're magnetic, not just to metal but for some reason, to the North and South Poles. So if you can earthbend..."

"You can always find north!" Sokka realizes, brightening up.

You grin at his expression.

Katara raises her eyebrow. "Is that really divination, though?"

"You're asking a question and getting an answer. I'd call it the most reliable divination method ever."

You glance over at Sokka. "Well, what would you say, mister skeptic?"

Sokka looks back at you, and for a moment, he seems about to deny it, but then...

He gets the chance to get one over on his sister AND impress you?

"I say... uh, yeah."

You beam at him, and as soon as you turn away to continue debating with Katara and Aang, Sokka just stares at your back.

Oh.

Oh.

Sokka rubs the back of his neck, as he starts to grapple with the realization that he has a crush on you...

[carionto]

A new Human fad called "Sunwalking"

Humans have miniature star technology for their power generation - true fusion. Encased within a stupidly complex yet impossibly durable spherical containment unit is, by all measures, a proper star. But you can't see it because it would kill you - solar radiation, and extreme magnetic fields, and all that other good stuff that stars emit.

Lots of people really want to see their stars up close, for reasons we refuse to acknowledge. It is literally suicidal. Doesn't stop deathworlders though. Guess that makes sense if nothing else.

One of them has, sort of, succeeded.

A group of hobbyist engineers calling themselves "Walking on the Sun" offer to experience what it's like to, well, walk on a star. But not really. What they offer on a technical level is still insane - first they generate a very tiny star, only about 40 centimeters across, then release it.

Normally, it would immediately melt the exposed sides of the container and explode, but it's kept mostly stable with several massive gravity hooks and tractor beams. This consumes more power per second than the star being held puts out, making it impractical for military use even by Human standards.

Once they've got a stable "loose" star, the "attraction goers" can disembark onto a semi transparent platform only 400 meters from the star. It blocks most of the heat, light, and radiation, but leaves enough to make it impossible to survive more than two hours of exposure, which is insane. Just because the star expires in around twenty minutes doesn't make it better.

Everyone has a mandatory radiation scrub afterwards. No one is allowed more than two visits within a five month period. Doesn't stop some from trying. One man faked his identity SEVEN TIMES to, now using his words - "Maintain the perfect tan."

After his sixteenth visit in a month he was rushed to a medical station and treated for cellular mutation and second degree burns. The "attraction" was forced to change to a once per year visit, and to implement a full biometric scan for all visitors.

[tanadrin]

Pr and the Mniw

Pr is a minor planet orbiting the millisecond magnetar MMR CHA J1712-2901 ("Ast"), about a thousand light years from Earth, in the constellation Sagittarius. Ast has four major planets: Wsjrhp, Hrw, Mnw, and Bstt. Hrw has one moon, Jmstj. There are five large minor planet in eccentric orbits within 3 AU, Jrb, Bjr, Rrj, Zr, and Pr.

Planetoid

Pr is a large asteroid with a rotation period of about two hours; its average density is less than 4 g/cm^3, but its internal composition is highly variable. About 40% of its solid material is composed of massive diamond fragments fused together at seams formed of carbon glass, and the interior of the planet contains a large irregular cavern roughly 250 kilometers in radius. This cavern is sufficiently enclosed to retain an envelope of water and air with minimal outgassing. Due to the very high rotation speed of the planetoid, the surface of the cavern, at its lower levels, experiences a centrifugal force about 1-2% of Earth's gravity. The axis of Pr's rotation is nearly perpendicular to its orbit.

No complete model of the formation of the Ast system has yet been offered, but several hypotheses have been suggested to account for some of its more unusual features. The formation of a protoplanetary disk may be due to the disruption of a stellar companion, or fallback from the supernova that formed Ast in the first place; the diamond fragments which make up Pr may have originated in a disrupted carbon-rich planet or planetoid, or gas giant. The interior atmosphere of Pr is perhaps due primarily to biological processes releasing volatiles into the cavern.

Deliberate planetary engineering has been mooted as a possibility, but the crew of the DSE Scholiast, the only vessel to survey the system so far, has not yet found evidence of such engineering by other civilizations, and the indigenous inhabitants of Pr are likely incapable of such undertakings at this time.

[Map of Pr, with some regions and bodies of water labelled, plus many major settlements. The relief of the cavern interior is very great; the large plateaus have scarps tens or hundreds of kilometers high. Note that the equilibrium potential at the interior surface of a rotating body is cylindrical, not spherical, and this projection is adjusted accordingly, and so shows true shapes near the poles. The nature of the geological processes that have shaped Pr's interior are not fully understood at this time. The total land area visible here is roughly equivalent to Texas or the Iberian Peninsula.]

Biology and Ecology

Pr's internal heat is maintained by the radiation from Ast, which is converted to thermal energy in Pr's crust. Thinner regions of the crust, particularly near the equator, have higher heat flow from the exterior; the high axial tilt of Pr also means that the northern and southern hemispheres can experience somewhat different heat flows throughout the year. Much more important to Pr's seasons, however, is the variability of Ast's magnetic field created by the eccentricity of Pr's orbit. When Pr is closest to Ast, organisms can extract energy from the magnetic field, as Pr's rotation allows them to create selective ion gradients whose diffusion provides energy, or to directly extract mechanical energy from electrically charged cilia. (Induced current is much too weak to be a useful source of biological energy).

As on Earth, the native lifeforms can be broadly classified into producers and consumers, but even the consumers on Ast obtain a significant portion of their energy budget from autotrophy, using heterotrophy only to supplement this budget. A minority of producers are also radiotrophs, who extract energy from the radioactive elements in Pr's crust.

Pr biology does not use DNA and is highly resistant to radiation. It also does not seem to experience Darwinian genetic drift. Instead, cells seem able to adapt their own internal machinery in response to certain kinds of stress, and to disseminate these changes throughout the organism, or even to conspecifics. The nature of this process and how it could have evolved is still a mystery, nor can they apparently account for all of the different forms observed among the native life.

The interior of Pr is dim, but not dark. Some plant species have evolved to emit light as a form of signaling, incentivizing some animal species to evolve eyes in response.

Because of the energy inefficiency of pure heterotrophy, to say nothing of pure heterotrophy that involves predating on other heterotrophs, no carnivorous animals are known on Pr.

[Above, the Mniw. The upper Mni has a fully-grown set of skin-plates; the lower Mni has either shed or removed hers, possibly as a cosmetic choice. The dark patches of skin shown are the rough beds from which the skin-plates grow.]

The Mniw

The Mniw (singular Mni) are the indigenous inhabitants of Pr. They are 12-18 centimeters long, with tough gray skin, and usually found with a mineralized defensive covering that grows out from the skin. They have a single sex, and reproduce via parthenogenesis. However, they still engage in a form of sexual intercourse, which is divorced from reproduction: instead, sex among the Mniw exists as a means of facilitating horizontal gene transfer, which then alters the nature of the offspring they bear. It can also allow a limited sharing of experiential memory. In addition to sight, hearing, and the other usual senses, the Mniw have the ability to sense the weak induced electrical currents in Pr's crust, which helps them perceive their environment better.

Mniw hatch from eggs and are generally raised in family units; they do not make sex-based distinctions, but do make social distinctions based on relationships. A mwt is the Mni who laid the egg; all other adults in the same household involved in childrearing are jtw; the sntw are siblings who share a mother, while other children raised in the same house are snw. Children from one's own eggs are srtw, while children from one's partner(s) are mnw.

As in humans, Mni adolesence is marked by gradual sexual maturity; reproductive fertility comes later in life, however, around the age of 30. Past 50, fertility declines slowly, as does the capacity to engage in horizontal gene transfer, though the capacity for sexual intercourse remains. Past 65 or so, Mniw enter their equivalent of "old age," but Mni do not experience a sudden collapse in their physiological health late in life, and can in principle life forever so long as they are not felled by accident, violence, or disease. In practice, lifespans are around 130-200 years, with a great deal of variability.

Mniw have many social elements, like hierarchy and emotions and social roles, that would not be entirely alien to humans, but they have no direct analogue to human sex roles or orientations. Instead the major cleavage in Mni society historically is between Mniw who tend to be primarily exogamous, preferring to mate and rear children with Mniw from distant communities, vs Mniw who tend to be primarily endogamous, with about 85% of Mniw being primarily endogamous; these traits perhaps evolved in the context of horizontal gene transfer to take advantage of different patterns of dissemination of useful traits.

Mniw can survive outside of Pr, but without a strong, moving magnetic field must consume a large amount of food; and the food they are normally adapted for will not grow at all absent such a field. An Earth-standard gravitational field would render them totally immobile, and would be extremely unpleasant, though probably not fatal, and it's possible given their unique physiology that they could eventually adapt to such an environment.

Mniw generally inhabit large, almost hive-like cities that are built out in three dimensions; historically, these could be strongly fortified against attack in a way that made wars of conquest nearly impossible until the invention of gunpowder. Mniw have had writing for about 5,000 years, and the first confederate states emerged around 3-4,000 years ago. The dissemination of gunpowder weapons 1,500 years ago radically altered politics and society on Pr, but the absence of easy paths to industrialization has caused a certain degree of stagnation since.

Modern Pr is divided into about a dozen large states, in an area of roughly 750,000 kilometers square, with a fair amount of diversity in languages, cultures, and social systems, given the small size of Pr. A very loose framework of international diplomacy is carried out through a series of councils called the Jaw Mwad, and on the occasion of the Scholiast's arrival, the Mniw convened a great council, a Wr Jaw Mwad, for the first time in over a century to open formal channels of communication.

[astra-ravana]

Scrying

Scrying is a method of divination that involves gazing into a usually reflective or translucent surface such as a scrying glass, a crystal ball, mirror, or scrying pool. Crystals, fires, and smokes have also been used. Practitioners gaze into the surface or past it, to achieve a trance-like state. While in a trance, the practitioner may see spiritual visions, spirits, visions of the future, or activities taking place elsewhere in the present reflected in the scrying surface or their mind's eye as they gaze.

The Art Of Scrying

To practice scrying effectively, it is important to create the right conditions. Observing the surface is best done at night, illuminated by candle light, with a clear and focused mind. After formulating a question, intense concentration on the surface is required until clouds begin to appear, which often serve as a precursor to actual visions.

According to Melville, a renowned interpreter of scrying, the appearance of white clouds signifies good news, while black clouds are considered ominous. Bright colors like red and yellow may herald unpleasant surprises, while blue and green suggest happy events.

Scrying The Sphere

According to the law of sympathetic magick, the spherical shape holds numerous correlations in various aspects of life. Our planet itself is spherical, and even the human skull, housing the brain, possesses a spherical form. Symbolically, the sky is often associated with the sphere, while the earth is likened to a square, as described by Greek philosopher Plato. He theorized that humans were originally round before being divided into sexes.

The idea of the spherical figure is also prevalent in Australian legends, where the primitive androgyne is depicted as having a spherical shape. Islamic cosmology also embraces the symbolism of the sphere. Throughout shamanic cultures, crystal has been recognized as a potent inducer of trance states, making it the favored material for scrying spheres.

The crystal ball, widely used for divination, dates back to the early Middle Ages. The first documented account is associated with the British mathematician and occultist John Dee, who claimed to have received a crystal ball from an angelic spirit on November 21st, 1582.Dee used it on multiple occasions to connect with spirits, with the assistance of medium Edward Kelley. The beryl stone, approximately 6 cm in diameter, believed to have been used by Dee, is now housed in the British museum.

The practitioner establishes a connection with the crystal ball through sight or touch, or sometimes both, as visions begin to form and the practitioner maintains focus until they dissipate. The use of quartz, beryl, obsidian, and glass can be traced to ancient civilizations, demonstrating a continuous tradition.

Scrying Mirrors

A scrying mirror is usually (but not always) a black reflective surface rather than a silvery one. These are used as a focal point for meditative scrying. The practitioner may see images in the mirrors surface, as well as fleeting glimpses of scenes, abstract shapes, or even faces. Black mirrors are often used to commune with spirits. Mirror scrying has roots in ancient Greece where oracles consulted polished stones and bowls of water.

Historical Examples

The practice of scrying can be traced back to ancient civilizations. The Australian abirigines revered the quartz crystals, and it is likely that the Druids inherited these techniques from their predecessors.

In classical times, scrying was performed within the framework of precise religious rituals. Even in the Christian Middle Ages, it held magickal significance. It was not until the Renaissance, with the contributions of Paracelsus, that the idea of visions being influenced by the interaction of crystals with human magnetism gained attention. Dr. John Dee, astrologer and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I of England, was the prominent practitioner of scrying in the 16th century. Notably, Cagliostro also employed a stone for his predictions.

The Process

• Preparation- The crystal sphere on a secure stand (or other scrying medium) should be placed in the center of the table. Only the oracle should look at the surface but not touch it. The scrying session takes place in dim lighting to enhance focus.

• Magnetization- The practitioner can magnetize the surface by passing their hands over it, establishing a connection.

• Gazing- Once magbetized, the practitioner stares into the crystal ball, mirror, or other chosen medium, maintaining a passive and concentrated state of mind. Initially, clouds, colors or waving veils may appear. Gradually, more distinct images such as figures, objects, scenes, symbols, or phrases will manifest.

• Interpretation- The interpretation of the images relies on the personal code and intuition of the practitioner. However, broad meanings can be attributed to colors, numbers, symbols, and more.

• Aftercare- Once the scrying session is complete, the surface should be cleansed and the object itself stored somewhere safe. Treating it with care is believed to maintain its fidelity in future scrying sessions.

[theother456-stories]

The summer sun blazed down on Hydro Park, casting a shimmering glow over the throngs of visitors. Children darted between splash pads, families lounged under umbrellas, and the distant rumble of the Tsunami Twister echoed above the din. The park’s towering waterslide loomed like a monument to thrill-seekers, its spiral of neon colors winding high into the sky. At the slide’s exit, laughter and screams erupted as riders shot out of the tunnel, hitting the pool with exhilarating splashes.

Dave lingered near the base of the slide, hands stuffed in his damp swim trunks. He hadn’t planned on coming to Hydro Park today. It was one of those impulsive detours that he was infamous for—an afterthought sparked by the smell of funnel cake and a discounted ticket he’d stumbled across at a gas station. His day had so far been uneventful, consisting mostly of lazily floating down the lazy river, inhaling nachos, and regretting the nachos.

Now, he stood at the base of the Tsunami Twister, half-distracted, watching riders fly out of the slide and into the pool. Their whoops of joy mingled with the splash of water and the hum of summer chatter. He scratched his stomach absently, his eyes narrowing as another rider rocketed into the pool, sending up a wave of water.

Then the thought hit him—a ridiculous, fleeting thought that made him snort to himself. What if I just… stayed here and caught them? It was the sort of silly, impulsive idea Dave often entertained but rarely acted on. But today was different. Maybe it was the heat, the nachos, or just boredom, but before he could second-guess himself, Dave waded into the pool and positioned himself directly at the slide’s exit.

He barely had time to think before the next rider hurtled down the slide. A man in bright green trunks emerged with a yell, careening straight into Dave’s open arms—or so Dave thought. Instead, the rider’s momentum carried him forward, and to Dave’s utter shock, the man went right into his mouth.

Dave stumbled back, nearly slipping on the wet tiles. “What the—?” He clutched his throat, his mind racing. The rider was gone. Completely gone. Dave looked around, expecting someone to notice, to scream, to do something—but no one did. The pool was loud and chaotic, and his bizarre moment seemed to have gone completely unnoticed.

Another splash pulled him from his thoughts. A woman in a floral swimsuit was shooting out of the slide. Before Dave could react—or even step aside—she flew straight into him, disappearing with an unsettling ease.

“Okay, what’s happening?” Dave muttered, staring down at his stomach. It felt… heavier, fuller. He poked at it, but there was no time to process what was happening. More riders were coming.

They came faster than he anticipated, one after the other. Each person shot out of the slide and, as if by magnetic force, went straight into Dave. He barely had time to breathe between riders, his body automatically swallowing each one with a seamless gulp. By the time he’d swallowed ten people, his stomach had swelled into a noticeable dome, pressing against the waistband of his trunks.

Dave groaned, waddling to the edge of the pool and sitting down. His belly jiggled slightly with the motion, a taut, round ball that seemed to hum with energy. He rubbed it absentmindedly, trying to make sense of what was happening. “This can’t be normal,” he muttered, though the ridiculousness of that statement wasn’t lost on him.

A group of teenagers came next, laughing and shouting as they hurtled down the slide in quick succession. Dave’s body moved on autopilot, swallowing each one without hesitation. His belly stretched even larger, growing tighter and shinier under the relentless sun. He groaned as the pressure built, his skin creaking with the strain.

By the time he’d reached fifty riders, Dave was practically immobilized. His stomach was enormous, a tight, spherical mass that pinned him to the pool deck. Lifeguards were starting to notice, their whistles cutting through the air as they rushed toward him. But what could they do? Dave’s belly was so massive that he couldn’t even roll over, let alone stand up.

The crowd began to gather, a mix of fascination and horror spreading through the park. Parents shielded their children’s eyes, teenagers took selfies, and the lifeguards stood frozen, unsure how to handle the situation. Dave, meanwhile, could only groan as another family of four slid into him, his belly gurgling audibly as it stretched further.

Just when it seemed like his body couldn’t possibly take any more, something changed. A strange warmth spread through his bloated form, and the tension in his stomach began to ease. The tight, taut sphere softened, its roundness giving way to folds and rolls of fat. His belly shrank slightly, but the weight redistributed itself across his entire body. His arms thickened, his legs expanded, and his face grew rounder. Within moments, Dave was no longer bloated and stretched—he was massive, soft, and incredibly fat.

He patted his now-heavy belly, laughing nervously as it jiggled under his touch. The lifeguards stared in disbelief, their whistles hanging limply at their sides. Dave looked up at them sheepishly. “So, uh… does this mean I’m banned? Or can I still get that free ice cream with my ticket?”

[noosphe-re]

Angular part of magnetic and electric vector spherical harmonics. Red and green arrows show the direction of the field. Generating scalar functions are also presented, only the first three orders are shown (dipoles, quadrupoles, octupoles). Mie scattering (Wikipedia)

[suprememagnets]

Spherical magnets

If you are interested in using spherical magnets for a specific purpose or have any other questions about them, feel free to ask! also known as magnetic balls or magnetic spheres, are small magnets that are shaped like spheres. They are often made from neodymium or other rare earth magnets due to their strong magnetic properties.

For more information- https://suprememagnets.com/collections/neo-sphere-ball-magnets

[suprememagnets1]

Unlocking Attraction: The Power of the Magnet Ring

A Magnet Ring combines style with functionality, featuring embedded magnets believed to promote wellness, balance, and energy flow. Whether worn for its sleek design or potential health benefits, a Magnet Ring is a unique accessory that adds a modern twist to your jewelry collection.

The benefits of a Magnet Ring include:

·  Pain Relief: Ring Magnets in the ring may help reduce pain in joints and muscles by improving blood circulation.

·  Improved Circulation: Magnetic fields can stimulate better blood flow, enhancing tissue oxygen supply.

·  Stress Reduction: Wearing the Magnet Ring may promote relaxation and reduce stress.

·  Balance & Energy: Believed to restore natural energy balance and increase vitality.

·  Fashionable Accessory: It combines health benefits with a stylish design, making it a functional yet fashionable piece.

Magnet Balls are small, spherical magnets commonly used for various purposes, including:

Educational Tools: Used to teach magnetism and physics concepts in classrooms.

Stress Relief and Fidget Toys: Many enjoy manipulating magnet balls to create shapes, providing relaxation and focus.

Building and Creativity: The best Magnet balls can be assembled into various structures, allowing for creative expression and spatial awareness.

Therapeutic Use: Some people believe magnet balls have health benefits like improving blood flow or relieving pain, although this is not scientifically proven.

Magnet sheets  are flexible, thin layers of magnetic material that can be easily cut and shaped to fit various applications. These sheets are typically made from a combination of rubber and ferrite powder, giving them a lightweight and durable structure. Magnet sheets  are widely used in advertising, crafts, educational tools, and home organization.

Visit us: https://suprememagnets.com/collections/flexible-magnets

[pidge-it-up-archive]

As Aristophanes used to say...

A Kagehina PJO AU | 6,673 words | Main Tags: First Kiss, Getting Together Read it on AO3 According to Aristophanes, humans were originally spherical beings, with four arms, four legs, and a single head with two faces. They were powerful and had the ability to move in any direction. But the gods, fearing their strength, split them in half, leaving each of them longing for their other half, to be whole again. And that is why people search for their soulmates—because they were once one and are now two, and they long to be reunited.

Duality is a funny thing. We often hear that opposites attract, but that’s not always the case. Some opposites are naturally repellent, refusing to mingle no matter how much we wish they would. 

Oil and water, for example, share the same space, but they’ll never blend, always drawing invisible lines between them. North and south poles of a magnet: they pull away from each other as if the mere thought of connection were unbearable. Darkness and Light. Where one exists, the other is absent—constantly in opposition, each one negating the other.

So, logically, the two of them should have been like that. Two separate worlds. 

“But eclipses do exist, don’t they?” Hinata interrupted as Kageyama voiced his thoughts. “What? I’m right!” Hinata squealed at the glare he received. 

“You’re not, dumbass! Eclipses have nothing to do with light and dark , they’re about… the sun and the moon, or, or… Day and night, if you will.”

“Well, it’s not like we have anything to do with light and dark either, dumbass ,” Hinata grinned back the insult. “Just because your dad’s a bit shady and you choose to be all bleeeh and gloomy doesn’t mean that you are the darkness” Hinata trembled his fingers with the word, in phantasmagorical fashion. 

“I’m not bleh and gloomy!” Kageyama pouted. 

Hinata let out a snort. “Yeah, right, Mr.” —he pressed his hair down and frowned in an attempt to mimic the boy before him— “woo-is-me-I-don’t-go-along-with-anybody-and-I-all-better-off-alone!” 

Kageyama rolled his eyes. “You know what, you’re giving me a headache.”

“That’s not my fault. That's because you were trying to think and we all know that’s not your strongest suit. ”

“Oh, fuck off. Like you’re one to talk!” Kageyama jumped to his feet. “Wanna practice or not?” He didn’t wait for a reply as he got up and headed to the arena, confident that Hinata would follow.

And Hinata did, of course, as he always did, ever since he stepped foot in Camp Half-Blood almost three years ago.

The first time he saw Hinata Shoyo was in the Summer before his freshman high school year. 

He was walking to his cabin to get settled when this little too-much-orange thing came running and bumped into him. He didn’t stop, he simply yelled back “Sorry!” and went on murmuring “Bathroom, bathroom, bathroom”.

Kageyama glared in his direction as the boy—short, freckled like the strawberry fields, with hair the exact same color as the camp shirt—went straight to Artemis’s cabin. “You’re going the wrong way, dumbass!” He yelled. The boy stopped, dancing in place with his hands on his shorts. “Apollo’s cabin’s that way”, Tobio pointed to the cabin to his right. 

The boy’s eyes widened. “How— Nevermind! Thanks!” And he ran to the right cabin. 

How did you know? Tobio knew the boy would ask. He would have scoffed if he had had the chance. Some people who get into Camp are seriously incognito, but not him. It took only a fraction of a second to understand that that boy, whoever they were, was a child of Apollo. 

And Kageyama might not have prophetic gifts, but as he stood there amidst the cabins surprisingly amused rather than annoyed at the boy, he knew his life would change. Don’t ask him how. It was… A tingle in his bones, almost. A heat underneath his skin. And from that day on, Kageyama was acutely aware of him all the time, which was… Odd.

Kageyama loved that camp with everything he was, taking everything he did there seriously and with dedication. All the training and games and simulations, he’d approach it with a stern look of concentration on his face and put all of himself into it like they were real, like they all were a matter of life and death—mostly because one day, they might be. 

But… that was sort of the problem. He did, but most of the campers didn’t.

He was basically raised in that Camp—taken by his own mother at age of 5— but his experience didn't keep people from avoiding him like the plague, opposite to what happens to other experienced campers, because apparently practicing with him was exhausting, physically and emotionally.

According to everyone else, he was rude, always yelling at people even when they were at their limit, which was never even close to being enough for him. Fighting along his side could end up in a serious wound because he’d never coordinate his movements with his partner— which is bulshit! He was doing what was the best move, it wasn't his fault others refused to keep up . So it’s been a while since he showed any real interest in any of the campers. If everyone would turn their back on him, he would turn his back in return. Campers came and went—names he never learned and faces he never memorized—but he would stay. And he was better off alone.

But then it came him . He didn’t even know his name yet and still, all through that first week, if you had asked him where the short orange boy was, he would somehow know how to answer. It was as easy as pointing out the sun in the sky during the day. 

Because you see, Hinata Shoyo—as he would learn later—was not just the son of the sun. He was the sun. Expansive, flashy, and annoying. Impossible to miss—either by the way its light offends the eyes of those used to the dark or by the way its heat burns the skin used to the cold. 

But as much as Kageyama found it all annoying, he couldn't deny it came perfectly in handy during Capture the Flag. 

Kageyama sensed him before he saw him, a prickle at the edge of his awareness. He turned sharply, just in time to see the arrow sail toward him. It was so off course that he didn’t even flinch, stepping aside lazily as it sunk into the dirt with a pitiful thunk . A laugh escaped him—short, sharp, and derisive.

“That was pathetic,” he muttered.

He knew he would be welcomed by the Red Team’s new campers—the orange Apollo kid (who Kageyama was sure was the one who shot the worst shot he had ever seen an Apollo child shoot), twins from Demeter, and a boy from Aphrodite. Ares cabin was sadistic like that, putting them first to give them a little taste of what a battle can be, but also to just slow down and signal when the enemy is approaching. 

Two more arrows streaked toward him, both were even worse than the first. Kageyama sidestepped them with ease, closing the distance between him and the archer in a matter of seconds. 

When he was close to reaching the archer's hiding spot, he was attacked then by the twins. Kageyama disarmed the first with a single blow, sending him sprawling, and the second barely had time to raise her weapon before he knocked it from her hands. The boy from Aphrodite tried to go at him for the sake of trying but didn’t even put up a fight. 

Another arrow was shot; it missed its target once more. This time, when Kageyama looked up, there he was. Orange hair leaking out of his elmo, arm shaking with the strength it took to arm the bow; courageously—and foolishly—standing his ground. 

Kageyama took a step forward, a cat playing with its prey, and the kid dropped the bow and drew a sword in a quick motion. Adorable, he thought. As if! The kid stood awkwardly, his posture was all wrong and his grip on the sword was so laughable that Kageyama almost didn’t bother. Almost. But something about the fire in his eyes made Kageyama hesitate, just for a split second.

It was enough.

The kid lunged with startling speed, his blade nicking Kageyama’s arm before he could react. The pain was negligible, but the fact that it had happened at all set his blood boiling.

“YES!” the boy shouted, triumphant. His grin was bright enough to rival the sun, and Kageyama’s temper snapped.

“Beginner’s luck,” Kageyama growled, stepping forward with purpose. He brought his sword down in a powerful arc, but the kid wasn’t there. He spun to follow, striking again and again, but every swing hit empty air.

“Will you—” Another strike, this time adjusting mid-swing to catch the boy off guard. Their blades finally clashed, but the smaller boy’s grip faltered, and his sword clattered to the ground. “—stop moving, damn it?! ”

Before the boy could scramble away, Kageyama swung the flat of his blade against the back of his knees, dropping him to the ground. For a moment, they locked eyes—one filled with rage and determination, the other with mounting irritation.

“And stay down,” Kageyama snapped, looming over him.

But the boy didn’t stay down. Even as he knelt there, gasping for breath, he started to push himself back up. His legs shook, his hands scrabbled at the dirt, but the fire in his eyes never dimmed.

“Seriously?” Kageyama muttered under his breath. He was raising his sword again when the sharp blast of a horn cut through the air.

The game was over.

Kageyama lowered his weapon with a scowl, turning his back on the boy. But as he walked away, he couldn’t shake the image of that defiant grin and the way the kid refused to quit. It left a bad taste in his mouth. Or maybe it was something else entirely.

The next day, he found the boy at the arena training even before him. He was usually one of the few who went there before dawn, enjoying the chill air and the quiet—he was there mostly for the quiet—of an empty arena. Annoyed, he decided to find someplace else to practice—alone—for the day. But the next day, there he was again. And the next, and the next, and the next, and by the end of the week, Kageyama was fed up with it. 

“You really should give up on that sword,” he said as he approached the boy. 

The boy looked up, frowning. “What, why?”

“Because you suck at it.”

“Isn’t that the point of practicing, though?”

“A 1000 times 0 is still zero.”

“I don’t see your point.” 

“Urgh, forget it. Do what you want.” Kageyama had given up on giving up and was halfway off the arena when the boy called him back. 

“Wait, you– You’re good at it, right?”

“At what?”

“Well… everything, I suppose? You’re the King of the Arena, aren’t you?”

Kageyama glared at him. “That doesn’t mean what you think it means.” 

“What do… What do I– No? Well, whatever. Could you teach me?”

“No.” 

“Why not?” 

“Ask around, Sunshine , and you’ll know.”

“Well, I don’t care what the others think. No one else wants to teach me, the sword.”

“Who’s no one?”

“Everyone.”

Kageyama sighed. “You know, everyone might have a point. You’re small and you’re fast. You’d do much better with a dagger.”

“But I don’t want a knife! The arrow, and the dagger, they’re… they’re cool, and they’re awesome, but I want this!” He branded the sword on their faces. “I really want this.”

“Why?” 

“I just– I just want it, is that not enough reason?”

“No, that’s—” Kageyama started, that is not enough reason, he’d supposed to say, but then he saw it, in his eyes. The same flare that made him hesitate that night on Capture the Flag. This will and determination he hadn’t seen in a long time, if ever. A fire burning brighter than Hestia’s flame, hotter than Hephaestus's forge. 

It wasn’t just stubbornness or blind courage; it was something deeper, something primal. A refusal to yield, to break, no matter the odds.

And he caved. “Fine.”

The sun came out. “I’m Hinata Shoyo.” The boy reached out his hand.

Kageyama snorted. “You’re a child of Apollo and your name is Hinata? ”

He blinked, head tilting to the side. “Right… I… Never thought of that…” Hinata looked sheepish. “And you are…? I assume calling you King isn’– ”

“Kageyama Tobio,” he interrupted.

“And…?”

“And what, dumbass?”

“Who’s your godly parent?”

“You… You seriously don’t know?”

“Nope.”

“You really are an idiot,” Kageyama shook his head as he drew his sword. A beautiful black metal that reflected the red of dawn. “I’m a child of Hades.”

Hinata was a fucking nuisance. He was clumsy with the sword, his stance was nightmare-worthy, and he tripped on his feet more often than a 5-year-old first-time dancer with two left feet. 

But he always got up. Always. And that Kageyama could admire. 

In the nine years he had been at camp, Kageyama had never met anyone who matched him in determination and stamina. But, as it was proving to be a constant right now, everything else in Kageyama’s life was not applicable to that fucking orange ball. 

From that day forward up until the last day of Summer, they trained for at least an hour before the sun was up in the Arena, and then when others started to show up, they’d hide in the forest and continue, unrelenting. It was the most fun Kageyama has had in years. 

By the end, Hinata was surely better. Not good, but better.

“You’ll see,” Hinata had said as they laid back on the ground, panting after their last training session of the summer. “When we come back next year, I’ll be able to beat you in a fight.”

“Keep dreaming.”

“Yes, I will! Because my father is the god of prophecies, so my dreams actually mean something,” he flashed out the tip of his tongue when Kageyama flicked his forehead.

They said goodbye to each other with an e-mail address on a piece of paper and a promise engraved on their little fingers.

Needless to say, they kept in contact during the school year

Kageyama started sending detailed instructions: what exercises Hinata should do every day, what to eat to build stamina, and tips to avoid injury. With each message, came the eary feeling that he would be ignored because part of him expected Hinata to lose his discipline halfway through the semester. Most people did, after all. But Hinata never did. Not once.

Every single day, without fail, he sent Kageyama a picture after his training; sweaty, sometimes looking so exhausted he could barely hold his phone steady, but always determined. Always smiling. And if the time Kageyama kept staring at each picture exponentially increased with time, that was for his knowledge only and no one else’s. 

As weeks turned into months, their talks drifted away from training altogether, slipping into moments of shared jokes, idle chatter, or stories that neither of them quite realized they were looking forward to. 

And just like that, without their knowledge or consent, they became more than training partners. They were friends. 

When Kageyama arrived at Camp the next year, he headed straight for the arena, and, as reliable as ever, there he was, keeping up with Ryūnosuke Tanaka, a veteran child of Ares. 

“Yo, dumbass!” Kageyama yelled at the arena's edge, crossing his arms. Hinata took a moment to beam at him, and Kageyama was close to yelling at him for allowing himself to be distracted like that as Tanaka advanced, but Hinata’s reflexes were sharp, and when Tanaka struck, he was able to step aside just fine. Kageyama rolled his eyes. “If you lose to him, I won’t fight you for a whole week!”

He knew nothing fuelled Hinata more than a challenge; the fight was over in less than a minute, with Tanaka on his back and a smiley Hinata cheering on top of him. 

Kagayema had to give it to him: Hinata has improved. A lot. But still, there was no way he could hold up a real challenge to him. But that didn’t make the boy sad, or frustrated, like it did to many people before. Like he said, nothing fuelled Hinata more than a challenge. 

The second Capture the Flag of the Summer got them in a special situation: Apollo and Hades cabins were on the same team. 

“Alright, let’s see…” Daichi, head of Nike started. “The usual go-to is to always send Kageyama on his own to scan the field, but I think I wanna try something different.”

Kageyama raised a brow at the leaders of the campaign. 

“We think it’ll be good for Hinata to stick with you.”

“What? He’ll slow me down!”

“Wow, thanks a lot!” Hinata cried. 

“It’s true! You’re like… better than last year, but still!”

“He’s the only one of us who can even bear to be near you, King, for whatever god-forsaken reason. And everyone knows that he’d rather follow you like a minion than be with his own cabin, anyway,” Oikawa, Head of Aphrodite, sneered.

“Hey, you—” Hinata started, never one to let it go when people called Kageyama ‘King’ with that undertone, not after he learned what they meant by it. 

“Let it go,” Kageyama muttered under his teeth, holding him back. “Fine,” he glared at Oikawa before slowly turning his gaze to Daichi. “We go together. What position?”

“You’ll guard the flag.” Daichi smiled. 

Kageyama didn’t know what was on Daichi’s mind, but he had proved to be as good a strategist as Kenma, from Athena, so Kageyama didn’t argue. 

And may Zeus strike him if Daichi hadn't been a genius with that decision. 

It had been one thing to fight against Hinata, but the moment they were put on the same side and had to fight with each other, the game changed. Maybe it was because they had spent so many times fighting the other that they had memorized the patterns of their movements, or maybe it was just some sort of divine connection, that Kageyama wouldn't put past them. Whatever it was, Kagayema had never felt so good on the battlefield. 

He didn’t have to order Hinata around—yelling to go here or there, to duck down or jump. He just did it, as if he could read Kageyama’s thoughts before he even formed them. It was effortless, like breathing—an unspoken understanding that made their movements seamless. And for the first time ever with a partner, whenever Hinata took the lead on a movement, he followed. 

Near the end of the battle, when they found themselves surrounded, they stood back to back, and something clicked. 

Kageyama would never admit it, not in a million years, but as they moved in perfect harmony, he couldn’t help but think of that old tale about how humans once had two heads, four arms, and four legs, until the gods split them apart and cursed them to wander the earth, searching endlessly for their other half. Because there, amid the chaos of the battle, back to back with Hinata, he couldn’t tell his and Hinata’s movements apart. 

They were one: one body, two heads, four arms, and four legs, just like they were meant to be.  

After that battle, if the time he spent staring at Hinata exponentially increased with time, that was for his knowledge only and no one else's. 

The following summer, a week before he had to return home, Kageyama had a dream, and by the time he woke up, nearly 3 in the morning, he had a mission, assigned by Hades himself. His task was simple in theory, an in-and-out situation, perfect for someone like him—a child of Hades with the ability to shadow travel. 

It was close to 4 AM when he was ready to leave. Trying to shadow travel from inside the Camp’s wards was exhausting, so he had to walk away until he felt the mist around him shimmer, and shadows become more malleable. When he had finally walked far enough, he stretched his arms over his head, popped his neck to one side and the other, and took a deep breath. 

As he exhaled, he felt the pull from the darkness, his body dissolving into more sense than form, an uncomforting but familiar fe— Something touched his shoulder.

His last coherent thought before the pull consumed him was a sharp, resounding, “Fuck.”

The added weight threw off his concentration, and instead of arriving at his intended destination, he and the unexpected passenger dropped out of the shadows mid-transit. He hit the ground hard, followed by the other body falling on him, the force knocking the air out of his lungs in a painful “oomf.”

Before he could fully process what happened, the body on top of him rolled to the side and—much to his disgust— puked .

Kageyama turned his head sharply, eyes wide, nose wrinkled in disbelief as he registered who the “idiot” was.

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, DUMBASS?” he bellowed.

Hinata, still green and disoriented, groaned with his eyes squeezed shut. “What was that ?”

Kageyama’s glare could’ve burned holes through steel. “What are you doing here?” He ignored Hinata’s question. 

“You were leaving without saying goodbye!”

“I wasn’t—Wait, what? Oh, gods, help me.” Kageyama groaned, rubbing his temples in frustration. “I have a mission, idiot! Were you following me?”

“Yes,” Hinata admitted, looking unashamed despite the situation.

“Why?! It’s the middle of the night!”

“I had a dream,” Hinata replied matter-of-factly. “And I was right. ”

Kageyama nearly screamed. “Oh, get off! You can’t be here! I have a mission, and you need to go back to camp!”

“Why can’t I go with you? Why didn’t you tell me anything? Does Chiron know?”

Kageyama sighed, raising a finger. “Because it’s not assigned to you.” Another finger up . “Because my father told me to do this as soon as possible. I wasn’t going to wait for you to wake up and tell you I’d be gone for twenty minutes.” And another finger. “And yes, of course, Chiron knows.” 

“What’s the mission?” 

He dropped his hand. “None of your business. Go back to camp. ”

“No.” Hinata stomped like a child throwing a tantrum. 

“Excuse me?”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re definitely not.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ll… you’ll fuck it up. ”

“I won’t! You know it! We’ve spent the last two summers—”

“This isn’t Capture the Flag, Hinata. This is serious!”

“All the more reason you shouldn’t do it alone!”

“No, it’s not. You’re just jealous I got a mission, and you didn’t!”

“The fact that I think you shouldn’t do this alone has nothing do to with my jealousy.”

“Ah, so you are jealous?” 

“Not the point! The point is! You’ve been alone long enough and I'm tired of people thinking you thrive in it. You don’t. You hate it, you’re just too proud to let them know. It’s a dangerous mission—”

“You don’t even know what the mission is!” He muttered. 

“ —and it’s not fair that you have no backup. Besides, if I dreamed about it, there must be a reason for it. So shut it, and let me come with you.”

Kageyama huffed, affronted. He hated him. Gods, how he hated Hinata and that stubborn, blazing look in his eyes. They kept staring at each other, neither willing to cave. But staring at Hinata when he looked like that— overconfident — was a little bit like staring at the sun. You can’t do it for long. 

“FINE!” Kageyama snapped, throwing his hands up. “But if you puke on me again, I’ll leave you behind!”

Hinata did puke again when they arrived at their destination—but not on him, which was a win. Kageyama, grumbling under his breath, pulled a small bottle of mouthwash from his sling bag and tossed it at him. Hinata took it gratefully, managing a sheepish smile once he was back on his feet.

“Where are we?” Hinata asked, looking around. There were a dense forest surrounding them, the dawning sun barely visible throught the trees. Behind him, stood a tall stone wall, with a round rough entrance leading to a cave. 

“Mormo’s Island,” Kageyama replied, his tone sharp.

“What’s Mormo?”

“It’s who’s Mormo,” Kageyama corrected, as he led into the cave. “She’s our target.”

Hinata grimaced, hesitating to follow. “We’re… getting in there?” 

“Yep.”

“But… It’s gonna be dark.” 

“That’s why this is my mission,” Kageyama sneered. “You can wait here.” 

“No way! I’m coming!” He ran after him. “Nishinoya taught me a nice trick it will be useful– wait!” He halted at the entrance. “Let me…” Hinata concentrated, closing his eyes. 

Kageyama could only stare as the boy started to make noises, tensing his body, almost like— “Are you gonna shit your pants or something?” 

“Shh, don’t distract me!” Hinata barked, sticking his tongue out. The sight was weird at best, but Kageyama couldn’t hold back the affectionate roll of his eyes. No. Not affectionate. He was irritated. He was no t thinking he was adorable or something. But then, suddenly, Hinata’s skin started to glow. He opened his eyes, analyzing his own hands. When he looked up in Kageyama’s direction, he hated having to go back on his own words. Nevermind, he was adorable as hell. 

“You glow,” Kageyama said, trying to hide his awe. 

“Yep!” Hinata skipped like a kid handed candy. “Now we can go! C’mon!”

Kageyama blinked as his pocket-size sun entered the cave, shattering the dark around him. What the fuck? He had never seen any of the Apollo kids doing that. Was it a secret between then or something? He shook his head. That was something for later. 

As they entered the cave, he explained the mission to Hinata. 

Mormo was what could be a mixture between a boggart and a vampire, kidnapping kids, punishing them, and turning them into her small fleet of demons. Child demons. Thanatos is not particularly a fan of her, meddling with the balance of life and death unnecessarily, and every time she spawns, he sends someone out to kill her. This time he asked Hades for help, and Hades asked him.

Kageyama led the way, with the dim glow of Hinata’s skin casting long, flickering shadows, their swords glinting faintly in the pale light. 

The air grew heavier the deeper they ventured into the cave. The walls seemed to close in, suffocating them with the dull silence, broken only by their steps and breathing resounding within the humid walls. “This place is so creepy,” Hinata muttered, clutching the hilt of his sword tightly.

“Focus,” Kageyama said sharply. “We’re almost there.”

“How do you even know where to go? We passed like… 4 or 5 different tunnels.”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try?” Hinata was curious by nature, but it was obvious by the shaking of his voice he was talking the nervousness away. He needed the distraction. 

“It’s just… The dark? I have a weird awareness of things in it. Kinda like a bat but instead of sounds, the… darkness guides me, you know?”

Hinata chuckled. “That was actually pretty easy to explain.”

“Well, how would I know your brain would be able to catch up?”

“Hey, I’m not–”

“Shhhh” Kageyama put a hand on his mouth, making them stop. He gave Hinata a serious look and he understood. Closing his eyes again, he was able to turn off the glow of his skin. His body immediately tensed when the dark engulfed them, but Kageyama dropped the hand from his mouth to his shoulder and slid it to his hand. He ignored the gasp Hinata let out. “Don’t let go,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”

Hinata nodded, but when he realized he probably couldn’t be seen (he was wrong, Kageyama could see him just fine) he squeezed Kageyama’s hand. Thank the gods it was dark, so Hinata couldn’t see the blush that dared to creep out his face. Kageyama squeezed his hand back, a sign that they should move. 

Slowly, Kageyama led them forward. Hinata couldn’t see where they were going anymore, but he felt the twist and turn of the cave, doing so more sharply now than before. Finally, they were able to see a faint blue light emanating from around the corner.

Kageyama let go of Hinata’s hand, shifting his grip to hold his sword firmly with both hands. He pressed himself against the wall, his movements careful and precise, the blade angled low but ready. His breath was steady, measured, as he leaned forward to peek around the bend.

Hinata followed closely, his heart hammering in his chest. The glow grew stronger as they inched closer, illuminating the rough walls with an ethereal shimmer. Kageyama tilted his head just enough to see what lay ahead—and froze.

He motioned for Hinata to stay back before stepping cautiously out, his sword raised slightly. Hinata ignored him, as usual, and crept after him. His eyes widened as the space opened up before them in a large chamber.

At the heart of the chamber, sprawled across a jagged throne of stone, was what had to be Mormo. Her grotesque form lay still in slumber, the bioluminescent fungi casting an unearthly glow over her figure. Leathery wings folded tightly against her body, sharp claws draped over the edges of her throne. Her face was a disturbing blend of hideous and eerily human, the features softened only by the stillness of her sleep.

“She’s asleep,” Kageyama murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. His grip on the sword tightened, the tension in his shoulders clear.

Hinata swallowed, his eyes darting to the fungi-dotted walls and the dark corners of the chamber. “What do we do?” he whispered back.

Kageyama didn’t answer. He stepped forward cautiously, each movement silent and deliberate. Hinata stayed back, his sword shaking slightly in his grip.

When Kageyama reached her, he raised his blade high and drove it down with a clean, precise strike. Mormo let out a faint, strangled gasp before dissolving into ash.

“It’s done,” Kageyama said flatly, and his voice, though quiet, was carried by the echo of the chamber.

Hinata frowned. “That was way easier than I thought—”

A shrill screech interrupted him, followed by another. And another.

“Uh, Kageyama?” Hinata’s voice trembled as small, twisted forms began to emerge from the shadows, their glowing red eyes locking onto them.

Kageyama’s jaw tightened. “Her demons.”

The creatures surged forward, their claws glinting in the faint light. Kageyama ran and grabbed Hinata’s arm. “Hold on—” He called the darkness and it pulled them in, but not for long. He lost his grip and they fell again, swords clinking on the ground. “ Fuck!”

“What happened?” Hinata shrieked, voice muffled by the hand on his hand, probably holding back the contents of his stomach again. 

“I’m too weak. Just run!” Kageyama grabbed his sword and Hinata’s hand again, guiding them through the darkness once more. But suddenly, they heard the shrills and the steps approaching them head-on. “Shit, get behind me!” 

Hinata did as he was told, taking deep breaths trying not to panic. It wasn’t easy, he was—

“Fuck!” Hinata has never heard Kageyama curse so much. “There’s more coming from behind. You gonna have to fight too!”

Hinata swallowed the bile down his throat. He understood what he was saying. He tried to concentrate again, picturing the warmth within his heart as a sun, pushing it out. He pictured the feel of the sun on his skin… He opened his eyes. Nothing. Shit shit shit shit shit. He tried again. Nothing.

“Hinata, now!”

“I can’t, I can’t, I’m—”

“Fuck, forget it. Just—” Kageyama repositioned them until they were back to back. “Just stick to me”, he said firmly.

The demons were there. This was it. Hinata nodded, his breathing shaky. “Got it.”

The first demon lunged, and Kageyama’s sword met it midair, slicing cleanly through. 

“Turn left!” Kageyama barked, and Hinata obeyed, twisting to match Kageyama’s movements. Another swiped at Hinata, and he ducked, swinging upward in a wide arc. The creature shrieked and crumbled into ash.

“Swing, now!” Kageyama’s voice cut through the chaos. Hinata swept his blade horizontally, cutting through two demons at once. “Nice!” Kageyama said, a hint of a grin in his tone. The two were moving as one, just like they had so many times before, their steps perfectly synchronized. 

Huh, funny… Hinata suddenly caught himself thinking. Wasn’t he supposed to be terrified? But at every twist, as each move of their swords hit something, he found himself relaxing into the rhythm, trusting Kageyama’s commands and the subtle shifts in his body.

He closed his eyes for a moment, relying on the feel of Kageyama’s presence to guide him. Despite the danger, there was an exhilaration to their teamwork—a connection he couldn’t put into words. Kageyama felt it too, of course, as he always had but was proud enough to keep only to himself. 

“See! Aren’t you glad I came along?” Hinata yelled over the shrieks of the little demons, his voice not giving any sign of tiredness. No, he was ecstatic. 

“Absolutely not! If you weren’t here I’d be already out of this place!”

“But it’s fun! Right?” Hinata felt Kageyama crouching, which meant he had to jump. He did, and Kageyama killed another one. 

“Yeah!” Kageyama… laughed? He laughed !! “It is!”

The fight lasted for another minute or so. As the last demon fell, silence returned to the chamber. The two stood there, panting and covered in ash, grins plastered across their faces.

“We did it!” Hinata exclaimed, spinning around in excitement. But as he turned, his sword caught something solid.

Kageyama yelped, stumbling back. “What the fuck?”

Hinata froze, horrified to realize his sword had struck Kageyama’s side.

“Oh my gods, I’m so sorry!” Hinata yelped, dropping his weapon. “Shit, shit, shit!”

“You stabbed me!” Kageyama shouted, clutching his side.

"Not on purpose!" Hirata cried, helping Kageyama to the floor, who hissed in pain. “How bad is it?” He fumbled in the dark, searching for the wound. Kageyama grabbed his wrist — his hand was sticky and Hinata knew it was bloody — and guided it to the wide cut on the side of his torso. It was deep. “Oh gods, oh no no no no! Where’s the nectar?”

“It’s,” Kageyama said, reaching for his sling bag and freezing when he didn’t find it. “Fuck…” he said between his teeth. 

“What?” 

“I think I lost it when we fell.”

“Shit! Okay, I can go find it,” Hinata tried to get to his feet, but Kageyama refused to let go of his wrist. 

“Hinata, calm down. You can heal me, can’t you?” 

“What? No! I’m shit at that! I suck at everything, you know that! You keep saying that, and I don’t listen! I just had to come along, didn’t I?”

“Hinata.”

“I fuck everything up, I don’t know why I didn’t listen to you. Or to everyone else! 

"Hinata, focus!"

"You'll die and it'Il be my fault. Gods, your dad's gonna—" his words were cut out by a kiss.

Wait . A what now?

It took more than a second for Hinata to realize what was going on. But before he could react, Kageyama broke the kiss, but kept his hands on both sides of Hinata's face. When did they get there?

"Shoyo, listen to me,” he pressed their foreheads together. “Do you have any idea of what you just did? You fought a horde of demons with your eyes closed. And won. Unscathed.”

"B–Because of you," Hinata blinked, trying so hard to be able to see. He needed to look into Kageyama’s face right now. 

"Not because of me. I fought my share, you fought yours. The ones you took down are your own merit. You don’t suck! You were brilliant.” His voice was so soft. Hinata didn’t know he could be this soft. 

“I– I…” He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what was happening. “I was just following your lead.”

“Yeah,” Kageyama breathed out. “That’s the thing. The most fucking important thing: you trusted me." 

"I always trust you." Hinata shut his eyes, surprised at how true it sounded. How true it was.

"Exactly.” Maybe Hinata was going crazy, but he could swear Kageyama was smiling just by the sound of it and the slight movement of his face against his. “And I trust you too. I know I'm always messing with you—"

"So now you admit it!"

"—but—shush it! But I see you working harder than everyone else on that camp. So yeah, your healing is not like Nishinoya's, but you can do this."

Hinata took a deep breath. Okay. Okay. Kageyama trusted him. Kageyama Tobio trusted him. He could do this. He could do this. He would do this. 

"Will you kiss me again?” The words were out of Hinata’s mouth before he could make sense of what he was saying. “You know, as a little push?"

Kageyama managed a laugh out, before leaning in and pressing his lips against his. This time, Hinata was ready. He slid his finger under the sweaty hairs at Kageyama’s nape, pulling him in slightly, before parting his lips to deepen the kiss. Big mistake.

"Fuck!" Kageyama whined in pain.

"Shit, sorry."

"Just fucking heal me already!"

"Yeah, yeah, on it!” Hinata took a deep breath, positioning both his hands on the wound. Shit , there was so much blood. In whatever the hell had just happened between them, they neglected to keep pressure on it. Stupid, stupid! If something happens— NO! He shook his head. Focus. 

‘Channeling it with music usually helps’, he remembered Nishinoya saying. Okay. He’s got this. 

Kageyama could see the way Hinata frowned, even in the dark, the concerned look on his face, giving way to determination. He started to hum a melody under his breath, and Kageyama allowed himself to close his eyes, relaxing his head on the crook of Hinata’s neck. He smelled like summer, even after everything. 

Little by little, he felt the burning of the wound ease-out, and his mind cleared a bit. It was then he recognized the melody. 

“Is that the song from Tangled?” 

He felt Hinata’s shoulder shake slightly. “Yeah,” he chuckled. 

Kageyama opened his eyes, raising his head a bit to look at Hinata. Oh. He was glowing again. He swallowed dry. “Why?” 

“Helps with the intent,” Hinata allowed himself to raise his eyes to Kageyama, finally able to look at him after everything. His hair was disheveled, gluing to his face due to the sweat— but that wasn’t news. He was used to seeing that. He had blood on his neck, probably from Hinata’s hand earlier. But his eyes… His eyes, always sharp, were now soft, reflecting the golden light. The breath got caught on Hinata’s throat. How did he never notice before? He was beautiful. 

Before he could stop himself, he leaned forward again, stealing a chaste kiss. Kageyama sighed against him, relaxing even more. The pain must have lessened by now. They broke apart, and Kageyama went back to resting on Hinata’s shoulder, happily listening to the humming of the Healing Incantation from Tangled. His last though before he passed out was ‘ I’m in love with an idiot’.

Two days later — because both had to rest before managing the trip back — Hinata got the scolding of his life back at the Camp, being ordered to take over a thousand tasks from his brothers for the rest of this summer, the next, and winter break.

“But you don’t come here during winter break,” Kageyama said, stretching before their daily practice. 

“Well… I didn’t .” Hinata looked sheepish. Kageyama raised a brow. “Well… You do! And I really really don’t want to wait another year to see you again!” He blurted out. 

Kageyama rolled his eyes affectionately. “You’re an idiot.”

“Your idiot!” Hinata beamed. 

And Kageyama wanted to argue with that, but… Well, it was true, wasn’t it? “Enough talking. Wanna practice or not?” He didn’t wait for a reply as he got up and headed to the arena, confident that Hinata would follow.

And Hinata did, of course, as he would always do. 

[missamyrisa2]

I would love it if I could get teased and tormented dumb in one of your machines…

My clit is throbbing as I read your posts…

"uhohhhhh~!" You hear the machiney voice warble as your royal button pulses so cutely. Little did you realize your excitement was as a beacon to my latest machine ~ the girly button polisher ~ and she's everrrrr sooo overly excited to give your pearly a nice wash and makeover~~

The humming buzzing grows closer, drawn to your button's hot heat like a magnet~ you try to hide under your bed making a desperate dive as the door opens. Machinery wooshes around, scanners deploying~ "uh ohhh~" she zips around, detecting your silly button again ~ and thennnn the robotic hand snatches you by your ankle and yanks you out, holding your wiggly body upside down for the smirking robotic face and scanners to see~and thoroughly verify

Gloved robotic hands deploy in a gang, wigging their fingers tauntingly at you before moving about to start stripping off your clothes. You are tossed and handled and positioned as your top, bottoms, socks, and panties are tossed aside in a pile ~ completely nude and squirming, the hands orient you and gently spread your legs so the scanners can start working. The tingling beams start at your toes and fingers, working upward and downward in tandem ~ the humming grows louder as they move up over your knees, sending tingles through your thighs ~ down your chest ~ they slowly converge towards your royal area, the beeping raising in pitch. The machine rumbles in excitement getting closer to its target.

"Uhhhhohhh~!!"

She chimes, as the scanners reach your royal button and light up with a pulsing flash. Clamps spring forward and apply padded frilly cuffs onto your wrists & ankles before the hands pin you to your bed and attach them, the spherical machine sprouting extensions so it can brace the floor and stay steady during the procedure. Again your legs are gently spread~ as soft spinning implements emerge and begin twirling slowly.

"Who has a tickle button, then?" She taunts with her robotic voice, the whirling buffers in their obnoxiously bright pink fluff picking up speed as they begin buffing along your hips, working up your sides to your ribs. Another set is working from your heels up to your toes, the impossibly soft material twirling and gliding along your skin paying extra special attention to the hot spots detected during the scans. Two buffers hover on your underarms, just gently sliding back and forth ~ and they're paired with another set on your shoulders to neck~ as a trio of smaller detail spinners begin circling your navel and royal chest buttons~

The final set of buffers take their time, working your inner legs from behind your knees upward. Her mechanical smirk watches intently for it to happen ~ all the tickles and teases swishing over your wriggling helpless body, verified by repeated scans, are orchestrated to coax out that most royal pearl~ the spinning girly fluff gets closer and closer, on your inner thighs, working up and down with the slowest progress~

"Who's a ticklish girl~!" she teases, the scanners processing your every move as the hands start taunting your ears with fluffy feathers. And then with a loving chime, the buffers reach your innermost royal area and indeed coax out that pretty pearlyyy~ "uh ohhh!" She repeats once more, a gloved gliding down to ever so lightly tap on your clitty with a finger. The probing continues with a little tubed device sliding out to blow tickly teasy puffs of air on your swelling button.

"Does that tickle?" she asks, her interrogation endless and every time your answers are met with affirming beeps and boops.

The buffers switch out for tickle hands now, their fingers scrunching and flexing ~ though your view is surely focused downward as a paintbrush is starting to glisten with a cleansing gel~ you can struggle and fight all you like, and you certainly do, but the cuffs hold steady and the hands are massaging and rubbing and tickling all the defiance from you, working your tummy and sides and legs with knowing touches ~

"Hold still~ this might tickle~!" the machine teases as the soft brush begins ever so gently and relentlessly coating your wanting button with the cool tingly gel~ as its effects quickly set in and put your body into ticklish hysterics, the hands hold you steady with one patting your head affectionately. The brush then moves up and similarly torments your chest buttons, thoroughly coating them after a reapplication of the mystery tickle compound.

"Does that tickle?" She questions you again even as you gasp and giggle madly ~ stiff-tip feathers slide out to join the ranks of ticklers and begin testing the application on your buttons, their ends grazing on your swollen girly parts with the most taunting of touches. Hands grasp at your chest, seizing your boobs to hold them still and take every circling touch of the feathers. Down below your hips are held with thumbs rubbing in circles while the feather crests up and down from your button to your lips, pausing to lightly stroke each side of your clitty on every pass.

"Uhohhh~!" she exclaims as your button throbs so wantingly. "Does that tickle?" She asks once more as the feather retracts and a long cylinder slides out with a menacing hum. The shiny object moves closer and closer to your girly area before rumbling and splitting open ~ revealing an array of tiny brightly glowing buzzy buffers, all working and positioning independently towards your pearly ~ as you wiggle madly the machine keeps you steady~ and again adoringly pats your hair and head while you struggle to endure all the vibey tickles working around your clitty.

"Let's get a nice big ticklegasm then~" her taunt plays out assuringly, and the loving overload has no intention to end regardless of how many times you snickercum ~ because behind the current set of implements, an array of kissy licky synthetic lips are sliding out and making muah muah muahs towards youuu~<3

[dat-physics-gal]

Explain to me dipole selection rules please I beg

Okay, so for a transition between energy eigenstates, there needs to be an exchange of a photon with the correct energy. I'm assuming you know that.

Since photons are waves of the electromagnetic field, they impose an electric moment on charged particles, which in a vast majority of cases can be modeled as a simple dipole moment.

Now here's where the quantum mechanics starts: The dipole moment is expressed as a linear operator, which when applied to the wave function of a particular state gives you back the eigenvalue for the dipole moment of that state. However, since we want to describe the transition between states, and the operator only applies to the ket of the wave function, the bra and the ket which it is nestled in between are of the different states, aka the starting and the final electron state.

The operator applies to the starting state ket, which can then be completed on the left with the final state bra, and then integrated over to obtain the transition dipole moment integral.

This integral will tell you the expectation value for the transition. For the selection rules, you don't actually have to precisely calculate this integral, you just have to find out whether or not it is zero, because if it is, that means you have an impossible transition on your hands.

Depending on your representation, the dipole operator as well as the wave functions will look different, as will the space you integrate over.

So first, find which representation (spatial, spherical, momentum space, etc.) you are working with, how the dipole operator looks for that representation, and then pick the two states you want to see if a dipole transition exists between them.

The tricky part is usually to get the wave function representation right, and then to leverage the symmetries of that function to determine if the value of the integral is zero or not. The representation that i find most common for tasks like this is this one, which separates the wave function into a radial and two angular parts. It is also already conveniently expressed in terms of 3 quantum numbers, that being the main quantum number n, the orbital angular momentum number l, and the magnetic quantum number m.

I am afraid you'll have to learn the quirks and symmetries of the generalized Laguerre polynomials as well as the spherical harmonics, in order to make statements about the transition dipole moment integral. However, once you get a feel for their symmetries and remember in what special cases integrals vanish (like integrating an odd function over a symmetric interval, etc.) you will be able to derive the selection rules.

I know this wasn't a simple and easy answer, but, well, this is quantum mechanics, to be fair. Hope that helped anyway.