#even if their old tech is still perfectly functional

[uncle-fruity]

The unsettling thing about smart appliances is that the companies can control them. Or update the app so older "smart" appliances are no longer supported and will need to be upgraded to new, "smarter" appliances. Not to mention what happens when the internet is down. I mean, the fact that you have to have internet at all! It's hostile towards poor folks who might not want to spend money on something that's free at their local library, but who still need a place to keep their food cold. It's hostile towards anyone who doesn't want to buy a smartphone or download a billion apps. Are they going to pay me for the storage space they're forcing me to use on my device? Definitely not. Or, as we're already seeing with some printers: the "smart" application is to make it impossible to use a competitor's ink once you're low. So if you don't like their ink or if you find ink that's cheaper, well...fuck you! Fuck you, and pay them money to do it. Idk, I'm just saying that adding apps & shit to appliances that demonstratively *do not need them* should either have an alternative not-smart option or should be outright illegal.

I am not anti-technology, either. Like, I don't tend to keep up with the trends, and I super don't *care* about a lot of the technology that comes out (I don't find much of the new stuff to do anything of consequence aside from complicating problems we've already solved (and the stuff that IS of consequence gets so little attention)), but in general I think technology has a place in the world & makes things easier/more convenient in many ways. However, I feel that we are misusing precious fucking resources for the likes of corporate greed and individual comforts that were not asked for and are not needed. I think the people supplying the technology are fucking power-hungry goons who wouldn't hesitate to set their grandmas on fire if it would save them a buck or if her ashes turned to data by the end of it.

In short, it's not that new stuff is bad, it's just that new stuff isn't by default *better* than older models, and tbh we all need to complain as loudly as we can against these corporate chucklefucks. Make everyone involved in the process hate "smart" appliances as much as we do for how ferociously we voice our hatred and how much we complain & demand alternative options. Tbh, we probably need to do a big protest and shut down of a major company to show that the people Do Not Want these "innovations" and the companies had better fucking do something about it.

Please, kids, listen to me: it's not because we hate technology; it's not because we hate you; it's not because we can't cope with the changing times -- it's that we SEE the changes that you never saw because you're growing up in a "smart" world and so it's automatically normalized for you, and that's a dangerous precedent. These appliances are sinister and do not do anything better than the old-ass "dumb" appliances. You are trading your privacy for Nothing. For Whistles and Bells. For things that Do Not Matter.

[tanoraqui]

In Which Space Orcs are Men

[AO3] A "what if humans are space orcs" take on Dagor Dagorath. (Aka the prophecied apocalypse of Middle Earth. Scifi story accessible to non-LotR nerds!)

Elves weren't really supposed to leave Earth. That's what they told us—the Elves, that is, told people thousands of years ago, when Elves could still be found here and there. When I was born, elves were nearly as much a fairy tale as they’d been on Ancient Earth.

Elves weren't supposed to leave Earth, the Elves said in the fairy tales, and in a few old scraps of records scattered around known space. They literally weren't made for it. They could only do it if they brought Earth with them—Arda they called it, leaves or dirt, water or a rare bubble of air, perfectly preserved in a white crystal. There are tons of tales about Elves losing their lifeline jewels—their hearts, their silimirs—and roping people into epic quests to get them back before they—the Elf—faded to nothingness. 

Even the jewels weren't enough, though. That's why there are also stories about Elves who fell in love with a person or a place and stayed there until they faded, or Elves who charmed someone into following them back to Fairyland on Earth...because whatever they said, Elves didn't really live on Earth. Humans have maintained their home planet as a monitored nature reserve since like the 40th century, open only to vetted research teams and serious Human religious pilgrimages. The most confirmed accounts of Elves that exist are of their ships appearing out of nowhere, with no trace of any tech that would enable it, at random, always-changing points within 100 miles or so of Earth.

Nobody ever came back from trying to follow Elves home. Mostly Elves tried to dissuade people from trying. But there are always crazy and curious people—and Elves usually attracted those, because any Elf who left the home they were "made" for was usually crazy and curious themselves. 

Those were the stories I grew up with. There was a cave near the orphans' creche which was supposed to be haunted by a faded Elf. I didn't really believe it—like I said, the last confirmed Elf was last seen like 5,000 years ago, and not even on my planet. People have met two dozen new sentient races since then. We've discovered that reincarnation is probably real (just functionally untrackable), prompting the Pan-Religious Reform Wars. The last person to see a live Elf was still traveling via natural wormholes—they literally didn't know that you could loop pi.

.

When the Human natal sun started to turn really red, it wasn’t that big a deal at first. It’s a very important, very sad event for any species, but it happens to everyone eventually. It happened to the Hectort just after we invented interstellar flight. There were some unusual gravatic waves around Earth’s Sol, but nothing worth noting to anyone who didn’t already care for personal reasons.

Then the Elves sent us a message.

The local Parks Service picked it up, of course. I bet the Humans meant to hush it up at first—though the Centaurian government still won’t admit anything—but someone leaked it immediately on the intergalactic net. It should’ve only been famous as a joke of a hoax, but…

It was basically just a metal box with rudimentary fire-thrusters soldered on the sides. It contained two things. The first was a recording/replaying device so antiquated that the only way they got it working is that it was already playing on loop, and didn’t stop until someone disconnected it from its power source.

The message was in Ancient Bouban, which some folklorist soon announced is the latest language an Elf could know, since the last known Elf went back to “Arda.” The voice somehow sounded melodic to every species with a concept of music, from the screeching Vesarians to the deep-sea sub-sonic Thinkers, even when translated through cheap, staticky speakers. And to most species, the speaker was audibly distraught.

They said,

This is the final message from the Firstborn of Eru to the Secondborn, and everyone else. The Battle of Battles has come, and we…are losing. If there are any who remember the ancient love and loyalty which bound our peoples, if there are any heirs remaining of Thargalax the Magnificent, of Nine-Fingered Frodo, of the noble Houses of Haleth, Hador and Beor—

The speaker drew a sharp breath, there.

—by great oaths and greater friendship I bid you now to raise your swords and ride to our aid. Ride as swiftly as you can!

We will hold for another year. We will, they said determinedly. After that, it is unlikely that…

Another, shakier breath. A smile forced into a voice which would rather weep.

Fëanáro and Nienna believe there is a way to destroy the Straight Road. If we must, if it comes to it, we will do so, and trap the First Enemy here in this dying world with us. Though I don’t know about—

Hair-aristocrat! a more distant, slightly less perfectly melodious voice called, in a language so dead that they needed computers to decode it. The walls are falling, we need to go!

If you never hear from us again, and no sudden discord arises among you, you will know we succeeded, the first speaker said quickly. If otherwise…I am sorry. Either way, I bid you all only, remember us! Oh beautiful flames, remember us, as we have ever remembered y— 

There was a sudden screech of tearing metal, a defiant, musical battle-cry, and a jarring silence. Then the message restarted.

And that wasn’t even the strangest thing in the box. The strangest thing was the recorder’s power source, which was powering the whole tiny rocket mechanism as well. It was an Elf-jewel right out of a fairy tale, a fist-sized, translucent not-quite-diamond—but instead of rock or water or a much-loved scrap of plant, the only thing it held was light.

...Kind of. It isn’t normal light. It arguably isn’t light at all, as we know it—scientists now think it’s technically some sort of plasmoid aether, except it only acts like a plasmoid aether about half the time. 

It has no detectable source within the jewel. It fully illuminates whatever space it’s in, no matter how big. Its visible radiation is a frequency, the scientists say, that matches a hyper-accelerated version of what the universe must’ve sounded like in the split second after the Big Bang.

It makes people remember things, when they see it in person or sometimes even across a holo. Some remember a similar light in a strange traveler’s eyes. Others, dreamily enchanted valleys where spring never faded, or tall castles, bright swords, and stern and glorious lords and ladies. And some of us got hit with a whole lifetime of memories in one go: an identical gem on the brow of a sober forest king, friends who slipped through trees like shadows save for their merry laughter, an impossibly beautiful gold-haired maiden dancing in a glittering cavern...

(And all the pain and loss that came with them.)

And some people just remember the sight of a distant star—in another world, in another lifetime.

Reincarnation was provable but untraceable…until now. 

The Thinker ambassador on Astrolax Station 5 was the first to kick up a fuss. Most Thinkers never leave their home planet, they're too huge and aquatic. But like I said, there's always crazy and curious people. The ambassador started bellowing the second che heard the message, without even seeing the light, because, "I know him! My Wisdom! We must send aid!" That made some news, and random other people shared their own, less dramatic revelations, and soon a compilation swept the net with timestamps showing that most of them were organically independent, not just jumping on the bandwagon….

Even that might've gotten written off intergalactically. The Thinkers are big in reincarnationist circles, on account of how they claim that deep in their planetary ocean they can hear echoes of their past lives. But being mostly planet-bound means they're not really influential on a big political level. Or it would've sparked another surge of the Reform Wars, and everybody would've remembered the rock, but not the recording. Or there would’ve been a fight over this potentially infinite energy source (though that is so last giga-annum)….

But first it was shown in person to the current Director of the Admiralty of the Astral Alliance, President of the X-ee Empire and Matron of the House of S,sh, Ch’ees/i’i S,sh. I was actually there—I was Captain of her ceremonial Alliance guards, in a last-ditch attempt to salvage my career after Zanzibus. Very ceremonial, considering the X-eee have laser-proof shells and pincers and I have, what, opposable thumbs? Vestigial tusks?

I wasn’t paying attention at first, too busy being suddenly assaulted by all my own memories. So I missed the President freezing mid-step and gasping (in X-eee), “Mother.” I also missed her rising alarm call of an attempt to speak Ancient Elvish without an Elvish tongue or lips.

I sure didn’t miss her snap back to X-eee for a sharp call to attention, and everything that followed: the call to arms! The rousing of the Alliance! A tour of the galaxy, to find anyone and everyone else in whom the Light could awaken ancient memories! And for the love of X'eeh, why had nobody figured out how to get back to Fairyland with this thing yet, and every warship in the quadrant?!

If I believed in the One Behind, or in any other creator god or gods—I'm not saying I do, but if I did, if there really is something out there all-powerful and all-kind—then it'd be because out of every soul in the entire universe, the probably one in the best position to act on the Elves' message turned out to have, from a past life, two parents and a much-loved twin still in Fairyland. Like, that's insane, right?

I stayed with the Director's ceremonial guards for the whole tour, actually more than ceremonial for once—it was the weirdest mission of my life, and I've been on a lot of weird missions. Or supposedly routine missions that got weird (and usually disastrous). My friends joke that I'm cursed. S,sh requisitioned an Inquiry-class ship, so the science boffins could study the Light and jewel along the way, and we started wormholing at weft speed, hitting a new planet every week. Sometimes every day. In each major spaceport and ground-city, S,sh stood with the jewel on the highest available point and gave a recruitment speech for going to save the Elves and fight the oldest enemy of all reality. 

Honestly, it seemed a little redundant? The Astral Alliance was made for this sort of rescue mission (and for escorting trade convoys). But I was...if not happy, then sure as hell more self-certain with my ancient memories restored, and most people who joined up seemed to agree. It was mostly people who remembered, when exposed to the Light, who joined—so before long, we had a whole tag-along trail of mostly civilian ships, trying to get up to Alliance Fleet standard on the road in less than a year.

Three different religious sects tried to kill S,sh for "profaning the mysteries." Five others tried to steal the jewel because we were apparently appropriating a holy object. The boffins announced that, bar the can't-prove-a-negative possibility, the evidently sourceless Light should be counted as an infinite energy source, and at least seven different groups, ruthless financiers and sustainability idealists, immediately tried to steal it for that. And I still don't know what the rival thief-queens of Likkiliani were about, except that I got tied up upside-down from a palmdar tree for two hours trying to stop one, the other paid me 700 cron then threw me off a cliff, and in the end they recognized each other from past lives and just made out on worldwide live-holo before joining our growing fleet. 

It turned out they were the Director's past life's great-grandparents, and a Canid pop princess was her niece. The Thinker ambassador was some sort of ancestor, too. Crazy extended family. 

Most people who remember just remember the sight of a star in the sky. A buddy of mine from Fleet Academy remembered looking up at it as a Human sailor. The historians—and you’d better bet we picked up some Earther historians on this mission as well!—say this jewel or one like it was probably astrologically conflated with the planet Venus by early Humans.

(The more time I spent around the jewel, the Silmaril, the more I remembered, of my first life and more. Lifetime after lifetime with bad luck dogging my steps, killing loved ones in my arms, destroying cities I was supposed to save… One restless, haunted night, I met a Rigilic in the cafeteria who’d been awake with some of the same nightmares, who’d been my dead older sister once.)

The tour was cut short when word came from the Earth system that there was a black hole growing in the center of their reddening sun. 

No, the sun wasn’t compressing into a black hole millennia ahead of schedule—one had just spontaneously manifested within it, like it’d teleported in. No, not literally—that was impossible. We were pretty sure. No, the sun wasn’t falling into it…somehow. Yet. The black hole was only 17 quectometers wide, but it was growing at an erratic but unceasing rate. If their best estimation of the pattern held, it would consume the sun 2 months before the Elves’ deadline, and the Earth 4 to 950 minutes later.

We pulled back to Earth—well, to the dwarf planet Eros, on the edges of Earth’s star system. That’s where the nearest shipyard of any note was, and we were gathering the whole Astral Alliance. This is exactly the sort of thing the Alliance is for. 

I was released back to ship duty. Zanzibus was still a black mark on my record, as was Jorab, and really everything on the AAS Endeavor…and that thing in third year of Fleet Academy… But no matter how bad my curse, I was an experienced captain and one of the best pilots in the Alliance. For this, we needed all the best.

The boffins had pretty quickly mastered limited manipulation of the Light, using modified aetheric resonators, and every day they came up with something new for us to test. They focused the Light into a laser cannon like no one has seen before. They laced it through plasma shields until a fully shielded ship glowed like a distant star. They managed to nearly replicate the Silmaril’s crystalline structure, so they could make “copies” that shone like the original for first a few hours; then, with refinement, a full week…

The one thing they couldn’t pin down with any real confidence was how to get to Fairyland. The frequency of the Light resonated with large bodies of Earther saltwater in a particular way, and models suggested that if the Light source moved horizontally along the water within a certain range of distance and velocity, the resonance would create a wormhole-like ripple in space—but wormhole-like, was the key word, and models suggested. The closest anyone had seen to that spatial distortion was in a logbook of dubious veracity from the Delta Quadrant, four hundred years ago. Alteia, my Academy buddy who’d been a Human sailor, took the Silmaril in an M-wing on a series of highly monitored test flights above the Atlantic Ocean, and space did repeatedly start to hollow in front of bom—so bo had to stop every time, rather than risk vanishing with our single, maybe-one-way ticket.

Then Earth’s moon stopped shining in the sky. Its albedo just dropped nearly to zero, from one night to the next. There was nothing wrong that anyone could figure out—nothing with the orbit, nothing with the surface rock, nothing with the artificial atmosphere. Inhabitants reported feeling colder by several degrees, but no measuring equipment recorded anything.

The black hole slightly off-center in the middle of Sol was now 844.9 zeptometers, and growing more steadily.

We didn’t have time to keep testing. We needed to raise our swords and make our ride, even if we only got one shot at it.

I was given command, for seniority, skill, and because I was the one who managed to talk S,sh out of leading the fleet herself. (If my lives had taught me anything, it was the importance of having someone, anyone, ready to be emergency backup.) Ironically, I was back on the Endeavor, with most of my old crew—though we got permission to rename the ship, in honor of the mission. A lot of people did. Alteia was now commanding the AAS Elendil on my right flank, star-friend in Ancient Elvish. That Canid pop princess had taken over a hospital ship and renamed it Rivendell. An Earth Park Ranger, of all things, remembered being my dad—briefly—and he was leading the Rangers plus my Rigilic drinking buddy on the EPSS Elfsheen. 

We weren’t sure if any ship but the one with the Silmaril would get through. The fleet numbered in the hundreds in battleships alone, not counting scouts and scuttlers. Twelve races had sent ships on top of their typical Alliance Fleet tithe, and S,sh had brought about half the full force of the X-ee Empire. We all just locked tractor beams and hoped. 

I was piloting as well as captaining, with the Silmaril between my forehorns. It was held in place by about a dozen wires and other connectors to the ship, like an old-timey pilot’s headset. We took off in orbit around Earth, as close as possible to the surface—not very close, in warships of Class S and higher, but within range of the oceanic resonance. A Likkilianian thief-queen stood at my shoulder, ready to advise if anything “Musical” started to happen.

Think about what you’re trying to get to, and why, the boffins had advised, so I did—bright-eyed kings and dancing maidens; lost friends, families, cities, planets and all. The jewel got warmer against my skin and shone brighter with every pulse of the engine, brighter than we should’ve been able to see through.

The silver-gold Light twisted and diffused as space did around us. But there was no familiar rippling wormhole boundary—instead, spacetime thinned to a curtain like driving rain, like Vesarian silver-glass.

A ghost appeared next to me. She looked like the oldest, grumpiest writing teacher at the crèche, though I knew that was only in my head.

“There you are,” she said, impatient and relieved like I’d been hiding in the sandbox again, rather than coming to class on time. Her sewing scissors went snip snip snip as she darted them around my body—and a chain on my soul faded into guiding threads.

Before she’d even disappeared again, I punched the engine and blasted through the silver-glass curtain.

Fairy tales said there’d be a peerlessly beautiful land on the other side, green with eternal spring, full of endless light and laughter. They said there’d be sunlit shores and shimmering waves, with welcoming docks for sea-ships, sky-ships and space-ships all…

We flew into the worst battlefield I’d ever seen, in any lifetime. It was more desperately vicious than Jerusalem V at the height of the Reform Wars, more ruined than Glaurung’s wake, more desolate than Zanzibus after the nuclears fell.

Either a massive supercontinent or a small moon had been shattered, leaving nothing but a roiling debris field. The brand-new meteoroids ranged from pebbles to rocks the size of a small space station, and included space-frozen corpses, forests, and what might have once been city blocks.

I gave the helm back to my Pilot Officer—zer had, I can admit, slightly better reflexes for dodging debris—and focused on captaining.

Most of the life signs were clinging to the larger rocks. There shouldn’t have been atmosphere for them, but walls of thunderstorm wrapped around every shard with even a single life sign—wind and water desperately hand in hand to safeguard the last of the Elves. The only thing visible through the impossible storms was the Light of a second Silmaril, on a meteoroid shaped like half a broken eggshell.

A corpse lay at the epicenter of the explosion—what might’ve been a corpse, if it wasn’t also shattered. The broken pieces of a massive stone humanoid, taller than my ship if it’d stood beside her, still bleeding lava so hot that it burned even in frozen space. Another titan knelt at the shards of its head, a figure of towering bark and leaves, wailing with grief even worse than the end of the world. 

A slimmer tree-woman stood with one hand on her shoulder, comforting, and the other wielding a skyscraper-sized club spiked with incandescent wildflowers. Guarding her sister’s heartbreak, she fended off a swarm of bat-sized monsters with wings of darkness and whips of flame. 

Bat-sized relative to the gods of Elves and ancient Humans. About the size of an M-wing, in flight.

Countless more of the bat-things flung themselves at the storm-bubbles, like carnivores chasing the prey hidden inside. They were fended off by an equal army of creatures with wings of light and swords of lightning, led by a towering figure who seemed to dance from one bloody battle to the next.

The biggest battle by far was the farthest away, over where the sun had been. In this dimension of stories over science, Sol was another woman-shape, smaller than the others but burning just as brightly as her star. Also just as blood-red. The light was centered on a fist she kept clenched at her chest, and instead of containing the black hole, the unseeable thing that it was here surrounded her, striking at her with a thousand hungry jaws and grasping legs, and she had only a one-handed whip of a solar flare to fend it off—

But she didn’t fight alone. A warrior tore at the Darkness’s spidery limbs with his fists, image on the cameras flickering impossibly between every hero I’d ever heard of. A snarling figure bit at it with jagged teeth, gored it with horns, shredded it with claws and talons, and generally made every ancient prey-instinct in me scream. And a queen with a crown of stars, a shield like the night sky and a sword like a streaking comet, stood dauntlessly at the sun-holder’s side. 

With all that, and with the speed of even her most exhausted strikes, I thought the sun-holder could probably have gotten away if she’d tried. But I knew how a person fought when they weren’t willing to leave a friend, and a smaller, silver figure lay at her feet, unmoving and drained of light.

But even the battle for the sun wasn’t what grabbed my eye. No—all my attention, all my guiding threads of fate and the quick temper that always used to get me in trouble, before (and sometimes after) I learned to leash it in an Alliance uniform— All of that took me straight to the fight happening orthogonal to the stone giant’s corpse.

It was another one-versus-many. Morgoth, the First Enemy of Elves and Men— Master of Lies, Maker of Chains, Sonofabitch Curser of Bloodlines—towered over even his fellow gods. His shape changed constantly, sickeningly, but it was always black-armored with eyes like dying stars that hated you personally. His maul dripped with lava and every other kind of blood.

He fought against three great gray figures who moved as one. The tallest wielded a star-studded scythe with swift, efficient strokes, and wore the dark gray of corpse-shrouds. The shortest shimmered with more colors than even a Stamotapadon could dream of, and his weapon shifted likewise. The third was the clear, clean gray of skies after rain or tears run dry, and fought with only a shield—and hit harder with it than either of her brothers.

Around their heads darted the only Elves on the battlefield, in small fliers more like sea-ships than aircraft. But they moved fluidly, pestering the Dark Lord like flies, pricking his skin and threatening his burning eyes.

Until Morgoth swung his maul with a roar of fury that traveled even though soundless space. My ship and heart both shuddered. The gray gods all staggered back, and the Elves fell from the no-longer-sky—all but their leader, more fire than flesh, who wore the third Silmaril. Morgoth caught him in one massive black hand and with sharp claws plucked the jewel away, as easily as a ripe berry from a tree—

“All power to fore-cannon and fire,” I ordered—and the jewel on my brow shone bright again as several stored months’ worth of infinite Silmaril-Light slammed into Morgoth’s chest with all the force that the best scientists in the Astral Alliance could engineer. 

He stumbled. He dropped both the jewel and the elf-king (who’d been trying to bite him). The Lady of Mercy tossed her shield to catch them, staying low and out of sight—though she needn’t have bothered. The so-called “Lord of All” had already found his next enemy.

“All ships, move forward and join shields,” I ordered, and met his burning stare though the viewscreen. “Then broadcast me on all external frequencies.”

The wires on my forehead shimmered as we shifted Light-flow to the shields—and to my right, so did the Elendil, and to my left, the Cosmian Blade, and all around us the Minas Tirith, the Elfsheen, the Muse, the Rivendell, the Heart of Zanzi, the Longbottom Leaf… They were still soaring out of the silvery distortion behind me, tractor- and Silmaril-towed: sleek Rigilic eels-of-prey and Centaurian cruisers full of Humans eager to fight for their homeworld, Betan mine-ships and Canid X-M-wings and my own Hectoan starlighters, a full third of the X-ee navy with their X-eee–shaped six-engine dreadnoughts, and hundreds more. 

“This is Captain Pel Cinia, once Túrin Turambar, of the Astral Alliance ship Gurthang,” I said. My words were broadcast from every ship on every frequency in every language that the people of Arda might know, as the Fleet assembled from forty-plus different worlds flew into position. Our Light-infused shields blazed and locked together, until we formed a seamless wall right in the Enemy’s face, with the Elves and their other allies safely behind us.

I’ve never felt more proud to recite the most cliché line in the Fleet:

“We got your distress call. We’re here to help.”

[violetrainbow412-blog]

Day 25: love letters

Masterlist flufftober 🎀

A small disclaimer: I tried my best to proofread the letters but I hope you can forgive any mistakes, if there are. I had a lot of fun planning this one, I hope you like it!

“Why do we have so much trash, Mom?” your teenage daughter asked, watching you close the third jumbo-sized black bag filled with things you clearly no longer needed.

You two were putting away the necessary things for the move the following week and, taking advantage of the occasion, you were getting rid of things you no longer needed and putting some others in boxes to donate to some institution. Michelle wasn't too excited about the idea of cleaning, like any teenager, but at that point she wasn't even helping you anymore and was just sitting near you, playing with anything interesting she found and keeping you entertained with her chatter.

“Over the years you accumulate things because you think they will be useful for later, but in reality they aren’t and they just become a pile of useless things” you laughed “And when they can be you forget that you have them saved and you buy a new one”

“Do you think Dad will buy me that closet I want for my birthday?”

“It will depend on your grades and how well you behave,” you murmured, as you always responded whenever she asked both of you for something. She knew it was easier to bend her father to her whims, but you made sure to remind Spencer that discipline was necessary too.

“What does that box have inside?” she asked and you had to lift your head from where she was standing to look at which box she was referring to.

A smile escaped you when you noticed that she had found your old, unpainted metal box that had once stored sweets but now fulfilled other functions, the one that you kept in a dresser drawer but that with so much movement had ended up on one of your husband's stacks of books.

“Open it and find out”

Your daughter did as you asked, removing the lid with some trepidation as if a poisonous animal was going to jump out.

“Letters?”

“These are all the letters your father has written to me,” you responded proudly. The package was quite sizeable and had everything from envelopes to poorly cut pieces of paper that Spencer would slip into your pocket from time to time.

“Letters?” she repeated, sounding quite confused. “That's like the Middle Ages. Did you guys not have cell phones or what?”

“Letters are still used today, miss Tech,” you scolded her, pointing an accusing finger at her. “But your dad has never been a fan of text messages, and when we met I was working as a clerk in a library that your dad frequented. We would talk from time to time and he would leave me pieces of paper among the books he handed out so that I could read them. Almost all of them were his opinion of the books, but at some point it was his way of flirting with me. This one, for example, was for our first date… see?”

You gave your daughter a folded brown sheet of paper, from which she read the following:

“How cheesy!” she complained, after reading the words of the man who would later become your husband, although you knew she probably didn't mean it. “And what did you say to him?”

“Well, I told him yes, it's obvious. "It seemed very sweet to me, at our age no one did that kind of thing anymore."

“But there are many letters here.”

“Oh, yes, your dad traveled a lot when he still worked at the BAU and although we talked on the phone he made sure to write me a letter every time he missed me, which was almost every time” you laughed, remembering with nostalgia your courtship “He says that writing helps him think about things better. There are several good ones, to tell the truth”

You searched through the box for a letter that was decent enough for the teenager to read, feeling her gaze at all times. Finally you extended it to her, one made of beige paper and the same crooked handwriting that the two of you knew perfectly well.

“And it didn't scare you?” she asked, frowning slightly “You know, that it was so… that he sounded so in love.”

“Oh, I was too, daughter,” you answered honestly. “Although not all of them were equally romantic, there are some that are sillier. Like that one here, look at this”

“Was my dad always as nerdy as he is now? With that curious data and statistics”

“He was much more so,” you laughed. Your daughter opened her eyes wide, as if she didn't believe it.

“And you still married him?”

“Are you guys talking about me?” a voice spoke from the door, making both of you jump. Spencer had just finished his class hours and you didn't know why you hadn't even heard him open the door, but there he was now.

“I was showing Mich the letters you gave me,” you explained and he nodded softly, realizing this from the box resting on your daughter's lap.

“Do you still have them?” he asked, an almost imperceptible blush on his cheeks, as he sat on the bed next to you.

“Of course, why would I get rid of them?”

With care and love you reached up to the back of your husband's neck and then pulled him to you in a soft kiss that took him by surprise, but which he didn’t refuse.

“Ugh! You are disgusting!” Michelle squealed from the other side, forcing you to break away from the laughter that had overcome you.

“You won't say that when you have a boyfriend.”

"What are you talking about? She'll never have a boyfriend," Spencer added, as he always responded at the mention of it. "We're going to put her in a nunnery, don't you remember?"

"Daddy!" she complained, pretending to be upset, but with a smile giving away that she wasn't.

The man left his place to walk over to your daughter and lean towards her, trying to place a kiss on her forehead while he struggled with all her complaints and kicks. But in the end she always gave in, just like he did with her. They were each other's weakness.

“Go and take a shower and if you have homework, finish it. We’re going to order a pizza."

Your daughter gave a celebratory expression and left the room in a hurry, to fulfill what he had told her and also to get rid of the possibility of you asking her to do the cleaning that she hadn’t done during the afternoon.

"How was your day?"

“Everything normal,” he smiled, reaching out to take one of the old envelopes you had in the box, and with that you two seemed to be remembering the same time: the passionate and youthful love you had. “I hope she hasn't read the more inappropriate”

“No, I keep those just for myself,” you replied, winking at him playfully.

The next morning Spencer had classes early, so he left almost after breakfast. You didn't realize that he had left a note on the table until much later and when you found it you couldn't help but smile like a fool.

taglist: @navs-bhat@reidwritings@tricia-shifting14@spencerslove@vivian-555 @r-3dlips @rhiannonhippiegirl @taygrls @simp4f1@sdddoobydoobydoo@taintedstranger @missabsey

[threepandas]

The Vod's List: Part 3

The Separatist Army tries invade the Techganic homeworld and DIES SCREAMING.

I... I am cackling like a broken laugh 'track, in a low Senatorial staff seating area. Pretty sure everyone thinks I've lost my chips. But... BUT THEY DON'T GET IT! It's so FUNNY!? Oh Bones and Blood! Oh karking STARS!!! Of all the kriffing PLANETS to PHYSICALLY INVADE with DROIDS!!!

DROIDS!

I am wheezing. Gasping for air. Slowly tipping out of my chair as I all but seize silently in spasms of sheer, incredulous, amusement. Oh Stars, I'm gonna die. My gut is on fire and I DONT CARE. Droids! Just... just DROPPED UM right into the capitals like "here ya go! Surrender flesh bags!"

Pfffahahahahaha!

I finally slip, only for a gloved hand to catch my shoulder gently, keeping me from crashing to the floor. A calculated step and lift, brings my shoulder to brace against the side of familiar armor. A guard. I manage to glance up through my incoherent laughing fit. I know that armor!

"Fox!" I grin, glad I am starting to be able to tell the gaurds apart. It always felt rude to have to keep asking their names, even when I by all rights SHOULD already know them. "Good morning."

"Ma'am." He nods. I still don't get why people think they're 'emotionless'. Even through the voicecoder, his voice is warm. "Funny joke?"

"The Separatists invaded my planet." I laugh. At his questioning head tilt, I grin MEANLY from behind my mask. "Remember how we met? And you got infected? EVERYONE on my planet is some version of carrier, either Organic or Technological. Depending on where those droids land? They are either FOOD or free scrap metal. The Collective will EAT them. And folks back home?"

I glanced around, trying to find the room's cameras. Fox casually pointed before stepping between it's line of sight and me. Kriff he was so cool. I grabbed one of the old datapads I was supposed to dump in the recycler after my break. No one would miss if I threw one in the biohazard shoot instead... probably.

I turned it on. Showing it worked. A perfectly functioning, if old, datapad. Then? I listened to that old, old, OLD instinct in the back of my head that karking HATED technology. That honestly would be happier living in a stone shack on a distant moon, surrounded by growth. That could, at a glance, pick apart any given peice of technology's weak points.

Not to slice it. Or IMPROVE it. But to BREAK it. Irreparably.

My eyes found the weak point in the screen almost immediately. A point where fingers had worn it thin. Smack! I cracked it against the table, like an animal trying to open trying to open a nut. It cracked. And that was all I needed. All ANY of us would ever need, really.

Just One Little Crack.

I pulled off my mask, knowing my face was probably doing that... THING. That "super intent Murder Hunter" thing that we all do, when our instincts engage. But I wanted to show Fox. I trusted him. So I flexed my jaw and thought of the lift, of how me met, the STRESS. Just enough to get a bit of drool.

Then... I let it drop onto the screen.

The reaction, was of course, IMMEDIATE.

The datapad hissed and squealed, screen glitching violently. I carefully put it down, familiar with what was about to happen. Fox... was not. He watched. Frozen. Entranced. As the datapad burned and melted from within. Was CONSUMED. As my nanites wrecked hell in their final moments before dying, no longer supported by my body. Some of course, simply falling dormant.

Those were the lethal ones. The trap for future Collective members trying to reclaim tech. It's why all infected materials had to be treated as a biohazard. Those nanites stayed viable for upwards of a century AT LEAST. Several, in the right condition.

So droids? Ha! We were BIOENGINEERED to fight "droids"! We WERE the original GAR. What was that Human saying? "Nothing new in the Galaxy?" That.

Fox was taking even, measured, breaths. Clenching and unclenching his hand. His voice sounded... strained, as he agreed. That, yes. We WERE very, VERY alike. And that that was FASCINATING. Could his spit do that now too?

I... didn't know. Huh.

I blinked. First up at him. Then down at the 'pad. I hadn't considered that. Kriff. Well THAT was irresponsible of me. Yeah, yeah we should probably schedule some Techganic 101 lessons, shouldn't we? Since... you know, assuming you SURVIVE infection and first "heal"? It's kinda a one and done sort of thing.

You can't get... double infected? It very much IS a you ARE or you AREN'T a carrier. And even THEN... one of two kinds, which CAN NOT peacefully coexist.

Plus... since it's adapted to the Guards biology, a spread would be SUPER easy?

.........I..... I SHOULD tell someone.

But what would happen to Fox? I'm not blind. People aren't exactly... KIND to Clones. Would they decide its just easier to get rid of him? My gut say probably. Experience says likely. I've barely even STARTED working at the Senate and... well...

Maybe I should keep my mouth shut. WE should keep our mouth shut.

"This time, I'll be the one looking out for YOU, kay Fox?"

"Of course. I'll leave my self in your capable hands. I have no doubt... I'll learn A LOT."

There is something intent about the way he stands, the way he's bracketing me into my chair. The almost soft, warm but cloying quality to his voice. Like he's trying not to make it obvious he's handling me. Like I'm some import dignitary he wants to avoid upsetting. But one he LIKES. It's strange... I'm certain I'm missing something...

At least I have plenty of other Guards around to ask.

[buff-electra-truther]

I've alluded to the concept a number of times, but here's my redesign for OLC Belle the Sleeping Car wildly roleswapped into a Momma/Poppa figure for Electra, as Belle the GG1. You could probably give her a better name, but Belle is passable enough since all locomotives in the US have bells, I mainly kept it to preserve the flow of her song (see below cut for her version!). Based on their status and appearance in their absolute final running days in 1984. They may look glossy and pretty (if a WILD time warp) but they were on their absolute last gasp physically at this point after running for nearly 50 years, due to a lack of suitable replacement. Her dress follows a similar logic to Greaseball's outfit in that it represents the streamlined cowl, which is why she's less mechanical than most.

Personality-wise, she's also oooooold and based on Ella Fitzgerald, even more heavily than OLC Belle since she's fits perfectly with the time/place/personality of the GG1s. Both started in the mid-30s in New York City, and were noted for being "effortless" and almost unparalleled in their field. I tend to imagine her playing more on the "cute, humble, and improvisational" side of Ella, entering the big race just to have one last good run before she retires, and forgetting lyrics and making up something that sounds natural. In my mind she wins because the tracks are rough and winding, which she's far more used to that the other Nationals, with how decrepit parts of her Northeast Corridor were in the 80s and still are now- experience is a quality that counts for a lot!

She toes the line between OC and AU since she's such a twist on the original but stays largely true to her general concept. I'll call her more of an AU and say anyone is free to use this interpretation if they want, I'm not possessive of it at all.

Realistically she'd be dead as a doornail after 1984 (GG1s will just never run in preservation, they were in such bad shape and would need so much work to function on modern systems you may as well build a new replica). But make a cheeky joke about Controls' mom "sticking the old shell on a new body and not telling the kid" and she can come back. I like to think she'd have a flirty, playful rivalry with Momma/Poppa, she'd make Light At The End Of The Tunnel a duet about how steam is great.... for power plants! The Pennsylvania Railroad just stopped getting more steam engines when it electrified lines vs axing them so she wouldn't have any historical antagonism with them.

Here's my rewrite of Belle's Song largely following the original format, but now about the real history of the GG1s

Speed and youth ain't everything

Experience is a quality that counts for a lot

The sad thing 'bout experience is

By the time you've got it

It's usually all you've got...

I'm Belle, Belle, Belle, the GG1

Had my fifty years of fun

My frame is cracked, I’m almost done

Though in my heart, I long to run

I hauled the folks, I hauled the freight

I made good time, no need to wait

Just couple up and ride with me

I’d get you where you want to be

Once I was the hope for the future, wires run from coast to coast

Service every hour, to everywhere, hauling the post!

Now it’s just tragic…

The war then came, it all fell down

Restriction made the new tech drown

Let autos win, pave over it all

Watched the railroads slowly fall

Still I was a real mainliner, they struggled to replace me

Ran commuter trains into the ground

Down by the sea…. At least it was scenic

Oh, Belle, Belle, Belle, the GG-LOST

I’m worn down, yet I’m still boss

I may not be first class, but I'm not yet worst class

I can still take you when the night is dark

I’m withered, but I ain’t lost my spark

[edgyedgelord]

I'm back to yell at y'all to BUY MY STUFF!!! Finding work around here ain't working out and I'm in need of a new laptop to continue my indie work and to generally make life easier. I've been using my phone to apply to jobs, college, and my fafsa and its a NIGHTMARE.

Prices listed are my offer but I am willing to haggle. Know that I won't drop them super low and I have checked on other websites what the average price is for the items that I'm selling for their quality.

The base cost for the laptop I want is $1,182 with the specs I need, ports, and ofc the power adapter. I want to try aiming for $1,250 if possible in case prices go up, shipping, etc. and anything extra would ofc be appreciated. I will also accept donations but would prefer if you instead gave them to those in more need than me.

I'd also like to say that I wish I didn't have to do this during a time where people are suffering for their existance. If you have money to spare please send it to families in need or trusted organizations who can help them. If I reach my goal and get employed I will be donating whatever I can afford to the families in need and organizations that can help them. This doesn't just apply to Palestinians but anyone affected by any sort of genocide.

Current Goal Progress: $81.88/$1,250

This post will update regularly with new items and prices. If you find something you like send me a message with an offer and we'll discuss. I may add a bit more to the price for shipping depending on how much it is. You will have to pay first before I send it out.

If you're not happy with the item and want a refund message me and send it back. I'll return the money once I have the item back.

Oculus Rift S - $150

Full set including the headset, controllers, wire, and box. Condition is well used, poor even, but can be repaired. Still functions but is worn out so boot up is slow and can have issues at times.

Has duct tape residue cause the lil bit that holds the wire fell off. It's been cleaned off after I took these photos I just need to update them.

Recommended for tech geeks looking for VR parts or that can repair it, or those who aren't picky.

Do not buy if you're looking for a first time headset, just get a Meta Quest or Steam VR headset.

Wacom One - $100

Perfectly fine condition on the outside with the only issue being that the display doesn't work. Other than that, it functions perfectly fine.

Comes with tons of pen tips, two pens, the wire, etc. I recommend this if you're looking for a Wacom that isn't overpriced and if you're looking to not support the company but want one of their tablets.

Recommended for fellow artists needing a cheap tablet with all the fixins but doesn't need a display. I tried to get it fixed but they were charging almost the same price as when we bought it.

Xp-Pen Wireless Deco LW Black - $50

Theres actually nothing wrong with it. It's just old and I don't really use it anymore since I got my newest tablet.

It'll come with a carrying bag, pen, case for the pen and extra nibs, cleaning cloth, and even the manual.

Recommend for beginners needing a cheap starting tablet or those in need of a cheap replacement or backup, like myself when I got it.

Advice: If she starts losing calibration and recalibrating isn't working check to make sure the program/drivers are up to date. Still works like brand new even years later!

Pokemon Cards - Prices Vary

I have a massive collection and 90% of those are doubles. Need that ONE card to complete a set? Looking for something fancy for your binder? Wanting a couple of random cards to get into the TCG? Hit me up! I have so many cards I need to trade away or sell it's ridiculous.

More details on this post.

[sirtaliesin]

Hmmm Jason and Etrigan dealing with some no magical tech; either some stuff wayne tech made, batman found or just general everyday tech?

This took me a bit, but the first thing I thought of was Jason shopping for a mobile phone. Thank you for the suggestion!

Phone Shopping

This was absolutely ridiculous.

Jason looked from one display to the next, mood shifting between irritation, disbelief, and bewilderment. He needed a mobile phone not a computer. Placards with an array of photographs and cheerful blurbs sat next to the variety of models on display. Proudly declaring excellent camera quality, recording features, excessive storage, and a number of functions that didn’t seem necessary on a phone.

Most of the models on display seemed to take the actual function of a telephone as secondary at best. If they considered it at all. Looking between the touchscreens and the model numbers, a sense of regret pooled in his belly. He recalled the conversation he’d had not more than a week ago that had necessitated this outing. That he really did need a mobile phone for when he was out, especially since the last model he’d had suffered an unfortunate demise via hellfire more than a year ago.

The lamentation that he hadn’t brought one of his friends with him was short lived. Bruce, while fairly knowledgeable about these things, would have drawn far too much attention. Zatanna might have been a more reasonable choice, but he couldn’t bring himself to bother her about it either.

“Can I help you find something sir?” The salesperson Jason had been studiously avoiding asked.

“Perhaps. Do you have anything less,” Jason gestured to the variety of smart phones with Wayne Tech logos, “Complicated?”

“We have a new model with a very sleek operating system just over here.” The young woman – Jason noted her name tag read Andie – said while she led the way to a different display near the counter.

The newer models were, like the rest, overly complicated smart devices with fragile screens and boasting excellent cameras. Jason felt a headache forming. The young woman was talking to him again, describing the benefits of a telephoto lens and a higher megapixel rate, excellent battery life, and enough storage for his needs. What those must have been by the estimation of whoever designed that handheld computer, Jason couldn’t even imagine. The only thing she’d said thus far that had any appeal was the long battery life.

“Um, I was thinking of something a little more utilitarian.” Jason hazarded, trying to shift away from the sales pitch for the shiny new model.

“Oh? We do have some very basic models as well, Wayne Tech’s older models are perfectly serviceable-“

“Do you have anything that doesn’t have a touch screen?” Jason interrupts.

“Without? Well, we have some flip models-“

“Could I see those please?”

Andie tilts her head and gestures bemusedly to the opposite end of the store. Furthest from the door, Jason notes. Not exactly hidden, but certainly not the bright eye-catching displays of the smart models. They are far more utilitarian and familiar, more akin to his old phone than any of the cameras that also allowed one to make a call.

“I think this will do just fine.” Jason says finally, picking out a simple flip phone. It has a camera still, but at least it has buttons. Easier to use if he couldn’t see, and he was certain he’d be less likely to destroy it.

Andie rings up the purchase for him and helps him change over his number with a smile. Jason contemplates the dark glass panes of the other devices on display as he leaves. The black mirror surfaces that wink to life with glowing colour aren’t terribly appealing.

Three months later, after a particularly complicated trip to New Hampshire, Jason returns home to find an unassuming box on his kitchen table. A note in a familiar hand tucked under it.

‘Just try it out. -Bruce’

Jason ignores the new Wayne Tech smart phone for another month on principle.

[bookoftheironfist]

Hey! I’ve noticed that since Danny’s not been the Iron Fist his company���s been getting a bit more attention, especially in Gang War, and I was wondering what the deal is with Rand Corp lately? It seems to be quite Tech focused recently, however the last important thing I remember happening with it was in Immortal Iron Fist a few years back when Danny was making it into a Non-Profit. I vaguely remember that still being the deal with it in the Power-Man/Iron Fist series from the early 2010s with Meachum being involved, but I don’t think I’ve read anything where it’s been too important since. Thought I’d see if I could get some answers from you as your Iron Fist knowledge far exceeds mine, and it’d be good to be in the know if it is going to be getting more attention in future comics. Keep up the great blog!🔥

Thank you!

The Rand Corp situation has been difficult to track, and I feel like it's fallen victim to the kind of continuity inconsistency that tends to result from the short runs/frequent creative team changes that Iron Fist has experienced...basically since the 90s. I really appreciate you asking this because it gave me an excuse to go back and take a closer look at the modern Rand Corp timeline which, simply put, is this:

In Immortal Iron Fist, Danny commits to donating away his fortune, which he never really wanted in the first place. At the end of that series he shuts down Rand Corp, sells his penthouse and moves in with Misty, and plans to funnel what's left of his money into his and Misty's kung fu school/youth support center, the Thunder Dojo.

As you mention, by Power Man and Iron Fist volume 2, Danny has transformed the bones of Rand Corp into the Rand Foundation, a humanitarian non-profit, which Joy Meachum steps in to help him run (I think it would have been fun for them to call it the Rand-Meachum Foundation, for old times' sake and full-circle-ness, but hey).

In Defenders (2011), with no explanation or fanfare, we learn that Rand Corp has transformed into Dongxi/Rand (presumably through a merger of some kind). Jeryn Hogarth is back on board, and the company still seems to be involved in transportation technology, including privatized space travel. There's already no mention of the Rand Foundation.

In Living Weapon, the dilapidated tower that formerly housed Rand Corp is taken over by Steel Serpent and the One and then fully destroyed when Danny, um, imbues it with the combined chi of the citizenry of K'un-Lun and transforms it into a giant mech to battle a god (man, I love Living Weapon). Brenda Swanson mentions Danny's charity work during her interview with him in the first issue, but he was also doing charity work long before he shut down Rand Corp. There's no specific mention of the non-profit, and not even any mention of Dongxi/Rand. Defenders (2011) ended (spoiler) with a reality rewrite. Was Donxgi/Rand erased, perhaps?

Power Man and Iron Fist volume 3 is centered around Luke and Danny re-starting Heroes for Hire. No mention is made of Rand Corp or the Rand Foundation.

In Iron Fist volume 5 Danny still has quite a bit of money; he pays a million dollars in cash to a fight club and says the set-up for Shou-Lao in his apartment cost millions, not to mention his security for the Book of the Iron Fist. No explanation is given. There's no mention of Rand Corp or the Rand Foundation.

In Defenders (2017), Danny attends a high-society function on behalf of Rand Corp and personally buys Night Nurse a building. The company seems to be back. I was a bit baffled by this when the series was coming out, but at the time, I took it with a grain of salt because the whole comic felt slightly removed from the normal 616 continuity. Now, however, it fits perfectly into the general confusion surrounding this topic.

Immortal Iron Fists seems to be the most recent official turning point. Rand Corp is definitively stated as being "back up and running" following its destruction in Living Weapon. Danny rides around in a fancy limo. He mentions that a lot of his time is being taken up "running the company" and refers to himself as a "multi-billionaire". No mention of the Rand Foundation. No context or explanation for why he decided to revive Rand Corp. Even Danny's character bio on the title page says that he still "presides over his deceased father's billion-dollar company". It almost feels like a retcon, but Danny has never, ever ridden around in a limo before, so I'm not even sure how to categorize it.

Heart of the Dragon and Iron Fist volume 6 both include vague, fleeting references to Rand Corp, but nothing conclusive. Phantom Limb has nothing at all.

And then we have Gang War, which is written as though Rand Corp has just been around this whole time, doing R&D on cool fight suits for Danny to give to Luke.

The casualness of it all is what leads me to suspect that it was just a big continuity bumble on the part of the various creative teams, rather than an intentional shift in the status quo. I'm not saying that big changes to Danny's world haven't been made with no set-up or explanation before (cough), but I would think that if he were actively bringing the company back as a money-making, tech-creating entity, after being so emphatic about shutting it down, we would have least have had a scene at some point in the past few years of him saying, "You know what? I think I want to revive Rand Corp because...etc." And we haven't. Thus, I'm diagnosing this as a situation where the Rand Foundation non-profit was probably forgotten following PMIF volume 2, which led to the events of the end of Immortal being forgotten, which led to creative teams going "Oh yeah, Danny Rand. He's a rich guy who owns a company, right?" and then just having Rand Corp and Danny's fortune still be a thing because they forgot that they, quite significantly, stopped being one a while ago. Which is a big, frustrating shame, because his decision to dump his father's company and get rid of his money was, I feel, a really important and compelling moment in Danny's journey. As we look towards Danny's future, I'll be curious to see what role Rand Corp might play in this new chapter of his life.

Thanks for the great question!

[sieglinde-freud]

for the ask game: 2, 4, 5, 9, 17, 24, 29, 35

OOHHH THIS GONNA BE LONG under cut immediately

2. Least favorite main title?

i think this may upset some people but just of the games that i have finished (i havent played or finished every single fire emblem game… i know i know bad fan shut up) it’s prooobably fe7??? not because it’s bad. i do love that game. i just love it the least of every other game i played? i love all three of the lords a lot!! theyre just not my super favorites. i like the story fine, just not as much as other games. the gameplay is alright, but i dont think it’s anything to write home about. it’s a perfectly average fire emblem game all across the board i think. and that’s probably why i dont think about it too much? though, admittedly, ive only played through it fully once and that was like. five years ago? i could give it another run. i never did try hector hard mode, tbf… also huge shoutout to my lovelies sain and serra i love them so much…

4. What games do you wish to play next?

i dont know how often i mentioned it but i had a computer a while ago that just stopped working. like completely. the hardware is fine it just stopped functioning properly and ive taken it to literally every tech place and handed it to every computer junkie friend i have and nothing can fix it. and very unfortunately, it broke while i was in the middle of playing path of radiance. i dont really have anything else i can emulate it on right now, but if i could it’d be that. and of course, radiant dawn right after :)

5. What games would you reccomend to someone new?

toss up between 7, 8, and 13. they all have their strengths and weaknesses as entry points, but theyre all fairly simple in difficulty, and 7 and 13 were entry points for a lot of people who still love the game today, so theyre pretty easy to reccomend. 7 and 8 are easily accessible being able to emulate on like. most things?? even iphones with little hassle. 13 was also, up until very recently, very easy to grab off the eshop. i guess if someone asked me now compared to last year maybe i wouldnt say 13 for that reason? idk. 16* is also an option though, if only because it’s on the switch and while fairly different from the main fire emblem formula, it is VERY good at grabbing attention. im biased because i have used it to drag a friend into fire emblem hell so. i know it works. personally i’d probably go 7/13, 8, 16*, {the rest} but yeah. those four. move awakening down if hardware is an issue.

9. Least favorite character?

IN THE WHOLE SERIES??????? man… i dont know i dont really dislike a whole lot of characters? i guess the first one that comes to mind is gilbert three houses?? i understand why hes like that for sure and can sympathize but i dont know. everytime that hes on screen i just frustrated. the fact that he treats annette the way that he does bothers me a lot even if i understand why, but then theres also the added fact that he only becomes story relevant to replace dedue, who was a MUCH better and far less ANNOYING character to listen to all the time. like why would you replace one of my favorite students/retainers with this stupid little old man who i really have no reason to be attached to? you cant even recruit him during white clouds! not to mention, hes force deployed with the most garbage base stats (THAT YOU CANT CHANGE. BECAUSE. HE WASNT RECRUITABLE IN WHITE CLOUDS!!) in one of the hardest maps in the whole game in a position you CANNOT EDIT. like just GIVE ME DEDUE??????? you know, the CHARACTER I TRAINED??????? god… anyways so its probably him. this felt good actually i dislike him much more than i thought i did.

17. How did you get into Fire Emblem?

this is really embarrassing actually but when i was younger i was really into kid icarus uprising (i still am but like less so) and i reeeally loved pit like you see me with inigo now? that was pit for me back then. and i wanted more of him but nintendo was not giving me any kid icarus content, so what i looked up his voice actor instead, and i went through a lot of medias just to listen to him (did you know antony del rio did this live performance of maroon 5’s “This Love” that’s actually way better than the original? look it up) (no i dont like adam levine) but the one that stuck the most was this silly little game… you mightve heard of it its called Fire Emblem Fates. and i saw silas fire emblem and i was like WOAHHH. HES CUTE and did a ton of research on the series, having only vaguely known of it from smash bros. bought birthright, having learned it was the easier of the two paths, and then i just. entire life changed immediately and i didnt even know.

24. An FE title you wish would be remade?

all of them in order, which is what they already seem to be doing! so, ideally, fe4 next? of course my bias would LOVE an awakening remake but i dont think thats fair to skip all the other games. plus, i think there are other games that need a gameplay overhaul more. …like fe4.

29. Avatars: yay or nay?

i cant fucking stand the concept of avatars in fire emblem. i like all of them as characters. i think robin, corrin, byleth, and alear as characters (i havent played shadow dragon and new mystery sorry kris!) are fine. but i hate how theyre all implemented into all of their games, to the point where the words “byleth” and “alear” are never spoken in their mostly fully voiced games. its so fucking stupid. and then you have writing problems, like other playable characters not being able to have meaningful and lasting conflicts with the avatars because you have to be able to fuck them when the games over, or even during the game in robin and corrins case. and also the weird incest that has to happen if you want your avatar to have familial ties? god forbid people who just think camilla or ryoma are hot have to justify incest to themselves and read some the dumbest fucking s support bullshit just to have their little otome romance. and then the plot bending around them? robin i give a pass because i dont think awakening was annoyingly centered on them (the grima thing was close but for the most part the focus stays on chrom and i think thats a good thing) but as much as i love these games, fates, three houses, and engage all suffer from being a little TOO player pandering. making your character a god? really? especially when the avatar takes focus away from other potential story drivers (xander/takumi, 3h lords, engage royals) and like for what? i like all of the “avatars” as characters. but the way that theyre used and what little that usage does for any positive story impact is just frustrating!

35. What’s something you wish Intsys would just stop doing?

avatars.

[maccreadysbaby]

Chapter Eight: MacDoggy

featured characters: tommy (oc), maccready, zeke, bluejay, duke, johnny d., roxy, rowdy

word count: 2,656

full chapter masterlist

—

Tommy tightened the last screw on her newest masterpiece. It was about six o'clock. The sun was setting, beaming its golden rays down on the garage. Two days since she got the parts from Daisy’s merchant, and already, two functioning turrets sat on the roof of the Red Rocket she called home.

MacCready had been there four successful nights. Tommy had come to the conclusion that she didn’t really like him, but she did like teasing him. He seemed to be growing — at least slightly — accustomed to her constant taunting and dog jokes. And to be completely honest... she could've gotten a much... much worse babysitter.

"Oh yeah. Let's boot up these babies," She whispered to herself. She rose from her knees, patting the metal turret on it's top. An identical one sat across from it, each aiming off opposite sides of the roof.

Tommy stretched when she stood, wincing at the pain in her torso. It still hurt like, every time she moved, but it was pretty manageable without Med-X now. She slowly made her way to the terminal that she had fixed up and placed on the roof. It ran almost as good as Zeke's. It was connected to both turrets with a host of wires and conduits, as well as running power to each of them by the small generator that sat on the other end of the roof.

She dusted off her hands and wiped them on her shirt. Roxy had washed her black tank top as well as it could be washed. Thank goodness it was black. She was wearing some of Zeke's old green cargo pants — not that he would need them even in he was awake, they’d pretty much be an abomination on him. Her Atom Cats jacket was laying off to the side. Her hair was tied up in an ugly bun that MacCready couldn't help but make fun of. And speaking of — her shadow was sitting on the edge of the roof, rifle in hand, watching her. She glanced over at him. She didn't understand how he stayed in those same green and brown clothes all of the time.

"Enjoying the show?" She questioned, crouching over the terminal. She saw him shrug in her peripheral.

"Pretty boring if you ask me,"

She shook her head, glancing down to her right. Next to the terminal was two metal boxes of bullets. Ammo no one used. 50 Cal, 7.62, 5mm, some 9mm she managed to haggle off of a trader from the Capital Wasteland, 5.56, the works. Basically everything that wasn't a sniper round, a shotgun round, or energy. Each of the boxes were shaped sort of like square funnels with a hole and flap at the bottom. They were both almost full, which was a good sign.

She typed a few commands in on the terminal, until the words 'READY TO LOAD' popped up. With a smile, she carried one of the ammo boxes over to one of the turrets.

"So you've made a perfectly good turret, and you're feeding it reject ammo?" The mercenary questioned. She glanced back at him, her green eyes locking onto his grey ones. He had his chin balanced on the stock of his sniper, the barrel sitting on the roof. She thought it would be funny if she kicked it out from under him.

"Yeah. Cool, right?" She questioned, lifting up the funnel of bullets and sliding it into a slot on the top of the turret. "There's a rotating panel inside, almost like a huge gear but with a bunch of different gun barrels attached. The bullets go in, the machine reads what caliber it is, rotates to the appropriate barrel, and bam. A turret that can shoot all the bullets you don't use."

"I'm not impressed," He stated coldly. "Seen tech miles ahead of that."

"I'm sure you have," She muttered, rolling her eyes. She carried the other batch of bullets to the second turret, inserting it into the top. 

The mercenary shifted. "How exactly does it know what type of bullet it is?"

A smirk appeared on the girls face as she returned to the terminal. "The same circuit boards and adapters that let assaultrons detect the difference between friend and foe. Just tweaked it a little to detect slight differences in shape and size, which they already did. I also outfitted them with cameras in order to choose its target. Obviously it won't shoot at regulars or non hostiles... I programmed it to fire at hostiles only."

"And how does it know who's hostile and who's not?"

Tommy chuckled. "You really are that guy, aren't you?" 

The mercenary didn't reply. The teenager typed some commands on the terminal, then shook her head. "They were old Assaultron circuit boards I hybrid connected with some old Mister Handy boards. Full facial recognition for the owner, aka, me. The rest is all deduced by audio, mostly. Picks up signs of gunfire or violence. It can tell the difference between human and non human fairly easily, thermal imaging and whatnot, it's just the human enemies it might stumble on a little. There's still a lot of tweaking to come. But it's better than nothing for now."

She saw him nodding out of the corner of her eye. She typed a few more commands on the computer, and suddenly, both turrets whirred to life and began rotating side to side.

"Heck yeah," She whispered, heading over to the turret facing the entrance. She double and triple checked each turrets' systems, as well as running several diagnostics on the terminal. Everything looked green. But of course, you never know until they fired.

"It's been four days since you were... laid off from work, and you've already repaired home-built communication tower, completely fixed a botched floating robot, and built two all-ammo turrets from nothing but scrap you got off a ghoul. I might be stretching here, Boss, but I can't help but think you have a problem. A serious problem."

Tommy looked over at the mercenary, who hadn't moved from his spot slouched against the lip of the roof. "What is my problem, Therapist Sparky?"

"You are way too much of a nerd for me to hang out with,"

She scoffed. "Okay, mister cool-guy. If you want to die from lack of technological protection, be my guest. Butcha' can't do it here."

"Yeah. Because the freakin' Mechanist lives here," He stated, fiddling with the trigger of his gun. Tommy glanced up at him quickly. 

"You read comic books?"

He locked eyes with her. "Who doesn't read comic books?"

"You're a total comic book geek, aren't you? Aren't you!" She said loudly, crossing her arms. "Making fun of me for knowing technology. Ha!"

MacCready raised an eyebrow at her. "I saw the mountain of comics in your trailer, so you can cool it on the deflecting and accept the painful fact that you are, too."

Tommy opened and closed her mouth a few times, before giving up and heading for the ladder she used to get on the roof.

"Haha! Told you!"

"Bad dog," She replied. She quickly gathered her toolbox and made her way down the wooden ladder, ignoring the dull sting in her chest, and hopped onto the ground. Before he could follow her, she grabbed the ladder and laid it down against the building.

"Hey... hey! Still up here!" The mercenary announced, appearing over the ledge of the roof. She could only see his head, and he looked angry, which gave her a laugh.

"Yeah, I know," She chuckled.

"You're just gonna leave me up here? I'm supposed to be watching you,"

"Watch the garage from up there. I thought snipers liked it up high," She stated, wiggling her eyebrows. She made her way through the back door of the garage. She could hear MacCready's muffled voice... but she didn't care enough to listen.

She decided it wouldn't hurt him to stay up there for a little bit.

—

She let him down three hours later.

He wasn't very pleased. He went on a long, drawn out rant about how he was starting to not hate working for her, how he was just trying to do his job, yadda yadda. Tommy was laughing almost the whole time. 

And now the moon was out, and it was almost nine-thirty, according to the terminal she’d gone back up to check, like, twelve times. The Atom Cats (plus MacPuppy) were congregated at the tables on the other side of Bluejay's bar. The buzz in the air wasn't the same without Zeke. He was still on his cot, connected to the big blue machine. 

Tommy was behind the bar, getting things ready for dinner in their tiny kitchen composed of a stove, fridge, and sink. All of which Tommy (with a little help from Zeke) had restored to working order ages ago. She was making the Cats favorite dish — Blamco Brand Mac N' Cheese with chopped up Mirelurk cakes mixed in. She was lucky enough that the neighbors needed their water pump fixed a few days before she got home, and had awarded Duke with about five of the meat slabs as payment. You wouldn't hear anybody complaining.

She had water boiling in a pre-war pot on the stove, and the mirelurk cakes were heating up on an old skillet beside it. The jukebox was playing softly in the background, a song Tommy didn't really know. Johnny D, Bluejay, and Duke we're playing cards at the first table, Rowdy and Roxy were chatting at the second, and at the third, MacCready sat alone, stripping down his sniper for goodness knows what reason. A stiff silence ensued when the song ended and the jukebox began whirring to find another. Tommy dumped the box of Blamco noodles in the boiling water, careful to catch the package of powdered cheese before it fell in.

“Hey T, what do you want for your birthday?” Rowdy suddenly questioned. Tommy glanced up at her, rusty wheels turning for a solid ten seconds before she comprehended that tomorrow would be a week since the night she went to Goodneighbor. Which meant her birthday was tomorrow.

“Oh, geez, I totally forgot,” She muttered. “If I’m being completely honest, it’d be a birthday miracle if Zeke woke up.”

No one said a word.

Quietly, a new song started playing.

"I got a doll baby, I love her so, nothing else like her anywhere you go-"

Tommy almost sighed in relief when the familiar song kicked on. If she could pinpoint one thing that happened continuously throughout her life — it was that song. It used to play around Diamond City when she lived there, it played on the radio in HQ. It seemed to play no matter where she was. She started tapping her foot to the beat as she stirred the noodles.

"Atom bomb baby, little atom bomb... I want her in my wigwam... she's just the way I want her to be, a million times hotter than TNT," Tommy sang along quietly with the song as it bopped along. She kept stirring the noodles on the stove. "Atom bomb baby, loaded with power, radioactive as a TV tower, a nuclear fission in her soul..."

In the midst of her singing, she caught Bluejay laughing over the counter at her.

"What?" She questioned, not taking her eyes off the noodles she was trying so desperately not to overcook. The man glanced at her, tossing a card to the center of the table.

"Nothin'. Song just reminds me of when Andy was here,"

A small smile quirked up on the side of Tommy's face. Andy wasn't that much older than her — only a year or two. She remembered, every time this song came on, he'd say it reminded him of her. He was a terrible flirt. She was seventeen when he died. He was nineteen.

She snickered. "Yeah. Ol' Andy loved this song."

"No, Ol' Andy loved who this song reminded him of," Johnny D. chuckled. Tommy peered over at him, pointing her spoon at him.

"Don't,"

"Atom bomb baby, little atom bomb...  I want her in my wigwam-"

"I'm just sayin'," Johnny continued. Tommy went back to stirring the noodles.

"She's just the way I want her to be, a million times hotter than TNT,"

She stared down at the pot. She remembered cooking this when Andy was still around. He would always stand on the other side of the bar, all posted up on it, talking to her about random things. He never really knew what to do with that bright red mop of his, so it was usually frizzed everywhere. His eyes were a bright green, like hers, and his face was absolutely peppered with freckles. He would always spin her around when she was delivering plates to the Cats. Zeke was the closest thing she had to a guardian, and Andy, well... he was the closest thing she had to a best friend. If she could call it that.

She remembered the night he died. He and Duke went out for a supply run in their power armor — a common occurrence when Rowdy needed more parts. She didn't know anything was wrong until Duke came back by himself. She asked for Andy, and all he did was shake his head no. 

Duke never really told her what happened. She heard him talking to Zeke about how the attackers took his power armor, and had really advanced laser guns, but he...

Tommy dropped her spoon into the pot.

She understood now.

She looked back down at the macaroni and meat, realizing she'd autopiloted almost the whole meal thinking about Andy. She pulled out her nasty spoon, and then fished seven bowls out of the cabinet and set them out on the counter. She  carefully dished an even amount into every bowl. She was silent as she carried three bowls to The guys, two to the girls, and one to MacCready, all of which muttered a small thanks. Besides MacDoggy.

The Merc glanced up at her, but stayed silent. Tommy was deep in thought, and she was sure her facial expression said that. She plopped her bowl down across from him and sat down in the chair. Atom Bomb Baby was far from her head anymore, even though it was playing in the background.

"Duke?" She questioned. The man glanced back at her from his food.

"Yep?"

Tommy's eyes were fixed on the floor. "You never told me what happened to Andy."

Duke looked down, shifting in his chair. It was obviously still a sore topic for him, as it was for everyone. She could tell by the way the Cats quieted.

Tommy sucked in a breath. "It was the Brotherhood of Steel, wasn't it?"

Duke sighed heavily. "The Brotherhood of Steel didn't get here until-"

"Don't lie to me. They've always been here. Even when I lived in Diamond City, there was a group of kids that would come stay while their parents were on Brotherhood business," Tommy explained, rising from her seat. "They killed him, didn't they, Duke?"

He was staring down at his bowl. Bluejay and Johnny D were looking around at other things in the room. Rowdy and Roxy were playing with their hands, messing with their clothes...

"Yes,"

There was a pang in Tommy's chest as the old wound was ripped open. All this time she thought Raiders got him, maybe Gunners, or Scavengers. People that were inherently bad. But the Brotherhood of Steel? People that were supposed to protect the Commonwealth? They tried to ransack the garage only days ago, and now she was learning that they killed one of her own.

She shoved the chair under the table so hard it rattled the bowls on top.

Tommy was no advocate for mass murder, but right then, she wouldn't mind watching that blimp fall out of the sky.

—

[spacebuilt]

5 Unique Kiosk Designs to Inspire Your Next Project

Kiosks are an awesome way to sell products, offer services, or promote a brand. Though small, these spaces can be powerful tools that attract attention and boost sales. The design of a kiosk is a perfect example where creativity and practicality go hand in hand. Here are 5 unique kiosk designs that will help inspire your next project and ensure you create a standout experience for customers.

The Modular Kiosk

Modular kiosks are flexible and customizable for any user. There are pre-built components built into these kiosks, which can adapt to different spaces with ease. Modular kiosks fit perfectly both for short-term events and for retail spaces that can transform over time.

Additionally, these kiosks come in a variety of materials. They are made either of wood, metal or glass. This versatility would be great for businesses that combine style with practicality. Module kiosks offer incredible value because they can easily be changed and adapted.

Eco-Friendly Kiosk

Sustainability is more than a trend-it’s a movement. An eco-friendly kiosk uses sustainable materials, such as recycled wood, bamboo, or even solar-powered lighting. Those materials benefit the environment but also help create a positive image for your brand

Additionally, the environment-friendly kiosk uses energy-saving appliances, such as water-saving systems. Consumers nowadays are aware of the consequences of how they are going to their day. A green-designed kiosk will help ensure you attract more people caring for the environment.

Tech-Integrated Kiosk

As technology advances each day, incorporating it into your kiosk design is vital. A tech-integrated kiosk may contain digital screens, payment systems, and self-service options. Moreover, this design will help businesses streamline their operations while providing a more efficient and interactive customer experience.

For example, check-in kiosks, payment processing kiosks, and product browsing kiosks are increasingly being used in airports and shopping malls. Therefore, adding technology to your kiosk creates an experience that is both functional and engaging for your customers.

Compact Kiosk

Space is always at a premium, particularly in busy places like shopping malls and airports. A compact kiosk is a smart solution if you need a full retail experience in a small footprint. Although smaller in size, these kiosks can still accommodate display shelves, counters, and even digital tools

Furthermore, the compact kiosk can easily be moved from one location to another, making it a great fit for busy places. If you wish to gain a strong presence without taking up much space, this design is great for you. Its flexibility and ability to fit into small areas allow you to target key locations.

Vintage-Inspired Kiosk

Sometimes nostalgia can be a weapon. A vintage-themed kiosk will add a classic element to a modern environment. With wood panels, retro signage, and old-fashioned lighting, these kiosks will immediately evoke some memory while certainly offering modern products or services.

Furthermore, an old kiosk is a great way to create an inviting nostalgic atmosphere for customers. This kind of design is ideal for any business wishing to establish something unique and timeless in the service. If you want to be outstanding with the design, then the above approach could be just what you need.

How to Choose the Right Kiosk Design?

Choose the right kiosk design to fulfil your business needs. You may need a portable compact kiosk or a highly technologically advanced one.

However, the location of your kiosk is also a matter of importance. Modular or compact designs are ideal for small spaces, while vintage or eco-friendly designs may be ideal for outdoor settings. The kiosk design should be able to fit well with the environment and the business goals.

Although, do not forget to reflect your brand personality through your kiosk’s identity. The colour or pattern may give off a certain texture due to the materials you incorporate. The overall style might look modern, so select in line with your brand character while your kiosk still says old-school.

Professional Fit-Out Contractors in Dubai

Choosing the right fit-out contractor is one of the significant decisions you make when building your kiosk. A professional fit-out contractor in Dubai can walk you through every step in the process, from design to installation. These are experts who have experience building functional and unique kiosks that meet your needs.

Moreover, an experienced contractor may be able to help you pick the right materials so that your kiosk will last long and be of high quality. This is because you can work with professionals and be certain that your kiosk will stand the test of time and meet all your expectations.

Conclusion

Kiosks offer a great way to feature products and services in the smallest yet most impactful area. The five kiosk designs above can be your inspiration to create something special for your business. Whether modular, eco-friendly, tech-integrated, compact or even vintage-inspired, it just depends on what suits the needs of your business best.

Ensure the right combination of functionality and beauty for your kiosk by collaborating with experts, for example, interior fit-out contractors in Dubai or even carpentry services in Dubai. A well-designed kiosk will attract customers, further enhance your brand’s identity, and provide a difference between you and the rest.

[handicraftvilla]

Vintage-Inspired Leather Duffle Bags

Look and Feel:

Vintage-inspired leather duffle bags have this classic charm. They often look like they've been plucked straight out of an old movie or your grandparent's attic. The leather is usually treated to look a bit aged or distressed, which gives it a rugged and timeless appeal.

Design Elements:

These bags often feature brass hardware, thick stitching, and sometimes even retro logos or emblems. You might see a lot of earthy tones like deep browns, tans, and sometimes even a touch of faded black. They can have a structured or semi-structured form, giving them a robust feel.

Functionality:

While they look old-school, most vintage-inspired bags still cater to modern needs. They usually have compartments for your essentials, but they might stick to a more straightforward, minimalist design. Think of them as no-nonsense companions that are all about style and practicality.

Appeal:

The charm of these bags lies in their story-telling ability. They give off an adventurous vibe, like they're ready to travel the world with you. If you're into that nostalgic, timeless look, these are your go-to.

Modern Leather Duffle Bags

Look and Feel:

Modern leather duffle bags are sleek and sophisticated. The leather is often smooth and polished, giving them a contemporary and stylish appearance. These bags can come in a variety of colors, including not just traditional browns and blacks but also more daring hues like navy, olive, or even burgundy.

Design Elements:

These bags are all about clean lines and smart features. You'll see more integrated elements like hidden zippers, magnetic closures, and sometimes even tech-friendly pockets. The hardware might be more subtle, with muted metal finishes instead of shiny brass.

Functionality:

Modern designs are super functional. They're made for the urban traveler, so expect padded compartments for laptops, designated spaces for chargers and cables, and maybe even a shoe compartment. They're designed to make your life easier, combining style with utility in a seamless way.

Appeal:

If you love a polished, contemporary look, modern leather duffle bags are perfect. They’re great for business trips, gym sessions, or even a stylish weekend getaway. They blend form and function effortlessly, making them ideal for someone who likes things to be streamlined and efficient.

So, whether you're drawn to the charm of yesteryears with a vintage-inspired bag or the sleek efficiency of a modern design, there's a leather duffle bag out there that fits your style perfectly. It's all about what suits your vibe and your daily adventures!

[modular-kitchen-design-00]

Collection of Best Modular Kitchen Design Concepts

Introduction Finding the best modular kitchen design ideas is like finding out an amazing collection of kitchen brilliant thinking. In the world of today, kitchens are more than simply places to cook; they are focused on innovation and creativity. The possibilities can range from modern, clean miracles to eco-friendly solutions, just like India's different cultures. These kitchens balance usefulness and style, thanks to creative storage solutions and advances in technology. Colorful highlights and classic touches add personality, making each kitchen unique. Join us on our journey through the most innovative customized kitchen concepts, where function, creativity and cooking becomes a form of expression.

Small-sized Amazing Spaces The trend of simple modular kitchen design is spreading, and it's even showing up in kitchens. These designs have been defined by smooth, clean lines, free of mess surfaces, and hidden storage areas. Handleless cabinet doors provide a smooth appearance, and stylish color schemes of white, gray, and brown give an impression of perfection.

Smart Storage Solutions In a nation where storage space can easily be limited, smart storage options are important. Every inch of surface area of available space can be used with pull-out drawers, corner carousels, and towering cabinets that have multiple shelves. Appliances such as stoves, refrigerators, and microwaves now have their own assigned areas in modular cooking areas, keeping everything organized and easily accessible.

Multi-functional Islands Kitchen islands are becoming much more than just additional countertop space; they are the central attraction of the room. Multipurpose islands are used as breakfast spots or dining tables as well as preparation areas in India, where food is a common Focus for family get-togethers. A complete cooking station can be created on the island through the addition of built-in stovetops or sinks into certain designs.

Colorful Highlights While basic colors rule the overall palette, bright colors are making a comeback as finishing touches. Brightly colored kitchen backsplashes, cabinet interiors, and even kitchen accessories offer a playful touch to an entirely simple design. In a country pointed out for its bright customs, and these surfaces of color showcase the cheerful mood of Indian houses.

Eco-friendly Elements With an increasing focus on the environment, eco-friendly materials have become popular in modular kitchen design. From recycled wood cabinets to appliances that save energy, consumers are making green environmentally friendly choices. Natural materials such as bamboo, cork, and even salvaged wood lessen environmental impact while still adding warmth to the kitchen.

Tech-savvy Innovations Technology is changing every part of our life, including the layout of our kitchens. The latest kitchen is becoming more technologically advanced by the day, with automatic lighting and temperature control, as well as smart faucets and appliances. In India, where comfort is most important, these advances in technology are becoming needed elements in kitchen modules.

Traditional Touches With current trends, many Indian homeowners prefer a traditional look in their kitchens. Adding historic components, such as beautiful wooden carvings, brass elements, or stylish tile work, creates a feeling of antiquity and memory in the room. These timeless designs mix perfectly with modern comforts, offering the right balance of old and new.

Conclusion In conclusion, modular kitchen design in India is developing to match the demands and tastes of modern homeowners. Everyone may find something they like, from simple designs to eco-friendly solutions. By fitting design and usefulness, these kitchens not only improve the cooking experience but also serve as the centerpiece of the home, bringing families together to make lifelong memories. So, whether you're a cooking expert or simply like a tasty meal, investing in a well-designed customized kitchen is undoubtedly worthwhile.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Q1. Are modular designs suitable for smaller spaces? Yes, kitchens with modular design are very flexible and can be customized to fit smaller areas. They use smart storage solutions such as pull-out drawers and corner wheels to make the best of every available area while maintaining usefulness and design.

Q2. How do I include environmentally friendly features into my modular kitchen design? You can use eco-friendly materials such as reused wood for cabinets, bamboo flooring, and energy-saving appliances. You can also reduce waste by using long-lasting, environmentally friendly products.

Q3. What are the benefits of multi-functional kitchen islands? Multi-functional islands work as preparation areas, dining tables, and storage areas, making them perfect fits to any kitchen. They offer extra surface area for food preparation and can include built-in appliances such as sinks or stovetops, improving workflow and performance.

Q4. Are traditional components still useful in modern modular kitchen design? Absolutely! Traditional features such as beautiful woodwork carvings and decorative tile work provide a feeling of tradition and emotion in modern kitchen design. They offer a unique mix of old-world charm and modern comfort, inviting a wide range of interests and desires.

Q5. What makes a modular cooking space different from a traditional kitchen?

Modular cooking areas can be identified by pre-fabricated cabinets and modules that are put together on the spot, providing options in design and installation. They often feature modern comforts and clever storage solutions, whereas traditional kitchens might have fixed layouts with less customization choices.

Related Blogs abc By Sourabh Singh 0 Comments Popular Themes for Modular Kitchen Design READ MORE abc By Satya Prakash 0 Comments Modular Kitchen Design With a Fusion of Technology READ MORE

[lightwise]

I do think there's a number of interpretations/layers to this line (which made me get up from my couch and start pacing my living room crying before I could continue watching the episode).

I think in one way Crosshair is right--Clone Force 99 did die with Tech, because without him their family is now forever separated and fractured. There is no full reunion of the entire Batch in one place and at one time that is possible now if he is truly gone. Crosshair has been gone, Echo has been gone, but they both (intentionally or unintentionally) made their way back to their family eventually.

We also spent the majority of season 3 watching the markers of their old identities as "that squad" be stripped away. Hunter's signature red bandana with the Clone Force skull was switched out for an unmarked swath of red. Their paint colors had already been painted over from their original red and gray, then Hunter and Wrecker's paint gets scuffed beyond recognition, and then finally all of the boys deliberately scrape their armor down to the bare metal, leaving the bare bones of nameless, faceless armor that no longer signifies any particular emblem or ounce of personality. And the Marauder, their long time home and the one place in the world they could truly call their own, was blown up. By the time we get to the finale, their weapons and the armor on their backs is the only thing they still have that is "theirs" and ties them to their GAR days. Unless they just didn't show us, even this ends up being left behind on Tantiss, as their weapons and helmets are taken away by Hemlock and most likely not retrieved before they leave.

I agree that the concept of Clone Force 99 first died (or started dying?) during Aftermath when the war ended, Crosshair's chip was enhanced, and he turned on his brothers, forcing them to leave him behind and splitting them all up for the first time. For awhile they all still function like a military unit, with Hunter giving orders, taking on risky jobs that required their fighting skills, and not blending into civilian life at all.

By The Crossing, however, Omega has made it perfectly clear that they are more than just a military unit that happens to still be living together; they are a family, bound to each other no matter where they are or what they have been through. It's why Echo leaving has such a huge impact on her and on the team's dynamic, it's why they want Crosshair back so badly, and it's why Tech is willing to risk his life for his brother.

Crosshair takes a lot longer to come to this conclusion verbally, but he's always living it out through his actions once he returns. Taking care of Omega as they try to escape Tantiss the first time, and every moment after. Worriedly helping Hunter up out of the tunnels on Barton IV. Getting frustrated at Wrecker for needlessly putting himself in danger with the beast on Tantiss. Which then prompts him wanting Wrecker and Hunter to leave and allow him to finish the job on his own, knowing it's a suicide mission. He's acting out of guilt, yes, and he doesn't mentally believe that he truly belongs in the family of The Batch that Hunter, Wrecker, Tech and Echo had created for Omega while he was gone. But he also knows that Wrecker wanting to just storm in there and blow things up Bad Batch Clone Wars era style won't work anymore. Their old tactics won't work anymore, especially without Tech. Their wartime hubris and pride of having zero failed missions, of being able to waltz their way onto any battlefield and come away victorious and hardly breaking a sweat, is behind them. They've gotten older. They've lost people. They have failed time and time again. They have no guarantee of victory now. That Bad Batch, that Clone Force 99, has been gone for a long, long time. He was just the first person to verbalize it.

But Hunter and Wrecker then remind him that they're not going in blind, they know what they're up against. And they would do it all to rescue Omega. That she needs all of them together, because their bond is what is important. Their family sticking together, regardless of what comes. And that's what brings them to victory, for that last mission, before they are finally able to put their identities as soldiers away, or rather, setting them aside to allow new versions of their identities to be cultivated going forward. They might have hung up their armor, but as you said, their identity and legacy lives on through Omega and everyone they have impacted across the galaxy.

“Clone Force 99 Died With Tech.” Is that really true? The Answer is Deeper than you Think

In the series Finale of the Bad Batch, Crosshair shouts at Hunter with a harsh but memorable line, “Clone Force 99 Died with Tech.” But was that really true?

The answer could be both yes or no depending on the point of view.

From Crosshair’s perspective, he did believe Clone Force 99 died with Tech. A great deal of time had passed after he chose the Empire over his brothers. Like Omega told him on Pabu, “You’ve missed so much.” Crosshair was unaware all of the changes the squad had been through.

However, Crosshair knew exactly what was waiting for them inside Tantiss and that any attempt to infiltrate the base would be considered a suicide mission.

By sending his brothers elsewhere, Crosshair felt he was saving them. Given that his choice to remain with the Empire was the main source of his guilt, he felt that deserved to be the one to sacrifice himself. Hunter calling out this attempt as “Plan 99,” triggered Crosshair to forcibly reject everything they once were; thus giving us the line in question.

It’s important to note that by the time Tech enacted Plan 99, he had already come to the realization that they were more than a squad; they were a family. Tech sacrificed himself during a mission. So in essence, he saved his squad as a soldier. However, given the narrative of Season 2, there is a greater possibility that Tech quantified his decision as saving both his family and his squad.

Tech never thought he deserved his fate but understood it was the only solution. Plan 99 was implemented as an act of love. In Crosshair’s case, he felt he owed Omega; that sacrificing himself was an adequate punishment for his mistakes. That’s a huge difference.

Crosshair ultimately needed to forgive himself in order feel worthy of being accepted into the his old squad’s established family. We see this moment happen during the defeat of Dr. Hemlock.

During a tense stand-off on the bridge outside Tantiss, Crosshair had the ultimate test of faith. Plagued with doubts, he faced his worst fear; failure. With the encouragement from his brother, Crosshair pushed through his trauma and made a perfect shot to save his sister.

When Omega chooses to hug Crosshair after the battle was over, we clearly see the shock on his face that turns into relief. It was that in that exact moment that he finally forgives himself and is able to accept the love of his family. It’s one of the most touching and meaningful scenes in the entire series.

So, was Crosshair right? Did Clone Force 99 really die with Tech?

In my opinion, no.

Rescuing Omega from the clutches of Dr. Hemlock was their last mission as a squad. Their armor may have been metaphorically stripped of their old identities, but Clone Force 99 is irrevocably a part of them; just as one becomes a college alumni after graduation.

It’s also important to point out that Clone Force 99 was a title given to them by the GAR and the Bad Batch is a name they chose for themselves. A more accurate declaration would be that the concept of Clone Force 99 died when the Republic fell.

The narrative through the story of the Bad Batch is that the past is always a part of you. Your decisions and choices become your legacy.

Romar told Tech that Serennians existed before the war and the archive was a way to preserve his people’s history. Tech later explained to Omega that their squad existed before Echo and will still exist without him; that change is a fundamental part of life and they must adapt and move on.

Clone Force 99 and the Bad Batch may have been disbanded but their existence didn’t die.

They simply remain part of the Galaxy’s history and their legacy lives on through Omega and all people they’ve aided throughout their lives.

The skull patch on Omega’s jacket during the epilogue proves that.

[secretswiftymarvelfan]

Okay Gramps - Chris Evans x Reader

Summary: Chris isn’t happy his iPhone 6s finally died

Word count: 663

Warnings: Fluff! Implied Age Gap! Pregnancy! Teasing!

Masterlist

You and Chris didn’t often fight and if you did it was generally over something minor, like leaving the toilet seat up, or not putting clothes in the hamper.

However the most reoccurring argument was over his phone that was so old that it functioned more as a metal brick than an actual phone. You had begged him for years to update it, saying it was not worth the nightly battle just to get it to charge, or the poor battery life.

However he just took it to the nearest Apple store to get it repaired. That process repeating until the Apple store refused to repair it because they didn’t have parts anymore because it was that old.

You were certain he’d spent more on getting it repaired than it would cost to just buy a new phone.

You finally won the battle though when you got pregnant and with your due date only getting closer you told him it was not safe for him to be unreachable because his phone’s charge wouldn’t last an hour. The last thing you wanted while going into labour was calling all his friends and family trying to track him down.

However he was probably the only person on earth that wasn’t excited to get a new phone.

“I don’t like the lack of buttons” he huffs as he looks at his new iPhone 13.

“It makes it sleeker and gives you a bigger screen” you point out.

“I guess but I don’t really like the face scan thing either, doesn’t seem safe” he mumbles as he goes through the setting up process.

You roll your eyes at him “they have privacy systems in place, and you were perfectly fine with them having your fingerprint” you point out nodding to his old phone.

“Yeah but what if hackers can access it, they have our faces on file, they could make fake identities” Chris argues shaking his head.

“Oh boy just you wait until you find out about driver’s licenses and all that” you say sarcastically, running your hand over your bump, feeling the baby kick your hand “see even the baby thinks you’re being ridiculous”

Chris rolls his eyes letting out a small huff of a laugh. But still lets out a long sigh as he frowns down at his new phone.

You reach out taking his hand in yours squeezing it reassuringly “look I know you hate tech and thinks its all over complicated nowadays, and i’ll be honest I agree with you to a certain extent” you tell him getting him to look over at you “but you’ll get used to the new phone just like you did with your old one all those centuries ago” you add with a smirk.

Chris finally lets out a good laugh at that, smiling over at you “yeah you’re right, and I have to remind myself its for this one here” he sighs reaching over to rest his large hand over your bump.

“Exactly and think of all the cute non grainy photos you’ll take” you smile watching at his smile grows wider.

“Yeah I can’t wait” he grins leaning over to kiss you.

Just like you said it didn’t take long for Chris to get used to his new phone, he was almost like an excited kid once he found out all the cool features. Often running over to you to show you the adorable photo he’d just taken of Dodger.

“Look how clear it is! You can see every detail! And his eyes!” Chris exclaims as he shows you the most recent photo he took of dodger.

“See tech isn’t so scary after-all” you smirk kissing him on the cheek.

“I never said I was scared of it” Chris huffs rolling his eyes at you.

“Okay gramps” you laugh.

Chris arches a brow at you shaking his head “you’re lucky I love you” he says as he kisses your cheek.

“I love you too” you laugh

-💙📱💙-

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[furbaliciouslygay]

My First Custom :)

So when I was in the 2017-era fandom, I was pretty horrified by the advent of Furby customization. I was a Furby purist! I didn’t want to do anything to my Furbs that couldn’t be undone if they ever went to live with another person for whatever reason (even though I’ve only ever gotten rid of one Furby, and that was my childhood Furb that had massive sensor issues that terrified me xD). I didn’t want to take perfectly good Furbs out of the collectors’ market, even though I’ve never had any intentions of reselling my Furbs. It just felt wrong!

Friends, this year, I broke. I customized one of my Furbys with something that can’t as easily be undone. I’d done piercings and accessories before, but nothing like this.

I replaced Polka’s eye chips!!

I kept the old ones just in case, but still!! Big step for a Furby purist like me!!

The way I rationalized it was that Polka has MSA, and I don’t know if it can be fixed or not (I have a guy who does vintage tech repairs for me, but he’s working on my 2005 baby right now to try and get it functional), but they wouldn’t have any resale appeal to most people anyway because you can’t really play with them. I don’t know why it took that rationalization to get me to customize a Furb, but it worked! xD

Their eyechips came from Etsy! Also ignore the earring that’s flipped up on their ear xD I just put that piercing in and forgot to flip it down when I took the pic!

I might even go ahead and replace their eyelashes eventually since they’re not in great shape, as you can see. What’s funny is that the rod holding the eyes in is kind of loose, so it’s hard to get them to stay looking foward. Usually, they look down and look kind of like the poor dear has seen things they wish to unsee xD

Huge thanks to my friend Victoria for giving Polka to me a few years ago! I love them dearly, even though they’re a little sleepyhead <3