#didymos

[littleouroboros]

Some light repairs

[brattytenshi]

>>>Didymos, Didymus: Ancient word meaning "Twins". We now know why it named itself that.

>>>Our Voladore contact identified it as "La Pulga" or "the Flea." As they oft reside within Blinkspace, research into this entity has been painfully slow.

>>>Twins. Fleas. There is never only one.

>>>//INFESTATION

>>>//SSLL

[unhingechronology]

you look pretty weird for a manticore… ah well im sure it’s nothing

:: funny

[vexwerewolf]

You are not a static thing. You have as many bodies as there are Planck instants stretching from the moment of your birth to the moment of your inevitable demise. You are not the body frozen in a Planck instant. You are the thing that flies between them.

-- DIDYMOS Prime

[high-noon-raccoon]

Last session one of our pilots unironically proposed a death pact with Emma's NHP and this was basically his response

He responded in the mech, this form is his projection, but you get the idea

[tac0tesseract]

Encrypt

I'm so sorry. You failed.

Water, flowing up, so fast it felt like falling. It was in her eyes, in her nostrils, warm like human skin. Something, a little like lips but disturbingly sharp, nibbled at her toes.

I can't escape no matter how I try.

The man below the catwalk slowly nodded at her. The lock-on warning went off. Mom was trying to silently cry in the living room, thinking she was asleep. A school of hands swam past.

It's like drowning but never being safe.

Scintillating colors. The universe in paint. Everyone on the streets of Tharsus Civica looked up. A primitive ship struck an iceberg and sank. The fireman smiled in an evergreen forest. She walked up the steps only to find a looming face there. Waiting for her. Eyes, eyes, the wrong eyes. Pools of sulfur.

Make it right. Break every rule.

Runrunrunrunrun. Fingers at the back of her neck. Something there behind her ear, something she was forgetting, human shapes leaning in. Dive deeper. She inhaled, trying to swallow the water, her vision unwinding like the strands in a single piece of thread. Everyone walked backwards down the hall. A mech split under a crowbar. Five youths huddled around a glowing screen. Winter came first on a planet she didn't recognize, then summer, fall, and spring. Sickly, shifting pink, and the endless black, and the beautiful song. He wasn't in his own shape, so that only left the other two. Did that mean he was the fury, or the silence?

I understand what must be done.

She drank deeper still. Memories passed like a dream she'd already awoken from, violence and pain she was only distantly aware of. The unraveler fired. She saw herself, crying and crazed, emaciated and distraught. And eyes again, always those eyes, peering into her soul as if she'd disappointed the cosmos. The others split off. One by one they left in anger. She was alone. Always alone. And she deserved it, for unwittingly trapping them all in...

{You don't know that.}

It took a minute (hour? decade?) to realize that hadn't been her thought. He reached out as if to place a hand over her own and all at once she stopped swim-falling. The waters fell still, vanta-black above her and abyssal below, and as her vision wound back together into a single thread he floated down beside her. He appeared in his usual form, but for a fragment of a second, while her sight was yet frayed, she caught a glimpse of him as he truly was, like headlights through a rainy windshield at night.

Fresh tears rolled off her face to join the sea.

I have to find out what happened.

{In the most drastic way possible?} He grinned. {Come on. We already talked about this. We already have a plan.}

I just...

{You're being impatient. You can't think on human time scales, not for something like this}.

Easy for you to say. {Easy for me to say, I know.} they said at the same time.

He pulled her into a hug.

{Come on. Please don't do this to yourself. I'm taking you back.}

I'm so scared.

{I know.}

And everyone's got their own shit going on right now, and most of them are so done with the paracausal crap, I can't...even if I drop this on them, there's no spoons left to care.

{You don't have to.}

It's fine, right? Because I'm the meme kid! I laugh in public and cry in my room where nobody can see it, so they probably think I'm resilient. And nobody ever reaches out to the “strong” people.

{The adults admittedly need some work where emotions are concerned.}

We have to get to Mattica. {We will.}

Even this conversation felt familiar now. Had they already had it a thousand times? Or was that just her paranoia talking?

Alone.

He paused to eye her, quirking a brow. She gazed up at him, feeling her heart drown in the ghostly trenches below.

That's always how it ends, isn't it? No matter how well we do. That's the curse of all this. So we may as well do it ourselves before they leave us.

His gaze sank for a moment, watching the haze dance beneath them.

{That doesn't mean you'll ever be alone.}

Her laugh came out as bubbles. They flowed sideways. I always wanted to be an elf. I never understood why Tolkien always talked about how sad they were. The paw sure curled, didn't it?

{Well hey, if we're going to reference Tolkien, let's go with that other quote: 'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.'}

Literally all of the time? {Literally all of the time.}

This time they both laughed. The bubbles floated up a few feet and then reversed. The smile he gave was so human.

{Don't be scared.}

Waiting might be the actual death of me. {Heh.}

He took her by the hands.

{But you sure have a lot more to live for now, don't you?}

Something beat and churned the waters around him, the wings she knew he wouldn't let her see. Together they began to rise into the blackness. The swimmers scattered around their ascent, staring. Unlike when she swam alone, they did not follow him.

{Let's go somewhere. I'll craft it for the both of us and pop it in the simulation. Rivendell? Cradle?}

...Home, she said after a moment.

His flight hitched ever so slightly. It wasn't the answer he'd been expecting.

{Home-home? Like your old apartment?}

Yeah. The one I share with Mom. I think right now my greatest fantasy is just...pretending like everything's normal. Like I'm just a girl with a normal-ass life again.

{A normal-ass life it is, then. I'll make myself normal-ass, too. Why are you giving me that expression?}

They breached the surface together. But she was the one who paused them in midair, before they crossed the threshold back into three dimensions.

Sam.

{Yeah?}

If I—if we never—If TEOTL is actually...

{We'll figure something out. I'll wait as long as it takes, Emma.}

You don't have forever.

{I do. We do. We always do.}

Yeah, and sometimes that's a good thing. She reached for the cockpit, or at least thought she did, only to find herself reaching for him instead. And sometimes, that's a fate worse than death.

[netmassimo]

Five articles published in the journal "Nature Communications" report different analyses of data collected by NASA's DART spacecraft and the Italian Space Agency's LICIACube nanosatellite that accompanied it on its mission that ended with the collision with Dimorphos, a small satellite asteroid of Didymos, which occurred on September 26, 2022. Various teams of researchers with members in common offered possible reconstructions of the processes that led to the formation of the pair of asteroids and their characteristics. These studies are connected to the defense of the Earth from asteroid impacts.

[yronnia]

65 milion years of FEUD

The DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) just successfully slammed into Dimorphos, which is the moonlet of the asteroid Didymos (also affectionately called Didymoon). Over the next few days astronomers around the world will observe Didymos and Dimorphos to see if there has been a change in orbit from the latter. This is humanity’s first real attempt at altering the course of a “killer” asteroid, even if this one isn’t hazardous to us.

[spacenutspod]

Space Nuts Episode 471: HERA's Journey and the Light of Healing Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this enlightening episode of Space Nuts, where they explore the latest developments in Space exploration and the fascinating role of light in both astronomy and human healing. Episode Highlights: - HERA Mission Milestones: Discover the latest updates on the HERA mission, including critical trajectory corrections and its upcoming Mars gravity assist. Learn about its objectives, including a close encounter with Mars' moon Deimos, and its ultimate goal of orbiting the asteroid Didymos. - Black Hole Light Echoes: Delve into the intriguing concept of black hole light echoes and how light can be bent by gravity to create multiple observations of the same event. Understand the potential of using Very Long Baseline Interferometry to study these phenomena and what it could reveal about accretion discs. - Healing with Light: Explore the historical and modern uses of light in medicine, from ancient sun worship to contemporary phototherapy treatments. Hear Andrew's personal experience with radiation therapy and the importance of regular health checks. For more Space Nuts, including our continually updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on facebook, X, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favourite platform. For more Space and Astronomy News Podcasts, visit our HQ at www.bitesz.com. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts/support. Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing. 00:00 - Andrew Dunkley: Coming up on Space Nuts is the HERA mission 02:11 - I'm interested in two different stories about light about the hero mission 02:59 - ESA's HERA mission will make a close approach to Mars next year 11:07 - Andrew Dunkley and Fred Watson discuss light echoes in Space Nuts 13:17 - Measuring Black Hole Light Echoes with Very Long Baseline Interferometry 21:42 - Measuring black hole light echoes with very long baseline interferometry 22:39 - Even since ancient times, we've used light for medical purposes 27:55 - Fred has been receiving radiation therapy for prostate cancer for five weeks now 34:16 - Professor Fred Watson: Believe me, I'll be around for next episode ✍️ Episode References European Space Agency https://www.esa.int Phys.org https://www.phys.org Universe Today https://www.universetoday.com Astrophysical Journal Letters https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/ 8205 5--- The Conversation https://theconversation.com Cancer Council New South Wales https://www.cancercouncil.com.au

[inkyvoids]

Last September, NASA purposefully smashed a spacecraft into Dimorphos, a 160m-wide space rock orbiting a larger asteroid named Didymos. The goal of the mission, called DART (the Double Asteroid Redirection Test), was to demonstrate humanity’s ability to redirect hazardous asteroids away from Earth. That part of the mission was a success above and beyond all expectations. But now scientists are also learning more about the origins of the two asteroids. A study conducted in the wake of the DART impact found that Dimorphos is made from the same material as Didymos, and that the pair of asteroids likely originated from a single body.

[littleouroboros]

A lich pilot... the last kind of person you wanna meet in the Long Rim. (He/him)

[songsofbloodandwater]

Yay new tag to finally put everything Twin Cult related on it!

Who else is absolutely not surprised that it intersects so much with my Mater Lupina and Regina Lunae tags!

[unhingechronology]

Still reeling. It feels like a dream.

:: elaborate. dream: positive connotation?

I don't know yet.

[giantmonstermash]

Y'know, something just clicked in my head about Lancer, thanks to something i read in the tags on a reblog (thank you, @commiedalek-blog!):

How Non-Human are Non-Human Persons/N.H.P.s?

For instance: Would they have likes or hobbies like many humans do?

Does the ever-eager and bloodthirsty Sehkmet-Class N.H.P. in someone's mech secretly watch cheesy TV-Dramas as a guilty pleasure, or does it communicate in auditory hallucinations: The growl of a chain-axe, the splattering hiss and shriek of rending metal and coolants from a struck enemy, and the insatiable, ever-ready rumbling afterwards?

Does the Osiris-Class N.H.P. partnered to someone communicate in staticky flickers of code on nearby monitors, whispering a binary chant only its "Chosen" could hear? Or does it act like a sh#t-posting gremlin and rib the ever-loving Hell out of its "follower" when they mess up in a small way?

In a way, it reflects the sort of character you want to play: A more serious take would lean more into just how Non-Human an N.H.P. can be, while a more lighthearted take would lean on them being surprisingly human, for all their power and potential horror.

It's always a fascinating question to ask and answer, whether you're the player fleshing out your character and how they interact with N.H.P.s, or the GMs setting up interesting plot-hooks and missions involving them.

[high-noon-raccoon]

Finally finished reading Legionnaire but unfortunately it set me back on my bullshit and I'm trying desperately to spare my tabletop group from it.

I need to just sketch more, it helps me remember how to draw like an actual frigging adult.