#physical-virtual interface

[digitalmarketingaquil]

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[becuzitisbitter]

When computer scientists gain entry, as they’re doing, into the presidential palaces and mayors’ offices of the world’s largest cities, it’s not so much to set up shop as it is to explain the new rules of the game: government administrations are now competing with alternative providers of the same services who, unfortunately for them, are several steps ahead. Suggesting their cloud as a way to shelter government services from revolutions — services like the land registry, soon to be available as a smartphone application — the authors of The New Digital Age inform us and them: “In the future, people won’t just back up their data; they’ll back up their government.” And in case it’s not quite clear who the boss is now, it concludes: “Governments may collapse and wars can destroy physical infrastructure but virtual institutions will survive.” With Google, what is concealed beneath the exterior of an innocent interface and a very effective search engine, is an explicitly political project. An enterprise that maps the planet Earth, sending its teams into every street of every one of its towns, cannot have purely commercial aims. One never maps a territory that one doesn’t contemplate appropriating. “Don’t be evil!”: let yourself go.

To Our Friends, The Invisible Committee, 2014

[misctf]

Hey! I just bought this new VR game system and it says not to try it on alone. What the fuck are they talking about? And why are all the games on the online store so adult centered? Whatever, let's try it, wait what is happening ...

“Dude, you’re not supposed to use Hive X alone.” Some guy messages you in the chatroom, “Did you not see the warnings?”

“Or the reviews?” Another user asks, “It’s best for couples to use it. Together.”  

Your eyes narrow, “I didn’t pay all this money not to use it.” You reply, “I’ll let you know how it is.” You look down at the black box.

You always appreciated your friends in the gaming community. But the gaming community was quite divided when Hive X hit the stores. A new VR gaming system that seemed to offer a futuristic level of immersion. You didn’t really have time to read reviews, but you weren’t going to miss out on this opportunity.

“Well, here it goes.” You mumble.

You slowly remove the VR headset from the box, followed by two wrist and ankle cuffs. You can’t help but chuckle when you remove what looks like a waist trainer.

“What the fuck?” You whisper as you read the instructions.

Slowly, you remove your clothes until you’re completely naked. Apparently, this would help facilitate the full immersive experience. And as you stand in the center of your room, you slowly slip on the ankle cuffs, then the wrist cuffs, and finally the waist trainer. You pick up the headset, which looks like that of a motorcycle helmet, and with a deep breath, place it over your head. Initially, all you see is inky blackness. But as it turns on, the world around you comes alive. You wince as the ankle, waist, and wrist pads dig into your skin and warm up. And suddenly, you’re standing in what can only be described as a hotel.

“Oh wow.” You whisper as you look around, seeing others walking around the hotel. Heading to different rooms. You take a deep breath and smell a muskiness mixed with oak wood. The warmth of a glowing fire dancing in the hotel lobby. It’s warm, and a sense of peace fills you, “Oh shit!” You realize that you’re naked and quickly go to cover yourself.

Apparently, others heard you and look over. Some chuckle, some give you concerned looks. And you realize that many of them are naked too. Blushing, you quickly walk down a hallway, awkwardly bumping into and maneuvering around other couples.

“Why the fuck is everyone naked?” You mumble, “And why...” Your eyes widen and you gasp when you turn a corner and enter a large room.

There had to be hundreds of men and women in the midst of a giant orgy. All moaning and engaging in lewd acts. You avert your eyes and back away, heading back the way you came. Your face beet red and dick twitching uncomfortably.

“I should’ve read the reviews.” You mumble, realizing this is some kind of virtual sex toy, “Okay, I’m done. The guys will get a kick out of this.”

“What’s wrong?” You jump at the monotone voice behind you, “So sorry. I’m NPC 436.” A fully clothed, relatively plain individual says, “I am designed to tailor your experience and enhance customer satisfaction.”

“Yeah, I...” You cover your junk, “This isn’t my thing... I...”

“We have many experiences designed for our users.” It continues, “Usually, partners enter the Hive due to enhanced physical sensations. It appears...”

“Yeah, I’m alone.” The NPC nods.

“Based on your preferences and attitudes, we have determined an ideal experience.”

“Wha... how?”

“The VR headset you utilize is a two-way interface with your mind.” It says simply, “Please follow me.”

Part of you wants to say no and write this off as one of your biggest failed gaming experiences. But another part of you is curious. You nod and follow NPC 436 as it leads you to one of the hotel rooms. You stop outside Room 194 and NPC 436 opens the door, beckoning inside.

“Please enjoy.” It says, “Customer satisfaction is a primary objective.” It continues.

You nod as the door closes behind you and you enter a standard hotel suite. A warm fire place cackling and the smell of oak filling your nostrils. You feel your body start to relax and your thoughts slow. Absentmindedly, you stroke your hardening cock. The sound of the shower in the other room brings you back to reality and you slowly walk over. When you enter, your eyes widen.

“Hey there.” The man says, as he turns and smirks at you, “Fuck you’re cute.”

You feel your heart beating, your cock aching with need. And as he approaches you, you step forward. Your hands moving to feel his massive pecs. He grins as he guides your hand to his dick and you shudder at the feeling of his thick manhood in your hand.

“Good boy.” He moans, “I’m NPC 251.” He continues as you continue to feel his body, “Fuck... you’re needy.”

Things seem to move quickly. He’s pressed you up against the wall of the shower, your lips locked, your tongues doing battle. You can feel his rough hands roam your body, as yours continue to stroke his dick. And suddenly you’re on your knees as he fucks your face- you deepthroating him like a pro. He lets out a moan as he finishes and you shudder as you’re filled with his seed.

“Fuck.” He whispers.

You stumble to your feet, quivering from the pleasure. And before you can say another word, you moan as your cock hardens again. A wave of horniness filling your mind. A desire for more filling your every thought.

“Th-this isn’t...” You whisper. How was your body already craving another round? What was this VR device doing to you? “I... I...” NPC 251 is stroking his dick, grinning down at you.

“Additional interaction requires in game purchase.” Your heart sinks, “Would you like to initiate NPC trial period?” NPC 251 asks, “This will unlock additional sessions with any other NPC.”

You raise an eyebrow, trying to comprehend what NPC 251 means. But your aching cock is too distracting. You bite your lip. NPC trial period? What did that even mean? What would it...? But NPC 251... god you wanted to do that again. You wanted...

“Trial period. Please.” You moan.

A searing pain knocks you off your feet. You can feel it in your ankles, hands, and waist. And the feeling seems to be moving along your arms, legs, and torso. You cry out and look up at NPC 251 in terror, gripping your head as you develop a significant headache.  

“Digitalization process is taking place.” It says, “Your physical body is being fully converted into the Hive.”

Before you can say another word, a different feeling fills you. You feel like you’re being inflated. Each muscle contracting and bloating. Expanding and growing at a terrifying rate. You try to push yourself up and immediately fall over. Unfamiliar with your new size and bulk as your musculature takes on that of an athlete. You wince as your body hairs burns away and leaves you smooth and hairless. Your muscles toned and bulky. The body of a porn star.

“Optimization of user traits allows for seamless integration for company standards.” It continues, “Your prior traits will be saved in the mainframe.”

You gasp as you look at yourself, hands roaming over your impressive musculature. You moan in a far deeper voice as your ass pulses with need. And you look up desperately at NPC 251, knowing it could give you what your new body craved.

“Initiating directives.”

Your jaw goes slack and your eyes dim as words and numbers flash in front of your eyes. You can barely keep up with the various components as you’re given directions and commands. Your numb mind filling with them- a sense of devout obedience driving you.

“I will serve. I will ensure customer satisfaction.” You drone on, “Serving is my pleasure. Being used is my pleasure.” For a brief moment, you feel fear. Part of you coming to realize what your life is about to become. But fear is not part of your programing, “I am NPC 803.” You say.

NPC 803 was quickly led away to a new room. An empty room. One for NPC 803 and the services it would provide. Time wasn’t a concern for NPC 803, nor were any thoughts about when it would get to return to its old life. And as NPC 803 waiting for someone, it laid in bed. Dildo in its ass. Moaning from wave after wave of pleasure. But it wasn’t enough. All it wanted was to provide customers with the best experience possible. And as another man was led to your room, also without a partner, you couldn’t help but smile. After the time you were gonna give him, you just knew you’d have another NPC joining your team.

[nostalgebraist]

Anthropic's stated "AI timelines" seem wildly aggressive to me.

As far as I can tell, they are now saying that by 2028 – and possibly even by 2027, or late 2026 – something they call "powerful AI" will exist.

And by "powerful AI," they mean... this (source, emphasis mine):

In terms of pure intelligence, it is smarter than a Nobel Prize winner across most relevant fields – biology, programming, math, engineering, writing, etc. This means it can prove unsolved mathematical theorems, write extremely good novels, write difficult codebases from scratch, etc. In addition to just being a “smart thing you talk to”, it has all the “interfaces” available to a human working virtually, including text, audio, video, mouse and keyboard control, and internet access. It can engage in any actions, communications, or remote operations enabled by this interface, including taking actions on the internet, taking or giving directions to humans, ordering materials, directing experiments, watching videos, making videos, and so on. It does all of these tasks with, again, a skill exceeding that of the most capable humans in the world. It does not just passively answer questions; instead, it can be given tasks that take hours, days, or weeks to complete, and then goes off and does those tasks autonomously, in the way a smart employee would, asking for clarification as necessary. It does not have a physical embodiment (other than living on a computer screen), but it can control existing physical tools, robots, or laboratory equipment through a computer; in theory it could even design robots or equipment for itself to use. The resources used to train the model can be repurposed to run millions of instances of it (this matches projected cluster sizes by ~2027), and the model can absorb information and generate actions at roughly 10x-100x human speed. It may however be limited by the response time of the physical world or of software it interacts with. Each of these million copies can act independently on unrelated tasks, or if needed can all work together in the same way humans would collaborate, perhaps with different subpopulations fine-tuned to be especially good at particular tasks.

In the post I'm quoting, Amodei is coy about the timeline for this stuff, saying only that

I think it could come as early as 2026, though there are also ways it could take much longer. But for the purposes of this essay, I’d like to put these issues aside [...]

However, other official communications from Anthropic have been more specific. Most notable is their recent OSTP submission, which states (emphasis in original):

Based on current research trajectories, we anticipate that powerful AI systems could emerge as soon as late 2026 or 2027 [...] Powerful AI technology will be built during this Administration. [i.e. the current Trump administration -nost]

See also here, where Jack Clark says (my emphasis):

People underrate how significant and fast-moving AI progress is. We have this notion that in late 2026, or early 2027, powerful AI systems will be built that will have intellectual capabilities that match or exceed Nobel Prize winners. They’ll have the ability to navigate all of the interfaces… [Clark goes on, mentioning some of the other tenets of "powerful AI" as in other Anthropic communications -nost]

----

To be clear, extremely short timelines like these are not unique to Anthropic.

Miles Brundage (ex-OpenAI) says something similar, albeit less specific, in this post. And Daniel Kokotajlo (also ex-OpenAI) has held views like this for a long time now.

Even Sam Altman himself has said similar things (though in much, much vaguer terms, both on the content of the deliverable and the timeline).

Still, Anthropic's statements are unique in being

official positions of the company

extremely specific and ambitious about the details

extremely aggressive about the timing, even by the standards of "short timelines" AI prognosticators in the same social cluster

Re: ambition, note that the definition of "powerful AI" seems almost the opposite of what you'd come up with if you were trying to make a confident forecast of something.

Often people will talk about "AI capable of transforming the world economy" or something more like that, leaving room for the AI in question to do that in one of several ways, or to do so while still failing at some important things.

But instead, Anthropic's definition is a big conjunctive list of "it'll be able to do this and that and this other thing and...", and each individual capability is defined in the most aggressive possible way, too! Not just "good enough at science to be extremely useful for scientists," but "smarter than a Nobel Prize winner," across "most relevant fields" (whatever that means). And not just good at science but also able to "write extremely good novels" (note that we have a long way to go on that front, and I get the feeling that people at AI labs don't appreciate the extent of the gap [cf]). Not only can it use a computer interface, it can use every computer interface; not only can it use them competently, but it can do so better than the best humans in the world. And all of that is in the first two paragraphs – there's four more paragraphs I haven't even touched in this little summary!

Re: timing, they have even shorter timelines than Kokotajlo these days, which is remarkable since he's historically been considered "the guy with the really short timelines." (See here where Kokotajlo states a median prediction of 2028 for "AGI," by which he means something less impressive than "powerful AI"; he expects something close to the "powerful AI" vision ["ASI"] ~1 year or so after "AGI" arrives.)

----

I, uh, really do not think this is going to happen in "late 2026 or 2027."

Or even by the end of this presidential administration, for that matter.

I can imagine it happening within my lifetime – which is wild and scary and marvelous. But in 1.5 years?!

The confusing thing is, I am very familiar with the kinds of arguments that "short timelines" people make, and I still find the Anthropic's timelines hard to fathom.

Above, I mentioned that Anthropic has shorter timelines than Daniel Kokotajlo, who "merely" expects the same sort of thing in 2029 or so. This probably seems like hairsplitting – from the perspective of your average person not in these circles, both of these predictions look basically identical, "absurdly good godlike sci-fi AI coming absurdly soon." What difference does an extra year or two make, right?

But it's salient to me, because I've been reading Kokotajlo for years now, and I feel like I basically get understand his case. And people, including me, tend to push back on him in the "no, that's too soon" direction. I've read many many blog posts and discussions over the years about this sort of thing, I feel like I should have a handle on what the short-timelines case is.

But even if you accept all the arguments evinced over the years by Daniel "Short Timelines" Kokotajlo, even if you grant all the premises he assumes and some people don't – that still doesn't get you all the way to the Anthropic timeline!

To give a very brief, very inadequate summary, the standard "short timelines argument" right now is like:

Over the next few years we will see a "growth spurt" in the amount of computing power ("compute") used for the largest LLM training runs. This factor of production has been largely stagnant since GPT-4 in 2023, for various reasons, but new clusters are getting built and the metaphorical car will get moving again soon. (See here)

By convention, each "GPT number" uses ~100x as much training compute as the last one. GPT-3 used ~100x as much as GPT-2, and GPT-4 used ~100x as much as GPT-3 (i.e. ~10,000x as much as GPT-2).

We are just now starting to see "~10x GPT-4 compute" models (like Grok 3 and GPT-4.5). In the next few years we will get to "~100x GPT-4 compute" models, and by 2030 will will reach ~10,000x GPT-4 compute.

If you think intuitively about "how much GPT-4 improved upon GPT-3 (100x less) or GPT-2 (10,000x less)," you can maybe convince yourself that these near-future models will be super-smart in ways that are difficult to precisely state/imagine from our vantage point. (GPT-4 was way smarter than GPT-2; it's hard to know what "projecting that forward" would mean, concretely, but it sure does sound like something pretty special)

Meanwhile, all kinds of (arguably) complementary research is going on, like allowing models to "think" for longer amounts of time, giving them GUI interfaces, etc.

All that being said, there's still a big intuitive gap between "ChatGPT, but it's much smarter under the hood" and anything like "powerful AI." But...

...the LLMs are getting good enough that they can write pretty good code, and they're getting better over time. And depending on how you interpret the evidence, you may be able to convince yourself that they're also swiftly getting better at other tasks involved in AI development, like "research engineering." So maybe you don't need to get all the way yourself, you just need to build an AI that's a good enough AI developer that it improves your AIs faster than you can, and then those AIs are even better developers, etc. etc. (People in this social cluster are really keen on the importance of exponential growth, which is generally a good trait to have but IMO it shades into "we need to kick off exponential growth and it'll somehow do the rest because it's all-powerful" in this case.)

And like, I have various disagreements with this picture.

For one thing, the "10x" models we're getting now don't seem especially impressive – there has been a lot of debate over this of course, but reportedly these models were disappointing to their own developers, who expected scaling to work wonders (using the kind of intuitive reasoning mentioned above) and got less than they hoped for.

And (in light of that) I think it's double-counting to talk about the wonders of scaling and then talk about reasoning, computer GUI use, etc. as complementary accelerating factors – those things are just table stakes at this point, the models are already maxing out the tasks you had defined previously, you've gotta give them something new to do or else they'll just sit there wasting GPUs when a smaller model would have sufficed.

And I think we're already at a point where nuances of UX and "character writing" and so forth are more of a limiting factor than intelligence. It's not a lack of "intelligence" that gives us superficially dazzling but vapid "eyeball kick" prose, or voice assistants that are deeply uncomfortable to actually talk to, or (I claim) "AI agents" that get stuck in loops and confuse themselves, or any of that.

We are still stuck in the "Helpful, Harmless, Honest Assistant" chatbot paradigm – no one has seriously broke with it since that Anthropic introduced it in a paper in 2021 – and now that paradigm is showing its limits. ("Reasoning" was strapped onto this paradigm in a simple and fairly awkward way, the new "reasoning" models are still chatbots like this, no one is actually doing anything else.) And instead of "okay, let's invent something better," the plan seems to be "let's just scale up these assistant chatbots and try to get them to self-improve, and they'll figure it out." I won't try to explain why in this post (IYI I kind of tried to here) but I really doubt these helpful/harmless guys can bootstrap their way into winning all the Nobel Prizes.

----

All that stuff I just said – that's where I differ from the usual "short timelines" people, from Kokotajlo and co.

But OK, let's say that for the sake of argument, I'm wrong and they're right. It still seems like a pretty tough squeeze to get to "powerful AI" on time, doesn't it?

In the OSTP submission, Anthropic presents their latest release as evidence of their authority to speak on the topic:

In February 2025, we released Claude 3.7 Sonnet, which is by many performance benchmarks the most powerful and capable commercially-available AI system in the world.

I've used Claude 3.7 Sonnet quite a bit. It is indeed really good, by the standards of these sorts of things!

But it is, of course, very very far from "powerful AI." So like, what is the fine-grained timeline even supposed to look like? When do the many, many milestones get crossed? If they're going to have "powerful AI" in early 2027, where exactly are they in mid-2026? At end-of-year 2025?

If I assume that absolutely everything goes splendidly well with no unexpected obstacles – and remember, we are talking about automating all human intellectual labor and all tasks done by humans on computers, but sure, whatever – then maybe we get the really impressive next-gen models later this year or early next year... and maybe they're suddenly good at all the stuff that has been tough for LLMs thus far (the "10x" models already released show little sign of this but sure, whatever)... and then we finally get into the self-improvement loop in earnest, and then... what?

They figure out to squeeze even more performance out of the GPUs? They think of really smart experiments to run on the cluster? Where are they going to get all the missing information about how to do every single job on earth, the tacit knowledge, the stuff that's not in any web scrape anywhere but locked up in human minds and inaccessible private data stores? Is an experiment designed by a helpful-chatbot AI going to finally crack the problem of giving chatbots the taste to "write extremely good novels," when that taste is precisely what "helpful-chatbot AIs" lack?

I guess the boring answer is that this is all just hype – tech CEO acts like tech CEO, news at 11. (But I don't feel like that can be the full story here, somehow.)

And the scary answer is that there's some secret Anthropic private info that makes this all more plausible. (But I doubt that too – cf. Brundage's claim that there are no more secrets like that now, the short-timelines cards are all on the table.)

It just does not make sense to me. And (as you can probably tell) I find it very frustrating that these guys are out there talking about how human thought will basically be obsolete in a few years, and pontificating about how to find new sources of meaning in life and stuff, without actually laying out an argument that their vision – which would be the common concern of all of us, if it were indeed on the horizon – is actually likely to occur on the timescale they propose.

It would be less frustrating if I were being asked to simply take it on faith, or explicitly on the basis of corporate secret knowledge. But no, the claim is not that, it's something more like "now, now, I know this must sound far-fetched to the layman, but if you really understand 'scaling laws' and 'exponential growth,' and you appreciate the way that pretraining will be scaled up soon, then it's simply obvious that –"

No! Fuck that! I've read the papers you're talking about, I know all the arguments you're handwaving-in-the-direction-of! It still doesn't add up!

[charseraph]

Noosciocircus agent backgrounds, former jobs at C&A, assigned roles, and current internal status.

Kinger

Former professor — Studied child psychology and computer science, moved into neobotanics via germination theory and seedlet development.

Seedlet trainer — Socialized and educated newly germinated seedlets to suit their future assignments. I.e. worked alongside a small team to serve as seedlets’ social parents, K-12 instructors, and upper-education mentors in rapid succession (about a year).

Intermediary — Inserted to assist cooperation and understanding of Caine.

Partially mentally mulekicked — Lives in state of forgetfulness after abstraction of spouse, is prone to reliving past from prior to event.

Ragatha

Former EMT — Worked in a rural community.

Semiohazard medic — Underwent training to treat and assess mulekick victims and to administer care in the presence of semiohazards.

Nootic health supervisor— Inserted to provide nootic endurance training, treat psychological mulekick, and maintain morale.

Obsessive-compulsive — Receives new agents and struggles to maintain morale among team and herself due to low trust in her honesty.

Jax

Former programmer — Gained experience when acquired out of university by a large software company.

Scioner — Developed virtual interfaces for seedlets to operate machinery with.

Circus surveyor — Inserted to assess and map nature of circus simulation, potentially finding avenues of escape.

Anomic — Detached from morals and social stake. Uncooperative and gleefully combative.

Gangle

Former navy sailor — Performed clerical work as a yeoman, served in one of the first semiotically-armed submarines.

Personnel manager — Recordkept C&A researcher employments and managed mess hall.

Task coordinator — Inserted to organize team effort towards escape.

Reclused — Abandoned task and lives in quiet, depressive state.

Zooble

No formal background — Onboarded out of secondary school for certification by C&A as part of a youth outreach initiative.

Mule trainer — Physically handled mules, living semiohazard conveyors for tactical use.

Semiohazard specialist — Inserted to identify, evaluate, and attempt to disarm semiotic tripwires.

Debilitated and self-isolating — Suffers chronic vertigo from randomly pulled avatar. Struggles to participate in adventures at risk of episode.

Pomni

Former accountant — Worked for a chemical research firm before completing her accreditation to become a biochemist.

Collochemist — Performed mesh checkups and oversaw industrial hormone synthesis.

Field researcher — Inserted to collect data from fellows and organize reports for indeterminate recovery. Versed in scientific conduct.

In shock — Currently acclimating to new condition. Fresh and overwhelming preoccupation with escape.

Caine

Neglected — Due to project deadline tightening, Caine’s socialization was expedited in favor of lessons pertinent to his practical purpose. Emerged a well-meaning but awkward and insecure individual unprepared for noosciocircus entrapment.

Prototype — Germinated as an experimental mustard, or semiotic filter seedlet, capable of subconsciously assembling semiohazards and detonating them in controlled conditions.

Nooscioarchitect — Constructs spaces and nonsophont AI for the agents to occupy and interact with using his asset library and computation power. Organizes adventures to mentally stimulate the agents, unknowingly lacing them with hazards.

Helpless — After semiohazard overexposure, an agent’s attachment to their avatar dissolves and their blackroom exposes, a process called abstraction. These open holes in the noosciocircus simulation spill potentially hazardous memories and emotion from the abstracted agent’s mind. Caine stores them in the cellar, a stimulus-free and infoproofed zone that calms the abstracted and nullifies emitted hazards. He genuinely cares about the inserted, but after only being able to do damage control for a continually deteriorating situation, the weight of his failure is beginning to weigh on him in a way he did not get to learn how to express.

[pascalissmoked]

Hello, I am wondering if u take request for a Tony Stark x female reader, who is also best friend of Tony Stark before he came Iron Man but she has been by his side through everything as well. But it’s a fluff one shot as at the end where they both reveal their feelings for each other which they had from the moment they met and they have their first kiss between them as well.

Ofcoursee, here it is! Hope you like it :)

Virtual Insanity

Summary: In which the infamous line "make love not war" isn't well-respected by this pair of friends. When cyberbullying at Stark industries level develops into a game between these two collegues and friends, something more begins to unravel between the two.

Word Count: 1.7K Warnings: none except Tony's unsufferable ego (all jokes)

A/N: This is a short oneshot. Might turn into more. I'm also still working on the "Soft in the right hands" series for bucky so stay tuned!

You’d known Tony Stark long enough to remember when he didn’t wear the suit — physically or emotionally.

Back then, he was all sharp smiles and sharper intellect, more interested in building arc reactors with cocktail napkin schematics than charming investors. Reckless with nearly everything except the way he treated you. Somehow, against all odds, you’d slipped past the velvet rope that guarded the real him — the sleepless inventor who showed up on your fire escape at 3AM with a bottle of Scotch and a theory about thermal diffusion that couldn’t wait till morning.

You were best friends before Afghanistan. Before Iron Man. Before Stark Tower had its own AI department and a floor reserved just for “Tony’s regrets, part I through XXV.”

And none of that stopped him from hacking your firewall during lunch.

You were approximately three minutes into a well-deserved lunch break — grilled cheese in hand, Spotify playlist on shuffle, and the sanctity of a lab entirely free of explosions — when your firewall went up in flames.

Digitally speaking.

The code on your main monitor began to twitch. Literally twitch. Then twist. And then it smiled at you. A little pixelated smiley face blinked up from the line of code you’d just written, followed by a dancing ASCII cat wearing sunglasses.

“Oh my God,” you muttered, setting your sandwich down like it had betrayed you.

You knew that coding style.

You knew exactly who was responsible.

With the patience of a saint and the energy of someone who was one click away from snapping, you launched into the system’s backend, pulling apart the layers of the digital graffiti with expert ease, unraveling each line of smug Stark-ware. And sure enough, right at the root folder, embedded in a hidden command string, was a line of text:

"Nice firewall, sweetheart. 7/10. Would hack again. - T.S."

Your eye twitched. Your soul twitched.

He didn’t just breach your system. He decorated it. That wasn’t a hack — it was a housewarming party in enemy territory.

The man had billions of dollars, a global tech empire, multiple Iron Man suits, and — apparently — nothing better to do than hack into your secure files during his downtime like a caffeinated raccoon with a superiority complex.

You were going to kill him. Slowly. Or worse — give him a lecture so long and boring it could be classified as psychological warfare.

And thus, the war began.

With your jaw clenched and your heart pounding in that very specific, very annoying way it only ever did around Tony, you stormed out of your lab and stomped down the hallway of Stark Tower.

You bypassed three interns and a mildly offended elevator AI before slamming open his door like righteous judgment. Finally, you flung open the doors to his R&D suite without knocking.

Tony didn’t flinch.

Sleeves rolled up, arc reactor glowing, fingers dancing across a holographic interface. He looked up. Grinned.

“Hey, sunshine,” Tony said lazily from behind a table cluttered with open panels, a half-dismantled drone, and at least three coffee cups. “I was just thinking about you."

“You’re a menace.”

“I’ve been called worse.” He finally looked up, dark eyes glinting with amusement. “But usually by people who didn’t bother updating their encryption protocols.”

You crossed your arms. “You hacked into my system during lunch, Stark. That’s below the belt. I was eating grilled cheese.”

“Maybe next time add some brie and fig jam. Class it up a little.” He grinned. “You’re welcome, by the way. I just gave you a free security audit.”

You stared at him, deadpan. “Did your ego eat your moral compass for breakfast?”

He stood, sauntering over like confidence incarnate in a Henley and jeans, and leaned against the edge of the workbench — arms crossed, smirk fully loaded.

“I’d argue my ego is my moral compass. And it always points due north to: mess with you.”

“You hacked my system,” you repeated.

He tilted his head. “If I can break in, so can Hydra. I’m doing you a favor.”

You crossed your arms. “This is the third time this month you've done something like this. Last week, you turned my digital assistant into a sassy version of yourself. I had to argue with my microwave for twenty minutes before it would heat my soup.”

He beamed. “He’s got a personality now! Named him Toasty.”

“I’m going to rewrite your DNA.”

“Only if we cuddle after.”

You were going to scream. Or kiss him. It was a very fine line these days.

“I’m going to kill you,” you said conversationally.

He grinned wider. “You’re going to miss me.”

So instead, you narrowed your eyes and said, “I hope you like Shakespeare just as much as JARVIS does.”

He blinked. “What?”

You pulled your phone from your pocket, already typing."Your little AI pet seems to have brushed up on his Shakespeare, because he’s about to speak exclusively in iambic pentameter for the next twenty-four hours."

“Wait. No—”

“And make all puns food-themed.”

Tony’s jaw dropped. “You’re a monster.”

You shrugged, already walking toward the door. “Some people bake sourdough for fun. I emotionally sabotage billionaire AIs.”

Tony groaned. “JARVIS

, don’t you dare—”

“Verily, sir,” JARVIS chimed in serenely from the overhead speaker, “I find thy attitude rather cheesy, like brie upon a croissant most greasy.”

Tony’s head hit the desk.

You smirked. “Toasty says hi.”

It went on like that for weeks.

Tony retaliated by installing a movement sensor in your lab. Every time you entered, SexyBack blared at full volume. FRIDAY wouldn’t let you disable it. She said it was “legally classified as a morale booster.”.

It was a war.

You replaced his AI’s voice with Gilbert Gottfried reading Twilight.

Tony responded by having your smartwatch shout hourly affirmations about his hair.

You hacked his suit’s startup sequence. Now it greeted him with:

“Iron Man: The Human Hot Pocket. Online.”

It didn’t stop there.

He replaced your screensaver with a live feed of himself winking, finger guns included.

You programmed his coffee maker to scream “INCOMING!” every time it dispensed espresso.

Naturally, collateral damage was inevitable.

Bruce’s tablet was cursed to play Baby Shark whenever opened. He developed a twitch.

Sam’s Falcon gear announced all takeoffs with: “I’m a little teapot, short and stout.”

Steve’s toaster quoted Pride and Prejudice in Cher’s voice.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged,” it belted one morning, “that a single man in possession of breakfast must be in want of jam.”

He punched a wall. You both got fined.

Even Clint, ever the stealthy one, wasn’t spared. Every time he drew an arrow, it whispered “pew pew” in Tony’s voice.

The tower teetered on the brink of chaos.

Pepper threatened to move to Dubai.

It was late.

The Tower was asleep, mostly. Except for Tony, who you found in the R&D lounge, hoodie on, arc reactor glowing soft under worn fabric. He looked… still. A rare moment for a man who moved like his thoughts could outrun time.

“You gonna yell at me for the coffee pot thing?” he asked, not looking up.

“I should,” you said, easing into the seat beside him. “FRIDAY tried to launch a counterstrike when I made a cappuccino.”

“She’s passionate.”

Silence fell. He just stared at you like he was debating something he’d rehearsed a hundred times in his head.

You blinked. “What?”

Tony opened his mouth. Closed it. Then, “Do you want me to stop?”

You frowned. “Stop what?”

“The pranks. The hacking. I mean, I know it’s probably childish and annoying and… I don’t know. Maybe I just like having a reason to see you all worked up, to just see you more.”

You sat back, heart thudding.

“That,” you said slowly, “is the least emotionally articulate confession I’ve ever heard.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, well. I build flying suits, not feelings.”

You stood and walked over, stopping inches from him. His breath hitched, and yours did too.

“For the record,” you said, “I love your flying suits. But I also kind of love… this.”

He blinked. “The chaos?”

“The banter. The sabotage. The way your face lights up when you think you’ve outsmarted me, even though I’m always two steps ahead.”

“Debatable,” he muttered.

You leaned in, lips brushing the shell of his ear.

“And I love the way you look at me like I’m the only firewall you’ve never wanted to break.”

He stilled.

Then: “I’ve been in love with you since the day you fried that Russian botnet and called it ‘a poorly coded insult to my intelligence.’”

You smiled.

And then, you kissed him.

It was messy and hot and gloriously overdue. His hands cupped your face like he’d been dying to do it for years, and your fingers curled into his shirt like gravity had given up and he was your anchor now.

When you finally pulled back, breathless, he whispered, “I should have hacked you sooner.”

You smacked his shoulder. “Shut up and kiss me again.”

He did.

And that night, neither of you changed each other’s passwords.

You called a truce.

Sort of.

Now your prank war has a rulebook and a scoreboard. Nat is the referee. Bruce runs support (begrudgingly). Steve is still in therapy.

JARVIS still speaks in sonnets during thunderstorms. Toasty hosts a podcast. FRIDAY hosts a revenge fund.

A year later, Tony proposed via custom hologram code embedded in your firewall — romantic, glitchy, and absolutely extra.

You said yes.

And now, sometimes, late at night, you’ll find yourselves coding side-by-side, teasing each other like always — except now, there’s no more pretending.

Just love. Loud, messy, sarcastic love. With bad lighting, too much coffee, and more happiness than either of you thought you’d ever deserve.

And every morning, when you walk into the lab, “SexyBack” still plays.

You don’t stop it anymore.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading. Don't hesitate to leave a comment behind <3

[gunpowderdtim]

It's no wonder Out happened when you really think about it. Nastya doesn't like organic life because it's complicated, it can break, sometimes it's even unfixable.

quote from gender rebels

Nastya is in love with Aurora, and in saying that she is saying "you are not organic life, I can deal with you because you are metal and algorithm and predictable" - we can see this in bedtime story when she says she'll tweak Aurora's story creation algorithm

screenshot from A Bedtime Story

Aurora is not inorganic. She is not ai. She is a space moon made of flesh and blood and teeth and bone. She is not an ai. She is a body that was taken and stripped of autonomy, of the right to self identify, of the right to think- to be imperfect and organic.

The metal is a veneer that hides how messy and traumatized and unfixable she is. From the outside she is a starship. From the inside she can still bleed.

And this makes them fundamentally incompatible. But yet, they are in love.

And really, it's no wonder Nastya fell in love with Aurora. Let's take a look at Nastya's home planet, or at least home society:

"Terminals were scattered across the planet. There was one on every street corner, one beneath every lamppost and one in every commune block." "The midwife-machine performs a series of programmed manœuvres to quieten [the baby]. It cradles it and hums at several pitches until it finds one that seems most soothing. Mechanical arms stroke the baby’s flesh even as others start the process of implanting augmented reality interfaces into its nervous system." "The Czar an atrophied frame, never present in the real world and worn to dust by the chemical compounds that kept his brain alive so it could live forever in a perfect virtual paradise. The Rabotnik a copy, a mind preserved unchanging in the instant before its death and placed in an everlasting metal frame." (Cyberian Demons)

Its safe to say the world Nastya was born into, from the very minute she was born, was ridden with technology. She has augmented reality interfaces inplanted into her from birth. It would stand to reason that being taken from this society, wherein technology is everywhere, inside and out, would stand for a bit of a shock.

Aurora too had been augmented by the Cyberia.

While it is stated that the last time Nastya had used the ports themselves was directly before her death — "The last time she had used the ports, her tutor had ripped them out of her as the rebels stormed the palace" — Aurora is laced with Cyberian technology. I'd imagine she has something of a 'bluetooth wireless connection' with Aurora, rather than the physical data transfer of files between the ports and Nastya, it may as well be similar enough.

Imagine being Nastya, going from Cyberia, wherein there is augmented reality contantly, transplanted onto a ship with metal blood, a jonny, and a vampire. To Aurora, where the only bits of augmented reality run through Aurora.

Of course she'd fall in love with her. Aurora is familiarity. Aurora isn't organic. Aurora isn't human.

And of course when the undeniable part of aurora that is organic, that is a flesh moon plated in metal with her brain hooked to machines, when so much has broken and been replaced, when, presumably, aurora is less of an algorithm, nastya leaves with the brand cyberia left on her.

Because Aurora healing, becoming more of herself and less of a starship, is messy, and organic, and human.

and hard for nastya.

‘Think how long she’s been flying you around. Think how many bullet holes you’ve punched through her and how many atmospheres you’ve dropped her through. Think how many alterations and improvements we’ve made, Tim to her guns and Ashes to her storage and Brian to her engines and the Toy Soldier to who knows what. How much do you think is left of her after all she’s brought you through?’ Nastya held up the ancient, battered piece of hull plating. Just visible under the grime and scars of particles of space junk was a fragment of the Aurora’s original logo and serial number. Jonny honestly couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a version that hadn’t been painted by the Mechanisms themselves. ‘So she’s free, now.’ Nastya gestured around at the spaceship they were standing in. ‘This Aurora can take you where you want to go. I’m going to take my Aurora somewhere else.’

Aurora was ship of theseus'd. Aurora was improved. Aurora was no longer cyberian. (both literally, and metaphorically)

So nastya left.

[storgicbytes]

one of my BIGGEST and important rambles on ava that questions a lot of stuff that was accepted as factual a lot of times

dimensions, rocketcorp and virtual reality in ava

initially inspired by these tags from @sticksstonessteel and the thinking about rocketcorp simulations. and a certain hc i saw on ao3 once and remembered

eventually it turned into an existential crisis. im sorry moots

warning: OKAY. so. this is very clumsily made and its an assumption made both of canon info and theories that might feel as a complete reach.

this text touches upon possibility AND obscure ideas that might not have definitive proof in canon. there might be not a direct link of events here. but it is very, VERY long and touches many different subjects at once. takes of this long ramble are bold (i could also mention strangely opposing points in the text because i re-thought many concepts along the process of this ramble and mightve not noticed it)

i was wondering about the way the technical-machine device stuff intermingles with the whole literal mercenaries (and a box used for torture) thing. but these tags made me think not only of that

what we've seen so far is that rocketcorp controls a variety of tech, both pc-like interfaces that only they have access to and more "regular" tech, like tvs on which videos from youtube can be played on. [kings backstory]. we've also seen a variety of different tech in the wanted-the box episodes, but not much of it can be used outside whatever advanced shit theyre doing inside the corporation. one of these things however can be used which is surveillance tech, it feels like an important thing to note given that the importance of the corporation might suggest that rocket is responsible for city surveillance in one way or another as well

yet how exactly does a tech corporation tie in with mercenaries, weaponry (and literal torture)?

• rocketcorp

given, again, the grand variety of tech they possess and advanced technology they use, them using literal devices that real world users/sticks from a pc would use (control panel of the box) and it being restricted to them only made me think of something. the whole story of ava/m is built inside digital realms, outernet and internet. taking that into account, obviously, any kind of technological advances in these worlds are crucial to the way of how sticks in it interact with their already technological reality. which made a tech company like rocketcorp so influental in the first place

due to a piece of rocketcorps existence in the king episode and ava s2 teaser and prior to the release of the box i had a thought that the company specializes and presents itself as a "domestic" tech company. not the kind of company that meddles with grand technology and digital stuff, but the one that is accustoming citizens of the outernet with regular tech such as the mentioned tvs. the work of the mercenaries was always perceived to me as just an underground shady work of a company. but the box and a reminder of the chosens wanted poster made me rethink and question whether rocketcorp specializes on technology that changes and affects the reality they're living in, outernet and dimensions itself

i tried to observe the possibility of it and came around to three big thoughts, the most major one being the last

first thought that can give something to this thought is that mercs tech weapons influence physical properties of their world — ultimately damaging objects and people (like it was with the corndog stand and chosen), rendering the objects out of their usual state and bringing actual pain or messing with the state of a stick.

(its also worthy to mention that in the corndog short, prior to the merc and chosen chase appearing onscreen people in the short were already running away, and it does make me wonder if it happened out of potential fear of these weapons or, maybe, potential fear of the chosen one? bringing me back to my post on thinking how chosen & dark crimes were perceived in the internet and possibly outernet)

the fact that weapons changing literal existence of an object and glitching them are available to mercenaries of rocketcorp is a pretty big thing

another potential argument for it is about the memory scanner itself — a thing used for intrusion into a literal brain (code?) of a person. the obvious thing aside – the scanner literally looks like a vr helmet and i initially thought that it was its function before i saw what it was used for

the whole fact that this kind of advanced technology exists, honestly, surpassing the already existing level of technology in stickcity is something that could potentially connect victim and rocketcorp respectively to an ability to meddle with a literal living being, their memory and potentially their code. victim, aware and knowing the process of being directly created from someone's hand might've acquired the knowledge of influencing a stick's literal process of living over the course of all the years. which brings me to my major point:

• dimensions

we all know about the fact that initial pc programs are able to be used in the outernet, which by itself is an interesting discussion of internet and outernet intertwining once again. we know that rocketcorp and pc sticks use interfaces that real world users use. and we know about the existence of the adobe tool board that agent uses literally all their screentime and the adobeflash instruments in victims office. it wasnt a surprising thing to see given that we have mostly explored the way of how pc and internet programs work throughout the series, and it was thought about that well! nothing surprising about these tools being in the outernet as well, mustve acquired it from somewhere! (and honestly, given all the new insane character plot i didnt think about that deeply either)

over the course of events happening in the outernet we have never really seen pc apps used there physically prior to season 2, except for one time of alan's cursor being used there... that required an insane amount of coding and manifestation of the cursor in the outernet space that couldnt be achieved without a stick that is familiar with with a pc.

not only talking about yellows feats, the creation of darks portals is something worth mentioning as well. we know that he is extremely skilled in coding, with it most likely being his main activity (aside from terrorism) in his life in the outernet. no sticks that we've seen created something like literal dimensional portals, like dark did — and he is a stick that is accustomed to the pc and internet as well. and oh, orange. bringing their stylus to outernet and have it revoked almost immediately when caught (which is not surprising at all anymore, that the mercs and rocket workers took an immediate interest in it given canon information and all these theories lol)

and, unsurprisingly, purple, king and the unknown merchant in "the king" episode as well. we know that the minecraft icon could be accessed through a travel to a pc, and that purple was first introduced literally inside of a mac — and the whole bit of purple coming to alanspc trying to steal the icon that the cg had.

(another thought to mention is about the interdimensional travel — the whole fact that the internet and the pc realm is able to be accessed through programs brought to the outernet. (e.g. minecraft portals). but again, these programs were initially coming from a pc, and didnt exist in the outernet. where the actual hell did the blue merchant in the king episode come from????)

this whole fact shows that the only way to access pc programs in the outernet is for something or someone to bring it there.

and victim, posessing all the tools of the whole program he was created in, wouldnt be able to get it through regular means. whether that means acquiring it from someone's elses hands or going to a pc by themselves.

• virtual reality and the position of rocketcorp in outernet

now, im going to bring up outernet and internet intertwining again. outernet sticks do not interact with pc programs physically, like all avam main characters do.

the only times we've seen pc programs and apps physically interact with outernet were shenanigans with the cg, hollowheads, purple & king. people that actually had access to a pc in one way or another.

(..and the damn merchant.)

the fact that these programs existence is quite rare in outernet and maybe even unknown to some, having rocketcorp being a full-on restricted company with classified information, having high influence over tech, exchange of pc programs being seen as a shady activity(!!!!) (the king episode),

— could rocketcorp be somewhat of a main corporate that controls the fabric of the outernet and internet itself, being some sort of a power force and government-ish corporation to the outernet? perhaps, them being seen as officials that have limited knowledge of unaccessible pc programs and internet itself and exclusive (even divine?) power of it that only they are able to possess, providing it to the outernet, initially making them "the people in power" that stand higher than regular sticks of the outernet?

(essentialy, making victim a literal fucking dimension mastermind)

• important part about outernet sticks (that ill probably ramble about in an another post independently)

supposing that rocketcorp does possess power... would they have control over what they decide to stream and show with their tech?

the tv that we've seen in the king episode didnt show any other episode except for the minecraft one. heck, it could've been the only thing shown there.

and in general, it begs the question: are outernet sticks that never traveled beyond its space even aware of internet?

and could've they interpreted the episode above as just fiction, along with the confirmation that our main characters are the ones that are inherently tied with the pcs and the internet in different ways?

(PLEASE tell me if there's proof that confirms otherwise because its a very bold statement given how much outernet and internet are interlinked in the main story. its 2 am i havent slept sometimes i have amnesia and i might be forgetting something very crucial. this assumption was not fully comprehended by me before specifically because most outernet sticks are the same type with the cg and it was confusing when i was just getting back to avam a few years ago)

we also know about the box itself. or, to be more accurate, the boxes. the ones that both chosen and second were trapped in, at the same time, in different places. the ones that were, quite literally, simulations. the ones that have also used pc programs tools.

simulation isnt something that was seen as an ordinary occurence, but it was literally seen twice in the rocketcorp in the same episode. creation of a simulation doesnt seem like an activity that could be used by ordinary sticks either. giving potential highest influence of rocketcorp over pc and internet technologies and its providence, are they able to give simulation experience to others, allowing regular sticks to experience different dimensions in a controlled way? say, for example, in a game?

whoa finally i got it out of my brain. im going to drop family guy pose style

afterthought rollercoaster:

• as far as i remember we didnt see outernet citizens interact with internet like users do, but we do know they possess tech such as television again, that can be bought. there IS tech such as computers (tdls room) but we havent seen them being used by sticks that werent exposed to the concept of the pc and the internet. there is a possibility i missed out on outernet sticks using phones or other tech, but even with this, its possible that our internet is simply not accesible there

• given the possibility of rocketcorp delegating all technology and simulations, providing it to others, possibly allowing smaller companies to use their resources in different cities... is there a possibility that rocketcorp might've been responsible for the gold simulation incident?

• going back to weapons of the mercs, i do wonder whether, even with the pc apps ability to be used in the outernet, the apps themselves having any kind of influence over processes in the outernet — given the whole glitching thing that literally messes with physical objects and people. it is just my own theory, but i dont believe that the glitch thing that is embedded in these weapons comes from the outernet, either

• okay this is going to be a wild concept you dont have to read it

talking about the creation of outernet and the whole race of stickmen, right now i am tending to believe that outernet is still an extension of internet that might've appeared with its creation. i was always open to accepting it but slightly confused by the concept of outernet being natural (bc i constantly try to find logic in worldbuilding el oh el) and tried to suggest a theory that sticks of outernet might've also been created directly (which does feel like a reach atp). with the concepts i discussed in this ramble i dont really feel that confusion, but im honestly not abandoning the idea of creation at some point, either: specifically i had a thought that when outernet first appeared first sticks of that dimension were also created, potentially them finding a way into outernet in some way. but eventually outernet was built as an independent place for their kind and prospered by itself like any civilization would

oh my god im going to drop with exhaustion. but im so happy i got it out

self portrait of my sticksona right now

[selfcestmovies]

Fun in the Framework Daisy Johnson x Daisy Johnson Wordcount: ~4500 Warnings: smut, virtual reality sex, selfcest, fighting then fucking, daisy is hungry, SELFCEST Read and share on Ao3!

~ * ~ * ~

Daisy Johnson stared at the Framework headset in her hands, the sleek, futuristic device reflecting the soft overhead lights. It looked like something straight out of Stark Industries, all smooth curves and sleek, matte black, with subtle blue lines tracing along its surface. The tech felt almost alien, but that’s what made it so exciting. This was S.H.I.E.L.D.’s latest innovation in training—a virtual reality system that could simulate any environment with near-perfect realism. It was like stepping into another world.

“Fitz, you really outdid yourself this time.” Daisy huffed and turned the headset over in her hands for the dozenth time.

Her orders were simple, but Coulson had made sure they were official: support the Framework development by any means necessary. Fitz had tried to meet Daisy half-way and suggested she use the tech’s new sparring simulator, since she had taken such a liking to her physical regiment lately. But she wasn’t in the gym, she was in her dorm—and Daisy was putting her trust in this new, pseudo-futuristic device to simply bring the gym to her.

Or, a “psycho-virtual simulacrum of the gym” as Fitz had explained earlier. Whatever.

Taking a deep breath, Daisy slid the headset over her eyes. The cool material settled against her skin, sending a shiver down her spine, and the world around her began to dissolve, replaced by a black void filled with faint, glowing grids. She could feel a slight hum in the air, like the device was alive and pulsing with energy.

The simulation loaded in an instant, and Daisy found herself standing in the S.H.I.E.L.D. training gym—recreated to every tiny, minute detail. The floor was lined with deep red mats that felt springy underfoot, the walls a soothing combination of dark wood and brick, with soft light flickering in the fluorescent lights above. Everything was rendered in perfect detail, right down to the faint scuffs on the mats from countless prior training sessions. The air was crisp and cool.

Daisy glanced around, catching sight of herself in a long wall mirror. Even the reflection looked flawless. “Impressive, Fitz,” she hummed. Daisy couldn’t help but admire the way she looked—her reflection showed a woman who had been putting in the work. Her body was becoming toned and powerful, the tight black tank top hugging her torso and showing off the early hints of muscle definition in her arms and shoulders. The black leggings she wore emphasized her long legs and the strength in them. She’d been on a new training regime for weeks now, and it was definitely paying off.

“Not bad, Daisy Johnson,” she murmured to herself, a small smile playing on her lips as she turned slightly to catch different angles. “You’re looking good.”

It wasn’t just the physical changes. She felt stronger, more confident, more in control of herself and her abilities as a rookie field agent. She knew she’d come a long way from the hacker-turned-recruit who stumbled her way through her early missions. 

“Alright,” she said aloud, shaking herself out of her self-admiration. “Time to see what this bad boy can really do.”

She flicked her wrist, and the Framework’s interface responded immediately, pulling up a menu of options to populate the training simulation. She could go the traditional route—programmed enemies, obstacle courses, simulated missions—but that felt a little too… easy. Predictable. Then she considered the alternative: simulating a sparring match against May, or Agent Romanoff, or Captain America? 

She winced at the thought of getting her ass kicked in virtual reality. “Maybe something simpler, but still challenging,” she mused. What Daisy really needed was an opponent that would really test her, push her to her limits in new ways. Equally matched but still a true challenge. And that’s when the idea hit her.

“What if…” she mused, her eyes narrowing as she navigated through the options, steeling a quick glance back at the wall of mirrors across the gym. “What if I could fight someone who knows me better than anyone else?”

A smirk curled her lips as she began customizing the scenario. This was going to be interesting. After a few quick adjustments, she set the Framework to create a perfect duplicate of herself. Another Daisy Johnson. She wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but that was half the fun. Besides, how often do you get to spar against yourself?

The room shimmered for a moment, and the air in front of her seemed to ripple like a heatwave. Then, just as quickly, the distortion solidified, and there she was. Another Daisy, standing just a few feet away, with the same sharp eyes, the same confident stance, the same tight black tank top and leggings. It was like looking into a mirror, except this mirror blinked on its own. Her lips curled into a small, knowing smirk.

“Well, this is weird,” the other Daisy said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Daisy couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but you’re definitely… me.”

They both stood there for a moment, sizing each other up. It was surreal, facing herself like this. She knew her own strengths and weaknesses better than anyone, so she knew this was going to be one hell of a fight. And yet, there was something thrilling about it, too. The idea of going toe-to-toe with someone who could match her move for move was exactly the challenge she needed.

Daisy watched her mirror image tighten her fists in anticipation of what was to come.

“Alright, clone-me. Enough stalling” she said, rolling her shoulders and getting into a fighting stance. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

The double mirrored her movements perfectly, a gleam of anticipation in her eyes. “I was about to say the same thing. Think you can keep up with me?”

“Oh, honey,” Daisy replied with a grin, “I’m not the one who needs to worry about keeping up.”

They both moved at the same time, launching into a series of attacks and counters that echoed through the gym. Daisy was used to sparring with some of the best fighters S.H.I.E.L.D. had to offer, but this was something else entirely. Every punch she threw was blocked, every kick dodged with precision. It was like fighting a mirror that anticipated her every move.

But at the same time, Daisy trusted in her instincts and found herself effortlessly blocking, parrying, and sidestepping past everything the double threw at her, too. From the onset, it was a stalemate—but uncanny, and fun, as the Daisies found themselves in a mutual flowstate that felt more like a choreographed dance than a brutal beatdown.

They circled each other, trading blows that came faster and harder with each exchange. Sweat began to bead on Daisy’s forehead, her muscles burning with the effort, but she relished the challenge. The double was just as relentless, not giving an inch.

“This is actually kinda cool,” Daisy panted, ducking under a high kick and sweeping low to try and trip the double. “I mean, I always knew I was a badass, but seeing it like this? Next level.”

The double grinned, jumping back to avoid the sweep and launching into a counterattack. “Yeah, I gotta admit, I’m impressed with myself too. But don’t think I’m going easy on you just because we share a face.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it,” Daisy shot back, her voice tinged with a playful edge. She wasn’t sure when the sparring had started to feel more like a game, but she was enjoying it. There was something liberating about fighting someone who wasn’t trying to kill her, someone who could match her wit as well as her strength. Daisy had faced formidable opponents before—seasoned agents, powered individuals, and everything in between—but this was on another level. It was like trying to fight her own shadow, every strike blocked, every grapple met with an escape, every throw countered with a brutal reversal.

Daisy feinted left, then darted right, aiming a sharp elbow strike at her double’s ribs. The double anticipated it, pivoting smoothly out of the way and grabbing Daisy’s arm mid-motion, using her momentum to flip her onto the mat. The impact jolted through Daisy’s body, but she rolled with it, springing back to her feet almost instantly. “Nice try,” the double said, her voice laced with amusement. “But you’re gonna have to do better than that.”

“Don’t worry,” Daisy shot back, breathing heavily but grinning despite herself. “I’m just getting warmed up.”

They closed the distance again, this time both of them opting for a more brutal style of close-quarters brawling. It was a dance of grapples and throws, each of them trying to gain the upper hand. Daisy managed to get her double into a headlock, only for the double to twist out of it, using Daisy’s own leverage against her to slam her down to the mat again. But Daisy wasn’t down for long. She rolled onto her back, using her legs to scissor around the double’s waist, pulling her down and flipping them over so that she was on top.

Their breaths mingled as they struggled for dominance, each trying to pin the other. Daisy could feel the strength in her double’s muscles, the heat radiating from her body as they grappled. Every time one of them gained an advantage, the other would slip free.

“Damn,” Daisy grunted as she tried to force her double’s shoulders down, her muscles straining with the effort. “You’re tougher than you look.”

The double chuckled, even as she bucked her hips and twisted to throw Daisy off balance. “You’re just mad because I’m as good as you.”

Their bodies collided again, a tangle of limbs and grunts as they fought for control. Daisy managed to get a knee between them, pushing the double back just enough to land a solid punch to her gut. The double doubled over, but only for a second before retaliating with a vicious uppercut that nearly sent Daisy sprawling. But Daisy caught herself, dropping into a low stance and sweeping her leg out in a wide arc, knocking the double’s feet out from under her.

The double hit the mat hard but rolled with the fall, grabbing Daisy’s leg and yanking her down as well. They both scrambled for position, neither willing to give the other the satisfaction of a clean victory. Daisy’s heart pounded in her chest, the adrenaline surging through her veins as she fought with everything she had. This wasn’t just a fight—it was becoming a test of everything she’d become. Each time their bodies clashed, there was a split second of electric connection, and a recognition of their unspoken understanding: the way they moved in perfect synchronicity, and the uncanny rhythm that Daisy couldn’t quite break no matter how hard she tried.

In an act of desperation—or maybe it was luck, at this point, or a glitch in the Framework’s system—Daisy spun behind her double, wrapping an arm around her neck in a chokehold and finally breaking the stalemate to gain an upper hand. The double struggled, clawing at Daisy’s arm, but Daisy held firm, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she tightened her grip.

“I’ve got you,” Daisy whispered, her voice hoarse with exertion.

The double’s response was a low, breathless laugh. “Maybe… but I’m not… giving up…”

With a final burst of strength, the double twisted in Daisy’s grasp, throwing her off balance just enough to break free. Daisy stumbled back, but before she could recover, the double lunged at her, tackling her to the ground. They rolled across the mat in a tangle of limbs, each trying to gain the upper hand, until finally, Daisy found herself pinned beneath the other woman, their identical faces just inches apart.

The gym was filled with the sound of their heavy breathing, the heat of their twinned, exhausted bodies radiating between them. Daisy’s hands were pinned above her head, the double’s weight pressing her down into the mat. For a moment, neither of them moved, the world narrowing to the space between them, to the feel of the double’s body against hers, to the intensity in her double’s eyes.

Daisy’s heart raced, but it wasn’t just from the exertion. There was something else, something deeper, that she was only now beginning to understand. The realization hit her like a freight train—this wasn’t just about winning a fight. It was about something far more primal, far more intimate.

“You’re… good,” Daisy managed to say, her voice breathless and tinged with a tone in her voice that she didn’t quite recognize.

The double’s lips curled into a slow, knowing smile. “So are you.”

For a moment, they just stared at each other, the air between them thick with tension. Daisy could feel her pulse pounding in her ears, her body still humming with the adrenaline of the fight, but now there was something else too—an electric charge that seemed to radiate from every point where their bodies touched.

She tried to shift, to move her arms, but the double held her down, their faces so close that Daisy could feel the warmth of her breath on her lips. “I… I think we’re evenly matched,” Daisy finally whispered, her voice barely more than a breath.

“Maybe,” the double replied, her voice too just as low and laced with a teasing edge. “But I think we’re enjoying ourselves.”

Before Daisy could respond, the double leaned in slowly, the tip of her nose brushing against Daisy’s, and the world seemed to narrow down to that single point of contact. Daisy’s breath hitched, and she felt a shiver run down her spine as their bodies pressed together, the heat between them almost unbearable.

For a split second, the world seemed to stand still, and all Daisy could think about was the way their bodies fit together, the way the double’s breath mingled with hers, the way her heart pounded in her chest. This was her own body that she found herself drawn too, in a twisted, taboo, narcissistic and eternally fucked up attraction. She stared deeply into the eyes of her mirror image, and when her lips curled into a smile, she saw her twin to the same. 

It was an accidental, awkward grind at first, just the natural consequence of their tangled limbs and the adrenaline still pumping through their veins. But the friction, the pressure, it was unmistakable—and suddenly, it wasn’t so accidental anymore. Daisy could feel the double’s body shifting against hers, the movement slow, deliberate, as if testing the waters. There was a moment of hesitation, of uncertainty, and then something clicked into place. The awkwardness melted away, replaced by a mutual understanding, a recognition that this was just another way they were perfectly matched.

The grinding became more purposeful, the double’s hips moving in slow, deliberate circles, and Daisy’s breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t meant for this to happen—hadn’t even considered it—but now that it was, she couldn’t deny how good it felt, how right it felt.

“Hm,” Daisy breathed, her voice trembling as the realization hit her. She wasn’t just enjoying this—she was turned on. Her body responded to the friction, the heat, the way their movements synchronized so perfectly. She was losing control, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to get it back.

The double’s eyes gleamed with mischief as she noticed the change in Daisy’s expression. “What’s on your mind, Daisy?”

Daisy opened her mouth to respond, but the words caught in her throat as the double shifted the weight of her hips again, pressing harder against her. The sensation sent a jolt of pleasure through Daisy’s body, and she gasped, her hands instinctively jolting free of her double’s grasp in order to find purchase on the other Daisy’s hips. She could feel the tight muscles beneath her fingers, the way the double’s body responded to every movement, and it only made her want more.

But then, in the midst of the movement, Daisy’s hand slipped lower, brushing against the curve of the double’s ass. The touch was accidental, but the reaction was immediate. Daisy froze, her eyes widening as she realized what she’d done, but the double only grinned, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

“Hmm,” the double murmured, her voice teasing. “Seems like someone’s getting a little handsy.”

Daisy’s face flushed, but she didn’t move her hand. The warmth of the double’s skin beneath her fingers was intoxicating, and she couldn’t bring herself to pull away. “I… I didn’t mean to—”

“Sure you didn’t,” the double interrupted, her tone playful, but there was an edge of challenge in her voice. “But you know what? I think we like it.”

Daisy’s breath hitched as the double’s hips ground against hers, harder this time, more insistent. Daisy found herself guiding the movement, too, with her hand adjusting to a firmer position on the double’s ass and ensuring that her encouragement was made clear. The pleasure was intense, almost overwhelming, and Daisy could feel herself spiraling, her thoughts scattering in every direction. She could feel the heat swelling between her legs. She knew she should stop, that this was crossing a line she hadn’t even known existed, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want to.

“Go on,” the double urged, her voice low and husky, a seductive purr that sent shivers down Daisy’s spine. “You’ve already come this far. Don’t hold back now.”

Daisy’s grip tightened as she gave in to the magnetic pull between them, her fingers digging into the double’s firm flesh. “Fuck—our ass,” the thought spat from her lips without filter: the relishing in the fact that feeling up her own body from this new perspective was driving her wild at her core. She brought her second hand to join the first, splaying all ten fingers wide against her clone’s backside and gripping tight. “—Feels so perfect…”

The double didn’t just respond; she thrived on it, her body arching back into Daisy’s touch, the grinding of their hips becoming almost desperate, each movement pushing them closer to the edge. The air around them was thick with heat, their breaths mingling in quick, ragged gasps as the tension between them reached a fever pitch.

“You fucking love this, don’t you?” the double hissed, her voice low and dripping with sinful delight. “You love feeling your own body pressed against you, every fucking inch of it. I can feel you getting wet for me.”

Daisy couldn’t find the words to respond, her thoughts tangled in a haze of raw pleasure and disbelief. The double wasn’t wrong—she did love it, more than she ever thought possible. Every curve, every muscle, every shiver that ran through her own body was reflected in her double, amplifying the intensity until it was almost unbearable. The realization that she was turned on by her own form—by the sheer power and beauty of it—was electrifying.

“Fuck, you’re perfect,” Daisy finally managed to choke out, her voice rough with desire. Her hands roamed the double’s body, exploring every inch she could reach. Her fingers trailed up the double’s spine, tracing the line of muscle that flexed beneath her touch, feeling the strength there, the familiar power that she knew so well. “Every fucking part of you—of me—so fucking perfect.”

The double’s breath hitched at the praise, her eyes darkening with lust as she pressed harder against Daisy, their bodies moving in sync, the friction driving them both wild. “Yeah? You like that? You like knowing how fucking hot you are?”

Daisy nodded, too overwhelmed to speak, her mind spinning as she lost herself in the sensation. She’d never thought of herself this way, but now, with her double grinding into her, their bodies so perfectly matched, it was impossible to ignore. She was hot—fucking hot—and it felt incredible to finally acknowledge it, to revel in it. Daisy let her gaze finally break from her double’s eyes and drift down her torso and towards their chests, like mirror images pressed together, their identical tank tops clinging firm to their curves glistening with sweat and heaving up and down with each synchronous, labored breath.

The double’s grin was wicked as she leaned in closer, her breath hot against Daisy’s ear. “I’m gonna make you come so hard you’ll be begging for more,” she whispered, her voice a promise, a challenge.

Daisy’s heart pounded in her chest, the anticipation almost too much to bear. She could feel the double’s breath on her skin, could feel the heat radiating off her body, the way their sweat-slicked skin slid together. And then, without warning, the double’s tongue darted out, licking a slow, deliberate line up Daisy’s neck, tracing the curve of her jaw, and up to her cheek. The sensation was a shock to Daisy’s system—messy, wet, and impossibly hot. She gasped, her body arching into the touch, every nerve ending on fire as the double’s tongue left a trail of heat and spit in its wake. The wetness of it, the way it smeared across her skin, was filthy, primal, and it only made Daisy want more.

“Fuck,” Daisy moaned, her eyes fluttering shut as she surrendered to the sensation. “That’s so fucking hot, Daisy… do it again.”

The double didn’t need to be told twice. She leaned in again, this time slower, more deliberate, her tongue sliding up Daisy’s neck with a slow, teasing intensity that made Daisy’s knees weak. She could feel the double’s breath against her skin, could feel the heat of it mingling with her own, and it sent a shiver down her spine.

“You like that?” the double murmured wet against her ear, her voice low and full of dark satisfaction. “We taste so sweet, Daisy.”

“Yeah,” Daisy gasped, her voice hollow, barely more than a breath. “Fuck, Daisy…” The words came out choked, whispered. Speaking her own name in the throes of passion still felt almost perverse and alien, but she had come to embrace it. “Daisy,” again, she breathed the word and locked eyes again with her twin. 

Their bodies moved together, the grinding becoming more frantic, more desperate, as they neared the edge. The heat between them was unbearable, every touch, every movement sending shockwaves of pleasure through Daisy’s body. She could feel the double’s muscles tensing on top of her, could feel the way their bodies fit together so perfectly, every curve and line and angle aligned in a way that felt almost too good to be true.

“Come on, Daisy,” the double urged, her voice hoarse with need. “Let go. I know you want to. I can feel how close you are—how fucking good this feels.”

Daisy was right there, teetering on the edge of oblivion, her body trembling with the intensity of it all. She could feel the double’s breath on her skin, could feel the way their bodies ground together, her legs locking even tighter into Daisy’s lap. The friction was almost too much to bear. And then, with a final, desperate pulse, the world exploded around her.

“Fuck!” Daisy cried out, her voice raw as the orgasm ripped through her, every muscle in her body tensing as she came hard, her hips bucking against the double’s in a frenzy of motion. The double followed right behind her, their bodies shaking, quaking, as they climaxed together, the pleasure so intense it was almost painful.

They stayed like that for a moment, their bodies locked together in the aftermath, panting heavily as they tried to catch their breath. The double’s weight was comforting against Daisy’s, her body warm and solid and so fucking perfect, and Daisy couldn’t help but smile, a lazy, satisfied grin that spread across her face as she lay there, basking in the afterglow.

“Fuck,” Daisy finally managed to say, her voice breathless and full of awe. “That was… holy shit.”

The double chuckled, the sound low and full of satisfaction, as she rolled off Daisy, collapsing beside her on the mat. “Yeah… it was.”

They lay there in silence for a while, just breathing, their bodies still tingling from the intensity of their shared climax. Daisy’s mind was still spinning, trying to process everything that had just happened, but all she could focus on was the warmth of the double beside her, the way their bodies had fit together so perfectly, the way they had moved in sync, as if they were two halves of the same whole.

“That was… unexpected,” the other Daisy said after a while, her voice quiet and thoughtful.

Daisy couldn’t argue with that. It had been perfect in its own twisted way. “Yeah,” Daisy agreed, her voice soft, almost reverent. “Yeah, it was.”

They stayed like that for a while longer, just lying there, their bodies spent, their minds still buzzing with the aftermath. Daisy couldn’t help but think that maybe—just maybe—this was exactly what she had needed all along.

- - - - -

Daisy Johnson slid the headset off, blinking as the cool air of the lab replaced the heated atmosphere of the Framework’s simulated gym. Her heart was still pounding, the memory of what had just happened lingering in her mind. It had felt so absolutely, undeniably real to her. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself, before leaving her dorm and making the slow trek back to Fitz’s lab. 

She avoided all semblance of eye-contact as she neared Fitz’s desk with a casual ease that belied the storm of emotions swirling inside her. With a gentle thud, she placed the Framework prototype back on his workbench.

Fitz looked up, a curious eyebrow raised. “So, how was it? Any glitches? Unexpected bugs?”

Daisy gave him a sly grin, leaning against the desk with a relaxed confidence. “Let’s just say your Framework is… very realistic. No bugs that I could find, but it definitely pushed all the right buttons.”

Fitz’s brow furrowed slightly, clearly puzzled by her cryptic answer. “Pushed the right buttons? What does that mean?”

“It means I approve, Fitz,” she said flatly. “This tech is going to make training a whole lot more… interesting.”

Fitz chuckled, though he still looked a bit bewildered. “I’ll take that as a good sign, then.”

“Trust me,” Daisy said, patting the headset affectionately before turning to leave the lab. “You’ve outdone yourself with this one.”

As she walked away, she could feel Fitz’s eyes on her, still trying to figure out what exactly she meant. But Daisy just smiled to herself, the memory of her time in the Framework still fresh, knowing full well that this was one secret she’d keep to herself. For now.

[digitalmarketingaquil]

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Phone : +91 99 700 38903

[cyanophore]

Fuck it, dropping my sona. I have no art for this goober, but I've got a lot of lore about who they are and how they work, which has accumulated over a couple years, so wall of text incoming.

Name is O/LETS-061 (They/Them, Operations/Logistics Engineering and Technical Support, or informally, Ollie/Outlets!), and they're an industrial-model protogen with an integrated fusion reactor.

Kind and timid, relates well to AIs. Can generate frankly absurd quantities of electricity, but has to worry about cooling and radiation exposure. Makes them indispensable in scenarios where electricity is necessary for life support or to keep AIs from shutting down.

Gray-to-white fur, usually covered by an industrial hardsuit. Physically large, with enhanced legs and skeleton to bear the weight of the reactor, which itself looks something like a cylindrical backpack. Long, very thick tail (think Mewtwo) which serves as a primary power conduit for the reactor.

Lots of details under the cut:

Introduction: a kindly, introverted protogen who sees beauty in the purpose, harmony, and artistry of large-scale technological systems. They relate well to artificial minds—or 'spirits'—and enjoy interfacing with them. Their character flaws are timidity and occasional willingness to take the path of least resistance.

O/LETS-061 is an acronym for Operations/Logistics Engineering and Technical Support, followed by their production batch number. Ollie is genderless, and belongs to a product line designed for engineering tasks in an industrial, municipal, or military capacity. To that end, they were born with a wide-scope knowledge base encompassing everything they need to work with a variety of advanced technologies. They are equipped with a cold fusion reactor which can, with sufficient fuel and supplementary cooling systems, supply power to a small city or starship. Generating power does entail some personal risk, typically due to overheating, though it is generally safe if safety limits are observed.

Physical Description: Ollie stands at around 228cm (~7'6") from the tip of their ears to their paws, and weighs just under 190 kilograms (~418 lb.) due to their extensive array of cybernetics, industrial-grade protective gear, integrated tools, and reactor. To accommodate the additional mass, their skeleton has been reinforced and their legs augmented with powered load-bearing systems.

Their fur is gray, and their cybernetics have dark violet plating and lighting. Their visor is black with purple lighting. Eyes convey expression through simple geometric shapes, and their virtual mouth has a simple curved shape with a set of small fangs. In general, they prefer to open their nanite visor and use their organic larynx to speak. On the right side of their visor, they have a single external screen which typically displays reactor temperature and radiation monitoring data, serving to alert people nearby of reactor function.

To integrate with power grids, their tail contains a high-throughput power conduit leading directly out of the reactor, ending in a universal connector. The tail is self-articulated, over a meter long, and about as large around as a human calf at its widest. For a good reference of size and shape, think Mewtwo. Their tail contains layers of insulation and powerful synthmuscle to bear the weight of the cabling inside, and the electrical connector at the end is marked with hazard tape. If necessary, they can use the electrical output and raw strength of their tail to defend themself.

While working, they are usually seen wearing a hardsuit of industrial protective gear incorporating layers of insulation, impact guards, and tool storage options. When off-duty, however, they remove this suit and can detach much of the backpack assembly surrounding their reactor core, including the thermoelectric generator, supplemental heat management components, and fuel storage. This sheds around 60 kilograms of bulky equipment, slimming their profile down sufficiently that they can wear ordinary clothing if they so choose, though the reactor becomes inoperable in this state.

Without the industrial equipment, they have a bulky build. Their fur sometimes gets unkempt from wearing protective gear for long periods; they go through a lot of shampoo and conditioner. They tend to choose utilitarian clothing, but occasionally buy magnets or decals to put on their cybernetics. 

Personality and Background: In contrast to their large, imposing appearance, Ollie is a kind and affable person. In their day-to-day life, they have a small but close circle of friends. They rely on regular, recurring social events to maintain contact with others.

One character flaw they have is tending to think of themself (consciously or not) as a piece of support infrastructure rather than an agent in their own right. They tend to be meek and follow others' lead, dismissing their own ideas on how to proceed even when they might be the expert on a given topic.

In the event of power outages or maintenance requiring primary reactors to be taken offline, units such as Ollie are a vital emergency resource. Many spirits depend on an uninterrupted source of power to survive, as do organics who live in environments where life-support systems are necessary.

When serving in a capacity where others depend on their power production and expertise for survival, Ollie shines. Suddenly, they find themself delegating tasks, triaging problems, and coordinating relief efforts with authority and calm. Even though they might be physically tethered to coolant feeds and power conduits throughout the ordeal, emitting too much radiation for anyone to approach them, O/LETS-061 can become the beating heart of a stricken space colony or starship until the danger passes. They take a lot of pride in this knowledge.

When they aren't working, one activity they enjoy is diving. They own a set of aquatic-style arms and tail with retractable gills, which they can attach to their body as needed. Immersion in water helps Ollie to control excess heat, also providing an instinctual sense of safety and comfort.

They enjoy the alien, bizarre environment of the ocean floor, often taking long-distance hikes across the seabed to explore wrecks, reefs, and other places of interest. Sometimes they will go with friends, but they feel just as comfortable traveling alone. In order to return to the surface, they require a floatation device and compressed air, otherwise they sink like a rock. If that fails, they either have to hike back to shore or call someone to come pull them up with a cargo winch. 

Reactor Function: Ollie's reactor core is integrated directly with their biological and cybernetic systems. It's as much a part of their body as their hands or ears. They do have onboard cooling systems, but there's only so much heat they can shunt away from the reactor, limiting their energy production to a few megawatts when not attached to a larger cooling system.

Rather than fusing helium-3 and tritium, as municipal reactors do, O/LETS-061's reactor makes use of a tritium-deuterium reaction. This requires a much lower temperature to induce a reaction, but generates more radiation.

Given access to adequate fuel supplies and large-scale heat management infrastructure, Ollie's maximum safe output skyrockets to 660-700 megawatts. Operating at that level, they can run systems up to ship drives, manufacturing plants, and so forth. Sustaining this maximal level of output for longer than a day or two, however, can lead to fatigue and slow accumulation of radiation damage in excess of what their body can manage.  

Naturally, there are certain risks associated with the act of lighting off nuclear reactions inside one’s own body. Ollie is designed for this, but there is strain involved. By far, the greatest limitation is heat management. Onboard coolant circulation carries waste heat to retractable radiator fins mounted on their back and thighs, which extend as necessary. Combined with shielding inside their body, this keeps most of the heat away from their biological components, but their internal temperature can reach up to 50° C (122° F) when running at high power.

To combat the problem of their body tissues literally poaching in their own fluids under these conditions, maniples of nanites in their bloodstream work at the microscopic level to prevent (or reverse, where possible) the breakdown of heat-sensitive proteins. In addition, Ollie's chestplate has a number of couplings to attach external coolant hoses. In an overheating emergency, these can be used to inject supercooled liquid into their reactor, an extreme but potentially life-saving measure.

The internal shielding and bloodstream nanites also work to protect them from the vast majority of the reactor's radiation. Thanks to a number of alterations to their genetics and biology, radiation is actually less of a problem than one would expect. Their body is able to repair microscopic damage from radiation exposure which would be irreversible in most organisms, and can do so on an ongoing basis while under heavy exposure. The real threat lies in exposing others to radiation—Ollie is careful to warn bystanders to find protection when taking their reactor to high power settings.

Thanks to their radiation-hardened biology and ability to detect radiation in the environment, Ollie is uniquely suited to handling and safely disposing of fissile material.

...and that's about it! Love my guy. Thank you for reading! :)

[materialsscienceandengineering]

World's smallest shooting video game uses nanoscale technology

A research team led by Professor Takayuki Hoshino of Nagoya University's Graduate School of Engineering in Japan has demonstrated the world's smallest shooting game by manipulating nanoparticles in real time, resulting in a game that is played with particles approximately 1 billionth of a meter in size. This research is a significant step toward developing a computer interface system that seamlessly integrates virtual objects with real nanomaterials. They published their study in the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics. The game demonstrates what the researchers call "nano-mixed reality (MR)," which integrates digital technology with the physical nanoworld in real time using high-speed electron beams. These beams generate dynamic patterns of electric fields and optical images on a display surface, allowing researchers to control the force field acting on the nanoparticles in real time to move and manipulate them.

Read more.

[luna-wing-cns274]

Legionspace... it is... difficult for this one to grasp. It should be natural, but it is foreign.

Is it... safe enough to...

Build a bridge through?

This one would see her freinds, look them in the eye, if only through data.

< L4 Ma'ii: Hello again, Styx. Since receiving your message, I've given this a bit of thought.

For your purposes, I think Legionspace is probably a poor option. I think you'll find that an Omninet connection of reasonable bandwidth and an enhanced subjectivity suite, or some other form of neural intermediary, will prove more than sufficient to emulate the experience of physically meeting your friends.

Allow me to explain. >

< I see no reason why Legionspace shouldn't be foreign to you. It's a highly specialized environment, developed for military use. Naval NHPs need intense training and regular drills to gain tactical proficiency in its use. It serves as a naval battleground, designed to consolidate, manage, and direct the digital and cognitive power of entire fleets; a terrible choice for recreation or enjoyment. I wouldn't be surprised if it has been used for such purposes before, but this is far from it was designed to do.

Its primary function is to provide an extremely low latency, high bandwidth medium for transmission of experiences or qualia between NHPs. Such a medium is necessary to support the formation of gestalts, that is, the temporary merging of multiple NHP subjectivities into singular, remarkably powerful intelligences.

Legionspace is not meant for use by humans, except through multiple degrees of ontologic filtering and anthropocentric translation. In fact, direct exposure to Legionspace qualia can easily destroy a human subjectivity. Even experiences transmitted with entirely benign intent may be so incompatible that the human mind suffers the equivalent of a system crash on attempting to process them.

So, then, unless you're interested in merging with your friends or directly interfacing with each others' minds, use of Legionspace shouldn't be necessary. Moreover, if there are any humans you wish to meet, it may be a challenge to maintain the necessary ontologic filtering. Even with these safety measures in place, a human may find prolonged Legionspace interaction to be...draining.

An easier, more accessible solution would be a somatosensory uplink, achievable through the use of a standard enhanced subjectivity suite. Rather than directly bridging one mind to another, this process involves the use of a neural intermediary to temporarily replace the physical body with a virtual one; an avatar. In the case of humans, sensory information from the body is intercepted and replaced with computer-generated stimuli, and outgoing impulses from the brain are translated into controls for a virtual avatar.

Much of the technology was pioneered by SSC, and is used as one mode of accessing the company's virtual-reality Omninet campuses. If you've heard of full subjectivity sync cybernetics, they are an extension of the same principles, used by mech pilots to control their chassis as a human would control their own body.

It is a mature technology which has undergone a great deal of refinement, but there are still risks, especially where humans are concerned. For them, shifting to an unfamiliar body can be unpleasant, sometimes traumatic. They can, but not always, experience dysphoria, disorientation, nausea, dissociative symptoms, a variety of side effects. In cases where the simulated body is notably different from a humanoid one, the subjectivity may reject or recognize the unreality of the substitute body, leading to extreme distress.

On the other hand, as I understand it, exploration of alternate forms can also be a liberating, enjoyable experience. The level of comfort varies from human to human. Some are able to tolerate very unfamiliar experiences, while others find themselves unable to use somatosensory uplinking at all. For most of our kind, of course, changing from one body to another is as simple as switching input sources. While the architecture of the human brain is not naturally constructed to accommodate body replacement, we lack such impediments.

Come to think of it, Hachiko recently had reason to research this topic. We know a human mech pilot, Sokaris Kelsius, callsign Opossum ( @the-last-patch ). He was badly injured in the course of combat; we went to aid him. In the course of treating his wounds, Hachiko used his full subjectivity sync cybernetics to establish somatosensory uplink, both to facilitate communication and provide pain relief. To do so, she rapidly constructed an avatar for him which initially failed to match with his physical body. This initially led to some dysphoric symptoms, but after some refinement of the avatar, he was able to use it seamlessly to communicate with us through our own avatars.

I bring this up because I am aware of the somewhat unique relationship you have to your own organic body. This is a factor which does not exist for most NHPs. Should you decide to pursue the use of somatosensory uplinking, I could forsee some obstacles associated with the relationship between your casket and body.

All of this might necessitate surgical implantation of a neural intermediary between your nervous system and casket, similarly to how a human would have an enhanced subjectivity suite installed between body and brain. I know that your nervous system does not support suspension or alteration of input delivered to the casket--perhaps such an implant might be beneficial in other regards, as well.

As for the other end of the equation, the avatar, if might be best to use an avatar which closely matches your physical body to avoid potentially unpleasant experiences.

Still, compared to the prospect of using Legionspace, this may be safer and simpler to achieve, and the outcomes more enjoyable. Access to Legion bridging cybernetics and Omninet connection of sufficient bandwidth to make use of them is generally restricted to military or corporate forces. It is possible, and can be used safely, but the resources required may be difficult to procure.

One other note: if you ever wish to wish to visit us, you are more than welcome. The simulated environment we use as our home is a hybridized Legion-adjacent environment; it can support qualic transfer, but in general, we typically use physical simulations to interact with one another. This conserves processing power, and to be completely frank, pure Legionspace is an environment we associate with some very unpleasant memories.

I wish you luck, Styx. Let me know if I can help. >

[leonaquitaine]

Sights of Eorzea: A Quick Update!

First of all - sorry for the lull in posts about pretty things!

The team behind the Sights of Eorzea discord server has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to set up the space, and it's consuming a good chunk of my free time. With that said, much has been done - so here's a quick feature rundown, and a teaser of things to come!

Guides

Every single guide I've worked on so far is listed there, and you can filter by subject and type!

Places to go, Studios to visit

One of the most used features in the server, the gpose-location forum allows users to post their screenshots with location and search tags - so if you're hunting for that perfect spot, this is the place for you!

In the same forum, you can find Studios as well! They're categorized by physical data center (NA, EU, JP, and OCE) and residential zones, and if you have a studio you can create your own entry and let other people discover your amazing work!

In the works: External location database

In parallel, we are also preparing to launch an external website specifically designed for scene search! It will be in sync with the server's gpose-location forum, allowing external users to have access to the contributed entries and search by tags!

(I know, the interface is awful. It's a work in progress, Ok? ;))

We're also planning to have a map view of these entries, where you can look for different angles and perspectives!

With all that said - you're invited to join Sights of Eorzea today and participate in its already vibrant and welcoming community! Join us as we forge new friendships, share captivating stories, and embark on adventures together!

P.S. I promise I'll resume my usual gpose and virtual photography content soon™; thanks for your patience!

[yumeinati]

Do you ever think about how Nastya looked at Briar Rose and probably had flashbacks to Cyberia?

Hear me out. At birth, Cyberians have their interfaces implanted into their nervous system. It is safe to assume from the fiction Cyberian Demons that they were expected to live in that digital world. Even in the song by the same name, Nastya mentions that her father is taking over small networks and her mother is uploading to parties.

Her mother wasn't even conscious during her birth, she was actively plugged into the interface during it. Later on, it's even mentioned that the Czar is using chemicals to keep his brain alive so he can live happily in that virtual world, but he's physically described as having an 'atrophied frame'. This virtual world is so idealized in Cyberia that people will willingly plug themselves in and just leave their physical forms to deteriorate.

Which then brings us back to Nastya seeing Briar plugged into those machines. She may be asleep, but there must be some level of awareness that she still has.

Nastya saw Briar and must have had thoughts of another time, another life where that would have been her, just like her mother. Lying there, plugged into a machine. Whether by her own choice or not, who truly knows?

Anywho, that's my daily Nastya thought, thank you for coming to my TedTalk, I have plenty more of them if anyone ever wants to hear them <3

[honeybee-melody]

Hello I am making a separate comic of 𝘼𝙎𝙆 𝙂𝙊𝙇𝘿𝙄𝙀 𝘼𝙉𝙔𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝙂𝙀𝘿 (AGAR) One being REBOOT REHABILITATION SCHOOL, and one being just asking questions. If your interested in knowing more about the story plot keep reading! Other wise ask as many questions as you like! :)

Premise:

In a world where animatronics are more than just machines, the AGAR (ASK Goldie Anything Recharged) Reboot Rehabilitation School was established to help broken animatronics rediscover their purpose, heal from traumatic experiences, and become functional members of society once again. The school takes in animatronics of all types: those whose bodies have deteriorated, those whose emotions have malfunctioned, and those who are haunted by painful memories of the past. At RRS, they will work to fix what’s broken, find peace, and perhaps discover who they are beyond their past traumas.

Setting:

AGAR Reboot Rehabilitation School is located on the outskirts of a sprawling city, hidden from public view but known to those who are aware of animatronic history. The facility is a combination of futuristic technology and old-school charm, symbolizing both the new wave of rehabilitation technology and the remnants of a forgotten past. The walls are lined with holographic interfaces for therapy and virtual reality experiences, while physical workshops help animatronics repair their broken or malfunctioning parts.

The school is divided into sections:

○ Therapy Zones: Private rooms for one-on-one counseling or group therapy. Soft, calming lights and neutral-colored walls create a safe space for emotional healing.

○ Rehabilitation Zones: Workshops where animatronics receive physical repairs, like upgrading damaged systems, reconnecting wires, or refurbishing joints and movement functions. These areas are a mixture of technology and artistry.

○ Memory Reconstruction Chambers: A dark, introspective room where animatronics can relive key moments from their past—guided simulations that help them confront their traumatic memories and emotional scars.

○ Common Areas: Open spaces for animatronics to relax, socialize, and interact. These areas are designed to foster friendship and build a sense of community.

Plot:

Act 1: Arrival at RRS

The animatronics arrive at Reboot Rehabilitation School, each struggling with their own unique malfunction. Some are excited about the possibility of fixing themselves, while others are reluctant to face their issues. Goldie, in particular, is resistant to the idea of rehabilitation, preferring to remain in his chaotic state. The animatronics are introduced to the program’s leaders—therapists, engineers, and fellow animatronics who have successfully navigated their rehabilitation process.

Act 2: Struggles and Conflicts

As the animatronics begin their rehabilitation journey, they face challenges. Goldie’s internal conflicts surface, especially as he comes face-to-face with animatronics like Freddy (who represents everything Goldie once had). He battles feelings of abandonment, guilt, and anger, and his chaos begins to disrupt the harmony in RRS. Meanwhile, Rex’s self-esteem plummets, Cody’s glitches create misunderstandings, and Penny grows increasingly frustrated with her memory loss

Through group therapy sessions and physical repair activities, the animatronics begin to bond, but not without friction. Sunny’s relentless optimism frustrates others, and Luna’s speech impediment isolates her from the group. However, as the days pass, they start to form connections, offering each other support, and slowly begin to heal.

Act 3: Breaking Points and Revelations

A major incident (perhaps a crisis or a triggering event from Goldie’s past) forces the animatronics to confront their issues head-on. Goldie may have a breakdown, revealing his deep-rooted pain and fear of being forgotten. In this critical moment, all the animatronics must come together, each offering what they’ve learned from their rehabilitation process to help Goldie—and ultimately themselves—move forward.

Act 4: Resolution

By the end of the story, Goldie confronts his past, makes peace with his actions, and begins to accept who he is without needing external validation. Each animatronic finds a form of healing—whether it’s through physical repair, emotional growth, or reconnection with their identity. RRS, in the end, is not just a place for fixing malfunctions; it’s a place for understanding, growth, and transformation.

Themes:

Healing and Redemption: The story revolves around the animatronics’ journey to heal from their emotional, physical, and psychological wounds.

Identity and Acceptance: Each character’s arc is about rediscovering their true self, accepting flaws, and learning that imperfections don’t define their worth.

The Power of Community: Through supporting one another, the animatronics learn that they don’t have to face their struggles alone.