#generalization and specialization in software engineering

[trainsinanime]

I don't think there's enough art analysis of modern train paint schemes. Sadly I know basically nothing about art, so I can't really fill in the gaps, but I can at least try to get the conversation going.

Now, this is a difficult topic, for two main reasons:

There are a lot of trains. Less than cars, sure, but still, a very considerable amount.

We live in a time where it's gotten really easy to give them all widely different liveries.

Point 2 is surprisingly crucial. It used to be that every train livery was paint, with masking tape carefully applied, and a few stickers for the more complicated parts, letters and numbers. That limited the sheer amount of design you could get on there. Trains in Europe have also become very smooth, with not much in the way of access doors or similar. That means for complex paint schemes, you can now do vinyl wraps, like for cars; functionally you print out a giant sticker (or several) with a giant locomotive and make sure to apply them all straight. Sounds difficult, but there are companies specialised in that. So, want a locomotive with gold and Ode to Joy on the side?

(All pictures by me unless otherwise noted)

Yeah you can just do that. SETG's 193 218 here is the only one with this livery, and hey, at least it's still wearing it. They've changed some details since I took this picture in 2017.

So as an example, I'm picking one type of locomotive and in particular one train company. The locomotive is the Siemens Vectron, and generally speaking it looks like this:

The Vectron is an incredibly successful product by Siemens, introduced in 2008 and it keeps on selling. Locomotive 1750 is almost done and was recently shown off at a publicity event, and the orders are already for about 2700 locomotives. I'm only going to look at the "normal" version of it and ignore weird special versions like "with Diesel engine", "extra cheap" and, of course, "Finnish". With that out the way, the Vectron is an electric locomotive that can run at up to 200 km/h or even 230 km/h (125 or 143 mph), provide up to 6400 MW continuous power, run under any type of electricity common in Europe and in most countries. It's highly modular, so you only get the features you want, and you can add other ones later. Some of them haul passenger trains, in particular it's the most modern passenger locomotive in both the Netherlands and Denmark, but the vast majority haul freight all along the major European corridors. For quite a while there it was actually the only modern electric freight locomotive you could get, as their competitor Bombardier and their TRAXX was busy with software and quality control issues, then busy getting bought by Alstom, then busy with software and quality control issues some more. This seems to be coming to an end, Alstom has won some significant orders and is getting close to actually delivering, and meanwhile Stadler has been doing interesting stuff in the specialty field and they're going mainstream as well; but for now, Vectron is still the default. The lamp housings only come in grey, unless you buy the cheap version, the extra powerful version, or the Finnish version (which also doesn't have the whiskers).

The one in the picture is an internal Siemens test unit to get approval for 230 km/h operations, but for the most part, it represents what the locomotive looks like if you order one and forget to tell Siemens what paint you'd want. This sounds like a joke but it's actually surprisingly common. Most locomotives in Europe these days are bought by leasing companies. Some of them are very concerned about corporate identity and have their own paint schemes that customers can then add their logos to (or cover up, if they pay more), but others don't bother, they expect that the customer will wrap the locomotive anyway. Siemens also apparently always has a few white Vectrons in the assembly line, in case someone needs a locomotive really urgently. The expectation is never that customers keep it white for long, it's that they apply at least logos or big stickers and wrap it in whatever they want, with the white as a neutral base. You can often tell secretly white locomotives from the grab bars under the front windows; almost nobody bothers to paint or wrap those, generally speaking.

Design-wise… well, it's a box, with some slightly sculpted cabs at the end. A design feature that everybody loves are the "whiskers"; behind them is the cab air conditioner. People often compare it to European heavy semi-trucks, which is almost certainly intentional.

The full "default I don't care" Vectron doesn't have the silver edges and none of the big "230 km/h" and "Siemens" stickers of this one. It does have a dark grey frame, and a dark grey central roof section. These are the parts that get dirty the quickest (from the wheels and from the pantographs), so darker colours here help make that less apparent. Any part of a Vectron can and will become incredibly dirty eventually if you don't wash it, but these dark areas give you at least a couple more weeks before it becomes really apparent. They're not required, Siemens will happily paint any part of the locomotive any color you want, but a lot of companies adopt these colours for these parts anyway because it just makes sense.

The Beethoven locomotive up top is probably an example of a white default locomotive that got wrapped. I don't love the design, I think it's too busy, but it's not the worst.

For another example of a bad Vectron livery, I controversially submit BLS cargo, a Swiss railway company that nowadays does long-haul container traffic across Europe and crossing the alps:

First, see what I mean about getting dirty? Second, I know people like this livery, but to me, this is a pretty photograph on an otherwise boring livery. It's not integrated in the slightest, and the rest of the livery is just silver-grey, with some lime edges, and some red lower whiskers (fun fact: A splash of red at the front of the locomotive is legally required for Italy).

For something more interesting, let's consider their biggest competitor, SBB Cargo. SBB Cargo is a part of SBB, the Swiss state-owned railway company, and is the main provider of freight trains in Switzerland. They have an international arm, SBB Cargo International, which runs freight trains through Switzerland. Originally, SBB Cargo locomotives looked like this:

Red ends, blue middle, a big "cargo". For the classic locomotives, they got some dynamics slants in there. The more modern boring locomotives got red ends and red edges. In both cases, they're being a big cheeky with the dark frame: They're using it as a baseline for the "cargo" text, with the lower arch of the "g" extending into the frame. Also, note that the newer locomotive is number 482 000. Starting the numbering at zero? The Swiss sure are crazy.

They've been using this paint scheme for a while now, and it was good. But especially SBB Cargo International wanted something else, something of their own. They started out with some cheeky slogans, like the alp tamer:

Alpäzähmer roughly means "alp tamer" in deep Swiss dialect. The locomotive is advertising the opening of the Gotthard base tunnel under the alps in December of 2016, which finally "tamed" the mountain range.

Fun fact: In December of 2016 I travelled to Switzerland to experience this fresh new tunnel for myself. It is a massive engineering marvel, but it turns the actual experience of this 55 km/34 mile tunnel is just "dark for thirty minutes". On the way back, between Zurich and Munich, I watched some episodes of Supergirl, and somewhere around Lake Constance I wrote what is still somehow my most popular Tumblr post by a really long shot. I hate that post so much. The tunnel is good though.

However, a lot of SBB Cargo International's locomotives are just leased modern electrics with a logo stuck on there, like ES 64 F4-091.

Due to corporate mergers, this locomotive is currently on its third leasing company and 2.5th livery (most of it is still leasing company #2, leasing company #3 added the yellow stripe and replaced the logos of the old leasing company with their own). Since it was built in 2004, it's been hired by more than a dozen rail companies from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria, it was very briefly a passenger locomotive despite only a 140 km/h (87 mph) top speed, and some companies, including SBB Cargo International, actually had it twice. And all it got to show for it is a logo, a name and an URL. Makes sense, who knows when it'll next get hired to Nordcargo, DB, ACTS, CTL, ITL, another branch of DB, TXL, KRE, RTB Cargo, NIAG LOCON, SETG…

But SBB Cargo International wanted to grow, and get locomotives that unquestionably their own; still leased, but on a very long-term basis, and with their own livery. Which locomotives? Siemens Vectron, of course, it's the default. Which livery? They could have just used a normal SBB Cargo livery, of course, but they wanted to stand out. Enter Simon Wijnacker.

Simon is a dutch rail nerd and graphics designer. He has written books about modern locomotives and their paint, he used to run a website cataloguing them, he still runs a news site about modern locomotives and their paint schemes, but most importantly, he and his design studio Railcolor Design… uh, design color schemes for rail vehicles.

And for SBB Cargo International, he (or his team) came up with a stand-out design: The Alppiercer.

Picture by Thomas Naas, licensed under CC-BY-ND 2.0, on Flickr

Everybody loves the Alppiercer, me included. The stepped gradient color palette? The clever use of the red ends and the blue center? The Swiss cross on the front? The ray of light under the mountains, symbolising how trains pierce the alps with the new Gotthard base tunnel? Perfection.

There have been dozens of variations of this design since, because SBB Cargo International now applies versions of it to all Vectrons it leases, no matter who from, so there are ones on black (Shadowpiercer, for locomotives from former MRCE), blue (Nighpiercer, for locomotives from Hupac), silver (Silverpiercer, Railpool), grey (Alppiercer 3, SüdLeasing), as well as all sorts of one-offs, like Hollandpiercer, Germanypiercer, Ruhrpiercer (for subsidiary RT&S) and so on.

In the meantime, the main SBB Cargo decided to get new locomotives as well, since maintenance of the old workhorses was getting more expensive than getting new ones. This is actually true for a lot of Europe, especially thanks to the need for new equipment like ETCS: Leasing a Vectron is often cheaper than keeping an old locomotive going, even though that one's already paid for. SBB Cargo (main) also decided to buy new locomotives; the contract for that went to Stadler, which surprised everyone. But until those new locomotives are designed, built and approved, it'll take a few years, so in the meantime they're doing the default thing and leasing a couple of Vectrons. They wanted them painted, though, and for that, they once again went to Simon, and he delivered. I don't know whether they requested something different from SBB Cargo International, or whether that was Simon's idea, but either way, this is the result:

I find this super-fascinating. It's the same locomotive, it's the same family of companies, it's based on the same blue-with-red-ends original design, it's even the same designer, yet it's a completely different feel. Don't even focus on that the alp motive is gone and the big "cargo" is back, look at the details:

In the Alppiercer, the red at the front goes all the way down to the bottom of the frame. Here, the frame is dark grey throughout.

The Alppiercer added some black over and under the front windows, where the handrails are. The domestic version lowers is until the black almost hits the whiskers.

Both actually visually raise the frame a bit, by painting the lowest section of the main body in the same color as the frame, but the big cargo version raises it higher, and draws your eye with a big white line. It's also just more frame, because the red of the Alppiercer turns back, creating an arrow shape, while the other has the red just plain slanted, thus giving more red.

There's even a bit of extra frame grey on the lowest set of whiskers.

Both locomotives feature black frames around the door side windows; fairly angular for the Alppiercer, but very smooth for the big cargo version. The big cargo version also links these frames with a horizontal line at the top of the body.

So both locomotives are red at the front, but the impression is a very different one. The Alppiercer looks taller, the big cargo version looks longer and more business-like, stronger.

(Also interesting: The lower arch of the g of the cargo can no longer be on the actual frame, because the Vectron has a very busy frame, with cutouts for fuel tanks in case you want to install a small diesel, with lots and lots of labels, and of course crucially, both a big "Siemens" and a big "Vectron" logo somewhere in there.)

But also interesting are the choices that are the same. A black frame around all windows emphasises them and makes them look larger. The locomotive has some defined bevels, but Railcolor largely ignores them - compare how much red the Alppiercer has with how much lime green the BLS version has. There is a very strong sense here that "I decide what the visual shape of the locomotive is, the manufacturer's outer shape is just a suggestion".

This becomes especially clear when you see the Alppiercer design applied on one of the earlier modern electrics, the Traxxpiercer:

Picture by peters452002, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA, via Flickr

This is apparently going to stay a one-off, but it makes for an interesting comparison with a locomotive of the same type with the original paint scheme.

Oh god these things have gotten dirty and washed out. Pretty soon the ends will just be white if this continues. But anyway, note that the repainted one again got a raised frame, black around the side windows, extended black around (especially above) the front windows, and extended red at the edges. A subtle touch is that near the buffers, the red is cut off with a bit of black, making the shape slightly more fluid and dynamic. Yes, admittedly the main reason why it looks better and more modern is because it's clean, but also, Railcolor reinvented what it means to make the ends of a TRAXX locomotive red, which is not something anyone else ever tried.

The raised frame is a staple of Railcolor Design, seen also e.g. on their work for Flex, Budamar, very strongly for RTB Cargo and most hilariously Raillogix. The latter (sadly I didn't find any Creative Commons licensed pictures of it) is particularly hilarious, because there's so little design: The most boring logo ever, the company name, one color, a slightly different one for one corner each, and that's it… but then there's a bit of black around the front windows, and a bit of a raised locomotive frame, just as a little "Simon was here".

The Flex one also shows another staple of Railcolor Design, the "dog bone" design (name by me, not official): A narrow beam in the middle that expands out at the cabs. The "Transformer" locomotive for Trustrail is another good example; part of the designs for EBS that Railcolor keeps making that all follow this general approach.

Meanwhile the stepped gradient palettes are also popular. Adria Transport 193 012 "From Sea to Summit" is clearly not an Alppiercer, but very obviously designed by the same people.

So… what can we say from a critical artistic perspective about the work of Railcolor Design when it comes to inventing new ways to paint Swiss locomotives red and blue? I dunno, honestly, I have zero art education. I do know they're putting a lot of care and work into it; they're not afraid to redefine the visual shape of the locomotive; they're playing with its appearance, tall or long or shark-like…

Picture by Rob Dammers, licensed under CC-BY 2.0, found on Flickr

I haven't yet seen a really wide Vectron. Anyway, a lot of interesting stuff coming out from them that, in my opinion, pushes what train design can be in interesting directions.

What do you think? Especially if you know more about art and graphic design than me?

[ethanparker9692]

Top Courses for Generative AI in Programming

Generative AI is transforming the software industry, making AI software development more efficient, intelligent, and automated. If you're a developer looking to upskill, enrolling in a Generative AI course for developers is a smart move! Here are the top courses to help you master generative AI in software development.

1. Generative AI for Software Developers Specialization

This course focuses on integrating generative AI software into real-world applications. It covers everything from AI-powered coding assistants to automated debugging, making it ideal for those interested in generative AI for software development.

2. AI-Driven Software Engineering Certification

Want to learn how AI is reshaping software engineering? This program explores software engineering with AI certification, covering generative AI development and its role in automating code generation, optimization, and testing.

3. Generative AI with LLMs Certification

Large Language Models (LLMs) are at the heart of AI-driven coding. This certification teaches how to use LLMs for code generation, making it a must-have for those interested in generative AI software development.

4. AI Development Course

A broad course that delves into AI fundamentals, deep learning, and applications in AI software development. It’s perfect for those looking to build a strong foundation before specializing in generative AI for software development.

Why Take These Courses?

✅ Stay ahead in the rapidly evolving world of AI development course ✅ Gain expertise in generative AI software for automation and efficiency ✅ Earn industry-recognized certifications to boost your career

Upskill today with the best Generative AI course for developers and future-proof your programming career!

For information visit: -

Contact : +41444851189

#GenerativeAI #AISoftwareDevelopment #GenerativeAICertification #AIProgramming #AIForDevelopers #SoftwareEngineeringWithAI #AIDrivenDevelopment

[keferon]

Sigh. I wasn’t strong enough to stop. I wrote a fic too

———————————

Pilots have to be constantly monitored by special people who are trained to do diagnostics. Not just medics. Scientists, engineers. There's a surprising number of things that can go wrong with a person hooked up to a machine.

The thing is.

The procedure is designed to help.

Jazz isn't sure Prowl is getting help.

Organics are fragile.

Most of the ones Jazz had met were, at least. Flesh is more susceptible to environmental influences than metal. Flesh accumulates damage faster, both external and internal. It often generates it itself.

The processes and causes are often a mystery to Jazz, but he's familiar with the general concept.

Organics are fragile.

That's why Jaz isn't very surprised by the crowds of medical personnel scurrying around a human military base.

As Prowl explained to him, humans don't have the built-in ability to open a HUD and perform self-diagnostics. Most of the time all you get is a vague signal in the form of pain in the injured area or nausea or changes in body temperature and things like that.

Pilots have to be constantly monitored by special people who are trained to do diagnostics. Not just medics. Scientists, engineers. There's a surprising number of things that can go wrong with a person hooked up to a machine. It's weird for Jazz. He's used to coming in for physical exams only when something's obviously wrong. Pilots are supposed to get checks just in case anything about them in theory could start breaking down in the future.

The thing is.

The procedure is designed to help.

Jazz isn't sure Prowl is getting help.

He spots the scientist in purple pretty quickly. A crowd of white-haired pilots is a nightmare to identify but this particular organic catches his attention almost instantly.

He's quite...extravagant looking. And he's practically glued to Prowl. They're involved in something together that Jazz isn't sure about, but Prowl looks...wobbly...when he returns from his visits to Tarantulas. And not in a funny way.

Tarantulas holds a special interest in Prowl. Special access, too. Whenever Prowl is injured, Tarantulas is the one who must be contacted immediately. Prowl's mech system needs an upgrade - Tarantulas must be consulted.

Tarantulas slips into the crevices and oozes between the plates. His hands are all over Prowl's personal space and Jazz doesn't really know what he should do about it because Prowl apparently doesn't mind.

Tarantulas dictates what he can and can't eat. What medications he should take and what software he should use.

Tarantulas gives him these little white bracelets with the information he writes on them for the other medics, because Prowl is special for some reason and only Tarantulas has instructions for him.

Knockout wipes his hands with some kind of special napkin and jerks his head around

“If you're looking for Prowl, he's in the labs for a physical.”

Jazz pretends this information is as mundane to him as it is to everyone else on this base

“Why can't you or the other medics examine him?”

“None of us have time to deal with the creepy experiments Prowl is constantly involved in” snorts Knockout ”Last time I checked his blood could dissolve plastic. Haha figuratively of course! Don't look at me like that!”

Jazz smiles, but there's no friendliness behind that smile

“Is this scientist doing experiments on Prowl?”

“Ah. As a matter of fact. Yes. Listen...” Knockout hastily picks up the first aid kit and walks towards the med bays “You'd better ask him yourself. My shift ends in ten minutes, I'm not in the mood to start anything now.”

Jazz nods

“Suuure , no problem.”

“Can I ask what you do in there?”

Prowl has this...look. The one that shows up usually after he gets back from the labs.

In his head, Jazz calls it “'Wobbly.” It's like Prowl's little organic body's joints are coming loose. If he had joints of course (Wait, humans have joints? Right?).

Prowl squints glumly, looking up at him

“Working on improving my mobility on the field.”

Jazz lets out a quiet “oooh.”

Then pulls himself back together

“Shouldn't that involve working on your armor, and not ..uh. you?”

Prowl leans his back against the wall.

“Installing new thrusters on a mech of my class doesn't make sense. They'll increase its speed, but they'll also burn fuel faster.

And installing larger fuel tanks is something reserved for Strikers. There's no way Orion would approve such an upgrade for me.”

Jazz carefully sits down on the floor next to Prowl. It still doesn't give him a good angle on his human's face, but Prowl stares at the floor anyway so...

“And you found some kind of loophole huh?”

Prowl gives a barely perceptible shrug.

“I did some calculations and noticed that the fuel used to run the Heavy Mechs is much more efficient. It's slower to burn out, and gives significantly better performance. Which makes sense, considering it's needed to compensate for the weight of the heavy armor. Used in my mech, it would give me a ten percent increase in speed and twice as much active usage time.

Jazz glares at the top of Prowl's head.

“Sounds like an epic idea, but I'm sensing a 'but' coming...”

“But it's highly toxic.”

“It's what??”

Prowl rubs the bridge of his nose with his fingers

“Only heavy mechs can run this type of fuel because there's enough room in them to insulate the cockpit well enough from any possible chemical exposure.”

Jazz nervously pulls the servo toward Prowl but hesitates at the last second and places it on the floor next to him.

“Prowl. Prowl your armor is lovely but it's anything but heavy.”

“It is” nods Prowl “There isn't enough room in my mech to shield me from any negative effects, so Tarantulas is working on making me immune to them.”

“But that....kind of...why are you letting him? I'm no expert, but sitting inside poisoned armor can't be good for you. I don't know what he told you, but if you had asked even one other medic...”

Prowl finally lifts his head and stares into Jazz's optics for a couple seconds

“He didn't convince me of anything. I asked him to do it myself.”

“Prowl...”

“People have biases against Tarantulas but I assure you, he doesn't do anything I didn't consent to him doing. He likes to go outside the box in his research. He doesn't dismiss my ideas as too harsh. We collaborate.”

“.....”

“The result will be worth it. You'll see.”

Jazz is uncomfortable admitting it, but he sees.

The result is impressive.

Prowl can not only move fast, he can do it for a long time. He's getting more efficient (again), faster (again), better (Prowl's subjective assessment).

The maintenance team wears special masks when working on the internal systems of his mech. The fuel is toxic. Not to Jazz, but even Jazz wouldn't want it to get on his plating.

And humans are fragile.

All organics tend to be fragile.

And Prowl... little flesh-and-blood Prowl gets into this poisoned armor and it's considered acceptable? Because his organic body seems to have developed enough resistance to this kind of damage he only gets a “”mild, easily treatable“” poisoning? And Tarantulas adds another white bracelet to his arm with notes on what substances Prowl needs to put in his drinks to keep his internal components from accumulating damage.

Jazz isn't sure what to think about this.

Jazz doesn't know what to do about it.

And frankly. Does he have the right to get involved if this is what Prowl has chosen for himself?

Tarantulas is a creepy, haunting shadow hanging over Prowl at the slightest opportunity. Tarantulas takes Prowl to a lab and runs poison through his veins. Tarantulas adores Prowl for allowing him to do this.

Prowl insists that Tarantulas is helping.

Jazz doesn't think Prowl is getting help.

[debtofdeception-if]

Debt of Deception

Demo

If you’re curious about who the teen pregnancy route is available to, here is a post that explains it.

Genre: Gritty crime/action thriller/slice-of-life.

💰play as a stay-at-home parent that gets entangled in a life of crime!

💰Inspired by the TV show Good Girls, and a little bit of Breaking Bad.

Summary: Life used to be about toddler tantrums and sleepless nights. Now, it’s about dodging bullets and prison bars—thanks to your charming spouse.

It all started when you were almost finished preparing dinner, as you did every night, when your spouse stumbled through the door, bloody and bruised—with a revelation that would shatter your world. Their hidden gambling addiction has racked up a staggering debt, but that’s not even the worst part. They owe half a million dollars to MC-14, one of the most ruthless gangs in the city. You have 8 months to gather the money, or your family will pay the ultimate price.

Thrown into a deadly game you never asked to play, you’re forced to make impossible choices to survive. Can you protect your family? Can your marriage survive this betrayal? Do you even want it to? Will you come out of this situation as the person you always thought you were, or will this dark world you’ve been thrust into reveal who you really are?

💰Customize your character; their name, gender, sexuality, physical appearance, personality, background, choose how birth affected your character mentally and physically, IF they gave birth. and so much more. Customization matters!

💰Choose your character's age; you can be in your early 20s or 30s. Were you a teen parent or not?

💰 Customize your 5 year old child.

💰Determine who you were before you became a parent, how you feel about parenthood and suburban life in general.

💰Do jobs for a criminal organization in order to pay back your spouse's debt, whether you succeed or fail is on you.

💰Determine what kind of relationship you have with your spouse and child.

💰You may have to be a stay-at-home parent but you can choose why you decided to stay home.

💰Get a divorce or try to fix your marriage? It's your choice.

💰Try to manage a double life.

💰Drama, chaos, and more drama.

💰Determine how you feel about the life of crime.

💰Determine what kind of parent you are.

💰Try to revive your broken marriage with your spouse or possibly romance the ruthless leader of MC-14. Maybe even get yourself involved in a messy love triangle….oof, or have some hookups along the way.

💰Try to manage your expenses, pay your bills on time, and for the love of god, don't lose the house!

💰Alaric/Alara Coleman- The Spouse 💍

Age: 21 or 30 (Depends on the MC’s age).

Occupation: A software engineer at Cordovian Technologies. If you choose the teen parent route, the story will delve into how A secured this position at a young age and manages to support a family of three on a single income.

Description:

The love of your life, your best friend, the one person you always felt you could trust without question. There was never a secret between you two… or so you thought. You and A were high school sweethearts, and from the moment you met, you felt something inexplicably special. Smart, funny, goofy, and effortlessly charming, A had a way of making everyone feel at ease, their infectious laughter always filling the room. The A you knew was capable and reliable—loyal to a fault, always showing up when needed. They never broke a promise, and their word was unshakeable. It seemed like A could do no wrong—excelling in every area, from academics to extracurriculars. They were the golden child, the kind of person everyone admired. Yet, in the quiet moments, you couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe no one, not even A, could truly be that perfect… Maybe you were right.

Tropes: High School sweethearts, golden retriever, soulmates.

Red Flags : Deceptive, prideful, egotistical, self-destructive.

Green Flags: Protective, intelligent, self-sacrificing.

Physical Description: 

Male A: A stands at 5’9” with a lean, subtly athletic build. His short, wavy dark blonde hair is styled in a textured crop, he has light blue eyes and light freckles that dot only his face. He has fair skin , and his style leans toward a sporty, preppy aesthetic.

Female A: A stands at 5’6” with a lean, subtly athletic build. Her shoulder length, wavy dark blonde hair is styled in beach waves, complementing her sharp blue eyes and light freckles that dot only her face. Her fair skin has a natural, youthful tone, and her style leans toward a preppy aesthetic.

💰Victor/Victoria Delgado- The Leader 💀

Age: 35.

Occupation: Leader of the MC-14 gang.

Description:

V Delgado is a gang leader who embodies cold ruthlessness. From birth, they were immersed in a world of crime, violence, and destruction, which forged them into the stoic, calculating figure they are today. With an enigmatic allure and an icy demeanor, V is a master of control—of others and of themselves. Words are unnecessary to them; actions speak louder, and they lead with unflinching efficiency. Brutality is second nature, and they waste no time or energy on hesitation. Their rise to power came through a mix of cunning and raw force, and they will go to any lengths to maintain their dominance. V isn’t a person to be admired, but something about their very presence pulls at you. They are a living, breathing reminder that not all paths to power are clean—and yet, you can’t help but wonder if, maybe, you could get lost in their darkness.

Tropes: Corruption, enemies to lovers, mama I'm in love with a criminal, dark romance, forbidden.

Red Flags: Possessive, controlling, domineering, dangerous, emotionally detached, unpredictable.

Green Flags: They….like puppies, jk. Determined, strong, resilient, very protective and loyal to those who earn their trust and loyalty (which is very few).

Physical Description:

Male V: Standing at a commanding 6’4”, V Delgado carries a powerful, muscular build. He has an olive skin tone. His short, straight dark brown hair is kept in a no-nonsense buzz cut, matching the sharp intensity of his hazel eyes—eyes that hold a calculating, unnerving depth. A prominent scar runs from the corner of his mouth, slashing upward to his ear. His right arm is covered in a detailed sleeve tattoo of a serpent. V’s wardrobe leans toward practicality—subdued, simple outfits that blend into the background. His nice clothes, always at risk of becoming bloodied or torn, are too inconvenient for him to care about; function always comes before appearance.

Female V:Standing at a commanding 5’11”, V Delgado carries an athletic, hourglass build.She has an olive skin tone. Her waist length, straight dark brown hair is kept in a loose style, her hazel eyes hold a calculating, unnerving depth. A prominent scar runs from the corner of her mouth, slashing upward to her ear, a constant reminder of past conflicts. Her right arm is covered in a detailed sleeve tattoo of a serpent, symbolizing her cunning and dangerous nature. Female V’s wardrobe, unlike male V, tends to be elegant, fashionable, sleek, and refined. 

💰Renay Bueller-The Bestie 🫂

Age: 21, or 30 (Depends on the MC’s age).

Occupation: If Renay is 21, she’s currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in graphic design at the University of Ridgepoint. If she’s 30, she works as a graphic designer at Horizon Design Studio.

Description: Renay Bueller is your sharp-witted and fiercely confident friend who thrives on making her presence known. Her quick tongue and sassy demeanor never miss a beat, and she’s always ready with a perfectly timed comeback that leaves no room for hesitation. Renay is unapologetically bold in everything she does, embracing her individuality with a flair that’s both magnetic and unshakeable. Her charm lies in her unfiltered honesty and the playful, yet unapologetic, attitude she brings to every conversation.

Physical Description: Renay has curly red hair that falls just above her shoulder. Standing tall, her frame is full and curvy, embodying a blend of strength and softness. She has light green eyes and a tan skin tone. She typically wears bold prints and bright colors, which reflect her bold and loud personality.

💰Haruki “Haru” Kim- The Jokester 🎭*Possible hookup option*

Age: 20.

Occupation: Works as a goon for the MC-14 gang.

Description: Haru Kim is a volatile and unpredictable henchman, known for his chaotic nature and love of causing mayhem. A fearless jokester with a creative streak, Haru thrives on bending the rules, often disregarding orders and pushing boundaries. Recently, he’s  been testing V’s patience with his disobedience, straining the once-solid respect between them. Despite this, V remembers the time Haru saved their life, holding it in high regard. However, there’s a limit to how much disrespect and insubordination V is willing to tolerate before they must make a choice about Haru’s future in the gang.

Physical Description: Haru is of Asian descent, standing at a short height with a lanky frame. His platinum blonde hair is styled in a messy, short cut, often looking deliberately unkempt. He has dark eyes. His fashion leans toward grunge, favoring oversized, worn-in pieces—ripped jeans, band tees, and leather jackets—reflecting his rebellious nature. His overall appearance gives off a carefree, slightly disheveled vibe, perfectly complementing his chaotic personality.

💰Jacob Johnson- The Muscle 💪 *Possible hookup option*

Age: 27.

Occupation: Works as a goon for the MC-14 gang.

Description: Jacob is impulsive and quick-tempered, often letting his emotions drive his actions. Fiercely protective of their gang leader, V, Jacob is known for his intimidating presence and a deep sense of loyalty. He thrives in combat, showcasing impressive skills in a fight, but his reckless tendencies can sometimes jeopardize carefully laid plans. His unwavering loyalty is both a strength and a flaw, as he often charges into dangerous situations without fully considering the consequences.

Physical Description: Jacob is of African American descent, with closely cropped black hair in a buzz cut and intense dark brown eyes. Standing tall with a muscular build, his presence is commanding and his physique speaks to years of physical training and strength.

💰Kenny Lockwood-The Veteran 🪖

Age: 52.

Occupation: MC-14 gang’s second in command.

Description: Kenny is a stoic and disciplined individual, harboring a dark past known only to V. With a background in combat and tactical expertise, he is stealthy and calculated in his actions. Though he often butts heads with the younger, more reckless members of the gang, his experience and steady demeanor make him V’s most trusted and reliable confidant.

Physical Description: Kenny is an older man with a grizzled appearance and a bald head. He dresses in an unassuming, practical manner, blending into his surroundings. Of average height and build, his grey eyes carry a quiet intensity that hints at the depth of his experience.

💰Lauren/Lorenzo Esposito- The Fiancé 💔

Age: 30.

Occupation: Nepo baby.

Description: L. Esposito is V’s fiancé—a calculated arrangement orchestrated by their parents to cement loyalty and strengthen the alliance between the MC-14 and Hollowed Saints gangs. While V agreed to the engagement stoically and without hesitation, seeing it as a strategic move for the business, L’s feelings are far from transactional. Cunning, charming, and adept at reading people, L is a master of manipulation when needed. Yet beneath their calculated exterior lies a flicker of compassion and a surprising romantic streak. They genuinely crave a deeper connection with V and are determined to claim that love—no matter who stands in their way. Watch your back.

Physical Description: L. Esposito has sleek, dark brown hair that falls neatly into place, complementing their warm, light brown eyes that always seem to be calculating their next move. Slightly below average in height with a petite, lithe frame, they exude confidence that makes them seem larger than life. Their impeccable sense of style gravitates toward high-end designer clothing—tailored to perfection, whether in sharp suits or sophisticated casual wear. Female L favors bold makeup, often sporting a sultry smokey eye paired with a classic red lip, embodying elegance with an edge.

💰PTA Demons 👿- A clique of has-beens who peaked in high school and made your freshman year a living hell. Now they’re attending PTA meetings—proof that parenting should require a license. *Will encounter them the most if you choose to attend PTA meetings*

• Amanda Willmont- The “HBIC” 👑

Age: 25, or 34 (depends on MC’s age).

Occupation: Nurse for Redwood Medical.

Description: Amanda Willmont is a former high school queen bee who never quite moved past her glory days. Beneath her deceptively sweet demeanor lies a sharp, catty edge. She’s fiercely competitive, a master of passive-aggressive jabs, and always seems determined to undercut whatever I do, as though winning petty battles is her life’s purpose.

Physical Description: Amanda has long, luscious blonde locks that cascade down her back. Her petite frame stands at a striking, model-like height. She’s always impeccably dressed in preppy ensembles, with pink as her signature color—a hue that dominates her wardrobe. Flawless makeup is her armor, and she never steps outside without every detail meticulously in place.

🧸 Child: Emily Willmont.

• Senae Zitkala- The Follower 📱*Possible hookup option*

Age: 25, or 34 (depends on the MC’s age).

Occupation: Blogger.

Description: Senae Zitkala is a timid and impressionable individual who clings to Amanda’s every word, eager to please. Easily swayed by others, Senae’s insecurity often leads her to seek validation through drama and gossip.

Physical Description: Senae has a medium brown complexion and long, sleek black hair. Her style is refined and reminiscent of old-money elegance, favoring timeless and polished attire. Short in stature with a willowy, graceful build.

🧸 Child: Isi Zitkala

• Dan Meadows- The Ex Jock 🏈

Age: 25, or 34 (depends on MC’s age).

Occupation: Briar Prep football coach

Description: Dan Meadows is a cocky, self-assured jock with a penchant for arrogance and an air of entitlement. Quick to brag about his accomplishments, he thrives on attention and often dismisses the opinions of others. Though confident in his physical prowess, he has a tendency to be air-headed.

Physical Description: Dan is tall and well-built with a lean, athletic physique. His caramel brown hair is often tousled in a carefree manner, complementing his striking green eyes and fair skin. He gravitates toward a sporty, casual style—think fitted tees, joggers, and clean sneakers.

🧸 Child: Kyler Meadows.

💰Jimmy/Jain Lockwood 👮-An FBI agent who also happens to be a ghost from your past—one you wish had stayed buried.

Age: 25, or 34 (depends on MC’s age).

Occupation: FBI agent.

*Serious trigger warnings with this one*

Description: J Lockwood is the FBI agent assigned to a case that entails investigating MC-14. But J is more than just an investigator—they’re a ghost from your past, the embodiment of everything you’ve tried to leave behind. On the surface, J is charming, polite, and socially adept, seamlessly fitting into any environment. Their easy smile and confident demeanor mask a darker truth: a relentless, obsessive manipulator who bends reality to fit their desires. Beneath the polished exterior lies a dangerous fixation—J has convinced themselves that your rejection is merely a challenge to conquer. Where others see professionalism, you see the chilling glint of possession in their eyes. And all you’ve ever wanted is to be free of them.

Physical Description: J Lockwood stands slightly taller than average, with a commanding presence that naturally draws attention. Their thick, jet-black hair is neatly styled, a sharp contrast to their ice-blue eyes that seem to pierce through anyone they meet. J’s pale skin hints at long hours spent under artificial lights rather than in the sun. Their athletic build, honed through discipline and physical rigor, is evident in their poised stance and confident movements. Everything about their appearance suggests control—but it’s the chilling intensity behind those eyes that’s impossible to ignore. 

💰Monica Delgado- The Matriarch 👸

Age: 62.

Occupation: Retired.

Description: Monica Delgado is warm, nurturing, and deeply affectionate toward those she holds close, embodying a protective and compassionate mother figure. However, in public and professional settings, she transforms into a fierce and authoritative presence, displaying a cutthroat demeanor that commands respect and fear. 

Physical Description: Monica Delgado is a petite woman with an average build. She has dark brown hair interwoven with elegant grey streaks that frame her face. She has hazel eyes, and an olive skin tone. She has a shorter stature.

💰Frank Delgado- The Patriarch 🤴

Age: 62.

Occupation: Retired.

Description: Frank Delgado is a disciplined and calculating man who approaches both his criminal organization and family life with a cold, businesslike mindset. Emotionally detached and lacking empathy, he views emotional bonds as a weakness and struggles to connect with his child. His pragmatic and methodical approach to life has shaped V, who inherited many of his traits, including his reserved demeanor and analytical mindset.

Physical Description: Frank Delgado is a tall, distinguished man with an imposing presence. Despite his age, he maintains a fit physique. He has a full head of grey hair that matches his well-groomed grey mustache and beard. His olive skin tone and light brown eyes hint at a steely, calculating nature.

💰Sarah Coleman- The Loving Mother 🤱

Age: 54.

Occupation: Retired.

Description: Sarah Coleman radiates warmth and positivity wherever she goes. With an optimistic outlook, she sees challenges as opportunities and believes in the inherent good in people. Her kindness is evident in the small, thoughtful gestures she offers to friends and strangers alike. Always supportive, Sarah has a natural talent for listening and uplifting those around her, often placing the needs of others before her own. She approaches life with a gentle resilience, driven by her desire to make the world a little brighter for everyone she encounters.

Physical Description: Sarah Coleman has short blonde hair styled in a pixie cut that frames her face. She has blue and a dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Standing shorter than average, she has a lithe frame.

💰Daniel Coleman- The Loving Father 👨‍🍼

Age: 54.

Occupation: Retired.

Description: Daniel Coleman is  charismatic and has a playful, and lighthearted demeanor. He has an easy going nature and sharp sense of humor making him effortlessly likable, often lightening tense situations with a well-timed joke or witty comment. 

Physical Description: Daniel Coleman has greying sandy blonde hair. He has dark blue eyes that often gleam with humor and warmth. He Stands at an average height, and carries a slightly chubbier build.

💰Mandy (last name depending on MC)- Mommy Dearest ⛓️‍💥

Age: 57

Occupation: Retired

Born In Poverty Background Description: Mandy is a person who has a rough and harsh demeanor, often resorting to verbally or physically aggressive behaviors to gain control. She’s impulsive, and quick to lash out at others, especially when things don’t go her way. She tends to use her aggression to intimidate and belittle those she deems as beneath her. She is  crude and trashy and ever since you can remember, her abusiveness has made you feel nothing but emotional and physical pain, constantly creating a toxic environment that you couldn’t wait to escape from.

High Middle Class Background Description: Mandy has always been someone who placed immense value on appearances and status. She’s condescending and dismissive of others, always believing her way is the best way. She has a controlling nature that makes her prone to micromanaging situations and people, especially when things don’t go according to her standards. She’s a perfectionist and that drives her to be harsh, particularly with those who fail to meet her expectations. She has always been  image obsessed and is only worried about how people will perceive her life, never caring about how you’ve felt. You couldn’t wait to escape the suffocating and cold environment that she created.

Physical Description: *partly depends on the MC* Mandy has a voluptuous body type, and she stands at a height that is a little taller than average.

💰Bill (last name depending on MC)- The Pawn ♟️*pretty much stays the same regardless of background*

Age: 57

Occupation: Retired

Description: Bill is a passive, mild-mannered man who has always  avoided conflict and tends to put others’ needs before his own, driven by a deep desire to please those around him. He is emotionally withdrawn, and rarely expresses his true feelings for fear of upsetting the balance of his relationships, especially with his wife, Mandy. Though he secretly has always  supported you, he was too afraid to stand up to Mandy’s controlling nature. He never wanted to disown you. 

Physical Description:*Partly depends on the MC* Bill is of average height with a lanky, slightly awkward frame. He has wire-framed glasses, and a receding hairline.

*MC was disowned by their parents, the reason depends on your MC and choices.*

💰Cian Murphy-Leader of the rival biker gang 🏍️ *Possible hookup option*

Age: 25

Occupation: Leader of the Eastside Marauders biker gang.

Description: Cian Murphy is the charismatic and ruthless leader of the Eastside Marauders, a rival biker gang to MC-14. With a mix of cocky confidence and a seductive charm, he commands respect and loyalty from his crew. Cian’s ambition drives him to constantly expand his territory, but his temper can ignite in an instant, especially when betrayed. Though vengeful, he holds onto a strong sense of morality, often struggling with the darker side of his actions. His loyalty to his gang and close allies is unwavering, but the weight of his leadership sometimes leaves him questioning the cost of his ambitions.

Physical description: Cian stands just above average height, with chin-length, wavy auburn hair. He has a lean build. His style consists of traditional biker clothing—leather jackets, worn jeans, and boots—complete with a few personalized touches.

💰Your Child 🧸

Age: 5.

Occupation: Just starting kindergarten.

Description: Your child is a joyful little bundle of light, with an innocence that shines through in everything they do. They’re courageous, never shying away from new challenges, and show a surprising level of smarts for someone so young. It’s clear they have a bright future ahead!

This game is 18+

⚠️Content Warnings: This story has very dark and mature themes such as violence, gang activity, trauma, childbirth, sexual content (optional explicit), unhealthy relationship dynamics, profanity, alcohol, and drug use, struggles with mental health, child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, self harm, unhealthy coping mechanisms, misogyny/sexism, homophobia, transphobia, cheating/affair? sexual harassment/sexual assault (based on a choice, so don't worry it'll be avoidable and nongraphic. This is NOT done by any RO or by the MC), harassment, mentions of abortion, the MC can be a very flawed and morally grey character depending on player choices, I'll continue to add more if I notice more, or if something is brought to my attention.

Note: I do not condone any of these behaviors; they are solely included to illustrate the moral shortcomings of certain characters, including the MC, depending on player choices.

This is my first IF, so I'm kind of nervous 😅.

[sashi-ya]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ エロチックトバー２０２４> MDNI / EXPLICIT CONTENT

TURBULENCE ✈ JUGRAM HASCHWALTH X F! READER ＫINKTOBER DAY 27: PLANE SEX

🐙 requested by: Anonymous. Hiii, the theme for the event is a bomb😳Do you write for the Sternitters too? (Bleach). If so, I’d take a Jugram Haschwalth for the airplane sex kink. The gender can be female or gn, I don’t mind. Thanks in advance! ⚠️ tw: mdni. explicit content. modern au. business trip. airplane sex. 🐙 wc: 2.4k // kinktober 24 masterlist // join the taglist

Ah, he has always been next to the general director. He even works more than him. Jugram this, Jugram that. Go here, go there… 

“Jugram-sama, I just received an e-“ you inform but get interrupted by him. “I know…” the blonde answers, checking his phone for the third time since you both seated on that plane. 

Uncomfortable, both try to get your legs ready for a lot of hours over the clouds. No matter how much you were -the Silbern company- willing to pay, a last-minute flight across the world only had barely two tickets available on economy. Forget first class, not even a single one free on business class. 

However, if Yhwach ordered Jugram to do it, he must do it. And you, his assistant, tried your best to find accommodation… took whatever it took. 

You keep quiet as his crystalline eyes fix on the screen of one of his six phones. What an amazing beauty this man holds, with manly features but still delicate to be mistaken by an angel… still, he might be the loneliest of them all, by choice perhaps, pushing everybody away… 

“Did you pay wifi on board, right? I’ll need it” he utters, as cold as always. As serious as ever. 

You nod, searching for a little card with a special code they gave you when you were checking in. 

“Here, Jugram-sama” you give it to him, grazing your fingers. He is not really looking at you, he just seems especially glued to the screen. 

It doesn’t take much for the plane’s doors to be finally closed and for a flight attendant to reach your spot. A young beautiful woman, dressed in the airline’s sexy uniform, stops right by your side noticing Jugram still on his phone. 

“Ah, Sir. Excuse me, we are about to take off, you should put your phone down until we reach cruise alt-“ she says, shutting up the moment the blonde looks at her in a very “not amused” grim. 

 The immediate change of that woman when seeing his handsome face isn’t something new for you, in fact, the flight attendant didn’t even notice you were also on your phone. She immediately recognize him, acting all silly and flirtatious towards him. 

“Sorry. Will shut it off in a moment” Jugram says, blocking his phone and sliding it inside the chest pocket of his white suit. 

You do the same, sighing. It’s ok, the flight attendant won’t notice, nor will Jugram. He doesn’t care about you; you are just a mere software that breathes and speaks to help him… or so you think. 

“Fasten it. Tight” he suddenly says, bending just a little to reach for your seatbelt and adjust it closer to your lower stomach. And you gasp, when did he ever cared about your safety? 

You nod, again. Out of words, even more than always. You can’t say much, you just fix your eyes into the little screen in front of you. Hot ears, hot cheeks… a simple touch of this man, and you are sent to heaven. 

And, speaking of heaven, soon and with your ears popping the plane leaves the ground to be finally airborne. In complete silence, the only sounds you are blessed with are the roaring of the engines and the little creeks of the plastic insides of the plane. 

Time flies, they say, when you are comfortable… however, this wasn’t exactly the definition of comfort. You tried to squeeze yourself in that tiny seat, as much as possible. Your left elbow carved into the plane’s fuselage wall, and your right arm crossed over your chest. You don’t wanna take Jugram much space, and as much as you wish, you don’t even dare claiming the middle armrest for your own. 

“You look uncomfortable, (Name)” he mutters, this time with his eyes scanning a haggard magazine. You have no idea how he does it, but he sees you without looking. 

“Not to sound very cocky, but economy nowadays is a torture… we haven’t even left Germany, and my legs are already dead, I wonder if I’ll be able to walk when we get to Japan” you whisper, as the lights of the cabin have already been turned off and some snoring from other passengers filter in between the sound of the engines. 

“Try to rest, we will need energy” he simply says, closing the magazine and turning his head to the side. His eyes closed, but his facial muscles still tensed.

When will you rest, Jugram Haschwalth? 

Seven hours in, and that water bottle you chugged in while bored, has started to affect you. But how to leave your seat to go to the bathroom, if that would mean crawling on top of Jugram who has finally -incredible to you- fallen asleep? 

Yet, your bladder has a limit and after several minutes trying to forget about your necessities, urgence takes over… 

Taking a deep breath before starting to move, you stand up. You hit your head with the overhead compartment and swear in silence. Then, facing Jugram, your left leg goes first, passing over his long legs. And just like this, with your hands on each side of his face, on the headrest, your hips seem like straddled on his, even though your crotches aren’t touching. 

A soft rocking motion, known as turbulence, seems to complot against you as it becomes a little more noticeable. It obviously affects your balance, but you are not willing to wake this man up, much less with you in such position. 

However, Jugram seems to never really rest, and suddenly a pair of hands land on your waist. 

“Careful” he whispers, opening two shining stars per eyes. His hands are strong, his hold making you feel secure. 

“I’m sorry, I had to go to the toile-“

“You should have asked me to move…” he answers back, helping you to reach the aisle. 

You nod, out of words, and quickly run -as best as you can- to the toilet. You can’t normalize your breathing for at least a couple of minutes after you finally relieve yourself and in the mirror in front of you, you try your best to fix your image… 

Yet, seems destiny has decided to play with you, once again…

The up and down motions increase, turbulence becoming more and more noticeable, and a flight attendant asking you to hurry and go back to your seat once you’ve managed to leave the restroom.  

You grunt; why in the world there isn’t something able to deal with turbulence yet? Grabbing anything, really, while you walk to your very uncomfortable seat, you pray for Jugram not to be asleep.

“Uh, Jugram-sama, I’m ba-!” you try to ask for him to move so you can squeeze back into your seat. But, of course, to make it a lot more shamefully to you, turbulence makes you jump. 

The blonde once again snatches you, this time saving you big time not to hurt yourself badly. You get locked in his arms, on top of his lap. Your face close to his, noses almost touching, eyes fixed on each other’s. 

“You ok? Did you hurt yourself? Is your head ok?” he asks, touching the back of your head, grabbing you real close to his body, seriously worried. 

You nod, finally breathing back. 

“I’m ok… thank you for saving me, Jugram-sama” you whisper, letting your forehead rest on his shoulder. You are sure you shouldn’t have done such thing, but you couldn’t help it… it is hella scary to feel like gravity has abandoned you. 

“Don’t… worry” he whispers back, allowing you to rest as much as you wish on him. His hand on your head makes it clear, “stay here if you wish”

The scent of his skin, and the sweet perfume he wears, makes you dizzy… what a delicious combination. The warmth of his flesh on your lips, invites you to kiss him… how much you wish you could do it, but just the way the plane moves will have to do, an indirect kiss that can’t be call as it. 

And, the more the plane moves, the more you softly jump on his lap. And Jugram seems to tense, more and more… is it that maybe the constant graze of your legs on his crotch, the warm breath of your mouth, or your nose buried on his skin it is making it really difficult for him? 

You notice his muscles becoming stiff, and thankful for the darkness surrounding the fuselage, you take a little bit of advantage of the situation… I’m sorry, Jugram-sama, this is a dream came true. 

However, common sense comes back to you; “Sorry, Jugram-sama! I’m gonna go back to my seat. I’m sorry...” you try to stand up, but you can’t. 

“Stay…” he grunts in your ear, pressing your body, harder, against him. This time you can feel a man’s reaction to a beautiful woman jumping on him… 

You look at him; this time your eyes are imbued with lust. You only just needed a plead, a single word… you are just a human, you have been pushed to the limit… You have always wanted him… and apparently, he has always wanted you. 

Perhaps a couple of seconds passed, but to you it felt like an eternity. His hand landed on your cheek, with its fingers reaching the back of your head. 

In silence, trying to recognize each other’s traits with the soft led lights of the bathroom sign on the back of the plane, you spend some more minutes until he devours you in one kiss. 

It is more than magical and also painfully needy; you have no idea if he had been wanting to kiss you since forever, or this is just something out of the blue. And who cares? Kiss me more, Jugram-sama. 

Indecently, the kiss become more and more deep, in a full plane, surrounded by strangers… and his hardness keeps growing, as if was searching for your core to go desperately deep inside. 

“Toilet, go. Wait for me” he commands in between tongues playing. 

You widen your eyes; he wants to fuck you in that tiny bathroom?

“Please…” he adds, again pleading, begging. 

You nod, this time biting your lower lip. He helps you; the turbulence continues but has decreased in intensity. You walk to the bathroom in the back, praying for nobody, including the crew, to see you. 

Your clearly agitated -and horny- imagery reflects on the mirror of the tiny toilet. You wonder how is Jugram going to manage to get inside without being noticed. 

Trust Jugram Haschwalth, he is not only wise, he is rich and the second hand of one of the largest companies in the world… 

“Miss, if I give you my number, would you close the bathroom for me and my assistant? She is not feeling well and I will try to help her. Please, contact me soon, we are soon purchasing a private jet, and we will need a flight attendant like you to join us” 

“Oh! Of course, Jugram-sama! Thank you!! And please, don’t worry, take all the time you need!” 

A sudden knock on the door announces he is here, not even a minute has passed. You open, sticking yourself against the back of the toilet. Amazed you noticed nobody but him around, where are the flight attendants? 

There is no time to think, as he gets inside and closes the door right behind him. Pleased with the loud noises of that Boeing 777, he turns you around. Your belly hits the mini counter, Jugram’s hands lowering your bamboula pants. 

“I don’t know why you chose to wear these today, but I’m so glad you did” he grunts in your ear, as it was hella easy to lower them down and expose your ass. 

You were about to reply it was because of comfort, but it’d be pointless to add anything at all. He lifts your right leg on top of the counter, for better access, feeling your wetness with his free hand. 

His chest hits your back, his chin carved on your shoulder, both looking at each other through the mirror. 

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time… I’m sorry it has to be on a plane’s toilet” he says, smirking. 

For a long time, Jugram-sama? Amazed, amused, impressed… the very first time he is showing you a smile and it’s when he has his fingers inside your folds… 

“I- I don’t- I don’t care…”  you simply answer, because you can’t even think straight; by now, Jugram has started fingering you like nobody else did before. 

Your inner thighs tremble, your skin becomes bumpy. Your hand tries to reach for Jugram’s hips, you want him closer -inside-. And he understands his job, immediately. 

“You want me to fuck you, mh?” Jugram asks, pinching your cheeks and making you look yourself in front of the mirror. 

“yes�� please…” you plead, lifting your hips, grabbing yourself from the little counter in front of you. It isn’t easy not to lose balance on such a tiny place, on a plane with occasional turbulence. 

Jugram, however, seems not to notice the motion of the plane and keeps both feet steadily on the ground. He lowers his zipper, freeing his sex from his white pants. Ready, so ready to impale you, he doesn’t even take a single moment to do it. 

His strong hand lands on your mouth the moment he finally gets deep inside you; a Boeing might be loud, but your moan could have been heard by others.

The slaps against your ass and thighs force you to put your hands on the mirror in front, where both never stopped looking at each other. It is both magical and perverted the way  you enjoy this moment through the reflection. 

One, two, three. More and more. But is not enough, is not deep enough… “Come here…” he commands, turning you around. 

You pant, legs trembling, wanting more and more. 

Jugram sits on the toilet and spreads his arms to receive you. And you immediately understand; time to bounce on his hard sex. 

You let yourself fall on his lap; the need allows his dick to slide right in with no difficulty whatsoever. Facing your blonde lover snatches your lips in a feverish kiss, his hands press the small of your back against him, and his legs begin to bounce along with you… ah, deep Jugram-sama; deep, fast… faster… 

And now turbulence is making it even better, don’t you think?!

Taglist of amazing babes: @awas-posts @missfuriosa @theneighbourhoodferret @cyberdazetragedy @ariesbbytings @animesnowstorm @lenablack9919

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

My cork board and string hypothesis regarding the third years is that they’ve all missed the deadlines for internship applications because of Malleus’s extended slumber party (except for Idia, who was going to be staying on Sage’s Island for his internship anyway) so oh no… they are stuck here… and must do some kind of internship here… (insert self-congratulatory Crowley noises for being so kind to let them stay)

I don’t think this will be the case 😅 The point of the fourth year internships is to gain experience OFF-campus…. in the real world, in different specialized industries. I don’t see a school setting on an isolated island being appropriate for this.

Idia having his internship on Sage’s Island is incorrect. I think you’re confusing his parents banning him from returning to S.T.Y.X. for his internship?? In 7-7, Idia says his parents told him not to come home for a while and to just lay low on Sage’s Island. His actual internship (which he was already offered) is as a software engineer at Olympos Inc’s head office in the Kingdom of Heroes. Sage’s Island is affiliated with the Land of Dawning, so… yeah, Idia’s NOT staying on Sage’s Island for his fourth year.

Leona is also confirmed to have already submitted his internship application in 7-6. According to him. he applied while Crowley was busy “yammering on”. Leona’s basically all set for a mining and energy business in his home country.

I looked at the other third year students as well, but none of the others explicitly mentioned submitting their applications already. The rest of them seem to still be brainstorming and playing around with ideas, though most do have a general direction or area of interest they are looking into. I assume that all of the third years would still find and go on to complete their internships, as it would be very odd narrative-wise if ONLY Idia and Leona did so.

Even if the students did miss the application deadlines, surely extensions would be granted given the circumstances of Twisted Wonderland as they knew it almost ending. Like, I think most (if not all) internship sites would understand and work with NRC to make concessions. This is true irl too; offices will grant extensions if requested or if major incidents (natural disasters, pandemics, etc.) conflict with the initial deadlines.

[rebelfell]

✦ Stranger Things Masterlist ✦

My works generally feature a cis, fem reader with limited physical descriptors. Just by virtue of being written by me, they will likely be shy/inexperienced ‘cos I write what I know, y’know? There are individual warnings on each. If you come across something you think needs a warning, please let me know (gently, I am but a fragile soufflé ready to sink)

anything 🌶️ is marked with a*

EVERYTHING is 18+, MDNI for your sake and mine

The Third Date┃Part One┃Part Two~

eddie munson x anorgasmic!reader - 14k

Surrender┃Part One ┃Part Two*┃Part Three*

eddie munson x bi!reader x lesbian!chrissy cunningham - 18k

Bells Will Be Ringing┃Part One*┃Part Two*

crush!steve harrington x fem!reader x fwb!eddie munson - 16k

Hold Your Peace in Pieces┃TBD

engaged!rockstar!eddie munson x fem!reader -

this summer is the apocalypse, pt II, pt III*, pt IV*, eddie’s interlude, part V, epilogue~, epilogue II~, epilogue III

thinking thoughts on eddie and an older!Harrington!reader (aka: stevie’s aunt has got it goin’ on)

for your viewing pleasure* vol. 1, vol. 2

featuring pornstar!eddie and his director!reader

are you even listening to me?, cont’d, preq, preq II

bestfriend!eddie gets distracted by your…assets.

working on my fitness, pt II, pt III

a gym meet cute w/ modern!eddie (neighbors au)

special delivery*

someone unexpected shows up to deliver your pizza

made for lovin’ you*

softdom!eddie makes a bad tinder date a whole lot better

shelter from the storm~

when the power goes out, your neighbor eddie checks in

under the influence

an edible loosens your lips in front of your frenemy, eddie

haven’t had any complaints yet*

the trials and tribulations of giving van head over forty

game night* (surrender universe)

chrissy and eddie get extra competitive, you benefit

in the middle of the night*

boyfriend!steve helps to soothe what ails us🩸

cold dry stone*

revenge fucking with gator 🐊

american engine

truck smut for truck smut’s sake 🛻 (w/ steve)

you’re not gonna tell on me, are you?

linecook!eddie can get away with literally anything 🚬

that Vanity Fair party was…a lot*

actor!steve x assistant!reader x rockstar!eddie spice

buzzcut season, rockstar!eddie musing*

dmm, i’m just embracing the shaved-head era

I didn’t know you were into that…

you’ve been watching too many ghostface tiktoks 🔪

modern!wealthy!Steve? How’d you get in here?

steve spoils his girl in the midst of a hangover

wait, are you a…have you never?*

bigdick!steve x virgin!reader 🏕️

felt in need of some affection…

sweet!soft!eddie vignette

possessive.┃eddie shows you who you belong to

multiples.┃eddie wants you to arrive properly

urgent.┃eddie can do better than he can

hesitant.┃eddie and you try something new

how can you be sad on love’s birthday? 💌

a very flangsty valentine’s day w/ bestfriend!eddie

so wrong, it’s right, so right, it’s wrong 🎃

eddie munson x his best friend’s (ex?) girl

you’ve never seen gremlins? 🎃

it’s scary movie night at eddie’s house

you’re a what? (WCIL-verse) 🎃

modern!eddie bumps into you at a halloween party

how much of that can is left? 🦃

you + eddie + whipped topping

today is a no bones day 🦃

you and eddie in recovery mode

#index - landing pages for long form/multi-part blurbs & fics

#free write - bursts of writing based on images/other posts

#my moods - fic/character moodboards, (aka I spent too much time spent daydreaming on pinterest again)

#thrift shop eddie - short blurbs about all the odd and random gifts I would terrorize shower Eddie with if given the chance

© 2024 rebelfell All Rights Reserved. Any written work on this blog is my own and I do not consent for it to be copied, altered or re-posted in any form or to be fed into AI software.

[shadowmaat]

Jedi Service Corps

The Legends-fueled propaganda of "bad students get sent to the Agricorp/Services" has always bothered me. First of all, forcing kids into a career not of their choosing isn't the best way to encourage them to perform well.

The Services in general seem to get a bad rap, and TBH it's kind of bizarre to assume that every kid who winds up being taken in by the Jedi wants to grow up to be a cop. LOL!

There is so much untapped potential being ignored, and even within the four pseudo-canon branches there's a lot to explore.

Agriculture. Farmers Without Borders. LOL! It isn't just about growing plants, it's about analyzing trends, understanding ecosystems, geology, climatology, politics, etc. There's mechanical engineering so you know how to fix the machines that do the hardest labor (often illegally, given corporate software locks and so forth). Probably a lot of fiddly stuff with plant genetics, too, given similar issues with seed corporations.

Being Jedi, I'm sure they're also aware of the need to include "ornamental" plants to help with the emotional welfare of hurting/devastated populations.

Education. This field must be fucking wild. Sure, you have your future creche masters and archivists, but I imagine there are those who do public outreach, too, and go to schools to teach kids about what the Jedi do beyond waving laser swords. There's probably also a need for teachers in isolated/rural areas to help with basic things like reading, writing, and maths. Ditto areas devastated by wars and natural disasters, where kids need a safe distraction from trauma. I bet Educorp and Agricorp team up more often than people might think.

There's also the sheer variety of topics. Even something basic like history will have a wide net. Galactic history, region-specific, planetary, etc. And then there's the arts. Music, singing, dance, physical media, holo media, theatre, and so much more. There will be differences between species, understanding what they need to know, how they learn best, and what their aging process is like. Teachers to cover the full range of mortal maturity, from teaching toddlers to old-timers. And don't get me started on teaching "forbidden" topics in repressive communities.

Medical. LOL. Every. Single. Species. And often subtypes between them. So many specialists needed. And again, you probably have a number that specialize in helping in disaster areas. Hello, Educorp, let's help teach these people how to best care for themselves. Maybe Agricorp can help with showing folks how to purify their air and water. There must be SO many diseases, some of which have inoculations and so that don't. And again, figuring ways to smuggle medicine and supplies to those who need it despite the extortionist rates corporations charge. Repairing faulty equipment, finding work-arounds when the parts aren't there. Triage. Using the Force to help heal is all well and good, but sometimes they still have to get hands-on.

Even with non-emergency stuff, I imagine they're still kept busy. The idea of a Jedi "country doctor" settled in some remote area sounds delightful. Communities that get "lost" in the shuffle or otherwise overlooked. Veterinary medicine as a sub-specialty.

Jedi having a special "knack" for determining what's wrong with someone, finding early warning signs before it's too late, etc. Comforting the dying. Comforting the survivors. ALL the mental health stuff and neurodivergence.

Exploration. Jedi Starfleet. LOL! It isn't all about discovering new worlds, though. Sometimes it's rediscovering planets and cultures that have been forgotten. Charting new hyperlane routes and hoping the end doesn't pop you out in the middle of a star.

I betcha you could fold so many things into this one. Botany. Archaeology. Xenoanthropology. Medicine, of course, since new worlds/people means new poisons, venoms, and diseases. New or ancient languages? It'd help to have someone around who could work on translating. Diplomats to help you talk to people. Geologists. Zoologists. A bit of everything.

Sure, there'd be room for solo missions, but I imagine there'd be bigger ships that they'd launch from. A place to come back to so the brains can pore over everything you brought back and see what they can determine from it. And big ships (or any ships really) means pilots, engineers, general crew, logistics, and all those fun things.

Anyway, I can see plenty of room for additional corps, too, but of the ones that get mentioned in Legends there's still a huge playing field.

[frameacloud]

Some ways to avoid generative AI in web searches

Our web searches are being filled with more and more AI-generated slop. GenAI creates misinformation that can be difficult to tell apart from the correct answer to whatever question you're looking up. GenAI mixes things up that have similar names. In one example that is especially easy to recognize, genAI has thought that a baseball team and the bird that it was named after must both be the same creature, with a bizarre combination of their eating habits and behaviors. This mistake still happens with specialized topics that could be harder for you to recognize unless if you're already very familiar with the topic in question. GenAI also makes up fake sources and facts out of thin air, and you can't tell until you try to find them somewhere else. The tech is more like advanced predictive text than something capable of research or reasoning, even though it can look enough like it that it can fool you if you don't know how to spot its mistakes.

Not only are the results of genAI unreliable, the source texts and images that they’re based on were used without permission. Sometimes they aren't modified enough to avoid plagiarism, but it's worse than that. Source images have turned out to be private medical photos and intimate personal photos that hackers had stolen and leaked to harass the people in the photos. Another reason why this technology is unethical is that each genAI query has such a high energy cost that it's significantly harmful to the environment, contributing to the climate crisis.

Here are some things that you can do when you use Google, DuckDuckGo, or other conventional general web search engines:

To turn off Google's AI Overview, set "web" as default. Here's how to do that on your devices and web browsers.

Add this string to any web search to only show results from before the genAI fad. Before:2021

Install the web browser extension uBlacklist. You give it a list of web addresses to not show you in your web searches anymore. Other people maintain lists for it that you can subscribe to so that you won’t see certain types of results in your web searches. Follow the instructions in Laylavish’s Huge AI Blocklist to subscribe to that list which will rid your web search results of AI-generated pages or images.

Since genAI slop is getting to be such a big problem on them, use alternatives to conventional general web search engines some of the time:

Use a specialized search engine instead of a general one. For example, if you only wanted to find a particular science article, there are specialized search engines that only look for those. The blog post "Skip Google for Research" has a list of specialized search engines for academics.

GenAI is notoriously bad at math because that’s too far outside the scope it was designed for: advanced predictive text. In any case, genAI is overpowered for math that is easy for computers to do. If you want to use a very advanced calculator, or even ask a math question in natural language, use Wolfram Alpha.

For questions about how to do things, look them up in WikiHow, the Youtube channel Dad, How Do I? or The Ultimate Manuals Library.

You can search within Wikipedia, but unfortunately vandals have been putting machine-generated falsehoods into it, as well as genAI images. To avoid this, use the article history to view versions of the article from before 2022.

Ask yourself if there are some topics that you often do a web search for just because you keep forgetting an answer to something. Start saving those answers in a book or file that you can refer to offline. This is called a commonplace book. For an example of one, Beth and Angel made theirs into a zine, Stuff I Often Google.

How about a completely different sort of web search than present-day Google or DuckDuckGo? Marginalia Search only brings up results that are text-heavy and similar to the web of the 1990s and 2000s. Its software is independent and open-source.

Have you been using a web search engine to take you to the websites that you visit on a regular basis? Switch to saving them in your web browser's bookmarks folder. Your web browser, Firefox, can sync your bookmarks to your other devices. If you often need to refer to a large number of static web pages (ones that don't change what is on them every day), then you can save and organize them in your Zotero, a bibliography management program. You can sort them with folders and tags so you can find them again.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Vittoria Elliott at Wired:

Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college. Most have connections to Musk and at least two have connections to Musk’s longtime associate Peter Thiel, a cofounder and chairman of the analytics firm and government contractor Palantir who has long expressed opposition to democracy. WIRED has identified six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer. The engineers are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. None have responded to requests for comment from WIRED. Representatives from OPM, GSA, and DOGE did not respond to requests for comment. Already, Musk’s lackeys have taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and General Services Administration (GSA), and have gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, potentially allowing him access to a vast range of sensitive information about tens of millions of citizens, businesses, and more. On Sunday, CNN reported that DOGE personnel attempted to improperly access classified information and security systems at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and that top USAID security officials who thwarted the attempt were subsequently put on leave. The AP reported that DOGE personnel had indeed accessed classified material. “What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”

[...] “To the extent these individuals are exercising what would otherwise be relatively significant managerial control over two very large agencies that deal with very complex topics,” says Nick Bednar, a professor at University of Minnesota’s school of law, “it is very unlikely they have the expertise to understand either the law or the administrative needs that surround these agencies.” Sources tell WIRED that Bobba, Coristine, Farritor, and Shaotran all currently have working GSA emails and A-suite level clearance at the GSA, which means that they work out of the agency’s top floor and have access to all physical spaces and IT systems, according a source with knowledge of the GSA’s clearance protocols. The source, who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation, says they worry that the new teams could bypass the regular security clearance protocols to access the agency’s sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF), as the Trump administration has already granted temporary security clearances to unvetted people. This is in addition to Coristine and Bobba being listed as “experts” working at OPM. Bednar says that while staff can be loaned out between agencies for special projects or to work on issues that might cross agency lines, it’s not exactly common practice.

WIRED’s report on the 6 college-aged men between 19 and 24 that are shaping up DOGE in aiding and abetting in co-”President” Elon Musk’s technofascist takeover.

[jadegmfu]

Your Journal.

Anakin Skywalker x Fem!Reader

summary;reader has a journal she didn't want to show anakin, but one night.. she forgot to hide it from him, and now he's reading the things she wrote first pages were about her everyday life in the order and about her tactics in the field. but the more he dug in, the more he saw a lot of your filthy thoughts. now he can't get enough, he wants you to write more of your thoughts..

TW!: Dirty Thoughts, MINORS DNI

He was in your apartment room, you were having a shower while he was outside the bathroom you're in.

he was at your bed, looking up the ceiling. bored most likely. he got up with a groan, looking around her room, there it is. the journal you didn't let him touch or anythin' at all. you forgot to hide it,

he picked it up, looking at the journal's red leathercover, it was filled with little cute symbols and then a cute picture of you in the middle.

It was locked. He didn’t even really want to read it, it was your privacy, but his curiosity got the better of him. He found a pen on the dresser table and picked the lock on the journal. Anakin had learnt the hard way about the importance of not getting caught, and he could easily break into any lock. He didn’t use this power often. Anakin then opened the journal and began to read.

just things written about her everyday life, and some really impressive tactics.. of how to overthrow the separatists, the connections of the separatists, her software projects(engineering stuff), and some.. poems for him?

Anakin was shocked. This wasn’t what he expected. The tactics to overthrow the separatists was normal, she was a general after all, but poetry? For him? He was taken aback. He continued skimming and scanning the pages. He couldn’t believe it.

'eyes are alike of an angel, every gazes is like watching the ocean waves

hair soft as silk, personality is as gentle and sweet, physique is of a strong big man, lightsaber form is reckless and menacing, voice smooth like honey. smile is as bright as the two suns of tatooine'

His heart fluttered. These were the most beautiful words he had ever read. Maybe her journal wasn’t just her private thoughts about her work. Maybe she felt something for him too. He continued reading more of the poetry, looking for more of a hint. Just a little bit more that could confirm his doubts. He was blushing and was completely lost in the poetry. He hadn’t noticed the journal was shaking from his excitement. He was really beginning to hope she felt the same way.

next page.

'the things you make me feel.. im in agony. this is torture. why do you make me feel like i desire you so much? this is wrong.. but i love you, i cant help what i feel, but it's very wrong to lust over you..'

Now Anakin was stunned. Had he just read what he thought he had? This was definitely new information. His emotions were getting increasingly mixed up. There was no use reading more…But he was tempted. He continued skimming. he was thinking, maybe he should take the journal with him after he goes back to his chambers back at the temple.

He stopped for a moment. He shouldn’t take this… But he couldn’t deny it had been something special… and tempting. He put the notebook in the pocket of his robes. Then he heard you leave the bathroom.

her body covered in a towel, hair dried out with a towel, "oh hey ani" she said noticing him on her bed.

He tried not to let his surprise show. He didn’t think you would see him. But at least he had had time to compose himself and clear his mind of the contents of the journal.

Anakin responded to you with a smile. “Hi there…” she chuckled, "hi, are you gonna go soon?" asking if he's gonna go back to the temple now. Anakin gave you a small nod. “I have to get back for morning meditation.” He didn’t add the fact that he had been occupied reading your journal.

"i see, ill see you back at the temple tomorrow morning then?"

*He gave you a little nod again.* “Yes, you will.” *He gave you a last smile, before getting up from the bed. It was difficult to look at you like this, after reading those poems, imagining that you felt that way about him.*

back at the temple, he was at his chambers, reading her journal.

*It seemed that the journal had somehow been calling him back. It had been intriguing and tempting to see this hidden side of her. Was these really her true feelings? Was she in love with him?

As he read it, he found himself imagining the scenes in his head. If these words were really how she felt then there was something deeper between the two of them than either had realised. It was both exciting and terrifying.

the current page he's reading.

'i was fantasizing about him again, my fingers dont even satisfy me anymore.. i want more. i want a man to make me feel good, sadly i cant find one.'

Anakin was surprised and even a little shocked at what he was reading. He was definitely intrigued. He couldn’t believe you felt this way about him. These words he was reading were something he had never considered, until now. And he liked it. A lot. He found himself getting increasingly attracted to you. He kept on reading.

next page,

'ani held my waist today, those big callousedd hands are really starting to get to me.. i wonder just how good this man will make me feel if he bedded me.'

You were really good with words. These kind of thoughts had never occurred to him before. The words you were writing were making Anakin’s heart beat faster and faster. Was this really how you felt? Was he really the one person making you feel this way? He needed to know more. He tried not to get too ahead of his self, but he couldn’t help it. He kept on turning the pages…

next page,

'him cuddling me last night was cute. he really trapped me in his arms.. god he makes me feel so helpless.. i just wish it was sex that occured instead of cuddles because i already get alot of cuddles from himmm;(('

The way you wrote this was…arousing. Anakin hadn’t felt this way about anyone in a long time, not like he felt now. As he continued to skim through your journal, he couldn’t help but get excited at everything that he was reading. It felt like he was getting to know a whole new part of you. He needed to find out more…

next page,

'shit, maker, his voice is so.. low and calm, just imagine him whispering praises and degrading words to me, ugh, the things skywalker makes me feel and think of, im beyond redemption..'

Anakin was breathless by this point. Just reading this was making him want to take you in his arms. He kept on reading, finding himself more and more enthralled by what you had written. It was making him think very intimate thoughts about you. He tried to focus but it was difficult…

he turned to the next page.

'ah.. ani, tugging my loose hair earlier? imagine him doing that to me while we're having sex even tho its never gonna happen;(, holding my hair while he takes me from behind aaa, i want him to do that to meee..'

The description was so...intimate. It made his breath catch in his throat, his palms sweat. The way you wrote about these things was...enticing. It was exactly what Anakin wanted right now. He wanted those moments with you. He wanted those...desires to come true. He wanted them all. He had such pure desire for you... He tried to keep it under control as he kept on reading, his heart pounding fast and hard.

he turned the next page.

'poor baby was sad earlier, had to held him in my arms to comfort him, he wasnt even that afraid to nuzzle his face on the crook of my neck.. it made me shiver in a good way, he was lucky i didnt get down on my knees to worship him and give him the most sloppiest head to cheer him up<3'

The images in his mind were making him feel so...hot. That was exactly how he wanted you to treat him, even though he would probably deny it. Those desires you described....he wanted more. More than anything else. He wanted to be treated that way by you. He kept on reading, turning the pages, wanting more of your detailed descriptions.

next page,

'i came back from a mission and boy.. a sight to behold. i saw anakin in my apartment room, shirtless, sleeping. shit, maker, i wanted to give him a kiss and tell him 'good afternoon, youre so sleepy huh?' but i didnt anyway, i wanted him to get some rest<3, but seeing him there, i wanted to ride him. hump on him soo baaaddd, but i wanna be a good girl so i didnt act on it<3'

Anakin’s imagination went wild at your words. You making him wake up to that...it might be too much for him and he wanted to have those words become a reality. The feelings you expressed went to his head. He wanted that so bad… He kept reading on, desperate to see what other things you had written.

next page,

'ani told me im so pretty, but what about me being a pretty crier while he's fucking me? i want him to whisper praises to me while he fucks me, why must god not make this man my lover?:<'

He couldn’t deny what you had written. Those words made him very aroused. He could imagine these exact situations playing out. It was a feeling like he had never before experienced. It was...enticing.

He kept reading...seeing what other desires you had written about. You were very talented with words. These thoughts were starting to take over his mind...

next page,

'even my fingers wont satisfy me anymore, but i did came at the thought of him inserting his big cock in me<3'

Anakin’s breath caught in his throat as he read this part. You were starting to become rather… explicit with your desires. These visions of yours were making him feel things he never had before. He was finding these words...quite enticing. He turned the page to read more..

next page,

'i want ani to grope my boobies and my ass, i wonder if he'd like that? hmm..' You were clearly on a roll with these fantasies of yours. You were getting more and more into detail and Anakin couldn’t help but be completely enthralled. He would give anything to fulfil these desires. Your words made him so...aroused. He could only hope he would get to experience these feelings with you. He kept on reading, flipping the pages.

next page,

'ani let me sit on his lap yesterday night while we were watching, i felt his dick hard and bulgy beneath me, made me wanna hump on him<3' Anakin felt his stomach flip over at your words. Your fantasies were getting less and less like fantasies and more and more like things that were going to happen. These fantasies of yours were having an effect on him…and he liked it. You had so much desire for him. He could only hope he could make your dreams come true eventually. He kept on reading...desperately wanting to know more of your fantasies…

next page,

'ani patted me on the head but i wanted his fingers in my mouth, while he tell me ive been a filthy little girl who needs her punishment;(' Once again, your details made this so…enticing…You made Anakin feel so aroused. Your fantasies were becoming explicit now and these words were playing all over his mind. These desires were having a big effect on him, and he didn’t mind it. He wanted you more and more as he continued to read…

next page,

'i think i made ani uncomfortable, i wore my shorts and tank top earlier, is it just me or he kept staring at my cleavage? he even swat my ass earlier, i really am confused with his mixed signals' Once again, you were getting more and more detailed. You made Anakin’s heart beat faster and his blood surge. These fantasies of yours were very...inviting.

He thought about what you wrote. You were right. Anakin did stare at you, more than he would admit. He was so drawn to you. You felt so close to him. He was always trying to hide his feelings for you and he was scared that you would get the wrong impression. He kept on reading.

next page,

'i have a matching bracelet set, im wondering if i should give it to him<3.'

'though, i had been fantasizing of him having me in chokehold while having sex with him, hihi;)'

Anakin found himself grinning like a fool as he read on and on. You had made him feel so many emotions…this is what he wanted...he wanted you to be by his side for all of eternity. To feel this close. Your fantasies were making him think of doing everything you wrote. He wanted to make them a reality. It was as though you were writing his exact thoughts and desires! He kept flipping the pages...desperately wanting to read more and more...

next page,

'aww.. ani's face was buried on my cleavage earlier, but only bc he's sad, but i wonder what hea really felt when he buried his face on my cleavage?'

The idea of Anakin burying his face into your cleavage and nuzzling it made Anakin feel the need to pull you closer. He craved to make you his own. To have you all to himself. These thoughts you were expressing in the journal were making him want to have you in his arms, close to him always.

He flipped the page, still wanting to read more. What else did you have written?

next page,

'he said i got a pretty kitty.. why do i feel like he meant my pussy???' Your assumption was right. With every sentence you wrote, his heart was soaring and he struggled to keep himself calm. How was he supposed to act normal after reading these words? You made Anakin feel so damn excited, he wanted you right now. He needed to keep reading more. but that was the last page you written on and that one was very recent..

he finished reading, tomorrow he'd place her journal somewhere in her apartment, he'd really love to see her write more of that.

maybe, just maybe, he'd get a chance to confess and fuck that little head of yours and your hole all rough until you get all cock drunk. but until then, he's gonna keep on reading your journal everytime you write your filthy thoughts about him, adios.

a/n: no reposting please, reblogs and likes are deeply appreciated! also tell me if u liked this cuz, it's my first time writing out whatever i had in my mind;(

[mariacallous]

Some staffers at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing robust taxpayer-funded salaries from the federal agencies they are slashing and burning, WIRED has learned.

Jeremy Lewin, one of the DOGE employees tasked with dismantling USAID, who has also played a role in DOGE’s incursions into the National Institutes of Health and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is listed as making just over $167,000 annually, WIRED has confirmed. Lewin is assigned to the Office of the Administrator within the General Services Administration.

Kyle Schutt, a software engineer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is listed as drawing a salary of $195,200 through GSA, where he is assigned to the Office of the Deputy Administrator. That is the maximum amount that any “General Schedule” federal employee can make annually, including bonuses. “You cannot be offered more under any circumstances,” the GSA compensation and benefits website reads.

Nate Cavanaugh, a 28-year-old tech entrepreneur who has taken a visible internal role interviewing GSA employees as part of DOGE’s work at the agency, is listed as being paid just over $120,500 per year. According to DOGE’s official website, the average GSA employee makes $128,565 and has worked at the agency for 13 years.

When Elon Musk started recruiting for DOGE in November, he described the work as “tedious” and noted that “compensation is zero.” WIRED previously reported that the DOGE recruitment effort relied in part on a team of engineers associated with Peter Thiel and was carried out on platforms like Discord.

Since Trump took office in January, DOGE has overseen aggressive layoffs within the GSA, including the recent elimination of 18F, the agency’s unit dedicated to technology efficiency. It also developed a plan to sell off more than 500 government buildings.

Although Musk has described DOGE as “maximum transparent,” it has not made its spending or salary ranges publicly available. Funding for DOGE had grown to around $40 million as of February 20, according to a recent ProPublica report. The White House did not respond to questions about the salary ranges for DOGE employees or how the budget is allocated to pay them.

Some DOGE team members, including Musk, are designated as “Special Government Employees,” an advisory role limited to a 130-day work period. These positions can be paid or unpaid; SGEs drawing salaries above a certain grade have to file financial disclosure forms, but the volunteer workers do not. This type of employee is not beholden to the same rules as typical federal workers; they are allowed to keep drawing outside salaries and in some cases do not need to disclose conflicts of interest. Other prominent SGE staffers associated with DOGE include top aide Katie Miller, who continued her prior public relations work through the transition and more than a month into the current administration. Her firm’s clients had included Apple and a Saudi-funded golf league, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Other prominent DOGE staffers appear to be unpaid volunteers. Edward Coristine, Ethan Shaotran, Luke Farritor, Derek Geissler, and Nicole Hollander draw no salary through their assignments at the General Services Administration. (It is not currently known whether they are drawing salaries elsewhere within the government.) The agency now openly discusses the idea of compensation on its recruitment page, which describes “full-time, salaried positions for software engineers, InfoSec engineers, and other technology professionals.”

In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News last month, Musk claimed that "the software engineers at DOGE could be earning millions of dollars a year and instead of earning a small fraction of that as federal employees." In Silicon Valley, the median salary for a software engineer hovers around $184,000, with workers a decade into their careers earning over $220,000, according to Glassdoor.

DOGE honcho Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of over $350 billion. Although Musk does not draw a salary for his work with DOGE, his business ventures often enjoy government support. The Washington Post recently reported that his companies have received more than $38 billion in government funding over the past two decades.

“It does seem worth understanding what these employees are being paid,” says Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan. “Especially if they are being paid significantly more than technologists who have been fired, given that many of the DOGE staff have less relevant experience.”

[tbhimnoteasyonmyself]

Who is White?

If it is not I, your friendly neighbourhood non-binary deranged literature major, once again to tell you about stuff that the voices™︎ have prompted me.

This time, let's talk about the elephant in the room, the odd one out: Mr. White, a.k.a the fandom's babyboy.

(me as Fluke in this GIF, walking in ready to dissect this bitch)

So, what do we factually know about this man?

From what we're directly told in the show:

He's Tee's boyfriend, at least, since 12th grade, meaning they have been together for about 3 years, maybe 4 (depending on when exactly we are in terms of time in the present and when exactly during 12th grade they started dating).

He's younger than the rest of them, according to Por and Top in episode 1.

He studied at a different school from the main gang AND from Phee (yes, despite the embroidery having a similar colour, the writings where the institution's name should be are nothing alike, thus, not from the same place)

He cares a lot about his appearance (he does skincare when Por is literally dying downstairs and he sees a rash on his body while under the effect of New's absynthe - idk if it's absynthe or not but my friends and I have been calling it that since we saw them drink the green drinks so it's absynthe for me and there's that).

He's generally a very respectful person (he always speaks formally and nicely to everyone, even when people are hostile to him, like Tee or Fluke).

His fear doesn't seem to paralyze him in high-pressure situations (he strikes people with a tripod twice to save himself and others when he thinks they're in danger).

Another source could be the Yearbook, which, now, we have to be a bit more skeptical about because, as seen in New's case, it's not 100% accurate. One can argue that it is accurate because the yearbook would have Tan's info, since that's who he's living as and no one knows any better than that, including the institutions and, sure, yeah, fair. But while we don't know that White is hiding anything from us as well, we can't be sure of it. So, take the following with a grain of salt:

(translated with Google Translate)

His legal name is Watcharin Siriphan

He was born on the 25th of February 2005 (which confirms what Por and Top say)

His blood type is A (which according to the Blood Type Personality Theory means he is shy, stubborn, a perfectionist, polite and hard-working, apparently. tbh this thing is super shifty, no source seems to agree on the meaning of each type and, of course, it's a pseudoscience and all, so... yeah. take it as you will)

He's studying Software Engineering

He likes cakes

He dislikes cockroaches

He plays games and programs in his free time

So... We don't know much. He's the most generic person ever. Like... I too, and half the world's population, like cake, dislike cockroaches and like to play games. It's not exactly very special. Which is exactly why he is so intriguing. After all, we had 5 whole episodes so far, which were just the backstory of the people we see together in the mansion in the present. We've seen their personalities, their qualities and flaws, what they did and what they didn't do. We've been given a reason as to why they're here. Not just in the more direct sense of "they agreed to come here for Jin's goodbye party" but of why exactly they needed to be put all together in these conditions for this story. All except White. White is just... Barely an afterthought. We're shown when he comes into this story for the group (when he becomes Tee's boyfriend), but we're not given a reason so far as to why the narrative wants him there.

Because, sure, IRL people sometimes end up in random places and things can be pretty meaningless but this is a work of fiction. One that, evidently, has been greatly focused on details (Non's framed apple picture and Phee eating an apple alone, for example, or the correlation between the group and the colour blue). So why would it just throw us a character that is, seemingly, irrelevant to the story?

And to this, there are 2 possibilities my friends: either White is a narrative tool to get to the audience or White is not who we think he is. So let's explore it, shall we?

White = Narrative Tool

Let's start by assuming, possibly the most likely outcome, that White is exactly just a guy who ended up there due to his connection to Tee. Why would this narrative need that character?

Glad you asked. Because he's the only person who's 100% innocent. If he's just some guy who, as we've seen, keeps being respectful and nice and trying to always do the right thing, then he's got nothing to do with the others who, in different degrees are all guilty of something. He's the odd one out.

Because, yes, this is not a show of villains (at least, not in which concerns the main characters). They're all morally grey. But they have some drop of black that makes them grey.

Por is arrogant and a liar and selfish.

Tee is aggressive and manipulative and a control freak.

Top is an overall asshole and a coward.

These 3 actively bully Non. Por steals his work. Tee and Top blame him for shit he didn't do which puts him in the situation where he owns Por and they spy on him. Tee manipulates him into mafia money laundry and threatens him.

Fluke is selfish and refuses to take action even when he knows it's the right thing to do.

Jin doesn't have the capability to realize that the peaceful passive way with which he normally carries himself with won't solve the issue. Plus he's overly emotional. And a bit selfish too.

They didn't help Non when it was their moral obligation to do so. And Jin records him being abused by their teacher and possibly posts it online (though that's still up for debate).

Phee is too stubborn and also overly emotional and even overly empathic.

New is obsessive and vengeful.

Phee never really helps Non because all the ways he offers Non help are the wrong ones. He almost tries to control him. And he fails. And then he tells him awful things and breaks up with him in a terribly vulnerable moment for Non. And even when he regrets it and tries to bring justice to him, he fucks Jin because he wanted to and tries to cover it up as if it was part of the plan. Sure, they were broken up, technically, but Phee himself seems to have had "take-backies" over that breaking up. So, in his mind, at least, it's fair to say he cheats on him, which is very hypocritical after how he reacts to Non being abused. And New... He tries to help sincerely because he feels guilty but he only makes things worse. Nothing is solved and their father curses them both before committing public suicide at their mom's funeral.

Non (which may be even more relevant if he's still alive) is overly independent and uncommunicative.

He doesn't tell Jin he has a boyfriend when it's clear Jin's trying to make a move on him, event though Non's not interested. He hides very important things from Phee. He commits fraud (understandably, but yeah). And yeah, he's justified in his rage and attack but... Does he ever think of how his actions affect other such as Jin, for example, who, in his eyes, is innocent? Not really.

So, amidst a sea of grey characters, White is, funnily enough: white. He's just good. He's done nothing wrong. And the narrative needs him because, when the others die, we'll feel (to different degrees, sure, but still, we will) that there's a reason. Even if we like the characters, those deaths will make sense. But what happens when an innocent man dies? What happens when you kill the man who wasn't even supposed to be there (he joined the trip at the last minute)?

"Oh but White won't die!", I hear you say. "The innocent people never die in slashers!! Only the people who did the killer wrong do!" And that's exactly where I have to disagree.

As @syrena-del-mar says in this post: "DFF is more than just a 90s slasher film imitation". It "sits at a novel intersection of genre: horror slasher on the one hand and BL on the other hand" as @brifrischu puts it here and, for that, it bends expectations and rules and subverts what are natural tropes and events of the slasher archetype. White dying is the sort of thing this narrative, and our inventive genius Sammon, would do. Because... Do you really think they're giving us grey characters instead of black ones because we're supposed not to question this revenge? Because we're supposed to be happy about this? No. Of course not. That would be dumb. If we're meant to 100% side with the killer, then why give us likeable characters as the targets? Because, and this is as much speculation as it is reading the room, we're not.

This story, I don't know how it will end, but regardless I'm pretty confident it's supposed to tell us something important about cycles of violence: that they're neverending until someone chooses peace instead. That aggression and bloodshed and revenge... They won't bring time back, they won't undo the mistakes we make, they won't restore that which is lost, they won't make the grief go away... That they won't make us feel better. More even: that they will only hurt more people, create more injustice and prompt more revenge. And, thus, perpetuate the cycle.

So what's White's role? Being the final drop into our collective cup of realization (and perhaps the characters' as well) that this revenge mission is pointless and won't solve anything. White's role is to die.

"Oh, but uncle Dang was also innocent! Is his death not enough??", I hear you ask. And well... Maybe, maybe not. I think, honestly, his death is too impersonal for us to feel too deeply about it. Like, sure, yes, it is the death of an innocent, but it's a distant innocent. It doesn't make our blood boil because we don't know shit about that man. But, for all we don't know of White's past, we've seen him cry, we've seen him scared, we've seen him fight for his life, we've seen him be a good boyfriend and a good friend. He might just be some dude but we like him. He's the fandom's babyboy, as I said. It is more impactful and it tells the story better.

But this is just a hypothesis. And it might not convince you. And that's fair. So, because I'm a persistent obnoxious fucker with a little too much free time, I'm bringing you a second theory. For this one, though... You might need a little tinfoil hat... Be prepared.

White ≠ Who He Says He Is

So, if you think just having a character be hollow and pure good in a show of very fleshed-out and grey characters is weird, even if he might be narratively relevant, then we can only assume there's something important to White's character we don't know about yet. (I'm adding this in retrospective because I forgot but this idea came to me partially from @yellingaboutkp and their great analysis of horns in the show that you can find here)

But what could that be? We've seemingly seen all the flashbacks we needed from everyone, White doesn't seem very relevant to anyone's storyline but Tee's but... We'd assume if there was something directly connected to Tee's actions and White that we needed to see, we would've. Admittedly, the next episode seems to be on its way to tell us what Tee knows about what happened to Non and Keng while they were captured by the mafia and he could be there but I think, honestly, that it goes deeper than that. And here's why: because there's a person who's even more of an odd one out then White: whoever Perth's character is.

Now, he would've been completely unsuspicious if it wasn't for one thing: Perth's presence in the promotion of this series. He's just... Always there, somehow? Like, his character has only really appeared last episode massaging Tee's uncle but he's constantly talking about this series. Plus, his name is very well credited. AND, the absolute cherry on top, his character appears in THIS poster:

Now, yeah, I understand Marketing and Publicity (it's part of my Master's, you don't have to explain it to me). So, I know this could very well just be a strategy to sell the series. After all, Perth did get a lot of attention after The Hidden Character, I know, I know. It's also a way to put his name out there for other future roles, kinda like a soft launch. Plus, this is the show that killed Us's character first when he was one of the most popular actors in the cast. HOWEVER, I'd argue that, considering the previously mentioned attention to detail, they would not have given one of their rising stars a role in this series if it wasn't important. Like... No other background character without lines (so far) was given an important actor to play it. So pardon me, but I don't buy it. Perth's character's gotta matter somehow. And, back to what I was saying, I think the next episode will be exactly where.

See, I made a poll here on the hellsite asking what y'all think happened to Non. It's this one. And it shows that, overwhelmingly, we all think Non is alive BECAUSE he was helped by the man himself:

Now, if we're assuming Perth's character's the one that's gonna help Non (and possibly Keng or maybe not, idk and it really doesn't matter for now), we've gotta assume he's a possible suspect for the murderer. And even more so under this optic that Non is alive. Who more than a person whose whole reality seemed to be the mafia and who might've escaped it would be okay with murdering people? Right? Or, on the contrary, that he took a liking to Non and is trying to prevent him from further digging himself a hole in life and is trying to save him from himself.

"Okay, Dante, but, even if that's true, where does White fit in all this?" Glad. You. Asked.

You see, I didn't watch The Hidden Character (and those who did apparently recommend it stays that way). I didn't know any of these people before except those who were in Kinnporsche. And you know what that led me to? Curiously enough, dear reader: confusing Fuaiz with Perth. So, yeah, you know where this is going... White and Perth's character might be related. Brothers, probably.

"All because you think they look alike?" Well, if you ignore the way I just explained how it would tie some very loose ends... Yeah, kinda. BUT, in my defence, it makes a lot of genetic sense.

See, no other characters in the show really look this much alike. Believe me, I tested it.

For this purpose, I tried many different sites but the one that seemed to give me the most reliable results was FaceShape. Most characters got no more than 10%, some even got 0% (e.g. New and Perth's Character). And you wanna know how much White and Perth's character got? Nearly 50%.

For comparison reasons, New and Non who are CANONICALLY brothers, got about 30%.

BUT, if this is not convincing enough, my sister and I (who share EXACTLY the same 2 parents) got lower than them.

(pls ignore the picture, I was trynna make it as accurate as possible so I took a front pic with a neutral expression. also, my sister is censored for privacy reasons)

Now... Will I claim this is irrefutable proof? No. Not at all, but think about it: if White and Perth are related that might maybe explain how Tee and White met. It might also explain that really weird scene in the pre-release trailer (albeit all scenes in that are rather odd) where White-

Yes, thank you, Obi-Wan. And Anakin Tee is looking up at him, as if White has more power than Tee does. Because then, it could probably mean that White knows something and is probably there to do something. What exactly? Idk, man. He could be there to ensure the group remains clueless/confused or that they remain where they need to be for things to work... Or he could be there to try and prevent stuff from happening much to the likeness of what I stated for Perth's character's case.

"Oh, but if he knows something, wouldn't he know what happened to Non? Why would he be curious to watch the recording??"

Well, not necessarily. We know Non is not communicative and that he doesn't typically share his problems with anyone (the exception being Keng, obviously, but then again, the exception confirms the rule). And sure, Keng might be more talkative but idk if he would say something if Non asked him not to. I have a feeling he probably wouldn't (since he has that weird thing JJ mentioned about how he "loves Non" and, therefore, even if he's an abuser, he doesn't perceive himself that way and wouldn't do something he actively thinks would hurt Non). So, while Perth's character would know what happened to Non while he was being held by Tee's uncle and even some things about why he is there, he probably wouldn't know the rest.

But then why would he date Tee? Well, this is a narrative so... Foils are something that can happen. Having White and his relationship with Tee be a parallel to that of Phee and Jin is not weird and, in fact, has happened in the very first episode when both couples arrive at the room where the singles are, in pairs. Therefore, it wouldn't be weird to think of White as someone who maybe also fell in love with the guy that was supposed to be a means to an end or, alternatively, and perhaps more interestingly, have White NOT be in love with him and actually succeed, unlike Phee. Thus, drawing the comparison that, while Tee and White are in a relationship, White didn't fall in love and, inversely, while Phee and Jin aren't in a relationship, Phee did fall in love.

And this would mean that all we've seen of White's fear might, in fact, be an act to throw suspicion off of him. Or even more justified because he knows exactly what's lurking in the woods... After all, why would he suddenly join Jin's goodbye party if he's not a friend of Jin's? What reason better than to tag along your boyfriend's getaway with his friends if not to protect him from the terrible consequences of his actions?

But I get it. It's an extremely convoluted theory and, in all honesty, maybe makes the show more dull and boring if it's true because... Why would they repeat this "secret brother" twist? Or the dating with second intentions trope? It could be a narrative parallel, yes, but I can also definitely see how people could point that out as uncreative or lazy writing.

Either way: these thoughts were circling around my head and, before the next episode confirms or destroys them, I wanted to get them out into the world for y'all to, maybe, hopefully, join in on the hype for it, as it's less than 24h 'till it airs. Hope in that I was successful, at the very least.

Anyway... As usual feel free to (politely) argue with me, tell me I'm wrong, tell me I missed this and that, add to it, etc... Because if there's one thing I currently love more than DFF itself, it's definitely the fandom and I want us to make the most of it!!

I'll see y'all tomorrow when we're freaking out about episode 10!!!

All the love! 💜💜💜

[is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not]

Kintaro 'Restoration's Sword'

(note: the above image shows Kamea's Kintaro prior to the November 3024 refit detailed below)

Overview:

Introduced in 2587 for the SLDF, the Kintaro was designed with one sole mission: tagging enemy units with a Narc Missile Beacon. As such, it is a 'Mech that is intended to work in a team with a missile-heavy lance. Put into production during the Third Succession War for the Federated Suns by General Dynamics of Ozawa, the downgraded KTO-18 Kintaro was manufactured using the Succession Wars era technology available at the time.

Capabilities:

This personalized one-off Kintaro variant was specially produced for High Lady Kamea Arano of the Aurigan Coaltion by Xerxes Truscott of the Fursona's Fusilier's mercenary company. The refit saw a complete tear down and rebuild of Kamea's original KTO-18 with (at the time) completely unknown technology.

While heavily modified from the original design, after its refit the 'Mech possessed much the same weapons loadout as before - save for the LRM launcher having been removed and replaced with a PPC of a range and energy output never seen in the Inner Sphere. Indeed, the 'Mechs pair of medium lasers had their maximum range increased by nearly seventy percent, while putting out nearly the same power as a large laser. In addition, the SRM 6 racks were replaced with significantly lighter models that exhibited a curious behavior - they did not fire until the tracking system achieved a positive lock with every missile in the salvo. All the non-missile weapons were assisted by a compact targeting computer (loaded with variable targeting software) in addition to custom accuracy and heat dissipation tuning done on each individual weapon.

CASE technology was somehow integrated into the newly added 9.5 tons of ferro-fibrous armor that protected a custom endo steel chassis. Meanwhile, numerous components were heavily armored, including the cockpit, which had a large amount of additional armor protection installed. An advanced XL engine of a smaller class than the original was added along with a supercharger. While the 'Mech did run 5 tons overweight (primarily due to the decision to up-armor the new engine), the combination of the supercharger and lighter chassis and armor ensured that the 'Mech's top speed and general performance was unaffected. Twelve advanced, compact double sinks replaced the original single models, and ensured that the Kintaro's infamous overheating issues were entirely solved.

Finally, the 'Mech boasted advanced, lightweight electronic countermeasures and active probe systems, seemingly based on the lostech Guardian and Beagle systems of the old Star League. Additional communications, sensor, and targeting improvements were also made to the 'Mechs software suite. The 'Mechs hands were reinforced for potential close quarters encounters, the actuators of the 'Mech given additional protection for urban fighting, and its torso rotation range was increased. An advanced life support system with numerous backups was added, customizable controls allowed Kamea to personalize the layout of the cockpit, and the use of smaller and lighter components increased available space inside the cockpit, rivaling a Thunderbolt or Atlas - this increased space was complimented by luxurious pilot comfort systems, all fit and finished for a noble. Finally, the B-2000 battle computer from a damaged Restoration Army Cyclops was installed, to allow Kamea to coordinate large scale operations from her pilot seat.

Deployment:

Kamea's Kintaro, dubbed 'Restoration's Sword', would deploy on numerous operations during the Aurigan Civil War, before and after its refit. It was present and fought at Kamea's hands to escape the Aurigan Directorate coup in 3022, and Kamea continued to train with it while in hiding. After its refit in November of 3024, it took up arms on Weldry in December, and continued in her service thereafter.

After the refit, the 'Mech was classified top secret, and no one outside of Argo mechbay staff and a bare handful of extremely well-veted royal household technicians were allowed to work on the 'Mech, and questions about the new technologies were brushed off by claiming the technology was recovered from a derelict Star League JumpShip, or later that it was retrieved from Castle Nautilus.

While these explanations served to mollify many, most intelligence organizations such as MIM, the Maskirovka, DMI and even ComStar were never fooled, even if they could not gain direct access to the 'Mech itself. It would not be until almost exactly a quarter century after the Aurigan Civil War ended that the wider Inner Sphere would learn the true origin of the many of the 'Mech's advanced technologies.

History:

While Kamea famously switched to a customized (and somewhat more mundane) Atlas II in the later stages of the Aurigan Civil War, she retained 'Restoration's Sword' in her personal motorpool, under heavy guard in all non-combat circumstances. The 'Mech would continue to serve the Aurigan Royal Guard even into the 32nd century, where it was often seen at the hands of 'The Mastiff' - the unofficial rotating title granted to the current chief bodyguard of the ruler of the Coalition.

Kintaro 'Restoration's Sword'

Mass: 55 tons Chassis: Technicron-Argo-1 Endo Steel Power Plant: Argo Custom 220 XL Cruising Speed: 43.2 kph Maximum Speed: 86.4 kph Jump Jets: None Jump Capacity: 0 meters Armor: Argo Advanced Ferro-Fibrous Armament: 2 ER Medium Laser 1 ER PPC 3 Streak SRM 6 Manufacturer: General Dynamics (original) / Fursona's Fusiliers (Refit) Primary Factory: Ozawa (original) / Argo Mechbay (Refit) Communication System: Tacticon B-2000 Battle Computer with Argo Advanced ECM Targeting & Tracking System: Starbeam 3000 w/ Argo Advanced Targeting Computer and Argo Advanced Active Probe Introduction Year: 3025 Tech Rating/Availability: F/X-X-F-X Cost: 16,774,823 C-bills

Type: Kintaro Technology Base: Mixed (Advanced) Tonnage: 55 Battle Value: 2,582

Equipment Mass Internal Structure Endo Steel 3 Engine (Armored) 220 XL 5 Walking MP: 4 Running MP: 6(8) Jumping MP: 0 Double Heat Sink 12 [24+4] 2 Gyro 3 Cockpit (Armored) 3 Armor Factor (Ferro) 182 9.5 Internal Armor Structure Value Head 3 9 Center Torso 18 27 Center Torso (rear) 8 R/L Torso 13 20 R/L Torso (rear) 6 R/L Arm 9 17 R/L Leg 13 26

Right Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Hand Left Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Hand

Weapons and Ammo Location Critical Heat Tonnage Double Heat Sink LL 2 - 1.0 Streak SRM 6 CT 2 4 3.0 Supercharger (Armored) RT 1 - 0.5 Streak SRM 6 RT 2 4 3.0 Targeting Computer (Armored) RT 2 - 2.0 Active Probe (Armored) RT 1 - 1.0 ECM Suite (Armored) RT 1 - 1.0 ER Medium Laser LA 1 5 1.0 Streak SRM 6 LA 2 4 3.0 Double Heat Sink LA 2 - 1.0 ER PPC LA 2 15 6.0 2 CASE LT 0 - 0.0 Streak SRM 6 Ammo (45) LT 3 - 3.0 Double Heat Sink RL 2 - 1.0 Armored Cowl (Armored) HD 1 - 1.0 ER Medium Laser RA 1 5 1.0 Double Heat Sink RA 2 - 1.0

Features the following design quirks: Accurate Weapon (all), Battle Computer, Battle Fists, Combat Computer, Cowl, Easy to Pilot, Extended Torso Twist, Improved Communications, Improved Life Support, Improved Cooling Jacket (all), Improved Sensors, Multi-Trac, Protected Actuators, Rugged (1 Point), Variable Range Targeting, Difficult to Maintain, Illegal Design (Mixed Tech Design Prior to 3050; Overweight), Non-Standard Parts

[cyberstudious]

A Beginner's Guide to Learning Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

(Side note: this post is aimed towards the technical side of security, rather than the governance/management side, because the tech stuff is what I'm familiar with.)

Where do I start?

Cybersecurity is a specialization of general tech & therefore builds on some concepts that you'll need to know before you can dive deep into security. It's good to have a background in and understand:

how computers & operating systems work

how to use Linux

computer networking & basic protocols

If you're serious about learning cybersecurity, it can be helpful to look at certifications. Even if you don't want to get certified or take the exam (they can get expensive), they provide you with a list of topics that you can use to guide your self-study. And if you want to find a job, a certification is practically required for getting your foot in the door.

I personally recommend the CompTIA series of certifications, because they're well-recognized and I think they expose you to a good breadth and depth of material to get you started. Start with the A+ certification if you have zero tech background. Start with the Network+ certification if you've never taken a networking course. Once you get your basic computer and networking knowledge down, then you can jump into security. The Security+ is a good starting point.

Do I need to know how to code?

No, but it would be really really helpful. You don't have to be a skilled software engineer, but understanding the basics and being able to write small scripts will give you a solid foundation.

From Daniel Miessler's post How to Build a Cybersecurity Career:

You can get a job without being a programmer. You can even get a good job. And you can even get promoted to management. But you won’t ever hit the elite levels of infosec if you cannot build things. Websites. Tools. Proofs of concept. Etc. If you can’t code, you’ll always be dependent on those who can.

How do I gain skills?

Play Capture the Flag (CTF) games.

Stay up to date with security news via an RSS reader, podcasts, or whatever works for you. Research terms that you're unfamiliar with.

Watch conference talks that get uploaded to YouTube.

Spin up a VM to practice working with tools and experiment on your own computer.

There are lots of brilliant, generous people in cybersecurity who share their knowledge and advice for free. Find their blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels. Look for local meetups in your area.

I'm still relatively new to the field, but I have a general knowledge of lots of different things, so feel free to send me an ask and I can probably help point you to some resources. We're all in this together!

Previous Cybersecurity Masterposts

An Introduction to Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Book Masterpost

Free Cybersecurity Learning Resources Masterpost

Masterpost of Study Tips for Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Tools Masterpost

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the #StudyblrMasterpostJam this week! It was wonderful to see what other studyblr folks are passionate about. The jam technically ends today but there are no official rules, so if you've been thinking about writing a masterpost, this is your sign!

[heartpulseproject]

Since you don't see many edits here, and i am a dumbass in editing, could you make a tutorial on it? Like: what apps should we use, what should or shouldn't do, devices, etc. Since i personally worship your editing prowess, i couldn't help myself but ask for your guidance sensei. 🙇‍♀️

I don't use a "special device" to make my edits, just a computer which can run a videoediting software and Wallpaper Engine correctly (in my case it's an Apple Mac Pro 4,1 from 2009 with upgraded RAM and GPU, and also with Windows 10 installed on it, but that's not important). My server pc build out of my spare parts, and it's serves as a network bridge, and a file storge (like a NAS, or something) to store my personal files, like the assets for the edits on HPP. The way I make my edits, is a different story. I like to put the charaters in different scenarios to make the edit more enjoyable. I usually chose one image from my pre-granarated ones, or I use (if i see a, as i call an edit "suspicious" image here on Tumblr or X) an image from my "Likes", or if I can't find any which is good for the scanario in my head I generate one using PixAI's Ebora Pony XL AI model. Than if I have an image, I put together a static version of the edit in Paint.NET (PaintdotNET). Here I cut down the unnecessary and the broken (weirdly generated hands, .etc) parts of the image, and I remove the background if I'd like to use a different one. Than I chose a stethoscope png what are suitable for the edit, but I recently using the hand with stethoscope one which you can see in my recent edits. I also make some barely visble changes to the main image and the stething image. If it's done, and looks good I save them (the base image, the background, and the steting png separately) in a folder. After that it's time to "animate" the edit, which is just using the Wallpaper Engine's built in Shake effect, if that part is done, I record the animated soundless edit using OBS, which is usually a 5-6 minutes raw mp4 file. Than I put the raw recording into the video editor which is my case is the Wondershare Filmora X. I chose one of the heartbeat and bearthing audios from my server (if it's needed I modify it a bit in Audacity), and speed them up to mach with the animation. I make the breathing way quieter to have the heartbeat in focus, also i duplicate the hb sound to make a stereo effect, which means the I make the left side a bit louder and add more bass to it than the right side, which make a really good heart pulse effect (ROLL CREDITS). Also in here I add some video effects, cut down the unnecessary parts, I cut down the video to 2 minutes to become uploadable for X, than it's time to export it. After I exported the final edit, i check it for mistakes and I fix them if i find any, and the fixed version gonna be uploaded to Tumblr and X. This whole process is 2+ hours usually, but it's could be more for longer and more complex edits. But you doesn't need to follow my way to make edits, if you ever used a photo editor and a video editor before, and you know how put a transparent png on an image, and a greenscreen video on another one, you good to go. There is a lot of ways you can make an edit, so you can chose one which are suitable for you. If you still need help, you can join the Cardio Editor's Hub, there are lot of other people who gladly gives you some tips and tricks. Good luck, have fun! :D