#Electric Current Sensor

[futureelectronic1527]

Melexis: Isolated integrated current sensor IC MLX91220/21

https://www.futureelectronics.com/resources/featured-products/melexis-solutions-for-onboard-charging-applications . The second generation of isolated integrated current sensors MLX91220 and MLX91221 are Hall-effect based current sensors that are qualified for use in a range of automotive and industrial applications. With 300 kHz bandwidth, they suit a variety of power conversion applications lower than 50 A RMS. https://youtu.be/mWhvFjMa4VM

[takumiraine]

So I’ve fallen into the DPxDC thing. Not sure how, and I only have fandom characterizations and wiki knowledge but. I have a thing.

<next>

Once upon a time there was a boy, no older than fourteen, with hair darker than night and eyes bluer than the summer sky. Once upon a time, there was a budding scientist with a caring sister and two lovably scattered scientist parents. Once upon a time, there was a terrible accident. Once upon a time there was a boy, no older than fourteen, with hair whiter than snow, skin paler than death, eyes greener than toxic waste. Once upon a time, the boy needed help as more and more potentially world ending events descended on his town. Once upon a time, nobody but the government came. Once upon a time, the boy, his sister, and his friends escaped.

This is what happened next.

When they split up, Danny had drawn Gotham. Gotham with its so called “vigilante family”. Gotham whose so called “protectors” had been asked multiple times through the so called “Justice League” for help. But just like true justice, they were blind to his requests. His pleas. Both he and Amity Park were left to rot. It had been five years now but Danny was still mad. When he and his friends escaped the three of them each went to a different League infested city. They weren’t strong enough to do more than gather intel but…. Intel would lead to openings.

It took a bit of Tucker’s help in re-establishing his identity and giving him a realistic transcript for what his trajectory would have been if he wasn’t constantly fighting ghosts (mid to high Cs with a couple Bs instead of mid to low Ds with a couple Cs). But he managed a halfway decent scholarship to Gotham U. It covered tuition, books, and just enough for some food.

Sure Danny was technically homeless, but he’s lived through worse. Besides, the shitty parts of town had plenty of empty apartments. Careful use of his ghost powers made acquisition of an apartment a breeze. By the time the semester started, Danny had found himself a place. Tucker had slipped into the network and made sure the landlord wouldn’t be renting it - a coincidental shift of the management had been really helpful, Danny wouldn’t lie - as it looked as if it had been permanently bought. Danny did some within-wall plumbing to get himself water access, then rewired the electrical box outside to grant him access to the grid. Though it was all illegal and would crumble if people talked to each other about it, he counted his blessings for the moment. Illegal meant fewer ways to be tracked after all.

Ridiculous that a nineteen year old had to think about avoiding being tracked, but here he was. Every time he saw the bat signal in the distance his core writhed, and the nearby ghosts scattered. Crime Alley had its own masked vigilante, who didn’t seem to be always on good terms with the Bats, which was fine by him. The less chance of running into them the less chance he had of blowing his “Normal Human Dan Nightingale” life to pieces. Danny hadn’t seen this Red Hood person face to face yet, but he had heard stories.

Gotham had enough ambient ecto to sustain him without his ghost form and trips to the Realms, which was good because the more he used his powers, the more likely he was to get picked up by the Government’s sensors. The GIW had been sent by The League after all. They were trouble enough on their own. He didn’t want them to have backup while his own was spread across the country. He missed flying and seeing the stars, but Danny had to admit that he was a huge fan of the not getting hunted for sport thing.

It made times like these difficult though. Currently Danny was being mugged. Or… the guy was attempting to mug him. “For the fifth time dude, I live in this part of town. I don’t have any money.” Danny was trying to explain to the guy holding a knife to his midsection.

In another life he would have kicked the guy’s ass. Instead he had his hands up as he was pressed back to the crumbling brick and boarded up window of what used to be a shop front.

“Don’t play games with me kid! You’re going to college. You have money.” The guy pressed the knife point harder into his stomach, the knife tip barely a pound of pressure away from puncturing his skin. As it was he’d have to mend his shirt.

“Yeah, on a shitty scholarship. I can’t even afford dinner every night.” Thank god for ambient ecto. “Here I’m going to reach into my pocket and get my wallet.” Slowly Danny lowered one of his hands and slid two fingers into his pocket, coming back out with a thin, worn leather wallet. He raised it back up and unfolded it “no credit cards.” He slid his fingers into where he kept the two dollars he had left this month and turned them invisible. Then he tilted it so the would be mugger could see. “See? Nothing. Can I go home now? I’ve got the rest of an essay to write before the library opens tomorrow. I don’t even have a computer to type it on myself.”

“You’re lying! You’ve gotta have something!” The guy was getting more and more frantic. Probably jonesing for a fix of whatever drug flooded this place.

“If I had it I would have given it to you.” Danny explained patiently, “I have more sense than to get stabbed over some cash. But I don’t have it.”

“Liar!” The man yelled, jabbing the knife into him. Danny grunted in pain, not a shout, pain didn’t make him shout anymore, as the heavy thud of boots hit the ground. The guy was suddenly removed from in front of him. Danny swore loudly, careful to press his hands around the knife as his core demanded he do something. Instead all he did was breathe. When he got enough of a handle on the pain-fight response to know his eyes weren’t changing, Danny looked up.

The first thing he noticed was a red bat logo on the man’s chest. “Oh no not you.” He groaned half to himself.

The man slammed his mugger into the wall with a sick crack, and let him slump to the ground beside where Danny was bent over. “Excuse me?” The man asked, voice modulator seeming to glitch slightly, coming out more robotic. That was probably Danny’s fault. He needed a tighter control of his aura. But he didn’t have it right now.

“I don’t need your help.” He ground out through grit teeth.

“You’ve been stabbed.” The man explained, as if Danny was someone in shock. Which, fair. He might be.

“You’re one of those Bat fucks. I don’t need help from a Bat.” He grit out in reply, voice barely held together under his growl.

“I am not with the Bats.” Danny snorted, then groaned as that was the absolute wrong choice. Instead he just reached up with one bloody hand, which he couldn’t keep the slight tremor out of, and swiped his blood across the red bat symbol on his “hero’s” chest. “Oh. That. We…. Had a falling out.”

“Right. Well. I’ll leave you to it. Next time, let me get mugged.” Danny took another fortifying breath, trying to settle his core. It screamed pain-revenge-fight at him, but now was not the time. He needed to get back to his apartment and get this knife out of him. Then check in with Sam and Tucker. Maybe Jazz. Though she was at one of the Ivy League schools and he really should leave her be. Let someone have a future.

The man with the red bat logo said something after him as Danny shouldered past and shuffled down the street, but Danny ignored it.

Fucking Bats. Fucking Gotham. Just…. Fuck.

[sightseertrespasser]

Odds of Survival part two: Electric Boogaloo

Part 2 of Jazz and Prowl in space!

Prowl loves entrusting his life to reckless strangers.

———————————————————————

Prowl pulled the release to the airlock and the music was swallowed by the vacuum of space.

Bursting forward, Jazz launched outwards riding the pop of escaping air. The first quintesson had its eye socket repurposed as an ankle bracelet before the second measure even began.

Ah.

Prowl probably should have specified he wanted to try speeding past rather than confront their opponents directly.

Jazz's improvised footwear writhed sluggishly before the mech twisted his ped inside its brain case, finishing it off and turning to face the next nearest opponent.

Odds of survival 26%

The white and blue mech launched himself upwards as the nearest quintesson went for a dive bomb. It's teeth breaking on impact with the sky bridge. Jazz twisted in midair.

They fell in slow motion, back arching against a starlit backdrop. An upside down visor met blue optics. Jazz nodded his head to the side, flicking one horn up and one horn down.

Did he just wink? (#^%)

The falling mech unsheathed a blade from his wrist, driving it through the sputtering quintesson.

Oh Primus has he been flirting the entire time?

Jazz spun, slicing into the next quint to close the distance.

I can not. I can not assume that was intentional. It has to be a cultural miscommunication.

The last two quintessons pounced. Swinging hard, Jazz caught one's jaws with a forearm while he kicked the downed another in the side of the head. The third was attempting to bite into his back but the teeth couldn't get a full purchase on the rounded compact plating.

Odds of survival 22%.

Prowl snapped out of his social etiquette downward spiral. Sprinting from the safety of the airlock door, he knelt behind a large section of external piping, lining up his shots.

Tacnet spun to work.

It was designed to calculate hundreds of possible variations of large scale engagements, including the number of soldiers, type of weaponry available and could even determine the approximate number of ammunitions that would be left over, provided Prowl had enough data at his disposal.

Calculating the marksmanship needed to dispatch three hostiles at medium range while distracted by a highly competent ally?

Odds of Survival 32%

Laughable.

Three shots burst through the thin atmosphere.

Quintesson wreckers were built thick skulled and stubborn. Luckily they came with easily identifiable gaps in their organic construction.

The Quints fell from Jazz, each with a smoking hole where and eye used to be. Jazz looked at Prowl, then the smoking quintessons and back up to Prowl before doing finger guns again.

Speaking of thick skulled and stubborn.

Prowl put on his best Commanders Scowl and pointed in the direction they needed to be currently running in.

Doorwing sensors hiked as he picked up on movement from behind. The incoming hostiles was palpable even in the moons thin atmosphere. Quintessons rarely favored stealth.

Prowl began running.

Jazz kept pace, half turned around to keep track of the incoming troop. Prowl kept his optics locked forward, not remotely willing to risk tripping on the torn apart path.

Tacnet locked on to a large silvery pillow that'd been exposed to the atmosphere.

Expanding LLX Lithium battery. Explosion on contact 90%

Prowl shouted a warning but the air was too thin to carry beyond his own audials.

Jazz will step on the lithium battery in 1.5 clicks (88%) and will be critically injured in at least one leg (76%).

Prowl grabbed Jazz's servo and yanked.

Music erupted in the moment of connection.

Vibrations ran up his arm and across his frame. Inside his audials, Prowl could make out the song Jazz had begun in the airlock. Looking at his visor, mouth agape, only one thought could form in Prowls mind.

How fragging loud is he playing that music?!?

Jazz perked up, and pulled Prowl around in an arc. Multiple sharp impacts thudded into the ground behind him. Prowl turned and almost wished he hadn’t.

Three heavily armored Quintesson bombers equipped with bio-mechanical ballista.

The javelin like spikes were as long as Prowls arm and designed to pin targets in place while the slow moving blimp-like body of the bomber got into position to blow them all to the Pit.

Prowl tugged Jazz in the direction of their objective, refusing to let go in case he tried to launch himself at the bombers. Prowl wasn't sure how Jazz would manage to do so, but Prowl felt an overwhelming nagging sensation in his tanks that he'd fragging try.

Jazz was evidently fine with this arrangement.

As the music pulsed between their palms, Jazz leapt at a diagonal, pulling Prowl along for the ride. The low gravity was so damn floaty. It continually forced Prowl to readjust his footing so he wasn't frantically treading air every time his peds left the ground.

Jazz was evidently fine with that too.

Another round of ammunitions impacted where the two of them had been running.

Their egress began to take on a pattern Prowl was quick to pick up on. It took the bombers 8 clicks to reload, launching at the same time, half a click after musical flair in Jazz's song. At the moment of the flair, the mech would launch them in a nearly unpredictable pattern. After the first two times of nearly getting his arm dislocated, Prowl began catching onto these moments and moved his momentum in sync with Jazz.

They'd started dancing.

The Tactician had an iron fisted focus on matching Jazz’s frankly eradicate lead. The longer the duet continued, the more data he had to work with. Prowl steadily progressed from Reacting to Anticipating. Feeling a core deep satisfaction that came from sinking into mastering a new skill.

By the time they’d escaped the bombers range, they’d made it too the base of the first hurdle.

Their reprieve would only be brief. The bombers would catch up in approximately 50 clicks (88%), giving the mechs a small window of precious semi-safety in which they needed to scale the wall before them.

Prowl craned his helm back at the barrier.

He would not be able to scale it on his own in time (95%).

Could Jazz? (65%)

While carrying him? (19%)

Jazz rapidly tapped his side.

The alien was crouched low, impossible legs bent with potential energy. He tapped his own back, gesturing for Prowl to grab on already.

Prowl threw himself over the mechs broad back. His digits frantically searched for a hand hold, flinching away from nearly digging into fragile vents.

I can’t-

Jazz leapt.

“You’re really grab-able - Isn’t that kinda stupid?”

Stupid stupid stupid.

Prowl skated off of Jazz’s rounded compact plating, that he specifically SAID was supposed to make him hard to hold on to.

He landed hard on his aft, denta clanking together painfully.

47 clicks remaining.

Jazz hit the ground beside him before Prowl had fully gotten back up. Now facing him, Jazz grabbed Prowl by both wrists and pulled him chassis to chassis. Jazz positioned his arms to link Prowls servos behind his helm, then set his own servos tightly onto Prowls waist.

Jazz nodded once, like he was satisfied with what he’d just done.

Prowl made a facial expression that a psychiatrist would find concerning.

42 Clicks.

Jazz nodded again, like expected Prowl to respond in any coherent manner, and lifted.

Prowls legs swung forward on instinct. Following the motion, Jazz wrapped them around his waist. Through the screaming haze of his processor, Prowl had the presence of mind to lock his ankles together as he realized Jazz’s true intentions, and manually aborted the logic cascade that had nearly crashed over him.

Package secured, Jazz let go and started their ascension.

Legs bent at an impossible angle to slam multi segmented peds flat against the metal walls. Despite Prowl’s body blocking most of his view, the alien mech was unfettered by the lack of vision. Jazz hardly bothered with proper hand holds, instead opting for incredibly strong magnetic grip built into his servos.

The magnetic backwash splashed over Prowls doors wings, forcing him to temporarily offline them or risk crippling vertigo. The structure they were scaling shook violently like something large had just irrevocably broken.

This is fine this is fine this is fine this is fine.

At 35 click’s remaining, Prowl centered himself enough to search for their pursuers.

Damn it!

The bombers were a fraction faster than he initially calculated. Six clicks before we’re in range (87%). Luckily, Jazz was more than a fraction faster than initially calculated as well. At this rate, they’d reach the top simultaneously.

No reason not to be proactive.

Prowl found that if he tightly cupped one servo around the back of Jazz’s helm, he had just enough leverage to bring out a side arm. After all, the bombers were already in range of him.

Steadying his elbow over the other mechs shoulder, Prowl took aim.

Five clicks.

The bombers flew in V formation.

Four clicks.

Too heavily armored for a standard sidearm to pierce.

Three clicks.

The lead bomber opened up its front in preparation for combat.

Got you.

Prowl threaded the gap, his shot skirting over the ballista in favor of impacting the bombers prodigious cargo. He watched something spark inside a split second before it succumbed to total annihilation.

The shockwave felt like a single soft papft of a breeze in the starlit air.

Jazz hefted them over the top of the wall, not dropping Prowl in favor of sprinting with him at full speed across the top of the hurdle.

One of his arms curled around to support Prowls back, allowing the Praxian to release his death grip on their helm. Prowl leaned back into the hold, allowing Jazz freedom to see again.

Jazz turned his helm around 180 degrees-

Did not know he could do that did not know he could do that.

- to look at the fire works behind them.

Jazz whistled appreciatively at the sight. He turned back to Prowl, visor locked onto his face as they carried him across the roof.

Reverberating music, nearly crashing, numbed doorwings, and a deeply satisfying kill all followed by a display of casual body horror was making Prowl just a little bit delirious. As a result, Prowl wasn’t entirely sure what expression he was making, just that Jazz was inordinately fascinated with it.

Without looking away, Jazz leapt off the end of the roof.

Prowl watched as Jazz glanced over his shoulder and back to him.

Do a double take.

And then crush Prowl to his chassis.

Jazz’s visor was over bright, both horns snapped completely forward and from somewhere inside his chassis, Prowl could feel some internal component spinning into overdrive, sounding for all the world like teeny tiny screaming.

Why are we still falling.

Prowl turned as far as possible in Jazz’s iron grip.

The sky bridge was collapsing.

Odds of Survival 4%

———————————————————————

Jazz, everytime Prowl one-shots an enemy: I need to get his number.

If you’re curious, the song Jazz is playing can be whatever you like. Personally I kept switching between listening to “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” by Kiss and “I Feel Love” 12” version by Donna Summer while writing.

- SSTP

<- First Next ->

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

You guys ever think about the implications of the dca's unmoving faceplate?

I don't know exactly what material it's made of, but I'd assume metal or plastic or a similar unyielding substance. There probably aren't any active sensors there, besides something light-sensitive to allow for the color-swap when switching between Sun and Moon - otherwise, I doubt any further complications would be added to their design, considering Fazco's determination not to waste a single penny.

But think about it - obviously, by that logic, Sun and Moon can't feel their face. If you were to cup their cheeks and hold either side of their faceplate, they wouldn't understand the feeling you're trying to convey.

They'd feel the pressure, sure - but nothing else, nothing tangible. There is no warmth that passes from your palm to their stylized cheek, no soft touch or careful sincerity; only an empty number calculated by the uptick of an empty, unfeeling machine which knows the meaning of the gesture only through the understanding that others have.

Even so, it cannot convey its gratitude; its plastic smile does not bend to the will of emotional facsimiles. Its eyes cannot crinkle with mirth. It can only let out a garbled, artificial expression of gratitude, processed by a microchip the size of the tip of its cold fingers, sent through an electrical current to create a wavelength of sound that you can process - a mere echo of what you send from your heart to their hollow chest cavity.

[spinchip]

Concept: the Staff of Forbidden Spinjitzu doesn't whisper to Zane. Instead, its "whispers" take the form of popups along his HUD disguised as alerts or warnings. Things like "If you put me down now, your friends will never find you. [OK]” or “Killing these prisoners villagers will increase Vex’s approval and reinforce your reign. Proceed? [Y/N]”

(I like this particular flavor because it really leans into Zane's robotic nature: he can ignore whispers by turning off his auditory sensors or filtering noise, but he can't ignore system alerts.)

Also, the following scene has lived rent-free in my brain ever since I came up with the concept. (Italics are Zane's default OS. Everything else is the Staff.)

>IF YOU ARE GOING TO DESTROY ME, "ZANE" -Move File:"NeverrealmMemories" to Core Memory Functions-WARNING: Attempting to delete, move, or suppress File"NeverrealmMemories" after moving will cause total system failure. Proceed with move anyway? >[YES] -File transferred. -Permanently remove fatal combat safeguards? >[YES] -Safeguards removed. >THEN I WILL MAKE SURE YOU CAN NEVER FORGET WHAT YOU DID, SYSID:ICEEMPEROR

-Connection Terminated.

(I have a few more Ideas for the "Scroll Corruption looks like Computer Alert messages to Zane" idea-ones that really lean into Zanes Nindroid nature, as well as the tech-y appearance of the Dark Ice.) -The Staff did a lot more than just send alert messages: it slowly wormed its way into Zane's code like a computer virus, tweaking a few things. It took great care to remove Zane's combat safeguards, eventually deleting them entirely and ensuing he defaulted to lethal force. It never removed his core directive of "Protecting those who cannot protect themselves" since that was vital to his systems running, but it did reinterpret said directive as "Protect Dark Ice Network and everything connected to it, for it is fragile and cannot protect itself from outsiders". (It also couldn't delete his morality subroutines without causing a crash, so it instead made them a much lower priority and shoved them to the back of his digital mind.) -After 60+ years of being in the grasp of a mechanical being, the Staff now exclusively speaks in the manner of a computer, and cannot adapt to organic minds the way it used to. (The other Staff is not like this, as it's still attuned to organic brains.) -You know those Sci-Fi stories where people are plugged into computers and know every part of the ship/city simultaneously, and can send most of their awareness into certain parts of the network while still being aware of other locations? That's what's going on with the Never Realm during the Ice Emperor's Reign, with the Ice Emperor as the central guiding consciousness/core CPU of the Dark Ice Network. As such, he's not actually sleeping-rather, the Ice Emperor is always monitoring his domain through his Ice and leaving just enough of his consciousness in his body to be able to call the rest of himself back in case he's threatened. (The Staff is a combination of a computer virus and a wireless modem: it is corrupting, but it's also the main point of connection for the Dark Ice Network.) -Since the Ice Emperor can't recharge his power on his own in his current state, the Staff had to step in, tweaking the Dark Ice to drain the vitality of those imprisoned within. (You know wireless phone chargers, or Nikolai Tesla's idea to get electric power from the atmosphere? Similar concept, except with the power source being frozen people and the transmitter being Evil Magic Ice.) -Boreal is the Titanium Dragon, corrupted by the Staff's presence. It too is part of the Dark Ice Network, and serves as Ice Emperor's eyes and ears whenever the Dark Ice can't reach. (If the Ice network used computer program language, Boreal would be known as "Obj_DarkIceTitaniumDrake".) Killing Boreal caused a massive jolt to the Dark Ice Network that destabilized the Scroll's influence, and allowed an opening for Zane's Memory Defragmentation program to kick in. (It had started when Lloyd arrived in the throne room, but the Scroll had diverted that to a minor priority and was actively hiding that set of files until the word "Protect" slipped through, forcing Zane's systems to call up what had been defragmented.) -As a final act of spite for being broken, the Staff encoded Zane's memories of the Never realm to his Core Processing systems, meaning he cannot forget the Never Realm without completely frying his systems and rendering him a lifeless shell. (It might've also made a backup of itself amidst his various repressed memory files, but he doesn't need to know that. It's just sitting there, disguised as a normal .zip file, biding its time.) (I really like genre-blending Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and I thought the idea of "Magic Ice Computer Network" is rad as hell.)

(This song is a big part the inspiration for part of the "Dark Ice Network" idea, by the way. Granted, the Staff of Forbidden Spinjitzu doesn't assimilate Zane's psyche like Star Dream assimilates Haltmann's, but a lot of the ideas are still there-and the Staff does still integrate itself pretty deeply into the Nindroid's code as it slowly actualizes.)

I have no words for how absolutely awesome this is in every way. i just keep rereading this and being amazed. the "Dark Ice Network" idea is literally so cool, I particularly love the Ice Emperor being able to monitor the entire land while his body/the staff is the main 'hub' he has to protect. this is aweosme.

everyone look now please

[sirfrogsworth]

While my dad was a thermostat whisperer and able to maintain a constant temperature no matter what the conditions were outside, I'm afraid I was never endowed with that superpower.

Perhaps you need to officially become a Dad before it is bestowed upon your spirit.

So I decided to solve this problem the way I always do.

GADGETS!

This is my high tech weather station with four temperature/humidity sensors. I can monitor the temp outside, in the garage, in the hallway near the thermostat and in the room I am currently occupying.

I have learned my body's temperature regulation is even worse than I realized. I struggle to be comfortable outside of a 3 degree range. Below 75.5 my body thinks it is too cold. And above 78.5 my body thinks I'm on the surface of the sun. I do tolerate cold much better than warm, but if I want to get to that spot where I am able to ignore the sensation of temperature, I need to keep it in that range.

The last few days have been easier as the outside temp dropped. But the past few weeks have been difficult because it would go from 50s in the morning to 80s in the afternoon. But my sensors made it much easier to anticipate whether I needed cooling or heating. So gadgets win the day again.

It's also cool that whenever I finish my photo studio I'll be able to monitor the temperature in the garage. I'm not really sure how I'm going to heat it in the winter yet. I don't think electric space heaters would be enough. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there. At this point I haven't had the energy to clear out all of the junk yet.

[republicsecurity]

Instructor AV4I5 – Field Lecture Excerpt

“Eyes front, cadets. You’ve all felt the collar from the inside—now let’s talk about what it really does once it lands on a live civilian, whether you’re plucking a pick‑pocket off a back‑alley or sweeping the front rank of a riot line.”

“Key lesson: the MK‑IV doesn’t coerce with pain; it re‑prioritises commands. Your will is still there—just downgraded to background noise.”

He steps back, chin lifting toward UK90F and SX12B. “Remember: every pulse you send writes a signature to the audit log. Abuse it, and the log writes you.”

To punctuate the point, he double‑taps Release. The collar flowers open; LG44E’s limbs sag as autonomy rushes back in. Breath shaky, eyes wide, he blinks—again a private owner of his own flesh, albeit acutely aware how provisional that ownership is.

What the Civilian Feels

0‑2 s: Cool pressure, audible click, mild buzz at the jaw hinge.

3‑10 s: Heavy‑limb sensation as dampening ramps; they’ll try to shout, volume throttles to conversational hush.

10 s +: Postural guidance kicks in—think puppet strings made of suggestion rather than pain. Most civilians comply long before electrical deterrence is necessary.

If Stun‑Hold fires: A flash‑bang in the spine—instant muscle tetany. They drop safe but stunned; no long‑term neuromuscular damage by spec.

“How the MK‑IV Steers Meat”

0. Autonomous Boot‑Up

The instant the silver clamp seats, the collar runs a 480‑millisecond POST:

Handshake with the nearest authorized Enforcer suit or console

Biometric sweep: skin‑temp, ECG, SpO₂, and EMG baseline

Default Mode → Blue‑Compliance Stand‑by

If the collar never hears from a console, it still enforces mute‑and‑immobilize on its own; sovereignty is local first, network second.

1. Sensor Capture (0 – 30 ms) “First tick, the collar drinks you,” Alvirez begins.

Micro‑lidar maps the trachea’s contour, seating error ≤ 2 mm.

Bio‑Vitals Array spikes a 200 Hz snapshot: ECG, SpO₂, EMG.

The IMU plots head angle and predicts momentum. “All that lands in the collar’s SRAM buffer before you finish blinking.”

2. Target Model (30 – 90 ms) “Telemetry pipes up‑link to your HUD or to Command. A control daemon—what the manuals call Shepherd—builds a live musculoskeletal model: bone lengths, joint slack, twitch latency. Every subject is a fresh CAD file.”

3. Write‑Back Loop (90 – 120 ms) “Now the collar edits,” he says, thumbing a red‑bordered icon.

Twin driver coils fire phase‑shifted currents through the pad grid.

Currents ride along brachial plexus pathways, hijacking alpha‑motor neurons. “It’s not pain; it’s precedence. Your own impulses queue behind ours.”

4. Motor Enactment (120 – 300 ms) “Command selects a macro: Step Forward, Hands Up, Kneel—each a bundle of timed pulses.”

Collar’s FPGA resolves the macro into 40 µs bursts.

Muscles contract in the ordained sequence; inertia does the rest. “If you’re wondering, yes, the override signal is encrypted. No, bare skin won’t trip it—needs the suit’s handshake.”

5. Homeostasis Layer (Continuous) “While the macro runs, a second thread tunes vitals. Watch.” Alvirez toggles Calm‑Subroutine. LG44E’s heart display glides from 112 bpm to 72. “Vagus mimicry. Drops catecholamines, cushions shock, keeps detainees upright instead of coding blue.”

[reasonsforhope]

"It may sound surprising, but when times are tough and there is no other food available, some soil bacteria can consume traces of hydrogen in the air as an energy source.

In fact, bacteria remove a staggering 70 million tonnes of hydrogen yearly from the atmosphere, a process that literally shapes the composition of the air we breathe.

We have isolated an enzyme that enables some bacteria to consume hydrogen and extract energy from it, and found it can produce an electric current directly when exposed to even minute amounts of hydrogen.

As we report in a new paper in Nature, the enzyme may have considerable potential to power small, sustainable air-powered devices in future.

Bacterial genes contain the secret for turning air into electricity

Prompted by this discovery, we analysed the genetic code of a soil bacterium called Mycobacterium smegmatis, which consumes hydrogen from air.

Written into these genes is the blueprint for producing the molecular machine responsible for consuming hydrogen and converting it into energy for the bacterium. This machine is an enzyme called a “hydrogenase”, and we named it Huc for short.

Hydrogen is the simplest molecule, made of two positively charged protons held together by a bond formed by two negatively charged electrons. Huc breaks this bond, the protons part ways, and the electrons are released...

The molecular blueprint for extracting hydrogen from air

With Huc isolated, we set about studying it in earnest, to discover what exactly the enzyme is capable of. How can it turn the hydrogen in the air into a sustainable source of electricity?

Remarkably, we found that even when isolated from the bacteria, Huc can consume hydrogen at concentrations far lower even than the tiny traces in the air. In fact, Huc still consumed whiffs of hydrogen too faint to be detected by our gas chromatograph, a highly sensitive instrument we use to measure gas concentrations...

Enzymes could use air to power the devices of tomorrow

It’s early days for this research, and several technical challenges need to be overcome to realise the potential of Huc.

For one thing, we will need to significantly increase the scale of Huc production. In the lab we produce Huc in milligram quantities, but we want to scale this up to grams and ultimately kilograms.

However, our work demonstrates that Huc functions like a “natural battery” producing a sustained electrical current from air or added hydrogen.

As a result, Huc has considerable potential in developing small, sustainable air-powered devices as an alternative to solar power.

The amount of energy provided by hydrogen in the air would be small, but likely sufficient to power a biometric monitor, clock, LED globe or simple computer. With more hydrogen, Huc produces more electricity and could potentially power larger devices.

Another application would be the development of Huc-based bioelectric sensors for detecting hydrogen, which could be incredibly sensitive. Huc could be invaluable for detecting leaks in the infrastructure of our burgeoning hydrogen economy or in a medical setting.

In short, this research shows how a fundamental discovery about how bacteria in soils feed themselves can lead to a reimagining of the chemistry of life. Ultimately it may also lead to the development of technologies for the future."

-via The Conversation, March 8, 2023. Article written by the authors of the study.

[mindblowingscience]

Hvidovre Hospital has the world's first prototype of a sensor capable of detecting errors in MRI scans using laser light and gas. The new sensor, developed by a young researcher at the University of Copenhagen and Hvidovre Hospital, can thereby do what is impossible for current electrical sensors—and hopefully pave the way for MRI scans that are better, cheaper and faster. The study is published in the journal PRX Quantum. MRI scanners are used by doctors and health care professionals every day to get a unique look into the human body. In particular, they are used to study the brain, vital organs and other soft tissues by way of 3D images of exceptional quality compared to other types of medical imaging.

Continue Reading.

[thephonemenarentreal]

Mysterious Fathoms Below

CHAPTER THREE IS OUT! Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three <<Current Chapter>>

Having a blast writing this fic <3 I just like hurt/comfort bonding and slow burns and friendships and found family things <3

Title: Mysterious Fathoms Below

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Bonding; Hurt/comfort over trauma; awkward small talk, hand holding

Featured Characters: Titan Speakerman, Charybdis (Sea Camera OC), Executor hanging out as baby semi-titan

Guest Starring: Whistle (@tabieeee awesome chief engineer of the speaker faction! Go give them some love!!) Summary: A chance encounter leads to something a little more, a little complicated, and a house divided as surely as Romeo and Juliet, with a touch of tragedy and yearning that comes under the terror of a war. Feelings of any kind though tend to grow in the strangest of places, starting with the simplest of playful meetings. CHAPTER SUMMARY: Maybe it is something about the sea that makes it easy to get things off one's core...and find someone who sees at you that you haven't seen yourself.

The patrol Titan Speakerman flew today was not the most ideal of weather conditions. High winds had picked up, driving the ocean upwards into a heaving mass of white tipped waves that rose and fell in larger and larger swells. Even for someone of the titan’s size and power, flying was made a bit more tricky in the face of such wild winds, which is why the patrol that day had been modified to allow him to be flying in the same direction of the wind to avoid having to battle a headwind.

When the winds picked up, it also meant the chance for bad weather to develop was a greater risk, thus he kept to a higher altitude above the clouds to avoid the worse of the sea-born squalls and rain showers. Usually having to fly higher up was not a big deal. He had plenty of communication arrays and sensors jammed packed along his frame, including an expansive GPS that easily helped him to tell what was going on beneath him. He had a near complete 360 degree view of his surroundings at all times to detect threats, something the other titans lacked. When it came to threat detection, the Titan Speakerman was good at being the first to be alerted to any sort of changes.

However, that was not entirely useful out here, at least not for hunting down the quarry he wanted to encounter. The shy sea camera’s electrical field could mess with his arrays, only giving him a vague idea that they were in the region, not necessarily where they were.

For that, visuals were best as the shadow of the mysterious sea unit’s outline was a dead giveaway, but harder to see among the waves and cloud cover from so high up.

The Titan Speakerman knew that it wouldn’t be easy to spot them and so far there had been no reports incoming of strange electrical incidents save for one naval ship’s navigation shorting out for a brief moment. The engineer on that ship had reported it as an incident of misadventure, not necessarily some electrical anomaly.

Things had been quiet for the last three days. Three days where the titan had not seen frame nor wire of the sea-based semi-titan of the Conglomerate.

With every missed sighting, every day returning to base empty handed with nothing to report but a few skibidi encounters from time time, the Titan Speakerman was beginning to think he wouldn’t ever see them again at all. The disappointment and acceptance of that fact was finally starting to settle in. Today more than others as he neared the end of his patrol, only an hour out from making his ETA and landing for the day. Not a single sighting of that mysterious semi-titan.

“Weather looks like it is clearing up ahead,” Whistle commented, “Will at least be a nice and breezy end of the patrol,”

“mm,”

“Thought that would make you a bit more upbeat rather than being as broody as Executor,”

“I’m not that broody, Whistle,”

“Getting there!”

The Titan Speakerman gave a low growl of his speakers as he started to coast down closer to the ocean, holding out one hand to listlessly trail over the white tipped waves, “Just disappointed is all. No sighting of that sea camera whatsoever,”

“Maybe the Pleasure Cruise moved on. They probably keep close to it,” Whistle reasoned, “May be back another time,”

“I guess,”

The ocean was starting to calm itself as the wind started to die down at last. Being so close to land, the usual change of the sea breeze would soon start to kick as the heat from the land rolled off and back out to sea. With the weather clearing up, maybe it would be a nice sunset over the ocean. At least that might be something to look forward to. Just as he was starting to resign himself back to base after a rather boring patrol, a slight tingle started to be picked up in his sensors and then along his form. The Titan Speakerman drew his hand away from the water as he felt almost like a small prickle of electricity jolt through his fingers. The titan paused, giving a soft warble and cutting his jets to rise up a bit, hovering over the water.

There was nothing at first, just the white-tipped waves rising and falling on the wide expanse of the ocean. Then slowly, a large shadow began to become more clear, slowly moving below in a lazy circle beneath the titan. There was the bright lights of the front of the face, peering up through the water at him, hesitant, guarded, but there.

Excitement was not an emotion that the Titan Speakerman could hold back too well. Before he could think, as natural as it was for a speaker to dance when pleased, there was a rumbling building up in his speakers, filled with eager noises that finally came out in a loud rancorous roar down at the figure below the water. Such a noise was one of excitement, easy for any speaker to tell, but such a loud noise clearly spooked the semi-titan in the water as they shrank deeper into the depths of the water until the light was barely able to be parsed in the fading light of the evening. That cut off the happy cry of the titan quickly and he quickly raised both hands as he dared to draw a bit closer to the water.

“W-wait! It wasn’t aggressive! I swear! I just was saying hi…!”

The sea cam didn’t come up to the surface, but at least wasn’t continuing to back away. That was progress. The titan hovered there, hands still up to appear as non-threatening as possible. He was excited and thus it was hard to keep his voice down or the want to make noise.

“So uh. Hi there,”

Three days to plan on what even to say to the unknown sea cam and he still couldn’t think of how to start a conversation. Nerves were starting to creep up and one hand inched up to rub at his lower speaker lightly in a bit of a nervous habit as he looked away, “Do you uh, have a name? I don’t think I caught it last time,”

The sea cam remained beneath the water a moment longer before slowly starting to come up to the surface. Only their head breached it, the lens, glowing a bright teal fixing on him quietly for a long moment before tilting away.

“Charybdis,”

Again with the soft voice that didn’t seem to match how large they were. So shy it was almost painfully cute.

“Charybdis,” the titan repeated, “Well, I’m Titan Speakerman, T-speak to my friends, but, uh, I guess you already knew that,”

“Maybe. A little,” Charybdis murmured with maybe a hint of a small laugh.

There was movement along their head as two small robotic arms just beneath began to cling at each other, wringing them in nerves. The titan gave another rub at the lower speaker, head tilted away. “So uh, you come here often?” Even to his own auditory sensors, the question was painfully awkward and sounded like something written for a horrible romance on the Hallmark channel. It had him internally cringing, mentally kicking himself for not trying to come up with something a little bit smoother to ask about.

“No. These are Alliance waters. I don’t usually come in at all,” they said softly, “Does that...upset you?”

“Huh? No! I mean, well, it would upset the Alliance I guess, but not me personally,” the titan stammered out, “I uh, was kind of, maybe, sort of looking for you?”

The sea cam just sunk down a bit, their voice somehow getting even softer, strained to a squeak of a mouse, “You were looking for me?”

The titan paused before holding up both hands, “Not looking! More hoping to run into you again? I wasn’t being like a stalker or something! Just sort of, last time was nice and well, didn’t get your name and it was bugging me!”

“Oh,” Charybdis sunk in the water more, just the lens peaking out, “Well, you have my name,”

“Yeah,”

The conversation was so awkwardly shy, the titan was wondering if it was too late to just dunk himself in the ocean out of embarrassment. Honestly how Whistle made this look easy was beyond the titan. Still he forged forward, giving a loud rumble of his speakers like the clearing of a throat and tried to look more suave, arms crossed, leaning against an invisible wall as he hovered in the air.

The very picture of trying to look cool as hell and looking like the greatest dork to grace the skies.

“What has you in Alliance waters then? Just you know, an official question there for reasons,” The titan said, “Since I am all official in the Alliance. As a faction leader titan leader guy and stuff,”

Whistle save him, he was sounding more and more like the most awkward bastard in the Alliance. His nerves were starting to creep up all the more, causing his fans to start to rev from the sheer heat of his embarrassment.

“Well, I wanted to see you...again. Maybe...do something like we did last time,” Charybdis said softly, although their words were muffled some as they ducked a little more down in the water, “It was nice...doing the chasing game with you,”

The titan perked up, giving another eager rumble that was edging towards another shriek that he was keeping down for now, “Yeah? Well, I liked it too!”

“Really?”

This time he couldn’t help the excited shriek of confirmation, although the titan quickly stiffed it when the sea camera ducked away again and a small crackle of electricity was in the air. A tingly thing that made his com array complain, but nothing serious.

“Sorry,” he said, holding both hands up again, fans giving a rev of nerves, “I uh, tend to get excited and get loud,”

Charybdis circled a bit before once more poking their head out, “...its okay. Sometimes I...shock things when I get excited or startled,”

“Guess we have something in common then, huh?”

“Maybe,” Charybids shyly dipped down in the water a bit, “...You...want to play a game again?”

It took so much self control not to just yell as loudly as possible. The most he got these days was sparring matches with titan Cameraman, and although those were fun, there wasn’t much time to just do something silly. Least of all given his size making it hard to play most simple games. He opted for a more controlled yelling and vigorous nod of the head instead as not to chase the sea camera away, “Yes! The chase game?”

“If you want. Or there are some mines down here the skibidis set in the deep waters,” Charybdis murmured, “With my sibling, sometimes I throw them in the air for him to shoot down, if you want to do that…”

The titan paused, thinking on the offer. Target practice was always fun but it was harder to do at base. Mostly because finding good targets for the size of his guns was hard to begin with. Add to that, him firing his guns around the speaker base tended to invoke a lot of trauma in other units. That thought had him wincing and that kernel of misery twisted just a little deeper. It had been a long time since he had been able to put his guns to work without being told off by the higher ups.

“I would like that,” he finally said, voice a bit soft, “I don’t get to do that much,”

“You sure? You seem sad,”

the titan speakerman gave a rev of his jets rising up over the water some, both hands out as he did a little turn in the air, “Not sad! Just it isn’t something I do at base a lot. You know, too loud and stuff, might make people think we are under attack or something!”

Or think he was going to kill them, the horrid voice sneered at the back of his mind. Just like he did before under the influence of that parasite. Quickly he pushed that thought away, not wanting to come across as dreary around what could be a new friend. Instead he gave a louder warble, revving his jets up to hype himself up more.

“Hit me with your best mine! I’m ready!” he slammed his two fists together and gave another loud cry.

Charybdis gave a nod starting to move about in the water with an eager rumble, “All right. Then get ready!”

The sea camera dove quickly, soon out of sight below the water. The Titan Speakerman hovered over the water before darting back as suddenly there was an eruption of water and a large deep sea mine erupted upwards. He was startled only a moment before he was lifting both arms, locking and loading to unleash a shot on it as he zoomed backwards. The mine went off with a loud satisfying boom, fire and sizzling shrapnel whizzing every which way. The titan couldn’t help a pleased shriek at that, darting away as suddenly several more were shot up out of the water in rapid succession.

The Titan Speakerman let out a loud eager shriek then, locked in and eager as he unleashed a volley and perhaps coasting just out of the reach of the explosions, enough to feel the heat against his heels, but be ready to swoop in for more of the mines being thrown up. Charybdis was moving below, the water parting as they gave a somewhat loud trill of their own as the jumped out of the water briefly like a dolphin, tossing up a few more before diving back down just as the titan dove, more than ready to get to each target. There was no telling where Charybdis was throwing them, keeping them both moving in the water in their dangerous game. If high command knew he was doing this, they would be besides themselves with anger and be ready with a lecture about the dangers of using live, dangerous ammunition as target practice, let alone having a unit of the Conglomerate be the one tossing them up.

One wrong move and he could end up blowing up a mine in his face which would leave him with some damages to fix. Still the thrill outweighed the risks sand he was more than confident in his ability to hit targets and get out of the way in time.

It was exciting to get to use his canons without worrying about hitting someone accidentally or being told off for it. The exhilaration had him pushing himself into rather acrobatic aerial maneuvers, up, down, barrel roles, backwards flying, upside down and in quick twirls, all while he was eagerly shouting and shrieking to try and be louder than each thundering boom of the mines as they went off.

“Oi! You okay out there?! I’m detecting multiple explosions!”

The Titan paused a moment at the worried sound of his chief engineer. No doubt Whistle had started to pick up on the explosions on his comm array and had grown concerned when he wasn’t reporting anything. Titan Speakerman titled his head as he mentally ticked on the com, his attention brought back to the ocean as another series of mines were tossed up, “I’m good! Target practice on mines!”

“Mines!?”

“Charybdis is tossing them out of the water!”

“Now hold up-”

“Can’t talk, shooting now!”

He didn’t want to miss a single target in the air, weaving about and shooting, letting out loud shrieks all the while. It was fun. It was loud. It was so much better than patrols or sitting around quietly in the base while everyone else got to make as much noise as they wanted.

The last mine went up in smoke as he dove down towards the water where Charybdis peered up, giving a happy little clap and louder sound, like a whale mixed with some sort of deep sea monstrosity. He responded in kind with another loud roar back, feeling a pleased little trill rumble up as he noted this time the sea cam didn’t pull back. Instead Charybdis seemed to rise up a little more, making a louder cry right back.

“So you can get loud!” he teased, crossing his legs, hovering in mid-air as he regarded the semi-titan.

“When I feel like it,” Charybdis murmured, growing shy a touch, voice still soft, “You fly so elegantly,”

“Yeah?”

“I like how you fly,”

A touch of warmth rose right into his core at that and he gave a small buzz of his jets, “Well, you are super strong yourself. You could really lob those mines up and out of the water,”

Charybdis ducked down with a warble of embarrassment, “...I have to pull ships and go to the bottom of the ocean. Have to be strong to do that I guess,”

“I can’t get in the ocean, so you have me beat there,” The titan paused, drumming his fingers a bit against his leg before he glanced over his shoulder, “You want to...find somewhere to sit and uh, maybe talk?”

“Talk?” Charybdis squeaked out.

The titan speakerman raised a hand to scratch at the side of his bottom speaker lightly, a low nervous hum escaping, “I would like to get to know you better. Like, your favorite things. Not just like...always playing around, although today was really fun,”

The sea cam sunk lower in the water, back with only their lens out of the water, “No one wants to know that about me,”

“I do and kind of hard to hover and talk. I mean, you can stay in the water, just...somewhere to sit and spare my jets,”

Charybdis gave a nervous warble before ducking down under the water a moment, swimming a few little circles before coming up, “There are some rocks along the shore with deep water pools in the direction you were heading,”

“Sounds good!” The titan shifted, lifting into to the air more, “Race you!”

And then he was off like a shot, laughing all the while. Within moments though, Charybdis was below him, keeping pace with him as they hurtled forward. As they did, the titan clicked back on his com.

“What the hell is going on-”

“Was playing a game with that deep sea cam. Their name is Charybdis!”

“Throwing mines!?”

“Shooting them from a safe distance,” the titan corrected, although that was a half truth. He had taken some risks in making them explode maybe a little closer than his chief engineer would approve of, but that wasn’t something Whistle needed to know, “It was nice to be able to actually do target practice,”

He could hear Whistle let out an exasperated sound, falling to silent for a bit, “Well, as long as you are safe and doing okay,”

“Doing fine. We are going to sit and talk a bit so uh, I’ll be late,”

“Don’t trip over yourself,”

“Trust me, my foot is already in one speaker already at this point,” the titan looked down at the shadow, giving a pleased sound and wave as Charybdis looked up at him before jetting forward, “They don’t seem to mind,”

“Well, just check in when your done and don’t stay out too long, got it?”

“Yes mom,” the titan drawled sarcastically, “I’ll be in bed before eleven,”

“Holding you to that,” Whistle returned, her voice amused.

The titan clicked off his comm again, a bit more aware of when it was on and off after an unfortunate accident where some things should not have been heard. He especially didn’t want Whistle listening in to his attempts at small talk less he need to try and bury himself in the field behind the hangar again.

It was not long to the shore, but it felt so much longer or maybe he was just that eager to get the chance to actually have a normal conversation. A voice in the back of his head grumbled how he was trusting too much in a Conglomerate, but at the same time, Charybdis had never done anything to harm him, never asked about the Alliance or trying to get at secrets. They felt safe. They also were someone who didn’t know him or what he had done.

A clean slate that wouldn’t judge him or bring up the past.

The titan speakerman settled himself on one of the taller rocks pocking out of the water, getting comfortable with his feet dipped in the water. He let out a louder ping of the area, looking around to see if there was any threat before allowing himself to relax some. Charybdis surfaced at the edge, daring to bring part of their upper body out of the water as they rested their head on their folded arms.

“I think you won,” the shy cam said softly.

“Hard to tell. Guess we will have to do it again another time,”

Charybdis gave a soft hum, glancing to the side, “so what is it you wanted to talk about?”

He gave a small shrug, draping his arms over his knees as he sat there, only giving a small glance downward, “Well, what are you into? Like...hobbies I guess?” he sighed, rubbing at the back of his head, “Or uh favorite things in general. Small talk I guess,”

“Oh,”

The titan shifted, letting out a quiet laugh, “Seems a polite place to start. I…” the titan speakerman paused, squirming a bit where he at, “Before like, asking personal questions and all that. There is a lot I want to ask you that is probably not really small talk?”

“Like what?”

“I think it would be kind of rude,” the titan let out a hiss of his speakers, shaking his head, “It is fine! I can ask-”

“You can ask. I don’t mind,” Charybdis tilted their head, “I’m not...good at small talk anyways,”

The titan looked down at the sea semi-titan before looking up and towards the horizon. The sun was starting to set now, casting a golden aura over the waves. The white caps glittered like they were covered in jewels washed up from the depths to be shown to the world for a brief moment.

“How do people see you? At your home base I mean. Like, do they see you as...just one of them or like uh,” he glanced away quickly, speakers crackling with his nerves and fans revving all over again, “a monster or something?”

The question had Charybdis pulling back some, some of the lights around their head winking on and off like a blink. The titan looked away quickly, “Uh, sorry that sounds kind of rude. Could go back to hobbies or something like that,”

“No. It is fine. It really doesn’t bother me,” Charybdis said softly, looking down into the water, the little hands under their head fidgeting again, “I’m a monster to those that have heard of me. Most don’t know I exist actually as I don’t reveal myself to many people,” they traced one hand idly against the rock the titan sat on, “Only my family sees me as just Charybdis,”

The sea cam glanced up, head tilted, “...why do you ask?”

He couldn’t help a laugh at that, tired as he leaned forward, resting his elbows against his thighs, hands held together, “People see me as a monster these days. After what I did,” he could feel the tension rising into his shoulders, his speakers rumbling low, “Wanted to know if it was different for you, outside the Alliance that is,”

Charybdis did the blink of lights before tentatively reaching out, hesitating before putting a hand on the foot dangled into the water, “I don’t think you are a monster. You are very kind,”

“Would you say that if I told you I killed people that I saw as my own family?”

The semi-titan hesitated, but didn’t pull back, “Did you mean to do it?”

“Does it matter if I did or not?” the titan let out a low growl, curling in on himself a bit, “It was a parasite. I lost control of everything, like being forced to shut off for days, not knowing what was going on for days in the dark. It felt like, knowing your body was moving, hearing the world, and all it felt like was pain, screams…”

His hands inched up to clutch at his head, one hand going to back of his neck as if he could curl his fingers around the parasite that was no longer there, digging into his mind, “Then suddenly waking up, not knowing where I was, seeing how many were dead, feeling every ache and those upgrades digging into me. I don’t know. I should’ve done something,”

Charybdis let out a soft sound, giving a small rub to his foot, “That sounds so awful, but it doesn’t sound like it was your fault,”

The titan shook his head, “I get many won’t forgive me. I wouldn’t,” he let out a sigh, both hands moving now to cover over the front speaker that served as his face, “Look at me, trauma dumping when we just met,”

“I don’t mind,” the sea cam, looked down at the water, “If anything, I can relate to that. Hurting others without meaning to,”

Their hand continue to rub over the foot, the small tickles of electricity sending a rather pleasant, slow sensation up his leg that had him squirming a bit but not pulling away, “yeah?”

“I’ve hurt people accidentally too. Killed others because I was told that was my purpose. I felt so bad about it and just...just stopped talking to anyone. Stopped interacting with anyone other than my siblings. If I just kept myself deep enough in the water and never spoke again, then I wouldn’t have to be the monster that my engineer made me to be,”

The sea cam sunk into the water some, now up to their neck as the leaned against the rock, “It is very lonely to live like that,”

The titan leaned forward, raising a hand, hesitant before brushing fingers against the shoulder struts of the sea cam, “Sounds like it, but I understand that feeling. Without my chief engineer, I think I would try to do the same thing,” he gave a small laugh, “But she doesn’t let anyone wallow on her watch, so she gets me outside as much as possible,”

Charybdis let out a warble at the touch, tensing, before slowly relaxing, leaning into it as if they had never had someone give them that barest bit of touch before, “I don’t think you deserve to be isolated,” they murmured softly, “You are very kind and I think there are plenty of people in your faction and beyond who still adore you. You fight so well, fly like an eagle in the sky and,”

The sea cam paused as they sunk in the water some, their voice growing soft again, “And even talk to a sea monster like me,”

There was a whir of the titan’s fans at those words, a spark of embarrassment and warmth. Titan Speakerman looked down at the semi-titan, letting out a soft laugh, “I guess it is easy to say those things about me when we just met a few days ago,”

The titan hesitated a moment before he extended a hand, nervously, down to the sea camera, “But I don’t think you deserve to be isolated either. You seem nice too, if super shy,”

Charybdis stared at the offered hand, almost as if confused what to do with the gesture as they looked from it and up to the titan speakerman, “Huh?”

“I don’t want you to be alone either,” he felt the nerves come up as he leaned forward, hand still offered, “So, uh, maybe we can just be alone together yeah? A pair of outcasts from our own factions, a pair of monsters to everyone else,”

Charybdis shook their head, “You aren’t a monster though,”

“And neither are you,”

The sea cam let out a squeak, sinking into the water. The titan just gave a little chuckle, “So. uh...do you...want to hold hands about it?”

“Hold hands?”

“What usually happens when someone holds out a hand to you like this,”

The sea cam did the blink of lights about their head, looking now to his outstretched hand and with some hesitance they reached over. It was awkward, more as it seemed Charybdis was not sure what to do with the small act of offered comfort. They brushed fingers against his own, then the palm, resting it some there, jumping when he moved to thread their fingers together. There was a shock, small, not painful and perhaps a tad pleasant.

Charybdis looked down at their held hands, the water churning around them as their fans kicked up the water in an obvious show of embarrassment. Not that the titan speakerman had much room to talk either with how his own were kicking up a tick more as they sat there, holding hands.

“Your hand is warm,” Charybdis stammered out softly.

“Yeah? Well you got a nice hand too. Really strong feeling, but delicate,” the titan offered back with an awkward laugh.

Truly his flirting game was unmatched, but the shy sea cam still gave a flustered warble, sinking in the water regardless.

“It is nice to hold your hand,”

“Well, can hold both of them if you want,”

The titan offered the other one, leaning a touch down towards the water, “No pressure,”

Charybdis let out a laugh, shyly putting their other hand in his until they were sitting there, holding hands. The sun was lower on the horizon, casting final warm rays up against the clouds and highlighting everything with rich colors of violet, red, and orange. Charybdis tilted their head, looking up at him as they let their fingers curl more into the hold, allowing it to be a big tighter, as if enjoying the touch.

“I’ve never held hands with someone before,”

The admittance had the titan letting out a disbelieving huff of his speakers,“Never?”

The sea cam shook their head, “I’m always...worried I’ll hurt them. Shock them by accident since I can’t control it at all,”

The titan gave a hum before giving a tug, making the semi-titan squeak as they were pulled out of the water some and feeling another jolt of their shock through his frame. A few warnings went off, but the feeling wasn’t painful. An obvious tingle and a hint of pleasure, but nothing he couldn’t easily handle.

“Well,” he began, now with the semi-titan now halfway out of the water, “I haven’t noticed any of your shocks yet. Right now, I felt a tingle,”

“Oh,”

They were leaned in closer now, enough to feel the heat coming off both of them, the loud hum of fans more than obvious. Neither one of them was speaking now. It wouldn’t take much to just lean in a bit closer at this point and leave only inches between them. Maybe less than that. Some wild thought at the back of his processors wanted to do just that. Let one hand trail up under the head to press against sensitive wires there while letting heads knock together and finally give a unit version of a kiss. An innocent little brush of fingers, but if it was returned, then maybe-

The loud bang of a far off explosion had both of them startling, Charybdis squeaking and trying to duck into the water while still holding hands, nearly tugging the titan off his seat. That prompted the sea cam to let go and duck in the water while the titan let go to keep from going headfirst into the brink, clutching at his perched like a spooked cat, on the alert.

He only began to relax when his sensors picked up one of the Alliance ships in the distance doing some sort of evening training game. The titan hissed out a sigh, noting he should have remembered about that happening nearby.

“nothing to worry about,” Titan Speakerman murmured out, “Not any sort of enemy,”

“Alliance technically are my enemy,” Charybdis murmured from where they had ducked down, hiding away again, “You and Circuit are the only ones that don’t...shoot at me on sight,”

Those words had the titan giving a low rumble of distaste. Rationally, there was no reason to be upset. Charybdis was part of the Conglomerate, a neutral, but not entirely well liked faction. There were treaties in place and technically, Charybdis was skirting those by being here.

At the same time, the thought of someone just shooting at another unit that wasn’t doing anything wrong had the titan bristling just a bit. Especially as he was considering Charybdis a friend. A friend who actually understood the mixed up feelings in his head. It was easy to share how he felt weirdly enough. Enough so he had just spilled it all out awkwardly the first time they talked.

If Whistle heard about that, she was going to sigh something awful and smack him with something for being so dense.

But then, Charybdis has shared right back and left him...seen for the first time in a while.

Like finally he could start unpacking all the guilt.

“I would never shoot you on sight. I might make a lot of noise, but that isn’t the same as shooting most of the times,”

“You are very loud,”

The titan ducked his head sheepishly, “Is that a bad thing?”

Charybdis shook their head, the little hands under their head fidgeting again, “No. I think it is...cute how loud you get when happy,”

The words had a warmth rising up in the titan’s core and he couldn’t help a louder thrum that started to peak up into a small screech. He was trying to hold it back, causing the sound to be more like a squeal as he leaned forward, arched like a cat all but ready to pounce, “You think I’m cute?! I think you are cute too! In that shy way!”

Charybdis let out a warbled then, ducking under the water deep enough that only the lights of their head could be seen. The titan startled at that before sinking back, “Sorry! Was that coming on too strong?”

The response back was a series of bubbles up to the surface of the water that had the titan letting out another sound caught between concern and also how cute that was. If he was more water-tight, he might just dive in after them. Instead, he laid out flat on his perch, reaching both hands down into the water, holding them out to the shy sea camera. There was a moment of pause before Charybdis moved to hold them against, giving a gentle squeeze that had the titan speaker warbling all the louder and give another tug to lightly pull them back up to the surface.

“I don’t mean to offend you,”

Charybdis shook their head, “I’m not offended just… you think I’m cute?”

“Yeah,” the titan looked away, feeling his fans creep up a notch, “And fun to be around. And the color teal is a nice color on you,”

“Oh...red is nice on you too,”

They hadn’t let go of where they were holding hands. There was something to be said about being able to hold hands of someone that was more akin to his own size. He certainly didn’t have to painfully aware of being as gentle as possible or risk harm.

He let his grip tighten a bit and give a small pull closer. Charybdis let out a warble, still so shy, but didn’t pull away this time. Their gaze fell down to the held hands, before giving a shy glance up.

“It is...nice to talk to you. I don’t feel like I’m…” their voice dropped to a soft whisper, “Inadequate, if that makes sense. Like, I’m not just a thing,”

“Yeah?”

“You said I wasn’t a monster. You are the first one to really say that. Even my siblings believe that, as surely as they believe themselves monsters,” Charybdis gave a squeeze to the titan’s hands, “It means a lot. Probably more than I can possibly say,”

The Titan Speakerman could feel his fans humming again and words once more becoming so hard to grasp. Tongue-tied was the human term for it. That inability to focus and find the right words to say. He was stumbling, but he didn’t let go of their hands, that touch was grounding.

A sure sign of the trust being shared.

“I don’t know if I’m the best person to judge on that, given what I did,” he managed out at last, “I can’t take back what I did. I nearly killed a fellow titan, wiped out so many of my own faction,”

There was a crackle in his speakers as he looked down at their held hands, “I know they keep saying it wasn’t my fault. The therapist says it. The engineers say it. The high command says it, but what does their words matter when I can’t see myself as anything but one? That I’m the one who can’t ever say it wasn’t my fault?”

“Its hard,” Charybdis said softly, one hand letting go then, tentatively reaching up to touch the side of one speaker comfortingly, “And I can’t say I have answers. I hid away from everyone and became afraid to be seen,”

The sea camera let out a quiet laugh, “Which I think makes you so much braver than you think, because you still let others see you and I didn’t see a monster when I first saw you. I saw someone who was free, a bit loud and overly eager, but someone with a very kind core who inspires even someone like me to maybe have a little hope,”

His fans were revving hard and his head was tilted, leaned into that comforting touch against the side of his head. There was a thrum of a purr deep in his bass speakers that he wasn’t even aware of as his free hand rose up to trace larger fingers carefully against the side of Charybdis’s head.

“I must be a good actor, as I didn’t really have much hope in anything,” he leaned in a touch, feeling embarrassed and warm all at once, “until I met you. Just even playing a little chase, I felt...normal again. For a moment. Like the whole world finally decided to let me be me again,”

There was an embarrassed squeak from the sea camera, another little noises that the speaker couldn’t help but chuckle over, but again, they didn’t sink away.

Maybe just lightly leaned into his touch, the lights around their head glowing a touch brighter in the low light of the nearly vanished sun, “I think you are wonderful...when you are allowed to be yourself,”

“Loud and all?”

“Loud and all,” Charybdis said with a small laugh.

They both fell to a gentle silence with only the rush of the ocean against rocks creating any sort of din. The world felt peaceful for once, like the war was a thousand light years away on some other planet and the two of them were granted their own little place of peace. The Titan Speakerman couldn’t stop purring, letting fingers trail over Charybdis’s head, being mindful to avoid sensitive wires. More as he didn’t want to rush anything, even if a part of him wanted to do just that.

The longing for far more touch and to explore that new burning in his core that was familiar, and yet also becoming something unfamiliar all at once.

“I should get back home,” Charybdis said softly, “I’m expected back soon,”

He couldn’t help the disappointed rumble in his speakers as the sea camera pulled away, but he knew well how tight schedules could be. Like the fact he was overdue and had turned off his communications and no doubt the whole engineer staff was worried, let along the chief engineer since last he spoke to her, he had admitted to playing with explosive mines.

“Could we meet up again?” he blurted out the question as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

Charybdis shifted, considering the question before nodding shyly, “I would like that,”

“Maybe find a place to meet? Like, here seems nice,”

“We could meet her again,” Charybdis shifted in the water, “But might be a few days,”

He bit back the disappointed noise, but knew that was also wise to do so. They still were a part of different factions. No doubt high command would raise the alarm about him sitting around talking with the enemy. Not like they were sharing secrets.

Other than the personal ones they had both kept to their cores but now confided to each other. Their little shared isolation of feeling adrift.

“three days then?” the titan speaker put forth.

“That should be fine. Near evening,” Charybdis said, starting to push out from the rock, drifting gracefully out into the froth of the ocean more, “Maybe after your patrol so you don’t get in trouble for not reporting back,”

“What are they going to do? Fire me?” The titan gave a small chuckle, “Really there is little the Alliance can do if a titan decides they want to go out,”

Charybdis looked almost confused at his words as they tilted their head, “You just...do what you want?”

“Kind of. I still care about my faction and doing my part for the war and being their defender,” he said as he hopped up to his feet, starting to rev his jets, “But I am still able to make my own choices,”

“Oh,”

The sea camera fidgeted a bit, “You really are free as a bird,”

“Maybe. If I was really free, I would want to see you tomorrow and the day after that, and the day after that,” he admitted with an embarrassed rumble.

“You would get bored seeing me so often though…”

He shook his head, “No, I don’t think I would,”

Mostly because his core was already aching at the thought of not seeing his new friend and he was not a patient titan. Not to mention something felt different. It felt like the first time he had been around Titan Cameraman to actually talk to him outside of combat. That warm buzzing feeling all warm in his chest that his chief engineer had teased was him having a crush.

It felt like that, but different. A stronger sort of buzz.

“Well, I’ll see you again,” Charybdis said, starting to duck into the water, “in three days, at this point,”

“Yeah. I look forward to it!”

He couldn’t help a loud shriek then of goodbye, excited as ever, although this time Charybdis made their own loud noise back, although it was still a touch softer than what the speaker titan was use to. He jumped into the air, hovering there a moment until he lost sight of Charybdis into the depths of the ocean, far below the waves and into parts of the world only they knew.

He felt light and heavy all at once as he headed finally back to base. The sun had set fully by the time he touched down and knowing full well he was...five hours past his ETA time to report. Already he could see a member of high command stalking towards him in a bluster with Whistle having to jog just to keep up with the long strides of the larger speaker.

“Titan! Report! And there better be a reason your com was turned off and you weren’t broadcasting your location nor responding!” the large speaker barked.

“Hard to talk to someone when you have someone else talking in your auditory receptor,” The titan said with a shrug, “And then forgot to turn it on while I was tracking something,”

The lie came easier than it probably should have as he stood there, arms crossed, looking for all purposes aloof and without a care.

The larger speaker for high command gave a dissatisfied rumble before looking at Whistle, “Does this match with the communication you had before he cut off?”

Whistle shoved her hands into her pockets and gave a shrug, “Sounds about right,”

She gave a pointed look to the titan and in return, the titan gave a subtle nod that had her posture easing more, “I maybe was talking his auditory receptor off about something when he had to go radio silent a bit. Nothing out of the ordinary,”

The High Commander let out a low growl before pointing a finger back at the titan, “I expect a full detailed report as soon as possible,”

“Of course,”

The high command gave one last growl of the speakers before he was turning on his heels and stalking away. The titan watched him go, giving a huff before moving to lower a hand to his chief engineer, “What crawled up his aft?”

“I don’t know. Our titan being late without any word?” Whistle drawled as she stepped onto his palm, “Am I going to get the full story then?”

“I don’t know, you going to tell high command if I do?”

Whistle snorted as she was lifted up to the titan’s shoulder, taking her usual seat as he headed towards the hangar, “I just covered you. I think it shows well enough where I stand on the issue,”

The Titan Speakerman gave a hum in response, “Then maybe I will once there are no prying speakers about. My official report is tracking possible skibidi naval units and it turned out to be some scramble signal we should probably make note of,”

“Of course. Just a little nothing burger,” Whistle said as she took out her tablet to start looking over his systems, “Nothing to do with the mines?”

The titan gave a small huff as he ducked down just a bit to step into the hangar and move to the bay for check in and debrief as well as system reviews before detox and cleanup, “Was just playing a game there,”

The titan gave a glance around, pausing just a moment as he saw the Executor off to the side, zoned out, although the semi-titan gave a small glance there way. It was still something to get use to having company in the large hangar, especially with Executor being a rather quiet speaker, unusual in that regard, and far too serious. The joke was Whistle had been too locked in while he had been under the influence of the parasite and it resulted in Executor’s more serious nature.

The semi-titan was not armed yet, still in his infancy as an actual unit with training well underway, but he also was not someone the titan speakerman trusted entirely. Not personally at least. Executor was more beholden to the higher ups still, more likely to side with high command over himself or the chief engineer. A kiss-ass is what titan speakerman would call him although Whistle would tell him it was more just Executor was a new unit still feeling things out.

Being a new unit was complicated enough. Being one of the first semi-titans and larger unit born of an AI getting a grasp on everything meant there was a lot for them to take in, consider, and make their opinions known. In their own, quiet, serious, somewhat blunt sort of way.

The Executor watched them for a moment before returning to the book he was reading, giving a faint grumble, “You’re back late,”

“Thanks for noticing,”

“I suppose you are going to give a report on why?”

“In progress,” Whistle said, moving to slide off the Titan’s shoulder and with a hop, jump to her station, “Doing the usual checks for a returning titan. Diagnosis first, check all systems, assess damages, then with permission, download memory banks to confirm details of already given report,”

The Executor gave a small, disinterested shrug at the explanation,“Ah,”

“Would you mind doing me a favor though and going to get some materials from the warehouse? Think I might have to do some hardcore buffering and replacing of some plating,” Whistle said casually.

The Executor was silent before giving a nod and rising to his feet, “of course Chief Engineer,”

The titan watched him leave the hangar before letting out a snort, looking down at her, “One way to get rid of the emo speaker,”

“Oh be nice. He’s practically your sibling given I had to use your code as the basis for his AI,” Whistle tutted, “I would rather you two get along than not,”

“He’s a-”

“I know you don’t like how he goes over our heads to report things to high command, but technically that is what a lot of units are suppose to do and I recall you used to be eager to yap about everything to high command if you got the chance to get praised,” Whistle swiped a finger over the screen of her tablet, “Give him time and he’ll start seeing the higher ups as having their own thumbs up their afts. He isn’t processor-dead and picks up on things quickly,”

The titan speakermand grumbled, shaking his head as he stared off, trying to be patient for the usual checks before he was free to go to recharge, “Sure,”

“So, while he’s away, mind telling me what was really happening out there? I really don’t want to be putting my codes in your memory disk to see,” Whistle said, setting aside her tablet.

The Titan Speakerman shifted, his fans giving a faint rev before he sighed, leaning in, “Met that sea camera again. Their name is Charybdis and...we kind of became friends,”

“Kind of?”

“Well, I mean, okay, we are very much friends, but, you know,” the titan waved his hand a bit, “friends who you kind of want to, sit a little closer with?”

“So like you and Titan Cameraman?” Whistle asked with a snicker.

The Titan Speakerman gave a loud huff, although his speakers kicked up, “I had a crush for all of two weeks!”

“Uh huh,”

“This is different!”

Whistle tilted her head slowly, “Oh really now?”

the Titan Speakerman gave a glance to the hangar door, making sure the Executor wasn’t going to wander in before he leaned in closer, voice as low as he could make it, “I really like them. Talking to them makes me feel...normal again,”

That had Whistle pausing a moment at her desk, her hand pausing on the blueprints she was double checking, “You don’t say,”

“They get me and they don’t care I’m awkward or don’t know what to say sometimes,” the titan fidgeted, “and unlike Titan Cameraman, I don’t know, it feels like they need me too? Like… me being me, is what they need too,”

The chief engineer looked up, silent before letting out a sigh and coming over to pat at one of his hands, “Sounds like you got the love bug bad,”

“...I didn’t open any emails that said I love you,”

Whistle snorted, “not that love bug,” she moved to jab a finger at his core, “Looks like your crush might be a touch serious this time,”

“Oh. Right,” the titan drummed his fingers against the causeway lightly, “Maybe. Yeah. I am..going to see them again. In three days. You know to catch up and hang out,”

Whistle was quiet, just giving a rub over one of his fingers with that sort of silent concern, “High command isn’t going to like you hanging out with a Conglomerate and I can’t say I’m one-hundred percent sold on all of this. Nice or not, those units have their own concerning features and quirks,”

The Titan Speakerman tensed just a touch, “Whistle-”

“I am not going to tell you what to do, going to set the record straight there,” she said firmly, “I see you as my overgrown yappie son, but you also are more than capable of making your own choices and,” the chief engineer let out a sigh, “I can tell this is good for you. Has been a while since I’ve seen you in good spirits,”

“I don’t want to worry you,”

“Being a chief engineer means accepting you worry a lot,” she gave a small laugh, “But I would rather see you happy than miserable, so guess on record, I don’t know a thing about you and your puppy love for a sea camera,”

The titan felt a hum of embarrassment again, his fans whirring a bit as he looked away, “Not a puppy crush. I just want to make them happy too. Like they make me happy,”

“Fine then. I don’t know anything about you falling hard and fast for a mermaid,” Whistle corrected, “And you are clear to go clean up and get to recharge and I mean recharge,”

The chief engineer pointed to her neck as she gave him a look, “I better see you plugged in proper or I’m having Executor put it in and be your emotional support speaker,”

“No,”

“You already share a hangar now,”

“And I don’t need him being a judgmental body pillow,” the titan drawled, “Bad enough you gave him the top bunk,”

“He’s lighter and that bed was built quickly so rather not risk your weight breaking it and crushing down on the new semi-titan. Pretty sure high command would throw a fit if he got damaged so soon after his online date,”

“I’m sure you got warranty on him,”

Whistle snorted, “Ha. Didn’t know you were getting a sense of humor like Optical,” she gave a shooing motion, “now get going off to recharge. You got a long day tomorrow running training simulations with the other titans,”

“Right,”

He slid out of the diagnosis seat and headed into the decontamination room, painstakingly getting undressed. With all the hardware and offensive weaponry strapped to him, it was always a hassle to get stripped down. However, it was required before every recharge, just to make sure all the ports were blown out of debris and everything cleaned up. Being a titan meant it was rather easy to get dirty from just stepping outside for a minute and with all the delicate circuitry and systems that went into a titan’s body, cleanliness was a top priority.

The hot spray of water was nice, followed by the automatic buffers moving into action to get scratches out and apply wax to maintain the finish from rust. He still hated when the air machines started off, always giving an unhappy rubble as they blasted out his ports and making him jump. If it was just warm water and soap with the massaging pressure of the larger spinning washers, he would have been fine.

The air was always the worse, especially at his neck ports. Without fail it had him making noises and trying to reach back to cover it as it felt too much like a parasite trying to get in.

Eventually the decontamination dinged and he was permitted to leave, grabbing the titan size towel to dry off her and there before getting into the recharge clothes. More simple clothing, less thick and more lose to allow more comfortable ventilation while at rest.

He flopped into his berth, once more pausing before letting out a sigh and picking up the recharge cord. He stared at it for a long minute before rolling over and tentatively raising one hand to feel about at the ports near his neck and resisting the urge to flinch away as he put the recharge cord in. the feeling of the cord going in had him writhing a bit, nearly ripping it back out with a sound of panic before forcing himself to calm down and just roll over, arms crossed over his chest, and try to get some sleep and ignore the feeling.

If he was recharged, he would perform better tomorrow in the training and the higher ups would be more pleased. That would keep them off his back during the long patrols.

Which meant more time to spend with Charybdis without anyone really noting oddities in his return times.

Three days for from now he could see them again. He just had to be patient.

He let himself start to power down, even as hie let out a loud wistful sigh.

Three days was going to feel like years, of that he was more than certain.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Iron nitride's magnetoelastic properties show potential for flexible spintronics

The field of spintronics, which integrates the charge and spin properties of electrons to develop electronic devices with enhanced functionality and energy efficiency, has expanded into new applications. Beyond current technologies such as hard disk drive read heads and magnetic random-access memory (MRAM), researchers are now investigating flexible spintronics for use in wearable devices and sheet-type sensors. For these applications, detecting small changes in mechanical stress through electrical resistance modulation is essential. This requires not only materials with significant magnetoresistance effects but also control over their magnetoelastic properties. A research team systematically studied the magnetoelastic properties of Fe4N and its substituted variants, Fe4-xMnxN and Fe4-yCoyN. These materials, composed of widely available elements, were examined for their potential in flexible spintronics.

Read more.

[idkfitememate]

Welcome To Aperture Science

૮꒰˶ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ˶꒱ა Pairings : GN! GLaDOS Reader x Raiden Shogun, Kujo, Aether, Dottore & Maillardet

૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა W.K. : 6.5k

໒꒰ྀིᵔ ᵕ ᵔ ꒱ྀི১ Tags/CW&TW : Reader is a insane robot, Mutilation, descriptive gore

໒꒰ྀི˶˙Ⱉ˙˶꒱ྀིა Author’s note : I ran into a bit of a dilemma in writing this. I realized that a lot of you probably would be able to get into the role of you were called “GLaDOS”, so here’s the plan. I tried my hardest to not have to use (y/n), but me thinks I’m gonna have to. The actual operating system will be called “GLaDOS”, but you yourself will be called (y/n). You’re replacing Caroline & GLaDOS. There will be a little surprise - since this is my ver of Portal (AKA throwing Portal into Genshin), so you’ll be introduced as (y/n)! If this ruins the experience, please let me know, and I’ll come up with something different! ໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა

Also! GORE WARNING!!!! THERE WILL BE GORE!! I’ll post a warning right before it starts and a little thing for where it ends!! ☆૮꒰ˊᗜˋ* ꒱ა

Finding out one of your islands is being used for things unknown is not something you want to wake up too.

But unfortunately, that was what Miss. Raiden Ei was subjected to this morning.

The apparent “island” wasn’t even actually an island. It looked like a small plot of land, with it’s only inhabitant being an old bot that resembled a Fontainian Meka - which was still active and very dangerous - and what looked to be some kind of small, one person hut. But when the fishermen who had found this island somehow managed to enter the hut, they found it actually housed a long, winding staircase that plummeted into the earth.

So of course this news was sent straight to Ei. As the Archon, anything that went on in her Nation’s boundaries that wasn’t documented was immediately brought up to her for investigation. In any other case she would have told the Tenryou Commission to take care of it or otherwise, but seeing as this was seemingly more than just a “island descending into the depths” - the fishermen also reported strange noises coming from below - this seemed like it would need to be handled with a more… direct touch.

Gathering her wits, she made a small “exploration team”. This team consisted of:

1. The Traveler, because why wouldn’t it

2. Kujo Sara, her loyalty will be of use

3. Maillardet, she had heard of his helping with the Icewind Suite Meka. His expertise may be needed.

And finally, though unfortunately,

4. Dottore.

As much as she may have detested the Fatui and their methods, she couldn’t deny they got results. And on top of that she had heard of his experiments on that of Ruin Guards, which again may be needed.

After making her plans and sending off letters to all she believed she may need, the Shogun began to wait.

૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍰��🍯୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚

It was dark in the Aperture Science building. Though it wasn’t silent. After word from the singular guard at one of many openings alerted human sightings after… years of nothing, you had to admit something inside you was excited.

It was in human and monster nature to be curious of the unknown. And with all the years since your last… nuisance test subject, you figured that Aperture may have been - more likely was - forgotten by those above.

You rapidly repaired test room after test room, rebuilding the facility to the best of your current abilities. Which wasn’t much a problem, because due to the lack of human error, you were able to keep the place up and running with extreme precision.

It looked just like when Aperture was first built.

With different power sources from every nation, keeping powered on was never an issue. The location that had been found by humans was the one that was powered by the never ending lightning storm that surrounded the nation of Inazuma.

The strikes of Electro traveled through the water into sensors placed on the ocean floor, that changed the pure Electro into actual electricity that was then used to power the specific part of Aperture Science that was stationed below it.

The real facility spanned all across Teyvat.

This was only the beginning.

And your cold heart was more than ready for this coming future.

૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍰🍫🍭୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚

“I am shocked than and Archon such as yourself has called for me.”

All heads in the room turned to face the masked male.

Kujo immediately summoned her bow and pointed it at the man, while Traveler did the same with his sword. Poor Maillardet only ran behind the armed female, clutching her skirt.

Kujo glanced at him before pushing all attention back on Dottore.

“Please lower your weapons.” Heads whipped to look at the sullen voice of Ei.

“I asked him to be here. Please do not make this experience more difficult than it already may be.” Even she seemed… less than enthused by her actions, but the sudden silence- to soak up her words - was interrupted by the man in question’s laughter.

“And how shocked I was when The Tsaritsa said the Electro Archon herself had asked for my assistance in a ‘pressing matter’! Please, do listen to her and try to not make this difficult?” His grin unwavering. Aether scoffed and Kujo only huffed a small ‘Yes, my Shogun’, before turning to her backseat passenger who hadn’t moved since Dottore’s appearance.

“… What?” The brunette asked. Then he sighed. “Just because I build fighters doesn’t mean I myself can fight, Madame.” He quickly pushed himself off her and dusted both her and him off.

With one more sigh, Ei stood.

“Let us not waste anymore time. There is an odd island off the coast of Amakane Island. On it is a single individual that resembles a Fontainian Meka, and a hut. The odd thing being that this hut holds a staircase that “plummets into the earth”, so say my sources.” She then looked at the Doctor.

“Have your men done anything to this island?” It was a fair question.

It wouldn’t be odd for the Fatui to have a lab or something of the sort in a Nation without the Archon or Nation’s knowledge. In fact, it wouldn’t be the first time. Though - again - Dottore only laughed again.

“No, Miss. Ei. We haven’t any labs that “plummet into the earth”, as you say.” Kujo flinched at him not referring to her Archon by her title, but before she could do anything, she was stopped by a look from said Archon.

“Thank you for being honest,” she hummed, “Then we best be off. Who knows what we shall find and who knows how long we may be.” And she started off.

Following behind her was everyone but Maillardet, who looked confused.

“No equipment? No food provisions?” He glanced a guard who was stationed at a door nearby who shrugged. They both sighed and spoke in unison.

“Vision holders…”

૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🎂🍬🧁୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚

Making their way to Amakane Island was easy enough. Making their way to the unnamed island was also easy.

The Meka that was guarding the small hut was… tall, to say the least.

“It looks vaguely like a Suppression Specialist Mek mixed with an Assault Specialist Mek…” Maillardet muttered, causing Dottore’s head to whip in his direction.

“So nothing you’ve seen before?” He mused, causing the Fontainian to glare at him.

“No.” He huffed, “It isn’t.” Dottore smirked at that answer.

“Then we have an unknown Meka on our hands? Perhaps made by someone outside of Fontaine-“ “No.” Maillardet interrupted.

“It still has hints of Fontainian handiwork. The way you can see some gears and cogs, as well as the fact that it’s utilizing Fontaine gun tech. It very well could be imbued with Arkeh energy. If I had to guess, Ousia.”

Everyone stared at the man, who blushed.

“What I’m trying to say,” he breathed, “Is that while it’s not any Meka I’ve ever seen, it’s definitely made by Fontainian hands. Sir Aether should know how to deal with it effectively.” Dottore stared at the man.

Aether nodded and jumped off the boat they all currently inhabited, and began to attack. The others stayed back and watched as he gracefully dodged attacks and fought back.

Though, in a sudden switch of attack, the bullets firing from the cannon on its arm changed to Electro-Charged pellets of water. The sudden swap shocked Aether and the Mek was able to land a few solid hits on the man.

Getting fed up, Kujo stood to fight, but Ei held her back.

“Those are Electro-Charged attacks.” “I understand Shogun but-“ “No. We’d only make things worse.” With a huff, the tengu sat down, glaring at the Doctor who dared to chuckle.

The fight continued on for a few more minutes before Aether came out triumphant. As the Mek collapsed, a voice rung out from its destroyed body.

“Warn…ing…Intruders At….Inazuma Ent…rance…Access Not Given…Send Warning To GL…a…” Before finally collapsing. Aether stood overtop its corpse before turning to the others.

“Well… I suppose we can continue onward?” Maillardet questioned, only to be met with everyone else in the boat jumping out onto dry land, once more leaving him behind.

The man grumbled as he slowly pulled himself out the boat, soaking his boots and pants.

By the time he made it, everyone but Dottore had made their way into the hut, on their way down.

“After you.” The bluenette grinned, and Maillardet shuddered.

And then they all made their decent.

૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍮🍯🍫୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚

While the staircase itself was long and narrow, surrounded on all sides by pipes and cogs, what they found at the bottom was truly a sight; though they had been going down for a while.

A large open space - like a courtyard. There was artificial sunlight that streamed in from the panels on the ceiling that simulated a blue sky. False grass and trees swayed in a deceptive breeze. A ‘building’ sat before them with glass doors. It was grey and unassuming, the words “Aperture Science Laboratories” was in big lettering above the doors in big, illuminated lighting.

“Incredible…” Dottore mumbled as the group began to make their way down a path that led from the staircase to the building.

Just then, a sharp creaking noise was heard, and the staircase they had just traversed began to retract. It slowly made its way upward, lifting off the ground. Without flinching, Kujo summoned her bow and knocked an arrow, looking for a place to shoot. Finding a button near the staircase labeled ‘emergency shut down’, she shot, hitting it head on.

“Sudden Power Surge Detected At: Inazuma Docking Station. Rerouting Power Surge To Backup Power Supply’s. Emergency Dock Closing System: Initiated.”

And with that, the stairs shot up, effectively sealing the group inside.

“Sorry, Shogun…” was the only thing that left the now embarrassed Kujo’s lips.

“Worry not, I am sure we’ll find another exit eventually. Let us continue forth.” And onward they went.

Walking down the path, Dottore noted that there were hills far beyond the little building before them, fading off into the distance.

“I wonder how long this facility stretches out?..” He wondered aloud. Maillardet grumbled under his breath.

“Hopefully not that far…”

Entering the building they were met with something none of them - minus Dottore - had experienced.

Fluorescent lighting.

The light outside had at least been convincing, but the buzzing overhead and the slight flickering was enough to get under everyone’s - again, minus Dottore’s - skin.

“Whatever is this awful-“

“Welcome, gentleman, to Aperture Science. Humans, Vision Holders, War-Hero’s, Hybrids — you’re here because we want the best, and you’re it. Now, who’s ready to make some science?”

Weapons were immediately drawn from hearing the unusual voice.

“Who dared cut of The Shogun-“

“Now, you already met one another on the boat ride over, so let me introduce myself. I’m Cave Johnson. I own the place.”

Kujo growled.

“Well, Mr. “Cave Johnson”, I recommend you reveal yourself before we-“

“Mr. Johnson! I believe you’re forgetting something..? Or rather, someone..?”

All heads turned to the wall length screen that turned on with the new voice.

They were met with a cartoonish figure of a person, though their head was replaced by the grey, circle logo of Aperture. They were dressed in a white button up with a black vest overtop. With pure black dress pants and black dress shoes. A snow white lab coat over their shoulders and pure white gloves on their hands. The only hint of color or their person was an orange tie.

Dottore was the first to walk over, pressing a gloved hand to the screen.

“This is all absolutely incredible…” he spoke with a grin.

Nobody noticed how the figure flinched away.

“That eager voice you heard is the lovely (y/n), my assistant. They were added as a safety protocol in case some of you get lost. There are screens all of Aperture where they can keep a close eye on you, to make sure you stay in one piece, or at least as close to one piece as we can get you. Now, rest assured, they have transferred your honorarium to the charitable organization of your choice, isn’t that right, (y/n)?”

The figure on the screen - now known as (y/n) - nodded. Or… nodded as best a 2D model may be able to nod.

“That’s right, Mr. Johnson.”

“Since their addition, they have been the backbone of this facility. Pretty as a postcard too. Sorry fellas, they’re married. To science.”

They watched as you walked over on the “screens”, trotting all the way over to a pair of double doors. With one arm behind you, you held an open palm in the direction of said doors.

“Now, if you just follow them, they’ll take you right to the testing sites.”

With that small tidbit of information, the group reluctantly walked their way over to the doors. Pushing through them, they watched as you faded on the other side. Only for the walls of the hallway surrounding them to light up with bright white light, and for you to be on their right side, walking down the hall on your screens.

“There’s a thousand tests performed everyday here in our enrichment spheres. I can’t personally oversee every single one of them, so these pre-recorded messages’ll cover any questions you might have, and respond to any incidents that may occur in the course of your science adventure!”

You continued walking down the long hall, it slowly dipping further and further into the earth, but not to an alarming degree. A tune played throughout the hall, your head bobbing to the beat.

“Recorded..?” Ei asked. She turned to Kujo and Aether, who both shrugged. She then turned to Maillardet who muttered a quick ‘I’ve heard of it… that’s all…’ then looked away. Finally she looked towards Dottore.

“… Recordings are a rather new technology I’ve discovered. It’s a lost technique from long ago, the act of taking the waves of one’s voice down onto a physical form - such as a disk or a vinyl - and relaying those waves through a certain machine to recreate noises. I’ve been able to get my hands on a few, but to find one of such large scale, with moving images to boot! If I can get my hands on whatever is relaying these recordings…” His voice toned back when he realized he was walking alone.

Turning back he noticed that everyone had stopped behind him, confusion written all over their faces. He groaned, slapping a hand over his eyes before dragging it down the side of his face.

“It refers to something hearing noise, then relaying it at a later time when prompted.” And on they continued. It took a moment to catch up to you, as you had continued on your merry way while they had been stopped.

When they made it, Cave Johnson began speaking again.

“Your test assignments will vary, depending on the manner in which you have bent the world to your will.”

They finally made it to the end of the hall, with double doors greeting them. The doors opened automatically, opening to a large space, akin to an auditorium. Doors led off to different halls, each closed off by double doors that were identical to the ones they just came through. The room was surrounded by the Aperture logo, with small tables set up with small experiments on them. Walking past, Maillardet’s eyes glanced at a potato battery.

The most obvious thing in the room were the blue and yellow lines on the floor that each led to another room. You popped up again on a few overhead screens, though now you were sitting at a desk, typing away. You occasionally took a sip from a grey cup.

“Those of you helping us test the repulsion gel today, just follow the blue lines on the floor. Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA I’ve got some good news and some bad news.”

Lights lit up over the blue lines and your figure changed to a looping recording of you walking on the lines and through the door.

“Injected with praying mantis DNA… why would you ever..?” Maillardet wondered with a grimace, while Dottore only smirked.

“I think me and this Mr. Johnson may have something in common. Anything in the name of science.” His grin made Aether shiver.

“Can we please just move on?” The blonde growled. He turned to the two females, only to find Kujo trying to open another door with Ei beside her.

“What are you doing..?” He asked. The General exhaled before turning back to the group.

“Trying to find another way out. Why are we even listening to this Cave Johnson person? We don’t know who he is, we don’t know where he is, we don’t even know what he looks like.” She walked over to another set of doors and tugged.

“She has a point.” Said Ei. “But in that same breath, we don’t know where we are either. The only thing pushing us forward is the voice of Mr. Johnson.” She placed a hand on the tengu’s shoulder.

“I feel it may be in our best interest to listen for now. When we find an exit, we’ll leave immediately.” Kujo sighed and muttered an apology before turning to the blue lines.

The loop of your walking through the doors still played above as everyone filled through the doors.

“Bad news, we’re postponing those tests indefinitely. Good news is we have a much better test for you: fighting an army of mantis men.”

“WHAT?!-“ shouted Maillardet. “WHY WOULD YOU EVER-“ A hand was slapped over his mouth as Dottore shushed him.

“I want to hear the rest of this.” he whispered.

“Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line. You’ll know when the test starts.”

“Oh Mr. Johnson…” Dottore swooned.

“Only a rifle..?” Maillardet whimpered.

Kujo groaned. “Don’t worry about that now. We’re following the blue lines. Not the yellow ones.” Ei grinned slightly at the banter.

“They say great science is built on the shoulder of giants. Not here. At Aperture, we do all our science from scratch. No hand holding.”

“I really do like this man.” Dottore grinned.

૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍩🍫🍦୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚

Walking along the catwalks was a new feeling. Despite the no longer being really… anywhere… there were still screens nearby that depicted you walking along side the group.

Little to no effort was made to make any kind of conversation. Just the sounds of different kinds of shoes hitting the metal that made up the catwalks.

Though that all changed within a moment.

“Hello..? Hello??”

The sudden voice calling out made everyone come to a stop. Aether brandished his sword and turned to a pair of doors that led off the path they were being led down.

They waited with bated breath as the mechanical whirling of something moving towards them echoed in the open space. The walls themselves seemed to shift as whatever it was made its way to the door…

The doors burst open as a spherical robot with a bright blue eye pushed its way through the doors, pausing when it saw the group.

“Humans..? Humans?? Humans!! Wait… HUMANS?!?!” Its confound shock was extremely apparent, especially with the way it screamed out.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING BACK HERE?!?! I haven’t seen a human since… since… her…” It’s tone grew somber within a second, but then it shook on its… bar??? Grip??? Dottore wanted to know.

“That doesn’t matter, what matters is that you guys are humans! Actual, genuine humans!” It rolled forward on its… whatever and faced them.

“… None of you have the portal gun though.. oh. Do you have those ‘vision’ things? Because I can assure you they won’t be of much help here-”

“And why is that?” Dottore jumped in.

“… Well first off all, it was incredibly rude to cut me off there, secondly, Aperture focused on the sciences that… well, had to do with those who lacked visions. Now don’t get me wrong, there were certainly tests for those who had them but uh… yeah these were mostly for those without.” It nodded.

“I see… now. Do you happen to have a name. Or would you tell us what you are?” The Doctor asked.

“A name..? Right! Oh gosh, I completely forgot about that. Wheatley’s the name and… yeah I don’t know where that was going really. And to answer the other question, I am what’s known as a core, but where are you lot off to?” He introduced. Though before the blue haired doctor could answer, a voice rung out.

“They’re off to test with the repulsion gel, Wheatley.” Your voice ring out, and there you were on the screen, facing them with a hand on your hip. The core seemed the freeze up at your voice, which didn’t go unnoticed.

“Oh! Uh… hey… (y/n)… hehe.” Wheatley seemed uncomfortable at now knowing of your presence, before something seemed to pop into his head.

“But… without the portal gun?”

“You don’t necessarily need a-“

“What’s a portal gun?” Maillardet questioned. You heaved a long sigh and Wheatley seemed to brighten up.

“We’ll only one of, if not the, best things Aperture has ever made, of course! It’s this nifty little gun that allows a person to go from one point, to another in just a snap!.. If I could snap I would to punctuate my point-“

“What he means-“ You interrupted, “Is that it is a special device that allows someone to manipulate space itself by opening up a doorway - otherwise known as a portal - and go from an unreachable point A to unreachable point B… or at the very least a vision-less ‘someone’. We weren’t able to test on those with a vision… or any non-humans with human intelligence; such as Oni from Inazuma or Adepti from Liyue. But even then our knowledge is… limited…”

Wheatley stared at you as you explained the Portal Gun in detail, before scanning the group.

“Oh! There is a vision-less with you!”

Maillardet swallowed nervously.

“Here, you won’t be at a disadvantage if you let us give you the Portal Gun! No need to feel like you may be falling behind… bloody hell you might even be able to go ahead and be advantaged in this situation!” The blue eyed bot explained.

“Wait wait wait… are either of you… alive or uh..” Aether stumbled over his words before you cut him off impatiently.

“Yes we are entirely sentient. Now Wheatley, we can’t make these decisions-“

“I don’t know why you’re complaining. You’ve been moping about for years! All because you ‘don’t have any human testers’ and ‘robots were starting to get the same results’ and ‘humans unpredictability made them unique’ and-“

“That’s enough, you idiot.” “HEY!-“ “Fine. Here’s how this will work, so be quiet and listen.”

Nobody moved.

“We will give your little friend access to The Portal Gun, you complete a couple tests for us, and we help you leave as fast as possible. Deal?”

“Well it doesn’t sound like we get much out of that deal besides our assured exit.” Ei stated, and you groaned.

“You’ll have access to technologies that those above this facility have not had access to for years. Plus, this will practically be free training. Now do we have a deal?” Your impatience was starting to grow clearer and clearer with each passing moment.

“Well-“ “YES!” Maillardet screamed. He didn’t care. This was his chance to truly make a name for himself. If he was able to get this ‘Portal Gun’ outside of the facility, the things he may be able to do with that tech…

Everyone looked at him with shock - though Dottore was more amused than anything - at how fast he agreed.

“Great! Wonderful even! Here, just follow me through here and we’ll get you right as rain, isn’t that right (y/n)?” Wheatley glanced at you as he turned on his rail. If you could, you would’ve rolled your eyes.

They watched as the screen you stood on blinked off, and Wheatley rolled away.

Maillardet followed behind and the others hesitated. Though after that moment of hesitation, they followed behind as well.

૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍡🍯🍮୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚

Instead of the grey halls and metal walls they had become accustom to, they were met with greenage and foliage on all sides.

Flora of all kinds blossomed around them, tress that reached higher than any of them could see. They all followed behind the humming core, until he suddenly stopped.

“Now, this is a bit awkward, but my rail system ends here. I’m gonna let go, but I need someone to catch me. Do we have any volunteers..?” Wheatley informed and asked. He looked around the group only to make eye contact with Dottore. Who was grinning. Sharp teeth fully on display.

“Uhm… anyone..?” The robot squeaked. Though the only one who moved closer was Dottore.

He sighed, then ‘steeled’ his nerves.

“Alright, I’ll let go on the count of three- NO, ONE! If I do it on three I’ll chicken out and… mmmm I’m talking to much aren’t I? I’m nervous because of the very real possibility that you may drop me. Not to say you look weak or anything, you actually look quite strong. Has anyone ever told you that? I mean, personally I would prefer to be strong if I had a body… On that note I wished they gave us hands. That’d be nice. Or a way to move while not on the rail systems. They can only go so many places and so far, you know? And some of them end in the oddest of places. I found one that ended over a bottomless pit. Isn’t that just insane? I mean-“

Dottore grumbled something under his breath before moving directly below the blabbering bot. Then he cleared his throat, and screamed:

“ONE!”

The high pitched scream Wheatley let out as he fell would’ve been able to convince anyone that he was actually a girl. Dottore’s knees nearly buckled under the sheer weight of the still screaming robot in his arms. After finding his footing, they all stared at Wheatley, who continued to scream for a solid minute before realizing he wasn’t falling anymore.

“AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaa…. Oh. You caught me. That’s a first- Anyway, directions! You’re going to want to follow the greyed out path through the green, and you’ll find a platform behind some broken walls and such. I’ll admit, when you get there it’s a bit of a jump, but I have faith in you lot!” He… grinned??? Well it was as close to a grin as a giant metal eyeball could get.

Everyone hummed in response and continued to trek on. Every now and then Dottore or Ei would ask about a type of flower or plant they saw, only for Wheatley to say he’s neither the flower nor plant core. Which led to Dottore asking about cores and Wheatley offering an explanation.

“Cores are… well to put it in perspective think of the basic parts of your personality. Of what makes you, you. Cores are basically that! We work as the pure forms of interests or emotions. Such as the flower core, who only ever talks about flowers. Or the anger core who… uhm… well. He screams? I guess?” Wheatley answered.

“So… what do you embody? Fear? Worry? Rambling?” Dottore asked, only for Wheatley to shout in objection.

“No! Absolutely not! None of those things! In fact, just for that, I don’t think I want to tell you.” He spun his eye around as to not look at the man carried him, causing Dottore to chuckle.

Maillardet suddenly shot ahead, causing everyone to quickly follow after. Wheatley seemed to understand why he shot ahead.

“There she is.” He muttered.

Just behind a wall, there it was.

Placed on a pedestal, vines and flowers grew all around in a mesmerizing pattern. A small hole in the roof let a halo of light fall onto the midsized device.

It was sleek. It was shiny. White and black mixed together in a perfect blend.

“Isn’t it beautiful? The pride of Aperture. What nearly all of our resources went into after its conception.” Wheatley mused. His focus was entirely on the gun in front of them.

Though his previous statement was true, there was a rather large drop from the platform they were on and the platform the Gun was on.

“You can drop me here.” The core suddenly spoke. Dottore looked down with a bit of a scowl.

“Weren’t you the one who screamed like a baby at falling only about four feet?” He asked. Wheatley scoffed.

“That was the make sure you’d catch me… anyway, I know I can survive this fall. I’ve survived worse. Just drop me and then jump down. It’ll be easier that way.” Wheatley’s voice suddenly got very serious. it lost its lively charm and became something more robotic… which was ironic.

The robot started acting more robotic, and they felt uncomfortable about it.

Dottore scoffed, then dropped the core without care. Though this time, Wheatley didn’t make a sound, just a small grunt when he hit the floor.

‘It can physically feel..?’ Dottore wondered.

Then one by one, they jumped down - Aether catching Maillardet - and began their walk over to the Gun after Dottore picked up Wheatley again.

“Hold on.” The blue eyes core suddenly spoke. His eye turned to a wall, and the panels suddenly shifted. A small control panel pushed itself out, presenting itself to the group.

“Plug me in there. I can make sure nothing hostile happens to pass by.” He explained.

“Hostile..?” Ei questioned and Wheatley, suddenly seeming very tired, sighed.

“Yes. Hostile. Just- Don’t worry about it, okay? I promise nothing will happen.” He glanced back at the group with a drooped eye. Dottore placed him on the panel.

Electricity shot out for a moment, then the core settled. He looked back, then without a word, got pulled back into the wall.

“It looks… so mesmerizing…” Maillardet whispered. He was the closest to the Gun. He hesitantly reached a hand out and touched it. Then, he picked it up and got a grip on it.

“I can’t say I’ve ever shot a gun but…” The mechanic pointed the gun at a wall, away from everyone as they watched.

He shot the gun.

And everyone watched as a pure black circle surrounded by blue latched onto the wall.

Everyone stood in shock.

He hesitantly shot right next to the blue and was met with a circle of orange.

Though now he could see through both.

And they reflected the room back to him.

He walked closer and looked through one and saw everyone looking back at him in silent disbelief.

He stuck a hand through the blue portal.

And watched his hand exit the orange.

He fell back in shock and everyone ran closer. They gathered around him, awe and shock written all across their faces.

“This is…” Dottore spoke.

“… A revelation.” Maillardet finished.

“Truly, isn’t it?”

The third voice broke everyone out of their stupor. They watched as the walls fluctuated and moved, opening the room up into another.

It was dark - pitch black, save for the screen that had only your figure on it. You stared at the group before moving your attention to the Portal Gun.

“Such an expensive piece of equipment it is… hopefully you understand what I’m about to do is only in your best interests.”

The screens blipped off, and a hole in the center of the room opened, a disgusting orange red glow emanating from it.

“Preparations Made. Systems Online. Ready For Emergency Long Fall Boot Insertion. Is Moderator Ready?”

“Yes.” Your voice rung out.

“Participant Ready?”

Before anyone could speak, you spoke for them.

“Participant is ready.”

“All Parties Set. Commencing Insertion.”

˚ʚ ꒰GORE WARNING!! GORE STARTS HERE!!꒱ ɞ˚

Metal wires suddenly shot out from the floor, causing everyone who could to summon weapons. Unfortunately, you had a plan for that.

Your wires shot out and gripped the visions on everyone who had one, but tightly wrapped around both Aether and Ei, quickly picking them up and throwing them into walls.

“Stand down, don’t make this harder than it needs to be.” You warned.

The wires quickly wrapped around the ankles of Maillardet, dragging him forward and making him drop the Gun. Kujo rushed forward but a wire wrapped around her and threw her to the ground.

“Last. Warning.” You said.

They were forced to watch as the vision less man was strapped down to a table that came up front the pit by those wires. Buzz saws and bone saws and needles and others rose from the hole in the ground.

Wires tore at his pants and ripped the boots off his struggling body.

“This is going to hurt. A lot. I don’t personally believe in anesthesia, but feel free to pass out.”

And with that, the first saw turned on and immediately buried itself in his leg, blood spraying and his screams ripping themselves out his throat. You could practically hear the tendons snapping as he cried.

It went until it hit bone, where you moved the buzz saw out of his leg with a sickening *squelch*, pressing the saw into his bone and quickly sawing through.

Everyone - of course, minus Dottore - did their best to look away from the scene, but Kujo couldn’t help the whimper that left her lips when some blood spattered on her face.

After bone, the buzz saw when back to work until the odd cut was completed. It was curved, leaving the front of the lower leg untouched, but the back - up to the upper caff - was completely removed, as well as the ankle and leg. Then the process started all over on the next leg.

“Did you know there was once a surgery with a 300% mortality rate? It was an amputation, much like this one, preformed by a Mr. Robert Liston over two hundred years ago. What happened was his patient died of an infection, his assistant also died of an infection after his fingers had been amputated accidentally, and a witness of shock after the knife came too close. Isn’t that interesting?”

Your words echoed through the chamber over the cries of Maillardet who just lost his other lower leg.

The two amputated leg parts were picked up by robotic claws which threw them into the hole below. Then, two odd looking boots were raised from said hole.

The class took the boots apart and began to assemble them on the man’s body. They were a solid white with black base and a weird black wire at rhetorical back.

The screams grew worse - then silent after Maillardet finally passed out due to pain - as the black wire - which was connected to the black base - was drilled into what was left of the bone. The wire was then shifted, then grafted into the muscle and bone.

The white part was reattached to the black, the straps tightening against what was left of the skin, before it was literally melted onto the boot.

The smell of burning skin, bones and blood filled the room.

“See, wasn’t that easy?”

His body was thrown off the table and next to the Gun.

The wires let go of everyone, and Aether landed on the floor, passed out.

˚ʚ ꒰GORE OVER GORE OVER!! YOU’RE SAFE!!꒱ ɞ˚

“Why aren’t my abilities working..?” Ei wondered aloud while helping Kujo to her feet.

“You think I wouldn’t recognize a God? News Travels, Beel. We have a few protocols in case a God were to ever wonder into our wonderful facility, but I don’t think I feel like telling you exactly what’s happening to you.”

She quickly looked up above the still open hole in the ground with a glare.

“Stop being a coward and reveal yourself.” She hissed.

“If you insist.”

The lights suddenly turned on, blinding all who were awake.

Dottore stared on in wonder at your body. It resembled that of a human who was suspended from the ceiling. Legs pressed together and arms bound behind them with their back to the floor.

It was the most beautiful piece of machinery he had ever seen.

You slowly turned to face them, the orange light of your eye glaring down at them.

“Let me formally introduce myself, this time without the assistance of a recording. This body you see before you has been dubbed the “Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System”. GLaDOS for short. Though if you prefer it, (y/n) is not off the table.”

“Where… is Wheatley?” Kujo suddenly asked.

“I figured you wouldn’t like him. How shocking you ask. But if you must know… You’re free to reveal yourself.” You mussed.

Silently, the core rode in on a rail in the background on a catwalk. He looks away.

“You’ve payed me back enough, moron. You no longer hold a debt.”

The room was silent.

He had… he betrayed them?

People he didn’t even know?

“… I still feel the itch, you know..?”

Your large head turned to face the blue eyed core.

“I know I’m not the smartest… but I still feel

The itch. It’s like it’s at the back of my brain… and you know what needs to be done to fix it. Please allow me to stay. I won’t… I won’t muck up as bad as I did last time.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

He felt bad and everyone could tell, but you knew that the need to test was able to push back all other thoughts. All other emotions.

It changed people. No matter if they were made of flesh or metal.

And addiction is an addiction. No matter what.

It wouldn’t go away with a bit of cold turkey quitting. That always came with side effects.

The silence was deafening.

If you could smile, you would.

“If you want. I may have final say, but my control over the cores is loose.”

Your gaze turned back to the group who had huddled themselves in a corner, glaring at you.

But you noticed Dottore was staring with less hatred and more… curiosity.

Like a child.

“You understand why I did what I did, don’t you?” Your voice was cold, yet still somehow held some kind of twisted warmth.

“It was to make him stronger. He can survive tests without a hitch now. As soon as he recovers, we’ll be able to continue testing without a hitch. You’ll each be given a relaxation pod while we wait. I’ll be holding up the end of my deal.” You turned away and focused on the screens behind you.

“What… are you..?” Ei asked.

“I thought I answered that question. I am GLaDOS. I am (y/n). I am the current head of Aperture Science.” You turned back to the group.

“And as long as you’re here under my care, I can assure you that we’ll have loads of fun.“

Everyone who was awake was suddenly knocked out by the gas you had been silently filled the room with.

It was time for testing to begin.

໒꒰ྀི˶˙Ⱉ˙˶꒱ྀིა Author’s note : I hope this is good! Ima be honest, don’t know if any of the explanations for anything that was explained make sense lol. Also, don’t forget to tell me if you were okay with the whole (y/n) thing! ૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა

This is just in case nothing more gets requested: (y/n)’s transformation went like this: human (Cave’s assistant), mascot (first take on GLaDOS-like system, success), GLaDOS (Cave asked for them [they retained their human personality and memories as the mascot] to be GLaDOS while he was dying, like in the cannon)

Now I’m gonna spend some time on Requests! After which I’ll start on Mora!Creator! Again, I hope you enjoyed! ૮꒰˶ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ˶꒱ა˖⁺‧₊˚

And don’t be scared to request any Automation Reader (Executioner or GLaDOS) okay bye-

[usafphantom2]

U.S. Approves Foreign Military Sale for South Korean F-15K Upgrade

The State Department has approved the possible sale of components that will allow South Korea to upgrade its F-15K Slam Eagle fleet to a configuration similar to the F-15EX Eagle II.

Stefano D'Urso

F-15K upgrade

The U.S. State Department has approved on Nov.19, 2024, a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to the Republic of Korea of components that will allow the upgrade of the country’s F-15K Slam Eagle fleet. The package, which has an estimated cost of $6.2 billion, follows the decision in 2022 to launch an upgrade program for the aircraft.

The State Department has approved the possible sale of components that will allow South Korea to upgrade its F-15K Slam Eagle fleet to a configuration similar to the F-15EX Eagle II.The F-15KThe new capabilities

The Slam Eagles are the mainstay of the Republic of Korea Air Force’s (ROKAF) multirole missions, with a particular ‘heavy hitting’ long-range strike role. According to the available data, the country operates 59 F-15Ks out of 61 which were initially fielded in 2005. In 2022, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) approved the launch of an upgrade program planned to run from 2024 to 2034.

In particular, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s (DSCA) FMS notice says a number of components were requested for the upgrade, including 96 Advanced Display Core Processor II (ADCP II) mission system computers, 70 AN/APG-82(v)1 Active Electronically Scanned Arrays (AESA) radars, seventy 70 AN/ALQ-250 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) electronic warfare (EW) suites and 70 AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems (CMWS).

In addition to these, South Korea will also get modifications and maintenance support, aircraft components and spares, consumables, training aids and the entire support package commonly associated with FMS. It is interesting to note that the notice also includes aerial refueling support and aircraft ferry support, so it is possible that at least the initial aircraft will be ferried to the United States for the modifications before the rest are modified in country.

A ROKAF F-15K Slam Eagle drops two GBU-31 JDAM bombs with BLU-109 warhead. (Image credit: ROKAF)

The components included in the possible sale will allow the ROKAF to upgrade its entire fleet of F-15Ks to a configuration similar to the new F-15EX Eagle II currently being delivered to the U.S. Air Force. Interestingly, the Korean configuration will also include the CMWS, currently not installed on the EX, so the F-15K will also require some structural modifications to add the blisters on each side of the canopy rail where the sensors are installed.

“This proposed sale will improve the Republic of Korea’s capability to meet current and future threats by increasing its critical air defence capability to deter aggression in the region and to ensure interoperability with US forces,” says the DSCA in the official notice.

The upgrade of the F-15K is part of a broader modernization of the ROKAF’s fighter fleet. In fact, the service is also upgrading its KF-16s Block 52 to the V configuration, integrating a new AESA radar, mission computer, self-protection suite, with works expected to be completed by 2025. These programs complement the acquisition of the F-35 Lightning II and the KF-21 Boramae.

Ulchi Freedom Shield 24

A ROKAF F-15K Slam Eagle, assigned to the 11th Fighter Wing at Daegu Air Base, takes off for a mission on Aug. 20, 2024. (Image credit: ROKAF)

The F-15K

The F-15K is a variant of the F-15E Strike Eagle built for the Republic of Korea Air Force’s (ROKAF) with almost half of the components manufactured locally. The aircraft emerged as the winner of the F-X fighter program against the Rafale, Typhoon and Su-35 in 2002, resulting in an order for 40 F-15s equipped with General Electric F110-129 engines. In 2005, a second order for 21 aircraft equipped with Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engines was signed.

The Slam Eagle name is derived from the F-15K’s capability to employ the AGM-84H SLAM-ER standoff cruise missiles, with the Taurus KEPD 350K being another weapon exclusive to the ROKAF jet. The F-15K is employed as a fully multi-role aircraft and is considered ad one of the key assets of the Korean armed forces.

With the aircraft averaging an age of 16 years and expected to be in service until 2060, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) launched in 2022 an upgrade program for the F-15Ks. The upgrade, expected to run from 2024 to 2034, is committed to strengthening the mission capabilities and survivability of the jet.

The F-15K currently equips three squadrons at Daegu Air Base, in the southeast of the country. Although based far from the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the F-15K with its SLAM-ER and KEPD 350 missiles can still hit strategic targets deep behind North Korean borders.

An F-15K releases a Taurus KEPD 350K cruise missile. (Image credit: ROKAF)

The new capabilities

It is not yet clear if the F-15K will receive a new cockpit, since its configuration will be similar to the Eagle II. In fact, the F-15EX has a full glass cockpit equipped with a 10×19-inch touch-screen multifunction color display and JHMCS II both in the front and rear cockpit, Low Profile HUD in the front, stand-by display and dedicated engine, fuel and hydraulics display, in addition to the standard caution/warning lights, switches and Hands On Throttle-And-Stick (HOTAS) control.

Either way, the systems will be powered by the Advanced Display Core Processor II, reportedly the fastest mission computer ever installed on a fighter jet, and the Operational Flight Program Suite 9.1X, a customized variant of the Suite 9 used on the F-15C and F-15E, designed to ensure full interoperability of the new aircraft with the “legacy Eagles”.

The F-15K will be equipped with the new AN/APG-82(V)1 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. The radar, which has been developed from the APG-63(V)3 AESA radar of the F-15C and the APG-79 AESA radar of the F/A-18E/F, allows to simultaneously detect, identify and track multiple air and surface targets at longer ranges compared to mechanical radars, facilitating persistent target observation and information sharing for a better decision-making process.

F-15K upgrade

A ROKAF F-15K Slam Eagle takes off for a night mission during the Pitch Black 2024 exercise. (Image credit: Australian Defense Force)

The AN/ALQ-250 EPAWSS will provide full-spectrum EW capabilities, including radar warning, geolocation, situational awareness, and self-protection to the F-15. Chaff and flares capacity will be increased by 50%, with four more dispensers added in the EPAWSS fairings behind the tail fins (two for each fairing), for a total of 12 dispenser housing 360 cartridges.

EPAWSS is fully integrated with radar warning, geo-location and increased chaff and flare capability to detect and defeat surface and airborne threats in signal-dense and highly contested environments. Because of this, the system enables freedom of maneuver and deeper penetration into battlespaces protected by modern integrated air defense systems.

The AN/AAR-57 CMWS is an ultra-violet based missile warning system, part of an integrated IR countermeasures suite utilizing five sensors to display accurate threat location and dispense decoys/countermeasures. Although CMWS was initially fielded in 2005, BAE Systems continuously customized the algorithms to adapt to new threats and CMWS has now reached Generation 3.

@TheAviationist.com

[silenceofthewave]

I cannot get a straight answer for this and I really wanna know

What are the lil tendrils on soundwaves tentacles actually for?

Are they just sensors??? Or are they for something weird like tickling or something?

There may or may not be a reason for this question

(Also hiiii I hope you're having a good day/night)

( im too tired to answer in character, instead i will just answer as the admin FNDNSUJA

but

they are called Data cables/datacables. (side note/rant/pet peeve: i hate it when people call them tentacles. tentacles imply organic-ness, as does tendrils to a lesser degree. not mad at you for using tendrils btw.) Anyway, they are datacables and they do exactly what the name implies. they transmit data to and from soundwave's processor via electrical signals.

here's a little quote i wrote awhile ago about their anatomy

Different Wiring: Inside the cable, there are four bundles of wires that coalesce together into the prehensile jacks at the end of the cable.

Wiring Groups: Consist of outgoing data transfer, incoming data transfer, electromagnetic systems, and what it can only describe as a connector similar to an "ethernet" but decidedly not that. The "connector" is what allows Soundwave to completely override systems.

Wires: Are further separated by secondary functions into eight series of jacks.

Primary Jack Function: To create a connection between Soundwave and its project.

Secondary Jacks Functions: Allow for electrical energy transferrence during battle, but require maintenance afterwards. Also are used for more delicate work, an example would be when it repaired Laserbeak.

So that's the primary function of the cables. The cables also have a secondary function used in combat. We see multiple times throughout the show that both soundwave and laserbeak's cables are capable of conducting powerful electrical currents. Soundwave in s3e10 literally knocks out Bulkhead and Smokescreen using only one cable each. I dont remember which episode it is, its in S3 (wavewave shippers will know what im talking about), Laserbeak straight up attacks Optimus Prime and sends him into a tailspin with both of her cables.

So, tl;dr the datacables are No Joke. I hope this helps!! )

[zipzapzopzoop]

any angsty Wilbur headcanons? Does he have nightmares from Doris? Does anybody else in the family sympathize?

i saw a really good headcanon once that Wilbur dissociates staring at the garage door and now im on an angst kick

*deep inhale*

*cracks knuckles*

Now, there are a few I can't share yet do to spoiler reasons, but I will share the ones I can! After There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, I'll make another list of the headcanons I wasn't able to share before.

Also, that headcanon you mentioned is actually one of mine from another post! I'm so glad you like it! :D

Angsty Wilbur Headcanons

Yes, the garage door makes Wilbur uneasy. Especially seeing it cracked open...

Open doorways in general tend to make Wilbur very uneasy.

Wilbur will often get up in the night to make sure the garage door is locked. Once he gets the slightest idea that it's not closed properly, he has to check it. He cannot sleep until he can see with his own eyes that the door is shut and locked with the alarm on.

He'll often check and recheck the door, closing it and locking it over again because it doesn't feel like he did it correctly.

Wilbur's hypersensitive to the idea of not existing. Obviously he does exist, but if he ever gets the faintest idea that he doesn't (Someone doesn't hear/see him, a sensor doesn't sense him there, someone doesn't respond when he's talking, etc.) he tends to panic.

He hates the idea of someone being disappointed in him.

Nightmares? Absolutely. He'll often struggle with nightmares about disappearing into non-existence, or about his family being upset with him. A few he's even had were about being lost beyond time and space.

Bowler hats. Whenever he sees someone wearing a bowler hat, it messes with his head. He isn't the only one...

Ever since disappearing out of existence, Wilbur's picked up a strange glitching effect. It happens in fits and short episodes, and tends to happen when he's upset.

These fits are physically painful, and feel very similar to being electrocuted.

This glitching can spread to others through physical touch. Like an electric current, it only spreads through contact and disappears as soon as said contact breaks.

Does anyone else in the household sympathize? Well as of right now, almost nobody else knows about these things. I say 'almost' because we're at a part of TAGBBT where a couple family members are beginning to catch on that something isn't right. I won't say who, though.

Some of these headcanons as well as the family's reaction to them can be seen in There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow and The Dog and His Boy.

[eternallyfrustratedwriter]

The Curious Case of Reluctant Immortals

Summary:

Hal’s eyes opened when you announced you were done, hands tightening their grip on your hips so you wouldn’t get up just yet. Now it was your turn to be hesitant as your hands lightly rested themselves on his shoulders. The air between the two of you was charged with electricity, the moment practically begging one of you to lean forward. 

Chapter 16

While time is a great healer, it also brings about a sense of restlessness. So, on the tail end of September, barely three weeks since you told Hal you needed time, you showed up on his doorstep. The two of you had been keeping in touch through sporadic texts and a few shared words in passing on the Watchtower during meetings. 

He’d been on light duty while his arm healed, helping with admin work at Ferris while they set up their new Headquarters and taking on more monitor duty shifts with the League. The cast was set to come off soon, and then it would be off to physical therapy so he could regain his lost muscle mass and get back his range of motion. Both Ferris and the Corps had been breathing down his neck as they waited for him to recover. 

Separating yourself from Dick and establishing firm boundaries had been a process. His betrayal still stung, but you knew that you weren’t blameless in the whole thing either. You’d said yes to him, knowing that your feelings were platonic, hoping they’d turn if you just willed it enough. Still, a part of you had known for a while that Dick was also attempting to fool himself. 

When with you, he’d never stumbled over his words, never made a fool of himself, never blushed while trying to keep his cool. His actions had lacked heart as he lied not only to you but also to himself. Now, with all the lies torn down, he’d tried to keep things as close to the status quo as he could. This resulted in a lot of mini arguments that ultimately culminated in a blowout fight where you said you were finding a new place to live and that you didn’t want him to be your mentor anymore. 

After a few meetings on the Watchtower to discuss where things currently stood for you, an understanding had been reached. Your primary residence had been moved to another complex in Bludhaven, and you’d purchased a used car, a 2005 dark blue Dodge Neon. It was old, had sensor issues, and the paint was chipped in a few places, but you’d been able to purchase it outright without having to borrow money from outside your savings, so you were happy with it. Fuzzy dice hung from the rearview mirror, and you had a little bobblehead Wolverine stuck to the dashboard. 

The weather outside still held just enough summer warmth to justify your outfit of workout shorts, a sports bra, and an oversized Air Force t-shirt with faded lettering from being washed so much that you’d permanently borrowed from Hal. The shirt was large enough on you that one of your shoulders was exposed from how it sat, and if you hadn’t bunched it together with a ponytail holder, the bottom would come almost to your knees. 

Hal answered the door in sweats and a tank top, face now consumed by the facial hair that had turned into a full beard. His hair was shaggy as well, him neglecting getting it cut since he didn’t have to worry about shoving it into a helmet for a while. Working a 9-5 had done little to make the man more invested in the place he called home; you were sure it had actually done the opposite. Looking around, you could honestly say you had never seen a place look so filthy but so neat at the same time. 

The dirty dishes were stacked in size order beside the sink, old takeout containers nested by the trash can, beer bottles lined up in rows. The chaotic order of the apartment would honestly be impressive if it didn’t make you so sad. 

“Do you want roaches? Because this is how you get roaches.” You greeted as you walked past him inside, like you owned the place. While nothing appeared to currently be rotting, it didn’t smell good either, and you were sure he hadn’t showered in at least a day. 

“Nice to see you too. I’ve been good, thanks for asking.” 

Hal shut the door behind you but didn’t bother with locking it, striding back over to his couch before re-entering the dent he’d been sitting in. Papers from the office were spread over the coffee table as his old television played a football game, static bursting across the screen every so often. He wasn’t paying attention to it, though, just having it on for background so his thoughts wouldn’t go down unwanted paths in the quiet. 

“So, did you need something, or did you just come here to mock the crippled?” There was a definite bite to his snark, that tone one he usually only reserved for telling Batman where to shove his sanctimonious bullshit. A pencil was gripped in his left hand, the hold clumsier than his right but good enough that he could still write semi-legibly as he went over the specs of a plane schematic Ferris was considering producing. 

“How did I never notice how much of an ass you are?” You snapped back, words falling flat by the fact that you had a trashbag out and were in the process of cleaning up his kitchen. Hal just grunted in response, eyes not leaving the papers in front of him. For all of Hals' bravado and ability to make himself the center of any conversation, his work ethic was top tier, and he didn’t let himself half-ass something that had his name attached to it. Sure, plans had a habit of falling apart in his hands, but he was the best at pivoting and improvising where to go next. 

Two trips to the buildings dumpster later, you scrubbed down the kitchen before repeating the process with the rest of the place. Halfway through your cleaning spree, you shed your shirt, draping it over one of the kitchen chairs. Hal did end up looking up when you did that, he was only human, letting his eyes give you an appreciative once over before he forced himself to focus on his work again. 

Thankfully, the kitchen was the worst part of the apartment, with everything else being under a slight layer of dust and clutter. You opened a window to let in some fresh air and hopefully dispel the staleness that had set in. Hal had put the finishing notes on the schematic, folding it back up and shoving it into the folder he got it from. After draining a water bottle from the fridge, you turned towards him, eyes focused on his facial hair. 

“It looks like you have a squirrel growing on your face.” 

“You sure you didn’t just come here to insult me?” asked Hal with a raised eyebrow. When you just continued to stare at him, he finally huffed, breaking eye contact first as he responded. “It’s kind of hard to shave with my left hand, and I don’t feel like getting 1,000 cuts on my face.” 

“I can give you a shave. I can also give you a haircut while I’m at it.” 

“You give a lot of mens haircuts, Nova?”

“It was, as the kids say, my side hustle in college. Frat guys were my best customers. I’d set up in their house once a month and leave with a couple hundred dollars.” You were leaning over the back of the couch now, face hovering close to the side of his head, hands clasped over it. Silence hung in the air for a few seconds, the sound of the random sitcom that was airing after the game and the rattling of his radiator marking the passing seconds, before he heaved a put-upon sigh and stood up. “You’re going to look great.” 

“I better, I have a reputation to uphold after all.” This quip held a slight bit of warmth as Hal moved towards the bathroom, his earlier annoyance having been ground down. 

It took you a minute to get everything set up, but Hal was soon straddling the closed toilet, arms resting on the tank as you carefully shaped his shaggy hair. You’d double-checked the guard before you turned the clippers on, using his comb to direct the cut. A good amount of hair soon decorated the bathroom floor before you were finished, running your fingers through the finished product to get rid of any loose pieces still hanging on. 

After you declared that you were finished, Hal got up and looked at the cut in the mirror. An appreciative hum left his mouth as he took in your work, ruffling it himself as he turned his head to see it at a different angle. 

“Not bad.” 

“Okay, don’t pull a muscle with all that enthusiasm there.” You said before you pushed down on his shoulder so he’d sit back down, turned towards you this time. 

Once he was sitting again, you straddled his lap, balancing yourself back by his knees as you turned the clippers back on to get off the bulk of his beard. Hals' hands hovered in the air as you sat on his lap, not sure what to do with them. He knew where he wanted to place them, but he felt there was about a 95% chance that you would slap him if he did that. The uncertainty caused him to fidget slightly, which almost made you nick him. The hand not holding the clippers grabbed his left hand and placed it against your hip, permitting him to touch but keeping it at a relatively safe place. 

The clippers were turned off, and you stood to warm the water so you could wet his face before shaving the rest. Your touch was gentle but firm as you ran the wash cloth over his skin, his eyelids falling closed at the movement. The shaving cream was put on in a thin layer, you being sure to coat everything, but still be able to see what you were doing. 

His hands were back on your hips, fingers slipping into the tiny pockets while his thumbs hooked themselves into the waistband. After you were finished, you washed his face one final time and were relieved to see that you didn’t cut him, knowing you wouldn’t hear the end of it if you had. 

Hal’s eyes opened when you announced you were done, hands tightening their grip on your hips so you wouldn’t get up just yet. Now it was your turn to be hesitant as your hands lightly rested themselves on his shoulders. The air between the two of you was charged with electricity, the moment practically begging one of you to lean forward. 

“I…I need to go.” You scramble off his lap, stumbling towards the kitchen where you retrieve your shirt and throw it back on before grabbing your keys and practically sprinting to your car. 

Hal was left still sitting on the toilet, head hung between his knees, as he gripped his hair tightly. 

You ended up at Warriors an hour later, Zetaing to New York after dropping your car off at home and taking a taxi to Manhattan. The superhero bar had become a regular hangout spot for you as of late. Guy was always happy to have you around, but he’d started charging you for your drinks now that you’d turned into a regular. 

“Hey, kid. Why the long face? Would going a round in the ring cheer you up?” asked Ted, cleaning some glasses as he stood in front of your spot at the bar. Ted Grant, AKA Wildcat, was a frequent bartender at Warriors. While Ted was mostly in retirement, he still liked to keep busy. He’d pick up shifts at Warriors, filling the rest of his time with mentoring young heroes and whatever struggling youths he could drag into the gym he was a co-owner of. 

“Fuck no. I’m still sore from the last round.” 

Back when everything had first gone down, after the initial wave of sadness had settled, you’d gotten angry. You’d been talking Guys ear off about your problems, the latter pretending to listen, nodding along as he went through inventory, when Ted had offered to spar with you, saying boxing could be a good distraction. He hadn’t been wrong, you’d been too distracted by getting your ass kicked you didn’t have the brain capacity to feel angry. 

You’d ended up back at the bar afterwards, ice pack against your side as you sipped on a soda, when Roy had burst inside. His eyes scanned the room almost frantically till he found where you were tucked into a booth off to the side, scrolling through your phone as you tried to ignore the soreness that was already setting in. He took in a deep breath before striding up to your table, fully prepared to spill his guts and possibly get punched afterwards. 

“I have something I need to tell you that I should have told you a lot sooner. Dick-” 

“Answered my phone when I left it with him and sent off a text as well before deleting the evidence in an effort to manipulate me into starting a relationship with him?” Your eyes hadn’t left your phone the entire time you rattled that off to him, voice monotone. 

“Wait…huh?” Roys shoulders sagged as the wind was abruptly taken out of his sails, his body looking like a marionette whose strings had just been cut. 

Before you could explain further, Wally was now standing at the table, pushing Roy to the side as he crowded in. Roy stumbled a bit, throwing a hand out to catch himself on the wall. 

“Hey, glad I caught you! I need to tell you-” started Wally in a dramatic fashion, expression the most serious you had probably ever seen it. 

“She knows, idiot!” Roy interrupted before sliding into the booth, resting his head against his hand once he was situated. 

“Oh…” trailed off Wally, shifting from one foot to the other as he awkwardly stood by the table. It didn’t help that you still hadn’t looked up from your phone, expression as deadpan as it had been at the start. He ended up sliding into the booth across from you like Roy before drumming his fingers against the table. 

An extra-large order of nachos was dropped off at the table later, sans guac and olives. 

“Aw…no olives?” whined Wally while helping himself. 

“I hate olives.” 

Not even ten minutes later, Oliver was striding up to the table while eyeing Roy and Wally warily. He’d asked you to step outside with him, saying he had something important to tell you. 

“SHE KNOWS!” chorused at least four voices back to him, the man looking slightly sheepish before sliding into the booth as well. 

Now, while you were still spiraling from running out of Hal’s apartment, your phone vibrated angrily against the bar top. Turning it over you saw that “Dick (Derogatory)” was calling you, the contact photo the same but the smile only caused irritation to flash through you. In the end, you’d agreed to stay under Dicks mentorship provided the two of you were colleagues only. 

“Hello?”

“Suit up, there’s been a break in the case. I’ll see you in 30.” The line cut off abruptly, dial tone sounding in your ear. 

And so, time continued its relentless march on. Days turned into weeks, and before you knew it, months had passed. Life continued forward, a new investigation, a new threat always right around the corner. Friendships previously believed to be too fractured with no return to normal had been making slow but sure progress back to where they’d been. 

You were still welcome around the manor on account of the fact that Damien enjoyed spending time with you even if you were no longer dating Dick. Damien would, of course, vehemently deny these accusations. It was only a coincidence that you were the first person he went to now when he had problems with his science homework. 

One particularly dreary day that you were taking advantage of to catch up on some of your chores, you’d gotten a call. Hals name had popped up on your screen, a photo of him laying on the ground after attempting an elaborate exit from his plane and promptly eating shit filled the screen. You’d hesitated before ultimately answering, unable to resist. While you’d been making an effort to improve the rest of your interpersonal friendships, you and Hal had been at a bit of a standstill for a while. 

“Hello?”

“Hey, Nova.” Hals' uncharacteristically soft voice filled your ears, warming your chest in spite of yourself. You could hear the rain that was pounding outside your window over his line, telling you he was pacing outside like a restless housecat. “Are you free tomorrow?”

“I could be. Why?” 

“Meet me at Ferris Airfield at 3:30. I have something I want to show you. Also, dress warm.” 

“Okay, I’ll be there.” 

You showed up to Ferris Air's HQ promptly at 3:30 the next day, bundled up, having had to intentionally slow yourself down so you didn’t arrive early. Hal was leaning against a two-seater Cessna plane, eyes lighting up when he spotted you. Still, he kept himself leaning against the plane with an intentionally lazy posture, not wanting to give away how nervous he was or the fact that his heart was beating through his chest. 

“So, why all the mystery? Where are you taking me?” You asked as you accepted the scarf, helmet, and goggles he offered you before allowing him to help you into the plane. It was a Saturday afternoon, so the airfield was abandoned with only a few office workers left who were trying to meet a deadline. A light shone on the top floor, in what you assumed was the CEO’s office. 

You’d met Carol Ferris once before when the company was still in California. You’d spent the night over at Hal’s place and had been woken up by a phone call where he’d told you he’d forgotten his jacket and his lunch, asking you to bring them up. When you arrived, the guard letting you in when you had mentioned Hal, Carol had met you up front with a smile on her face and a mischievous gleam in her eye. 

She’d offered to walk you to the airfield where Hal was finishing up his latest flight, asking probing questions about how the two of you had met. Once on the viewing deck, you had been offered a seat to watch the flight and listen to Hal's colorful commentary with the crew. When he’d landed and seen you waiting, he’d tried to make a cool exit from the fighter jet, wanting to impress you. All he’d ended up doing was tripping when his foot caught the edge and face-planting on the tarmac. 

He’d ended up just lying there for a few minutes as he cycled through feeling pain and humiliation. Seeing you rush over, concern on your face while wearing his jacket, had helped a bit. Convincing you to watch his favorite trashy action films with you that night, saying it would make him feel better after his fall, and watching you fold like a cheap suit to his whims had helped even more. 

“It’s a surprise.” Hals' face gave nothing away, just a slight smirk as he went through the takeoff procedures he could do in his sleep. 

The flight was silent, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. It just was. Nothing needed to be said as you enjoyed the flight, watching as the sky started to creep towards the early sunset that was characteristic of this time of year. 

The destination was an isolated, luxurious cabin that came complete with a covered porch, hot tub, and a gravel driveway that was just large enough to land the plane. Hal had fallen silent at this point, nerves starting to get the better of him as he made sure everything was secure before helping you out. The helmets were left in the plane as he led you inside before leading you out to the covered porch. 

The orange rays of the setting sun cast an ethereal glow over the porch. A simple table with two chairs was set up with a fresh meal, the steam wafting into the air indicating that it had probably been placed there only minutes before. Candles were lit and there were fairy lights strung around, giving everything an otherworldly look. 

Upon closer inspection, you saw that it was a very close recreation of your absolute favorite meal. So many of the things you’d told him you liked or enjoyed were woven into the decor, giving it a truly personalized feel. 

“I’m normally not the guy who does big gestures like that. I’ve always found them cheesy and too try-hard for my taste. I also never thought I’d fall for anyone after Carol and I broke it off for good; that love was something that was fine and good for everyone else, but not for me. And then you, quite literally, crashed into my life. 

From the first time we spoke, I knew you were going to keep me on my toes, and you have. I don’t know if there was any one moment that made me fall for you. It just kept building and building, and before I knew it, I’d already reached the point of no return. 

I can’t promise I won’t fuck things up again because I know I will. I’ll leave the toilet seat up, or I’ll forget something important that you already told me about ten times. I may even get scared again and say things I don’t mean. But I know that I want to be with you. In fact, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my damn life. I want you, and I want to see where this goes. Will you…will you have me?”

Standing there, in the enclosed porch filled with your favorite things, listening to Hal spill his heart out, the fear you’d been carrying around with you just faded away. In its place was a certainty that you didn’t want to spend another day, no, not another second, without him in your life. This clarity spurred you forward as you grabbed the collar of his jacket to pull him down to your level. Your eyes met his, watched as he kept looking back, breathing shallow and palms sweaty as they hesitantly settled themselves on your hips. 

Your mouth crashed into his, releasing his collar in favor of locking your arms behind his neck. He ended up picking you up, easily holding you aloft as he straightened up again. The sparks you’d read about in cheesy romance novels that went for $5 a pop in the store erupted in this kiss, furthering the feeling that you’d made the right choice. 

When you both had to pull back for air, lungs starting to burn, he gave you a wide grin before setting you back on the ground. He ended up pulling you into his lap when he sat down, dragging the other plate of food across the table so you didn’t have to part. It was awkward to maneuver, but neither of you seemed to care, feeding each other bites of the food and laughing at his stupid jokes. 

“You know…there’s a hot tub here,” said Hal as he sipped on his glass of whiskey, fingers running over the indentations in the glass. 

“I didn’t bring my swimsuit, though.” You were thoroughly relaxed now, eyes closed as you rested your head in the crook of his neck and enjoyed the feeling of his hand rubbing your back absently. 

“Who said anything about wearing swimsuits?”

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