#angular schematics

[windmillcode]

New video Angular Schematics everyone check it out

[trashpandato]

Cottage

“I always loved this view,” Kara said, her voice wobbling a little with emotion.

Lena stepped a bit closer and slipped a hand into Kara’s, not caring about the paint that might transfer onto her skin. She’d walked in on Kara painting a skyline, the buildings looking sleek but not as angular as architecture on Earth usually tended to be. By now, Lena knew the common themes in Kara’s paintings of Krypton: red sunsets, landscapes that often looked haunting with unfamiliar colour combinations, city skylines that would have looked like science fiction to anyone who didn’t know Kara’s history. All of it was stunning.

“It’s beautiful,” Lena whispered.

Kara put her brush down and squeezed Lena’s hand.

“Have you ever thought about giving this a try?” Kara nodded at the canvas. “I hear the many shades of green in Ireland are especially fun to paint.”

Lena chuckled a little. “I’m not much of an artist.”

“I beg to differ. I’ve seen you draw.”

“Schematics. That’s a totally different thing,” Lena corrected her. “What you do here, there’s creativity. Emotion. I can draw a few lines for a new cloaking device but that’s about it.”

Kara turned a little to face Lena. “It doesn’t have to be high art, you know? It can just be a way to hold on to memories.”

The sentence made Lena look down at her feet.

“I don’t remember much, honestly. I was so young. I remember feeling loved, warm, but there are no real details attached to those memories. Did we live in an apartment in town? Or in a cottage in the hills? I don’t know. I just know that I miss the way I felt there.”

Now it was Kara’s turn to squeeze her hand. They stood like that for a moment longer until Kara leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Lena’s forehead.

“Come on. Let’s go have some hot chocolate.”

Lena wrinkled her nose and was about to protest when Kara continued:

“For me. And tea for you. Oh, and I think we still have some of that shortbread Eliza made!”

And then Kara pressed another soft kiss to Lena’s face and how could Lena possibly say no now.

“I love you,” Lena murmured.

Kara grinned. “I know. I love you, too.”

[hymnoire]

"and you.. who are you?" ( for my boy @homelander-rp-blog for any of your muses! for apocalypse au! )

Six months ago, during the war, Gaya fell and broke. Shot in the stomach, ejected through a window that cracked open, twenty floors high. Her spine shattered, her left arm snapped like glass, and her iliac wings were pulverized. She bled out on the pavement, dead. Technology had advanced in this new chapter of the world, enough to piece her body back together, enough to merge flesh with steel and thread her nerves through circuits. Her left arm and her spine were fully replaced, bionic. Neural pathways were rerouted through a matrix of living code. Her body healed, but she was no longer just human. Half a woman, half a machine. That same technology is what tore the world apart. It began in secrecy, in government labs chasing transcendence, trying to rewrite the limits of the human condition. But the secret didn’t stay buried. Titan, a terrorist syndicate with no face and endless reach, stole the research before the government could even lie about it. By the time Titan was found, it was too late. They were out for blood, and they got it. Gaya always believed humans shouldn’t play God and she was right. Sadly, she still failed to stop what came next. The war that followed wasn’t just civil, it was apocalyptic. Titan’s stolen tech created HumanAIs, hybrids built for war, programmed to kill who inevitably start killing regular humans. What started as a silent war became a global one, spiraling out of control. Now, what's left of humanity hides. Scattered. Starving. The cities belong to the HumanAIs who operate for Titan, soulless, and ruthless. The rest of the world is a crumbling wasteland of rusted skeletons and toxic air. Humans live in exile, in otarcy, a kind of existence where survival is a full-time job and trust is extinct. Many wander the red deserts, where wind doesn’t blow and the sky forgets to rain. Gaya hasn’t awakened yet from her recovery and surgery, she still lies in a bed made of glass, intubated, in a room that’s kept hidden. A room watched over by Kaeleena.

Kaeleena stands like a ghost wrapped in ivory, a vision so pristine it feels offensive. Her dress is immaculate, the color of untouched snow, stitched from something too soft to be real, yet too perfect to be fabric. It clings and drapes with eerie fluidity, a high-collared robe that splits open like a ceremonial blade down the front, revealing thin bands of gold coiled along her ribs. Ornamental and useless, like jewelry meant for gods. Her feet are bare. Clean. Silent. She moves like she’s never touched the ground. The room she inhabits is an aberration in this post-collapse world. A sanctum of impossible luxury carved into the bones of Titan's supremacy. Glass walls rise around her like cathedral windows, refracting artificial light into dancing gold across the marbled floor. A single desk dominates the room, sleek and angular. Behind her, a massive screen displays with schematics, pulse maps, surveillance grids, and living files. One of them is labeled simply: Gayane. Cables slither from the ceiling like lazy serpents, some plugged into her desk, others drifting, whispering data and venom. The air smells of antiseptic and something older, like ozone or blood. Kaeleena leans against the edge of the desk, absurdly at ease in this sanctuary of horrors. Her eyes are pale, too pale to be fully human anymore. She was once, like all of them. When she smiles, it is with the slow satisfaction of someone who has already won. Her presence is cold. Where Gaya burned, Kaeleena freezes. She doesn’t need horns or claws. Her power is in her poise, her intelligence, and the certainty that she knows everything. Every path, every death, every betrayal. She watches John with the look of someone who already knows how the story ends. He is being escorted, not dragged or restrained, merely shadowed by the men who guard Titan’s inner sanctum. She has been expecting him. When he enters, she smiles, the curve of her lips dangerous. He asks who she is. Even if she would love to kill him, she doesn’t. Not yet. For the love of the game. “I do wonder,” she says, voice smooth as oil over glass, “if Gayane ever spoke of me, darling. I sincerely hope she did. If not... I shall be very disappointed. And I do not wear disappointment well.” They look exactly alike, Gaya and Kaeleena. Same eyes, same bone structure. But where Gaya kept the storm in her dark hair, Kaeleena bleached hers into light, so pale, almost white. Their auras, however, could not be more different. Gaya was the flame. Kaeleena, the frost.

“Who am I?” she repeats, stepping closer. Her voice is steel. “I am the villain in your precious narrative, John. Welcome to Titan. Our empire is sacred, and I…” She smiles again, this time with teeth, deranged and proud. “I am its High Priestess.” She knows exactly how far he’s come. Crossed the red deserts. Walked through cities infested with soulless machines. All for her. “Don’t tell me,” she purrs, circling him now, like the serpent in Eden, “you came all this way simply to meet your sister-in-law.” Her tone turns mocking, cruel in its sweetness. “What is it, then? Have you come to steal my beloved Gayane away from me… instead?” She leans in, eyes wide with exaggerated sorrow, a hand drifting to rest against her heart, as though to calm some violent flutter within. “I have peered into her mind, you know. I have seen the two of you, watched those fivelong years unfold like pages in a sickeningly intimate little novel. The investigations, the dates, the whispered conspiracies, the moments where death breathed down your necks and you clung to each other like lifelines. And then, of course, the sweet, sweet love-making. I love yous in Missionary aren't as cute as you think they are.” Her lips curl with disdain, like the very memory leaves a taste of ash on her tongue. Psychotic and jealous? “She loves you. More than she ever loved me. Can you fathom that?” A low, brittle laugh slips from her throat, somewhere between a sob and a knife dragged across silk. She's deranged. “It shattered me,” she says softly, with a tragic little tilt of her head. “I’m terribly sensitive.” Then, just as quickly, her gaze turns. The softness evaporates, replaced by something cold and merciless, something that cuts. “So tell me, John,” she murmurs, voice tightening. “Do you want her back… or not?” She steps back, just slightly, her hands clasping behind her back, posture impeccable, like a queen awaiting terms of surrender. “Because I am not above bargaining and I always enjoy a good negotiation. That's how we can get to know each other.”

[tricos-here]

For the mount asks: Asterales, Jessamy, and Alexandrine 💖

@mystery-salad

thank you for the ask <33

1. Does your character canonically have specific mounts?

Astêrales technically has a jackal but it is. largely redundant because she moves around via portals all the time anyway, and the jackal itself comes and goes as it pleases, but they do occasionally travel together and keep each other company 

Jessamy canonically has a griffon named Doirean, it was given to her temporarily during her company’s contract in Thunderhead Keep, but they instantly took a liking to each other and upon her return to Tyria she decided to purchase and keep her 

Alexandrine has a warclaw named Aife, though it’s not so much a warclaw in the sense of “spiritual animal bound to armor” as just a creature bound to the Mists

2. Do you have any canon mount skins / coloration for them?

Astêrales’ jackal is just Shadow Abyss and Tar on the Ceylon Cut Skin, which kinda of creates this starry look in its faceplate (?), if I were to draw might might've also thrown in some aspects of Lucent Sands too

Jessamy canonically is supposed to be using the Point-Tipped Corvus skin but I only have the Northern Feather Wing skin whose only real difference is it has a more angular beak, but either way it’s all black like well, a corvid 

Alexandrine’s warclaw is the Vigilant Saberclaw in all white, may or may not have a longer tail like the Tundra Grimalkin but I’m undecided about that still 🏃‍♀️ 

3. How likely are they to rent one versus own one?

Astêrales would do neither because she can spawn in portals at will babeey. But if she were to lose that ability for some reason cough she’d likely talk her way through borrowing one, ain’t got no money to rent anyway 

Jessamy technically owns hundreds of mounts under her company’s name so, if we want to get into schematics she she's more likely own one, besides her personal griffon anyway, but if she were in a position where she didn't have access to them then she has plenty of money to throw at some renting agency

Alexandrine definitely more likely to own one, partially because where would she rent a mount in the Mists anyway, but also she does enjoy the companionship as well

4. Are there any mounts they prefer using (or others they can't stand)?

Astêrales has only ever used a jackal and a skyscale, and if she were to choose between the two it would definitely be the jackal, she has no issue with heights or anything but skyscales to her feel comparatively sluggish and unresponsive 

Jessamy can appreciate that each mount has its own uses and pros and cons but she’d generally go for a griffon or if the area asks for it, a raptor, but generally she thinks a skilled rider can get just about anywhere with a griffon anyway. Also finds springers ridiculous and you’ll never catch her on one amen 

Alexandrine’s only experience with mounts is a warclaw so, N/A

5. Do they keep their mounts stabled, take them with them, or some secret 3rd thing?

Astêrales’ secret 3rd thing is that her jackal as mentioned just comes and goes as it pleases, using portals and traversing through the Mists as much as her 

Jessamy will take her griffon with her on travels and the like but keep her stabled at stops, there’s been few occasions where she might bring her inside as some kinda power move but generally yeah, keeps her stabled 

Alexandrine takes her warclaw everywhere, rarely ever leaves her side and yes that included the bed too, something her partner might not approve but it's her castle and she makes the rules (is what she thinks)

[thesumlax]

More paleo stuff, this time it`s the synapsid ears. Oh, those goddamned jaw-ears!

Again, I'm not an expert but this is my educated guess. The best eardrum recontstruction for a Thrinaxodon-like animal I`ve seen is this, but it still feels kinda wrong to me, so I present a rough schematic of how I envision it (left is view from the outside, right from the inside of the jaw). I believe the eardrum (yellow) should be located horizontally in the notch of the angular bone (red) so that the articular/malleus (blue) can touch it from below and the nascent tympanic cavity (green) can easily reach it as it branches off the throat. In this configuration, if you simply flatten the angular and turn the whole thing 90 degrees you can get basically the modern mammalian condition.

Finding good reference for non-cynodonts is nigh impossible but I still attempted an Aelurognathus, assuming the gorgonopsid condition also features something like an eardrum and an earhole (also showcasing the proto-tympanic cavity bulging out of the throat). I don't actually know at which point and how exactly all that stuff first appeared.

Hey @albertonykus is any of this plausible or am I talking nonsense?

[quibble-auk]

Heh, so I’m doing more actual lore. Look at me go. This is… it’s something. Kinda all over the place. Very messy. Probably not the best. But it’s here so that’s gotta count as something.

More Echo lore! Kinda. Well… it involves Echo. This is more about Tempestrift though. The next part will have Echo…

If I get around to part two. Heh. The worms are rooting for it so we can hope.

—

Tempestrift didn’t bother to look up at anyone as she swiftly walked through the halls; there was no real point. She knew what she would be met with—cold glares, curious glances, wary stares. It was all she had known for the past couple of weeks. She didn’t blame them, not really, it wasn’t every day that a mech was caught having an affair with an Autobot after all.

It was almost unheard of for those mechs to be spared and kept alive.

The seeker kept her gaze low, her steps calculated and quiet against the metal flooring of the outpost—as quiet as she could, the metal heels of her thrusters were not designed for stealth. Her wings pulled up tight, not submissive, but not proud, just tense. Every mechanical whine of her systems seemed louder in the silence that followed her presence—conversations dying the moment she passed, whispers flickering like sparks in her wake.

They hadn’t reassigned her yet. That was the strange part. Normally, a mech like her would be exiled to the outer posts—those cold, rusting places where bots were sent to disappear quietly. They were disgraced, nothing but traitors. Even more were slaughtered as an example of what disobedience got you. Instead, she was still here. Still wearing her badge. Still breathing.

Sunrazor had found out—through trial and error—about Tempest’s and Echo’s affair when the commander had caught the Autobot sniper.. For reasons beyond her own understanding, she had been spared. Sunrazor had chosen to punish her, demote her, but not report it. Not officially.

Instead Tempest was forced to live with her shame, the dishonor she had brought to both herself and her trine—Silverglider and Crossflier were not spared from her mistake. They too paid the price.

At the next corridor junction, she paused. Not because she was uncertain of her path—she had memorized the layout long ago—but because she had finally reached her destination. An office, often overlooked.

Volley’s office.

The high ranking Praxian had summoned her.

Tempestrift was familiar with the smaller mech, anyone who knew Sunrazor was. He was her shadow, always watching, analyzing, and judging. Technically, Volley was Sunrazor’s advisor, rumors claimed that he held more power than he let on however. He kept the violent mech in line, reporting anything he deemed important to whoever Sunrazor answered to.

Getting called to his office was odd though, at least for her. Unless, of course, her mistake was finally being added to her record.

She stood in front of the door for a long moment, staring at the simple steel panel. It didn’t hum with authority like Sunrazor’s did, didn’t glow with warning glyphs or emit the subtle pulse of reinforced shielding. No, Volley’s office was quiet. Ordinary, even. Which made it all the more unsettling. Like a sniper's nest—nothing until it was too late.

Tempestrift forced herself to exhale through her vents, shoulders squaring. She raised her servo and tapped the control panel. A soft chime answered, followed by a voice, neutral and unhurried, “Come in.”

The door slid open without ceremony. Inside was dim and sparse. The walls were lined with data shelves and old physical schematics, the floor bare save for a few scuffed marks near the desk—signs of pacing, perhaps. Behind the desk sat Volley, his frame slight and angular, armor a dull blend of storm-gray and bone-white, optics a piercing teal that didn’t blink as she stepped in.

Behind him a large mech—one of Sunrazor’s followers, Powercase—loomed. His green eyes immediately honing in on Tempestrift, expression unreadable and hulking frame stiff. The dark blue guardian didn’t react to her entering aside from his sharp eyes shifting, scanners no doubt feeding him data.

The door closed behind her.

“Tempestrift,” Volley said, nodding once. His voice wasn’t unkind. But it was sharp like a scalpel.

“Sir,” she replied, standing stiffly just beyond the threshold. Her gaze lingered on Powercase for a moment, wings flicking with her growing nerves. “You summoned me?”

“Yes, I did,” Volley followed her gaze, then looked back to her with a subtle tilt of his head. “Don’t mind him, I asked for him to be here.”

Tempestrift didn’t relax, but she dragged her optics back to Volley and gave a short nod. Powercase didn’t move—he didn’t need to. His presence was enough. A silent warning that this meeting wouldn’t be as quiet as the office suggested.

Volley gestured to the seat across from him. “Sit.”

She did, wings tight against her back to keep them from twitching. The chair was smaller than she was used to, her frame built for the sky, not these dim, sterile little rooms with too much tension and not enough airflow.

The Praxian watched her for a moment. Not judging. Not obviously. Just assessing. Like he was scanning for something not visible on the surface. After a moment his own door wings twitched and Volley sucked in a deep breath, his tone collected, “If anyone asks, I called you here in regards to extending your punishment. Powercase was in here because he was bringing me some files.”

Tempestrift’s optics narrowed, her helm tilting just slightly—not enough to be insubordinate, but enough to convey her skepticism. “That’s not why I’m here, then.”

“No,” Volley confirmed. He leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together. “I needed an excuse. One that wouldn’t raise questions.”

A cold pressure settled low in her gut. Whatever this was, it was off-record. And off-record conversations with high ranked officers rarely ended well for insubordinate Seekers like her. Especially if the officer felt the need to have a guardian present.

“Why?” she asked, voice quiet but steady. Her fingers flexing against the panels on her thighs “What do you want from me?”

Volley’s expression didn’t shift, neither did his tone, “Nothing. Not anything of importance anyway. Just figured I would enlighten you on your Conjunx’s situation.”

The word stung more than she’d ever admit. Conjunx. She and Echo were not Conjunx’s, not yet, not officially. He had asked ages ago if she would be his Conjunx. Tempestrift had declined. Not out of bitterness or her not wanting that—she did, Tempest wanted to call him hers—but rather because it would only make things more dangerous for them.

Tempest hadn’t been ready, and now she may never get the chance to change that.

She didn’t react outwardly, but her vents hissed with a quiet, involuntary exhale. That word carried weight. More than love, more than a bond. It was a promise. A vulnerability. Something to lose. Primus knew that she already had enough on the line. But Volley using it so casually felt like a knife to the spark.

Her fingers tightened into her thigh plating, subtle enough to not be noticed by someone less observant. The seeker’s wings twitched ever so slightly, her plates pressing into herself more. Tempestrift’s eyes narrowed carefully, fear swarming her spark—was this how she found out that Sunrazor had lost her temper and broke something they could not fix?

Was this going to be how she discovered that Echo’s spark had been snuffed?

Volley watched her intently, no doubt reading her tells—gossip claimed that he had been a gambling mech before the war, he dealt in favors and deals, with a poker face of steel. His voice was level, almost uncaring, “Echo went missing from his cell several hours ago, it’s not been reported. Sunrazor does not know yet, but I expect her to find out within the next few hours.”

Tempestrift froze.

Not visibly, not in the way lesser mechs would—there was no dramatic jolt or startled intake of air. But her systems hit a low stutter, fans cutting briefly before cycling back on. Her gaze flickered, just once, to Powercase, who still hadn’t moved. That alone told her everything she needed to know: this wasn’t a joke. This wasn’t misdirection. Echo was gone.

There were plenty of implications, both good and bad.

“I see,” her voice low and dangerously neutral. She ignored the faint flicker of hope in her chest, “Did he escape?”

Volley’s teal eyes remained glued to her, “Not necessarily. He’s in no condition to escape on his own, and there is no sign of an autobot infiltration.”

Tempestrift blinked, plates flaring, “I… I don’t understand.”

The Praxian leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on the edge of his desk, optics narrowing just enough to be noticeable. His voice lowered, “I broke him out. He’s not off the base yet though, I thought you would want to see him before we sent him back.”

Tempestrift's systems stalled.

It was like a static bomb went off in her processor—logic shorted, thoughts scattered. Her optics brightened in a reflexive flicker, wings jerking upward before she wrenched them still again. Her plates flared up more, vents hissing.

“You… what?” Her voice wasn’t a whisper or a shout, but something caught in between—raw, disbelieving.

Volley didn’t blink. “I said, I broke him out.”

For a second, all she could do was stare. Her spark pounded against its casing like it might burst free, as if part of it expected this—hoped for it. But the rest of her knew better. No one did something like that. Not for an Autobot. Not for her.

Mechs like Volley wouldn’t do this out of the kindness of their spark.

“Why?” she demanded, louder now, but still hoarse, like it scraped its way out of her. She leaned forward, eyes narrowing, spark still thrumming loudly in her chest.

“Despite what you may think of me, I have some honor. I owed Echo a favor, I’m repaying it,” Volley’s voice remained calm, but there was something frayed beneath it—some carefully masked frustration that only just slipped through the seams.

Tempestrift stared at him, her mind racing to catch up. A favor? A Decepticon advisor owed something to an Autobot sharpshooter? To Echo of all mechs? She almost laughed, but the sound caught in her throat, coming out as a brittle ex-vent through clenched denta.

“You owed him?” she echoed, tone low and disbelieving. She looked him up and down, she wasn’t sure what she was looking for “You owed an Autobot?”

Volley didn’t flinch. “I did.”

The silence between them stretched, thick with confusion and suspicion. Even Powercase shifted, a barely perceptible adjustment of weight, like even he wasn’t sure where this was going anymore.

Tempestrift’s thoughts skittered in a thousand directions, but one landed hard and stuck—this was real. Echo was alive, out, and somewhere close enough for her to see him again. Her hands trembled slightly, so she balled them into fists against her thighs, forcing stillness.

“If Sunrazor finds out—” she began warily, only for Volley to cut her off.

“She won’t,” a little too quickly. He paused, as if recollecting himself. The Praxian tilted his chin up, “Sunrazor has no reason to belive in our involvement.”

“You don’t know that!” Tempestrift snapped, her control fraying. “She’ll immediately think it was me! Or she’ll track him back to you. She’ll burn this outpost down to slag looking for him.”

Volley didn’t finch at her outburst, Powercase’s grip on his gun tightened fractionally. The smaller mech shook his head, “I know what I’m doing, and as long as you do what I ask, Sunrazor will have no reason to assume you had any part of it.”

Tempestrift’s wings flared involuntarily at that—controlled but sharp, a signal of both alarm and suspicion. Her voice dropped to a low, dangerous growl, “And what exactly is it you’re asking me to do?”

Volley leaned forward, resting his forearms on the desk, his optics narrowing slightly as if testing how far she’d bend before snapping. “Nothing reckless. Nothing loud. I need you to see him, say your goodbye, and walk away like none of this ever happened. Then, ideally, go get yourself a solid alibi. Be somewhere where Sunrazor can’t deny the fact that you had no involvement.”

Tempestrift blinked, wings twitching. “That’s it?” Her voice was flat, hollow with disbelief. “You’re just… giving me closure and telling me to stand next to her or something?”

She scoffed, “This… Why?”

Volley’s mouth twitched—barely there. Not a smirk. Not quite. “Call it pragmatism. Call it a loose end. Call it guilt, if that suits you. But yes. That’s it.”

Powercase finally moved, shifting with the subtle thrum of his heavy plating. “Volley’s alt mode is too small to transport Echo, I’ll be the one dropping him off on Autobot territory,” the large mech’s voice was low and modulated, emotionless but firm. “I’ve got a patrol scheduled in thirty minutes, I can give you a few minutes with him.”

Tempestrift stared at Powercase, unsure whether she should thank him or curse him. His voice gave away nothing, but she sensed—beneath the cool efficiency—there was no protest in him. He’d agreed to this. Backed it. That was another surprise she didn’t have the bandwidth to process yet.

Powercase had always been loyal to Sunrazor, hesitant maybe, but loyal. She could not fathom why he would agree to this.

Volley stood, slow and deliberate, his hands folding behind his back. “There’s a storage wing—section D-Seven, northern quarter. Locked from both ends, but I’ve cleared you a path. Powercase will meet you there with Echo fifteen minutes before his patrol. You will have at most seven minutes with Echo.”

Tempestrift didn’t answer right away. She just sat there, vents cycling quietly, as the weight of the situation settled fully onto her frame. Seven minutes. After weeks of silence, of uncertainty, of fearing the worst—she would have seven minutes.

It wasn’t enough. But it was something.

The Seeker stood slowly, pushing up from the chair with a movement far more fluid than she felt. Her joints felt stiff, like her frame had only just now realized what was happening. Her gaze flicked once to Volley, then to Powercase, who met her optics without challenge, but also without comfort.

“Fifteen minutes,” she repeated numbly. “Section D-Seven.”

Volley gave a single nod. “You’ll find the corridor unlocked, but you’ll need to manually seal it behind you. The fewer systems flagged, the better.”

She nodded in return, more out of habit than understanding. Her mind was already elsewhere. Already counting down the minutes.

Tempestrift turned on her heel, her heels clicking sharply against the floor as she walked to the door. Just before it slid open, Volley spoke again, his voice soft but unmistakably pointed.

“You don’t get to save him, Tempestrift. You only get to say goodbye.”

She paused—just for a second—but didn’t turn around. Her hands curled at her sides, wings flaring slightly with restrained emotion. “I know,” she spoke flatly, though her voice cracked ever so slightly.

The seeker stepped through the door and walked away, already trying to think of what she would say when she saw Echo.

[codebriefly]

New Post has been published on https://codebriefly.com/testing-and-debugging-angular-19-apps/

Testing and Debugging Angular 19 Apps

Testing and debugging are essential practices in the software development lifecycle, especially when building complex applications using Angular 19. By employing effective testing strategies and debugging techniques, developers can ensure that their applications are reliable, efficient, and free of critical issues. In this blog, we will explore the best practices for testing and debugging Angular 19 applications.

Table of Contents

Toggle

Why Testing and Debugging Matter

Types of Testing in Angular 19

Testing Tools for Angular 19

Setting Up Unit Testing

Example Unit Test

Running Unit Tests

End-to-End (E2E) Testing with Cypress

Setting Up Cypress

Sample E2E Test with Cypress

Debugging Angular 19 Applications

1. Angular DevTools

2. Console Logging

3. Breakpoints in Browser DevTools

4. Debugging RxJS Streams

Best Practices for Testing and Debugging

Final Thoughts

Why Testing and Debugging Matter

Testing and debugging help catch issues early in development, reducing maintenance costs and ensuring a stable application. Angular 19 offers powerful tools for both unit and end-to-end (E2E) testing, allowing developers to write and execute tests efficiently.

Types of Testing in Angular 19

Unit Testing: Testing individual components, services, or functions.

Integration Testing: Verifying the interaction between different components.

End-to-End (E2E) Testing: Testing the entire application workflow.

Performance Testing: Ensuring the application meets performance benchmarks.

Testing Tools for Angular 19

Karma: Test runner to execute unit tests.

Jasmine: Behavior-driven development framework.

Jest: An alternative test framework known for faster unit test execution.

Cypress: Modern and popular E2E testing framework replacing Protractor.

Playwright: An alternative E2E testing tool for cross-browser testing.

Setting Up Unit Testing

Angular projects come pre-configured with Jasmine and Karma. To create a new component with test files:

ng generate component my-component

This generates a my-component.component.spec.ts file, which is the unit test file.

Example Unit Test

import ComponentFixture, TestBed from '@angular/core/testing'; import MyComponent from './my-component.component'; describe('MyComponent', () => let component: MyComponent; let fixture: ComponentFixture<MyComponent>; beforeEach(async () => await TestBed.configureTestingModule( declarations: [MyComponent], ).compileComponents(); fixture = TestBed.createComponent(MyComponent); component = fixture.componentInstance; fixture.detectChanges(); ); it('should create the component', () => expect(component).toBeTruthy(); ); );

Running Unit Tests

Use the following command to run unit tests:

ng test

  End-to-End (E2E) Testing with Cypress

Protractor has been deprecated in Angular 15+, and Cypress has become a preferred tool for E2E testing in Angular 19 applications.

Setting Up Cypress

Install Cypress using the Angular CLI or npm:

ng add @cypress/schematic

To run Cypress tests:

npx cypress open

Sample E2E Test with Cypress

describe('App Homepage', () => it('should display the welcome message', () => cy.visit('/'); cy.contains('h1', 'Welcome to Angular 19!'); ); );

    Debugging Angular 19 Applications

Debugging is crucial for identifying and fixing issues during development. Angular 19 provides multiple tools to aid in debugging.

1. Angular DevTools

Angular DevTools is a Chrome extension that offers profiling and debugging capabilities.

Component Explorer: View component hierarchy.

Profiler: Analyze performance bottlenecks.

Change Detection Debugging: Monitor change detection cycles.

2. Console Logging

Logging with console.log() is a quick way to inspect data:

console.log('Component initialized', this.data);

3. Breakpoints in Browser DevTools

Set breakpoints directly in TypeScript files to pause execution and inspect variables.

4. Debugging RxJS Streams

Use the tap() operator to inspect stream data:

of(1, 2, 3).pipe( tap(value => console.log('Value:', value)) ).subscribe();

  Best Practices for Testing and Debugging

Isolate Unit Tests: Keep unit tests independent from external services.

Mock Dependencies: Use mocks for HTTP and service calls to ensure consistent results.

Automate Testing: Integrate testing into your CI/CD pipeline.

Code Coverage Reports: Use coverage reports to identify untested code.

Debug Efficiently: Use Angular DevTools for advanced debugging.

Test for Edge Cases: Ensure tests cover all possible scenarios.

Final Thoughts

Testing and debugging are indispensable for maintaining robust Angular 19 applications. By implementing best practices and leveraging tools like Jasmine, Karma, Cypress, and Angular DevTools, developers can ensure their applications are reliable, maintainable, and performant.

Keep learning & stay safe 😉

You may like:

UI/UX with Angular Material in Angular 19

Performance Optimization and Best Practices in Angular 19

Routing and Navigation Handling in Angular 19

State Management and Data Handling in Angular 19

[whats-in-a-sentence]

If Chewie walks away from you at 10 miles per hour (Chewie has quite a stride) the events on earth that belong on his new now-list are events that happened about 150 years ago, according to you! According to his conception of now – a conception that is every bit as valid as yours and up until a moment ago agreed fully with yours – you have not yet been born. If he moved toward you at the same speed, the angular shift would be opposite, as schematically illustrated in Figure 5.4, so that his now would coincide with what you would call 150 years in the future!

"The Fabric of the Cosmos" - Brian Greene

[trapton]

hey write out what the conversation between henry and will would be like if he got caught with janelle.

🔧 @avemaria . 𝚂𝙴𝙽𝚃 𝙰 𝚁𝙰𝙽𝙳𝙾𝙼 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙿𝚃

𝙸𝙽 𝙰 𝙻𝙾𝚃 𝙾𝙵 𝚆𝙰𝚈𝚂, 𝙸𝚃'𝚂 𝙰 𝚃𝚈𝙿𝙸𝙲𝙰𝙻 𝙳𝙰𝚈. will pouring over tiring paperwork he has to sort through, unhappily walled off in his red-light haven, looking slightly more disheveled than he would have if he were running around the floor . . . if only due to repeated stuffing hands into brunette strands --- resting with them skewed, or running his fingers through them in irritation. eventually doodling some schematics for what turned out to be an arm attachment, before he's able to focus again. blasted henry usually handled this stuff, but he'd practically insisted . . . as to why, william could only guess. . . . though perhaps such a question would be answered in due time. figured the man wanted to get his fingers wet in some grease, though such is only half the story. the idea of henry getting time in when william was stuck here making the notion even more difficult to bare. flaring his ego, his jealousy.

it definitely wasn't a great time to talk.

&. yet, sure as the sun rises every morning, henry knocks on his office door. interrupting william's stooped, curled spine fidgeting. his restless leg, spread thighs &. hand stuffed into hair, flicking pencil against a stack of papers to make peppered dots on the page. "what?" he snarls, and after a moment's hesitation, henry slips through a crack in the door with a pensive expression. fist slapping lightly into his palm.

william throws papers over light sketches with a scowl.

"i hate it when you look at me like that." . . . william sighs, a bite to his breathy tone. his attempt to straighten only with a unfurl of his back, arm moving to rest on the aforementioned stack. "so, what is it you want to speak to me about, henry? i assume you haven't forgotten how to fix the machines you helped build."

henry's brows narrow, his lips rearing up in slight confusion. "whoa, someone's prickly this afternoon." henry replies gruffly, (as ever) holding up his hands before his shoulders rise, fingertips slipping into denim pockets.

william is glowering, his fingers freeing themselves of anything as they curl &. flex, bones popping. "just do us both a favor, &. spit it out. i can already tell neither of us want to have this conversation. better to get it over with, quickly."

will speaks, and henry lumbers forth. the very sight is irritating to the engineer, as he can tell the other man is wavering on what he wants to say, and how he wants to say it. the way his breath pulls his chest forth in a long inhale,

he can tell he's thinking over his words in a way that makes william grind his teeth behind curling veils, like an agitated rottweiler waiting to snap . . . his long brunette strands cast along the side of sharp, angular features.

"now," henry leads, arching a furry brow. "you knew we'd have to talk about this sooner or later."

" -- don't condescend to me like i'm a child!" william cuts him off, eyes squinting in a ferocious narrow. "i'm the bloody owner, i'm under no obligation to follow the blasted fraternization rules. &. i'm not breaking any moral laws, as far as i know." he scowls. a scathing bite at his ex-wife.

while henry had expected not to be allowed to get a word in, but his lips pull in a skeptical gaze. he's more . . . cautious, more apt to sit back &. assess. treading carefully with hands on his hips. "but . . . do you really think this is a good idea? that a relationship born out of . . . such loneliness, is going to end well?"

william makes a face, something akin to disgust. "oh, i'm far from lonely." his fingers curl, blinking through his falsehoods. "&. do not mistake my interest in janelle as something so - juvenile." his elbow settles on the table, finger pointed at the other. "besides, i wouldn't have pursued it if i hadn't intended to see it through . . ." he mutters the last part beneath his breath.

he clears his throat, hand coming to keep his tie against his chest as his other hand helps him straighten in his chair while henry speaks. he who is a bit more animated, as of now . . . stepping forth with a hand coming outward at the hip.

"i think it's time to get serious, will. this woman . . . she's half your age. &. not to mention her situation. this is irresponsible." henry gives him a pleading look with hazel eyes, witch earns a burning scowl as grey eyes peel away. fingers curling.

william's palms slam on the table suddenly, causing henry's eyes to wide beneath his frames. just for a moment, but the mere notion sends a shiver up the straghtened spine. stormy eyes snapping upward. "last i checked, i am a grown man, mr. emily. &. i will hear no more of this, do you understand me?" he speaks, doing up the buttons on the ends of orange sleeves, before clumsily rounding his desk with a hand tumbling through his hair. henry is already stumbling backward a bit as his hands come up in surrender.

"this isn't over, will. it just . . . it can't be, do you understand?" henry asks, will's hands on either end of his arm as he handles him towards the door he wretches open with another snarl.

"oh, i assure you that it's quite over -- now get the fuck out of my office. &. don't you dare question me, you no-good, bloody hack."

[spacenutspod]

The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) is something special among telescopes. It’s not built for better angular resolution and increased resolving power like the European Extremely Large Telescope or the Giant Magellan Telescope. It’s built around a massive digital camera and will repeatedly capture broad, deep views of the entire sky rather than focus on any individual objects. By repeatedly surveying the sky, the VRO will spot any changes or astronomical transients. Astronomers call this type of observation Time Domain Astronomy. When the VRO spots something transient in the night sky, it’ll automatically send alerts out to other observatories that will observe the transient object in detail. It could be a distant supernova explosion, a hazardous asteroid here in the inner Solar System, or anything that registers a change in the sky. The VRO’s job is to spot it and then pass the baton to other observatories. But issuing alerts to other telescopes is just one of the things the VRO will do. The VRO’s primary observing program is called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST.) The LSST will catalogue the entire available night sky by imaging it every night for ten years with its massive 3.2 gigapixel camera. Every five seconds, the camera will point to a different part of the sky and capture a 15-second exposure. This decade-long effort will generate an enormous amount of data. It’ll take 200,000 images per year, amounting to 1.28 petabytes of data. There’ll be so much data that the VRO project includes a new data pipeline travelling from its site in northern Chile back to the US. There’s no way that people can process all the data, so machine learning will play a big role in handling it and finding what’s hidden. The authors of a new research paper developed a novel way for the observatory to detect anomalies in the immense amount of data it generates. The paper is “The Weird and the Wonderful in our Solar System: Searching for Serendipity in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time.” It’s been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, and the lead author is Brian Rogers from the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. The list of objects and events the VRO will spot contains all the things we’d expect to see. Along with supernovae and asteroids, the VRO might spot the elusive Planet 9 that may be lurking in the far reaches of our Solar System. It’ll also see kilonovae, gamma-ray bursts, variable quasars, AGN, and even interstellar objects (ISOs) like Oumaumua and Borisov. But to find those objects in all that data requires machine learning. The authors have developed a type of neural network to process the data. A neural network is a type of AI that mimics how the human brain works. It employs a layered network of individual nodes, or neurons, that somewhat resembles the human brain. In simple terms, Neural Networks are a subset of Machine Learning, which is a subset of Artificial Intelligence. Without these tools, astronomers would have no hope of processing all of the data the VRO will generate. Image Credit: Evan GoughThe authors have developed a specific type of neural network called an autoencoder. Autoencoders can perform a very useful function. They take data, encode or compress it, then reconstitute the data back into a version of itself. By doing that, an autoencoder can ‘learn’ which aspects of data are relevant and which are noise. The noise can then be discarded. In their paper, the researchers write, “We present a novel method for anomaly detection in Solar System object data, in preparation for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. We train a deep autoencoder for anomaly detection and use the learned latent space to search for other interesting objects.”This simple schematic illustrates the general architecture of an autoencoder. It takes input, encodes it into a latent representation of the input, then decodes it and outputs it. Image Credit: Rogers et al. 2024The authors’ autoencoder is based on finding anomalies like interstellar objects (ISOs.) If the autoencoder can identify them, it means that the massive amount of LSST data becomes more manageable. “We demonstrate the efficacy of the autoencoder approach by finding interesting examples, such as interstellar objects, and show that using the autoencoder, further examples of interesting classes can be found,” they explain.They tested their autoencoder on a simulation of the 10 years of data the LSST will collect. As real data from the LSST arrives, they intend to keep testing their autoencoder and strengthening it. “In the meantime, this work does not attempt to quantify the likely yield of unusual objects but merely demonstrates that we can find them in a large survey of the type which will be produced by LSST,” they write.What the authors call ‘reconstruction loss’ plays a large role in the work, as do anomalies. When working with known, simulated data, the researchers measured the autoencoder’s accuracy. They simply measured the output against the input. Reconstruction loss is a measure of how accurate the autoencoder is and it can be quantified. This figure from the research shows how the autoencoder can measure reconstruction loss in its latent space. It shows reconstruction scores for 3.1 million Solar System objects across the reduced feature space. Blue dots, which are tiny, represent objects with low reconstruction loss. Anomalous objects are shown with enlarged dots of redder colours. “The top 0.01% anomalies are enlarged for this plot. Theylie distant from the majority of normal objects in blue,” the authors write. Image Credit: Rogers et al. 2024.Anomalies are unusual objects that stand out, just as an ISO would. From the figure above, the authors identified the top ten anomalies ranked by reconstruction loss. For each of those ten, they identified their twenty nearest neighbours. These are not neighbours in the Solar System; they’re neighbours in the latent space. The neighbourhoods of objects are related by aspects of data. They’re data neighbourhoods. For example, one of the neighbourhoods is based on measured magnitudes. Another is based on orbital eccentricity, and another is based on outlier objects in Jupiter’s vicinity. Each of these panels is a different autoencoder output for the top ten anomalies and their data neighbours. The blue are normal objects, and the coloured dots show how the top ten anomalies relate to them. In this figure, ISOs are number 6, shown in red. The critical takeaway is that the anomalies are easily distinguished from normal objects and are grouped by certain characteristics like orbital eccentricity or magnitude. Image Credit: Rogers et al. 2024. Astronomy is changing. Our observatories and telescopes are becoming so powerful and automated that they create a massive universe of data. It’s beyond the capability of the astronomical community to deal with the data without automated help. By training the autoencoder to detect anomalies, it can sift through the LSST data and flag anomalies. The authors are quick to point out that the autoencoder is not completely automatic. It still needs human help. “After evaluating the deficiencies of standalone unsupervised methods, we demonstrated the power of human feedback in detecting anomalies <> using a supervised approach,” they write. “Using human feedback can increase the relevance, accuracy and precision of the anomaly detection system.”It’s not hype to say that the Vera Rubin Observatory will change our understanding of our Solar System and things well beyond it. Its first light is scheduled for January 2025. It’ll take a while to test and commission all of the equipment, but sometime after that, the data will start to flow. Once it does, there’ll be no stopping it, and astronomers will need tools like autoencoders to help them find anomalies. “By putting the right anomalies in the right hands, we can multiply the value of the data collected by LSST and precipitate potential follow-up studies for the most interesting objects found in the survey,” the researchers write in their work. “We have demonstrated that deep autoencoders can fulfil this role as an unsupervised detection model by performing on the scale of LSST and that they can enable efficient anomaly discovery for the most interesting Solar System objects.” The post Vera Rubin Will Help Us Find the Weird and Wonderful Things Happening in the Solar System appeared first on Universe Today.

[tomasz-smykowski]

Angular with dependency injections, decorators, pipes and schematics has a really strong grouds for developers who like to make their work easier

[thesumlax]

It's not colored but I think a schematic depiction of this sort of abstracted, generalized fish skull could be useful (it's originally in Russian as well so apologies if I mess up some bone's English name):

(if Tumblr refuses to play nice with this image just follow the associated link, it has a white background there and it`s alright)

a - cartilage and endochondral bones, b - dermal bones, I-V - gill arches

1 - angular, 2 - articular, 3 - basioccipital, 4 - basisphenoid, 5 - copula, 6 - dentary, 7 - laterethmoid, 8 - ectopterygoid, 9 - endopterygoid, 10 - exoccipital, 11 - frontal, 12 - hyomandibula, 13 - hyoid, 14 - ossified ligament, 15 - alisphenoid, 16 - mesethmoid, 17 - metapterygoid, 18 - maxilla, 19 - nasal, 20 - orbitosphenoid, 21 - parietal, 22 - palatine, 23 - premaxilla, 24 - parasphenoid, 25 - quadrate, 26 - supraoccipital, 27 - symplectic, 28 - vomer, 29-33 - otic bones.

I did find a similar schematic in a language you can understand, but it`s worse in certain ways:

Bonus - the operculum bones:

1 - praeoperculum, 2 - interoperculum, 3 - operculum, 4 - suboperculum.

Every time I try and understand anglerfish/goosefish skull anatomy and by extension fish skull anatomy in general I inflict 100 points of psychic damage upon myself

[lamaery]

earlier this year I started collaborating with @thirdchildart on a visualization of the first chapter of Way of Kings... with both got caught up in other work though so for now at least we set it aside, with the hope to get back to parts of it one day. So here are some of the ideas for the main ball room of the Kholinar palace. It has been very interesting to practice surroundings and scenery since it is venturing out of my usual comfort zone... image descriptions below the cut:

[image description: various sketches for the layout of a very spacious ten-sided, almost circular room with several rises platforms and a surrounding balcony. The first image is a drawing of the king’s platform, stars leading up to a raised area under a tent-like canopy falling down from the ceiling and being propped up by the pillars and connecting arches that surround the rim of the plateau. Next to the staircase are small pools of water illuminated with sphere lights. Under the canopy the light of big chandeliers falls on the people and tables below. The lower half of the image contains schematic bird views of both the kings platform and the big ball room with its layout and three version of little nooks for sphere lights which are set into the stone pillars. The second image is a digital sketch in soft grey depicting a high overview of the big ballroom, showing the kings platform framed by to smaller ones for men and women. All three of those have similar canopies. There are two lower platforms joined to the smaller ones, with several staircases leading down to the dance floor. The schematic layout of the room is repeated in the lower right corner. It also shows the location of several fire pits distributed in the room. In the upper right corner is a small close-up of alethi lighteyed women chatting next to a geometrically shaped (bit like a ten sided dice) lamp on a stone post. The third image is a page full of sketches done in yellow colour pencil and ball pen, with digital shading on top. It has two images of the balcony lining the room and the walkway underneath. All shapes are very bold and angular with a tendency towards 60 degree angles. The big stone pillars that support the circular balcony thin out towards the ceiling. The solid broad parts on the bottom are decorated with rows of inset nooks for candles or sphere lights. triangular portions of the balcony walkway venture out into the room and the pillars. Over the heads of the people sitting and promenading on the balcony carved stone work wings out from the pillars back to the walls which are arching into a domed roof. Long vertical flags hang from the stonework, presenting the glyphs of the princedoms.  In the right hadn't upper corner there is a lighteyed couple displaying the current altho fashion. The details on the woman’s havah repeat the angles of the architecture. The man wears a long dark open coat with a skirted vest underneath. He holds a glass in his hand and sports a beard on his face. There is a written note next to his head reading “If king Gavilar wears a beard they are probably in fashion”. Below are different designs for vine glasses and goblets. ]

[blueiscoool]

Preserved Prehistoric Engravings Found in Spain

Significant prehistoric rock art has been discovered in La Febro, in southwestern Catalonia.

The team that discovered the art inside Cova de la Vila described it as “exceptional, both for its singularity and excellent state of conservation.”

In the Cova de la Vila cave in La Febró (Tarragona), in northeastern Spain’s region of Catalonia, more than 100 prehistoric engravings have been found, arranged on an eight-meter panel.

According to experts, it is a composition related to the worldview of agricultural societies and farmers of the territory. One of the singularities of this mural is that it is made exclusively with the engraving technique, with stone or wood tools.

The engravings include shapes that resemble horses, cows, suns, and stars.

Julio Serrano, Montserrat Roca, and Francesc Rubinat were the cavers responsible for the discovery; they collaborated with Josep Vallverd, Antonio Rodrguez-Hidalgo, and Diego Lombao, researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA), and Ramón Vias, an expert in prehistoric rock art.

It was in May 2021, during some scans and topographical work by a group of speleologists in the Barranc de la Cova del Corral, that they discovered the Cova de la Vila, a cavity excavated by Salvador Vilaseca in the 1940s and whose coordinates appear to have been lost.

The set is very homogeneous stylistically and presents few overlaps. From the stylistic point of view, the set is part of the post-Paleolithic schematic art. It is an art associated with peasant and livestock communities during the transition period between the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age, that is, between 5,000 and 3,000 years BC. In Catalonia, these types of ensembles, in underground cavities, are very rare, being the case of the Sala dels Gravats of the karstic complex of Cova de la Vila exceptional for being inside a cave and possibly associated with an archaeological context.

These types of representations are uncommon in Catalan territory, though some examples can be found, such as the Vallmajor Cave in Albinyana, Baix Penedès. In the peninsular area, it would be classified as “underground black schematic and abstract schematic,” which are heterogeneous groups distinguished by their formal or typological, thematic, and technical affinities. La Pileta and Nerja in Málaga, La Murcielaguina in Córdoba, and the Los Enebralejos caves in Segovia, the Galera del Flex in Burgos, or the Maja Cave in Soria are some Andalusian caves with painted (black or red) or engraved representations and similar chronologies.

The engravings are in exceptional condition, but they are extremely fragile due to the instability of the support on which they are found. Because it is a soft and humid surface, changes in the atmospheric conditions in the room may affect the conservation of the panel.

To ensure these climatic conditions, the Department of Culture, the Febró Town Hall, and the IPHES collaborated to close it both outside and inside, ensuring its physical conservation. Similarly, a closure has been installed in the access to the cat flap, which provides direct access to the Sala dels Gravats, to return it to the climatic conditions it had prior to discovery.

A unique set of engravings

The rock art collection of the Sala dels Gravats of the Cova de la Vila karstic complex is completely unique. Despite the fact that its research phase has not yet begun, all indications point to it being one of the best compositions of post-paleolithic subterranean abstract art in the entire Mediterranean region.

On one of the cave walls, a large number of schematic representations have been discovered. The engraving panel is made up of five horizontal lines, one on top of the other, with different engraved figures that each have their own meaning and symbolism.

Various figures such as quadrupeds, zigzags, linear, angular strokes, and circles are represented. There are several zoomorphs (possibly bovids and equines), steliforms (single and/or stars), and reticulates that stand out. There’s also a composition that looks like an ‘eyeballed’ idol. The overall aesthetic is very consistent, with few stylistic overlaps.

The distribution of the various elements suggests that it could be a composition: zoomorphic in the lower part of the panel, reticulated, particularly in the central part, and steliform in the upper part of the group, with an eye in the upper part of the group.

By Leman Altuntaş.

[athenasparrow]

No. 14 - Charm | Jily March Micros

Thank you to the lovely @jilymicrofics once again for the prompt : )

Read on AO3 | 364 words

“Hey Evans” was how Potter chose to greet her as he slipped into the empty seat next to her at her library table.

Her library table, she might add. The one she’d claimed in her first year and spent most of her study time hidden away at.

“Potter” she acknowledged, trying to ignore the way his voice sent her stomach flipping.

“Could you help me with this charm?” he asked, opening his textbook to a detailed schematic of the wand movements for an illusion charm.

“Didn’t realise you studied” Lily quipped teasingly, breathing through her mouth so she wouldn’t be distracted by the inviting scent that was just James.

“It can be our little secret” he said grinning at her. Lily wanted to tell him she’d rather have a dirty little secret with him.

“Let’s see then” Lily said pushing away her errant thoughts and setting her work down so she could observe him.

He rolled up his sleeves and jabbed his wand through the movements. God his forearms were delicious. She could see the muscles ripping with each flexion and extension of his wrist.

“So…what do you think?” he asked dropping his arm and looking at her expectantly.

Shit.

“Lily?” he said, looking at her a little oddly. “Are you okay?”

“Perfectly fine.” she forced out, hoping the heat she could feel wasn’t obvious on her face “one more time Potter.”

She determinedly ignored the way his forearm rippled and zeroed in on the wand in his hand. 

“This is not transfiguration… your movements are too angular. In charms you’ve got to smooth them out into a flow, yeah?”

She moved her own wand in the pattern the schematic showed and felt a rush of satisfaction when half of the table looked like the floor.

“Yeah okay” James said adjusting his movements and swishing his wand at the other half of the table.

It vanished.

“Thanks Evans, you’re the best” he grinned, winking at her before grabbing his book and moving back to leave her in peace.

Lily found she couldn’t quite focus for the rest of the day when the image of his forearms played over and over again in her head.

[screaming-skvll]

“They say it’s the latest and greatest in fusion, but I don't see what's different." Salim pushed back his hood and turned the angular fusion rifle over in his hands, checking it expertly. "It doesn't even have new optics."

Ted-8 shuffled awkwardly. "It's not about how it looks, it's about what's inside. And as for the sights, why replace something that still works perfectly well just for the sake of making something new?"

Salim tilted his head in a half-nod of appreciation. "I suppose that's fair enough—but as to the rest, I'm just to trust Omolon's made some upgrades without being able to examine the internal workings? This sticker says opening the exterior casing voids the warranty."

"They have a business to run, after all," Ted said with a small shrug.

Salim's eyes flashed angrily. "A business? I should put my life in Omolon's hands—and the lives of the pilgrims I escort—for the sake of Omolon's business?"

"Well," Ted stammered, the glow of his vocal modulator flickering, "that's—I didn't mean—you're certainly entitled to know what exactly's, uh, what's been improved—which is why Omolon publishes these schematics along with the list of model features." He extended a hand, offering up a datapad.

Salim did not take it. "Let me tell you what I think," he said. "I think this weapon is perfectly good, but not substantially different than anything else Omolon's already made, nor indeed anything else other foundries have on offer. I think Omolon—and the other foundries, all these businesses—feel a greater need to put out something new to sell to justify maintaining or raising their prices year after year, rather than optimize the production of their existing model lines to lower the per-unit cost of standardized weapons—the weapons we need to keep the City safe."

He glared, his grip on the body of the fusion rifle tight and fast. Ted stood stock still.

"And I think," Salim breathed, relaxing as he pulled up his hood, "it is a good thing there are so many weapons already on the secondary market. A Guardian can get what they need—even if it isn't the latest and greatest."

(Snorri FR5 w/ Lawful Neutral)