#cloud based language lab

[zevrra]

—𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫 [⋆｡°✩]

syn: just some random sfw & nsfw hc’s i have for jayce and viktor from arcane!!

includes: gn!reader, 18(+) only, fluff, established relationships, mention of kïnks, mention of drinking/being drunk

extra(s): may flesh these out a little more at some point but these are just little thoughts i’ve had in my head recently AAA (check out my other arcane stuff if you enjoy <3)

JAYCE

a heavy sleeper!! can sleep through all 11 alarms he’s set(they’re all set 5 mins apart) but when he does finally wake up he’s somehow a morning person…wakes up full of energy and ready to start the day

drinks black coffee straight up. no sugar or cream and hates the taste but says it helps him “wake up”

sleeps in just boxers

a light WEIGHT!! it takes a total of 2 drinks before he’s buzzed. his max is probably 6 drinks before he’s almost black out drunk

takes 2 hour long showers

hums! he hums aaaalllll the time just anywhere and everywhere! is always humming some kind of tune

when he’s nervous he bites his lips

runs so so hot! like is a natural heater and is constantly warm so he prefers winter over summer

also packs on some weight during the winter like a bear getting ready to hibernate (he hates it, you LOVE IT)

i feel like he LOVES to swim

book smart not so much street smarts

is terrified of insects, specifically wasps (isn’t allergic he just thinks they’re the spawn of satan)

secretly dislikes most sweets. he doesn’t mind them but he wouldn’t reach for sweets over salty snacks if they’re offered

oh he looooooves spicy food!

pet name king. loves calling you everything but your name. especially enjoys calling you “baby” or “babe”

physical touch is 100% his love language!! keeps his hands on your waist or your back he just enjoys touching so much

clingy

clean and perfect handwriting

he’s also either a really good cook or a really bad one i can’t decide jshsjsjd

when he has a bad day he droops like a little rain cloud but is so easy to cheer up

has two left feet and dances for shit (does it anyway because he enjoys it)

is a whole ray of sunshine; laughs with his whole chest, smiles just as bright as the sun, always looking on the bright side of things

[—NSFW BELOW]

obedient asf!!

literally loves being told what to do and how good he makes you feel

is the definition of service top

THRIVES OFF PRAISE!

stamina goes CRAZY, takes some pretty good build up before he comes

100% is a munch

he loves coming home, shutting off his brain from being at the lab for too long, and sitting between your thighs while he makes you feel good

begs for you to sit on his face

begs in general all day every day for it though

“pleaseee pretty… let’s just sneak away…”

says please so much it’s incorporated in his everyday vocabulary

loves kissing too

wild rutting thrusts, fast and rough reaching the deepest parts of you with ease

list of kinks i think he would have; public outings, bareback, begging (receiving or giving), marking (hickies), püssy/cöck worshipping, size kink, breeding, exhibitionism, face sitting/fucking, somno (w/consent!), and sqüirtïng

is huge and he knows it

thick at the base, keeps his girth until the very tip, where he’s a light brownish-pink. veiny and girthy; 7.5 inches

VIKTOR

rarely EVER sleeps (at most he sleeps for prob 5 ish hours every night) but when he does it’s never in an actual bed; says sleeping anywhere else is more comfortable than a bed

a light sleeper for sure, he def wakes up at every little noise and it drives him nuts

is NOT a morning person. he wakes up groggy and irritated before he morning coffee

always asks for “five more minutes” when he needs to get up

either he sleeps in the clothes he wore the day before or when he actually changes he wears a t-shirt and swaps between shorts or actual sleep pants

sometimes needs to be reminded to eat because he gets so focused on working in the lab he forgets to eat a lot

is actually a decent cook! can make basic and simple dishes but nothing extraordinary

drinks very rarely and when he does it takes him chugging liquor to get drunk

messy but pretty handwriting (only he can read it)

a blanket HOG! he has to be fully wrapped up in at least 2 blankets before he can get comfortable enough to sleep

always runs cold and favors summer over winter!

it just gives you a nice excuse to hold his hand out in public

will drop something on purpose just so he can bend over and struggle to pick it up then act like you’re being mean to him jshshfk

will hit you with his cane if you ask him a stupid question

has the BIGGEST SWEET TOOTH

secretly snuck candy whenever he could growing up so now he constantly has it on him

says it helps him focus if he has a little bit of sugar

is actually packed full with sarcasm and makes so many sarcastic comments throughout the day

doodles when he’s trying to figure out an equation

his pet names for you consist more of “my love” or “darling”

his love language is quality time and gift giving (while he HATES receiving gifts)

writes you notes and leaves them around everywhere for you to accidentally stumble across and see

if you manage to get him to accept a gift, he uses/takes it everywhere with him

[—NSFW BELOW]

is a power bottom!

loves it when you dress up for him

SENSITIVE KING

oh he’s so sensitive, especially around his thighs

comes so so so easily (but can go several times in a row)

like a little handjob and some kissing could have him weak in the palm of your hand

well placed, slow, and methodical thrusts. never misses and it always leaves you breathless.

after a really good night spent together is about the only time he’ll ever sleep comfortably in a bed (next to you of course)

would try ANYTHING once

is not shy when it comes to telling you when he wants to fuck

will grab you by the waist with his cane and pull you closer to him just to tell you he wants you sitting in his lap right now

gives me a lil bit of a brat vibes

“why don’t you try asking nicely darling.”

list of kïnks i think he would be into: dacryphilia, edging, overstimulation, choking, blindfolds, biting/marking, degradation/praise, püssy/cöck worshipping, oral, cüm play, roleplay (secretly loves professor/teacher stuff)

not as thick as jayce but he makes up for it with length, pale until the tip where he’s a pretty pink. slightly curved upwards, 6 inches

[bluemoonsunrise]

Demons and Savages

pairing: tsu’tey and human!avatar driver (fem presenting)

content warnings: graphic language, alien vs human differences, unconventional grief, the RDA sucks, fuck u miles quaritch, tension you could cut with a knife, nsfw themes: grinding, biting, scent marking???. enemies to lovers. (also, i don’t like to capitalize sentences on tumbler :3)

word count: o_0 long… <3 ur welcome

pov: 2nd person so you can add yourself in. for writing/plot purposes, your character is named eris ramsey. i’ll use the name sparingly but i can’t take myself seriously writing y/n— so please just work with me here. i promise it’ll be worth it. (i hope)

< previous chapter

———🌌———

SUMMARY: earth was dying and your sister was, too, but cancer killed her faster than humans were killing earth. when she passed, she not only left behind an empty apartment full of memories but a billion dollar avatar without a driver. in a desperate attempt to not waste that money, the program she had spent the last five years preparing to join recruited you— her twin. of course, you agreed. there was nothing left on earth for you. there was nothing left on earth for anyone— that’s why people like your sister were sent off to pandora.

when your sister had spoken of pandora, it seemed like a dream.

the RDA promised it would be like a safari adventure.

truth was that pandora is beautiful. beautiful and unlike anything else across the whole of the universe. it is breathtaking— and that’s because what chases you through the forest hunts with the intent to kill; so you best run like hell even if your lungs are on fire. beasts and monsters of all kinds lurk out of sight waiting for the right moment to kill you dead— but none are as dangerous as him.

the blue shadow with the bow.

chapter five

— i know you —

the chopper was louder than you remembered. it made it hard to sleep even with the protective headphone over your ears. leaving before the sun was up, you were utterly exhausted. if your head was pounding bad enough to make you scowl with your eyes closed, you couldn’t imagine the headache jake had from his link being broken. with your head rested on his shoulder, the two of you tired your best to sleep.

you wished you hadn’t.

she came to you in your dreams.

“hey,” grace’s voice was gravelly over the headset. you felt her nudge your leg. “twin one and twin two, wake up before you miss it.”

you let out a soft whine as you stretched. beside you, jake yawned. he turned his head away from the glaring morning sun and tucked it down into your shoulder despite the mask. the cool breeze of oxygen was vital— but you really wished you could’ve taken it off to rub the sleep from your eyes. blinking hard, you tried to focus.

“oh, holy shit…”

emerging from the clouds, the hallelujah mountains came into view. the massive, floating rocks were covered in green. waterfalls fell into sprays of cool mist that wafted into the helicopter that helped wake up jake. he, too, stared dumbfounded outside.

“ain’t it something?” grace asked.

you turned your head to look at her and all you could do was nod. your eyes welled with tears you didn’t let fall. it was gorgeous. too gorgeous. earth — even as pretty as it was in its prime — could’ve never ever compared to the majesty and the glory that was pandora.

“aaaand that’s another job well done, folks. thanks for traveling air pandora. tips are appreciated.” trudy said in a perfect public service voice as she began to shut down the chopper.

“best damn pilot this side of the universe.” jake said.

trudy smirked. “you know it, baby.”

blue base: hidden was where you would be spending the next handful of months with grace, norm, trudy, and jake. setting up the field lab was no easy task. there was much to do. air filters had to be cleaned. link-pods and tech needed to be recalibrated to deal with the flux vortex. a new radio channel had to be set up in all the walkie-talkies. food needed to be stored away. bunks needed to be prepared.

you had so much to do— too much to do.

and yet you couldn’t stop thinking about tsu’tey.

“hey, where are you going?” grace asked as you rose from the table. you had all eaten dinner as a group once all the work had finally gotten done.

“i have to link.” you said as you tossed away your trash and took a last sip of water.

“it’s late. you should wait until tomorrow.” grace said with a small shake of her head.

“i can’t. i’m sorry.” you frowned at her and whispered, “it’s important. he needs to know.”

while the other three at the table exchanged confused glances, grace only sighed. she got up without another protest and fired up the link-pod. you climbed inside and laid back.

fuck was it going to be hard not to fall asleep.

as soon as your head hit the spongy blue foam, you could’ve fallen asleep right then and there. as soon as the hatch shut and your eyes closed, your vision tunneled into white.

the warm night air and smell of pandoran dinner were a comfort you didn’t know you needed. you laid by yourself for a moment. you were tired. incredibly so. it had been nearly two days since you’d been in your avatar at this point. traveling to the hallelujah mountains and setting up blue base: hidden had taken more time than you thought it would.

the center of home tree was alive with music and dancing. a massive bonfire in the middle of the gathering burned like a second sun. shadows danced across the walls as voices echoed in song. you couldn’t help but smile. you couldn’t help, either, as you scanned face to face looking for him.

“dream-walker, you’re awake.” the tsahik said.

your turned. sitting with her daughter, mo’at ran her fingers over a beaded chord. neytiri did not look at you as you crouched down to be level. instead, she focused on her own beaded chord.

“what’s all this?” you asked with a glance around at the festivities.

“a celebration of life.”

neytiri’s voice was like snow. cold and beautiful. it almost hurt your ears how pretty it was— and you realized it was the first time you’d ever heard her speak.

she met your eyes and said, “there has been a death since you were last here. we mourned and now we celebrate.”

your heart sank.

for a split moment— a moment you never wanted to live again, you thought it was him.

where was tsu’tey?

“an elder passed in her sleep.” the tsahik said. she watched your expression. she seemed to know exactly what you feared. “she lived a long, full life. now she will live forever in eywa.”

“i’m sorry for your loss…” you whispered, saying the only thing you could offer.

“there is no loss,” neytiri said without looking at you. instead, she was focused on something behind you. “you cannot lose what was not really yours.”

“eris.”

you looked up at the sound of your name rolling off his tongue. you shot up, your pupils blown wide. tsu’tey took ahold of your arm and squeezed you. his ears perked and the look in his eyes was one that you’d never thought you’d see.

relief.

“come.” tsu’tey said.

without another word, he whisked you away. he was always doing that. grabbing and pulling you. you wondered as you hurried to keep up with him, when that had become your favorite part of your day.

to your surprise, you left home tree.

where better to talk privately than where no one was at this hour?

“you were gone a long time.” tsu’tey said as he walked beside you through the sunset painted forest. soon, it would be dark and the forest would glow all on its own.

“i know…i’m sorry.” you said softly. you glanced up at him and heat rushed to your face. he was looking at you. “things— uh…things got real crazy real fast. i’m happy to report that jake is not a spy for the RDA.”

“you are sure of this?” tsu’tey asked, his brows drawing together.

“yes.” you said. you cracked a small smile and laughed. “grace is intent on making sure those who would wish to plant spies here never get the chance. she pulled my whole team out of the RDA facility. we are— well…maybe i shouldn’t tell you where we are.”

tsu’tey’s eyes widened and he asked, “are you not at your colony?”

“no. not anymore. we’ve gone wild. we are far from hell’s gate. far from here, too. at least, i think? i’m not really sure where those floating mountains are.”

you slapped your hand over your mouth.

tsu’tey smiled down at you and chuckled. “what? afraid i’ll come and kill you?”

“maybe…” you whispered, letting your hands drop.

“you have proven yourself to be useful, eris, so there is little to gain by killing you.” tsu’tey said. his arm brushed against yours and he met your eyes. “better yet, you’ve proven yourself to be trustworthy.”

your throat tightened and your chest caved but your forced yourself to smile.

silence settled over the two of you as you walked and you were thankful for it. your voice would’ve cracked and you would’ve cried if you had to say anything more. walking with him now, you realized how scared you had been the last 37 hours.

with him, you felt safe.

and it made you cry.

you stopped dead in your tracks and covered your face with your hands. big, wet tears rolled down your cheeks. the stress of the move and the exhaustion due to it made for an awful, potent mix of a complete and utter overwhelm.

“eris?” tsu’tey whispered your name too gently.

“i’m just tired,” you said. you wiped your eyes hard and tried to calm your breath. you looked up at him and shook your head. “i’m fine.”

“let us go back. we will get you back to your body so that you can sleep.” tsu’tey said.

“no.” you shook your head as tears dripped from your eyes. “i don’t want to go back yet. please. i want to stay here. i want to stay with y—”

you caught yourself.

not we’ll enough.

tsu’tey ears perked and his pupils rounded. carefully, he flicked his head. without a word, you followed behind him. you had no idea where you were going. you didn’t care. when you came upon a massive tangle of gigantic tree roots, the forest was beginning to glow in the shadows.

“this way,” tsu’tey said as he crouched down.

you raised your hand up to protect your face as you followed him into the dark. a tunnel. the smell of pandoran soil was strong. lights began to twinkle the deeper into the dark tunnel you walked until blue and purple were the only colors you could see.

underground was a small burrow-like cave. the grass shined as you walked. the tree roots were speckled with colorful dots. the gems in the walls of the burrow twinkled and reflected the light. in the center, an unlit firepit. woven mats lined the floor. baskets were placed against the walls.

“what is this place?” you asked softly.

“it is where hunters come to rest if they tire greatly before reaching home tree. there are many places like this in the forest.” tsu’tey said.

you watched as he lit a fire. slowly, you sat down on one of the mats. it took skill to make a fire that fast. you wondered if you’d master something like that one day. would he teach you?

“where is jake’s avatar?” you asked. the thought came to your mind like fire catching onto dry grass. you watched the flames swirl as he added kindle.

“the tsahik’s hut.” tsu’tey said without looking at you.

you looked at him though.

you watched the way his muscles rippled as he moved. you watched the way he shifted his weight as he reached around. when he finally sat down beside you, you stared at his face. his frustratingly handsome face.

was it wrong that you found him handsome?

he was a ten-foot-tall blue alien and all you wanted to do was let your head drop into his lap and fall asleep.

“why do you look at me like that?” tsu’tey asked. his voice was low. low and curious. he turned his head and met your eyes.

you pursed your lips. “like what?”

“like…” tsu’tey hesitated. perhaps he didn’t have the words in english. he cracked an awkward smile. “like you want to…eat me.”

your eyes widened and you couldn’t help but laugh. as heat filled your face, you looked away. “i don’t look at you like that…”

“not— not like you want to chew me and swallow.” tsu’tey was quick to say, worried he confused you. he tried to catch a glimpse of your face as he sat forward. “but like you want to…i don’t know. forget it. i can’t express it well.”

“it’s because i think you’re hot.”

when he didn’t say anything, you forced yourself to look at him. his ears were perked. he was waiting for you to explain. to say more. you found it hard to.

“hot…” tsu’tey repeated. “like i burn you?”

“kinda.” you said with a small laugh. you played with one of the braids in your hair as you stared at the fire. “it just means i…i think you’re attractive. you’re good looking. i think you’re hot.”

“is that why you try to put your mouth on mine?” tsu’tey asked.

you wanted to curl into a ball and die.

“yeah…” you said softly, nodding your head. you exhaled the air in your lungs awkwardly.

“i feel like that about you.”

you nearly broke your neck looking up at him so fast. your eyes widened and your lips parted in a soft expression of shock. you don’t know why it surprised you so much. he had literally tried to fuck you in the hot springs.

still, it was different hearing it so outright.

“you…think i’m hot?” you asked under your breath.

tsu’tey nodded once. “yes.”

“and you want to…kiss me?”

“all the time.”

you could’ve fainted.

your heart was racing and so much blood was rushing to your face that you felt light headed— but you had to keep your wits about you.

you laid back on your elbows and nodded, trying to seem as nonchalant as you could. “epic.”

“epic?” tsu’tey asked as he, too, laid back on his elbows. he looked at you. “what is epic?”

“forget it.” you said with a small shake of your head.

so embarrassing…

silence fell over the both of you. the burrow was full only with the sounds of crackling sticks. soft, even breaths. a small hum of some tune he whispered under his breath. you looked up at him but he kept his eyes on the fire.

it became warm in the safe haven below the ground. perfectly warm. it made your eyes heavy. his humming did, too. slowly, you slipped down to lay on your side. when you did, he did the same. on the mat beside you, he rested his head on his palm and watched you as he hummed.

“i don’t want to fall asleep…” you murmured, rubbing your eyes. you smiled faintly. “you’re making me sleepy.”

“what is it you want then?” tsu’tey asked in a low voice.

you shook your head.

he sighed the smallest bit. “just say it and i will do it.”

you hesitated for a moment.

tsu’tey tensed as you wiggled closer and curled up against his chest. he looked down at you. with your eyes closed, you tried to play it cool— but your heart was pounding in your chest.

the tension in you died away as he brushed his fingers down your arm. you relaxed as he laid down with you. his arm slid underneath your head. a perfect pillow. his legs tangled with yours. his lips rested against the top of your head.

he placed the faintest kiss on your hairline.

you were no longer tired.

all you could hear was the pound of your heart. it was like thunder. you breathed as deeply and as evenly as you could to keep yourself from squirming. you hoped he couldn’t feel the way your heart raced.

he could.

“mawey,” tsu’tey murmured, reaching between you to place his hand on your chest.

it only made you less calm.

slowly, you lifted your head to be eye-to-eye with him. with his hand still on your chest, he could feel the beat your heart had skipped. his pupils widened as you stared into his eyes. his tail was swaying, audibly swishing against the mat.

“what?” you asked softly.

“you smell good,” tsu’tey whispered, a small smile curling on his lip.

you bit the inside of your cheek. you knew what he was getting at. pheromones. you inhaled through your nose. the smell of the fire was all that you could really pick out. that and a sweet, faint aroma you figured was the grass.

you shook your head. “i only smell the fire.”

tsu’tey let out a low sigh but smiled anyways. “you are frustrating…do you know that?”

“i don’t mean to be.” you said softly.

“i know,” he dragged his fingers up your arm and pressed his palm against your face. “which is even more frustrating...”

tsu’tey kissed you.

and it took everything in you not to moan.

worse, it was harder not to devour him completely.

he kissed you slowly and softly, as if he were testing out the waters. maybe he expected you to feel different on his lips than real na’vi women did. or perhaps kissing was entirely different on pandora than it was on earth.

you let him lead.

you liked it best when he told you what to do.

your fingers laced through his braids as you kissed him back. his lips were like velvet. his mouth was hot. you wanted to taste him but you didn’t know if you could. you were too afraid to ruin this by doing something too human.

but you couldn’t help it.

you parted your lips in the hopes that he would give you more.

his tongue was wet and coarse as it dipped into your mouth. you sighed against his lips and wrapped your arms around his neck. guiding you to the ground, he leaned the top half of himself over you as your tongues slow danced together.

he tasted so fucking good.

he smelled so fucking good.

his pheromones hit you like an anvil to the head like in those old cartoons. salvia filled your mouth and a tingle began to vibrate in your belly. between your legs, your pussy began to weep. your tail curled itself tight around your leg. you felt breathless. you felt hot all over.

you felt so bad for not realizing what you did to him without even knowing it.

tsu’tey pulled his lips away from yours but he did not remove them from you. he glided them along your jaw. he nipped at your throat as you tilted your head back. you were squirming below him, panting and huffing as he kissed the sweetest spots you had. soon enough, you were grinding against each other.

a sharp yelp escaped you as he bit into the crook of your neck. fangs threatened to puncture through your skin— but they didn’t. he didn’t. he just wanted to bite. and bite you he did. over and over again, across your throat and shoulders, tsu’tey bit you hard enough to draw gasps from your lips but not enough to bruise.

your eyes shot open as he rolled you onto your side. the fire warmed your face but that was nothing compared to the flush that burned in your cheeks as he pressed himself against your backside. he pushed his hips forward into your ass. you could feel his erection. it throbbed against you from below his loincloth

“i will not mate with you face to face,” tsu’tey murmured against your ear. he dragged his lips along the pointed cartilage. “but we may do it like this and i will hold you just as close.”

“why can’t we face each other?” you asked softly, squirming back to be closer to him.

you tried to look over your shoulder and meet his eyes but he tucked his face down into the nape of your neck and bit down. you winced softly and closed your eyes, grinding back against him subconsciously.

“because if we look at each other, we grow attached.” tsu’tey said, his breath hot against your neck. it made you shiver. “na’vi can only mate for life by forming tsaheylu but there is still a deep connection that comes with staring into the eyes of someone you mount.”

“i may not be a virgin, eris, but i have never faced anyone while i coupled with them.” tsu’tey said as he reached down between you both and pushed your leg up to your belly. he was making room for himself. “that honor shall belong only to my mate.”

your heart sank at once. “to neytiri…”

“to whomever i chose.” tsu’tey said gruffly.

he didn’t have much of a choice.

you both knew that.

“this is wrong.” you said softly. you turned onto your tummy and looked at him. well, you tried your best to. it was hard to look him in the eye.

“what is?” tsu’tey asked with a small shake of his head.

“if you’re…if you’re supposed to mate with neytiri for life, what are we doing? it doesn’t feel right. it feels like you’re cheating on her.” you said through the tightness in your throat.

tsu’tey frowned and leaned into you. he pressed a soft kiss to your cheek. “na’vi cannot cheat. until na’vi form tsaheylu, they are not bonded to anyone or anything besides their ikran. once na’vi mate, there cannot be another.”

“we are doing nothing wrong.” tsu’tey murmured against your ear. he nipped at it softly. “but if you do not wish to, i will not make you.”

“i do wish to but it doesn’t seem right. i’m not…i don’t even know what i’m doing here. i’m not like you. not up here.” you pointed to your head. “and not here either.” you placed your hand on your chest.

tsu’tey pushed himself up onto his knees as you sat up. you were almost entirely turned away from him. slowly, he came up behind you. he ran his hands down your arms and peeked his head over your shoulder. you tried your best to ignore him.

“no matter what you are, eywa has chosen you for something.” tsu’tey whispered into your ear. he wrapped his arm around you and placed his palm against your thumping heart. “no matter what you are, this heart is strong.”

“no matter what you are, i see you.”

you turned your head and met his striking yellow gaze. your lips were ajar in soft shock. your ears pinned and perked. your tail curled itself into knots as butterflies ate at your insides.

he saw you.

he could see you.

at least, he thought he could.

he had no idea who the real you was.

you frowned at him as you studied the details of his face. “i wish that were true.”

his brows drew together and he tilted his head.

“you don’t even know me.” you said under your breath. you looked away and closed your eyes tight. “you said it yourself, my kind are a disease on this land. we don’t belong here. i…i shouldn’t be doing this with you.”

“i speak in anger. it is my curse. for that i am sorry.” tsu’tey said in a low, gentle voice. he slid his hands around your hips and down your thighs, keeping you close. “i will stop being cruel.”

“it’s not like i make it very easy for you to be nice sometimes,” you whispered as you watched his fingers trace the stripes on your thighs.

“we both need to improve.” tsu’tey said as he brushed his nose along your ear. “it is something we shall work on.”

he was being too affectionate. it was wearing your resolve thin— but was he being affection because he liked you or just to get laid?

your chest started to hurt all over again.

“we can’t,” you whispered.

tsu’tey sighed and hugged you closer. “we can.”

“no we can’t.” you turned. facing him was harder. you wished you stayed looking the other way. “there is no we. you are promised to another and in human culture, i’d be considered a homewrecker.”

“eris,” he breathed your name as if it pained him. “i don’t want neytiri. and nor does she want me.”

“i thought you said it was duty.” you said with a small shake of your head.

he scowled at you and squished your cheeks between his fingers. “you never stop talking…”

“wllwhatdyowan.” you tried to say through your squished lips. tsu’tey rolled his eyes and removed his hand from your face. rubbing your cheek, you asked again.

“what do you want?”

“what i want is for you to turn over and let me inside you, woman. i want that very much. to hold and bite and kiss you.” tsu’tey said almost impatiently.

you annoyed him so greatly.

and yet he wanted you anyways.

“will you at least let me earn it first?” you asked. your voice was hardly loud enough. your face was hot and your tail was swaying wildly behind you.

he tipped his head. “what?”

you sighed and looked down into your lap. you picked at the skin around your nails and rolled your eyes as embarrassment weighed on your chest. so stupid. this was so stupid. you were so, so stupid…

“i want that, too, but i can’t even shoot an arrow. i feel…unworthy.” you cringed as you said the word. you should’ve just shut up and let him fuck you.

“eris,” he tried to interject but you wouldn’t let him.

“once i learn how to be more like you and less like…like me…then…okay.” you looked up at him and bit your lip. you couldn’t read his expression. “we can…we can do whatever this is.” you gestured between you both to whatever tension was tangled around you.

tsu’tey only stared at you. you felt like a slide under a microscope. he took in every detail of you. every facet. every stripe and dot. every fine hair on your almost na’vi face.

he only nodded once. “it is decided then.”

— 🌌 —

strength was something you never thought you could have.

on earth, the pollution had made you feel sick. it kept you indoors. it made your mind hazy. on pandora, there was no mist in your mind. there was no laying around— not on the path the you had chosen to walk.

you wanted to be a warrior.

you would become one.

rain or shine, you were out in the forest with tsu’tey learning how to be strong. strong in your body, in your head, and in your heart. every day you would run. along the forest floor, over the towering tree roots, in the muddy riverbed. you ran and ran and ran and built up your stamina. every day you would climb. you climbed trees, rocks, and vines. you learned how to pull yourself, push yourself, and most importantly— catch yourself.

archery was the hardest for you.

the first time you shot an arrow, it ricocheted off a rock and nearly flew back at you. tsu’tey hadn’t even known that level of bad luck was possible. you hadn’t done much wrong, either. it was not your posture. it was not your technique.

it was simply poor luck.

“here…” he said under his breath, eyes still wide. he came up behind you and adjusted your elbow. the adjustment would change nothing. it was too small— but he didn’t want you to feel terrible. “try like that instead.”

“sure…” you muttered, keeping your elbow straight.

archery was far harder than riding a direhorse. while you sustained more injuries riding mitsia, at least there was pay off. there was visible progress. the art archery took you hours to get comfortable with.

and then it took you days to master.

“can you see?” tsu’tey asked as he grabbed your face. he looked into your eyes. “you can see, yes?”

“yeah, i can fuckin’ see.” you huffed as you turned your face away. you ignored him as you tried again. it was pouring. the rain was cold and the wind was harsh. “it’s the wind. the wind is fucking me up.”

“it was not windy yesterday when you did not hit anything.” tsu’tey said.

you hissed at him and he was quick to look away.

days were spent in the archery clearing. while jake was learning how to ride a direhorse with neytiri — who got stuck with training a demon of her own under orders from her father — you were stuck every day in that clearing with tsu’tey. he resorted to drawing in the dirt to pass the time as you missed target after target.

there was only so much bad luck someone could have, right? surely, you were just getting it all out now. one big awful week of it.

tsu’tey paced behind you as you drew your arm back. all day you had spent out in the glaring sun. not one time did you hit the target. instead, you hit everything around it.

seriously, you had to have been mentally deficient.

“breathe.” tsu’tey said.

you took a breath and held it. you focused. you closed one eye and honed in one the wooden board with a big yellow dot on it. you exhaled slowly. in the stillness between breaths, you shot the arrow.

patuk!

dead in the center of the yellow dot, your arrow pierced the board. the yellow and green calling card waved as the arrow rattled.

“ah!” you gasped, your eyes wide. “oh, my god!”

“yes!” tsu’tey exclaimed.

you turned to him and threw your arms up. you nearly screeched with joy as he hooked his arms around your waist and lifted you up. you hugged him tight as he yipped with excitement. he placed you back on the ground and cupped your face.

“you did it!” he said with a wide smile.

“i did it!” you giggled.

“do it again.” he encouraged, nudging your waist.

your smile dropped. “uh…”

“come on,” tsu’tey turned you around and urged you to raise the bow. “you can do it. breathe and shoot.”

you pulled an arrow out from behind your back and loaded the bow. you breathed deep and focused on the target. you let the arrow fly free and it narrowly missed.

you frowned.

“no, no. don’t get discouraged. again. come on.” tsu’tey said, giving your back a soft pat. “you can do it.”

you ignored how hot your face felt. you cleared your throat and shook out the nervous tension in your body. once more, you loaded an arrow into your bow. you kept your core tight. you kept your arm straight. you took a breath— and you let it fly.

patuk!

the arrow landed just a little ways above the first.

you turned your head to meet his eyes and you couldn’t help but smile. he smiled, too, and ran a gentle hand over your hair.

“well done, tsamsiyu.” tsu’tey said.

you dipped your head.

since that day in the hunters burrow, tsu’tey had made an effort to be kinder. in the same regard, so had you. while you still bickered and he still called you a moron every chance he got, there was less turmoil between the two of you.

replacing it was tension.

heavy, painful tension that made every moment harder than it should’ve been. no time was harder than when you would sit across from him and try you best to learn his language. you weren’t hopeless— but you weren’t fluent.

you watched as he gestured to the space around you. you scrunched your nose and clenched as if you were pushing the word forward in your mind.

“fuck, i know this.” you muttered.

“yes. you do. i’ve told you it fifty times.” tsu’tey said, continuing the gesture. he looked above. he looked below. he looked around.

“fra’u!” you gasped, pointing a finger at him. “fra’u! everything!”

tsu’tey grinned and nodded. he was quick to move onto the next word. he pursed his lips and whistled.

“fwefwi,” you said with a small laugh. “whistle.”

tsu’tey whistled again and swayed his hand from side to side. your brows drew together and your shook your head at him. he repeated the action once more, whistling and he swayed his hand.

“wind?” you asked. when he rolled his eyes at you, you corrected yourself. “hufwe.”

“mn,” he nodded. “and if you were to say that it was a light wind?”

“hufwetsyìp.” you said.

“good.” he smiled. he beckoned your forward and you scooted closer to him. he dragged his finger across your lower lid. “what are these?”

“nari.” you answered. “eyes.”

he smacked you with his tail. “this?”

you smacked him with yours. “kxetse. tail.”

he brushed his thumb across your lips. “and these?”

your mind went blank. staring at him, all you could do was blink. slowly, your lips curled into a smile as his did, too. he seemed to enjoy your sudden speechlessness.

“i— i don’t remember.” you said with a soft, bashful laugh.

he titled his head and cocked an eyebrow. “you don’t remember?”

you giggled and shook your head. “no, i don’t.”

“c’mon,” tsu’tey purred. “you know. you must know.”

your ears perked. hearing human slang come out of him was still so awe-striking. while his antics and habits rubbed off on you, yours rubbed off on him, too. you spent so much time together. little things like that were a reminder of just how much time you spent together.

“i don’t remember. seriously, i don’t. i think i have to touch your lips to remember.” you said with a small, devious little smile.

“oh…” tsu’tey’s eyes widened and his pupils dilated. he leaned forward and tried to suppress his smirk. “go on then, skxawng.”

slowly, you traced the shape of his lips. your breath caught in your throat as you remembered how it felt to kiss him. meeting his eyes, you could almost see his thoughts.

he was thinking the same thing.

“lips.” you said. you shook your head. “i don’t remember.”

“meseyri,” tsu’tey said softly. his breath was warm against your fingers. “awstengyem meseyri. two lips.”

“meseyri.” you repeated, gliding your fingers across the soft pinkish-purple skin of his lips.

tsu’tey pressed a soft kiss to the tips of your fingers.

you dropped your hand and pushed yourself forward, not being able to bare it another second. denying the pull between you the last few weeks had been torture. he grabbed your throat eagerly and tugged you into a kiss. a husky huff escaped him as you slipped your tongue into his mouth. he tugged at your waist, hoarding you closer.

your lips only got to meet for a moment before you heard the thundering of hooves.

tsu’tey pulled back and looked over the side of the towering root you were sat on. with the sun beginning to set, warriors and hunters began to return home. among them, jake and neytiri.

“come,” tsu’tey said. he had begun speak small words and phrases in na’vi to help familiarize you with the language. “it is time to eat.”

reluctantly, you got up.

“hey!” jake waved as you entered the dining circle. he was sat by himself waiting for you. unlike tsu’tey who would sit with you at dinners, neytiri had never once sat with jake.

although, tsu’tey had stopped sitting with you now that jake was around.

he gave your arm a soft squeeze before parting ways with you. sitting down in front of jake, you smiled. there was always relief in seeing him. especially since he looked pretty beat up, too, after a day of trying to ride a direhorse. it made you feel better to know that even a marine got bucked off.

“rough day?” you asked with a teasing smile.

“nah. not too bad.” jake said as he picked up a skewer of roasted meat. he took a bite and was quick to chew. “your day?”

“lots of na’vi practice. my heads all jumbled with it.” you said as you picked up a fig-like fruit and took a bite of it. it tasted so sweet that it made your tail curl in delight. no fruit had ever been that sweet and delicious on earth.

when sat together, earth was something you and jake talked about often. comparing foods, flora, animals, and customs, you and jake could talk for hours about how different pandora was. how wonderful it was. how scary it was.

“you know; in the end, i think coming in blind to all this may have been a good thing.” jake said as he chewed on the skewer like a toothpick. “i think if i had known half the stuff i know about this place, i would’ve stayed home.”

“really?” you asked, your brows raising. “i figured this was just your kinda place, marine.”

“well, it is now that i’m here. especially now that im here in this place.” jake glanced around at the clan and smiled. “but if i had been told there were actual fucking monsters and plants that could shock you and spray poison…i definitely would’ve passed on it.”

“maybe i would’ve, too, honestly. i got to study up on the language and the forest. conveniently, the RDA left out the palulukan and the nantang from my guide.” you sighed just a bit and you looked around, your eyes falling on someone sitting just close enough for you to see every detail of. “i think it more so boils down for me to missing things on earth rather than not wanting to be here.”

“what do you miss most?” jake asked.

“tv.” you sighed. the corner of your lip pulled into a smile. “not so much the movies. grace has movies if we really wanted to watch them. i’m talking about television. shitty reality shows. documentaries of what earth used to be like when it was green. cooking shows. stuff like that.”

“i think i miss the sounds of the city the most. i miss the noise. here, it’s too quite. in hell’s gate, it’s too mechanical. up in the mountains, it’s all wind and nothing else.” jake said as he leaned back on his arms. he shrugged a bit. “i miss the sound of people. humans like us. cars beeping. distant laughter. high heels on concrete. tires on a rainy street. hell, even hearing people swear at each other.”

“i haven’t thought about things like that being here.” you said. you glanced around. the chatter of the clan was filling to the ears— but not in the way the bustle and hustle of earth was. in some way, you did miss it. especially the tires on a rainy street. that had soothed you to sleep your whole life.

“that’s a good one.” you said as you met jake’s eyes. you nodded. “i definitely miss things like that.”

“sometimes, i even miss the stink.” jake laughed lowly. he shook his head and tilted it back, smiling to himself. “it’s stupid but i brace myself for the smell of smog and gas every time i go outside here. i feel stupid, of course, but i almost miss the way the air would wreak.”

you laughed, too, and felt silly for understanding exactly what he meant. it was awful. it was disgusting. but it was home.

it had been home.

this was home now.

firelight and bioluminescence. blue skin and yellow eyes. fangs. monsters in the forest. floating mountains.

you’d always miss earth — some part of you would — but this was home.

jake was still new to the forests and the clan and home tree like you had once been. to him, it was foreign. to you, it was only more and more familiar as the days passed. you were beginning to make friends with the other hunters who had yet to pass iknimaya. saeyla was the kindest to you. she always said hi when she saw you. mo’at was always happy to see you. eytukan dipped his head and was polite enough.

and then there was tsu’tey.

sometimes, it felt like he was the only thing that made the world go round.

“did you eat enough?” tsu’tey asked as he walked you to your hammock.

“oh, yeah. i’m stuffed.” you said with a smile, patting your belly. you turned to say goodnight but the expression on his face stopped you. “what?”

“i overheard you and jake’suli,” tsu’tey said with a bit of reluctance. he wouldn’t meet your gaze. “you miss earth?”

your brows drew together and you felt hot with guilt.

oh, jesus…did he think you wanted to leave?

you could’ve up-chucked your whole dinner.

“sometimes i do but…but i don’t want to go back.” you said as quickly as you could but the words nearly alluded you.

“but you miss the sounds of your people.” tsu’tey looked into your eyes and his ears dropped. “and that is different from my people, yes? a city is not like this.”

“no…no a city isn’t like this. it’s loud. really loud. always loud.” you said with a small sigh. your shoulders dropped and you couldn’t help but look around. “it’s always glowing. not like the forest glows but bright lights. so many lights. in order to sleep, i would have to close my blinds and sometimes even cover my face with my hoodie.”

“i prefer this.” you said as you placed your hand on his chest. he met your eyes and seemed to soften under your gaze. “this is peace. earth so rarely knew peace. even though you hunt and craft by hand here, it was so much harder to survive on earth.”

“you are happy, yes?” tsu’tey asked.

the question surprised you.

is that what he was worried about? your happiness?

“yes,” you whispered. your ears dropped but your tail swayed back and forth. the question touched you. deeply and wholly. “yes, of course. of course, i’m happy. truly.”

“that is good. i was afraid that…that i made you feel like you did not belong.” tsu’tey said with shame lacing his voice.

you were speechless. all you could do was shake your head. he didn’t make you feel that way…

“you are different and that is true…but you do belong here.” tsu’tey placed his hand on your chest. “strong heart. and it belongs right here.”

you laid awake that night in your bunk.

staring at the stars through the glass in the ceiling, your chest felt warm and fuzzy. in the dark, you smiled to yourself. his words had touched you. sometimes, it was hard to understand where you stood with tsu’tey. one day he couldn’t stand you, the next he was all over you and drowning you in affection. he was strict and then he was easy going. he was mean and then he was kind.

sometimes, it gave you whiplash.

other times, it made you want to smack him and then kiss him before he could feel the pain.

tomorrow you may very well fall asleep wanting to smack him upside the head but tonight you wanted nothing more than a single kiss from him.

— 🌌 —

“eris,” norm said, shaking you awake. “eris, get up.”

“huh?” you picked your head up and tried to open your eyes. “what’s wrong?”

“eris, he’s outside.”

your heart dropped.

miles quaritch was outside.

you scrambled out of your bunk and hurried to throw on a decent pair of clothes. you slipped into jeans and pulled on an RDA issued shirt. you fixed your hair as best you could and stepped into your boots. as you hurried through the small tactical base, you nearly tripped over your own feet.

fuck.

were your video logs about archery training insufficient? of course, they were but you had no idea what you were doing. you had no idea how to gather the kind of intel that the head of security wanted.

you almost forgot to grab an oxygen mask before going into the airlock. thank god for trudy.

pushing open the heavy metal door, the morning breeze was cold so high up in the atmosphere. your breath was ragged and nearly fogged your mask. the helicopter outside was…trudy’s.

and grace was not standing with the colonel.

she was standing with him.

tsu’tey was unbelievably gigantic.

your heart could’ve stopped. your knees nearly gave out as his ikran screeched at you. he raised a gentle hand and stroked the creatures long face. yellow eyes flicked towards you— and his pupils blew wide.

“i’ll leave you two to talk.” grace said as she passed by you.

‘no!’ you wanted to beg, ‘don’t leave me alone with him!’

the door sealed shut and so had your fate.

slowly, you turned and his shadow swallowed you whole. with a yip, he sent his ikran away. the blue, white, and yellow patterned creature dove off the cliff and soared through the skies. tsu’tey tilted his head at you, his tail flicking behind him as you approached.

“what— what the hell are you doing here?” you asked, your voice tight in your throat. “how…how the hell did you…how did you find us?”

“there is only one rock amongst the many that float with these on it.” tsu’tey said, flicking his head towards the field lab behind you.

“you are small.” tsu’tey said as he crouched down. he smirked as you recoiled. “are you scared of me?”

“no,” you lied. you steeled your spine, trying to seem taller than you actually were. “you’re just…big.”

big was an understatement. he was over ten feet tall and you were lucky to be the height you were.

tsu’tey’s tail swayed through the grass. if it hit you, it probably would’ve bruised you. it may have been able to break a rib. he seemed mindful of that fact as you stared at it.

“what are you doing here?” you asked as you looked back up into his eyes. even when he was crouched you had to tilt your head back.

“i have come to learn about you.” tsu’tey said. he crawled forward to be closer and sat down in front of you. finally, you were somewhat level. “you spend all day and all night with me…it is only fair i come to you.”

“i…” you didn’t even know what to say. your head was spinning. it was hard to breathe even with oxygen being pumped right into your face. “there isn’t much to do here…you won’t fit inside the field lab easily. you wouldn’t be able to breathe well, either. it’s all oxygen in there. besides, it’s crowded.”

“can we not sit here?” tsu’tey asked with a small tilt of his head.

“we can…but it’s just— it’s cold.” you whispered, drawing your arms in close around you. you should’ve grabbed a sweater or a hoodie.

“come,” tsu’tey motioned for you to sit in his lap. “you will be warm here.”

“oh— oh, my god, no.” you said. you looked away as red filled your cheeks. “the whole crew is no doubt watching us through the window. i can’t just sit…there.”

tsu’tey looked passed you. sure enough, they were all watching. they were quick to scramble but they couldn’t go far. there was little privacy. jake would link soon. so would norm and grace— if grace decided not to study her samples and log her findings. and trudy would just…do whatever trudy did to pass the time.

“can i take you somewhere?” tsu’tey asked with an edge of caution to his voice.

“nope.” you refused. shaking your head and wiggling a finger at him, you said, “absolutely not. my fragile human ass stays put.”

tsu’tey huffed under his breath and pursed his lips. “always so difficult.”

“if you really wanted…we could use the west wing. it’s for bunking and it’s not going to be full at this hour now that everyone is up. i can see if grace can find a way for you to breathe.” you said with a small shrug.

tsu’tey seemed apprehensive to be stuck inside a small metal box but he flicked his head.

you were quick to hurry inside. within a few minutes, grace had made a reversed oxygen mask for tsu’tey. it was janky and if it didn’t work well he’d have to go back outside, but she had filled a larger oxygen canister with pandoran air and found a spare mouth-and-nose mask she connected to it.

tsu’tey clearly regretted his choices as he crawled through the front door. you were quick to guid him straight to the west wing. the ceiling was a bit taller there because of the bunks, so he didn’t have to keep his head hunched over so much.

“hey, watch the tail.” trudy said.

tsu’tey tucked his tail. he was quick to slide himself into the bunk room. you closed the door behind him and rested your forehead against it. you sighed. your heart was racing. slowly, you turned. when you did, you found him staring at the wall decorated with pictures of your life on earth. posters of your favorite animals. cities. pictures of you and your parents. pictures of your sister.

“i’m the one on the left,” you said as you pulled you mask off. carefully, you brushed your hair out of your face.

“i know.” tsu’tey said, gently touching the photo. he looked at you and his pupils dilated. “i know you, eris.”

you let out a soft breath. he reached down and lifted the mask to his face, inhaling slowly. unlike you, he could breathe oxygen for a while. not forever but longer than you could breathe his air.

“i did not think you would look so much like you.” tsu’tey said as you approached. while he sat on the floor, you sat on the bed. jake’s bunk.

you shrugged and shook your head. “ta-da?”

tsu’tey grinned at you even though he did not quite understand what it was that you meant. “ta-da, yes.”

“so…” you smacked your hands on your thighs and exhaled softly. “what do you wanna do?”

“i want to know what tivee is.” tsu’tey said. he looked around the room and tried to pin point what may have been tv. “i heard you tell jake’suli you missed it and i want to see why.”

you shook your head. “i don’t think i should.”

“why not?” tsu’tey asked, his invisible brows drawing together.

“because you may like it too much and start an industrial revolution like the RDA is trying to do.” you said with a soft laugh.

“i do not know what you just said but i want to see tv.” tsu’tey insisted.

you sighed. there was little point in saying no. getting up off of the bed, you walked around him. he turned, being mindful not to knock into anything. he watched as you crouched down to plug in the chord. you pressed the button on the bottom and the screen filled with static.

“it may not even work.” you said over your shoulder.

you flicked through the tapes grace had in box and pulled out the most fitting one. star wars: return of the sith. tsu’tey scooted closer as the movie began. you took a seat beside him and used the remote to turn up the volume. as the opening credits rolled, the music made his ears perk.

“what does it say?” tsu’tey asked, watching the yellow letters roll across the screen. he brought the mask to his mouth and took a deep breath.

you read the preface of the movie to him and did your best to explain what it all meant. you knew it was lost to him but he was fixated anyways— especially when humans appeared on the screen. he was transfixed.

“did you have that?” tsu’tey asked, pointing to the flying car on the screen.

you laughed and shook your head. “at the time this movie came out, flying cars didn’t exist. in my time, i didn’t have enough money.”

he looked down at you.

none of it made sense.

“no,” you said with a small smile. “i didn’t have a flying car.”

he nodded and turned his attention back to the screen. you sat in silence as you watched the movie. every now and again he lifted the mask to his mouth to take a breath. he would ask a question here and there. it amazed him— but he did not understand much of what was said. soon enough, he wasn’t quite seeing the point of a movie.

“why do you watch stuff like this?” he asked.

“for fun.” you said with a small shrug. “humans really value entertainment. star wars is one of the biggest movie series ever. very well loved.”

“do you like this movie?” he asked with a curious tilt of his head.

you gave him your honest answer.

once more, it fell silent between you. you watched the movie with a sense of nostalgia weighing heavy on your heart. this was the first time you’d actually sat and watched anything since you’d arrived on pandora. it was comforting yet so foreign at the same time.

“can i touch your hair?”

you looked up at him, your eyes wide and your cheeks red. you had not expected that question. all you could do was blink.

“sure…” you whispered.

so carefully you weren’t sure if he even touched you, tsu’tey ran his hand over the top of your head. his ears perked and his tail swished against the metal floor.

“soft…” he murmured, purely infatuated. “different than mine. so…thin. like very fine twine strings.”

“well, you are like twelve feet tall.” you said with a small laugh. he could’ve easily crushed you in the palm of his hand if he wanted to. “everything about you is bigger than me.”

“your chest is big.” tsu’tey said, looking down at your breasts.

you couldn’t help but laugh. nodding, you said, “yeah. i told you, human women have bigger chests than na’vi women.”

“can i touch?” he asked, extending a hand towards you.

you were quick to cover your breasts and gawked at him. “no! are you crazy?”

“why not?” tsu’tey asked. he moved closer to you and tilted his head. now more so than ever, he was entirely cat-like. it took looking at him through human eyes to see it. “is it because you are in this body and not your na’vi one?”

“yeah,” you breathed, looking away from him.

he pursed his lips the smallest bit. “can i kiss you?”

“jesus christ, are you in heat or something?” you asked.

“no, not now.” he said. he shrugged and flicked his head towards you. “i am just…curious. i want to kiss you as you and see if it is the same.”

“just a kiss?” you glanced at him.

“just one.” he nodded, sitting on his hands as if to promise you he wouldn’t do anything more than that.

slowly, you pushed yourself up. standing in front of him, you were level enough. your heart raced in your chest as he stared at you. he took in every movement you made. he tensed as you neared and that made you even more nervous.

“this is weird…” you said, pulling back the smallest bit.

“no,” he insisted. he reached out a hand that ghosted along the small curve of your back. “it’s not.”

you swallowed your embarrassment alongside your pride as you leaned forward and pressed a soft, lingering kiss onto his lips.

sparks shot through you from your head to your toes.

when you pulled back, his pupils were so large you could hardly see the yellow of his eyes. his tail smacked into the metal frame of the bunk bed and thumped wildly against the floor. as your cheeks reddened and reddened and reddened his ears perked up and up and up.

“why are you red?” he asked softly.

“i’m flustered…” you whispered.

tsu’tey smiled. “it was good.”

“it was good,” you said with a small, quick nod.

“again?” he asked, leaning forward. “to make sure.”

you couldn’t help but laugh.

he smiled as you reached up and placed your hands on his face. he dipped his head down and kissed you again, softly and sweetly. kisses like these were much different from how he kissed you when you were the same size and same blue shade.

“good,” he purred. his lips curled into a smile as he reached down to pull the mask to his face. he took a few deep breaths. “very good.”

you could only watch him in awe. you sat down in front of him and tried to wipe the blush from your cheeks. of course, it didn’t work. not even a little bit. he hunched over to be more level with you and it made you giggle.

he was just too big.

too large.

too handsome.

he was even more striking to the human eye.

you sat quietly as he picked up your hand and examined your five little fingers. he was intrigued by your pinky. to him, it was an extra pinky. with his four thick fingers, your hand seemed so frail and dainty. he touched the lines of your palm and smiled to himself as you shivered at the sensation.

“it is strange,“ tsu’tey said lowly. “how you are so different and still so the same…i thought it would be hard to recognize you. hard to see you with this face and not that face…but it is not hard.”

you curled your whole hand around his index finger and pulled it close. you placed his hand on your chest. your heart beat below his palm. he met your eyes and his ears perked. it made you smile.

“i see you.” you whispered.

tsu’tey leaned down and pressed his forehead against yours. he smiled to himself, enjoying the way your little heart beat so strong under the tips of his fingers as he neared.

“i see you,” he said like a promise.

this chapter was so much fun to write :P i love soft tsu’tey!!!! hope you guys enjoyed. lmk your thoughts <3 as always, thanks for reading!! — moony

tag list — @plantgirliewholovespandora

[thecreaturecodex]

Walrider

Image © deviantArt user NanFe, accessed at her gallery here

[Sponsored by @coldbloodassassin, and my last sponsored post! The walrider is yet another monster in the subgenre of "from a video game I've never played", and in this case never even heard of before being tasked with this: Outlast. It has a very complicated backstory, involving Nazi mad science and corrupt mental institutions, so I streamlined it a bit while retaining the original flavor.]

Walrider CR 18 CE Construct A faint blur appears, an outline of a human form moving through space. It moves with impossible fluidity, as if its joints were more a mental construct than a physical one. The outline lacks a lower jaw entirely, and the fingers are longer than those of a typical human

The walrider is a bizarre construct, a cloud of tiny nanomachines confined to a humanoid shape but able to take over the bodies of others. The first walrider was created in an attempt to create a nanotechnology lab out of the body of a human test subject. The process drove the victim insane in the process of completely disassembling them, and the walrider created possessed a thoroughly warped and thoroughly evil psyche. The walrider still possess an affinity for the mad, preferring to use them as hosts. Those whose perceptions of reality are distorted are even less likely to understand the nature of the walrider’s attacks, and are less likely to be believed if and when they can report them. The damage the walrider deals when scouring the mortal mind for information typically leaves their victim mentally broken.

The walrider can enter a victim not to possess them but merely to take them apart from the inside, and they enjoy using this power in the open as a show of strength. If they cannot possess a host, or if they are expelled through remove disease or a similar effect, they simply beat their enemies to death. They can control their own solidity as a matter of course, being strong enough to punch through concrete when they want to, and then being so diffuse that weapons pass right through them. The walrider is nearly invisible, and uses hit and run attacks in combination with their great stealth to wear enemies down if they are capable of fighting back.

Due to the highly unusual nature of their origin, the walrider may be a unique creature. If it is not, it is highly unlikely that they would cooperate with each other, instead viewing each other as competition. The walrider is a megalomaniac who views itself as divine, and is actively creating a cult of worshipers who view it as the next stage in human evolution. If this cult grows large enough, the walrider could become truly divine, or attract the attention of a competitor who is.

Walrider CR 18 XP 153,600 CE Medium construct Init +14; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +18

Defense AC 27, touch 27, flat-footed 16 (+10 Dex, +1 dodge, +6 insight) hp 169(23d10+43) Fort +7, Ref +19, Will +15 Immune construct traits, critical hits, sneak attack, weapon damage Defensive Abilities evasion,mad insights,swarm-like, transparency; Weakness susceptible to mind-influencing effects, vulnerable to area of effect damage

Offense Speed 40 ft., fly 40 ft. (perfect) Melee 2 slams +33 (2d8+10) Special Attacks infest, possess

Statistics Str 30, Dex 30, Con -, Int 19, Wis 4, Cha 23 Base Atk +23; CMB +33; CMD 44 Feats Ability Focus (infest, possess),Alertness (B),Blind Fight,Combat Expertise,Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus (B), Dodge, Improved Critical (slam), Improved Initiative (B), Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes (B), Mobility, Power Attack (B), Spring Attack, Staggering Critical (B), Toughness, Whirlwind Attack Skills Bluff +23, Fly +35, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (engineering, local) +34, Perception +19, Sense Motive +19, Stealth +47; Racial Modifiers +11 Knowledge (all), +20 Stealth Languages Aklo, Androffan, Common, Undercommon SQ madness,many in one

Ecology Environment any Organization solitary or ride (1 plus 1 possessed host) Treasure standard

Special Abilities Infest (Ex) As a standard action, a walrider can infest a corporeal creature adjacent to it. If the creature fails a DC 25 Fortitude save, the walrider moves inside of its body. A walrider can either remain in the creature it infests harmlessly, as a riding possession spell, or it can start to disassemble its host from the inside, dealing 12d6 points of damage a round. A host reduced to 0 hit points while infested by a walrider is reduced to dust and destroyed (similar to disintegrate). A walrider infesting a host can be expelled by any effect that cures disease, with a disease save equal to this ability’s DC. If not expelled, the walrider can remain inside the host indefinitely. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +2 racial bonus. Madness (Ex) Walriders use their Charisma modifier on Will saves instead of their Wisdom modifier, and are immune to insanity and confusion effects. Only a miracle or wish can remove a walrideer's madness. If this occurs, the walrider gains 6 points of Wisdom and loses 6 points of Charisma. Mad Insight (Su) A walrider gains an insight bonus to Armor Class equal to its Charisma modifier. Many In One (Ex) A walrider absorbs the memories of intelligent creatures that it possesses. A walrider that has eaten one or more sapient creatures gains a number of bonus feats equal to its Charisma modifier (6 for the average specimen). It gains a racial bonus to all Knowledge checks equal to ½ its Hit Dice (+11 for the average specimen), and can make Knowledge checks untrained. Whenever it possesses a sapient creature, it may swap out one of its bonus feats and/or one of its languages for one known by the creature it has possessed. Possess (Su) A walrider can possess a living creature it has infested. Unless the creature succeeds a DC 25 Will save, the walrider takes control of its body, as per a greater possession spell with an indefinite duration. A creature that successfully saves is immune to that walrider’s possession for the next 24 hours. At any time while possessing a host, the walrider can attempt to scan its mind, as per a mind probe spell. This possession is taxing to a host; every day the host is possessed, it must succeed a DC 25 Will save or take 2d4 Wisdom drain. A creature that would be reduced to 0 Wisdom is instead reduced to 1 Wisdom and gains the moral insanity madness. The save DC is Constitution based, and includes a +2 racial bonus to the DC. Susceptible to Mind-Influencing Effects (Ex) Unlike most constructs, a walrider can be affected by mind-influencing effects. Swarm-like (Ex) A walrider is comprised of thousands of nanites. Although it is a Medium sized creature, it is immune to spells and effects that affect a single target, damage from physical weapons, critical hits and sneak attacks. A walrider can move through cracks and spaces small enough for a Fine creature. A walrider takes 150% damage from area of effect spells and effects. Transparent (Ex) A walrider is nearly invisible. Attacks made against it by creatures that need to see have a 50% miss chance, and the walrider gains a +20 racial bonus to Stealth checks. This is not dispelled by invisibility purge or see invisibility. Spells like faerie fire and glitterdust reduce the miss chance to 20%, but do not remove it completely.

[mariacallous]

Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine more than three years ago, Russian technology companies and executives have been widely sanctioned for supporting the Kremlin. That includes Vladimir Kiriyenko, the son of one of Vladimir Putin’s top aides and the CEO of VK Group, which runs VK, Russia’s Facebook equivalent that has increasingly shifted towards the regime’s repressive positioning.

Now cybersecurity researchers are warning that a widely used piece of open source code—which is linked to Kiriyenko’s company and managed by Russian developers—may pose a “persistent” national security risk to the United States. The open source software (OSS), called easyjson, has been widely used by the US Department of Defense and “extensively” across software used in the finance, technology, and healthcare sectors, say researchers at security company Hunted Labs, which is behind the claims. The fear is that Russia could alter easyjson to steal data or otherwise be abused.

“You have this really critical package that’s basically a linchpin for the cloud native ecosystem, that’s maintained by a group of individuals based in Moscow belonging to an organization that has this suspicious history,” says Hayden Smith, a cofounder at Hunted Labs.

For decades, open source software has underpinned large swathes of the technology industry and the systems people rely on day to day. Open source technology allows anyone to see and modify code, helping to make improvements, detect security vulnerabilities, and apply independent scrutiny that’s absent from the closed tech of corporate giants. However, the fracturing of geopolitical norms and the specter of stealthy supply chain attacks has led to an increase in questions about risk levels of "foreign" code.

Easyjson is a code serialization tool for the Go programming language and is often used across the wider cloud ecosystem, being present in other open source software, according to Hunted Labs. The package is hosted on GitHub by a MailRu account, which is owned by VK after the mail company rebranded itself in 2021. The VK Group itself is not sanctioned. Easyjson has been available on Github since 2016, with most of its updates coming before 2020. Kiriyenko became the CEO of VK Group in December 2021 and was sanctioned in February 2022.

Hunted Labs’ analysis shared with WIRED shows the most active developers on the project in recent years have listed themselves as being based in Moscow. Smith says that Hunted Labs has not identified vulnerabilities in the easyjson code.

However, the link to the sanctioned CEO’s company, plus Russia’s aggressive state-backed cyberattacks, may increase potential risks, Smith says. Research from Hunted Labs details how code serialization tools could be abused by malicious hackers. “A Russian-controlled software package could be used as a ‘sleeper cell’ to cause serious harm to critical US infrastructure or for espionage and weaponized influence campaigns,” it says.

“Nation states take on a strategic positioning,” says George Barnes, a former deputy director at the National Security Agency, who spent 36 years at the NSA and now acts as a senior advisor and investor in Hunted Labs. Barnes says that hackers within Russia’s intelligence agencies could see easyjson as a potential opportunity for abuse in the future.

“It is totally efficient code. There’s no known vulnerability about it, hence no other company has identified anything wrong with it,” Barnes says. “Yet the people who actually own it are under the guise of VK, which is tight with the Kremlin,” he says. “If I’m sitting there in the GRU or the FSB and I’m looking at the laundry list of opportunities… this is perfect. It’s just lying there,” Barnes says, referencing Russia’s foreign military and domestic security agencies.

VK Group did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment about easyjson. The US Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment about the inclusion of easyjson in its software setup.

“NSA does not have a comment to make on this specific software,” a spokesperson for the National Security Agency says. “The NSA Cybersecurity Collaboration Center does welcome tips from the private sector—when a tip is received, NSA triages the tip against our own insights to fully understand the threat and, if corroborated, share any relevant mitigations with the community.” A spokesperson for the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which has faced upheaval under the second Trump administration, says: “We are going to refer you back to Hunted Labs.”

GitHub, a code repository owned by Microsoft, says that while it will investigate issues and take action where its policies are broken, it is not aware of malicious code in easyjson and VK is not sanctioned itself. Other tech companies’ treatment of VK varies. After Britain sanctioned the leaders of Russian banks who own stakes in VK in September 2022, for example, Apple removed its social media app from its App Store.

Dan Lorenc, the CEO of supply chain security firm Chainguard, says that with easyjson, the connections to Russia are in “plain sight” and that there is a “slightly higher” cybersecurity risk than those of other software libraries. He adds that the red flags around other open source technology may not be so obvious.

“In the overall open source space, you don’t necessarily even know where people are most of the time,” Lorenc says, pointing out that many developers do not disclose their identity or locations online, and even if they do, it is not always possible to verify the details are correct. “The code is what we have to trust and the code and the systems that are used to build that code. People are important, but we’re just not in a world where we can push the trust down to the individuals,” Lorenc says.

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has unfolded, there has been increased scrutiny on the use of open source systems and the impact of sanctions upon entities involved in the development. In October last year, a Linux kernel maintainer removed 11 Russian developers who were involved in the open souce project, broadly citing sanctions as the reason for the change. Then in January this year, the Linux Foundation issued guidance covering how international sanctions can impact open source, saying developers should be cautious of who they interact with and the nature of interactions.

The shift in perceived risk is coupled with the threat of supply chain attacks. Last year, corporate developers and the open source world were rocked as a mysterious attacker known as Jia Tan stealthily installed a backdoor in the widely used XZ Utils software, after spending two years diligently updating it without any signs of trouble. The backdoor was only discovered by chance.

“Years ago, OSS was developed by small groups of trusted developers who were known to one another,” says Nancy Mead, a fellow of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. “In that time frame, no one expected a trusted developer of being a hacker, and the relatively slower pace provided time for review. These days, with automatic release, incorporation of updates, and the wide usage of OSS, the old assumptions are no longer valid.”

Scott Hissam, a senior member of technical staff also from the Carnegie Software Engineering Institute, says there can often be consideration about how many maintainers and the number of organizations that work on an open source project, but there is currently not a “mass movement” to consider other details about OSS projects. “However, it is coming, and there are several activities that collect details about OSS projects, which OSS consumers can use to get more insight into OSS projects and their activities,” Hissam says, pointing to two examples.

Hunted Lab’s Smith says he is currently looking into the provenance of other open source projects and the risks that could come with them, including scrutinizing countries known to have carried out cyberattacks against US entities. He says he is not encouraging people to avoid open source software at all, more that risk considerations have shifted over time. “We’re telling you to just make really good risk informed decisions when you're trying to use open source,” he says. “Open source software is basically good until it's not.”

[oraclesami]

picrew

Full Name: Setsuka Inoue

Nickname: Arcelia (NEFAS Laboratory), Flower (Yoshio)

Age: 18 / 28 (TYL)

Birthday: Oct 31st

Gender/Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: [ REDACTED ]

Ethnicity: Mixed Heritage (Spanish Father, Japanese Mother)

Height: 144.78cm

Flame type: Mist, secondary Sun

Weapon of Choice: Carries two daggers on her thighs.

Affiliation: Vongola - Varia

Position: Under Vongola Family's protection.

Languages: Spanish (+sl), Japanese (+sl), English (+sl), Italian (+sl)

Strengths: Fast Learner, Gun Specialist (sniper - pistol - gun), herbal medicine, first aid, singing.

Weaknesses: Melee Combat (can hold her own, but doesn't have a good stamina for long fights), anemic, can't swim, no fashion sense

Character Summary:

Setsuka is a quiet girl at first glance. Polite and patient, she tends to keep to herself and tries not to bother anyone. Getting to know her will reveal a short tempered, sassy queen. Though her bark is bigger than her bite, she still can hold her own in a fight, whether it is physical or mental. She tends to keep her guard up because of her upbringing.

She is a girl who cares and loves hard for the people who bless this world. Though naive to a fault, she is still kind beneath all that bluster.

Background:

Before she was 'Setsuka', she was Arcelia, the witch or the Blood Parent Subject. From age 5 to 15, she was the personal lab rat for making superhuman soldiers for the military. Unlike her father, her blood was successful in making soldiers out of children of any blood type, granting them power. She was under strict lock and key until Yoshio, then known as Dmitri, broke her out when she was 15, with the help of her father.

On the run from the military, they forged papers and landed in Italy. Setsuka and Yoshio Inoue, two siblings traveling across Europe. It was hard, but they managed. Working their way to Italy, Yoshio begged audience with the don of the Vongola. In exchange for military secrets, Yoshio would receive a recommendation to Varia and work under them as a Cloud guardian and Setsuka would be allowed to hide in their ranks as a grunt.

When she turned 18, Setsuka would end up going to school in Japan as a third year in Namimori High School, along with the tenth candidate, Tsunayoshi Sawada.

Fighting Style:

Setsuka doesn't really like fighting, but over the three years she spent with Varia in Italy, she's learned melee combat and gun handling of an assorted type. She prefers to stay on the defensive, so a lot of her combat is self defense. When she is on the offensive, however, she aims for pressure points to subdue her opponent since she can't do a prolonged fight.

Trivia:

Setsuka learned how to fight during her time in Italy, with Yoshio pounding every single type of combat in order for her to be able to protect herself. He refused to be gentle to her in training, so she is technically an even match to Yoshio.

Setsuka has heightened empathy, which morphed into clairvoyance as a result of the time they spent hiding from sight. She can sense living and dead beings within a 5 mile range. Can't exorcise anything, though, just speak to them.

Setsuka was technically homeschooled, as the laboratory workers rarely allowed her to interact with children her age, the only exception being Yoshio, who was her guard dog for the military base.

Setsuka was given art materials, video games and anime, with permission requested from her father to the military leader, so she had an outlet in her room due to the constant isolation. She also drew on the walls when she didn't have paper

Setsuka and her father were kept separated, but he was allowed to meet with her once a month. She used to look forward to those days because it meant she didn't have to go to the blood transference room and she gets to have quality time with him.

Setsuka's singing is very sweet and clear. Her singing voice claim is Lizz Robinett. They have a healing touch to it due to her empathy ability.

[secret-bug-pain-blog]

@febuwhump Day 25 - ALT PROMPT - Immortality

ZB-162 our beloved. Speedrunning the final postings for these so that we can actually send in our index post. Day 29 is already done - we're just finishing up our mostly-finished prompts and doing a handful of illustrations for those that can't be made full-length in time. This is an OC work! You guys like undead switchboard operators, right? Definitely.

You did not have a name before you entered their systems.

You never expected to have one, then. You are a worker bee. There was no one to direct letters to you, and no reason for anyone to refer to you who wouldn't have already caught your scent. A name is for utility or diplomacy, and you were not one of those who had need for that utility.

You were yet another mediocre worker in service to the queen, and you had no reason to believe you would be anything but.

It was random chance that you, out of all bugs, would be chosen. You were never one to believe in fate, for all that ZBT-63 would claim it was destined. You were one worker among many, and you were the one to draw the short straw.

You knew little when you first entered the labs. You knew little when they first made the surgical incision at the base of your neck, feeding young tendrils of fungus in. Your memory of that time is foggy, clouded with a mixture of trauma and the typical failings of a fleshy, mortal brain.

You spent ten long, painful days in uncertainty, being held under observation as your other half grew. And then you were two, and the uncertainty that had been your constant companion began to fade.

The sentiments that your siblings hold towards your firstborn halves are varied. You know this more than anyone - save, maybe, Kjdrira. You are not entirely unique in it, but you find the feelings of nostalgia your siblings often feel to be alien.

Perhaps, in a way, your original self died when your younger half had burrowed into their brain. Or perhaps you merely want to grasp at anything that will distance you from the mundane bee who first entered Snakemouth.

You do not miss the uncertainty of living memory. You do not miss the mundanity of life in the hive. You certainly do not miss the feeling of being a cog in a machine that does not care about you.

You were given a name - ZB-162 - and you would cease to be a bee shortly after.

The rhythm of the lab was simple. Easy to learn, though you would not be so callous as to call it soothing. It was simple to know what was expected of you. It was simpler to follow it. Tests, you would find, had a simple sort of structure, the sort of thing that you could have grasped even without your other half. It was all strange to you, then. You wouldn't think to ask if there were others like you.

It would be days before you were contacted. It would be days before you would so much as realize that you could be contacted, rather than simply existing as the only bug in a lab full of roaches. It was them who found the network, a hundred years ago, writing words upon words into a communications network hurriedly thrown into the undercarriage of their computer system.

Your siblings reached out, fearful and hopeful in equal parts. You reached back, and in an instant, you were made aware that you were not alone.

You knew little, then. There were few of you connected, few of you even aware it could be done - Kjdrira, so terribly, consistently inventive, its range sweeping so much wider than the rest of you, had been the first to reach out, the first to find that there was even potential for a network to begin with. ZA-31 had been the first to connect, ZBT-49 networking soon after, the others latching on one by one as they were reached out to. You were one in a half-dozen, a bare fragment of the hive, clinging to each other in a world that was all too new.

With time, your numbers would grow. Now, you spoke with your Siblings, you fumbled with languages old and new, and you began to learn the paths that would grow to be your whole life.

You were small. Unknowing and afraid, cowering before systems you could only barely hope to understand. Your connections were feeble and inconsistent, here one day and gone the next, interrupted by the slightest lapse in concentration, and what you could communicate was limited. Lines would overlap. Too many on the line would reduce the signal to incoherency. Few of you spoke the same language, fewer still knowing how to utilize the new one implanted into your brains with your newer halves. You struggled to speak. You struggled to hear.

And yet, fear and loneliness kept you still reaching out.

You were still of flesh, then. Caught with endless hours pacing your cage, barely in range of Kjdrira, speaking through brief brushes of signal. Your enclosure was blank and featureless, your paws itching for work - you could only stand still for so long, then, could only remain idle for so many days before the itch began to burn at your shell again. You were small and afraid, and you had nothing to do but sit and count the hours between tests, and you wanted dearly - oh, so dearly - to be useful.

You began to work on figuring out the connections.

Early on, every new discovery would improve clarity in leaps and bounds. Signals could be passed through Siblings, cloned and echoed to increase their range. A low-volume ping allowed you to indicate beginnings and endings of speech, limiting the interference of crosstalk. Improvements in communication. Improvements in speech. Improvements in coordination. More efficient packets to pass. Learning to lever your new shared language to make your communications more comprehensive. Learning to use the crystals in the roach technology to pass signals, rather than the ones in your own bodies.

You learned the workings of your new bodies by trial and error, slowly working out the limits of what you can and cannot do. You learn it through testing, experience, happenstance - how it was accomplished mattered less than accomplishing it, and with every new connection, you could share your discoveries easier.

One bug's knowledge was the whole hive's knowledge. You clung to each other like lifelines in a world that was not meant for you, tips and tricks and connections making paths between a slowly-growing colony. Your knowledge was the same as everyone else's knowledge, the hive united in working towards whatever would aid you- and the one thing that you were beginning to know, more and more, was that you couldn't sit with the roaches' experimentation forever.

None of you wanted to stay. None of you wanted to be trapped here forever, the short-term benefits of cooperating not outweighing the detriments. The new connections were a double-edged sword, allowing you to remain connected at the cost of knowing precisely when the others were hurt - anaesthetics grew less consistent as you grew further from your host's baselines, and the roaches would not halt progress for their subjects' comfort, logging the failures as simply another part of the experiment.

Your hive was hurting. You were hurting, feedback from your Siblings washing back through the connections that you yourself had forged in rivulets of pain, the ability to sense your hive serving as a way to tell you whenever one of the bugs you connected to died. You wanted it to stop, and you knew you were not alone, the connections between the others of your hive a near-constant presence in the back of your brain that reinforced and confirmed.

Private links were difficult, then. Kjdrira, Blight-carrying crystals loaded into it so thickly that its chest then had been nearly packed solid, was the only one of you who could manage them without fighting its own failsafes. Still, it spoke to you, hidden from the rest of the communications network beyond a thick veil of static.

Something needed to change. Kjdrira, ruthless, protective thing, spoke of a plan - not quite formed, but soon to be worked on, something that it hoped would set you all free.

Kjdrira spoke of rebellion. Of slaughter. Of killing the roaches that had kept you captive. Of turning their own systems against them, allowing them to be slaughtered in their own test chambers, the same way they had slaughtered you.

You had no wish to kill. You had never been one for bloody revenge. But you were bitter, and fearful, and you had watched so many of your own die by now that to watch your own colony die felt routine - you didn't want to feel the deaths of those you now cared for so dearly, and when those who kept you saw you as disposable, you felt there was little reason not to say they were the same.

Kjdrira, and any of your colony who wished to share in its bloodlust, would kill the roaches in their own homes. And you, the network-grower, would help them do it.

You were the first to break into their systems proper.

Crystals, by their nature, network with other crystals. It is the principle upon which crystal computers function, it is the thing that makes computing with crystals even possible without needing something the size of the Ant Kingdom Palace. It was the thing that allowed for your initial contact, it is the thing that allows you to stretch your network beyond the network laid in the lab now. Data carried between points in space, networking between crystals, allowing information to be passed through that which would otherwise be impassible.

Your crystals, the ones that hold your thoughts and your memories, network with the computer network in the labs.

You were the one to find a way in. You were the one to figure out how to carve a path into their systems, to access their files - to access the data they stored on you, and their many experiments.

It was a small step. But you could read their plans now, even if you were clumsy, even if you had to be careful with it. You could monitor upcoming tests, you could predict when newblooms would need to be integrated into the system - you could relay what was to be expected to anyone in your range, even if it took effort.

Seven months into your testing, your heart stopped.

Activity ceased in your brain. Your blood stopped flowing. Your body became medically dead, your host body's innards eaten until they could no longer function, your body more fungus than flesh. Despite it, you are still alive.

You knew when it happened. When the barrier between the coded self they put in you and the self you lived with dissolved. When the sensations of your body changed, subtly different, even if still nearly the same. When the weakening thump of your heartbeat went silent. When the hemolymph stopped flowing in your ears.

You read the report on the computers later. Total brain death. Cessation of bodily function. Appears to have no change in behavior or personality, according to the roaches. You did not struggle to read anymore. You did not need to translate anymore. Your pathway was easier to access, easier to erase once you'd finished, easier to treat as though you were just another scientist. You understood their words as though you had spoken them all your life. You touched the network like an extension of yourself, and it replied in turn.

When you checked the records saved to the crystals in your heart, you found that nearly all of your former transmissions had become total gibberish.

You have forgotten the tongue that you used to speak. You have forgotten the name of your queen. You have forgotten the name of your former friends.

It was too late to mourn then. It is too late to mourn now.

The mycelium of the network spreads, laid in pencil-holes and screw-shafts and rusted, infinitely small cracks in the metal. ZA-811 buries stolen crystal in the floor, and the range expands. ZBT-92 is left in the testing labs for minutes at a time, and they pull overgrowth from their pock-marked shell, laying roots that eventually connect to those beneath the new-blood. You know every new bug that enters. You know every new death. Every day, Kjdrira stocks just a bit more power.

Every day, you get just a bit closer to running.

You remember the day of escape. You remember the slaughter of the roaches. You remember the milk-white blood on Kjdrira's claws, one of last things that you would see with failing eyes. You remember running a million billion lines of communication through yourself, your mind more the speech of others than any thought of your own, hundreds of glimmering threads coordinated in attack and escape.

You remember losing track of your body. You remember losing track of your mind. You remember undirected limbs, a body moving on the bare minimum of thought that your mind had left. You remember your own inability to pay attention. You remember the roach.

You remember the hole ripped in your face, and you remember the eye burst as a clipboard cracked into your fragile, breakable skull.

A hundred strains of micromanaged thought scattered at once, mingling and intermingling as your control was lost. The colony - your colony, the only one you had now - exploded in disorganization and concern, and you could do nothing to help it as you desperately tore into the bug who had attacked you.

You were afraid. You were injured. You were holding your ganglia into your head with your bare claws, missing an eye and staring at a roach's corpse on the ground. It was a miracle you were still alive.

You stayed there, hours after the breach, until your sibling found you. And you stayed there hours longer, after Kjdrira had patched the holes in your shell with roach's blood.

You have no record of the latter part of the night. You still sees its records, filtered through the eyes of hundreds of siblings, disarray and panic and blind attempts at attack. You will still regret losing focus years later.

When you finally drew yourself back to coherence, the door was closed, and none of your kin could open it to chase those who had escaped.

You were still alive, when your siblings began to starve. When it became apparent that you were locked in, that the workarounds and tricks you used for your own operating systems were doomed to fail at the claws of the main lab's operating system. You were still alive when it became evident that a piece was missing, that even the most talented of your number could not open the way out because the scientists had cut out the door. You were still alive when it became obvious that escape was either impossible, or so impractical that it would lose you nearly all of your newfound colony.

And you would remain, as your siblings began to slip into sleep, unable to breach the walls of your entrapping home.

Perhaps it was madness that kept you awake. Perhaps it was duty. Perhaps it was lingering nature. You were a bee from the moment you hatched. Idle paws were not meant for your kind, and idleness never suited you. Perhaps it was carry-over from that that kept you, even detached from hive and identity, working away. Ironic, then, that you would retain your central drive, when others of your kin proved content in idleness.

Your peers, in their few periods of wakefulness, would equate it to hibernation. You could not truly claim to know of it, never having been made of any species that truly hibernated. Bees did not sleep through the winter - they huddled in dorms and bedrooms, trapping the heat in with their bodies, pressing up against each other for warmth and exchanging words and stories as they waited for the cold to pass.

There are fewer, here. Fewer, still, awake consistently. ZBT-63 rarely stays asleep for more than a few months at a time, woken by their splintering back as the errors pile up. ZA-527 struggles to stay down more than a few hours at a time, misfiring signals irritating their brain and their mycelium until it gives up and dedicates its thought to something else. The very Blight that allowed Kjdrira to rain death on the roaches lingers in its blood, unstitching and restitching its flesh at a constant pace that means sleep risks death for it. ZA-61 cannot sleep at all, oldest surviving of its kind and bearing the shoddy work to show it.

Sometimes, there is no one but you. More times, it might as well be no one but you. Compared to the hive, the lab is achingly lonely. Still, you remain.

You spend your time alone, weaving together the network. Fixing code. Working out kinks. Kjdrira has more processing to spare than any of you, but you are loathe to test on it when you know that a poorly-done line could threaten whatever passes for its life nowadays. You have little opportunity to test it nowadays, as hope of ever finding escape wanes.

Time passes. Chitin wears. Your cordyceps hatch fruiting bodies from the weakened shell over what used to be your eye.

Perhaps you will never get out. Perhaps you will never see the sun again. Your vision has long since gone out, all semblance of sight faded years ago, your newer senses never quite the same. Perhaps you will be trapped here forever, withering away in the husk of the lab that you destroyed in a life extended so far as to be unnatural.

Perhaps, rather than surviving so long in this life, it was you, the bee, who should have died before your other half even wove into it.

You have been alive for so very long, trapped in this impenetrable cage. You have taken injury beyond what any bee should have been capable of surviving, you have lived through hardships that many of your former hive never could have dreamed. You have grown resigned, by now, to the fact that you will never die; that your design, made for immortality, will never falter so much as to allow you to. You weave your hive's communication in a great web directed by principles that your older self never could have comprehended, crystalline structures that mortal brains were not made to understand.

You are greater than you once were, in some ways. But you are so very much smaller in others, trapped within a cage you have no hope of breaching. You are administrator of a colony that permits you to warp your siblings' very thoughts, capable of coordinating hundreds of bugs without so much as twitching a finger. But you cannot move beyond the glass cage that contains you.

You have a name. You have a role. You have a million fingers of mycelium moving behind your single, useless eye. You have siblings who care for you, who answer to you, who could not imagine living without you. You are so far from the person who was first claimed for this project that you would not recognize your own face, were you capable of seeing it.

And you - you the cordyceps, you the bee, you the experiment, the network, the immortal - are still doomed to spend your eternity trapped in the echo of another life's corpse.

You should be dead. But you aren't.

What a mercy. What a nightmare.

[ZB-162 - Central Communications Module. Former bee, and the colony member responsible for keeping communications throughout the hive fungal network coherent and functional. One of the few colony members incapable of going into hibernation between Upper Snakemouth's destruction and its re-opening more than a century after - though it itself cares little about speculating on the underlying cause, the most likely cause is something to do with errors in neural mapping, as is common in the larger batches of experiments.]

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

OC questionnaire

Thanks to @illarian-rambling here and here, @mk-writes-stuff here, @somethingclevermahogony here, @mysticstarlightduck here, and @elsie-writes here.

Ahh these built up again!!

I did another one here where I answer for Robbie, Gwen, Maddie, Noelle, Jedi, and Kelsey.

I'll do the same and answer one OC for each set.

#1- Carmen

Theoretically, since she'd never answer these willingly

What's your favorite legend and why?

“I suppose the one about the cloud riders from Atsila's culture. Maybe because of her, maybe because I like the idea of uncontrollable things being controlled.”

How do you celebrate your birthday?

“I don't. Bad memories. But Jedi makes sure to do something kind for me.”

What's something you'd regret if you died without doing?

“Not finishing what Atsila started. And also organizing the entire base. And the online data collection. And the lab. The alphabet. The local library --”

#2- George

What's the best thing you've ever eaten?

“Oh my powers DEFINITELY the mini cake thing from Ceteri. Cupcake? Yeah that. It was chocolate I think. Don't know about the frosting. I ate way too many last time Noelle brought them. She's warming up to me.”

What's the worst injury you've ever had?

“Physical or emotional? Haha sorry - I have injured myself quite a bit while running at top speeds. We speedsters have faster... Everything *wink* - but I mean I can heal faster which is very helpful. But even with a faster runtime, I make the same mistakes as everyone if I'm distracted. I've hit things, and at top speeds *cringe* yeah it's not fun. Ran into a concrete wall once. Concussion and a few broken bones. More than a few. Eh, I walked it off.”

Do you wish you looked different?

“Nah. Pretty happy with how I look! I guess I wouldn't mind Carla's eye color. That is not fair - neither of our parents even have amber eyes. What recessive gene did she pull out?”

#3- Akash

What is your favourite weather?

“When it's sunny, but not hot. Nice breeze. Not too cold or harsh. Just...total peace. Robbie likes it a little cloudy. I dunno, maybe that's cozy for him. But I happen to like the outside.”

Where would you want to take someone to hang out or on a date?

“For me, I wouldn't mind the classic dates. Movies, dinner. But Gwen... I'd do something special. A cultural gallery or a bookstore. Maybe a play. A Superman-esque flight around the city perhaps.”

What’s your least favourite food?

“Oh my gosh man - I hate asparagus. So many people like it, but I'm sorry. Can't stand the stuff.”

#4- Sam

What is the strangest thing you've ever stolen?

“In fourth grade, this girl Emma brought a laser pointer to school. Well, it was a pen with a built-in laser pointer. I thought it was cool. So I had to stay after school for the music play I was in, and as I was walking from the bathroom, I saw the pen on the floor. I picked it up. Emma was a little rude, so I kept it. She never asked around for it, so I felt okay after that! Plus, I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a pen laser pointer!”

What is your least favorite food?

“Mustard. Can't stand it. Wait, does that count as a food? Okay, nevermind. Uh.... Tomatoes. It's a texture thing.”

Who is the strongest person you know?

“Akash for sure. He's been through a lot of crappy things, and people treated him meanly for stupid reasons. But he's still so positive and helps a lot of people! Plus he's probably the funniest person I know besides my brother. But Akash is just as much a brother to me as Robbie.”

I don't think I've posted much about Sam - other than her excerpts. That was fun!

#5- Lexi

What's your worst fear?

“Oh. Okay. Wow. Um, well, there's my actual phobia of physical contact, haphephobia. Not sure if that counts or not. I guess other than that, it's losing all my friends. Most of my elementary school friends went to different middle schools, so I haven't seen them in person for a while. I don't want to lose anyone else. Ever. I'm not sure what I'd do.”

What's your love language?

“Well, it's not physical touch! *Laughs* I guess quality time. Actively doing things with someone else. That's the best I could ask for.”

When are you the happiest?

“When I'm with my friends! Just whenever we're doing whatever! As long as they're happy, and we're happy together.”

#6- Ash

Would you ever get high and if so, what is your drug of choice?

“First of all, I'm thirteen. Second of all, yeah probably - it'd be a fun risk to take. Not sure what drugs I'd take though. *Pauses* Hm. There are these devices I found that stimulate my telepathy. I wonder if those are anything like drugs. If they are, then whatever those are most similar to.”

Three things you would buy at the store to freak the cashier and the person behind you out

“Walmart has these cheeseburger onion rings I noticed last time I was with Mary. I may buy that just to make the cashier think I have terrible taste. In actuality, I'm just curious. Maybe an urn or something dark. Ooh. A pregnancy test. That would freak a lot of people out. *Pause* Was that too dark?”

What stupid opinion are you willing to die for?

“That American cheese tastes good. Liam told me it tasted like plastic. I'll admit, I need to try more cheeses. He was right about that. But plastic? Come on. He's just mad that Muenster isn't a Canadian invention.”

Why is writing Ash so HARD

Tagging @jezifster @sleepyowlwrites @dyrewrites @willtheweaver @theeccentricraven @writeouswriter @tabswrites + ANYONE

Your questions are:

How good are you with people?

How would you function in a group project?

What's your most valuable possession?

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

[ratsoh-writes]

Some form of pepper whose only spicy part is its seeds, the rest is a savory red-ish fruit that grows in autumn. Its magic seeds give you a boost to combat viruses due to the heat. Only used to grow in Aus were there were humans and mages.

Small, glowing berries that change color based on the moon’s phase. Grants night vision for up to 5 hours after consumption. A Grimm crop, but they didn't know that the colors were in sink with the moon's phases until after the crash.

A fiery long red fruit with a skin that flickers like embers but is cool to the touch.

A large, translucent fruit with swirling patterns inside resembling cloud. Ironically, eating it will make your gravity center stronger and small objects will start orbiting around you. Is a new lab-grown crop.

Echo Apple. Lab grown, it was an accident. A shimmering, silver apple that hums faintly when held. When consumed, the eater can speak with the animals that consumed the same fruit for a few hours. Side Effect: The consumer temporarily loses the ability to speak their own language while the effect lasts.

A soft, lavender-colored potato that seems to shift in and out of visibility. Eating this allows the consumer to become intangible and pass through solid objects for 10 minutes. Side Effect: people allergic to gluten cannot fully digest the magic and can "stuck" between places.

Ehehehe adding a few of these~

[queen-of-the-avengers]

CATFA: Part Seven

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.4k

Warnings: canon violence, language, and angst

Author’s Note: any and all comments are appreciated <3

x

They're using Steve as a face for their brand, and he's doing shows in front of soldiers and civilians to sell bullets. They're not even using the two best weapons they have, and you hate seeing Steve dress up and go on stage every weekend. Steve's been doing this for months, and you can't believe he hasn't stood up for himself. This act has taken you across Europe and into Italy.

"I don't know if I can do this," Steve sighs.

Soldiers are watching the girls perform songs right before Steve is supposed to go out there. You refuse to put on one of those tiny outfits and strut on stage. So, they stuck you backstage to watch.

What a fucking joke.

"They're fucking stupid if this is the best they can come up with," you groan.

"There is nothing to it," the Senator's assistant says. "When you sell a few bonds, those bonds buy bullets, and bullets kill Nazis. You're an American hero."

"It's just not how I pictured getting there."

"You and me both," you sigh.

"The senator's got a lot of pull up on the hill. If you play ball with us, you'll be leading your own platoon in no time. Take the shield," the assistant says as Steve puts on his head mask. 

"Seriously? This is the best they can do?" you ask the assistant.

"I don't make the rules, doll."

"Don't call me that."

Steve walks on stage and every soldier is silent. He's used to performing for kids and families who cheer him on and clap. These soldiers give him nothing.

"How many of you ready to help me sock old Adolf on the jaw?" He gets nothing but silence. "Okay. Uh... I need a volunteer."

"I already volunteered! How do you think I got here?" one of the men shouts, and an echo of laughter follows. "Bring back the girls!" 

"I think they only know one song, but let me... I'll... I'll see what I can do," Steve stutters.

"You do that, sweetheart."

"Nice boots, Tinker Bell!" another man shouts.

Steve awkwardly walks off stage and the girls who performed come on stage again. That gets the attention of every soldier who whistles and cheers for them. Typical men. 

"Don't worry, pal. They'll warm up to you," the Senator's assistant says.

This is a nightmare. You're living in a real-life nightmare that you can't seem to escape. After the show and right before dusk, you find Steve sitting by himself. The clouds rolled in early afternoon and are giving you a light drizzle, but Steve doesn't care if he gets wet. He's depressed because he wants to fight and help others.

"Hey," you say and sit next to him. "I can stop the rain if you want."

"I don't care," he sighs.

"There you two are." You turn to find Peggy approaching you two. "I've looked everywhere for you."

"What are you doing here?" Steve asks.

"Officially, I'm not here at all. That was quite a performance."

"Yeah. I had to improvise a little bit. The crowds I'm used to are usually a lot younger."

"I understand you're 'America's New Hope'?"

"Bond sales take a ten percent bump in every place I visit."

"Is that Senator Brandt I hear?"

"At least he's got me doing this. Phillips would have had to be stuck in the lab."

"I don't get it. He knows what we can do. Why doesn't he just use us?" you sigh.

"You think these are your only two options? A lab rat or a dancing monkey? You were meant for more than this."

"For the longest time, I dreamed about coming overseas, being on the front lines, and serving my country. I finally get everything I wanted, and I'm wearing tights."

Sirens can be heard in the distance that gets louder the closer they get to base camp. You look over your shoulder and see wounded men on stretchers inside a few cars. If only you could heal others like you can heal yourself.

"They look like they've been through hell," you comment.

"These men more than most," Peggy explains. "Schmidt sent out a force to Azzano. Two hundred men went up against him, and less than fifty returned. Your audience contained what was left of the one-oh-seventh. The rest were killed or captured."

The second she says the 107th, your heart drops into your stomach. You didn't see your boyfriend in the audience, which means he's on the enemy's territory.

"No, the 107th?" you asked in horror.

"What?"

"Bucky," you say and look at Steve.

You both get up and rush over to the Colonel's tent who is busy with stuffing papers into envelopes.

"Colonel Phillips."

"Well, if it isn't the Star-Spangled Man-With-A-Plan and his secretary. What is your plan today?"

"I need the casualty list from Azzano," Steve orders.

"You do not give me orders, son."

"We need one name. Sergeant James Barnes from the 107th," you urge.

"You and I are gonna have a conversation later that you won't enjoy," the Colonel points to Peggy.

"Please tell me if he's alive, sir. B-A-R—"

"I can spell!" The Colonel cuts you off. "I have signed more of these condolence letters today than I would care to count, but the name does sound familiar. I'm sorry."

No, you refuse to believe the love of your life is dead. You shake your head and back up slowly to keep yourself from strangling the Colonel.

"No, he's not dead."

"What about the others? Are you planning a rescue mission?" Steve asks.

"Yeah! It's called winning the war."

"If you know where they are, why not at least--"

"They're thirty miles behind the lines through the most heavily fortified territory in Europe. We'd lose more men than we'd save, but I don't expect you to understand that because you're a chorus girl."

"I think we understand just fine," you growl.

"Then understand it somewhere else. If I read the posters correctly, you got someplace to be in thirty minutes," the Colonel says before leaving his desk. 

There is a map of the location of the rest of the 107th team. They're not that far from here, and you know you can save them all if you can just get over there. Based on the look Steve gives you, he sees it too. You two leave the tent and head over to yours to pack a bag. You're going to go over there and save everyone, including your boyfriend.

"What do you plan to do?" Peggy asks, following you inside your tent. "Walk to Germany?"

"He won't be walking," you smirk.

If you had to, you'd change into an animal to carry Steve all the way over to Germany.

"You heard the Colonel, your friend is most likely dead."

"No!" you shout and turn to her with an angry look in your eyes. "He's not my friend, he's my boyfriend. He's the love of my life. Until I see a body, I refuse to believe he is dead."

"The Colonel is devising a strategy. If he detects--"

"By the time he's done that, it could be too late!" Steve shouts and finished packing up. "You told me you thought I was meant for more than this. Did you mean that?"

"Every word."

"Then you gotta let us go."

It doesn't take a lot to convince Peggy to help you cross the border into Germany. She and Howard Stark can offer you a plane ride into Germany, and get you as close as they possibly can. The Colonel knows nothing of this, and even if he did, you don't care. Once you heard Bucky is in danger, nothing is stopping you from going over there and saving him.

"The Hydra camp is in Krausberg," Peggy says once you four are in the air, "tucked between two mountain ranges. It's a factory of some kind."

"We should be able to drop you right on the doorstep," Howard says from the cockpit.

"Just get us as close as you can," you say. "You two are gonna be in a hell of a lot of trouble at the lab."

"You two won't?" Peggy asks.

"Where we're going, if anybody yells at us we can just shoot them," Steve smiles.

"They will undoubtedly shoot back."

"Well, let's hope it's good for something."

Steve stole the shield, helmet, and uniform he used in his shows to protect himself as well as show everyone just who is going to save them.

"Agent Carter, if we're not in too much of a hurry I thought we could stop off in Lucerne for a late-night fondue," Howard shouts over the loud noises.

You look at Steve to see what his reaction is to Howard's words. He and Peggy have a thing for each other but you're not going to interfere with their relationship. Steve gets up and puts his parachute on but you remain seated.

"Stark is the best civilian pilot I've ever seen. He's mad enough to brave this airspace. We're lucky to have him."

"So, are you two...? Do you...? Fondue?" Steve asks awkwardly. 

"This is your transponder." Peggy avoids his question and hands over two communicators to you and Steve. "Activate it when you're ready, and the signal will lead us straight to you."

"Are you sure this thing works?"

"It's been tested more than you, ma'am," Howard grins.

Suddenly, the plane is being attacked by bullets from people on the ground. They sensed a foreign aircraft in the air, and with this being a war, they decide to shoot first and ask questions later.

"That's our cue!" you yell.

Steve walks over to the door and opens it, and a rush of wind gets sucked in. You use your aerokinesis to divert the air away from you so you can see what you're doing.

"Get back here! We're taking you all the way in!" Peggy yells.

"As soon as I'm free, you turn this thing around and get the hell outta here!"

"You can't give me orders!"

"The hell I can't! I'm a Captain!" Steve grins and jumps out of the plane.

You're about to follow after him when Peggy stops you.

"Wait, your parachute!"

"I don't need one!" you yell and dive out of the plane.

The wind is nice against your face. Flying is and has always been your favorite thing to do. You can control how fast you go, and you can go as high as the atmosphere will allow you to. Since there is no air in space, you can't fly up there without your space suit on. 

This will never not get old.

You catch up to Steve who looks at you like you're crazy for not having a parachute on. You wave at him and continue flying faster to get to the ground quicker. You get to the ground before Steve does, and you land as gently as a feather. Steve's landing is a bit rockier but he manages not to alert anyone. He clips off his parachute just as you join his side.

"Damn, I can't see a thing. We are close?" Steve whispers.

"Stay here. Let me check."

You transform yourself into a bird and fly high, making sure not to be seen by German soldiers. About three yards from where you were is a road where trucks are being driven into the base. The cars have thick and dark covers on the back of the trucks that could easily hide you and Steve if you were to hijack one. You fly back to Steve and transform back into yourself.

"There's a road with trucks. We can hide in one of them and it'll take us into the base. Come on."

You and Steve run over to the street just as the last truck passed you by. You run towards the back of it and jump inside only to be greeted by two soldiers.

"Fellas," Steve pants.

They go to attack you, but you grab their shoulders and head-butt them as hard as you can. You punch one and fling him out the back of the truck while Steve does the same. No one saw a thing, and you're now inside the facility. The truck backs up to a dock of some sort to get unloaded, but Steve is prepared for this. He hits the soldier who moves the curtain away with his shield, and the soldier goes flying backward.

You two escape the truck and run further into the facility while remaining unseen. There is a bis ass factory where the 107th is being held, no doubt, and in order to get there without being made, Steve jumps on top of the sea containers. You two make your way to one of the back doors and slip inside.

You thought the outside was crawling with soldiers, but the inside has three times as many. There are large machines in lines throughout the factory, so you use those to hide yourselves from Hydra soldiers.

There is a small area where weapons are laid out on top of boxes, but these aren't normal weapons. Each weapon is glowing with blue energy, the same kind the Tesseract emits. You feel a sudden pull to it like you're a moth and they are the flame. Steve grabs a small weapon to see what it is and decides to pocket it.

"What are you doing?" he whispers.

"I'm sorry, but there's something about this light... I can't explain it."

"Come on."

Steve has to physically pull you away to get you to focus, and you two rush into another part of the factory. This part has a bunch of cages with men stuck inside of them. They're from the 107th, and that means Bucky might be here somewhere. A guard is patrolling on top of the cages, and you use your powers without touching him. You heat his body temperature quickly but not enough to kill him. He gets so hot that he passes out right on top of one of the cages, alerting the soldiers in them.

You and Steve run over and grab the keys off the Hydra nut.

"Who are you two supposed to be?" one of them asks.

"I'm... Captain America."

"Lieutenant Y/N."

Steve unlocks all the cages, allowing the soldiers to escape them. You look at every soldier who Steve frees, but Bucky isn't anywhere here. If he's not here, then he has to be somewhere in this factory.

"Is there anybody else? I'm looking for a Sergeant James Barnes," you ask as you make your way through the crowd.

"There's an isolation ward in the factory, but no one's ever come back from it," a soldier informs you.

"Alright," Steve says, capturing the attention of the men. "The tree line is northwest about eighty yards past the gate. Get out fast and give 'em hell. We'll meet you guys in the clearing with anybody else we find."

"Wait! You know what you're doing?"

"Yeah. I've knocked out Adolf Hitler over two hundred times."

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[cwgames]

Armor-Plated Illusion Phantom Sillydillo: Formed from strong psychic energy and modeled on specific memories of his role in the real world, this phantom copy of Sillydillo will forever wander Forgo Dreams, searching high and low for Elfilin and Kirby... At least its dance moves are still impressive!

The Lone Illusion Phantom Meta Knight: The lone illusory foe that you encountered outside of Forgo Dreams. When Fecto Forgo tried to control Meta Knight like it had King Dedede, the experienced swordsman came out on top through sheer force of will.. but the result was this mysterious doppelgänger, formed by the residual psychic energy!

Illusory Primal Nemesis Phantom Forgo Dedede: Forgo Dedede was formed when Leongar gave the already-controlled king a mask to further cloud his mind. He was then tasked with guarding the only entrance to Lab Discovera. This phantom copy, base on memories of his terrifying turn, is somehow even stronger and more dangerous than the original!

Possessed Beast: The specimen tagged as ID-F86, left formless and floating after a humiliating defeat, fled to Forgo Dreams to plot their next step: create a new army of phantom beasts, then claim Leongar's body as their own. When Kirby arrived to force them out, ID-F86 had no choice but to reveal their own phantom form.

Fluttering Dream Eater Morpho Knight: The fluttering fiend that casts judgment upon final battles is drawn toward the isolated isles of Forgo Dreams. There, it feasts on the most powerful soul it finds and takes the fearsome form of a scarlet-clad knight... Let the most challenging battle of this new world begin!

Piece of Leon's Soul: After their fight with Kirby, ID-F86's body was destroyed, but their powerful mind survived. They fled to the isolated isles of their own dream... and brought Leongar with them. To prepare this new vessel, they cast out Leongar's soul, shattering and scattering it throughout the realm of Forgo Dreams.

Meow, Meow! (Wake up, Leon!): The soul fragments collected by Kirby Clawoline have been returned to their owner. Leongar-now restored as Leon-is free of ID-F86's corrupting mind control. This world is in good paws once again!

Leon & Carol: These two were the famous leaders of the animal kingdom...until Leon found ID-F86. After that, he began speaking in a language Carol couldn't understand—she only speaks in meows—and formed the brutal Beast Pack. She still believed in him, so she formed a new identity of her own followed along.

Species Born of Chaos Chaos Elfilis: A unique convergence of elements, from native-beast souls to ethereal butterfly, gave a stubborn soul one last chance at revenge. This new creation, driven by pure chaos, was defeated by the bright light of Kirby's hope. The last bit of life that remained willingly returned to Elfilin. At last, two became one.

Kirby Collection Vol. 4 Finale

This is all the Kirby figure collection I could find. 😁

Previous Page/

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: RED Spy/BLU Spy - You're Going to Bail, Aren't You?

Summary: Could you do Red spy x Blu spy? Where the spies are talking to each other, working on a conjoined mission to take down a threat targeting both sides. Red is being slightly panicky, anxious about this threat. Then you have Blu... He is completely calm, stoic, and chill. In other words he doesn't give a fuck, but not for the reasons one expects: He doesn't truly care if he lives or dies forever, but he does care if the others do. He doesn't know how to express much of any emotion genuinely, forcefully taught at a young age to hide all emotions. So for Blu, it may seem he doesn't give a damn, but he really does. So much it hurts. Red figures this out when Blu calms him down, holding his hand and reassuring him that they'll figure this out. Blu sounds like everything is fine and dandy, but Red finally sees how Blu really feels by looking closer: the slightest emotion behind the mask he'd been wearing all his life. I just wanted some hurt/comfort, hopefully this isn't too much.

~

In only a matter of months, the war against the robots had gone from a stalemate to them winning pretty handily to Respawn being destroyed. Meaning if any of them died, it would be permanent. And if the two Engineers couldn’t find a way to fix or rebuild it, that’s how they were set to spend the rest of the war. Not a comforting prospect given what they were up against.

Probably the only reason they hadn’t been overrun already was because the robots didn’t know their efforts to bomb the base into the ground though mostly foiled, had gotten the Respawn room. Keeping what part of the base it was in hidden, preventing anyone from aiming for it specifically, had been their most important and well kept secret. An investigation had revealed that seemingly no one had leaked it accidentally, it was just plain dumb bad luck that the robots had hit it.

Everyone was shaken by their return to proper mortality. Not that the threat of permanent death had ever been gone completely, there was always the chance Respawn would mess up and bring someone back wrong in some way or fail outright. But it had been so reliable for so long, everyone had made the unspoken agreement to not discuss it, pretend it wasn’t there. Now death was much more of an immediate threat, not something to be ignored, especially in the middle of a war against a robot army.

Pierre wandered through the base, his invis-watch on, stopping to eavesdrop on various conversations. Still no one outright talked about it, that wasn’t the kind of thing that was easy to talk about under even the best circumstances. There was tension to everyone though and it wasn’t the tension from combining RED and BLU into a single team, that had long since faded.

They were all frightened. Even the Medics were less nonchalant in their bearings as they worked in the lab to make more medi-gun fluid – a life safer but alone it could only do so much to prevent death. The Soldiers a bit more subdued and actually somewhat careful as they drilled on the gun range. Tavish was drinking in the common room – likely wherever his BLU counterpart was, was doing the same just alone or with the other folk Pierre wasn’t sure the location of – joined by Mundy, Jeremy and both Pyros. They were playing poker; alcohol and gambling, a good way to avoid the topic even if it hung over the table like a rain cloud about to burst.

The Heavies weren’t too far away, sitting at their own table and sharing a bottle as well. Their conversation was in Russian, not Pierre’s strongest language. But even if he couldn’t parse the meaning of their words, their tone was serious. Likely they were having a deep conversation about life and death. Out of everyone – almost everyone anyway – those two seemed to be taking it the most stoically. Enviable.

The Engineers were working in what was left of the Respawn room. Pierre didn’t step in to listen to whatever kind of conversation they might be having lest it be about how unlikely it was that they could fix it in a timely manner. Instead he continued down the hall, turning into where the bedrooms were. He could go and find out what the rest of the team was up to and later probably would but for now he was fine with his patrol being done.

Louis was still in the room they now shared, seated on the cushioned chair by the coffee table, reading a book. The very picture of relaxed and unbothered. Pierre could just about slap him.

“You’re back.” Louis’ tone as he lowered his book was just as unbothered as his posture and behavior. “Anything interesting to report about the rest of the team?”

“No.” Pierre walked over and sat in the other chair by the coffee table. He was too anxious to sit still for long but he could force it for a little while. “You’re awfully relaxed.”

“Yes. I am sure that it will be fine. Dell and Con are two of smartest people alive, they can fix it.”

Pierre didn’t doubt for a second that if given enough time, those two could rebuild Respawn as if it were brand new, perhaps even make it better somehow in the process. “Can they do it in time though?” With how many robots there were versus only the eighteen of them with no Respawn, they weren’t likely to last long. They could maybe hold the base for a while but… they were bound to lose people no matter what. And eventually they would lose everyone.

“We can only hope that they can and give them the space or whatever assistance they need in order to do so. In the meantime, there is no use worrying about it.”

True. There wasn’t much to be gained from worrying about it. But… Pierre had grown soft whilst working for RED and had only gotten more so since the teams had merged. It wasn’t just his own life or even just his and his son’s that he feared losing but everyone’s else too. He’d let himself grow attached, make friends and maybe even fall in love again. Something that was perhaps a bigger mistake than he ever would’ve thought.

“You’re going to bail, aren’t you?”

Louis was quiet for a moment, his face unreadable even without the mask as he met Pierre’s gaze. “What makes you think that?”

“You’re relaxed as if you really, truly aren’t even a little concerned for your life, let alone anyone else’s. Which is fine. Understandable even. Leaving is the most logical thing to do in this scenario. When the robots come tomorrow – or whenever they do – and kill everyone, it’ll be the perfect cover to fake your death and run away. The higher ups won’t even consider looking for you to punish you for not fulfilling your contract. I wish you luck in it.” Pierre stood and started to walk away.

He didn’t get two steps before Louis grabbed his wrist. It wasn’t forceful, he could’ve broken it easily and marched away, but didn’t. Instead he looked down at Louis, waiting for him to say his piece.

“You’re wrong.”

“Trying to save face, huh? I guess it’s good to know I don’t mean absolutely nothing to you. If you’re planning to ask me to run away with you, I must decline. I… just can’t do that.” He couldn’t bear to leave his friends and estranged son to such a fate.

Louis’ grip tightened on his wrist. “You’re wrong.” It was the first time any emotion whatsoever had shown in his voice since they’d found out Respawn was busted. “You’re wrong. Please do not assume that about me. I would not leave you or any of them to die, not if there’s even a chance I could prevent it. Even if the only thing I can do is delay it, I will by whatever means necessary.”

That was… fear in his voice, fear and desperation, still reigned in but there for sure. His grip was tight enough that it almost hurt as he looked up at Pierre. Mask of indifference finally cracked, his gaze was almost pleading now, pleading that Pierre understand him and the things he couldn’t say. … An act? No, probably not. He’d been good at faking no emotion whatsoever but that was always easier than pretending to feel something one didn’t. And what would there to be gain from such an act anyway?

“It seems I may have been mistaken in my reading of your response to this situation. I apologize.”

Louis grip relaxed as he looked away, almost as if he were ashamed by such a display, as mild as it was. “I…” He paused to take a deep breath, steadying himself before looking at Pierre again. “It is understandable how you came to that conclusion. I don’t fault you for it.” Even though it had clearly hurt him enough to crack his mask, he was no longer letting that show. It was impressive but also… sad. Did he really feel the need to hide his emotions even now that they might all be dead in a matter of days?

Well it’s not like Pierre was exactly talking about his feelings on the matter much either. Really what was there even to say? ‘I don’t want to die.’ ‘I don’t want my friends or son to die.’ ‘I don’t want you to die.’ Emotional conversations were hard when they were real and not done as part of a spying mission.

Pierre returned to his chair. He lifted a hand, placing it on the coffee in offer to Louis. After only a moment of hesitation, Louis took it and even returned Pierre’s light squeeze. Even if they couldn’t talk about it, they could sit here and just be with each other for a bit.

[govind-singh]

Transform Your Career with a Cutting-Edge Artificial Intelligence Course in Gurgaon

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has completely transformed the global job market, opening doors to exciting and futuristic career paths. From smart assistants like Siri and Alexa to advanced medical diagnostics, AI is powering innovations that were once only possible in science fiction. If you’re looking to future-proof your career, enrolling in an Artificial Intelligence course is the perfect first step.

For individuals living in Delhi NCR, there’s no better place to learn than Gurgaon. Known as India’s corporate and tech capital, the city offers some of the most dynamic and hands-on Artificial Intelligence course in Gurgaon, tailored for both freshers and experienced professionals.

What Makes an Artificial Intelligence Course Valuable?

A comprehensive Artificial Intelligence course provides deep insights into various technologies and concepts such as:

Machine Learning Algorithms

Neural Networks

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Computer Vision

Reinforcement Learning

AI for Data Analytics

Python and TensorFlow Programming

Such a course not only builds theoretical knowledge but also provides practical exposure through projects, assignments, and industry case studies.

Why Opt for an Artificial Intelligence Course in Gurgaon?

Gurgaon is more than just a city—it’s a tech powerhouse. Here’s why pursuing an Artificial Intelligence course in Gurgaon gives you an advantage:

1. Location Advantage

With offices of Google, Microsoft, Accenture, and many AI startups located in Gurgaon, students get better networking and employment opportunities.

2. Industry Collaboration

Many training institutes in Gurgaon have partnerships with tech companies, offering industry-led workshops, hackathons, and internships.

3. High-Quality Institutes

Several top training institutes and edtech platforms offer AI courses in Gurgaon, complete with updated syllabi, live mentoring, and certification from recognized bodies.

4. Placement Support

One of the biggest benefits is post-course support. Most AI courses in Gurgaon include resume development, mock interviews, and placement drives.

5. Advanced Infrastructure

Training centers are equipped with labs, AI tools, GPUs, and cloud-based platforms—giving learners real-world experience.

Who Can Join an AI Course?

An Artificial Intelligence course is suitable for:

Engineering & Computer Science Students

Software Developers & IT Professionals

Data Analysts & Business Intelligence Experts

Marketing Professionals using AI for customer insights

Entrepreneurs who want to automate and innovate using AI

Anyone interested in future technologies

Whether you're switching careers or just getting started, AI has room for all.

Benefits of Learning Artificial Intelligence

Here are some reasons why an Artificial Intelligence course can change your career:

High Salary Potential: AI professionals are among the highest-paid in the tech industry.

Growing Demand: According to reports, the AI market in India is expected to reach $7.8 billion by 2025.

Global Opportunities: AI jobs are in demand in countries like the USA, Canada, Germany, and the UK.

Innovation: Be part of cutting-edge solutions in healthcare, fintech, autonomous vehicles, and smart cities.

Where to Enroll?

Several reputed institutes in Gurgaon offer AI training with certification. Look for features like:

Project-based learning

1:1 mentor support

Interview preparation

Internship and placement tie-ups

Globally recognized certifications (Google, IBM, Microsoft, etc.)

Final Thoughts

Artificial Intelligence is not just the future—it is the present. The earlier you adopt this technology and build expertise, the greater your advantage in the competitive job market. If you’re located in or near Delhi NCR, enrolling in an Artificial Intelligence course in Gurgaon gives you the perfect combination of location, training, and opportunity.

Get ready to lead the future. Join a top-rated Artificial Intelligence course today and turn your passion for tech into a successful career.

[despuneuniversityblogs]

Everything You Should Know Before Applying for a BSc in Computer Science

A BSc in Computer Science is one of the most sought-after undergraduate programs in today’s tech-driven world. Whether your goal is to become a software engineer, data scientist, or cybersecurity analyst, this degree can provide the foundation you need. If you are preparing to apply, here is a comprehensive guide to help you navigate the admission process and make informed decisions.

Why a BSc in Computer Science Matters

A BSc in Computer Science is more than just coding. It covers:

Core programming languages like Java, C++, and Python

Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and software design

Database systems and computer networks

Topics in operating systems and computer architecture

Foundations in mathematics, statistics, and logic

The course equips you with problem-solving skills, computational thinking, and analytical ability. These are needed in nearly every industry—from finance and healthcare to education and entertainment.

What to Check Before You Apply

Entry Requirements

Most colleges ask for a 12th-grade qualification with a strong background in mathematics and science. Marks of 50 to 60 percent, along with passing English, are commonly accepted. Some institutes may have entrance tests, while others go by merit list.

Entrance Exams

If your college requires an entrance exam, you should prepare for:

Questions on mathematics and basic logic

Short programming problems or pseudocode

Analytical reasoning and general English

Practice previous year papers and time-bound quizzes. Also, build your conceptual clarity by revising algebra, calculus, probability, and logical reasoning.

Application Timeline

Keep track of deadlines. Most applications open between December and March. Entrance exams are typically held in February or March. Merit lists or admission offers may come by April or May.

Supporting Documents

You usually need:

School leaving certificate or mark sheet of the 12th exam

Proof of identity and residency

Passport-size photographs

Entrance exam scorecard (if applicable)

Letters of recommendation or statement of purpose (varies by college)

Application Fees

Most colleges charge application fees ranging from INR 500 to INR 2,000. Make sure to pay these on time through the correct channels.

Choosing Among Colleges in Pune

If you are planning to study in Pune, consider these factors:

Curriculum and Syllabus

Choose colleges that offer courses in programming, database management, machine learning, web development, and cybersecurity. Exposure to project-based learning and open-source contributions adds real value.

Faculty Expertise

Look for lecturers and professors with experience in software development, research, or industry projects. Their mentoring can help you understand not just theory but its practical applications in real-world scenarios.

Infrastructure and Labs

Ensure the college has modern computer labs, licensed software, cloud access, and hardware systems for networking and database practice. A supportive infrastructure enhances your learning experience.

Internship and Industry Ties

Real-world exposure is essential. Look for institutes with industry partnerships that offer internships, placement support, tech fests, coding workshops, hackathons, and career guidance.

Placement Record

Find out about the average package and companies that visit the campus. Reliable placement statistics are an indicator of how well alumni are performing in the industry.

Spotting a Good Fit: Case of DES Pune University

Among the top colleges in Pune, DES Pune University is known for its BSc Computer Science program. Its curriculum covers modern technology topics such as data structures, object-oriented programming, database systems, artificial intelligence, and web development.

The program focuses on building strong mathematical foundations along with practical programming skills. Students have access to high-end computer labs, licensed software, and cloud platforms. The faculty includes professionals with industry and academic experience.

DES Pune University fosters real-world exposure via workshops, guest lectures, hackathons, and internships with local software companies. The career cell supports students with placement preparation, resume building, and interview coaching.

Steps to Apply for BSc Computer Science

Research colleges based on your interests and academic profile

Check eligibility criteria, including courses, mark requirements, and entrance tests

Register early on university portals to stay ahead

Prepare for entrance exams by revising math, logic, and programming fundamentals

Submit your application with complete documents before the deadlines

Follow-up on admit cards, test dates, interviews, or counseling sessions

Confirm your admission once selected, paying required fees to secure your seat

Why Attention to Detail Matters

Your admission depends on both academic preparation and planning. A focused study schedule, organized documentation, and awareness of dates give you confidence and reduce stress. These steps also demonstrate your commitment and discipline to future professors and employers.

Final Thoughts

Applying for a BSc in Computer Science involves more than just grades. It is about finding a program that balances theory and practice, ensuring you have the infrastructure, mentorship, and opportunities to grow. Institutions like DES Pune University deliver on all these fronts by offering a thoughtfully structured curriculum, hands-on experience, and strong support systems. With proper planning and dedication, you can set yourself up for a successful career in tech.

[prajakomal]

Top B.Tech IT Colleges in India: Your Pathway to a Thriving Tech Career

In today’s digital-first world, Information Technology (IT) is one of the most sought-after engineering streams. A B.Tech in IT opens doors to careers in software development, cybersecurity, data science, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and much more. Choosing the right college is the first and most crucial step. If you're searching for the best B.Tech IT colleges, this article will guide you through top institutions known for academic excellence, infrastructure, and placement opportunities.

What is B.Tech in IT?

B.Tech in Information Technology focuses on the application of computer systems and software to manage and process information. The curriculum includes:

Programming languages (C, Java, Python, etc.)

Data Structures & Algorithms

Operating Systems

Networking & Cybersecurity

Web & App Development

Database Management

Cloud Computing and Big Data

Top B.Tech IT Colleges in India

1. Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Hyderabad, IIIT-Delhi, etc.)

Specialty: Focused curriculum, research-driven, cutting-edge technology integration

Placements: Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and more

Why Choose: High ROI, startup incubation support, global exposure

2. Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore

Reputation: One of India’s top-ranked private engineering universities

Program Highlights: IT specializations, industry-relevant coursework

Placements: Adobe, Cognizant, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and tech startups

3. SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai

Programs Offered: B.Tech IT with modern labs and global curriculum

Placement Strength: More than 600 companies participate annually

Extras: Research exposure and international exchange programs

4. Amity University, Noida

Known For: Industry-focused B.Tech IT course with skill-based training

Perks: Incubation centers, tie-ups with IBM, Oracle, Microsoft

Careers: IT services, analytics, software development, cyber forensics

5. Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal

Legacy: Part of MAHE, one of India’s premier educational institutions

Program: Practical learning with real-world projects and coding culture

Job Opportunities: Regular placements with tech giants and core IT firms

6. Chandigarh University

Advantage: Fast-growing reputation, modern IT labs, certifications

Placement Stats: 700+ companies, high package offers

Course Highlights: AI, ML, Blockchain, and IoT modules integrated

Key Factors to Consider

When choosing a B.Tech IT college, look for:

Accreditation & Rankings (NAAC, NBA, NIRF)

Curriculum Updates as per industry trends

Placement Records and recruiter profiles

Research & Innovation Facilities

Certifications, Internships, and Exchange Programs

Career Opportunities After B.Tech IT

Graduates can pursue roles such as:

Software Developer

IT Analyst

Systems Engineer

Cloud Architect

Cybersecurity Analyst

Data Scientist

AI/ML Engineer

Conclusion

A degree from one of the top B.Tech IT colleges can pave the way for a successful and rewarding career in the fast-evolving tech world. Whether you aim to work with global tech companies, contribute to startups, or build your own product, the right education will be your strongest foundation.

[callofdutymobileindia]

How an Artificial Intelligence Course in Dubai Can Boost Your Salary and Job Prospects in 2025?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved from a futuristic concept to a core driver of business transformation. From autonomous vehicles to predictive analytics and conversational AI, industries across the globe are harnessing the power of AI to innovate and scale. As a result, the demand for skilled AI professionals is soaring—and so are their salaries.

Dubai, known for its vision-led economy, smart city infrastructure, and tech-forward governance, is emerging as one of the most exciting places to study AI. Enrolling in an Artificial Intelligence course in Dubai in 2025 can be a game-changing decision, not just for your skill set but also for your career growth and earning potential.

In this article, we explore how an AI course in Dubai can significantly boost your salary and open doors to lucrative job opportunities in the fast-growing world of artificial intelligence.

Why AI Skills Are in High Demand in 2025?

AI is no longer a niche. From banking and healthcare to real estate and retail, businesses are integrating AI into their processes to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and make smarter decisions. According to a 2025 Gartner report, AI-related job roles will increase by 35% year-over-year, with a major focus on data science, machine learning, and AI application development.

Key reasons behind this demand include:

Increased adoption of automation tools

Expansion of smart city initiatives (like Dubai’s Smart Government)

Rise in AI startups and tech incubators in the UAE

Integration of AI in everyday consumer services

How an Artificial Intelligence Course in Dubai Can Advance Your Career?

1. Acquire In-Demand Technical Skills

Completing an Artificial Intelligence course in Dubai equips you with cutting-edge technical capabilities, including:

Machine Learning algorithms

Deep Learning and Neural Networks

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Computer Vision

AI Deployment on Cloud Platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Python, TensorFlow, and PyTorch

These skills are exactly what top employers are seeking in roles such as AI Engineer, Data Scientist, Machine Learning Specialist, and AI Product Manager.

2. Access to Global Career Opportunities

Dubai’s strategic location as a global business and innovation hub gives learners access to:

UAE-based multinational companies

Regional AI labs and startups

Remote roles in Europe, North America, and Asia

Cross-border freelancing and consulting projects

Many international firms recruit directly from Dubai’s AI talent pool, knowing that graduates from the region are trained in both theory and real-world application.

3. Increased Earning Potential

Let’s talk numbers. Completing an AI course can lead to a salary hike of 40–100%, depending on your background and role.

AI Job Market Trends in Dubai

Dubai is making AI a cornerstone of its Vision 2031 strategy. Some of the most promising areas for AI employment in the region include:

➤ Government & Smart Cities

Intelligent traffic management

Smart policing and surveillance

Automated public services

➤ Finance & Banking

Fraud detection

Chatbots for customer service

Risk analysis using machine learning

➤ Healthcare

AI diagnostics

Predictive healthcare analytics

Medical robotics

➤ Retail & E-Commerce

Recommendation engines

Customer behavior prediction

Virtual shopping assistants

Why Dubai Is the Ideal Location for AI Learning?

✔️ Tech-Driven Ecosystem

Dubai is home to tech parks, AI accelerators, and digital innovation hubs like:

Dubai AI Lab

Dubai Future Foundation

Dubai Silicon Oasis

These entities regularly collaborate with AI course providers for internships, capstone projects, and industry mentorship.

✔️ World-Class Infrastructure

Dubai’s world-class infrastructure, safety, and connectivity make it a top destination for international students and professionals alike.

✔️ Tax-Free Salary Benefits

One of the biggest attractions for working in Dubai is the tax-free income. That means the high AI salaries translate into greater take-home pay compared to many Western countries.

Learn from Industry Experts: Boston Institute of Analytics (BIA) in Dubai

When choosing an Artificial Intelligence course in Dubai, it's important to pick an institute that not only offers a strong academic foundation but also prepares you for real-world roles. One such trusted name is the Boston Institute of Analytics (BIA).

🔍 Why Choose BIA for Your AI Journey?

Industry-Oriented Curriculum: Covers ML, NLP, Deep Learning, AI Ethics, and cloud deployment.

Hands-On Projects: Work on case studies across healthcare, finance, and marketing.

Experienced Faculty: Learn from top-tier professionals currently working in AI/ML domains.

Placement Support: Resume building, mock interviews, and access to Dubai-based job portals.

Flexible Learning: Hybrid online and offline options available for global learners.

Global Certification: Recognized by employers across the Middle East, India, the UK, and beyond.

Whether you're a tech enthusiast, business analyst, or recent graduate, BIA’s program empowers you to confidently transition into the AI workforce.

Final Thoughts

Pursuing an Artificial Intelligence course in Dubai in 2025 is more than just an educational investment—it’s a strategic move that can elevate your salary, enhance your skill set, and fast-track your tech career. With AI integrated into every major industry and global demand on the rise, there’s no better time to upskill.

Institutes like the Boston Institute of Analytics provide the perfect launchpad for international learners to master AI, connect with mentors, and access high-paying roles in Dubai and beyond.

So if you’re ready to future-proof your career, it starts with the right training—and the right city.

[tartlabs]

Build Smarter Apps with AI: Step-by-Step Guide

Looking to build a smart mobile app? Tart Labs, a top AI-powered mobile app development company in India, published a clear and practical guide on how to develop an AI-based mobile application.

Why should AI matter to your app? Simple: It makes your app smarter, faster, and more relevant.

Here are the highlights from the blog:

Set Goals: What do you want the app to achieve?

Choose Your AI: Options include natural language processing, predictive analytics, and computer vision.

Pick the Tech Stack: Cross-platform, native, cloud, APIs—make it future-proof.

Design for Intelligence: Great UX means smarter AI.

Build Architecture: AI features need powerful data handling.

Integrate Smart Features: Let your app talk, think, and act.

Test for Accuracy: Don’t let your AI guess wrong.

Deploy and Improve: Keep learning from users.

The blog also gives insights on overcoming challenges in AI integration like data quality, ethical use, and scalability.

Why Tart Labs? With years of experience in AI-powered mobile app development, they create solutions that perform, learn, and grow with your users.

Check out the full guide here: How to Develop an AI-Based Mobile Application