#cloud monitoring a survey

[come-on-darling-honey]

colourblind [paul lahote x reader]

AN:// this pushes all of the wolves and new moon plot to summer.

summary: based on this post of how the shift Paul and the others experience would give them physical attributes akin to a wolf, which is being colourblind. Which Paul finds himself in, until of course, he sees you for the first time in months on the first day of summer.

warnings- mature language and themes. one suggestive scene. 18+ word count 10k.

“La Push baby! Its LaPush!”

“Do you have to say that every time we go to LaPush?” I asked, staring at the back of Mike and Eric’s heads in the van. They were singing and screaming into the warm air as we drove down to First Beach.

“He said that to me when I first came to LaPush,” Bella added, meekly. I laughed, lightly pushing against her. She was wearing a white blouse and tan shorts, opposing my dark shorts and tight blue shirt, Angela had gotten me it when she went to the Grand Canyon with her family. It read “visit the Grand Canyon today!” on the back, so ugly I loved it.

“He’s been saying it since we were five and our parents would carpool us in the summer.” I whispered to Bella; we were both laughing at the terrifying attempt from Mike to sing ‘Wanna Be’ by Spice Girls. Butchering the lines didn’t matter to Mike, it was summer. First day of it. Bella was finally out of the pit she had found herself in.

I’d spent almost every Friday and Saturday night of the past seven months sleeping over at the Swan house, waiting for Bella to come through. At first it was scary, the screaming and the vacancy of her mind, but she’s better now. At least I hope she is, Charlie thinks so, but I’m worried she’s becoming dependent on our friend Jacob. Coming to First Beach did mean a far chance we could run into Jacob, but it also means she’s surrounded by other people, and as annoying as Mikes singing is, I can tell she’s enjoying it.

“Are you okay?” I heard Bella say, we’d parked, and the boys were getting their surfing gear on. I hadn’t even noticed; Bella was wide eyed like a little deer and grasping onto my shoulder. “Is it to do with Paul?”

“No,” I laughed uncomfortably shaking her off as I got out of the seat into the back, taking of my clothes to reveal my favourite bikini underneath. “Not even thinking about him.” Which was true, to an extent. I had been thinking about Paul Lahote all morning and all last night and the day before, and every day since three weeks ago but that wasn’t in this moment. So technically… not a lie!

She watched me in clear disbelief but didn’t push it. She knew some rumours about Paul from Jacob, not kind ones but as the days go on, I’m starting to believe them myself. Hall monitors on steroids. “What book are you bringing?” Bella asked, changing the subject.

“The Metamorphosis by Kafka, are you rereading Austen again?” I said, searching through my bag for suncream. The only way id gotten Bella to agree to coming today was to promise I’d stay by her side all day and we can just read on the beach. Which worked out well for me, I always hated getting changed after leaving the ocean, everything stuck to you; clothes, sand, everything. She nodded and sheepishly pulled Persuasion out of her bag. Bella grabbed the towels we were going to lay on as I surveyed the beach for the best spot, there were a lot more people than usual but it’s what I expected. The remote spot in the south corner seemed perfect. Setting down camp, I heard laughter and colliding footsteps coming towards us, Mike, Eric and now Tyler ran to our spot, and all jumped over one another to lay on the sand. Not a single cloud in the sky, not that the boys noticed, too busy apologising to Bella for covering her towel with sand. Laughing it off quietly she shook the towel and threw all the sand on the boys. She stopped laughing as she looked over my shoulder. Standing up I saw, Sam Uley talking with Jared, Paul and Embry? But Embry was huge and at least half a foot taller than when I last saw him. They began kicking a ball around until Paul suddenly turned in my direction. Swivelling quickly, I stared into the sea. Sitting down on my towel that I was apparently sharing with Jess, I looked over at Bella. Giving me a comforting smile, she nodded towards our books that sat in the bag at the foot of her towel.

A few hours had passed when Jacob and Quil had made their way over to us, Jess, Angela, and the boys had all decided to go on an impromptu adventure leaving Bella and I in peace, that is until Quil collapsed on my towel and Jacob calmly sat next to Bella.

“See how normal Jake is?” I asked kicking Quil with my foot, “Be more like Jake.” They all laughed as the fiend on my towel rolled over.

“Figured you needed protecting.” He said, puffing his chest put lightly with a boyish smile.

“From what?” Bella laughed.

“Lahote’s been staring at you for a while,” Jacob said staring at me. Turning around I saw Paul from a distance, I could barely make out his face but saw that he definitely wasn’t happy.

“Well thank you gentlemen, but we can handle ourselves.” I said, laughing when Quil got hit with a rouge baseball.

We spoke for a while, making jokes at each other’s expense and avoiding the subject of Embry completely. Bella and I had come to an unspoken agreement that if they wanted to talk about it, they would. I looked around the beach and saw a stall on the pavement beyond the pavilion, an old lady selling handmade jewellery. I told Bella, Jake, and Quil that I was going to see what she was selling and grabbed my purse from my bag. Making my way over across the hot sand I regretted not grabbing a shirt from Quil or Jake or even making a detour to the van, so many people were looking at me, even if they were wearing the same thing, I felt so exposed.

“Hello dear, having a good day?” The lady asked as I finally reached her stand. We spoke about the weather and then about her creations, one with a beautiful orange crystal in the middle had caught my eye. “Citrine, they bring positivity and happiness” she winked once she caught where I was looking. I grabbed my purse but before I could hand over the $5 someone else passed it to her. Following the tan hand, I saw Paul; he was looking at the lady and explained he’d buy it for me. She smiled and accepted the money, handing him the necklace over. Paul looked at the necklace in his hand and squinted, looking oddly heartbroken.

“I can buy it myself.” I said as he walked a few steps out of earshot of the old lady. He still hadn’t actually looked me in the eye yet. It was infuriating. “You know its super fucking rude of you to ignore me for weeks, replace me with new friends, act like I don’t exist and then pretend like nothings happened.” He tensed at this; I kept going. “And now you won’t even look me in the eye!” I laughed, his large shoulders straightened, God when did he get so big.

As he turned around something shifted, I’m not sure what but it was definitely something. He stared at me wide eyed, speechless and I saw tension fall from him. But I had no patience for him.

“Are you going to give me the necklace or should I just go and buy one for myself.” This seemed to snap him out of it, he passed me the necklace and kept looking at me. Not staring anymore, more of a gaze. Not voyeuristic as the other gazes from men on the beach but an intimate one, one I wanted to avoid. His eyes are a stunning brown, I think to my painting at home, I’d made him sit for hours, waiting for the result when I’d spent twenty minutes alone painting half an eye, he waited.

Tearing myself away from him I look down at the necklace, it was beautiful. I had to not owe him this. I took the $5 out of my purse and pressed it to his chest. He finally caught on and gently pushed my hand away.

“Take it.” I demanded.

“It’s a gift.” He whispered, the way he used to.

“Please take it.” I begged lightly; I couldn’t owe him for this.

“What is going on?” A harsh voice interrupted us. Quil had stood in front of my right shoulder, not hiding me completely but being a clear attempt to shield me. He didn’t know any of the details of what happened between Paul and I, but honestly, I didn’t either. He just knew how broken I was, crying to him when Bella, Jake, and Embry weren’t around. Knowing I couldn’t handle their silent looks.

“None of your fucking business, Ateara.” Paul snapped, his body tightening. Quil pushed him, suddenly Jared was holding Paul back and Sam had appeared in front of us. He had whispered something to Paul that I couldn’t catch but it looked more like a demand. One I wasn’t entirely sure was in Quil and I’s favour or not.

Jacob had arrived by this point, staring at Embry in disbelief who had told Quil to ‘back off’, Embry was normally so sweet and quiet. The way he was acting as he was influenced by the others was a clear sign to the mentality that I didn’t want anything to do with. Paul had caught my eye from over Sam’s shoulder, a pleading sense to him. I looked away, staring at Quil’s back. I couldn’t do this, get caught up in whatever teenage boy bullshit was going on. I was 18, Paul 19, Quil 17. I had no fucking interest. Ignoring the yells of my name I walked back to Bella who had watched the whole affair in bewilderment. I walked back to Bella in more confidence then when I had left, I couldn’t explain it, but I knew the people looking know, weren’t looking at me and if they were it, was a good thing. Sitting on the towel I thanked Bella for staying with the stuff and picked up my book. Not before placing the Citrine necklace in my bag. She watched me as I lied back down but I couldn’t care, knowing I’d have to tell her every detail later anyway. Jess practically ran to us, monopolising my towel once again and demanding to know what she had seen from across the beach.

“I mean not only was he completely eye-fucking you but who were all his friends?!” She practically screamed, I hit her shoulder lightly with my book for ‘eye-fucking’ as Bella blushed, but explained who the boys were.

“Oh, they’re coming over!” Jess said, elated with the drama unfolding right in front of her. My legs slid over Jess so she wouldn’t leave and who ever was coming wouldn’t stay, which thankfully she understood as she grabbed my legs lightly with a comforting rub.

“Can you believe the nerve of Embry?” I heard Jake yell as he was approaching us, Bella’s cheeks were as pink as Jess’ bikini. Jess’ jaw dropped as she ate up Quil and Jake’s physique, I watched her over my book, smirking as she stared at the long haired boys.

Quil called my name, and I looked up, with my head laid down I saw him as a giant, which made me laugh.

“What the fuck was he saying to you.” Quil demanded, staring at me.

“It’s over, don’t worry about it.” I said calmly.

“Don’t worry? He’s a fucked-up dude! Literally almost exploded on me, again!” he gave Jess context, that Paul had almost ‘attacked’ Quil in a convenience store a few weeks ago. She looked down at me in surprise. I still read my book.

“As hot as he is,” Jess said with Quil and Jake protesting as she ignored them, “no boy is worth it if he has anger like that.” She said with the older sister tone she normally used on her younger siblings. Quil and Jake agreed with her, but Bella stayed silent, I looked at her from the corner of my eye and saw her staring at the pavilion.

“Honestly, if you go back to him, I can’t be your fucking friend.” I caught Quil saying. I stood up so quick I dropped my book on the towel, loosing the page. Where did this come from? Bella, Jake and even Jess went quiet. Quil had snapped, he never snapped at me.

“First of all, that would be my decision, second, I wasn’t ‘with’ him in the first place and thirdly you don’t get to be so fucking rude to me.” I snapped, pointing a finger at his chest.

“He’s a bad fucking person and you know it.” His eyes stared into mine, harsh and true.

“You don’t know him how I know him.” I defended Paul, for some unknown reason. I didn’t even fully believe myself I was just so hurt with how Quil was acting everything was blurring out of anger.

“After everything he did, you’re defending him!” Quil yelled, desperation in his eyes, he was looking at me as if I was crazy, which I was beginning to feel.

“You don’t fucking care about me.” I yelled back. Storming away, grabbing only my bag and purse, leaving my book and towel. All but Quil yelled after me.

Opening the van, Mike was sat in the back struggling to get the sand of his feet. “Pass me my clothes.” I said, I couldn’t hear myself due to the anger raising and blurring everything, but I could tell I was being rude, Mike’s smile dropped into a worried expression as he gave me my clothes. I dressed in silence as he asked me if someone did something, like the protective older brother he always acted like. I shook my head, unable to fathom words that weren’t a string of swears. Did Quil really think that lowly of me? Did he think he could just give me an ultimatum like that, and I’d accept it? Fuck this and fuck him.

I told Mike I was going home and as he asked if I wanted a lift, I slammed the door of the van shut too hard and made my way to the back streets of first beach. I knew if I got to the centre of LaPush that I could find the bus stops I used to use when I’d hang out with Paul. Lead hit me over the head when I thought about him. I suddenly had an urge to sit by his side unlike the recent weeks where id sworn him off and cried and cried.

A truck pulled up beside me, old and worn I recognised it as Sam Uley’s. I looked over to see him sat in the driver’s seat looking at me.

“I’ll give you a ride.” He said, in a way I felt oddly comforted by as I got in. Normally, I would’ve told him to fuck off, but I felt way too emotional to walk the twenty minute walk to the centre of town. We sat in silence for ten minuets after I’d told him my address. I wanted to ask him about Paul, even about Emily and Leah but it didn’t feel right. This would be the fifth time I’d been near him let alone speak to him, so it just felt wrong. But he must’ve been thinking the same thing.

“It’s not Paul’s fault.”

“What?” I asked, looking at him. He was staring intensely into the road, it was weird, it felt like Sam was effortlessly the comforting older brother figure Mike had tried to be. Yet he seemed guilty like he’d made a mistake, not know but before.  

“I told him to stay away from you, it was my fault. He had no choice.” I decided to listen, to make sense of what he was saying. “There’s somethings you need to know, do you remember Emily?” I nodded, unable to speak in fear he’d stop speaking. “I’ll write her address down for you, visit any time and she’ll help you.” How cryptic could one person be.

“Why did Paul listen to you?” I questioned, staring at him. His dark brown hair was swooped back so he could see the road.

“He had no choice, you’ll understand.”

“I don’t understand anything.” He laughed.

“You will.” He pulled over and stopped driving, we’d reached my house. He pulled a notebook from the glove compartment. “Here’s her address and my number if you need a ride.”

“I can get Bella to drive me.”

“No, Bella can’t know about this, it doesn’t involve her. I’m sorry but you must trust me.”

“I tell Bella everything.” I said, taking the sheet of paper from him.

“But does she tell you everything?” he asked, his tone wasn’t accusatory like Quil’s had been, no, Sam asked me like he was genuinely worried about me. He was right, I knew Bella wasn’t telling me something. I couldn’t ask, hoping she’d finally tell me.

“I guess this means don’t tell Jake or… Quil.” He nodded, I got out of the truck, thanking him for the ride.

“You hike a lot, right?” It was my turn to nod. “Take a break for a while, with all those attacks it really isn’t safe.” I agreed, sadly, and went inside, after thanking him again for the ride. “Ever need a lift, just let me know, I’ll sort one out for you.”

I was glad it was summer break. All my free time had been spent on art: painting, sketching, and avoiding literally everything else. I’d been missing all of Bella’s calls and thankfully when she came over to my house I was working. Sam had been giving me lifts to work since I normally did a small hike there. I worked on the other side of Forks at a plant shop and nowhere near Bella. Whatever she was hiding from me had been eating away at me for a while. Summer break had also given me an escape from running into Jess, I loved her, but I had literally no answers for her. And the theories I had were so bat-shit crazy I had feeling no one would believe them.

Quil had called seventeen times. I couldn’t call him back, still angry at the way he spoke to me. Maybe he was right about Paul, but a small voice in the back of my head I’d nicknamed ‘stupid consciousness’ told me I should give Paul a fair chance and listen to Sam. Maybe it was some crazy mastermind ploy to pull down my defences, but id started to befriend Sam, and Emily as she’d joined him a few times to take me to work. I couldn’t figure out why they’d decided to help me out suddenly, but I decided to just go with it, I felt safer, loved and they never brought up Paul.

8:30am on a Tuesday morning I sat in the garden waiting for Sam. My headphones blasting Noah Kahan’s new album. It was chiller then it would be for this time of year, so a loose fleece hung around my body. We had another month of beautiful sun until the constant hood of clouds and rain returned to Forks. I had started worrying this morning that Sam driving me to and from work was an inconvenience, I hadn’t been insecure about this before, but it was daunting on me now. What if I was just pushing him out of his way and annoying him? Annoying Emily? I felt suddenly sick. But the truck in front of me pulled me out of the haze. Sam’s brotherly grin made me smile, my older brother was away at college, and I missed him. He opened my door form his side and I got in, the fear of inconvenience looming over me. Taking off my headphones I heard the soft folk music playing form the old truck. It was a twenty-minute drive to my work; we made nice conversation till Sam said something that struck me.

“Come to Ems tonight, I’ll finally explain it to you.” Weeks had passed since Sam initially asked me, it was clear I didn’t want to ask, so he’d decided to tell me. I nodded, silently looking out the window. Five minutes till we got there.

“Will he be there?”

“Yes.” He was short, sweet, and blunt. I knew I couldn’t hide from this, so I decided to ask what had been looming over me all morning.

“Why do you drive me? You work on the res; this is completely out of your way.” I still held my gaze out of the window. But I heard him grin as he told me.

“Well, I like your company, I always wanted a baby sister,” I scoffed at ‘baby’ which he caught and laughed, “plus it really is not safe if you walk to work, you walk through the bush, it isn’t safe.” His tone was serious at the end. I knew he was telling the truth. When we arrived, he looked over at me, smiling he passed me a brown bag. Holding back a laugh he told me “Em’s worried you aren’t eating enough”.

“She does know I’m an adult right?” I laughed, taking the bag.

“Well do you have any lunch today?” the silence from me made him laugh as I clearly did not, infact, have lunch. I threw a piece of card from the car door at him as I mumbled in protest.

“Pick me up at four?” I asked, putting the brown bag in my own. He nodded, as he drove away, I realised how long today was going to be.

I was right. So annoyingly, right. The day dragged, it felt that five hours had passed when in fact it was only two and I couldn’t even go for my lunch yet. If one more old lady asked me to point her in the direction of the roses, I was going to lose my mind. Not only was it weird that roses were extremely popular among old ladies but that they couldn’t see that the roses were at the front of the store, they were the first things you saw as you walked in.

At 1:25pm I heard a familiar gruff voice echo in the small shop. Charlie Swan. I was praying he was talking to a friend, or that there had been a horrible crime and the shop was under investigation. But as I heard a small, feminine voice I knew I wouldn’t have such luck. Of course, when I was working Chief Swan would decide to finally re-do his front garden. My lunch break was in five minutes if I could just hide here then my 60-year-old co-worker Henry would serve them. Henry was a true one, he’d help me in my hour of need. I hid behind the seeds, staring at Iris in its many forms as I heard Bella ask Henry if I was working too, I wasn’t sure if Henry and I had some super cool intuition or if he had genuinely forgotten I was working as he told her I wasn’t today. As I snuck away for my lunch break, I internally praised Henry for being the best co-worker that has ever lived.

Checking my phone, I noticed a missed call from Sam and a text.

“Can’t pick you up, Em is going to, she’ll be using her truck- its blue same make as Bella’s. Will be there when you arrive. Sorry.”

As weird as that was, I was just thankful I had a ride, I didn’t trust Henry behind the wheel.

The afternoon had passed quicker than the morning, the lunch Emily had made me was embarrassingly good and oddly comforting. As I finished my shift I gave Henry a fist bump, he laughed the way old people do, as a reflex showing that they’ve been laughing all their life. Emily’s blue truck pulled up; it had a better paint job then Sam’s but I had a feeling Sam worked on her truck more than his own.

“How was your day?” Em gleamed as I got into the car.

“Dull but the lunch was amazing, thank you.” I laughed as she grinned like a fool.

“I knew you’d like it! Paul told me you were vegetarian, and I’ve been dying to pull out those veggie cookbooks! The boys always avoid vegetables, it’s ridiculous!” she laughed as I wound the window down, warm air sifting through. My fleece cocooned in my bag form this morning, abandoned in the heat. I smiled, feeling warm at the casual mentioning of Paul. I’d assumed Sam’s business was something to do with work and that it wasn’t my business but at Em’s odd avoidance of it, something felt different.

I’d told her about Henry and Bella, talking more about Henry then Bella, Em laughed so hard she coughed. Pulling up to her house, I was shocked. It was beautiful. When we got out, I stared at the cabin, two stories and covered in flowers and plants. Wooden furniture, big windows, and open doors. It was beautiful. Em pulled me in, it was even more perfect inside. Bright colours and paintings everywhere. Sitting at a round, wooden table Em beckoned me to join her.

“Your home is… wow just amazing,” I was still looking at everything, the open kitchen and dining room was so homely and comforting. She smiled and grabbed my hand.

Emily was one of the most beautiful people I had ever seen. The scar on her face to her arm didn’t change that. She was even more beautiful; she wore it proudly. When she smiled part of the scar creased at her eye. Her long black hair hung over her shoulders, bangs perfectly trimmed. My hair was almost as long as hers, but she had a few inches on me.

“How are you feeling?” her caring tone standing through.

“Nervous, I have no idea what is about to happen.”

She nodded, squeezing my hand. “I’ll be here the whole time, if you don’t want to be here at any moment just say and we’ll go, no questions asked.” She must’ve noticed the apprehension in my face. “Nothings going to hurt you, Sam and Paul have made sure of that.” I trusted her, more than I trusted the people I grew up with. I knew for certain there was something going on, that involved Paul and Sam, probably Jared and Embry too. Whatever it was I hoped it didn’t involve Quil and Jake too.

Voices came through the door behind us that led out to Emily’s extensive garden. Sam and Paul came in. Both shirtless and only wearing shorts. Which was weird but I guess they felt the heat more than Emily and I, Emily was wearing a stunning white sundress and I white pants and black shirt, my apron from work stuffed in my bag along side the fleece.

Paul looked at me, he looked horrible, dark bags under his eyes, and it looked as if he had to hold himself back from me. Not in a threatening way, not the relief in his eyes told me this was good, that I was safe. Sam rubbed my shoulder as he passed me to get to Emily. As they hugged and kissed, I saw Paul still watching me, turning back to him I saw the weight in his eyes.

“Are you joining us?” I asked him, an olive branch being thrown in his direction.

He took a moment to process what I asked then silently nodded and sat a chair away from me, which did hurt. But I ignored it and looked to Sam and Emily who had both sat back down. Emily’s hand was once again in mine, Paul looked with an odd… jealousy? Till his eyes trailed up my arm to my neck, where the necklace laid. I’d worn it every day since the beach that I didn’t even think about it anymore.

“So,” Sam started, “there are some things we have to tell you, but I think it’ll be easier if we show you then explain.” Emily’s head snapped to him as Pauls hung in shame. He smiled at her reassuringly and guided us all to the garden where Jared and Embry were talking. They both greeted me with a relaxed voice I was deeply confused as to what was going to happen.

Sam and Paul stood slightly in front of me, Emily’s grip tightened as she held onto my arm. Without warning Jared had… disappeared? And there was a wolf in his place. I looked in frozen shock to Embry who was grinning ear to ear and then his body contorted itself into another oversized wolf. Both started chasing each other and I couldn’t find it in myself to be scared. Instead, I found it hilarious, two boys had just turned into great big wolves, and I was worried about my friend not liking me anymore! All my problems felt so small as I watched them both. Emily pinched me, whipping my head to her in pain I asked her what’s wrong.

“What is wrong? What is wrong! They just shifted into wolves and you’re acting like it’s the most normal thing in the world!” She yelled, trying to grasp anything from me.

“Let’s go inside.” Sam said, leaving Embry and Jared to playfight in the garden. Emily dragged me in, I couldn’t stop watching them. Enamoured by how small it made my problems feel. Everything had been feeling so all-consuming as I experienced every little emotion, it was awesome to feel so insignificant.

“How familiar are you with the tribe’s history?” Sam asked, trying to read me as we sat back in Emily’s kitchen. I finally turned away from the wolves in the garden to face him.

It all hit me, everything Paul had told me growing up and Quil had been telling me before the beach. About the vampires, about the three bloodlines that became protectors. Quil was in that bloodline. So was Jake. Fuck.

“I know a fair bit.” I said. The next ten minutes were spent by Sam monologuing everything they knew so far but I could tell he was leaving something out. Something I knew that I knew. Paul or Quil must have mentioned it. After he had finished, I sat processing, knowing there was something else. The leaches. Was it just the one Sam had mentioned. Oh god. I dropped the glass of water I was holding, Paul caught it.

“The Cullen’s.” I breathed, looking at Sam and Paul in horror.

“You caught that quicker than I thought you would,” Sam laughed, “the treaty doesn’t allow us to tell people what they are.”

“I sat next to them in classes… Bella dated one!” silence. “She knew?” I was bewildered. She knew that Edward Cullen was an ancient old man murderer and dated him? What is wrong with her. I can’t judge her completely, as gross and weirdly necrophiliac as that is, I didn’t know her story. I’m glad Sam warned me that she wasn’t telling me everything.

“Does she know about you guys?” Sam shook his head.

“Only the people in this room, Jared and Embry and the tribe’s elders know. Its safer that way.” I nodded. Embry was 17. He must’ve been so scared.

Suddenly it hit me how cruel I’ve been to Paul; Sam had explained the gag order he’d put on Paul. Thinking about him, I knew there was something else, but I couldn’t help but just feel horrible for how I acted. The way I spoke about him to Quil, not meaning a single word but loving how good it made me feel. Without looking at him I let go of Emily’s hand and held his. He squeezed in and I could practically feel the smile radiating of him. I knew I shouldn’t feel too bad for how I acted; I didn’t know. But I wish I did. Sam explained lightly how his transformation was, how painful and terrified he was. I didn’t want to imagine a similar story leaving Paul’s mouth.

“I’m thankful you told me but why exactly are you telling me?” I asked, Paul stiffened, my thumb absent and idly ran circles around the back of hand as I stared at Sam. He shifted uneasily under my gaze. Which felt wrong, Sam was never uncomfortable. What was he avoiding? What am I forgetting?

A ring ran through the silent kitchen, and I dropped Paul’s hand to look at my phone. Jakes name read across the screen, which was weird. Jake never called me. He texted me when he was picking me up to come hang out and that was it. It’d been radio silence on both ends since I had that argument with Quil.

“Erm, I’m gonna get this.” I went outside to Emily’s front porch rather than the open garden.

“Jake?” I asked to the empty phone line.

“Hello?” He panted; his breaths disjointed.

“Jake what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, something-” he was cut of by a pained groan. “Somethings wrong.” He sounded like a child, one who couldn’t understand the pain of a broken arm or where a relative had gone and why they wouldn’t come back.

“Jake? Is Quil there?”

“No, I just got back from the movies with Bella.” He screamed again. Then began pleading with me. I didn’t know what to do. Suddenly two wolves ran past me into the Woodline, I turned back to see Sam telling Paul and Emily something as he shifted into the clearly biggest wolf.

“Listen to me okay. Deep breaths Jake, help is coming. You just gotta keep calm. Please, okay?” I asked, figuring out what was going on. Jake was shifting. I was panicking and felt like crying at his screams of pain.

“How are you feeling?” a pained yell was all I got in reply, Emily came to the porch behind me and put a hand to my back, ‘keep going’ she mouthed.

“Focus on- Bella! Think of her okay. Bella she’s going to be an anchor for you. Think about her okay. What shirt was she wearing today?” I asked keeping my voice as calm and steady as I could.

“She was wearing-” another scream through gritted teeth.

“Focus.”

“a green jacket, and a white blouse.” I heard crashing through the call, Sam’s voice, more screaming. I hung up the phone. This was too much. Too soon. Emily’s hand ran up and down my back, I was breathing heavily. I only found out about this an hour ago, how was this happening to Jake? Bella had once called him “earthbound sun” and now all I was hearing was his screams of pain playing on repeat.

“Everything will be okay.” She whispered, taking me upstairs into a bedroom. The walls were wooden, and the large bed was plush, and it smelt of lavender when I sat on it. Emily leant in front of me, both my hands in hers as we breathed together, she must’ve gone threw this a few times now. I couldn’t even pinpoint why I was so worried. The idea of Jake or any of them making a mistake and Paul getting hurt was eating me up. As my eyes fell into Emily’s and my breathing matched hers, I remembered the last bit of the story Paul told me years ago.

We were 15, sat cross legged on his lawn. I was making daisy chains as he told the legends to me. He blushed as he mentioned imprinting. The two souls who were destined to meet brought together by fate. How the shifter devotes themselves to their imprint even at the cost of themselves. At the time we both couldn’t comprehend the power of it, we thought it was ludicrous. And it was, a complete lack of agency. But in a selfish way, it was fantastical. My breathing was normal, and Emily sat next to me.

“Did Paul… did he imprint on me?” I asked quietly, scared if I said it any louder id be ridiculed. Emily didn’t say anything, she just squeezed my hands gently.

“Why don’t you stay here tonight? I have some spare pyjamas; I can wash your uniform for tomorrow.” She asked, eyes searching my own. Nodding I waited as she left the room. She told me to start getting changed as she left, stripping down to my underwear I became oddly aware of how insane this was, but I trusted Emily. And I knew now, I was safe. She came in holding a brown tank top and white shorts, they were so soft as I put them on. I was still dazed as the panic left my system; every movement was a cloud in my mind.

“Would you like to join me?” she asked, as I lifted my head up in confusion she continued “I’m going to watch a film, we can watch it together, if you’d like.”

“I’d like that.” I replied, Emily put my clothes in the wash with some of her own and we got comfy on the sofa, I’d learnt the room with the lavender smelling bed was a guest room, and I was welcome to stay over whenever. Emily’s room was just down the hall. Her Gran had left her this house and she spent two years renovating it. She always made sure anyone was welcome here. I texted my parents to let them know I wouldn’t be home tonight, they told me to stay safe and call them if something is wrong. I was an adult, and I knew they liked knowing I was okay.

“Paul stays over most nights,” she said, braiding my hair, “but he sleeps on the couch. I can’t get him to take a room.” I was laying half on her chest half on her the sofa. I felt like a child. It was the most comforting experience of my life. We watched 2005 Pride and Prejudice. Laughing and swooning the whole time. We cried at the love in the film, the hand moments making us kick our feet, giggling. It was relaxing, to be with a friend. One that wasn’t hiding anything. I guess I would be the friend that was hiding something now to all my friends, to Jess, Bella, and Angela. But I couldn’t dwell on that. I told Emily about how I was feeling with Bella, and she told me about Leah, my stomach dropped when she told me Sam gave her that scar.

“I couldn’t be angry at him, what happened to him, to all the boys, it takes away their agency in emotional moments. I forgive him.” She told me, watching the film. Like this was second nature. Merely an afterthought. I knew I was safe here but was that just hysterics? Was I in danger and too naive to notice? No. Sam and Paul care for me. But Sam loves Emily? No. I reassure myself as I fall into a drowsy slumber as Emily ran her fingers through my hair. Sam can control it, so can Paul and Jared and Embry and Jake will be able to.

Warm arms lifted me, I felt the soft plush of the bed beneath me. I wanted to grab onto to the body holding me, my eyes wouldn’t open but I tried. A light chuckle sifted through the air as I finally let go.

A pink sunrise fell over me. I was drenched in the colours. Walking through the house I saw Paul, asleep on the sofa. The pink and purple began to fall onto him, he shifted awake as I made my way to the kitchen.

“Did I wake you?” I froze, looking at him through sleep festered eyes. He shook his head, smiling. We made coffee and cereal in silence, I the coffee and Paul the cereal. As we ate, I asked about Jake.

“He’s better now, the first shift is always the worst. What you did on the phone really helped.”

“All I did was keep him talking till you guys got there,” I said, finishing my cereal.

“He mentioned you called Bella an anchor, that helps more than you know.” He was looking at me intently. Suddenly I remembered my conversation with Emily last night.

“Paul…” Emily and Sam walked in, laughing with each other. I didn’t want to ask Paul with others around. He seemed brighter though, maybe he’d finally had a full night of sleep. Sleep, id fallen asleep with Emily on the couch and woken up in bed. Looking back at Paul, he was already watching me, waiting. “Did you take me to bed last night? You could’ve just woken me.” I laughed, trying to play off my feelings.

Sam laughed, sitting down with a coffee, “You were both sound asleep when we got back, no use waking you.” Emily looked at me, asking if id said anything, lightly shaking my head I pulled myself away from the conversation as they updated Emily on Jacob. From the window I saw the orange sun dance across the green summer leaves, sway through the crisp morning grass. The sun had risen by now, but the early morning was still prevalent in its colourful glory.

Sam called my name, pulling me out of my thoughts. “When do you start work?”

“9am,” I lied. Well, it wasn’t an actual lie, but I had decided I wasn’t going to go to work today, Henry had been telling me I need to take advantage of the paid sick days we get, so today I will. I need to process what the hell just happened. Alone. As much as I want to be here, I don’t know how much more I can handle. Sam had told us he hadn’t expected Jake to shift so soon and Quil’s grandfather has noticed he has a fever. It’s happening too fast and is still don’t really know why I am involved. Expect I do, which makes it so much worse. I would get dropped of at work, and then catch a bus to First Beach, which yes was counter intuitive, but it felt wrong to tell the people who immediately accepted me I didn’t want to be around them right now. I’d tell them id get a ride home from Henry and just walk back home. No, I shouldn’t walk. I promised Sam I wouldn’t walk. I’ll get the bus home or ask Bella as awkward as it might be.

Paul eyed me, brow furrowing. Sam and Emily didn’t notice but I couldn’t help feeling like Paul could read my mind. It feels weird being known so well. I sat with them for an hour or so before going to get a shower and then get dressed, Emily had layed my clothes on my bed while I was in the shower, and I suddenly felt insanely sick at the thought of lying to her.

Wandering back into the kitchen I saw Paul wearing worker pants that were just wow. I looked away before he caught my gaze. My heart beating in my throat.

“Where are you working?” I asked, he was looking for a job before all of this.

“Sam’s construction, he let Jared and I join after we shifted, he runs the business you know?” he said looking at my clothes. Wide legged white pants and black shirt, I was holding my apron, the ugly thing.

“Actually, Sam’s gone in early, so can I drive you to work?”

I nod, grabbing my bag and kissing Emily’s cheek goodbye as she started working on a wooden chair. Emily sold wooden furniture, I made sure to make note of that since my parents were looking at getting a new kitchen done. As we left, I noticed Sam had taken Emily’s truck and left his own for Paul. Fuckers had planned this.

“you’re a horrible liar, you know.” Paul said as we drove away from Emily’s. Is he psychic? “Sam told me you normally finish early on Wednesday’s, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too. I finish at 12, i'll pick you up and explain everything.” I decided to play dumb.

“I thought you explained everything?” his laugh echoed in the car.

“We both know you’re too smart to think that.” The conversation ended, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Not the same feeling as when Sam drove me, this was new.

“You can meet Henry when you pick me up.” I added, laughing at the thought.

“Who?” Paul said, the familiar jealousy peaking in his voice.

“Oh, he’s a real catch, total ladies’ man. I have a conspiracy that we’re psychically linked.” I said nonchalantly, absolutely doing it on purpose.

“That’s cool.” He said, sharply. These three hours were gonna go smoothly.

And they did. I was so excited for Paul to come pick me up I was practically jumping the whole three-hour shift. Henry had been side eyeing me all day, possibly worried I was on drugs or something.

“So, Paul’s going to pick me up and I’d like for you to meet him.” I told Henry as we stocked the shelves, or as I stocked them, and he micromanaged me.

“Eh okay.” He grumbled, I smiled, excited.

As 12 came I was practically glued to the window. Seeing Sam’s truck pull up my chest had a weight lifted off that I didn’t know was there. Pauls stocky figure walked up to the front door, and I beckoned him over to where I stood.

“Where’s this Henry then?” he asked, trying to seem calm.

“This way!” he must’ve been taken back by my excitement as he gasped slightly as I dragged him to the back of the store. “Henry! This is Paul.”

I watched as Pauls deflated face turned quickly into annoyance and relief as he saw Henry, who looked him up and down, grumbled and asked him if he could pick up some boxes for him. Paul agreed, but it didn’t feel like he had much choice in the matter. After ten minutes of Paul moving boxes around for Henry, I finally got him away, saying goodbye we left the store.

“You minx.” He laughed, opening my door for me.

Laughing I asked him what he was talking about.

“All morning. All morning! I spent worrying some hot bachelor called Henry had stolen your heart! Jared was getting annoyed at how pissy I was acting!” he whined, driving to LaPush.

We made it to first beach without Paul ripping my head off from annoyance. I tried not to dwell too hard on his blatant admission to his jealousy. But it made my head spin.

But he went silent as we walked to the rocks on the southside of the beach. Whatever he was about to tell me was very serious, and I was ready to hear. As we sat down, he looked at the necklace I was wearing, the citrine he bought me.

“You know when I bought you that necklace, I had no idea how beautiful it was.” He said, slowly looking up into my eyes.

“What do you mean? The lady handed it to you, I saw you look down at it.” I asked, searching his eyes for whatever he was trying to tell me.

“What do you remember about imprinting?” he asked, his hand lightly holding onto mine, the other splayed against the rocks. He took me off guard which must be visible on my face as he laughed at my expression.

“I remember you telling me about the imprint who saved the tribe from the vampires by sacrificing herself.” It was a harrowing tale, one that even as children Paul and I treaded on lightly.

“Uh huh, anything else?” he probed.

“I know how the elders described the imprint to feel.” At his silence I continued “that the universe centres around them,” I was whispering to him now, “that it is a love of the souls, bonded and combined.” He nodded.

“Anything else?”

“Paul why are you asking me this?” dread filled me, what if he had imprinted on someone else, I would respect it and understand but telling me like this had to be some form of torture. Deep down I knew that wasn’t the case.

“I imprinted on you.” My head whirled. Everything else became singular as I looked at Paul Lahote who became a multitude. “I was scared I’d imprint on someone else, and it’d be me loosing my agency in life you know,” I did, it was what I was worried about. “But I imprinted on you, at the beach. And I’ve always been in love with you. When we were kids and you would always climb the highest tree, never scared if you fell. When we’d braid each other’s hair. It’s always been you, even the fates agree.” The wind was knocked out of his lungs as I practically jumped onto him. My arms around his neck, his around my waist.

I pulled away. Remembering how this conversation started. “What did you mean, when you said you didn’t know how beautiful the necklace was?”

“That’s the other thing, turns out when we shift for the first time, we go colourblind.”

“What?”

“Wolves, they are naturally colourblind, Sam thinks that’s why we lose it, Jared and I used to think it was just another way the fates could steal life from us.” I listened intently. “That was until Sam imprinted on Emily. He said it was the most overwhelming experience of his life, not only because of the horrible family drama but because it was the first time in months, he had seen colour. We realised then that the only way we could see truly again was when we imprinted. You have to understand how terrifying it was after we’d first shifted, I thought I was dying” He took a deep, steadying breath. “After I first shifted you sent me a picture, do you remember?”

“Not really.” I admitted.

“It was of that cloud with the colours on it.” I nodded, remembering. It was a pileus cloud I’d seen in my back garden; he pulled out his phone. Scrolling sheepishly past the texts from him asking to talk to me and then texts from me, begging for an answer. He landed on a picture I sent, on the pileus cloud, they have colours sitting on them, rainbows laying on the soft clouds of the sky. Had I been taking my sight for granted? Spending my whole life gazing while he had it stolen from him?

“I cried for hours when you sent me this, I couldn’t see it, Sam had told me to cut off all contact with you and all I needed was you to- I don’t know- explain the colours to me since I couldn’t see them.” He breathed heavily; I could see the anger weighing on his shoulders once more. I didn’t interrupt him, just placed a hand on his thigh as an attempt to soothe. He smiled gently at this, still looking at the cloud. “It was two days after I’d shifted for the first time, and I was always so overwhelmed. I kept snapping and shifting in a fit of rage.”

As he waited for a response from me, I finally formed a semi-coherent sentence.

“I would’ve done the same. I can’t imagine how it- losing that- I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s those bloodsuckers.” He laughed. Smiling at me. We spoke for what felt like hours, it probably was but I didn’t mind. “I’m sorry to unload all of this onto you. I didn’t want to drag you into it, but you have to realise you call the shots, all you.”

“Is this why Sam didn’t pick me up yesterday?” I asked, remembering the hasty text Sam had sent me yesterday afternoon.

“Yeah,” he blushed, “I got angry at him, and he spent the whole day trying to convince me.”

“Couldn’t he just demand it?” the authority Sam had over the boys couldn’t be questioned, but it was a natural thing to him I felt it too.

“Yeah, but I know that he wanted me to make the choice, you’re my imprint after all.” He smiled, putting a hair behind my ear.

The sun had begun to set when Paul and I stopped talking, we’d spoke for hours. Catching up on each other’s lives, I told him about my fight with Quil and how I was feeling about Bella, and he listened. He told me about his dad, who’d decided to go work down south for a few months, leaving Paul the house to himself. That even though he gets the entire one-story building to himself he prefers to stay at Emily’s, he’d always hated being alone. He watched the sun set and I watched him. How it reflected on his clear skin, how his short hair was growing back. He’d explained that they’d all cut their hair after their first shift as to now only be practical but because they were grieving, grieving themselves. Paul was growing his hair again, determined to have a piece of himself back again, the hair length only mattered on the first few shifts. No one was sure why.

Going back to Sam’s truck I hold onto Paul’s hand, pulling him to a stop halfway across the beach. Getting closer to him I felt the warmth radiate from him, he couldn’t help but become the sun. The confused look on his face amused me, as I pulled him in and kissed him. His hand let go of mine as he wove his arms around my waist. My hands going to his back and his hair. He didn’t drive back to Emily’s. We spent the night in his house, the blue walls of his bedroom were known better than my own. Making out on his bed I sat on his lap, pulling his shirt of and then my own he grinned up at me.

“You’re so beautiful.” I didn’t say anything as I unhooked my bra, his jaw dropped slightly, and I blushed. He pulled his own jeans off and then switched our positions, so I was on my back as he took my white trousers of, discarding them somewhere in the room. I felt his lips on mine again which stopped me from staring at his well-defined chest, my hands felt him completely. I reached into his boxers as he whined slightly into my mouth at my slow and teasing actions.

“Don’t play with me.” He whispered into my ears as he ripped his boxers off, slowly taking my underwear off. As I felt him align himself, I looked into his eyes, seeing nothing but love.

Three weeks had passed since I found out about Paul’s imprint. Summer had begun to spread itself thinly and form into fall. I’d spoken to Quil, but he could tell I was hiding something. Especially since Jake had abandoned him without word and so did I. I knew he wanted to be apart of whatever was going on, but we all hoped he would never have to know, never feel the pain they all went through.

I spent most nights at Emily’s and some at Pauls but few and few at home. I wasn’t sure why my parents trusted my choices so much, but I figured they trusted Paul and I’d been a well-behaved teen. They did, however, begin to question why Bella Swan was constantly coming over asking for me. I couldn’t tell her. I still wasn’t over her not telling me anything. But Jake had ghosted her, just after I did. After the Cullen did. She had other friends, but it felt like a really shitty thing to do, I knew if I saw her, I’d just tell her everything. Even if she wouldn’t do the same for me.

I was at Emily’s when Embry, Jared, and Bella Swan herself came into the kitchen. She looked at me in shock and I gestured to the seat beside me, she shook her head. As Emily and I were informed on how Bella found herself in this predicament I laughed at the thought of Jake and Paul fighting, it didn’t surprise me. But I was shocked at Bella slapping him, she defended herself explaining she was angry and didn’t know we’d made up at this point. She didn’t know much. Jared told her that the pack was faster and better than the leaches, Bella seemed to feel more comfortable.

Sam, Jake, and Paul came into the house, Bella seemed to stow herself away in the corner. Her face went bright red after Paul apologised to her and kissed me, Sam complimented how well she took seeing two men turn into wolves in front of her and she laughed it off.

“How are you feeling?” Paul asked as I climbed into bed beside him.

“Tired, Bella gave me a hard time about me ignoring her, she’s right I guess.” Facing him in bed I tried to savour how the moon bounced off him. How he seemed to glow in the blue moonlight. He disagreed, but I knew Paul was biased he’d never really trusted Bella.

“What about Quil have you made up your mind on what you’re going to do?” He asked, kissing my nose as he pulled me to his chest.

“I’m going to go to his house tomorrow. I can’t tell him anything, but I need him to know I’m still his friend and I still love him. He’s one of my closest friends, his love is tough but its true you know?”

“I know.”

“How are you feeling?”

“everything’s getting calmer, but the red leech is still circling, these hikers need to learn to stay on the trail for their own sake.” He laughed; it wasn’t a happy laugh but an exhausted one. “Plus, Quil really might shift soon, I’m not sure how I feel about you going to see him in person.”

“I’ll be okay.”

“Doesn’t make me worry any less.” He was holding me so close, our legs intertwined.

“He knows me better than anyone, which is scary but I won’t talk to him about the fight it doesn’t matter to me anymore. I can’t not have him in my life, it feels so good to be known so well. And not in the way you know me,” I clarified, “he knows me in a way that is tried and true, its not as intimate as how you know me, Quil challenges me, I challenge him. I can’t stand ignoring him.”

Paul nodded, he understood. He just hoped he didn’t shift in front of me.

“I love you.” He whispered into my hair.

“I love you more.” I whispered back, falling into a perfect sleep.

“Are you happy being with Paul?” Quil asked, grey hoodie swamping his tall figure.

“Yes.” I replied, arms crossed over my chest.

“I’m not surprised.” He sighed. Then, crossing the front room he looked out of his front window. “You really hurt me, you know.”

“I know.”

“And you can’t even tell me why!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You, Embry and Jake can’t tell me a single thing!” he yelled, still not looking at me. I had prepared for this, for him to hate me. I just didn’t expect it to feel so horrible.

“I’m sorry, Quil, I really am.” He looked at me, eyes desperate.

“I’ve missed you.” He whispered. Tears in my eyes I ran to him, colliding with his chest we both cried on each other. “Remember we’re not keeping score, no arguments-”

“No winners.” I finished; we didn’t keep score.

As he pulled away, we both wiped at the tears streaming down our faces.

“Lahote? Really?” he laughed; I punched him in the arm. “Ow! Okay, okay.”

For now, everything was okay. I could handle okay.

pauls pinterest board

an:// i hoped you all loved reading this as much as i loved writing it! you can see why its taken me so long to actually write this :') Tumblr always gets rid of my paragraph spacing it kills me:( the word doc for this fic is 19 pages long! this is the longest fic i've written, im very proud of it!! requests are open, take care of yourself. i love you- em x

@ribbons-in-your-hair @notperfect-justme @thebestrouge [you guys asked me to tag you if i wrote anything about this headcannon! i hope you enjoy it!]

[delta-orionis]

For the past couple of days, I've been tossing around the idea of an iterator OC who is focused around astronomy. I love astronomy, and there's a conspicuous lack of any information about it in Rain World, which I find pretty intriguing. (I made a post about some of my random theories here.) So, I started to think about what an iterator specifically designed to study astronomy might be like. I named them Three Stars Above Clouds (in reference to Orion's belt, because I can't help but put references to Orion in everything I do, I guess). I actually ended up having a lot of thoughts about them, which I'll detail below. (Warning, there's A Lot.)

Three Stars Above Clouds (TSAC) was designed and built by a splinter group of Ancients who believed the Solution to the Great Problem wouldn't be found deep underground, but in the sky. TSAC was created in order to help them collect data about the sky, house their institutions, and conduct research. They were built into a mountain range, where clouds are less likely to form and the air is thinner. (Real world observatories are often built on top of mountains or in arid places like deserts in an attempt to avoid interference from clouds and rain. You can't see the stars if they're hidden behind clouds, after all.)

Three Stars Above Clouds' city is home to several large observatories which keep a constant watch on the sky. I got the idea for TSAC in part from the currently-under-construction Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (also called the Vera C. Rubin Observatory). The LSST is designed to take ultra-high-definition pictures of the entire night sky every couple of nights, in order to monitor for changes. This data will be a treasure trove for astronomers, and can be used for anything from discovering new asteroids and rogue planets, to monitoring distant galaxies for supernovae. One problem that arises from this, however, is the sheer amount of data that this telescope will produce- it's way too much for any human to hope to be able to sift through. I imagine that the Ancients who built TSAC would run into a similar problem; TSAC's observatories generate colossal amounts of data, so a large part of TSAC's duties as an iterator are to sift through and analyze this data to find anything that might be useful in finding the Solution.

Three Stars Above Clouds is relatively isolated as an iterator. They are located at a much higher altitude than their peers, in the middle of a remote mountain range. Their citizens are also somewhat isolated from Ancient society at large, due to their fringe religious beliefs. (Due to the lack of anything astronomy or space-travel related in Rain World's lore, I think the Ancients either largely don't have an interest in studying astronomy, or it's considered taboo due to their religion's focus on ascension, as well as the subterranean Void Sea.)

As for Three Stars Above Clouds themself, they have a bit of a reputation for being a loner. Other iterators sometimes see them as obsessing over something pointless, because despite the vast amounts of data TSAC has collected, so far it's turned up nothing useful in terms of the Solution. However they are sometimes contacted by iterators who might be interested in their data, either for the purpose of research or just out of curiosity. TSAC is happy to talk about their personal research to anyone who is willing to listen.

Three Stars Above Clouds worked closely with their citizens while their city was still inhabited, and misses them deeply. Despite their citizens being gone, they continue with their sky surveys, partially because the desire to do so is hard-coded into their programming, and partially because it at least gives them something to do. Deep down, TSAC is convinced that someday they will come across something extraordinary among the stars.

In order to store the immense amounts of data generated by their observatories, TSAC's city and internal structure contain a wealth of data pearls, which has inevitably led to the amassing of a large Scavenger population both in and around their structure, who regularly raid TSAC's supply of pearls. However, due to TSAC's high altitude, their external structure and surrounding mountains are also home to large colonies of Vultures, which help control the Scavenger population, at the very least. TSAC is quite fond of Vultures for this reason.

The mountains are very cold, which means Three Stars Above Clouds' rain freezes almost immediately into snow and sleet, which falls down onto the surrounding mountains. As the glaciers and snowfall on these mountains melt, the water flows down the mountains into large rivers, and is collected in several dams at ground level. These dams are home to pumping stations which pump water back up into TSAC's can. TSAC's can is fed water through a vast array of underground pipes that snake underneath and through the mountains. The upkeep of these pipes is mostly automated, however, there are some issues that only an engineer can fix. With all of TSAC's engineers gone, their pipe network is extremely prone to failure due to its complexity. They've had a dam or two break in the past, and TSAC knows that it's only a matter of time before all of their dams break and they will lose their water supply for good.

Their void fluid filtration system is also similarly complex; mine shafts are scattered throughout the mountain range and reach deep underground to access the Void Sea. Even though TSAC's ancients don't think Void Fluid is the key to ascension, they still recognize its usefulness as a potent energy source.

These networks of tunnels, pipes, mines, and maintenance stations have become home to a wide range of creatures over the cycles, many seeking refuge from the cold. Maybe there's even a colony of subterranean Slugcats running around down there.

I've also made an annotated version of the drawing of TSAC's can; you can click on the alt text for transcriptions of my notes if you can't read my handwriting. One thing I forgot to note was the green lasers, those are Laser Guide Stars. (I just think they look cool.)

And here's a closer look at TSAC's city, because I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out. (I even snuck the LSST in there on the left, hehe.)

Aaaand I think that's everything! If I got any of the lore wrong, I apologize. Rain World's lore is pretty vague at times, and I tried to do the best with what I know. I also have a pretty strong grasp on astronomy, but not so much on climatology and geology, so if I got some of those things wrong as well, go easy on me, haha. X]

I will say, creating an iterator is an interesting thought experiment. You need to think about the effect they have on the surrounding environment, while keeping in mind that they're sentient and also have an entire city of people living on them that they need to help manage. Iterators are fascinating to me, and I love reading about other people's OCs and seeing the ways they're able to make them unique.

If you read this far, thank you for devoting some of your time to listening to me ramble. You get a gold star: ⭐⭐⭐

Edit: Here's a closeup of their in-game sprite as a reward for reading this far. Yippee

[starkjoy]

knightsong update: though i aimed for chapter 2's release this weekend, life has distracted me from my writing schedule (all good things)! i still need a few more days. however, since y'all have been waiting so nicely, i'm sharing an (unedited) excerpt below.

and if you have no idea what I'm taking about, you can read chapter 1 here first!

Rainfall haunts their steps. 

Criston prays the inevitable deluge releases once they have already settled, or that selfish clouds cling to their moisture save for a fine misting—but fortune has rarely favored him, and if he were forced to bet, he would say their chances at evasion grow slim. 

The weather above would be more worrisome were it not for the distraction trapped between his arms. Since boarding Criston’s horse an hour prior, Hightower has renewed his charade of wakefulness, maintaining a careful gap between their bodies with squared pauldrons and a firmly held chin. Perhaps their confrontation had roused vigor in the man and delayed his need for sleep, Criston had first thought, but as time passed his facade faded. Now, Gwayne wilts in a familiar cycle of sleep and start, shoulders flagging and head lolling only to snap upright moments later. 

Even after Criston’s concession of penance, the man remains stubborn. Though understandable, given the fleeting looks from their surrounding men, the pretense is foolish—refusing one’s body rest in such a state will only prolong its suffering. Perhaps Criston could dismiss his frustration, allowing Gwayne his decided fate, ill-advised or not, if his seizing motions were not such a fucking annoyance. Every swing of weight unsettles his concentration. Every sudden lurch forces him to grip his reins tighter. Criston’s horse acts skittish enough below them; he does not need added restlessness in his embrace.  

Intervention decided, Criston leans forward, nearing his mouth toward the other’s ear without closing the conscious space between them. “Stop,” he mutters.

Gwayne turns his head slightly, enough so Criston sees one fair brow arch. “I am your captive, Lord Commander,” he responds, lifting a hand as if to display the lack of options before him, “what is it would you have me cease?” 

If the Gods spare him on the battlefield, Criston is certain Gwayne Hightower will see to his undoing another way. Criston shakes his head, then fixes the man with a withering look. “Sleep, will you?” 

“I would, Ser, had the gait of your horse not deterred me.” 

“Do not paint me a fool. You deter yourself.” 

Gwayne narrows his eyes. “I have tried, Ser.” 

“Then you do not try hard enough,” he retorts, matching the man’s combative gaze. 

Hightower purses his lips and returns forward. For a moment, Criston thinks Gwayne means to sever their conversation, but then the man swivels again, peering over his shoulder. “Though you claim no intention to embarrass me,” he whispers, rehashing their earlier words, “I cannot so willingly surrender to humiliation.” 

Gwayne nods his head toward their left, directing Criston’s line of sight. He obliges, surveying the area: a squadron passes by, several soldiers immediately diverting their stares upon Criston’s sudden monitor. The sight is not novel, nor a surprising one; any observant passerby would be curious of the Queen Dowager’s brother and the Lord Commander sharing a horse—not solely because of decorum, but also their quarrelsome history. Criston resents the attention himself, but the stares are inevitable, and these are hardly the first since they embarked in duo. 

“They watch us whether you rest or not,” he says, returning his gaze to Gwayne. “Only one path serves you.” 

Hightower works his jaw. Then, after a moment, his response comes soft: “Surely you do not desire the discomfort of my weight, Ser.” 

Criston had anticipated the awkwardness of sharing a saddle with a sleeping Gwayne, but he hadn’t expected the man to speak of it so plainly. Nor had he considered that Hightower’s charade might be, in part, for his own benefit. He understands the man’s reluctance to appear weak before their army—respects it, even—but his concern for burdening Criston was unexpected. The realization sends an unwelcome warmth to his cheeks, which he quickly pushes aside. 

“You discomfort me now,” he mutters.

At that, Gwayne rolls his eyes. He’s a mirror of Otto in the moment, whenever Aegon would brandish an insult far less clever than he had aimed. “If it eases your irritation, Cole, I shall rest,” the knight concedes. “But I do not wish to hear your grumbling come evening.”

“I would not dream of it, Ser,” he promises dryly. 

With a deep exhale, Gwayne shifts himself backward, closing the slight gap he had maintained between them. Now, the man’s armor presses fully against Criston’s chestplate. Gwayne’s unkempt hair brushes over Criston’s exposed neck, a gentler cousin of the sword that once lingered in its stead. 

[its-gjera]

Hello everybody. Me again. I had a dream about q!ParrotDuo lore so now I will burden all of you with my visions !!!!!!! Yippee !!!!!!!!

~ Lore dream ~

Jaiden is taken to an abandoned Federation by a rebellious worker, as she walks through the facility, the song "We'll Meet Again" begins to play

"We'll meet again

Don't know where

Don't know when

But I know we'll meet again some sunny day"

Meanwhile, Roier is in the process of getting kidnapped, he fights for his life

Jaiden continues to explore, she finds vats designed for humans, and old rooms full of children's toys and drawings. One room in particular has lots of things that pertain to her interests. Miku, birds, drawings, the color purple. She starts remembering a few bits and pieces while Roier continues to fight

"Keep smiling through

Just like you always do

'Til the blue skies chase those dark clouds far away"

She also learns of a scientist known as Dr. Dittfach, whose DNA was used to create The Blue Bird Project, she learns how he became like a father to the experiment, how he lived, his research, and how he died, and what became of him after and how his body was used to spearhead the Smile Project AKA Cucurucho

"And I will just say hello

To the folks that you know

Tell them you won't be long

They'll be happy to know

That as I saw you go

You were singing this song"

She comes across a room full of monitors that recorded what happened the day he died. The worker turns them on

Meanwhile, Roier is knocked out, having been defeated by the Rebellion and taken in prisoner

The footage shows Dr. Dittfach running into his office and tell someone off screen to hide, while the other person hides, he begins gathering important documents about his research on hybrids, but as he gets up to leave, he is shot in the head by someone off screen

"We'll meet again

Don't know where..."

Jaiden remembers, she remembers being there, she watched him get shot in front of her. She saw his murderer step over his corpse and take his research.

"Don't know when..."

She remembered hiding in a corner while the man who killed her father began to walk away

"But I know we'll meet again...

She remembered watching the man turn around and survey the room before leaving. She saw his face

"Some sunny day"

She saw Roier look at her father corpse and grin before leaving and closing the door

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Fire in the Kayapó Indigenous Land, Brazil's most scorched territory

Evidence points out that the fires started in illegal mining areas

At the beginning of September, fire threatened the school in Moxkarakô village, within the Kayapó Indigenous Land in the Pará Amazon. "The view was devastating because we couldn't see the other houses," says teacher Maria Nizan, who lives in São Félix do Xingu, Pará state, and spends seasons in the village teaching Indigenous children. She was there when the flames reached the houses. "I couldn't see the sky because of the smoke," she recalls. 

The Kayapó Indigenous Land was the most scorched Indigenous territory in 2024, according to Mapbiomas Fire Monitor data. By September, 750,000 hectares had burned, covering around 18% of the territory. The Moikaraka village, home to about 250 people, suffered the most, with 169 fires. 

In her four years working in the village, this was the most significant fire the teacher had ever seen. "The animals were fleeing, so desperate... And the fear was clear in their eyes," she says. She recalls seeing bush dogs, deer, pacas, and clouds of insects moving away from the fire. "It destroyed many trees, drove the animals away... And I'm sure the natural remedies the villagers used were lost too," she laments. 

According to Jorge Eduardo Dantas, coordinator of Greenpeace Brazil's Indigenous Peoples Front, the flames that have spread across the territory originated in mining areas. "In our first survey about 20 days ago, it was clear that the burning areas were mining sites. Everything indicated that prospectors were opening new areas," Dantas explains. The survey was conducted in September. 

Continue reading.

[melishade]

Number 34?

This ask game

YES! I've been waiting for this one! It allows me to write 17 for the Dark Timeline because that's the ending!!!!!!! We're going into spoiler territory.

It all went wrong so fast. Eren thought that they had it, that they would succeed, but they didn't.

They were going to fake meeting Shockwave's demands: a trade off. Give Zeke Jaeger to him in return for Porco Galliard. The demand was dangerous. If Shockwave had Zeke Jaeger, he would find a way to utilize permanent control over the Founding Titan's Powers. Maybe he could unlock it without him. But if Shockwave kept Porco instead, he could utilize the powers of dark energon in the Colossal Titan. Megatron had already informed them that Shockwave was tampering with dark energon right now.

They needed to find a way to keep them both. So the plan was this: let Shockwave come to the island, give him Zeke in exchange for Porco. While that trade happened, Wheeljack and Arcee would find Shockwave's lab, and destroy as much of his information as possible. His ship was already gone; it would no doubt take time to salvage all that data. He still had the groundbridge, but maybe they could destroy it from the lab. And Arcee and Wheeljack could leave before Shockwave got wise, or ambush Shockwave and grab Zeke and run.

Shockwave came to the island. He came like he owned the place. Megatron had Zeke in his servo, and despite being told about the plan, he was still terrified, panicking and squirming in his servo. Shockwave had Porco in a container, and all the Warriors were horrified at the sight of how dead Porco looked. It looked like it was going to work. Shockwave would buy, and-!

Shockwave had pulled back his servo, causing everyone to grow tense. And then the one-eyed titan spoke:

"Did you think I would not monitor Porco Galliard's brainwave and dark energon activity and not notice you peering around in his mind?"

Shockwave knew that Megatron and Porco had formed a link! Meaning-! The groundbridge opened up once again, and Wheeljack was thrown through the bridge, crashing into Optimus who was standing right behind Megatron. The Predacon had emerged from the groundbridge, roaring at them in fury, Arcee nowhere to be seen. The Predacon launched himself at Megatron, forcing the former warlord to drop Zeke in the scuffle.

The next moment after that was a blur. Energon titan poured out of the groundbridge and attacked. Eren remembered transforming and having to fight. He was able to last longer thanks to Megatron's training, and the equipment Hanji and Wheeljack were able to make allowed the Survey Corps to last longer.

But Shockwave did something devious, something so sinister and vile it made his stomach wretch. He gave Porco to his Predacon and the Predacon flew towards the Wall, towards civilians! Eren didn't know what happened next, what triggered the transformation, but they ended up seeing a large mushroom cloud of purple smoke off in the distance. Everyone was mortified. All of their effort! How many died?! Who was caught in the blast?! How strong was it?! Half of the Warriors and Scouts were forced to check on the damage, and Shockwave practically let them go! He wanted them to be separated!

But it got worse! It got so much worse. Instead of Shockwave grabbing Zeke in the chaos of the battle, he had grabbed Mikasa! Mikasa was struggling in his grasp and crying to be let go, and it forced everyone else to get distracted.

"Shockwave, let her go!" Optimus shouted at him.

"I knew it would be illogical to hold Zeke Jaeger against his will," Shockwave declared, "From your memories Optimus, you all held no trust in him. But this one is shown to be highly favored among you. Not as easily expendable due to her abilities. So I will be taking this one along with the titan shifter, and you will not follow us back."

Shockwave must have activated something because it commanded Willy's titan form to move away from Lara. Zeke cried out in horror as Willy's titan form had grabbed him and ran through the groundbridge.

"No!" Armin cried out, "Mikasa!"

Mikasa tried to cut her way out, but it was no use. She had run out of energon spears and blades could only do so much if angled right with a lot of momentum.

"Stop," Eren mumbled in the nape, "Stop!"

What would Shockwave need?! What would Shockwave want to let her go?! Eren knew everyone was going to hate him for this! It was the worst play he was ever going to do! But he couldn't let anyone else die!

Eren ripped himself out of the nape and held his hands out in surrender. He cried out in desperation. "LET HER GO AND I'LL GO WITH YOU!"

Everyone froze in horror, even Shockwave was surprised at the cry of desperation. The titans that were attacking even froze in their motions.

"Eren!" Megatron yelled at him, "Eren, what are you doing?!" He was about to go and reach him, but the Predacon circled back and pinned him to the ground.

"I hold the Founder!" Eren exclaimed, "I'm more valuable than Mikasa! You want me, right?! Let Mikasa go, and take me instead!"

Shockwave's optic seemed to dim at that. "You would trade your life, and no doubt the life of others on this world, for one person?"

Eren felt his body trembling. He was throwing himself into danger, knowing he wasn't going to come back. He could see Mikasa desperately shaking her head, trying to tell him no. To not do anything, but...he couldn't let anyone else die. The others will try to figure something out. He had faith in them.

"Let Mikasa go, leave them alone, and you'll have me," Eren bargained.

Shockwave was quiet for a moment. "You humans are illogical."

Shockwave had dropped Mikasa to the ground, causing Eren to bolt towards her.

"Eren, what did you do?!" Mikasa cried as she clung to him.

"I'm sorry! I had to! I'm sorry!" Eren cried.

"Don't you dare take him!" Hanji shouted as the Survey Corps bolted towards Shockwave. Shockwave pulled out a device and pressed the button, causing the titans to react and attack them.

"Eren!" Optimus cried out to him, but was bombarded by titans, "EREN!"

"What are you doing?! I said leave them alone!" Eren yelled at him.

"This will be the last I come to the island," Shockwave promised as he grabbed Eren, forcing him and Mikasa to let go of each other, "But I need to ensure that my new project is not taken from me so soon!"

"Eren!" Mikasa winced and held her side as she tried to reach him, but Shockwave was already walking through the groundbridge with Eren in tow. "EREN!"

"MIKASA!" Eren cried out, only seeing chaos and carnage behind her. A titan had charged towards her, ready to consume her, but the groundbridge closed before Eren could see the aftermath.

(ALRIGHT! 17 has been asked and I will get to it. Meanwhile 37 is the last one that hasn't been asked!)

[kudosmyhero]

Crisis on Infinite Earths (vol. 1) #3: Oblivion Upon Us

Read Date: August 22, 2023 Cover Date: June 1985 ● Writer: Marv Wolfman ● Penciler: George Pérez ● Inker: Dick Giordano ◦ Mike DeCarlo ● Colorist: Anthony Tollin ● Letterer: John Costanza ● Editor: Marv Wolfman ◦ Len Wein ◦ Robert Greenberger ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers (👏=didn't like it, 👏👏=it was ok, 👏👏👏=I liked it, 👏👏👏👏=I really liked it!, 👏👏👏👏👏=I loved it!)

● 👏

Synopsis: Harbinger walks into the Monitor's sanctum as he continues testing young Alexander Luthor. Luthor is aging at an accelerated rate, and is now the physical age of an adolescent boy. The Monitor discovers he is composed of both positive matter and antimatter, and believes that this composite life form may hold the key towards stopping the Crisis. Harbinger, still under the influence of a dark, mysterious entity, leaves the Monitor's satellite and reports to her new master.

On Earth-One in the 30th century, the Flash races through the streets desperately attempting to halt a series of natural disasters. He sees a wave of pure antimatter spreading outwards in the distance. He vibrates his molecules at super-speed sending himself backwards through time.

In the 20th century, the antimatter wave has reached Earth-One and it slowly begins to dissolve everything in its path. The Teen Titans team up with the Outsiders to save as many citizens of New York as possible. Batman and Superman arrive as well to lend a hand. Suddenly Batman sees the Flash appear before his eyes. The Flash screams in terror and quickly disappears.

In outer space, Brainiac's brain-ship surveys the progress of the antimatter wave. He logically deduces that in order to preserve his own life, he must help to save the Multiverse. Brainiac flies off to find his old partner, Lex Luthor.

Meanwhile, Blue Beetle, Doctor Polaris and Geo-Force arrive in Markovia in the spring of 1944. Markovia is currently under Nazi occupation and the Nazis attempt to secure the Monitor's energy tower. The American military forces known as Easy Company, the Losers and the Haunted Tank are present as well. While the heroes engage the Nazis, they must also contend with a horde of Demon-Shadows. The Demon Shadows succeed in killing several war time soldiers including Johnny Cloud, Captain Storm, Gunner and Sarge.

On Earth-AD, Superman, Dawnstar, Solovar and Kamandi stand by helplessly as they watch the sky turn the color of blood and lightning storms erupt all around them. Solovar, finally succumbs to his recent injuries and dies in Kamandi's arms.

Meanwhile, Cyborg, Green Lantern, Psimon and Firebrand materialize in the town of Coyote, Texas in the year 1879. They meet up with several Southwestern heroes including, Nighthawk, Scalphunter, Bat Lash, Johnny Thunder and Jonah Hex. The two disparate groups join forces and locate another one of the Monitor's towers.

However, the destructive wave of antimatter that the Monitor warned off strikes the Earth at all time periods simultaneously. While the other heroes fight against more Demon-Shadows, Nighthawk is consumed by the antimatter wave.

Across time in the 30th century, the Legion of Super-Heroes shares a similar tragedy. While saving innocent civilians in England, Kid Psycho falls prey to the white energy wall.

Back on the Monitor's satellite, Harbinger returns. Consumed by the influence of her new master, she releases a blast of energy at the Monitor.

(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Crisis_on_Infinite_Earths_Vol_1_3)

Fan Art: Flash Family by phil-cho

Accompanying Podcast: ● Superman in Crisis - episode 08

[remesrobotics]

Snap Woman

DHN.009 - スナップウーマン “In a minute; I almost have this shot perfect.”

Good Point - Patient Bad Point - Hyperfocus Like - Natural beauty Dislike - Film

7’ (213.36 cm)

A non-combat robot built for civil engineering projects by Dr. Harp. She is based on the alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii).

After Dr. Harp got over the heartbreak of losing Monitor Woman, she finally built another robot dedicated to filming, and photography. However, this time, instead of high speed 3D visualization for planning, Snap Woman specializes in timelapse; she will survey a specific area over a long period of time while another project is being done, and the footage is used to plan around patterns in weather, traffic, and other potential interference.

She is very slow and tough and extremely precise and patient with tedium. She does not necessarily have to sit still and do nothing while she records, due to the nature of her snapping single photos and assembling them into a sped up video. She is, however, extremely good at placing herself in the exact position each time she needs to take an image so as to create the illusion of a single, long shot.

She tries to do her work from vantage points where she can take photos of other interesting things between shots, preferring areas with nature, but if not, will settle for a good, high-up viewpoint where she can take additional timelapses of clouds, sunsets, and starscapes. She also adores taking photos of wildlife, especially macrophotography of invertebrates and other small animals.

On the downside, once she’s set on something, she will stick to it, usually completely ignoring anything outside of her immediate attention. She doesn’t get annoyed if interrupted; she just won’t be interrupted.

If she needs to defend herself, she can bite down hard enough to generate a concussive shockwave capable of deflecting physical ordinance (Gigaton Jaw).

Snap Woman has a basic pun name:

She is based on a snapping turtle

Her penchant for photography, indicated by the ‘snap’ of an old-fashioned shutter (even though she uses digital by necessity)

[adorieheartz]

Melodies with the heart, A Demons dance with Desire: Part 1 [RadioStatic] [FanFic]

Hells sky, streaked with ominous clouds, seemed to pulse with the chaotic energy of the annual Extermination. Shadows twisted and darted through the streets, demons scrambling like roaches before the approaching extermination. Screams echoed in the air, a cacophony of fear that marked this dark event, coming through the alleys and rooftops. High above, the Exterminators descended.

For most, this was a time of terror, a moment to hide and pray. For Alastor, it was a show.

He stood amid the mayhem, a figure of dark elegance against the backdrop of chaos. The Radio Demon. He surveyed the scene with unshakeable delight, his sharp grin widening as he took in the pandemonium. His red eyes glinted with amusement, and the crackling sound of his laughter filled the air as he held his staff between his fingers.

"Well, well, well!" Alastor called out,.

"Our little festival is in full swing! Such delightful chaos, don’t you think? You’d think they’d learn by now that the demons of Hell don’t like visitors!"

He spun around, arms open wide, basking in the madness. Nearby, demons tried to fend off the Exterminators, only to be struck down, their howls of agony harmonizing with Alastor’s amusement. It was a grim performance, one that Alastor relished.

Then, from the heavens, a figure descended, it was Adam, leader of the Exorcists, landed with a flamboyant flourish, a goofy grin plastered across his face. His halo shimmered, and his vibrant wings fluttered with a life of their own.

“Hey, Alastor!” Adam called, his voice bright and teasing. “Mind if I crash your little party? I brought some heavenly justice just for you!”

Alastor chuckled, his eyes gleaming. “Ah, the main act finally arrives! You certainly know how to make an entrance. Shall we dance?”

Without waiting for a response, Adam lunged forward, his guitar glowing with divine energy. Alastor barely had time to react as the Exterminator charged, his expression a mix of playful mischief and fierce determination.

“Catch me if you can!” Adam shouted, his tone light as he aimed his weapon at Alastor.

The battle began - a blend of sheer power. Alastor wielded his cane, summoning waves of tentacles that erupted around him, each pulse accompanied by crackling static and the ghostly echoes of laughter. Yet Adam, with his childlike glee, danced around the strikes with surprising agility.

“Nice moves!” Adam called, dodging another of Alastor’s spells. “But have you ever tried twirling? It adds flair to your.. whoops!”

Alastor seized the moment, sending out a wave of energy that sent Adam staggering. “Oh, dear Adam, your humor is delightful but a bit over the top, wouldn’t you say? Perhaps more suited for a Saturday morning cartoon than a battle to the death?”

Adam laughed, his spirit unfazed. “Well, it’s hard to keep things dark when I’m just so… bright! Get it? Because I’m an angel?” He winked, clearly enjoying the banter.

✧༺★༻✧

Vox was watching from his lair, the glow of his screens illuminating his face as he monitored every angle of the fight. He rubbed his hands together, as he delved his hand into a popcorn box. “Now this is entertainment! If Alastor falls, it’ll be the juiciest broadcast in all of Hell, And I'll finally show that walking outdated radio just who he's messing with! Perfect! Just perfect!”

As Alastor and Adam exchanged blows, the tension in the air thickened. Each clash of their powers sent ripples through the surrounding chaos, drawing more demons into the fray, their eyes glued to the spectacle unfolding before them.

“Wow, you’re really persistent!” Adam exclaimed, dodging another attack. “You should think about going pro! Maybe even join the Exorcists - just kidding! We can’t have psychopathic nobodies in heaven!”

Alastor’s grin faltered for a moment as he felt the weight of the fight. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Adam. I’m afraid you’ll find that I’m not so easily defeated.”

The banter continued, the playful back-and-forth making the battle feel like a twisted game. Alastor conjured illusions, distracting Adam with distorted images of himself, while Adam spun around, trying to discern the real threat.

“Nice try! But I’ve seen better illusions from a funhouse mirror!” Adam shouted, laughing as he swung his spear.

The chaotic dance pushed and Alastor began to realize the severity of the situation. Each attack from Adam landed harder, and the playful atmosphere began to shift as the stakes grew higher.

“Come on, Alastor! Show me what you’ve got!” Adam teased, mischief sparkling in his eyes. “I didn’t come down here for a boring fight! Let’s kick it up a notch!”

Adam flew up into the air, he conjured his angelic power & snapped Alastors cane in two. Alastor looked down, "Fuck." And then he was slammed against the wall.

✧༺★༻✧

(A/N) From now on, this story will feature one of my own characters! If you are confused at any point, I'd suggest reading the introductory xo -viv

In a swirl of shadows, Ryoba appeared, stepping into the fray with an elegance that silenced the chaos for a moment. Her presence commanded attention; her regal demeanor contrasted sharply with the pandemonium surrounding her. She moved with fluidity, her eyes scanning the battlefield with calm focus, a serene smile on her lips, Double playing Alastors iconic one.

“Such a ruckus for a simple dance,” Ryoba remarked, her voice soft yet resonant. “Mind if I join?”

Adam turned, his goofy grin broadening. “Whoa, a new dance partner! I’m flattered! I hope you like the theme - Chaos! It’s all the rage this season!”

“I’m sure it is,” Ryoba replied, her gaze steady as she assessed the situation. She saw Alastor on his knees, bloodied and weak, and felt a surge of trying to prove to Alastor who she really was, her ego stepping in to lead her to a battle already decided. “Step aside, Alastor. I’ll handle this.”

Without waiting for his reply, she lunged at Adam, her blade glinting as she teleported behind him. Adam, momentarily surprised, spun around just in time to block her strike.

“Whoa! You’re fast!” he exclaimed, the thrill of the fight igniting his spirit. “But can you keep up with my moves?”

Ryoba didn’t respond; instead, she focused, her attacks precise and elegant. Adam’s playful demeanor contrasted sharply with her deadly intent, and their clash was a whirlwind of blades and angelic power. She weaved through his strikes with the grace of a dancer, countering with swift slashes aimed at his exposed sides.

“Nice footwork!” Adam cheered, dodging another of her strikes. “But I’ve got moves you’ve never seen before!”

“Then let’s see them,” Ryoba replied, she hardened her tone. With each clash of their weapons, the air crackled with tension.

Vox watched with rapt attention, a wide grin spreading across his face. “Now this is what I call prime content! Two overlords battling a divine fool? The potential for humiliation is just amazing..” A smirk played on Vox's face as Valentino and velvet grinned as well.

Ryoba’s resolve intensified. She could feel the stakes rising; Adam was relentless, and the energy of the battle was shifting. Despite her power, the weight of the situation pressed down on her.

Ryoba ducked beneath another of Adam’s strikes.

In a moment of distraction, however, Adam saw his opening. He lunged forward with renewed vigor, “Time to wrap this up, lovely lady!”

With a swift thrust, Adam’s Guitar connected, piercing Ryoba’s thigh and ripping the heel cohersive. The impact sent shockwaves through her, the angelic light searing into her flesh. For a split second, the world slowed, and everything around her faded into a blur.

“Not so fun when the tables turn, huh?” Adam quipped, his tone half-serious, half-amused.

Ryoba let out a small yelp, pain coursing through her. She staggered back, her facade cracking as blood dripped from her mouth. But even as she faltered, a fire ignited within her. she steadied herself.

Summoning the last of her strength, In an instant, she teleported away, disappearing into the shadows just as Adam prepared for another strike.

✧༺★༻✧

Vox’s eyes gleamed with triumph as the screen cut to black. “That’s right, Ryoba! Flee while you can! The ratings will be delicious! Two overlords, reduced to a fleeing wretch!” He chuckled to himself, already envisioning the headlines.

Adam watched her disappear, a mixture of surprise and concern on his face. “Wait! I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings!” he called out, half-laughing, “I was just trying to lighten the mood! Don’t go, it was just a little fun!” he said in a mocking tone.

He turned back to Alastor, who struggled to rise from the attack managed a pained chuckle. “Oh, Adam, you’re a riot. You’ve just sent one of Hell’s finest packing. Now, that’s not exactly Bright of you, is it?”

Adam shrugged, a sheepish grin on his face. “Hey, all in good fun! But she was pretty intense! Did you see her moves? Like a ballet dancer on fire!”

Alastor rolled his eyes, wincing as he pushed himself up. “What a delightful metaphor, Adam. Now, if you could kindly focus on the matter at hand rather than waxing poetic, I would greatly appreciate it.”

As Alastor regained his composure, a sense of urgency washed over him. He needed to find Rosie, the only person who wouldn't take advantage of his vulnerable state.

“Enough of this nonsense.” Alastor declared, his voice rising with static as he Clutched his now broken cane and disappeared into the shadows.

Vox side viewed val and velvet, "HAH, that was actually the best thing I couldve seen happen today! I can't wait to finish off that sad heart-broken egotistical prick! " it was unevident if Vox was referring to Ryoba or Alastor, but either way he had a resentment for them both so..

(A/N) Don't really know where I'm going with this book lolz, Btw the only reason Ryoba stepped in was to try downprove Alastor. But Alastor and Ryoba aren't on bad terms x!! Since this show will feature Ryoba slot, I wanted to clear up why incase y'all don't have the time to read the description. She is my own OC and I feel writing boring without adding my own creative touch!!

Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter 

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Smoke Fills South American Skies

Intense fires burning in several South American countries draped large swaths of smoke across the continent throughout August and early September 2024. In Brazil and Bolivia, fire activity reached levels not seen since 2010 as a prolonged drought parched landscapes in both countries.

From about 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away from Earth, NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) imager on the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite captured this view of smoke billowing from the blazes on September 3, 2024.

Smoke from fires in Brazil swept over the country’s capital city in mid-August and early September. For several days, São Paolo’s air was clouded with smog, and air quality was unhealthy for sensitive groups, according to AirNow. The smoke grounded flights and forced schools to close in the most populous city in Brazil, according to The Guardian.

The fire season in the southern Amazon, which generally ramps up in August and peaks in September and October, has been intense this year. According to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), a component of the European Union’s space program, emissions from fires have been exceptionally high in Bolivia and the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Mato Grosso do Sul.

CAMS estimates near-real-time wildfire emissions using its Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS), which aggregates observations made by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensors on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. Compared to the previous 21 years, these areas have registered their highest year-to-date total emissions, at 44, 22, and 13 million metric tons of carbon, respectively.

The Pantanal region—which straddles the Brazil-Bolivia border and is home to one of the world’s largest tropical wetlands—has been especially hard hit in 2024. Early and intense blazes spread over the wetlands in late May and continued into August. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), there were a record number of fire detections in the biome in June 2024, and fires have continued to burn at high levels since.

The false-color image above, acquired by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8, shows fires near Ascensión de Guarayos, in the Bolivian state of Santa Cruz. The false-color image emphasizes the burn areas (brown) from several fires on September 3, 2024. Unburned vegetation is green. Near- and short-wave infrared bands help penetrate some of the smoke to reveal hot areas associated with active fires, which appear orange.

Through September 6, blazes tore through more than 10 million hectares of Bolivia, or roughly 9 percent of the country’s total area. Out of the 42 million metric tons of carbon emitted in Bolivia between May and August, 33 million metric tons came from fires in the state of Santa Cruz, according to Mark Parrington, CAMS senior scientist with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

Large parts of South America have seen significant rainfall deficits over the past three months. According to ECMWF, this has led to “exceptional drought” (the highest drought ranking) over much of the central and northern parts of the continent. Brazil’s Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alerts Center noted on September 5 that shifted rainfall patterns from El Niño, increased temperatures from climate change, and reduced humidity from deforestation have all contributed to the drought.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using data from DSCOVR EPIC and Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Emily Cassidy.

[spacenutspod]

If alien technological civilizations exist, they almost certainly use solar energy. Along with wind, it’s the cleanest, most accessible form of energy, at least here on Earth. Driven by technological advances and mass production, solar energy on Earth is expanding rapidly. It seems likely that ETIs (Extraterrestrial Intelligence) using widespread solar energy on their planet could make their presence known to us. If other ETIs exist, they could easily be ahead of us technologically. Silicon solar panels could be widely used on their planetary surfaces. Could their mass implementation constitute a detectable technosignature? The authors of a new paper examine that question. The paper is “Detectability of Solar Panels as a Technosignature,” and it’ll be published in The Astrophysical Journal. The lead author is Ravi Kopparapu from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In their paper, the authors assess the detectability of silicon-based solar panels on an Earth-like habitable zone planet. “Silicon-based photovoltaic cells have high reflectance in the UV-VIS and in the near-IR, within the wavelength range of a space-based flagship mission concept like the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO),” the authors write. The HWO would search for and image Earth-like worlds in habitable zones. There’s no timeline for the mission, but the 2020 Decadal Survey recommended the telescope be built. This research looks ahead to the mission or one like it sometime in the future. Naturally, the authors make a number of assumptions about a hypothetical ETI using solar power. They assume that an ETI is using large-scale photovoltaics (PVs) based on silicon and that their planet orbits a Sun-like star. Silicon PVs are cost-effective to produce, and they are well-suited to harness the energy from a Sun-like star. Kopparapu and his co-authors aren’t the first to suggest that silicon PVs could constitute a technosignature. In a 2017 paper, Avi Loeb and Manasvi Lingam from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics wrote that silicon-based PVs create an artificial edge in their spectra. This edge is similar to the ‘red edge‘ detectable in Earth’s vegetation when viewed from space but shifted to shorter wavelengths. “Future observations of reflected light from exoplanets would be able to detect both natural and artificial edges photometrically if a significant fraction of the planet’s surface is covered by vegetation or photovoltaic arrays, respectively,” Lingam and Loeb wrote. “The “edge” refers to the noticeable increase in the reflectance of the material under consideration when a reflected light spectrum is taken of the planet,” the authors of the new research explain. Satellites monitor the red edge on Earth to observe agricultural crops, and the same could apply to sensing PVs on other worlds. This figure shows the reflection spectrum of a deciduous leaf (data from Clark et al. 1993). The large sharp rise (between 700 and 800 nm) is known as the red edge and is due to the contrast between the strong absorption of chlorophyll and the otherwise reflective leaf. Image Credit: Seager et al. 2005. While Lingam and Loeb suggested the possibility, Kopparapu and his co-authors dug deeper. They point out that we could generate enough energy for our needs (as of 2022) if only 2.4% of the Earth’s surface was covered in silicon-based PVs. The 2.4% number is only accurate if the chosen location is optimized. For Earth, that means the Sahara Desert, and something similar may be true on an alien world. The authors explain, “This region is both close to the equator, where a comparatively greater amount of solar energy would be available throughout the year, and has minimal cloud coverage.” The authors also work with a 23% land coverage number. This number reflects previous research showing that for a projected maximum human population of 10 billion people, 23% land coverage would provide a high standard of living for everyone. They also use it as an upper limit because anything beyond that seems highly unlikely and would have negative consequences. On Earth, the entire continent of Africa is about 23% of the surface. The authors’ calculations show that an 8-meter telescope similar to the HWO would not detect an Earth-like exoplanet with 2.4% of its surface covered with PVs. If an ETI covered 23% of its surface with energy-harvesting PVs, would that be detectable? It would be difficult to untangle the planet’s light from the star’s light and would require hundreds of hours of observation time to reach an acceptable Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratio. “Because we have chosen the 0.34 ?m–0.52?m range to calculate the impact of silicon panels on the reflectance spectra, the difference between a planet with and without silicon is not markedly different, even with 23% land cover,” the authors explain. Technological progress adds another wrinkle to these numbers. As PV technology advances, an ETI would cover less of its planet’s surface area to generate the same amount of energy, making detection even more difficult. This figure from the research shows the planet-star contrast ratio as a function of wavelength for2.4 % land coverage with PVs (blue solid), 23 % PVs (red solid) and 0% (green dashed) land coverage of solar panels. “This suggests that the artificial silicon edge suggested by Lingam & Loeb (2017) may not be detectable,” the authors write. Image Credit: Kopparapu et al. 2024. Solar energy is expanding rapidly on Earth. Each year, more individual homes, businesses, and institutions implement solar arrays. Those might not constitute technosignatures, but individual installations aren’t the only thing growing. China built a vast solar power plant called the Gonghe Photovoltaic Project in its sparsely populated Qinghai Province. It generates 3182 MW. India has the Bhadla Solar Park (2,245 MW) in the Thar Desert. Saudi Arabia has built several new solar plants and intends to build more. Other innovative solar projects are announced regularly. But will we realistically ever cover 2.4% of our planet in solar arrays? Will we need to? There are many questions. Generating solar power in the heat of the Sahara Desert is challenging. The extreme heat reduces efficiency. Building the infrastructure required to deliver the energy to population centres is also another challenge. Then consider that silicon-based PVs may not be the end point in solar panel development. Perovskite-based PVs hold a lot of promise to outperform silicon. They’re more efficient than silicon, and researchers frequently break energy records with them (in laboratories.) Would perovskite PVs create the same “edge” in a planet’s spectra? The authors didn’t consider specific technological advances like perovskite because it’s beyond the scope of their paper. The bottom line is that silicon-based solar arrays on a planetary surface are unlikely to create an easily detectable technosignature. “Assuming an 8-meter HWO-like telescope, focusing on the reflection edge in the UV-VIS, and considering varying land coverage of solar panels on an Earth-like exoplanet that match the present and projected energy needs, we estimate that several hundreds of hours of observation time is needed to reach a SNR of ~5 for a high land coverage of ~23%,” the authors write. The Bhadla Solar Park is a large PV installation that aims to generate over 2,000 MW of solar energy. Image Credit: (Left) Google Earth. (Right) Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2020, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90537462 The authors also wonder what this means for the Kardashev Scale and things like Dyson Spheres. In that paradigm, ETIs require more and more energy and eventually build a mega engineering project that harvests all of the energy available from their star. A Dyson Sphere would create a powerful technosignature, and astronomers are already looking for them. But if the numbers in this research are correct, we may never see one because they’re not needed. “We find that, even with significant population growth, the energy needs of human civilization would be several orders of magnitude below the energy threshold for a Kardashev Type I civilization or a Dyson sphere/swarm which harnesses the energy of a star,” they conclude. “This line of inquiry reexamines the utility of such concepts and potentially addresses one crucial aspect of the Fermi paradox: We have not discovered any large-scale engineering yet, conceivably because advanced technologies may not need them.” The post Could Alien Solar Panels Be Technosignatures? appeared first on Universe Today.

[ayushmm]

SAP's Role in Building Smart Cities for a Brighter Tomorrow

The globe is quickly urbanizing, and cities face the task of effectively managing resources and services while enhancing citizens' quality of life. Smart cities are developing as the solution to these urban difficulties, fueled by technology and data-driven solutions. In this blog, we'll look at how SAP, a global leader in enterprise software, is transforming cities into smart, sustainable, and networked centres of innovation and advancement.

Deciphering Smart Cities

Before we get into SAP's smart solutions for smart cities contributions, we need define what we mean by "smart cities." These cities use digital technology, data analytics, IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence), and cloud computing to improve transportation, energy use, waste management, public safety, and other areas of city life. The main objective is to build urban settings that are responsive, adaptive, and environmentally friendly.

SAP's Impact on Smart Cities

SAP's extensive experience in enterprise software and data management positions it as a key player in the smart city revolution. Here's a closer look at how SAP smart solutions for smart cities is shaping the future of cities:

Data Integration: Smart cities generate vast amounts of data from diverse sources, including sensors, mobile apps, and government systems. SAP's data integration and analytics tools empower cities to efficiently collect, process, and analyze this data in real time. Such smart solutions for smart cities insights prove invaluable for informed decision-making on resource allocation, infrastructure maintenance, and service optimization.

IoT Empowerment: IoT forms the bedrock of smart cities, and SAP's IoT solutions facilitate the seamless connection and management of countless devices and sensors. From smart traffic lights to waste bins, this connectivity allows real-time monitoring and control, enhancing everything from traffic management to environmental sustainability.

Predictive Analytics: SAP's predictive analytics tools enable cities to foresee trends and challenges. For instance, predictive maintenance identifies when critical infrastructure, like bridges or water pipes, may need attention before a major issue arises, saving both time and resources.

Citizen Engagement: Smart cities thrive on citizen involvement in decision-making. SAP provides platforms for citizen engagement, such as mobile apps and online portals, where residents can report issues, take part in surveys, and access information on city services and projects.

Energy Efficiency: Energy management is a top priority for smart cities, and SAP's smart solutions for smart cities help cities monitor and optimize energy consumption in public buildings, street lighting, and other municipal facilities. This smart solutions for smart cities reduces costs and environmental impact.

Conclusion

SAP's essential role in smart city development is assisting cities throughout the world in addressing the complex issues of rising urbanization and resource management. Cities are becoming more efficient, sustainable, and responsive to their inhabitants' demands by leveraging SAP's expertise in data management, IoT, and analytics. The influence of SAP smart business on the future of smart cities is poised to grow as technology progresses, providing more livable, connected, and resilient urban settings for future generations.

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Moon Memory #4: Loen at Savior

Narrator: A week ago, Savior headquarters.

Investigator: Recently, the surveillance facilities in Pigeon Forest have been destroyed. That has been explained in the last report.

Investigator: We’ve also monitored abnormal power fluctuations in the distant sea of Miraland, known as Evernight Sea.

Investigator: Our investigators can’t get close to Evernight Sea. It’s controlled by Water Elves. Only the ships of Mercury Group can enter it.

Investigator: Previous survey results show there is a certain connection between Evernight Sea and the abyss.

Narrator: The man who is thinking about something behind the table looks up. The word calls back some of his memories.

Rowe: The abyss... It’s also the power behind the incident in Ninir Royal City.

Investigator: Yes. We suspect Mercury Group is taking actions related to the abyss in Evernight Sea, but it’s difficult for us to investigate that group.

Rowe: Continue monitoring. Tell our people to keep a low profile.

Investigator: Yes. It should be noted that a person currently in Cloud is preparing to go to Pigeon Forest.

Rowe: Who is it?

Investigator: Leonid’s heir.

Narrator: Rowe doesn’t speak. A slight cough comes from the seat in the shadow. A young man with blond hair walks to the table and looks at him.

Loen: After the Ninir incident, we should understand that Leonid’s heir and Savior are on the same side.

Rowe: We do have the same goal. But there are too many variables on her, such as the mysterious figure who appeared beside her after the Ninir incident.

Rowe: Loen, do you know why your friends went to Pigeon Forest this time?

Loen: I don’t know, but I have a hunch that their action will coincide with ours again.

Narrator: Looking at the man’s particularly serious eyes, Rowe nods noncommittally.

Rowe: You’ll direct the operation in Pigeon Forest. It’s gonna be more complicated than we thought ‘cause it involves the Ocean of Memories and the abyss.

Rowe: We don’t know the purpose of Mercury group. Please be careful. I’ll wait for your good news.

Loen: Yes.

[govindhtech]

IBM Maximo AWS Deployment Strategies

The Business Value of IBM Maximo, a recent IDC report that surveyed 9 companies with an average of 8,500 employees, found that adopting IBM Maximo resulted in a business benefit of USD 14.6 million per year per organization, 43% less unplanned downtime, and USD 8.6 million in total equipment cost avoidances.

One comprehensive, cloud-based application platform for asset monitoring, management, predictive maintenance, and reliability planning is IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS). Maximo optimizes performance, extends asset lifecycles, and reduces downtime and costs for high-value assets using AI and analytics. Hosting Maximo on a scalable infrastructure maximizes performance, hence the current tendency is to shift it to the cloud. In this trip, MAS migration and deployment on AWS Cloud are gaining popularity.

The growing demand for Maximo AWS Cloud migration

Migrating to cloud helps enterprises improve operational resilience and dependability while updating software with minimal effort and infrastructure constraints. Due to the growing demand for data-driven asset management, firms must aggregate data from diverse departments to identify trends, generate predictions, and make better asset management decisions.

Last April, IBM said Maximo 7.6 and add-on support would stop in September 2025. All Maximo EAM customers must upgrade to the latest cloud-based MAS. Maximo migration and modernization are become increasingly significant to clients.

IBM has released new containerized versions of Maximo Application Suite as a Service (MAS SaaS) on AWS Marketplace with Bring Your Own License (BYOL) to assist Maximo migration to AWS. MAS SaaS on AWS is another milestone in Maximo’s integration of Monitor, Health, and Visual Inspection into a unified suite.

What makes MAS SaaS distinct

IBM Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) specialists use best practices to continuously maintain and administer MAS SaaS, a subscription-based AWS service. This partnership gives customers an industry-leading IBM asset management system underpinned by AWS’s size, agility, and cost-efficiency.

Upgrades and migrations to MAS 8 are possible with MAS SaaS. The data update is similar to prior upgrades, but ROSA and other dependencies require architecture changes. The migration is comparable to how clients transitioned from on-premise to Maximo EAM SaaS Flex, but with MAS changes. Perpetual on-premises customers would stop paying Service & Support (S&S) and purchase a SaaS subscription, on-premises Subscription License customers would start a new subscription, and existing MAS Flex and MAS Managed Service customers would start a new subscription to migrate to MAS SaaS.

Our IBM Consulting Cloud Accelerator (ICCA) technology lets firms plan migration and upgrade strategies before investing.

Maximo migration strategy of a global energy firm

IBM worked closely with an energy company confronting the following challenges:

Infrastructure needed for latest Maximo version takes longer.

WebSphere, Maximo’s core, experienced high-availability and performance difficulties.

Lack of data fabric and integration layer hinders cross-application data interchange.

Complex setup, failures, and security with manual end-to-end deployment.

Since Maximo Application Suite 8 (MAS8) tackles industry issues like failure risk, escalating maintenance costs, sustainability, and compliance laws, the customer chose it. The client chose AWS Cloud for its deployment flexibility, scalability, high availability, and secure architecture. 

Approach to solution

This is how IBM accelerated the energy company’s Maximo move to AWS:

Used Infra as a code to upgrade Maximo from 7.6.0.9 to 7.6.1.2.

IaC allowed instance spin-up for auto scaling. This automation reduces the time to spin up and execute the new environment and addresses multi-AWS availability zone deployment latency.

Used AWS DMS for data migration and schema conversion.

IaC spun the DR environment on demand to reduce database replication (DR) infrastructure and expense. DR capabilities update data in availability zone and DR area.

Achieved data exchange across applications using IBM Cloud Pak for Data and standardized integration using IBM Cloud Pak for Integration components.

Solution components

Maximum Enterprise Application Management (EAM) has a 3-tier design with these components:

HTTP/Web Tier and Application Tier using IBM WebSphere and HIS installed EC2 instance under private subnet for application security.

Database Tier uses AWS Oracle RDS with replication for DR under private subnet.

AWS best practices were used to configure VPC with public and private subnets.

Application servers and deployment manager were autoscaled by Auto Scaling Group. 

Maximum web-based UI resolution for external access using AWS Route 53.

WAF was the initial line of defense against web exploits.

Integration of Terraform and CFT IaC scripts provided autoscaling architecture.

AWS Reference Architecture

Max on RedHat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) helps clients

Containerized MAS 8.0 runs on RedHat OpenShift. AWS, IBM, and RedHat developed an IBM MAS on ROSA reference architecture to help customers inexperienced with production containerization. ROSA, a fully managed, turnkey application platform, supports IBM MAS configuration and offloads cluster lifecycle management to RedHat and AWS, allowing organizations to focus on application deployment and innovation. This means IBM MAS clients don’t need to develop, administer, or maintain RedHat OpenShift clusters.

Operating Model and Maximo Migration

Top 3 Maximo AWS migration accelerators

Clients can migrate to the cloud using three IBM MAS deployment methods on AWS Cloud:

ROSA-powered MAS SaaS on AWS

ROSA-powered AWS MAS

Customer-hosted ROSA

Why use customer-hosted ROSA

The customer-hosted ROSA option for hosting IBM MAS in a customer’s VPC with ROSA is powerful. ROSA is perfect for MAS deployments because it seamlessly deploys, scales, and manages containerized applications.

The benefits of this choice are enormous. Full control over the infrastructure while still subject to the organization’s monitoring, controls, and governance standards allows businesses to customize and adjust the environment to their needs. This control includes adding MAS integrations and enforcing cloud security and governance requirements. ROSA charges are combined into one AWS bill and drawn from any AWS enterprise agreement, simplifying financial management.

AWS enterprise agreements and Compute Savings Plans offer infrastructure savings for MAS implementations. Because the ROSA cluster operates under the customer’s AWS account, customers can buy upfront ROSA contracts and get a one-year or three-year ROSA service charge discount.

Why IBM for Maximo AWS migration?

Any modernization effort must include cloud migration. Cloud migration is not a one-size-fits-all method, and each organization faces unique cloud adoption difficulties.

IBM Consulting’s Application Modernization offering helps clients migrate and modernize AWS applications faster, cheaper, and more efficiently, reducing technical debt and accelerating digital initiatives while minimizing business risk and improving business agility.

IBM offers unique cloud migration services to accelerate customer application migration to AWS:

Cloud migration factory capabilities including proven frameworks and processes, automation, migrating templates, security policies, and AWS-specific migration squads speed up delivery.

IBM Garage Methodology, IBM’s cloud services delivery capabilities, ROSA, and AWS Migration tools and accelerators accelerate migration and cloud adoption.

ICCA, IBM’s proprietary framework for migration and modernization, reduces risk. ICCA for AWS Cloud automates various modernization procedures, simplifying and speeding up company agility. Before investing, businesses can plan migration and modernization strategies. Discover IBM Consulting Cloud Accelerator for AWS Cloud.

Our well-defined pattern-based migration methodology includes re-factor, re-platform, and containerization using AWS managed services and industry-leading tools to remove and optimize technical debt.

Finally, IBM offers customizable t-shirt-sized price models for small, medium, and large migration sizes, ensuring clients’ migration scope is obvious.

IBM helps clients migrate applications, like Maximo to AWS Cloud

In conclusion, clients seek IBM’s expertise to:

1.Upgrade Maximo 7.6x (expiring 2025) to MAS 8. 

2.On-premise workload to AWS Cloud for elastic, scalable, and highly available infrastructure and runtime

IBM Consulting can help

AWS Premier Partner IBM Consulting accelerates hybrid cloud journeys on the AWS Cloud by leveraging business and IT transformation skills, processes, and tools from many industries. On AWS Cloud, IBM’s security, enterprise scalability, and open innovation with Red Hat OpenShift enable enterprises grow swiftly.

BM Consulting develops cloud-native apps in AWS Cloud with 21,000+ AWS-certified cloud practitioners, 17 validated SDD programs, and 16 AWS competencies. IBM Consulting is the best AWS partner due to acquisitions like Nordcloud and Taos, advancements at IBM Research, and co-development with AWS.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

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Low maintenance cost: based on linux system no need to do virus, spy-ware clean up, supported by large community. Vicidial engineers are not expensive.

I'm IT specialist and developer, i also have my own call center

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This solution includes following features:

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I provide free basic Anydesk tutorial for beginners.

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Global Robot Kitchen Market Analysis 2024: Size Forecast and Growth Prospects

The robot kitchen global market report 2024 from The Business Research Company provides comprehensive market statistics, including global market size, regional shares, competitor market share, detailed segments, trends, and opportunities. This report offers an in-depth analysis of current and future industry scenarios, delivering a complete perspective for thriving in the industrial automation software market.

Robot Kitchen Market, 2024 report by The Business Research Company offers comprehensive insights into the current state of the market and highlights future growth opportunities.

Market Size - The robot kitchen market size has grown exponentially in recent years. It will grow from $2.73 billion in 2023 to $3.35 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7%. The growth in the historic period can be attributed to automation and efficiency, rising labor costs, consumer trends and convenience, innovation and competition, food safety and hygiene.

The robot kitchen market size is expected to see rapid growth in the next few years. It will grow to $5.94 billion in 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.4%. The growth in the forecast period can be attributed to advancements in artificial intelligence, integration with smart homes, rise of cloud-connected kitchens, enhanced human-machine interfaces, sustainability and eco-friendly features. Major trends in the forecast period include technological advancements, increased connectivity, blockchain technology for food safety, integration of artificial intelligence (AI), increased connectivity.

Order your report now for swift delivery @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/robot-kitchen-global-market-report

Scope Of Robot Kitchen Market The Business Research Company's reports encompass a wide range of information, including:

1. Market Size (Historic and Forecast): Analysis of the market's historical performance and projections for future growth.

2. Drivers: Examination of the key factors propelling market growth.

3. Trends: Identification of emerging trends and patterns shaping the market landscape.

4. Key Segments: Breakdown of the market into its primary segments and their respective performance.

5. Focus Regions and Geographies: Insight into the most critical regions and geographical areas influencing the market.

6. Macro Economic Factors: Assessment of broader economic elements impacting the market.

Robot Kitchen Market Overview

Market Drivers - The increasing adoption of smart homes is expected to propel the growth of the robot kitchen market going forward. A smart home is a home setup where internet-enabled appliances and devices can be automatically controlled remotely using a networked device. Smart homes provide robot kitchens with an intelligent environment for automated cooking and activity monitoring. For instance, in June 2023, according to a survey of 1,000 adults conducted by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a South Korea-based subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, 86% of homebuyers in the UK would consider a smart home when selecting their next property, and they would pay $22,860 (£18,000) more for it. Further, almost 40% of Gen Z buyers want their next property to be a smart home. Therefore, the increasing adoption of smart homes is driving the growth of the robot kitchen market.

Market Trends - Major companies operating in the robot kitchen market are increasingly focusing on developing robot-run, AI-powered restaurants to gain a competitive edge in the market. A robot-run restaurant is an establishment where robots and automation technologies are used to perform various tasks in restaurant kitchens related to food preparation, cooking, serving, and even cleaning. For instance, in November 2023, Remy Robotics, a Spain-based food service artificial intelligence (AI) company, launched its new automated cooking robots with the concept of a robot restaurant called Better Days in New York City. The restaurant utilizes Remy Robotics' robotics platform to power its operations, offering a health-focused menu and limited physical dining space. The restaurant operates as a human-free storefront, with off-site human preparation and robot-coordinated on-site food assembly. The restaurant uses machines that use artificial intelligence to cook a diverse menu and offer high-quality, healthy food consistently and at an affordable price. The robotic kitchen operates without traditional ventilation systems or human supervision, reflecting the industry's push toward labor-saving technology.

The robot kitchen market covered in this report is segmented –

1) By Type: Hardware, Software 2) By Robot Type: 6-Axis, Cartesian, Delta, Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA), Other Robot Types 3) By Application: House, Commercial, Other Applications

Get an inside scoop of the robot kitchen market, Request now for Sample Report @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/sample.aspx?id=13922&type=smp

Regional Insights - North America was the largest region in the robot kitchen market in 2023. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the robot kitchen market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa.

Key Companies - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sony Group Corporation, LG Corporation, Panasonic Holdings Corporation, ABB Group (ABB Robotics), Nvidia Corporation, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, KUKA AG , Armstrong Robotics, HeroX, Sweetgreen, Pal Robotics, Bear Robotics Inc., Boston Dynamics, QSR Automations, Zimplistic Inventions, Dishcraft Robotics, Niryo Robotics SAS , Savioke, Remy Robotics, Soft Robotics, Wilkinson Baking Company (BreadBot), Nymble Labs, Dexai Robotics, Moley Robotics, Miso Robotics, Xrobotics

Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 2. Robot Kitchen Market Report Structure 3. Robot Kitchen Market Trends And Strategies 4. Robot Kitchen Market – Macro Economic Scenario 5. Robot Kitchen Market Size And Growth ….. 27. Robot Kitchen Market Competitor Landscape And Company Profiles 28. Key Mergers And Acquisitions 29. Future Outlook and Potential Analysis 30. Appendix

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