#disk estimate

[showyoumyfavoriteobsession]

Ok, I have a probably very dumb question. I'm looking at buying blank DVDs that I can burn some movies onto. They all say they have a 4.7GB capacity with up to 120 minutes of playback. The thing is, many of my video files are well under 4.7GB but over 120 minutes. Is the 120 minutes just an estimate of what will fit, or is it a hard limit on the disk?

[mintytrifecta]

Anyone know how old the pokemon universe is

[nasa]

One Giant Leap for Mankind

Millions of people around the globe will come together for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games later this month to witness a grand event—the culmination of years of training and preparation.

Fifty-five years ago this July, the world was watching as a different history-changing event was unfolding: the Apollo 11 mission was landing humans on the surface of another world for the first time. An estimated 650 million people watched on TV as Neil Armstrong reached the bottom of the ladder of the lunar module on July 20, 1969, and spoke the words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

While the quest to land astronauts on the Moon was born from the space race with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, this moment was an achievement for the whole of humanity. To mark the world-embracing nature of the Moon landing, several tokens of world peace were left on the Moon during the astronauts’ moonwalk.

“We came in peace for all mankind”

These words, as well as drawings of Earth’s western and eastern hemispheres, are etched on a metal plaque affixed to a leg of the Apollo 11 lunar lander. Because the base of the lander remained on the Moon after the astronauts returned, it is still there today as a permanent memorial of the historic landing.

Microscopic messages from kings, queens, and presidents

Another artifact left on the Moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts is a small silicon disc etched with goodwill messages from leaders of 74 countries around the world. Each message was reduced to be smaller than the head of a pin and micro-etched on a disc roughly 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) in diameter. Thailand’s message, translated into English, reads: "The Thai people rejoice in and support this historic achievement of Earth men, as a step towards Universal peace."

Curious to read what else was inscribed on the disk? Read the messages.

An ancient symbol

The olive branch, a symbol of peace and conciliation in ancient Greek mythology, also found its way to the Moon in July 1969. This small olive branch made of gold was left on the lunar surface during Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s 2.5-hour moonwalk. The olive branch also featured on the Apollo 11 mission patches sewed on the crew’s spacesuits. Designed in part by command module pilot Michael Collins, the insignia shows a bald eagle landing on the Moon holding an olive branch in its talons.

We go together

As NASA’s Artemis program prepares to again land astronauts on the Moon, including the first woman and the first person of color, this time we’re collaborating with commercial and international partners. Together we will make new scientific discoveries, establish the first long-term presence on the Moon, and inspire a new generation of explorers.

Is aerospace history your cup of tea? Be sure to check out more from NASA’s past at www.nasa.gov/history.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[ms-demeanor]

Amy tips for getting 30 prebuilt pcs for 1500$ each

We're going to play a game where I show tumblr what I do at work by doing it on tumblr. You can answer my questions in successive anonymous asks. My responses to you will be bracketed by dashed lines, with instructions and commentary before and after.

---------------------------

Hi Anon!

I can definitely help you with your desktop needs. Can you tell me whether you're looking minimize your costs, or get the maximum amount of computer that I can get you for a per-unit price of $1500?

Here are some details that will help me narrow down options that are a good fit for your situation:

Very generally, what will these be for? Basic office use (browsing, office suite)? Video Production? CAD? Finance? Medical providers? Educators?

What date are you looking to have these machines in place?

Is there a specific type of software that you know will be installed on these devices, and if so can you get me the hardware specs required by the software vendor?

Please let me know if you've got any questions, or if there is anything that I can do for you.

Thanks! - Ms-D

-----------------------------

The average cost of business desktops that I sell at work is $700-$900; these are devices that I would give an anticipated lifespan of 7 years, with hardware upgrades planned at 5 years. This is for a mid-range desktop with a 3-year next business day onsite warranty, no software, and does not include the cost of tax, shipping, or configuration. The cost of labor can come close to the cost of the machine for configuration. If I were *PERSONALLY* deploying these machines (pulling them out of the box, debloating, creating profiles, installing software, reboxing, transporting to the site, installing and connecting to peripherals) I'd probably charge around $200-300 per device. My work charges a lot more. Because of that, a 1500 computer is quite likely to be a 700 computer with three hours of estimated labor. If you've got an in-house IT department and aren't going to be paying through the nose for setup, you can get *a lot* of business-class computer for $1500.

If someone at work asked me for a $1500 computer, I would assume that was the cost of the machine ONLY, no peripherals, no configuration, no installation, no software, though I would try to consider both tax and our markup and would look for devices that would maximize performance while under-but-close-to the mark. If I found something that was slightly over (say by up to $70), I would drop our markup to get closer to the client's budget.

What this means for YOU, the computer consumer, is that when you're looking at a computer you need to consider the following in your budget, NOT just the sticker price.

Computer Cost

Software Cost

Setup Cost (if you're not doing it yourself)

Shipping Cost

Tax

Peripherals (computers almost all come with a mouse and a keyboard, these are usually inexpensive but very sturdy; if you want a nice keyboard and an ergonomic mouse you have to buy your own)

Whether you will LOSE peripherals when you replace your current device - do you need to buy an external optical disk drive if your old machine had a CD drive but the new machine doesn't?

Those things can add hundreds of dollars to your total cost, so figure out how much that will be so that you can figure out what your ACTUAL budget for your computer is.

(Also your computer shouldn't be plugged directly into the wall; if you're getting ready to replace a machine and you don't already own a desktop UPS, a desktop UPS should be part of the cost of your next machine!)

[livingforstars]

Signed, "A Black Hole" - May 16th, 1997.

"This artistic image is actually the signature of a supermassive black hole in the center of distant galaxy M84 - based on data recorded by Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). Very near to black holes, the force of gravity is so strong that even light can not escape...but the presence of a black hole can also be revealed by watching matter fall into it. In fact, material spiraling into a black hole would find its speed increasing at a drastic rate. These extreme velocity increases provide a "signature" of the black hole's presence. STIS relies on the Doppler effect to measure gas velocity, rapidly increasing to nearly 240 miles per second within 26 light-years of the center of M84, a galaxy in the Virgo Cluster about 50 million light-years away. The STIS data show that radiation from approaching gas, shifted to blue wavelengths left of the centerline, is suddenly redshifted to the right of center, indicating a rapidly rotating disk of material near the galactic nucleus. The resulting sharp S-shape is effectively the signature of a black hole, estimated to contain at least 300 million solar masses. Do all galaxies have central black holes?"

[apod]

2025 March 21

The Leo Trio Image Credit & Copyright: Rabeea Alkuwari

Explanation: This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (bottom left), M66 (middle right), and M65 (top center). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky. Captured with a telescope from Sawda Natheel, Qatar, planet Earth, the frame covers over half a million light-years at the Leo Trio's estimated 30 million light-year distance.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250321.html

[blasteffect]

"Little Sombrero"

NGC 7814 is sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous M104, the Sombrero Galaxy.

Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, and both have estensive halo and central bulges cut by a thin disk with thinner dust lanes in silhouette.

In fact, NGC 7814 is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years across.

That actually makes the Little Sombrero about the same physical size as its better known namesake, appearing smaller and fainter only because it is farther away.

Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby

Words: Nasa

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 18: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Commodore 64🎄💾🗓️

The Commodore 64, released in 1982, is one of the ones we keep hearing got many people their start in their own computing history. Powered by a MOS Technology 6510 processor at 1.02 MHz and featuring 64 KB of RAM, it became the best-selling single computer model of all time, with an estimated 12.5–17 million units sold. Its graphics were driven by the VIC-II chip, capable of 16 colors, hardware sprites, and smooth scrolling, while the SID (Sound Interface Device) chip delivered advanced audio, supporting three voices with waveforms and filters, making it a lot of fun for gaming and music.

Featured a built-in BASIC interpreter, allowing users to write their own programs out-of-the-box. The C64’s affordability, large software library, lots of games, productivity, and educational applications made it a household name. It connected to TVs as monitors and supported peripherals like the 1541 floppy disk drive, datasette, and various joysticks. With over 10,000 commercial software titles and a thriving homebrew scene, the C64 helped define a generation of computer enthusiasts.

Its impact on gaming was gigantic, iconic titles like The Last Ninja, Maniac Mansion, and Impossible Mission. The C64 also inspired a demoscene, where programmers pushed its hardware for visual and audio effects. The Commodore 64 remains a symbol of computing for the masses and creative innovation, still loved by retrocomputing fans today.

Check out the National Museum of American History, and Wikipedia. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_334636 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

And…! An excellent story from Jepler -

== While I started on the VIC 20, the Commodore 64 was my computer for a lot longer. Its SID sound chip was a headline feature, and many of my memories of it center around music. Starting with Ultima III, each game in the series had a different soundtrack for each environment (though each one was on a pretty short loop, it probably drove my folks nuts when I would play for hours). There were music editors floating around, so I tried my hand at arranging music for its 3 independent voices, though I can't say I was any good or that I have any of the music now. You could also download "SID tunes" on the local BBSes, where people with hopefully a bit more skill had arranged everything from classical to Beatles to 80s music.

Folks are still creating cool new music on the Commodore 64. One current creator that I like a great deal is Linus Åkesson. Two videos from 2024 using the Commodore 64 that really impressed me were were a "Making 8-bit Music From Scratch at the Commodore 64 BASIC Prompt", a live coding session (http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/music-from-scratch/index.php) and Bach Forever (http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/bach-forever/index.php) a piece played by Åkesson on two Commodore 64s.

Like so many things, you can also recreate the experience online. Here's the overworld music for Ultima III: https://deepsid.chordian.net/?file=/MUSICIANS/A/Arnold_Kenneth/Ultima_III-Exodus.sid&subtune=1 -- the site has hundreds or thousands of other SIDs available to play right in the browser.

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[mysticstronomy]

HOW ARE BLACK HOLES CREATED, AND HOW DO THEY GROW??

Blog#461

Wednesday, December 11th, 2024

Welcome back,

In 2017, astronomers started finding monster black holes in the very early universe. Containing roughly a billion times the mass of our Sun, these black holes were surrounded by disks of infalling matter shining so intensely that we can detect them across immense stretches of space and time.

These gravitational giants existed when the universe was only 700 million years old, or 5 percent its current age. At that point in cosmic history, the universe was still a toddler. Gravity was just beginning to rein in clouds of gas and dark matter to form structures that would later evolve into mature spiral and elliptical galaxies. Stars were beginning to pop into being, but they do today.

According to the traditional picture of black hole formation and growth, the universe at this time simply had not existed long enough for black holes to bulk up to a billion solar masses.

So, based on our general understanding of how black holes form and grow, these black holes should not exist.

And yet they do — posing a major challenge that astrophysicists have yet to unravel.

Quasars are brightly shining beacons of light and energy generated by the accretion of material onto supermassive black holes. In the 1990s, astronomers using a combination of ground- and space-based telescopes started to find extremely distant quasars powered by black holes of a billion or more solar masses.

By the mid-2010s, it was no longer a big deal to find quasars dating back to 1 billion or 2 billion years after the Big Bang. But theorists had a difficult time explaining how such massive black holes could have arisen so soon in the universe’s history.

For quasars and other objects that existed many billions of years ago, it’s meaningless to express their distances in terms of light-years. The universe has expanded so much between then and now that astronomers instead refer to an object’s redshift, which is a measurement of how much cosmic expansion has stretched the object’s light toward redder (longer) wavelengths.

For years, astronomers such as the University of Arizona’s Xiaohui Fan have been identifying quasars at redshifts as high as 6, when the universe was about 900 million years old. They’ve even found a few around redshift 7, which corresponds to an era when the universe was about 735 million years old. But in late 2017, an international team led by Eduardo Bañados of the Carnegie Institution for Science announced a quasar at a record-shattering redshift of 7.54. This quasar, designated J1342+0928 (J1342 for short), based on its sky coordinates in Boötes, was radiating 40 trillion Suns’ worth of energy at a time when the universe was only 690 million years old.

The team found J1342 by mining data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite, the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope Deep Sky Survey Large Area Survey, and the DECam Legacy Survey. They used the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescope in Chile to measure the quasar’s redshift, while observations with the 8-meter Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii enabled the team to estimate the black hole’s mass: around 800 million Suns.

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

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, December 14th, 2024)

"HOW BIG CAN 'SUPER MASSIVE BLACK HOLES' GET??"

[wirewitchviolet]

I miss games conveying a sense of Bigness

As you know if you watch my twitch streams, I play a lot of games, and games from a lot of eras, and there's a whole bunch of industry trends you pick up on from certain time periods. The one I really feel like talking about was a definite thing from oh... 1998 through... 2010 or thereabouts? Basically the aughts, give or take a couple years. Or if you prefer, the first two Playstations' run and a bit of the third. It was a period where games in general were really committed to feeling Big.

It feels a little weird to say that when major releases are priding themselves on stuff like measuring how much disk space they need in terrabytes and maps that sprawl out everywhere, but that's not what I'm talking about here. Games trying to feel Big is more of an attitude thing, and ironically enough I'd say it fell out of fashion almost immediately when Open Worlds became the new big thing. We hit a point where people actually made the maps for their games super big (even if most of that space was just kinda vast stretches of unremarkable rocks) so there's no more need to fake it, right? But faking it was kinda great.

I was thinking about this a lot playing the Resident Evil 2 remake, and comparing it to the original PSX game. See the original Resident Evil was set in a spooky mansion out in the middle of nowhere, but RE2 was the Bigger Better Sequel. So now we have a zombie outbreak happening in a whole major city, not just this single mansion. And how do we accomplish that? Do we actually model hundreds of buildings and have a big meandering adventure through all of them, or even a good swath? No not at all. Let's compare the actual maps side by side...

[There WAS a full map of RE2 here it was causing the post button to bug out. Look it up on your own?]

It's a little bigger. There's maybe a dozen more total rooms? But mostly, it's a smoke and mirrors thing. We've still got one big primary location, an animal-filled hike to a side location and back, and an underground science facility, but it feels like we've increased the scope to an entire city. The first playable moments have us out on the streets of the city, objectively in a few quick hallways, but presented as streets packed with dozens of crashed cars, raging fires everywhere, dead bodies littering the streets, and what again feels like innumerable zombies feasting in scattered packs. Once inside, arms of several zombies outside will reach in clawing at you, or later in the game finally breaching through. The remake completely loses that feeling. It feels like there's maybe a dozen zombies out on the streets.

Not to focus on just the one game though. How about GTA3? Remember how even when you're just on the first island, it feels like you're exploring this vast sprawling city?

Here's a more elevated angle from about the same point. I'm looking at this with noclip.website by the way, it's a really cool little toy.

The actual map is LAUGHABLY small. But it FEELS huge. They were really careful to avoid straight roads, and place a couple big vision blocking buildings, even if they're basically just a cube or two so that when you're actually on the ground, it always feels like there's so much more around you. Have another side by side, and a rough estimate of what's visible on the ground in the bird's eye.

RPGs around this time were also having a lot of fun playing with scale comparisons. FF7 is the obvious go-to. The world map is on par with any other in the series, but Big Cities are presented as such, making it very clear that you're just seeing parts of a single district in Midgar, really just the main street in Junon. Dragon Quest 8 had this very bold idea to keep the same visual scale on the world map as in the streets of the towns, with forests made of actual individual trees.

And I'm not even getting into the biggest elephants in the room. Are you old enough to remember how mind-bogglingly sprawling Hyrule Field felt? Maybe a bad example when sequels have kept that focus on selling their worlds as staggeringly Big. Shenmue? Objectively, looking at this map, there's not much there, but damn if I don't feel like this was a real town I lived in for a while 20 years ago. It's the way the detailing gets finer and finer the closer you get to Ryo's bedroom, where you can open every drawer, turn on every light, turn that orange in your hand, you know? I believe that bus you take to the docks has to stop in several other neighborhoods like this one.

And of course, then there's the one other series, maybe worth mentioning, perhaps.

Years later I'm still just speechless.

Again though, I don't actually WANT games with worlds as big as some of these feel. There just isn't the time and the money and the ability for a creative team not to burn out to fully realize that in a handcrafted caring way. I want some kind of inverted Plato's Cave, where it feels like there's a vast breathing world out there, but I'm really in a small cozy space watching masters of the craft put on a shadow puppet show.

[bazookaboi]

AUTISM CREATURE RANT [PART II]

(I may continue this hunting strategy part because I wrote this a while ago and I may add or redo a few more things later).

HUNTING STRATEGY:

Featured in the image above: An Autismus niveus niveus pouncing upon its prey.

TBH-A1 is an expert at detecting even the slightest sign of movement around it, even in stormy weather. Its big eyes, facial disk, sense of smell, and numerous whiskers allow for excellent capture of stimuli. Here’s how:

Eyes: These big, dark, front-facing sensory organs receive as much available light in the area as they can, allowing for excellent night vision. This is partly because TBH-A1’s eyes posses a large amount of photoreceptive cells, equivalent to rod cells back on our planet, and also due to their large size in general, which allows for more light to be detected. They also posses a thin, reflective membrane in their eyes akin to a tapetum lucidum.

Facial Disk: although not visible due to its coat, the TBH-A1’s ears are positioned near its eyes. The facial disk helps gather sound like a mini-satellite dish of sorts, helping channel sound waves towards the ears. It’s much like when you cup your hands against your ears to hear better.

Sense of smell: The TBH-A1’s olfactory receptors can pick up on the most minute details about their prey and environment. This is useful for detecting sent trails left by other fauna in its habitat. Since potential prey is much less prevalent in this icy region, this is very useful for tracking them over long distances; wasting less time and energy searching for them. Avoiding larger predators is also easier.

Whiskers: These long, specialised feather/hairs also help gather information about its environment. They are equipped with multiple nerve endings and are very sensitive to stimuli like touch, temperature and vibrations in the air. With these, detection of potential threats or potential prey is more effective due to the small vibrations that they cause when moving.

A side effect that this excellent detection of stimuli poses is that the TBH-A1 may get overwhelmed if there is too much of it. This will evidently stress it out. This is dangerous for the TBH-A1 because it is vulnerable in this state, and can get injured or killed more easily. In fact, some prey in its area have developed the ability to make noises that are specifically designed to deter an attacking TBH-A1. This is one of the reasons why it has developed to quietly stalk and kill its prey quickly…

Although it is constantly travelling to find a fresh meal, The TBH-A1 is an ambush predator. When it spots potential prey, it will first start to carefully assess the scene; studying the prey item with undivided attention. TBH-A1 determines its size, its smell, its age, estimating how much energy would be needed to take it down to see if it’s worth wasting… etc. Then, if the TBH-A1 decides that the prey item is worth its time, it will move in for the kill. It moves closer very slowly, crouched low to the ground, pausing if the prey’s vision drifts near where it resides. It’s lightly-coloured pelt camouflages perfectly with the snow around it, and it’s wide, fluffy, snowshoe-like feet muffle its already soft steps. TBH-A1 will usually choose a path contrary to the wind direction to avoid the detection of its sent. Every moment it makes is carefully calculated. Once close enough, it will pounce in a burst of speed, not letting the startled prey item know what hit them before it’s too late. Its serrated retractable claws extend, hooking onto the prey with ease, and before the unlucky victim can utter a sound, the TBH-A1 delivers a killing blow by sinking it’s sharp, cusped maxillary and mandibular frontal plates (it’s equivalent of incisors and canines) into the prey’s neck, and ripping its throat out with the help of strong neck muscles.

It will then proceed to eat its prey.

[typewritingyip]

The Arcturus Missions

Part Thirteen - Battlefields

Part Twelve

———

The Voyager Satellite was sent into space September 5th, 1977. Almost exactly seven years before the Quintessons attacked Earth. Initially people were ready to blame the simple gold disk aboard and the trinkets on the invasion, but the connection to the little spacecraft was and still is there.

Currently the little satellite is around fifteen billion miles from Earth, with a one direction signal distance of twenty-two and a half hours. Forty-five hours in total for simple communication.

Cybertron and the surrounding planets, asteroids, and other surfaces were around thirty light years from Earth, which was estimated to be 180 trillion miles. Radio waves from that distance would take a great deal longer than forty-five hours. A relay satellite would need recalibrations constantly from that distance, radio waves would still travel that distance over time but certainly faster than it would without the relay.

It rested just at the edge of Cybertronian space, sending a near constant stream of updated information in the general direction of Earth. Traveling through space, alone.

—

The surface was being blown apart by stray blaster fire and crashing ships, Hound was pinned behind a rock and swearing as he reactivated his comm, “Breakdown, I need that cover fire, now!” He was pinned, not unless he wanted to take more damage to the suit, which Hound would prefer to avoid as much as possible. Worrying the Cybertronian’s usually got his ass stuck on a shuttle back to base camp for several cycles, “In a moment, I am covering the Seekers!” Swearing, Hound peaks his head over the rock before spotting a more tactical spot, his visual feeds locking in on it. Taking a breath and breaking down his gun, shoving the extended barrel back to its storage position he throws himself over the rock, “Incoming!” He crashed to the ground and scrambled back to the slightly better bit of cover, wiping bits of blasted metal from his arm as his chest heaved.

Mirage was there, sniper rifle in hand and taking shots with better marksmanship than Hound has even had while in the military, the white and blue mech looked over, smiled awkwardly before returning to his own part of the fight. Turning off his comm for a moment, Hound smacks the back of his head against the rock, “Mirage, why did it have to be Mirage? Why couldn’t I have found cover with Jazz or fragging Megatron.” Mirage and Hound had run out of things to talk about after two weeks of knowing each other. Now just around six months down the line, it was out right awkward whenever the two of them were stuck anywhere close together. People spoke behind their hands and would giggle whenever they had to work together.

That was one thing, Hound certainly would never be able to deny. Him and Mirage worked together just as well as Jazz and Prowl, maybe even better if he said so himself.

Yet, they hardly spoke, mainly according to the general gossip, because Mirage felt too awkward to ask about his life before the fight and Hound certainly didn’t want to talk about it anyway. Reactivating his comm, Hound glances over, “How’s it looking out there?” Mirage was starting through his scope, “No worse than the usual for this territory. You’ll have an opening once the Seekers drop the bombs.” He signed out evenly and took another shot, smiling. Hound took a breath, setting his gun briefly in his lap to adjust his visor, “Alright, you going to cover me?” “Always.” Mirage smiled for a second but froze and his face turned a soft shade of pink before he cleared his throat, “I’ve got your back.” Hound smiled a bit, “Thanks.” Taking another breath he took up his gun and steadied himself, “Going over.” Sparing Mirage the briefest of looks, he went over the top of the cover as the Seekers dropped their bombs, heading in a line towards the crashed ship and Hound took on the first Quintesson he saw head on, grabbing at it with the practiced ease of nearly five hundred successful missions now.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were across the battlefield, cleaving a Quintesson in half together, getting splattered with gore. Both were laughing like the maniacs they were. Swinging back together, they moved in synch, both breathing at the same time and adjusting slightly, “You feeling good Sides?” “Yeah, you Sunny?” “Definitely.” Then both turned lightly as blaster fire went just barely over their head, spotting the second sniper off in the distance. Sunstreaker lightly salutes in his direction before turning and raising his new blaster, the small tank on it was reinforced to not explode if hit, shooting an approaching Quint in its face while Sideswipe ran up to its side. Cause and effect, distraction. Within the instant, Sunstreaker was on the other side and they hit it together.

Breakdown was laying covering fire near where the Seekers were taking off, preventing the Quintessons from getting any closer, he was the most active on comms; “Their coming in from the west, around a few hundred meters from the initial crash site.” His visual feed zoomed in easily, checking the area, while his cannon continued to blow apart the land between the enemy and landed seekers, “We’ve got injured north of my position that I’ll bring to you as soon as it’s clear.” “Copy Breakdown, moving twins towards incoming on the west side and dispatching medic to the line closest to your position.” Prowl’s voice was calm, clearly adjusting the plan and stats for the fight overall. Taking a breath, Breakdown adjusts his stance a bit to up the charge for his cannon, just at the corner of his visual feed he could see the familiar red of the medic come speeding his way.

The sky lit up with gunfire from the seekers, turning the dark evening into day briefly.

Jazz was on the other side of the runway, tearing apart Quintessons like shredding paper. Though they couldn’t see it, everyone knew he was smiling behind that visor, “Alright, clear for next launch.” He was for the moment tasked with keeping the runway clear, but kept looking to other parts of the battle, “Thank you for remaining where you’re supposed to Jazz.” Prowl’s voice was biting, “I haven’t moved!” Several people chuckled over comms, “No, but you’re certainly thinking about it.” “That’s hardly fair.” With a quick movement, he pulls his gun and shoots an approaching Quintesson, “I am simply saying that for the moment you are following the plan,” “Stop arguing like a married couple over comms.” Hound’s voice was almost painfully loud for them both, the comm line erupted with laughter. Some things would always translate.

In the distance the few cybertronian’s on the battlefield were huddled together in a typical attack maneuver, draw the enemies attention for the strange mechanicals to handle. It was gruesome and heartbreaking, but necessary for all their survival. Only a handful of cybertronian’s were out solo on the field, not counting the seekers in the air, but only those who have taken down several Quintessons on their own were able to be out fighting with the strange mechanicals.

—

Base camp was a simple handful of light construction buildings, several spaces with seating surrounding heaters and the quote unquote medical tent. A few mecha would assemble it while the initial battle started, it usually being far enough back that it wouldn’t be affected by the fight. There was a place for the cybertronians to get fuel and the general command center, it was just a typical base camp for any military based altercation.

The humans were sitting around one of the heaters, laughing and covered nearly helm to ped in gore, truthfully it made several mecha uneasy.

Sunstreaker was lightly picking at his hands, trying to get the worst of it out of the joints while Jazz was laughing, shaking out an arm which was covered in effectively slime, “Yeah, so when that big one started to come for the runway, what else was I supposed to do?” He chuckles lightly, Hound shakes his head, “Stuck to orders and let the seekers blow it up from the sky maybe.” “Yeah Jazz, I think you’re going to be in the dog house tonight.” Everyone briefly paused as the translator popped up with it’s typical error words and it sent Jazz, Sunstreaker, and Hound back into fits of roaring laughter. Sideswipe flicked some of the gore covering his hands at Sunstreaker’s visor, “Hey!” He was quick in his revenge, splattering Sideswipe with some from his chest, clearing off the number emblazoned there.

“I think you should be glad that Prowl is back in Iacon,” Hound lightly scratches at his jaw, frowning at the gore caked to his plating a bit, “Otherwise the guy would have your head.” Jazz, with his camera still on, rolled his eyes in the corner of their visual feeds, “Oh please, he knows that when shit is hitting the fan I’m going to do what I do best.” The twins were now rolling around on the ground, shoving at each other’s visors and had turned off their translators. Sighing deeply, Hound sits back and pulls a polishing cloth he’d gotten from medical from his chute compartment to start cleaning up. Jazz pulls one himself, starting to wipe down his arms, “Also says the guy who ended up on the wrong side of the field, why were you over near Mirage in the first place?” Hound flicks his own gore at Jazz, scowling a bit, “Mirage’s position was moved this morning, just before we landed.” The hum from Jazz was clearly not convinced, the twins continued to roll around on the ground shoving at each other.

Over near the medical tent, Breakdown was helping one of the injured under Knockout’s orders. He wasn’t sure how he constantly got roped into this, the twins thought it was funny and Hound suggested it was based on his suits weight class though he wasn’t convinced. The medic was too nice to him, when compared with everyone else and it was starting to become awkward. Having to turn down assistance whenever he dealt with torn lines or ripped cable, glancing back towards the group he sighs and helps the mech to the bed, “There you are.” “Well, thank you handsome.” A familiar voice crooned and Breakdown lowered his head awkwardly, “Um, you’re welcome Knockout.” Knockout came over and started to tend to the injured mech, Breakdown quickly stepping back. It was generally kept a secret, how toxic energon was to the humans, though many mecha had clocked how they didn’t eat any, “You should stay and have your own shoulder tended to.” The typical worry was there and Breakdown clears his throat, “I am fine Knockout, thank you. I should be going.” He didn’t spare a glance in his retreat, even as Knockout called after him for a moment, swearing at the man’s back.

Most mecha worried for their odd mechanical counterparts, the new frontliners, as they took a lot more damage than a normal mech could stand. Some worried more than others of course, but they generally tried to keep that to themselves.

Hound was still trying to clean his arm as Breakdown sat next to him, sighing deeply, “I think we worry the medic.” Nodding a bit, he doesn’t even look up, “We take a lot of damage and don’t fuel like they do, of course we're going to worry the guy.” Breakdown rests his chin against one hand, the one of them least covered in gore though the connection for his cannon was charred and had a few sparking wires, Hound glances over for a moment before tilting his head, “We have to reinforce that again?” Barely sparing it a glance, Breakdown shrugs, “If they keep upgrading it, then yes.” Jazz looks over and whistles, “Yeah, they’ll think that is painful.”

The ground shook lightly as a very imposing figure approached, the twins glanced up from their fight and the five of them shared a look, “Hound, I would appreciate a word with you and your humans.” Technically, the term human didn’t translate but most of the mecha understood that it was the name of their species, Hound worried it would reveal their organic nature but kept that worry along with a million others to himself, “Yes sir.” He moves to stand but Megatron waves it off, moving and taking one of the twins' seats as they were sitting on the ground, “I hope… that you are doing well.” Hound stared for a minute, not really sure what to say and glanced towards Jazz before looking back, “We’re fine, Sir.” He clears his throat a bit, “Uh, is that all or do you have specific concerns?” Hound’s head tilted lightly, worrying at his lip a bit, “If this has something to do with the minor injuries, we will tend to them.” Jazz nods a bit, “Yes sir, we’re fine.” Megatron was staring at them, then clears his throat, “And I fear my concerns might be more psychological. I know it can be difficult to be away from home and you all have thrown yourselves into this fight.” Hound was almost relieved, nodding a bit, “Yes sir, of course we miss home but no more than usual. As for the fighting, you understand our stance on that.” Jazz almost cringed.

Megatron’s face said enough, “Yes, I know your stance on that subject. I will continue to have my concerns.” Sunstreaker waves a hand, “Megatron, sir, if we didn’t want to be in this fight we wouldn’t be here nor have signed up for the testing in the first place.” He moves around and brings himself up next to Jazz, “We love kicking Quintesson butt.” Sideswipe nodded, “Yeah, it’s not like any of us could have done anything else. This or time, so.” He shrugs a bit, Megatron was staring at him now, “Time? I don’t believe that translated correctly.” Hound tried not to face palm, nodding a bit, “Their talking about jail or prison, doing something illegal and it’s punishment.” It took a long moment before Megatron gave a reaction to anything, “So it was fight or go to the stockade.” Hound paused, “Well,” “Yeah, we were doing some dumb stuff before we became useful.” Hound leveled Sunstreaker with a look before turning back to Megatron, “Not all of us were facing jail time before we signed up.” “Oh?” Megatron leaned forward some, trying to keep a neutral expression, “Breakdown and I were in the military and we all were tested for compatibility.” Breakdown nodded, “It’s easy to feed your family when you have a government job, it was going to be this or deal with the KGB.” Jazz nearly fell off his seat, “That’s not funny Breakdown!” Breakdown just shrugged.”

Megatron was still staring intently, “That did not translate well either, it was a series of glyphs.” Jazz clears his throat painfully and rubs at his neck, “So uh, that old story of yours of what used to be the DJD? That but for a section of our planet and bigger, a lot bigger.” Breakdown nods slowly, “It no longer exists now, but I was still conscripted.” Hound had his face in his hand, mumbling quietly before looking up, “My father was in the military, it was the life that I knew. We all have our reasons for getting tested, right Jazz?” Jazz nods a bit, “Mine are a lot less bad, compared to jail, mandatory military service, and aging out of your placement. I was just approached by the boss after a fight because of my looks.” Megatron looked at Jazz, “What was your job before this Jazz?” With a bit of a chuckle, Jazz shrugged some, “I had a bunch but I wanted to be a DJ before the Quints attacked.” Sideswipe nodded, grinning, “That would have been so cool!” Jazz grins, “Thank you.” Hound was watching Megatron and watching how his temperature was rising.

It only took another second or two before Megatron was up and storming off, the twins staring after the large mech, “What’s gotten into him?” Jazz watched and sighed, “Man, I hate having to talk to Optimus after this stuff.” Hound shifted forward, “Does this have anything to do with the cost of living conversation?” Jazz leveled him with a glare, “Just a bit, you know. Revolutionary for the oppressed thinks our planet is horrible.” Sunstreaker shrugs a bit, Sideswipe nods a bit, “I mean, is he really wrong?” Hound smacked him upside the head, rolling his eyes, “This isn’t funny.” Sideswipe rubbed at his head while several mecha started to finally make their way over to them now that Megatron had left.

—

Megatron was quick, storming into command and sending Red Alert out to contact Optimus, grumbling loudly as he did so. Optimus answered on the first ring, “Megatron, how is the front?” He stared for a long moment, “I wish for the humans to go back through evaluations.” Optimus’s servos came up rubbed at his faceplates, “They go through them the same as everyone else, they won’t go through another for a half a stellar cycle.” Megatron growled and Optimus looked at him sympathetically, “They are who they are, at some point they will understand.” His helm lowered and Megatron sighed deeply, closing his optics, “They deserve better.” “Of course they do, but they are saving us.” It hung in the air, the reality of their situation.

In the distance, several mecha were sat around a heater, laughing with other mecha, and desperately avoiding the others' food. They would have to eat soon and sleep, but for now there was a lull in the fight and a moment for peace. Jazz was on comm with Prowl, getting his ear chewed off. Hound was listening to Mirage, nodding slowly in confusion. The twins were talking with a few mecha who they’d become fast friends with, Sunstreaker had Bluestreak sat incredibly close to him. Breakdown was speaking with Mirage, trying to help Hound out of the awkward situation.

A message on the relay satellite, still several years from its destination.

———

A/N

Wow, alright. This was supposed to be done and out yesterday, that didn’t happen cause I was at the hospital for like four hours. Just basic medical stuff, I have run of the mill kinda stuff and have to go in every few months. Anyways, I don’t know how I feel about this part, I want to do some more in depth stuff next part but I wanted to get the initial time skip out of the way.

I promise more stuff is coming, better conversations, etc.

The others are having a harder time than Jazz adjusting, I hope that’s coming across in this but IDK. They very much stick to themselves whenever they can, hence why the others come to them typically. And there will be more about the alien food in the next part as well.

I am so glad you all seem to be enjoying this. I’m loving getting to write like I am.

Tags!

@lunarlei68 @whirlywhirlygig @loop-hole-319 @pixillandjester @alek-the-witch @not-a-moose-in-disguise @goddessofwind8water @neurologicalglitch @dersereblogger @pixel-transformers @mrcrayonofdoom @wireplaces @twilightfreefaller @original-blog-name-2 @devilangel657 @robbin-u @childofprimus @miniartistme @starwold @tea-enthusiasm @valeexpris606 @celticdoggo @bird599 @agentsquirrelsgotrobots @aquaioart @dimencreasatlas @thatwandercat @artdagz @seisha974

And once again thank you to @keferon for this amazing AU!

[aishangotome]

Azel Radwan: Romantic Ending Ch. 24 Premium Story

Chapter 24

Thank you @shatcey for providing the video for this chapter!

♡———♡

The God of Tanzanite is the incarnation of the moon—that glorious moon was dyed red, heralding the end.

The people rejected the end of the long dream that had lasted for a thousand years, but in front of the God's remains, everyone had no choice but to accept it.

Akatsuki: Come to think of it, there were signs.

Some time has passed since then—Tanzanite, having finished the God's funeral rites, was in mourning throughout the land.

We, as foreigners, were also caught up in the turmoil, and until now, we haven't even been able to calmly talk things over.

Akatsuki: I started receiving requests from the God a few years ago, but most of them were just materials related to astronomy.

Akatsuki: He was collecting literature about the sky regardless of the era... He was probably estimating the date and time of the lunar eclipse.

Akatsuki: The phenomenon of the moon disappearing is by no means rare.

Akatsuki: But it's difficult with current civilization to accurately predict its cycle down to the second.

Akatsuki: Moreover, a perfect lunar eclipse like that doesn't happen very often.

Akatsuki: He meticulously calculated and determined the optimal day for his "death." He's truly a genius.

Akatsuki: ...He's something else.

The owner, sitting cross-legged on the floor, poured Tanzanite's local alcohol into a cup and drank it all in one gulp.

Opposite him, Clavis looked up at the moon floating in the sky, and Luke languidly swirled his alcohol.

Luke: What do you think will happen now?

Clavis: Of course, things will change. Divination is no longer a guaranteed reality.

Clavis: With the God's death as a catalyst, people need to find a way to live without relying on divination.

Clavis: But what's still a mystery is... why did divination suddenly become inaccurate?

Kamal: Ah, about that, there's something called the Stargazer's Disk.

Kamal and Silvio were sitting on a chaise longue by the window.

Had the enchanting beauty given up hiding his true identity, or was there no longer a need to?

He spoke fluently, no longer concealing his low voice.

Kamal: The Living Gods of Tanzanite have each engraved their own star on that disk throughout generations.

Kamal: It sounds mystical when you put it like that, but the actual divination is much simpler.

Kamal: It's nothing more than statistics recording the psychological tendencies of humans.

Kamal: The Stargazer's Disk is an auxiliary tool for accurately diagnosing people's personalities.

Kamal: For example, let's say Prince Silvio has an arrogant personality. Arrogant people have tendencies, right?

Silvio: Hey, don't casually insult me.

Kamal: Now, now. The Stargazer's Disk can determine a person's tendencies through a few questions, but...

Kamal: If the disk itself is wrong and diagnoses an arrogant person as humble, then the results based on that will also be false.

Silvio: So that greedy bastard tampered with the Stargazer's Disk?

Kamal: That's right. He overwrote and ruined everything that past Living Gods had built up.

Kamal: We've mostly finished collecting the correct Stargazer's Disks. The divination up until now is no longer reliable.

Clavis: Haha, to think that the truth of divination wasn't mystical, but based on an advanced field of psychology.

Kamal: Our gods are truly amazing. Including Azel, they all had exceptional minds.

Silvio: ...No one would think that such an amazing God would actually die.

The word "death" brought a momentary silence to the memorial sake gathering.

Clavis: He didn't just die. The fact that he took his own life with an obsidian weapon is quite cunning.

Luke: What do you mean?

Clavis: As you know, Luke, Tanzanite has a triple alliance, right?

Clavis: Regardless of the circumstances, if God was killed by obsidian...

Clavis: Acroite and Ruby have practically been given a ticket to pick a fight with his country.

Akatsuki: Ruby is in no position to do so.

Clavis: Ah. But for Acroite, it's highly likely to become a card they can use in the future.

Silvio: So, takin' this incident as an opportunity, they've obtained a legitimate reason to attack Obsidian?

Clavis: However, it's not certain whether that was part of the triple alliance's deal.

The conversation came to a pause, and silence fell again.

I had been listening to the conversation, but perhaps my heart was numb, as no words came to mind.

I looked down at the alcohol in my hand, not drinking, just staring blankly at it.

The face reflected on the surface was terribly haggard.

I thought about it absentmindedly, as if it were someone else's business, and when I looked up, I realized everyone's eyes were on me.

Emma: ...Ah, I'm sorry. Did I miss something?

Clavis: That's not the case, but...

Silvio: Hey, your drink hasn't gone down at all. Why don't ya get some of that Delightful Bastard's kiddie juice?

Clavis: Haha, what are you saying? I'm drinking an adult juice.

Silvio: If it's juice, you're a kid.

Luke: I can walk you to your room. Don't push yourself.

Emma: I'm not pushing myself. Thank you.

(If possible, I want to stay in a lively place.)

(Because if I'm alone, I'll keep thinking about all sorts of things.)

*flashback*

Pushing through the crowd, I was the first to step into the pool of blood.

I was prepared for "death" to come, but I didn't know it would be such a vivid death...

My memories are hazy from the point where I was shaken by the shoulder by a familiar doctor.

*flashback over*

Kamal: ...I'm sorry.

Kamal sat down next to me and put a hand on my back.

Kamal: That child is undeniably a genius, but he's always been clumsy with interacting with people.

Kamal: As a God, he doesn't have enough experience to understand human subtleties...

Kamal: He truly didn't anticipate that you would be this hurt.

He gently patted my back, and the gesture reminded me of that night.

Kamal: Initially, he kept you around as insurance in case Rhodolite was involved in Obsidian's conspiracy.

Kamal: Obsidian has been smuggling weapons for a long time, trying to destroy our country from within.

Kamal: Rhodolite is connected to Obsidian...

Kamal: To prevent them from interfering with the plan, it was necessary to keep them in check.

Clavis: A sad misunderstanding.

Kamal: But I think his declaration of infatuation was really just a whim, or something that happened along the way.

Kamal: I don't think he was thinking anything more than "I found a good target, so let's use her."

Luke: If he were alive, I'd punch him.

Kamal: That's why... I was also surprised when I learned that he had placed you in the solitary castle.

Kamal: He must have learned about the beauty of "Belle's" heart and couldn't leave you alone.

Silvio: ...Wouldn't the woman have been less hurt if he had just left her alone?

Silvio: It's not sane for a man determined to die to keep a woman by his side.

Kamal: Didn't I just say? Gods lack experience.

Kamal: He wasn't thinking about being liked by you as a person, Miss Emma.

(...You cowardly God.)

(Even though you did nothing but make me like you.)

Akatsuki: "I didn't know" isn't an excuse.

Akatsuki: This is a matter of compensation.

Emma: Indeed... you're absolutely right.

Emma: I feel like slapping him with an invoice with a lot of zeros.

I laughed to dispel the melancholic atmosphere, not wanting them to worry about me any longer.

Emma: I'll... have some alcohol.

I brought the cup to my lips and poured it down my throat in one gulp.

Silvio: Hey, if you drink like that...

Clavis: Will another drunkard be born? Will it happen?

Luke: Don't act so cheerful. Bring me some water.

(...My throat is burning.)

(Is it because this alcohol is what Kamal brought?)

(It's the same alcohol as that day.)

*flashback*

Azel: Can you hold your liquor?

—The last night I spent with Prince Azel.

Perhaps he couldn't bear to see me still wide awake, so Prince Azel got out of bed and took a bottle of alcohol from the shelf.

Emma: I can drink, but… Prince Azel, you indulge in alcohol?

Azel: I don't usually drink.

Emma: But there's alcohol in your room…

Azel: Kamal just occasionally holds one-man drinking parties here. He's an excessive drunkard.

Prince Azel left the room and returned with two alcohol cups.

He roughly pushed aside the book that was on the table and filled the empty cups to the brim with alcohol.

Emma: Why do you feel like drinking now, even though you don't usually?

Azel: …Kamal falls asleep when he drinks. It's like a sleeping pill for some people, right?

(In other words, this alcohol is also mercy.)

(…If I say that, he'll definitely say something like, "I'm just making you drink because you're noisy.")

Azel: Here.

Emma: Thank you.

As I received the alcohol cup, my body swayed slightly from Prince Azel sitting down on the bed.

(I hope I don't get strangely drunk like before.)

I brought the cup to my lips as if in prayer.

It was a unique alcohol, sweet yet burning hot as it went down my throat.

Azel: ………… That's too strong, isn't it?

Prince Azel, after taking a sip of the alcohol, also made a grimace at its intensity.

Emma: Are you a lightweight?

Azel: I don't know. I've never drunk enough to know if I'm strong or weak with alcohol.

Emma: Then I'd like to see you drunk, Prince Azel.

Azel: What on earth are you expecting?

Exasperated, Prince Azel gestured to the space beside him.

Feeling invited, I sat beside him, our shoulders touching. Even though he wasn't doing anything, I felt strangely nervous.

Azel: More importantly, you were in the middle of your story, weren't you?

Emma: That's right. I think I talked about my life up until I became Belle.

(Prince Azel, who asked me to "tell me about yourself," is listening to my story more seriously than I expected.)

(As if he's interested in the way I, as a human, have lived...)

His mystical eyes caught mine, and I gulped down the alcohol as if to hide my nervousness.

Emma: There was a Founding Festival in Rhodolite, and there—...

-

Emma: ––...and that's how I ended up deciding to travel the continent as a book merchant.

By the time I finished my story, half of the alcohol in the bottle was gone.

With my head feeling fuzzy, I savored the joy of having Prince Azel listen to my story.

He was a good listener, interjecting with appropriate responses at just the right moments.

Azel: Traveling, huh? Sounds fun.

Emma: ...Things weren't always fun in Tanzanite because of a certain greedy God.

Azel: That's the real thrill of traveling. There's no excitement in a journey without any mishaps.

Azel: You should be thanking me, actually.

Emma: ...Thank you?

Azel: Don't make it a question.

Prince Azel placed his hand on my head after setting his cup down on the table.

His fingertips felt warmer than usual.

Azel: Tanzanite is just a stopover point, not your final destination.

Azel: You'll encounter many things and many experiences will help you grow.

Azel: When that happens, there's no need to look back. Just keep walking forward.

Azel: Journeys are accompanied by encounters and farewells. Get used to it now.

Azel: These are valuable words of advice from God.

(And someday, this time I spent with Prince Azel will fade as a past event, becoming just another experience.)

(Will there come a time when I'll talk about this bittersweet memory with someone like this?)

I cast my eyes down, hiding my face with my hair.

The face reflected in the alcohol looked as if it was about to cry.

(No good, I can't get drunk at all today.)

As I repeatedly opened and closed my mouth, trying to say something…

The hand that was resting on my head pulled me closer, and a soft sensation fell on my temple.

(...Huh?)

At first, I didn't understand what it was, but as I blinked a few times at the closeness of his face, the same sensation was applied to my forehead.

The moment I understood, I felt like my face was on fire.

Emma: Wh...What are you doing!?

Azel: What, can't I kiss you?

Emma: Of course you can't!? And what kind of kiss is that anyway?

Azel: It's a divine blessing.

Azel: May your journey continue to be smooth sailing.

He even kissed my cheek, and my tears finally subsided.

(This is strange… definitely strange.)

(Sure, Prince Azel is a suggestive God, and there was that accident-like thing before, but...)

Emma: You seem really drunk even though you don't look it.

Azel: That's not true.

Even as he denied it, Prince Azel continued to give me light kisses, seemingly unaware of his own strange behavior.

(I see… he turns into a kiss demon when he's drunk.)

(...It's a blessing in disguise that he hasn't had a chance to drink until now...)

Emma: Prince Azel, I have some advice for you too.

Emma: ...It might be better if you don't drink alcohol in public.

Azel: I wouldn't drink even if you didn't tell me to. If I ever get drunk, it would be a disaster.

(So, is now special?)

(...Maybe this is a precious side of him that he only shows me.)

(...)

(I wonder if he'll forgive me, just this once.)

I placed the empty alcohol cup on the table and cupped Prince Azel's face, now a kiss demon, in my hand.

Azel: ...What?

Emma: I'll give you a blessing too.

Emma: May you achieve the results you desire, Prince Azel.

I pressed my lips against his forehead, which was creased in a frown, as payback.

Azel: You're not a God, are you?

Emma: Even humans can give blessings.

Azel: That's news to me.

Emma: You learn something new every day.

Azel: .....

(...He's hot. Maybe I'm more drunk than I realize.)

When I tried to pull my hand away and create some distance, he grabbed it as if to stop me.

He pulled me closer, our faces so close that our breaths mingled.

Azel: Then give me more.

Emma: I-I don't believe in bargain prices—mm!

He pecked my lips, and all the emotions in my head were blown away.

Our eyes met, and despite my intention to push him away, I accepted him again.

(He was the one who told me not to fall in love with him...)

The kiss, which had been just a touch, gradually deepened, as if he knew I wouldn't resist.

His tongue intertwined with mine with a rough urgency that stole my breath, making it so painful that tears welled up.

(It hurts...)

Even though it hurt, I wrapped my one arm around his back.

Even though I could have closed my mouth if I truly hated it, I didn't.

Instead, I felt the heat mindlessly as he greedily demanded more.

Azel: This wasn't how it was supposed to be... damn.

(...I'm the one who wants to curse.)

Contrary to his words, he slowly pushed me down onto the sheets, continuing to devour me under the pretense of a blessing.

As our eyes met, our lips touched, and our tongues intertwined, I experienced pleasure for the first time.

(And surely, this will be the last time.)

When I tentatively responded to his kiss, he reacted with momentary surprise.

But he didn't turn away as he usually did. Instead, he accepted me.

As I traced the thread connecting us, I touched Prince Azel's cheek.

Emma: ...Do you know?

Emma: Normal people don't kiss like this.

Azel: I know.

Azel: I just want to.

Emma: ...Y-You're a bad drunk.

Azel: I'm not drunk.

Emma: That's what all drunk people say.

Azel: ...Then I'm drunk.

Azel: Is this okay?

As if it wasn't enough, he attacked me again with a greedy kiss.

Whether intentional or unconscious, his large hand caressed my body, making my hips jump.

(Somehow... the more blessings we exchange, the stranger my body feels.)

(...It's like a curse.)

*flashback over*

Emma: ––...!

As if to blow away the memory of that last night, I poured more alcohol and swallowed it.

Kamal: My, my, my, you're a good drinker.

Emma: I can still drink more!

Clavis: Your Holiness, shouldn't you stop her?

Akatsuki: I'm not her father.

Akatsuki: ...Let Emma do as she pleases.

Akatsuki: There are times... when people can't go on without drinking.

.

.

.

Romantic Ending Ch. 25

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[inbabylontheywept]

"I think we underestimated the human population by eight or nine orders of magnitude."

The war room was reeling. The human population had been estimated in the mere hundred billion range. They should barely have had enough of an economy to field two light cruisers, least of all the goddamn armada that was ravaging the inner worlds. After the alpha strike, the human flotilla should’ve been completely crippled. Instead the number of ships they were fielding kept growing.

Tan-Hauser was the first target struck by a human attack, and they reported seventeen craft before they lost comms. Attican was hit just three days after that, but their reports already showed numbers above ninety. Any doubts that the fleet was growing were eliminated when Outpost Batan reported 1,217 FTL pings two days before the loss of Kira.

The number reported was so big it was written off as a sensor malfunction. Twenty-five billion souls lost, all because nobody in the war room could face reality.

They were going to face it now. The Kirarian in front of them was the primary sensor engineer for the Batan outpost, a specialist with more expertise in analyzing space lanes than warships. He’d been up for at least the last two days, poring over the sensor data, and only now was ready to begin to share his findings.

From the pain in his multifaceted eyes, it was clear he was still reeling from the loss of his homeworld.

Seeing that he had the room’s attention, he began to speak. The translation units each member of the war council had implanted experienced a moment of lag as they struggled to convert the almost musical tonal humming of the Kirarian tongue to more common galactic speech.

"The simplest data that can be analyzed from an FTL ping is the distance that the ship traveled before dropping to sublight. The contracted space in front of the craft traps small particles, even light itself for a short period, compressing its wavelength and then releasing it when the field disengages."

The war room nodded along. The explanation was mildly technical, but anyone that had traveled on an FTL shuttle before knew the hazards of exiting FTL directly in front of your home destination. Blasting your home station with a wave of alpha, beta, and ultraviolet rays was hardly a warm welcome.

The engineer continued.

“The… issue with this is that we’re used to the majority of the ping being in the UV spectrum. We aren’t entirely sure what the spectrum of the signals we got from the ships were because Batan station can only detect up into the low gamma range, but that’s still what the majority of the human’s FTL pings were detected in. That’s at least ten billion times the frequency that we’re used to. Since the frequency of the burst can be roughly modeled by multiplying the mean radiation per unit distance by the length of the path, that implies one of two things: That the human ships are either traveling through areas with ten billion times the standard background flux, or that they are traveling extragalactic distances.”

The engineer paused for a few seconds at that statement. The pain of loss still shone in his gemstone eyes, but something more immediate was beginning to take center stage: Fear.

“Because the craft is essentially throwing… well, normally it would be the next three or four days worth of cosmic background radiation at you. In our case it’s more like several decades. But because it’s just giving you an advance on your normal cosmic background radiation, you can track the void in the next several days' worth of background noise to determine the ship's approach vector. The 1,217 crafts that arrived weren’t coming from the same spot. There were actually hundreds of converging vectors, but more importantly…”

He trailed off, a small 3D model of the local space appearing in the center of the holo table. A spiked ball of vectors protruded from the galactic disk, each piercing cleanly through his former homeworld.

His voice cracked a little, the hum turning into a hiss. The translator tech paused a moment too, struggling to convey the subtle emotional cues into the message.

“They’re all coming off the galactic disk. That doesn’t just mean that we’re surrounded, that doesn’t just mean that we’re outnumbered… It means that each attack that we’ve seen up to this point is from an entirely separate group. What we’ve been mistaking for fleets, I believe, are simply the beginning trickles of their exploratory forces. Each of the sites that they’ve targeted hasn’t been of significant strategic importance; they’ve just been sites with unusually strong output signals. I think they’re just using our transmission stations as makeshift beacons for their FTL jumps." He took a deep breath to steady himself before providing his final thought. "I think we underestimated the size of the human population by eight or nine orders of magnitude.”

There was a heavy silence in the war room as that last sentence was processed. The engineer was already out the door before he heard the panic begin to set in.

Part of him felt a little guilty. It would’ve probably been kinder for them to go out not knowing what was about to hit them. Still, it wasn’t often you could force people with this much power to realize that they’d just lost everything.

There was a bitter satisfaction in that.

[of-stars-and-dust]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

2025 March 21

The Leo Trio

Image Credit & Copyright: Rabeea Alkuwari

This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (bottom left), M66 (middle right), and M65 (top center). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky. Captured with a telescope from Sawda Natheel, Qatar, planet Earth, the frame covers over half a million light-years at the Leo Trio's estimated 30 million light-year distance.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)

NASA Official: Amber Straughn

A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,

NASA Science Activation

& Michigan Tech. U.

[apod]

2025 January 23

NGC 7814: Little Sombrero Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby

Explanation: Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you can find this cosmic expanse of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies. NGC 7814 is centered in the sharp field of view that would almost be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, and both have extensive halos and central bulges cut by a thin disk with thinner dust lanes in silhouette. In fact, NGC 7814 is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years across. That actually makes the Little Sombrero about the same physical size as its better known namesake, appearing smaller and fainter only because it is farther away.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250123.html