#Return to Hadron
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doomwads · 3 months ago
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Return to Hadron Episode 2 The Collider's New Clothes
Game: Doom Year: 2017 Source Port: Limit-removing Specs: E2M1-E2M9 Gameplay Mods: None Author: Matt Powell aka "cannonball" idgames | doomwiki | onemandoom
In ConC.E.R.Ned, Hell invaded the European Organization for Nuclear Research's Hadron Collider, with a lone security officer getting pretty far but ultimately failing at securing the complex. Return to Hadron E1 was a sort of reimagining of the first episode, with another hero taking a stab at the now even more warped installation and, again, failing. Now, civilization is ruined, and you're one of the survivors picking through the resulting Hellscape. During your scavenging, you're drawn into the periphery of the Collider complex. With no apparent means of escape, the only way out is through.
Return to Hadron E2, like E1, is a sort of remake/remodel of Powell's debut megaWAD, this time targeting the second episode. Don't expect any sort of major devotion to the labyrinthine layouts of Deimos, though. Expect cavernous interiors and tons of OG Doom monsters to fill them out.
Click here if you'd like to read my full review.
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drvct-tape · 3 months ago
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I was plagued with a vision. Will do something about it if nobody else does.
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deerabigailhobbs · 10 months ago
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finnbin · 7 months ago
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I'm sure this won't cause irreparable psychological damages
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previous
maybe some smooth jazz will make finding a dead body less traumatising
. . . Ford was out
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multidimensionimagines · 9 months ago
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A list of current WIPS that I will be posting in the near or far future, followed by a poll for you to vote on which one you want to see first!
Pretty/Popular!reader x college!Ford
Stanford Pines and Fiddleford Hadron Mckgucket make an unlikely alliance with one of BMUs most well known varsity cheerleaders; Y/N Y/L/N, when they both seek out revenge on the same jerky football player.
(inspiration from Mean Girls, John Tucker Must Die, and a tiny bit of Revenge of the Nerds bc obviously)
Completion level: haven’t started
Popstar! Reader x Ford/Stan
Reader is a Sabrina Carpenter-esc popstar (essentially the Gravity Falls parody of her, like several timez is one direction and so on), and her closing number consists of singling out an audience member to flirt with. Ford and Stanley Pines were the last two expecting to be picked on, not that either of them were complaining.
Completion level: haven’t started
Ford x DD&moreD Princess!Reader
When Stanford, Stanley, Dipper, and Mabel get sucked into a game of Dungeons, Dungeons and more Dungeons jumanji style, the four must go on another quest to escape the game. Their mission; to rescue the Princess and return her home safely. What no one in their band expected however, was her instant infatuation with the tall, scholarly elf in their group. Who does not know how to handle all this sudden attention from a beautiful princess.
Completion level: haven’t started
I’ve had most of these ideas for a while now so I’m happy I finally get to start sharing them! Obviously I hold favouritism for Stanford, so I want to hear what the Stanley fans want! Please send me your ideas in my ask box and I’ll be more than happy to add them to my list
Thank you so much <3!
Poll under the cut
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fmlineedtorant · 2 months ago
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Fiddleford McGucket is a character with depth that I wanna hug.
Like this poor man!!!!!
The first McGucket to go to college but not the first to lose his mind. Gets ridiculed about his theory about the world being a hologram so much that he seriously considered dropping out of college until Stanford came along.
He leaves his wife and child to help his old college buddy (he probably remembered that first meeting as he agreed wanting to return the favor). Fidds arrived in Gravity Falls on July 29th and then quits the project on Jan 18th. 173 days in Gravity Falls. That is how long it took. In that time he is traumatized so throughly that he created the memory gun and started his cult.
Then in the course of about 2 years completely destroyed his mind. Thus becoming Old Man McGucket.
There is so much we don't know about him and his family. We know that Tater 'Tate' McGucket at some point moved from Palo Alto,CA to Gravity Falls, OR. We know that Fiddleford was married to Emma-May McGucket née Dixon. We know he is supposed to be the first McGucket to go to college. We know that his cousin Thisleburt claimed that their grandmother was taken by ' saucer people'. Fidds has a raccoon wife. But other than this a lot of his life is left up to interpretation.
He forgot to get his wife a Christmas gift but got Ford 2 handmade gifts. Its no wonder that fiddauthor is such popular ship. He is such a complicated character. He scolds Ford for using phrases like 'What the devil' implying that he's a religious man. We know that it is most likely that Stanford went through the portal in 82ish.
So no matter your headcannon, the 80s was a time. The implications alone!
But to be a man so afraid. So terrified that forgetting via a device that was largely untested was better than facing the memories head on at the time.
We don't know for sure that Fiddleford was a cheater but the implications are there. Maybe he did have an emotional affair but the fact that his anxiety was so strong that he didn't see another option other than forgetting.
Fiddleford Hadron McGucket you are a tragedy and cautionary tale.
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askgravityfallsed · 8 months ago
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THE YEAR IS 2019… WELCOME TO GRAVITY FALLS: ETERNAL DEVOTION AU Return To The Falls RP Edition
Related accounts set in 2012: @formerquestionmarkmp, @dippers-guide-to-the-strange, @pocketsfullofglitter, @queenplatinumpaz2012.
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CHARACTER INFORMATION:
Mason “Dipper” Marth Pines:
Age: 19 years old
Pronouns: He/They
Identity: Bisexual, Non-Binary
Fiancé: Paz Southeast
Online College Student
Stoner
Well known ghost hunter in the area
Mabel David Pines:
Age: 19 years old
Pronouns: She/It/Pink/Meow/Oink
Identity: Cis, Aroace
Shroom addict (Don’t tell mom!)
Sells knitted sweaters and scarves, as well as Kandy bracelets, on Etsy
Pastel Goth/Scene mixture… I don't know either man.
Stanley Caryn McGucket-Pines:
Age: 67 years old
Pronouns: He/Him
Identity: Cis Bisexual
Husband: Fiddleford McGucket-Pines
Usually out sailing with Ford and Fidds
Kept his mullet in honor of his nieces old nickname
Owns five “#1 Dad” Mugs. Four from Soos, one from his niece.
Stanford Filbrick Pines:
Age: 67 years old
Pronouns: He/It (Only uses it due to Bills effect on him)
Identity: Cis Gay
Space Divorced TM both Fidds and Bill on separate occasions
Formerly brainwashed by Bill- barely resisting getting back together with him
Can not handle The Lust TM
Paz Elliot Southeast:
Age: 19 years old
Pronouns: He/Him
Identity: Bisexual Transgender
Fiancé: Mason Pines
Only recently found out he was trans- binds and cut his hair, but that’s about it
Steals Dippers clothes a lot. They’re his now actually.
Will never, ever admit to being the bottom of the relationship even if they’ve been together six years and it’s obvious as fuck.
Working for Greasys Diner
Jesus “Soos” Ramírez:
Age: 29 years old
Pronouns: He/Him
Identity: Cishet
Wife: Melody Ramírez
Stan is his dad figure, duh
Melody and him have a son named Diego
Cried like a baby the first time the twins referred to him as their uncle
Wendy Blerble Corduroy:
Age: 22 years old
Pronouns: She/He
Identity: Cis Bisexual Lesbian
Dippers weed dealer. Why are you shocked
Barely looks any different than she looked at age fifteen… except she ties her shirt into a crop top to show off her stomach tattoo of an axe.
Hottest lesbo on the block, according to nobody but her friend group
Robert “Robbie” Stacy Valentino:
Age: 23 years old
Age During Death: 15 years old
Pronouns: He/Him
Identity: Cis, Bi-curious (will not admit this)
Somehow befriended Paz. Neither know how nor want to admit it, but they have movie nights where they do each others nails and makeup and cry to metal music.
Zombie. Walking corpse even. Yep, we’re leaning into THAT old theory.
Still beefing with Dipper for literally no reason. Even Dipper doesn’t hate him at this point he just likes annoying him. They’re like brothers honestly.
Gideon Charles Gleeful:
Age: 17 years old
Pronouns: She/Her
Identity: Trans lesbian
Ex-Ciphertology child cultist
Despite this she still cries over the fact that Bill finds her annoying
She can’t really find anything to do with herself anymore since weirdmaggedon and highschool so she’s really fucking bitter.
Fiddleford Hadron McGucket-Pines:
Age: 69 years old (haha funny number)
Pronouns: He/Him
Identity: Cis Gay
Husband: Stanley McGucket Pines
Him and Emma May were actually beards- still occasionally in contact.
Was forced into a polyamorous marriage with Bill and Ford- eventually divorced them for MANY reasons
Seriously this guys got some BAD C-PTSD to be honest
Martha Winona Pines:
Age: 38 years old
Pronouns: She/Her
Identity: Cis Aromantic Bisexual
Ex-Husband: David Patterson
Has even WORSE C-PTSD from being Bills former puppet for like seven ish years
Literally so fucking grumpy about his return but NOBODY will let her murder him so she’s decided on verbal assault
Loves her kids soooooo so much
Calls Stan “Uncle Mullet”
William “Bill” Lu Cipher:
Age: ??????????????????? centuries old.
Pronouns: He/They/It- anything masculine or gender neutral
Identity: What a boring concept
Former triangle, now human for redemption- can only reincarnate if fully reformed, though he will never fully be forgiven for what he’s done, so he’s stuck this way til this body dies.
Can’t use his powers anymore- not even floating, which he hates a LOT
Misses Ford soooooo much…. Fucking loser.
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BOUNDARIES:
13+ interactions only
Currently Gideon is still a minor, and I’m only a teenager, so please keep the NSFW to a minimum. Suggestive is fine, though.
DNI inc3st/p3do proshippers, p3do/m4p, transph0bic, hom0phobic, or r4cist people. You are not welcome here.
Please be respectful to me, the mod. You can be mean to characters, not to me. I do not appreciate hostility
Here and Here are the Casting Call links for the Eternal Devotion podcasts, please consider helping out with voice acting or even writing!
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cerastes · 1 year ago
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If Kroos and Mr. Nothing spotted you from across the room and liked your vibes, would you?
Okay, hypothetical.
Let's say that I, drunk with wanderlust, went exploring the Yanese mountainside. In my trip, I end up finding a house in the middle of my wilderness wandering, and looking to perhaps have a roof over my head this wintry eve, I knock on it, only to get launched headfirst into a mysterious town that gets attacked by ink-like monsters every night, only to return to normal every morning, as if nothing had happened.
Now, let's say I refuse to learn a damn thing from my experiences, because famously, I don't know a fucking thing, and thus engage in sundry timeloop shenanigans. It can be assumed I'll spend quite a while there.
After what feels like a couple of years in which I've come be known as the town freak, but only to the individuals that can actually remember or discern what's going on (a very intrigued Saga, a very confused Dawn, and a very irritated Dusk), I see two new faces and I assume, oh! There's still more to learn about this place! Cool! So I rain check that day's activity (construct large hadron collider from teaware and Bitey organs) in order to acquaint myself with these new faces.
THAT's when Kroos and Mr. Everything use their Scouter to check my vibes, and they find them of a most agreeable disposition and panache. The eyebrow rises, the lips smack, and the invitation is loose like the Nue-slaying arrow.
Quoth the anon, "would you?"
Well, see, Kroos is Kroos, she's pretty much a flawless creature so of course I'm fine there. About Mr. Nothing, well, I'm straight, but also, he looks like that, and it's not gay if it gets retconned, I rationalize, so let's have an unforgettable night that never will have been, come morning. I already did the teahouse story teller and most every farmer, coolie, and shopkeeper, might as well.
Then I wake up and I realize I've been made a member of the Midnight Crew, where's the RETCON. The story teller doesn't look at me in the eye. The bedsheets are less like sheets and more like paleolithic era cave art. Nothing's kung fu cumshot made a hole in the wall and killed a stray Bitey. Kroos pulled out toys in shapes and colors we have no names for but with functions and features I am now intimately acquainted with. The memory of being the patty in a bunny and bird sandwich is seared into my mind's retina. Restraint and protection were helpful suggestions kindly ignored. A pop-up in the corner of my vision reads "Several cutscenes will play in sequence". I have a LOT of unusued skill points and I have no idea where they came from. What was formerly a rustic Yan-style bedroom now looks like the toku quarry.
And that's when I realize: Right.
An executive decision has been taken and I'm about to have lore.
So, "would you?"
Would. But watch out.
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spacetimewithstuartgary · 13 days ago
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Can the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?
Penn physicists and collaborators at Arizona State University "test" the fallibility of a framework that seeks to unite physics across the universe.
Key takeaways
Researchers from Penn and Arizona State University pinpoint a lone five-particle package (a 5-plet) that could upend string theory by detecting it at the Large Hadron Collider.
“Ghost” tracks that vanish mid-flight may be the smoking gun physicists are chasing.
Early data squeeze the search window, but the next collider runs could make—or break—the case.
In physics, there are two great pillars of thought that don’t quite fit together. The Standard Model of particle physics describes all known fundamental particles and three forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. Meanwhile, Einstein’s general relativity describes gravity and the fabric of spacetime.
However, these frameworks are fundamentally incompatible in many ways, says Jonathan Heckman, a theoretical physicist at the University of Pennsylvania. The Standard Model treats forces as dynamic fields of particles, while general relativity treats gravity as the smooth geometry of spacetime, so gravity “doesn’t fit into physics’ Standard Model,” he explains.
In a recent paper, Heckman; Rebecca Hicks, a Ph.D. student at Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences; and their collaborators turn that critique on its head. Instead of asking what string theory predicts, the authors ask what it definitively cannot create. Their answer points to a single exotic particle that could show up at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). If that particle appears, the entire string-theory edifice would be, in Heckman’s words, “in enormous trouble.”
String theory: the good, the bad, the energy-hungry
For decades, physicists have sought a unified theory that can reconcile quantum mechanics,and, by extension, the behavior of subatomic particles, with gravity—which is described as a dynamic force in general relativity but is not fully understood within quantum contexts, Heckman says. A good contender for marrying gravity and quantum phenomena is string theory, which posits that all particles, including a hypothetical one representing gravity, are tiny vibrating strings and which promises a single framework encompassing all forces and matter. “But one of the drawbacks of string theory is that it operates in high-dimensional math and a vast ‘landscape’ of possible universes, making it fiendishly difficult to test experimentally,” Heckman says, pointing to how string theory necessitates more than the familiar four dimensions— x, y, z, and time—to be mathematically consistent.
“Most versions of string theory require a total of 10 or 11 spacetime dimensions, with the extra dimensions being sort of ‘curled up’ or folding in on one another to extremely small scales,” Hicks says.
To make matters even trickier, string theory’s distinctive behaviors only clearly reveal themselves at enormous energies, “those far beyond what we typically encounter or even generate in current colliders,” Heckman says.
Hicks likens it to zooming in on a distant object: at everyday, lower energies, strings look like regular point-like particles, just as a faraway rope might appear to be a single line. “But when you crank the energy way up, you start seeing the interactions as they truly are—strings vibrating and colliding,” she explains. “At lower energies, the details get lost, and we just see the familiar particles again. It’s like how from far away, you can’t make out the individual fibers in the rope. You just see a single, smooth line.”
That’s why physicists hunting for signatures of string theory must push their colliders—like the LHC—to ever-higher energies, hoping to catch glimpses of fundamental strings rather than just their lower-energy disguises as ordinary particles.
Why serve string theory a particle it likely won’t be able to return?
Testing a theory often means searching for predictions that confirm its validity. But a more powerful test, Heckman says, is finding exactly where a theory fails. If scientists discover that something a theory forbids actually exists, the theory is fundamentally incomplete or flawed. Because string theory’s predictions are vast and varied, the researchers instead asked if there’s a simple particle scenario that string theory just can’t accommodate.
They zeroed in on how string theory deals with particle “families,” groups of related particles bound together by the rules of the weak nuclear force, responsible for radioactive decay. Typically, particle families are small packages, like the electron and its neutrino sibling, that form a tidy two-member package called a doublet. String theory handles these modest particle families fairly well, without issue.
However, Heckman and Hicks identified a family that is conspicuously absent from any known string-based calculation: a five-member particle package, or a 5-plet. Heckman likens this to trying to order a Whopper meal from McDonald’s, “no matter how creatively you search the menu, it never materializes.”
“We scoured every toolbox we have, and this five-member package just never shows up,” Heckman says. But what exactly is this elusive 5-plet?
Hicks explains it as an expanded version of the doublet, “the 5-plet is its supersized cousin, packing five related particles together.” Physicists encapsulate this particle family in a concise mathematical formula known as the Lagrangian, essentially the particle-physics cookbook. The particle itself is called a Majorana fermion, meaning it acts as its own antiparticle, akin to a coin that has heads on both sides. Identifying such a particle would directly contradict what current string theory models predict is possible, making the detection of this specific particle family at the LHC a high-stakes test, one that could potentially snap string theory.  
Why a 5-plet hasn’t been spotted and the vanishing-Track clue
Hicks cites two major hurdles for spotting these 5-plet structures: “production and subtlety.” In a collider, energy can literally turn into mass; Einstein’s E = mc² says that enough kinetic oomph (E) can be converted into the heft (m) of brand-new particles, so the heavier the quarry the rarer the creation event.
“The LHC has to slam protons together hard enough to conjure these hefty particles out of pure energy,” Hicks explains, citing Einstein’s E = mc², which directly links energy (E) to mass (m). “As the masses of these particles climb toward a trillion electron volts, the chance of creating them drops dramatically.”
Even if produced, detection is challenging. The charged particles in the 5-plet decay very quickly into nearly invisible products. “The heavier states decay into a soft pion and an invisible neutral particle, zero  (X0),” Hicks says. “The pion is so low-energy it’s basically invisible, and X0 passes straight through. The result is a track that vanishes mid-detector, like footprints in snow suddenly stopping.”
Those signature tracks get picked up by LHC’s ATLAS (short for A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) and CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), house-sized “digital cameras” wrapped around the collision center. They sit at opposite collision points and operate independently, giving the physics community two sets of eyes on every big discovery. Penn physicists like Hicks are part of the ATLAS Collaboration, helping perform the searches that look for quirky signals like disappearing tracks.
Why a 5-plet matters for dark matter
Hicks says finding the 5-plet isn’t only important for testing string theory, pointing to another exciting possibility: “The neutral member of the 5-plet could explain dark matter, the mysterious mass shaping up most of our universe’s matter.”
Dark matter constitutes roughly 85 percent of all matter in the universe, yet scientists still don't know what exactly it is. “If the 5-plet weighs around 10 TeV—about 10,000 proton masses—it neatly fits theories about dark matter’s formation after the Big Bang,” Hicks says. “Even lighter 5-plets could still play a role as part of a broader dark matter landscape.”
“If we detect a 5-plet, it’s a double win," says Hicks. “We’d have disproven key predictions of string theory and simultaneously uncovered new clues about dark matter.”
What the LHC has already ruled out
Using existing ATLAS data from collider runs, the team searched specifically for 5-plet signals.“We reinterpreted searches originally designed for ‘charginos’—hypothetical charged particles predicted by supersymmetry—and looked for 5-plet signatures,” Hicks says of the team’s search through the repurposed ATLAS disappearing-track data. “We found no evidence yet, which means any 5-plet particle must weigh at least 650–700 GeV, five times heavier than the Higgs boson.”
For context, Heckman says, “this early result is already a strong statement; it means lighter 5-plets don’t exist. But heavier ones are still very much on the table.”
Future searches with upgraded LHC experiments promise even sharper tests. “We're not rooting for string theory to fail,” Hicks says. “We're stress-testing it, applying more pressure to see if it holds up."  
“If string theory survives, fantastic," Heckman says. "If it snaps, we'll learn something profound about nature.”
IMAGE: Event display in the signal region from data taken in 2018. The pixel tracklet candidate with pT = 1.2 TeV is shown by the red solid line and other inner detector tracks by the thin orange lines. Jets are shown by the transparent yellow, blue, and red cones. The missing transverse momentum is shown by the white dotted line. The green and yellow bars indicate energy deposits in the liquid argon and scintillating tile calorimeters respectively. The event is common to both the electroweak and strong production signal regions. Event and run numbers are shown in the bottom left corner. Credit ATLAS Collaboration CERN
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raccoonfallsharder · 1 year ago
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But wait! If Rocket is still watching our movies from Earth, what is he gonna think when he finds Guardians of the Galaxy?? What if the next movie he watches is about him?!
this is a phenomenal question. what if, indeed? put that in season three
i feel like it would be a struggle to decide whether or not to tell rocket about the movies — to point them out. you couldn't be sure he wouldn't get mad about them — or worse, get weird about them.
maybe you finally decide to tell him, or maybe you hesitate too long and the decision is taken out of your hands when he finds them on his own — but either way, it's rocket, so he's definitely gonna find out at some point.
i think he'd demand to watch them all immediately. he'd have a curling snarl on his mouth for at least the first half-hour of each movie, and it would return to his lips whenever he remembered that he's supposed to be looking disgusted. but rocket either doesn't realize how much his ears and tail give him away, or he thinks you're too much of a humie to interpret the data. so even when he's trying to look all disgruntled and annoyed, you can tell that he's alert, interested, tailtip flicking as he focuses gleaming red eyeshine on the screen. he leans forward like he wants to breathe in every pixel. occasionally he scoffs — that ain't how that happened — but mostly he's just fascinated.
because, well, rocket's always been good at fitting things together. broken bits of a robot cellmate to create the firearm that would save him and his new friend groot — screws and bolts from the milano to make a moon-destroying hadron enforcer. batteries to make a bomb, and scraps of stolen metal and magnets to make a key.
but the one thing that rocket has never been able to make fit are all these disparate shreds of loss and anger and pain, piled and stitched together as clumsily as his broken body.
and now he's watching the cornerstones of his life played out in a narrative, like there's some kind of meaning to everything he's been through. like someone loosened the stabbing-wire threads holding together all his cobbled-together things, and gently restrung each one into a strand of stars and amber beads. even when the movies aren't accurate, they're still — benevolence. empathy.
absolution.
he probably cries quite often during the movies — i think rocket would definitely be a crier. he'd be weeping silently beside you on the couch, in tandem with his film-star counterpart, and even more times besides. after the last end-credits scene rolls, he sniffles, and then scoffs, and starts riffling through a list of inaccuracies.
clearly these morons don't know how jump-points work, he says, and the collector was actually way more insufferable in real life, and wow, pete ain't that much of a jackass, and nat wouldn't say that shit about me. wait, did she?
but you're pretty sure, judging by the watched history in the disney+ subscription you're sharing with four other households, that he's rewatching them after he goes back up into space. more than once, from the looks of things. and he hasn't said it in so many words, but you think he's found a strange sort of comfort in watching these stories play out through another person's eyes, and that understanding fills you with relief. you'd been worried, but there's no anger, and there's no weirdness.
until a week-and-a-half later when the comm he left with you crackles to life, and he's demanding you tell him what the fuck fanfiction is.
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numinousmysteries · 2 years ago
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Dancing the Tandava (4/10)
[on Ao3] @today-in-fic
Geneva, Switzerland 2023
Hannah forgets William’s parents were coming to visit until she hears knocking on the door. She’s been up all night in a panic and is so tightly wound that the sound of the knock makes her whole body flinch.
Last night, she and William had been watching a movie on his laptop, both lying face down in his bed, propped up on their elbows. He has a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of old sci-fi and horror B-movies, and, after learning she’d never seen Plan 9 From Outer Space or Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, he’s made it his personal mission to expand her horizons. As aspiring physicists, they’ve made a game out of poking holes in the films' plots, but she can tell he genuinely enjoyed them.
They were midway through The Thing when William got a call. Dr. Bellona needed his assistance immediately for a special project at the large hadron collider. She heard William agree to come into the lab even though it didn’t make any sense. They were both research interns for Dr. Farber, whose office was next door to Bellona’s. Besides, interns aren’t certified or trained to work directly on the collider, and they’re never urgently needed at 9 p.m.
“Bellona?” she asked. “Didn’t you say you saw him doing something weird near the Shiva statue on your way home today?”
“Yeah,” William replied, getting out of bed. “I guess now I can ask him what he was up to.”
Hannah had a bad feeling. She bit her lower lip and tried to resist the impulse to pull him back onto the bed as he rose up.
She watched as he pulled a thick navy sweater over his gray t-shirt. A thin line of his toned abdomen peeked out as he lifted up his arms and she forced herself to look away. William is her best friend, the first person she’d ever met who could keep up with her in debates about loop quantum gravity. He’s also undeniably hot: Tall and lean, with piercing blue eyes, and a strong jawline. She teases him for being a jock because he played varsity basketball and baseball in high school, but she secretly appreciates his body as much as his mind.
They’re only friends, though—and roommates and co-workers but nothing more. They don’t talk about their dating lives, although based on how much time he spends either with her or at the lab she can’t imagine his is any more exciting than her own non-existent one. Sure, she feels an electric jolt whenever his hand grazes hers, but William Mulder could probably get any girl he wants. Well, maybe if he toned down his own nerdiness a little.
“I’ll be back soon,” he said, leaving her alone on his bed. Hannah groaned in protest but she could already hear the apartment door shutting behind him.
She waited up for him to return. An hour, then two, then three. She texted and called him but he didn’t respond. Finally at 1 a.m. she pulled a puffy coat over her pajamas, slipped on a pair of boots, and marched down to the ATLAS facility at CERN where she and William worked. She tapped her key card to the sensor at the door but it lit up red and didn’t open. When it failed two more times, she knocked at the door, getting the attention of a security guard she hadn’t seen before.
“Can I help you?” he asked, poking his head out the door into the cold night air.
“Um, I left something at my desk. I just wanted to come pick it up.”
“You’ll have to come back in the morning,” the security guard said sternly. “There’s been an incident and the entire facility is on lockdown.”
“An incident?” she asked, scrunching her brow in concern. It seemed too quiet for there to have been an accident at the facility. There were no sirens or crowds assembled. “What kind of incident?”
“Not sure,” he said. “But someone’s gone missing in the collider tunnel.”
“Missing?” she asked. It wasn’t possible. The large hadron collider was housed in an underground tunnel made of reinforced concrete. It was huge, nearly 17 miles in circumference, but entirely enclosed. There was nowhere for someone to go missing.
The guard just shrugged and started pulling the door closed.
“Wait—” she said, yanking the glass door back open. “Who is it?”
“An intern, they think,” he said. Then he shut the door.
Hannah’s bad feeling got a lot worse.
Back at the apartment, she spent the rest of the night texting other interns in their cohort to see if anyone knew what had happened, but everyone was either asleep or equally clueless.
When she heard the knock at the door she perked up, thinking it was William and he’d forgotten his keys. She didn’t expect to see his parents there instead. She met them once before, when she stayed at their home for a weekend over the summer. William’s mother, from whom he inherited his eyes and coloring, was a doctor and scientist, the kind of accomplished and serious woman she hoped to one day become herself. His father, who looked nearly exactly like an older version of William, was funny and, as William warned, did tell some strange stories but she found them fascinating. Hannah sat aghast as Mr. Mulder recalled a liver-eating monster, a telekinetic killer, and satanic PTA members. William and his mom only rolled their eyes, clearly having heard (or, in Dr. Scully’s case, lived through) these tales before.
Now, she watches as William’s mother’s face drops when she tells her he’s gone.
“Where is he?” his father shouts, cutting through her shock.
Hannah tries to answer, but she only starts crying harder. Dr. Scully drapes an arm around her and leads her to the living room sofa. The coffee table is cluttered with her and William’s books and notebooks and the remains of their takeout dinner from the night before. They would have cleaned up after the movie but then William was called away.
Hannah buries her head in her hands, trying to slow her hyperventilation, as Wlliam’s mom sits down next to her, rubbing her back. She’s ashamed to be such an emotional mess in front of them, but she can’t help it.
“Mulder, why don’t you get Hannah a glass of water?” Dr. Scully asks softly. William’s parents call each other by their last names, a holdover from their days as FBI partners. He said it was embarrassing, but she thinks it’s sweet.
Mulder returns with the water and Hannah sips it slowly.
“Hannah, can you tell us what happened?” Dr. Scully asks gently, still with a calming hand on her back.
Hannah takes a deep breath, trying to steady herself.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Scully,” she says.
“Dana,” William’s mom interrupts. “You can call me Dana.”
“Okay,” Hannah continues. “He was called in last night to assist on a project with the large hadron collider, but he never came back. I went down to our worksite and they told me he’d gone missing inside the LHC tunnel. But that’s impossible. The tunnel is fully enclosed.”
She pauses to wipe the tears off her face with her sweatshirt sleeve. “I think this physicist Dr. Bellona has something to do with it. William saw him yesterday leading some sort of ritual outside the Shiva statue and then he was the one who called William last night.”
“What Shiva statue?” Mulder asks, his eyes darting from Hannah to his wife.
“Um, there’s a statue of the Hindu god Shiva right behind our building. Apparently, Dr. Bellona was chanting and scattering something there with these other people and he kind of stared down William when he saw him.”
“We have to go see that statue,” Mulder says, already headed to the door. His frenetic energy reminds her of William when he’s excited about a new idea.
“Is that okay, Hannah?” William’s mom asks. “Can you come show it to us?”
She guides them outside to a courtyard in between her apartment and the neighboring office building. There, on a granite podium, stands a giant brass model of a majestic Shiva dancing in a fiery halo. He has one foot on the back of a smaller being, and the other raised in the air in celebration.
“This is it,” she says. “It was a gift from the Indian government. What do you think Bellona was doing here?”
Mulder steps forward to examine the statue.
“I don’t know,” he says, rubbing his fingers along the engraved plaque on its base. “But I saw this same symbol earlier this morning in the taxi that took us here from the airport. The driver had a medallion hanging from his mirror that looked exactly like this.”
“It’s probably a coincidence,” Dana says. “But I have to admit, it’s odd. Why is there a religious statue at a scientific center?”
“There are parallels between the story of Shiva dancing the universe into existence and the movement of subatomic particles,” Hannah answers. As a self-proclaimed atheist, she’d asked herself the same question upon coming to CERN, confident that all answers could be found in science. But the more she learns about particle physics, the more mysterious the world seems. “Carl Sagan called Shiva’s cosmic dance the most elegant and sublime representation of the creation of the universe.”
“She quotes Sagan,” Mulder says, smiling. “No wonder William likes you so much.”
Hannah blushes. Glancing down, she spots a green, trifoliate leaf on the pebbled ground. It’s bright with two smaller leaflets and a longer, wider one in the middle, and stands out against the gray of the stones on the walkway. As she looks around on the ground, she sees a few more dispersed around the statue.
“Look at this,” she says, bending down to pick it up. “Maybe Bellona was scattering leaves.”
“Let me see,” Dana says, reaching over to take the leaf from Hannah. “It looks like it’s from a citrus plant, possibly tropical. I don’t think it’s from anything that grows around here.”
“Hannah!” a French-accented voice calls out and all three of them turn around.
It’s Emmanuelle Toussaint, a young French engineer who works in the LHC control center. Hannah had met her at a cocktail reception for women at CERN and the two had become friendly. If there really was an incident with the LHC, Emanuelle would know about it.
“Did you hear what happened?” Emmanuelle asks, striding over to the statue near Hannah and William’s parents.
“To William?” Hannah blurts out desperately.
Emmanuelle looks confused. “No,” she says. “The LHC operated at 15 TeV last night.”
“That’s physically impossible,” Hannah says under her breath.
You don’t need to tell me that,” Emanuelle responds excitedly. “I saw it with my own eyes from the control center, though. We’ve calibrated and recalibrated every detector and we’re still getting the same reading.”
“Scully, I might need some translating here,” Mulder leans over to Dana to whisper.
“I don’t think I understand what’s going on either,” she says.
“The collider has a maximum total collision energy of 14 TeV, or teraelectronvolts per beam. It’s only ever operated at 13 TeV, though, and achieving 15 TeV would require physical upgrades that are years away,” Hannah explains.
“Sorry,” she continues. “Emmanuelle, these are William’s parents, and,” she pauses. “William went missing last night.”
“Oh my goodness,” Emmanuelle gasps, bringing a thin hand to her mouth. “That was him with Dr. Bellona.”
“What happened?” Dana asks.
“Dr. Bellona was the one running the experiment last night. There’s footage of him inside the tunnel working on a calibration with someone else. I didn’t realize it was William with him. Then, there was a power surge and we lost connection to the cameras. When they came back online, Bellona was still there but William wasn’t.”
“Where could he have gone?” Hannah asks.
“I don’t know,” Emmanuelle continues. “But Dr. Bellona called the control room and wanted us to begin the collider run. We obviously can’t do that if anyone is still in the tunnel and, since we didn’t see William exit, we couldn’t start the collider. We locked down the facility and had the technicians do a full sweep of the tunnel. No one was there. Bellona insisted William had exited with him and had gone home, and since there was no sign of him in the tunnel, we figured he was telling the truth. That’s when we started the experiment and the LHC hit 15 TeV.”
“But William didn’t come home,” Hannah says quietly.
“What would happen if the collider ran while he was inside the tunnel?” Mulder asks.
Hannah glances at Emmanuelle. They both know it would be instantly fatal for anyone to be exposed to the high voltage and intense magnetic fields generated by a run of the particle accelerator. Hannah’s heart thumps hard in her chest.
“It is impossible,” Emmanuelle says, shaking her head. “We would never run an experiment with anyone inside. There are too many safety protocols in place. And no one was inside at the time. I don’t know where William went, but I can promise you he was not in the tunnel.”
“I think we need to talk to this Dr. Bellona,” says Dana.
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hyperesthesias · 2 years ago
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Foresight & Respite
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Notes: Boring. My inner Bronte came out again. Sorry. (I promise the next chapter [after Starlight Immemorial] is going to be really good. Viktor will have a spiritual sexual awakening.)
Context: Anya and Viktor are childhood friends from Zaun, who reconnected six months ago. Anya is a mage, theoretical physicist, and wealthy donor to the Academy. She is a different humanoid species, who lives for centuries. She has previously offered to become Viktor's patron, but he has worries about being unable to repay her. Anya is worried Viktor is being overworked, and offers her patronage again. They have their 'first fight'. Starlight Immemorial directly follows this chapter.
Tag List: @uniquedeerwitch @funcoolchickie (Please let me know if you would like to be tagged!)
AO3 link
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Days elapsed into weeks after the Symphony Ball, in which Viktor could not recall a time in his life spent without Anya. He was required to chaperone her to presentations and proposals given by department heads from the physics and astronomy college, where she listened with great attention and happiness to hear of the progress being made in the concept of light travel. After a myriad of lectures, she confided in Viktor that she had a contact at the energy research facility where she used to work, who had access to a hadron collider.
“Perhaps I can ask her for an appointment with the laboratory where it is located,” she suggested, excitedly. She walked with her companion among the halls of the Academy, from the physics college to the engineering department, where Viktor was set to lead the next lecture of Engineering 101. “That way, maybe you and your partner might be able to find some answers about the crystal, and what it can do.”
Viktor nodded and put the back of his hand, occupied with his daily notebook, to his mouth as he yawned.
“Certainly, I know the idea of visiting a hadron collider cannot be boring you,” she eyed him. “How much sleep did you get last night?” she asked and leaned to see his face. 
He tried to shy away from her prying judgment, but he conceded to her concern. “I got enough.”
“Your body disagrees.”
“My body disagrees with everything,” he miffed. They turned into the lecture hall, where he held the door open for her. The classroom was empty, and it allowed them to prepare for the first wave of students for the day. He settled himself at his desk, and set his notebook down, opening its pages to the lesson plan of the day.
Anya pulled down the chalkboards and erased the previous day’s scrawlings. “You do too much, Viktor. You cannot subsist on caffeine and curiosity alone.”
“It has worked so far,” he glanced at her.
She huffed and returned his look as she wandered to the edge of his desk, where a pile of papers sat, waiting to be distributed. “Have you thought about my offer?” She picked them up, and waited to see if he would reply. 
His sight broke from his notebook, but he did not look her in the eye; he did not have the wherewithal. Her offer had been exceedingly generous, and while its promise had crossed his mind repeatedly in the weeks they spent together, he gave it neither credence, nor consideration. Anya was the cause of so much gratitude in his life already, that should she be his benefactress, he would be indebted to her forever.
“My offer will always stand, Viktor. It will not expire,” she said, without a reply from him.
She passed out each paper to each desk within the lecture hall, and when she was finished, took her place at the side of his desk, waiting for the students to arrive. She found great joy in participating in the class as an aid – from distributing papers, to quietly answering students’ questions, and lulling a student’s infant, who lain restless in her mother’s arms during afternoon lectures. Being present there allowed her to mull over aspects of engineering she did not normally have the opportunity to think about. Though she, also, was adept in the mechanics of engineering, her work in the energy research lab had been primarily dedicated to the theoretical applications of light and radiation. She vigorously applied herself to the study of quantum energy, and how to pass an object of light from one point in time to another. Her desire was always to see the stars and mingle among them – one day, she promised herself, perhaps two hundred years thence, she would be able to see them for herself. But her calculations and her sciences had all been theoretical. Viktor was the machinist, even as a child – able to create a seemingly living thing from nothing at all: mechanized trinkets and autonomous beings that relieved his responsibilities of chores. Together, their knowledge was enviable and dynamic.
Two classes passed the day, and by the third, Viktor finished his second cup of coffee. He disliked its bitter taste, though Anya always had it sweetened perfectly to his liking. As the students filed in and began their quiz, he realized he did not know how Anya ordered his coffee, only that she knew to appeal it to his palate. The intimacy of his interests being perceived by another was foreign to him, though not unwelcome.
The class completed their quiz quietly and without incident, and Viktor leaned forward onto his desk to relieve pressure from his spine. He remained there for the entirety of the test, and by the time every student was finished, Viktor was still languid on his table. Anya peered over his shoulder, and saw his eyes closed, and his breath heavy and idle. He was asleep. She smiled to herself and ventured to wake him, but he did not rouse with her attempts.
Anya stood from grading papers, and gently took his notebook from under his elbow, where she read through the lesson plan he had written out: it was half in their native language, and half in the common tongue. The class was simple, and there were no topics of which she was unfamiliar, thus she proceeded to teach the final class of the day.
She enjoyed it thoroughly, and answered every question with grace and knowledge. She was a patient teacher, who expounded when necessary, and who had no qualms in walking among her students when they needed individual assistance. When her lecture was almost complete, the infant who was regularly toted to classes with her mother, began to fuss and whimper; Anya did not hesitate in continuing her offer to soothe the child – she had a pointer in one hand, and the infant in the other as she finished the lecture.
Viktor woke to the sound of students bustling and chairs scraping against the flooring. He was mildly disoriented, and could not perceive the time. When he opened his eyes, he saw his class filing to exit, and Anya at the head of the room smiling and playing with the child in her arms. Its mother was approaching her from the rear of the class, but Anya did not rush her or show her any impatience or malice. Instead, she took the child’s hands as they reached for the shimmering fabric of her veil, and kissed them. Viktor felt as if he was woken to another dream.
As the child was returned to its mother, Anya returned to Viktor’s side with a soft smile. She traced a finger along the edge of his face and placed her hand on his upper arm. “You cannot outrun your mortal needs forever,” she said.
He let a long sigh, and rolled his brow along his arm. “I can’t sleep.” He forced himself to sit upright and stand – he leaned heavily on his cane as he forced his exhausted legs to move against their will.
Anya began to pack their belongings and reset the classroom. “What troubles you?”
By the time she finished, he made it to the exit, where he held open the door for her. He leaned against its frame as he thought on how to answer her. “The night Jayce and I unlocked the crystal’s potential – the feeling of being weightless – it was…incredible.” He looked at her as she came to his side, still trying to find the words to describe it. “I felt…whole, again. A feeling I have not had since my earliest memories. Something I long to recreate.” They began to walk the halls of the Academy, towards his apartment near the laboratory. “My every waking moment is spent trying to decipher it, trying to apply it in a way where others can feel its benefit – where I can feel its benefit, again. But my energy is limited, and there are only so many hours in a day, until my body can no longer function.”
Anya remained quiet for a while, until they approached his apartment door, and she asked again: “Why will you not accept my offer of patronage?” Frustration laced her voice, that her friend would not accept a gift she readily gave: “Is it pride?”
He furrowed, offended, and unlocked his door. “No, it is not pride.”
“What is it, then?”
“It is unfair,” he insisted.
“If my offer is not enough, I can amend it –”
“It is unfair that I have nothing to give you in return,” he said.
“I do not want you to repay me. I want only your wellbeing.”
“No, Anya,” he contended. “You are stubborn.”
She drew back, insulted, but ventured to assume his ire was due to his lack of sleep. “I am not the only one who is obstinate.” Satisfied that her friend was safely returned to his home, she quitted him and the Academy.
Viktor sighed and leaned his head on the doorframe of his apartment. He had a preternatural fear of power imbalances and debts he could not repay. He saw them paid for in blood and slavery as a child in Zaun, and he vowed never to be placed in a position that could indenture him to the will of another.
As he settled himself into his apartment – removing his shoes and his tie as he reclined on the sofa, with a hand over his eyes – he felt foolish for projecting his fear onto Anya. She, of all others in his life, knew the primal fear of subjugation, and he felt ashamed that he would – even subconsciously – presume her of such a sin. The offer of her patronage was a reflection of herself: pure and kind-hearted, with little expectation of return; he called to mind the afternoons as children, where they would sit in silence, and she never attempted to pry from him a word or an answer. She was not stubborn for the sake of stubbornness itself, but she was eager in her generosity, a trait which was foreign to him. 
He reached for a drawer in the side table, and made from it a discreet pillbox; he took from it two pills and swallowed them dry. As his eyes drifted closed, he pondered the wording of the apology he owed her, which he would present to her the next day.
Viktor arrived at the lab in the late morning – he fell asleep on the couch, and remained there for the duration of the night; his back was sore, and his neck was stiff, it took him a half hour more than usual to ready himself for the day. When he arrived, he heard Jayce’s voice and laughter, and Viktor opened his notebook, searching for a scheduled meeting or a projected visitor; he found none in his calendar. 
Instead, as he entered the lab, he saw Anya standing over the workbench, she listened as Jayce described his vision for HexTech to her. She had her own notebook on the bench, with notations and suggestions written in their native language, which Jayce could not read.
“Viktor!” Jayce called to him. “Man of the hour. I was just telling our visitor about how you used mechanical resonance to stabilize the crystal.” While his words were true, he hoped their emphasis made a positive and lasting impression on Miss Anya.
Viktor eyed Anya and greeted her with a light bow of his head. She returned the gesture, but said nothing. “It was simple, really,” he cleared his throat, averting his gaze from her. “Crystals operate vibrationally – all it needed was some tuning.”
“And is it tuned now?” Anya raised a brow, referring to his attitude, rather than the crystal.
He nodded once, and pursed his lips, still shying himself from her regard. “Yes. It is…tuned.” Viktor gathered his decorum and straightened his back with a wince as he motioned from her to his partner. “Jayce, this is Miss Anya. She is a donor to the Academy; she graduated here from the Physics and Astronomy Department.”
“She’s more than that – she told me she’s the contact you’ve been sharing our notes with.” 
Viktor looked at her, pleased that she felt safe enough to divulge part of her involvement. “Yes, Miss Anya and I have worked together before.”
She took her notebook and began to approach Viktor. “We are friends.” 
Viktor knew she meant to educate Jayce on the nature of their relationship, but he also knew it was a reminder for him. He spent years friendless and alone, that he knew the reminder of its meaning was necessary. “Indeed.”
“May I speak with you, Viktor?” she asked. 
“Please,” he agreed and motioned for the hallway outside the lab. 
Jayce watched the pair exit the lab and disappear into the shadows; he could hear vague words in another tongue, hushed and reticent, and he wondered how they knew each other. Viktor never spoke of a romantic interest – he rarely divulged personal details about himself at all. But he recognized in Viktor a look of indelible love – great admiration and awe: he looked on her as if she were carved of marble, sacred and haunted, possessed with the spirit of some greater thing than he.
“I wanted to apologise for yesterday afternoon,” Anya said. 
Viktor shook his head, adamantly. “No – it is I who should apologise.” 
“I did not mean to pressure you, or make you feel uncomfortable,” she continued.
He sighed and put his head in his hand. “If I felt any discomfort, it was of my own making – not yours,” he paused and shook his head again. She looked on him with worried eyes, and saw what lay beneath him. It was futile to lie to her, or obscure any truth about himself. “I want to accept your offer. But nothing I do will ever be enough to repay you.”
“I know this worry weighs heavily on your heart,” she said and took his hands. “I have thought of a solution: I will be not only your patron, but your investor. That way, anything I have given to you, will be inherently paid off by the work you produce. You will never have to worry about a debt unfulfilled.”
His shoulders dropped as his breath fled from him, and a weight was relieved from his soul.
“Will you accept my offer, with these conditions?”
He nodded, still breathless, and his hands held onto hers with gratitude. “I do.”
“I hate to see you so tired…” she passed one hand along the darkness gathered beneath his eyes, “...my dear Viktor.”
“Forgive me for how I acted yesterday,” he said and kissed her hand. “My mind has been tired, and I have not felt myself.”
“Hopefully now you can rest – unworried about provision. Rest – though I know you despise it –, and dedicate yourself to the science you love. Leave the assistant work behind. You work for no one, but yourself."
"And Jayce."
Anya looked towards the lab, where the broad outline of his newfound friend could be seen in the distance. She hummed, unconvinced. “He is young. But he speaks with such conviction.”
“You doubt him?”
“I do not doubt his intentions for the good of all sentient beings, but he is sure of himself, and of his goals. Such conviction can make someone blind. It can cultivate hubris.” She looked at Viktor again, and pressed her fingers into his. “Follow your endeavours wherever they might take you – but do not forget yourself, my dear Viktor. Stay, always, my wonderful friend.”
He looked on her with curiosity, but heeded her nonetheless; his thumbs caressed the tops of her hands, and he nodded carefully in agreement. Her kind were blessed with the gifts of magic and foresight, and he wondered if there was some figment of the future to which she had been privy; but he hesitated to ask, and found himself afraid of her answer.
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realbigpodcastslut · 1 year ago
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Lee's Podcast Master List (Current)
This is def incomplete and not all caught up anymore and I lost all the podcasts I have listened to. Do with that what you will. Bolded are podcasts I talk about the most.
Currently Listening To
The Silt Verses
Welcome to Night Vale (relisten)
Listened
Audio Dramas:
2298
36 Questions
A Scottish Podcast
Aftershocks
Alba Salix
The Alexandria Archives
Alice Isn't Dead
The Amelia Podcast
The Angel of the Vine
Archive 81
Arden
ars PARADOXICA
Attention Hellmart shoppers!
The Black Tapes
Blackwood
The Blood Crow Stories
The Bridge
The Bright Sessions
The Bubble
Brimstone Valley Mall
Charlie’s Mailbox
Dead Serious
Death by Dying
The Deep Vault
The Directive
Dreamboy
Drywater
The Elysium Project
Empty
EOS 10
The Far Meridian
Girl in Space
Greater Boston
Hadron Gospel Hour
Herbarium Podcast
Here be Dragons
Heroics
Hosts of Eden
I Am in Eskew
Inkwyrm
It Makes a Sound
Jim Robbie and the Wanders
Kakos Industries
Kevin’s Cryptids
King Falls AM
Lake Clarity
The Last Movie
Lesser Gods
Liberty
lif-e.af/ter / The Message
Limetown
The Lost Cat Podcast
LUCYD
Mable
Malevolent
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol
The Meat Blockade
Misadventure By Death
OAKPODCAST
Old Gods of Appalachia
Olive Hill
The Orbiting Human Circus 
Organism
Orphans
The Penumbra Podcast
Point Mystic
Qwerpline
RABBITS
Red Valley
Return Home
Rex Rivetter:  Private Eye
Rose Drive
Rover Red
SAYER
Scotch
Sherlock and Co
Small Town Horror
Space Log
Spines
Star Tripper
Station to Station
Steal the Stars
The Strange Case of Starship Iris
Subject: Found
SubverCity Transmit
TANIS
Tales of THATTOWN
Testing Connection
Tides
Time:Bombs
Tribulation
Tunnels
Uncanny County
Under Pressure
Unwell
Video Palace
We Fix Space Junk
Welcome to Night Vale
What’s the Frequency
The White Vault
Within the Wires
Wolf 359
Wooden Overcoats
Zero Hours
Improv/Dnd:
Hello from the Magic Tavern (On ep 300-something I think?)
The Adventure Zone (Balance, Amnesty, Graduation)
Other:
The Folktale Project
Heme Review
Lore
My Brother My Brother and Me
This Podcast Will Kill You
The Topical (Onion)
To Listen To
Camp Here and there
WOE.BEGONE
Hello From the Hallowoods
Midnight Burger
Deviser
Arden
Midnight Radio
Moonbase Theta, Out
The Godshead Incidental
Janus Decending
The Petrol Station
Cthulhu and Friends
The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity and Mortality
Kakos (relisten)
Mabel (relisten)
Old Gods of Appalachia (relisten)
Palimpsest
Second Star to the Left
The Sheridan Tapes
Who Watches the Birdwatchers?
The Vesta Clinic
Spirit Box Radio
The Dead Letter Office of Somewhere, Ohio
Dead Man’s Notes
Life With Althaar
Middle:Below
The Pale
The Secret of St Kilda
Last updated: 6/25/2024
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random-fandom-writah · 1 year ago
Text
The steel tray clattered to the table, the tools inside rattling. With practiced ease, Maia pulled her lasgun off her back and disconnected the strap. In less than a second, she had it folded and placed above the tray, out of the way.
She began the Holy Rite of Disassembly. Her hands worked almost automatically, removing the charge pack, the side panel, the barrel shroud, and a variety of internal components. Her lips never stopped or even stumbled through the litanies, calling each piece by name as she removed them.
As she reached the emitter, she removed the heat sinks and examined them closely. Inadequate cooling would lead to expansion of the focusing crystals, causing inaccuracy and underpowered shots. Seeing nothing, she gave them the usual once-over with the cleaning cloth before setting them gently inside the tray, alongside the other components.
Next, she very carefully removed the focusing crystals. She held each up to the light in turn, checking them for imperfections, such as occlusions caused by subpar heat management. When she was satisfied, she produced a special cloth from the partition that occupied the upper left corner of the tray. She carefully wrapped them in it, using it to wipe away any trace of her fingerprints, then set the crystals inside the box.
Next was the receiver, a small box above the pack-well. It was well past her own abilities, its inner working being incredibly complex. It was exclusively the territory of a Tech-Priest, but she could at least clean and inspect the housing.
As she flipped the box over, something finally stopped her muttering. Her ring finger had landed in something cold and wet. She lifted it gently. A line of thin coppery slime stretched between her finger and the receiver/charge pack connection point.
"Hadron, found the issue." Maia called out, wiping both her finger and the box in her hand with the cleansing cloth.
The tech-priestess swung around. A mechadendrite snatched the piece from Maia's hand. She swung around to her own workstation and began her own rapid breakdown. Minutes later, she returned, placing it gently on the tray with the rest of the components.
"Try to avoid more biological matter inside your weapon, Guardsmen." Maia thought she heard a bit of respect, but it was impossible to be certain through the mechanical modulation.
Maia pulled a censer from a hook above her head, gently waving the delicate orb over her weapon, reciting the canticle of cleansing as the incense drifted down to purify the lasgun. Afterwords, she began piecing it back together, reciting yet more litanies as she did so.
When she was done, she reattached the strap to her rifle and slid it over her shoulder again. She took a moment, steadied herself, then left the shrine to the Omnissiah.
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ewanmitchellcrumbs · 1 year ago
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Welcome back ange sorry about the horrors lol
So because Ewan is visiting my beloved Mexico:
Ewanverse characters ft vacation spots
The horrors that you, personally, have caused 😉 thank you! 💕
I am so jealous that he is getting to visit all of the places I want to; first São Paulo, the home of my beloved caipirinha. Now, Mexico, the country that has some of the best food in the world.
This is a fun one!
Abraham - doesn’t go abroad. Has a long weekend in one of the holiday parks in the New Forest; both beaches and woodland to explore, free roaming ponies, and lots of old man pubs to drink ale in.
Aemond - Bergen in Norway. Lots of dark history and mountains to climb. Endless photos of him posing in front of stave churches.
Billy Taylor - a trip to Brighton beach. Visits the fun fair on the pier and brings back a stick of rock.
Billy Washington - goes to Ibiza or Magaluf because it’s where all of his mates tend to go. Eats only English food the entire time he’s there, gets radioactive looking sunburn and wakes up every day with a hangover. Returns home feeling worse than before he left.
Ettore - would probably want to do one of those guided tours of Pripyat to visit the Chernobyl reactor.
Genyen - Thailand, duh.
Michael - Geneva, to learn more about the Hadron Collider. Wears socks and sandals the entire time.
Osferth - enjoys a break in the British countryside. Would enjoy a long weekend in the Peak District or the Cotswolds.
Tom - Prague! Cheap booze and the stag party culture would suit him perfectly.
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olympusgenius · 7 months ago
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Jutaro is fighting Curren as she stands in his way wanting Salamon's ring, Jutaro refuses, it is then her robot moves in to attack but not before the the AQUILES mech Ai senses he is in danger initiating it's auto pilot function and jumping in the way of the attack successfully blocking it before taking Jutaro and putting him in the cockpit, Curren's robot comes in for a second strike before the AI voice speaks.
AI-initiating absolute defense field.
The robots large scythe is blocked by a shimmering clear purple group of hexagons forming around the torso and arm, the enemy soon backs away preparing for another strike before the mech activates the float unit and is hovering in mid-air, soon the AI voice speaks once more.
AI-wrist mounted hadron blasters initiated, commencing bombardment.
The mech lifts it's left arm before the blaster flips from the underside of it's wrist and shoots several reddish blackish orbs that explode as they hit the enemy machine, when the dust settles the enemy robot is still standing just barely, Curren looking frustrated says.
Curren-you haven't beaten me yet! As I have numbers!
Soon 20 other robots appear, as they do the AQUILES AI locks on to all of the new enemies, before speaking once again.
AI-multiple enemies detected, locking on targets, activating chest mounted main weapon.
The mech spreads its arms out of the way as the front chest plate slowly splits open and reveals a prism inside before firing it a distance before firing a laser into the prism scattering the beam in multiple directions destroying all the enemy machines, Curren realizing she can't win retreats with her robot brother, soon Jutaro jumps out of the cockpit as the AQUILES sets him down before doing a scan to ensure he is unharmed before turning as two one wheeled skates unfold from behind each of the mechs legs before the wheels start turning and the machine takes off at a fast speed back to Hephaestus' lab, upon it's return it gives it's report on how the battle went and notifying him that his Mama is safe and suffered no injury.
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"AQUILES MK.1 AI codename: Talbot reporting to Hephaestus-sama...Jutaro-sama went through a frontal assault by Curren and a robotic platoon, Jutaro-sama is completely unscathed and safe during assault, zero harms after post-assault scan before return to base, Hephaestus-sama"
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"Excellent job! You can return to recharging port to execute an hardware scan...but first, answer my next question, why your codename is Talbot?"
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"My new codename was chosen by Jutaro-sama, is there any conflict, Hephaestus-sama?"
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"No, just curiousity"
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