#college reactors

[el-ffej]

Back In The Day, when I was at Reed College, the word was that as long as you didn't go below ~10 feet (I don't remember the exact depth -- check with your local reactor rep before diving in), you were fine.

I never did; but I always loved the reactor room for 2 things:

The life preserver hanging on the side of the railing around the reactor (see above).

A big, fancy late 19th-century "old west" lead safe, that was used to store isotopes in.

The Forbidden Pool

[ratasum]

The College of Iatrics

Previously located in the now destroyed city cube that had previously been above the Thaumanova Research Facility before it went critical, the College of Iatrics was an asuran college which focuses on medicinal knowledge and can best be compared to biomedical engineering.

Known primarily for their pioneering usage of magic and traditional medicine, it wasn't uncommon to see other races come by the college for first aid training, simply on account of the skill of the medics teaching at the facility.

Under the watchful eye of Dean Xell, a bit of a curmudgeonly old asura whose sternness was known throughout the city, students entering into the College of Iatrics would focus on a vast array of medical applications as they moved through college, focusing in on their final area of study as they got into their final years there.

The focuses for the students of Iatrics were as varied as the students there, including studies in genetics, biomedical devices, traditional medicine using natural methods, advanced applications in magical healing, and emergency response, to name a few.

The college has had a number of very notable graduates, though tragically, many of them were either killed or forced to be the ones to treat the injured and dying following the reactor meltdown.

The loss of the College of Iatrics has broadly been considered one of the worst losses since the exodus, along with its sister college Agronometrics, due to the scope of their research and the primary focuses they both covered.

[skullsontess07]

‘I know Tony Stark was checking over his shoulder after that CEO was shot’… Tony Stark doxxed himself on television to someone he thought was the leader of a terrorist organization after threatening said mans life…. No he wasn’t

[herald-of-aurene]

(Part One)

After Zydeco and Kudi left the inquest, xey headed straight for Thauma Sum. Xey had zero ties there, and would be perfect for a new start for the two of them.

The first think xey did was change Kudi's name, to Widget. Xeir small, premature daughter fit it well. Xey headed for Thauma Sum for both the fact that little people knew xem there, and a specific college. The College of Latrics was filled with healers, those who study genetics, and in general biomedicine. Zydeco was drawn to it, eager to help people heal after making them hurt.

In Thauma Sum, xey were extremely lonely and stressed, with the work of college and raising a preemie born with asthma, but there xey met a young girl named Myxxi. She was brash, aggressive, and very blunt, but Myxxi took a great liking to both Zydeco and Widget, and would regularly follow them around. Suprisingly quickly, she had wormed her way into Zydeco's heart.

Quickly, xey learned that the talkative girl's father was one of xeir professors, he was a kind man and teacher and once he caught wind of the friend his daughter had made was dealing with by xemself, Professor Moss offered them both into their home.

Yinno, Myxxi's mother, ran a bakery on the side of their home after taking a leave from being a aerodynamicist to take care of her twin infant boys. Myxxi, while not a genius, was gifted in learning and taking in information, never being satisfied with what she knew. The family was kind, loving, and quickly adopted the two young asura as members in their own family. With the help of the family, Zydeco was able to become a Thaumageneticist. He studied genetics, and the effect magic had on them. Particularly, those with a natural born gift with it.

Years later, Widget wanted to go to the progeny school that her progenitor went to when xey were young, although xey were reluctant, Widget was determined to go there specifily, and who were xey to deny her. This is what led her to study in Rata Sum, rather than Thauma Sum.

And its what saved her and Myxxi's lives.

When to Thaumanova reactor exploded, Moss, and their two boys didn't make it, horribly being torn from existence, but Yinno and Zydeco were able to make it out. Zydeco was able to heal, but their legs and once of their arms were warped from it.

Sadly, Yinno died shortly after making it to a refuge.

[aarrkpng]

First day of classes back and one of them already got canceled. Woke up early for nothing smh

[pikabelle]

Amir Backstory Details For Those That Want it

Grew up in a small town called Amberstone near Furnace Flats on the west coast of Libertatia. Furnace Flats was a big tech startup area.

Parents were together, but argued in front of him often. His father ran a restaurant that Amir helped at while growing up. Amir got into tech because he would tinker in the back during slow hours to fend off boredom.

Mother was emotionally abusive and controlling, and would guilt trip him over things. He had a better relationship with his father.

He thinks vampires are hot.

His favourite comic book character is a femme fatale called The Countessa.

He secretly thinks Viktor is hot and thinks his abs are sexy (but still hates him).

He thinks that Quincy is "pretty".

He refers to bisexuality as "having multiple lines open at the buffet".

He went to college and had a roommate who would have LOUD sex despite knowing Amir could hear it.

He has a massive sweet tooth, and loves ice cream sundaes. He adds a lot of strange toppings to his sundaes that most people find to be anywhere from excessive to horrifying.

He's struggled with crippling ADHD his entire life. At some point he took medication for it, but stopped because because he thought they "sometimes worked, but made everything else much worse". Because of his ADHD, he faced a fair bit of descrimination, and he didn't have any close friends until the Hex.

He has dated in the past, and is not a virgin, but he's never told anyone he loves them before the drifter.

He gave Albrecht the reactor specs because he was scared of him, and because Albrecht manipulated him by saying that he would be saving the world. Albrecht's advanced technology appeared to be almost like magic to Amir, and he was scared of what he could do.

He originally took the job at the power plant because it paid well and he wanted to impress a girl he knew with money. However, he was only an intern. He never saw the girl again after taking the job.

[Heavy Conjecture] Given his position as an intern and the qualifications he would need to become a technician, i estimate that as of 1999 he is roughly 24 years old. This is a very loose estimate based on modern minimum requirements for such a position, and requirements for someone from the year 1999 were likely very different.

[evilminji]

You knooooowwww... >.>

The only difference, technically, between a school in the Zone? And on Earth? Is the American government won't recognize your Zone diploma...

Not accredited. But like..... I'm JUST SAYING? If you didn't try to pass your school off as some Big Ivy League type? Pulled the "oh yeah, you'd never have heard of it, it's local." And the COMPUTERS say it's legit?

How many people will dig deeper?

If you legitimately have the knowledge, you legitimately have the knowledge. Not YOUR fault you left out the whole "extra-dimensional" part. It makes folk nervous! And nervous folks get stabby.

So like? If you were ALREADY planning to "Move" as you euphemistically put it? Talked it over with your VERY concerned folks and friends? Who do NOT like the look of the steady but concerning rise of Anti-Ghost Powers That Be? Who finally put their foot down and reminded you that you are a TEENAGER and it's NOT your responsibility to fix the world?

Well...

Fuck those guys, I guess. You'll miss the old house, but Team "Taking our ball and going literally anywhere else" makes some good points. Why ARE you putting up with this?

And honestly, you've never SEEN your dad have so much fun. Him and the Reality Realtor just sorta... Vibe. Himbo to Himbo communications. Smatters of advanced physics. Fudge. It's great.

They move the portal. Collapse the old one in a way that makes it impossible to recover or recreate. You... kinda don't want to ask. They had that "mad scientist glint" in their eyes.

And while everyone's checking out brochures to different realities? You? Head off to the nearest College. It's the Zone, so technically you could go to any of endless billions. But you'd like your education some time this century.

Cue! Danny Fenton! Entering?

Academia's wet dream. A sprawling CITY of a college. Where the classes are on EVERYTHING and the price is FREE. People have Obsessions okay?? They NEED to teach. Debate and discuss! Study! Right papers and read them! It's been going on a while! And what happens when you find a subject that's NOT covered?

YOU COVER IT!

It's like if New York was a College. Good fucking luck find the dorms. Sleep on the floor like the rest of us, you casual.

Danny was Not Prepared ™.

He loves it though.

Classes on aeronautics next making the perfect sandwich, shoved next to historical basketry, stacked above alien slam poetry. But only on Tuesdays! Ever shifting. Breaking his Fenton Born Adhd in to a fine PASTE to be smeared upon bread. Happy mental stimulation chemicals go Brrrrrrrr

If it wasn't wildly inappropriate, he would LICK IT to claim it as his then wrap around it and gaurd like a territorial cat. He thought he HATED school! Turns out he just hated high-school. College though? College, or at least ZONE College, is fuckin AWESOME.

He's sit in SO MANY random classes just cause.

Picked up and dropped them at a whim. When they no longer sparked joy. He's been a flighty bitch and for once? No one CARES. No one says "you HAVE to commit and stick with this FOREVER once you choose this" and? It just? It's so FREEING! He's learned so MUCH!

He's probably gonna come back!

Which? Is how a deeply, DEEPLY weird aerospace engineer from supposedly bumfuck NOWHERE, end up working at Wayne Industries. He's.... a lil crazy behind the eyes. Ha ha... CONCERNING ™!

Dude sleeps on the lab floor. Has weirdly spotty knowledge. Can be an unprecedented genius one second and not know who the current president is the next. Doesn't know what DAY it is. Forgets to eat. Tried to make a fusion reactor out of the break room toaster before Sandra from accounting distracted him with pictures of her cat.

It's like he wanders through life blissfully unaware that he is both terrifying and about three seconds from killing them all. Then FUCKING TRIPS because he forgot to tie his shoelaces again.

Who hired this man?

WHY!?

I mean, we KNOW why. Probably to put him on a watch list. But? He's like a terrifying murder puppy! Built like a tank! That's stoned out of its mind half the time. And have you HEARD his college stories? That CAN'T be legal. Was this guy raised in a cult!? Aaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!????

@hdgnj @legitimatesatanspawn @babbling-babull @dcxdpdabbles @hypewinter

[phantomrose96]

Sham Sacrifice

(Hi it's time for my favorite headcanon)

...

Vlad Masters sat firm and proper on the Fenton Family couch, legs crossed, teacup pinched in his fingertips, fighting subtly against the sinkhole that came with the mistake of taking Jack’s usual spot on the couch. He appeared with all the same charm and delightfulness of an ant swarm rearranging your picnic.

Danny stood at the doorway, just-still-in-the-kitchen, just not inviting himself to join the adults in the living room where Jack boomed and rambled and Vlad sat so stiff and polite and nice that his tea in his hands was going cold.

“Oh, Danny you’ll love this story—Danny, you should join us—Danny this was, what, summer of ’84? When was that heatwave, Vladdy? The one where you—”

“There’s no need to bore Daniel with the mad ravings of two old kooks, Jack. Kids would rather be off at the mall or—some store, surely. No need to stick around Daniel on my behalf. I assure you I won’t be offended if you leave.”

“No worries, V-man. I’m good right here. I love hearing Dad’s stories." Danny met Vlad's challenge, speaking with more poisonous courtesy than Vlad had proffered first. "In fact I think he should tell a few more, if he’s got more in mind.”

“In fact I do have more in mind—” Jack answered.

Neither Danny nor Vlad were listening to Jack. They held eye-contact, Danny with a stern unblinkingness of a sheepdog on duty. A lot was said without words. A lot was understood when Vlad decided to visit through the front door. Vlad only used the front door when he wanted something.

And it was never good when Vlad wanted something.

“—the core reactor project, yeah? That summer? That was in the lab with no A/C. Top floor. We were sweating like pigs, all of us. And I dared you to eat the really moldy pizza from our fridge the night before and you ralphed right into—”

“—Surely you remember this more fondly than I do. Daniel, really, you can go.”

Not a chance.

“Actually,” Danny answered, brightening some as his opportunity struck. “I am interested in this. For science class I need to write a report on the invention of an important piece of technology. I was gonna ask Mom and Dad about the Ghost Portal. And now that you’re here, I can get the whole history.”

Jack made a giddy little noise. He leaned forward, words primed, but Vlad was quicker to the draw.

“Sorry to say, your faith in me is unfounded. I wasn’t the portal guy back in college—that was always your mother and father’s passion project. I was their skeptic.”

“Bet that’s got you feeling pretty foolish right now, doesn’t it V-man?” Jack chided, a quick jab to Vlad’s ribs that nearly unseated the teacup from his suspended saucer. “Considering the fully-functioning portal right beneath our toes.”

“I hardly feel foolish, Jack. Your calculation for the portal in college was never going to work.”

“What do you mean? Of course it did.” Jack thumped the ground with his foot. “It’s running the old girl right now.”

At this, Vlad’s eyes narrowed. For the first time he’d been shaken off whatever skeezy machinations had brought him in. His pride was being challenged, and by Jack no less.

“Absolutely not. With that calculation? Absolutely not.”

“Well forget the tea biscuits Vlad, because you’re going to be eating your words in a second. Mads, hold my spot,” Jack said, as if anyone was planning to take his spot. He bounced from the couch, scooted from the living room, and vanished into the dark maw of the lab stairs, leaving only the waning beat of his footsteps behind.

His absence filled only a swallowing few seconds. The footsteps returned, bounding upward, creaking with his heavy cadence, and Jack bounced back into the room in much the manner he left. A pad of yellow lined paper was clutched in his hand. When he dropped it on the coffee table, it revealed row after row of tight scribble, churning math, carrying down the page and occupying two entire pages more that Jack flipped through.

“Same baby I came up with in college. It just needed heavier dampening and higher voltage than what we made back then. The portal downstairs has that in spades. Well, in like two-thirds of a spade.” Jack tapped something on the last line. “The projection was still only hitting 70% of the threshold we calculated to reach dimension penetration. But it’s an art, not just a science. We fired it up anyway, and it took!”

Vlad grabbed the paper pad, agitated. His eyes ran over it. Then again. Until he settled on one line, a firmness overcoming his face. He tossed the pad back onto the coffee table, and Vlad leaned back into the couch, arms crossed.

“The lambda, Jack.”

“The lambda?”

“Check it again.”

Jack did, lips pursed, pad of paper nearly swallowed in his big meaty hand.

“What about--?”

“It squares. The units don’t balance otherwise. It originates from an integration step of λ*∂λ/∂t. It squares.”

Jack’s brow remained furrowed, firm, until delight cracked into his eyes, and he let out a laugh.

“Gods, my handwriting is gonna be the death of us. Mads,” he tapped something unseen on the second page. “That’s the genius of Vladdy. Cracked this puppy wide open with just a glance. I never noticed that in all my checking. That explains the missing 30%, at least. That explains how the portal took. Lucky for you Danny that Vlad was here—”

“Jack,” Maddie said.

“—your report can have the correct formula. It’ll be—”

“—Jack—”

“—A+ worthy—”

“—Jack,” Maddie said, curt. “Lambda is the ambient ecto-energy. It’s a few ten-thousandths of a unit.”

“It—huh.”

Maddie had surfaced a pen from her pocket. She sheared a few blank pages out from the back of the pad and started the formula fresh. She made quick work of copying it over, quicker work of solving it through – lambda-squared intact.

She hit the final line and hatched a pen mark beneath the number. Jack stared, confused.

“That can’t… no.”

He repeated the same. New pages torn loose. Formula copied over, processed, line by line by line—lambda squared—by line by line by line.

Jack settled on his answer. Same as Maddie’s.

Confusion made his face tense.

“So it’s not 70% of the way to the threshold… It’s 0.013% of the way to the threshold.”

He held the pen hard, his whole body holding firm and taut as the gears turned in his head. Jack’s eyes flickered across the formula, again and again and again. He looked to Maddie, like a dog issued a command he did not understand.

“But it worked,” he said, small. “But it worked.”

Jack stood, robotic almost, eyes lost in something far away. He disappeared into the lab almost as quickly as he had a few minutes before, but now he exited with a smoothness and a quietness so very uncharacteristic of him. It bothered Danny, somewhere deep in his gut.

Maddie followed, a possession matching Jack’s.

Danny’s fingers curled and uncurled. He’d succeeded. He’s successfully interrupted Vlad’s… whatever this was. But the disquiet infected him. He didn’t like it.

“So what does that mean?” Danny asked, perhaps to Vlad. “What’s wrong with the calculation?”

Vlad sipped on tea ice cold.

“Who knows?” Vlad lied.

…

The math didn’t work.

Maddie and Jack burned through paper, burned through pencils, burned through hours.

The math didn’t work.

Clothes stuck to skin. Sweat lingered fetid and stale in the cold basement air. Exhaustion beat like a slurry through their veins.

The math didn’t work.

The portal supervised all, placidly green, the light for their table, the light for their work when the lightbulb overhead burnt clean out and neither Jack nor Maddie could be pulled away to replace it. It stood, it watched, a testament of contradiction to everything they could not solve on paper, and yet everything they built directly into the fabric of reality.

And it should never have worked.

They threw every radical what-if they’d ever conceived over 20 years of ghost research.

The ecto-ether layer.

The latent activation stitches in space fabric.

The anti-ectomatter collision proposal.

The positive-feedback crystallization theory.

And still nothing worked.

All together, every crackpot theory in their favor taken for granted, racked them up to an activation energy 200x more potent than the calculation, and still just 2% of what would be needed to rip open, and hold open, a stable fissure between their reality and the ghost zone.

Maybe by pure luck, unfathomable luck, Fentonworks basement was directly situated atop a natural portal.

Maybe that would explain ripping it open. It did nothing to explain the stability. Natural portals were unstable by definition. There and gone in a few seconds. Not hours, days, weeks, months, a year, that the Fenton Portal had been open. Never so much as faltering.

It was late. 3am ticked away to 4am, and 4:30am. The discarded paper stacked higher than Jack and Maddie both. Calluses oozed from their hands at another attempt, and another, and another.

Maddie flipped through a folder’s worth of yellowed papers, aggressively thumbed over and over after two decades left untouched. And she settled on the one she’d passed over a few dozen times already, always seeking something else, something better.

This time she unsheathed it, and she placed it on the lab table.

“…If a mouse died. In the machine. If a mouse ran through the machine and accidentally bridged two live wires, and died of violent electrocution. 500 milliamps. Instantly melted into the circuitry.”

Maddie’s mouth was cotton-dry while she wrote. Ambient ecto-energy was low. Always very, very low.

Unless something very, very bad happened to something with the capacity to become a ghost.

The numbers wove. Maddie started the formula fresh, and it was pure muscle memory. A mouse. A big mouse, even. A 99th percentile beast of a mouse. And a wire that had been wired incorrectly. Something grounded that never actually grounded. An absolutely horrific amount of electricity.

0.37%, by pure numbers. If she included every permissive crackpot idea they had thrown on top, it topped out at 6% of the needed activation threshold.

Not a mouse.

“A cat,” Jack said, words gummy, tongue dry, face tired. “If we’ve got mice down here, maybe… a stray cat wandered in. Chased the mouse.”

Maddie nodded. It didn’t matter if it made sense.

She penned it in. A large cat. A devastating electrical short. Cats carried more ecto-potential than mice did. Ecto-potential did not necessarily go up with size. It went up with complexity. The things with the most ecto-potential were the things that most became ghosts.

1.45%, by pure numbers. 18% at absolute, absolute crackpot best.

“A dog,” Jack proposed with a shaky laugh. He swallowed. “A mouse… chased by a cat… chased by a dog… all electrocuted at once”

Maddie didn’t say the thing they both knew, which was that both of them would have noticed the evidence left behind by the electrically exploded pieces of a dog.

Maddie did it anyway. A mouse and a cat and a medium-sized dog, maybe just small enough to notice no evidence of, all together. All at once. All violently ripped apart, sacrificed to a machine still asleep in its wall.

Mice did not often make ghosts. Cats did not either. Dogs, occasionally. But infrequently. Very infrequently.

37%. At best.

“Jack.”

“Maddie, I know just—maybe something really smart—”

“—Jack—”

“—like an octopus—”

“Jack.”

“I hear, maybe, pigs are smart. If it was—”

Maddie was writing, already. Not for a pig. Not an octopus. Jack watched, and he knew what the numbers meant. The ecto-potential she penned gave her away. An ecto-potential that high.

65kg, an estimate

10,000 milliamps, a catastrophic accident, a death certificate.

A human’s amount of ecto-potential.

Maddie wrote.

And she wrote.

And she did not apply a single crackpot theory, not a single discredited proposal, not an ounce of exaggeration.

138%.

Threshold, and then some.

Comfortable, easily, then some.

For the first time, after all the hundreds of times she and Jack had penned this equation over the course of 2 decades, the number met her and Jack’s threshold.

A breakthrough.

A revelation.

A pure eureka moment.

Jack and Maddie were silent.

Alone in a humming basement. Alone with only the soft swirls of the portal for company, happy, stable, purring its contentment, singing to the cold air.

“It has to be something else,” Maddie said. And she said it weakly. And she said it childishly.

“You’re right. It can’t be this,” Jack echoed. “If someone died down here, we’d know. Dead bodies don’t walk away. We’d have seen it. O-or even if, if the body got stuck in the portal, we’d have heard of someone going missing.”

Maddie sat, quiet. A thought held her mind hostage.

“Unless they didn’t go missing,” Maddie said, and she said it barely audibly. “Unless the portal spit them right back out.”

“Then—that’s what I said—a dead body, on the floor, we’d have seen.”

“Not a dead body.”

“It had to be lethal, Mads—”

“I know Jack. But if they died, here, in the portal Jack, then their ghost did not get ripped away from the body and sent to the Ghost Zone. …They ripped the Ghost Zone here.” Palms slick with sweat smoothed over her notes. She pointed to one specific line and found her pen tip trembled no matter how badly she stabilized it. “The ecto-potential of a creature is how strong of a pull their ghost creates on the Ghost Zone. A strong enough pull means the ghost can reach the Ghost Zone and stabilize, like a fish reeling itself up, yeah? We agree on this Jack, yes?”

“Yes,” Jack answered.

“It’s what makes the math even work, Jack. Someone dying in the portal didn’t reel themselves to the boat. They reeled the boat in. Jack, they brought the Ghost Zone here…” Maddie wasn’t breathing right. She pulled sweat-soaked bangs away from her face. “Their ghost never left their body Jack. They died, Jack. And they walked back out.”

“…No. No,” Jack said. “No, they didn’t.”

“Then what?” Maddie asked.

Jack stared. He looked away. He didn’t like the expression on Maddie’s face.

“It—what about the ecto-ether theory?” Jack said, of the theory they’d tested and retested and tested all over, all night. He grabbed his pencil back up and pointed it aimlessly at Maddie’s piece of paper, pointed end out in self-defense. “If the ecto-ether is maybe… if it’s only 250-times stronger than we calculated. Then it could…”

Jack’s voice died. His pencil hung idle. Maddie’s paper remained unblemished.

“If it… was a pig,” Jack offered. “If it was a pig that died in the portal.”

“How, Jack? How would a pig get in? We lock all the doors at night, Jack. No one else can get in, Jack. It’s just us, Jack.”

Jack and Maddie were not there when the portal turned on.

Maddie’s statement carried two possibilities. Only two. Both felt like claws digging all the flesh right out of Jack’s heart.

“I want… I want to try the ecto-ether theory again,” Jack choked. “I think it’s the ecto-ether. I think it’ll work.”

Jack slid a piece of paper over, already covered in scribbles. In its single untouched corner, he started the equation for the several-thousandth time that night.

Above their head, birds were singing.

Sunrise hailed unseen from the windowless laboratory.

…

At 6am, Vlad answered his cell phone. The reception crackled, struggling through the layers of sheetrock above his head.

“Vlad?” Maddie’s voice crackled. “Sorry, did I wake you up?”

“Not at all my dear.” Vlad leaned his weight against the wall, playing with the singsong melody in his voice. “But you sound exhausted. Is anything the matter?”

“Yes. Well… Yes. Jack and I have—all night—trying to fix the equation.”

“Naturally.”

“We found something that maybe works.”

“Oh?” Vlad asked. He straightened, pacing now, cracklingly attentive. “And what might that—”

“If someone died. Activating the portal. We have an on-switch inside the portal’s interior. The trigger we use to press it is external to the portal, of course. But if someone went inside the portal, and they pressed it directly, and if they died, and pulled the Ghost Zone here—”

Vlad’s red eyes reflected pools of iridescent green. He twirled his free hand in the fringes of his cape, tongue working over the fanged edges of his teeth. He stared, consumed, forward.

“—and just, you, I was thinking, you’re the only other expert I’d trust to… maybe weigh in.”

“What does Jack think?”

“He denies it. He’s still. He’s trying other theories.”

“Well who knows, surely? The answer may lie somewhere you haven’t looked.”

“…I’ve looked everywhere, Vlad. That's the thing. There is no more ‘somewhere else’. I’ve looked.”

“You sound like your mind is made up.”

“I just… if maybe you have some idea.”

“Am I meant to talk you out of this idea?”

“Vlad.”

“Do you think I have some secret information you don’t? Sorry to say, I’m just your skeptic.” Some noise came through muffled from the other side. Vlad flashed a smile. “But…as your skeptic I will offer you this—It all sounds a bit absurd, doesn’t it? To kill someone and have them come back intact and… for you to never notice? Who would they be? How would they be? Surely not human anymore, surely. How would you never notice?”

Vlad paced forward, booted feet clicking along his laboratory floor.

“It would be ridiculous,” he continued, with a building crescendo, “so unfathomably self-centered surely, to not notice something like that befall someone so close to you, who died at the hands of your own invention? …If I’m correctly inferring who, in your household, you suspect of having activated the portal?” Vlad’s tongue lingered along his teeth.

Maddie’s line held, quiet. And the seconds of static drew long.

“Ah, apologies. I’ve overstepped,” Vlad continued. “I meant this as a vote of confidence in you. You and Jack both. Two people as attentive, caring, compassionate as yourselves. You would notice. I promise.”

“You’re… Okay, thank you, Vlad. I appreciate it.”

“Is there anything else, my dear?”

“No. No. Thank you, Vlad. I’ll think about this.”

Maddie’s line clicked dead. A chuckle built to Vlad’s lips and he let his head tip back with mirth. It lasted only a moment. He stowed his phone. And as if the interruption had never happened, Vlad reaffixed his attention on his own portal swirling in front of him. It bathed him, swimming green, purring contentment.

And Vlad vanished into his portal.

(Chapter 2)

[cece693]

Hii, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your writing <3. And I also have a request for a Tony Stark x M!reader, where they're kind of opposites (?? Like, Tony knows math, physics, and stuff, and reader likes literature, sociology, etc. Maybe they're rivals, or Tony is just interested in the reader, so he learns about classics just to impress him.

LITERATURE IS OUR (ENEMY) FRIEND

pairing: tony stark x male reader synopsis: Tony Stark didn't do subtle. He was grand gestures, loud declarations, and endless charisma bundled up in tailored suits and tech brilliance. But this time, the genius billionaire found himself feeling spectacularly out of his depth—falling for a man who spoke literature as he did with technology.

Tony Stark didn't do subtle. He was grand gestures, loud declarations, and endless charisma bundled up in tailored suits and tech brilliance. But this time, the genius billionaire found himself feeling spectacularly out of his depth—and Pepper was living for it.

The reason was simple, infuriating, and utterly captivating: you.

You, who preferred Hemingway over holograms, Shakespeare instead of circuit boards, and Freud rather than fusion reactors. Pepper had introduced you at a charity gala, her old college friend who had carved a career out of teaching literature and sociology at Columbia. Tony had initially dismissed you as just another academic type, but when you'd effortlessly quoted Whitman during a conversation about morality and technology, he'd been hooked.

Now, Pepper had the dubious pleasure of watching Tony Stark, inventor and superhero, nervously pacing around his lab, muttering lines from The Great Gatsby. "I can do this, Pepper," Tony insisted, waving a dog-eared copy of the classic novel. "'So we beat on, boats against the current…' see? I've got it! He'll love this stuff."

Pepper raised an eyebrow, hiding her amusement behind a cup of coffee. "You realize he's going to know you memorized a random Gatsby quote off the internet, right?"

Tony paused, visibly deflated. "You think?"

"Absolutely," Pepper chuckled softly, shaking her head. "Look, just be genuine. Admit you're learning. He'll appreciate the effort."

"Effort?" Tony scoffed lightly, trying to regain his bravado. "Effort is me building an AI in two days. Literature, sociology…That's basically another language, Pep."

"And he's fluent," she reminded gently. "Just talk to him. Ask him to teach you something."

When Tony arrived at your office later that afternoon, you looked up, surprised to see him clutching a copy of Gatsby like it was his lifeline. "Stark," you smiled warmly, leaning back comfortably in your chair. "I didn't peg you for a Fitzgerald fan."

"Well," Tony hesitated, then sheepishly admitted, "I'm not. But you are, and I figured—well, I mean, Pepper figured—it might be my way to convince you to go out with me." You laughed—a sound so genuine and light that Tony felt his heart leap in a way no reactor could replicate.

"Tony Stark, using literature as his pick-up line?" you teased gently, eyes sparkling. "That's…actually pretty adorable."

"Adorable?" Tony feigned offense, though his relieved grin gave him away. "I was going for impressive."

You stood, stepping around your desk to stand closer, causing Tony's pulse to quicken. "Trust me," you assured, voice softer, "adorable is better."

"So…" Tony cleared his throat, heart hammering as your proximity made him dizzy in the best possible way. "Dinner?"

"Dinner," you agreed, taking the novel from his hand with gentle amusement. "And I'll help you with Fitzgerald."

"I'd like that," Tony admitted softly, realizing for once that being out of his depth was exactly where he wanted to be—at least with you.

[donteverblameash]

Tony Stark still watches Sci-Fi cartoons.

Tony Stark still let his mother tuck him in when he came home from school during college breaks.

Tony Stark still sleeps with a nightlight (after having on during his childhood and getting used to the arc reactors glow every night, it's a familiarity thing)

Tony Stark remembers all the names of his childhood stuffed animals

Tony Stark has all of his childhood photo albums

Tony Stark admitted all of this to Peter Parker, completely sober, so Peter would stop worrying about "Being childish."

[gunsandspaceships]

Tony Stark’s achievements

Childhood:

“Brilliant and unique mind”

At age 4 built his first circuit board

At age 6 built his first engine

Cracked the Pentagon’s firewall in high school on a dare

Went to college at 14

Built cool smart robots (Dum-E and U) when he was a teen

At 17 graduated summa cum laude from MIT

Polyglot

Before Afghanistan:

“Da Vinci of our time”

Became an owner and CEO of Stark Industries at 21

Successfully ran the company for decades

Advanced the world of technology, not only in weaponry and robotics but also:

created advanced AI J.A.R.V.I.S.

created holographic interface technology

created repulsor technology

Participated in charity

In and after Afghanistan:

“I’m sorry, I’m not Tony Stark”

Survived an open-heart surgery in a cave, without general anesthesia

Lived with, in fact, a debilitating wound, shrapnel, and a huge and dangerous technological device in his body for years and was willing and capable of doing not only his usual work but also being a superhero and doing all these next things...

Did not give up under torture and fought with his captors

Invented and built a miniaturized Arc Reactor, in a cave, with a box of scraps

Invented and built Iron Man armor, in the same cave, with the same box of scraps

Escaped from captivity by himself (with help from Yinsen, but without any armed assistance)

Became an expert in piloting and driving

Saved people in Gulmira

Saved a USAF pilot

Probably the best hacker in the world, was able to easily hack networks of the Pentagon, US government, AIM, and SHIELD

Fought with Iron Monger after nearly died. Defeated him and saved many lives. Was ready to die for that

Built many more different Iron Man armors

Fought terrorists between IM and IM2 (IM2 tie-in comics)

Saved a submarine crew (IM2 - newspapers in Vanko’s home)

Saved a woman from a fire (IM2 - newspapers in Vanko’s home)

“Stabilized East-West relations” (IM2 - newspapers in Vanko’s home), so the world was “enjoying its longest period of uninterrupted peace in years”

Organized Stark Expo

Was able to keep Iron Man armor in his safe hands despite the government’s and HYDRA’s attempts to take it for themselves

Defeated Ivan Vanko in Monaco

(Re)Discovered a new element

 Synthesized it, by building a particle accelerator, at home

Revolutionized energy industry and science. Gave clean energy to the world

Defeated Vanko in New York with Rhodey, Natasha, and Pepper and saved many lives again

Saved Peter Parker (IM2)

Made it so that the Abomination would not leave prison and join the Avengers

Built Stark/Avengers Tower powered by Arc Reactor technology

Saved Steve Rogers and many civilians in Germany from Loki

Was able to fight with Thor on equal terms

Biggest brain on Earth, arguably - in the Universe:

best scientist on the team, in SHIELD, on Earth, in the Universe

expert in nuclear, particle, and quantum physics

was able to learn very quickly – became an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics in one night

Successfully tracked Tesseract by its gamma radiation with Bruce

Saved Helicarrier with the Avengers and SHIELD agents on board, almost died

Saved Rogers from a merc right after that

Fought with Chitauri, killed many of them, saved a lot of people

Was able to blow up a Leviathan by himself

Saved New York City by redirecting a nuke to the wormhole

Saved the world by destroying Thanos’ Chitauri army, almost died again

Founded The United States Department of Damage Control to clean up after battles

Rebuilt Stark Tower into Avengers Tower and gave each team member their own quarters

One of the best biologists and biomedical engineers on Earth, even if it’s not his main area of expertise:

helped Maya with Extremis back in 1999, because knew more in her own field, and even didn’t remember that

was head hunted by Aldrich Killian to work on Extremis with/instead of Maya, who was the leading expert in tissue regeneration

improved and stabilized Extremis, so it became safe regenerative technology, and with it…

cured Pepper

healed extensive injuries in his chest

invented and implanted devices for remote control of his suits (into his forearm in IM3, and most probably into his brain for Mark L armor in Infinity War)

invented build-in diagnostic system in his suits

Invented many devices for protection purposes (ex. bomb disposal)

A capable detective. Figured out the cause of explosions in IM3 on his own

Saved Pepper instead of himself by putting Mark 42 on her during the attack on his Malibu mansion

Survived the attack with a barely working prototype suit. Shot down a helicopter with a piano

Was able to fight with enhanced fire-breathing regenerating terrorists without armor and weapons in Rose Hill. In handcuffs

Knowledgeable and skilled in medicine:

saved a kid with his arc reactor in a deleted scene from IM3, selflessly pulling it out of his chest and performing defibrillation under electric shocks

knew how to recognize hyperglycemia when Harley was eating 3rd bawl of candies

closed his wound in Infinity War with nanoparticles

performed first-aid on Bruce after his snap

Built a lot of stuff from random things he bought in a store for the assault on the Mandarin's mansion. In a motel

Successfully stormed the Mandarin's mansion full of armed and huge security guys with dogs. Alone. Without his armor

Successfully escaped captivity in the Mandarin's mansion with just a few pieces of armor on

Saved all the people who fell from the Air Force One

Stormed Roxxon Norco ship with Rhodey, without a suit. With one handgun

Saved the US president

Defeated Killian and his Extremis-enhanced terrorists, saved many lives

Built quinjets

Created Iron Legion

Became the benefactor of the Avengers, provided them with everything, was a combatant, and also the team’s pilot, hacker, engineer, medic, and scientist

As an Avenger saved many lives on missions, including destroying the rest of HYDRA in AoU

With Bruce’s help created Veronica and Hulkbuster suit

Defeated a rogue Iron Legionnaire with a fork

In contrast to other team members was able to function after Wanda played with his mind

Defeated mad Hulk. Saved a lot of lives in Johannesburg

Easily hacked nuclear codes in Nexus and found J.A.R.V.I.S. “in the world’s biggest haystack”

Created advanced AI F.R.I.D.A.Y.

Many advanced AIs

Created Vision

With the Avengers defeated Ultron and his army

Evacuated people who were left in Sokovia

Saved a falling evacuation shuttle with people on it

Together with Thor saved Earth by destroying the falling Sokovia

Rebuilt Stark Compound into Avengers Compound for the team in Upstate New York

Invented several medical devices, including leg braces, blood toxicity detector

Sponsored the development of technology for psychotherapy (B.A.R.F.). Prevented it from being used for harm

Funded all the students’ projects at MIT

Did everything possible to legally, politically, and physically protect the team before, during, and after the Civil War

Was able to disarm Winter Soldier without a suit, with only one armored glove

Figured out Spider-Man’s identity

Created Spider-Man’s suits

Mentored, sponsored, and looked after Peter Parker

Saved Peter Parker (SMH). Twice

Saved the ferry from sinking

Invented nanoparticles

 “Earth’s best defender”

Went to space to save Peter, Strange and bring back Time Stone

Saved Peter Parker (IW)

Saved Strange on the Donut spaceship. Killed Ebony Maw

Cloak of Levitation chose him as his second favorite (deleted scene with Tony wearing Levi and Strange in Mark L)

Was respected by Thanos himself

Withstood when Thanos hit him with a moon

Fought Thanos, made him bleed, kept fighting even without armor

Survived a severe injury thanks to his own invention

Was able to function, tried to fix Benatar, and return home while injured and ill with an infected wound

Built a lab for Bruce and helped him to become one with Hulk (combine the best of both worlds)

Became an amazing dad

Became an expert in time travel physics

Discovered/invented (controlled) Time travel

Built a time machine

Went on Time Heist and stole Tesseract from a guarded military base

Created his own Infinity Gauntlet

Thus brought half of the universe back to existence (Bruce snapped and partially sacrificed his health, but nothing would be possible without Tony)

Saved Bruce’s arm by providing emergency medical care

Fought with Thanos again and…

Saved the whole Universe

[verysmolnerd]

Being the spouse of a Supervillain

You're the only person who he won't hurt. Why would he? You've been at his beck and call since he couldn't remember when.

However, you feel that you're walking on eggshells at times when the actuators have control of his psyche.

He keeps urging you to move on, that there was no place for you here; in the rickety old building you've shared since he bought the place. He honestly doesn't want to see you have a close encounter with the reaper again.

That being, you stay put, that the man you married is still in there. The shadows of his smile is hidden behind that snarky smirk. Some of the -rarest- most quiet nights, are spent on the torn up couch. It's almost like nothing changed at all.

You put your life on pause for a moment, you didn't go into work at all for weeks. You knew there would be questions, there always would be.

When you do come into work, you were given reduced hours because your boss wanted you to mourn the man you once knew, you refrained from answering any of those prying your personal life for issues. You normally report them within a few days, and then they're working in a whole different complex.

Even if the actuators are permanently a part of him, it's still Otto. His habits are still there, no matter what he tries to tell you.

You've also noticed that the arms still respect their creator to some extent, they never lay a finger on you. If they grab you, they are slow and patient never brutal.

One time you had gotten bruised from the pressure that the arms gave when they placed you away from the project. They soon fell limp while Otto had the nastiest look on his face. He never looked at you when he was like this.

He is always a gentleman to you, through layers of frowning.

The actuators only want his project done, therefore your Otto is just their puppet. However, they see you as a distraction until the beings of machine realize that Otto is human.

So, there isn't long lunch breaks together as you're used to before this mess. However, he eats in silence; in fear of the actuators lashing out on you for just seemingly wanting shreds of your life with him before.

You don't comment on his encounters with Spider-Man, you know all too well that the superhero gets bad press on the regular. Not to mention, Otto- sorry, you end up correcting yourself when the actuators are in control- Ock isn't entirely fond of him.

You knew exactly when Otto was too tired to fight the AI influence, because there have been consecutive all nighters the closer the reactor gets to being completed.

The times when the actuators keep him glued to the desk are when you try to get him clothing and alter them to accommodate the four tentacles protruding from his lower back.

There was one night that you consider was very special within the past few months that his magnum opus welded themselves to his back.

He had found some of his old outfits that weren't destroyed, and pressed down any urges from the arms.

"May this broken man take you out on a date?" You were near tears as you accepted.

He brought you to the top of a building with a makeshift table. It reminded you of your first dinner with him back in college.

He tells you that he's going to find a way to remove the arms and start anew. He wanted you to buy an apartment and to bring him to it on a specific day.

Considering that he's fighting for his life to look like the man you knew and loved -although you've reassured him multiple times that you still love him- you agree in a heartbeat. Happy that you'll both have a semblance of what life was before this.

The day to pick him up from the docks comes and you find no sight of him or the shambles of your house. It's all deep in the river below.

You can't recall how long you stayed there, but you had to live on. Live, that's what he always wanted you to do.

It's very hard at first, but life goes on.

One night -you can't quite remember what day it was specifically- you got a knock on the door.

You open it a little and it's Otto, with a small smile, holding a bunch of flowers.

Tears are brought to your eyes as he walks in, "I had a feeling that you'd buy the one we got back then." Any snakiness left him when he realized that you thought he was dead.

He promises to explain everything, but tonight he holds you as long as you needed it.... you ended up holding him hostage in your bedroom until the next morning. Even then, you don't let him out of your sight for a while.

He then explains in terms that you both can understand -because he finds himself not believing anything of it even after he's here. He was brought to another world just like this one where he was given a new component that prevented the arms from taking him over.

So, he starts the rejuvenation process, and does the community work to get back into society. He's stayed off nuclear fusion snd stuck strictly to advanced robotics.

However, you both still stayed at that apartment you first owned with him years ago. Never wanting to live on the water again.

There was one day where he brought you all over town, he brought you to so many places you visited together in your past. He had to be careful of the press patrolling for him since he returned. A former supervillain and a scientific powerhouse? That get's the press moving all over the place.

He then brought you where it all started, and proposed to you again. "I stand before you as a changed man, I love you so much. Will you marry me one more time?"

How could you say no?

It seems that you still have to alter his new clothes, but you don't mind considering how much more appreciative since he doesn't go around shirtless anymore.

He's cautious when using the actuators, only having them clean up and not touch you. Until you reassure him multiple times that you are fine with it... a few months later he's using them to trap you in his embrace.

You have him back, a second chance, and neither of you are going to screw it up.

[ratasum]

I should flesh out the Thaumanova city colleges sometime. I have a rough idea of them but I've never expanded beyond basic information.

[finebella]

Marvel x DP

So Denny is 16, tired and retired as a hero (not as the crown prince though) And since he has fewer obstacles now, he has improved his grades, so the school sends him and a bunch of other kids to the Stark Industries Young Talent Show Denny's identity as the Phantom is Schrodinger's secret. It's unknown until asked. So everyone in town except G.I.W. and his parents knows. And Denny knows they know. And they know Denny knows they know.

Everyone brought crafts. Some brought something cool. Some brought something that didn't work. Someone brought a volcano made of soda (It attracted too much attention, but it was an Amity Parker craft and everyone from Amity Park is weird)

Danny didn't do much preparation, which he told the first person who came to his stand without even taking his eyes off his phone

(an ever larger crowd was gathering at the volcano made of soda)

"My childhood craft, slightly modified to add branding"

Danny made it at eight (first successful attempt).

"It" was a black flying skateboard with green accents which could be gathered into a white bracelet with blue accents.

The man who approached him? Tony Stark in "disguise" (Seriously? A cap and sunglasses? How did anyone even buy that? Although considering the huge crowd gathered at the volcano… Are they paparazzi? Okay, nevermind. Life is absurd)

The further the conversation went, the more interesting it became.

Knowing who he was talking to, Denny throws in information about the anti-ecto acts and after a satisfactory reaction also hints that he and his teenage friends were heroes in their town and that if they could do something without fear of the government, it would be much easier.

"Relax. We're retired. We're cool with ghosts"

Danny steers the conversation to lighter topics, like the arc reactor

Tony is delighted

This kid is barely older than the spider-kid, and he knows so much.

He would have forgotten that he was talking to a child, given the weariness that pierced his soul, but modern slang and jokes about dying at 14 do not allow him to forget (It's not for him to judge how the kid is coping)

Tony offers an internship and Danny calls his sister, who was accompanying him on the trip.

She breathes a sigh of relief.

Jazz was very worried that she wouldn't be able to go to college, as she was worried about her brother's safety "I'm already dead" "Not completely. I don't want to see you even deader"

(Tucker gets an internship too. What the hell do you mean he was the kid with the volcano? Tucker?? That's not even your major???)

Fast forward a year. The UN and US government are horrified by the Antiecto Acts after the ghosts are confirmed to be sentient. (And terrified of the treatment of the royalty of infinite worlds, but only a few know about this)

Danny is a backup hero in case of the end of the world. Because he 1) has already prevented it a couple of times. 2) Is very strong. 3) Retired.

But the Exvengers want to bring back.. for reasons (drama reasons).

Basically. They are shocked with Danny.

Tony is NOT adopting Danny. Peter? Maybe. But not Danny. He already has a rich Fruitiloop who wants to adopt him. And, regardless of what the Fenton parents do (reform or not), he has Jazz, Clockwork, and Frostbite. (Maybe it's not so great to have your sister as one of your parental figures, but it is what it is.)

[literallymechanical]

I love when I post about plasma physics or fusion engineering and I get a bunch of tags like “#fusion mentioned!” or “#PhD Hell” and I check the profiles and I’m like oh ho ho, I recognize the reactor in your header.

I bet if enough CFS and PSFC and PPPL and UW Madison and TAE and T1E etc. people went around their labs mentioning each other’s shoelaces we’d get enough burnt-out early-30’s ex-homestuck veteran tumblrina PhD’s and post-acquisition reddit refugee fandom blogger ascended college interns for a decently large fusionblr cohort.

Unfortunately, we all work for direct competitors and if we say something too proprietary we get nuked from orbit, but even so. NIF's wall plug efficiency amiright?

[1979semifinalist]

Hello! I love your absolute Wonder Woman comic. I was just wondering how did you get into comic writing?

Thanks so much! I pretty much always wanted to be a writer and when I was in high school I discovered/re-discovered comics and realized that was what I wanted to do specifically. I went to a regular four year college initially but after two years transferred to the Savannah College of Art and Design, which, at that time, was the only college with a Sequential Art Degree. 

After college it took a while for me to try to “break in” which mostly happened through writing my own stuff (I wrote a superhero novel that I kickstarted, and my first graphic novel, which was an indie comic called Heart In A Box for Dark Horse) and I was also writing a column and some reviews for my blog and later some more professional sites like CBR, Comics Should Be Good, Publishers Weekly, Lit Reactor, etc.