#Project Iridium

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

Hello Mousey! How have u been?

I recently got back to Stardew Valley after seeing that one curscene with Isaac and I discovered lots of new things I haven't seen before. I came across this one particular gift, the Stardrop Tea (?) it kinda triggers different and unique dialogue from different townies and I was wondering how would the non-giftable nocs would react to the tea (Alesia, Jadu, Camilla and Isaac 👉👈 maybe....)

Hey hey, Haruu! Things are good, thanks for asking ☺️ Hope you're also well!

Funny coincidence, but you asked this question very aptly - I was already preparing material on this topic in a separate post! Because I'm curious about the possible reaction of the wizards/adventurers of Castle Village about Stardrop Tea. So I moved my text here!

Quick spoiler for 1.6.: Stardrop Tea - is a unique item, because it can be given to all NPCs without limits on gifts. Gifting this tea increase friendship by 1 heart, and giving them on NPCs birthday will not only give you 3 friendship hearts, but you can also give them a regular gift again (with Isaac or another NPCs available in the future Castle Village mod - instant friendship!). But Stardrop tea is a very rare and not easy to get (usually from the Prize Machine in Lewis' house or special treasure chest in fishing) but oh well.

So! About your ask...

_________________________________________

Camilla:

"My oh my, what a pleasant surprise! I'll definitely find a use for this... I'll drink this tea on a quiet evening with something delicious~"

Naturally, Camilla realises that Stardrop tea is a very rare thing that is not easy to find, but I have the impression that the witch is used to receiving such gifts often, so she doesn't react very strongly. Rare magical artifacts, the most expensive jewellery with magical properties, silk fabric of her dress, exotic delicacies of iridium quality - Camilla accepts only the best, either as a gift from her admirers or she gets it herself, because she is a beautiful, smart, talented and cunning witch. So yeah, definitely not her first Stardrop tea. She'll be a little curious as to how it was that such a rarity fell into Farmer's hands. It may seem at first that she's only accepting, but the witch won't forget Farmer's gift, and will think of something for them in return~

Jadu:

"That's--! Are you sure, Farmer? Thank you so much! I can use this to brew one special elixir.... No wait, I'll drink it myself! Decisions, decisions..."

Jadu, as the wizard of the Castle Village, is well aware of almost all the already known treasures that many wizards, adventurers, hunters and witches are after. Stardrop tea is no exception. Like the legendary Stradrop fruit itself, only a few had been able to taste the tea, but he was determined to find his first artifact. Except Jadu didn't expect it to be handed to him so easily by Farmer, as a gift. How and where did they find this treasure?! He would be grateful to them for a long time to come, and it would take him a week to decide whether to use the tea for his project, or to quench his curiosity and drink this marvellous beverage.

Isaac:

"So... this is Stardrop tea? *Sniffs* Smells nice. *Sip* ...thank you, Farmer."

No offence to Isaac's seemingly unemotional reaction, it's just that the sullen adventurer is a bit confused and baffled by what Farmer has just handed him. He... wasn't used to receiving gifts or any signs of affection, and he probably didn't have too many friends in his life who did anything nice for Isaac. Or maybe there were such people, but they died in the sands of the Crimson Baldlans or fighting monsters in other regions... At first, Isaac would be looking for a catch, like, Farmer wants something in return? Otherwise, why did they decide to give him such a rare item? He always growled at them, so why? It may not be outwardly noticeable, but he'll be touched by the tea. Plus he now knows what this artifact tastes like (so nice and warm).

Alesia:

"Merciful Yoba, this is... Stardrop tea! I've heard the legends, but to taste it myself.... Please accept my sincere thanks, adventurer!"

Alesia, like many other her colleagues, dreamed of finding her Stardrop Fruit, or Stardrop Tea, which legends said would grant those who tasted them unprecedented power. At least that's what they say about Stardrop Fruit. But to be honest, sniper wouldn't pay too much attention to finding incredible artifacts, as the adventurer's main duty is protecting people from monster. She would definitely be greatly surprised that Farmer was not only able to find such a treasure, but instead of trying it out themself, gave it to her. No one had ever given her anything like this before...

[lebregnant]

iridium, mary soon lee - kevin durant 1 2

and my legacy will forever be marred with the what if that is you.

(not a part of but inspired by @simmyfrobby's elemental haiku project!!)

[thethresholdprotocol]

TRANSCRIPT: DEBRIEF SESSION 03

SUBJECT: Dr. Clara Lavalle (Biochemistry Lead, Project Aleph)

INTERVIEWER: Director Lenore Song, OEDS Oversight Division

DATE: March 19, 19■■

LOCATION: Site 7, Quarantine Room 4B

CLEARANCE LEVEL: ZAYIN-5

[BEGIN RECORDING]

SONG: This is Director Song, conducting the third post-incident interview with Dr. Clara Lavalle. Dr. Lavalle, please confirm that you understand this session is being recorded.

LAVALLE: I understand.

SONG: Please describe your role with Project Aleph.

LAVALLE: I was assigned to the project for biochemical analysis. Environmental samples. Microbiota. Wildlife. My job was to search for any traces of… foreign contaminants at the site.

SONG: Such as?

LAVALLE: The Department believed that the meteor had deposited biological matter onto the ice shelf. They were looking for extremophiles, possibly amino structures with off-world chirality. Something that could–how did they put it?–”justify the budget”.

SONG: And what did you find?

[Lavalle does not respond.]

SONG: Doctor?

LAVALLE: Look, you already asked me about this. I'm not going to give you a different answer. Please, let me leave. I have a family to get back to–

[Lavalle goes silent. After about ten seconds, she sighs and continues.]

LAVALLE: At first? Nothing out of the ordinary. Just sterile ice cores, the usual sediment layers. Nothing to warrant a red flag. For the first week, we were poking at a giant, gravel-filled ice cube. Then, one day, Greaves got excited. He said that one of the sediment samples had a high concentration of cobalt and iridium. He was certain we were getting close to the impact site.

SONG: Did you find fragments of the meteor?

LAVALLE: Eventually, yes. A few metallic shards embedded deep in the borehole wall, fused with the surrounding ice. Unusual, certainly, but nothing unheard of. Everything we saw tracked with previous research into meteoric impact sites.

SONG: What was the composition of these shards?

LAVALLE: Cobalt, iridium, trace vanadium, and teeth.

SONG: Teeth?

LAVALLE: Molars, mostly. An incisor here and there. They were warped. Unfinished. Like they had started growing before the idea of a mouth was fully formed.

SONG: What sort of–

LAVALLE: Can I see my husband? Please. He must be worried sick about me. I want him to know I'm okay.

SONG: [beat] Clara… you've never been married.

[END RECORDING]

[Note: Transcript verified. Original audio file flagged for internal review—artifacts can be heard throughout the recording at irregular intervals. Audio logs of Debrief Sessions 01 and 02 were later found to be affected by the same distortion, to the point of being completely unintelligible. The fourth debriefing has been scheduled for March 30th.]

[etlu-yume]

Discussions the other day got me thinking about how to throw together a kind of productivity tracker/word tracker that was themed after Stardew Valley/Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons.

Seeds, seedlings and harvested crops

I'm still working out how this could be achieved properly. Thinking about how different crops are good for different things in-games; Turnips and Parsnips for example are good starter crops in early phases because they only take 4 days to grow. Pineapples on the other hand, were notoriously expensive to buy, tedious to grow [20 days!] but did yield some reasonable profit rewards. And then you have Sweet Potato, Coffee Bean and several flavours of Berry crops. The monster profit makers that regrow crops every few days.

PARSNIP MODE - good for short projects, or breaking bigger projects down into easier tasks? (example would be Parsnip "tasks" get 4 days, or have to be done 4 times to 'harvest' the Parsnip)

PINEAPPLE MODE - good for longer projects and habits (example would be requiring 20 days of doing the task to get to harvest)

MUTLI-HARVEST MODE - good for repeat projects or prompt-lists possibly? Something where you finish things frequently, especially if there's a lot of setup work done before the first 'harvest' (example would be like Coffee Beans taking 10 days to get to harvest - 10 days to lay out the ground work - and then harvest every 2 days until the end of Summer.)

I'm still tossing up with how to determine things like "difficulty" or "what constitutes as watering". It could really be something as simple as "touch the project" and then be a honor system. Or look at something like the crop ranking system, and have different difficulties like "regular", "silver", "gold" and "iridium". Like taking Stardew Valley Corn as an example, you could run with regular "50g" as a time unit [50 minutes a day = watering] or another metric [e.g. 50 words, or 50x10 would make it 500 words]. Pumping that up to gold would make it 75g, or 75 minutes or 75/750/7500 words depending on your multiplier of choice. Obviously some of those difficulties might be OTT, so adjust accordingly?

Community Garden - Multiplayer Mode

You could easily have a multiplayer mode like a "Community Garden", where everyone has their own patch and can grow whatever plants they want correlating with their own goals, and depending on the community event like if it's for writing you could have fun with "Harvest Festival" inspired pot luck where everyone brings something to put in a story, or everyone brings a snippet of their work to share (esp since those usually are held towards the end of the season in-game anyway)

---------

Anyway yeah so just. Trying to get some thoughts out onto paper about this 'cause it's been percolating around in my noggin' all week.

[sayitalianolearns]

Diary entry 885

12.07.25

다른 색의 눈의 날이에요! 헤테로크로미아 이리듐 날이다. 여러분 알고 있었죠? :) 좋아하나요? …제 눈은 어때용? ㅋㅋㅋ 오늘은 좀 힘들지만 제가 많이 자란 거 같아서 별로 어렵지 않잖아요. 그리고 새로운 프로젝트를 진행하고 있어서 기분이 좋아요.

It's different colors eyes day! It's heterochromia iridium day. Did you guys know, right? :) Do you like it? ...How do my eyes look? Ghgh Today it's a bit tough but I think I grew up a lot so it's not that hard, ykwim. And I'm working on a new project so I'm feeling good.

È la giornata degli occhi di colore diverso! È l'heterochromia iridium day. Lo sapevate, no? :) Vi piace? ...Come vi sembrano i miei occhi? Ghgh Oggi è un *giorno un* po' complesso ma credo di essere cresciuta molto quindi non è così dura... (sapete cosa intendo). E sto lavorando ad un nuovo progetto per cui mi sento bene.

song of the day

[frozentoastsmile]

Third up we got attractions, games and such. I have been henceforth banned from project moon, (though I did manage to convince teach to do it one more time for costumes), so its time for stardew valley! We got three this time, The Iridium Test of Strength, Junimo Harvest, and Shanes chicken count. First one is a test of strength, second is a custom game that I describe in the thumbnail, and the third is like that counting game from mario party where you have to get the right number as whatever creature goes across.

I got just a liiittlee to ambitious and didnt end up fully finishing the last one but I still like em. Thumbnails included

[lillalis]

And I've worked on another piece!

My submission for @stardewfanficwritersguild OC week!

This time I somehow managed to write two prompts in one...which wasn't my intention.

You can read it here!:

If you don't have Ao3, you can check it out under the cut:

“So … have they given you the presents from your uncle and aunt?”, the man asked, his rough voice echoing from the phone.

“Yes dad, I’ve opened them too. I don’t have those mugs yet and could finally add them to my small mug collection. The shirt was a nice touch too and fits perfectly. And before you ask: yeah, they did tease me”, Leonore sighed, remembering the side comments from her older siblings.

Despite her seemingly annoyed stance, she did like it — after all, they didn’t mean any harm with their words.

Just want to see the reaction from their little sister.

Ren, Leonore’ father, let out a small chuckle.

“Of course, I’d do the same if I were in their shoes. Marianna and Kai haven’t seen you for a few months.”

“Before I forget: we wanted to visit you again. After all, our wonderful daughter made it into the newspaper, and we’d love to celebrate it with you!”, Ren explained happily, the excitement in his tone noticeable.

“I know, it was nice seeing them again, they had quite a few things to say too. Work hasn’t been kind to them, unfortunately.”

Leonore played with her hair for a while before moving to her overall, tracing the motif on the button.

“We’ve told them to slow it down and to do some self-care … to, well, various degrees of success”, the man hummed, seemingly thinking of something.

Leonore seemed surprised by it, despite knowing her father read the newspaper weekly. She wasn’t expecting him to mention it at all.

“Oh, you’ve seen it? Sure, when would you like to come?”

Should be enough time to tidy everything up and put more structure in this chaos.Good.

“If nothing comes in-between, which I doubt … how does in two weeks sound?”

Leonore thought about it for a while, brainstorming if it could work.

“Alrighty, sounds good to me, dad. Can’t wait to see you again!”, Leonore’s voice sounded more content. 

After all, it was a while ago since she saw her parents. Their warm hugs, the silly discussions between Ren and her mother Maribelle, hearing their voices in real time. Despite her complex feelings towards her parents and the issues lurking within the complexity of their relationship, she loved them.

She knew, it wasn’t their fault for being the way they are — it’s a long story.

“Wonderful! Can’t wait to see my sweet Le-Le again! If there’s something coming in-between, I’ll call you right away.”

Leonore smiled at his excitement, her dad sure can be adorable if he wants to.

“I’m trying my best dad, love ya too, bye bye!”

“Got ya, we’ll hear or see each other soon. Love ya dad!”

“Love you too, sweetie. Have a nice, stressfree week, bye!”

A soft sigh left her lips after they hung up, she loved her dad a lot, but there’s this one trait, she can’t help but get annoyed by after a while.

He talks like a waterfall and could continue to talk for hours. 

Willy sat on the porch, the smoke of the pipe disappearing into the wind, almost like a fleeting memory of some sort. He looked content, probably because of the huge amount of fish he was able to catch today, the slimy beings wriggling within the bucket.

“Aye, lass, I was wonderin’ when yer would come down to fish! Today’s straight out of a fisherman’s dream!”

Leonore stared at the container, her gaze telling her amazement towards his current catch. She sat right next to him, the trusty iridium fishing rod glistening within the sunlight, the shimmer looking almost like small galaxies dancing around the rod. She took a swing and threw the hook with the bait into the deep, blue waves.

“I can tell, have you put something new into your bait?”

“Aye, the bug meat yer brought from last time did some wonders! They’re bitin’ and look at ‘em, fishin’ some real pretty ones!”

Willy raised an eyebrow, as if she didn’t know every single trick of his — after all, he taught her everything and she forgot such a small thing as that?

That took Leonore by surprise.

“You still have some left? I thought you used everything during the last season.”

Whoops.

“I’ve put a good chunk of them in a separate freezer, so I can use ‘em, remember?”

Oh, right. He did mention that.

It didn’t take much time until Leonore noticed the twitching of the string, her focus completely on the incoming catch. Willy watched every move during the battle between the fisher woman and the unfortunate fish.

“Ah, you’re right, the freezer strategy is very effective after all.”

With one powerful move, the tuna lost its battle and got yanked out of the sea. The sheer size of the tuna would make quite a few experienced fisher be in awe.

A joyful grin formed on her face — as if the higher beings have heard her, she caught a huge tuna. Her tuna stock was getting rather small, she needed some for the upcoming guests in a few days.

“I remember when you first came here, lass. Yer previous life, still followin’ yer like a predator stalking its prey. Wantin’ to appear perfect and flawless like a pearl — but yer wanted to be someone else, someone new. It broke my heart seein’ you wantin’ to break free from whatever was holdin’ yer back,” Willy couldn’t help but reminisce about the time she first came to Pelican Town — a former worker who valued her professional appearance a lot, someone who made sure to look clean and calm at all times despite her passionate, empathic self lingering beneath the surface of professionalism.

“Well, would you look at that! Now that’s a pretty one, don’t you think so too, Willy?”

“Yer caught a real beauty!”, Willy patted her on the shoulder while a soft smile spread on his lips.

“But yer always had a talent for the art of good ‘ol fishin’. I’m proud of yer, nonetheless.”

The bearded man looked at Leonore with reserved but thoughtful eyes, the fishing hook calmly swimming beneath the two of them.

She and Willy understood each other fast; they got along very well, and she made sure to visit him when she had the opportunity.

Their relationship was very deep; he was the wonderful uncle she never had while she was, to him, like a daughter to him — he saw Leonore and Elliott as family and his most important people within his rather lonely, tragic life.

She couldn’t find any words for the sudden heart-to-heart exchange, her eyes spoke much more at this moment than any words could.

His words touched her deeply, her gaze gentle yet full of emotions. She tried everything to not suddenly cry on the spot, the tight feeling within her throat made it difficult for her to contain the rising waves of her feelings.

“What this ol’ man of the sea is tryin’ to tell ya lass is… I’m proud of ya. So, so proud of ya. Don’t let yer inner bait drive yer to places you’ve never wanted to be in.”

Proud of you.Proud of me.So, so proud of me.

Glimmery, fern-green eyes greeted deep brown ones; gratitude was written all over her face. Despite being here for quite some time, it never felt not great to hear such comforting, wonderful words.

No more denying such words.No more denying such actions.

They meant it. All of it.

And Willy was no exception.

The table was decorated with all kinds of snacks; whoever was about to visit wouldn’t struggle with their choice. Every tableware was placed neatly, the dishes and desserts just waiting to be consumed. Leonore started with the preparations yesterday, making sure to take her time with the preparations — structured and punctual as always.

She couldn’t help but hug him in return, a small tear running down her cheek. The fact that she could do such gesture has shown her growth of herself — she could really be proud of herself. At this moment, fishing wasn’t as important as before; there’s plenty of fish in the sea.

“Thank you, Willy.”

Much to her misfortune, the doorbell suddenly rang.

The clock stood at 11:30 AM and her eyes wandered to the little note she made for herself:

Hana, Leah, Elliott meet-up around 1 PM.“Perfect, I’m just on time. The only thing missing is – …”

Who on earth could this be?

“Le-Le! Let me squish ya, come here!”, the enthusiastic woman embraced the taller one with a strong force. “I’ve missed ya so much!”

Her question got a swift answer after she carefully looked through the peephole and opened the door.

Leonore rolled her eyes playfully just so she can tease Hana, her ruffling Hana’s hair reflecting her teasing furthermore. The force of Hana’s hug was strong, but Leonore’s strong build made it barely noticeable. Leonore couldn’t help but ask herself why her childhood friend was here so early, but she’d ask her that very question after she’d step into her home.

Hana’s trail of thinking got interrupted by the smell originating from the kitchen, her eyes landing on all the freshly prepared dishes.

“I’ve missed you too, Han-Han. You’re earlier here than I anticipated…”

“Which explains your goofy attire. Did ya just finished with whatever you were doing just now — oh, it smells heavenly!”

A small beam appeared on Hana’s face — so many years have passed and both went through various challenges.

And yet, she stayed true to herself.

Old habits die hard.

“Lemme guess, you’ve been working on this whole thing for hours.”

“Nope, started working on it yesterday.”

An exhausted but content sigh left Hana’s lips, finding Leonore’s habit of planning ahead endearing.

Leonore spoke up and broke the short silence, looking at her childhood friend with curious eyes.

“So, how come you’re so early? Usually you’re on time when visiting … did something happen?”

Hana looked up from the pot full of Tom Kha soup, the smell making her mouth water. 

“Well, I wanted to be on time, but apparently a festival was happening close to Zuzu City and there was a huge accident on the way. So before I’d arrive too late to my good ol’ buddy ol’ pal Le-Le, I drove earlier than originally planned. So … here I am!”, Hana gestured on herself mockingly.

“Wait, is someone else coming over?”

“Oh, that explains everything. Well, feel yourself at almost home, Han-Han. I have to make myself look more human for others, so be right back.”

Big eyes landed on Leonore’s back, clearly not expecting that answer.

“Yep, so behave and wait, alright?”

“How do I look? Is this alright?”

Hana turned her gaze towards Leonore, who now wore a simple white blouse which was tugged in blue chino pants, alongside her new look she wore fitting pearl earrings. Her cleavage isn’t too revealing, just revealing her collarbone.

Hana let out a low hum before responding.

“Looks good, just … lemme take a look at the hair real quick.”

Since Hana’s occupation is a hairdresser, she took anything related with hairstyling very seriously.

“Mm … yeah, no, this is good. That casual-elegant fits with your hair. Not that you had much to do anyway, hehe.”

“Yeah, yeah because you’re so epic and cool, I got it”, Leonore teased Hana with a sly smirk which caused the other to throw a pillow in Leonore’s direction, barely missing the taller woman.

“I just brushed it, Hana.”

“See? I wasn’t wrong!”

“Learn to aim first, woman.”

“Oi, I’m going to show your goofy ass how – … ”

Suddenly a realization hit Leonore, a ping of worry spread in her chest.

Two people stood in front of the door, a woman, and a man; both looking very attractive in Hana’s eyes. She watched from afar, looking closely at the way Leonore greeted her guests. While the hug with the woman was careful yet trusting, the hug with the man was completely different — the vibes were more comforting and delicate, their grasps noticeably more intense yet mindful. A faint blush covered both their faces, while the ginger woman next to her gave the two a knowing look — she was smirking at them.

“Wait, what time is it now?”

“12:55 AM, why-”

Hana couldn’t finish her sentence when suddenly the doorbell rang, Leonore fixed her posture and took deep breaths before she made her way towards the door.

Why is she trying to stay calm? Does she not know them? Or maybe … no, I’ll watch and see why.

Hana felt like a light was going on, everything clicked suddenly.

Is that … the guy Le-Le was talking about? Who gave her the bouquet?

You sure got a good lookin’ guy on your hook!

Leonore turned her attention towards Hana, who was now walking towards the new faces.

“Oh, before I forget, this is my childhood friend Hana I was talking about. Hana, this is Leah and this is Elliott.”

A confident, yet somewhat smug vibe suddenly caught Hana — she felt devious and had plans.

Laughter and the clanking of dishes echoed within the room, Leah and Hana being clearly influenced by the peach wine. Both engaged in a heated conversation of their previous professors in Zuzu University. While the two were busy groaning and swooning over various professors, Leonore and Elliott communicated through eye contact and a few smiles, the gestures telling more than words ever could.

And with no warning, the topic suddenly changed.

“I ate grass because I thought it would make me become one with nature. Dad told me to cut it, but I continued until I ate a bee.”

“Speaking of embarrassing stuff happening at that silly uni, what’s the most embarrassing thing ya guys did when ya were children?”

Leah looked at Hana with a big grin, not before looking at Elliott; the ginger man feeling concerned about her current behavior. The artist had the tendency to be much more bold and cheeky when tipsy.

Hana laughed out loud and Leonore couldn’t help but snort; imagining a small Leah with a bee in her mouth was the last thing she’d have on her mind.

Elliott did everything to hold his grin back, but failed miserably. He played with his wineglass in the hopes to hide his amusement.

“Now that’s something you’ve never told me. That’s indeed very curious.”

“Oh shut up, pretty boy. Better than writing on your rich daddy’s coat or using mud as ink on your daddy’s documents.”

Pure horror was written all over his face. He never hoped that those awkward moments would be brought up in such a way, especially in front of his muse.

Especially in front of his muse.

“I-”

Elliott looked at Leonore, his eyes full of horror when he saw her entertained by his reaction.

“Well, I’m not too surprised by it. You surely started small, El.”

There was this kind look in her eyes, a hint of playfulness hidden beneath those fern green eyes — a gaze that made his heart pound faster and caused him to blush.

The two tipsy women didn’t let it slide and took the opportunity to strike.

“Look at those lovebirds, thinking we don’t see them. You’re baaaaaad at hiding your feefees!”, Leah teased the two of them.

“I know right, at this point they are imagining each other naked. Come on, just get together alreadyyy! You two need to get it going!”, Hana joined in on the teasing session.

Leonore and Elliott didn’t know what to say — Hana and Leah were painfully bold when tipsy.

“Hana.” 

“If he’d only know how your ideal prince looked almost like him when you drew it back when we were lil’ kids.”

Leonore froze at Hana’s words, Elliott’s interest piqued within a second. Things were getting interesting now.

Everything but her own embarrassing childhood moments.

The copper blond woman was clearly not amused by her teasing, her voice threateningly warning her not to continue.

Despite her threatening aura, her flushed face and ears gave away her embarrassment, her freckles standing out against the redness like strawberry seeds.

“Or how ya ran towards a boy you had a small crush on but ya tripped and fell right onto his feet?”

“Hana.”

Leah had no words, her laughter telling everything she wanted to say. Elliott covered his mouth, refusing to show his grin. He didn’t want to laugh because of the stories being told, but because of her adorable expression.

It didn’t take long for the two tipsy women to fall asleep, thankfully the guest room had enough space for them to rest. Now Leonore and Elliott could finally use the opportunity to talk about their feelings and thoughts, including the rather turbulent evening.

Who knew Leonore looked so adorable while absolutely embarrassed?

“I, uh, wanted to apologize for this chaos. Never thought it would go that haywire …”, Leonore sheepishly mumbled.

“You don’t have to apologize for anything. Overall, it was a pleasing evening, I enjoyed the company very much.”

“Well, if you say so. Hey, what Hana and Leah were talking about …”

“Hm?”

A wave of fear rose within her chest, scared of his reaction of the very question on her mind.

“I mean … what exactly are we? Can we call each other partners now … or very close friends? I know about the bouquet, but … I’m still scared to move too fast …”

“Let your heart guide you through the path; no matter how fast or slow you will go”, he took her hand into his. His grip firm but not painful — a protective, patient way of showing his affection. Elliott continued to calm her troubled mind through his words, his voice soothing her like fairy rose honey.

Leonore was finally content, her fears fading away - just like that.

“I’ll walk alongside that very path we made together, no matter the pace.”

That evening was a full success.

[fullyunsourced]

Kessler Syndrome and You

Depending on your willingness to buy into mildly alarmist theoretical events, this could be a scary post.

Space debris is a dangerous thing. In free-fall around Earth, objects are moving at thousands of miles per hour, enough to destroy basically anything they touch with the smallest amount of mass. Even flecks of paint traveling at 25,000 miles per hour can cause visible damage. The saving grace here is that, to quote the Hitchhiker's Guide, "Space is big. Really big." There's a lot of room up there for the millions or billions of individual pieces of garbage zipping around.

But sometimes the unthinkable happens. In 2009, two satellites collided. These were Iridium 33, and the out-of-service Russian military Kosmos 2251. Both satellites created over 2000 fragments that could be tracked, and countless more too small to find.

The speeding debris cloud shared a similar orbit to the International Space Station. The ISS has procedures in place for tracked space debris that may collide with it. For really big stuff, maneuvering thrusters can change the ISS's altitude to something safer. The ISS has done this 16 times. In addition, all astronauts aboard shelter in a Soyuz module (or Dragon, I guess), prepare for an emergency departure, and hope for the best. The ISS has done this three times.

So what's the scary future that this can lead to? There's a theorized scenario called Kessler syndrome. There are about 7,000 artificial satellites in orbit now, about half of which are still functional. Projects like Starlink will add tens of thousands more to that number. When that 2009 collision happened, it was possible for the resulting debris to hit yet another satellite, leading to another debris cloud...

You get the idea. Debris fields multiply exponentially across low Earth orbit, fed by the thousands of satellites. Now nothing is safe at that altitude, and humanity is sent into a new dark age, unable to communicate, navigate, or observe the planet by satellite. Spacecraft wouldn't be able to loiter in low Earth orbit, either, and just transiting becomes more risky.

The most sensational articles about this say Earth may develop Saturn-like rings of space debris. I guess that'd be pretty, at least, Earth surrounded by rings of its own junk. Eventually atmospheric drag brings the debris into an orbit where it burns up, but that can take decades.

We're also actively making it worse with anti-satellite weapons tests. The United States, China, India, and Russia have all created more debris by blowing up satellites in orbit with missile tests. I've got those bookmarked for another time. Happy thoughts!

[caelwynn]

In Chapter 20 of Choices: Winter, “Sharp,” Callie explains to Sterling why she needs to visit the Skull Caverns. At the ice skating party, Oliver shares a secret with Jas and Eloise; June, meanwhile, has a gift for Callie. The next day, Callie tracks down the Skull Caverns, and things don’t go according to plan.

Sneak Peek:

“My parents were miners, firecracker,” Sterling reminded her before swallowing hard. The one time he wanted to be wrong…. “Sometimes, outsiders would come through and try to hire people away from the mines here to seek out iridium. Only the young or desperate ever took them up on it. Last I’d heard, they’d sealed those caverns off. There’s a reason iridium is so rare.” As much as he hated to disappoint her about her chances of mining the ore on her own, he mostly felt relief upon remembering that tidbit. While Sterling knew Callie was an able adventurer, he had no desire to see her injured again—or worse, killed. They’d finally found each other; he didn’t want to lose her now. “I have a key,” she said softly, reaching up to run her fingers through his own hair. “To the Caverns?” “Yes.” Closing his eyes, Sterling forced himself to stay calm and breathe through the panic that tried to well up. Of fucking course, Callie would have the Yoba-cursed key to the place. Forever three steps ahead of him. “Do you have to?” he finally asked, not daring to open his eyes.

[vecnawrites]

Hey, just a quick question, but what does the "pure girl" AU mean? i don't mean to sound rude, i just did a quick search on your blog and couldn't find an answer, thank you!

Oh its not rude at all! "Pure Girl AU" is an AU, made up of a mostly futa (and some male) cast...bar the titular "Pure Girl" who is as it sounds, a Pure Girl (whole female). There are two in the story so far.

Joan Arc: Innocent cinnamon roll of Beacon Academy. Cute, but has the density of iridium over what she does to people.

Cynthia Arc: Joan's Aunt (Cynthia from pokemon in looks), movie star, and porn star. Well known for sexual prowess.

There's a whole lot of sexual frustration and hijinx abound in it, so give the stories a try! I have them tagged as "Pure Girl AU" on here, and here is the AO3 series page!

[roboartnik]

Before AM was sealed in his iridium tomb and the project shuttered, reports were filed of an Absol infestation. Not native to the Rockies prior, NATO struggled to ward them off, hiring numerous, third parties from rangers to exorcists, but no matter what they did: engineers would tell tales of red eyes watching them work, lurking in the depths of AM’s intestines… — The Birth of AM

i’ve been cooking up a pokemon au for months so here’s AM’s partner absol that the five humans have grown to fear as a prowling omen of doom

[dibelonious]

5 unquestionable truths:

- The electric car was created in the begining of the XIX century.

- The japaneses created the first humanoid robot in the 70s

- In the 1990s, McDonnell Douglas pioneered the development of a reusable rocket that could land vertically. - The idea of ​​using satellite constellations in lower orbits to improve internet coverage and reduce latency is not new. Companies like Iridium and Globalstar launched LEO satellites in the 1990s and 2000s for voice and data communications. - The first functional prototype of an autonomous electronic car was created in 1987 by the "Navlab" project at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States.

[pyxilatezero]

Genshin Descendants official Character Poll

First of all (for all you newbies out there), what is Genshin Descendants?

Genshin Descendants is a Tri-world crossover of Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Honkai Impact 3rd. The cast of Genshin Descendants consists entirely of the children of ships. You, a character insert, are the child of the Traveler and the Trailblazer [purposefully left ambiguous]. The main character, as you soon discover, is not truly you, but a mysterious fox girl who appears to be the daughter of Raiden Ei and Yae Miko…

(There is no Zhongli x Childe, and do not ask. The answer is NO)

For those of you that need it, I will provide a link to the official character profiles. The next upcoming character is Day Huang, but after that it’s free game, and I have trouble deciding. I WILL NOT ACCEPT SHIPS NOT ALREADY PART OF THE WORLD. I have already done:

Kaminari Rayaka (Ei x Miko)

Celeste (Sara x Kokomi)

Malaqif Alhawa’ (Kaveh x Alhaitham)

Casey (Mika x Freminet)

Jiang Liu (Beidou x Ningguang)

Malikovvy (Kaeya x Albedo)

Alice Lawrence (Amber & Eula)

Characters that are your companions, but will not be playable, are:

Blue Wolf (Kamisato Ayato & Yae Miko [NOT a ship])

Kage (Seele x Bronya Rand)

Characters that will be released simultaneously at the end due to being ‘DLC’ content (not vital to the main story) consist of:

Glass (Acheron x Black Swan)

Iridium Neon (Dr. Ratio x Aventurine)

April Lovesync (March 7th x Robin [Firefly?]

Raiden Shìjiè (Kiana x Raiden Mei)

Húxīn [Húlí] (Tingyun x Yukong)

Priority characters or characters that are currently being worked on are:

Day Huang (N/A)

Verre (Wriothsley x Neuvilette)

Characters that have been put on hold are:

Pandora [YOU!] (Trailblazer x Traveler) {indefinite}

Alistair Astros (Layla x Mona)

Elana (Candace x Dehya)

Kamila Pegg (Barbara x Noelle)

Mahō (Kirara x Lynette)

Kamisato Hanabi (Yoimiya x Kamisato Ayaka)

Vagues Anago (Clorinde x Navia)

Raiden [Rayquaza] Shigaraki (Raiden Ei x Yae Miko)

Zatenenny (Scaramouche x Sandrone)

Zelkovia Baysil (Cyno x Tighnari)

For those unfamiliar ^^^ Ladies and gentleman, feel free to critique any already created character (except for Kaminari Rayaka, my poor innocent bundle of angst and hurt/no comfort), so long as it’s not for any unreasonable concept (E.G. you like Yae Miko x Ayato more than Ayato x Thoma; basically, don’t hate the character because of ship preferences).

Last but not least, my characters are FREE DOMAIN, unless being used for the following reasons:

An incest or pedophilic ship (I hate that I have to put this, but there are some people out there)

Any fanfic directly depicting a character of my creation committing sexual assault, necrophilia, or murder

Changing the ‘birth’ parents of the character for any reason (other than BOTH parents dying, or them abandoning said character, and being adopted by another ship)

Things I DO allow, but other creators might not:

Putting certain characters into other universes where OTHER ships don’t match with the ones I have added; E.G. putting Kamila in a Yae x Ayato universe and having her interact that way.

Time travel fics. That’s fine, especially if Rayaka is involved.

Universe crossing and crossovers.

Killing of my characters. It’s not canon, so I don’t mind.

Dumping unnecessary angst on their heads- I’m not going to ban every fanfic writer out there from writing the way they write. Besides, *holds out hand to half the characters that I’ve made*

Fanfics using ships not canon to the Genshin Descendants universe (E.G. Fiona x Jiang Liu)

The fanfic can be of any rating. I don’t particularly care.

That’s all! (Do I think anyone will use these characters? No. Do I want them to? Yes. Oh god, yes please. I’d pay you to if I had any money)

[simptasia]

We do have the meteor that killed the dinosaurs! Kind of! The iridium anomaly is this fine layer of astroid powder that can be found worldwide. So. First step would be reassembling it, which, you know, is Step Zero for every truly great necromancy project.

like putting the cheese back together after it's been grated

[crascet]

Honest Thoughts: Justice League Unlimited (Waid/Mora)

I will make a write-up for these first issues probably next week after my Finals are over so expect that soon.

For now, I have read JLU on its release today and I have thoughts on it. This became my most anticipated book this month since Waid and Mora are working on this book together as I have enjoyed WF and Absolute Power, so naturally I wanted to read this. There is also the fact that it's named after one of my favorite animated series: DCAU's Justice League Unlimited which other than the name, does showcase the whole DC Universe and the characters that live throughout it, both old and new.

Spoilers Ahead!

This first issue sorta follows Air Wave being a new member of the JL and having a tour of the Watchtower by the Flash and the heroes inhabiting there: the homebases for some of the already established groups like the JSA, Titans, and the Super-Family, the head of security, The Question, the Atom Project who are overseeing where the lost powers went to and finding a way to restore them from the events of Absolute Power, the Phantom Zone Prison Gate, and the Robin's Nest which is where Red Tornado's A.I. is at and is the central communicator and strategist on which hero gets sent to which mission based on their powerset.

Speaking of missions, the first one in this book has the Alpha Wave squad of the JL, consisting of Wonder Woman, Superman, Star Sapphire, Black Lightning, Firestorm, and Kid Flash go to Balhauzer, South Africa to stop a set of War Wheels set by the secret organization known as the Inferno to search for Iridium. And its here we see the importance of which heroes get sent, as WW and Supes focus on destroying the drones while the rest of the group helps the civilians during the attack. It's also showing the type of person Star Sapphire is here, as she is a new member here too, and she wants to save anyone from the chaos, with her and Black Lightning seeing a dying soldier, shouting his wife's name. It's thanks to Air Wave briefly joining the mission to look for the soldier's wife and Kid Flash bringing her to the soldier that Sapphire can heal him with their love for each other, which is some nice heartwarming stuff to see, especially as I first heard how Sapphire was originally a sort of antagonist in the GL books, or at least the Lanterns she is a part of which is weird since Compassion isn't a bad emotion at all and not associated with evil, but I could be misremembering things.

Meanwhile, Batman and Jaime Reyes aka Blue Beetle III head to Costa Rica to investigate a series of child kidnappings by a winged creature that carries kids into the forest. As the two head there, they soon see a collection of alien eggs as they are slowly surrounded by what seem to be Parademons as seen in the cover of the next issue, so that's a big problem.

The story then ends with the Alpha Wave squad stopping the War Wheels and Superman receiving a message from the Inferno that they will take over the Earth and they already have an agent in the League, as well as the twist that Air Wave being the agent sent by the Inferno and his true mission of killing the JL.

There's also a back issue that is the prologue of a storyline in the mainline Batman books that's a sequel to Hush simply called Hush 2, done by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, the same team behind the original Hush storyline. Also, why is there a sequel to Hush? I know it was a popular storyline, but why now, especially with the new characters and retcons made from that point? Guess that's just how the industry works sometimes.

Other than that, this first issue was pretty good and has me interested in continuing the book with whatever missions the JL will go on and which heroes gets to be selected and showcased and see the arc Air Wave is going through and if he wants to fulfill the mission set to him by the Inferno. Can't wait for issue #2 next month!

My EU write-up will be released later today probably and all that's left is the Absolute Universe and other third-brand company comics.

[mydetheturk]

finally put all my domina & knives centric fics in a series lol