#advantages of volte

[piratefishmama]

Nest | Part 12

A Steddie A/B/O ficlet

To be security at a clinic like Nest, there were particular requirements. One of the main ones, was that you had to be a Beta. An Omega or an Alpha couldn’t be security at a clinic like Nest because stereotypically, both could be swayed by pheromones very easily.

One of the other main requirements, was that you could not allow yourself to be intimidated by an Alpha. You could not allow yourself to show fear in the face of a swayed Alpha, you had to be strong, had to be capable, and above all else, you had to have nerves of steel.

Funnily enough however, those requirements weren’t actually that commonly required at the clinic. Much to many outsiders surprise, their Alphas didn’t just go nuts in the presence of an Omega in heat, it was only the unfortunately loudly broadcasted instances of a few that took advantage of such vulnerable members of society, and thus... it was actually kind of terrifying when it DID happen.

When an Alpha turned up, especially one the size of Steve Harrington, chased by one of the reception Betas and the Beta in charge of the entire facility, it was easy to forget the second most important requirement of being security at a heat Clinic, and lose your nerve in the face of one of the largest and most prominent Alphas in the building.

Even if he were usually a giant teddy bear.

“STEVE!” There was Robin, running faster than the elder Beta struggling behind her, “Steve will you stop!”

Steve clearly wasn’t paying any attention to her, something had his focus locked on that door, leaving the two Betas guarding it wide eyed and frankly terrified. Sure Steve wasn’t known for fighting, he wasn’t known for being very proficient at fighting, in fact as far as pretty much everyone in Hawkins knew, Steve wasn’t a fighter in the slightest.

He’d won maybe one fight in his entire life, and that was against another Alpha at the mall who’d insulted the very Beta currently chasing him. It didn’t make him any less terrifying when they were guarding an Omega currently in the most vulnerable of heat stages.

“Move.” He was upon them before either of the two Beta’s could draw their weapons, taser like cattle prods that’d deliver just enough volts to knock an Alpha on their ass long enough for them to be subdued. Barbaric but deeply effective.

“We can’t!” The one on the left found just enough of his voice to squeak out. “You can’t go in the—”

“You don’t understand he needs me, he needs help.”

“Steve!” Robin came up the rear, hands on her knees, chest heaving as she panted her exhaustion “Steve for the love of Christ you can’t go in there!” Her arrival giving just enough of a distraction for both Betas to quickly pull their weapons, holding them defensively. “What exactly do you plan on doing?”

“I don’t KNOW I just—I know he needs me Robin, I cant just leave him like that and you shouldn’t ask me to!” Both guards looked at each other in confusion, Steve wasn’t… acting like an Alpha overcome by pheromones, he wasn’t acting out of his mind. He didn’t even seem that angry, just… determined, their stances faltered.

“Do you even know that it’s safe? That he won’t attack you if you go in? He attacked his uncle, he went for the guys throat and you think he’s just going to accept you into his space like that?”

“If he attacks me, then he attacks me, I have to TRY! I can’t—I can’t just leave him. I can’t. I won’t.” Steve made it all of two steps toward the two baffled Beta guards when he was bodily tackled by Robin, sending him to the floor with an impressive crash and a startled yelp.

Note to selves, don’t fuck with Robin Buckley, she’s a jock in disguise.

“Stop struggling and just—will you just—Steve STOP!” They knew they ought to help, but they were just rooted to the floor, staring in wide eyed bafflement.

“Get off! Robin I swear to God, get OFF me!” Yet no matter how loud Steve raised his voice, he never made any move to force her off. He could have, he could have so very easily hurt her, he was large, he was an alpha, Robin was a sturdy Beta who regularly took zero shit, but she was nowhere near as strong as Steve and he wasn’t in a state where Beta pheromones would stop him.

He was coherent. He was himself. He just pushed against her hold as if he couldn't harm her.

“Miss Buckley let him up!” Owens finally caught up, clearly out of breath.

“But—”

“Let him up, he’s not even fighting you.” They did look quite the sight, like two siblings play fighting without any intent to harm, like a sister had pounced on her brother to stop him from getting her diary, or answering the phone with some crazy embarrassing excuse as to why Robin couldn’t answer it. “He’s harmless.” The only thing missing was laughter. “He’s also right, Mr Munson cannot spend his heat like that, it could cause him irreparable psychological damage” undoubtedly it’d been how he’d always spent his heat.

It was a wonder he’d lasted as long as he had, at least at home he'd been in familiar settings.

“But Steve can’t be the one to go inside” Robin argued as she extracted herself from atop her best friend. “What if he—”

“Steve... you have to know that if anything happens to Eddie while you’re in there. I cannot help you.” Owens ignored Robin entirely as he reached down to help the Alpha up “if he’s harmed in any way, if he leaves this place afterwards and complains, if he pushes for charges to be pressed, I cannot help you. I will undoubtedly be removed from my position as well the moment it’s investigated. Do you understand?” There were rules in place, he’d have broken the rules, Steve would be prosecuted as a dangerous alpha, and Nest would be submerged in scandal.

It’d not only be career ending, but it’d also be life altering in the worst of ways.

“I won’t hurt him.” Steve knew the risks “but I understand” and he knew the consequences of taking those risks and having them blow up in his face.

“Steve...” Robin tried as she pushed herself to her feet “how much of this is your attraction to him? Think about it, would you have done this for anyone else?”

“...Nobody else has needed me to, Robs.” Even if he would have, nobody had needed him. They all seemed to work fine by instincts, they knew what they had to do and had almost no qualms with doing it first time or not.

Eddie wasn’t that. He wasn’t comfortable In the slightest, he didn’t feel right, he wanted a fairy tale, not an unfamiliar room, a weighted blanket, and a fake knot.

He wanted to be pampered, to be loved. So desperate for it that he’d put himself through hell waiting for it to happen.

“But would you if someone had?”

“Yes.” The worst part was, she knew that. She knew he would. He was just that kind of person, he’d always put others before himself. He’d always risk it all to save someone else, he’d take on the world, no matter if he’d known them for years or for mere minutes. If someone needed him, he’d be there, zero hesitation. “You know that though, don’t you?”

Her silence was telling. She knew him better than anyone.

Owens turned to the guards, who’d been silent throughout the interaction, their batons held lax, both curious but unmoving “stand down boys, hand over the key card” their attention snapped to him and his outstretched hand.

“But sir...” the one on the left started, looking between the three hesitantly, “I don’t thi—"

Only to be cut off by “You heard me, hand it over.” They couldn’t say no. Owens was in charge. The key card was deposited into his hand without further argument. “Alright, you’re both dismissed. Neither of you will be involved in this.” For their own good, it was likely that Owens would wind up on the chopping block too if something happened, there were cameras all over that facility for obvious reasons, all an investigative team needed to do was check the footage to see Owens letting Steve into that room. Sure they'd be disciplined for just handing over the card but... that'd be all.

It was a career ender for Steve and Owens. No matter. Owens was due to retire soon anyway.

The two Betas nodded and made their escape without further argument. Owens then turned and offered the card to Steve.

“...Are you really sure about this, Doc?” Robin asked, her voice quiet, full of concern and hesitance.

She knew Steve, knew he’d never hurt anyone, never take advantage, he’d never attack anyone, but... She’d also seen Alphas just snap. Alphas who’d never done anything wrong before, suddenly needing to be taken down by force. She didn’t want to see that happen to Steve, didn’t even want to risk it.

But even she had to admit that Eddie needed help.

“I’d stake my career on it. Steve, just to reiterate, you know the rules… whatever you do in there, if you break them, you’re liable for immediate dismissal and felony charges should it be taken further by the Omega in question and he will have every right to do so. Do you understand?”

“An you’ll be fired too?”

“Oh yeah I’ll be extremely fired.” He handed Steve the keycard “make good choices.”

Part 14

[cryobabyy]

whew girl that breeding fic changed my life. i neeeeeeeed more of that scenario. THE ANKLE MONITOR???? whats going on there?? please queen i need more 😫

In celebration of Trap being released on HBO MAX, here's a brief narrative explanation of ✨the ankle monitor✨

Your escape attempt ends as quickly as you took advantage of the deadbolt Cooper forgot to latch. The front porch of the remote farmhouse overlooks a wide and long patch of rural Pennsylvanian pasture and an empty horizon. Cooper’s waiting for you at the bottom of the steps, his hands on his hips and his heavy set of keys dangling from his belt loop. 

“Leaving so soon?” Cooper feigns disappointment with a patronizing expression, takes a step to the side, and gestures toward the dirt path you can only hope leads out to a main road. He’s daring you. “Don’t let me stop you.”

You don’t dare move. You couldn’t.

“Smart girl.”

Cooper begins a slow ascent up the creaky wooden porch steps.

“That little gadget strapped to your ankle— It’s meant for Farmers, to keep their cattle dogs within a certain perimeter. Just a light little shock to prevent them from wandering off the property. A couple of minor adjustments and suddenly it’s perfect for keeping a pretty girl like yourself where she’s supposed to be. It's a simple system, really. And so easy to set up! Only took me about a day's work.”

Cooper stands beside you, overlooking the pasture. It would have made for a pretty postcard if the circumstances were less morbid. 

“Do you know how many volts it takes to kill a human being?”

“You don’t have to do this—” You start your plea, voice trembling and face hot. Cooper callously interrupts.

“There’s actually no set answer. Generally speaking, if 2,700 volts doesn’t get the job done, it’s enough to seriously fuck you up. I mean, you wouldn’t believe some of the fire code violations we come across. I hate to be grim, but we’re all just one faulty wire away from cardiac arrest—or a house fire at the very least, God forbid. You see that mailbox over there, baby?”

He points to the lone wooden fixture way out on the dirt path. You nod. Cooper smiles softly.

“You won’t get within 20 fucking feet of it before you fry.” 

The tiny flame of hope you had a mere 2 minutes ago dies in an instant. You feel cold, like you’re already dead. The wet tears rolling down your cheeks remind you that you aren’t.

“Whew! It’s getting chilly out here. Why don’t you come inside, sweetheart? I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

[chaotic-orphan]

Whumptober No.6

Not realising they’re injured

Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms // Healed Wrong // "It's not my blood."

This one is kind of inspired by the prompts but not about any one of them? It’s in the rules, ✨it’s allowed✨

*~*~*~*~*

Hero didn’t stop until they were far enough away from Villain until they slowed and allowed themselves to catch their breath. They pressed their back flush against the brick wall, gasping out a hiss of pain as they grabbed the shaft of the arrow sticking out of their stomach, just above their hip.

Villain’s arrow was lodged inside and with every step Hero took it rubbed against their hip bone and sent jolts of pain ricocheting up their spine, every movement serving to further aggravate it. Hero released the shaft with a grunt, and went for the arrow in their shoulder first.

They bit their tongue to stop themselves from screaming as they snapped the fletchlings off the ends. Hero couldn’t help the whimper in the back of their throat at how painful even that slight movement was, but they couldn’t stop now.

Hero braced themselves and stepped away from the wall, huffing out a few laboured breaths before they pushed the arrow through their body. Hero stomped their foot, their neck muscles tense as they glared at the sky, letting out huffing breaths of pain and whining in the back of their throat until the arrow fell to the ground on the other side.

The wound started pooling blood but Hero tried their best to ignore it, staunching the bleeding with the wad of cloth bandages they kept on them at all times. It would have to do.

Hero side stepped to the corner of the alley, peaking out around the corner, expecting Villain to appear at the end of the Warehouses with their bow poised and ready, already aiming at Hero’s head, but… it was quiet. Silent.

Eerily so.

Hero glanced down at the leftover bandages, considering if they should even try to do anything with their hip but… no. They should wrap it tight and then continue out, looking for cover. They weren’t going to be able to fight Villain again like this, they were too crafty, too cunning and unpredictable, and unlike Hero, they could fight from the shadows and still devastate Hero with their arrows.

Hero wrapped the bandage around their hip, crossing and pulling it tight but not too tight, and tucking the end into a strip before they straightened again, scanning the warehouses across from them. If they could get between the next two warehouse, they would be home clean if they could make it to the street. Hero could lose themselves in the narrow streets instead of running through the wide open space, that only really gave Villain any advantage in the fight.

Hero waited, listened, and when they were satisfied they heard nothing, Hero stepped out of the alley. They had to be quick. They walked with strong steps, careful not to put too much pressure on their injured leg, even if every step no matter how light sent new volts of agony spiking through their body.

Halfway across.

Hero was doing good.

Then the warehouses turned, and Hero frowned and the ground rushed up to meet them. Hero shot their hands out and cried out when they took their weight on their bad shoulder, barely suppressing a scream.

What?! What happened? Did their leg go from under them? Hero pushed themselves up but the world spun again and they felt like they were going to get sick. The strength left them as they tried to push themselves up again but fell face down, and this time they did scream when the arrow lodged in their hip was pushed further inside them.

All energy had been zapped from them, the world dizzying, turning over itself and in and out of focus as Hero tried to blink. Had they lost too much blood? What was—

Loud, echoing footsteps sounded through the warehouse strip, deafening the closer they got to Hero. Hero saw them, Villain’s legs, their bow handing by their side.

“Hero, Hero, Hero,” Villain tsked, the words running together and echoing off Hero’s skull. Villain stopped beside Hero and crouched, slapping Hero’s cheek. Hero whined in reply. “Still with me, hmm?”

They could feel Villain’s eyes roam over them, but they couldn’t tell what they were thinking, what they were observing. Hero tried to speak but their tongue felt fat and heavy in their mouth so all they could do was whine.

A sharp slap to the shoulder and Hero cried out into the darkness, but they couldn’t move, they couldn’t struggle away. Thinking became too much of an effort and they had no idea what was happening to them. They flexed their fingers but only their pinky twitched in front of their face.

“Paralysis poison,” Villain supplied, as if reading Hero’s mind. Hero’s body suddenly ran cold with terror. Villain chuckled darkly. “Oh, don’t worry. I didn’t put it inside you, and it’s not permanent, no.”

Villain grabbed Hero’s shoulder and turned them onto their back none-too-gently. Hero could only glare up at them as best they could. Hoping they were threatening, bur probably not.

“See, Hero,” Villain said, walking their fingers down Hero’s neck to their shoulder and pressing in until Hero cried out. “I know all about your little habits, your frankly, unhealthy habits, because we’ve been fighting for so long. I know you take two sugar in tea with a dash of milk and you like the croissants on fifth for breakfast.”

If Hero could, they know their body would be trembling, but their body may as well have been stone with how still it was. Villain continued walking their fingers down from Hero’s shoulder to their hip. Hero let out a low whine of protest that sounded pathetic even to their ears.

Villain’s amused eyes met Hero’s terrified ones. They wanted to shake their head and beg Villain not to touch that wound. To their surprise, Villain didn’t touch the arrow, just prodded at the wound around it until Hero sang with screams of pain.

“And I know that you would rather disappear into the night, and live to fight another day when you’re bested, so I adapted. You probably didn’t notice in your pain, but I coated the shafts of the arrows with a paralysis poison that turns your muscles off for about an hour or two, long enough for me to hunt you and let the poison take effect.”

They dug their fingers into the wound until Hero was practically growling their screams were so guttural.

“Now, one arrow, sure, maybe you touch it, maybe you don’t, but two?” Villain whistled. “Two points of contact to deal with while running? I know you would rather have one weakness, so I coated them both and waited until you exposed yourself. And hey presto, here you are, and here I am.”

Villain leaned in closer to Hero’s face, smiling down at them with a cruelty creasing their eyes. “And this time, sweet Hero. There will be no running away. I’m taking you home with me.”

Villain laughed at Hero’s blank expression except for their wide, terrified eyes. “No? Okay, tell you what. If you object in the next five seconds, you can walk free. Is that fair? Ready? Five.”

Hero whined in the back of their throat, trying to make any other noise they could that would signal a protest because they couldn’t go home with Villain!

“Four.”

Nobody… Hero… what if they had more of the paralysis poison and just left Hero like this to do with as they pleased?

“Three.”

Hero tried to pant out sudden, sharp cries. Villain grinned wickedly down at them, running their gloved fingers over Hero’s cheek.

“So eager for me, Hero. Don’t worry, I’m eager two.”

Hero screamed and all that came out of their mouth was a whimper.

“One. No protest? Okay then. If you insist.” Villain slung their bow across their back, fastening it to the quiver before they scooped Hero up, one hand across their upper back resting on Hero’s injured shoulder to the shrieks of Hero, and the other under their knees. “Oh, I can’t wait until I get you home, Hero. You don’t know how many things I want to do to you.”

Hero screamed at their body to struggle, to wiggle free, to do anything, but the only part of themselves that Hero could move were their eyes that were fixed staring up at Villain as Villain carried them away. They glanced down at Hero, smiling with a terrifying glee.

“You really shouldn’t have been so predictable, Hero, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to catch you. And now that I have you…” Villain trailed off, stopping in front of a car. They clicked a button and the boot of the car raised. Fear shot through Hero as sudden as being dunked in an ice bath when Villain put Hero into the boot. Villain reached a hand down to stroke Hero’s cheek. “I am never letting you go.”

[kani-miso]

hngngngnggngn guyss what if the dude in the ending of the t2 summary, will influence es even further into their warden role (and maybe something really bad will happen)

we all know that the dude used "watashi" instead of jackalopes "ore-sama", this is really important. since we know in the novels, jackalope's aren't technically "jackalopes", they are technically "human", sort of. maybe, the dude who used watashi could be jackalope off of work, or the dude in the novel (the boss). the identity of that man isn't really important in this discussion, but i just want to find out ig.

what's important is, do you remember about the aviot collab? es' last test line is the main topic. (im to lazy to take the image). the line, "i(boku wa)... i(watashi.. wa..)...." iirc. the 1st "i", uses boku, their usual 1st person pronoun. boku is usually used by young boys, but in this case they're using it since boku is used by workers (boku is also gender neutral). the 2nd "i" uses watashi, they have NEVER used this 1st person. what if, the reason why they used watashi, is because of that dude in the ending of t2 summary using watashi. only we can hear that dude since he appeared when es is put to sleep, if they are taking reference off of that dude, how did they hear it? the viewers mind and es' mind is sorta connected (the reason why es can hear our thoughts).

before es is put to sleep, jackalope is awfully manipulative i will rip my guts out. "and anyway, whatever happens to them, none of it can be taken back. its not for the guard to worry about. that's right, you are the guard. don't doubt it. that is your job. as long as you dont forget that, it's fine. now that you understand, go to sleep, es."

its not for the guard to worry about : jackalope knows that es has their full trust on him, he's using that as a chance to take advantage of their own feelings, making them slowly lose empathy for the prisoners. also, maybe jackalope said this because he knows es feels guilty for what happened to the guiltied (…I'm sorry. I'm responsible for the fact that you've ended up like this.) ig he is supposed to be the representation of the all seeing eye in the panopticon.

that's right, you are the guard. don't doubt it : in some occasions, es doubted their role of being the warden (ex: "Guard-san"... Is that really... me?). since they're doubting their role, i think jackalope is trying to push the warden role onto them so they wont ever give up and become a vulnurable target of "manipulation" for the prisoners.

as long as you dont forget that, it's fine : yeah ig its self explanatory.

also, the last line, "oh yes, just as i predicted, you have all turned out to be...." its so smart. in the original milgram experiment, there are three results: 1. those who followed the rules but blamed themselves for what they did 2. those who followed the rules and felt great for what they did (because they thought they actually hurt the person) 3. those who rebelled and halted the experiment. in the back of the undercover cd, there's 3 es'

and i think they can be connected to each of the results. the one on the top could be the 1st result, the one on the middle could be the 2nd result, and the third one could be the 3rd result.

i love how they just cut it off before he says what we all turned out since there's three results that could happen. because we technically have the idea of what es could end up after t3, i wonder how much farther would they go to be the ideal warden (especially with how jackalope is persuading es to not worry about what happens to the prisoners).

(+edit: a jp person translated the ending part where it glitches, its "you have all turned out to be psychopaths who enjoy other people's misery", which is technically the result of the real milgram experiment, even stanley milgram himself was horrified of the results, "a very high proportion of subjects would fully obey the instructions, with every participant going up to 300 volts, and 65% going up to the full 450 volts.".

i might be reaching too far so take this with a grain of salt

tldr; the dude at the end of t2 summary will worsen es

[drnikolatesla]

The Lauffen-Frankfurt Experiment of 1891: A Landmark in Electrical Engineering

In 1891, an experiment in Germany transformed the future of electricity. The Lauffen-Frankfurt experiment marked the world's first successful long-distance transmission of three-phase electric power. Stretching approximately 175 kilometers (or 109 miles) from Lauffen am Neckar to Frankfurt am Main, it was a highlight of the International Electrotechnical Exhibition. Key figures included Oskar von Miller, the exhibition's chief organizer; Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, who designed the three-phase generators; and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown, an engineer from Switzerland's Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon, which supplied much of the equipment.

So, what made this experiment groundbreaking? They set up a three-phase AC system powered by a robust 300-horsepower generator, stepping up the voltage from 55 volts to an impressive 8,500 volts for efficient long-distance transmission. This setup, featuring three copper wires, successfully delivered enough power to run a 100-horsepower motor and illuminate 1,000 incandescent lamps at the exhibition.

What is three-phase? Think of it like a three-lane highway. With just one lane (single-phase), you can only have one car (or current) at a time, which leads to traffic jams. But with three lanes, multiple cars can move smoothly side by side, ensuring a steady flow. This means electricity can be delivered more efficiently and with less flicker, making it ideal for powering everything from lights to heavy machinery. While it might seem logical to add more phases for even better efficiency, three-phase systems are often the sweet spot. They provide balanced and constant power delivery, making them highly efficient for most applications. Adding more phases increases complexity without significant efficiency gains—like a six-phase system that might reduce ripple but complicates design, equipment, and maintenance.

The significance? This experiment demonstrated that electrical power could be transmitted over long distances with much less energy loss than DC systems. It achieved an impressive 75% efficiency, showcased the advantages of a three-phase system—like smoother power delivery—and highlighted the importance of voltage transformations for effective transmission. Essentially, they figured out how to make electricity travel like a well-coordinated relay race, where each runner (or phase) keeps the momentum going.

After the experiment, discussions arose about who truly invented the three-phase system. Charles Brown, a key figure in the German experiment, stepped up to give credit where it was due. In a letter published in The Electrical Review on February 12, 1892, he acknowledged the significance of the three-phase system while emphasizing that the main goal was to prove the feasibility of safely transmitting high-tension currents over long distances. He noted that although the three-phase current added complexity, its benefits for powering multiple motors simultaneously were worthwhile. Most importantly, he stated, “The three-phase current as applied at Frankfurt was due to the labors of Mr. Tesla and will be found clearly specified in his patents.”

Brown specifically referenced Tesla's patents filed on October 12, 1887: Patent No. 381,968 for an "Electromagnetic Motor" and Patent No. 382,280 for "Electrical Transmission of Power," which detailed a three-phase power system. These patents were foundational to the technology used in the Lauffen-Frankfurt experiment.

Brown’s acknowledgment highlights Tesla’s innovative spirit, which transcended borders and spurred advancements in Europe. His patents laid the groundwork for the three-phase current used in this experiment.

Tesla's patents weren’t mere formalities; they were foundational blueprints for modern electrical systems, including designs for polyphase AC systems that predated the Lauffen-Frankfurt experiment by several years. Brown's emphasis on the significance of Tesla's patents for the three-phase current demonstrated that many who discredit Tesla, even in today's debates, overlook their importance. This highlights Tesla's crucial role in developing the technology that both the German experiment and today’s innovations depend on.

In short, the Lauffen-Frankfurt experiment marked a pivotal moment in electrical engineering, proving the viability of long-distance AC power transmission and laying the foundation for today’s electrical grid. While it showcased German ingenuity, it also highlighted the collaborative nature of scientific progress, with Tesla's earlier contributions illuminating the path forward. The interplay between his theoretical innovations and the practical applications of this experiment illustrates how technological progress often builds on the brilliant ideas of others.

[jadeazora]

It sounds like the offer is on the table for Amethio to join the Rising Volt Tacklers! Ofc, he turns her down because he's still loyal to his grandfather, but the ball is beginning to roll there!

(Correction, she says they don't need to be enemies and could be allies since the Explorers and the RVT are after the same goal of trying to reach Laqua.)

But it seems Beheeyem was watching the entire time. Spinel is the sort of guy to always have a contingency planned, so he's definitely gonna use this to his advantage.

[myriadium]

Vvv_0_|_7 or Volt (meaning graceful), 8'10''. he/[they], tank build

Volt is still on the taller side for a full grown t-vestal. the ends of his powerful primary limbs are about as large as dinner plates and if he swiped you with his secondary limb your measly human skull would probably be shattered immediately. fortunately all vestal buildings use triple reinforced titanium for their extremely large specimens!

Interestingly enough, volt has had his vestigial limb completely removed, which arouses suspicion in his loyalties to the monarchy. In his interviews, however, he states that he simply has a very strong sense of personal style...yeah right, the rumor forums say.

previously ranked second of all vestals and number 1 of the haos leaderboards, he has been fighting with shadow over the spot of number two for many seasons, but his controlled battling style paired with a very calm demeanor means that he is very rarely thrown off by shadow's shenanigans.

[they] were actually the one that beat gus so bad [they] had to return gus's bakugan off camera, which was very embarrassing for gus, but it hinted that volt may be more honorable than he lets on. his human illusion holds the usual pitfalls of no ears or hands or feet, with later fixes to his eyes came after finding out that dan was freaked out by them. I guess he felt bad.

I like that his design has black and white in it, i think you can definitely make a connection between his outfit and brontes, who was the first haos bakugan i've ever seen change attribute (to darkus, no less!!)

brawlers' comments:

He's surprisingly chill. I've actually had some conversations with him where we don't end up fighting. I think with enough time he can even come over to our side. He already really respects bakugan (or just brontes?) as fighters, but maybe not as intelligent beings. Honestly I don't even know if he considers humans as intelligent beings, but he definitely doesn't talk down to us like gus or mylene. obviously I don't know how other species would "define personhood". He's still a part of the Vexos, so if the time calls for it, I'll have to defeat him.

-Dan

I've never considered [Vvv_0_|_7] to join the Resistance because [they] were simply too high profile to really "hide underground". But I believe [they] are similar to [A<E], it's just a shame the Vexos got to [them] first. If [they] remain on the side of the Vexos, it does not matter what [they] truly believe in, because at the end of the day [they] are still working towards the destruction of New Vestroia. [They] are quite a fearsome brawler as well. I've never seen a Bakugan like [Brontes], [they]'re flexibility is unmatched and allows [them] to take advantage of...honestly any of [their] opponent's strategies.

-M/RA

I don't believe [Vvv_0_|_7] has gotten any gene editing except for removing the [vestigial limb]. It's almost unbelievable how prehistoric [their] build is. I've never seen such a form outside of archeological records. I'm not saying it's inherently [good] or [bad]...there's no such thing as a [bad] build. That being said it's interesting why [they] chose to remove their [vestigial limb]. Vestals usually keep it because the royal family holds them. I have no [love] for the royal family, which is why I took mines out, but what is the reasoning for a member of the Vexos to do the same?

-A<E

[fuzzkaizer]

Conn - Multi-Vider

"All the way back in 1967, C.G. Conn wanted in on the decidedly nascent effects scene, and they wanted to do so with a bang. The company partnered with Jordan Electronics of Alhambra, CA to release an octave effect for wind instruments. The resulting circuit is a truly interesting piece of gear history. It needs to be said that Conn went into manufacturing, thereby ending its partnership with Jordan (at least according to all the paperwork) and the result was two different MultiViders. The differences on the surface are minute: the first model is grey and looks like a piece of dictation equipment, offering “bright” and “dark” input modes, a top-mounted Sensitivity control, and a plethora of battery gadgets. By contrast, the much cooler-looking model “914” did away with the frequency selector, opting for a switch called Unison and a power supply input.

Both models contain “Soprano,” “Bass” and “Sub Bass” switches, and corresponding volume for each. The 914’s Unison mode is essentially a dry signal control. The “grey box” model is a little more convoluted about it but the job is effectively identical. However, the way these two models go about these identical tasks in different—yet similar—ways.

This original “grey box” model contains a duo of ersatz flip-flop circuits, which the unit relies on for its octave down effects. The circuit utilizes some rather intense gain staging to convert the signal to a crude square wave and then use the flip-flops to divide the frequency in half and then in half again. In the later 914 model, much of this circuit is switched to a CD4013 chip, an all-in-one CMOS device. It’s interesting that the first draft of the MultiVider contains what amounts to a discrete imagining of the CD4013, and what it all adds up to is the first-ever octave effect for an electronic instrument. There’s also a wah inductor on the 914, which is connected to the sub-octave circuit somehow; I dare not remove the board due to extreme rocker switch fragility. I love stuff like this.

For as cool as this whole thing sounds, there are some drawbacks, as one might expect with the first pedal of any type. As previously stated, the MultiVider is a horns-only instrument, as is to be used with Conn’s proprietary woodwind pickup. While the “grey box” model serves up a battery option, the 914 is adapter-only, and it’s a doozy—only a 12-volt eighth-inch style phone plug will do. Thankfully there are workarounds for both; if you can solder, the power situation is a cinch and the microphone issue can be circumnavigated by hitting the MultiVider with a hotter input signal. Even then, a large belt clip on the back of the unit dictates its preferred method of implementation. With all that said, synth players are at an automatic advantage with modernizing the MultiVider.

Of course, the MultiVider was an advanced device for its time, and so it was used by artists that had explored brass instruments to their fullest. In particular, the MultiVider was used by Zappa’s band, the Mothers of Invention. It was also used by Miles Davis on 1970’s The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions. Of course there are others, but with a resume like that, stick to your strengths."

cred: catalinbread.com/blogs/kulas-cabinet/conn-multivider

[alohastyles-x]

𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚂𝚗𝚘𝚠 - 1

A Dark Disney Retelling of Snow White and the Huntsman ft. The Winter Soldier as The Huntsman.

Dark Disney Retellings Masterlist | Synopsis

Warnings: This story will contain graphic descriptions of torture, violence and gore, possible smut scenes (undecided), cursing, brief mentions of reader being nearly emaciated as a result of torture.

Wordcount: 2.3k

Note: ahhhh it's here!! I can't wait to unfurl this project for you guys! <3 There are rough Russian translations at the end, I'm sorry if it's innacurate lol, I banked on google translate for this one. Enjoy my loves!

The cold metal erupted a fire against your raw skin, the red marks from the lashings earlier a grotesque sight against the stark white of the room. Your skin had attempted to stitch itself together, but the process was slow and painful, as you could feel each individual cell regenerating into flesh. 

And yet not a sound escaped you. Your life depended on the silence of your movements.

There weren’t many rules in Hydra’s camp, but the most important was that you kept quiet, silent during it all. How else were you supposed to become a master assassin if you couldn’t silently handle pain? Their methods were unorthodox, but damn did they work. The first time you screamed, a volt of electricity ran through your body, locking your muscles in a painful grip. They continued, until your screams turned to groans, then turned to silent tears. 

It had only been six months since your father had told you he enlisted you in this program. For the country, he had said. For your people. You wondered often if he knew the pain you were subjected to here. You’d like to think he didn’t, for your sanity’s sake. 

“Up, now.” One of the guards' voices echoed as he entered the room your cage was held in. You stood determined, despite the pain that erupted through your muscles as you moved. Quiet as a mouse, you held your head high, awaiting whatever order followed. 

“Good girl,” another voice said, a short stocky man entering behind the guard. You didn’t recognize him, which meant he was an operative of Hydra, sent to check in on your training. He smirked as he looked you over. Your skin had turned alabaster white from the lack of sun and the cocktail of chemicals they injected daily. Your jet black hair was stringy, dehydrated from the lack of moisture. Your skin laid over your bones like paper, weakening by the days from the lack of food and intense physical training. You resembled a shell of your old self, which is exactly what Hydra wanted. 

“I hear you’ve been doing well,” his accent was different from the guards and trainers in the facility. He was English. His voice was deceptively gentle thanks to his accent, unlike the harsh Romanian and Russian the other guards spoke. 

“That’s good. It means we’re doing something right.” The smirked returned, making your skin crawl. He paused, for what reason you weren’t entirely sure. A beat passed before he decided to fill you in. 

“I have news, dear. You’re ready for the next phase. See, phase 1 was all about your endurance, and your initiation into a nearly immortal existence. We had to prepare you and your body for the job of a silent killer, a silent operative, if you will. You’ve proven beyond a doubt you can handle the kind of work you will be used for. Now we move to phase 2. You’ve heard the stories of our current Winter Soldier, yes?” 

How could you not. You were reminded of him constantly, compared to him with every task you failed or completed. Of course he had an advantage over you- a robotic limb and a manipulated brain that could be controlled with words. They refused to do that to you. They wanted you pristine and willing to submit. The true feminine version of him in all accords except one. The very first night you were here, they had brought you into the Red Room, a multipurpose training room in this facility. It started with an operation, ending one of the feminine qualities about you. They didn’t want to risk the effects the chemicals would have on any offspring you may one day produce. Later the room was used for training on grace and your ability to move in silence like in a ballet. The irony was not lost on you. 

You stayed silent to the English operatives' questions  as you’ve been instructed to do. It was yet another test. One you passed with ease. 

“Wow. You all truly have trained her well. I’m impressed. Anyway, darling, Phase 2 is now about strength- mental and physical. I’m not sure if you’ve looked in the mirror lately,” he paused to chuckle at his own humiliating joke. “But you’re not exactly buff. Far from it. Phase two will be about returning your strength and power back to you. The torment is over, you can rest now. You will be given a training room with equipment to use at your will to regain your muscle, while enduring mental tests to strengthen your mind, like puzzles. You like puzzles don’t you?” 

It sounded too good to be true. You knew better than to give into the false hope of an easier training phase. Either the operative truly had no knowledge of the camp you were in, or he took pleasure into tormenting you even more with the promise of a release from torment. You assumed it was the latter. 

He continued on with the details of your next training phase, as you stood silently, looking straight ahead. The guards behind him had a nasty smirk as he spoke. There was no way the operative was this clueless, you decided, which led to a stray tear falling onto your cheek at the thought of what new torment you were about to endure. 

“Don’t cry dear, this is all for the greater good. You’ll see.” He said, reaching through the bars to place a calloused thumb over your tear. His grip was firm as he wiped it away, and it took everything in you to stand completely still. 

He left with a few words to the guards on how to initiate this next phase. When they were out of sight, you slunk down in the cage, curling into a fetal position. You had to find a way to escape. You knew you couldn’t take much more of whatever training they were about to give you. 

It was that night that a plan formed in your mind, flawless in execution that was bound to work. It was a gift given from the gods above. 

Midnight struck with an eerie silence that echoed across the base. The lock to your cage had been picked, the door left ajar. The room was empty, and the guards stationed outside of the door stood confused, wondering where you went. 

“Subject 340 is missing, I repeat, subject 340 is missing,” the guard said into his mic, as he illuminated the room with the flashlight attached to his gun. The room was without a doubt empty. You had hid in the shadows behind the door, waiting for the guards to do their midnight check on you. As they entered the room, you slipped behind them through the door, taking off silently down the hall. 

Red flashing lights and sirens erupted following the command of the base leader, yelling for every guard to be on the hunt. Your bare feet padded silently down the hall as you ran,  using the red blinks as a guide. The hall slinked around into a centralized area, where you knew from your intelligence training that a group of guards would be stationed, waiting for you. 

There was a small opening in the wall next to you- a vent. You slunk through, following the narrow hall until it opened up to another hallway. You weaved in and out of various halls and vents, making it closer and closer to the exit you needed. 

Like a ghost in the night, you dodged guards, cameras, and motion sensors. It was rather easy, your small neglected frame helping to slip through the crawl spaces and vents without any evidence you were there. 

Finally, you made it to the vent you knew would bring you to the outside. It was almost too easy, as you dove through, crawling until you made it to the other side. Popping out the vent, you winced at the cold air that blew through, and another siren began to blare. It was the breached siren. You hurried out into the cold, taking off to the direction of the treeline. 

You were careful in how you stepped, ensuring footprints were not left behind you. It was a dance you knew all too well, mimicking the pattern you were taught in the Red Room.

In the end, it was their own tests and training that helped you escape under their noses.

“What do you mean you lost her?” Your father boomed, his voice echoing off the walls of his war room. His face was red with anger, as he stared down the Hydra operative who had come to give him the bad news. It should have been Alexander Pierce before your father, relaying the vital information. Instead, he sent a lowly operative, resorting to hiding in his compound like the weak coward he was. It was a trait your father despised- cowardice. 

“That is all the information I have, sir.” 

“Where is Pierce?” Your father demanded, slamming his hand on the table before him. The operative flinched slightly in response. 

“To my knowledge, he is investigating her disappearance.” 

Your father shook his head, mulling over what his next steps would be. Anger boiled through his veins. He warned them to keep a close eye on you. He knew your intelligence surpassed whatever they expected, and your determination would outrank whatever test they gave you. It was why they wanted you, and why he let you go. Your intelligence would one day outrank him if left uncontrolled, you were a threat to him and his position on the council. Hydra had succeeded so well with The Winter Soldier, he had no doubt they would succeed with you. It turns out he was wrong, and if there was one thing he despised more than cowardice, it was being wrong. 

You, after months of training, left alone to do as you please terrified your father. He visibly paused as the thought erupted into a beautiful plan. 

“Tell Pierce to send The Winter Soldier after her. He’ll find her faster than any of our men can combined. It’s the only way we can ensure she is found and returned… tell him by whatever means necessary.” Your father said, looking the operative in the eyes as he delivered his message firmly. 

The unnamed hydra operative nodded, saluting your father before retreating from the room. 

The operative now stood before Pierce, in his own war and council. room. He had delivered the news just as your father had given it to him. Pierce just looked at him with wild eyes, unsure he heard the operative clearly. 

“He wants us to unleash the Winter Soldier on her? Does he know that means her fate is sealed once she comes into contact with him?” Pierce asked, eyeing the operative with a curious look. A man sending a killing machine after his own daughter did not sound right- not even to the head of Hydra. 

“He said ‘by whatever means necessary’,” the operative replied. 

Pierce nodded. 

“Let’s go find him then.” 

It was easy to find The Winter Soldier’s hide out this time around. He had resided in an apartment just north of the city. He lived simply, with skeletons of furniture decorating it. Pierce sat in the dark, awaiting his return from his day in the city. 

He was no longer The Winter Soldier at this moment, his alter persona turned off. Right now, he was just James Buchanon Barnes, a Romanian citizen who lived a quiet life. He had gone to the markets, buying various fresh fruits and vegetables to use for a dinner he planned to make that night. 

When he returned to his apartment, he sensed something was off before he even opened the door. It was his decades of training that led him to approach carefully, opening the door slowly and silently, before proceeding into the apartment. 

He avoided the floor boards that creaked, setting the bag of fruits down as quietly as he could on the kitchen counter. 

It was then he recognized why he felt the way he did. Alexander Pierce sat just beyond the kitchen wall, illuminated only by the lights from outside the window to the left of him. He had yet to see Bucky’s presence, which would give Bucky the upper hand had he wanted to attack. 

Instead, he slunk around the corner of the kitchen into the dining room, catching Pierce’s attention. 

“Ah! James! There you are.” Pierce said, his tone friendly. Bucky sat quietly before him, waiting for Pierce to get to why he was really here. 

“We have a new mission for you.” 

“For me or for the Winter Soldier?” Bucky asked, his voice tight. He hated the transition to and from the Winter Soldier. It left him in ruins, a bit more fucked up than he was before. Not to mention the mental switch with the final word spoken hurt like a bitch. 

“I think you know the answer to that by now James.” 

Bucky sighed. He wasn’t in a position he could refuse, bound by the spell of words. Pierce pushed forward a glass of whiskey before him, offering him an outlet of relief. Bucky reluctantly picked up the glass, knocking back the warm liquid with ease. 

“Can you at least tell me the mission before the switch?” Bucky asked, hopeful for a little autonomy in the situation. 

“You know I can’t do that either, James.” Pierce responded. He actually looked empathetic with his response. 

Bucky lowered his head, waiting for Pierce to begin the cantation of words, waiting for the mental switch up into the Winter Soldier. 

“Желаниe, pжавый,” The cantation began, a piercing sound echoing in Bucky’s mind. 

“Семнадцать, рассвет, Печь,”

He grunted at the feeling erupting through his body. 

“Девять, Доброкачественные, Возвращение домой, Один, грузовой вагон.” 

Something snapped within Bucky’s psyche. He was no longer the gentle and calm James Buchanon Barnes. No. He was the silent ghost of an assassin. 

“я готов отвечать” 

He was The Winter Soldier.

Feedback is greatly appreciated <3 <3

[venture-through-the-mist]

Let’s Get Along, Even If Only for A Day

Operator Mag gets pulled into a very strange Rathuum. She finds herself enjoying it more than she would’ve thought

TW: None.

The fic begins under the cut. I hope y’all enjoy!

“He—No wait, that’s mine! Wha—“ I try to slap the hand away—a Grineer hand, I think—as it grabs at my weapons, roughly snatching the Nataruk slung across my back. I watch my squadmates, frowning as they seem to be rather unaffected by this, even as their weapons are taken as well.

“Chill, it’ll be fine. Here, you’ll be needing these.” I barely have time to turn towards the voice—a Volt—before two large objects are tossed my way. I catch one of them, a large gun, which is abnormally light. The hell kinda Rathuum is this? The other object, a bright orange ring, hits the ground and bounces a few meters away before falling onto its side. I walk over to collect it, mimicking the others as I place it around my Warframe’s waist. Suddenly, I hear Kela De Thaym, her voice projected over some sort of speaker.

“Hosers and Squirts, fill your weapons. Ah, stop complaining ya know ya love it.” I frown, my head tilting slightly as she slurs her words, her sentences stringing together as if they’re one. Why does she sound so…weird? I turn to the Volt, curious.

“Is she…okay?” They laugh.

“Yep. High as all hell, but she’s fine.” They turn to a nearby hole in the ground and I do the same. Some sort of liquid—is it acid? Some other toxic liquid?—suddenly starts spraying from it, and I jump back, startled. The others seem unfazed, and begin to remove the strange reservoirs from the tops of their guns, holding them towards the spray. I copy them, filling the cylinder before reattaching it to my gun. Still confused, I glance around as a whistle blows. 

“The fuck do I do with this?” This time, a Gauss responds.

“Same thing ya do with any gun: point and shoot. Good luck. Let’s get these fuckers.” With that, I notice a few Grineer Executioners running out into the arena, outfitted similarly to us, and my squad starts darting towards them. I notice a large, lumbering shape, quickly recognizing him. Executioner Nok. They’re a formidable opponent normally, and apprehension coils in my chest as I force myself towards them, not wanting to cower away from the unfamiliar combat. As I run, I misjudge a step, losing my footing for a moment as a spherical object rolls in front of me—what the hell is a floof doing on a battlefield?! That momentary misstep sends me right in Nok’s line of fire, and I wait for the stinging pain from whatever’s in the guns. But…nothing happens. The liquid bounces off of my Warframe, leaving a damp sheen behind, but it doesn’t start eating through the metal as I had expected.

“This is WATER?!” I accidentally shout, frozen in surprise. To my horror, not only do I hear a rasping laugh from my opponent, but the Volt shouts back, and I can just tell they’re smirking behind their mask.

“Yep! It’s meant to be fun! Relax!” I roll my eyes, glancing to Nok. They shrug, a pleased smirk on their face. They raise their gun again, but this time I’m prepared. I roll to the side, darting quickly around them—they’re slow, I remind myself, I can use that to my advantage—, and I finally aim the gun, pulling the trigger. A stream of water launches towards Nok, hitting its mark, leaving a splash of water right in the center of their chestplate. I stare in shock for a moment, as does my opponent, before they grumble, continuing towards me. I bound away, a laugh escaping me as I do so. Okay, this is fun. I dart around the arena, spraying the Grineer with water before quickly leaping away. Then, I notice a shape that’s smaller, quicker, than the others. Executioner Garesh, a former deserter with a seething hatred for the Tenno. I try to employ the tactics that have been working thus far, but he moves faster than I can shoot. Water splashes off of my Warframe as he lands shot after shot. I stumble backwards, finally falling into the shallow water beneath my feet. 

“Try not to do that, hm?” The Gauss—I still don’t really know who they are—sprints over, blocking Garesh’s escape route and hosing him down until he too tumbles to the ground. I jump to my feet, shooting back an indignant response.

“Yea, yea. Fuck off.” They laugh, and in a flash, they’re gone, already running to the other end of the arena. I smirk, propelling myself further into the center of the fray, where Executioners and Tenno alike dart and leap around, dodging streams of water. Kela’s voice shouts almost incoherently over the speakers every so often, though none of us really pay attention. I’m not keeping score, I don’t know if any of us are. Who cares who’s winning or losing? This is just fun. But, eventually all good things must come to an end, and that’s true of this strange ‘fight’ as well. The whistles sound, and a disgruntled voice echoes through the air.

“Bah! So you won this one. Best out of…how many have….” Kela trails off for a moment, before her enthusiasm is renewed, sending a shout through the arena that causes even her own Executioners to wince slightly.

“LET’S DO IT AGAIN, MEATSACKS!” An amused snort escapes me, and I hear a chuckle from one of my squadmates. 

“You all up for another round?” Three voices—including my own—respond enthusiastically.

“Hell yea, this is awesome.”

“Eh, sure. I don’t have anythin’ else going on.”

“Yep. Gotta show ‘em who’s boss somehow.” The joking tone from the Volt apparently reaches the ears of one of the Grineer, because before we can react, water splashes across their helmet. They laugh.

“Probably deserved that. I’m not wrong though!” A few slightly amused grumbles echo from the other group, though they busy themselves getting ready for the next round. We do the same, and for a moment, I just think about what’s happening. We’re…actually hanging out with the Executioners, a feat I’d never thought possible. I mean, not all of the Grineer want to kill us—the Steel Meridian and Kahl’s group prove that—, but the Executioners…well, there’s a reason they have that title. Kela hates us—well, I don’t actually think she likes most beings, but whatever—, and those who she chooses to be her subordinates generally share the sentiment. Maybe this gas leak isn’t a bad thing. I mean, sure, we’ll all go back to how it was once it’s fixed. But…maybe this shows that there could be a future where the Grineer and the Tenno get along. Probably not, a more cynical part of myself refutes. This is just one bright light in the middle of a blood-stained war that’s been going on for years. It would be stupid to think that a simple game can just…erase the tension and distrust and hatred from both sides. Yet, as the whistle blows to signal the start of the next round, as I bound towards the nearest Executioner, I find my mind wandering. If Kahl and the Meridian can work with us…A splash of water across my shoulder cuts off my thought, and I turn, quickly carrying out my revenge. Maybe we don’t need to think that far. For now, let’s just enjoy the moment.

[ecargmura]

Pokemon Horizons Episode 71 Review - The Ghost Of The Crystal Pool

Despite the episode being segmented into three different parts, Horizons actually does a good job transitioning all of it in one episode without making it feel too clunky or rushed. It’s a well-paced episode that gives everything it needs to without putting off anything into off-screen land or for another episode.

The first part of the episode is the kids and Friede finally reaching the Crystal Pool to search for Briar. Friede decides to search for her while the kids take in the sight of the Crystal Pool. Then, a Milotic shows up and terastalizes. I do like that ever since the third arc, the kids are more proactive to battle and do not need Friede to help them out anymore. These three go in a sort of Tera Raid Battle with the terastalized Milotic and actually hold off pretty well until the battle ends with Milotic and Crocalor singing, which was super cute. The Milotic in the pool is actually an occurrence that happens in-game, but the Milotic isn’t terastalized in the game, but it is programmed with a Ghost-Type tera, synonymous to the legend about the Crystal Pool being a place where one can see those who passed away. I like that the anime actually makes this happen as a way to make up for not putting it in the game. My favorite part was how the kids decided to bait Milotic out by doing a sort of water yo-yo pulling tactic where Quaxwell is the bait, Floragato is the reeler and Crocalor attacks when it goes through. These kids really know how to strategize even in tight spots now!

After the battle, Briar shows up. This is where the episode transitions into Area Zero and Terapagos lore with Briar talking about how she met a Terapagos before and also tells the group about Heath. With how she talked about meeting a Terapagos before, it makes me wonder if Horizons’ storyline takes place sometime after the game and the DLC. It now makes sense why Arven didn’t play a huge role and why Kieran didn’t show up with Carmine. I do like the parallel Briar has with Liko in that they’re both searching for the past for answers. According to the episode, it seems like Heath has found Terapagos first and then Lucius stumbled across it years later, hence why he was aware of the name Terapagos. I honestly can’t wait to see how this all ties together later on. Briar said that she’ll contact the group in regards to Area Zero later on, so it feels that this will be the first and only instance of Briar being significant to the story for a while. It sucks because she was built up to be super important only to appear in an episode. I guess they’re doing the same thing with the Gym Leaders from the previous arc in that they show up once but also show up later on. I do hope Briar shows up later on in the arc.

The final part of the episode has the Rising Volt Tacklers pondering about their next objective. They decide to look for the rest of the Six Heroes, but have no idea where they could be. Fortunately, Dot, who was wondering around Mossui Town to get video footage for content, stumbles upon a Hisuian Growlithe and its Trainer Perrin. Perrin was definitely a scene stealer for me. She was very charming here. She’s playful, but also keeps a mysterious air to her. She challenges Dot to a battle like how she does in the game, using a Leafeon reminiscent of her game counterpart and ancestor Adaman; Dot wins as Quaxwell learned Air Cutter in place of Pound, giving them the type advantage. Though, she does need to explain why she said she’s from Hisui when the region is now Sinnoh. Perrin does give Dot a photo of her evidence about the Kleavor sighting, which leads her to bring her to the airship. The way she brings this total stranger to the group and the group being totally confused on what is going on and who this person is was hilarious to watch.

Now that Perrin has joined the group temporarily, I do wonder how their search for Kleavor will be like. I know they’ll succeed, but what will transpire in the middle of their goal? I can’t wait to find out next week. Also, Tinkatuff shows up in the beginning of the episode and she isn’t seen again. What the heck? What are your thoughts on this episode?

[mariacallous]

For years, it's been an inconvenient truth within the cybersecurity industry that the network security devices sold to protect customers from spies and cybercriminals are, themselves, often the machines those intruders hack to gain access to their targets. Again and again, vulnerabilities in “perimeter” devices like firewalls and VPN appliances have become footholds for sophisticated hackers trying to break into the very systems those appliances were designed to safeguard.

Now one cybersecurity vendor is revealing how intensely—and for how long—it has battled with one group of hackers that have sought to exploit its products to their own advantage. For more than five years, the UK cybersecurity firm Sophos engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with one loosely connected team of adversaries who targeted its firewalls. The company went so far as to track down and monitor the specific devices on which the hackers were testing their intrusion techniques, surveil the hackers at work, and ultimately trace that focused, years-long exploitation effort to a single network of vulnerability researchers in Chengdu, China.

On Thursday, Sophos chronicled that half-decade-long war with those Chinese hackers in a report that details its escalating tit-for-tat. The company went as far as discreetly installing its own “implants” on the Chinese hackers' Sophos devices to monitor and preempt their attempts at exploiting its firewalls. Sophos researchers even eventually obtained from the hackers' test machines a specimen of “bootkit” malware designed to hide undetectably in the firewalls' low-level code used to boot up the devices, a trick that has never been seen in the wild.

In the process, Sophos analysts identified a series of hacking campaigns that had started with indiscriminate mass exploitation of its products but eventually became more stealthy and targeted, hitting nuclear energy suppliers and regulators, military targets including a military hospital, telecoms, government and intelligence agencies, and the airport of one national capital. While most of the targets—which Sophos declined to identify in greater detail—were in South and Southeast Asia, a smaller number were in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States.

Sophos' report ties those multiple hacking campaigns—with varying levels of confidence—to Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups including those known as APT41, APT31, and Volt Typhoon, the latter of which is a particularly aggressive team that has sought the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure in the US, including power grids. But the common thread throughout those efforts to hack Sophos' devices, the company says, is not one of those previously identified hackers groups but instead a broader network of researchers that appears to have developed hacking techniques and supplied them to the Chinese government. Sophos' analysts tie that exploit development to an academic institute and a contractor, both around Chengdu: Sichuan Silence Information Technology—a firm previously tied by Meta to Chinese state-run disinformation efforts—and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Sophos says it’s telling that story now not just to share a glimpse of China's pipeline of hacking research and development, but also to break the cybersecurity industry's awkward silence around the larger issue of vulnerabilities in security appliances serving as entry points for hackers. In just the past year, for instance, flaws in security products from other vendors including Ivanti, Fortinet, Cisco, and Palo Alto have all been exploited in mass hacking or targeted intrusion campaigns. “This is becoming a bit of an open secret. People understand this is happening, but unfortunately everyone is zip,” says Sophos chief information security officer Ross McKerchar, miming pulling a zipper across his lips. “We're taking a different approach, trying to be very transparent, to address this head-on and meet our adversary on the battlefield.”

From One Hacked Display to Waves of Mass Intrusion

As Sophos tells it, the company's long-running battle with the Chinese hackers began in 2018 with a breach of Sophos itself. The company discovered a malware infection on a computer running a display screen in the Ahmedabad office of its India-based subsidiary Cyberoam. The malware had gotten Sophos' attention due to its noisy scanning of the network. But when the company's analysts looked more closely, they found that the hackers behind it had already compromised other machines on the Cyberoam network with a more sophisticated rootkit they identified as CloudSnooper. In retrospect, the company believes that initial intrusion was designed to gain intelligence about Sophos products that would enable follow-on attacks on its customers.

Then in the spring of 2020, Sophos began to learn about a broad campaign of indiscriminate infections of tens of thousands of firewalls around the world in an apparent attempt to install a trojan called Asnarök and create what it calls “operational relay boxes” or ORBs—essentially a botnet of compromised machines the hackers could use as launching points for other operations. The campaign was surprisingly well resourced, exploiting multiple zero-day vulnerabilities the hackers appeared to have discovered in Sophos appliances. Only a bug in the malware's cleanup attempts on a small fraction of the affected machines allowed Sophos to analyze the intrusions and begin to study the hackers targeting its products.

As Sophos pushed out patches to its firewalls, its team responsible for threat intelligence and incident response, which it calls X-Ops, also began an effort to track its adversary: Sophos included in its “hotfix" for the hackers' intrusions additional code that would collect more data from customers' devices. That new data collection revealed that a single Sophos device registered in February of 2020 in Chengdu showed signs of early alterations similar to the Asnarök malware. “We started to find tiny little indicators of the attack that predated any other activity,” McKerchar says.

Using registration data and records of downloads of code Sophos made available to its customers, the X-Ops team eventually identified a handful of machines it believed were being used as guinea pig devices for Chinese hackers as they sought to find vulnerabilities and test their intrusion techniques prior to deployment. Some of them seemed to have been obtained by a Chengdu-based company called Sichuan Silence Information Technology. Others were tied to an individual who used the handle TStark, whom X-Ops analysts then found had held a position at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, also in Chengdu.

X-Ops analysts could even observe individuals using computers and IP addresses tied to the test devices reading Sophos' online materials that detailed the firewalls' architecture. “We could see them researching us,” McKerchar says.

In late April of 2020, Dutch police worked with Sophos to seize a Netherlands-based server that Sophos had identified as being used in the Asnarök infection wave. In June of that year, however, the hackers launched another round of their mass intrusions, and Sophos found they had significantly reduced the complexity and “noise” of their malware in an attempt to evade detection. Yet through the increased data collection from its devices and the intelligence it had assembled on the Chengdu exploit development group, Sophos was able to spot the malware and push out patches for the vulnerabilities the hackers had used within a week, and even identify a “patient zero” machine where the new malware had first been tested two months earlier.

The next month, X-Ops took its most aggressive step yet in countering the effort to exploit its devices, deploying its own spy implants to the Sophos devices in Chengdu they were testing on—essentially hacking the hackers, albeit only through code added to a few installations of its own products the hackers had obtained. Sophos says that preemptive surveillance allowed the company to obtain key portions of the hackers' code and head off a third wave of their intrusions, catching it after only two customers had been compromised and pushing out a patch designed to block the attacks, while obfuscating that fix to avoid tipping off the hackers to Sophos' full knowledge of their techniques.

“In the first wave, we were on the back foot. In the second wave, it was an even match,” says McKerchar. “The third attack, we preempted.”

A New Phase of the Game

Starting in 2021, Sophos says it began to see far more targeted attacks from Chinese hacker groups exploiting its products, many of which it was able to uncover due to its efforts to surveil the research of the Chengdu-based exploit development network. Over the next two years, the hackers continued hijack vulnerabilities in Sophos appliances in a wide variety of targeted attacks hitting dozens of targets in Asia and the West.

In September of 2022, for instance, Sophos found a campaign exploiting a vulnerability in its products that had breached military and intelligence agencies in a Southeast Asian country, as well as other targets including water utilities and electric generation facilities in the same region. Later, Sophos says, a different Chinese state-sponsored group appears to have exploited a bypass for its patch for that vulnerability to target government agencies outside of Asia, in one instance hacking an embassy shortly before it was set to host officials from China's ruling Communist Party. It also found intrusions at another country's nuclear energy regulatory agency, then a military facility in the same country and the airport of the country's capital city, as well as other hacking incidents that targeted Tibetan exiles.

“We just opened the door on a huge amount of high-end targeted activity, a Pandora's Box of threat intelligence," McKerchar says.

As the hackers' tooling continued to evolve in response to Sophos' attempts to head them off, the company's X-Ops researchers at one point pulled from a test device they were surveilling a unique new specimen of malware: The hackers had built a “bootkit,” an early attempt at malware designed to infect a Sophos firewall's low-level code that's used to boot up the device before its operating system is loaded, which would make the malware far harder to detect—the first time Sophos believes that sort of firewall bootkit has ever been seen.

X-Ops never found that bootkit deployed on an actual victim's machine, but Sophos CISO McKerchar says he can't rule out that it was in fact used somewhere and evaded detection. “We certainly tried to hunt for it, and we have some capability to do that,” says McKerchar. “But I would be brash to say it's never been used in the wild.”

As Sophos has tried to understand the motives of the Chengdu-based network of hackers digging up vulnerabilities and providing them to the Chinese state, that picture has been complicated by the strange fact that the researchers finding those flaws may have on two occasions also reported them to Sophos itself through its “bug bounty” program. On one occasion, for instance, the exact vulnerability used in a hacking campaign was reported to Sophos by a researcher with a Chinese IP address just after it was first used in an exploitation campaign—Sophos paid the researcher $20,000 for their findings.

That bizarre incongruity with the Chengdu-based researchers' apparent role as suppliers of intrusion techniques for Chinese state hacking groups and its bug bounty reports to Sophos, McKerchar argues, show perhaps how loose the connections are between the researchers finding these vulnerabilities and the state hackers exploiting those bugs. “I think this is a security research community which is patriotically aligned with PRC objectives,” he says, referencing the People's Republic of China. “But they're not averse to making a bit of money on the side.”

Contacts at the University of Electronic Science and Technology China didn't respond to WIRED's request for comment on Sophos' report. Sichuan Silence Information Technology couldn't be reached for comment, and appears to have no working website.

Sophos' timeline of its struggle against a highly adaptive adversaries sussing out its products' hackable flaws points to the success of China's efforts to corral its security research community and funnel its discoveries of vulnerabilities to the government, says Dakota Cary, a researcher at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan think tank, who has focused on that Chinese exploit development pipeline. He points to China's efforts, for instance, to foster hacking competitions as a source of intrusion techniques for its offensive hacking efforts, as well as 2021 legislation that requires researchers and companies based in China to report to the government any hackable bug they find in a product.

“In Sophos' document, you see the interconnectedness of that system kind of shine through,” says Cary. “The culture of these organizations working together or competing for work, and the way that the government is trying to centralize collection of vulnerabilities and then distribute those tools to offensive teams—you see all of that reflected.”

Sophos' report also warns, however, that in the most recent phase of its long-running conflict with the Chinese hackers, they appear more than ever before to have shifted from finding new vulnerabilities in firewalls to exploiting outdated, years-old installations of its products that are no longer receiving updates. That means, company CEO Joe Levy writes in an accompanying document, that device owners need to get rid of unsupported “end-of-life” devices, and security vendors need to be clear with customers about the end-of-life dates of those machines to avoid letting them become unpatched points of entry onto their network. Sophos says it's seen more than a thousand end-of-life devices targeted in just the past 18 months.

“The only problem now isn't the zero-day vulnerability,” says Levy, using the term “zero-day” to mean a newly discovered hackable flaw in software that has no patch. “The problem is the 365-day vulnerability, or the 1,500-day vulnerability, where you've got devices that are on the internet that have lapsed into a state of neglect.”

That warning was echoed by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency assistant director for cybersecurity Jeff Greene, who stresses the risk of Chinese hackers exploiting older, unpatched systems, as well as the broader, ironic threat of network perimeter appliances serving as entry points for hackers. “These edge devices often have inherent insecurities, they’re often not managed once they’re put out, they're not patched," says Greene. “We’ll leave a trail of these devices for a long time that attackers will be looking to compromise.”

Sophos CISO McKerchar says the company is revealing its five-year fight with the Chengdu-based hacking network to amplify those warnings, but also to end a kind of cybersecurity industry omertà around the growing issue of security companies' own products creating vulnerabilities for their customers. “Trust in the industry has been massively eroded in the past few years. There's a huge amount of skepticism across about the way that vendors are handling these risks, but we've relied on silence instead,” says McKerchar. “We want to show a bit of vulnerability ourselves, recognize that we've had problems, then tell the story about how we stepped up.”

[katnissmellarkkk]

A bookcomb I’ve wanted to do for a hot minute. For once it’s not Everlark centered. I decided to make a bookcomb for all the times Johanna and Katniss give off mean big sister / bullied little sister vibes. The vibes the films very much lacked, if I do say so myself.

-

Johanna Mason. From District 7. Lumber and paper, thus the tree. She won by very convincingly portraying herself as weak and helpless so that she would be ignored. Then she demonstrated a wicked ability to murder. She ruffles up her spiky hair and rolls her wide-set brown eyes. “Isn’t my costume awful? My stylist’s the biggest idiot in the Capitol. Our tributes have been trees for forty years under her. Wish I’d gotten Cinna. You look fantastic.”

Girl talk. That thing I’ve always been so bad at. Opinions on clothes, hair, makeup. So I lie. “Yeah, he’s been helping me design my own clothing line. You should see what he can do with velvet.” Velvet. The only fabric I could think of off the top of my head.

“I have. On your tour. That strapless number you wore in District Two? The deep blue one with the diamonds? So gorgeous I wanted to reach through the screen and tear it right off your back,” says Johanna.

I bet you did, I think. With a few inches of my flesh.

-

The other tributes begin to line up as well. I’m confused because, while they all are angry, some are giving us sympathetic pats on the shoulder, and Johanna Mason actually stops to straighten my pearl necklace.

“Make him pay for it, okay?” she says.

I nod, but I don’t know what she means.

-

“Lay off her,” I snap.

Johanna narrows her brown eyes at me in hatred. “Lay off her?” she hisses. She steps forward before I can react and slaps me so hard I see stars. “Who do you think got them out of that bleeding jungle for you? You — ”

-

We watch the water lap up over the undergarments. “So what were you doing with Nuts and Volts?” I ask.

“I told you — I got them for you. Haymitch said if we were to be allies I had to bring them to you,” says Johanna. “That’s what you told him, right?”

No, I think. But I nod my head in assent. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“I hope so.” She gives me a look filled with loathing, like I’m the biggest drag possible on her life. I wonder if this is what it’s like to have an older sister who really hates you.

“Tick, tock,” I hear behind me. I turn and see Wiress has crawled over. Her eyes are focused on the jungle.

“Oh, goody, she’s back. Okay, I’m going to sleep. You and Nuts can guard together,” Johanna says. She goes over and flings herself down beside Finnick.

-

“Get up,” I order, shaking Peeta and Finnick and Johanna awake. “Get up — we have to move.” There’s enough time, though, to explain the clock theory to them. About Wiress’s tick-tocking and how the movements of the invisible hands trigger a deadly force in each section.

I think I’ve convinced everyone who’s conscious except Johanna, who’s naturally opposed to liking anything I suggest. But even she agrees it’s better to be safe than sorry.

-

My fingers tighten on the knife handle at my belt.

“Go ahead. Try it. I don’t care if you are knocked up, I’ll rip your throat out,” says Johanna.

I know I can’t kill her right now. But it’s just a matter of time with Johanna and me. Before one of us offs the other.

-

Johanna, frankly, I could easily kill if it came down to protecting Peeta. Or maybe even just to shut her up.

-

“I should have never mentioned the clock,” I say bitterly. “Now they’ve taken that advantage away as well.”

“Only temporarily,” says Beetee. “At ten, we’ll see the wave again and be back on track.”

“Yes, they can’t redesign the whole arena,” says Peeta.

“It doesn’t matter,” says Johanna impatiently. “You had to tell us or we never would have moved our camp in the first place, brainless.” Ironically, her logical, if demeaning, reply is the only one that comforts me.

-

“I’m getting water,” she says.

I can’t help catching her hand as she passes me. “Don’t go in there. The birds —” I remember the birds must be gone, but I still don’t want anyone in there. Not even her.

“They can’t hurt me. I’m not like the rest of you. There’s no one left I love,” Johanna says, and frees her hand with an impatient shake. When she brings me back a shell of water, I take it with a silent nod of thanks, knowing how much she would despise the pity in my voice.

-

“Let’s each have three, and whoever is still alive at breakfast can take a vote on the rest,” says Johanna. I don’t know why this makes me laugh a little. I guess because it’s true. When I do, Johanna gives me a look that’s almost approving. No, not approving. But maybe slightly pleased.

-

“Wait, let me get Johanna up,” says Finnick. “She’ll be rabid if she thinks she missed something this important.”

“Or not,” I mutter, since she’s always pretty much rabid, but I don’t stop him, because I’d be angry myself if I was excluded from a plan at this point.

-

I give him a kiss and, before he can object any further, I let go and turn to Johanna. “Ready?”

“Why not?” says Johanna with a shrug. She’s clearly no happier about being teamed up than I am. But we’re all caught up in Beetee’s trap. “You guard, I’ll unwind. We can trade off later.”

-

The next thing I know, I’m lying on my back in the vines, a terrible pain in my left temple. Something’s wrong with my eyes. My vision blurs in and out of focus as I strain to make the two moons floating up in the sky into one. It’s hard to breathe, and I realize Johanna’s sitting on my chest, pinning me at the shoulders with her knees.

There’s a stab in my left forearm. I try to jerk away but I’m still too incapacitated. Johanna’s digging something, I guess the point of her knife, into my flesh, twisting it around. There’s an excruciating ripping sensation and warmth runs down my wrist, filling my palm. She swipes down my arm and coats half my face with my blood.

“Stay down!” she hisses. Her weight leaves my body and I’m alone.

-

The white curtain that divides my bed from the next patient’s whips back, and Johanna Mason stares down at me. At first I feel threatened, because she attacked me in the arena. I have to remind myself that she did it to save my life. It was part of the rebel plot. But still, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t despise me. Maybe her treatment of me was all an act for the Capitol?

“I’m alive,” I say rustily.

“No kidding, brainless.” Johanna walks over and plunks down on my bed, sending spikes of pain shooting across my chest. When she grins at my discomfort, I know we’re not in for some warm reunion scene. “Still a little sore?” With an expert hand, she quickly detaches the morphling drip from my arm and plugs it into a socket taped into the crook of her own. “They started cutting back my supply a few days ago. Afraid I’m going to turn into one of those freaks from Six. I’ve had to borrow from you when the coast was clear. Didn’t think you’d mind.”

-

“The impact ruptured your spleen. They couldn’t repair it.” She gives a dismissive wave of her hand. “Don’t worry, you don’t need one. And if you did, they’d find you one, wouldn’t they? It’s everybody’s job to keep you alive.”

“Is that why you hate me?” I ask.

“Partly,” she admits. “Jealousy is certainly involved. I also think you’re a little hard to swallow. With your tacky romantic drama and your defender-of-the-helpless act. Only it isn’t an act, which makes you more unbearable. Please feel free to take this personally.”

“You should have been the Mockingjay. No one would’ve had to feed you lines,” I say.

“True. But no one likes me,” she tells me.

-

The soreness from the bruised ribs, however, promises to hang on for a while. I begin to resent Johanna dipping into my morphling supply, but I still let her take whatever she likes.

-

I’m standing off to the side, clapping to the rhythm, when a bony hand pinches me above the elbow. Johanna scowls at me. “Are you going to miss the chance to let Snow see you dancing?” She’s right. What could spell victory louder than a happy Mockingjay twirling around to music?

-

Back in the hospital, I find Johanna in the same circumstance and spitting mad. I tell her about what Coin said. “Maybe you can train, too.”

“Fine. I’ll train. But I’m going to the stinking Capitol if I have to kill a crew and fly there myself,” says Johanna.

“Probably best not to bring that up in training,” I say. “But it’s nice to know I’ll have a ride.”

Johanna grins, and I feel a slight but significant shift in our relationship. I don’t know that we’re actually friends, but possibly the word allies would be accurate. That’s good. I’m going to need an ally.

-

After we stretch — which hurts — there’s a couple of hours of strengthening exercises — which hurt — and a five-mile run — which kills. Even with Johanna’s motivational insults driving me on, I have to drop out after a mile.

-

It’s a bad night in our room. Sleep’s out of the question. I think I can actually smell the ring of flesh around my chest burning, and Johanna’s fighting off withdrawal symptoms. Early on, when I apologize about cutting off her morphling supply, she waves it off, saying it had to happen anyway. But by three in the morning, I’m the target of every colorful bit of profanity District 7 has to offer. At dawn, she drags me out of bed, determined to get to training.

“I don’t think I can do it,” I confess.

“You can do it. We both can. We’re victors, remember? We’re the ones who can survive anything they throw at us,” she snarls at me. She’s a sick greenish color, shaking like a leaf. I get dressed.

We must be victors to make it through the morning. I think I’m going to lose Johanna when we realize it’s pouring outside. Her face turns ashen and she seems to have ceased breathing.

“It’s just water. It won’t kill us,” I say. She clenches her jaw and stomps out into the mud.

-

In the afternoon, we learn to assemble our guns. I manage it, but Johanna can’t hold her hands steady enough to fit the parts together. When York’s back is turned, I help her out.

-

When she tries to get discharged from the hospital, they won’t agree to let her live alone, even if she comes in for daily talks with the head doctor. I think they may have put two and two together about the morphling and this only adds to their view that she’s unstable. “She won’t be alone. I’m going to room with her,” I announce. There’s some dissent, but Haymitch takes our part, and by bedtime, we have a compartment across from Prim and my mother, who agrees to keep an eye on us.

-

She neatly returns my keepsakes to the drawer and climbs into the bed across from me just as the lights go out. “You’re not afraid I’ll kill you tonight?”

“Like I couldn’t take you,” I answer. Then we laugh, since both our bodies are so wrecked, it will be a miracle if we can get up the next day. But we do. Each morning, we do. And by the end of the week, my ribs feel almost like new, and Johanna can assemble her rifle without help.

-

I sit on my bed, trying to stuff information from my Military Tactics books into my head while memories of my nights with Peeta on the train distract me. After about twenty minutes, Johanna comes in and throws herself across the foot of my bed. “You missed the best part. Delly lost her temper at Peeta over how he treated you. She got very squeaky. It was like someone stabbing a mouse with a fork repeatedly. The whole dining hall was riveted.”

-

At the hospital room door, I watch Johanna for a moment, realize that most of her ferocity is in her abrasive attitude. Stripped of that, as she is now, there’s only a slight young woman, her wide-set eyes fighting to stay awake against the power of the drugs. Terrified of what sleep will bring. I cross to her and hold out the bundle.

“What’s that?” she says hoarsely. Damp edges of her hair form little spikes over her forehead.

“I made it for you. Something to put in your drawer.” I place it in her hands. “Smell it.”

She lifts the bundle to her nose and takes a tentative sniff. “Smells like home.” Tears flood her eyes.

-

Suddenly, she has my wrist in an iron grip. “You have to kill him, Katniss.”

“Don’t worry.” I resist the temptation to wrench my arm free.

“Swear it. On something you care about,” she hisses.

[…]

“On my family’s life,” I repeat.

She lets go and I rub my wrist. “Why do you think I’m going, anyway, brainless?”

That makes her smile a little. “I just needed to hear it.” She presses the bundle of pine needles to her nose and closes her eyes.

-

[marukrawler]

I understood how you meant it, and I agree. I was simply trying to look at it from a different angle, from the POV of a shipper. The dynamic of the ship is a big factor in what ships get popular - after all, you likely want to write/read about them being together.

What exactly would marudan provide? Especially if you don't want to go against canon, it likely would end in an unhealthy dynamic where Marucho's qualities would be overlooked. I doubt Marucho shippers want to see him suffer, so they would probably go for maruren instead, which is healthier and has better range for writing.

Shundan is attractive for its dynamic. The problem with Dan ships in general is that he seems unable to appreciate his love interests, who are openly affectionate/devoted towards him. Shundan flips the script around by pairing him with a character who is more subtle in showing interest and also knows him well enough to not tolerate his bs. It places Dan in a position where he has to actively try to have a relationship, because Shun is capable of ignoring him and doing his own thing if necessary (and also can whoop his ass). Definitely more of a GI/MS era angst ship though. Anyways, love your analyses, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

You’re right about the dynamic of a ship playing a big role in why people gravitate towards certain ones. My rarepairs/crack ships are mainly formed based off how interesting I imagine their dynamic and interactions to be (Alice/Volt, Jesse/Aranaut, Nemus/Reaper, Mira/Jenny, etc.) and it’s definitely an important factor when it comes to more popular pairings as well, and even canon couples.

I also agree with you that being with Ren is far healthier and an overall better choice for Marucho than being with Dan. Maruren just offers up more opportunities for connection and understanding – what with Marucho and Ren having a shared interest in data science and programming and their similar backgrounds, allowing the two to bond on a deeper level (this is headcanon territory since they never actually bond over their respective family duties but I’m merely stating that the potential is there.)

Moreover, Dan tends to be selfish and has very little social awareness which, paired with Marucho’s generous and overly polite nature, means Dan (unintentionally or not) could very likely take advantage of Marucho’s kindness and neglect his emotional needs. We already see how Runo does almost all the emotional labor in her relationship with Dan, and she’s a lot more vocal than Marucho. If he did have any issues with Dan, he would probably keep them to himself.

I definitely see what you’re saying about Shundan and how a romantic relationship with Shun might push Dan into being more proactive and attentive because Shun doesn’t outwardly show his affection the way Runo, Julie or Marucho do. And you’re right that Shun is capable of ignoring Dan and doing his own thing, but I doubt that Dan has the emotional maturity to handle those types of situations without making them worse.

Shun is a very independent person and has a tendency to draw back and do things on his own when there’s an issue that needs to be dealt with. I find that it’s only with people who are not only outspoken but also has the necessary awareness to approach him in a calm and peaceful manner that Shun opens up and learns to rely on them for support. Those people tend to be Skyress, Runo, Alice and even Sellon Marucho.

I imagine that a more realistic scenario would be Dan being too focused on himself and how Shun should understand his feelings to give Shun’s any consideration. (Which is basically how Dan treated Shun throughout a good portion of S1. He did this with Marucho too, but Shun is supposed to be his long-time friend since early childhood so one would think he’d treat Shun better.)     

What I've gathered from Shundan shippers is that they are drawn to the ship because of its childhood friends and "rivals" dynamic and the opposites attract trope. Dan and Shun have known each other since they were little kids. Dan is hotheaded and loud, Shun is level-headed and quiet. The problem is that all too often I see fans doing more work than the show did when it comes to showcasing how well Dan and Shun actually know each other. There are also times when their personalities clash and they’re unable to effectively communicate with each other.

An example of childhood friends (and rivals) done right is Julie and Billy because you actually see how close their friendship is on multiple occasions. Julie has a toy that she got from Billy when they were younger. We see that Billy and Julie were the main leads in a Romeo and Juliet play. Julie knew where to find Billy in Germany because she remembered the places he’d love to visit around the world. (“If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?”) Julie and Billy reminisce about a particularly rainy day when Billy was scared of thunder as a child. When Billy is defeated by Masquerade, Julie’s toy falls from a shelf, indicating that something happened to him.

The show doesn’t do the same with Dan and Shun. Not only that, but Dan and Shun have had instances of particularly bad communication (Dan badmouthing Shun during his time of grief, S1EP20 when Shun leaves and Dan only makes it worse, the entirety of MS1) or times where it just seemed like they didn’t care about each other that much (Whenever Dan was in trouble in S2, Shun seemed to care only about Skyress the mission while Marucho was the one mostly worried about Dan, Dan not giving a flying fuck when Skyress left Shun at the end of NV1) Speaking of MS1, Dan and Shun’s relationship was at its most fragile since Shun’s mom died and yet, the show didn’t focus on their childhood friends dynamic at all which I think is wasted potential.

I understand that fan work by its very nature adds more to characters or a ship than what the show provides exactly because of that wasted potential, but I alse see a lot more fanon applied to Shundan than canon, to the point where the characters hardly seem recognizable. As in, Shun and Dan are incredibly close friends to the point of being the most important person in each other’s lives (this is not true), they’re both incredibly perceptive to the other’s needs without anything needing to be said, (also not true) and they’re very affectionate and soft around each other. Characters who get in the way of their relationship in one way or another (and/or happen to understand Dan or Shun better) are almost always female (Runo, Alice, Fabia, Skyress) and are either demonized, flanderized or otherwise thrown under the bus, particularly in fanfics.

Again, Marudan isn’t the healthier ship, but it has a bit more meat on it because of the influence Dan has had on Marucho, as well as some moments they’ve shared that seem very meaningful for their friendship.

But I just can’t say the same when it comes to Dan and Shun. I'm sure it's no surprise to hear that I don't like Shundan very much but I also don't think I'm being subjective when I say that a lot of the appeal when it comes to Shundan is being supplied by the fans rather than canon.

Feel free to correct me if I'm completely mistaken.

[hero2222]

New muse:

**Name:** Lauren Volt

**Height:** 5'7" (170 cm)

**Weight:** 135 lbs (61 kg)

**Personality:**

Lauren Volt is fiercely independent and resourceful, traits honed by her time living on the streets of her bustling urban city. Despite her tough exterior, she possesses a deep sense of justice and compassion, especially for the marginalized citizens she encounters daily. Lauren has a strong moral compass and an unyielding determination to protect her city from crime. She is quick-witted, adaptable, and uses her environment to her advantage in fights. Though she often operates alone, she values the connections she forms with the city's residents and is deeply loyal to those she trusts.

**Backstory:**

Lauren Volt grew up in a rough part of the city, experiencing hardship from a young age. Orphaned and left to fend for herself, she developed a profound resilience and an acute awareness of her surroundings. Instead of perishing, she discovered she had learned to absorb and manipulate energy. This newfound power allowed her to absorb energy and convert it, which she could then project as a weapon.

Realizing the potential of her abilities, Lauren chose to use them for good. Despite her circumstances, she became a vigilante, fighting against the crime that plagued her beloved city. She often targets corrupt officials and dangerous criminals, aiming to make her city a safer place for all. Lauren's homeless status gives her a unique perspective and access to parts of the city others overlook, making her an unexpected but effective guardian.

**Abilities:**

- **Energy Absorption:** Lauren can absorb various forms of energy from her surroundings, including electricity, fire, kinetic energy, and more.

- **Energy Conversion:** She has the ability to convert absorbed energy into different forms, such as plasma, and project it as blasts.

[solarstarcandi]

IM SORRY FOR LEAVING YALL BUT HERE ARE CHAPA'S HEADCANONS

Chapa's headcanons!

•Chapa has scars on their hands because of the amount of electricity they releases, sometimes causing terrible burns, but they would hide them from their family and friends.

•They use they/them and she/her pronouns and I view them as demisexual.

•Chapa views Bose as their little brother and tries their best to never lash out on him.

•In my AU, Chapa is able to use her electric powers and convert it to kinetic energy so they can run and move faster.

•Chapa and Mika have matching friendship bracelets BECAUSE I SAY SO!

•They sometimes view themselves as weaker then the rest of the team even though that's not the case and sometimes trains harder then the others.

• They have tics which are caused by the amount of electricity running through their veins which causes them to release unnecessary volts from their fingers.

•Chapa hates the fact that people are scared of them but uses it as an advantage.

•Has very serious anger issues but Miles helps her out to relax. Her anger issues can also cause her powers to go wild.

•Chapa is surprisingly good at poetry...ion know why this was the last thing I thought of.

•She also likes heavy metal and...j pop-

ANYWAYS WHOS NEXT:3