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[sourszt]

𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐇 𝐃𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑 | aphrodisiac + exhibitionism

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 — tenth doctor x fem!reader

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 — nsfw, aphrodisiacs, exhibitionism, reader and doctor are being watched, dub-con if you squint (aphrodisiacs are administered without consent), slightly ooc doctor, kidnapping (?)/slight hostage situation, penetrative sęx, top!reader, “doctor” is said/taken sexually, “sweetheart” used, lmk if i forgot anything!

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 — so the aphrodisiacs aren’t really aphrodisiacs but like a truth serum, if that makes sense. slightly misleading but it has a similar effect and result so ask me if i gaf! idk something about david tennant lately just has me rolling around with my fist in my mouth.

you and the doctor often found yourselves in indescribably wacky situations, but this one was by far the one that took the cake.

the doctor was feeling challenging that morning and decided to take the two of you to a distant planet over a million years in the future to find another adventure. it had been a while since the last one and you two were growing bored. what he didn’t expect was to be immediately overpowered and taken prisoner by this new species.

neither of you even had a chance to identify them properly before being knocked out with a needle to the neck and tossed into a shared cell. which, oddly, wasn’t even the strangest part.

when you awoke, you found the room was decorated with cameras in every corner, only one large bed, a small separate bathroom, and a rather large mirror that was likely double sided for observation.

it all felt a little too… intense. invasive.

the doctor was laid beside you on the ground, still asleep. his hearts were still calmly beating when you pressed your fingers to either sides of his neck. the only abnormality was that his skin was warm to the touch. you were quick to get to your feet, screaming eto be let out. but you found it was a little more difficult than it should have been.

it was like your bones had been replaced with lead and your skull stuffed with cotton. your stomach was a similar story. it was uneasy and empty from having been asleep for however long you were, but you didn’t quite know if it was because you were scared or starved. had they used some alien compound drug to knock the two of you out?

no, that wouldn’t make sense. the doctor was almost immune to stuff like that.

still, something was definitely off.

you struggled to keep yourself upright and grasped onto the tiny ledges that the room had to offer you. it was harrowing; the silence that answered your cries for help. surely something should have revealed itself by now. a voice or perhaps some hologram in the middle of the room.

the technology was sure to be advanced, you just didn’t know how much. it was certainly advanced enough to keep the two of you indefinitely locked in the room.

it took you a while to accept that nothing was going to work, so you turned to waking the doctor up. you knelt by his side and shook his shoulder, frantically calling his name. he jolted upright after a few hard shakes and took in his surroundings, looking to you to fill in a few gaps.

“doctor, what is this place?” you asked, panic quickly subsiding now that your smarter counterpart was up and inspecting.

he didn’t respond for a long time. his wide eyes scanned the room from top to bottom while his hands patted each of his suit pockets. “i’m afraid i’m not going to be much help. for the first time, i don’t quite know.” the doctor shook his head and pulled at the collar of his shirt. his face subconsciously twisted into one of discomfort. “they took my… my screw- sorry, is it hot in here?”

his question caught you off guard and you suddenly became aware of the clothing clinging uncomfortably to your body. it felt like it shrunk a size and the temperature was raised to triple digits.

you peeling your jacket off like it had a venomous spider on it answered his question. he mirrored you and removed his blazer, then loosened his tie. “can’t tell if their plan is to roast us alive or if this is a negotiation tactic.” the doctor’s eyebrows furrowed as he attempted to think.

“what’s there to negotiate?” you knew the answer wasn’t going to be good. but the doctor never gave you one for he was too deep in his own thoughts.

you watched realization, or something adjacent, creep onto his features before it suddenly melted into worry. “oh, no. no, this isn’t right.” he pressed the back of his hand to his forehead and to his flushed cheeks.

that panic from earlier only heightened. “what? what is it?”

“whatever they injected us with… seems i’m not immune to it.”

it was a response too vague for your liking. “what will it do to us? kill us?” it felt like you were beginning to run a fever. the heat went beyond external and it was reaching you from the inside. everything felt like it was on fire, but it was far from painful.

the doctor gave you a brief once over before averting his eyes. he searched for something to stare at. “quite the opposite. i think it’s some sort of neural catalyst. a bit like a truth serum but…”

“what’s it, like an aphrodisiac?” everything clicked into place. it made sense. the symptoms: the spike in temperature, the way your breathing felt like it was slowing down, the way the doctor suddenly looked undeniably attractive. “my god, have they given us an aphrodisiac?”

“if it’s as advanced as it should be, i don’t think it’s that simple.” the doctor froze, his head swiveling towards you. “i suppose it’s some kind of… stimulus that brings the truth of someone’s desires to light. i guess it was a negotiation tactic, if someone’s true intentions were to bring harm to ‘em. what do you mean aphrodisiac?”

your eyes narrowed at the doctor, who grinned down at you. “don’t try to tell me you don’t feel it. you said it yourself, even you’re not immune to it.”

“yes, but i never said anything about aphrodisiacs, you naughty thing.” the doctor never missed an opportunity to taunt you, even through his own discomfort.

you were too worked up to fight him back. instead, you dove for the bed and tried to concentrate on anything else but the growing heat in your stomach. it was starting to become unbearable. “well then, how do we fight it off? there’s got to be some sort of override to it.”

“i’m sure you’d like to override it, ay?” the doctor jabbed with a cocky laugh.

“doctor!” you scolded him, trying to remind him how serious the situation was.

it appeared he was already well aware, but was far too deep into his own symptoms to even begin to think of a solution. “right, right. sorry.” he tried to clear his head but it was to no avail. the serum made its way past his defenses for the first time and he had no idea how to handle it.

“you know, if i wasn’t so hot and bothered myself, i’d say i was flattered. you were never the most subtle thing, but…”

you were hardly paying attention. your attention was zeroed in on the massive mirror across the room for the past minute. “d’you suppose they’re watching us now?” you glanced at the cameras mounted in each corner of the spacious room.

“perhaps.” not an ounce of concern carried through in the doctor’s voice. if anything, it sounded a little deeper than usual. that playful, teasing bounce to it was gone.

you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him, knowing you were just a breath away from snapping and releasing your inhibitions on the man. out of the corner of your eye, you knew the doctor was already staring you down.

“what are we meant to do, doctor!” it was less of a question and more of a cry of defeat.

“look at me.” such a simple instruction, but it made your face flush red. you physically couldn’t comply because you knew what would follow and you had no idea how many eyes were on the two of you. “that’s what you’re meant to do. look at me, sweetheart.”

the doctor knelt on the other end of the bed, his hand tucking itself underneath your chin and turning your head. he didn’t have to force you, only a gentle beckon. the look in his eye was nothing out of the ordinary.

there was no strange hypnosis in them nor the lifelessness of manipulation. he wanted this. truly.

“doctor,” you whispered. you gravitated towards him, the proximity nearing dangerous.

he sighed. “have you always called me like that?” he seemed to be indifferent to your concerns about being watched. then again, the doctor was always one to give a show. perhaps that was a part of his desire. “you know there’s no other way out of it. if you don’t want to, i’ll find another way but you need to say something now.” he spoke with an urgency that sounded painful, like the thought of your rejection physically hurt him.

you were quick to close the gap, pulling him in by his collar. he sighed into the kiss like it was the antidote to his problems.

everything was a blur after that. the doctor’s hands were all over you as you shifted to straddle his lap. he grabbed at your hips, your ass, your thighs, your face and neck. it felt better than you had ever imagined. and his lips were utterly intoxicating.

you couldn’t help the breathy moans that would slip amidst your mad scramble to get each other’s clothes off. the doctor couldn’t get enough of those gorgeous noises. “c’mon my dear, don’t get all shy now.” he whispered breathlessly against your throat before pressing a chaste kiss to your skin.

kisses that trailed down to your chest while he searched for the clasp to your bra. “you’ve no clue how bad i’ve wanted this.” he murmured against your skin. his hands cupped your bare breasts, which elicited a whine from you.

instinctively, your hips rolled into his lap and you could feel him through the thin fabric of your panties. he was hard. and big. you moaned at the thought alone, desperately reaching for the buckle to his belt.

“needy thing, aren’t you?” the doctor teased, watching you with hooded eyes as you undid his trousers and freed his cock. he hissed at the contact alone, his head rolling back with a low whine when you started to slowly fist his cock. it seemed he was just as sensitive as you were.

you ducked down to catch his lips in a deep kiss that he gratefully accepted. he hooked his fingers into one side of the waistband of your panties and very impatiently ripped the fabric until it fell off of you in two pieces. you hardly expected something like that from the doctor.

in your momentary stupor, he roughly grasped your hips and guided you over his cock, running the head through your impossibly soaked folds. he watched each muscle in your face twitch with pleasure before sinking you down onto it.

his forehead pressed against your chest with a weak moan and sharp curse, though they were drowned out by the cry that tore from your throat. the feeling of your tight, wet cunt squeezing around him already told him this wouldn’t last much longer.

“shit,” he groaned when you finally started to move. it was well against your better judgment but you couldn’t resist it anymore. your body was on automatic now, itching for release.

you steadied yourself with a hand on the doctor’s knee as you rode him, angling your body back which allowed him a spot that made your mind go blank. the doctor quickly caught on to this and worked to meet your thrusts until he was fucking you from underneath.

“please don’t stop, don’t stop,” you pleaded, blinking back tears. “doctor, don’t stop!” it was all you could manage to say, chanting it over and over like a prayer.

“god, you’re fuckin’ filthy,” he muttered through gritted teeth. you had him nothing short of mesmerized. the way your tits bounced with each thrust, the way your cunt so greedily sucked him in, the way your head rolled back with each scream you let out. he couldn’t believe he didn’t do this sooner.

he could tell that you were close by the way your pussy clenched around him. “come on, that’s it,” he pressed his palm to your lower stomach, his middle finger rubbing circles around your clit.

the final stretch that broke you. your thighs tensed and your body arched into his hand as you came. the cries that came from you were likely to be heard by everybody within a mile of the room.

the doctor followed not long after, lifting you off of him with seconds to spare before releasing on your inner thigh.

neither of you were quick to move, adjusting to the slow return to homeostasis. it felt like the temperature had gone back to normal and your minds began to register what happened.

when you found the doctor’s eyes, you were worried they would be full of regret or disdain. but they stared right back at you with something you’ve never seen in them before. you didn’t have the strength to analyze it, though.

instead you collapsed beside him and prepared for a nap. “if those things were meant to observe us, i’m sure they got enough material.” you remarked.

the doctor laughed softly. “oh, i’m sure they did.”

lowkey dook but idc this came to me in a vision.

[o-craven-canto]

Filters in the way of technologically advanced life in the universe and how likely I think they are

1. Abiogenesis (4.4-3-8 billion years ago): Total mystery. The fact that it happened so quickly on Earth (possibly as soon as there was abundant liquid water) is a tiny bit of evidence for it being easy. Amino acids and polycyclic hydrocarbons are very common in space, but nucleotides aren't, and all hypothetic models I've seen require very specific conditions and a precise sequence of steps. (It would be funny if the dozen different mechanisms proposed for abiogenesis were all happening independently somewhere.)

2. Oxygenic photosynthesis (3.5 billion years ago) (to fuel abundant biomass, and provide oxygen or some other oxidizer for fast metabolism): Not so sure. Photosynthesis is just good business sense -- sunlight is right there -- and appeared several times among bacteria. But the specific type of ultra-energetic photosynthesis that cracks water and releases oxygen appeared only once, in Cyanobacteria. That required merging two different photosynthetic apparati in a rather complex way; and all later adoptions of oxygenic photosynthesis involved incorporating Cyanobacteria by endosymbiosis. For all that it's so useful, I don't know if I'd expect to see it on every living planet.

3. Eukaryotic cell (2.4 billion years ago?): Probably the narrowest bottleneck on the list. Segregated mitochondria with their own genes and a nucleus protecting the main genome are extremely useful both for energy production (decentralized control to maximize production without overloading) and for genetic storage (less DNA damage due to reactive metabolic waste). But there's a chicken-and-egg problem in which incorporating mitochondria to make energy requires an adjustable cytoskeleton, but that consumes so much energy it would require mitochondria already in place. Current models have found solutions that involve a very specific series of events. Or maybe not? Metabolic symbiosis, per se, is common, and there may have been other ways to gene-energy segregation. Besides, after the origin of eukaryotes, endosymbiosis occurred at least nine more times, and even some bacteria can incorporate smaller cells.

4. Sexual reproduction (by 1.2 billion years ago): Without meiotic sex (combining mutations from different lineages, decoupling useful traits from harmful ones, translating a gene in multiple way), the evolution of complex beings is going to be painfully slow. Bacteria already swap genes to an extent, and sexual recombination is bundled in with the origin of eukaryotes so I probably shouldn't count it separately (meiosis is just as energy-intensive as any other use of the cytoskeleton). Once you have recombination, life cycles with spores or gametes and sex differentiation probably follow almost inevitably.

5. Multicellularity (800 million years ago?): Quite common, actually. Happens all the time among eukaryotes, and once in a very limited form even among bacteria. Now we'd want complex organized bodies with geometry-defining genes, but even that happened thrice: in plants, fungi, and animals. As far as I know, various groups of yeasts are the only regressions to unicellularity.

6. Brains and sense organs (600 million years ago): Nerve cells arose either once or twice, depending on whether Ctenophora (comb-jellies) and Eumetazoa (all other animals except sponges) form a single clade or not. Some form of cellular sensing and communication is universal in life, though, so a tissue specialized for signal transmission is probably near inevitable once you have multicellular organisms whose lifestyle depends on moving and interacting with the environment. Sense organs that work at a distance are also needed, but image-forming eyes evolved in six phyla, so no danger there (and there's so many other potential forms of communication!). Just to be safe, you'll also want muscles and maybe mineralized skeletons on the list, but I don't think either is particularly problematic. An articulated skeleton is probably better than a rigid shell, but we still have multiple examples of that (polyplacophorans, brittle stars, arthropods, vertebrates).

7. Life on land (400 million years ago): (Adding this because air has a lot more oxygen to fuel brains than water (the most intelligent aquatic beings are air-breathers), and technology in water has the issue of fire.) You're going to need a waterproof integument, some kind of rigid support system, and kidneys to regulate water balance. Plenty of animal lineages moved on land: vertebrates, insects, millipedes, spiders, scorpions, multiple types of crabs, snails, earthworms, etc. Note that most of those are arthropods: this step seems to favor exoskeletons, which help a great deal in retaining water. Of course this depends on plants getting on land first, which on Earth happened only once, and required the invention of spores and cuticles. (Actually there are polar environments where all photosynthesis occurs in water, but they are recently settled and hardly the most productive.)

8. Human-like intelligence (a few million years ago?): There seems to a be a general trend in which the max intelligence attainable by animals on Earth has increased over time. There's quite a lot of animals today that approach or rival apes in intelligence: elephants, toothed cetaceans, various carnivorans, corvids, parrots, octopodes, and there's even intriguing data about jumping spiders. Birds seem to have developed neocortex-like brain structures independently. Of course humans got much farther, but the fact that even other human species are gone suggests that a planet is not big enough for more than one sophont, so the uniqueness of humans might not necessarily imply low probability. (We seem to exist about halfway through the habitability span of Earth land, FWIW.) The evolution of sociality should probably be lumped here: we'll want a species that can teach skills to its offspring and cooperate on tasks. But sociality is also a common and useful adaptation: many species on our list (octopodes are a glaring exception) are intensely social and care for their offspring. I mentioned above that the land-step favors exoskeletal beings, which in turns favors small size; but the size ranges of large land arthropods and very intelligent birds overlap, so that's not disqualifying.

9. Agriculture and urban civilization (11,000 years ago): Agriculture arrived quite late in the history of our species, but when it arrived -- i.e. at the end of the Wurm glaciation -- it arrived independently in four to eight different places around the world, in different biogeographic realms and climates, so I must assume that at least some climate regimes are great for it (glacial cycles are a minority of Earth's history; but did agriculture need to come after glaciations? Maybe a shock of seasonality did the trick). And once you have agriculture, complex urbanized societies follow most of the time, just a few millennia later. Even writing arose at least three times (Near East, China, and Mexico), and then spread quickly.

10. Scientific method and industrialization (300 years ago): We're getting too far from my expertise here, but whatever. The Eurasian Axial Age suggests that all civilizations with a certain degree of wealth, literacy, and interconnection will spawn a variety of philosophies. Philosophical schools that focus on material causes and effects like the Ionians or Charvaka have appeared sometimes, but often didn't win over more supernaturalist schools. Perhaps in pre-industrial times pure materialism isn't as useful! You may need to thread a needle between interconnected enough to exchange and combine ideas, and also decentralized enough that the intellectual elite can't quash heterodoxy. As for industrialization, that too happened only once, though that's another case in which the first achiever would snuff out any other. I hear Song China is a popular contender for alternative Industrial Revolutions (with coal-powered steelworks!); Imperial Rome and the Abbasid Caliphate are less convincing ones. For whatever reason, it didn't take until 18th century Britain.

11. Not dying randomly along the way: Mass extinctions killing off a majority of species happened over and over -- the Permian Great Dying, the Chicxulub impact, the early Oxygen Crisis -- but life has always rebounded fairly quickly and effectively. It's hard enough to sterilize an agar plate, let alone a planet. Disasters on this scale are also unlikely to happen in the lifespan of planet-bound civilizations, unless of course the civilizations are causing them. A civilization might still face catastrophic climate change, mega-pandemics, and nuclear war, not to mention lesser setbacks like culture-wide stagnation or collapse, and I couldn't begin to estimate how common, or ruinous, they would actually be.

****

I have no idea how common the origin of life is, but the vast majority of planets with life will only have bacterial mats and stromatolites. Of the tiny sliver that evolved complex cells, a good chunk will have their equivalents of plants and animals, most of which may have intelligent life at least on primate- or cetacean-level at some later point. At any given time, a tiny fraction of those will have agricultural civilizations, at an even tinier fraction of that will have post-industrial science and technology. Let's say maybe 1 planet with industrial technology out of 100 with agriculture, 100,000 with hominid-level intelligence, 10 million with animal-like organisms, 100 millions with complex cells, and 10 billions with life at all?

[sleepymarmot]

Thanks to RTD and his joking episode resolution, I am now obsessed with a new reproductive ethics dilemma.

If an adult human is subjected to a temporal anomaly and is de-aged into an earlier point of their existence, specifically, the sperm cell and the egg cell right before fertilization...

Is there a moral obligation to put these cells together and recreate the person, or at least their body, or at least a genetically identical person's body?

Should the failure to do so be considered manslaughter or even murder?

In real life, even the pro-life advocates do not insist on fertilizing every egg cell in existence in order not to lose a potential human. But in this case, the human was more than potential, they literally existed until they were artificially de-aged. Is this dilemma more like "Should a time traveller rescue someone they accidentally sent into a dangerous past? What if that someone was a bad person?"?

In real life, at our level of medical technology, in order to fully develop from a zygote to a baby, every potential human person needs to spend months inside another human. (A zygote that has been created through IVF is transferred into the uterus within a week of growth; the youngest premature babies to survive have been born at 21 weeks.) This means that even if a potential future human person has the right to survive, it might come into conflict with another already legally existing independent human person's right not to be pregnant. But in a futuristic technologically advanced society, where these limitations aren't necessarily the same, when does the right to existence and legal personhood begin? And if we say that personhood begins at birth, should the victim of the temporal anomaly be considered a person because they have already been born, or not a person because their birth has been undone?

I now suspect that RTD specified that the character was reduced to two separate gametes and not a zygote or anything more advanced in order to avoid these exact questions and a right-wing backlash. If not putting the two gametes back together is not killing, then how far back along one's personal timeline one can travel so that it is?

Furthermore, sometimes killing is necessary and justified. It's justified to kill in order to stop a threat to the lives of oneself and others. Is it still justified to kill the same person after they stopped posing a threat? What about sending that person back in time along their own timeline before the point they have posed any threat and committed any crimes, then killing them? Not even in a "killing Hitler" situation — in this case, killing does not undo the harm that person inflicted on the world, just punishes the potential person for the sins the current version of them hasn't committed.

In the episode, RTD tries to have his cake and eat it too. Creating the temporal explosion is presented both as necessary self-defense and revolutionary action. Disposal of the cells that the antagonist has been reduced to is performed by a robot with unclear levels of sentience and sapience, and an action that has no moral weight for either the robot or the protagonists who observed it. Simultaneously, the antagonist's demise is treated by the narrative as a consequence of / capital punishment for his crimes, and the protagonists laugh at it in amazement, celebration and relief. None of the questions I have raised above are even hinted at.

[phillippadgettwrites]

Amateur

Rated X / 2402 words / Posted on AO3 / Tagging @today-in-fic

Getting to this point took quite a bit of convincing on his part. Not in any way that could be considered coercive, more that he could tell there was a deeply buried part of her that wanted to say yes, and he gently coaxed it to the surface over the course of a handful of months. 

He’s asked a few times in the past, usually not very sincerely, and her answer has always been an immediate and firm no. But times have changed, as has she, and the ever advancing technology of cell phones has lowered the bar for effort while increasing the options for privacy. What previously seemed so beyond the pale outrageous that she never gave it any serious consideration started to sound more and more within the realm of possibility, and he clearly sensed a shift in her. One by one he alleviated her concerns, and on a cool October evening after two cocktails and a string of increasingly explicit text messages sent from opposite ends of the house, she tells him to go ahead and do it. 

You’re sure? He asks, and while it’s difficult to read tone into two little words in a text, she feels his excitement radiating towards her through the walls that separate them. 

Assuming that all aforementioned conditions are met, yes she replies, her belly churning with nervousness and gin. 

In response he sends back two emojis—a camera and a little flame—and that’s that. 

There’s nothing particularly out of the ordinary about the act itself. She tries her best not to think about it and just focus on what he’s doing to her, but she does maintain some awareness of the sounds she’s making and the way she’s moving her body. He does what he does best, which is to make her come so hard she forgets what planet she’s on—much less that there’s a camera in the room—and when he’s done with her she falls into a deep, dreamless sleep. 

-

Do you want to see it?

Scully quirks her head at her phone, her brow furrowed. 

See what?

She gets distracted and forgets to read his reply until over an hour later. When she does, it takes her several seconds to understand what he’s referring to. 

The video.

Days have passed and work’s been busy, and she’d honestly forgotten about it. She looks around her empty office, just in case someone is somehow reading over her shoulder, before she sends her reply. 

Have you watched it?

She immediately sees the little dots that indicate he’s typing, and she waits for his message to come through with a disorienting mix of fear and excitement. 

Several times. That’s okay, right?

Her clit throbs, just once, in light of this information. Mulder has always been somewhat of a porn connoisseur, but it’s decidedly different knowing that she is the star of what he’s been watching.

Is it…good? Okay? Tolerable?

She realizes it’s a silly question and that his definition of “good” will have completely different criteria to hers, but she figures he knows her well enough to say whether she would find it watchable. 

I like it a lot. And I don’t think you’ll hate it.

She gets up from her desk and closes her office door. She has no intention of watching the video here; it just seems safer this way. 

Okay, you can send it. Not sure when or if I’ll watch it, though. 

The next text that comes through is a thumbnail of a whitish blur that she would guess is her thigh. She saves the video to her phone, relegates it to her hidden album, and then deletes the entire thread of texts for good measure. 

The next time she thinks about it, Mulder is on one of his long runs and she has the house to herself. She pours a glass of wine, curls up in her favorite armchair, and glances furtively around the empty living room before pulling up the video and tapping the play button. Immediately, the sound of her own voice fills her ears and a hot flash of embarrassment shoots through her. She quickly minimizes the video and relocates to the bedroom, picking up a pair of headphones on the way. Somehow the second floor feels safer, though she only puts the headphones in one ear to be sure Mulder won’t sneak up on her when he comes back. After taking a gulp of wine and a deep breath, she hits play. 

Again she hears her own voice, mid-moan, and the image on the screen goes from unfocused flesh of an unidentifiable body part to a close-cropped shot of her vulva. She gasps at seeing her own cunt on screen, plump and shining with arousal and saliva. The camera shifts around a little, which makes rustling sounds against the sheets, and then Mulder’s profile enters the side of the frame. 

It’s a tight shot, which means she can only really see from his eyes down to his chin, but the way he glances toward the camera when his mouth is poised inches from her body tells her that he’s watching himself on the screen while holding the phone in his hand. His tongue darts out and flicks playfully at her clit, and she watches her opening flutter as she hears herself murmur a breathy, “Oh.” 

She pauses the video, her heart hammering, and listens to the quiet of the house. It feels like she’s doing something wrong, though she isn’t; if Mulder were to walk in right now, he’d likely be thrilled and want to watch it with her. But despite the fact that they made the video together, it feels incredibly private. She can hardly bring herself to watch it, much less entertain the idea of a viewing party. 

When she’s summoned courage again she hits play, and Mulder begins to drop wet kisses down her swollen lips until his mouth is covering her opening. His jaw shifts forward and she hears herself suck in a breath before letting out a long moan. 

Scully squirms where she is seated in the middle of their carefully made bed. While it’s not entirely clear from the video itself, she knows exactly what he’s doing to her. She can feel the heat of his tongue sinking into her cunt. She glances at the open door, aware that Mulder could be home any time. She could lock it, that would buy her a few seconds if she doesn’t hear the front door opening or him coming up the stairs. It’s only at this moment she recognizes that she is extremely aroused and very much wants to touch herself. 

On the screen, Mulder’s eyes are closed and he’s suckling at her clit, his lips carefully pursed around her hood. Her hips are wiggling and arching off the bed, pushing her face more firmly against him, and the movement causes the camera angle to shift so that she can no longer see her own body, just the side of his face. She watches the flex of his jaw and listens to the way her voice rises and falls in time to it, and when her embarrassingly gratuitous wailing is approaching a crescendo he pulls away and smiles, his eyes aimed up toward her face. 

Seeing him enjoying her this way, watching the unabashed pleasure on his face as he eats her pussy, is hypnotizing, and she’s almost disappointed when he notices the camera has shifted and tilts it back to show the slick mess between her legs. He puts on a show for the benefit of the video, coming in at an angle in order to capture a full view of his tongue gliding up the valley of her pussy lips before skirting just past her clit, teasing her. And she feels it all as she sees it: the anticipation, the wet heat of his mouth, the need for him to touch her more fully. Her eyes are glued to the screen, waiting for him to do it, to make her come, which she of course already knows that he’s going to. Her clit beats a steady rhythm under her cotton lounge pants, keeping time as the seconds tick by and Mulder makes her whine with frustration. 

“God, just do it,” she whispers out loud, piqued and panting. 

“Do what?”

Scully startles, and the phone leaps out of her hands before landing face-down on top of the comforter, tugging the headphone out of her ear in the process. Mulder is standing in the open doorway, shirtless and shining with sweat, his breathing still labored from his run. 

“Nothing,” she says with a shrug and a thin-lipped smile. “How was your run?”

She forces herself to keep her eyes on his face; if she gives her phone so much as a millisecond glance, he’ll know she’s hiding something. 

“Good,” he says, crossing to the en suite bathroom door. “I’m just gonna grab a quick shower.”

“Okay.”

The door closes behind him and she flips her phone over to see that the video is still playing. She drags the cursor across the bottom of the screen and watches them fuck in reverse until it’s to the point where she left off, then pops the headphone back in her ear.

“Oh, please,” she hears herself groan, her hips canting towards Mulder’s smiling mouth. She doesn’t remember begging. 

Upon hearing the magic word, he presses his entire face against her cunt, obscuring her body in the video. She hears herself gasp just before her hand flies into the frame, grabbing the back of Mulder’s head to hold him captive while she makes sounds that are at once embarrassing and insanely erotic. 

Scully scoots back on the bed and leans against the headboard, then pauses the video and listens for the rush of the shower and the wet slap of water against tile as Mulder moves around inside it. She starts the video again just as she’s coming down from her orgasm, and Mulder makes a point of pulling away to get a good shot of her still-throbbing pussy before the video bounces around and lands on a static image of their bedroom ceiling. 

She slips one hand under her pants and then her panties, listening to the running shower with one ear and the muted murmurs of her and Mulder changing position in the background of the video with the other. Unsurprisingly, she’s obscenely wet, and she wastes no time in setting about getting herself off before Mulder is out of the bathroom. 

On the screen, Mulder’s face appears from a low angle before he switches to the rear camera, and she sees herself on all fours at the head of the bed, waiting. The video pans down her body until it’s trained between her open legs, and she winces a little at just how prominently her asshole is displayed in this position. Mulder seems to take no issue with it, dragging the head of his cock down her ass crack and back up before he pushes against her opening. 

Scully fucks herself with her fingers as she watches him slide into her, watches her hips flex up to welcome him and hears both their relieved groans. He fucks her slowly at first, pulling all the way out so he can watch himself enter her again and again, and she almost feels jealous that he gets to see this every time. He pulls the camera back a bit, widening the shot to show the curve of her waist and the flare of her hips, then picks up his pace to the degree that their skin slaps loudly on each thrust and the wet slick of her cunt is audible when he withdraws. 

She didn’t expect to like this, but as she swirls her middle finger furiously around her clit with her eyes glued to the screen, there’s no denying that she does. When the on-screen version of herself begins to alternately round and arch her back and Mulder whispers an expletive, she knows she’s close. She’s close in real-life too, hovering near enough to take herself across the finish line whenever she’s ready. 

“Oh, shit,” Mulder sputters, and the room tumbles around on the screen before the video goes dark.

She can still hear the wet snap of his sharp thrusts and her own voice devolving into wails and moans. Mulder says things to her that she doesn’t recall hearing, things that might make her blush if she weren’t as turned on as she is. If she weren’t coming in tandem with the video, her mouth open in a silent scream and her cunt throbbing against her own fingers. 

As she returns to awareness, she realizes that the shower is off. She scrambles to pull her hand free of her pants and close out of the video, and is just opening Instagram when the bathroom door pops open and a cloud of steam wafts into the room. Mulder stops in the doorway and considers her for a moment, and she does her best to act casual. 

“What do you want to do for dinner?” she asks, giving him a disinterested glance, and he crosses the room and lays down beside her. 

“There’s some leftover lasagna in the fridge, I think,” he says. “Whatcha lookin at?”

“Nothing in particular,” she says, her eyes on the screen. “Just browsing.”

A pause. Gooseflesh breaks out on her arms, and she hopes he doesn’t notice. 

“I’ll go reheat the lasagna, then?”

“Okay,” she answers in a hopefully neutral tone. 

Mulder gets up and heads for the door, but just before he passes through he turns back to look at her. 

“Did you like it?” he asks, and she quirks her head at him, a questioning wrinkle in her brow. 

“The lasagna?” she asks. 

“The video,” he says, jutting his chin out to indicate the phone in her hands. 

Scully feels her face grow hot immediately. She opens her mouth to speak, but can’t think of anything to say. Mulder’s mouth breaks out into a wide, delighted grin. 

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says triumphantly. “Dinner will be ready in ten.”

“...Thanks,” she forces out, her cheeks burning, and he mercifully leaves the room. 

After a moderately awkward meal, she manages to overcome her embarrassment enough to film a sequel later that night. 

[fgfluidity]

mirror | manor (chapter 11)

Summary: After the events of Mirror | Void, a newly-christened Dark has two goals: take revenge on Mark, and, hopefully…

Find the DA.

Pairings: Damien/Dark x DA; Actor x DA (Implied, could be read as gen)

Warnings: none

Tagged: @opprose @volbeast @statictay @otterlyinluv @buc-eebarnes @flerpdederp @mirrorslament @hapikiou (if anyone else would like to be tagged hmu!)

i'm sorry this took almost three years to come out-

find it on ao3 | donate to my kofi

Dark knows the game.

Of course he does— he read the script.

He just expected them to see through it.

Then again... they haven’t seen through anything Mark’s done. They just don’t remember.

He can’t decide if that’s a blessing or a curse.

He sticks to the shadows as they approach, entirely too darling in what amounts to a burglar’s costume, as they wriggle their way inside.

Mark is his own brand of buffoon, and the ‘guards’ he hired match it to the letter, not a drop serious or truly threatening.

(“Sorry I didn’t message you first,” he says, brushing out bits of glass from his hair. “I tried to jam the cell signal and, um… it’s just broken.”)

Imbecile.

Even the dog is there, playing a role. How droll.

Even if she is a very good girl.

All throughout this, he watches for the guard’s radios, for a television screen, for— for anything that he might use to sway the DA, catch their attention without Mark noticing.

If he can just separate them—

The thing is, though, Mark is either ridiculously prepared for his planning, or is completely thoughtless about small, realistic details; throughout the entire museum, no guard has a radio, no wall has a screen.

Not ones that work, anyway— not a connection to anything remotely electromagnetic. Props at best. It’s the least technologically-advanced modern building Dark has been in since…

Well, since he left that manor, but that hardly counts.

The point stands that he’s unable to do much of anything but watch as the DA rolls their eyes and smiles at Mark’s antics, creeps quietly along while the man makes a fool of himself, face set and focused.

He’s seen that look. Pre-trial look. All business.

And they called him too serious all that time ago.

So fondly…

At any rate, their supposed treasure is both easy to get to and utterly unremarkable. A wooden case, carved but hardly special wood, the gem plastic even from his vantage point. A prop, like everything else.

And yet…

Mark lifts the box, and—

This is the end of the script. A successful heist, hightailing it out before they get caught, a seemingly-sincere thanks for help.

But there’s something. Like a little nudge, something like how he feels using the void, how the Earth seems to shift when the Host speaks creation.

The alarm trips.

Mark gives them a choice. Sneak out, or face the guards.

Perhaps... perhaps he overlooked. Perhaps he was given a working script, not the final draft.

Perhaps it’s another of Mark’s machinations.

There was no choice. Why is there a choice?

Why do they get a choice?

It doesn’t matter, really, because the DA picks exactly as he expected they would.

“We have to sneak out, it’s too dangerous, otherwise,” they say, just barely audible over the blaring alarm.

Mark’s face crumbles into a pout. “You’re no fun,” he whines— like a toddler; Dark half expects him to start stomping his feet— but he dutifully uncovers the sewer entrance, grumbling all the way.

The DA just watches, arms crossed. Petty.

They didn’t used to be so petty, but Mark deserves it, if anyone.

Dark very well understands that the entire thing is engineered, a massive staged undertaking to fool the DA and entertain an audience, unseen to his eyes but present all the same.

It doesn’t stop the trip through the sewers any less harrowing, doesn’t prevent him from using his unique position to draw attention away from the DA if ever they come a hair too close to getting caught.

It might be fake, but…

He doesn’t put it past Mark to introduce some very real danger. He’s a method actor, and he’d want his players to follow accordingly for maximum effect.

Dramatic ass.

They follow dutifully behind the entire way through the dark, though— and he notes it with a point of pride, one he chalks up to just how put out Mark seems— with a good amount of non-verbal sass. They cross their arms, roll their eyes, and stubbornly march right along behind Mark.

Not that Mark doesn’t try to get rid of them— oh, he tries to shake them like gum stuck to his shoe, and it’s a thrill to see him huff and grumble when they simply shake their head. He pouts— at several points! So very childish.

Then—

Hm. Unsurprising that the creator of this convoluted mess would whip up some way to surely remove them; if there’s one possible thing they’d listen to above anything else, it’s a worksite safety sign.

Not for lack of effort, though. “I… I really don’t know if we should split up, Mark,” they say, casting an uneasy glance back at the tunnel they just left. “I know it says only one, but if something happens—“

“Nothing’s going to happen! Nothing bad has happened even once!” His bright grin only gets a— astoundingly dry— look in return. It’s nearly impressive that he barrels on, anyway. “It’s for safety, buddy! You’re all about safety— and! We’re synchronized! In five minutes you just follow me over. Or I follow you, whichever.”

Mark gives them a once over, all while grinning, and if Dark wasn’t looking— wasn’t incensed at the familiarity— he wouldn’t have noticed, wouldn’t have cared. Alas.

It’s too… possessive. Too pleased.

He doesn’t need Damien in his head to stoke his rage, it seems, not anymore. The only thing that stops him is what Mark says next.

“You have a choice, sunflower.”

A choice. There it is again, more choices, as if giving them the power to change any of this. Giving them a say.

So they don’t feel trapped.

Aren’t they, though? If Mark wrote everything, created everything, what kind of choice is it?

However…

They glance back at the shadowy tunnel again, frowning, worrying at the sleeves of their top in a too-familiar pattern. If they turn back, they’ll be away from him. How far apart can they both get in five minutes?

How far apart do they need to be for him to intervene?

This is his chance. It may well be the only one he’ll get, and the margin of error is far too slim for his liking— he must get this right. He must say the right thing— and pray they don’t hate or fear him.

Thankfully, time goes a little off-kilter in the Void, or else he’d have to make a very quick plan.

He’ll have to ease them in. See what they could possibly remember from that night, prod what needs prodding. It’s an easy enough parlor trick to conjure up a memory these days.

After that… what could he say?

Damien— he— was never short for words in his past life. As mayor— as councilman, as law student, as debate captain, as his father’s son— he simply had to be good with them, and he was.

Not quite so smoothly charismatic as Mark, not as bombastic and warm as Wil, but— well, he didn’t make mayor through his familial connections, whatever certain parts of his constituency may have believed. He delivered his speeches, his debates, with calm strength, something personable but solid.

Hell, he—

He used to write them for fun. The person— people, really— standing right outside this pocket of Void once teased him.

How are you writing a paper now? Finals are over! Come on, live a little!

Even I don’t want to spend all summer in a library. Won’t you come with me? There are new flowers in the arboretum!

The memory comes unbidden, and throws him off-balance; thankfully, he doesn’t fall out of his incorporeal state or ruin any of his planning.

Such a memory… but how? That’s more of Damien’s—

He hasn’t heard him. Not since that agonizing split when he entered their dream.

Mayhaps they didn’t split.

Mayhaps—

“Well… if you’re sure, Mark,” they sigh, hardly thrilled at the idea. “But it has to be five minutes. If you disappear on me—“

“Relax! It’ll be okay, you’ll see me. Sheesh, you’re so serious.” Mark huffs— then straightens himself. Smiles, even as they turn away, towards Dark. “Yes, alright! You go down that tunnel, I’ll go down this tunnel. If you see anything, and I mean anything, you just turn that sweet little tuchus around and—“

He’s had about enough of that. With hardly more than a thought, he whisks Mark away elsewhere, wherever elsewhere may be, and rolls out his Hall of Memories.

And prays.

They used to pride themself on being unflappable, before, and he can see shades of it, now: their face remains the same, alert but not startled as they take in the paintings, the dust swirling in the beam of their flashlight.

He knew the truth of that, though, and it, too, remains; you need not look at their face for their feelings, but their hands.

Though one holds the flashlight, all ten fingers are in motion— tapping the length of the flashlight, curling and uncurling in their sleeve, the belt loop, the zippers and buttons of their bag. Moving for comfort, perhaps— certainly no expression of joy, as the rest of them is ramrod-straight, stiff with each step.

He longs— longs, what is happening to him— to say something to ease the anxiety, raise the darkness, but he can’t. This is no matter he can explain with soft, comforting words and a pot of tea. His powers aren’t of light at all.

They can, though, reach an electromagnetic signal, and now that they’re alone, he pushes through his thoughts.

Finally, you’re away from him. Aren’t you tired of it?

What?

He’s running you ragged. Don’t you feel like you’re running in circles?

That’s not what he said— not quite, anyway.

They won’t tell you anything. No one seems to question it.

Why can’t he change it?

I know you’re in there. But I thought you’d see through it.

The final painting, of the monster himself, grinning like a fool. It begins to crumble before them both— they step back, fingers tight around both phone and flashlight— and Dark gets a split second of pure dread before—

Before—

My villain. I wrote everything. Even you.

It’s not painful. It’s not— it’s not even close to the searing split of the dreamworld, nothing to the pain in his stolen body, nuts compared to his shattered leg almost a century ago. It doesn’t hurt at all.

He almost wishes it did.

“Same snake, different skin,” he muses, and something inside him quails at the sight of fear— truly, rare fear— in their eyes when they turn to take him in. “Always spinning his yarns, his webs, his lies.”

He means to say it. He means to say he’s nothing but a monster in human skin, that they’re being dragged one way or another at his whims— he doesn’t mean to sound so… angry. So—

Villainous.

He screams, though it doesn’t come out— not of this body. Instead, there’s the discomfort of a fragment, juddering, lashing void in every direction. He only keeps enough sense to keep it away from them.

Without him— without him!— his body paces, a smile too similar to Mark’s on his face. “Perhaps we’ve met a hundred times already, and you simply don’t remember it. Perhaps you’re tired of me repeating myself over and over and over and over again!”

He’s seen them a hundred times, but have they met? Has he said anything to them, his desperate wish for them to remember and leave simply that, a wish?

No. This is Mark’s doing, but he’s far from the only one with power. Dark pushes past the discomfort, past the fragments that shatter out of him, and tries to touch it. Tries to see what, exactly, controls him.

It’s a web.

Not unlike a spider’s, really, glimmering threads of words in several different directions, coalescing into bright points of light wherever they meet.

Ah, the choices. Planned for, then— prolonging the make-believe.

He sees an island man. He sees a brilliant scientist. He sees a pirate, an adventurer, a prisoner. He sees their end a dozen times, more, always coming back to the start.

He sees himself— but his point, his thread, is loose.

Not so in control now, are you, Mark?

They must know. They have to know.

With what little wriggle room he has, he reaches out— and changes a couple letters. One at each point. Nothing shifts, nothing breaks, but something is different— hopefully, different enough for his clever attorney to find.

They’re the sharpest he’s ever known. If anyone could, it’s them.

He settles back into his body, still speaking without him— without him!— and pacing before a desk. It doesn’t feel so wrong with his newfound confidence… in fact—

“You want answers.” He smiles to himself, happy to have control again, and for the hell of it, picks up the glass of wine— seemingly, so kindly provided for by the writer. “Well, games were always his forte.”

He’s not sure of the vintage, or even sure of the varietal, given the monochrome nature of his Void, but he takes a sip, anyway.

He tries hard not to gag, but can’t hide his wince. For all his budget, Mark hardly splurged on something decent, it seems.

Suppose that’s the loss of his wine cellar at work.

“But allow me this one moment of self indulgence.”

He sets the wine down. Neither of them will be partaking of it.

“Excuse me—“ 

He stops, holding the box— the conduit in this little foray into pretend— and looks at them from atop the desk. They’re— smiling a little. Not big, but it’s theirs, and if his heart still beat— “Yes?”

“Why’d you pick that wine if you didn’t like it?”

He wants to laugh. Oh, he wants to laugh at that, because in the face of— quite frankly— something frightening and beyond their control, they’re teasing it. He loves them.

He loves them.

“I didn’t,” he admits, truthfully. There’s something so warm in his chest, something he can’t prevent from showing on his face, so fond. “Sometimes we take what we’re given, for better or for worse. This game, for instance. This box.

“So much trouble, all for something so small.” He looks to them curiously, smile fading. “Do you want to know what’s inside this box?

“I didn’t imagine we’d have to be in sewers to get it,” they add dryly. “After all this, I definitely want to know, and it has to be something worth it, or else.”

He’d laugh at the thought, them tearing into Mark for dragging them over hill and dale, but he’s seen what lies ahead. They’ll have time to do it, and the nudging at his body indicates he’s rather short of time himself. “Well, I know how much you like a good game, so throughout your… adventures, I’ve hidden codes. Several codes. Find them all, and you’ll get your truth.”

They don’t look especially pleased at that, but the light comes into their eyes despite the slump of their shoulders— the light that kept them up all night with an encyclopedia or three, classes next morning be damned. “More games. Why am I not surprised?”

They eye him for a few long seconds, brow furrowed, even as the Void rumbles and sparks around them both. It’s too familiar, as if they’re reading him down to his core. “You aren’t Mark, are you? Not some character. But… you’re so familiar. Who… who are you?”

He could give them his name. It might spark something for them, kickstart whatever process they need to regain their memory of what happened. He wouldn’t even care if they screamed at him for all he put them through.

The Void, though, shakes and cracks, and he shakes his head with a slight frown and a mountain of regret. He has a modicum of control, still, but not fully. Not right now. “That’s all I’m going to give you.”

They open their mouth, but the Void winks them away, gone to their next run.

All he can do is sit and watch from here.

[mariacallous]

A California court has advanced a civil fraud case against a Norwegian company at the center of the state’s failure to build workable hydrogen fueling infrastructure, which has already left thousands of car owners in the lurch.

A case involving allegations of fraud against Oslo-based Nel ASA is moving toward a trial in October 2026, after a California judge left intact the core claims brought by a major player in the rollout of hydrogen infrastructure in the state, Iwatani Corporation of America, a subsidiary of one of Japan’s largest industrial gas companies.

The allegations center on a lesser-known aspect of the blundered roll-out: Iwatani is claiming that Nel duped it into buying faulty hydrogen fueling stations. And the case has provided a window into the extent to which these same stations were provided to and promoted by major players including Toyota and Shell—stations that have since been abandoned or shut down.

The judge’s ruling last month leaves Nel and its top executives—including current and former CEOs Robert Borin and Håkon Volldal—in the crosshairs. Iwatani’s central claim is that Nel, under pressure to sell a money-losing product, knowingly induced Iwatani into purchasing untested hydrogen fueling stations with false assurances of the technology’s real-world readiness.

Nel denies the allegations, and has put forward procedural arguments to get the case thrown out, saying that California does not have jurisdiction over the company or its executives.

In separate rulings, Judge James Selna of the Central District of California sided with Iwatani on the core claims while dismissing several others, finding that California does in fact have jurisdiction and that the allegations go beyond a simple breach of contract and into the realm of fraud in selling the equipment, known as H2Stations.

The judge ruled that there was “active concealment,” citing examples, including that Nel did not disclose the fact it had never built a working model of the H2Station nor sufficiently tested it in real-world conditions, and had no actual data to support their H2Stations’ performance claims.

After the lawsuit was filed in January, Nel abandoned the seven Iwatani hydrogen fueling stations and executed a corporate spinout of its fueling division—which Iwatani claims is a means of shielding those assets from a potential court judgment.

“The deliveries you are referring to were from a company now called Cavendish Hydrogen,” says Lars Nermoen, Nel’s spokesperson, in response to an email seeking comment, referring to the spun-off entity. “Nel no longer has any business in hydrogen fueling.”

The failure of novel technology in real-world settings is not unheard of. But for the hydrogen car industry, it came at one of the worst times: In 2019, California was investing heavily in hydrogen refueling infrastructure, attracting global automakers and oil and gas majors to the state.

At the time, Toyota was pushing for more fueling infrastructure to support the uptake of the Toyota Mirai, one of the earliest light-duty consumer hydrogen fuel-cell cars to hit the market.

So Toyota partnered with both Iwatani and oil major Shell to build more fueling stations. Shell brought on Nel as the station provider, and both Iwatani and Chevron partnered with Nel soon after. Representatives from Shell and Iwatani did not respond to requests for comment.

Lewis Fulton, director of the Energy Futures Program at the University of California, Davis, says the equipment failures in the passenger segment have led to a “near collapse of the system” in California. In addition to the abandoned Iwatani stations, Shell in February completely shut down its seven California hydrogen refueling stations and canceled plans to build 48 stations in the state.

Chevron had contracted Nel to create 16 stations, but did not provide a response on the status of those stations. The extent to which Nel provided the technology for these major players has not been previously reported on.

Meanwhile, Toyota, which has since deprioritized the California market for the Mirai, is facing a class action lawsuit from many drivers who already bought the hydrogen-powered vehicle. The lawsuit claims that, contrary to Toyota’s promises, hydrogen fuel for their cars is becoming more difficult to obtain, making the Mirai “unsafe, unreliable, and inoperable.” Toyota did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership, there are 55 hydrogen fueling stations in California, but many of them experience frequent downtime. None of the hydrogen fueling stations provided by Nel are currently operating. Iwatani’s only functioning refueling stations were built by Linde, a large industrial gas company.

In the meantime, Fulton says California has pivoted to building infrastructure for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, with the hope that the passenger market can reboot with the help of a growing freight market.

By focusing on the heavy-duty market, California can, in theory, create a stronger supply of clean hydrogen that brings costs down and increases availability, says Fulton, who is also an adviser to Arches, the California hydrogen hub that has won $1.2 billion of conditional funding from the US Department of Energy.

“Arches is targeting 50 to 60 truck-oriented stations around the state by 2030, and with different fueling islands and pressure systems, those could also service light-duty vehicles,” he says.

California’s difficulties with hydrogen vehicle infrastructure have driven home some stark lessons about the wider use of the technology.

“The problem is, they’re expensive, and they require enormous amounts of maintenance,” says Jim Bowe, a Washington, DC–based partner at King & Spalding, an international law firm. “Fleets that have been looking at the possibility of hydrogen buses often balk when they realize how much more maintenance—not only for the refueling facilities, but also for the vehicles themselves—is required relative to internal combustion engines or batteries.”

California-based FirstElement Fuel, another hydrogen fueling station provider, is positioned as a potential winner amid the crisis for the sector. Operating under the name True Zero, it currently has the most operating hydrogen fueling stations in California, but is still working to become profitable, according to sources familiar with the company. (FirstElement executives did not respond to requests for an interview.)

According to Iwatani’s lawsuit, Nel was able to hide the fact that the stations it installed were not operational until early 2023, when continual failures led Iwatani to launch its own investigation.

Nel achieved this subterfuge by requiring Iwatani to enter into an exclusive maintenance contract with Nel, essentially shifting the cost of testing the stations to Iwatani, the lawsuit claims.

Nel’s current CEO, Håkon Volldal, an individual defendant in the case, acknowledged the failings around the same time. In an earnings call last year, he said of the hydrogen fueling stations: “I think it’s fair to say that the technology that was installed was immature, and that the quality was not good enough, and we struggle with all the work we have to do in order to keep these stations running, to fix issues, to send personnel out on site.”

In its investigation, Iwatani workers claimed they found shrapnel inside the fueling stations, and concluded that parts of the fueling apparatus were routinely exploding, spraying debris inside the station box. (Nel blames outside companies for installation failures.) Iwatani also claimed it found valves from third-party manufacturers that were never intended for use in a hydrogen fueling station.

The lawsuit details a months-long back and forth between Iwatani and Nel, in which Iwatani attempts to get Nel to fix the broken stations. Nel won’t—or can’t—fix the stations, triggering the lawsuit.

These Iwatani allegations were echoed by Kasey Hawk, who worked as a technician for Nel in California starting in 2021. An Army veteran who drove an Abrams tank in combat, Hawk was one of several veterans hired by Nel to service the California fueling stations. Though he alleges he had a strong mechanical background stemming from his military experience, Hawk claims he received only minimal training on the particularities of hydrogen fueling stations. (Hawk is not involved in the ongoing lawsuit and Nel has not commented on his allegations.)

“It was a little strange because it’s actually dangerous work—working with high-pressure gases and the potential for explosions,” he says in an interview with WIRED.

Hawk claims when he showed up to conduct the first repairs at Shell-owned stations in the Sacramento area, it appeared they hadn’t been maintained since commissioning, and there was already a backlog of work to be done. “I saw that the stations weren’t set up right from the beginning,” he says. He noticed, for example, that the pipes weren’t properly insulated, which would cause ice buildup within the fueling nozzle, since liquid hydrogen is stored and pumped at cryogenic temperatures.

A team of Nel technicians arrived from South Korea to help. But those technicians didn’t speak English, limiting what Hawk could learn from them, he says. And since Nel’s hydrogen fueling subsidiary was based in Denmark, the schematics for the stations were available only in Danish. In addition, ordering new parts often took weeks, meaning similar amounts of station downtime, he explains. “We were in situations every day where we did not know what to do next.”

[entirelyconspiracy]

FUTURISM is the KEY to Human Technological Advancement

My Map is a large blood vein. Each of the art movements are blood vessels. Each movement has a bit of another within it, whether that be through style or ideals, and together they make up a larger part of a body. If I were to make the map bigger, I would go beyond art and make a different part of the body be technology. All of the advancements in science would also be blood cells. So, as different topics and movements are mapped out, ultimately, they would form a human body. The Mapping of All of Human Existence is what this larger map would be called.

Going back to my map of artists’ movements, Futurism is the biggest on the page because I think that’s when art hit its peak of understanding. Art itself is so hard to grasp the meaning of because it’s so subjective, however, I believe that Furtists have nearly reached the boundary of what this word could mean and how it can benefit society. Futurists believe that art should be violent, revolutionary, and free from any past. They embrace the future, technology, and culture. I’m really drawn to this movement because their outlook is one of hope, hope for the future, hope for technological advancements, and societal liberation. The art that gets us there is “nothing but violence, cruelty, and injustice”1. It may seem morally questionable of me to agree with this sentiment, but unless it’s performance art, I don’t see a problem with making art of this radical nature. Especially when most of it is abstracted to some degree. What I don’t like, however, is that they want liberation from the past and specifically freedom from Italy’s past actions. What would make this moment perfect in its philosophy is if they at least acknowledge the history that brought them there and possibly take some inspiration from it. Referencing the past might even make the artwork more violent. Honestly, I think they are simply trying to separate themselves from the guilt of the past, and frankly, I don’t think that’s good practice or constructive. To make this movement truly the pinnacle of all art movements is to change that one aspect of it, because then futurists would be these people celebrating evolution whilst also acknowledging the past. Which is extremely productive in creating a future society that’s fully in touch with itself and its people. If this art movement existed today, which it probably does in a different context but it would be very beneficial to our current time because we are already looking for new ways to spice up our lives with technology. We are looking for an idea to take us to the next level of human advancement. Artistry has been a great way to generate those ideas. Historically, art cannot exist without technology. The two are intrinsically intertwined and are always elevating the other to new heights, and merge together beautifully, too. Now this is what I believe futurism should strive for because we would truly reach the ultimate formula that could be used over and over again to create more and more new technologies. And with these new technologies mixing together with new artistry, they create something monumentally unfathomable. That is why I fully believe if futurism were tweaked a little bit, it would be the closest we’ve ever come to the perfect formula for the evolution of human civilization.

Dadaism, on the other hand, is super insecure, whilst Futurists are more directed and realistic about what they can achieve with their art, Dadaism is people trying way too hard to be nonsensical. They try to take their own hand out of the artmaking process, but that is conceptually and physically extremely hard to do. It's unreasonable in a way. In addition, they act like what they’re doing has no meaning, but that’s not the peak of artistic value because it’s not benefiting anyone, and I think art should be beneficial to society in some respect. Surrealists, too, do not understand that you can be nonsensical and strange and morally questionable and make a piece of art that is revolutionary and adds to the ever-changing cultures of every society.

Footnote 1:  Apollonio, Umbro, ed. Documents of 20th Century Art: Futurist Manifestos. Brain, Robert, R.W. Flint, J.C. Higgitt, and Caroline Tisdall, trans. New York: Viking Press, 1973

[usa-journal]

Breakthrough in Fly Brain Research Paves Way for Understanding Human Cognition

Scientists have achieved a monumental breakthrough by mapping the fly brain, revealing the position, shape, and connections of all its 130,000 cells and 50 million intricate connections. This research represents the most detailed analysis of an adult animal's brain to date and is being hailed as a "huge leap" in understanding human cognition.

The fly's brain, though tiny, supports a range of complex behaviors, including walking, hovering, and even producing mating songs. Dr. Gregory Jefferis, a leader in the research from the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, emphasizes that this mapping could illuminate the mechanisms behind thought processes in humans. He noted the lack of understanding about how brain cell networks facilitate our interactions with the world.

Despite humans having a million times more neurons than the fruit fly, the new wiring diagram, or connectome, will aid scientists in deciphering cognitive functions. Published in the journal Nature, the imagery showcases a stunningly complex structure that reveals how a small organ can perform powerful computational tasks.

Dr. Mala Murthy, co-leader of the project from Princeton University, stated that this connectome will be transformative for neuroscientists, allowing for a better understanding of healthy brain function and the potential to compare it with malfunctioning brains.

Dr. Lucia Prieto Godino from the Francis Crick Institute supports this view, highlighting that while simpler organisms like worms and maggots have had their connectomes mapped, the fly’s intricate wiring is a significant achievement. This success paves the way for mapping larger brains, potentially leading to a human connectome in the future.

The research team has successfully identified separate circuits for various functions, illustrating how movement-related circuits are positioned at the base of the brain, while those responsible for vision are located on the sides. The study not only identifies these circuits but also explains their connections, enhancing our understanding of neural processing.

Interestingly, researchers are already applying these circuit diagrams to understand why flies are so hard to catch. The wiring related to vision quickly processes incoming threats, sending signals to the fly's legs to jump away faster than conscious thought.

To create the wiring diagram, researchers used a technique involving slicing the fly brain into 7,000 incredibly thin pieces, photographing each slice, and digitally reconstructing the whole. They employed artificial intelligence to analyze neuron shapes and connections, correcting over three million errors manually.

Dr. Philipp Schlegel from the Medical Research Council highlights that this data serves as a comprehensive map of brain connectivity, akin to a detailed Google Maps for the neural networks. This combined information will facilitate countless discoveries in neuroscience in the coming years.

While a human connectome remains elusive due to the complexity of the human brain, researchers believe that advancements in technology may allow for such mapping in about three decades. The fly brain research marks a significant step toward unlocking the mysteries of human cognition and understanding our own minds better.

The study was conducted by the FlyWire Consortium, an international collaboration of scientists dedicated to advancing neuroscience.

[science-sculpt]

A snip, a splice : Power of rDNA Technology

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the blueprint of life, holds the secrets to the intricate workings of every living organism. But what if we could manipulate this blueprint, adding, removing, or tweaking its code? This revolutionary concept forms the core of recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology, a powerful tool that has transformed biology and medicine.

The story starts in the early 1970s with two brilliant scientists; Stanley Cohen at Stanford University and Herbert Boyer at the University of California, San Francisco. Cohen, a microbiologist, had been studying plasmids – small circular DNA molecules found in bacteria. Boyer, a biochemist, was an expert on restriction enzymes – molecular scissors that could cut DNA at specific sequences. Their collaboration proved groundbreaking. They envisioned combining these tools to create the first ever recombinant DNA molecule. Cohen provided the plasmids, which would act as vectors to carry foreign DNA into host cells. Boyer, on the other hand, used restriction enzymes to cut both the plasmid and the desired foreign DNA, allowing them to be pieced together. Through meticulous experimentation, they successfully created the first recombinant DNA molecule, forever altering the course of biology.

Cohen and Boyer's work wouldn't have been possible without the earlier discoveries of restriction enzymes. These "molecular scissors" were independently identified by three separate research groups in the 1960s. Werner Arber in Switzerland, along with Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans in the US, unraveled the role of restriction enzymes in bacterial defense mechanisms. These enzymes helped bacteria defend against invading viruses by cutting up their foreign DNA. Recognizing the potential of these "genetic scalpels," the groundwork was laid for their application in rDNA technology.

Here's a simplified breakdown of the rDNA process:

Isolation of DNA: The journey starts with isolating DNA from a donor organism.

Cleavage with Restriction Enzymes: Specific enzymes cut the DNA at defined sequences.

Selection of Vector: A carrier molecule (often a plasmid) is chosen to transport the recombinant DNA.

Ligation: The DNA fragments and vector are stitched together using DNA ligase, an enzyme.

Transformation: The recombinant DNA enters a host cell (usually bacteria or yeast).

Selection and Expression: The transformed cells are selected, and the gene of interest is expressed, leading to the desired protein production.

Since its inception, rDNA technology has played a pivotal role in several groundbreaking advancements. Let's take a whirlwind tour through some of the most significant moments in R-DNA history:

1978: Birth of Insulin on the Factory Floor: Scientists achieved a feat of genetic engineering by using R-DNA to produce human insulin in bacteria. This marked a turning point for diabetics, offering a readily available and more consistent source of this life-saving hormone.

1980s: Gene Wars and the Rise of GMOs: The 1980s saw the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Plants were engineered with genes for insect resistance or herbicide tolerance, sparking debates about the safety and ethics of this technology. R-DNA research continues to be at the forefront of discussions regarding genetically modified foods.

1990s: The Human Genome Project Sets Sail: This ambitious international project aimed to sequence the entire human genome. R-DNA techniques played a crucial role in deciphering the 3 billion letters of our genetic code, opening doors for personalized medicine and a deeper understanding of human health and disease.

2000s: Gene Therapy Takes Center Stage: The first successful gene therapy trials for inherited diseases like severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) took place. R-DNA technology offered a glimmer of hope for treating genetic disorders by introducing healthy genes to replace defective ones.

2010s and Beyond: CRISPR Takes Over: The emergence of CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary gene editing tool based on R-DNA principles, has ushered in a new era of genetic manipulation. With unprecedented precision, scientists can now edit genes in various organisms, holding immense potential for gene therapy, crop improvement, and even the eradication of diseases.

But with great power comes great responsibility, and R-DNA raises a host of ethical concerns.Tinkering with the building blocks of life carries the risk of unintended consequences. Engineered genes could escape and disrupt ecosystems, or modified organisms could have unforeseen health effects. The ability to edit human genes opens the door to designer babies, raising questions about social equity and the potential misuse of the technology for eugenics.

Who Controls the Tools? Access to R-DNA technology could be restricted to wealthy nations or corporations, exacerbating existing inequalities. Biosecurity is also a concern, as the technology could be misused for bioterrorism. Creating entirely new organisms forces us to confront what it means to be "natural." Should we modify plants and animals for human benefit, or preserve their original forms? R-DNA technology is a powerful tool, and we must have open discussions about its ethical implications. Scientists, policymakers, and the public all need to be involved in shaping the future of this technology. As we move forward, open dialogue and collaboration between scientists, policymakers, and the public are crucial to ensure the safe and ethical application of this powerful technology.

The journey of rDNA technology is a testament to human ingenuity and its potential to reshape our world. From decoding the secrets of life to creating solutions for healthcare, agriculture, and beyond, rDNA technology continues to evolve, promising a future filled with exciting possibilities.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Anthropocene:

In a new spin on green electronics, researchers have made a biodegradable electronic circuit board from tree leaves. Such leaf-based electronics, or “leaftronics” as the team from Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden) has dubbed it, could reduce millions of tons of waste that humans produce every year.

Today, the world produces over 50 million metric tons of electronic waste a year. That number that is slated to double by 2050. And printed circuit boards (PCBs) – the flat boards onto which all the circuit chips, wires and other components of an electronic gadget are soldered–-constitute a big share of this e-waste.

PCBs are typically made of fiberglass or a composite plastic. The material is difficult to recycle and is usually either dumped in landfills or burned to separate the valuable metals for reuse.

As detailed in the journal Science Advances, the team used the veiny, webbed skeleton of leaves to create their biodegradable substrates. This fine branched structure is made of the same lignocellulose compounds that give its toughness. Postdoctoral researcher Rakesh Nair and colleagues started by stripping away the cells of a magnolia leaf to leave behind the white veined skeleton. They dipped the scaffold into ethyl cellulose, a tough biodegradable polymer.

The resulting leaftronics substrate is smooth, flexible, transparent, and can handle high temperatures. In that sense it rivals plastic and glass, Nair says, but is biodegradable. The researchers could use a laser to cut the substrate, print circuits on it, as well as solder electronic components on top.

To degrade the substrate, the researchers placed it in an ultrasonic acid bath to remove the metals and circuit components. The boards began to degrade after about a month in compost.

“Up until now, substrates made of biodegradable polymers could not be used for electronic device or circuit fabrication, since they naturally do not handle elevated temperatures well,” Nair says. There are ways to improve the thermal and mechanical properties of biodegradable polymers. But, he says, they “often result in these polymers either no longer being biodegradable or requiring complex, high carbon-footprint, chemical processes,” he says.

Others have also made degradable PCBs using paper, silk, and mushroom skins. But the new method that relies on dipping a leaf scaffold in a biodegradable polymer is much simpler and should allow researchers to make specific biodegradable substrates with superior properties.

[des2dream]

My Favorite Steven Universe Arcs 1: The Unknown Upcoming Threat Arc💎❤🌹

Warning! Spoilers Ahead!

Ever since the 37th episode of Season 1 when Peridot first appeared, The Crystal Gems have constantly been on edge. They've destroyed the Homeworld warp pad to Earth, they've destroyed many of Peridot's robonoids, and did all they could to thwart Homeworld away with unfortunate results in episode 49, The Message once Lapis warns Steven through Greg's TV that Peridot is returning to Earth with more advanced technology and reinforcements. With The Gems having not been to Homeworld in around THOUSANDS of years (and Amethyst wasn't even made there), they have no idea what's coming and they're scared. It was made more clear in episode 50, Political Power where they tried to figure out what to do while trying to shelter Steven from the truth. Everything goes down in episode 51, The Return when a green ship shaped like a giant pointing hand is on its way down to Beach City. The citizens of the city evacuate with Greg and The Gems sending Steven away with heavy hearts. We get a slight glimpse of who The Gems used to be when Greg told Steven, "They were doing something awful to the planet and your mother couldn't stand it anymore!" foreshadowing the fact that Earth used to be Pink Diamond's colony and gem production was harming the planet. Greg also lets it slip out that other gems had it out for Earth many years before and if it wasn't for Rose's shield.....they could've died (or well, shattered). Steven does return to The Gems where the ship finally lands down on the beach.

It's here that we not only get to see Peridot again, but we also see a much more threatening gem named, Jasper who has Lapis held captive. Jasper isn't really thrilled about seeing three "worthless" gems and Steven since she was more interested in beating Rose Quartz. Lapis attempts to protect Steven by saying he's only human, but that proved to be useless since Steven immediately saves his family with Rose Quartz's shield in front of EVERYONE! Because of this, Jasper immediately thinks Steven is Rose himself and plans on taking him to Yellow Diamond, but Garnet rushes in to attack. Unfortunately, Jasper hits her with a gem distabilizer which breaks Garnet's form and reverts into two gems. I doesn't stop there. Jasper knocks Steven out cold, kidnaps the rest of The Crytal Gems, and locks them up separately in the ship before taking off. What a cliffhanger!

Episode 52's, Jailbreak opens up with Steven waking up in a highly advanced prison cell, but he easily slips out (likely because he's half gem/half human). He stumbles into another gem named, Ruby and lets her out so they can find another gem named, Sapphire. Once Ruby reunites with Sapphire, it's revealed that the two of them make up a fusion named....Garnet! That's right, people! GARNET IS A FUSION!!! But, I'm sure many of you know that already. When I first saw this by the time the series was airing, I was shocked! It was a pleasant surprise too! Garnet tells Steven to look for Pearl and Amethyst while she "takes care" of Jasper. It's here where we get one of the most iconic songs in the series, Stronger Than You! It's still really good to listen to! Here is the song with an added-in fanmade Peridot rap made by Katerinu2 who sang and annemarie1996 who animated it.

The Crystal Gems hijack the ship and crash land back to Beach City. Jasper still isn't going down without a fight claiming that Garnet only beat her because she's a fusion. She immediately sees Lapis (who refused Steven's help and told him it's best not to fight off the other gems) and talks her into fusing. Lapis does agree to fuse with Jasper, but shockingly uses that to imprison her and herself into the ocean. As for Peridot, she used an escape pod to leave the ship before it crashed. This arc was truly iconic for the series. All of this happened by the end of Season ONE! It was the start of more threats coming for The Crystal Gems, more adventures, more milestones, and more character development. I enjoy looking back on this arc and we've got even more to cover!

[labequipmentindia]

Laboratory equipment Lab Equipment Manufacturer, Suppliers and Exporter in India

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[wr-n]

I have a question about Eldritch Ink, what is he the god of exactly?

I made a headcanon post about him, sorry I am just so invested that I want more world building about things other than the twins, like what does Error's pocket dimension look like? Or how technologically advanced the world is? Maybe drive into the relationships between the different cults.

Is this brainrot?

1. What is Eldritch Ink the god of?

Well, see, that's tricky because they're not really 'gods'. They don't stick to doing one thing like 'god of war' or 'god of creation'. They just do whatever they want, it just so happens that Error destroys and has near absolute authority and the twins favor emotions.

All I have so far is that Ink is prone to accidentally killing 90% of his followers just be getting too excited and that he regularly gets into fights with Error over shattering multiple realities.

2. What does Error's pocket dimension look like?

Error's pocket dimension is basically a multiverse. Everything is normal sized and once you leave it, you're the same size as when you went in.

You can be... anywhere! There are almost infinite locations to explore.

3. How technologically advanced is the world?

I'm not sure if you mean his dimension or in general so I'll give both:

Error's dimension doesn't really have technology, no one needs it there. Serotonin is administered at request and most of the activities involve craft and sculpting. Sleeping is done in orderly cells and time moves at a constant rate no matter what. (Error is a control freak)

But in general, the timeline of events are in modern day.

4. How do the cults feel about each other?

I'll answer this separately bc this post is so long lmao

[pansexualkiba]

More Underground Fakemon, this time with the region's pseudo-legendary!

Whistless Bug It is small and vulnerable, with a soft, fragile exoskeleton. A rather listless creature, it defends itself by playing an odd, whistling tune that can inspire the same listlessness and apathy in its predators, sapping the motivation of even the hungriest pursuers.

Cracket Bug/Psychic Bold, jovial, and brightly colored, a Cracket's zest for life is as infectious as the melancholy of a Whistless. Their spirited mating songs and dances are a much beloved spectacle, producing psychic waves that inspire euphoria and excitement.

Gullinchu Electric/Grass This household Pokemon has combined with the recklessly headstrong Gullinheim. It uses the glowing plants on its back as makeshift power cells, allowing for an increased rate of fire for its quills.

Hadalchu Electric/Fire A Pokemon born when Autochu combined with Hadalochs. The aggressiveness natural to Hadalochs is tempered by Autochu's docile programming, allowing for more cunning use of Hadalochs's signature blue flames.

Krakenchu Electric/Water Krakenchu is the mechanical fusion of Autochu and Krakenthic. Using Krakenthic's ability to float and its increased dexterity, Krakenchu is able to take down even large Caveribou for fun.

Shrimple Water Shrimple become surprisingly common the further down into the Ocean Cavern depths you go. They crawl along the ocean floor at slow speeds, scavenging what manages to sink to the bottom. When they come up to the surface, it's at their own risk.

Shrimpulse Water Shrimpulse is a Shrimple that has been gifted various technological advancements. The gear attached to its left pincer unleashes pulses of heat and kinetic energy at incredible speeds. It can shatter boulders with this technology, even at a distance and underwater.

Shrimplode Water Shrimplode have become more machine than Pokemon with its cybernetic parts. It swings its technologically-enhanced claws with enough kinetic force to destroy steel. The receptacles on its body store several different kinds of energy to use as ammunition for its destructive attacks.

Whiskworm Ice Whiskworms are well-suited to the Tundra Caverns they live in, and the long whiskers on their faces sense even the most minute changes in temperature. It burrows into ice at a moment's notice, and coats itself in ice scales to deter predators.

Maddaworm Ice/Poison Maddaworms use their fierce bite to deliver fatal poison to their prey. The poison causes a localized numbness likened to a deep chill. The ice coating their whiskers act as a separate pair of teeth, catching prey and bringing them closer to their maws.