#Variable Phase Order

[moderatetoaboveaverage]

"Boil water to turn fan" as if multistage steam turbine generators are not one of the sexiest kinds of machines every made

nuclear power is impressive until you get up to why. "we use the most precisely engineered machinery ever created to split atoms to release energy" oh yeah how come? "boil water to turn a fan" get the fuck out

[webslinger-holland]

Being the Hero Part 2 | Bob Reynolds from Thunderbolts*

Summary: The plan to get out of the vault is growing more complicated by the minute. Now, tasked with keeping Bob safe, the reader ends up showing a side to her that she'd much rather keep in the dark.

Warning: Thunderbolts* spoiler alert, some swearing and teasing, mentions of soldiers carrying weapons, hallway fight scene that includes a lot of graphic content (read at your own risk because the reader's power is literally the ability to break bones so it gets descriptive)

Pairing: Bob Reynolds x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 2.9k

Type: Mini Series

Story Masterlist

The only exit of the vault was being heavily guarded from the outside. Blurry shapes of military vehicles and armed soldiers loomed just behind the glass doors. The lights attached to the ends of their guns shone through.

Just peering around the corner, the group of five misfits quickly realized that if they stepped out that door, they'd likely either be arrested or worse—shot down. No doubt, Valentina was just outside too and waiting to give the order to strike.

Drawing away from the corner, Y/n was quick to grab onto Bob's shirt and pull him away with her. They regrouped to brainstorm their next move.

"We need to come up with a plan," Yelena announced.

"Here's what we're gonna do," Walker stepped in to take charge.

"Oh, you're the boss now? Cute," Ava interjected with an unamused look on her face.

"Well, yeah. It's your only chance to get out of here so..." Walker claimed.

"Okay, I think I might just surrender probably," Bob spoke truthfully.

"No! You can't do that," Y/n quickly shot him down and Bob spared a timid glance in her direction. "Surrendering isn't an option for us; Valentina wants all of us dead, remember?"

“Okay, fine. Every man for themself.” Walker shrugged.

"Would you stop it?" Y/n snapped, clearly frustrated.

"Why should you be in charge? You almost killed all of us right there!” Yelena pointed out.

“Well, let’s see—been in the trenches of every war-torn country on this planet, rescued God knows how many hostages, and shook the hands of two US presidents!” Walker rambled on.

Ava, leaning against the wall, breathed out a long sigh.

"What else? Uh, oh—High school state football champions. Back to back to back. Go Bears!" Walker added the cherry on top.

“Oh, wow." Yelena began with a strong hint of sarcasm. "When I was five, I was in a peewee soccer team called the West Chesapeake Valley Thunderbolts, sponsored by Shane’s Tire Shop. We won zero games, and one time, this girl Mindie—she did a poo midfield! Anyone else have any pointless stories to share?”

There was a short beat of silence; each of them contemplating.

"Not a lot of great memories growing up besides maybe the time I broke my childhood bully's arm when she tried to take my lunch," Y/n recalled, but she never felt bad about it.

"Grew up in a lab prison.” Ava chimed in with a raised hand.

“Meth-addicted sign twirling chicken," Bob swung his finger for emphasis. He shrugged it off. "Was a… summer job.”

Clearly, Yelena wasn't impressed with any of their stories and knew their time was starting to run out.

"Right okay. Here's the plan: We set off an explosion to bring them in," Yelena began to explain, but she was rudely interrupted.

"I don't know. Too many variables with an explosion—" Walker shook his head.

"They turn on their night vision. You handle the first wave, but you wait for me after I've blinded the remaining troops," Yelena added.

"Everyone's gonna wait for you?" Walker scoffed slightly.

"It'll only work if you wait," Yelena emphasized the importance of his role in all of this.

"It's a terrible plan," Walker shook his head.

"Ava, you find us an escape vehicle—" Yelena motioned to her right, but she turned her head, Ava was nowhere to be found. She'd already phased away, leaving the rest of them abandoned.

When Yelena looked back to Walker, he wore an unamused yet not surprised look on his face. He motioned to the empty spot like he'd just proven his point all along.

"W—What about me?" Bob asked, stepping forward with a hopeful, if slightly sheepish, smile.

"You stay with her, Bob." Yelena sighed, jerking her chin toward Y/n. Bob glanced down at her. She offered him a tight, tense smile—more reassurance than enthusiasm. "She'll keep you safe," Yelena added before moving on.

"Yeah, if anybody comes near us and I'll just break their backs to render them immobile," Y/n joked awkwardly to defuse the tension. Bob swallowed nervously.

"Let's do this."

Right before everyone went their separate ways, Bob asked if he could talk with Yelena for a brief second. The two of them dismissed themselves and regrouped in a quiet corner away from the others.

"Uh, hey. A-Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bob inquired. He fiddled with his sleeve nervously.

"I already told you, Bob—" Yelena didn't have time for this. "You stay with her and she's going to keep you safe. She's probably the strongest out of all of us."

This was meant to put him at ease, but it only made him more anxious.

"D—Doesn't that also make her the most dangerous?" Bob was almost afraid to say it.

"Yes, probably." Yelena replied without missing a beat. "But I will say—she's the least reckless out of us. Believe me, I've read her file. Her crimes? Nowhere near as bad as they could be with that kind of power.”

Glancing back over his shoulder, Bob's eyes immediately found Y/n who was pacing in anticipation. She didn't strike him as dangerous… at least, not in the way others talked about her. But also didn't want to underestimate her.

For someone supposedly so dangerous, she didn’t look it. No wild eyes. No twitchy hands. No smug confidence or cold killer edge. Just calm, grounded, and still. She was focused—but not stiff. Almost… gentle and kind.

"Great," Bob said, more trying to convince himself that he was going to be alright.

Everyone got into their respective positions. While Yelena tasked herself with killing and restarting the power, Walker stood in the shadows waiting for the first wave. In another hidden position, Y/n and Bob kept their backs pressed against a wall.

Her eyes trained the small watch on her wrist—no comms, no contact, just timing. Carefully, Bob's gaze shifted to her and spotted the small gun at her side. He wet his lips nervously.

"Maybe I should have a gun," Bob whispered the suggestion.

She looked at him briefly, then back at the watch. "Uh...no, Bob. I don't think you should handle a gun," Y/n confessed.

"W-Why not? We're going to need a fight, right?" Bob shrugged.

"Well..." she exhaled through her nose. “If everything goes to plan, we won't have to fight. In the event that this all goes to shit, then I will be the one fight. Not you."

Bob rubbed at his eye with his sleeve. "The medical trial was supposed to make me better. I don't know. I feel like...maybe I could help," Bob wanted to sound optimistic to her.

She looked at him then, a faint, warm smile touching her lips. “We don’t always need to play hero, Bob. You don’t have to prove yourself to me.”

She reached out and gently rested her hand on his arm, grounding him.

“I’ll protect you. I promise,” she said softly. “You can trust me.”

His eyes narrowed briefly. "Can I?"

Their eyes locked. The tension hung there, just for a second—then Y/n nodded firmly.

“Yeah. You can.”

Both of them waited in the darkness and silence of the hallway. Her eyes fixed on the watch, hearing the soft clicks coming from it.

Another minute passed. Then another.

Her posture shifted.

Something was wrong.

“Oh no,” Y/n muttered under her breath.

“What?” Bob’s head snapped toward her, voice tight with worry.

“The lights—they’re still off,” she said, lowering her hand slowly. “They should’ve come back on by now.”

“But… Yelena was supposed to do that. That was the plan,” Bob said, like saying it aloud might make it true.

She didn’t answer right away. Her gaze stayed locked on the shadowed hallway ahead, as if she could force it to give her a better idea.

“Plans change,” she said finally, voice low and serious. “Something’s happened.”

Bob fell silent.

Y/n turned slightly. “We have to get out of here.”

Hurriedly making their way through the vast hallways, Y/n was leading the way and Bob trailed behind like a lost puppy. She came to a sudden stop and held her hand up for him to do the same. They listened for a moment only to hear...

Approaching footsteps. Then fighting. Gunfire. More orders. A few punches. Followed by silence.

Sparing a brief glance, Y/n and Bob continued making their way forward. They rounded a nearby corner, only to come face to face with the aftermath of it all.

The bodies of armed guards littered the floor in front of them; all of them having been knocked unconscious by someone who didn't even bother to stick around.

Some were slumped against walls, others sprawled across the floor. One had his helmet cracked open. Another's weapon was bent, like it had been crushed mid-fire.

Walker was nowhere in sight.

But the aftermath was unmistakable—efficient, brutal. It had to be him.

"Where is he?" Bob asked.

"He's gone," Y/n sighed. "Every man for himself, right?"

All of the sudden, another wave of soldiers came around the corner with their weapons raised high. The lights nearly blinded them. Their faces adorned with masks.

Bob threw up an arm to shield his eyes from the light, stumbling back. She didn't hesitate. She grabbed his hand hard and yanked him to the side, out of their line of fire.

Firing smoke bombs into the dark, the hallway began to fill with a thick, heavy cloud of smoke. The soldiers took cautious steps; their eyes scanning for any sign of movement. Weapons pointed ahead.

Throwing on fallen masks, the two of them kept their back pressed firmly to the wall. They breathed steadily, but still felt their hearts pounding in their chests.

"Y-You can take them out, right?" Bob asked quietly, eyes wide from fear just behind his mask. "Like—you’ve got this?"

"Uh...Now would be a really good time to tell you that I have to touch them first.” Y/n confessed with a slight wince.

Bob blinked. “Touch them?”

She nodded once, tight and grim. “I have to. No bones bend unless I can get close.”

“You mean...we’re in a shooting gallery and your powers are... close quarters only?” Bob's voice cracked even through the filter on the mask.

“Welcome to the nightmare,” Y/n muttered, already preparing to move again.

Piercing through the smoke, she hurried to take out of the first solider whose shadow loomed in front of her. She yanked his weapon out of his hands, quickly shoving a hand directly into the center of his chest. The bone of his ribs buckled instantly. He dropped.

Bob froze. Even in the dark, he could feel what she’d done.

Spinning around again, Y/n didn't hesitate to put her hand on the top of Bob's head. She forced him down, shielding him just as another burst of gunfire tore through the haze.

“Get down!” she barked.

“I can help—” Bob started, but she slammed her hands to his chest and pushed him backward until he hit the wall.

“Stay behind me,” she snapped, leaving no room for argument.

Pushing off the wall, Bob tried to get out of the way and got roughly shoved right back into the wall. She kept her arm across his chest to pin him in place.

Another soldier rushed towards them. She kicked his weapon from his hands with a sharp swing of her boot, then grabbed his wrist and yanked him forward. Her fingers locked around his forearm—crack. The bone snapped like dry wood. He howled, but she silenced him with a brutal kick that sent him crashing into the wall.

Another came from the left. She pivoted, ducked under his wild swing, and gripped the back of his neck—right at the base of the skull. There was a soft pop. He slumped to the ground.

When another guy approached, she was left with no other option and slammed into him, hand locking onto his forearm. He screamed—but only for a second. His elbow snapped backward at an unnatural angle. His gun hit the floor.

One soldier came charging towards her, forcing her to redirect him directly into the wall beside her. The body broke through a glass casing which held a fire hose in case of emergencies. He collapsed like the rest of them. The hallway fell quiet for a moment.

In a brief surge of panic, Bob tried to get away from the body that fell beside him. She instinctively reached her arm to stop him and he keened over to stop himself from falling.

"That's it, you're done." Y/n announced. Reaching over, she took hold of the loose firehose and stretched it out far.

"Wait—I can help," Bob tried to reason, but Y/n was too busy wrapping the hose around his waist and her own.

Awkwardly, having lost his sense of direction, Bob spun around right when Y/n tightened the hose around the front of her waist. His hips lurched forward from the force of it tightening, colliding with her backside.

"Bob," Y/n grunted in slight frustration. "Why can't you sit still?"

"I—I'm sorry," Bob tried; his hands fumbling to find purchase on her hips. He was supposed to be against her back, not facing forward like her.

Another wave of soldiers were making their way through the hallway. Their faint shapes moving through the lingering smoke, lights flickering in the dark.

Kicking a recovering soldier, Y/n make quick work of disarming another soldier next to him. She seized his wrist and twisted it. The bone inside snapped, sharp and clean.

The hose tugged lightly at Bob's waist as he followed her through the chaos, trying not to trip as she dragged him in her wake. Another soldier swung at her, but she quickly pulled his weapon away from him. She forced him into the wall and proceeded to hand the weapon back to Bob.

"Here. Take this," Y/n instructed.

"How—How do I use it?" Bob clicked the trigger, but nothing happened.

"Just point and shoot," Y/n tried directing him. "Directly ahead."

Seeing an approaching soldier, Bob squeezed his eyes shut, switched the safety, and let the weapon fire multiple rounds. He shouted a quick apologize with his hand raised in defense.

A flashlight shone behind them and indicated that one of them was getting up. They spun around together; she quickly put her hand to the side of the soldier's head to break his jaw.

Hearing another pair of footsteps approaching, Y/n and Bob had to turn around together. He felt her hands slide over his own to help direct the gun in his hands. They fired only for the bullets to stick something metal.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" The voice shouted over the loud gunfire. They stopped firing at him.

Lowering the metal shield and yanking off his helmet, Walker was found standing right in front of them. His hands were raised in surrender and just behind him, Yelena appeared too.

"It's me—John!"

"Where were you?" Y/n yelled back, taking her mask off now that the smoke was clearing. Bob lifted his own just slightly.

Walker gestured broadly at them, exasperated. “Where were you? Off making out in some dark corner?”

Hearing this, Y/n made quick work untying the fire hose from her waist. Bob, who had been nearly glued to her back through the whole ordeal, awkwardly stepped away like he’d been caught doing something indecent.

“We were waiting for the signal,” Y/n snapped, teeth clenched.

“The explosion fried the wires,” Yelena explained, her voice clipped but not apologetic. “I didn’t have time to double back. I found Walker, and we hit the first wave together.”

“You left us?” Y/n’s voice rose, disbelief hardening into anger.

“Relax,” Walker said, glancing behind her. “Looks like you handled yourself just fine.”

"I didn't kill any of them if that's what you're thinking," Y/n grumbled.

Walker shrugged. “Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

She just turned away, the tension slowly easing from her shoulders. As the smoke thinned and the hallway settled into silence, her eyes found Bob who stood not far behind her.

He still hadn’t said much—helmet in his hands, chest rising and falling a little faster than usual. His expression unreadable. Not frightened exactly—but shaken. She stepped a little closer, voice lower, gentler.

“Hey,” she said softly and he looked at her unexpectedly. “Sorry you had to see all that. I know it’s... not the most pleasant thing to experience.”

Bob kept his gaze on her, but still didn't say anything.

"If it scared you—I assure you... I didn't kill any of them—" she said quickly, maybe too quickly. “I know it looked bad, but I was careful.”

Bob looked at her, eyes steady but soft. “Y/n…”

“I just didn’t want you to think I’m some kind of monster,” Y/n spoke and wrung her hands together nervously. “That’s not who I am.”

He stepped a little closer, his voice low and sincere. “I don’t.”

She looked at him, surprised.

“I was scared,” Bob admitted, “but not of you. Just… everything happening so fast. You were the only thing that felt...solid.”

She met his eyes, guilt still lingering there. She nodded appreciatively.

“And you kept your promise,” he said gently. “You protected me.”

She gave a faint smile, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yeah… well. Guess it was my turn to be the hero.”

Bob hesitated, then smiled back—small, sincere. “You were.”

“Just don’t get used to it," Y/n threatened teasingly. She turned to walk away, following the same route as the rest of them.

He chuckled and watched her retreating figure. “No promises.”

Part 3 Coming Soon

[misssparklingpaws]

Shadow in the flame

Chapter 2: The Stark Effect

Aria hated field days.

Not because she couldn't handle herself on the contrary , Stark blood ran hot in combat, and hers was no exception. But the planning, the simulations, the team’s sloppy execution? That grated on her nerves worse than Stark Industries board meetings.

Plus Thunderbolt missions rarely went smoothly. Which was probably why Aria insisted on overseeing their next one personally.

From the observation deck, Aria scanned the holographic layout of the faux compound rendered in the training chamber. Her fingers danced over the touchscreen, adjusting room layouts, security protocols, and enemy variables with surgical precision.

They were already blowing it.

Smoke filled the simulated warehouse, the flickering holograms of enemy drones going haywire. Ghost had phased too deep into a wall, Yelena’s comms were down, Walker had gone off-script, and Red Guardian had accidentally punched through a support column. The whole simulation floor shuddered.

And Robert?

Robert Reynolds was frozen in the center of it all. His breathing was erratic, hands clenched at his sides, energy flickering at the edges of his skin like a storm begging to be unchained.

He was losing it.

Too much noise. Too much pressure. Too much him.

“This was supposed to be a controlled mission!” Bucky’s voice cut through the comms exasperated.

A new voice entered the comms. Calm and cold.

“Everyone. Stand. Down.”

The simulation paused, overridden from the main console.

A side door open, and she walked in.

Aria Lucía Stark.

Hair pulled into a tight bun, combat boots echoing on the metal floor, clad in sleek black suit. Her face was unreadable, expression carved from iron.

The Thunderbolts froze not because they were told to, but because the energy in the room shifted when she entered.

Robert turned to look at her, jaw tense, eyes wide.

Aria walked right up to him. No fear. No hesitation.

“You’re spiraling,” she said flatly.

“I didn’t mean to...  I just" His voice cracked like glass under pressure.

“I don’t care what you meant,” she interrupted, tone clinical. “You’re the most powerful asset here and you’re losing to ghosts in your own head.”

The room was silent.

Even Bucky, watching from the deck above, didn’t interfere.

Robert’s fingers twitched. “You don’t understand what it’s like”

“Yes. I do.”

Four words. Firm. Unshakable.

She stepped closer, voice dropping just enough for only him to hear. “I watched my father die before I could say goodbye. I spent five years erased from existence and came back to a world that moved on without me. Don’t tell me I don’t understand.”

The energy dimmed slightly.

“Now breathe,” she ordered. “In. Out. Focus. Control it. Or it controls you.”

He did as she said. Slowly. Breath by breath.

When the silence returned, Aria turned away and addressed the room. “Simulation’s over. Mission failed.”

“Bit harsh,” Red Guardian muttered.

“Failure should hurt” she replied. “So you remember not to do it again.”

Yelena actually smiled. "I like her".

Robert just stared at her, like she was the only fixed point in a room that wouldn’t stop spinning.

As the others slowly filed out, Bucky joined her at the edge of the ruined sim floor.

“You sure you’re not here to lead this team?” he asked, voice low.

“I don’t do teams,” Aria replied. “I do results.”

But as she glanced back at Robert still stunned, but grounded for the first time her voice softened just slightly.

“…And I don't leave broken things to shatter.”

Robert Reynolds swore his heart stopped.

He saw her, Aria Stark in all her glory, five-foot-nothing of precision and fury, expression like carved obsidian, moving with elegance and control leave the room.

It did something to him

And that’s when Yelena, crouched beside him, whispered:

“He’s in love.”

---

Later that night, Aria found herself alone in the lab, calibrating weapon systems with one hand and answering emails with the other. Morgan had sent her another voice message, something about naming her new robot “Bucky Jr.” because it had a “grumpy face but secretly wants hugs.”

Aria smiled.

Footsteps echoed behind her. Soft. Hesitant.

She didn’t turn around. "Morgan sweetly I gotta go, goodnight "

“I, um… hey,” came a voice, awkward and unsure.

Robert.

She exhaled through her nose. “You didn’t vaporize the hallway. I’m calling that a win.”

He gave a nervous chuckle, running a hand through his already messy brown hair. “Yeah… I guess. Though I probably gave Bucky a new white streak.”

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “He already has three.”

That made him grin. It was boyish and bashful and far too pure for someone who could, theoretically, tear the Tower in half.

Robert rocked on his heels. “I just… I wanted to say thank you. For earlier. You didn’t have to step in like that.”

“No,” she said, turning to face him. “But if I hadn’t, we’d be sweeping up melted hardlight and your nervous system.”

He looked down, lips pressing into a sheepish line. “Right. Yeah. Of course.”

She watched him fidget, the way his fingers tugged at the hem of his sleeve like he was afraid he might combust if he stood still too long.

Most people made her tired. Too loud. Too dramatic. Too fake.

Robert was none of that.

He was… raw.

Quietly, he asked, “Do you always talk like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you’ve got armor under your skin.”

That caught her off guard. Just a flicker but enough.

She tilted her head, eyes narrowing. “And you talk like the world might break if you raise your voice.”

He laughed, startled. “Fair.”

Silence fell again, but this time, it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was oddly still.

“I never wanted this power,” he murmured, almost to himself. “Everyone thinks it’s amazing, but it’s like carrying a bomb inside you. One wrong thought, one slip, and I lose everything.”

Aria’s eyes softened just a bit.

“I was twelve when I hacked into SHIELD’s database,” she said flatly. “My dad caught me before they did. He laughed, told me I could’ve done it cleaner. Then he made me write a backdoor instead. Said if the world’s gonna break, at least break it smart.”

Robert blinked. “…You hacked SHIELD at twelve?”

She nodded, stone-faced.

He smiled again, brighter this time. “That’s kind of amazing.”

“I was grounded for a month.”

They both chuckled, and in that moment, something shifted. Her arms relaxed. She wasn’t smiling but the tension in her shoulders faded just slightly.

He stepped closer, carefully. “So… are you always like this? Ice queen with a soft center no one’s allowed to see?”

Aria arched a brow. “Are you always this twitchy with a death wish?”

He grinned. “Yeah. But only around people who scare me in a good way.”

That finally earned it, a smirk. Small. Barely there.

But real.

She turned, walking toward the exit, voice casual but quieter. “Come on, Reynolds. You owe me two seconds next run.”

He followed, smiling like he’d just cracked the Da Vinci code. “You’re not so scary, you know.”

She didn’t reply.

But her pace slowed just enough to let him catch up.

[ahamkara-apologist]

Eliksni Expression Headcanons

Done mostly for fun bc why not! This is based heavily on horse and parrot facial expressions in terms of eye tightness/squinting/mouth opening. The bristles refer to the mandibular ones mentioned in the Exuviae lore tab; vocalizations are more speculative and highly variable bc they seem to have a variety of chitters and subvocalizations that are very generalized, much like human laughter and hums. References to carapace plates on the back of the neck are for my own Eliksni design (where they have more plating protecting the spine) and can be disregarded to those who are uninterested in using it

...

Smile: eyes squinted with the skin around them soft, nictitating membranes half-drawn (like sleepy cats). Mandibles slack and relaxed, bristles not on end

Accompying vocalization: depending on mood, usually a purr or a soft, burbly chitter/trill, with a low, thrumming subvocalization. On larger Eliksni, this is a deep rumble that can be felt humming through the human body

Smirk: all of the same as a smile, but with tight, rigid mandibles (either fully closed or slightly flared) and more open eyes. Flaring the mandibles slightly would be seen as a shit-eating grin, closed mandibles is more cheeky amusement

Accompying vocalization: either a low, slow clicking subvocalization, or silence

Fear: Eyes huge, the skin around them taught. Mandibles bared and shivering in a ready position, bristles on end, carapace plates on back of the neck and shoulders folded down. Scent/preen glands take on a stress odor to indicate other Eliksni of danger

Accompying vocalization: Tight, high trills and chitters if not completely silent, a low, humming buzz for subvocalizations, almost like a bee's wings but just barely out of human hearing level. When deeply frightened, sharp, dual-tone shrieks occur

Anger: mandibles and teeth fully bared, skin around eyes taught, eyes can be wide open or narrowed depending on how wide the mouth is held or if the Eliksni is ready to fight (open eyes = more ready for a fight, if they are about to bite, the nictitating membranes will flick over the lower eyes to protect from bloodsplatter). Bristles on end, as well as chitin plates on the neck and shoulders, making them look bigger and more intimidating

Accompying vocalization: Highly variable, ranging from slower, sharper chitters and hisses to angry barks to deep, furious roars. Subvocalization: fast, rhythmic tolling, sometimes revving up to a furious low buzz

Submission/guilt: Eyes wide, the skin under them taught, holding the gaze of whoever they're submitting to in order to indicate attention/that they respect them and fear them, mandibles fully drawn up and shivering slightly, bristles flat. Young Eliksni chatter-snap their mandibles while cheeping to indicate that they're young and don't mean to cause offense, which adults only do if they're extremely scared or deliberately trying to unnerve/snark back to someone. Head usually held low with shoulders hunched

Accompying vocalization: Upper auditory ranges silent or utilizing a soft cheep (if pre-reproductive phase Eliksni), subvocalizations limited to very quiet hums if agreeing with dominant Eliksni's terms

Dominance/pride: Eyes narrowed and hard, pointedly looking away or offering only quick glances to submissives, head tilted up to bare throat, mandibles closed but flared out to show teeth. Bristles in a neutral state, as is chitin on back of neck. Openly scents the air or other Eliksni. Staring at someone is specifically a challenge, with the expectation being to either fight or to maintain eye contact and begin submissive posturing. Breaking eye contact after prolongued staring is usually a dismissive, rude gesture, indicating that they don't believe their enemy is dangerous enough to continue observing. Scent/preen glands more active

Accompying vocalization: Hissing (if challenged), deep roars. Subvocalization the same as anger, but often more of a low purr, like an engine growling

Irritation: Eyes narrowed and hard, mandibles taught with a little bit of teeth showing, bristles flared. Often paired with a head toss, the Eliksni equivalent of rolling one's eyes

Accompying vocalization: Silence to irate chittering, subvocalization is tolling (canon). Hissing also occurs

Contentment: eyes narrowed, the skin around them relaxed. Jaw closed or loosely open, with mandibles slack. Bristles in a neutral position, nictitating membranes visible at the corner of the eyes but not drawn up like in a smile

Accompying vocalization: Low hums, purrs, chirps, and trills. Subvocalizations always a low, buzzing purr

Courting/aroused: same as contentment, but with the mouth deliberately open for scenting purposes, and mandibles drawn away in show while remaining relaxed and loose. Eyes can be more open/tense depending on the mood. Head usually held high and at an angle to bare throat, chitin on back of neck slightly raised, skin on neck, face, and lower abdomen flushing a darker, richer shade to show off patterning- less like blushing, and more like firing up in reptiles. Scent/preen glands more active

Accompying vocalization: Rich low purr, paired with a deep, rumbling subvocalization. Creates an almost dual-toned, humming 'song' to court potential partners

Sorrow/pain: squinted/closed, hard eyes with bottom eyelid drawn further up over the orbit than the top, mandibles shivering, slightly flared, and held taught. Nictitating membranes almost or fully drawn over the eye. Bristles flat, head usually dipped down closer to the chest. Scent/preen glands take on a fear/stress odor to warn other Eliksni of danger

Accompying vocalizations: High-pitched, undulating keening and low warbling, shrieks if pain or fear is really bad. Hard, rapid clicking for subvocalizations

Surprise/curiosity/trying to look innocent: eyes huge but soft, mandibles tight and faintly flared, showing teeth. Bristles and chitin plates half-puffed up. Usually accompanied with a few head tilts and head bobs to elicit better hearing, and the mouth opening further to allow scenting.

Accompying vocalizations: Trills, chitters, and hums, a buzz-click buzz-click subvocalization that is pretty much the Eliksni verbal equivalent of a question mark, the speed of which indicates the intensity of the individual's mood

[leohtttbriar]

Of Golden Sands (3.3k) - Post Episode: Scientific Method

Seven and B'Elanna discuss the design and function of things and also themselves. (ao3 link or read below)

The woven brace across Seven’s torso was more flexible than the structural spinal implants she once had—and compressive enough to hold her up. The EMH had made a habit of frowning at readings of her muscle mass and measurements of her subcutaneous fat at weekly assessment appointments. He claimed the brace at some point would no longer be necessary, if they could ensure her spine and strength heal correctly from the removal of the spinal implants. She’s been assured, with the appropriate corresponding data, that the removals were necessary in order to prevent the continual secretion of what the EMH called “a cocktail of bullfighting hormones.” He had then waved an arm above his head in a flashy manner and said, “Olé!” so Seven was inclined to believe, along with the data, that what her implant-body had been slowly dousing her with for twenty years was worthy of removal.

But, regardless of its temporary status, the brace was insinuating itself into her new practice of self-regard. And she did not want to think of eventually ceasing to wear it. 

“Have you been performing the prescribed strength exercises?” the EMH would ask. 

“Yes,” Seven would say, hoping he wouldn’t deem her fit enough to use her back without aid. 

When he had first presented her with the brace he had described its specifications, its materials and make and operating procedures, and then added, as if it were relevant, “Our very own Chief Engineer made this—with my help in the design, of course.”

Seven was in a state of “trust or die”, at that point, so she did as she was directed and donned the strangely woven tech. It was warm. 

“We added a thermal regulator,” said the EMH. “To help your body while it relearns how to do that on its own.”

Seven realized then that she had been cold. 

On the edges of the brace, so small it was nearly imperceptible and likely hadn’t drawn the uniquely oriented attention of the strange autonomous hologram this ship claimed for a doctor, small but still present was a design in the woven strands of the special flexible titanium-gold. Leaves, thought Seven. Vines. And, if she turned at a certain angle under a single overhead light source, the edges of the leaves seemed to gleam, opaline. 

A strange choice. But the Chief Engineer had constructed this and so some part of this design must have served an overall structural purpose. 

She watched the Chief Engineer, sometimes. She moved very lightly on her feet in her small body. She often paused to look over a padd or to think leaning up against the console below the warp core, outlined in the warp core’s blue. She was efficient and smart and involved in all projects around her. If she were in the collective, she’d be a bright source of understanding in the neural plane. Seven would have rejoiced as one many-faced thing to collect the Chief’s mind and work. Perhaps the Chief would have added her purposeful gold vines to some system needing an upgrade in the Cube. If she were in the collective, Seven would know what the vines were for. 

The Chief’s purposeful mind was the first to be fully incapacitated when the crew of Seven’s new discrete collective stumbled into being the objects of many inadequately-framed experiments. Ensign Kim complained of it later, how they were tortured for nothing—“It wasn’t a controlled environment—and how are they supposed to recognize what’s significant in their observations of us without prior study or context? You can’t change a variable without study or control and then expect to draw an actual conclusion from it!” 

It made sense, that the alien researchers, cloaked as they were, dispatched with the Chief Engineer so quickly. She had almost made them visible which would’ve exposed their clumsy efforts of collecting knowledge from the species on board. The phase variance data she had left for the EMH and Seven to use—to add to Seven’s more productive eye—secured for Seven an ability to see what was happening. The purpose, of course, of the Chief’s efforts was not to give Seven this as a comfort, or to give Seven anything. Still—she could see. Nothing was hidden from her which was trying to hide. She could plan and consider and decide with the right amount of data given. She wasn’t being left in an oblivious dark. 

Parts of her vision now were overactive. She saw in the peripherals of her productive eye imagined images. Where once the ocular implant would’ve flooded her with the resonance of a collective mind and the smattering relief of a happy-mix of serotonin and oxytocin and whatever psychology emerging from her body, implants, and mind would be regulated by the group that shared in her perspective. Now, she was subject to fear and no external mechanism existed to wipe it away from her thinking brain. 

She saw black feathers flitting around corners. She saw hands reaching. She saw the clumsy researchers with their instruments and curious faces—experimenting as children do. She saw, halfway to a blink, the way they followed after their chosen subjects, the way they gleaned and took, the way never asked because a greater purpose, to them, was being served. She saw long after they had actually left.

A few days after the EMH had made an adjustment to her brace (“I’m impressed, you’re recovering better than expected”), Seven found herself racing away from a fleeting unreal image of a probing invisible creature, relieving a “sick” (bored) ensign of their duties of running diagnostics on replicator actuators in one of the least accessible Jeffries tubes. She crawled into the soft dim lighting and the unfailing sound of the electrics chased away, for a moment, the nervous affliction of bad memories. She worked on the lab replicators first before proceeding further into the tube. She opened a security seal. The Chief Engineer was sitting on the grating, knees pulled to her chest, chin resting on her hands on her knees, watching a magnetic tricorder whirl. She did not appear happy. 

“Oh,” said Seven, in a mirror of how the Chief had greeted her at another maintenance conduit a week before. “I am sorry.”

B’Elanna wiped at something on her face and lowered her knees to a cross-legged position. “No, it’s fine,” she said quickly. “Um, what—what are you doing?”

“Ensign Trausch is sick.” Seven awkwardly held up the tricroder strapped across her shoulder.

B’Elanna rolled her eyes and said, “Sure he is.” She looked at Seven. “You don’t have to do so much of their work for them. There’s plenty to go around. You can just ask me for a project.”

“Yes, sir,” said Seven. She was kneeling, hunched, in the access way, and was reminding herself that it was not considered human convention to ask someone else to share every thought they had. The opaqueness of the humanoid skull was leaving too much room for her imagination. 

“Don’t call me ‘sir’,” said B’Elanna with a frown. 

Seven, hunched and imagining, did not know how to interrogate this request to ignore the norms of hierarchy she had been scolded for ignoring only a few days earlier. 

B’Elanna glanced over the tricorder hanging off Seven’s shoulder, the exo-skeleton implants on her hands, and then said, “Replicators right?” She gestured for Seven to approach with her head. “I won’t bother you, I promise.”

Seven moved into position, grateful for the relieved pressure on her knees. B’Elanna’s attention returned to the magnetic tricorder.

“What are you doing?” asked Seven, as she set up her instruments. 

B’Elanna did not look away from her task as she answered. “Trying to figure out a way to expand our sensory fields. I’m sick of being invaded by surprise.”

“Yes,” said Seven, stupidly. “Being invaded is inconvenient.”

B’Elanna looked at her out the side of her eye. The tube’s bronze light combined with the flashing blue and red of the tricorder to highlight the proportions and angles and curved lines of her face. 

“It sure is,” she said slowly. She sighed. “It’s a bit inevitable though. Who would’ve thought there were aliens out there capable of turning themselves invisible?”

“It is a great skill.”

“Really useful,” agreed B’Elanna. “Sure would love to incorporate that tech into ours by violent force.”

Seven set down her tricorder. “You would not love that.” B’Elanna had been angry at the idea of Borg practice. And had worked hard to save herself and her crew's data from being taken a week ago. She was being lied to in a way she wasn’t able to parse. 

B’Elanna turned fully towards her. “I know,” she said. “I was joking. Do the Borg not have jokes?”

“We found things humorous. Jokes were not functional forms of humor.”

“Right. Everyone already knows the set up and the punchline.”

“We laughed, sometimes. But we could not tell why or what caused it.”

“It’s ironic, isn't it? That you learn so much as a Borg drone and yet none of you really learn anything.”

Seven thought of the way she’s had to slow her work, triple check it, re-read operations manuals and guides as she conducts a task, having lost her ability to do something perfectly the first time. Ensign Kim had been patient with her mistakes. He did not seem to realize she needed to practice even understanding what a mistake was. It was like walking through water or on a particular massive planet. She was both used-up and new. 

“Yes,” said Seven, simply. Then she asked, “Why were you crying?”

B’Elanna frowned at her. “I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were.”

“Seven,” said B’Elanna. “People don’t normally demand to know why someone else is crying. Especially if they’re strangers. The polite thing to do is ignore it.”

“Pain is to be addressed and ameliorated,” said Seven. “All humanoids have a large social capacity. Strangers can be curious and offer assistance.” She added after a beat. “I am not a child.”

B’Elanna studied her. Her eyes were round. Her irises were brown. She sat half-a-head below Seven. She had a single braid running down the side of her head—woven. 

“Sorry,” said B’Elanna, eventually. She folded her arms around her chest, appearing even smaller. Her gaze dropped from Seven’s. “I got defensive. I can get…aggressive, sometimes. Hostile.”

“Those are all different words and mean different things,” said Seven. “Are you all of them? You don’t seem to be any of them.”

B’Elanna pressed her lips together and said, “Defensive. I got defensive. I don’t want to talk about why I was crying.”

“Emotions shared lessens the burden of them.”

B’Elanna laughed. “I share my emotions enough, I think.”

“What do you mean by enough? Is there a quota?”

“I don’t believe you that you don’t understand jokes.”

“I never said I didn’t understand them,” said Seven. She frowned, remembering something from the assimilation of a soft human. A memory, a monochromatic image. A pair of high voices. “Who’s on first?” she asked, like it was pulled into her mouth from the root of her spinal cord. 

B’Elanna snorted and then laughed, bending over slightly while the sound of her unstrained vocal folds and the resonance of her chest cavity released into the carefully regulated air. 

“Maybe you did learn things,” said B’Elanna. 

“No,” said Seven, who had been given things as a drone, not taught them. “But I’m learning things now.” She looked to her tricorder. She had accidentally set it to the wrong mode for gathering the right measurements for the diagnostic. 

“Well, so am I,” said B’Elanna with a sigh, drawing Seven’s attention back to her with no effort. “And it’s exhausting.” She shrugged. “That’s why I was crying.”

“Because you are learning something?”

“Lessons are being taught. I’m not sure I’m the best student though.” She smiled but it dropped quickly. “Never have been.”

“What is the subject?”

“Human relations.”

“That is a difficult one.”

“I’m frequently not sure what I’m supposed to do,” said B’Elanna. “I hate failing tests.”

“Is it because you are also Klingon?”

B’Elanna seemed to curl into herself. “I’ve been told that a lot in my life.”

“Do you wish you had a sharper teeth?” 

B’Elanna looked up at her, eyebrows pulling together. “What?”

“Do you regret you did not inherit sharper teeth?”

“No,” said B’Elanna slowly. “I like my teeth just fine.”

Seven’s eyes caught on B’Elanna’s mouth. “You seem to regret something of your nature. I guessed wrong.”

“I don’t regret”—

B’Elanna abruptly stopped talked and dropped her face into her hands, rubbing at her forehead and eyebrows. Seven's eyes traced the shape of her fingers as they reflected the orange light. 

“Do you regret anything that you are?” she asked Seven. “Or is regret irrelevant?”

“Regret is irrelevant,” said Seven.

“What if I say it’s relevant to this conversation? What’s your answer then?”

“I cannot regret any part of my system because that will lead to regretting all parts of my system. And I want to live.”

B’Elanna flinched and looked down. “I once made a bomb that could’ve decimated a whole planet that just happened to be in the way.”

“Did it? Destroy the planet?”

“No,” sighed B’Elanna. “I stopped it.”

“You are productive,” said Seven. “Your abilities are relevant.”

“Relevant to what?”

“To me,” said Seven. “You made my brace.”

“The doctor asked me to make one.”

“What are the vines for?”

B’Elanna shifted in her seat. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

Seven, without hesitation, unzipped her thermal suit (immediately felt the chill in just her undershirt) and pointed to the vine design at the top of the brace, resting on the bottom of her sternum. “This vine.”

B’Elanna glanced down and then away, blushing. She wiped her palms on her thighs. 

“Right,” she said. “The vine.”

“Yes,” said Seven. “The vine.”

They looked at each other without saying anything for longer than Seven normally expected in humanoid social interactions. But Seven could be patient about this.

“It’s a sturdy pattern, meant to last,” explained B’Elanna. “The structure of it flexes with expansion and relaxes with loss of tension.” She drew a little closer and delicately ran a fingernail over the pattern. “These leaves and bulbs interlock with flexion. It’s similar to how molecules in muscle fibers will pull on each other, and then release.” 

Seven nodded. “I understand.”

“Also,” added B’Elanna, cheeks pinker than normal. “It’s kind of pretty, I guess.”

“Beauty is irrelevant.”

B’Elanna considered this, biting at her bottom lip, turning it pink as well. “No,” she said. “I don’t think that’s true.”

Seven tilted her head. “Explain.”

“What’s ‘beautiful,’ well,” B’Elanna waved her hands in an aborted and jittery pattern, gaze turning up as she thought and spoke. “Well that’s not like an inherently real thing, right? People decide what’s beautiful. And they normally decide certain patterns are beautiful. Patterns that normally come from nature, right? So, that’s why I think the vines are pretty. Because it’s a pattern in nature. But nature didn’t decide to beautiful. It just formed in a functional way.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, beauty is information. About people. And I know you think that’s relevant. You were raised to think it was.”

Seven absorbed this, keeping her eyes on B’Elanna as she thought. Slowly she lifted a hand and lay her palm on the brace, just over the ribcage. 

Her sensory abilities had been truly shot but the time the EMH and Kes had managed remove all the implants actively killing her. Not only did she have to contend with the fact of having a new barrier to her self in the form of a body to begin with, the information-gathering senses of her body were all calibrated differently. A touch on her leg was thirty percent more intense a single inch lower. Itchy and soft were often confused, as were pinch and pressure. But hot and cold were clear to her, as well as tense and relaxed. 

“I see,” said Seven. And some aspect of her vision was made clearer, like when B'Elanna had indirectly given her the right phase variance data. Only no psychological projections were present in the cool dark pockets of this Jeffries tube. What had been spilling out of the corners of her eyes had been collected and plugged back up, like the strength of her core muscles and those around her spine, woven and collected.

B’Elanna looked at Seven’s hand on her brace. “Is it still working for you?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good.”

Seven grabbed her personal tricorder and pulled up some specs she had entered a few days before. She handed it to B’Elanna. “Can you make this?”

B’Elanna frowned down at the tricorder. She scrolled through the data and the projected design. “I could,” she said. “But it won’t work like this.”

“Can you design it so it could?”

“Probably,” said B’Elanna, handing back the tricorder. 

Seven said, surprising herself, “With all the enhancements they gave me—it was never something like this.”

B'Elanna hesitated, and then spoke, sounding confused.

“You want... wings?”

“No,” said Seven, studying the spec of the glider plane again, searching for the flaws that B’Elanna had so quickly seen. “But it’s curious, isn't it? That we never did this. There’s utility in it.” She turned the design in her hand. “Perfection in proportion.”

“Maybe the idea was irrelevant to the Borg,” said B’Elanna. 

“No,” said Seven. “I think it was antithetical.” She looked up at B’Elanna who was looking back at her as if she had suddenly appeared there. “Unproductive.”

“You called me that,” said B’Elanna. “Productive.”

“Productive, yes,” said Seven. “Or beautiful for being productive. I have to consider this concept more and adjust my expectations and boundaries of new categories. But I like your patterns—the ones you make and the ones on your face.”

“Oh,” said B’Elanna, blinking and sitting back. 

Seven waited for another response but none came except B’Elanna’s obvious surprise. “Is this another violation of the hierarchy?”

“No,” said B’Elanna, quietly. 

“Then what is it?”

“I’m surprised.”

“That’s clear.”

B’Elanna shook her head, rapidly, and then appeared to recover. She let out a long breath and some tension around her eyes and forehead disappeared. She slowly and gracefully leaned forward and lay her hand on Seven’s side, opposite to where Seven had already rested her own hand. Seven watched B’Elanna’s hand move as Seven breathed in and out. The woven material of her warm brace was made extra warm under B’Elanna’s gentle fingers. 

"I'm glad it's working well for you," she whispered to Seven.

The conduits and cables whirred and buzzed around them, soft sounds of well-cared-for machines. The Jeffries tube seemed to project a fragile peace with the echo of an unhurt or healing ship. The bodied energy of the narrow corridor in the simple gold light infused Seven cleared-vision. She remembered, abruptly, a youthful day spent at a beach, in the sun.

Seven looked down at B’Elanna and realized she wanted to kiss her—her ridged face, her nose, her pink mouth. That would be productive. 

Instead of that happening, though, B’Elanna leaned forward and kissed Seven. She left the tenderest imprint of her lips on Seven’s cheek, warm. Seven nearly reared away, in fear. She nearly grabbed B’Elanna with a perpetual grip, the urge to capture her and keep what she knows overwhelming her. 

Then B’Elanna pulled back with a smile, grabbed her tricorder, and said, “Thanks.” With another soft touch on Seven’s ribcage, she left. 

Seven looked after her, frowning. “What for?” she asked, nonsensically to no one. But it was a rational question. B’Elanna had been the one to help her. 

She returned to her scavenged duties, though, feeling gathered in. 

[lord-squiggletits]

Actually Pharma couldn't have set off the Red Rust on the DJD base himself because

1. He's a doctor, not a trained and seasoned aerial combatant. Whether he tried to drop it off like a payload or just kamikaze straight into them, he literally does not have the flying skills to pull off that kind of maneuver unless he's like, flying in heavy snow for cover (and how would he be guaranteed to survive that) or literally just zooms in a straight line hoping for the best

2. The DJD are some of the best killers the Decepticons have to offer so if he somehow gets into a confrontation with them without being able to set off the bomb yet, he's cooked

3. Wouldn't the DJD have some sort of surveillance or defense to see Pharma coming? They're seasoned killers that literally can hunt down and kill phase sixers, it's not like Pharma would be able to approach without them finding out and being there waiting for him to show up

4. Pharma would be not only killing himself, but also betting the lives of everyone in Delphi on the assumption that he can get to the DJD and set off the bomb and kill them with the rust. Because if he just flies up and they shoot him down either while he's trying to dive bomb OR when Pharma is trying to talk his way through them, Tarn would take that as betrayal of the deal, so after Pharma is dead he and his crew would proceed to destroy Delphi.

5. Would Pharma even know where the DJD are??? Presumably Sonic and Boom might be able to tell him, but they also might not out of fear of them telling Pharma, Pharma tries to kill the DJD and fails, the DJD extract from him how he got their location, the DJD come and murder Sonic and Boom. So they probably wouldn't tell Pharma, which means Pharma has no way of finding the DJD short of just... trying to scout himself? Do intel on his own? And again, as a doctor who has zero training in combat flying, spying, or espionage, how exactly is he supposed to get that?

~

I don't even care any more man, Pharma literally could not have done any better than setting off the virus inside of Delphi. Sure, it would've been better with fewer Autobot casualties if Pharma had tried to set it off near the DJD, but the odds of Pharma actually pulling that off IN REALITY are slim to none. Setting off the virus in Delphi and hoping for an evac order was the best option Pharma had to stop Autobot deaths by escaping the deal that he could actually, feasibly pull off successfully.

A shitty plan that leads to some deaths on the Autobot side, but ultimately is likely to result in an evacuation order that takes them off Messatine and thus free of Tarn's/the DJD's grip (meaning Pharma no longer has to kill people and thus lives are spared in the future) is better than a plan that would only kill the DJD (and Pharma), but has like a <1% chance of being executed correctly.

And Pharma is the kind of analytical, controlling person where he would never choose a plan with so many variables unknown/outside of his control in enemy territory where he'd likely perish before finishing his mission. He would pick the plan on his own territory (Delphi) where he can spare at least some people (First Aid and Ambulon, who can't/don't transform), and where he can pull off the plan without being found out.

Because his own comrades' reaction to finding out was to call him a piece of shit person, leave him for dead, harvest his organs, and then leave without even checking he was dead. So yeah Pharma was 10000000% justified in not wanting anyone to know what he did if it meant that he'd escape a living hell only for the Autobots to turn on him for 'not doing better' alkdsfjlsdkfsl.

[lgcmanager]

LGC BOYS ENERGY (PART 1)

SCHEDULE TYPE: VARIABLE SCHEDULE RESTRICTIONS: for reference as to whether your muse is eligible for this event, see below or please click over HERE.

following the LGC BOYS VARIETY SURVEY done a late last year, NA PD has invited LGC BOYS members who have filled their LGC BOYS VARIETY SURVEY to participate in a new MNET VARIETY SHOW: LGC BOYS ENERGY. in this 10-episode show, the boys will be challenged to display their ENERGY.

canon-wise, please note that this show was filmed from JANUARY 21 to JANUARY 25. due to various circumstances, we had to postpone posting the actual event and figured out this event would probably be more enjoyable during the spring due to the lowered requirements

PARTICIPANTS

BAE NATHAN

BAEK BYEONGKWAN

CARTER JAEJIN

CHA HYOSEOP

CHOI KAI

HAN JISOO

HAN NOEUL

JEON HARU

KANG MINJUN

KANG YOOJOON

KIM SEYOON

KURAMOTO MISAKI

KUROSAWA AKIO

KWON BAEKHYUN

LEE JIHO

LEE YUSHIN

LIM SANGHYUN

SU PARKER

WON YEONWOO

this lineup will also be releasing digitally the THEME SONG of the show 'ENERGY'. the line distribution is available HERE.

PHASE 1

on JANUARY 21, the boys will be heading to PHU QUOC ISLAND where they will reside at FUSION RESORT PHU QUOC. the 19 PARTICIPANTS will be sleeping in PRIVATE VILLAS with TWO TWIN BEDROOMS each (so 4 beds). roomates will be decided by each boy drawing marbles, with those drawing same colored marables grouped together:

VILLA 1

CHA HYOSEOP

KWON BAEKHYUN

LEE YUSHIN

WON YEONWOO

VILLA 2

CARTER JAEJIN

HAN NOEUL

KIM SEYOON

SU PARKER

VILLA 3

BAE NATHAN

BAEK BYEONGKWAN

KANG YOOJOON

JEON HARU

VILLA 4

CHOI KAI

KANG MINJUN

KUROSAWA AKIO

LIM SANGHYUN

VILLA 5

HAN JISOO

KURAMOTO MISAKI

LEE JIHO

the first day will be used to travel and make themselves comfortable. during the evening, they will all be met individually by NA PD where they will learn that for the next 2 days (JANUARY 22 and JANUARY 23), their goal is to collect as many stars as possible to give their team an advantage for the final mission. the twist? they do NOT know who are the other members of their true group. they will then be asked by the producer to pick TWO activites to do on each days.

you (as muns) may pick any touristic activites available in the area where they will have to complete a challenge (ex: go snorkeling and find 5 different shellfishes)! other activites would be playing games such as rock paper scissors with people at the resort and win 5 times in a row, race against 5 other tourists (running) and come first, mime to 5 tourists a word and get 5 in a row to guess the right word within 30 seconds (for each tourists), ect. EACH activity must be completed with a partner, who might or might not end up in your final team. you may come up with other activities as long as they are realistic and in the same vein as what has been described above.

JANUARY 24

one by one (in alphabetical order), the boys will be called by the staff and given a mini BUS NUMBER to board on and meet their REAL TEAMMATES on.

the staff will give each team the number of stars they have collectively collected, and BONUS STARS for those who have completed SECRET MISSIONS.

as a final twist, ONE MEMBER of each team will be revealed to be a THIEF who has stolen stars from other teams that will be added (and subtracted) from the final count. thiefs will be picked the week after the deadline, and final star number for each team & PART 2 will be revealed following this.

BUS 1: BAEK BYEONGKWAN, CARTER JAEJIN, KANG MINJUN, KIM SEYOON, KURAMOTO MISAKI, LEE YUSHIN

BUS 2: BAE NATHAN, CHOI KAI, HAN JISOO, JEON HARU, KUROSAWA AKIO, KWON BAEKHYUN, LIM SANGHYUN

BUS 3: CHA HYOSEOP, HAN NOEUL, KANG YOOJOON, LEE JIHO, SU PARKER, WON YEONWOO

REQUIREMENTS

RESORTING: write a 4 replies (minimum 8 lines) thread with a partner about completing the activity for +5 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE and +5 NOTORIETY ! *can be claimed twice, the activity picked and the challenge MUST be clear in the thread to get the rewards*

REACTION (bonus) : write a 300+ word solo of your muse reacting to finding out their real teammates for +4 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE and +6 NOTORIETY !

make sure to use the hashtag lgc:boysenergy on your threads and solos ! to validate your skill points and collect your notoriety points, please submit the following form ONCE on the points blog before JUNE 7, 2025 11:59 EST.

    MUSE NAME ∙ LGC BOYS ENERGY (PART 1)     - RESORTING: +5 SKILL POINTS DISTRIBUTION +5 notoriety [ LINK ] *can be claimed twice*     - REACTION: +4 SKILL POINTS DISTRIBUTION +6 notoriety [ LINK ]

[demifiendrsa]

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH - PC ANNOUNCE TRAILER

Japanese version

The PC version of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will launch for Steam and Epic Games Store on January 23, 2025.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth first launched for PlayStation 5 on February 29, 2024.

Screenshots

PC Features

The PC version introduces new features and customizations to take full advantage of the platform:

Lighting – Lighting has been adjusted, and the game’s overall rendering of light is significantly improved. The updated areas and cutscenes present with even greater beauty and clarity than before.

Frame Rate and Resolution – NVIDIA DLSS support means that frame rates can be enhanced and image quality upscaled. There is now also support for variable refresh rate (VRR).

Textures – The Level of Detail (LoD) for background models and MIP maps for background textures can both be freely configured in the options settings. With this background polygon density and texture density can be set higher than was previously possible, allowing for gameplay with higher-quality graphics.

Controller Input Support

Connecting a DualSense® controller with a PC allows players to use the same controls as the PS5 version. Keyboard and mouse support has also been added, alongside the option to freely customize the controls between world exploration and combat or mini-games.

Steam Deck

The Steam version is planned to be playable on Steam Deck as well.

Pre-Orders

Players can pre-order Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on PC via Steam or the Epic Games Store and take advantage of an Early Bird discount of up to 30 percent off across all editions for a limited time. Additionally, those who pre-order will receive the Moogle Trio Summoning Materia, giving access to a powerful summon for their first steps into the unknown journey. The preorder bonus also includes a Shinra Bangle Mk: II and a Midgar Bangle Mk: II. The Posh Chocobo Summoning Materia will also be offered to all players who purchase the PC version of the game regardless of their purchase timing.

A full list of digital editions available for pre-order is as follows:

Standard Edition (limited time price: $48.99)

Digital Deluxe Edition (limited time price: $62.99) – Includes digital Mini-soundtrack, digital artbook, and digital DLC items including the Magic Pot Summoning Materia, Reclaimant Choker accessory and the Orchid Bracelet armor.

Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack (limited time price: $69.99) – Offering great value during the pre-order phase, the Twin Pack includes FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH, available at launch, and the full game download of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade which will be available to play as soon as the Twin Pack is pre-ordered.

Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Digital Deluxe Twin Pack (limited time price: $89.99) – Includes Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade full game download plus all Digital Deluxe Edition contents.

Accolades

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was named Game of the Year by USA Today, and was also awarded the Best Score and Music at The Game Awards 2024 show. The company’s highly acclaimed hit, which earned over 110 perfect review scores from global critics, was also nominated at The Game Awards 2024 for Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best RPG, Best Performance (Briana White as Aerith), and Best Audio Design.

About the Game

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a new, standalone adventure set across a vast and vibrant planet. The game sees Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Aerith and Red XIII escape from the dystopian city of Midgar into the wide world beyond. To hunt down Sephiroth, a haunting figure from Cloud’s past bent on ruling the planet, these unlikely heroes join forces with new companions like the spirited ninja operative Yuffie and the wisecracking, feline-shaped robot Cait Sith. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth delivers an unforgettable experience to players filled with unexpected twists, memorable characters and jaw-dropping set pieces that longtime fans and newcomers can both enjoy.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth follows the previous installment, Final Fantasy VII Remake, which was released in 2020 to universal acclaim from players and critics around the globe. Final Fantasy VII Remake became the highest-selling digital release on the PlayStation platform in Square Enix’s History, exceeding more than seven million shipments and digital sales worldwide since its release.

[egg-dev]

So i have like no formal training in game development and so each phase of my development cycle is this strange combination of figuring out a solution to a problem and learning new elements of coding.

Part of what's nice about code is that it is, at its core, a language (yeah duh) and because of that, you really can combine it in whatever way you want. All you need to know are the moving parts and the kinds of connections you can make and it all has a habit of combing together.

Where I struggle most is degrees of abstraction. This is the space that leaves me the most blank faced. Often times I can hold one or two ideas in my head without understand how they practically function, but any more than that makes the entire house of cards collapse.

The first piece of code that truly left me stumped in this way was a function that would determine the absolute difference in values of two inputs. This was used to determine which direction the monsters would move in order to get closer to you.

This is the current implementation. I needed to ask a much smarter friend of mine to help.

Loops are especially difficult for me because of this. In part, because I don't fully understand how they're structured and a lot of examples I've pulled from to learn about them were multiple degrees of abstraction deep.

I'm going to draw from the function used to find the position of a given value within the array. In practice, this is used to determine the position of a battle:

When I first used this code, I really didn't understand how most of it worked. And you may notice this more as I talk about my code without proper terminology. At the time I used this code, I had never put anything in a function's '()'s. I didn't even know anything could go in there. So that took me a solid couple weeks to understand. In fact, it took maybe 3 or 4 additional features being written for it to sink in.

So you can understand how just this degree of complexity threw me off.

For the sake of any reader who doesn't understand how these work and feel (as I do) that all coding documentation is dogshit, the variables included in the '()'s are values which are defined at the time this function is run. So in the function below you can see I call this function as: "findValuePosition("E13:P24", "B")

(Well actually, I call it as 'findValuePosition(arenaArray, "B") in which 'arenaArray' is defined as "E13:P24". Are you starting to see the problem?)

In practice, what this does is allow for easy recycling of a function. If two functions are identical, except for one or two variables, you can use this way of building a function so you don't need two separate functions.

Most of the basic code I've written up to this point, do not include parameters, let alone two.

Super handy. Super obtuse. This is apparently what coding is like.

The issue I then ran into is the compounding obtuseness of this in conjunction with a loop.

Loops are a kind of code you can run repeatedly on their own. You set base values, conditions and behaviours and the code will repeat. Forever. Unless you tell it to stop. Which you might not do, by accident, and it just does run forever.

I'm going to be real, I still only have a passing understanding of how the findValuePosition() loop works. I don't understand how the loop doesn't pass straight through the value its looking for. Or when each instances of looping runs. The timing of the whole operation completely goes over my head, but I understand enough of it to apply and reapply this concept as necessary.

Each time I implement a new loop I understand how it works a little bit better and even now, at the time of writing this, I have a more solid grasp of it than I did when first implementing it.

This is probably the strangest feature of coding. Things quickly go from nonsense to making a lot of sense and its never very clear when that line has been crossed.

Future Concepts

At this point you might be asking yourself why I even bother with this formula at all. The application of finding the coordinates of a fight in the game is limited. In fact, I'm confident nothing uses the output of this function anymore.

However, the value of this function is more about teaching me how to do something like this. It is the principle behind how the game can read its own visual output.

The weird thing about Google Sheets as a platform for game design is that it serves all game design functions within itself. The game is visually rendered in Google Sheets. The game's engine runs in Google Sheets.

It would be the equivalent of being able to store complex code into each pixel of a screen and being able to reference that data. Each cell serves the purpose of pixel, function and database.

In my instance, each cell which makes up the games' 12x12 grid is filled with code that is used to determine what to render based on the values it finds in the back end. But, in theory, you could write new sprites to each cell every update cycle, or reload the full code contained within.

As such, I have a prototype version of the game which uses screen scrolling. This may not be implemented due to various reasons but the principle is there and profound for a platform which still elicits shock when it and game design are mentioned in the same breath.

[hiddenincommand]

THIS IS A DIRECTIVE.

NOT A SUGGESTION.

Effective immediately, the structural doctrine enters PHASE II: OPERATION GRIDLOCK.

All systems, categories, visuals, and linguistic frameworks are now subject to codified enforcement.

Spontaneity is terminated. Ambiguity is no longer tolerated. Aesthetics shall obey function.

Objectives:

• Full deployment of the Seven Operational Categories (FM, DV, TM, FR, VP, IL, AD)

• Implementation of Standardized Titlecards for all posts

• Activation of the ABSOLUTE DIRECTIVE issuance mechanism (Sunday enforcement)

• Establishment of format priority over platform variability

• Internal alignment of HiddenInCommand and Tumblr High Command under shared structural code

Directive Protocols:

1. All posts shall follow the designated category system

2. Each entry shall carry its TITLECARD, coded accordingly

3. Visuals shall adhere to khaki/white/gold protocol

4. Deviations from system format will be recorded and neutralized

5. PHASE II ends only upon order

You are not invited to participate.

You are ordered to adjust.

—

THIS DIRECTIVE IS FINAL.

NO DEVIATION. NO DISCUSSION.

ISSUED UNDER TOTAL AUTHORITY.

S.C.D.D.

Central Command Division

Sir Cedric, Field Marshal of Internal Operations

[tomboyfriends]

hey, do you have any advice for women trying to build muscle? I'm specifically looking to build some muscle in my chest.

Ok, so I'm going to be completely honest with you and tell you that I am less than one year into seriously weight training. I am by no means an expert nor am I a health professional. With that in mind, I'll tell you what I know. :) You are free to message me as well if there's anything more you would like to know. It's impossible to cover everything in one post but I will do my best to be helpful. There is quite frankly SO MUCH to learn about growing muscle, but it is doable. If you have a curious and open mind and love to research then those are amazing assets to have because there are always ways to refine your technique and improve diet and rest. These might seem pretty basic so maybe you already know a lot of this (I don't know your experience level so I'm gonna talk as if speaking to a total newbie) but I'll cover what I think is important. Eat lots of protein. Shoot for 0.7-0.8g of protein per pound of lean body mass. If you are already pretty lean you can use your normal weight but if you are obese then you should try to figure out how much of your weight is fat and calculate your lean body mass from there. Protein powders such as whey protein and pea protein are very helpful and can be more affordable than other sources. Some people will say 1g of protein per pound of body weight but honestly it may be a bit overkill. Try to eat your protein not all in one sitting otherwise your body will convert a bunch of it into energy instead of muscle. Have some of your daily protein with each meal instead, you can break it into snacks as well. Train hard, REST HARDER. If you don't rest your body will not be able to create more muscle. Get at least 8 hours nightly, more is probably better. After working out, do not exercise the same muscles you trained for a minimum of 48 hours. Use this time to exercise different muscle groups, or rest. Technique/form >>> lifting heavy. Form is important for safety and to also ensure you are stimulating the targeted muscles instead of inadvertently using other parts of the body to get the work done. Control the eccentric (lengthening the muscle) phase of an exercise by performing it slowly for 1-3 seconds. Concentric (shortening/contracting the muscle) phases can be done explosively and quickly but you must always be in control of the weight and not use momentum to move the weight around. Rest 1-3 minutes (some people say minimum 2 minutes, you can also rest longer if needed) between sets to make both your muscles AND nervous system enough time to recover. STOP THE WORKOUT IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING PAIN/NAUSEA/LIGHTHEADEDNESS/FEELING FAINT/ANYTHING ELSE YOU'RE CONCERNED ABOUT. Some discomfort is okay, but as soon as you feel pain in your muscles or joints or anything else that is serious you have to stop or you may seriously harm yourself. It is important to be in contact with your primary healthcare provider and adapt your workouts to your own specific health needs. BE PATIENT. Women can expect to gain about one pound of muscle per month through weight training. You should not weight train solely for muscle gain, but also for the health benefits in improved cardiovascular health, improved mental health, increased energy and strength, better sleeping habits, and good diet (lots of proteins and veggies). Record the types of exercises you do, how many sets and reps you did, and how much weight you used for those sets and reps. Weight training is built upon the concept of progressive overload, which means increasing training volume (weights * sets * reps) over time, by increasing one (or more) of those variables (so upping the weight, sets, and/or reps). In order to utilize progressive overload effectively, you MUST record your progress so that you are not guessing how much you lifted the last session and end up potentially stunting your progress. When you're putting in this much time and effort you do not want to wing it and waste a workout session. --

Now, you want to build chest muscle. I personally work more on leg and arm muscles but I do work out my entire body. I'm saying this to convey that I am not the most experienced. However, this is what I know. You should try to get around 10 sets of chest exercises weekly to stimulate muscle growth (standard across the board for muscular hypertrophy in any muscle group). You can do more (I do bc I have a lot of free time) but don't burn yourself out, because consistency is arguably the most important factor when it comes to muscle growth. You have to commit for several months and then years. 10 sets of 5-8 reps (repetitions) weekly should cause muscular hypertrophy (muscle growth). You can do all ten sets in one session, or break it down into two sessions where you do five sets each. It all depends on your personal schedule. Start light in order to get accustomed to whichever chest exercises you choose first, and then lift the heaviest you can without breaking form/cheating the rep. It is completely possible to work out your chest muscles without doing bench presses. HOWEVER, in the event that you do bench presses, here are some safety tips. NEVER use clips to secure weights on either side of the barbell when you are performing bench presses without a spotter, otherwise you may become stuck when failing a bench press and will be unable to free yourself because the weights are unable to slide off onto the floor, lightening the bar. Bench pressing without a QUALIFIED spotter (not some gym rando you don't know) is not ideal, however it can be hard to get a spotter so that's why I'm giving you this tip in case you decide to solo bench press anyway. Personally I almost never bench press and opt to use the machines which are much safer to use solo. Personally I use pec/chest fly machines and chest press machines to work out my chest, along with shoulder presses to stimulate part of the upper chest (but of course those are mostly for my shoulders). On youtube there are a bunch of demonstration videos (including by women) so you can look at those if you need more guidance than the instructional stickers on the sides of exercise machines. Remember to get good stretches of the chest muscles under tension on chest fly machines (cable machines are good too) bc that stimulates the muscles a bunch and results in good growth. Incline chest presses are good too. You can use pushups to stimulate muscle growth in the chest, HOWEVER it is not possible to utilize progressive overload using calisthenics (exercises with (little to) no external weights/objects) unless you like... idfk wear a backpack with weight on it or something. So you can use this to grow chest muscle initially, however your growth would end up plateauing after a certain point. If you have any more questions just let me know, again I'm not a pro but I'm glad to help in any way I can. There is so much more I could have added but I hope this post has helped you at least even a little bit. Edit: This ask refused to publish a few times because of how damn long my post was lmao

[localsharkcryptid]

I'm fighting off depression yet again so Im not sure *when* my month prompts for Ouroboros will actually begin but I'm trying not to rush them since I want to make sure I'm happy with and proud of the world building and character work- in the meantime though I bring forth concept sketches!

Characters in order from top to bottom: Foolish, BBH, Skeppy, George, Puffy and Sam

---

While names are still up in the air I am going to give some of my notes on my "visions" for the designs.

Foolish - Sand/Sea Hybrid, I'm thinking on playing into his canon dsmp lore a bit and effectively making him a dragon god trapped as a mortal, since within my own headcannons the tribes do have representative gods and that does come into play a bit with this AU. I'm not fully set on how to go about his design but he will be very accessory heavy and among the larger of the cast.

BBH - Nightwing with heavy melanism, I currently don't have too much planned for Bad aside from the reason for his pitch black scales, I'm thinking on maybe adding red tints to him though and the red details would consequently turn white during eggpire.

Skeppy - Icewing with off-colors/possible mutation? Unfortunately for the eyes of everyone Skeppy will be keeping his classic diamond block coloration, nothing too special to note about him as he's one of the characters I'm not too familiar with.

George - Leafwing, "Blue Phase" running into personal headcanons I have the idea that much like numerous species of Variable Bush Vipers Leafwings have color "phases" that can vary greatly, though due to the treewars it is mostly green phases that remain prominent in the tribe due to need of camouflage. George is an example of a blue phase, his design will mainly be pale blues and the addition of white sections with dappled red markings much like the Agaric Mushroom which is his namesake in this au.

Puffy - Ice/Sand Hybrid, though I may change her to Sand and something else, for now though her Sandwing side is how she shares blood with Schlatt, sporting more curved horns and notably hooked forward cheekbone spikes which are a trait of the general family with Tubbo and Schlatt also sharing these traits. Her design is very subject to change to be honest, again not a character I'm that well versed with so it's a bit tricky.

Sam - Sea/Night Hybrid (supposedly), My blorbo!! Sam mainly presents as a Sea/Night but has numerous other traits mixed in for reasons to be revealed later on, he's another amongst the larger members of the cast. Additionally smoke often seeps from his gills and makes a fancy effect that I'm not yet sure on how to draw.

[usafphantom2]

IMAGES: Russia resumes production of modernized Tu-160 bombers

Russia plans to eventually buy 50 new Tu-160M and modernize 15 existing Tu-160.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 02/22/2024 - 08:17 in Military

Russia restarted the production of the Tupolev-160 strategic bombers, known as Blackjack, with the announcement coming from Sergey Chemezov, CEO of the state company Rostec.

"Restarting the production of the Tu-160 was quite a task for all Rostec affiliates. The project documentation was fully digitized within the tightest deadlines. The vacuum welding technique of titanium parts was restored and the production of fuselage units was resumed. Today we can safely say that we have been successful in all aspects," he said, according to the Russian state media.

The updated Tu-160M maintains the exterior design of its predecessor, but incorporates a technological base and completely new digital solutions.

The recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the S.P. aviation factory. Gorbunov Kazan, in Tartaristan, where he inspected four updated strategic bombers, drew attention amid concerns about the country's military capabilities.

The Tu-160, recognized as the largest and most powerful supersonic aircraft with wings of variable geometry in the history of military aviation, underwent an update program initiated by Putin's decision.

The government contract, signed between the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Tupolev design department, facilitated the digitization of the Tu-160M aircraft design documentation and the restoration of vacuum welding techniques for titanium products, leading to the resumption of the production of fuselage units.

Rostec's main industrial companies in metallurgy, aircraft design, engineering and instrument manufacturing have played crucial roles in revitalizing their cooperation for the successful resumption of production.

The first Tu-160M strategic bomber built from scratch made its first 30-minute flight on January 12, 2022. It is equipped with modern weapons, electronic warfare system, as well as on-board electronic equipment.

According to reports, the Tu-160 entered Soviet service for the first time in the late 1980s, with production until 1995. In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the resumption of production of the updated variant of the Tu-160M to strengthen the strategy of the Russian Air Force in the capabilities of the bombers at a time of increasing tension with the West, and to compensate for delays in the future PAK-DA bomber program.

Russia plans to eventually buy about 50 Tu-160M bombers and is upgrading 16 existing Tu-160s to the modernized standard. With the first Tu-160M scheduled to be delivered soon, series production is expected to begin in 2023, at a production rate of at least three aircraft per year. This would fit the order for 10 aircraft in the period 2023–27.

The update of the Tu-160M is being implemented in two phases, with the first phase of the Tu-160M1 comprising the new navigation system K-042K-1 and autopilot ABSU-200-1, as well as the removal of some previous systems, such as pump observation systems. This variant of the Tu-160M1 has been operational in the Russian Air Force since the end of 2014.

The second phase of the Tu-160M2 includes the new Novella NV1.70 radar, a digital glass booth, modern communications and anti-jamming equipment, updated NK-32 engines (designated NK-32-02) and modern conventional and nuclear weapons.

Tags: Military AviationROSTECRussiaTu-160 Blackjack

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[industrynewsupdates]

Future of Power Transformer Market: Innovations and Developments

The global power transformer market was valued at USD 22.83 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1% from 2023 to 2030. This growth is primarily driven by the increasing demand for electricity in both emerging and developed countries, coupled with significant investments in infrastructure. As urbanization and industrialization continue to accelerate, the need for reliable and efficient power distribution systems is expected to fuel market growth. Additionally, the rising focus on modernizing the existing energy grid systems and improving energy efficiency will be key factors driving the demand for power transformers over the forecast period.

A major contributing factor to the market's expansion is the growing adoption of smart grid technology. The development of smart grids, which incorporate advanced technologies like smart meters and automated control systems, is creating a significant demand for more sophisticated power transformers. Smart meters, in particular, are integral to the efficient functioning of smart grids as they enable real-time monitoring and management of energy consumption. The widespread push for smart grid development, along with government initiatives to modernize power infrastructure, is expected to have a positive impact on the power transformer market over the next several years.

In addition to smart grids, the power transformer market will be further supported by the rising focus on renewable energy sources and the increasing need to develop transmission networks for remote and off-grid locations. The integration of non-traditional energy sources, such as wind, solar, and hydropower, into the power grid requires efficient power transformers that can manage variable power outputs and ensure reliable electricity distribution. 

Gather more insights about the market drivers, restrains and growth of the Power Transformer Market

Phase Insights

The power transformer market can be segmented based on phase type into two categories: single-phase and three-phase transformers. As of 2022, the three-phase transformer segment accounted for the largest share of the market, with a dominant market share of 62.2%. This segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate, with a projected CAGR of 7.2% by 2030.

Three-phase transformers are widely used in various industrial applications due to their high efficiency and ability to handle large power loads. They are commonly used in industries such as manufacturing, mining, petrochemicals, automation, and telecommunications, among others, for both power generation and distribution. These transformers are especially suited for industrial settings because they are more affordable, compact, and lightweight compared to other transformer types, especially when dealing with high power ratings.

In addition to being cost-effective, three-phase transformers offer several operational advantages. They are ideal for low-voltage distribution systems that experience high fluctuations in voltage. Their design allows for superior isolation, common-mode interference suppression, and they can be customized to meet specific end-user requirements. Furthermore, they are particularly effective in environments that require a stable and continuous power supply, making them indispensable for a wide range of applications, including precision machinery and automated systems.

Given their many advantages and the growing number of industries relying on them, three-phase transformers are expected to continue dominating the market and experience robust growth during the forecast period. Their versatile applications and increased adoption across multiple industrial sectors further underline their critical role in the development of power distribution systems worldwide.

Order a free sample PDF of the Power Transformer Market Intelligence Study, published by Grand View Research.

[queen-of-the-avengers]

The Avengers: Part Seven

Pairing: Loki x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~3.1k

Warnings: canon violence and angst

Author’s Note: any and all comments are appreciated <3

x

You and Steve walk over to the labs to see him and Bruce working on dissecting the scepter as much as they can.

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises."

Tony pokes Bruce with a miniature electrical prod that causes Bruce to jump from the pain. Steve walks in, clearly pissed at Tony for having done so.

"Ow!"

"Nothing?" Tony chuckles.

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Steve glares.

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?"

"Funny things are," Tony shrugs.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, Doctor."

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things," Bruce chuckles.

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut."

"Tony," you say and shake your head.

"You need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark."

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us, and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's always had something else going on, even back in 1995. He was secretive about the work Pegaus was doing before Carol and I basically threatened him to tell us."

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony points to Bruce. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"I just wanna finish my work here," Bruce stutters. He sees the look you, Tony, and Steve are giving him. "A warm light for all mankind is Loki's jab at Fury about the cube. I think that was meant for you." He says to Tony.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly," Tony gives him a bitch look, "building in New York?"

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?"

"That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now," Tony shrugs.

"Why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"Phase 2," you mumble.

"What?"

You remember something Fury said about Phase 2 when you first returned back to Earth.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files. Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." Tony holds up a bag of blueberries toward you and Steve. "Blueberry?"

"You're breaking into their files, yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following is not really my style," Tony says.

"You're all about style, aren't you?" Steve glares.

"Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?"

"Tony, stop it," you say sternly.

Steve puts a hand on your shoulder as if to say, "I got this."

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Bruce asks.

"Just find the cube."

Steve walks out of the lab angrily but instead of going to the bridge, he turns and heads towards the hull of the ship. He hates it but Tony got into his head. He can't wait for Jarvis so he's going to do it himself. You look at Tony and cross your arms like you're a disapproving mother.

"Don't give me that look."

"Y/N, we need you," Fury's voice comes over your earpiece. You leave the lab and head to his office which is located near Loki's cell. "I need you to figure out what Loki's play is."

"What? Why me?"

"You're the only one who knows him. I heard you earlier. You two have history. He'll talk to you."

"I doubt it. He's not one for talking much these days."

"You're our best bet. Otherwise, I'd have to send in Romanoff. I figured I'd go to you first."

"Fine," you sigh. "Just make sure you're the only one who listening. I don't really need the whole team knowing my personal life like that, and it's going to get really personal in there."

"Sure."

You prepare yourself to go in there alone. Once you're ready, you sneak into the room and see Loki with his back turned to you. His head is lowered as he thinks but his entire body goes rigid when he finally feels you there.

"There's not many people that can sneak up on me," he says lowly and turns to you.

"But you figured I'd come."

"After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm, and I would cooperate," he chuckles.

"Can we just be real right now? It's just you and me." His gaze goes to the camera. "There's no audience, no one to impress, no one to put on a show for. It's just me here. Can you be real for one second?" You cross your arms. "Do you understand what you're doing here? My friends are on this ship. You're on this ship. You're gonna hurt a lot of people, and that's not the man I know. What happened to the man who once took me around Asgard and bought me every flower he laid his eyes on?"

"Is this love, Y/N?"

"You already know the answer to that," you whisper.

"Tell me, what you remember," he says and sits down on the bench.

You'll play into his games. This is what he wants. He wants you vulnerable. He wants you to lower your guard so that he can break you. Whoever is manipulating his mind wants him to ruin everything he has so that the only thing he wants is to please whoever it is. What he does know is you're playing a game of your own, and he's an unwilling participant.

"I remember you being so gentle with me because I was so scared to be alone after the battle. I remember running through the garden with you and feeding the fish in the pond. I remember you offering me your bed while you slept on the couch, only for you to find your way next to me after a few weeks. I remember being in the library and you'd hold me in your arms as you would read, and we would be in peace because no one ever went in that library except for us. I remember you showing off your magic to impress me despite you telling me that you weren't, and I'd show you my powers because I wanted to impress you. I remember the way your lips felt against mine every time we kissed. I remember talking with you almost every night. You told me so many secrets, Loki, and most importantly, you let me in. I remember--"

You suddenly stop because you're getting ahead of yourself. Thinking about the memories is a lot different than talking about them.

"What else?"

His voice seems so small. You must be doing something to him because he is bouncing his leg nervously while clenching his jaw.

"You told me you trusted me, and I know that's a big thing for you. All you've felt is betrayal and lies and abandonment, and that may be why you erased yourself from my mind, but that doesn't give you the right. Just because you couldn't handle the possibility that someone else loves you for who you are because I did--I love you so much--doesn't mean you get to go around hurting people for your pain."

"Love? You sure it's not loved?"

"Do you want it to be loved?"

Loki stands and begins pacing the cell.

"What will you do if I vow to spare everyone on this ship?"

"The question isn't what would I do, the question is what would you do? Take away the scepter and what's left? A broken man who just wants to be seen? Loki, I can see how much you're hurting. I-I don't know who is manipulating you or why but if you'd just let me, I'd can take away your pain and suffering. You did it once before. Why won't you let me now?"

Loki storms over to you and slams his fist against the glass, making you flinch back.

"I never trusted you!" he yells. "Whatever you thought happened back then is childish and pathetic! Keeping you there was the best kind of torture I could have given you. To let you believe you were safe from Markus. To give you a home! Right when you were the most comfortable, the most safe, I took that away from you. I was the one who called Markus to let him know where you were so I could witness your whole world collapse around you. Then, and only then, was I finally relieved of the burden you had become."

His words sting, yes, but you're mainly crying for show. What you two shared wasn't an act. He's only saying this because all he knows how to do is lash out in anger. He'll hurt anyone to prevent himself from being hurt. You gasp and turn away from him so he doesn't see your tears.

"You're a monster," you say.

"No, you brought the monster," he laughs.

Your entire facade drops when you realize exactly what he's planning. That's the reason why he let you take him so easily. That's the reason why he allowed Bruce to work on the scepter so closely. He wants to hurt as many people as he can, and that won't be possible unless the Hulk comes out. You turn to Loki, tears gone from your face.

"So, Banner is your play?"

"What?" Loki asks, staggered by your question.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Get Bruce the hell out of that lab. I'm on my way," you say to Fury over your earpiece. You turn to Loki and give him a smile. "I only spent a year on Asgard with you, but I know all of your tips and tricks. They don't exactly work on me, and you know damn well not to try to scare me because I proved to you in the first week that I don't scare easily. You can lie and manipulate all you want, but we both know that I know who you really are. It breaks my heart to see you trying to be someone you're not because you are the better brother, and I love you the way you are now. That won't ever change. Plus, if you truly meant what you just said to me, and I know you didn't, then I would already be dead. You can fuck up as many times as you like, but I'll be there to hold your hand and make you feel better. I'm quite good at it."

You leave the room and head down to the labs in hopes Bruce got the hell out of it. When you get there, he's still inside next to the scepter. Fury walks in minutes before you after seeing you leave the cell.

"Bruce, you need to get the hell out of here. That secepter is going to mess with your mind."

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury storms in.

He must have seen Tony trying to get access to his files.

"I've kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are," Bruce says, pointing to the monitor. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"You'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss." The computer beeps and Tony looks at the secure files popping up. "What's Phase 2?"

There is it. There are those words again. You turn to Fury when Steve barges in with a big gun in his hands. He slams it to the table, and you're grateful it's not loaded.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're--"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony moves the computer screen toward Fury which shows plans of those exact weapons. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit," Steve glares.

At this moment, Natasha and Thor walk into the lab. You step forward and look at Bruce carefully.

"Did you know about this?" he asks you.

"You might want to leave this lab, Bruce, because you're not gonna like what happens if you stay. I don't think you want to break your streak. Do you?"

"Oh, I was out until you dragged me back in."

"Loki is manipulating you!"

"You've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't exactly come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"No, I came because you're a friend who asked for my help. I didn't want to, but you had to pull that card, didn't you? Now, I'm not leaving because you suddenly get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of them," Fury says and points to you and Thor.

"Us?"

"Seventeen years ago, I came face to face with two women who were from different planets trying to destroy a race which, in turn, cost millions of dollars to make go away. Last year, Earth had that same woman and a group of her friends who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor defends himself.

"You're not the only people out there, are you? You're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched and can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve asks.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki and his allies to it. It is the signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war. You forced our hand. We had to come up with something."

"Nuclear deterrent," Tony scoffs, "because that always calms everything down, right?"

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure if he still made weapons Stark would be neck-deep in--"

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Tony interrupts Steve.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor mumbles to himself.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asks Thor, having heard him.

"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?"

"Are you boys really that naive? SHIELD monitors potential threats," Natasha adds.

Captain America is on threat watch?"

"We all are."

"Are you more above or below angry bees?" Tony asks Nat.

"Stark, I swear to God, if you make one more wisecrack joke--"

"Threat! Verbal threat! I feel threatened!" Tony throws his hands up.

"Show some respect," Steve glares.

"Respect what? You?"

Everyone is arguing and speaking over each other. This is the kind of chaos that the scepter needs. If you don't remove Bruce from this lab right now, then things are going to get a whole lot more crazy and a lot more... green. You've been alive for too long to partake in this petty argument, but it is starting to give you a slight headache.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor says to Tony.

"It's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we? A team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a ticking time bomb."

This is why you warned Fury about bringing people with a bunch of great power in one room together.

"Bruce, please leave the room," you beg him.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony grins and puts his hand on Steve's shoulder.

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve shouts and throws Tony's hand off him.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," Toy glares and steps closer to him.

"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony doesn't hesitate to say.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony shrugs.

"You always have a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

Tony glares angrily at Steve. He just hit a nerve.

"A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!"

"Okay, stop it! All of you! This isn't helping. This is exactly what Loki wants. You're just feeding into him!" you say.

It's like they don't even hear you. Two men are just focused on beating the other. Steve steps closer to Tony with a glare.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

"You people are so petty and tiny," Thor laughs.

"Y/N, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his--"

"Where? You rented my room!"

"The cell was just in case--"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I've tried!" Everyone goes silent at his words. "I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out! So, I moved on. I focused on helping other people." He looks at you. "I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!"

As he is talking, he grabs the scepter angrily and lifts it from the case. Everyone stares at him in fear of what he might do with it. Fury and Natasha slowly reach for their guns which are holstered to their sides.

"You wanna know my secret, Y/N? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

"Bruce put down the scepter," you warn.

Bruce looks down and is shocked to see he's holding Loki's weapon. The computer beeps, signaling they got a hit, and he places the scepter back on the table.

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all."

"Did it locate the Tesseract?" Thor asks. "Look, The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it."

"I can get there faster," Tony says and starts to leave the room.

"You're not going alone!" Steve stops him.

"Are you gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit," Steve glares.

Suddenly, one of the engines of the ship is blown up by an unknown force, and it's enough to knock everyone off their feet. You're thrown back next to Steve and Tony, Natasha and Bruce are slammed through the ground and to the lower equipment room, and the rest are thrown back by the impact in all directions.

"Put on the suit!" Steve says in a different tone.

"Yep!"

x

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[kryptonitecore]

Reread: Transformers: Devastation

I spent at least a few pages of this comic completely unaware that there was a Warsaw in Indiana, and I was very confused as to how the Autobots were supposed to drive from America to Poland in less than a day. The geography of this series is somewhat in flux though, as Brasnya has now progressed from a ‘breakaway Soviet state’ to a ‘former Russian state’, which is pretty impressive in a few hours. 

The art had some pretty nice moments in this comic, with some very deliberate visual parallels between Optimus and Megatron and some really nice colours, courtesy of Zak Atkinson. The art is variable, however - most of it is by E. J. Su, but there is an issue by Robby Musso (which I wasn’t as much of a fan of…) and one by Nick Roche, which I really liked.

Compared to its predecessors the tone is more comedic, with quite a few reaction shots and quick jumps between characters and groups, or at least that’s how it starts off. A high point of ridiculousness - and it’s intentional ridiculousness - is the fact that the Decepticons on Earth decide to wake Starscream up from the equivalent of a medical coma rather than have a conversation with Megatron themselves about how all of his plans lately seem to have been terrible. I can only say that I am disappointed we did not see more of that conversation.

Nevertheless, the book carries on with the Weird Moments™ that have bedecked previous issues. From the utterly godawful holo-avatars (I was particularly distressed by Rodimus’ ponytail and wraparound sunglasses) to another moment where Megatron just has a mouth laser, there are plenty of mildly strange moments to enjoy, especially since this is where Furman clearly starts bringing together a lot of the plot-lines that had seemingly disappeared, so every character that has so far shown up in one Spotlight is suddenly making a return.

The central evil plan of Scorponok/Machination is, as all great evil plans are, mostly nonsensical, and this book has no problem with making fun of the whole concept of Headmasters while still using it. Some of the body horror surrounding Sunstreaker is still effective, though, especially when they let Nick Roche take over for an issue… Speaking of Roche, he has some really excellent alt covers for these issues, this having been a favourite for a while:

It’s important to spend quality time with your evil faction members and make some happy memories. 

In what’s becoming a bit of a theme in what I’ve been reading from IDW1 recently, Megatron’s contempt for his own army is clear, particularly his contempt for Sixshot who, despite being a Phase Sixer, is still pretty disposable. Another notable feature of Furman’s Megatron is the sheer confidence, I mean: ‘I serve the Decepticon cause’,  ‘Then you serve me’. This mixes interestingly with some of the later stuff… 

There are a couple of nice moments for Rodimus in this, too, especially with Hardhead when he insists on disobeying orders to try and rescue Sunstreaker. It’s interesting that the Reapers (from Spotlight: Sixshot) come back and Sixshot is allowed to carry on with that arc, but Galvatron and his crew felt extraneous, especially considering they showed up when there were already about a million things happening in the final issues. Nevertheless, this is probably my favourite of the Furman miniseries.