#supersolider

[whereserpentswalk]

A supersolider who chose to be stranded within the 21st century as part of her mission. I wonder if it was worth it.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

The first observation of a material exhibiting a supersolid phase of matter

Through experimental research, a team of physicists affiliated with multiple institutions in China has observed a material in a supersolid phase of matter for the first time. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes the experiments they conducted to accomplish this feat and its implications. Nature has published a Research Briefing in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team on this effort. A supersolid is a seemingly contradictory material—it is defined as rigid, but also has superfluidity, in which a liquid flows without friction. In the 1970s, theoretical work by Anthony Leggett suggested that such a material might be possible. But until now, no one has been able to find it in nature or synthesize it in the lab. To create a supersolid, the researchers involved in this new study started with a compound called NBCP—it has the unique attribute of atoms arranged in triangular lattices. This means, the research team found, that if it is placed within a magnetic field, all its atoms will spin in the same direction.

Read more.

[crimson-catalyst]

kittykittykittykittykitty

its hard work being this pretty!!!

[nattikay]

I think there is some truth to this, in that Jake has some serious trauma (all the characters in this franchise kinda do tbh). We get a little more insight via The Next Shadow and The High Ground comics into how he feels absolutely horrendous and regretful about the hurt his actions caused in the first movie, and he is apprehensive about potentially making the wrong decision and causing more.

Even if that weren’t the case, though, I don’t really vibe with the characterization of his choice to flee with his family as “selfish”.

Jake is a strong asset to the Omatikaya, yes, but they are not helpless without him. That may have been somewhat true in A1 when he was the only one with knowledge on human tactics and weaponry and whatnot, but it’s not true anymore—the whole clan is full of capable warriors who are now trained on how to deal with the RDA’s crap thanks to Jake.

It’d be one thing if Jake were the only person capable of leading/protecting the clan here, but he’s not. Tarsem and the other warriors are strong and smart; they can handle themselves.

So when the situation becomes “a highly dangerous team of elite genetically-modified supersoldiers is actively hunting my family specifically”, the choice to get the heck out of there…is a perfectly reasonable one.

The Sully kids were in a lot more danger in the mountains with the recoms roaming around than the Omatikaya were without Jake. Some viewers may not like or agree with his decision to leave—and that’s fine—but it’s not an illogical one and I don’t think it was innately “selfish”.

Rather than viewing Jake's choice to depart from the Omatikaya as solely a selfish decision to protect himself and his immediate family, we could also consider that he might be reacting this way due to some serious trauma from the first film. Remember, Jake's direct actions and his hesitation to fully side with the Omatikaya and the Na'vi until the end caused the destruction of the Home Tree and the death of many people. Now, the RDA is coming directly for him with a Recom-team that can pass freely through Pandora without setting off the defense mechanism that kept the clan safe. So, Jake made a rushed decision to leave them, likely driven by the fear of being the reason they lose their home again.

thanks for coming to my ted talk

[nickcharleswife]

Due to a conversation on banana flavoring in candy, I ended up recommending Mistake on the Part of Nature to a friend of mine. The friend cackled a lot when he discovered my banana flavoring knowledge came from fanfic, but whatever 🙄

Anyhoo, he read it over the weekend and I received only this comment on it first thing this morning, “The story reminded me of what I’d imagine going on in a Frat house.”

And now I can’t unsee it.

Also can’t unsee just how much of Avengers Tower fanfic fits into a frat house kind of trope in all the best ways.

So here’s to Monday & hopefully many more silly nonsense comments.

[but-a-humble-goon]

"Master Chief and Doomguy would be best friends." Master Chief was an abducted child supersolider created to crush human rebellions who is unerringly loyal to the fascist military that created him. Doomguy canonically beat his commanding officer to death for ordering him to shoot civilians. No they would not.

[rat-off-string]

Cain rpg is good bc where else wld u spend all of the money you got from barely surviving a mission on nice clothes and new shoes instead of actual powerful mechanical buffs? Because then you have to ask yourself. Well how long would this guy be able to go without having comfortable shoes. You may be a psychic supersolider but wouldn’t you like to be human. God

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

I REALLY LIKED THIS ONE ACTUALLY!!! What a fun and funny and fucked up little book!! I have pack bonded with a nanoprobe array, and I am so delighted about it!!

Books of 2023. FLIGHT & ANCHOR by Nicole Kornher-Stace.

Sooo I have a Murderbot hangover (shocking No One), and when that sort of thing happens, I try to thread my way out with book worlds that are Close But Different. This one is short, and very corporate hellscape, and also escaped modified supersoldiers, so I'm hoping it's a nice transition!

[slippinmickeys]

Thank you for expanding Funfetti! I am so thirsty for M&S keep William fics, I can't even tell you. More please? I'll take anything. But can you continue with the Thanksgiving Pageant stuff? What happens next?? please and thank you

“Tell me you didn’t tell him to say that, Mulder.” 

Scully had pulled him into a stairwell the very second they could escape the auditorium without notice. 

“I didn’t tell him to say that,” Mulder answered honestly. 

“Tell me you didn’t tell him to say that and fucking mean it,” she hissed. 

Mulder reached out and grabbed her by the hand, looking her in the eye. 

“I didn’t tell him to say that. I swear. He…” 

“Did he hear us? Did he hear us talking?” 

The boy had been shut up in his room. The idea that he had overheard them was unlikely. 

The third grade class was singing something that sounded an awful lot like ‘Fah Who Doraze’ from The Grinch. In the echo chamber of the stairwell it sounded eerie and hollow.

“Mulder!” Scully hissed. 

Mulder turned his attention fully back to Scully. “I don’t see how,” he finally said. 

“He must have though,” she replied, stepping back, fidgety and distressed. “He must have.”

And then Mulder remembered something. 

“Scully,” he said, his voice low and serious. “The last bit. The smallpox bit. I never said that out loud.”

“What do you mean you never-” 

Mulder watched as the color drained from Scully’s face. 

“I thought it,” he said. “I never…I thought it.”

The implications washed over both of them. 

“Oh my God,” Scully said for the millionth time that night, swallowing thickly and lowering herself to sit on the staircase. 

Mulder, knees popping, sat down next to her. The song ended and there was an underwater sound of polite applause echoing against the painted brick walls of the stairwell.

“You’d hoped it was telekinesis,” he said. “Just telekinesis.”

The baby’s mobile spinning on its own. Stuffies dropping from the air when they walked in the nursery. Umpteen other things they wrote off because it couldn’t have been what they thought it was, because there was a plausible explanation, because it was just a figment of their imagination. 

…Maybe not ‘they.’

“I hate that word.”

“How do you feel about ‘telepathy?’”

Scully turned to glare at him. 

“I’m not trying to raise your ire. But we’ve had fights about this, Scully, and every time you find some kind of plausible deniability.”

“Isn’t that why Blevins hired me?” She was deflecting, now. 

Mulder waited a moment, then reached out and grasped her hand. She didn’t pull back. 

”We both know he’s different. I’ve known for a while. I think you have too. But I also think there’s maybe no more denying it. Don’t you?” 

At some point, even skeptic extraordinaire Dana Scully had to accept what she was finally seeing with her own eyes. 

She sighed heavily. “Do you remember when you told me that maybe he wasn’t what those supersoliders thought he was?”

Mulder nodded, wondering where he was going with this. She turned to him with a look of misery.

“What do I do when it’s me thinking the same thing?”

Mulder turned more fully toward her. “What do you mean?”

Scully paused, sniffed, wouldn’t look him in the eye. “I mean…what if our son isn’t what we thought he was?”

“You mean the fact that he’s different? Special?” he asked. 

Her shoulders wilted. 

“Yes.” Quiet acknowledgement. And then she went on. “It’s not the…supernatural things…not completely, anyway. It’s not those things that are so hard for me to accept.”

“Then what is it?”

“Acknowledging his…gifts…means mourning the loss of the child I thought I had.”

“And embracing the one you do,” Mulder said. He kept all judgement out of his voice. 

Scully finally looked at him, her eyes full of tears. 

“It doesn’t make you love him any less,” Mulder said, knowing what he said was the complete truth. 

Scully looked at the floor and a tear streaked down her nose and swayed for a moment at the end of it before dripping to the floor at their feet. 

“It makes me feel like I have to protect him more,” she sniffed. “It’s going to make his life so much harder. It’s going to make our life so much harder.”

Mulder let go of her hand and put his arm around his shoulders, pulling her in tight. They sat for a moment, the sound of the fourth graders' song pinging through the air in round, hollow drops of sound. He squeezed her into himself once. 

“Scully,” he finally said. “I can’t think of two more qualified people to handle this. Can you?”

The moment was a quantum shift in their lives. Nothing would ever be the same again. But life went on. And you had to go with it. 

She inhaled expansively, sat up straight even under the weight of his arm. “No,” she said after a moment. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.” She gave him a watery chuckle.

“I suppose not,” he said, standing up and reaching out a hand to her. “Come on,” he went on, hauling her up. “We’ll sneak back in, watch the fifth graders chew some scenery, and be first in line for lemonade and cookies.”      

“We’re going to be fielding some questions,” she said with obvious distaste. 

Mulder swung the stairwell door wide, holding it open for her to walk through. 

“Let ‘em,” he said, following her through. “I’ve got a tight five on Thanksgiving as a tool of assimilation.”

[wintersoldiersoul]

Push Through

Summary: Your ADHD makes it difficult for you to focus like normal. When you spiral, Bucky helps you calm down.

A/N: Things about this may seem crazy and unrealistic but as someone with ADHD I can confirm that I have had this exact experience. (Minus the sexy supersolider to help me unfortunately) TW: Mental health, lack of sleep and eating, ADHD, burnout

The room was an absolute disaster. Clothes all over the floor, endless cups of coffee, water, and tea taking up space on the desk, and there you were at the center of it. Sitting on your floor with your laptop, typing away furiously. Being in college and an avenger was already extremely difficult and it was even harder while struggling with ADHD.

You had gotten home from a three day mission yesterday, so stressed about the first draft of your thesis paper that was due in two days that you didn’t even shower or change before taking your medication and getting to work. A half-eaten sandwich sat beside you but you didn’t even feel hungry. Your meds suppressed your appetite and had you focused on one thing and one thing only: your homework.

Bucky was away from the tower on his own mission and while you couldn’t wait for him to get home safely, you could hardly even think about it in your current frenzy. You hadn't slept since getting home, taking another pill every time you felt the last one wear off. When your medication started to subside, it made you feel horrible. Jittery, but also depressed and just generally like life had no meaning. It was an awful feeling, especially when you knew it was caused by medication that you needed for your brain to function normally.

The bedroom door creaked open but you didn’t even hear it. You didn’t look up from the words you were typing as your boyfriend’s body filled the frame. You usually greeted him by running into his arms but this time, it was like you didn’t even know he was there. And you practically didn’t. The quiet voice of your subconscious whispered to you to go greet him, but the dominant hyper-focus muted that thought into silence.

“Hellooo,” Bucky called playfully, whistling to you to try to get your attention. You still didn’t look up, grabbing the can of Redbull beside you and taking a sip. “Y/N!” He said, loudly.

You shook your head and finally tore your eyes away from the screen. “Oh my god, hi! You’re home! How was the mission? Are you hurt? Did it go well? Any scratches?” You rapidly fired questions at him, the combination of your medication, caffeine and lack of sleep causing you to be in a manic-like state.

Bucky knew about your struggles with ADHD. He knew how hard it was for you to function everyday like everyone else. He saw as you read a passage of your schoolwork over and over and over again because the words just turned to mush on the page. He had listened to you cry at your frustrations over why school was so hard and how you had to put so much brain power and effort into every little task. He knew how you hated the crash of your medication but you needed them to survive, a constant struggle that you had to pick every morning. Did you wanna be able to focus today and not be able to get out of bed after 4pm, or did you wanna be happy but not be able to do a single productive thing?

“Woah, there, take a breath,” he laughed. His eyes scanned the room, looking at the mess surrounding your frame. And he noticed that you were still in your uniform. “Hey, I thought you got home yesterday. Why are you still in your uniform?” 

You looked down at yourself, realizing that you had in fact not changed. “Oh, shit. I sat down to do my homework as soon as I got home and-” you stopped abruptly. “Wait, did you say yesterday?”

He looked at you, confusion clouding his expression. “Yeah. It’s Sunday, babe.”

“No, no, that’s impossible. I just got home I’ve only been working for…” you clicked your phone, displaying the date and time. “26 hours…”

“What did you just say? You’ve been working for 26 hours? Babe, have you eaten? Slept? Have you even gone to the bathroom? How did you not know it had been that long?” He was extremely concerned for you. He had seen you manically power through assignments before, but nothing like this.

“I…uh,” you ran your fingers through your hair, still trying to wrap your head around the fact that you had been working for so long. “Sandwich,” you pointed to the plate on the ground. 

Bucky walked over to the plate and stared at the barely eaten food. “Babe you had like, one bite of this. Is it your meds?”

You nodded. He knew that you often didn’t do simple things to take care of yourself when you took your meds. You would be so focused on the task at hand that you would usually set reminders every hour on your phone, telling you to take care of your basic human needs like eating or going to the bathroom. But you had been in such a frenzy after the mission that you didn’t do it this time.

“Honey, you look exhausted,” he smiled at you sadly. 

You shook your head. “Don’t feel tired. I need to keep working. I’ll go in the living room if you wanna unwind.” You grabbed your computer off the floor and started to walk out the doorway but were stopped by a large hand on your shoulder.

“No,” he grabbed your laptop and shut it, holding it over his head.

“Give it back, Bucky!” You began to jump, trying to reach the laptop. Bucky was considerably taller than you, meaning that it was a lost cause for you to try to get your computer from his grasp. He couldn’t help but laugh at how adorable you were, despite his extreme concern for your condition.

“Can’t do that, baby.” He placed the computer on the highest shelf in the room.

“Bucky, I need to keep going. My draft is due tomorrow!”

“And you’ve been working your ass off on it for the past 3 months. And the past 24 hours, alone. Your brain must be fried, baby, especially right after a mission.” He looked at you, eyes pleading for you to just take a break. Even if you felt fine from the extreme amount of medication and caffeine in your system, you were gonna crash soon. “How much medication did you take?” 

You thought back to how many times you felt it wear off and opened the bottle. Technically, you could take it every 4-6 hours. You weren’t being that reckless by using it so much, but of course you knew deep down that it wasn’t great to use it so much so frequently. “Uh… 5?” You admitted quietly.

His eyes nearly popped out of his head. “5 times? You've practically been hopped up on Concerta for an entire day straight?”

You didn’t know if the most recent dose was wearing off or if the pull away from the computer was causing it, but you could feel yourself crashing. Exhaustion tugged at your eyes and it fully hit you what you had been doing to yourself. You hated that this was how you were. People never understood how frustrating and debilitating ADHD truly was. There was no real “normal”. The medication made it easier for you to do work, but then you ended up like this. Your eyes filled with angry tears at yourself. “I hate this, Bucky! I hate this so much. I just wanna be able to function and do homework like normal!”

“Oh baby…” he pulled you into a hug. “I know it’s hard for you. I know I won’t ever truly understand how your brain works and what it feels like for you but I know you struggle. But you don’t just struggle, you fight, okay? You’re so smart, you’re the smartest person I know. The things you say, the way your mind works… god, I’m just so amazed by you, honey.”

“I hate the way my mind works!” You cried into him.

“I know baby, I know,” he stroked your hair as you cried, just wanting to bring you comfort. “But you don’t let it stop you. You don’t let your ADHD prevent you from doing and learning all of the things that you want to. You could have given up so many times but you didn’t. And that’s what counts, okay?”

You took a deep breath, calming yourself. You were so tired. And hungry.

“I tell you what, baby. Why don’t you take a shower and I’ll cook us some food. Then you can pick out any sweatshirt of mine that you like and we’ll relax and get some rest.”

His plan sounded so appealing but you still had work to do. “But Bucky, I-” 

“Shh. No more working tonight. You still have all day tomorrow to finish up. And it’s only a draft, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Don’t you think taking a look with fresh eyes tomorrow will be good for you?”

“I-” you opened your mouth to argue, but he was right. “Okay,” you sighed. “You’re right.” 

He kissed the top of your head. “Oh yeah. Go shower, babe. And wash your hair. Please,” he teased.

“I hate you,” you laughed as you made your way into the bathroom.

You look at a long shower, letting the hot water cleanse both your mind and body. When you walked back out into the living room, in Bucky’s sweatshirt, of course, your favorite meal was sitting on the table. “Oh baby, you didn’t have to do this! You could have just put in a frozen pizza or something.”

Bucky smiled at you. “Hey, I wanted you to have your favorite. Plus I need to make sure you eat enough to nourish yourself after being up for so long.”

After you ate and Bucky also showered, you got into bed. Your eyes were so heavy and you couldn’t even think about the paper anymore, just wanting the soft blanket of sleep to take over.

“Thank you, Bucky,” you whispered as he wrapped his arms around you.

“Always, my love. I’ll help you work more tomorrow, okay? And I’ll make you a deal. Every page you finish, I’ll make you cum,” he whispered seductively.

Within seconds, you were out cold, resting up for the long day of writing and other things that tomorrow had in store.

[tea-cuz-why-not]

Kore voice claim :}

in honour of getting acknowledged and the adorable Kit and Kore drawing, I present to you: Kore about worrying +lore under the cut

VA: Allegra Clark (voicing Beidou)

bandage lore everybody \/

When Kore was recruited to Gunntech it wasn’t because she was the best choice but because she volunteered instead of their two younger sisters who were tested to be more compatible with whatever genetic bs they do at GT. They were significantly younger though(like 4yo young) so the agency would have had to wait, Kore volunteered(big sister instincts kicking in, you are not doing sus experiments on my sisters) and was accepted because of their smarts more than anything else (and also because they could tell she cares about her siblings so they could be used as leverage against her if she ever goes rogue, manipulation yey 🙌)

They’re also very suspicious of GT as a whole, I mean, experiments on children and teenage supersoliders? SUS

But yeah, she only stays because she knows that GT can and will use their siblings against her. And maybe because she feels a little(a lot) protective over the younger trainees, hoping to find them a way out.

Anyway, nowadays she’s doing their best to take the brunt of as many things as possible, a kid acts out and warrants solitary confinement? Guess who just mocked and disobeyed the supervisor? A “volunteer” is needed for an experiment? Guess who just happens to be near to take it? And so she does her best to keep at least a bit of the ✨trauma✨ away from the kids

Bute yeah, because of all the experiments and disciplinary measures, Kore is most often seen with bandages about her whole person, she wouldn’t say it out loud but she low key enjoys serving as a bright warning sign to the children and a constant reminder of doubt to the older trainees, call it gold among dross

So yeah, soon(or in November, depends on how much motivation I’ll have while also doing Technotober) I might draw Kore with their siblings, and await Kit and Kore

—

There’s that, feel free to ask any questions you have about Kore(or her fam), goodnight

[whereserpentswalk]

Reblog to go on a date with your monster. Like to give them a little gift.

Look under the cut to see what meeting your joyfriend is like.

1 you walk into a messy apartment, it looks like this is their first place where they live alone, away from other angels. They're sitting on a Lome mattress, cuddling a stuffed animal and watching TV. Despite everything they're still beautiful, their body youthful, and sexless, and athletic, their four white wings forever stained with blood. They look up at you with rose gold eyes, afraid, apologizing for if they scared you. But to their surprise you don't shy away from them, and somehow they feel safe and pure when you sit down to talk to them.

2 you see them in the shadows, alone in the dark of an empty park, changing shape, first a muscular humanoid in armor, then a wolf dancing through the night, then a combination of both, then finally a modern human in a ragged trenchcoat. Despite all their forms, their eyes are always the same. They come up to you and bow with a smile on their face. You slowly aproch them, for whatever reason their voice seems so familiar. You greet them with your hand as you would an animal, even as they're in human form, as you slowly pet their scars for the first time.

3 within the golden halls of an ornate train station you see them for the first time, through the crowd with inhumanly green eyes. They notice you despite everyone else. And you notice everything off about them, the wrong numbers of teeth, their hands occasionally having more or less then five fingers before returning back to normal. It's wordless but it doesn't need words for you to tell them that they don't need to pretend to be human around you. And for a momment you see them, naked, with branches for antlers, and the wings of a monarch butterfly, a serpent's head where a human’s genitals would be, and teeth made out of broken glass, and then only a rose exists where they once stood, but you know you'll see them again.

4 you see them for the first time in an empty parking lot, a massive creature with black eyes and countless legs, glowing yet dark, as they come twords you they take notes in an unknowable language. They inspect you as the dark matter pitter patters across your face. You expect them to hurt you as they reach out their claw but they only gently pet your head. You can tell that they're suprised, you're more receptive then most humans are. They give you a small peice of food to let you eat right from their claw, and it tastes batter then anything on earth.

5 you meet them in a café on a quiet side street. They don't like being seen by too many people. Their body is beautiful, but so inhuman, tall and slender, with silvery armor covering them from the neak down, their face pale and their eyes long since ripped out and replaced with red mechanical replacements. They're a bit afraid you won't be ok with them when you first meet them, but you start talking, and though they're shy at first they like the sound of your voice. They let you pet their head and they cuddle up to you, and their body is warm like a churning machine as you hug them for the first time, and they feel comforted in your arms.

6 you see them in a dark subway station. They clearly once were human, centuries ago, their body forever young, but pale and skinny, their eyes turned white and their mouth jawless and fanged like a lampry's. Their body is entirely sexless, barely shielded from the cold by a ragged suit. Most people avoid them, but you ask if they're ok and they just look up at you, when you ask if they're hungry they nod. You agree to give them some blood, and it feels like they're giving you little kisses as you offer them your wrist. When they're full you hug their cold body, and for a momment they're made warm.

7 an undead servent slowly brings them over to you in a wheelchair. Though their mansion is beautiful it's trapped in time, and dark even in the daytime. You can see the computer they're trapped in, it must be decades old by now. They look at you with an avatar meant to look like a drawing of themself, or at least how they'd want to look. Something about them makes you want to touch them, but you know you never can. You put your hand to the screen, and you can feel the magic flow through you, and for a momment that's enough.

8 you see them sitting there alone in a bar. A slender androgynous humanoid, they're wearing a black suit but upon closer examination it's part of their body, never to be taken off. You sit next to them, and they smile at you, you talk for a few moments and it's like they know more about the universe then you could ever imagine. They pet your head, and it feels like it'll kill you, but it only makes you feel more alive. They hand you a business card with their number on it, it says they're a servent of hades, they tell you you can contact them again if you like, they'll be around. When you look again they're entirely gone once more.

9 walking through an abandoned mall you see them, a life sized puppet, with stars and moons on its outfit, and a painted mask for a face. Coming closer to them you can see there's red liquid on them, and strange otherworldly bugs and mushrooms on their body. When you try to touch them they float in the air, and move as if they're alive, for a momment you think they'll hurt you but they run away. When you find them again, tracking them down to a dark arcade, you see they're crying. They expect you to hurt them but you reach out to help them instead, nobody's ever tried to help them like that before...

10 you see them ontop of a skyscraper's roof. They youthful human wearing a leather jacket smiling as a massive reptile, with bat like wings, and massive steel fangs, and a tail like a scorpion's flies down to them. You wonder if they'll try to calm it but instead they move together like one being, their eyes the same yellow color. The creature comes twords you, fire in its mouth, and poison in its teeth. You realize the two beings are one in the same, as the wyvern bows its head, ready for you to ride it, with its human body at your side.

11 for a momment they chase you through the night, the hooded masked figure running twords you, blade in hand. But as you cross the street they can't follow, it's as if they've hit a wall. The gods themselves have bound them. While you're in safety you look at them, there's a sadness behind that mask. You wonder, if they can't hurt you here, would there be any reason to hate them, would they choose to spare you if they knew your face, your voice...

12 all you can see is blackness, yet there is no darkness, only this slick metallic liquid around you. The lake bubbles up creating a false body with its fluid, first male, then female, then both, then neither. It beckons you in, and you know it would not let you drown. When you step inside all you can feel, all you can see, is the fluid around you, and you feel as if you're being held.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Can a solid be a superfluid? Engineering a novel supersolid state from layered 2D materials

A collaboration of Australian and European physicists predict that layered electronic 2D semiconductors can host a curious quantum phase of matter called the "supersolid."

The supersolid is a very counterintuitive phase indeed. It is made up of particles that simultaneously form a rigid crystal and yet at the same time flow without friction since all the particles belong to the same single quantum state.

A solid becomes "super" when its quantum properties match the well-known quantum properties of superconductors. A supersolid simultaneously has two orders, solid and super:

Solid because of the spatially repeating pattern of particles.

Super because the particles can flow without resistance.

"Although a supersolid is rigid, it can flow like a liquid without resistance," explains Lead author Dr. Sara Conti (University of Antwerp).

Read more.

[sealrock]

Then vs Now: Meet the Parents Edition

jan 2022 on top vs dec 2024 on bottom

got tagged for this again, this time by @l3ylines. ty for the tag! :D

what it says on the tin: the very first incarnations of elaine (previously known as andromache) and hector vs their current forms! I had vague ideas of who they were (uptight city girl meets strange backwoods boy, bi4bi m/f until I hit the trans beam on them both a year later) and their impact to percy's story, and their lore has been changed more times than I could possibly count. up until recently, elaine's previous form's lore was somewhat consistent—ul'dahn rich girl who wanted to be an adventurer that vanished during the battle of carteneau, but hector has been through at least 7 different revisions: he was first a gridanian conjurer, a garlean soldier who went AWOL, a wildling, an amnesiac witch, a garlean again that was part of a supersolider experiment, a garlean yet again who bonded with an ascian as his reaper avatar, the human form of an ascian split in two, to what he is now: a sharlayan gleaner under possession of an ascian. at one point both were WoLs who were teleported to the First by hydaelyn after the 7UC, their memories wiped and all knowledge of percy forgotten needless to say, I love torturing hector it's almost concerning. but above all, these two were always meant to be a tragic couple like their iliad counterparts, except in reverse: elaine is always chasing after hector in order to save him, going back to their days in the world unsundered where she risked everything to go into the underworld to bring him back to life.

not tagging anyone else, so consider this an open tag :)

[herrscherofmagic]

long and spoiler-y and messy summary of my many thoughts on HI3rd Part 2 Chapter 7:

first of all, what the fuck, Helia??

second, the snowy battlefield scenes were probably the single most fundamentally "Honkai" story scenes that Mihoyo's written in like... the last 4 years or so.

Like, I don't think Mihoyo's ever gone that far before to show us just how deadly Honkai (or in this case, the "Calamity") truly is to the average soldier, and even the "supersoliders".

In most of Honkai's story, we follow incredibly powerful and skilled characters. Even in her weak moments like in Arc City, Kiana still had extraordinary endurance and stamina. And we rarely actually ever fought alongside ordinary valkyries. The only two instances I can think of would be Arc City and Coral City, and both of those were from the perspective of said super-powerful valkyries fighting alongside the weaker troops.

But here, on that snowy battlefield... it was something completely different.

The battlefield ambience with the audible & visible cannonfire in the background, the burning buildings, the corpses of civilians and soldiers alike amidst swarms of monsters... visually, it still has the style of an anime gacha game, but I could close my eyes and just listen to the sound and picture the scene in my mind so, so viscerally.

It gives me all the same feeling that I felt all those years ago when I played games like Halo: Reach, which had a similar "squad of elite soldiers fighting swarms of monsters on a dying world" theme but with a gritty & realistic visual style and writing.

This might've been one of the most well-constructed visual sequences in almost all of HI3rd's gameplay stages. Obviously cinematics would look prettier, but when talking about *actual gameplay* where you control a character, I don't think anything else comes even close to being so immersive of the scene that the story is telling to us.

For once, it really felt like this was a WAR. not a superhero comic book, but a story of ordinary humans struggling violently in vain against a greater power, incomprehensible to all.

third, to reiterate and also elaborate: what the FUCK, Helia!?

That was an absolute roller-coaster of emotions, especially because I did the first 2/3rds of Chapter 6 last night and saved the rest of Chapter 6 & then all of Chapter 7 for tonight. So I had only a brief break to do some other stuff at the end of Chapter 6 and dove right into Chapter 7, and had to process all of those feelings and scenes one right after the other. no giant several-week break to process everything T_T

Obviously Coralie's death was spoiled for me like a month and a half or two months ago, because CN server is far ahead and because it happened at the end of last version. But I still didn't expect it to play out THAT way, which came as a shock to me because I somehow didn't come across that specific part of the spoilers.

And the entire character arc Helia went through (well it seems like she's still got a ways to go) was just... holy shit. good lord. Mihoyo, what have you done!?? (/pos)

I don't really know if I'd call Helia a hero or a villain, or if it's even possible to cram her into that dichotomy at this point. I guess antihero might be the best way to describe her, but even that doesn't quite feel right.

It's clear to me that even if she somehow ends up "back to normal" in the future, she's obviously never gonna be quite the same. But I'm incredibly intrigued as to just how Wrong™ she'll end up being at the end of all this.

Like, even after all that she went through she reaffirmed her duty as a Valkyrie and her desire to avoid innocents, but she also still has that growing lack of empathy and cold attitude. She's no longer quite so mindlessly fanatical, but I find it hard to imagine she'll ever become so upright and kind as she once was.

So I honestly can't say I see her becoming a villain that would ultimately threaten the rest of the cast and bring harm to Luoxing or Earth... but I doubt she'll ever truly fit in with the ideal of a hero that she's always longed to be.

I'm sure there's still SOME potential development that will bring her into a "heroic" state, especially she ultimately hasn't ever committed such a grave sin as murdering an innocent person (unlike a certain Definitely Not Helia™ we've met). I'm sure she COULD still end up idolizing Durandal and striving to be a great Valkyrie.

But it also feels like there's a different path for her that none of the rest of the cast would dare to take, a path that doesn't bring her into being an antagonist but which still deviates far from the model Valkyrie we've been shown for all these years (from Durandal to Rita to Kiana and so on).

I honestly really like this sort of "cold but still fundamentally just" version of Helia. She's flawed but still willing to do what is right, even if she is doing it for entirely selfish reasons now.

In a way she now reminds me a bit of Lantern, but in an almost more cruel way. Lantern was always a dangerous person when on the hunt, but outside of her narrowly-focused combat mindspace she was always fairly calm and even gentle at times. Helia feels like a more chaotic and reckless form of Lantern now, and I really like seeing that because it's such an incredible contrast to all the other Valkyrie stuff we've seen before.

Point being, I absolutely ADORE this story arc and I'm blown away by just how far Mihoyo diverged from the stereotypical image of what a Valkyrie is supposed to be. We've had so many characters in the Hoyoverse (whether Honkai or Genshin or ZZZ) that were antagonistic or villainous at times, but I don't think we ever had any that were as unfeeling as Helia was in this story arc.

It's hard to find the exact words for it, but as someone that's played through nearly all of the story for Genshin, and Star Rail, AND ZZZ, not a single character felt like they hit quite the same antihero/villain vibes that Helia has hit in this story.

And to clarify, I'm NOT counting the scenes of the snowy battlefield as being explicitly "Helia". I know that those aren't the true experiences of Helia Erdös, after all.

But even when we just look at her behavior in the Dreamseeker system, when it's actually Helia in control, there's so much more cruelty in her behavior now: cruelty to herself, and to a lesser extent to others. It's her willingness to harm herself for power, and her contempt for others who stand in her way, and the way she has become so comfortable with battle now.

I really want to see what's going to happen next time she interacts with Durandal, now. I think what'd be most interesting to me personally is if Helia ultimately reaffirms her duty & identity as a Valkyrie, but completely drops any pretense of wanting to become a "hero" like Durandal.

A version of Helia where she doesn't even try to pretend to truly care about other people, but who will still fight for all that is beautiful in the world regardless of what others think of her. Someone who grows composed and calm but in a way that is not so much tranquil and peaceful, but rather cold and calculating.

If Coralie truly does come back, I can't help but wonder how she, too, would react to this new Helia. I imagine she'd still care for Helia, but it might be difficult for her to come to terms with this. It'd probably be upsetting for her, but perhaps Helia would find a way to connect in a more genuine manner with Coralie despite the change of heart she's had.

It's just... a lot. It's been a lot to process, I still need more time to process it, but I wanted to get these thoughts out now.

Though, at least I finally caught up w/ the story and found the motivation to share these thoughts before the next story comes out on CN.

Can't wait for the CN server to update and get their new story and for the rest of us to get flooded with more spoilers, weeks before we get to play the story for ourselves. yippee! /violentlysarcastic

When all is said and done, I really enjoyed these last two chapters. I still ultimately hold the opinion that Part 2 should've been a standalone game, but I can still appreciate what great work Mihoyo has done with Part 2 as-is.

I really enjoy that dynamic with Helia and Coralie, and all that Helia's gone through with Coralie now. This really might end up being one of my favorite story arcs, up there along with the SSHC arc, Arc City, Thunders Over Nagazora, etc.

[cultstatus]

I WAS also quite excited for Sam Wilson to get a solo Cap America movie before I found out they put Sabra in it.....like I remember going to the comic book shop in 2015 to pick up his very first Captain America run and now he gets a movie AND THEY PUT THE FUCKING IDF SUPERSOLIDER IN IT FUCK YOU MARVEL