#Atomic weapons development

[thetruearchmagos]

You know you're on the right track with your Worldbuilding when your thoughts about early atomic weapons are filed in your head under the title "Kill Them All: Proliferation, Altercation, And The Spectre of Annihilation In The Hangman's Half-Decade"

[thepastisalreadywritten]

On 6 August 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.

Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.

Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”

The Manhattan Project

Even before the outbreak of war in 1939, a group of American scientists — many of them refugees from fascist regimes in Europe — became concerned with nuclear weapons research being conducted in Nazi Germany.

In 1940, the U.S. government began funding its own atomic weapons development program, which came under the joint responsibility of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the War Department after the U.S. entry into World War II.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with spearheading the construction of the vast facilities necessary for the top-secret program, codenamed “The Manhattan Project” (for the engineering corps’ Manhattan district).

Over the next several years, the program’s scientists worked on producing the key materials for nuclear fission — uranium-235 and plutonium (Pu-239).

They sent them to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn these materials into a workable atomic bomb.

Early on the morning of 16 July 1945, the Manhattan Project held its first successful test of an atomic device — a plutonium bomb — at the Trinity test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

No Surrender for the Japanese

By the time of the Trinity test, the Allied powers had already defeated Germany in Europe.

Japan, however, vowed to fight to the bitter end in the Pacific, despite clear indications (as early as 1944) that they had little chance of winning.

In fact, between mid-April 1945 (when President Harry Truman took office) and mid-July, Japanese forces inflicted Allied casualties totaling nearly half those suffered in three full years of war in the Pacific, proving that Japan had become even more deadly when faced with defeat.

In late July, Japan’s militarist government rejected the Allied demand for surrender put forth in the Potsdam Declaration, which threatened the Japanese with “prompt and utter destruction” if they refused.

General Douglas MacArthur and other top military commanders favored continuing the conventional bombing of Japan already in effect and following up with a massive invasion, codenamed “Operation Downfall.”

They advised Truman that such an invasion would result in U.S. casualties of up to 1 million.

In order to avoid such a high casualty rate, Truman decided – over the moral reservations of Secretary of War Henry Stimson, General Dwight Eisenhower and a number of the Manhattan Project scientists – to use the atomic bomb in the hopes of bringing the war to a quick end.

Proponents of the A-bomb — such as James Byrnes, Truman’s secretary of state — believed that its devastating power would not only end the war but also put the U.S. in a dominant position to determine the course of the postwar world.

'Little Boy' and 'Fat Man' Are Dropped

Hiroshima, a manufacturing center of some 350,000 people located about 500 miles from Tokyo, was selected as the first target.

After arriving at the U.S. base on the Pacific island of Tinian, the more than 9,000-pound uranium-235 bomb was loaded aboard a modified B-29 bomber christened Enola Gay (after the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets).

The plane dropped the bomb — known as “Little Boy” — by parachute at 8:15 in the morning.

It exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city.

Hiroshima’s devastation failed to elicit immediate Japanese surrender, however, and on August 9, Major Charles Sweeney flew another B-29 bomber, Bockscar, from Tinian.

Thick clouds over the primary target, the city of Kokura, drove Sweeney to a secondary target, Nagasaki, where the plutonium bomb “Fat Man” was dropped at 11:02 that morning.

More powerful than the one used at Hiroshima, the bomb weighed nearly 10,000 pounds and was built to produce a 22-kiloton blast.

The topography of Nagasaki, which was nestled in narrow valleys between mountains, reduced the bomb’s effect, limiting the destruction to 2.6 square miles.

Aftermath of the Bombing

At noon on 15 August 1945 (Japanese time), Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender in a radio broadcast.

The news spread quickly.

“Victory in Japan” or “V-J Day” celebrations broke out across the United States and other Allied nations.

The formal surrender agreement was signed on September 2, aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.

Because of the extent of the devastation and chaos — including the fact that much of the two cities' infrastructure was wiped out — exact death tolls from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain unknown.

However, it's estimated roughly 70,000 to 135,000 people died in Hiroshima and 60,000 to 80,000 people died in Nagasaki, both from acute exposure to the blasts and from long-term side effects of radiation.

[citytogalaxy]

Everyone making their oppenheimer hot takes sound like they regurgitated the most shallow, basic understanding of whatever paltry 9th grade education they got about ww2.

[brain4stew]

Killers with a reader that has been kicking bosses’ asses in different games, worlds and etc, etc…

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1x1x1x1

• Did not expect that YOU… Of all survivors and killers… Has accomplished something like defeating, humans, machinery, demons and possibly even literal GODS…

• You seem to frail, weak and vulnerable to them, it honestly shocks him, to hear your accomplishments. (But she also strangely loves it…)

• He’d ask you to spar with him occasionally. Normally it ends up with her being on the ground, under you, or with them being unconscious, as you have to carry them to the killer’s cabin…

• After a lot of that, strangely enough, she’d develop… Feelings. For you. He’d be in denial of those feelings at first, but they’d eventually accept their feelings for you.

• Of course, with his awfully high pride, they do not tell you about her feelings for you. They think it’d make them seem weak.

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John Doe

• Genuinely? Confused.

• Doesn’t understand how YOU of all beings, has been able to do all that. You seem so easy to break in his opinion.

• Doesn’t spar with you, as he’s a bit unsure if you can actually handle the corruption he may inflict on you, if you two ever were to spar.

• Does develop feelings for you, but eventually ends up forgetting those feelings. Causing a loop with those feelings.

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Jason

• Confused how you managed all that, but is also amazed.

• He sees you as some sort of “Villain” or “Hero” he used to dream of when he was a kid, before… All that happened to him and his mother.

• His mother keeps telling him that you’re the “Hero/Villain” he’s been dreaming, and thinking of. (She enables the thinking and dreams, to make him feel great about his actions, his strength and all that.)

• He and his mother thinks you’re awesome from all your accomplishments.

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C00lkidd

• Sees you as a badass person. Maybe even sees you as his role model. (Cough. His dad basically. Cough.)

• He always asks you to tell him about your accomplishments, when he’s going to sleep. (He ends up falling asleep to when you tell him about when you fought a literal emotion demon. HATRED from blocktales smh…)

• You’re his role model, and always plays with you, unless you’re sparring with 1x4.

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Mafioso

• This guy… Actually finds it intriguing that you have so many accomplishments, and was tempted to recruit you in the mafia. (Eunoia said no.)

• His goons ask you if you are able to lift and carry lots of things, or even people. You lifted all 4 of his goons, carrying them in your arms, which shocked them and made them giddy for the possible next time you pick them up.

• Mafioso once had a far too heavy object on him, where he was literally crushed, like a rabbit/bunny pancake (that one video of a bunny laying flat after a cage like object fell on it). His goons did try and help, even Eunoia tried. But, they couldn’t help him.

• So what happened then? Eunoia called you over, and you helped him. When I tell you, that this man, fell head over heels for you right then and there…

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Azure

• Now, they normally wouldn’t be impressed, but when they heard you take down a literal CULT, that had plenty of potential hazard/atomic weapons? WOW.

• They actually asked you if you fought anyone, or anything similar to what they are now. And you, of course, say yes, that you have. You told them everything about the fight, and how you struggled a bit, due to the tentacles.

• And dear god, you swear you saw their tentacles swirl and make small heart shapes as they listened to you.

• They occasionally pick you up out of nowhere, just to see how you’ll react, and how you’ll get out of their grasp. Hands, arms, tentacles, you name it.

• They also ask you to pick them up and carry them a bit, although that is extremely rare for them to ask of you. But when they do ask that, you do pick them up and carry them around, careful of their tentacles and all that.

• The way they fell in love felt weird for them.

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Noli

• This guy, he’s a bit of a prick.

• He sometimes teases you about your accomplishments, and how unlucky you are with those you had to fight.

• You in return, grab his leg and hold home upside down to shut him up, momentarily.

• He’s surprised by how strong you actually are, because he thought you weren’t strong, even with your accomplishments…

• This guy, actually wants to see how you’ll do against a dangerous exploiter/hacker… But doesn’t know how to ask you about that.

• He does ask you occasionally to pick him up when he’s a bit exhausted, which you do. You just, pick him up, and let him rest in your arms, as you go about your day with him in your arms.

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Guest 666

• I genuinely have no idea how to write for this idiot.

• He’s confused, but also amazed by your accomplishments.

• His tail, is just wagging whenever you tell him a story about one of your accomplishments, he’s listening intently.

• He occasionally asks you if you can even lift him up and carry him. You did once, and it legit scared the fuck outta him, and he most of the time, doesn’t ask you to pick him up again.

• He wonders what Noob will think of you, but his thoughts get cut off by you sparring with 1x4, which he pays A LOT of attention on.

[binghe-malewife-goals]

Biggest dingus of the year

[https-bobreynolds]

reluctant heart

pairings: platonic! thunderbolts* x enchantress! reader, robert ‘bob’ reynolds/the void x enchantress! reader

summary: moments where the enchantress shows that she cares, even though she would never admit it.

warnings: curse words, enchantress should be a warning herself, blood, injuries, and magic.

author’s note: look man i’m sorry, this is so ass i hope this is readable😭😭 this is… what you call a brain vomit??? i have a major headache rn, have tons of my finals exam deadline DUE IN A FEW HOURS, but i really wanted to include two fic scenes for each members (i got carried away oops) READ TILL THE END IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ENCHANTRESS X READER AS WELL

james ‘bucky’ barnes

“this one broods like it is a full-time occupation. what century is he mourning? all of them?”

bucky didn’t talk much, which the enchantress liked. but he watched. he analyzed. he asked smart questions, even if he only used five words at a time.

over time, they developed a rhythm in battle. she’d clear the path, he’d cover her blind spots. quiet, efficient.

one time, he handed her a knife mid-fight, the kind made of vibranium with a leather-wrapped hilt. she spun it in her hand, then raised a brow.

“you gift weapons like they are poetry.”

he didn’t answer, but he smirked.

she almost smiled.

bucky was always first to clock danger, always had your back. he didn’t flinch around her magic, didn’t fear her like the rest of them.

she once called him “the least irritating man with a metal limb”.

she would stand behind him during briefings.

he once left a knife near her altar. her fingers hovered over it, then left a spell tucked in its leather grip. a rune of silence. of peace.

she lets him train in her magical barrier zones to test his knives.

she once stitched a cut on his jaw with glowing thread and didn’t insult him for bleeding.

once, after a particularly vicious mission, she found him alone on the rooftop, sharpening his knife in silence.

she appeared beside him in a blink.

“you mourn with such commitment. what would the winter soldier say?”

he didn’t look up. “he’d probably ask you to stop reading his mind.”

a beat of silence.

then she sat beside him, not close, but close enough.

“i do not mourn. but i have known what it means to carry blood like it is your own.”

he nodded.

they didn’t speak again for an hour. and she stayed.

ava starr

“this one walks like she is moments from ceasing to exist. how fitting.”

enchantress saw ava as volatile, broken, and far too reactive. magic and quantum instability do not mix.

but then she saw her fight.

uncontrolled but brutal. ava would tear through enemies like smoke with teeth. no flair. no showboating. just pain.

she respected that.

once, when ava phased through a collapsing bridge to save a child, enchantress shielded the exit, not because she cared, obviously, but because the structure was “inefficiently designed and offensive to the eye.”

later, ava said, “thanks.”

enchantress replied, “i merely wished to avoid your atoms becoming someone else’s mess.”

but her magic was gentler the next time ava faltered.

“i tolerate her presence. she is… hauntingly efficient.”

enchantress subtly adjusts her spell radius so ava can phase safely.

once, when ava collapsed mid-fight, phasing out, half-conscious, it was enchantress who caught her mid-fall. “you will not die. not until I say so.”

she once left a note on ava’s locker: “stabilization rune. do not waste it.” no signature, but ava kept it anyway.

another time when ava got cornered by tech-augmented soldiers, glitching, faltering. it was enchantress who threw a wall of shimmering emerald fire to block the incoming blast.

“do not shatter. it is… irritating to repair quantum dust.”

ava, catching her breath, replied, “you’re such a bitch.”

enchantress tilted her head. “flattery will not win me over.”

later, ava phased through her shield during a drill, a stupid dare from yelena, and landed a hit.

instead of retaliation, enchantress smirked. “impressive. try that again and i’ll atomize your molecules into alphabet soup.”

ava grinned back. “you’re learning how to joke. that’s terrifying.”

yelena belova

“this one laughs too easily. she dances in fire as if it cannot burn.”

yelena is everything the enchantress is not: snarky, warm, reckless in joy. she jokes with knives, flirts with chaos, and annoys with purpose.

enchantress loathed her.

until one mission, yelena cracked a joke mid-battle, something absurd about “stabby girls sticking together”, and enchantress laughed.

out loud.

everyone heard it.

she incinerated the next five hydra agents in cold fury.

later, yelena nudged her and said, “you’ve got a soul under all that goddess drama, huh?”

enchantress’s eye twitched.

“speak again and i will summon a basilisk to dine on your bones.”

yelena winked. “so we’re friends now. got it.”

she sometimes lets yelena braid flowers into her hair after training, which she “forgot to vaporize.”

she lets yelena sleep against her shoulder on long flights. she hexes away yelena’s migraines in silence.

after one mission, where yelena deflected a shot meant for enchantress with her bare forearm, she looked up and said, grinning through the pain, “bet you’ll miss me when i’m gone.”

“do not test that theory,” enchantress whispered, sealing the wound with glowing green magic. “it is the only kindness you’ll get.”

enchantress once muttered, “i will burn the world if she dies” but only to you.

“why does she mock death like it’s a punchline? she is chaos without consequence.”

yelena annoyed her. with the relentless teasing. with the sarcasm. with the friendship bracelets.

yes, yelena made her one.

it said “MAGIC BAD BITCH 💅” in pink beads.

enchantress vaporized it. but the next day… she found it again. reconstructed. stronger. with added charms.

“try again,” yelena grinned. “this one has protective runes.”

enchantress incinerated them again.

later that week though, she replaced the destroyed bracelet with one of her own, etched in runes, disguised as a joke.

yelena wears it everywhere now.

she also once dared to sneak enchanted glitter into her cloak.

enchantress didn’t hex her.

instead, she made her levitate for three hours as punishment, but never once said, “i hate you.”

yelena, upside-down, shouted “this means we’re besties!”

john walker

“this one worships authority like it is a god, yet cannot comprehend divinity when it speaks to him.”

walker is everything she dislikes about men, loud, moralizing, self-important, and carrying that cursed shield like it holds weight in her realm.

he teases her constantly. calls her “witchy” and “disney villain-coded”, says she secretly likes them. once said she had a heart after she pulled him out of a crumbling helijet mid-mission.

she flung him into a wall so hard it cracked the plaster.

“you talk so much for a mortal whose strength lies in a puny shield.”

he groaned and said, “admit it. you like us.”

“i liked you better unconscious.”

still, she shows up first when he’s injured. always last to leave him behind.

she’d rather resurrect hela than ever admit that she has a soft spot for him.

she always shields him in battle “only because you’re a lightning rod for stupidity.”

but during a mission gone wrong, walker tackled a bomb off a bridge and almost didn’t make it back. his shield cracked. his ribs broke. but he saved a dozen lives. when he woke up in medbay, she stood over him. “you are a fool.”

he winced. “missed you too.”

she laid a rune on his chest and turned to leave.“that will heal the bone. but not the idiocy.”

“a man who clings to a shield like it’s the only part of himself worth preserving.”

“you know,” he once said after a mission, wiping blood from his lip, “you’re not that scary.”

she blasted him against a truck.

“speak again, and i shall reduce your tongue to ash.”

“still not that scary.” he wheezed.

they fought constantly, verbally, magically, and once in a team spar where she almost turned him into a goat. almost.

byt when he shielded ava from a blast with his own body, enchantress watched him differently. the next time he made a joke, she let it pass without comment.

once, during a blackout, the team sat around sharing stories. he shared one about his friend who tragically passed, quiet, genuine.

she didn’t speak after that.

but the next day, she conjured a charm and said: “wear it. not for you. for your friend’s memory.”

he blinked. “so you do care.”

alexei shostakov

“a relic. much like myself, only louder, and fueled by pickled ego.”

alexei is boisterous. boastful. calls her “mystical lady” and “magic mama” and once tried to arm-wrestle her.

she hexed his biceps into noodles for an hour.

but he’s also weirdly endearing. he means well, fights hard, bleeds without complaint, and disturbingly, sometimes makes her laugh.

he once handed her a hammer mid-mission and said, “now you look like a god.”

she didn’t hex him for three days after that.

she tolerates his proximity.

she lets him spar near her sacred altar (“you must stop bleeding on the glyphs”).

she healed his broken ribs after a mission, then denied it. “you imagined it. likely brain trauma.”

once, she saw him throw himself in front of a plasma cannon aimed for her. when she tried to chide him, he interrupted: “you are part of the team. i protect team.”

“foolish. sentimental. moron.” he grinned. “you say that like it’s new.”

she sighed and cast a protection spell on his bones. “you will live. regrettably.”

alexei always defends the team like a bear would its cubs. no hesitation. no fear. just fists, heart, and delusion.

he once stood in front of a hydra tank to shield her spell casting. took the hit. didn’t flinch.

“you’re welcome, my glowing queen.”

she stared at him. “you are the dumbest mortal i’ve ever begrudgingly admired.”

he grinned. “that’s basically love in your language, no?”

robert ‘bob’ reynolds/the void

“i knew you before light had a name. i remember the collapse of stars with you at my side.”

she never doubted bob.

and the void? he knows her. the ache of eternity. the gravity of being too much and too lonely for too long.

their bond is old. deeper than names. stranger than time. a flicker of love that doesn’t always look soft, but it’s there.

sometimes they float outside the tower, silent, watching the sky fracture in distant colors. saying nothing. needing nothing.

he once reached out, brushed her cheek with a shadowed hand, and said, “you’re softer than you pretend.”

she replied, “and you’re gentler than you believe.”

she doesn’t have to admit that she has a soft spot. the void already knows.

she calls him “beloved” in ancient tongues.

casts protective runes on him that glow only in darkness.

if the void breaks, she will break the world to rebuild him.

“he is the beginning and the ending. my mirror. my ruin. my solace.”

they understand each other beyond words.

oncr, during a night thick with stormlight, they stood side-by-side, watching lightning split the sky in silence.

“you miss it too.” she said, softly.

he nodded. “the quiet. the before.”

they rarely touch, but when they do, it’s like galaxies breathing against each other.

she once placed her hand over his chest and whispered a spell older than this universe.

“you are too much,” he whispered.

“so are you,” she replied.

“and still not enough for each other.”

“yet we stay.”

you

“a flame that believes in rain. beautiful. foolish. necessary.”

you’re the only one who speaks to her like she’s real. not a god. not a weapon. not a curse.

you call her out gently. you tell her things like “they’re not as bad as you think.”

and over time… she believes you.

she watches how you talk to them. how you protect them. and she learns. for you.

she once shielded the entire team with a dome of magic that pulsed in your color, but when asked, she said she did it to preserve her own resources.

you smiled anyway. you knew.

“you care about them,” you said one night, “you’re becoming part of this.”

she looked at you like you were the most terrifying thing in any dimension.

“speak of this again,” she whispered, “and i shall turn your tongue to ash.”

then added, quieter

“…but only briefly.”

you are the only one who can calm her when her powers spiral.

the only one who can summon enchantress with a whisper.

you’re the reason she protects the team. why she hasn’t scorched the earth clean. why she stays.

“a mortal. too kind. too soft. a flame dancing too close to gods.”

you were her tether. her reason.

the one who taught her that humanity wasn’t just weakness, it was choice.

you talked her down when her magic raged. held her hand after nightmares. defended her when the world called her a monster.

“they’re family.” you told her once, after she called the team a circus of fools.

“they are.” she said.

“they’re your circus now.”

she stared at you like you broke the sky.

“you are absurd.”

“you’re soft.”

“i will turn your lungs into lilacs.”

you smiled.

author’s note: so yes i do headcanon that since enchantress only comes out during the night or when ‘you’ summon her (which is always on the battlefield) most of their soft moments would appear during battle.

if i write another action-sequence fic centered around the enchantress being soft and protecting the others would y’all read it🥺 (i feel like you guys hate action sequences lmaooo)

tag list: @spongelll @lovetoalll

[reality-detective]

EXPOSED: DARPA’s Role in Creating AI Censorship Tools Now Used Against Americans

Mike Benz revealed to Joe Rogan how DARPA developed the AI-driven censorship technology now weaponized against free speech in America. Originally designed to monitor terrorist groups like ISIS, these tools evolved into "weapons of mass deletion," capable of eliminating entire political movements and controlling narratives with just a few lines of code. Benz compared this censorship technology to an "atom bomb" for speech, permanently altering political warfare by automating suppression without the need for a vast network of human censors. His research since 2016 uncovered how machine learning models trained on millions of tweets were used to map and censor politically sensitive topics, proving that these powerful tools, once intended for national security, have been turned inward against the American citizens. 🤔

[moonlitdesertdreams]

Skip the small talk

Request: None A/N: Again, I just want to thank everyone for supporting my stories and liking/commenting/reblogging/etc. It means the world to have such great reception to these one-shots. So please, enjoy this lil' story about the reader being a badass :) Tags: Fallout, Cooper Howard, Cooper Howard x F!Reader, Cooper Howard x You, Ghoul x Reader WARNINGS: Canon-Typical language and violence, drug use, decapitation Summary: You really weren't looking for trouble. All you wanted was something to eat, but of course things go awry. This is the Wasteland, after all.

Word Count: 2.6k+

(Gif Credit to @acecroft)

Thunder booms across the Wasteland, combining with the sound of heavy rain on metal rooftops. 

It continues in tandem with its partner Lighting, who illuminates the hazy green poison that hangs low in the air tonight. The storm has been raging for hours, and doesn’t seem to be on the verge of letting up anytime soon. 

After hours of tossing and listening to the howl of the storm, you decide to give up on sleep for the moment. The inn room you’d acquired is small but cozy, lit only by a couple candles that burn bright orange on the side table. You untangle yourself from Cooper where he lies half-naked beside you, scarred skin on display while in the security of your arms. As per usual, he crankily grumbles curses at you for causing a disturbance, but there’s no malice behind the words. His eyes blink open and lock on to you, immediately more alert at the prospect of you venturing away. 

“What’re y’doin’?” His question is thick with sleep, forced through the haze by this codependency you’ve developed on each other. 

You’re sitting on the edge of the bed, and reach a hand back to brush his arm gently. “Thunder’s keeping me up. I’m gonna go see if the saloon downstairs has anything in the way of food.”

Cooper opens his mouth to respond, but a cough cuts him off. You pluck his inhaler from the nightstand and press it into his waiting hand. The cough wasn’t unusual, but you’d been traveling for days on end in search of a bounty and knew Cooper was putting on a facade of toughness. Everyone needed rest, and The Ghoul just didn’t know when to admit it. 

“Go back to sleep.” You murmur, “I’ll only be a minute.”

He relents, but points a finger in your direction. “Fine. But they got anythin’ good, you bring me some back too, huh?”

You snatch the hand out of the air and press a kiss to his palm. “Yeah, yeah. Go to sleep.”

And since the Wasteland’s most fearsome bounty hunter would rather live through ten more atomic bombs than not have the last word, he scoffs. 

“Bossy fuckin’ woman.”

You giggle at Cooper’s tough love as you tug thick tights and a long gray jacket onto your body. Out of pure habit, you look around for a weapon. Yours are stashed on the other side of the bed, but Cooper’s shotgun is propped against the wall by the door. You opt to grab it, slinging the gun onto your shoulder and making sure the strap is secure before cracking open the door. 

The old clock hanging in the hall reads one thirty in the morning, but the sounds from the saloon downstairs continue as normal. Perhaps a bit more toned down than the daytime, but voices still mingle and dance together up the stairs. You trail after them, patting your pockets to ensure there’s enough caps to pay for a hot meal. Cooper’s half-canister of Jet and the wrinkled bounty poster sure ain’t going to pay for anything.

Eyes flicker towards you as you step onto the main floor, but they return back to their own tables soon enough. Everyone’s clad in raincoats or hats, outfitted for the weather. The town was a central point for a few settlements which popped up around it, and a major trade destination. The frequency of armed caravan guards passing through proved to be a rather decent deterrent for the unpleasant types, and most people had been nice to the point of frightening. 

At the bar, you pull out a rusty stool and settle onto it. All the other patrons but one are at tables closer to the door. The same man who’d rented the room to Cooper and yourself is down the bar chatting. 

“No surprise there. They’ve got some questionable folks runnin’ cargo these days.” The bartender is saying. He drops his hands on the bar. “But they take what they can get.”

The other man at the bar is older, just like the bartender. Dressed in dirty clothes, hood up with heavy gloves next to him, you figure he might be a lead farmer. You give a brief nod his way before focusing back on the bartender as he slides over. 

“What can I do for you, ma’am?” For someone out in the Wasteland, his face is kind. Weathered and probably suffering from radiation poisoning like the rest of you, but kind nonetheless. 

“Got anything hot to eat back there?” You ask, but think better of it. “Or anything to eat?”

“You’re in luck. One of the trade caravans left us with an old brahmin yesterday. Fresh brahmin steak if it tickles your fancy?”

You toss the caps onto the bar. “Sign me up.”

He busies himself at the cooking station for a few minutes, and eventually delivers a steaming steak in front of you. He checks on the other bar-goer and floats back over to you after a few minutes. 

“So, I have to ask.” He starts, “You came in here with that ghoul, yeah?”

You pause, mouth full and one hand instinctively freeing itself for a weapon if necessary. He must have caught onto your bristling, as he holds both hands up in a placating gesture.

“I’m sorry. It’s nothin’ bad, I was just curious. We don’t get a lot of ghouls around here, let alone people traveling with them.”

Hell, there was no need for him to tell you that. Cooper and yourself brought stares everywhere you went, discounting the cities you frequented that knew you both by reputation. You’d been called every name in the book in small communities like this, from chem-head, to ghoul-fucker and anything people could come up with.

“Yeah, we travel together. Easier to stay alive and make money when there’s two of us.” You saw off another piece of steak. 

“Bounty hunters, then?”

You shrug. “Sometimes. We do whatever needs doing most of the time. If the price is right.”

If Cooper was next to you, he’d be spewing threats of dismemberment and cutting out tongues for all the questions, but you didn’t mind. It was nice meeting someone who wasn’t immediately training crosshairs on your body. 

“Fair enough. I’m Clint, if you need anything.” The bartender wipes his hands with a rag and moves about his way, readjusting liquor bottles and carrying beers out to tables that are hollering for them. 

You finish your steak and gulp down the water Clint had set in front of you at some point. It washes away the gamey taste of mutated beef. You wait for him to return, as you were sure that fresh brahmin steak qualified as ‘anything good’ in Cooper’s eyes. 

“This seat taken?” 

You barely glance over your shoulder at the question, but give a half-hearted shrug. There was a whole bar and whoever this idiot is wants to sit next to you?

“Nuh-uh.”

The stool scrapes against the uneven wood floor, and you look over at the man that’s sat himself beside you. He’s younger than you expected, but vaguely familiar as if you’ve passed by him before. Brown hair slicked back close to his skull and shaved on the sides,  and a distinct pale discoloration on his chin. There’s a valiant attempt at beard growth but it’s patchy at best. 

You stare for just a moment before returning to the drops of water left in your dirty cup. 

“Now, I can see you’re not from around here.” His tone is boyish, almost conceited. 

Narrowly resisting an eyeroll, you set your cup back down. “Aren’t you just a right scholar?”

“I know a few things.” He waves his hand at Clint as he returns, and a beer is set in front of him moments later. “I know that you rode into town tonight, looking for a bounty.”

Lightning illuminates all of the cracks in the building. Thunder rolls. 

It takes a moment, but hits you as a smile is breaking out across the man’s face. You hadn’t passed by him before or traded. Your hand ghosts over the folded-up bounty poster in the pocket of your coat. 

“Name’s Spade, by the way.” 

Fuck. You’d never forget the name of a bounty. Especially the one set to inherit an entire Gunner outfit that had been threatening caravans for miles in every direction. 

“Spade, huh? Named after a shovel?” You prod. “No wonder you ain’t good at making friends.”

Spade calmly sips on his beer. “Neither are you, I hear. Though that might be due to your choice in company.”

Turning your head all the way towards him, you entertain the banter. Trying to avoid the subject of having a partner. You didn’t doubt if the shooting started that Cooper would come running down the stairs, but surprise is always an advantage. 

“Yeah, I’m starting to question it myself.” 

“I heard you were funny.” Spade chuckles, and withdraws a bulky device from underneath his coat. It crackles and pops like a geiger counter. “But I know you didn’t come here alone.”

You listen to the device pop, but don’t recognize it. 

“Say, how much Rad-Away do you go through? Traveling, eating, sleeping and whatever else with The Ghoul must really fuck with your health. His radiation signature is all over you.” Spade tucks the device away. 

“Don’t worry, I wear lead-lined panties.” You pat your thighs and stand. “And I don’t have time for this.”

Just as you make it to your feet, you notice the rest of the patrons do the same. They all shrug off their raincoats and reveal standard Gunner clothing, and you pause. Betraying nothing, you simply stare. Counting eleven opponents including Spade. Too busy thinking about how you grabbed Cooper’s shotgun and no extra ammo because you’re apparently a fool. The one combat knife in your boot is a viable choice, but tough to handle so many. You note Clint’s swift exit out the back door of the establishment.

“All this firepower for me?” 

Spade follows suit, and stands. He towers over you. 

“Don’t play dumb. I know they want me dead, and I’m not keen on letting that happen.”

You nod. “Understandable.”

And it’s then one of his men gets twitchy, and you’re diving behind the bar at the cocking of a gun. 

Spade hollers something at the men that sound suspiciously like “kill her”, but the thunder drowns him out. You press your back up against the bar for cover, and whip the shotgun into your grip. You feel at the knife in your boot, and brush past the Jet in your pocket. 

“Fuck it.” 

You draw out the inhalant and put it between your lips. Bracing for the adrenaline rush, you squeeze the Chems into your mouth. Not much of a frequent user, you resist the urge to cough and waste the effects. 

In just a few seconds, the world around you feels as if it’s moving in slow motion. You leap up from behind the bar, aiming and popping off the two rounds you have into the groupies that Spade brought along. One slug crashes through two of them while the other blows another’s head to pieces. 

Three down, eight to go. 

You sling the gun back over your shoulder and draw the knife. In your peripheral, you notice Spade reaching for his waistband. On pure instinct, you whip the knife in his direction. It finds his mark in his right eye, and he goes to the ground wailing. Just as the Jet begins to wear thin, you hop over the bar towards the crowd. 

“Fuck her up!”

You bend down near Spade’s writing frame, and rip the knife out of his eye socket with a wet squelch. Leaving him for last, you twirl the knife around and beckon at his cronies. 

“Well?”

You lunge towards the closest, thrusting the knife at his throat. He catches your wrist and twists it away, but you’re quick to jam your elbow upwards into his chin. It stuns him just enough that you can stab the knife into his guts and rip sideways. Entrails spill, and you reach through them to grab the pipe pistol at his hip. 

The next few go down via bullet, and you’re eventually left with only Spade alive. He’s clawed his way to his feet as you finished off his gang, and now has an automatic pistol pointed at your head. It wavers dangerously, as he’s half-blind and still spurting blood from the wounded eye socket.

You drop the pistol that’s been occupying your right hand and hold up the knife. 

“Wanna get reacquainted?” 

Spade bares his teeth at you. “And here we brought all the guns for The Ghoul.”

A shrug. “I’m sort of offended that I was underestimated.”

“I’ll make a note of it.” 

Spade pulls the trigger as soon as you duck. His intentions were given away by the fractional squint of his good eye, struggling to aim properly. You charge towards him beneath the rounds, colliding with his knees. The bullets fly upwards, blasting holes in a narrow column up the wall. It sends splinters flying near the staircase. 

“Motherfucker!”

About fucking time Cooper decided to show up.

You straddle Spade’s body and knock the pistol away. One boot keeps his wrist pinned down, and you bring the knife to his neck. 

“Next time,” You growl, tracing the blade along his Adam’s Apple, “Skip the small talk.”

Blood sprays as you apply pressure, puncturing through his carotid. You drag the knife to the side, leaning away to avoid the spray as best as possible. Until he stops twitching, you keep him pinned to the ground. 

“Well goddamn baby, next time invite me to the party.” The Ghoul, as Spade had referred to him, swaggers over to you.  His honey-soaked eyes survey the carnage. “I thought you was gettin’ something to eat, not takin’ out our bounty so soon.”

You wipe your bloody hands on Spade’s coat and huff indignantly. “And I thought your old ass would move faster when you heard gunshots.”

Cooper holds out a gloved hand to help you up. “Thunder blocked out the sound.”

“Excuses, excuses.” You grumble, allowing him to pull you up. 

The world spins, thanks to the adrenaline fading and Jet withdrawals. You stagger into Cooper, and he grips your arm. 

“You ain’t shot, are ya? Left the stimpaks upstairs.”

You shake your head and let him steer you onto a barstool. “Nah. Jet.”

Cooper whoops. “My girl! Well shouldn’t we just be celebratin’ this momentous occasion.”

“Fuck you. I’m not doing anything but going back to bed.” You press your forehead into his chest. “Fuckin’ Chems.”

The Ghoul chuckles and uses two fingers to hold and lift your chin. He kisses your lips, already dry from licking at them. You hold the lapels of his coat to keep upright and only pull away when another pang of dizziness wracks you. 

He steps away for a moment, and gets to work removing Spade’s head from his body to return for the money. 

“Damn.” You rub your temples. “How the hell do you use that shit all the time?”

“Years of practice.” Cooper hums, and finds a burlap sack behind the bar to package the head. “Sure worked good for you, huh?”

You hop from the stool, using the bar as a crutch to stay upright. “Uh huh, right up until it didn’t. Now I wanna go to bed. Desperately.”

“Fine, fine.” Cooper relents, bloody sack in hand. He follows you to the stairs, free hand ghosting over your hip. 

The Ghoul hovers behind as if you’re going to start cartwheeling back down, and herds you back into the rented room. You strip and crawl back in bed, hiding away from the cool air beneath the blanket. Cooper takes his time, but eventually blesses you with his body heat. You cozy up, letting it burn away the symptoms of Jet withdrawals.

“Did you ever get somethin’ to eat?”

thanks for reading, much love ❤

Read More: Fallout Masterlist

[lune-moon-nuit]

Does our future depend on technology?

Since the Industrial Revolution, technology has established itself as a major driver of human progress, profoundly transforming our lifestyles, knowledge, and relationship to the world. From medical breakthroughs to information technologies, through automation, technology seems to guide the major directions of our future. But can we truly say that our future depends on technology? Does this mean that technology determines our destiny, as an unavoidable, even uncontrollable force? Or should we understand that, while humanity's future is shaped by technology, it still relies on other dimensions — ethical, political, spiritual — that technology cannot encompass?

Thus, we shall ask: Is technology the necessary and sufficient condition for our future, or is it merely one means among others, subordinate to more fundamental human choices?

We will first examine how technology appears to be the primary engine of human evolution and thus of our future. Then, we will show that it does not necessarily guarantee a desirable future and that it cannot by itself guide humanity. Finally, we will argue that if our future does depend on technology, it is insofar as we choose how to use it — which brings us back to our ethical and political responsibility.

I. Technology as the decisive engine of human development

Technology, understood as the set of means invented by humans to transform their environment, is one of the fundamental traits of humanity. Since prehistoric times, the use of tools has distinguished Homo habilis from its ancestors: technology appears as consubstantial to our species, as Henri Bergson points out in Creative Evolution: “Man is the being who makes tools.”

Since then, every technological advance has marked a major turning point in history: writing, printing, the steam engine, electricity, the Internet… all these inventions have radically changed our societies, our modes of production, communication, and thought. Today, innovations in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics, or energy heavily shape economic models, public policies, and ecological prospects for tomorrow.

In this sense, the future seems to depend on our ability to invent new technologies, to respond with technical means to the challenges of our time: climate crisis, pandemics, aging populations, resource scarcity. From a deterministic perspective, technology appears not only as a driving force but as a condition for humanity’s survival. This is what Heidegger discusses in The Question Concerning Technology, when he asserts that modern technology is no longer merely a tool, but a “challenging” of nature — a way of extracting all its available resources. It shapes our worldview, and therefore, our future.

II. But a future governed solely by technology is dangerous and illusory

However, to consider that our future depends exclusively on technology is to forget that it does not think for itself. It is a means, not an end. It is at the service of human intentions — for better or for worse. History abounds in examples of technology being used for destructive purposes: nuclear weapons, mass surveillance, uncontrolled genetic manipulation. As Hans Jonas warns, technological progress does not necessarily imply moral progress.

Technology can therefore both serve the future and harm it, depending on how it is used. It is a power that is fundamentally ambivalent. The atomic bomb and radiation therapy both use nuclear energy, but their aims are radically different. Far from automatically ensuring a better future, technology raises fundamental ethical questions: how far should we go in manipulating life? Are we still free in a world dominated by algorithms? Who truly benefits from technological innovation?

Consequently, reducing the future to a technical dependency would be to deny humanity’s capacity to choose, to exercise free will. It would mean abandoning our future to a logic of efficiency and profitability that ignores essential values such as justice, freedom, or human dignity.

III. Our future depends on technology, insofar as we remain its masters

Rather than viewing technology as a fatality, we must acknowledge that our future depends on how we design, regulate, and direct it. Humans remain the originators of technology: it is the fruit of our inventive mind, but also of our collective choices. In this sense, our future depends on technology only insofar as we integrate it within a broader political, philosophical, and ethical vision.

Hannah Arendt, in The Human Condition, emphasizes the distinction between labor, work, and action. While technology belongs to the domain of “work” — that is, fabrication — “action” involves freedom and responsibility. It is through political action, democratic debate, education, and critical reflection that humanity can direct the use of technology toward a desirable future.

Moreover, some of the most crucial questions for our future — such as the meaning of life, social justice, the relationship to others or to nature — cannot be answered by technology. These questions concern our deepest humanity. Technology can offer solutions to problems, but it does not define what a good life is, what a just world is, or what a harmonious society looks like. These concerns belong to philosophy, culture, and ethics.

Therefore, our future does not depend on technology per se, but on our ability to inscribe it within a vision of the world that is both humane and responsible.

Conclusion

It would be unrealistic to deny that technology plays a fundamental role in shaping our future: it transforms our ways of living, addresses major challenges, and opens unprecedented possibilities. But it is not neutral, nor self-sufficient. The future cannot rely solely on a means, without reflection on the ends.

Thus, our future does depend on technology, not as a fatality, but as a choice — the choice to use it for the common good, in accordance with human values. The real question is not whether technology will shape our future, but whether we will be able to shape technology toward a truly human future.

[spa-ghett0]

Are there any other interesting tidbits/changes in the Sonic movie novelization?

I’ll be honest, I didn’t read the first book lol I was really only interested in whether the writers had given Tails more of a backstory (which they did… kinda), so that’s why I read the second. However! I did read reviews online that said the first developed Tom & Sonic’s relationship more than in the movie.

Notable mentions in the 2nd book:

•Sonic 2 takes place 8 months after Sonic 1

• Tails spent many months seemingly looking for Sonic… He built those weapons Maddie & Rachel used at the wedding to account for the “natural disasters, dangerous adversaries, and booby traps” he encountered. (I mean!! That’s a whole tv show in itself!!)

• He also built a gun that atomizes things and he’s afraid of it, but he keeps it in his arsenal as a last resort. The text says that he isn’t sure it should be used, which is so interesting to me.

• I think he originally set out to look for the Master Emerald, but the Miles Electric (not what it's called in this universe but that’s what it is) kept picking up its energy across different planets... and somehow he knew that energy belonged to Sonic?

• Earth is the planet the rest of the galaxy is warned about lol

• Knuckles calls Sonic a Child of Mobius. Tails says that's "the traditional home of our kind".

• Tails is looking to find Sonic before “their enemies” do (weird that they have common enemies when they’ve never met?? WHO has Tails pissed off?????? Paramount!! I need to know!!)

• He was ready and willing to prepare Wade's garage for a siege attack (in exchange for stealing the police cruiser and driving it off a cliff). So, again—who has Tails pissed off?

• Instead of "The Master Emerald? That's just a bedtime story!" "Well, he believes it's real," it's "That's just a bedtime story!" "No, it's real. I should know. I think I’m one of the few still looking for it.” (What if one of his ‘enemies’ is Rouge? 👀)

• Tails runs the red light, and Sonic takes the wheel. Meanwhile, Tails climbs in the backseat of the cruiser to build speed boosters mid-chase 'cause Sonic was complaining they were going too slow xD. (This is where the "Promise? Promise you won't go anywhere?" happens :'))

• Tradition among the echidnas was to do an organ swap to make an alliance. Knuckles just breaks Eggman's hand instead, but that's… a part of the lore now. (edit: this is in my Top 5 favorite things from this book. I can imagine someone pitching this idea & the writer’s room going “what the fuck this is a kids movie” lmao)

• Tails offered to help Sonic in Siberia. No "I'm not a field guy!" protests here!

• Short Tails vs Eggman on the mountain (with very Sonic Raised Tails vibes 🥹; the text even says "Tails mocked the villain, almost like Sonic would have")

• Sonic doesn't believe he can fight Eggman and Knuckles alone after the wedding. Tom actually gives him a pep talk.

• Eggman's full name is Ivo Gerald Robotnik (Is that canon in other sonic medias?? I tried looking it up, but I don't see his name like that anywhere, yet I swear I already knew before I read it… *Is his full name canon, I mean. Ivo Gerald Robotnik.)

• Book Sonic reminds me of Modern Sonic more than his movie counterpart sometimes tbh

• There are multiple holograms of Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails at the start of the robot fight instead of just Tails.

• Maddie and Tom literally run through fire to reach Sonic

• Tails names Super Sonic!

• Instead of summoning a chili dog to prove he's not been corrupted by the Emerald, Sonic makes a fart noise with his armpit that has the "decibel of a bomb blast"

• Sonic recreates the Master Emerald, not Knuckles

• "Gotta go fast!" (when Sonic is running across the ocean to meet Eggman and Knuckles at the temple) and "Way past cool!" (post-battle when Tails introduces Knuckles to the power bump)

[burberrycanary]

This quote from CATWS came up in a recent discussion and I've found myself continuing to think about it:

Nick: You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff. Steve: Yeah, we compromised, sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so that people could be free.

The language here is vague, which I'd argue is a deliberate technique the MCU uses. Are they talking about everything the SSR members of Steve's generation did that Steve, like Fury, read about from files long after the fact? Things Steve might have been aware of—or partially aware of—at the time but not directly involved in or occurring under his command? "Compromises" Steve was personally involved in?

And what nasty stuff are they talking about? Developing and using atomic weapons? MKUltra? Or just the inherent nastiness of warfare, even when conducted within legal limits and according to international standards?

I'd argue that the text here is designed so that viewers with different political and ethical beliefs about warfare in general and American international projections of power in the 20th century in particular—as well as a range of preferred interpretations of Steve Rogers as a character and as an American propaganda figure—can take the reading they like from an inherently ambiguous text.

That's similar to how we see Steve's actual involvement in WWII through a brief power-fantasy montage and a hagiographic public exhibit at the Smithsonian—and yet the details in both of these parts of MCU canon are hard to square with the actual historical record or make even internally consistent. That leaves a lot of gaps for the viewer to project what they want onto Steve Rogers.

Because, in my view, that's fundamental to how the MCU version of Steve Rogers was written. These techniques—vagueness and strategic lacuna—allow audience members with opposing, even contradictory, core political beliefs to all be able to walk away feeling like Steve Rogers agrees with them. It maximizes the potential global market for this product.

But because of this, it's frustratingly difficult to ground any fleshed-out, particularized interpretation of Steve in canon. At the same time, this is also an opportunity for fans and fannish engagement: that's a lot of white space. For better or worse, there are a lot of different interpretations of Steve that are equally compatible with canon evidence. I don't see the point in trying to argue that one particular reading from among this range is the most correct, since we all choose how to resolve the internal contradictions, what to weight more heavily and how to fill in the gaps.

Steve is a character built around having moral authority but deliberately not tied to many specific moral positions: "I don't like bullies." Good as far as it goes. But as we've seen in contemporary politics, who is considered the bully in a situation is tragically and disturbingly manipulable. (That I lose sleep over the scale and success of this manipulation is not the point of this post.) And yet I think this problem is baked into the propaganda nature of Steve Rogers as Captain America, who represents the American military fighting "bullies" abroad. This problem becomes more acute once Steve comes out of the ice.

But to circle back to the quote that sparked these musings, even WWII—almost universally viewed as America's most righteous and morally justified war—contained a lot of ugliness and moral compromises. I struggle with the implications of Steve Rogers as the fantasy of war as a system that an individual can participate in without moral compromises if, on an individual basis, you are a good enough person. That's not how systems work, especially not authoritarian systems. And propaganda is a fantasy with political teeth. This is my particular interpretive cross to bear as someone who has come to love this character deeply. These concerns drive how I personally fill in the lacuna of canon. I don't claim it's the text; it's how I'm making the text meaningful for myself. Ultimately, I'd argue that MCU Steve Rogers is a powerful fictional figure because he's a doorway to exploring these big, interesting, important ideas about history and morality that can be both uplifting and troubling. To take only one of those two sides and call it a complete truth is to ignore either the power of ideals or the reality of history.

I think it's telling that the MCU came out with major non-ambiguous writing for Steve only once they'd reached the end of this economic run with the character—no, he really is a guy who wants to go back to the American mid-century, which he thinks is a "beautiful" life, and wow is that inescapably taking a political stance. And this unambiguous writing choice ended up permanently alienating a segment of fans, myself included. I don't watch MCU films anymore. Writing choices the MCU made for Steve to remove the core ambiguity from the character that let him support a wide range of readings is one of the two main reasons why I've stopped watching MCU films.

Ironically, in the pursuit of maximum shareholder value, Disney accidentally created something interesting across this series of superhero action films for a global market. And yet this multi-national corporation of very questionable politics and morals—made up of individual actors with their own politics and agendas—can't actually go back and change the Captain America trilogy, which as texts remain ours to read and interpret and explore, even if they can send Steve Rogers back to the past and keep on trying to rewrite his story. Except it's already out there.

So here perhaps is the comfort: we, the audience, always get the last word.

[vincenzonova]

I hope you don't mind me picking at your brain for the Code Lyoko stuff you've made. Mostly about the classes, are there just three? Force, Strike and Creative or are there more. Also if it's just three it creates a well fitting fighter-mage-thief dynamic which is very cool. And going off that Im assuming that for the OG designs William is Force class, Odd, Yumi and Ulrich are Strike Class and Aelita is obviously a Creative Class Did I get that right?

I'd love a chance to ramble about this concept rn, so sorry if this is a little long. I'm not completely married to there only being three, but for the time being, yes.

The three classes were designed as a way for the supercomputer to appropriately assign powers and weapons that complimented the natural abilities of the person being scanned (granted this was 80s technology and even though Hopper and his team were operating with some SCP-level tech, it still wasn't always exact or perfect)

Creativity Class: Assigned to individuals who were not particularly strong or fast but whose CT scans showed enhanced activity in the creative regions of the brain. Typically given weightless energy-based weapons and environmental abilities. Distinguished by elf ears (because Hopper was a nerd and a Tolkien fan in his youth). Examples: Aelita, Jeremie, Milo (William's Clone) Hopper

Force Class: Assigned to individuals who show promising physical strength. They are not given any secondary physical features but are fitted with body armor and weapons that best align with their developed muscles. Their powers are designed to assist in combat if needed, but take a lot of strength to wield for very long. Examples: Yumi, Ulrich, William, Jim

Strike Class: Assigned to individuals who have more agility, natural energy or above-average senses. They are given lightweight or long-range weapons meant for quick and quiet offensive measures. Their natural abilities are often 'boosted' and their secondary powers are designed to assist their party outside of combat, rather than during. These powers, however, take a lot of energy from the supercomputer and have to be used sparingly (Odd's future-vision makes use of the machine's quantum-computing to map out probable event outcomes down to an atomic level, effectively being a Micro-Return-To-The-Past command). Strike-class avatars are distinguished by animalistic features such as tails/horns/claws/etc. Examples: Odd, Sissi

(Strike-Class is very ADHD-coded)

Across all classes, most of the avatar-assets that were pre-programmed into computer are of Japanese or Indonesian origin (An incredible coincidence for the Lyoko Warriors since Kadic Academy taught Pencak Silat)

Hope that all makes sense!

[alyfoxxxen]

Trump contradicts spy chief Tulsi Gabbard on Iran's nuclear program | Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/trump-contradicts-his-spy-chief-irans-nuclear-program-2025-06-17/

》WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday repudiated Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's assessment that Iran has not been building a nuclear weapon, publicly contradicting his spy chief for the first time during his second term.

In rejecting his top spy's judgment, Trump appeared to embrace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's justification for launching airstrikes last week on Iranian nuclear and military targets, saying he believed Tehran was on the verge of having a warhead.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned early to Washington from the G7 summit in Canada, Trump was asked how close he believed Iran was to having a nuclear weapon.

"Very close," he responded.

When told that Gabbard testified to Congress in March that the U.S. intelligence community continued to judge that Tehran was not working on a nuclear warhead, Trump replied, "I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having one."

Trump's comments recalled his clashes with U.S. spy agencies during his first term, including over an assessment that Moscow worked to sway the 2016 presidential vote in his favor and his acceptance of Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials.

Asked for comment, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence pointed to a CNN reporter's post on X quoting Gabbard as saying on Capitol Hill that she and Trump were "on the same page" regarding the status of Iran's nuclear program.

Gabbard also told Congress that U.S. spy agencies did not believe that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had ordered the restarting of a nuclear weapons program that the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency assessed ended in 2003.

Iran denies developing nuclear weapons, saying its uranium enrichment program was only for peaceful purposes.

A source with access to U.S. intelligence reports told Reuters that the assessment presented by Gabbard had not changed.

They said that U.S. spy services also judged that it would take up to three years for Iran to build a warhead with which it could hit a target of its choice, a finding first reported by CNN.

Some experts, however, believe that it could take Iran a much shorter time to build and deliver an untested crude nuclear device, although there would be no guarantee that it would work.

Trump has frequently disavowed the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies, which he and his supporters have charged - without providing proof - are part of a "deep state" cabal of U.S. officials opposed to his presidency.

Gabbard, a fierce Trump loyalist, has been among the president's backers who have aired such allegations.《

[fabronics]

Ok. So. I'm thinking about the lore this upcoming patch, and Chamber's voiceline to ally Harbor, so a few things:

I think Chamber was betrayed by his previous team during his time at Fracture.

I have yet to watch Oppenheimer or read the Modern Prometheus, but I have read about Los Alamos, and I can see that the Valorant devs drew direct inspiration from what happened in history, specifically in US history.

Most of the people who had worked on the atomic bomb did not know they were working on the weapon. Only for a few did know and chose to leave everyone in the dark of the consequences of their actions.

I'm of the opinion that, what happened on Facture is the same: it was a high risk project where only a few handful knew.

I believe thats when Chamber eventually figured out he was working on a weapon and where he lost his trust with his previous team.

A common enemy within a distrustful team is what pushed Chamber and his double to work together and put the facility to an indefinite stop. Was it right? No. Was letting them develop another weapon that could wipe out an entire world also right? Also, no.

The way I see his decision to put a stop with the project (and thus kill so many people that inevitably created Fracture) is the Trolley Problem. Regardless of your choice, you will have blood on your hands. You can choose to do nothing, which ends up with killing more people, or you choose to kill one person but end up saving more people.

Of course, the Trolley Problem is a lot more complicated, and the aftermath of Fracture is even more so, despite it being fictional.

The way I view this is the aftermath of Fracture are for those people who were anti-nuclear bombs (which is beyond reasonable), but they were also the ones to say, "well if I was in Los Alamos, I wouldn't let the development of atomic bombs happen." But these things are far more complex.

Systems have been refined to make us humans docile, happy, and content. It becomes harder to keep systems accountable when its an abstract idea rather than an individual person.

Chamber was able to see through the bullshit and make a decision. It was still an awful decision, and yet, he decided that killing this project dead is better than one or the other world to cease to exist.

Afterwards, of course, Chamber was still guilty. That was the consequences of his action, and something Chamber was willing to put himself through.

Fade's voiceline is made prominent about his dossier.

Now, for Chamber's voiceline to Harbor as an ally. I was wondering who among the Valorant team will see Habor's fallout with his previous team's betrayal, and IMAGINE MY SHOCK IT WAS CHAMBER. Chamber noted that he was glad to see Harbor trust in a new team, with the implication that Chamber himself had gone through something similar to the betrayal Harbor had gone through.

I wonder if Chamber's distrust was born out of betrayal from one person on his previous team, similar to Harbor. Initially, I thought it was a group of people, but now with the upcoming patch, I think it may be one or two people. I'm not sure, obviously. I'm waiting for confirmation for this upcoming patch, but. Its FASCINATING that from a group of people, the betrayal can be traced to two individuals who I may now have a face and name to. Or, if these two people will lead us to the true betrayer behind the scenes. Because Chamber's on the hunt and he wants to make the first "cut" as he puts it to Brimstone.

Half-Baked Works Cited

Strawberry7 on Twitter helped me out! Please check out their cool threads that help me piece together this headcanon/theory. Their thread on Fracture and the Manhattan Project. This thread helped convince me to write this lmao and I'm not just a silly guy in a tinfoil hat. Their thread on the upcoming patch lore. This thread had me occupied the past few days.

Special thanks for Kingdom Archives. Ya'll the real ones. https://kingdomarchives.com/

Under Chamber's voicelines to Harbor on match start, go check it out! Not sure how to include it here, but I had seen it also via Kingdom Archives.

[snowywolf1005]

Can I request Asl x mother reader. So in punk hazard what if Ceaser brought reader back to life. (He took her dead body secretly after she was buried.) But the twist is tge mother reader is forced to listen to whatever Ceaser says, so yes she did almost kill Luffy and Ace. But in the end end she got her memories back.

I know this kinda wonky, it 3am.

There'll be changes in this story.

ASL X MOTHER READER

After you scrafic to save luffy and Ace, (F/N) take your body before shin godzilla destroy it of his atomic breath. (You ordered him to do it)

(F/N) has an idea and the place you buried. Well... (F/N) took you out of the coffin before you're buried. Making people believe you're buried.

(F/N) took your body to punk hazard, (F/N) knows someone who can help you. Ceasar. When (F/N) asks Ceasar to make you a suit body like you know the 'black widow movie 2021'.

Is that Antonia dreykov in a robot suit? If you don't know, go search it up. You were subjected to chemical conditioning developed by ceasar and (F/N), which made you a prisoner inside your own body and allowed ceasar to remotely control your every action.

In an enchanted (F/N), give ceasar a blood DNA of kaiju. (F/N) thought you're be better, but no. Ceasar trick (F/N), and he controls you to kill (F/N).

Ceasar thought it'll be fun using you as weapons of you can telepathy different kaiju and give them orders. Then (F/N) flee and escape, ceasar didn't care.

But that when luffy, ace, law, and the crew came. What luffy and ace reaction is seen in your face in a robot suit.

They try to talk to you to remember them while you guys fight each other.

"MOM! PLEASE! IT US!"

"MOTHER! DON'T DO THIS!"

"(Y/N)! DON'T YOU REMEMBER YOUR OWN SONS?! SNAP OUT OF IT!"

"I'M SORRY, THAT I GOT YOU KILLED! I SHOULDN'T HAVE LISTENING TO YOU, WHEN YOU SAID TO NEVER FOLLOW TEACH!"

But you don't listen. You just keep fighting.

Then (F/N) pull out a tiny music box, and she plays it. It is called 'a bunny with red eyes'.

It's one of the songs that your mother used to sing, and you used to sing it to your kids, your family. It all comes back to you.

You remember everything.

You remember you have a family.

You remember Roger save you.

You remember raising three boys.

You remember you made some friends who care about you.

When they notice, you come back to your original self. Luffy and Ace started to cry so hard that they hugged when you said their name.

You, your family, and your son crew defeat ceasar.

[kaijuno]

In light of Fall Out Boy’s GARBAGE cover of the song. Let’s learn about the original. Notice how they’re actually in chronological order instead of just random references 😒😒😒😒

1949

Harry Truman was inaugurated as U.S. president after being elected in 1948 to his own term; previously he was sworn in following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He authorized the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War II, on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively.

Doris Day enters the public spotlight with the films My Dream Is Yours and It’s a Great Feeling as well as popular songs like “It’s Magic”; divorces her second husband.

Red China: The Communist Party of China wins the Chinese Civil War, establishing the People’s Republic of China.

Johnnie Ray signs his first recording contract with Okeh Records, although he would not become popular for another two years.

South Pacific, the prize-winning musical, opens on Broadway on April 7.

Walter Winchell is an aggressive radio and newspaper journalist credited with inventing the gossip column.

Joe DiMaggio and the New York Yankees go to the World Series five times in the 1940s, winning four of them.

1950

Joe McCarthy, the US Senator, gains national attention and begins his anti-communist crusade with his Lincoln Day speech.

Richard Nixon is first elected to the United States Senate.

Studebaker, a popular car company, begins its financial downfall.

Television is becoming widespread throughout Europe and North America.

North Korea and South Korea declare war after Northern forces stream south on June 25.

Marilyn Monroe soars in popularity with five new movies, including The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve, and attempts suicide after the death of friend Johnny Hyde who asked to marry her several times, but she refused respectfully. Monroe would later (1954) be married for a brief time to Joe DiMaggio (mentioned in the previous verse).

1951

The Rosenbergs, Ethel and Julius, were convicted on March 29 for espionage.

H-Bomb is in the middle of its development as a nuclear weapon, announced in early 1950 and first tested in late 1952.

Sugar Ray Robinson, a champion welterweight boxer.

Panmunjom, the border village in Korea, is the location of truce talks between the parties of the Korean War.

Marlon Brando is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire.

The King and I, musical, opens on Broadway on March 29.

The Catcher in the Rye, a controversial novel by J. D. Salinger, is published.

1952

Dwight D. Eisenhower is first elected as U.S. president, winning by a landslide margin of 442 to 89 electoral votes.

The vaccine for polio is privately tested by Jonas Salk.

England’s got a new queen: Queen Elizabeth II succeeds to the throne upon the death of her father, George VI, and is crowned the next year.

Rocky Marciano defeats Jersey Joe Walcott, becoming the world Heavyweight champion.

Liberace has a popular 1950s television show for his musical entertainment.

Santayana goodbye: George Santayana, philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist, dies on September 26.

1953

Joseph Stalin dies on March 5, yielding his position as leader of the Soviet Union.

Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Stalin for six months following his death. Malenkov had presided over Stalin’s purges of party “enemies”, but would be spared a similar fate by Nikita Khrushchev mentioned later in verse.

Gamal Abdel Nasser acts as the true power behind the new Egyptian nation as Muhammad Naguib’s minister of the interior.

Sergei Prokofiev, the composer, dies on March 5, the same day as Stalin.

Winthrop Rockefeller and his wife Barbara are involved in a highly publicized divorce, culminating in 1954 with a record-breaking $5.5 million settlement.

Roy Campanella, an African-American baseball catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, receives the National League’s Most Valuable Player award for the second time.

Communist bloc is a group of communist nations dominated by the Soviet Union at this time. Probably a reference to the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.

1954

Roy Cohn resigns as Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel and enters private practice with the fall of McCarthy. He also worked to prosecute the Rosenbergs, mentioned earlier.

Juan Perón spends his last full year as President of Argentina before a September 1955 coup.

Arturo Toscanini is at the height of his fame as a conductor, performing regularly with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on national radio.

Dacron is an early artificial fiber made from the same plastic as polyester.

Dien Bien Phu falls. A village in North Vietnam falls to Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap, leading to the creation of North Vietnam and South Vietnam as separate states.

“Rock Around the Clock” is a hit single released by Bill Haley & His Comets in May, spurring worldwide interest in rock and roll music.

1955

Albert Einstein dies on April 18 at the age of 76.

James Dean achieves success with East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and dies in a car accident on September 30 at the age of 24.

Brooklyn’s got a winning team: The Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series for the only time before their move to Los Angeles.

Davy Crockett is a Disney television miniseries about the legendary frontiersman of the same name. The show was a huge hit with young boys and inspired a short-lived “coonskin cap” craze.

Peter Pan is broadcast on TV live and in color from the 1954 version of the stage musical starring Mary Martin on March 7. Disney released an animated version the previous year.

Elvis Presley signs with RCA Records on November 21, beginning his pop career.

Disneyland opens on July 17, 1955 as Walt Disney’s first theme park.

1956

Brigitte Bardot appears in her first mainstream film And God Created Woman and establishes an international reputation as a French “sex kitten”.

Budapest is the capital city of Hungary and site of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Alabama is the site of the Montgomery Bus Boycott which ultimately led to the removal of the last race laws in the USA. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr figure prominently.

Nikita Khrushchev makes his famous Secret Speech denouncing Stalin’s “cult of personality” on February 25.

Princess Grace Kelly releases her last film, High Society, and marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

Peyton Place, the best-selling novel by Grace Metalious, is published. Though mild compared to today’s prime time, it shocked the reserved values of the 1950s.

Trouble in the Suez: The Suez Crisis boils as Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal on October 29.

1957

Little Rock, Arkansas is the site of an anti-integration standoff, as Governor Orval Faubus stops the Little Rock Nine from attending Little Rock Central High School and President Dwight D. Eisenhower deploys the 101st Airborne Division to counteract him.

Boris Pasternak, the Russian author, publishes his famous novel Doctor Zhivago.

Mickey Mantle is in the middle of his career as a famous New York Yankees outfielder and American League All-Star for the sixth year in a row.

Jack Kerouac publishes his first novel in seven years, On the Road.

Sputnik becomes the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, marking the start of the space race.

Chou En-Lai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, survives an assassination attempt on the charter airliner Kashmir Princess.

Bridge on the River Kwai is released as a film adaptation of the 1954 novel and receives seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

1958

Lebanon is engulfed in a political and religious crisis that eventually involves U.S. intervention.

Charles de Gaulle is elected first president of the French Fifth Republic following the Algerian Crisis.

California baseball begins as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants move to California and become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. They are the first major league teams west of Kansas City.

Charles Starkweather Homicide captures the attention of Americans, in which he kills eleven people between January 25 and 29 before being caught in a massive manhunt in Douglas, Wyoming.

Children of Thalidomide: Mothers taking the drug Thalidomide had children born with congenital birth defects caused by the sleeping aid and antiemetic, which was also used at times to treat morning sickness.

1959

Buddy Holly dies in a plane crash on February 3 with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, in a day that had a devastating impact on the country and youth culture. Joel prefaces the lyric with a Holly signature vocal hiccup: “Uh-huh, uh-huh.”

Ben-Hur, a film based around the New Testament starring Charlton Heston, wins eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Space Monkey: Able and Miss Baker return to Earth from space aboard the flight Jupiter AM-18.

The Mafia are the center of attention for the FBI and public attention builds to this organized crime society with a historically Sicilian-American origin.

Hula hoops reach 100 million in sales as the latest toy fad.

Fidel Castro comes to power after a revolution in Cuba and visits the United States later that year on an unofficial twelve-day tour.

Edsel is a no-go: Production of this car marque ends after only three years due to poor sales.

1960

U-2: An American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing the U-2 Crisis of 1960.

Syngman Rhee was rescued by the CIA after being forced to resign as leader of South Korea for allegedly fixing an election and embezzling more than US $20 million.

Payola, illegal payments for radio broadcasting of songs, was publicized due to Dick Clark’s testimony before Congress and Alan Freed’s public disgrace.

John F. Kennedy beats Richard Nixon in the November 8 general election.

Chubby Checker popularizes the dance The Twist with his cover of the song of the same name.

Psycho: An Alfred Hitchcock thriller, based on a pulp novel by Robert Bloch and adapted by Joseph Stefano, which becomes a landmark in graphic violence and cinema sensationalism. The screeching violins heard briefly in the background of the song are a trademark of the film’s soundtrack.

Belgians in the Congo: The Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) was declared independent of Belgium on June 30, with Joseph Kasavubu as President and Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister.

1961

Ernest Hemingway commits suicide on July 2 after a long battle with depression.

Adolf Eichmann, a “most wanted” Nazi war criminal, is traced to Argentina and captured by Mossad agents. He is covertly taken to Israel where he is put on trial for crimes against humanityin Germany during World War II, convicted, and hanged.

Stranger in a Strange Land, written by Robert A. Heinlein, is a breakthrough best-seller with themes of sexual freedom and liberation.

Bob Dylan is signed to Columbia Records after a New York Times review by critic Robert Shelton.

Berlin is separated into West Berlin and East Berlin, and from the rest of East Germany, when the Berlin Wall is erected on August 13 to prevent citizens escaping to the West.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion fails, an attempt by United States-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro.

1962

Lawrence of Arabia: The Academy Award-winning film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence starring Peter O’Toole premieres in America on December 16.

British Beatlemania: The Beatles, a British rock group, gain Ringo Starr as drummer and Brian Epstein as manager, and join the EMI’s Parlophone label. They soon become the world’s most famous rock band, with the word “Beatlemania” adopted by the press for their fans’ unprecedented enthusiasm. It also began the British Invasion in the United States.

Ole’ Miss: James Meredith integrates the University of Mississippi

John Glenn: Flew the first American manned orbital mission termed “Friendship 7” on February 20.

Liston beats Patterson: Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson fight for the world heavyweight championship on September 25, ending in a first-round knockout. This match marked the first time Patterson had ever been knocked out and one of only eight losses in his 20-year professional career.

1963

Pope Paul VI: Cardinal Giovanni Montini is elected to the papacy and takes the papal name of Paul VI.

Malcolm X makes his infamous statement “The chickens have come home to roost” about the Kennedy assassination, thus causing the Nation of Islam to censor him.

British politician sex: The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, has a relationship with a showgirl, and then lies when questioned about it before the House of Commons. When the truth came out, it led to his own resignation and undermined the credibility of the Prime Minister.

JFK blown away: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated on November 22 while riding in an open convertible through Dallas.

1965

Birth control: In the early 1960s, oral contraceptives, popularly known as “the pill”, first go on the market and are extremely popular. Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 challenged a Connecticut law prohibiting contraceptives. In 1968, Pope Paul VI released a papal encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae which declared artificial birth control a sin.

Ho Chi Minh: A Vietnamese communist, who served as President of Vietnam from 1954–1969. March 2 Operation Rolling Thunder begins bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply line from North Vietnam to the Vietcong rebels in the south. On March 8, the first U.S. combat troops, 3,500 marines, land in South Vietnam.

1968

Richard Nixon back again: Former Vice President Nixon is elected President in 1968.

1969

Moonshot: Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing, successfully lands on the moon.

Woodstock: Famous rock and roll festival of 1969 that came to be the epitome of the counterculture movement.

1974–75

Watergate: Political scandal that began when the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, DC was broken into. After the break-in, word began to spread that President Richard Nixon (a Republican) may have known about the break-in, and tried to cover it up. The scandal would ultimately result in the resignation of President Nixon, and to date, this remains the only time that anyone has ever resigned the United States Presidency.

Punk rock: The Ramones form, with the Sex Pistols following in 1975, bringing in the punk era.

1976–77

(An item from 1977 comes before three items from 1976 to make the song scan.)

Menachem Begin becomes Prime Minister of Israel in 1977 and negotiates the Camp David Accords with Egypt’s president in 1978.

Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980, but he first attempted to run for the position in 1976.

Palestine: a United Nations resolution that calls for an independent Palestinian state and to end the Israeli occupation.

Terror on the airline: Numerous aircraft hijackings take place, specifically, the Palestinian hijack of Air France Flight 139 and the subsequent Operation Entebbe in Uganda.

1979

Ayatollah’s in Iran: During the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the West-backed and secular Shah is overthrown as the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gains power after years in exile and forces Islamic law.

Russians in Afghanistan: Following their move into Afghanistan, Soviet forces fight a ten-year war, from 1979 to 1989.

1983

Wheel of Fortune: A hit television game show which has been TV’s highest-rated syndicated program since 1983.

Sally Ride: In 1983 she becomes the first American woman in space. Ride’s quip from space “Better than an E-ticket”, harkens back to the opening of Disneyland mentioned earlier, with the E-ticket purchase needed for the best rides.

Heavy metal suicide: In the 1980s Ozzy Osbourne and the bands Judas Priest and Metallica were brought to court by parents who accused the musicians of hiding subliminal pro-suicide messages in their music.

Foreign debts: Persistent U.S. trade deficits

Homeless vets: Veterans of the Vietnam War, including many disabled ex-military, are reported to be left homeless and impoverished.

AIDS: A collection of symptoms and infections in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is first detected and recognized in the 1980s, and was on its way to becoming a pandemic.

Crack cocaine use surged in the mid-to-late 1980s.

1984

Bernie Goetz: On December 22, Goetz shot four young men who he said were threatening him on a New York City subway. Goetz was charged with attempted murder but was acquitted of the charges, though convicted of carrying an unlicensed gun.

1988

Hypodermics on the shore: Medical waste was found washed up on beaches in New Jersey after being illegally dumped at sea. Before this event, waste dumped in the oceans was an “out of sight, out of mind” affair. This has been cited as one of the crucial turning points in popular opinion on environmentalism.

1989

China’s under martial law: On May 20, China declares martial law, enabling them to use force of arms against protesting students to end the Tiananmen Square protests.

Rock-and-roller cola wars: Soft drink giants Coke and Pepsi each run marketing campaigns using rock & roll and popular music stars to reach the teenage and young adult demographic.

Short summaries of all 119 references mentioned in the song, you’re welcome.