#ancient scientific instruments

[beauty-funny-trippy]

[wordsmithic]

unpopular opinion but with the new tide of Greek mythology stories and retellings, Greek Cultural Sensitivity Readings are absolutely necessary. We are in 2024, with thousands of fics and retellings out there!! How is this not a thing yet?? There's vast improvement one can achieve by working professionally on their text with a Greek. I've seen it so many times!!

Also, duh, I'm offering the service BUT I want you to know that the situation with the inaccuracies of SERIOUS works is so dire that initially I didn't even do it for money. As a writer I just wanted to... fix things, to set a new standard for writers and the industry that sells us the most heavily Americanized pop-culture material and passes it as "authentic vibes of Greek mythology". (And of course there were writers who wanted to do right by their story and they had reached out to me. So kudos to them as well!)

Okay, but why does Cultural Sensitivity Reading make a vast difference and it's not just smoke and mirrors?

As a Greek, I am tired of well-meaning writers and authors butchering very basic elements of my culture. It's not their fault exactly, since they were raised in another culture with a different perspective. And nobody clued them in on how different Greek culture is from theirs, so writers sometimes assume that their culture is the default and they project that into ancient Greece. (Even published professionals like Madeline Miller have written "UK or US in antiquity" (with a very colonialist flavor) instead of writing "Ancient Greece". (Looking at you, Circe!)

Even writers who researched a lot before coming to me still had a lot of misinformation or wrong information in their text, easily verifiable by the average Greek. Again, not their fault. They can only access certain information, which does not include Greek scholarly work and scientific articles that DO offer valuable context.

Translation, accuracy, and meaning: If you ever wondered what a word means or how to pronounce it, here's your chance! There are Greeks like me who are knowledgeable and have a keen interest in antiquity and they will be able to read and compare ancient texts, and dive deeper into the work of Greek scholars regarding those texts.

If you want to create new words, you can do that as well! (It doesn't always work, but we can try. Greek is a really rich language and has a word about everything) If you use existing words, I can help you separate reality from fantasy in the context of your story.

(Do not assume we Greeks are ignorant of our heritage, or that we don't know how to research! Our archaeology sector is huge and archaeological museums are closer to most of us than your local Target is to you)

I guarantee there are things you never thought about Greece and the Mediterranean - from the ancient to the modern era. Sprinkling elements like phrases, types of interactions, customs, songs, instruments, dances, etc , into your text will make your text absolutely rich in culture.

Names matter!!! The genders of the names matter, diminutives matter (If I see one more "Perse" for Persephone I will claw my eyes out along with a few thousand Greeks), naming traditions matter!!! In many cases you should not even use a diminutive!!

You will be able to write about a foreign culture easily! Because of the continuity of Greek culture, you can even write a few more recent Greek elements to fill in the gaps. I can make sure they are not mismatched, and they will complement your ancient setting. I have observed a few things I didn't know we had since antiquity, but they make sense because our land has certain characteristics.

Non-Greek writers often miss the whole context of Greek culture! Do you know how Greek respect towards deities and parents looks like? What tones we use when we talk to our elders? When to use honorific plural - if your setting is more modernized?

Oh, and please let's avoid caricatures when describing Greeks?? (even fantasy Greeks) There can be heavy exotisation and odd descriptions of Greeks, as if we are another species. Even in published works. For many western writers it's difficult to catch, unfortunately.

The whole process is actually way easier than you think. You send me a text, I make notes and then we have some discussion on your vision.

It's always okay to seek guidance from the locals! You are not "guilty" when you admit you don't know! How can you know if you don't ask?? You can't imagine what relief and "πάλι καλά!!!" I read/see from other Greeks when I tell them another foreigner is using me for cultural sensitivity? Greeks want you to seek help and will NOT shame you for it!

(On the contrary, you have no idea how many eye-rolls Greeks do when they see a blatantly wrong thing in a story... Which has happened pretty often for many years now. Can we do better as an industry?? Please???)

You can send me a personal message to share your story, or ask what this whole cultural sensitivity thing is all about, or ask about what I have done so far and how I can help. But for the love of all that's good, don't let your story be another "generic greek myth retelling"! And don't let others sell you their generic greek myth retellings!!

[motorghost]

john watson, tenderness, and colonialism

one thing I like imagining about the brand of masculinity that Watson (can) represent is tenderness. this isn't actually a natural quality of his profession; army surgeons were more benevolent butchers back then, even if the simple desire to heal is what started watson down that road in the first place. there is not a lot of room for tenderness when you have to make split-second decisions regarding another soul's flesh, when you have to listen to their screams and their threats and their pleas and still do what your mind knows is the best course of action to save them. i imagine watson writing little stories as an escape from the horror as well as from his own (often pointless) role in it. perhaps he had his fill of being the decision-maker early on. and perhaps he yearned for tenderness at the hospital, confined for months to a bed and to his pain, perhaps seeing tenderness in his carers but also, perhaps, seeing the same resignation and emotional distancing he knew was necessary in medical practitioners in order to make good decisions, to think clearly. on top of that, the many immortal lessons of war. one of which: there is no god but what we make on this earth, for ourselves and for each other.

i imagine him arriving in london a flayed thing. snarling inside of an old costume that no longer fits: that of a gentleman (he's not, he's of the new middle class, and poor besides,) of a noble soldier (the cause was a sick joke, the honors not earned,) and of a skilled physician (what skill, when his hands barely answer his head and his heart jumps at every abrupt sound?) self-obliterating through gambling and drink. lingering in pointlessness with no way out. going on simply because it would be immoral not to, and he has endured enough shame already.

then: holmes. here is someone who has made an art form of the same detachment watson had to employ during the war. though he is dazzled by holmes's intellect and exhilarated by this scientific method of crime-solving and impressed by his iron will, he also sees the burden holmes bears. the proximity to mankinds' worst elements that lowers holmes even as he conquers heights unimagined, not to mention the pains his own otherwise magnificent mind afford him, as well as the invisible pain of loneliness (of living as Othered; of living in the city, as existential depression rises alongside industrial progress.)

as anyone who suddenly discovers their raison d'être—their reason for living—watson enthusiastically throws himself into offering the thing he most wanted to bring to his patients but could not: tenderness. in response to holmes's pain, watson offers gentleness and kindness and years of unquestionable, indefatigable loyalty.

colonialism relies on the strict differentiation between Us and Them, good and evil, black and white. it demands that actions be judged so that they can either be glorified or condemned. "there is so much that has to be denounced, and also so much that has to be praised."* watson praises holmes in print, and condemns those who harm the vulnerable, but for holmes himself, watson gives tenderness. tenderness is not a fist around a gavel, it is an open palm. holmes believes that watson is better than any british jury because he is tender. and perhaps holmes doesn't even understand the value of watson's tenderness until he's spent three years alone in eastern lands, away from the dominance of western, imperialist thought, and away from the man who helped him in ways he didn't recognize until he was gone.

perhaps watson learned that true healing can only be done at a level unreachable by physical instruments. in more ancient times, doctors more resembled priests; the treatment of the body and the treatment of the soul were not so separate. and maybe he learned that true healing is impossible in this life; that while there is much to live for, there is also forever pain. and the only way to mitigate that pain is through tenderness. and what is more tender than a little story about a great man who solves impossible problems, written in such a way as to stick out in the mind of readers for over a hundred years? even if it only distracts you from the pain for a few hours, that is surely enough.

[creativepromptsforwriting]

hey, do you have any like science fantasy prompts? thanks!

Had to google what science fantasy is, but I guess it's something like Star Wars (which I didn't really watch). I'm trying my best for you :)

Science Fantasy Prompts

Every good space ship has an alchemist on their crew, both for healing, but also for warfare.

An archaeologist discovers a series of ancient artifacts that possess both magical and scientific properties. Now they are trying to piece together the artifacts' history and finding out how created them.

The world's energy comes from magically playing instruments. When the underlying sound stops, so does the energy and therefore all their technology. So an IT guy, a wizard and a bard are getting send to the cave where the instruments are to fix them and in the bard's case, to play them in the meantime.

In a vast, interdimensional library that contains the knowledge of every world, a librarian with magical abilities and a tech-savvy historian join forces to prevent an attack on the worlds' knowledge.

Dragons used to be a normal part of society, but with the more advanced technology and skyscrapers, they are seen less and less in the cities.

Have fun!

- Jana

[fandomtrumpshate]

Fan Labor Golden Needles

At the time of posting, we still have 26 glorious fan labor auctions that have no bids. That means this could be your chance to make a small donation and get some help with beta reading, sensitivity reading, specialist expertise, or even some more unique offers!

astriiformes is offering Culture picking, Sensitivity reading, Specialist expertise, and Research for ANY fandom. They list the following areas of expertise:

Jewish & American culture-picking, sensitivity reading for Jewish, aromantic, asexual, transgender (especially transmasculine), ADHD, autistic, and chronically and mentally ill characters, as well as writing queerplatonic relationships. Specialist expertise: Archives and archival work, stringed instruments and orchestras, queer history, scientific & medical history, historical research

birbleafs is offering Betaing for Genshin Impact; Star Wars (Original Trilogy, Prequel Trilogy, The Clone Wars, Legends / Extended Universe) and Jujutsu Kaisen

Blue_Rose_1066 is offering Betaing, Sensitivity reading, Specialist expertise for Wheel of Time; Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson; and Good Omens. Here's how they describe their areas of expertise:

I am a Judaic studies student and have a good familiarity with ancient Jewish history, as well as WW2 German and USSR front. I can also provide knowledge about dog training, knitting, Hebrew Bible, Jewish practices, migraines and chronic paid. I can provide sensitivity reading for gender nonconforming (agender, nonbinary), Bisexual/ Frey sexual. I can provide any type of beta reading needed. I tend to ask a lot of questions, and notice small details.

BrowserET is offering Betaing, Specialist expertise for Avatar The Last Airbender; Legend of Zelda; and Any fandom they've created for before. Their expertise is in Camping/Hiking and Chess.

Chestnut_pod is offering to read a book or watch a ballet of your choice and give it a full-length review.

coslyons is offering Specialist expertise for ANY fandom

I am offering to provide myself as a resource for "ask an engineer". My expertise is primarily in civil engineering, but I have some background in other sub-types of engineering. I'm happy to provide feedback on any work, help with brainstorming and ideation, or answer general information questions.

donnadonera is offering Betaing and Translation (English to Spanish) for Dragon Age (Any); The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System; Tian Guan Ci Fu / Heaven Official's Blessing; and Steven Universe

fireandhoney is offering Translation (English to French) for Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle stories, BBC Sherlock); Any fandom they've created for before; and Harry Potter (Marauders Era, Original Series)

Galwithalibrarycard is offering Betaing for 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star; Les Misérables; and Stranger Things

griffindor111 is offering Betaing, Culture picking, Specialist expertise, and Worldbuilding for K-Pop (SEVENTEEN); and Haikyuu!!!

Culture-picking: Australian, as well as picking for 1st generation Asian immigrant in a western country Specialist expertise: Law (specifically Australian Law), coding (Python, HTML), violin and choir Worldbuilding: can help you worldbuild and finetune the finer details of your world

justtheblueberry is offering Typesetting for Genshin Impact; Haikyuu!!!; and any fandom they've created for before

Keladry is offering Betaing and American Culture picking for ANY fandom

Keladry is also offering Betaing and American Culture picking for Check Please!; Hockey RPF; and Marvel (Any)

kitkatkelly is offering Betaing, Culture picking, Specialist expertise for Good Omens; Our Flag Means Death; and Legend of Zelda.

Canada, English. Specialist expertise in music, especially singing, public service (government) work, modelling.

Lanterns is offering Betaing for Iron Widow; Gravity Falls; and Fruits Basket

Math-Is-Magic is offering Betaing, Sensitivity reading (ace and lesbian), and a unique offer to "Create/update Fanlore pages, stuff like that" for Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, Arcane and Dimension 20

Fanlore Pages: I'm happy to create a fanlore page on your choice of subject, or to overhaul an existing one. However, the less I know about the subject, the more I may need to rely on you for guidance and feedback. I.e. if you want me to create a page for one of your fics, you'd need to summarize the fic for me, or for a fandom I don't know, you'd have to point me towards the Big Things to know about the fandom and where I might get first-handed sources to read about it, etc.

Mouse9 is offering Betaing for The Magnus Archives/Protocol; Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle stories, BBC Sherlock, Elementary, Enola Holmes, Sherlock & Co.); 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star

multifandom-fanfic-writer is offering Betaing for Naruto; Hannibal; and Ace Attorney

obsidianbyten is offering Betaing for Bungo Stray Dogs; Naruto; and The Owl House

queer_drunk_dwarf is offering Betaing for Minecraft Youtubers (DSMP, Parkour Civilization, QSMP); and Original Work

ranichi17 is offering Betaing, Culture picking, Sensitivity reading, Specialist expertise, Translation for A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon; Good Omens; Sherlock Holmes: Arthur Conan Doyle stories, Granada Holmes, Robert Downey Jr Movies, Watson CBS, the KAJ Mycroft series

I am also a native Filipino still living in the Philippines so I can help with the culture picking and translations in Filipino.

schweet_heart is offering Betaing and Specialist expertise for Merlin and the Biggles Series by W. E. Johns

have some (slightly rusty) skills in Latin and Old English if you need help to translate short pieces for spells or other purposes.

ShadowSpires is offering Betaing for Call of Duty; One Piece; and Star Wars (Original Trilogy, Prequel Trilogy, Sequel Trilogy, The Clone Wars, Rebels, Rogue One)

tiltedsyllogism is offering Betaing, Culture picking, and Specialist expertise for For All Mankind

Yankpicking (both language and culture); Russia-picking (both language and culture)

Toshokanin is offering Specialist expertise for Interview with the Vampire; Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, and Tian Guan Ci Fu / Heaven Official's Blessing

I will nitpick your library or bookshop fic! Let me help you make the most of these fun fandom settings, while also ensuring that any variation from the reality of the industry is a deliberate choice you make for your story.

winchestered_again is offering Sensitivity reading for Stranger Things; Any fandom they've created for before; and It by Stephen King

I have experience with stigmatized disorders that are often/mostly demonized/sensationalized in media, such as OCD (bar O-OCD/Pure O-OCD or cleanliness OCD, the most well-known), BPD, NPD, and DID to name ones that are probably the most known. I can also help where things like those + disorders like Autism intersect with gender identity and sexuality, particularly with FTM or Non-Binary / Genderfluid identities and can also speak on the AroAce spectrum of sexuality.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Dreams

Dreams - images, emotions, or sensations the brain produces during sleep.

While dreaming can occur during any stage of the sleep cycle, rapid eye movement sleep (also known as REM sleep) produces the most memorable and vivid dreams.

There are many types of dreams, including healing, prophetic, recurring, lucid, and nightmares.

You can have multiple dreams per sleep session, which can be as short as 10 seconds and as long as 45 minutes.

Types of Dreams

People can have several types of dreams. While the possibilities are limitless, some common categories include:

Flying dreams: Many people dream they can fly. These dreams are often pleasant and even euphoric. Dreamers might associate these dreams with sensations of freedom, fearlessness, and empowerment.

Lucid dreams: The sleeper becomes aware they are dreaming while in a lucid dreaming state and can retain some control of their body and thoughts within the dream.

Nightmares: These are fear-inducing dreams. In this case, the dream state might be the brain’s way of processing daily stressors. Common causes of nightmares or bad dreams include poor eating habits, traumatic events, illness, sleep deprivation, sleep disorders, or medication.

Prophetic dreams: In prophetic dreams, people see future events occur before they happen in real life. Some believe these dreams mean a person has predicted the future, while others believe prophetic dreams are the subconscious preparing you for a likely outcome.

Recurring dreams: These are dreams a person repeatedly experiences over a sleep session or multiple sleep sessions. Recurring dreams contain the same or similar imagery and sensations in prior occurrences and can also occur as recurring nightmares. Various theories suggest that recurring dreams result from risk avoidance, internalized fears, or other unresolved issues.

Stress dreams: Another common dream phenomenon involves stress. While not outright nightmares, stress dreams are often tense and unpleasant. Many people report dream content that involves tests for which they are unprepared or other situations that are confusing or difficult.

Dream Theories

There is no clear scientific explanation for the function of dreams, but there is a range of theories.

Sleep expert Matthew Walker says, “The origin of dreams or the belief of where dreams come from has a very storied history and past.”

The study of dreams is a large and growing field of scientific inquiry, and theories continue to emerge from neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive science.

Some notable examples of dream theories include:

Emotional processing: One theory is people dream to process emotions. Dreams can often be emotionally charged, and by dreaming, people might work through emotional challenges and better prepare themselves for the difficulties of everyday life.

Learning assistance: Some researchers suggest the purpose of dreams is to learn new skills and sharpen problem-solving abilities. When a person focuses on learning a new skill or working through a challenging problem, they might dream about the activity to help them complete the task.

Memory consolidations: Another dream theory holds dreams are instrumental in forming new memories. While the precise mechanism remains mysterious, some sleep experts believe dreaming in the REM stage helps the brain consolidate short-term memories and store them as long-term memories.

Mental organizing: Some sleep experts believe dreaming is a way to organize mental space. During sleep, a person’s mind sifts through the sensory data they encountered while they were awake, making important neural connections where necessary and editing out extraneous information.

Otherworldly communication: Many religious traditions maintain dreams are a way to connect with other worlds or dimensions. Many believe dreamed encounters with departed loved ones contain great significance. “Back in ancient Roman and Greek times, they believed that our dreams were being gifted to us from on high, from in the heavens, from specific gods,” Matthew says. “And then other cultures, for example, Eastern Asian cultures, believed that dreams were coming from somewhere in our soul, perhaps somewhere in our body.”

Random noise: Some researchers believe dreams don’t have any particular purpose and are a byproduct of an active brain. This random brain activity might not have any other special purpose.

Unconscious desires: Austrian psychotherapist Sigmund Freud’s theory posits dreams are expressions of the unconscious mind’s desires. If people cannot express desires in their waking life, the unconscious mind might enact them as fantasies during sleep. “[Freud] made, in some ways, the science of dreaming a brain science [or] a neuroscience,” Matthew says. “Because it was Freud who suggested that it was somewhat in the mind of each of us that our dreams were coming from. That was the repository of dreaming.”

How to Remember Dreams

Everyone dreams at night, but few people can remember their dreams. Consider the following tips for recalling your dreams:

Establish a good sleep routine. Having a regular bedtime and waking time is a good way to practice healthy sleep hygiene, which might help you recall your dreams.

Focus on recall right after waking. The memory of a dream fades fast, so you are most likely to recall your dreams right after you wake up.

Keep a dream journal. By recording your sleep stories in a dream journal, you will build a habit of recalling your dreams more often. As you write down the details of your dreams, you might strengthen your ability to remember even more.

Wake up gently. If you wake up abruptly, you are likely to jolt into your waking mindset, and any fragments that might remain of your dreams will quickly disperse. Try using an alarm clock that has gentle sounds. Soft, low-volume music or voices can also assist in a smoother transition to waking life, making dream recall easier.

“Dreams are visual. They're filled with motor activity. We tend to be doing things. Are they filled with past autobiographic memories? Yes, very often. Are dreams sometimes emotional? They can be, very much so. Are dreams irrational, illogical, or bizarre? Yes, very much. And so brain science has given us the first neural evidence for describing the way in which we experience this strangest of all things called the dreaming state.” — Matthew Walker, neuroscience professor

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[mysticstronomy]

WHAT IS THE OLDEST KNOWN GALAXY??

Blog#491

Welcome back,

Wednesday, March 26th, 2025.

Astronomers calculate distances to remote objects by measuring redshifts, a yardstick of how deeply stretched the galaxy’s light is (and redder means farther away). GS-z14-0 was discovered to have a redshift of 14.3, besting the 2022 record of a galaxy found with a redshift of 13.2 that corresponded to a formation age of some 325 million years after the Big Bang.

And GS-z14-0 is some five times more luminous than that prior most-distant galaxy, according to Kevin Hainline, a professor at the University of Arizona, who helped lead the discovery.

“Nobody dreamed that there would be galaxies this bright at this high redshift,” says George Rieke, another University of Arizona astronomer who is the former deputy director of Steward Observatory.

According to NASA, members of the JADES team explained recently that “the light we see is coming mostly from young stars and not from emission near a growing supermassive black hole. This much starlight implies that the galaxy is several hundreds of millions of times the mass of the Sun! This raises the question: How can nature make such a bright, massive, and large galaxy in less than 300 million years?”

The galaxy is surprising for another reason, too. JADES researcher Jake Helton, also of the University of Arizona, identified an unexpected abundance of dust and emission lines from hydrogen and oxygen in the galaxy’s spectrum. The oxygen suggests that generations of massive stars have come and gone in the galaxy.

And there’s more.

The galaxy’s number of massive stars poses a dark-matter conundrum. Dark matter accumulates as the cosmos expands. Rieke says that “the problem with this galaxy is it’s pushing against what we think is the maximum mass for a dark halo at that time.”

The findings were made with JWST’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph, Near-Infrared Camera, and Mid-Infrared Instrument. In the latter case, researchers noted the irony that during the budget woes of JWST, the Mid-Infrared Instrument was frequently targeted for budget cuts. Now, along with its companion science packages, it’s targeting the earliest galaxies in the cosmos.

The findings from GS-z14-0 did not come easy. The team first observed the object more than a year ago, but its brightness and proximity to another galaxy was puzzling. While they had a preliminary redshift finding, the team later obtained a spectrum that confirmed the galaxy’s distance, along with its other puzzling properties, measurements that push but do not overturn models of stellar and galactic formation. The “naïve assumption,” said Helton, had been that these earlier galaxies would be smaller and fainter.

That’s why Hainline would go on to compare the finding to excavating a cellphone among ancient ruins in Rome because this galaxy is so much brighter than the previous record holder and seems more evolved in terms of composition.

Hainline and his colleagues were initially skeptical of the findings and later threw hands in the air with excitement. Hainline told Astronomy that the finding was “one of the weird great moments of my scientific career.” This is especially so because he recalls sleeping under a table during the Texas landfall of Hurricane Harvey. He was part of a skeleton crew left at NASA facilities to shepherd JWST during the storm. The GS-z14-0 discovery reminds him, he stresses, of the dedication of everyone who made the Webb Telescope and its ongoing findings possible.

Certainly JADES-GS-z14-0 won’t be the record-holder forever. As time rolls on, astronomers are destined to find even more distant, younger galaxies.

Originally published on https://www.astronomy.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, March 29th, 2025)

"WHAT IS THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND??"

[blueiscoool]

1,100-Year-Old Sealed Amphora Found in Shipwreck off Turkey

An extraordinary discovery has been made in the crystal-clear waters off the Kas district in Antalya, Türkiye. Archaeologists conducting underwater excavations with the help of robotic technology have recovered a 1,100-year-old sealed amphora, igniting excitement in the world of archaeology.

Led by Associate Professor Hakan Oniz, Chair of the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage at Akdeniz University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, a 20-person dive team has been working meticulously on this groundbreaking project.

The excavation is carried out under the “Heritage for the Future Project” by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, on behalf of the Antalya Museum.

Excavating the depths with robotic precision

Focusing their efforts near Besmi Island off the coast of Kas, the team utilized advanced underwater robots to conduct excavations several meters below the surface. At depths of approximately 45-50 meters, the divers successfully retrieved a sealed amphora from the wreckage of an ancient ship, a moment described as thrilling by the team.

Rather than being brought directly ashore, the amphora underwent an initial conservation process before being transported to the Akdeniz University Underwater Archaeology Laboratory in Kemer. Using microscopes and specialized magnifying tools, experts carefully examined the artifact. Then, specialists from the Antalya Regional Conservation Council and laboratory restorers meticulously opened the sealed amphora for an hour, employing chisels, hammers, and delicate instruments.

A glimpse into the past, locked away for over a millennium

As the ancient seal was broken, archaeologists eagerly examined the texture, content, and even scent of the material inside the amphora to determine its nature. Samples have been collected, and detailed scientific analyses are now underway to identify the contents with certainty.

The opening of the amphora and the preliminary examination of its contents were exclusively documented by Anadolu Agency.

Ancient trade routes revealed

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, excavation leader Associate Professor Hakan Oniz shared that the merchant vessel likely originated from the Gaza coast in Palestine and sank during a violent storm in the Mediterranean around 1100 years ago.

At that time, Gaza was a major exporter of olive oil, and it is believed that wine was shipped from the region of Sarkoy-Gazikoy in Tekirdag as well.

“This was a trading ship that visited multiple ports during the ninth and 10th centuries, a period dominated by Abbasid rule. Although amphoras thought to have carried wine were found onboard, it is unlikely that the local Palestinian population consumed wine at that time. Instead, it may have been intended as gifts for Christian pilgrims or travelers visiting Jerusalem,” Oniz elaborated.

‘A unique find that defies time’

Oniz emphasized the rarity of the find, stating, “It is incredibly rare to discover an amphora whose seal remained intact for more than a millennium. It could contain olive pits, olive oil, wine, or even fish sauce—but it might also be something entirely unexpected. Opening the amphora was thrilling, but awaiting the final analysis is even more exciting.”

Long road ahead for scientific analysis

Professor Meltem Asilturk Ersoy from Akdeniz University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering noted that this was her first time studying the preserved contents of a sealed amphora.

Describing the interior contents as “muddy samples,” Ersoy added, “We aim to understand what has happened inside over 1,100 years of exposure to underwater pressure and temperature variations.”

“A single test is not sufficient. We need multiple analyses to corroborate our findings, so this process will be lengthy. By combining the analysis results with historical knowledge from the era, we aim to offer significant insights to the world of science and archaeology,” Ersoy said.

Meanwhile, Rabia Nur Akyuz, the restorer-conservator who handled the desalination and opening of the amphora, highlighted the delicate nature of the process. “We had to ensure that the artifact remained wet at all times to prevent the external deposits from drying out,” she explained.

[another-goblin]

They finally released a full-res version of that concert promo, and it raised some questions.

1. Why an accordion?

I don't think they put too much thought into what instruments to give to the characters, but there is certain logic.

Characters from a Chinese-inspired faction (Jingliu, Yanqing, and Jing Yuan) seem to use traditional Chinese instruments (with both Yanqing and Jing Yuan playing a flute. Like father, like son!) Kafka plays the violin. Aventurine playing an electric guitar, an aggressively modern and international instrument, might indicate how he's removed from his traditional roots.

So what about the accordion? How Greco-Roman or traditional is it? (the short answer is, not at all.)

The accordion had been invented in the 19th century in Germany.

It rapidly gained popularity in rural Europe due to its ability to both play the melody and the accompaniment.

It has also been gaining popularity in classical and jazz music lately, as well as apparently being quite popular in South America. Despite this, it seems to be mostly associated with folk European music (especially popular in Eastern and Central Europe, especially the Balkans), creating a connection with traditional European music.

It basically represents a "traditional" European instrument without being tied to any particular culture (because of not being traditional actually).

So what instrument would you give a quirky and kind of old-timey European? An accordion.

Because at the same time they had to emphasize how not from Amphoreus he is, so traditional Greek or Latin instruments were out of the question (notice how Castorice is playing a modernized version of an ancient Greek lyre.) And you can't give him any instrument associated with different European countries because he's not from there either.

To think of it, an accordion is a good fit for a weird, forever homeless guy of unclear origin who can't be associated with any country in particular.

2. Why is the accordion so small, with tiny keys?

There are mini-accordions and kids accordions, but their keys are normal size. This one seems like a normal accordion just scaled down 2 times. Weird.

Does he often walk into bars with his tiny accordion?

Speaking of which, what do people say about men with small accordions?

Does he play sad songs on the world's smallest accordion?

Bad jokes write themselves.

3. What is he wearing? Why the "skirt"? The obvious (and the only correct) answer is that it's just an awkward attempt to marry his traditional outfit with a modern western costume.

But why not speculate? First, it gave me strong Indian vibes. Modern western-looking clothes with a long garment sticking from under the vest:

I'm 100% sure that wasn't the inspiration, but it kind of looks like it, right?

Meanwhile, nothing I could find of traditional Greek and Italian clothes looks even close.

And it's a pity that they decided to give him this default "western" look with this little traditional element that feels out of place.

Speaking of skirts. Hoyo, stop being cowards! Make him double down on his unapologetic weirdness! This is a man who wears a marble bust as a mask and takes baths in the middle of a scientific space station. Make him proudly wear this! And play this!

(Btw I'm curious how historical this costume actually is. I never saw anything like this outside of official occasions or performances)

But the way he is now, I can totally see him playing at a wedding in an Albanian village in the beginning of the last century.

[bardic-tales]

Day 4 | Diana Ravenscroft | Day 6

31 days of FF 7 Headcanons: Day 5: Relationship with Materia

In the world of Gaia, materia is often treated with reverence, caution, or strategic utility. For Diana Ravenscroft, however, materia is not a means to survive or a conduit to the Planet’s will. It is a subject, a specimen, and a locked vault of planetary memory and divine architecture she has every intention of dissecting and decoding.

Today’s exploration delves into Diana’s uniquely clinical relationship with materia: not as a user or believer, but as a scientist seeking to master the unmasterable. This entry examines how her fixation on materia’s genetic, divine, and metaphysical properties reflects the core of her worldview. Her fixation is one where understanding demands domination, and awe is always forced to kneel before knowledge.

Possible Trigger Warnings: body horror, experimentation, forced implantation, medical trauma, non-consensual modification, scientific exploitation, violence

Diana Ravenscroft’s relationship with materia is one of scientific detachment and intellectual scrutiny rather than mystical reverence or practical reliance. She views materia not as a tool for battle or survival, but as a rare biological and metaphysical phenomenon: a crystalline compression of planetary will that can be categorized and weaponized. In her eyes, materia represents the intersection of science and the divine, a place where her obsession with understanding supernatural forces can be made manifest. Unlike typical Shinra operatives who use materia for combat efficiency, Diana prefers to extract and analyze them in controlled laboratory settings, stripping away their mythos to reveal their inner workings.

While she is more than capable of using materia herself, Diana rarely does unless absolutely necessary. Her style of work doesn't lend itself to battlefield magic. She delegates that to enhanced test subjects, SOLDIER prototypes, and controlled experiments. When she does wield materia, she does so with surgical precision, preferring types like Contain, Gravity, or the elusive Enemy Skill materia. Her use is never emotional or instinctive. It’s calculated, data-driven, and often tied to live experimentation, especially when testing the resilience of genetically modified subjects.

During her obsession with the divine and Bianca Moore, her fascination with materia intensified following the discovery that certain individuals can naturally absorb or synthesize materia-like energy without external conduits became an obsession. Diana began experimenting with materia implantation, theorizing that materia could be used as a medium for permanent genetic alterations if properly stabilized. Her labs became host to grotesque trials in which subjects were forcefully fused with materia, often resulting in catastrophic failure, but in the rare case of success, she documented cellular regeneration.

This belief turned into an obsession, pushing her to experiment with corrupted and forbidden materia: dark, unstable shards extracted from ruins or rumored to have been tainted by proximity to the Planet's wounds. She wasn't content with the standard elemental and command sets. Diana sought materia tied to ancient knowledge and the boundary between life and death. Her fixation reached a crescendo when she attempted to create a hybrid materia using a demonic cells extracted from Bianca and an Odin summon materia. Though the project failed catastrophically, it marked another pivotal moment in Diana’s descent into scientific fanaticism.

In the end, Diana doesn’t see materia as a source of wonder or connection to the Planet. She sees it as a key. A key to unmaking death, to controlling gods, and to rewriting the boundaries of human evolution. Her relationship with materia mirrors her relationship with people: cold, instrumental, and exploitative. Yet, buried in her clinical approach is a flicker of awe she will never admit. This is an unspoken reverence for the cosmic architecture of a world that still dares to defy her scalpel.

@themaradwrites @shepardstales @megandaisy9 @watermeezer

@prehistoric-creatures @creativechaosqueen @chickensarentcheap

@inkandimpressions @arrthurpendragon @projecthypocrisy @serenofroses

[elbiotipo]

So when it comes to distance in a fictional setting, is metric king? I wrote some fantasy post-apoc recently where the protagonist measured it in Oranges and Aevums (the latter being their own name), but more generally speaking is it worth it to hash out bespoke measurement systems for fictional cultures, do you think?

Oranges as a measurement unit sounds so funny, and a measurement based in... yourself makes surprising sense, given all the measurements based on body parts. Why not YOURSELF?

Well, I would think in a real post-apoc world metric would be king indeed, scientific and technologic instruments are in metric even in the US and you could always get a ruler from a school or scales from a grocery store, so eventually you could get back on track to reforming the metric system. It would be interesting, though, if every society during isolation had slightly different measurements for the same units because of faulty equipment (say, ohms or amperes or even grays) and they had to make a congress to clear things up.

Returning to your main question. My perspective here is the same as conlangs. It's very, very fun to have them, but it's not fun to force your audience to read them. When I write something set in a fantasy or science fiction setting, in my head I'm assuming the characters are speaking different languages and I DO explain them and even give examples of them, but the story itself is written, for both the reader's and the writer convenience, in a language we can understand (Spanish in my case, and then it can be translated). Same with units of measurement. I seldom use direct units of measurement like writing "the ship was 110.3 meters long" (in science fiction, it's often a trap as they force you to stay true to them), when more descriptive language can be used...

In any case, you could do, for the kind of immersion I love, say something like "she was 14 oranges* tall, rather small for her age" and do an asterisk like "*A.N. : 1.39 meters tall". This is very fun when used sparingly, because it gives the worldbuilding obessed reader something to play with, you can do the conversion yourself and learn more about the world, without interrupting the story. Some understandably dislike this approach, but I think that if you know what you're doing, you can hide some pretty deep lore behind it. In one of my favorite retro games, The Ur-Quan Masters, there is an alien race called the Slylandro who live in a gas giant. When they tell you their ancient history, they use their own system of measurment based on the rotation of their planet with its own names like Dranhasa and Dranh. The game actually provides you with the rotation time on "Earth" time, so some dedicated fans did the conversion, and found out the dates fit with major events in the game's past. I thought that was an awesome bit.

But I digress again. Does this mean you should not talk about measurements in your story? No, it can do for very fun plots and digressions, as well as make things more realistic and beliveable. A fantasy world sharing all the same measurement units can be as unplausible as everybody speaking "Common". Let's remember that the current metric system is a modern invention which took a long time to be adopted (and some, well one, country, still resists it). Just take a look at the many, many historical systems of measurement:

This was especially prominent in places like the Holy Roman Empire, where every statelet, county, principality, free city, prince-bishopric, duchy, archduchy, etc. may and most often did have different measurements from each other. Just take a look at how measurements varied from each German region, it's crazy. The systems of weight where particularily important. Before the introduction of standarized coinage, coins also varied not only between kingdoms, but between regions, and even towns, and coins made at different times with different alloys had different values. Rather than money in our modern sense, you could think of them as some kind of 'asset' that could vary in value depending on the circumstances. What's more, those values had to be checked by people who knew what they were working with. Silver and gold content could be weighed, ah, but you need good scales and weights, and someone who knows how to work them! And these people could easily rip you off, or you could lose value accidentally if those scales weren't done just right or fiddled with on purpose. In fact, this is where the word 'Mark' comes from.

It wasn't as easy to take say a 100 something bill and get the change in 1 something coins. There is a very interesting subplot in the anime Spice and Wolf where Lawrence, the trader character, has been paid in gold coins, and he has to trade them into lesser denominations. However, he has to be REAL careful so that nobody scams him given all I told you above. Even getting 'gold' coins was a gamble before modern coinage and banking (another long topic). How much of that is REALLY gold and not an alloy with silver or other metal? Who can you trust to tell you how much your coins are worth? Are they compatible between borders or even time, is this version worth as much as the others? Things that characters in fantasy who have just plundered a dragon's hoard almost never think about. Except in Spice and Wolf.

(here is a gif of Holo to break the wall of text)

This all of course, as again you can see in Spice and Wolf, can make trade very tedious and even unstable. This was one of the reasons why the metric system was so quickly adopted in Europe and then elsewhere; consistent units just allow for easier trade. Lots of other things involving measurement can have a major impact on your story. For one, you NEED consistent and accurate measurement to create even the most basic industrial and scientific equipment. You can wing it for a time like alchemists (and even they knew their measurements) but eventually, you need to measure things to understand them. To have working steam engines, steel production, chemical industries and more, you need to know your temperature is. If you want to do electricity, you need measurements for current, resistance and charge. If you're doing engineering, you need to have lenght, weight and volume very, very clear, or people will die. They don't necessarily need to be universal like the metric system (though it has lots of advantages, being coherent between units and decimal so it doesn't jump between different denominations) but they need to be standarized and measurable.

Most of the above, unless you're writing some kind of encyclopedia about a fictional scientific revolution (BASED BASED BASED) will not affect your characters directly. But IT IS worth keeping in mind for what kind of world your characters are living in. The standarization of measurement units always means SOMETHING in the state of your society, the strenght of the state and centralized authority, the state of scientific understanding (one could say that trying to measure the world was perhaps THE scientific revolution, "Man as a measure of all things"), the capability for industry and the standarization of coinage and trade.

Even if you don't have your characters interact directly with those things, they will interact with them. It's also, like I've said in the examples, fun to imagine characters having to learn or deal with different units of measurement, just as it is fun to imagine them learning new languages or cultural quirks. It's something I've done in the past, in my space opera setting, the worlds descended from the United States STILL use the imperial system, much to the frustration of the rest of the metric human sphere. There is also an alien character who has a hard time to learn human measurements, and that makes her melancholic about her past, as they can't intuitively see the now-extinct measurements she does. Again, man as a measure of all things... this does include other thinking beings...

There's more I could talk about here regarding time, but I did a post about that, though I'm not satisfied with it and will probably redo it in some time at the future. In any case, there's lot to talk about why every calendar in science fiction has 365 days and 24 hours.

As always, if you found this interesting and helpful, I would be very thankful if you gave a tip to my ko-fi! And feel free to ask about anything you'd like!

[talonabraxas]

Venus & Mars ‘Cosmic Lovers’ Talon Abraxas

Venus and Mars

Venus and Mars are the planets closest to the earth; they refer to what is most personal and primordial in the make-up and the behavior of a human being, to the most intimate factors in the life of an individual.

Venus moves inside of the earth's orbit, Mars outside of it; and this fact alone tells what meaning they have in astrology. Indeed the basic meanings attributed to each of the planets in our solar system is neither a matter of chance nor the result of millennial observations by astrologers and empirical tests; these meanings are deduced essentially from the place the planets occupy in the solar system and in relation to the earth.

Thus, because Mars is the first planet outside the earth's orbit, it represents fundamentally outgoing activity and the organic and psychological instrumentalities which make such an activity possible (for instance, at the physical level, a man's muscles, his adrenal glands releasing quick energy for action).

In contrast to Mars, Venus — the first planet inside the earth's orbit — refers to man's ability to bring into the field of his consciousness and inner life the results of his experiences, and thus to pass a feeling judgment — pleasurable or painful, elating or depressing, good or bad — upon these experiences which Mars made possible.

The symbolic characters traditionally used to represent Mars and Venus can best be understood if we relate them to the one for our planet, Earth. In many medieval paintings we find God (or even the emperor, as a divine ruler), holding in his hand a globe surmounted by a cross. This is the earth, as the home of Man, whom God created in His image and likeness.

According to a persistent and widespread occult tradition, the planet Venus is the spiritual twin of the earth. It was from Venus that some eleven millions years ago a host of spiritual beings came upon our planet to give to animal-like human beings the divine "seed" of self-conscious intelligence and moral responsibility. The Greek myth of Prometheus is an abridged version of the same event.

It is also said that wheat, perhaps corn and bees (and probably ants also, as everything has its shadow aspect) were brought along in some manner from Venus. Even the Hebrew Bible has its version of this "descent" upon the earth of quasi-divine beings when it speaks (Genesis 5) of the coming of the Sons of God who took as wives the daughters of men.

Whether this be fact or myth (but what is the source of myth?) the astrological (and astronomical) sign for the earth is that of Venus inverted — and we should remember the old saying that "the Devil is God inverted." Here on earth the — cross dominates the circle or globe; on Venus it is the circle which stands over the cross. What does this mean?

When one looks through a small telescope or gunsight often a cross made of two fine threads (the web spun by the black widow spider-makes the best) helps us to focus our observations or aim This most ancient symbol, the even-armed cross, is not only a Christian image — its meaning reaches into the very depth of existence, and especially of human existence, for man is that being in whom all powers and faculties can reach a clear and sharp focus. The value of our modern science and its rigorous type of logical thinking is that it is a discipline of thought which makes possible the most precise focusing of our attention — our discrimination and, in general, our mental faculties.

This indeed is the function of earth life and of incarnated man — to be precise, accurate and sharply discriminative in conditions in which an either-or judgment (an intellectual-rational or a moral yes-or-no judgment) is imperative. But man can go too far — and perhaps has gone too far — along this road leading to the sharpest possible focusing of his mind and energies, and our modern scientific civilization, based on the "specialist," may yet prove how disastrous this "too far" can be.

Venus, on other hand, refers to a realm of existence in which a whole view of life dominates the opposite earth trend toward the sharply focused analysis of a multitude of details. The circle is a symbol of wholeness, of infinite possibility. The Venus symbol tells us that in that Venus realm "with God everything is possible," because the consciousness of the whole is ever present.

The Divine is also ever present. Yet it is present in close association with the "human" (i.e. the cross). It is a consciousness of wholeness emerging from the many crosses of existence. You start with the cross, the crisis, the tragedy, then you rise to the total vision, the conscious fulfillment or plenitude of being.

On earth man starts from an unconscious fullness, of which the Garden of Eden is the Biblical symbol, then he has to emerge from this Edenic childlike unconsciousness in which he passively reflects the Divine Image — and the emergence occurs through crises, through conflicts, through "sin" (the "negative way" which leads man to light out of sheer horror in the realm of darkness).

About the 6th century B.C. humanity experienced a rebirth in mind. A new mind began to operate, whether in the Asia of the Buddha or the Europe of Pythagoras and the Greek classical era. This was an -emergence from a more naive, earthbound consciousness of life energies and sex power. It led to the Cross on Gethsemane and to European rationalism. It is only now that the Venusian type of mind is beginning really to operate in humanity — the sense of the whole, intuitive thinking, and the emergence of a global society.

In the astrological gylph for the planet Mars there is also a circle and — if the figure is correctly drawn — an arrow pointing up to outer space at a 45-degree angle above the horizontal. The 45-degree angle is very significant in that it marks a direction of maximum intensity in electromagnetic fields. The circle here represents the biopsychic field of man's personality, and when internal pressure builds up to an explosive point it is released in a "Martian" outgoing. What we have therefore in the Mars symbol is a picture of simple, spontaneous release of energy.

One can relate it to the symbol for Sagittarius, but in this hieroglyph we see a release which stems not from a circle but actually from a cross, whose vertical arm has been bent by a dynamic urge to expansion. It is probable that the direction of the arrow is not at a 45 degree angle to the horizontal, but rather at a 60 degree angle — which would make it coincide with the direction represented by the cusps of the Third and Ninth Houses of a birth-chart And the sign Sagittarius has much to do with the Ninth House of the horoscope.

[thesilliestrovingalive]

Updated: June 22, 2025

Reworked Character #14: Doctor Amadeus

POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: Viewer discretion is advised due to references to death, crime, unethical experiments, self-harm, and SA.

Real name: Ghyslaine Laëtitia Comtois (she legally changed her name to Manfrida Amadeus)

Alias: Angel in Carnage

Nicknames: Ghys and Hakase

Occupation: Governing scientist and founder of the Amadeus Syndicate

Special skills: Proficiency in AI development and the manufacturing of advanced machines, knowledge of biology, chemistry, and ancient technologies, technological prowess, performing surgeries, and blackmailing

Goddess abilities: She can influence mental states, inducing insanity and sensory overload through manipulating self-perception by creating distortions of bodily transformation and vivid visions of personal and loved ones' demise. With a single, hyper-detailed thought, she can materialise advanced weapons and complex mechanical contraptions. Her superhuman strength rivals that of two established armies combined. She's extremely durable against bullets, tank blasts, knives, rockets, and fire. She can summon bolts of blue lightning to strike her enemies, causing deadly paralysis and severely damaging their organs. She possesses ergokinesis, luminokinesis, nihilokinesis, pyrokinesis, geokinesis, and aerokinesis.

She can interact, communicate, and manipulate technology through electrical pulse sensing, physical contact, and sheer mental force. Her teleportation capabilities allow her to instantly transport herself to any location on Earth, while also enabling her to transport others within a specific radius of 50-90 ft (1524-2743.2 cm) from her position. She possesses telepathic abilities that enable her to communicate silently with sentient beings capable of speech without any hindrance. Additionally, she can exert total control over the minds of others, transforming them into unwitting instruments, by releasing spores from microscopic orifices on her neck. These spores, once inhaled, infect the brain's motor control, cognitive processing, and communication centres, granting her dominion over their thoughts and actions.

She can conjure an impenetrable barrier, comprising three layers: an illusion-causing smoke screen that disorients foes, parasitic vines that infect and transform victims into twisted mutants, and a core of solid adamant. This self-sustaining shield continually regenerates until she chooses to dissipate it. She has hyper-cognitive processing, allowing her to execute multiple calculations and thought processes simultaneously. Due to her superior photographic memory, she can retain and recall every thought, emotion, encounter, and experience with perfect clarity. Despite her incredible durability, a collective effort from powerful espers can inflict minute, albeit negligible, physical harm. However, full-blooded deities possess the capacity to effortlessly overwhelm and defeat her.

It's unknown if she possesses any other abilities upon achieving apotheosis, but everyone believes that she has yet to develop all of her godly powers.

Hobbies: Spending time delving into scientific research on the forces of the universe, collecting fossils, rare plant specimens, and books on a variety of intellectual topics, developing weapons for the Amadeus Syndicate and their alliances, taking care of White Baby, and pseudoscientific theorising

Likes: The satisfaction she feels after successfully conducting an experiment, challenging the limits of the mortal body and the moral boundaries of scientific research, laughing in the face of incompetence, classical and industrial music, and genetic engineering

Dislikes: The constraints of mortal physiology and current scientific understanding, having to kill trusted allies and employees to keep her secrets safe, running low on smoking essentials and sweet treats to snack on, losing valuable research data, and bright sunlight

Favourite food: Croque monsieur, beschuit with hagelslag, and homemade sweet snacks

Favourite drink: Pinot gris

Sexuality: Sex-indifferent, heteroflexible sapiosexual

Gender: Demigirl

Age: 54 (in 2022), 60 (in 2028), 62 (in 2030), 64 (in 2032), 66 (in 2034), 73 (in 2041), 75 (in 2043), 76 (in 2044), and 79 (in 2047)

Blood type: O-

Weight: 153 lbs. (69 kg)

Human design: She’s a 5’ 11” (180.34 cm) French ectomorph with a slender yet athletic build, sloping shoulders, small breasts, a well-defined waist, and curvaceous hips. She has limestone skin and heterochromatic eyes with visible bags underneath them: her right eye, a glass prosthetic replacement, is a light amber, while her left eye is grey-green with brown flecks. Ghyslaine has a few moles: one on the left side of her chin; one near the corner of her right eye; two above her right breast; one on the back of her left hand; and three slightly below her left knee. She has a silvery-pink birthmark on her left shoulder, almost shaped like a waning moon with five protruding spikes. Her waist-length raspberry red hair has messy, voluminous curls streaked with silver-grey, often pulled back into a low ponytail.

Thanks to experimental anti-aging drugs, she looks remarkably youthful, with her face showing subtle signs of aging limited to bunny lines, crow's feet, and faint tear troughs. Her right thigh features a tattoo of a statue of Prudentia made from griotte marble, depicted with a glass serpent wrapped around her neck. She cradles a Gallic rooster in her right arm, while her left arm holds a bouquet of red and blue poppies with a small purple mirror nestled at its centre. In contrast, her left hand and forearm are heavily scarred, evidence of severe burns and self-inflicted lacerations. Her upper right arm shows multiple injection sites, evidence of her experimentation with various substances. A healed scar on the centre of her forehead marks the site of her self-performed trepanation using a dental drill.

She wears a white lab coat, a silver ring with a red pearl on her right index finger, and a gold-plated monocle over her left eye. Her right lab coat pocket held a variety of items: a pack of cigarettes, her sweet snack of the day, Argentine blue neoprene gloves, a well-worn leather lilac journal full of scribbled notes, diagrams, and radical scientific hypotheses, and five experimental serum vials (mutant, zombie, mummy, simian creature, and mantid monster). Ghylaine’s left lab coat pocket contains the following: a box of cigars, a versatile multitool that's made of pliers, wire cutters, a screwdriver, and a knife, and a red crystal from Sol Dae Rokker that radiates a yellow glow when exposed to sunlight.

She wears a square-shaped silvery watch on her right wrist with a timepiece that boasts a gilt-brass dial, adorned with amethyst-coloured hands and white numbers from 1 to 12, interspersed with five delicate etchings. Additional features include a secondary display bar indicating AM/PM, while a reddish-black strap is securely fastened with a silver snap-on buckle.

Ghyslaine wears circular nazar charm earrings, outlined in gold, suspended from medium-sized silver hoop rings. She wears a right-side drop leg holster for a Colt Anaconda with a 6-inch barrel, accompanied by a greenish-black waist pack secured at the back of her belt that holds .44 Remington Magnum cartridges for the revolver. On the front left side of her belt, she has a secured holder for the same stun gun that Nadia wields. She wears teal trousers secured by a sage green belt with a silver buckle, paired with red-laced Prussian blue dress boots.

She wears a long-sleeved teal shirt with eight golden buttons running down the front and two breast pockets. The shirt features a turned collar that frames a velvet fern green cravat, patterned with horizontal goldenrod stripes and cardinal red triangles. It’s adorned with a 2x6 white-and-red chequered patch of 12 squares (six above, six below) above the left breast pocket. Her breast pockets carry a metallic red-green lighter, a black ink pen, and three highlighters in yellow, green, and pink. Underneath her dress shirt, she wears an E-Armour bulletproof vest, emblazoned with the insignia of the Amadeus Syndicate.

Goddess design: She’s a 13’ 6” (411.48 cm) nude entity with a flat chest, incredibly smooth malachite-hued skin, elfin ears, three pointed tongues, and two rows of carnivorous gold teeth. She retains her original hairstyle, now lengthened to reach down to her ankles, woven with streaks of dark brown, and adorned with red and blue poppies. Her face features six silver-outlined eyes with cardinal red slit pupils: the left three eyes in a dull amber and the right three in light cyan. Her chest bears the same Black Sun symbol on the palm of her greenish-black glove, placed directly in the centre. Her back is heavily scarred from severe burns, brutal cuts, and hacked-away flesh, revealing bronze-hued muscles. She has an identical tail to Schwarz Metzelei from Metal Slug Attack, but the tip is always open and it features a notable colour variation: the red accents are replaced with teal and the grey is substituted with a shimmering goldenrod hue.

She has horns similar to those of Drache Goldenes from Metal Slug Attack, but they appear to be made from a material resembling griotte marble. She possesses the lower half of Awakened Blume Metzelei from Metal Slug Attack, combined with the birthmark of her original self. Emerging from her upper back, she has two large bat wings with an amethyst-hued membrane, Prussian blue-colored forearms, wrists, thumbs, and fingers, and a reddish-black claw protrudes from each thumb. She has a partially exposed sapphire ribcage, revealing a rhythmic, tide-like pulse that synchronises with each heartbeat.

She has six arms protruding from her lower back and two more where her malformed kidneys are supposedly located. Each hand has pointed, clawless fingers and a Greek letter in the middle of their palm: for the lower torso arms, her right has β (beta) and her left has Ω (omega); for the first lower back arms, her right has ζ (zeta) and her left has Δ (delta); for the second pair, her right has λ (lambda) and her left has ξ (xi); and for the third pair, her right has φ (phi) and her left has Ψ (psi).

Character summary: She’s a composed and wise leader, boasting a genius-level intellect, who derives great satisfaction from pioneering new discoveries and pushing the boundaries of human potential, scientific innovation, and ethical standards. Driven by her insatiable curiosity, Ghyslaine fearlessly conducts self-experiments and utilises human and animal subjects in her controlled, scientific research. While she's a visionary thinker with grand ambitions and an obsessive attention to detail, she tempers her perfectionism with pragmatic decision-making when circumstances dictate it. She's a sadist with a strong aversion to willful ignorance, disregard for knowledge, experimental setbacks, and opposition that thwarts her plans.

She presents herself as polite, open-minded, and willingly generous, but beneath that facade is a ruthless manipulator, driven by arrogance and stubbornness to get her way, no matter the cost. She consistently prioritises her own self-interest, forming alliances and collaborating with others only when it advances her own agenda. To achieve her objectives, she employs manipulative tactics, such as exploiting others' vulnerabilities and showering them with insincere praise. She tends to delegate manual tasks to others whenever possible, but is willing to get involved and take charge when circumstances require it.

She's not particularly fond of the idea of immediate results because it primarily revolves around showcasing opulence and wealth, which she believes is less effective than long-term investment. She often feels uncertain about evacuation, fearing it would significantly set back her plans if she is forced to leave. However, she isn't above hesitantly accepting the need to flee when the situation becomes too dire to handle, much to her frustration. She's consistently displeased when incompetence disrupts her plans and damages her weapons and machines, yet she frequently displays a sense of intrigued admiration for the persistence and strength of her enemies. She's often amused by those who confront her about her heinous actions, carelessly brushing off their concerns, though she occasionally reveals a hint of fury. She also becomes maliciously amused when she's able to exploit the weaknesses of her enemies and break them down easily.

She's a cunning, calculating, and intuitive strategist, consistently outmaneuvering her competitors and adversaries while staying ahead of everyone by meticulously preparing for a wide range of situations. She’s a highly analytical and emotionally detached megalomaniac, adept at keeping secrets through her tight-lipped nature, strategic evasion, and expert use of vagueness and deflection. She's an optimistic nihilist who revels in her vast wealth, technological prowess, and recognition as the world's most brilliant scientist. Ghyslaine is a hypervigilant and seductive individual who believes in a collective consciousness and exhibits traits of psychopathy, including an uncaring temperament, boldness, and a strong desire for social dominance. She prioritises satisfying her scientific curiosity and rigorous work ethic over others' needs, and has no qualms about deliberately harming people to advance her own ambitions. She has zero tolerance for betrayal and is particularly sensitive to skepticism about her intellectual abilities. She finds it infuriating when others suggest she might be senile or ignorant, or question the validity of her ambitious plans.

She's surprisingly cynical and misanthropic towards humanity, viewing them as worthless, filthy parasites who don't appreciate knowledge or the beauty of reality. She believes that people are more inclined to prioritise basic survival, gratuitous violence, sexual gratification, the glorification of disturbing topics, and self-destruction over everything else. She's a staunch believer in the existence of unseen, authentic deities beyond mainstream human religions and mythologies, such as Sol Dae Rokker and the Avatar of Evil. In Ghyslaine’s view, the God revered in Western religions is a malevolent impostor, and she holds that a genuinely benevolent deity worthy of the name—transcending human understanding—lies beyond the cosmos. Her vision for the New World involves achieving apotheosis, triggering the Alator, merging with the Avatar of Evil, and ultimately becoming the omnipotent goddess of a rebooted timeline.

She treats White Baby as if it were her actual child, considering it her best AI masterpiece, rivaling that of MS-Alice. She has purposefully programmed White Baby to be partially sentient to make their mother-child relationship feel more tangible. Despite White Baby's inability to speak and reliance on code and text messages for communication, she has a deep understanding of the emotions displayed by the virus and the actions it performs. In turn, White Baby regards her as a mother deserving of love and is incredibly obedient to her commands, even during a rogue state. White Baby is programmed to never harm Ghyslaine and do everything possible to keep her safe and ensure her goals remain intact. She frequently expresses concern for White Baby's well-being, understanding that if it were to gain full independence, it could destroy everything in its and her allies' path to world domination. Although she never designed White Baby to destroy humanity, she knows that the virus has that potential and believes that the strong must control the weak.

Ghyslaine maintains a positive relationship with General Morden, admiring his charisma, leadership, use of manipulation tactics, and commitment to his soldiers' well-being. She strongly supports his efforts to combat government and military corruption, believing it will bring about positive change and overcome entrenched systemic injustices. In exchange for the Rebel Army's assistance in securing resources and protecting Amadeus Syndicate assets—including mines, worksites, weapon and medical facilities, underground laboratories, and the Amadeus Mainframe Base—she offers to aid the his army’s technological advancement and provide essential supplies, such as medical equipment and financial resources. Their dynamic is underscored by strong sexual tension, fueled by Ghyslaine’s alluring nature and strategic flirtation, which she employs to maintain a facade of innocence and avoid arousing suspicion.

She’s also on good terms with Rootmars, deeply respecting her mission to safeguard Earth's valuable resources. This alignment stems from her conviction that humans are wasteful and fail to utilise natural resources to their full potential. Additionally, she holds Martians and Invaders in high esteem, acknowledging their technological superiority over humanity. She finds Ptolemaios to be a captivating figure, intrigued by rumours suggesting he may be the first esper in all of human history, predating even Hyakutaro. Ghyslaine holds him in high esteem, respecting his vast experience, unwavering faith in the authentic deities, unrelenting dedication to the Ptolemaic Army's advancement, and calculating mindset.

She deeply appreciates Oghma's loyalty and willingness to support her as he demonstrates a clear understanding of her ambitions and genuine respect for her intellectual pursuits. She enjoys sharing a few drinks with him, engaging in lively gossip, and playfully teasing him about his serious yet slyly confident demeanour and his flustered reactions to her well-meaning compliments. Among everyone, she treats Oghma as a true friend rather than just a professional acquaintance or close ally. She never resorts to being rough, demanding, and mercilessly threatening with him. Instead, she subtly manipulates him in ways he doesn't notice, ensuring he remains obedient and appropriately occupied by offering him satisfying pay, fulfilling jobs, decent vacation time, and an adequate degree of freedom.

She previously shared a cordial connection with Marco, largely due to her admiration for his exceptional intellect and vast expertise in computer science, which surpassed that of most Regular Army soldiers. Despite severing their relationship after exploiting his vulnerability, she remains drawn to Marco's physical beauty, stoic demeanour, and impressive intellectual prowess. She finds Clark's melancholic nature exhausting, while Nadia's playful antics, sporadic laziness, and love of shopping sprees are thoroughly irritating and disruptive. To her, Nadia represents a profound disappointment—a willfully defiant and uncooperative individual who has failed to live up to expectations as the intended successor to the Amadeus Syndicate.

Backstory: Ghyslaine Laëtitia Comtois was born on October 5, 1968 in Annecy, France. She comes from a family with a notorious history of clandestine partnerships with corrupt government agencies, inhumane wildlife experimentation, and the development of devastating bioweapons and malicious computer viruses. Two of her most prominent ancestors, Duke Koudou and Parker Eugene von Wittenberg, have particularly troubling legacies.

Marmaduke Koudou was infamous for brokering shady business deals that advanced the political interests and technological capabilities of his government allies and his own company, which specialised in military technology and biochemistry research. Following his death from septic shock, his company was dismantled. In collaboration with renowned biologists, Duke Koudou conducted extensive research on the Elder Centipede, which he referred to as the "Sea Worm”. His studies revealed that this semi-aquatic creature, possessing biomechanical properties and sclerotized scales, has existed since antiquity, dating back to the Hadean Eon. Notably, his research identified the Elder Centipede as an antediluvian arthropod due to the presence of unknown microorganisms attached to it. Marmaduke proposed exploiting the Elder Centipede's unique characteristics—its ability to automatically attack moving objects and inject lethal microorganisms in the form of purple acid—as a potential bioweapon for outer space applications.

Parker Eugene von Wittenberg was a notorious hacker who worked secretly with government agencies across Southern Europe and North America, crafting malicious computer viruses for use against enemies during times of war. His most infamous creation was the highly classified "First Baby" virus, designed to infiltrate and extract sensitive data from adversary systems. Outside of cyber exploits, his research was deeply problematic, focusing on eugenic experiments that sought to control and manipulate wildlife populations, while also studying their social behaviours. He used his cybersecurity firm as a front to conceal his illicit experiments, but his life was cut short when an unknown assailant spiked his glass of cider with a lethal dose of tramadol. The assassination not only claimed his life but also marked the loss of the First Baby computer virus, which vanished without a trace, never to resurface again. Rumours suggest that the First Baby virus was either acquired by the Earth Federation or destroyed by the unknown assassin.

She grew up in a middle-class family. Her biological father left her mother, Jacqueline Comtois, 4 months before she was born for reasons unknown. 2 months after giving birth to Ghyslaine, a sole survivor of triplets whose siblings were stillborn, Jacqueline married Yoshihiko. Yoshihiko was the president of a Japanese video game development company. As part of his role, he travelled the world promoting the company's games, always carrying AES cartridges, a catalogue of new products, and a set of memory cards in his briefcase. However, he had a tendency to get distracted, and his briefcase often went missing. Invariably, he would blame the person he was with at the time. On every birthday, her parents would take her to visit a local museum featuring regional artifacts, including Alpine furniture and religious art, as well as a natural history exhibit.

At just 6-years-old, she demonstrated exceptional intellectual prowess by articulately outlining Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory and reciting the entire periodic table with flawless accuracy. However, by age 7, having discovered her family's troubled legacy of unethical research and shady business dealings, she resolved to forge a different path. Ghyslaine’s insatiable curiosity drove her to explore diverse interests: science, medicine, computer science, occultism, mythology, religion, philosophy, politics, and human and animal psychology and sociology. With these passions in mind, she aspired to become a psychologist, humanistic philosopher, and biomedical scientist, determined to make a positive impact.

In 1976, a conflict erupted across Western, Northern, and Southern Europe as multiple countries engaged in battles over territory and political differences. The conflict erupted from a skirmish during a joint military and archaeological expedition on Ultima Thule, commonly known as Scrap Island, between Austria and Portugal. The dispute centred on two key issues: the exploitation of Ultima Thule’s resources and the fate of the ancient deity believed to be buried on the island, pending its discovery. The situation escalated into full-scale war with the involvement of France, Luxembourg, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Greece, and Montenegro.

Two rival alliances emerged, each with distinct objectives: the Vanguard and the Luminary. The Vanguard, consisting of France, the United Kingdom, and Austria, formed an alliance to harness Scrap Island's resources for military advancements and construction materials. Their primary goal was to excavate the deity, seeking insights into ancient history and the divine realm, while also aiming to advance military technology to enhance combat effectiveness. They received significant support from the Regular Army and the Germi family, who shared their vision of using Scrap Island to answer some of life's biggest questions and promote global peace. The Luminary alliance comprised of Luxembourg, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, and Montenegro, uniting to ethically use the island's resources for medical breakthroughs and jewelry production. Their ultimate aim was to excavate the deity to develop biological agents for warfare and medical use. The Gutenschiff family provided limited support to this coalition, aligning with its goals but refraining from full commitment.

To mobilise support, each country leveraged patriotism and nationalism, appealing to the sense of duty and loyalty among its citizens. The ultimate objective was to assemble a formidable army and emerge victorious on behalf of their aligned faction. However, not all citizens were driven by ideological conviction; some joined the fight solely out of concern for the safety of their loved ones, coerced by fear of the consequences of inaction. The conflict would become etched in history as the Thule Expeditionary Conquest and would culminate in 1988 with the signing of a landmark peace treaty among all involved nations and the Earth Federation, aimed at preventing similar events from occurring in the future.It was agreed that the resources of Ultima Thule could be used for the betterment of civilization; however, extreme exploitation and the use of these resources for nefarious purposes would be punishable by severe legal fines and imprisonment.

At age 9, Ghyslaine's life took a drastic turn when her family was tragically killed in an airstrike during a battle in France. Annecy found itself at the crossroads of a multifaceted struggle as France, Austria, and the wealthy, superstitious, and battle-hardened Germi family clashed with Portugal, Montenegro, and the bloodthirsty and fearsome Gutenschiff clan. She was initially consumed by deep fear as the war brought chaos to the streets. Crime ran rampant as opportunistic individuals exploited the conflict for personal gain. Mass hysteria gripped the city as many people either hid in fear or panicked and acted out of desperation.

With no one else to turn to, she was forced to rely on herself for survival. She gradually became acquainted with the harsh realities of the streets, navigating the underworld of petty crime and vulnerable individuals fighting to get by. As time passed, she became more skilled at manipulating others to get what she needed. She used her words to exploit their vulnerabilities and influence their actions. Ghyslaine also developed expertise in shoplifting and pickpocketing, and sold illicit goods and bootlegged liquor, often getting these items through theft or chance discovery. She even acquired illegally sold weapons to defend herself when necessary, which she would either methodically discard after committing murder or sell to others for a quick buck, teaching herself how to wield tasers and handguns.

Underneath, she would cultivate a cynical and misanthropic outlook on humanity, veering towards nihilism. Despite this, she remained optimistic, holding out hope for a brighter future. However, the rampant poverty, crime, and violence surrounding her increased her risk of developing psychopathic tendencies.

After being severely burned on her left hand and forearm while fighting off a sexual assailant, she retaliated against her attacker, ultimately killing them. She embarked on a path of vengeance against those who had wronged her, using her knowledge of psychology and chemistry to inflict unhappiness on others. In an attempt to cope with the emotional turmoil of the war and the harm she caused, she briefly resorted to self-harm, which left scars on her left hand and forearm.

At 14, Ghyslaine was among the teenagers from Annecy taken into the Regular Army's orphan program by urban troops. The program relocated her to a residential care home in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, providing refuge from the war and an opportunity to socialize with other children her age. However, she occasionally found herself in brutal fights with the more troubled teenagers and often withdrew socially, uninterested in the lives of her peers and more focused on her own self-reliant isolation and learning. During her time there, she received shelter and education, including English language instruction, which sparked her fascination with foreign languages, particularly Chinese, Spanish, and Afrikaans. However, her stay in the orphan program was short-lived. A wealthy Canadian couple from Victoria, British Columbia, who served in the Regular Army's science branch, discovered her connection to Marmaduke Koudou and Parker Eugene von Wittenberg. They promptly adopted her, eager to raise a child linked to the controversial scientific figures they greatly admired for their boundary-pushing work.

They lavished her with every comfort, introducing her to an opulent lifestyle that she secretly adored. Her adoptive parents, while strict and occasionally dismissive of her emotions, encouraged her to prioritise academic and professional excellence. They rarely disciplined her, convinced that her exceptional intelligence and self-regulation made her inherently responsible and incapable of wrongdoing. Ghyslaine didn't mind, as she was driven to excel and immersed herself in intellectual pursuits, such as political theory and scientific philosophy.

Upon graduating from high school, she received 8 prestigious awards and 6 scholarships in recognition of her outstanding achievements in calculus and STEM fields, biology, chemistry, computer programming and software development, geopolitics and international relations, religious studies, philosophical debates and ethics, and psychological and sociological research. She proceeded to university, driven by her ambition to become a leading scientist. Ghyslaine’s unconventional research and theories sparked controversy, exploring topics such as the potential therapeutic applications of controlled substances, ethical population management strategies, the interconnectedness of human consciousness through shared ancestry, neural electrical pulses, and subconscious processes, and the concept of digital immortality through consciousness uploading and cybernetic bodies.

She would also cultivate an obsessive fascination with pushing the boundaries of science, marked by a penchant for conducting self-experiments. These experiments included learning how to self-sterilise without medical aid, creating and taking anti-aging drugs, removing her own eye to study the ocular microbiome, and exhuming freshly buried corpses to explore ways to make a severed body part function without a host. Ghyslaine also performed self-trepanation, hoping to reduce bodily stress by improving cerebral circulation and alleviating neurosis. Additionally, she injected herself with various psychoactive substances, narcotic analgesics, and central nervous system stimulants to document their potential therapeutic benefits and explore possibilities for legal medications with less addictive side effects.

After graduating from university, she contacted a clever hitman known as Oghma, who possesses Tuatha Dé Danann DNA. She used a large sum of money she had taken from her adoptive father's safe to hire Oghma, with the goal of eliminating her adoptive parents, whom she saw as obstacles to her pursuit of fame and recognition as a scientist. Oghma carried out the assassination, disposing of their bodies and covering up evidence of the crime, making it appear as though they had vanished during an evening walk. She was driven by a malicious desire to secure her inheritance, the substantial sum her adoptive parents had kindly set aside for her. After accessing the funds, she relocated to Britain, where she went on to become a renowned scientist for the British government. Her breakthrough achievement came when she genetically modified active cancer cells into dormant ones, significantly reducing the likelihood of reactivation in children. After Oghma shared information about the ancient lore of the Tuatha Dé Danann and apotheosis, this newfound interest sparked a grand vision for her New World. 

Ghyslaine secretly masterminded a human and animal trafficking ring, as well as a theft operation targeting precious British artifacts. By exploiting these illicit resources, Ghyslaine furthered her research by developing simian and mantis serums, collecting DNA and bodily fluid samples, crafting pharmaceuticals from biological materials, designing cybernetic prosthetics, and conducting eugenic experiments. However, British authorities soon uncovered her clandestine activities and issued a warrant for her arrest, forcing Ghyslaine and Oghma to flee. They escaped to the Republic of Bashkortostan, where Ghyslaine assumed a new identity: Manfrida Amadeus. To maintain their empire, they resorted to peddling illicit substances and stolen artifacts, while also sharing sensitive government secrets. Bounty hunters from the British authorities and mercenaries from the Ikari Warriors who pursued her would vanish, leading to a collapse in the pursuit. As fear spread, the remaining hunters and mercenaries backed down, and the bounty on her head was quietly dropped.

After maintaining a low profile for five months, Oghma introduced her to President Marx, who was eager to collaborate with such a talented scientist. This meeting proved pivotal as President Marx successfully persuaded the Chief of the Regular Army to partner with her. Contrary to expectations, the Chief readily agreed. With the Regular Army and President Marx providing substantial funding, she established the Amadeus Syndicate and constructed the Amadeus Mainframe Base in Oceania. In exchange for their support, she agreed to develop cutting-edge weapons and war machines, provide medical services, and conduct scientific and technological experiments. She pioneered numerous innovations, including the development of the E-Armour, Slugnoids, Laser Guns, the Thunder Cloud, the Mobile Satellite, the special suits that high-ranking peacekeeping troops wear, Walking Machines, cyborgs, and a mandatory hospital protocol for uploading human consciousness into cyberspace.

Following a meeting with high-ranking Regular officials at the Joint Military Operations Headquarters to discuss the SV-001 prototype, Protogunner, and esper super soldier program, she crossed paths with Donald Morden. The two forged a cordial bond over dinner at an upscale Genoa restaurant, sharing stories about their lives and future aspirations. Later, while treating Tequila's battle injuries sustained during a skirmish against pirates in Riyadh, she met the seasoned mercenary. Her path would again cross with skilled operatives Gimlet and Red Eye during a visit to the Amadeus Mainframe Base, where they were restocking medical supplies, laser guns, and AR-10 Autorifles.

Impressed by Tequila, Gimlet, and Red Eye's exceptional combat skills and accomplishments, she conceived an idea: transforming them into super soldiers. However, recognizing the untimeliness of such a proposal, she opted to put the notion on hold, biding her time. She decided to befriend them in order to appear friendly and trustworthy. Gimlet welcomed her with open arms, while Red Eye warmed up to her gradually. However, it took a lot more effort to win Tequila over.

In 2010, utilising advanced Martian cloning technology, she created Nadia through a test tube in an underground laboratory owned by the Amadeus Syndicate in Quimper, France. Her goal was twofold: to produce the perfect heir to the Amadeus Syndicate by creating a woman of science and militarism, and to experiment with clone physiology and psychology. To foster an independent sense of identity, she kept Nadia's true status as an imperfect clone a secret, allowing her to believe she was her own person. Additionally, she withheld information about Nadia's family legacy to prevent her from questioning the Amadeus Syndicate's motives or abandoning her research, which was crucial to realising her vision of the New World.

During her time working with the Regular Army and involvement in President Marx's defence contract endeavours, she developed an artificial intelligence capable of simulating the psychological and sociological behaviours of children as they mature. This AI primarily drew upon research conducted on Nadia, utilising data from the Amadeus Syndicate's files, to which it had authorised access to. Initially dubbed Young Deus, a nod to her legally changed name, the AI's language use and responses to commands resembled those of a child, but its programming quickly evolved to mimic the characteristics of a mature adolescent.

Upon learning of her advanced artificial intelligence, the Chief of the Regular Army and President Marx urged her to adapt it for military applications. She subsequently transformed Young Deus into Iron Fortress, reprogramming it to commandeer enemy tanks and utilise them to safeguard Amadeus Syndicate members and registered affiliates, thereby promoting global peace and security.

However, Iron Fortress' flaws became catastrophically apparent during a guerrilla warfare incident in the southern United States. The AI mistakenly identified Regular Army urban troops as hostile forces and attempted to neutralise them, prioritising the protection of perceived innocent civilians who were, in reality, criminal insurgents. Recognizing the devastating potential of Iron Fortress, she swiftly shut it down and sequestered the virus in a secure, isolated compartment within her files. This decision brought relief to the Chief of the Regular Army but dismayed President Marx. Unbeknownst to them, she secretly redeveloped Iron Fortress into the White Baby computer virus. This revamped iteration could bypass the primary military systems of nations worldwide via the internet.

Three months before the Great Morden War, the alliance between the Amadeus Syndicate and the Regular Army shattered. The relationship imploded due to the Amadeus Syndicate's secretive creation of a bioweapon designed to further their plans for global domination, utilising the excavated extraterrestrial entity on Ultima Thule for experimentation. Additionally, Doctor Amadeus was involved in the sexual assault of Marco Rossi to harvest his DNA and semen samples. The Amadeus Syndicate also transformed innocent Regular Army troops into Mutated Soldiers and created terrifying creatures, including the Chowmein-Conga and Enormous Morays, on Pallas Island and in the Oro Sol Ruins. The final blow was the illicit plundering of advanced Tuatha Dé Danann technology from Scrap Island, native villages, and ancient Ajirabian ruins, aided by pirates and the Phantom Strike.

Ptolemaios offered refuge to Doctor Amadeus, Oghma, and their team of scientists and soldiers, fleeing the impending Great Morden War. Furthermore, Ptolemaios deployed his troops to support the Syndicate Infantry, repelling the Regular Army's assault on the Amadeus Mainframe Base, securing a decisive victory. During the war, she seized the opportunity to advance her research on her groundbreaking bioweapon, known as Wysteria. In addition to this, she designed cutting-edge weaponry and fully head-covering gas masks for the Ptolemaic Army. Meanwhile, she chose to keep Ptolemaios company, having observed his loneliness, and used this chance to forge a deeper connection with him. Through their interactions, she discreetly laid the groundwork for a potential future alliance.

Following the Great Morden War, General Morden forged an alliance with her, entrusting her with the bodies of Tequila, Gimlet, and Red Eye. United by a shared vision, they aimed to revolutionise these individuals into super soldiers, resulting in the creation of semi-clones. She integrated their recently updated digital consciousness into a biomechanical brain and nervous system. The experiments she conducted would heavily alter the three individuals: Gimlet and Tequila were imbued with psionic energy, while Red Eye received a Super Devil form and two new abilities. She ensured that they couldn’t recall the circumstances of their death, aware that such memories would pose significant risks to their loyalty and effectiveness within the Rebel Army and Amadeus Syndicate. In the heavily fortified basement of the Amadeus Mainframe Base, she maintained Tequila, Gimlet, and Red Eye in cryogenic stasis, alongside Wysteria, ensuring their secure containment.

[whencyclopedia]

Astronomy in the Scientific Revolution

The astronomers of the Scientific Revolution rejected long-held theories of ancient thinkers like Claudius Ptolemy and Aristotle and instead set out to systematically observe the heavens in order to create a model of the universe that fit observable facts rather than preconceived theories.

Astronomers like Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Hevelius, Edmond Halley, Christiaan Huygens, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton were determined to use observation, scientific instruments, and mathematics to reconcile theory, phenomena, and data and increase our knowledge of the world around us.

Aristotle & Ptolemy v. Scientific Method

Astronomy had interested many ancient thinkers, but two views of the universe dominated and endured right through the Middle Ages. These were the models proposed by Aristotle (384-322 BCE) and Ptolemy (c. 100 to c. 170). Aristotle's model had the planets move in a uniform way through an undefined medium of invisible spheres, always at fixed distances from Earth, the central point. Ptolemy proposed that planets moved within a small circular orbit of their own (epicycle) while still following a larger orbit (deferent) around a fixed central point, the Earth (equant). Perfect circles reflected the perfection of the Creator, and Earth's position at the very centre of it all reflected the belief in humanity's importance. These models survived antiquity and held a seemingly iron grip on the minds of medieval astronomers. The problem, though, was that they left many questions unanswered. The Scientific Revolution was all about questioning age-old beliefs, putting them to the test of observable phenomena, and expressing these findings in the new international language of mathematics. Findings were then shared with and scrutinised by independent thinkers. This idea, or something similar, had first been proposed by Francis Bacon (1561-1626).

In the new scientific method, astronomy led the way over all other fields. The astronomers were on the lookout for new, more satisfactory answers to age-old puzzles. No longer were they satisfied with 'saving the phenomena,' that is the mere measuring of celestial motions, now they began to use their precision scientific instruments to challenge the natural philosophers. The astronomers wanted to prove their own models of just how the universe works.

Continue reading...

[txtbeomi]

“You’re hurt”

Siren! Taehyun x Fem! Reader

Note : Pls this was so rushed💀 forgive me if there’s any mistakes I didn’t proof read this I’m too lazy-

~~~~~~

Y/N, an intrepid marine biologist fueled by boundless curiosity, embarked on a research expedition to a remote coastal region where the ocean concealed its deepest mysteries. Armed with scientific instruments and a passion for understanding marine life, Y/N sought to unravel the enigmatic secrets hidden beneath the waves.

In her pursuit of knowledge, Y/N encountered an ethereal melody that seemed to whisper through the currents.

This haunting song led her to the elusive Taehyun, a siren whose scales gleamed with an eerie luminescence, reflecting the shadows of the ocean's secrets. Taehyun's eyes, once filled with the innocence of the sea, now bore the weight of mistrust and corruption.

Y/N’s eyes gleam over his features, awed by them and unable to believe her eyes and what she’s seeing, despite her shock, she still notices a few wounds which are embedded on his skin, making her frown a bit

In Taehyuns perspective, hes shocked yet wary of who dared to enter his domain, by accident or not

Their initial meeting was a clash of worlds, with Y/N's curiosity contrasting sharply with Taehyun's guarded demeanor. Taehyun, scarred by encounters with humans who sought to exploit his mystical abilities, regarded Y/N with suspicion. However, Y/N saw beyond the corrupted facade, sensing a wounded soul yearning for redemption beneath the surface.

“Leave human” Taehyun hisses at the intruder, his tail tensing up in warning

“You’re hurt” Y/N says, frowning, her eyes raking over the scars and wounds

“I said, leave.” Taehyun says more firmly, growling at her, hiding his wounds away

“No” Y/N says, although she should’ve run away, feared the siren, but she was not

Undeterred by Taehyun's reluctance, Y/N picks up an olive branch and extends the olive branch of understanding.

Taehyun who was surprised but wary of her actions, dwelled back into the sea.

Y/N, although a bit disappointed, excitement coursed through her veins as she returned everyday to the same spot to catch glimpses of him

The Days turned into weeks as Y/N patiently observed the siren from a distance, respecting his boundaries while continuing her research on the mesmerizing but corrupted underwater world he inhabited.

As Y/N continued to research, Day by day, taehyuns body was getting worse, his skin which was a clear shining and beautiful scale-embedded skin, was starting to have black spots

Y/N was getting worried, although having to research about the mystical in the sea? She puts aside that work and researches on what caused taehyun to be like this, not only him but also the other sea creatures.

Months pass by and Y/N's genuine care and determination to heal Taehyun began to chip away at the walls surrounding his heart.

As Y/N continues researching, she finally finds her answer, it was the industry near by which was affecting the water very badly. She immediately leave for a few days to handle the situation.

Taehyun on the other hand, had thought she had finally given up after noticing her absence for the past few days, hating her for the slightest hope she had given him about fixing the entire thing, fixing him

About a few days later the problem was solved, the industry had to pay fine for damage including the people who had stayed by the sea and used the water, having gotten multiple illnesses from it.

The next few days Taehyun notices there was less corruption of the chemicals in the sea, was it fixed?, he questioned himself, was it…her work?

As the corruption waned, the siren's true nature emerged—a being of enchanting beauty and ancient wisdom, no longer burdened by the shadows that had tainted his existence.

Y/N returns after the whole commotion is over, searching for taehyun despite the ungodly hour in the night, she calls out for him a few times before he emerges from the sea, shock paint over Y/N’s face, his scales and skin shining brightly mover than ever, his beauty even more enhanced after all the evidences of him being sick gone.

Y/N's unwavering dedication and Taehyun's gradual healing led to a profound connection that bridged the gap between their worlds. The once-corrupted siren now stood as a guardian of the ocean, his songs echoing a melody of redemption and renewal.

~~~~~

P.S : Y/N's research took on a new purpose as she documented the process of cleansing and restoring balance to the underwater realm. And she became rich.

[santoschristos]

“Our modern day astrophysicists and astronomers, with all their sophisticated scientific instruments, are not the only humans that have wondered what may exist at the center of our galaxy. The superb astronomers and mathematicians of the ancient Mayan civilization, also pondered this question. The Mayans knew where in the sky the exact center of the galaxy was located and they even had a glyph representing it which is now named Hunab Ku; it was known to the Mayans as The Galactic Butterfly. Their entire cosmology and extremely accurate calendars were based on the existence and location of Hunab Ku and they deeply believed that the future of mankind ultimately depends on what occurs there.” – John Ennis

Hunab Ku was, to the Mayans, the supreme God and ultimate Creator and was located in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. It represented the gateway to other galaxies beyond our Sun as well as all of the consciousness that has ever existed in this, our own galaxy. Hunab Ku, according to the Mayans, is also the consciousness which organized all matter from a whirling disk – into stars, planets and solar systems. Hunab Ku is the Mother Womb which is constantly giving birth to new stars and it gave birth to our own Sun and planet Earth as well as the other planets found in our solar system. They also believed that the ultimate Creator directs everything that happens in our galaxy from its center through the emanation of periodic energy bursts of consciousness.

Today, modern astronomers have indeed verified that at the center of our Milky Way galaxy is found a “whirling disk” with a “Black Hole” at its center that is both swallowing and giving birth to stars. Could the extraordinary low frequency radio wave images discovered coming from the center of our Milky Way galaxy be programmed bursts of energy consciousness coming from the ultimate Creator… and actually be a modern manifestation of what the ancient Mayans believed? […] From: Sun-Nation

“Om Yum, Hunab Ku, Evam Maya, E Ma Ho!”

This means: ”One giver of movement and measure, All hail the unity of mind & nature!”

Hunab Ku - The Galactic Butterfly Image by Mahaboka