#With its ergonomic design

[echoingkarma]

Alright. Apparently writing in Comic Sans actually works - I’ve blasted out the daily 1k in under 10 minutes

Edit: 2k words in half an hour is not bad ;u; Now I can doodle for a little bit.

[figofswords]

my hands fucking hurt and I’m pissed because I really don’t have time for this right now

[asteroidaceae]

Weyland's Smithy long barrow, a particularly extraordinary memory palace

[shishikusas]

Releska posted a translation for Ergonomic Hero!

I SAW I HAVE NOTIFS ON FOR RELESKA AND I WAS SO SURPRISED BUT IM REALLY REALLY REALLY HAPPY ABOUT IT

[peashooter85]

What guns don't belong, and what guns should be in Red Dead Redemption 2

So I having been playing RDR2 quite a bit recently. It's an amazing game and while not necessarily 100% historically accurate, I find that it does a perfect job of weaving real history with Wild West folklore to create a game that is immersive and historically authentic. When it comes to the firearms featured in the game, there are some hits and some misses when it comes to historical accuracy, assuming of course that Rockstar intended to make a game that was 100% accurate (which they didn't). I understand Rockstar needed to take some liberties when creating the game so I'm not necessariy criticizing them (except for one), just educating on what inaccuracies exist and setting the record straight.

First the most glaring inaccuracy is the presence of the Volcanic repeater.

Invented by Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson in 1854, these lever action pistols were sold in the mid 1850's. Right away we have a big anachronism problem as the events of RDR2 take place in 1899. So they would not have been sold in stores and considering less than 2000 were manufactured would not have been owned by anyone other than wealthy antiquities collectors. Furthermore in game the pistol is considered the most powerful pistol available next to the sawed off shotgun. The real volcanic pistol used what was called the rocket ball, which was a bullet with a hollowed out center which was filled with gunpowder and fitted with a percussion cap. Rather than being an extremely powerful round, the Volcanic was a commercial flop because it used an extremely underpowered round. After all only so much powder can be stuffed into the small cavity of the rocket ball. It's easy to see though why Rockstar chose to add this pistol to it's games because it sure looks the part of a cool Wild West firearm.

Another pistol that doesn't belong in the game is the Model 1893 Borchardt pistol, known as the "semi automatic" pistol in game.

I'm glad to see that Rockstar added semi auto pistols as the turn of the century would have been the time when semi autos would have begun to hit the commercial market. The German broomhandle pistol is featured in the game and is accurate as they were being retailed in the United States by 1899 and while present, are not that all common, being expensive in the game and in real life in 1899. However the Borchardt certainly does not belong. Invented by the German gun designer Hugo Borchardt in Germany in 1893, the Borchardt never became popular due to poor ergonomics and it's complicated design which made them prohibitively expensive. Only around 3,000 were produced. So theoretically the Borchardt would have been present in 1899 United States, but would have been extremely rare. Certainly a firearm that wouldn't have been for sale in any gunstore, not even in Saint Denis, and at best a one of a kind firearm that Arthur Morgan might only find once during the entire game.

The Italian Carcano Rifle is a firearm in RDR2 that really kind of boggles my mind. First and foremost, they did not use the Carcano Model 1891 which would have been period accurate.

But instead they used Carcano M91/38 which was a World War II carbine.

Why did Rockstar do this? I haven't a clue. But theoretically the M1891 Carcano could have been around in the US in 1899. However, Italy wasn't much of an arms exporter and M1891 rifles were military rifles for the Italian Army which were generally not available for commercial sale. Some could have been captured by Ethiopian forces during the First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895) and could have made their way to the United States, but at best in game it should be a one of a kind item that can't be found in stores.

The Evans Repeater is popular in the game because of its 26 round ammo capacity, the real Evan's had a 28 round capacity, produced between 1873 and 1879 with around 15,000 produced. It was a failed model because it was very expensive and due to the complexity of it's 28 round helical magazine, which suffered from reliability issues. It was also chambered for odd calibers such as .44 Evans and .44 New Model so ammunition availability and price was an issue. So yes, it was a gun that could be available as a one of a kind item but certainly not for sale in common stores.

The "Cowboy Repeater" and the "Lichfield Repeater" are based upon the Spencer Rifle and the M1860 Henry Rifle respectively.

Both were lever action rifles produced in the 1860's, and while cutting edge firearms technology during the American Civil War, by 1899 they would have been considered quaint antiques. The M1860 Henry rifle would have been rare to find in 1899, as there were only 14,000 made. The Spencer rifle would have been common as there were over 200,000 made. However this is the base carbine available at the beginning of the game, and it seems like they are everywhere and everyone has one. By 1899 I doubt any serious outlaws, gangsters, police, lawmen, Pinkertons, soldiers, guards or bounty hunters would actually use them. By the 1870's it's lever action design was outdated, the lever only advancing the next cartridge and ejecting a spent casing while the hammer had to be cocked separately with every shot. I could see the Spencer being common with the Murfree Brood, being a poor backwoods gang who couldn't afford better and had to rely upon heirloom antiques. But the most common carbine of the game? Very unlikely.

Guns I Think Should've Been in the Game.

The Carcano rifle kind of weirds me out. Why is it there? Why did the developers with Rockstar choose it over other models? Why the WW2 Carcano instead of a period model? What would have made a better rifle to feature in the game was the M1893 Mauser bolt action rifle.The M1893 was the standard issue rifle of the Spanish Army.

And what war took place just a year before events of the game? The Spanish American War. Made in Germany and Belgium the M1893 and 1895 carbine were purchased by Spain to arm their military. At the time, it was the peak of bolt action technology. The rifle was so good that it was the main reason the US Army ditched the M1898 Krag (known simple as the "bolt action rifle" in game) and developed the M1903 Springfield which utilized a Mauser action. I don't see why this rifle wasn't featured prominently in Guarma (Chapter 5), as after the Spanish American War there would have been thousands of these floating around Cuba and used by all factions. To me, it was an opportunity lost.

The Winchester M1895 was a lever action rifle famous for using a box magazine rather than a traditional tubular magazine. This had several advantages, including easier loading using stripper clips and the ability to use more powerful rifle cartridges using pointed spitzer bullets.

The M1895 was a favorite of explorers, hunters, lawmen, outlaws, soldiers, and even US President Theodore Roosevelt. Hundreds of thousands were made and it quickly became one of the most popular rifles of the era. And man, it just looks like a gun that should be in RDR2, like the Volcanic. Unlike the Volcanic, it would have been historically accurate.

Finally, what RDR2 needs are cheap break top double action revolvers. The Schofield revolver is featured in the game, but it is a slow firing single action revolver with a powerful cartridge. What is needed is a cheap break top double action revolver chambered in relatively weak cartridges such as .32 or .38 Smith & Wesson. The "Cowboy Revolver" based on the M1873 Single Action Army is the most common pistol of the game and a base revolver, however by 1899 the M1873 was waning in popularity. By then, the most popular pistol of the time were double action break top revolvers produced by companies such as Smith & Wesson, Iver Johnson, and Harrington & Richardson. They were popular because they were light, compact, and most importantly extremely cheap. Not necessarily reliable or powerful, but affordable and plentiful. Rather than the Cowboy Revolver, pistols like these should probably be the most common pistol of the game, especially among street gangs and thugs of Saint Denis or the Murfree Brood, who could afford little better.

[moon-simmers]

Architecture: Kitchens

An X-ray of the historical context. Part 1: 1800s-1957s

History helps us to understand our past and how we come to today. I am studying architecture, that’s why I see how the different historical contexts influence their architecture.

This is a kind of help to the people who play the History Challengue at the time of building their homes and giving more personality to their decades

I’m not trying to have absolute reason, if there’s any mistake, please let me know.

These room styles are not the only ones, but they are an example to help.

Going from one decade to another doesn't mean that the previous style disappears, there are familiar/historical contexts that could not afford to be at the forefront of technology.

Don't limit yourself. This is a game, if you don’t want to make it historically accurate ITS OKAY

In Victorian houses, the kitchen is a separate space from the rest of the house and with independent access, as it was a service space where servants, wives and daughters spent a great deal of time. They are even located in the basement, with minimal ventilation that followed the design of the facade and not the function of the interior.

A traditional Victorian kitchen are big, with a large work space in the center and a large kitchen range embedded in the wall.

Late XIX Century /Early XX Century

During the end of the Victorian era, new appliances emerged as the refrigerator and oven with a more modest dimension. They were still a place where you had to do several tasks at the same time and by hand, from washing, cooking, storing, ironing, chopping, grinding, etc.

The kitchen was not something standard as we know, the measurements or heights of the furniture changed between different homes, They were normally furniture that could be movedor that weren't attached to the walls except in the case of ovens.

They were generally poorly lit, covered in wood panels and with stone floors to prevent deterioration.

Edwardian Era

The kitchen begins to take a certain order inside a house, since although it is still considered for service and womens and therefore hid inside the house, it is a space where you spent a great time there, in addition the advances of the kitchen spaces take course towards the rationalization of the useful spaces.

Gas stoves and wood stovescome up in the Edwardian era, just like the running water system as we know it today, where you no longer had to pump water into the yard or pull it out of a well. Ceramic and stone floors remain a trend.

After the World War I

Problems never before seen begin to appear. The era of the servitude of the aristocratic house was about to end. Housing spaces are scarce, a method is needed to gather the minimum living spaces in a repetitive way for families with limited budgets.

Margarete SchUtte, an Austrian architect begins to see the problem of housing organization. She designs the Frankfurt kitchen model: a narrow kitchen, on one side was the stove, on the other there were cabinets with a sink and in front of the window there was a space to work.

The kitchen was a conscious design decision to minimize the number of steps needed when working on it. But users often had difficulties. Not used to the workflows for which the space was created, they often didn't know how to use the kitchen. And in the kitchen where there was only room for one person, she perpetuated the idea of women in housework, instead of emancipating them

Revolutionaries 20s

The Bauhaus was the school of architecture that marked the revolution in modern design since 1919. Erna Meyer was the first designer to incorporate ergonomic criteria for the design of the kitchen.

She advised housewives to keep everything at hand, reduce the amount of movements needed and take frequent breaks. In 1927, kitchens were still service areas and forbidden to guests.

The Stuttgart kitchen, communicated directly with the living room (A precursor of contemporary kitchens). The new designs may have improved life in the kitchen, but it would still be room for women unquestionably, even among the most progressive of the moment.

The Great Depression

In the 30s, not much was innovated largely because of social problems, this was delegated only to high society sectors or habitability experiments. It is on this date that other models were developed that tried to improve the permeability between the kitchen and the dining room, family reunion place.

The Munich kitchen , designed by the architect Hanna Löw, intended to reduce the isolation to the person was subjected from domestic chores by incorporating a large stained glass window; thus improving the visual contact between the kitchen and the living room.

Despite its progressivism, this design had less scope than the previous ones and was poorly valued despite presenting solutions very advanced to the time. But it is a design that could be impregnated for an avant-garde sim in their stories.

Minimal and communal compartmentalization

In the period between wars there are also questions about housing from a community perspective. Here studies on new models of residential buildings were initiated.

The transition to a busy society had to incorporate a change in the way of life with a renewal of the domestic space. In new thoughts the key is to eliminate uses that tie women to housing, such as cooking, childcare, toilets and showers. These uses became communal, as did the laundry or dining room.

This design of the Narkomfin Building have the minimum space for a dining room and incorporated small gas stoves to heat the food prepared in the collective kitchens, in case you want to keep privacy,

Word War II

During the 1940s, with the outbreak of the Second World War, the designs became inferior and on the periphery of Europe or in Scandinavian countries. The idea of a work organization in the form of a triangle (between oven, refrigerator and sink) was a trend.

The work surfaces went from being totally functionalist to a design with a certain humanization of the epsacium and not something so mechanical. Were evenly distributed to cook with the same oven or to prepare food, the windows to illuminate begin to be placed on the basins.

In the post-war period the future of integrated and compact kitchens, used to rebuild homes in Europe built with US appliances, began to be seen

lCold War and the Surburbian Housewife

In the 1950s, in a period of cold war, the return to normality was something one aspired to and that’s how one begins to romanticize and idealize the idea of a happy suburban housewife with a husband returning from work safe and sound. In the 1950s, integrated kitchens with modular and flexible arrangements were launched on the market.

The DIN standards allowed to improve the compositions of the furniture of the kitchen, where the washing machine, dryer, kitchen and refrigerator appear as something indispensable but also this generates that the kitchens are submitted to the concept of minimalist kitchen.

This is because the kitchen in the post-war period is governed by the rules of advertising and market, where the real needs were focused on smooth, uniform and depersonalized surfaces.

I hope you liked it! <3 @twentiethcenturysims @antiquatedplumbobs @sims4historicalccfinds @historical-simmer @sims4americangirlchallenge @linzlu @peebsplays @javitrulovesims @nexility-sims

[shittysawtraps]

Hello, Katrina.

Imagine, if you will, a dance studio. This studio is regarded globally as one of the, if not the most prestigious academy of its kind. It can accommodate dozens upon dozens of troupes, and provides arrangements specific for every single style of dance, no matter how specific. Even the design of the building itself is very ergonomic: the main entrance, or lobby, leads into a neat row of hallways, one for each generic classification (tap dance, ballet, etc). These broad, “generic” hallways then branch into several narrower “subtype” paths, which finally lead to a sort of cul-de-sac of individual, enclosed studio rooms for several groupings of dancers to practice in.

Now, back in the lobby, there is a P.A. speaker hanging in the entranceway of each “generic” hallway. These speakers play live audio feeds of the dancers practicing in each studio room, swapping to the next after allotments of about twenty seconds. The sound systems are in excellent quality, and you can listen with near-perfect clarity whence you are near them. Not only that, but they are spaced just so that- as long as you are not standing in the front of the lobby, or in between two of the halls- you will only hear one P.A. speaker at a time.

Now, imagine a pack of enraged silverback gorillas are released all at once into the dance studio. It does not matter in what mode of transport they were delivered, or the party who delivered them. What matters is that they are all profusely enraged, and looking to attack anything that poses a modicum of a threat to them. Normally, this would extend to the gorillas fighting each other- but in this scenario, every individual gorilla is enclosed in a personalized forcefield bubble that prevent them exclusively from harming another gorilla. Any given primate cannot punch, kick, or throw objects at another gorilla. As such, they instead focus their anger on the likes of the dance studio- and the people inside it. The gorillas, being naturally intelligent creatures, listen in to the P.A. speakers one by one, as to decide which studio room to target first (they are unfamiliar with the terrain, and because they cannot harm each other, they have decided to operate as a single unit).

Now, Katrina, in these circumstances, what type of style- depending on music, and then the specific movement of the dance- do you believe would be the most objectively likely to merit the wrath of a tribe of embittered, invincible, silverback gorillas? There is a pen and paper on the table before you to write down your answer, as well as a cohesive list illustrating every style of dance being practiced in the studio. In the far left corner, there is a 1980s Emerson 13" CRT Tube Color TV, and roughly 450 VHS cassette tapes containing footage of each dance style practiced, nearly identical to the list- though in a separate order entirely. Additionally, these VHS tapes are labeled using doctors’ prescription shorthand, and thus are very difficult to decipher for anyone unfamiliar with the methodology.

If you are unable to provide a written answer, provide an unclear written answer, or an incorrect written answer, in the provided span of six hours, then forty outraged silverback gorillas will be unleashed upon you via the row of forty separate chambers, paneled on the south wall and currently locked.

Good luck, Katrina. You are going to need it.

[catlordewrites]

Black Herons - Ch. 6

@slytherisstuff @sanfransolomitatm

Masterlist - Ao3 - First Chapter - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

Pairing: Duke Leto Atreides I X Fem!OC (slow burn)

Word Count: 7.6k

Chapter Six: The Duchess of Caladan

It was a week before the last of the wedding guests left Castle Caladan. The post-nuptial festivities had forced Rhiannon into a peculiar sort of purgatory, caught halfway between her old life and the new. In that week of limbo, she was Lady Atreides, Duchess of Caladan—but with random noble guests determined to outstay their welcome still ambling the halls, demanding entertainment and turning every meal into a formal occasion, Rhiannon didn’t have much of an opportunity to figure out just who Lady Atreides was.

Larion and the party from Iro were the last to go. She would miss her brother, of course, but no more than the things she had already been missing for a while now, and so his departure still came as a huge relief.

At last the hallways were quiet. No excess guard retinues or servants to get underfoot. Everyone she encountered was directly under her command and doing the things they were meant to be doing.

At last she could get to work.

The Castle quickly settled into the peaceful droning of everyday life, a sort of efficient monotony that Rhiannon decided she liked; servants stoked the fires in the main rooms every five hours; the guards changed every four on staggered schedules to prevent every post from changing at once (which Rhiannon appreciated greatly); the kitchens were open at all hours, but communal meals were served to the staff three times a day; twice a week, the Duke would eat with the staff, and on the other days he expected Rhiannon to have dinner with him—sometimes Paul would join them, but Jessica never did; it was up to Rhiannon to decide where and when she wanted breakfast and lunch, she only needed to let the kitchen staff know ahead of time.

It was easygoing. It was comfortable. Established. House Atreides wore its authority on Caladan like old leather. And why shouldn’t it? The House had ruled there for—what? Twenty generations? And in that time, its jurisdiction had gone uncontested.

The notion was still strange to Rhiannon—that a House could rule without having to fight every moment to remain sovereign. House Dering had uprooted and entirely changed the lands it governed twice in her girlhood alone.

House Atreides faced threats, of course. Big ones. Cataclysmic ones that made her accomplishments feel small. But it must be nice to go to bed knowing that everything you’d cultivated would still be yours in the morning.

Then again, was that something she really wanted to get used to? Losing her edge wouldn’t do her any favors.

A few days after Castle Caladan was freed from the burdens of hosting, Thurfir Hawat sent Rhiannon a message, asking if she would be available for a meeting sometime midmorning. Even though the Security Commander didn’t include his reasons for wanting to meet, she accepted.

Rhiannon was punctual. She arrived in their designated meeting place—the War Room—exactly two minutes ahead of time.

The War Room was a conference room hidden in the depths of the security wing of Castle Caladan. It was a large room, longer than it was wide with slightly curved walls that bowed outward in the middle. Like the rest of the castle, it relied on natural light, which poured in from a line of windows spanning the length of one of the two longer walls. The other three walls were covered by dark display screens. A large conference table dominated the space, made of polished oak and surrounded by ergonomic chairs.

Naturally, the room was empty when Rhiannon arrived; she’d never be allowed in it while it was being used for its intended purpose. In theory, the Lady of the House would never have a reason to be in this room at all, let alone when the Council was in session.

She didn’t miss the symbolism. Hawat was clearly a fan of subtle tactics. He wanted to make her feel uneasy. Unwelcome. Out of place.

It didn’t work, of course, but she admired the effort all the same.

Rhiannon went to the windows. The security wing itself was built high into the side of a sheer cliff face. The view from the War Room was of the horizon, and the dark, tumultuous sea sucking at the jagged rocks below. She turned to survey the room more closely, noted the odd way the sunlight reflected on the screen set into the far wall, the one just behind the ducal chair at the head of the table.

It looked as if Hawat had been using the War Room as a temporary office. Files and stacks of paper surrounded the seat adjacent to the one at the head; Hawat’s usual place at the Duke’s right hand.

Rhiannon paused to sift through the files. Major exports. Imports. Mostly things she had actually been given copies of and were already filed away in her study. She put those aside. The third file from the bottom was on Iro—again, all information she already knew, or at least had access to. She opened it and began to read.

About ten minutes after their meeting was supposed to start, the door was flung open with more force than was strictly necessary. Halfway through a sentence, Rhiannon didn’t bother looking up.

It had been a test, the unsecured files bait, and she had failed. Could Lady Atreides be trusted around sensitive documents clearly not meant for her?

Absolutely not. She wasn’t ashamed of it, either. As far as she was concerned, all House business was her business too, and she didn’t care if Hawat thought otherwise.

“Hawat,” Rhiannon greeted absently, still reading. Ten minutes was a long time to keep your Duchess waiting, but she elected not to mention it. “How are things?”

“M’Lady.” He sounded irritated. “It isn’t wise to stand with your back to a door.”

“No, it isn’t,” she agreed, indicating the screen on the opposite wall with a flick of her head, “that’s why I kept it in the reflection.”

Rhiannon didn’t look up at Hawat to see if he was impressed or annoyed by her statement. Annoyed, most likely, because she was still standing over his seat. He loomed close by her shoulder, clearly wanting her to move.

“M’Lady.” Rhiannon got the sense that he was resisting the urge to snatch the file out of her hands. “We have a lot to discuss.”

Rhiannon finally looked up. She smiled. “Of course.”

She moved away from his seat and—just to annoy him more—dismissed the regular chair to Hawat’s right in favor of the adjacent ducal seat on his left. It was technically correct—in this situation, she was entitled to the head of the table—but presumptuous. A not-so-subtle reminder that she outranked him, and would be the one leading this meeting. Rude, but necessary. The more she let him control their dynamic now, the harder it would be to reestablish later.

Hawat said nothing, only settled into his own chair, stacked the disturbed files neatly to one side before placing a new one on the table.

“As you know, M’Lady,” he started slowly, “I am directly responsible for the security of the Duke and his heir. Now that you’re officially a senior member of the Atreides family, your safety is my top priority.”

“I appreciate your dedication, sir.”

“Thank you. For me to do my job efficiently, m’Lady, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with our emergency protocols, so you’ll know what to do if there’s a threat to security. You’ll have your own security codes, comm devices, and guard detachment. Also, it’s vital that you learn the Atreides Battle Language.”

Rhiannon already knew about it, so she asked innocently, “Battle language?”

Hawat nodded. “A sign language we teach our soldiers. You’ll need to know it so you can communicate with your guards, and they with you, in situations where it’s important that outsiders can’t understand what’s being said.”

“I understand.”

“In less than two months, we’ll be traveling to Ahmes to attend the Adelio trade summit. I’d prefer it if you were at least somewhat familiar with it by then.”

“That’s within reason,” Rhiannon reassured, “I’m a fast learner.”

“Yes, m’Lady.” The condescension in this voice was subtle, just like the rest of the emotions he allowed himself to express. But Rhiannon caught it anyway. “With your permission, I’d like to start you with some of the basic commands—the ones you’re most likely to need in any given situation.”

Ah, yes. She’d failed his little test, hadn’t she? As a woman, she had shown that she was willing to overstep, proven herself to be nosey—not to mention impudent and clumsy for not even trying to hide it, and displayed blatant disregard for established protocol.

Smart wives didn’t do that. They did their duties, tossed razor-sharp quips across the dinner table to entertain their husbands or keep wealthy guests in line. A smart wife, upon finding the room empty, would’ve sat quietly down in the chair across from Hawat’s, not touched anything, and simply waited until he arrived. She would have scolded him for keeping her waiting, but that would’ve been acceptable, even expected.

Rhiannon had done none of that, so she couldn’t be smart.

Rhiannon knew she should probably just let it slide. Under other circumstances, she would have. More specifically, if Hawat was her enemy, she would have. Being underestimated by your enemies was a good thing.

“Of course. But first,” she said slowly, her voice sickly sweet, “I have a question. As the Security Commander, surely you’ll know the answer.”

Hawat straightened up, focused on her with the entirety of his Mentat processing capabilities. “M’Lady?”

Except Hawat wasn’t her enemy. He was loyal to the Atreides family—had served them for two generations. Three, if you counted Paul. Despite the current friction between them, Rhiannon knew that Hawat would give his life for her without question, and she took that kind of thing very seriously.

Also she liked Hawat. He was intelligent, meticulous, and efficient. His loyalty couldn’t be bought. One day, hopefully, they could be friends. But that couldn’t happen if he doubted her intellect. She could never be friends with someone who saw her as anything less than what she was.

“This room,” Rhiannon asked, “who designed it?”

Hawat blinked. His dark eyes scoured her face, evidently unwilling to go into a Mentat trance to find the answer to the question. “That… was before my time, m’Lady.” He frowned. “Is it important?”

Rhiannon made a dismissive gesture. “Perhaps not. Only I couldn’t help but notice that when they installed the display screen over the one-way mirror, they used the wrong glass.”

Hawat’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes flickered over her head to the darkened display screen behind her.

“I assume the display is fully functional,” she went on, “otherwise, it would’ve been easier to tint the mirror to imitate a display, and be done with it. But whoever designed the room forgot that the glass of the standard display isn’t dark enough. When the light hits it at an angle, it reflects off the first layer, but still shines through to the mirror underneath, and there’s a double reflection.”

A muscle in Hawat’s jaw twitched as he realized she was right. At least he wasn’t annoyed at her anymore, just at himself for not realizing it sooner. How many times had he been in this room, in this very spot, and not noticed?

“You have keen eyes, m’Lady,” Hawat said. “I’ll see that the glass is darkened.”

“That’s a high compliment to receive from a Mentat. Thank you.” Then she shrugged. “Though, I don’t suppose it really matters, anyway. The only real purpose to a one way mirror in a room such as this is to protect the council with armed guards without them being a distraction. I can’t imagine that it’s worth going through the trouble of replacing the glass for something as trivial as that.”

Rhiannon’s pleasant expression turned to ice. She leaned in a bit, as if to tell him something she didn’t want anyone else to hear.

“Then again, there are some drawbacks to not fixing it,” Rhiannon went on conspiratorially, savoring the flicker of alarm she caught in the old Mentat’s eyes. “Having tinted glass over a one-way mirror lessens the reflectivity of the mirror. If the tinted glass isn’t dark enough, look carefully, and you can see movement on the other side.”

Hawat’s expression darkened with realization. She’d seen through his test. Rhiannon had known that he was on the other side of the screen, watching her, and she’d decided to fail it anyway. Mentally, Rhiannon congratulated herself. Working out the implications of this conversation would keep the Mentat dizzy for a week. Then, the tests he put to her might finally be worth her time.

“I’ll keep that in mind, m’Lady,” Hawat acknowledged, having schooled his expression back to professional neutrality. “Do you have any other questions you wish to ask?”

Rhiannon smiled brightly, shrugging off the gravity of the last five minutes with practiced ease. “No Hawat, thank you. Now then, Atreides Battle Language?”

In the small seaside town below the castle, Leto guided Rhiannon through the marketplace crowds. The bazaar was busy at this time of day, but the point was to be seen, so seen they were.

Among his people, Leto seemed entirely at ease. He browsed the stalls of vegetables and fresh fish with bright eyes and a smile, his chest puffed out with pride as he showed off his new wife. For Rhiannon, it was a bit overwhelming. She had been in crowds many times over the years, but rarely as herself. Today, she was not unanimous. Not allowed to blend in with everyone else in the market. A security risk, surely—Captain Pennon had not been happy, and even Hawat had worn a long-suffering expression when he was informed of how his Duke and Duchess would be spending the afternoon.

She was the Duchess of Caladan, and everyone who saw her knew it. For a highborn Lady, Rhiannon was dressed fairly simply: a dark cotton dress with wide sleeves, complemented by a wide belt and boots that weren’t afraid of the mud. The only details that marked her as the Duchess were the intricate designs of gold thread trimming the high collar of the dress, and the large emerald brooch pinned over her heart.

But even if she dressed herself down as a lowly fishwife, Rhiannon wouldn’t have been able to hide. The ducal wedding had been holorecorded and broadcast across the planet for all the citizens to enjoy, and by now most everyone knew her face.

One of the things Rhiannon found unique about her husband was the relationship he had with his people. On Iro, the noble houses and the common folk maintained a sort of passive indifference towards the other; the houses were too busy fighting each other to worry much about the population beyond the paying of taxes, and the population more concerned with staying out of the crossfire to complain about poor—or better yet, absent—leadership. On most of the other worlds Rhiannon had been on, it was more or less the same, with some variety based on how oppressive the ruling class was and how hungry the people were.

On Caladan, she was met with something different; the citizens actually really seemed to like their Duke. As she walked the streets—arm in arm with her husband and protected by nothing more than an honor guard and the dagger hidden in her belt—the casual camaraderie and trust Leto placed in the crowd struck Rhiannon as both reckless and strange.

Nevertheless, she smiled at everyone in the market who spoke to them—who were allowed to approach the Duke and Duchess unchallenged—well wishers offering congratulations on the marriage and curious shoppers eager to get a look at, if not speak directly to, the new Duchess.

A little girl—about five or six years old—approached them with a few hand picked, ever-so-slightly battered wildflowers clutched in her fist. Scarcely daring to take her eyes off her tiny scuffed boots, she offered the flowers up to Rhiannon. Rhiannon let go of Leto’s arm and crouched down so she was at the child’s eye level.

“Those are very lovely,” Rhiannon said kindly. “Did you pick them yourself?”

Leto stepped away to inspect beautiful tapestries woven from beaten ponji fibers and fire-threads, but even as he spoke to the stall’s owner, she could tell by the way he angled himself that he was watching her out of the corner of his eye.

The little girl helped Rhiannon to arrange the flowers through the clasp of her brooch, so they were pinned with it to her chest. Before she straightened up, Rhiannon licked her thumb and rubbed away a smear of dirt—undoubtedly acquired at the same time and place as the flowers—away from the side of the girl’s nose.

And anyway, it was becoming clear to her that being recognizable, even approachable, was part of her job as Duchess. Behind closed doors, Rhiannon could be whatever she wanted (and would take on much more interesting tasks, whether Leto knew about them or not), but in the eyes of the public, her Duchess persona needed to compliment the Duke’s. Royalty was theatre, and they both had their role to play.

Leto gave her an approving smile when she drifted back to his side. He took up her arm again and introduced her to the man he’d been talking to, an older gentleman with scraggly white mutton chops. He was an artisan, had been selling his woven goods in the marketplace for many years, and had known Leto since he was boy.

“Aye, you chose well for yourself, Sire,” the old artisan said to Leto with a conspiratorial nod. “I reckon your father would’ve liked her, rest his soul. He never could talk his own dear wife into visiting us here in the market!”

If the statement made Leto uncomfortable, he didn’t show it. He smiled and laughed, as if his mother and father hadn’t loathed each other. Hadn't fought constantly. Like his mother hadn’t been behind his father’s gruesome death.

Theatre.

They wandered the bazaar for a few hours, buying trinkets and sampling food from vendors. With the sun hanging low over the water, they started the long walk back to Castle Caladan.

The late afternoon sky was a painting. Orange tinted clouds drifted lazily across the horizon, borrowing the shapes of horses, boats, and fish. Against the setting sun, the sea was almost black, shot through with rivets of dancing color where the light skimmed across the waves.

Rhiannon and Leto walked side by side on the wide cliffside path leading to the castle. They were alone, more or less. The honor guard would stay with them until they were safely within the castle grounds, but had dropped back to walk behind them out of earshot.

“I’m glad you came today,” Leto admitted when they were well out of sight of the village. “I know it’s a little unorthodox, but the Old Duke did it, so it’s important that I do it too.”

“I understand,” Rhiannon acknowledged. “I’ll admit, it did feel a little odd, but I’ll get used to it.”

He reached out and squeezed her hand to show his appreciation. For a time after that, they walked without speaking. Between their shared dinners, they’d already had a fair amount of time to get comfortable in their shared silences.

Rhiannon could tell that he was worried about something. There were deep lines between his eyebrows that weren’t usually there, and the eyebrows themselves seemed to weigh heavier on his face than usual.

“I may need to go back to Iro soon,” Leto said eventually, once they had passed onto castle grounds and the honor guard had left them to their own devices. “If I do, would you want to go with me?”

“I’d never turn down the opportunity to see my home planet again,” Rhiannon answered, forgoing a joke about him wanting to return her after only being married to her for a few weeks. “But it hasn’t been very long at all. Is something wrong?”

Rhiannon knew of several things, actually, but she wasn’t sure which one of them Leto would consider serious enough to merit him traveling all the way there himself. Heighliner travel was costly, and although House Atreides could pay for it easily, an unnecessary expense was still an unnecessary expense. More importantly, it took a week to make the journey from Caladan to Iro—usually longer, depending on the route the Heighliner took.

With the combined travel time added to however long it took Leto to solve the issue, he could easily be gone for a month. A month was a long time for a Duke to be away from his responsibilities at home.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” he reassured. “I just needed to know, in case we need to make plans to travel.”

“Leto,” she chided, “there’s something wrong on Iro. That sounds exactly like the kind of thing I need to worry about.”

“Rhia, It’s nothing.” He spoke firmly, in a way that was probably meant to reassure her by letting her know that he had the problem under control. “The last thing you need is to get caught up in business affairs. Forget I said anything.”

Rhiannon huffed and shot him an unimpressed look. “Kindly refrain from telling what I do and don’t need, dear husband. I can do that on my own just fine, thank you.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.” He squeezed her hand again. “You have enough on your plate as it is. You should be focused on adjusting to your role as Duchess, and it wouldn’t be fair if I expected you to take on my problems on top of everything else.”

“Believe it or not, Leto, helping you in that corner is exactly one of my duties as Duchess,” she admonished. “Your problem is on Iro. You married an Ironian. I know that planet inside and out, and have contacts and resources you don’t. Chances are, I can solve the problem from here and save everyone a lot of time.”

Leto smiled, his eyes glinting with fond amusement. “Point taken. Sorry for making assumptions.” He became serious. “Several of our operational mining sites are reporting damaged equipment.”

“Sabotage?”

The somber look on his face told her she was right. “At first the damages were minor, but it’s been getting worse. We’ve increased security, but it hasn’t done any good.”

“I take it you have no suspects?” Rhiannon knew a little about the situation. Despite the efficacy of her Ironian information web, it took a long time for news to reach her on Caladan. She didn’t like that Leto was hearing things before her.

“At first, we thought it had to be the workers.” He scowled, frustrated. “We have higher wages and better working conditions than any other mining operation on the planet. But there’s no evidence of trespassers, so it seemed like it could only be someone on the inside.”

“Past tense. You don’t think it’s the workers anymore?” Rhiannon inferred.

“Someone has been sabotaging the life support systems,” Leto continued. “Five times now, the power has gone out while workers were down in the shafts. No one’s been hurt, but it’s only a matter of time. Two sites have stopped production completely because the men won’t work in those conditions. And I don’t blame them for it, either.”

Leto blew out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’ve already fallen behind schedule. All of the profits we would be seeing at this stage are going into repairing equipment. This incident has gotten expensive fast, and the last thing we need is for it to spread.”

Thankfully, Rhiannon didn’t need the insight of the thousands of eyes she had on Iro to know exactly what was happening

“Leto,” Rhiannon said gently. “You’ve pissed off the Dwellers.”

“The Dwellers?” Leto stopped walking and turned to face her with a puzzled frown. “None of our mines are on Dweller lands, we made sure of that when we started. What could we have done to anger them?”

“The affected mines, I assume they’re all in the same sector.”

He nodded. “Near Candidi.”

“That’s right beside Hreidmar lands,” she explained. “Dwellers are masters of guerilla warfare. If something about the Atreides mining presence is bothering them, a bit of sabotage is how they’d let you know.”

“Hreidmar,” Leto echoed, committing the name to memory. “If they don’t like what we’re doing, why not just tell us? Their complaints would have been taken seriously.”

She shook her head. “They don’t know that. The Dweller Clans have a… uh… let’s say complex history with the Imperial Houses. They wouldn’t be willing to just send an emissary. If a House wants diplomatic ties with a Clan, they’d have to be the one to initiate, and even then, the House would need a Dweller to vouch for them in order to even make contact.”

“Okay.” Leto looked at her with a serious expression and squared shoulders. Ducal mode. Ready to problem solve. Rhiannon really, really liked that about him. “How do we go about establishing formal relations? You clearly know a lot about the Dwellers—do you know a Dweller that would be willing to vouch for House Atreides?”

“Having good relations with the Dwellers is absolutely worth the effort,” Rhiannon reasoned. “But if we’re going to do it, we’ll need to do it right. That would mean both you and I returning to Iro, and staying there for however long negotiations take. We both know that now isn’t the best time for us to be away from Caladan.”

Leto blew out a sigh. “I know. And we’ve already committed to traveling for the trade summit in just over a month.”

“Exactly.” Rhiannon paused, thinking. Then added, “We can put it off, I think. The Hreidmar aren’t asking for a relationship, they just want something fixed. Actually, it might be better to wait, anyway. Who are you more likely to negotiate with: the neighbors who respected your wishes, or the assholes who are actively harming you?”

“But that’s assuming that we know what we’ve done,” Leto complained. “We don’t.”

Rhiannon shrugged. “If they aren’t trying to tell what’s wrong, they must think it’s obvious.”

“Not to us. We haven’t violated their borders. Atreides security is under orders to leave them be. What else is there?”

Rhiannon pulled a pin out of her hair from where it had been sliding loose. She smoothed her hair back into place and replaced the pin. “Runoff can be a big problem with mining. If we were accidentally poisoning the water, I can imagine they’d be pretty upset”

“We did ecological impact studies on each location,” Leto said defensively, “and all waste is disposed of properly. We’ve been very careful about that.”

“I know that,” she soothed. “I was just thinking out loud. If their water was being poisoned, they probably would’ve been a lot more aggressive from the start anyway. Rivers though, those are still important.” She paused thoughtfully. “The Candidi River Basin. The road transporting raw ore to the refineries at Plateau City runs through there, doesn’t it?”

Leto’s brow furrowed. “It does.”

Rhiannon nodded knowingly. “That’s it.”

“The road?”

“In the late summer,” Rhiannon explained, “a lot of big game animals migrate through the Candidi River Basin into Hreidmar lands. They depend on that migration to fill their stores for winter. They’re worried that having a busy road in the basin will divert the animals away from their hunting grounds.”

Leto considered this, rubbing his hand across his bearded jaw. “It won’t be easy to reroute the road, but we could do it, I suppose. Are you sure that’s it?”

“I am.” The sun was starting to set, casting long shadows across the cliffside path. Castle Caladan wasn’t a long walk from where they had stopped to talk, but Rhiannon knew that they would probably end up being late for dinner anyway. She resumed walking, and Leto followed. “But if that doesn’t pacify them, I can still send someone to ask. I don’t know anyone that belongs to Clan Hreidmar, but Hreidmar is an old ally of Clan Vidar. I could ask them to send someone on our behalf.”

Leto looked at her, eyebrows raised. “You have contacts in Vidar?”

“I have cousins in Vidar. They’re good for a favor. Blood is everything to the Dwellers.”

A pleased smile stretched across Leto’s face.

“I didn't know that.” The look he gave her was surprisingly tender, and it made her feel like someone had filled her chest with air. “Sounds like a good story. Can I talk you into telling it over dinner?”

“You could.” Having Dweller heritage wasn’t exactly fashionable on Iro, so she hadn’t had many opportunities to talk about that part of her family history. And it was a good story, one that she’d be happy to tell. “Honestly though, we should probably get out the maps first. If we’re going to rechart the transport route, we need to do it as soon as possible.”

Her husband sighed, gazing at the warm lights popping on in the castle windows one by one with less enthusiasm than usual.

“I never really liked working over dinner,” Leto said ruefully. “But you’re right. If we can get it drafted tonight, I can have the orders on a ship to Iro by tomorrow afternoon. How likely are the Hreidmar to leave the mines alone once we start work on the new road? We can’t shut down the current one until the new one is finished.”

“Pretty likely. They’re smart. That’s why they’re bothering us about it now, and not in three months, when it’s too late for us to do anything.” Rhiannon paused, then turned to look at him expectantly. “See how much easier things are when you let your wife help you?”

Leto barked out a laugh and then, to Rhiannon’s surprise, smacked a kiss onto her forehead.

“I do,” Leto said. “We make a good team, Rhia, and I promise to keep that in mind from now on.”

Rhiannon smiled to herself as they walked through the courtyard and into the castle, where they split up briefly to get the things they would need to work during dinner.

While rummaging through her desk for writing implements and her personal journal on Dweller hunting habits, her eyes drifted to the drawer filled with tapwire hairpins.

“A good team,” she echoed quietly. “Let’s hope so.”

The new Lady Atreides swept through Castle Caladan as a breeze—learning, acclimating, and adjusting things as she saw fit. Always on the move, always working, never seeming to tire. Polite, calculating, and efficient. Although they had yet to get to know each other, Jessica found herself quickly growing to accept, and even respect, Lady Rhiannon’s presence. But it didn’t stop her from feeling a flicker of dread when she received an early morning invitation to join the Duchess for breakfast.

In the weeks following the wedding, she had told herself that she was giving the Duchess space to adapt to her new home—even with the wedding over, there was much to do. It was only during her walk through Castle Caladan to the Duchess’ study that Jessica admitted to herself that she had been stalling. Avoiding Leto’s wife, as if hiding from the facts would change anything.

Jessica mentally scolded herself for behaving childishly—actions driven by emotion were against her Bene Gesserit training, not to mention extremely foolish, given the circumstances.

Not to mention dangerous. Especially now that Leto was so enamored with her. Despite his insistence that he was not romantically involved with her, Jessica saw the way his eyes sharpened with interest every time he caught sight of his new wife, listened as he called her generous for not nagging him for having concubine and understanding for not forcing him to consummate their union.

Knowing that her love was smitten with another woman hurt, but that pain was growing familiar. Now, she was becoming aware of a new kind of pain—a sinking, icy class of uncertainty that began with the realization that, should the Duchess prove to be more nefarious than the quick witted, good natured creature Leto thought she was, there was a chance that he might not notice. Might not want to notice.

Lady Atreides was now at the heart of the household. Jessica needed to know her—needed to be able to read her, notice her patterns, predict her. Knowledge was power, and there was no other way of obtaining it.

A young handmaid—Loah, sister to Mariona and a part of the Duchess’ inner circle—showed Jessica into Lady Rhiannon’s private study. It was a functional space, designed to accommodate both solitary contemplation and small gatherings. The heavy oak desk sat to the far side, placed so that the person sitting at it had a full view of the room. Behind it lay the door to the bedchamber, now closed. By the unlit fireplace, several comfortable looking chairs and a chaise lounge—all a calming shade of blue—were arranged for conversation around a low glass coffee table.

The walls were where the Duchess’ heritage showed through. They were of the same gray stone that made up the rest of the castle, but the adornments were distinctly Ironian. Ancient, battered blades, laced with gold and highly polished. The teeth and claws of great predators, mounted on stands or under glass. There were a few paintings, too. Mostly of orange and white fish. Sketchy, abstract, and proudly displayed, undoubtedly done by a child’s hand.

Lady Rhiannon herself stood by her desk, frowning thoughtfully down at a magnaboard of metal-laced documents. Even so early in the morning and half-bent over a desk, she was utterly composed and elegant.

The Duchess glanced up. Transfixed Jessica with piercing brown eyes. Flashed a smile that showed just a few too many teeth.

“Good morning, Jessica,” she greeted pleasantly. Her accent was interesting. At its heart was her native Ironian brogue, but it sounded like she’d taken a lot of time to smooth out the edges until it vaguely resembled Kaitain intonation. “How are you today?”

Lady Rhiannon was tall—the top of Jessica’s head was just about level with her nose—and very beautiful. She had a strong jaw and dark, carefully shaped eyebrows. There was a tiny scar just to the right of her chin, unnoticeable to the untrained eye.

“I’m well.” Jessica folded her hands in front of her, taking great care to appear serene. “Thank you for the invitation. I’m honored that you thought of me.”

Lady Rhiannon closed the magnaboard and placed it neatly on top of a stack of others. Jessica had a good sense of what was on them; household accounts; spending sheets; business transcripts; the staff roster and wages.

“Thank you for accepting.” She extended a guiding hand to the balcony, where a small glass table was already laden with breakfast foods—sweet breads, fruits, and cooked meats. “I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to set something up. I hope you haven’t felt that I’ve been neglecting you.”

Something about her choice of words struck Jessica as odd. She filed them away for later. Then she eased into the chair opposite of the Duchess, smiling meekly and folding the eggshell blue napkin across her lap.

“Of course not,” Jessica said lightly. “Duty takes precedence over personal correspondence, after all.”

“Yes, naturally,” Lady Rhiannon mused as she poured spice coffee for them both. “Mind you, there is often a certain amount of overlap between the two. Especially when one resides within the scope of Imperial politics, as we do.” She paused. Helped herself to some sweet bread and fruit. “Though we are overdue for a discussion on the household finances, but it isn’t really a topic suitable for the breakfast table.”

Jessica copied her movements, adding fruit and bread to her own plate. “I see. Do you have a problem with the way I’ve managed them?”

“Not at all.” She popped a berry into her mouth and gestured inside at the stacks of paper on her desk. “Quite the opposite, in fact. Clearly, you’re exceptionally good at organization and have quite the mind for business. I was actually hoping that, sometime soon, we might find the time for you to walk me through your rationale. Since we’re going to be collaborating in that arena, it would be helpful for me to be more intimately knowledgeable of your process.”

Jessica took a sip from her spice coffee, buying herself a moment in which she tried to decide whether or not she was being insulted. Lady Rhiannon’s expression was inscrutable: pleasant, yet superficial. Jessica sifted through the things she’d said thus far, noting the words she’d chosen to put stress upon. Clearly. Hoping. Intimately.

It had been established early on that Jessica would be allowed to maintain some of her duties as Lady of Caladan, given that she had fulfilled the role for so many years. It was one of the things she’d asked Leto to lobby for on her behalf.

Part of the prestige of being the Lady of a household was the influence her duties held—overseeing social relations with Imperial society; managing the household staff; orchestrating formal dinners and functions; generally being in control of how other noble families perceived House Atreides. It was a lot of power and responsibility to wield, just as it was a lot of power and responsibility to lose.

It had seemed like a lot to ask at the time, especially given all the other things they were asking of the then-Countess. Lady Rhiannon’s reply, written down by a trusted courtier and delivered to Jessica in an envelope for her to pour over and analyze later, had been congenial enough:

The Countess does not wish for Lady Jessica to feel like a stranger in her own home, and encourages her to retain as many or as few of the responsibilities of the Lady of the House as she wishes.

A very kind response. Generous, as Leto had stressed. But Jessica was finding it hard to believe that her concessions were just out of the kindness of her heart. From what Jessica had seen of her so far, Lady Rhiannon was ambitious, intelligent, meticulous, and not the sort of person to be lax on important matters just for the sake of being nice.

There had to be more. Jessica was almost sure of it. A goal—maybe even a plan. Or an angle, at the least. Something. She just couldn’t see it yet.

At the same time, Jessica knew that she wasn’t unbiased. Everything about the situation hurt, so it was possible that she was predisposed to look for the worst in Lady Rhiannon. She was being replaced—in the Household, in Leto’s favor—and even the most genuine kindness couldn’t dampen the sting.

Jessica swallowed her bitterness and smiled amicably. “I serve at my Lord and Lady’s pleasure.”

From there, the conversation turned to trivial matters. They talked about the weather, Caladan’s local holidays, and Paul’s most recent antics with his new pet weasel. The entire time, Jessica observed Lady Rhiannon using all of her Bene Gesserit abilities and focus.

There were countless rumors surrounding the Bene Gesserit—that they were witches; that they could read minds and influence thoughts. In truth, they were masters of observation, trained to notice the slightest physical manifestation of a thought and divine its meaning: the twitch of the mouth; the dilation of pupils; the barest change in pallor; an increase or decrease in respiration.

All women of the Order had been trained well enough in matters of perception to glean an understanding of people that others missed. Hidden meanings. Half-truths. Disguised emotions. Buried intent. There were also specially trained Truthsayers, who could detect even the slightest falsehood from the most compelling liar.

Jessica was no Truthsayer, but she was perceptive. Even so, Lady Rhiannon gave almost nothing away. Every movement, word, and expression was intentional, impeccably controlled, and seemed to mean exactly what she wanted them to mean.

Jessica was begrudgingly impressed. Surely, she’d been taught at some point to master her expressions. It was annoying, but not alarming; some people were just naturally good at keeping themselves hidden.

Though the Duchess had learned to suppress the standard indications of expression, the truth would always find ways of manifesting itself. Lady Rhiannon would have physiological tells that were unique to her, and over time, Jessica would learn what they were. Until then, she would have to rely on her own wits and intuition to navigate encounters with the Duchess.

She could work with that. Jessica finished off the last of her spice coffee, savoring the gentle burn of its cinnamon flavor on her tongue.

“Do you feel threatened by me?”

The question came from nowhere. The tone of cool, causal interest in which the Duchess spoke sent a spike of ice down Jessica’s spine. She had to concentrate to keep from choking.

Jessica cleared her throat delicately and tilted her head. “I’m sorry?”

It was as if a switch had been flipped. Between one blink and the next, Lady Rhiannon’s demeanor had changed completely. Outwardly, she appeared calm—her movements unhurried, her expression relaxed—but her dark eyes burned with unspoken intensity. She lounged back in her chair, watching Jessica with cold, unblinking focus, as if she were a scientist studying a particularly interesting specimen. Or a predator, waiting for the right moment to pounce.

“As women raised to occupy positions in a nobleman’s household,” Lady Rhiannon explained almost lazily, “we were both taught that subtlety is the correct way to approach difficult situations. But over the years, it’s come to my attention that it’s expected of us because highborn men can’t stand to be directly criticized or confronted in any way.”

Lady Rhiannon added sugar to her coffee, stirred it, then tapped the spoon twice on the rim of the cup before continuing.

“So since it’s just the two of us, and we seem to be pitted against each other in a conflict that we’d both rather avoid, I thought it might be interesting to try a more direct approach. So, I ask again: do you feel that I am a threat to you?”

Jessica steeled herself. She locked down on her physical processes in the ways that only a Bene Gesserit could—the muscles in her face, her heartbeat, the dilation of her irises, respiration, metabolism. She consciously schooled every aspect of her being, then raised an eyebrow.

“What makes you think that I feel you are a threat?” Jessica asked mildly, as if this suddenly dangerous conversation was no more than an amusing thought exercise.

One corner of Lady Rhiannon’s mouth twitched upward. For a second, Jessica worried that she’d seen through her, and knew just how unsettled she was. “My name.”

Jessica maneuvered her features into a puzzled frown. “I don’t understand.”

“This whole time we’ve been talking,” Lady Rhiannon reasoned, “you’ve never once referred to me by my name. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if I had to guess, you want to call me ‘my Lady’, because there’s safety in subordination. Except I gave you permission to use my name the first time we spoke, so you can’t refer to me by title without being rude.”

Jessica’s mind stuttered. “A coincidence, surely.”

“That’s entirely possible,” Lady Rhiannon admitted. “I haven’t been here long, but I’ve heard you speak to others enough to know that you regularly address them within a direct conversation.”

Jessica’s mind raced. That couldn’t be true. At least not entirely. Jessica could count the number of conversations she’d had where the Duchess had been within earshot on one hand.

It dawned on her. Mariona. The kind, efficient Lady in Waiting, who had already been in the Castle for weeks before Lady Rhiannon arrived. Jessica had underestimated her. Clearly, both Mariona’s attention to detail and ability to report her findings to her mistress were well honed skills. Jessica would have to be more cautious in the future.

“I’m flattered,” Jessica said coldly, “that you find me of enough interest to make note of my conversations.”

Lady Rhiannon’s smile only widened. “Really? If I were you, I’d be feeling pretty annoyed right about now. But you still haven’t answered my question.”

Jessica felt a flash of anger. It mingled unpleasantly with the fear. She was being tested. She hadn’t expected the Duchess to test her fairly, but this was going too far. There was no right answer, and no way of telling what would happen if Jessica hazarded a guess.

This was a power play, and no clean way for Jessica to fight back.

And if she told Leto about it, he would do nothing.

“Apologies, Rhiannon.” Jessica took the only exit available to her, and stood up. The Duchess’ expression changed, became confused, then concerned. Jessica didn’t stop to think about what it might mean. There would be time for that later. “But I have duties to attend to. Thank you for breakfast. I hope we’ll have the opportunity to speak again soon.”

With that, Jessica turned and went back inside.

Alone on the balcony, Rhiannon put her head in her hands and whispered, “Fuck.”

[shroomboi67]

Wholesome wintersberg time

Okay so everyone talks about Karl making Ethan a prosthetic for his fingers right? But no one actually realises how difficult ergonomics is with how to connect the prosthetic so its smooth against the skin, how to design a glove so theres no chafing and attaching the prosthetic into the nerves so that the prosthetic will move with the fingers.

Heisenberg has probably NEVER done this before as all he needs to do with the soldats is bolt them into place. So somewhere in Karl's factory there is a wall full of measurements, prototype sketches and books all about Ethan's prosthetic and how to make him one.

Body mods are very hard to do!

[itcars]

Details: The Aston Martin Valhalla

Aston Martin’s transformational journey takes a huge step forwards with the Valhalla concept car brought to production reality as an extraordinary, truly driver-focused mid-engined hybrid supercar.

Valhalla is the latest and most significant product of the brand’s Project Horizon strategy to-date; a car which will broaden the model portfolio to reflect Aston Martin’s presence in Formula One, set best-in-class standards for performance, dynamics and driving pleasure, and drive the transition from internal combustion to hybrid to full electric powertrains.

Built with chassis, aerodynamic and electronics expertise forged in Formula One, and a cutting-edge hybrid powertrain technology at its heart, Valhalla is a formidable technological showcase. Yet far from engineering the driver out of the loop, Valhalla’s sole focus is immersing them in a new kind of supercar driving experience. One which brings unprecedented excitement, enjoyment, and driver engagement to the top of the supercar sector.

With pinpoint handling, prodigious levels of downforce and a breathtaking blend of instant battery-electric torque and the intensity of a scintillating V8 engine, Valhalla’s fusion of raw emotion and hybrid efficiency reflects a new era. One defined by a shift in attitudes and expectations that demands contemporary supercars are not just sensational to look at and thrilling to drive, but that they truly reflect the technology employed in the highest level of motorsport. As such Valhalla is at the forefront; an authentic, next generation Aston Martin road racer, designed around the driver, for the driver and built to be enjoyed.

Valhalla heralds a new definition of Aston Martin. With a mid-engined 950bhp gasoline/battery electric powertrain, new carbon fiber structure and aerodynamics shaped by the pioneering philosophy first seen in the revolutionary Aston Martin Valkyrie, Valhalla will bring the perfect balance of hypercar performance and advanced powertrain, driving dynamics and uniquely sophisticated design materials to truly redefine the supercar sector.

For a true engineer like Moers, Valhalla marks the moment where Aston Martin delivers on earlier promises, he says: “Preserving the essence of an exceptional concept car is vital when meeting the challenge of bringing it into production. With Valhalla not only have we stayed true to our commitment to build a world-beating supercar, but we have exceeded our original aims. The result is a pure driving machine - one which exists right at the cutting edge of performance and technology yet allows the driver to feel the emotion and thrill of complete connection and control.”

At the beating heart of Valhalla is its all-new PHEV powertrain, which features three motors; foremost of these is a rear-mid-mounted 4.0 litre twin-turbo bespoke V8 engine. The most advanced, responsive and highest performing V8 engine ever fitted to an Aston Martin, it features a flat-plane crankshaft for increased responsiveness. Revving to 7200rpm and developing 750PS, it sends drive exclusively to the rear axle. Exhaling through a lightweight exhaust system with active flaps for an adjustable and authentic Aston Martin sound character it also features top-exit tailpipes to maximize visual and aural drama.

Supplementing this new V8 engine is a 150kW/400V battery hybrid system utilizing a pair of E-Motors; one mounted on the front axle and the other on the rear axle. The electric system contributes a further 204PS for a headline combined power output of 950PS. When driven in EV mode battery power is directed exclusively to the front axle. In other driving modes battery power is split between front and rear axles, the percentage sent to each axle constantly varies according to driving demands. In certain situations, 100% of battery power can be sent to the rear axle, supplementing the full force of the ICE V8 for maximum performance.

Completing the powertrain is an all-new 8-speed DCT transmission. Exclusively designed and built for Aston Martin, this new paddle-shift gearbox has been developed specifically for the hybrid era. Featuring e-reverse (which utilizes the PHEV’s electric motors and thereby saves weight by negating the need for a conventional reverse gear) the transmission also features an Electronic Limited-Slip Differential (E-Diff) on the rear axle for maximum traction and handling agility.

Electrical power is also used to enhance low speed control and response as well as provide reversing capability. And, thanks to the instantaneous torque from the E-Motors, the hybrid system augments the V8 engine to deliver sensational standing start acceleration and in-gear response. Outright performance is further aided by the E-Motor and V8 ICE being able to run different gears in the DCT simultaneously, which enables a maximum torque delivery of 1000Nm.

Running in EV-only mode, Valhalla will be capable of a maximum 80mph / 130km/h and has a zero-emission range of 15km. Predicted CO2 (WLTP) is less than 200g/km. Unleashing all 950PS the Valhalla will reach a top speed of 217mph / 330km/h and will complete the sprint from 0-62mph in just 2.5 seconds. In terms of outright track capability, a stunning 6:30 Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time is being targeted.

In terms of its structure, Valhalla is built around a new a carbon fiber tub for maximum stiffness with minimum weight penalty. Featuring Formula One® style push rod front suspension complete with inboard mounted springs and dampers reducing unsprung mass and provides a brilliant packaging solution. Together with the rear-end’s multilink design, Valhalla uses Multimatic Variable Spring rate and Adaptive Spool Valve (ASV) Damper units providing adjustable ride frequency for exceptional performance on road and track. In addition to stiffer suspension, Track mode sees ride height dramatically reduced in order to maximize downforce. At the other end of the speed scale, a front axle lift system raises the nose for improved approach angle on awkward inclines.

The carbon tub’s inherent rigidity means suspension loadings can be controlled with absolute precision and every minute input to the electric power-assisted steering faithfully translated into an immediate and intuitive direction change. High performance Carbon Ceramic Matrix brakes (complete with brake-by-wire technology) guarantee exceptional stopping power, and bespoke Michelin tires (20in front, 21in rear) developed specifically for Valhalla provide a final and all-important layer of excellence. This intimate, uncorrupted connection between driver and car sits at the core of the Valhalla experience, with advanced materials and electronics serving only to enhance the driver’s enjoyment, confidence and sense of complete control.

With a target dry weight of less than 1550kg Valhalla will have an unrivalled power-to-weight ratio compared to its class rivals. Weight of a different kind - that generated by aerodynamic downforce - also plays its part in Valhalla’s unmatched dynamic capabilities. Benefitting from a flow-down of the Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar’s Formula One® inspired aerodynamic philosophy, Valhalla employs a combination of active aerodynamic surfaces - specifically the front surfaces and rear wing - and masterful management of underbody airflow through dramatic venturi tunnels. At 150mph Valhalla’s meticulously sculpted aerodynamic surfaces generate an impressive 600kg of downforce, enough for mighty high-speed cornering ability and unshakable stability.

The pursuit of downforce demands uncompromising functionality, but expertly working the airflow beneath the car has left Aston Martin’s design team with a clean upper body surface with which they have created a memorable mid-engined shape that is original yet unmistakably Aston Martin. Uncorrupted by the need for aggressive wings that jut into the airstream, Valhalla’s predominantly carbon fiber body blends function and beauty in a manner that befits a new generation of mid-engined supercar. Spectacular forward-hinged dihedral doors bring drama to the beginning and end of every journey, while cut-outs in the roof ease ingress and egress. A distinctive roof scoop feeds air directly into the V8 engine’s intakes, with additional side and rear intakes and vents integrated smoothly into the overall body design.

Valhalla, the luxury brands first series production mid-engined supercar will be available in both left-hand and right-hand drive, expanding its appeal across international markets. Cockpit room has been increased compared to the Aston Martin Valkyrie, though many Formula One inspired hallmarks remain, such as a pared back cockpit design with clear, simple ergonomics unashamedly focused around the driver. An innovative new Aston Martin HMI system features a central touchscreen display and incorporates Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Adjustable pedals and steering column enable the seat bases to be fixed to the chassis structure. The footwells are also raised for a low hip-to-heel seating position redolent of a Formula One car.

For Aston Martin’s Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman, Valhalla is an opportunity for the Aston Martin design team to express extreme performance with fresh form and proportion, and to capture the brand’s bold future-forward approach: “When we created the Valhalla concept we were keen to emphasize the design legacy of the Aston Martin Valkyrie and that intent remains unchanged, but the execution has evolved considerably in order to reach production of this all-new car. Though the legacy of Valkyrie is clear, Valhalla is now a more mature, fully resolved piece of design. One which combines the pure aerodynamic function you would expect from a marque competing in Formula One® together with the beautiful form, striking proportions and exemplary detailing for which Aston Martin is renowned.”

Full LED Matrix headlights with adaptive functionality and high-beam assist deliver excellent forward vision in the dark, and Dual Zone Air Conditioning provides high level of occupant comfort. In order to comply with the latest regulatory requirements, Valhalla also incorporates the latest Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. These include Auto Emergency Braking, Forward Collision Warning, Active Cruise Control, Blind Spot Monitoring and Rear View Parking Camera (with Surround View option).

Dynamic development of the Valhalla will be the task of Aston Martin’s award-winning dynamics team and complemented with an enviable pool of talent which also includes Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team drivers Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenburg. They will give their invaluable perspective to the project and bring added authenticity to a car which boasts such a clear connection to Aston Martin’s Grand Prix machines.

Valhalla is a new generation Aston Martin, it defines a new driver and driving experience – ‘the Mastery of Driving’, a true ultra-luxury, exclusive, British supercar.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

aside from the actors being like 10 years older than the characters, and the bad effects what’s so bad about the animorphs tv show? is it worth a watch just for fun?

Short answer: No.  Not worth it.  It’s so bad on so many levels, and has fundamental writing problems that make all of the characters stupidly inconsistent (if they’re yeerks) or morally reprehensible (if they’re Animorphs).

Longer answer: The Animorphs TV show is unfortunately quite badly written and also quite limited by its own budget, to the point where the characters and plots and themes simply do not translate.  The yeerks aren’t threatening, the battles aren’t violent, the team isn’t close, and 0% of what makes Animorphs unique — from the body horror to the humor — makes it to the final product.

However, in the interest of fairness, a few things I do like from AniTV:

• Stealthy yeerk tech.

I love the detail that the dracon beams look like flashlights.  Yes it’s cheesy, and yes the decision probably came from budgetary constraints and/or censorship.  However, it just makes so much more sense to me than the ray-gun design from the books.  The tube shape not only looks harmless — allowing controllers to arm kids as young as Karen without drawing attention — but it seems like it’d be much easier to use for hosts with hands as small as taxxons’ or as large as hork-bajir’s.  The ray-gun look seems a little too ergonomically correct for humans in particular.

Also, the use of yeerks-in-thermoses, yeerks-in-thermometers, and yeerks-in-phones all makes the threat so much more flexible and immediate.  Rather than having to go through an elaborate process of luring humans to yeerk pools, AniTV controllers only need to come up with an excuse to press an innocent-looking object against your ear.

• Paranoia and uncanniness.

Richard Sali as Chapman might be the best performance on the show.  He does this cool thing where he has completely normal-looking reactions to Melissa asking a question or Marco misbehaving... only the reaction always comes a solid 2 - 3 seconds too late.  It’s unnerving as hell, and it really sells the idea that this is an alien playing a part.

Plus, the use of minor background characters who are just... walking by.  Once the show hammers home the idea that every single passerby could be a controller in the opening of the second episode, it can increase the tension in a scene just by having a few extras wander by in the background of the frame.  It’s an effect that works well in visual media, and one that doesn’t require a big budget.

• Having Elfangor just hand Tobias a physical CD of his hirac dilest instead of messing around with mystical andalite bloodline crap.

Honestly I prefer the “space CD o’ intel” device because it’s a problem the audience can immediately get behind.  We understand instantly why it’s useful, why just plugging it into Jake’s computer won’t work (although it’s adorable they still try), why it’s dangerous to have, and why it’s going to take some additional plot time to figure out how to get it open.

The plot itself that comes out of the disc is frequently kinda cool.  The Animorphs and controllers go back-and-forth over it for a while, only for the controllers to get it, only for the controllers to discover it’s biometrically locked to Elfangor’s DNA, so only Ax can get it open, so there are a bunch of controllers gunning for him...  And then there’s the twist that it’s biometrically locked not to andalite-Elfangor’s DNA but human-Elfangor’s DNA, meaning only Tobias, not Ax, can open it.  Great plot fuel, and much easier to understand than the whole “utzum” thing that Elfangor uses to give Tobias his hirac dilest in book canon.

(Technically, it’s incorrect to say Elfangor hands Tobias the CD, because he waits until Tobias has already walked like 50 feet away and then attempts to throw Tobias the CD, only to miss and have it fall in a hole... but I’m doing my best not to criticize AniTV in this list.)

• Dead. Grandpa. Tuxedo.

The best characterization note in AniTV has got to be Cassie loaning Jake a tuxedo that belonged to her grandfather so that he can wear it to their school’s dance.  Cassie says she found this thing in her attic, Jake is unironically enthusiastic about the history behind Dead Grandpa Tux, Rachel threatens to disown Jake rather than have any member of her family appear at a high school mixer in a fucking tuxedo from the fucking 1940s, Jake and Cassie are blissfully unaware that “way too formal” and “50 years out of style” are concepts that exist... It’s all so beautifully in-character.

• The escargot scene.

• The secret ex-controller support group.

Obviously I’m fascinated by the lives of former yeerk hosts, but I also think that the potential for the group of them that Tobias encounters is nearly infinite.  As the kids mention in #13, even just one or two escaped hosts have the potential to destabilize the whole Yeerk Empire through showing that escape is possible.  Toby’s warriors are incredibly important for the war effort, and Eva eventually becomes a massive source of insider intel from the Empire.  The idea of a group of humans who used to be controllers all helping each other while also helping the Animorphs is so friggin cool, and I’m just really bummed that we only got like 30 seconds of screen time for them before Tobias gets them recaptured by yeerks.

All right, I think I’m out of nice things to say.  AniTV has its moments; I’ll give the show that much.

[lagarconne-journal]

The Iconic Croissant Bag by Lemaire —

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[skyfire85]

FLIGHTLINE: 190 - MIG-23 (NATO REPORTING NAME: FLOGGER)

-Soviet MiG-23s line up at their East German base in the early 1980s. | Photo: German Federal Archives

FLIGHTLINE: 190 - MIG-23 (NATO REPORTING NAME: FLOGGER)

Designed to replace the MiG-21, the Flogger is the most-produced swing-wing aircraft in the world, and remains in service more than 50 years later.

The MiG-21 proved to be a fast and agile aircraft, and was more than a match for US fighters during the Vietnam War, but Soviet planners were still unsatisfied with its short range, primitive radar and limited weapons load, and in the early 1960s the Mikoyan OKB was directed to develop a replacement. Among the requirements for this new interceptor were more range, more missiles, including beyond-visual-range (BVR) models, and a shortened take-off run. In response, MiG looked at two options: the 23-01, aka MiG-23PD (Podyomnye Dvigatyeli – "lift jet", NATO reporting name: Faithless), which was a tailed delta-wing design similar to the MiG-21 but with two dedicated lift jets built into the fuselage. These two Kolesov RD-36-35 engines also provided bleed air for a boundary-layer control system to improve low-speed handling. The 23-01 first flew on 3 April 1967, but proved to be unsuited for further testing; the aircraft had poor handling qualities, particularly during landings, and the lift jets were both dead weight 95% of the time and took up space needed for fuel and/or weapons. Despite being demonstrated at the 1968 Domodedovo Air Show, the MiG-23PD was abandoned.

-Schematic of the MiG-23PD. The grid even with the wing's leading edge marks the position of the lift jets. | Illustration: Airvectors

Developed in parallel to the 23-01, aircraft 23-11 (also designated Ye-231) incorporated variable-geometry wings developed at TsAGI with information gleaned from German researchers after the end of WW2. Powered by a Tumanskiy R-27-300 turbojet, 23-01's wings could be set to one of three preset sweep-angles 16°, 45° or 72°, depending on the aerodynamic need. The aircraft took its first flight on 10 June 1967, with the wing at maximum sweep for the entire flight. During a subsequent flight on 9 July, the pilot worked the wing through all three angles, finding the aircraft to be much more capable than the 23-01. Two static-test airframes and six more prototypes were completed for further testing, and in December 1967 the aircraft was approved for production as the MiG-23S. In 1968 the Ye-231 was also demonstrated at the Domodedovo Air Show, and was given the NATO reporting name Flogger.

-Schematic of the Ye-231/23-11. This aircraft differed greatly from the MiG-23PD. | Illustration: Airvectors

DESIGN AND VARIANTS

The MiG-23 is 16.7m long, and 4.82m tall. At full sweep, the wingspan is 7.779m, while at minimum sweep the span is 13.965m. Empty, the plane weighed just over 10,000kg, while at max TO it weighed 17,800kg. The variable sweep wings of the MiG-23 gave it a minimum takeoff roll of just 500m, and the plane could land in 750m with the aid of a braking chute. An afterburning turbojet developed 83.6kN of thrust dry, 127.49kN with AB (depending on the model), which pushed the Flogger to a maximum speed of 2,499kmh at altitude (Mach 2.35, depending on conditions) and 1,350kmh (Mach 1.1) at sea level. Clean (no armament or fuel tanks), the MiG-23 could climb at 230m/s, and reach a maximum altitude of 18,300m. Range varied with external loads, but clean the plane could fly 1,500km, while with a full load of missiles and three 800l drop tanks that could stretch to 2,550km. Despite being conceived as an interceptor, firing BVR missiles at distant target, the MiG-23 was also stressed for air combat maneuvering, with a G limit (on later models) of 8.5G.

-Orthograph of a late-model MiG-23MF. | Illustration: Kaboldy

The MiG-23 was built from mostly aluminum alloys, with a high mounted, variable sweep wing. The intake ramps, mounted just aft of the cockpit, were fitted with movable ramps to control airflow. The wings were fitted with four-section trailing-edge flaps; leading-edge flaps, and two-section spoilers. Roll control was accomplished with the spoilers and the "tailerons", the horizontal stabilizers being made not only all-moving, but designed to move independently of each other. The vertical stabilizer was fitted with a long fillet that stretched to nearly the wing's leading edge, and it was supplemented with a ventral fin that was hinged to fold to give ground clearance. The Flogger was designed for rough fields, and the steerable nose gear, equipped with twin tires, and the main gear were fitted with mud guards. In addition to the braking chute, four petal airbrakes were fitted around the exhaust, and the wing spoilers could also be used to slow the plane on landing.

-Cockpit of a MiG-23. | Photo: Akpch

The MiG-23's cockpit, painted in the Soviet's chosen turquoise blue (literally, it's called "Russian Cockpit Blue [or Green]) is more ergonomic than previous aircraft, but the Flogger pilot still faced a heavy workload. In particular, early models lacked a HUD, forcing the pilot to fly "head-down" to monitor the radar set and instruments. Later aircraft added a HUD, which incorporated data from the radar, though technological limitations meant it was a narrow sweep, and the MiG-23 was dependent on ground-control interception to find targets. Although the forward view was superior to the MiG-21, the view to the side and aft was still rather poor, in part due to the head support for the ejection seat, and a periscope was incorporated into the canopy; the periscope provided a clear view behind the pilot, but it had a limited field of view.

-A dummy in the pressure suit and KM-1 ejection seat used in the MiG-23. | Photo: Stefan Kühn

The Flogger pilot was seated on a KM-1 ejection seat, which was designed with high speed and altitude in mind, with leg stirrups, shoulder harness, and pelvic D-ring securing the pilot to the seat. If triggered, after the canopy was blown clear a small parachute (the size of a handkerchief) would be deployed from a telescoping rod to orient the seat and guide it above and behind the vertical stabilizer. Subsequently, the rod and 1st stage chute would separate , and a 2nd stage chute would deploy, stabilizing the seat and slowing it to allow the 3rd, largest stage chute to deploy. The KM-1 was not a zero-zero system, and would not work below 167kmh.

-Schematic of the various combinations of weapons carried by the Flogger. | Illustration: Airvectors

Armament of the MiG-23 included a 23mm GSh-23L autocannon with 260 rounds, and there were six hardpoints, 2 each on the fuselage, wing gloves and wings, which could carry 3,000kg of stores or auxiliary fuel tanks. Air-to-air missiles included the R-60 (NATO reporting name AA-8 Aphid) heat-seeker or the replacement R-73 (AA-11 Archer), as well as the R-23 (AA-7 Apex) which was produced in both SARH and IR models. Despite not being built as a strike aircraft, the MiG-23 could also carry Kh-23 Grom (AS-7 Kerry) air-to-surface missiles or 500kg bombs.

MIG-23S (NATO: FLOGGER-A)

After the Ye-231, MiG produced roughly 60 MiG-23S (Flogger-A), which was the first production variant. Despite this, the S was an interim version, as the Sapfir-23 radar was not yet available, and as a result the RP-22SM Sapfir from the MiG-21 was equipped instead. The MiG-23S also lacked the IRST, and was fitted with a somewhat anemic R-27F-300 turbojet with dry thrust of 67.62kN and under AB of 78.5kN. Maiden flight of the 23S was on 21 May 1969, and around a dozen were built for testing by the Ministry of Aircraft Industry and VVS (Soviet Air Force), which lasted until 1973. A number of issues were uncovered during this testing, including instability at high angles of attack (AOA), a dangerous spin-entry profile, and the development of stress cracks in the fuselage and wings surrounding the sweep mechanism. Despite these flaws, and several fatal accidents, the 23S entered service with the VVS for a short time before being replaced.

-Orthograph of the MiG-23S. | Illustration: Dr Dan Saranga

MIG-23 "EDITION 1971" (FLOGGER-A)

The following model was simply designated MiG-23, but was referred to as the "Edition 1971", and incorporated an early version of the Sapfir-23L (which lacked look-down/shoot-down capacity) a TP-23 IRST and an ASP-23D gunsight/HUD, which replaced an earlier radar scope. The engine was replaced by an uprated R-27F2-300 turbojet, which had the same "dry" power but had an improved afterburner that increased thrust to 98kN. This model also added another internal fuel tank of 470l capacity, moved the horizontal tails back 86cm for better handling, and replaced the wings shared with the 23-11 and 23S with the new "Edition 2" wings, which incorporated a leading edge dogtooth, increasing the area by 20%. This resulted in the sweep angled being altered from 16°, 45° and 72° to 18:40°, 47:40° and 74:40°, though for ease of use (and to save money) the cockpit controls and pilot manuals were unchanged. The Edition 2 wings did away with the leading edge flaps to make the wings easier to manufacture. These changes, made to improve the MiG-23, had the opposite effect in practice. The dogtooth in particular generated vortices which adversely affected stability, and the lack of leading edge devices increased the run on landing and takeoffs. Approximately 100 Edition 1971 MiG-23 were completed and were sent to front-line units, where they served until 1978 when they were remanded to training squadrons.

-Orthograph of the MiG-23 (Edition 1971). | Illustration Dr Dan Saranga

MIG-23M (FLOGGER-B)

The definitive first-generation model, the M model had its maiden flight in June 1972 and became the VVS' chief air-superiority fighter of the 70s, with 1,300 produced (at their peak, the Znamya Truda factory was turning out 40 airframes a month) from 1972 to 1978. The M model incorporated the Sapfir-23D radar, which gave the Flogger-B a true look-down/shoot-down ability, and which proved to be more reliable than the 23L fitted to previous models. Additionally, the SAU-23A 3-axis automatic flight control and Polyot-11-23 navigational system were added. The 23M introduced the "Edition 3" wing, which was redesigned to improve handling after the blunder with the Edition 2 wings. In addition to adding leading edge slats back, the Edition 3 wing also incorporated plumbed pylons, allowing the MiG-23M to carry three 800l drop tanks, one on each wing and one on the center point. The R-27 turbojet was replaced by an improved R-29-300 from Tumansky, bringing dry thrust up to 81.35kN and AB thrust to 122.5kN. Despite the redesign, production issues continued to result in stress cracks and failures of the sweep mechanisms, and as a result MiG-23 squadrons were limited to 5G maneuvers until QC changes and redesigns to strengthen the wing were introduced in 1977 resulted in a more reliable aircraft. Improved wings were retrofitted onto existing MiG-23M and Edition 1971 aircraft. The Flogger-B also introduced the Lasour-SMA automated datalink guidance system, which took information provided by GCI network and provided it to the pilot through indications on the HUD as well as audio cues. The datalink was jam resistant, and could guide a MiG-23 pilot from initial contact all the way to missile launch. In addition to the VVS, MiG-23s were also in use by PVO ("Homeland Air-Defense Organization", a stand-alone air defense force), though in smaller numbers.

-Orthograph of the MiG-23M. | Illustration: the-blueprints.com

MIG-23U AND UB (FLOGGER-C)

Two twin-seat trainer variants of the first generation Flogger were produced, with the 23U being based on the MiG-23S, only with a second cockpit behind the first, with the displaced equipment moved into a redesigned nose. Equipped with the S-21 weapons control system and Sapfir-21M, the U retained the 30mm cannon and could fire R-3S and R-13M missiles. Existing 23U were upgraded to MiG-23UB spec after that model's introduction. Structurally similar to the earlier trainer, the 23UB featured advanced avionics similar to those fitted on the 23M operational model, though the radar was later removed and replaced with ballast, limiting their use in live-fire training. Production of the 23UB began in 1970 and continued until 1978, with 760 aircraft deployed to the VVS and PVO, and 300 some-odd aircraft sold to export clients.

-Orthograph of the MiG-23UB. | Illustration Dr Dan Saranga

MIG-23ML AND MLA (FLOGGER-G)

Mikoyan worked in earnest to design out some of the flaws of the 1st generation MiG-23 models, resulting in the MiG-23ML, which first flew in 1975. A complete redesign of the fuselage made the ML lighter but stronger. Some of the weigh savings was accomplished by removing a fuel tank, and the dorsal fin fillet was trimmed as well. Aerodynamic improvements resulted in a reduction in drag, which also reduced fuel consumption. Reinforcements were added to the wings, fuselage and pivot mechanism, giving the ML and MLA a G rating of +8.5 at speeds below Mach .85 and +7.5G above that. Changes to the flying surfaces also allowed the AOA limiter to be set at 20-22° with the wings fully swept back, and 28-30° at minimum sweep. A new R-35F-300 engine increased thrust to 83.82kN (128.08kN with AB), and also increased time between overhauls to 450 hours (though use of afterburner was still limited to 10 hours or less). Avionics upgrades included a Sapfir-23ML radar and TP-23ML IRST, Polyot-21-23 navigation suite, Lasour-23SML datalink, SAU-23AM flight control system, and RV-5R Reper-M radar altimeter. The 23ML could fire both SARH and IR versions of the R-23 missile, and the new system allowed carriage of two UPK-23-250 23mm gun pods under the wings. Production of the ML ran from 1975 through 1983, and more than 1,100 were produced for the VVS as well as for export clients. The MLA, introduced in 1977, was structurally similar, but the avionics fit was upgraded with the new Sapfir-23MLA (N003) radar, which was more reliable than its predecessors, and had better range and more resistance to Western ECM. The new radar also incorporated a frequency spacing system, which allowed multiple MiG-23s to operate in the same airspace without their radars jamming each other. The MLA also added an ASP-17ML HUD/gunsight and the ability to fire the R-24R/T, an updated version of the R-23. An upgraded 26SHi IRST was also added, which could detect a fighter-sized target at 15km, or a bomber-sized one at 45km. In addition to versions for the Soviet Air Force, the MLA was manufactured in a similar fit for Warsaw Pact countries and in a downgraded variant for export to the Third World.

-Orthograph of the MiG-23ML. | Illustration Dr Dan Saranga

MIG-23P (FLOGGER-G)

By the late 1970s, the aircraft of the PVO were an assortment of aging Su-9/11s and MiG-19s, and the MiG-23P (perekvatchik ["interceptor"]) was developed as a specialized variant of the 23ML to take their place. As PVO concentrated on GCI control of their aircraft, the 23P was fitted with the improved Sapfir-23P (N006) radar and the ASP-23P gunsight/HUD (later upgraded to the ASP-23ML-P), which gave better look-down/shoot-down performance against low, fast targets like the USAF F-111. The SAU-23P autopilot tied into the Lasur-M datalink, which allowed GCI controllers to steer the MiG to the target, with the pilot only needed to manipulate the throttle and fire his missiles. Approximately 500 were produced, and the aircraft were flown by PVO (with upgrades) until 1998. During mock combat trials against the new Su-27s, the MiG-23P, flown by experienced pilots, proved to be to be the Flanker's equals in BVR combat. The follow-on MiG-23bis restored the IRST, which had been removed in the 23P model, and replaced the cumbersome radar scope with a new HUD.

-Orthograph of a MiG-23P. | Illustration: 1999.co.jp

MIG-23MLD (FLOGGER-K)

The last variant of the MiG-23, the MLD (D for dorabotannyi ["upgraded"]) was introduced in 1982 and incorporated numerous upgrades for the ML and MLA lines. Small strakes or "vortex generators" attached to the side of the nose pitot tube and a distinctive notch at the leading-edge root of each wing glove, both of which intended to create vortexes over the flight control surfaces of the aircraft and ensure controllability at high AOA, the drawback being that these measures imposed a drag penalty. A stronger wing pivot system was added, which introduced a new, fourth sweep setting of 33° for combat maneuvering, though it was tricky to use and was generally only employed by experienced pilots. The flight system was upgraded with an SOS-3-4 automated flight limiting system, borrowed from the MiG-29, which would prevent the aircraft from being pushed outside of its maneuvering envelope and so preventing departure from controlled flight. Two six-round KDS-23 chaff-flare dispensers were integrated into the centerline pylon. Most aircraft also had two BVP-50-60 upward-firing 60-round chaff-flare dispensers tacked onto the back of the rear fuselage. These large, boxy dispensers also added drag, but were needed for survivability. The avionics suite also saw the upgraded Sapfir-23MLA-11 AKA N008 radar with greater range, approximately 70km against a bomber-sized target. The new radar also had a lose-combat mode as well as a general enhancement of earlier features. Improvement of other avionics and aircraft systems, including the SAU-23-18 flight control system; a new Beryoza radar warning receiver (RWR), a new Klystron digital tactical radio, an automatic landing system, an improved nosewheel steering scheme and a crash-resistant flight recorder. The MLD upgrade would allow carriage of the same weapons as the MLA, and from 1984 the new R-73 (AA-11 Archer) IR missile was added. Some 500 upgrades were completed. New build MiG-23MLD were manufactured for export, but with downgraded radar and other avionics.

-Orthograph of the MiG-23MLD. | Illustration Dr Dan Saranga

MIG-23B ET AL (FLOGGER D, F, H)

Mikoyan started with the MiG-23 to create a new strike aircraft, based on the MiG-23S with a redesigned forward fuselage. The Sapfir radar was removed and a PrNK Sokol-23 ground attack sight system was placed into a new, flat-bottomed nose. The Sokol included an analogue computer, a laser rangefinder and a PBK-3 bomb sight, and the nav suite and autopilot were upgraded to permit more accurate bombing. Other changes included raising the pilot's seat as well as armoring the windscreen, adding an electronic warfare system to combat Western AAA, and incorporating an inert-gas system into the plane's fuel tanks to prevent fires. In place of the R-29 engine, a Lyulka AL-21 turbojet was fitted. First flight of the MiG-23B prototype, 32-34, was on 20 August 1970, followed by two more prototypes and 24 production models. Delivery of the AL-21 was allocated to the Su-17 and -24, so the MiG-23B was not exported. This was followed in 1973 by the MiG-23BN, which had the upgraded Edition 3 wings and R-29 of the contemporary fighter version, along with minor upgrades in avionics. A total of 624 were produced between 1973 and 1985, but the type was not widely used in the VVS, and was instead widely exported (in a downrated version). A more extensive, but effective, modification of the MiG-23 into a ground-attack aircraft resulted in the MiG-27 (Flogger D/J).

-Orthograph of the MiG-23BN. | Illustration: airwar.ru

OPERATIONAL HISTORY

The MiG-23 was introduced into regular service with the VVS on 4 January 1974, but the type still faced numerous issues before it was a true threat. Flogger pilots, limited by structural weaknesses, found themselves bested by MiG-21s in mock combat trials, and hemmed in by Soviet doctrine that utilized the MiG-23 in the same manner as the MiG-21: a point defense interceptor guided by GCI. It was not until the introduction of the MiG-23MLD that the Flogger began to be used to its full potential as both a BVR-armed interceptor and as a maneuvering air-superiority fighter. Still, "quantity has a quality all its own", and the large numbers of MiG-23s in service would have proved a major challenge had the Cold War turned hot in the late '70s or throughout the 1980s. Based on experiences over Vietnam and intelligence reports on Western fighter performance afterwards, Flogger pilots were confident that they could defeat USAF F-4 Phantoms, but the new F-16 Falcons were judged to be a fair match, and the F-15 Eagles were feared.

-A Soviet MiG-23M, armed with R-60 and R-23 missiles, in 1989. | Photo: US DOD

The Flogger's advanced design and ongoing QC issues resulted in an unusually high accident rate: 12.5 losses per 100,000 flight hours. In the hands of Warsaw Pact allies it was even higher, 24.3 losses per 100k hours in the Hungarian Air Force, 20.4 for East Germany, 18 for the Bulgarian Air Force and 11.3 for Poland.

A number of MiG-23s were used during the Afghan war, with Soviet Floggers facing off against Pakistani F-16s on occasion. Exact numbers are difficult to obtain from either side, but one MiG-23 limped back to its base after being hit by a pair of Sidewinder missiles, while Pakistan claims two Floggers were shot down. An F-16 was destroyed during a skirmish on 29 April 1987, but the details are murky. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan claim that the Falcon was shot down by a pair of MiG-23s, but the Soviets state that the plane was the victim of a friendly fire incident. MiG-23s also were pressed into strike roles prior to the introduction of the MiG-27, attacking Mujahidin forces with unguided rockets and bombs.

Both the VVS and PVO claimed kills against Iranian helicopters, with two CH-47s being shot down by a PVO MiG-23M on 21 June 1978, one by cannon and the other with a pair of R-60 missiles, and two VVS MiG-23MLDs operating in Afghanistan destroying a pair of AH-1J Cobras that had strayed into Afghan airspace with R-23 missiles.

The MiG-23 was used by the Soviet Air Force as their aggressor aircraft during wargames, with the Floggers being piloted by veterans of the Afghan war. MiG-23MLDs, adorned with shark-mouths and utilizing hit-and-run tactics could best even the new MiG-29s, especially when the latter were flown by rookie pilots. After the fall of communism in 1991, the Russian Air Force began to retire the MiG-23 and MiG-27 in favor of newer, twin engined aircraft like the MiG-29 and Su-27, with the PVO's MiG-23P being the last model retired in 1998.

-One of the Aggressor MiG-23s in the late 1980s. | Photo: VVS

During the 1973 war against Israel, two MiG-23MS and two MiG-23UB trainers were crated and shipped to Syria aboard An-12B transports, but reassembling the aircraft and getting them and their flight crews combat ready took time, and the war ended before they could see combat. A number of additional export variant Floggers were delivered to Syria in 1974, but the aircraft proved just as difficult to fly and maintain for the Syrians as it was for the Russians, and only 8 aircraft were operational at any given time. Several were lost in crashes during training, with their crews finding the aircraft simultaneously more complex and less effective than the MiG-21s they were to replace. In particular the radar on the export models was especially vulnerable to Israeli electronics countermeasures, removing the only real advantage the Floggers had. Despite this, on 19 April a Syrian pilot on a weapons test flight encountered a flight of IAF F-4E Kurnass ("Sledgehammer"), and attacked with missiles and cannon, shooting down two Israeli jets before being shot down by a Syrian SAM battery in a friendly fire incident. The victory of Captain al-Masry renewed Syrian interest in the aircraft, and an order of 24 MiG-23MS and a further 24 MiG-24BN strike aircraft was tendered in 1975, with deliveries beginning in 1978. Syrian Floggers continued to skirmish with IAF aircraft throughout the rest of the 70s and into the 1980s, with Syria claiming two A-4s in 1981 (The IAF deny these claims) and a BQM-34 Firebee drone on 6 June 1982. The Israelis claim to have shot down two MiG-23s in 1985, which the Syrians deny, and while numbers vary on Flogger losses, around a dozen MiG-23s were destroyed in accidents or air combat by 1985. During the Syrian Civil War, Floggers flown by al-Assad loyalists have bombed rebel forces, with a number of Floggers claimed to have been shot down by the Free Syrian Army and other groups. On 23 March 2014 a Syrian MiG-23 was shot down by a Turkish F-16 after the former was alleged to have violated Turkish airspace.

Iraq was another buyer of MiG-23s, acquiring both fighter and bomber variants. Again, verifiable numbers are difficult to come by, but Iraqi forces claimed a number of victories over Iranian F-4 and F-5 fighters, while Iranian F-14s claimed a high number of MiG-23 kills, with the majority being MiG-23BN bombers. Iranian sources claim at least 58 Flogger kills by F-14 and a further 20 by F-4s, but only 15 and 16 can be independently corroborated. Known Iraqi MiG-23 victories include 3 F-14s and one each of an F-4 and F-5. On 20 February 1986, an Iranian F27-600 carrying a delegation of military and government officials on a mission was shot down by an Iraqi MiG-23, killing all 49 crew and passengers. During the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 a number of MiG-23BN and Su-22 strike aircraft conducted bombing raids in support of Iraqi ground forces, with Kuwaiti MIM-23 Hawk SAMs claiming at least one Flogger kill. During Desert Storm two USAF EF-111 Ravens were damaged by missile fire from Iraqi Floggers, while the USAF claims 8 MiGs were shot down by F-15s. Approximately 12 MiG-23s fled Iraqi into Iran to escape Coalition forces. After the establishment of two No-Fly Zones to protect Kurdish and other minority groups in Iraqi at least one MiG-23 was shot down by a USAF F-16 with AIM-120 missiles, while another was shot at by a Navy F-14 using an AIM-54 missile which missed, and the MiG fled. During Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 the Floggers (along with the rest of the Iraqi Air Force) remained grounded, with Allied forces uncovering a number of derelict MiG-23s scattered around captured air bases while they advanced on Bagdad. Documents retrieved after OIF revealed that the Iraqi Air Force had a fleet of 127 MiG-23s, including 38 MiG-23BN strike fighters and 21 MiG-23U/UB trainers during the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and document the destruction of 43 Floggers, from all causes, by the end of 1991. The American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 marked the end of MiG-23 operations by the country.

Between 1974 and 1976 Libya purchased 54 MiG-23MS and -23U, with a subsequent order adding 50 more MiG-23BN bombers. Many of these aircraft were immediately placed into storage, but at least 20 went into service, with one MS falling to an Egyptian MiG-21 during the 1977 Libyan-Egyptian War. During a subsequent border skirmish in 1979, two LARAF MiG-23s encountered a pair of EAF MiG-21s, which had been refitted to carry Western air-to-air missiles. One Libyan MiG was shot down by an AIM-9 Sidewinder, while the other escaped back into Libya. On 18 August 1981, during a US Navy Freedom of Navigation operation in the Gulf of Sidra (claimed by Libya as territorial waters), thirty-five pair of MiG-23s, -25s, Su-20s, -22s, and Mirage F1s were launched to menace the US carrier group. In response, the carrier launched seven pairs of F-14s and F-4s. One of the Foxbats may have fired a missile at the USN aircraft, but it did not track and the situation calmed. The following day, two Su-22s were launched on an apparent intercept course for a Navy S-3 Viking. Two F-14s were vectored onto the Libyan aircraft by a covering E-2 Hawkeye, and in the ensuing altercation both Su-22 were shot down. Almost eight years later, the USS Kennedy was transiting the Med on its way to Haifa for a port visit when two MiG-23s left from Al Bumbah airfield on 4 January 1989 on an intercept course. The Libyan aircraft ignored radio calls to turn back and maneuvered aggressively against the American aircraft, and as a result the RIO of the lead F-14 fired two AIM-7 Sparrows against the MiGs, but neither missile tracked. A third AIM-7 finally engaged and destroyed one of the MiGs, while the second was shot down by an AIM-9. During the 2011 Libyan Civil War, loyalist MiG-23s bombed rebel positions, while others captured by rebels attacked and sank two loyalist ships. Both sides continued to capture and restore surviving MiGs from storehouses, including one flown by the Libyan National Army which was assembled by attaching the wings from two different models of MiG-23 to the fuselage of a third. This hybrid, dubbed the "Frankenstein Flogger" was shot down by a soldier of the rival Government of National Accord on 7 December 2019.

-The "Frankenstein Flogger", ostensibly a MiG-23MLD. | Photo: Twitter

The MiG-23 has also been exported to Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, India and the Sudan, as well as several former Warsaw Pact and USSR states, though almost all retired the type during the late 1990s or early 2000s.

In 1977 the USAF established the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron to test fly captured Soviet aircraft to establish their capabilities, then to fly them in mock combat against other USAF, USN and USMC squadrons to give them experience against the MiG and Sukhois they'd face. Under Project CONSTANT PEG, a number of MiG-21s and MiG-23s were acquired from Egypt in exchange for F-4 Phantom IIs. The aircraft were disassembled and shipped to Edwards AFB, afterwards they were transferred to Groom Lake and reassembled before being test flown. In order to disguise their origins, the MiG-21s were designated YF-110s, while the MiG-23s were called YF-113s. Other model MiG-23s were acquired from the ex-East German air force after reunification. The 4477th was disestablished in 1988, but the fate of their aircraft is unknown. One of the MiG-23s was sent to the USAF Museum in Dayton, while several MiG-21s were dispatched to other museums across the country. Most of the others are rumored to have been dismantled and buried in the deserts surrounding Groom Lake.

SURVIVORS

Thanks to the large number (5,047) of Floggers produced, and their export to numerous client states, MiG-23s are on display around the world, including in museums of many former adversaries of the USSR. Additionally, almost a dozen MiG-23 have been purchased by civilians in the US and are registered with the FAA.

-A MiG-23 on display in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan. | Photo: Peretz Partensky

-A MiG-23MF, formerly of the Indian Air Force, on display in Gandhinagar. | Photo: Parmar uday

-The prototype MiG-23 on display at the Russian Air Force Museum in Monino, Russia. | Photo: AVIA BavARia

-MiG-23MLD formerly displayed outdoors at the USAF Museum. The aircraft has since been disassembled for restoration. | Photo: NMUSAF

[blubberquark]

Why Re-Bind Keys?

This post grew out of a post about control design and accessibility in general. The section on key re-binding grew longer and longer until it just didn’t fit any more.

When designing a control scheme and an accompanying options menu, you need to understand that the generic concept of “accessibility“ will not help you understand how configurable controls (keyboard keys or controller buttons) should work. Key rebinding is done for a multitude of different reasons. Some are compatibility reasons, compatibility with hardware, software, drivers, or operating systems. Others are ergonomic reasons.

Compatibility/Technical Reasons

Knockoff Gamepads With Bad Drivers

Your OS and the game recognise the gamepad as a gamepad, all the needed buttons are there, but the buttons are not arranged in a way the game engine understands.

Gamepads With Weird Button Arrangements

The XBox 360 gamepad/DualShock style of gamepad with two analog sticks, four face buttons, two shoulder buttons and two triggers, select and start has become the standard by 2010, although the Wii held out a little longer.

Everything on top of this, like depressable analog sticks that function as buttons (on every major console but absent in cheaper third-party PC controllers), pressure-sensitive buttons, touchpad areas (on the OUYA and PS4 official controllers), analog triggers (not available on the Switch Joy-Cons), motion/tilt controls, or rumble, is not reliably supported. Chances are your 3rd party gamepad has the hardware, but your driver does not support it: The touchpad on the OUYA gamepad does not work on the PC because of driver issues. Some gamepads have the shoulder buttons in different orders.

Before the 2010s, different consoles, as well as PC games and peripherals, did not agree on a common standard layout for game controllers. Even if your game only needs certain buttons, and your controller has those buttons, you may still need to map all buttons and axes one by one because the game does not know the layout of the controller.

Some controllers have a d-pad and six face buttons (SEGA Genesis) instead of four (SNES). Some controllers have A and B swapped (Nintendo vs XBox), or an idiosyncratic button layout (GameCube) or something even stranger (Wii).

Joysticks and Steering Wheels

First, there are arcade-style fight sticks and those these old Atari/C64 style joysticks. They are usually used like a gamepad. They have between one and four action buttons. They also definitely need to be mapped. Almost no game knows how to correctly assign those buttons.

Not all Joysticks are C64-style and designed for arcade games. Some are designed for driving flight simulators. Before gamepads were standardised, before we decided to base everything on the Xbox gamepad, elaborate joysticks were a lot more common. They often had at least one fire-button on the stick, secondary buttons to press with the thumb, and more buttons on the base. Sometimes, there was also a hat, a throttle, and an additional axis for twisting the joystick. Those all have to be mapped. There is just not enough standardisation in games, or in joysticks.

It’s been years since I used my large joystick. The last game I played with it was MechWarrior 4: Vengeance. I tried to play an indie flight simulator with my joystick, but the game only supported x-input gamepads.

Non-US Keyboard Layout

Now I know that I can just set my keyboard layout in my OS when I play games, and that I could program my games to work off of scancodes directly, so that they recognise the WASD cluster by its position in the keyboard matrix, no matter what language is printed on the key caps.

But that is not what players want. Non-US players want to re-map their keyboard controls. Dvorak users want to re-map their keyboard controls. They want their game UI to show them which key to press without having to imagine where that key would be on the US layout. So changing the key map or ignoring the key map with scancodes are right out.

Just a heads-up: As far as I know, no keyboard layout has a tilde key. There is a way to input a tilde in most layouts, but it involves more than one key, it needs modifiers. If you do not provide key re-mapping, make sure to handle this stuff correctly. People would hate to have to press “?” or “]” only for the game to not recognise the key combination that produces that symbol on their keyboard.

Hotkeys

Players may want to run a voice chat software with push-to-talk, or record gameplay with OBS, or run any number of applications with global hotkeys. Those can often interfere or overlap with the game key bindings.

Ability/Ergonomic Reasons

Muscle Memory

The buttons are arranged differently on Nintendo consoles. If you are an avid Nintendo player, maybe you’d rather re-map them on the PC than re-learn your muscle memory.

Left-Handed Play

Your OS can already swap the left and right mouse button for left-handed play, but WASD is on the left side of the keyboard. Maybe you want to re-map your keys to HJKL for left-handed play with keyboard and mouse.

Or maybe you want to swap the left and right stick. Maybe you want to swap the joy-cons.

One-Handed Play

Now we are getting into the territory of actual “disability”. Some people are missing their other hand. This is the kid of thing people ostensibly are concerned about when they talk about accessibility. Sometimes you can re-map all keys to one side of the keyboard, but often, if a game is developed for two-handed play, or for keyboard and mouse together, there is no easy way to map all functions to one side of the keyboard.

If game needs use of both a keyboard and mouse in real time, at the same time, re-binding keyboard keys alone won’t help. It would probably require something like a special trackball, or a Wiimote (integrated one-handed pointer and game controller).

If a game mostly supports mouse-only play out of the box, re-mapping with something like a macro mouse or a trackball might get you all the way there, or using a trackpad/track-point instead of a regular optical mouse.

Most people who play one-handed are probably holding something in their other hand, like a coffee mug, a baby, or the whole laptop because it gets too hot when they put it down.

Other Disability/Assistive Devices

If you have slightly limited mobility or are missing a finger, you may re-bind some keys to execute an action with your other fingers.

If you need uncommon assistive devices, you probably have to configure those devices, and get the drivers to work. Re-binding is not the main problem, but it can help. If you’re lucky, then your assistive technology talks to the game like a gamepad. If you’re unlucky, then your assistive technology was only designed with productivity software in mind, and emulates a mouse pointer and a text input method, plus a cluster of arrow keys and return. Your tech choices are obviously downstream from your disability in this case. Configuring a game to be playable with an eye tracker is probably more like getting a game to run with a Saitek PC dash, a potentiometer from your fancy mechanical keyboard, and not plug-and-play like a licensed third-party controller, and it varies depending on the disability.

Conclusion

Most key re-binding does not happen for purely ergonomic reasons. A lot of re-binding is necessitated by technical incompatibilities or incomplete support for input methods or devices. Some re-binding is the result of technical solutions to ergonomic problems that in turn create technical incompatibilities with games. Some re-binding is the result of software issued or localisation.

I probably missed some miscellaneous ergonomic reasons for key re-binding, and some technical reasons. I just wanted to get key re-binding out of the way before I write about control design. Stay tuned for that!

[tim-mcnamara]

Creating an Easy Mode for Rust

Rust has a reputation for being difficult to learn. This perception directly conflicts with one of the community aims: empowerment. Doubt breeds fear. And fear makes it harder for people to justify learning a new skill.

Rust provides the world with an opportunity to write software that’s resource efficient and resistant to security concerns. Any time that someone is put off from attempting to learn the language because they perceive it to be too hard—or that they’re inadequate—is a failure.

The Rust community is attempting to address this. The Lang Team’s roadmap for Rust 2024 is explicitly designed to make the language and its ecosystem “more ergonomic”.

This post is my attempt to provide some places where people learning Rust encounter issues. The original intention was to find a few things that could be addressed within the language itself. Unfortunately, most of the papercuts that I’ve found are outside of the core language.

Some guiding principles:

every decision point (“do I use cargo or rustup?”, “should I use HashMap or BTreeMap?”) is a place for confusion

the impression of prospective users matters more than people who are already invested

Improving First Impressions

We must place beginners first. Being welcoming to new users is essential to Rust’s overarching goal of empowerment. We don’t need growth for growth’s sake, but we don’t want people walking away from Rust because they’re discouraged.

Too many places to look

For a casual observer, there are too many places to look for resources with official or quasi-official status.

Some observations and recommendations:

“rustup” means nothing to someone who isn’t already involved with the Rust project. Let’s evaluate moving https://rustup.rs/ to https://install.rust-lang.org.

The Rustlings course is hosted in Github. This could be ported to rustdoc format and provided under https://doc.rust-lang.org/. This would enable people to run it locally with rustup.

Only 1 of three books listed under “application domain” at https://www.rust-lang.org/learn are hosted at https://doc.rust-lang.org/. Are the other two less stable? I know that these were created by working groups, but outsiders do not.

Too many commands

At some point, many heavily used commands should be consolidated under a single command-line tool called rust. This would become cargo, rustc, and rustup as well as fold in clippy and rustfmt.

Too much friction for tiny projects

My hunch is that people start with a new language by starting small. Rust should be fun for programming small utilities.

Let’s make it trivial to get started. Because so much Rust depends on third-party crates, it’s hard to create a Rust program that fits in a single file. I would love to see something like cargo-script become a first-class part of the ecosystem.

Let’s also provide a first-class interactive option. Many people attracted to Rust come from dynamic languages, where a build step isn’t necessary. The evcxr (Evaluation Context for Rust) project should probably be folded into the the overall Rust.

It should be easy to spin up a local playground. The playground provides a very useful service: it enables people to experiment without needing to invest a lot of effort.

Helping People to Build a Mental Model of Rust

Learning Rust well involves learning to navigate a social landscape that is rich in jargon and implicit cultural norms.

What is the difference between String and &str?

If the Rust community finds a way to quickly answer this question–which happens to be the most-highly rated question on Stack Overflow for the #rustlang tag– to people who are new to Rust, then it will succeed as a general purpose programming language. Without a concise answer, Rust will remain mysterious to many.

Understanding String vs &str implies an understanding of the ownership system, which implies an understanding of the lifetime system. That probably means that you’ve been exposed to pointers, references and perhaps even aliasing. There’s usually a discussion about mutability intertwined here. Gaining an intuition of data types that represent text benefits from understanding encodings, which benefit from understanding how CPUs operate.

I’ve yet to find a way through this for complete beginners. Learners with that already know another systems programming language have a distinct advantage here.

The common strategy is to tell users that they should “Just use String for now”. Everyone knows that this is only a half-answer. An answer designed to give learners some time. But it’s not even a half-answer. It won’t take long before they encounter an function’s parameter that takes &str (or worse AsRef<str>) as an argument.

Hard to find defaults

Every time that you place a decision point in front of your users, you introduce cognitive load. Cognitive load is particularly expensive for beginners, who need to retain lots of details in working memory to make progress while writing.

The Rust community values precision. We care about how our values are laid out in memory. We want to give developers strong type safety so that they can write robust programs.

Unfortunately for new users of Rust, there are often multiple choices for things that seem like there should be none.

Which numeric type is “right”?

When should I use &str, String, Cow, T: Display, T: AsRef<str>, T: Into<string> or any of the other options?

HashMap vs BTreeMap for mapping keys to values

It’s difficult to understand what the difference is between a few similar-sounding traits, e.g. ToString vs ToOwned vs Into<string> and Debug vs Display.

Why are there so many ways to convert types? When should I use the as keyword? What about .into(), T::from(), and .try_into().

We should get better at giving guidance.

Difficult to know which crate to use

Rust has a rich crate ecosystem backed by crates.io, which provides semantic versioning and immutable versions. This allows for rapid and robust innovation by library authors, backed with dependability. This ecosystem also has its downsides.

The no namespaces policy of crates.io is vulnerable to name squatting and individual crates, that often written by a single author, are vulnerable to side-channel attacks.

I think that there may be a space for a another crate registry that provides curated crate collections, probably within reserved namespaces. (If I had a few million dollars, that would be my startup idea!)

This situation is difficult to navigate, especially for beginners. Our crates have cute names rather than descriptive names. It takes some experience to know that parking_lot is the crate for excellent synchronization primitives.

Perhaps one of the ways to address this is to provide curated crate collections.

Everyone’s most loved programming language

Learning Rust feels hard for many people. More significantly, people put off learning Rust because of a perception that it might be too hard.

It’s often argued that Rust’s ownership and lifetimes concepts are novel and therefore difficult. I wonder whether this is entirely true. All programming languages have difficult concepts. My suspicion is that the difficulty in learning Rust is partially caused by factors that sit outside of the core language. What do you think?

You’re welcome to contact me by email or on Twitter. This post is also being discussed on r/rust.

[fermented-writers-block]

Lus and the Human Portal Clone Theory

Even before Keeping Up A-fear-ances aired, I have been working for almost a year now on running through all the possible various suspects with wonderful folks like @sepublic​ , @anistarrose​ , and @elementalist-kdj​ . Like the post title indicates, from sheer process of elimination, the only conclusion that made sense to me was a clone made of Luz by the portal door, and I’ve been working on refining and reworking said conclusion up to the version I will lay out here.

Now, as @safetayy​ , @theowlhouseheadcanons , and @50shades-of-blue have heard from me before, the portal I've long suspected was not made to go from the Demon Realm to the Human Realm, but rather to go from the Human Realm to the Demon Realm by humans, for humans. This is because it then could tie into the hypothetical existence of a Luz clone without having the issue of asking where Eda, Lilith, and King's clones are, as the clone in this case is the result of a function of the door to create a basic level duplicate of any human that passes through it rather than it happening for just anyone that passes through.

With this, it's because the suitcase form of the portal looks as thought it indicates it was used for temporary trips to the Demon Realm, much like how suitcases were used when railways and international boats made travel more accessible for the middle and lower classes. For example:

Going by the way the door “faces” and the way it swings open, the ergonomics of the portal makes it look an awful lot like a right handed out swing door, with the Human Realm on the “inside” and the Demon Realm on the “outside.” And the arrow in the diagram depicts the general direction of traffic that such right handed, out swing doors are typically design with in mind - ergo, showing what way the portal appears to facilitate travel in.

Now, before you ask, the reason why I think the portal could have been created in the human realm in the first place is that it might require an extra component/bit of help or two from the Owl Deity which I’ve discussed before in the past as hinted by these connected designs:

I’ll explore how I feel the revelation that such a twist about the portal’s origins could play into the themes and narrative of the show under the cut, but overall, I feel these are potential significant details to keep in mind for the rest of this arc of building a new door and handling the idea of Lus having initially been made as a temporary-duration clone, hence how "Luz" comes off so uncannily in the letters as she wasn't meant for long term impersonations.

That, and why I named this the Human Portal Clone theory, for those wondering about the name.

Alongside this, my thought has been that walking back through the portal to the Human Realm basically makes the portal send a recall signal to tell the clone to return to it, where the clone would be reabsorbed into the portal and its memories are given to the original. However, with Luz going back into the Demon Realm for a brief time in YBOS, I am of the mind that it doesn’t just make another clone, but rather that doing so merely made the door turn off the recall signal and allowed "Lus" to resume the impersonation.

And as for the clone itself and why they’re writing letters to Camila, well, imagine it from Lus' perspective. To her at the time of creation, the last thing she probably knew was that she had been chasing the cute little owl that took her Azura book into the woods, and right when the bus to Reality Check Camp was about to arrive.

Also, if you think about it, Lus being the work of someone we/don’t know yet raises way more plot threads/questions than answers compared to being the work of the portal, as outlined below:

TLDR at end of post for those wondering

Belos? How and why before YBOS where he actually started paying attention to Luz for the first time and actually got his hands on a portal? 

Eda? Why would she do all this and not tell Luz she can goof around without needing to worry about her mom or the camp/in time to fool the camp, especially when it took a good amount of time for Eda to even start feeling that close to Luz? 

Hooty got ruled out from the getgo since he can’t hold pencils, King just isn’t that subtle, and everyone else that Luz knows has the major issues of just straight up not knowing about the camp in the first place. Well, that and a lack of another known method of getting to the Human Realm in the first place.

The camp? Why would they worry about a missing camper whose disappearance is all HER fault and thus would more logically result in a call to her parent than some convoluted clone conspiracy? 

And finally, some currently completely unknown third party?

If we’re talking a Changeling, A) it’d be easy for Luz to dismiss them and B) that just makes all the ominous portrayal of Lus super straightforward instead of a subversion like is the show’s shtick.

If we’re talking dimensional counterparts, A) they have to REALLY have led a very similar life to Luz’s in order for there to be enough common ground for Luz to listen, and B) dimensional counterparts aren’t even a confirmed or likely thing that people cooked up from Episode 1 side characters influenced by Amity’s concept art.

And if we’re talking some complete surprise third party group or another, it doesn’t make sense to introduce a third party and their motives and plans to the show this late in when Belos is already taking up the bulk of it all.

Hell, if anything, the continued existence of the duplicate in of itself would indicate that the target of the conspiracy is none other than Camila Noceda than anything to do with Luz or Eda, especially with the complete lack of anyone taking advantage of Luz and or Eda. 

From the getgo, Witches Before Wizards already hard-baked into the show the idea that Luz is NOT inherently special or anything into the foundations of the show from the getgo - ergo, Camila likely just is an absolutely regular human being, someone who has no justification for such a convoluted conspiracy to surround them.

That said, I believe that the idea of the portal having originated from the Human Realm could potentially play into some interesting stories to be had with Camila and Lus here, especially as the conspiracy board shot from the promo was confirmed by Dana to apparently be from S2A, not from the episodes past Yesterday’s Lie:

After all, with Luz searching the library for a way home this coming episodes, perhaps she might figure out something the next couple of episodes that allows her texts to send through, which would logically lead to the above picture. That, and Camila and Lus being confused by and trying to figure out what’s going on there.

I mean, the cabin in the woods likely has a very close connection to the portal and it’s origins given how closely tied the two structures seem to be, and as far as we can tell, Luz never mentioned the cabin in her videos to Camila, but if Lus tries to retrace her steps, that would be a natural vector to lead Camila to the cabin and thus allow us a chance to actually investigate it.

That said, all following the trail would do is lead her and Lus to a dead end at the abandoned cabin, where they would have nothing else to do except discuss their complicated relationship concerning Luz and twiddle their thumbs while waiting for Luz to finish things on her end - which while something I think would be interesting to see, I just don’t see how much of a way to keep them in the greater picture of the show without some kind of project or activity that the two of them could work together on on screen. 

And that’s what leads me to a particular train of thought here, starting with the question of what if Luz FAILS to make a working portal over the course of S2A and such?

With the possible in-universe mystery over what the heck is going on with Lus, perhaps the cabin might hold some notes from the original last human owner - if not potentially the creator - of Eda’s portal as well as potentially some of the same materials and such from previous trips.

Cue CAMILA building a working portal, following in the footsteps of the original creator and such and thus finding a reason to stay on screen, all the while potentially demonstrating both why Belos wanted the portal instead of making his own, as well as diving into the Owl Deity’s connection with the original portal. Heck, maybe the Owl Deity is only accessible in the Human Realm and that plays a part in Belos wanting to get to the Human Realm, which would bring Camila directly into contact with the magic her daughter has been interacting with.

Also, just imagine the internal conflict going on here with Lus. After all, helping Camila build a portal to get the original Luz -and hoo boy would that be a tough thing to grapple with- would most definitely do that and make both Lus AND Camila question how much the latter likes Lus vs Luz.

Like, just imagine it. There would be major chances for Lus and Camila to discuss what would happen if and when they’re finished with the portal, and what will happen to Lus’ relationship with Camila if and when Luz gets back.

Does Camila really prefer her daughter to be all more “normal” like Lus, or does she prefer the old, “weird” daughter from before the summer with Luz?

Perhaps she might be able to figure out how to strike a nuanced balance between the two, and all on a metaphorical journey to truly build a better connection between her and her daughter(s?). 

TLDR: Or in short, I can’t help but feel it would be fitting to see Camila building a bridge WITH Lus TO Luz. 

Particularly, by being the one to craft an actual working portal in the Human Realm instead of Luz in the Demon Realm, showing a parent putting in an active effort to get down to their child’s level rather than waiting for said child to try to get up to their parent’s level even if they can’t or find it incredibly hard to do so.