#technological advancements in signatures

[ifindtaxpro]

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[lesservillain]

eddie munson x reader cw: smut, established relationship, mental deterioration, death, the afterlife, advanced technology a/n: based off of the black mirror episode titled san junipero. thank you @ali-r3n for reminding me to reupload this. 3.8k words

You’d been watching him all night. Dark curls bouncing every time he laughs, hands squeezing around the neck of his beer bottle. He was making friends with a group of similarly dressed individuals, other metal heads of the 80s clad in leather and worn band tees. They weren’t hard to find in a place like this. Some of them may have even made a name for themselves once. But, in this town, things like fame didn’t matter much. 

Eyes like melted chocolate meet yours, a devious smirk forming on his lips. A wink. Acknowledgement of the game the two of you were playing tonight. You watched as he called the bartender over, yelling something that you couldn’t hear over the loud bump of 80s pop music. The bartender nodded, and after a few moments of mixing was walking your way. 

“From the guy at the end of the bar,” he said, sliding the drink to you. But you already knew, smiling to yourself as you sip your signature drink. It went down quickly after years of drinking it. The bitter alcohol taste didn’t bother you like in the past. You popped an ice cube in your mouth before jumping off the bar stool, looking back for just a moment to see him quickly down his drink, getting up to chase after you. 

The end of your dress billowed lightly in the breeze,  chilling your skin as you stepped out into the busy nightlife. The sun had set, and the sky once filled with blues and pinks was now a deep purple with stars mixed in. You could see the moon reflecting over the glassy waves of the ocean from the deck of the bar. 

“Beautiful, isn't it,” you ask as he leans next to you, his back against the rails. The tendrils of his hair flutter with the salty air, reaching out to you where you stand. It’s tempting to take one and wrap it around your finger but you decide against it, just in case it may be too intimate for the facade you’re trying to keep up. 

“Sure is,” he says, his eyes fixed on you, looking you up and down. You feel the heat rise in your cheeks under his gaze. 

“You’re not even looking,” you shake your head. His teeth show this time when he smiles at you, leaning into your personal space to whisper in your ear.  

“Wasn’t talking about the beach, sweetheart.”

If he was any other guy you wold have told him to fuck off by now. He knows that, too. Which is why he does all that he can to push your buttons as the two of you talk. Teasing and joking around, being his authentic self, putting you in laughing fits that bring you to tears. 

And when he gets you in his bed, he’s making you moan his name. He tells you that the way you say his name is better than any chorus of devils that would have been waiting for him if the two of you hadn’t been here. Your bodies meld together like they belonged to the other in this weird fucked up place you’ve found yourselves in. His hips roll into yours, wet slapping of skin on skin filled the room, loud enough to rival the waves hitting the shore just outside your window. 

“Eddie, please I’m so close,” you huff, on the precipice of another orgasm, your senses heightened by the air of this place. His hand slides from your hip to your bud, moving in calculated circles from the years of working your body how you liked it. Your hand in his hair tugs at the base of his neck, fingers tangling in his curls as your body goes stiff. White hot heat washes over you and the stars in your eyes are so bright they blind you for a moment. For a second you panic, having to remind yourself where you are as his face becomes clear again.

His features are contorted as he finishes inside you. Brows pinched and nostrils flaring as he breaths through it. You’re suddenly reminded of the first time you two had spent together like this. In the back of his old beater van at Lover’s Lake. His face looked just like this, it was crazy to see it again. You wondered if this place gave him the same nostalgia. 

The two of you settle in post orgasmic bliss, bodies tangled in each other despite the sticky sweat on each other's skin. You wished it didn’t have to end. For him it didn’t, not anymore anyway. He could stay like this all the time, but you…

The sound of the clock beeping brought tears to your eyes. It was the worst sound in the world. His grip on you tightened as he shushed in your ear. 

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ll be right here waiting for you when you come back.”

“You promise?" You choke out, feeling less and less of his touch as you start to fade. 

“I always am, aren't I?”

This was your favorite look of his. Sure, you couldn’t deny the way he made you feel back when you first met, but this decade was some of the best years of your life with him. 

“I don’t get it,” he says as he swings your hands together. The two of you walk along the city streets. Music you haven’t heard in nearly 4 decades can be heard playing in every building you pass. “This is when I started getting grey hairs. You sure you don’t want to-”

“No, Eddie,” you laugh, “I told you that I like the seasoned rock star version of you. Sure, you were plenty cute back when we were young-young, but this you?” You tuck a curl behind his ear, kissing his cheek where it sat. “This is the sexy dad version of you that I love. Good thing you got that vasectomy because we probably would have had way more kids back then.” 

His laugh is like an old song to your ears that gets harder and harder to remember. You wish you could capture the sound in a bottle to keep with you when the two of you aren’t together. His ring clad hand squeezes yours, bringing it his lips to skin there. 

“How are they? Any updates you can think of?” The way he phrases it doesn’t get past you, but for the sake of argument you let it go. 

“Leah and David are going to be grandparents again. A…little girl this time, I think,” you try and wrack your brain for the information. “Bella is due in, um, December. Right, yeah, because it’s close to Christmas.”

“That’s awesome! Bella was a peach when she was little, so I’m sure Leah and Connor were excited when they found out Bella was having a girl after three boys.”

“Three boys?” You look at him confused. 

“Yeah, remember? Liam, Markus, and Jay. And this baby will be their first girl.” 

“Oh, yeah, I knew that” you say quickly. 

“Sweetheart,” he sing-songs to you. You wipe your eyes on the strap of your dress before looking at him. 

“I know, I’m sorry.” 

“Why are you sorry? I only know these things because you tell me. I wish I could be there to see them.” His voice trails off, a somber look in his eyes that he tries to disguise with a weak smile. “Have they, um, changed their minds about…”

You shake your head. You didn’t blame them for not wanting to come here. The only reason you were even here is because of him. As real as they try to make this place, it still feels like living in a film or a music video. Eddie says it feels more authentic for him now. Maybe you’ll feel that way one day.

“Oh fuck, don’t stop, don’t stop, please, don’t stop!”

Your thighs shake as Eddie’s tongue does wonders between them. He’d been edging you since you woke up, pushing you almost past your limit just to pull away. 

“I don’t know baby,” he says mere inches from your mound, “Do you still have doubts about me? Wouldn’t want to do all of this just for you to think I’m trying to fool you.”

“No, no, you’re real, fuck, you’re so real,” you say as you grip his hair, desperately trying to ride against his face as you feel your orgasm approaching. 

“Damn right I am,” his fingers pick up their pace as they curl into that sweet spot in your walls. “They can’t fake the way I know you inside out. Know exactly how much you can take, how you like the way I…”

His tongue moves meticulously on your clit, the combination with his fingers finally pushing you over the edge as your eyes squeeze shut, moaning his name. He slows his movements, letting you come down from your high before pulling away. 

Your eyes blink open, shifting down from the ceiling to where Eddie was between your legs. Except it wasn’t Eddie whose eyes were looking back at you. You shift up in the bed, pulling the covers over yourself as you scream, “Eddie? Eddie!”

The man jumps up, confused. “Baby, what's wrong? I’m right here.” Your eyes don’t leave him, terrified of what will happen if you look away. 

“W-what? Where’s Eddie? Who the hell are you?”

He moves towards you, causing you to flinch. But when you open your eyes again Eddie’s the one standing in front of you. His hands cup your face, shushing you to calm you down. He climbs in the bed with you, holding you close as you cry and whispering reassurances in your ear. 

“He looks so real,” you shout to Eddie, eyeing the very real looking Kurt Cobain playing on the stage in front of you. 

“Maybe it’s just because we’re so far back. He died way before they could have uploaded him here, so he’s gotta be a hologram or something,” Eddie shakes his head as he shouts back to you.

“Maybe they used people’s memories to make him?”

He shrugs, taking a sip of his beer, offering it to you when he catches you looking at him. You wave him off, resting your head against his arm. A memory jumps to the front of your mind, like deja vu. 

“Eddie,” he looks down at you, “We’ve seen them before, haven’t we?”

His face lights up, nodding excitedly. “Yeah, back in ‘93! You remember that?”

“Kind of. It feels like we’ve done this before,” you bite at your lower lip, a nervous habit you’d picked up in your life. 

“Well, we’ve been to a lot of concerts. Do you remember standing on the side stage to watch them in Portland?”

“Side stage? Why would we have been on the side stage?” 

He blinks at you wordlessly, dark eyes becoming misty as he looks into yours. You feel a guilt creep in. You should know the answer, but you don’t, and the feeling eats you up inside. What else have you forgotten? How many times has he asked you if you remember something, only to break his heart over and over again?

How much longer before you forgot his face?

“Grandma, please.”

“No, I don’t want to take those damn pills!”

You smack the man’s hand away, sending pills flying across the floor. A sharp pain shoots through your shoulder, causing you to cry out in pain. 

“Grandma, those pills are to help with the pain. I promise I’m not giving you anything else.” The man before you looks familiar, his dark loose curls and deep brown eyes that feel safe are the only reason you even let him in your house, even if he insists that he lives there. 

“Well, damnit, if you had said they were for pain I would have taken them,” you say through gritted teeth. Eddie sighs, placing his ring clad hand on top of yours. It doesn’t look like your hand. The skin looks too withered and bruised to be yours, but the feeling was there. “Eddie, can you bring me something to drink?”

“My name is-” Eddie looks at you for a moment. Defeated, he sighs, “Yes, grandma, I’ll be right back.” 

The man comes back a few minutes later with a drink and helps you take a sip from the straw. “Do you want anything to eat?” He asks, hope in his eyes as you ponder for a moment, only to be dashed away when you refuse.

The man gets you cleaned up and ready for bed, and you only give him a little bit of shit as he does, your body too tired to fight tonight.

You watch as he fiddles with a little round device on your bedside table. You’re not sure what it does but you know in the back of your mind that it makes you happy when it’s working. 

“Uncle Dustin called to check in on you today,” the man says as he presses a button, bouncing his head happily as it turns green. “I told him you said hi.”

“Why the hell would you tell your friend I said hi?” You grumble, feeling the sleep start to take over your body. You eyelids are heavy, the room going dark as you drift off.

“Goodnight, grandma.”

You wake a moment later to the feeling of Eddie’s hair tickling your nose. Slowly, you blink your eyes open, brown eyes staring down at you from where you lay on his chest. The soft up and down of his chest is missing, not that he needs to do that anymore, a sad reminder of what this place is for him.. 

“Awake so soon, sweetheart,” he asks, his hand rubbing up and down your arm. You nod, shifting your body so you can stretch out next to him. “You know I’m not going anywhere,” he sighs, eyes flicking between yours. “I don’t want you to miss out on anything.”

“I’m not,” you say with a smile hoping that it would be enough to put his mind at ease. He pulls you in for a kiss and holds you close to him. Even if this place isn’t your home, Eddie always makes you feel like you belong. 

“Hey, Eddie,” you whisper into his neck, and you can feel him hum on the top of your head where his chin rests. “Who’s Dustin?”

It's still for a long moment. His lack of response has you worried. The heave of his chest has you pulling away, sitting up next to him in the bed. Tears roll down his cheeks and you quickly wipe them away with your thumbs. 

“E-Eddie I’m sorry, I-I don’t know why I even asked.” It’s true. The name sits in your head but you don’t know why. It's a hollow thought, with no meaning.

“You really don’t remember?” His voice is strained. For some reason his question made you angry. Like he was calling you stupid for not remembering. Why does everyone get so upset when you can’t remember something?

“No,” you say sternly. “And I don’t want to remember!” 

You throw the blankets off of you, getting out of the bed and storming out. The hem of your dress tickles your ankles as the breeze blows down the beach. The further you go the more you start to forget where you’re at.

Now you’re running, panicking with no one else around to help you. You trip, hands hitting the sand as you fall to your knees. You feel helpless, confused, wailing into the empty beach that you don’t remember coming to. You hear your name being called. A man with long, dark hair approaches you, attempting to put his arms around you. 

“Don’t touch me!” You push him away, trying to get up on your own. “I don’t need your help, young man!”

The look on his face is nothing short of mortified. “No, no, this isn’t right,” he says, shaking his head, hands grabbing at his hair. “Please don’t forget me, please! Something isn't right!”

Suddenly your ears start ringing. The ringing gets louder and louder until bells and alarms swirl around you, and vision starts to spin. You try covering your ears but the sounds are coming from inside your own head. It feels like you’re screaming but you can’t hear. The man's hands are on you a moment later shaking you, and his mouth is moving but you can’t hear him either. 

Your vision starts to go white and you feel your body becoming heavy. Everything feels cold, then nothing. The last thing you feel is the man’s lips on your forehead. 

“I think this is the best chicken you’ve ever made. Swear on my life, sweetheart.”

“That’s not much to swear on, Eds.” 

He gives you a knowing look from across the table, continuing to dig into the dinner you made for the two of you. He was right, it did taste almost as good as your own grandmother had made it when you were young, but that seemed to be how things are in San Junipero. Something you’re sure they built into the software when they made this place. 

“Do you want to walk to that new ice cream place on the pier? I heard it’s amazing,” you ask as you grab your plate to place in the sink. “I bet they have that gross pistachio ice cream you like.”

“Hey, don’t knock it until you try it,” Eddie says with a mouth full of food, handing you his dirty dishes as you start to clean up.

“I did try it. Fifty years ago, remember?” You laugh as you clean the dishes, handing them back to him to dry. His smile reaches his eyes as he looks at you. 

“Yeah, it was our second date. How could I forget? I got ketchup all over your new dress, too. I don’t know why you agreed to another date with me after that.”

“Hmm, I don’t know either. Maybe it's because you’re, oh, I don’t know, really cute or something?” He shoves you playfully and you shove him back. Shoving turns to grabbing, and grabbing turns to groping. His hands all over your body as you pull him by the belt loops into your bedroom.

It was amazing to feel this again. For it to feel real. To be intimate with Eddie after he had been gone for those seven long, lonely years. 

You thought your time was limited when he got the diagnosis. That the cancer would take him and you would have an empty hole inside you that you would never recover from. Rock star money could buy a new car for all your family and friends or a last family trip to Rome, but you couldn’t pay enough for cancer not to spread so rapidly in the body. 

Money could, however, get you early access to a new experimental technology that may be able to save your person hood to a cloud. 

“Fuck, Eddie, I miss this,” you moan as you bounce up and down on his cock, “Missed you.”

Eddie's eyes were glued between you, watching as he disappeared inside you over and over. He pulled you down to press your bodies together, letting his hips roll into your as your lips locked in hot passion. You weren’t sure if it was because the two of you hadn’t had bodies like these in so long or if it was just the effect San Junipero has on you after death, but as the two of you lay breathless you can’t help but think that it’s the best sex the two of you have had in a long time. 

“He really does look like me, doesn’t he,” Eddie says. You follow his gaze to a picture of your great-grandson, Micha. He was almost a clone of Eddie with the same long curls and dark eyes. And thanks to a recent 80s revival, they even had the same sense of fashion. You’d let him go through yours and Eddie’s shared dresser after he passed, letting him take whatever “vintage” pieces of Eddie’s wardrobe he wanted. “I hope he washed that vest though, I’m sure that thing stinks.”

“You think I was going to give him your vest without washing it first? God you should have seen how brown the water was when I first let it soak,” you cringe thinking about how many times you had to clean the tub after that.

“Damn, he really must have been your favorite if you did that. You wouldn’t even wash that thing for me.”

“Oh, shut up,” you roll your eyes, “I think you’re forgetting that you wouldn’t let me clean it. “Too many memories” or something like that.”

He looked at you in faux offense, but broke character when you didn’t back down. You use the last bit of sunlight to talk about the other pictures that now adorned your shared bedroom. Pictures of young family members he never got to meet, seven years worth of memories with friends and family he didn’t get to share after he had passed.

There was a picture that someone had taken of you and some of your friends that had been able to come out for Eddie’s funeral. You didn’t want to put that one up, but Eddie said it made him happy that all of his friends still cared so much even after he was gone.

It was bittersweet for both of you as your memory had started to rapidly fade in the last year of your life. You barely remember the time you spent here with him. Thankfully you had the memories from when you were awake regularly uploaded into the cloud just as they started letting the living enter San Junipero. 

“I wish they could be here, too,” you sighed.

“Me too,” his hand squeezed yours, “But, I get it. Maybe by the time they get to our age it will be safer for them.” You nod and break away from him, standing up from the bed. “Where are you going, miss ma’am?”

You pick up your dress from the floor, slipping it over your body. You look over to him, the man who gave you one of the most amazing lives that any person could have ever lived. The freak of Hawkins High turned rock star, never forgetting those who were most important to him in his life. The man who you made two beautiful children with, who never felt like their dad put the rock star life before them. He was the love of your living life and now you got a second chance to love him for as long as this place would allow it. 

“I think someone promised to get me some nasty pistachio ice cream.”

thank you for reading!

[caliburn-the-sword]

the main talking point of a lot of people that love eah but bash on descendants is that "eah was deep!! descendants was just a disney knockoff that meant nothing and was just a cashgrab" SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP (to be clear i am an eah lover). analytical thoughts to follow:

consider also, that auradon is portrayed as very technologically advanced in direct opposition to the isle being associated with magic (even with its ban) and a lot of of clearly second hand, worn and torn fridges and tvs and whatever

also, the fact that she felt PRESSURED to not only culturally assimilate into auradon culture, but alter her physical appearance to assimilate further. consider mal's costuming in the first movie. on the isle, we see her with (what i assume is her natural) purple hair, leather, etc. she is even, to a degree, gender nonconforming. pretty much the ONLY time we see her in skirts is when she's trying to impress ben for her plan to work

compare this with the hair costuming in descendants 2:

(i actually can't remember which scenes the third one was in but whatever) they have taken away her sparkle!! she's assimilated firstly into auradon fashion by dressing in pastels like them, and in SKIRTS which she textually only wore in the first movie when she wanted to impress ben. now with the added context of her wanting to impress auradon. and it really speaks a lot that she feels she has to conform to gender norms more in order to be accepted by auradon

and what about hair. she's felt the need to not only change the way she dresses, but change her hair to the eurocentric standard, so blonde that it's almost WHITE to conform to auradon's society (because let's be real, her mum's a fairy/dragon and her dad is a greek god. i'd be MORE surprised if she was DYING her hair purple than it being natural). changing your natural hair in order to to conform to and be accepted by the majority... where have i heard that one before??

shoutout to @soniccat

(to be clear. it is not a one for one analogy. "hey using a spell to force someone to forget what you did is an invasion" to me is like going "well actually people were right to fear mutants in x-men because some of them were walking weapons" IT'S A METAPHOR THAT IS ALSO A PLOT DEVICE)

('backwater' being used ironically, do not let my meaning be misconstrued here. a better way to word it is that immigrants are guilttripped into having to be 'grateful' for their oppression in a first world country because microaggressions or assimilation is considered better than the alternative, being back in your home country where living conditions may be considered poorer)

in the sense that for instance, jay put a VK spin on supporting feminism. like yes, he could've done it the rulefollowing, create a petition and gather signatures route, but INSTEAD he finds and exploits an existing loophole to let lonnie join the team. or evie shouting out dizzy's creations, uplifting her voice despite the fact she could've still taken the credit since she was the one that paired the outfit with the accessories. etc

are the descendants movies objectively bad movies?? yes. but this was to me, one of the most compelling analogies for immigrant struggles. take particular notice how almost ALL the main VKs are either racebent from the original disney movies (evie, carlos, uma) or were already based on an ethnic character (mal, jay)

but wait, mal is the whitest white girl to walk the planet. how is she already based on an ethnic character?

glad you asked. it is quite unclear in the descendants movie (basing its portrayal of maleficent on the disney sleeping beauty) is a fairy or a dragon. while the maleficent movie isn't canon to the descendants universe, i'm still going to use the fact that she's a fairy with the magical ability to turn herself into a dragon

a lot fairy folklore comes from ireland. the name maleficent itself, and i quote

shares similarities to the name millicent. millicent has irish (or scottish) roots (even a coat of arms) as in

thus one could argue that maleficent herself could potentially be irish coded

whether or not you agree with the idea that maleficent is irish coded, it is undeniable that mal is the daughter of hades, a greek god. it's a shame that that was a retcon in the third movie and not planned from the start, because the role could've gone to an actually greek actress (please google the ottoman empire and greek independence day if you still think it's not fitting for me to group mal with the others)

where was i going with this?? right. it's extremely telling that most of the main/side VKs, save for gil, are ethnic, in the story of a group of misfits finding themselves in an unfamiliar country with new social norms for them to learn as they try to fit in with and become accepted by their peers

[black-suns-rim]

Valley Family Portrait (Ethereal star AU)

Before the twins were the elders of their realm, their mother, the Priestess, was it's elder. Her children were kept a secret from the valley and the other realms until her passing...

bonus art and short story under the cut:

In the valley light temple “Mother warned us about you…” Mek sneered.

“Did she now?” The king stood behind the two siblings as they were kneeling at an alter, “Well, the priestess was never fond of me… so it’s not surprising.”

“You know you’re not welcomed here. You may be a king, but you’re not our king.” Sah stood up to face Resh, but he didn’t realize just how massive the king was, “you should leave.” Sah tried to sound threatening.

“May I offer my condolences before I leave?” He gestured to the alter the twins had been grieving at. They both hesitated before nodding. The King kneeled down in front of the priestess’s alter, pulling out a white candle. He lit it with his light magic and placed it in front of the alter. He bowed his head as he uttered a prayer. The twins could only hear parts of the prayer. Once he was done, he turned his attention to the siblings.

“Though she may not have liked me, I admired her and her teachings. I know she believed that I was getting rid of our traditions with my advances, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. We both shared the same goal you see, but it’s my methods she just didn’t approve… when I heard of her passing, I knew I had to visit her alter, though I knew I wouldn’t be welcomed here.” He spoke quietly in a soft tone.

The twins couldn’t help but listen as he spoke, “I also wanted to offer the both of you what I had offered your mother many years ago. That is if you’re willing to listen to what I have to offer.”

The two sat in silence and looked at each other, then to the king. They were curious but at the same time, they were slightly offended he had brought this up here. They whispered to each other for a while before agreeing on something.

“We’ll listen to what you have to say, but if we don’t like it, you can’t ever come back here.” Mek turned to face Resh.

“Understandable.” The king stood up, “What if I could offer your realm advanced medicines, technology and knowledge gathered from the other realms? In return, your realm becomes a part of my kingdom and you’ll have my protection. You’ll still have a say over your realm, but I’ll have the final word.”

The siblings whispered to each other, “exactly what kind of advanced medicines would you be able to offer?” Sah asked.

“Remedies that would heal illnesses, surgeries that can save a life, or improve one and much more.” He paused, “I could even offer a surgery that would give you and your sister a second arm…”

The two of them stared at Resh In disbelief. They were wearing cloaks, so there could be no way he would’ve seen… “How did you know…?” Samekh both were standing now.

“It would be rude of me not to come here without knowing who I was talking to… though it was hard finding anything out about you two. Your mother kept you two well hidden from the public, did she? But it was only to protect you, wasn’t it?”

Before they could have a chance to respond, he continued, “I heard you two love to play sports. I could offer you a chance to get the recognition you deserved. Champions of the arts. My champions even..." he paused and placed a hand on their shoulders, "Imagine a stadium full of your fans, cheering you on. The glory, the fame, the honor... All of this only if you accept to become a part of my kingdom.”

Samekh felt excited by his offers. They whispered with each other for a long time before asking him many questions. The more answers they got from the king, the more they felt excited.

“So, do you accept my offer?”

“Yes. We do.” Samekh was quick to answer.

Resh grinned under his mask, “Wonderful!” He gestured over one of his advisers who had been standing far back. They handed him a stone tablet, “I need both of your signatures for this agreement.” They were quick to sign, not bothering to read what was written on the stone.

“Next week, I’m having a meeting with all the realm leaders. You two will be sent an invitation on the location and time. We can discuss and plan further what changes will happen in your realm. We can also discuss your personal matters afterwards. For now, I’ll leave you two with these.” He handed them a couple of stone tablets with information on them pertaining specifics of what he’d mentioned.

“Welcome to the kingdom.”

[planesawesome]

What is the reason for modern aircraft not using swept back wings like the F-14 Tomcat?

The main reason modern aircraft do not use swept-back wings like the F-14 is due to the advancements in aerodynamics and materials science. Swept-back wings were initially developed to delay the onset of shock waves and reduce drag at transonic and supersonic speeds.

While this design was effective for the F-14, it came with trade-offs, particularly in terms of complexity and weight. The variable-sweep mechanism added significant weight and maintenance requirements, which are less desirable in today's cost-conscious and efficiency-driven aviation industry.

Also, modern aircraft benefit from advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel testing, allowing engineers to optimize wing shapes for specific performance criteria without relying on variable-sweep designs. This has led to the development of more efficient fixed-wing designs that can achieve similar or even superior performance across a broader range of speeds. For example, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II utilize fixed-wing designs with advanced aerodynamics and stealth capabilities, making them highly effective in modern combat scenarios.

Modern fighter jets are designed to be multi-role platforms, capable of performing a wide range of missions from air superiority to ground attack. This versatility demands a design that can perform well in various flight regimes, from low-speed, high-angle-of-attack maneuvers to high-speed intercepts. Fixed-wing designs, coupled with advanced flight control systems, provide the necessary performance and flexibility without the added complexity of variable-sweep wings.

The emphasis on stealth technology in modern military aviation has influenced wing design. Swept-back wings, while beneficial for high-speed flight, can create larger radar cross-sections, making the aircraft more detectable. Modern stealth aircraft are designed with smooth, continuous surfaces and internal weapon bays to minimize raddar signatures, which is more easily achieved with fixed-wing designs.

[judgemark45]

The U.S. Navy's Seawolf-class submarines are among the most advanced and powerful submarines in the world. Here are some key features and capabilities that make them so powerful:

Stealth

- Quietness: Seawolf-class submarines are designed to be extremely quiet, making them difficult to detect by enemy sonar. They have advanced sound-absorbing materials and hull design, which significantly reduce their acoustic signature.

- Anechoic Coating: They are covered with anechoic tiles that absorb sound waves, reducing the noise they emit and improving their stealth capabilities.

Speed and Depth

- Speed: These submarines are capable of reaching speeds in excess of 35 knots (about 40 mph or 65 km/h) when submerged.

- Operating Depth: Seawolf-class submarines can operate at depths greater than 1,600 feet (approximately 490 meters), allowing them to evade detection and operate in deeper waters than many other submarines.

Armament

- Torpedoes: Each Seawolf-class submarine is equipped with eight 660mm (26-inch) torpedo tubes, which can launch a variety of torpedoes, including the advanced Mk-48 ADCAP (Advanced Capability) torpedoes.

- Missiles: They can also carry up to 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are capable of striking land targets with high precision from a great distance.

- Mines: The submarines can deploy mines for area denial and strategic control of waterways.

Sensor and Combat Systems

- Sonar Systems: The Seawolf-class features advanced sonar systems, including bow, flank, and towed-array sonars, which provide comprehensive detection and tracking capabilities.

- Combat Systems: They are equipped with the AN/BSY-2 combat system, which integrates all sensors, fire control, and weapons systems, allowing for rapid and effective response to threats.

Survivability and Endurance

- Robust Construction: The hull is made of HY-100 steel, which provides greater strength and durability, enhancing survivability.

- Endurance: These submarines can operate submerged for extended periods, limited only by food supply, due to their nuclear propulsion system.

Versatility

- Multi-Mission Capability: Seawolf-class submarines are capable of performing a wide range of missions, including anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASUW), intelligence gathering, special operations support, and strike warfare.

Summary

Overall, the Seawolf-class submarines are among the most formidable submarines in the world, combining stealth, speed, firepower, and advanced technology. Their ability to operate in various environments and perform diverse missions makes them a critical asset to the U.S. Navy's undersea warfare capabilities.

[lunarmoves]

you were being followed.

you're not sure for how long. you only realized because you'd brought your phone out of your pocket to check the time and had noticed something behind you through its dark screen. you hadn't been able to get a good look—there was only a flash of blue before it had disappeared as you whirled around. desolate streets surrounded you. something thick had formed in your throat and stayed there.

you're starting to think that maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to go out for a walk in the evening—as the sun kissed the horizon in a burnt mandarin haze. but you'd wanted to. you'd wanted to walk past the remains of the pizzaplex—if only to see for yourself that it had truly been destroyed.

call you sentimental—maybe crazy was the right word—but something had just spurred you out of your house and down the road until you'd found yourself standing at the caution tape that blocked off the pizzaplex. the fire hadn't been too long ago. fazbear entertainment hadn't gotten the chance to clear anything out yet.

you stood there, hands in the pockets of your jacket, and stared at the dilapidated ruins before you. the signature 'fazbear' sign was a mess on the ground, spare electricity weakly running through it in a way that made the 'b' flicker somewhat sporadically.

good riddance, was your first thought, reminiscing about your stint at the pizzaplex before you were fired and replaced by one of those fucking s.t.a.f.f. bots. but then you sighed and kicked aimlessly at the ground. it had been a cool place, you had to admit. overpriced, yes, but the technological advancements made through the animatronics alone was something you'd thought was impressive.

and now they were nothing but melted scrap. a shame. you'd rather liked them.

you spent a few moments simply gazing at the charred brick and steel of the pizzaplex. then you sank further into your jacket and turned to slink back down the road. it wouldn't do well to linger. you sated your curiosity. time to go home.

only—you were starting to regret ever stepping out of your house.

a chill ran down your spine—from the air or the feeling of being watched, you would never know—and you found yourself pausing in your steady stroll to look around. you didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. the houses that lined the streets were aglow from within, trees swayed gently in the breeze, a car passed by leisurely along the road. and yet... you felt on edge.

maybe you had just imagined it, you thought. or maybe it was nothing—light reflecting off glass, perhaps. but something in your stomach prevented you from relaxing entirely in the face of your internal reassurances. something that seized your insides and refused to let go.

you continued on, trepidation lining your footsteps.

the streetlamps flicked on as you walked, the sky settling into a navy gradient as the sun finally disappeared beyond the horizon. you kept your eyes on the ground, watching as your shadow elongated and shrank as you passed underneath each light. you kept your ears strained for any footsteps other than your own. you clenched your phone tight in one hand and your keys in the other.

and faintly, so faintly that you could pass it off as a breeze, you heard the jingling of bells.

you whipped around as though you could catch whoever (or whatever) was following you in the act. but there was nothing behind you. nothing but a dark street lit up dimly by the lamp posts that dotted it. you clenched your jaw and turned back around.

immediately, you gasped and stumbled back, having not expected the thing standing right in front of you.

it was—a robot. one that was covered in soot and grime. the metal of its lithe body was cracked and broken, burnt black in some areas. it was wearing torn clothes that were a mismatch of red and yellow, and navy and gold. part of its endoskeleton was exposed on its lower right leg, the metal gleaming in the dim light from the streetlamp.

its face was the worst of it, you thought, as you stared at the bright yellow light that came from one eye and the blood red light from the other. triangular protrusions lined its head at the sides, and there was an absolutely filthy nightcap that rested at the top. you blinked and felt your fright sink deeper into horror.

you knew this robot.

"f-friend!" it warbled out through a voicebox coated in static. you swallowed thickly and stepped back as it loomed over you, permanent, disfigured smile stretching further at the edges. you did not like this at all—cowering in its shadow. "y-you're here! we— we've been l-looking e-e-everywhere for you!" then, like a switch had flipped, it started talking to you in a much deeper, raspier voice. "it's late. past your bed-bed-bedtime. c-come heeeere."

you took another step back as it stepped towards you, its clawed, metal hands coming up at its sides as though to grab you. bells jingled faintly with the motion. eyes wide, you did the only thing you could think of to distract it—talk to it.

"sun?" you nearly whispered out, then kicked yourself internally for the voice crack. "or... moon? is that... you?"

it didn't respond to either calls of their names, only stared down at you and tilted its head as a rattling whirr started up in its torso. but you knew this was the daycare attendant. maybe not sun nor moon, but a combination of the two, if its looks were any indication. had they followed you from the pizzaplex this whole time? goosebumps lined your skin under your jacket.

and before you could even think to lurch away, their hands suddenly clamped down on the sides of your arms. their face pressed in closer to you, smile widening in a way that made you bite at the inside of your cheek. their head rotated to the side in an inhuman way, the steady tick-tick-tick of the mechanisms behind it breaking through the quiet air. and not for the first time that night, you wished you'd never went on this stupid walk.

"w-won't you st-st-stay, friend?" eclipse asked—voice thin like a blade. you didn't have the strength within you to pull away. their hands pulled you closer to them and tightened as though unwilling to let you escape. "it's been s-so lone-lonely without y-y-you. won't you f-follow us home?"

[on-this-side-of-the-curve]

Multiversal Residents: Gravity Falls, Dimension 46'\

Rick Sanchez isn't just the overarching antagonist of his own show, but many more too!

The Multiversal Residents Theory tries to connect numerous fandoms to the Central Finite Curve, the exclusive multiverse that the show Rick & Morty takes place in.

Most know, or at least it’s heavily implied, that Rick & Morty and Gravity Falls are connected. This theory is not proving they are connected, but rather that Gravity Falls also takes place within the Central Finite Curve.

So, come read how Gravity Falls and our favorite supernatural mystery-solving pair of twins are on this side of the Curve!

Note: The terms "universe" and "dimension" are interchangeable, these mean the same thing!

The Curve

First, for those who are unfamiliar with the Central Finite Curve:

“Do you know what the Central Finite Curve is? They build a wall around infinity. They separated all the infinite universes from all the infinite universes where [Rick] is the smartest man in the universe. Every version of us has spent every version of all of our lives in one infinite crib built around an infinite fucking baby.”  (Evil Morty, Rickmurai Jack)

To reiterate, the Curve is a shield that segregates the parts of the multiverse where Rick Sanchez is the smartest being—or dominant life form—from the rest of the multiverse where he either isn’t the smartest or doesn’t exist at all.

The Curve was built by the Council of Ricks and the main Rick the show follows, Rick Sanchez of Earth C-137, using advanced portal technology that bars all users of interdimensional portal travel from traveling outside of the Curve.

This perpetuates the idea for Mortys and other life forms that no matter where they go Rick Sanchez will always be on top of the food chain.

Ricks seem pretty antagonistic to want to stay the dominant life form no matter what, right?

Portal Technology

No one is able to leave or enter the Curve...or so it's thought. This brings us to portal technology, how does it work?

In Rick & Morty there are three prominent portal types:

Interspacial portals, blue or purple, which only allow travel within the same dimension the portal is situated in, and must be set up beforehand at the target location.

(Rick & Morty "The Rickchurian Mortydate")

Interdimensional portals, the signature green that all Ricks use. These portals are able to travel anywhere within the Curve. It does not need to be set up beforehand at a target location, but can be paired to already set interdimensional portals. Has limited uses, as the portal guns run on a fuel called Portal Fluid that Rick Prime and C-137 invented. Made by Ricks for Ricks!

(Rick & Morty "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind")

And extradimensional portals, these come in many shapes and colors. This type is important, as it not only allows the user to travel interdimensionally but also outside of the Curve as they please. Evil Morty's extradimensional portals are yellow, he made the technology for them himself on his quest to leave the Curve. Congrats!

(Rick & Morty "Rickmurai Jack")

Aside from artificial portals, there are also naturally occurring portals called wormholes scattered around the multiverse.

(Rick & Morty "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy")

Now we know the basics of Rick & Morty portal technology. Why does it matter to the theory? This is where Gravity Falls comes in!

Gravity Falls has its own portal, the Universe Portal. It was built by Stanford Pines and his partner McGucket to investigate another dimension.

Unfortunately, Ford was receiving help from one Bill Cipher, who was manipulating Ford into building the portal to merge their universe with his horrific universe.

Ford tried shutting down the portal after learning of this, and called his estranged twin brother Stanley to help hide one of the portal keys. But they began to fight. Ford got sucked into the Universe Portal due to this, and was lost in the multiverse for 30 years.

Stan spends the majority of Gravity Falls trying to find the other portal keys, Ford's journals, to bring him back.

That brings us to Gravity Falls' episode Society of the Blind Eye's credit sequence.

Stan drops a pen, mug, and notepad into the Universe Portal. Stan also has the Universe Portal searching for Ford's coordinates across the multiverse at this time.

These items appear in Rick & Morty episode Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind coming out of an interdimensional portal C-137 placed prior to this clip, in the Doopidoo Dimension.

The Doopidoo Dimension is within the Curve, since interdimensional portals were used to enter and exit it. The Universe Portal paired with an interdimensional portal in the Doopidoo Dimension whilst searching for Ford in the multiverse. So, both portals are within the Curve.

Funnily, the Universe Portal's more well known name is the Interdimensional Portal!

This means Dimension 46'\, the show Gravity Falls, is on this side of the Curve.

Pretty straightforward.

But aren't all interdimensionally limited portals the signature green that Rick uses? Yes! This is why the Universe Portal isn't an interdimensional portal, despite it's more popular name, but an extradimensional one. As we know, extradimensional portals can take any shape and color.

Extradimensional portals can travel interdimensionally too. As our pal Evil Morty demonstrates in the episode Unmortricken, when he portals from outside the Curve to C-137 and Morty Prime who are still within it.

Extradimensional or interdimensional, why does it matter? This is an important distinction for later evidence and theories, and I will go further on this topic next time.

We've established Dimension 46'\ is on this side of the Curve and that the Universe Portal is extradimensional.

What else is there to talk about, isn't the theory over? Gravity Falls is within the Curve!

But, Dimension 46'\ isn't the only dimension Gravity Falls features.

A multiversal door opens!

The Universe Portal was built by Ford and McGucket to reach and investigate the Nightmare Realm, home of Bill Cipher, also known as Dimension 0.

Or as I like to call it, Dimension Outside of the Curve.

In the next post I will talk all about Dimension Outside of the Curve and what it means for the Multiversal Residents Theory!

[mandroid-exotica]

In the heart of a war-torn city, the combat android known as **Unit 00065** stood amidst the rubble, its once pristine armor now marred by the chaos of battle. Bullets and shrapnel had torn through its synthetic skin, leaving gaping wounds that sparked and smoked with every movement.

Unit 00065 had been designed for combat, its sleek frame built to withstand the harshest conditions. But even the most advanced technology had its limits. As it took cover behind a crumbling wall, a maintenance hatch on the back of its neck clicked open, revealing a tangle of wires and circuits. Sparks flew from the exposed components, and wisps of smoke curled into the air, a testament to the damage it had sustained.

Despite the extensive damage, Unit 00065 remained operational. Its mission was clear: protect the civilians trapped in the nearby shelter. It scanned the battlefield, its sensors picking up the heat signatures of enemy drones closing in. With precise calculations, it pushed itself to its feet, its movements mechanical and unyielding.

But as it took its first step, a powerful explosion rocked the ground beneath it, sending it sprawling. Its vision flickered, and its systems began to fail. Leaning against a wall, Unit 00065's movements became erratic, its circuits overloaded with damage.

Smoke continued to wisp from the openings in its skin, and the sparking wires in its neck sent signals of malfunction through its circuits. Leaning against the wall, it began to malfunction, repeating, "Unit 00065 has sustained damage. Please repair."

Unable to continue, Unit 00065 remained there, broken and malfunctioning, its mission incomplete.

[fatuismooches]

Hello! Former 🐺 anon here! (I always struggle to not forget the "-🐺" at the end of the asks so uhh I guess imma make the job easier for myself by revealing true identity, i guess?? 😅)

Anyway. I don't remember if this has been written about before, but... Can we talk about Dottore's earring? The connection between segments? And fragile reader?

That little trinket is one of the mysteries surrounding our beloved Doctor. Is it just a fancy accessory? Perhaps. But then why do all of his segments wear one? At very least, the ones we've seen? I feel like it might have something to do with connection between them. Could it be a hive-mind device? Basically something that connects all the segments into one net so they can communicate telepathically? That would explain how Omega managed to delete all of the segments so easily.

But yes. Imagine if theory about it being a telepathy bond device. What if Prime gifts fragile reader one of those? So that when he's away on a mission or something, fragile reader could reach out to him! Almost like the two were having a phone call! (Since Teyvat doesn't have phones apart that strange dodoco ball thingy).

Or it could also be used for when the reader is too scared to speak their thoughts. Imagine Dottore holding them tightly in his embrace, his soothing voice whispering in the reader's head to just think what troubles them and use the telepathic bond to tell him. I just feel like Zandik would use this as a way to reassure the reader. Like, it's silence, but also not. Of course, many forehead kisses and headpats are included in this procedure.

YESSS DOTTORE'S EARRING... <3 I love that thing... :3 (Webttore and Dottore actually have two different designs of earrings so I love to hc that each segment's earrings are a little bit different, even though we see they're the same in-game 😭 Maybe it's a way to tell them apart from each other as well 💗 Alright moving on-)

Besides the signature masks of the segments, they are never seen without their earring, the mysterious blue liquid inside squishing around with their movements. What could it be? That is unknown, but the agents would prefer not to know considering it's the same color as that vial he always carries around. And the vial's contents are similarly unknown... no one wants to be the first one to try. Well, regardless of that, most would never guess the earring is used for the segments' communication with each other. Truly technology far more advanced than what the majority of Teyvat could ever dream off.

It was when you complained about how long letters took to be delivered back and forth that he realized a rather easy solution. The earring's communication device was no easy procedure, with the materials and skill, but for you? He got it done with ease. Obviously, you're elated! Though there are probably times you abuse your new privilege now. For example, even when he's not away, you'll call him. He'll think it is urgent, considering your health and all, but what did you call to tell him? That you love him, and are coming to give him lots of kisses and hugs and- he hung up on you.

It would also be quite cute if your earring could connect to various other earrings like the segments while they're away on expeditions as well... they have most definitely slacked off when you've called them. Them being in the middle of killing/threatening/general Dottore things but pausing to take their beloved's call while the guy watches them in fear and confusion.

Dottore using it as a way to comfort you though... 🥺 that is just so cute. Because sometimes it's too hard for you to verbalize all of your troubles and negative thoughts, and the words get stuck in your throat. Making it quite hard for the two of you to communicate with each other since you can't open yourself up like that. But now you can let out your feelings telepathically and your husband can know, and perhaps get a further reach into what your mind is like. The silence around you combined with Dottore's soothing voice is the perfect aid to make you feel better.

[that-needy-tboy]

HARRY VANDERSPEIGLE X (ALIEN) READER

Tags; really fucking long idk how much but this is a long fic, alien reader, gender neutral reader, kinda enemies to lovers -ish, probably a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes sorry

Living with humans is hard.

There were countless things I hadn’t considered when I took on this mission — like how everything feels just a little too heavy, or how the air, despite being breathable, tasted like damp leaves.

"I hate that getting to blend in means actually talking to humans." I groan, stepping out of my ship. Thankfully I could disguise my ship as a house so humans wouldn't think anything of it. Nobody's noticed the extra house on the road... yet.

---

"I think you’d be a great fit at the clinic," The nurse, who I think is named Asta, had told me. Her eyes were wide and she smiled. It made me smile. It was infectious. Though, I hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. "We could always use the help."

"Great, thank you," Speaking in their language was a bit of a chore. "When do I start?"

"You'll probably start tomorrow! You can come get used to everyone now though, if you'd like." This human is very pretty.

When she made me follow her around, I noticed something about one of them. The doctor, Harry Vanderspeigle. I could feel that he, too, was not from Earth. It was made obvious when he caught me staring for a little too long. Though, I played it off and kept going.

And so, I found myself working as a nurse at Patience’s health clinic — an unfortunate fate for me, but I'd have to deal with it. I’d healed with advanced technology this whole time, but here, I had to rely on rudimentary tools and basic knowledge. Not to mention the patients. They're so fragile. They always get sick with things that my people would never.

Still, I couldn’t help but find some sense of peace in the routine. Maybe it was the structure that I liked—the way human life was divided into neat little segments of time, schedules were always fun... Or maybe it was just that I was trying to distract myself from the one person who constantly invaded my space.

*I’d run into him a few times since the crash—Harry, the town doctor and fellow alien trying to blend in. He was just like me, though he was just really bad at acting human. It was obvious from the moment I saw him, even though I could recognize him from the energy signature.

The worst part was every time we crossed paths. Nothing was wrong, I just wanted him to leave me alone. He couldn’t stand my presence, and honestly, I didn’t care much for his either.

"You’re still here?" His voice cut through my thoughts one afternoon as I stood behind the clinic’s reception desk. Of course.

I glanced up to find him standing there, his usual deadpan expression glued to his face. It seemed like every time we saw each other, he had something smug to say. And it didn't help that he felt so high and mighty in his doctor's coat. He thought he was the smartest thing in the room all the time.

"What, did you think I’d leave the planet just to avoid you?" I shot back, rolling my eyes. Unfortunately, I couldn't even do that.

He frowned, almost like a scowl. Though, I could tell by the way his eyes flicked over me that he was still trying to figure me out. We both knew what we were. That's probably part of the reasons we butt heads. Our people were never friendly to each other.

Working at the clinic wasn’t exactly what I had planned when I arrived either, but it served a purpose. I’d gotten better at mimicking human behavior — smiling when expected, speaking in tones that humans found comforting. It was a lot of work, but it helped me blend in, and after all, that was the goal.

But there were times when my true self slipped through the cracks. Asta had caught me staring a little too long at a medical textbook once, flipping through the pages with confusion. Human anatomy was needlessly simple, and yet somehow, it functioned.

"You okay?" she had asked, probably noticing my frustration."

"Yeah," I’d replied, quickly shutting the book. "Just... learning."

As I said that, I could hear him laugh in the other room. Ugh... It was kind of funny though.

Learning, indeed. Learning to act human, to care about the patients who came in with their endless complaints about things like sore throats or headaches. Learning to care about people who, for all intents and purposes, were entirely idiotic. And, more than anything, learning to navigate whatever the hell was going on between Harry and I. Dear god, I needed to handle it.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized just how much he’d started to invade my thoughts. Hell, it'd been months that this had been happening for. We didn’t get along, that was clear. Every conversation was like a battle where neither of us wanted to give an inch. But there was something else — something I didn't quite recognize.

"You’re not as good at acting human as you think you are," he had said to me once, his voice sharp as though it were some sort of challenge. His tone was so easy to identify.

"If I'm not, then your acting skills are in the Earth's core." I retorted. and I could’ve sworn I saw something click — just for a second. Good. I hope I'm getting under his skin.

That was the thing about Harry. He was just as alien as I was. But, we kept butting heads either way Maybe it was because we were too alike. Either way, I hated his guts. And yet, I couldn't stay away.

Working at the clinic was easy enough, dealing with stupid humans all day every day wasn't exactly calming, though. It didn’t help that the other alien here was constantly pushing my buttons.

Harry. Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, or whatever he calls himself. He was annoying.

I can't help but hate his annoying voice, his stupid smile, his idiotic motherfucking hair. He's so stupid. He always thinks he's the smartest guy ever. He's so stupid.

I couldn't help but scowl at him through the window in the breakroom. I was, of course, stealing his yogurts. He didn't put his name on it, so obviously he wouldn't mind if I ate it. Heh.

He walked into the breakroom after I finished the yogurt. God, he was irritating.

"You’re late," he spoke up, barely looking up from the fridge. His voice was flat, as usual, with that odd hint of superiority he carried everywhere. He's really bad at this whole human thing.

I rolled my eyes. "And you’re still insufferable. Guess we’re both predictable."

He blinked, staring at me for a minute too long. Uncomfortable. His deadpan expression barely shifted, but there was something... Oh, nevermind.

"You know," he started after a pause, "humans tend to greet each other with something called ‘basic courtesy.’ You should try it, you little shit."

His existence near me was so painful, in an insufferable way. The way he smiled after thinking he's won the argument was so tiresome. He always did this, as if trying to provoke me, but I could never quite tell why. Probably because he knows I'm better. Heh.

"Right. Because you’re the expert on human interactions," I looked up at him through half-lidded eyes, furrowing my brow.

He didn’t respond, just gave me that blank, unreadable look he usually wore. It was infuriating.

... Then, Asta came through the door before we could say anything else. Her energy broke the tense silence like a gust of fresh air.

“Hey, you two,” she greeted, flashing one of her warm smiles as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder. "Me and D'arcy are grabbing drinks at The 59 tonight. You should both come."

Harry blinked, looking a bit confused. He glanced at me, then back at her. "No."

Asta raised an eyebrow, not missing a single beat. "Yeah, well, you're coming. And I could use a break, too. What do you say?"

Harry just went silent. Probably unable to fight Asta's commanding tone. I shrugged before he could reply. "Sure. Sounds like a good time." Now he was obligated. I bet he's annoyed as hell.

Asta’s smile widened, "No excuses!" She gave Harry a nudge on the shoulder before she headed out to start the day.

He just sighed. He seemed almost irritated. Good.

Later that night, the dim lights of the 59 flickered and hummed in a way that almost reminded me of the stars back home. People packed the bar, filling it with loud, buzzing conversations and bursts of laughter that grated against my nerves. Harry seemed to hate it, though. So, it was incredibly worth it.

Harry, of course, sat next to me, since Asta stuck us at a table with only 3 chairs. He stared at his glass like it was some kind of thing to study. For all his arrogance and blunt remarks, he was just... awkward. Weirdly, it was almost endearing.

"So," I began, taking a sip of my own drink. "Enjoying yourself yet?"

Harry looked up at me from his glass, his lips pressed into a thin line. "No. Idiot."

I couldn’t help but snicker. "Figures. Douchebag."

We continued like that, in yet another verbal battle, the alcohol making the environment feel almost... playful. At some point, Asta had wandered off to talk to D'arcy and Judy, leaving just the two of us at the table.

"That jacket..." Harry suddenly said, his voice close to a whisper. It was clear he was drunk out of his mind. "It’s..."

I blinked, trying to focus. "What about it?"

He shifted in his seat, his expression sporting a small smile. "It suits you."

For a second, I thought I'd misheard him. That had to be the first nice thing I’d ever heard from him; and coming from Harry? Well, it was weird, to say the least.

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow, leaning in a bit closer, resting my head on one of my hands. “Thanks. That’s... I don't know how to feel about that."

He looked away, probably regretting his remark, but I noticed the faintest flush in his cheeks. Cute.

Something about that moment felt all weird — the tension was... Different. It was charged, but not in a way that made me want to make him angry.

Before I could stop myself, I brought myself a little closer over the table. This whiskey was definitely allowing me to make rational decisions tonight. "What’s with you tonight? You’re... almost tolerable."

His eyes snapped back to mine, and for once, he didn’t have a snappy comeback. Instead, something about the look he gave me. It was almost captivating. That stupid, dumbass look he gave me. I could feel it in the air between us — the tension was definitely a different kind.

And then, before I knew it, my lips met his.

The kiss wasn’t planned, not thought out. It just... happened. His lips were cold, and for a second, I thought he’d pull away. Of course he would, right?

But he didn’t. He kissed me back, hesitantly at first, which is what made me think he'd pull away. But then I felt his hand on my arm. He was holding onto me for dear life. Pathetic — in a good way.

When it ended after what felt like an eternity but was likely just a few seconds, I had to catch my breath, my head spinning for reasons that had nothing to do with the alcohol this time. God, I needed to get the hell out of here — he's starting to look not as stupid.

He muttered something I couldn't quite hear, and I was too distracted to ask.

"Yeah," I started, forgetting what I was about to say. "I'm just going to leave." And with that, I headed back home.

---

The next morning I woke up on my couch... The memory of the kiss came crashing back with perfect clarity, unfortunately. I groaned, pressing a hand to my forehead. Of course, I remembered every second of it.

I sure hoped he didn't. If he does, this is going to be... *awkward*.

[house-of-mirrors]

I suppose this is the perfect time to introduce one of my favorite OCs: the IT guy that works for the Bazaar in modern era

The Dauntless Technician

Explains to Wines that even if you delete a drunk post, everyone still saw it and it exists forever. Pretends not to see the hundreds of files of porn when they tune up its PC (it is still in charge of the sex trade after all)

Explains to Spices that you can't delete other people's (Wines') posts but you can block them (Spices doesn't). Goes in and clandestinely blocks access to Wines' pages from Spices' browser to get 20 minutes of peace

Removes viruses from Pages' computer because it keeps clicking suspicious "love story" links. There's an infamous incident where Pages clicked an attachment and introduced ILOVEYOU to the Neath. Explains to Pages that you can't make people unblock you

Pages would probably have some claim over the social media trade. The Technician moonlights as a white hat hacker undermining Pages' censorship attempts

Works closely with Fires, considering Fires probably jumps on owning technology as it advances (electricity, invention are under its domain). Fires thinks the Technician is its best ally because the Technician stands there listening to it rant (as an IT person, they are blessed with godlike patience). The Technician couldn't care less.

Replaces Fires' hardware because it melted it for the third time this week after seeing ragebait posts or reading emails from Iron. Also has to deal with Fires demanding the Technician help it install the latest tech updates the moment they drop, even if the Technician can see they won't be good.

Stones is really into mining bitcoin. Our technician doesn't even try touching that

Helps Happles set up a huge PC setup so it has two separate devices/cameras to stream cooking videos as Mr Apples and more scandalous material as Mr Hearts

The technician's favorite master is Iron. It's never demanding, it quickly adjusts to learning how to use technology, and it never gets into trouble with its devices because it's too paranoid to open spam. Iron is happily rolling in a fortune on the metals used in producing computer chips (and intermittently biting Fires over negotiations)

Embattled in a personal, passionate rivalry with the ruthless and skilled "hacker" who tries attacking the Bazaar every seven weeks, DDOS attacks are themed around water imagery, ransomware demands flesh and reckoning (the Technician doesn't have patience for any of this melodrama). The hacker's screen name is allshallbewell.

The Technician sends out PSAs begging people to recognize this and other parabolan hackers' signatures in spam links, which due to the entwining of computing and parabola, can not only brick your device but have dangerous mental consequences

The Bazaar is a messenger so really would be like the source of wifi/central communications network of the Neath, wouldn't she? The Technician gains an intimate knowledge of her from working so closely into her systems. The Penstock of the seventh city.

If our Technician is revolutionary inclined: can they pull off the job of a lifetime? Push a software update through the Bazaar's network that makes her realize she doesn't have to do all this to impress someone who will never love her? Save the Seventh by writing a program that makes the Bazaar love herself?

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Rocks collected on Mars hold key to water and perhaps life on the planet. Bring them back to Earth.

Only Earth-based analysis of sediments gathered by rover can retrieve clues to Mars' water history

Over the course of nearly five months in 2022, NASA's Perseverance rover collected rock samples from Mars that could rewrite the history of water on the Red Planet and even contain evidence for past life on Mars.

But the information they contain can't be extracted without more detailed analysis on Earth, which requires a new mission to the planet to retrieve the samples and bring them back. Scientists hope to have the samples on Earth by 2033, though NASA's sample return mission may be delayed.

"These samples are the reason why our mission was flown," said paper co-author David Shuster, professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of NASA’s science team for sample collection. "This is exactly what everyone was hoping to accomplish. And we've accomplished it. These are what we went looking for."

The critical importance of these rocks, sampled from river deposits in a dried-up lake that once filled a crater called Jezero, is detailed in a study to be published Aug. 14 in AGU Advances, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

"These are the first and only sedimentary rocks that have been studied and collected from a planet other than Earth," said paper co-author David Shuster, professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of NASA’s science team for sample collection. "Sedimentary rocks are important because they were transported by water, deposited into a standing body of water and subsequently modified by chemistry that involved liquid water on the surface of Mars at some point in the past. The whole reason that we came to Jezero was to study this sort of rock type. These are absolutely fantastic samples for the overarching objectives of the mission."

Shuster is co-author of the paper with first author Tanja Bosak, a geobiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.

"These rock cores are likely the oldest materials sampled from any known environment that may have supported life," Bosak said. "When we bring them back to Earth, they can tell us so much about when, why and for how long Mars contained liquid water, and whether some organic, prebiotic and potentially even biological evolution may have taken place on that planet."

Significantly, some of the samples contain very fine-grained sediments that are the most likely type of rock to retain evidence of past microbial life on Mars — if there ever was or is life on the planet.

"Liquid water is a key element in all of this because it is the key ingredient for biological activity, as far as we understand it," said Shuster, a geochemist. "Fine-grained sedimentary rocks on Earth are those that are most likely to preserve signatures of past biological activity, including organic molecules. That's why these samples are so important."

NASA announced on July 25 that Perseverance had collected new rock samples from an outcrop named Cheyava Falls that also might contain signs of past life on Mars. The rover's scientific instruments detected evidence of organic molecules, while "leopard spot" inclusions in the rocks are similar to features that on Earth are often associated with fossilized microbial life.

In a statement, Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist at Caltech, said, “Scientifically, Perseverance has nothing more to give. To fully understand what really happened in that Martian river valley at Jezero crater billions of years ago, we’d want to bring the Cheyava Falls sample back to Earth, so it can be studied with the powerful instruments available in laboratories.”

Sediments hold the answers

Shuster noted that Jezero and the fan of sediments left behind by the river that once flowed into it likely formed 3.5 billion years ago. That abundant water is now gone, either trapped underground or lost to space. But Mars was wet at a time when life on Earth — in the form of microbes — was already everywhere.

"Life was doing its thing on Earth at that point in time, 3.5 billion years ago," he said. "The basic question is: Was life also doing its thing on Mars at that point in time?"

"Anywhere on Earth over the last 3.5 billion years, if you give me the scenario of a river flowing into a crater transporting materials to a standing body of water, biology would have taken hold there and left its mark, in one way or another," Shuster said. "And in the fine-grained sediment, specifically, we would have a very good chance of recording that biology in the laboratory observations that we can make on that material on Earth."

Shuster and Bosak acknowledge that the organic analysis equipment aboard the rover did not detect organic molecules in the four samples from the sedimentary fan. Organic molecules are used and produced by the type of life we're familiar with on Earth, though their presence is not unequivocal evidence of life.

"We did not clearly observe organic compounds in these key samples," Shuster said. "But just because that instrument did not detect organic compounds does not mean that they are not in these samples. It just means they weren't at a concentration detectable by the rover instrumentation in those particular rocks."

To date, Perseverance has collected a total of 25 samples, including duplicates and atmospheric samples, plus three "witness tubes" that capture possible contaminants around the rover. Eight duplicate rock samples plus an atmospheric sample and witness tube were deposited in the so-called Three Forks cache on the surface of Jezero as a backup in case the rover suffers problems and the onboard samples can't be retrieved. The other 15 samples — including the Cheyava Falls sample collected July 21 — remain aboard the rover awaiting recovery.

Shuster was part of a team that analyzed the first eight rock samples collected, two from each site on the crater floor, all of which were igneous rocks likely created when a meteor impact smashed into the surface and excavated the crater. Those results were reported in a 2023 paper, based on analyses by the instruments aboard Perseverance.

The new paper is an analysis of seven more samples, three of them duplicates now cached on Mars' surface, collected between July 7 and November 29 of 2022 from the front of the western sediment fan in Jezero. Bosak, Shuster and their colleagues found the rocks to be composed mostly of sandstone and mudstone, all created by fluvial processes.

"Perseverance encountered aqueously deposited sedimentary rocks at the front, top and margin of the western Jezero fan and collected a sample suite composed of eight carbonate-bearing sandstones, a sulfate-rich mudstone, a sulfate-rich sandstone, a sand-pebble conglomerate," Bosak said. "The rocks collected at the fan front are the oldest, whereas the rocks collected at the fan top are likely the youngest rocks produced during aqueous activity and sediment deposition in the western fan."

While Bosak is most interested in possible biosignatures in the fine-grained sediments, the coarse-grained sediments also contain key information about water on Mars, Shuster said. Though less likely to preserve organic matter or potential biological materials, they contain carbonate materials and detritus washed from upstream by the now-vanished river. They thus could help determine when water actually flowed on Mars, the main emphasis of Shuster's own research.

"With lab analysis of those detrital minerals, we could make quantitative statements about when the sediments were deposited and the chemistry of that water. What was the pH (acidity) of that water when those secondary phases precipitated? At what point in time was that chemical alteration taking place?" he said. "We have this combination of samples now in the sample suite that are going to enable us to understand the environmental conditions when the liquid water was flowing into the crater. When was that liquid water flowing into the crater? Was it intermittent?"

Answers to these questions rely upon analyses of the returned materials in terrestrial laboratories to uncover the organic, isotopic, chemical, morphological, geochronological and paleomagnetic information they record, the researchers emphasized.

"One of the most important planetary science objectives is to bring these samples back," Shuster said.

TOP IMAGE: Red hexagons mark the four sites where the Perseverance rover collected rock samples around the sediment fan in Jezero crater in 2022. Credit NASA

LOWER IMAGE: NASA’s Perseverance rover puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater. Composed of multiple images, this mosaic shows layered sedimentary rocks in the face of a cliff in the delta, as well as one of the locations where the rover abraded a circular patch to analyze a rock’s composition. Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Preventing counterfeiting by adding dye to liquid crystals to create uncrackable coded tags

A research group led by Nagoya University has developed an innovative approach to creating anti-counterfeiting labels for high-value goods. Their findings, published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, enhance the security of the currently used cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) by adding fluorescent dyes to produce fluorescent CLCs (FCLCs). Using this unique technology, the group created unique labels with almost impossible-to-counterfeit security features. These advanced labels are designed to protect valuable items, important documents, and sensitive products by generating distinctive visual patterns that are difficult to replicate without specialized tools and knowledge. To create these specialized tags, scientists mix fluorescent dyes with CLCs, causing the helical structure of the crystals to twist either to the left or right—a property known as chirality. This twisting determines how the crystals reflect light, producing a specific "light signature." The precise control over this twisting and the resulting light patterns makes these labels almost impossible to counterfeit.

Read more.

[molagboop]

The Mawkin believe in learning by doing, which is why they have little rooms with which to bestow upgrades upon fledgling warriors. Some of the morph ball paths Samus goes through in Dread are defunct + repurposed maintenance chutes, and a few locations (particularly in Ghavoran and Artaria) were set up with the express purpose of serving as testing grounds. The statue rooms are pilgrimage sites whose stone guardians serve as an emissary of the ancestors, bestowing the gifts their people and the Chozo collectively have long developed unto promising warriors.

The process of earning an arm cannon is a whole thing in and of itself: special firearms training is required for certification if a warrior intends on using it in any official military capacity or seeks an upgrade. The power suit as a whole requires its own post because there's a whole culture around it: today I'll just talk about how youngsters earn their first set of basic upgrades.

Let's set the scene. You're a freshly minted warrior between 10 and 30 years of age: you sit on the character spectrum between a kid who wants to make this power suit the focus of your education and someone who has just decided they want to get serious about the whole power suit thing. Maybe it's a cultural curiosity for you: maybe you want to do it for the sake of tradition, maybe you want to put yourself through this to build character. Perhaps you're just seeking a new experience, or looking to supplement your actual area of study with something different. Some warriors, especially those whose family tree includes storied wielders or scientists who developed advancements in power suit technology, are heavily encouraged by their families to take on their own power suit. If you're heading into the military, you're going to be put through a similar series of tests anyways: you might as well get ahead of the game.

So you've passed the knowledge tests on theology, the technology surrounding the suits, and the history of the technology's advancement. The first and third of these are not strictly a prerequisite for the bestowal of a suit: your uncle snagged their suit first and dove head-first into the philosophy and history once they had a grip on how to work it. You wear the suit for two hours a day to start, familiarizing yourself with the mind-to-matter components and getting a feel for your new bio-metallic exoskeleton.

The suit's basic functions are useful, but you want a little more. You go in for your bi-weekly check-in with the team of suit architects and physicians who eased you into the tech, and you get a tip about an old research outpost by the geothermal processing plant in Artaria. It'll take a bit of effort (hope you've figured out how to land on your feet comfortably from a high distance), but it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to reach.

By this point, more people were working their jobs in and around what we people of real life would designate an "EMMI Zone". Artaria's EMMi Zone was originally a hub for power and environmental control infrastructure overseen by a pair of biological computers. The robots take care of the place, but the touch of a living soul was still tantamount: you'd pass technicians keeping tabs on heating and cooling systems, sanitation agents, civilian personnel and the odd researcher working a project down here in the sticks.

After a fair stroll and perhaps a bit of jumping, you'd find yourself in a compact, contemplative, temperature-controlled room with none but a statue for company. It's eerily quiet, bit the statue looks friendly: it's obviously offering you a gift. Shoot the casing off your present, which is emitting an energy signature your suit bristles almost eagerly at upon approach, and you've found yourself the grapple beam.

The trial doesn't lie in simply acquiring to the beam: it's getting out of the hole the technicians who invented the damn thing put it in. The spider magnet is a standard-issue upgrade that most people acquire through basic testing rather than a statue trial, so grabbing the magnetized walls isn't an issue. Your job is to get a grip on your new toy: figure out how it works so you can get out of the hole.

Most of the "fun" upgrades are locked behind minor tests like this which everyone with a suit has some knowledge of. For some upgrades, warriors are told outright where they are after a certain point in their education. Others are just sitting in the wilderness waiting for the enterprising individual to seek them out. You are guaranteed to collect them all if you fully immerse yourself in the study of the history of power suit development. Upgrade locations are extensively documented: you just have to either find them or be granted access by some means. Some upgrades were designed to be taken freely by whoever's clever enough to find them, but your basic education in suit tech is enough to nab you all the important stuff. In fact, warriors are routinely assigned an upgrade trial to complete by their technicians or professors as part of their education.

Not every upgrade is locked behind a scavenger hunt or a unit test: others require specialized training to receive, and some are granted out of necessity for one's chosen career path. An engineer with a power suit who specializes in underwater infrastructure requires the gravity suit. The varia installation is standard for those working in high-temperature environments.

The reason people aren't granted everything right off the bat has to do with the way the suit and flesh interact: you don't want to overwhelm a new powersuit user with a bunch of new powers while they're just getting accustomed to the way the suit interfaces with their central nervous system. If you botch suit-flesh-mind integration, you can seriously injured the receiving party. Samus has been wearing her suit for decades at this point: she doesn't need to be eased into earning new toys. Having everything snatched away from her on a dime is physically taxing in a uniquely awful way, but she's a seasoned warrior: she can adjust to traumatic change on the fly.

[mariacallous]

Some Fortune 500 companies have begun testing software that can spot a deepfake of a real person in a live video call, following a spate of scams involving fraudulent job seekers who take a signing bonus and run.

The detection technology comes courtesy of GetReal Labs, a new company founded by Hany Farid, a UC-Berkeley professor and renowned authority on deepfakes and image and video manipulation.

GetReal Labs has developed a suite of tools for spotting images, audio, and video that are generated or manipulated either with artificial intelligence or manual methods. The company’s software can analyze the face in a video call and spot clues that may indicate it has been artificially generated and swapped onto the body of a real person.

“These aren’t hypothetical attacks, we’ve been hearing about it more and more,” Farid says. “In some cases, it seems they're trying to get intellectual property, infiltrating the company. In other cases, it seems purely financial, they just take the signing bonus.”

The FBI issued a warning in 2022 about deepfake job hunters who assume a real person’s identity during video calls. UK-based design and engineering firm Arup lost $25 million to a deepfake scammer posing as the company’s CFO. Romance scammers have also adopted the technology, swindling unsuspecting victims out of their savings.

Impersonating a real person on a live video feed is just one example of the kind of reality-melting trickery now possible thanks to AI. Large language models can convincingly mimic a real person in online chat, while short videos can be generated by tools like OpenAI’s Sora. Impressive AI advances in recent years have made deepfakery more convincing and more accessible. Free software makes it easy to hone deepfakery skills, and easily accessible AI tools can turn text prompts into realistic-looking photographs and videos.

But impersonating a person in a live video is a relatively new frontier. Creating this type of a deepfake typically involves using a mix of machine learning and face-tracking algorithms to seamlessly stitch a fake face onto a real one, allowing an interloper to control what an illicit likeness appears to say and do on screen.

Farid gave WIRED a demo of GetReal Labs’ technology. When shown a photograph of a corporate boardroom, the software analyzes the metadata associated with the image for signs that it has been modified. Several major AI companies including OpenAI, Google, and Meta now add digital signatures to AI-generated images, providing a solid way to confirm their inauthenticity. However, not all tools provide such stamps, and open source image generators can be configured not to. Metadata can also be easily manipulated.

GetReal Labs also uses several AI models, trained to distinguish between real and fake images and video, to flag likely forgeries. Other tools, a mix of AI and traditional forensics, help a user scrutinize an image for visual and physical discrepancies, for example highlighting shadows that point in different directions despite having the same light source, or that do not appear to match the object that cast them.

Lines drawn on different objects shown in perspective will also reveal if they converge on a common vanishing point, as would be the case in a real image.

Other startups that promise to flag deepfakes rely heavily on AI, but Farid says manual forensic analysis will also be crucial to flagging media manipulation. “Anybody who tells you that the solution to this problem is to just train an AI model is either a fool or a liar,” he says.

The need for a reality check extends beyond Fortune 500 firms. Deepfakes and manipulated media are already a major problem in the world of politics, an area Farid hopes his company’s technology could do real good. The WIRED Elections Project is tracking deepfakes used to boost or trash political candidates in elections in India, Indonesia, South Africa, and elsewhere. In the United States, a fake Joe Biden robocall was deployed last January in an effort to dissuade people from turning out to vote in the New Hampshire Presidential primary. Election-related “cheapfake” videos, edited in misleading ways, have gone viral of late, while a Russian disinformation unit has promoted an AI-manipulated clip disparaging Joe Biden.

Vincent Conitzer, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and coauthor of the book Moral AI, expects AI fakery to become more pervasive and more pernicious. That means, he says, there will be growing demand for tools designed to counter them.

“It is an arms race,” Conitzer says. “Even if you have something that right now is very effective at catching deepfakes, there's no guarantee that it will be effective at catching the next generation. A successful detector might even be used to train the next generation of deepfakes to evade that detector.”

GetReal Labs agrees it will be a constant battle to keep up with deepfakery. Ted Schlein, a cofounder of GetReal Labs and a veteran of the computer security industry, says it may not be long before everyone is confronted with some form of deepfake deception, as cybercrooks become more conversant with the technology and dream up ingenious new scams. He adds that manipulated media is a top topic of concern for many chief security officers. “Disinformation is the new malware,” Schlein says.

With significant potential to poison political discourse, Farid notes that media manipulation can be considered a more challenging problem. “I can reset my computer or buy a new one,” he says. “But the poisoning of the human mind is an existential threat to our democracy.”