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bluemoonsunrise · 29 days ago

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Demons and Savages

pairing: tsu’tey and human!avatar driver (fem presenting)

content warnings: graphic language, alien vs human differences, the RDA sucks, fuck u miles quaritch, tension you could cut with a knife, enemies to lovers. (also, i don’t like to capitalize sentences on tumbler :3)

word count: …idk :D (roughly edited sry)

pov: 2nd person so you can add yourself in. for writing/plot purposes, your character is named eris ramsey. i’ll use the name sparingly but i can’t take myself seriously writing y/n— so please just work with me here. i promise it’ll be worth it. (i hope)

< previous chapter

———🌌———

SUMMARY: earth was dying and your sister was, too, but cancer killed her faster than humans were killing earth. when she passed, she not only left behind an empty apartment full of memories but a billion dollar avatar without a driver. in a desperate attempt to not waste that money, the program she had spent the last five years preparing to join recruited you— her twin. of course, you agreed. there was nothing left on earth for you. there was nothing left on earth for anyone— that’s why people like your sister were sent off to pandora.

when your sister had spoken of pandora, it seemed like a dream.

the RDA promised it would be like a safari adventure.

truth was that pandora is beautiful. beautiful and unlike anything else across the whole of the universe. it is breathtaking— and that’s because what chases you through the forest hunts with the intent to kill; so you best run like hell even if your lungs are on fire. beasts and monsters of all kinds lurk out of sight waiting for the right moment to kill you dead— but none are as dangerous as him.

the blue shadow with the bow.

chapter four

— weak hands —

“if i want to get us any closer to peace, i’ll need to put in a lot of work.” you said as you logged the events of your day. you could hardly keep your eyes open. for a rest day, you felt more worn down than you did on days you spent entirely in the forest. “if i want to gain back trust the omatikaya once placed in the avatar program, i have to pass two tests.”

“tsu’tey says it will take months for me to even think about passing the first test. in order to complete iknimaya and claim an ikran, i have to be strong. i have to have a fighting spirit. a strong heart, he says. i have to learn the ways of warriors. it is no easy challenge— but an ikran would kill me otherwise.”

“he told me that he doesn’t doubt my heart.” you said softly. you looked at yourself on the screen and covered your cheeks with your hands as you saw color rise into them. “he just doubts that i’ll be able to pin down the damn thing before it kills me.”

“i think that’s all for today. lots to be done. tomorrow i start archery. fun, huh? i hope. really, i do…alright. see ya.” you reached out and clicked the recording off.

you had no energy to eat. you had no energy to do anything at all. when you climbed into your bunk, you fell asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow. it was hard for you to sleep most nights— but exhaustion made it easy for you now. it reached out its arms and enveloped you in its warm embrace.

you dreamed of the riverbed and the stars. you dreamed of the bugs that floated by. you dreamed of the way the water sounded sloshing against the shore of the riverside.

you dreamed of him, too.

you dreamed of running with him through the grass. the way he chased you. you could almost feel your chest burn as you ran and ran and ran. even in your dreams, he caught you. he tangled you in his arms and lifted you off your feet.

you didn’t hesitate to kiss him.

you had wanted to kiss him today. it was an insufferable itch that you wanted to gnaw at with your teeth— but you couldn’t.

when you woke in the morning to the usual alarm set for all those in the avatar program, you could not have been more frustrated. you buried your face into the pillow and groaned into it.

you didn’t want to dream about him.

you didn’t want to think about him the way you always did. he was supposed to be your mentor. a teacher. a guide. not someone you dreamed about kissing.

you didn’t want to face him.

after the hot springs, you two returned to home tree as if nothing happened. he got you food and you sat with others in the clan and listened to their stories. you listened to their songs. tsu’tey told stories of his own. he did not sing alongside the others but the faint smile on his lips showed his contentment.

and that was it.

all day, you rested in the livelihood of home tree with him. eating. talking. laughing. introducing yourself to those who dared to approach you. those who let you join their circles. you helped string beads and craft twine. mundane, small things that you enjoyed more than you thought you would. while most of the conversations were held in navi, you were able to pick out bits and pieces.

it wasn’t until after dinner when you made your nightly walk with him to your hammock that what had happened between the two of you weighed on you. he didn’t say goodnight. he didn’t spare you a glance. he hit you with his shoulder as he passed and hissed under his breath.

you did not want to see him— but he was the first thing you saw when you opened your eyes in your hammock.

“get up. now.” tsu’tey said. his tone was sharp. lethal. there was no patience to be found in him.

you did your best to get up quickly. your head spun with the daze of shifting. he grabbed your arm to steady you— but he dragged you down the center column of home tree without any warning.

“agh— dude.” you muttered as you tried to pull your arm free. “stop it.”

“walk.” he said, pushing you in front of him.

you didn’t fight against him. it would do you no good. once you were out of home tree, you shrugged him off. thankfully, he went willingly. without a word, he flicked his head towards the direhorses waiting.

you approached mitsia with gentle hands. she pressed her snout against your face as you said hello. reaching up, you formed tsaheylu with her and swung yourself up onto her back. with a soft pat to her neck, you urged her to follow behind tsu’tey.

he moved with purpose today and mitsia ran fast to keep up with him.

you rode into the thick of the forest. you had to duck low onto mitsia’s back as to not get snagged in the low hanging vines. all sorts of sounds resonated in your ears. the rush of wind. the chirping of pandoran birds. squeaking and squawking. thundering hooves. snapping sticks.

when tsu’tey finally came to a stop, it was by a pond. he hopped off his direhorses back and clicked his tongue as a thank you. when you slid off mitsia’s back, you thanked her with a soft kiss to her face.

you felt bitter as you met his eyes.

what he had told you yesterday lingered in your mind. mitsia was yours. maybe not like how an ikran could be, sure, but you were certain that she would come only to you if you called.

“good girl.” you whispered as you patted her neck.

“come here.” tsu’tey said, his tail flicking behind him like a feral cat.

you parted with your direhorse and sighed as you stood in front of him. you expected him to start with a lesson on archery. he carried two bows on his back. instead, he grabbed your hands and scoffed at them.

“you have weak hands. small fingers. they will bleed.”

you ripped your hands out of his grasp. “you don’t know shit. they won’t bleed.”

“they will.” he said, snatching your arm. he tapped his fingers against your bicep. “no muscle. children have more strength than you. i bet you would not be able to pull yourself up whilst climbing a tree.”

“would you cut the shit?” you pulled your arm out of his grasp and scowled at him. “you’re pissing me off.”

“you will fail today at archery. many times. just as you failed at riding pali. you are weak. you will have troubling drawing back the arrow. i doubt you can aim.” tsu’tey said.

“but you will learn.”

your mouth closed. the anger in your expression lessened as you watched him pull one of the bows off from around his shoulder. it was simple. dark wood. strong string. it was heavy— but not as heavy as his. not as well-crafted and expertly designed. not at pretty.

“first rule of bow,” tsu’tey said as he stood up straight. “you must be like tree. tall. strong. always strong in your belly. for everything. be strong in your belly.”

you mimicked him. standing up straight and tensing your core, you held yourself in the same tall posture. you matched his breath. over and over again, you told yourself what to do like a mantra: keep tense but don’t suffocate. don’t suffocate. breathe. in and out. in and out.

tsu’tey lifted the bow and assumed a shooting stance. no arrow was drawn, but he pulled back the string. you could see the tension in his belly. you could see the firm stance he held in his shoulders. more importantly, his legs. like two pillars on the ground, he appeared unmovable.

he appeared strong.

and you knew he was.

“when you draw back the bow, you must use two fingers. always two fingers. it is how you keep the arrow aligned. draw back is hard when you start. bows are strong and they fight against you. that is why arrows shoot so far.” tsu’tey said as he lowered his bow.

“you try.”

you took a sharp breath and tightened your core. you did your best to mimic the stance he held. before you could even drawn by the bow, he was all over you. he spread your legs further apart with his own. he smacked you on the hip and you were quick to place tension there. a grunt of approval was all you earned. he did the same to your shoulders and you were quick to straighten up.

“that is proper position.” tsu’tey said. he tapped your stomach lightly. “firm. strong. it is good. it is powerful. keep this habit of strong core and you will learn the posture fast. it will be as easy and natural as swinging up onto his the back of pali.”

“right,” you said softly.

“now draw back the bow.” he said.

you hooked two fingers around the string and pulled. your lips thinned and your brows knitted together as you pulled harder. and harder. the bow seemed unwilling to bend and you were quick to let the string go.

“bad. again.” tsu’tey said with an impatient flick of his head. “you did not even try.”

“i did try. the bow feels like it’ll break if i pull at it anymore.” you said with a small huff.

tsu’tey hooked his bow over his shoulder. he snatched yours from your hand and you could only watch as he pulled an arrow from his quiver, loaded the bow, and shot it.

it stuck straight into the dirt, the calling card swaying in the breeze.

“it did not break.” tsu’tey said, handing it back to you. “you are not strong enough to break it because you are not even strong enough to draw it back.”

you felt your chest burn. you took the bow back without another word. ignoring the way his constant belittling was beginning to hurt, you did your best to draw the bow back. you kept your core tight, your posture tall, and your breath even. you pulled back as hard as you could. at a certain point, the resistance gave way and allowed you to pull back fully.

“yes.” tsu’tey said, cupping your elbow. “now hold this position.”

“it’s hard,” you whispered, your fingers gripping the bow with all your might.

“hold this position until i say so or i will make you run to home tree and back.” tsu’tey said.

you had to grit your teeth. you kept your stance locked. you kept your core tight and yourself tall— but your breathing soon gave way. the bow was large. it was heavy. the string was thick and harsh against your callous-less fingers. soon enough, you were shaking.

squeezing your eyes shut, you fought not to let the string pull your arm down. the seconds felt like hours and the minutes felt like days. unless it hadn’t been minutes. you had no idea. everything was moving too slow and with each moment that passed, the odds stacked against you. your bicep was burning. your core was cramping. your hands were beginning to sweat. your breaths came in small gasps.

“release.”

you let the string fly from your finger tips and the bow snapped into shape. if an arrow had been loaded, you wondered how far it would’ve gone.

“resolve is something i don’t have to teach you. that was good enough for now.” tsu’tey said with a small nod. “strength can always be built. willpower cannot. it takes a strong heart to have discipline.”

“and i have a strong heart?” you asked even though you already knew his answer.

“yes,” tsu’tey said even when you didn’t think he would. he looked over the whole of you. his eyes lingered on your mouth. “you have a very strong heart. it is why eywa smiles upon you when i do not.”

“why are you being so rude?” you asked. you turned to face him and shook your head. “seriously. why? did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?”

your phrasing confused him but he did not attempt to understand. “because you have angered me.”

“i’ve angered you? how?” you asked.

tsu’tey hissed and waved his hand. “no. just be quiet. be quiet and do the one thing i taught you. practice your stance so that you do not make a fool of yourself when you attempt to shoot an arrow.”

“if you’re going to be a dick to me then no.” you tossed the bow at him.

he caught it and his eyes widened in a terrible, terrible way. fury. the disrespect of your action could’ve turned him red. he grasped the air beside your head — as if he wanted to crush you in the palm of his hand — and bared his teeth.

“get out of my sight, demon.” he murmured through his teeth. “we are done. if you are going to act like that, you can sing songs until you lose your voice.”

“no,” you said. suddenly frustrated, you reached to grab the bow back. “i’ll do it. just give it to me.”

“no,” he held it away from you. “you have caused disrespect. you will try again when i tell you. today you will remain weak and unskilled.”

“i’m not weak. stop calling me that.” you whispered with your breath tight in your throat.

tsu’tey laughed at you. “if you tried to show that you were strong today, you showed wrong. your heart is not aligned with your body. and i don’t know if you have a mind at all.”

you shoved him.

tsu’tey stumbled back. he scowled at you, his face pinching in anger as he tilted his head. soundlessly, he warned you not to do that again.

you shoved him again.

he smacked you upside the head. hard. really hard.

“ugh!” you complained, caressing the back of your head. “you are such a fucking jackass!”

“i don’t know what that means, demon, but you are that, too.” tsu’tey hissed.

“it means you are the worst person i’ve ever met! you are mean and cold and cruel! you’re a jerk to me all the time! it’s like you’re allergic to being nice!” you exclaimed all at once. the words just came rushing out with no thought to if he would understand them at all.

“because i don’t like you,” tsu’tey said through his teeth. he glared down at you and stuck his finger in your face. “you and your people are a curse on this land. you are a sickness.”

you laughed at him. “then why did you want to fuck me so bad?”

tsu’tey’s fiery resolve seemed to falter. staring down at you, his ears pinned. he sighed under his breath and looked away. “great mother grant me patience.”

“you won’t even deny it?” you shook you head at him and laughed again. you knew you were rubbing dirt into wounds. you should’ve been careful considering he could’ve done the same to you. “is that why you’re so mad at me? because you want to fuck me?”

he wouldn’t look at you. like a bull, he huffed out of his nose. his face twitched. his tail flicked sharp and fast. frustration had never looked so good on someone. he was a master at it.

“i’m the weak one?” you tutted you tongue and whispered, “some warrior you are if you can’t fight against desire.”

tsu’tey grabbed you by your face. squishing your cheeks between his fingers, he hissed at you. “you never shut your mouth.”

“you don’t even realize what you do to me. you fault me for my poor judgment when you’re the one covering my eyes.” tsu’tey said.

“m’not— doin’ an’thng.” you tried to say between your squished lips as you struggled to free your face from his grasp.

“you are. you don’t even know it because you are a demon in the skin of my people. you rubbed your scent on me at the river. you started a chase game. you asked me about mating. your body was crying in the hot spring.”

“you look at me with those eyes…”

tsu’tey’s grip on your face lessened. his hand clasped around your throat lightly and your hand still flew to his wrist. you couldn’t draw breath. not because he held you too tight but because you forgot how to.

“i— i don’t do it on purpose.” you whispered helplessly.

“i know,” tsu’tey murmured as he ran his thumb along your throat. “which is why i hate you even more. you have no control over your instincts. you have no control over your body. your mind fails you, demon.”

“and my body is failing my mind because of it.”

staring at him, the look in his eyes made your knees weak. he was staring at your mouth. his fingers flexed around your throat. as your eyes met, you stepped forward and tried to kiss him.

“do not…” tsu’tey murmured, glaring at you between the inches that separated you.

you raised your hand up to his face. as your fingers brushed against his cheek, he flinched. his ears pinned. he could’ve hissed at you— but his expression turned warm as you glided your thumb across his lips. his pupils dilated.

“can i have the bow back?” you asked in a whisper. “i’m sorry for throwing it at you.”

rationality seemed to comeback to him. he let go of your throat, his fingertips grazing the beads of your top. your eyes never left each other. he handed you the bow and you took it— or tried to. he didn’t let it go, either. the longer you stared at each other, the more convinced you were that he would kiss you.

you wanted him to.

a sharp yip sliced through the hair and something hit the ground. tsu’tey pushed the bow at you and turned. looking over his shoulder, you saw her. she’d jumped down from the trees above. her bow was in her hand, a magnificent piece of woodwork. her tail flicked as she met your gaze.

neytiri.

“oel ngati kameie,” tsu’tey said, gesturing the act.

neytiri returned the gesture. when her eyes fell upon you again, you signed i see you. she dipped her head the smallest bit and gave a lazy wave of her hand. you couldn’t be offended. that was more than tsu’tey usually gave you.

the pair conversed in navi. they spoke too fast for you to understand. they spoke low, too, as if tsu’tey knew you would be able to understand them if you tried hard enough. some pieces you picked out.

forest.

nantang.

moron.

demon.

they were talking about you. you rolled your eyes and scoffed under your breath. was tsu’tey informing her of how bad your posture was? how weak you were? or was he trying to convince her that you weren’t anything at all.

had she seen you two…

your stomach knotted and you felt sick. if she had seen you two touching and…oh, lord in heaven. you were dead meat. dead. dead before you could be reborn.

tsu’tey whistled and the direhorse returned to the archery clearing. mitsia came to your side and brushed her face against your shoulder. you turned to look at tsu’tey. he mounted his direhorse and pulled neytiri up after him.

“we return to home tree now. quickly, demon.”

you mounted your direhorse and were quick to follow after him and neytiri. one of her arms were hooked around his waist. you had no time to feel jealous because all you felt was sick. had she seen you both? would you be placed in front of the olo’eyktan and the tsahik and scolded? worse, would you be banished? executed?

you could hardly walk straight as you entered home tree. when you arrived, people were in uproar. tsu’tey was quick to come to your side and grab you by the back of your arm. you looked up at him but he did not meet your gaze and you weaved your way through the crowd of people gathered by the meeting circle.

“mawey!” the tsahik said, raising her hands high into the air.

silence followed— all but one voice. as you and tsu’tey broke through the crowd of people, you saw him. for a moment, you recoiled at the sight of tactical jeans and an RDA issued shirts on a blue figure.

regretfully, it took you a moment to recall that face of his in his avatar body.

“jake!” you exclaimed, your pupils blowing wide and your ears perking.

tsu’tey hissed as you pulled your arm free from his grasp. you didn’t care. not about anything else. you nearly tackled him to the floor as you threw your arms around him. jake caught you, stumbling to keep you both upright. a near cry slipped passed your lips to see a familiar face.

to see a true friend.

“holy shit, eris.” jake breathed as his arms tightened around your waist. it had taken him a moment to register your blue face, too.

“what the hell are you doing here?” you asked as you pulled away. when you met his eyes, you saw the scratches and the bruises on his face. you lifted your hand to his jaw and gasped softly. “jesus, jake, are you okay?”

“they really should’ve put us through ground training. i may know my way around a gun and hand-to-hand combat, but that’s all useless out here in these woods. i nearly got torn to pieces by a pack of these ugly ass wolf-things trying to keep norm and grace safe. norm got hurt and so i did the only thing i could which was distract them and run.”

“thankfully that blue valkyrie over there found me.” jake said with a glance toward neytiri. his brows raised and he smiled at you. “her and a group of hunters. they saved my ass.”

before you could say anything else, the tsahik approached. she raised her hand and instinctively you stepped away from jake. you bowed your head. jake stiffened as the tsahik grabbed him by his chin and examined the cuts on his face.

“you know him.” the tsahik stated a fact and she glanced at you.

“yes. he’s in my program. we work for grace augustine.” you said.

“nice to meet you,” jake said with a polite tilt of his head.

tsu’tey stepped forward, speaking words that jumbled in your ears. you picked out what you could. what was important.

how many demons!

you clenched your teeth. you knew exactly what he was asking. how many of you would come here? your arrival had been an accident. a pure chance of fate. was jake’s run-in with the nantang the same? or was it planned?

from his volatile expression alone, tsu’tey seemed to think you were now being planted here.

“you.” tsu’tey hissed as he grabbed you by the back of your neck. “walk.”

“hey, woah, woah, woah.” jake pulled his face away from mo’at and turned. he stuck his arm out, hitting tsu’tey in the chest. “you best take your hands off her right now or we’re gonna have a fuckin’ problem.”

tsu’tey bared his teeth.

“jake,” you whispered his name and guided his hand back towards his side. “it’s fine…”

before jake could say anything else, tsu’tey pushed you along. you tried your best to shrug him off but he wouldn’t let you go. his grip was tight. too tight. tighter than it had ever been as he guided you up the center column of home tree.

“ow!” you hissed as he shoved you into his hut by the back of or your neck.

“sit.” he demanded, pointing to the floor.

you were quick to drop down. you watched as he paced. you could see the thoughts running through his mind. you tensed as he crouched down in front of you. staring into his eyes, you’d never been afraid of him. never truly.

you were now.

“who is that man?” tsu’tey asked in a lower, calmer voice than you expected.

“jake sully,” you said. you wracked your brain for anything else remotely useful. “he…he’s new to the avatar program like me. he is a marine.”

“marine?” tsu’tey asked.

“warrior.” you said.

tsu’tey seemed to scowl. he rolled his eyes and shook his head. “demon warrior ends up here? by chance? tell me truthfully and i’ll reward you with not killing you…has this man been sent here?”

“no,” you said. the word jumped from your throat. all you could do was shake your head. you were trying to convince yourself more than you were trying to convince him him. “i— i mean…i don’t think so.”

“but he could have been?” tsu’tey asked.

“not by grace…”

your heart sank. grace would’ve never sent anyone to infiltrate the omatikaya— but quaritch would.

he could.

he already had…

jake was a marine just like him. it was too easy. it was too perfect— and it was a real possibility.

had you not given the colonel enough information? did you not have the skills to give him the kind of information he needed to know? did he tangle jake into this because jake could find out exactly what it is that he wanted to know?

how the hell to kill tsu’tey.

you stared into tsu’tey’s eyes and you both knew there was only one way to get answers.

“i need you to return to your body and find out what you can about how he ended up here. if his story matches with grace’s…maybe eywa has a a twisted sense of humor after all.” tsu’tey looked past you and spoke in a whisper, “if this demon warrior has been sent to spy, it wouldn’t be the first time your people have sent someone here to do such a thing.”

your stomach dropped. you knew all too well the kind of spies they sent to infringe on the na’vi. you knew, too, the kind of man who devised such a thing.

maybe jake really had been planted here…

“okay.” you exhaled a soft breath and placed your hand on you belly where the anxious pit sat. “alright…but if i go back now i won’t be able to come back until tomorrow.”

tsu’tey leaned in close and placed his hand on your tummy. your eyes fell closed as he dragged his lips across your forehead. the pain in your belly melted away like ice cream on a hot day. you exhaled the breath you held trapped in your throat.

“na’vi warriors are brave.” tsu’tey looked down at you and tilted his head. “are you brave?”

are you a na’vi?

that was the question he did not ask.

where do your loyalties lie, eris?

“hang tight, okay? i’ll be back as soon as i can.” you said softly, your breath all tangled in your chest.

“i don’t know what ‘hang tight’ is but i will know relief once i see you again.” tsu’tey said.

heat flooded your cheeks and your ears perked. your tail swayed and you knew your pupils were as wide as the moon you’d never see again. slowly, you dipped your head and signed, i see you.

tsu’tey dipped his head the slightest bit.

he could see you, too, even if he was stubborn.

“go.” he ordered with a stern wave of his hand.

and off you went.

— 🌌 —

each time you returned to your body, you grew to hate the lab lights even more. you pushed yourself out of your link-pod. a group of specialists were surrounding jake’s pod. his face was displayed on the screen beside it. grace was smoking a cigarette with a look of utter defeat plastered on her face.

how many idiots was she going to lose?

two.

because there were only two people stupid enough to get lost— you and jake.

“you’re back early,” grace said as you made your way over.

“what’s going on?” you asked through the dryness in your mouth. whether it was because you hadn’t had water since this morning or the fact that you were anxious, you couldn’t tell.

“the marine got himself lost and separated.” grace sighed. she put out her cigarette on the top of jake’s pod and shook her head.

“how?” you asked even though you already knew.

well, you knew what jake told you.

but was jake’s story the real story?

“we were out on an excursion gathering samples. tree roots so that i could test my new hypothesis on the almost neural-like connection the trees have to each other. we stumbled too close to a viperwolf den and it was like the seventh circle of hell opened up on us.” grace said.

she looked up at the screen displaying jake’s face and rolled her eyes. “for as hard as he is to work with in the lab, tactically he’s a blessing. our trigger-happy marine sprung straight into actions and kept norm from getting his face torn off.”

“the funny thing is,” grace tapped jake’s pod and looked down at you. “he didn’t even shoot a single bullet. he used himself as bait and angered the pack. he was gone into the trees. norm’s avatar suffered some nasty injuries. i couldn’t wait to bring him back and so we had to leave jake.”

“i’m just hoping the poor bastard is somewhere safe.” grace said with her lips pressed into a thin line.

“jake is in home tree.”

grace’s brows drew together and her lips parted— but no words came out. not a sound.

you’d never seen grace speechless before.

the cogs turned in her mind and she nodded once. “and you were sent back because there’s no way in hell you didn’t recognize him. i’m sure that did not bode well with your teacher, huh?”

you shook your head. “no, ma’am. tsu’tey is now questioning whether or not we’re being planted in home tree to…to spy on them…”

it was difficult for you to say.

grace pursed her lips and placed her hands on her hips. she inhaled a long, slow breath. when she let it out, all the tension she held went with it.

“well, i can’t really blame a skeptic for being skeptical, can i?” grace ran her hand through her short ginger hair. whatever she was thinking, it made you even more nervous when she stared at the red button that would pull jake from his link-pod.

“what?” you asked. the silence was nearly killing you.

“tsu’tey and i share a similar fear. if selfridge finds out one of the marine mutts is now in home tree, he’s going to tell the colonel. if the colonel knows, he’ll use jake to his advantage— and the last thing i need is for miles fucking quaritch to get his hands anywhere near my program.”

“we need to go.” grace said. she looked down and you and seemed to hesitate. “pack whatever you need. we won’t be back here for a while.”

your brows drew together and you shook your head. “what? where are we going?”

“we’re going full blue.” grace turned and sucked in a tight breath. she cursed inaudibly. “sorry about this jake.”

grace slammed her hand on the red button.

a swarm of people rushed over and grace was quick to open the hatch. you saw her begin to shine a light into jake’s eyes before the two of them were swallowed up by white coats. slowly, you turned away. you had to pack.

grace was sending the team incognito to try and sway the iron grip miles quaritch would hold on jake if he found out where jake’s avatar was.

grace was worried about the wrong avatar driver.

because you were about to become the colonels spy in both bodies.

thank you for reading :) hope you enjoyed! and thanks for the patience, too. i wish i had more time to write but alas… see ya when i see ya :P —moony

tag list: @plantgirliewholovespandora

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#avatar 2009 #avatar 2009 fan fic #avatar driver reader #james cameron avatar #navi x avatar driver #tsutey #tsutey x you #jake sully #twilight

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rendomski · 5 months ago

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The Domino Effect

Summary: Shaak Ti was often tempted to save some clone kids. AU, where she finally goes for it. And the ties of siblinghood run strong among the clones.

An impromptu ficlet, ~1000 words. Enjoy 🙂.

Force acts in mysterious ways, thinks Shaak Ti when she walks by the cadet barracks late in their night cycle and overhears the argument. Apparently, someone who doesn’t want to be called Hevy decided to go AWOL, and 99 is trying to persuade him otherwise.

Supervising kids that are raised with a sole purpose—to fight and die for the Republic—is a morally challenging task. Shaak has been tempted multiple times just to take on board as many kids as she can and whisk them far from this madness. Something tips the scales, finally, as she steps into the vast barracks and speaks, “So, you want to get away, cadet?”

They both freeze in shock.

“No, General, sir. Hevy wasn’t going to—” 99 begins, but not-Hevy interrupts him, staring with a desperate defiance.

“Yes, sir. I was planning to go AWOL.”

Shaak stares him back, but the kid, almost a grown-up—or what goes as grown-up nowadays, the cadets are shipped away even at a younger age than at the beginning of the war—does not budge.

“Alright,” says Shaak. “Is this your stuff? Take it and let’s go to my ship.”

“Sir?”

“You want to go AWOL? I can take you off-world on my ship. No one would dare search for you there.”

Not-Hevy grabs the bag with whatever he can claim as his own, but then hesitates.

“Sir, with your permission. My brother, CT-4040. Trainer Bric has it against him. He would do anything so that CT-4040 doesn’t pass his final test.” His eyes go wider as it dawns upon him how implausible the chance Shaak is offering him and how close he might be to failure by asking even more of her. He finishes nonetheless. “May I… may you take him away, too?”

Shaak’s confidence that she is doing the right thing blooms.

“Yes. You may take your brother with you.”

***

“Sir?”

“Yes, CT-4040?”

“Cutup, sir. My name is Cutup,” he glances at CT-782, who is stubbornly not Hevy. “Since tonight. So… Droidbait. CT-782, we’re not leaving him behind, like we did during the simulation, do we?”

Leaving behind during the simulation, this sounds very familiar. “Cadets, what squad are you from?” Shaak asks and nods upon the name, knowing already what comes. “I understand. Go for your brother, and bring Fives and CT-1409 along, too.”

***

“99, I am not leaving without you. We all owe you.”

The aged clone shakes his head, “No, Hevy. You go with the General. As for me, there are a few other troubled brothers that need my support here.”

Of course, five pairs of near-identical eyes stare at Shaak hopefully at the words. “General? You have some more space on your ship, don’t you, sir?”

She sighs. “Just be quiet. It is getting serious, so from now on, let's make it a stealth mission.”

“You've heard the General. It is a stealth mission.”

Exasperated groans, “We're standing right here, Echo,” follow.

***

“Sir?” Fives tugs at her sleeve with suspicious shyness. “It may sound crazy, but… Well, there is a girl here.”

“Oh, not again!”

“Don’t listen to him, General. He is making it all up. He has never met a girl in his life.”

“Well, I did! I keep telling you, and you idiots, refuse to believe me!” Fives snaps. “Sir, there is a girl here, working in the hospital. I met her. I talked to her.”

***

There is a girl, indeed. Experimental Medical Researcher 003, EMR-003 for short, whom Shaak has never met and never seen in any official documents. Moreso, she has never even heard of the Jango female clone program. And this gets extremely suspicious now. Her hunting instincts and the Force both sing to her that she is on the trail of something bigger.

“I am not the only one here, sir. There is one more girl, at least. She is different, but she is also one of us. I can get her out of the lab, I know the way.”

***

Another girl is different, for sure. Shaak can't grasp what is different about this kid—a five-year-old cadet at the most. Not the blond hair, there is a number of blond cadets around. There is something else, something elusive.

“Oh, you want to take us all off-world?” Omega, not EMR-something, notes Shaak, looks at the gang of clones with contagious joy and amazement. Cutup winks at her, and she waves back at him enthusiastically. “We must take my brothers with us!”

“We are all your brothers,” says no-longer-CT-1409-but-still-rather-reluctant Echo serenely.

“I know! But those are… They are my little brothers! And,” she saddens, her childish voice dropping almost to a whisper. “There are only four of them left.”

Shaak sighs. Alright, four more little kids, not a big difference.

***

…they happen to be not quite little kids, and it is finally clear what is different about Omega. The list of questions and problems grows ever longer. Shaak has hunted down and bitten more than she can chew.

She needs to take someone into the partnership in crime—Plo, most likely. And Obi Wan, who found Kamino in the first place, may have some valuable insights…

But first things first. Her navicomputer is still calculating the hyperspace route when a fight erupts in the back of the ship. And Fives is proudly showing EMR-003 around the ship, despite being here for the first time himself. Half of his explanations are totally wrong. Lanky, bespectacled cadet who has confidently strapped himself in the copilot seat and already asked Shaak three questions in a row, turns around and begins to correct him. Someone is asking loudly over the clamour whether her Jedi ship is equipped with guns.

Only 99 gazes silently into the starry void, mesmerised. Looking in his wizened face, Shaak Ti realises that this is his first time in space, despite his long and respectable age of thirteen.

#shaak ti #domino squad #the bad batch #clone 99 #clone trooper hevy #clone trooper cutup #clone trooper droidbait #arc trooper fives #arc trooper echo #tbb emerie #tbb omega #tbb tech #clone wars au #tcw fanfic #writing

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thankyouforthememoriesworld · 4 months ago

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🔎here's a fun article for Jan 2018! Seriously, I don't think folks realize how much of a prodigy she was. Her school was top 10 in her freshman and sophomore year (2nd that year) and she was the best player.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180119151457/https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/she-does-everything-freshman-is-already-one-of-nations-top-high-school-recruits/2018/01/09/c19b79f6-f49f-11e7-91af-31ac729add94_story.html?utm_term=.99d62cde4790

Lots of favorite quotes

Her first scholarship offer came from Maryland when she was in sixth grade, and the 5-foot-11 guard has since been recruited by a large handful of power conference programs, including Stanford, Tennessee and Connecticut, whose legendary Coach Geno Auriemma stopped in to see her work out this past fall on an otherwise normal day at St. John’s in Northwest Washington.

“What do you think it was like?” she asked, smiling at her own sarcasm. “I was so nervous.”

Well, did it show?

“No,” she shot back, smiling even wider. “I crushed it that day.”

-------------

“She showed a knack for the game right away,” said Tim Fudd, her father.

“Not in her first game,” interjected Katie Smrcka-Duffy Fudd, her mother. Azzi, sunk into a brown leather couch, let out a short giggle. “She was horrible.”

“Okay,” Tim insisted. “But after that . . . ”

“She was a freak of nature from a very young age,” Katie said, finishing Tim’s sentence. “That helped her fall in love with it.”

---------------

“She’s like Kawhi Leonard. It’s hard to say what position she is. She’s just Azzi and does everything, you know?” St. John’s Coach Jonathan Scribner said before the season. “You just don’t see it very often. She is something that’s different. You’re seeing a unicorn.”

------------------

Azzi is technically a combo guard capable of running an offense and thriving as an off-ball scorer. But as Scribner pointed out, it is hard to define her as just that. She is a high-percentage three-point shooter and has the upper-body strength to score inside. She is a strong perimeter defender and can protect the paint. She played point guard for Team USA’s gold medal-winning 16-and-under team this past summer — as a 14-year-old — but Coach Carla Berube said, “We could also rely on her to guard all five positions.”

I had read it before, but it's definitely worth sharing to help newcomers understand just how remarkable Azzi is.

Katie said Azzi “didn’t seem like herself” before snapping an iPhone photo of her daughter’s final stat line: 27 points, eight rebounds, 8 for 16 from the field, 4 for 5 from three, 7 for 7 from the free throw line. Tim, tie loosened by a stressful ending, walked across the floor to have a long conversation with Maryland women’s basketball Coach Brenda Frese.

#azzi fudd #our unicorn

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mythcreantsblog · 8 days ago

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We were noodling on magic system discourse the other day, as you do, and a thought occurred to us: pretty much all magic system controversy is, in some way, reacting to the works of Brandon Sanderson. Overzealous fans demand that everyone design magic like he does, while critics decry the entire idea of magic systems, seeing them as taking over fantasy.

And yet, Sanderson’s stories seem to be a major outlier in the genre. A very lucrative and successful outlier, to be sure, but practically no one else writes magic like he does. Specifically, Sanderson’s stories (at least some of them) share an unusual combination: magic that is both highly systematized and explained while also having super loose theming.

What do we mean by that? In Mistborn, we learn detailed specifics of magic powers granted by various metals, but the links between each metal and its corresponding power are weak at best. Iron and steel giving magnetism-type powers feels right, but why does pewter give super strength? Feels like that should go with titanium or another metal famous for its strength. And what does tin have to do with enhanced senses? We could probably find links if we looked hard enough, but they aren’t apparent.

In Stormlight, we have a similar situation. There’s a lot of detail on what the eponymous stormlight does, but those effects are scattered all over the place. Sometimes stormlight gives super strength, other times it powers transmutation devices, or it manipulates gravity. This grab bag of powers isn’t helped by some of them being named things like “double basic lashing.”

Both series give us magic with consistent rules that can be learned, but also magic where the effects feel like they were randomly drawn out of a hat. Plenty of stories have one quality or the other, but rarely both.

It’s easy to find fantasy stories where the magic feels random and unthemed. Strange and Norrell has magic that can do basically anything at any time, whether it comes from Norrell’s books or Strange’s imagination. Wheel of Time starts with a five element system and then expands into so many different weaves that not even a hefty fan wiki can keep track of them all. Much as we would prefer not to mention Harry Potter, it’s probably the most famous example of magic that is all over the place.

Likewise, many fantasy series have magic rules that can be learned, but they are almost always more focused and better themed. Avatar has elemental martial arts, Broken Earth has geology magic, and The Bone Shard Daughter has necromancy that works like computer programming. These are systematized to the point that you can predict new uses of magic from what you already know, but none of them feel random or mismatched.

It seems like when most authors set out to create highly systematized magic, they also do a lot of work to make their powers feel cohesive and natural. Sanderson, at least in Mistborn and Stormlight, does not do this. We can’t think of any other successful author who has put in the effort to have a robust magic system while letting its themes and aesthetics run out of control like that.

If anyone does know of such an author, please let us know about them. Just be sure this is someone who’s actually sold a decent number of books. No need to pick on some self published newbie with three Goodreads ratings.

Otherwise, it might be time to acknowledge that Sanderson isn’t the huge influence on fictional magic that is often assumed. His books are everywhere, it’s true, but they don’t seem to have inspired a wave of imitators. At least, not that we’ve seen.

#Magic #Brandon Sanderson #Worldbuilding

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sleepydrabblesart · 1 year ago

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Some fun stuff for Into The Stars:

Heights first— Hobi is the tallest, Yoongi is the shortest. Doing this first because it helps contextualize the next two:

Outside view of the pod! The pods are embedded into a concave wall, with a set of ten in the sleeping area (average crew size). The pods are vaguely egg-shaped, with an opaque outer wall for privacy. The door slides into the wall to avoid any mishaps and conserve space, and there’s a scanner programmed to respond to either the owner of the pod or a crew member with captain’s permissions in the event of an emergency. (this is, of course, related to NORMAL emergencies, and assuming protocol is followed.)

The little square in the upper corner is a sketch of the layout: bottom layer from left to right (standing in the doorway) is Namjoon, Yoongi, Jimin, and Jeongguk. The second layer from left to right (standing in the doorway) is Seokjin, Taehyung, and Hoseok. Jimin offered Taehyung his bed but Taehyung refused, for reasons still unknown, and insists on clambering into his space every night by using the other pods as… ladders? Who knows. The top three pods are generally left unused because they’re hard to get to unless you’re incredibly tall (in which case the ship really isn’t built to accommodate you) or you have some sort of wings/other bodily attachment that allows you to get up there.

Hobi is the pilot, so he got the final say on the ship they bought as a crew, but it’s general practice to buy a ship scaled to the largest member of your crew because it’s easier to add the equipment to accommodate the smaller species than to deal with the problems that come about when the space is just too small.

On to the inside!

The inside top of the ‘shell’ doubles as a touchscreen that can be used to access information and entertainment. Across from the door is a specific control panel to control light levels, sound, etc. The thin strip running around the edge of the ‘shell’ is the light strip, which usually imitates the home sleep cycle of the pod’s inhabitant. The lower part of the pod is filled by a mattress-pillow thing that automatically adjusts to support the being(s) on it. As mentioned in-story, the blankets in the humans’ pods are imitations of human blankets, which means they sit kind of weird but otherwise have a pretty soft, fluffy texture. JK has five of them, so his pod is generally an absolute mess, but YG and TH managed to convince the rest of the crew they don’t need more than three each. Other species have different reactions to different textures, so the pod can either regulate heat to facilitate smooth sleep or the crew member usually brings their own blankets/extra pillows/etc.

I lack the cultural awareness of movies that most of my generation seems to just HAVE (damn it!) so I have never seen ALIEN and had to google what those pods look like. Not what I imagined ;w; It’s not absolutely essential to the story to know what they look like (I think?) but hopefully it’s fun to look at. I might do more doodles in the future, these were kinda fun.

#bts fanfic #into the stars #ITS doodles #art by sleepydrabbles #sleepydrabbles art #space fantasy #doodles

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isolaradiale · 2 years ago

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As midnight struck on this warm summer's eve the sound of static rang out across the city. It was distracting, piercing, and so incessantly loud that it would have stirred almost anyone from their slumber. A hiss that sounded from each and every television for roughly thirty seconds, the sound and distorted display eventually cut out before each screen began to play something unusual.

It was a commercial for a multimedia project of some sort. A game? A television series? A collectable merch line? It was all of these things at once but the commercial was rather old-fashioned. Like something from the 90s.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? PICK UP SPIRAMONSTERS TODAY!

The advertisement ended with this seemingly standard line and yet as it came to an end and regular programming returned, the quiet city came to life with surprise. At the side of every character that had been brought into the city from another world was a strange creature, one that embodied traits from the person they had appeared beside.

Their very own Spiramonster!

--------------------

"Ofiuco... When you said you wanted to run a "social experiment" you never indicated you'd be creating this much data." One Star remarked to the android that sat before a wall of computer monitors that reflected their light off of her artificial eyes. Ofiuco did not reply immediately and instead continued to type, fingers moving at an inhuman pace as she finalized the programming.

When she finally finished she spun several times in her chair with a blank expression on her face. She was an eccentric young lady. "I just wanted to see how they reacted. This is a classic concept, isn't it? After all, they deserve to have fun once in a while too."

---------------------

After a very confusing night caring for some very cryptic critters, at 7am the next morning some context was finally provided to the city by the way of another television broadcast featuring Ofiuco in a lab coat. "Welcome to the world of... Oh... I should avoid copying too much, shouldn't I? Um. As you all may have noticed you've each received a Spiramonsters. They are very much real. At least as real as you are."

"You'll be taking care of them for a short time. Raise them. Train them. Befriend them. Love them. But also you should partake in our Spiramonster Cup, known otherwise as The Challenger's Road. It would provide us with some very valuable data." She raised her hand and a map of the island appeared with various locations marked with star symbols. "There are challenges for your Spiramonsters to accomplish at these points. Complete one of the eight and we'll reward you. I pinky promise."

Was she not going to elaborate on that?

GENERAL OVERVIEW

Welcome to our twenty-fifth event, THE CHALLENGER'S PATH!

It's probably very obvious what inspired this event, but it was naturally drawn from the very popular monster collecting genre.

This event is the first of two new events that will be run over the summer. The second will run in August and will be connected in terms of story but will be a different kind of event entirely!

The event ends at 11:59:59PM EST on July 21st.

After the event ends any Spiramonsters created will lose their physical forms, however you will be able to preserve them in Spiragotchi devices you receive for completing a challenge (see: The Challenger's Road).

There are plans to make the monsters you create more permanent fixtures in the group, however this won't happen until the conclusion of the August event!

SPIRAMONSTER GUIDE

So what is a Spiramonster? It's a monster designed after the character that acts as their companion, possessing traits of the character that it has this close relationship with.

These means that a Spiramonster could share physical, personality, or ability traits with your character and we encourage you to design them with these things in mind, though you don't need to if you want to design something completely original!

Each Spiramonster can have up to five attacks that you can base on your muse's own abilities / personality / etc. For example: if your character was an idol you could make up music related abilities, or if your character has like super strength you could give them a strength related move.

Simply for comparison's sake, a Spiramonster cannot be stronger than your average Pokemon. It also cannot be any larger than a horse. You can model them after animals, machines, objects, whatever you'd like so long as you don't just make them little people.

On that note whether or not they can communicate in the human tongue is up to you!

Otherwise feel free to be as creative as you would like! You can describe them with words or if you feel up to it you can demonstrate how they look with other talents!

Feel free to name them whatever you'd like (so long as it's appropriate)!

You can give a copy of your own Spiramonster to a friend via an app that will appear on your character's phone. Whether you want to give it for free, after beating you in a battle, or for money or a favour is up to you though! You can only have a party of five Spiramonsters however!

You do not need to create a Spiramonster for event participation. However you must write with someone who has one and we do encourage it, because they will be relevant in the August event in some capacity.

THE CHALLENGER'S ROAD

Ofiuco mentioned the Spiramonster Cup, otherwise known as The Challenger's Road. So what is this?

A map has been included on everyone's phones that marks challenge locations on the island map. Go there to be given a challenge by one of the Stars or other bodies involved in the city project in the form of a projection.

The challenges will range in goals from battles, to obstacle courses, to treasure hunts; there's a great variety! You can find a list of these challenges here.

Complete one of these challenges either in five-hundred words (per participant) across one or multiple threads or in five-hundred word drabble to unlock 500 Stars and a Spiragotchi device that will allow you to take care of your Spiramonster in pocket form when the event ends!

You do not need to complete a challenge to get rank-up participation! Any post partaking in the event will do!

As always if you have any questions about the event do not hesitate to ask! We'll get back to you as soon as you can!

#isola event #event: the challenger's road

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ratwavekayla · 7 months ago

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Character Progression in PSYCHODUNGEON

PSYCHODUNGEON works perfectly well as a fun one shot. You meet an interesting cast of weirdos. You delve into a strange nightmarish unreal dungeon. You close it off and send a client on their way, hoping they do manage to figure things out. Then you, the players, close the book and leave your characters in there to go their own ways, probably also hoping they manage to figure things out. But there's a lot of PSYCHODUNGEON that really thrives if you stick around.

Each playbook has a Progress Bar and Stress Metre. Each playbook has unique triggers for both trackers. There's a procedure after you finish a job: "After closing a Dungeon reflects on your day" and then the unique triggers kick in. The triggers are always designed to prod at the central question of a character. Here's the Wizards:

"After closing a Dungeon reflects on your day, if you feel proud of the choices you've made that led you to this point in life tick your Progress Bar. If you feel trapped and unsatisfied with your life tick you Stress Metre."

The vast majority of playbooks have three notches in their Progress Bar and five in their Stress Metre. Some are different. The Shapeshifter, with their shattered work life balance, has four equal notches. They're closer to the edge, always. The Swordfighter has a standard length Stress Metre but a longer Progress Bar because they're inexperienced and still figuring a lot of shit out.

So what happens when either fills. I'll just pass it to the text:

"Once you fill the Progress Bar erase it and you have the option to take on of your playbook’s Level Ups. Once you’ve taken each Level Up at least once you can take an Advancement instead when you fill the Progress Bar. Level Ups are small marks of growing as a person while Advancements are narrative opportunities that can change your character."

Here's the Cyborg's Level Ups to give a sense of what this looks like.

Download a new assistive program (Can be taken seven times)

Upgrade your cybernetics in some way (Can be taken as often as feels appropriate)

Clear two ticks of your Stress Metre (Can always be taken)

Some playbooks run out of their Level Ups, beyond clearing Stress Metre, quicker than others. But it still is always a choice whether that means you start looking at Advacenements.

PSYCHODUNGEON doesn't skew naturally to a big world ending threat as the ending of a characters stories. It's a game for narratives about the day to day, the situational. Advancements present opportunities to give characters send-offs or just major turning points. Here's the Swordfighters for example:

Your work has changed you so much, replace all your moves and Progress and Stress triggers with some from other playbooks

Take another, different job and have this all drift into memories of youthful misadventure

Take a new, better paying, job doing the same thing

Leave this job and go back to school, maybe you return to it down the line or maybe this is it

It's not the only way out though. I haven't answered what happens if the Stress Metre maxes out yet. What that means, very simply, is that the psychoplumber will develop their own psychodungeon. There's a whole section with guidance on how to play this though it honestly doesn't involve much changes from building a regular psychodungeon.

Once a Psychoplunber's dungeon has been closed they can take any of the options from the following list.

Quit psychoplumbing, by choice

Get let go from this job, and weigh up whether you wanna do another psychoplumbing job or not

Develop Lycanthropy from the dungeon, get signed off work, if you come back take on the Werewolf playbook

Acquire some cybernetics to help with dungeon injuries, get signed off work, if you come back take on the Cyborg playbook

Take a sabbatical, and come back otherwise different, or maybe not at all

Go straight back to work (are you sure about that?)

This is the other route to an exit, or just a significant character shift. I also enjoy how this creates a push and pull between the ability to wipe your Stress Metre. Are you having your best days for their own sake, or are they just there to hold off the worst of things?

PSYCHODUNGEON is a game where you can change a lot, but that's not always for the better, there's always levers for you get to worse, or to just dig your heels in and refuse to accept things could be different.

PSYCHODUNGEON (TTRPG)

In PSYCHODUNGEON we delve into nightmarish psychostructures, battle monsters, navigate a hostile domain, and help the mind the dungeon sprung from gain closure. We do this for a meagre paycheck. On the surface we try to get by living our lives in a busy city that wouldn’t miss you if you fell off the face of the planet.

Funding on Kickstarter until the 20th of June! This is the twelth of a series of posts I’m doing all about different aspects of the game. Check the tag to see previous posts. Put in requests for what else you’re curious about the game.

#psychodungeon #psychodungeon is about feeling like the world hates you #and trying to not let that start making you hate yourself for the world

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eternalchaoschocolaterain · 11 months ago

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The Most Powerful Waitress

Chapter three is here! I said it would be soon. Merula starts her first job.

Chapter one: school's out

Chapter two: I'd hire me

Chapter four: Rinse and repeat

Chapter five: Patience

Chapter six: I don't know

Chapter seven (final chapter): No one knows

No cure for me

After some contemplation Merula decided to owl St. Mungo’s back that she would accept their offer. She had a good interview with them for a place in the cure research team. On Monday July 29th she would start training to invent her own cures. In a few years she’d be an inventor of the best cures the world, or at least Britain, had ever seen. If making cures was actually something for her. She knew it required extensive knowledge of the dark arts, potions, herbology and charms. All of which she obviously had and she did like experimenting with both spells and potions, which put this job above the other ones she’d interviewed for.

Time flew by and before she knew it, it was July 29th. In the morning she took the fireplace and ended up in St. Mungo’s reception hall. People with all sorts of ailments milled about the room, making uncontrollable noises, movements or both. The room smelled like a mixture of sweat and Winky Crockett's Elbow Grease. Merula scrunched her nose, not the most pleasant way to start a work day, but at least it wasn’t boring.

She headed towards the cure research wing, where according to the letter she got, Priya Mehra would be waiting for her in the library. The research wing was quiet, especially in comparison to the reception hall. She could hear her own footsteps echoing against stone floor.

The library had been shown to her during a little tour when she had her interview and she remembered where to find it. There was only one person in the large room, behind one of the many desks. They were built in between bookcases alongside all the walls. Like the rest of the hospital, the library had white tiled floors. It was lit by a big round fireplace in the middle. The woman, who had to be Priya, got up with a big smile and held out her hand when she spotted Merula.

‘Priya Mehra, nice to meet you.’

‘Merula Snyde, nice to meet you too.’ Merula took her hand.

‘I’ll be your mentor throughout your entire training. I’ll introduce you to the way things are run here, the rest of the team and be around for any questions you may have.’

Priya continued on to explain how Merula would spend a lot of time in the library the first few years, as it would be expected of her to look for an answer before asking questions. Especially for her basic healing knowledge. She would join the healing program on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, when they practiced their healing spells, but would have to brush up on theory on her own. No problem for the Most Powerful Witch, she could do it in her sleep.

She followed Priya as she gave her a tour around the quarters. Just outside the research room was the break room and the last room which could be entered in her normal clothes. To enter the work wing, Merula had to put a lavender coat, goggles, gloves and charm her hair not to fall out.

The wing had a humongous storage room with the rarest ingredients Merula had ever encountered and every one of them could be experimented with! Next were the many work rooms and a room Priya called the ‘culture room’. She opened the door to a room filled with what looked like human bodies of all different shapes, sizes and colours. Except they weren’t exactly right. The arms and legs looked wonky and not to mention the faces, which looked like a toddler had drawn them.

‘They’re as close to the real thing as we can get before we move along to human trials. They make great test subjects. We can infect or curse them with anything we want.’

‘And they’ll display the same symptoms you and I would?’

‘Yes, except pain. We don’t have an objective way to measure that yet. If we really need to know we’ll use rats, otherwise we find out during the human trials.’

‘Can I curse one of them?’

‘Not today, but soon. You’ll get a lot of opportunity to experiment with them and see for yourself how it works.’

Next Priya brought her to the room where her own experiment was brewing.

‘I’m working to improve Skele-Gro. The potion does what it needs to do, but the side effects are horrendous.’ She showed Merula how she’d deconstructed the potion. ‘I want to see if I can eliminate or at least limit the amount of pain it causes.’

She showed Merula her log, which detailed all the steps she’d already taken and some very complex equations. They delved into a discussion where Merula asked some questions. Priya talked to her like an equal and the more they talked, the more enthusiastic Merula got. Working here sounded better every second. After their discussion Priya suggested Merula get back to the library to brush up on some basic healing spells for her first practical lesson tomorrow. During lunch Priya introduced her to some other co-workers, who all seemed nice enough, and explained she would show her some other part of the job afterwards.

‘We have a very interesting case of a young man who got hit with an unknown curse.’

A little feeling of unease sprouted in her stomach, but Merula pushed it away. It wouldn’t be that. Couldn’t be that.

‘The curse has left him without sight, even though his pupils and irises show no sign of damage. Only his eye whites have turned red, but that shouldn’t impede his vision.’ Of course it had to be that. Merula tried to hide her growing discomfort and Priya continued on, seemingly unaware. ‘We’ve tried a few spells and potions, but nothing worked so far. I’m going to conduct some more tests on him and I think it’d be great for you to see that part of our work too.’

‘Yeah sure, sounds good.’

Too soon, lunch was over and Merula followed Priya into the hospital, to the third floor: poisons and curses.

‘Hi Jacob,’ Priya greeted the patient when they entered the room. ‘I’ve come for some more tests. I hope you don’t mind, but I brought the newest member of our team. It’s her first day and I want her to see as much as possible.’

‘Whatever, you need as much people as possible anyway. I wanted this curse lifted yesterday,’ Lee grumbled.

‘I know.’ Priya gestured at Merula. ‘Why don’t you introduce yourself?’

‘Lee knows who I am.’

‘Merula?!’

‘You two know each other?’

‘Her aunt is the one that got me cursed.’ Lee narrowed his eyes.

Priya turned to Merula, her ochre face a picture of shock. Of course Lee had to go there. Just when she thought she had a chance somewhere. Now everything would change.

‘Oh, and she’s sort of dating my sister.’

Wait, what?

‘What the fuck are you on about?’

Lee rolled his eyes, because apparently, he could still do that. ‘I’m blind, not deaf. I heard you kiss when you were here together. Why are you hiding it anyway? It’s 1991, no one cares if you date a girl.’

‘I know that!’

‘So, what’s the problem? Are you ashamed of her?’

‘That’s not- I’m not- What do you care? She’s happy, isn’t she?’

‘Then why are you hiding?’

‘Because it’s none of your fucking business who I date or don’t date!’

‘That’s enough,’ Priya cut in. ‘Let’s foc-’

‘It is my business when you’re dating my sister!’

‘Oh fuck off with this protective brother act.’ Merula took a step closer, ignoring Priya’s warning gaze. ‘You’ve caused her more trouble than anyone on this entire planet! So you can quit your whining and meddling or else-’

‘ENOUGH!’ Priya yelled. ‘Both of you, shut up. Yes, you too, Jacob,’ she added when Lee opened his mouth again. ‘I came here to do some more tests on you and I will. Merula, you will be silent and watch.’

Merula crossed her arms, but didn’t say anything else. She glared hard at Lee and hoped he could feel her gaze burn. Arsehole. All those years Quinn tried to protect him, even had to protect herself against him and now he went after her for not going around yelling that she and Quinn were dating? Sure, with her aunt now in Azkaban hiding wasn’t a necessity anymore, but it wasn’t like Quinn wanted to be public either. Half of her friends still hated Merula and Quinn didn’t want to get into useless discussions. They wanted to sort things about between them without anyone else butting in with their stupid opinions, was that too much to ask?

Priya got out her wand and cast multiple spells on Jacob’s eyes to test their functions. In between she explained the use of each spell. Merula got out her notebook and jotted it all down, trying very hard to push her anger away and focus. When Priya was done she gestured for Merula to follow her and brought her to an empty room.

‘That was highly unprofessional. I’ll give you a warning because this is your first day and you two know each other, but if anything like this happens again, you’ll have to find another job. Even though most of our work is in the labs, we do our work for people and you can’t go argue with someone, no matter how rude they are.’

Merula waited for her to continue and say something about her family, because why wouldn’t she say something about them? After all, it was her aunt who had cursed Lee.

‘Understood?’

‘It won’t happen again.’

With that the conversation ended. Priya went to document her findings and together they searched the library for some books that could help. They didn’t talk about the incident anymore, nor did Priya treat her any different than before, much to Merula’s surprise. The rest of the day went on without a hitch and she felt quite optimistic when she went home. Perhaps things could work out here.

The next day started in the healer wing on the ground floor. A much smaller wing than the cure research wing, with only a large break room, a room full of lockers and one classroom. Few people had already gathered in front of it, one of whom was Chiara; a classmate from Hogwarts and Quinn’s housemate. Easily recognizable by her silver grey hair and pale skin. They hadn’t talked much in school. Chiara spent almost all of her time outside classes in the Hospital Wing. Now she raised her eyebrows when Merula came closer.

‘Merula? I didn’t know you wanted to become a healer?’

Before Merula could answer a blonde next to Chiara spoke. ‘Merula Snyde wants to be a healer?’

Merula crossed her arms. ‘What’s it to you?’

‘Nothing. I’m just surprised.’

What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

‘Well, I don’t. I’m becoming a cure researcher.’

‘That sounds like something for you. You always had top marks in potions,’ Chiara said with a smile.

‘I did,’ Merula replied and decided right there that Chiara was more than alright in her book. Unlike that blonde. She looked at her trying to see if her brain would come up with a name. Blond hair to her shoulders, partly pulled into a ponytail. White. Nothing about her rung a bell. That’s what she got for not paying attention to her classmates. Although, it wasn’t like the girl was worth paying attention to now.

A healer arrived and opened the doors to reveal a small classroom with tables in rows. Each table had a wooden leg on it. Merula chose a table on the second row as everyone filed into the room. Chiara took the table next to her, leaned close and whispered.

‘Don’t mind Sarah, she is a bit direct but is quite nice when you get to know her. Like you.’

That’s where Chiara was wrong, because no one was like her, but Merula let it slide. She clearly meant well.

The healer went on to explain that they would practice the bandaging charm, ferula, and showed what it should look like. Everyone copied the wandmovement: down and then a little arch back up. Easy enough.

White bandages spouted from the healer’s wand and wrapped themselves neatly around their own wooden leg. They took the thing and shook it, to show that the bandages weren’t moving, but reminded them that at the same time one should be able to put a finger underneath. Bandages shouldn’t be too tight. With that it was time to practice.

Merula copied the exact movement, focused on the outcome she wanted and spoke the word.

‘Ferula.’

Tattered bandages spouted from her wand and while they wrapped themselves around the leg, they were loose. Merula could shake them off with ease. No problem, this was only her first try. She looked around, the bandages from the others looked better. But then again, they were a month ahead of her. She would catch up. Then she heard someone snicker from behind her and turned in her seat. Sarah had a smirk on her face and exchanged a look with the person next to her. Merula narrowed her eyes. Was she laughing at her? The healer clacked their tongue and asked Merula to turn her attention back to her leg. She did with a huff. Shouldn’t let herself get distracted by someone so stupid.

At the end of class, Chiara came over to her. ‘That looked good for a first time. I think you’ll catch up to us in no time.’

Before Merula could answer she noticed Sarah throwing her a look while talking with someone. Enough. She stalked between the desks up to Sarah’s.

‘You got a problem with me?’

‘What? Of course not. It’s just interesting to see you here. I never thought you’d end up in a healing career.’

‘And why’s that?’ Merula lifted her chin, daring her to answer.

‘Well, everyone knows what you’re like. You’ve been the talk of the school since the day you started. We all thought you’d end up in Azkaban or something, but here you are.’ Sarah giggled. ‘It’s just odd, isn’t it?’

‘No, it’s not! I’ve always worked hard, why the fuck would that make me end up in Azkaban?’

‘It’s not about marks, it’s just that you did kind send people to the hospital wing a few times and you broke a lot of school rules.’

‘I just like duelling! Not my fault others are weak. And who cares about some puny school rules? Like I’m the only one who’s ever gotten detention. Get your head out of your arse before I do it.’

‘Okay, easy. You asked, remember?’ Sarah shrugged. ‘Now don’t you have somewhere to go? I know I do.’

She turned on her heel and left the classroom. Most others had as well. Only a few people, including Chiara, were still at the front, talking to the healer. She gave Merula an apologetic shrug when Sarah passed her. Merula rolled her eyes and marched back to cure research wing. At least the people there were nice.

But Priya did not look happy to see her. She shook her head when Merula entered the lab.

‘I can’t believe you got into another fight. I’m really disappointed.’

‘It wasn’t my fault, she started it with her stupid comments!’

‘It doesn’t matter. I warned you yesterday. It’s a pity though, I quite like you and I think you would’ve made a fine addition to the team, but two fights in two days is unacceptable. You have to leave.’ To her credit she did look unhappy about the situation.

‘Fine.’

‘You have a lot of potential Merula, I hope you won’t let your temper get in the way like this again.’

Ugh, temper, temper. It wasn’t her fault other people were stupid arseholes that got on her nerves. People were the worst. But, whatever, it wasn’t like she wanted to become a cure researcher anyway. She’d only picked it because it sounded better than her other options. But she had other options and she would just pick something else. It didn’t matter, the Most Powerful Witch wouldn’t be without a job for long. And the next one would be even better.

#the most powerful waitress #merula snyde #merula x mc #merula x quinn #quirula

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lethalrexie · 4 months ago

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just saying if you can’t l0se we!ght and you’re complaining it’s just because you’re either not disciplined enough or don’t have enough self control. (unless your life circumstances literally don’t allow it) i’m l0sing about 1!b per day (give or take depending on water intake) due to pretty 8 much factors. SORRY I TALK SO MUCH 😦

1. keep your e@ting window as small as possible aka eat to live don’t live to eat (the r3xie motto 🤪). i’m f@sting minimum 16:8 and i try to extend that. but major thing is don’t beat yourself up if you can’t make it 16hrs and be happy the days you can make it longer!! esp if your just starting out.

2. stay low c@l. i’m trying my best to stay under 500 c@l/day. and consume that how it works for you. if five 100 c@l snacks over 8 hrs work best some days that’s ok. if OMAD works best, great! my mom is a dietitian and i promise, eating a little of each food group (dairy, carb ik scary, protein, veg & fruit) will help your metab which in the long run will help you l0se more weight.

3. don’t do long term fasts. i’d say up to a week with liquids is okay. but long term fasts can lower your metabolism, deplete electrolytes, and sodium, which long term is going to bloat you, keep weight on, and overall make you feel like shit (which could lead to hospitalization)

4. don’t eat refined sugar or refined foods. do literally AS MUCH AS YOU CAN to eat sugar free and whole foods. i have a major sweet tooth so i turn to sugar free jello/pudding, sf caramels, halo top ice cream if i REALLY need it. otherwise i do sweet fruit and veggie based substitutions for carbs. i use cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, or there’s these great hearts of palm noodles.

5. eat tons of fiber!! i add unflavored benefiber to a lot of my drinks (the flavored ones have added sugar). i honestly could promise you that fiber will help with shedding !bs.

6. drink as much water as you possibly can. yes you can become over-hydrated so add electrolytes or legit just a lil salt to your water here n there. but your body is going to retain water (!bs), and bloat if you are dehydrated.

7. stay distracted! discipline and hunger may hurt now, regret and guilt are going to hurt 50x worse later. get some motivational phrases, tactics, distractions, that work for you and RELY ON THEM. water, i use mio in mine when i’m desperate, gum, diet soda, bubbly water, reading, tv, ANYTHING. i have other reblogs with some good motivational tactics. i also look at th!nspø as well as pics of my own body multiple times per day to keep me on track.

8. exercise if you are mentally & physically able to. i have some other limiting factors which make me unable to go to the gym or get as many steps in as id like. an avg day is 2k-5k steps for me rotting on the couch. i PROMISE like 100% money back guarantee (ik you’re not paying me but istg if there was a r3xie program 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE) your diet is 1,000,000 more important than any exercise you’re going to get in. exercise will help with toning so i try to get some laying ones done on the couch but dude you burn calories just existing. so if you eat lower than that which is 1k-2k (you can look it up it’s your TDEE) you will lose weight. give it time.

essentially there’s many different tactics, routes, strategies whateva to l0sing weïght. do what works best for you and give it time. you will not lose 30!bs overnight. just make sure to take your supplement and stay safe <3 I’m currently taking one called “obvi. BURN” it has collagen in it + a bunch of stuff that’s speeds up metab. idk if it’s actually doing anything for my metab but the collagen is amazing.

***special mention: incorporate foods/drinks that speed up your metab. coffee, green tea, spicy foods (pepper, cayenne pepper), cinnamon, B12 there’s sooo many***

#⭐️ve #⭐️vation goals #thinspp #st4rv1ng #starv3 #th1n$pø #4n@diary #light as a 🪶#ana bløg #tw ana bløg #light as a feather

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kylo-wrecked · 8 months ago

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{ cont'd from here }

Ben had never been the best runner. Besides not being the best runner, he was told time and again throughout his rigorous pedagogical training that he was too big for the track to begin with. He thought too much (for the sport, likewise for his own good), and he fought too much (for any sport, likewise for his own good).

He liked running, though. Alone. It choked back thought or helped him cut through its pictures. Singapore's loamy, hot air coursing his lungs willed him through tears. Against tears.

Every morning, Ben ran four or so miles against tears.

He called this ability transmutation. He had lost some weight, gone without a haircut for nearly a month, and cut down on shaving. He divulged himself of any rigorous regime but the running. He stopped drinking coffee. He stopped writing poems. He withdrew from the graduate program in climate change and sustainability. It was all part of his transmutation. He was just changing. He was different now.

Then there was Brunn. Returned to him. For a price? For five bodies and the promise of violence.

Ben ran a thumb over the loose mermaid's lock pulled through her hair tie. The edge of his face, his deepening eyes, drawn on Brunn's neck, traveling idly.

"You'd have to charter the boat," he reminded her. "I can't. But... sort of?"

Caught Brunn's gaze, bristled at its intensity, then matched it.

"Island hopping's the thing here." He spoke with an ounce of conviction on an otherwise flat affect. "There's a lagoon. Lazarus Island and Kusu—Turtle— Island..."

Trailed off into silence.

There was no moment for him where it felt as if nothing had happened.

@valkxrie

#valkxrie #m. au | modern!ben: the senator's son #r. method of modern love

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5point1 · 6 months ago

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vaporize prompts - silver wolf and freminet

(scroll further for fremmy's plots!)

silver wolf

uncovering king deshret's secrets is much like playing a detective game, or one could even liken it to an escape room with combat sprinkled in between. exploring the desert like this takes "immersive lore" to the very next level, and even silver wolf's curious - what treasures will await them at the end of the line? (requires teyvat muse)

who says you can't gamify tea leaf picking? silver wolf's done just that, elbowing your muse and challenging them to a friendly competition to see who can pick more tea in a given amount of time. as punishment, loser pays for street food for the both of them once they're finished. (requires teyvat muse)

puppy hunt? bring it on! silver wolf, the galaxy's defender of all things cute and fluffy is here to save the day. (or, at least she can tell you where she hasn't spotted that dog so far... seriously, where could it be? did she accidentally put on her dog repellant perfume this morning?)

what are the moral implications of "hacking" into ai lifeforms? well, if the end purpose is all for the greater good, then surely the means justify the ends. your muse may think otherwise when they see silver wolf taking on this commission just to force a shutdown on a poor cycrane and manually code and reboot the happiness function back into its programming.

freminet

freminet, although curious by nature, is the type to not pry. if his job is to protect your muse, who may or may not be lacking in the combat department, then he will carry out his task with flying colors and without asking unnecessary questions about their journey or destination. although, he is very much not used to the dry sand of the desert, and a downside of having him as your bodyguard is that he constantly looks like he's about to collapse, unless your muse notices first and offers to take a five minute water break for his sake.

chenyu vale looks straight out of one of freminet's picture books, even moreso when it's livelier than usual and the tea bushes are in full bloom. naturally, one begins to wonder about the young fontanian boy that's been parked in front of the paper kite and shadow puppet stalls for the past half hour...

freminet has never seen a "diting" before, though it reminds him of some of the lion dances he's seen in liyue, but that's not about to stop him from doting over one as a companion like he has with pers. he's not really interested in the betting aspect of the racing, if he has to be honest - but don't they just look so cute when they run off?! (requires sea of quanta muse)

monsters of the fragmentum are not like anything freminet has battled before, and it seems this new world and new enemies is causing him to be weaker than originally expected. he's a bit in over his head, but one thing freminet won't do is to give up halfway through a mission. if he had some help from someone more local, perhaps they could split the work! (requires sea of quanta muse)

when your idea of therapy is 1) putting on your diving helmet and going nonverbal, or 2) diving headfirst into the sea to scream and cry where only the coral can hear you, it's safe to say you (unfortunately) will probably not make the best therapist. either way, emotional healing can be found in different means, can it not? freminet has become a xianzhou snow white as he's unintentionally attracted a school of illumination dragonfish as he reads aloud one of his favorite storybooks with great enthusiasm in his voice. your muse can't help but to be drawn to the commotion, too. (requires sea of quanta muse)

#➔ @5point1: patch notes #➔ @5point1: dev notes

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baohouse · 2 years ago

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Personal framework for running a global engineering team

Five months in being Director of Engineering for a fintech startup, overseeing a small team that spans south Asia and North America, I'm building a global engineering culture that produces a high-quality technology product. Greatest challenge I've ever faced. What is helping me?

1. Being a systems thinker.

As a child my uncle would go to a used computer store, Weird Stuff, in Silicon Valley and bring home junk. I would take apart and rebuild computers. At the same time, on weekends, I would help mom look after our garden filled with abundant fruit trees.

Looking after a garden helped me practice managing micro-ecologies. I played a lot of video games growing up, notably SimCity, Civilization, and SimEarth. It was fun to explore different ways of managing complex systems (cities, nations, planet).

2. Understanding culture via ethnic studies.

I became interested in understanding my Vietnamese heritage while entering college. I became involved in Vietnamese student organizing at the school, regional, and continental level, especially organizing conferences.

I took a course in Native American Studies and Asian American Studies to help compare. What was important was to have a statistical and anecdotal view of culture. Traits can manifest by many, or by few who still see themselves part of the group.

Also important was tweaking or implementing new cultural practices. A big focus during my time as a student organizer—credit which goes to my peers—was building social cohesion among people in different geographies via group activities, e.g. scavenger hunt, trò chơi lớn.

Sometimes it failed. Other times it succeeded. Either way, a lesson learned: utilize one's upbringing, or design a way to introduce people into a new practice. Which segues into...

3. Practice marketing and product development.

I practiced asking/answering: What do people do? Is there something (a product) that exists to fulfill their needs? How can it be improved? I practiced via student community organizing, and continued having joined many tech startups.

At every startup company, we created a tech product (I developed my software engineering skills), and had to test and validate its viability. And in the context of a startup, I learned product development processes such as Agile methodology.

Culture is a product too, e.g. instituting a mentorship program, or Vietnamese New Year festival. They're not software, but it benefits from asking the same questions. Can't just do things just cuz it's always been done that way. Why do it? Otherwise people flock to alternatives.

4. Study leadership.

One way to approach it is learning the levels of leadership. The first person you lead is yourself. And then you learn to lead peers/groups, then organizations, then communities, societies, etc.

For each level one had to learn different skills. Level 1 (self) you learn self-awareness and self-love. Level 2 (peers) you learn empathy, chit chat, paired activities (hanging out; dates). Level 3 (group) you learn things like conflict resolution mediation.

Learning and practice never ends. Just because I practiced how to do it with peers my age, as time goes on, you just end up practicing with people of different backgrounds: age, origin, beliefs, life circumstances, disabilities, etc.

5. Learning and applying industrialization.

So it's one thing to learn how to create products. It's another matter to make it accessible at scale. I'll watch videos on how things are built such as how Coca-Cola Company makes soda. Or how McDonald's churn out burgers quickly.

It helps to be a systems thinker, to really identify where things get slow. When I played SimCity, I loved identifying and clearing out traffic bottlenecks. It also helps to understand lifecycles (thanks high school biology), because a lot of problems come down to timing issues.

Now... I don't have a formal training in industrial processes like Six Sigma or Toyota Production System. But it's definitely something I'm interested in. Why? Because I like to model after good practices that already exist. Which segues into...

6. Leverage partnerships and external inspirations.

An important lesson I learned while organizing in the Vietnamese nonprofit community is: if you can't do it yourself, partner with someone who can. Build their work into your flow. Or model their process.

I worked with nonprofits, so I only had shoestring budgets or volunteer hours to work with. My mentees created youth development programs by inviting staff of other nonprofits to participate. DIY is cool, but if it's not an option, collaborate.

Or if limited resources, introduce an abbreviated form. Set a goal for each team member to learn and apply one new thing each month to steer the team towards a framework. Sometimes it's about introducing terminology, because words shape our reality and the way we do things.

Sorry this is so long; really this is a brain dump. I need it because I needed to create my own personal framework for how I am running the engineering team.

#leadership

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govindhtech · 2 months ago

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HTTP 429 Errors: Keep Your Users Online And Happy

429 Errors

Avoid leaving your visitors waiting when resources run out: How to deal with 429 errors

429 error meaning

When a client sends too many requests to a server in a specified period of time, an HTTP error known as “Too Many Requests” (Error 429) occurs. This error can occur for many reasons:

Rate-limiting

The server limits client requests per time period.

Security

A DDoS attack or brute-force login attempt was detected by the server. In this instance, the server may block the suspect requestor’s IP.

Limits bandwidth

Server bandwidth is maxed out.

Per-user restrictions

The server has hit its maximum on user requests per time period.

The mistake may go away, but you should fix it to avoid losing traffic and rankings. Flushing your DNS cache forces your computer to acquire the latest DNS information, fixing the issue.

Large language models (LLMs) offer developers a great deal of capability and scalability, a seamless user experience depends on resource management. Because LLMs require a lot of processing power, it’s critical to foresee and manage possible resource depletion. Otherwise, 429 “resource exhaustion” errors could occur, which could interfere with users’ ability to interact with your AI application.

Google examines the reasons behind the 429 errors that LLMs make nowadays and provides three useful techniques for dealing with them successfully. Even during periods of high demand, you can contribute to ensuring a seamless and continuous experience by comprehending the underlying causes and implementing the appropriate solutions.

Backoff!

Retry logic and exponential backoff have been used for many years. LLMs can also benefit from these fundamental strategies for managing resource depletion or API unavailability. Backoff and retry logic in the code might be useful when a model’s API is overloaded with calls from generative AI applications or when a system is overloaded with inquiries. Until the overloaded system recovers, the waiting time grows dramatically with each retry.

Backoff logic can be implemented in your application code using decorators in Python. For instance, Tenacity is a helpful Python general-purpose retrying module that makes it easier to incorporate retry behavior into your code. Asynchronous programs and multimodal models with broad context windows, like Gemini, are more prone to 429 errors.

To show how backoff and retry are essential to the success of your gen AI application, Google tested sending a lot of input to Gemini 1.5 Pro. Google is straining the Gemini system by using photos and videoskept in Google Cloud Storage.

The results, where four of five attempts failed, are shown below without backoff and retry enabled.the results without backoff and retry configured

The outcomes with backoff and retry set up are shown below. By using backoff and retry, all five tries were successful. There is a trade-off even when the model responds to a successful API call. A response’s latency increases with the backoff and retry. Performance might be enhanced by modifying the model, adding more code, or moving to a different cloud zone. Backoff and retry, however, is generally better in times of heavy traffic and congestion.The results with backoff and retry configured

Additionally, you could frequently run into problems with the underlying APIs when working with LLMs, including rate-limiting or outages. It becomes increasingly crucial to protect against these when you put your LLM applications into production. For this reason, LangChain presented the idea of a fallback, which is a backup plan that might be employed in an emergency. One fallback option is to switch to a different model or even to a different LLM provider. To make your LLM applications more resilient, you can incorporate fallbacks into your code in addition to backoff and retry techniques.

With Apigee, circuit breaking is an additional strong choice for LLM resilience. You can control traffic distribution and graceful failure management by putting Apigee in between a RAG application and LLM endpoints. Naturally, every model will offer a unique solution, thus it is important to properly test the circuit breaking design and fallbacks to make sure they satisfy your consumers’ expectations.

Dynamic shared quota

For some models, Google Cloud uses dynamic shared quota to control resource allocation in an effort to offer a more adaptable and effective user experience. This is how it operates:

Dynamic shared quota versus Traditional quota

Traditional quota: In a Traditional quota system, you are given a set amount of API requests per day, per minute, or region, for example. You often have to file a request for a quota increase and wait for approval if you need more capacity. This can be inconvenient and slow. Of course, capacity is still on-demand and not dedicated, thus quota allocation alone does not ensure capacity. Dynamic shared quota: Google Cloud offers a pool of available capacity for a service through dynamic shared quota. All of the users submitting requests share this capacity in real-time. You draw from this shared pool according to your needs at any given time, rather than having a set individual limit.

Dynamic shared quota advantages

Removes quota increase requests: For services that employ dynamic shared quota, quota increase requests are no longer required. The system adapts to your usage habits on its own.

Increased efficiency: Because the system can distribute capacity where it is most needed at any given time, resources are used more effectively.

Decreased latency: Google Cloud can reduce latency and respond to your requests more quickly by dynamically allocating resources.

Management made easier: Since you don’t have to worry about reaching set limits, capacity planning is made easier.

Using a dynamic shared quota

429 resource exhaustion errors to Gemini with big multimodal input, like large video files, are more likely to result in resource exhaustion failures. The model performance of Gemini-1.5-pro-001 with a traditional quota and Gemini-1.5-pro-002 with a dynamic shared quota is contrasted below. It can be observed that the second-generation Gemini Pro model performs better than the first-generation model due to dynamic shared quota, even without retrying (which is not advised).model performance of Gemini-1.5-pro-001 with traditional quota versus Gemini-1.5-pro-002 with dynamic shared quotamodel performance of Gemini-1.5-pro-001 with traditional quota versus Gemini-1.5-pro-002 with dynamic shared quota

Dynamic shared quota should be used with backoff and retry systems, particularly as request volume and token size grow. In all of its initial attempts, it ran into 429 errors when testing the -002 model with greater video input. The test results below, however, show that all five subsequent attempts were successful when backoff and retry logic were used. This demonstrates how important this tactic is to the consistent performance of the more recent -002 Gemini model.

A move toward a more adaptable and effective method of resource management in Google Cloud is represented by dynamic shared quota. It seeks to maximize resource consumption while offering users a tightly integrated experience through dynamic capacity allocation. There is no user-configurable dynamic shared quota. Only certain models, such as Gemini-1.5-pro-002 and Gemini-1.5-flash-002, have Google enabled it.

As an alternative, you may occasionally want to set a hard-stop barrier to cease making too many API requests to Gemini. In Vertex AI, intentionally creating a customer-defined quota depends on a number of factors, including abuse, financial constraints and restrictions, or security considerations. The customer quota override capability is useful in this situation. This could be a helpful tool for safeguarding your AI systems and apps. Terraform’s google_service_usage_consumer_quota_override schema can be used to control consumer quota.

Provisioned Throughput

You may reserve specific capacity for generative AI models on the Vertex AI platform with Google Cloud’s Provisioned Throughput feature. This implies that even during periods of high demand, you can rely on consistent and dependable performance for your AI workloads.

Below is a summary of its features and benefits:

Benefits

Predictable performance: Your AI apps will function more smoothly if you eliminate performance fluctuation and receive predictable reaction times.

Reserved capacity: Queuing and resource contention are no longer concerns. For your AI models, you have a specific capacity. The pay-as-you-go charge is automatically applied to extra traffic when Provisioned Throughput capacity is exceeded.

Cost-effective: If you have regular, high-volume AI workloads, it can be less expensive than pay-as-you-go pricing. Use steps one through ten in the order process to determine whether Provisioned Throughput can save you money.

Scalable: As your demands change, you may simply increase or decrease the capacity you have reserved.

Image credit to Google Cloud

This would undoubtedly be helpful if your application has a big user base and you need to give quick response times. This is specifically made for applications like chatbots and interactive content creation that need instantaneous AI processing. Computationally demanding AI operations, including processing large datasets or producing intricate outputs, can also benefit from provisioned throughput.

Stay away with 429 errors

Reliable performance is essential when generative AI is used in production. Think about putting these three tactics into practice to accomplish this. It is great practice to integrate backoff and retry capabilities into all of your gen AI applications since they are made to cooperate.