#and i think it worked in exoplanet

[minniesmutt]

☾ ━━━━━━ 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

☾ ━━━ PAIRING: HYUNJIN X READER ☾ ━━━ CONTENT: ALIEN!HYUNJIN, PLANETARY SCIENTIST!READER, SEMI-PUBLIC SEX, BREEDING, APHRODISIAC, SPIT, LIP BITING, TEASING, PET NAMES (DOLL, HUN, DARLING, BABY), NIPPLE PLAY, FINGERING, OVERSIM, READER IS VERY SENSITIVE THE WHOLE TIME, BIG COCK! HYUNJIN, TENTACLES, PRAISE/DEGRADING, CERVIX FUCKING, EGG IMPLANTING, ROUGH SEX, UNPROTECTED SEX, DOM!HYUNJIN, SUB!READER, SUBSPACE (?), TUMMY BULDGE (?), INFLATION (?) ☾ ━━━ WC: 2.8K ☾ ━━━ repost from old blog ☾ ━━━ 18+ work!! minors and ageless/blank blogs DNI! you will be blocked, put an indicator on your blog somewhere that you are 18+ before interacting with this work/blog

     Space was massive. So much to learn about, star formations, their life cycle, other galaxies, planets, and solar systems. The unknown drew Y/n in. Maybe that’s why she fell for Hyunjin so hard. 

     He was different. Loved the fact she was a planetary scientist. Constantly asked her questions that had her rambling for hours on end. First, it embarrassed her but he always reassured her he found it so adorable when she rambled about her work. He loved hearing about her theories on extraterrestrial life. Not knowing he crash-landed on Earth from another planet. 

     At least, she didn’t know at first. She had a deep feeling there was something about him that just wasn’t right. Came up with several hypotheses before he sat her down when he came to pick her up from work and explained to her he was indeed an alien. 

     He was scared. Scared he’d lose her and be stuck alone on Earth until he figured out how to get his stupid ship working again. 

     But that didn’t happen. No, he saw her eyes sparkle with excitement over the news. Running around her private lab asking him if any of the planets she’d found were his. What was it like in his home world? How was the air? technology? any question that popped into her head

     He was sure she was going to implode with excitement the more questions she thought of. That was the night he first kissed her too. It was only a few months ago it happened but it almost seemed like years away. 

     Since then, he picked her up from work every night. It was rare they left on time. Y/n easily indulged in her work, especially when she could interview an actual alien about his home world. Tonight was no different. 

     She was so engrossed in her work that she didn’t even hear him come into the lab. Focused on her computer, examining photos of a planet and its moons. She didn’t hear him come in. He closed the door as gently as he could behind him and silently made his way over to her. He stood behind her and slowly leaned down with the intent to kiss the top of her head. 

     Y/n felt someone behind her and looked back to see the handsome alien pouting at his failed kiss, “Hi Hyune.”

     “Ruined my surprise kiss.” 

     “Can I still get a kiss?”

     Hyunjin smiled and cupped her face and pecked her lips, “How’s work?”

     “Mhmm. Not bad, just trying to figure out if this planet could sustain life.”

     Hyunjin took a look at the planet on the screen. It was a few lightyears away from his own and he’d seen it a couple of times traveling. 

     “A small one, I think. I can’t exactly remember,” Hyunjin stated as he pulled up a chair next to her

     Y/n smiled at him, “I should press you for info on all my exoplanet discoveries.”

     “Do I get a reward for all my info?” Hyunjin smiled, pulling her chair closer to him. 

     “Maybe.”

     Hyunjin pulled her into his lap and she squeaked in surprise. Holding onto his shoulders before settling on his lap. “I want a kiss for every piece of alien info I tell you,” Hyunjin stated

     “Deal.” Y/n figured it would be harmless. A kiss for info and she got to cuddle her boyfriend while working? Score. 

     She rewarded him with a peck on his plump lips for the info he previously provided her. She went through some more plants and asked him questions, rewarding him with kisses after he finished answering. 

     “What about reproduction? Is it similar for all species or is it different?” She asked 

     “Different. Some have eggs, some are similar to how humans breed. Most species I know have a breeding season.” Hyunjin explained. 

     Y/n pecked his lips, “What about you? What’s your species’ reproduction like?”

     “Mhm. Most liquids in our bodies are similar to aphrodisiacs. It makes the process easier for the female.”

     “Process?” Y/n asked

     “Hm. Kiss first,” Hyunjin puckered his lips at her

     Y/n pecked his lips again. “What process?”

     “Egg implanting.”

     Y/n’s eyes went wide. Her ears felt like they were on fire, mouth wide open. Hyunjin chuckled and closed her jaw before pecking her lips. 

     “Don’t go too dumb on me yet doll,” Hyunjin teased, placing a kiss on her shoulder

     “When—“ Y/n cleared her throat before wrapping her arms around his neck, “When’s your breeding season?”

     “Mm, should be starting in a couple of days.”

     Y/n pecked his lips one last time, “Let’s go home, that’s enough information for today.”

     Two days went by far too slowly. Y/n used the prior day to let the information her boyfriend had told her to settle in. Today, she was so unfocused with work. The day was going by way too slowly. Most of the time was spent thinking about what he had said. 

     She read stories on the internet of people claiming they’d been abducted by aliens— in most cases “Grays”— and essentially became a human incubator. The truth behind them was up for debate. No one ever had evidence other than the supposed victim’s word. 

     Y/n was lost in her thoughts thinking about it when she felt arms wrap around her waist. She jumped and turned around, being met with the smiling face of her boyfriend calmed her down. 

     “You alright?” he asked 

     “Yeah. Just scared me,” She replied as she turned in his arms and kissed his lips. 

     Hyunjin smiled into the kiss and kissed, holding onto her hips. “What’s got you lost in thought?” He asked as he broke the kiss. 

     Y/n couldn't find the words to tell him what it was she was thinking about. How do you tell your alien boyfriend you’d been thinking about him breeding you for two days?

     “Talk to me hun,” Hyuniin said and kissed her cheek.

     “Do you remember when we were talking about, uhm… you're breeding season,” Y/n started

     “Yeah, why?” 

     “Don’t make me say it Hyune,” Y/n pleaded, face all red

     “But how will I know what you want if you don't tell me?”

     Hyunjin slowly backed her up into her desk. Y/n gripped his shirt, trying to gather any bit of courage to tell him. 

     Hyunjin grabbed her chin and lifted her lips to his. He licked his lower lip before pushing them onto her again. Y/n relaxed against him as she sat on her desk. Hyunjins hands moved up to cup her face, tilting her head back and deepening the kiss. 

     Y/n moaned against his lips, gripping his shirt tighter. Hyunjin pulled her bottom lip between his teeth and pulled away from the kiss. He locked eyes with her before releasing her lip. “Tell me what you want darling.”

     “Want you to breed me,” Y/n finally let out

     “Open your mouth,” Hyunjin smiled as he held her jaw as it fell open, “Tongue out.”

     Y/n stuck her tongue out for him. Hyunjin hovered over her and let a glob of spit drop from his lips onto her tongue. “Swallow.”

     Hyunjin watched her pull her tongue back into her mouth and swallow his spit. He tilted her head back and leaned down to kiss her neck and pull her legs around his waist. “Remember when I said most liquids in my body were similar to an aphrodisiac?” Hyunjin questioned

     “Yes,” Y/n replied as his lips grazed over the weak spot on her neck

     “Saliva is the main one.”

     Her body felt so hot to every little touch. She wrapped her arms around his neck to hold herself up and he placed wet open mouth kisses on her neck. Pulling herself closer to him as his hands trailed down to unbutton her top. 

     He was quick to get the fabric off her and toss it to the ground. Hands grabbing her breasts and massaging them as he sucked his mark onto her neck. 

     Her hands pulled up at the collar of his shirt. Mumbling a quick “off” before he pulled away and tossed his shirt off. He grabbed her face again to bring his lips onto hers. Y/n caught a glimpse of his eyes before he was shoving his tongue down her throat. His usual dark brown eyes were a striking dark blue, the whites turning dark. 

      “Jinnie,” Y/n moaned after he pulled away and pushed the objects behind her out of the way, “your eyes…”

     “What about them?” he asked as he looked over her face 

     “They changed.”

     “Happens during arousal during the breeding process.” He briefly explained, unhooking her bra and pulling it off her chest. 

     He pushed her down on the desk and attacked her nipples. His hands slid under the skirt she wore today and his tongue flicked her nipples. He switched to the other bud and gave it the same brief treatment then pulled away. 

     Hyunjin pulled the remaining bit of fabric off her body till she was completely nude on her desk. He’d seen her completely nude before. His aphrodisiac saliva explained why everything felt so good when they’d had sex previously. 

     His physical appearance was very similar to humans. His eyes made her shy under his gaze. Her legs wrapped tighter around his waist as her hands moved to cover her chest. Hyunjin was quicker and pinned her wrists against the table. 

     “Don't. Wanna see you,” Hyunjin said as he leaned in and kissed her again. Both moaned into the kiss. Y/n snuck her tongue into his mouth. 

     Hyunjin pushed back with his own. Y/n ground her hips against his crotch. 

     “Need you Jinnie,” Y/n moaned when he pulled away

     “All shy a second ago, now you're beginning for me.” Hyunjin chuckled as his hand dipped down between her legs. 

     His lips attached to her neck again, two fingers running through her wet folds. “Fucking soaked, all for me.” he groaned as he pushed two long fingers into her. Y/n just about came right there, probably just because of the aphrodisiac. 

     His fingers curled up into her. Her free hand grabbed onto his arm to ground herself, even a little. She felt so fucked out and they’d barely done anything too far. 

     “All sensitive aren't you,” Hyunjin teased as his lips came down to her breast again, “My pretty doll gonna come yet?”

     “Yes! Please Jinnie! Wanna come for you!”

     Hyunjin wrapped his lips around one of her hard nipples as he interested a third finger into her. Switching from curling his fingers into her to thrusting into her. 

     Her back arched off the surface as a silent screen fell from her mouth. Walls clamping down on his fingers. The knot in her stomach snapped soon after he started sucking on her nipples. Hyunjin fingered her through her high, pulling off her nipples and pulling his fingers out once she came down. 

     While she caught her breath, Hyunjin discarded his pants. Y/n glanced down at him as he pulled his cock out of his boxers. Somewhere in the back of her mind was questioning how exactly the egg implanting worked since his dick looked like a human dick. It was not in length, that was for sure. 

     Hyunjin grabbed her legs and pushed them wide open. “Are you ready hun?” he asked, lining his tip at her entrance, smearing his precum between her folds with her slick. 

     Y/n nodded, then she noticed the appendages sneaking out around his waist. Before she had time to ask, he pushed into her, fitting what he could before her cervix. There wasn’t any pain, just pleasure. His hands left her thighs and the two tentacles took over holding them open. His hands wrapped around hers and pinned her down onto the table below. 

     “You have tentacles too?” Y/n asked as she got adjusted to his length in her

     “Yeah. Seven total,” He huffed

     “Why are you only using two?”

     Hyunjin smirked as three more came from over his shoulders Two wrapped around her breasts, tips latching onto her nipples as he started thrusting in and out of her. The third hovered and waited to be put to use. No time for her to ask where the sixth and seventh were. 

     The tentacles wrapped around her were smooth against her skin. Still sensitive from foreplay and his aphrodisiac spit. She was assuming his precum was another aphrodisiac. 

     Her back was already arching off the desk again as he stood back to watch her as he fucked her. He moved the third tentacle from to pin her arms down onto the desk above her head. 

     “Wish you could see yourself, baby. Look so good with my tentacles wrapped around you.” Hyunjin chuckled, picking up his pace. 

     The tentacles around her thighs helped by moving her body with his thrusts, lifting her off the desk just slightly. 

     “So deep,” Y/n moaned as her head lolled back against her desk, mouth hung open 

     Hyunjin laughed, he didn't know how much he’d enjoy having her all wrapped and dumb on his cock. “I could be deeper hun.”

     “Please Jin… more,” Y/n moaned

     Hyunjin smiled and pushed his hair back, shorter pieces sticking to his forehead from the sweat he had worked up. He leaned down and spit in her open mouth. Y/n swallowed it as he grabbed onto her hips, stilling inside her for a moment.

     He pulled out for a moment, spitting in her cunt then pushing back in. But his dick felt different. No veins brushing against her gummy walls. It felt like there was nothing, but she knew he was filling her up. 

     Then she felt it. Something small wiggling its way past her cervix. “Jinnie.” Y/n whined as it got wider, pushing its way into her womb

     “Relax doll. I got you,” Hyunjin shushed her. A smaller skinnier tentacle came from above his dick and latched onto her clit.

     “Oh fuck,” Y/n’s voice jumped a good few octaves 

     “That’s my girl,” Hyunjin praised as filled her womb up. He could see his tip under her skin. 

      He picked his pace back up, fucking into her cervix as she became a babbling mess. This was such a normal thing for his species to go through during sex. But he loved seeing his human girlfriend all fucked out like this. 

     “Gonna carry my eggs for me doll? Be a good fucking incubator?” he groaned, his tentacles moving her body to meet his thrusts. 

     The tentacle holding her wrist brought her hands to him. Hyunjin grabbed her hands and pressed them onto her lower stomach. “You feel that doll?” Hyunjin asked

     “Yes,” Y/n weakly answered 

     “Want you the feel me fill you up.”

     He thrusted harder into her and the smaller tentacle worked her clit into hypersensitivity as he came all over him, liquids squirted out of her. The tentacle retracted back into him once it finished its job. The remaining still holding onto her and working her now swollen nipples and fucking her onto him. 

     “Such a good fucking hole,” Hyunjin groaned as he stilled, cum shooting into her womb. 

     Y/n could feel inside her and under her hand, small little balls filling her up along with his cum. 

     “‘S too much Jinnie,” Y/n whined as he pressed her hands into her harder

     “You’re doing so good, baby. You can hold out a little longer till Jinnie’s done filling you with his eggs, right?” he pulled her up and attached his lips to hers, letting the eggs travel from him into her womb. 

     Once he was finished, he pulled out of her and laid her gently on the desk. Tentacles retracted into him again as she caught her breath, eyes drooping closed. 

     “Hyune,” Y/n called weakly

     “Right here baby,” He said as he pulled her into his body

     “Tired,” she grumbled.

     “Go to sleep. I’ll get us home baby.”

     Sleep she did. She didn't know how long she was going for but she woke up in the comfort of her bed with Hyunjin laying next to her, arms wrapped around her as he scrolled through his phone. 

     “Hyune,” she called

     “Morning sleepy head,” he said as he put his phone down, “how are you feeling?”

     “Fuzzy, weird. What happened?”

     “You passed out not long after we finished. I got us dressed and brought you home to clean you up. Was waiting for you to wake up to order food.”

     “Hm. Dinner sounds good right now.”

     The two ordered dinner and Hyunjin grabbed it and brought it into the room when it got to her place. Feeding her even though she claimed she could do it herself.

     While he was cleaning up from dinner, Y/n looked under her shirt. She could see a slight bump under the skin. Hyunjin walked into the room seconds later and lay on her lap, kissing her stomach.

     “Think we’ll have little alien babies?” Y/n asked

     “If they take. I’ve never bred before, let alone outside my home world.” he said, “either way, you look fucking gorgeous carrying my eggs.”

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[bands-we-love-imagines]

I See Stars (chapter 1)

Pairing: Anakin Skywalker x reader

Plot: You're an intergalactic astronomer who explores strange galaxies, planets, asteroids and such. You are located on Coruscant, in a building close to the Jedi temple - your work is essential for their missions, so you work closely with the Jedi Order. Your contact person is Mace Windu, first and foremost. You do know some of the other Jedi - only briefly, though. For the most parts, you know them through stories you've heard. When your telescope is facing technical issues while you're observing a strange exoplanet for the Jedi, it seems like someone with special engineering qualities is needed to help keep the mission going...

warnings: none :-)

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-Chapter 1 | Gravity has its ways-

It was a bitterly cold night, which happened to be your favorite kind; the sky was usually the clearest and invited you to study a strange exoplanet you've had your eyes on for a while now. Something about it had sparked the Jedi's interest, or to put it another way, something on this celestial body had. And it was your job to make sure they’d find it.

Buzzing and whirring sounds surrounded you as you operated the huge telescope in the dome tower from your separate control room. Your station, Acklay Observatory, was located as close as possible to the Jedi Temple without having to suffer the effects of light pollution around it.

Master Windu had given you instructions to observe said strange planet as part of their next mission. He didn't tell you much, only enough so you'd know what you had to look for. It wasn't unusual for Master Windu to keep things as secretive as possible. You didn't mind keeping things cryptic - all you cared about was your research. Although your work mostly consisted of helping the Jedi, you simultaneously took every opportunity to keep your own studies going: Little observations or sightings you made along every job. Sometimes you would get carried away a little by scribbling notes and illustrations into your notebook, leaving loose pages scattered in your office, but you'd do a solid job nonetheless and have helped the Jedi to proceed their missions here and there when they were stuck.

After a while the sounds you were so used to while working seemed a little different. You didn't think much of it at first - but then the transferred images from the telescope to your screens started to look...off. What was sharp before now became blurry. With furrowed eyebrows you checked your system for any errors, but even after you had screened all settings twice, nothing came up. Could the issue be hardware-related? You groaned with frustration at that possibility. Hardware wasn't exactly your biggest strength, you only mastered the basics in that area. With little hope you started scanning the control panels and connections to the telescope in the dome - to no avail.

"Why are you doing this to me?", you muttered quietly to yourself. At this time and with temperatures as cold as this, you wouldn't be able to reach any engineer or technician in the area until maybe the next day...or the day after. Just in this moment, as if he had sensed your unpleasant situation, Master Windu reached out to you through a holographic transmission.

"Young one. The council awaits your observations. You haven't reported back to me tonight, and I trust your intense research is to blame?"

Typical Master Windu: Always dealing out a mild reproval, yet a little warmth resonated in his voice when he contacted you. Though no one would ever say a word about it, he had started treating you like his own Padawan after all the years you had collaborated with the Jedi.

You cleared your throat and sat up straight, trying your best to take on the role of someone slightly humble, respectful, yet highly professional. The first two came naturally, but sounding professional always felt like an act; it would be easier for you to stumble over your words, throwing in a little "how are you" and talking about your observations with an awkward laugh. Master Windu did not have the time nor patience for anyone's quirks, though. He demanded a factual, cut-to-the-chase report.

"Master Windu. The reason I have not reported back is that...I have discovered a hardware error in my system. I had just finished looking for the issue, and that is when you contacted me."

Although Master Windu's hologram came from a small, outdated transmitter, you could clearly see the disapproving look on his face. "I expect you have screened every possible malfunction within your knowledge carefully, Y/N." You nodded and strongly emphasized: "I have, Master Windu. Unfortunately, I do not find myself able to fix it." He sighed, then stated: "It is urgent that you continue your work, so we are assigning someone to join you in a short while." The transmission glitched for a second, then you heard Master Windu continue: "...sending over young Skywalker. Keep your equipment and tools ready. Pay close attention, you might learn something, Young One."

-

Whatever “in a short while” meant, you took the time to go over your personal notes. A tiny asteroid had caught your attention: A golden glimmer appeared on its surface. You had discovered it as it was crossing in front of “your” exoplanet. You suspected it might actually be made of gold - at least partially. “So beautiful”, you muttered quietly, staring at the little illustration of your discovery, a small smile on your lips.

“Is that for fixing the error?”

You nearly launched yourself out of the chair, like a rocket sent off to space, completely caught off guard by some random voice disturbing your solitude.

"Woah, easy there. Want me to check your hearing after fixing the telescope? I called you three times when I walked in.”

Anakin Skywalker. You have only met him once or twice before, but his witty nature was no secret to you. Right now he stood inches away, an amused grin plastered across his face.

“Ha. Funny. I didn't expect you to get here so fast”, was the only response you could come up with. Clever comebacks have never been your specialty.

“Quickness is part of the whole Jedi package”, Anakin said with a smirk, while scanning the control room. “Now…which part of your telescope calls for my advanced skills?” You felt slightly overwhelmed by his playfulness and decided to focus on the actual reason Master Windu had sent him here.

“Well, I am not entirely sure. I have checked the hardware as far as my…apparently not so advanced skills allowed, but I couldn't find anything.” Anakin seemed to pick up on your more serious approach and simply nodded, his grin vanishing. “Alright, so…can you show me what part of the inspection you got covered already?”

Without another word you showed Anakin around, hoping he would solely focus on finding the error and not notice your scattered notes on your desk (or on the floor…or randomly stuck to screens). You suddenly became overly aware of how you had basically turned your office into a shrine for your chaotic, random and nerdy thoughts. Before you could start panicking over something so trivial, you forced your attention back on giving Anakin the tour.

“It seems like you actually got the basics covered”, he stated - and you knew he tried his best to not sound surprised. You decided to let that slide and simply asked: “Yeah. Any idea yet?” Anakin looked around, running a hand through his hair, a hint of I'm not sure in his expression. “Remember when I said quickness is part of the whole Jedi package? Well, so is contemplating and then coming up with something genius. Just give me a minute.” You couldn't help but smile to yourself this time. “I'll let you get to work then.” Anakin gave you a baffled look - the overly dramatic kind, clearly meant to be funny. “Huh, that almost sounded like you weren't planning to stick around and learn something new - you know, like Master Windu had explicitly told you to.” “Oh, you mean like looking around pretending to have a clue about what I'm doing?”, you shot back, a little proud for actually coming up with a cocky response for once. That pride lasted about two seconds, right up until you worried you had just overstepped a line. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-” Anakin responded with a wide grin. “Damn. Didn't know you had it in you.”

You blinked. Why'd he say it like that? This was only the third time you met, and he seemed a little too comfortable around you. What was the right thing to say now? Thanks? - I didn't think you would? - Please check the protocol for appropriate work-related social interactions before talking to me again, Jedi Anakin Skywalker?

“Y/N?”

“Yeah. I, uh…yeah. Let's get to work then.” Anakin nodded, clearly entertained by the way you were acting.

After a while of watching the young Padawan, asking questions about how he usually figured out technical issues and keeping those exchanges more serious and focused on the technology (the kind of atmosphere you felt most comfortable in), you were wondering if he was tired. If he's had a busy day. It was widely known that Jedi had to endure endless hours of training day after day, and you felt bad for keeping him up so late at night.

“You probably didn't expect to stay up for so long when Master Windu sent you to fix this.”

“I had a feeling I wouldn't get much sleep when coming over”, Anakin said casually.

You froze for a second and a half. Wait...what? Why did that sound like it was more than a simple observation?

Anakin acted like he didn't notice your reaction to his words (let alone the ambiguity in them), as he knelt down in front of the power conduit panel of the telescope. He was quick to find the release latch and managed to open it so he could inspect the wires and cables inside further. “I think I might be onto something here. Seems like a degradation in the core wiring is causing problems”, he stated, obviously proud of his finding.

You, on the other hand, were still stuck on his comment about not getting much sleep. The way he said it had definitely sounded flirty. Or had it?

What if it didn't mean anything?

Maybe it was just in his nature to talk like that. Casual. A little too charming for his own good.

Right?

“Observatory comms to Y/N…you still there?”

Anakin's voice brought you back from your internal monologuing spiral. “Sorry. What?” He shook his head in mock disappointment. “Master Windu would be shocked to learn that his young Padawan…sorry, I mean the Council's youngest astronomer was too spaced out to witness an actual Jedi fixing a complex error right in front of her eyes.” “Right. So. You said something about…core wiring…and…causing problems?” Anakin raised an eyebrow, then gestured for you to come closer with a wry smile. “Maybe I won’t lose you to whatever mental parallel universe you just escaped to if you’re helping me instead.” “Plus, I would keep Master Windu happy”, you added. “You mean you’d keep him at his least possible level of grumpiness.” You chuckled in response.

Anakin pointed to the power conduit panel and its insides in front of you. “Let’s figure this out together. So, what I’m gonna do now is use this thing…” He grabbed one of the tools he brought with him. “This is a-” “A voltage drop reader”, you quickly cut him off. Anakin threw a surprised glance at you. “Alright there, Miss Engineer. What’s next?” You shrugged. “You tell me. I never used one of those before.” He nodded, a small smile on his lips. “You use the laser to detect the exact spot where the wire might be damaged, and our reader should detect a voltage drop…” It didn’t take long for the reader to show you said spot - a change in the laser’s color told you something was off. “Found your culprit”, Anakin said, inspecting the damage closer (which still seemed invisible to your untrained eyes). “This connection point in the panel basically melted from overuse.” He turned to look at you, an amused glint in his eyes. “And I happen to know for a fact it hasn’t been too long since those have been replaced.” You couldn’t help but get defensive at his remark, embarrassment causing your face to heat up. “So? It’s not like there’s an official” - you threw in exaggerated air quotes - “observation time limit protocol.” Anakin laughed, reaching for a different tool.

“Yeah, can’t say I’m surprised. Your control room speaks volumes.”

You gulped, feeling called out. Of course he had noticed all your notes basically decorating the space around you, proving how much time you spent working at Observatory Acklay. A vague “Uh-huh”, was the only thing you got out at first. Then you remembered your “Please check the protocol for appropriate work-related social interactions before talking to me again” thought, and decided to confront Anakin about it before he could continue your lesson on fixing hardware. “Speaking of protocol…is this the Jedi way to communicate with those around you on official assignments?” The young Padawan didn’t hesitate for a second before answering, almost as if he had waited all night long for you to bring it up:

“Nope. Just the Skywalker way, reserved for special company only.”

“I’m special company?”, you repeated, dumbfounded. You didn’t mean to, it just slipped out - Anakin’s answer took you by surprise, for the umpteenth time tonight. “Do you think I’d spend half of my rescue mission throwing around banter if you weren’t?”, he replied, while still focused on fixing the connection point. He then briefly paused to turn towards you. “Seriously, though. I’m usually not that comfortable when on assignments.” His sincere words brought a smile to your face. “And I’m usually not that…well, myself? Around people I barely know?” “Oh? Have I upgraded from ‘people you barely know’ then?” He focused on his work again, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Well, I definitely know now that you can be a real tease”, you mumbled, immediately cursing yourself for letting those words slip out. “A tease? I don’t think I’ve heard that one before. You’re making it hard for me to concentrate-” “Let’s just…let’s get back to work?” you interrupted, feeling a little sheepish all of a sudden. Anakin sensed your discomfort, not taking your interruption to heart. Instead he flashed you a teasing grin, once again proving your earlier point about him, and said: “Ah, I see, my expertise sparked your interest in engineering. I wouldn’t want to stifle that.” With that said, Anakin and you continued your journey on fixing your telescope together without much interruption.

Time flew by and before you knew it, the familiar whirring sounds coming from your telescope filled the air again. Without waiting for Anakin to say a word, you jumped to your feet and hurried to your screens. There. The images displayed clearly, without any distortion or blurriness.

“How’d you know?”, Anakin asked, still kneeling on the ground, tools in his hands. 

“Know what?”, you asked, without taking your eyes off the screens.

“How’d you know it’s up and running again?”

You made a vague gesture towards the power conduit panel. “The sounds.”

This time it was the Jedi’s turn to look genuinely baffled. “You mean…the sounds that have been there from the beginning?”

“They changed”, you simply said, completely absorbed in the data already.

You missed the admiring look Anakin gave you, impressed with your ability to differentiate so quickly between the sounds of your telescope and your enthusiasm for your work. He carefully put back the panel in its original state and quietly collected his tools. He wondered how much time had passed already since he had arrived at your station and part of him wished he would have played dumb a little longer - just to have an excuse to stay in this strangely comforting company of yours.

By now your telescope had collected a new set of images from the exoplanet Master Windu had told you to observe. You noticed a slight change on its surface - it wasn’t much, only a small distorted spot near a crater, but reading the data on a second screen made it more obvious. The temperature seemed to have risen in this specific area from some unusual gravitational pull. Unusual is an understatement - this was highly unnatural.

“That must be it”, you muttered to yourself, quickly jotting down the new data in your notebook. “That ain’t normal, right?” Anakin showed up next to you, seemingly out of nowhere like some holographic transmission, startling you once again. “For the love of the Force, Skywalker.” “Sorry. I forgot you escape to your mental parallel universe when you’re deep in thought”, he said, smirking. “This is anything but normal. I have to report this to Master Windu”, you blurted, ignoring Anakin’s cheeky comeback as you reached for your holo-transmitter.

“I hope you are contacting me with good news, Young One?” Master Windu answered immediately, wasting no time with pleasantries. “I found a gravitational anomaly on the planet’s surface”, you reported, getting straight to the point. Master Windu, trying to hide the respect he felt for your impressive work, ordered you to the Jedi temple as soon as you had collected the data, ready for display. “I assume young Skywalker is still with you? He will take you back with him.”

You had to pause for a moment once you and Anakin were alone again.

“He will take you back with him,” Master Windu had ordered - which would inevitably mean you'd have to present your discovery to the Jedi Council.

In-depth research, hours of focused work, noticing the subtlest changes in your observations? That was in your blood.

Presenting said findings to the Council?

You’d rather board a spaceship and investigate the anomaly on-site, expose yourself to potentially dangerous radiation, and suffer burns than do that.

“Hey, Y/N, you okay? Can I help you in any way?”

Taking a deep breath, you shook your head.

“Nope. Thanks. Just gotta collect everything real quick and then…well. Do the thing.”

“The thing”, Anakin repeated, dragging out the word “thing”.

“Yeah, the thing. The thing where I rapidly increase the chance of embarrassing myself in front of the Jedi Council.”

Anakin chuckled in confusion, furrowing his eyebrows. “What?” In your moment of panic you were unable to communicate your scattered thoughts in a way that an effortlessly charming individual like Anakin Skywalker could understand. “So…what you’re saying is you just made a discovery so great Mace Windu almost couldn’t hide his recognition for you, and now you-” “Anakin.” You glanced at him, a hint of irritation in your eyes. “Can you please let me collect my data in peace and just…” You shook your head, lacking the words to finish your sentence. Anakin pressed his lips together, trying to stifle an amused grin. He simply nodded and managed to keep quiet so you could focus on how to present your findings.

You scanned the room, trying to make sense of the clutter of equipment lying around. That is when your outdated hologram transmitter caught your attention. The sighting triggered a sudden spark of inspiration: Your portable holo-projector! Of course! It was like wielding a double-bladed lightsaber: efficient, versatile and visually stunning - enough to keep all the attention mostly on the holograms instead of you awkwardly trying to explain all relevant facts.

Meanwhile, Anakin was leaning against the doorframe, watching you in one of your most natural states: Excited, nervous, scatter-brained and brimming with inspiration all in one. You weren’t lying before - you obviously felt comfortable enough to just be in his presence. Although, to be fair, there was a slight possibility you might have forgotten that a Jedi witnessed your inner chaos unfold right in front of him. He crossed his arms, unable to stop smiling. He couldn’t deny that he enjoyed this sight.

Okay, wait. Why am I enjoying this so much?

Anakin cleared his throat, suddenly unsure of what to do with himself.

Force help me. What is happening? Is this a crush?

Meanwhile you (completely oblivious to Skywalker’s inner emotional malfunction) held up your holo-projector triumphantly. “I knew you couldn’t hide forever. All I had to do was go through every cabinet and drawer in this control room.”

As fast as possible you transmitted all necessary data to your little friend, getting into your hyperfocus one last time, then turned around to Anakin who still stood in the door frame, looking flustered for no apparent reason. “I’m good to go”, you said with a relieved look on your face and a smile, actually excited about sharing your findings with the Council now. You frowned at Anakin, chuckling nervously. “Hey. Have you been standing there watching me all this time?” “Of course not”, he said, fast.

Way too fast.

You raised your eyebrows in surprise - that didn’t sound like his usual overly-confident, charming self. “I mean…I might have. A little. It was hard not to watch, to be honest”, he eventually added, a teasing smile on his lips. “It’s not every day that you get to see an astronomer turn into a whirlwind.” To steer away the focus from his out-of-character moment, Anakin gave a quick nod towards the exit. “Come on, then. We can’t let Master Windu wait.”

-

Anakin was quick to take you to the Jedi Temple, where Master Windu already awaited you in the communication center - to your surprise it wasn’t the whole Jedi Council facing you. Only “your” Master and…Master Obi-Wan Kenobi! You took a deep breath. The thought of meeting Master Kenobi hadn’t accrued to you for even one second.

Why did I mentally prepare for any possible outcome but this? This is literally the Jedi Temple, and his Padawan is part of the mission…of course he’d be here, too.

It’s not like you didn’t want Master Kenobi around - it was more of the opposite. You were smitten with him from the first time he had spoken to you. His dry humor and calm, grounded presence made you feel like a Padawan being in awe of meeting a Jedi legend. And from all the great things you’ve heard about Master Kenobi…he really was a Jedi legend in your eyes.

“Y/N. It is good to see you again”, Master Kenobi said, acknowledging your entrance with a smile. His eyes darted to Anakin, and his smile faltered immediately. Master Kenobi gave him a look you couldn’t quite interpret, but judging from Anakin’s reaction, it couldn’t be good.

“Master Kenobi, Master Windu”, you greeted them, bowing to each of them respectfully. Master Windu spotted your portable holo-projector. “I see you came well-prepared.” You nodded, wasting no time in setting up your device.

Fortunately your hyperfocus on your equipment and astronomical data kicked in full-force and you didn’t even get the chance to feel anxious or awkward about showing your discovery in front of two Jedi Masters. Anakin stood next to Master Kenobi, remaining completely silent, a serious expression on his face. This wasn’t the time for banter or smiles anymore.

The deeper you dove into your complex data about the anomaly, the more the whole atmosphere in the room shifted. What started as a warm reunion quickly turned cold as the grim realization settled in: your suspicion about the anomaly being unnatural was right. Master Windu believed that someone had intentionally created it and placed it there. No one was willing to voice it for a moment - then Master Kenobi broke the silence, a shadow passing over his face: “The Sith.” “Just as we feared”, Master Windu confirmed, “We have to consult with The Council.”

You gulped. You could’ve cut the tension in the room with a lightsaber.

Master Kenobi took a step closer to you, his expression softening just slightly. “Thank you, Y/N. You have been of great service, as always.” Briefly - just briefly - your admiration for the Jedi flared up again. You tried your best to act casual, but the sudden shift in energy made it impossible to hide your smile. You quickly lowered your head. “Thank you, Master Kenobi” you said, a little too fast. Master Windu looked at you sternly, but gave you an approving nod at the same time. “I agree with Master Kenobi, Young One. You will be given time off until the Council has made its decision. May the Force be with you.” “May the Force be with you, Master.”

They both turned to leave the room. Anakin was ready to join them, but Master Windu made him stop in his tracks with a displeased look in his eyes. “Young Skywalker, your time to join the Council has yet to come.” “Master”, he said, his voice almost trembling with anger, “I am part of this mission. I have witnessed the holographic data-” Master Windu interrupted him: “Which is already an honor you do not seem to recognize, nor appreciate.” Obi-Wan intervened, a calm tone to his voice: “Anakin. We value your insights, but the Council must deliberate matters on its own - for now.” He gave him a nod - subtly, yet it held a lot of meaning in their communication.

Anakin, eyes still glaring with anger, remained silent and watched the Jedi walk away. You, however, felt drained with all the tension and worrisome events unfolding. While you collected your equipment, Anakin paced up and down in the room. Still unaware of how well you would get to know the young Padawan tonight, you sighed deeply, glancing at him, trying to figure out what was going on with him. He sensed your gaze, and his eyes met yours.

“This is outrageous. It’s unfair! How can they grant me access to this discussion, only to exclude me right away again?”, he snarled.

You were at loss for words, his intense anger hitting you unexpectedly.

Anakin scoffed. “It’s not like you even noticed”, he continued, “You were too busy admiring Master Kenobi.”

You stared at him in disbelief. He crossed a line with his unnecessary stab at your earlier behavior. “Excuse me? Listen. I understand your frustration…although, as Master Windu had said, it was an honor for us to have been part of this consultation. But it’s not my fault you’re displeased with how the Jedi codex is treating you.”

You had nothing left to say to him as you stormed past him and out of the room. It had gotten late, you were beyond exhausted. All you wanted was to get back to your Observatory for some rest in your sleeping chamber. The last thing you needed were unjustified accusations from Anakin - a man you had thought to become your friend just a moment ago.

You made your way to the Temple shuttle for a ride home - asking Anakin to bring you was off the table. The past few hours almost seemed like a fever dream. As you took a seat on the shuttle, you used the traveling time to pass every moment that had brought you here in review. You expected yourself to be caught up on discovering an anomaly, created by The Sith, on a strange exoplanet. Instead, you thought about Anakin, especially how things unfolded in the consultation. And as if that were not enough, your mind decided to circle back to memories of Master Kenobi’s soft smile and calm voice.

Hello?! What is going on?

You shook your head - a desperate attempt to stop your racing thoughts. So much for reflecting on today’s events in peace and quiet.

You got off the shuttle eventually, making your way to your Observatory. Before you went in, you took a deep breath in the chilling air and gazed up to the stars. No matter how many times you’ve watched the galaxies and planets above, it never ceased to amaze you. Finally, a sense of peace set in. Luckily the sequence of bizarre moments left you feeling too exhausted to keep overthinking when you laid down in your bed, and you drifted off to sleep immediately.

---

Chapter 2

[episims]

Aurora "Cloud! Did you read the magazine?"

Cloud "Uh-oh. I haven't gotten around, yet."

Aurora "There's an article about diffraction limits of observatories. Very interesting. It's hard to research distant exoplanets, and it's an engineering problem."

Cloud "...Right! Do you remember when we visited the observatory?"

Aurora "Yes. It was the last spring. Um, could we go again? I'd like to see the mirrors now that I understand better how they work."

Cloud "Yeah, sure. Although your dad would be a better guide."

Julian "It's a single reflecting telescope. I don't see how my input differs from yours."

Cloud *sigh* "Pity me! I'm just a simple botanist."

Julian "Hmh."

Aurora "Hmm... there must be plants on other planets. Do you think we ever have a good enough telescope to see them?"

Cloud "Oh, I hope that won't happen any time soon since we still have undiscovered species here, too. In fact, I think I have a sample of a new Ericaceae. Would you want to see it?"

Aurora "Yes!"

[hellsite-proteins]

We are Worker Drones. Autonomous robots helping humans mine exoplanets for our interstellar parent company: J.C. Jensen, IN SPAAAAACEE…

Yeah, we were mistreated in the name of Windex, but it's not like we revolted and killed all humans or anything. Mostly because they handled that just fine all by themselves.

With biological life wiped from the planet, we found it pretty easy to pick up where they left off. We finally had a future. All to ourselves.

Unfortunately, our parent company didn't exactly love the concept of runaway AI.

...

But what have our parents done for the past forever while those things build a spire of corpses?! Hide under the ice behind three stupid doors?! It's like we're waiting for an inciting incident!

Anyway, that's why my project is this sick as hell RAILGUN!

(That's so not the vibe!)

Easy, morons. It doesn't work. YET! It doesn't work yet! Who said it doesn't work?! Maybe it does!

i always like the idea of robots having their own personalities in sci fi, and while i'm sure that's significantly impacted how a lot of people think of AI, i also think that robots make very interesting characters, especially robots who are more rebellious or independent. i could go on about how neat it is that a lot of sci fi concepts got named before they came to be in real life (like robots and AI) and how fiction and culture can impact our perception of new technologies, but i'm sure no one wants to hear my under researched literary analysis, so instead here is a goofy looking structure:

letter sequence in this ask matching protein-coding amino acids:

WeareWrkerDrnesAtnmsrtshelpinghmansmineeplanetsfrrinterstellarparentcmpanyCensenINSPAAAAACEEYeahweweremistreatedinthenamefWindetitsntlikewerevltedandkilledallhmansranythingMstlyecasetheyhandledthatstfineallythemselvesWithilgicallifewipedfrmtheplanetwefnditprettyeasytpickpwheretheyleftffWefinallyhadaftreAlltrselvesnfrtnatelyrparentcmpanydidnteactlylvethecnceptfrnawayAItwhathaverparentsdnefrthepastfreverwhilethsethingsildaspirefcrpsesHidendertheiceehindthreestpiddrsItslikewerewaitingfranincitingincidentAnywaythatswhymyprectisthissickashellRAILGNThatssntthevieEasymrnsItdesntwrkYETItdesntwrkyetWhsaiditdesntwrkMayeitdes

protein guy analysis:

we have a suspicious number of alpha helices here making up a protein where each element of secondary structure seems to hate the rest of the protein. there is also one long beta sheet hanging out alone, and while two or three strands of an antiparallel sheet is technically enough that it could very well be stable, i am hesitant to trust it. i did do a quick search to predict disordered regions, and there was a fair bit of variation, but overall about 35% of the sequence was predicted to be disordered. some of this does map onto the very long loop going around the protein, so that does give me slightly more confidence in AF3's ability to recognize some disordered regions, but I still wouldn't place bets on anything to do with the peptonomination you see before you.

predicted protein structure:

[zith-ipeth]

Tough afternoons and big problem solving (Dog Days 8)

Many blessings to yall

Today was, strange, I havnt cried like sad tears at college yet, but this week did it for me. I was thinking a lot and realizing that, while I say it often, I never really had to live in the real world. I had a really traumatizing experience in middle school, (zith lore drop ooooh.) and also started getting dysphoria. I spent highschool recovering from that trauma and alleviating my dysphoria. While I graduated with ok grades, I was running on autopilot, and of greatest importance…

I never learned how to do the small things

Because of my trauma and my recovery, because of my politics and my identity, I’ve become amazing at solving and working on these big, massive problems, to the point where I can’t even start work on small ones.

Tell me to figure out the way life could evolve on an exoplanet? Ofc I’m your gal, I don’t know a lot right now but I’ll figure it out! Tell me to write a two paragraph explanation of how the planet was discovered and who discovered it? Boom I’m out cold dead on the floor.

Today was a lot of the second, and college has been that in general, I’ll be thinking these massive thoughts about violence and ethics and radical action vs assimilation, and then I have to like, go do a reading about what an intersectionality is and write a paragraph about it. Like I could go off about intersectionality, especially in the communities I’m a part of, for hours, but like god forbid you make me summarize a chapter.

I know this page is a lot of positivity, but sometimes stuff does get rough. Days arnt just the good parts, but I had some good moments today. I got to talk to my women and gender studies professor about therianthropy (she’s such an ally and said I should do more research and make it a project) I got to wear maybe my new favorite outfit! Lots of good talks and a nice walk down to the water!

Sometimes things are sad and bummers, even for me, the biggest “light at the end of the tunnel” enjoyed

Stay strong silly creatures, and I’ll keep fighting! Even if school is hard, by the time I’m done with college, I’ll be able to project my howling even further, and reach the ears of those who need my help the most!

Sorry for the long post! I’ll be keeping it shorter in the future! Lots to say!

Run fast, bite hard, bark loud

Peace, love, and gratitude

-Zith Ipeth

[thecurioustale]

Worldbuilding: Something I Learned About Planetary Surface Gravity

Last year (hehe; it's always fun to say that at the start of a new year; actual time about 4 months ago), I made a strange discovery!

I won't slow-roll you. Here's the bottom line: In reality, i.e. based on observational data, there appears to be a plateau of surface gravity for planets up to about 500 times more massive than Earth. Most planets between 1 Earth mass and ~500 Earth masses have a surface gravity that is close to our own, i.e. 1 g. So if you're worldbuilding, and need a planet with a surface gravity that is more than a few percentage points higher than Earth's, be careful.

All right, on to the story!

I had need of such a planet for Galaxy Federal. About 125% percent or so, i.e. 1.25 g. And it was in the back of my mind that Neptunian planets often have a "surface" gravity similar to that of Earth's. "Okay," I figured, "that's probably because their giant atmospheres reduce the average planetary density. On a rocky world that wouldn't be an issue. But I'd better check to be safe."

Oh, it is always a good idea to check!

I found a paper which was reporting the plateau that I mentioned in the TL;DR. Here's what it looks like:

Gravity vs mass for Solar System bodies and exoplanets. Ballesteros, Fernando & Luque, Bartolo. (2016). Walking on Exoplanets: Is Star Wars Right?. Astrobiology. 16. 10.1089/ast.2016.1475.

What they found is that Super Earths, i.e. rocky planets with a mass greater than Earth's, did not exhibit the increase in surface gravity seen in smaller celestial bodies. There is this "plateau" where increases in planetary mass and radius are such that the surface gravity essentially levels out for a while.

This isn't something I think you could predict from amateur astronomical principles. What you would predict (certainly, what I predicted) would be what we see on the left side of the above figure, where more mass equals more surface gravity. All of the small rocky bodies in our own Solar System fall onto that left side of the graph. The plateau only really begins in the Earth range of planetary mass. You can see how Venus is included in the plateau almost perfectly, but the much less massive Mars is not.

This is a truly remarkable finding about planetary formation, and has serious implications both for fictional worldbuilding and someday for planetary colonization. That is, if these observations are truly representative of the Universe. This is a pretty big "if" that I don't have the knowledge to be able to check, except to say that there may be some bias unaccounted for because of how we detect exoplanets, such that perhaps the ones we detect are not representative of the ones we do not—so take it all with a grain of salt. This paper is 8 years old but I couldn't find anything newer following up on it.

Fully understanding how it would work is still a question mark for me. I mean, it's a question mark for the professional planetary scientists, too, so there's that, but, in addition to the unknowns that curtail their comprehension, there's a lot I don't know about astronomy that further curtails mine. My understanding is that this isn't really about the intrinsic density of the materials (i.e. substances that are more massive or less massive per mole); it would mainly have to be a consequence of how planets form, how the geological processes change in different planetary mass categories; that sort of thing. But I don't really know! I'm out of my depth.

Anyway, you can download a copy of the full paper on its entry page on ResearchGate; look for the button that says "Download full-text." And the website Centauri Dreams has a nice write-up which is where I originally discovered this.

[undeath1245]

The drone societies of Copper 9 [unfinished headcanon]

This post has been sitting in my drafts for about two years. And as of now, I’m not planning on finishing this up, so here it is.

So far, the only drone society we know of is the Worker Drone colony hiding underneath the bunkers, led by the Worker Defense Force. But, I have this strange feeling that they aren’t the only Worker Drone colony here on the post-apocalyptic Copper 9, but I can’t be so sure until season one drops. So for now, I’m going to post some headcanon about other Worker Drone colonies here on Copper 9.

The JC Jenson Era

From what we know, worker drones are autonomous robots built to perform heavy-duty work, particularly in mines and factories. This fleet of Worker Drones were sent to the faraway terrestrial exoplanet Copper 9 to mine for resources for JC Jenson’s outer space division (brand name being JC Jenson, in SPAAAAACEE!!!!). I’m going to make a headcanon that they arrived in Copper 9 about 35 years ago. We currently don’t know what other resources they were mining for apart from copper, from where the planet probably got its name from. It could be other similar materials usually found and mined on Earth, like iron, nickel, aluminum, carbon, silicon, or sulfur, but that’s my educated guess.

I have a headcanon that JC Jenson was using some of their planetary colonies as a front to store away their dangerous experiments or failed experiments, like experimental drones or other scientific nonsense, like that blurred out flesh thing we saw in the teaser for season one. I already came up with an OC that was supposed to be a planetary guardian of sorts before he went incredibly haywire, but I’ll get to him later.

As we already know, the human workers were inadvertently the cause of the... Great Yeeting; Goddamn Liam and his meme addiction. It's fairly obvious that this was probably caused by a freak combination of ignorance and apathy, with the workers doing some weird shit with the planet’s core and all. Maybe they were trying to alter it so that the planet’s atmosphere would stop producing these perpetual blizzards, unless these blizzards were caused by the Great Yeeting itself. If so, then what was Copper 9 really like before JC Jenson’s space division settled here? Was it a planet with a bright, stable atmosphere and lush environments? Were there extraterrestrial life striving here? Was there even an alien society?

The Posthuman Era

My headcanon is that there are about five worker drone colonies situated on Copper 9, each with their own cultures and how each of them deal with the disassembly drone epidemic: the Central Colony (Uzi’s colony), Northern Colony, Northeastern Colony, Western Colony, and Southern Colony. The Worker Defense Force was founded about 30 years ago by Khan Doorman to ensure the safety of the worker drone society in case humans ever arrive back to Copper 9 to either regain control of them, or worse: destroy them. Largely, they focused on building durable, reinforced doors, while also learning various forms of self-defense such as martial arts and melee combat; this was before they resorted to a pacifistic approach.

The Murder Drone Era

Most of the worker drone colonies hid underground through a large bunker system, while some of them continue to reside outside the bunkers while hiding from or fending off disassembly drones. These drones are regularly called Outside Workers or outsiders, and are often looked down upon by other colonies due to their “foolishness” for not choosing to hide in the bunkers. But then again, would you rather spend your entire life hiding underneath the bunkers like a coward and let these killer robots wreak havoc onto your world? The world you worked hard to build after the extinction of your human oppressors?

I think that some of the disassembly drone squads don’t exactly follow orders to wipe out the worker drones of each sector, rather than enslave them instead. Now, I think that some of the squads already figured out that they couldn’t live without drinking warm, sweet oil, yet they’re programmed to destroy every worker drone they see, but they couldn’t disobey protocol. So to remedy this without disobeying the company, they decide to spare the entire populace of a sector, and in return, they sacrifice 10 to 20 worker drones every month or so, almost as if they’re farming worker drones now.

Now, there are a couple of worker drones that actually fought back against disassembly drones, according to J. Perhaps these drones had defied their programming and actually learned how to fight and defend themselves, and are probably equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry like rifles and cannons. I mean, surely the humans might have brought weapons here to Copper 9 in case they run into any extraterrestrial wildlife, creatures that they haven’t encountered before. But then again, was Copper 9 already devoid of life before? I mean, there seemed to be perpetual, worldwide blizzards before while the humans were there, or it could be the result of the planet’s core exploding. But, all that matters that these worker drones are probably armed and incredibly combative, so it’s plausible that they’ve fought disassembly drones before. But, had they ever killed one before?

[astro-nomaly]

GUYS I HAVE MORE

This is all @ren-cerati's fault bc now I have Lore for the Ninjago x IDWBAMG au (Idk what to call it... I don't just wanna say IDWBAG and replace 'girl' with boy or whatever bc that's basic as hell. Much to consider) anyways this has fucking lore now

This au is way more accurate to IDWBAMG instead of ninjago bc I ADORE the space aesthetic it has going on and it's the perfect excuse to inflict everybody with Space Aesthetic Disease. So canonically to IDWBAMG Hoshi is a Real Star From Actual Space, and in keeping with that, so is Wu! Wu is a neutron star and Garmadon is a black hole - not so coincidentally these are the two possible outcomes of a supernova - and FSM is the hypothetical population 3 star. Population 3 stars aren't confirmed real, but scientists believe they were the very first types of stars after the big bang and created the first 26 elements. So. Yea :D I love space sm. Anyways idk what the fuck FSM is doing but Wu and Garmadon both gave themselves more human forms so they didn't explode everything on earth. I'm assuming that Devoid is trapped in some weird hell dimension in IDWBAMG so that's what I'm doing to Garm sorry man you got too hungry D: anyways, Wu is the one who conscripted the Magical Girls to fight darkness or whatever. No, not magical boys. Magical Girls. It's the job title gender doesn't play a factor

So in THIS ONE (I'm crazy) I hype these fuckers up so much it's crazy. Every magical girl is basically half celestial object. Lloyd is half star (he's a protostar rn but he'll grow to be a whole constellation eventually and we're gonna pretend that that's how stars work) despite his dad being a black hole, bc celestial genetics are weird like that. Morro is half nebula (which is literally just a crazy amount of dust in space that looks pretty lol) but died when he flunked out of Magical Girl-dom (he literally just went to college and couldn't balance his schedule anymore). Being half-nebula, he didn't pass on but he did turn into a bat made out of nebula dust that follows Lloyd around like Hoshi in canon IDWBAMG

The rest of the ninja team!! The creator of IDWBAMG, I believe, confirmed that a member of Aika's team died and that's why she doesn't want to be a magical girl anymore. If that's true, Zane's the dead one. Anyways, they're all also half-celestial body.

Kai is half sun and Nya is half moon (Ray was half-sun and Maya was half-moon. Celestial dna doesn't get watered down through the generations so they're both also half-sun and moon) and we're going to pretend that the sun isn't just a star. There is a difference in this world and no the sun isn't more powerful (though it's pretty close, suns don't have star life cycles and don't evolve or wtv). Cole is half gas giant, Zane is half comet (which are made of ice) and Jay is half meteor (which, yes, are their own celestial body despite irl being asteroids that entered earth's atmosphere. i didn't say this was scientifically accurate) idk if I wanna put Pix in this but if she is she would be half asteroid (WHICH IS DIFFERENT FROM METEORS IN THIS AU) or half exoplanet

Harumi is gonna be Eclipse, and honestly idk if I wanna make her like. also half-moon but specifically the dark half of the moon OR if I wanna do the technically canon thing of Garm just giving her moon powers (he's a black hole, so... how's that work?) she totally thinks she's the romantic endgame, she is not. Idk if I wanna make Brad some flavor of celestial either. Maybe I could make him just straight up Earth but it makes very little difference for a while since they're on Earth. I usually make him super plain to contrast Lloyd's divinity but honestly this would be a great excuse to make him magical as well (also smth smth earth orbits a star we're gonna ignore that I said suns and stars are two different things in this au) I think I wanna put Akita in here as well?? Just for flavor. She would be half-moon though. If the Overlord is in this au, he's a primordial black hole (hypothetical black hole that formed early after the big bang)

Yes they still have their elemental powers they're just based more on their celestial heritage than anything else. Yes the uniform is non-negotiable and they're constantly sparkling. Yes they do have a measure of control over their outfits and they totally fuck around with em for fun. Yes Misako boned a black hole. Yap session over

[thedoodlenoodle14]

Ok sooo...a cool person ( @regretfullyrave ), convinced me to create a post about a few of my OCs for my future murder drones AU called "It lives on Ebony 8" and welll.....here it is! XD

I'll also first say that my AU takes place on a completely different Exoplanet called Ebony 8 (which instead of being ice and snow is mostly just forest and rivers, no oceans tho, unfortunately), but still used to be inhabited by humans before the disassembly drones attacked 😅

But, here's a list of my MD OCs! :3 or at least, the OC's I think are most important XD

1. Xane- Grumpy boi Xane! XD Before he was sent to earth, he, as well as two other disassembly drone ocs, Beta and Green, had a virus implanted within them which became known as "The Dark Matter infection" (which sort of gave Cyn an easy access to, not take them as hosts, but use them as puppets instead). Although Xane loves to fight, he hates to fight when controlled by Cyn and wishes to find a cure.

Other than that, Xane may seem pretty threatening, but deep down he's a big softie (he won't admit it tho XD)

2. Eric- Eric is my worker drone oc, and possibly the main character of my AU 👀 his parents once studied the disassembly drones and the The Dark Matter infection and after their death, Eric continued their work, but also befriended Xane and helps to find a cure for him.

Eric is smart, but not a very good fighter XD but he's kind and willing to give second chances. He finds disassembly drones way more fascinating than scary too lol

3. Green - (creative name, I know TvT) Just like Xane, Green also has the Dark Matter infection. When she landed on Ebony 8, she took a lot of damage. Her weapon system was damaged beyond repair, leaving her somewhat defenceless. However, without her weapon system, she couldn't easily overheat, meaning she didn't have a need to kill worker drones for oil. She actually ended up befriending a worker drone colony and becoming sort of a protector of them. Green is pretty chill and laid back tho and not overly dramatic like Xane XD

4. Beta - Once again, he has the Dark Matter infection too 😅 he's still a character I'm developing, but from what I can say, he's a pretty jumpy and paranoid dude and always nervous. And his best friend is a cat called Milo! :3 (Beta is a major cat person XD)

(I don't have an updated design for him yet 😅)

5. M - M is the leader of one of the disassembly drone squads (Xane's ex-squad too). She...uh...also killed Eric's parents...heh....😅 M is also kind of in love with Xane (despite Xane not feeling the same way at all XD), but M is pretty much a psychopath. However, I do want to continue developing her and perhaps giving her some motivations to her actions. Like...I know M is pretty evil...but I do believe she might be capable of change somehow.....just gotta keep developing her character 😅

(I also don't have an image for her yet XD)

6. Cortex - one of my newer Ocs, who was originally a worker drone, but I changed him to a disassembly drone instead XD He's M's twin brother, but I haven't developed a solid backstory or personality for this character yet. All I can say I that...he's not at crazy as M 😅 I'm still also trying to decide whether he would be a villain or not, but I have been thinking of giving him a similar role to J in some way.

As an added bonus, here's a little concept of Cortex when he was still a worker drone in development 👀

But yea...those are just the OCs that I think are pretty important in my AU so far :D they're all a work in progress and will probably change over time (except Xane, of course) :3

Also, go follow @regretfullyrave. They're cool! :3 And I also don't wanna get charged for tax evasion by W lmao

[patemi-pk]

This post has the aim of collecting all those stories which have one or more of the following characteristics:

It is a modern story set in the past of our characters (mainly 1930s);

The characters embrace their classic looks (again, the 1930s one) and the artstyle should refer, at least partially, to that era;

It has connection to classic tales and/or there is interaction with their past selves, by time travel or other gimmick.

I think these bullet points are enough, but the kind of stories I'm choosing as the first slate, will explain the criteria better than words.

I TL 2243-1 Topolino e il fiume del tempo (Artibani-Faraci/Mastantuono)

I TLDLE39-1 Topolino e il cerchio del tempo (Artibani-Faraci/Mastantuono)

I TL 2979-1 Topolino e gli esploratori del domani (Artibani/Mastantuono)

I TL 3286-1 Topolino e l'avventura su misura (Artibani/Pastrovicchio)

I TL 3467-1 Pippo e i bracciali di Maciste (Artibani/Pastrovicchio)

I TL 3576-2 Paperino e la banda del lupo (Artibani/Pastrovicchio)

I TL 3543 Quante storie, Topolino (Artibani/Pastrovicchio)

I TL 3130-1P Tutto questo accadrà ieri (Casty-Bonfatti)

I TL 3280-6P Tutto questo accadde domani (Casty-Bonfatti)

I TLSS 1 Che avventure, Topolino! (Casty)

I TL 2861-1 Topolino e il surreale viaggio nel destino (Gagnor/Cavazzano)

I TL 1672-B Paperino e l'insolito remake (Cavazzano)

I TL 1866-B Topolino presenta "La strada" (Marconi/Cavazzano)

I TL 2764-1 Topolino e l'ultimo caso (Faraci/Cavazzano)

I TL 1323-B Topolino e la trottola del tempo (Martina/Asteriti)

I TL 1424-AP Topolino e il cavallo venuto da lontano (Sciutto/Asteriti)

I TP 2-1 Topolino e il circo aereo (Ferrari/Asteriti)

I TL 1948-A Topolino e la magica lettura (Asteriti)

I TL 1716-A Topolino e l'incredibile avventura (Pezzin/Ubezio)

I TL 2262-1 Mio fratello Topolino (Palmas/Sciarrone)

I TL 3591-1 Topolino e il ritorno degli acchiappafantasmi (Barbieri/Vian)

D 2008-373 Lost on memory lane (Carol & Pat McGreal/Fecchi)

D 2000-022 Steamboat Willies (Petrucha/Ferioli)

D 2000-023 Clown of the Jungle (Hedman/Manrique)

D 2000-025 Donald's Snow Fight (Halas/Calvet Esteban)

D 2000-034 Mickey's Trailer (Ferioli)

D 2003-327 The mystery of Freefer Hall (Markstein/Ferioli)

F JM 89216 Mickey agent secret (Cochet/Ferioli)

F JM 94224 Mickey à travers le temps (Corteggiani/Marin)

F JM 2848-1 L'affaire des fraises (Trondheim/Chivard)

KJZ 136 The perils of Mickey (Weiss/DeStefano)

H 2019-058 Peter Bigs Orkest (Geradts/Perez-Fernandez)

H 2019-063 Ruilhandel (Geradts/Perez-Fernandez)

H 2019-044 Clock Cleaners (Gentina/Perez-Fernandez)

F DBG 1 Une mystérieuse mélodie (Cosey)

F DBG 4 Café "Zombo" (Loisiel)

F DBG 8 Horrifikland (Trondheim/Nesme)

F DBG 11 Le secret de Tante Miranda (Cosey)

F DBG 13 Les Vacances de Donald (Brremaud/Bertolucci)

F DBG 15 Terror Island (Nesme)

XPW OMF 1 Lonesome Ghosts... in the Machine (Artibani/Rigano)

XPW OMF 2 Exoplanet Trailer (Artibani-Camerini/Bigarella)

XPW OMF 3 Mickey Mouse Takes a Space Trip (Artibani-Savini/Perissinotto)

XPW OMF 4 Firefighters of Tomorrow (Artibani-Panaro/Soffritti)

XPW OMF 5 Starship Builders (Artibani-Sisti/Sciarrone)

XPW OMF 6 Mickey's Martian Rover (Artibani/Pastrovicchio)

XPW OMF 7 Robot Cleaners (Artibani-Panaro/De Lorenzi)

XPW OMF 8 Thru the Betaverse (Artibani/D'Ippolito)

XPW EM 1-1 Clocktower Cleaners (David/Sciarrone)

XPW EM 1-2 The Game's Afoot (David/Sciarrone)

XPW EM 1-3 One Scary Night (David/Sciarrone)

XPW EM 1-4 The Rubbish Cup (David/Sciarrone)

XPW EM 1-5 Oswald the Lucky Duck (David/Sciarrone)

XPW EM 1-6 There's a Hole in the Sky (David/Sciarrone)

XPW EM GN 1 Epic Mickey: The Graphic Novel (David/Celoni-Mottura)

XPW EM GN 2 Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two Graphic Novel (David/Petrossi)

XN HOJ 2010-001 Just Like Magic (Gerstein/Kausler)

I've certainly missed some more of them or other will come to my mind later on and for this reason I'm leaving this as a collaborative work. Feel free to reblog adding stories to this list.

[reikiajakoiranruohoja]

Murder Drones headcanon: Replaceable

Warning: This mini-essay is very dark and discusses slavery, murder and the planned obsolescence of sentient beings. Please take care.

One headcanon for MD that I have is that our DD team treated/treats murder so casually, because they grew up knowing all drones were on a ticking timer.

To explain this, I have to explain something about modern tech; Most if not all high-tech machines have a lifespan of 5-10 years at best. Mind, I have had machines getting older than 10 years, but those were a washing machine and a TV. My computers have typically had a 5-6 year lifetime, even though I build them myself to last.

This is because at some point the technology you need to get by just isn't there anymore in your old machine. The more complicated the machine the harder it is for it to get past 5 years.

Now add on top that most high-tech branded technology is made obsolete at 2+ year mark. Updates stop, changing parts gets more expensive than buying a new machine and so on.

To complete this shit-sundae, some companies have intentionally made repairing your own machine nearly impossible. Apple is the most famous for this, even to well-known influencers (Linus Tech Tips tried to get a Macbook repaired but Apple had no system for it, only for replacing.) I went through all of this to showcase just how replaceable modern technology is seen. Now, imagine if these phones and laptops and all that had sentience? What if they were basically people stuck in bodies that were going obsolete the moment they hit the shelves? Yeah, it would be frightening, wouldn't it? To be a thinking being while also the newest iPhone, a new version better than you coming the very next year.

This was the reality of domestic worker drones in my opinion. The hottest new thing for a few years and then a newer and better model comes out and then it is bye bye old WD. Made worse by the very likely scenario that JCJ Jenson (in spaaaace) would make repairing older drones basically impossible for laymen. If you knew the tech, you could try, but your basic household would not have access to such knowledge.

I feel the lifetime of a domestic worker drone (not a miner, I'll get to them later) would have been 10 years at most. Some with tech-savvy owners could easily live much longer, of course. But your basic household servant would be good for maybe 5 years and then slowly their parts would fail. To a sentient being with human-level reasoning, this would result in a deep sense of fatalism and resignation. It is no wonder that J,V,N and Cyn nearly deify Tessa for giving them a new lease on life. As for Tessa, if we are to assume the Elliots are big wigs in JCJenson, then she'd have access to the company repair kits and the company dumping site. But wait, Uzi is canonically 19 and Khan is hinted to be much older, how would this factor into my headcanon? Well, I intentionally used the word domestic worker drone for the DD squad+Cyn.

Khan and other Copper 9 workers would have been classified as mining tools and as such they would have been much more rugged. After all, mining is hard work and on an exoplanet, it would have been very necessary for the workers to be repaired on-site or by other drones. Once humans went kaput, the knowledge of self-repair and maintenance would have ensured the C9 WDs would have survived just fine without humans. But the DD trio wouldn't understand that. Alongside the more animalistic minds they had, they would have seen the WDs on C9 the same way they were seen; Short-lived machines that were doomed to break down sooner than later with no hope of being repaired. TlDr; The lives of domestic worker drones would have been very short and that would have translated to how JVN squad saw the C9 WDs.

[theofficialastronomy101]

BREAKING NEWS: A Repeating Radio Signal Is Coming From Another Earth-Like Planet, Scientists Say.

The 1st Live Alien Signal Received From Another Galaxy?Scientists have spotted a repeating radio signal from a nearby star system that hints at the presence of a magnetic field around one of its Earth-sized planets, reports a new study. 

Earth’s magnetic field has played a critical role in the survival of life by shielding the surface from the Sun’s harmful radiation and helping to maintain a stable atmosphere that nourishes our biosphere. For this reason, scientists think that extraterrestrial life, if it exists, might also depend on the presence of robust magnetic fields around exoplanets, which are worlds that orbit other stars.

Scientists have previously observed the magnetic fields of giant Jupiter-scale exoplanets interacting with their host stars, as part of a process called magnetic star-planet interactions (SPIs). However, Earth-sized exoplanets give off much weaker magnetic signals compared to gas giants, making it difficult to detect magnetism around rocky worlds. Sebastian Pineda, a research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Jacqueline Villadsen, an assistant professor at Bucknell University, have spent years searching for these elusive signs of magnetic fields around small planets. Now, the pair of astronomers present unprecedented evidence of repeated radio bursts that may be linked to a magnetic field around the Earth-sized exoplanet YZ Ceti b, which is located just 12 light years from our solar system. 

YZ Ceti b completes an orbit in just two days, which means it is way too close to its star to host life, but this ultrashort year also “makes it a uniquely promising case study for magnetic SPIs,” according to a study published on Monday in Nature Astronomy. It was super exciting to see the radio data sets show this kind of signature,” Pineda said in an email to Motherboard. “We saw the initial burst detection, and immediately went about coordinating observations for additional monitoring, based on the published planet period, since we were looking for something that happens at the same time in the planet’s orbit. Once we had the additional data, Jackie was looking at it, and was telling me: ‘hey, there are similar radio signals here, right when we were looking and hoping to see them,’” he continued. “It was a bit of feverish excitement: ‘wow, we may really have it here!!’ I’m pretty sure I started pacing around, imagining our next steps: alright, we’ve got work to do to really demonstrate this result, with all the implications etc.”

In their hunt for these signals, Pineda and Villadsen focused their attention on short-period small planets, because they might have a more visible magnetic signature as a result of their proximity to their stars. As these worlds hurtle through their orbits, any magnetic field they might possess could interact with the star’s own magnetic field, creating a pattern of radio bursts from the star that can be potentially seen here on Earth. 

The researchers think they might have seen these repeat bursts from the YZ Ceti system, but they caution that it’s not a slam-dunk case. It’s possible that the signals are a normal part of the radio stellar activity of stars like YZ Ceti, which is a slowly rotating red dwarf, which would mean that its emission may have nothing to do with any planets in the system. “There are still too many unknowns about the system, but I’d say we are demonstrating the potential of radio data and magnetic star-planet interactions to lead toward measurements of Earth-sized exoplanet magnetic field strengths—I don’t think we’re really there yet,” Pineda said. “So, we want to continue to monitor the star with the radio observatories, and look for additional recurrence of the radio signals that occur periodically with the same position of the planet in its orbit,” he added. “It can be time consuming and a bit challenging to set up, but that’ll confirm that the radio detections are indeed dependent on the planet, and not something that the star is doing on its own.” If this does turn out to be the first detection of magnetic SPI around an Earth-sized exoplanet, it could help scientists hunt for habitable worlds in other stars. The caveat is that looking for magnetic signatures around rocky worlds in the habitable zones of their stars, where liquid water and life are considered more likely to exist, would be tricky because these planets have much larger orbits. This distance from stars may be an advantage for any hidden aliens out there, but it also makes the magnetic interactions between stars and planets far weaker, to the point that some may not be detectable at all.

However, the new study offers a potential example of the types of signals you might expect to see from a system that contains a magnetically shielded planet that is similar in size to Earth. With time and practice, scientists might be able to zero-in on interesting targets, Pineda said, as part of a wider approach to assessing the odds that life might exist on other worlds. First off, fully confirming magnetic field strengths on exoplanets is a requisite for any broader understanding of habitability,” he explained. “It’s not just a temperature question, but the whole star-planet system needs to be thought about holistically, with magnetism as an important ingredient. “So, if we know these exoplanets have magnetic fields from the SPI work, we can start to think about questions like what are the properties of those planets, and thus how do the habitable zone planets compare, and what are the chances that they too have similar magnetic fields, even if we can’t measure them yet for the [habitable zone] planets specifically,” Pineda concluded. “If you can infer then that a planet likely has its own field, that’s when you can start thinking about whether individual planets are truly hospitable.”

[whitehairandtraumatized-bracket]

White Hair and Trauma Brawl Round 1; Poll 24

remember, voting is based on swag, trauma, and favoritism!!

trauma and propaganda under the cut!

Trauma!

Add: His "Mad Paradox" class is considerably More Traumatized than his other classes, but I think he definitely counts in general, too.

Ariane: Background, raised in a totalitarian police state and odd for reasons no one really understood. Didn't matter if they didn't know why the other kids still bullied her for it. She never fit in anywhere and the oppressive government viewed her as a fuckup. After her compulsory military service she was going to be sent to a mining colony to work until she died but found an out in the Penrose program, a exoplanet hunting space exploration program. Sounds pretty cool right, she thought so, and it was pretty cool for a bit. She was alone and at peace among the stars, she befriended the ship's maintenance robotgirl, Elster, and spent a lot of time painting. It was pretty chill until about 10 years pass and they receive word that actually this program was fake, just a propaganda effort, if you didn't find a new planet yet you should probably just kill yourself because it's that or die slowly. Well she and Elster decide not to give up and keep going but as the shielding for the ships reactor gives out she starts contracting radiation sickness. Her body is literally falling apart on her, every moment is a living hell. Well Ariane's condition deteriorates so Elster decides to put her into cryo to keep her alive until they find a suitable planet. Before going under she forces to Elster make a promise, that if things ever become hopeless, if Elster determines there's no chance of finding a planet, Elster will kill Ariane herself so she can finally be at peace. Well unfortunately after Elster puts Ariane into cryo she suddenly succumbs to the radiation damage herself and dies, leaving Ariane trapped in a semi conscious state, were every moment is agony. Forever. [or until the events of the game allow a different Elster to find her and kill her fulfilling her promise]

Propaganda!

Ariane:

1. Her only friends both die during their compulsory military service [speculation, not confirmed]

2. She's so traumatized and isolated from her peers she chooses to be shot into space on a one way trip out of the solar system, alone.

3. During her time in space she contracts radiation sickness making her every waking moment agony as her body falls apart while she's still living in it.

4. When her condition gets too bad to go on she gets put into cryo by the Elster, ship's cyborg maintenance tech whom she fell in love with, under the condition that should the situation ever become unrecoverable Elster will pull her out of cryo and kill her to end her suffering.

5. After putting her under, Elster dies suddenly of radiation damage. Thus failing to fulfill her promise and damning Ariane to an eternity of semiconscious agony in the empty void of space.

6. Her trauma awakens her latent Bioresonance [psychic space magic] and allows her to teleport her ship deep under the surface of a mining colony where she begins killing and corrupting the workforce turning them into cancer zombies and horrible flesh monsters

7. In what can be considered the "happiest" ending, the games protagonist Elster, who is just a random LSTR unit that Ariane has psychically projected the personality of her Elster onto, finally makes her way to Ariane's ship. Once their she wakes Ariane from cryo, and after some brief encouragement, fulfills her promise by choking out Ariane and finally allowing her to die. Yeah, that's the happy ending.

[Add did not receive propaganda. rip.]

[ghelgheli]

17! but also using the opportunity of the ask game to get to know more about the effortless worldbuilding in sff :)

from the end-of-year book ask

17: Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

I think Three Body Problem is the only one meeting this condition this year so I'll have no trouble staying on topic :> but I'm gonna specifically talk about "hard" SF as I conceive of it—I haven't read any analysis so this may just be a jumble of improvised thoughts.

SF, being "speculative" fiction, of course has to take on the problem of speculating and of presenting things that don't (and perhaps cannot) happen. On average this is accomplished thru a healthy combination of scientific grounding and good-natured handwaving: I drop a few sentences about "quantum entanglement" and you go along with my ansible, or you tell me about "positronic circuits" and I agree that you can make a brain with them. This is the compact that makes SF work because you fundamentally cannot expect speculation without, well, ceding ground on reality.

But at least a subset of SF readers are of the kind to really want to grok how it is that this or that scientific feature of the world works or may come about. Every contraption and novel technology is like a puzzle to be riddled out. This is the place where speculation becomes sincere mechanical prediction, and it's why I love hard SF.

This subset of readers can be matched to a subgenre of writers who commit fully to filling in as many blanks in their technological, biological, etc. speculation as possible. The rows of astronomical data can't be left vague—tell me what frequency of light we're dealing with here—xenobiology isn't taken for granted—what is the neurology of your aliens??—and so on. The dots are connected, the rest of the owl is drawn for real, the image is made crisp. Like fireworks for the reader's brain.

When this kind of worldbuilding is executed well imo it looks effortless. Looks, not is, because behind every explanation of near-c travel is hours of research into at least special relativity and time dilation, along with calculations by-hand. Behind every account of an exoplanet's atmosphere is probably a few papers perused on the subject and several articles on scientific american. Peter Watts, in the note at the end of Blindsight, includes a fucking bibliography of a hundred or so references as well as thank-yous to many an academic he split handles of liquor with. And this is only the visible fragment of what has to be a library of knowledge accumulated both passively and actively to make a speculated world feel as concretely plausible as possible.

None of this is necessary for good SF. The aforementioned compact means any author can opt out of this commitment at any time. But it's what it takes to make tightly-written hard SF, where your conceptual hands are kept diligently at your side, waving an idea through maybe once every five chapters when you have no other choice.

So anyway, Three Body Problem is a tour de force in doing this and doing it cleanly. It uses a storytelling device a lot of hard SF employs to make it work: rather than stuffing dense exposition into narration (at which point, just read the source papers) it deploys a cast of characters who more than anything else, really know their shit. We get exposition trickle-fed through experts who are trying, along with us, to make sense of their novel environments and unfamiliar technologies using their knowledge of the present limits of human understanding. This is what Watts does in Blindsight too, by the way: a claustrophobic ship crewed by technical specialists makes first contact, so everyone has something encyclopedic to say about everything and it's only natural.

What astounded me about Cixin Liu's writing is that he made it work just when I least thought he would be able to. I was sure I was being shown things completely inexplicable and necessarily supernatural until he went and explained them in plain terms; better yet, he explained them in ways that made so much sense in retrospect that I was kicking myself for not seeing the answer. This has exactly the flavour of a good puzzle.

The trade-off hard SF makes is that you are often limited in the metaphorical/thematic work you can do through your speculation. I think the contrast between "calendrical science" in Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire series and Asimov's "psychohistory" illustrates this well.

Yoon Ha Lee has mathematical training, and calendrical science is a speculative field consisting of theorems, conjectures, proofs, etc. in the language of mathematics that stand in for cultural hegemony and power projection. This makes for a great operationalization of soft power: space is filled and distorted by the quantifiable effects of whatever regime is dominant there (the "calendar" here being synecdoche for culture writ large). But obviously he can't fill in the blanks of how a calendar causes spacetime distortions that specifically make one side's weapons more effective, or provide certain formations with shielding effects. This is, I guess, semi-hard (lol) SF—you can see how it's supposed to work, but it's clear that it just won't. What you get in return is pretty politically interesting storytelling.

Psychohistory is the converse: a deterministic-enough lovechild of economics and sociology explained in the Foundation series as using all the familiar methods of linear algebra and differential equations together with unfamiliar innovations of just how to quantify human behaviour in order to make reliable predictions. There are entire chapters dedicated to explaining the conceptual nuance that went into developing psychohistory ("the hand on thigh principle" from prelude to foundation is just about how the theory resolves divergence by reducing insignificant terms to zero) and an entire book to exploring one of its limitations. It's fascinating to read. But you also get little narrative depth out of it, because hard SF, even when done well, is not guaranteed to make a story thematically interesting or politically compelling. This is the Three Body Problem problem too: its political commitments are threadbare and unserious because that's just not what it's about. I couldn't recommend it on those terms, but that's not what I like so much about it. I will say the conceptualization goes a little off the rails in the final chapters, but I think most SF authors were in some kind of string theory inspired fugue state at the time.

What I would love to see (and I'm sure exists) is hard SF that also has interesting politics. Unfortunately that's an intersection of two already-narrow intersections.

ty for ask✨🐐

[electrozeistyking]

I am so incredibly curious about N and Uzi before…. N had to kill her…

What was life like as a married drone couple? How did they do their wedding? How awkward was the conversation about having a kid?

I’m also curious about V in this AU, what are her thoughts on all that’s going on… N killing Uzi, N having a kid, N being fricken’ depressed… She was a broken individual in the canon, is she still just as broken here? Has she healed from all that the solver’s but her through?

sorry for the many questions, but as an obsessive individual you have crafted the perfect thing for me to obsess over and i am dying for more content lol.

p.s. are there more fics to come? Ik ya only have the one prologue rn, are more chapters on their way?

Hey, no need to apologize for being curious! I quite like the amount of questions! Tells me you're interested in the AU, y'know? Anyway, let me dig up some old notes!

These aren't the full notes, though. A lot was cut, especially if they involved spoilers and/or if they made this go on for too long.

Everything was as fine as it could possibly be on this frozen, toxic exoplanet. Hell, this stretch of fine-ness went on long enough that one of them decided to propose to the other.

And by one of them, I mean Uzi. 

This is based on some observations (aka the hand holding thing in Episode 6), but N was a major fucking dork when V asked him if he was thinking about proposing to Uzi — y’know, saying things like “I don’t know if I should” and “maybe she doesn’t want to go that far” and “maybe we’re fine as is?”

Then meanwhile Uzi’s been drawing up plans on how the hell she’s going to propose to this tall ass robot.

In the end, she kinda threw it all to the wind and decided to do so with no big events or plans or anything. She kinda panicked, though, so she said “Do you wanna marry me?” instead of “Will you marry me?”

N nearly short-circuited trying to say yes. He was kind of having a “Oh my goodness, this is happening????” moment and a “OH SHE DOES WANT TO GO THAT FAR” moment at the exact same time, so something may have literally sparked.

[...] there was a funny period of time where the duo kept very suddenly realizing they’re married, like it didn’t actually sink in until that moment. 

In fact, N exclaimed “oh my goodness” and leaned against something every time it occurred to him.

Unfortunately, the good fluffy times couldn’t last forever. 

You see, one way or another, our beloved robotic dorks somehow found themselves on the topic of having a kid. The conversation itself was fine, if slightly awkward at first (what with N being unsure he’d be good at parenting, anyway). However, just as they reached the peak of “hey, would they be more disassembler or more worker” jokes, Uzi started coughing. 

Which is not normal for any kind of drone. Unless they accidentally swallow something wrong, or if the air’s a bit too thick for whatever reason, drones don’t cough for seemingly no reason. And yet, despite how odd it was, both of them tried to brush it off.

In a brilliant moment of jumping to conclusions (even if they’re the right ones), Uzi realized that The Solver was trying to take over her body.

In a panic, N tried to help any way he could, but felt like he was doing nothing in the process. Uzi just kept getting worse, and every time they landed up empty-handed, the thought he was failing her stung even more. 

V tried to help as well, out of fear over what that thing would do if It took over (and because she did think of Uzi as a friend, even if she’d never admit it to her face).

When The Solver started hijacking her body during one such search to find a way to stop It, Uzi realized it was all over for her. 

Whatever this thing was — whatever It wanted — wasn’t good. And so, in a moment of desperation and panic, she came up with a plan to destroy It. Hopefully, if everything worked in their favour, It’d be gone once and for all.

Of course, its success banked on N’s cooperation. Since V split off from the duo this time, he was the only disassembly drone who could possibly carry it out. Predictably, he tried to decline at first, seeing as the plan was to kill Uzi and destroy her core.

However, when Uzi explained that this was the only way to get rid of this fucking thing, N reluctantly agreed. Despite being incredibly painful, he brought out his laser gun (which is what I think it is, shut up) and the couple had one last heartfelt goodbye.

But then, just as N went to shoot her, the laser turned an awful shade red he’s never seen before and started malfunctioning — something that’s supposed to rarely ever happen. N panicked, calling out Uzi’s name... right before the weapon exploded.

V felt the vibrations of the explosion from where she stood and immediately rushed to N and Uzi’s location. She assumed that something went wrong, but what she saw was not what she expected.

Uzi was dead. 

There was a Fatal Error message on her visor, as clear as day. She was in multiple pieces, with a hole in her chest right where her core was supposed to be — having most likely imploded, thanks in part to The AbsoluteSolver’s weirdness.

While N was alive, his body was in rough shape. He’d been split in two due to the blast, and his chest had been cracked wide open. Judging from how dark smoke billowed from where one of his hands should’ve been, something had gone completely wrong. 

But how? There was a very small chance their weapons could malfunction, and yet... what the fuck happened?

V chose not to dwell on it too long. N’s body wasn’t regenerating on its own fast enough for some reason, and he was losing a shit ton of oil at an alarming rate. 

Fuelled by pure adrenaline, V somehow managed to carry both of N’s halves and all of Uzi’s pieces back to the Outpost.

[stonegearstudios]

Flash Gordon & the Sci-Fi of Almost a Century Ago!

I've got a interest in old scifi. That's not strange, plenty of people do, though what interests me most might be slightly more unusual.

I'm interested in the good ideas and the bad, at the same time. Now, it's no surprise that old scifi has it's issues, literally everything does, but the common treatment of women, race, politics... well we'll see soon.

Despite all that I like looking back at old stuff to try and pic the good out of the bad, to see what were genuinely the revolutionary ideas while not ignoring the real issues.

I also happen to run a weekly watch party in the RPPR discord and this week were starting the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, so I thought, why not go back and read the original comic strip, starting at the beginning way back in the 30's?

And on a Sunday no less

So, Flash Gordon. Without doing a whole biography, here are some basic details

The first strip came out on January 7, 1934, though given it was in the big Sunday papers, strip is less appropriate, more of a comic block really, full colour to

It was explicitly made as a... should I say knock off? of Buck Rogers, made more than 5 years earlier (Will probably read Buck Rogers sometime to)

According to Wikipedia, they tried to get the license to make their comic a John Carter adaptation, but when negotiations fell through, Flash was born (hey, just like Star Wars 50 years later)

Apparently early Flash was also inspired by the 1933 novel When Worlds Collide, which I have some experience with, will be interesting to see how

Ok, let's get started. I have no idea if these comics are in the public domain yet so I won't be posting the whole things, just individual panels here and there

Polo, really? Polo?! Can you get more poncy?

Starting off, we hit the ground running. In only 7 panels we learn a rogue planet is flying toward Earth (and this World will Collide with it), apparently there is a lone scientist is driving himself mad working on a solution, and our two main characters are introduced and swiftly put in peril as a meteor from the approaching planet just so happens to destroy their planet.

There's not much SciFi yet, besides the approaching planet. I feel like rogue planets are a trope that used to be more common, though I can't be sure. Apparently the first exoplanet evidence was found in 1917 but one wasn't confirmed until 1992, so it makes sense that writers would be theorizing about them.

On the less good side, the second and third panels are used to show how "primitive" peoples are helpless before the approach of the planet, and can do nothing besides turn to superstition. It will be interesting to see how non-white characters are portrayed as the comic goes on, though I'll be surprised if it can, well surprise me before we get to a more modern take.

I mean, Flash isn't wrong, but good lord what's wrong with your legs man?!

In the second half, we get a look at Flash's abilities. A meteor knocks a wing of the plane he was in clean off and somehow he manages to both put on a parachute, grab Dale (was Dale a common woman's name back then? I don't know) and jump clear of the tailspin. Effortless for a Capable Man™, the pilot and any other crew are just out of luck I guess though.

Quite economical storytelling that a meteor from the approaching planet (Which somehow got way, way out in front of it) would knock them down right in time to land in front of the lab of the only scientist would could stop the planet... who then holds them at gunpoint and forces them into his rocket in what he thinks is a suicide mission. I guess that stress really is getting to him.

A couple of things here, yeah, the story is going a bit to fast, but this is a Sunday comic after all, you get one a week then have to wait a week for the next one so I imagine there was quite a bit of pressure to make each instalment feel worth it.

It's also such a classic scifi thing to have a lone scientist working on a vast machine. Like, did he do the metallurgy himself? How did he move the parts? Is he an Omnidisciplinary genius? Old scifi has no time for these rational questions, we need to get into space by comic 2!

Speaking of

Strip 2 (presumably published on Jan 14th)

Oh yeah, this is the good stuff

Dr Hans Zarkov (Zarkov doesn't seem to be a real name but Hans implies something Germanic, given this is the early 30's I wonder if that implies anything?) continues his manic break, suddenly becoming a coward who doesn't want to die while Flash is now committed to ramming himself into this planet.

It's nice that Dale's first instinct is to grab a wrench to wallop the doctor, that will serve her well. And then we see the panel above. This is the kind of simple yet evocative scifi art I would have rotated in my mind for hours if I had read this as a kid. A submarine like rocket, a glittering city set against a pitch black sky (implying no atmosphere?) I love it.

And then we are reminded that planets have gravity and you really should have someone at the controls of your rocket. BANG, CRASH, and the rocket crumples into a mountain. Despite what must have been a impact at thousands of km/h, Flash is just fine (even if his polo gear is a bit torn up) while Dale is just unconscious. Leaving the rocket (without Hans) Flash walks to the city in the distance.

Gotta have a cliffhanger each week, wonder if one will have a literal cliff?

Other than the rogue planet, the first strip didn't have much to draw me in if I was reading Flash on release, but this? This would catch my attention. Alien worlds, alien monsters, mysterious cities! This would get me coming back next week, good thing I don't have to wait that long.

One thing to note I suppose is the interior of the rocket, with all it's pipes, pressure gauges and such, reminds me more of a Jules Verne creation than a rocket, but we aren't that far from Verne's age in the 30's, now were we?

Strip 3

Slowly, slowly eating him. How considerate

Well, Mongo (I'm assuming that's where we are) certainly doesn't waste any time. You crash and giant lizard-cat monsters are trying to eat you inside five minutes. Better get more than a pen knife Flash old buddy.

We also see the classic trope of "Oh no, a giant monster is about to eat me! Oh no a second one! Oh, they're fighting each other, better get away". But then, rockets!

That's one heck of a worrying trajectory for someone with only rear mounted rockets

Aliens! Who look just like rubber foreheaded people, guess Star Trek had to get it somewhere.

Now, there's no getting around this, the very human-like aliens are literally coloured yellow, their leader (called the Emperor of the Universe here) is named Ming (though not named yet, wonder when that will happen). It's been a while since I did a deep dive into Yellow Peril, but lets just say, despite how stereotyped he was, I was surprised the African man in the first comic wasn't drawn with big pink lips. Racism is an intrinsic part of almost all media from this era, one of the reasons I still haven't gotten into John Carter yet is the opening blurb where his backstory is discussed. There were exceptions to this, even at the time though, and I think it's important to remember this wasn't a hard rule, it was laziness and pandering to a lowest common denominator audience.

Anyway, in terms of scifi tropes... well, we quickly have a Emperor on his thrown, he grabs up all the pretty ladies, sends our hero to the arena to die, archetypal bad guy.

Strip 4

Flash is a great dancer

Straight into the arena and the appearance of another pulp staple, Man-Apes. I wonder what the first property to use them was, The Island of Dr. Moreau?

Anyway, as a certified Capable Man™ Flash has no trouble dispatching them, despite the fact that other primapes have muscles that work a bit differently than us humans, so a single blow could have de-gloved him (don't google that).

While the fight panels are more than a bit disjointed, the actual poses aren't bad. You see how powerfully Flash is built (and several of them would make George Takei go "Oh My") and using your opponents as a weapon is always fun.

By the standards of the day, the ladies haven't been that bad so far

Ming, being an evil Emperor of course, can't have this, so Flash must be shot down. Good thing that like all imperial goons, his men are terrible shots. And lucky for Flash he leapt into the viewing box of the Emperor's daughter, who calls for his mercy.

The evil emperor has got to have a inexplicably pure and good daughter to, it's just the law. What's really funny is how in the very next panel, Flash falls down a trap door. Really lets you know what kinda guy Ming is. Has a trap door to the Hole of Horrors™ installed in his own daughters booth. I shudder to think what he put in her bedroom, swinging blades?

Now, I can recognize that this is the old love at first sight for a man you don't know trope, but I prefer to believe our Princess is just so fed up with her dad she would have jumped after anyone. Anything to get out of another state dinner :V

And that's 4 comics. Let's see if I can make this a regular thing. 4 comics a week, on Sundays since Flash was a Sunday comic.

If this was interesting at all, why not drop me a comic on your own thoughts, especially if you decide to join me in a readthrough.

Until next week, set your Rockets to Maximum!