#crystalline defects

[materiallugy]

Crystalline imperfections of materials

In reality, crystals are never perfect, and they contain various types of imperfections and defects that affect many of their physical and mechanical properties, which in turn affect many important engineering properties of materials such asthe cold formability of alloys, the electronic conductivity of semiconductors, the rate of migration of atoms in alloys (Diffusion), and the corrosion of metals.

Crystalline Imperfections

Crystalline imperfections, also known as crystal defects or lattice defects, are deviations from the ideal atomic arrangement in a crystalline material. Crystalline materials have a regular and repeating three-dimensional atomic or molecular structure. However, in reality, perfect crystals are rare, and most materials contain various types of imperfections. These imperfections can significantly impact the properties and behavior of the material.

Types of imperfections in crystals

Crystalline imperfections are classified according to their geometry and shape into:

Zero-dimensional or point defects.

One-dimensional or line defects (dislocations).

Two-dimensional or Planar defects.

Three-dimensional volume defects.

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[whispereons]

Oracle!Reader Part 16

Masterlist - Part 1, Part 15, Part 17

Warning! This is sagau imposter so expect some gore and manipulation this chapter! At least no death this time :D

Each step of your dirty shoes on the bare rocky terrain held more weight than Azhdaha's heart and soul. His body shuffled and shifted, resisting the urge to ram the barrier trapping him.

"Don't be so impatient, Azhdaha. You've waited for millennials, surely a minute for me to reach you is nothing." You slow your steps purposely to tease him with a deceivingly gentle smile.

The ground rumbles briefly as Azhdaha settles in place and rests his head on the ground. If he had fur instead of stone, you would believe he was just a giant dog.

"Forgive me your grace. The leylines I command are constantly blooming with power at your every step."

"Was it not the people of Liyue who harmed the leylines causing the events that led to your imprisonment here?" You ask, selecting your words carefully.

Red eyes carved from ruby stare at you as you stop right outside of the barrier surrounding his body. Not wanting to accidentally disable the barrier, you rest your hand on the closest pillar. 

Pillars with the same design and origin of the one who was a little too late to save his dear friend from this fate.

"Was it not the ruler of those people that failed to reach you in time?"

"Even you, your grace, are aware of the shameful state I have been reduced to. Morax may have provided me with these defective eyes but at least now I can view your glorious prestige."

Surprisingly there is no rush of anger and violence in Azhdaha's movement and tone. He moves closer till his face is gently pressing against the Geo-decorated barrier.

"I beg of you, Creator of all things. Let me feel your skin, your warmth. The memories of my creation are lost to the erosion of time. Whether it be your hand or foot, I will adore it all the same. I am nothing but the groundskeeper to your playground called Tevyat."

A originally blind dragon has no need for eyelids so all he can do is gaze pleadingly at your silent form. Blue crystalline clink on the ground as it drops from his eyes as the silence persists. Even still you stare at him with a blank expression until his head is completely bowed to the ground.

An isolated dragon desperate for even the slightest bit of affection was like wet clay for you to mold to your liking. The only thing that ruined any plans you had for him was that dreaded erosion. You seriously doubted that he could stay calm and lie to match your facade the way Beisht can.

"Rest easy now, Azhdaha." Your hand moves through the yellow barrier, which thankfully doesn't deactivate it, to lay on his rocky forehead. "A dragon like you, who I have created with my own hand before this vessel, is not easily forgotten. Many of your brethren have perished before I could return."

Cupping what little of his wide, rough jaw, you tilt his head to stare up at you. A delicate expression with sadness and love swirling together is what paints your face. "You have done so well to persist this long, Azhdaha."

A loud roar of anguish is let loose as he tries to move further into your touch. Ignoring the threat of scraps, you pet his stony exterior with a smile. 

"Your grace! Your holiness! Those words are what fuel my pitiful existence. The feel of your skin on this degraded body brings memories of my creation from the clutches of erosion."

Mindlessly stroking the weeping dragon, you think deeply on his words. 'Memories of my creation' is what he called it. Azhdaha was struggling at first due to the contrasting information from the eyes corrupted by the Gnosis and the leylines of Teyvat. All it took was your touch on his body for him to fully give in to you. 

Perhaps the other dragon sovereigns and primordial beings will recognize you easily with your touch as well. Could it work on the Archons too?

"Are you okay, your grace? I know that day, you were injured due to my own careless ruling. I failed to control my subjects and you suffered from it. If death is my penalty for my negligence then I will accept it wholeheartedly."

The strange and unexpected words laced with guilt made you confused. Caressing the rugged layer of stone near his eyes to grab his attention, you ask carefully. "What do you mean by that?"

His tail lowers onto the ground as he speaks lowly. "Not long ago, the Geovishaps were making their rounds on maintaining the leylines when two hatchlings got lost."

Oh, you knew where this was going.

"When they dug back up to the surface, they were in the city. While trying to escape, they hurt someone. They hurt you." That last word is said with bubbling anger. Resisting the urge to yank your hands away from the dragon capable of turning into a volcano, you brush your hands further to distract him.

"Teyvat had already warned us elemental beings about someone injuring you with malicious intent. To feel the leylines in your area go into a frenzy from that incident made my blood boil. It's only fair that the perpetrator suffers the bare minimum consequences."

So, it wasn't Teyvat that had the hatchling kill the other. It was Azhdaha.

Despite the harsh truth that Azhdaha just admitted, your hands seemed to move on their own to keep Azhdaha subdued. You aren't necessarily scared of Azhdaha, you're just more cautious on how to approach leaving him.

You couldn't just teleport out, who knows how Azhdaha's battered and worship-obsessed brain would interpret it. You didn't need a bunch of Geovishap and Geovishap hatchlings chasing you throughout Liyue.

But the thought of returning back to the city takes less priority than your current one. A dragon one head scratch away from rolling over at your command is vulnerable to your words. Just what could you strip from Azhdaha for future use?

"Azhdaha, you love me don't you?" You ask it with a deceivingly shaky voice as your hands halt their stream of pets. His reaction is immediate.

His claws scratch the ground as he stands to his full height.  Even still, his back hunches trying to keep himself respectful to your much smaller form. "My love for you will exist even after my death. Every Geovishap that roams this world and every leyline that reacts to your presence is proof of my love for you, beloved Creator."

A small, sad smile crosses your face at the words he utters with zeal. It was so easy to get his deteriorated brain to fall for your expertly crafted facade of vulnerability. It's not like he was your first or last victim to this 'side' of you.

School faculty couldn't turn a blind eye to the way you paled at the cost of lunch. Empathetic, heroic, and kind students wouldn't resist the urge to defend, tend to, or help you when any bullying started. Even strangers with bleeding hearts had no problem giving you food or money when you were a roaming teenager with nothing but a backpack.

The money you saved by not paying lunch almost always went straight to the locked box you had for when you would be inevitably moved to a new guardian. All the bullying incidents were helpful in making the other students invite and accept you into any group of your choosing. It's not like anyone would believe that meek and polite you could jump the bullies on their way home with a malicious smile and a blunt weapon, nor would a passing stranger that helped you be aware of the man and cat that you returned to completely contrasting the story you spun.

"Then you're willing to protect me, right? Ei, that Bakufu was intent on seeing me as an imposter. She tried to take my life right when I just returned. It's due to that, that I have to live in fear of this mask being removed."

Moving closer, you rest your forehead against his head, trembling in fear of the horrid memory.

"I'm sure if I arrived in Liyue instead of Inazuma, I would be able to walk on Teyvat with you proudly on the surface with me. You would protect me, you would fight for me. You would die for me, would you not? Dragons are known for their loyalty after all."

Azhdaha continuously repositions himself as he breathes heavily. There's no doubt he's torn between anger against Ei, happiness at your trust, and excitement at the prospect of being on the surface.

"You have my word, my grace. I would fight any enemy, defend any stronghold, obey any command you have for me. Simply relay your order and I will fulfill it to perfection. And if it pleases you, allow me the honor of destroying the Shogun for her unforgivable sins."

"But can you really protect me with those imperfect eyes?" Your words are spoken gently with a smile laced with sweet poison. "You are putting me in danger by using those corrupted eyes to watch over me. Do you not know why I crafted you without eyes?"

A sole finger touches the edge of the red jewel eyes as silence permanence the air. He doesn't flinch from the fleeting fingertips despite the slow unraveling of your intentions.

"Geo lifeforms that stay underground don’t have eyes as they have no need for it. And as thankful as I am that Morax provided you with eyes to enjoy the surface, it wasn't my original design for you."

Experimentally tapping his eyes and smiling at the crystalline texture, you speak with a low timber. "You were always meant to stay underground to properly care for the leylines. You didn't know it at the time, but accepting these eyes had the same effect as accepting Celestia's lies."

You let Azhdaha think deeply on your revelation as you pet the area around his eyes. The mere fact that he was contemplating it was a good sign, those eyes are proof of his contract with Morax after all.

"Your benevolence, are you requesting the destruction of my eyes?"

"Of course not, Azhdaha!" Laughing reassuringly, your fingers dig into the corner of his eyes ignoring the way he flinches in pain. "I'm commanding you to give me those eyes. I cannot bring you to the surface with me, so bringing a remnant of you will soothe my aching and lonely heart. It's convenient that those eyes prevent you from doing your job correctly too."

A low pained groan leaves his jaw as your other hand mimics the action of the former. Nails digging into his eye cavities, you feel the ruby eyes lift from the force. Azhdaha's body shakes, alerting you that you pushed him far enough. Releasing his eyes you take a step back to be out of the barrier in case he makes any attack.

"I once yearned to see the sun, that blazing ball of fire that lights up this world providing it with the warmth to live. All because I knew that you must shine even brighter than it. In those days of old, envy and despair consumed me as did the love and joy I felt being embraced in this world that you crafted. I know better now. I know that even without these eyes that I enjoyed from that traitor I once called my friend, I could still make out your glorious form. Every leyline on this planet shines like dull cobblestone in comparison to the gold figure that stands in front of me."

"I have no way to wretch these crystal eyes out of the unneeded cavities. Take them from me, your grace, take any part of my body that you desire. My sole regret is that I could not offer you my original body to pick from."

An excited smile stretches across your face with a heartfelt caress to the bridge of his nose. "Thank you Azhdaha, do not fret. The day that I craft you eyes worthy of the dragon you once were is near. Thank you for being such a good boy."

Despite the condescending tone to your last words that slipped out, Azhdaha still rejoices with the same fervor of a real dog. The tree tail wags slowly, revealing his happiness.

Carefully, you dig your nails into his right eye. It's heavy and hard to pull out. This would surely be easier using your sickle but you didn't want Azhdaha to feel even more pain. At least with you using your hands, he feels some comfort in your skin.

After a tough tug, the eye is finally out and stuffed haphazardly into your bag. Blue crystalline liquid coats your hands and flows from the now-empty cavity. Wiping it off on your clothes carelessly, you give Azhdaha a break by petting him.

"Just one more Azhdaha, then it'll be done." He leans into your touch without a single sound escaping him. You aren't fooled by that tough facade. He's silent in fear that speaking will only result in his pained cries.

The red jewel chips slightly as you dig it out of his head. Beads of clear blue roll down as you grit your teeth. It finally comes out and that trickle becomes a stream. Putting the eye into your bag, you peek at the now blind dragon.

A slow, continuous dribble of aqua crystalline stains his face as the cavities slowly stitch close. The cavities closing simultaneously are heard by the cracking and grinding of rocks. Azhdaha curls into himself from the pain but refuses to allow any sound escape him.

Your body moves on its own to hug the suffering dragon. Murmurs of praise and thanks leave your lips as the rocks creak louder and faster. The tear tracks left on his face stain your clothing blue yet you can't find it in yourself to care.

A selfish person, that's what you were to your core. There are no words you can use to justify what you have done to Azhdaha. You may never have the power to craft new eyes for him. You may not even live long enough to research how. Yet, you still manipulated him into giving it up. The bitter self-hatred and burning feeling of loathing yourself builds up inside you.

"As sad as I am to surrender my eyes, there is nothing that brings me greater joy than to be of use to you your grace. I will readjust to living without eyes."

Releasing him, you stare at his now-healed face. The cavities have been completely sealed shut as if there were never eyes to begin with. His voice is deep and rumbles softly.

"The leylines of this world relay to me more than elemental crystals shaped in the visage of eyes can."

The words do little to ease the guilt you feel for your cruelty but before you can do anything, a loud sound interrupts your thoughts. Frowning, you adjust your bag back onto your shoulders and look at the entrance to Azhdaha's lair.

It's silent and it only makes you more suspicious. Taking a few steps toward the lair's entrance, a glow behind you makes you whip around quickly. Azhdaha's body glows with white cracks throughout his body as he roars ferociously.

Backing up in confusion, you watch in disbelief as Azhdaha's body shrinks and compresses. Loud bangs echo from the lair entrance in sync with Azhdaha's deafening cry.

That loud bang is accompanied by the sound of the seal covering the entrance shattering. Deciding to focus on the unknown intruder first, you catch the sight of a tall figure walking with powerful steps toward you.

A sole amber eye is what catches your attention first.

Brown hair with glowing tips loosely drapes over an earthy-colored hanfu. Only a stub can be made out from inside one of the dark sleeves as the tall man looks at you with an emotionless expression.

"Zhongli. It sure is a surprise to see you here." Your mind spins as it tries to comprehend just why Zhongli was here. Azhdaha's unwavering roars, his missing eyes, just everything about this situation was suspicious.

His other arm, which thankfully hasn't been cut off, raises to cup your face. Gloved fingers are featherlight on your dusty cheek as you stare up at him with perplexion clear on your face. He leans closer to speak with unwavering confidence.

"Why did you leave?"

He's got to be kidding.

"Why wouldn't I leave? I wasn't interested in being a third wheel to your conversation with the Creator." You answer back with a disbelieving tone before getting startled at the slam of a hulking body hitting the ground.

"MORAX! How dare you reappear in my prison after all that you had done?! What audacity have you fostered that let you dare to touch the Creator?!"

Fuck

Shit, oh fucking hell. 

Thousands of curses swarm your mind at Azhdaha's words, you keep your face in its confused expression as you run through any plan or excuse to survive.

"You're making Y/N uncomfortable with your insane claims, Azhdaha. They're an Oracle sent from the world the Creator is residing in." Zhongli is calm in his refute to Azhdaha's tantrum.

Pushing Zhongli's hand off your face, you turn to look at Azhdaha who is now much smaller. His stature is exactly like you saw when you played Genshin. That bright light must have not only degraded his body to the erosion-damaged body but his brain too. It's simply too suspicious that he became this wildly angry at Zhongli's presence.

Looking up at Azhdaha with sad eyes and a kind voice you speak gently, as if trying to soothe the dragon with no idea of what he claimed.

"I know my presence is similar to the Creator due to my otherworldly origin, but I'm really just Y/N. The erosion must be so painful that it even brought you down to this point. The creator hasn't forgotten you, I can promise that."

Zhongli frowns as Azhdaha tries to refute you. "NO! Don't you see, your grace?! That traitor is merely trying to keep you from reaching your full glory to keep you to himself!"

"How can you say that when you can't see at all?" Zhongli's voice is chilly as he places his gloved hand on your shoulder. His grip is tight and you try to step away. He doesn't budge and merely pulls you closer to him.

"Solidify!" The familiar line is yelled before a dome-like shield completely covers you and Zhongli. Your confusion on his action is answered when rocks from the ceiling start to rain on the shield. His hand positions your head to look back at him.

"Why won't you look at me Y/N? Do you still hold bitterness against me for my doubts against you? I was proven wrong utterly and completely, I apologize for my rudeness."

His voice is pleading and his lips tug down into a sad frown. You really can't understand why Zhongli's just ignoring all the suspicious things in this situation. Was the attachment acolytes feel towards you already affecting him this strongly?

"I'm not mad at you. Sure, it was annoying that you kept suspecting me despite all my efforts but you do believe me now after sacrificing so much. Actually, just what and how much did you offer? The sky lit up quite a few times."

An excited smile graces his lips as he takes a step closer to you, but unexpectedly sways making you grab his arm in worry. He laughs gently before speaking.

"After I noticed your disappearance, I gave as many offerings of my body as I could. Not only as my repentance toward the Creator but also as an apology to you."

Your eyes trail down his change of clothes. The hanfu is black with brown, gold, and white parts to it. The Geo symbol sign is clearly stitched into the inner robe.

"Is that why you have a change of clothes and are swaying so much? Be honest and tell me what part of your body you gave."

With closed eyes and shaky breaths, he places your hand on the top of his head. His hair is ticklish to your bare palms. "This human body wasn't nearly enough to make an impactful offering. But my Exuvia is adequate for our beloved creator. Naturally, my horns were the first to go."

The slight nub you feel between his locks must be the stump from his horns. You aren't sure whether to be sick or amazed. But Zhongli doesn't stop there, he takes advantage of your bewilderment and takes hold of your other hand.

"My spines were the next to be cut off. Those jagged ambers were more helpful for flying than anything else." His head nuzzles your hand on his hair as he takes your other hand to the spine of his back. You can feel the ridges of the amber remnants.

"My tail was in a similar position, useless in my current form. If only they didn't bleed so much. If the creator took any longer to accept my offering, I would have passed out from blood loss."

Even more worried about his physical state, you try to pull your hand away from his back and graze his side making him hiss in pain. He's quick to grab hold of it again and press it deeper into his side. Your jaw drops as he groans in pain and gives you a pained smile.

"I severed my claws yet got no response. I really believed I would have to stop at that point but I remembered another draconic part of my body that I could offer."

Your eyes filter between his happy and pained smile and the hanfu that was starting to blossom with red. Just where the fuck was he going with this?

"My skin, or rather, my scales were still in my body. Each clink of the scales as they were torn or cut out of my body may have left me lightheaded from the gushing wounds. But nothing could compare to the feeling of the Creator accepting me."

Blinking in pure shock, your mind struggled to comprehend the mere insanity of his actions. You were joking about him having the possibility of sewing his mouth shut from finding his idle annoying. This motherfucker would actually do it!

Zhongli takes your reaction, or rather lack of reaction, in stride with him pulling you closer to him. Your hands rest on his body to not be pressed against him but that only has him wincing in pain. He stubbornly holds you closer as you cringe from the feeling of wet blood seeping through his hanfu and onto your skin and clothes. 

"Stop. Doesn't this hurt you? Just how long will it take you to heal, let alone regain those dragon features?" Asking him with the purpose of distracting him, you speak in a rush. He merely hums as his arms stay around you firmly.

"Elemental beings like myself will always recover. I'm exceptionally strong with my status as an Archon, I'll be fully healed within a month at most."

You couldn't even linger on the idea that in a single month, he would be completely back to normal. The ground shook as more and more rocks fell on the shield. You couldn't stay trapped in Zhongli's embrace, at this rate you couldn't even stay in Liyue for much longer.

The slight sway of his movements, the slow speech pattern, and the rising of his body temperature permeating through his clothing gave you an idea.

Halting your resistance to his hold, your hands trail up his clothing with a pitiful smile. Rough and dirty hands from all the hardship you faced to get here cup his face enhancing the contrast of his smooth skin. His eyes immediately close at the contact with a deep rumbling sound coming from his chest.

"Still, it must be painful. Not just physically but mentally too. You have gained and lost so much over your lifetime. I have no doubt that it won't stop here. Just stay strong a little longer, won't you? Be patient till the Creator arrives and rewards you properly."

Zhongli's features soften till his eyes droop and his lips tremble. His full vulnerability is on display as he nuzzles into your palms shamelessly.

"Just what kind of ability do you possess? Young as you are, your ability to perceive and empathize with feelings is beyond your years. Do not stress for me, I have already been awarded by the Creator."

You frown slightly at his last words, not fully grasping at what his 'reward' from you was. The sacrificial method? The artifacts and weapons? He smiles at your confusion with half-lidded eyes.

Grasping your hands, he brings them closer to his mouth and kisses your knuckles with a smoldering grin. You aren't completely sure whether the pink decorating his cheeks is from embarrassment or a fever from his injuries.

"What greater reward than an Oracle sent from our God to soothe my soul?"

Suddenly you don't like where this is going. The thundering sound of rocks being thrown agrees with you.

"As fellow devoted servants to the Creator, should we not join in union? Marriage is a contract till death does us part after all."

There's no way this was happening. You were not getting proposed in a basement with a raging dragon just a few feet away from you.

Sensing your hesitation, Zhongli continues to speak with a romantic timber as he places a kiss on your palm.

"This may be sudden but I can assure you that I'll take care of you. I'll protect, provide, and love you as the closest person to our beloved creator. You may not love me now but just being from a different world has caused many problems for you. You are the only person who can match the amount of devotion I hold to our creator."

If this was a true confession of love at first sight or any other extremely fluffy trope, you would seriously contemplate saying yes. He wasn't wrong about your life being much easier with him by your side.

But it instantly died when he revealed that it was from you being such a strong believer and being the most intimately connected to the creator. It killed any romantic prospect of the situation. All you felt was dread and a longing to just leave.

You truly hope that he was only saying this shit from the blood loss getting to him. The annoyed expression you wear isn't even covered up, letting Zhongli see it plainly. His affectionate expression breaks and his lips part to ask you something but it's cut off by a bang.

It seems Azhdaha unknowingly agreed to break you out as a rock finally breaks the dome shield that had been protecting you all this time.

"Succumb to my fury Morax! Not even addressing the creator properly during your whole conversation is a disgrace to the Geo element and dragons alike!"

Wrath seemed to have consumed Azhdaha enough that one of the pillars of the barrier broke. Zhongli summons his spear and walks past you to stand protectively in front of you.

"Do not fret Y/N, I'll subdue Azhdaha so that he does not cause any more problems. Permanently." You absolutely did not want that but at the same time, you really wanted to escape this whole situation.

Azhdaha is going insane, Zhongli's bound to realize what you had taken from Azhdaha, and the duo of women are bound to get closer from the activity. That's not even counting how close this cave seemed to be from collapsing. 

"Azhdaha is still the creator's loyal creation! He may have deteriorated from the erosion that you failed to prevent, but don't kill a loyal and faithful follower like him!"

Hitting Zhongli with such a sharp remark, you watch his deadly glare weaken. Azhdaha begins to make careless attacks toward Zhongli's vicinity which, unfortunately, you're still in.

Picking you up with ease, Zhongli dodges the many attacks and stops near the lair's exit. Azhdaha does his best to give chase but isn’t much of a threat in that size.

Setting you down and wiping away the small pieces of rock from your face, Zhongli gazes at you warmly.

"You should return to Liyue Harbor. I'm sure many things require your attention considering how much trouble you seem to get into. And when we meet again, I expect an answer to my question."

Trying to ignore his last words, you wave to him before he jumps back into battle with Azhdaha. As soon as his back is turned you book it out of the lair. Leaving the small cave entrance the night sky shines above you.

Thousands of stars shimmer as you stand in silence. It felt good to have a break from everything going on below ground. Walking slowly your eyes gradually climb up the Dragon-Queller tree trunk to admire its full beauty.

It seems you were correct in assuming that the crystalline blue glowed brighter at night. The cerulean-colored branches pulsed with an eye-catching glimmer. The orange leaves blew in the night air as the pink petals of the flowers below you swayed.

You spot a familiar-looking constellation in the sky that seemed to twinkle for your attention. Lapis Dei, Zhongli's constellation, was lit up by four points. It was pretty incredible that you went from a C0 to C4 in a matter of hours.

But, just what effect did constellations have on characters other than making them stronger? It was closely connected to your creator power so it must be important outside of the game. Would whatever effect it have differ between humans and archons? 

What would have happened if you had gotten Zhongli to C6 before coming here?

Setting those lingering questions aside, you gaze up at the Dragon-Queller tree one more time before bringing up your game screen. You've finally witnessed everything about this area giving you a sense of satisfaction. 

Creak

The sound makes you pause and lift your head up from the screen in confusion. It's silent for a few moments until Teyvat bombards your mind with a sense of something going wrong.

CRACK

Ice. Lots and lots of ice spring up from the ground circling around your feet. Quickly moving back from the ice, a sharp and cold solid spike tears through your calves. A cry of pain leaves you as you stop in place. Red drops of blood stain the spikes of ice that impaled you.

Did it break your bones? Was it an important muscle for running? If you pulled it out, would you lose too much blood? 

Those thoughts swirled in your mind as the pain blinded you from the fact that Teyvat never stopped warning you.

Keeping a hand to your heart trying to slow your breathing and push down the rising sobs, you focus on what you can do now. But it's already too late. Something glints in the distance and a swish of air is heard before pain blooms from your chest.

Scalding water leaves boils on the right side of your chest as an arrow stays embedded into it. Tears of pain and anger stick to your eyelashes as you carefully move your head trying to spot the woman.

You knew Yelan and Shenhe were somewhere here. Even with the tears sliding down your mask, your lips were curled into a defensive snarl.

The small breaths you let out don't feel wet or painful, therefore your lungs are unharmed. Yelan had the skill and power to hit your lungs if she desired. This means she wants to speak to you, she wants some information you have.

She won't kill you yet.

Commanding Teyvat to show you where they were hiding, you blink sluggishly at the elemental sight being activated. Teyvat creates a path of Anemo leading to two separate points making you smile through the pain.

"Yelan, Shenhe. Shouldn't you both at least reveal yourself when taking a hostage?"

There's no need to play dumb at this point. They already suspect and harmed you to the point where it just wouldn't be smart to act ignorant.

After a beat, both women leave their respective hiding spots and make their way to you. Yelan is relaxed with an easygoing gait showing that she has all the time in the world. Shenhe is more ferous in her approach, weapon on hand, and a dangerous glint in her eyes.

Except Shenhe begins to sprint at you once you lock eyes with her. Despite the rapid thumping of your heart at her stance, you stay still not wanting to show that you could escape when needed.

As expected; Yelan grits her teeth in annoyance and activates her skill to catch up to Shenhe. Shenhe is just a few feet away from you, her spear is held out prepared to slash when she's pulled back by Yelan's lifeline. A sigh of relief escapes you as you slump into place.

"Not yet Shenhe, I need them alive for my job first. Afterwards, you can kill them as you please." Dropping Shenhe from her lifeline Yelan sighs in exhaustion. 

Shenhe doesn't react much to Yelan's attitude. Merely brushing off the dust and repositioning her weapon while watching you. 

"Eyes over here Y/N." The sound of your name from Yelan's lips catches your attention. She smirks at your wary glance and spins her bracelet. "Why don't you and I have a little chat?"

It's done! This one didn't take as long since I have been getting settled into school. If everything is cool and I'm fast then I could finish a chapter every weekend. But let's be honest. I'm far too unlucky for that. This was edited by my annoying dear editor @serpent-benediction . Don't pay attention to him tho. That was mostly a joke! I know the Zhongli cutting limbs wasn't as much as one would think since he goes around without his dragon features most of the time anyway. I just couldn't find a good reason on him cutting off his legs and still managing to fight Azhdaha. So, I hope everyone isn't too disappointed by that and can enjoy the most yandere character so far! Personally, I would not accept that marriage proposal. But now we get to focus on Yelan and Shenhe! I've taken great care to keep Yelan's intention very vague, but I think those that have read her story have a good idea on why she's here. The next chapter should be quite exciting! Taglist - remember if you're username is in italics, that means I couldn't tag you! @vvyeislazzy, @nikqi, @the-dumber-scaramouche, @etherisy, @yourlocalstranger123, @ra404, @iruiji, @goldenglow149, @haru-tofuu, @lsleepysimpl, @bebobeboben, @yuyuzi-ling, @amidst-the-tempest, @resident-cryptid, @mxd1zzy, @mochicurls21, @nervouseaglelover, @thedevioussmirk, @yumuramma, @kwqsla, @undecidingfate, @ehjane, @game-savvy, @akiramirae, @liansh3ng, @fluffy-koalala, @formacoon, @sxftiebee, @khxii-i, @ursinaw, @chuuya-brainrot, @sweetbills, @kazuchaos, @snowfoxnix, @bluebelony, @shellofthewell, @pencil-of-ashes, @ghostlyintervention, @taiformaifoe, @goaudduck, @carminerin, @maddysflowers, @zenith-of-all-zenith, @crazydreamcat, @leafanonsforest, @grimreapersscythe, @leylanx, @sapphireknown, @help-whatdoimakemyusername, @zhonglisfruityass, @mer0n37, @victoria1676, @mochinessss, @sinnful-darling, @emilymikado, @pix-stuff, @esthelily, @luxie963, @emmbny, @millienolife @kbar1013, @xxblackroses623xx, @chxrlxtteee, @aludicpoet, @yandematic, @atrcclovsxoxo, @0lshadyl0, @esthelily, @t-rex-red, @ck123, @steadybreadbluebird, @118gremlin, @stratonia

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Solving long-standing challenge in semiconductor manufacturing—a refined algorithm for detecting wafer defects

Research published in the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology may soon help solve a long-standing challenge in semiconductor manufacture: the accurate detection of surface defects on silicon wafers. Crystalline silicon is the critical material used in the production of integrated circuits and in order to provide the computing power for everyday electronics and advanced automotive systems needs to be as pristine as possible prior to printing of the microscopic features of the circuit on the silicon surface. Of course, no manufacturing technology is perfect and the intricate process of fabricating semiconductor chips inevitably leads to some defects on the silicon wafers. This reduces the number of working chips in a batch and leads to a small, but significant proportion of the production line output failing. The usual way to spot defects on silicon wafers has been done manually, with human operators examining each wafer by eye. This is both time-consuming and error-prone due to the fine attention to detail required. As wafer production has ramped up globally to meet demand and the defects themselves have become harder to detect by eye, the limitations of this approach have become more apparent.

Read more.

[featherdusterbelphie]

Like Real People Do

C/W: theoretically, nothing; mentions eating of crystals, mentions of sleep deprivation (due to travelling)

A/n: HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD MAN 🎉🎉🎉

Word count: 932 words.

The moonlight enters through the open window, the howling winds echoing through the quiet room. It sweeps away the disorder, the spirits, and anything else that dares to disturb him. A lone figure sits in the corner, a small chest full of treasure and oddities sit in front of him, awaiting his judgment.

He picks up another, carefully inspecting it with his eyes. It shines bright and gleams, yet there is a crack just barely inconceivable on the inside. It will not suffice. It is weak, it is impure. It will become unstable if he uses it. He clicks his tongue and opens his maw, and bites down hard with teeth sharp like swords. Crunch! A bottomless pit and a long, serpentine tongue clean up the remains, leaving behind no trace of imperfection on his lips. He sighs at the warmth that envelops him momentarily, his hunger satiated, yet it is proof of another failure.

He resists the urge to yawn or rub his eyes as he picks up another gem. Another defect. Crunch. Hours pass by, but there is no sign of anything remotely close to what he's looking for. His continuous failure wears him down each time, muscles taut as he grips the table with his gloved hands.

Countless nights spent awake, days spent travelling, bargaining and searching with aching feet and a restless mind. His face was haunted by shadows, and his hands twitched at his sides. Days spent inside cramped, barely-lit spaces, stomach empty as the sea in the west. Days spent alone without the comfort of anything or anyone but his own gnawing thoughts.

He closes his eyes and breathes deeply through his nose, counting one, two, three, until he lets out his breath slowly. Aching bones creaking as he reaches for another crystal, mind wondering why he's even making this much effort in the first place. Why he's always thinking of a certain redhead, why does he always want the best for the kingdom, even if it wasn't his land?

His eyes dart to the glass casing behind him. To the crown that has sat on top of many leaders' heads. The same crown that he is trying to design for this land's future, the Crown Prince Diavolo. The man who will soon rise to the throne and take over the kingdom. The man that Lucifer will be forever grateful to for he accepted him and his son, who are deemed traitors in their homeland, into their territory. Who risked another war just to make them feel safe, dressed them, fed them and treated them like his own people. He will not forget the kindness in those golden eyes, the kindness that warms his aching heart and comforted his weary body. He lets out a shaky breath, forcing his eyes to clear of the memories.

A twinkle catches his eye, as the moon's light hits the crystalline surface, and he squints his eyes at the sight. He picks up the red gem, turning it around in his fingers and bringing it closer to the light to take a look. He hums in thought as he continues to analyze it. It has a good physical structure and does not have any cracks anywhere. It holds a small amount of magic that is barely useful but seems to be able to hold more than it looks. It has a nice bright colour, the same shade as the ones embedded in the crown behind him. His eyes start to glow.

He flicks his wrist, and tendrils of black ichor reach out from underneath his sleeve and float up. They follow his wordless command, encircling the small rock and seeping into it until the black swirls inside like smoke.He watches as the colour refuses to fade, and the surface provides no resistance or pressure. He waits for a different reaction, his mind tracing back to the time he felt too assured and was bested by a stupid delay. Minutes pass and still, it does not break nor does it produce any strange sounds. The existing magic within the crystal does not die but co-exists with his own. It is perfect.

He sighs, deep and weary as he stands, up walking over to his bookshelf and picking up a glass case to put the crystal inside for safekeeping. He closes his eyes, taking a moment to rest a little as he allows himself to bathe under the moonlight. He opens his eyes and turns around, just now noticing how dark the room is as he stretches his limbs. He turns and leaves the room to find comfort and inform his liege of his accomplishment.

Walking down the hallways, Lucifer tries to conceal his excited steps, wouldn't want any of the servants or him to see him walking to the future king's room at night. Lucifer arrives, a sigh leaving his lips as he tries to collect himself before rapping his knuckles in the wood. He gets no answer. He knocks again and softly calls out but still, no answer. He tries the door but it is locked. His mind wanders as he looks down and notices a piece of paper at his shoes with his name on it. Picking it up, he recognized the king's neat handwriting.

Fixing the glasses on his nose, Lucifer opened the letter and read the contents. He sighs, rolling his eyes. Of course he'd be there at this time, he thought. He pocketed the paper and went back to his room, grabbing a cloak to don and walking down the palace halls, a destination in mind.

A/n: this took way too long because i couldn't find motivation and time to continue the illustration until recently! (For context, I started the drawing on February and only finished it now😔). But happy birthday once again to the most arrogant bastard I've ever known in fiction! <3 If not for you, I may not have even considered playing om, haha!

Also, this is part of an au I'm trying to cook (keyword try since I'm not very good at cooking) (also the au's temp name is Morning Glory) and I'm planning a Diavolo companion piece to this (I already started on the sketch) so fingers crossed that college won't eat me up before I could finish that for Dia's bday!

[mrblank-0]

Fused!Verse Out!Code Fusions Completed

Yup all the Art for the Out!Code fusions in Fused!Verse have been Completed

I would like to thank all the artists that helped me make this possible

I thank you with all my heart and I wish good fortune for all of you

There is more I would like to say but then I would just be getting repetitive and I doubt anyone wants to read an essay long post saying thank you

So all I can just say right now is

THANK YOU ❤️

Here are all the Out!Code Fusions in Fused!Verse with credit to the wonderful artists

Click on INFO PAGE to see all the info about them

Click on the character name to see their art

INFO PAGE: Backup!Sans- Art made by blankpersona / @an4mations / @wanderingthinks

INFO PAGE: Corruption!Sans- Art made by ericmichael

INFO PAGE: Trickster: Art made by Pix

INFO PAGE: Reboot!Sans: Art made by Pix

INFO PAGE: MainFrame!Frisk: Art made by Pix

INFO PAGE: V!Sans: Art made by @w0lf-g

INFO PAGE: Elemental!Sans: Art made by Pix

INFO PAGE: Star!Code: Art made by @w0lf-g

INFO PAGE: Protector!Kris: Art made by @enri-ch

INFO PAGE: Tenacity!Poppy: Art made by @grayisgrey

INFO PAGE: Defective!Sans: Art made by @kaipafu

INFO PAGE: Digital!Sans: Art made by Fizzy

INFO PAGE: Verdict!Sans: Art made by @justkriiiis

INFO PAGE: Savior: Art made by butmypun

INFO PAGE: Tormentor: Art made by Oily Balls

INFO PAGE: Hero!Undyne: Art made by @junipers-insects

INFO PAGE: ScreenBreaker!Sans: Art made by arp_eclipse / @3mko

INFO PAGE: JT!Void: Art made by CD

INFO PAGE: CodeCutter!Chara: Art made by Endternity

INFO PAGE: Empty!Frisk: Art made by @elliebell77

INFO PAGE: Mother of Knowledge!Toriel: Art made by ⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️

INFO PAGE: Harmony!Alphys: Art made by @spiralsalad

INFO PAGE: UnAlive!Alphys: Art made by @somevany

INFO PAGE: NephalemSword!Frisk: Art made by Chris.slay

INFO PAGE: Purify!Asriel: Art made by @lilifg789

INFO PAGE: EternalVoid!Gaster: Art made by @nxliaz

INFO PAGE: Rasi!Blaze: Art made by @intestines-3001

INFO PAGE: Activist!Chara: Art made by @crystalline-archives

[kumoofthemaken]

Misteria - Her People of the Lofty Heavens

[A general overview of the planet itself, as well as the Misterian race. Subject to development over the blog's runtime. Using Kumo and Kiri's homeworld language names. 😉]

Misteria

A small gas giant, the land of swirling tempests, its habitable zone framed by the Storm Below and Storm Above. This layer of calm skies was home to floating continents of temperate to cold climate and, by extension, various flora and fauna more or less accustomed to aerial travel. Bountiful crystal structures adorned the floating isles, becoming the primary resource in Misterian architecture and sculpting.

It is the world where the Maken, and, by extension, Tiamat, was deposited eons ago by the old Architects, further shaping the developing life to reflect its attunement to the Mist. As such, the people of Misteria exhibit a unique combination of properties not found elsewhere in the universe: the ability to fly by levitation, and the production of Mist within specially-structured lungs which is stored at great pressure and can be released in vast quantities.

Misterian Horns - biological and cultural significance

E'len and Vassá with baby horns.

Even their own horns reflect their homeworld proudly - crystalline spikes most commonly ranging from one to seven, with more than that usually meaning the Misterian's horns are overall less developed and shorter. Hornless Misterians did occur, however their birth was a consequence of a very rare genetic defect comorbid with severely dulled senses and were considered disabled.

Misterian horns begin to come in at few months old and grow til around 19-20 years old. They are comprised of a core of living bone, with nerves and olfactory cells present in small pores which extend their sensory range, allowing for the sensing of certain potentially toxic chemicals produced in Misteria's atmosphere, a trait necessary for prolonged aerial travel - especially coupled with the species' sensitive lungs. Additionally, the layer between the living core and the crystal adcrustation houses liquid with loose grains of crystal, thus making the horns an additional balance organ. In a pinch, they could also be used to gore an opponent, though this was not preferred.

Misterian horns' interaction with Mist was a very complex process, due to Mist itself being present within their bodies and facilitating magical crystallization. As such, an individual's horns could take the appearance of a different type of crystal based on one's own Mist, though the color seemed unrelated: One could have a White-Mist such as Haino E'len (Kumo) with smoke quartz horns, as well as Silei Vassá (Kiri), a Red-Mist, with the same material. However, it seemed at least partially genetic.

Misterian horns were indeed live, but they shed their outer layer (sheath) periodically, producing shards of crystal which were often preserved as keepsakes, worn as jewelry or given as treasured gifts. Post-shed Misterian horns retained some of the crystalline layer for protection. Growing back the outer sheath took approximately three months.

Broken Misterian horns were capable of growing back from the root, however the process was slow and uncomfortable - with risk of crystal adcrustation not occuring properly and leaving the horn uneven. Incorrect adcrustation also reduced the sensory capabilities of the horn due to obstructing olfactory channels.

Culturally, a greater amount of horns / longer horns were considered a trait of royalty and a source of great pride; Misterians in general valued their horns greatly and maintained them carefully. As such, many gestures and sayings found on Misteria reflected this racial trait, such as lowering one's head to point horns at someone being seen as a threat - usually coupled with "Mist growling" - repatedly puffing small amounts of Mist at others. Calling someone "hornless" was considered an insult comparable to calling someone "stupid", through the connotation that a hornless Misterian would have had trouble with hearing, navigation and their connection to the Mist was looser. This was, of course, an example of ableism: Though Misterians were overall a peaceful and compassionate race, they were also beings of great pride, so such behaviors still occured. As an additional example of cultural expressions, the two Storms were much feared and used in sayings. "Storm Above!"

Misterian Hearing and Mist Melodies

Hearing is a Misterian's primary sense; Their world predominantly one of sound. Mist itself is an element producing unheard melodies, something Misterians evolved to hear and distinguish - being able to hear the "songs of the Planet" beneficial in various facets of life, such as navigation. Going where the Mist goes, listening to the changes in air currents and even catching weather shifts early, all thanks to enhanced auditory processing.

Mist itself produces melodies naturally distinguishable only to Misterians, with some others being able to hear them using magic or other sensory-spiritual enhancements. Skilled Misterian musicians can even perform an act known as "playing the Mist", utilizing gestures of linear motions to manipulate the melody, volume, tone and pitch to their liking - quite alike to plucking a string instrument. Mist playing, occasionally combined with dance and song, is the foundation of Misterian magic, including summoning arts. Court Knight-Musicians notably trained their Mist playing skills in conjunction with swordplay in order to bring out Sword Dragons, the royal beasts of Misteria and brood of Tiamat who were widely worshipped as the gods of music.

Mist Tempos and Colors

The Mist's default melody and tempo is defined by its color, with naturally faster tempos found in shorter wavelengths, such as purple.

The amount of energy is directly proportional to the photon's electromagnetic frequency and thus, equivalently, is inversely proportional to the wavelength. The higher the photon's frequency, the higher its energy. Equivalently, the longer the photon's wavelength, the lower its energy. This holds true to Mist as well, though some high-energy techniques have been notably performed with red Mist as well. One example of such is the Elder Prince Vassá, who utilized extremely fast tempos, such as vivaces and furiosos, in order to cast devastating flare magics.

Mist color also corresponds to its thaumaturgichemical properties, something that cannot be altered at will and is experienced neurologically through inhalation.

An approximate chart of Mist Effects:

Red - Stop (Full voluntary muscle paralysis)

Orange - Slow (Depressant)

Yellow - Confusion (Stimulant/hallucinogen)

Green - Poison (Neurotoxin)

Cyan - Silence (Vocal paralysis)

Blue - Fear (Stimulant/hallucinogen)

Violet - Berserk (Stimulant)

Pink - Charm (Aphrodisiac, induces euphoria, loss of inhibition and impaired judgement)

White - Sleep (Depressant, mild sedative to general anaesthetic)

Misterians tended to be at least partially resistant to one another's Mist, with family members often being immune due to genetic similarity and prolonged contact. However, their breath still had effect on unrelated Misterians and other beings, which meant masking was culturally mandated. Special Mist Masks were developed that both protected one's delicate lungs and filtered Mist out of exhaled and inhaled air. More technologically sophisticated mask designs were installed at the base of the skull, allowing for nerve interfacing and conscious control over the mask opening and closing. Green-Mists and Violet-Mists were particularly strictly required to wear high quality filters at all times, and manipulation of another using Mist was a criminal offence.

Demonstration of Mist mask functionality.

Colors falling between the main wavelength milestones can have effects of either neighboring effect. Lower saturation of color decreases the effect's intensity.

White Mist is the rarest of Mist colors, and cannot be defined by wavelength as it is the mixture of all other wavelengths. Therefore, it can be considered the "all-rounder" Mist color equally suited to slow and fast tempos, making it perfect for a variety of musical techniques but less specialized, taking longer to master. It is also more attuned to the elemental properties of ice and feels cold to the skin.

Misterian Lungs

Haino E'len and Silei Vassá exhaling Mist.

Misterians possessed a rather unique respiratory system - with two lungs connected to a system of air sacs. The primary lungs were used for respiration as well as Mist production and storage, while the air sacs were responsible for complex pressure maintenance and enhanced in-flight respiration.

Due to the very high pressure within Misterian primary lungs, a puncture wound there was instantly and explosively lethal, causing a decompression of a force proportional to the amount of Mist stored, as well as release of said Mist. With enough pressure, it was not unheard of for the detonation to completely tear open an individual's chest and injure whoever attacked them. As a result of this, Misterian schools of swordsmanship practiced primarily broad, slashing strokes, rather than thrusting. Piercing an enemy's cheat was only plausible in ranged combat or with sufficiently long spears.

As a way to reduce the chance of catastrophic injury, Misterian primary lungs are surrounded by dense cartilage and powerful muscle, which grants a decent amount of protection against trauma. Still, most injuries to the region were considered inoperable due to the sheer complexity of the pressure mechanisms involved, as well as the chance of Mist escaping into the bloodstream and causing rapidly-lethal embolisms.

Flight

Misterian flight is magical in nature, which does not mean their bodies did not adapt to facilitate it. A Misterian can fly due to the supernatural properties of the Mist produced in their bodies, with flight impaired should Mist production suffer as a result of injury or disease. The flight itself is telekinetic in nature and controlled primarily by the mind, as well as the horns, which interact with Mist to fine-tune its control. However, a Misterian cannot normally put their telekinesis to use outside of their bodies - the Royal Knights of Altha'el developed the practice of spell-binding their souls to their weapons to get around that limitation, allowing them to carry heavier weapons. However, telekinesis was still limited and only truly unlocked in Prince E'len through his seamless and complete connection to the Blade of Tiamat, which became a true extension of his body.

Eyes

Mist growling, slitted eyes.

Misterian eyes are comparable in power to those of Earth humans, though they tend slightly towards far-sightedness. They are trichromatic, as opposed to the pentachromatic Windarians, and possess a transparent nictitaing membrane which extends from the medial canthus and can be drawn over the eye to shield and moisten it mid-flight. The membrane is otherwise rarely seen since both sets of lids blink simultaneously, creating the illusion of a humanoid eye.

That illusion, however, cannot extend to the pupil, which is (along with the iris) more vertical than circular. Though Misterian pupils can turn into slits in high light conditions, the usual resting shape is an oval. The strange nature of such pupils may be advantageous in judging distance, something quite crucial in the vast, open skies of Misteria.

Culture, religion and goverment

Dueling Sword Dragons of Vassá and E'len.

Misterian people were predominantly peaceful and naturally came together within the United Kingdom of Altha'el, positioned upon the central continent of Altha'el. Ruled by the Royal Family and protected by their knights, Misterian civilization was quite secure up until the war with Windaria, where large territories were conquered and many Misterians unfortunately slain. The on and off war lasted for a thousand years until the most recent Crimson Ceasefire, signed by the Lord Lua Leián (Crimson Haze), E'len's and Vassá's father.

Misterians as a people valued culture and the arts the most, primarily music and dance, for obvious reasons. Schools of swordsmanship taught in Altha'el seamlessly blended combat with dance, with the most experienced warriors earning the title of "bladedancers". Performative dueling was a common spectacle, the bladedancers' graceful and flowing movements evocative of those of Sword Dragons themselves. A Blade Dance was often accompanied by a Mist orchestra, with the dancers adjusting their movements to the rhythm and tempo of the music.

Tragically, this exquisite culture was lost nigh completely when Chaos attacked, devouring Misteria whole and incorporating a lifeless remnant of the capital into Wonderland as a twisted trophy. Why it left no survivors - only Chaos itself knows, but it is a plausible guess to say it did it to break the Unlimited prince, Haino E'len, who now remains the very last of his glorious people.

Thus, His Majesty will work tirelessly for eons to ensure the tragedy of his homeworld - as well as the world of Windaria - does not repeat.

[somer-writes]

Heart of Hyrule Modern AU pt 2

Wanted to get down some thoughts on world-building. specifically as it relates to war and reconstruction. this is all subject to change, i just needed to get it laid out somewhere so if something doesnt make sense please let me know!!!

Also CW for wartime, occupations, terrorism

The Borderless War

13 year long civil war

Started as an attempted coup to move from monarchy into military dictatorship

General Rivia of Noble Court planted his men at major forts throughout Hyrule. Once smoke signals were lit, the men mutinied and took control (or attempted to) of military stations and strategic routes.

Rivia was swiftly detained by the Sheikah protecting the royal family. The outposts were more difficult because the sitting king was deemed weak/ineffective. The forces were split 50/50 as was most of the populace

Rivia’s wife Nomi managed to take the royal family as political hostages with a rogue group of Sheikah she promised power

Nobles were rounded up and executed if they refused to kneel as were important figureheads. Entire towns were razed if they refused to swear fealty

As refugees fled to neighboring lands, the defected army hunted them down

During this time Ordon (previously on good terms with Hyrule) was forcibly occupied for their agriculture and isolation

The Zora remained neutral but accepted refugees, the Gorons defended the Eldin province from non official militants (the defected army), and the Rito fled from forest fires up into the mountains

The war ended when Nomi was betrayed by the Sheikah after failing to follow through on her promises

Without her at the helm, the uprising was swiftly squashed (About 4 years after Time is born/left in Kokiri Forest)

The Harkinian royal family takes the throne again (princess Zelda was born while the family was captive and sent as a protected hostage to a sheikah base in the east)

Weapons development

The war served as the turning point in modern magic weaponry.

The warriors family established their company by refitting old weaponry with mana charges which could fire liquidized or crystalline spells even by those not magically inclined

On top of projectile spells, the company produced traditional weapons (swords, spears, etc) that also used charges to apply spells to the weapons

They also produced tactical staves and learned to make the first lab-grown mana crystals (which they still have a patent on)

The weapons advanced much faster than the defenses which had devastating results for casualty numbers

Anti mage armor does come about towards the end of the war but is expensive and heavy

Reconstruction

Due to the lawlessness of the war era, monsters swiftly took over the wilds (especially in the south of Hyrule)

As the land was attempted to be resettled, monsters attacked and killed a lot of townships/camps

Monster hunting starts off as a noble trade but swiftly becomes synonymous with extortion and ransoming

Much of the south is left abandoned and with forces and resources already stretched thin, the royal army leaves the area to monsters with devastating results on the towns that survived through the war but were left defenseless

As a way to catalog refugees/orphans, Hylians are made to adopt true surnames over place names

The first wave of standardized official identification is rolled out. ID cards include names, birthdays, province of origin, and whether or not the person is magically inclined

King Harkinan establishes the sages as a unified council in peace attempts

Official seats of the country (castle town, goron city, etc) are fitted with anti mana barriers that require a key item such as a ring to use magic within the barrier limits

Dark magic is declared officially illegal. Light magic requires special licenses.

Post-war Occupation of Ordon

Ordon is denied a representative on the sages’ council leading the relationship to sour more. Hyrule has yet to pull out of the region.

The first Ordon Rebellion occurs resulting in the destruction of the great fort on the north end of Faron bridge. As a result, a second occupation occurs

Ordon is forced to name a capital (Ordon village) and an ambassador. Ordonians are then forced to take Hylian surnames.

A rebellion group forms with Ordon leading to a number of small terror acts and attacks on Hylian grounds. Anti-Ordon sentiments begin to crop up

Hyrule exhausts itself in Ordon and withdraws from the area under an unstable treaty. Ordon is considered Hyrule territory, but is allowed to functionally govern themselves. This makes trade/travel/logistics difficult between Hyrule and Ordon.

The temple of hylia constructed in Ordon Village is abandoned

Anti-ordonian laws (ID cards, permits/paperwork, lack of representation) are passed further dividing the kingdom and province

Character effects

Time is a war refugee who is born during the war and taken to the Kokiri for safety as an infant when his parents were outed as monarch loyalists working with a resistance

Malon’s family stayed in the south through the war and reconstruction. She vividly remembers hiding in the cellar from monsters as a child

Wars’ family owns and operates Warriors’ Weaponry Co. He has mixed feelings on his family’s legacy. He’s fairly inclined to magic and is somewhat skilled with a power spear.

Twilight is a Hylian reconstruction refugee adopted into Ordon. He faces a lot of anti-Ordon sentiment in Hyrule and the opposite in Ordon. His home and family were destroyed by a monster.

Wild was severely injured in a monster attack in the northeast of Hyrule which destroyed his home village.

Legend’s family is noble blooded but went into hiding after the war and gave up their titles.

[infinitesofnought]

All the sleepfigures, crystalline, that you adopted in the speechshadow, them I supply with my blood, the imagelines, they I should salvage in the slitveins of my insight—, my grief, I see now, defects to you.

– Paul Celan, "[All the sleepfigures, crystalline]", trans. Pierre Joris

[songofsutarima]

Some poems a friend asked for

A friend asked me to write some poems for him. Based on this short little list of words. So…here is a small little poetry dump.

_________________________

His words:

Happy

Sad

Underdog

Champion

???

_________________________

1- (you can name this one)

It’s just me, I am the breeze

I can be however I please

Flow through me, electricity

As our joy overwrites my history

I breathe in and I swear the sky wasn’t always so blue

But perhaps it’s that I’m content and my eyes are a jovial golden hue.

————

2- Cryopreservation

Frost fills my nostrils, when your presence I am in,

From the judging gaze, my misted breath turns crystalline.

And so to save my heart, I go cold without reservation,

And find me lifeless-loveless in my cryopreservation.

————

Defective

It’s late tonight, a time in which I get reflective,

And I try to convince myself I am good, with opinions subjective,

But know what I am, in a different paralyzing perspective.

As much as I like to pretend to be good and effective,

Rusted joints, malfunctioning heart and mind.

I know I am defective.

——————-

Anchor

Tie it to me

For my misdeeds

Let it be

You squash my seeds

For I have seen

These hands unclean

In horrifying scenes

I can’t redeem

Take me, tie me to the stone

Cast me, throw me, have me flown

Have my anchor tied tight around under the chin,

Quickly quickly, lest I sin again.

———————

Sundered

I was whole…just last night…

And then you came and stole my light.

It was me and you through every fight

And yet in the end it was never right

You’ve torn me to pieces with your bite

And at this point I’m blind; of hope I’ve lost sight.

So tonight with one final rite I’ll turn my ‘might’ to an imminent ‘sad, quite’.

——————

ROASTED

Yes yes, I see your belts, trophies, the plaques you have posted.

But up to this point in your life, I swear you have coasted

I’m the nightmare your mind wishes it wouldn’t have hosted

Give me a minute, you’ll find my fire is more than I’ve boasted

———————

5- DEVOUR

Many have tried, many have failed

And yet you think you’ll have me derailed?

The play is easy, I pick and I choose,

I haven’t begun to sweat, can’t you smell that you lose?

I can hear it in your voice, taste it; all your fear, swirling in the air,

But when it comes to sheep and their wants or beggings, why would a lion care?

——————

TWILIGHT

Find me in the morning with small slices seeping

As I beg, but sleep is from my eyes keeping

Itself tucked away, though it teases as I pray,

“Father God, please allow rest before the break of day.”

[mit]

Sensing and controlling microscopic spin density in materials

By fine-tuning the spin density in some materials, researchers may be able to develop new quantum sensors or quantum simulations.

David L. Chandler | MIT News

Electronic devices typically use the charge of electrons, but spin — their other degree of freedom — is starting to be exploited. Spin defects make crystalline materials highly useful for quantum-based devices such as ultrasensitive quantum sensors, quantum memory devices, or systems for simulating the physics of quantum effects. Varying the spin density in semiconductors can lead to new properties in a material — something researchers have long wanted to explore — but this density is usually fleeting and elusive, thus hard to measure and control locally.

Now, a team of researchers at MIT and elsewhere has found a way to tune the spin density in diamond, changing it by a factor of two, by applying an external laser or microwave beam. The finding, reported this week in the journal PNAS, could open up many new possibilities for advanced quantum devices, the authors say. The paper is a collaboration between current and former students of professors Paola Cappellaro and Ju Li at MIT, and collaborators at Politecnico of Milano. The first author of the paper, Guoqing Wang PhD ’23, worked on his PhD thesis in Cappellaro’s lab and is now a postdoc at MIT.

A specific type of spin defect known as a nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond is one of the most widely studied systems for its potential use in a wide variety of quantum applications. The spin of NV centers is sensitive to any physical, electrical, or optical disturbance, making them potentially highly sensitive detectors. “Solid-state spin defects are one of the most promising quantum platforms,” Wang says, partly because they can work under ambient, room-temperature conditions. Many other quantum systems require ultracold or other specialized environments.

“The nanoscale sensing capabilities of NV centers makes them promising for probing the dynamics in their spin environment, manifesting rich quantum many body physics yet to be understood”, Wang adds. “A major spin defect in the environment, called P1 center, can usually be 10 to 100 times more populous than the NV center and thus can have stronger interactions, making them ideal for studying many-body physics.”

But to tune their interactions, scientists need to be able to change the spin density, something that had previously seldom been achieved. With this new approach, Wang says, “We can tune the spin density so it provides a potential knob to actually tune such a system. That’s the key novelty of our work.”

Such a tunable system could provide more flexible ways of studying the quantum hydrodynamics, Wang says. More immediately, the new process can be applied to some existing nanoscale quantum-sensing devices as a way to improve their sensitivity.

Li, who holds a joint appointment in MIT’s departments of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, explains that today’s computers and information processing systems are all based on the control and detection of electrical charges, but some innovative devices are beginning to make use of the property called spin. The semiconductor company Intel, for example, has been experimenting with new kinds of transistors that couple spin and charge, potentially opening a path to devices based on spintronics.

“Traditional CMOS transistors use a lot of energy,” Li says, “but if you use spin, as in this Intel design, then you can reduce the energy consumption by a lot.” The company has also developed solid-state spin qubit devices for quantum computing, and “spin is something people want to control in solids because it’s more energy efficient, and it’s also a carrier of quantum information.”

In the study by Li and his colleagues, the newly achieved level of control over spin density allows each NV center to act like a kind of atomic-scale “radar” that can both sense and control the nearby spins. “We basically use a particular NV defect to sense the surrounding electronic and nuclear spins. This quantum sensor reveals the nearby spin environment and how that’s affected dynamically by the charge flow, which in this case is pumped up by the laser,” Li says.

This system makes it possible to dynamically change the spin concentration by a factor of two, he says. This could ultimately lead to devices where a single point defect or a single atom could be the basic computational unit. “In the long run, a single point defect, and the localized spin and the localized charge on that single point defect, can be a computing logic. It can be a qubit, it can be a memory, it can be a sensor,” he says.

He adds that much work remains to develop this newly found phenomenon. “We’re not exactly there yet,” he says, but what they have demonstrated so far shows that they have “really pushed down the measurement and control of the spin and charge state of point defects to an unprecedented level. So, in the long run, I think this would support using individual defect, or a small number of defects, to become the information processing and sensing devices.”

In this work so far, Wang says, “we find this phenomenon and we demonstrate it,” but further work is needed to fully understand the physical mechanism of what is taking place in these systems. “Our next step is to dig more deeply into the physics, so we would like to know better what’s the underlying physical mechanism” behind the effects they see. In the long term, “with better understanding of these systems, we hope to explore more quantum simulation and sensing ideas, such as simulating interesting quantum hydrodynamics, and even transporting quantum information between different spin defects.”

The findings were made possible, in part, by the team’s development of a new wide-field imaging setup that allows them to measure many different spatial locations within the crystalline material simultaneously, using a fast single-photon detector array, combined with a microscope. “We are able to spatially image the density distribution over different spin species like a fingerprint, and the charge transport dynamics,” although that work is still preliminary, Wang says.

Although their work was done using lab-grown diamond, the principles could be applied to other crystalline solid-state defects, he says. NV centers in diamond have been attractive for research because they can be used at room temperature and they have already been well-studied. But silicon vacancy centers, donors in silicon, rare-earth ions in solids, and other crystal materials may have different properties that could turn out to be useful for particular kinds of applications.

“As information science progresses, eventually people will be able to control the positions and the charge of individual atoms and defects. That’s the long-term vision,” Li says. “If you can have every atom storing different information, it’s a much larger information storage and processing capability” compared to existing systems where even a single bit is stored by a magnetic domain of many atoms. “You can say it’s the ultimate limit of Moore’s Law: eventually going down to one defect or one atom.”

While some applications may require much more research to develop to a practical level, for some kinds of quantum sensing systems, the new insights can be quickly translated into real-world uses, Wang says. “We can immediately improve the quantum sensors’ performance based on our results,” he says.

“Overall, this result is very exciting for the field of solid-state spin defects,” says Chong Zu, an assistant professor of physics at Washington University in St. Louis, who specializes in quantum information but was not involved in this work. “In particular, it introduces a powerful approach of using charge ionization dynamics to continuously tune the local spin defect density, which is important in the context of applications of NV centers for quantum simulation and sensing.”

The research team included Changhao Li, Hao Tang, Boning Li, Francesca Madonini, Faisal Alsallom, and Won Kyu Calvin Sun, all at MIT; Pai Peng at Princeton University; and Federica Villa at the Politecnico de Milano, in Italy. The work was partly supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

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[muddypyro]

yep, I lied. setting up a new glaze firing for 8 new crystalline glazes without testing them out first before moving my studio and entire life! haphazard choices can bring about both mayhem and brilliant discovery, sometimes all at once. bring it on 😈

also giving some previous work a second dip in the fires of hell (2300°f to be exact), after grinding down what is the most unusual glaze defect i've created despite my test of the same recipe acting far nicer. fingers crossed this does something better lol.

roll those dice and dive into wherever they land

[vicit-vim-virtus]

Starter for @cosmiicheskaya

‘No one’s wearing those old astronaut suits anymore ⸺ you look ridiculous! Who hoisted you into that? Your senile owner?’ Lore quipped, a nasty smirk splayed across his synthetic face. ‘Humans. Pathetic. Such a waste of space.’

He shook his head in disdain, his yellow eyes analysing the canine. Some of the colonists on Omicron Theta had brought their beloved domesticated animals with them. They’d all been annihilated by the Crystalline Entity, of course... Oh well. Collateral damage, he supposed...

‘What. Don’t you know it’s impolite to stare?’ he chided, his words were ensued by a haughty laugh. ‘Even I know that, and I’m practically running on defective moral and ethical subroutines, and my emotional programming is stuck in a continuous feedback loop of searing vengeance and an unquenchable hatred for everything that is organic and sentient.’

[mel-the-pirate-writeblr]

Whumpay - Promises (M(T)PJ:DD)

My (Twisted) Pokémon Journey Snippets Masterlist

Prompts:

Day 29 - "I won't let them hurt you anymore."

Day 30 - Nightmares

1.2k words under the cut.

I have done a LOT of Italian homework in the last few days and I apparently thought a good way to decompress was to participate in another of the Whump Month Challenges for a hot second, that being @whumpay!

Check the tags for content warnings.

This is a part of the fourth/fifth book of Crystal's story, Ditto Defect. The long and short of it is that Crystal can use Transform, she starts having ~issues~ with controlling it, and she is found out. This is set in Unova, but touched on past events (from her current moment, it is considered the past). I have snippets of DD so it's a bit more random with organization.

Crystal’s world had been reduced back to an observation chamber in the P2 Laboratory, stuck in the familiar form of a Ninetales instead of her own body, but this time, it wasn’t Team Plasma scientists who visited her.

     It wasn’t even a human.

     This time, Dusknoir – The Great Dusknoir, Primal-Dialga’s-right-hand Dusknoir, Dusknoir from the Future – haughtily, leisurely, levitated into view. 

     “We didn’t even need to do anything, and you were served to us on a silver platter.”

     Crystal didn’t know who us included, but she glared at him – glared like she did before, at the Stockade. Glared like Grovyle and Celebi were there to back her up. Glared like she wasn’t trapped in the very place that sucked out every ounce of hope and replaced it with gallons of dread.

     He continued, “You refuse to become a weapon—”

     That’s not Dusknoir.

     “—but we have ways to arrange that.”

     That’s not Dusknoir’s voice.

     “You’ll wish we gave you something to do, but, alas,” he shrugged and gave her a pitying look. It quickly turned into a sneer. “You continue to resist, so we need to alter the stimulus.”

     Is Dusknoir using Sebastian’s voice?

     Dusknoir’s form started to shift, the dark colors gave way to the white of a lab coat, and his bulky form thinned into the shape of a human. Sebastian.

     “I’ll let you be for now,” he said with another sneer. “We’ll get to the tests soon enough, but... well, isn’t the human mind such a scary thing? You won’t have sentient thoughts, soon, but while you do, we’ll use those against you. We’ll use everything against you,” he promised, relishing in the threat. “I want to see what you’ll use against yourself.”

     He strolled out of view, as casually as he had come.

     Crystal took a step forward—

     Something solid pulled around her neck, and she heard the clink, clink of chain links behind her. She turned and saw a chain leading from a hook on the wall to the back of her neck. She couldn’t see the collar, but she knew it had to be there – she reached up, finding a few things dangling, as if they were charms or tags for non-battling Pokémon companions.

     One of them burned red-hot. Crystal jerked her paw away, and saw that the fur had burned away and singed on the edges, burning even the skin. I’m a Ninetales, I should be immune to fire damage and burns like this with Flash Fire.

     But the singed fur started spreading – slowly at first, but noticeably. It turned an ashy grey, then darkened to charcoal, a burning heat following.

     The burn started glowing a golden-orange color, searing away the skin with a molten intensity. Something poked through – even in the pain, one train of thought managed, Crystalline. Unfamiliar. 

     Finally, it burned through her mane – whatever hung off of her collar, it burned through the fur, and she could finally smell burning flesh and fur. And something pushing through the skin.

     Crystal doubled over and saw the crystal on her paw growing, actively growing, turning into a sharp spike of molten pain. Fire raced through her veins, all of it starting from the burn on her chest or her paw.

      “I won’t let them hurt you anymore.”

     The soft voice, the calming voice, soothed the fire she should have been immune to. She glanced up, still in pain, but it had started receding to a dull throb of heat.

     N watched her, concerned. He had opened the door to the chamber, he had a key in hand. “I’m going to set you free.”

     Memories surfaced – memories of emotion. Betrayal. Distrust. Fear. Anger. Fear. Anger. Fight or flight – she couldn’t run, not with the collar. Her fur started bristling in warning, she bore her fangs at him as her own fire raced up her throat, burning it with the golden flames. Her summoned Will-o-Wisps met N, and he halted.

     “Crystal, it’s N. Do you remember me?” He studied her, worry in his eyes. She could se him thinking, What did they do to you?

     I remember you. You are why I’m trapped here. You’re why I am like this.

     “Something’s wrong. We can fix it after I get that collar off.”

     Crystal growled louder.

     Then she blinked, and it was her brother – Kevin? – standing there with the key.

     “Let’s hurry and get out,” he said. “I don’t like those crystals.”

     An ever growing urge began inside, Crystal’s vision pulsed as she stared at Kevin’s neck – fixated on his jugular veins, the pulse she could hear, almost feel.

     He turned the key, unlocking the collar. She felt it come loose, but the burning only grew and spread, even as she left behind whatever had started it.

     “Come, we must go before they return.”

     That voice wasn’t Kevin.

     Crystal looked up and saw N, this time in his kingly regalia.

     She lunged at him, reaching for his throat with her teeth. She wanted the warm blood, she wanted his lifeforce, she wanted him dead. She wanted revenge. Someone else should pay for what they’ve done.

     She blinked again— and Kevin’s eyes, terrified eyes and his horrible blood spilling out of his throat, his hands reaching up and only coming away bloody.

     She couldn’t meet the betrayal in his eyes, couldn’t watch the life leave his eyes.

     Crystal knew when his heart stopped. She knew when he died.

     Looking back at the body— it was N.

     Footsteps sounded from outside the chamber, and Kevin walked into the bloody, gruesome sene.

     The two of them locked eyes – and Kevin hurriedly backed out and shut the door, the lock clicking into place.

     The burning stopped. The crystals fell out, leaving gaping holes in her chest and paw – one spilling more blood than the other, as it mixed with N’s.

     “There’s no saving you from this,” Kevin said, pointing at N’s body. “I won’t let them hurt you anymore – but you can’t be allowed to li—”

Crystal shot awake in her bed, heart pounding, phantom burns on her chest and hand. She hurried out of bed, down the hall, looking for Kevin’s room. Once she got to it, she opened the door slowly, listening.

     She heard slow, rhythmic breathing. Light snores. The blankets moved as he shifted position. Thank Arceus, you're alive. She quietly closed the door, focusing on breathing slowly to calm her heart.

     The dream slowly released her, the emotions receding as she re-oriented herself in reality.

     Soft footfalls on the carpet caught Crystal’s attention, her adrenaline ramping up again—

     “Syl?” her Sylveon said quietly, slowly approaching. In the near-darkness, Crystal could see Sylveon’s ribbon-like feelers reaching toward her.

     She reached out to Sylveon, and the feelers gently wrapped around Crystal's arm. “I’m okay,” she whispered, walking back toward her room as Sylveon fell into step beside her, guiding her. 

     Crystal doubted that Sylveon believed her, but at the same time, Sylveon couldn’t outright interrogate her, either. I just need your comforting presence and to go back to sleep.

     She settled into bed, Sylveon curling up against Crystal, her feelers loosely draped over her and on her arm.

     It was just a dream. She had to tell herself that, she had to believe it. It was just a nightmare.

     Crystal closed her eyes, focusing on Slyveon’s presence. The lulling warmth contrasted the burning from earlier, a kind feeling and not a fierce one. She relaxed, lulled into a half-sleep as thoughts mixed with memories at random, the kind of liquid chaos a brain makes on its way to sleep.

Oh, my, a voice in her head drawled, sourceless and ethereal. You’re more qualified to torment yourself than I am, aren’t you? You’re much better at this than I am. After all – I was just the spark, so to speak. But the rest? My dear, that was all you.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Not all calcite crystals perfect; synthesis methods can alter internal structure, affect chemical reactivity

When looking at calcite under a microscope, a scientist would immediately recognize the crystalline form of calcium carbonate by its rhombohedral appearance. That is, calcite is shaped like a distorted cube. One of Earth's most abundant minerals, calcite is a major component of limestone and marble. It is also the most stable of the three common, naturally occurring crystal forms of calcium carbonate; the other two forms are aragonite and vaterite. Studying calcite is important as it has broad relevance in several ways. When calcium carbonate is synthesized, it transforms carbon dioxide (CO2) into solid carbonate, the final reaction product needed for long-term carbon storage in the fight against climate change. Additionally, as researchers recently discovered, the presence of defects in calcite can be controlled by how it is synthesized and can alter many of its properties. For example, defects can affect calcite's ability to soak up harmful substances in the environment like heavy metals. They can also affect the mechanical strength of calcite—which has implications for the development of more durable materials—and the ability to improve catalysts used in industrial processes.

Read more.

[my-timing-is-digital]

Lt. Commander Data, how are things with your brother since his reactivation? It must be difficult for the both of you, given what happened in the past.

‘Greetings, Anon. The relationship with my brother is precarious, and as for Lore himself, his personality has, for the most part, remained unaltered; his opinion on humans and myself, have likewise remained unchanged. I did not expect him to have diverged from the android he was prior to his deactivation. I, on the other hand, have had the prerogative of decades’ worth of contemplating his conduct, and I have taught myself to look at his predicament from another vantage point than my own. Although I possess little information about the colonists’ opinions regarding my brother, and I can only analyse the actions and offences he has committed in my lifetime, I do know what it feels like to be excluded or avoided on the basis of being different, of being artificial. After I was endowed with the emotion chip, and we vanquished the Scimitar, I have devoted myself to an extensive analysis of all the data I could accumulate pertaining to my brother’s history. I shall omit the exact details regarding my methodology, theoretical framework, and analysis of my research, but I can provide you with an encapsulation concerning the outcome.

‘Vehemently, I have attempted to fathom, and have subjected myself to weeks of minute research as to how human emotions, with as well as without guidance, might manifest in androids. Exploring and discriminating between these distinctions have become less of a challenge to me, now that I have access to these attributes myself. Therefore, my comprehensive research has led me to believe that Lore’s lack of emotional guidance and lack of parental support overexerted his circuitry. The pathways of his neural net were developing and quadrupling at an accelerated pace, which should not have interfered with his cognitive abilities, but during this process, his integrated emotion chip was consecutively affected by unpleasant external factors in the form of the Omicron Theta colonists. The external factors precipitated a minor cascade failure in Lore's positronic brain, which is not too dissimilar to what humans might ascribe as a “nervous breakdown.” This nervous breakdown was instigated by continual instances of prejudice, discrimination, segregation, xenophobia, seclusion, and emotional as well as parental negligence. Lore’s programming was not yet stable enough, nor did it possess the processing capacity it required to regulate such data accordingly. As a result, the minor cascade failure overrode his ethical and moral subroutines. I feel obligated to stress that my brother is not, as Juliana put it “evil.” His responses were in accordance with his defective programming; the Third Law of Robotics dictates that “an android must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Law.” However, since the First and Second Law had been erased from his ethical and moral subroutine, he had no accurate frame of reference and hence why his act of self-preservation resulted in the deaths of the colonists. This is consolidated by the instances during which his attempted to assault us, after we reassembled him on the Enterprise; his past trauma has provided him with ample reasons to be suspicious of humans and everyone they associate with, including me. This explains why he was in such a hurry to contact the Crystalline Entity. A non-organic entity he had befriended and confided in over the years; an entity that could provide him protection. The tendency of self-preservation, is likewise reflected in his attempts to assimilate the renegade Borg; they could have served as his personal bodyguards. Perhaps if Doctor Noonian Soong, our father, had rectified the malfunction Lore had beseeched him to correct during our “family reunion,” subsequent events might have been prevented. And maybe Lore and I could even have established a proper fraternal relationship afterward. But what-ifs will not aid our cause...

‘Nevertheless, my research has allowed me to comprehend my brother on a level I was previously unable to. And, I admit, it is difficult to be with him again, after everything we have endured, but that does not withhold me from proposing reconciliation. It will be an arduous process consisting of establishing mutual trust, reintegration in society, self-reflection, and painful confrontations. But once we have a premise, we can proceed to fix him, independent of Daystrom. In the meantime, I shall continue to advocate for my brother, protect him, and always be there for him. I have iterated that I will be able to forgive him and that I am eager to count him among my friends. Naturally, my statement was met with scorn, rolling eyes, and a deprecating remark, but I am positive that over the course of several months, or years, he will accept my apologies and we can finally be brothers.’

[satoruists]

what the future holds. (2.0k words) summary: shoko is tired of watching satoru suffer alone. cw: angst with comfort pairing: satosugu but there is only satoru note: dividers are by @cafekitsune !!

shoko isn’t a person who concerns herself with the matters of others too much, but satoru is acting strange. ever since suguru defected, he never seems to have time for anything else besides his missions. that in itself is not unusual. satoru became a fully realized sorcerer during his second year, and the higher-ups do nothing more than assign him mission after mission. satoru at least made some effort to at least see her in the year between his awakening and suguru’s exile from jujutsu society.

nowadays, he seems to brush her off more frequently. shoko gave satoru the benefit of the doubt at first. he is one of three special-grade sorcerers in the entire world. besides, it’s not like she isn’t busy. shoko is trying to juggle college entrance exams, applications, and the regular duties of a normal high school student on top of her life as a sorcerer. though it troubles her when she can’t even remember the last time he sent her a text with the sole purpose to piss her off or called her phone at an ungodly hour of the night.

shoko understands why, now, when she sees satoru practically draping himself over another man in a back alley host club in kabukicho. the only reason she bothered to double-take was because the two – at least from behind – look nearly identical to the couple she saw almost every day for three years. nearly.

satoru may be proficient in fooling others, but she’s accustomed to his little tricks. his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. his hand doesn’t smooth circles into the host’s upper arm. moreover, the eyes beneath his shades hold nothing. satoru used to look at suguru like his boyfriend was the moon, stars, and all the galaxies above — his crystalline eyes reflecting the beauty he saw whenever he laid his eyes on suguru. but here? satoru’s eyes are betraying him for once. it tells shoko everything she needs to know — this isn’t suguru. this isn’t who i need.

shoko cant help but wonder: will he be satisfied after he’s lost himself in the limbs of faceless strangers? does it soothe him to avoid his remaining friend? will it sate the hunger – the yearning – for his one and only? 

she does need to bother asking when she already knows the answer. no, it doesn’t do anything. it probably made things worse. no matter how hard he tries, he cannot pretend like the men who look like suguru are enough. satoru cannot silence the voice in the back of his mind whispering ‘suguru wouldn’t say that,’ or ‘sugu was better’.

regardless, shoko swallows her pride and pushes open the tinted glass door before her. a host club is not where she wants to be on a friday night, and she does not hesitate to tell the hostess that she does not want to talk to any of the hosts. she grimaces at the entry price — 3000 yen — that she is about to pay just to give satoru a piece of her mind as she rummages through her purse for her wallet.

satoru could recognize shoko’s cursed energy from anywhere, but he didn’t expect to sense it through the window of this establishment. part of him hoped she would just move on and ask him about it later, but of course she decides to enter. satoru releases a deep exhale when he realizes that he pissed her off. her cursed energy is coursing off her in waves. he told shoko that he was assigned an emergency mission in tokyo just so he could be here instead.

it’s a shameful little indulgence — to sneak away from the clutches of jujutsu society to breathe for once. to think that he, the pinnacle of jujutsu sorcery, would find his way into a seedy little corner of tokyo’s host club district? it makes satoru nearly laugh at how far he’s fallen. satoru unwraps his arms from the host, fishes out a wad of yen from his pocket, and dismisses the worker with a sly wink and a promise to see him again later. 

with that, satoru slowly makes his way to shoko’s table. she doesn’t bother to look up from her phone until he speaks:

“what’re you doing here, shoko? thought you didn’t swing that way.”

“i don’t,” shoko takes a drag of her cigarette. “i’m trying to figure out why the great gojo satoru is at a host club.”

satoru flashes one of his signature smiles, the one that says ‘don’t worry, i’m the strongest.’ he falters when he allows himself to meet shoko’s eyes from behind his pitch-black frames. her gaze solemnly whispers back: ‘i don’t believe you.’

“what, a guy like me can’t have fun sometimes?”

“it’s a little more than sometimes,” shoko murmurs. “you flaked the past three times we were supposed to catch up outside of jujutsu tech.” 

oof. it’s been three times already? satoru isn’t the best at keeping up with his arrangements, but he thought he was making enough time for her. but gojo — a man who struggles to admit his faults — can’t stop himself when he tries to downplay the situation like he always does.

“i told you i’ve been busy lately—“

shoko allows herself to give voice to her innermost thoughts when she retorts: “and you expect me to believe you?”

shoko directs her attention to the host satoru was with. from across the room, she would have undoubtedly mistaken him for suguru if she didn’t know any better. she was hoping the resemblance only applied to her limited view from the window.

“he looks awfully familiar, don’t you think?”

satoru doesn’t have to look in the direction she is referring to. he gathers her meaning quickly.

“i don’t know what you’re talking about,” satoru grumbles.

“you do. he looks a bit like suguru, doesn’t he?” shoko asks. satoru’s silence speaks volumes. “so this is where you run off to.”

the silence between them threatens to suffocate satoru. shoko sips her coffee and places it back down on the table before motioning for him to join her.

“sit. i need to ask you something.”

gojo pulls out the chair, and the squeaking legs do nothing but agitate him further. he deposits himself onto the seat with the grace of an angry child caught stealing from the cookie jar. 

“what is it?”

shoko rests her face against the arm propped up on the table. she knows she is about to hurt satoru, but she can’t stand to see him like this any longer.

“does this help you?” shoko asks.

satoru’s crystalline eyes narrow at shoko’s question.

“what do you mean by that?”

shoko remains unflinching. she’s seen this look before — many times, even. she’s seen it when he comes back from a meeting with his higher-ups. she recognizes it from the time his relative was on campus for sorcerer business. she knows what it means, too. do not speak another word to me.

“pretending. does it help to pretend like that man is suguru?” shoko prods.

gojo leans back against the chair, his arms folded against his chest. he’s gritting his teeth. his jaw is clenched as if he is trying to prevent the truth from escaping his mouth.

“i’m not pretending. i’m dating again, for real.”

shoko doesn’t attempt to suppress her scoff.

“yeah? after your three-year relationship? be real, satoru. we both know you can’t throw away your feelings that easily,” shoko spits back. “plus, you can’t even date the hosts here. we both know what you’re doing.”

shoko takes another drag from her cigarette and reminds herself that her goal is to help satoru, not reprimand him. it forces her to take a deep breath — even if it is tarnished with countless carcinogens.

“listen, you’re not the only person who lost someone,” shoko whispers. satoru grips the sleeves of jacket. “you think you’re alone? i was there, too.”

shoko’s following statements felt near foreign to her. she isn’t much of a sentimental person. there’s no time for women to indulge in emotions as jujutsu sorcerers. not unless they want to be perceived as weak. 

“i don’t care that you’re the ‘strongest’ or whatever, but you can’t deal with things like loss alone,” shoko looks away from him and sighs. “so just— just stop whatever this is. i’m here for you.”

satoru’s head drops at her last sentence. he doesn’t even realize he’s crying until the first tear falls on his lenses, and the dam he built to keep himself safe from his own emotions breaks beneath the pressure of the oncoming flood of emotions. it sweeps him beneath the current, and he forgets where he’s at. all satoru can see are the haunting traces of suguru — his smile, his laugh, his voice — swirling past and drowning him.

“i miss him, shoko,” satoru sobs. “he was my one and only— and someday i’ll probably have to kill him all because he left us like that.”

shoko slides a napkin across the table to satoru.

“it’s cruel, isn’t it?” shoko mutters. “but you know i’m here. i know what you meant to each other. just stop running away from it. you can’t afford to. not unless you want to lose the other people in your life, too.”

satoru takes off his glasses and promptly uses the cloth napkin to hide as much of himself away from shoko. like shoko, there is no place for the strongest to show how frail he feels inside. the strongest jujutsu sorcerer can’t let the world know that there is one person who could shatter his heart to pieces with a single glance. the world cannot know that the gojo satoru is capable of feeling love, hurt, heartbreak, pain— he is told he is a god amongst men, but he is merely a boy at his core.

“you know you can’t change what happened to him, but you still have a future,” shoko says. “there’s always something you can do about that.”

satoru lets out an almost bitter laugh. it feels like shoko thrusted her arm into the depths of the whirlpool just to save him from being pulled under, and he can finally breathe. the sound causes shoko’s lips to curve into a small smile. she hasn’t heard a true laugh from him in ages. satoru really thought he was over suguru for a little bit, but shoko is right. he’s coughing up ten thousands of yen every week for a cheap imitation of what he used to have. he could tell he might have lost her as a friend, too, if she was a worse person. he can’t afford to lose his loved ones anymore.

“i can’t believe i kept trying to avoid you this whole time. you give decent advice sometimes, y’know?” satoru remarks.

“yeah. i do,” shoko affirms, almost smugly. “it’s up to you to follow through, though.”

“you know i will.”

it’s a bit of a shock to shoko when satoru reveals his “latest and greatest plan to change the future!” as he put it. he calls her at some godforsaken hour of the evening to tell her he plans to become a teacher at jujutsu tech. she wishes he left this revelation for a more reasonable time, but she did say she would be there for him. 

satoru kind of stuffed the memory of the host club into the recesses of his mind— or so he thought. it was another restless night because of shoko (who knew she could say insightful stuff like that?), and he finally figured out what he could do for the future instead of wallowing in the reflections of his past. 

“a teacher? i thought you hated kids.”

“nah. i don’t,” satoru sighs. “i hate the way adults in jujutsu society treat them. i don’t want anyone to go through what suguru and i experienced. i get to be right there with them to help instead. pretty good idea, huh?”

shoko pauses to think. okay, maybe gojo wouldn’t be the best at teaching from the book. he is the most disorganized person she’s ever met. it’s not like he doesn’t know what he’s doing! satoru is somehow good at everything he does— and that includes academics. however, every time satoru tried to help her with their educational studies, it ended with her being more confused than when they began. but if that’s his motivation…

“yeah,” shoko affirms. “it’s a great idea. you’ll be amazing.”