#tunnel surveyor

[googlyeyesonmagiccards]

But I barely know 'er!

[almostlookedhuman]

[githvyrik]

started annihilation (book) and the biologist is the most annoying kind of asshole nerd it’s soooo funny

[judgeitbyitscover]

Southern Reach series (10th Anniversary Editions) by Jeff VanderMeer

Cover art by Pablo Delcan

MacMillan, 2014-2024

Annihilation (2014)

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything

Authority (2014)

After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X—a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization—has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.

John Rodríguez (aka "Control") is the Southern Reach's newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area X. But with each discovery he must confront disturbing truths about himself and the agency he's pledged to serve.

In Authority, the second volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, Area X's most disturbing questions are answered . . . but the answers are far from reassuring.

Acceptance (2014)

It is winter in Area X, the mysterious wilderness that has defied explanation for thirty years, rebuffing expedition after expedition, refusing to reveal its secrets. As Area X expands, the agency tasked with investigating and overseeing it—the Southern Reach—has collapsed on itself in confusion. Now one last, desperate team crosses the border, determined to reach a remote island that may hold the answers they've been seeking. If they fail, the outer world is in peril.

Meanwhile, Acceptance tunnels ever deeper into the circumstances surrounding the creation of Area X—what initiated this unnatural upheaval? Among the many who have tried, who has gotten close to understanding Area X—and who may have been corrupted by it?

In this last installment of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may be solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound—or terrifying.

Absolution (2024)

When the Southern Reach Trilogy was first published a decade ago, it was an instant sensation, celebrated in a front-page New York Times story before publication, hailed by Stephen King and many others. Each volume climbed the bestsellers list; awards were won; the books made the rare transition from paperback original to hardcover; the movie adaptation became a cult classic. All told, the trilogy has sold more than a million copies and has secured its place in the pantheon of twenty-first-century literature.

And yet for all this, for Jeff VanderMeer there was never full closure to the story of Area X. There were a few mysteries that had gone unsolved, some key points of view never aired. There were stories left to tell. There remained questions about who had been complicit in creating the conditions for Area X to take hold; the story of the first mission into the Forgotten Coast—before Area X was called Area X—had never been fully told; and what if someone had foreseen the world after Acceptance? How crazy would they seem?

Structured in three parts, each recounting a new expedition, there are some long-awaited answers here, to be sure, but also more questions, and profound new surprises. Absolution is a brilliant, beautiful, and ever-terrifying plunge into unique and fertile literary territory. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time

[mynamesaplant]

Comfort for Weirdos

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Dawn gets a new babysitter and she is not a fan.

Another PLA Mer AU! This one's been sitting in my Works in Progress for a little while, so I'm just posting it to be done with it. Thanks to Monsoon-of-Art for all the inspiration!

Don't like reading on Tumblr? Read it here on AO3.

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Dawn occupied herself while Ingo was engaged in quiet conversation with Palina, staying tucked behind Ingo’s fin and puffing out warm air only for it to turn into little clouds and drift away. Palina was nice, if a tiny bit overbearing. She was always so concerned about what she was eating. Dawn always made sure she had a belly full of something from Jubilife before she set out on her journeys.

Although Ingo had her tied up in discussion, Dawn felt the mer’s gaze on her – silently fretting about what she could possibly be eating when Ingo was notoriously picky and bad atrocious at hunting. The surveyor pretended not to notice Ingo shifting his weight slightly to glance down at her, trying to be absorbed in a new task (grooming her snowy tail) while the adults spoke in muffled tones overhead. She was obviously the topic of conversation, and she was relieved when Ingo told Palina he would join her in less than an hour, shepherding Dawn away.

“Bye, Dawn!”

Palina called after her, waving before they rounded the corner and Dawn waving back with a sheepish smile on her face. She really did like Palina… Now if only the warden tried giving her something cooked.

“Where are we headed today?”

Dawn asked, wriggling across the ice and finding it frustrating that she was so slow. Her claws were so blunt and useless in these ice caverns. Ingo didn’t immediately reply, nudging her towards a hole to the underwater entrance to the main settlement.

This cavern was just one of the many. Little hidey holes for seclusion and storage. The cavern they were leaving was dedicated to food stores which desperately needed replenishment, but Dawn was hoping that she was finally going to see where Ingo spent his time when in the settlement before they headed out to “hunt.”

Ingo’s version of hunting was setting up clever traps. Ingo was big and Ingo could be fast, but he just did not have the natural knack for hunting that she had seen any of the other mers display. Even the young wardens like Lian and Sabi had the skills for catching small fish.

All the clan members utilized traps in some way, but Ingo was the only one who seemed to have trouble actively hunting. On one of the few occasions that she had seen Gaeric and Calaba interacting, they both readily agreed that Ingo probably had issues because he was used to hunting in a pod, just like regular orcas, so hunting solo was harder for him to grasp.

“I must make a small detour before departure with Palina.”

Dawn was a little too excited by the prospect of seeing somewhere new to realize Ingo’s choice of words. He told her to take a deep breath, guided her through the tight tunnels with a hand on her back, nudging her forward. She trusted him completely to get her safely to their next destination, despite her poor vision and swimming ability, he always took it upon himself to keep her safe.

She had asked him the first time he brought her to the settlement about barely seeming to fit in the tunnels and he blushed, tugging the brim of his cap low and sinking into the collar of his jacket. He had mumbled something about them not being designed to his specifications, before diverting her attention, but it slowly dawned on her why the more and more she got to interact with the other clan members.

Although Ingo had never outright stated that he wasn’t originally from Pearl Clan, it was obvious that many of his idiosyncrasies made his relationship with the clan quite strained. His odd eating habits. His withdrawn behavior. His out-of-place dark clothes. Ingo was no outcast, but he did stick out like a sore thumb, just like she did.

Maybe that’s why they got along so well. Pearl clan’s bewildered acceptance of “Ingo’s pup” was proof enough to the girl that they trusted him implicitly, even if they wound their warden a little peculiar.

“Almost there.”

Ingo assured her, nudging her ahead as he wiggled through a particularly narrow passage, before arriving to their destination – which seemed familiar to Dawn, although she didn’t immediately know why. She clambered out of the water, Ingo pulling himself up and taking up most of the space, unable to climb out with so little space. The surveyor swiveled her head around the space, they must have been pretty deep considering how dense the ice looked down here, although there were a lot of tunnels off this…

“Hey, wait a second…”

Now she remembered where she was and scrambling back toward Ingo when he scooped her up. He looked sheepish but still maneuvered her over to the hole she had fallen down once before. She wrapped her arms around Ingo’s hand, holding on for dear life as he apologized.

“You cannot join me on this adventure, Miss Dawn. Those tracks are too dangerous for an additional car.”

“I’ll stay in the forest! I promise! Please, don’t send me down there.”

He looked mournful at her for a moment, ears drooping at the fearful tint to her voice, but carefully started to pry her fingers loose.

“He’s expecting you.” “He’s going to bite my head off!”

Ingo frowned, pausing, which only gave her more time to sink her short, blunt claws into skin. He thought that she might be a little more forgiving after their last encounter with the story about Gaeric. The other warden had a gruff exterior, but he was a good man, and on occasion a good friend. Ingo knew how all of Pearl clan felt about Dawn, mostly confused and very concerned, but they did what they always did and protected a pup. To the clan, she was a pup, and that meant she had to join the rest of the pups with their designated guardian. Today, it was Gaeric’s job.

Ingo’s hope was this time around that, with other pups around, Dawn would see another side to Gaeric and warm up to him some, and the warden in return would warm up to her. He did not realize just how frightened Dawn still was of him – even with the buffer of other interactions, albeit with other clan members within proximity, she seemed to find any one-on-one time without Ingo’s presence to be very distressing.

“Gaeric doesn’t hurt pups. He will not hurt you. Please, even if you do not trust Gaeric, trust me.”

He knew from the word go this wasn’t going to go well, but he still pried Dawn loose and sent her down the chute, nails screeching for the entire descent.

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This time down the chute was a lot shorter than the first time. Dawn was cursing and trying to get on the slick ice to stop herself because she did not want to go down there. She could bear to be around Gaeric when other adults were around, but the sense of dread and anxiety she felt from being remotely alone with him made her stomach churn uncomfortably.

The incline grew steeper, and she was in Gaeric’s lair, sliding across the ice on her front until she knocked into the warden’s flank. This time, he was awake.

“About time.”

He grumbled and reached down, whether to pick her up or just touch her in general, Dawn was not interested. To her own surprise, she hissed and managed to coordinate her limbs well enough to send her skittering back along the ice. Not that she got far. With a twitch of his tail, she was sailing back in his general direction, this time greeted by a few familiar faces.

“Sabi?”

Dawn said, Gaeric releasing an exasperated sigh when the young Diamond clan warden waved and clambered over to her, Lian not too far behind her. Both looked extremely excited to see her.

“We were worried that Ingo forgot.”

Lian had taken her hand and was trying to pull Dawn back over toward the bigger mer, but she resisted. She was a little surprised how strong Lian was, but she was quick to distract him with a question.

“Why are you guys down here? Why are you down here Sabi?”

“Oh, Mr. Gaeric and I play a lot. He doesn’t know how to get rid of me.”

Beyond them, Gaeric rolled over onto his back and snorted derisively, he clearly had other thoughts on the matter and chose not to voice them. Lian answered her first question while he still tried to pull on her arm.

“It’s Gaeric’s turn to watch us. Gaeric’s the best! He usually lets us do whatever we want until we get tired.”

Dawn couldn’t help but notice the man in question puff up with pride at Lian’s words. With a quick yank, she freed herself and was looking over at Gaeric with slit eyes. She didn’t trust him further than she could throw him. She wanted to get out of here ASAP… The problem was that she didn’t know this place well enough.

Sure, there were a lot of little tunnels, but they were probably like the chute she had come down which made them too icy and steep to climb or just lead to nowhere. The only surefire way she knew out of here was the large hole in the floor that was filled with sea water, the issue there was that Dawn was a miserable swimmer and, knowing how deep they were, she wasn’t going to have enough air to navigate the underwater passages in pitch blackness and make it out into the open water.

She needed a reasonable way of getting out of here. She could do it while Gaeric was dozing, but she would need help from Lian and Sabi – neither of whom seemed keen to let her go. They wanted to play. They loved to play with her, and she loved to play with them, just not here. Gaeric made her way too anxious to want to do anything but leave immediately. Lian was still talking, chattering up a storm about some game they could play, but Sabi was watching her expression closely, noticing the surveyor had no interest in games.

“Hey, I have an idea for a game.”

Dawn said, keeping her voice lowered and clapping her hands together. Lian perked up and Sabi tilted her head, a hint of mischief in her sea green eyes that wouldn’t have been noticed unless you knew to look for it. Gaeric would have recognized it.

“You guys are really good at swimming, but who do you think is better at climbing?”

“Me, I have more limbs.”

Sabi replied matter-of-factly, already getting wind of Dawn’s “game”, and finding it extremely amusing. It was fun to annoy Gaeric and this would annoy him to no end. He didn’t mind playfighting or even pups clambering all over him, but he did not tolerate escape attempts. Sabi knew this would be fruitless, but it would still be funny to watch how events unfolded.

“Yeah, you’re right, Sabi. You must be faster than me or Lian.”

Lian puffed up indignantly at the quick acceptance on Dawn’s part, clacking his claws on the ice with a distinctive tink-tink-tink.

“No way! I have claws.”

He was quite aware that his claws were not long, but he had his whole life to get used to the ice and snowscape surrounding him. Sabi was still new to his home territory and often got assistance from Lord Braviary to get from place to place, he was positive that he could beat Sabi in a climbing competition and impress Dawn.

“You think so?”

Dawn asked, raising an eyebrow, and glancing skeptically at the sharp slopes that lead into Gaeric’s lair, some exposed in parts and others not. She was trying to be smart about this. It would probably be better to pick a chute that wasn’t exposed so Gaeric couldn’t stop her once her little competition was under way. A suitable one was the one she had fallen down, but that had also been a long way up…

“Well, let’s give it a try. It’ll be a like a race, so we should pick a shorter tunnel to climb up.”

“Oh, I know the perfect one.”

Dawn could tell that Sabi was indulging in her little game. The small mer was a little strange like that, but the surveyor was not going to question it. She gestured for them to follow and took them to the base of larger tunnel that Dawn could see the top of faintly and didn’t look too steep compared to the other chutes. Perfect.

“This’ll be easy.”

Lian proclaimed confidently, adjusting his hat on his head and cracking his knuckles just to emphasis his point. He had actually pulled his hat a little lower to cover up the light sweat accumulating on his brow.

He already knew that Sabi had quite the advantage over him better multiple limbs and how well she was able to coordinate them. Lian took a deep breath, taking a quick peek at the tunnel and flexing his hands, preparing for the climb. He wasn’t going to let the Diamond clan warden intimidate him. He was going to prove Pearl clan’s superiority and win over Dawn’s favor in one fell swoop.

Sabi was also looking at the tunnel, wondering if her limbs would even be long enough to reach the other side, but she wasn’t in this for the competition. She was mostly wondering how Dawn, with her blunt nails, was going to finagle her way up there without directly asking for their help and without alerting Gaeric.

The large warden appeared to be sleeping not too far away, but she was certain that he was moving incrementally, aware of Dawn’s half-baked plot, and only pretending to sleep to see how and when he would need to intervene.

Dawn’s plan was a little convoluted. She knew she couldn’t climb up the chute, so she would see who the better climber was and then try to convince them that sliding down the chute like a slide would be fun. They could make a new game out of it to see who could go further.

Once Lian and Sabi had helped her up and had slid away, she would make her escape.

“Okay, who wants to go first?”

Dawn barely got the words out when Lian took off his hat to let it drape across his back and got onto his belly. He pushed himself back aways and narrowed his eyes, attempting to determine his trajectory with his tongue caught between his teeth in thought.

His claws dug into the ice and, in a flash, rocketed forward on the slick ice. His aim was perfect, Sabi and Dawn jumping forward to watch his progress as he maybe got halfway up the chute on momentum alone. The boy let out a little growl and crunched into the side walls, clinging there and dangling for a moment, before he began to work his way up.

His tail flopped and the sound of heavy breathing filled the space, little droplets of sweat showered on them like rain, but he made it to the top and peered back down with a toothy grin.

The Diamond warden seemed to be lost in thought, running a gloved hand over the ice and the palm came away damp. She frowned, casting a surreptitious glance to her limbs while Dawn called up her congratulations. Lian was always going to go first, he had more to prove, and thought he had a slight advantage over Sabi because he was used to the terrain – which was undoubtedly true, but Sabi was used to ice and snow now.

Sabi already knew what Dawn hoped to gain from this so-called game, she wanted them to assist her to get to the top of the tunnel because she knew she wouldn’t be able to do it herself. Lian would be quick to step up and help her as the winner of the race, Sabi’s suckers wouldn’t be able to get the proper suction needed on the slick walls. Nevertheless, she attempted it anyway, encountering the exact problem she foresaw, but still managing to get to the top to look down at Dawn who was beaming up at them.

“Lian won! Sabi had a disadvantage going second… Man, it’ll be fun to slide down those. It was fun the first time.” “Weren’t you screaming the whole way down?”

Sabi called down and Dawn’s features broadened into a forced smile. It actually sort of hurt. She was hoping that hadn’t been noticed, but apparently loud screaming wasn’t subtle. She didn’t want to upset either of them, so she didn’t say anything, but she did double down on her suggestion of sliding down and how fun that could be.

Lian’s tail thumping against the ice overhead, his eyes lighting up and ears perking with excitement, he would take any opportunity to play more with Dawn. She was very fun. Sabi could be fun too, but she could also be a stick in the mud because she knew the outcome of all their games. If she wanted to slide, Lian would slide with her. Heck, he would even help her up.

He joined her at the bottom of the chute, frowning at her blunt claws and wondering how on earth she survived on her own being so small and having no real way of defending herself. Dawn wasn’t much bigger than him, but he had had his own troubles getting up to the top. Luckily, Lian didn’t have to think too hard about the logistics, because, as he tried to nudge Dawn in front of him to give her a boost, she was grabbed by her tail and dragged backward.

The motion was not as delicate as it should have been, but Gaeric was a little aggravated. Ingo’s pup was trying to rope the others into an escape attempt. Although his irritation was mostly extended to Dawn, he reserved a little of it too for Lian and more of it for Sabi. Lian should have known better and Sabi would have been the cause for the problem had Dawn not been there. He held back a low warning growl as he dangled Dawn before him, his face turning stern while she wriggled and writhed.

“Nice try, pipsqueak. Find something else to do with them.”

He set her down a lot more gently than she was picked up, instinctively grabbing her tail to rub where his fingers had applied pressure. Another small, defiant hiss escaped her, which made the warden roll his eyes impatiently, but he laid back down, watching her and the two young wardens through narrowed eyes.

Gaeric didn’t know how to feel about Ingo’s pup. She was just a little too peculiar. She was like Ingo in that way, which was why Ingo probably felt so strongly about protecting and guiding her, but Gaeric couldn’t get over the little warning bells in his mind. His gut told him that she was a threat. A little stunted, malnourished pup… What in Sinnoh’s name was wrong with him?

Dawn remained still until his eyes closed before rejoined Sabi and Lian, both of whom looked a little dejected that their fun had been interrupted. She was brewing a new plot in her mind, but all the possibilities were coming up short. There were very few avenues for escape. The tunnels being one. The hole in the ice that Gaeric used to get in and out of his lair seemed looming and dangerous, but it was the only other glaring possibility.

Swallowing thickly, Dawn pushed some panic back down below her ribcage where it sat heavy and churning in her stomach. She really wanted to get out of there. Ingo told her to trust Gaeric – she couldn’t do it. Their first interaction was just plain bad, she was utterly convinced that he would just snatch her and gobble her up. It had actually brought her to tears with how frightening it had been. It also seemed like Gaeric just didn’t trust her, not an ounce, when she had given him no real reason not to trust her.

Sabi and Lian watched her cast her eyes over to the hole, the cold, dark water beckoning to her. Sabi, not one to squelch an opportunity to swim, caught up to Dawn, even when Lian called after them that maybe they should pick something else to do. They could play tag or make some snowballs to toss around in a game of keep away. Neither of them seemed to be listening to him, so he hesitantly trailed after them.

The surveyor stared into the water, murky and emanating a freezing chill even without touching it. It was not remotely inviting, but Dawn’s distrust of Gaeric and Ingo’s betrayal at leaving her there with him like she was some useless, flopping baby was making her just want to go back to land and mope until she was scheduled to return to the village. Over her shoulder, Lian was cautioning her, trying to dissuade her from entering the water. It was a bad idea.

“We could play some other game.”

Lian suggested weakly, staring daggers at Sabi who blinked back at him. He gestured to Dawn’s back wildly, eyes huge and a small snarl curling his lips, the Diamond warden tipped her head and her horizontal pupils darting over to Dawn. She knew the outcome of this too. It would be hard to sway Dawn from her path but that could be a game in and of itself. It would save everyone a lot of trouble if she intervened, so she did.

“I think we should play a bit of hide and seek in some of the tunnels. Remember when you and some of others found some tunnels that lead to different caves?”

Lian’s face pinched like he was really debating on whether he wanted to tackle Sabi for bringing it up, but it had the benefit of immediately getting Dawn’s attention and her dark eyes were gleaming with interest.

“Tunnels? Caves? That sounds like so much fun! You found them Lian?”

Lian’s eyes grew even wider as she leapt forward, a dazzling smile on her face. He felt his cheeks grow a little warm, rubbing his chin in thought even as his ears and tail gave him away, the former being perked up, almost wiggling with the attention, and the latter slapping lightly against the ice.

“Well, I can’t take all the credit…”

If he was trying to sound modest, he wasn’t doing a very good job, but neither Dawn nor Sabi said anything. The smaller mers took Dawn by the hand and dragged her over to some of the smaller tunnels, all of them were just small enough to fit, which was claustrophobic, but perfect for evading Gaeric. The tunnel wasn’t particularly long, shimmying along far too slowly behind the more cautious Lian and Sabi crowding behind her.

“Are there more tunnels in these other caves? “A few but we didn’t get to explore a lot of them.” “Why not?”

Lian made to the cavern, pausing to check the ice, and already spotting an obvious problem. Dawn squirmed past him, trying to get a better look and to get some space, but Lian grabbed her arm and held her back, the ice beneath her groaning in protest.

The cavern was big and almost looked as though it was formed by bubbles, the ceiling was made up of half circles that caught what little light filtered in and refracted it around the space. That light was emanating from the floor, a soft orange glow. The cavern would have been quite dark without these odd features and Dawn squinted into the gloom as Lian pointed towards the center.

“That’s why.”

He replied, nodding toward the ground. Dawn squinted.

“I don’t… What am I supposed to be looking at?”

Lian looked at her with a level of disbelief that made Dawn cringe. How anyone fell for her and Ingo’s web of lies about her origin she did not know.

“The ice is thin. See the puddles? It’s like this every so often. We think there are heat vents or something below the ice-” “I think its magma. I don’t think heat vents glow.”

Sabi interjected, Lian closing his eyes to prevent anyone from seeing them roll in his skull. Lian had never seen a deep-sea heat vent before, but he knew what the ones closer to the settlement looked like, and although those ones didn’t glow, he found the idea of magma in the icelands a bit farfetched.

“Anyway, when the ice is solid, we can play in here. It’s not safe right now.”

Dawn wanted to counter that they were all capable swimmers, but she feared that if she opened her mouth and said anything else, she would make herself out to be even more of a fraud than she already felt. Lian felt a wash of guilt as that light in her eye vanished and her ears drooped. She was disappointed.

“We should go back is what you’re saying?”

She asked morosely, spotting the aforementioned tunnels across the room and looking at them longingly. Oddly enough, there were huge chunks of ice encrusted rock jutting through the floor, so she had to wonder if these were natural caves that lead into rocky crevasses in the earth. Maybe Sabi’s theory wasn’t too far off.

If that were the case, she definitely didn’t want to go down there in her current mer form, the rock would feel unpleasant against her skin. Even as a human, she wasn’t sure she would want to go down there. Although she loved exploration and discovery, she felt as though that discovery could be made by someone else, and she would be just fine with that.

 “We should go back.”

Sabi had said unexpectedly, clinging to the walls and dangling down between the two of them upside down. She hoped now that Dawn would stop having funny ideas and just go play with them back in the other cavern. There was nothing else of significance she could foresee, so now she just wanted to get to the fun stuff. Gaeric would yell at them when they got back, being a little harder on Dawn specifically for causing such a ruckus with her mere presence, but they all would inevitably end up asleep as they usually did.

Dawn was the caboose on their journey back. Dragging her feet, so to speak. She already got the impression that Gaeric was going to yell at her for persuading the two wardens into exploring the tunnels, which he had told her to not do. She was attempting to delay the inevitable. She hated to be berated. Captain Cyllene had been very disappointed in her last few reports, calling them fanciful tall-tales and that she needed to remain “grounded in reality” if she wanted to continue working in the survey corp.

They weren’t tales! The mers were right in front of her! All her captain could see was her making up stories instead of looking at pedantic sea stars and mussels in tidal pools. She was doing her job! Laventon had had to take her aside and gently explain that, while the information and drawings (all from memory, by the way!) of the merpeople in the waters around their settlement would be of particular interest to children, Cyllene would have very little patience for it.

Dawn stopped writing about them and returned to her sea stars and mussels - enjoying the world that she had inadvertently discovered, and still somehow finding ways to disappoint all the adults.

Gaeric was waiting for them, his whiskers bristling, and eyes narrowed when the two wardens slunk out of the cave, a growl reserved for Dawn in particular, making the space rumble. She flinched when he addressed her.

“When I said finding something else to do, small fry, I assumed I was being loud and clear. Stay where I can see you and stop causing trouble, got it?”

Although he was saying it to Dawn, Gaeric stared daggers at Lian and Sabi, affecting the former much more than the latter, Lian pulling his hat down tighter over his eyes much in the same way Ingo did to avoid eye contact. They should have known better, but Dawn should have listened to him, she had deliberately disobeyed. He didn’t know how Ingo managed her, he really didn’t. The pup was a handful and a half.

She was fussing with the sleeve of her tunic, dark eyes cast down as if she was waiting for more yelling and the large warden stopped midway through a tirade that he had been planning since he saw them disappear into the cave system. This was a little unfair of him, wasn’t it? Dawn wasn’t from here. She didn’t know how to act appropriately with the clan and their hierarchy, and on top of that, Gaeric hadn’t really given a reason to trust him. Especially after their disastrous first encounter.

It was a mutual distrust, but he recognized that she was out of her element and didn’t receive as much guidance from him as he should have provided as her temporary caretaker.

She heard a sigh overhead and a big hand at her back, scooting her along. Dawn squirmed, clearly uncomfortable being touched by someone who wasn’t Ingo and Gaeric moved his hand away.

“Come on.”

Dawn didn’t move and he was tempted to say something, demand that she follow him, but he was reminded of a young Irida in this moment and just how stubborn she could be when there was something she just didn’t want to do. He left her, figuring she would come over of her own accord. Trusting her to stop misbehaving. Although not a pup but the strictest of definitions, she was no doubt tired, and she would come rest sooner or later.

It took less than ten minutes for Gaeric to regret his decision, most of the pups all curled up and nestled on top of one another near his side, sleeping and quiet. He was about halfway to join them when he heard a loud splash and a shriek.

“Cold! F-F-F-Freezing!”

Gaeric lunged forward instinctually, shoving Sabi and Lian out of the way and scooping Dawn out of the water. Both of them, but especially Sabi, looked shocked that she had gone into the water. They both knew how shocking it would be to their systems. They knew acclimation was necessary for such cold water.

“What is wrong with you?”

He snarled, looking at her sodden coat and listening to her chattering teeth. Although she squirmed and wriggled, Gaeric pressed her against his chest with one hand and unknotted his parka with the other. Her pristine coat could hold up in relatively cold water, but the water down here would still be shocking to the uninitiated. Dawn should know that.

There were a lot of things that Dawn should know. It wasn’t a lack of Ingo teaching her, his fellow warden was diligent and patient in all that he taught her about their clan, but she had no concept of the fundamentals and that just seemed so suspect to him.

Gaeric tried swaddling her in his parka, it would help dry her and keep her warm, but being sopping wet and just being so damn wiggly, she slipped out of his grip and was quick to try and drag herself away.

"Alright, I've had just about enough."

Before she even knew what was happening, she felt a light pressure at the back of her neck. Although she thrashed and squirmed, she had been a little too slow to prevent Gaeric from getting a good grip on her this time. She was scruffed. Dawn reached over her head and tried to pry his fingers loose to no avail, dripping water, trying to stop her teeth from chattering, and wailing to be let go all at the same time.

Gaeric huffed and cast a glance down at the content pile of pups left undisturbed by her shenanigans, then to Sabi and Lian, looking up at her unapologetically, cringing when the older warden jerked his head over to the other pups. They went without argument. Playtime was over.

"W-Wait!"

She squeaked when Gaeric swung around, bundling her up in his parka and effectively pinning her arms at her side as he did so. He lowered himself to the ice by the pups once more and set her down, Dawn trying to wriggle free with very little success. In the blink of an eye, she was surrounded on all sides by flesh. Dawn was effectively trapped in an arm prison. He moved himself accordingly to cut off points of escape and sighing when she kept trying to free herself, too much fabric and wrapped very tight.

"You've got to chill out, kid. Ingo will be back later."

Gaeric wasn't an idiot. The pup was frightened. She only really seemed to trust Ingo and they hadn't really gotten off on the right fin, so to speak. Although he was trying to be stern with the best of intentions, she found him terrifying and she now had no avenues of escape, which only made her more anxious. The little keening noises of fear making Gaeric reconsider his choice to isolate her to keep her out of trouble.

"Oi! Lian, Sabi - get up here."

He couldn't allow her to keep roaming around, but she might calm down in the presence of others. He knew the young wardens were awake – having just moved to the pile of pups a moment ago themselves so as to not inflict his ire, but, when they didn't move, Gaeric grumbled.

With a surprisingly quick movement, he pinned Dawn with one hand and reached down with the other, scooping up the pups with one massive hand. Pups felt safer in groups. He deposited them all on top of her before he lowered himself down, resting his head on his arms. There would be a bit of fussing, but he knew they'd settle down and sleep. It was hard to resist considering how comfortable and warm and safe the piles felt.

"Please, just sleep, Dawn."

Gaeric almost begged, slowly sensing the pups returning to sleep as Dawn emerged, having managed to free herself (probably with the help of Sabi or Lian), looking up at their babysitter and the mer eyed her back, almost daring her to do something.

"You called me by my name..."

So, he had. There was a beat of silence, and, to his immense relief, she was settling down in the crook of his arm, idly drawing patterns on his skin. She must have realized that this was not a punishment as much as it was a silent plea for her to calm down and relax a little.

Flipped over on her back, but she didn't close her eyes, just stared up at the ceiling of the cavern for a long time. He watched her impassively, feeling his eyes start to droop. His irritation, however, would not allow him to fall asleep. Something nagged him persistently in the back of his head, his gut instinct that something was not right about her making the large warden narrow his eyes and grumbled out a question.

"Why won't you sleep?" "’m not tired."

She replied stubbornly, her form tensing against his arm as he asked more questions. It wasn’t an opportunity to be missed. She was never away from Ingo long enough to get a straight answer out of her.

"Pups are supposed to sleep. Helps you grow. Maybe that's why you're so tiny." "I'm not a pup."

Her lower lip quivering a little, her dark eyes fixed on the ceiling above and refusing to meet Gaeric’s gaze because she knew she would succumb in the same way she crumbled under any adults’ eyes. She would spill all the beans just so she would stop receiving that look. Arms folded tightly over her slim chest, she tried to feel braver than she felt in this moment.

Gaeric already made her nervous - why was he bringing this up again? No answer either she or Ingo provided ever satisfied him and their answers never changed. So, why ask again and again? Was he trying to catch her off-guard? Catch her in a lie? If he kept pressuring her, Dawn might just snap.

She felt like she was trying to shrink back against his arm, trying to avoid his notice the same way that she would try to avoid the captain’s scrutinizing gaze. She knew what was coming what she saw his brow furrow. She had seen the commander’s face with the exact same expression many times before.

“You say that, but you certainly act like a pup. You should know better than to jump into unfamiliar water. You’re as finicky as Ingo... You never eat. You don’t sleep. You wander off on your own. You can barely even swim. You’re both so… weird.”

He watched her turn her head away, bringing her hands to her face and Gaeric could see they were coming away wet. He quickly bit his tongue. That was too far, his mouth was ahead of his brain. What was left unsaid was that Gaeric thought they were a perfect set. Ingo seemed so normal in comparison to Dawn. Everyone knew it and was too kind to say it, especially to the pup. Not him. He had to make himself look like more of a jerk.

"Why does it matter?"

The words quivered with held back emotions and Gaeric internally berated himself. She’s a kid. She’s just a kid. She never asked for this. In his head, he was trying to form an adequate apology, but in the meantime, his mouth kept moving.

"Because you should be twice as big at your age, and you shouldn't have this coat. It should be getting all patchy and you should be getting some spots."

He replied, trying to keep his tone even as he adjusted his arm, indicating her pearly white coat that stuck out like such a sore thumb. Maybe by pointing out the oddities, she could see why he thought it was so strange that she looked the way she did. It did nothing of the sort. She sank lower and lower, rubbing her eyes and trying to hide the fact that she was sniffling. Oh Sinnoh, Ingo was going to kill him for making her cry.

“Kid… Listen, that came out wrong.”

Dawn didn’t even try to stop him when he shifted his arm to nudge her back into sight. She was scrunching herself up into a ball, her sniffling becoming more pronounced as she wrapped her arms around her tail. Gaeric squeezed his eyes shut. Lord Avalugg, grant him the wisdom to know when to shut up.

He heard Lian’s small voice trying to rouse Dawn and not sounding very successful. She was going to wake up the other pups. He adjusted his bulk one last time, scooping Dawn and Lian up, Sabi grabbing onto his fingers with her arms, suckering into place so the large warden didn’t try to shake her loose, and deposited the trio onto his flank.

Gaeric had every intention to apologize to her later because, even if he didn’t understand her and her situation, nobody deserved to be treated as he just treated Dawn.

“Please, just sleep, you three.”

He placed a hand over them, enshrouding them in darkness, and only moving it away when they were still. They were finally sleeping and Gaeric sighed, folding one arm beneath his head and the other protectively around the remaining pups, before drifting off to sleep himself.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The scene he stumbled in on was certainly a more serene one than he anticipated. Ingo appeared from the hole in the floor, peering around before clambering up to gather his young ward, and he found everyone sleeping peacefully. He shifted closer, softly calling her name with no result.

 “Dawn?”

He tried again and that’s when Gaeric grabbed a fist full of his parka and dragged him down onto the ice with less of a resounding crash than expected. Although he had never felt so inclined towards aggression, a deep, throaty growl resonated through the cavern and Gaeric glared at him and pressed a finger to his lips before gesturing over at a few sleeping pups on his side. Dawn was among them, nestled into his Gaeric’s fur beside Lian and Sabi (of all pups), which only sent a little twinge of jealousy through the bigger mer, but Ingo got the picture.

After what had probably been a long day of trying to wrangle Dawn and the young wardens, Gaeric had finally managed to get them to sleep, and he would do anything to keep them that way.

Ingo stifled a sigh as he was dragged closer, Gaeric’s grip loosening while sleep began to reclaim him, but not relinquishing his hold entirely. In a few hours, he would be completely awake and ready to start his nighttime patrol, but he was content to return to sleep. Ingo being added to the sleeping pile whether he wanted to or not.

He carefully worked Gaeric’s fingers loose, but settled down beside him, using one of his soft fins as a pillow and closing his eyes. Ingo listened to the soft breathing of the pups and the light rumble of the other warden’s snores felt soothing in a way he couldn’t quite describe. Ingo pulled his cap a little lower over his eyes and allowed himself to relax. This cavern was the most comforting and safest place in the world as of this moment.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gaeric woke up before the pups or Ingo, remaining still for as long as he could afford to. He had never seen Ingo or Dawn look so relaxed, the pup’s small hands fussing with his spotted fur as she slept, Sabi and Lian half on top of her like they had been holding her down… Or maybe hugging her. Gaeric didn’t need a closer examination to know he had upset the pup; he could still see the tear tracks.

He needed to be careful about the things he said about her and her caretaker. He turned his gaze toward Ingo, his frown softened in sleep and his arm half thrown around him. Both of them were so weird about doing group activities. Ingo had every excuse in the book to avoid communal grooming, meals, and rests, and Dawn was just the same. It’s like they fought every instinct that would make them less out of place.

Ingo was a good mer. He cared so deeply for the clan, and it ran deeper than the debt he felt he owed them. Gaeric respected him – he had even said so, although he wasn’t sure if Ingo took his word for it.

His pup was… weird, but she was doing everything in her power to help them (and the Diamond Clan). She was weird, like extraordinarily weird, but he had to give credit where credit is due. Even if she was weird, she was Ingo’s pup. Even if she was weird, she had a good heart.

“Weirdos…”

Gaeric said, but he meant it with affection.

[erijt]

The Pooling Mists are a common hazard among low-lying lands, and the crumbling depths of the old world, even across the surface, strong winds could easily turn a simple meadow into an invisible death trap. In order to avoid such dangers surveyors and travelers employ a device refered to as a magelight, a small lantern which usually consists of pooled Mist concentrate housed within a safely fastened container. The container material can vary from a simple glass bottle to a complex device of copper and brass shells with sophisticated vacuum chambers, allowing the concentrate to react to shifting Mist levels outside it's enclosure. This modern tool has allowed for many to safely traverse previously dangerous locations, which include bogs, swamps, valleys, tunnels and the ruins found deep beneath the earth's surface. Humans, who are seemingly very susceptible to the effects of the Mist, mostly rely on a strange device which produces various noises when approaching Pooling areas, but otherwise refuse the use of any such magelight enclosures. Any attempts at acquiring these beeping devices have been so far unsuccessful.

[electricopolis-net]

S03E05: Out of Electricopolis

Bob sat down on the subway seats opposite Percy, looking out the window. There was blackness outside the train, lit up every so often by dim and flickering bulbs. Occasionally he would see a door, but even those began to disappear after a while. The tunnel they were in seemed to stretch for hours.

"How far away is this exit?" Bob murmured.

"Several hundred miles," Percy replied. "It’ll take a while. Maybe you should get some sleep."

"Maybe you should mind your own business."

"There’s no sense being a brat about it." Percy leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. 

Bob waited, expecting him to say something else, and after a moment, he grudgingly laid down on the subway seats and admitted to himself that the other man was right. He was tired, extremely so, and it wasn’t long before the heaviness of sleep settled on his body. 

"Mm…" 

Bob’s brow furrowed in his sleep as he fidgeted back and forth. He blinked his eyes open, slowly, holding up a hand over his face. Something felt warm on his face, like an incandescent lightbulb held too close.

He moved his hand away and squeezed his eyes tight. Whatever it was, it was a lot brighter than any lightbulb he’d ever seen…

He shook his head and sat up. Percy was still asleep on the other side of the train. The electric lights in the subway were off, but shafts of dappled light shone in through the windows from outside. The doors were open. Distantly, he could hear the sound of…something. Insects, maybe? Birds? 

Bob stood up and peered cautiously out the door. The train had pulled up to a platform, but it wasn’t in the middle of a city or a tunnel. It didn’t even seem to be in the dust bowl of the valley. It was in a clearing in the middle of a forest, with densely clustered trees. But the trees weren’t anything like the stunted, carefully manicured types that were installed in the top tier. These were large and verdant enough to block out most of the sky…and there were hundreds of them, as far as he could see.

He held out a hand to touch a shaft of light, turning his hand back and forth, seeing how it played over his pale skin. "Is that…" he whispered, his mouth dry. "Is that the sun?"

He’d heard tales of it, of course, and in the back of his mind he must have realized that the sun still existed, somewhere; but it just never seemed to matter in the city of Electricopolis, stuck beneath inky-black clouds, his brain concerned only with the limelight of the stage. For a moment, he felt ashamed–and then, excited. What else had he been missing?

Bob sat upright, swung his legs off the subway bench, and then paused. Across from him, Percy King twitched and snored gently. Should he wake him up? The temptation to leave him here was strong, but…there was a good chance Percy knew more about this area than he did.

Bob walked over, bent down next to his boss, and tapped him on the shoulder. "Mr. King," he said, and then added, hesitantly: "Percy."

Percy snorted a little, blinked, and looked over his shoulder at Bob. "Oh…we’ve reached the end, then?"

"Yeah."

"Well." Percy sat up, stretched, and yawned. "I suppose we’d better start walking."

"Walking? Where to?"

"Good question," Percy sighed. "I hadn’t the time to send out surveyors in this area. Let’s hope there’s a settlement or something beyond this forest."

With no other alternative, they began to walk, leaving the subway station in the middle of the clearing.

"So tell me something," Bob said, lifting his shoes up gingerly over a patch of mud and tree roots. "What was your big plan, anyway, staging that blackout?"

"Oh, it wasn’t staged," Percy groaned, pushing a branch out of the way and passing underneath it. "The town’s energy reserves are totally shot, and your silly little festival was the final straw. I simply bent the truth a little to make it seem like I didn’t know beforehand. Petty, I admit, but…"

"That’s not the word I’d use," Bob grunted. "But how were you going to fix the energy crisis?"

"I wasn’t. That’s what the subway was for." Percy stopped to catch his breath, then continued following Bob through the woods. "The town couldn’t have sustained itself for more than a few decades, even if we’d cut power down to its most minimal usage. I began the subway project to devise an escape route from the city to someplace beyond. The forest station was as far as I got, however. It was barely completed before the blackout."

"You’re not telling me you made that whole thing yourself. You must have had workers," Bob pointed out. "So there are still people who know about the subway, right?"

"Of course there are. But it seems to only have had the power to make that one trip…I don’t see how it’ll be of much use to the general populace if it can’t run anymore." Percy shook his head. 

Bob glared at him. "Fantastic," he sighed. "Just fantastic." He glanced back over his shoulder, towards the subway station clearing, but couldn’t see it through the thickness of the trees. "Well, so much for best-laid plans. Now I’m stuck in the woods with a guy who tried to throw me to the wolves."

"Better the wolves in town than the wolves without," Percy remarked. He walked past Bob, ducking underneath another branch. "In Electricopolis, they’re just a metaphor, after all. Who knows what’s out here?"

Bob looked after him, blinking.

Hour after hour stretched before them. More than once they had to stop to rest, and their stomachs growled with hunger. Eventually, however, they saw a yellow light through the trees, and they made their way towards it to reveal the edge of the forest.

"Whoa…we made it." Bob squinted into the late afternoon sun as he looked around. The forest opened up onto a large meadow. Not too far away was a cabin with a pile of chopped wood against one side and a tendril of smoke curling from the chimney. "Check it out. Someone lives all the way out here."

"Well, I suppose we’d better make ourselves known, don’t you think?" Percy said, walking towards the cabin. "Maybe we’ll at least get something to eat."

"Is that a good idea?" Bob asked, nervously. "I mean, we don’t know who’s out here…a creepy cabin near the woods…what if it’s like one of those horror movies?"

"Really, we just came from the woods," Percy said, raising a hand to knock at the door. "I think they’d be more scared of us than we are of–"

The door swung open, revealing two large, dark shotgun barrels pointed directly at Percy’s face. It took a moment for him to register what it was, and then he slowly, fearfully, raised his hands, open-palmed. 

"Came from the woods, huh?" drawled a voice. Bob and Percy’s gazes followed the length of the shotgun to the figure behind it–a tall and dark-haired man, his skin leathery and hands calloused from a lifetime of hard work under the sun. "Gimme a good reason why I oughtn’t just blow your heads off right here."

"U-uh, um," Percy stammered. "Well."

Bob quickly stepped in front of him, holding his hands up. "Wait, wait," he protested. "You wouldn’t kill two guys for no reason, would you? Imagine the cleanup! The bodies!"

The woodsman thought about this, cocked his head, and lowered his gun. "You make a compelling point," he remarked. "You boys look a mess, but you’re no threat. Too bad for you," he chuckled. "C’mon in. Sit a spell."

Percy gave the man a wary, sidelong glance, then edged his way into the cabin. It was one neatly-kept room, with a fireplace at one end, a stove, a bed, table, and chest of drawers, among other things. Slowly he sat down at the table. His body was tense, but the warmth of the fire made him gradually start to relax. Bob followed, sitting across from him.

"That’s better. Now, who are you folks?" asked the woodsman. "And where the hell did you come from?"

"It’s a bit of a long story," Percy said. "We’re from the city of Electricopolis. Do you know it? The city in the valley?"

"Oh, the cursed city, like those folks in town call it?" replied the woodsman. "Never put much stock in it, myself. I think they’re all a mite superstitious."

"Cursed?" Bob asked. "Why would they say that?"

"Hell, just look at the thing! Juttin’ out above the mountains, all those thick black clouds roilin’ above. Nobody ever goes in, nobody ever comes out." The woodsman set the shotgun up against the wall and busied himself with ladling some soup into a couple of bowls. "They say it’s got a hex on it. I say it’s none of my damn business. You say you’re from there?"

Bob and Percy exchanged glances, trying to figure out exactly how much they should reveal. "Yes," Percy said slowly. "Until things went south. The town ran out of power, you see, and we were…forced to leave."

"Bad luck." The man set the bowls of soup down in front of his guests, and handed them each a carved wooden spoon. "Well, let’s hope there aren’t any more of you folks comin’ in. I don't have enough soup for all of you."

"Just this much is enough. Thanks." Bob accepted the meal gratefully. "Say, you mentioned a town earlier..."

The woodsman jerked his head, indicating a direction away from the cabin. "Junk Town. That's what they call it. It's not far--a mile or two down the road, maybe. The people aren't bad, they're just..." He thought for a moment. "Like I said, superstitious. They might not take too kindly to a couple folks from the cursed city."

"Is there...anywhere else you'd recommend?" Percy asked, extremely politely. "A place called 'Junk Town' is a bit, well..."

"Hah! Awfully picky, aren't ya?" laughed the woodsman, jabbing in Percy's direction with his spoon. "Nope, you're out of luck. Junk Town's up against the coast, and there's nothing else but woods and mountains around it. Too bad," he said. "How'd you get across the mountains, anyway?"

"We went underneath," Percy explained. "On the subway. Well--an underground train."

"An underground train. Too bad you didn't build it in the opposite direction!"

Bob shot Percy a sharp glare. The other man looked away.

---

In the end, the woodsman was able to provide soup and directions, but not a place to stay the night. With the sun beginning to dip low in the sky, Bob and Percy, reluctant companions though they were, headed off together for the town down the road.

The first thing they noticed was the dust. The woods had been dark and dappled with sunlight, and the meadow open and pleasant, but the road they were traveling on now was dusty, and the dust gave everything a somewhat muted quality--not unlike the dust of the valley they'd just left. Still, the environs weren't nearly as barren as the valley had been: for one thing, the plains were lined with neatly-kept crops, which Bob insisted on stopping and looking at. 

"This is incredible!" he gushed, crouching down to take a look at a head of lettuce. "Look, it's vegetables! There's so many!"

"They don't grow them with hydroponics out here," Percy mused, looking back and forth. "I guess because they have so much land to spare."

Bob reached out a hand towards the head of lettuce, only to be interrupted by a sharp yell. "Hey!" said a voice. "Get your hands off that!"

Bob scrambled backwards and up to his feet. The farmer came over, walking between the rows of vegetables. He looked to be in his late thirties, maybe early forties perhaps, and sported a five o'clock shadow, a receding hairline, and a round, red nose. He was muscular in a sinewy kind of way, and looked as if he'd spent all his life in the fields. His clothes, a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, were plain and patched from long-term wear.

"Sorry," Bob said, holding his hands up in apology. Thankfully, this man only had a hoe in his hands and not another shotgun. "I didn't know they belonged to anyone."

"You didn't know?" asked the farmer, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. He looked the two men up and down. "...Where did you two come from, dressed like that?"

Bob and Percy exchanged another should we tell him?-type glance. "We've come from the city in the valley," Percy ventured carefully. "But we don't mean any harm, and it's just the two of us--"

"The cursed city?" the farmer said, recoiling. He looked around for a moment, then, seeing nobody else around, leaned in. "So people really do live there?"

Bob nodded. "Plenty of 'em. We left because...well, it's a long story..."

"Never mind that." The farmer waved a hand. "I shouldn't even be talking to you right now, but I'll give you a piece of advice. Go down the road into town proper." He pointed down the road that snaked into town. "Go see the folk down there. They'll figure out what to do with you."

"I'm starting to think that'll involve burning us at the stake," Percy groused.

The farmer considered this, then tilted his head. "No, they wouldn't burn you," he declared. "They might breathe in the smoke and get cursed themselves. Anyway, get outta here," he said, halfheartedly jabbing his hoe in the men's direction. "Get!"

---

The second thing they noticed, walking into town, was that the buildings were a ramshackle construction of debris. Planks of wood were nailed to old signs, corrugated sheet metal and tin roofing, and a thousand other things besides. Piping extended from some of the houses, puffing wood smoke into the air as a makeshift chimney. The buildings were clustered together in rows down each street. However, the two visitors barely had time to marvel at the construction before the villagers began to notice them, whispering among each other and casting fearful, yet fascinated, glances at the two. 

"Excuse me," Bob said, raising his voice a little. "We're new in town, and, uh--"

"We're looking for a place to spend the night," Percy finished. "Anything will do."

The crowd turned away as the people talked amongst themselves for a moment. Then it parted, revealing a single old man who walked, with swaggering back-and-forth motions, up to the two newcomers. 

The old man had a great bushy beard and unkempt hair, and walked with a staff that reached high above his head. The end of the staff was curved in an O shape, and rings of what looked like tin or aluminum jangled from it. He wore an old, faded robe with zigzag markings on the trim, and around his neck hung several odd pieces of board that appeared to be talismans or amulets.

"That's enough, that's enough," the old man said, motioning for the villagers to quiet down with a wave of his hand. He turned to Bob and Percy. "Now, who are you two, exactly?"

"We're travelers," Bob sighed, already weary of explaining. "We're from the city in the valley--but we're not cursed, and it's just the two of us, and--"

The crowd gasped. The old man motioned, again, for them to be calm. "All right, all right, settle down, you lot." He turned back to the two men, extended two fingers, and made the motion of a zigzag arrow to Percy, and then to Bob. "There. You may enter our town now."

"Breaking a curse is that easy, huh?" Bob joked.

The old man laughed. "Well, that remains to be seen. But I'll not have anyone turned away from Junk Town if I can help it. Come," he said, jerking his head towards a direction down the road. "Follow me."

They walked, and walked, and walked some more, until they reached a tent on the outskirts of the town. "I figured you were the mayor or something," Bob remarked, stepping inside. "You don't live in the middle of town?"

"Oh, no," laughed the old man, sitting across from Bob and Percy at a low, round table. "You overestimate my importance. They call me the Cursebreaker," he explained. "Kind of pompous, but I can't argue with it. That is my job, and I do it well."

"A cursebreaker?" Percy said. "Then I suppose you're just the man we need to see. Is there any way we can convince these people to let us stay the night?"

"Oh, well, don't worry about them." The Cursebreaker waved a hand. "You can stay here for the night. They won't kick up a fuss if it's my place." He looked Bob and Percy up and down slyly. "Judging by your finery, I think it won't be up to your usual standards, but..."

"Anything is fine," Bob said tiredly. "Just as long as we can get a break from all this walking. I've never walked so much in my life."

"Then take your time," said the Cursebreaker. He reached down beneath the table and pulled out three drinking glasses and a bottle of what looked like clear alcohol. "You boys want a drink?"

The two men nodded vigorously. The Cursebreaker poured the clear alcohol and offered two of the glasses to them. "What are your names, anyway? Don't think we've been introduced."

"Bob Sparker," said Bob. "Well, it's not my real name, but it's my stage name. I used to be a game show host, so..."

"And I myself am Percy King, ex-president of the Top Tier Electric Company," Percy said.

The Cursebreaker laughed, then held up his own glass. "Well, well! Welcome to Junk Town," he declared. "Bob Sparker and Percy King, may you find rest and recuperation from your long journey."

"Thank you," Bob said politely. Percy simply nodded. The two downed their drinks, then recoiled. "Whoa," Bob said, coughing. "That--that's strong stuff."

"Just the way I like it!" The Cursebreaker barked out a laugh. "Now that you've been properly welcomed, you can rest here for the night. Tomorrow I'll take you to your new dwelling."

"New dwelling?" Bob asked. "What'll that be?"

"Oh, nothing fancy," said the Cursebreaker. "Just an abandoned house near the shore, but it's better than nothing. I'll explain how things work around here, too. But for now, you rest," he said firmly. "Tomorrow's another day."

The tent was barely big enough for two people, let alone three, but Bob scrunched himself up as best he could while Percy laid along one side of the tent and the Cursebreaker snored a foot or so away.

Now that Bob had some time to think, the combined emotions of the past few days were hitting him hard. The exhilaration of his great creative project, the Electric Festival, barely completed before he was blamed for the blackout and run out of town...the despair of being separated from his friends...his anger at the man he now had as a traveling companion...

It was almost too much. Bob buried his head in his hands, trying to stifle a sob, but it wasn't long before he simply fell deep, deep asleep.

The End

[tumbleweed-chaser]

i briefly introduced Dahl in my 2023 inktober. still a creepy-eyed mutant, still working as a surveyor in a mining town, but now you know her hobby is creating junk sculptures (the one she's proud of the most being a 3-dimensional map of the trash tunnels under her town).

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

It takes an hour to drive from Tórshavn all the way up north to Hvannasund, a fishing village of 248 people. Marshfield and Østrem won’t tell me if someone tipped them off, or if there’s another way they heard about the hunt. But they do share their plan: to document everything, even if it means breaking the law by flying a drone over the site of the hunt.

The roads are drilled straight through mountains to save the trouble of climbing up or around, and each time we exit a tunnel, I catch my breath. Waterfalls flush down emerald hills, dotted with small sheds for sheep, and tumble into glittering fjords. Marshfield talks about how nervous he is. It’s his first grind; he’s unsure how he’ll handle the blood.

Østrem has more experience with it. He was here for a couple of months in 2022 after several years of volunteering with other animal rights organizations in Oslo, Norway. He’s horrified by the way people treat animals around the world, including at fish farms in Norway. To him, the grind is just one example of the way humanity abuses other beings.

Marshfield is similarly resolute. He got involved with Sea Shepherd about eight years ago, after seeing an online photo of a slaughtered whale that left him deeply upset. His activism gradually scaled up; he started by donating, then sharing things on Facebook and selling T-shirts. Eventually, he joined Sea Shepherd campaigns in Sicily and Iceland. Now, he’s here. He grows more solemn as we drive, steeling himself to see a dead whale in person.

Watson’s followers have a long history of fighting the grind. Activist groups, including Sea Shepherd, first started protesting the tradition back in the 1980s, putting the archipelago under global scrutiny. “People were telling us it didn’t look nice,” says Bjarni Mikkelsen, marine mammal specialist at the Faroe Marine Research Institute.

According to Mikkelsen, environmentalists grew troubled over whether the hunt was hurting pilot whale populations. “People walked around with banners, saying it was unsustainable,” he says. Around the same time, sighting surveys were launched to estimate population levels. The North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, a body comprising the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, has since carried them out every six years.

Using standard international sampling techniques, surveyors most recently estimated the population of pilot whales in the Faroes–Iceland area to be around 380,000. Survey to survey, this number changes, depending on timing and coverage. But scientists consistently report abundances that can sustain the Faroese catch. “The population is high compared to other species in the North Atlantic,” Mikkelsen says, and there’s no significant downward trend.

Greenpeace eventually abandoned their opposition. But Sea Shepherd held firm. In 2014, under Watson’s leadership, around 70 volunteers descended on the islands for Operation GrindStop, donning black hoodies stamped with Sea Shepherd’s distinctive Jolly Roger insignia and physically intervening in hunts by jumping into the bay. The following year, the organization returned with the same conduct, resulting in fines, arrests, and court cases.

Resentment for the disturbances lingers among many of the Faroese, especially since Sea Shepherd Global continues to fight the hunt, though in softer ways. “Sea Shepherd’s history with the Faroe Islands has been quite aggressive and colorful,” says Valentina Crast, the group’s current Stop the Grind campaign coordinator. Now, she’s working on a tamer strategy, focused on building a local community of supporters.

Watson’s new foundation, meanwhile, wants to maintain the same level of pressure Sea Shepherd once brought. “We’re living in a world where there is no enforcement of international conservation laws,” Watson says. “The high seas are the Wild West. And we’re sort of vigilantes.”

The 73-year-old self-proclaimed pirate (a title confirmed by a United States Court of Appeals in 2013) is against the killing of whales on moral grounds, no matter who does it, or how. He has carried out his brand of vigilantism for nearly 50 years. Talking to him is like talking to a buccaneer who shares stories of sirens and sword fights, except Watson’s tales consist of ramming Portuguese whaling vessels, sinking Icelandic ships, and tricking Soviet soldiers. He’s been criticized for targeting Indigenous peoples over their traditional subsistence hunting practices, including seal hunters in Canada and teenage whalers in Alaska.

After the crackdown by the Faroese government, protests quelled for a while. But in recent years, social media and an increase in tourism have put the grind back in the spotlight. The Faroe Islands now receive about 100,000 visitors a year, and the nation is often included on top destination lists for its dramatic landscapes. During the summer when seabirds breed, bird lovers flock to spot puffins, guillemots, and other species that nest by the thousands on the steep cliffs. Hilton opened a hotel here in 2020, and the local airline is testing out a weekly direct route from New York. Unaware tourists might encounter a whale hunt occurring in the harbor, as those on a docked cruise ship did last summer; in that instance, most were not happy about the spectacle. Such stories, along with rather gruesome photos of the hunt itself, can be shared worldwide. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation seeks to capitalize on this.

Seizing its moment after splitting from Sea Shepherd, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation sent its first vessel—the John Paul DeJoria, registered in Jamaica and named after the cofounder of John Paul Mitchell Systems hair products—to the Faroe Islands in July 2023 to stop the whale hunts. But the Faroese government barred the ship’s entry to the archipelago via executive order. Ultimately, Watson made only two brief, albeit dramatic appearances, entering the nation’s waters once in an unsuccessful attempt to reach a grind and again 10 days later at news that someone had spotted a pod.

After the second breach, Jamaica stripped the ship’s registration at the request of the Faroese government, and the John Paul DeJoria was ported in the United Kingdom. Land crew, including Marshfield and Østrem, remained in Tórshavn to document what they could.

[ratgraphic]

Ijotober Day 8: Roper

This harrowing kapnograph was taken by a documentarian accompanying a dwarven survey team on an expedition. It shows the surveyors and their loyal hellhound being ambushed by a Roper, a subterranean creature that mimics stalagmites to hide from unsuspecting prey before dragging them into its toothy maw using tendrils it keeps hidden in hidden tunnels it bores in the ground. Thanks to the quick thinking of the survey team, they were able to keep the roper distracted for long enough to safely flee, with the only casualties suffered being the loss of some of the teams's equipment and most of their rations.

[frogblast-the-ventcore]

How does this description of the Men of Iron work?

Odin standing supreme among them and commanding all forces. It would assign forces to vector to a given contact area and lead Research and Development.

Sleipnir controlling all Heavy Walker and Titan units. Leading massive Siege Engines marching across the land on 4 legs and Bipedal Giants capable of moving with speed and grace nothing of their size should possess.

Geri controlling all Void Ships and Logistics Centers. Its fleet would ply the stars for resources to fuel the War Machine.

Freki controlling all Tanks and infantry. Leading a swarm of eight-legged Arachnid-Tanks and cold white-faced soldiers with spindly limbs across the land.

Finally, Huginn and Muninn to act as Testbed and Champion units meant to gather combat data and report it back to Odin to better adapt tactically and strategically. Odin had a list of special Combatants in the sector that Huginn and Muninn would engage and counter. The Majority of the list was normal. Asterion Moloc. Akenothep the Phaeron of Penance. Kaelista Hesperia of the Kabal of the Bloodied Fang. Autarch Morodin of Craftworld Kian-Ash.

Lorgar Aurelian.

Specialist Units include:

Striker: A high-tracked vehicle with the turret replaced by a bot's upper body, with weapons mounted on both arms and shoulders.

Archer: Gigantic armored motorcycle, with a railgun running down its length.

Demolisher: A very wide and flat tank that is open down the center with an embedded sonic cannon running down its length.

Avenger: Blocky tank that stabs struts into the ground and folds its treads / hover devices outward when it deploys to fire at greater velocities.

Surveyor: Large armored Sentinel with a rotating upper body mounting a large laser weapon.

Kataphractos: Six-legged spiderbot with an armed humanoid upper body.

Centurion: Resembles an Imperial Knight with blocky shapes.

Venator: Bipedal humanoid mech, with no head and no left arm, and a right arm made up entirely of an enormous gun that is nearly as long as it is tall. The rest of the upper torso is built to counterweight and dampen the recoil of this weapon.

Nemesis-class Megabot: A spider-bot with a wedge-shaped body and top-down symmetry, meaning that its top and bottom are identical and it can function perfectly fine by simply reversing its joints if flipped over. Retracts weapons and wraps its limbs around itself with right going around the underside and left going over to form a tunneling shape.

Executor-class Megatank: A gigantic quad-treaded tank that is relatively flat for its size, mounting multiple sets of multi-barrel battleship-like turrets over its treads and back. One open section on its back retracts to reveal a vertical missile-launching system.

Citadel-class Flying Fortress: A gigantic flying brick-shaped machine that, with gun turrets and missile launchers mounted on every side. Can fire nanolathing beams at the husks of downed units to bring them back into functionality.

The Men of Iron use what I call a 'killers & carriers' layout for their fleet. A bit over half their ships are offensive and the others are carriers of some variety, generally with higher capacities than yours for equivalent hull-sizes, in exchange for low firepower and toughness for ships that are higher than Imperial Extremis-Grade. Most ships have no Warp drives because of the on-site construction doctrine, allowing them to squeeze out a bit more direct combat performance. Because the resource link can't be stretched across the distances that space battles work on, the Men of Iron rely on their assault boats to reclaim matter to bring back to be fed into further construction, hence the emphasis on carriers to a degree exceeding that of almost any other faction. Against intact ships the assault boats will deliver a payload of boarders, then spend some time chopping up the hull and filling their internal space with stuff to bring back. In general MoI ships don't look that different from Imperial, save for the lack of ornamentation and more blunt prows / slightly boxier shapes. They use plasma / particle / lance rather than solid shot, since the latter throws away too much for little gain. The Summit is very wide, while the Meridian is a super-dedicated carrier, with almost the entire thing taken up by launch bays. If you stripped out the launch bays, you'd have little left besides a nose, a reactor at the back, and the engines and spine. Ships that can construct will be able to construct faster if they enter link range, but otherwise get no benefits.

Units Huginn and Muninn function as a Testbed for a new Titan unit known simply as the Aerial Titan. A Titan with advanced Reactionless flight systems allowing it to fly in both Air and Space. Think the Gundam Phenex and Unicorn from Gundam UC. This Titan usually has a shitton of plasma and Laser weapons but also a Power Sword. But is more than capable of equipping psychic superweapon like Webway Breachers similar to the Dark Glass and Black Hole launchers like the Ones on the Speranza.

I would question the use of Norse deity names for the control units, considering the Men of Iron were made milennia into the future, but, again, whatever.

As for the units you described, they work, but also we know that they got really really weird with it too.

As to the Men of Iron ship looking like Imperial ships, I don't think they would. They were built at the pinnacle of humanity's first interstellar empire, which was a lot more Federation like than the current Imperium. So I think their ships would look more conventionally sci-fi but robotic, if that makes any sense.

[phantomoftheshoppera]

“I hope it’s only about six feet deep so we can continue mapping,” the surveyor said, trying to be lighthearted, but then she, and we, all recognised the term “six feet under” ghosting through her syntax and a silence settled over us.

“I want you to know that I cannot stop thinking of it as a tower,”I confessed. “I can’t see it as a tunnel.” It seemed important to make the distinction before our descent, even if it influenced their evaluation of my mental state. I saw a tower, plunging into the ground. The thought that we stood at its summit made me a little dizzy.

All three stared at me then, as if I were the strange cry at dusk, and after a moment the psychologist said, grudgingly, “If that helps make you more comfortable, then I don’t see the harm.”

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

[ghost-2501]

I'll never forget:

Was working as a surveyor at the time. My crew chief and I were headed to a job site right across the Hudson, in eyesight of the WTC.

En route to the site, we were listening to the radio in the truck when reports came through of the first tower being hit. Someone from inside the first tower managed to call the radio station:

"It's really smoky, and hard to breathe (a cacophony of noises of people in the background of the call could be heard), but we're doing okay, otherwise."

Little did they know.

My crew chief, an otherwise mean, racist piece of shit, showed a moment of softness. Tears flowed from his eyes, with a look of complete confusion and bewilderment on his face.

"I don't understand. There must be some sort of mistake or something..", he said.

I only responded with a side eye to his comment, thinking to myself, "I know better, there's something more to this."

My suspicion was confirmed once the second tower got hit.

We were a tunnel away from our job site, a tunnel that was blocked by a police cruiser, the cop doing his best to redirect traffic. Seemed like every surrounding public service was running thin.

My crew chief asked the cop, "Can we get through? Our job site is on the other side of this tunnel."

"No one's getting through but EMS, Fire, police and FBI.", the cop responded.

We were stuck, traffic was bumper to bumper, and there was no way to communicate to HQ that we were ok.

I noticed that the cops' flares were about to die out, so I told my crew chief that if we're going to be stuck here, might as well help the cop with traffic. So we pulled our truck out of traffic on to a median, and pulled our cones out to put them in place of the flares the cop put out, and helped him redirect traffic as best as we could.

A woman drove up to me with a look of fear and worry on her face.

She asked me, "Is there another way to get into the city? My husband works in the tower, and I need to make sure he's ok."

"I'm sorry, the only ways to get in from here are the Lincoln tunnel, and the GW bridge, and both of the are closed. I'm sorry.", I responded.

We were there for 3-4 hours before traffic started to lighten up (overstatement), we packed up our cones and drove back to HQ. Both towers were gone by then.

When we got back, the rest of the employees at the surveying firm were relieved to see that we were safe. When I got home, I cleaned up, then rode my bike to a friend's house, to find that my other friends were already gathered, rolling up trees.

We all looked at each other, silent, then suddenly said, almost in unison, "State of emergency."

I smoked so much that day. For weeks, I could see the smoke coming from ground zero from my bedroom window.

Once my crew chief and I were cleared to go back to our job site...the taste/smell of blood and metal in the air was unshakable. Similar to the taste of putting a 9V battery on your tongue.

I'll never forget.

[whirligig-girl]

First of all, with robotic parts provided by the second DLC or by mods, the game you are looking for actually is Kerbal Space Program. :P

there needs to be more games in the KSP genre. We are graced with one other pretty solid space exploration sandbox (though one that i feel lacks most of the charm of KSP) in Juno: New Origins, and a few 2D versions like Simple Rockets and Spaceflight Simulator. And there's also KSP-lead-developer Felipe Falanghe's new game KitHack, a scale model vehicle constructor.

Felipe said recently in an interview that he'd pitched a Kerbal Avionics game, a prequel about building like, canvas-wing WWI planes and building up to supersonic planes and stuff at which point KSP would take over. And I love that idea!

But you know what I've always wanted in a physics based lego-like vehicle construction and operation game?

I really want a game that focuses on locomotive design with the same degree of detail and grannularity that KSP focuses on spacecraft design.

And because I'm autistic, I'm gonna lay out a rough design doc in this reblog! (Also because realistically the kerbal IP won't be available, assume it's like. i dunno. Gymnomi Slimegirls like Guz.

Also needless to say, a game of the complexity I am outlining is definitely overly ambitious, but i'm not a game dev and no one's just gonna make this game for me, so i think it's ok if i go way out there in terms of scope.

Kerbal Railroad Administration

About a decade ago, Kerbal engineer Richard Kerman invented a kind of steam engine that is powerful enough to be useful on the plateways in common use for dragging minecarts up and down hills. Since then, a number of companies have tried and failed to develop the technology into something that is safe and practical for freight and passengers, without resulting in so many boiler explosions and train collisions. The Kerbal Railroad Administration is a new nationalized railroad formed to attempt to solve this problem. That's where you come in.

New Game:

The game takes place on Kerbin, rendered as a spherical globe as in KSP. It might even be compressed by another factor of 5-10 or so. (At 1/10th scale, the circumference of Kerbin would be 377 kilometers) The visible curvature of the globe when viewing the map would be an intentional stylistic feature. The player is allowed to choose their headquarters from one of a few locations, including the harbor at what will one day be the KSC plateau, a mineral and oil rich desert, and a hilly mountainous region in the forests.

The player can choose the track gauge they wish to play with. The default is meter gauge (which is close to the KSP-scale version of 4'8.5" standard gauge), but you can slide all the way up to 5 ft broad gauge or all the way down to 10" minimum gauge (the rough Kerbal equivalent of 15" minimum gauge.) Narrow gauge track is much cheaper to lay, and a reduced loading gauge makes tunnels and bridges a lot easier as well, but it doesn't scale well. At any time the player will be able to rip up their existing track and regauge it, so if they start with a smaller, cheaper 2ft narrow gauge railroad and then decide they want to upgrade to 3ft gauge or more, they can, or they can run dual-gauge track.

Cities and Industries:

City or village buildings and industries are procedurally laid across all of Kerbin on a hexagonal block system, with pentagons at the corners of an icosahedron. The hexagonal meshes must be deformed procedurally to place them near the corners. The pentagons can only have certain types of tiles, like streets, for simplicity, or maybe the pentagons can be left blank. The hexagonal block system resembles the tiles of the space center in KSP. Some industries may be built into cities, requiring special care to access, such as factories, whereas others will take advantage of natural resources elsewhere, such as mines.

Facilities:

Surveyor Office. This building allows you to plan out new railroad routes to be built to connect the various industries on Kerbin and switching yards, as well as see the entire planet from above.

Roundhouse. This building stores your railway engines and allows crews to do maintenence on the various parts of the engine.

Crew office. This building allows you to hire train crews, including engineers, stokers, brakermen, and conductors.

Financial office. Here you manage the finances of the railroad, take out or pay loans, set up contracts with industries, etc.

Research and Development. Here you can pay or use experience points to unlock new technologies. New technologies can also be unlocked naturally as you use and gain experience with the existing technology as an engine driver.

Engine workshop. Here's where the magic happens, where locomotives are designed and built. Similar to the VAB in KSP, the workshop.

Freight house. This is a building with either a road connection or a boat connection, where goods can be shipped out or shipped in for delivery on the railroad.

Engine Workshop.

As KSP was set apart from other flight simulators by its ultimately quite advanced CAD software, so too will Kerbal Railroad Administration.

The player starts by placing down frames, which can be procedurally resized. Other parts will be able to snap onto the frames, such as running boards, boilers, and cabs. The boilers will be made out of set lego-like diameters, and comprised of boiler barrel, smokebox, and firebox sections. Increasing the boiler barrel stores more steam but may take longer to raise steam, larger fireboxes in either width or length allow for more thermal power to boil water.

Wheels can be attached to the frames, snapping to where they are needed depending upon the size, which is set procedurally. They can be connected with connecting rods.

Cylinders can be added at any point on the frames or boiler barrel, but will automatically point towards the driver they're linked to. Once the main rod is connected to an axle, a valve gear can be chosen, which again has to be procedural. You'd start with Stephenson Valve gear (or maybe one of the earlier non-variable-cutoff ones?) The cylinder diameter and stroke length is set procedurally, and the latter automatically affects the crank radius on the wheels.

Other elements, like couplers and footplates and domes and cabs and separately swiveling trucks and tenders can be added, but the important thing from the physics standpoint is the relationship between the boiler pressure, cylinder pressure, cylinder stroke length, and wheel size, since that determines tractive effort, as well as the relationship between boiler size and firebox size and usable steam.

That's the toy I want to build. A steam engine simulation that is not only reasonably accurate on its own (hard!) but which allows the player to change various key design elements just to see what they do, what the trade-offs are.

As you try to make the boiler longer, you'll need more wheels to support the weight. whoopsies, now the engine is binding on curves, so you'll either need to fix the curves or add trailing and pilot trucks or make it an articulated locomotive. The goal is that you would naturally run across many of the same problems the real railroads faced, and then come up with similar design solutions.

Try to make the cylinder stroke longer for more power? Well now the engine will be slower. Try to make it wider for more power? Now you're running out of steam. Fine if you only need that power in short bursts, but you'll need a larger boiler and firebox to realistically supply more power for a prolonged amount of time.

Running Trains

Trains can be driven manually or left to the devices of the Kerbal train crew, similar to Railroader's a.i. Controls include the regulator, cutoff, brakes (multiple braking systems may be in play), water injector, and firebox, as well as action groups for any of the other appliances on the train, like dynamos, lamps, etc. Play from either third person flying camera or first person Kerbal view is supported. Either the player or a kerbal may need to manually couple or uncouple train cars. Failure modes include derailment on curves at high speed, (dependent upon center of mass and track gauge, as well as wheelbase and presence or lack of pilot and trailing trucks), boiler explosions when run out of water or run too high on pressure (until the safety valve is unlocked), and collision with other trains you may have left on the line.

Delivering freight and passengers would be handled somewhat like Railroader. Loaded and unloaded cars will have a waybill set automatically or by the player, and it's the player's job to figure out how to bring cars where they need to go with the motive power they have available. At first you would likely have a small number of small cars, but as demand increases, you'll need more and/or larger cars to handle the loads, and you'll be serving more industries, necessitating both more and larger or more capable locomotives over time.

Passengers would be picked up at stations placed by the player near or inside of cities, and then let off at another station, with the fare being calculated based on the time, comfort, and distance travelled. Passenger cars can have specific destinations set or unset so that only passengers wanting to go that direction will go there. As passenger capacity increases, so does

Progression

Progression is measured by how well kerbin's industries are connected, and by the position on the tech tree. The tech tree is not unlocking whole engines and rolling stock so much as specific technologies, like larger and longer boiler barrels, belpaire instead of keyhole fireboxes, new valve gears, and eventually new power types entirely not yet outlined, like electric traction motors, steam turbines, and diesel engines. Players may even be able to select their "era" when starting a new game, with sandbox mode effectively starting with all technologies unlocked, but players with more of an interest in diesel and electric locomotives being able to start at a higher tier of research & development.

Kerbal Space Railroad

As a DLC, or stretch goal, perhaps alternate starting maps based upon the other planets in the Kerbol system can be provided.

Mun: No air, so only electric, fireless, and bipropellant-combustion-engine powertrains are allowed, and cabs and passenger cars must be pressurized. But more importantly, it would be an interesting study of how a much lower gravity would affect train design. With much lower gravity, the same mass of train would be much easier to move, but on the other hand, the engines would have one sixth of the adhesive weight, so they would wheelslip uselessly if they tried to put down their full power, unless they had huge, unwieldy ballast added. A rack and pinion rail system may be needed to deal with the lack of adhesion. Gravity is also low enough that there is risk of derailment when the grade changes as well as when the curves are too sharp.

Duna: Similar constraints as the Mun, except that it has been terraformed to allow for steam engines to work. The thinner atmosphere increases the efficiency of steam engines but decreases the efficiency of both fire and internal combustion.

Eve: Also terraformed to allow for steam engines. Gravity is much stronger, which means it's harder to pull a given payload, but it also means you're 1.7 times less likely to wheelslip. The thicker atmospheric pressure reduces the efficiency of steam engines and requires streamlining for even relatively low speeds.

Gilly: Tiny airless map with negligible gravity. Taking corners at any speed would risk derailment, so the entire railway must use rack & pinion gearing or (maglev or something).

Tylo: an airless world like the Mun, but with gravity similar to Kerbin, so adhesion is only slightly lower.

Vall: Low gravity and airless, but with tall mountain ridges that need to be scaled or dug through.

Titan: Munar gravity but a thick terraformed atmosphere.

Mez: Ultimate challenge, a whirligig world where the gravity changes drastically from nearly 5G at the poles to 0.5G at the equator. Running goods on north/south lines would put any engine designer to the test, or else require some strange logistics for interchanging goods between different latitudes as the gravity changes.

Space(?): Space stations are scattered across an empty map in 3D space. There's no gravity or air.

[nv5geospatial]

Mobile Mapping Explained

Mobile mapping is a technique used to survey infrastructure through the use of vehicles rather than boots-on-the-ground efforts. 

These vehicles, including automobiles, drones, and boats, are equipped with various sensors, including LiDAR technology, cameras, and GPS receivers. The sensors rapidly collect detailed 3D data of the environment as the vehicle moves. 

The result is an accurate 3D model of the surroundings, which can be used for a wide variety of applications in transportation, urban planning, and infrastructure management.

It’s not only more accurate than on-the-ground surveys but it is safer and less disruptive.

How Mobile Mapping Works

The core technology behind mobile mapping is LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which uses laser pulses to measure distances between the sensor and surrounding objects. 

The data collected creates a "point cloud," representing the scanned environment in 3D. 

Alongside LiDAR, high-resolution cameras capture imagery, which can be integrated with the LiDAR data to enhance its visualization. 

The vehicle also uses GPS and sensors called inertial measurement units to ensure data accuracy even while moving or encountering bumps in the road. 

The mobile mapping process typically follows these steps:

Data Collection: A vehicle equipped with LiDAR sensors, cameras, and GPS systems captures detailed data on roads, buildings, and other infrastructure as it moves along the planned route.

Data Processing: Specialized software processes the raw data, aligning and filtering it to create accurate and usable geospatial information. Algorithms integrate the different datasets, ensuring accuracy and consistency.

Analysis and Visualization: The data is analyzed using tools that can extract meaningful insights, such as identifying structural issues in roads or bridges. It is then visualized through interactive 3D models or maps for easier interpretation and decision-making​.

Applications in Transportation Projects

Mobile mapping is highly suited for various transportation infrastructure projects due to its accuracy and efficiency:

Roadway and Rail Network Mapping: This technique maps road surfaces, rail lines, and surrounding infrastructure, such as bridges and signage. The data generated supports road design, maintenance, and expansion projects.

Bridge and Tunnel Inspection: Mobile mapping is ideal for detecting structural issues, such as cracks and deformations, without disrupting traffic​, because it can capture data under bridges and tunnels.

Right-of-Way (ROW) Surveys: Detailed mapping of road corridors allows transportation agencies to manage their right-of-way assets efficiently, making it easier to plan for expansions or repairs​.

Accuracy of Mobile Mapping

Mobile mapping achieves impressive accuracy down to just centimeters.  

The accuracy depends on the quality of the sensors used, the speed of the data acquisition, and the environmental conditions. 

Compared to airborne LiDAR, mobile mapping typically provides higher-resolution data since the sensors are closer to the ground​.

Mobile Mapping vs. Traditional Surveying Methods

Mobile mapping offers several advantages over traditional surveying:

Speed: It collects data much faster than manual methods, which require surveyors to walk the project area, often over multiple days. With mobile mapping, large areas can be scanned in a fraction of the time, sometimes within hours.

Safety: By eliminating the need for surveyors to physically access dangerous or high-traffic areas, mobile mapping enhances safety for workers.

Data Detail: Mobile mapping captures significantly more data than manual surveys, providing a complete 3D model of the environment, rather than just individual points of interest​

Mobile mapping first started gaining popularity in the 1980s, and it is still growing — now projected to be a sector of the market worth $105 billion by 2029.

Using Mobile Mapping Data

Once collected, the data from mobile mapping can be used in numerous ways:

3D Modeling: Engineers use the detailed 3D models for designing transportation infrastructure, including roads, railways, and bridges.

Asset Management: Transportation departments use the data to manage and monitor infrastructure assets, from traffic signs to utilities.

Maintenance Planning: The collected data supports proactive maintenance by identifying issues such as pavement cracks, surface deformations, or vegetation encroachments, enabling timely repairs​.

In conclusion, mobile mapping is a highly effective and efficient tool for collecting geospatial data, particularly for transportation projects. 

Its ability to capture detailed, high-accuracy data quickly and safely makes it a superior choice over traditional surveying methods, especially in complex environments like roadways and rail networks. 

As technology continues to evolve, mobile mapping will become increasingly important in infrastructure development and maintenance.

[lustrumlane]

Friday Night || Victor || RE: Alibis

Death is not temporary, but it is not an end. Death is not temporary, but it is not an end. Young and sweet. Young and sweet. Feel the beat. Not an end. Feel the beat.

Victor has spent much of the investigation muttering to the dead, Rui in particular, but Al, Dahlia, and Upsilon’s names all being called upon too in hopes one responds. Two can talk, the other two should be able to as well, even if it’s different. The group is not severed, only separated. But with Dahlia… Ah, he will have to worry about that later. Night is young and the music’s high, right, right.

Before Victor speaks, he looks toward Elena, his eyes almost trying to ask if he should speak yet or not.

“We are all moving toward accusations rather quickly, we should not be hasty, my dear fellows… Dear Matt was with Dear Mikhail and I at the cottage in those magical woods before the murder. Because, well,” Victor gestures with a sweep of his arm to nothing but air. “I was first in the garden and saw Dear Dahlia for only a blink. I’d tried to catch up with her, but the gardens were not kind, ahm, I could not reach her. But it was then I was lucky again, as I ran into Dear Van Wyck, Dear Coronis, Dear Mikhail, and Dear Surveyor all together. The five of us talked, as mentioned prior, and then the ground began to uproot itself in that monstrous way it seems addicted to doing. Dear Mikhail was stuck in a tunnel with me until we reached the Lonely Cottage! Dear Matt had gotten lost over there himself, so the three of us were conversing up until we were notified of the murders!”