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astroboots · 2 years ago

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Hello! Why not a lil drabble where the husband thinks the worst every time the love of his life is a bit sick? I think it'd be funny to imagine Steven Grant worrying all the time and Marc Spector + the reader trying to reassure him 😅

Sick as a dog

Summary: You have a cold and Marc nurses you back to health.

ASTROBOOT’S MASTERLIST | MOON KNIGHT MASTERLIST

The insides of your throat feels like it's on fire. Your shoulders and back are stiff and your limbs ache.

The quilts lying by your feet is drawn up to your shoulders, and soft fingers come to the your cheeks, gently cupping your face.

"Love, are you sure you're okay? Maybe it's best I take you to the GP?"

Steven is biting his bottom lip with worry. He's been hovering and fretting over you since this morning when you woke up. Insisting on calling in sick to take care of you. (Something that is definitely going to get him in trouble judging from the screeching voice of his boss Donna that you overheard from the phone when he made the call from the other end of the flat).

You shake your head. "It's just a cold. no point. If I go there, they're just going to send me packing back home."

"Can I at least get you something to eat?"

Your stomach roils at the idea. Everything hurts. Your lungs feel like someone doused it in gasoline and lit a match and then left it in a barn filled with hay and in this imagery your body would be the barn. You don't think you can keep anything in your stomach.

You shake your head, burying your face further into the soothing coolness of your pillow as you close your eyes to it. "It's just a cold, just need some sleep," you murmur, and it only takes a handful of seconds before you feel the lightheadness of sleep try to claim you.

There's voices in the room. You think Steven is talking to you. He sounds so worried, and your chest aches when you hear him. But he keeps talking even as you're unable to answer him and you realise he must be talking to Marc. You don't know what he's saying and you're too exhausted to drag yourself from sleep to let him know that it's ok. It's just a cold. He doesn't need to worry, even if it feels like your body is going to burn away into ashes.

You wake to darkness. You don't know how long you must've been out with sleep. Is it already evening? Twisting your sore neck, you peer out over the room. The drapes have been carefully drawn shut, and for the wide window with no drapes, someone's done an impromptu fix, covering it with large bedsheets to block out the afternoon sun.

"How you feeling?"

You blink up at the voice. Brown eyes are staring down at you. Not Steven's big and wide eyes, instead they're narrowed and intense, but no less worried than Steven had been. Marc you realise.

A large hand comes up to your forehead and settles there. He grinds down on his jaw and you can see the tense muscle there flex as Marc's tight expression turn into frown. "Shit, baby you're burning up."

"It's just a cold and a fever," you offer weakly. Too tired to fight him.

His hand comes to your face, thumb smoothing over your cheeks, and it feels so good. It's soothing. Then he pulls away, and you find yourself chasing the doting touch, tilting your face up for him and nearly whine at the loss.

His hand pushes you back down by your shoulders, flat on the bed. "Stay down," he orders.

There's the din of clutter in some far away remote place of the flat, but you're too exhausted to turn your head to look again. Struggling to stay awake when the mattress dips next to you and Marc is there with a cup of water and an arsenal of things lying next to you.

There's two pills in the open palm of his hand, as he pushes the glass into your hand. "Drink," he orders, just as curtly as before. Mother hen to the core, but with none of the soft bedside manners of Steven.

You try to raise yourself in bed, and Marc's hand are quickly there, holding your arm and waist to steady you as you take a gulp. It hurts to swallow.

When you're done, he takes the glass from you, setting it down by the shelf for now, and then his hand comes to the hem of your shirt and starts to pull it upwards.

His fingers skirt over your ribs and it feels so pleasant, your whole back tingles with it until your face is awash with the gentle touch as you stare up at him in confusion.

"You're soaked in sweat," Marc explains, as he tugs it the rest of the way, leaving you naked waist up in front of him. Then he shakes his head, with a small amused smile tugging at his lips. "Get your mind out of the gutter, baby."

You can't help but laugh. How can you not, when Marc is smiling at you like that, eyes crinkling softly.

"Sit up," he instructs, a hand steady the small of your back, and then he brings a wet cloth to the expanse of the bare and sweat drenched skin there and wipes you down.

It feels like heaven. Soothing as the lukewarm wet towel wipes away at the cold sweat there, and you make a small and pleased humming noise.

"Yeah?" Marc asks. "That feel good?"

You don't even have words for him, you just nod, as his touch comes up to your sore neck, with a gentle thoroughness that makes a kaleidoscope of butterflies flutter in your chest.

He comes down to your stomach, and the front of your chest, wringing out the water in a basin until he comes back to massage at the tenseness of your aching thighs. The pain and soreness eases, the achiness melting away at his gentle touch until you unspool at the seam and can't do anything but lie against the mattress in a half-lucid puddle.

The quilt comes up to your shoulders and he tucks it beneath your chin, until you're like a folded burrito. "Get some sleep. I'll make you some soup you can eat when you wake, okay?"

He rises to leave, and your hand flings out to grab at his wrist and he stops abruptly. "Stay," you whine. It's selfish. You're probably going to get him sick. But you feel vulnerable and weak, and all you want is for him to stay here next to you. To feel his reassuring weight pressed next to yours. "Please?"

Marc looks down on you, and even though you must look something horrific. Nose stuffed with snot, eyes crusted and hair a matted and sweaty mess against your forehead, a zone of infectious disease, there's no hesitation as he drops back down on the bed and settles next to you. His arm wraps all around you, hand cupping the back of your head as he tucks your face into the nape of his neck.

"Thank you."

He turns, just enough for his mouth to brush against your clammy and disgustingly sweaty forehead and then he presses a kiss there.

"Get better," he whispers, and as his arms tighten around you, and you can feel his comforting warmth wrapped all around, you want to tell him that with him here, it already is.

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whoppert · 9 months ago

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i wrote this fic before the loki show was a thing, but I can't stop thinking about the part two (that I started writing but has been on the backburner) but as loki/morbius instead of loki/ofc....

Who is the King of Games? 5 (loki/reader)

◂ previous chapter first chapter ▴

4368 words

warnings: Mentions of canon-typical violence; a little non-con if you squint; mentions of gore

AO3 Master Fic List

It only took a few minutes.

If someone were to ask what it was like to enter someone’s mind and destroy it, one might say that it was like pulling a loose thread on a sweater; watching it unroll, the yarn melting until it was just a puddle on the ground, and being confronted with the stark knowledge that it would never regain its shape. It was a process Loki was familiar with and had not necessarily something he would say he enjoyed, but could be pleasurable under the right circumstances.

But this was far from the right circumstances.

AO3

Loki reached inside of the copy of his partner, and twisted into its mind like a corkscrew. These disgusting beasts had really committed to the mirage, filling it with what appeared to be an authentic copy of her real memories, and though he might have been tempted to examine them as they floated to the surface if only to placate some foolish insecurities, he didn’t dare invading her privacy. Yes, she was a perfect copy, not a hair out of place, and regrettably even the screams sounded like hers, bouncing around the cold stone room and leaving a permanent imprint on his mind. He couldn’t help but shudder when the copy finally collapsed, her skin splitting and dissolving into smoke in the air, leaving no trace of her behind.

He’d stopped crying at some point, eyes tight and dry and lids heavy, his face expressionless and morose.

How do I stand a chance at surviving the third game? Loki thought numbly. To get this far he had needed to retreat into a dark part of his mind, a part that allowed him to run on autopilot but he couldn’t hide there forever. Loki would need all his wits about him in order to win the third game, and that was assuming that their captors would be true to their word and release them after.

The copy was convinced she was real. How do I know that I’m real? That any of this is real? The thought was a visceral shard of panic to Loki, but through his exhaustion and dissociation it felt far, far away.

The rest of the monsters had dissolved with the copy, leaving only one. Frode was still kneeling.

“How long will you make me wait to play the third game?” Loki finally found his voice enough to ask the question. It had been weeks since the first game, and if needed he would wait as long as needed to play the last even if it ruined him. As long as she got to walk free in the end, he could do it.

“The thirddd game will commence immediately.”

A small part of Loki craved a break, but he straightened up regardless. Just one more, he reassured himself. Just one to endure.

“What is it?”

The monster examined him through narrow eyes. He wasn’t smiling anymore, instead the beast was consumed by a placid look of interest.

“Ssshe plays the third game. You will be her audience.”

It was as if the world fell away in that moment.

Hands.

There was a pair of hands on my body, gently rubbing my back. The touch drew me from the darkness, like how rain flushes worms from the soil.

Loki.

“A-are you okay?” I hadn’t spoken for however long it had been since my captors had bashed me against the wall and my mouth was dry.

His voice was hoarse, “darling, my darling.”

Loki was in some kind of state of mourning, and my heart ached at the sight of him so withdrawn. I couldn’t stop my arms from wrapping around him, as I sat up, his warm body trembling, but I felt his tension release and he hesitantly slid his arms around me.

“I need to tell- tell you something,” he whispered into my hair. “These beasts, the lords of this dimension, I made a deal with them. They want my title, God of Mischief… I would give it up now, but they insisted on taking part in three games. If we lose, they claim my title, but if we win we can leave.”

“Okay. We can leave, okay.” My head ached, but I could feel the fog reluctantly clearing as I processed his words. “Three games. Have you played any?”

“I have played two, but they want you to play the third,” Loki’s voice cracked. “I promise I never would have agreed if I had known they would make you play. I thought- they made me think- they tricked me,” he was tired, filled with shame. “Maybe they deserve my title.”

My hands smoothed his cheeks until he was forced to look me in the eyes. “It’s okay. Rest. I can handle the third game.”

“You don’t understand, these games, they rip you apart. I don’t know what’s real anymore.”

I believed him. Loki looked upon me with an uncertain expression I didn’t know he was capable of making, but I couldn’t bear to ask about the horrors he had endured. I couldn’t allow myself the time to develop fear, I needed a clear head if I was going to win.

“I know. I will be okay.”

The edge of the room flickered like magnets on a television screen and smoke poured out of the air, twisting to form one of the monsters. Loki’s expression paralysed, and he hastily pulled me behind him, putting himself between our captor and myself.

“She issss prepared,” the shadow man whistled.

“Let me play in her place,” Loki rasped, shushing me as I tried to stop him, but the shadow man didn’t even respond, instead flicking a finger and Loki was yanked away from me with a cry of surprise.

The annoyed sigh that slipped out of the mouth of the monster was jarring. “I am ssssick of you Loki. Let me play my game.”

Loki tried to protest, but the sound was stolen from his throat, like an invisible hand had clamped over his mouth.

The shadow man’s treatment of my partner filled me with anger and in a moment of boldness I enquired, “why are you doing this?”

“I want morrrrre. I rule this dimenssssion but nothing ever changes, nothing growsss. I want to grow. I want to be a god. I want my powers to extend into the cosmos.”

He had the most detail I had ever seen on a smoke monster. Lips pursed into round cheeks and a wonky nose that looked like it had been broken and set wrong. Dark greasy hair swept down long and matted against ashy skin. From the state of him I could believe that he had dwelt in this world for longer than I’d been alive. Was he trapped here?

“I am not a prisssoner,” he replied as though sensing my thoughts. “I am the ruler.”

“But you can’t leave,” I spoke without thinking, without considering the ramifications of speaking back to such a being. “You’re as trapped here as we are.”

“I am banissshed.”

“From whence do you hail?” Loki had somehow managed to free his mouth, a flicker of green at his fingertips.

So Loki still has access to some of his powers. They’ve taken all of mine, but shadow man must not be able to completely strip a god of his powers.

“Wordssss have power. I will not reliquissssh the name.” A smile tugged at the edges of the shadow man’s lips. “It is time for the final game.”

I pulled myself to my feet, drawing my shoulder back and sizing him up squarely. “What’s the game?”

“A trade. A memory for a memory." Shadow Man had an excited edge to his voice. "I will ask you for a memory and in turn you must share it, no matter what it is, but in return you will also see mine."

A chance to get inside his head? What unspeakable horrors were contained in there?

“How do I win?” I asked.

“You lose when you cannot bear to have a memory relived.”

I didn’t allow myself the time to hesitate. This was our only option. "Agreed."

“Wonderful,” he hissed. “To beginnnn, I want your first memory of greed. The first time you realised that the world is filled with greed. A greed for a greed.”

My mind was reeling, I had no idea how I was supposed to know what my first memory of greed was, but before I could speak the room around us shifted. I had not moved, and neither had Shadow Man or Loki, who was still bound by his invisible ropes. The street that formed was familiar, filled with children in costumes milling around while adults struggled to keep track of them.

It was Halloween on the street I grew up on.

The children walked through us as though we weren’t there and I supposed that we weren’t really. A child, older than the rest in a bad Captain America costume sauntered past us, his jack-o-lantern shaped basket almost full to bursting with candy. I watched as he approached a group of kids wearing various garb, and my breath caught in my throat as I recognised them. There I was, about eight and in a vampire costume I only had a vague recollection of as an adult. Beside me dressed as a zombie was my younger brother and childhood friends.

Captain America laughed as he shoulder-checked my brother and grabbed his candy.

“Hey!” memory-me yelled at him. “Give that back! That’th my brother’th, thupid-head!” The lisp from the vampire fang inserts whistled. Captain America was bigger than me, I recognised the kid, his name was… John. That’s it. He must have been about twelve.

John simply pushed my brother to the ground and laughed at the tears that had begun to form in his eyes before walking off at a leisurely pace. I crouched next to my crying brother and comforted him.

That was my first memory of greed.

The room shifted.

I didn’t recognise where we were, but the hall was long and dark and at the head of it was a throne made of slate and filled by a slim man in long blue robes with short golden hair, adorned with silver, from his ringed fingers through to the crown on his head.

Kneeling on the ground at his right hand was a stranger with black hair and with a start I recognised Shadow Man, but younger, neater, the pale hand of the… king? was tangled in his hair, stroking his head lovingly, like a pet. Both of their eyes were fixed cruelly on something and I followed the gaze to a dangerously skinny man laying on the obsidian floor.

Dead? I wondered, but from the slow rise and fall of his chest it looked more like he was asleep.

A snap of the fingers of the man in the silver crown and the sleeping man awoke immediately.

“Please,” he begged. “Please. I have a family, I have daughters. They need me.” He looked so frail a stiff breeze might have torn him asunder.

“You should have considered that before you stole in my court,” the king’s voice like quiet thunder.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It was- it was bread, your lordship. We were starving.”

“It wasn’t yours to take as you pleased, you worthless sack of shit.” Shadow Man roared.

The lord chuckled and patted Shadow Man on the head.

“Please. I won’t do it again!” the man frantically begged, pulling himself to his feet and approaching the throne.

“No,” replied the lord. “You won’t.”

Suddenly, a flash of invisible power slid across the starving man’s belly and his guts spilled out on the floor with a horrible wet slap. I snapped my hand over my mouth in horror, willing myself not to throw up as the Shadow Man and his lord bellowed with laughter.

The memory faded.

We were back in our concrete room and I was still fighting the urge to be sick. From his bonds Loki’s eyes met mine with a hollow sadness that seemed to say, ‘I’m sorry.’

“The lord,” my voice trembled with fury with what I’d seen, “the lord was the embodiment of greed in your memory? Because he wouldn’t even spare a loaf of bread for a starving family.”

Shadow Man’s face showed a flicker of annoyance. “You misssunderstand, the representation of greed was the thief. He took what wasssn’t his to take and he was fairly punished.”

When I gaped at him Shadow Man continued, “your memory also had a thief, but you were too helplessss to ssstop him… Do you not sssense the justice in a thief’s destruction?”

“It wasn’t a punishment equal to the crime,” Loki piped up.

“It wasn’t worth a punishment at all!” I snapped and glaring at the pair of them, Loki’s mouth shutting abruptly. “And I wasn’t helpless. Sometimes it’s not worth it to hurt another being. I probably would have lost the fight, but a fight over candy isn’t worth it.”

Shadow Man looked at me curiously, and even Loki seemed surprised at my reaction.

Of course Loki doesn’t understand. Stupid prick has never gone hungry. I rolled my eyes.

“I shared my candy with my brother,” my voice was low, “because I had more than I needed.”

There was a long silence as I seethed, eventually Shadow Man spoke up. “Be that as it may. It isss your turn to choose a memory.”

My head peaked at that. I stammered, “I-I get to choose?”

Shadow Man nodded eagerly.

I wracked my brain for anything that may get him to reveal who he was, how to beat him. Something. Anything.

“Don’t worry,” sarcasm from the Shadow Man, “we have all eternity.”

“Hunger,” I blurted out before I could stop myself, but the word filled me with satisfaction. That man that had been killed in Shadow Man’s memory had been doomed by his hunger, I wanted to see, to know. “The time when your hunger was at its strongest. Hunger for hunger.”

The room shifted.

That same throne room, the same obsidian floor, but it was empty except for the Shadow Man, who was perhaps a little older than he had been in his last memory.

He scuffed up the centre of the room toward the throne, one prudent step after another, talking a moment to throw a cautious look, like he was afraid someone would see him.

When he was satisfied that there was no one watching him, Shadow Man turned and sat very gently on the throne.

The world dissolved like sand being shaken.

It was me, hiding in an abandoned apartment building in my home city, years ago, when I had been living on the street.

My powers had erupted in me when a bully at school had slammed me against a locker for being rude to him. I could still feel his hands around my throat, squeezing and just as I thought my head would explode, a great wave of purple energy had burst forth from under my skin, radiating from the centre of my being. I doubt he would’ve actually killed me, but my powers knocked him out and I’d run, scared of what was happening to me and thinking I would get into trouble for hurting him.

I was a kid, no more than fifteen. It was only a few months, but it was harsh and cruel, no one had a kind thought for a ratty kid, and the hunger had been my only constant during this time.

Maybe I was just giving into the emotion of the moment, but I could almost feel my power thrumming under my skin again, like tug in my mind.

We were back.

“That’s it?” I barked. “Where was your memory of hunger, Shadow Man?”

“You ssssaw it. I have never known physical hunger, only hunger for power.”

Loki laughed a strung out weeze, “you are a cliche of a villain.”

Shadow Man ignored the comment. “It is my turn.” He rapped a finger on his chin in contempation, but the finger was soon raised in the air. “Let me see the first time you two were intimate!”

My heart stopped. I didn’t want- I didn’t- want Shadow Man-

“Absolutely not,” snapped Loki from his bonds. “That is just as much my memory as it is hers and I do not give permission.”

“A passion for a passion, Odinson.”

Loki’s eyes met mine, filled with fury. “I will not let you violate us again.”

“Then you concede to defeat.”

“No, I insist you-”

“I thought it would be harder than this to beat you two.”

“Loki- stop,” I tried to deescalate his rage, we couldn’t risk losing, not now, not when we were so close. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay-”

“It’s okay.” I said a bit more firmly.

“Sssso be it.”

The light from the party illuminated through the glass of the balcony.

I’d gone outside in search of fresh air, and the haze of alcohol seemed to have lessened momentarily. The party had been thrown by a human friend of Loki’s in the city, and he’d insisted on us attending, citing some proverb about a workhorse needing to take a day off once in a while, so I’d conceded. Loki’s friend paid me more attention than I would have like and I had only just managed to slip away when he’d been distracted.

Behind memory-me the French door slid open, and memory-Loki stepped out into the brisk night air.

“There you are,” he said quietly. “Who are you hiding from?”

“Elijah,” I laughed. “He’s terribly boring and thinks only with his dick.”

Loki let out a low chuckle, “I would’ve thought you would be eager to be in another male’s company for a change.”

I watched as Loki drew closer to me, leaning against the railing and watching the lights of the city around us. His face was illuminated in a soft way, his creamy skin softly glowing and his hair neatly braided out of his face.

“Perhaps I have grown to enjoy yours more than anticipated.” I’d said, barely more than a whisper.

From where he was leaning on the railing I saw his body tense momentarily before Loki drew his eyes up to mine, wide with surprise, and I couldn’t stop the blush from colouring my cheeks.

He studied my face carefully before straightening up, his hand reaching for my cheek and brushing a stray lock behind my ear, Loki’s eyes dark and green in the starlight, and getting bigger as he leaned in, closer and closer before his face was only a few mere milimetres away, and then -

Gently, as light as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings he brushed his lips against mine.

I surged forward, kissing him hard, my arms wrapping around his neck as his strong slender hands grasped the small of my waist, drawing me in closer to his warm body. I tangled my fingers into his hair and he slid his tongue between my teeth, sucking on my bottom lip. Loki did not allow his hands to wander, they stayed planted firmly on me, his fingers whispering against the bare skin where my shirt had ridden up.

When the kiss finally broke, Loki drew back, pressing his forehead against mine and breathing hard, but his grip on me did not lessen at all. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

The dark night faded away, melting into a lavious bedroom with a mess of ruined and shredded sheets. In the firelight, two bodies were twisted together as the Shadow Man moved inside his lord.

The intimate moment made my cheek heat, and I turned away.

These games… How could anyone enjoy playing these games? I felt a tug inside my mind, and I looked at Shadow Man, the real Shadow Man and I felt it again, like scratching an itch under my skin, before I realised -

It was the bond that he was using to pull the memories from me. The magic he was using to infiltrate my mind, like opening a door to the inside of my mind, but you can walk either way through a door.

I waded through this feeling until I could see the door that kept me out of his mind... and I pulled on the handle and it opened.

Shadow Man roared, sensing my presence in his mind and for a moment I could see clearly into him. The Lord… the Lord of Dreams, a powerful ruler and Shadow Man had been his consort, the Guard of Memory. They had loved and ruled together, but Shadow Man, who had been called Aemer then, had grown ill of being treated as a pet and plaything. He craved power.

In an effort to push me from his mind, Aemer’s grip on Loki lessened and he’d been able to break free. In a flash a blade had materialised in the hand of my lover, slicing through the air towards the exposed neck of our captor -

Loki froze, mere centimetres away from Aemer’s skin, the Shadow Man’s grip on him tightening so that he could not move an inch.

So close, Loki had been so close.

But the power that Aemer had seemed to have strunk in dominion and I found that he could not both hold Loki back and stop me from entering his mind, so I pushed back through the entrance. Aemer hissed, but could not stop me as I searched through him -

Then the memory around us faded and so did my window into his mind.

I felt his power, like invisible hands wrapping around my throat, squeezing like the bully from my memory. I scrabbled at my neck, trying to pry those fingers off of me, but there was nothing to grab and the pressure only increased as I lashed out, my kicks sailing through thin air. The blackness creeping in on the edge of my vision released a wave of adrenaline through me, and I could feel my pounding heart begin to slow. I would die. Aemer would kill me right now in revenge for my intrusion.

The bonds on Loki were enough to hold him still but he had managed to free his mouth enough to speak and he was yelling, begging for my life, renouncing his title, his voice infected with frantic panic, but Aemer blasted him back into the wall, his body grounding into the stone.

But the attack on Loki was enough, enough of a distraction that for that moment Aemer wasn’t focused on me, and I was free, spluttering enough to say that it was my turn.

“Humiliation for humiliation, Aemer.”

The memory had already started forming around us while Aemer screamed in rage, and I felt the door in his mind again, kicking it wide open.

In the memory, Aemer was on his knees in front of the Lord of Dreams bound with the Lord’s power, on the floor of the throne room as the starving man had been.

“You dare to defy me!” the Lord screamed with indignation. “You dare to seek out my power, to try and dethrone me?”

The Lord’s power that held Aemer came down, smashing his face into the obsidian floor. Blood spurted from his nose.

I reached inside the real Aemer’s mind again. He could not hold Loki back and prevent my invasion at the same time, and the context for his memory was filled in. Aemer had tried to dethrone the Lord of Dreams and had stolen the crown, the crown silver with a large blue gem and encrusted with many smaller jewels of rainbow hues, Aemer had hidden it somewhere and despite the the Lord’s immense power it was his Guard of Memory who had the power to slip into minds and pull truths from them and Aemer wouldn’t reveal where it was hidden. Banished into this dimension of the Lord’s creation, and he’d been here so long, toiling away growing his power out of the dimension that he had no need for a corporeal body.

A shard of truth sliced into me and I couldn’t brush the thought aside. Why had Aemer stopped Loki from impaling him on his blade? He was made of smoke and shadows and the punch I threw had sailed straight through his form. What could a dagger have done?

Try as he might, Aemer couldn’t push me from his mind, so he settled for lifting me into the air. The ceiling above us vanished and I flew upwards, straight into the air, ten then twenty feet as he held me suspended.

I was so high, I knew for certain that this drop would break both my ankles, just like when my brother fell from the tree in our backyard. Maybe it would kill me. Below me the memory of Aemer’s banishment began to fade along with my ability to reach into his mind.

“Give it up Aemer! Every game we win is a loss of power for you!” Loki screamed from the ground. “You grow more solid with every moment, you cannot even split yourself into copies enough to create others to fight at your side, and through your resistance, you lose the final game!”

Just as that moment I twisted inside Aemer’s mind, just enough energy left in me to prod at the bitterness towards his old lover. He cried out and the hold on Loki broke and I was falling.

In slow motion I watched as Aemer tried to bind Loki, but my partner, instead of attacking him, launched the blade through the air, throwing it at me as I plummeted, before pushing Aemer hard into my landing.

My hands scrabbled through the air, but my fingers wrapped around the blade and I fell onto Aemer, plunging it into his neck and using his body to break my fall with a series of horrifying cracks as his bones broke.

Blood, so much blood.

Hands.

Loki’s hands on my shoulders pulling me away.

The buzz of my magic returning to my centre.

And the world around us, including it’s master, went up in smoke.

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slversprngs · 3 months ago

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oh my god i lvoe snox i lvoe snox i i lvoe sn

So mxu i want tod ie

#metal gear solid #my art #mgs #raiden mgs #frank jaeger #gray fox #snox #solidfox #solid snake #kazuhira miller #mgrr

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postsofbabel · 7 months ago

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#posts of babel #screenreader unfriendly #HTML posts of babel

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usafphantom2 · 1 year ago

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Nice shot of an IAF F-15I strike fighter assigned to 69 Squadron "The Hammers." The aircraft is seen equipped with an AN/AAQ-14 LANTIRN targeting pod and three 2,000-pound class GBU-31 JDAMs (Stations LCT-3, RCT-3 & STA-8). The GBU-31s are fitted with MXU-735A/B solid nose plugs.

@GuyPlopski via X

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wounderful-chaos · 7 months ago

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hotfemboylover420 · 1 year ago

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OMOR OMROOMROMRO I PIVE ONORWI I LOVE OMORI SO MXU

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techartspodcast · 10 months ago

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LEAD #LEARN Listen to The Tech Arts Podcast EP 34 Engineering Knowledge with Jeff Sandstrom. https://www.digitalgreatcommission.org/resources/mxu-jeff-sandstrom-engineering-knowledge

#podcast #church #churches #earthworks #live production #jeff sandstrom #prayer #faith #jesus #bible #christianity #salvation #worship production #MxU

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fashionboots · 2 months ago

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Norma Garcia

Mexico

#conductora #fashion #tvhost #boots #tall boots #botas #empoweredlatina #empoweredwomen #latinasinboots #beauty #mexicana #mexicanwomeninboots #brownboots

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shelar123 · 4 months ago

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jcmarchi · 4 months ago

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Overcoming Cross-Platform Deployment Hurdles in the Age of AI Processing Units

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/overcoming-cross-platform-deployment-hurdles-in-the-age-of-ai-processing-units/

Overcoming Cross-Platform Deployment Hurdles in the Age of AI Processing Units

AI hardware is growing quickly, with processing units like CPUs, GPUs, TPUs, and NPUs, each designed for specific computing needs. This variety fuels innovation but also brings challenges when deploying AI across different systems. Differences in architecture, instruction sets, and capabilities can cause compatibility issues, performance gaps, and optimization headaches in diverse environments. Imagine working with an AI model that runs smoothly on one processor but struggles on another due to these differences. For developers and researchers, this means navigating complex problems to ensure their AI solutions are efficient and scalable on all types of hardware. As AI processing units become more varied, finding effective deployment strategies is crucial. It’s not just about making things compatible; it’s about optimizing performance to get the best out of each processor. This involves tweaking algorithms, fine-tuning models, and using tools and frameworks that support cross-platform compatibility. The aim is to create a seamless environment where AI applications work well, irrespective of the underlying hardware. This article delves into the complexities of cross-platform deployment in AI, shedding light on the latest advancements and strategies to tackle these challenges. By comprehending and addressing the obstacles in deploying AI across various processing units, we can pave the way for more adaptable, efficient, and universally accessible AI solutions.

Understanding the Diversity

First, let’s explore the key characteristics of these AI processing units.

Graphic Processing Units (GPUs): Originally designed for graphics rendering, GPUs have become essential for AI computations due to their parallel processing capabilities. They are made up of thousands of small cores that can manage multiple tasks simultaneously, excelling at parallel tasks like matrix operations, making them ideal for neural network training. GPUs use CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), allowing developers to write software in C or C++ for efficient parallel computation. While GPUs are optimized for throughput and can process large amounts of data in parallel, they may only be energy-efficient for some AI workloads.

Tensor Processing Units (TPUs): Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) were introduced by Google with a specific focus on enhancing AI tasks. They excel in accelerating both inference and training processes. TPUs are custom-designed ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) optimized for TensorFlow. They feature a matrix processing unit (MXU) that efficiently handles tensor operations. Utilizing TensorFlow‘s graph-based execution model, TPUs are designed to optimize neural network computations by prioritizing model parallelism and minimizing memory traffic. While they contribute to faster training times, TPUs may offer different versatility than GPUs when applied to workloads outside TensorFlow’s framework.

Neural Processing Units (NPUs): Neural Processing Units (NPUs) are designed to enhance AI capabilities directly on consumer devices like smartphones. These specialized hardware components are designed for neural network inference tasks, prioritizing low latency and energy efficiency. Manufacturers vary in how they optimize NPUs, typically targeting specific neural network layers such as convolutional layers. This customization helps minimize power consumption and reduce latency, making NPUs particularly effective for real-time applications. However, due to their specialized design, NPUs may encounter compatibility issues when integrating with different platforms or software environments.

Language Processing Units (LPUs): The Language Processing Unit (LPU) is a custom inference engine developed by Groq, specifically optimized for large language models (LLMs). LPUs use a single-core architecture to handle computationally intensive applications with a sequential component. Unlike GPUs, which rely on high-speed data delivery and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), LPUs use SRAM, which is 20 times faster and consumes less power. LPUs employ a Temporal Instruction Set Computer (TISC) architecture, reducing the need to reload data from memory and avoiding HBM shortages.

The Compatibility and Performance Challenges

This proliferation of processing units has introduced several challenges when integrating AI models across diverse hardware platforms. Variations in architecture, performance metrics, and operational constraints of each processing unit contribute to a complex array of compatibility and performance issues.

Architectural Disparities: Each type of processing unit—GPU, TPU, NPU, LPU—possesses unique architectural characteristics. For example, GPUs excel in parallel processing, while TPUs are optimized for TensorFlow. This architectural diversity means an AI model fine-tuned for one type of processor might struggle or face incompatibility when deployed on another. To overcome this challenge, developers must thoroughly understand each hardware type and customize the AI model accordingly.

Performance Metrics: The performance of AI models varies significantly across different processors. GPUs, while powerful, may only be the most energy-efficient for some tasks. TPUs, although faster for TensorFlow-based models, may need more versatility. NPUs, optimized for specific neural network layers, might need help with compatibility in diverse environments. LPUs, with their unique SRAM-based architecture, offer speed and power efficiency but require careful integration. Balancing these performance metrics to achieve optimal results across platforms is daunting.

Optimization Complexities: To achieve optimal performance across various hardware setups, developers must adjust algorithms, refine models, and utilize supportive tools and frameworks. This involves adapting strategies, such as employing CUDA for GPUs, TensorFlow for TPUs, and specialized tools for NPUs and LPUs. Addressing these challenges requires technical expertise and an understanding of the strengths and limitations inherent to each type of hardware.

Emerging Solutions and Future Prospects

Dealing with the challenges of deploying AI across different platforms requires dedicated efforts in optimization and standardization. Several initiatives are currently in progress to simplify these intricate processes:

Unified AI Frameworks: Ongoing efforts are to develop and standardize AI frameworks catering to multiple hardware platforms. Frameworks such as TensorFlow and PyTorch are evolving to provide comprehensive abstractions that simplify development and deployment across various processors. These frameworks enable seamless integration and enhance overall performance efficiency by minimizing the necessity for hardware-specific optimizations.

Interoperability Standards: Initiatives like ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange) are crucial in setting interoperability standards across AI frameworks and hardware platforms. These standards facilitate the smooth transfer of models trained in one framework to diverse processors. Building interoperability standards is crucial to encouraging wider adoption of AI technologies across diverse hardware ecosystems.

Cross-Platform Development Tools: Developers work on advanced tools and libraries to facilitate cross-platform AI deployment. These tools offer features like automated performance profiling, compatibility testing, and tailored optimization recommendations for different hardware environments. By equipping developers with these robust tools, the AI community aims to expedite the deployment of optimized AI solutions across various hardware architectures.

Middleware Solutions: Middleware solutions connect AI models with diverse hardware platforms. These solutions translate model specifications into hardware-specific instructions, optimizing performance according to each processor’s capabilities. Middleware solutions play a crucial role in integrating AI applications seamlessly across various hardware environments by addressing compatibility issues and enhancing computational efficiency.

Open-Source Collaborations: Open-source initiatives encourage collaboration within the AI community to create shared resources, tools, and best practices. This collaborative approach can facilitate rapid innovation in optimizing AI deployment strategies, ensuring that developments benefit a wider audience. By emphasizing transparency and accessibility, open-source collaborations contribute to evolving standardized solutions for deploying AI across different platforms.

The Bottom Line

Deploying AI models across various processing units—whether GPUs, TPUs, NPUs, or LPUs—comes with its fair share of challenges. Each type of hardware has its unique architecture and performance traits, making it tricky to ensure smooth and efficient deployment across different platforms. The industry must tackle these issues head-on with unified frameworks, interoperability standards, cross-platform tools, middleware solutions, and open-source collaborations. By developing these solutions, developers can overcome the hurdles of cross-platform deployment, allowing AI to perform optimally on any hardware. This progress will lead to more adaptable and efficient AI applications accessible to a broader audience.

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govindhtech · 7 months ago

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Introducing Trillium, Google Cloud’s sixth generation TPUs

Trillium TPUs

The way Google cloud engage with technology is changing due to generative AI, which is also creating a great deal of efficiency opportunities for corporate effect. However, in order to train and optimise the most powerful models and present them interactively to a worldwide user base, these advancements need on ever-increasing amounts of compute, memory, and communication. Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, are unique AI-specific hardware that Google has been creating for more than ten years in an effort to push the boundaries of efficiency and scale.

Many of the advancements Google cloud introduced today at Google I/O, including new models like Gemma 2, Imagen 3, and Gemini 1.5 Flash, which are all trained on TPUs, were made possible by this technology. Google cloud thrilled to introduce Trillium, Google’s sixth-generation TPU, the most powerful and energy-efficient TPU to date, to offer the next frontier of models and empower you to do the same.

Comparing Trillium TPUs to TPU v5e, a remarkable 4.7X boost in peak computation performance per chip is achieved. Google cloud increased both the Interchip Interconnect (ICI) bandwidth over TPU v5e and the capacity and bandwidth of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). Third-generation SparseCore, a dedicated accelerator for handling ultra-large embeddings frequently found in advanced ranking and recommendation workloads, is another feature that Trillium has. Trillium TPUs provide faster training of the upcoming generation of foundation models, as well as decreased latency and cost for those models. Crucially, Trillium TPUs are more than 67% more energy-efficient than TPU v5e, making them Google’s most sustainable TPU generation to date.

Up to 256 TPUs can be accommodated by Trillium in a single high-bandwidth, low-latency pod. In addition to this pod-level scalability, Trillium TPUs can grow to hundreds of pods using multislice technology and Titanium Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs). This would allow a building-scale supercomputer with tens of thousands of chips connected by a multi-petabit-per-second datacenter network.

The next stage of Trillium-powered AI innovation

Google realised over ten years ago that a novel microprocessor was necessary for machine learning. They started developing the first purpose-built AI accelerator in history, TPU v1, in 2013. In 2017, Google cloud released the first Cloud TPU. Many of Google’s best-known services, including interactive language translation, photo object recognition, and real-time voice search, would not be feasible without TPUs, nor would cutting-edge foundation models like Gemma, Imagen, and Gemini. Actually, Google Research’s foundational work on Transformers the algorithmic foundations of contemporary generative AI Fwas made possible by the size and effectiveness of TPUs.

Compute performance per Trillium chip increased by 4.7 times

Since TPUs Google cloud created specifically for neural networks, Google cloud constantly trying to speed up AI workloads’ training and serving times. In comparison to TPU v5e, Trillium performs 4.7X peak computing per chip. We’ve boosted the clock speed and enlarged the size of matrix multiply units (MXUs) to get this level of performance. Additionally, by purposefully offloading random and fine-grained access from TensorCores, SparseCores accelerate workloads that involve a lot of embedding.

The capacity and bandwidth of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) with 2X ICI

Trillium may operate with larger models with more weights and larger key-value caches by doubling the HBM capacity and bandwidth. Higher memory bandwidth, enhanced power efficiency, and a flexible channel architecture are made possible by next-generation HBM, which also boosts memory throughput. For big models, this reduces serving latency and training time. This equates to twice the model weights and key-value caches, allowing for faster access and greater computational capability to expedite machine learning tasks. Training and inference tasks may grow to tens of thousands of chips with double the ICI bandwidth thanks to a clever mix of 256 chips per pod specialised optical ICI interconnects and hundreds of pods in a cluster via Google Jupiter Networking.

The AI models of the future will run on trillium

The next generation of AI models and agents will be powered by trillium TPUs, and they are excited to assist Google’s customers take use of these cutting-edge features. For instance, the goal of autonomous car startup Essential AI is to strengthen the bond between people and computers, and the company anticipates utilising Trillium to completely transform the way organisations function. Deloitte, the Google Cloud Partner of the Year for AI, will offer Trillium to transform businesses with generative AI.

Nuro is committed to improving everyday life through robotics by training their models with Cloud TPUs. Deep Genomics is using AI to power the future of drug discovery and is excited about how their next foundational model, powered by Trillium, will change the lives of patients. With support for long-context, multimodal model training and serving on Trillium TPUs, Google Deep Mind will also be able to train and serve upcoming generations of Gemini models more quickly, effectively, and with minimal latency.

AI-powered trillium Hypercomputer

The AI Hypercomputer from Google Cloud, a revolutionary supercomputing architecture created especially for state-of-the-art AI applications, includes Trillium TPUs. Open-source software frameworks, flexible consumption patterns, and performance-optimized infrastructure including Trillium TPUs are all integrated within it. Developers are empowered by Google’s dedication to open-source libraries like as JAX, PyTorch/XLA, and Keras 3. Declarative model descriptions created for any prior generation of TPUs can be directly mapped to the new hardware and network capabilities of Trillium TPUs thanks to support for JAX and XLA. Additionally, Hugging Face and they have teamed up on Optimum-TPU to streamline model serving and training.

Since 2017, SADA (An Insight Company) has won Partner of the Year annually and provides Google Cloud Services to optimise effect.

The variable consumption models needed for AI/ML workloads are also provided by AI Hypercomputer. Dynamic Workload Scheduler (DWS) helps customers optimise their spend by simplifying the access to AI/ML resources. By scheduling all the accelerators concurrently, independent of your entry point Vertex AI Training, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), or Google Cloud Compute Engine flex start mode can enhance the experience of bursty workloads like training, fine-tuning, or batch operations.

Lightricks is thrilled to recoup value from the AI Hypercomputer’s increased efficiency and performance.