#solar panels youtube videos

[techashhh]

BEST Top 5 Solar Panels in 2024 !!! [ Dont buy one before watching this]

[is-this-yuri]

My plan to escape homelessness. I need your help to get started before winter!

hello friends! i'm a homeless queer guy living in a tiny car. it's been like this for most of my adult life, and i'm trying to make a change! I want to convert a van into my new home! my plan involves these stages:

Stage 1: acquire a van.

while still living off donations in my car, i'm fundraising. as soon as i can afford one, i'll purchase a van. the market shows most used vans that would be suitable are around $3.5-4.5k give or take. we're already about halfway there!

I'm really hoping this stage can be complete before november, as my car is not suited to survive another winter and it could be devastating to attempt it.

Stage 2: survive winter

since winter is approaching, i'll need to quickly put insulated walls in the van and make sure i can live in it. at this point, it'll already be an upgrade to my car, but i won't be able to do much building in cold weather, so it'll just be the bare minimum i need to survive the winter.

during this time, i'll be taking measurements, drawing plans, researching appliances, and generally preparing for the build process. i'll continue fundraising to make sure i can afford all the materials and tools i'll need. i may also take care of any maintenence the van might need. i'll also clean and sell my car so i have some cash from that as well.

Stage 3: build my home!

when it gets warm enough, i'll start doing the actual build. i'll document this on video as much as i can, and post the process on my youtube channel for not only the people who helped me, but for anyone who's curious. i'll start with solar panels and an electricity system, i'll add countertops and kitchen appliances, a shower and sink with plumbing and warm water, a toilet, a real bed, lights, climate control. it'll be essentially a house on wheels, and just the right size for me!

Stage 4: whatever comes next

once i have my new home, i'll need an income. i may take a regular job to support myself at first, and that will actually be possible when i have a shower. but, i've been considering making content pretty much my whole life, and now i think i have a great chance to actually pursue that. i'll use some of the money from selling my car in stage 2 to get some basic equipment (laptop, mic, camera). i'll be posting my van build at first, and after that i'll probably start by telling stories about my time being homeless, but i'm also interested in streaming and video essays. thanks to all the generous support i've been getting from my followers and other people on the internet, i feel my opportunities are wide open!

Please consider donating to my fundraiser to help me change my life!

GFM

2115/10k

[adastra-sf]

Sun Reaches Solar Maximum

watch the full NASA YouTube video: X

The Sun is stirring from its latest slumber.

As sunspots and flares bubble from the Sun’s surface, representatives from NASA, NOAA, and the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period.

The solar cycle is a natural cycle the Sun goes through as it transitions between low and high magnetic activity and back again. Roughly every 11 years, at the height of the solar cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip (on Earth, that’d be like the North and South poles swapping places every decade), and the Sun goes from calm to an active and stormy state.

During this most active part of the cycle (solar maximum), the Sun shows many more sunspots and often unleashes immense explosions of light, energy, and solar radiation, creating "space weather" which affects satellites and astronauts in space, as well as communications systems and power grids down here on Earth.

NASA and NOAA track sunspots to determine and predict the progress of the solar cycle - and ultimately solar activity. Sunspots are cooler regions on the Sun caused by a concentration of magnetic field lines. They're the visible component of active regions, areas of intense and complex magnetic fields on the Sun and the source of solar eruptions.

“During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore the amount of solar activity, increases,” says Jamie Favors of the NASA Space Weather Program. “This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star, but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system.”

Solar activity has led to increased auroral activity and impacts on satellites and electronic infrastructure this year. During 2024, barrages of huge solar flares and coronal mass ejections launched clouds of charged particles toward Earth, creating the strongest geomagnetic storms we've experienced in decades, and possibly the strongest auroras visible in the past 500 years.

This is a great time to watch the Sun (via the internet or a properly filtered telescope only - never view the Sun without certified safe solar filters made for your instrument) and catch some auroras. Even here at Ad Astra headquarters in Kansas (which almost never sees an aurora), we've been able to enjoy a few nighttime light shows this year!

This solar maximum could last for many more months, so stay tuned!

[victusinveritas]

Writing advice from Nick Mamatas.

Some science fiction/fantasy creative writing students I have encountered, a field guide

1. World-Savers: these are generally older students, have no real interest in SF/F, are writing a book to express political or metaphysical ideas they consider to be radical and necessary for the future of life on Earth. In reality, they're writing long Platonic dialogues about their ideas, and authority from various culture and pop culture tropes (aliens, noble savages, fairies, resurrected presidents)–to the extent that their work has a plot at all, it involves a Christ figure transforming the world via a sacrifice. The ideas aren't very radical either: "pollute less" and "love your neighbor, unless they're a dick" are common. Occasionally the message for the world has to do with something more prosaic: reverse budgeting, the evils of Affirmative Action, the importance of installing solar panels, how dare Eileen divorce me and fuck like three guys in the six months after she moved out, etc. These students are utterly confused by actually existing SF/F stories they read, and often interpret them in bizarrely sexual ways. They don't believe in numbering the pages of their manuscripts, and often attempt to submit work in PDF so it won't be stolen.

2. Children with Money: recent college grads, or drop-outs, these people have read Harry Potter, Twilight, and perhaps three or four other best-selling young adult series and nothing else. They are easily upset, especially when someone suggests reading more. Their main interests are YouTube personalities, video games, and a sort of Puritanical pansexuality that actually makes smut boring. They often "forget" to read the work of other students, and have no idea how to use a printer. They warn the other students that their story might be "too intense" because it contains, for example, a depiction of a car accident. Their stories are routinely awful, and always contain a character named "Aidan." Sometimes their parents come to class to make sure I am "not a serial killer", as though they could possibly tell from looking at me. (Oh, "Mamatas" IS a white person name...I guess?)

3. Anointed Ones: They contact me, or the people running the workshop, beforehand, to make sure that "the class is right" for them. They have file cabinets full of their stuff, and after many decades of toil, they are ready to reveal their work to the world. They just need a mentor, and an ally—could I be the one they've been searching for lo these many years? Prior workshops were full of callow teachers and jealous students. Why they were only allowed to submit ten pages a week! Some of them have actually read fairly widely, but you wouldn't know it from their work: three adjectives per noun, a fetish for speech tags other than the word "said" or no tags at all. Often these stories include as characters philosophical prostitutes with very sensitive nipples. They never miss a class and often show up more than thirty minutes early. One time, I had to hide in a closet to avoid an extensive pre-class conversation with one.

4. Frightened Proles: These have read Stephen King and Dean Koontz and sometimes even horror writers from this century. They generally have working-class jobs and write about working people who encounter the supernatural on the late shift. They really hope they can sell their novel soon, but they know it'll take a lot of work. (Ten more drafts oughta do it!) They wear baseball hats to class and look like enormous eight-year-olds. They get very excited when I mention professional wrestling or do a taiji move in class. Their significant others are often nameless—"my girlfriend" "my wife." They buy my books and bring them to class for autographs. Some of them get published after, especially flash fiction.

5. Repairables: decent writers, often involved in the SFF "scene", who need to be fixed after a bad experience with Clarion or another workshop or an overeager editor at a semipro magazine who told them some idiot nonsense they decided to believe because they were told it was "unprofessional" not to consider editorial feedback. These either get published...or lost to MFA programs, video game jobs, fandom, podcasts, or other writing-shaped pursuits. Most of them are ferocious name-droppers; the ones who heard of me beforehand know to keep quiet though.

[pixeldistractions]

She made this camper so cozy. Who would have thought you could bake bread from scratch in a Dutch oven over the campfire? She served blackberry preserves on toast, planted herbs in tiny pots on the counter, then she filled the produce baskets with actual fresh produce. “That’s what they’re there for, silly,” she said. She watched camper hack videos on YouTube—a cutting board over the sink for more counter space. How clever. She noted the dimensions, and he cut it to size for her. She bought string lights to hang under the awning, a decorative citronella candle for the picnic table.

“You shouldn’t buy so much,” he said. “You don’t need to. If you wait, I’ll buy it for you.”

But he couldn’t, not really, not while also fixing the solar panel and manifesting walls out of scraps and sending back money for his boys. She shouldn’t have to wait for her home to feel homey. He wanted her to feel at home here, so he kept quiet and tried not to notice if she went to Target again for throw blankets or rugs, or towel racks and pot holders. He would just unbox the hardware and install it for her.

It was a silly idea anyway that if they lived simply enough, frugally enough, he might provide everything they needed and wanted, and maybe he could imagine himself the exact opposite of the freeloading loser Colette always said he was.

But Jordan did pick up some work. Very good work, actually. He snagged a small contract with a local university, upgrading their dorm plumbing, and that would keep him occupied for a couple of weeks. It was a nice chunk of change, though of course, Colette would want some of it.

Still, he would have enough money to finish the last of the major repairs. Finally. The only thing left was to replace the solar battery converter, ironically, now that they were plugged into the power grid.

The nights were longer now, but still cozy enough in the lower altitudes of Nevada to spend the evenings outside. They had dinner by the sunset’s last light, then they settled in beside the campfire.

“You don’t have to spend all your money on that battery thing,” she said. “I can pay for some of it.”

“No, you don’t have to. I’ll just pick up a couple more jobs.”

He was weird about taking her money, and she wondered why?

“Okay, I need you to talk to me,” she said, hushed, after taking note that Johanna wasn’t paying any attention to them.

He looked startled, like he was in trouble. She smiled. “No, it’s not like that, don’t worry,” she said. “But, there’s something I’ve been wondering about… why don’t you want me to pay for anything?”

His eyebrows raised, lips pinched.

She stroked his fingers while he refrained from answering her question. “You’re my best friend, you know?”

“You’re mine, too,” he said.

“And best friends tell each other things.”

“I’m… embarrassed of it.”

“You don’t need to be.”

“Okay…” An audible swallow, a slight squirm, a deep breath. “I was younger, twenty-two, after my dad died. I was in a lot of trouble with the foreclosure and some credit debts. So when Colette and I got friendly again, I let her help me out with it. But it didn’t stop there. It was like I would never live that down for the rest of my life, like even after I paid her back, no matter how much money, no matter how much effort, no matter that I stayed home with the boys for two whole years while she finished school, I could never pay her back enough to be even. I still can’t.”

“First, that’s really cruel,” Maria said. “Second, I wouldn’t do that to you. Third, it’s only $800, we can go halves.”

“Yeah, it’s only $800, then I can earn that much in three jobs. Will you let me?”

Every time she felt she might have found an opening to confess her terrible secret wealth, the moment proved to be exactly wrong. “Yeah, of course. But next time, I’ll help. Deal?”

“Sure. But you need to let me make it up to you for all those cozy pillows you bought,” he said, smirking now. She was glad to see that startled panic gone.

“Those pillows were nothing,” she said. “I got them in the clearance section.”

She didn’t know how to tell him that the battery converter would make barely a dent in her savings, and she also wasn’t convinced he would see that as a good thing. It seemed important that he paid for this himself. So she would let him. This time.

— “boxes and squares #5.2: come down from the clouds” (2/10)

previously: a freeloading loser // that money is not for spending on your boyfriend

Next -> // 5.2 start // index

[bestiesenpai]

Youtuber Itadori

Gardener Itadori is the cutest thing ever and I tried to make him as cute as possible here lol. Femme reader 9.6k words

Hands in the soil, dirt beneath his nails and a bountiful harvest in his little wicker basket - that’s what Itadori’s life had become, and he wasn’t mad about it. After inheriting a home and land in the countryside from his grandfather, Itadori scoffed at the idea of living in the slow countryside, but burdened with morality, he went and discovered that it was actually the best thing for him.

Quickly getting to work, he collected rain water, installed solar panels, had a massively flourishing garden that he rotated with seasonal plants all year round and cultivated a nice relationship with the local farmers. Everyone traded their wares, holding markets in the town center that people from all over would come and visit.

Itadori haphazardly stumbled into making YouTube videos one day when he decided to post a video of the apples he’d just picked to show his friends. It wasn’t a long video, ten minutes max, but for some reason the algorithm had decided to bless him and put his video in front of a million people.

The comments made him smile, they were all so supportive of his hard work. A few made him blush, calling him impossibly cute among a few other embarrassing things. And that was how his channel was born. Ordering a few cheap supplies off Amazon, Itadori filmed whatever he thought was interesting: his spring harvest, deadheading flowers, the farmers market and the handmade soap he got one day.

He had imagined his life to be filled with the busy atmosphere of the city, but the relaxed pace of the countryside brought his mind at ease. All he needed to do here was make enough to pay for utilities and keep himself fed. Sure he missed his friends, but they were always a phone call or a train ride away and he had managed to make more friends during his time here.

Walking the rows of his garden, Itadori filmed the plants along the way, narrating what he was planning to do with the upcoming summer season and what fruits and vegetables he was excited to grow. Quickly posting the video to TikTok, he tucked his phone away and forgot about it; becoming entranced with small insects and birds that visited often got him distracted.

“Yuji!” Someone shouted, drawing Itadori’s focus away from the caterpillar he was feeding a berry to. Dusting off his pants, Itadori came to a stand and looked around to find the voice.

“Hey!” He waved back upon landing eyes on Daichi, the retired farmer standing at the edge of his field. Bounding towards him, Itadori could see the gray streaks of hair permeating the otherwise dark strands on the man's head. “What’s up, gramps?”

“There’s someone I want you to meet.” Flicking his chin, Daichi began to walk towards his home and Itadori followed dutifully. It wasn’t a far walk, hardly five minutes and they were at the front door.

“(Y/N)! C’mere!” Daichi beckoned and the sound of rushed footsteps gave way to a side door opening in the hallway and a flustered individual staring back.

“I told you I’m in a meeting!” You hissed, eyes flicking to Itadori but not paying him any mind. “Give me a minute, please?” Not waiting for a response, you hurriedly closed the door and went back to work.

“Who’s that?” Following Daichi to the living room, Itadori accepted the lemonade that was offered to him by Daichi’s wife.

“That’s the grandkid.” Daichi huffed, taking a sip from his own glass. “She’s here for the summer to spend some time with us.”

“Hmm.” Nodding along, Itadori’s eyes wandered to the hallway, where if he strained he could hear your voice.

“There ya are!” Throwing up a hand, Daichi grunted. “I thought you said you were on vacation, what’s with the work?”

“Not yet. I told you I have some things to finish up for the end of the week and then I’m free.” Rolling your eyes, you entered the fray. Itadori tried not to giggle at the button up you’d thrown on over an old shirt for your meeting. You quickly took it off, laying it over the back of the couch before sitting down next to your grandfather.

“Whatever.” Waving off your attitude, Daichi gestured to Itadori. “We have a guest, say hi.”

“Hey, I’m (Y/N).” Giving him a brief wave, you settled into the cushions.

“I’m Itadori, I live in the house next door.”

“Got it from his grandpa! You remember old man Wasuke, right?”

“Kinda…” Wasuke hadn’t lived in the area for long, and what you remembered of him was that he gave you money for some candy at a festival once.

“Wasuke wasn’t much of a farmer but Yuji here? Why, he’s got a great green thumb!” Laughing to himself, Daichi pushed up off the couch. “Stay here and chat, I’m going to see what grandma is making for lunch.”

As Daichi shuffled away, Itadori took the opportunity to observe you a bit more. You were typing furiously on your phone, mumbling that you’d be done in just a few seconds. He couldn’t deny he thought you were cute, hoping that this coming summer you would have a chance to hang out - just the two of you.

“What kind of things do you grow?” Finally tossing your phone away, you looked up at Itadori, seemingly not noticing that he’d already been staring at you.

“I-I grow a lot of things!” Clearing his throat, he tried to hide his surprised blush with his cup. “Right now I’m transitioning to summer crops and I really hope to grow some amazing strawberries this year and make some jam.”

“That sounds cool, you’ll have to let me come by and see the garden.”

“(Y/N) can’t even grow a houseplant!” Daichi shouted from the kitchen, causing you to jump up in defense.

“Grandpa be quiet!” Now it was your turn to blush, heat crawling over your entire body. You could hardly look at Itadori when you sat down, slapping your hands over your face as Daichi laughed. “God, he’s so embarrassing.” While what he said was true, why did he have to say it in front of the cute boy you’d be seeing the whole summer?

“It’s okay!” Itadori chuckled a little, enamored by your bashfulness. “I think you can grow something if you really put your mind to it.”

“Thanks.” Collapsing onto the couch, you stared at the ceiling. “But honestly, I’d probably need divine intervention to keep a plant alive longer than three weeks.”

“I’ll make sure whatever you plant stays alive the whole summer.” Whatever Itadori had to do, he was ready.

“Promise?” Turning to look at him, you stuck your hand out, pinky outstretched to him.

“Promise.” Quickly locking his pinky with yours, Itadori shook your hand. He’d have to remember to grab your number before he left, now that he had an excuse to start talking to you.

Talking a bit more, it wasn’t long till lunch was ready and Itadori was sitting at the dining table with a sandwich in front of him. He’d eaten in the house before, but it was different now that you were here.

“Did’ya know Yuji makes videos about plants?” Daichi asked, looking at you curiously. “Puts ‘em on YouTube and stuff.”

“Really? What’s the name of your channel, I’ll check it out!”

“(Y/N) works for a big PR agency in the city, maybe she can help promote you.” Daichi said with a proud smile on his face.

“Grandpa, I work with musicians.”

“You never know, maybe Yuji is into music!”

“Not really.” Itadori laughed, shaking his head. “I go to karaoke sometimes but that’s about it.”

Chatting away into the day, eventually you had to return to your laptop and finish out a few more things for the workday. Itadori had scored not only your number, but you were now mutuals on a bunch of social media sites. When you balked at his TikTok and YouTube following, it made Itadori’s chest swell a bit.

He didn’t see you for a few days after, with you being busy on your laptop and him being busy in the garden, there was no time to meet. But you did text him occasionally, sending pictures of plants you were hoping to grow and if there was something funny to show on Twitter.

When Saturday came, you sent Itadori a text in the morning asking if you could come over to see the garden. He instantly replied, dropping everything he was doing and running around the house to prepare for your visit.

Making a lunch, drinks, cleaning dishes that were already clean and making sure the greenhouse out back was spotless - he’d done everything a million times over and it still didn’t feel like he was ready enough when you rang the doorbell.

“C-coming!” Nearly tripping over an area rug, Itadori ran to the door. Opening it in a hurry, you gasped at the sudden motion and Itadori gasped upon seeing you. In a pale yellow sundress and a wicker hat no doubt made by your grandma, you were exactly what Itadori imagined the cutest gardener ever to look like.

“Hi!” You smiled, waving a hand at him. The faint smell of sunscreen drifted towards him and Itadori stepped aside to let you in.

“Hi.” He replied dumbly, closing the door after you. He suddenly felt self conscious of the decor of his home; it wasn’t modern in any sense, all of the furniture belonging to his grandpa before he passed.

“I remember this!” Stopping in the hallway, you pointed at a painting of a field of tulips.

“You do?” Itadori had passed by the artwork many times and didn’t think it had any special meaning.

“Yeah! Our grandpas painted together when I was young, I remember finger painting some of the tulips on here.” The tips of your fingers brushed the canvas as the memory came back to you of sitting on Daichi’s lap and insisting on helping.

“That’s really cute.” Itadori cooed, wishing he could have been there as well. Shuffling towards the backdoor, Itadori beckoned you to follow. “I have something to show you.”

Following him diligently, your jaw dropped at the garden before you. There were rows of large spring crops ready to be harvested, several flower bushes being visited by bees, and a few garden beds filled with rich dark soil and seedlings taking root. You couldn’t help but stop and smell some of the flowers as you walked through the garden, smiling at the ladybugs and caterpillars that called the leaves home.

“This is amazing.” Coming upon a large archway in the path, it was fully enclosed in climbing roses, some beginning to flower and show delicate pink blossoms.

“These are cecile brunner roses.” Coming up to one, Itadori plucked a flower and held out the stem for you, which you happily took. “At first I didn’t think it would ever grow, but luckily it took to the soil.” There were countless days spent doing research on the best soil, watering techniques and fertilizer to get the roses to not only grow and climb around the archway but to also survive the winter.

“Grandpa wasn’t kidding when he said you’re a great gardener.” Coming to the edge of the garden, you saw an empty little plot of dirt waiting patiently to be used. “How cute.” Crouching down, you giggled at the sign made with popsicle sticks and cardboard that read ‘(Y/N)’s garden’.

“Made it this morning.” Rubbing the back of his neck bashfully, Itadori motioned to the greenhouse off to the side of the garden. “I have a bunch of seeds in the greenhouse ready for you to choose from. A bunch of flowers and stuff.” Was it wrong to assume you would like to grow flowers? He didn’t want to stereotype you or make you feel bad-

“I’d love to grow some flowers!” Cutting off his inner monologue, you started toward the little structure. “I can give them to my grandma!” Itadori watched you walk away for a few paces before following you, his long stride catching up with you in no time.

Inside the greenhouse, with its frosted windows and higher humidity, it felt like the two of you were in a completely separate world. Itadori had set up the building shortly after moving in, assembling and filling it with gardening supplies and saplings in record time. He’d laid out all the summer seeds he had for you on his work table, unsure of what you’d like.

“I definitely want to grow these.” Holding up a packet of sunflower seeds, you handed them to Itadori, who settled close to your side. “Definitely a watermelon too!” As you picked seeds, Itadori followed along, making a mental checklist of what soil and fertilizer would be needed.

“Hey (Y/N)...” Walking back to your little plot, Itadori wasn’t sure how to pose the question he had.

“What’s up?”

“Do you mind if I set up the camera and film this for a video?” It felt so awkward asking you this - no one was ever in his videos so he never had to worry about asking permission. “It’s not for anything weird, I promise! I just think it’d be nice to make a series for new gardeners. Y’know, give tips and stuff?”

“That’d be perfectly fine!” Your immediate response instantly eased Itadori’s nerves. “Have to capitalize on every chance to make content.”

“I’ll be right back!” He didn’t want to keep you waiting, breaking out into a sprint to grab his camera gear. Setting up his trusty dirt covered tripod, he made sure the scene wasn’t too washed out from the glaring sun before hitting record and running back in front of the camera.

“Hi, welcome back to my garden!” Itadori started the video; he didn’t do proper intro’s or fancy editing for his videos, he preferred to keep it simple. “This is-” Stopping himself short, he turned to you. “Wait, sorry I didn’t even ask if you wanted to be in the video.”

“I don’t mind! I’m already here anyway.” Giggling a little, you waved to the camera. “Hi, I’m (Y/N), someone that can’t garden to save her life.”

“Yeah, this is (Y/N).” Laughing at your introduction, Itadori loosened up as he spoke. Talking about the promise he had made and the seeds you chose to plant, he went through the packets with the camera and zoomed in on the empty soil.

“I’m going to list on screen the fertilizers I recommend for this kind of soil; it’s all kinds you can buy for cheap!”

“You’re really easy going in front of the camera.” You said after he turned it off. You’d interjected with funny quips here and there as you and Itadori planted, but for the most part you were quiet, letting him do his thing and rattle off a million and one gardening tips.

“You think so? That’s good to hear!” Your compliment meant a lot to him; he never had an audience before, and his friends never commented on it when they watched his videos. A light blush adorned his cheeks as he shot some b-roll footage, chuckling as you waved at the camera after being caught in a sweeping view.

“Do you edit all your videos yourself?” You asked, walking slowly side by side back to the house.

“I do.” It wasn’t the best by any means, but Itadori was proud of the skills he’d managed to scrape together during his time producing content. He thought about hiring an editor, or at least someone else to just look at his work, but he didn’t like the feeling that it gave him; like he was giving up on a part of his channel, delegating it to someone else when he should be taking responsibility and doing it himself.

“If you want, I can…possibly help? I do some video editing for my agency.” The words were hesitant to come out of your mouth and you didn’t look at Itadori as you said them. You knew it was risky, and you were prepared to hear a rejection come from him.

“I…” His previous sentiment flashed before him. “Sure, you can give it a try.” Saying it with a slight smile, on the inside Itadori was freaking out. He had no idea he would say that, shocking himself to the core. But looking at your tentative smile, the ease in your shoulders as you walked into his home, he found he didn’t regret it.

Sitting you at the dining table, Itadori brought out lunch. He had made a large salad with the vegetables he’d grown, putting in fish that he had bought at the market. He was proud to boast that he made the dressing himself as well as the lemonade in your cup.

“You’re amazing, Itadori.” The awe in your eyes bolstered Itadori, making his chest puff out with pride. He could see the stars in your eyes and wished he could take a picture to capture the moment forever. Choosing not to answer, he stuffed his mouth instead, watching with interest as you took your first bite. “Itadori, it’s amazing you’re not married already.”

“W-what?!”

“Especially living in this town.” Your statement made him blush fiercely, his entire body engulfing into a red flush. It was true some of the townsfolk had wondered about possibly setting him up, but Itadori felt too awkward to accept any dates.

“S-so, what kind of videos have you edited?” Desperate to change the subject before he embarrassed himself, Itadori glanced at his camera sitting on the table.

“Mainly short videos for bands, like if they film behind the scenes content or make a vlog.” Pulling out your phone, you brought up a recent video you edited. “We flew overseas for a brand campaign with an artist recently!” Leaning forward, Itadori watched the man on screen talk about his first time being in the city and working with the brand in question. The video was smooth, interjected with funny pictures or short meme videos, stickers and glowing pencil drawings adorning the man whenever he did something cute.

“He’s…” Itadori struggled to find a word to describe him. With a serious, almost sullen face and jet black hair, Itadori saw why he would be the face of a brand.

“Megumi’s a bit of a grouch.” You chuckled, pausing at one part of the video where he was eating ice cream. “He insisted on getting ice cream just because I said I wanted some, and ended up getting it all over his clothes!” And sure enough when you hit play, Megumi stumbled on a bump in the sidewalk and his cone went right into the middle of his shirt; a GTA death screen fading overtop him as he realized what happened.

“What kind of music does he make?” Itadori was impressed with your editing skills, but there was something weighing on his mind.

“Here, let me show you!” Eager to promote him, you pulled up Megumi’s most recent music video. Itadori nearly groaned at hearing the smooth tenor voice coming out, wanting to smack a hand over his face. There was no way he could compete with a guy like this.

“He sounds great.” Itadori wasn’t listening to the words at all - he was too busy picturing Megumi buying you ice cream, probably taking you to dinner once filming was over and getting you some fancy bottle of wine Itadori had no idea how to pronounce. “Is he your boyfriend too?” As he asked, his head slumped forward and pressed against the table. He couldn’t bear to hear a yes come from you.

“W-what?” Now it was your turn to be embarrassed. “N-no! He’s my- he’s the agency's client!” You didn’t even allow yourself to entertain that idea, not wanting to get caught up in silly daydreams and possibly losing your job for falling for someone.

“Good.” Whispering to himself, Itadori sat up and ran a hand through his hair. “Finish eating, I’m going to grab my laptop and upload the footage.” Quickly leaving the table, as soon as Itadori was out of earshot he leaned against the wall and let out a sharp exhale. Thank god.

Returning quickly, Itadori took a seat next to you instead of across, opening up his laptop and importing the footage as fast as he could. Just sitting next to you like this made him nervous, sliding over the laptop and trying not to breathe too loudly as your knees brushed together.

“Itadori, your computer’s a dinosaur.” Giggling at the piece of tech before you and nudging his shoulder, you took a glance over the screen.

“Shut up.” He nudged you back and laughed as well. His friends also teased him about it, but Itadori figured that as long as it still turned on, it was good enough for him. He wanted to spend his time in the garden, not worrying behind a screen.

“Itadori, do you think-” just as you were speaking, your phone interrupted with a blaring ringtone. “Shit sorry.” Scrambling to grab it, Itadori saw the name flash on screen: Megumi.

“Hello?” It was a video call, something you were ill-prepared for. Fixing your hair and clothes, you were met with the desperate face of Megumi’s agent.

“(Y/N)! (Y/N)!” The man was close to tears, or at least that’s what it looked like to Itadori. “I need your help!”

“What is it, Jin?” Glancing at Itadori, you mouthed the word sorry and sent him a brief pout.

“I know you said you were on vacation for a while and that you would respond to emails once a week and to not bother you too much, but-”

“Gimme the phone.” Yanking it from his grasp, Megumi positioned himself into view with a scowl. “Where are you?”

Itadori’s mouth flashed a quick frown. Why was this man talking to you like this?

“You know where I am.” You replied in kind, playfully scowling back at Megumi. It was quiet for a moment, just the two of you staring at each other, before it was Megumi that broke the silence.

“Whatever. What’s my schedule for the week?”

“Ask your agent!” Rolling your eyes dramatically, you slumped in your chair. “He’s literally right next to you!”

“I don’t want to hear it from him.” Megumi copied your eye roll, earning a begrudging laugh from you. “Wait. Who’s that?”

“Who’s who?” You immediately jerked away from Itadori upon noticing his face was starting to peek into view.

“Are you with another guy?”

“Megumi, you can’t ask that!” Jin cried, tugging on his arm.

“It’s no one!” Another giggle came out from you, coated in nervousness. You didn’t expect Megumi to care who you were with.

“(Y/N), who-”

“He’s my boyfriend, bye!” Blurting out the line, you hung up the phone and slammed it on the table. Your entire body burned from humiliation and your phone was now getting a flurry of text messages.

“He…has your personal number?” Itadori asked slowly.

“Yeah.” Lifting up your phone, you groaned at all the messages from Megumi and now his agent as well. “Boss thought it’d be best for him to have it when we started working together. Ya know, ‘just in case’.” You’d never been more desperate for a proper work life balance than now. Sitting up, you took a look at the messages.

Megumi: (Y/N)! Call me

Megumi: answer the phone!!

Megumi: do you really have a boyfriend?!

Jin: (Y/N) I’M SO SORRY

Jin: just email me the schedule for this week

Jin: I promise to keep Megumi out of the way while you’re gone

Jin: JUST PLEASE DO THIS FOR ME

“Wow, they’re desperate.” Itadori didn’t mean to read your messages but it was difficult not to when you made no effort to hide them.

“Jin is always like this, I swear he was born a nervous wreck.” Pushing yourself away from the table, you wanted to curse at the moment that was lost between you and Itadori. It was normal for Jin to act this way, but Megumi was usually so nonchalant that you had trouble reading him at times.

“Let me get back home and put out the fire.” You had a dramatic slump to your shoulders that made Itadori laugh. “Do you mind sending me the files? I really want to edit the video.”

“No problem!” Giving you a thumbs up, Itadori led you to the door.

“Oh, and sorry about calling you my boyfriend.” You stuttered to a stop right as the door opened, taking a tiny step across the threshold and looking over your shoulder. “I hope it didn’t make you uncomfortable.”

“No, no worries.” Itadori waved it off. “I…I didn’t mind it all, actually.” Taking a quick glance at you, Itadori rubbed the back of his neck. Both of you stood still, worrying your lips and unsure of what to say next. “There’s a market in the next town over a few days from now, d’ya want to come with me?”

“I’d love that.” Your flushed smile and shy giggle made Itadori laugh himself.

“Great. I’ll text you the details.”

“Great.” The both of you gave each other once overs before finally separating and Itadori watched you walk away until he could no longer see you.

In the coming days, you had been unexpectedly swamped with work; apparently, you were the only one able to work with Megumi’s attitude and coax him into actually listening to Jin. You came over to Itadoris briefly, just to check on the plants and give him some bread your grandma made.

The day of the market, Itadori drove to you in his mini truck, the back filled with wooden crates of produce he intended to trade for some meat. Climbing in, the two of you set off down the road with a picnic basket in your lap; you and your grandma had woken up early just to make lunch for today.

“I’m so excited!” Bouncing in your seat, your eyes darted at every passing thing. You used to go to the neighboring towns a lot when you were younger but as you’d grown older you got too busy to do more than visit your grandparents.

Itadori smiled big at your enthusiasm and hoped the market would live up to all your expectations. You chattered about how it used to be when you came, before you got swept up in university and getting a job in the city. Listening happily, Itadori flicked the radio on.

“Oh my gosh, this is Megumi’s song!” Snapping to attention, you immediately turned the volume up, clapping giddily as his voice filled the car. “This is amazing! I have to let him know!” Quickly shooting off a message to him, you turned to Itadori. “What do you think of his song?”

“His song?” Resting his head in his hand, Itadori listened intently for a few moments. Megumi wasn’t a bad singer by any stretch, yet Itadori struggled to find something to say that wasn’t negative. “It’s good.”

“Just good?” You teased, leaning forward as the car slowed down at a red light. Itadori glanced at you from the corner of his eye, his cheeks getting a bit warm.

“If I say it’s amazing will you stop looking at me like that?”

“Ha!” Falling back into your seat, you laughed and sent off another message to Megumi. “I’ll let him know you love it.”

“Y-you’re telling him right now?”

“Of course! He worked really hard on this song!” He had spent many sleepless nights in the recording booth, only coming out to use the bathroom and to give you and Jin loathsome stares.

You came to the town in twenty minutes, nearly swaying Itadori to stop at a random field so you could take pictures of some grazing cows. Parking right at the edge of the market, Itadori first had to deliver his produce. He insisted on you staying in the car, not wanting you to lift anything heavy and hurt yourself.

“Alright, all done.” A few minutes later and you two began your walk down the market, shoulder to shoulder and looking curiously at every table.

“Smell this!” Picking up a bar of soap, you held it out and watched Itadori take a sniff.

“Oh, a sample!” A kind elderly man gave you and Itadori a slice of cheese.

By the time you were halfway down the market, Itadori was carrying a bag of things you stated you absolutely needed. You’d even bought him a few things, like a candle and homemade cookies.

“I love it here.” Sipping on an iced drink, you and Itadori wandered over to the nearby park, setting up your picnic and laying out on the grass. “I can’t wait for the summer festival, it’ll be even more fun!” You’d gone to the festival nearly every year, only missing out on recent years due to work.

“Yeah, it’ll be great.” Itadori was already forming a mental plan on how to ask you out at the festival, possibly right before the fireworks went off.

The two of you spread out on the blanket you’d laid down, people watching as you ate. The sun was warm against your skin, there was the light background noise of people in the distance, and once your stomach was full you decided to lay down.

“That cloud looks like a rabbit.” You pointed up at the sky. Itadori had laid down with you, not even trying to hide his yawn.

“Mmm, I don’t see it.”

“Your eyes aren’t even open.” Poking him, you got him to open one eye.

“Okay, maybe I see it.” Both of you laughed quietly, and while you tried to pick out more shapes from the clouds, Itadori fell asleep - with you unwittingly following suit soon after. It wasn’t a deep sleep by any means, you could still faintly hear people around you, but it felt good to relax for a bit.

A heavy weight across your midsection roused you in your slumber, drawing you closer to the body laying next to you. Looking out the corner of your eye, you saw Itadori still fast asleep, his head pushed against yours as his arm tightened around you.

“He’s so cute.” You whispered softly, fumbling to grab your phone and snap a couple pictures of him and the two of you together. You had to bite back the childish squeal that bubbled in your chest; the two of you looked cute together and if you were bolder you would show them to Itadori when he awoke.

Letting him sleep, you carefully sat up and began to put things away and back into the basket. At least half an hour had passed since you both laid down and there was no shortage of people still at the market.

Looking down at Itadori, you were unable to resist any longer and you ran a hand through his hair. It wasn’t exceptionally soft or silky, if anything it was a bit rough and in need of conditioner, no doubt from him being outside all the time but you liked the feeling between your fingers and you repeated the motion.

“Feels nice…” Itadori mumbled sleepily, pushing himself into your leg and groaning in appreciation at your fingers in his hair.

“Have a nice nap?” You chuckled, ruffling his hair a bit to stir him awake.

“How- how long was I asleep?” Interrupted by a yawn, Itadori forced himself to open his eyes and look into the sky.

“I’m not sure, I was asleep too.” Grinning at each other, Itadori yawned again and sat up on his elbow.

“We should head out soon, I need to load up the truck and get the meat home.” He made no move to get up any further, instead rubbing a hand over his face and shaking his head. Itadori looked at something in the distance, his mind trying to catch up with what was happening in the world.

“C’mon.” Helping him come to a stand, you folded up the blanket and tugged on his sleeve. “Let’s go.”

“Okay.” Comically dragging his feet, Itadori let you drag him back to the market. As you got back into the crowd of people, he slipped your hand from his sleeve and laced your fingers together. “Let’s stay close.”

The words came out smoothly and from your vantage point he looked perfectly calm moving through the crowd, but on the inside Itadori was freaking out. It was taking everything in him not to shake from holding your hand and if he dared look over his shoulder at you, he knew an embarrassing noise would escape him.

“Pretty flowers.” You said casually, looking at a table full of floral bouquets. Itadori took one glance at the table and turned, walking straight toward it.

“Which one do you want?” He asked, fishing out money from his wallet.

“Oh no, it’s okay, you don’t have to-”

“How about this one?” Itadori picked up a large bouquet of baby's-breath and tulips, a lovely pink shade that nearly matched his hair.

“These are gorgeous.” Taking the flowers from him, you took a whiff as Itadori paid for them.

“Such a loving boyfriend you have.” The shopkeeper cooed, handing Itadori his change.

“Thank you.” A blush overtook your cheeks and a smile spread across your face; you didn’t have the heart to correct them nor did you want to in the first place. Walking back to Itadori’s truck hand in hand, you sat in the car as he loaded a few coolers of meat into the back.

Hugging the bouquet to your chest, the two of you drove in relative quiet, listening to the soft noise of the radio as the day winded down.

“I had a great time today.” You spoke up as Itadori made it to the front of your home.

“I did too.” Putting the truck in park, he quickly hopped out and ran to your side to open your door. Taking hold of the hand he offered, you moved slowly, not wanting the time together to end. Standing in the doorway, Itadori stared straight at you, inching closer every few seconds.

“Welcome back you two!” Your grandpa’s voice shocked both of you, forcing Itadori to take a large step back from you.

“H-hey grandpa!” You waved, hoping he didn’t see you and Itadori just staring at each other. Closing the car door, you tipped your head at Itadori. “I’ll see you soon? I should be done editing your video by tomorrow.”

“Soon.” With a nod and a wave to your grandpa, Itadori got back into his truck and drove off, this time allowing his hands to shake as violently as they wanted to. When night fell and both of you were in bed, Itadori could hardly sleep, reliving the day over and over in his head. As he tossed for the hundredth time, his phone lit up with a text.

(Y/N): I got a vase for the flowers!

Attached to your text was a picture of the vase sitting on your bedside table. Another picture came in shortly after, of you holding the bouquet in your backyard, bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun.

(Y/N): grandma really wanted to take this picture, she said she’s going to print it out and frame it

Itadori immediately saved it to his phone, having to stop himself from making it his wallpaper.

Itadori: you look beautiful

Gripping his phone tightly, Itadori stared at the screen. He didn’t care if his statement was too bold, he needed to let you know.

(Y/N): thanks

The word was sent between a flurry of heart emojis and Itadori just knew you were blushing like he was. Neither of you said anything further, opting instead to grip your pillows and try to force sleep to come.

As the days and weeks went on, you and Itadori spent more time together. He loved how you edited his video, asking if you’d like to do a few more for him and possibly show him how to do it as well for when you left. You filmed several more videos together, capturing the growth of your seedlings into blossoming buds with fledgling leaves. You also went over the video comments together, thinking of how best to reply to them.

Neither of you said anything about the comments shipping you, saying how cute you looked together and wondering when you would start dating if you weren’t already. A few people had asked if you also made videos or were on other social media platforms, but you declined to answer those, not wanting it to possibly affect your work negatively.

“(Y/N), call up Yuji and tell him to come over, I want to have a barbecue.” Your grandpa announced just after 4pm. He and your grandma had been going back and forth about what to do for dinner and he finally decided.

“Why do I have to do it?” You questioned, grabbing your phone nonetheless.

“Oh, and tell him to bring some beers-”

“Don’t you dare, you know the doctor told you not to drink on that new medication!”

“Dear, he said one or two was fine!” And back to bickering they were. Laughing under your breath, you slipped out into the back, looking at the wide open grassland before you as you waited for Itadori to text back.

“(Y/N)!” You didn’t have to wait long, Itadori called your name as he rounded the corner.

“That was quick!” Standing to greet him, you gave him a curious look. You’d only sent the message ten minutes ago and he was already here with a platter of vegetables and meat.

“I got excited, I haven’t had a barbecue in so long!” In dirt stained overalls and no shoes, you could see he had been working in the garden.

“Well I’ll let grandpa know you’re here.”

“Yuji!” As if on cue, the man came out of the house. “Such a good kid.” Taking the platter from him, your grandfather turned over his shoulder. “Dear, is the barbecue still in the shed?”

“I’ll get it.” Itadori immediately walked over to the building in question, pulling out the barbecue and a bag of charcoal. “Where d’ya want it, gramps?”

“Over here.” As the two of them got to work setting up the grill, you went back inside to grab drinks. In no time, all of you were outside, listening to music from an old stereo and waiting for the grill to heat up.

“So (Y/N), how’s that boy in the city?” Taking a sip of water, Daichi stared at the grill. “He done calling you all the time?”

“Megumi’s just stressed, this is the first time I’ve gone on a vacation like this since we met.” Itadori frowned at the topic of conversation; he couldn’t help but see Megumi as competition in winning you over.

“Oh Yuji, you’re so cute!” Cooing at the young man, your grandma glanced at you. “I think someone is jealous.” Giggling behind her hand, the elderly woman patted you on the shoulder as you slapped a hand over your face.

“Jeez Yachi, you could try to be more subtle!” Leaning back dramatically, Daichi groaned.

“I can’t help it!” She continued to tease, reveling in yours and Itadori’s embarrassed faces.

“I’m going to get more water before I die of humiliation.” Jumping up, you all but ran into the kitchen to escape. Going straight into the bathroom, you splashed cold water on your face to quell your scalding cheeks.

Once your body had cooled down, you exited the bathroom, surprised to see Itadori standing at the kitchen counter chopping vegetables. You could see the muscles in his arms flexing as he chopped, his already short sleeves rolled up to expose his shoulders.

“Did grandma put you to work?” Making your presence known, you tore your eyes away from his arms and over to the window where the two of them were standing over the grill.

“Yeah.” Itadori chuckled, focused on chopping. Leaning against the counter, you looked over to him, wanting to say something about your grandma’s comment. “I am jealous.” He spoke before you could, not tearing his eyes away from his task.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Glancing at you, he licked his lips nervously before continuing. “Jealous that he’s known you longer, he’s gone on a vacation with you and probably a bunch of other things I don’t even want to think about.” Setting the knife down, Itadori placed his hand over yours. “But I’ll beat him, I’ll make sure of it.”

“Beat him in what?” Your breath was hardly coming out and your heart was beating so loudly in your ears you were surprised any sound was able to be heard.

“In the race for you.” A shaky exhale left Itadori, his eyes making contact with yours briefly before dropping to your lips. “I’m going to win your heart before Megumi knows what hit him.” Giving your hand a brief squeeze, Itadori stepped away and grabbed the cutting board he’d been working on. “Alright, all done!” He yelled as he walked outside, leaving you alone to think about what just happened.

You wanted to deny it, push away the idea that Megumi might like you in that way, but there was no getting around it. You’d seen the signs yourself no matter how hard you pushed them away and if these past weeks were any indication, he was desperate not to lose you to Itadori.

The rest of the evening went by in a blur, your interaction with Itadori playing over and over in your head. A few other neighbors had joined the fray, helping to disperse the conversations and take attention away from you. You didn’t shy away from Itadori, sitting next to him when it came time to eat and walking him out when it got too dark to stay out any longer.

“Thanks for coming.” You two were now standing on the sidewalk, neither of you making a move to leave the other.

“I had a good time.” Rocking on his feet, Itadori reached out and hooked his fingers on yours. “I’ll see you soon?” He gave you a hopeful look from under his lashes, one that turned to happiness at your nod.

“Yeah, I need to check on my plants!”

“Plants, of course.” Chuckling, Itadori raised your hand to his lips, giving your knuckles a kiss and a squeeze before letting go. “See you.”

“Bye.” Biting your lip to hold back a childish giggle, you waited for Itadori to get a bit farther away before making yourself turn to go back inside. Itadori’s confession followed you to sleep, making butterflies erupt in your stomach everytime you thought about his lips on your hand.

With the summer festival coming up sooner than either of you had anticipated, the time you and Itadori spent together wasn’t as much as either of you had hoped. Being a strapping young man, he was put to work grabbing supplies and setting up booths. What time you did spend together was always short, just a quick exchange before Itadori was called to do other things or he was simply too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

But it was all worth it in the end, when you woke up and saw that the festival was beginning to start. People from other towns had come and set up, making the festival stretch widely across the town center. 

“Itadori!” Painfully excited and jumping for joy, you knocked loudly on his front door. You knew he wasn’t at the festival already because you had made a promise to go together.

There were a few thumps from the other side of the door and a hushed ‘ow!’ before the door was yanked open.

“W-what time is it?” Itadori yawned, shielding his face from the sun. You couldn’t formulate an answer though, too busy ogling his shirtless physique. It was like seeing him for the first time all over again, your eyes drinking in every detail of his muscles.

“Eleven?” Your voice was terribly quiet and Itadori didn’t even hear it, opting to turn around and look at the clock on the wall.

“Damn, pretty late. Come in.” Dragging his feet through the hall, Itadori came to a halt at a coffee machine in the kitchen. “Want one?”

“I’m good.” Leaning against the dining table, you now stared at the muscles in his back, idly wondering what it’d be like to touch them.

“I see you staring.” Itadori teased, looking at you from the corner of his eye as he poured a cup of coffee.

“Shut up.” Whipping your head away, a blush cropped up on the back of your neck.

“I’ll get dressed and then we can go.” Quickly downing the drink, he did a light jog out of the kitchen. Five minutes later and Itadori reappeared, a light tank top adorning him. Escorting you out of the house, Itadori held up his camera.

“You’re filming a vlog?” You asked excitedly. He had never really filmed a video like this before and you were excited to see him broadening his content.

“Yes, I’m filming a vlog.” He was already holding up the camera, arm extended to capture both of you in the frame. “It’s the summer festival everyone! And me and (Y/N) are going!”

“It’s going to be great! There’s so much to do there!” You chimed in, pumping your first into the air.

“What should we do first? Maybe get some cotton candy?”

“Yes!” Scurrying ahead, you let Itadori continue to talk to the camera, excitement driving you forward. Briefly looking over your shoulder, you saw him film you running off and waving. Stopping once you reached the edge of the festival, you bounced on your toes waiting for him to meet up with you.

“Someone’s excited.” He teased, casually slinging an arm over your shoulder as you began your walk through the festival. You welcomed the motion, moving closer to him and letting your head rest on his shoulder for a moment.

Walking through the festival, Itadori had a hard time multitasking between vlogging and talking to you. He’d never filmed in such a public place before and it was making him nervous; not all the townsfolk knew he filmed videos.

“Hey Itadori!” A man sitting at a strawberry tanghulu stand waved the two of you down, gesturing to the fruit sitting on the table. “Look, these are with the strawberries you grew!”

“Wow!” Itadori had an impressed look on his face as he filmed it for the camera.

“Here, take some! They’re technically yours after all!” The man eagerly handed you a skewer of the fruit, giving you two a wave as you walked away.

“Don’t keep me waiting, try it.” Itadori nudged you; he wanted to see what you thought of his food. Biting down on the brittle sugar, you hummed and licked your lips.

“Only the best from the Itadori farm!” You exclaimed, waving the skewer at the camera. “I know all of you are jealous!”

“Gimme some.” Opening his mouth, Itadori waited for you to feed him. Taking a bite himself, he gave a thumbs up. “Amazing.”

Walking around the festival, the both of you stopped to talk to the other townspeople, some running stands and others just perusing themselves. There was a lot to see and do, from eating all the festival food you could get your hands on to watching live performances of local musicians.

“I should ask Megumi if he’d be interested in playing a festival, I want to go to more.” You said offhandedly, always eager to help broaden the exposure of your agencies clients.

“I should become a musician so I can have you think about me all the time.” Itadori teased, pinching your cheek.

“I think about you plenty!” Giggling and swatting at his hand, you captured it in yours, holding it tightly against your chest. Itadori laughed as well, untangling your hands to properly thread your fingers together.

“Good, ‘cause I think about you a lot.” Resting his head against yours, Itadori turned his attention to the music playing, turning the camera so it could capture it as well.

As the sun began to set, there was an excited murmur of the fireworks show to come. Itadori had helped put it together, driving cases of fireworks from one town to the other and helping plan out the order of everything on his ancient laptop.

“How cute!” Walking around a bit before it started, you stumbled upon a game stall where the prizes were large plushies. A large pink bunny had caught your eye, its ears much longer than its body.

“You like it?” Handing the camera to you, Itadori fished out a few dollars. “I’ll win it, no problem.”

“Alright, I’m counting on you!” Angling the camera, you made sure the whole stall was in frame before he started. Itadori was painfully focused, he hardly made a sound as he threw darts to pop the balloons a few feet away. Every throw landed, making you more anxious by the minute.

“It’s all yours.” The person manning the stall pulled down the rabbit and handed it to Itadori.

“Here you go.” Walking off, Itadori switched the camera for the rabbit.

“Thank you!” Feeling a rush of adrenaline, you bounced on your toes and swooped in, giving Itadori a kiss on the cheek. Clutching the plush close to your chest, you laughed at his shocked expression and how his eyes got wider upon realizing he caught it on camera.

“N-no problem.” He could hardly speak, surprised that you would even want to kiss him. Fighting the urge to grab you and kiss you back, Itadori tugged at your hand instead, focusing on walking straight and not passing out from how hot his face was.

Finding a spot to watch the fireworks, Itadori hugged you to his chest, resting his camera on his shoulder as the sky lit up. The babble of amazed children was drowned out every few moments by a loud boom and the crowd was bathed in a wonderful swatch of bright colors.

While the fireworks were going off, Itadori did mental gymnastics trying to figure out how he was going to ask you to be his girlfriend. With the festival coming to an end, it also signaled the beginning of the end of summer, meaning you’d be going back to work in the city in no time. He worried so much about it all that the firework show came and went without him noticing.

“I had so much fun!” As the two of you walked out of the town center, your hands had naturally come together and swung back and forth.

“Me too.” Itadori turned the camera off now, it was too dark to really see anything on film. Passing by street lights, he dreaded every step closer to your homes. “(Y/N).” He stopped abruptly. “Let’s go on a walk.”

“Okay.” Sending him a curious look, you followed him down a side street away from home. Walking in silence, you could tell something was eating at Itadori because every few steps he would falter and look at you, only to snap his head away just as quickly. “Is something wrong?” Now it was your turn to stop under a streetlight, tugging him to stop as well.

“No.” Itadori said, refusing to look at you. “Well, yes…” Taking a glance at you made a groan come out of him and he threw his head back in frustration. “Nothing’s wrong, I just…just…” It was silent between you two: you looking at Itadori with worry and him staring at the sky trying to muster the courage to do something.

“Did I do anything wrong?”

“No!” Your question immediately brought Itadori back to earth, his wide stare throwing you off. “No, nothing!”

“Then what’s up? You’ve been acting weird since we left.”

“I-” Getting fed up with himself, Itadori let out a short and annoyed shout. “I just don’t want this night to end with me doing nothing!”

“Nothing?”

“Yes! I want to- I want to kiss you! I want to ask you out, I want you to be my girlfriend! But how can I ask any of that when I keep chickening out?” He hadn’t meant to shout, but Itadori was getting angry at himself. Squeezing your hand tighter, he leaned forward and rested his forehead on your shoulder. “I don’t want you going back to the city without at least knowing how much I like you.”

Itadori refused to lift his head after his final words, not wanting to see your expression lest it be something he didn’t want to see. Sure, he had stated that he intended to win your heart but this was different, he was actually coming out and saying how much he wanted to be with you.

“Itadori.” Nudging his head up, you got him to look at you, his cheeks a horribly deep shade of pink. Looking at you made it worse, but he leaned into the hand you placed on his cheek. “I thought you’d never ask.” Your words made a tremendous weight lift off his shoulders and Itadori nearly collapsed.

“Thank god.” He sighed happily, cupping your cheeks as well and laughing like a fool. “I don’t think I could stand to be rejected.” Pushing his forehead against yours, he closed his eyes and sighed again. “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes.” The word barely left you before he was already putting his lips on yours. Itadori was smiling in the kiss, pushing his teeth into yours without meaning to. He kissed you a few times, managing to close his mouth properly a few times before finally parting.

“Alright, let’s get you home. I don’t want gramps to get the wrong idea about me.” Kissing you again, Itadori put his arm around your shoulder and began walking. The trip back was too short for either of your liking and you made it to your front door all too soon.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” You asked hopefully.

“Of course.” Itadori punctuated his statement with a kiss. Sharing a long hug, you eventually separated and went inside. Taking a glance into the lounge room, you balked at seeing both your grandparents scrambling to fix the curtains. “Were you spying on us?”

“I- well- it was your grandma's idea.”

“No it wasn’t! You know grandpa is nosy!”

You couldn’t find it in you to be embarrassed at being caught by your grandparents. You just laughed it off and offered to give them the details which they happily listened to, giving you love advice every now and again.

With the end of the festival truly came the end of your summer holiday. Itadori and you harvested your crops, proudly showing the camera the bundle of flowers and produce you were able to grow. He edited the vlog of the festival himself as well, keeping in all the cheesy and romantic moments you two shared and titling it ‘finally getting a girlfriend’. There were hundreds of fan edits by the end of the week and Itadori clipped several moments to relive on his TikTok.

Once the day came to leave, you said goodbye to your grandparents, promising to come back soon. Itadori drove you to the train station, his hand laced with yours as he drove. He was pensive, not saying much as he drove; he had to constantly stop himself from turning the car around and driving you right back to town.

“You won’t forget about me right?” He asked as he helped grab your bags.

“How could I?” You knew for a fact that he and your grandparents would be blowing up your phone constantly asking for you to visit.

“Megumi better not give you any trouble.” Itadori would be ready to drive to the city at the drop of a hat just to put the melancholy man in his place. You laughed at that statement, rolling your eyes and taking your suitcase from him.

“Please, Megumi’s harmless.” Fixing your bags and checking the time, you missed Itadori’s brief look of discontent. You said that, but Itadori had a feeling Megumi wouldn’t back off just because you suddenly had a new boyfriend.

“Text me when you get on the train.” Placing his hands on your shoulders, Itadori squared your body to him.

“I will.”

“Promise?”

“Promise!” Throwing your arms around him, you squeezed him tightly and pecked him on the lips. “I’ll even send a picture of my seat.” Kissing him one last time, you pulled apart and took a step back. “Bye!” You went to walk away but Itadori grabbed onto your hand, preventing you from going any further.

“I’m going to miss you!” He whined, letting you tug back and forth.

“You big baby!” You would miss him too and you nearly let him pull you back, but you stayed strong and eventually broke free from his hold. “Go pick out the fall crops already!”

“Fine!” Itadori made no move to leave, instead watching you walk away and into the station. He waited until you texted him that you were on the train and even then still waited until he heard the whistle blow and saw the train begin its departure.

(Y/N): miss you already

(Y/N): I’ll be back before you know it

(Itadori): I’ll be waiting

[deityoftherain]

zombabe - Smallidarity Zombie Apocalypse AU Fanfic

Rating: Teen

Relationship: M/M

Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Status: Completed Oneshot

Word Count: 3,406

Summary: Joel hadn’t ever thought he would be stabbing a zombie with the sharpened end of his baseball bat (he got bored and carved things) on a random Wednesday afternoon (was it Wednesday?), yet here he was, living after the collapse of civilization... at least he had Jimmy by his side.

Full fanfic underneath the cut! Please reblog, leave kudos on the AO3 fic slash notes/likes here on Tumblr, comment either place, and etc if you enjoy the story :D

People always talked about preparing for the zombie apocalypse, but most rarely did. Why would they? It was just a thing made up for entertainment, nothing more. If anything, Joel just wished he had binge-watched more zombie movies to prepare.

Joel was one of those people who thought the whole thing was stupid. Buying canned goods in bulk, solar panels on roofs to power generators, elaborate underground bunkers… all of it, rubbish! It was just rubbish until the zombies (actual brain-dead, flesh-eating zombies) started to take over.

At least he no longer had to work, though he had quite liked his job, watching youtube videos, having more than one friend, take-out meals, reliable running water, art shows, and so much more from his life before… not that it mattered anymore. Life from before meant nothing. All that mattered was survival now, and he wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Joel hadn’t ever thought he would be stabbing a zombie with the sharpened end of his baseball bat (he got bored and carved things) on a random Wednesday afternoon (was it Wednesday?), yet here he was. He pulled out his pocket knife with his free hand and flipped it open before slicing it across the zombie’s neck. When it fell to the ground, he puffed out his chest with a sneer. Another one of those dreadful things down, countless more still out in the world.

“What do you think they are? Werewolves?” Jimmy joked, drawing Joel’s attention to him. 

Jimmy was wiping off the zombie guts from the large kitchen knife he claimed from the ruins early that week. Joel was pretty sure it was a week, but he wasn’t positive about it. Considering they were facing societal collapse and having to scavenge to stay alive, keeping time wasn’t something he tended to cross off on his itinerary.

“Those are vampires, Jim. Not blummin’ werewolves,” Joel scoffed, turning to his companion throughout this whole thing. “Werewolves are killed with silver. Vampires are killed by things like wooden stakes and garlic.”

“Oh, right, right,” Jimmy chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. He glanced behind him before starting to survey the general area. Joel assumed he was checking to make sure there weren’t more zombies, meaning he didn’t need to, meaning he could stare at Jimmy. They’ve always been friends, yeah, but after spending all this time together, Joel wasn’t exactly sure where they stood. Talking about his emotions wasn’t exactly his strong suit, so he never brought it up. 

Jimmy had always been rather fit since he’d been on track in secondary school and then ran every other morning from then on. He ran more frequently than that now, just less as a hobby to relieve stress and more as a way to get away from human-eating monsters. Joel considered himself to be extremely strong, buff, handsome, and sexy, but he couldn’t deny that Jimmy could run laps around him. They evened each other out in that way.

“What do you think we should have for lunch, babe?” Joel shrugged off his beat-up backpack. “Canned beans or canned beans?”

“Canned beans again?” Jimmy wrinkled his nose at the lack of options. “Wow, you really know how to treat a girl.”

“As much as I would love to wine and dine you properly, we are kinda in the blummin’ apocalypse.” Joel tossed a can toward him, ignoring the rumbling of his stomach. “Eat up. We can scavenge for something else later.”

Jimmy fumbled to catch it, but he did manage to do so. Joel was mildly proud at his improved catching skills, but not enough to show it. Instead, they settled down on makeshift chairs (they were tipped over trash cans) as they ate their cans of beans.

“Your jacket has a new cut on the sleeve,” Jimmy pointed out.

Joel twisted his arm to get a better look at what Jimmy was referring to and groaned, “Ugh, not another one. Blummin’ thing wasn’t made for the apocalypse, I guess.”

“It’s lasted this long,” Jimmy shrugged. “I think we got our money’s worth.”

Both Jimmy and Joel had on their leather jackets with a badass, perhaps sort of cringey design on the back that they bought together. There was a sale at one of the shops, they had recently gotten paid, and they may or may not have been a teensy bit tipsy. Joel didn’t regret it though, still thinking it was rather cool. Besides, it acted as protection from the elements, loose screws, and overgrown zombie nails.

“The store owner did gave us a good deal on Grian’s since we already bought two from ‘em,” Joel reminisced. 

Grian, Jimmy’s cousin, always acted like they were dumb, but Joel insisted he was just jealous. Taking a bet that he was right, he and Jimmy worked together to get one for him as well. Lo and behold, Grian loved it more than he would have ever admitted to their faces and they became self-proclaimed Bad Boys.

They hadn’t seen Grian since before this whole thing started.

Joel regretted bringing him up as he watched Jimmy’s expression shift from a smile to a grimace. He cleared his throat awkwardly and wracked his brain for something to lighten the mood again.

“I think I spotted a pet shop a bit down. You wanna see if they have some bird seed?” Joel was aware that going out to get bird seed to feed some blummin’ birds of all things was a waste of time, energy, and carrying space, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it when he saw the way that Jimmy’s eyes lit up. 

Joel would trade away everything he had just to see Jimmy look so excited and full of life. He would do anything if it meant that he could see Jimmy look like Jimmy again. The grim atmosphere that came with the end of their civilization and the loss of their loved ones stomped out a lot of Jimmy’s light, but it wasn’t gone completely. Whenever Joel could do something to bring one of his dumb, crooked smiles to his face, he would.

He would never admit that though. Jimmy didn’t need to get a big head; that was Joel’s job, thank you very much.

“Really?” Jimmy squeaked as he started to bounce in his spot. If he had a tail, Joel was sure it would be wagging enthusiastically. Since he didn’t, Jimmy shook his arms instead. Joel got on him sometimes for being loud (he could attract zombies!), but it was hard to stay mad when he was simply displaying joy. Joy was already so rare and Joel couldn’t bring himself to ruin it.

Ruffling Jimmy’s hair, Joel huffed and said, “A’course! Would I ever lie to you, Jim?”

“Are you joking?” Jimmy deadpanned. “Oi, it’s not my fault you’re gullible.” Joel tossed the empty can aside, having no use for it. It wasn’t like they had a trash system anymore so why bother throwing it away? “Now do you want to go feed your bird friends or not?”

“I do, I do, hold on,” Jimmy’s words were muffled as he spoke around the beans he stuffed into his mouth. He chewed quickly, swallowed, and pushed himself up to his feet. “Okay, done, let’s go!”

Joel rolled his eyes fondly. He slung his arm over his friend’s shoulder and started to drag him down the street.

The pet store wasn’t too far away nor was it hard to get into. The windows had been shattered open and half of the products were on the floor, but it was still intact to some extent. Joel ran his baseball bat against the floor, the nails hammered into it making an awful scratching noise as it ran against the laminate tiles. If he was going to live in a real life scary movie, he may as well have a spiked baseball bat!

“Babe, that is driving me insane,” Jimmy lightly smacked Joel’s hip with the side of his kitchen knife. “Hold it the right way or we’re switching weapons.” “You have no sense of showmanship,” Joel huffed, but did as he was told. He tossed it up so it rested against his shoulder, ready to swing if any zombies decided to jump out at them.

Jimmy was about to retort when he got side tracked by the bird seed. Joel tried to listen, he really did, but he could only pay attention to Jimmy ramble about the different kinds of bird seed and what would be the best for the birds that stuck around in this area for so long. He wandered off through the store to browse the shelves and see if anything else would be useful.

Joel may have zoned out just a tad (a dangerous thing to do during times like this) because he didn’t register anything when Jimmy slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. “Blummin’ hell! Can’t you watch where you’re going?”

Jimmy ignored him, the only semblance of a response being a gasp as he scrambled off of Joel. Before Joel could see what happened, he heard the slashing of Jimmy’s kitchen knife against fabric and the grunts of a zombie. 

Fuck. Joel snatched his spiked baseball bat and bolted towards the sounds of commotion. Another zombie grunted behind him, so he spun on his heel and swung at it. When did the zombies close in on them? Joel hadn’t seen any earlier!

Joel tried to swing strategically, but that only lasted so long before he started to blindly throw the bat around. No matter what he tried, the zombies just kept coming back. 

“Jim, I think we gotta make a run for it. These smelly zombies aren’t backing off,” Joel warned.

He didn’t get a response and concern started to gnaw at him. Only after he managed to knock down the zombies around him again did he spare a glance over his shoulder. 

Jimmy wasn’t there. 

Joel paled as fear gripped him tight. His throat closed up and his heart seemed to stop beating. He’d already lost so much– he couldn’t lose Jimmy too. Not now, not when he’d never gotten to tell Jimmy how much he meant to him.

Not when he’d been in love with him for so long..

Joel loved Jimmy. He loved him more than a friend.

Fuck, fuck, fuck—

“Jimmy!” Joel called out, breaking out into a sprint.

His crush. Ha! Crush sounded like such a silly word for what Joel felt for Jimmy. Crush made it sound like it was some stupid primary school infatuation. Crush made it sound like they weren’t in the middle of the end of the world. The end of the world with no one else but each other.

Joel wasn’t sure how long it had been when he heard his name be called. He stopped in his tracks and frantically looked around. “Jimmy?”

“Joel, I’m here.” When they made eye contact, Jimmy gave him a weak smile, though it was more like a grimace. He was standing, at least, so that was a good sign… right?

“Jimmy, what the hell?” Joel exclaimed as he ran to Jimmy’s side and threw his arms around him for a hug. He didn’t stay there long, pulling away but keeping his hands firmly around Jimmy’s shoulders. “What happened? Why did you run off? You know better than to stray that far away! That was stupid. Such a stupid thing for you to do. Do I need to put you on a lead?”

Maybe he came off a bit too harsh because Jimmy stayed silent, allowing his gaze to drop down to his feet. Joel bit down on the inside of his cheek harshly, a tinge of copper setting off his taste buds.

Now that Joel’s racing heart was allowed to calm down, he could make up for not protecting him like he should. His eyes ran over Jimmy, ignoring the blush he could feel burning on his face. He hoped Jimmy would just take it as being flushed from running a lot.

Joel’s gaze lingered on Jimmy’s torso and arms for longer than he should before finally trailing down his legs. That’s when he saw part of Jimmy’s trousers soaked a dark crimson color. “Jimmy, are you bleeding?” Jimmy winced, still avoiding Joel’s eyes. “Yeah, it got my leg.” Joel turned his sight down, now inspecting it more carefully. Now that he was paying attention, Joel could tell that Jimmy was putting all his weight on his right leg– his trousers were torn around his left leg. He cursed again, moving to Jimmy’s left to help support him walking. “Let’s get somewhere safe and I’ll look at it.” Jimmy only nodded, not saying anything else. He was uncharacteristically quiet, which only made guilt and fear burrow deep in Joel’s gut. The journey to an abandoned building was a silent one, apart from the pained hisses, grunts, and groans from Jimmy.

Joel pulled out his pocket knife once he got Jimmy sat down to remove the remaining fabric just below Jimmy’s knee. This way, Joel could properly see what he was working with.

“Did I get bit?” Jimmy whispered weakly, his voice cracking. His hands were held tightly into fists, fingernails digging into his palms.

Joel didn’t answer nor did he breathe as his eyes ran over Jimmy’s leg to find the answer. He let out a shaky sigh of relief and shook his head. “No, it’s just a bunch of scratches. I got some disinfectant and bandages from that one store we raided a bit back, so I’m going to do that, okay? It’s going to sting.” A stuttering laugh escaped Jimmy’s lips as the tears pooling in his eyes started to fall. “Just do it.”

Joel gave him a brief nod before getting to work. He pulled the disinfectant and bandages out of his bag, dosing the long and rather deep scratches with the disinfectant. Joel wasn’t going to take any risks; he would use every supply he could muster to help Jimmy if he was able to. He tried his best to ignore the pained noises Jimmy made, but he couldn’t. Each whimper made Joel feel more guilty for snapping at him.

“We can stay here a bit for you to rest your leg,” Joel murmured as he finished wrapping Jimmy’s leg. He put the supplies back in his bag and pushed himself to his feet. “Can’t do much if walking hurts too much.” “Okay.” Jimmy nodded simply, staring off at nothing. 

Silence stayed between them for several moments before Joel broke it. “I’m going to go check the perimeter. Stay here and maybe rest a bit.” Just as Joel turned to walk away, Jimmy reached out and grabbed his wrist. Joel stopped moving, turning back toward Jimmy and raising an eyebrow in question.

“Can you stay with me?” Jimmy asked with shaky desperation in his voice. He peered up at Joel through his eyelashes, looking rather small despite him being noticeably taller than Joel. “Please.” The tension in Joel’s shoulders didn’t necessarily relax, but they did soften, just like his guarded expression. He swallowed back his emotions as he carefully moved to sit down besides Jimmy. “Okay.”

Jimmy leaned into Joel, squeezing his eyes shut as his body started to contract some with his sobs. The weight of everything was undoubtedly hitting Jimmy again. It wasn’t the first time and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Joel knew well how he felt, for he’d also had his fair share of breakdowns. He tended to do it in private, or he would shove the emotions down to convert it into energy and anger at the zombies. It made him reckless, but he’d never been one to live his life curled up in bubble wrap.

They gradually shifted until Jimmy’s face was partly pressed against Joel’s chest and Joel had both of his arms wrapped snugly around Jimmy. Joel idly ran his nails up and down Jimmy’s arm. Despite all that happened, Joel felt strangely at peace. It was like they had been placed into a timeless bubble, safe from everything outside that would try to hurt them.

“I love you, Joel,” Jimmy admitted, tone infused with genuine care and a bit of fear. “I don’t think we say it enough, especially now. Especially with everything going on.”

Joel didn’t respond at first, sucking in his lips for only a moment. “I would die for you.” Jimmy snorted, partly baffled and partly unsurprised. “What, is ‘I love you’ too hard to say? What more do you have to lose?” “You.” Joel surprised himself with how vulnerable a singular word could sound.

Jimmy shifted his position only enough so he could look at Joel properly. They were touching each other previously and still were, but their faces hadn’t been this close before. Joel got an up-close view of the freckles peppered across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, as well as the warmth in his brown eyes. 

“If I didn’t know better, I would say that sounded romantic,” Jimmy murmured.

Joel huffed out a cross between a scoff and a snort. “Ever consider that you may not know better?” Before Joel could fully process what happened, Jimmy’s lips were on his. The kiss was greedy and desperate, forcing him to forget about the world outside of them. It caught Joel off guard, but he certainly couldn’t complain. He pushed back into the kiss, giving Jimmy the same energy he had given Joel.

Their hands wandered each other's body, hands finding their way under shirts and fingers getting tangled in each other's hair. They were desperate for the physical contact they had previously left to minimum touches and the occasional cuddling for warmth. Maybe they had both been idiots, dancing around the topic out of fear the other would leave. Out of fear that they would lose their last connection to life from before, out of fear that they would be alone.

With each kiss and caring touch, that fear drained away, leaving a bond stronger than any zombie they may have to face. It may be the end of the world, but at least they were facing it together.

[amloveabledeathmo]

People I want to get to know better

@sherlockholmeson boy do I feel you on the depression issues. Hope it gets better for you.

Last song: IDK How To Talk To Girls by Beth McCarthy I have been playing this on repeat for days now. Also gonna sneak in her other song that I am also keeping on repeat, She's Pretty by Beth McCarthy. Links are to youtube official music videos.

Favorite Color: I say grey because it goes with all the other colours but also I just love all the colours.

Currently Watching: Money for Nothing. It's a UK show where they take three items from people who are throwing them away and revamp and sell them and give any profit back to the person who was gonna trash it.

Last movie: It's been a few months at least since I've watched a movie so I have no idea

Currently Reading: I have a stack of books like 25 I think that I want to read but brain goblins have been shit so nothing right now.

Sweet, Spicy, or Savory?: Sweet, I am very much a dessert person.

Relationship: Married my favourite spouse @howlingwolf23

Current Obsession: The original story my spouse and I are writing. It's a gay romance that starts with fake dating and bad family called The Punk and The Suit and I am thinking about ideas for it all the time.

Last googled: Large outdoor solar fans. Did not find any, they were either small or not solar and the big ones I was interested in are soooo expensive. If anyone knows if there is a solar panel that you can plug things into like just with a regular plug I'd love to know.

Currently working on: The Punk and The Suit and spray painting outdoor chairs

Tagging but do not feel obligated to respond and please let me know if you don't like being tagged in this type of stuff: @marcus--666, @angelsallfire, @mercuryytheraven, @solbringer, @badgerandk, @wolfsbane-and-nettles, @clownwix, @lucigoo, @sunnyrosewritesstuff

[confessions-official]

I find ads genuinely the most annoying shite on earth, I am not going to be inspired or swayed to buy a product when the ad for that product interrupts MY time, im not watching a youtube video for the ads, im watching for the video and when that video is interrupted by a damn ad that should just auto skip 5 secs in cause who the fuck DOESNT immediately press skip, OR 1-2 15 sec ads that I cant skip, im just going to get mad at the product. i get ads are meant to appeal to your subconscious and make you think of buying the thing if you see it while shopping but THATS BULL SHIT, im going to take note of the product that INTERRUPTED MY TIME and never buy it, AND im not even likely to get what the ad is trying to sell in the first place, i dont need 3 new insurance companies begging for my money, i dont need solar panels, im literally never going to buy lipstick or a 4 step skin care routine, Im never going to see the new movies, the ads do not even appeal to me in the first place, WHY IS ALL MY TIME WASTED BY CAPITALISM. Youtube spons can fuck off and die too, youtubers trying to sell shitty low quality products to their audience is evil, get your bag but why you trying to convince your supporters to waste their money on shitty earphones or therapy thats run by an evil company.

We live in a hell world where advertisements are half the shit we see on the daily and im mad about it

 

[theeccentricraven]

World Building in Five

Thank you for the tag @kaylinalexanderbooks 

I’ve looked forward to doing this for The Blood Cleaners ever since I saw it.

Rules: post 3-5 pictures that capture a setting in your world and tell us about it!

Source 1: Thumbnail of Dark Dystopia video

Source 2: Still image from Earth’s Last Echoes video

Source 3: Photo of Quarry by Claude Meyers on Pinterest

Source 4: artstation.com

Source 5: Thumbnail of Selcuk Celebi Ambient & Music video

The Blood Cleaners takes place hundreds of years into the future (no specified year). The setting is a city called Corpa, located in post-apocalyptic Arizona. Corpa is not the ruins of a real life city. It is a city that was formed after the great nuclear war (which they call The Last War). 

There are nine sections of Corpa. There’s the Steel Castle, often called the Steel, a fortress that looks like a cluster of skyscrapers fused together. It’s hard for me to find or create an image that portrays what the Steel is supposed to look like. I found a great image from a still in a YouTube video by Earth’s Last Echoes that conveys what I had in mind. I also use the image from Artstation to show the aesthetic of the city in the middle of the desert, though Corpa is not in ruins. The Steel is the home of the Fists, the ruling class of Corpa. 

The underground section is a series of tunnels that are built to be like a bunker. The underground consists of many storage rooms, closets, homes, labs, classrooms, medical bays, cafeterias, shops, offices, gymnasiums, and a boiler room. I use a thumbnail from a video by Selcuk Celebi Ambient & Music to portray what a home in the tunnels would look like. The tunnels mostly house the poorest residents of Corpa. Even tunnel workers with well-off occupations like teachers and doctors are less prosperous than their surface counterparts. One cool feature of the tunnels are the vaculators, big holes where garbage is dumped and transported through ducts to the incinerator. People who live in the tunnels are called Tunnelers.

The surface section consists of the city above ground, the urban and suburban areas surrounding the Steel. The urban area includes a section of administrative buildings where the Fists carry out their government jobs. The surface is made up of many hospitals, shops, restaurants, houses, schools, research labs, parks, office buildings, and plazas. People who live on the surface are called Surfacers, including those who don’t live in the urban or suburban sections, but do live in the farmland, lumber farm, industrial district, energy district, quarry, or mine.

The farmland is the spacious section of land used for agriculture purposes. They grow the crops and raise the livestock that feeds most of the city. 

The lumber farm is a lumber mill in the midst of a forest grown for the purpose of providing lumber for the city.

The industrial district is made up of many factories used for making anything and everything used in the daily lives of Corpa’s residents. I portray the factory district using a thumbnail from the YouTube channel Dark Dystopia. It portrays the overall mood of the setting.

Past the factory district are the rocky areas where quarries and mines can be found. I chose to include an image of a quarry because this location is especially important to the plot. The quarry workers live under especially harsh conditions.  

The city is surrounded by the energy district, which consists of solar panels and wind turbines that provide electricity. 

Corpa covers a fifty mile radius, which is 2500 square miles. There are some other interesting aspects of Corpa that I’m going to have to keep secret because they would be plot spoilers. The residents of Corpa have been fed misinformation about the city’s founding and purpose by their corrupt, totalitarian government. The plot involves MC Justin uncovering the secrets of the city.

Tagging: @buffythevampirelover @tryingtowritestuff24 @selenekallanwriter @constellationandcompendium @gottestod-writes @willtheweaver @poethill @primroseprime2019

[magz]

Hardware proof-of-concept projects Magz found interesting, from "hack-a-day-prize 2023, 10th anniversary" event.

Contest where engineers and tech enthusiast, submit their hardware projects.

(Link to "Hack-a-day Prize 2023 event" page)

Video Title. "Open Book: 2023 #HackadayPrize Video" Project Description. "The Open Book: An open hardware reading device that's easy to build, easy to manufacture, and easy to make your own."

(Link to "Open Book" Project page, on Hack-a-day website)

Note: Is open source hardware and firmware. However, "Open book" Reading device only support plain-text file for now. There are many feedback and suggestion to support ePub file and markdown format.

Video Title. "Electromechanical Refreshable Braille Module : HackadayPrize 2023" (thumbnail text. "Open-source refreshable braille") Project Description. "Lowering the cost of Refreshable Braille Cells by using Electromagnetic Cam Actuators & 3D Printing"

(Link to "Electromechanical Refreshable Braille Module" project page, on Hack-a-day website)

Note: $10 u.s. for the first braille cell production, but $1 u.s. per subsequent braille cell material. As opposed to the usual braille cell being $100 u.s. or more, with 40-cell displays costing $4k or more. The prototype have 100-200 millisecond refresh rate per dot, but will be improved with driver update in next prototype version, along with more durable material.

Other interesting project.

"Speak To Me: A Button Box" Project Page

Description: "A project to make life easier for my 91 year old father, who has hearing and eyesight loss as well as severe short term memory issues." ("Dad's 'Speak-to-me Button Box'" Showcase video, Youtube)

"OHMni-Stick" Project Page

Description: "Ultra Low Force and Displacement Assistive Tech Joystick." ("OHMni-Stick" entry video, youtube)

Long Range Weather Station (65€) Project Page

Description: "A cheap but precise Weather Station (Lora transmission)" ("Long Range Weather Station" entry video, youtube)

"Felini - Revolutionary Pocket-Sized Electronic Lab" Project Page

Description: "Extremely affordable pocket-friendly, designed to provide a wide range of hardware testing and debugging functions in a compact and low-cost" ("Pocker-size electronic lab" entry video, youtube)

"OMOTE - DIY Universal Remote" Project Page

Description: "Open-Source Infrared Remote Using ESP32 and LVGL"

"FindMyCat - The Open Source Pet Tracker" Project Page

Description: "The only pet tracker you will ever need. Months long battery life, works outdoors and indoors. It’s Purr-fectly Empowered." ("FindMyCat" Entry Video, Youtube)

"A 'smart' controller for a powered chair or bed" Project Page

Description: "Automates the powered recliner or bed. Ideal for the mobility-challenged." ("Power chair and bed 'smart' controller" entry video, youtube)

"mysoltrk - a solar tracker, reinvented" Project Page

Description: "A different approach for a solar tracker, alternative movements, to be installed on the outside, to optimize the efficiency of solar panels" ("solar tracker" entry video, youtube)

"Portable Sound Visualization AR Device" Project Page

Description: "A portable AR device that superimposes an image showing the location of a sound source on an image captured by a camera." ("Sound AR device" entry video, Youtube)

Can see more Projects At:

Prize 2023 (10th anniversary) Projects Submission Page, on "Hack-a-day" Site

Other Contests and Events, on "Hack-a-day" Site

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

NASA completes spacecraft to transport, support Roman Space Telescope

The spacecraft bus that will deliver NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to its orbit and enable it to function once there is now complete after years of construction, installation, and testing.

Now that the spacecraft is assembled, engineers will begin working to integrate the observatory’s other major components, including the science instruments and the telescope itself.

“They call it a spacecraft bus for a reason — it gets the telescope to where it needs to be in space,” said Jackie Townsend, the Roman deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “But it’s really more like an RV because it has a whole assortment of functions that enable Roman to accomplish its scientific goals while out there too.”

Those goals include surveying wide swaths of the universe to study things like: dark energy, a mysterious cosmic pressure thought to accelerate the universe’s expansion; dark matter, invisible matter seen only via its gravitational influence; and exoplanets, worlds beyond our solar system.

The mission’s science wouldn’t be possible without a spacecraft to transport the telescope, point the observatory toward different cosmic targets, provide power, communicate with Earth, control and store instrument data, and regulate Roman’s temperature. Nearly 50 miles of electrical cabling are laced throughout the assembly to enable different parts of the observatory to communicate with each other.

The spacecraft will also deploy several major elements that will be stowed for launch, including the solar panels, deployable aperture cover, lower instrument Sun shade, and high-gain antenna. It’s also responsible for collecting and beaming down data, which is no small task for a space observatory that will survey the cosmos like Roman will.

“Roman will send back 1.4 terabytes of data per day, compared to about 50 to 60 gigabytes from the James Webb Space Telescope and three gigabytes from the Hubble Space Telescope,” said Jason Hylan, the Roman observatory manager at NASA Goddard. “Webb’s daily downlink is roughly comparable to 13 hours of YouTube video at the highest quality while Roman’s would amount to about 2 weeks.”

A Goddard Grand Slam

This milestone is the culmination of eight years of spacecraft design work, building, and testing by hundreds of people at Goddard.

“Goddard employees were the brains, designers, and executors. And they worked with vendors who supplied all the right parts,” Townsend said. “We leaned on generations of expertise in the spacecraft arena to work around cost and schedule challenges that arose from supply chain issues and the pandemic.”

One time- and money-saving technique the team came up with was building a spacecraft mockup, called the structural verification unit. That allowed them to do two things at once: complete strength testing on the mockup, designed specifically for that purpose, while also assembling the actual spacecraft.

The spacecraft’s clever layout also allowed the team to adapt to changing schedules. It’s designed to be modular, “more like Trivial Pursuit pie pieces than a nesting egg, where interior components are buried inside,” Townsend said. “That’s been a game-changer because you can’t always count on things arriving in the order you planned or working perfectly right away with no tweaks.” It also increased efficiency because people could work on different portions of the bus at the same time without interfering with each other.

The slightly asymmetrical and hexagonal spacecraft bus is about 13 feet (4 meters) wide by 6.5 feet (2 meters) tall and weighs in at 8,400 pounds (3,800 kilograms).

One reason it doesn’t weigh more is that some components have been partially hollowed out. If you could peel back some of the spacecraft’s panels, you’d find superthin metallic honeycomb sandwiched between two slim layers of metal. And many of the components, such as the antenna dish, are made of strong yet lightweight composite materials.

When the spacecraft bus was fully assembled, engineers conducted a comprehensive performance test. Prior to this, each component had been tested individually, but just like with a sports team, the whole unit has to perform well together.

“The spacecraft passed the test, and now we’re getting ready to install the payload –– Roman’s instruments and the telescope itself,” said Missie Vess, a spacecraft systems engineer for Roman at NASA Goddard. “Next year, we’ll test these systems together and begin integrating the final components of the observatory, including the deployable aperture cover, outer barrel assembly, and solar panels. Then we’ll finally have ourselves a complete observatory, on track for launch by May 2027.”

TOP IMAGE: This enormous piece of space hardware is NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's spacecraft bus, which will maneuver the observatory to its place in space and enable it to function while there. It is photographed here in the largest clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where engineers are inspecting it upon delivery. The bus rests atop an aluminum ring that will temporarily protect its underside. The two copper-colored flaps are Roman's Lower Instrument Sun Shade –– deployable panels designed to help shield the observatory from sunlight. Credit NASA/Chris Gunn

CENTRE IMAGE: This top-down view shows NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s spacecraft bus from another angle. It rests atop an aluminum ring that will not be part of the observatory and is surrounded by an enclosure used in testing to ensure electromagnetic interference will not affect the bus's sensitive electronics. The bus is covered in gray bagging material to prevent contamination –– even tiny stray particles could affect its performance. Credit NASA/Chris Gunn

LOWER IMAGE: While it may look small in this photo, the spacecraft bus for NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is 8 feet (2.5 meters) wide by 6.5 feet (2 meters) tall and weighs in at 8,400 pounds (3,800 kilograms). In this photo, it rests atop an aluminum ring that will not be part of the observatory. The bundles of wires on top are part of more than 50 miles of cabling laced throughout the assembly to enable different parts of the observatory to communicate with each other. Credit NASA/Chris Gunn

[jdenvs3000w24]

Final Post, finally

For the last time, Hello fellow bloggers!

I know for most of us this has been a very long semester, so I hope you all get to finally relax soon and take a minute for yourself to just breathe. Maybe you can reconnect with nature again without the need to talk about it for class and just enjoy yourself.

Anyways, the prompt for this week asks us to merge the skills and insights we have accumulated throughout this course with our own personal beliefs and ethics. For me, my personal ethics in terms of nature interpretation lean heavily toward equality and equity in opportunity. I came from a less fortunate place financially, so growing up I may not have had as many opportunities to connect with nature as most, but living by the ocean was a privilege for me that I never took for granted. The point is, I want to ensure that every person I encounter on my nature interpretation journey has an opportunity to connect with nature. That will likely look different for most people. But that's my job as a nature interpreter: to identify how people perceive the world and provide a meaningful nature experience tailored to them. In an ideal world, I would work for a not-for-profit providing different experiences in a forested space, maybe by the coast. I don't want there to be an option to pay more money to get a better experience because that perpetuates the notion that connecting with nature is a privilege. 

I bring the belief that everyone deserves to connect with nature and that I am there to help build the bridge to get there. I bring the belief that natural interpretation takes many different forms through many different media. I bring the belief that we need more natural space in urban areas. Not only to break up the concrete jungles but to provide enrichment to the people living there. I bring the belief that anyone can be a nature interpreter, all you have to do is look. 

As a nature interpreter, I have certain responsibilities. First and foremost I have to find nature for myself. I personally find nature every time I walk out of my front door and am greeted by the squirrels and birds a plenty gathering around the various bird feeders in my front yard. I feel nature every time I take a walk down the edge of a river, lake, or ocean. I understand nature when I walk through a forest and see outcroppings of rocks telling me the stories of eons past. My responsibility to humanity is to ensure future and current generations are able to see, hear understand, and feel nature. It is my responsibility to do so in a safe manner, so as to not push anyone past their limits. It is my responsibility to give back to nature as nature gives to us. Not only must I respect trails, parks, and other natural settings as if it were my own home. I also feel the responsibility to transform my own space into a natural setting. I intend to plant wildflower gardens for native pollinators. I intend to have solar panels to limit my carbon footprint. I intend to live in a very small square footage house on a decent-sized property so as to limit my own personal impact on the land that provides for me. Aside from my own personal intentions and self-imposed responsibilities, I also feel responsible to empower and enlighten others to do the same. Not through the means of telling them this kind of life is for them but by providing the knowledge that allows them to make informed decisions themselves. 

As an individual my means of impact are limited. The approaches I find most suitable for me include a face-to-face component. I would prefer to work in a park or conservation area which allows me to really individualize the experience for each guest. I'm not a big fan of posts on social media so this whole Tumblr nature blog will not be a thing I continue in the future, that's for sure. I also understand the appeal of a podcast or YouTube video style of nature interpretation, and while that's more accessible to people who find themselves far removed from nature, it just isn't my style at all. Even if I had to get a job in some other field where I'm not in nature for my day-to-day, I hope I will be able to at the very least become a scout leader and inspire youth as I was (briefly). 

Thank you all for listening to my Tumblr rants this past semester, I can't say I'll miss doing this. However, it was nice to have the routine. Considering I only made this account for this course, and I've used my school email to create it, you all are part of the lucky few who got to read my thoughts on a public forum, congrats! I will never be doing this again. I continue to use what I've learned in this course, in person, to provide a sense of nature interpretation for my friends and family who I keep dragging on hikes. Good luck to all of you in finishing up your podcasts this week! I hope you all get amazing marks in this course! Good luck and goodbye!

[myangelgarden]

Former US Soldier Turned Whistleblower Reveals

Upcoming 'Blackout Warfare' America Will Face

And How To Prepare For It

Using a secret guide only 3% of Americans know about.

In this FREE video presentation you will learn:

The real reason our nation's power grid is at risk and who's behind it (the media will NOT talk about this).

Why we're on the cusp of a catastrophic 'silent attack' which may happen a LOT sooner than you think...

The '5-minute preparation secret' you can use to prepare for the upcoming blackout warfare America will soon face.

How to generate your own electricity without solar panels or backup generators.

The 'NASA phone' to communicate with loved ones WITHOUT the need for cell phone towers.

The the best weapon to protect your family with (NOT a gun).

And MUCH, much more!

⚠️ WARNING: The following video is extremely controversial. Watch at your own risk.

Watch The Video Here!

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Thank you and enjoy!

[hobbyspacer]

Space habitat reports – Jan.5.2025

Here is a new selection of videos, articles, and news items about space habitats (govt and commercial), living in space, and space settlement. === International Space Station & NASA ** Space to Ground: 2024 - NASA Johnson 2024 on the International Space Station was a year filled with excitement, challenges, and milestones as we mark 25 unbroken years of humans living, working, and flying in humanity's home in low-earth orbit. https://youtu.be/i4iznlq1a6M ** Five spaceships were attached to ISS on Dec.16.2024:

"Dec. 16, 2024: International Space Station Configuration. Five spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX Dragon Freedom, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply ship, the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship, and the Progress 89 and 90 resupply ships." Credits: NASA ** NASAs SpaceX 31st Commercial Resupply Services Undocking – Monday, December 16, 2024 - NASA Video Loaded with scientific experiments and supplies, an unpiloted SpaceX Dragon undocked from the International Space Station Dec.16, completing a month-long mission to the outpost for the company’s 31st commercial resupply services mission for NASA. The SpaceX Dragon undocked from the forward port of the Harmony module, headed for a splashdown off the coast of Florida Dec.17 to complete its flight that delivered several tons of experiments and hardware to the station. https://youtu.be/F9vUutLAk6k ** SpaceX CRS-31 Dragon spacecraft drifts away from space station after undocking - VideoFromSpace SpaceX's CRS-31 Dragon cargo capsule undocked from the International Space Station on Dec. 16, 2024 at 11:05 a.m. EST (1605 GMT). See footage of the capsule post-undocking here. https://youtu.be/FFsuZ9-lGI8 ** NASA Astronaut Don Pettit Talks with the Everyday Astronaut – Tuesday, December 17, 2024 - NASA Video Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Don Pettit of NASA discussed life and work aboard the orbital outpost during an in-flight interview Dec. 17 with Tim Todd, the “Everyday Astronaut” on YouTube. Pettit is in the midst of a long-duration mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration flights as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program. https://youtu.be/UC657l0S3YY ** Roscosmos Spacewalk Conducted Outside Space Station - NASA Johnson Outside the International Space Station, Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner of the Expedition 72 crew conducted a spacewalk on Dec. 19 to install an experiment package designed to monitor celestial x-ray sources and new electrical connector patch panels, remove several experiments for disposal, and relocate a control panel for the European Robotic Arm that is attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. It was the 272nd spacewalk in support of station maintenance and upgrades, the second for Ovchinin and the first for Vagner. https://youtu.be/E_UcS1aDEsQ ** Can The International Space Station Make It Until 2030? - NASASpaceflight Since 2000, the International Space Station has been continuously inhabited, orbiting Earth as a symbol of international collaboration and human innovation. But after 25 years in space, the ISS is showing its age with leaks, outdated hardware, and operational challenges. From Zvezda’s pressure loss to spacewalk delays and cutting-edge IROSA solar arrays, we explore how the ISS is being maintained and upgraded to ensure it can last until its planned deorbit in 2030. Can the station hold on for another five years? Let’s dive into the details. https://youtu.be/UfSZWFrulx8 === Commercial space habitats ** Axiom Space ** Axiom speeds up station assembly by two years: - Axiom Space Accelerates Axiom Station Assembly | Axiom Space - Dec.18.2024 - NASA, Axiom Space Change Assembly Order of Commercial Space Station | NASA - Dec.19.2024 We revised our Axiom Station assembly sequence to enable an independent free flyer about two years earlier than planned! This strategic move supports customer needs and U.S. national & @Space_Station objectives. Read more: https://t.co/tUhlh1nZqf pic.twitter.com/GSWfOR9DoV — Axiom Space (@Axiom_Space) December 18, 2024 ** Gravitics 2024 was a year of important milestones for Gravitics! We signed over $100M in contracts, launched our hardware to the ISS, signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA, completed work for the Space Force, and closed our internal PDR (Preliminary Design Review) for our first commercial… pic.twitter.com/X6g3qvvy5T — Gravitics (@GraviticsInc) December 31, 2024 ** Starlab - Voyager Space ** Starlab making progress in habitat development: NASA Sees Progress on Starlab Commercial Space Station Development | NASA - Dec.16.2024 A NASA-funded commercial space station, Starlab, recently completed four key developmental milestones, marking substantial progress in the station’s design and operational readiness. The four milestones are part of a NASA Space Act Agreement awarded in 2021 and focused on reviews of the habitat structural test article preliminary design, systems integration, integrated operations, and a habitat structural test plan. “These milestone achievements are great indicators to reflect Starlab’s commitment to the continued efforts and advancements of their commercial destination,” said Angela Hart, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program. “As we look forward to the future of low Earth orbit, every successful milestone is one step closer to creating a dynamic and robust commercialized low Earth orbit.” The commercial space station is designed to launch on a single flight and includes a large habitation and laboratory module with a smaller service module for power and propulsion. Commercial space station partner, @Starlab_Space, recently completed key developmental milestones, marking substantial progress in the station’s design and operational readiness. ✅ Discover the latest Starlab progress: https://t.co/Nm3bYKU1ek pic.twitter.com/wsMwa6m0lW — NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) December 16, 2024 ** VAST --- Vast contracts SpaceX for two Dragon missions to the ISS with privately financed astronaut crews: - Vast Announces Deal with SpaceX to Launch Two Human Spaceflight Missions to the International Space Station | VAST - Dec.19.2024 - Vast signs agreement with SpaceX for private astronaut missions to the ISS | SpaceNews - Dec.19.2024 Vast says, ... that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch up to two Dragon missions to the International Space Station (ISS) in support of Vast’s future bid for NASA’s private astronaut missions (PAM). These missions, contingent on Vast being selected by NASA, will be the fifth and sixth PAMs ever awarded by the agency. While Vast is developing its private space station, Haven-1, the company plans to leverage additional missions to the ISS in partnership with NASA to draw on the agency’s extensive expertise. These missions provide opportunities to collaborate with private individuals and international space agency customers through the NASA PAM program and strengthen current partnerships. This is an important step as Vast prepares to compete with its Haven-2 design in NASA’s upcoming Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destination (CLD) Phase II program, which is positioned to select a successor to the ISS.‍ ‍"Enabling payload and crewed missions to the ISS is a key part of Vast’s strategy, allowing us to further our collaboration with NASA and global space agencies. These missions not only strengthen our expertise in human spaceflight operations and collaboration with NASA, but also position Vast as a leading contender to deliver the next-generation successor to the ISS, advancing the future of human space exploration," said Max Haot, Chief Executive Officer of Vast.‍ ‍These two missions expand Vast’s launch manifest with SpaceX, which includes the company’s Falcon 9 rocket delivering Haven-1 to low-Earth orbit and a subsequent Dragon mission to fly crew to the commercial space station. Haven-1 will also be supported by Starlink laser-based high-speed internet. ‍ --- NASA commercial space station policy ** Why NASA is changing commercial space station plans - Laura Forczyk Axiom Space announced today plans to accelerate its commercial space station by changing how it assembles Axiom Station and help NASA prepare to deorbit the International Space Station. Earlier this week, NASA published its Low Earth Orbit Microgravity Strategy which outlines why NASA wants a "continuous heartbeat" in space (and what that even means) with a diversity of commercial LEO destination providers. And Roscosmos clarified when Russia plans to exit the ISS partnership. I discuss the likelihood NASA's LEO plans are going to happen as envisioned in the new administration and the major research that is not being done but needs to happen to expand humanity off-Earth. The NASA LEO doc discussed: NASA’s LEO Microgravity Strategy | NASA - Dec.2024 (pdf) https://youtu.be/0yvtDH8hGy4 === Chinese space habitats ** China's Shenzhou 19 crew conducts spacewalk outside Tiangong space station - VideoFromSpace Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong conducted a spacewalk outside the Tiangong Space Station on Dec. 18, 2024. Their tasks includes the "installation of the space station's debris protection device and inspection of extravehicular equipment," according to China Central Television. https://youtu.be/XPz54vha8hs ** China release space station progress report: China’s Space Station: A Progress Report | Leonard David - Dec.31.2024 The China Manned Space Agency on Monday released a first-ever progress report on the output from the country’s space station. This CMSA report provides an overview of the work accomplished over the past two years. Over those years, China carried out four crewed flights, three cargo resupply missions, and four spacecraft return missions. Five “taikonaut” crews carried out 15 long-term stays in orbit, with 10 taikonauts performing extravehicular activities. === Lunar ** Commodities & Tech of a Lunar Architecture, with Tim Cichan & Christie Iacomini (Lockheed Martin) - Payload In the second episode of our special three-part Pathfinder series on lunar architecture—brought to you by our partners at Lockheed Martin—we’re zooming in on the technologies and design principles that will help establish a sustainable, long-term presence on the Moon and pave the way for future missions to Mars. Joining us are Christie Iacomini, who manages Lockheed Martin’s lunar infrastructure technology portfolio, and Tim Cichan, the company’s space exploration architect. Christie and Tim walk us through the building blocks of lunar infrastructure, from robust power systems and reliable communications networks to habitats and mobility solutions. They also highlight the importance of resource utilization, the evolving role of public-private partnerships, and the collaborative efforts needed to turn ambitious concepts into practical solutions. We discuss: – The role of vertical solar arrays, nuclear fission systems, and power grids in supporting lunar operations – Communications challenges and the roadmap for building an interoperable lunar network – Innovative habitats and rovers designed to withstand extreme lunar conditions – Strategies for in-situ resource utilization, including extracting water ice and other key materials – The significance of international collaboration and commercial engagement in achieving lasting lunar sustainability And much, much more… • Chapters • 00:00 - Intro 03:45 - What is a space architect? 04:42 - Lockheed's goal for Mars 08:23 - Technological advancements that have made a long-term Moon mission possible 09:52 - What does a successful Lunar mission look like? 11:46 - Power systems for Lunar and Mars missions and state of development cycles 18:15 - Tech in Artemis II and III 20:04 - Challenges for creating a seamless communications network for the Moon 22:34 - Effect of modern tech in space 27:10 - Lunar mobility capabilities 30:44 - Habitation 33:14 - Inflatable vs modular habitats 34:20 - Lunar resource utilization 36:42 - How to create seamless integration between mission-critical tech 41:55 - Planned contingencies 43:49 - Seemingly futuristic technology 45:54 - Getting around on the Moon 47:48 - How Lockheed works with other companies building Lunar architecture 49:01 - Technical milestones 50:58 - What will it take to land on the Moon on time? 52:07 - Inspirations for your work https://youtu.be/wR-f_1PQJxc === In-space habitation ** High Frontier, The Hardcover - SSI: Space Studies Institute on Youtube We were going to wait for the full 50 years and do it in 2027 but... For the post here: https://ssi.org/happy-holidays-x2/ Happy, Safe, Effective, Future-building Holidays from SSI https://youtu.be/jifo5m4mkI4 === Other space habitat and settlement news and articles: -  ISS: - Station Crew Works Science Installs and Spacewalk Cleanup Before Holidays | Space Station/NASA Blogs - Dec,20.2024 - Delay in New SpaceX Crew Dragon Means Another Extension for Butch and Suni | SpacePolicyOnline.com - Dec.18.2024 - Crew Works Advanced Exercise and Space Tech, Gets Ready for Thursday Spacewalk | Space Station/NASA - Dec.18.2024 - Dragon Cargo Spacecraft Leaves Station Packed With Science | Space Station/NASA Blogs - Dec.16.2024 - Amateur Radio on ISS (ARISS) - Status ISS Stations - Livestream - Europe: - Has CNES Opened the Door for a European Space Station? | European Spaceflight - Dec.26.2024 -  Russia: - Russian space chief says country will fly on space station until 2030 | Ars Technica - Dec.18.2024 - Ukraine: - Kurs Orbital Secures €1.1M for In-Orbit Rendezvous and Docking Module | European Spaceflight - Dec.31.2024 - Habitat and settlement technologies: - Using an Oil Industry Framework to Map Space Resources | Universe Today - Jan.2.2025 - A Long-Term Lunar Infrastructure Hub Named After the Object That Created the Moon | Universe Today - Jan.1.2025 - NASA is Considering Designs and Simulations to Prepare Astronauts for Lighting Conditions Around the Lunar South Pole | Universe Today - Dec.27.2024 - Space Gardens | NASA - Dec.18.2024 - Innovative AstroRad Vest Poised to Safeguard Astronauts from Space Radiation | ISS National Lab - Dec.11.2024 - General settlement topics: - Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. 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